{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_8070/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_8070","id":"gutenberg_8070","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8070","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. John -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Charles Franks, David King and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.\n\n\n\n\nExpositions of Holy Scriptures\n\nby Alexander Maclaren, D. D., Litt. D.\n\nST. JOHN\n\nVols. I and II\n\n\nContents\n\n THE WORD IN ETERNITY, IN THE WORLD, AND IN THE FLESH (John i. 1-14)\n THE LIGHT AND THE LAMPS (John i. 8; v. 35)\n 'THREE TABERNACLES' (John i. 14; Rev. vii. 15; xxi. 3)\n THE FULNESS OF CHRIST (John i. 16)\n GRACE AND TRUTH (John i. 17)\n THE WORLD'S SIN-BEARER (John i. 29)\n THE FIRST DISCIPLES: I. JOHN AND ANDREW (John i. 37-39)\n THE FIRST DISCIPLES: II. SIMON PETER (John i. 40-42)\n THE FIRST DISCIPLES: III. PHILIP (John i. 43)\n THE FIRST DISCIPLES: IV. NATHANAEL (John i. 45-49)\n THE FIRST DISCIPLES: V. BELIEVING AND SEEING (John i. 50, 51)\n JESUS THE JOY-BRINGER (John ii. 1-11)\n THE FIRST MIRACLE IN CANA\u2014THE WATER MADE WINE (John ii. 11)\n CHRIST CLEANSING THE TEMPLE (John ii. 16)\n THE DESTROYERS AND THE RESTORER (John ii. 19)\n TEACHER OR SAVIOUR? (John iii. 2)\n WIND AND SPIRIT (John iii. 8)\n THE BRAZEN SERPENT (John iii. 14)\n CHRIST'S MUSTS (John iii. 14)\n THE LAKE AND THE RIVER (John iii. 16)\n THE WEARIED CHRIST (John iv. 6, 32)\n 'GIVE ME TO DRINK' (John iv. 7, 26)\n THE GIFT AND THE GIVER (John iv. 10)\n THE SPRINGING FOUNTAIN (John iv. 14)\n THE SECOND MIRACLE (John iv. 54)\n THE THIRD MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL (John v, 8)\n THE LIFE-GIVER AND JUDGE (John v. 17-27)\n THE FOURTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL (John vi. 11)\n 'FRAGMENTS' OR 'BROKEN PIECES' (John vi. 12)\n THE FIFTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL (John vi. 19, 20)\n HOW TO WORK THE WORK OF GOD (John vi. 28, 29)\n THE MANNA (John vi. 48-50)\n ONE SAYING WITH TWO MEANINGS (John vii. 33, 34; xiii. 33)\n THE ROCK AND THE WATER (John vii. 37, 38)\n THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (John viii. 12)\n THREE ASPECTS OF FAITH (John viii. 30, 31)\n 'NEVER IN BONDAGE' (John viii. 33)\n ONE METAPHOR AND TWO MEANINGS (John ix. 4; Romans xiii. 12)\n THE SIXTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL\u2014THE BLIND MADE TO\nSEE, AND THE SEEING MADE BLIND (John ix. 6,7)\n THE GIFTS TO THE FLOCK (John x. 9)\n THE GOOD SHEPHERD (John x. 14, 15)\n 'OTHER SHEEP' (John x. 16 R.V.)\n THE DELAYS OF LOVE (John xi. 5, 6)\n CHRIST'S QUESTION TO EACH (John xi. 26, 27)\n THE OPEN GRAVE AT BETHANY (John xi. 30-45)\n THE SEVENTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL\u2014THE RAISING OF LAZARUS (John xi. 43, 44)\n CAIAPHAS (John xi. 49, 50)\n LOVE'S PRODIGALITY CENSURED AND VINDICATED (John xii. 1-1l)\n A NEW KIND OF KING (John xii. 12-26)\n AFTER CHRIST: WITH CHRIST (John xii. 26)\n THE UNIVERSAL MAGNET (John xii. 32)\n THE SON OF MAN (John xii. 34)\n A PARTING WARNING (John xii. 35, 36 R V.)\n THE LOVE OF THE DEPARTING CHRIST (John xiii. 1)\n THE SERVANT-MASTER (John xiii. 3-5)\n THE DISMISSAL OF JUDAS (John xiii. 27)\n THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John xiii. 31, 32)\n CANNOT AND CAN (John xiii. 33)\n SEEKING JESUS (John xiii. 33)\n 'AS I HAVE LOVED' (John xiii. 34, 35)\n 'QUO VADIS?' (John xiii. 37, 38)\n A RASH VOW (John xiii. 38)\n FAITH IN GOD AND CHRIST (John xiv. 1)\n 'MANY MANSIONS' (John xiv. 2)\n THE FORERUNNER (John xiv. 2, 3)\n THE WAY (John xiv. 4-7)\n THE TRUE VISION OF GOD (John xiv. 8-11)\n CHRIST'S WORKS AND OURS (John xiv. 12-14)\n LOVE AND OBEDIENCE (John xiv. 15)\n THE COMFORTER GIVEN (John xiv. 16, 17)\n THE ABSENT PRESENT CHRIST (John xiv. 18, 19)\n THE GIFTS OF THE PRESENT CHRIST (John xiv. 20, 21)\n WHO BRING CHRIST (John xiv. 22-24)\n THE TEACHER SPIRIT (John xiv. 25, 26)\n CHRIST'S PEACE (John xiv. 27)\n JOY AND FAITH, THE FRUITS OF CHRIST'S DEPARTURE (John xiv. 28, 29)\n CHRIST FORESEEING HIS PASSION (John xiv. 30, 31)\n\n\n\n\nTHE WORD IN ETERNITY, IN THE WORLD, AND IN THE FLESH\n\n\n'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word\nwas God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were\nmade by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. 4.\nIn Him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5. And the light\nshineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6. There was\na man sent from God, whose name was John. 7. The same came for a\nwitness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might\nbelieve. 8. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that\nLight. 9. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh\ninto the world. 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him,\nand the world knew Him not. 11. He came unto His own, and His own\nreceived Him not. 12. But as many as received Him, to them gave He\npower to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:\n13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of\nthe will of man, but of God. 14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt\namong us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten\nof the Father,) full of grace and truth.'\u2014JOHN i. 1-14.\n\nThe other Gospels begin with Bethlehem; John begins with 'the bosom of\nthe Father.' Luke dates his narrative by Roman emperors and Jewish\nhigh-priests; John dates his 'in the beginning.' To attempt adequate\nexposition of these verses in our narrow limits is absurd; we can only\nnote the salient points of this, the profoundest page in the New\nTestament.\n\nThe threefold utterance in verse 1 carries us into the depths of\neternity, before time or creatures were. Genesis and John both start\nfrom 'the beginning,' but, while Genesis works downwards from that\npoint and tells what followed, John works upwards and tells what\npreceded\u2014if we may use that term in speaking of what lies beyond time.\nTime and creatures came into being, and, when they began, the Word\n'was.' Surely no form of speech could more emphatically declare\nabsolute, uncreated being, outside the limits of time. Clearly, too, no\ninterpretation of these words fathoms their depth, or makes worthy\nsense, which does not recognise that the Word is a person. The second\nclause of verse 1 asserts the eternal communion of the Word with God.\nThe preposition employed means accurately 'towards,' and expresses the\nthought that in the Word there was motion or tendency towards, and not\nmerely association with, God. It points to reciprocal, conscious\ncommunion, and the active going out of love in the direction of God.\nThe last clause asserts the community of essence, which is not\ninconsistent with distinction of persons, and makes the communion of\nactive Love possible; for none could, in the depths of eternity, dwell\nwith and perfectly love and be loved by God, except one who Himself was\nGod.\n\nVerse 1 stands apart as revealing the pretemporal and essential nature\nof the Word. In it the deep ocean of the divine nature is partially\ndisclosed, though no created eye can either plunge to discern its\ndepths or travel beyond our horizon to its boundless, shoreless extent.\nThe remainder of the passage deals with the majestic march of the\nself-revealing Word through creation, and illumination of humanity, up\nto the climax in the Incarnation.\n\nJohn repeats the substance of verse 1 in verse 2, apparently in order\nto identify the Agent of creation with the august person whom he has\ndisclosed as filling eternity. By Him creation was effected, and,\nbecause He was what verse 1 has declared Him to be, therefore was it\neffected by Him. Observe the three steps marked in three consecutive\nverses. 'All things were made by Him'; literally 'became,' where the\nemergence into existence of created things is strongly contrasted with\nthe divine 'was' of verse 1. 'Through Him' declares that the Word is\nthe agent of creation; 'without Him' (literally, 'apart from Him')\ndeclares that created things continue in existence because He\ncommunicates it to them. Man is the highest of these 'all things,' and\nverse 4 sets forth the relation of the Word to Him, declaring that\n'life,' in all the width and height of its possible meanings, inheres\nin Him, and is communicated by Him, with its distinguishing\naccompaniment, in human nature, of light, whether of reason or of\nconscience.\n\nSo far, John has been speaking as from the upper or divine side, but in\nverse 5 he speaks from the under or human, and shows us how the\nself-revelation of the Word has, by some mysterious necessity, been\nconflict. The 'darkness' was not made by Him, but it is there, and the\nbeams of the light have to contend with it. Something alien must have\ncome in, some catastrophe have happened, that the light should have to\nstream into a region of darkness.\n\nJohn takes 'the Fall' for granted, and in verse 5 describes the whole\ncondition of things, both within and beyond the region of special\nrevelation. The shining of the light is continuous, but the darkness is\nobstinate. It is the tragedy and crime of the world that the darkness\nwill not have the light. It is the long-suffering mercy of God that the\nlight repelled is not extinguished, but shines meekly on.\n\nVerses 6-13 deal with the historical appearance of the Word. The\nForerunner is introduced, as in the other Gospels; and, significantly\nenough, this Evangelist calls him only 'John,'\u2014omitting 'the Baptist,'\nas was very natural to him, the other John, who would feel less need\nfor distinguishing the two than others did. The subordinate office of a\nwitness to the light is declared positively and negatively, and the\ndignity of such a function is implied. To witness to the light, and to\nbe the means of leading men to believe, was honour for any man.\n\nThe limited office of the Forerunner serves as contrast to the\ntranscendent lustre of the true Light. The meaning of verse 9 may be\ndoubtful, but verses 10 and 11 clearly refer to the historical\nmanifestation of the Word, and probably verse 9 does so too. Possibly,\nhowever, it rather points to the inner revelation by the Word, which is\nthe 'light of men.' In that case the phrase 'that cometh into the\nworld' would refer to 'every man,' whereas it is more natural in this\ncontext to refer it to 'the light,' and to see in the verse a reference\nto the illumination of humanity consequent on the appearance of Jesus\nChrist. The use of 'world' and 'came' in verses 10 and 11 points in\nthat direction. Verse 9 represents the Word as 'coming'; verse 10\nregards Him as come\u2014'He was in the world.'\n\nNote the three clauses, so like, and yet so unlike the august three in\nverse 1. Note the sad issue of the coming\u2014'The world knew Him not.' In\nthat 'world' there was one place where He might have looked for\nrecognition, one set of people who might have been expected to hail\nHim; but not only the wide world was blind ('knew not'), but the\nnarrower circle of 'His own' fought against what they knew to be light\n('received not').\n\nBut the rejection was not universal, and John proceeds to develop the\nblessed consequences of receiving the light. For the first time he\nspeaks the great word 'believe.' The act of faith is the condition or\nmeans of 'receiving.' It is the opening of the mental eye for the light\nto pour in. We possess Jesus in the measure of our faith. The object of\nfaith is 'His name,' which means, not this or that collocation of\nletters by which He is designated, but His whole self-revelation. The\nresult of such faith is 'the right to become children of God,' for\nthrough faith in the only-begotten Son we receive the communication of\na divine life which makes us, too, sons. That new life, with its\nconsequence of sonship, does not belong to human nature as received\nfrom parents, but is a gift of God mediated through faith in the Light\nwho is the Word.\n\nVerse 14 is not mere repetition of the preceding, but advances beyond\nit in that it declares the wonder of the way by which that divine Word\ndid enter into the world. John here, as it were, draws back the\ncurtain, and shows us the transcendent miracle of divine love, for\nwhich he has been preparing in all the preceding. Note that he has not\nnamed 'the Word' since verse 1, but here he again uses the majestic\nexpression to bring out strongly the contrast between the ante-temporal\nglory and the historical lowliness. These four words, 'The Word became\nflesh,' are the foundation of all our knowledge of God, of man, of the\nrelations between them, the foundation of all our hopes, the guarantee\nof all our peace, the pledge of all blessedness. 'He tabernacled among\nus.' As the divine glory of old dwelt between the cherubim, so Jesus is\namong men the true Temple, wherein we see a truer glory than that\nradiant light which filled the closed chamber of the holy of holies.\nRapturous remembrances rose before the Apostle as he wrote, 'We beheld\nHis glory'; and he has told us what he has beheld and seen with his\neyes, that we also may have fellowship with him in beholding. The glory\nthat shone from the Incarnate Word was no menacing or dazzling light.\nHe and it were 'full of grace and truth,' perfect Love bending to\ninferiors and sinners, with hands full of gifts and a heart full of\ntenderness and the revelation of reality, both as regards God and man.\nHis grace bestows all that our lowness needs, His truth teaches all\nthat our ignorance requires. All our gifts and all our knowledge come\nfrom the Incarnate Word, in whom believing we are the children of God.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIGHT AND THE LAMPS\n\n\n'He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that\nLight.'\u2014JOHN i. 8.\n\n'He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season\nto rejoice in His light.'\u2014JOHN v. 35.\n\nMy two texts both refer to John the Baptist. One of them is the\nEvangelist's account of him, the other is our Lord's eulogium upon him.\nThe latter of my texts, as the Revised Version shows, would be more\nproperly rendered, 'He was a lamp' rather than 'He was a light,' and\nthe contrast between the two words, the 'light' and 'the lamps,' is my\ntheme. I gather all that I would desire to say into three points: 'that\nLight' and its witnesses; the underived Light and the kindled lamps;\nthe undying Light and the lamps that go out.\n\nI. First of all, then, the contrast suggested to us is between 'that\nLight' and its witnesses.\n\nJohn, in that profound prologue which is the deepest part of Scripture,\nand lays firm and broad in the depths the foundation-stones of a\nreasonable faith, draws the contrast between 'that Light' and them\nwhose business it was to bear witness to it. As for the former, I\ncannot here venture to dilate upon the great, and to me absolutely\nsatisfying and fundamental, thoughts that lie in these eighteen first\nverses of this Gospel. 'The Word was with God,' and that Word was the\nAgent of Creation, the Fountain of Life, the Source of the Light which\nis inseparable from all human life. John goes back, with the simplicity\nof a child's speech, which yet is deeper than all philosophies, to a\nBeginning, far anterior to 'the Beginning' of which Genesis speaks, and\ndeclares that before creation that Light shone; and he looks out over\nthe whole world, and declares, that before and beyond the limits of the\nhistorical manifestation of the Word in the flesh, its beams spread\nover the whole race of man. But they are all focussed, if I may so\nspeak, and gathered to a point which burns as well as illuminates, in\nthe historical manifestation of Jesus Christ in the flesh. 'That was\nthe true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.'\n\nNext, he turns to the highest honour and the most imperative duty laid,\nnot only upon mighty men and officials, but upon all on whose happy\neyeballs this Light has shone, and into whose darkened hearts the joy\nand peace and purity of it have flowed, and he says, 'He was sent'\u2014and\nthey are sent\u2014'to bear witness of that Light.' It is the noblest\nfunction that a man can discharge. It is a function that is discharged\nby the very existence through the ages of a community which, generation\nafter generation, subsists, and generation after generation manifests\nin varying degrees of brightness, and with various modifications of\ntint, the same light. There is the family character in all true\nChristians, with whatever diversities of idiosyncrasies, and national\nlife or ecclesiastical distinctions. Whether it be Francis of Assisi or\nJohn Wesley, whether it be Thomas a Kempis or George Fox, the light is\none that shines through these many-coloured panes of glass, and the\nliving Church is the witness of a living Lord, not only before it, and\nbehind it, and above it, but living in it. They are 'light' because\nthey are irradiated by Him. They are 'light' because they are 'in the\nLord.' But not only by the fact of the existence of such a community is\nthe witness-bearing effected, but it comes as a personal obligation,\nwith immense weight of pressure and immense possibilities of joy in the\ndischarge of it, to every Christian man and woman.\n\nWhat, then, is the witness that we all are bound to bear, and shall\nbear if we are true to our obligations and to our Lord? Mainly, dear\nbrethren, the witness of experience. That a Christian man shall be able\nto stand up and say, 'I know this because I live it, and I testify to\nJesus Christ because I for myself have found Him to be the life of my\nlife, the Light of all my seeing, the joy of my heart, my home, and my\nanchorage'\u2014that is the witness that is impregnable. And there is no\nbetter sign of the trend of Christian thought to-day than the fact that\nthe testimony of experience is more and more coming to be recognised by\nthoughtful men and writers as being the sovereign attestation of the\nreality of the Light. 'I see'; that is the proof that light has touched\nmy eyeballs. And when a man can contrast, as some of us can, our\npresent vision with our erstwhile darkness, then the evidence, like\nthat of the sturdy blind man in the Gospels, who had nothing to say in\nreply to the subtleties and Rabbinical traps and puzzles but only 'I\nwas blind; now I see'\u2014his experience is likely to have the effect that\nit had in another miracle of healing: 'Beholding the man which was\nhealed standing amongst them, they could say nothing against it.' I\nshould think they could not.\n\nBut there is one thing that will always characterise the true witnesses\nto that Light, and that is self-suppression. Remember the beautiful,\nimmovable humility of the Baptist about whom these texts were spoken:\n'What sayest thou of thyself?' 'I am a Voice,' that is all. 'Art thou\nthat Prophet?' 'No!' 'Art thou the Christ?' 'No! I am nothing but a\nVoice.' And remember how, when John's disciples tried to light the\ninfernal fires of jealousy in his quiet heart by saying, 'He whom thou\ndidst baptise, and to whom thou didst give witness'\u2014He whom thou didst\nstart on His career\u2014'is baptising,' poaching upon thy preserves, 'and\nall men come unto Him,' the only answer that he gave was, 'The friend\nof the Bridegroom'\u2014who stands by in a quiet, dark corner\u2014'rejoices\ngreatly because of the Bridegroom's voice.' Keep yourself out of sight,\nChristian teachers and preachers; put Christ in the front, and hide\nbehind Him.\n\nII. Now let me ask you to look at the other contrast that is suggested\nby our other text. The underived light and the kindled lamps.\n\nIt is possible to read the words of that second text thus\u2014'He was a\nlamp kindled and (therefore) shining.' But whether that be the meaning,\nor whether the usual rendering is correct, the emblem itself carries\nthe same thought, for a lamp must be lit by contact with a light, and\nmust be fed with oil, if its flame is to be sustained. And so the very\nmetaphor-whatever the force of the ambiguous word\u2014in its eloquent\ncontrast between the Light and the lamp, suggests this thought, that\nthe one is underived, self-fed, and therefore undying, and that the\nother owes all its flame to the touch of that uncreated Light, and\nburns brightly only on condition of its keeping up the contact with\nHim, and being fed continually from His stores of radiance.\n\nI need not say more than a word with regard to the former member of\nthat contrast suggested here. That unlit Light derives its brilliancy,\naccording to the Scriptural teaching, from nothing but its divine union\nwith the Father. So that long before there were eyes to see, there was\nthe eradiation and outshining of the Father's glory. I do not enter\ninto these depths, but this I would say, that what is called the\n'originality' of Jesus is only explained when we reverently see in that\nunique life the shining through a pure humanity, as through a sheet of\nalabaster, of that underived, divine Light. Jesus is an insoluble\nproblem to men who will not see in Him the Eternal Light which 'in the\nbeginning was with God.' You find in Him no trace of gradual\nacquisition of knowledge, or of arguing or feeling His way to His\nbeliefs. You find in Him no trace of consciousness of a great horizon\nof darkness encompassing the region where He sees light. You find in\nHim no trace of a recognition of other sources from which He has drawn\nany portion of His light. You find in Him the distinct declaration that\nHis relation to truth is not the relation of men who learn, and grow,\nand acquire, and know in part; for, says He, 'I am the Truth.' He\nstands apart from us all, and above us all, in that He owes His\nradiance to none, and can dispense it to every man. The question which\nthe puzzled Jews asked about Him, 'How knoweth this Man letters, having\nnever learned?' may be widened out to all the characteristics of His\nhuman life. To me the only answer is: 'Thou art the King of glory, O\nChrist! Thou art the Everlasting Son of the Father.'\n\nDependent on Him are the little lights which He has lit, and in the\nmidst of which He walks. Union with Jesus Christ\u2014'that Light'\u2014is the\ncondition of all human light. That is true over all regions, as I\nbelieve. 'The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding.' The\ncandle of the Lord shines in every man, and 'that true Light lighteth\nevery man that cometh into the world.' Thinker, student, scientist,\npoet, author, practical man\u2014all of them are lit from the uncreated\nSource, and all of them, if they understand their own nature, would\nsay, 'In Thy light do we see Light.'\n\nBut especially is this great thought true and exemplified within the\nlimits of the Christian life. For the Christian to be touched with\nChrist's Promethean finger is to flame into light. And the condition of\ncontinuing to shine is to continue the contact which first illuminated.\nA break in the contact, of a finger's breadth, is as effectual as one\nof a mile. Let Christian men and women, if they would shine, remember,\n'Ye are light in the Lord'; and if we stray, and get without the circle\nof the Light, we pass into darkness, and ourselves cease to shine.\n\nBrethren, it is threadbare truth, that the condition of Christian\nvitality and radiance is close and unbroken contact with Jesus Christ,\nthe Source of all light. Threadbare; but if we lived as if we believed\nit, the Church would be revolutionised and the world illuminated; and\nmany a smoking wick would flash up into a blazing torch. Let Christian\npeople remember that the words of my text define no special privilege\nor duty of any official or man of special endowments, but that to all\nof us has been said, 'Ye are My witnesses,' and to all of us is offered\nthe possibility of being 'burning and shining lights' if we keep\nourselves close to that Light.\n\nIII. Lastly, the second of my texts suggests\u2014the contrast between the\nUndying Light and the lamps that go out.\n\n'For a season ye were willing to rejoice in His light.' There is\nnothing in the present condition of the civilised and educated world\nmore remarkable and more difficult for some people to explain than the\ncontrast between the relation which Jesus Christ bears to the present\nage, and the relation which all other great names in the\npast\u2014philosophers, poets, guides of men\u2014bear to it. There is nothing in\nthe world the least like the vividness, the freshness, the closeness,\nof the personal relation which thousands and thousands of people, with\ncommon sense in their heads, bear to that Man who died nineteen hundred\nyears ago. All others pass, sooner or later, into the darkness.\nThickening mists of oblivion, fold by fold, gather round the brightest\nnames. But here is Jesus Christ, whom all classes of thinkers and\nsocial reformers have to reckon with to-day, who is a living power\namongst the trivialities of the passing moment, and in whose words and\nin the teaching of whose life serious men feel that there lie\nundeveloped yet, and certainly not yet put into practice, principles\nwhich are destined to revolutionise society and change the world. And\nhow does that come?\n\nI am not going to enter upon that question; I only ask you to think of\nthe contrast between His position, in this generation, to communities\nand individuals, and the position of all other great names which lie in\nthe past. Why, it does not take more than a lifetime such as mine, for\ninstance, to remember how the great lights that shone seventy years ago\nin English thinking and in English literature, have for the most part\ngone out, and what we young men thought to be bright particular stars,\nthis new generation pooh-poohs as mere exhalations from the marsh or\ntwinkling and uncertain tapers, and you will find their books in the\ntwopenny-box at the bookseller's door. A cynical diplomatist, in one of\nour modern dramas, sums it up, after seeing the death of a\nrevolutionary, 'I have known eight leaders of revolts.' And some of us\ncould say, 'We have known about as many guides of men who have been\nforgotten and passed away.' 'His Name shall endure for ever. His name\nshall continue as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him; all\ngenerations shall call Him blessed.' Even Shelley had the prophecy\nforced from him\u2014\n\n  'The moon of Mahomet\n  Arose and it shall set,\n  While blazoned as on heaven's eternal noon,\n  The Cross leads generations on.'\n\nWe may sum up the contrast between the undying Light and the lamps that\ngo out in the old words: 'They truly were many, because they were not\nsuffered to continue by reason of death, but this Man, because He\ncontinueth ever\u2026 is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto\nGod through Him.'\n\nSo, brethren, when lamps are quenched, let us look to the Light. When\nour own lives are darkened because our household light is taken from\nits candlestick, let us lift up our hearts and hopes to Him that\nabideth for ever. Do not let us fall into the folly, and commit the\nsin, of putting our heart's affections, our spirit's trust, upon any\nthat can pass and that must change. We need a Person whom we can clasp,\nand who never will glide from our hold. We need a Light uncreated,\nself-fed, eternal. 'Whilst ye have the Light, believe in the Light,\nthat ye may be the children of light.'\n\n\n\n\n'THREE TABERNACLES'\n\n\n'The Word \u2026 dwelt among us.'\u2014JOHN i. 14.\n\n'\u2026 He that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them.'\u2014REV. vii. 15.\n\n'\u2026 Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with\nthem.'\u2014REV. xxi. 3.\n\nThe word rendered 'dwelt' in these three passages, is a peculiar one.\nIt is only found in the New Testament\u2014in this Gospel and in the Book of\nRevelation. That fact constitutes one of the many subtle threads of\nconnection between these two books, which at first sight seem so\nextremely unlike each other; and it is a morsel of evidence in favour\nof the common authorship of the Gospel and of the Apocalypse, which has\noften, and very vehemently in these latter days of criticism, been\ndenied.\n\nThe force of the word, however, is the matter to which I desire\nespecially to draw attention. It literally means 'to dwell in a tent,'\nor, if we may use such a word, 'to tabernacle,' and there is no doubt a\nreference to the Tabernacle in which the divine Presence abode in the\nwilderness and in the land of Israel before the erection. In all three\npassages, then, we may see allusion to that early symbolical dwelling\nof God with man. 'The Word tabernacled among us'; so is the truth for\nearth and time. 'He that sitteth upon the throne shall spread His\ntabernacle upon' the multitude which no man can number, who have made\ntheir robes white in the blood of the Lamb; that is the truth for the\nspirits of just men made perfect, the waiting Church, which expects the\nredemption of the body. 'God shall tabernacle with them'; that is the\ntruth for the highest condition of humanity, when the Tabernacle of God\nshall be with redeemed men in the new earth. 'Let us build three\ntabernacles,' one for the Incarnate Christ, one for the interspace\nbetween earth and heaven, and one for the culmination of all things.\nAnd it is to these three aspects of the one thought, set forth in rude\nsymbol by the movable tent in the wilderness, that I ask you to turn\nnow.\n\nI. First, then, we have to think of that Tabernacle for earth. 'The\nWord was made flesh, and dwelt, as in a tent, amongst us.'\n\nThe human nature, the visible, material body of Jesus Christ, in which\nthere enshrined itself the everlasting Word, which from the beginning\nwas the Agent of all divine revelation, that is the true Temple of God.\nWhen we begin to speak about the special presence of Omnipresence in\nany one place, we soon lose ourselves, and get into deep waters of\nglory, where there is no standing. And I do not care to deal here with\ntheological definitions or thorny questions, but simply to set forth,\nas the language of my text sets before us, that one transcendent,\nwonderful, all-blessed thought that this poor human nature is capable\nof, and has really once in the history of the world received into\nitself, the real, actual presence of the whole fulness of the Divinity.\nWhat must be the kindred and likeness between Godhood and manhood when\ninto the frail vehicle of our humanity that wondrous treasure can be\npoured; when the fire of God can burn in the bush of our human nature,\nand that nature not be consumed? So it has been. 'In Him dwelleth all\nthe fulness of the Godhead bodily.'\n\nAnd when we come with our questions, How? In what manner? How can the\nlesser contain the greater? we have to be content with the recognition\nthat the manner is beyond our fathoming, and to accept the fact,\npressed upon our faith, that our hearts may grasp it and be at peace.\nGod hath dwelt in humanity. The everlasting Word, who is the\nforthcoming of all the fulness of Deity into the realm of finite\ncreatures, was made flesh and dwelt among us.\n\nBut the Tabernacle was not only the dwelling-place of God, it was also\nand, therefore, the place of Revelation of God. So in our text there\nfollows, 'we beheld His glory.' As in the tent in the wilderness there\nhovered between the outstretched wings of the silent cherubim, above\nthe Mercy-seat, the brightness of the symbolical cloud which was\nexpressly named 'the glory of God,' and was the visible manifestation\nof His real presence; so John would have us think that in that lowly\nhumanity, with its curtains and its coverings of flesh, there lay\nshrined in the inmost place the brightness of the light of the manifest\nglory of God. 'We beheld His glory.' The rapturous adoration of the\nremembrance overcomes him, and he breaks his sentence, reckless of\ngrammatical connection, as the fulness of the blessed memory floods\ninto his soul. 'That glory was as of the Only Begotten of the Father.'\nThe manifestation of God in Christ is unique, as becomes Him who\npartakes of the nature of that God of whom He is the Representative and\nthe Revealer.\n\nAnd how did that glory make itself known to us? By miracle? Yes! As we\nread in the story of the first that Christ wrought, 'He manifested\nforth His glory and His disciples believed upon Him.' By miracle? Yes!\nAs we read His own promise at the grave of Lazarus: 'Said I not unto\nthee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of\nGod?' But, blessed be His name, miracle is not the highest\nmanifestation of Christ's glory and of God's. The uniqueness of the\nrevelation of Christ's glory in God does not depend upon the deeds\nwhich He wrought. For, as the context goes on to tell, the Word which\ntabernacled among us was 'full of grace and truth,' and therein is the\nglory most gloriously revealed.\n\nThe lambent light of stooping love that shone forth warning and\nattracting in His gentle life, and the clear white beam of unmingled\ntruth that streamed from the radiant purity of Christ's life, revealed\nGod to hearts that pine for love and spirits that hunger for truth, as\nno others of God's self-revealing works have done. And that revelation\nof the glory of God in the fulness of grace and truth is the highest\npossible revelation. For the divinest thing in God is love, and the\ntrue 'glory of God' is neither some symbolical flashing light nor the\npomp of mere power and majesty; nor even those inconceivable and\nincommunicable attributes which we christen with names like Omnipotence\nand Omnipresence and Infinitude, and the like. These are all at the\nfringes of the brightness. The true central heart and lustrous light of\nthe glory of God lie In His love, and of that glory Christ is the\nunique Representative and Revealer, because He is the only Begotten\nSon, and 'full of grace and truth.'\n\nThus the Word tabernacled amongst us. And though the Tabernacle to\noutward seeming was covered by curtains and skins that hid all the\nglowing splendour within; yet in that lowly life that was lived in the\nbody of His humiliation, and knew our limitations and our weaknesses,\n'the glory of the Lord was revealed; and all flesh hath seen it\ntogether' and acknowledged the divine Presence there.\n\nStill further the Tabernacle was the place of sacrifice. So in the\ntabernacle of His flesh Jesus offered up the one sacrifice for sins for\never. In the offering up of His human life in continuous obedience, and\nin the offering up of His body and blood in the bitter Passion of the\nCross, He brought men nigh unto God.\n\nTherefore, because of all these things, because the Tabernacle is the\ndwelling-place of God, the place of revelation, and the place of\nsacrifice, therefore, finally is it the meeting-place betwixt God and\nman. In the Old Testament it is always called by the name which our\nRevised Version has accurately substituted for 'tabernacle of the\ncongregation,' namely 'tent of meeting.' The correctness of that\nrendering and the meaning of the name are established by several\npassages in the Old Testament, as for instance, 'There I will meet with\nyou, to speak there unto thee, and there I will meet with the children\nof Israel.' So in Christ, who by His Incarnation lays His hand upon\nboth, God touches man and man touches God. We who are afar off are made\nnigh, and in that 'true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man'\nwe meet God and are glad.\n\n  'And so the word was flesh, and wrought\n  With human hands the creed of creeds,\n  In loveliness of perfect deeds.'\n\nThe temple for earth is 'the temple of His body.'\n\nII. We have the Tabernacle for the Heavens.\n\nIn the context of our second passage we have a vision of the great\nmultitude redeemed out of all nations and kindreds, 'standing before\nthe Throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in\ntheir hands.' The palms in their hands give important help towards\nunderstanding the vision. As has been often remarked, there are no\nheathen emblems in the Book of the Apocalypse. All its metaphors move\nwithin the circle of Jewish experiences and facts. So that we are not\nto think of the Roman palm of victory, but of the Jewish palm which was\nborne at the Feast of Tabernacles. What was the Feast of Tabernacles? A\nfestival established on purpose to recall to the minds and to the\ngratitude of the Jews settled in their own land the days of their\nwandering in the wilderness. Part of the ritual of it was that during\nits celebration they builded for themselves booths or tabernacles of\nleaves and boughs of trees, under which they dwelt, thus reminding\nthemselves of their nomad condition.\n\nNow what beauty and power it gives to the word of my text, if we take\nin this allusion to the Jewish festival! The great multitude bearing\nthe palms are keeping the feast, memorial of past wilderness\nwanderings; and 'He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His\ntabernacle above them,' as the word might be here rendered. That is to\nsay, He Himself shall build and be the tent in which they dwell; He\nHimself shall dwell with them in it. He Himself, in closer union than\ncan be conceived of here, shall keep them company during that feast.\n\nWhat a thought of that condition\u2014the condition as I believe represented\nin this vision\u2014of the spirits of the just made perfect, 'who wait for\nthe adoption, to wit, the resurrection of the body,' is given us if we\ntake this point of view to interpret the whole lovely symbolism. It is\nall a time of glad, grateful remembrance of the wilderness march. It is\nall a time in which festal joys shall be theirs, and the memory of the\ntrials and the weariness and the sorrow and the solitude that are past\nshall deepen to a more exquisite poignancy of delight, the rest and the\nfellowship and the felicity of that calm Presence, and God Himself\nshall spread His tent above them, lodge with them, and they with Him.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, rest in that assurance, that though we know so\nlittle of that state, we know this: 'Absent from the body, present with\nthe Lord,' and that the happy company who bear the palms shall dwell in\nGod, and God in them.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, look at that final vision which we have in these\ntexts, which we may call the Tabernacle for the renewed earth.\n\nI do not pretend to interpret the scenery and the setting of these\nApocalyptic visions with dogmatic confidence, but it seems to me as if\nthe emblems of this final vision coincide with dim hints in many other\nportions of Scripture; to the effect that some cosmical change having\npassed upon this material world in which we dwell, it, in some\nregenerated form, shall be the final abode of a regenerated and\nredeemed humanity. That, I think, is the natural interpretation of a\ngreat deal of Scriptural teaching.\n\nFor that highest condition there is set forth this as the all-sufficing\nlight upon it. 'Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will\ntabernacle with them.' The climax and the goal of all the divine\nworking, and the long processes of God's love for, and discipline of,\nthe world, are to be this, that He and men shall abide together in\nunity and concord. That is God's wish from the beginning. We read in\none of the profound utterances of the Book of Proverbs how from of old\nthe 'delights' of the Incarnate Wisdom which foreshadowed the Incarnate\nWord 'were with the sons of men.' And, at the close of all things, when\nthe vision of this final chapter shall be fulfilled, God will say,\nsettling Himself in the midst of a redeemed humanity, 'Lo! here will I\ndwell, for I have desired it. This is My rest for ever.' He will\ntabernacle with men, and men with Him.\n\nWe know not, and never shall know until experience strips the bandages\nfrom our eyes, what new methods of participation of the divine nature,\nand new possibilities of intimacy and intercourse with Him may be ours\nwhen the veils of flesh and sense and time have all dropped away. New\nwindows may be opened in our spirits, from which we shall perceive new\naspects of the divine character. New doors may be opened in our souls,\nfrom out of which we may pass to touch parts of His nature, all\nimpalpable and inconceivable to us now. And when all the veils of a\ndiscordant moral nature are taken away, and we are pure, then we shall\nsee, then we shall draw nigh to God. The thing that chiefly separates\nman from God is man's sin. When that is removed, the centrifugal force\nwhich kept our tiny orb apart from the great central sun being\nwithdrawn, we shall, as it were, fall into the brightness and be one,\nnot losing our sense of individuality, which would be to lose all the\nblessedness, but united with Him in a union far more intimate than\nearth can parallel. 'The Tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He\nwill tabernacle with them.'\n\nDo not let us forget that this highest and ultimate hope that is held\nforth here, of the union and communion, perfect and perpetual, of\nhumanity with God, does not sweep aside Jesus Christ. For through all\neternity the Everlasting Word, the Christ who bears our nature in its\nglorified form, or, rather, whose nature in its glorified form we shall\nbear, is the Medium of Revelation, and the Medium of communication\nbetween man and God.\n\n'I saw no Temple therein,' says this final vision of the Apocalypse,\nbut 'God Almighty and the Lamb,' and these are the Temples thereof.\nTherefore through eternity God shall tabernacle with men, as He does\ntabernacle with us now through Him, in whom dwelleth as in its\nperennial habitation, 'all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.'\n\nSo we have the three tabernacles, for earth, for heaven, for the\nrenewed earth; and these three, if I may say so, are like the triple\ndivision of that ancient Tabernacle in the wilderness: the Outer Court;\nthe Holy Place; the Holiest of all. Let us enter into that outer court,\nand abide and commune with that God who comes near to us, revealing,\nforgiving, in the person of His Son, and then we shall pass from court\nto court, 'and go from strength to strength, until every one of us in\nZion appear before God'; and enter into the Holiest of all, where\n'within the veil' we shall receive splendours of revelation undreamed\nof here, and enjoy depths of communion to which the selectest moments\nof fellowship with God on earth are shallow and poor.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FULNESS OF CHRIST\n\n\n'And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.'\u2014JOHN\n1.16.\n\nWhat a remarkable claim that is which the Apostle here makes for his\nMaster! On the one side he sets His solitary figure as the universal\nGiver; on the other side are gathered the whole race of men, recipients\nfrom Him. As in the wilderness the children of Israel clustered round\nthe rock from which poured out streams, copious enough for all the\nthirsty camp, John, echoing his Master's words, 'If any man thirst, let\nhim come unto Me and drink,' here declares 'Of _His_ fulness have _all\nwe_ received.'\n\nI. Notice, then, the one ever full Source.\n\nThe words of my text refer back to those of the fourteenth verse: 'The\nWord was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.' 'And\nof His fulness have all we received.' The 'fulness' here seems to mean\nthat of which the Incarnate Word was full, the 'grace and truth' which\ndwelt without measure in Him; the unlimited and absolute completeness\nand abundance of divine powers and glories which 'tabernacled' in Him.\nAnd so the language of my text, both verbally and really, is\nsubstantially equivalent to that of the Apostle Paul. 'In Him dwelleth\nall the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in Him.' The\nwhole infinite Majesty, and inexhaustible resources of the divine\nnature, were incorporated and insphered in that Incarnate Word from\nwhom all men may draw.\n\nThere are involved in that thought two ideas. One is the unmistakable\nassertion of the whole fulness of the divine nature as being in the\nIncarnate Word, and the other is that the whole fulness of the divine\nnature dwells in the Incarnate Word in order that men may get at it.\n\nThe words of my text go back, as I said, to the previous verse; but\nnotice what an advance upon that previous verse they present to us.\nThere we read, 'We beheld His glory.' To _behold_ is much, but to\n_possess_ is more. It is much to say that Christ comes to manifest God,\nbut that is a poor, starved account of the purpose of His coming, if\nthat is all you have to say. He comes to manifest Him. Yes! but He\ncomes to communicate Him, not merely to dazzle us with a vision, not\nmerely to show us Him as from afar, not merely to make Him known to\nunderstanding or to heart; but to bestow\u2014in no mere metaphor, but in\nsimple, literal fact\u2014the absolute possession of the divine nature. 'We\nbeheld His glory' is a reminiscence that thrills the Evangelist, though\nhalf a century has passed since the vision gleamed upon his eyes; but\n'of His fulness have all we received' is infinitely and unspeakably\nmore. And the manifestation was granted that the possession might be\nsure, for this is the very centre and heart of Christianity, that in\nHim who is Christianity God is not merely made known, but given; not\nmerely beheld, but possessed.\n\nIn order that that divine fulness might belong to us there was needed\nthat the Word should be made flesh; and there was further needed that\nincarnation should be crowned by sacrifice, and that life should be\nperfected in death. The alabaster box had to be broken before the house\ncould be filled with the odour of the ointment. If I may so say, the\nsack, the coarse-spun sack of Christ's humanity, had to be cut asunder\nin order that the wealth that was stored in it might be poured into our\nhands. God came near us in the life, but God became ours in the death,\nof His dear Son. Incarnation was needed for that great privilege\u2014'we\nbeheld His glory'; but the Crucifixion was needed in order to make\npossible the more wondrous prerogative: 'Of His fulness have all we\nreceived.' God gives Himself to men in the Christ whose life revealed\nand whose death imparted Him to the world.\n\nAnd so He is the sole Source. All men, in a very real sense, draw from\nHis fulness. 'In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.' The\nlife of the body and the life of the spirit willing, knowing, loving,\nall which makes life into light, all comes to us through that\neverlasting Word of God. And when that Word has 'become flesh and dwelt\namong us,' His gifts are not only the gifts of light and life, which\nall men draw from Him, but the gifts of grace and truth which all those\nwho love Him receive at His hands. His gifts, like the water from some\nfountain, may flow underground into many of the pastures of the\nwilderness; and many a man is blessed by them who knows not from whence\nthey come. It is He from whom all the truth, all the grace which\nilluminates and blesses humanity, flow into all lands in all ages.\n\nII. Consider, then, again, the many receivers from the one Source. 'Of\nHis fulness have all we received.'\n\nObserve, we are not told definitely what it is that we receive. If we\nrefer back to words in a previous verse, they may put us on the right\ntrack for answering the question, What is it that we get? 'He came unto\nHis own,' says verse 11, 'and His own received Him not; but as many as\nreceived Him, to them gave He power,' etc. That answers the question,\nWhat do we receive? Christ is more than all His gifts. All His gifts\nare treasured up in Him and inseparable from Him. We get Jesus Christ\nHimself.\n\nThe blessings that we receive may be stated in many different ways. You\nmay say we get pardon, purity, hope, joy, the prospect of Heaven, power\nfor service; all these and a hundred more designations by which we\nmight describe the one gift. All these are but the consequences of our\nhaving got the Christ within our hearts. He does not give pardon and\nthe rest, as a king might give pardon and honours, a thousand miles\noff, bestowing it by a mere word, upon some criminal, but He gives all\nthat He gives because He gives Himself. The real possession that we\nreceive is neither more nor less than a loving Saviour, to enter our\nspirits and abide there, and be the spirit of our spirits, and the life\nof our lives.\n\nThen, notice the universality of this possession. John has said, in the\nprevious words, '_We_ beheld His glory.' He refers there, of course, to\nthe comparatively small circle of the eye-witnesses of our Master's\nlife; who, at the time when he wrote, must have been very, very few in\nnumber. They had had the prerogative of seeing with their eyes and\nhandling with their hands the Word of life that 'was manifested unto\nus'; and with that prerogative the duty of bearing witness of Him to\nthe rest of men. But in the 'receiving,' John associates with himself,\nand with the other eyewitnesses, all those who had listened to their\nword, and had received the truth in the love of it. '_We beheld_'\nrefers to the narrower circle; 'we _all_ received' to the wider sweep\nof the whole Church. There is no exclusive class, no special\nprerogative. Every Christian man, the weakest, the lowliest, the most\nuncultured, rude, ignorant, foolish, the most besotted in the past, who\nhas wandered furthest away from the Master; whose spirit has been most\ndestitute of all sparks of goodness and of God\u2014receives from out of His\nfulness. 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.'\nAnd every one of us, if we will, may have dwelling in our hearts, in\nthe greatness of His strength, in the sweetness of His love, in the\nclearness of His illuminating wisdom, the Incarnate Word, the\nComforter, the All-in-all whom 'we all receive.'\n\nAnd, as I said, that word 'all' might have even a wider extension\nwithout going beyond the limits of the truth. For on the one side there\nstands Christ, the universal Giver; and grouped before Him, in all\nattitudes of weakness and of want, is gathered the whole race of\nmankind. And from Him there pours out a stream copious enough to supply\nall the necessities of every human soul that lives to-day, of every\nhuman soul that has lived in the past, of every one that shall live in\nthe future. There is no limit to the universality except only the limit\nof the human will: 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life\nfreely.'\n\nThink of that solitary figure of the Christ reared up, as it were,\nbefore the whole race of man, as able to replenish all their emptiness\nwith His fulness, and to satisfy all their thirst with His sufficiency.\nDear brother! you have a great gaping void in your heart\u2014an aching\nemptiness there, which you know better than I can tell you. Look to Him\nwho can fill it and it shall be filled. He can supply all your wants as\nHe can supply all the wants of every soul of man. And after generations\nhave drawn from Him, the water will not have sunk one hairsbreadth in\nthe great fountain, but there will be enough for all coming eternities\nas there has been enough for all past times. He is like His own\nmiracle\u2014the thousands are gathered on the grass, they do 'all eat and\nare filled.' As their necessities required the bread was multiplied,\nand at the last there was more left than there had seemed to be at the\nbeginning. So 'of His fulness have all we received'; and after a\nuniverse has drawn from it, for an Eternity, the fulness is not turned\ninto scantiness or emptiness.\n\nIII. And so, lastly, notice the continuous flow from the inexhaustible\nSource. 'Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.'\n\nThe word 'for' is a little singular. Of course it means _instead of, in\nexchange for_; and the Evangelist's idea seems to be that as one supply\nof grace is given and used, it is, as it were, given back to the\nBestower, who substitutes for it a fresh and unused vessel, filled with\nnew grace. He might have said, grace _upon_ grace; one supply being\npiled upon the other. But his notion is, rather, one supply given in\nsubstitution for the other, 'new lamps for old ones.'\n\nJust as a careful gardener will stand over a plant that needs water,\nand will pour the water on the surface until the earth has drunk it up,\nand then add a little more; so He gives step by step, grace for grace,\nan uninterrupted bestowal, yet regulated according to the absorbing\npower of the heart that receives it. Underlying that great thought are\ntwo things: the continuous communication of grace, and the progressive\ncommunication of grace. We have here the continuous communication of\ngrace. God is always pouring Himself out upon us in Christ. There is a\nperpetual out flow from Him to us: if there is not a perpetual inflow\ninto us from Him it is our fault, and not His. He is always giving, and\nHis intention is that our lives shall be a continual reception. Are\nthey? How many Christian men there are whose Christian lives at the\nbest are like some of those Australian or Siberian rivers; in the dry\nseason, a pond here, a stretch of sand, waterless and barren there,\nthen another place with a drop of muddy water in some hollow, and then\nanother stretch of sand, and so on. Why should not the ponds be linked\ntogether by a flashing stream? God is always pouring Himself out; why\ndo we not always take Him in?\n\nThere is but one answer, and the answer is, that we do not fulfil the\ncondition, which condition is simple faith. 'As many as received Him,\nto them gave He power to become the sons of God; even to them that\nbelieved on His name.' Faith is the condition of receiving, and\nwherever there is a continuous trust there will be an unbroken grace;\nand wherever there are interrupted gifts it is because there has been\nan intermitted trust in Him. Do not let your lives be like some dimly\nlighted road, with a lamp here, and a stretch of darkness, and then\nanother twinkling light; let the light run all along the side of your\npath, because at every moment your heart is turning to Christ with\ntrust. Make your faith continuous, and God will make His grace\nincessant, and out of His fulness you will draw continual supplies of\nneeded strength.\n\nBut not only have we here the notion of continuous, but also, as it\nseems to me, of progressive gifts. Each measure of Christ received, if\nwe use it aright, makes us capable of possessing more of Christ. And\nthe measure of our capacity is the measure of His gift, and the more we\ncan hold the more we shall get. The walls of our hearts are elastic,\nthe vessel expands by being filled out; it throbs itself wider by\ndesire and faith. The wider we open our mouths the larger will be the\ngift that God puts into them. Each measure and stage of grace utilised\nand honestly employed will make us capable and desirous, and,\ntherefore, possessors, of more and more of the grace that He gives. So\nthe ideal of the Christian life, and God's intention concerning us, is\nnot only that we should have an uninterrupted, but a growing\npossession, of Christ and of His grace.\n\nIs that the case with you, my friend? Can you hold more of God than you\ncould twenty years ago? Is there any more capacity in your soul for\nmore of Christ than there was long, long ago? If there is you have more\nof Him; if you have not more of Him it is because you cannot contain\nmore; and you cannot contain more because you have not desired more,\nand because you have been so wretchedly unfaithful in your use of what\nyou had. The ideal is, 'they go from strength to strength,' and the end\nof that is, 'every one of them appeareth before God.'\n\nSo, dear brother, as the dash of the waves will hollow out some little\nindentation on the coast, and make it larger and larger until there is\na great bay, with its headlands miles apart, and its deep bosom\nstretching far into the interior, and all the expanse full of flashing\nwaters and leaping waves, so the giving Christ works a place for\nHimself in a man's heart, and makes the spirit which receives and\nfaithfully uses the gifts which He brings, capable of more of Himself,\nand fills the widened space with larger gifts and new grace.\n\nOnly remember the condition of having Him is trusting to His name and\nlonging for His presence. 'If any man open the door I will come in.' We\nhave Him if we trust Him. That trust is no mere passive reception, such\nas is the case with some empty jar which lies open-mouthed on the shore\nand lets the sea wash into it and out of it, as may happen. But the\n'receive' of our text might be as truly rendered 'take.' Faith is an\nactive taking, not a passive receiving. We must 'lay hold on eternal\nlife.' Faith is the hand that grasps the offered gift, the mouth that\nfeeds upon the bread of God, the voice that says to Christ, 'Come in,\nThou blessed of the Lord; why standest Thou without?' Such a faith\nalone brings us into vital connection with Jesus. Without it, you will\nbe none the richer for all His fulness, and may perish of famine in the\nmidst of plenty, like a man dying of hunger outside the door of a\ngranary. They who believe take the Saviour who is given, and they who\ntake receive, and they who receive obtain day by day growing grace from\nthe fulness of Christ, and so come ever nearer to the realisation of\nthe ultimate purpose of the Father, that they should be 'filled with\nall the fulness of God.'\n\n\n\n\nGRACE AND TRUTH\n\n\n'The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus\nChrist.'\u2014JOHN 1. 17.\n\nThere are scarcely any traces, in the writings of the Apostle John, of\nthat great controversy as to the relation of the Law and the Gospel\nwhich occupied and embittered so much of the work of the Apostle Paul.\nWe have floated into an entirely different region in John's writings.\nThe old controversies are dead\u2014settled, I suppose, mainly by Paul's own\nwords, and also to a large extent by the logic of events. This verse is\nalmost the only one in which John touches upon that extinct\ncontroversy, and here the Law is introduced simply as a foil to set off\nthe brightness of the Gospel. All artists know the value of contrast in\ngiving prominence. A dark background flashes up brighter colours into\nbrilliancy. White is never so white as when it is relieved against\nblack. And so here the special preciousness and distinctive\npeculiarities of what we receive in Christ are made more vivid and more\ndistinct by contrast with what in old days 'was given by Moses.'\n\nEvery word in this verse is significant. 'Law' is set against 'grace\nand truth.' It was 'given'; they 'came.' Moses is contrasted with\nChrist. So we have a threefold antithesis as between Law and Gospel: in\nreference to their respective contents; in reference to the manner of\ntheir communication; and in reference to the person of their Founders.\nAnd I think, if we look at these three points, we shall get some clear\napprehension of the glories of that Gospel which the Apostle would\nthereby commend to our affection and to our faith.\n\nI. First of all, then, we have here the special glory of the contents\nof the Gospel heightened by the contrast with Law.\n\nLaw has no tenderness, no pity, no feeling. Tables of stone and a pen\nof iron are its fitting vehicles. Flashing lightnings and rolling\nthunders symbolise the fierce light which it casts upon men's duty and\nthe terrors of its retribution. Inflexible, and with no compassion for\nhuman weakness, it tells us what we ought to be, but it does not help\nus to be it. It 'binds heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne,' upon\nmen's consciences, but puts not forth 'the tip of a finger' to enable\nmen to bear them. And this is true about law in all forms, whether it\nbe the Mosaic Law, or whether it be the law of our own country, or\nwhether it be the laws written upon men's consciences. These all\npartake of the one characteristic, that they help nothing to the\nfulfilment of their own behests, and that they are barbed with\nthreatenings of retribution. Like some avenging goddess, law comes down\namongst men, terrible in her purity, awful in her beauty, with a hard\nlight in her clear grey eyes\u2014in the one hand the tables of stone,\nbearing the commandments which we have broken, and in the other a sharp\ntwo-edged sword.\n\nAnd this is the opposite of all that comes to us in the Gospel. The\ncontrast divides into two portions. The 'Law' is set against 'grace and\ntruth.' Let us look at these two in order.\n\nWhat we have in Christ is not law, but grace. Law, as I said, has no\nheart; the meaning of the Gospel is the unveiling of the heart of God.\nLaw commands and demands; it says: 'This shalt thou do, or else\u2014'; and\nit has nothing more that it can say. What is the use of standing beside\na lame man, and pointing to a shining summit, and saying to him, 'Get\nup there, and you will breathe a purer atmosphere'? He is lying lame at\nthe foot of it. There is no help for any soul in law. Men are not\nperishing because they do not know what they ought to do. Men are not\nbad because they doubt as to what their duty is. The worst man in the\nworld knows a great deal more of what he ought to do than the best man\nin the world practises. So it is not for want of precepts that so many\nof us are going to destruction, but it is for want of power to fulfil\nthe precepts.\n\nGrace is love giving. Law demands, grace bestows. Law comes saying 'Do\nthis,' and our consciences respond to the imperativeness of the\nobligation. But grace comes and says, 'I will help thee to do it.' Law\nis God requiring; grace is God bestowing. 'Give what Thou commandest,\nand then command what Thou wilt.'\n\nOh, brethren! we have all of us written upon the fleshly tablets of our\nhearts solemn commandments which we know are binding upon us; and which\nwe sometimes would fain keep, but cannot. Is this not a message of hope\nand blessedness that comes to us? Grace has drawn near in Jesus Christ,\nand a giving God, who bestows upon us a life that will unfold itself in\naccordance with the highest law, holds out the fulness of His gift in\nthat Incarnate Word. Law has no heart; the Gospel is the unveiling of\nthe heart of God. Law commands; grace is God bestowing Himself.\n\nAnd still further, law condemns. Grace is love that bends down to an\nevildoer, and deals not on the footing of strict retribution with the\ninfirmities and the sins of us poor weaklings. And so, seeing that no\nman that lives but hears in his heart an accusing voice, and that every\none of us knows what it is to gaze upon lofty duties that we have\nshrunk from, upon plain obligations from the yoke of which we have\nselfishly and cowardly withdrawn our necks; seeing that every man,\nwoman, and child listening to me now has, lurking in some corner of\ntheir hearts, a memory that only needs to be quickened to be a torture,\nand deeds that only need to have the veil drawn away from them to\nterrify and shame them\u2014oh! surely it ought to be a word of gladness for\nevery one of us that, in front of any law that condemns us, stands\nforth the gentle, gracious form of the Christ that brings pardon, and\n'the grace of God that bringeth salvation unto all men.' Thank God! law\nneeded to be 'given,' but it was only the foundation on which was to be\nreared a better thing. 'The law was given By Moses'\u2014'a schoolmaster,'\nas conscience is to-day, 'to bring us to Christ' by whom comes the\ngrace that loves, that stoops, that gives, and that pardons.\n\nStill further, there is another antithesis here. The Gospel which comes\nby Christ is not law, but truth. The object of law is to regulate\nconduct, and only subordinately to inform the mind or to enlighten the\nunderstanding. The Mosaic Law had for its foundation, of course, a\nrevelation of God. But that revelation of God was less prominent,\nproportionately, than the prescription for man's conduct. The Gospel is\nthe opposite of this. It has for its object the regulation of conduct;\nbut that object is less prominent, proportionately, than the other, the\nmanifestation and the revelation of God. The Old Testament says 'Thou\nshalt'; the New Testament says 'God is.' The Old was Law; the New is\nTruth.\n\nAnd so we may draw the inference, on which I do not need to dwell, how\nmiserably inadequate and shallow a conception of Christianity that is\nwhich sets it forth as being mainly a means of regulating conduct, and\nhow false and foolish that loose talk is that we hear many a\ntime.\u2014'Never mind about theological subtleties; conduct is the main\nthing.' Not so. The Gospel is not law; the Gospel is truth. It is a\nrevelation of God to the understanding and to the heart, in order that\nthereby the will may be subdued, and that then the conduct may be\nshaped and moulded. But let us begin where it begins, and let us\nremember that the morality of the New Testament has never long been\nheld up high and pure, where the theology of the New Testament has been\nneglected and despised. 'The law came by Moses; truth came by Jesus\nChrist.'\n\nBut, still further, let me remind you that, in the revelation of a God\nwho is gracious, giving to our emptiness and forgiving our sins\u2014that is\nto say, in the revelation of grace\u2014we have a far deeper, nobler, more\nblessed conception of the divine nature than in law. It is great to\nthink of a righteous God, it is great and ennobling to think of One\nwhose pure eyes cannot look upon sin, and who wills that men should\nlive pure and noble and Godlike lives. But it is far more and more\nblessed, transcending all the old teaching, when we sit at the feet of\nthe Christ who gives, and who pardons, and look up into His deep eyes,\nwith the tears of compassion shining in them, and say: 'Lo! This is our\nGod! We have waited for Him and He will save us.' That is a better\ntruth, a deeper truth than prophets and righteous men of old possessed;\nand to us there has come, borne on the wings of the mighty angel of His\ngrace, the precious revelation of the Father-God whose heart is love.\n'The law was given by Moses,' but brighter than the gleam of the\npresence between the Cherubim is the lambent light of gentle tenderness\nthat shines from the face of Jesus Christ. Grace, and therefore truth,\na deeper truth, came by Him.\n\nAnd, still further, let me remind you of how this contrast is borne out\nby the fact that all that previous system was an adumbration, a shadow\nand a premonition of the perfect revelation that was to come. Temple,\npriest, sacrifice, law, the whole body of the Mosaic constitution of\nthings was, as it were, a shadow thrown along the road in advance by\nthe swiftly coming King. The shadow fell before Him, but when He came\nthe shadow disappeared. The former was a system of types, symbols,\npictures. Here is the reality that antiquates and fulfils and\ntranscends them all. 'The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came\nby Jesus Christ.'\n\nII. Now, secondly, look at the other contrast that is here, between\ngiving and coming.\n\nI do not know that I have quite succeeded in making clear to my own\nmind the precise force of this antithesis. Certainly there is a\nprofound meaning if one can fathom it; perhaps one might put it best in\nsomething like the following fashion.\n\nThe word rendered 'came' might be more correctly translated 'became,'\nor 'came into being.' The law was _given_; grace and truth _came to\nbe_.\n\nNow, what do we mean when we talk about a law being given? We simply\nmean, I suppose, that it is promulgated, either in oral or in written\nwords. It is, after all, no more than so many words. It is given when\nit is spoken or published. It is a verbal communication at the best.\n'But grace and truth came to be.' They are realities; they are not\nwords. They are not communicated by sentences, they are actual\nexistences; and they spring into being as far as man's historical\npossession and experience of them are concerned\u2014they spring into being\nin Jesus Christ, and through Him they belong to us all. Not that there\nwas no grace, no manifest lore of God, in the world, nor any true\nknowledge of Him before the Incarnation, but the earlier portions of\nthis chapter remind us that all of grace, however restrained and\npartial, that all of truth, however imperfect and shadowy it may have\nbeen, which were in the world before Christ came, were owing to the\noperation of that Eternal Word 'Who became flesh and dwelt among us,'\nand that these, in comparison with the affluence and the fulness and\nthe nearness of grace and truth after Christ's coming, were so small\nand remote that it is not an exaggeration to say that, as far as man's\npossession and experience of them are concerned, the giving love of God\nand the clear and true knowledge of His deep heart of tenderness and\ngrace, sprang into being with the historical manifestation of Jesus\nChrist the Lord.\n\nHe comes to reveal by no words. His gift is not like the gift that\nMoses brought down from the mountain, merely a writing upon tables; His\ngift is not the letter of an outward commandment, nor the letter of an\noutward revelation. It is the thing itself which He reveals by being\nit. He does not speak about grace, He brings it; He does not show us\nGod by His words, He shows us God by His acts. He does not preach about\nHim, but He lives Him, He manifests Him. His gentleness, His\ncompassion, His miracles, His wisdom, His patience, His tears, His\npromises; all these are the very Deity in action before our eyes; and\ninstead of a mere verbal revelation, which is so imperfect and so\nworthless, grace and truth, the living realities, are flashed upon a\ndarkened world in the face of Jesus Christ. How cold, how hard, how\nsuperficial, in comparison with that fleshly table of the heart of\nChrist on which grace and truth were written, are the stony tables of\nlaw, which bore after all, for all their majesty, only words which are\nbreath and nothing besides.\n\nIII. And so, lastly, look at the contrast that is drawn here between\nthe persons of the Founders.\n\nI do not suppose that we are to take into consideration the difference\nbetween the limitations of the one and the completeness of the other. I\ndo not suppose that the Apostle was thinking about the difference\nbetween the reluctant service of the Lawgiver and the glad obedience of\nthe Son; or between the passion and the pride that sometimes marred\nMoses' work, and the continual calmness and patient meekness that\nperfected the sacrifice of Jesus. Nor do I suppose that there flashed\nbefore his memory the difference between that strange tomb where God\nburied the prophet, unknown of men, in the stern solitude of the\ndesert, true symbol of the solemn mystery and awful solitude with which\nthe law which we have broken invests death, to our trembling\nconsciences, and the grave in the garden with the spring flowers\nbursting round it, and visited by white-robed angels, who spoke comfort\nto weeping friends, true picture of what His death makes the grave for\nall His followers.\n\nBut I suppose he was mainly thinking of the contrast between the\nrelation of Moses to his law, and of Christ to His Gospel. Moses was\nbut a medium. His personality had nothing to do with his message. You\nmay take away Moses, and the law stands all the same. But Christ is so\ninterwoven with Christ's message that you cannot rend the two apart;\nyou cannot have the figure of Christ melt away, and the gift that\nChrist brought remain. If you extinguish the sun you cannot keep the\nsunlight; if you put away Christ in the fulness of His manhood and of\nHis divinity, in the power of His Incarnation and the omnipotence of\nHis cross\u2014if you put away Christ from Christianity, it collapses into\ndust and nothingness.\n\nSo, dear brethren, do not let any of us try that perilous experiment.\nYou cannot melt away Jesus and keep grace and truth. You cannot tamper\nwith His character, with His nature, with the mystery of His passion,\nwith the atoning power of His cross, and preserve the blessings that He\nhas brought to the world. If you want the grace which is the unveiling\nof the heart of God, the gift of a giving God and the pardon of a\nforgiving Judge; or if you want the truth, the reality of the knowledge\nof Him, you can only get them by accepting Christ. 'I _am_ the Truth,\nand the Way, and the Life.' There _is_ a 'law given which gives life,'\nand 'righteousness _is_ by that law.' There is a Person who is the\nTruth, and our knowledge of the truth is through that Person, and\nthrough Him alone. By humble faith receive Him into your hearts, and He\nwill come bringing to you the fulness of grace and truth.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WORLD'S SIN-BEARER\n\n\n'The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the\nLamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.'\u2014JOHN i. 29.\n\nOur Lord, on returning from His temptation in the wilderness, came\nstraight to John the Baptist. He was welcomed with these wonderful and\nrapturous words, familiarity with which has deadened our sense of their\ngreatness. How audacious they would sound to some of their first\nhearers! Think of these two, one of them a young Galilean carpenter, to\nwhom His companion witnesses and declares that He is of worldwide and\ninfinite significance. It was the first public designation of Jesus\nChrist, and it throws into exclusive prominence one aspect of His work.\n\nJohn the Baptist summing up the whole of former revelation which\nconcentrated in Him, pointed a designating finger to Jesus and said,\n'That is He!' My text is the sum of all Christian teaching ever since.\nMy task, and that of all preachers, if we understand it aright, is but\nto repeat the same message, and to concentrate attention on the same\nfact\u2014'The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.' It is\nthe one thing needful for you, dear friend, to believe. It is the truth\nthat we all need most of all. There is no reason for our being gathered\ntogether now, except that I may beseech you to behold for yourselves\nthe Lamb of God which takes away the world's sin.\n\nI. Now let me ask you to note, first, that Jesus Christ is the world's\nsin-bearer.\n\nThe significance of the first clause of my text, 'the Lamb of God,' is\ndeplorably weakened if it is taken to mean only, or mainly, that Jesus\nChrist, in the sweetness of His human nature, is gentle and meek and\npatient and innocent and pure. It _does_ mean all that, thank God! But\nit was no mere description of Christ's disposition which John the\nBaptist conceived himself to be uttering, as is clear by the words that\nfollow in the next clause. His reason for selecting (under divine\nguidance, as I believe) that image of 'the Lamb of God,' went a great\ndeal deeper than anything in the temper of the Person of whom he was\nspeaking. Many streams of ancient prophecy and ritual converge upon\nthis emblem, and if we want to understand what is meant by the\ndesignation 'the Lamb of God,' we must not content ourselves with the\nsentimentalisms which some superficial teachers have supposed to\nexhaust the significance of the expression; but we must submit to be\nled back by John, who was the summing up of all the ancient Revelation,\nto the sources in that Revelation from which he drew this metaphor.\n\nFirst and chiefest of these, as I take it, are the words which no Jew\never doubted referred to the Messiah, until after He had come, and the\nRabbis would not believe in Him, and so were bound to hunt up another\ninterpretation\u2014I mean the great words in the prophecy which, I suppose,\nis familiar to most of us, where there are found two representations,\none, 'He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her\nshearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth'; and the other, still\nmore germane to the purpose of my text, 'the Lord hath laid on Him the\niniquity of us all\u2026. By His knowledge shall He justify many, for He\nshall bear their iniquities.' John the Baptist, looking back through\nthe ages to that ancient prophetic utterance, points to the young Man\nstanding by his side, and says, 'There it is fulfilled.'\n\nBut the prophetic symbol of the Lamb, and the thought that He bore the\niniquity of the many, had their roots in the past, and pointed back to\nthe sacrificial lamb, the lamb of the daily sacrifice, and especially\nto the lamb slain at the Passover, which was an emblem and sacrament of\ndeliverance from bondage. Thus the conceptions of vicarious suffering,\nand of a death which is a deliverance, and of blood which, sprinkled on\nthe doorposts, guards the house from the destroying angel, are all\ngathered into these words.\n\nNor do these exhaust the sources of this figure, as it comes from the\nvenerable and sacred past. For when we read 'the Lamb _of God_,' who is\nthere that does not recognise, unless his eyes are blinded by obstinate\nprejudice, a glance backward to that sweet and pathetic story when the\nfather went up with his son to the top of Mount Moriah, and to the\nboy's question, 'Where is the lamb?' answered, 'My son, God Himself\nwill provide the lamb!' John says, 'Behold the Lamb that God _has_\nprovided, the Sacrifice, on whom is laid a world's sins, and who bears\nthem away.'\n\nNote, too, the universality of the power of Christ's sacrificial work.\nJohn does not say 'the _sins_,' as the Litany, following an imperfect\ntranslation, makes him say. But he says, 'the _sin_ of the world,' as\nif the whole mass of human transgression was bound together, in one\nblack and awful bundle, and laid upon the unshrinking shoulders of this\nbetter Atlas who can bear it all, and bear it all away. Your sin, and\nmine, and every man's, they were all laid upon Jesus Christ.\n\nNow remember, dear brethren, that in this wondrous representation there\nlie, plain and distinct, two things which to me, and I pray they may be\nto you, are the very foundation of the Gospel to which we have to\ntrust. One is that on Christ Jesus, in His life and in His death, were\nlaid the guilt and the consequences of a world's sin. I do not profess\nto be ready with an explanation of how that is possible. That it is a\nfact I believe, on the authority of Christ Himself and of Scripture;\nthat it is inconsistent with the laws of human nature may be asserted,\nbut never can be proved. Theories manifold have been invented in order\nto make it plain. I do not know that any of them have gone to the\nbottom of the bottomless. But Christ in His perfect manhood, wedded, as\nI believe it is, to true divinity, is capable of entering into\u2014not\nmerely by sympathy, though that has much to do with it\u2014such closeness\nof relation with human kind, and with every man, as that on Him can be\nlaid the iniquity of us all.\n\nOh, brethren! what was the meaning of 'I have a baptism to be baptized\nwith,' unless the cold waters of the flood into which He unshrinkingly\nstepped, and allowed to flow over Him, were made by the gathered\naccumulation of the sins of the whole world? What was the meaning of\nthe agony in Gethsemane? What was the meaning of that most awful word\never spoken by human lips, in which the consciousness of union with,\nand of separation from, God, were so marvellously blended, 'My God! my\nGod! why hast Thou forsaken Me?' unless the Guiltless was then loaded\nwith the sins of the world, which rose between Him and God?\n\nDear friends, it seems to me that unless this transcendent element be\nfairly recognised as existing in the passion and death of Jesus Christ,\nHis demeanour when He came to die was far less heroic and noble and\nworthy of imitation than have been the deaths of hundreds of people who\ndrew all their strength to die from Him. I do not venture to bring a\ntheory, but I press upon you the fact, He bears the sins of the world,\nand in that awful load are yours and mine.\n\nThere is the other truth here, as clearly, and perhaps more directly,\nmeant by the selection of the expression in my text, that the\nSin-bearer not only carries, but carries _away_, the burden that is\nlaid upon Him. Perhaps there may be a reference\u2014in addition to the\nother sources of the figure which I have indicated as existing in\nritual, and prophecy, and history\u2014there may be a reference in the words\nto yet another of the eloquent symbols of that ancient system which\nenshrined truths that were not peculiar to any people, but were the\nproperty of humanity. You remember, no doubt, the singular ceremonial\nconnected with the scapegoat, and many of you will recall the wonderful\nembodiment of it given by the Christian genius of a modern painter. The\nsins of the nation were symbolically laid upon its head, and it was\ncarried out to the edge of the wilderness and driven forth to wander\nalone, bearing away upon itself into the darkness and solitude\u2014far from\nman and far from God\u2014the whole burden of the nation's sins. Jesus\nChrist takes away the sin which He bears, and there is, as I believe,\nonly one way by which individuals, or society, or the world at large,\ncan thoroughly get rid of the guilt and penal consequences and of the\ndominion of sin, and that is, by beholding the Lamb of God that takes\nupon Himself, that He may carry away out of sight, the sin of the\nworld. So much, then, for the first thought that I wish to suggest to\nyou.\n\nII. Now let me ask you to look with me at a second thought, that such a\nworld's Sin-bearer is the world's deepest need.\n\nThe sacrifices of every land witness to the fact that humanity all over\nthe world, and through all the ages, and under all varieties of\nculture, has been dimly conscious that its deepest need was that the\nfact of sin should be dealt with. I know that there are plenty of\nmodern ingenious ways of explaining the universal prevalence of an\naltar and a sacrifice, and the slaying of innocent creatures, on other\ngrounds, some of which I think it is not uncharitable to suppose are in\nfavour mainly because they weaken this branch of the evidence for the\nconformity of Christian truth with human necessities. But\nnotwithstanding these, I venture to affirm, with all proper submission\nto wiser men, that you cannot legitimately explain the universal\nprevalence of sacrifice, unless you take into account as one\u2014I should\nsay the main\u2014element in it, this universally diffused sense that things\nare wrong between man and the higher Power, and need to be set right\neven by such a method.\n\nBut I do not need to appeal only to this world-wide fact as being a\ndeclaration of what man's deepest need is. I would appeal to every\nman's own consciousness\u2014hard though it be to get at it; buried as it\nis, with some of us, under mountains of indifference and neglect; and\ncallous as it is with many of us by reason of indulgence in habits of\nevil. I believe that in every one of us, if we will be honest, and give\nheed to the inward voice, there does echo a response and an amen to the\nScripture declaration, 'God hath shut up all under sin.' I ask you\nabout yourselves, is it not so? Do you not know that, however you may\ngloss over the thing, or forget it amidst a whirl of engagements and\noccupations, or try to divert your thoughts into more or less noble or\nignoble channels of pleasures and pursuits, there does lie, in each of\nour hearts, the sense, dormant often, but sometimes like a snake in its\nhybernation, waking up enough to move, and sometimes enough to\nsting\u2014there does lie, in each of us, the consciousness that we are\nwrong with God, and need something to put us right?\n\nAnd, brethren, let modern philanthropists of all sorts take this\nlesson: The thing that the world wants is to have sin dealt with\u2014dealt\nwith in the way of conscious forgiveness; dealt with in the way of\ndrying up its source, and delivering men from the power of it. Unless\nyou do that, I do not say you do nothing, but you pour a bottle full of\ncold water into Vesuvius, and try to put the fire out with that. You\nmay educate, you may cultivate, you may refine; you may set political\nand economical arrangements right in accordance with the newest notions\nof the century, and what then? Why! the old thing will just begin over\nagain, and the old miseries will appear again, because the old\ngrandmother of them all is there, the sin that has led to them.\n\nNow do not misunderstand me, as if I were warring against good and\nnoble men who are trying to remedy the world's evils by less thorough\nmethods than Christ's Gospel. They will do a great deal. But you may\nhave high education, beautiful refinement of culture and manners; you\nmay divide out political power in accordance with the most democratic\nnotions; you may give everybody 'a living wage,' however extravagant\nhis notions of a living wage may be. You may carry out all these\npanaceas and the world will groan still, because you have not dealt\nwith the tap-root of all the mischief. You cannot cure an internal\ncancer with a plaster upon the little finger, and you will never stanch\nthe world's wounds until you go to the Physician that has balm and\nbandage, even Jesus Christ, that takes away the sins of the world. I\nprofoundly distrust all these remedies for the world's misery as in\nthemselves inadequate, even whilst I would help them all, and regard\nthem all as then blessed and powerful, when they are consequences and\nsecondary results of the Gospel, the first task of which is to deal by\nforgiveness and by cleansing with individual transgression.\n\nAnd if I might venture to go a step further, I would like to say that\nthis aspect of our Lord's work on which John the Baptist concentrated\nall our attention is the only one which gives Him power to sway men,\nand which makes the Gospel\u2014the record of His work\u2014the kingly power in\nthe world that it is meant to be. Depend upon it, that in the measure\nin which Christian teachers fail to give supreme importance to that\naspect of Christ's work they fail altogether. There are many other\naspects which, as I have just said, follow in my conception from this\nfirst one; but if, as is obviously the tendency in many quarters\nto-day, Christianity be thought of as being mainly a means of social\nimprovement, or if its principles of action be applied to life without\nthat basis of them all, in the Cross which takes away the world's\niniquity, then it needs no prophet to foretell that such a Christianity\nwill only have superficial effects, and that, in losing sight of this\ncentral thought, it will have cast away all its power.\n\nI beseech you, dear brethren, remember that Jesus Christ is something\nmore than a social reformer, though He is the first of them, and the\nonly one whose work will last. Jesus Christ is something more than a\nlovely pattern of human conduct, though He is that. Jesus Christ is\nsomething more than a great religious genius who set forth the\nFatherhood of God as it had never been set forth before. The Gospel of\nJesus Christ is the record not only of what He said but of what He did,\nnot only that He lived but that He died; and all His other powers, and\nall His other benefits and blessings to society, come as results of His\ndealing with the individual soul when He takes away its guilt and\nreconciles it to God.\n\nIII. And so, lastly, let me ask you to notice that this Sin-bearer of\nthe world is our Sin-bearer if we 'behold' Him.\n\nJohn was simply summoning ignorant eyes to look, and telling of what\nthey would see. But his call is susceptible, without violence, of a far\ndeeper meaning. This is really the one truth that I want to press upon\nyou, dear friends\u2014'Behold the Lamb of God!'\n\nWhat is that beholding? Surely it is nothing else than our recognising\nin Him the great and blessed work which I have been trying to describe,\nand then resting ourselves upon that great Lord and sufficient\nSacrifice. And such an exercise of simple trust is well named\nbeholding, because they who believe do see, with a deeper and a truer\nvision than sense can give. You and I can see Christ more really than\nthese men who stood round Him, and to whom His flesh was 'a veil'\u2014as\nthe Epistle to the Hebrews calls it\u2014hiding His true divinity and work.\nThey who thus behold by faith lack nothing either of the directness or\nof the certitude that belong to vision. 'Seeing is believing,' says the\ncynical proverb. The Christian version inverts its terms, 'Believing is\nseeing.' 'Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see Him\nnot, yet believing ye rejoice.'\n\nAnd your simple act of 'beholding,' by the recognition of His work and\nthe resting of yourself upon it, makes the world's Sin-bearer your\nSin-bearer. You appropriate the general blessing, like a man taking in\na little piece of a boundless prairie for his very own. Your possession\ndoes not make my possession of Him less, for every eye gets its own\nbeam, and however many eyes wait upon Him, they all receive the light\non to their happy eyeballs. You can make Christ your own, and have all\nthat He has done for the world as your possession, and can experience\nin your own hearts the sense of your own forgiveness and deliverance\nfrom the power and guilt of your own sin, on the simple condition of\nlooking unto Jesus. The serpent is lifted on the pole, the dying camp\ncannot go to it, but the filming eyes of the man in his last gasp may\nturn to the gleaming image hanging on high; and as he looks the health\nbegins to tingle back into his veins, and he is healed.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, behold Him; for unless you do, though He has\nborne the world's sin, your sin will not be there, but will remain on\nyour back to crush you down. 'O Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins\nof the world, have mercy upon _me_!'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST DISCIPLES: I. JOHN AND ANDREW\n\n\n'And the two disciples heard Him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38.\nThen Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What\nseek ye? They said unto Him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being\ninterpreted, Master,) where dwellest Thou? 39. He saith unto them, Come\nand see. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day:\nfor it was about the tenth hour.'\u2014JOHN i. 37-39.\n\nIn these verses we see the head waters of a great river, for we have\nbefore us nothing less than the beginnings of the Christian Church. So\nsimply were the first disciples made. The great society of believers\nwas born like its Master, unostentatiously and in a corner.\n\nJesus has come back from His conflict in the wilderness after His\nbaptism, and has presented Himself before John the Baptist for his\nfinal attestation. It was a great historical moment when the last of\nthe Prophets stood face to face with the Fulfilment of all prophecy. In\nhis words, 'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the\nworld!' Jewish prophecy sang its swan-song, uttered its last rejoicing,\n'Eureka! I have found Him!' and died as it spoke.\n\nWe do not sufficiently estimate the magnificent self-suppression and\nunselfishness of the Baptist, in that he, with his own lips, here\nrepeats his testimony in order to point his disciples away from\nhimself, and to attach them to Jesus. If he could have been touched by\nenvy he would not so gladly have recognised it as his lot to decrease\nwhile Jesus increased. Bare magnanimity that in a teacher! The two who\nhear John's words are Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, and an anonymous\nman. The latter is probably the Evangelist. For it is remarkable that\nwe never find the names of James and John in this Gospel (though from\nthe other Gospels we know how closely they were associated with our\nLord), and that we only find them referred to as 'the sons of Zebedee,'\nonce near the close of the book. That fact points, I think, in the\ndirection of John's authorship of this Gospel.\n\nThese two, then, follow behind Jesus, fancying themselves unobserved,\nnot desiring to speak to Him, and probably with some notion of tracking\nHim to His home, in order that they may seek an interview at a later\nperiod. But He who notices the first beginnings of return to Him, and\nalways comes to meet men, and is better to them than their wishes, will\nnot let them steal behind Him uncheered, nor leave them to struggle\nwith diffidence and delay. So He turns to them, and the events ensue\nwhich I have read in the verses that follow as my text.\n\nWe have, I think, three things especially to notice here. First, the\nMaster's question to the whole world, 'What seek ye?' Second, the\nMaster's invitation to the whole world, 'Come and see!' Lastly, the\npersonal communion which brings men's hearts to Him, 'They came and saw\nwhere He dwelt, and abode with Him that day.'\n\nI. So, then, first look at this question of Christ to the whole world,\n'What seek ye?'\n\nAs it stands, on its surface, and in its primary application, it is the\nmost natural of questions. Our Lord hears footsteps behind Him, and, as\nany one would do, turns about, with the question which any one would\nask, 'What is it that you want?' That question would derive all its\nmeaning from the look with which it was accompanied, and the tone in\nwhich it was spoken. It might mean either annoyance and rude repulsion\nof a request, even before it was presented, or it might mean a glad\nwish to draw out the petition, and more than half a pledge to bestow\nit. All depends on the smile with which it was asked and the intonation\nof voice which carried it to their ears. And if we had been there we\nshould have felt, as these two evidently felt, that though in form a\nquestion, it was in reality a promise, and that it drew out their shy\nwishes, made them conscious to themselves of what they desired, and\ngave them confidence that their desire would be granted. Clearly it had\nsunk very deep into the Evangelist's mind; and now, at the end of his\nlife, when his course is nearly run, the never-to-be-forgotten voice\nsounds still in his memory, and he sees again, in sunny clearness, all\nthe scene that had transpired on that day by the fords of the Jordan.\nThe first words and the last words of those whom we have learned to\nlove are cut deep on our hearts.\n\nIt was not an accident that the first words which the Master spoke in\nHis Messianic office were this profoundly significant question, 'What\nseek ye?' He asks it of us all, He asks it of us to-day. Well for them\nwho can answer, 'Rabbi! where dwellest _Thou_?' 'It is Thou whom we\nseek!' So, venturing to take the words in that somewhat wider\napplication, let me just suggest to you two or three directions in\nwhich they seem to point.\n\nFirst, the question suggests to us this: the need of having a clear\nconsciousness of what is our object in life. The most of men have never\nanswered that question. They live from hand to mouth, driven by\ncircumstances, guided by accidents, impelled by unreflecting passions\nand desires, knowing what they want for the moment, but never having\ntried to shape the course of their lives into a consistent whole, so as\nto stand up before God in Christ when He puts the question to them,\n'What seek ye?' and to answer the question.\n\nThese incoherent, instinctive, unreflective lives that so many of you\nare living are a shame to your manhood, to say nothing more. God has\nmade us for something else than that we should thus be the sport of\ncircumstances. It is a disgrace to any of us that our lives should be\nlike some little fishing-boat, with an unskilful or feeble hand at the\ntiller, yawing from one point of the compass to another, and not\nkeeping a straight and direct course. I pray you, dear brethren, to\nfront this question: 'After all, and at bottom, what is it I am living\nfor? Can I formulate the aims and purposes of my life in any\nintelligible statement of which I should not be ashamed?' Some of you\nare not ashamed to do what you would be very much ashamed to say, and\nyou practically answer the question, 'What are you seeking?' by\npursuits that you durst not call by their own ugly names.\n\nThere may be many of us who are living for our lusts, for our passions,\nfor our ambitions, for avarice, who are living in all uncleanness and\ngodlessness. I do not know. There are plenty of shabby, low aims in all\nof us which do not bear being dragged out into the light of day. I\nbeseech you to try and get hold of the ugly things and bring them up to\nthe surface, however much they may seek to hide in the congenial\nobscurity and twist their slimy coils round something in the dark. If\nyou dare not put your life's object into words, bethink yourselves\nwhether it ought to be your life's object at all.\n\nAh, brethren! if we would ask ourselves this question, and answer it\nwith any thoroughness, we should not make so many mistakes as to the\nplaces where we look for the things for which we are seeking. If we\nknew what we were really seeking, we should know where to go to look\nfor it. Let me tell you what you are seeking, whether you know it or\nnot. You are seeking for rest for your heart, a home for your spirits;\nyou are seeking for perfect truth for your understandings, perfect\nbeauty for your affections, perfect goodness for your conscience. You\nare seeking for all these three, gathered into one white beam of light,\nand you are seeking for it all in a Person. Many of you do not know\nthis, and so you go hunting in all manner of impossible places for that\nwhich you can only find in one. To the question, 'What seek ye?' the\ndeepest of all answers, the only real answer, is, 'My soul thirsteth\nfor God, for the living God.' If you know that, you know where to look\nfor what you need! 'Do men gather grapes of thorns?' If these are\nreally the things that you are seeking after, in all your mistaken\nsearch\u2014oh! how mistaken is the search! Do men look for pearls in\ncockle-shells, or for gold in coal-pits; and why should you look for\nrest of heart, mind, conscience, spirit, anywhere and in anything short\nof God? 'What seek ye?'\u2014the only answer is, 'We seek _Thee_!'\n\nAnd then, still further, let me remind you how these words are not only\na question, but are really a veiled and implied promise. The question,\n'What do you want of Me?' may either strike an intending suppliant like\na blow, and drive him away with his prayer sticking in his throat\nunspoken, or it may sound like a merciful invitation, 'What is thy\npetition, and what is thy request, and it shall be granted unto thee?'\nWe know which of the two it was here. Christ asks all such questions as\nthis (and there are many of them in the New Testament), not for His\ninformation, but for our strengthening. He asks people, not because He\ndoes not know before they answer, but that, on the one hand, their own\nminds may be clear as to their wishes, and so they may wish the more\nearnestly because of the clearness; and that, on the other hand, their\ndesires being expressed, they may be the more able to receive the gift\nwhich He is willing to bestow. So He here turns to these men, whose\npurpose He knew well enough, and says to them, 'What seek ye?' Herein\nHe is doing the very same thing on a lower level, and in an outer\nsphere, as is done when He appoints that we shall pray for the\nblessings which He is yearning to bestow, but which He makes\nconditional on our supplications, only because by these supplications\nour hearts are opened to a capacity for receiving them.\n\nWe have, then, in the words before us, thus understood, our Lord's\ngracious promise to give what is desired on the simple condition that\nthe suppliant is conscious of his own wants, and turns to Him for the\nsupply of them. 'What seek ye?' It is a blank cheque that He puts into\ntheir hands to fill up. It is the key of His treasure-house which He\noffers to us all, with the assured confidence that if we open it we\nshall find all that we need.\n\nWho is He that thus stands up before a whole world of seeking, restless\nspirits, and fronts them with the question which is a pledge, conscious\nof His capacity to give to each of them what each of them requires? Who\nis this that professes to be able to give all these men and women and\nchildren bread here in the wilderness? There is only one answer\u2014the\nChrist of God.\n\nAnd He has done what He promises. No man or woman ever went to Him, and\nanswered this question, and presented their petition for any real good,\nand was refused. No man can ask from Christ what Christ cannot bestow.\nNo man can ask from Christ what Christ will not bestow. In the loftiest\nregion, the region of inward and spiritual gifts, which are the best\ngifts, we can get everything that we want, and our only limit is, not\nHis boundless omnipotence and willingness, but our own poor, narrow,\nand shrivelled desires. 'Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall\nfind.'\n\nChrist stands before us, if I may so say, like some of those fountains\nerected at some great national festival, out of which pour for all the\nmultitude every variety of draught which they desire, and each man that\ngoes with his empty cup gets it filled, and gets it filled with that\nwhich he wishes. 'What seek ye?' Wisdom? You students, you thinkers,\nyou young men that are fighting with intellectual difficulties and\nperplexities, 'What seek ye?' Truth? He gives us that. You others,\n'What seek ye?' Love, peace, victory, self-control, hope, anodyne for\nsorrow? Whatever you desire, you will find in Jesus Christ. The first\nwords with which He broke the silence when He spake to men as the\nMessias, were at once a searching question, probing their aims and\npurposes, and a gracious promise pledging Him to a task not beyond His\npower, however far beyond that of all others, even the task of giving\nto each man his heart's desire. 'What seek ye?' 'Seek, and ye shall\nfind.'\n\nII. Then, still further, notice how, in a similar fashion, we may\nregard here the second words which our Lord speaks as being His\nmerciful invitation to the world. 'Come and see.'\n\nThe disciples' answer was simple and timid. They did not venture to\nsay, 'May we talk to you?' 'Will you take us to be your disciples?' All\nthey can muster courage to ask now is, 'Where dwellest Thou?' At\nanother time, perhaps, we will go to this Rabbi and speak with Him. His\nanswer is, 'Come, come now; come, and by intercourse with Me learn to\nknow Me.' His temporary home was probably nothing more than some\nselected place on the river's bank, for 'He had not where to lay His\nhead'; but such as it was, He welcomes them to it. 'Come and see!'\n\nTake a plain, simple truth out of that. Christ is always glad when\npeople resort to Him. When He was here in the world, no hour was\ninconvenient or inopportune; no moment was too much occupied; no\nphysical wants of hunger, or thirst, or slumber were ever permitted to\ncome between Him and seeking hearts. He was never impatient. He was\nnever wearied of speaking, though He was often wearied in speaking. He\nnever denied Himself to any one or said, 'I have something else to do\nthan to attend to you.' And just as in literal fact, whilst He was here\nupon earth, nothing was ever permitted to hinder His drawing near to\nany man who wanted to draw near to Him, so nothing now hinders it; and\nHe is glad when any of us resort to Him and ask Him to let us speak to\nHim and be with Him. His weariness or occupation never shut men out\nfrom Him then. His glory does not shut them out now.\n\nThen there is another thought here. This invitation of the Master is\nalso a very distinct call to a firsthand knowledge of Jesus Christ.\nAndrew and John had heard from the Baptist about Him, and now what He\nbids them to do is to come and hear Himself. That is what He calls you,\ndear brethren, to do. Do not listen to us, let the Master Himself speak\nto you. Many who reject Christianity reject it through not having\nlistened to Jesus Himself teaching them, but only to theologians and\nother human representations of the truth. Go and ask Christ to speak to\nyou with His own lips of truth, and take Him as the Expositor of His\nown system. Do not be contented with traditional talk and second-hand\ninformation. Go to Christ, and hear what He Himself has to say to you.\n\nThen, still further, in this 'Come and see' there is a distinct call to\nthe personal act of faith. Both of these words, '_come_' and '_see_,'\nare used in the New Testament as standing emblems of faith. Coming to\nChrist is trusting Him; trusting Him is seeing Him, looking unto Him.\n'Come unto Me, and I will give you rest,' 'Look unto Me, and be ye\nsaved, all ye ends of the earth.' There are two metaphors, both of them\npointing to one thing, and that one thing is the invitation from the\ndear lips of the loving Lord to every man, woman, and child in this\ncongregation. 'Come and see!' 'Put your trust in Me, draw near to Me by\ndesire and penitence, draw near to Me in the fixed thought of your\nmind, in the devotion of your will, in the trust of your whole being.\nCome to Me, and see Me by faith; and then\u2014and then\u2014your hearts will\nhave found what they seek, and your weary quest will be over, and, like\nthe dove, you will fold your wings and nestle at the foot of the Cross,\nand rest for evermore. Come! \"Come and see!\"'\n\nIII. So, lastly, we have in these words a parable of the blessed\nexperience which binds men's hearts to Jesus for ever. 'They came and\nsaw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day, for it was about the\ntenth hour.'\n\n'Dwelt' and 'abode' are the same words in the original. It is one of\nJohn's favourite words, and in its deepest meaning expresses the close,\nstill communion which the soul may have with Jesus Christ, which\ncommunion, on that never-to-be-forgotten day, when he and Andrew sat\nwith Him in the quiet, confidential fellowship that disclosed Christ's\nglory 'full of grace and truth' to their hearts, made them His for\never.\n\nIf the reckoning of time here is made according to the Hebrew fashion,\nthe 'tenth hour' will be ten o'clock in the morning. So, one long day\nof talk! If it be according to the Roman legal fashion, the hour will\nbe four o'clock in the afternoon, which would only give time for a\nbrief conversation before the night fell. But, in any case, sacred\nreserve is observed as to what passed in that interview. A lesson for a\ngreat deal of blatant talk, in this present day, about conversion and\nthe details thereof!\n\n  'Not easily forgiven\n  Are those, who setting wide the doors, that bar\n  The secret bridal chambers of the heart.\n  Let in the day.'\n\nJohn had nothing to say to the world about what the Master said to him\nand his brother in that long day of communion.\n\nOne plain conclusion from this last part of our narrative is that the\nimpression of Christ's own personality is the strongest force to make\ndisciples. The character of Jesus Christ is, after all, the central and\nstanding evidence and the mightiest credential of Christianity. It\nbears upon its face the proof of its own truthfulness. If such a\ncharacter was not lived, how did it ever come to be described, and\ndescribed by such people? And if it was lived, how did it come to be\nso? The historical veracity of the character of Jesus Christ is\nguaranteed by its very uniqueness. And the divine origin of Jesus\nChrist is forced upon us as the only adequate explanation of His\nhistorical character. 'Truly this man was the Son of God.'\n\nI believe that to lift Him up is the work of all Christian preachers\nand teachers; as far as they can to hide themselves behind Jesus\nChrist, or at the most to let themselves appear, just as the old\npainters used to let their own likenesses appear in their great\naltar-pieces\u2014a little kneeling figure there, away in a dark corner of\nthe background. Present Christ, and He will vindicate His own\ncharacter; He will vindicate His own nature; He will vindicate His own\ngospel. 'They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him,' and the\nend of it was that they abode with Him for evermore. And so it will\nalways be.\n\nOnce more, personal experience of the grace and sweetness of this\nSaviour binds men to Him as nothing else will:\n\n  'He must be loved ere that to you\n  He will seem worthy of your love.'\n\nThe deepest and sweetest and most precious part of His character and of\nHis gifts can only be known on condition of possessing Him and them,\nand they can be possessed only on condition of holding fellowship with\nHim. I do not say to any man: 'Try trust in order to be sure that Jesus\nChrist is worthy to be trusted,' for by its very nature faith cannot be\nan experiment or provisional. I do not say that my experience is\nevidence to you, but at the same time I do say that it is worth any\nman's while to reflect upon this, that none who ever trusted in Him\nhave been put to shame. No man has looked to Jesus and has said: 'Ah! I\nhave found Him out! His help is vain, His promises empty.' Many men\nhave fallen away from Him, I know, but not because they have proved Him\nuntruthful, but because they have become unfaithful.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, I come to you with the old message, 'Oh! taste,'\nand thus you will 'see that the Lord is good.' There must be the faith\nfirst, and then there will be the experience, which will make anything\nseem to you more credible than that He whom you have loved and trusted,\nand who has answered your love and your trust, should be anything else\nthan the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind. Come to Him and you will\nsee. The impregnable argument will be put into your mouth\u2014'Whether this\nman be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas I was\nblind, now I see.' Look to Him, listen to Him, and when He asks you,\n'What seek ye?' answer, 'Rabbi, where dwellest Thou? It is Thou whom I\nseek.' He will welcome you to close blessed intercourse with Him, which\nwill knit you to Him with cords that cannot be broken, and with His\nloving voice making music in memory and heart, you will be able\ntriumphantly to confess\u2014'Now we believe, not because of any man's\nsaying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed\nthe Christ, the Saviour of the world.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST DISCIPLES: II. SIMON PETER\n\n\n'One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew,\nSimon Peter's brother. 41. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and\nsaith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted,\nthe Christ. 42. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him,\nHe said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas,\nwhich is, by interpretation, a stone.'\u2014JOHN i. 40-42.\n\nThere are many ways by which souls are brought to their Saviour.\nSometimes, like the merchantman seeking goodly pearls, men seek Him\nearnestly and find Him. Sometimes, by the intervention of another, the\nknowledge of Him is kindled in dark hearts. Sometimes He Himself takes\nthe initiative, and finds those that seek Him not. We have\nillustrations of all these various ways in these simple records of the\ngathering in of the first disciples. Andrew and his friend, with whom\nwe were occupied in our last sermon, looked for Christ and found Him.\nPeter, with whom we have to do now, was brought to Christ by his\nbrother; and the third of the group, consisting of Philip, was sought\nby Christ while he was not thinking of Him, and found an unsought\ntreasure; and then Philip again, like Andrew, finds a friend, and\nbrings him to Christ.\n\nEach of the incidents has its own lesson, and each of them adds\nsomething to the elucidation of John's two great subjects: the\nrevelation of Jesus as the Son of God, and the development of that\nfaith in Him which gives us life. It may be profitable to consider each\ngroup in succession, and mark the various aspects of these two subjects\npresented by each.\n\nIn this incident, then, we have two things mainly to consider: first,\nthe witness of the disciple; second, the self-revelation of the Master.\n\nI. The witness of the disciple.\n\nWe have seen that the unknown companion of Andrew was probably the\nEvangelist himself, who, in accordance with his uniform habit,\nsuppresses his own name, and that that omission points to John's\nauthorship of this Gospel. Another morsel of evidence as to the date\nand purpose of the Gospel lies in the mention here of Andrew as 'Simon\nPeter's brother.' We have not yet heard anything about Simon Peter. The\nEvangelist has never mentioned his name, and yet he takes it for\ngranted that his hearers knew all about Peter, and knew him better than\nthey did Andrew. That presupposes a considerable familiarity with the\nincidents of the Gospel story, and is in harmony with the theory that\nthis fourth Gospel is the latest of the four, and was written for the\npurpose of supplementing, not of repeating, their narrative. Hence a\nnumber of the phenomena of the Gospel, which have troubled critics, are\nsimply and sufficiently explained.\n\nBut that by the way. Passing that, notice first the illustration that\nwe get here of how instinctive and natural the impulse is, when a man\nhas found Jesus Christ, to tell some one else about Him. Nobody said to\nAndrew, 'Go and look for your brother,' and yet, as soon as he had\nfairly realised the fact that this Man standing before him was the\nMessiah, though the evening seems to have come, he hurries away to find\nhis brother, and share with him the glad conviction.\n\nNow, that is always the case. If a man has any real depth of\nconviction, he cannot rest till he tries to share it with somebody\nelse. Why, even a dog that has had its leg mended, will bring other\nlimping dogs to the man that was kind to it. Whoever really believes\nanything becomes a propagandist.\n\nLook round about us to-day! and hearken to the Babel, the wholesale\nBabel of noises, where every sort of opinion is trying to make itself\nheard. It sounds like a country fair where every huckster is shouting\nhis loudest. That shows that the men believe the things that they\nprofess. Thank God that there is so much earnestness in the world! And\nnow are Christians to be dumb whilst all this vociferous crowd is\ncalling its wares, and quacks are standing on their platforms shouting\nout their specifics, which are mostly delusions? Have you not a\nmedicine that will cure everything, a real heal-all, a veritable\npain-killer? If you believe that you have, certainly you will never\nrest till you share your boon with your brethren.\n\nIf the natural effect of all earnest conviction, viz. a yearning and an\nabsolute necessity to speak it out, is no part of your Christian\nexperience, very grave inferences ought to be drawn from that. This\nman, before he was four-and-twenty hours a disciple, had made another.\nSome of you have been disciples for as many years, and have never even\ntried to make one. Whence comes that silence which is, alas, so common\namong us?\n\nIt is very plain that, making all allowance for changed manners, for\nsocial difficulties, for timidity, for the embarrassment that besets\npeople when they talk to other people about religion, which is 'such an\nawkward subject to introduce into mixed company,' and the like,\u2014making\nall allowance for these, there is a deplorable number of Christian\npeople who ought to be, in their own circles, evangelists and\nmissionaries, who are, if I may venture to quote very rude words which\nthe Bible uses, 'Dumb dogs lying down, and loving to slumber.' 'He\nfirst findeth his own brother, Simon!'\n\nNow, take another lesson out of this witness of the disciple, as to the\nchannel in which such effort naturally runs. 'He _first_ findeth _his\nown brother_'; does not that imply a second finding by the other of the\ntwo? The language of the text suggests that the Evangelist's tendency\nto the suppression of himself, of which I have spoken, hides away, if I\nmay so say, in this singular expression, the fact that he too went to\nlook for a brother, but that Andrew found his brother before John found\nhis. If so, each of the original pair of disciples went to look for one\nwho was knit to him by close ties of kindred and affection, and found\nhim and brought him to Christ; and before the day was over the\nChristian Church was doubled, because each member of it, by God's\ngrace, had added another. Home, then, and those who are nearest to us,\npresent the natural channels for Christian work. Many a very earnest\nand busy preacher, or Sunday-school teacher, or missionary, has\nbrothers and sisters, husband or wife, children or parents at home to\nwhom he has never said a word about Christ. There is an old proverb,\n'The shoemaker's wife is always the worst shod.' The families of many\nvery busy Christian teachers suffer wofully for want of remembering 'he\nfirst findeth his own brother.' It is a poor affair if all your\nphilanthropy and Christian energy go off noisily in Sunday-schools and\nmission-stations, and if your own vineyard is neglected, and the people\nat your own fireside never hear anything from you about the Master whom\nyou say you love. Some of you want that hint; will you take it?\n\nBut then, the principle is one that might be fairly expanded beyond the\nhome circle. The natural relationships into which we are brought by\nneighbourhood and by ordinary associations prescribe the direction of\nour efforts. What, for instance, are we set down in this swarming\npopulation of Lancashire for? For business and personal ends? Yes,\npartly. But is that all? Surely, if we believe that 'there is a\ndivinity that shapes our ends' and determines the bounds of our\nhabitation, we must believe that other purposes affecting other people\nare also meant by God to be accomplished through us, and that where a\nman who knows and loves Christ Jesus is brought into neighbourly\ncontact with thousands who do not, he is thereby constituted his\nbrethren's keeper, and is as plainly called to tell them of Christ as\nif a voice from Heaven had bid him do it. What is to be said of the\ndepth and vital energy of the Christianity that neither hears the call\nnor feels the impulse to share its blessing with the famishing Lazarus\nat its gate? What will be the fate of such a church? Why, if you live\nin luxury in your own well drained and ventilated house, and take no\nheed to the typhoid fever or cholera in the slums at its back, the\nchances are that seeds of the disease will find their way to you, and\nkill your wife, or child, or yourself. And if you Christian people,\nliving in the midst of godless people, do not try to heal them, they\nwill infect you. If you do not seek to impress your conviction that\nChrist is the Messiah upon an unbelieving generation, the unbelieving\ngeneration will impress upon you its doubts whether He is; and your\nlips will falter, and a pallor will come over the complexion of your\nlove, and your faith will become congealed and turn into ice.\n\nNotice again the simple word which is the most powerful means of\ninfluencing most men.\n\nAndrew did not begin to argue with his brother. Some of us can do that\nand some of us cannot. Some of us are influenced by argument and some\nof us are not. You may pound a man's mistaken creed to atoms with\nsledge-hammers of reasoning, and he is not much the nearer being a\nChristian than he was before; just as you may pound ice to pieces and\nit is pounded ice after all. The mightiest argument that we can use,\nand the argument that we can all use, if we have got any religion in us\nat all, is that of Andrew, 'We have found the Messias.'\n\nI recently read a story in some newspaper or other about a minister who\npreached a very elaborate course of lectures in refutation of some form\nof infidelity, for the special benefit of a man that attended his place\nof worship. Soon after, the man came and declared himself a Christian.\nThe minister said to him, 'Which of my discourses was it that removed\nyour doubts?' The reply was, 'Oh! it was not any of your sermons that\ninfluenced me. The thing that set me thinking was that a poor woman\ncame out of the chapel beside me, and stumbled on the steps, and I\nstretched out my hand to help her, and she said \"Thank you!\" Then she\nlooked at me and said, \"Do you love Jesus Christ, my blessed Saviour?\"\nAnd I did not, and I went home and thought about it; and now I can say\n_I_ love Jesus.' The poor woman's word, and her frank confession of her\nexperience, were all the transforming power.\n\nIf you have found Christ, you can say that you have. Never mind about\nthe how! Any how! Only say it! A boy that is sent on an errand by his\nfather has only one duty to perform, and that is to repeat what he was\ntold. Whether we have any eloquence or not, whether we have any logic\nor not, whether we can speak persuasively and gracefully or not, if we\nhave laid hold of Christ at all we can say that we have; and it is at\nour peril that we do not. We can say it to somebody. There is surely\nsome one who will listen to you more readily than to any one else.\nSurely you have not lived all your life and bound nobody to you by\nkindness and love, so that they will gladly attend to what you say.\nWell, then, _use_ the power that is given to you.\n\nRemember the beginnings of the Christian Church\u2014two men, each of whom\nfound his brother. Two and two make four; and if every one of us would\ngo, according to the old law of warfare, and each of us slay our man,\nor rather each of us give life by God's grace to some one, or try to do\nit, our congregations and our churches would grow as fast as, according\nto the old problem, the money grew that was paid down for the nails in\nthe horse's shoes. Two snowflakes on the top of a mountain gather an\navalanche by the time they reach the valley. 'He first findeth his\nbrother, Simon.'\n\nII. And now I turn to the second part of this text, the self-revelation\nof the Master.\n\nThe bond which knit these men to Christ at first was by no means the\nperfect Christian faith which they afterwards attained. They recognised\nHim as the Messiah, they were personally attached to Him, they were\nready to accept His teaching and to obey His commandments. That was\nabout as far as they had gone. But they were scholars. They had entered\nthe school. The rest would come. It would be absurd to expect that\nChrist would begin by preaching to them faith in His divinity and\natoning work. He binds them to _Himself_. That is lesson enough for a\nbeginner for one day.\n\nIt was the impression which Christ Himself made on Simon which\ncompleted the work begun by his brother. What, then, was the\nimpression? He comes all full of wonder and awe, and he is met by a\nlook and a sentence. The look, which is described by an unusual word,\nwas a penetrating gaze which regarded Peter with fixed attention. It\nmust have been remarkable, to have lived in John's memory for all these\nyears. Evidently, as I think, a more than natural insight is implied.\nSo, also, the saying with which our Lord received Peter seems to me to\nbe meant to show more than natural knowledge: 'Thou art Simon, the son\nof Jonas.' Christ may, no doubt, have learned the Apostle's name and\nlineage from his brother, or in some other ordinary way. But if you\nobserve the similar incident which follows in the conversation with\nNicodemus, and the emphatic declaration of the next chapter that Jesus\nknew both 'all men,' and 'what was in man'\u2014both human nature as a\nwhole, and each individual\u2014it is more natural to see here superhuman\nknowledge.\n\nSo then, the first point in our Lord's self-revelation here is that He\nshows Himself possessed of supernatural and thorough knowledge. One\nremembers the many instances where our Lord read men's hearts, and the\nprayer addressed to Him probably, by Peter, 'Thou, Lord, which knowest\nthe hearts of all men,' and the vision which John saw of 'eyes like a\nflame of fire,' and the sevenfold 'I know thy works.'\n\nIt may be a very awful thought, 'Thou, God, seest me.' It is a very\nunwelcome thought to a great many men, and it will be so to us unless\nwe can give it the modification which it receives from the belief in\nthe divinity of Jesus Christ, and feel sure that the eyes which are\nblazing with divine omniscience are dewy with divine and human love.\n\nDo you believe it? Do you feel that Christ is looking at you, and\nsearching you altogether? Do you rejoice in it? Do you carry it about\nwith you as a consolation and a strength in moments of weakness and in\ntimes of temptation? Is it as blessed to you to feel 'Thou Christ\nbeholdest me now,' as it is for a child to feel that, when it is\nplaying in the garden, its mother is sitting up at the window watching\nit, and that no harm can come? There have been men driven mad in\nprisons because they knew that somewhere in the wall there was a little\npinhole, through which a gaoler's eye was always, or might be always,\nglaring down at them. And the thought of an absolute Omniscience up\nthere, searching me to the depths of my nature, may become one from\nwhich I recoil shudderingly, and will not be altogether a blessed one\nunless it comes to me in this shape:\u2014'My Christ knows me altogether and\nloves me better than He knows. And so I will spread myself out before\nHim, and though I feel that there is much in me which I dare not tell\nto men, I will rejoice that there is nothing which I need to tell to\nHim. He knows me through and through. He knew me when He died for me.\nHe knew me when He forgave me. He knew me when He undertook to cleanse\nme. Like this very Peter I will say, \"Lord, Thou knowest all things,\"\nand, like him, I will cling the closer to His feet, because I know, and\nHe knows, my weakness and my sin.'\n\nAnother revelation of our Lord's relation to His disciples is given in\nthe fact that He changes Simon's name. Jehovah, in the Old Testament,\nchanges the names of Abraham and of Jacob. Babylonian kings in the Old\nTestament change the names of their vassal princes. Masters impose\nnames on their slaves; and I suppose that even the marriage custom of\nthe wife's assuming the name of the husband rests originally upon the\nsame idea of absolute authority. That idea is conveyed in the fact that\nour Lord changes Peter's name, and so takes absolute possession of him,\nand asserts His mastery over him. We belong to Him altogether, because\nHe has given Himself altogether for us. His absolute authority is the\ncorrelative of His utter self-surrender. He who can come to me and say,\n'I have spared not my life for thee,' and He only, has the right to\ncome to me and say, 'yield yourself wholly to Me.' So, Christian\nfriends, your Master wants all your service; do you give yourselves up\nto Him out and out, not by half and half.\n\nLastly, that change of name implies Christ's power and promise to\nbestow a new character and new functions and honours. Peter was by no\nmeans a 'Peter' then. The name no doubt mainly implies official\nfunction, but that official function was prepared for by personal\ncharacter; and in so far as the name refers to character, it means\nfirmness. At that epoch Peter was rash, impulsive, headstrong,\nself-confident, vain, and therefore, necessarily changeable. Like the\ngranite, all fluid and hot, and fluid because it was hot, he needed to\ncool in order to solidify into rock. And not until his self-confidence\nhad been knocked out of him, and he had learned humility by falling;\nnot until he had been beaten from all his presumption, and tamed down,\nand sobered and steadied by years of difficulty and responsibilities,\ndid he become the rock that Christ meant him to be. All _that_ lay\nconcealed in the future, but in the change of his name, while he stood\non the very threshold of his Christian career, there was preached to\nhim, and there is preached to us, this great truth, that if you will go\nto Jesus Christ He will make a new man of you. No man's character is so\nobstinately rooted in evil but that Christ can change its set and\ndirection. No man's natural dispositions are so faulty and low but that\nChrist can develop counterbalancing virtues, and out of the evil and\nweakness make strength. He will not make a Peter into a John, or a John\ninto a Paul, but He will deliver Peter from the 'defects of his\nqualities,' and lead them up into a higher and a nobler region. There\nare no outcasts in the view of the transforming Christ. He dismisses no\npeople out of His hospital as incurable, because anybody, everybody,\nthe blackest, the most rooted in evil, those who have longest indulged\nin any given form of transgression, may all come to Him; with the\ncertainty that if they will cleave to Him, He will read all their\ncharacter and all its weaknesses, and then with a glad smile of welcome\nand assured confidence on His face, will ensure to them a new nature\nand new dignities. 'Thou art Simon\u2014thou shalt be Peter.'\n\nThe process will be long. It will be painful. There will be a great\ndeal pared off. The sculptor makes the marble image by chipping away\nthe superfluous marble. Ah! and when you have to chip away superfluous\nflesh and blood it is bitter work, and the chisel is often deeply dyed\nin gore, and the mallet seems to be very cruel. Simon did not know all\nthat had to be done to make a Peter of him. We have to thank God's\nprovidence that we do not know all the sorrows and trials of the\nprocess of making us what He wills us to be. But we may be sure of\nthis, that if only we keep near our Master, and let Him have His way\nwith us, and work His will upon us, and if only we will not wince from\nthe blows of the Great Artist's chisel, then out of the roughest block\nHe will carve the fairest statue; and He will fulfil for us at last His\ngreat promise: 'I will give unto him a white stone, and in the stone a\nnew name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST DISCIPLES: III. PHILIP\n\n\n'The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth\nPhilip, and saith unto him, Follow Me.'\u2014JOHN i. 43.\n\n'The day following'\u2014we have a diary in this chapter and the next,\nextending from the day when John the Baptist gives his official\ntestimony to Jesus, up till our Lord's first journey to Jerusalem. The\norder of events is this. The deputation from the Sanhedrim to John\noccupied the first day. On the second Jesus comes back to John after\nHis temptation, and receives his solemn attestation. On the third day,\nJohn repeats his testimony, and three disciples, probably four, make\nthe nucleus of the Church. These are the two pairs of brothers, James\nand John, Andrew and Peter, who stand first in every catalogue of the\nApostles, and were evidently nearest to Christ.\n\n'The day following' of our text is the fourth day. On it our Lord\ndetermines to return to Galilee. His objects in His visit to John were\naccomplished\u2014to receive his public attestation, and to gather the first\nlittle knot of His followers. Thus launched upon His course, He desired\nto return to His native district.\n\nThese events had occurred where John was baptising, in a place called\nin the English version Bethabara, which means 'The house of crossing,'\nor as we might say, Ferry-house. The traditional site for John's\nbaptism is near Jericho, but the next chapter (verse i.) shows that it\nwas only a day's journey from Cana of Galilee, and must therefore have\nbeen much further north than Jericho. A ford, still bearing the name\nAbarah, a few miles south of the lake of Gennesaret, has lately been\ndiscovered. Our Lord, then, and His disciples had a day's walking to\ntake them back to Galilee. But apparently before they set out on that\nmorning, Philip and Nathanael were added to the little band. So these\ntwo days saw six disciples gathered round Jesus.\n\nAndrew and John sought Christ and found Him. To them He revealed\nHimself as very willing to be approached, and glad to welcome any to\nHis side. Peter, who comes next, was brought to Christ by his brother,\nand to him Christ revealed Himself as reading his heart, and promising\nand giving him higher functions and a more noble character.\n\nNow we come to the third case, 'Jesus findeth Philip,' who was not\nseeking Jesus, and who was brought by no one. To him Christ reveals\nHimself as drawing near to many a heart that has not thought of Him,\nand laying a masterful hand of gracious authority on the springs of\nlife and character in that autocratic word 'Follow Me.' So we have a\ngradually heightening revelation of the Master's graciousness to all\nsouls, to them that seek and to them that seek Him not. It is only to\nthe working out of these simple thoughts that I ask your attention now.\n\nI. First, then, let us deal with the revelation that is given us here\nof the seeking Christ.\n\nEvery one who reads this chapter with even the slightest attention must\nobserve how 'seeking' and 'finding' are repeated over and over again.\nChrist turns to Andrew and John with the question, 'What _seek_ ye?'\nAndrew, as the narrative says, '_findeth_ his own brother, Simon, and\nsaith unto him, \"We have _found_ the Messias!\"' Then again, Jesus\n_finds_ Philip; and again, Philip, as soon as he has been won to Jesus,\ngoes off to _find_ Nathanael; and his glad word to him is, once more,\n'We have _found_ the Messias.' It is a reciprocal play of finding and\nseeking all through these verses.\n\nThere are two kinds of finding. There is a casual stumbling upon a\nthing that you were not looking for, and there is a finding as the\nresult of seeking. It is the latter which is here. Christ did not\ncasually stumble upon Philip, upon that morning, before they departed\nfrom the fords of the Jordan on their short journey to Cana of Galilee.\nHe went to look for this other Galilean, one who was connected with\nAndrew and Peter, a native of the same little village. He went and\nfound him; and whilst Philip was all unexpectant and undesirous, the\nMaster came to him and laid His hand upon him, and drew him to Himself.\n\nNow that is what Christ often does. There are men like the merchantman\nwho went all over the world seeking goodly pearls, who with some eager\nlonging to possess light, or truth, or goodness, or rest, search up and\ndown and find it nowhere, because they are looking for it in a hundred\ndifferent places. They are expecting to find a little here and a little\nthere, and to piece all together to make of the fragments one\nall-sufficing restfulness. Then when they are most eager in their\nsearch, or when, perhaps, it has all died down into despair and apathy,\nthe veil seems to be withdrawn, and they see Him whom they have been\nseeking all the time and knew not that He was there beside them. All,\nand more than all, that they sought for in the many pearls is stored\nfor them in the one Pearl of great price. The ancient covenant stands\nfirm to-day as for ever. 'Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be\nopened unto you.'\n\nBut then there are others, like Paul on the road to Damascus or like\nMatthew the publican, sitting at the receipt of custom, on whom there\nis laid a sudden hand, to whom there comes a sudden conviction, on\nwhose eyes, not looking to the East, there dawns the light of Christ's\npresence. Such cases occur all through the ages, for He is not to be\nconfined, bless His name! within the narrow limits of answering seeking\nsouls, or of showing Himself to people that are brought to Him by human\ninstrumentality; but far beyond these bounds He goes, and many a time\ndiscloses His beauty and His sweetness to hearts that wist not of Him,\nand who can only say, 'Lo! God was in this place, and I knew it not.'\n'Thou wast found of them that sought Thee not.'\n\nAs it was in His miracles upon earth, so it has been in the sweet and\ngracious works of His grace ever since. Sometimes He healed in response\nto the yearning desire that looked out of sick eyes, or that spoke from\nparched lips, and no man that ever came to Him and said 'Heal me!' was\nsent away beggared of His blessing. Sometimes He healed in response to\nthe beseeching of those who, with loving hearts, carried their dear\nones and laid them at His feet. But sometimes, to magnify the\nspontaneity and the completeness of His own love, and to show us that\nHe is bound and limited by no human co-operation, and that He is His\nown motive, He reached out the blessing to a hand that was not extended\nto grasp it; and by His question, 'Wilt thou be made whole?' kindled\ndesires that else had lain dormant for ever.\n\nAnd so in this story before us; He will welcome and over-answer Andrew\nand John when they come seeking; He will turn round to them with a\nsmile on His face, that converts the question, 'What seek ye?' into an\ninvitation, 'Come and see.' And when Andrew brings his brother to Him,\nHe will go more than halfway to meet him. But when these are won, there\nstill remains another way by which He will have disciples brought into\nHis Kingdom, and that is by Himself going out and laying His hand on\nthe man and drawing him to His heart by the revelation of His love. But\nfurther, and in a deeper sense, He really seeks us all, and, unasked,\nbestows His love upon us.\n\nWhether we seek Him or no, there is no heart upon earth which Christ\ndoes not desire; and no man or woman within the sound of His gospel\nwhom He is not in a very real sense seeking that He may draw them to\nHimself. His own word is a wonderful one: 'The Father _seeketh_ such to\nworship Him'; as if God went all up and down the world looking for\nhearts to love Him and to turn to Him with reverent thankfulness. And\nas the Father, so the Son\u2014who is for us the revelation of the Father:\n'The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.' No\none on earth wanted Him, or dreamed of His coming. When He bowed the\nheavens and gathered Himself into the narrow space of the manger in\nBethlehem, and took upon Him the limitations and the burdens and the\nweaknesses of manhood, it was not in response to any petition, it was\nin reply to no seeking; but He came spontaneously, unmoved, obeying but\nthe impulse of His own heart, and because He would have mercy. He who\nis the Beginning, and will be First in all things, was first in this,\nthat before they called He answered, and came upon earth unbesought and\nunexpected, because His own infinite love brought Him hither. Christ's\nmercy to a world does not come like water in a well that has to be\npumped up, by our petitions, by our search, but like water in some\nfountain, rising sparkling into the sunlight by its own inward impulse.\nHe is His own motive; and came to a forgetful and careless world, like\na shepherd who goes after his flock in the wilderness, not because they\nbleat for him, while they crop the herbage which tempts them ever\nfurther from the fold and remember him and it no more, but because he\ncannot have them lost. Men are not conscious of needing Christ till He\ncomes. The supply creates the demand. He is like the 'dew which\ntarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.'\n\nBut not only does Christ seek us all, inasmuch as the whole conception\nand execution of His great work are independent of man's desires, but\nHe seeks us each in a thousand ways. He longs to have each of us for\nHis disciples. He seeks each of us for His disciples, by the motion of\nHis Spirit on our spirits, by stirring conviction in our consciences,\nby pricking us often with a sense of our own evil, by all our\nrestlessness and dissatisfaction, by the disappointments and the\nlosses, as by the brightnesses and the goodness of earthly providences,\nand often through such agencies as my lips and the lips of other men.\nThe Master Himself, who seeks all mankind, has sought and is seeking\nyou at this moment. Oh! yield to His search. The shepherd goes out on\nthe mountain side, for all the storm and the snow, and wades knee-deep\nthrough the drifts until he finds the sheep. And your Shepherd, who is\nalso your Brother, has come looking for you, and at this moment is\nputting out His hand and laying hold of some of you through my poor\nwords, and saying to you, as He said to Philip, 'Follow Me!'\n\nII. And now let us next consider that word of authority which, spoken\nto the one man in our text, is really spoken to us all.\n\n'Jesus findeth Philip, and saith unto him, \"Follow Me!\"' No doubt a\ngreat deal more passed, but no doubt what more passed was less\nsignificant and less important for the development of faith in this man\nthan what is recorded. The word of authority, the invitation which was\na demand, the demand which was an invitation, and the personal\nimpression which He produced upon Philip's heart, were the things that\nbound him to Jesus Christ for ever. 'Follow Me,' spoken at the\nbeginning of the journey of Christ and His disciples back to Galilee,\nmight have meant merely, on the surface, 'Come back with us.' But the\nwords have, of course, a much deeper meaning. They mean\u2014be My disciple.\nThink what is implied in them, and ask yourself whether the demand that\nChrist makes in these words is an unreasonable one, and then ask\nyourselves whether you have yielded to it or not.\n\nWe lose the force of the image by much repetition. Sheep follow a\nshepherd. Travellers follow a guide. Here is a man upon some dangerous\ncornice of the Alps, with a ledge of limestone as broad as the palm of\nyour hand, and perhaps a couple of feet of snow above that, for him to\nwalk upon, a precipice on either side; and his guide says, as he ropes\nhimself to him, 'Now, tread where I tread!' Travellers follow their\nguides. Soldiers follow their commanders. There is the hell of the\nbattlefield; here a line of wavering, timid, raw recruits. Their\ncommander rushes to the front and throws himself upon the advancing\nenemy with the one word, 'Follow' and the coward becomes a hero.\nSoldiers follow their captains. Your Shepherd comes to you and calls,\n'Follow Me.' Your Captain and Commander comes to you and calls, 'Follow\nMe.' In all the dreary wilderness, in all the difficult contingencies\nand conjunctions, in all the conflicts of life, this Man strides in\nfront of us and proposes Himself to us as Guide, Example, Consoler,\nFriend, Companion, everything; and gathers up all duty, all\nblessedness, in the majestic and simple words, 'Follow Me.'\n\nIt is a call at the least to accept Him as a Teacher, but the whole\ngist of the context here is to show us that from the beginning Christ's\ndisciples did not look upon Him as a Rabbi's disciples did, as being\nsimply a teacher, but recognised Him as the Messias, the Son of God,\nthe King of Israel. So that they were called upon by this command to\naccept His teaching in a very special way, not merely as Hillel or\nGamaliel asked their disciples to accept theirs. Do you do that? Do you\ntake Him as your illumination about all matters of theoretical truth,\nand of practical wisdom? Is His declaration of God your theology? Is\nHis declaration of His own Person your creed? Do you think about His\nCross as He did when He elected to be remembered in all the world by\nthe broken body and the shed blood, which were the symbols of His\nreconciling death? Is His teaching, that the Son of Man comes to 'give\nHis life a ransom for many,' the ground of your hope? Do you follow Him\nin your belief, and following Him in your belief, do you accept Him as,\nby His death and passion, the Saviour of your soul? That is the first\nstep\u2014to follow Him, to trust Him wholly for what He is, the Incarnate\nSon of God, the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and\ntherefore for your sins and mine. This is a call to faith.\n\nIt is also a call to obedience. 'Follow Me' certainly means 'Do as I\nbid you,' but softens all the harshness of that command. Sedulously\nplant your tremulous feet in His firm footsteps. Where you see His\ntrack going across the bog be not afraid to walk after Him, though it\nmay seem to lead you into the deepest and the blackest of it. 'Follow\nHim' and you will be right. 'Follow Him' and you will be blessed. Do as\nChrist did, or as according to the best of your judgment it seems to\nyou that Christ would have done if He had been in your circumstances;\nand you will not go far wrong. 'The Imitation of Christ,' which Thomas\na Kempis wrote his book about, is the sum of all practical\nChristianity. 'Follow Me!' makes discipleship to be something more than\nintellectual acceptance of His teaching, something more than even\nreliance for my salvation upon His work. It makes\ndiscipleship\u2014springing out of these two\u2014the acceptance of His teaching\nand the consequent reliance, by faith, upon His word\u2014to be a practical\nreproduction of His character and conduct in mine.\n\nIt is a call to communion. If a man follows Christ he will walk close\nbehind Him, and near enough to Him to hear Him speak, and to be 'guided\nby His eye.' He will be separated from other people, and from other\npaths. In these four things, then\u2014Faith, Obedience, Imitation,\nCommunion\u2014lies the essence of discipleship. No man is a Christian who\nhas not in some measure all four. Have you got them?\n\nWhat right has Jesus Christ to ask me to follow Him? Why should I? Who\nis He that He should set Himself up as being the perfect Example and\nthe Guide for all the world? What has He done to bind me to Him, that I\nshould take Him for my Master, and yield myself to Him in a subjection\nthat I refuse to the mightiest names in literature, and thought, and\npractical benevolence? Who is this that assumes thus to dominate over\nus all? Ah! brethren, there is only one answer. 'This is none other\nthan the Son of God who has given Himself a ransom for me, and\ntherefore has the right, and only therefore has the right, to say to\nme, \"Follow Me.\"'\n\nIII. And now one last word. Think for a moment about this silently and\nswiftly obedient disciple.\n\nPhilip says nothing. Of course the narrative is mere sketchy outline.\nHe is silent, but he yields. Ah, brethren, how quickly a soul may be\nwon or lost! That moment, when Philip's decision was trembling in the\nbalance, was but a moment. It might have gone the other way, for Christ\nhas no pressed men in His army; they are all volunteers. It might have\ngone the other way. A moment may settle for you whether you will be His\ndisciple or not. People tell us that the belief in instantaneous\nconversions is unphilosophical. It seems to me that the objections to\nthem are unphilosophical. All decisions are matters of an instant.\nHesitation may be long, weighing and balancing may be a protracted\nprocess, but the decision is always a moment's work, a knife-edge. And\nthere is no reason whatever why any one listening to me may not now, if\nhe or she will, do as this man Philip did on the spot, and when Christ\nsays 'Follow Me,' turn to Him and answer, 'I will follow Thee\nwhithersoever Thou goest.'\n\nThere is an old church tradition which says that the disciple who at a\nsubsequent period answered Christ, 'Lord! suffer me first to go and\nbury my father,' was this same Apostle. I do not think that at all\nlikely, but the tradition suggests to us one last thought about the\nreasons why people are kept back from yielding this obedience to\nChrist's invitation. Many of you are kept back, as that procrastinating\nfollower was, because there are some other duties which you feel, or\nmake to be, more important. 'I will think about Christianity and\nturning religious when this, that, or the other thing has been got\nover. I have my position in life to make. I have a great many things to\ndo that must be done at once, and really, I have not time to think\nabout it.'\n\nThen there are some of you that are kept from following Christ because\nyou have never yet found out that you need a guide at all. Then there\nare some of you that are kept back because you like very much better to\ngo your own way, and to follow your own inclination, and dislike the\nidea of following the will of another. There are a host of other\nreasons that I do not need to deal with now; but oh! brethren, none of\nthem is worth pleading. They are excuses, they are not reasons. 'They\nall with one consent began to make excuse'\u2014excuses, not reasons; and\nmanufactured excuses, in order to cover a decision which has been taken\nbefore, and on other grounds altogether, which it is not convenient to\nbring up to the surface. I am not going to deal with these in detail,\nbut I beseech you, do not let what I venture to call Christ's seeking\nof you once more, even by my poor words now, be in vain.\n\nFollow Him. Trust, obey, imitate, hold fellowship with Him. You will\nalways have a Companion, you will always have a Protector. 'He that\nfolloweth Me,' saith He, 'shall not walk in darkness, but shall have\nthe light of life.' And if you will listen to the Shepherd's voice and\nfollow Him, that sweet old promise will be true, in its divinest and\nsweetest sense, about your life, in time; and about your life in the\nmoment of death, the isthmus between two worlds, and about your life in\neternity\u2014'They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the sun nor\nheat smite them; for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even\nby the springs of water shall He guide them.' 'Follow thou Me.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST DISCIPLES: IV. NATHANAEL\n\n\n'Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of\nwhom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth,\nthe son of Joseph. 46. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good\nthing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 47.\nJesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, Behold an\nIsraelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 48. Nathanael saith unto Him,\nWhence knowest Thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that\nPhilip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. 49.\nNathanael answered and saith unto Him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God;\nThou art the King of Israel.'\u2014JOHN i. 45-49.\n\nThe words are often the least part of a conversation. The Evangelist\ncan tell us what Nathanael said to Jesus, and what Jesus said to\nNathanael, but no Evangelist can reproduce the look, the tone, the\nmagnetic influence which streamed out from Christ, and, we may believe,\nmore than anything He said, riveted these men to Him.\n\nIt looks as if Nathanael and his companions were very easily convinced,\nas if their adhesion to such tremendous claims as those of Jesus Christ\nwas much too facile a thing to be a very deep one. But what can be put\ndown in black and white goes a very short way to solve the secret of\nthe power which drew them to Himself.\n\nThe incident which is before us now runs substantially on the same\nlines as the previous bringing of Peter to Jesus Christ. In both cases\nthe man is brought by a friend, in both cases the friend's weapon is\nsimply the expression of his own personal experience, 'We have found\nthe Messias,' although Philip has a little more to say about Christ's\ncorrespondence with the prophetic word. In both cases the work is\nfinished by our Lord Himself manifesting His own supernatural knowledge\nto the inquiring spirit, though in the case of Nathanael that process\nis a little more lengthened out than in the case of Peter, because\nthere was a little ice of hesitation and of doubt to be melted away.\nAnd Nathanael, starting from a lower point than Peter, having questions\nand hesitations which the other had not, rises to a higher point of\nfaith and certitude, and from his lips first of all comes the full\narticulate confession, beyond which the Apostles never went as long as\nour Lord was upon earth: 'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the\nKing of Israel.' So that both in regard to the revelation that is given\nof the character of our Lord, and in regard to the teaching that is\ngiven of the development and process of faith in a soul, this last\nnarrative fitly crowns the whole series. In looking at it with you now,\nI think I shall best bring out its force by asking you to take it as\nfalling into these three portions: first, the preparation\u2014a soul\nbrought to Christ by a brother; then the conversation\u2014a soul fastened\nto Christ by Himself; and then the rapturous confession\u2014'Rabbi, Thou\nart the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.'\n\nI. Look, then, first of all, at the preparation\u2014a soul brought to\nChrist by a brother.\n\n'Philip findeth Nathanael.' Nathanael, in all probability, as\ncommentators will tell you, is the Apostle Bartholomew; and in the\ncatalogues of the Apostles in the Gospels, Philip and he are always\nassociated together. So that the two men, friends before, had their\nfriendship riveted and made more close by this sacredest of all bonds,\nthat the one had been to the other the means of bringing him to Jesus\nChrist. There is nothing that ties men to each other like that. If you\nwant to know the full sweetness of association with friends, and of\nhuman love, get some heart knit to yours by this sacred and eternal\nbond that it owes to you its first knowledge of the Saviour. So all\nhuman ties will be sweetened, ennobled, elevated, and made perpetual.\n\n'We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did\nwrite: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.' Philip knows nothing\nabout Christ's supernatural birth, nor about its having been in\nBethlehem; to him He is the son of a Nazarene peasant. But,\nnotwithstanding that, He is the great, significant, mysterious Person\nfor whom the whole sacred literature of Israel had been one long\nyearning for centuries; and he has come to believe that this Man\nstanding beside him is the Person on whom all previous divine\ncommunications for a millennium past focussed and centred.\n\nI need not dwell upon these words, because to do so would be to repeat\nsubstantially what I said in a former sermon on these first disciples,\nabout the value of personal conviction as a means of producing\nconviction in the minds of others, and about the necessity and the\npossibility of all who have found Christ for themselves saying so to\nothers, and thereby becoming His missionaries and evangelists.\n\nI do not need to repeat what I said on that occasion; therefore I pass\non to the very natural hesitation and question of Nathanael: 'Can there\nany good thing come out of Nazareth?' A prejudice, no doubt, but a very\nharmless one; a very thin ice which melted as soon as Christ's smile\nbeamed upon him. And a most natural prejudice. Nathanael came from Cana\nof Galilee, a little hill village, three or four miles from Nazareth.\nWe all know the bitter feuds and jealousies of neighbouring villages,\nand how nothing is so pleasant to the inhabitants of one as a gibe\nabout the inhabitants of another. And in Nathanael's words there simply\nspeaks the rustic jealousy of Cana against Nazareth.\n\nIt is easy to blame him, but do you think that you or I, if we had been\nin his place, would have been likely to have said anything very\ndifferent? Suppose you were told that a peasant out of Ross-shire was a\nman on whom the whole history of this nation hung. Do you think you\nwould be likely to believe it without first saying, 'That is a strange\nplace for such a person to be born in'? Galilee was the despised part\nof Palestine, and Nazareth obviously was a proverbially despised\nvillage of Galilee; and this Jesus was a carpenter's son that nobody\nhad ever heard of. It seemed to be a strange head on which the divine\ndove should flutter down, passing by all the Pharisees and the Scribes,\nall the great people and wise people. Nathanael's prejudice was but the\ngiving voice to a fault that is as wide as humanity, and which we have\nevery day of our lives to fight with; not only in regard to religious\nmatters but in regard to all others\u2014namely, the habit of estimating\npeople, and their work, and their wisdom, and their power to teach us,\nby the class to which they are supposed to belong, or even by the place\nfrom which they come.\n\n'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' 'Can a German teach an\nEnglishman anything that he does not know?' 'Is a Protestant to owe\nanything of spiritual illumination to a Roman Catholic?' 'Are we\nDissenters to receive any wisdom or example from Churchmen?' 'Will a\nConservative be able to give any lessons in politics to a Liberal?' 'Is\nthere any other bit of England that can teach Lancashire?' Take care\nthat whilst you are holding up your hands in horror against the\nprejudices of our Lord's contemporaries, who stumbled at His origin,\nyou are not doing the same thing in regard to all manner of subjects\ntwenty times a day.\n\nThat is one very plain lesson, and not at all too secular for a sermon.\nTake another. This three-parts innocent prejudice of Nathanael brings\ninto clear relief for us what a very real obstacle to the recognition\nof our Lord's Messianic authority His apparent lowly origin was. We\nhave got over it, and it is no difficulty to us; but it was so then.\nWhen Jesus Christ came into this world Judaea was ruled by the most\nheartless of aristocracies, an aristocracy of cultured pedants.\nWherever you get such a class you get people who think that there can\nbe nobody worth looking at, or worth attending to, outside the little\nlimits of their own supercilious superiority. Why did Jesus Christ come\nfrom 'the men of the earth,' as the Rabbis called all who had not\nlearned to cover every plain precept with spiders' webs of casuistry?\nWhy, for one thing, in accordance with the general law that the great\nreformers and innovators always come from outside these classes, that\nthe Spirit of the Lord shall come on a herdsman like Amos, and\nfishermen and peasants spread the Gospel through the world; and that in\npolitics, in literature, in science, as well as in religion, it is\nalways true that 'not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,\nnot many noble are called.' To the cultivated classes you have to look\nfor a great deal that is precious and good, but for fresh impulse, in\nunbroken fields, you have to look outside them. And so the highest of\nall lives is conformed to the general law.\n\nMore than that, 'Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph,' came thus\nbecause He was the poor man's Christ, because He was the ignorant man's\nChrist, because His word was not for any class, but as broad as the\nworld. He came poor, obscure, unlettered, that all who, like Him, were\npoor and untouched by the finger of earthly culture, might in Him find\ntheir Brother, their Helper, and their Friend.\n\n'Philip saith unto him, Come and see.' He is not going to argue the\nquestion. He gives the only possible answer to it\u2014'You ask Me, can any\ngood thing come out of Nazareth?' 'Come and see whether it is a good\nthing or no; and if it is, and if it came out of Nazareth, well then,\nthe question has answered itself.' The quality of a thing cannot be\nsettled by the origin of the thing.\n\nAs it so happened, this Man did not come out of Nazareth at all, though\nneither Philip nor Nathanael knew it; but if He had, it would have been\nall the same. The right answer was 'Come and see.'\n\nNow although, of course, there is no kind of correspondence between the\nmere prejudice of this man Nathanael and the rooted intellectual doubts\nof other generations, yet 'Come and see' carries in it the essence of\nall Christian apologetics. By far the wisest thing that any man who has\nto plead the cause of Christianity can do is to put Christ well\nforward, and let people look at Him, and trust Him to produce His own\nimpression. We may argue round, and round, and round about Him for\nevermore, and we shall never convince as surely as by simply holding\nHim forth. 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' Yet we\nare so busy proving Christianity that we sometimes have no time to\npreach it; so busy demonstrating that Jesus Christ is this, that, and\nthe other thing, or contradicting the notion that He is not this, that,\nand the other thing, that we forget simply to present Him for men to\nlook at. Depend upon it, whilst argument has its function, and there\nare men that must be approached thereby; on the whole, and for the\ngeneral, the best way of propagating Christianity is to proclaim it,\nand the second best way is to prove it. Our arguments do fare very\noften very much as did that elaborate discourse that a bishop once\npreached to prove the existence of a God, at the end of which a simple\nold woman who had not followed his reasoning very intelligently,\nexclaimed, 'Well, for all he says, I can't help thinking there is a God\nafter all.' The errors that are quoted to be confuted often remain more\nclear in the hearers' minds than the attempted confutations. Hold forth\nChrist\u2014cry aloud to men, 'Come and see!' and some eyes will turn and\nsome hearts cleave to Him.\n\nAnd on the other side, dear brethren, you have not done fairly by\nChristianity until you have complied with this invitation, and\nsubmitted your mind and heart honestly to the influence and the\nimpression that Christ Himself would make upon it.\n\nII. We come now to the second stage\u2014the conversation between Christ and\nNathanael, where we see a soul fastened to Christ by Himself.\n\nIn general terms, as I remarked, the method by which our Lord manifests\nHis Messiahship to this single soul is a revelation of His supernatural\nknowledge of him. But a word or two may be said about the details. Mark\nthe emphasis with which the Evangelist shows us that our Lord speaks\nthis discriminating characterisation of Nathanael before Nathanael had\ncome to Him: 'He saw him coming.' So it was not with a swift,\npenetrating glance of intuition that He read his character in his face.\nIt was not that He generalised rapidly from one action which He had\nseen him do. It was not from any previous personal knowledge of him,\nfor, obviously, from the words of Philip to Nathanael, the latter had\nnever seen Jesus Christ. As Nathanael was drawing near Him, before he\nhad done anything to show himself, our Lord speaks the words which show\nthat He had read his very heart: 'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom\nis no guile.'\n\nThat is to say, here is a man who truly represents that which was the\nideal of the whole nation. The reference is, no doubt, to the old story\nof the occasion on which Jacob's name was changed to Israel. And we\nshall see a further reference to the same story in the subsequent\nverses. Jacob had wrestled with God in that mysterious scene by the\nbrook Jabbok, and had overcome, and had received instead of the name\nJacob, 'a supplanter,' the name of Israel, 'for as a Prince hast thou\npower with God and hast prevailed.' And, says Christ: 'This man also is\na son of Israel, one of God's warriors, who has prevailed with Him by\nprayer.' 'In whom is no guile'\u2014Jacob in his early life had been marked\nand marred by selfish craft. Subtlety and guile had been the very\nkeynote of his character. To drive that out of him, years of discipline\nand pain and sorrow had been needed. And not until it had been driven\nout of him could his name be altered, and he become Israel. This man\nhas had the guile driven out of him. By what process? The words are a\nverbal quotation from Psalm xxxii.: 'Blessed is he whose transgression\nis forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the\nLord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.'\nClear, candid openness of spirit, and the freedom of soul from all that\ncorruption which the Psalmist calls 'guile,' is the property of him\nonly who has received it, by confession, by pardon, and by cleansing,\nfrom God. Thus Nathanael, in his wrestling, had won the great gift. His\ntransgression had been forgiven; his iniquity had been covered; to him\nGod had not imputed his sin; and in his spirit, therefore, there was no\nguile. Ah, brother! if that black drop is to be cleansed out of your\nheart, it must be by the same means\u2014confession to God and pardon from\nGod. And then you too will be a prince with Him, and your spirit will\nbe frank and free, and open and candid.\n\nNathanael, with astonishment, says, 'Lord, whence knowest Thou me?' Not\nthat he appropriates the description to himself, or recognises the\ntruthfulness of it, but he is surprised that Christ should have means\nof forming any judgment with reference to him, and so he asks Him, half\nexpecting an answer which will show the natural origin of our Lord's\nknowledge: 'Whence knowest Thou me?' Then comes the answer, which, to\nsupernatural insight into Nathanael's character, adds supernatural\nknowledge of Nathanael's secret actions: 'Before that Philip called\nthee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. And it is because\nI saw thee under the fig-tree that I knew thee to be \"an Israelite\nindeed, in whom there is no guile.\"' So then, under the fig-tree,\nNathanael must have been wrestling in prayer; under the fig-tree must\nhave been confessing his sins; under the fig-tree must have been\nlonging and looking for the Deliverer who was to 'turn away ungodliness\nfrom Jacob.' So solitary had been that vigil, and so little would any\nhuman eye that had looked upon it have known what had been passing in\nhis mind, that Christ's knowledge of it and of its significance at once\nlights up in Nathanael's heart the fire of the glad conviction, 'Thou\nart the Son of God.' If we had seen Nathanael, we should only have seen\na man sitting, sunk in thought, under a fig-tree; but Jesus had seen\nthe spiritual struggle which had no outward marks, and to have known\nwhich He must have exercised the divine prerogative of reading the\nheart.\n\nI ask you to consider whether Nathanael's conclusion was not right, and\nwhether that woman of Samaria was not right when she hurried back to\nthe city, leaving her water-pot, and said, 'Come and see a man that\ntold me _all_ that ever I did.' That 'all' was a little stretch of\nfacts, but still it was true in spirit. And her inference was\nabsolutely true: 'Is not this the Christ, the Son of God?' This is the\nfirst miracle that Jesus Christ wrought. His supernatural knowledge,\nwhich cannot be struck out from the New Testament representations of\nHis character, is as much a mark of divinity as any of the other of His\nearthly manifestations. It is not the highest; it does not appeal to\nour sympathies as some of the others do, but it is irrefragable. Here\nis a man to whom all men with whom He came in contact were like those\nclocks with a crystal face which shows us all the works. How does He\ncome to have this perfect and absolute knowledge?\n\nThat omniscience, as manifested here, shows us how glad Christ is when\nHe sees anything good, anything that He can praise in any of us.\n'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.' Not a word\nabout Nathanael's prejudice, not a word about any of his faults (though\nno doubt he had plenty of them), but the cordial praise that he was an\nhonest, a sincere man, following after God and after truth. There is\nnothing which so gladdens Christ as to see in us any faint traces of\nlonging for, and love towards, and likeness to, His own self. His\nomniscience is never so pleased as when beneath heaps and mountains of\nvanity and sin it discerns in a man's heart some poor germ of goodness\nand longing for His grace.\n\nAnd then again, notice how we have here our Lord's omniscience set\nforth as cognisant of all our inward crises and struggles, 'When thou\nwast under the fig tree, I saw thee.' I suppose all of us could look\nback to some place or other, under some hawthorn hedge, or some boulder\nby the seashore, or some mountain-top, or perhaps in some back-parlour,\nor in some crowded street, where some never-to-be-forgotten epoch in\nour soul's history passed, unseen by all eyes, and which would have\nshown no trace to any onlooker, except perhaps a tightly compressed\nlip. Let us rejoice to feel that Christ sees all these moments which no\nother eye can see. In our hours of crisis, and in our monotonous,\nuneventful moments, in the rush of the furious waters, when the stream\nof our lives is caught among rocks, and in the long, languid reaches of\nits smoothest flow, when we are fighting with our fears or yearning for\nHis light, or even when sitting dumb and stolid, like snow men,\napathetic and frozen in our indifference, He sees us, and pities, and\nwill help the need which He beholds.\n\n  'Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,\n  And thy Saviour is not by;\n  Think not thou canst weep a tear,\n  And thy Saviour is not near.'\n\n'When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.'\n\nIII. One word more about this rapturous confession, which crowns the\nwhole: 'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.'\n\nWhere had Nathanael learned these great names? He was a disciple of\nJohn the Baptist, and he had no doubt heard John's testimony as\nrecorded in this same chapter, when he told us how the voice from\nHeaven had bid him recognise the Messiah by the token of the descending\nDove, and how he 'saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.'\nJohn's testimony was echoed in Nathanael's confession. Undoubtedly he\nattached but vague ideas to the name, far less articulate and doctrinal\nthan we have the privilege of doing. To him 'Son of God' could not have\nmeant all that it ought to mean to us, but it meant something that he\nsaw clearly, and a great deal beyond that he saw but dimly. It meant\nthat God had sent, and was in some special sense the Father of, this\nJesus of Nazareth.\n\n'Thou art the King of Israel,' John had been preaching, 'The Kingdom of\nHeaven is at hand.' The Messiah was to be the theocratic King, the\nKing, not of 'Judah' nor of 'the Jews,' but of 'Israel,' the nation\nthat had entered into covenant with God. So the substance of the\nconfession was the Messiahship of Jesus, as resting upon His special\ndivine relationship and leading to His Kingly sway.\n\nNotice also the enthusiasm of the confession; one's ear hears clearly a\ntone of rapture in it. The joy-bells of the man's heart are all\na-ringing. It is no mere intellectual acknowledgment of Christ as\nMessiah. The difference between mere head-belief and heart-faith lies\nprecisely in the presence of these elements of confidence, of\nenthusiastic loyalty, and absolute submission.\n\nSo the great question for each of us is, not, Do I believe as a piece\nof my intellectual creed that Christ is 'the Messiah, the Son of God,\nthe King of Israel'? I suppose almost all my hearers here now do that.\nThat will not make you a Christian, my friend. That will neither save\nyour soul nor quiet your heart, nor bring you peace and strength in\nlife, nor open the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven to you. A man may be\nmiserable, wholly sunk in all manner of wickedness and evil, die the\ndeath of a dog, and go to punishment hereafter, though he believe that\nJesus Christ is the Son of God and the King of Israel. You want\nsomething more than that. You want just this element of rapturous\nacknowledgment, of loyal submission, absolute obedience, of unfaltering\ntrust.\n\nLook at these first disciples, six brave men that had all that loyalty\nand love to Him; though there was not a soul in the world but\nthemselves to share their convictions. Do they not shame you? When He\ncomes to you, as He does come, with this question, 'Whom do ye say that\nI am?' may God give you grace to answer, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son\nof the living God,' and not only to answer it with your lips, but to\ntrust Him wholly with your hearts, and with enthusiastic devotion to\nbow your whole being in adoring wonder and glad submission at His feet.\nIf we are 'Israelites indeed,' our hearts will crown Him as the 'King\nof Israel.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST DISCIPLES: V. BELIEVING AND SEEING\n\n\n'Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee\nunder the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than\nthese. 51. And He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you,\nHereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and\ndescending upon the Son of Man.'\u2014JOHN i. 50, 51.\n\nHere we have the end of the narrative of the gathering together of the\nfirst disciples, which has occupied several sermons. We have had\noccasion to point out how each incident in the series has thrown some\nfresh light upon two main subjects, namely, upon some phase or other of\nthe character and work of Jesus Christ, or upon the various ways by\nwhich faith, which is the condition of discipleship, is kindled in\nmen's souls. These closing words may be taken as the crowning thoughts\non both these matters.\n\nOur Lord recognises and accepts the faith of Nathanael and his fellows,\nbut, like a wise Teacher, lets His pupils at the very beginning get a\nglimpse of how much lies ahead for them to learn; and in the act of\naccepting the faith gives just one hint of the great tract of yet\nuncomprehended knowledge of Him which lies before them; 'Because I said\nunto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt\nsee greater things than these.' He accepts Nathanael's confession and\nthe confession of his fellows. Human lips have given Him many great and\nwonderful titles in this chapter. John called Him 'the Lamb of God';\nthe first disciples hailed Him as the 'Messias, which is the Christ';\nNathanael fell before Him with the rapturous exclamation, 'Thou art the\nSon of God; Thou art the King of Israel!' All these crowns had been put\non His head by human hands, but here He crowns Himself. He makes a\nmightier claim than any that they had dreamed of, and proclaims Himself\nto be the medium of all communication and intercourse between heaven\nand earth: 'Hereafter ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God\nascending and descending upon the Son of Man.'\n\nSo, then, there are two great principles that lie in these verses, and\nare contained in, first, our Lord's mighty promise to His new\ndisciples, and second, in our Lord's witness to Himself. Let me say a\nword or two about each of these.\n\nI. Our Lord's promise to His new disciples.\n\nChrist's words here may be translated either as a question or as an\naffirmation. It makes comparatively little difference to the\nsubstantial meaning whether we read 'believest thou?' or 'thou\nbelievest.' In the former case there will be a little more vivid\nexpression of surprise and admiration at the swiftness of Nathanael's\nfaith, but in neither case are we to find anything of the nature of\nblame or of doubt as to the reality of his belief. The question, if it\nbe a question, is no question as to whether Nathanael's faith was a\ngenuine thing or not. There is no hint that he has been too quick with\nhis confession, and has climbed too rapidly to the point that he has\nattained. But in either case, whether the word be a question or an\naffirmation, we are to see in it the solemn and glad recognition of the\nreality of Nathanael's confession and belief.\n\nHere is the first time that that word 'belief' came from Christ's lips;\nand when we remember all the importance that has been attached to it in\nthe subsequent history of the Church, and the revolution in human\nthought which followed upon our Lord's demand of our faith, there is an\ninterest in noticing the first appearance of the word. It was an epoch\nin the history of the world when Christ first claimed and accepted a\nman's faith.\n\nOf course the second part of this verse, 'Thou shalt see greater things\nthan these,' has its proper fulfilment in the gradual manifestation of\nHis person and character, which followed through the events recorded in\nthe Gospels. His life of service, His words of wisdom, His deeds of\npower and of pity, His death of shame and of glory, His Resurrection\nand His Ascension, these are the 'greater things' which Nathanael is\npromised. They all lay unrevealed yet, and what our Lord means is\nsimply this: 'If you will continue to trust in Me, as you have trusted\nMe, and stand beside Me, you will see unrolled before your eyes and\ncomprehended by your faith the great facts which will make the\nmanifestation of God to the world.' But though that be the original\napplication of the words, yet I think we may fairly draw from them some\nlessons that are of importance to ourselves; and I ask you to look at\nthe hint that they give us about three things,\u2014faith and discipleship,\nfaith and sight, faith and progress. 'Believest thou? thou shalt see\ngreater things than these.'\n\nFirst, here is light thrown upon the relation between faith and\ndiscipleship. It is clear that our Lord here uses the word for the\nfirst time in the full Christian sense, that He regards the exercise of\nfaith as being practically synonymous with being a disciple, that from\nthe very first, believers were disciples, and disciples were believers.\n\nThen, notice still further that our Lord here employs the word 'belief'\nwithout any definition of what or whom it is that they were to believe.\nHe Himself, and not certain thoughts about Him, is the true object of a\nman's faith. We may believe a proposition, but faith must grasp a\nperson. Even when the person is made known to us by a proposition which\nwe have to believe before we can trust the person, still the essence of\nfaith is not the intellectual process of laying hold upon a certain\nthought, and acquiescing in it, but the moral process of casting myself\nin full confidence upon the Being that is revealed to me by the\nthought,\u2014of laying my hand, and leaning my weight, on the Man about\nwhom it tells me. And so faith, which is discipleship, has in it for\nits very essence the personal element of trust in Jesus Christ.\n\nThen, further, notice how widely different from our creed was\nNathanael's creed, and yet how identical with our faith, if we are\nChristians, was Nathanael's faith. He knew nothing about the very heart\nof Christ's work, His atoning death. He knew nothing about the highest\nglory of Christ's person, His divine Sonship, in its unique and lofty\nsense. These lay unrevealed, and were amongst the greater things which\nhe was yet to see; but though thus his knowledge was imperfect, and his\ncreed incomplete as compared with ours, his faith was the very same. He\nlaid hold upon Christ, he clave to Him with all his heart, he was ready\nto accept His teaching, he was willing to do His will, and as for the\nrest\u2014'Thou shalt see greater things than these.' So, dear brethren,\nfrom these words of my text here, from the unhesitating attribution of\nthe lofty notion of faith to this man, from the way in which our Lord\nuses the word, are gathered these three points that I beseech you to\nponder: there is no discipleship without faith; faith is the personal\ngrasp of Christ Himself; the contents of creeds may differ whilst the\nelement of faith remains the same. I beseech you let Christ come to you\nwith the question of my text, and as He looks you in the eyes, hear Him\nsay to you, 'Believest _thou_?'\n\nSecondly, notice how in this great promise to the new disciples there\nis light thrown upon another subject, viz. the connection between faith\nand sight. There is a great deal about seeing in this context. Christ\nsaid to the first two that followed Him, 'Come and see.' Philip met\nNathanael's thin film of prejudice with the same words, 'Come and see.'\nChrist greeted the approaching Nathanael with 'When thou wast under the\nfig tree I saw thee.' And now His promise is cast into the same\nmetaphor: 'Thou shalt see greater things than these.'\n\nThere is a double antithesis here. 'I saw thee,' 'Thou shalt see Me.'\n'Thou wast convinced because thou didst feel that thou wert the passive\nobject of My vision. Thou shalt be still more convinced when\nilluminated by Me. Thou shalt see even as thou art seen. I saw thee,\nand that bound thee to Me; thou shalt see Me, and that will confirm the\nbond.'\n\nThere is another antithesis, namely\u2014between believing and seeing. 'Thou\nbelievest\u2014that is thy present; thou shalt see, that is thy hope for the\nfuture.' Now I have already explained that, in the proper primary\nmeaning and application of the words, the sight which is here promised\nis simply the observance with the outward eye of the historical facts\nof our Lord's life which were yet to be learned. But still we may\ngather a truth from this antithesis which will be of use to us. 'Thou\nbelievest\u2014thou shalt see'; that is to say, in the loftiest region of\nspiritual experience you must believe first, in order that you may see.\n\nI do not mean, as is sometimes meant, by that statement that a man has\nto try to force his understanding into the attitude of accepting\nreligious truth, in order that he may have an experience which will\nconvince him that it is true. I mean a very much simpler thing than\nthat, and a very much truer one, viz. this, that unless we trust to\nChrist and take our illumination from Him, we shall never behold a\nwhole set of truths which, when once we trust Him, are all plain and\nclear to us. It is no mysticism to say that. What do you _know_ about\nGod?\u2014I put emphasis upon the word 'know'\u2014What do you know about Him,\nhowever much you may argue and speculate and think probable, and fear,\nand hope, and question, about Him? What do you know about Him apart\nfrom Jesus Christ? What do you know about human duty, apart from Him?\nWhat do you know of all that dim region that lies beyond the grave,\napart from Him? If you trust Him, if you fall at His feet and say\n'Rabbi! Thou art my Teacher and mine illumination,' then you will see.\nYou will see God, man, yourselves, duty; you will see light upon a\nthousand complications and perplexities; and you will have a brightness\nabove that of the noonday sun, streaming into the thickest darkness of\ndeath and the grave and the awful hereafter. Christ is the Light. In\nthat 'Light shall we see light.' And just as it needs the sun to rise\nin order that my eye may behold the outer world, so it needs that I\nshall have Christ shining in my heaven to illuminate the whole\nuniverse, in order that I may see clearly. 'Believe and thou shalt\nsee.' For only when we trust Him do the mightiest truths that affect\nhumanity stand plain and clear before us.\n\nAnd besides that, if we trust Christ, we get a living experience of a\nmultitude of facts and principles which are all mist and darkness to\nmen except through their faith; an experience which is so vivid and\nbrings such certitude as that it may well be called vision. The world\nsays, 'Seeing is believing.' So it is about the coarse things that you\ncan handle, but about everything that is higher than these invert the\nproverb, and you get the truth. 'Seeing is believing.' Yes, in regard\nto outward things. Believing is seeing in regard to God and spiritual\ntruth. 'Believest thou? thou shalt see.'\n\nThen, thirdly, there is light here about another matter, the connection\nbetween faith and progress. 'Thou shalt see greater things than these.'\nA wise teacher stimulates his scholars from the beginning, by giving\nthem glimpses of how much there is ahead to be learnt. That does not\ndrive them to despair; it braces all their powers. And so Christ, as\nHis first lesson to these men, substantially says, 'You have learnt\nnothing yet, you are only beginning.' That is true about us all. Faith\nat first, both in regard to its contents and its quality, is very\nrudimentary and infantile. A man when he is first converted\u2014perhaps\nsuddenly\u2014knows after a fashion that he himself is a very sinful,\nwretched, poor creature, and he knows that Jesus Christ has died for\nhim, and is his Saviour, and his heart goes out to Him, in confidence\nand love and obedience. But he is only standing at the door and peeping\nin as yet. He has only mastered the alphabet. He is but on the frontier\nof the promised land. His faith has brought him into contact with\ninfinite power, and what will be the end of that? He will indefinitely\ngrow. His faith has started him on a course to which there is no\nnatural end. As long as it keeps alive he will be growing and growing,\nand getting nearer and nearer to the great centre of all.\n\nSo here is a grand possibility opened out in these simple words, a\npossibility which alone meets what you need, and what you are craving\nfor, whether you know it or not, namely, something that will give you\never new powers and acquirements; something which will ensure your\ncloser and ever closer approach to an absolute object of joy and truth;\nsomething that will ensure you against stagnation and guarantee\nunceasing progress. Everything else gets worn out, sooner or later; if\nnot in this world, then in another. There is one course on which a man\ncan enter with the certainty that there is no end to it, that it will\nopen out, and out, and out as he advances\u2014with the certainty that, come\nlife, come death, it is all the same.\n\nWhen the plant grows too tall for the greenhouse they lift the roof,\nand it grows higher still. Whether you have your growth in this lower\nworld, or whether you have your top up in the brightness and the blue\nof heaven, the growth is in one direction. There is a way that secures\nendless progress, and here lies the secret of it: 'Thou believest! thou\nshalt see greater things than these.'\n\nNow, brethren, that is a grand possibility, and it is a solemn lesson\nfor some of you. You professing Christian people, are you any taller\nthan you were when you were born? Have you grown at all? Are you\ngrowing now? Have you seen any further into the depths of Jesus Christ\nthan you did on that first day when you fell at His feet and said,\n'Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel'? His promise to\nyou then was, 'Thou believest, thou shalt see greater things.' If you\nhave not seen greater things it is because your faith has broken down,\nif it has not expired.\n\nII. Now let me turn to the second thought which lies in these great\nwords.\n\nWe have here, as I said, our Lord crowning Himself by His own witness\nto His own dignity. 'Hereafter ye shall see the heavens opened.' Mark\nhow, with superbly autocratic lips, He bases this great utterance upon\nnothing else but His own word. Prophets ever said, 'Thus saith the\nLord.' Christ ever said: 'Verily, verily, I say unto you.' 'Because He\ncould swear by no greater, He sware by Himself.' He puts His own\nassurance instead of all argument and of all support to His words.\n\n'Hereafter.' A word which is possibly not genuine, and is omitted, as\nyou will observe, in the Revised Version. If it is to be retained it\nmust be translated, not 'hereafter,' as if it were pointing to some\nindefinite period in the future, but 'from henceforth,' as if asserting\nthat the opening heavens and the descending angels began to be\nmanifested from that first hour of His official work. 'Ye shall see\nheaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending.' That is\nan allusion from the story of Jacob at Bethel. We have found reference\nto Jacob's history already in the conversation with Nathanael, 'An\nIsraelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' And here is an unmistakable\nreference to that story, when the fugitive, with his head on the stony\npillow, and the violet Syrian sky, with all its stars, rounding itself\nabove him, beheld the ladder on which the angels of God ascended and\ndescended. 'So,' says Christ, 'you shall see, in no vision of the\nnight, in no transitory appearance, but in a practical waking reality,\nthat ladder come down again, and the angels of God moving upon it in\ntheir errands of mercy.'\n\nAnd who, or what, is this ladder? Christ. Do not read these words as\nmeaning that the angels of God were to come down on Him to help, and to\nhonour, and to succour Him as they did once or twice in His life, but\nas meaning that they are to ascend and descend by Him for the help and\nblessing of the whole world.\n\nThat is to say, to put it into plain words, Christ is the sole medium\nof communication between heaven and earth, the ladder with its foot\nupon the earth in His humanity, and its top in the heavens. 'No man\nhath ascended up into heaven save He which came down from heaven, even\nthe Son of Man which is in heaven.'\n\nMy time will not allow me to expand these thoughts as I would have\ndone; let me put them in the briefest outline. Christ is the medium of\nall communication between heaven and earth, inasmuch as He is the\nmedium of all revelation. I have spoken incidentally about that in the\nformer part of this sermon, so I do not dwell on it now. Christ is the\nladder between heaven and earth, inasmuch as in Him the sense of\nseparation, and the reality of separation, are swept away. Sin has shut\nheaven; there comes down from it many a blessing upon unthankful heads,\nbut between it in its purity and the earth in its muddy foulness 'there\nis a great gulf fixed.' It is not because God is great and I am small,\nor because He is Infinite and I am a mere pin-point as against a great\ncontinent, it is not because He lives for ever, and my life is but a\nhand-breadth, it is not because of the difference between His\nOmniscience and my ignorance, His strength and my weakness, that I am\nparted from Him. 'Your sins have separated between you and your God,'\nand no man, build he Babels ever so high, can reach thither. There is\none means by which the separation is at an end, and by which all\nobjective hindrances to union, and all subjective hindrances, are alike\nswept away. Christ has come, and in Him the heavens have bended down to\ntouch, and touching to bless, this low earth, and man and God are at\none once more.\n\nHe is the ladder, or sole medium of communication, inasmuch as by Him\nall divine blessings, grace, helps, and favours, come down angel-like,\ninto our weak and needy hearts. Every strength, every mercy, every\nspiritual power, consolation in every sorrow, fitness for duty,\nillumination in darkness, all gifts that any of us can need, come to us\ndown on that one shining way, the mediation and the work of the\nDivine-Human Christ, the Lord.\n\nHe is the ladder, the sole medium of communication between heaven and\nearth, inasmuch as by Him my poor desires and prayers and\nintercessions, my wishes, my sighs, my confessions rise to God. 'No man\ncometh to the Father but by Me.' He is the ladder, the means of all\ncommunication between heaven and earth, inasmuch as at the last, if\never we enter there at all, we shall enter through Him and through Him\nalone, who is 'the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'\n\nAh, dear brethren! men are telling us now that there is no connection\nbetween earth and heaven except such as telescopes and spectroscopes\ncan make out. We are told that there is no ladder, that there are no\nangels, that possibly there is no God, or if that there be, we have\nnothing to do with Him nor He with us; that our prayers cannot get to\nHis ears, if He have ears, nor His hand be stretched out to help us, if\nHe have a hand. I do not know how this cultivated generation is to be\nbrought back again to faith in God and delivered from that ghastly\ndoubt which empties heaven and saddens earth to its victims, but by\ngiving heed to the word which Christ spoke to the whole race while He\naddressed Nathanael, 'Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God\nascending and descending upon the Son of Man.' If He be the Son of God,\nthen all these heavenly messengers reach the earth by Him. If He be the\nSon of Man, then every man may share in the gifts which through Him are\nbrought into the world, and His Manhood, which evermore dwelt in\nheaven, even while on earth, and was ever girt about by angel\npresences, is at once the measure of what each of us may become, and\nthe power by which we may become it.\n\nOne thing is needful for this wonderful consummation, even our faith.\nAnd oh! how blessed it will be if in waste solitudes we can see the\nopen heaven, and in the blackest night the blaze of the glory of a\npresent Christ, and hear the soft rustle of angels' wings filling the\nair, and find in every place 'a house of God and a gate of heaven,'\nbecause He is there. All that may be yours on one condition: 'Believest\nthou? Thou shalt see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and\ndescending upon the Son of Man.'\n\n\n\n\nJESUS THE JOY-BRINGER\n\n\n'And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the\nmother of Jesus was there: 2. And both Jesus was called, and His\ndisciples, to the marriage. 3. And when they wanted wine, the mother of\nJesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. 4. Jesus saith unto her,\nWoman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. 5. His\nmother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. 6.\nAnd there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of\nthe purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 7.\nJesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled\nthem up to the brim. 8. And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear\nunto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 9. When the ruler of\nthe feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence\nit was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of\nthe feast called the bridegroom, 10. And saith unto him, Every man at\nthe beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk,\nthen that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now.\n11. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and\nmanifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on Him.'\u2014JOHN\nii. 1-11.\n\nThe exact dating of this first miracle indicates an eye-witness. As\nNazareth was some thirty miles distant from the place where John was\nbaptizing, and Cana about four miles from Nazareth, the 'third day' is\nprobably reckoned from the day of the calling of Philip. Jesus and His\ndisciples seem to have been invited to the marriage feast later than\nthe other guests, as Mary was already there. She appears to have been\nclosely connected with the family celebrating the feast, as appears\nfrom her knowledge of the deficiency in the wine, and her direction to\nthe servants.\n\nThe first point, which John makes all but as emphatic as the miracle\nitself, is the new relation between Mary and Jesus, the lesson she had\nto learn, and her sweet triumphant trust. Now that she sees her Son\nsurrounded by His disciples, the secret hope which she had nourished\nsilently for so long bursts into flame, and she turns to Him with\nbeautiful faith in His power to help, even in the small present need.\nWhat an example her first word to Him sets us all! Like the two sad\nsisters at Bethany, she is sure that to tell Him of trouble is enough,\nfor that His own heart will impel Him to share, and perchance to\nrelieve it. Let us tell Jesus our wants and leave Him to deal with them\nas He knows how.\n\nOf course, His addressing her as 'Woman' has not the meaning which it\nwould have with us, for the term is one of respect and courtesy, but\nthere is a plain intimation of a new distance in it, which is\nstrengthened by the question, 'What is there in common between us?'\nWhat in common between a mother and her son! Yes, but she has to learn\nthat the assumption of the position of Messiah in which her mother's\npride so rejoiced, carried necessarily a consequence, the first of the\nswords which were to pierce that mother's heart of hers. That her Son\nshould no more call her 'mother,' but 'woman,' told her that the old\ndays of being subject to her were past for ever, and that the old\nrelation was merged in the new one of Messiah and disciple\u2014a bitter\nthought, which many a parent has to taste the bitterness of still, when\nwider outlooks and new sense of a vocation come to their children. Few\nmothers are able to accept the inevitable as Mary did, Jesus' 'hour' is\nnot to be prescribed to Him, but His own consciousness of the fit time\nmust determine His action. What gave Him the signal that the hour was\nstruck is not told us, nor how soon after that moment it came. But the\nsaying gently but decisively declares His freedom, His infallible\naccuracy, and certain intervention at the right time. We may think that\nHe delays, but He always helps, 'and that right early.'\n\nMary's sweet humility and strong trust come out wonderfully in her\ndirection to the servants, which is the exact opposite of what might\nhave been expected after the cold douche administered to her eagerness\nto prompt Jesus. Her faith had laid hold of the little spark of promise\nin that 'not yet,' and had fanned it into a flame. 'Then He will\nintervene, and I can leave Him to settle when.' How firm, though\nignorant, must have been the faith which did not falter even at the\nbitter lesson and the apparent repulse, and how it puts to shame our\nfeebler confidence in our better known Lord, if ever He delays our\nrequests! Mary left all to Jesus; His commands were to be implicitly\nobeyed. Do we submit to Him in that absolute fashion both as to the\ntime and the manner of His responses to our petitions?\n\nThe next point is the actual miracle. It is told with remarkable\nvividness and equally remarkable reserve. We do not even learn in what\nprecisely it consisted. Was all the water in the vessels turned into\nwine? Did the change affect only what was drawn out? No answer is\npossible to these questions. Jesus spoke no word of power, nor put\nforth His hand. His will silently effected the change on matter. So He\nmanifested forth His glory as Creator and Sustainer, as wielding the\ndivine prerogative of affecting material things by His bare volition.\n\nThe reality of the miracle is certified by the jovial remark of the\n'ruler of the feast.' As Bengel says: 'The ignorance of the ruler\nproves the goodness of the wine; the knowledge of the servants, the\nreality of the miracle.' His palate, at any rate, was not so dulled as\nto be unable to tell a good 'brand' when he tasted it, nor is there any\nreason to suppose that Jesus was supplying more wine to a company that\nhad already had more than enough.\n\nThe ruler's words are not meant to apply to the guests at that feast,\nbut are quite general. But this Evangelist is fond of quoting words\nwhich have deeper meanings than the speakers dreamed, and with his\nmystically contemplative eye he sees hints and symbols of the spiritual\nin very common things. So we are not forcing higher meanings into the\nruler's jest, but catching one intention of John's quotation of it,\nwhen we see in it an unconscious utterance of the great truth that\nJesus keeps His best wine till the last. How many poor deluded souls\nare ever finding that the world does the very opposite, luring men on\nto be its slaves and victims by brilliant promises and shortlived\ndelights, which sooner or later lose their deceitful lustre and become\nstale, and often positively bitter! 'The end of that mirth is\nheaviness.' The dreariest thing in all the world is a godless old age,\nand one of the most beautiful things in all the world is the calm\nsunset which so often glorifies a godly life that has been full of\neffort for Jesus, and of sorrows patiently borne as being sent by Him.\n\n  'Full often clad in radiant vest\n  Deceitfully goes forth the morn,'\n\nbut Christ more than keeps His morning's promises, and Christian\nexperience is steadily progressive, if Christians cling close to Him,\nand Heaven will supply the transcendent confirmation of the blessed\ntruth that was spoken unawares by the 'ruler' at that humble feast.\n\nWhat effect the miracle produced on others is not told; probably the\nguests shared the ruler's ignorance, but its effect on the disciples is\nthat they 'believed on Him.' They had 'believed' already, or they would\nnot have been disciples (John i. 50), but their faith was deepened as\nwell as called forth afresh. Our faith ought to be continuously and\nincreasingly responsive to His continuous manifestations of Himself\nwhich we can all find in our own experience.\n\nJesus 'manifested His glory' in this first sign. What were the rays of\nthat mild radiance? Surely the chief of them, in addition to the\nrevelation of His sovereignty over matter, to which we have already\nreferred, is that therein He hallowed the sweet sacred joys of marriage\nand family life, that therein He revealed Himself as looking with\nsympathetic eye on the ties that bind us together, and on the gladness\nof our common humanity, that therein He reveals Himself as able and\nglad to sanctify and elevate our joys and infuse into them a strange\nnew fragrance and power. The 'water' of our ordinary lives is changed\ninto 'wine.' Jesus became 'acquainted with grief' in order that He\nmight impart to every believing and willing soul His own joy, and that\nby its remaining in us, our joy might be full.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST MIRACLE IN CANA\u2014THE WATER MADE WINE\n\n\n'This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and\nmanifested forth His glory.'\u2014JOHN ii. 11.\n\nThe keynote of this Gospel was struck in the earlier verses of the\nfirst chapter in the great words, 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt\namong us, and we beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.' To these\nwords there is an evident reference in this language. The Evangelist\nregards Christ's first miracle as the first ray of that forth-flashing\nglory of the Incarnate Word. To this Evangelist all miracles are\nespecially important as being _signs_, which is the word he generally\nemploys to designate them. They are not mere portents, but significant\nrevelations as well as wonders. It is not, I think, accidental that\nthere are just seven miracles of our Lord's, before His crucifixion,\nrecorded by John, and one of the Risen Lord.\n\nThese signs are all set forth by the Evangelist as manifestations of\nvarious aspects of that one white light, of uncreated glory which rays\nfrom Christ. They are, if I may so say, the sevenfold colours into\nwhich the one beam is analysed. Each of them might be looked at in turn\nas presenting some fresh thought of what the 'glory\u2026full of grace and\ntruth' is.\n\nI begin with the first of the series. What, then, is the 'glory of the\nonly Begotten Son' which flashes forth upon us from the miracle? My\nobject is simply to try to answer that question for you.\n\nI. First, then, we see here the revelation of His creative power.\n\nIt is very noteworthy that the miraculous fact is veiled entirely in\nthe narrative. Not a word is said of the method of operation, it is not\neven said that the miracle was wrought; we are only told what preceded\nit, and what followed it. Itself is shrouded in deep silence. The\nservants fill the water-pots.\u2014'Draw out now,' and they draw, 'and bear\nit to the governor of the feast.' Where the miraculous act comes in we\ndo not know; what was its nature we cannot tell. How far it extended is\nleft obscure. Was all the large quantity of water in these six great\nvessels of stone transformed into wine, or was the change effected in\nthe moment when the portion that was wanted was drawn from them and on\nthat portion only? We cannot answer the question. Probably, I think,\nthe latter; but at all events a veil is dropped over the fact.\n\nOnly this, we see that in this miracle, even more conspicuously than in\nany other of our Lord's, there are no means at all employed. Sometimes\nHe used material vehicles, anointing a man's eyes with clay, or\nmoistening the ear with the spittle; sometimes sending a man to bathe\nin the Pool of Siloam; sometimes laying His hand on the sick; sometimes\nhealing from a distance by the mere utterance of His word. But here\nthere is not even a word; no means of any kind employed, but the silent\nforth-putting of His will, which, without token, without visible\naudible indication of any sort, passes with sovereign power into the\nmidst of material things and there works according to His own purpose.\nIs not this the signature of divinity, that without means the mere\nforth-putting of the will is all that is wanted to mould matter as\nplastic to His command? It is not even, 'He spake and it was done,' but\nsilently He willed, and 'the conscious water knew its Lord, and\nblushed.' This is the glory of the Incarnate Word.\n\nNow that was no interruption of the order of things established in the\nCreation. There was no suspension of natural laws here. What happened\nwas only this, that the power which generally works through mediating\nlinks came into immediate connection with the effect. What does it\nmatter whether your engine transmits its powers through half a dozen\ncranks, or two or three less? What does it matter whether the chain be\nlonger or shorter? Some parenthetical links are dropped here, that is\nall that is unusual. For in all ordinary natural operations, as we call\nthem, the profound prologue of this Gospel teaches us to believe that\nChrist, the Eternal Word, works according to His will. He was the Agent\nof creation. He is the Agent of that preservation which is only a\ncontinual creation. In Him is life, and all living things live because\nof the continual presence and operation upon them of His divine power.\nAnd again I say, what is phenomenal and unusual in this miracle is but\nthe suppression of two or three of the connecting links between the\ncontinual cause of all creatural existences, and its effect. So let us\nlearn that whether through a long chain of so-called causes, or whether\nclose up against the effect, without the intervention of these\nparenthetical and transmitting media, the divine power works. The power\nis one, and the reason for the effect is one, that Christ ever works in\nthe world, and is that Eternal Word, 'without whom was not anything\nmade that was made.' 'This beginning of miracles did Christ\u2026 and\nmanifested His glory.'\n\nII. Then, again, we see here, I think, the revelation of one great\npurpose of our Lord's coming, to hallow all common, and especially all\nfamily, life.\n\nWhat a strange contrast there is between the simple gladness of the\nrustic village wedding and the tremendous scene of the Temptation in\nthe wilderness, which preceded it only by a few days! What a strange\ncontrast there is between the sublime heights of the first chapter and\nthe homely incident which opens the ministry! What a contrast between\nthe rigid asceticism of the Forerunner, 'who came neither eating nor\ndrinking,' and the Son of Man, who enters thus freely and cheerfully\ninto the common joys and relationships of human nature! How unlike the\nscene at the marriage-feast must have been to the anticipations of the\nhalf-dozen disciples that had gathered round Him, all a-tingling with\nexpectation as to what would be the first manifestation of His\nMessianic power! The last thing they would have dreamed of would have\nbeen to find Him in the humble home in Cana of Galilee. Some people say\n'this miracle is unworthy of Him, for it was wrought upon such a\ntrivial occasion.' And was it a trivial occasion that prompted Him thus\nto commence His career, not by some high and strained and remote\nexhibition of more than human saintliness or power, but by entering\nlike a Brother into the midst of common, homespun, earthly joys, and\nshowing how His presence ennobled and sanctified these? Surely the\nworld has gained from Him, among the many gifts that He has given to\nit, few that have been the fountain of more sacred sweetness and\nblessedness than is opened in that fact that the first manifestation of\nHis glory had for its result the hallowing of the marriage tie.\n\nAnd is it not in accordance with the whole meaning and spirit of His\nworks that 'forasmuch as the brethren were partakers of' anything, 'He\nHimself likewise should take part of the same,' and sanctify every\nincident of life by His sharing of it? So He protests against that\nfaithless and wicked division of life into sacred and secular, which\nhas wrought such harm both in the sacred and in the secular regions. So\nHe protests against the notion that religion has to do with another\nworld rather than with this. So He protests against the narrowing\nconception of His work which would remove from its influence anything\nthat interests humanity. So He says, as it were, at the very beginning\nof His career, 'I am a Man, and nothing that is human do I reckon\nforeign to Myself.'\n\nBrethren! let us learn the lesson that all life is the region of His\nKingdom; that the sphere of His rule is everything which a man can do\nor feel or think. Let us learn that where His footsteps have trod is\nhallowed ground. If a prince shares for a few moments in the\nfestivities of his gathered people on some great occasion, how ennobled\nthe feast seems! If he joins in their sports or in their occupations\nfor a while as an act of condescension, how they return to them with\nrenewed vigour! And so we. We have had our King in the midst of all our\nfamily life, in the midst of all our common duties; therefore are they\nconsecrated. Let us learn that all things done with the consciousness\nof His presence are sacred. He has hallowed every corner of human life\nby His presence; and the consecration, like some pungent and perennial\nperfume, lingers for us yet in the else scentless air of daily life, if\nwe follow His footsteps.\n\nSanctity is not singularity. There is no need to withdraw from any\nregion of human activity and human interest in order to develop the\nwhitest saintliness, the most Christlike purity. The saint is to be in\nthe world, but not of it; like the Master, who went straight from the\nwilderness and its temptations to the homely gladness of the rustic\nmarriage.\n\nIII. Still further, we have here a symbol of Christ's glory as the\nennobler and heightener of all earthly joys.\n\nThat may be taken with perhaps a permissible play of fancy as one\nmeaning, at any rate, of the transformation of water into wine; the\nless savoury and fragrant and powerful liquid into the more so. Wine,\nin the Old Testament especially, is the symbol of gladness, and though\nit received a deeper and a sacreder meaning in the New Testament as\nbeing the emblem of His blood shed for us, it is the Old Testament\npoint of view that prevails here. And therefore, I say, we may read in\nthe incident the symbol of His transforming power. He comes, the Man of\nSorrows, with the gift of joy in His hand. It is not an unworthy\nobject\u2014not unworthy, I mean, of a divine sacrifice\u2014to make men glad. It\nis worth His while to come from Heaven to agonise and to die, in order\nthat He may sprinkle some drops of incorruptible and everlasting joy\nover the weary and sorrowful hearts of earth. We do not always give its\ntrue importance to gladness in the economy of our lives, because we are\nso accustomed to draw our joys from ignoble sources that in most of our\njoys there is something not altogether creditable or lofty. But Christ\ncame to bring gladness, and to transform its earthly sources into\nheavenly fountains; and so to change all the less sweet, satisfying,\nand potent draughts which we take from earth's cisterns into the wine\nof the Kingdom; the new wine, strong and invigorating, 'making glad the\nheart of man.'\n\nOur commonest blessings, our commonest joys, if only they be not foul\nand filthy, are capable of this transformation. Link them with Christ;\nbe glad in Him. Bring Him into your mirth, and it will change its\ncharacter. Like a taper plunged into a jar of oxygen, it will blaze up\nmore brightly. Earth, at its best and highest, without Him is like some\nfair landscape lying in the shadow; and when He comes to it, it is like\nthe same scene when the sun blazes out upon it, flashes from every bend\nof the rippling river, brings beauty into many a shady corner, opens\nall the flowering petals and sets all the birds singing in the sky. The\nwhole scene changes when a beam of light from Him falls upon earthly\njoys. He will transform them and ennoble them and make them perpetual.\nDo not meddle with mirth over which you cannot make the sign of the\nCross and ask Him to bless it; and do not keep Him out of your\ngladness, or it will leave bitterness on your lips, howsoever sweet it\ntastes at first.\n\nAy! and not only can this Master transform the water at the marriage\nfeast into the wine of gladness, but the cups that we all carry, into\nwhich our tears have dropped\u2014upon these too He can lay His hand and\nchange them into cups of blessing and of salvation.\n\n'Blessed are they\u2026 who, passing through the valley of weeping, gather\ntheir tears into a well; the rain also covereth it with blessings.' So\nthe old Psalm put the thought that sorrow may be turned into a solemn\njoy, and may lie at the foundation of our most flowery fruitfulness.\nAnd the same lesson we may learn from this symbol. The Christ who\ntransforms the water of earthly gladness into the wine of heavenly\nblessedness, can do the same thing for the bitter waters of sorrow, and\ncan make them the occasions of solemn joy. When the leaves drop we see\nthrough the bare branches. Shivering and cold they may look, but we see\nthe stars beyond, and that is better. 'This beginning of miracles' will\nJesus repeat in every sad heart that trusts itself to Him.\n\nIV. And last of all, we have here a token of His glory as supplying the\ndeficiencies of earthly sources.\n\n'His mother saith unto Him, \"They have no wine.\"' The world's banquet\nruns out, Christ supplies an infinite gift. These great water-pots that\nstood there, if the whole contents of them were changed, as is\npossible, contained far more than sufficient for the modest wants of\nthe little company. The water that flowed from each of them, in\nobedience to the touch of the servant's hand, if the change were\neffected then, as is possible, would flow on so long as any thirsted or\nany asked. And Christ gives to each of us, if we choose, a fountain\nthat will spring unto life eternal. And when the world's platters are\nempty, and the world's cups are all drained dry, He will feed and\nsatisfy the immortal hunger and the blessed thirst of every spirit that\nlongs for Him.\n\nThe rude speech of the governor of the feast may lend itself to another\naspect of this same thought. He said, in jesting surprise, 'Thou hast\nkept the good wine until now,' whereas the world gives its best first,\nand when the palate is dulled and the appetite diminished, then 'that\nwhich is worse.' How true that is; how tragically true in some of our\nlives! In the individual the early days of hope and vigour, when all\nthings were fresh and wondrous, when everything was apparelled in the\nglory of a dream, contrast miserably with the bitter experiences of\nlife that most of us have made. Habit comes, and takes the edge off\neverything. We drag remembrance, like a lengthening chain, through all\nour life; and with remembrance come remorse and regret. 'The vision\nsplendid' no more attends men, as they plod on their way through the\nweariness of middle life, or pass down into the deepening shadows of\nadvancing and solitary old age. The best comes first, for the men who\nhave no good but this world's. And some of you have got nothing in your\ncups but dregs that you scarcely care to drink.\n\nBut Jesus Christ keeps the best till the last. His gifts become sweeter\nevery day. No time can cloy them. Advancing years make them more\nprecious and more necessary. The end is better in this course than the\nbeginning. And when life is over, and we pass into the heavens, the\nword will come to our lips, with surprise and with thankfulness, as we\nfind how much better it all is than we had ever dreamed it should be:\n'Thou hast kept the good wine until now.'\n\nOh, my brother! do not touch that cup that is offered to you by the\nharlot world, spiced and fragrant and foaming; 'at the last it biteth\nlike a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.' But take the pure joys\nwhich the Christ, loved, trusted, obeyed, summoned to your feast and\nwelcomed in your heart, will bring to you; and these shall grow and\ngreaten until the perfection of the Heavens.\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST CLEANSING THE TEMPLE\n\n\n'Take these things hence; make not My Father's house an house of\nmerchandise.'\u2014JOHN ii. 16.\n\nThe other Evangelists do not record this cleansing of the Temple at the\nbeginning of Christ's ministry, but, as we all know, tell of a similar\nact at its very close. John, on the other hand, has no notice of the\nlatter incident. The question, then, naturally arises, are these\ndiverse narratives accounts of the same event? The answer seems to me\nto be in the negative, because John's Gospel is evidently intended to\nsupplement the other three, and to record incidents either unknown to,\nor unnoticed by, them, and, as a matter of fact, the whole of this\ninitial visit of our Lord to Jerusalem is omitted by the three\nEvangelists. Then the two incidents are distinctly different in tone,\nin setting, and in the words with which our Lord accompanies them. They\nare both appropriate in the place in which they stand, the one as the\ninitial and the other as all but the final act of His Messiahship. So\nwe may learn from the repetition of this cleansing the solemn lesson:\nthat outward reformation of religious corruptions is of small and\ntransient worth. For in three years\u2014perhaps in as many weeks\u2014the abuse\nthat He corrected returned in full force.\n\nNow, this narrative has many points of interest, but I think I shall\nbest bring out its meaning if I remind you, by way of introduction,\nthat the Temple of Jerusalem was succeeded by the Temple of the\nChristian Church, and that each individual Christian man is a temple.\nSo there are three things that I want to set before you: what Christ\ndid in the Temple; what He does in the Church; what He will do to each\nof us if we will let Him.\n\nI. First, then, what Christ did in the Temple.\n\nNow, the scene in our narrative is not unlike that which may be\nwitnessed in any Roman Catholic country in the cathedral place or\noutside the church on the saint's day, where there are long rows of\nstalls, fitted up with rosaries, and images of the saint, and candles,\nand other apparatus for worship.\n\nThe abuse had many practical grounds on which it could be defended. It\nwas very convenient to buy sacrifices on the spot, instead of having to\ndrag them from a distance. It was no less convenient to be able to\nexchange foreign money, possibly bearing upon it the head of an\nemperor, for the statutory half-shekel. It was profitable to the\nsellers, and no doubt to the priests, who were probably sleeping\npartners in the concern, or drew rent for the ground on which the\nstalls stood. And so, being convenient for all and profitable to many,\nthe thing became a recognised institution.\n\nBeing familiar it became legitimate, and no one thought of any\nincongruity in it until this young Nazarene felt a flash of zeal for\nthe sanctity of His Father's house consuming Him. Catching up some of\nthe reeds which served as bedding for the cattle, He twisted them into\nthe semblance of a scourge, which could hurt neither man nor beast. He\ndid not use it. It was a symbol, not an instrument. According to the\nreading adopted in the Revised Version, it was the sheep and cattle,\nnot their owners, whom He 'drove out.' And then, dropping the scourge,\nHe turned to the money-changers, and, with the same hand, overthrew\ntheir tables. And then came the turn of the sellers of doves. He would\nnot hurt the birds, nor rob their owners. And so He neither overthrew\nnor opened the cages, but bade them 'Take these things hence'; and then\ncame the illuminating words, 'Make not My Father's house a house of\nmerchandise.'\n\nNow this incident is very unlike our Lord's usual method, even if we do\nnot exaggerate the violence which He employed. It is unlike in two\nrespects: in the use of compulsion, and in aiming at mere outward\nreformation. And both of these points are intimately connected with its\nplace in His career.\n\nIt was the first public appearance of Jesus before His nation as\nMessiah. He inaugurates His work by a claim\u2014by an act of authority\u2014to\nbe the King of Israel and the Lord of the Temple. If we remember the\nwords from the last prophet, in which Malachi says that 'the Messenger\nof the Covenant\u2026shall suddenly come to His Temple, and purify the sons\nof Levi,' we get the significance of this incident. We have to mark in\nit our Lord's deliberate assumption of the role of Messiah; His shaping\nHis conduct so as to recall to all susceptible hearts that last\nutterance of prophecy, and to recognise the fact that at the beginning\nof His career He was fully conscious of His Son-ship, and inaugurated\nHis work by the solemn appeal to the nation to recognise Him as their\nLord.\n\nAnd this is the reason, as I take it, why the anomalous incident is in\nits place at the beginning of His career no less than the repetition of\nit was at the close. And this is the explanation of the anomaly of the\nincident. It is His solemn, authoritative claiming to be God's\nMessenger, the Messiah long foretold.\n\nThen, further, this incident is a singular manifestation of Christ's\nunique power. How did it come that all these sordid hucksters had not a\nword to say, and did not lift a finger in opposition, or that the\nTemple Guard offered no resistance, and did not try to quell the\nunseemly disturbance, or that the very officials, when they came to\nreckon with Him, had nothing harsher to say than, 'What sign showest\nThou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things'? No miracle is\nneeded to explain that singular acquiescence. We see in lower forms\nmany instances of a similar thing. A man ablaze with holy indignation,\nand having a secret ally in the hearts of those whom He rebukes, will\nawe a crowd even if he does not infect them. But that is not the full\nexplanation. I see here an incident analogous to that strange event at\nthe close of Christ's ministry, when, coming out from beneath the\nshadows of the olives in the garden, He said to the soldiers 'Whom seek\nye?' and they fell backwards and wallowed on the ground. An\noverwhelming impression of His personal majesty, and perhaps some\nforth-putting of that hidden glory which did swim up to the surface on\nthe mountain of Transfiguration, bowed all these men before Him, like\nreeds before the wind. And though there was no recognition of His\nclaim, there was something in the Claimant that forbade resistance and\nsilenced remonstrance.\n\nFurther, this incident is a revelation of Christ's capacity for\nrighteous indignation. No two scenes can be more different than the two\nrecorded in this chapter: the one that took place in the rural\nseclusion of Cana, nestling among the Galilean hills, the other that\nwas done in the courts of the Temple swarming with excited\nfestival-keepers; the one hallowing the common joys of daily life, the\nother rebuking the profanation of what assumed to be a great deal more\nsacred than a wedding festival; the one manifesting the love and\nsympathy of Jesus, His power to ennoble all human relationships, and\nHis delight in ministering to need and bringing gladness, and the other\nsetting forth the sterner aspect of His character as consumed with holy\nzeal for the sanctity of God's name and house. Taken together, one may\nsay that they cover the whole ground of His character, and in some very\nreal sense are a summary of all His work. The programme contains the\nwhole of what is to follow hereafter.\n\nWe may well take the lesson, which no generation ever needed more than\nthe present, both by reason of its excellences and of its defects, that\nthere were no love worthy of a perfect spirit in which there did not\nlie dormant a dark capacity of wrath, and that Christ Himself would not\nhave been the Joy-bringer, the sympathising Gladdener which He\nmanifested Himself as being in the 'beginning of miracles in Cana of\nGalilee' unless, side by side, there had lain in Him the power of holy\nindignation and, if need be, of stern rebuke. Brethren, we must retain\nour conception of His anger if we are not to maim our conception of His\nlove. There is no wrath like the wrath of the Lamb. The Temple court,\nwith the strange figure of the Christ with a scourge in His hand, is a\nrevelation which this generation, with its exaggerated sentimentalism,\nwith its shrinking, by reason of its good and of its evil, from the\nvery notion of a divine retribution based upon the eternal antagonism\nbetween good and evil, most sorely needs.\n\nII. Now, secondly, notice what Christ does in His Church.\n\nI need not remind you how God's method of restoration is always to\nrestore with a difference and a progress. The ruined Temple on Zion was\nnot to be followed by another house of stone and lime, but by 'a\nspiritual house,' builded together for 'a habitation of God in the\nSpirit.' The Christian Church takes the place of that material\nsanctuary, and is the dwelling-place of God.\n\nThat being so, let us take the lesson that that house, too, may be\ndesecrated. There may be, as there were in the original Temple, the\nexternals of worship, and yet, eating out the reality of these, there\nmay be an inward mercenary spirit.\n\nNote how insensibly such corruption creeps in to a community. You\ncannot embody an idea in a form or in an external association without\nimmediately dragging it down, and running the risk of degradation. It\nis just like a drop of quicksilver which you cannot expose to the air\nbut instantaneously its brightness is dimmed by the scum that forms on\nits surface. A church as an outward institution is exposed to all the\ndangers to which other institutions are exposed. And these creep on\ninsensibly, as this abuse had crept on. So it is not enough that we\nshould be at ease in our consciences in regard to our practices as\nChristian communities. We become familiar with any abuse, and as we\nbecome familiar we lose the power of rightly judging of it. Therefore\nconscience needs to be guided and enlightened quite as much as to be\nobeyed.\n\nHow long has it taken the Christian Church to learn the wickedness of\nslavery? Has the Christian Church yet learned the unchristianity of\nWar? Are there no abuses amongst us, which subsequent generations will\nsee to be so glaring that they will talk about us as we talk about our\nancestors, and wonder whether we were Christians at all when we could\ntolerate such things? They creep on gradually, and they need continual\nwatchfulness if they are not to assume the mastery.\n\nThe special type of corruption which we find in this incident is one\nthat besets the Church always. Of course, if I were preaching to\nministers, I should have a great deal to say about that. For men that\nare necessarily paid for preaching have a sore temptation to preach for\npay. But it is not only we professionals who have need to lay to heart\nthis incident. It is all Christian communities, established and\nnon-established churches, Roman Catholic and Protestant. The same\ndanger besets them all. There must be money to work the outward\nbusiness of the house of God. But what about people that 'run' churches\nas they run mills? What about people whose test of the prosperity of a\nChristian community is its balance-sheet? What about the people that\nhang on to religious communities and services for the sake of what they\ncan make out of them? We have heard a great deal lately about what\nwould happen 'if Christ came to Chicago.' If Christ came to any\ncommunity of professing Christians in this land, do you not think He\nwould need to have the scourge in His hand, and to say 'Make not My\nFather's house a house of merchandise'? He will come; He does come; He\nis always coming if we would listen to Him. And at long intervals He\ncomes in some tremendous and manifest fashion, and overthrows the\nmoney-changers' tables.\n\nAh, brethren! if Jesus Christ had not thus come, over and over again,\nto His Church, Christian men would have killed Christianity long ago.\nDid you ever think that Christianity is the only religion that has\nshown recuperative power and that has been able to fling off its\npeccant humours? They used to say\u2014I do not know whether it is true or\nnot\u2014that Thames water was good to put on board ship because of its\nproperty of corrupting and then clearing itself, and becoming fit to\ndrink. We and our brethren, all through the ages, have been corrupting\nthe Water of Life. And how does it come to be sweet and powerful still?\nThis tree has substance in it when it casts its leaves. That unique\ncharacteristic of Christianity, its power of reformation, is not\nself-reformation, but it is a coming of the Lord to His temple to\n'purify the sons of Levi, that their offering may be pleasant as in\ndays of yore.'\n\nSo one looks upon the spectacle of churches labouring under all manner\nof corruptions; and one need not lose heart. The shortest day is the\nday before the year turns; and when the need is sorest the help is\nnearest. And so I, for my part, believe that very much of the\norganisations of all existing churches will have to be swept away. But\nI believe too, with all my heart\u2014and I hope that you do\u2014that, though\nthe precious wheat is riddled in the sieve, and the chaff falls to the\nground, not one grain will go through the meshes. Whatever becomes of\nchurches, the Church of Christ shall never have its strength so sapped\nby abuses that it must perish, or its lustre so dimmed that the Lord of\nthe Temple must depart from His sanctuary.\n\nIII. Lastly, note what Christ will do for each of us if we will let\nHim.\n\nIt is not a community only which is the temple of God. For the Apostles\nin many places suggest, and in some distinctly say, 'ye are the\ntemples' individually, as well as the Temple collectively, of the Most\nHigh. And so every Christian soul\u2014by virtue of that which is the\ndeepest truth of Christianity, the indwelling of Christ in men's hearts\nby faith\u2014is a temple of God; and every human soul is meant to be and\nmay become such. That temple can be profaned. There are many ways in\nwhich professing Christians make it a house of merchandise. There are\nforms of religion which are little better than chaffering with God, to\ngive Him so much service if He will repay us with so much Heaven. There\nare too many temptations, to which we yield, to bring secular thoughts\ninto our holiest things. Some of us, by reason not of wishing wealth\nbut of dreading penury, find it hard to shut worldly cares out of our\nhearts. We all need to be on our guard lest the atmosphere in which we\nlive in this great city shall penetrate even into our moments of\ndevotion, and the noise of the market within earshot of the Holy of\nHolies shall disturb the chant of the worshippers. It is Manchester's\ntemptation, and it is one that most of us need to be guarded against.\n\nSo engrossed, and, as we should say, necessarily engrossed\u2014or, at all\nevents, legitimately engrossed\u2014are we in the pursuits of our daily\ncommerce, that we have scarcely time enough or leisure of heart and\nmind enough to come into 'the secret place of the Most High.' The\nworshippers stop outside trading for beasts and doves, and they have no\ntime to go into the Temple and present their offerings.\n\nIt is our besetting danger. Forewarned is forearmed, to some extent.\nWould that we could all hear, as we go about our ordinary avocations,\nthat solemn voice, 'Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise,'\nand could keep the inner sanctuary still from the noises, and remote\nfrom the pollutions, of the market hard by!\n\nWe cannot cast out these or any other desecrating thoughts and desires\nby ourselves, except to a very small degree. And if we do, then there\nhappens what our Lord warned us against in profound words. The house\nmay be emptied of the evil tenant in some measure by our own resolution\nand self-reformation. But if it is not occupied by Him, it remains\n'empty,' though it is 'swept and garnished.' Nature abhors a vacuum,\nand into the empty house there come the old tenant and seven brethren\nblacker than himself. The only way to keep the world out of my heart is\nto have Christ filling it. If we will ask Him He will come to us. And\nif He has the scourge in His hand, let Him be none the less welcome a\nguest for that. He will come, and when He enters, it will be like the\nrising of the sun, when all the beasts of the forest slink away and lay\nthem down in their dens. It will be like the carrying of the Ark of the\nCovenant of the Lord of the whole earth into the temple of Dagon, when\nthe fish-like image fell prone and mutilated on the threshold. If we\nsay to Him, 'Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest, Thou and the Ark of Thy\nstrength,' He will enter in, and by His entrance will 'make the place\nof His feet glorious' and pure.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DESTROYERS AND THE RESTORER\n\n\n'Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this Temple, and in three\ndays I will raise it up.'\u2014JOHN ii. 19.\n\nThis is our Lord's answer to the Jewish request for a sign which should\nwarrant His action in cleansing the Temple. There are two such\ncleansings recorded in the Gospels; this one His first public act, and\nanother, omitted by John, but recorded in the other Gospels, which was\nalmost His last public act.\n\nIt has been suggested that these are but two versions of one incident;\nand although there is no objection in principle to admitting the\npossibility of that explanation, yet in fact it appears to me\ninsufficient and unnecessary. For each event is appropriate in its own\nplace. In each there is a distinct difference in tone. The incident\nrecorded in the present chapter has our Lord's commentary, 'Make not My\nFather's house a house of merchandise'; in that recorded in the\nSynoptic Gospels the profanation is declared as greater, and the rebuke\nis more severe. The 'house of merchandise' has become, by their refusal\nto render to Him what was His, 'a den of thieves.' In the later\nincident there is a reference in our Lord's quotation from the Old\nTestament to the entrance of the Gentiles into the Kingdom. There is no\nsuch reference here. In the other Gospels there is no record of this\nquestion which the Jews asked, nor of our Lord's significant answer,\nwhilst yet a caricatured and mistaken version of that answer was known\nto the other Evangelists, and is put by them into the mouths of the\nfalse witnesses at our Lord's trial. They thus attest the accuracy of\nour narrative even while they seem not to have known of the incident.\n\nAll these things being taken into account, I think that we have to do\nwith a double, of which there are several instances in the Gospels, the\nsame event recurring under somewhat varied circumstances, and\nreflecting varied aspects of truth. But it is to our Lord's words in\nvindication of His right to cleanse the Temple rather than to the\nincident on which they are based that I wish to turn your attention\nnow: 'Destroy this Temple,' said our Lord, as His sufficient and only\nanswer to the demand for a sign, 'and in three days I will raise it\nup.'\n\nNow these words, enigmatical as they are, seem to me to be very\nprofound and significant; and I wish, on this Easter Sunday, to look at\nthem as throwing a light upon the gladness of this day. They suggest to\nme three things: I find in them, first, an enigmatical forecast of our\nLord's own history; second, a prophetic warning of Israel's; and last,\na symbolical foreshadowing of His world-wide work as the Restorer of\nman's destructions. 'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will\nraise it up.'\n\nI. First then, I think, we see here an enigmatical forecast of our\nLord's own history.\n\nNotice, first, that marvellous and unique consciousness of our Lord's\nas to His own dignity and nature. 'He spake of the temple of His body.'\nThink that here is a man, apparently one of ourselves, walking amongst\nus, living the common life of humanity, who declares that in Him, in an\naltogether solitary and peculiar fashion, there abides the fulness of\nDeity. Think that there has been a Man who said, 'In this place is One\ngreater than the Temple.' And people have believed Him, and do believe\nHim, and have found that the tremendous audacity of the words is simple\nverity, and that Christ is, in inmost reality, all which the Temple was\nbut in the poorest symbol. In it there had dwelt, though there dwelt no\nlonger at the time when He was speaking, a material and symbolical\nbrightness, the expression of something which, for want of a better\nname, we call the 'presence of God.' But what was that flashing fire\nbetween the cherubim that brooded over the Mercy-seat, with a light\nthat was lambent and lustrous as the light of love and of life\u2014what was\nthat to the glory, moulded in meekness and garbed in gentleness, the\nglory that shone, merciful and hospitable and inviting\u2014a tempered flame\non which the poorest, diseased, blind eyes could look, and not\nwince\u2014from the face and from the character of Jesus Christ the Lord? He\nis greater than the Temple, for in Him, in no symbol but in reality,\nabode and abides the fulness of that unnameable Being whom we name\nFather and God. And not only does the fulness abide, but in Him that\nawful Remoteness becomes for us a merciful Presence; the infinite abyss\nand closed sea of the divine nature hath an outlet, and becomes a\n'river of water of life.' And as the ancient name of that Temple was\nthe 'Tent of Meeting,' the place where Israel and God, in symbolical\nand ceremonial form, met together, so, in inmost reality in Christ's\nnature, Manhood and Divinity cohere and unite, and in Him all of us,\nthe weak, the sinful, the alien, the rebellious, may meet our Father.\n'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' 'In this place is One\ngreater than the Temple.'\n\nAnd so this Jewish Peasant, at the very beginning of His earthly\ncareer, stands up there, in the presence of the ancestral sanctities\nand immemorial ceremonials which had been consecrated by all these ages\nand commanded by God Himself, and with autocratic hand sweeps them all\non one side, as one that should draw a curtain that the statue might be\nseen, and remains poised Himself in the vacant place, that all eyes may\nlook upon Him, and on Him alone. 'Destroy this Temple\u2026. He spake of the\ntemple of His body.'\n\nStill further, notice how here we have, at the very beginning of our\nLord's career, His distinct prevision of how it was all going to end.\nPeople that are willing to honour Jesus Christ, and are not willing to\nrecognise His death as the great purpose for which He came, tell us\nthat, like as with other reformers and heroes and martyrs, His death\nwas the result of the failure of His purpose. And some of them talk to\nus very glibly, in their so-called 'Lives of Jesus Christ' about the\nalteration in Christ's plan which came when He saw that His message was\nnot going to be received. I do not enter upon all the reasons why such\na construction of Christ's work cannot hold water, but here is one\u2014for\nany one who believes this story before us\u2014that at the very beginning,\nbefore He had gone half a dozen steps in His public career, when the\nissues of the experiment, if it was a man that was making the\nexperiment, were all untried; when, if it were merely a\nmartyr-enthusiast that was beginning his struggle, some flickering\nlight of hope that He would be received of His brethren must have\nshone, or He would never have ventured upon the path\u2014that then, with no\nmistake, with no illusion, with no expectation of a welcome and a\nHosanna, but with the clearest certitude of what lay before Him, our\nLord _beheld_ and accepted His Cross. Its shadow fell upon His path\nfrom the beginning, because the Cross was the purpose for which He\ncame. 'To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the\nworld,' said He\u2014when the reality of it was almost within arm's length\nof Him\u2014'to bear witness to the Truth,' and His bearing witness to the\ntruth was perfected and accomplished on the Cross. Here, at the very\ncommencement of His career, we have it distinctly set forth, 'the Son\nof Man came to give His life a ransom for many.'\n\nAnd, brethren, that fact is important, not only because it helps us to\nunderstand that His death is the centre of His work, but also because\nit helps us to a loving and tender thought of Him, how all His life\nlong, with that issue distinctly before Him, He journeyed towards it of\nHis own loving will; how every step that He took on earth's flinty\nroads, taken with bleeding and pure feet, He took knowing whither He\nwas going. This Isaac climbs the mountain to the place of sacrifice,\nwith no illusions as to what He is going up the mountain for. He knows\nthat He goes up to be the lamb of the offering, and knowing it, He\ngoes. Therefore let us love Him with love as persistent as was His own,\nwho discerning the end from the beginning, willed to be born and to\nlive because He had resolved to die, for you and me and every man.\n\nAnd then, further, we have here our Lord's claim to be Himself the\nAgent of His own resurrection. '_I_ will raise it up in three days.' Of\ncourse, in Scripture, we more frequently find the Resurrection treated\nas being the result of the power of God the Father. We more ordinarily\nread that Christ was raised; but sometimes we read, as here, that\nChrist rises, and we have solemn words of His own, 'I have power to lay\nit down, and I have power to take it again.' Think of a man saying, 'I\nam going to bring My own body from the dust of death,' and think of the\nman who said that _doing_ it. If that is true, if this prediction was\nuttered, and being uttered was fulfilled\u2014what then? I do not need to\nanswer the question. My brother, this day declares that Jesus Christ is\nthe Son of God. 'Destroy this Temple'\u2014there is a challenge\u2014'and in\nthree days I will raise it up'; and He did it. And He is the Lord of\nthe Temple as well as the Temple. Down on your knees before Him, with\nall your hearts and with all your confidence, and worship, and trust,\nand love for evermore 'the Second Man,' who 'is the Lord from Heaven!'\n\nII. Now let us turn to the other aspects of these words. I think we see\nhere, in the next place, a prophetic warning of the history of the men\nto whom He was speaking.\n\nThere must be a connection between the interpretation of the words\nwhich our Evangelist assures us is the correct one, and the\ninterpretation which would naturally have occurred to a listener, that\nby 'this Temple' our Lord really meant simply the literal building in\nwhich He spoke. There is such a connection, and though our Lord did not\nonly mean the Temple, He _did_ mean the Temple. To say so is not\nforcing double meanings in any fast and loose fashion upon Scripture,\nnor playing with ambiguities, nor indulging in any of the vices to\nwhich spiritualising interpretation of Scripture leads, but it is\nsimply grasping the central idea of the words of my text. Rightly\nunderstood they lead us to this: 'The death of Christ was the\ndestruction of the Jewish Temple and polity, and the raising again of\nChrist from the dead on the third day was the raising again of that\ndestroyed Theocracy and Temple in a new and nobler fashion.' Let us\nthen look for a moment, and it shall only be for a moment, at these two\nthoughts.\n\nIf any one had said to any of that howling mob that stood round Christ\nat the judgment-seat of the High Priest, and fancied themselves\ncondemning Him to death, because He had blasphemed the Temple: 'You, at\nthis moment, are pulling down the holy and beautiful house in which\nyour fathers praised; and what you are doing now is the destruction of\nyour national worship and of yourselves,' the words would have been\nreceived with incredulity; and yet they were simple truth. Christ's\ndeath destroyed that outward Temple. The veil was 'rent in twain from\nthe top to the bottom' at the moment He died; which was the declaration\nindeed that henceforward the Holiest of All was patent to the foot of\nevery man, but was also the declaration that there was no more sanctity\nnow within those courts, and that Temple, and priesthood, and\nsacrifice, and altar, and ceremonial and all, were antiquated. That\n'which was perfect having come,' Christ's death having realised all\nwhich Temple-worship symbolised, that which was the shadow was put away\nwhen the substance appeared.\n\nAnd in another fashion, it is also true that the death of our Lord\nJesus Christ, inflicted by Jewish hands, was the destruction of the\nJewish worship, in the way of natural sequence and of divine\nchastisement. When the husbandmen rejected the Son who was sent 'last\nof all,' there was nothing more for it but that they should be 'cast\nout of the vineyard,' and the firebrand which the Roman soldier, forty\nyears afterwards, tossed into the Holiest of All, and which burned the\nholy and beautiful house with fire, was lit on the day when Israel\ncried 'Crucify Him! Crucify Him!'\n\nOh, brethren! What a lesson it is to us all of how blind even so-called\nreligious zeal may be; how often it is true that men in their madness\nand their ignorance destroy the very institutions which they are trying\nto conserve! How it warns us to beware lest we, unknowing what we are\nabout, and thinking that we are fighting for the honour of God, may\nreally all the while be but serving ourselves and rejecting His message\nand His Messenger!\n\nAnd then let me remind you that another thing is also true, that just\nas the Jewish rejection of Christ was their own rejection as the people\nof God, and their attempted destruction of Christ the destruction of\nthe Jewish Temple, so the other side of the truth is also here, viz.\nthat His rising again is the restoration of the destroyed Temple in\nnobler and fairer form. Of course the one real Temple is the body of\nJesus Christ, as we have said, where sacrifice is offered, where God\ndwells, where men meet with God. But in a secondary and derivative\nsense, in the place of the Jewish Temple has come the Christian Church,\nwhich is, in a far deeper and more inward fashion, what that ancient\nsystem aspired to be.\n\nChrist has builded up the Church on His Resurrection. On His\nResurrection, I say, for there is nothing else on which it could rest.\nIf men ask me what is the great evidence of Christ's Resurrection, my\nanswer is\u2014the existence in the world of a Church. Where did it come\nfrom? How is it possible to conceive that without the Resurrection of\nJesus Christ such a structure as the Christian society should have been\nbuilt upon a dead man's grave? It would have gone to pieces, as all\nsimilar associations would have gone. What had happened after that\nmoment of depression which scattered them every man to his own, and led\nsome of them to say, with pathetic use of the past tense to describe\ntheir vanished expectations, 'We _trusted_ that it had been He which\nshould have redeemed Israel'? What was the force that instead of\ndriving them asunder drew them together? What was the power that,\ninstead of quenching their almost dead hopes, caused them to flame up\nwith renewed vigour heaven-high? How came it that that band of\ncowardly, dispirited Jewish peasants, who scattered in selfish fear and\nheart-sick disappointment, were in a few days found bearding all\nantagonism, and convinced that their hopes had only erred by being too\nfaint and dim? The only answer is in their own message, which explained\nit all: 'Him hath God raised from the dead, whereof we are all\nwitnesses.'\n\nThe destroyed Temple disappears, and out of the dust and smoke of the\nvanishing ruins there rises, beautiful and serene, though incomplete\nand fragmentary and defaced with many a stain, the fairer reality, the\nChurch of the living Christ. 'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I\nwill raise it up.'\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here a foreshadowing of our Lord's world-wide work\nas the Restorer of man's destructions.\n\nMan's folly, godlessness, worldliness, lust, sin, are ever working to\nthe destruction of all that is sacred in humanity and in life, and to\nthe desecrating of every shrine. We ourselves, in regard to our own\nhearts, which are made to be the temples of the 'living God,' are ever,\nby our sins, shortcomings, and selfishness, bringing pollution into the\nholiest of all; 'breaking down the carved work thereof with axes and\nhammers,' and setting up the abomination of desolation in the holy\nplaces of our hearts. We pollute them all\u2014conscience, imagination,\nmemory, will, intellect. How many a man listening to me now has his\nnature like the facade of some of our cathedrals, with the empty niches\nand broken statues proclaiming that wanton desecration and destruction\nhave been busy there?\n\nMy brother! what have you done with your heart? 'Destroy this temple.'\nChrist spoke to men who did not know what they were doing; and He\nspeaks to you. It is the inmost meaning of the life of many of you.\nHour by hour, day by day, action by action, you are devastating and\nprofaning the sanctities of your nature, and the sacred places there\nwhere God ought to live.\n\nListen to His confident promise. He knows that in me He is able to\nrestore to more than pristine beauty all which I, by my sin, have\ndestroyed; to reconsecrate all which I, by my profanity, have polluted;\nto cast out the evil deities that desecrate and deform the shrine; and\nto make my poor heart, if only I will let Him come in to the ruined\nchamber, a fairer temple and dwelling-place of God.\n\n'In three days,' does He do it? In one sense\u2014Yes! Thank God! the power\nthat hallows and restores the desecrated and cast-down temple in a\nman's heart, was lodged in the world in those three days of death and\nresurrection. The fact that He 'died for our sins,' the fact that He\nwas 'raised again for our justification,' are the plastic and\narchitectonic powers which will build up any character into a temple of\nGod.\n\nAnd yet more than 'forty and six years' will that temple have to be 'in\nbuilding.' It is a lifelong task till the top-stone be brought forth.\nOnly let us remember this: Christ, who is Architect and Builder,\nFoundation and Top-stone; ay! and Deity indwelling in the temple, and\nbuilding it by His indwelling\u2014this Christ is not one of those who\n'begin to build and are not able to finish.' He realises all His plans.\nThere are no ruined edifices in 'the City'; nor any half-finished fanes\nof worship within the walls of that great Jerusalem whose builder and\nmaker is Christ.\n\nIf you will put yourselves in His hands, and trust yourselves to Him,\nHe will take away all your incompleteness, and will make you body,\nsoul, and spirit, temples of the Lord God; as far above the loftiest\nbeauty and whitest sanctity of any Christian character here on earth as\nis the building of God, 'the house not made with hands, eternal in the\nheavens,' above 'the earthly house of this tabernacle.'\n\nHe will perfect this restoring work at the last, when His Word to His\nservant Death, as He points him to us, shall be 'Destroy this temple,\nand I will raise it up.'\n\n\n\n\nTEACHER OR SAVIOUR?\n\n\n'The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know\nthat Thou art a Teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles\nthat Thou doest, except God be with him.'\u2014JOHN iii. 2.\n\nThe connection in which the Evangelist introduces the story of\nNicodemus throws great light on the aspect under which we are to regard\nit. He has just been saying that upon our Lord's first visit to\nJerusalem at the Passover there was a considerable amount of interest\nexcited, and a kind of imperfect faith in Him drawn out, based solely\non His miracles. He adds that this faith was regarded by Christ as\nunreliable; and he goes on to explain that our Lord exercised great\nreserve in His dealings with the persons who professed it, for the\nreason that 'He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of\nman, for He knew what was in man.'\n\nNow, if you note that reiteration of the word 'man,' you will\nunderstand the description which is given of the person who is next\nintroduced. 'He knew what was in man. There was a _man_ of the\nPharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.' It would have been\nenough to have said, 'There was a Pharisee.' When John says 'a _man_ of\nthe Pharisees,' he is not merely carried away by the echo in his ears\nof his own last words, but it is as if he had said, 'Now, here is one\nillustration of the sort of thing that I have been speaking about; one\nspecimen of an imperfect faith built upon miracles; and one\nillustration of the way in which Jesus Christ dealt with it.'\n\nNicodemus was 'a Pharisee.' That tells us the school to which he\nbelonged, and the general drift of his thought. He was 'a ruler of the\nJews.' That tells us that he held an official position in the supreme\ncourt of the nation, to which the Romans had left some considerable\nshadow of power in ecclesiastical matters. And this man comes to Christ\nand acknowledges Him. Christ deals with him in a very suggestive\nfashion. His confession, and the way in which our Lord received it, are\nwhat I desire to consider briefly in this sermon.\n\nI. Note then, first, this imperfect confession.\n\nEverything about it, pretty nearly, is wrong. 'He came to Jesus by\nnight,' half-ashamed and wholly afraid of speaking out the conviction\nthat was working in him. He was a man in position. He could not\ncompromise himself in the eyes of his co-Sanhedrists. 'It would be a\ngrave thing for a man like me to be found in converse with this new\nRabbi and apparent Prophet. I must go cautiously, and have regard to my\nreputation and my standing in the world; and shall steal to Him by\nnight.' There is something wrong with any convictions about Jesus\nChrist which let themselves be huddled up in secret. The true\napprehension of Him is like a fire in a man's bones, that makes him\n'weary of forbearing' when he locks his lips, and forces him to speak.\nIf Christians can be dumb, there is something dreadfully wrong with\ntheir Christianity. If they do not regard Jesus Christ in such an\naspect as to oblige them to stand out in the world and say, 'Whatever\nanybody says or thinks about it, I am Christ's man,' then be sure that\nthey do not yet know Him as they ought to do.\n\nNicodemus 'came to Jesus by night,' and therein condemned himself. He\nsaid, 'Rabbi, we know.' There is more than a _soupcon_ of patronage in\nthat. He is giving Jesus Christ a certificate, duly signed and sealed\nby Rabbinical authority. He evidently thinks that it is no small matter\nthat he and some of his fellows should have been disposed to look with\nfavour upon this new Teacher. And so he comes, if not patronising the\nyoung man, at all events extremely conscious of his own condescension\nin recognising Him with his 'We know.'\n\nHad he the right to speak for any of his colleagues? If so, then at\nthat very early stage of our Lord's ministry there was a conviction\nbeginning to work in that body of ecclesiastics which casts a very\nlurid light on their subsequent proceedings. It was a good long while\nafter, when Jesus Christ's attitude towards them had been a little more\nclearly made out than it was at the beginning, that they said\nofficially, 'As for this fellow, we know not whence He is.' They 'knew'\nwhen He did not seem to be trenching on their prerogatives, or driving\nHis Ithuriel-spear through their traditional professions of orthodoxy\nand punctilious casuistries. But when He trod on their toes, when He\nripped up their pretensions, when He began to show His antagonism to\ntheir formalism and traditionalism, _then_ they did not know where He\ncame from. And there are many of us who are very polite to Jesus Christ\nas long as He does not interfere with us, and who begin to doubt His\nauthority when He begins to rebuke our sins.\n\nThe man that said 'We know,' and then proceeded to tell Christ the\ngrounds upon which He was accepted by him, was not in the position\nwhich becomes sinful men drawing near to their Saviour. 'We know that\nThou art a Teacher'\u2014contrast that, with its ring of complacency, and,\nif not superior, at least co-ordinate, authority, with 'Jesus! Master!\nhave mercy on me,' or with 'Lord! save or I perish,' and you get the\ndifference between the way in which a formalist, conceited of his\nknowledge, and a poor, perishing sinner, conscious of his ignorance and\nneed, go to the Saviour.\n\nFurther, this imperfect confession was of secondary value, because it\nwas built altogether upon miraculous evidence. Now, there has been a\ngreat deal of exaggeration about the value of the evidence of miracle.\nThe undue elevation to which it was lifted in the apologetic literature\nof the eighteenth century, when it was almost made out as if there was\nno other proof that Jesus came from God than that He wrought miracles,\nhas naturally led, in this generation and in the last one, to an\nequally exaggerated undervaluing of its worth. Jesus Christ did appeal\nto signs; He did also most distinctly place faith that rested merely\nupon miracle as second best; when He said, for instance, 'If ye believe\nnot Me, yet believe the works.' Nicodemus says, 'We know that Thou art\na Teacher sent from God, because no man can do these miracles except\nGod be with him.' Ah! Nicodemus! did not the substance of the teaching\nreveal the source of the teaching even more completely than the\nmiracles that accompanied it? Surely, if I may use an old illustration,\nthe bell that rings in to the sermon (which is the miracles) is less\nconclusive as to the divine source of the teaching than is the sermon\nitself. Christ Himself is His own best evidence, and His words shine in\ntheir own light, and need no signs in order to authenticate their\nsource. The signs are there, and are precious in my eyes less as\ncredentials of His authority than as revelations of His character and\nHis work. They are wonders; that is much. They are proofs; as I\nbelieve. But, high above both of these characteristics, they are signs\nof the spiritual work that He does, and manifestations of His redeeming\npower. And so a faith that had no ears for the ring of the divine voice\nin the words, and no eyes for the beauty and perfection of the\ncharacter, was vulgar and low and unreliable, inasmuch as it could give\nno better reason for itself than that Jesus had wrought miracles,\n\nI need not remind you of how noticeable it is that at this very early\nstage in our Lord's ministry there were a sufficient number of miracles\ndone to be qualified by the Evangelist as 'many,' and to have been a\nvery powerful factor in bringing about this real, though imperfect,\nfaith. John has only told us of one miracle prior to this; and the\nother Evangelists do not touch upon these early days of our Lord's\nministry at all. So that we are to think of a whole series of works of\npower and supernatural grace which have found no record in these short\nnarratives. How much more Jesus Christ was, and did, and said, than any\nbook can ever tell! These are but parts of His ways; a whisper of His\npower. The fulness of it remains unrevealed after all revelation.\n\nBut the central deficiency of this confession lies in the altogether\ninadequate conception of Jesus Christ and His work which it embodies.\n'We know that Thou art a Teacher, a miracle-worker, a man sent from\nGod, and in communion with Him.' These are large recognitions, far too\nlarge to be spoken of any but a select few of the sons of men. But they\nfall miserably beneath the grandeur, and do not even approach within\nsight of the central characteristic, of Christ and of His work.\nNicodemus is the type of large numbers of men nowadays. All the people\nthat have a kind of loose, superficial connection with Christianity\nre-echo substantially his words. They compliment Jesus Christ out of\nHis divinity and out of His redeeming work, and seem to think that they\nare rather conferring an honour upon Christianity when they condescend\nto say, 'We, the learned pundits of literature; we, the arbiters of\ntaste; we, the guides of opinion; we, the writers in newspapers and\nmagazines and periodicals; we, the leaders in social and philanthropic\nmovements\u2014we recognise that Thou art a Teacher.' Yes, brethren, and the\nrecognition is utterly inadequate to the facts of the case, and is\ninsult, and not recognition.\n\nII. Let me ask you to look now, in the next place, at the way in which\nJesus Christ deals with this imperfect confession.\n\nIt was a great thing for a young Rabbi from Nazareth, who had no\ncertificate from the authorities, to find an opening thus into the very\ncentre of the Sanhedrim. There is nothing in life, to an ardent young\nsoul, at the beginning of his career\u2014especially if he feels that he has\na burden laid upon him to deliver to his fellows\u2014half so sweet as the\nearly recognition by some man of wisdom and weight and influence, that\nhe too is a messenger from God. In later years praise and\nacknowledgment cloy. And one might have expected some passing word from\nthe Master that would have expressed such a feeling as that, if He had\nbeen only a young Teacher seeking for recognition. I remember that in\nthat strange medley of beauty and absurdity, the Koran, somewhere or\nother, there is an outpouring of Mahomet's heart about the blessedness\nof his first finding a soul that would believe in him. And it is\nstrange that Jesus Christ had no more welcome for this man than the\nstory tells that He had. For He meets him without a word of\nencouragement; without a word that seemed to recognise even a growing\nand a groping confidence, and yet He would not 'quench the smoking\nflax.' Yes! sometimes the kindest way to deal with an imperfect\nconception is to show unsparingly why it is imperfect; and sometimes\nthe apparent repelling of a partial faith is truly the drawing to\nHimself by the Christ of the man, though his faith be not approved.\n\nSo, notice how our Lord meets the imperfections of this acknowledgment.\nHe begins by pointing out what is the deepest and universal need of\nmen. Nicodemus had said, 'Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come\nfrom God.' And Christ says, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must be\nborn again.' What has that to do with Nicodemus's acknowledgment?\nApparently nothing; really everything. For, if you will think for a\nmoment, you will see how it meets it precisely, and forces the Rabbi to\ndeepen his conception of the Lord. The first thing that you and I want,\nfor our participation in the Kingdom of God, is a radical out-and-out\nchange in our whole character and nature. 'Ye must be born again'; now,\nwhatever more that means, it means, at all events, this\u2014a\nthorough-going renovation and metamorphosis of a man's nature, as the\nsorest need that the world and all the individuals that make up the\nworld have.\n\nThe deepest ground of that necessity lies in the fact of sin. Brother,\nwe can only verify our Lord's assertion by honestly searching the\ndepths of our own hearts, and looking at ourselves in the light of God.\nThink what is meant when we say, 'He is Light, and in Him is no\ndarkness at all.' Think of that absolute purity, that, to us, awful\naversion from all that is evil, from all that is sinful. Think of what\nsort of men they must be who can see the Lord. And then look at\nyourself. Are we fit to pass that threshold? Are we fit to gaze into\nthat Face? Is it possible that we should have fellowship with Him? Oh,\nbrethren, if we rightly meditate upon two facts, the holiness of God\nand our own characters, I think we shall feel that Jesus Christ has\ntruly stated the case when He says, 'Ye must be born again.' Unless you\nand I can get ourselves radically changed, there is no Heaven for us;\nthere is no fellowship with God for us. We must stand before Him, and\nfeel that a great gulf is fixed between us and Him.\n\nAnd so when a man comes with his poor little 'Thou art a Teacher,' no\nwords are wanted in order to set in glaring light the utter inadequacy\nof such a conception as that. What the world wants is not a Teacher, it\nis a Life-giver. What men want is not to be told the truth; they know\nit already. What they want is not to be told their duty; they know that\ntoo. What they want is some power that shall turn them clean round. And\nwhat each of us wants before we can see the Lord is that, if it may be,\nsomething shall lay hold of us, and utterly change our natures, and\nexpress from our hearts the black drop that lies there tainting\neverything.\n\nNow, this necessity is met in Jesus Christ. For there were two 'musts'\nin His talk with Nicodemus, and both of them bore directly on the one\npurpose of deepening Nicodemus's inadequate conception of what He was\nand what He did. He said, 'Ye must be born again,' in order that his\nhearer, and we, might lay to heart this, that we need something more\nthan a Teacher, even a Life-giver; and He said, 'The Son of Man must be\nlifted up,' in order that we might all know that in Him the necessity\nis met, and that the Son of Man, who came down from Heaven, and is in\nHeaven, even whilst He is on earth, is the sole ladder by which men can\nascend into Heaven and gaze upon God.\n\nThus it is Christ's work as Redeemer, Christ's sacrifice on the Cross,\nChrist's power as bringing to the world a new and holy life, and\nbreathing it into all that trust in Him, which make the very centre of\nHis work. Set by the side of that this other, 'Thou art a Teacher sent\nfrom God.' Ah, brethren, that will not do; it will not do for you and\nme! We want something a great deal deeper than that. The secret of\nJesus is not disclosed until we have passed into the inner shrine,\nwhere we learn that He is the Sacrifice for the world, and the Source\nand Fountain of a new life. I beseech you, take Christ's way of dealing\nwith this certificate of His character given by the Rabbi who did not\nknow his own necessities, and ponder it.\n\nMark the underlying principle which is here\u2014viz. if you want to\nunderstand Christ you must understand sin; and whoever thinks lightly\nof it will think meanly of Him. An underestimate of the reality, the\nuniversality, the gravity of the fact of sin lands men in the\nsuperficial and wholly impotent conception, 'Rabbi! Thou art a Teacher\nsent from God.' A true knowledge of myself as a sinful man, of my need\nof pardon, of my need of cleansing, of my need of a new nature, which\nmust be given from above, and cannot be evolved from within, leads me,\nand I pray it may lead you, to cast yourself down before Him, with no\ncomplaisant words of intellectual recognition upon your lips, but with\nthe old cry, 'Lord! be merciful to me a sinner.'\n\nIII. And now, dear friends, one last word. Notice when and where this\nimperfect disciple was transformed into a courageous confessor.\n\nWe do not know what came immediately of this conversation. We only know\nthat some considerable time after, Nicodemus had not screwed himself up\nto the point of acknowledging out and out, like a brave man, that he\nwas Christ's follower; but that he timidly ventured in the Sanhedrim to\nslip in a remonstrance ingeniously devised to conceal his own opinions,\nand yet to do some benefit to Christ, when he said, 'Does our law judge\nany man before it hear him?' And, of course, the timid remonstrance was\nswept aside, as it deserved to be, by the ferocious antagonism of his\nco-Sanhedrists.\n\nBut when the Cross came, and it had become more dangerous to avow\ndiscipleship, he plucked up courage, or rather courage flowed into him\nfrom that Cross, and he went boldly and 'craved the body of Jesus,' and\ngot it, and buried it. No doubt when he looked at Jesus hanging on the\nCross, he remembered that night in Jerusalem when the Lord had said,\n'The Son of Man must be lifted up,' and he remembered how He had spoken\nabout the serpent lifted in the wilderness, and a great light blazed in\nupon him, which for ever ended all hesitation and timidity for him. And\nso he was ready to be a martyr, or anything else, for the sake of Him\nwhom he now found to be far more than a 'Teacher,' even the Sacrifice\nby whose stripes he was healed.\n\nDear brethren, I bring that Cross to you now, and pray you to see there\nChrist's real work for us, and for the world. He has taught us, but He\nhas done more. He has not only spoken, He has died. He has not only\nshown us the path on which to walk, He has made it possible for us to\nwalk in it. He is not merely one amongst the noble band that have\nguided and inspired and instructed humanity, but He stands alone\u2014not\n_a_ Teacher, but _the_ Redeemer, 'the Lamb of God, which taketh away\nthe sins of the world.'\n\nIf He is a Teacher, take His teachings, and what are they? These, that\nHe is the Son of God; that 'He came from God'; that He 'went to God';\nthat He 'gives His life a ransom for many'; that He is to be the Judge\nof mankind; that if we trust in Him, our sins are forgiven and our\nnature is renewed. Do not go picking and choosing amongst His\nteachings, for these which I have named are as surely His as\n'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,'\nor any other of the moral teachings which the world professes to\nadmire. Take the whole teachings of the whole Christ, and you will\nconfess Him to be the Redeemer of your souls, and the Life-giver by\nwhom, and by whom alone, we enter the Kingdom of God.\n\n\n\n\nWIND AND SPIRIT\n\n\n'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and them hearest the sound thereof,\nbut canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every\none that is born of the Spirit.'\u2014JOHN iii. 8.\n\nPerhaps a gust of night wind swept round the chamber where Nicodemus\nsat listening to Jesus, and gave occasion for this condensed parable.\nBut there is occasion sufficient for it in the word 'Spirit,' which,\nboth in the language in which our Lord addressed the ruler of the\nSanhedrim, and in that which John employed in recording the\nconversation, as in our own English, means both 'spirit' and 'breath.'\nThis double signification of the word gives rise to the analogies in\nour text, and it also raises the question as to the precise meaning of\nthe text. There are two alternatives, one adopted by our Authorised and\nRevised Version, and one which you will find relegated to the margin of\nthe latter. We may either read 'the wind bloweth' or 'the Spirit\nbreathes.' I must not be tempted here to enter into a discussion of the\ngrounds upon which the one or the other of these two renderings may be\npreferred. Suffice it to say that I adhere to the rendering which lies\nbefore us, and find here a comparison between the salient\ncharacteristics of the physical fact and the operations of the Divine\nSpirit upon men's spirits.\n\nBut then, there is another step to be taken. Our Lord has just been\nlaying down the principle that like begets like, that flesh produces\nflesh, and spirit, spirit. And so, applying that principle, He says\nhere, not as might be expected, 'So is the work of the Divine Spirit in\nbegetting new life in men,' but 'So is he that is born of the Spirit.'\nThere are three things brought into relation with one another: the\nphysical fact; the operations of the Spirit of God, of which that\nphysical fact in its various characteristics may be taken as a symbol;\nand the result of its operations in the new man who is made 'after the\nimage of Him that created him.'\n\nIt is to the last of these that I wish to turn. Here you have the ideal\nof the Christian life, considered as the product of the free Spirit of\nGod, the picture of what all Christian people have the capacity of\nbeing, the obligation to be, and are, just in the measure in which that\nnew life, which the Spirit of God bestows, is dominant in them and\nmoulding their character. So I take these characteristics just as they\narise.\n\nI. Here you have the freedom of the new life.\n\n'The wind bloweth where it listeth.' Of course, in these days of\nweather forecasts and hoisting cones, we know that the wind is subject\nto as rigid physical laws as any other phenomena. But Jesus Christ\nspeaks here, as the Bible always speaks about Nature, from two points\nof view\u2014one the popular, regarding the thing as it looks on the\nsurface, and the other what I may call the poetico-devout\u2014finding\n'sermons in stones, books in the running brooks,' and hints of the\nspiritual world in all the phenomena of the natural. So, just as in\nspite of meteorological science, there has passed into common speech\nthe proverbial simile 'as free as the wind,' so Jesus Christ says here,\n'The wind bloweth where it listeth, \u2026 so is every one that is born of\nthe Spirit.' He passes by the intermediate link, the Spirit that is the\nparent of the life, and deals with the resulting life and declares that\nit is self-impelled and self-directed. Is that a characteristic to be\ndesired or admired? Is doing as we list precisely the description of\nthe noblest life? It is the description of the purely animal one. It is\nthe description of an entirely ignoble and base one. It may become the\ndescription of an atrociously criminal one. But we do not generally\nthink that a man that says 'Thus I will; thus I command; let the fact\nthat I will it stand in the place of all reason,' is speaking from a\nlofty point of view.\n\nBut there are two sorts of 'listing.' There is the listing which is the\nyielding to the mob of ignoble passions and clamant desires of the\nanimal nature within us, and there is the 'listing' which is obeying\nthe impulses of a higher will, that has been blended with ours. And\nthere you come to the secret of true freedom, which does not consist in\ndoing as I like, but in liking to do as God wishes me to do. When our\nLord says 'where it listeth,' He implies that a change has passed over\na man, when that new life is born within him, whereby the law, the\nknown will of God, is written upon his heart, and, inscribed on these\nfleshly tables, becomes no longer an iron force external to him, but a\nvital impulse within him. That is freedom, to have my better will\nabsolutely conterminous and coincident with the will of God, so far as\nI know it. Just as a man is not imprisoned by limits beyond which he\nhas no desire to go, so freedom, and elevation, and nobility come by\nobeying, not the commands of an external authority, but the impulse of\nan inward life.\n\n'Ye have not received the spirit of bondage,' because God hath given us\nthe Spirit of power, and of love, and of self-control, which keeps down\nthat base and inferior 'listing,' and elevates the higher and the\nnobler one, 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,'\nbecause duty has become delight, and there is no desire in the new and\nhigher nature for anything except that which God enjoins. The true\nfreedom is when, by the direction of our will, we change 'must' into 'I\ndelight to do Thy will.' So we are set free from the bondage and burden\nof a law that is external, and is not loved, and are brought into the\nliberty of, for dear love's sake, doing the will of the beloved.\n\n  'Myself shall to my darling be\n   Both law and impulse,'\n\nsays one of the poets about a far inferior matter. It is true in\nreference to the Christian life, and the 'liberty wherewith Christ hath\nmade us free,'\n\nBut, then, in order freely to understand the sweep and the greatness of\nthis perfect law of liberty, we must remember that the new life is\nimplanted in us precisely in order that we may suppress, and, if need\nbe, cast out and exorcise, that lower 'listing,' of which I have said\nthat it is always ignoble and sometimes animal. For this freedom will\nbring with it the necessity for continual warfare against all that\nwould limit and restrain it\u2014namely, the passions and desires and\ninclinations of our baser or nobler, but godless, self. These are, as\nit were, deposed by the entrance of the new life. But it is a dangerous\nthing to keep dethroned and discrowned tyrants alive, and the best\nthing is to behead them, as well as to cast them from their throne. 'If\nye, through the Spirit, do put to death the deeds' and inclinations and\nwills 'of the flesh, ye shall live'; and if you do not, they will live\nand will kill you. So the freedom of the new life is a militant\nfreedom, and we have to fight to maintain it. As Burke said about the\npolitical realm, 'the price of liberty is eternal vigilance,' so we say\nabout the new life of the Christian man\u2014he is free only on condition\nthat he keeps well under hatches the old tyrants, who are ever plotting\nand struggling to have dominion once again.\n\nStill further, whilst this new life makes us free from the harshness of\na law that can only proclaim duty, and also makes us free from our own\nbaser selves, it makes us free from all human authority. The true\nfoundation of the Christian democracy is that each individual soul has\ndirect and immediate access to, and direct and real possession of, God,\nin his spirit and life. Therefore, in the measure in which we draw into\nourselves the new life and the Spirit of God shall we be independent of\nmen round us, and be able to say, 'With me it is a very small matter to\nbe judged of you or of man's judgment.' That new life ought to make men\n_original_, in the deep and true sense of the word, as drawing their\nconceptions of duty and their methods of life, not at second hand from\nother men, but straight from God Himself. If the Christian Church was\nfuller of that divine life than it is, it would be fuller of all\nvarieties of Christian beauty and excellence, and all these would be\nthe work of 'that one and the selfsame Spirit dividing to every man\nseverally as He will.' If this congregation were indeed filled with the\nnew life, there would be an exuberance of power, and a harmonious\ndiversity of characteristics about it, and a burning up of the\nconventionalities of Christian profession such as we do not dream of\nto-day. 'The wind bloweth where it listeth.'\n\nII. Here we have this new life in its manifestation.\n\n'Thou hearest the sound,' or, as the Word might literally be rendered,\nthe 'voice thereof,' from the little whisper among the young soft\nleaves of the opening beeches in our woods to-day, up to the typhoon\nthat spreads devastation over leagues of tropical ocean. That voice,\nnow a murmur, now a roar, is the only manifestation of the unseen force\nthat sweeps around us. And if you are a Christian man or woman your new\nlife should be thus perceptible to others, in a variety of ways, no\ndoubt, and in many degrees of force. You cannot show its roots; you are\nbound to show its fruits. You cannot lay bare your spirits, and say to\nthe world, 'Look! there is the presence of a divine germ in me,' but\nyou can go about amongst men, and witness to the possession of it by\nthe life that you live. There are a great many Christian people from\nwhom, if you were to listen ever so intently, you would not hear a\nsough or a ripple. There is a dead calm; the 'rushing mighty wind' has\ndied down; and there is nothing but a greasy swell upon the windless\nocean. 'The wind bloweth,' and the 'sound' is heard. The wind ceases,\nand there is a hideous silence. And that is the condition of many a man\nand woman that has a name to live and is dead. Does anybody hear the\nwhisper of that breath in your life, Christian man? It is not for me to\nanswer the question; it is for you to ask it and answer it for\nyourselves.\n\nAnd Christians should be in the world, as the very breath of life\namidst stagnation. When the Christian Church first sprung into being it\ndid come into that corrupt, pestilential march of ancient heathenism\nwith healing on its wings, and like fresh air from the pure hills into\nsome fever-stricken district. Wherever there has been a new outburst,\nin the experience of individuals and of churches, of that divine life,\nthere has come, and the world has felt that there has come, a new force\nthat breathes over the dry bones, and they live. Alas, alas! that so\nfrequently the professing Christian Church has ceased to discharge its\nplain function, to breathe on the slain that they may live.\n\nThey are curing, or say they are curing, consumption nowadays, by\ntaking the patient and keeping him in the open air, and letting the\nwind of heaven blow freely about him. That, and not shutting people in\nwarm chambers, and coddling them with the prescriptions of social and\npolitical reformation, that is the cure for the world's diseases.\nWherever the new life is vigorous in men, men will hear the sound\nthereof, and recognise that it comes from heaven.\n\nIII. Lastly, here we have the new life in its double secret.\n\nI have been saying that it has a means of manifestation which all\nChristian people are bound to exemplify. But our Lord draws a broad\ndistinction between that which can be manifested and that which cannot.\nAs I said, you can show the leaves and the fruits; the roots are\ncovered. 'Thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it\ncometh, nor whither it goeth.'\n\nThe origin of that new life is 'hid with Christ in God.' And so, since\nwe are not dependent upon external things for the communication of the\nlife, we should not be dependent upon them for its continuation and its\nnourishment, and we should realise that, if we are Christians, we are\nliving in two regions, and, though as regards the surface life we\nbelong to the things of time, as regards the deepest life, we belong to\neternity. All the surface springs may run dry. What then? As long as\nthere is a deep-seated fountain that comes welling up, the fields will\nbe green, and we may laugh at famine and drought. If it be true that\n'our lives are hid with Christ in God,' then it ought to be true that\nthe nourishments, as well as the direction and impulse of them, are\ndrawn from Him, and that we seek not so much for the abundance of the\nthings that minister to the external as for the fulness of those that\nsustain the inward, the true life, the life of Christ in the soul.\n\nThe world does not know where that Christian life comes from. If you\nare a Christian, you ought to bear in your character a certain\nindefinable something that will suggest to the people round you that\nthe secret power of your life is other than the power which moulds\ntheirs. You may be naturalised, and you may speak fairly well the\nlanguage of the country in which you are a sojourner, but there ought\nto be something in your accent which tells where you come from, and\nbetrays the foreigner. We ought to move amongst men, having about us\nthat which cannot be explained by what is enough to explain their\nlives. A Christian life should be the manifestation to the world of the\nsupernatural.\n\nThey 'know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth.' No; that new\nlife in its feeblest infancy, and before it speaks, if I may so say,\nis, by its very existence, a prophet, and declares that there must be,\nbeyond this 'bank and shoal of time,' a region to which it is native,\nand in which it may grow to maturity. You will find in your greenhouses\nexotics that stand there, after all your pains and coals, stunted, and\nseeming to sigh for the tropical heat which is their home. The earnest\nof our inheritance, the first-fruits of the Spirit, the Christian life\nwhich originated in, and is sustained by, the flowing of the divine\nlife into us, demands that, somehow or other, the stunted plant should\nbe lifted and removed into that 'higher house where these are\nplanted'\u2014and what shall be the spread of its branches, and the lustre\nof its leaves, and what the gorgeousness of its blossoms, and what the\nperennial sweetness of its fruits then and there, 'it doth not yet\nappear.'\n\nThey 'know not whither it goeth.' And even those who themselves possess\nit know not, nor shall know, through the ages of a progressive\napproximation to the ever-approached and never-attained perfection.\n'This spake He of the Holy Ghost, which they that believe on Him should\nreceive.' Trust Christ, and 'the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ\nJesus shall make you free from the law of sin and death.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE BRAZEN SERPENT\n\n\n'Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.'\u2014JOHN iii. 14.\n\nThis is the second of the instances in this Gospel in which our Lord\nlays His hand upon an institution or incident of the Old Testament, as\nshadowing forth some aspect of His work. In the first of these\ninstances, under the image of the ladder that Jacob saw, our Lord\npresented Himself as the sole medium of communication between heaven\nand earth; here He goes a step further into the heart of His work, and\nunder the image, very eloquent to the Pharisee to whom He was speaking,\nof the brazen serpent lifted up on the pole in the desert, proclaims\nHimself as the medium of healing and of life to a poisoned world.\n\nNow, Nicodemus has a great many followers to-day. He took up a position\nwhich many take up. He recognised Christ as a Teacher, and was willing\nto accord to the almost unknown young man from Galilee the coveted\ntitle of 'Rabbi.' He came to Him with a little touch of condescension,\nand evidently thought that for him, a ruler of the Jews, a member of\nthe upper and educated classes, to be willing to speak of Jesus as a\nTeacher, was an endorsement that the young aspirant might be gratified\nto receive. 'Rabbi, _we_ know that Thou art a Teacher sent from\nGod'\u2014but he stopped there. He is not the only one who compliments Jesus\nChrist, while he degrades Him from His unique position. Now, to this\ninadequate conception of our Lord's Person and work, Christ opposed the\nsolemn insistence on the incapacity of human nature as it is, to enter\ninto communion with, and submission to, God. And then He passes on to\nspeak\u2014in precise parallelism with the position that He took up when He\nlikened Himself to the Ladder of Jacob's vision\u2014of Himself as being the\nSon of Man that came down from Heaven, and therefore is able to reveal\nheavenly things. In my text He further unveils in symbol the mystery\nand dignity of His Person and of His work, whilst He speaks of a\nmysterious lifting up of this Son of Man who came down from heaven.\nThese are the truths that the conception of Christ as a great Teacher\nneeds for its completion; the contrariety of human nature with the\ndivine will, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Crucifixion of the\nIncarnate Son. And so we have here three points, to which I desire to\nturn, as setting forth the conception of His own work which Jesus\nChrist presented as completing the conception of it, to which Nicodemus\nhad attained.\n\nI. There is, first, the lifting up of the Son of Man.\n\nNow, of course, the sole purpose of setting that brazen serpent on the\npole was to render it conspicuous, and all that Nicodemus could _then_\nunderstand by the symbol was that, in some unknown way, this\nheaven-descended Son of Man should be set forth before Israel and the\nworld as being the Healer of all their diseases. But we are wiser,\nafter the event, than the ruler of the Jews could be at the threshold\nof Christ's ministry. We have also to remember that this is not the\nonly occasion, though it is the first, on which our Lord used this very\nsignificant expression. For twice over in this Gospel we find it upon\nHis lips\u2014once when, addressing the unbelieving multitude, He says 'When\nye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He'; and\nonce when in soliloquy, close on Calvary, He says, as the vision of a\nworld flocking to Him rises before Him on occasion of the wish of a few\nGreek proselytes to see Him, 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men\nunto Me.' We do not need, though we have, the Evangelist's commentary,\n'this He spake signifying what death He should die.'\n\nSo, if we accept the historical veracity of this Gospel, we here\nperceive Jesus Christ, at the very beginning of His career, and before\nthe dispositions of the nation towards Him had developed themselves in\naction, discerning its end, and seeing, gaunt and grim before Him, the\nCross that was lifted up on Calvary. Enthusiasts and philanthropists\nand apostles of all sorts, in the regions of science and beneficence\nand morals and religion, begin their career with trusting that their\n'brethren should have understood' that God was speaking through them.\nBut no illusion of that sort, according to these Evangelists, drew\nJesus Christ out of His seclusion at Nazareth and impelled Him on His\ncareer. From the beginning He knew that the Cross was to be the end.\nThat Cross was not to Him a necessity, accepted as the price of\nfaithfulness in doing His work, so that His attitude was, 'I will speak\nwhat is in Me, though I die for it,' but it was to Him the very heart\nof the work which He came to do. Therefore, after He had said to the\nruler of the Jews that the Son of Man, as descended from Heaven, was\nable to _speak_ of heavenly things, He added the deeper necessity, He\n'must be lifted up.' Where lay the 'must'? In the requirement of the\nwork which He had set Himself to do. Beneath this great saying there\nlies a pathetic, stern, true conception of the condition of human\nnature. That desert encampment, with the poisoned men dying on every\nhand, is the emblem under which Jesus Christ, the gentlest and the\nsweetest soul that ever lived, looked out upon humanity. And it was\nbecause the facts of human nature called for something far more than a\nteacher that He said 'the Son of Man must be lifted up.' For what they\nneeded, and what He had set Himself to bring, could only be brought by\nOne who yielded Himself up for the sins of the whole world.\n\nBut that 'must,' which thus arose from the requirements of the task\nthat He had set before Him, had its source in His own heart; it was no\nnecessity imposed upon Him from without. True, it was a necessity laid\non Him by filial obedience, but also true, it was the necessity\naccepted by Him in pursuance of the impulse of His own heart. He must\ndie because He must save, and He must save because He loved. So He was\nnot nailed to the Cross by the nails and hammers of the Roman soldiers,\nand the taunt that was flung at Him as He hung there had a deeper\nmeaning, as scoffs thrown at Him and His cause ordinarily have, than\nthe scoffers understood: 'He saved others,' and therefore 'Himself He\ncannot save.'\n\nSo here we have Christ accepting, as well as discerning, the Cross. And\nwe have more than that. We have Christ looking at the Cross as being,\nnot humiliation, but exaltation. 'The Son of Man must be lifted up.'\nAnd what does that mean? It means the same thing that He said when,\nnear the end, He declared, 'The hour is come that the Son of Man should\nbe glorified.' We are accustomed to speak\u2014and we speak rightly\u2014of His\ndeath as being the lowest point of the humiliation which was inherent\nin the very fact of His humanity. He condescended to be born; He\nstooped yet more to die. But whilst that is true, the other side is\nalso true\u2014that in the Cross Christ is lifted up, and that it is His\nThrone. For what see we there? The highest exhibition, the tenderest\nrevelation, of His perfect love. And what see we there besides? The\nsupreme manifestation of the highest power.\n\n  ''Twas great to speak a world from nought,\n   'Tis greater to redeem.'\n\nTo save humanity, to make it possible that men should receive that\nsecond birth, and should enter into the Kingdom of God\u2014that was a\ngreater work, because a work not only of creation, but of restoration,\nthan it was to send forth the stars on their courses and to 'preserve'\nthe ancient heavens 'from wrong.' There is a revelation of divine might\nwhen we 'lift up our eyes on high,' and see how, 'because He is great\nin power, not one faileth.' But there is a mightier revelation of\ndivine power when we see how, from amidst the ruins of humanity, He can\nrestore the divine image, and piece together, as it were, without sign\nof flaw or crack or one fragment wanting, the fair image that was\nshattered into fragments by the blow of Sin's heavy mace. Power in its\nhighest operation, power in its tenderest efficacy, power in its widest\nsweep, are set forth on the Cross of Christ, and that weak Man hanging\nthere, dying in the dark, is 'the power of God' as well as 'the wisdom\nof God.' The Cross is Christ's Throne, but it is His sovereign\nmanifestation of love and power only if it is what, as I believe He\ntold us it was, and what His servants from His lips caught the\ninterpretation of it as being, the death for the sins of the\nsin-stricken world. Unless we can believe that, when He died, He died\nfor us, I know not why Christ's death should appeal to our love. But if\nwe recognise\u2014as I pray that we all may recognise\u2014that our deep need for\nsomething far more than Teacher or Pattern has been met in that great\n'one Sacrifice for sins for ever,' then the magnetism of the Cross\nbegins to tell, and we understand what He meant when He said, 'I, if I\nbe lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' Brethren, the Cross is His\nThrone, from which He rules the world, and if you strike His sacrifice\nfor sins out of your conception of His work, you have robbed Him of\nsovereignty, and taken out of His hand the sceptre by which He governs\nthe hearts and wills of rebellious and restored men.\n\nII. Notice, again, how we have here the look at the uplifted Son of\nMan.\n\nI do not need to paint for you what your own imaginations can\nsufficiently paint for yourselves\u2014the scene in the wilderness where the\ndying men from the very outskirts of the camp could turn a filmy eye to\nthe brazen serpent hanging in their midst. That look is the symbol of\nwhat we need, in order that the life-giving power of Christ should\nenter into our death. There is no better description of the act of\nChristian faith than that picture of the dying Israelite turning his\nlanguid eye to the symbol of healing and life. That trust which Jesus\nemphasises here in 'whosoever _believeth_ on Him,' He opposes very\nemphatically to Nicodemus's confession, 'We know that Thou art a\nTeacher.' We know\u2014you have to go a step further, Nicodemus! 'We know';\nwell and good, but are you included in 'whosoever believeth'? Faith is\nan advance on credence. There is an intellectual side to it, but its\nessence is what is the essence of trust always, the act of the will\nthrowing itself on that which is discerned to be trustworthy. You know\nthat a given man is reliable\u2014that is not relying on him. You have to go\na step further. And so, dear brethren, you may believe thirty-nine or\nthirty-nine thousand Articles with an unfaltering credence, and you may\nbe as far away from faith as if you did not believe one of them. There\nmay be a perfect belief and an absolute want of faith. And on the other\nhand, blessed be God! there may be a real and an operative trust with a\nvery imperfect or mistaken creed. The wild flowers on the rock bloom\nfair and bright, though they have scarcely any soil in which to strike\ntheir roots, and the plants in the most fertile garden may fail to\nproduce flowers and seed. So trust and credence are not always of the\nsame magnitude.\n\nThis trust is no arbitrary condition. The Israelite was bid to turn to\nthe brazen serpent. There was no connection between his look and his\nhealing, except in so far as the symbol was a help to, and looking at\nit was a test of, his faith in the healing power of God. But it is no\narbitrary appointment, as many people often think it is, which connects\ninseparably together the look of faith and the eternal life that Christ\ngives. For seeing that salvation is no mere external gift of shutting\nup some outward Hell and opening the door to some outward Heaven, but\nis a state of heart and mind, of relation to God, the only way by which\nthat salvation can come into a man's heart is that he, knowing his need\nof it, shall trust Christ, and through Him the new life will flow into\nhis heart. Faith is trust, and trust is the stretching out of the hand\nto take the precious gift, the opening of the heart for the influx of\nthe grace, the eating of the bread, the drinking of the water, of life.\n\nIt is the only possible condition. God forbid that I should even seem\nto depreciate other forms of healing men's evils and redressing men's\nwrongs, and diminishing the sorrows of humanity! We welcome them all;\nbut education, art, culture, refinement, improved environment, bettered\nsocial and political conditions, whilst they do a great deal, do not go\ndown to the bottom of the necessity. And after you have built your\ncolleges and art museums and stately pleasure-houses, and set every man\nin an environment that is suited to develop him, you will find out what\nsurely the world might have found out already, that, as in some stately\npalace built in the Campagna, the malaria is in the air, and steals in\nat the windows, and infects all the inhabitants. Thank God for all\nthese other things! but you cannot heal a man who has poison in his\nveins by administering cosmetics, and you cannot put out Vesuvius with\na jugful of water. If the camp is to be healed, the Christ must be\nlifted up.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, here we have the life that comes with a look at\nthe lifted-up Son of Man.\n\nThose of you who are using the Revised Version will see that there is a\nlittle change made here, partly by the exclusion of a clause and partly\nby changing the order of the words. The alteration is not only nearer\nthe original text, but brings out a striking thought. It reads that\n'whosoever believeth may in Him have eternal life.' Now, it is far too\nlate a period of my discourse to enlarge upon all that these great\nwords would suggest to us, but let me just, in a sentence or two, mark\nthe salient points.\n\n'Eternal life'; do not bring that down to the narrow and inadequate\nconception of unending existence. It involves that, but it means a\ngreat deal more. It means a life of such a sort as is worth calling\nlife, which is a life in union with God, and therefore full of\nblessedness, full of purity, full of satisfaction, full of desire and\naspiration, and all these with the stamp of unendingness deeply\nimpressed upon them. And that is what comes to us through the look. Not\nonly is the process of dying arrested, but there is substituted for it\na new process of growing possession of a new life. You 'must be born\nagain,' Christ had been saying to Nicodemus. The change that passes\nupon a man when once he has anchored his trust on Jesus Christ, the\nuplifted Son of Man, is so profound that it is nothing else than a new\nbirth, and a new life comes into his veins untainted by the poison, and\nwith no proclivity to death.\n\n'May have eternal life'\u2014now, here, on the instant. That eternal life is\nno future gift to be bestowed upon mortal men when they have passed\nthrough the agony of death, but it is a gift which comes to us here,\nand may come to any man on the instant of his looking to Jesus Christ.\n\n'May in Him have eternal life'\u2014union with Christ by faith, that\nprofound incorporation\u2014if I may use the word\u2014into Him, which the New\nTestament sets forth in all sorts of aspects as the very foundation of\nthe blessings of Christianity; that union is the condition of eternal\nlife. So, dear brethren, we all need that the poison shall be cast out\nof our veins. We all need that the tendency downwards to a condition\nwhich can only be described as death may be arrested, and the motion\nreversed. We all need that our knowledge shall be vitalised into faith.\nWe all need that the past shall be forgiven, and the power of sin upon\nus in the present shall be cancelled. 'The blood of Jesus Christ\ncleanseth from all sin,' because it was shed for the remission of the\nsins of the many, and is transfused, an untainted principle of life,\ninto our veins. What Jesus said to Nicodemus by night in that quiet\nchamber in Jerusalem, what He said in effect and act upon the Cross,\nwhen uplifted there, is what He says to each of us from the Throne\nwhere He is now lifted up: 'Whosoever believeth shall in Me have\neternal life.' Take Him at His word, and you will find that it is true.\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST'S MUSTS\n\n\n'\u2026 Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.'\u2014JOHN iii. 14.\n\nI have chosen this text for the sake of one word in it, that solemn\n'must' which was so often on our Lord's lips. I have no purpose of\ndealing with the remainder of this clause, nor indeed with it at all,\nexcept as one instance of His use of the expression. But I have felt it\nmight be interesting, and might set old truths in a brighter light, if\nwe gather together the instances in which Christ speaks of the great\nnecessity which dominated His life, and shaped even small acts.\n\nThe expression is most frequently used in reference to the Passion and\nResurrection. There are many instances in the Gospels, in which He\nspeaks of that _must_. The first of these is that of my text. Then\nthere is another class, of which His word to His mother when a\ntwelve-year-old child may be taken as a type: 'Wist ye not that I\n_must_ be about My Father's business?' where the mysterious\nconsciousness of a special relation to God in the child's heart drew\nHim to the Temple and to His Father's work. Other similar instances are\nthose in which He responded to the multitude when they wanted to keep\nHim to themselves: 'I _must_ preach in other cities also'; or as when\nHe said, 'I _must_ work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day.'\n\nYet another aspect of the same necessity is presented when, looking far\nbeyond the earthly work and suffering, He discerned the future triumph\nwhich was to be the issue of these, and said, 'Other sheep I have\u2026 them\nalso I _must_ bring.'\n\nAnd yet another is in reference to a very small matter: His selection\nof a place for a few hours' rest on His last fateful journey to\nJerusalem, when He said, 'Zaccheus,\u2026 to-day I _must_ abide at thy\nhouse.'\n\nNow, if we put these instances together, we shall get some precious\nglimpses into our Lord's heart, and His view of life.\n\nI. Here we see Christ recognising and accepting the necessity for His\ndeath.\n\nMy text, if we accept John's Gospel, contributes an altogether new\nelement to our conception of our Lord as announcing His death. For the\nother three Gospels lay emphasis on it as being part of His teaching,\nespecially during the later stage of His ministry. But it does not\nfollow that He began to think about it or to see it, when He began to\nspeak about it. There are reasons for the earlier comparative\nreticence, and there is no ground for the conclusion that then first\nbegan to dawn upon a disappointed enthusiast the grim reality that His\nwork was not going to prosper, and that martyrdom was necessary. That\nis a notion that has been frequently upheld of late years, but to me it\nseems altogether incongruous with the facts of the case. And, if John's\nGospel is a true record, that theory is shivered against this text,\nwhich represents Him at the very beginning of His career\u2014the time when,\naccording to that other theory, He was full of the usual buoyant and\nbaseless anticipations of a reformer commencing His course\u2014as telling\nNicodemus, 'Even so _must_ the Son of Man be lifted up.' In like\nmanner, in the previous chapter of this same Gospel, we have the\nsignificant though enigmatical utterance: 'Destroy this Temple, and in\nthree days I will raise it up'; with the Evangelist's authoritative\ncomment: 'He spake of the Temple of His body.' So, from the beginning\nof His career, the end was clear before Him.\n\nAnd why _must_ He go to the Cross? Not merely, as the other Evangelists\nput it, in order that 'it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the\nprophets.' It was not that Jesus must die because the prophets had said\nthat Messiah should, but that the prophets had said that Messiah should\nbecause Jesus must. There was a far deeper necessity than the\nfulfilment of any prophetic utterance, even the necessity which shaped\nthat utterance. The work of Jesus Christ could not be done unless He\ndied. He could not be the Saviour of the world unless He was the\nsacrifice for the sins of the world.\n\nWe cannot see all the grounds of that solemn imperative, but this we\ncan see, that it was because of the requirements of the divine\nrighteousness, and because of the necessities of sinful men. And so\nChrist's was no martyr's death, who had to die as the penalty of the\nfaithful discharge of His duty. It was not the penalty that He paid for\ndoing His work, but it was the work itself. Not that gracious life, nor\n'the loveliness of perfect deeds,' nor His words of sweet wisdom, nor\nHis acts of transcendent power, equalled only by the pity that moved\nthe power, completed His task, but He 'came to give His life a ransom\nfor many.'\n\n'Must' is a hard word. It may express an unwelcome necessity. Was this\nnecessity unwelcome? When He said, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up,'\nwas He shrinking, or reluctantly submitting? Ah, no! He _must_ die\nbecause He _would_ save, and He _would_ save because He _did_ love. His\nfilial obedience to God coincided with His pity for men: and not merely\nin obedience to the requirements of the divine righteousness, but in\ncompassion for the necessities of sinners, necessity was laid upon Him.\n\nOh, brethren! nothing held Christ to the Cross but His own desire to\nsave us. Neither priests nor Romans carried Him thither. What fastened\nHim to it was not the nails driven by rude hands. And the reason why He\ndid not, as the taunters bade Him do, come down from it, was neither a\nphysical nor a moral necessity unwelcome to Himself, but the yielding\nof His own will to do all which was needed for man's salvation.\n\nThis sacrifice was bound to the altar by the cords of love. We have\nheard of martyrs who have refused to be tied to the stake, and have\nkept themselves motionless in the centre of the fierce flames by the\nforce of their wills. Jesus Christ fastened Himself to the Cross and\ndied because He would.\n\nAnd, oh! if we think of that sweet, serene life as having clear before\nit from the very first steps that grim end, how infinitely it gains in\npathetic beauty and in heart-touchingness! What wonderful\nself-abnegation! How he was at leisure from Himself, with a heart of\npity for every sorrow, and loins girt for all service, though during\nall His life the Cross closed the vista! Think that human shrinking was\nfelt by Him, think that it was so held back that His purpose never\nfaltered, think that each of us may say, 'He _must_ die because He\n_would_ save me'; and then ask, 'What shall I render to the Lord for\nall His benefits toward me?'\n\nII. In a second class of these utterances, we see Christ impelled by\nfilial obedience and the consciousness of His mission.\n\n'Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' That was a\nstrange utterance for a boy of twelve. It seems to negative the\nsupposition that what is called the 'Messianic consciousness' dawned\nupon Jesus Christ first after His baptism and the descent of the\nSpirit. But however that may be, it and the similar passages to which I\nhave already referred, bearing upon His discharge of His work prior to\nHis death, teach that the necessity was an inward necessity springing\nfrom His consciousness of Sonship, and His recognition of the work that\nHe had to do. And so He is our great Example of spontaneous obedience,\nwhich does violence to itself if it does not obey. It was instinct that\nsent the boy into the Temple. Where should a Son be but in His Father's\nhouse? How could He not be doing His Father's business?\n\nThus He stands before us, the pattern for the only obedience that is\nworth calling so, the obedience which would be pained and ill at ease\nunless it were doing the work of God. Religion is meant to make it a\nsecond nature, or, as I have ventured to call it, an instinct\u2014a\nspontaneous, uncalculating, irrepressible desire\u2014to be in fellowship\nwith God, and to be doing His will. That is the meaning of our\nChristianity. There is no obedience in reluctant obedience; forced\nservice is slavery, not service. Christianity is given for the specific\npurpose that it may bring us so into touch with Jesus Christ as that\nthe mind which was in Him may be in us; and that we too may be able to\nsay, with a kind of wonder that people should have expected to find us\nin any other place, or doing anything else, 'Wist ye not that because I\nam a Son, _I_ must be about my Father's business?' As certainly as the\nsunflower follows the sun, so certainly will a man animated by the mind\nthat was in Jesus Christ, like Him find his very life's breath in doing\nthe Father's will.\n\nSo then, brethren, what about our grudging service? What about our\nreluctant obedience? What about the widespread mistake that religion\nprohibits wished-for things and enforces unwelcome duties? If my\nChristianity does not make me recoil from what it forbids, and spring\neagerly to what it commends, my Christianity is of very little use. If\nwhen in the Temple we are like idle boys in school, always casting\nglances at the clock and the door, and wishing ourselves outside, we\nmay just as well be out as in. Glad obedience is true obedience. Only\nhe who can say, 'Thy law is within my heart, and I do Thy will because\nI love Thee, and cannot but do as Thou desirest,' has found the joy\npossible to a Christian life. It is not 'harsh and crabbed,' as those\nthat look upon it from the outside may 'suppose,' but musical and full\nof sweetness. There is nothing more blessed than when 'I choose' covers\nexactly the same ground as 'I ought.' And when duty is delight, delight\nwill never become disgust, nor joy pass away.\n\nIII. We see, in yet another use of this great 'must,' Christ\nanticipating His future triumph.\n\n'Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring,\nand there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.' Striking as these words\nare in themselves, they are still more striking when we notice their\nconnection; for they follow immediately upon His utterance about laying\ndown His life for the sheep. So, then, this was a work beyond the\nCross, and whatever it was, it was to be done after He had died.\n\nI need not point out to you how far afield Christ's vision goes out\ninto the dim, waste places, where on the dark mountains the straying\nsheep are torn and frightened and starving. I need not dwell upon how\nfar ahead in the future His glance travels, or how magnificent and how\nrebuking to our petty narrowness this great word is. 'There shall be\none _flock_' (not fold); and they shall be one, not because they are\nwithin the bounds of any visible 'fold,' but because they are gathered\nround the one Shepherd, and in their common relation to Him are knit\ntogether in unity.\n\nBut what sort of a Man is this who considers that His widest work is to\nbe done by Him after He is dead? 'Them also I _must_ bring.' Thou? how?\nwhen? Surely such words as these, side by side with a clear prevision\nof the death that was so soon to come, are either meaningless or the\nutterance of an arrogance bordering on insanity, or they anticipate\nwhat an Evangelist declares did take place\u2014that the Lord was 'taken up\ninto heaven and sat at the right hand of God,' whilst His servants\n'went everywhere preaching the Word, the Lord also working with them\nand confirming the Word' with the signs He wrought.\n\n'Them also I must bring.' That is not merely a necessity rooted in the\nnature of God and the wants of men. It is not merely a necessity\nspringing from Christ's filial obedience and sense of a mission; but it\nis a 'must' of destiny, a 'must' which recognises the sure results of\nHis passion; a 'must' which implies the power of the Cross to be the\nreconciliation of the world. And so for all pessimistic thoughts\nto-day, or at any time, and when Christian men's hearts may be\ntrembling for the Ark of God\u2014although, perhaps, there may be little\nreason for the tremor\u2014and in the face of all blatant antagonisms and of\nproud Goliaths despising the 'foolishness of preaching,' we fall back\nupon Christ's great 'must.' It is written in the councils of Heaven\nmore unchangeably than the heavens; it is guaranteed by the power of\nthe Cross; it is certain, by the eternal life of the crucified Saviour,\nthat He will one day be the King of humanity, and _must_ bring His\nwandering sheep to couch in peace, one flock round one Shepherd.\n\nIV. Lastly, we have Christ applying the greatest principle to the\nsmallest duty.\n\n'Zaccheus! make haste and come down; to-day I _must_ abide in thy\nhouse.' Why must He? Because Zaccheus was to be saved, and was worth\nsaving. What was the 'must'? To stop for an hour or two on His road to\nthe Cross. So He teaches us that in a life penetrated by the thought of\nthe divine will, which we gladly obey, there are no things too great,\nand none too trivial, to be brought under the dominion of that law, and\nto be regulated by that divine necessity. Obedience is obedience,\nwhether in large things or in small. There is no scale of magnitude\napplicable to the distinction between God's will and that which is not\nGod's will. Gravitation rules the motes that dance in the sunshine as\nwell as the mass of Jupiter. A triangle with its apex in the sun, and\nits base beyond the solar system, has the same properties and comes\nunder the same laws as one that a schoolboy scrawls upon his slate.\nGod's truth is not too great to rule the smallest duties. The star in\nthe East was a guide to the humble house at Bethlehem, and there are\nstarry truths high in the heavens that avail for our guidance in the\nsmallest acts of life.\n\nSo, brethren, bring your doings under that all-embracing law of\nduty\u2014duty, which is the heathen expression for the will of God. There\nare great regions of life in which lower necessities have play.\nCircumstances, our past, bias and temper, relationship, friendship,\ncivic duty, and the like\u2014all these bring their necessities; but let us\nthink of them all as being, what indeed they are, manifestations to us\nof the will of our Father. There are great tracts of life in which\neither of two courses may be right, and we are left to the decision of\nchoice rather than of duty; but high above all these, let us see\ntowering that divine necessity. It is a daily struggle to bring 'I\nwill' to coincide with 'I ought'; and there is only one adequate and\nalways powerful way of securing that coincidence, and that is to keep\nclose to Jesus Christ and to drink in His spirit. Then, when duty and\ndelight are conterminous, 'the rough places will be plain, and the\ncrooked things straight, and every mountain shall be brought low, and\nevery valley shall be exalted,' and life will be blessed, and service\nwill be freedom. Joy and liberty and power and peace will fill our\nhearts when this is the law of our being; 'All that the Lord hath\nspoken, that _must_ I do.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE LAKE AND THE RIVER\n\n\n'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that\nwhosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting\nlife.'\u2014JOHN iii. 16.\n\nI venture to say that my text shows us a lake, a river, a pitcher, and\na draught. 'God so loved the world'\u2014that is the lake. A lake makes a\nriver for itself\u2014'God so loved the world that He _gave_ His\u2026 Son.' But\nthe river does not quench any one's thirst unless he has something to\nlift the water with: 'God so loved the world that He gave His\u2026 Son,\nthat whosoever _believeth_ on Him.' Last comes the draught: 'shall not\nperish, but have _everlasting life._'\n\nI. The great lake, God's love.\n\nBefore Jesus Christ came into this world no one ever dreamt of saying\n'God _loves_.' Some of the Old Testament psalmists had glimpses of that\ntruth and came pretty near expressing it. But among all the 'gods many\nand lords many,' there were lustful gods and beautiful gods, and idle\ngods, and fighting gods and peaceful gods: but not one of whom\nworshippers said, 'He loves.' Once it was a new and almost incredible\nmessage, but we have grown accustomed to it, and it is not strange any\nmore to us. But if we would try to think of what it means, the whole\ntruth would flash up into fresh newness, and all the miseries and\nsorrows and perplexities of our lives would drift away down the wind,\nand we should be no more troubled with them. 'God loves' is the\ngreatest thing that can be said by lips.\n\n'God \u2026 loved the world.' Now when we speak of loving a number of\nindividuals\u2014the broader the stream, the shallower it is, is it not? The\nmost intense patriot in England does not love her one ten-thousandth\npart as well as he loves his own little girl. When we think or feel\nanything about a great multitude of people, it is like looking at a\nforest. We do not see the trees, we see the whole wood. But that is not\nhow God loves the world. Suppose I said that I loved the people in\nIndia, I should not mean by that that I had any feeling about any\nindividual soul of all those dusky millions, but only that I massed\nthem all together; or made what people call a generalisation of them.\nBut that is not the way in which God loves. He loves all because He\nloves each. And when we say, 'God so loved the world,' we have to break\nup the mass into its atoms, and to think of each atom as being an\nobject of His love. We all stand out in God's love just as we should do\nto one another's eyes, if we were on the top of a mountain-ridge with a\nclear sunset sky behind us. Each little black dot of the long\nprocession would be separately visible. And we all stand out like that,\nevery man of us isolated, and getting as much of the love of God as if\nthere was not another creature in the whole universe but God and\nourselves. Have you ever realised that when we say, 'He loved the\nworld,' that really means, as far as each of us is concerned, He loves\n_me_? And just as the whole beams of the sun come pouring down into\nevery eye of the crowd that is looking up to it, so the whole love of\nGod pours down, not upon a multitude, an abstraction, a community, but\nupon every single soul that makes up that community. He loves us all\nbecause He loves us each. We shall never get all the good of that\nthought until we translate it, and lay it upon our hearts. It is all\nvery well to say, 'Ah yes! God is love,' and it is all very well to say\nHe loves 'the world.' But I will tell you what is a great deal\nbetter\u2014to say\u2014what Paul said\u2014'Who loved _me_ and gave Himself for\n_me_.'\n\nNow, there is one other suggestion that I would make to you before I go\non, and that is that all through the New Testament, but especially in\nJohn's Gospel, 'the world' does not only mean men, but _sinful_ men,\nmen separated from God. And the great and blessed truth taught here is\nthat, however I may drag myself away from God, I cannot drive Him away\nfrom me, and that however little I may care for Him, or love Him, or\nthink about Him, it does not make one hairs-breadth of difference as to\nthe fact that He loves me. I know, of course, that if a man does not\nlove Him back again, God's love has to take shapes that it would not\notherwise take, which may be extremely inconvenient for the man. But\nthough the shape may alter, _must_ alter, the fact remains; and every\nsinful soul on the earth, including Judas Iscariot\u2014who is said to head\nthe list of crimes\u2014has God's love resting upon him.\n\nII. The river.\n\nNow, to go back to my metaphor, the lake makes a river. 'God so loved\nthe world that He gave His only begotten Son.'\n\nSo then, it was not Christ's death that turned God from hating and\nbeing angry, but it was God's love that appointed Christ's death. If\nyou will only remember that, a great many of the shallow and popular\nobjections to the great doctrine of the Atonement disappear at once.\n'God so loved \u2026 that He gave.' But some people say that when we preach\nthat Jesus Christ died for our sins, that God's wrath might not fall\nupon men, our teaching is immoral, because it means 'Christ came, and\nso God loved.' It is the other way about, friend. 'God so loved \u2026 that\nHe gave.'\n\nBut now let me carry you back to the Old Testament. Do you remember the\nstory of the father taking his boy who carried the bundle of wood and\nthe fire, and tramping over the mountains till they reached the place\nwhere the sacrifice was to be offered? Do you remember the boy's\nquestion that brings tears quickly to the reader's eyes: 'Here is the\nwood, and here is the fire, where is the lamb'? Do you not think it\nwould be hard for the father to steady his voice and say, 'My son, God\nwill provide the lamb'? And do you remember the end of that story? 'The\nAngel of the Lord said unto Abraham, Because thou hast done this thing,\nand hast not _withheld_ thy son, _thine only son_, from Me, therefore\nblessing I will bless thee,' etc. Remember that one of the Apostles\nsaid, using the very same word that is used in Genesis as to Abraham's\ngiving up his son to God, 'He _spared not_ His own Son, but delivered\nHim up to the death for us all.' Does not that point to a mysterious\nparallel? Somehow or other\u2014we have no right to attempt to say\nhow\u2014somehow or other, God not only _sent_ His Son, as it is said in the\nnext verse to my text, but far more tenderly, wonderfully,\npathetically, God _gave_\u2014gave up His Son, and the sacrifice was\nenhanced, because it was His only begotten Son.\n\nAh! dear brethren, do not let us be afraid of following out all that is\nincluded in that great word, 'God \u2026 _loved_ the world.' For there is no\nlove which does not delight in giving, and there is no love that does\nnot delight in depriving itself, in some fashion, of what it gives. And\nI, for my part, believe that Paul's words are to be taken in all their\nblessed depth and wonderfulness of meaning when he says, 'He gave\nup'\u2014as well as gave\u2014'Him to the death for us all.'\n\nAnd now, do you not think that we are able in some measure to estimate\nthe greatness of that little word 'so'? 'God _so_ loved'\u2014_so_ deeply,\nso holily, _so_ perfectly\u2014that He 'gave His only begotten Son'; and the\ngift of that Son is, as it were, the river by which the love of God\ncomes to every soul in the world.\n\nNow there are a great many people who would like to put the middle part\nof this great text of ours into a parenthesis. They say that we should\nbring the first words and the last words of this text together, and\nnever mind all that lies between. People who do not like the doctrine\nof the Cross would say, 'God so loved the world that He gave\u2026\neverlasting life'; and there an end. 'If there is a God, and if He\nloves the world, why cannot He save the world without more ado? There\nis no need for these interposed clauses. God so loved the world that\neverybody will go to heaven'\u2014that is the gospel of a great many of you;\nand it is the gospel of a great many wise and learned people. But it is\nnot John's Gospel, and it is not Christ's Gospel. The beginning and the\nend of the text cannot be buckled up together in that rough-and-ready\nfashion. They have to be linked by a chain; and there are two links in\nthe chain: God forges the one, and we have to forge the other. 'God so\nloved the world that He gave'\u2014then He has done His work. 'That\nwhosoever believeth'\u2014that is your work. And it is in vain that God\nforges _His_ link, unless you will forge _yours_ and link it up to His.\n'God so loved the world,' that is step number one in the process; 'that\nHe gave,' that is step number two; and then there comes another\n'that'\u2014'that whosoever believeth,' that is step number three; and they\nare all needed before you come to number four, which is the\nlanding-place and not a step\u2014'should not perish, but have everlasting\nlife.'\n\nIII. The pitcher.\n\nI come to what I called the pitcher, with which we draw the water for\nour own use\u2014'that whosoever believeth.' You perhaps say, 'Yes, I\nbelieve. I accept every word of the Gospel, I quite believe that Jesus\nChrist died, as a matter of history; and I quite believe that He died\nfor men's sins.' And what then? Is that what Jesus Christ meant by\nbelieving? To believe _about_ Him is not to believe _on_ Him; and\nunless you believe on Him you will get no good out of Him. There is the\nlake, and the river must flow past the shanties in the clearing in the\nforest, if the men there are to drink. But it may flow past their\ndoors, as broad as the Mississippi, and as deep as the ocean; but they\nwill perish with thirst, unless they dip in their hands, like Gideon's\nmen, and carry the water to their own lips. Dear friend, what you have\nto do\u2014and your soul's salvation, and your peace and joy and nobleness\nin this life and in the next depend absolutely upon it\u2014is simply to\ntrust in Jesus Christ and His death for your sins.\n\nI sometimes wish we had never heard that word 'faith.' For as soon as\nwe begin to talk about 'faith,' people begin to think that we are away\nup in some theological region far above everyday life. Suppose we try\nto bring it down a little nearer to our businesses and bosoms, and\ninstead of using a word that is kept sacred for employment in religious\nmatters, and saying 'faith,' we say 'trust.' That is what you give to\nyour wives and husbands, is it not? And that is exactly what you have\nto give to Jesus Christ, simply to lay hold of Him as a man lays hold\nof the heart that loves him, and leans his whole weight upon it. Lean\nhard on Him, hang on Him, or, to take the other metaphor that is one of\nthe Old Testament words for trust, 'flee for refuge' to Him. Fancy a\nman with the avenger of blood at his back, and the point of the\npursuer's spear almost pricking his spine\u2014don't you think he would make\nfor the City of Refuge with some speed? That is what you have to do. He\nthat believeth, and by trust lays hold of the Hand that holds him up,\nwill never fall; and he that does not lay hold of that Hand will never\nstand, to say nothing of rising. And so by these two links God's love\nof the world is connected with the salvation of the world.\n\nIV. The draught.\n\nFinally, we have here the draught of living water. Did you ever think\nwhy our text puts 'should not perish' first? Is it not because, unless\nwe put our trust in Him, we shall certainly perish, and because,\ntherefore, that certainty of perishing must be averted before we can\nhave 'everlasting life'?\n\nNow I am not going to enlarge on these two solemn expressions,\n'perishing' and 'everlasting life.' I only say this: men do not need to\nwait until they die before they 'perish.' There are men and women here\nnow who are dead\u2014dead while they live, and when they come to die, the\nperishing, which is condemnation and ruin, will only be the making\nvisible, in another condition of life, of what is the fact to-day. Dear\nbrethren, you do not need to die in order to perish in your sins, and,\nblessed be God, you can have everlasting life before you die. You can\nhave it now, and there is only one way to have it, and that is to lay\nhold of Him who is the Life. And when you have Jesus Christ in your\nheart, whom you will be sure to have if you trust Him, then you will\nhave life\u2014life eternal, here and now, and death will only make manifest\nthe eternal life which you had while you were alive here, and will\nperfect it in fashions that we do not yet know anything about.\n\nOnly remember, as I have been trying to show you, the order that runs\nthrough this text. Remember the order of these last words, and that we\nmust first of all be delivered from eternal and utter death, before we\ncan be invested with the eternal and absolute life.\n\nNow, dear brethren, I dare say I have never spoken to the great\nmajority of you before; it is quite possible I may never speak to any\nof you again. I have asked God to help me to speak so as that souls\nshould be drawn to the Saviour. And I beseech you now, as my last word,\nthat you would listen, not to me, but to Him. For it is He that says to\nus, 'God so loved the world, that He gave His Son, that\nwhosoever'\u2014'whosoever,' a blank cheque, like the M. or N. of the\nPrayer-book, or the A. B. of a schedule; you can put your own name in\nit\u2014'that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have'\u2014here,\nnow\u2014'everlasting life.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE WEARIED CHRIST\n\n\n'Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the\nwell\u2026. He said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.'\u2014JOHN\niv. 6,32.\n\nTwo pictures result from these two verses, each striking in itself, and\ngaining additional emphasis by the contrast. It was during a long hot\nday's march that the tired band of pedestrians turned into the fertile\nvalley. There, whilst the disciples went into the little hill-village\nto purchase, if they could, some food from the despised inhabitants,\nJesus, apparently too exhausted to accompany them, 'sat _thus_ on the\nwell.' That little word _thus_ seems to have a force difficult to\nreproduce in English. It is apparently intended to enhance the idea of\nutter weariness, either because the word 'wearied' is in thought to be\nsupplied, 'sat, being thus wearied, on the well'; or because it conveys\nthe notion which might be expressed by our 'just as He was'; as a tired\nman flings Himself down anywhere and anyhow, without any kind of\npreparation beforehand, and not much caring where it is that he rests.\n\nThus, utterly worn out, Jesus Christ sits on the well, whilst the\nwestern sun lengthens out the shadows on the plain. The disciples come\nback, and what a change they find. Hunger gone, exhaustion ended, fresh\nvigour in their wearied Master. What had made the difference? The\nwoman's repentance and joy. And He unveils the secret of His\nreinvigoration when He says, 'I have meat to eat that ye know not\nof'\u2014the hidden manna. 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me,\nand to finish His work.'\n\nNow, I think if we take just three points of view, we shall gain the\nlessons of this remarkable contrast. Note, then, the wearied Christ;\nthe devoted Christ; the reinvigorated Christ.\n\nI. The wearied Christ.\n\nHow precious it is to us that this Gospel, which has the loftiest\nthings to say about the manifest divinity of our Lord, and the glory\nthat dwelt in Him, is always careful to emphasise also the manifest\nlimitations and weaknesses of the Manhood. John never forgets either\nterm of his great sentence in which all the gospel is condensed, 'the\nWord became flesh.' Ever he shows us 'the Word'; ever 'the flesh.' Thus\nit is he only who records the saying on the Cross, 'I thirst.' It is he\nwho tells us how Jesus Christ, not merely for the sake of getting a\nconvenient opening of a conversation, or to conciliate prejudices, but\nbecause He needed what He asked, said to the woman of Samaria, 'Give Me\nto drink.' So the weariness of the Master stands forth for us as\npathetic proof that it was no shadowy investiture with an apparent\nManhood to which He stooped, but a real participation in our\nlimitations and weaknesses, so that work to Him was fatigue, even\nthough in Him dwelt the manifest glory of that divine nature which\n'fainteth not, neither is weary.'\n\nNot only does this pathetic incident teach us for our firmer faith, and\nmore sympathetic and closer apprehension, the reality of the Manhood of\nJesus Christ, but it supplies likewise some imperfect measure of His\nlove, and reveals to us one condition of His power. Ah! if He had not\nHimself known weariness He never could have said, 'Come unto Me, all ye\nthat are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' It was\nbecause Himself 'took our infirmities,' and amongst these the weakness\nof tired muscles and exhausted frame, that 'He giveth power to the\nfaint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.' The\nCreator must have no share in the infirmities of the creature. It must\nbe His unwearied power that calls them all by their names; and because\nHe is great in might 'not one' of the creatures of His hand can 'fail.'\nBut the Redeemer must participate in that from which He redeems; and\nthe condition of His strength being 'made perfect in our weakness' is\nthat our weakness shall have cast a shadow upon the glory of His\nstrength. The measure of His love is seen in that, long before Calvary,\nHe entered into the humiliation and sufferings and sorrows of humanity;\na condition of His power is seen in that, forasmuch as the 'children\nwere partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part\nof the same,' not only that 'through death He might deliver' from\ndeath, but that in life He might redeem from the ills and sorrows of\nlife.\n\nNor does that exhausted Figure, reclining on Jacob's Well, preach to us\nonly what _He_ was. It proclaims to us likewise what _we_ should be.\nFor if His work was carried on to the edge of His capacity, and if He\nshrank not from service because it involved toil, what about the\nprofessing followers of Jesus Christ, who think that they are exempted\nfrom any form of service because they can plead that it will weary\nthem? What about those who say that they tread in His footsteps, and\nhave never known what it was to yield up one comfort, one moment of\nleisure, one thrill of enjoyment, or to encounter one sacrifice, one\nact of self-denial, one aching of weariness for the sake of the Lord\nwho bore all for them? The wearied Christ proclaims His manhood,\nproclaims His divinity and His love, and rebukes us who consent to\n'walk in the way of His commandments' only on condition that it can be\ndone without dust or heat; and who are ready to run the race that is\nset before us, only if we can come to the goal without perspiration or\nturning a hair. 'Jesus, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the\nwell.'\n\nII. Still further, notice here the devoted Christ.\n\nIt is not often that He lets us have a glimpse into the innermost\nchambers of His heart, in so far as the impelling motives of His course\nare concerned. But here He lays them bare. 'My meat is to do the will\nof Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.'\n\nNow, it is no mere piece of grammatical pedantry when I ask you to\nnotice that the language of the original is so constructed as to give\nprominence to the idea that the aim of Christ's life was the doing of\nthe Father's will; and that it is the aim rather than the actual\nperformance and realisation of the aim which is pointed at by our Lord.\nThe words would be literally rendered 'My meat is _that I may do_ the\nwill of Him that sent Me and finish His work'\u2014that is to say, the very\nnourishment and refreshment of Christ was found in making the\naccomplishment of the Father's commandment His ever-impelling motive,\nHis ever-pursued goal. The expression carries us into the inmost heart\nof Jesus, dealing, as it does, with the one all-pervading motive rather\nthan with the resulting actions, fair and holy as these were.\n\nBrethren, the secret of our lives, if they are at all to be worthy and\nnoble, must be the same\u2014the recognition, not only as they say now, that\nwe have a mission, but that there _is_ a Sender; which is a wholly\ndifferent view of our position, and that He who sends is the loving\nFather, who has spoken to us in that dear Son, who Himself made it His\naim thus to obey, in order that it might be possible for us to re-echo\nHis voice, and to repeat His aim. The recognition of the Sender, the\nabsolute submission of our wills to His, must run through all the life.\nYou may do your daily work, whatever it be, with this for its motto,\n'the will of the Lord be done'; and they who thus can look at their\ntrade, or profession, and see the trivialities and monotonies of their\ndaily occupations, in the transfiguring light of that great thought,\nwill never need to complain that life is small, ignoble, wearisome,\ninsignificant. As with pebbles in some clear brook with the sunshine on\nit, the water in which they are sunk glorifies and magnifies them. If\nyou lift them out, they are but bits of dull stone; lying beneath the\nsunlit ripples they are jewels. Plunge the prose of your life, and all\nits trivialities, into that great stream, and it will magnify and\nglorify the smallest and the homeliest. Absolute submission to the\ndivine will, and the ever-present thrilling consciousness of doing it,\nwere the secret of Christ's life, and ought to be the secret of ours.\n\nNote the distinction between doing the will and perfecting the work.\nThat implies that Jesus Christ, like us, reached forward, in each\nsuccessive act of obedience to the successive manifestations of the\nFather's will, to something still undone. The work will never be\nperfected or finished except on condition of continual fulfilment,\nmoment by moment, of the separate behests of that divine will. For the\nLord, as for His servants, this was the manner of obedience, that He\n'pressed towards the mark,' and by individual acts of conformity\nsecured that at last the whole 'work' should have been so completely\naccomplished that He might be able to say upon the Cross, 'It is\nfinished.' If we have any right to call ourselves His, we too have thus\nto live.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the reinvigorated Christ.\n\nI have already pointed out the lovely contrast between the two\npictures, the beginning and the end of this incident; so I need not\ndwell upon that. The disciples wondered when they found that Christ\ndesired and needed none of the homely sustenance that they had brought\nto Him. And when He answered their sympathy rather than their\ncuriosity\u2014for they did not ask Him any questions, but they said to Him,\n'Master, eat'\u2014with 'I have meat to eat that ye know not of,' they, in\ntheir blind, blundering fashion, could only imagine that some one had\nbrought Him something. So they gave occasion for the great words upon\nwhich we have been touching.\n\nNotice, however, that Christ here sets forth the lofty aim at\nconformity to the divine will and fulfilment of the divine Work as\nbeing the meat of the soul. It is the true food for us all. The spirit\nwhich feeds upon such food will grow and be nourished. And the soul\nwhich feeds upon its own will and fancies, and not upon the plain brown\nbread of obedience, which is wholesome, though it be often bitter, will\nfeed upon ashes, which will grate upon the teeth and hurt the palate.\nSuch a soul will be like those wretched infants that are discovered\nsometimes at 'baby-farms,' starved and stunted, and not grown to half\ntheir right size. If you would have your spirits strong, robust, well\nnourished, live by obedience, and let the will of God be the food of\nyour souls, and all will be well.\n\nSouls thus fed can do without a good deal that others need. Why,\nenthusiasm for anything lifts a man above physical necessities and\nlower desires, even in its poorest forms. A regiment of soldiers making\na forced march, or an athlete trying to break the record, will tramp,\ntramp on, not needing food, or rest, or sleep, until they have achieved\ntheir purpose, poor and ignoble though it may be. In all regions of\nlife, enthusiasm and lofty aims make the soul lord of the body and of\nthe world.\n\nAnd in the Christian life we shall be thus lords, exactly in proportion\nto the depth and earnestness of our desires to do the will of God. They\nwho thus are fed can afford 'to scorn delights and live laborious\ndays.' They who thus are fed can afford to do with plain living, if\nthere be high impulses as well as high thinking. And sure I am that\nnothing is more certain to stamp out the enthusiasm of obedience which\nought to mark the Christian life than the luxurious fashion of living\nwhich is getting so common to-day amongst professing Christians.\n\nIt is not in vain that we read the old story about the Jewish boys\nwhose faces were radiant and whose flesh was firmer when they were fed\non pulse and water than on all the wine and dainties of the Babylonish\ncourt. 'Set a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite,'\nand let us remember that the less we use, and the less we feel that we\nneed, of outward goods, the nearer do we approach to the condition in\nwhich holy desires and lofty aims will visit our spirits.\n\nI commend to you, brethren, the story of our text, in its most literal\napplication, as well as in the loftier spiritual lessons that may be\ndrawn from it. To be near Christ, and to desire to live for Him,\ndelivers us from dependence upon earthly things; and in those who thus\ndo live the old word shall be fulfilled, 'Better is a little that a\nrighteous man hath, than the abundance of many wicked.'\n\n\n\n\n'GIVE ME TO DRINK'\n\n\n'\u2026 Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink\u2026. Jesus saith unto her,\nI that speak unto thee am He.'\u2014JOHN iv. 7, 26.\n\nThis Evangelist very significantly sets side by side our Lord's\nconversations with Nicodemus and with the woman of Samaria. The persons\nare very different: the one a learned Rabbi of reputation, influence,\nand large theological knowledge of the then fashionable kind; the other\nan alien woman, poor\u2014for she had to do this menial task of\nwater-drawing in the heat of the day\u2014and of questionable character.\n\nThe diversity of persons necessitates great differences in the form of\nour Lord's address to each; but the resemblances are as striking as the\ndivergencies. In both we have His method of gradually unveiling the\ntruth to a susceptible soul, beginning with symbol and a hint,\ngradually enlarging the hint and translating the symbol; and finally\nunveiling Himself as the Giver and the Gift. There is another\nresemblance; in both the characteristic gift is that of the Spirit of\nLife, and, perhaps, in both the symbol is the same. For we read in one\nof 'water and the Spirit'; and in the other of the fountain within,\nspringing into everlasting life. However that may be, the process of\nteaching is all but identical in substance in both cases, though in\nform so various.\n\nThe words of our Lord which I have taken for our text now are His first\nand last utterance in this conversation. What a gulf lies between! They\nare linked together by the intervening sayings, and constitute with\nthese a great ladder, of which the foot is fast on earth, and the top\nfixed in heaven. On the one hand, He owns the lowest necessities; on\nthe other, He makes the highest claims. Let us ponder on this\nremarkable juxtaposition, and try to gather the lessons that are plain\nin it.\n\nI. First, then, I think we see here the mystery of the dependent\nChrist.\n\n'Give Me to drink': 'I am He.' Try to see the thing for a moment with\nthe woman's eyes. She comes down from her little village, up amongst\nthe cliffs on the hillside, across the narrow, hot valley, beneath the\nsweltering sunshine reflected from the bounding mountains, and she\nfinds, in the midst of the lush vegetation round the ancient well, a\nsolitary, weary Jew, travel-worn, evidently exhausted\u2014for His disciples\nhad gone away to buy food, and He was too wearied to go with\nthem\u2014looking into the well, but having no dipper or vessel by which to\nget any of its cool treasure. We lose a great deal of the meaning of\nChrist's request if we suppose that it was merely a way of getting into\nconversation with the woman, a 'breaking of the ice.' It was a great\ndeal more than that. It was the utterance of a felt and painful\nnecessity, which He Himself could not supply without a breach of what\nHe conceived to be His filial dependence. He could have brought water\nout of the well. He did not need to depend upon the pitcher that the\ndisciples had perhaps unthinkingly carried away with them when they\nwent to buy bread. He did not need to ask the woman to give, but He\nchose to do so. We lose much if we do not see in this incident far more\nthan the woman saw, but we lose still more if we do not see what she\ndid see. And the words which the Master spoke to her are no mere way of\nintroducing a conversation on religious themes; but He asked for a\ndraught which He needed, and which He had no other way of getting.\n\nSo, then, here stands, pathetically set forth before us, our Lord's\ntrue participation in two of the distinguishing characteristics of our\nweak humanity\u2014subjection to physical necessities and dependence on\nkindly help. We find Him weary, hungry, thirsty, sometimes slumbering.\nAnd all these instances are documents and proofs for us that He was a\ntrue man like ourselves, and that, like ourselves, He depended on 'the\nwoman that ministered to Him' for the supply of His necessities, and so\nknew the limitations of our social and else helpless humanity.\n\nBut then a wearied and thirsty man is nothing of much importance. But\nhere is a Man who _humbled Himself_ to be weary and to thirst. The\nkeynote of this Gospel, the one thought which unlocks all its\ntreasures, and to the elucidation of which, in all its aspects, the\nwhole book is devoted, is, 'The Word was made flesh.' Only when you let\nin the light of the last utterance of our text, 'I that speak unto thee\nam He,' do we understand the pathos, the sublimity, the depth and\nblessedness of meaning which lie in the first one, 'Give Me to drink.'\nWhen we see that He bowed Himself, and willingly stretched out His\nhands for the fetters, we come to understand the significance of these\ntraces of His manhood. The woman says, with wonder, 'How is it that\nThou, being a Jew, askest drink of me?' and that was wonderful. But, as\nHe hints to her, if she had known more clearly who this Person was,\nthat seemed to be a Jew, a deeper wonder would have crept over her\nspirit. The wonder is that the Eternal Word should need the water of\nthe well, and should ask it of a poor human creature.\n\nAnd why this humiliation? He could, as I have said, have wrought a\nmiracle. He that fed five thousand, He that had turned water into wine\nat the rustic marriage-feast, would have had no difficulty in quenching\nHis thirst if he had chosen to use His miraculous power therefore. But\nHe here shows us that the true filial spirit will rather die than cast\noff its dependence on the Father, and the same motive which led Him to\nreject the temptation in the wilderness, and to answer with sublime\nconfidence, 'Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word from\nthe mouth of God,' forbids Him here to use other means of securing the\ndraught that He so needed than the appeal to the sympathy of an alien,\nand the swift compassion of a woman's heart.\n\nAnd then, let us remember that the motive of this willing acceptance of\nthe limitations and weaknesses of humanity is, in the deepest analysis,\nsimply His love to us; as the mediaeval hymn has it, 'Seeking me, Thou\nsatest weary.'\n\nIn that lonely Traveller, worn, exhausted, thirsty, craving for a\ndraught of water from a stranger's hand, is set forth 'the glory of the\nFather, full of grace and truth.' A strange manifestation of divine\nglory this! But if we understand that the glory of God is the lustrous\nlight of His self-revealing love, perhaps we shall understand how, from\nthat faint, craving voice, 'Give Me to drink,' that glory sounds forth\nmore than in the thunders that rolled about the rocky peak of Sinai.\nStrange to think, brethren, that the voice from those lips dry with\nthirst, which was low and weak, was the voice that spoke to the sea,\n'Peace! be still,' and there was a calm; that said to demons, 'Come out\nof him!' and they evacuated their fortress; that cast its command into\nthe grave of Lazarus, and he came forth; and which one day all that are\nin the grave shall hear, and hearing shall obey. 'Give Me to drink.' 'I\nthat speak unto thee am He.'\n\nII. Secondly, we may note here the self-revealing Christ.\n\nThe process by which Jesus gradually unveils His full character to this\nwoman, so unspiritual and unsusceptible as she appeared at first sight\nto be, is interesting and instructive. It would occupy too much of your\ntime for me to do more than set it before you in the barest outline.\nNoting the singular divergence between the two sayings which I have\ntaken as our text, it is interesting to notice how the one gradually\nmerges into the other. First of all, Jesus Christ, as it were, opens a\nfinger of His hand to let the woman have a glimpse of the gift lying\nthere, that that may kindle desire, and hints at some occult depth in\nHis person and nature all undreamed of by her yet, and which would be\nthe occasion of greater wonder, and of a reversal of their parts, if\nshe knew it. Then, in answer to her, half understanding that He meant\nmore than met the ear, and yet opposing the plain physical difficulties\nthat were in the way, in that He had 'nothing to draw with, and the\nwell is deep,' and asking whether He were greater than our father\nJacob, who also had given, and given not only a draught, but the well,\nour Lord enlarges her vision of the blessedness of the gift, though He\nsays but little more of its nature, except in so far as that may be\ngathered from the fact that the water that He will give will be a\npermanent source of satisfaction, forbidding the pangs of unquenched\ndesire ever again to be felt as pangs; and from the other fact that it\nwill be an inward possession, leaping up with a fountain's energy, and\na life within itself, towards, and into everlasting life. Next, he\nstrongly assails conscience and demands repentance, and reveals Himself\nas the reader of the secrets of the heart. Then He discloses the great\ntruths of spiritual worship. And, finally, as a prince in disguise\nmight do, He flings aside the mantle of which He had let a fold or two\nbe blown back in the previous conversation, and stands confessed. 'I\nthat speak unto thee am He.' That is to say, the kindling of desire,\nthe proffer of the all-satisfying gift, the quickening of conscience,\nthe revelation of a Father to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and\nthe final full disclosure of His person and office as the Giver of the\ngift which shall slake all the thirsts of men\u2014these are the stages of\nHis self-revelation.\n\nThen note, not only the process, but the substance of the revelation of\nHimself. The woman had a far more spiritual and lofty conception of the\noffice of Messiah than the Jews had. It is not the first time that\nheretics have reached a loftier ideal of some parts of the truth than\nthe orthodox attain. To the Jew the Messiah was a conquering king, who\nwould help them to ride on the necks of their enemies, and pay back\ntheir persecutions and oppressions. To this Samaritan woman\u2014speaking, I\nsuppose, the conceptions of her race\u2014the Messiah was One who was to\n'_tell_ us all things.'\n\nJesus Christ accepts the position, endorses her anticipations, and in\neffect presents Himself before her and before us as the Fountain of all\ncertitude and knowledge in regard to spiritual matters. For all that we\ncan know, or need to know, with regard to God and man and their mutual\nrelations; for all that we can or need know in regard to manhood, its\nideal, its obligations, its possibilities, its destinies; for all that\nwe need to know of men in their relation to one another, we have to\nturn to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who 'will tell us all things.' He is\nthe Fountain of light; He is the Foundation of certitude; and they who\nseek, not hypotheses and possibilities and conjectures and dreams, but\nthe solid substance of a reliable knowledge, must grasp Him, and esteem\nthe words of His mouth and the deeds of His life more than their\nnecessary food.\n\nHe meets this woman's conceptions as He had met those of Nicodemus. To\nhim He had unveiled Himself as the Son of God, and the Son of Man who\ncame down from heaven, and is in heaven, and ascends to heaven. To the\nwoman He reveals Himself as the Messiah, who will tell us all truth,\nand to both as the Giver of the gift which shall communicate and\nsustain and refresh the better life. But I cannot help dwelling for a\nmoment upon the remarkable, beautiful, and significant designation\nwhich our Lord employs here. 'I that speak unto thee.' The word in the\noriginal, translated by our version 'speak,' is even more sweet,\nbecause more familiar, and conveys the idea of unrestrained frank\nintercourse. Perhaps we might render 'I who am talking with Thee!' and\nthat our Lord desired to emphasise to the woman's heart the notion of\nHis familiar intercourse with her, Messiah though He were, seems to me\nconfirmed by the fact that He uses the same expression, with additional\ngrace and tenderness about it, when He says, with such depth of\nmeaning, to the blind man whom He had healed, 'Thou hast both seen\nHim,' with the eyes to which He gave sight and object of sight, 'and it\nis He that _talketh_ with thee.' The familiar Christ who will come and\nspeak to us face to face and heart to heart, 'as a man speaketh with\nhis friend,' is the Christ who will tell us all things, and whom we may\nwholly trust.\n\nNote too how this revelation has for its condition the docile\nacceptance of the earlier and imperfect teachings. If the woman had not\nyielded herself to our Lord's earlier words, and, though with very dim\ninsight, yet with a heart that sought to be taught, followed Him as He\nstepped from round to round of the ascending ladder, she had never\nstood on the top and seen this great vision. If you see nothing more in\nJesus Christ than a man like yourself, compassed with our infirmities,\nand yet sweet and gracious and good and pure, be true to what you know,\nand put it into practice, and be ready to accept all the light that\ndawns. They that begin down at the bottom with hearing 'Give me to\ndrink,' may stand at the top, and hear Him speak to them His unveiled\ntruth and His full glory. 'To him that hath shall be given.' 'If any\nman wills to do His will he shall know of the teaching.'\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here the universal Christ.\n\nThe woman wondered that, being a Jew, He spoke to her. As I have said,\nour Lord's first utterance is simply the expression of a real physical\nnecessity. But it is none the less what the woman felt it to be, a\nstrange overleaping of barriers that towered very high. A Samaritan, a\nwoman, a sinner, is the recipient of the first clear confession from\nJesus Christ of His Messiahship and dignity. She was right in her\ninstinct that something lay behind His sweeping aside of the barriers\nand coming so close to her with His request. These two, the prejudices\nof race and the contempt for woman, two of the crying evils of the old\nworld, were overpassed by our Lord as if He never saw them. They were\ntoo high for men's puny limbs; they made no obstacle to the march of\nHis divine compassion. And therein lies a symbol, if you like, but none\nthe less a prophecy that will be fulfilled, of the universal adaptation\nand destination of the Gospel, and its independence of all distinctions\nof race and sex, condition, moral character. In Jesus Christ 'there is\nneither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, neither bond nor free'; ye 'are\nall one in Christ.' If He had been but a Jew, it was wonderful that He\nshould talk to a Samaritan. But there is nothing in the character and\nlife of Christ, as recorded in Scripture, more remarkable and more\nplain than the entire absence of any racial peculiarities, or of\ncharacteristics owing to His position in space or time. So unlike His\nnation was He that the very _elite_ of His nation snarled at Him and\nsaid, 'Thou art a Samaritan!' So unlike them was He that one feels that\na character so palpitatingly human to its core, and so impossible to\nexplain from its surroundings, is inexplicable, but on the New\nTestament theory that He is not a Jew, or man only, but the Son of Man,\nthe divine embodiment of the ideal of humanity, whose dwelling was on\nearth, but His origin and home in the bosom of God. Therefore Jesus\nChrist is the world's Christ, your Christ, my Christ, every man's\nChrist, the Tree of Life that stands in the midst of the garden, that\nall men may draw near to it and gather of its fruit.\n\nBrother, answer His proffer of the gift as this woman did: 'Sir, give\nme this water, that I thirst not; neither go all the way to the world's\nbroken cisterns to draw'; and He will put into your hearts that\nindwelling fountain of life, so that you may say like this woman's\ntownspeople: 'Now I have heard Him myself, and know that this is indeed\nthe Christ, the Saviour of the world.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIFT AND THE GIVER\n\n\n'Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and\nwho it is that saith unto thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have\nasked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.'\u2014JOHN iv. 10.\n\nThis Gospel has two characteristics seldom found together: deep thought\nand vivid character-drawing. Nothing can be more clear-cut and dramatic\nthan the scene in the chapter before us. There is not a word of\ndescription of this Samaritan woman. She paints herself, and it is not\na beautiful picture. She is apparently of the peasant class, from a\nlittle village nestling on the hill above the plain, come down in the\nbroiling sunshine to Jacob's well. She is of mature age, and has had a\nnot altogether reputable past. She is frivolous, ready to talk with\nstrangers, with a tongue quick to turn grave things into jests; and yet\nshe possesses, hidden beneath masses of unclean vanities, a conscience\nand a yearning for something better than she has, which Christ's words\nawoke, and which was finally so enkindled as to make her fit to receive\nthe full declaration of His Messiahship, which Pharisees and priests\ncould not be trusted with.\n\nI need scarcely do more than remind you of the way in which the\nconversation between this strangely assorted pair began. The solitary\nJew, sitting spent with travel on the well, asks for a draught of\nwater; not in order to get an opening for preaching, but because He\nneeds it. She replies with an exclamation of light wonder, half a jest\nand half a sarcasm, and challenging a response in the same tone.\n\nBut Christ lifts her to a higher level by the words of my text, which\nawed levity, and prepared for a fuller revelation. 'Thou dost wonder\nthat I, being a Jew, ask drink of thee, a Samaritan. If thou knewest\nwho I am, thy wonder at My asking would be more. If thou knewest what I\nhave to give, we should change places, and thou wouldest ask, and I\nshould bestow.'\n\nSo then, we have here gift, Giver, way of getting, and ignorance that\nhinders asking. Let us look at these.\n\nI. First, the gift of God. Now it is quite clear that our Lord means\nthe same thing, whatever it may be, by the two expressions, the 'gift\nof God' and the 'living water.' For, unless He does, the whole sequence\nof my text falls to pieces. 'Living water' was suggested, no doubt, by\nthe circumstances of the moment. There, in the well, was an\never-springing source, and, says He, a like supply, ever welling up for\nthirsty lips and foul hands, ever sweet and ever sufficient, God is\nready to give.\n\nWe may remember how, all through Scripture, we hear the tinkle of these\nwaters as they run. The force of the expression is to be gathered\nlargely from the Old Testament and the uses of the metaphor there. It\nhas been supposed that by the 'living water' which God gives is here\nmeant some one specific gift, such as that of the Holy Spirit, which\nsometimes is expressed by the metaphor. Rather I should be disposed to\nsay the 'living water' is eternal life. 'With Thee is the fountain of\nlife.' And so, in the last resort, the gift of God is God Himself.\nNothing else will suffice for us, brethren. We need Him, and we need\nnone but Him.\n\nOur Lord, in the subsequent part of this conversation, again touches\nupon this great metaphor, and suggests one or two characteristics,\nblessings, and excellences of it. 'It shall be _in_ him,' it is\nsomething that we may carry about with us in our hearts, inseparable\nfrom our being, free from all possibility of being filched away by\nviolence, being rent from us by sorrows, or even being parted from us\nby death. What a man has outside of him he only seems to have. Our only\nreal possessions are those which have passed into the substance of our\nsouls. All else we shall leave behind. The only good is inward good;\nand this water of life slakes our thirst because it flows into the\ndeepest place of our being, and abides there for ever.\n\nOh! you that are seeking your satisfaction from fountains that remain\noutside of you after all your efforts, learn that all of them, by\nreason of their externality, will sooner or later be 'broken cisterns\nthat can hold no water.' And I beseech you, if you want rest for your\nsouls and stilling for their yearnings, look for it there, where only\nit can be found, in Him, who not only dwells in the heavens to rule and\nto shower down blessings, but enters into the waiting heart and abides\nthere, the inward, and therefore the only real, possession and riches.\n'It shall be in him a fountain of water.'\n\nIt is 'springing up'\u2014with an immortal energy, with ever fresh fulness,\nby its own inherent power, needing no pumps nor machinery, but ever\nwelling forth its refreshment, an emblem of the joyous energy and\ncontinual freshness of vitality, which is granted to those who carry\nGod in their hearts, and therefore can never be depressed beyond\nmeasure, nor ever feel that the burden of life is too heavy to bear, or\nits sorrows too sharp to endure.\n\nIt springs up 'into eternal life,' for water must seek its source, and\nrise to the level of its origin, and this fountain within a man, that\nreaches up ever towards the eternal life from which it came, and which\nit gives to its possessor, will bear him up, as some strong spring will\nlift the clods that choked its mouth, will bear him up towards the\neternal life which is native to it, and therefore native to him.\n\nBrethren, no man is so poor, so low, so narrow in capacity, so limited\nin heart and head, but that he needs a whole God to make him restful.\nNothing else will. To seek for satisfaction elsewhere is like sailors\nwho in their desperation, when the water-tanks are empty, slake their\nthirst with the treacherous blue that washes cruelly along the battered\nsides of their ship. A moment's alleviation is followed by the\nrecurrence, in tenfold intensity, of the pangs of thirst, and by\nmadness, and death. Do not drink the salt water that flashes and rolls\nby your side when you can have recourse to the fountain of life that is\nwith God.\n\n'Oh!' you say, 'commonplace, threadbare pulpit rhetoric.' Yes! Do you\nlive as if it were true? It will never be too threadbare to be dinned\ninto your head until it has passed into your lives and regulated them.\n\nII. Now, in the next place, notice the Giver.\n\nJesus Christ blends in one sentence, startling in its boldness, the\ngift of God, and Himself as the Bestower. This Man, exhausted for want\nof a draught of water, speaks with parched lips a claim most singularly\nin contrast with the request which He had just made: 'I will give thee\nthe living water.' No wonder that the woman was bewildered, and could\nonly say, 'The well is deep, and Thou hast nothing to draw with.' She\nmight have said, 'Why then dost Thou ask me?' The words were meant to\ncreate astonishment, in order that the astonishment might awaken\ninterest, which would lead to the capacity for further illumination.\nSuppose you had been there, had seen the Man whom she saw, had heard\nthe two things that she heard, and knew no more about Him than she\nknew, what would _you_ have thought of Him and His words? Perhaps you\nwould have been more contemptuous than she was. See to it that, since\nyou know so much that explains and warrants them, you do not treat them\nworse than she did.\n\nJesus Christ claims to give God's gifts. He is able to give to that\npoor, frivolous, impure-hearted and impure-lifed woman, at her request,\nthe eternal life which shall still all the thirst of her soul, that had\noften in the past been satiated and disgusted, but had never been\nsatisfied by any of its draughts.\n\nAnd He claims that in this giving He is something more than a channel,\nbecause, says He, 'If thou hadst asked of Me I would give thee.' We\nsometimes think of the relation between God and Christ as being\ntypified by that of some land-locked sea amidst remote mountains, and\nthe affluent that brings its sparkling treasures to the thirsting\nvalley. But Jesus Christ is no mere vehicle for the conveyance of a\ndivine gift, but His own heart, His own power, His own love are in it;\nand it is His gift just as much as it is God's.\n\nNow I do not do more than pause for one moment to ask you to think of\nwhat inference is necessarily involved in such a claim as this. If we\nknow anything about Jesus Christ at all, we know that He spoke in this\ntone, not occasionally, but habitually. It will not do to pick out\nother bits of His character or actions and admire these and ignore the\ncharacteristic of His teachings\u2014His claims for Himself. And I have only\nthis one word to say, if Jesus Christ ever said anything the least like\nthe words of my text, and if they were not true, what was He but a\nfanatic who had lost His head in the fancy of His inspiration? And if\nHe said these words and they _were_ true, what is He then? What but\nthat which this Gospel insists from its beginning to its end that He\nwas\u2014the Eternal Word of God, by whom all divine revelation from the\nbeginning has been made, and who at last 'became flesh' that we might\n'receive of His fulness,' and therein 'be filled with all the fulness\nof God.' Other alternative I, for my part, see none.\n\nBut I would have you notice, too, the connection between these human\nneeds of the Saviour and His power to give the divine gift. Why did He\nnot simply say to this woman, 'If thou knewest who I am?' Why did He\nuse this periphrasis of my text, 'Who it is that saith unto thee, \"Give\nMe to drink\"'? Why but because He wanted to fix her attention on the\nstartling contradiction between His appearance and His claims\u2014on the\none hand asserting divine prerogative, on the other forcing into\nprominence human weakness and necessity, because these two things, the\nhuman weakness and the divine prerogative, are inseparably braided\ntogether and intertwined. Some of you will remember the great scene in\nShakespeare where the weakness of Caesar is urged as a reason for\nrejecting his imperial authority:\u2014\n\n  'Ay! and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans\n  Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,\n  Alas! it cried, \"Give me some drink, \u2026\n  Like a sick girl.\"'\n\nAnd the inference that is drawn is, how can he be fit to be a ruler of\nmen? But we listen to our Caesar and Emperor, when He asks this woman\nfor water, and when He says on the Cross, 'I thirst,' and we feel that\nthese are not the least of His titles to be crowned with many crowns.\nThey bring Him nearer to us, and they are the means by which His love\nreaches its end, of bestowing upon us all, if we will have it, the cup\nof salvation. Unless He had said the one of these two things, He never\ncould have said the other. Unless the dry lips had petitioned, 'Give Me\nto drink,' the gracious lips could never have said, 'I will give thee\nliving water.' Unless, like Jacob of old, this Shepherd could say, 'In\nthe day the drought consumed Me,' it would have been impossible that\nthe flock 'shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more, \u2026\nfor the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to\nliving fountains of water.'\n\nIII. Again, notice how to get the gift.\n\nChrist puts together, as if they were all but contemporaneous, 'thou\nwouldst have asked of Me,' and 'I would have given thee.' The hand on\nthe telegraph transmits the message, and back, swift as the lightning,\nflashes the response. The condition, the only condition, and the\nindispensable condition, of possessing that water of life\u2014the summary\nexpression for all the gifts of God in Jesus Christ, which at the last\nare essentially God Himself\u2014is the desire to possess it turned to Jesus\nChrist. Is it not strange that men should not desire; is it not strange\nand sad that such foolish creatures are we that we do not want what we\nneed; that our wishes and needs are often diametrically opposite? All\nmen desire happiness, but some of us have so vitiated our tastes and\nour palates by fiery intoxicants that the water of life seems\ndreadfully tasteless and unstimulating, and so we will rather go back\nagain to the delusive, poisoned drinks than glue our lips to the river\nof God's pleasures.\n\nBut it is not enough that there should be the desire. It must be turned\nto Him. In fact the asking of my text, so far as you and I are\nconcerned, is but another way of speaking the great keyword of personal\nreligion, faith in Jesus Christ. For they who ask, know their\nnecessity, are convinced of the power of Him to whom they appeal to\ngrant their requests, and rely upon His love to do so. And these three\nthings, the sense of need, the conviction of Christ's ability to save\nand to satisfy, and of His infinite love that desires to make us\nblessed\u2014these three things fused together make the faith which receives\nthe gift of God.\n\nRemember, brethren, that another of the scriptural expressions for the\nact of trusting in Him, is _taking_, not asking. You do not need to\nask, as if for something that is not provided. What we all need to do\nis to open our eyes to see what is there. If we like to put out our\nhands and take it. Why should we be saying, 'Give me to drink,' when a\npierced hand reaches out to us the cup of salvation, and says, 'Drink\nye all of it'? 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come \u2026 and drink \u2026\nwithout money and without price.'\n\nThere is no other condition but desire turned to Christ, and that is\nthe necessary condition. God cannot give men salvation, as veterinary\nsurgeons drench unwilling horses\u2014forcing the medicine down their\nthroats through clenched teeth. There must be the opened mouth, and\nwherever there is, there will be the full supply. 'Ask, and ye shall\nreceive'; take, and ye shall possess.\n\nIV. Lastly, mark the ignorance that prevents asking.\n\nJesus Christ looked at this poor woman and discerned in her, though, as\nI said, it was hidden beneath mountains of folly and sin, a thirsty\nsoul that was dimly longing for something better. And He believed that,\nif once the mystery of His being and the mercy of God's gifts were\ndisplayed before her, she would melt into a yearning of desire that is\ncertain to be fulfilled. In some measure the same thing is true of us\nall. For surely, surely, if only you saw realities, and things as they\nare, some of you would not be content to continue as you are\u2014without\nthis water of life. Blind, blind, blind, are the men who grope at\nnoon-day as in the dark and turn away from Jesus. If you knew, not with\nthe head only, but with the whole nature, if you knew the thirst of\nyour soul, the sweetness of the water, the readiness of the Giver, and\nthe dry and parched land to which you condemn yourselves by your\nrefusal, surely you would bethink yourself and fall at His feet and\nask, and get, the water of life.\n\nBut, brethren, there is a worse case than ignorance; there is the case\nof people that know and refuse, not by reason of imperfect knowledge,\nbut by reason of averted will. And I beseech you to ponder whether that\nmay not be your condition. 'Whosoever _will_, let him come.' 'Ye _will_\nnot come unto Me that ye might have life.' I do not think I venture\nmuch when I say that I am sure there are people hearing me now, not\nChristians, who are as certain, deep down in their hearts, that the\nonly rest of the soul is in God, and the only way to get it is through\nChrist, as any saint of God's ever was. But the knowledge does not\ntouch their will because they like the poison and they do not want the\nlife.\n\nOh! dear friends, the instantaneousness of Christ's answer, and the\ncertainty of it, are as true for each of us as they were for this\nwoman. The offer is made to us all, just as it was to her. We can\ngather round that Rock like the Israelites in the wilderness, and slake\nevery thirst of our souls from its outgushing streams. Jesus Christ\nsays to each of us, as He did to her, tenderly, warningly, invitingly,\nand yet rebukingly, 'If thou knewest \u2026 thou wouldst ask, \u2026 and I would\ngive.'\n\nTake care lest, by continual neglect, you force Him at last to change\nHis words, and to lament over you, as He did over the city that He\nloved so well, and yet destroyed. 'If thou _hadst_ known in thy day the\nthings that belong to thy peace. But now they are hid from thine eyes.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE SPRINGING FOUNTAIN\n\n\n'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water,\nspringing up into everlasting life.'\u2014JOHN iv. 14.\n\nThere are two kinds of wells, one a simple reservoir, another\ncontaining the waters of a spring. It is the latter kind which is\nspoken about here, as is clear not only from the meaning of the word in\nthe Greek, but also from the description of it as 'springing up.' That\nsuggests at once the activity of a fountain. A fountain is the emblem\nof motion, not of rest. Its motion is derived from itself, not imparted\nto it from without. Its 'silvery column' rises ever heavenward, though\ngravitation is too strong for it, and drags it back again.\n\nSo Christ promises to this ignorant, sinful Samaritan woman that if she\nchose He would plant in her soul a gift which would thus well up, by\nits own inherent energy, and fill her spirit with music, and\nrefreshment, and satisfaction.\n\nWhat is that gift? The answer may be put in various ways which really\nall come to one. It is Himself, the unspeakable Gift, His own greatest\ngift; or it is the Spirit 'which they that believe on Him should\nreceive,' and whereby He comes and dwells in men's hearts; or it is the\nresulting life, kindred with the life bestowed, a consequence of the\nindwelling Christ and the present Spirit.\n\nAnd so the promise is that they who believe in Him and rest upon His\nlove shall receive into their spirits a new life principle which shall\nrise in their hearts like a fountain, 'springing up into everlasting\nlife.'\n\nI think we shall best get the whole depth and magnitude of this great\npromise if, throwing aside all mere artificial order, we simply take\nthe words as they stand here in the text, and think, first, of Christ's\ngift as a fountain within; then as a fountain springing, leaping up, by\nits own power; and then as a fountain 'springing into everlasting\nlife.'\n\nI. First, Christ's gift is represented here as a fountain within.\n\nMost men draw their supplies from without; they are rich, happy,\nstrong, only when externals minister to them strength, happiness,\nriches. For the most of us, what we have is that which determines our\nfelicity.\n\nTake the lowest type of life, for instance, the men of whom the\nmajority, alas! I suppose, in every time is composed, who live\naltogether on the low plane of the world, and for the world alone,\nwhether their worldliness take the form of sensuous appetite, or of\ndesire to acquire wealth and outward possessions. The thirst of the\nbody is the type of the experience of all such people. It is satisfied\nand slaked for a moment, and then back comes the tyrannous appetite\nagain. And, alas! the things that you drink to satisfy the thirst of\nyour souls are too often like a publican's adulterated beer, which has\ngot salt in it, and chemicals, and all sorts of things to stir up,\ninstead of slaking and quenching, the thirst. So 'he that loveth silver\nshall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with\nincrease.' The appetite grows by what it feeds on, and a little lust\nyielded to to-day is a bigger one to-morrow, and half a glass to-day\ngrows to a bottle in a twelvemonth. As the old classical saying has it,\nhe 'who begins by carrying a calf, before long is able to carry an ox';\nso the thirst in the soul needs and drinks down a constantly increasing\ndraught.\n\nAnd even if we rise up into a higher region and look at the experience\nof the men who have in some measure learned that 'a man's life\nconsisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth,' nor\nin the abundance of the gratification that his animal nature gets, but\nthat there must be an inward spring of satisfaction, if there is to be\nany satisfaction at all; if we take men who live for thought, and\ntruth, and mental culture, and yield themselves up to the enthusiasm\nfor some great cause, and are proud of saying, 'My mind to me a kingdom\nis,' though they present a far higher style of life than the former,\nyet even that higher type of man has so many of his roots in the\nexternal world that he is at the mercy of chances and changes, and he,\ntoo, has deep in his heart a thirst that nothing, no truth, no wisdom,\nno culture, nothing that addresses itself to one part of his nature,\nthough it be the noblest and the loftiest, can ever satisfy and slake.\n\nI am sure I have some such people in my audience, and to them this\nmessage comes. You may have, if you will, in your own hearts, a\nspringing fountain of delight and of blessedness which will secure that\nno unsatisfied desires shall ever torment you. Christ in His fulness,\nHis Spirit, the life that flows from both and is planted within our\nhearts, these are offered to us all; and if we have them we carry\ninclosed within ourselves all that is essential to our felicity; and we\ncan say, 'I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be\nself-satisfying,' not with the proud, stoical independence of a man who\ndoes not want either God or man to make him blessed, but with the\nhumble independence of a man who can say 'my sufficiency is of God.'\n\nNo independence of externals is possible, nor wholesome if it were\npossible, except that which comes from absolute dependence on Jesus\nChrist.\n\nIf you have Christ in your heart then life is possible, peace is\npossible, joy is possible, under all circumstances and in all places.\nEverything which the soul can desire, it possesses. You will be like\nthe garrison of a beleaguered castle, in the courtyard of which is a\nsparkling spring, fed from some source high up in the mountains, and\nfinding its way in there by underground channels which no besiegers can\never touch. Sorrows will come, and make you sad, but though there may\nbe much darkness round about you, there will be light in the darkness.\nThe trees may be bare and leafless, but the sap has gone down to the\nroots. The world may be all wintry and white with snow, but there will\nbe a bright little fire burning on your own hearthstone. You will carry\nwithin yourselves all the essentials to blessedness. If you have\n'Christ in the vessel' you can smile at the storm. They that drink from\nearth's fountains 'shall thirst again'; but they who have Christ in\ntheir hearts will have a fountain within which will not freeze in the\nbitterest cold, nor fail in the fiercest heat. 'The water that I shall\ngive him shall be in him a fountain.'\n\nII. Christ's gift is a springing fountain.\n\nThe emblem, of course, suggests motion by its own inherent impulse.\nWater may be stagnant, or it may yield to the force of gravity and\nslide down a descending river-bed, or it may be pumped up and lifted by\nexternal force applied to it, or it may roll as it does in the sea,\ndrawn by the moon, driven by the winds, borne along by currents that\nowe their origin to outward heat or cold. But a fountain rises by an\nenergy implanted within itself, and is the very emblem of joyous, free,\nself-dependent and self-regulated activity.\n\nAnd so, says Christ, 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a\nspringing fountain'; it shall not lie there stagnant, but leap like a\nliving thing, up into the sunshine, and flash there, turned into\ndiamonds, when the bright rays smile upon it.\n\nSo here is the promise of two things: the promise of activity, and of\nan activity which is its own law.\n\nThe promise of activity. There seems small blessing, in this overworked\nworld, in a promise of more active exertion; but what an immense part\nof our nature lies dormant and torpid if we are not Christians! How\nmuch of the work that is done is dreary, wearisome, collar-work,\nagainst the grain. Do not the wheels of life often go slowly? Are you\nnot often weary of the inexpressible monotony and fatigue? And do you\nnot go to your work sometimes, though with a fierce feeling of\n'need-to-do-it,' yet also with inward repugnance? And are there not\ngreat parts of your nature that have never woke into activity at all,\nand are ill at ease, because there is no field of action provided for\nthem? The mind is like millstones; if you do not put the wheat into\nthem to grind, they will grind each other's faces. So some of us are\nfretting ourselves to pieces, or are sick of a vague disease, and are\nmorbid and miserable because the highest and noblest parts of our\nnature have never been brought into exercise. Surely this promise of\nChrist's should come as a true Gospel to such, offering, as it does, if\nwe will trust ourselves to Him, a springing fountain of activity in our\nhearts that shall fill our whole being with joyous energy, and make it\na delight to live and to work. It will bring to us new powers, new\nmotives; it will set all the wheels of life going at double speed. We\nshall be quickened by the presence of that mighty power, even as a dim\ntaper is brightened and flames up when plunged into a jar of oxygen.\nAnd life will be delightsome in its hardest toil, when it is toil for\nthe sake of, and by the indwelling strength of, that great Lord and\nMaster of our work.\n\nAnd there is not only a promise of activity here, but of activity which\nis its own law and impulse. That is a blessed promise in two ways. In\nthe first place, law will be changed into delight. We shall not be\ndriven by a commandment standing over us with whip and lash, or coming\nbehind us with spur and goad, but that which we ought to do we shall\nrejoice to do; and inclination and duty will coincide in all our lives\nwhen our life is Christ's life in us.\n\nThat should be a blessing to some of you who have been fighting against\nevil and trying to do right with more or less success, more or less\ninterruptedly and at intervals, and have felt the effort to be a burden\nand a wearisomeness. Here is a promise of emancipation from all that\nconstraint and yoke of bondage which duty discerned and unloved ever\nlays upon a man's shoulders. When we carry within us the gift of a life\ndrawn from Jesus Christ, and are able to say like Him, 'Lo, I come to\ndo Thy will, and Thy law is within my heart,' only then shall we have\npeace and joy in our lives. 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ\nJesus makes us free from the law of sin and death.'\n\nAnd then, in the second place, that same thought of an activity which\nis its own impulse and its own law, suggests another aspect of this\nblessedness, namely, that it sets us free from the tyranny of external\ncircumstances which absolutely shape the lives of so many of us. The\nlives of all must be to a large extent moulded by these, but they need\nnot, and should not be completely determined by them. It is a miserable\nthing to see men and women driven before the wind like thistledown.\nCircumstances must influence us, but they may either influence us to\nbase compliance and passive reception of their stamp, or to brave\nresistance and sturdy nonconformity to their solicitations. So used,\nthey will influence us to a firmer possession of the good which is most\nopposite to them, and we shall be the more unlike our surroundings, the\nmore they abound in evil. You can make your choice whether, if I may so\nsay, you shall be like balloons that are at the mercy of the gale and\ncan only shape their course according as it comes upon them and blows\nthem along, or like steamers that have an inward power that enables\nthem to keep their course from whatever point the wind blows, or like\nsome sharply built sailing-ship that, with a strong hand at the helm,\nand canvas rightly set, can sail almost in the teeth of the wind and\ncompel it to bear her along in all but the opposite direction to that\nin which it would carry her if she lay like a log on the water.\n\nI beseech you all, and especially you young people, not to let the\nworld take and shape you, like a bit of soft clay put into a\nbrick-mould, but to lay a masterful hand upon it, and compel it to help\nyou, by God's grace, to be nobler, and truer, and purer.\n\nIt is a shame for men to live the lives that so many amongst us live,\nas completely at the mercy of externals to determine the direction of\ntheir lives as the long weeds in a stream that yield to the flow of the\ncurrent. It is of no use to preach high and brave maxims, telling men\nto assert their lordship over externals, unless we can tell them how to\nfind the inward power that will enable them to do so. But we can preach\nsuch noble exhortations to some purpose when we can point to the great\ngift which Christ is ready to give, and exhort them to open their\nhearts to receive that indwelling power which shall make them free from\nthe dominion of these tyrant circumstances and emancipate them into the\n'liberty of the sons of God.' 'The water that I shall give him shall be\nin him a leaping fountain.'\n\nIII. The last point here is that Christ's gift is a fountain 'springing\nup into everlasting life.'\n\nThe water of a fountain rises by its own impulse, but howsoever its\nsilver column may climb it always falls back into its marble basin. But\nthis fountain rises higher, and at each successive jet higher, tending\ntowards, and finally touching, its goal, which is at the same time its\ncourse. The water seeks its own level, and the fountain climbs until it\nreaches Him from whom it comes, and the eternal life in which He lives.\nWe might put that thought in two ways. First, the gift is eternal in\nits duration. The water with which the world quenches its thirst\nperishes. All supplies and resources dry up like winter torrents in\nsummer heat. All created good is but for a time. As for some, it\nperishes in the use; as for other, it evaporates and passes away, or is\n'as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up'; as for\nall, we have to leave it behind when we go hence. But this gift springs\ninto everlasting life, and when we go it goes with us. The Christian\ncharacter is identical in both worlds, and however the forms and\ndetails of pursuits may vary, the essential principle remains one. So\nthat the life of a Christian man on earth and his life in heaven are\nbut one stream, as it were, which may, indeed, like some of those\nAmerican rivers, run for a time through a deep, dark canyon, or in an\nunderground passage, but comes out at the further end into broader,\nbrighter plains and summer lands; where it flows with a quieter current\nand with the sunshine reflected on its untroubled surface, into the\ncalm ocean. He has one gift and one life for earth and heaven\u2014Christ\nand His Spirit, and the life that is consequent upon both.\n\nAnd then the other side of this great thought is that the gift tends\nto, is directed towards, or aims at and reaches, everlasting life. The\nwhole of the Christian experience on earth is a prophecy and an\nanticipation of heaven. The whole of the Christian experience of earth\nevidently aims towards that as its goal, and is interpreted by that as\nits end. What a contrast that is to the low and transient aims which so\nmany of us have! The lives of many men go creeping along the surface\nwhen they might spring heavenwards. My friend! which is it to be with\nyou? Is your life to be like one of those Northern Asiatic rivers that\nloses itself in the sands, or that flows into, or is sluggishly lost\nin, a bog; or is it going to tumble over a great precipice, and fall\nsounding away down into the blackness; or is it going to leap up 'into\neverlasting life'? Which of the two aims is the wiser, is the nobler,\nis the better?\n\nAnd a life that thus springs will reach what it springs towards. A\nfountain rises and falls, for the law of gravity takes it down; this\nfountain rises and reaches, for the law of pressure takes it up, and\nthe water rises to the level of its source. Christ's gift mocks no man,\nit sets in motion no hopes that it does not fulfil; it stimulates to no\nwork that it does not crown with success. If you desire a life that\nreaches its goal, a life in which all your desires are satisfied, a\nlife that is full of joyous energy, that of a free man emancipated from\ncircumstances and from the tyranny of unwelcome law, and victorious\nover externals, open your hearts to the gift that Christ offers you;\nthe gift of Himself, of His death and passion, of His sacrifice and\natonement, of His indwelling and sanctifying Spirit.\n\nHe offered all the fulness of that grace to this Samaritan woman, in\nher ignorance, in her profligacy, in her flippancy. He offers it to\nyou. His offer awoke an echo in her heart, will it kindle any response\nin yours? Oh! when He says to you, 'The water that I shall give will be\nin you a fountain springing into everlasting life,' I pray you to\nanswer as she did\u2014'Sir!\u2014Lord\u2014give me this water, that I thirst not;\nneither come to earth's broken cisterns to draw.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECOND MIRACLE\n\n\n'This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when He was come out\nof Judaea into Galilee.'\u2014JOHN iv. 54.\n\nThe Evangelist evidently intends us to connect together the two\nmiracles in Cana. His object may, possibly, be mainly chronological,\nand to mark the epochs in our Lord's ministry. But we cannot fail to\nsee how remarkably these two miracles are contrasted. The one takes\nplace at a wedding, a homely scene of rural festivity and gladness. But\nlife has deeper things in it than gladness, and a Saviour who preferred\nthe house of feasting to the house of mourning would be no Saviour for\nus. The second miracle, then, turns to the darker side of human\nexperience. The happiest home has its saddened hours; the truest\nmarriage joy has associated with it many a care and many an anxiety.\nTherefore, He who began by breathing blessing over wedded joy goes on\nto answer the piteous pleading of parental anxiety. It was fitting that\nthe first miracle should deal with gladness, for that is God's purpose\nfor His creatures, and that the second should deal with sicknesses and\nsorrows, which are additions to that purpose made needful by sin.\n\nAgain, the first miracle was wrought without intercession, as the\noutcome of Christ's own determination that His hour for working it was\ncome. The second miracle was drawn from Him by the imperfect faith and\nthe agonising pleading of the father.\n\nBut the great peculiarity of this second miracle in Cana is that it is\nmoulded throughout so as to develop and perfect a weak faith. Notice\nhow there are three words in the narrative, each of which indicates a\nstage in the history. 'Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not\n_believe_.' \u2026 'The man _believed_ the word that Jesus had spoken unto\nhim, and he went his way.' \u2026 'Himself _believed_ and his whole house.'\n\nWe have here, then, Christ manifested as the Discerner, the Rebuker,\nthe Answerer, and therefore the Strengthener, of a very insufficient\nand ignorant faith. It is a lovely example of the truth of that ancient\nprophecy, 'He will not quench the smoking flax.' So these three stages,\nas it seems to me, are the three points to observe. We have, first of\nall, Christ lamenting over an imperfect faith. Then we have Him\ntesting, and so strengthening, a growing faith. And then we have the\nabsent Christ rewarding and crowning a tested faith. I think if we look\nat these three stages in the story we shall get the main points which\nthe Evangelist intends us to observe.\n\nI. First, then, we have here our Lord lamenting over an ignorant and\nsensuous faith.\n\nAt first sight His words, in response to the hurried, eager appeal of\nthe father, seem to be strangely unfeeling, far away from the matter in\nhand. Think of how breathlessly, feeling that not an instant is to be\nlost, the poor man casts himself at the Master's feet, and pleads that\nhis boy is 'at the point of death.' And just think how, like a dash of\ncold water upon this hot impatience, must have come these strange words\nthat seem to overleap his case altogether, and to be gazing beyond\nhim\u2014'Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.' 'What has\nthat to do with me and my dying boy, and my impatient agony of\npetition?' 'It has everything to do with you.'\n\nIt is the revelation, first of all, of Christ's singular calmness and\nmajestic leisure, which befitted Him who needed not to hurry, because\nHe was conscious of absolute power. As when the pleading message was\nsent to Him: 'He whom Thou lovest is sick, He abode still two days in\nthe same place where He was'; because He loved Lazarus and Martha and\nMary; and just as when Jairus is hurrying Him to the bed where his\nchild lies dead, He pauses on the way to attend to the petition of\nanother sufferer; so, in like calmness of majestic leisure, He here\nputs aside the apparently pressing and urgent necessity in order to\ndeal with a far deeper, more pressing one.\n\nFor in the words there is not only a revelation of our Lord's majestic\nleisure, but there is also an indication of what He thought of most\nimportance in His dealing with men. It was worthy of His care to heal\nthe boy; it was far more needful that He should train and lead the\nfather to faith. The one can wait much better than the other.\n\nAnd there is in the words, too, something like a sigh of profound\nsorrow. Christ is not so much rebuking as lamenting. It is His own\npained heart that speaks; He sees in the man before Him more than the\nman's words indicated; reading his heart with that divine omniscience\nwhich pierces beyond the surface, and beholding in him the very same\nevil which affected all his countrymen. So He speaks to him as one of a\nclass, and thus somewhat softens the rebuke even while the answer to\nthe nobleman's petition seems thereby to become still less direct, and\nHis own sorrowful gaze at the wide-reaching spirit of blindness seems\nthereby to become more absorbed and less conscious of the individual\nsufferer kneeling at His feet.\n\nChrist had just come from Samaria, the scorn of the Jews, and there He\nhad found people who needed no miracles, whose conception of the\nMessiah was not that of a mere wonder-worker, but of one who will 'tell\nus all things,' and who believed on Him not because of the portents\nwhich He wrought, but because they heard Him themselves, and His words\ntouched their consciences and stirred strange longings in their hearts.\nOn the other hand, this Evangelist has carefully pointed out in the\npreceding chapters how such recognition as Christ had thus far received\n'in His own country' had been entirely owing to His miracles, and had\nbeen therefore regarded by Christ Himself as quite unreliable (chap.\nii. 23-25), while even Nicodemus, the Pharisee, had seen no better\nreason for regarding Him as a divinely sent Teacher than 'these\nmiracles that Thou doest.' And now here He is no sooner across the\nborder again than the same spirit meets Him. He hears it even in the\npleading, tearful tones of the father's voice, and that so clearly that\nit is for a moment more prominent even to His pity than the agony and\nthe prayer. And over that Christ sorrows. Why? Because, to their own\nimpoverishing, the nobleman and his fellows were blind to all the\nbeauty of His character. The graciousness of His nature was nothing to\nthem. They had no eyes for His tenderness and no ears for His wisdom;\nbut if some vulgar sign had been wrought before them, then they would\nhave run after Him with their worthless faith. And that struck a\npainful chord in Christ's heart when He thought of how all the\nlavishing of His love, all the grace and truth which shone radiant and\nlambent in His life, fell upon blind eyes, incapable of beholding His\nbeauty; and of how the manifest revelation of a Godlike character had\nno power to do what could be done by a mere outward wonder.\n\nThis is not to disparage the 'miraculous evidence.' It is only to put\nin its proper place the spirit, which was blind to the self-attesting\nglory of His character, which beheld it and did not recognise it as\n'the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father.'\n\nThat very same blindness to the divine which is in Jesus Christ,\nbecause material things alone occupy the heart and appeal to the mind,\nis still the disease of humanity. It still drives a knife into the\nloving heart of the pitying and helpful Christ. The special form which\nit takes in such a story as this before us is long since gone. The\nsense-bound people of this generation do not ask for signs. Miracles\nare rather a hindrance than a help to the reception of Christianity in\nmany quarters. People are more willing to admire, after a fashion, the\nbeauty of Christ's character, and the exalted purity of His teaching\n(meaning thereby, generally, the parts of it which are not exclusively\nHis), than to accept His miracles. So far round has the turn in the\nwheel gone in these days.\n\nBut although the form is entirely different the spirit still remains.\nAre there not plenty of us to whom sense is the only certitude? We\nthink that the only knowledge is the knowledge that comes to us from\nthat which we can see and touch and handle, and the inferences that we\nmay draw from these; and to many all that world of thought and beauty,\nall those divine manifestations of tenderness and grace, are but mist\nand cloudland. Intellectually, though in a somewhat modified sense,\nthis generation has to take the rebuke: 'Except ye see, ye will not\nbelieve.'\n\nAnd practically do not the great mass of men regard the material world\nas all-important, and work done or progress achieved there as alone\ndeserving the name of 'work' or 'progress,' while all the glories of a\nloving Christ are dim and unreal to their sense-bound eyes? Is it not\ntrue to-day, as it was in the old time, that if a man would come among\nyou, and bring you material good, that would be the prophet for you?\nTrue wisdom, beauty, elevating thoughts, divine revelations; all these\ngo over your heads. But when a man comes and multiplies loaves, then\nyou say, 'This is of a truth the prophet that should come into the\nworld.' 'Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.'\n\nAnd on the other side, is it not sadly true about those of us who have\nthe purest and the loftiest faith, that we feel often as if it was very\nhard, almost impossible, to keep firm our grasp of One who never is\nmanifested to our sense? Do we not often feel, 'O that I could for\nonce, for once only, hear a voice that would speak to my outward ear,\nor see some movement of a divine hand'? The loftiest faith still leans\ntowards, and has an hankering after, some external and visible\nmanifestation, and we need to subject ourselves to the illuminating\nrebuke of the Master who says, 'Except ye see signs and wonders, ye\nwill not believe,' and, therefore, your faith that craves the support\nof some outward thing, and often painfully feels that it is feeble\nwithout it, is as yet but very imperfect and rudimentary.\n\nII. And so we have here, as the next stage of the narrative, our Lord\ntesting, and thus strengthening, a growing faith.\n\nThe nobleman's answer to our Lord's strange words sounds, at first\nsight, as if these had passed over him, producing no effect at all.\n'Sir, come down ere my child die'; it is almost as if he had said, 'Do\nnot talk to me about these things at present. Come and heal my boy.\nThat is what I want; and we will speak of other matters some other\ntime.' But it is not exactly that. Clearly enough, at all events, he\ndid not read in Christ's words a reluctance to yield to his request,\nstill less a refusal of it. Clearly he did not misunderstand the sad\nrebuke which they conveyed, else he would not have ventured to\nreiterate his petition. He does not pretend to anything more than he\nhas, he does not seek to disclaim the condemnation that Christ brings\nagainst him, nor to assume that he has a loftier degree or a purer kind\nof faith than he possesses. He holds fast by so much of Christ's\ncharacter as he can apprehend; and that is the beginning of all\nprogress. What he knows he knows. He has sore need; that is something.\nHe has come to the Helper; that is more. He is only groping after Him,\nbut he will not say a word beyond what he knows and feels; and,\ntherefore, there is something in him to work upon; and faith is already\nbeginning to bud and blossom. And so his prayer is his best answer to\nChrist's word: 'Sir, come down ere my child die.'\n\nAh! dear brethren, any true man who has ever truly gone to Christ with\na sense even of some outward and temporal need, and has ever really\nprayed at all, has often to pass through this experience, that the\nfirst result of his agonising cry shall be only the revelation to him\nof the unworthiness and imperfection of his own faith, and that there\nshall seem to be strange delay in the coming of the blessing so longed\nfor. And the true attitude for a man to take when there is unveiled\nbefore him, in his consciousness, in answer to his cry for help, the\nstartling revelation of his own unworthiness and imperfection\u2014the true\nanswer to such dealing is simply to reiterate the cry. And then the\nMaster bends to the petition, and because He sees that the second\nprayer has in it less of sensuousness than the first, and that some\nlittle germ of a higher faith is beginning to open, He yields, and yet\nHe does not yield. 'Sir, come down ere my child die.' Jesus saith unto\nhim, 'Go thy way, thy son liveth.'\n\nWhy did He not go with the suppliant? Why, in the act of granting, does\nHe refuse? For the suppliant's sake. The whole force and beauty of the\nstory come out yet more vividly if we take the contrast between it and\nthe other narrative, which presents some points of similarity with\nit\u2014that of the healing of the centurion's servant at Capernaum. There\nthe centurion prays that Christ would but speak, and Christ says, 'I\nwill come.' There the centurion does not feel that His presence is\nnecessary, but that His word is enough. Here the nobleman says 'Come,'\nbecause it has never entered his mind that Christ can do anything\nunless He stands like a doctor by the boy's bed. And he says, too,\n'Come, _ere my child die_,' because it has never entered his mind that\nChrist can do anything if his boy has once passed the dark threshold.\n\nAnd because his faith is thus feeble, Christ refuses its request,\nbecause He knows that so to refuse is to strengthen. Asked but to\n'speak' by a strong faith, He rewards it by more than it prays, and\noffers to 'come.' Asked to 'come' by a weak faith, He rewards it by\nless, which yet is more, than it had requested; and refuses to come,\nthat He may heal at a distance; and thus manifests still more\nwondrously His power and His grace.\n\nHis gentle and wise treatment is telling; and he who was so sense-bound\nthat 'unless he saw signs and wonders he would not believe,' turns and\ngoes away, bearing the blessing, as he trusts, in his hands, while yet\nthere is no sign whatever that he has received it.\n\nThink of what a change had passed upon that man in the few moments of\nhis contact with Christ. When he ran to His feet, all hot and\nbreathless and impatient, with his eager plea, he sought only for the\ndeliverance of his boy, and sought it at the moment, and cared for\nnothing else. When he goes away from Him, a little while afterwards, he\nhas risen to this height, that he believes the bare word, and turns his\nback upon the Healer, and sets his face to Capernaum in the confidence\nthat he possesses the unseen gift. So has his faith grown.\n\nAnd that is what you and I have to do. We have Christ's bare word, and\nno more, to trust to for everything. We must be content to go out of\nthe presence-chamber of the King with only His promise, and to cleave\nto that. A feeble faith requires the support of something sensuous and\nvisible, as some poor trailing plant needs a prop round which it may\ntwist its tendrils. A stronger faith strides away from the Master,\nhappy and peaceful in its assured possession of a blessing for which it\nhas nothing to rely upon but a simple bare word. That is the faith that\nwe have to exercise. Christ has spoken. That was enough for this man,\nwho from the babyhood of Christian experience sprang at once to its\nmaturity. Is it enough for you? Are you content to say, 'Thy word, Thy\nnaked word, is all that I need, for Thou hast spoken, and Thou wilt do\nit'?\n\n'Go thy way; thy son liveth.' What a test! Suppose the father had not\ngone his way, would his son have lived? No! The son's life and the\nfather's reception from Christ of what he asked were suspended upon\nthat one moment. Will he trust Him, or will he not? Will he linger, or\nwill he depart? He departs, and in the act of trusting he gets the\nblessing, and his boy is saved.\n\nAnd look how the narrative hints to us of the perfect confidence of the\nfather now. Cana was only a few miles from Capernaum. The road from the\nlittle city upon the hill down to where the waters of the lake flashed\nin the sunshine by the quays of Capernaum was only a matter of a few\nhours; but it was the next day, and well on into the next day, before\nhe met the servants that came to him with the news of his boy's\nrecovery. So sure was he that his petition was answered that he did not\nhurry to return home, but leisurely and quietly went onwards the next\nday to his child. Think of the difference between the breathless rush\nup to Cana, and the quiet return from it. 'He that believeth shall not\nmake haste.'\n\nIII. And so, lastly, we have here the absent Christ crowning and\nrewarding the faith which has been tested.\n\nWe have the picture of the father's return. The servants meet him.\nTheir message, which they deliver before he has time to speak, is\nsingularly a verbal repetition of the promise of the Master, 'Thy son\nliveth.' His faith, though it be strong, has not yet reached to the\nwhole height of the blessing, for he inquires 'at what hour he began to\n_amend_,' expecting some slow and gradual recovery; and he is told\n'that at the seventh hour,' the hour when the Master spoke, 'the fever\nleft him,' and all at once and completely was he cured. So, more than\nhis faith had expected is given to him; and Christ, when he lays His\nhand upon a man, does His work thoroughly, though not always at once.\n\nWhy was the miracle wrought in that strange fashion? Why did our Lord\nfling out His power as from a distance rather than go and stand at the\nboy's bedside? We have already seen the reason in the peculiar\ncondition of the father's mind; but now notice what it was that he had\nlearned by such a method of healing, not only the fact of Christ's\nhealing power, but also the fact that the bare utterance of His will,\nwhether He were present or absent, had power. And so a loftier\nconception of Christ would begin to dawn on him.\n\nAnd for us that working of Christ at a distance is prophetic. It\nrepresents to us His action to-day. Still He answers our cries that He\nwould come down to our help by sending forth from the city on the\nhills, the city of the wedding feast, His healing power to descend upon\nthe sick-beds and the sorrows and the sins that afflict the villages\nbeneath. 'He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth, His word runneth\nvery swiftly.'\n\nThis new experience enlarged and confirmed the man's faith. The second\nstage to which he had been led by Christ's treatment was simply belief\nin our Lord's specific promise, an immense advance on his first\nposition of belief which needed sight as its basis.\n\nBut he had not yet come to the full belief of, and reliance upon, that\nHealer recognised as Messiah. But the experience which he now has had,\nthough it be an experience based upon miracle, is the parent of a faith\nwhich is not merely the child of wonder, nor the result of beholding an\noutward sign. And so we read:\u2014'So the father knew that it was at the\nsame hour in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth. And himself\nbelieved and his whole house.'\n\nA partial faith brings experience which confirms and enlarges faith;\nand they who dimly apprehend Him, and yet humbly love Him, and\nimperfectly trust Him, will receive into their bosoms such large gifts\nof His love and gracious Spirit that their faith will be strengthened,\nand they will grow into the full stature of peaceful confidence.\n\nThe way to increase faith is to exercise faith. And the true parent of\nperfect faith is the experience of the blessings that come from the\ncrudest, rudest, narrowest, blindest, feeblest faith that a man can\nexercise. Trust Him as you can, do not be afraid of inadequate\nconceptions, or of a feeble grasp. Trust Him as you can, and He will\ngive you so much more than you expected that you will trust Him more,\nand be able to say: 'Now I believe, because I have heard Him myself,\nand know that this is the Christ, the Saviour of the world.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE THIRD MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL\n\n\n'Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.'\u2014JOHN v.8\n\nThis third of the miracles recorded in John's Gospel finds a place\nthere, as it would appear, for two reasons: first, because it marks the\nbeginning of the angry unbelief on the part of the Jewish rulers, the\ndevelopment of which it is one part of the purpose of this Gospel to\ntrace; second, because it is the occasion for that great utterance of\nour Lord about His Sonship and His divine working as the Father also\nworks, which occupies the whole of the rest of the chapter, and is the\nfoundation of much which follows in the Gospel. It is for these\nreasons, and not for the mere sake of adding another story of a\nmiraculous cure to the many which the other Evangelists have given us,\nthat John narrates for us this history.\n\nIf, then, we consider the reason for the introduction of the miracle\ninto the Gospel, we may be saved from the necessity of dwelling, except\nvery lightly, upon some of the preliminary details which preceded the\nactual cure. It does not matter much to us for our present purpose\nwhich Feast it was on which Jesus went up to Jerusalem, nor whether the\npool was by the sheep-market or by the sheep-gate, nor whereabouts in\nJerusalem Bethesda might happen to be. It may be of importance for us\nto notice that the mention of the angel who appears in the fourth verse\nis not a part of the original narrative. The true text only tells us of\nan intermittent pool which possessed, or was supposed to possess,\ncurative energy; and round which the kindness of some forgotten\nbenefactor had built five rude porches. There lay a crowd of wasted\nforms, and pale, sorrowful faces, with all varieties of pain and\nemaciation and impotence marked upon them, who yet were gathered in\nBethesda, which being interpreted means 'a house of mercy.' It is the\ntype of a world full of men suffering various sicknesses, but all sick;\nthe type of a world that gathers with an eagerness, not far removed\nfrom despair, round anything that seems to promise, however vaguely, to\nhelp and to heal; the type of a world, blessed be God, which, amidst\nall its sad variety of woe and weariness, yet sits in the porches of 'a\nhouse of mercy,' and has in the midst a 'fountain opened for sin and\nfor uncleanness,' whose energy is as mighty for the last comer of all\nthe generations as for the first that stepped into its cleansing flood.\n\nThis poor man, sick and impotent for eight and thirty years\u2014many of\nwhich he had spent, as it would appear, day by day, wearily dragging\nhis paralysed limbs to the fountain with daily diminishing hope\u2014this\npoor man attracts the regard of Christ when He enters, and He puts to\nhim the strange question, 'Wilt thou be made whole?' Surely there was\nno need to ask that; but no doubt the many disappointments and the long\nyears of waiting and of suffering had stamped apathy upon the\nsufferer's face, and Christ saw that the first thing that was needed,\nin order that His healing power might have a point of contact in the\nman's nature, was to kindle some little flicker of hope in him once\nmore.\n\nAnd so, no doubt, with a smile on His face, which converted the\nquestion into an offer, He says: 'Wilt thou be made whole?' meaning\nthereby to say, 'I will heal thee if thou wilt.' And there comes the\nweary answer, as if the man had said: 'Will I be made whole? What have\nI been lying here all these years for? I have nobody to put me into the\npool.'\n\nYes, it is a hopeful prospect to hold out to a man whose disease is\ninability to walk, that if he will walk to the water he will get cured,\nand be able to walk afterwards. Why, he could not even roll himself\ninto the pond, and so there he had lain, a type of the hopeless efforts\nat self-healing which we sick men put forth, a type of the tantalising\ngospels which the world preaches to its subjects when it says to a\nparalysed man: 'Walk that you may be healed; keep the commandments that\nyou may enter into life.'\n\nAnd so we have come at last to the main point of the narrative before\nus, and I fix upon these words, the actual words in which the cure was\nconveyed, as communicating to us some very important lessons and\nthoughts about Christ and our relation to Him.\n\nI. First, I see in them Christ manifesting Himself as the Giver of\npower to the powerless who trust Him.\n\nHis words may seem at first hearing to partake of the very same almost\ncruel irony as the condition of cure which had already proved\nhopelessly impracticable. He, too, says, 'Walk that you may be cured';\nand He says it to a paralysed and impotent man. But the two things are\nvery different, for before this cripple could attempt to drag his\nimpotent limbs into an upright position, and take up the little light\ncouch and sling it over his shoulders, he must have had some kind of\ntrust in the person that told him to do so. A very ignorant trust, no\ndoubt, it was; but all that was set before him about Jesus Christ he\ngrasped and rested upon. He only knew Him as a Healer, and he trusted\nHim as such. The contents of a man's faith have nothing to do with the\nreality of his faith; and he that, having only had the healing power of\nChrist revealed to him, lays hold of that Healer, cleaves to Him with\nas genuine a faith as the man who has the whole fulness and sublimity\nof Christ's divine and human character and redeeming work laid out\nbefore him, and who cleaves to these. The hand that grasps is one,\nwhatsoever be the thing that it grasps.\n\nSo it is no spiritualising of this story, or reading into it a deeper\nand more religious meaning than belongs to it, to say that what passed\nin that man's heart and mind before he caught up his little bed and\nwalked away with it, was essentially the same action of mind and heart\nby which a sinful man, who knows that Christ is his Redeemer, grasps\nHis Cross and trusts his soul to Him. In the one case, as in the other,\nthere is confidence in the person; only in the one case the person was\nonly known as a Healer, and in the other the person is known as a\nSaviour. But the faith is the same whatever it apprehends.\n\nChrist comes and says to him, 'Rise, take up thy bed and walk.' There\nis a movement of confidence in the man's heart; he tries to obey, and\nin the act of obedience the power comes to him.\n\nAh, brother! it is always so. All Christ's commandments are gifts. When\nHe says to you, 'Do this!' He pledges Himself to give you power to do\nit. Whatsoever He enjoins He strengthens for. He binds Himself, by His\ncommandments, and every word of His lips which says to us 'Thou shalt!'\ncontains as its kernel a word of His which says 'I will.' So when He\ncommands, He bestows; and we get the power to keep His commandments\nwhen in humble faith we make the effort to do His will. It is only when\nwe try to obey for the love's sake of Him that has healed us that we\nare able to obey. And be sure of this, whensoever we attempt to do what\nwe know to be the Master's will, because He has given Himself for us,\nour power will be equal to our desire, and enough for our duty. As St.\nAugustine says: 'Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou\nwilt.'\n\n'Rise, take up thy bed and walk,' or as in another case, 'Stretch forth\nthy hand.' 'And he stretched it forth, and his hand was restored whole\nas the other.' Christ gives power to keep His commandments to the\nimpotent who try to obey, because they have been healed by Him.\n\nII. In the next place, we have in this miracle our Lord set forth as\nthe absolute Master, because He is the Healer.\n\nThe Pharisees and their friends had no eyes for the miracle; but if\nthey found a man carrying his light couch on the Sabbath day, that was\na thing that excited their interest, and must be seen to immediately.\n\nAnd so, paying no attention to the fact that it was a paralysed man who\nwas doing this, with the true narrow instinct of the formalist, they\nlay hold only of the fact of the broken Rabbinical restrictions, and\ntry to stop him with these. 'It is the Sabbath day! It is not lawful\nfor thee to carry thy bed.'\n\nAnd they get an answer which goes a great deal deeper than the speaker\nknew, and puts the whole subject of Christian obedience on its right\nfooting. 'He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto\nme, Take up thy bed and walk.' As if he had said: 'He gave me the\npower, had He not a right to tell me what to do with it? It was His\ngift that I could lift my bed; was I not bound to walk when and where\nHe that had made me able to walk at all chose to bid me?'\n\nAnd if you generalise that it just comes to this: the only person that\nhas a right to command you is the Christ who saves you. He has the\nabsolute authority to do as He will with your restored spiritual\npowers, because He has bestowed them all upon you. His dominion is\nbuilt upon His benefits. He is the King because He is the Saviour. He\nrules because He has redeemed. He begins with giving, and it is only\nafterwards that He commands; and He turns to each of us with that smile\nupon His lips, and with tenderness in His voice which will bind any\nman, who is not an ingrate, to Him for ever. 'If ye love Me, keep My\ncommandments.'\n\nThere is always something hard and distasteful to the individual will\nin the tone of authority assumed by any man whatsoever. We always more\nor less rebel and shrink from that; and there is only one thing that\nmakes commandment sweet, and that is when it drops like honey from the\nhoneycomb, from lips that we love. So does it in the case of Christ's\ncommands to us. It is joy to know and to do the will of One to whom the\nwhole heart turns with gratitude and affection. And Christ blesses and\nprivileges us by the communication to us of His pleasure concerning us,\nthat we may have the gladness of yielding to His desires, and so\nmeeting the love which commands with the happy love which obeys. 'He\nthat made me whole, the same said unto me\u2026' and what He says it must be\njoy to do.\n\nSo, 'My yoke is easy and My burden is light,' not because Christ\ndiminishes the requirements of law; not because the standard of\nChristian obedience is lowered beneath any other standard of conduct\nand character. It is far higher. The things which make Christian duty\nare often very painful in themselves. There is always self-sacrifice in\nChristian virtue, and self-sacrifice has always a sting in it; but the\n'yoke is easy and the burden is light,' because, if I may so say, the\nyoke is padded with the softest velvet of love, and lies upon our necks\nlightly because He has laid it there. All the rigid harshness of\nprecept is done away when the precept comes from Christ's lips, and His\ncommandment 'makes the crooked things straight and the rough places\nplain'; and turns duty, distasteful duty, into joyful service. The\nblessed basis of Christian obedience, and of Christ's authority, is\nChrist's redemption.\n\nIII. And then, still further, we have here our Lord setting Himself\nforth as the divine Son, whose working needs and knows no rest.\n\nWe find, in the subsequent part of the chapter, that 'the Jews,' as\nthey are called, by which is meant the antagonistic portion of the\nnation, sought to slay Christ 'because He had done these things on the\nSabbath day.' But Jesus answered them, 'My Father worketh hitherto, and\nI work.' Unquestionably the form which the healing took was intended by\nour Lord to bring into prominence the very point which these pedantic\ncasuists laid hold of. He meant to draw attention to His sweeping aside\nof the Rabbinical casuistries of the law of the Sabbath. And He meant\nto do it in order that He might have the occasion of making this mighty\nclaim, which is lodged in these solemn and profound words, to possess a\nSonship, which, like the divine working, wrought, needing and knowing\nno repose.\n\n'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.' The rest, which the old story\nin Genesis attributed to the Creator after the Creation, was not to be\nconstrued as if it meant the rest of inactivity; but it was the rest of\ncontinuous action. God's rest and God's work are one. Throughout all\nthe ages preservation is a continuous creation. The divine energy is\nstreaming out for evermore, as the bush that burns unconsumed, as the\nsun that flames undiminished for ever, pouring out from the depth of\nthat divine nature, and for ever sustaining a universe. So that there\nis no Sabbath, in the sense of a cessation from action, proper to the\ndivine nature; because all His action is repose, and 'e'en in His very\nmotion there is rest.' And this divine coincidence of activity and of\nrepose belongs to the divine Son in His divine-human nature. With that\narrogance which is the very audacity of blasphemy, if it be not the\nsimplicity of a divine consciousness, He puts His own work side by side\nwith the Father's work, as the same in principle, the same in method,\nthe same in purpose, the same in its majestic coincidence of repose and\nof energy.\n\n'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore for Me, as for Him,\nthere is no need of a Sabbath of repose.' Human activity is dissipated\nby toil, human energy is exhausted by expenditure. Man works and is\nweary; man works and is distracted. For the recovery of the serenity of\nhis spirit, and for the renewal of his physical strength, repose of\nbody and gathering in of mind, such as the Sabbath brought, were\nneeded; but neither is needed for Him who toils unwearied in the\nheavens; and neither is needed for the divine nature of Him who labours\nin labours parallel with the Father's here upon the earth.\n\nNow remember that this is no abolition of the Sabbatic rest for\nChrist's followers. Rather the ground on which He here asserts His\nsuperiority over, and His non-dependence upon, such a repose shows, or\nat all events implies, that all mere human workers need such rest, and\nshould thankfully accept it. But it is a claim on His part to a divine\nequality. It is a claim on His part to do works which are other than\nhuman works. It is a claim on His part to be the Lord of a divine\ninstitution, living above the need of it, and able to mould it at His\nwill.\n\nAnd so it opens up depths, into which we cannot go now, of the\nrelations of that divine Father and that divine Son; and makes us feel\nthat the little incident in which He turned to a paralysed man and\nsaid: 'Rise, take up thy bed and walk,' on the Sabbath day, like some\nsmall floating leaf of sea-weed upon the surface, has great deep\ntendrils that go down and down into the very abyss of things, and lays\nhold upon that central truth of Christianity, the divinity of the Son\nof God, who is One with the ever-working Father.\n\nIV. Lastly, we have in this incident yet another lesson. We have the\nHealer who is also the Judge, warning the healed of the possibilities\nof a relapse.\n\n'Jesus findeth him in the Temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art\nmade whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.' The man's\neight-and-thirty years of illness had apparently been brought on by\ndissipation. It was a sin of flesh, avenged in the flesh, that had\ngiven him that miserable life. One would have thought he had got\nwarning enough, but we all know the old proverb about what happened\nwhen the devil was ill, and what befell his resolutions when he got\nbetter. And so Christ comes to him again with this solemn warning:\n'There is a worse thing than eight-and-thirty years of paralysis. You\nfell once, and sore was your punishment. If you fall twice, your\npunishment will be sorer.' Why? Because the first one had done him no\ngood. So here are lessons for us. There is always danger that we shall\nfall back into old sins, even if we think we have overcome them. The\nmystic influence of habit, enfeebled will, the familiar temptation, the\nimagination rebelling, the memory tempting, sometimes even, as in the\ncase of a man that has been a drunkard, the physical effect of the\nodour of his temptation upon his nostrils\u2014all these things make it\nextremely unlikely that a man who has once been under the condemnation\nof any evil shall never be tempted to fall under its sway again.\n\nAnd such a fall is not only more criminal than the former, it is more\ndeadly than the former. 'It were better for them not to have known the\nway of righteousness, than after they have known it to turn aside.'\n'The last state of that man is worse than the first.'\n\nMy brother, there is no blacker condemnation; and if I may use a strong\nword, there is no hotter hell, than that which belongs to an apostate\nChristian. 'It has happened unto them according to the true proverb.\nThe dog is turned to his vomit again.' Very unpolite, a very coarse\nmetaphor? Yes; to express a far worse reality.\n\nChristian men and women! you have been made whole. 'Sin no more, lest a\nworse thing come unto you.' And turn to that Lord and say, 'Hold Thou\nme up and I shall be saved.' Then the enemies will not be able to\nrecapture you, and the chains which have dropped from your wrists will\nnever enclose them any more.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIFE-GIVER AND JUDGE\n\n\n'But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18.\nTherefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had\nbroken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making\nHimself equal with God. 19. Then answered Jesus and said unto them,\nVerily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but\nwhat He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these\nalso doeth the Son likewise. 20. For the Father loveth the Son, and\nsheweth Him all things that Himself doeth: and He will shew Him greater\nworks than these, that ye may marvel. 21. For as the Father raiseth up\nthe dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.\n22. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto\nthe Son: 23. That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour\nthe Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father\nwhich hath sent Him. 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that\nheareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting\nlife, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death\nunto life. 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and\nnow is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they\nthat hear shall live. 26. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so\nhath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; 27. And hath given\nHim authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of\nMan.'\u2014JOHN v. 17-27.\n\n'The Jews' were up in arms because Jesus had delivered a man from\nthirty-eight years of misery. They had no human sympathies for the\nsufferer, whom hope deferred had made sick and hopeless, but they\nshuddered at the breach of the Sabbath. 'Sacrifice' was more important\nin their view than 'mercy.' They did not acknowledge that the miracle\nproved Christ's Messiahship, but they were quite sure that doing it on\nthe Sabbath proved His wickedness. How formalism twists men's judgments\nof the relative magnitude of form and spirit!\n\nJesus' vindication of His action roused them still farther, for He put\nit on a ground which seemed to them nothing short of blasphemy: 'My\nFather worketh even until now, and I work.' They fastened on one point\nin that great saying, namely, that it claimed Sonship in a special\nsense, and vindicated His right to disregard the Sabbath law on that\nground. God's rest is not inaction. 'Preservation is a continual\ncreation.' All being subsists because God is ever working. The Son\nco-operates with the Father, and for Him, as for the Father, the\nSabbath law does not apply. The charge of breaking the Sabbath fades\ninto insignificance before the sin, in the objectors' eyes, of making\nsuch claims. Therefore our Lord proceeds to expand and justify them.\n\nHe makes, first, a general statement in verses 19 and 20, in which He\nsets forth the relation involved in the very idea of Fatherhood and\nSonship. He, as perfect Son of God, is perfectly one with the Father in\nwill and act, and so knit to Him in sympathy that a self-originated\naction is impossible, not by reason of defect of power, but by reason\nof unity of being. That perfect unity is expressed negatively ('can do\nnothing') and then positively ('doeth likewise'). But it is not\nmanifest in actions alone, but has its deep roots in the perfect love\nwhich flows ever from each to each, and in the Father's perfect\ncommunication to the Son, and the Son's perfect reception from the\nFather. Jesus claimed to stand in such a relation to the Father that He\nwas able to do whatsoever the Father did, and 'in like manner' as the\nFather did it; that He was the unique object of the Father's love, and\ncapable of receiving complete communications as to 'all things that\nHimself doeth'; that He lived in such complete unity with the Father\nthat His every act was the result of it, and that no trace of self-will\nhad ever tinged His perfect spirit. What man has ever made such claims\nand not been treated as insane? He makes them, and likewise says that\nHe is 'lowly of heart'; and the world listens, if not believing, at any\nrate reverent, as in the presence of the best man that ever lived.\nStrange goodness, to claim such divine prerogatives, unless the claim\nis valid!\n\nIt is expanded in verses 21-23 into two great classes of works, which\nJesus says that He does. Both are distinctively divine works. To give\nlife and to judge the world are equally beyond human power; they are\nequally His actions. These are the 'greater works' which He foretells\nin verse 20, and they are greater than the miracle of healing which had\noriginated the whole conversation. To give life at first, and to give\nit again to the dead, and not only to revivify, but to raise them, are\nplainly competent to no power short of the divine; and here Jesus\ncalmly claims them.\n\nThat tremendous claim is here made in the widest sense, including both\nthe corporeally and the spiritually dead, who are afterwards treated of\nseparately. The Son is the fountain of life in all the aspects of that\nwide-reaching word; and He 'quickeneth whom He will,' as He had\nspontaneously healed the impotent man. Does that assertion contradict\nthe other, just before it, that He does nothing of Himself? No; for His\nwill, while His, is ever harmonious with the Father's, just as His\nlove, which is ever coincident with the Father's. Does that assertion\nimply His arbitrary pleasure, or make man's will a cipher? No; for His\nwill is guided by righteous love, and wills to quicken those who comply\nwith His conditions. But the assertion does declare that His will to\nquicken is omnipotent, and that His voice can pierce 'the dull, cold\near of death,' and bring back the soul to the empty house of this\ntabernacle, or rouse the spirit 'dead in trespasses.'\n\nThe other divine prerogative of judging is inseparable from that of\nrevivifying, and in regard to it Christ's claim is still higher, for He\nsays that it is wholly vested in Him as Son. The idea of judgment here,\nlike that of quickening, with which it is associated, is to be taken in\nits more general sense ('_all_ judgment'), and therefore as including\nboth the present judgment, for which Jesus said that He was come into\nthe world, and which men pass on themselves by the very fact of their\nattitude to Him and His Gospel, and also the future final judgment,\nwhich manifests character and determines destiny. Both these has the\nFather given into the hands of the Son.\n\nThe purpose, so far as men are concerned, of the Son's investiture,\nwith these solemn prerogatives, is that He may receive universal divine\nhonour. A narrower purpose was stated in verse 20, where the persons\nseeing His works are only His then audience, and the effect sought to\nbe produced is merely 'marvel.' But wonder is meant to lead on to\nrecognition of the meaning of His power, and of the mystery of His\nperson, and that, again, to rendering to Him precisely the same honour\nas is due to the Father. No more unmistakable demand for worship, no\nmore emphatic assertion of divinity, can be made than lie in these\nwords. To worship Christ does not intercept the honour due to God; to\nworship the Son is to worship the Father; and no man honours the Father\nwho sent Him who does not honour the Son whom He has sent.\n\nIn verses 24-27 the two related prerogatives are presented in their\nspiritual aspect, while in the later verses of the chapter the\nresurrection and quickening of the literally dead are dealt with. Mark\nthe significant new term introduced in verse 24, 'He that believeth.'\nThat spiritual resurrection from the death of sin and self is wrought\non 'whom He will,' but He wills that it shall be wrought on them who\nbelieve. Similarly, in verse 25, it is 'they that hear' who 'shall\nlive.' It must be so, for there is no other way by which life from Him,\nwho is the Life, can pass into and quicken us than by our opening our\nhearts by faith for its inflow. The mysteries of the Son's divinity and\nof His imparted life are deep, but the condition of receiving that life\nis plain. If we will trust Jesus, we shall live; if not, we are dead.\nTrusting Him is trusting the Father that sent Him, and that Father\nbecomes accessible to our trust when we 'hear' Christ's 'word.'\n\nThe effects of faith are immediate, and the poor present may be\nenriched and clothed in celestial light for each of us, if we will. For\nJesus does not point first to the mysteries of the resurrection of the\ndead, and the tremendous solemnities of the final judgment, but to what\nwe may each enter upon at any moment. The believing man '_hath_ eternal\nlife,' and 'cometh not into judgment.' That life is not reserved to be\nentered on in the blessed future, but is a present possession. True, it\nwill blossom into unexampled nobleness when it is transported into its\nnative country, like some exotic in our colder climates if it were\ncarried back to the tropics. But it is a present possession, and heaven\nis not different in kind from the Christian life on earth, but differs\nmainly in degree and in circumstances. And he that has the life here\nand now is, by its moulding of his outward life, preserved from the\nsins which would bring him into judgment, and the merciful judgment to\nwhich he is still subject is that for which his truest self longs. And\nthat blessed condition carries in it the pledge that, at the last great\nday, which is to others a 'day of wrath, a dreadful day,' he whom\nChrist has quickened by His own indwelling life shall have 'boldness\nbefore Him.'\n\nObviously, in these verses the present effects of faith are in view,\nsince Jesus emphatically declares that the 'hour now is' when they can\nbe realised. Once more He states in the strongest terms, and as the\nreason for the assurance that faith secures to us life, His possession\nof the two divine prerogatives of quickening and judging. What a\nparadox it is to say that it is '_given_' to Him to have 'life in\n_Himself_'! And when was that gift given? In the depths of eternity.\n\nHe 'sits on no precarious throne, nor borrows leave to be,' and hence\nHe can impart life and lose none. Inseparably connected with that\ngiven, and yet self-inherent, life, is the capacity for executing\njudgment which belongs to Him as 'a Son of man.' It has been as 'the\nSon' of the Father that it has been considered, in the previous verses,\nas belonging to Him; but now it is as a true man that He is fitted to\nbear, and actually is clothed with, that judicial power. No doubt He is\nJudge of all, because by His incarnation and earthly life He presents\nto all the offer of eternal life, by their attitude to which offer men\nare judged. But the connection of thought seems rather to be that\nChrist's Manhood, inextricably intertwined with His divinity, is\nequally needed with the latter to constitute Him our Judge. He 'knoweth\nour frame,' from the inside, as it were, and the participation in our\nnature which fits Him to 'be a merciful and faithful High Priest' also\nfits Him to be the Judge of mankind.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FOURTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL\n\n\n'And Jesus took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He\ndistributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set\ndown; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.'\u2014JOHN vi. 11.\n\nThis narrative of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand is\nintroduced into John's Gospel with singular abruptness. We read in the\nfirst verse of the chapter: 'After these things Jesus went over the Sea\nof Galilee,' _i.e._ from the western to the eastern side. But the\nEvangelist does not tell us how or when He got to the western side.\n'These things,' which are recorded in the previous chapter, are the\nhealing of the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda, the consequent\noutburst of Jewish hostility, and the profound and solemn discourse of\nour Lord, in which He claims filial relationship to the Father. So that\nwe must insert between the chapters a journey from Jerusalem to\nGalilee, and a lapse at all events of some months\u2014or, if the feast\nreferred to in the previous chapter be, as it may be, the Passover, an\ninterval of nearly a year. So little care for the mere framework of\nevents has this fourth Gospel; so entirely would the Evangelist have us\nsee that his reason for narrating this miracle is mainly its spiritual\nlessons and the revelation which it makes of Christ as Himself the\nBread of Life.\n\nSimilarly, he has no care to tell us anything about the reasons for our\nLord's retirement with His disciples from Galilee to the eastern bank.\nThese we have to learn from the other Evangelists. They give us several\nconcurrent motives\u2014the news of the death of John the Baptist; and of\nthe desire of the bloody tyrant to see Jesus, which foreboded evil;\nalso the return of the twelve Apostles from their trial journey, which\ninvolved the necessity of rest for them; and, perhaps, the approach of\nthe Passover, which our Lord did not purpose to observe in Jerusalem\nbecause of the Jewish hostility, and which, therefore, suggested the\nwithdrawal to temporary retirement.\n\nAll these reasons concurring, He and His disciples would seek for a\nbrief space of seclusion and repose. But the hope of securing such was\nvain. The people followed in crowds so eagerly, so hastily, in such\nenormous numbers, that no natural or ordinary provision for their wants\ncould be thought of. Hence the occasion for the miracle before us.\n\nNow I think that this narrative, with which I wish to deal, falls\nmainly into two portions, both of which suggest for us some important\nlessons. There is, first, the preparations for the sign; and then there\nis the sign itself. Let us look at these two points in succession.\n\nI. First, then, the preparations for the sign.\n\nNow it is to be observed that this is the only incident before our\nLord's last journey to Jerusalem which is recorded by all four\nEvangelists; therefore the variations between the narratives are of\nespecial interest, and these variations are very considerable. We find,\nfor instance, that in John's account the question as to how the bread\nwas to be provided came from Christ; in the other Evangelists' accounts\nthat question is discussed first amongst the Apostles privately. We\nfind from John's narrative that the question was suggested even before\nthe multitudes had come to Jesus. We find in the Synoptic Gospels that\nit arose at the close of a long day of teaching and of healing.\n\nNow it is possible that this diversity of time may be the solution of\nthe diversity of the person proposing. That is to say, it is quite\nlegitimate to conclude that John's account takes up the incident at an\nearlier period than the other Evangelists do, and that the full order\nof events was this; that, privately, at the beginning of the day,\nwhilst the people were yet flocking to our Lord, He, to one of the\ndisciples alone, suggests the question, 'Whence shall we buy bread that\nthese may eat?' and that the answer, 'Two hundred pennyworth of bread\nis not sufficient that every one of them may take a little,' explains\nfor us the suggestion of the same amount at a subsequent part of the\nday, by the Apostles when they asked our Lord the question, 'Shall we\ngo and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread that these may eat?'\n\nBe that as it may, we may pause for a moment upon this question of our\nLord's, 'Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?'\n\nNow notice what a lovely glimpse we get there into the quick-rising\nsympathy of the Saviour with all forms of human necessity. He had gone\naway to snatch a brief moment of rest. The rest is denied Him; the\nhurrying crowds come pressing with their vulgar curiosity\u2014for it was\nnothing better\u2014after Him. No movement of impatience passes across His\nmind; no reluctance as He turns away from the vanishing prospect of a\nquiet afternoon with His friends. He looks upon them, and the first\nthought is a quick, instinctive movement of a divine and yet most human\nsympathy. The question rises in His mind of how He was to provide for\nthem; they were not hungry yet; they had not thought where their bread\nwas to come from. But He cared for the careless, and His heart was\nprophetic of their necessities, and quick to determine 'what He should\ndo' to supply them. So is it ever. Before we call, He answers. Thy\nmercy, O loving Christ! needs no more than the sight of human\nnecessities, or even the anticipation of them, swiftly to bestir itself\nfor their satisfaction and their supply.\n\nBut, farther, He selects for the question Philip, a man who seems to\nhave been what is called\u2014as if it were the highest praise\u2014an 'intensely\npractical person'; who seems to have had little faith in anything that\nhe could not get hold of by his senses, and who lived upon the low\nlevel of 'common sense.' He always lays stress upon 'seeing.' His\nanswer to Nathanael when he said, 'Can any good thing come out of\nNazareth?' was, 'Come and see.' A very good answer, and yet one that\nrelies only on the external manifestation of Christ to the senses.\nThen, on another occasion, he breaks in upon the lofty spiritualities\nof our Lord's final discourse to His disciples, with the _malapropos_\nrequest, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.' And so here,\nto the man who believed in his eyesight, and did not easily apprehend\nmuch else, Jesus puts this question, 'Where is the bread to come from\nfor all these people? This He said to prove him.' He hoped that the\nquestion might have shaped itself in the hearer's mind into a promise,\nand that he might have been able to say in answer, 'Thou canst supply;\nwe need not buy.'\n\nSo Christ does still. He puts problems before us, too, to settle; takes\nus, as it were, into His confidence with interrogations that try us,\nwhether we can rise above the level of the material and visible, or\nwhether all our conceptions of possibilities are bounded by these. And\nsometimes, even though the question at first sight seems to evoke only\nsuch a response as it did here, it works more deeply down below\nafterwards, and we are helped by the very difficulty to rise to a clear\nfaith.\n\nPhilip's answer is very significant. 'Two hundred pennyworth of bread\nare not sufficient.' He casts his eye over the multitude, he makes a\nrough, rapid calculation, one does not exactly see the data on which it\nwas based; and he comes to the conclusion, 'Two hundred pennyworth' (in\nour English money some L. 7 or L. 8 worth) would give them each a\nmorsel. And no doubt he thought himself very practical. He was a man of\nfigures; he believed in what could be put into tables and statistics.\nYes; and like a great many other people of his sort, he left out one\nsmall element in his calculation, and that was Jesus Christ, and so his\nanswer went creeping along the low levels, dragging itself like a\nhalf-wounded snake, when it might have risen on the wings of faith into\nthe empyrean, and soared and sung.\n\nSo learn that when we have to deal with Christ's working\u2014and when have\nwe not to deal with Christ's working?\u2014perhaps probabilities that can be\ntabulated are not altogether the best bases upon which to rest our\ncalculations. Learn that the audacity of a faith that expects great\nthings, though there be nothing visible upon which to build, is wiser\nand more prudent than the creeping common-sense that adheres to facts\nwhich are shadows, and forgets that the chief fact is that we have an\nAlmighty Helper and Friend at our sides.\n\nStill further, among these preliminaries, let us point to the\nexhibition of the inadequate resources which Christ, according to the\nfuller narrative in the other Evangelists, desired to know. 'There is a\nlittle lad here with five barley loaves'\u2014one per thousand\u2014'and two\nsmall fishes'\u2014insufficient in quantity and very, very common in\nquality, for barley bread was the food of the poorest. 'But what are\nthey among so many?' And Christ says, 'Bring them to Me.'\n\nChrist's preparation for making our poor resources adequate for\nanything is to drive home into our hearts the consciousness of their\ninsufficiency. We need, first of all, to be brought to this, 'All that\nI have is this wretched little stock; and what is that measured against\nthe work that I have to do, and the claims upon me?' Only when we are\nbrought to that can His great power pour itself into us and fill us\nwith rejoicing and overcoming strength. The old mystics used to say,\nand they said truly: 'You must be emptied of yourself before you can be\nfilled by God.' And the first thing for any man to learn, in\npreparation for receiving a mightier power than his own into his\nopening heart, is to know that all his own strength is utter and\nabsolute weakness. 'What are they among so many?' When we have once\ngone right down into the depths of felt impotence, and when our work\nhas risen before us, as if it were far too great for our poor strengths\nwhich are weaknesses, then we are brought, and only then, into the\nposition in which we may begin to hope that power equal to our desire\nwill be poured into our souls.\n\nAnd so the last of the preparations that I will touch upon is that\nmajestic preparation for blessing by obedience. 'And Jesus said, Make\nthe men sit down.' And there they sat themselves, as Mark puts it in\nhis picturesque way, like so many garden plots\u2014the rectangular oblongs\nin a garden in which pot-herbs are grown\u2014on the green grass, below the\nblue sky, by the side of the quiet lake. Cannot you fancy how some of\nthem seated themselves with a scoff, and some with a quiet smile of\nincredulity; and some half sheepishly and reluctantly; and some in mute\nexpectancy; and some in foolish wonder; and yet all of them with a\npartial obedience? And says John in the true translation: 'So the men\nsat down, therefore Jesus took the loaves.' Sit you down where He bids\nyou, and your mouths will not be long empty. Do the things He tells\nyou, and you will get the food that you need. Our business is to obey\nand to wait, and His business is, when we are seated, to open His hand\nand let the mercy drop. So much for the preparations for this great\nmiracle.\n\nII. Now, in the next place, a word as to the sign itself.\n\nI take two lessons, and two only, out of it. I see in it, first, a\nrevelation of Christ, as continually through all the ages sustaining\nmen's physical life. And I see in it, second, a symbol of Christ as\nHimself the Bread of Life.\n\nAs to the first, there is here, I believe, a revelation of the law of\nthe universe, of Christ as being through all the ages the Sustainer of\nthe physical life of men. What was done then once, with the suppression\nof certain links in the chain, is done always, with the introduction of\nthose links. The miraculous moment in the narrative is not described to\nus. We do not know where or when there came in the supernatural power\nwhich multiplied the loaves\u2014probably as they passed from the hand of\nthe Master. But be that as it may, it was Christ's will that made the\nprovision which fed all these five thousand. And I believe that the\nteaching of Scripture is in accordance with the deepest philosophy,\nthat the one cause of all physical phenomena is the will of a present\nGod; howsoever that may usually conform to the ordinary method of\nworking which people generalise and call laws. The reason why anything\nis, and the reason why all things change, is the energy there and then\nof the indwelling God who is in all His works, and who is the only Will\nand Power in the physical world.\n\nAnd I believe, further, that Scripture teaches us that that continuous\nwill, which is the cause of all phenomena and the underlying\nsubsistence on which all things repose, is all managed and mediated by\nHim who from of old was named the Word; 'in whom was life, and without\nwhom was not anything made that was made.' Our Christ is Creator, our\nChrist is Sustainer, our Christ moves the stars and feeds the sparrows.\nHe was 'before all things, and in Him all things consist.' He opens His\nhand\u2014and there is the print of a nail in it\u2014and 'satisfies the desire\nof every living thing.'\n\nSo learn how to think of second causes, and see in this story a\ntransient manifestation, in unusual form, of an eternal and permanent\nfact. Jesus took the loaves and distributed to them that were set down.\n\nAnd so, secondly, the miracle is a _sign_\u2014a symbol of Him as the true\nBread and Food of the world. That is the explanation and commentary\nwhich He Himself appends to it in the subsequent part of the chapter,\nin the great discourse which is founded upon this miracle.\n\n'I am the Bread of Life.' There is a triple statement by our Lord upon\nthis subject in the remaining portion of the chapter. He says, 'I am\nthe Bread of Life.' My personality is that which not only sustains life\nwhen it is given, but gives life to them that feed upon it. But more\nthan that, 'the bread which I will give,' pointing to some future\n'giving' beyond the present moment, and therefore something more than\nHis life and example, 'is My flesh, which'\u2014in some as yet unexplained\nway\u2014'I give for the life of the world.' And that there may be no\nmisunderstanding, there is a third, deeper, more mysterious statement\nstill: 'My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.'\nRepulsive and paradoxical, but in its very offensiveness and paradox,\nproclaiming that it covers a mighty truth, and the truth, brother, is\nthis, the one Food that gives life to will, affections, conscience,\nunderstanding, to the whole spirit of a man, is that great Sacrifice of\nthe Incarnate Lord who gave upon the Cross His flesh, and on the Cross\nshed His blood, for the life of the world that was 'dead in trespasses\nand sins.' Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us, and we feed on\nthe sacrifice. Let your conscience, your heart, your desires, your\nanticipations, your understanding, your will, your whole being feed on\nHim. He will be cleansing, He will be love, He will be fruition, He\nwill be hope, He will be truth, He will be righteousness, He will be\nall. Feed upon Him by that faith which is the true eating of the true\nBread, and your souls shall live.\n\nAnd notice finally here, the result of this miracle as transferred to\nthe region of symbol. 'They did all eat and were filled'; men, women,\nchildren, both sexes, all ages, all classes, found the food that they\nneeded in the bread that came from Christ's hands. If any man wants\ndainties that will tickle the palates of Epicureans, let him go\nsomewhere else. But if he wants bread, to keep the life in and to stay\nhis hunger, let him go to this Christ who is 'human nature's daily\nfood.'\n\nThe world has scoffed for nineteen centuries at the barley bread that\nthe Gospel provides; coarse by the side of its confectionery, but it is\nenough to give life to all who eat it. It goes straight to the primal\nnecessities of human nature. It does not coddle a class, or pander to\nunwholesome, diseased, or fastidious appetites. It is the food of the\nworld, and not of a section. All men can relish it, all men need it. It\nis offered to them all.\n\nAnd more than that; notice the inexhaustible abundance. 'They did all\neat, and were filled.' And then they took up\u2014not 'of the fragments,' as\nour Bible gives it, conveying the idea of the crumbs that littered the\ngrass after the repast was over, but of the 'broken pieces'\u2014the\nportions that came from Christ's hands\u2014twelve baskets full, an\nimmensely greater quantity than they had to start with. 'The gift doth\nstretch itself as 'tis received.' Other goods and other possessions\nperish with the using, but this increases with use. The more one eats,\nthe more there is for him to eat. And all the world may live upon it\nfor ever, and there will be more at the end than there was at the\nbeginning.\n\nBrethren, why do ye 'spend your money for that which is not bread'?\nThere is no answer worthy of a rational soul, no answer that will stand\neither the light of conscience or the clearer light of the Day of\nJudgment. I come to you now, and although my poor words may be but like\nthe barley bread and the two fishes\u2014nothing amongst all this gathered\naudience\u2014I come with Christ in my hands, and I say to you, 'Eat, and\nyour souls shall live.' He will spread a table for you in the\nwilderness, and take you to sit at last at His table in His Kingdom.\n\n\n\n\n'FRAGMENTS' OR 'BROKEN PIECES'\n\n\n'When they were filled, He said unto His disciples, Gather up the\nfragments that remain, that nothing be lost.'\u2014JOHN vi. 12.\n\nThe Revised Version correctly makes a very slight, but a very\nsignificant change in the words of this verse. Instead of 'fragments'\nit reads 'broken pieces.' The change seems very small, but the effect\nof it is considerable. It helps our picture of the scene by correcting\na very common misapprehension as to what it was which the Apostles are\nbid to gather up. The general notion, I suppose, is that the\n'fragments' are the crumbs that fell from each man's hands, as he ate,\nand the picture before the imagination of the ordinary reader is that\nof the Apostles' carefully collecting the _debris_ of the meal from the\ngrass where it had dropped. But the true notion is that the 'broken\npieces which remain over' are the unused portions into which our Lord's\nmiracle-working hand had broken the bread, and the true picture is that\nof the Apostles carefully putting away in store for future use the\nabundant provision which their Lord had made, beyond the needs of the\nhungry thousands. And that conception of the command teaches far more\nbeautiful and deeper lessons than the other.\n\nFor if the common translation and notion be correct, all that is taught\nus, or at least what is principally taught us, is the duty of thrift\nand careful economy; whereas the other shows more clearly that what is\ntaught us is that Jesus Christ always gets ready for His people\nsomething over and above the exact limits of their bare need at the\nmoment, that He prepares for His poor and hungry dependants in royal\nfashion, leaving ever a wide margin of difference between what would be\njust enough to keep the life in them, and His liberal housekeeping.\nFurther, we are taught a lesson of wise husbandry and economy in the\nuse of that overplus of grace which Christ ministers, and are\ninstructed that the laws of prudent thrift have as honoured a place in\nthe management of spiritual as of temporal wealth. 'Gather up,' says\nour Lord, 'the pieces which I broke, the large provision which I made\nfor possible wants. My gifts are in excess of the requirements of the\nmoment. Take care of them till you need them.' That is a worthier\ninterpretation of His command than one which merely sees in it an\nexhortation to thrifty taking care of the crumbs that fell from the\nlips of the hungry eaters.\n\nLooking at this command, then, with this slight alteration of\nrendering, and consequent widening of scope, we may briefly try to\ngather up the lessons which it obviously suggests.\n\nI. We have that thought, to which I have already referred, as more\nstrikingly brought out by the slight alteration of translation, which,\nby the use of '_broken_ pieces,' suggests the connection with Christ's\n_breaking_ the loaves and fishes. We are taught to think of the large\nsurplus in Christ's gifts over and above our need. Our Lord has Himself\ngiven us a commentary upon this miracle. All Christ's miracles are\nparables, for all teach us, on the level of natural and outward things,\nlessons that are true in regard to the spiritual world; but this one is\nespecially symbolical, as indeed are all these recorded in John's\nGospel. And here we have Christ, on the day after the miracle,\ncommenting upon it in His long and profound discourse upon the Bread of\nLife, which plainly intimates that He meant His office of feeding the\nhungry crowds, with bread supernaturally increased by the touch of His\nhand, to be but a picture and a guide which might lead to the\napprehension of the higher view of Himself as the 'bread of God which\ncame down from heaven,' feeding and 'giving life to the world' by His\nbroken body and shed blood.\n\nSo that we are not inventing a fanciful interpretation of an incident\nnot meant to have any meaning deeper than shows on the surface, when we\nsay that the abundance far beyond what the eaters could make use of at\nthe moment really represented the large surplus of inexhaustible\nresources and unused grace which is treasured for us all in Christ\nJesus. Whom He feeds He feasts. His gifts answer our need, and\nover-answer it, for He is 'able to do exceeding abundantly above that\nwhich we ask or think,' and neither our conceptions, nor our petitions,\nnor our present powers of receiving, are the real limits of the\nillimitable grace that is laid up for us in Christ, and which,\npotentially, we have each of us in our hands whenever we lay our hands\non Him.\n\nOh, dear friends! what you and I have ever had and felt of Christ's\npower, sweetness, preciousness, and love is as nothing compared with\nthe infinite depths of all those which lie in Him. The sea fills the\nlittle creeks along its shore, but it rolls in unfathomed depths,\nboundless to the horizon away out there in the mid-Atlantic. And all\nthe present experience of all Christian people, of what Christ is, is\nlike the experience of the first settlers in some great undiscovered\ncontinent; who timidly plant a little fringe of population round its\nedge and grow their scanty crops there, whilst the great prairies of\nmiles and miles, with all their wealth and fertility, are lying\nuntrodden and unknown in the heart of the untraversed continent. The\nmost powerful telescope leaves nebulae unresolved, which, though they\nseem but a dim dust of light, are all ablaze with mighty suns. The\n'goodness' which He has 'wrought before the sons of men for them that\nfear' Him is, as the Psalmist adoringly exclaims, wondrously 'great,'\nbut still greater is that which the same verse of the Psalm\ncelebrates\u2014the goodness which He has 'laid up for them that fear Him.'\nThe gold which is actually coined and passing from hand to hand, is but\na fraction, a mere scale, as it were, off the surface of the great\nuncoined mass of bullion that lies stored in the vaults there. Christ\nis a great deal more than any man, or than all men, have yet found Him\nto be. 'Gather up the broken pieces'; and see that nothing of that\ninfinite preciousness of His be lost by us.\n\nII. Then there is another very simple lesson which I draw. This command\nsuggests for us Christ's thrift (if I may use the word) in the\nemployment of His miraculous power.\n\nSurely they might have said: 'If thou canst multiply five loaves into\nall this abundance, why should we be trudging about, each with a basket\non his back full of bread, when we have with us He whose word can make\nit for us at any moment?' Yes, but a law which characterises all the\nmiraculous, in both the Old and the New Testament, and which broadly\ndistinguishes Christ's miracles from all the false miracles of false\nreligions is this, that the miraculous is pared down to the smallest\npossible amount, that not one hairsbreadth beyond the necessity shall\nbe done by miracle; that whatever men can do they shall do; that their\nwork shall stop as late, and begin again as soon as possible. Thus,\nthough Christ was going to raise Lazarus, men's hands had to roll away\nthe stone; and when Christ had raised Lazarus, men's hands had to loose\nthe napkins from his face. And though Christ was able to say to the\ndaughter of Jairus, '_Talitha cumi!_' (damsel, arise!) His next word\nwas: 'Give her something to eat.' Where the miraculous was needed it\nwas used, and not a hairsbreadth beyond absolute necessity did it\nextend.\n\nAnd so here Christ multiplies the bread, and yet each of the Apostles\nhas to take a basket, probably some kind of woven wicker-work article\nwhich they would carry for holding their little necessaries in their\nperegrinations; each Apostle has to take his basket, and perhaps\nemptying it of some of his humble apparel, to fill it with these bits\nof bread; for Christ was not going to work miracles where men's thrift\nand prudence could be employed.\n\nNor does He do so now. We live by faith, and our dependence on Him can\nnever be too absolute. Only laziness sometimes dresses itself in the\ngarb and speaks with the tongue of faith, and pretends to be truthful\nwhen it is only slothful. 'Why criest thou unto Me?' said God to Moses,\n'speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.' True faith\nsets us to work. It is not to be perverted into idle and false\ndepending upon Him to work for us, when by the use of our own ten\nfingers and our own brains, guided and strengthened by His working in\nus, we can do the work that is set before us.\n\nIII. Still further, there is another lesson here. Not only does the\ninjunction show us Christ's thrift in the employment of the\nsupernatural, but it teaches us our duty of thrift and care in the use\nof the spiritual grace bestowed upon us.\n\nThese men had given to them this miraculously made bread; but they had\nto exercise ordinary thrift in the preservation of the supernatural\ngift. Christ has been given to you by the most stupendous miracle that\never was or can be wrought, and if you are Christian people, you have\nthe Spirit of Christ given to you, to dwell in your hearts, to make you\nwise and fair, gentle and strong, and altogether Christlike. But you\nhave to take care of these gifts. You have to exercise the common\nvirtues of economy and thrift in your use of the divine gifts as in\nyour use of the common things of daily life. You have to use wisely and\nnot waste the Bread of God that came down from heaven, or that Bread of\nGod will not feed you. You have to provide the basket in which to carry\nthe unexhausted residue of the divine gift, or you may stand hungry in\nthe very midst of plenty, and whilst within arm's length of you there\nis bread enough and to spare to feed the whole world.\n\nThe lesson of my text, which is most eminently brought out if we adopt\nthe translation which I have referred to at the beginning of these\nremarks, is, then, just this: Christian men, be watchful stewards of\nthat great gift of a living Christ, the food of your souls, that has\nbeen by miracle bestowed upon you. Such gathering together for future\nneed of the unused residue of grace may be accomplished by three ways.\nFirst, there must be a diligent use of the grace given. See that you\nuse to the very full, in the measure of your present power of absorbing\nand your present need, the gift bestowed upon you. Be sure that you\ntake in as much of Christ as you can contain before you begin to think\nof what to do with the overplus. If we are not careful to take what we\ncan, and to use what we need, of Christ, there is little chance of our\nbeing faithful stewards of the surplus. The water in a mill-stream runs\nover the trough in great abundance when the wheel is not working, and\none reason why so many Christians seem to have so much more given to\nthem in Christ than they need is because they are doing no work to use\nup the gift.\n\nA second essential to such stewardship is the careful guarding of the\ngrace given from whatever would injure it. Let not worldliness,\nbusiness, cares of the world, the sorrows of life, its joys, duties,\nanxieties or pleasures\u2014let not these so come into your hearts that they\nwill elbow Christ out of your hearts, and dull your appetite for the\ntrue Bread that came down from heaven.\n\nAnd lastly, not only by use and by careful guarding, but also by\nearnest desire for larger gifts of the Christ who is large beyond all\nmeasure, shall we receive more and more of His sweetness and His\npreciousness into our hearts, and of His beauty and glory into our\ntransfigured characters. The basket that we carry, this recipient heart\nof ours, is elastic. It can stretch to hold any amount that you like to\nput into it. The desire for more of Christ's grace will stretch its\ncapacity, and as its capacity increases the inflowing gift greatens,\nand a larger Christ fills the larger room of my poor heart.\n\nSo the lesson is taught us of our prudence in the care and use of the\ngrace bestowed on us, and we are bidden to cherish a happy confidence\nin the inexhaustible resources of Christ, and the continual gift in the\nfuture of even larger measures of grace, which are all ours already,\ngiven to us at the first reception of Him into our hearts, and only\nneeding our faithfulness to be growingly ours in experience as they are\nours from the first in germ.\n\nIV. Finally, a solemn warning is implied in this command, and its\nreason 'that nothing be lost.'\n\nThen there is a possibility of losing the gift that is freely given to\nus. We may waste the bread, and so, sometime or other when we are\nhungry, awake to the consciousness that it has dropped out of our slack\nhands. The abundance of Christ's grace may, so far as you are profited\nor enriched by it, be like the unclaimed millions of money which nobody\nasks for and that is of use to no living soul. You may be paupers while\nall God's riches in glory are at your disposal, and starving while\nbaskets full of bread broken for us by Christ lie unused at our sides.\nSome of us have never tasted the sweetness or been fed by the\nnutritiousness of that Bread of God which came down from heaven. And\nmore marvellous still, there may be some of us, who having come to\nChrist hungry and been fed by Him, have ceased to care for the pure\nnourishment and taste for the manna, and are turning again with gross\nappetite to the husks in the swine's trough. Negligent Christians!\nworldly Christians! you who care more for money and other dainties and\ndelights which perish with the using\u2014backsliding Christians, who once\nhungered and thirsted for more of Christ, and now have no longing for\nHim\u2014awake to the danger in which you stand of letting all your\nspiritual wealth slip through your fingers; behold the treasures, yet\nunreached, within your grasp, and seek to garner and realise them.\nGather up the broken pieces which remain over, lest everything be lost.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIFTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL\n\n\n'So when they had rowed about five-and-twenty or thirty furlongs, they\nsee Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they\nwere afraid. 20. But He said unto them, It is I; be not afraid.'\u2014JOHN\nvi. 19,20.\n\nThere are none of our Lord's parables recorded in this Gospel, but all\nthe miracles which it narrates are parables. Moral and religious truth\nis communicated by the outward event, as in the parable it is\ncommunicated by the story. The mere visible fact becomes more than\nsemi-transparent. The analogy between the spiritual and the natural\nworld which men instinctively apprehend, of which the poet and the\norator and the religious teacher have always made abundant use, and\nwhich it has sometimes been attempted, unsuccessfully as I think, to\nelevate to the rank of a scientific truth, underlies the whole series\nof these miracles. It is the principal if not the only key to the\nmeaning of this one before us.\n\nThe symbolism which regards life under the guise of a voyage, and its\ntroubles and difficulties under the metaphor of storm and tempest, is\nespecially natural to nations that take kindly to the water, like us\nEnglishmen. I do not know that there is any instance, either in the Old\nor in the New Testament, of the use of that to us very familiar\nmetaphor; but the emblem of the sea as the symbol of trouble, unrest,\nrebellious power, is very familiar to the writers of the Old Testament.\nAnd the picture of the divine path as in the waters, and of the divine\nprerogative as being to 'tread upon the heights of the sea,' as Job has\nit, is by no means unknown. So the natural symbolism, and the Old\nTestament use of the expressions, blend together, as I think, in\nsuggesting the one point of view from which this miracle is to be\nregarded.\n\nIt is found in two of the other Evangelists, and the condensed account\nof it which we have in this Gospel, by its omission of Peter's walking\non the water, and of some other smaller but graphic details that the\nother Evangelists give us, serves to sharpen the symbolical meaning of\nthe whole story, and to bring that as its great purpose and\nsignification into prominence.\n\nWe shall, I think, then, best gain the lessons intended to be drawn if\nwe simply follow the points of the narrative in their order as they\nstand here.\n\nI. We have here, first of all, then, the struggling toilers.\n\nThe other Evangelists tell us that after the feeding of the five\nthousand our Lord 'constrained' His disciples to get into the ship, and\nto pass over to the other side. The language implies unwillingness, to\nsome extent, on their part, and the exercise of authority upon His. Our\nEvangelist, who does not mention the constraint, supplies us with the\nreason for it. The preceding miracle had worked up the excitement of\nthe mob to a very dangerous point. Crowds are always the same, and this\ncrowd thought, as any other crowd anywhere and in any age would have\ndone, that the prophet that could make bread at will was the kind of\nprophet whom they wanted. So they determined to take Him by force, and\nmake Him a king; and Christ, seeing the danger, and not desiring that\nHis Kingdom should be furthered by such unclean hands and gross\nmotives, determined to withdraw Himself into the loneliness of the\nbordering hills. It was wise to divide the little group; it would\ndistract attention; it might lead some of the people, as we know it did\nlead them, to follow the boat when they found it was gone. It would\nsave the Apostles from being affected by the coarse, smoky enthusiasm\nof the crowd. It would save them from revealing the place of His\nretirement. It might enable Him to steal away more securely unobserved;\nso they are sent across to the other side of the lake, some five or six\nmiles. An hour or two might have done it, but for some unknown reason\nthey seem to have lingered. Perhaps they had no special call for haste.\nThe Paschal moon, nearly full, would be shining down upon the waters;\ntheir hearts and minds would be busy with the miracle which they had\njust seen. And so they may have drifted along, not caring much when\nthey reached their destination. But suddenly one of the gusts of wind\nwhich are frequently found upon mountain lakes, especially towards\nnightfall, rose and soon became a gale with which they could not\nbattle. Our Evangelist does not tell us how long it lasted, but we get\na note of time from St. Mark, who says it was 'about the fourth watch\nof the night'; that is between the hours of three and six in the\nmorning of the subsequent day. So that for some seven or eight hours at\nleast they had been tugging at the useless oars, or sitting shivering,\nwet and weary, in the boat.\n\nIs it not the history of the Church in a nutshell? Is it not the symbol\nof life for us all? The solemn law under which we live demands\npersistent effort, and imposes continual antagonism upon us; there is\nno reason why we should regard that as evil, or think ourselves hardly\nused, because we are not fair-weather sailors. The end of life is to\nmake men; the meaning of all events is to mould character. Anything\nthat makes me stronger is a blessing, anything that develops my\n_morale_ is the highest good that can come to me. If therefore\nantagonism mould in me\n\n  'The wrestling thews that throw the world,'\n\nand give me good, strong muscles, and put tan and colour into my cheek,\nI need not mind the cold and the wet, nor care for the whistling of the\nwind in my face, nor the dash of the spray over the bows. Summer\nsailing in fair weather, amidst land-locked bays, in blue seas, and\nunder calm skies, may be all very well for triflers, but\n\n  'Blown seas and storming showers'\n\nare better if the purpose of the voyage be to brace us and call out our\npowers.\n\nAnd so be thankful if, when the boat is crossing the mouth of some glen\nthat opens upon the lake, a sudden gust smites the sheets and sends you\nto the helm, and takes all your effort to keep you from sinking. Do not\nmurmur, or think that God's Providence is strange, because many and\nmany a time when 'it is dark, and Jesus is not yet come to us,' the\nstorm of wind comes down upon the lake and threatens to drive us from\nour course. Let us rather recognise Him as the Lord who, in love and\nkindness, sends all the different kinds of weather which, according to\nthe old proverb, make up the full-summed year.\n\nAnd then notice how, in this first picture of our text, the symbolism\nso naturally lends itself to spiritual meanings, not only in regard to\nthe tempest that caught the unthinking voyagers, but also in regard to\nother points; such as the darkness amidst which they had to fight the\ntempest, and the absence of the Master. Once before, they had been\ncaught in a similar storm on the lake, but it was daylight then, and\nJesus was with them, and that made all the difference. This time it was\nnight, and they looked up in vain to the green Eastern hills, and\nwondered where in their folds He was lurking, so far from their help.\nMark gives us one sweet touch when he tells us that Christ on the\nhillside there _saw_ them toiling in rowing, but they did not see Him.\nNo doubt they felt themselves deserted, and sent many a wistful glance\nof longing towards the shore where He was. Hard thoughts of Him may\nhave been in some of their minds. 'Master, carest Thou not?' would be\nspringing to some of their lips with more apparent reason than in the\nother storm on the lake. But His calm and loving gaze looked down\npitying on all their fear and toil. The darkness did not hide from Him,\nnor His own security on the steadfast land make Him forget, nor his\ncommunion with the Father so absorb Him as to exclude thoughts of them.\n\nIt is a parable and a prophecy of the perpetual relation between the\nabsent Lord and the toiling Church. He is on the mountain while we are\non the sea. The stable eternity of the Heavens holds Him; we are tossed\non the restless mutability of time, over which we toil at His command.\nHe is there interceding for us. Whilst He prays He beholds, and He\nbeholds that He may help us by His prayer. The solitary crew were not\nso solitary as they thought. That little dancing speck on the waters,\nwhich held so much blind love and so much fear and trouble, was in His\nsight, as on the calm mountain-top He communed with God. No wonder that\nweary hearts and lonely ones, groping amidst the darkness, and fighting\nwith the tempests and the sorrows of lift, have ever found in our story\na symbol that comes to them with a prophecy of hope and an assurance of\nhelp, and have rejoiced to know that they on the sea are beheld of the\nChrist in the sky, and that 'the darkness hideth not from' His loving\neye.\n\nII. And now turn to the next stage of the story before us. We have the\napproaching Christ.\n\n'When they had rowed about five-and-twenty or thirty furlongs,' and so\nwere just about the middle of the lake, 'they see Jesus walking on the\nsea and drawing nigh unto the ship.' They were about half-way across\nthe lake. We do not know at what hour in the fourth watch the Master\ncame. But probably it was towards daybreak. Toiling had endured for a\nnight. It would be in accordance with the symbolism that joy and help\nshould come with the morning.\n\nIf we look for a moment at the miraculous fact, apart from the\nsymbolism, we have a revelation here of Christ as the Lord of the\nmaterial universe, a kingdom wider in its range and profounder in its\nauthority than that which that shouting crowd had sought to force upon\nHim. His will consolidated the yielding wave, or sustained His material\nbody on the tossing surges. Whether we suppose the miracle as wrought\non the one or the other, makes no difference to its value as a\nmanifestation of the glory of Christ, and of His power over the\nphysical order of things. In the latter case there would, perhaps, be a\nhint of a power residing in His material frame, of which we possibly\nhave other phases, as in the Transfiguration, which may be a prophecy\nof what lordship over nature is possible to a sinless manhood. However\nthat may be, we have here a wonderful picture which is true for all\nages of the mighty Christ, to whose gentle footfall the unquiet surges\nare as a marble pavement; and who draws near in the purposes of His\nlove, unhindered by antagonism, and using even opposing forces as the\npath for His triumphant progress. Two lessons may be drawn from this.\nOne is that in His marvellous providence Christ uses all the tumults\nand unrest, the opposition and tempests which surround the ship that\nbears His followers, as the means of achieving His purposes. We stand\nbefore a mystery to which we have no key when we think of these two\ncertain facts; first, the Omnipotent redeeming will of God in Christ;\nand, second, the human antagonism which is able to rear itself against\nthat. And we stand in the presence of another mystery, most blessed,\nand yet which we cannot unthread, when we think, as we most assuredly\nmay, that in some mysterious fashion He works His purposes by the very\nantagonism to His purposes, making even head-winds fill the sails, and\nplanting His foot on the white crests of the angry and changeful\nbillows. How often in the world's history has this scene repeated\nitself, and by a divine irony the enemies have become the helpers of\nChrist's cause, and what they plotted for destruction has turned out\nrather to the furtherance of the Gospel! 'He maketh the wrath of man to\npraise Him, and with the residue thereof He girdeth Himself.'\n\nAnother lesson for our individual lives is this, that Christ, in His\nsweetness and His gentle sustaining help, comes near to us all across\nthe sea of sorrow and trouble. A more tender, a more gracious sense of\nHis nearness to us is ever granted to us in the time of our darkness\nand our grief than is possible to us in the sunny hours of joy. It is\nalways the stormy sea that Christ comes across, to draw near to us; and\nthey who have never experienced the tempest have yet to learn the\ninmost sweetness of His presence. When it is night, and it is dark, at\nthe hour which is the keystone of night's black arch, Christ comes to\nus, striding across the stormy waters. Sorrow brings _Him_ near to\n_us_. Do you see that sorrow does not drive _you_ away from Him!\n\nIII. Then, still further, we note in the story before us the terror and\nthe recognition.\n\nSt. John does not tell us why they were afraid. There is no need to\ntell us. They see, possibly in the chill uncertain light of the grey\ndawn breaking over the Eastern hills, a Thing coming to them across the\nwater there. They had fought gallantly with the storm, but this\nquestionable shape freezes their heart's blood, and a cry, that is\naudible above even the howling of the wind and the dash of the waves,\ngives sign of the superstitious terror that crept round the hearts of\nthose commonplace, rude men.\n\nI do not dwell upon the fact that the average man, if he fancies that\nanything from out of the Unseen is near him, shrinks in fear. I do not\nask you whether that is not a sign and indication of the deep\nconviction that lies in men's souls, of a discord between themselves\nand the unseen world; but I ask you if we do not often mistake the\ncoming Master, and tremble before Him when we ought to be glad?\n\nWe are often so absorbed with our work, so busy tugging at the oar, so\nanxiously watching the set of current, so engaged in keeping the helm\nright, that we have no time and no eyes to look across the ocean and\nsee who it is that is coming to us through all the hurly-burly. Our\ntears fill our eyes, and weave a veil between us and the Master. And\nwhen we do see that there is Something there, we are often afraid of\nit, and shrink from it. And sometimes when a gentle whisper of\nconsolation, or some light air, as it were, of consciousness of His\npresence, breathes through our souls, we think that it is only a\nphantasm of our own making, and that the coming Christ is nothing more\nthan the play of our thoughts and imaginations.\n\nOh, brethren, let no absorption in cares and duties, let no unchildlike\nmurmurings, let no selfish abandonment to sorrow, blind you to the Lord\nwho always comes near troubled hearts, if they will only look and see!\nLet no reluctance to entertain religious ideas, no fear of contact with\nthe Unseen, no shrinking from the thought of Christ as a _Kill-joy_\nkeep you from seeing Him as He draws near to you in your troubles. And\nlet no sly, mocking Mephistopheles of doubt, nor any poisonous air,\nblowing off the foul and stagnant marshes of present materialism, make\nyou fancy that the living Reality, treading on the flood there, is a\ndream or a fancy or the projection of your own imagination on to the\nvoid of space. He is real, whatever may be phenomenal and surface. The\nstorm is not so real as the Christ, the waves not so substantial as He\nwho stands upon them. They will pass and quieten, He will abide for\never. Lift up your hearts and be glad, because the Lord comes to you\nacross the waters, and hearken to His voice: 'It is I! Be not afraid.'\n\nThe encouragement not to fear follows the proclamation, 'It is I!' What\na thrill of glad confidence must have poured itself into their hearts,\nwhen once they rose to the height of that wondrous fact!\n\n  'Well roars the storm to those who hear\n   A deeper voice across the storm.'\n\nThere is no fear in the consciousness of His presence. It is His old\nword: 'Be not afraid!' And He breathes it whithersoever He comes; for\nHis coming is the banishment of danger and the exorcism of dread. So\nthat if only you and I, in the midst of all storm and terror, can say\n'It is the Lord,' then we may catch up the grand triumphant chorus of\nthe old psalm, and say: 'Though the waters thereof roar and be\ntroubled, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, yet I\nwill not fear.' The Lord is with us; the everlasting Christ is our\nHelper, our Refuge, and our Strength.\n\nIV. So, lastly, we have here in this story the end of the tempest and\nof the voyage.\n\nOur Evangelist does not record, as the others do, that the storm ceased\nupon Christ's being welcomed into the little boat. The other\nEvangelists do not record, as he does, the completion of the voyage.\n'Immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.' The two\nthings are cause and effect. I do not suppose, as many do, that a\nsubordinate miracle is to be seen in that last clause of our text, or\nthat the 'immediately' is to be taken as if it meant that without one\nmoment's delay, or interval, the voyage was completed; but only, which\nI think is all that is needful, that the falling of the tempest and the\ncalming of the waters which followed upon the Master's entrance into\nthe vessel made the remainder of the voyage comparatively brief and\nswift.\n\nIt is not always true, it is very seldom true, that when Christ comes\non board opposition ends, and the haven is reached. But it is always\ntrue that when Christ comes on board a new spirit enters into the men\nwho have Him for their companion, and are conscious that they have. It\nmakes their work easy, and makes them 'more than conquerors' over what\nyet remains. With what a different spirit the weary men would bend\ntheir backs to the oars once more when they had the Master on board,\nand with what a different spirit you and I will set ourselves to our\nwork if we are sure of His presence. The worst of trouble is gone when\nChrist shares it with us. There is a wonderful charm to stay His rough\nwind in the assurance that in all our affliction He is afflicted. If we\nfeel that we are following in His footsteps, we feel that He stands\nbetween us and the blast, a refuge from the storm and a covert from the\ntempest. And if still, as no doubt will be the case, we have our share\nof trouble and storm and sorrow and difficulty, yet the worst of the\ngale will be passed, and though a long swell may still heave, the\nterror and the danger will have gone with the night, and hope and\ncourage and gladness revive as the morning's sun breaks over the still\nunquiet waves, and shows us our Master with us and the white walls of\nthe port glinting in the level beams.\n\nFriends, life is a voyage, anyhow, with plenty of storm and danger and\ndifficulty and weariness and exposure and anxiety and dread and sorrow,\nfor every soul of man. But if you will take Christ on board, it will be\na very different thing from what it will be if you cross the wan waters\nalone. Without Him you will make shipwreck of yourselves; with Him your\nvoyage may seem perilous and be tempestuous, but He will 'make the\nstorm a calm,' and will bring you to the haven of your desire.\n\n\n\n\nHOW TO WORK THE WORK OF GOD\n\n\n'Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the\nworks of God? 29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work\nof God, that ye, believe on Him whom He hath sent.'\u2014JOHN vi. 28, 29.\n\nThe feeding of the five thousand was the most 'popular' of Christ's\nmiracles. The Evangelist tells us, with something between a smile and a\nsigh, that 'when the people saw it, they said, This is of a truth that\nProphet that should come into the world,' and they were so delighted\nwith Him and with it, that they wanted to get up an insurrection on the\nspot, and make a King of Him. I wonder if there are any of that sort of\npeople left. If two men were to come into Manchester to-morrow morning,\nand one of them were to offer material good, and the other wisdom and\npeace of heart, which of them, do you think, would have the larger\nfollowing? We need not cast a stone at the unblushing, frank admiration\nthat these men had for a Prophet who could feed them, for that is\nexactly the sort of prophet that a great number of us would like best\nif they spoke out.\n\nSo Jesus Christ had to escape from the inconvenient enthusiasm of these\nmistaken admirers of His; and they followed Him in their eagerness, but\nwere met with words which lift them into another region and damp their\nzeal. He tries to turn away their thoughts from the miracle to a far\nloftier gift. He contrasts the trouble which they willingly took in\norder to get a meal with their indifference as to obtaining the true\nbread from heaven, and He bids them work for it just as they had shown\nthemselves ready to work for the other.\n\nThey put to Him this question of my text, so strangely blending as it\ndoes right and wrong, 'You have bid us work; tell us how to work? What\nmust we do that we may work the works of God?' Christ answers, in words\nthat illuminate their confusions and clear the whole matter, 'This is\nthe work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.'\n\nI. Faith, then, is a work.\n\nYou know that the commonplace of evangelical teaching opposes faith to\nworks; and the opposition is perfectly correct, if it be rightly\nunderstood. But I have a strong impression that a great deal of our\npreaching goes clean over the heads of our hearers, because we take for\ngranted, and they fancy that they understand, the meaning of terms\nbecause the terms themselves are so familiar. And I believe that many\npeople go to churches and chapels all their lives long, and hear this\ndoctrine dinned into them, that they are to be saved by faith, and not\nby works, and never approach a definite understanding of what it means.\n\nSo let me just for a moment try to clear up the terms of this\napparently paradoxical statement that faith is a work. What do we mean\nby faith? What do you mean by saying that you have faith in your\nfriend, in your wife, in your husband, in your guide? You simply mean,\nand we mean, that you trust the person, grasping him by the act of\ntrust. On trust the whole fabric of human society depends, as well as\nin another aspect of the same expression does the whole fabric of\nManchester commerce. Faith, confidence, the leaning of myself on one\ndiscerned to be true, trusty, strong, sufficient for the purpose in\nhand, whatever it may be\u2014that, and nothing more mysterious, nothing\nfurther away from daily life and the common emotions which knit us to\none another, is, as I take it, what the New Testament means when it\ninsists upon faith.\n\nAh, we all exercise it. You put it forth in certain low levels and\ndirections. 'The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her,' is the\nshort summary of the happy lives of many, I have no doubt, of my\npresent hearers. Have you none of that confidence to spare for God? Is\nit all meant to be poured out upon weak, fallible, changeful creatures\nlike ourselves, and none of it to rise to the One in whom absolute\nconfidence may eternally be fixed?\n\nBut then, of course, as we may see by the exercise of the same emotion\nin regard to one Another, the under side (as I have been accustomed to\nsay to you) of this confidence in God or Christ is diffidence of\nmyself. There is no real exercise of confidence which does not involve,\nas an essential part of itself, the going out from myself in order that\nI may lay all the weight and the responsibility of the matter in hand\nupon Him in whom I trust. And so Christian faith is compounded of these\ntwo elements, or rather, it has these two sides which correspond to one\nanother. The same figure is convex or concave according as you look at\nit from one side or another. If you look at faith from one side, it\nrises towards God; if from the other, it hollows itself out into a\ngreat emptiness. And so the under side of faith is distrust; and he\nthat puts his confidence in God thereby goes out of himself, and\ndeclares that in himself there is nothing to rest upon.\n\nNow that two-sided confidence and diffidence, trust and distrust, which\nare one, is truly a work. It is not an easy one either; it is the\nexercise of our own inmost nature. It is an effort of will. It has to\nbe done by coercing ourselves. It has to be maintained in the face of\nmany temptations and difficulties. The contrast between faith and work\nis between an inward act and a crowd of outward performances. But the\nfaith which knits me to God is my act, and I am responsible for it.\n\nBut yet it is not a work, just because it is a ceasing from my own\nworks, and going out from myself that He may enter in. Only remember,\nwhen we say, 'Not by works of righteousness, but by the faith of\nChrist,' we are but proclaiming that the inward man must exercise that\nact of self-abnegation and confession of its own impotence, and ceasing\nfrom all reliance on anything which it does, whereby, and whereby\nalone, it can be knit to God. 'Labour not for the meat that perisheth,\nbut for that meat which endureth unto eternal life\u2026. This is the work\nof God, that ye believe.' You are responsible for doing that, or for\nnot doing it.\n\nII. Secondly, faith, and not a multitude of separate acts, is what\npleases God.\n\nMark the difference between the form of the question and that of the\nanswer. The people say, 'What are we to do that we may work the _works_\nof God?' Christ answers in the singular: 'This is the _work_.' They\nthought of a great variety of observances and deeds. He gathers them\nall up into one. They thought of a pile, and that the higher it rose\nthe more likely they were to be accepted. He unified the requirement,\nand He brought it all down to this one act, in which all other acts are\nincluded, and on which alone the whole weight of a man's salvation is\nto rest. 'What shall we do that we might work the works of God?' is a\nquestion asked in all sorts of ways, by the hearts of men all round\nabout us; and what a babble of answers comes! The priest says, 'Rites\nand ceremonies.' The thinker says, 'Culture, education.' The moralist\nsays, 'Do this, that, and the other thing,' and enumerates a whole\nseries of separate acts. Jesus Christ says, 'One thing is needful\u2026.\nThis is the work of God.' He brushes away the sacerdotal answer and the\nanswer of the mere moralist, and He says, 'No! Not _do_; but _trust_.'\nIn so far as that is act, it is the only act that you need.\n\nThat is evidently reasonable. The man is more than his work; motive is\nmore important than action; character is deeper than conduct. God is\npleased, not by what men do, but by what men are. We must _be_ first,\nand then we shall _do_. And it is obviously reasonable, because we can\nfind analogies to the requirement in all other relations of life. What\nwould you care for a child that scrupulously obeyed, and did not love\nor trust? What would a prince think of a subject who was ostentatious\nin acts of loyalty, and all the while was plotting and nurturing\ntreason in his heart?\n\nIf doing separate acts of righteousness be the way to work the works of\nGod, then no man has ever done them. For it is a plain fact that every\nman falls below his own conscience\u2014which conscience is less scrupulous\nthan the divine law. The worst of us knows a great deal more than the\nbest of us does; and our lives, universally, are, at the best, lives of\npartial effort after unreached attainments of obedience and of virtue.\n\nBut, even supposing that we could perform, far more completely than we\ndo, the requirements of our own consciences, and conform to the evident\nduties of our position and relations, do you think that without faith\nwe should be therein working the works of God? Suppose a man were able\nfully to realise his own ideal of goodness, without any confidence in\nGod underlying all his acts; do you think that these would be acts that\nwould please God? It seems to me that, however lovely and worthy of\nadmiration, looked at with human eyes only, many lives are, which have\nnobly and resolutely fought against evil, and struggled after good, if\nthey have lacked the crowning grace of doing this for God's sake, they\nlack, I was going to say, almost everything; I will not say that, but I\nwill say that they lack that which makes them acceptable, well-pleasing\nto Him. The poorest, the most imperfect realisation of our duty and\nideal of conduct which has in it a love towards God and a faith in Him\nthat would fain do better if it could, is a nobler thing, I venture to\nsay, in the eyes of Heaven\u2014which are the truth-seeing eyes\u2014than the\nnoblest achievements of an untrusting soul. It does not seem to me that\nto say so is bigotry or narrowness or anything else but the plain\ndeduction from this, that a man's relation to God is the deepest thing\nabout him, and that if that be right, other things will come right, and\nif that be wrong nothing is as right as it might be.\n\nHere we have Jesus Christ laying the foundation for the doctrine which\nis often said to be Pauline, as if that meant something else than\ncoming from Jesus Christ. We often hear people say, 'Oh, your\nevangelical teaching of justification by faith, and all that, comes out\nof Paul's Epistles, not out of Christ's teaching, nor out of John's\nGospel.' Well, there is a difference, which it is blindness not to\nrecognise, between the seeds of teaching in our Lord's words, and the\nflowers and fruit of these seeds, which we get in the more systematised\nand developed teaching of the Epistles. I frankly admit that, and I\nshould expect it, with my belief as to who Christ is, and who Paul is.\nBut in that saying, 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him\nwhom He hath sent,' is the germ of everything that Paul has taught us\nabout the works of the law being of no avail, and faith being alone and\nunfailing in its power of uniting men to God, and bringing them into\nthe possession of eternal life. The saying stands in John's Gospel, and\nso Paul and John alike received, though in different fashions, and\nwrought out on different lines of subsequent teaching, the germinal\nimpulse from these words of the Master. Let us hear no more about\nsalvation by faith being a Pauline addition to Christ's Gospel, for the\nlips of Christ Himself have declared 'this is the work of God, that ye\nbelieve on Him whom He hath sent.'\n\nIII. Thirdly, this faith is the productive parent of all separate works\nof God.\n\nThe teaching that I have been trying to enforce has, I know, been so\npresented as to make a pillow for indolence, and to be closely allied\nto immorality. It has been so presented, but it has not been so\npresented half as often as its enemies would have us believe. For I\nknow of but very few, and those by no means the most prominent and\npowerful of the preachers of the great doctrine of salvation by faith,\nwho have not added, as its greatest teacher did: 'Let ours also be\ncareful to maintain good works for necessary uses.' But the true\nteaching is not that trust is a substitute for work, but that it is the\nfoundation of work. The Gospel is, first of all, Trust; then, set\nyourselves to do the works of faith. It works by love, it is the\nopening of the heart to the entrance of the life of Christ, and, of\ncourse, when that life comes in, it will act in the man in a manner\nappropriate to its origin and source, and he that by faith has been\njoined to Jesus Christ, and has opened his heart to receive into that\nheart the life of Christ, will, as a matter of course, bring forth, in\nthe measure of his faith, the fruits of righteousness.\n\nWe are surely not despising fruits and flowers when we insist upon the\nroot from which they shall come. A man may take separate acts of\npartial goodness, as you see children in the springtime sticking\ndaisies on the spikes of a thorn-twig picked from the hedges. But these\nwill die. The basis of all righteousness is faith, and the\nmanifestation of faith is practical righteousness. 'Show Me thy faith\nby thy works' is Christ's teaching quite as much as it is the teaching\nof His sturdy servant James. And so, dear friends, we are going the\nshortest way to enrich lives with all the beauties of possible human\nperfection when we say, 'Begin at the beginning. The longest way round\nis the shortest way home; trust Him with all your hearts first, and\nthat will effloresce into \"whatsoever things are lovely and whatever\nthings are of good report.\"' In the beautiful metaphor of the Apostle\nPeter, in his second Epistle, Faith is the damsel who leads in the\nchorus of consequent graces; and we are exhorted to 'add to our faith\nvirtue,' and all the others that unfold themselves in harmonious\nsequence from that one central source.\n\nIf I had time I should be glad to turn for a moment to the light which\nsuch considerations cast upon subjects that are largely occupying the\nattention of the Christian Church to-day. I should like to insist that,\nbefore you talk much about applied Christianity, you should be very\nsure that in men there _is_ a Christianity to apply. I venture to\nprofess my own humble belief that in ninety-nine cases out of a\nhundred, Christian ministers and churches will do no more for the\nsocial, political, and intellectual and moral advancement of men and\nthe elevation of the people by sticking to their own work and preaching\nthis Gospel\u2014'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He\nhath sent.'\n\nIV. Lastly, this faith secures the bread of life.\n\nThe bread of life is the starting-point of the whole conversation. In\nthe widest possible sense it is whatsoever truly stills the hunger of\nthe immortal soul. In a deeper sense it is the person of Jesus Christ\nHimself, for He not only says that He will _give_, but that He _is_ the\nBread of Life. And, in the deepest sense of all, it is His flesh broken\nfor us in His sacrifice on the Cross. That bread is a gift. So the\nparadox results which stands in our text\u2014_work_ for the bread which God\nwill _give_. If it be a gift, that fact determines what sort of work\nmust be done in order to possess it. If it be a gift, then the only\nwork is to accept it. If it be a gift, then we are out of the region of\n_quid pro quo_; and have not to bring, as Chinese do, great strings of\ncopper cash that, all added up together, do not amount to a shilling,\nin order to buy what God will bestow upon us. If it be a gift, then to\ntrust the Giver and to accept the gift is the only condition that is\npossible.\n\nIt is not a condition that God has invented and arbitrarily imposed.\nThe necessity of it is lodged deep in the very nature of the case. Air\ncannot get to the lungs of a mouse in an air-pump. Light cannot come\ninto a room where all the shutters are up and the keyhole stopped. If a\nman chooses to perch himself on some little stool of his own, with\nglass legs to it, and to take away his hand from the conductor, no\nelectricity will come to him. If I choose to lock my lips, Jesus Christ\ndoes not prise open my clenched teeth to put the bread of life into my\nunwilling mouth. If we ask, we get; if we take, we get.\n\nAnd so the paradox comes, that we work for a gift, with a work which is\nnot work because it is a departure from myself. It is the same blessed\nparadox which the prophet spoke when he said, 'Buy \u2026 without money and\nwithout price.' Oh! what a burden of hopeless effort and weary\ntoil\u2014like that of the man that had to roll the stone up the hill, which\never slipped back again\u2014is lifted from our shoulders by such a word as\nthis that I have been poorly trying to speak about now! 'Thou art\ncareful and troubled about many things,' poor soul! trying to be good;\ntrying to fight yourself, and the world, and the devil. Try the other\nplan, and listen to Him saying, 'Give up self-imposed effort in thine\nown strength. Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE MANNA\n\n\n'I am that bread of life. 49. Your fathers did eat manna in the\nwilderness, and are dead. 50. This is the bread which cometh down from\nheaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.'\u2014JOHN vi. 48-50.\n\n'This is of a truth that Prophet,' said the Jews, when Christ had fed\nthe five thousand on the five barley loaves and the two small fishes.\nThat was the kind of Teacher for them; they were quite unaffected by\nthe wisdom of His words and the beauty of His deeds, but a miracle that\nfound food precisely met their wants, and so there was excited an\nimpure enthusiasm, very unwelcome to Jesus. Therefore He withdrew\nHimself from it, and when the people followed Him, all full of\nexpectation, to get some more loaves and see some more miracles, He met\nthem with a douche of cold water that cooled their enthusiasm and flung\nthem back into a critical, questioning mood. They pointed to the\nmiracle of the manna, and hinted that, if He expected them to accept\nHim, He must do as Moses had done, or something like it. Probably there\nwas a Jewish tradition in existence then to the effect that the Messiah\nwas to repeat the miracle of the manna. But, at all events, Christ lays\nhold of the reference that they put into His hands, and He said in\neffect, 'Manna? Yes; I give, and am, the true Manna.'\n\nSo this is the third of the instances in this Gospel in which our Lord\npointed to Old Testament incidents and institutions as symbolising\nHimself. In the first of them, when He likened Himself to the ladder\nthat Jacob saw, He claimed to be the Medium of communication between\nheaven and earth. In the second of them, when He likened Himself to the\nbrazen serpent lifted in the camp, He claimed to be the Healer of a\nsin-stricken and poisoned world. And now, with an allusion both to the\nmiracle and to the Jewish demand for the repetition of the manna sign,\nHe claims to be the true Food for a starving world. So there are three\nthings in my text: Christ's claim, His requirements, and His promise;\nthe bread, the eating, the issues.\n\nI. Here is a claim of Christ's.\n\nAs I have already said, in the whole wonderful conversation of which I\nhave selected a portion for my text, there is a double reference to the\nmiracle of the loaves and of the manna. What our Lord means to assert\nfor Himself is that which is common to both of these\u2014viz. that He\nsupplies the great primal wants of humanity, the hunger of the heart.\nThere may be another reference also, which I just notice without\ndwelling upon it. Barley loaves were the coarsest and least valuable\nform of bread. They were not only of little worth, but altogether\ninadequate to feeding the five thousand. The palates, unaccustomed to\nthe stinging savours of the garlic and the leeks of Egypt, loathed the\nlight bread. And so Jesus Christ comes into the world in lowly form,\nlike the barley loaf or the light bread from which men whose tastes\nhave been vitiated by the piquant savours of more earthly nourishment\nturn away as insipid. And yet He in His lowliness, He in His\nsavourlessness, is that which meets the deepest wants of humanity, and\nis every man's fare because He will be any man's satisfaction.\n\nBut I wish to bring before your notice the wonderful way in which our\nLord, in this great dissertation concerning Himself as the Bread of\nLife, gradually unfolds the depths of His meaning and of His offer. He\nbegan with saying that He, the Son of Man, will give to men the bread\nthat 'endures to everlasting life.' And then when that saying is but\ndimly understood, and yet awakes some strange new desires and appetites\nin the hearers, and they come to Him and ask, 'Lord, evermore give us\nthis bread,' He answers them with opening another finger of His hand,\nas it were, and showing them a little more of the treasure that lies in\nHis palm. For He says, 'I _am_ that Bread of Life.' That is an advance\non the previous saying. He gives bread, and any man that was conscious\nof possessing some great truth or some great blessing which, believed\nand accepted, would refresh and nourish humanity, might have said the\nsame thing. But now we pass into the _penumbra_ of a greater mystery:\n'I am that Bread of Life.' You cannot separate what Christ gives from\nwhat Christ is. You can take the truths that another man proclaims,\naltogether irrespective of him and his personality. That only disturbs,\nand the sooner it is got rid of, the firmer and the purer our\npossession of the message for which he is only the medium. You can take\nPlato's teaching and do as you like with Plato. But you cannot take\nChrist's teaching and do as you like with Christ. His personality is\nthe centre of His gift to the world. 'I am that Bread of Life.' That He\nshould give it is much; that He should _be_ it is far more.\n\nAnd notice how, when He has thus drawn us a little further into the\nmagic circle of the light, He not only asserts the inseparableness of\nHis gift from His Person, but also asserts, with a reference, no doubt,\nto the manna, 'I am the Bread that came down from heaven.' The\nlisteners immediately laid hold of that one point, and neglected for\nthe moment all the rest, and they fixed with a true instinct\u2014although\nit was for the purpose of contradicting it\u2014on this central point, 'that\ncame down from heaven.' They said one to the other, 'How can this man\nsay that He came down from heaven? Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph,\nwhose father and mother we know?' So, brethren, as the manna that\ndescended from above in the dew of the night was to the bread that was\nbaked in a baker's oven, so is the Christ to the manhood that has its\norigin in the natural processes of birth. The Incarnation of the Son of\nGod, becoming Son of Man for us and for our salvation, is involved in\nthis great claim. You do not get to the heart of Christ's message\nunless you have accepted this as the truth concerning Him, that 'in the\nbeginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was\nGod,' and that at a definite point in the long process of the ages,\n'the Word became flesh, and dwelt amongst us.' He will never be 'the\nBread of Life' unless He is 'the Bread that came down from heaven.' For\nhumanity needs that the blue heavens that bend remote above should come\ndown; and we cannot be lifted 'out of the horrible pit and the miry\nclay' unless a Hand from above be reached down into the depths of our\ndegradation, and lift us from our lowness. Heaven must come to earth,\nif earth is to rise to heaven. The ladder must be let down from above,\nif ever from the lower levels men are to ascend thither where at the\nsummit the face of God can be seen.\n\nBut that is not all. Our Lord, if I may recur to a former figure, went\non to open another finger of His hand, and to show still more of the\ngift. For He not only said, 'the Son of Man gives the bread,' and 'I am\nthe Bread that came down from heaven,' but He went on to say, in a\nsubsequent stage of the conversation, 'the Bread that I will give is My\nflesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' Now, notice that\n'_will_ give.' Then, though the Word was made flesh, and the manna came\ndown from heaven, the especial gift of His flesh for the life of the\nworld was, at the time of His speaking, a future thing. And what He\nmeant is still more clearly brought out, when we read other words which\nare the very climax of this conversation, when He declares that the\ncondition of our having life in ourselves is our 'eating the flesh and\ndrinking the blood of the Son of Man.' The figure is made repulsive on\npurpose, in order that it may provoke us to penetrate to its meaning.\nIt was even more repulsive to the Jew, with his religious horror of\ntouching or tasting anything in which the blood was. And yet our Lord\nnot only speaks of Himself as the Bread, but of His flesh and blood as\nbeing the Food of the world. The separation of the two clearly\nindicates a violent death, and I, for my part, have no manner of doubt\nthat, in these great words in which our Lord lays bare the deepest\nfoundations of His claim to be the Food of humanity, there is couched,\nin the veiled language which was necessary at the then stage of His\nmission, a distinct reference to His death, as being the Sacrifice on\nwhich a hunger-stricken world may feed and be satisfied.\n\nSo here we have, in three steps, the great central truth of the Gospel\nset forth in symbolical aspect: the Son that gives, the Son that is,\nthe Bread of the world, and the death whereby His flesh and blood are\nseparated and become the nourishment of all sin-stricken souls. I do\nnot say one word to enforce these claims, but I beseech you deal fairly\nwith these Gospel narratives, and do not go on picking out of them bits\nof Christ's actions or words, which commend themselves to you, and\nignoring all the rest. There is no more reason to believe that Jesus\nChrist ever said, 'As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so\nto them likewise,' or any other part of that Sermon on the Mount which\nsome people take as their Christianity, than there is to believe that\nHe said, 'The bread which I give is My flesh, which I will give for the\nlife of the world.' Believe it or not, it is not dealing with the\nScripture records as you deal with other historical records if, for\nsubjective reasons, you brush aside all that department of our Lord's\nteaching. And if you do accept it, what becomes of His 'sweet\nreasonableness'? What becomes of His meekness and lowliness of heart? I\nwas going to say what becomes of His sanity, that He should stand up, a\nyoungish man from Nazareth, in the synagogue of Capernaum, and should\nsay, 'I, heaven-descended, and slain by men, am the Bread of Life to\nthe whole world'?\n\nI was going to make another observation, which I must just pass with\nthe slightest notice, and that is that, taking this point of view and\ngiving full weight to these three stages of our Lord's progressive\nrevelation of Himself, we have the answer to the question, What is the\nconnection between these discourses and the ordinance of the Lord's\nSupper? Our modern sacramentarian friends will have it that Jesus\nChrist is speaking of the Communion in this chapter. I take it, and I\nventure to think it the reasonable explanation, that He is not speaking\nabout the Communion, but that this discourse and that rite are dealing\nwith the same truths\u2014the one in articulate words, the other in\nequivalent symbols. And so we have not to read into the text any\nallusion to the rite, but to see in the text and in the rite the\nproclamation of the same thing\u2014viz. that the flesh and the blood of the\nSacrifice for sins is the food on which a sinful and cleansed world may\nfeed.\n\nII. So, secondly, let me ask you to note our Lord's requirement here.\n\nHe carries on the metaphor. 'This is the Bread which cometh down from\nheaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.' The eating necessarily\nfollows from the symbol of the bread, as the designation of the way by\nwhich we all, with our hungry hearts, may feed upon this Bread of God.\nI need not remind you that in many a place, and in this whole context,\nwe find the explanation of the symbol very plainly. In another part of\nthis conversation we read, under another metaphor which comes to the\nsame thing, 'He that cometh unto Me shall never hunger, and he that\nbelieveth on Me shall never thirst. So the eating and the coming are\ndiverse symbols for the one thing, the believing. When a man eats he\nappropriates to himself, and incorporates into his very being, the food\nof which he partakes. And when a man trusts Christ he appropriates to\nhimself, and incorporates into his inmost being, the very life of Jesus\nChrist. You say, 'That is mysticism'; but it is the New Testament\nteaching, that when I trust Christ I get more than His gifts\u2014I get\nHimself; that when my faith goes out to Him it not only rests me on\nHim, but it brings Him into me, and that food of the spirit becomes the\nlife, as we shall see, of _my_ spirit.\n\nThat condition is indispensable. It is useless to have food on your\ntable or your plate or in your hand, it does not nourish you there: you\nmust eat it, and then you gain sustenance from it. Many a hungry man\nhas died at the door of a granary. Some of us are starving, though\nbeside us there is 'the Bread of God that came down from heaven.'\nBrethren, you must eat, and I venture to put the question to you\u2014_not_\nDo you believe that Jesus Christ is the world's Saviour? _not_ Do you\nbelieve in an Incarnation? _not_ Do you believe in an Atonement? but\nHave you claimed your portion in the Bread? Have you taken it into your\nown lips? _Crede et manducasti_, said Augustine, 'believe'\u2014or, rather,\n_trust_\u2014'and thou hast eaten.' Have _you_?\n\nFurther, let me remind you that under this eating is included not only\nsome initial act of faith, but a continuous course of partaking. The\ndinner you ate this day last year is of no use for to-day's hunger. The\nact of faith done long ago will not bring the Bread to nourish you now.\nYou must repeat the meal. And very strikingly and beautifully in the\nlast part of this conversation our Lord varies the word for eating, and\nsubstitutes\u2014as if He were speaking to those who had fulfilled the\nprevious condition\u2014another one which implies the ruminant action of\ncertain animals. And that is what Christian men have to do, to feed\nover and over and over again on the 'Bread of God which came down from\nheaven.' Christ, and especially in and through His death for us, can\nnourish and sustain our wills, giving them the pattern of what they\nshould desire, and the motive for which they should desire it. Christ,\nand especially through His death, can feed our consciences, and take\naway from them all the painful sense of guilt, while He sharpens them\nto a far keener sensitiveness to evil. Christ, and especially through\nHis death, can feed our understandings, and unveil therein the deepest\ntruths concerning God and man, concerning man's destiny and God's\nmercy. Christ, and especially in His death, can feed our affections,\nand minister to love and desire and submission and hope their celestial\nnourishment. He is 'the Bread of God,' and we have but to eat of that\nwhich is laid before us.\n\nIII. So, lastly, we have here the issues.\n\n'Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.' This\nBread secures that if 'a man eat thereof he shall not die.' The bread\nthat perishes feeds a life that perishes; but this Bread not only\nsustains but creates a life that cannot perish, and, taken into the\nspirits of men that are 'dead in trespasses and sins,' imparts to them\na life that has no affinity to evil, and therefore no dread of\nextinction.\n\nIf 'a man eats thereof he shall not die,' Christ annihilates for us the\nmere accident of physical death. That is only a momentary jolt on the\ncourse. That may all be crammed into a parenthesis. 'He shall not die,'\nbut live the true life which comes from the possession of union with\nHim who is the Life. The bread which we eat sustains life; the Bread\nwhich He gives originates it. The bread which we eat is assimilated to\nour bodily frame, the Bread which He gives assimilates our spiritual\nnature to His. And so it comes to be the only food that stills a hungry\nheart, the only food that satisfies and yet never cloys, which, eating,\nwe are filled, and being filled are made capable of more, and, being\ncapable of more, receive more. In blessed and eternal alternation,\nfruition and desire, satisfaction and appetite, go on.\n\n'Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread?' You cannot answer\nthe question with any reasonable answer. Oh, dear friends! I beseech\nyou, listen to that Lord who is saying to each of us, 'Take, eat, this\nis My body, which is broken for you.'\n\n\n\n\nONE SAYING WITH TWO MEANINGS\n\n\n'Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then\nI go unto Him that sent Me. 34. Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find\nMe: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.'\u2014JOHN vii. 33, 34.\n\n'Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me;\nand as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say\nto you.'\u2014JOHN xiii. 33.\n\nNo greater contrast can be conceived than that between these two groups\nto whom such singularly similar words were addressed. The one consists\nof the officers, tools of the Pharisees and of the priests, who had\nbeen sent to seize Christ, and would fain have carried out their\nmasters' commission, but were restrained by a strange awe, inexplicable\neven to themselves. The other consists of the little company of His\nfaithful, though slow, scholars, who made a great many mistakes, and\nsometimes all but tired out even His patience, and yet were forgiven\nmuch because they loved much. Hatred animated one group, loving sorrow\nthe other.\n\nChrist speaks to them both in nearly the same words, but with what a\ndifferent tone, meaning, and application! To the officers the saying is\nan exhibition of His triumphant confidence that their malice is\nimpotent and their arms paralysed; that when He wills He will _go_, not\nbe dragged by them or any man, but go to a safe asylum, where foes can\nneither find nor follow. The officers do not understand what He means.\nThey think that, bad Jew as they have always believed Him to be, He may\nvery possibly consummate His apostasy by going over to the Gentiles\naltogether; but, at any rate, they feel that He is to escape their\nhands.\n\nThe disciples understand little more as to whither He goes, as they\nthemselves confess a moment after; but they gather from His words His\nloving pity, and though the upper side of the saying seems to be\nmenacing and full of separation, there is an under side that suggests\nthe possibility of a reunion for them.\n\nThe words are nearly the same in both cases, but they are not\nabsolutely identical. There are significant omissions and additions in\nthe second form of them. 'Little children' is the tenderest of all the\nnames that ever came from Christ's lips to His disciples, and never was\nheard on His lips except on this one occasion, for parting words ought\nto be very loving words. 'A little while I am with you,' but He does\nnot say, 'And then I go to Him that sent Me.' 'Ye shall seek Me,' but\nHe does not say, 'And shall not find Me.' 'As I said unto the Jews,\nwhither I go ye cannot come, so now I say to you,' that little word\n'now' makes the announcement a truth for the present only. His\ndisciples shall not seek Him in vain, but when they seek they shall\nfind. And though for a moment they be parted from Him, it is with the\nprospect and the confidence of reunion. Let us, then, look at the two\nmain thoughts here. First, the two 'seekings,' the seeking which is\nvain, and the seeking which is never vain; and the two 'cannots,' the\ninability of His enemies for evermore to come where He is, and the\ninability of His friends, for a little season, to come where He is.\n\nI. The two seekings.\n\nAs I have observed, there is a very significant omission in one of the\nforms of the words. The enemies are told that they will never find Him,\nbut no such dark words are spoken to the friends. So, then, hostile\nseeking of the Christ is in vain, and loving seeking of Him by His\nfriends, though they understand Him but very poorly, and therefore seek\nHim that they may know Him better, is always answered and\nover-answered.\n\nLet me deal just for a moment or two with each of these. In their\nsimplest use the words of my first text merely mean this: 'You cannot\ntouch Me, I am passing into a safe asylum where your hands can never\nreach Me.'\n\nWe may generalise that for a moment, though it does not lie directly in\nour path, and preach the old blessed truth that no man with hostile\nintent seeking for Christ in His person, in His Gospel, or in His\nfollowers and friends, can ever find Him. All the antagonism that has\nstormed against Him and His cause and words, and His followers and\nlovers, has been impotent and vain. The pursuers are like dogs chasing\na bird, sniffing along the ground after their prey, which all the while\nsits out of their reach on a bough, and carols to the sky. As in the\ndays of His flesh, His foes could not touch His person till He chose,\nand vainly sought Him when it pleased Him to hide from them, so ever\nsince, in regard to His cause, and in regard to all hearts that love\nHim, no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper. They shall be\nwrapped, when need be, in a cloud of protecting darkness, and stand\nsafe within its shelter. Take good cheer, all you that are trying to do\nanything, however little, however secular it may appear to be, for the\ngood and well-being of your fellows! All such service is a prolongation\nof Christ's work, and an effluence from His, if there be any good in it\nat all; and it is immortal and safe, as is His. 'Ye shall seek Me and\nshall not find Me.'\n\nBut then, besides that, there is another thought. It is not merely\nhostile seeking of Him that is hopeless vain. When the dark days came\nover Israel, under the growing pressure of the Roman yoke, and amidst\nthe agonies of that last siege, and the unutterable sufferings which\nall but annihilated the nation, do you not think that there were many\nof these people who said to themselves: 'Ah! if we had only that Jesus\nof Nazareth back with us for a day or two; if we had only listened to\nHim!' Do you not think that before Israel dissolved in blood there were\nmany of those who had stood hostile or alienated, who desired to see\n'one of the days of the Son of Man,' and did not see it? They sought\nHim, not in anger any more; they sought Him, not in penitence, or else\nthey would have found Him; but they sought Him simply in distress, and\nwishing that they could have back again what they had cared so little\nfor when they had it.\n\nAnd are there no people listening to me now, to whom these words\napply?\u2014\n\n  'He that will not, when he may,\n  When he will it shall be\u2014Nay!'\n\nAlthough it is (blessed be His name) always true that a seeking heart\nfinds Him, and whensoever there is the faintest trace of penitent\ndesire to get hold of Christ's hand it does grasp ours, it is also true\nthat things neglected once cannot be brought back; that the sowing time\nallowed to pass can never return; and that they who have turned, as\nsome of you have turned, dear friends, all your lives, a deaf ear to\nthe Christ that asks you to love Him and trust Him, may one day wish\nthat it had been otherwise, and go to look for Him and not find Him.\n\nThere is another kind of seeking that is vain, an intellectual seeking\nwithout the preparation of the heart. There are, no doubt, some people\nhere to-day that would say, 'We have been seeking the truth about\nreligion all our lives, and we have not got to it yet.' Well, I do not\nwant to judge either your motives or your methods, but I know this,\nthat there is many a man who goes on the quest for religious certainty,\nand looks _at_, if not _for_ Jesus Christ, and is not really capable of\ndiscerning Him when he sees Him, because his eye is not single, or\nbecause his heart is full of worldliness or indifference, or because he\nbegins with a foregone conclusion, and looks for facts to establish\nthat; or because he will not cast down and put away evil things that\nrise up between him and his Master.\n\nMy brother! if you go to look for Jesus Christ with a heart full of the\nworld, if you go to look for Him while you wish to hold on by all the\nhabitudes and earthlinesses of your past, you will never find Him. The\nsensualist seeks for Him, the covetous man seeks for Him, the\npassionate, ill-tempered man seeks for Him; the woman plunged in\nfrivolities, or steeped to the eyebrows in domestic cares,\u2014these may in\nsome feeble fashion go to look for Him and they will not find Him,\nbecause they have sought for Him with hearts overcharged with other\nthings and filled with the affairs of this life, its trifles and its\nsins.\n\nI turn for a moment to the seeking that is not vain. 'Ye shall seek Me'\nis not on Christ's lips to any heart that loves Him, however\nimperfectly, a sentence of separation or an appointment of a sorrowful\nlot, but it is a blessed law, the law of the Christian life.\n\nThat life is all one great seeking after Christ. Love seeks the absent\nwhen removed from our sight. If we care anything about Him at all, our\nhearts will turn to Him as naturally as, when the winter begins to\npinch, the migrating birds seek the sunny south, impelled by an\ninstinct that they do not themselves understand.\n\nThe same law which sends loving thoughts out across the globe to seek\nfor husband, child, or friend when absent, sets the really Christian\nheart seeking for the Christ, whom, having not seen, it loves, as\nsurely as the ivy tendril feels out for a support. As surely as the\nroots of a mountain-ash growing on the top of a boulder feel down the\nside of the rock till they reach the soil; as surely as the stork\nfollows the warmth to the sunny Mediterranean, so surely, if your heart\nloves Christ, will the very heart and motive of your action be the\nsearch for Him.\n\nAnd if you do _not_ seek Him, brother, as surely as He is parted from\nour sense you will lose Him, and He will be parted from you wholly, for\nthere is no way by which a person who is not before our eyes may be\nkept near us except only by diligent effort on our part to keep thought\nand love and will all in contact with Him; thought meditating, love\ngoing out towards Him, will submitting. Unless there be this effort,\nyou will lose your Master as surely as a little child in a crowd will\nlose his nurse and his guide, if his hand slips from out the protecting\nhand. The dark shadow of the earth on which you stand will slowly steal\nover His silvery brightness, as when the moon is eclipsed, and you will\nnot know how you have lost Him, but only be sadly aware that your\nheaven is darkened. 'Ye shall seek Me,' is the condition of all happy\ncommunion between Christ and us.\n\nAnd that seeking, dear brother, in the threefold form in which I have\nspoken of it\u2014effort to keep Him in our thoughts, in our love, and over\nour will\u2014is neither a seeking which starts from a sense that we do not\npossess Him, nor one which ends in disappointment. But we seek for Him\nbecause we already have Him in a measure, and we seek Him that we may\npossess Him more abundantly, and anything is possible rather than that\nsuch a search shall be vain. Men may go to created wells, and find no\nwater, and return ashamed, and with their vessels empty, but every one\nwho seeks for that Fountain of salvation shall draw from it with joy.\nIt is as impossible that a heart which desires Jesus Christ shall not\nhave Him, as it is that lungs dilated shall not fill with air, or as it\nis that an empty vessel put out in a rainfall shall not be replenished.\nHe does not hide Himself, but He desires to be found. May I say that as\na mother will sometimes pretend to her child to hide, that the child's\ndelight may be the greater in searching and in finding, so Christ has\ngone away from our sight in order, for one reason, that He may\nstimulate our desires to feel after Him! If we seek Him hid in God, we\nshall find Him for the joy of our hearts.\n\nA great thinker once said that he would rather have the search after\ntruth than the possession of truth. It was a rash word, but it pointed\nto the fact that there is a search which is only one shade less blessed\nthan the possession. And if that be so in regard to any pure and high\ntruth, it is still more so about Christ Himself. To seek for Him is\njoy; to find Him is joy. What can be a happier life than the life of\nconstant pursuit after an infinitely precious object, which is ever\nbeing sought and ever being found; sought with a profound consciousness\nof its preciousness, found with a widening appreciation and capacity\nfor its enjoyment? 'Ye shall seek Me' is a word not of evil but of good\ncheer; for buried in the depth of the commandment to search is the\npromise that we shall find.\n\nII, Secondly, let us look briefly at these two 'cannots.'\n\n'Whither I go, ye cannot come,' says He to His enemies, with no\nlimitation, with no condition. The 'cannot' is absolute and permanent,\nso long as they retain their enmity. To His friends, on the other hand,\nHe says, 'So now I say to you,' the law for to-day, the law for this\nside the flood, but not the law for the beyond, as He explains more\nfully in the subsequent words: 'Thou canst not follow Me now, but thou\nshalt follow Me afterwards.'\n\nSo, then, Christ is somewhere. When He passed from life it was not into\na state only, but into a place; and He took with Him a material body,\nhowsoever changed. He is somewhere, and there friend and enemy alike\ncannot enter, so long as they are compassed with 'the earthly house of\nthis tabernacle.' But the incapacity is deeper than that. No sinful man\ncan pass thither. Where has He gone? The preceding words give us the\nanswer. 'God shall glorify Him in Himself.' The prospect of that\nassumption into the inmost glory of the divine nature directly led our\nLord to think of the change it would bring about in the relation of His\nhumble friends to Him. While for Himself He triumphs in the prospect,\nHe cannot but turn a thought to their lonesomeness, and hence come the\nwords of our text. He has passed into the bosom and blaze of divinity.\nCan I walk there, can I pass into that tremendous fiery furnace? 'Who\nshall dwell with the everlasting burnings?' 'Ye cannot follow Me now.'\nNo man can go thither except Christ goes thither.\n\nThere are deep mysteries lying in that word of our Lords,\u2014'I go to\nprepare a place for you.' We know not what manner of activity on His\npart that definitely means. It seems as if somehow or other the\npresence in Heaven of our Brother in His glorified humanity was\nnecessary in order that the golden pavement should be trodden by our\nfeet, and that our poor, feeble manhood should live and not be\nshrivelled up in the blaze of that central brightness.\n\nWe know not how He prepares the place, but heaven, whatever it be, is\nno place for a man unless the Man, Christ Jesus, be there. He is the\nRevealer of God, not only for earth, but for heaven; not only for time,\nbut for eternity. 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,' is true\neverywhere and always, there as here. So I suppose that, but for His\npresence, heaven itself would be dark, and its King invisible, and if a\nman could enter there he would either be blasted with unbearable\nflashes of brightness or grope at its noonday as the blind, because his\neye was not adapted to such beams. Be that as it may, 'the Forerunner\nis for us entered.' He has gone before, because He knows the great\nCity, 'His own calm home, His habitation from eternity.' He has gone\nbefore to make ready a lodging for us, in whose land He has dwelt so\nlong, and He will meet us, who would else be bewildered like some\ndweller in a desert if brought to the capital, when we reach the gates,\nand guide our unaccustomed steps to the mansion prepared for us.\n\nBut the power to enter there, even when He is there, depends on our\nunion with Christ by faith. When we are joined to Him, the absolute\n'cannot,' based upon flesh, and still more upon sin, which is a radical\nand permanent impossibility, is changed into a relative and temporary\nincapacity. If we have faith in Christ, and are thereby drawing a\nkindred life from Him, our nature will be in process of being changed\ninto that which is capable of bearing the brilliance of the felicities\nof heaven. But just as these friends of Christ, though they loved Him\nvery truly, and understood Him a little, were a long way from being\nready to follow Him, and needed the schooling of the Cross, and Olivet,\nand Pentecost, as well as the discipline of life and toil, before they\nwere fully ripe for the harvest, so we, for the most part, have to pass\nthrough analogous training before we are prepared for the place which\nChrist has prepared for us. Certainly, so soon as a heart has trusted\nChrist, it is capable of entering where He is, and the real reason why\nthe disciples could not come where He went was that they did not yet\nclearly know Him as the divine Sacrifice for theirs and the world's\nsins, and, however much they believed in Him as Messiah, had not yet,\nnor could have, the knowledge on which they could found their trust in\nHim as their Saviour.\n\nBut, while that is true, it is also true that each advance in the grace\nand knowledge of our Lord and Saviour will bring with it capacity to\nadvance further into the heart of the far-off land, and to see more of\nthe King in His beauty. So, as long as His friends were wrapped in such\ndark clouds of misconception and error, as long as their Christian\ncharacters were so imperfect and incomplete as they were at the time of\nmy text being spoken, they could not go thither and follow Him. But it\nwas a diminishing impossibility, and day by day they approximated more\nand more to His likeness, because they understood Him more, and trusted\nHim more, and loved Him more, and grew towards Him, and, therefore, day\nby day became more and more able to enter into that Kingdom.\n\nAre you growing in power so to do? Is the only thing which unfits you\nfor heaven the fact that you have a mortal body? In other respects are\nyou fit to go into that heaven, and walk in its brightness and not be\nconsumed? The answer to the question is found in another one\u2014Are you\njoined to Jesus Christ by simple faith? The incapacity is absolute and\neternal if the enmity is eternal.\n\nState and place are determined yonder by character, and character is\ndetermined by faith. Take a bottle of some solution in which\nheterogeneous substances have all been melted up together, and let it\nstand on a shelf and gradually settle down, and its contents will\nsettle in regular layers, the heaviest at the bottom and the lightest\nat the top, and stratify themselves according to gravity. And that is\nhow the other world is arranged\u2014stratified. When all the confusions of\nthis present are at an end, and all the moisture is driven off, men and\nwomen will be left in layers, like drawing to like. As Peter said about\nJudas with equal wisdom and reticence, 'He went to his own place.' That\nis where we shall all go, to the place we are fit for.\n\nGod does not slam the door of heaven in anybody's face; it stands wide\nopen. But there is a mystic barrier, unseen, but most real, more\nrepellent than cherub and flaming sword, which makes it impossible for\nany foot to cross that threshold except the foot of the man whose heart\nand nature have been made Christlike, and fitted for heaven by simple\nfaith in Him.\n\nLove Him and trust Him, and then your life on earth will be a blessed\nseeking and a blessed finding of Him whom to seek is joyous effort,\nwhom to find is an Elysium of rest. You will walk here not parted from\nHim, but with your thoughts and your love, which are your truest self,\ngoing up where He is, until you drop 'the muddy vesture of decay' which\nunfits you whilst you wear it for the presence-chamber of the King, and\nso you will enter in and be 'for ever with the Lord.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE ROCK AND THE WATER\n\n\n'In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,\nsaying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. 38. He that\nbelieveth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall\nflow rivers of living water.'\u2014JOHN vii. 37,38.\n\nThe occasion and date of this great saying are carefully given by the\nEvangelist, because they throw much light on its significance and\nimportance. It was 'on the last day, that great day of the Feast,' that\n'Jesus stood and cried.' The Feast was that of Tabernacles, which was\ninstituted in order to keep in mind the incidents of the desert\nwandering. On the anniversary of this day the Jews still do as they\nused to, and in many a foul ghetto and frowsy back street of European\ncities, you will find them sitting beneath the booths of green\nbranches, commemorating the Exodus and its wonders. Part of that\nceremonial was that on each morning of the seven, and possibly on the\neighth, 'the last day of the Feast,' a procession of white-robed\npriests wound down the rocky footpath from the Temple to Siloam, and\nthere in a golden vase drew water from the spring, chanting, as they\nascended and re-entered the Temple gates where they poured out the\nwater as a libation, the words of the prophet, 'with joy shall ye draw\nwater out of the wells of salvation.'\n\nPicture the scene to yourselves\u2014the white-robed priests toiling up the\npathway, the crowd in the court, the sparkling water poured out with\nchoral song. And then, as the priests stood with their empty vases,\nthere was a little stir in the crowd, and a Man who had been standing\nwatching, lifted up a loud voice and cried, 'If any man thirst, let him\ncome unto _Me_, and drink.' Strange words to say, anywhere and anywhen,\ndaring words to say there in the Temple court! For there and then they\ncould mean nothing less than Christ's laying His hand on that old\nmiracle, which was pointed to by the rite, when the rock yielded the\nwater, and asserting that all which it did and typified was repeated,\nfulfilled, and transcended in Himself, and that not for a handful of\nnomads in the wilderness, but for all the world, in all its\ngenerations.\n\nSo here is one more instance to add to those to which I have directed\nyour attention on former occasions, in which, in this Gospel, we find\nChrist claiming to be the fulfilment of incidents and events in that\nancient covenant, Jacob's ladder, the brazen serpent, the manna, and\nnow the rock that yielded the water. He says of them all that they are\nthe shadow, and the substance is in Him.\n\nI. So then, we have to look, first, at Christ's view of humanity as set\nforth here.\n\nYou remember the story of how the people in the wilderness, distressed\nby that most imperative of all physical cravings, thirst, turned upon\nMoses and Aaron and said, 'Why have ye brought us here to die in the\nwilderness, where there are neither vines nor pomegranates,' but a land\nof thirst and death? Just as Christ, in the former instances to which\nwe have already referred, selected and pointed to the poisoned and\nserpent-stricken camp as an emblem of humanity, and just as He pointed\nto the hunger of the men that were starving there, as an emblem, go\nhere He says: 'That is the world\u2014a congregation of thirsty men raging\nin their pangs, and not knowing where to find solace or slaking for\ntheir thirst.' I do not need to go over all the dominant desires that\nsurge up in men's souls, the mind craving for knowledge, the heart\ncalling out for love, the whole nature feeling blindly and often\ndesperately after something external to itself, which it can grasp, and\nin which it can feel satisfied. You know them; we all know them. Like\nsome plant growing in a cellar, and with feeble and blanched tendrils\nfeeling towards the light which is so far away, every man carries about\nwithin himself a whole host of longing desires, which need to find\nsomething round which they may twine, and in which they can be at rest.\n\n'The misery of man is great upon him,' because, having these desires,\nhe misreads so many of them, and stifles, ignores, atrophies to so\nlarge an extent the noblest of them. I know of no sadder tragedy than\nthe way in which we misinterpret the meaning of these inarticulate\ncries that rise from the depths of our hearts, and misunderstand what\nit is that we are groping after, when we put out empty, and, alas! too\noften unclean, hands, to lay hold on our true good.\n\nBrethren, you do not know what you want, many of you, and there is\nsomething pathetic in the endless effort to fill up the heart by a\nmultitude of diverse and small things, when all the while the deepest\nmeaning of aspirations, yearnings, longings, unrest, discontent is, 'My\nsoul thirsteth for God, for the living God.' Nothing less than\ninfinitude will satisfy the smallest heart of the humblest and least\ndeveloped man. Nothing less than to have all our treasures in one\naccessible, changeless Infinity will ever give rest to a human soul.\nYou have tried a multiplicity of trifles. It takes a great many bags of\ncoppers to make up L. 1000, and they are cumbrous to carry. Would it\nnot be better to part with a multitude of goodly pearls, if need be, in\norder to have all your wealth, and the satisfaction of all your\ndesires, in the 'One Pearl of great price'? It is God for whom men are\nthirsting, and, alas! so many of us know it not. As the old prophet\nsays, in words that never lose their pathetic power, 'they have hewn\nout for themselves cisterns'\u2014one is not enough\u2014they need many. They are\nonly cisterns, which hold what is put into them, and they are 'broken\ncisterns,' which cannot hold it. Yet we turn to these with a strange\ninfatuation, which even the experience that teaches fools does not\nteach us to be folly. We turn _to_ these; and we turn _from_ the\nFountain; the one, the springing, the sufficient, the unfailing, the\nexuberant Fountain of living waters. Some of you have cisterns on the\ntops of your houses, with a coating of green scum and soot on them, and\ndo you like that foul draught better than the bright blessing that\ncomes out of the heart of the rock, flashing and pure?\n\nBut not only are these desires misread, but the noblest of them are\nstifled. I have said that the condition of humanity is that of thirst.\nChrist speaks in my text as if that thirst was by no means universal,\nand, alas! it is not, '_If_ any man thirst'; there are some of us that\ndo not, for we are all so constituted that, unless by continual\nself-discipline, and self-suppression, and self-evolution, the lower\ndesires will overgrow the loftier ones, and kill them, as weeds will\nsome precious crop. And some of you are so much taken up with\ngratifying the lowest necessities and longings of your nature, that you\nleave the highest all uncared for, and the effect of that is that the\nunsatisfied longing avenges itself, for your neglect of it, by infusing\nunrest and dissatisfaction into what else would satisfy the lowest. 'He\nthat loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that\nloveth abundance with increase,' but he that loves God will be\nsatisfied with less than silver, and will continue satisfied when\ndecrease comes. If you would suck the last drop of sweetness out of the\nluscious purple grapes that grow on earth, you must have the appetite\nafter the best things, recognised, and ministered to, and satisfied.\nAnd when we are satisfied with God, we shall 'have learnt in whatsoever\nstate we are, therewith to be self-sufficing.' But, as I say, the\nhighest desires are neglected, and the lowest are cockered and\npampered, and so the taste is depraved. Many of you have no wish for\nGod, and no desire after high and noble things, and are perfectly\ncontented to browse on the low levels, or to feed on 'the husks that\nthe swine do eat,' whilst all the while the loftiest of your powers is\nstarving within. Brethren, before we can come to the Rock that yields\nthe water, there must be the sense of need. Do you know what it is that\nyou want? Have you any desire after righteousness and purity and\nnobleness, and the vision of God flaming in upon the pettinesses and\ncommonplaces of this life which is 'sound and fury, signifying\nnothing,' and is trivial in all its pretended greatness, unless you\nhave learned that you need God most of all, and will never be at rest\ntill you have Him?\n\nII. Secondly, note here Christ's consciousness of Himself.\n\nIs there anything in human utterances more majestic and wonderful than\nthis saying of my text, 'If any man thirst, let him come to Me'? There\nHe claims to be separate altogether from those whose thirst He would\nsatisfy. There He claims to be able to meet every aspiration, every\nspiritual want, every true desire in this complex nature of ours. There\nHe claims to be able to do this for one, and therefore for all. There\nHe claims to be able to do it for all the generations of mankind, right\naway down to the end. Who is He who thus plants Himself in the front of\nthe race, knows their deep thirsts, takes account of the impotence of\nanything created to satisfy them, assumes the divine prerogative, and\nsays, 'I come to satisfy every desire in every soul, to the end of\ntime'? Yes, and from that day when He stood in the Temple and cried\nthese words, down to this day, there have been, and there are, millions\nwho can say, 'We have drawn water from this fountain of salvation, and\nit has never failed us.' Christ's audacious presentation of Himself to\nthe world as adequate to fill all its needs, and slake all its thirst,\nhas been verified by nineteen centuries of experience, and there are\nmany men and women all over the world to-day who would be ready to set\nto their seals that Christ is true, and that He, indeed, is\nall-sufficient for the soul.\n\nBrethren, I do not wish to dwell upon this aspect of our Lord's\ncharacter in more than a sentence, but I beseech you to ask yourselves\nwhat is the impression that is left of the character of a man who says\nsuch things, unless He was something more than one of our race? Jesus\nChrist, it is as clear as day, in these words makes a claim which only\ndivinity can warrant Him in making, or can fulfil when it is made. And\nI would urge you to consider what the alternative is, if you do not\nbelieve that Jesus Christ here sets Himself forth as the Incarnate Word\nof God, sufficient for all humanity. 'I am meek and lowly in heart'\u2014and\nHis lowliness of heart is proved in a strange fashion, if He stands up\nbefore the race and says, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and\ndrink.'\n\nIII. Note, further, Christ's invitation.\n\n'Let him come \u2026 and drink'\u2014two expressions for one thing. That\ninvitation sounds all through Scripture, and, perhaps, there was\nlingering in our Lord's mind, besides the reference to the rock that\nyielded the water, some echo of the words of the second Isaiah: 'Ho!\nevery one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.' 'Nay!' said Christ,\n'not to the waters, but to Me.' And then we hear from His own lips the\nsame invitation addressed to the woman of Samaria, with the difference\nthat to her, an alien, He pointed only to the natural water in the well\nthat had been Jacob's, whereas, to these people, the descendants of the\nchosen race, He pointed to the miracle in the desert, and claimed to\nfulfil that. And on the very last page of Scripture, as it is now\narranged, there stands the echo again of this saying of my text, 'Let\nhim that is athirst come'\u2014there must be the sense of need, as I was\nsaying, before there is the coming\u2014'and whosoever will, let him take of\nthe water of life freely.'\n\nNow, dear friends, beneath these two metaphorical expressions there\nlies one simple condition. I put it into three words, which, for the\nsake of being easily remembered, I cast into an alliterative form:\napproach Christ, appropriate Christ, adhere to Christ.\n\nApproach Christ. You come by faith, you come by love, you come by\ncommunion. And you can come if you will, though He is now on the\nthrone.\n\nAppropriate Christ. It is vain that the water should be gushing from\nthe rock there, unless you make it your own by drinking. It must pass\nyour lips. It must become your personal possession. You must enclose a\npiece of the common, and make it your very own. 'He loved _us_, and\ngave Himself for _us_'; well and good, but strike out the 'us' and put\nin 'me.' 'He loved _me_ and gave Himself for _me_.' The river may be\nflowing right past your door, yet your lips may be cracked with thirst,\neven whilst you hear the tinkle of its music amongst the sedges and the\npebbles. Appropriate Christ. 'Come \u2026 and drink.'\n\nAdhere to Christ. You were thirsty yesterday: you drank. That will not\nslake to-day's thirst, nor prevent its recurrence. And you must keep on\ndrinking if you are to keep from perishing of thirst. Day by day, drop\nby drop, draught by draught, you must drink. According to the ancient\nJewish legend, which Paul in one of his letters refers to, about this\nvery miracle, you must have the Rock following you all through your\ndesert pilgrimage, and you must drink daily and hourly, by continual\nfaith, love, and communion.\n\nIV. We have here not only these points, but a fourth. Christ's promise.\n\n'He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living\nwater.' That is one case of the universal law that a man who trusts\nChrist becomes like the Christ whom he trusts. Derivatively and by\nimpartation, no doubt, but still the man who has gone to that Rock, to\nthe springing fountain as it pushes forth, receives into himself an\ninward life by the communication of Christ's divine Spirit, so that he\nhas in him a fountain 'springing up into life everlasting.' The Book of\nProverbs says, 'The good man shall be satisfied from himself,' but the\ngood man is only satisfied from himself when he can say, 'I live, yet\nnot I, but Christ liveth in me,' and from that better self he will be\nsatisfied.\n\nSo we may have a well in the courtyard, and may be able to bear in\nourselves the fountain of water, and where the divine life of Christ by\nHis Spirit has through faith been implanted within us, it will come out\nfrom us. There is a question for you Christian people\u2014do any rivers of\nliving water flow out of you? If they do not, it is to be doubted\nwhether you have drunk of the fountain. There are many professing\nChristians who are like the foul little rivers that pass under the\npavements in Manchester, all impure, and covered over so that nobody\nsees them. 'Out of him shall flow rivers of living water'\u2014that is\nChrist's way of communicating the blessing of eternal life to the\nworld\u2014by the medium of those who have already received it. Christian\nmen and women, if your faith has brought the life into you, see to it\nthat approaching Christ, and appropriating Christ, and adhering to\nChrist, you are becoming assimilated to Christ, and in your daily life,\nGod's grace fructifying through you to all, are 'become as rivers of\nwater in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIGHT OF THE WORLD\n\n\n'\u2026 I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in\ndarkness, but shall have the light of life.'\u2014JOHN viii. 12.\n\nJesus Christ was His own great theme. Whatever be the explanation of\nthe fact, there stands the fact that, if we know anything at all about\nHis habitual tone of teaching, we know that it was full of Himself. We\nknow, too, that what He said about Himself was very unlike the language\nbecoming a wise and humble religious teacher. Both the prominence given\nto His own personality, and the tremendous claims He advances for\nHimself, are hard to reconcile with any conception of His nature and\nwork except one,\u2014that there we see God manifest in the flesh. Are such\nwords as these fit to be spoken by any man conscious of his own\nlimitations and imperfections of life and knowledge? Would they not be\nfatal to any one's pretensions to be a teacher of religion or morality?\nThey assert that the Speaker is the Source of illumination for the\nworld; the only Source; the Source for all. They assert that\n'following' Him, whether in belief or in deed, is the sure deliverance\nfrom all darkness, either of error or of sin; and implants in every\nfollower a light which is life. And the world, instead of turning away\nfrom such monstrous assumptions, and drowning them in scornful\nlaughter, or rebelling against them, has listened, and largely\nbelieved, and has not felt them to mar the beauty of meekness, which,\nby a strange anomaly, this Man says that He has.\n\nWords parallel to these are frequent on our Lord's lips. In each\ninstance they have some special appropriateness of application, as is\nprobably the case here. The suggestion has been reasonably made, that\nthere is an allusion in them to part of the ceremonial connected with\nthe Feast of Tabernacles, at which we find our Lord present in the\nprevious chapter. Commentators tell us that on the first evening of the\nFeast, two huge golden lamps, which stood one on each side of the altar\nof burnt offering in the Temple court, were lighted as the night began\nto fall, and poured out a brilliant flood over Temple and city and deep\ngorge; while far into the midnight, troops of rejoicing worshippers\nclustered about them with dance and song. The possibility of this\nreference is strengthened by the note of place which our Evangelist\ngives. 'These things spake Jesus in the treasury, as He taught in the\nTemple,' for the 'treasury' stood in the same court, and doubtless the\ngolden lamps were full in sight of the listening groups. It is also\nstrengthened by the unmistakable allusion in the previous chapter to\nanother portion of the ceremonial of the Feast, where our Lord puts\nforth another of His great self-revelations and demands, in singular\nparallelism with that of our text, in the words, 'If any man thirst,\nlet him come unto Me and drink.' That refers to the custom during the\nFeast of drawing water from the fountain of Siloam, which was poured\nout on the altar, while the gathered multitude chanted the old strain\nof Isaiah's prophecy: 'With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of\nsalvation.' It is to be remembered, too, in estimating the probability\nof our text belonging to these Temple-sayings at the Feast, that the\nsection which separates it from them, and contains the story about the\nwoman taken in adultery, is judged by the best critics to be out of\nplace here, and is not found in the most valuable manuscripts. If,\nthen, we suppose this allusion to be fairly probable, I think it gives\na special direction and meaning to these grand words, which it may be\nworth while to think of briefly.\n\nThe first thing to notice is\u2014the intention of the ceremonial to which\nour Lord here points as a symbol of Himself. What was the meaning of\nthese great lights that went flashing through the warm autumn nights of\nthe festival? All the parts of that Feast were intended to recall some\nfeature of the forty years' wanderings in the wilderness; the lights by\nthe altar were memorials of the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by\nnight. When, then, Jesus says, 'I am the Light of the world,' He would\ndeclare Himself as being in reality, and to every soul of man to the\nend of time, what that cloud with its heart of fire was in outward\nseeming to one generation of desert wanderers.\n\nNow, the main thing which _it_ was to these, was the visible vehicle of\nthe divine presence. 'The Lord went before them in a pillar of a\ncloud.' 'The Lord looked through the pillar.' 'The Lord came down in\nthe cloud and spake with him.' The 'cloud covered the Tabernacle, and\nthe glory of the Lord appeared.' Such is the way in which it is ever\nspoken of, as being the manifestation to Israel in sensible form of the\npresence among them of God their King. 'The glory of the Lord' has a\nvery specific meaning in the Old Testament. It usually signifies that\nbrightness, the flaming heart of the cloudy pillar, which for the most\npart, as it would appear, veiled by the cloud, gathered radiance as the\nworld grew darker at set of sun, and sometimes, at great crises in the\nhistory, as at the Red Sea, or on Sinai, or in loving communion with\nthe law-giver, or in swift judgment against the rebels, rent the veil\nand flamed on men's eyes. I need not remind you how this same pillar of\ncloud and fire, which at once manifested and hid God, was thereby no\nunworthy symbol of Him who remains, after all revelation, unrevealed.\nWhatsoever sets forth, must also shroud, the infinite glory. Concerning\nall by which He makes Himself known to eye, or mind, or heart, it must\nbe said, 'And there was the hiding of His power.' The fire is ever\nfolded in the cloud. Nay, at bottom, the light which is full of glory\nis therefore inaccessible, and the thick darkness in which He dwells is\nbut the 'glorious privacy' of perfect light.\n\nThat guiding pillar, which moved before the moving people\u2014a cloud to\nshelter from the scorching heat, a fire to cheer in the blackness of\nnight\u2014spread itself above the sanctuary of the wilderness; and 'the\nglory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.' When the moving Tabernacle\ngave place to the fixed Temple, again '_the_ cloud filled the house of\nthe Lord'; and there\u2014dwelling between the cherubim, the types of the\nwhole order of creatural life, and above the mercy-seat, that spoke of\npardon, and the ark that held the law, and behind the veil, in the\nthick darkness of the holy of holies, where no feet trod, save once a\nyear one white-robed priest, in the garb of a penitent, and bearing the\nblood that made atonement\u2014shone the light of the glory of God, the\nvisible majesty of the present Deity.\n\nBut long centuries had passed since that light had departed. 'The\nglory' had ceased from the house that now stood on Zion, and the light\nfrom between the cherubim. Shall we not, then, see a deep meaning and\nreference to that awful blank, when Jesus standing there in the courts\nof that Temple, whose inmost shrine was, in a most sad sense, empty,\npointed to the quenched lamps that commemorated a departed Shechinah,\nand said, 'I am the Light of the world'?\n\nHe is the Light of the world, because in Him is the glory of God. His\nwords are madness, and something very like blasphemy, unless they are\nvindicated by the visible indwelling in Him of the present God. The\ncloud of the humanity, 'the veil, that is to say, His flesh,' enfolds\nand tempers; and through its transparent folds reveals, even while it\nswathes, the Godhead. Like some fleecy vapour flitting across the sun,\nand irradiated by its light, it enables our weak eyes to see light, and\nnot darkness, in the else intolerable blaze. Yes! Thou art the Light of\nthe world, because in Thee dwelleth 'the fulness of the Godhead\nbodily.' Thy servant hath taught us the meaning of Thy words, when he\nsaid: 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His\nglory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace\nand truth.'\n\nThen, subordinate to this principal thought, is the other on which I\nmay touch for a moment\u2014that Christ, like that pillar of cloud and fire,\n_guides_ us in our pilgrimage. You may remember how emphatically the\nBook of Numbers (chap. ix.) dwells upon the absolute control of all the\nmarches and halts by the movements of the cloud. When it was taken up,\nthey journeyed; when it settled down, they encamped. As long as it lay\nspread above the Tabernacle, there they stayed. Impatient eyes might\nlook, and impatient spirits chafe\u2014no matter. The camp might be pitched\nin a desolate place, away from wells and palm-trees, away from shade,\namong fiery serpents, and open to fierce foes\u2014no matter. As long as the\npillar was motionless, no man stirred. Weary slow days might pass in\nthis compulsory inactivity; but 'whether it were two days, or a month,\nor a year, that the cloud tarried upon the Tabernacle, the children of\nIsrael journeyed not.' And whenever It lifted itself up,\u2014no matter how\nshort had been the halt, how weary and footsore the people, how\npleasant the resting-place\u2014up with the tent-pegs immediately, and away.\nIf the signal were given at midnight, when all but the watchers slept,\nor at midday, it was all the same. There was the true Commander of\ntheir march. It was not Moses, nor Jethro, with his quick Arab eye and\nknowledge of the ground, that guided them; but that stately, solemn\npillar, that floated before them. How they must have watched for the\ngathering up of its folds as they lay softly stretched along the\nTabernacle roof; and for its sinking down, and spreading itself out,\nlike a misty hand of blessing, as it sailed in the van!\n\n'I am the Light of the world.' We have in Him a better guide through\nworse perplexities than theirs. By His Spirit within us, by that\nall-sufficient and perfect example of His life, by the word of His\nGospel, and by the manifold indications of His providence, Jesus Christ\nis our Guide. If ever we go astray, it is not His fault, but ours. How\ngentle and loving that guidance is, none who have not yielded to it can\ntell. How wise and sure, none but those who have followed it know. He\ndoes not say 'Go,' but 'Come.' When He puts forth His sheep, He goes\nbefore them. In all rough places His quick hand is put out to save us.\nIn danger He lashes us to Himself, as Alpine guides do when there is\nperilous ice to get across. As one of the psalms puts it, with\nwonderful beauty: 'I will guide thee with Mine eye'\u2014a glance, not a\nblow\u2014a look of directing love, that at once heartens to duty and tells\nduty. We must be very near Him to catch that look, and very much in\nsympathy with Him to understand it; and when we do, we must be swift to\nobey. Our eyes must be ever toward the Lord, or we shall often be\nmarching on, unwitting that the pillar has spread itself for rest, or\nidly dawdling in our tents long after the cloud has gathered itself up\nfor the march. Do not let impatience lead you to hasty interpretation\nof His plans before they are fairly evolved. Many men by self-will, by\nrashness, by precipitate hurry in drawing conclusions about what they\nought to do, have ruined their lives. Take care, in the old-fashioned\nphrase, of 'running before you are sent.' There should always be a good\nclear space between the guiding ark and you, 'about two thousand cubits\nby measure,' that there may be no mistakes about the road. It is\nneither reverent nor wise to be treading on the heels of our Guide in\nour eager confidence that we know where He wants us to go.\n\nDo not let the warmth by the camp-fire, or the pleasantness of the\nshady place where your tent is pitched, keep you there when the cloud\nlifts. Be ready for change, be ready for continuance, because you are\nin fellowship with your Leader and Commander; and let Him say, Go, and\nyou go; Do this, and you gladly do it, until the hour when He will\nwhisper, Come; and, as you come, the river will part, and the journey\nwill be over, and 'the fiery, cloudy pillar,' that 'guided you all your\njourney through,' will spread itself out an abiding glory, in that\nhigher home where 'the Lamb is the light thereof.'\n\nAll true following of Christ begins with faith, or we might almost say\nthat following _is_ faith, for we find our Lord substituting the former\nexpression for the latter in another passage of this Gospel parallel\nwith the present. 'I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever\nbelieveth on Me should not walk in darkness.' The two ideas are not\nequivalent, but faith is the condition of following; and following is\nthe outcome and test, because it is the operation, of faith. None but\nthey who trust Him will follow Him. He who does not follow, does not\ntrust. To follow Christ, means to long and strive after His\ncompanionship; as the Psalmist says, 'My soul followeth hard after\nThee.' It means the submission of the will, the effort of the whole\nnature, the daily conflict to reproduce His example, the resolute\nadoption of His command as my law, His providence as my will, His\nfellowship as my joy. And the root and beginning of all such following\nis in coming to Him, conscious of mine own darkness, and trustful in\nHis great light. We must rely on a Guide before we accept His\ndirections; and it is absurd to pretend that we trust Him, if we do not\ngo as He bids us. So 'Follow thou Me' is, in a very real sense, the sum\nof all Christian duty.\n\nThat thought opens out very wide fields, into which we must not even\nglance now; but I cannot help pausing here to repeat the remark already\nmade, as to the gigantic and incomprehensible self-confidence that\nspeaks here. 'Followeth _Me_'; then Jesus Christ calmly proposes\nHimself as the aim and goal for every soul of man; sets up His own\ndoings as an all-sufficient rule for us all, with all our varieties of\ntemper, character, culture, and work, and quietly assumes to have a\nright of precedence before, and of absolute command over, the whole\nworld. They are all to keep _behind_ Him, He thinks, be they saints or\nsages, kings or beggars; and the liker they are to Himself, He thinks,\nthe nearer they will be to perfectness and life. He puts Himself at the\nhead of the mystic march of the generations, and, like the mysterious\nAngel that Joshua saw in the plain by Jericho, makes the lofty claim:\n'Nay, but as _Captain_ of the Lord's host am I come up.' Do we admit\nHis claim because we know His Name? Do we yield Him full trust because\nwe have learned that He is the Light of men since He is the Word of\nGod? Do we follow Him with loyal obedience, longing love, and lowly\nimitation, since He has been and is to us the Saviour of our souls?\n\nIn the measure in which we do, the great promises of this wonderful\nsaying will be verified and understood by us\u2014'He that followeth Me\nshall not walk in darkness.' That saying has, as one may say, a lower\nand a higher fulfilment. In the lower, it refers to practical life and\nits perplexities. Nobody who has not tried it would believe how many\ndifficulties are cleared out of a man's road by the simple act of\ntrying to follow Christ. No doubt there will still remain obscurities\nenough as to what we ought to do, to call for the best exercise of\npatient wisdom; but an enormous proportion of them vanish like mist\nwhen the sun breaks through, when once we honestly set ourselves to\nfind out whither the pillared Light is guiding. It is a reluctant will,\nand intrusive likings and dislikings, that obscure the way for us, much\noftener than real obscurity in the way itself. It is seldom impossible\nto discern the divine will, when we only wish to know it that we may do\nit. And if ever it is impossible for us, surely that impossibility is\nlike the cloud resting on the Tabernacle\u2014a sign that for the present\nHis will is that we should be still, and wait, and watch.\n\nBut there is a higher meaning in the words than even this promise of\npractical direction. In the profound symbolism of Scripture, especially\nof this Gospel, 'darkness' is the name for the whole condition of the\nsoul averted from God. So our Lord here is declaring that to follow Him\nis the true deliverance from that midnight of the soul. There are a\ndarkness of ignorance, a darkness of impurity, a darkness of sorrow;\nand in that threefold gloom, thickening to a darkness of death, are\nthey enwrapt who follow not the Light. That is the grim, tragical side\nof this saying, too sad, too awful for our lips to speak much of, and\nbest left in the solemn impressiveness of that one word. But the\nhopeful, blessed side of it is, that the feeblest beginnings of trust\nin Jesus Christ, and the first tottering steps that try to tread in\nHis, bring us into the light. It does not need that we have reached our\ngoal, it is enough that our faces are turned to it, and our hearts\ndesire to attain it, then we may be sure that the dominion of the\ndarkness over us is broken. To follow, though it be afar off, and with\nunequal steps, fills our path with increasing brightness, and even\nthough evil and ignorance and sorrow may thrust their blackness in upon\nour day, they are melting in the growing glory, and already we may give\nthanks 'unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the\ninheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the\npower of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear\nSon.'\n\nBut we have not merely the promise that we shall be led by the light\nand brought into the light. A yet deeper and grander gift is offered\nhere: 'He shall have the light of life.' I suppose that means, not, as\nit is often carelessly taken to mean, a light which illuminates the\nlife, but, like the similar phrases of this Gospel, 'bread of life,'\n'water of life,'\u2014light which is life. 'In Him was life, and the life\nwas the light of men.' These two are one in their source, which is\nJesus, the Word of God. Of Him we have to say, 'With Thee is the\nfountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light.' They are one in\ntheir deepest nature; the life is the light, and the light the life.\nAnd this one gift is bestowed upon every soul that follows Christ. Not\nonly will our outward lives be illumined or guided from without, but\nour inward being will be filled with the brightness. 'Ye were sometimes\ndarkness, now are ye light in the Lord.'\n\nThat pillar of fire remained apart and without. But this true and\nbetter Guide of our souls enters in and dwells in us, in all the\nfulness of His triple gift of life, and light, and love. Within us He\nwill chiefly prove Himself the Guide of our spirits, and will not\nmerely cast His beams on the path of our feet, but will fill and flood\nus with His own brightness. All light of knowledge, of goodness, of\ngladness will be ours, if Christ be ours; and ours He surely will be if\nwe follow Him. Let us take heed, lest turning away from Him we follow\nthe will-o'-the-wisps of our own fancies, or the dancing lights, born\nof putrescence, that flicker above the swamps, for they will lead us\ninto doleful lands where evil things haunt, and into outer darkness.\nLet us take heed how we use that light of God; for Christ, like His\nsymbol of old, has a double aspect according to the eye which looks.\n'It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and\nit was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to\nthese.' He is either a Stone of stumbling or a sure Foundation, a\nsavour of life or of death, and which He is depends on ourselves.\nTrusted, loved, followed, He is light. Neglected, turned from, He is\ndarkness. Though He be the Light of the world, it is only the man who\nfollows Him to whom He can give the light of life. Therefore, man's\nawful prerogative of perverting the best into the worst forced Him, who\ncame to be the light of men, to that sad and solemn utterance: 'For\njudgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see,\nand that they which see might be made blind.'\n\n\n\n\nTHREE ASPECTS OF FAITH\n\n\n'Many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on\nHim\u2026.'\u2014JOHN viii. 30,31.\n\nThe Revised Version accurately represents the original by varying the\nexpression in these two clauses, retaining 'believed on Him' in the\nformer, and substituting the simple 'believed Him' in the latter. The\nvariation in two contiguous clauses can scarcely be accidental in so\ncareful a writer as the Apostle John. And the reason and meaning of it\nare obvious enough on the face of the narrative. His purpose is to\ndistinguish between more and less perfect acceptance of Jesus Christ.\nThe more perfect is the former, 'they believed on Him'; the less\nperfect is the latter, the simple acceptance of His word on His claim\nof Messiahship, which is stigmatised as shallow, and proved to be\ntransient by the context.\n\nThey were 'Jews' which believed, and they continued to be so whilst\nthey were believing. Now, the word 'Jew' in this Gospel always connotes\nantagonism to Jesus Christ; and as for these persons, how slight and\nunreliable their adhesion to the Lord is, comes out in the course of\nthe next few verses; and by the end of the chapter they are taking up\nstones to stone Him. So John would show us that there is a kind of\nacceptance which may be real, and may be the basis of something much\nbetter hereafter, but which, if it does not grow, rots and disappears;\nand he would draw a broad line of distinction between that and the\nother mental act, far deeper, more wholesome, more lasting and vital,\nwhich he designates as 'believing _on_ Him.' I take these words, then,\nfor consideration, not so much to deal with other thoughts suggested by\nthem, as because they afford me a starting-point for the consideration\nof the various phases of the act of believing, its blessings and its\nnature, and its relation to its objects, which are expressed in the New\nTestament by the various grammatical connections and constructions of\nthis word.\n\nNow, the facts with which I wish to deal may be very briefly stated.\nThere are three ways in which the New Testament represents the act of\nbelieving, and its relation to its Object, Christ. These three are,\nfirst, the simple one which appears in the text as 'believed Him.' Then\nthere is a second, which appears in two forms, slightly different, but\nwhich, for our purpose, may be treated as substantially the\nsame\u2014'believing on Him.' And then there is a third, which, literally\nand accurately translated is, 'believing unto' or 'into Him.' That\nphrase is John's favourite one, and rather unfortunately, though\nperhaps necessarily, it has been generally rendered by our translators\nby the less forcible 'believing in,' which gives the idea of repose in,\nbut does not give the idea of motion towards. These three, then, I\nthink, do set forth, if we will ponder them, very large lessons as to\nthe essence of this act of believing, as to the Object upon which it\nfastens, and as to the blessings which flow from it, which it will be\nworth our while to consider now. I may cast the whole into the shape of\nthree exhortations: believe Him, believe on Him, believe unto Him.\n\nI. First, then, believe Christ.\n\nWe accept a man's words when we trust the man. Even if belief, or\nfaith, is represented in the New Testament, as it very rarely is, as\nhaving for its object the words of revelation, behind that acceptance\nof the words lies confidence in the person speaking. And the beginning\nof all true Christian faith has in it, not merely the intellectual\nacceptance of certain propositions as true, but a confidence in the\nveracity of Him by whom they are made known to us\u2014even Jesus Christ our\nLord.\n\nI do not need to insist upon that at any length here\u2014it would take me\naway from my present purpose; but what I do wish to emphasise is, that\nfrom the very starting-point, the smallest germ of the most rudimentary\nand imperfect faith which knits a soul to Jesus Christ has Him for its\nObject, and is thus distinguished from the mere acceptance of truths\nwhich, on other grounds than the authority of the speaker, may\nlegitimately commend themselves to a man.\n\nThen believe Him. Now, that breaks up into two thoughts, which are all\nthat I intend to deduce from it now, although many more might be\nsuggested. The one is this, that the least and the lowest that Jesus\nChrist asks from us is the entire and unhesitating acceptance of His\nutterances as final, conclusive, and absolutely true. Whatever more\nJesus Christ may be, He is, by His life and words, the Communicator of\ndivine and certain truth. He is a Teacher, though He is a great deal\nmore. And whatever more Christian faith may be\u2014and it is a great deal\nmore\u2014it requires, at least, the frank and full recognition of the\nauthority of every word that comes from His lips. A Christianity\nwithout a creed is a dream. Bones without flesh are very dry, no doubt;\nbut what about flesh without bones? An inert, shapeless mass. You will\nnever have a vigorous and true Christian life if it is to be moulded\naccording to the fantastic dream of these latter days, which tells us\nthat we may take Jesus as the Guide of our conduct and need not mind\nabout what He says to us. 'Believe Me' is His requirement. The words of\nHis mouth, and the revelations which He has made in the sweetness of\nHis life, and in all the graciousness of His dealings, are the very\nunveiling to man of absolute and final and certain truth.\n\nBut then, on the other hand, let us remember that, while all this is\nmost clear and distinct in the teaching of Scripture, it carries us but\na very short way. We find, in the instance from which we take our\nstarting-point in this sermon, the broad distinction drawn, and\npractically illustrated in the conduct of the persons concerned,\nbetween the simple acceptance of what Christ says, and a true faith\nthat clings to Him for evermore. And the same kind of disparagement of\nthe lower process of merely accepting His word is found more than once\nin connection with the same phrases. We find, for instance, the two\nwhich are connected in our texts used in a previous conversation\nbetween our Lord and His antagonists. When He says to them, 'This is\nthe work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent,' they reply,\ndragging down His claim to a lower level, 'What sign showest Thou, that\nwe may see, and believe Thee?' He demanded belief _on_ Himself; they\nanswer, 'We are ready to _believe you_, on condition that we see\nsomething that may make the rendering of our belief a logical necessity\nfor us.'\n\nLet us lay to heart the rudimentary and incomplete character of a faith\nwhich simply accepts the teaching of Jesus Christ, and does no more.\nThe notion that orthodoxy is Christianity, that a man who does not\ncontradict the teaching of the New Testament is thereby a Christian, is\na very old and very perilous and very widespread one. There are many of\nus who have no better claim to be called Christians than this, that we\nnever denied anything that Jesus Christ said, though we are not\nsufficiently interested in it, I was going to say, even to deny it.\nThis rudimentary faith, which contents itself with the acceptance of\nthe truth revealed, hardens into mere formalism, or liquefies into mere\ncareless indifference as to the very truth that it professes to\nbelieve. There is nothing more impotent than creeds which lie dormant\nin our brains, and have no influence upon our lives. I wonder how many\nreaders of this sermon, who fancy themselves good Christians, do with\ntheir creed as the Japanese used to do with their Emperor\u2014keep him in a\npalace behind bamboo screens, and never let him do anything, whilst all\nthe reality of power was possessed by another man, who did not profess\nto be a king at all. Do you think you are Christians because you would\nsign thirty-nine or three hundred and ninety articles of Christianity,\nif they were offered to you, while there is not one of them that\ninfluences either your thinking or your conduct? Do not let us have\nthese 'sluggish kings,' with a mayor of the place to do the real\ngovernment, but set on the throne of your hearts the principles of your\nreligion, and see to it that all your convictions be translated into\npractice, and all your practice be informed by your convictions.\n\nThis belief in a set of dogmas, on the authority of Jesus Christ, about\nwhich dogmas we do not care a rush, and which make no difference upon\nour lives, is the faith about which James has so many hard things to\nsay; and he ventures upon a parallel that I should not like to venture\non unless I were made bold by his example: 'Thou believest, O vain man!\nthou doest well: the devils also believe, and'\u2014better than you, in that\ntheir belief does something for them, they 'believe\u2014and _tremble_!' But\nwhat shall we say about a man who professes himself a disciple, and\nneither trembles, nor thrills, nor hopes, nor dreads, nor desires, nor\ndoes any single thing because of his creed? Believe Jesus, but do not\nstop there.\n\nII. Believe on Christ.\n\nNow, as I have remarked already, and as many of you know, there is a\nslightly different, twofold form of this phrase in Scripture. I need\nnot trouble you with the minute distinction between the one and the\nother. Both forms coincide in the important point on which I wish to\ntouch. That representation of believing on Christ carries us away at\nonce from the mere act of acceptance of His word on His authority to\nthe far more manifestly voluntary, moral, and personal act of reliance\nupon Him. The metaphor is expanded in various ways in Scripture, and\ninstead of offering any thoughts of my own about it, I would simply ask\nattention to three of the forms in which it is set forth in the Old and\nin the New Testaments.\n\nThe first of them, and the one which we may regard as governing the\nothers, is that found in the words of Isaiah, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a\nstone, a sure Foundation'; and, as the Apostle Peter comments, 'He that\nbelieveth on Him shall not be confounded.' There the thoughts presented\nare the superposition of the building upon its Foundation, the rest of\nthe soul, and the rearing of the life on the basis of Jesus Christ.\n\nHow much that metaphor says to us about Him as the Foundation, in all\nthe aspects in which we can apply that term! He is the Basis of our\nhope, the Guarantee of our security, the Foundation-stone of our\nbeliefs, the very Ground on which our whole life reposes, the Source of\nour tranquillity, the Pledge of our peace. All that I think, feel,\ndesire, wish, and do, ought to be rested upon that dear Lord, and\nbuilded on Him by simple faith. By patient persistence of effort\nrearing up the fabric of my life firmly upon Him, and grafting every\nstone of it\u2014if I might so use the metaphor\u2014into the bedding-stone,\nwhich is Christ, I shall be strong, peaceful, and pure.\n\nThe storm comes, the waters rise, the winds howl, the hail and the rain\n'sweep away the refuge of lies,' and the dwellers in these frail and\nfoundationless houses are hurrying in wild confusion from one peak to\nanother, before the steadily rising tide. But he that builds on that\nFoundation 'shall not make haste,' as Isaiah has it; shall not need to\nhurry to shift his quarters before the flood overtake him; shall look\nout serene upon all the hurtling fury of the wild storm, and the rise\nof the sullen waters. So, reliance on Christ, and the honest making of\nHim the Basis, not of our hopes only, but of our thinkings and of our\ndoings, and of our whole being, is the secret of security, and the\npledge of peace.\n\nThen there is another form of the same phrase, 'believing on,' in which\nis suggested not so much the figure of building upon a foundation, as\nof some feeble man resting upon a strong stay, or clinging to an\noutstretched and mighty arm. The same metaphor is implied in the word\n'reliance.' We lean upon Christ when, forsaking all other props, and\nrealising His sufficiency and sweetness, we rest the whole weight of\nour weariness and all the impotence of our weakness upon His strong and\nunwearied arm, and so are saved. All other stays are like that one to\nwhich the prophet compares the King of Egypt\u2014the papyrus reed in the\nNile stream, on which, if a man leans, it will break into splinters\nwhich will go into his flesh, and make a poisoned wound. But if we lean\non Christ, we lean on a brazen wall and an iron pillar, and anything is\npossible sooner than that that stay shall give.\n\nThere is still another form of the metaphor, in which neither building\nupon a foundation, nor leaning upon a support which is thought of as\nbelow what rests upon it, are suggested, but rather the hanging upon\nsomething firm and secure which is above what hangs from it. The same\npicture is suggested by our word 'dependence.' 'As a nail fastened in a\nsure place,' said one of the prophets, 'on Him shall hang all the glory\nof His Father's house.'\n\n  'Hangs my helpless soul on Thee.'\n\nThe rope lowered over the cliffs supports the adventurous bird-nester\nin safety above the murmuring sea. They who clasp Christ's hand\noutstretched from above, may swing over the deepest, most vacuous\nabyss, and fear no fall.\n\nSo, brother, build on Christ, rely on Him, depend on Him, and it shall\nnot be in vain. But if you will not build on the sure Foundation, do\nnot wonder if the rotten one gives way. If you will not lean on the\nstrong Stay, complain not when the weak one crumbles to dust beneath\nyour weight. And if you choose to swing over the profound depth at the\nend of a piece of pack-thread, instead of holding on by an adamantine\nchain wrapped round God's throne, you must be prepared for its breaking\nand your being smashed to pieces below.\n\nIII. The last exhortation that comes out of this comparative study of\nthese phrases is\u2014Believe into Christ.\n\nThat is a very pregnant and remarkable expression, and it can scarcely,\nas you see, be rendered into our language without a certain harshness;\nbut still it is worth while to face the harshness for the sake of\ngetting the double signification that is involved in it. For when we\nspeak of believing unto or into Him, we suggest two things, both of\nwhich, apparently, were in the minds of the writers of the New\nTestament. One is motion towards, and the other is repose in, that dear\nLord.\n\nSo, then, true Christian faith is the flight of the soul towards\nChrist. Therein is one of the special blessednesses of the Christian\nlife, that it has for its object and aim absolutely infinite and\nunattainable completeness and glory, so that unwearied freshness,\ninexhaustible buoyancy, endless progress, are the dower of every spirit\nthat truly trusts in Christ. All other aims and objects are limited,\ntransient, and will be left behind. Every other landmark will sink\nbeneath the horizon, where so many of our landmarks have sunk already,\nand where they will all disappear when the last moment comes. But we\nmay have, and if we are Christian people we shall have, bright before\nus, sufficiently certain of being reached to make our efforts hopeful\nand confident, sufficiently certain of never being reached to make our\nefforts blessed with endless aspirations, the great light and love of\nthat dear Lord, to yearn after whom is better than to possess all\nbesides, and following hard after whom, even in the very motion there\nis rest, and in the search there is finding. Religion is the flight of\nthe soul, the aspiration of the whole man after the unattainable\nAttainable\u2014'that I may know Him, and be found in Him.'\n\nOh, how such thoughts ought to shame us who call ourselves Christians!\nGrowth, progress, getting nearer to Christ, yearning ever with a great\ndesire after Him!\u2014do not the words seem irony when applied to most of\nus? Think of the average type of sluggish contentment with present\nattainments that marks Christian people\u2014tortoises in their crawling\nrather than eagles in their flight. And let us take our portion of\nshame, and remember that the faith which believes Him, and that which\nbelieves on Him, both need to be crowned and perfected by that which\nbelieves towards Him, of which the motto is, 'Forgetting the things\nthat are behind, I reach forward to the things that are before.'\n\nBut there is another side to this last phase of faith. That true\nbelieving towards or unto Christ is the rest of the soul in Him. By\nfaith that deep and most real union of the believing soul with Jesus\nChrist is effected which may be fitly described as our entrance into\nand abode in Him. The believer is as if incorporated into Him in whom\nhe believes. Indeed, the Apostle ventures to use a more startling\nexpression than _incorporation_ when he says that 'he that is joined to\nthe Lord is one Spirit.' If by faith we press towards, by faith we\nshall be in, Christ. Faith is at once motion and rest, search and\nfinding, desire and fruition. The felicity of this last form of the\nphrase is its expression of both these ideas, which are united in fact\nas in word. A rare construction of the verb _to believe_, with the\nsimple preposition _in_, coincides with this part of the meaning of\n_believing unto_ or _into_, and need not be separately considered.\n\nWith this understanding of its meaning, we see how natural is John's\npreference for this construction. For surely, if he has anything to\ntell us, it is that the true Christian life is a life enclosed, as it\nwere, in Jesus Christ. Nor need I remind you how Paul, though he starts\nfrom a different point of view, yet coincides with John in this\nteaching. For, to him, to be 'in Christ' is the sum of all blessedness,\nrighteousness, peace, and power. As in an atmosphere, we may dwell in\nHim. He may be the strong Habitation to which we may continually\nresort. One of the Old Testament words for trusting means taking\nrefuge, and such a thought is naturally suggested by this New Testament\nform of expression. 'I flee unto Thee to hide me.' In that Fortress we\ndwell secure.\n\nTo be in Jesus, wedded to Him by the conjunction of will and desire,\nwedded to Him in the oneness of a believing spirit and in the obedience\nof a life, to be thus in Christ is the crown and climax of faith, and\nthe condition of all perfection. To be in Christ is life; to be out of\nHim is death. In Him we have redemption; in Him we have wisdom, truth,\npeace, righteousness, hope, confidence. To be in Him is to be in\nheaven. We enter by faith. Faith is not the acceptance merely of His\nWord, but is the reliance of the soul on Him, the flight of the soul\ntowards Him, the dwelling of the soul in Him. 'Come, My people, into\nthy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee \u2026 until the indignation be\noverpast.'\n\n\n\n\n'NEVER IN BONDAGE'\n\n\n'We\u2026 were never in bondage to any man: how gayest Thou, Ye shall be\nmade free!'\u2014JOHN viii. 33.\n\n'Never in bondage to any man'? Then what about Egypt, Babylon, Persia,\nSyria? Was there not a Roman garrison looking down from the castle into\nthe very Temple courts where this boastful falsehood was uttered? It\nrequired some hardihood to say, 'Never in bondage to any man,' in the\nface of such a history, and such a present. But was it not just an\ninstance of the strange power which we all have and exercise, of\nignoring disagreeable facts, and by ingenious manipulation taking the\nwrinkles out of the photograph? The Jews were perhaps not\nmisunderstanding Jesus Christ quite so much as these words may suggest.\nIf He had been promising, as they chose to assume, political and\nexternal liberty, I fancy they would have risen to the bait a little\nmore eagerly than they did to His words.\n\nBut be that as it may, this strange answer of theirs suggests that\npower of ignoring what we do not want to see, not only in the way in\nwhich I have suggested, but also in another. For if they had any\ninkling of what Jesus meant by slavery and freedom, they, by such words\nas these, put away from themselves the thought that they were, in any\ndeep and inward sense, bondsmen, and that a message of liberty had any\napplication to them. Ah, dear friends! there was a great deal of human\nnature in these men, who thus put up a screen between them and the\npenetrating words of our Lord. Were they not doing just what many of\nus\u2014all of us to some extent\u2014do: ignoring the facts of their own\nnecessities, of their own spiritual condition, denying the plain\nlessons of experience? Like them, are not we too often refusing to look\nin the face the fact that we all, apart from Him, are really in\nbondage? Because we do not realise the slavery, are we not indifferent\nto the offer of freedom? 'We were never in bondage'; consequently we\nadd, 'How sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?' So then, my text brings\nus to think of three things: our bondage, our ignorance of our bondage,\nour consequent indifference to Christ's offer of liberty. Let me say a\nword or two about each of these.\n\nFirst as to\u2014\n\nI. Our bondage.\n\nChrist follows the vain boast in the text, with the calm, grave,\nprofound explanation of what He meant: 'Whoso committeth sin is the\nslave of sin.' That is true in two ways. By the act of sinning a man\nshows that he is the slave of an alien power that has captured him; and\nin the act of sinning, he rivets the chains and increases the tyranny.\nHe is a slave, or he would not obey sin. He is more a slave because he\nhas again obeyed it. Now, do not let us run away with the idea that\nwhen Jesus speaks of sin and its bondage, He is thinking only, or\nmainly, of gross outrages and contradictions of the plain law of\nmorality and decency, that He is thinking only of external acts which\nall men brand as being wrong, or of those which law qualifies as\ncrimes. We have to go far deeper than that, and into a far more inward\nregion of life than that, before we come to apprehend the inwardness\nand the depth of the Christian conception of what sin is. We have to\nbring our whole life close up against God, and then to judge its deeds\nthereby. Therefore, though I know I am speaking to a mass of\nrespectable, law-abiding people, very few of you having any knowledge\nof the grosser and uglier forms of transgression, and I dare say none\nof you having any experience of what it is to sin against human law,\nthough I do not charge you\u2014God forbid!\u2014with _vices_, and still less\nwith _crimes_, I bring to each man's conscience a far more searching\nword than either of these two, when I say, 'We all have _sinned_ and\ncome short of the glory of God.' This declaration of the universality\nand reality of the bondage of sin is only the turning into plain words\nof a fact which is of universal experience, though it may be of a very\nmuch less universal consciousness. We may not be aware of the fact,\nbecause, as I have to show you, we do not direct our attention to it.\nBut there it is; and the truth is that every man, however noble his\naspirations sometimes, however pure and high his convictions, and\nhowever honest in the main may be his attempts to do what is right,\nwhen he deals honestly with himself, becomes more or less conscious of\njust that experience which a great expert in soul analysis and\nself-examination made: 'I find a law'\u2014an influence working upon my\nheart with the inevitableness and certainty of law\u2014'that when I would\ndo good, evil is present with me.'\n\nWe all know that, whether we regard it as we ought or no. We all say\nAmen to that, when it is forced upon our attention. There _is_\nsomething in us that thwarts aspiration towards good, and inclines to\nevil.\n\n  'What will but felt the fleshly screen?'\n\nAnd it is not only a screen. It not only prevents us from rising as\nhigh as we would, but it sinks us so low as to do deeds that something\nwithin us recoils from and brands as evil. Jesus teaches us that he who\ncommits sin is the slave of sin; that is to say, that an alien power\nhas captured and is coercing the wrongdoer. That teaching does not\ndestroy responsibility, but it kindles hope. A foreign foe, who has\ninvaded the land, may be driven out of the land, and all his prisoners\nset free, if a stronger than he comes against him. Christianity is\ncalled gloomy and stern, because it preaches the corruption of man's\nheart. Is it not a gospel to draw a distinction between the evil that a\nman does, and the self that a man may be? Is it not better, more\nhopeful, more of a true evangel, to say to a man, 'Sin dwelleth in\nyou,' than to say, 'What is called sin is only the necessary action of\nhuman nature'? To believe that their present condition is not slavery\nmakes men hopeless of ever gaining freedom, and the true gospel of the\nemancipation of humanity rests on the Christian doctrine of the bondage\nof sin.\n\nLet me remind you that freedom consists not in the absence of external\nconstraints, but in the animal in us being governed by the will, for\nwhen the flesh is free the man is a slave. And it means that the will\nshould be governed by the conscience; and it means that the conscience\nshould be governed by God. These are the stages. Men are built in three\nstories, so to speak. Down at the bottom, and to be kept there, are\ninclinations, passions, lust, desires, all which are but blind aimings\nafter their appropriate satisfaction, without any question as to\nwhether the satisfaction is right or wrong; and above that a dominant\nwill which is meant to control, and above that a conscience. That is\nthe pyramid; and as by the sunshine on the gilded top of some spire,\nthe shining apex, the conscience, is illnmined when the light of God\nfalls upon it. And when a man is built in that fashion, and keeps to\nthat fashion, then, and only then, is he free.\n\nI need not remind you of how the metaphor of my text receives its most\ntragical and yet most common illustration and confirmation in the awful\nfact of the power of any evil thing, once thought or done by a man, to\nreproduce itself, onwards and ever onwards. It is a far commoner thing\nfor a man never to have done some given evil, never to have got drunk,\nnever to have stolen, or the like, than to have done it only once. I\nhave heard of a mysterious illness, in which at first medical analysis\ndetected with difficulty one single bacterion in a great quantity of\nblood. But in a few days, so had they multiplied that no drop could be\ntaken anywhere from the veins which was not full of them. That is how\nmen get under the slavery of any evil thing; and habit becomes stronger\nthan anything except that \"strong Son of God, immortal Love,\" whose\nSpirit can conquer even it.\" Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the\nleopard his spots? Then may ye that are wont to do evil learn to do\nwell.\" The bondage is real and hard.\n\nMy text suggests to us that strange, sad fact\u00ad\n\nII. OUR IGNORANCE OF OUR SLAVERY.\n\n\"We were never in bondage to any man,\" said the Jews. We are but too\napt to repeat the empty boast, and as they forgot Pharaoh and\nNebuchadnezzar, Antiochus,and Cesar, we forget our failures, our\nfaults, our sins. We ignore them. Is not that, too, a plain fact of\nexperience? A sadly large percentage of men never have really opened\ntheir eyes to the undeniable truth that sin has dominion over them.\nThey go along on the surface of things, keeping to the shallows of\nhuman life, occupying themselves with their various duties and\nenjoyments, and they never know, just because they shut their eyes to\nfacts, or rather turn their eyes away from facts-what is their real\ncondition in God's sight. Some of my present hearers are, in regard to\nthis matter, what the old Puritans used to call \"Gospel-hardened.\" They\nhave their hearts and minds, I was going to say water-proofed, by\nrepeated application to them, as I am trying to apply them now, of\ntruths which but add one more film to the layers between their hearts\nand the Gospel. Because they are so familiar with the words of our\nmessage, they all but lose the faculty of bringing its power into\ncontact with themselves. Oh! if I could overcome that tendency which\nthere is in all regular church and chapel-goers to make themselves\ncomfortable in their corners, and suppose that the man in the pulpit is\nsaying what he ought to say, and that they need not give much heed to\nhis message because they have heard it all before-if I could once get\nthe sharp point of this great Christian truth of our slavery under sin,\nthrough the manifold layers with which your heart is encrusted, you\nwould find out the weight of a good many things that some of you think\nvery phantasmal and of little consequence.\n\nThere is nothing about us that is more remarkable and more awful, when\nyou come to think of it, than the power that we have, by not attending\nto something, of making that something practically non-existent. The\ngreat search-lights, that they now have on battleships, will fling a\nbeam of terrible revealing power on one sma11 segment of the vast\ncircle of the sea; and all the rest, though it may be filled with the\nenemy's fleet, will be lying in darkness. So just because we cannot get\nyou to think of the facts of your slavery to sin, the facts are\nnon-existent as far as you are concerned. Let me plead with you.\nSurely! sure1y, it is not a thing worthy of a man never to go down into\nthe deep places of your own hearts and see the ugly things that coil\nand wrestle and swarm and multiply there! Ezekiel was once led to a\nplace where, through a hole broken in the wall, there was showed him an\ninner chamber, on the walls of which were painted the hideous idols of\nthe heathen. And there, in the presence of the foul shapes, stood\nvenerable priests and official dignitaries of Israel, with their\ncensers in their hands, and their backs to the oracle of God. There is\na chamber like that in all our hearts; and it would be a great deal\nbetter that we should go down, through the hole in the wall, and see\nit, than that we should live, as so many of us do, in this fool's\nparadise of ignorance of our own sin. It is because we will not attend\nto the facts that we ignore the facts. The evils that we do, and that\nwe cherish undone in our hearts, are like the wreckers on some stormy\ncoast, that begin operations by taking the tongue out of the bell that\nhangs on the buoy, and putting out the light that beams from the\nbeacon. Sin chokes conscience; and so the worse a man is, the less he\nfeels himself to be bad; and while a saint will be tortured with\nagonies of remorse for some slight peccadillo, a brigand will add a\nmurder or two to his list, and wipe his mouth and say, \"I have done no\nharm.\" We are ignorant of our sin because we bribe our consciences,\nbecause we drug our consciences, because we will not attend to the\nfacts of our own spiritual being.\n\nThat ignorance of our bondage is characteristic of the tone of mind of\nthis generation. Things have changed in that respect, as in a great\nmany others, since I was a boy. I do not hear now, from people who\ndesire to unite themselves to Jesus Christ, the deep poignant penitence\nand confession of sin that one used to hear. I do not hear the facts of\nsin, its gravity and universality, preached from pulpits in the way it\nused to be. I notice in the ordinary, average man a tendency to think\nmore about environment and heredity, than about individidual\nresponsibility, and on the whole a very much lowered sense of the depth\nand the power and the universality of transgression. And that is why,\nto a large extent, the Christianity of this generation is so shallow a\nthing as it is.\n\nThat brings me, lastly, to say a word about\u00ad\n\nIII. THE CONSEQUENT INDIFFERENCE TO CHRIST'S OFFER OF FREEDOM.\n\n\"How sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?\" Of course, if they had no\nconsciousness of bondage, there was no attraction for them in a promise\nof freedom.\n\nThat remark opens out two thoughts, on which I do not dwell. First, the\nignoring of the fact of sin which is so common amongst us all to-day,\nmakes it impossible to understand Christ and Christianity. Brethren,\nthat great Gospel, and that great Lord who is the subject of the\nGospel, have many other aspects than this. But this is the central\nthought as to it and Him, that it is the emancipation from sin, because\nHe is the Emancipator. \"The spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He\nhath anointed Me to preach deliverance to the captives.\" And wherever\nwe find, as we do find, in many quarters to-day, that the central fact\nof Christianity, the Death for the sin of the world, is deposed from\nits place, there the life-blood is ebbing out of the Gospel.\nHistorically, the beginning of almost all heresies has been the\nunder-estimate of the fact of sin. As long as you dwell in the shallows\nof human experience, a shallow Christianity and a shallow Christ will\nbe enough for you. But when once you get to understand the depths of\nyour own need, and the depths of your brother's need, then nothing less\nthan the Christ that died to solve the problem, insoluble else, of how\nto emancipate the soul and the world from the tyranny of sin, will be\nenough for you. Once \"the waters of the great deep are broken up,\" and\nthe floods are out, there is nothing for it but the Ark. It is not\nenough then to speak of a human Christ; it is not enough, when a man's\nconscience has been roused, not to exaggeration, but to clear sight, of\nwhat he is\u00adit is not enough then to speak of an example Christ, or of a\nteaching Christ. Ah! we want more than that. We want \"that which first\nof all I delivered unto you, how that Jesus Christ died for our sins,\naccording to the Scriptures.\"\n\nAnd, brethren, just as the ignoring of the fact of sin makes the\nunderstanding of Christ and His word impossible, so it makes real\nreception of Him for ourselves impossible. Many men are brought near to\nJesus by other roads; thank God for it! There are a thousand ways to\nthe Cross, but it is the Cross that we must clasp if in any true sense\nwe are to clasp Christ. And there is all the difference between the\nsuperficial, partial, and easy-going profession of Christianity which\nis so common amongst us to-day, and the life and death clutching and\nclinging to Him which comes when, and only when, a man feels that the\ntyrant whom he served as a slave, is close behind him, and that his\nonly chance of freedom is to hold fast by the horns of the altar of the\nSanctuary, and to cleave to the Christ in Whom, and in Whom alone, we\nare free indeed.\n\n\n\n\nONE METAPHOR AND TWO MEANINGS\n\n\n'I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night\ncometh when no man can work.'\u2014JOHN ix. 4.\n\n'The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off\nthe works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.'\u2014ROMANS\nxiii. 12.\n\nThe contrast between these two sayings will strike you at once. Using\nthe same metaphors, they apply them in exactly opposite directions. In\nthe one, life is the day, and the state beyond death the night; in the\nother, life is the night, and the state beyond death the day.\nRemarkable as the contrast is, it comes to be still more so if we\nremember the respective speakers. For each of them says what we should\nrather have expected the other to say. It would have been natural for\nPaul to have given utterance to the stimulus to diligence caused by the\nconsciousness that the time of work was brief; and it would have been\nas natural for Jesus, who, as we believe, came from God, from the place\nof the eternal supernal glory, to have said that life here was night as\ncompared with the illumination that He had known. But it is the divine\nMaster who gives utterance to the common human consciousness of a brief\nlife ending in inactivity, and it is the servant who takes the higher\npoint of view.\n\nSo strange did the words of my first text seem as coming from our\nLord's lips, that the sense of incongruity seems to have been the\noccasion of the remarkable variation of reading which the Revised\nVersion has adopted when it says '_We_ must work the works of Him that\nsent Me.' But that thought seems to me to be perfectly irrelevant to\nour Lord's purpose in this context, where He is vindicating His own\naction, and not laying down the duty of His servants. He is giving here\none of these glimpses, that we so rarely get, into His own inmost\nheart. And so we have to take the sharp contrast between the Master's\nthought and the servant's thought, and to combine them, if we would\nthink rightly about the present and the future, and do rightly in the\npresent.\n\nI. Let me ask you to look at the Master's thought about the present and\nthe future.\n\nAs I have already said, our Lord gives utterance here to the very\ncommon, in fact, universal human consciousness. The contrast between\nthe intense little spot of light and the great ring of darkness round\nabout it; between 'the warm precincts of the cheerful day' and the cold\nsolitudes of the inactive night has been the commonplace and\nstock-in-trade of moralists and thoughtful men from the beginning; has\ngiven pathos to poetry, solemnity to our days; and has been the ally of\nbase as well as of noble things. For to say to a man, 'there are twelve\nhours in the day of life, and then comes darkness, the blackness that\nswallows up all activity,' may either be made into a support of all\nlofty and noble thoughts, or, by the baser sort, may be, and has been,\nmade into a philosophy of the 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we\ndie' kind; 'Gather ye roses while ye may'; 'A short life and a merry\none.' The thought stimulates to diligence, but it does nothing to\ndirect the diligence. It makes men work furiously, but it never will\nprevent them from working basely. 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,\ndo it with thy might,' is a conclusion from the consideration that\n'there is neither wisdom nor knowledge nor device in the grave whither\nwe go,' but what the hand should find to do must be settled from\naltogether different considerations.\n\nOur Lord here takes the common human point of view, and says, 'Life is\nthe time for activity, and it must be the more diligent because it is\nringed by the darkness of the night.' What precisely does our Lord\nintend by His use of that metaphor of the night? No figures, we know,\nrun upon all-fours. The point of comparison may be simply in some one\nfeature common to the two things compared, and so all sorts of mischief\nmay be done by trying to extend the analogy to other features. Now,\nthere are a great many points in which day and night may respectively\nbe taken as analogues of Life and Death and the state beyond death.\nThere is a 'night of weeping'; there is a 'night of ignorance.' But our\nLord Himself tells us what is the one point of comparison which alone\nis in His mind, when He says, 'The night cometh, when no man can work.'\nIt is simply the night as a season of compulsory inactivity that\nsuggests the comparison in our text. And so we have here the\npresentation of that dear Lord as influenced by the common human\nmotive, and feeling that there was work to be done which must be\ncrowded into a definite space, because when that space was past, there\nwould be no more opportunity for the work to be done.\n\nLook at how, in the words of my first text, we have, as I said, a\nglimpse into His inmost heart. He lets us see that all His life was\nunder the solemn compulsion of that great _must_ which was so often\nupon His lips, that He felt that He was here to do the Father's will,\nand that that obligation lay upon Him with a pressure which He neither\ncould, nor would if He could, have got rid of.\n\nThere are two kinds of 'musts' in our lives. There is the unwelcome\nnecessity which grips us with iron and sharpened fangs; the needs-be\nwhich crushes down hopes and dreams and inclinations, and forces the\nslave to his reluctant task. And there is the 'must' which has passed\ninto the will, into the heart, and has moulded the inmost desire to\nconformity with the obligation which no more stands over against us as\na taskmaster with whip and chain, but has passed within us and is there\nan inspiration and a joy. He that can say, as Jesus Christ in His\nhumanity could, and did say: 'My meat'\u2014the refreshment of my nature,\nthe necessary sustenance of my being\u2014'is to do the will of my Father';\nthat man, and that man alone, feels no pressure that is pain from the\nincumbency of the necessity that blessedly rules His life. When 'I\nwill' and 'I choose' coincide, like two of Euclid's triangles atop of\none another, line for line and angle for angle, then comes liberty into\nthe life. He that can say, not with a knitted brow and an unwilling\nducking of his head to the yoke, 'I must do it,' but can say, 'Thy law\nis within my heart,' that is the Christlike, the free, the happy man.\n\nFurther, our Lord here, in His thoughts of the present and the future,\nlets us see what He thought that the work of God in the world was. The\ndisciples looked at the blind man sitting by the wayside, and what he\nsuggested to them was a curious, half theological, half metaphysical\nquestion, in which Rabbinical subtlety delighted. 'Who did sin, this\nman or his parents?' They only thought of talking over the theological\nproblem involved in the fact that, before he had done anything in this\nworld to account for the calamity, he was _born_ blind. Jesus Christ\nlooked at the man, and He did not think about theological cobwebs. What\nwas suggested to Him was to fight against the evil and abolish it. It\nis sometimes necessary to discuss the origin of an evil thing, of a\nsorrow or a sin, in order to understand how to deal with and get rid of\nit. But unless that is the case, our first business is not to say, 'How\ncomes this about?' but our business is to take steps to make it cease\nto come about. Cure the man first and then argue to your heart's\ncontent about what made him blind, but cure him first. And so Jesus\nChrist taught us that the meaning of the day of life was that we should\nset ourselves to abolish the works of the devil, and that the work of\nGod was that we should fight against sin and sorrow, and in so far as\nit was in our power, abolish these, in all the variety of their forms,\nin all the vigour of their abundant growth. Sorrow and sin are God's\ncall to every one of His sons and daughters to set themselves to cast\nthem out of His fair creation; and 'the day' is the opportunity for\ndoing that.\n\nOur Lord here, as I have already suggested, shows us very touchingly\nand beautifully, how entirely He bore our human nature, and had entered\ninto our conditions, in that He, too, felt that common human emotion,\nand was spurred to unhasting and yet unresting diligence by the thought\nof the coming of the night. I suppose that although we have few\nchronological data in this Gospel of John, the hour of our Lord's death\nwas really very near at that time. He had just escaped from a\nformidable attempt upon His life. 'They took up stones to stone Him,\nbut He, passing through the midst of them, went His way,' is the\nstatement which immediately precedes the account of His meeting with\nthis blind man. And so under the pressure, perhaps, of that immediate\nexperience which revealed the depths of hatred that was ready for\nanything against Him, He gives utterance to this expression: 'If it be\nthe case that the time is at hand, then the more need that, Sabbath day\nas it is, I should pause here.' Though the multitude were armed with\nstones to stone Him, He stopped in His flight because there was a poor\nblind man there whom He felt that He needed to cure. Beautiful it is,\nand drawing Him very near to us,\u2014and it should draw us very near to\nHim\u2014that thus He shared in that essentially human consciousness of the\nlimitation of the power to work, by the ring of blackness that\nencircled the little spot of illuminated light.\n\nBut some will say, 'How is it possible that such a consciousness as\nthis should really have been in the mind of Jesus Christ?' 'Did He not\nknow that His death was not to be the end of His work? Did He not know,\nand say over and over again, in varying forms, that when He passed from\nearth, it was not into inactivity? Is it not the very characteristic of\nHis mission that it is different from that of all other helpers and\nbenefactors and teachers of the world, in that His death stands in the\nvery middle of His work, and that on the one side of it there is\nactivity, and on the other side of it there is still, and in some sense\nloftier and greater, activity?' Yes; all that is perfectly true, and I\ndo not for a moment believe that our Lord was forgetting that the life\non the earth was but the first volume of His biography, and of the\nrecords of His deeds, and that He contemplated them, as He contemplated\nalways, the life beyond, as working in and on and over and through His\nservants, even unto the end of the world.\n\nBut you have only to remember the difference between the earthly and\nthe heavenly life of the Lord fully to understand the point of view\nthat He takes here. The one is the basis of the other; the one is the\nseedtime, the other is the harvest. The one has only the limited years\nof the earthly life, in which it can be done; the other has the endless\nyears of Eternity, through which it is to be continued. And if any part\nof that earthly life of the Lord had been void of its duty, and of its\ndischarge of the Father's will, not even He, amidst the blaze of the\nheavenly glory, could have thereafter filled up the tiny gap. All the\nearthly years were needed to be filled with service, up to the great\nservice and sacrifice of the Cross, in order that upon them might be\nreared the second stage and phase of His heavenly life. With regard to\nthe one, He said on the Cross, 'It is finished.' But when He died He\npassed not into the night of inactivity, but into the day of greater\nservice. And that higher and heavenly form of His work continues, and\nnot until 'the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our\nGod and of His Christ,' and the whole benefit and effect of His earthly\nlife are imparted to the whole race of man, will it be said, 'It is\ndone,' and the angels of heaven proclaim the completion of His work for\nman. But seeing that that work has its twofold forms, Jesus, like us,\nhad to be conscious of the limitations of life, and of the night that\nfollowed the day.\n\nII. And now turn, in the second place, to the servant's thought.\n\nAs I have already pointed out, it is the precise reversal of the other.\nWhat to Christ is 'day' to Paul is 'night.' What to Christ is 'night'\nto Paul is 'day.' Now the first point that I would make is this, that\nthe future would never have been 'day' to Paul if Jesus had not gone\ndown into the darkness of the 'night.' I have said that there was only\none point of comparison in our Lord's mind between night and death. But\nwe may venture to extend the figure a little, and to say that the Light\nwent into the 'valley of the shadow of Death,' and lit it up from end\nto end. The Life went into the palace of Death, and breathed life into\nall there. There is a great picture by one of the old monkish masters,\non the walls of a Florentine convent, which represents the descent of\nJesus to that dim region of the dead. Around Him there is a halo of\nlight that shines into the gloomy corridor, up which the thronging\npatriarchs and saints of the Old Dispensation are coming, with\noutstretched hands of eager welcome and acceptance, to receive the\nblessing. Ah! it is true, 'the people that walked in darkness have seen\na great Light; and to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of\ndeath, unto them hath the Light shined.' Christ the Light has gone down\ninto the darkness, and what to Him was night He has made for us day.\nJust as Scripture all but confines the name of _death_ to Christ's\nexperience upon the Cross, and by virtue of that experience softens it\ndown for the rest of us into the blessed image of _sleep_, so the\nMaster has turned the night of death into the dawning of the day.\n\nFurther, to the servant the brightness of that future day dimmed all\nearth's garish glories into darkness. It was because Paul saw the\nBeyond flaming with such lustre that the nearer distance to him seemed\nto have sunk into gloom. Just as a man or other object between you and\nthe western sky when the sun is there will be all dark, so earth with\nheaven behind it becomes a mere shadowy outline. The day that is beyond\noutshines all the lustres and radiances of earth, and turns them into\ndarkness. You go into a room out of blazing tropical sunshine, and it\nis all gloom and obscurity. He whose eyes are fixed on the day that is\nto come will find that here he walks as one in the night.\n\nAnd the brightness of that day, as well as the darkness of the present\nnight, directed the servant as to what he should be diligent in. Since\nit is true that 'the day is at hand,' let us put on the armour of\nlight, and dress ourselves in garb fitting for it. Since it is true\nthat 'the night is far spent' let us put off the works of darkness.\n\nIII. And so that brings me to the last point, and that is the\ncombination of the Master's and the servant's thought, and the effect\nthat it should produce upon us.\n\nIt is not enough either for our hearts or our minds that we should say\n'the night cometh when no man can work.' Life is day, but it is night\nalso. Death is night but it is dawning as well. We cannot understand\neither the present or the future unless we link them together. That\ndeath which is the cessation of activity in one aspect, is, for\nChrist's servants, as truly as for Christ, the beginning of an activity\nin a higher and nobler form. I do not believe in a heaven of rest,\nmeaning by that, inaction; I still less believe in a death which puts\nan end to the activity of the human spirit. I believe that this world\nis our school, our apprenticeship, the place where we learn our trade\nand exercise our faculties, where we paint the picture, as it were,\nwhich we offer when we desire to be admitted to the great guild of\nartists, and according to the result of which, in the eye of the Judge,\nis our place hereafter. What the Germans call 'proof pieces'\u2014that is\nthe meaning of life. And though 'the night cometh when no man can\nwork,' the day cometh when the characters we have made ourselves here,\nthe habits we have cultivated and indulged in, the capacities we have\nexercised, and the set and drift of all our activity upon earth, will\ndetermine the work that we get to do there.\n\nSo then, stereoscoping these two thoughts, we get the solid image that\nresults from them both. And it teaches us not only diligence, and thus\nsupplies stimulus, but it determines the direction of our diligence,\nand thus supplies guidance. We ought to be misers of our time and\nopportunities. Jesus Christ said, 'I must work the work of Him that\nsent Me while it is day; the night cometh.' How much more ought you and\nI to say so? And some of us ought very specially to say it, and to feel\nit, because the hour when we shall have to lay down our tools is\ngetting very near, and the shadows are lengthening. If you had been in\nthe fields in these summer evenings during the last few days, you would\nhave seen the haymakers at work with more and more diligence as the\nevening drew on darker and darker. Dear friends, some of us are at the\neleventh hour. Let us fill it with diligent work. The night cometh.\n\nBut my texts not only stimulate to diligence, but they direct the\ndiligence. If it be that there is a day beyond, and that Christ's folk\nare 'the children of the day,' then 'let us not sleep as do others, but\nlet us watch and be sober.' We have to cast ourselves on Him as our\nSaviour, to love Him as our Lord and Friend, to take Him as our Pattern\nand our Guide, our Help, our Light, and our Life. And then we shall\nneither be deceived by life's garish splendours nor oppressed by its\ngloom and its sorrow; we shall neither shrink from that last moment, as\na night of inaction, nor be too eager to cast off the burden of our\npresent work, but we shall cheerfully toil at what will prepare us for\n'the day,' and the bell at night that rings us out of mill and factory\nwill not be unwelcome, for it will ring us in to higher work and nobler\nservice. The transition will be like one of those summer nights in the\nArctic circle, when the sun does not dip. Through a little thin film of\nless light we shall pass into the perfect day, where 'the Lord God\nAlmighty and the Lamb are the light thereof,' and 'there shall be no\nmore night.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE SIXTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL\u2014THE BLIND MADE TO SEE, AND THE\nSEEING MADE BLIND\n\n\n'When Jesus had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of\nthe spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,\n7. And said unto him, Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam, (which is by\ninterpretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came\nseeing.'\u2014JOHN ix. 6, 7.\n\nThe proportionate length at which this miracle and its accompanying\neffects are recorded, indicates very clearly the Evangelist's idea of\ntheir relative importance. Two verses are given to the story of the\nmiracle; all the rest of the chapter to its preface and its issues. It\nwas a great thing to heal a man that was blind from his birth, but the\nstory of the gradual illumination of his spirit until it came to the\nfull light of the perception of Christ as the Son of God, was far more\nto the Evangelist, and ought to be far more to us than giving the\noutward eye power to discern the outward light.\n\nThe narrative has a prologue and an epilogue, and the true point of\nview from which to look at it is found in the solemn words with which\nour Lord closes the incident. 'For judgment am I come into this world,\nthat they which see not might see, and that they which see might be\nmade blind.'\n\nSo then the mere sign, important as it is, is the least thing that we\nhave to look at in our contemplations now.\n\nI. We have here our Lord unveiling His deepest motives for bestowing an\nunsought blessing.\n\nIt is remarkable, I think, that out of the eight miracles recorded in\nthis Gospel, there is only one in which our Lord responds to a request\nto manifest His miraculous power; the others are all spontaneous.\n\nIn the other Gospels He heals sometimes because of the pleading of the\nsufferer; sometimes because of the request of compassionate friends or\nbystanders; sometimes unasked, because His own heart went out to those\nthat were in pain and sickness. But in John's Gospel, predominantly we\nhave the Son of God, who acts throughout as moved by His own deep\nheart. That view of Christ reaches its climax in His own profound words\nabout His own laying down of His life: 'I came forth from the Father,\nand am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go unto the\nFather.' So, not so much influenced by others as deriving motive and\nimpulse and law from Himself, He moves upon earth a fountain and not a\nreservoir, the Originator and the Beginner of the blessings that He\nbears.\n\nAnd that is the point of view from which most strikingly the prologue\nof our narrative sets forth His action in the miracle here. 'As Jesus\npassed by,' says the story, 'He saw a man which was blind from his\nbirth.' He fixes His eye upon him. No cry from the blind man's lips\ndraws Him. He sits there unconscious of the kind eyes that were\nfastened upon him. The disciples stand at Christ's side, and have no\nshare in His feelings. They ask Him to do nothing. To them the blind\nman is\u2014what? A theological problem. No trace of pity touches their\nhearts. They do not even seem to have reckoned upon or expected\nChrist's miraculous intervention. And that is a very remarkable feature\nin the Gospels. At all events, they evidently do not expect it here;\nbut all that the sight of this lifelong sufferer does in them is to\nraise a question, 'Who did sin; he or his parents?' Perhaps they do not\nquite see to the bottom of the alternative that they are suggesting;\nand we need not trouble ourselves to ask whether there was a full-blown\nnotion of the pre-existence of the man's soul in their minds as they\nask the question. Perhaps they remembered the impotent man to whom our\nLord said, 'Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.' And\nthey may have thought that they had His sanction to the doctrine\u2014as old\nas Job's friends\u2014that wherever there was great suffering there must\nfirst have been great sin.\n\nThat is all that the sight of sorrow does for some people. It leads to\ncensorious judgments, or to mere idle and curious speculations. Christ\nlets us see what it did for Him, and what it is meant to do for us.\n'Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but he is born blind\nthat the works of God may be made manifest in him.' That is to say,\nhuman sorrow is to be looked at by us as an opportunity for the\nmanifestation through us of God's mercy in relieving and stanching the\nwounds through which the lifeblood is ebbing away. Do not stand coldly\ncurious or uncharitably censorious. Do not make miserable men\ntheological problems, but see in them a call for service. See in them\nan opportunity for letting the light of God, so much of it as is in\nyou, shine from you, and your hands move in works of mercy.\n\nAnd then the Master goes on to state still more distinctly the law\nwhich dominated His life, and which ought to dominate ours: 'I must\nwork the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh\nwhen no man can work.' Then poor men's misery is an occasion for the\nlove of God manifesting itself. Yes. But the love of God manifests\nitself through human media, through persons; and if we adopt the\nreading of these words which you will find in the Revised Version, and\ninstead of saying '_I_ must work,' read '_We_ must work,' then we have\nChrist extending the law which ruled over His own life to all His\nfollowers, and making it supremely obligatory and binding upon each of\nus. He for His part, as I have said, moves through this Gospel as the\nSon of God, whose mercy, and all whose doings are self-originated. But\nthe other side of that is that He moves through this Gospel in the\nhumble attitude of filial obedience, ever recognising that the Father's\nwill is supreme in His life; and that He is bound, with an obligation\nin which He rejoices, to do the will of Him that sent Him. The\nconsciousness of a mission, the sense of filial obedience, the joyful\nsurrender and harmonising of the will of the Son with the will of the\nFather; these things were the secret of the Master's life.\n\nAnd coupled with them, even in Him there was the consciousness that\ntime was short; and although beyond the Cross and the grave there\nstretched for Him an eternity in which He would work for the blessing\nof the world, yet the special work which He had to do, while wearing\nthe veil and weakness of flesh, had but few days and hours in which it\ncould be done. Therefore, as we ought to do, He worked under the\nlimitations of mortality, and recognised in the brevity of life another\ncall to eager and continuous service.\n\nThese were His motives which, in common with Him, we may share. But He\nadds another in which we have no share; and declares the unique\nconsciousness which ever stirred Him to His self-manifesting and\nGod-manifesting acts: 'As long as I am in the world I am the Light of\nthe world.'\n\nThus, moved by sorrow, recognising in man's misery the dumb cry for\nhelp, seeing in it the opportunity for the manifestation of the higher\nmercy of God; taking all evil to be the occasion for a brighter display\nof the love and the good which are divine; feeling that His one purpose\nupon earth was to crowd the moments with obedience to the will, and\nwith the doing of the works of Him that sent Him; and possessing the\nsole and strange consciousness that from His person streams out all the\nlight which illuminates the world\u2014the Christ pauses before the\nunconscious blind man, and looking upon the poor, useless eyeballs,\nunaware how near light and sight stood, obeys the impulse that shapes\nHis whole life, 'and when He had spoken _thus_,' proceeds to the\nstrange cure.\n\nII. So we come, in the next place, to consider Christ as veiling His\npower under material means.\n\nThere is only one other instance in the Gospels where a miracle is\nwrought in the singular fashion which is here employed, namely, the\nhealing of the deaf-mute recorded in Mark's Gospel, where, in like\nmanner, our Lord makes clay of the spittle, and anoints the ears of the\ndeaf man with the clay. The variety of method in our Lord's miracles\nserves important purposes, as teaching us that the methods are nothing,\nand that He moved freely amongst them all, the real cause in every case\nbeing one and the same, the bare forth-putting of His will; and\nteaching us further that in each specific case there were reasons in\nthe moral and religious condition of the persons operated upon for the\nadoption of the specific means employed, which we of course have no\nmeans of discovering. There is here, first then, healing by material\nmeans. The clay had no power of healing; the water of Siloam had no\npower of healing. The thing that healed was Christ's will, but He uses\nthese externals to help the poor blind man to believe that he is going\nto be healed. He condescends to drape and veil His power in order that\nthe dim eye, unaccustomed to the light, may look upon that shadowed\nrepresentation of it when it could not gaze upon the pure brightness;\nas an eye may look upon a shaded lamp which could not bear its\nbrilliance unsoftened and naked.\n\nThis healing by material means in order to accommodate Himself to the\nweak faith which He seeks to evoke, and to strengthen thereby, is\nparallel, in principle, to His own Incarnation, and to His appointment\nof external rites and ordinances. Baptism, the Lord's Supper, a visible\nChurch, outward means of worship, and so on, all these come under that\nsame category. There is no life nor power in them except His will works\nthrough them, but they are crutches and helps for a weak and\nsense-bound faith to climb to the apprehension of the spiritual\nreality. It is not the clay, it is not the water, it is not the Church,\nthe ordinances, the outward worship, the form of prayer, the\nsacrament\u2014it is none of these things that have the healing and the\ngrace in them. They are only ladders by which we may ascend to Him. So\nlet us neither presumptuously antedate the time when we shall be able\nto do without them\u2014the Heaven in 'which there is no Temple'\u2014nor\ngrovellingly and superstitiously elevate them to a place of importance\nand of power in the Christian life which Christ never meant them to\nfill. He heals through material means; the true source of healing is\nHis own loving will.\n\nFurther, He heals at a distance. We have here a parallel with the story\nof the nobleman's son at Capernaum, which we have already considered.\nThere, too, we have the same phenomenon, the healing power sent forth\nfrom the Master, and operating far away from His corporeal personal\npresence. This was a test of faith, as the use of the clay had been a\nhelp to faith. Still He works His healing from afar, because to Him\nthere is neither near nor far. In His divine ubiquity, that Son of Man,\nwho in His glorified manhood is at the right hand of God the Father\nAlmighty, is here and everywhere where there are weakness and suffering\nthat turn to Him; ready to help, ready to bless and heal. 'Lo, I am\nwith you always, even unto the end of the world.'\n\nOur Evangelist sees in the very name of that fountain in which the man\nwashed, a symbol which is not to be passed by. 'Go, wash in the Pool of\nSiloam,' which, says John, 'is by interpretation, _Sent._' We have\nheard already about the Pool of Siloam in this section of the Gospel.\nIn Chapter vii. we read, 'In the last day, that great day of the Feast,\nJesus stood and said, \"If any man thirst let him come to Me and\ndrink.\"' These words were probably spoken on the last day of the Feast\nof Tabernacles, on which one part of the ceremonial was the drawing,\nwith exuberant rejoicing, of water from the Pool of Siloam, and bearing\nit up to the Temple. In these words Christ pointed to that fountain\nwhich rises 'fast by the oracles of God,' and wells up from beneath the\nhill, that on which the Temple is built, as being a symbol of Himself.\n\nAnd here the Evangelist would have us suppose that, in like manner, the\nvery name which the fountain bore (whether as being an outgush from\nbeneath the Temple rock, or whether as being the gift of God) as\napplicable to Himself. The lesson to be learned is that the fountain in\nwhich we have to be cleansed 'from sin and from uncleanness,' whose\nwaters are the lotion that will give eyesight to the blind, the true\n'fountain of perpetual youth,' which men have sought for in every land,\nis Christ Himself. In Him we have the welling forth of the heart of\nGod, the water of life, the water of gladness, the immortal stream of\nwhich 'whoso drinketh shall never thirst,' and which, touching the\nblind eyeballs, washes away obscuration and gives new power of vision.\n\nIII. Then, still further, we have here our Lord suspending healing on\nobedience.\n\n'Go and wash.' As He said to the impotent man: 'Stretch forth thine\nhand'; as He said to the paralytic in this Gospel: 'Take up thy bed and\nwalk'; so here He says, 'Go and wash.' And some friendly hand being\nstretched out to the blind man, or he himself feeling his way over the\nfamiliar path, he comes to the pool and washes, and returns seeing.\n\nThere is a double lesson there, on which I have no need to dwell. There\nis, first, the general truth that healing is suspended by Christ on\ncompliance with His conditions. He does not simply say to any man, Be\nwhole. He could and did say so sometimes in regard to bodily healing.\nBut He cannot do so as regards the cure of our blind souls. To the\nsin-sick and sin-blinded man He says, 'Thou shalt be whole, if'\u2014or 'I\nwill make thee whole, provided that'\u2014what?\u2014provided that thou goest to\nthe fountain where He has lodged the healing power. The condition on\nwhich sight comes to the blind is compliance with Christ's invitation,\n'Come to Me; trust in Me; and thou shalt be whole.'\n\nThen there is a special lesson here, and that is, Obedience brings\nsight. 'If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine.' Are\nthere any of you groping in darkness, compassed about with theological\nperplexities and religious doubts? Obey what you know. Do what you see\nclearly you ought to do. Bow your wills to the recognised truth. He who\nhas turned all his knowledge into action will get more knowledge as\nsoon as he needs it. 'Go and wash; and he went, and came seeing.'\n\nIV. And now, lastly, we have here our Lord shadowing His highest work\nas the Healer of blind souls.\n\nIt is impossible for me to enter upon that wonderfully dramatic and\ninstructive narrative which follows the account of the miracle, and\ndescribe the controversies between the sturdy, quick-witted, candid,\nblind man, and the narrow, bitter Pharisees. But just notice one or two\npoints.\n\nThe two parties are evidently represented as types of two contrasted\nclasses. The blind man stands for an example of honest ignorance,\nknowing itself ignorant, and not to be coaxed or frightened or in any\nway provoked to pretending to knowledge which it does not possess;\nfirmly holding by what it does know, and because conscious of its\nlittle knowledge, therefore waiting for light and willing to be led.\nHence he is at once humble and sturdy, docile and independent, ready to\nlisten to any voice which can really teach, and formidably quick to\nprick with wholesome sarcasm the inflated claims of mere official\npretenders. The Pharisees, on the other hand, are sure that they know\neverything that can be known about anything in the region of religion\nand morality, and in their absolute confidence of their absolute\npossession of the truth, in their blank unconsciousness that it was\nmore than their official property and stock-in-trade, in their complete\nincapacity to discern the glory of a miracle which contravened\necclesiastical proprieties and conventionalities, in their contempt for\nthe ignorance which they were responsible for and never thought of\nenlightening, in their cruel taunt directed against the man's calamity,\nand in their swift resort to the weapon of excommunication of one whom\nit was much easier to cast out than to answer, are but too plain a type\nof a character which is as ready to corrupt the teachers of the Church\nas of the synagogue.\n\nOne cannot but notice how constantly the phrase 'We know' occurs. The\nparents of the man use it thrice. The Pharisees have it on their lips\nin their first interview with him: 'We know that this man is a sinner.'\nHe answers, declining to affirm anything about the character of the Man\nJesus, because he, for his part, 'knows not,' but standing firmly by\nthe solid reality which he 'knows,' in a very solid fashion, that his\neyes have been opened. So we have the first encounter between knowledge\nwhich is ignorant, and ignorance which knows, to the manifest victory\nof the latter. Again, in the second round, they try to overbear the\nman's cool sarcasm with their vehement assertion of knowledge that God\nspake to Moses, but by the admission that even their knowledge did not\nreach to the determination of the question of the origin of Jesus'\nmission, lay themselves open to the sudden thrust of keen-eyed, honest\nhumility's sharp rapier-like retort. 'Herein is a marvellous thing,'\nthat you _Know-alls_, whose business it is to know where a professed\nmiracle-worker comes from, 'know not from whence He is, and yet He hath\nopened mine eyes.' 'Now we know' (to use your own words) 'that God\nheareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth\nHis will, him He heareth.'\n\nThen observe how, on both sides, a process is going on. The man is\ngetting more and more light at each step. He begins with 'a Man which\nis called Jesus.' Then he gets to a 'prophet,' then he comes to 'a\nworshipper of God, and one that does His will.' Then he comes to, 'If\nthis man were not of God,' in some very special sense, 'He could do\nnothing.' These are his own reflections, the working out of the\nimpression made by the fact on an honest mind; and because he had so\nused the light which he had, therefore Jesus gives him more, and finds\nhim with the question, 'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' Then the\nman who had shown himself so strong in his own convictions, so\nindependent, and hard to cajole or coerce, shows himself now all docile\nand submissive, and ready to accept whatever Jesus says: 'Lord, who is\nHe, that I might believe on Him?' That was not credulity. He already\nknew enough of Christ to know that he ought to trust Him. And to his\ndocility there is given the full revelation; and he hears the words\nwhich Pharisees and unrighteous men were not worthy to hear: 'Thou hast\nboth _seen_ it is He that talketh with thee.' Then intellectual\nconviction, moral reliance, and the utter prostration and devotion of\nthe whole man bow him at Christ's feet. 'Lord, I believe; and He\nworshipped Him.'\n\nThere is the story of the progress of an honest, ignorant soul that\nknew itself blind, into the illumination of perfect vision.\n\nAnd as he went upwards, so steadily and tragically, downwards went the\nothers. For they had light and they would not look at it; and it\nblasted and blinded them. They had the manifestation of Christ, and\nthey scoffed and jeered at it, and turned their backs upon it, and it\nbecame a curse to them; falling not like dew but like vitriol on their\nspirits, blistering, not refreshing.\n\nTherefore Christ pronounces their fate, and sums up the story in the\nsolemn two-edged sentence: 'For judgment am I come into the world, that\nthey which see not might see, and that they which see might be made\nblind.'\n\nThe purpose of His coming is not to judge, but to save. But if men will\nnot let Him save, the effect of His coming will be to harm. Therefore,\nHis coming will separate men into two parts, as a magnet will draw all\nthe iron filings out of a heap and leave the brass. He comes not to\njudge, but His coming does judge. He is set for the rise or for the\nfall of men, and is 'a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the\nheart.'\n\nLight has a twofold effect. It is torture to the diseased eye; it is\ngladdening to the sound one. Christ is the light, as He is also both\nthe power of seeing and the thing seen. Therefore, it cannot but be\nthat His shining upon men's hearts shall judge them, and shall either\nenlighten or darken.\n\nWe all have eyes\u2014the organs by which we may see 'the light of the\nknowledge of the glory of God.' We have all blinded ourselves by our\nsin. Christ is come to show us God, to be the light by which we see\nGod, and to strengthen and restore our faculty of seeing Him. If you\nwelcome Him, and take Him into your hearts, He will be at once light\nand eyesight to you. But if you turn away from Him He will be blindness\nand darkness to you. He comes to pour eyesight on the blind, but He\ncomes therefore also, most assuredly, to make still blinder those who\ndo not know themselves to be blind, and conceit themselves to be\nclear-sighted. 'I thank Thee, Father, that Thou hast hid these things\nfrom the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.'\n\nThey who see themselves to be blind, who know themselves to be\nignorant, the lowly who recognise their sinfulness and misery and\nhelplessness, and turn in their sore need to Christ, will be led by\npaths of growing knowledge and blessedness to the perfect day where\ntheir strengthened vision will be able to see light in the blaze which\nto us now is darkness. They who say 'I see,' and know not that they are\nmiserable and blind, nor hearken to His counsel to 'anoint their eyes\nwith eye salve that they may see,' will have yet another film drawn\nover their eyes by the shining of the light which they reject, and will\npass into darkness where only enough of light and of eyesight remain to\nmake guilt. Jesus Christ is for us light and vision. Trust to Him, and\nyour eyes will be blessed because they see God. Turn from Him and\nEgyptian darkness will settle on your soul. 'To him that hath shall be\ngiven, and from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be\ntaken away.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIFTS TO THE FLOCK\n\n\n'\u2026 By Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and\nout, and find pasture.'\u2014JOHN x. 9.\n\nOne does not know whether the width or the depth of this marvellous\npromise is the more noteworthy. Jesus Christ presents Himself before\nthe whole race of man, and declares Himself able to deal with the needs\nof every individual in the tremendous whole. 'If _any man_'\u2014no matter\nwho, where, when.\n\nFor all noble and happy life there are at least three things needed:\nsecurity, sustenance, and a field for the exercise of activity. To\nprovide these is the end of all human society and government. Jesus\nChrist here says that He can give all these to every one.\n\nThe imagery of the sheep and the fold is still, of course, in His mind,\nand colours the form of the representation. But the substance is the\ndeclaration that, to any and every soul, no matter how ringed about\nwith danger, no matter how hampered and hindered in work, no matter how\nbarren of all supply earth may be, He will give these, the primal\nrequisites of life. 'He shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and\nfind pasture.'\n\nNow I only wish to deal with these three aspects of the blessedness of\na true Christian life which our Lord holds forth here as accessible to\nus all: security, the unhindered exercise of activity, and sustenance\nor provision.\n\nI. First, then, in and through Christ any man may be saved.\n\nI take it that the word 'saved' here is rather used with reference to\nthe imagery of the parable than in its full Christian sense of ultimate\nand everlasting salvation, and that its meaning in its present\nconnection might perhaps better be set forth by the rendering 'safe'\nthan 'saved.' At the same time, the two ideas pass into one another;\nand the declaration of my text is that because, step by step, conflict\nby conflict, in passing danger after danger, external and internal,\nJesus Christ, through our union with Him, will keep us safe, at the\nlast we shall reach eternal and everlasting salvation. 'He will save\nus' by the continual exercise of His protecting power, 'into His\neverlasting kingdom.' There is none other shelter for men's defenceless\nheads and naked, soft, unarmed bodies except only the shelter that is\nfound in Him. There are creatures of low grade in the animal world\nwhich have the instinct, because their own bodies are so undefended and\nimpotent to resist contact with sharp and penetrating substances, that\nthey take refuge in the abandoned shells of other creatures. You and I\nhave to betake ourselves behind the defences of that strong love and\nmighty Hand if ever we are to pass through life without fatal harm.\n\nFor consider that, even in regard to outward dangers, union with Jesus\nChrist defends and delivers us. Suppose two men, two Manchester\nmerchants, made bankrupt by the same commercial crisis; or two\nshipwrecked sailors lashed upon a raft; or two men sitting side by side\nin a railway carriage and smashed by the same collision. One is a\nChristian and the other is not. The same blow is altogether different\nin aspect and actual effect upon the two men. They endure the same\nthing externally, in body or in fortune. The outward man is similarly\naffected, but the man is differently affected. The one is crushed, or\nembittered, or driven to despair, or to drink, or to something or other\nto soothe the bitterness; the other bows himself with 'It is the Lord!\nLet Him do what seemeth Him good.'\n\nSo the two disasters are utterly different, though in form they may be\nthe same, and he that has entered into the fold by Jesus Christ is\nsafe, not _from_ outward disaster\u2014that would be but a poor thing\u2014but\n_in_ it. For to the true heart that lives in fellowship with Jesus\nChrist, Sorrow, though it be dark-robed, is bright-faced, soft-handed,\ngentle-hearted, an angel of God. 'By Me if any man enter in, he shall\nbe safe.'\n\nAnd further, in our union with Jesus Christ, by simple faith in Him and\nloyal submission and obedience, we do receive an impenetrable defence\nagainst the true evils, and the only things worth calling dangers. For\nthe only real evil is the peril that we shall lose our confidence and\nbe untrue to our best selves, and depart from the living God. Nothing\nis evil except that which tempts, and succeeds in tempting, us away\nfrom Him. And in regard to all such danger, to cleave to Christ, to\nrealise His presence, to think of Him, to wear His name as an amulet on\nour hearts, to put the thought of Him between us and temptation as a\nfilter through which the poisonous air shall pass, and be deprived of\nits virus, is the one secret of safety and victory.\n\nReal gift of power from Jesus Christ, the influx of His strength into\nour weakness, of some portion of the Spirit of life that was in Him\ninto our deadness, is promised, and the promise is abundantly fulfilled\nto all men who trust Him when their hour of temptation comes. As the\ndying martyr, when he looked up into heaven, saw Jesus Christ 'standing\nat the right hand of God' ready to help, and, as it were, having\nstarted from His eternal seat on the Throne in the eagerness of His\ndesire to succour His servant, so we may all see, if we will, that dear\nLord ready to succour us, and close by our sides to deliver us from the\nevil in the evil, its power to tempt. If we could carry that vision\ninto our daily life, and walk in its light, when temptation rings us\nround, how poor all the inducements to go away from Him would look!\n\nThere is a power in the remembrance of Jesus to slay every wicked\nthought; and the things that tempt us most, that most directly appeal\nto our worst sides, to our sense, our ambition, our pride, our\ndistrust, our self-will, all these lose their power upon us, and are\ndiscovered in their emptiness and insignificance, when once this\nthought flashes across the mind\u2014Jesus Christ is my Defence, and Jesus\nChrist is my Pattern and my Companion.\n\nOh, brother! do not trust yourself out amongst the pitfalls and snares\nof life without Him. If you do, the real evil of all evils will seize\nyou for its own; but keep close to that dear Lord, and then 'there\nshall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy\ndwelling.' The hidden temptation thou wilt pass by without being\nharmed; the manifest temptation thou wilt trample under foot. 'Thou\nshalt not be afraid for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor\nfor the destruction that wasteth at noonday.' Hidden known temptations\nwill be equally powerless; and in the fold into which all pass by faith\nin Christ thou shalt be safe. And so, kept safe from each danger and in\neach moment of temptation, the aggregate and sum of the several\ndeliverances will amount to the everlasting salvation which shall be\nperfected in the heavens.\n\nOnly remember the condition, 'By Me if any man enter in.' That is not a\nthing to be done once for all, but needs perpetual repetition. When we\nclasp anything in our hands, however tight the initial grasp, unless\nthere is a continual effort of renewed tightening, the muscles become\nlax, and we have to renew the tension, if we are to keep the grasp. So\nin our Christian life it is only the continual repetition of the act\nwhich our Lord here calls 'entering in by Him' that will bring to us\nthis continual exemption from, and immunity in, the dangers that beset\nus.\n\nKeep Christ between you and the storm. Keep on the lee side of the Rock\nof Ages. Keep behind the breakwater, for there is a wild sea running\noutside; and your little boat, undecked and with a feeble hand at the\nhelm, will soon be swamped. Keep within the fold, for wolves and lions\nlie in every bush. Or, in plain English, live moment by moment in the\nrealising of Christ's presence, power, and grace. So, and only so,\nshall you be safe.\n\nII. Now, secondly, note, in Jesus Christ any man may find a field for\nthe unrestricted exercise of his activity.\n\nThat metaphor of 'going in and out' is partly explained to us by the\nimage of the flock, which passes into the fold for peaceful repose, and\nout again, without danger, for exercise and food; and is partly\nexplained by the frequent use, in the Old Testament and in common\nconversation, of the expression 'going out and in' as the designation\nof the two-sided activity of human life. The one side is the\ncontemplative life of interior union with God by faith and love; the\nother, the active life of practical obedience in the field of work\nwhich God provides for us. These two are both capable of being raised\nto their highest power, and of being discharged with the most\nunrestricted and joyous activity, on condition of our keeping close to\nChrist, and living by the faith of Him.\n\nNote, then, 'He shall go in.' That comes first, though it interferes\nwith the propriety of the metaphor, since the previous words already\ncontemplate an initial 'entering in by Me, the Door.' That is to say,\nthat, given the union with Jesus Christ by faith, there must then, as\nthe basis of all activity, follow very frequent and deep inward acts of\ncontemplation, of faith, and aspiration, and desire. You must go into\nthe depths of God through Christ. You must go into the depths of your\nown souls through Him. You must become accustomed to withdraw\nyourselves from spreading yourselves out over the distractions of any\nexternal activity, howsoever imperative, charitable, or necessary, and\nlive alone with Jesus, 'in the secret place of the Most High.' It is\nthrough Him that we have access to the mysteries and innermost shrine\nof the Temple. It is through Him that we draw near to the depths of\nDeity. It is through Him that we learn the length and breadth and\nheight and depth of the largest and loftiest and noblest truths that\nconcern the spirit. It is through Him that we become familiar with the\ninmost secrets of our own selves. And only they who habitually live\nthis hidden and sunken life of solitary and secret communion will ever\ndo much in the field of outward work. Christians of this generation are\nfar too much accustomed to live only in the front rooms of the house,\nthat look out upon the street; and they know very little\u2014far too little\nfor their soul's health, and far too little for the freshness of their\nwork and its prosperity\u2014of that inward life of silent contemplation and\nexpectant adoration, by which all strength is fed. Do not keep all your\ngoods in the shop windows, and have nothing on your shelves but\ndummies, as is the case with far too many of us to-day. Remember that\nthe Lord said first, 'He shall go in,' and unless you do you will not\nbe 'saved.'\n\nBut then, further, if there have been, and continue to be, this\nunrestricted exercise through Christ of that sweet and silent life of\nsolitary communion with Him, then there will follow upon that an\nenlargement of opportunity, and power for outward service such as\nnothing but emancipation by faith in Him can ever bring. Howsoever, by\nexternal circumstances, you and I may be hampered and hindered, however\noften we may feel that if something outside of us were different, the\ndevelopment of our active powers would be far more satisfactory, and we\ncould do a great deal more in Christ's cause, the true hindrance lies\nnever without, but within; and it is only to be overcome by that\nplunging into the depths of fellowship with Him. And then, if we carry\nwith us into the field of work, whether it be the commonplace, dusty,\ntedious, and often repulsive duties of our monotonous business; or\nwhether it be the field of more distinctly unselfish and Christian\nservice\u2014if we carry with us into all places where we go to labour, the\nsweet thought of His presence, of His example, of His love, and of the\nsmile that may come on His face as the reward of faithful service, then\nwe shall find that external labour, drawing its pattern, its motive,\nits law, and the power for its discharge, from communion with Him, is\nno more task-work nor slavery; and even 'the rough places will be made\nsmooth, and the crooked things will be made straight,' and distasteful\nwork will be made at least tolerable, and hard burdens will be\nlightened, and the things that are 'seen and temporal' will shimmer\ninto transparency, through which will shine out the things that are\n'unseen and eternal.'\n\nSome of us are constitutionally made to prefer the one of these forms\nof Christian activity; some of us to prefer the other. The tendencies\nof this generation are far too much to the latter, to the exclusion of\nthe former. It is hard to reconcile the conflicting claims, and I know\nof no better way to hit the just medium than by trying to keep\nourselves always in touch with Jesus Christ, and then outward labour of\nany sort, whether for the bread that perishes or for His kingdom and\nrighteousness, will never become so absorbing but that in it we may\nhave our hearts in heaven, and the silent hour of communion with Him\nwill never be so prolonged as to neglect outward duties. There was a\ndemoniac boy in the plain, and therefore it was impossible to build\ntabernacles on the Mount of Transfiguration. But the disciples that had\nnot climbed the Mount were all impotent to cast out the demoniac boy.\nWe, if we keep near to Jesus Christ, will find that through Him we can\n'go in and out,' and in both be pursuing the one uniform purpose of\nserving and pleasing Him. So shall be fulfilled in our cases the\nPsalmist's prayer, that 'I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the\ndays of ray life, to behold His beauty, and to inquire in His Temple.'\n\nIII. Lastly, in Jesus Christ any man may receive sustenance. 'They\nshall find pasture.'\n\nThe imagery of the sheep and the fold is still, of course, present to\nthe Master's mind, and shapes the form in which this great promise is\nset forth.\n\nI need only remind you, in illustration of it, of two facts, one, that\nin Jesus Christ Himself all the true needs of humanity are met and\nsatisfied. He is 'the Bread of God that came down from heaven to give\nlife to the world.' Do I want an outward object for my intellect? I\nhave it in Him. Does my heart feel with its tendrils, which have no\neyes at the ends of them, after something round which it may twine, and\nnot fear that the prop shall ever rot or be cut down or pulled up?\nJesus Christ is the home of love in which the dove may fold its wings\nand be at rest. Do I want (and I do if I am not a fool) an absolute and\nauthoritative command to be laid upon my will; some one 'whose looks\nenjoin, whose lightest words are spells'? I find absolute authority,\nwith no taint of tyranny, and no degradation to the subject, in that\nInfinite Will of His. Does my conscience need some strong detergent to\nbe laid upon it which shall take out the stains that are most\nindurated, inveterate, and ingrained? I find it only in the 'blood that\ncleanseth from all sin.' Do my aspirations and desires seek for some\nsolid and substantial and unquestionable and imperishable good to\nwhich, reaching out, they may be sure that they are not anchoring on\ncloudland? Christ is our hope. For all this complicated and craving\ncommonwealth that I carry within my soul, there is but one\nsatisfaction, even Jesus Christ Himself. Nothing else nourishes the\nwhole man at once, but in Him are all the constituents that the human\nsystem requires for its nutriment and its growth in every part. So in\nand through Christ we find 'pasture.'\n\nBut beyond that, if we are knit to Him by simple and continual faith,\nlove, and obedience, then what is else barrenness becomes full of\nnourishment, and the unsatisfying gifts of the world become rich and\nprecious. They are nought when they are put first, they are much when\nthey are put second.\n\nI remember when I was in Australia seeing some wretched cattle trying\nto find grass on a yellow pasture where there was nothing but here and\nthere a brown stalk that crumbled to dust in their mouths as they tried\nto eat it. That is the world without Jesus Christ. And I saw the same\npasture six weeks after, when the rains had come, and the grass was\nhigh, rich, juicy, satisfying. That is what the world may be to you, if\nyou will put it second, and seek first that your souls shall be fed on\nJesus Christ. Then, and only then, will what is else water be turned by\nHis touch and blessing into wine that shall fill the great jars to the\nbrim, and be pronounced by skilled palates to be the good wine. 'I will\nfeed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel\nshall their fold be. There shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat\npasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOOD SHEPHERD\n\n\n'I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. 15.\nAs the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My\nlife for the sheep.'\u2014JOHN x. 14,15.\n\n'I am the Good Shepherd.' Perhaps even Christ never spoke more fruitful\nwords than these. Just think how many solitary, wearied hearts they\nhave cheered, and what a wealth of encouragement and comfort there has\nbeen in them for all generations. The little child as it lays itself\ndown to sleep, cries\u2014\n\n  'Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me,\n  Bless Thy little lamb to-night,'\n\nand the old man lays himself down to die murmuring to himself, 'Though\nI walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no evil,\nfor Thou art with me.' 'I am the Good Shepherd.' No preaching can do\nanything but weaken and dilute the force of such words, and yet, though\nin all their sweet, homely simplicity they appeal to every heart, there\nare great depths in them that are worth pondering, and profound\nthoughts that need some elucidation.\n\nThere are three points to be noticed\u2014First, the general force of the\nmetaphor, and then the two specific applications of it which our Lord\nHimself makes.\n\nI. First of all, then, let me say a few words as to the general\napplication of the metaphor. The usual notion of these words confines\nitself to the natural meaning, and runs out into very true, but perhaps\na little sentimental, considerations, laying hold of what is so plain\non the very surface that I need not spend any time in speaking about\nit. Christ's pattern is my law; Christ's providence is my guidance and\ndefence\u2014which in the present case means Christ's companionship\u2014is my\nsafety, my sustenance\u2014which in the present case means that Christ\nHimself is the bread of my soul. The Good Shepherd exercises care,\nwhich absolves the sheep from care, and in the present case means that\nmy only duty is meek following and quiet trust. 'I am the Good\nShepherd'\u2014here is guidance, guardianship, companionship, sustenance\u2014all\nresponsibility laid upon His broad shoulders, and all tenderness in His\ndeep heart, and so for us simple obedience and quiet trust.\n\nAnother way by which we get the whole significance of this symbol is by\nnoticing how the idea is strengthened by the word that accompanies it.\nChrist does not say 'I am a Shepherd,' but He says, 'I am _the good_\nShepherd.' At first sight that word 'good' is interpreted, as I have\nsaid, in a kind of sentimental, poetic way, as expressing our Lord's\ntenderness and love and care; but I do not think that is the full\nmeaning here. You find up and down this Gospel of St. John phrases such\nas, 'I am the true bread,' 'I am the true vine,' and the meaning of the\nword that is here translated 'good' is very nearly parallel with that\nidea. The true bread, the true vine, the true Shepherd\u2014which comes to\nthis, to use modern phraseology, that Jesus Christ, in His relation to\nyou and me, fulfils all that in figure and shadow is represented to the\nmeditative eye by that lower relationship between the material shepherd\nand his sheep. That is the picture, this the reality. There is another\npoint to be made clear, and that is, that whilst the word 'good' is\nperhaps a fair enough representation of that which is employed by our\nLord, there is a special force and significance attached to the\noriginal, which is lost in our Bible. I do not know that it could have\nbeen preserved; but still it is necessary to state it. The expression\nhere is the one that is generally rendered 'fair,' or 'lovely,' or\n'beautiful,' and it belongs to the genius of that wonderful tongue in\nwhich the New Testament is written that it has a name for moral purity,\nconsidered as being lovely, the highest goodness, and the serenest\nbeauty, which was what the old Greeks taught, howsoever little they may\nhave practised it in their lives. And so here the thought is that _the_\nShepherd stands before us, the realisation of all which that name\nmeans, set forth in such a fashion as to be infinitely lovely and\nperfectly fair, and to draw the admiration of any man who can\nappreciate that which is beautiful, and can admire that which is of\ngood report.\n\nThere is another point still in reference to this first view of the\ntext. Our Lord not only declares that He is the reality of which the\nearthly shepherd is the shadow, and that He as such is the flawless,\nperfect One, but that He alone is the reality. 'I am the Good Shepherd;\nin Me and in Me alone is that which men need.' And that leads me to\nanother point which must just be mentioned, that we shall not reach the\nfull meaning of these great words without taking into account the\nhistory of the metaphor in the Old Testament. Christ gives a second\nedition of the figure, and we are to remember all that went before.\n'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want'; 'Thou leddest Thy people\nlike a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.' These are but specimens\nof a continuous series of utterances in the old Revelation in which\nJehovah Himself is the Shepherd of mankind; and there is also another\nclass of passages of which I will quote one or two. 'He shall feed His\nflock like a shepherd, and carry them in His arms.' 'Awake, O sword,\nagainst the Man who is my fellow; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep\nshall be scattered.' There were, we should remember, two streams of\nrepresentation, according to the one of which God Himself was the\nShepherd of Israel, and according to the other of which the Messiah was\nthe Shepherd; and here, as I believe, Jesus lays His hand on both the\none and the other, and says: 'They are Mine, and they testify of Me.'\nSo sweet, so gracious are the words, that we lose the sense of the\ngrandeur of them, and need to think before we are able to understand\nhow great and immense the claim that is made here upon our faith, and\nthat this Man stands before us and arrogates to Himself the divine\nprerogative witnessed from of old by psalmist and prophet, and says\nthat for Him were meant the prophecies of ancient times that spake of a\nhuman shepherd, and asserts that all the sustenance, care, authority,\ncommand, which the emblem suggests meet in Him in perfect measure.\n\nII. Now let us turn to the two special points which our Lord emphasises\nhere, as being those in which His relation as the Good Shepherd is most\nconspicuously given. The language of my text runs: 'I am the Good\nShepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father\nknoweth Me, even so know I the Father.' Our Western ways fail to bring\nout the full meaning of the emblem; but all Eastern travellers tell us\nwhat a strange bond of sympathy and loving regard, and docile\nrecognition, springs up between the shepherd and his sheep away there\nin the Eastern pastures and deserts; and how he knows every one, though\nto a stranger's eye they are so like each other; and how even the dumb\ninstincts and the narrow intelligence of the silly sheep recognise the\nshepherd, and will not be deceived by shepherd's garments worn to\ndeceive, and will not follow the voice of a stranger.\n\nBut we must further note that Christ lays hold of the dumb instincts of\nthe animal, as illustrating, at the one end of the scale, the relation\nbetween Him and His followers, and lays hold of the communion between\nthe Father and the Son at the other end of the scale, as illustrating\nthe same thing. 'I know My sheep.' That is a knowledge like the\nknowledge of the shepherd, a bond of close intimacy. But He does not\nknow them by reason of looking at them and thinking about them. It is\nsomething far more blessed than that. He knows me because He loves me;\nHe knows me because He has sympathy with me, and I know Him, if I know\nHim at all, by my love, and I know Him by my sympathy, and I know Him\nby my communion. A loveless heart does not know the Shepherd, and\nunless the Shepherd's heart was all love He would not know His sheep.\nThe Shepherd's love is an individualised love. He knows His flock as a\nflock because He knows the units of it, and we can rest ourselves upon\nthe personal knowledge, which is personal love and sympathy, of Jesus\nChrist. 'And My sheep know Me'\u2014not by force of intellect, not by\nunderstanding certain truths, all-important as that may be, but by\nhaving our hearts harmonised in Him, and our spirits put into sympathy\nand communion with Him. 'They know Me,' and rest comes with the\nknowledge; 'they know Me,' and in that knowing is the best answer to\nall doubt and fear. They are exposed to danger, but in the fold they\ncan go quietly to rest, for they know that He is at the door watching\nthrough all dangers.\n\nIII. Turn for a moment to the last point, 'I lay down My life for the\nsheep.' I have said that our Western ways fail to bring out fully the\nelement of the metaphor which refers to the kind of sympathy between\nthe shepherd and the sheep; and our Western life also fails to bring\nout this other element also. Shepherds in England never have need to\nlay down their life for the sheep. Shepherds in Palestine often did,\nand sometimes do. You remember David with the lion and the bear, which\nis but an illustration of the reality which underlies this metaphor.\nSo, then, in some profound way, the shepherd's death is the sheep's\nsafety. First of all, look at that most unmistakable, emphatic\u2014I was\ngoing to say vehement, at any rate, intense\u2014expression of the absolute\nvoluntariness of Christ's death, 'I lay down My life,' as a man might\nstrip off a vesture. And this application of the metaphor is made all\nthe stronger by the words which follow: 'Therefore doth My Father love\nMe, because I lay down My life that I might take it again. No man\ntaketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it\ndown, and I have power to take it again.' We read, 'Smite the shepherd,\nand the sheep shall be scattered,' but here, somehow or other, the\nsmiting of the Shepherd is not the scattering but the gathering of the\nflock. Here, somehow or other, the dead Shepherd has power to guard, to\nguide, to defend them. Here, somehow or other, the death of the\nShepherd is the security of the sheep; and I say to you, the flock,\nthat for every soul the entrance into the flock of God is through the\ndoor of the dying Christ, who laid down His life for the sheep, and\nmakes them His sheep who trust in Him.\n\n\n\n\n'OTHER SHEEP'\n\n\n[Footnote: Preached before the Baptist Missionary Society.]\n\n'Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must\nbring, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock\nand one Shepherd.'\u2014JOHN x. 16 (R.V.).\n\nThere were many strange and bitter lessons in this discourse for the\nfalse shepherds, the Pharisees, to whom it was first spoken. But there\nwas not one which would jar more upon their minds, and as they fancied,\non their sacredest convictions, than this, that God's flock was wider\nthan God's fold. Our Lord distinctly recognises Judaism with its middle\nwall of partition as a divine institution, and then as distinctly\ncarries His gaze beyond it. To His hearers 'this fold,' their own\nnational polity, held all the flock. Without were dogs, a doleful land,\nwhere 'the wild beasts of the desert met with the wild beasts of the\nislands.' And now this new Teacher, not content with declaring them\nhirelings, and Himself the only true Shepherd of Israel, breaks down\nthe hedges and speaks of Himself as the Shepherd of men. No wonder that\nthey said, 'He hath a devil and is mad.'\n\nDuring His earthly life our Lord, as we know, confined His own personal\nministry for the most part to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\nNot exclusively so, for He made at least one journey into the coasts of\nTyre and Sidon, teaching and healing; a Syro-Phcenician woman held His\nfeet, and received her request; and one of His miracles, of feeding the\nmultitude, was wrought for hungry Gentiles. But while His work was in\nIsrael, it was for mankind; and while 'this fold,' generally speaking,\ncircumscribed His toils, it did not confine His love nor His thoughts.\nMore than once world-wide declarations and promises broke from His\nlips, even before the final universal commission, 'Preach the Gospel to\nevery creature.' 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' 'I\nam the Light of the world.' These and other similar sayings give us His\nlofty consciousness that He has received 'the heathen for His\ninheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.'\nParallel with them in substance are the words before us, which, for our\npresent purpose, we may regard as containing lessons from our Lord\nHimself of how He looked and would have us look on the heathen world,\non His work and ours, and on the certain issues of both.\n\nI. We have here Christ teaching us how to think of the heathen world.\n\nObserve that His words are not a declaration that all mankind are His\nsheep. The previous verses have distinctly defined a class of men as\npossessing the name, and the succeeding ones reiterate the definition,\nand with equal distinctness exclude another class. 'Ye believe not,\nbecause ye are not My sheep as I said unto you.' His sheep are they who\nknow Him and are known of Him. Between Him and them there is a\ncommunion of love, a union of life, and a consequent reciprocal\nknowledge, which transcends the closest intimacies of earthly life, and\nfinds its only analogue in that deep and mysterious oneness which\nsubsists between the Father, who alone knoweth the Son, and the only\nbegotten Son, who being ever in the bosom of the Father, alone knoweth\nHim and revealeth Him to us. 'I know My sheep and am known of Mine; as\nthe Father knoweth Me and I know the Father. They hear My voice and\nfollow Me, and I give unto them eternal life.' Such are the\ncharacteristics of that relation between Christ and men by which they\nbecome His sheep. It is such souls as these whom our Lord beholds in\nthe wasteful wilderness. He is speaking not of a relation which all men\nbear to Him by virtue of their creation, but of one which _they_ bear\nto Him who believe in His name.\n\nNow this interpretation of the words does by no means contradict, but\nrather presupposes and rests upon the truth that all mankind come\nwithin the love of the divine heart, that He died for all, that all may\nbe the subjects of His mediatorial kingdom, recipients of the offered\nmercy of God in Christ, and committed to the stewardship of the\nmissionary Church. Resting upon these truths, the words of our text\nadvance a step further and contemplate those who 'shall hereafter\nbelieve on Me.' Whether they be few or many is not the matter in hand.\nWhether at any future time they shall include all the dwellers upon\nearth is not the matter in hand. That every soul of man is included in\nthe adaptation and intention and offer of the Gospel is not the matter\nin hand. But this is the matter in hand, that Jesus Christ in that\nmoment of lofty elevation when He looked onwards to giving His life for\nthe sheep, looked outwards also, far afield, and saw in every nation\nand people souls that He knew were His, and would one day know Him, and\nbe led by Him 'in green pastures and beside still waters.'\n\nBut where or what were they when He spoke? He does not mean that\nalready they had heard His voice and were following His steps, and knew\nHis love, and had received eternal life at His hand. This He cannot\nmean, for the plain reason that He goes on to speak of His 'bringing'\nthem and of their 'hearing,' a work yet to be done. It can only be,\nthen, that He speaks of them thus in the fullness of that divine\nknowledge which 'calls things that are not as though they were.' It is\nthen a prophetic word which He speaks here.\n\nWe have only to think of the condition of the civilised heathendom of\nChrist's own day in order to feel the force of our text in its primary\napplication. While the work of salvation was being prepared for the\nworld in the life and death of our Lord, the world was being prepared\nfor the tidings of salvation. Everywhere men were losing their faith in\ntheir idols, and longing for some deliverer. Some had become weary of\nthe hollowness of philosophical speculation, and, like Pilate, were\nasking 'What is truth?' whilst, unlike Him, they waited for an answer,\nand will believe it when it comes from the lips of the Incarnate\nwisdom. Such were the Magi who were led by their starry science to His\ncradle, and went back to the depths of the Eastern lands with a better\nlight than had guided them thither. Such were not a few of the early\nChristian converts, who had long been seeking hopelessly for goodly\npearls, and had so been learning to know the worth of the One when it\nwas offered to them. There were men who had been long sickening with\ndespair amidst the rottenness of decaying mythologies and corrupting\nmorals, and longing for some breath from heaven to blow health to\nthemselves and to the world, and had so been learning to welcome 'the\nrushing mighty wind' when it came in power. There were simple souls,\nwithout as well as within the chosen people, waiting for the\nConsolation, though they knew not whence it was to come. There were\nmany who had already learned to believe that 'salvation is of the\nJews,' though they had still to learn that salvation is in Jesus. Such\nwere that Aethiopian statesman who was poring over Isaiah when Philip\njoined him, the Roman centurion at Caesarea whose prayers and alms came\nup with acceptance before God, these Greeks of the West who came to His\ncross as the Eastern sages to His cradle, and were in Christ's eyes the\nadvance guard and first scattered harbingers of the flocks who should\ncome flying for refuge to Him lifted on the Cross, 'like doves to their\nwindows.' The whole world showed that the fullness of time had come;\nand the history of the early years of the Church reveals in how many\nsouls the process of preparation had been silently going on. It was\nlike the flush of early spring, when all the buds that had been\nmaturing and swelling in the cold, burst, and the tender flowers that\nhad been reaching upwards to the surface in all the hard winter laugh\nout in beauty, and a green veil covers all the hedges at the first\nflash of the April sun.\n\nNot only these were in our Lord's thoughts when He saw His sheep in\nheathen lands. There were many who had no such previous preparation,\nbut were plunged in all the darkness, nor knew that it was dark. Not\nonly those wearied of idolatry, and dissatisfied with creeds outworn,\nbut the barbarous people of Illyricum, the profligates of Corinth, hard\nrude men like the jailer at Philippi, and many more were before His\npenetrating eye. He who sees beneath the surface, and beyond the\npresent, beholds His sheep where men can only see wolves. He sees an\nApostle in the blaspheming Saul, a teacher for all generations in the\nAfrican Augustine while yet a sensualist and a Manichee, a reformer in\nthe eager monk Luther, a poet-evangelist in the tinker Bunyan. He sees\nthe future saint in the present sinner, the angel's wings budding on\nmany a shoulder where the world's burdens lie heavy, and the new name\nwritten on many a forehead that as yet bears but the mark of the beast,\nand the number of His name.\n\nAnd the sheep whom He sees while He speaks are not only the men of that\ngeneration. These mighty words are world-wide and world-lasting. The\nwhole of the ages are in His mind. All nations are gathered before His\nprophetic vision, even as they shall one day be gathered before His\njudgment throne, and in all the countless mass His hand touches and His\nlove clasps those who to the very end of time shall come to His call\nwith loving faith, shall follow His steps with glad obedience.\n\nThus does Christ look out upon the world that lay beyond the fold. I\ncannot stay to do more than refer in passing to the spirit which the\nwords of our text breathe. There is the lofty consciousness that He is\nthe Leader and Guide, the Friend and Helper of all, that He stands\nsolitary in His power to bless. There is the full confidence that the\nearth is His to its uttermost border. There is the clear vision of the\nsorrowful condition of these heathen people, without a shepherd and\nwithout a fold, wandering on every high mountain and dying in every\nthirsty land where there is no water. There are the tenderest pity and\nyearning love for them in their extremity. There is the clear assurance\nthat they will come and be blessed in Him. I pass by all the other\nthoughts, which naturally found themselves on these words, in order to\nurge the one which is most appropriate to our present engagement. Let\nus, dear brethren, take Christ as our pattern in our contemplations of\nthe heathen world.\n\nHe has set us the example of an outgoing look directed far beyond the\nlimits of the existing churches, far beyond the point of present\nachievement. We are but too apt to circumscribe our operative thoughts\nand our warm sympathies within the circle of our sight, or of our own\npersonal associations. Our selfishness and our indolence affect the\nobjects of our contemplations quite as much as they do the character of\nour work. They vitiate both, by making ourselves the great object of\nboth, and by weakening the force of both in a ratio that increases\nrapidly with the increasing distance from that favourite centre. It is\nbut a subtle form of the same disease which keeps our thoughts penned\nwithin the bounds of any fold, or limited by the progress already\nachieved. For us the whole world is the possession of our Lord, who has\ndied to redeem us. By us the whole ought to be contemplated with that\nsame spirit of prophetic confidence which filled Him when He said,\n'Other sheep I have which are not of this fold.' To press onwards,\n'forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to those\nwhich are before,' is the only fitting attitude for Christian men,\neither in regard to the gradual purifying of their own characters, or\nin regard to the gradual winning of the world for Christ. We ought to\nmake all past successes stepping-stones to nobler things. The true use\nof the present is to reach up from it to a loftier future. The distance\nbeckons; well for us if it do not beckon us in vain. We have yet to\nlearn the first lesson of our Master's spirit, as expressed in these\nwords, if we have not become familiar with the pitying contemplation of\nthe wastes beyond the fold, nor fixed deep in our minds the faith that\nthe amplitude of its walls will have to be widened with growing years\ntill it fills the world. The cry echoes to us from of old, 'Lengthen\nthy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the\nright hand and on the left.' We take the first step to respond to the\nsummons when we make the 'regions beyond' one of the standing subjects\nof our devout thoughts, and take heed of supposing that the Church as\nwe know it, has the same measurement which the man with the golden rod\nhas measured for the eternal courts of Jerusalem, that shall be the joy\nof the whole earth. The very genius of the Gospel is aspiring. It is\ncontent with nothing short of universality for the sweep, and eternity\nfor the duration, and absolute completeness for the measure, of its\nbestowments on man. We should be like men on a voyage of discovery,\nwhose task is felt to be incomplete until headland after headland that\nfades in the dim distance has been rounded and surveyed, and the flag\nof our country planted upon it. After each has been passed another\narises from the water, onwards we must go. There is no pause for our\nthoughts, none for our sympathy, none for our work, till our keels have\nvisited, and the 'shout of a King' has been heard on every shore that\nfills 'the breadth of Thy land, O Emmanuel!' The limits of the visible\ncommunity of Christ's Church to-day are far within the borders to which\nit must one day stretch. It is for us, taught by His words, to\nunderstand that we are yet as it were but encamped by Jericho, and at\nthe beginning of the campaign. Ai and Bethhoron, and many a fight more\nare before us yet. The camp of the invaders, when they lay around the\ncity of palm-trees, with the mountains in front and the Jordan behind,\nwas not more unlike the settled order of the nation when it filled the\nland, than the ranks of Christ's army to-day are to the mighty\nmultitudes that shall one day name His name, and follow His banner. Let\nus live in the future, and lay strongly hold on the distant; for both\nare our Lord's, and by so doing we shall the better do our Master's\nwork in the present, and at hand.\n\nHe has set us the example of a _penetrating_ gaze into heathenism,\nwhich reveals beneath its monotonous miseries, the souls that are His.\nWe ought to look on every field of Christian effort with the assurance\nthat in it there are some who will hear His voice. As it was when He\ncame, so it is ever and everywhere. The world is being prepared for the\nGospel. In some broad regions, faith in idolatry is dying out, and the\nmoral condition of the people is undergoing a slow elevation.\nIndividuals are being weaned from their gods, they know not how, and\nthey will not know why till they hear of Christ. He sees in every land\nwhere the Gospel is being taken 'a people prepared for the Lord.' He\nsees the gold gleaming in the crevices of the caves, the gems, rough\nand unpolished, lying in the matrix. He looks not merely on the great\nmass of idolaters, but He sees the single souls who shall hear. It is\nfor us to look on the same mass with confidence caught from His.\nNeither apathetic indifference nor faint-hearted doubt should be\npermitted to weaken our hands. The prospect may seem very dark, the\npower of the enemy very great, our resources very inadequate; but let\nus look with Christ's eye, we shall know that everywhere we may hope to\nfind a response to our message. Who they may be, we know not. How many\nthey may be, we know not. How they may be guided by Him, they know not.\nBut He knows all. We may know that they are there. And as we cannot\ntell who they are but only that they are, we are bound to cherish hopes\nfor all\u2014the most degraded and outcast of our race. We have no right to\ngive up any field or any man as hopeless. Christ's sheep will be found\ncoming out of the midst of wolves and goats. Darkness may cover the\nearth, and gross darkness the people; but if we look upon it as Christ\ndid, and as He would have us to look, we shall see lights flickering\nhere and there in the obscurity, which shall burst out into a blaze.\nThe prophetic eye, the boundlessly hopeful heart, the strong confidence\nthat in every land where He is preached there will be those who shall\nhear\u2014these are what He gives us when He says, 'Other sheep I have,\nwhich are not of this fold.'\n\nThere is one other thought connected with these words which may be\nbriefly referred to. It is that even now, in all lands where the Gospel\nhas been preached, there are those whom Christ has received, although\nthey have no connection with His visible Church.\n\nThere are many goats within the fold. There are many sheep without it.\nEven in lands where the Gospel has long been preached, we do not\nventure to identify profession by Church fellowship with living union\nwith Christ. Much more is this true of our missionary efforts, and the\napparent converts whom they make. The results that appear are no\nmeasure of the results that have actually been accomplished. We often\nhear of men who had caught up some stray word in a Bengali\nmarket-place, or received a tract by the roadside from some passing\nmissionary, and who, having carried away the seed in their hearts, had\nlong been living as Christians remote from all churches and unknown by\nany. We can easily conceive that timidity in some cases, and distance\nin others, swell the ranks of these secret disciples. Though they\nfollow not the footsteps of the flock, the Shepherd will lead them in\ntheir solitude. There will be many more names in the Lamb's book of\nlife, depend upon it, than ever are written on the roll-calls of our\nchurches, or in missionary statistics. The shooting-stars that yearly\nfill our sky are visible to us for a moment, when their orbit passes\ninto the lighted heavens, and then they disappear in the shadow of the\nearth. But astronomers tell us that they are always there though to us\nthey seem to blaze but for a moment. We cannot see them, but they move\non their darkling path and have a sun round which they circle. So be\nsure that in many heathen lands there are believing souls, seen by us\nbut for an instant and then lost, who yet fill their unseen place, and\nmove obedient round the Sun of Righteousness. Their names on earth are\ndark, but when the manifestation of the sons of God shall come, they\nshall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for\never and ever. Our work has results beyond our knowledge now. When the\nChurch, the Lamb's wife, shall lift up her eyes at the end of the days,\nprophecy tells us that she shall wonder to see her thronging children,\nwhom she had never known till then, and will say, 'Who hath begotten me\nthese? Behold I was left alone. These, where had they been?' These were\nGod's hidden ones, nourished and brought up beyond the pale of the\noutward Church, but brought at last to share her triumph, and to abide\nat her side. 'Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.'\n\nWhat confidence then, what tender pity, what hope should fill our minds\nwhen we look on the heathen world! We must never be contented with\npresent achievements. We are committed to a task which cannot end till\nall the world hears the joyful sound and is blessed by walking in the\nlight of His countenance. When the great Roman Catholic missionary, the\nApostle of the East, was lying on his dying bed among the barbarous\npeople whom he loved, his passing spirit was busy about his work, and,\neven in the article of death, while the glazing eye saw no more clearly\nand the ashen lips had begun to stiffen into eternal silence, visions\nof further conquests flashed before him, and his last word was\n'Amplius'\u2014_Onward_! It ought to be the motto of the missionary work of\nus, who boast a purer faith, to carry to the heathen and to fire our\nown souls. If ever we are tempted to repose, to despondency, to rest\nand be thankful when we number up our work and our converts, let us\nlisten to His voice as it speaks in that supreme hour when He beheld\nthe vision of the Cross, and beyond it that of a gathered world: 'Other\nsheep I have, which are not of this fold.'\n\nWe have here\u2014\n\nII. Christ teaching us how to think of His work and ours.\n\n'Them also I must bring.' A necessity is laid upon Him, which springs\nat once from that divine work which is the law of His life, and from\nHis own love and pity. The means for accomplishing this necessary work\nare implied in the context, as in other parallel Scriptural sayings, to\nbe His propitiatory death. The instrumentality employed is not only His\nown personal agency on earth, nor only His throned rule on the right\nhand of God with power over the Spirit of holiness, but also the work\nof His Church, and His work through them. Of that He is mainly speaking\nwhen He says, 'Them also I must bring.' Here, then, are some truths\nwhich ought to underlie and shape as well as animate our efforts for\nheathenism.\n\nAnd first, remember that the same sovereign necessity which was laid on\nHim presses on us.\n\nThe 'Spirit of life' which was in Christ had its 'law,' which was the\nwill of God. That shaped all His being, and He set us the example of\nperfectly clear recognition of, and perfect obedience to it, from the\nfirst moment when He said, 'I must be about My Father's business,' to\nthe last, when He sighed forth, 'Father, into Thy hands I commit My\nspirit.' Hence the frequent sayings setting forth His work as\ndetermined by an imperative 'must,' which, whether it be alleged in\nreference to some apparently small or to some manifestly great thing in\nHis life, is always equally imperative, and whether it seem to be based\non the need for the fulfilment of some prophetic word, or on the\nproprieties and congruities of sonship, reposes at last on the will of\nGod. His final words on the Passover night, before he went out to\nGethsemane in the moonlight, contain the influence which moulded His\nwhole earthly life, 'As the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do.'\n\nAnd this divine will constitutes for Him the deepest ground of the\nnecessity in the case before us. The eternal counsels of God had willed\nthat 'all the ends of the earth should see the salvation of the Lord';\ntherefore, whatever the toils and the pains, the loss and the death,\nHe, whose meat and drink was to do the will of Him that sent Him, must\ngive Himself to the task, nor rest till, one by one, the weary\nwanderers are brought back on His shoulders and folded in His love.\n\nIn all which, let us remember, Jesus Christ is our pattern, not in His\nwork for the salvation of men, but in the spirit in which He did His\nwork. The solemn law of duty before which He bowed His head is a law\nfor us also. The authoritative imperative which He obeyed has power\nover us. If we would have our lives holy and strong, wise and good, we\nmust have 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, making us\nfree from the law of sin and death,' for the obedience to the higher\nlaw enfranchises from slavery to the lower, and all other authority\nceases over us when we are Christ's men. We are bound to service\ndirected to the same end as His\u2014even the salvation of the world. The\nsame voice which says to Him, 'I will give Thee for a light to the\nGentiles,' says to us, 'Ye are My witnesses, and My servant whom I have\nchosen.' The same Will which hath constituted Him the anointed Prophet,\nsays of us, 'Touch not Mine anointed and do My prophets no harm.' We\nare redeemed that we may show forth God's praises. Not for ourselves\nalone, nor for purposes terminating in our own personal acceptance with\nGod, or the perfecting of our own characters, priceless as these are,\nbut for ends which affect the world has God had mercy on us. We are\nbought with a price that we may be the servants of God. We have\nreceived that we may give forth,\n\n  'God doth with us, as we with torches do,\n  Not light them for themselves.'\n\n'Arise, shine, for thy light is come.'\n\nThis missionary work of ours, then, is not one that can be taken up and\nlaid down at our own pleasure. It is no excrescence, or accidental\noutgrowth of the Church's life. We are all too apt to think of it as an\nextra, a kind of work of supererogation, which those may engage in who\nhave a liking that way, and which those who do not care about it may\nleave alone, and no harm done. When shall we come to feel deeply,\nconstantly, practically, that it must be done, and that we are sinning\nwhen we neglect it? Dear brethren, have we laid on our hearts and\nconsciences the solemn weight of that necessity which moulded His life?\nHave we felt the awful power of God's plainly spoken will, driving us\nto this task? Do we know anything of that spirit which hears\never-pealing in our ears that awful commandment, 'Go, go to all the\nworld, preach, preach the Gospel to every creature?' God commands us to\ntake the trumpet, and if we would not soil our souls with gross and\npalpable sin, we must set it to our lips and sound an alarm, that by\nHis grace shall wake the sleepers, and make the hoary walls of the\nrobber-city that has afflicted the earth for so many weary millenniums,\nrock to their fall, that the redeemed of the Lord may pass over and set\nthe captives free.\n\nIf we felt this as we ought, surely our consecration would be more\ncomplete, and our service more worthy. A clear conviction of God's will\npointing the path for us, is, in all things, a wondrous help to\nvigorous action, to calmness of heart, and thus to success. In this\nmighty work, it would brace us for larger efforts, and fit us for\nlarger results. It would simplify and deepen our motives, and thus\nevolve from them nobler deeds and purer sacrifices. To all objections\nfrom so-called prudence, to all calculations from sparse results, to\nall cavils of onlookers who may carp and seek to hinder, we should have\none all-sufficient answer. It is not for us to bandy arguments on such\npoints as these. We care nothing for difficulties, for discouragements,\nfor cost. We may think about these till we lose all the manly chivalry\nof Christian character, like the Apostle who gazed on the white crests\nof the angry breakers flashing in the pale moonlight, till he forgot\nwho stood on the storm, and began to sink in his great fear. A nobler\nspirit ought to be ours. The toil is sore, the sacrifices many, and the\nyield seems small. Be it so! To all such thoughts we have one\nanswer\u2014Oh! that we felt more its solemn power!\u2014such is the will of God.\nWe are doing as we are bid, and we mean to go on. 'Them also must I\nbring,' says the Master. 'Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if\nI preach not the Gospel,' echoes the Apostle. Let us, in the\nconsecration of resolved hearts, and in trembling obedience to the\ndivine will, add our choral Amen, and in the face of all the paralysing\nsuggestions of our own selfishness, and all the tempting voices of\nworldly wisdom and unbelieving scornfulness that would stay our\nenterprise, let us fling back the grand old answer, 'Whether it be\nright in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge\nye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.'\n\nWe must not forget, however, that it was no abhorrent toil to which\nChrist reluctantly consented. But in this case, as always with Him, the\nwords of prophecy were true, 'I delight to do Thy will.' The schism\nbetween law and choice had no existence for Him; and when He says that\nHe must bring the wandering sheep into the fold, He means not more\nbecause of God's will than because of His own yearning desire to pour\nout the treasures of His mercy.\n\nSo it ought to be with us. Our missionary work should not be degraded\nbeneath the level of duty indeed, but neither should it be left on that\nlevel. We ought not only to be led to it by a power without, but\nimpelled by an energy within. If we would be like our Master, we must\nknow the necessity arising from our own heart's promptings, which leads\nus to work for Him. He has very imperfectly caught the spirit of the\nGospel who has never felt the word as a fire in his bones, making him\nweary of forbearing. If we only take to this work because we are bid,\nand without sympathy for men, and longing desire to bring them all to\nHim who has blessed us, we may almost as well leave it alone. We shall\ndo very little good to anybody, to ourselves little, to the world less.\nThat our own hearts may teach us this necessity, we must live near our\nMaster, and know His grace for ourselves. In proportion as we do, we\nshall be eager to proclaim it, and not stand idling in a corner of the\nmarket-place, till some unmistakable order sends us into the vineyard,\nbut go for the relief of our own feelings. 'This is a day of good\ntidings, and we cannot hold our peace,' said the poor lepers in the\ncamp to one another. The same feeling that we must tell the good news\njust because we know it, and it will make our brethren glad, is part of\nthe Christian character. A blessed necessity, then, is laid upon us. A\nblessed work is given us, which brings with it at once the joy of\nobedience to our Father's will, and the joy of gratifying a deep\ninstinct of our nature. 'Them also must I bring,' said the Saviour,\nbecause He loved men. 'To me who am less than the least of all saints,\nis this _grace_ given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the\nunsearchable riches,' echoes the Apostle. Let us live in the light of\nour Lord's eye, and drink deep of His spirit, till the talk becomes a\ngrace and privilege, not a burden, and till silence and idleness in His\ncause shall be felt to be impossible, because it would be violence to\nour own feelings, and the loss of a great joy as well as sin against\nour Father's will.\n\nConsider again, by what means the sheep are to be brought to Christ?\nThe context distinctly answers the question. There His propitiatory\ndeath is emphatically set forth as the power by which it is to be\naccomplished. The verse before our text says, 'I lay down My life for\nthe sheep'; that after our text says, 'Therefore doth My Father love\nMe, because I lay down My life.' It is the same connection of means and\nend as appears in the wonderful words with which He received the Greeks\nwho came up to the feast, and heard the great truth, for want of which\ntheir philosophy and art came to nothing. 'Except a corn of wheat fall\ninto the ground and die it abideth alone'\u2014'I, if I be lifted up from\nthe earth will draw all men unto Me.'\n\nYes, brethren! the Cross of Christ, and it alone, gathers men into a\nunity; for it alone draws men to Christ. His death, as our\npropitiation, effects such a change in the aspects of the divine\ngovernment, and in the incidence of the divine justice, that 'we who\nwere far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.' His death, as the\nconstraining motive of life in the hearts which receive it, draws them\naway from their own ways by the cords of love, and binds them to Him.\nHis death is His purchase of the gifts of that divine Spirit for the\nrebellious, who now convinces the world and endows the Church, 'till we\nall come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.'\nThe First Begotten from the dead is therefore the prince of all the\nkings of the earth, and He so rides among the nations as to bring the\nworld to Himself. The philosophy of history lies in the words, 'Other\nsheep I have, them also I must bring.'\n\nChristian missions abundantly prove that the Cross and the proclamation\nof the Cross have this power, and that nothing else has. It is not the\nethics of Christianity, nor the abstract truths which may be deduced\nfrom its story, but it is the story of the suffering Redeemer that\ngives it its power over human hearts, in all conditions, and climates,\nand stages of culture. The magnetism of the Cross alone is mighty\nenough to overcome the gravitation of the soul to sin and the world. We\nhear much nowadays about a new reformation which is to be effected on\nChristianity, by purifying it of its historical facts and of its\nrepulsive sacrificial aspect. When this is done, and the pure spiritual\nideas are disengaged from their fleshly garb, then, we are told, will\nbe the apotheosis and glorification of Christ. This will be the real\nlifting up from the earth; this will draw all men. Aye, and when this\nis done what will be left? Christianity will be purified back again\ninto a vague Deism, which one would have thought had proved itself\ntoothless and impotent, centuries ago. Spiritualising will turn out to\nbe very like evaporating, the residuum will be a miserably\nunsatisfactory something, near akin to nothing, and certainly incapable\neither of firing its disciples with a desire to spread their faith, if\nwe may call it so by courtesy, or of drawing men to itself. A\nChristianity without a Sacrifice on the altar will be a Christianity\nwithout worshippers in the Temple. The King of Kings who rides forth\nconquering is clothed in a vesture dipped in blood. The Christian\nEmperor saw in the heavens the Cross, with the legend: 'In this sign\nthou shalt conquer!' It is an emblem true for all time. The Cross is\nthe power unto salvation. The races scattered on the earth have often\nsought to make for themselves a rallying-point, and their attempts at\nunion have become Babels, centres of repulsion and confusion. God has\ngiven us the Centre, the Tree of life in the midst. The crucified\nSaviour is the Root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign for the\npeople; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and resting beneath the shadow\nof the Cross be at peace. 'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will\ndraw all men unto Me.'\n\nOnce more our Lord teaches us here to identify the work of the Church\nwith His own. What His servants do for Him He does, for from Him they\nderive the power to do it, and from Him comes the blessing which makes\nit effectual. He works in us, He works with us, He works for us. He\nworks in us. We have the grace of His Spirit to touch our hearts and\nsanctify us for service. He puts it into the wills and desires of His\nChurch to consecrate themselves to the task. He teaches them sympathy\nand self-devotion. He breathes world-wide aspirations into them. He\nraises up men to go forth. He works _with_ us, helping our weakness,\nenlightening our ignorance, directing our steps, giving power to the\nstudent at his dry task of grammar and dictionary, being mouth and\nwisdom to them that speak in His name, touching the hearts of them that\nhear. In our basket He puts the seed-corn; the furrows of the field He\nmakes soft with showers, and when it is sown He blesses the springing\nthereof. He works for us, opening doors among the nations, ordering the\ncourses of providence, and holding His hand around His servants, so\nthat they are immortal till their work is done; and can ever lift up\nthankful voices to Him who leads them joyful captives at His own\ntriumphal car, as it rolls on its stately march, scattering the sweet\nodours of His name wherever the long procession sweeps through the\nworld. We neither go a warfare at our own charges, nor in our own\nmight. He will fight with us, and He will pay us liberally at the last.\nWhen we count up our own resources, do not we often leave Christ out of\nthe reckoning? Do we not measure our strength against the enemies', and\nforget that one weak man, plus Christ, is always in the majority? 'It\nis not ye that speak, but the Spirit of My Father which speaketh in\nyou.' 'I laboured, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.'\nSo helped, so inspired, we are wrong to despond; we are wrong not to\nexpect great things and attempt great things; we are wrong not to dare,\nwe are wrong to do the work of the Lord negligently. Let us feel that\nChrist's work is ours, and we shall be bowed beneath the solemnity of\nthe thought, shall accept joyfully the necessity. Let us feel that our\nwork is Christ's, and we shall rejoice in infirmity that His power may\nrest upon us, shall bid adieu to faint-hearted fears, and be sure that\nthen it must prosper. 'Arise, O Lord! plead Thine own cause.' Not unto\nus, O Lord! not unto us, but to Thy name give glory.\n\n'The Lord ascended into Heaven and sat on the right hand of God, and\nthey went everywhere preaching the word.' It seems a strange contrast\nbetween the rest of the Lord, sitting in sublime expectancy of\nconscious power til His enemies become His footstool, and the toils of\nHis scattered disciples. It is like that moment which the genius of the\ngreat painter has caught in an immortal work, when Jesus in rapt\ncommunion with the mighty dead, and crowned with the accepting word\nfrom Heaven, floated transfigured above the Holy Mount, while below His\ndisciples wrestled impotently with the demon that would not be cast\nout. But it is not really contrast. He has not so parted the toils as\nthat His are over ere ours begin. He has not left His Church militant\nto bear the brunt of the battle while the Captain of the Lord's host\nonly watches the current of the heady fight\u2014like Moses from the safe\nmountain. The Evangelist goes on to tell us that the Lord also was\nworking with them and sharing their toils, lightening their burdens,\npreparing for them successes on earth, and a rest like His when He\nshall gird Himself and serve them. Thus, the first time that the\nheavens opened again to mortal eyes after they closed on His ascending\nform, was to show Him to the martyr in the council chamber, not sitting\ncareless or restful, but _standing_ at the right hand of God, to\nintercede for, to strengthen, to receive and glorify His dying servant.\nHe goes with us where we go, and through our works and gifts and\nprayers, through our proclamation of the Cross, He worketh His will,\nand shall finally accomplish that great necessity laid upon Him by the\nFather's counsels, and upon us by His commandment, and to be effected\nby His death, that He should die, not for that nation only, but also\nthat He should gather together in one the children of God who are\nscattered abroad.\n\nWe have here\u2014\n\nIII. Our Lord teaching us how to think of the certain issues of His\nwork and ours.\n\n'They shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one\nShepherd.' We may regard these words as embracing two things; a nearer\nissue, namely, the response that will always attend His call; and a\nmore remote, namely, the completion of His work. There is, of course, a\nvery blessed sense in which the latter words are true now, and have\nbeen ever since Paul could say to those who had been aliens from the\ncommonwealth of Israel, 'He hath made both one. Now, therefore, ye are\nno more foreigners but fellow-citizens with the saints.' But the fold\nwhich now exists, limited in numbers, with its members but partially\nconscious of their unity, and surrounded by those who follow hireling\nshepherds, does not exhaust these great words. They shall not be\naccomplished till that far-off future have come.\n\nBut for the present we have the predictions of the former clause, 'They\nshall hear My voice.' What manner of expectations does it teach us to\ncherish? It seems to speak not of universal reception of Christ's\nmessage, but of some as hearing and some as forbearing. It teaches us\nto look for divers results attending our missionary work. There will\nalways be a Dionysius the Areopagite, the woman Lydia, the kindly\nbarbarians, the conscience-stricken jailer. There will always be the\nscoffers, who mock when they hear of 'Jesus and the resurrection'; the\nhesitating who compound with conscience by promising to hear again of\nthis matter, the fierce opponents who invoke constituted authorities or\nmob violence to crush the message.\n\nAgain, the words seem to contemplate a long task. There is nothing\nabout the rate at which His Kingdom shall spread, not a syllable to\nanswer inquiries as to when the end shall come. The whole tone of the\nlanguage suggests the idea that bringing back the sheep is to take a\nlong time, and to cost many a tedious journey into the wilderness. Not\na sudden outburst, but a slow kindling of the flame, is what our Lord\nteaches us here to expect.\n\nBut while thus calm in tone and moderate in expectation, the words\nbreathe a hope as confident as it is calm, as clear as it is moderate.\nThere will always be a response. His voice shall never be lifted up in\nthe snow-storm or lonely hillsides only to be blown back into His own\nears, unheard and unheeded. Be they few or many, they shall hear. Be\nthe toil longer or shorter, more or less severe, it shall not be in\nvain.\n\nAnd to these expectations we shall do wisely if we attune ours. Omit\nfrom your hopes what your Lord has omitted from His promises; do not\nask what He has not told. Do not wonder if you encounter what He met,\nfor the disciple is not greater than his Master, and only if they have\nkept My saying will they keep yours also. But, on the other hand,\nexpect as much as He has prophesied; accept it when it comes as the\nfruit of His work, not of yours, and build a firm faith that your\nlabour shall not be in vain on these calm and prescient words.\n\nSo much for the course of the kingdom. And what of the end? One by one\nthe sheep have been brought, at last they are all gathered in, not a\nhoof left behind. The stars steal singly into their places in the\nheavens as the darkness deepens, and He 'bringeth them forth by\nnumber,' until at the noon of night the sky is crowded with their\nlights, and 'for that He is great in power, not one faileth.' What\nexpectations are we here taught to cherish then of the final issue?\n\nMark, to begin with, that there is implied the ultimate universality of\nHis dominion and sole supremacy of His throne. There is to be but one\nShepherd, and over all the earth a great unity of obedience to Him.\nHere is the knell of all authority that does not own Him, and the\nsubordination of all that does. The hirelings, the blind guides, that\nhave misled and afflicted humanity for so many weary ages, shall be all\nsunk in oblivion. The false gods shall be discrowned, and lie shattered\non their temple-sill, and there shall be no worshippers to care for or\nto try to repair their discomfiture. Bow your heads before Him,\nthinkers who have led men on devious paths and spoken but a partial\ntruth and a wisdom all confused with foolishness! Lower your swords\nbefore Him, warriors who have builded your cities on blood and led men\nlike sheep to the slaughter! He is more glorious and excellent than the\nmountains of prey. Cast your crowns before Him, princes and all judges\nof the earth, for He is King by right of the crown of thorns! This is\nthe Lord of all\u2014Teacher, Leader, Ruler of all men. All other names\nshall be forgotten but His shall abide. If they have been shepherds who\nwould not come in by the door, a ransomed world shall rejoice over\ntheir fall with the ancient hymn, 'Other gods beside Thee have had\ndominion over us; they are dead, they shall not live, Thou hast\ndestroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.' If they have been\nsubject to the chief Shepherd and ensamples to the flock, they will\nrejoice to decrease before His increase, and having helped to bring the\nBride to the Bridegroom, will gladly stand aside and be forgotten in\nthe perfect love that enters into full fruition at the last. Then when\nnone contest nor intercept the reverential obedience that the whole\nworld brings to Him, shall be fulfilled the firm promise which declared\nlong ago: 'I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He will feed them\nand be their Shepherd.'\n\nMark again the blessed nature of the relation between Christ and all\nmen which is here foretold. From of old, the shepherd has been in all\nnations the emblem of kingly power, of leadership of every sort. How\noften the fact has contradicted the symbol let history tell. But with\nJesus the reality does not only contradict, but even transcends, the\ntender old comparison. He rules with a gentle sway. His sceptre is no\nrod of iron, but the shepherd's crook, and the inmost meaning of its\nuse is that it may 'comfort' us, as David learned to feel. There gather\nround the metaphor all thoughts of merciful guidance, of tender care,\nof a helping arm when we are weak, of a loving bosom where we are\ncarried when we are weary. It speaks of a seeking love that roams over\nevery high hill till it finds, and of a strong shoulder that bears us\nback when He has found. It tells of sweet hours of rest in the hot\nnoontide by still waters, of ample provision for all the soul's\nlongings in green pastures. It speaks of footsteps that go before, in\nwhich men may follow and find them ways of pleasantness. It speaks of\ngentle callings by name which draw the heart. It speaks of defence when\nlion and bear come ravening down, and of safe couching by night when\nthe silent stars behold the sleeping sheep and the wakeful shepherd. He\nHimself gives its highest significance to the emblem, in the words of\nthis great discourse, when He fixes on His knowledge, His calling of\nHis sheep, His going before them, His giving His life for them. Such\nare the gracious blessings which here He teaches us to think of as\npossessed in the happy days that shall be, by all the world.\n\nAnd, on the other hand, the symbol speaks of confiding love in the\nhearts of men, of a great peacefulness of meek obedience stilling and\ngladdening their wills, of the consciousness of His perfect love, and\nthe knowledge of all His gracious character, of sweet answering\ncommunion with Him, of safety from all enemies, of freedom, of familiar\npassage in and out to God. Thus knit together shall be the one fold and\nthe one Shepherd. 'They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures\nshall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither\nshall the heat nor sun smite them, for He that hath mercy on them shall\nfeed them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them.'\n\nMark again what a vision is here given of the relations of men with one\nanother.\n\nThey are to be all gathered into a peaceful unity. They are to be one\nbecause they all hearken to one voice. It is to be observed that our\nLord does not say, as our English Bible makes Him say, that there is to\nbe one fold. He drops that word of set purpose in the latter clause of\nour text, and substitutes for it another, which may perhaps be best\nrendered flock. Why this change in the expression? Because, as it would\nseem, he would have us learn that the unity of that blessed future time\nis not to be like the unity of the Jewish Church, a formal and external\none. That ancient polity was a fold. It held its members together by\noutward bonds of uniformity. But the universal Church of the future is\nto be a flock. It is to be really and visibly one. But it is to be so,\nnot because it is hemmed in by one enclosure, but because it is to be\ngathered round one Shepherd. The more closely they are drawn to Him,\nthe more near will they be to each other. The centre in which all the\nradii meet keeps them all in their places. 'We being many are one\nbread, for we are all partakers of that one bread.' In the ritual of\nthe Old Covenant, the great golden candlestick with its seven branches\nstood in the court of the Temple, emblem of the formal oneness of the\npeople, which was meant to be the light of the Lord to a dark world. In\nthe vision of the New Covenant, the seer in Patmos beheld not the one\nlamp with its branches, but the seven golden candlesticks, which were\nmade into a holier and a freer unity because the Son of Man walked in\ntheir midst\u2014emblem of the oneness in diversity of the peoples, who were\nsometimes darkness, but shall one day be light in the Lord. There may\ncontinue to be national distinctions. There may or there may not be any\nexternal unity. But at all events our Lord turns away our thoughts from\nthe outward to the inward, and bids us be sure that though the folds be\nmany the flock shall be one, because they shall all hear and follow\nHim.\n\nThe words, however, suggest for us the blessed thought of the peaceful\nrelations that shall then subsist among men. The tribes of the earth\nshall couch beside each other like the quiet sheep in the fold, and\nhaving learned of His great meekness, they shall no more bite nor\ndevour one another. Alas! alas! the words seem too good to be true.\nThey seem long, long of coming to pass. Ever since they were spoken the\nold bloody work has been going on, and the old lusts of the human heart\nhave been busy sowing the dragon's teeth that shall spring up in wars\nand fightings. In savage lands warfare rages on, ceaseless, ignoble,\nunrecorded, and seemingly purposeless as that of animalcules in a drop\nof water. On civilised soil, men, who love the same Christ and worship\nHim in the same tongue, are fronting each other at this hour. The war\nof actual swords, and the war of conflicting creeds, and the jostling\nof human selfishness in the rough road of life, are all around us, and\ntheir seeds are within ourselves. The race of men do not live like\nfolded sheep, rather like a flock of wolves, who first run over and\nthen devour their weaker fellows.\n\nBut here is a fairer hope, and it will be fulfilled when all evil\nthoughts, and all selfish desires, and all jealous grudgings shall\nvanish from men's hearts, as unclean spirits at cockcrow, and shall\nleave them, self-forgetful, yielding of their own prerogatives,\ndesirous of no other man's, abhorrent of inflicting, and patient of\nreceiving wrong. There will be no fuel then to blow into sulphurous\nflame, though all the blasts from hell were to fan the embers. But\npeace and concord shall be in all men, for Christ shall be in all.\nNational distinctions may abide, but national enmities\u2014the oldest and\ndeepest, shall disappear. There shall still be Assyria, and Egypt, and\nIsrael, but their former relation will be replaced by a bond of amity\nin their common possession of Him who is our peace. 'In that day shall\nIsrael be the third with Egypt, and with Assyria, even a blessing in\nthe midst of the land, whom the Lord shall bless, saying, Blessed be\nEgypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine\ninheritance.' God be thanked! that though we see, and our fathers have\nseen, so much that seems to contradict our hopes of a peaceful world,\nand though to-day the hell-hounds of war are baying over the earth, and\nthough nowhere can we see signs even of the approach of the halcyon\ntime, yet we can wait for the vision, knowing that it will come at the\nappointed time, when\n\n  'No war or battle's sound\n  Is heard the world around,\n  The idle spear and shield are high uphung;\n  The trumpet speaks not to the armed throng,\n  And Kings sit still, with awful eye,\n  As if they surely knew their Sovereign Lord was by.'\n\nSuch are the thoughts which our Lord would teach us as to the present\nand as to the future of our missionary work. For the one, moderate\nexpectations of success, not unchequered by disappointment, and a brave\npatience in long toil. For the other, hopes which cannot be too\nglowing, and a faith which cannot be too obstinate. The one is being\nfulfilled in our own and our brethren's experience even now; we may be\ntherefore all the more sure that the other will be so in due time. If\nwe look with Christ's eyes, we shall not be depressed by the apparent\nunbroken surface of heathenism but see, as He did, everywhere souls\nthat belong to Him, who may and must be won; we shall joyfully embrace\nthe work which He has given us to do; we shall arm ourselves against\nthe discouragements of the present, by living much in the past at the\nfoot of the Cross, till we catch the true image of the Saviour's love,\nand much in the future in the midst of the ransomed flock, till we too\nbehold the roses blossoming in the wilderness, the bright waters\ncovering all the dry places in the desert, and the families of men\nsitting, clothed and in their right mind, at the feet of Jesus.\n\nOur missionary work is the pure and inevitable result of a belief in\nthese words of my text. Can a man believe that Christ has other sheep\nfor whom He died because He must bring them in, whom He will bring in\nbecause He died, and _not_ work according to his power in the line of\nthe divine purposes? The missionary spirit is but the Christian spirit\nworking in one particular direction. Missionary societies are but one\nof the authentic outcomes of Christian principles, as natural as\nholiness of life, or the act of prayer.\n\nTo secure, then, a more vigorous energy in such work, we need chiefly\nwhat we need for all Christian growth\u2014namely, more and deeper communion\nwith Christ, a more vivid realisation of His grace and love for\nourselves. And then we need that, under the double stimulus of His love\nand of His commandment\u2014which at bottom are one\u2014our minds should be more\nfrequently occupied with this subject of Christian missions. Most of us\nknow too little about the matter to feel very much. And then we need\nthat we should more seriously reflect upon the facts in relation to our\nown personal responsibility and duty. You complain of the triteness of\nsuch appeals as this sermon. Brethren, have you ever tried that recipe\nfor freshening up well-worn truths, namely, thinking about them in\nconnection with the simplest, most important of all questions\u2014what,\nthen, ought I to do in view of these truths? Am I exaggerating when I\nsay, that not one-half of the professing Christians of our day give an\nhour in the year to pondering that question, with reference to\nmissionary work? Oh! dear friends, see to it that you live in Christ\nfor yourselves, and then see to it that you think His thoughts about\nthe heathen world, till your pity is stirred and your mind braced to\nthe firm resolve that you too will work the works of Christ and bring\nin the wanderers.\n\nWe have had as large results as Christ has led us to expect, and far\nlarger than we deserved. Christian missions are yet in their\ninfancy\u2014alas! that it should be so. But in these seventy years since\nthey may be said to have begun, what wonderful successes have been\nachieved. We are often told that we have done nothing. Is it so? The\nplant has been got together, methods of working have been systematised,\nmistakes in some measure corrected. We have spent much of our time in\nlearning how to work, and that process is by no means over yet. But\nwith all these deductions, which ought fairly to be made, how much has\nbeen accomplished? The Bible has been put into the languages of seven\nhundred millions of men. The beginnings of a Christian literature have\nbeen supplied for five-sixths of the world. Half a million of professed\nconverts have been gathered in, or as many as there were at the end of\nthe first century, after about the same number of years of labour, and\nwith apostles for missionaries and miracles for proof. And if these\nstill bear on their ankles the marks of the fetters, and limp as they\nwalk, or cannot see very clearly at first, it is no more than might be\nexpected from their long darkness in the prison-house, and it is no\nmore than Paul had to contend with at Ephesus and Corinth.\n\nEvery church that has engaged in the toil has shared in the blessing,\nand has its own instances of special prosperity. We have had Jamaica;\nthe London Missionary Society, Madagascar, and the South Seas; the\nWesleyans, Fiji; the Episcopal Societies, Tinnevelly; the American\nbrethren, Burmah, and the Karens. Some of the ruder mythologies have\nbeen so utterly extirpated that the children of idolaters have seen the\ngods whom their fathers worshipped for the first time in the British\nMuseum. While over those more compact and scientific systems which lie\nlike an incubus on mighty peoples, there has crept a sickening\nconsciousness of a coming doom, and they already half own their\nconqueror in the Stronger One than they.\n\n  'They feel from Judah's land\n  The dreaded Infant's hand.'\n\n'Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, the idols are upon the beasts.' Surely\nGod has granted us success enough for our thankful confidence, more\nthan enough for our deserts. I repeat it, it is as much as He promised,\nas much as we had any right to expect, and it is a vast deal more than\nany other system of belief or of no belief, any of your spiritualised\nChristianities, or still more intangible creeds has ever managed, or\never thought of trying. To those who taunt us with no success, and who\nperhaps would not dislike Christian missions so much if they disliked\nChristian truth a little less, we may very fairly and calmly\nanswer\u2014This rod has budded at all events; do you the same with your\nenchantments.\n\nBut the past is no measure of the future. From the very nature of the\nundertaking the ratio of progress increases at a rapid rate. The first\nten years of labour in India showed twenty-seven converts, the seventh\nten showed more than twenty-seven thousand. The preparation may be as\nslow as the solemn gathering of the thunder-clouds, as they noiselessly\nsteal into their places, and slowly upheave their grey billowing\ncrests; the final success may be as swift as the lightning which\nflashes in an instant from one side of the heavens to the other. It\ntakes long years to hew the tunnel, to 'make the crooked straight, and\nthe rough places plain,' and then smooth and fleet the great power\nrushes along the rails. To us the cry comes, 'Prepare ye in the desert\nan highway for our God.' The toil is sore and long, but 'the glory of\nthe Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.' The\nAlpine summits lie white and ghastly in the spring sunshine, and it\nseems to pour ineffectual beams on their piled cold; but by slow\ndegrees it is silently loosening the bands of the snow, and after a\nwhile a goat's step, as it passes along a rocky ledge, or a breath of\nwind will move a tiny particle, and in an instant its motion spreads\nover a mile of mountain side, and the avalanche is rushing swifter and\nmightier at every foot down to the valley below, where it will all turn\ninto sweet water, and ripple glancing in the sunshine. Such is our\nwork. It may seem very hopeless, and be mostly unobservable in surface\nresults, but it is very real for all that. The conquering impulse, for\nwhich our task may have been to prepare the way, will be given, and\nthen we shall wonder to see how surely the kingdom was coming, even\nwhen we observed it not.\n\nYe have need of patience, and to feed your patience, ye have need of\nfellowship with Christ, of faith in His promises, of sympathy with His\nmind. God has given us, dear brethren, special reason for renewed\nconsecration to this service in the blessings which have during the\nyear terminated our anxieties and crowned our work for our own Society.\nBut let us not dwell upon what has been done. These successes are\nbrooks by the way at which we may drink\u2014nothing more. We ought to be\nlike shepherds in the lonely mountain glens, who see in the\nfast-falling snow and the bitter blast a summons to the hillside, and\nthere all the night long wherever the drift lies deepest and the wind\nbites the most sharply, search the most eagerly for the poor half-dead\ncreatures, and as they find each, bear it back to the safe shelter, nor\nstay behind to count the rescued, nor to rest their weariness, for all\nthe bright light in the cottage and the blackness without, but forth\nagain on the same quest, till all the Master's sheep have been rescued\nfrom the white death that lay treacherous around, and are sleeping at\npeace in His folds. A mighty Voice ought ever to be sounding in our\nears, 'Other sheep I have,' and the answer of our hearts and of our\nlives should be, 'Them also, O Lord! will I try to bring.' Not till the\nfar-off issue is accomplished shall we have a right to rest, and then\nwe, with all those He has helped us to gather to His side, shall be\namong that flock, whom He who is at once Lamb and Shepherd, our Brother\nand our Lord, our Sacrifice and King, 'shall feed and lead by living\nfountains of waters,' in the sweet pastures of the upper world, where\nthere are no ravening wolves, nor false guides to terrify and bewilder\nHis flock any more at all for ever.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DELAYS OF LOVE\n\n\n'Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He had heard\ntherefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place\nwhere He was.'\u2014JOHN xi. 5, 6.\n\nWe learn from a later verse of this chapter that Lazarus had been dead\nfour days when Christ reached Bethany. The distance from that village\nto the probable place of Christ's abode, when He received the message,\nwas about a day's journey. If, therefore, to the two days on which He\nabode still after the receipt of the news, we add the day which the\nmessengers took to reach Him and the day which He occupied in\ntravelling, we get the four days since which Lazarus had been laid in\nhis grave. Consequently the probability is that, when our Lord had the\nmessage, the man was dead. Christ did not remain still, therefore, in\norder to work a greater miracle by raising Lazarus from the dead than\nHe would have done by healing, but He stayed\u2014strange as it would\nappear\u2014for reasons closely connected with the highest well-being of all\nthe beloved three, and _because_ He loved them.\n\nJohn is always very particular in his use of that word 'therefore,' and\nhe points out many a subtle and beautiful connection of cause and\neffect by his employment of it. I do not know that any of them are more\nsignificant and more full of illumination with regard to the ways of\ndivine providence than the instance before us. How these two sisters\nmust have looked down the rocky road that led up from Jericho during\nthose four weary days, to see if there were any signs of His coming.\nHow strange it must have appeared to the disciples themselves that He\nmade no sign of movement, notwithstanding the message. Perhaps John's\nscrupulous carefulness in pointing out that His love was Christ's\nreason for His quiescence may reflect a remembrance of the doubts that\nhad crept over the minds of himself and his brethren during these two\ndays of strange inaction. The Evangelist will have us learn a lesson,\nwhich reaches far beyond the instance in hand, and casts light on many\ndark places.\n\nI. Christ's delays are the delays of love.\n\nWe have all of us, I suppose, had experience of desires for the removal\nof bitterness or sorrows, or for the fulfilment of expectations and\nwishes, which we believed, on the best evidence that we could find, to\nbe in accordance with His will, and which we have been able to make\nprayers out of, in true faith and submission, which prayers have had to\nbe offered over and over and over again, and no answer has come, It is\npart of the method of Providence that the lifting away of the burden\nand the coming of the desires should be a hope deferred. And instead of\nstumbling at the mystery, or feeling as if it made a great demand upon\nour faith, would it not be wiser for us to lay hold of that little word\nof the Apostle's here, and to see in it a small window that opens out\non to a boundless prospect, and a glimpse into the very heart of the\ndivine motives in His dealings with us?\n\nIf we could once get that conviction into our hearts, how quietly we\nshould go about our work! What a beautiful and brave patience there\nwould be in us, if we habitually felt that the only reason which\nactuates God's providence in its choice of times of fulfilling our\ndesires and lifting away our bitterness is our own good! Nothing but\nthe purest and simplest love, transparent and without a fold in it,\nsways Him in all that He does. Why should it be so difficult for us to\nbelieve this? If we were more in the way of looking at life, with all\nits often unwelcome duty, and its arrows of pain and sorrow, and all\nthe disappointments and other ills that it is heir to, as a discipline,\nand were to think less about the unpleasantness, and more about the\npurpose, of what befalls us, we should find far less difficulty in\nunderstanding that His delay is born of love, and is a token of His\ntender care.\n\nSorrow is prolonged for the same reason as it was sent. It is of little\nuse to send it for a little while. In the majority of cases, time is an\nelement in its working its right effect upon us. If the weight is\nlifted, the elastic substance beneath springs up again. As soon as the\nwind passes over the cornfield, the bowing ears raise themselves. You\nhave to steep foul things in water for a good while before the pure\nliquid washes out the stains. And so time is an element in all the good\nthat we get out of the discipline of life. Therefore, the same love\nwhich sends must necessarily protract, beyond our desires, the\ndiscipline under which we are put. If we thought of it, as I have said,\nmore frequently as discipline and schooling, and less frequently as\npain and a burden, we should understand the meaning of things a great\ndeal better than we do, and should be able to face them with braver\nhearts, and with a patient, almost joyous, endurance.\n\nIf we think of some of the purposes of our sorrows and burdens, we\nshall discern still more clearly that time is needed for accomplishing\nthem, and that, therefore, love must delay its coming to take them\naway. For example, the object of them all, and the highest blessing\nthat any of us can obtain, is that our wills should be bent until they\ncoincide with God's, and that takes time. The shipwright, when he gets\na bit of timber that he wants to make a 'knee' out of, knows that to\nmould it into the right form is not the work of a day. A will may be\n_broken_ at a blow, but it will take a while to _bend_ it. And just\nbecause swiftly passing disasters have little permanent effect in\nmoulding our wills, it is a blessing, and not an evil, to have some\nstanding fact in our lives, which will make a continual demand upon us\nfor continually repeated acts of bowing ourselves beneath His sweet,\nthough it may seem severe, will. God's love in Jesus Christ can give us\nnothing better than the opportunity of bowing our wills to His, and\nsaying, 'Not mine, but Thine be done.' If that is why He stops on the\nother side of Jordan, and does not come even to the loving messages of\nbeloved hearts, then He shows His love in the sweetest and the loftiest\nform. So, dear friends, if you carry a lifelong sorrow, do not think\nthat it is a mystery why it should lie upon your shoulders when there\nare omnipotence and an infinite heart in the heavens. If it has the\neffect of bending you to His purpose, it is the truest token of His\nloving care that He can send. In like manner, is it not worth carrying\na weight of unfulfilled wishes, and a weariness of unalleviated\nsorrows, if these do teach us three things, which are one thing\u2014faith,\nendurance, prayerfulness, and so knit us by a threefold cord that\ncannot be broken, to the very heart of God Himself?\n\nII. This delayed help always comes at the right time.\n\nDo not let us forget that Heaven's clock is different from ours. In our\nday there are twelve hours, and in God's a thousand years. What seems\nlong to us is to Him 'a little while.' Let us not imitate the\nshortsighted impatience of His disciples, who said, 'What is this that\nHe saith, A little while? We cannot tell what He saith.' The time of\nseparation looked so long in anticipation to them, and to Him it had\ndwindled to a moment. For two days, eight-and-forty hours, He delayed\nHis answer to Mary and Martha, and they thought it an eternity, while\nthe heavy hours crept by, and they only said, 'It's very weary, He\ncometh not, they said.' How long did it look to them when they had got\nLazarus back?\n\nThe longest protraction of the fulfilment of the most yearning\nexpectation and fulfilled desire will seem but as the winking of an\neyelid when we get to estimate duration by the same scale by which He\nestimates it, the scale of Eternity. The ephemeral insect, born in the\nmorning and dead when the day fades, has a still minuter scale than\nours, but we should not think of regulating our estimate of long and\nshort by it. Do not let us commit the equal absurdity of regulating the\nmarch of His providence by the swift beating of our timepieces. God\nworks leisurely because God has eternity to work in.\n\nThe answer always comes at the right time, and is punctual though\ndelayed. For instance, Peter is in prison. The Church keeps praying for\nhim; prays on, day after day. No answer. The week of the feast comes.\nPrayer is made intensely and fervently and continuously. No answer. The\nslow hours pass away. The last day of his life, as it would appear,\ncomes and goes. No answer. The night gathers; prayer rises to heaven.\nThe last hour of the last watch of the last night that he had to live\nhas come, and as the veil of darkness is thinning, and the day is\nbeginning to break, 'the angel of the Lord shone round about him.' But\nthere is no haste in his deliverance. All is done leisurely, as in the\nconfidence of ample time to spare, and perfect security. He is bidden\nto arise quickly, but there is no hurry in the stages of his\nliberation. 'Gird thyself and bind on thy sandals.' He is to take time\nto lace them. There is no fear of the quaternion of soldiers waking, or\nof there not being time to do all. We can fancy the half-sleeping and\nwholly-bewildered Apostle fumbling at the sandal-strings, in dread of\nsome movement rousing his guards, and the calm angel face looking on.\nThe sandals fastened, he is bidden to put on his garments and follow.\nWith equal leisure and orderliness he is conducted through the first\nand the second guard of sleeping soldiers, and then through the prison\ngate. He might have been lifted at once clean out of his dungeon, and\nset down in the house many were gathered praying for him. But more\nsignal was the demonstration of power which a deliverance so gradual\ngave, when it led him slowly past all obstacles and paralysed their\npower. God is never in haste. He never comes too soon nor too late.\n'The Lord shall help them, and that right early.' Sennacherib's army is\nround the city, famine is within the walls. To-morrow will be too late.\nBut to-night the angel strikes, and the enemies are all dead men. So\nGod's delay makes the deliverance the more signal and joyous when it is\ngranted. And though hope deferred may sometimes make the heart sick,\nthe desire, when it comes, is a tree of life.\n\nIII. The best help is not delayed.\n\nThe principle which we have been illustrating applies only to one\nhalf\u2014and that the less important half\u2014of our prayers and of Christ's\nanswers. For in regard to spiritual blessings, and our petitions for\nfuller, purer, and diviner life, there is no delay. In that region the\nlaw is not 'He abode still two days in the same place,' but 'Before\nthey call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear.'\nIf you have been praying for deeper knowledge of God, for lives liker\nHis, for hearts more filled with the Spirit, and have not had the\nanswer, do not fall back upon the misapplication of such a principle as\nthis of my text, which has nothing to do with that region; but remember\nthat the only reason why good people do not immediately get the\nblessings of the Christian life for which they ask lies in themselves,\nand not at all in God. 'Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and\nhave not, because'\u2014not because He delays, but because\u2014'ye ask amiss,'\nor because, having asked, you get up from your knees and go away, not\nlooking to see whether the blessing is coming down or not.\n\nAh! there is a sad amount of lying and hypocrisy in prayers for\nspiritual blessings. Many petitioners do not want to have them. They\nwould not know what to do with them if they got them. They make the\nrequests because their fathers did so before them, and because these\nare the right kind of things to say in a prayer. Such prayers get no\nanswers. If a man prays for some spiritual enlargement, and then goes\nout into the world and lives clean contrary to his prayers, what right\nhas he to say that God delays His answers? No, He does not delay His\nanswers, but we push back His answers, and the gift that _is_ given we\nwill not take. Let us remember that the two halves of the divine\ndealings are not regulated by the same principle, though they be\nregulated by the same motive; and that the love which often delays for\nour good, in regard to the desires that have reference to outward\nthings, is swift as the lightning to answer every petition which moves\nwithin the circle of our spiritual life.\n\n'Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye stand praying, believe that' then\nand there 'ye receive them'; and the undelaying God will take care that\n'you shall have them.'\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST'S QUESTION TO EACH\n\n\n_For the Young_\n\n'\u2026 Believest then this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord.'\u2014JOHN xi. 26,\n27.\n\nAs each of these annual sermons which I have preached for so long comes\nround, I feel more solemnly the growing probability that it may be the\nlast. Like a man nearing the end of his day's work, I want to make the\nmost of the remaining moments. Whether this is the last sermon of the\nsort that I shall preach or not, it is certainly the last of the kind\nthat some of you will hear from me, or possibly from any one.\n\nSo, dear friends, I have felt that neither you nor I can afford to\nwaste this hour in considering subjects of secondary interest,\nappropriate as some of them might be. I wish to come to the main point\nat once, and to press upon you all, and especially on the younger\nportion of this audience, the question of your own personal religion.\n\nThe words of my text, as you will probably remember, were addressed by\nour Lord to Martha, as she was writhing in agony over her dead brother.\nChrist proclaims, with singular calmness and majesty, His character and\nwork as the Resurrection and the Life, and then seeks to draw her from\nher absorbing sorrow to an effort of faith which shall grasp the truths\nHe proclaims. He flashes out this sudden question, like the swift\nthrust of a gleaming dagger. It is a demand for credence to His\nassertion\u2014on His bare word\u2014tremendous as that assertion is. And nobly\nwas the demand met by the as swift, unfaltering answer, 'Yea, Lord,' I\nbelieve in Thee, and so I believe in Thy word.\n\nNow, friends, Jesus Christ is putting the same question to each of us.\nAnd I pray that our answers may be Martha's.\n\nI. Note, first, the significance of the question.\n\n'This.' What is _this_? The answer will tell us what are the central\nessential facts, faith in which makes a Christian. Of course the form\nin which our Lord's previous utterance was cast was coloured by the\ncircumstances under which He spoke, and was so shaped as to meet the\nmomentary exigency. But whilst thus the form is determined by the fact\nthat He was speaking to a heart wrung by separation, and as a\npreliminary to a mighty act of resurrection, the essential truths which\nare so expressed are those which, as I believe, constitute the\nfundamental truths of Christianity\u2014the very core and heart of the\nGospel.\n\nTurn, then, but for a moment, to what immediately precedes my text. Our\nLord says three things. First, He asserts His supernatural character\nand divine relation to life: 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.'\nNext, He declares that it is possible for Him to communicate to dying\nand to dead men a life which triumphs over death, and laughs at change,\nand persists through the superficial experience which we christen by\nthe name of Death, unaffected, undiminished, as some sweet spring might\ngush up in the heart of a salt, solitary sea. And then He declares that\nthe condition on which He, the Life-giver, gives of His immortal life\nto dying men, is their trust in Him. These three\u2014His character and\nwork, the gifts of which His hands are full, and the way by which the\ngifts may be appropriated by us men\u2014these three are, as I take it, the\ncentral facts of Christianity. 'Believest thou this?'\n\nThe question comes to us all; and in these days of unsettlement it is\nwell to have some clear understanding of what is the 'irreducible\nminimum' of Christian teaching. I take it that it lies here. There are\ntwo opposite errors which, like all opposite errors, are bolted\ntogether, and revolve round a common centre. The one of them is the\nextreme conservative tendency which regards every pin and bolt of the\ntabernacle as if it were equally sacred with the altar and the ark. And\nthe other is the tendency which christens itself 'liberal and\nprogressive,' and which is always ready to exchange old lamps, though\nthey have burnt brightly in the past, for new ones that are as yet only\nglittering metal and untried. In these days, when it is a presumption\nagainst any opinion, that our fathers believed it (an error into which\nyoung people are most prone to fall), and when, by the energy of\ncontradiction, that error has evoked, and is evoking, the opposite\nexaggeration that adheres to all that is traditional, to all that has\nbeen regarded as belonging to the essentials of the Christian faith,\nand so is fearful, trembling for the Ark of God when there is no need,\nlet us fall back upon these great words of the Master, and see that the\nthings which constitute the living heart of His message and gift to the\nworld are neither more nor less than these three: the supernatural\nChrist, the life which He imparts, and the condition on which He\nbestows it. 'Believest thou this?' If you do, you need take very little\nheed of the fluctuations of contemporary opinion as to other matters,\nvaluable and important as these may be in their place; and may let men\nsay what they will about disputed questions\u2014about the method by which\nthe vehicle of revelation has been created and preserved, about the\nregulation of the external forms of the Church, about a hundred other\nthings that men often lose their tempers and spoil their Christianity\nby fighting for, and fall back upon the great central verity, a Christ\nfrom above, the Giver of Life to all that put their trust in Him.\n\nLet me expand this question for you. 'We all have sinned and come short\nof the glory of God'\u2014'believest thou this?' 'We must all appear before\nthe judgment-seat of Christ'\u2014'believest thou this?' 'God so loved the\nworld that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on\nHim should not perish'\u2014'believest thou this?' 'The Son of Man came\u2026 to\ngive His life a ransom for many'\u2014'believest thou this?' 'Being\njustified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus\nChrist'\u2014'believest thou this?' 'Now is Christ risen from the dead, and\nbecome the first fruits of them that slept'\u2014'believest thou this?' 'I\ngo to prepare a place for you'\u2014'believest thou this?' 'Where I am there\nshall also My servant be'\u2014'believest thou this?' 'So shall we ever be\nwith the Lord'\u2014'believest thou this?' That is Christianity; and not\ntheories about inspiration, and priesthood, and sacramental efficacy,\nor any of the other thorny questions which have, in the course of ages,\nstarted up. Here is the living centre; hold fast, I beseech you, by it.\n\nThen, again, the significance of this question is in the direction of\nmaking clear for us the way by which men lay hold of these great\ntruths. The truths are of such a sort as that merely to say, 'Oh yes, I\nbelieve it; it is quite true!' is by no means sufficient. If a man\ntells me that two parallel lines produced ever so far will never meet,\nI say, 'Yes, I believe it'; and there is nothing more to be done or\nsaid. If a man says to me, 'Two and two make four,' I say, 'Yes'; and\nthere my assent ends. If a man says, 'It is right to do right,' it is\nquite clear that the attitude of intellectual assent, which was quite\nenough for the other order of statements, is not enough for this one;\nand to merely say, 'Oh yes, it is right to do right,' is by no means\nthe only attitude which we ought to take in regard to such a truth. And\nif God comes to me and says, 'Thou art a sinful man, and Jesus Christ\nhas died for thee; and if thou takest Him for thy Saviour thou shalt be\nsaved in this life, and saved for ever,' it is just as clear that no\nmere acceptance of the saying as a verity exhausts my proper attitude\nin reference to it. Or to come to plainer words, no man will really,\nand out and out, and adequately, believe this gospel unless he does a\ngreat deal more than assent to it or refrain from contradicting it.\n\nSo I desire to urge this form of the question on you now. Dear\nbrethren, do you _trust_ in 'this,' which you say you believe? There is\nno greater enemy of the Christian faith than the ordinary lazy\u2014what the\nphilosophers call _otiose_, which is only a grand word for lazy\u2014assent\nof the understanding, because men will not take the trouble to\ncontradict it or think about it.\n\nThat is the sort of Christianity which is the Christianity of a good\nmany church and chapel-goers. They do not care enough about the subject\nto contradict the ordinary run of belief. Of all impotent things there\nis nothing more impotent than a creed which lies idly in a man's head,\nand never has touched his heart or his will. Why, I should get on a\ngreat deal better if I were talking to people that had never heard\nanything about the gospel than I have any chance of getting on with\nyou, who have been drenched with it all your days, till it goes over\nyou and runs off like water off a duck's back. The shells that were\nhurled against the earthworks of Sebastopol broke away the front\nsurface of the mounds, and then the rubbish protected the\nfortifications; and that is what happens with many of my hearers. You\nhave heard the gospel so often that the _debris_ of your old hearings\nis raised between you and me, and my words cannot get at you.\n'Believest thou this?'\u2014not in the fashion in which people stand up in\nchurch or chapel and look about them and rattle off the Creed every\nSunday of their lives, and attach not the ghost of an idea to a single\nclause of it; but in the sense that the conviction of these truths is\nso deep in your hearts that it moves your whole nature to cast\nyourselves on Jesus Christ as your Saviour and your all. That is the\nbelief to which alone the life that is promised here will come. Oh!\nbrethren, I have no business to ask you the question, and you have no\nneed to answer it to me! Sometimes good, well-meaning people do a mint\nof harm by pushing such questions into the faces of people unprepared.\nBut take the question into your own hearts, and remember what belief\nis, and what it is that you have to believe, and answer according to\nits true significance, and in the light of conscience, the solemn\nquestion that I press upon you.\n\nII. Now, secondly, let me ask you to think of what depends upon the\nanswer.\n\nIn the case before us\u2014if I may look back to it for an instant\u2014there is\na very illuminative instance of what did depend upon it. Martha had to\nbelieve that Christ was the Resurrection and the Life as a condition\nprecedent to her seeing that He was so. For, as He said Himself before\nHe spoke the mighty word which raised Lazarus, 'Said I not unto thee\nthat if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?'\nand so her faith was the condition of her being able to verify the\nfacts which her faith grasped. Well, let me put that into plainer\nwords. It is just this\u2014a man gets from Christ what he trusts Christ to\ngive him, and there is no other way of proving the truth of His\npromises than by accepting His promises, and then they fulfil\nthemselves. You cannot know that a medicine will cure you till you\nswallow it. You must first 'taste' before you 'see that God is good.'\nFaith verifies itself by the experience it brings.\n\nAnd what does it bring? I said, all for which a man trusts Christ. All\nis summed up in that one favourite word of our Lord as revealed in this\nfourth Gospel, which includes in itself everything of blessedness and\nof righteousness\u2014life, life eternal. Dear brethren, you and I, apart\nfrom Jesus Christ, are dead in trespasses and sins. The life that we\nlive in the flesh is an apparent life, which covers over the true death\nof separation from God. And you young people, fix this in your minds at\nthe beginning, it will save you many a heartache, and many an\nerror\u2014there is nothing worth calling life, except that which comes to a\nquiet heart submissive and enfranchised through faith in Jesus Christ.\nAnd if you will trust yourselves to Him, and answer this question with\nyour ringing 'Yea, Lord!' then you will get a life which will quicken\nyou out of your deadness; a life which will mould you day by day into\nmore entire beauty of character and conformity with Himself; a life\nwhich will shed sweetness and charm over dusty commonplaces, and make\nsudden verdure spring in dreary, herbless deserts; a life which will\nbring a solemn joy into sorrow, a strength for every duty; which will\nbring manna in the wilderness, honey from the rock, light in darkness,\nand a present God for your sufficient portion; a life which will run on\ninto the dim glories of eternity, and know no change but advancement,\nthrough the millenniums of ages.\n\nBut, dear brethren, whilst thus, on condition of their faith, the door\ninto all divine and endless blessedness and progress is flung wide open\nfor men, do not forget the other side of the issues which depend on\nthis question. For if it is true that Jesus Christ is Life, and the\nSource of it, and that faith in Him is the way by which you and I get\nit, then there is no escape from the solemn conclusion that to be out\nof Christ, and not to be exercising faith in Him, is to be infected\nwith death, and to be shut up in a charnel-house. I dare not suppress\nthe plain teaching of Jesus Christ Himself: 'He that hath the Son hath\nlife; he that hath not the Son hath not life.' The issues that depend\nupon the answer to this question of my text may be summed up, if I may\nventure to say so, by taking the words of our Lord Himself and\nconverting them into their opposite. He said, 'He that believeth \u2026\nthough he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and\nbelieveth on Me shall never die.' That implies, He that believeth _not_\nin Christ, though he were living, yet shall he die, and whosoever\nliveth and believeth _not_ shall never live. _These_ are the issues\u2014the\nalternative issues\u2014that depend on your answer to this question.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, let me ask you to think of the direct personal\nappeal to every soul that lies in this question.\n\nI have dwelt upon two out of the three words of which the question is\ncomposed\u2014'_believest_ thou _this_?' Let me dwell for a moment on the\nthird of them\u2014'believest _thou_?'\n\nNow that suggests the thought on which I do not need to dwell, but\nwhich I seek briefly to lay upon your hearts and consciences\u2014viz., the\nintensely personal act of your own faith, by which alone Jesus Christ\ncan be of any use to you. Do not be led away by any vague notions which\npeople have about the benefits of a Church or its ordinances. Do not\nsuppose that any sacraments or any priest can do for you what you have\nto do in the awful solitude of your own determining will\u2014put out your\nhand and grasp Jesus Christ. Can any person or thing be the condition\nor channel of spiritual blessing to you, except in so far as your own\nindividual act of trust comes into play? You must take the bread with\nyour own hands, you must masticate it with your own teeth, you must\ndigest it with your own organs, before it can minister nourishment to\nyour blood and force to your life. And there is only one way by which\nany man can come into any vital and life-giving connection with Jesus\nChrist, and that is, by the exercise of his own personal faith.\n\nAnd remember, too, that as the exercise of uniting trust in Jesus\nChrist is exclusively your own affair, so exclusively your own affair\nis the responsibility of answering this question. To you alone is it\naddressed. You, and only you, have to answer it.\n\nThere was once a poor woman who went after Jesus Christ, and put out a\npale, wasted, tremulous finger to touch the hem of His garment. His\nfine sensitiveness detected the light pressure of that petitioning\nfinger, and allowed virtue to go out, though the crowd surged about Him\nand thronged Him. No crowds come between you and Jesus Christ. You and\nHe, the two of you, have, so to speak, the world to yourselves, and\nstraight to _you_ comes this question, 'Believest _thou_?'\n\nAh! brethren, that habit of skulking into the middle of the multitude,\nand letting the most earnest appeal from the pulpit go diffused over\nthe audience is the reason why you sit there quiet, complacent, perhaps\nwholly unaffected by what I am trying to make a pointed, individual\naddress. Suppose all the other people in this place of worship were\naway but you and I, would not the word that I am trying to speak come\nwith more force to your hearts than it does now? Well, think away the\nworld and all its millions, and realise the fact that you stand in\nChrist's presence, with all His regard concentrated upon you, and that\nto thee individually this question comes from a gracious, loving heart,\nwhich longs that you answer, 'Yea, Lord, I believe!'\n\nWhy should you not? Suppose you said to Him, 'No, Lord, I do not'; and\nsuppose He said, 'Why do you not?' what do you think you would say\nthen? You will have to answer it one day, in very solemn circumstances,\nwhen all the crowds will fall away, as they do from a soldier called\nout of the ranks to go up and answer for mutiny to his commanding\nofficer. 'Every one of us shall give an account of himself,' and the\nlips that said so lovingly at the grave of Lazarus, 'Believest thou\nthis?' and are saying it again, dear friend, to you, even through my\npoor words, will ask it once more. For this is the question the answer\nto which settles whether we shall stand at His right hand or at His\nleft. Say now, with humble faith, 'Yea, Lord!' and you will have the\nblessing of them who have not seen, and yet have believed.\n\n\n\n\nTHE OPEN GRAVE AT BETHANY\n\n\n'Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where\nMartha met Him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and\ncomforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went\nout, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then\nwhen Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His\nfeet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had\nnot died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also\nweeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was\ntroubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They say unto Him, Lord,\ncome and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him!\nAnd some of them said. Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of the\nblind, have caused that even this man should not have died! Jesus\ntherefore again groaning in Himself, cometh to the grave. It was a\ncave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone.\nMartha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this\ntime he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto\nher, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou\nshouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the\nplace where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said,\nFather, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I know that Thou\nhearest Me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it,\nthat they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And when He thus had\nspoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that\nwas dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his\nface was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him,\nand let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen\nthe things which Jesus did, believed on Him.'\u2014JOHN xi. 30-45.\n\nWhy did Jesus stay outside Bethany and summon Martha and Mary to come\nto Him? Apparently that He might keep Himself apart from the noisy\ncrowd of conventional mourners whose presence affronted the majesty and\nsanctity of sorrow, and that He might speak to the hearts of the two\nreal mourners. A divine decorum forbade Him to go to the house. The\nLife-bringer keeps apart. His comforts are spoken in solitude. He\nreverenced grief. How beautifully His sympathetic delicacy contrasts\nwith the heartless rush of those who 'were comforting' Mary when they\nthought that she was driven to go suddenly to the grave by a fresh\nburst of sorrow! If they had had any real sympathy or perception, they\nwould have stayed where they were, and let the poor burdened heart find\nease in lonely weeping. But, like all vulgar souls, they had one\nidea\u2014never to leave mourners alone or let them weep.\n\nThree stages seem discernible in the self-revelation of Jesus in this\ncrowning miracle: His agitation and tears, His majestic confidence in\nHis life-giving power now to be manifested, and His actual exercise of\nthat power.\n\nI. The repetition by Mary of Martha's words, as her first salutation,\ntells a pathetic story of the one thought that had filled both sisters'\nhearts in these four dreary days. Why had He not come? How easily He\ncould have come! How surely He could have prevented all this misery!\nConfidence in His power blends strangely with doubt as to His care. A\nhint of reproach is in the words, but more than a hint of faith in His\nmight. He does not rebuke the rash judgment implied, for He knew the\ntrue love underlying it; but He does not directly answer Mary, as He\nhad done Martha, for the two sisters needed different treatment.\n\nWe note that Mary has no such hope as Martha had expressed. Her more\npassive, meditative disposition had bowed itself, and let the grief\noverwhelm her. So in her we see a specimen of the excess of sorrow\nwhich indulges in the monotonous repetition of what would have happened\nif something else that did not happen had happened, and which is too\ndeeply dark to let a gleam of hope shine in. Words will do little to\ncomfort such grief. Silent sharing of its weeping and helpful deeds\nwill do most.\n\nSo a great wave of emotion swept across the usually calm soul of Jesus,\nwhich John bids us trace to its cause by 'therefore' (ver. 33). The\nsight of Mary's real, and the mourners' half-real, tears, and the sound\nof their loud 'keening,' shook His spirit, and He yielded to, and even\nencouraged, the rush of feeling ('troubled Himself'). But not only\nsympathy and sorrow ruffled the clear mirror of His spirit; another\ndisturbing element was present. He 'was moved with indignation' (Rev.\nVer. marg.). Anger at Providence often mingles with our grief, but that\nwas not Christ's indignation. The only worthy explanation of that\nstrange ingredient in Christ's agitation is that it was directed\nagainst the source of death,\u2014namely, sin. He saw the cause manifested\nin the effects. He wept for the one, He was wroth at the other. The\ntears witnessed to the perfect love of the man, and of the God revealed\nin the man; the indignation witnessed to the recoil and aversion from\nsin of the perfectly righteous Man, and of the holy God manifested in\nHim. We get one glimpse into His heart, as on to some ocean heaving and\nmist-covered. The momentary sight proclaims the union in Him, as the\nIncarnate Word, of pity for our woes and of aversion from our sins.\n\nHis question as to the place of the tomb is not what we should have\nexpected; but its very abruptness indicates effort to suppress emotion,\nand resolve to lose no time in redressing the grief. Most sweetly human\nare the tears that start afresh after the moment's repression, as the\nlittle company begin to move towards the grave. And most sadly human\nare the unsympathetic criticisms of His sacred sorrow. Even the best\naffected of the bystanders are cool enough to note them as tokens of\nHis love, at which perhaps there is a trace of wonder; while others\nsnarl out a sarcasm which is double-barrelled, as casting doubt on the\nreality either of the love or of the power. 'It is easy to weep, but if\nHe had cared for him, and could work miracles, He might surely have\nkept him alive.' How blind men are! 'Jesus wept,' and all that the\nlookers-on felt was astonishment that He should have cared so much for\na dead man of no importance, or carping doubt as to the genuineness of\nHis grief and the reality of His power. He shows us His pity and sorrow\nstill\u2014to no more effect with many.\n\nII. The passage to the tomb was marked by his continued agitation. But\nhis arrival there brought calm and majesty. Now the time has come which\nHe had in view when He left his refuge beyond Jordan; and, as is often\nthe case with ourselves, suddenly tremor and tumult leave the spirit\nwhen face to face with a moment of crisis. There is nothing more\nremarkable in this narrative than the contrast between Jesus weeping\nand indignant, and Jesus serene and authoritative as He stands fronting\nthe cave-sepulchre. The sudden transformation must have awed the\ngazers.\n\nHe points to the stone, which, probably like that of many a grave\ndiscovered in Palestine, rolled in a groove cut in the rocky floor in\nfront of the tomb. The command accords with His continual habit of\nconfining the miraculous within the narrowest limits. He will do\nnothing by miracle which can be done without it. Lazarus could have\nheard and emerged, though the stone had remained. If the story had been\na myth, he very likely would have done so. Like 'loose him, and let him\ngo,' this is a little touch that cannot have been invented, and helps\nto confirm the simple, historical character of the account.\n\nNot less natural, though certainly as unlikely to have been told unless\nit had happened, is Martha's interruption. She must have heard what was\ngoing on, and, with her usual activity, have joined the procession,\nthough we left her in the house. She thinks that Jesus is going into\nthe grave; and a certain reverence for the poor remains, as well as for\nHim, makes her shrink from the thought of even His loving eyes seeing\nthem now. Clearly she has forgotten the dim hopes which had begun in\nher when she talked with Jesus. Therefore He gently reminds her of\nthese; for His words (ver. 40) can scarcely refer to anything but that\ninterview, though the precise form of expression now used is not found\nin the report of it (vers. 25-27).\n\nWe mark Christ's calm confidence in His own power. His identification\nof its effect with the outflashing of the glory of God, and His\nencouragement to her to exercise faith by suspending her sight of that\nglory upon her faith. Does that mean that He would not raise her\nbrother unless she believed? No; for He had determined to 'awake him\nout of sleep' before He left Peraea. But Martha's faith was the\ncondition of her seeing the glory of God in the miracle. We may see a\nthousand emanations of that glory, and see none of it. We shall see it\nif we exercise faith. In the natural world, 'seeing is believing'; in\nthe spiritual, believing is seeing.\n\nEqually remarkable, as breathing serenest confidence, is the wonderful\nfilial prayer. Our Lord speaks as if the miracle were already\naccomplished, so sure is He: 'Thou heardest Me.' Does this thanksgiving\nbring Him down to the level of other servants of God who have wrought\nmiracles by divine power granted them? Certainly not; for it is in full\naccord with the teaching of all this Gospel, according to which 'the\nSon can do nothing of Himself,' but yet, whatsoever things the Father\ndoeth, 'these also doeth the Son likewise.' Both sides of the truth\nmust be kept in view. The Son is not independent of the Father, but the\nSon is so constantly and perfectly one with the Father that He is\nconscious of unbroken communion, of continual wielding of the whole\ndivine power.\n\nBut the practical purpose of the thanksgiving is to be specially noted.\nIt suspends His whole claims on the single issue about to be decided.\nIt summons the people to mark the event. Never before had He thus\nheralded a miracle. Never had He deigned to say thus solemnly, 'If God\ndoes not work through Me now, reject Me as an impostor; if He does,\nyield to Me as Messiah.' The moment stands alone in His life. What a\nscene! There is the open tomb, with its dead occupant; there are the\neager, sceptical crowd, the sisters pausing in their weeping to gaze,\nwith some strange hopes beginning to creep into their hearts, the\nsilent disciples, and, in front of them all, Jesus, with the radiance\nof power in the eyes that had just been swimming in tears, and a new\nelevation in His tones. How all would be hushed in expectance of the\nnext moment's act!\n\nIII. The miracle itself is told in the fewest words. What more was\nthere to tell? The two ends, as it were, of a buried chain, appear\nabove ground. Cause and effect were brought together. Rather, here was\nno chain of many links, as in physical phenomena, but here was the\nlife-giving word, and there was the dead man living again. The 'loud\nvoice' was as needless as the rolling away of the stone. It was but the\nsign of Christ's will acting. And the acting of His will, without any\nother cause, produces physical effects.\n\nLazarus was far away from that rock cave. But, wherever he was, he\ncould hear, and he must obey. So, with graveclothes entangling his\nfeet, and a napkin about his livid face, he came stumbling out into the\nlight that dazed his eyes, closed for four dark days, and stood silent\nand motionless in that awestruck crowd. One Person there was not\nawestruck. Christ's calm voice, that had just reverberated through the\nregions of the dead, spoke the simple command, 'Loose him, and let him\ngo.' To Him it was no wonder that He should give back a life. For the\nChrist who wept is the Christ whose voice all that are in the graves\nshall hear, and shall come forth.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SEVENTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL\u2014THE RAISING OF LAZARUS\n\n\n'And when Jesus thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus,\nCome forth. 44. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot\nwith grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin.'\u2014JOHN\nxi. 43, 44.\n\nThe series of our Lord's miracles before the Passion, as recorded in\nthis Gospel, is fitly closed with the raising of Lazarus. It crowns the\nwhole, whether we regard the greatness of the fact, the manner of our\nLord's working, the minuteness and richness of the accompanying\ndetails, the revelation of our Lord's heart, the consolations which it\nsuggests to sorrowing spirits, or the immortal hopes which it kindles.\n\nAnd besides all this, the miracle is of importance for the development\nof the Evangelist's purpose, in that it makes the immediate occasion of\nthe embittered hostility which finally precipitates the catastrophe of\nthe Cross. Therefore the great length to which the narrative extends.\n\nOf course it is impossible for us to attempt, even in the most cursory\nmanner, to go over the whole. We must content ourselves with dealing\nwith one or two of the salient points. And there are three things in\nthis narrative which I think well worthy of our notice. There is the\nrevelation of Christ as our Brother, by emotion and sorrow. There is\nthe revelation of Christ as our Lord by His consciousness of divine\npower. There is the revelation of Christ as our Life by His mighty\nlife-giving word. And to these three points I ask you to turn briefly.\n\nI. First, then, we have here a revelation of Christ as our Brother, by\nemotion and sorrow.\n\nThis miracle stands alone in the whole majestic series of His mighty\nworks by the fact that it is preceded by a storm of emotion, which\nshakes the frame of the Master, which He is represented by the\nEvangelist not so much as suppressing as fostering, and which diverges\nand parts itself into the two feelings expressed by His groans and by\nHis tears. The word which is rendered in our version 'He groaned in the\nspirit,' and which is twice repeated in the narrative, is, according to\nthe investigations of the most careful philological commentators,\nexpressive not only of the outward sign of an emotion, but of the\nnature of it. And the nature of the emotion is not merely the grief and\nthe sympathy which distilled in tears, but it is something deeper and\nother than that. The word contains in it at least a tinge of the\npassion of 'indignation' (as it is expressed in the margin of the\nRevised Version). What caused the indignation? Cannot we fancy how\nthere rose up, as in pale, spectral procession before His vision, the\nwhole long series of human sorrows and losses, of which one was visible\nthere before Him? He saw, in the one individual case, the whole\n_genus_. He saw the whole mass represented there, the ocean in the\ndrop, and He looked beyond the fact and linked it with its cause. And\nas there rose before Him the reality of man's desolation through sin,\nand the thought that all this misery, loss, pain, parting, death, was a\ncontradiction of the divine purpose, and an interruption of God's\norder, and that it had all been pulled down upon men's desperate heads\nby their own evil and their own folly, there rose in His heart the\nanger which is part of the perfectness of humanity when it looks upon\nsorrow linked by adamantine chains with sin.\n\nBut the lightning of the wrath dissolved soon into the rain of pity and\nof sorrow, and, as we read, 'Jesus wept.' Looking upon the weeping Mary\nand the lamenting crowd, and Himself feeling the pain of the parting\nfrom the friend whom He loved, the tears, which are the confession of\nhuman nature that it is passing through an emotion too deep for words,\ncame to His all-seeing eyes.\n\nOh! brethren, surely\u2014surely in this manifestation, or call it better,\nthis revelation of Christ the Lord, expressed in these two\nemotions\u2014surely there are large and blessed lessons for us! On them I\ncan only touch in the lightest manner. Here, for one thing, is the\nblessed sign and proof of His true brotherhood with us. This\nEvangelist, to whom it was given to tell the Church and the world more\nthan any of the others had imparted to them of the divine uniqueness of\nthe Master's person, had also given to him in charge the corresponding\nand complementary message\u2014to insist upon the reality and the verity of\nHis manhood. His proclamation was 'the Word was made flesh,' and he had\nto dwell on both parts of that message, showing Him as the Word and\nshowing Him as flesh. So he insists upon all the points which emerge in\nthe course of his narrative that show the reality of Christ's corporeal\nmanhood.\n\nHe joins with the others, who had no such lofty proclamation entrusted\nto them, in telling us how He was 'bone of our bone, and flesh of our\nflesh,' in that He hungered and thirsted and slept, and was wearied;\nhow He was man, reasonable soul and human spirit, in that He grieved\nand rejoiced, and wondered and desired, and mourned and wept. And so we\ncan look upon Him, and feel that this in very deed is One of ourselves,\nwith a spirit participant of all human experiences, and a heart\ntremulously vibrating with every emotion that belongs to man.\n\nHere we are also taught the sanction and the limits of sorrow.\nChristianity has nothing to do with the false Stoicism and the false\nreligion which is partly pride and partly insincerity, that proclaims\nit wrong to weep when God smites. But just as clearly and distinctly as\nthe story before us says to us, 'Weep for yourselves and for the loved\nones that are gone,' so distinctly does it draw the limits within which\nsorrow is sacred and hallowing, and beyond which it is harmful and\nweakening. Set side by side the grief of these two poor weeping\nsisters, and the grief of the weeping Christ, and we get a large\nlesson. They could only repine that something else had not happened\ndifferently which would have made all different. 'If Thou hadst been\nhere, my brother had not died.' One of the two sits with folded arms in\nthe house, letting her sorrow flow over her pained head. Martha is\nunable, by reason of her grief, to grasp the consolation that is held\nout to her; her sorrow has made the hopes of the future seem to her\nvery dim and of small account, and she puts away 'Thy brother shall\nrise again' with almost an impatient sweep of her hand. 'I know that he\nwill rise in the resurrection at the last day. But oh! that is so far\naway, and what I want is present comfort.' Thus oblivious of duty,\nmurmuring with regard to the accidents which might have been different,\nand unfitted to grasp the hopes that fill the future, these two have\nbeen hurt by their grief, and have let it overflow its banks and lay\nwaste the land. But this Christ in His sorrow checks His sorrow that He\nmay do His work; in His sorrow is confident that the Father hears; in\nHis sorrow thinks of the bystanders, and would bring comfort and cheer\nto them. A sorrow which makes us more conscious of communion with the\nFather who is always listening, which makes us more conscious of power\nto do that which He has put it into our hand to do, which makes us more\ntender in our sympathies with all that mourn, and swifter and readier\nfor our work\u2014such a sorrow is doing what God meant for us; and is a\nblessing in so thin a disguise that we can scarcely call it veiled at\nall.\n\nAnd then, still further, there are here other lessons on which I cannot\ntouch. Such, for instance, is the revelation in this emotion of the\nMaster's, of a personal love that takes individuals to His heart, and\nfeels all the sweetness and the power of friendship. That personal love\nis open to every one of us, and into the grace and the tenderness of it\nwe may all penetrate. 'The disciple whom Jesus loved' is the Evangelist\nwho, without jealousy, is glad to tell us that the same loving Lord\ntook into the same sanctuary of His pure heart, Mary and Martha, and\nher brother. That which was given to them was not taken from him, and\nthey each possessed the whole of the Master's love. So for every one of\nus that heart is wide open, and you and I, brethren, may contract such\npersonal relations to the Master that we shall live with Christ as a\nman with his friend, and may feel that His heart is all ours.\n\nSo much for the lessons of the emotions whereby Christ is manifested to\nus as our Brother.\n\nII. And now turn, in the next place, and that very briefly, to what\nlies side by side with this in the story, and at first sight may seem\nstrangely contradictory of it, but in fact only completes the idea,\nviz. the majesties, calm consciousness of divine power by which He is\nrevealed as our Lord.\n\nAt one step from the agitation and the storm of feeling there comes,\n'Take ye away the stone.' And in answer to the lamentations of the\nsister are spoken the great and wonderful words, 'Said I not unto thee\nthat if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?' And\nHe looks back there to the message that had been sent to the sisters in\nresponse to their unspoken hope that He would come, 'This sickness is\nnot unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be\nglorified thereby.' And He shows us that from the first moment, with\nthe spontaneousness which, as I have already remarked in previous\nsermons on these 'signs,' characterises all the miracles of John's\nGospel, 'He Himself knew what He would do,' and in the consciousness of\nHis divine power had resolved that the dead Lazarus should be the\noccasion for the manifestation, the flashing out to the world, of the\nglory of God in the life-giving Son.\n\nAnd then, in the same tone of majestic consciousness, there follows\nthat thanksgiving _prior_ to the miracle as for the accomplished\nmiracle. 'I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me, and I knew that Thou\nhearest Me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it,\nthat they may believe that Thou hast sent Me.' The best commentary upon\nthese words, the deepest and the fullest exposition of the large truths\nthat lie in them concerning the co-operation of the Father and the Son,\nis to be found in the passage from the fifth chapter of this Gospel,\nwherein there is set forth, drawn with the firmest hand, the clearest\nlines of truth upon this great and profound subject. 'The Son does\nnothing of Himself,' but 'whatsoever the Father doeth, that doeth the\nSon likewise.' A consciousness of continual co-operation with the\nAlmighty Father, a consciousness that His will continually coincides\nwith the Father's will, that unto Him there comes the power ever to do\nall that Omnipotence can do, and that though we may speak of a gift\ngiven and a power derived, the relation between the giving Father and\nthe recipient Son is altogether different from, and other than the\nrelation between, the man that asks and the God that bestows. Poor\nMartha said, 'I know that even now, whatsoever Thou askest of God He\nwill give Thee.' She thought of Him as a good Man whose prayers had\npower with Heaven. But up into an altogether other region soars the\nconsciousness expressed in these words as of a divine Son whose work is\nwholly parallel with the Father's work, and of whom the two things that\nsound contradictory can both be said. His omnipotence is His own; His\nomnipotence is the Father's: 'As the Father hath life' and therefore\npower in Himself, 'so hath He _given_'\u2014there is the one half of the\nparadox\u2014'so hath He given to the Son to have life _in Himself_'; there\nis the other. And unless you put them both together you do not think of\nChrist as Christ has taught us to think.\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here the revelation of Christ as our Life in His\nmighty, life-giving word.\n\nThe miracle, as I have said, stands high in the scale, not only by\nreason of what to us seems the greatness of the fact, though of course,\nproperly speaking, in miracles there is no distinction as to the\ngreatness of the fact, but also by reason of the manner of the working.\nThe voice thrown into the cave reaches the ears of the sheeted dead:\n'Lazarus, come forth!' And then, in words which convey the profound\nimpression of awfulness and solemnity which had been made upon the\nEvangelist, we have the picture of the man with the graveclothes\nwrapped about his limbs, stumbling forth; and loving hands are bidden\nto take away the napkin which covered his face. Perhaps the hand\ntrembled as it was put forth, not knowing what awful sight the veil\nmight cover.\n\nWith tenderest reticence, no word is spoken as to what followed. No\nhint escapes of the joy, no gleam of the experiences which the\ntraveller brought back with him from that 'bourne' whence he had come.\nSurely some draught of Lethe must have been given him, that his spirit\nmight be lulled into a wholesome forgetfulness, else life must have\nbeen a torment to him.\n\nBut be that as it may, what we have to notice is the fact here, and\nwhat it teaches us as a fact. Is it not a revelation of Jesus Christ as\nthe absolute Lord of Life and Death, giving the one, putting back the\nother? Death has caught hold of his prey. 'Shall the prey be taken from\nthe mighty, and the lawful captive delivered? Yea, the prey shall be\ntaken from the mighty.' His bare word is divinely operative. He says to\nthat grisly shadow 'Come!' and he cometh; He says to him 'Go!' and he\ngoeth. And as a shepherd will drive away the bear that has a lamb\nbetween his bloody fangs, and the brute retreats, snarling and\ngrowling, but dropping his prey, so at the Lord's voice Lazarus comes\nback to life, and disappointed Death skulks away to the darkness.\n\nThe miracle shows Him as Lord of Death and Giver of Life. And it\nteaches another lesson, namely, the continuous persistency of the bond\nbetween Christ and His friend, unbroken and untouched by the\nsuperficial accident of life or death. Wheresoever Lazarus was he heard\nthe voice, and wheresoever Lazarus was he knew the voice, and\nwheresoever Lazarus was he obeyed the voice. And so we are taught that\nthe relationship between Christ our life, and all them that love and\ntrust Him, is one on which the tooth of death that gnaws all other\nbonds in twain hath no power at all. Christ is the Life, and,\ntherefore, Christ is the Resurrection, and the thing that we call death\nis but a film which spreads on the surface, but has no power to\npenetrate into the depths of the relationship between us and Him.\n\nSuch, in briefest words, are the lessons of the miracle as a fact, but\nbefore I close I must remind you that it is to be looked at not only as\na fact, but as a prophecy and as a parable.\n\nIt is a prophecy in a modified sense, telling us at all events that He\nhas the power to bid men back from the dust and darkness, and giving us\nthe assurance which His own words convey to us yet more distinctly:\n'The hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear His\nvoice and shall come forth.' My brother! there be two resurrections in\nthat one promise: the resurrection of Christ's friends and the\nresurrection of Christ's foes. And though to both His voice will be the\nawakening, some shall rise to joy and immortality and 'some to shame\nand everlasting contempt.' You will hear the voice; settle it for\nyourselves whether when He calls and thou answerest thou wilt say, 'Lo!\nhere am I,' joyful to look upon Him; or whether thou wilt rise\nreluctant, and 'call upon the rocks and the hills to cover thee, and to\nhide thee from the face of Him that sitteth upon the Throne.'\n\nAnd this raising is a parable as well as a prophecy; for even as Christ\nwas the life of this Lazarus, so, in a deeper and more real sense, and\nnot in any shadowy, metaphorical, mystical sense, is Jesus Christ the\nlife of every spirit that truly lives at all. We are 'dead in\ntrespasses and sins.' For separation from God is death in all regions,\ndeath for the body in its kind, death for the mind, for the soul, for\nthe spirit in their kinds; and only they who receive Christ into their\nhearts do live. Every Christian man is a miracle. There has been a true\ncoming into the human of the divine, a true supernatural work, the\ninfusion into a dead soul of the God-life which is the Christ-life.\n\nAnd you and I may have that life. What is the condition? 'They that\nhear shall live.' Do you hear? Do you welcome? Do you take that Christ\ninto your hearts? Is He your Life, my brother?\n\nIt is possible to resist that voice, to stuff your ears so full of\nclay, and worldliness, and sin, and self-reliance as that it shall not\necho in your hearts. 'The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead\nshall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they that hear shall live,'\nand obtain to-day 'a better resurrection' than the resurrection of the\nbody. If you do not hear that voice, then you will 'remain in the\ncongregation of the dead.'\n\n\n\n\nCAIAPHAS\n\n\n'And one of them, named Caiaphas being the high priest that same year,\nsaid unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is\nexpedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the\nwhole nation perish not.'\u2014JOHN xi. 49,50.\n\nThe resurrection of Lazarus had raised a wave of popular excitement.\nAny stir amongst the people was dangerous, especially at the Passover\ntime, which was nigh at hand, when Jerusalem would be filled with\ncrowds of men, ready to take fire from any spark that might fall\namongst them. So a hasty meeting of the principal ecclesiastical\ncouncil of the Jews was summoned, in order to dismiss the situation,\nand concert measures for repressing the nascent enthusiasm. One might\nhave expected to find there some disposition to inquire honestly into\nthe claims of a Teacher who had such a witness to His claims as a man\nalive that had been dead. But nothing of the sort appears in their\nignoble calculations. Like all weak men, they feel that 'something must\nbe done' and are perfectly unable to say what. They admit Christ's\nmiracles: 'This man doeth many miracles,' but they are not a bit the\nnearer to recognising His mission, being therein disobedient to their\nlaw and untrue to their office. They fear that any disturbance will\nbring Rome's heavy hand down on them, and lead to the loss of what\nnational life they still possess. But even that fear is not patriotism\nnor religion. It is pure self-interest. 'They will take away _our_\nplace'\u2014the Temple, probably\u2014'and our nation.' The holy things were, in\ntheir eyes, their special property. And so, at this supreme moment, big\nwith the fate of themselves and of their nation, their whole anxiety is\nabout personal interests. They hesitate, and are at a loss what to do.\n\nBut however they may hesitate, there is one man who knows his own\nmind\u2014Caiaphas, the high priest. He has no doubt as to what is the right\nthing to do. He has the advantage of a perfectly clear and single\npurpose, and no sort of restraint of conscience or delicacy keeps him\nfrom speaking it out. He is impatient at their vacillation, and he\nbrushes it all aside with the brusque and contemptuous speech: 'Ye know\nnothing at all!' 'The one point of view for us to take is that of our\nown interests. Let us have that clearly understood; when we once ask\nwhat is \"expedient for us,\" there will be no doubt about the answer.\nThis man must die. Never mind about His miracles, or His teaching, or\nthe beauty of His character. His life is a perpetual danger to our\nprerogatives. I vote for death!' And so he clashes his advice down into\nthe middle of their waverings, like a piece of iron into yielding\nwater; and the strong man, restrained by no conscience, and speaking\nout cynically the thought that is floating in all their minds, but\nwhich they dare not utter, is master of the situation, and the resolve\nis taken. 'From that day forth' they determined to put Him to death.\n\nBut John regards this selfish, cruel advice as a prophecy. Caiaphas\nspoke wiser things than he knew. The Divine Spirit breathed in strange\nfashion through even such lips as his, and moulded his savage utterance\ninto such a form as that it became a fit expression for the very\ndeepest thought about the nature and the power of Christ's death. He\ndid indeed die for that people\u2014thinks the Evangelist\u2014even though they\nhave rejected Him, and the dreaded Romans _have_ come and taken away\nour place and nation\u2014but His death had a wider purpose, and was not for\nthat nation only, but that also 'He should gather together in one the\nchildren of God that are scattered abroad.'\n\nLet us, then, take these two aspects of the man and his counsel: the\nunscrupulous priest and his savage advice; the unconscious prophet and\nhis great prediction.\n\nI. First, then, let us take the former point of view, and think of this\nunscrupulous priest and his savage advice. 'It is expedient for us that\none man die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.'\n\nRemember who he was, the high priest of the nation, with Aaron's mitre\non his brow, and centuries of illustrious traditions embodied in his\nperson; set by his very office to tend the sacred flame of their\nMessianic hopes, and with pure hands and heart to offer sacrifice for\nthe sins of the people; the head and crown of the national religion, in\nwhose heart justice and mercy should have found a sanctuary if they had\nfled from all others; whose ears ought to have been opened to the\nfaintest whisper of the voice of God; whose lips should ever have been\nready to witness for the truth.\n\nAnd see what he is! A crafty schemer, as blind as a mole to the beauty\nof Christ's character and the greatness of His words; utterly\nunspiritual; undisguisedly selfish; rude as a boor; cruel as a\ncut-throat; and having reached that supreme height of wickedness in\nwhich he can dress his ugliest thought in the plainest words, and send\nthem into the world unabashed. What a lesson this speech of Caiaphas,\nand the character disclosed by it, read to all persons who have a\nprofessional connection with religion!\n\nHe can take one point of view only, in regard to the mightiest\nspiritual revelation that the world ever saw; and that is, its bearing\nupon his own miserable personal interests, and the interests of the\norder to which he belongs. And so, whatever may be the wisdom, or\nmiracles, or goodness of Jesus, because He threatens the prerogatives\nof the priesthood, He must die and be got out of the way.\n\nThis is only an extreme case of a temper and a tendency which is\nperennial. Popes and inquisitors and priests of all Churches have done\nthe same, in their degree, in all ages. They have always been tempted\nto look upon religion and religious truth and religious organisations\nas existing somehow for their personal advantage. And so 'the Church is\nin danger!' generally means 'my position is threatened,' and heretics\nare got rid of, because their teaching is inconvenient for the\nprerogatives of a priesthood, and new truth is fought against, because\nofficials do not see how it harmonises with their pre-eminence.\n\nIt is not popes and priests and inquisitors only that are examples of\nthe tendency. The warning is needed by every man who stands in such a\nposition as mine, whose business it is professionally to handle sacred\nthings, and to administer Christian institutions and Christian ritual.\nAll such men are tempted to look upon the truth as their\nstock-in-trade, and to fight against innovations, and to array\nthemselves instinctively against progress, and frown down new aspects\nand new teachers of truth, simply because they threaten, or appear to\nthreaten, the position and prerogatives of the teachers that be.\nCaiaphas's sin is possible, and Caiaphas's temptation is actual, for\nevery man whose profession it is to handle the oracles of God.\n\nBut the lessons of this speech and character are for us all. Caiaphas's\nsentence is an undisguised, unblushing avowal of a purely selfish\nstandpoint. It is not a common depth of degradation to stand up, and\nwithout a blush to say: 'I look at all claims of revelation, at all\nprofessedly spiritual truth, and at everything else, from one\ndelightfully simple point of view\u2014I ask myself, how does it bear upon\nwhat I think to be to my advantage?' What a deal of perplexity a man is\nsaved if he takes up that position! Yes! and how he has damned himself\nin the very act of doing it! For, look what this absorbing and\nexclusive self-regard does in the illustration before us, and let us\nlearn what it will do to ourselves.\n\nThis selfish consideration of our own interests will make us as blind\nas bats to the most radiant beauty of truth; aye, and to Christ\nHimself, if the recognition of Him and of His message seems to threaten\nany of these. They tell us that fishes which live in the water of\ncaverns come to lose their eyesight; and men that are always living in\nthe dark holes of their own selfishly absorbed natures, they, too, lose\ntheir spiritual sight; and the fairest, loftiest, truest, and most\nradiant visions (which are realities) pass before their eyes, and they\nsee them not. When you put on regard for yourselves as they do blinkers\nupon horses, you have no longer the power of wide, comprehensive\nvision, but only see straight forward upon the narrow line which you\nfancy to be marked out by your own interests. If ever there comes into\nthe selfish man's mind a truth, or an aspect of Christ's mission, which\nmay seem to cut against some of his practices or interests, how blind\nhe is to it! When Lord Nelson was at Copenhagen, and they hoisted the\nsignal of recall, he put his telescope up to his blind eye and said, 'I\ndo not see it!' And that is exactly what this self-absorbed regard to\nour own interests does with hundreds of men who do not in the least\ndegree know it. It blinds them to the plain will of the\nCommander-in-chief flying there at the masthead. 'There are none so\nblind as those who will not see'; and there are none who so certainly\nwill not see as those who have an uneasy suspicion that if they do see\nthey will have to change their tack. So I say, look at the instance\nbefore us, and learn the lesson of the blindness to truth and beauty\nwhich are Christ Himself, which comes of a regard to one's own\ninterests.\n\nThen again, this same self-regard may bring a man down to any kind and\ndegree of wrongdoing. Caiaphas was brought down by it, being the\nsupreme judge of his nation, to be an assassin and an accomplice of\nmurderers. And it is only a question of accident and of circumstances\nhow far that man will descend who once yields himself up to the\nguidance of such a disposition and tendency. We have all of us to fight\nagainst the developed selfishness which takes the form of this, that,\nand the other sin; and we have all of us, if we are wise, to fight\nagainst the undeveloped sin which lies in all selfishness. Remember\nthat if you begin with laying down as the canon of your conduct, 'It is\nexpedient for me,' you have got upon an inclined plane that tilts at a\nvery sharp angle, and is very sufficiently greased, and ends away down\nyonder in the depths of darkness and of death, and it is only a\nquestion of time how far and how fast, how deep and irrevocable, will\nbe your descent.\n\nAnd lastly, this same way of looking at things which takes 'It is\nexpedient' as the determining consideration, has in it an awful power\nof so twisting and searing a man's conscience as that he comes to look\nat evil and never to know that there is anything wrong in it. This\ncynical high priest in our text had no conception that he was doing\nanything but obeying the plainest dictates of the most natural\nself-preservation when he gave his opinion that they had better kill\nChrist than have any danger to their priesthood. The crime of the\nactual crucifixion was diminished because the doers were so unconscious\nthat it was a crime; but the crime of the process by which they had\ncome to be unconscious\u2014Oh how that was increased and deepened! So, if\nwe fix our eyes sharply and exclusively on what makes for our own\nadvantage, and take that as the point of view from which we determine\nour conduct, we may, and we shall, bring ourselves into such a\ncondition as that our consciences will cease to be sensitive to right\nand wrong; and we shall do all manner of bad things, and never know it.\nWe shall 'wipe our mouths and say: \"I have done no harm.\"' So, I\nbeseech you, remember this, that to live for self is hell, and that the\nonly antagonist of such selfishness, which leads to blindness, crime,\nand a seared conscience, is to yield ourselves to the love of God in\nJesus Christ and to say: 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.'\n\nII. And now turn briefly to the second aspect of this saying, into\nwhich the former, if I may so say, melts away. We have the unconscious\nprophet and his great prediction.\n\nThe Evangelist conceives that the man who filled the office of high\npriest, being the head of the theocratic community, was naturally the\nmedium of a divine oracle. When he says, 'being the high priest _that\nyear_, Caiaphas prophesied,' he does not imply that the high priestly\noffice was annual, but simply desires to mark the fateful importance of\nthat year for the history of the world and the priesthood. 'In that\nyear' the great 'High Priest for ever' came and stood for a moment by\nthe side of the earthly high priest\u2014the Substance by the shadow\u2014and by\nHis offering of Himself as the one Sacrifice for sin for ever, deprived\npriesthood and sacrifice henceforward of all their validity. So that\nCaiaphas was in reality the last of the high priests, and those that\nsucceeded him for something less than half a century were but like\nghosts that walked after cock-crow. And what the Evangelist would mark\nis the importance of 'that year,' as making Caiaphas ever memorable to\nus. Solemn and strange that the long line of Aaron's priesthood ended\nin such a man\u2014the river in a putrid morass\u2014and that of all the years in\nthe history of the nation, 'in that year' should such a person fill\nsuch an office!\n\n'Being high priest he prophesied.' And was there anything strange in a\nbad man's prophesying? Did not the Spirit of God breathe through Balaam\nof old? Is there anything incredible in a man's prophesying\nunconsciously? Did not Pilate do so, when he nailed over the Cross,\n'This is the King of the Jews,' and wrote it in Hebrew, and in Greek,\nand in Latin, conceiving himself to be perpetrating a rude jest, while\nhe was proclaiming an everlasting truth? When the Pharisees stood at\nthe foot of the Cross and taunted Him, 'He saved others, Himself He\ncannot save,' did they not, too, speak deeper things than they knew?\nAnd were not the lips of this unworthy, selfish, unspiritual,\nunscrupulous, cruel priest so used as that, all unconsciously, his\nwords lent themselves to the proclamation of the glorious central truth\nof Christianity, that Christ died for the nation that slew Him and\nrejected Him, nor for them alone, but for all the world? Look, though\nbut for a moment, at the thoughts that come from this new view of the\nwords which we have been considering.\n\nThey suggest to us, first of all, the twofold aspect of Christ's death.\nFrom the human point of view it was a savage murder by forms of law for\npolitical ends: Caiaphas and the priests slaying Him to avoid a popular\ntumult that might threaten their prerogatives, Pilate consenting to His\ndeath to avoid the unpopularity that might follow a refusal. From the\ndivine point of view it is God's great sacrifice for the sin of the\nworld. It is the most signal instance of that solemn law of Providence\nwhich runs all through the history of the world, whereby bad men's bad\ndeeds, strained through the fine network, as it were, of the divine\nprovidence, lose their poison and become nutritious and fertilising.\n'Thou makest the wrath of men to praise Thee; with the residue thereof\nThou girdest Thyself.' The greatest crime ever done in the world is the\ngreatest blessing ever given to the world. Man's sin works out the\nloftiest divine purpose, even as the coral insects blindly build up the\nreef that keeps back the waters, or as the sea in its wild, impotent\nrage, seeking to overwhelm the land, only throws upon the beach a\nbarrier that confines its waves and curbs their fury.\n\nThen, again, this second aspect of the counsel of Caiaphas suggests for\nus the twofold consequences of that death on the nation itself. This\nGospel of John was probably written after the destruction of Jerusalem.\nBy the time that our Evangelist penned these words, the Romans _had_\ncome and taken away their place and their nation. The catastrophe that\nCaiaphas and his party had, by their short-sighted policy, tried to\nprevent, had been brought about by the very deed itself. For Christ's\ndeath was practically the reason for the destruction of the Jewish\ncommonwealth. When 'the husbandmen said, Come! let us kill Him, and\nseize on the inheritance,' which is simply putting Caiaphas's counsel\ninto other language, they thereby deprived themselves of the\ninheritance. And so Christ's death was the destruction and not the\nsalvation of the nation.\n\nAnd yet, it was true that He died for that people, for every man of\nthem, for Caiaphas as truly as for John, for Judas as truly as for\nPeter, for all the Scribes and the Pharisees that mocked round His\nCross, as truly as for the women that stood silently weeping there. He\ndied for them all, and John, looking back upon the destruction of his\nnation, can yet say, 'He died for that people.' Yes! and just because\nHe did, and because they rejected Him, His death, which they would not\nlet be their salvation, became their destruction and their ruin. Oh!\nbrethren, it is always so! He is either 'a savour of life unto life, or\na savour of death unto death!' 'Behold! I lay in Zion for a foundation,\na tried Stone.' Build upon it and you are safe. If you do not build\nupon it, that Stone becomes 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of\noffence.' You must either build upon Christ or fall over Him; you must\neither build _upon_ Christ, or be crushed to powder _under_ Him. Make\nyour choice! The twofold effect is wrought ever, but we can choose\nwhich of the two shall be wrought upon us.\n\nLastly, we have here the twofold sphere in which our Lord's mighty\ndeath works its effects.\n\nI have already said that this Gospel was written after the fall of\nJerusalem. The whole tone of it shows that the conception of the Church\nas quite separate from Judaism was firmly established. The narrower\nnational system had been shivered, and from out of the dust and hideous\nruin of its crushing fall had emerged the fairer reality of a Church as\nwide as the world. The Temple on Zion\u2014which was but a small building\nafter all\u2014had been burned with fire. It was _their_ place, as Caiaphas\ncalled it. But the clearing away of the narrower edifice had revealed\nthe rising walls of the great temple, the Christian Church, whose roof\noverarches every land, and in whose courts all men may stand and praise\nthe Lord. So John, in his home in Ephesus, surrounded by flourishing\nchurches in which Jews formed a small and ever-decreasing element,\nrecognised how far the dove with the olive-branch In its mouth flew,\nand how certainly that nation was only a little fragment of the many\nfor whom Christ died.\n\n'The children of God that were scattered abroad' were all to be united\nround that Cross. Yes! the only thing that unites men together is their\ncommon relation to a Divine Redeemer. That bond is deeper than all\nnational bonds, than all blood-bonds, than community of race, than\nfamily, than friendship, than social ties, than community of opinion,\nthan community of purpose and action. It is destined to absorb them\nall. All these are transitory and they are imperfect; men wander\nisolated notwithstanding them all. But if we are knit to Christ, we are\nknit to all who are also knit to Him. One life animates all the limbs,\nand one life's blood circulates through all the veins. 'So also is\nChrist.' We are one in Him, in whom all the body fitly joined together\nmaketh increase, and in whom all the building fitly framed together\ngroweth. If we have yielded to the power of that Cross which draws us\nto itself, we shall have been more utterly alone, in our penitence and\nin our conscious surrender to Christ, than ever we were before. But He\nsets the solitary in families, and that solemn experience of being\nalone with our Judge and our Saviour will be followed by the blessed\nsense that we are no more solitary, but 'fellow-citizens with the\nsaints and of the household of God.'\n\nThat death brings men into the _family_ of God. He will 'gather into\none the scattered children of God.' They are called children by\nanticipation. For surely nothing can be clearer than that the doctrine\nof all John's writings is that men are not children of God by virtue of\ntheir humanity, except in the inferior sense of being made by Him, and\nin His image as creatures with spirit and will, but _become_ children\nof God through faith in the Son of God, which brings about that new\nbirth, whereby we become partakers of the Divine nature. 'To as many as\nreceived Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to\nthem that believe on His name.'\n\nSo I beseech you, turn yourselves to that dear Christ who has died for\nus all, for us each, for me and for thee, and put your confidence in\nHis great sacrifice. You will find that you pass from isolation into\nsociety, from death into life, from the death of selfishness into the\nlife of God. Listen to Him, who says: 'Other sheep I have which are not\nof this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice: and\nthere shall be one flock' because there is 'one Shepherd.'\n\n\n\n\nLOVE'S PRODIGALITY CENSURED AND VINDICATED\n\n\n'Then Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where\nLazarus was which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead. There\nthey made Him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them\nthat sat at the table with Him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of\nspikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His\nfeet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the\nointment. Then saith one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son,\nwhich should betray Him, Why was not this ointment sold for three\nhundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared\nfor the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare\nwhat was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day\nof My burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you;\nbut Me ye have not always. Much people of the Jews therefore knew that\nHe was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they\nmight see Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead. But the chief\npriests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; because\nthat by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on\nJesus.'\u2014JOHN xii. 1-11.\n\nJesus came from Jericho, where He had left Zacchaeus rejoicing in the\nsalvation that had come to his house, and whence Bartimaeus, rejoicing\nin His new power of vision, seems to have followed Him. A few hours\nbrought Him to Bethany, and we know from other Evangelists what a\ntension of purpose marked Him, and awed the disciples, as He pressed on\nbefore them up the rocky way. His mind was full of the struggle and\ndeath which were so near. The modest village feast in the house of\nSimon the leper comes in strangely amid the gathering gloom; but, no\ndoubt, Jesus accepted it, as He did everything, and entered into the\nspirit of the hour. He would not pain His hosts by self-absorbed\naloofness at the table. The reason for the feast is obviously the\nraising of Lazarus, as is suggested by his being twice mentioned in\nverses 1 and 2.\n\nOur Lord had withdrawn to Ephraim so immediately after the miracle that\nthe opportunity of honouring Him had not occurred. It was a brave\ntribute to pay Him in the face of the Sanhedrim's commandment (ch. xi.\n57). This incident sets in sharpest contrast the two figures of Mary,\nthe type of love which delights to give its best, and Judas, the type\nof selfishness which is only eager to get; and it shows us Jesus\ncasting His shield over the uncalculating giver, and putting meaning\ninto her deed.\n\nI. In Eastern fashion, the guests seem to have all been males, no doubt\nthe magnates of the village, and Jesus with His disciples. The former\nwould have become accustomed to seeing Lazarus, but Christ's immediate\nfollowers would gaze curiously on him. And how he would gaze on Jesus,\nwhom he had probably not seen since the napkin had been taken from his\nface. The two sisters were true to their respective characters. The\nbustling, practical Martha had perhaps not very fine or quickly moved\nemotions. She could not say graceful things to their benefactor, and\nprobably she did not care to sit at His feet and drink in His teaching;\nbut she loved Him with all her heart all the same, and showed it by\nserving. No doubt, she took care that the best dishes were carried to\nJesus first, and, no doubt, as is the custom in those lands, she plied\nHim with invitations to partake. We do Martha less than justice if we\ndo not honour her, and recognise that her kind of service is true\nservice. She has many successors among Christ's true followers, who\ncannot 'gush' nor rise to the heights of His loftiest teaching, but who\nhave taken Him for their Lord, and can, at any rate, do humble,\npractical service in kitchen or workshop. Their more 'intellectual' or\npoetically emotional brethren are tempted to look down on them, but\nJesus is as ready to defend Martha against Mary, if she depreciates\nher, as He is to vindicate Mary's right to her kind of expression of\nlove, if Martha should seek to force her own kind on her sister. 'There\nare differences of ministries, but the same Lord.'\n\nMary was one of the unpractical sort, whom Martha is very apt to\nconsider supremely useless, and often to lose patience with. Could she\nnot find something useful to do in all the bustle of the feast? Had she\nno hands that could carry a dish, and no common sense that could help\nthings on? Apparently not. Every one else was occupied, and how should\nshe show the love that welled up in her heart as she looked at Lazarus\nsitting there beside Jesus? She had one costly possession, the pound of\nperfume. Clearly it was her own, for she would not have taken it if\nLazarus and Mary had been joint owners. So, without thinking of\nanything but the great burden of love which she blessedly bore, she\n'poured it on His head' (Mark) and on His feet, which the fashion of\nreclining at meals made accessible to her, standing behind Him, True\nlove is profuse, not to say prodigal. It knows no better use for its\nbest than to lavish it on the beloved, and can have no higher joy than\nthat. It does not stay to calculate utility as seen by colder eyes. It\nhas even a subtle delight in the very absence of practical results, for\nthe expression of itself is the purer thereby. A basin of water and a\ntowel would have done as well or better for washing Christ's feet, but\nnot for relieving Mary's full heart. Do we know anything of that\nomnipotent impulse? Can we complacently set our givings beside Mary's?\n\nII. Judas is the foil to Mary. His sullen, black selfishness,\nstretching out hands like talons in eagerness to get, makes more\nradiant, and is itself made darker by, her shining deed of love.\nGoodness always rouses evil to self-assertion, and the other\nEvangelists connect Mary's action with Judas's final treachery as part\nof its impelling cause. They also show that his specious objection, by\nits apparent common sense and charitableness, found assent in the\ndisciples. Three hundred pence worth of good ointment wasted which\nmight have helped so many poor! Yes, and how much poorer the world\nwould have been if it had not had this story! Mary was more utilitarian\nthan her censors. She served the highest good of all generations by her\nuncalculating profusion, by which the poor have gained more than some\nfew of them might have lost.\n\nJudas's criticism is still repeated. The world does not understand\nChristian self-sacrifice, for ends which seem to it shadowy as compared\nwith the solid realities of helping material progress or satisfying\nmaterial wants. A hundred critics, who do not do much for the poor\nthemselves, will descant on the waste of money in religious\nenterprises, and smile condescendingly at the enthusiasts who are so\nunpractical. But love knows its own meaning, and need not be abashed by\nthe censure of the unloving.\n\nJohn flashes out into a moment's indignation at the greed of Judas,\nwhich was masquerading as benevolence. His scathing laying bare of\nJudas's mean and thievish motive is no mere suspicion, but he must have\nknown instances of dishonesty. When a man has gone so far in selfish\ngreed that he has left common honesty behind him, no wonder if the\nsight of utterly self-surrendering love looks to him folly. The world\nhas no instruments by which it can measure the elevation of the godly\nlife. Mary would not be Mary if Judas approved of her or understood\nher.\n\nIII. Jesus vindicates the act of His censured servant. His words fall\ninto two parts, of which the former puts a meaning into Mary's act, of\nwhich she probably had not been aware, while the latter meets the\ncarping criticism of Judas. That Jesus should see in the anointing a\nreference to His burying, pathetically indicates how that near end\nfilled His thoughts, even while sharing in the simple feast. The clear\nvision of the Cross so close did not so absorb Him as to make Him\nindifferent either to Mary's love or to the villagers' humble\nfestivity. However weighed upon, His heart was always sufficiently at\nleisure from itself to care for His friends and to defend them. He\naccepts every offering that love brings, and, in accepting, gives it a\nsignificance beyond the offerer's thought. We know not what use He may\nmake of our poor service; but we may be sure that, if that which we can\nsee to is right\u2014namely, its motive,\u2014He will take care of what we cannot\nsee to\u2014namely, its effect,\u2014and will find noble use for the sacrifices\nwhich unloving critics pronounce useless waste.\n\n'The poor always ye have with you.' Opportunities for the exercise of\nbrotherly liberality are ever present, and therefore the obligation to\nit is constant. But these permanent duties do not preclude the\nopportunities for such special forms of expressing special love to\nJesus as Mary had shown, and as must soon end. The same sense of\napproaching separation as in the former clause gives pathos to that\nrestrained 'not always.' The fact of His being just about to leave them\nwarranted extraordinary tokens of love, as all loving hearts know but\ntoo well. But, over and above the immediate reference of the words,\nthey carry the wider lesson that, besides the customary duties of\ngenerous giving laid on us by the presence of ordinary poverty and\ndistresses, there is room in Christian experience for extraordinary\noutflows from the fountain of a heart filled with love to Christ. The\nworld may mock at it as useless prodigality, but Jesus sees that it is\ndone for Him, and therefore He accepts it, and breathes meaning into\nit.\n\n'Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there\nshall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of\nher.' The Evangelist who records that promise does not mention Mary's\nname; John, who does mention the name, does not record the promise. It\nmatters little whether our names are remembered, so long as Jesus beam\nthem graven on His heart.\n\n\n\n\nA NEW KIND OF KING\n\n\n'On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they\nheard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm-trees,\nand went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of\nIsrael that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when He had\nfound a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of\nSion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. These things\nunderstood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was\nglorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him,\nand that they had done these things unto Him. The people therefore that\nwas with Him when He called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him\nfrom the dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met Him, for\nthat they heard that He had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore\nsaid among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing! behold, the\nworld is gone after Him. And there were certain Greeks among them that\ncame up to worship at the feast: The same came therefore to Philip,\nwhich was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we\nwould see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and\nPhilip tell Jesus, and Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come,\nthat the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto\nyou, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth\nalone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his\nlife shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall\nkeep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and\nwhere I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him\nwill My Father honour.'\u2014JOHN xii. 12-26.\n\nThe difference between John's account of the entry into Jerusalem and\nthose of the Synoptic Gospels is very characteristic. His is much\nbriefer, but it brings the essentials out clearly, and is particular in\nshowing its place as a link in the chain that drew on the final\ncatastrophe, and in noting its effect on various classes.\n\n'The next day' in verse 12 was probably the Sunday before the\ncrucifixion. To understand the events of that day we must try to\nrealise how rapidly, and, as the rulers thought, dangerously,\nexcitement was rising among the crowds who had come up for the\nPassover, and who had heard of the raising of Lazarus. The Passover was\nalways a time when national feeling was ready to blaze up, and any\nspark might light the fire. It looked as if Lazarus were going to be\nthe match this time, and so, on the Saturday, the rulers had made up\ntheir minds to have him put out of the way in order to stop the current\nthat was setting in, of acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah.\n\nThey had already made up their minds to dispose of Jesus, and now, with\ncynical contempt for justice, they determined to 'put Lazarus also to\ndeath.' So there were to be two men who were to 'die for the people.'\nKeeping all this wave of popular feeling in view, it might have been\nexpected that Jesus would, as hitherto, have escaped into privacy, or\ndiscouraged the offered homage of a crowd whose Messianic ideal was so\ndifferent from His.\n\nJohn is mainly concerned in bringing out two points in his version of\nthe incident. First, he tells us what we should not have gathered from\nthe other Evangelists, that the triumphal procession began in\nJerusalem, not in Bethany. It was the direct result of the ebullition\nof enthusiasm occasioned by the raising of Lazarus. The course of\nevents seems to have been that 'the common people of the Jews' came\nstreaming out to Bethany on the Sunday to gape and gaze at the risen\nman and Him who had raised him, that they and some of those who had\nbeen present at the raising went back to the city and carried thither\nthe intelligence that Jesus was coming in from Bethany next day, and\nthat then the procession to meet Him was organised.\n\nThe meaning of the popular demonstration was plain, both from the palm\nbranches, signs of victory and rejoicing, and from the chant, which is\nin part taken from Psalm cxviii. The Messianic application of that\nquotation is made unmistakable by the addition, 'even the King of\nIsrael.' In the Psalm, 'he that cometh in the name of Jehovah,' means\nthe worshipper drawing near to the Temple, but the added words divert\nthe expression to Jesus, hail Him as the King, and invoke Him as\n'Saviour.' Little did that shouting crowd understand what sort of a\nSaviour He was. Deliverance from Rome was what they were thinking of.\n\nWe must remember what gross, unspiritual notions of the Messiah they\nhad, and then we are prepared to feel how strangely unlike His whole\npast conduct Jesus' action now was. He had shrunk from crowds and their\nimpure enthusiasm; He had slipped away into solitude when they wished\nto come by force to make Him a King, and had in every possible way\nsought to avoid publicity and the rousing of popular excitement. Now He\ndeliberately sets Himself to intensify it. His choice of an ass on\nwhich to ride into Jerusalem was, and would be seen by many to be, a\nplain appropriation to Himself of a very distinct Messianic prophecy,\nand must have raised the heat of the crowd by many degrees. One can\nfancy the roar of acclaim which hailed Him when He met the multitude,\nand the wild emotion with which they strewed His path with garments\nhastily drawn off and cast before Him.\n\nWhy did He thus contradict all His past, and court the smoky enthusiasm\nwhich He had hitherto damped? Because He knew that 'His hour' had come,\nand that the Cross was at hand, and He desired to bring it as speedily\nas might be, and thus to shorten the suffering that He would not avoid,\nand to finish the work which He was eager to complete. The impatience,\nas we might almost call it, which had marked Him on all that last\njourney, reached its height now, and may indicate to us for our\nsympathy and gratitude both His human longing to get the dark hour over\nand His fixed willingness to die for us.\n\nBut even while Jesus accepted the acclamations and deliberately set\nHimself to stir up enthusiasm, He sought to purify the gross ideas of\nthe crowd. What more striking way could He have chosen of declaring\nthat all the turbulent passions and eagerness for a foot-to-foot\nconflict with Rome which were boiling in their breasts were alien to\nHis purposes and to the true Messianic ideal, than that choosing of the\nmeek, slow-pacing ass to bear Him? A conquering king would have made\nhis triumphal entry in a chariot or on a battle-horse. This strange\ntype of monarch is throned on an ass. It was not only for a verbal\nfulfilment of the prophecy, but for a demonstration of the essential\nnature of His kingdom, that He thus entered the city.\n\nJohn characteristically takes note of the effects of the entry on two\nclasses, the disciples and the rulers. The former remembered with a\nsudden flash of enlightenment the meaning of the entry when the Cross\nand the Resurrection had taught them it. The rulers marked the popular\nfeeling running high with bewilderment, and were, as Jesus meant them\nto be, made more determined to take vigorous measures to stop this\nmadness of the mob.\n\nThe second incident in this passage contrasts remarkably with the\nfirst, and yet is, in one aspect, a continuation of it. In the former,\nJesus brought into prominence the true nature of His rule by His\nchoosing the ass to carry Him, so declaring that His dominion rested,\nnot on conquest, but on meekness. In the latter, He reveals a yet\ndeeper aspect of His work, and teaches that His influence over men is\nwon by utter self-sacrifice, and that His subjects must tread the same\npath of losing their lives by which He passes to His glory. The details\nof the incident are of small importance as compared with that great and\nsolemn lesson; but we may note them in a few words. The desire of a few\nGreeks to see Him was probably only a reflection of the popular\nenthusiasm, and was prompted mainly by curiosity and the characteristic\nGreek eagerness to see any 'new thing.' The addressing of the request\nto Philip is perhaps explained by the fact that he 'was of Bethsaida of\nGalilee,' and had probably come into contact with these Greeks in the\nneighbouring Decapolis, on the other side of the lake. Philip's\nconsultation of his fellow-townsman, Andrew, who is associated with him\nin other places, probably implies hesitation in granting so\nunprecedented a request. They did not know what Jesus might say to it.\nAnd what He did say was very unlike anything that they could have\nanticipated.\n\nThe trivial request was as a narrow window through which Jesus'\nyearning spirit saw a great expanse\u2014nothing less than the coming to Him\nof myriads of Gentiles, the 'much fruit' of which He immediately\nspeaks, the 'other sheep' whom He 'must bring.' The thought must have\nbeen ever present to Him, or it would never have leaped to utterance on\nsuch an occasion. The little window shows us, too, what was habitually\nin His mind and heart. He, as it were, hears the striking of the hour\nof His glorification; in which expression the ideas of His being\nglorified by drawing men to the knowledge of His love, and of the Cross\nbeing not the lowest depth of His humiliation, but the highest apex of\nHis glory\u2014as it is always represented in this Gospel\u2014seemed to be fused\ntogether.\n\nThe seed must die if a harvest is to spring from it. That is the law\nfor all moral and spiritual reformations. Every cause must have its\nmartyrs. No man can be fruit-bearing unless he sacrifices himself. We\nshall not 'quicken' our fellows unless we 'die,' either literally or by\nthe not less real martyrdom of rigid self-crucifixion and suppression.\n\nBut that necessity is not only for Apostles or missionaries of great\ncauses; it is the condition of all true, noble life, and prescribes the\npath not only for those who would live for others, but for all who\nwould truly live their own lives. Self-renunciation guards the way to\nthe 'tree of life.' That lesson was specially needed by 'Greeks,' for\nignorance of it was the worm that gnawed the blossoms of their trees,\nwhether of art or of literature. It is no less needed by our sensuously\nluxurious and eagerly acquisitive generation. The world's war-cries\nto-day are two\u2014'Get!' 'Enjoy!' Christ's command is, 'Renounce!' And in\nrenouncing we shall realise both of these other aims, which they who\npursue them only, never attain.\n\nChrist's servant must be Christ's follower: indeed service is\nfollowing. The Cross has aspects in which it stands alone, and is\nincapable of being reproduced and makes all repetition needless. But it\nhas also an aspect in which it not only _may_, but _must_, be\nreproduced in every disciple. And he who takes it for the ground of his\ntrust only, and not as the pattern of his life, has need to ask himself\nwhether his trust in it is genuine or worth anything. Of course they\nwho follow a leader will arrive where the leader has gone, and though\nour feet are feeble and our progress devious and slow, we have here His\npromise that we shall not be lost in the desert, but, sustained by Him,\nwill reach His side, and at last be where He is.\n\n\n\n\nAFTER CHRIST: WITH CHRIST\n\n\n'If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall\nalso My servant be.'\u2014John xii. 26.\n\nOur Lord was strangely moved by the apparently trivial incident of\ncertain Greeks desiring to see Him. He recognised and hailed in them\nthe first-fruits of the Gentiles. The Eastern sages at His cradle, and\nthese representatives of Western culture within a few hours of the\nCross, were alike prophets. So, in His answer to their request, our\nLord passes beyond the immediate bearing of the request, and\ncontemplates it in its relation to the future developments of His work.\nAnd the thought that the Son of Man is now about to begin to be\nglorified, at once brings Him face to face with the fact which must\nprecede the glory, viz., His death.\n\nThat great law that a higher life can only be reached by the decay of\nthe lower, of which the Cross is the great instance, He illustrates,\nfirst, by an example from Nature, the corn of wheat which must die ere\nit brings forth fruit. Then He declares that this is a universal law,\n'He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in\nthis world shall keep it unto life eternal.' And then He declares that\nthis universal law, which has its adumbration in Nature, and applies to\nall mankind, and is manifested in its highest form on the Cross, is the\nlaw of the Christian discipleship. 'If any man serve Me, let him follow\nMe,' and, as a consequence, 'where I am, there shall also My servant\nbe.'\n\nIn two clauses He covers the whole ground of the present and the\nfuture. Many thinkers and teachers have tried to crystallise their\nsystems into some brief formula which may stick in the memory and be\ncapable of a handy application. 'Follow Nature,' said ancient sages,\nattaching a nobler meaning to the condensed commandment than its modern\nrepeaters often do; 'Follow duty,' say others; 'Follow _Me_' says\nChrist. That is enough for life. And for all the dim regions beyond,\nthis prospect is sufficient, 'Where I am, there shall also My servant\nbe.' One Form towers above the present and the future, and they both\nderive their colouring and their worth from Him and our relation to\nHim. 'To follow'\u2014that is the condensed summary of life's duty. 'To be\nwith'\u2014that is the crystallising of all our hopes.\n\nI. The all-sufficient law for life.\n\n'If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.' Everything is smelted down\ninto that; and there you have a sufficient directory for every man's\nevery action.\n\nNow although it has nothing to do with my present purpose, I can\nscarcely avoid pausing, just for a moment, to ask you to consider the\nperfect uniqueness of such an utterance as that. Think of one Man\nstanding up before all mankind, and coolly and deliberately saying to\nthem, 'I am the realised Ideal of human conduct; I am Incarnate\nPerfection; and all of you, in all the infinite variety of condition,\nculture, and character, are to take Me for your pattern and your\nguide.' The world has listened, and the world has not laughed nor been\nangry. Neither indignation nor mockery, which one might have expected\nwould have extinguished such absurdity, has waited upon Christ's\nutterance. I have no time to dwell on this; it is apart from my\npurpose, but I would ask you fairly to consider how strange it is, and\nto ask how it is to be accounted for, that a Man said that, and that\nthe wisest part of the world has consented to take Him at His own\nvaluation; and after such an utterance as that, yet calls Him 'meek and\nlowly of heart.'\n\nBut I pass away from that. What does He mean by this commandment,\n'Follow Me'? Of course I need not remind you that it brings all duty\ndown to the imitation of Jesus Christ. That is a commonplace that I do\nnot need to dwell upon, nor to follow out into the many regions into\nwhich it would lead us, and where we might find fruitful subjects of\ncontemplation; because I desire, in a sentence or two, to insist upon\nthe special form of following which is here enjoined. It is a very\ngrand thing to talk about the imitation of Christ, and even in its most\nsuperficial acceptation it is a good guide for all men. But no man has\npenetrated to the depths of that stringent and all-comprehensive\ncommandment who has not recognised that there is one special thing in\nwhich Christ is to be our Pattern, and that is in regard to the very\nthing in which we think that He is most unique and inimitable. It is\nHis Cross, and not His life; it is His death, and not His virtues,\nwhich He is here thinking about, and laying it upon all of us as the\nencyclopaedia and sum of all morality that we should be conformed to\nit. I have already pointed out to you in my introductory remarks the\nforce of the present context. And so I need not further enlarge upon\nthat, nor vindicate my declaration that Christ's death is the pattern\nwhich is here set before us. Of course we cannot imitate that in its\neffects, except in a very secondary and figurative fashion. But the\nspirit that underlay it, as the supreme Example of self-sacrifice, is\ncommended to us all as the royal law for our lives, and unless we are\nconformed thereto we have no right to call ourselves Christ's\ndisciples. To die for the sake of higher life, to give up our own will\nutterly in obedience to God, and in the unselfish desire to help and\nbless others, that is the _Alpha_ and the _Omega_ of discipleship. It\nalways has been so and always will be so. And so, dear brethren, let us\nlay it to our own hearts, and make very stringent inquiry into our own\nconduct, whether we have ever come within sight of what makes a true\ndisciple\u2014viz., that we should be 'conformable unto His death.'\n\nNow our modern theology has far too much obscured this plain teaching\nof the New Testament, because it has been concerned\u2014I do not say too\nmuch, but too exclusively, concerned\u2014in setting forth the other aspect\nof Christ's death, by which it is what none of ours can ever even begin\nto be, the sacrifice for a world's sin. But, mind, there are two ways\nof looking at Christ's Cross. You must begin with recognising it as the\nbasis of all your hope, the power by which you are delivered from sin\nas guilt, habit, and condemnation. And then you must take it, if it is\nto be the sacrifice and atonement for your sins, for the example of\nyour lives, and mould yourselves after it. 'If any man serve Me, let\nhim follow Me,' and here is the special region in which the following\nis to be realised: 'He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that\nhateth his life shall keep it unto life eternal.'\n\nNow, further, let me remind you that this brief, crystallised\ncommandment, the essence of all practical godliness and Christianity,\nmakes the blessed peculiarity of Christian morality. People ask what it\nis that distinguishes the teaching of the New Testament in regard to\nduty, from the teaching of lofty moralists and sages of old. Not the\nspecific precepts, though these are, in many cases, deeper. Not the\nindividual commandments, though the perspective of human excellences\nand virtues has been changed in Christianity, and the gentler and\nsweeter graces have been enthroned in the place where the world's\nmorality has generally set the more ostentatious ones; the hero is,\nroughly speaking, the world's type, the saint is the New Testament's.\nBut the true characteristic of Christian teaching as to conduct lies in\nthis, that the law is in a Person, and that the power to obey the law\ncomes from the love of the Person. All things are different; unwelcome\nduties are made less repulsive, and hard tasks are lightened, and\nsorrows are made tolerable, if only we are following Him. You remember\nthe old story in Scottish history of the knight to whom was entrusted\nthe king's heart; how, beset by the bands of the infidels, he tossed\nthe golden casket into the thickest of their ranks and said, 'Go on, I\nfollow thee'; and death itself was light when that thought spurred his\nsteed forward.\n\nAnd so, brethren, it is far too hard a task to tread the road of duty\nwhich our consciences command us, unless we are drawn by Him Who is\nbefore us there on the road, and see the shining of His garments as He\nsets His face forward, and draws us after Him. It is easy to climb a\nglacier when the guide has cut with his ice-axe the steps in which he\nsets his feet, and we may set ours. The sternness of duty, and the\nrigidity of law, and the coldness of 'I ought,' are all changed when\nduty consists in following Christ, and He is before us on the rocky and\nnarrow road.\n\nThis precept is all-sufficient. Of course it will be a task of wisdom,\nof common sense, of daily culture in prudence and other graces; to\napply the generalised precept to the specific cases that emerge in our\nlives. But whilst the application may require a great many subordinate\nby-laws, the royal statute is one, and simple, and enough. 'Follow Me.'\nIs it not a strange thing\u2014it seems to me to be a perfectly unique\nthing, inexplicable except upon one hypothesis\u2014that a life so brief, of\nwhich the records are so fragmentary, in which some of the\nrelationships in which we stand had no place, and which was lived out\nin a world so utterly different from our own, should yet avail to be a\nguide to men, not in regard to specific points, so much as in regard to\nthe imperial supremacy in it of these motives\u2014Even Christ pleased not\nHimself; 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.'\n\nAnd so, brethren, take this sharp test and apply it honestly to your\nown lives, day by day, in all their _minutiae_ as well as in their\ngreat things. 'If any man _serve_ Me,' how miserably that Christian\n'service' has been evacuated of its deepest meaning, and\nsuperficialised and narrowed! 'Service'\u2014that means people getting into\na building and singing and praying. Service\u2014that means acts of\nbeneficence, teaching and preaching and giving material or spiritual\nhelps of various kinds. These things have almost monopolised the word.\nBut Christ enlarges its shrivelled contents once more, and teaches us\nthat, far above all specifically so-called acts of religious worship,\nand more indispensable than so-called acts of Christian activity and\nservice, lies the self-sacrificing conformity of character to Him. 'If\nany man serve Me,' let him sing and praise and pray? Yes; 'If any man\nserve Me,' let him try to help other people, and in the service of man\ndo service to Me? Yes; but deeper than all, and fundamental to the\nothers, 'If any man serve Me, let him _follow_ Me'\u2014Is that _my_\ndiscipleship? Let each one of us professing Christians ask himself.\n\nII. We have here the all-sufficient hope for the future.\n\nI know few things more beautiful than the perfectly _naive_ way in\nwhich the greatest of thoughts is here set forth by the simplest of\nfigures. If two men are walking on the same road to a place, the one\nthat is in front will get there first, and his friend that is coming up\nafter him will get there second, if he keeps on; and they will be\nunited at the end, because, one after the other, they travel the road.\nAnd so says Christ: 'Of course, if you follow Me, you will join Me; and\nwhere I am, there shall also My servant be.' The implications of a\nChristian life, which is true following of Christ here, necessarily led\nto the confidence that in that future there will be union with Him.\nThat is a deep thought, which might afford material for much to be\nsaid, but on which I cannot dwell now.\n\nI remarked at an early stage of this sermon how singular it was that\nour Lord should present Himself as the Pattern for all human\nexcellence. Is it not even more singular that He should venture to\npresent His own companionship as the sufficient recompense for every\nsorrow, for every effort, for all pain, for all pilgrimage? To be with\nHim, He thinks, is enough for any man and enough for all men. Who did\nHe think Himself to be? What did _He_ suppose His relation to the rest\nof us to be, who could thus calmly suggest to the world that the only\nthing that a heart needed for blessedness was to be beside Him? And we\nbelieve it, too little as it influences our lives. 'To be with Christ'\nis 'very much better'; better than all beneath the stars; better than\nall on this side eternity.\n\nWhat does our Lord mean by this all-sufficient hope? We know very\nlittle of that dim region beyond, but we know that until He comes again\nHis departed servants are absent from the body. And, in our sense of\nthe word, there can be no _place_ for spirits thus free from corporeal\nenvironment. And so place, to-day at all events for the departed\nsaints, and in a subordinate degree all through eternity, even when\nthey are clothed with a glorified body, must be but a symbol of state,\nof condition, of spiritual character. 'Where I am there shall My\nservant be,' means specially '_What I_ am, _that_ shall My servant be.'\nThis perfect conformity to that dear Lord, whose footsteps we have\nfollowed; assimilation there, which is the issue of imitation here,\nthough broken and imperfect, this is the hope that may gladden and\nanimate every Christian heart.\n\nTo be with Him is to be like Him, and therefore to be conscious of His\npresence in some fashion so intimate, so certain, as that all our\nearthly notions of presence, derived from the juxtaposition of\ncorporeal frames, are infinite distance as compared with it. That is\nwhat my text dimly shadows for us. We know not how that union, which is\nto be as close as is possible while the distinction of personality is\nretained, may be accomplished. But this we know, that the coalescence\nof two drops of mercury, the running together of two drops of water,\nthe blending of heart with heart here in love, are distance in\ncomparison with the complete union of Christ and of the happy soul that\nrests in Him, as in an atmosphere and an ocean. Oh, brethren! it is not\na thing to talk about; it is a thing to take to our hearts, and in\nsilence to be thankful for; 'absent from the body; present with the\nLord.'\n\nAnd is that not enough? The ground of it is enough. 'If we believe that\nJesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will\nGod bring with Him.' That future companionship is guaranteed to the\nChristian man by the words of Incarnate Truth, and by the resurrection\nof his Lord. The ground of it is enough, and the contents are\nenough\u2014enough for faith; enough for hope; enough for peace; enough for\nwork; and eminently enough for comfort.\n\nAh! there are many other questions that we would fain ask, but to which\nthere is no reply; but as the good old rough music of one of the\neighteenth-century worthies has it, we have sufficient.\n\n  'My knowledge of that life is small,\n  The eye of faith is dim;\n  But 'tis enough that Christ knows all,\n  And I shall be with Him.'\n\n'It is enough for the disciple that he be as' (that is, with) 'his\nMaster.' So let us take that thought to our hearts and animate\nourselves with it, for it is legitimate for us to do so. That one hope\nis sufficient for us all.\n\nOnly let us remember that, according to the teaching of my text, the\ncompanionship that blesses the future is the issue of following Him\nnow. I know of no magic in death that is able to change the direction\nin which a man's face is turned. As he is travelling and has travelled,\nso he will travel when he comes through the tunnel, and out into the\nbrighter light yonder. The line of a railway marked upon a map may stop\nat the boundaries of the country with which the map is concerned, but\nit is clearly going somewhere, and in the same direction. You want the\nother sheet of the map in order to see whither it is going. That is\nlike your life. The map stops very abruptly, but the line does not\nstop. Take an unfinished row of tenements. On the last house there\nstick out bricks preparatory to the continuation of the row. And so our\nlives are, as it were, studded over with protuberances and preparations\nfor the attachment thereto of a 'house not made with hands,' and yet\nconformed in its architecture to the row that we have built. The man\nthat follows will attain. For life, the all-sufficient law is, _after\nChrist_; for hope, the all-sufficient assurance is, _with Christ_.\n\n\n\n\nTHE UNIVERSAL MAGNET\n\n\n'I, if I be lifted up \u2026 will draw all men unto Me.'\u2014JOHN xii. 32.\n\n'Never man spake like this Man,' said the wondering Temple officials\nwho were sent to apprehend Jesus. There are many aspects of our Lord's\nteaching in which it strikes one as unique; but perhaps none is more\nsingular than the boundless boldness of His assertions of His\nimportance to the world. Just think of such sayings as these: 'I am the\nLight of the world'; 'I am the Bread of Life'; 'I am the Door'; 'A\ngreater than Solomon is here'; 'In this place is One greater than the\nTemple.' We do not usually attach much importance to men's estimate of\nthemselves; and gigantic claims such as these are generally met by\nincredulity or scorn. But the strange thing about Christ's loftiest\nassertions of His world-wide worth and personal sinlessness is that\nthey provoke no contradiction, and that the world takes Him at His own\nvaluation. So profound is the impression that He has made, that men\nassent when He says, 'I am meek and lowly in heart,' and do not answer\nas they would to anybody else, 'If you were, you would never have said\nso.'\n\nNow there is no more startling utterance of this extraordinary\nself-consciousness of Jesus Christ than the words that I have used for\nmy text. They go deep down into the secret of His power. They open a\nglimpse into His inmost thoughts about Himself which He very seldom\nshows us. And they come to each of us with a very touching and strong\npersonal appeal as to what we are doing with, and how we individually\nare responding to, that universal appeal on which He says that He is\nexercising.\n\nI. So I wish to dwell on these words now, and ask you first to notice\nhere our Lord's forecasting of the Cross.\n\nA handful of Greeks had come up to Jerusalem to the Passover, and they\ndesired to see Jesus, perhaps only because they had heard about Him,\nand to gratify some fleeting curiosity; perhaps for some deeper and\nmore sacred reason. But in that tiny incident our Lord sees the first\ngreen blade coming up above the ground which was the prophet of an\nabundant harvest; the first drop of a great abundance of rain. He\nrecognises that He is beginning to pass out from Israel into the world.\nBut the thought of His world-wide influence thus indicated and\nprophesied immediately brings along with it the thought of what must be\ngone through before that influence can be established. And he discerns\nthat, like the corn of wheat that falls into the ground, the condition\nof fruitfulness for Him is death.\n\nNow we are to remember that our Lord here is within a few hours of\nGethsemane, and a few days of the Cross, and that events had so\nunfolded themselves that it needed no prophet to see that there could\nonly be one end to the duel which he had deliberately brought about\nbetween Himself and the rulers of Israel. So that I build nothing upon\nthe anticipation of the Cross, which comes out at this stage in our\nLord's history, for any man in His position might have seen, as clearly\nas He did, that His path was blocked, and that very near at hand, by\nthe grim instrument of death. But then remember that this same\nexpression of my text occurs at a very much earlier period of our\nLord's career, and that if we accept this Gospel of John, at the very\nbeginning of it He said, 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the\nwilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up'; and that that\nwas no mere passing thought is obvious from the fact that midway in His\ncareer, if we accept the testimony of the same Gospel, He used the same\nexpression to cavilling opponents when He said: 'When ye have lifted up\nthe Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He.' And so at the\nbeginning, in the middle, and at the end of His career the same idea is\ncast into the same words, a witness of the hold that it had upon Him,\nand the continual presence of it to His consciousness.\n\nI do not need to refer here to other illustrations and proofs of the\nsame thing, only I desire to say, as plainly and strongly as I can,\nthat modern ideas that Jesus Christ only recognised the necessity of\nHis death at a late stage of His work, and that like other reformers,\nHe began with buoyant hope, and thought that He had but to speak and\nthe world would hear, and, like other reformers, was disenchanted by\ndegrees, are, in my poor judgment, utterly baseless, and bluntly\ncontradicted by the Gospel narratives. And so, dear brethren, this is\nthe image that rises before us, and that ought to appeal to us all very\nplainly; a Christ who, from the first moment of His consciousness of\nMessiahship\u2014and how early that consciousness was I am not here to\ninquire\u2014was conscious likewise of the death that was to close it. 'He\ncame not to be ministered unto, but to minister,' and likewise for\n_this_ end, 'to give His life a ransom for the many.' That gracious,\ngentle life, full of all charities, and long-suffering, and sweet\ngoodness, and patience, was not the life of a Man whose heart was at\nleisure from all anxiety about Himself, but the life of a Man before\nwhom there stood, ever grim and distinct away on the horizon, the Cross\nand _Himself_ upon it. You all remember a well-known picture that\nsuggests the 'Shadow of Death,' the shadow of the Cross falling, unseen\nby Him, but seen with open eyes of horror by His mother. But the\nreality is a far more pathetic one than that; it is this, that He came\non purpose to die.\n\nBut now there is another point suggested by these remarkable words, and\nthat is that our Lord regarded the Cross of shame as exaltation or\n'lifting up.' I do not believe that the use of this remarkable phrase\nin our text finds its explanation in the few inches of elevation above\nthe surface of the ground to which the crucified victims were usually\nraised. That is there, of course, but there is something far deeper and\nmore wonderful than that in the background, and it is this in part,\nthat that Cross, to Christ's eyes, bore a double aspect. So far as the\ninflicters or the externals of it were concerned, it was ignominy,\nshame, agony, the very lowest point of humiliation. But there was\nanother side to it. What in one aspect is the _nadir_, the lowest point\nbeneath men's feet, is in another aspect the _zenith_, the very highest\npoint in the bending heaven above us. So throughout this Gospel, and\nvery emphatically in the text, we find that we have the complement of\nthe Pauline view of the Cross, which is, that it was shame and agony.\nFor our Lord says, 'Now the hour is come when the Son of Man shall be\nglorified.' Whether it is glory or shame depends on what it was that\nbound Him there. The reason for His enduring it makes it the very\nclimax and flaming summit of His flaming love. And, therefore, He is\nlifted up not merely because the Cross is elevated above the ground on\nthe little elevation of Calvary, but that Cross is His throne, because\nthere, in highest and sovereign fashion, are set forth His glories, the\nglories of His love, and of the 'grace and truth' of which He was\n'full.'\n\nSo let us not forget this double aspect, and whilst we bow before Him\nwho 'endured the Cross, despising the shame,' let us also try to\nunderstand and to feel what He means when, in the vision of it, He\nsaid, 'the hour is come that the Son of Man shall be glorified.' It was\nmeant for mockery, but mockery veiled unsuspected truth when they\ntwined round His pale brows the crown of thorns, thereby setting forth\nunconsciously the everlasting truth that sovereignty is won by\nsuffering; and placed in His unresisting hand the sceptre of reed,\nthereby setting forth the deep truth of His kingdom, that dominion is\nexercised in gentleness. Mightier than all rods of iron, or sharp\nswords which conquerors wield, and more lustrous and splendid than\ntiaras of gold glistening with diamonds, are the sceptre of reed in the\nhands, and the crown of thorns on the head, of the exalted, because\ncrucified, Man of Sorrows.\n\nBut there is still another aspect of Christ's vision of His Cross, for\nthe 'lifting up' on it necessarily draws after it the lifting up to the\ndominion of the heavens. And so the Apostle, using a word kindred with\nthat of my text, but intensifying it by addition, says, 'He became\nobedient even unto the death of the Cross, wherefore God also hath\nhighly lifted Him up.'\n\nSo here we have Christ's own conception of His death, that it was\ninevitable, that it was exaltation even in the act of dying, and that\nit drew after it, of inevitable necessity, dominion exercised from the\nheavens over all the earth. He was lifted up on Calvary, and because He\nwas lifted up He has carried our manhood into the place of glory, and\nsitteth at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So much for the first\npoint to which I would desire to turn your attention.\n\nII. Now we have here our Lord disclosing the secret of His attractive\npower.\n\n'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' That\n'if' expresses no doubt, it only sets forth the condition. The Christ\nlifted up on the Cross is the Christ that draws men. Now I would have\nyou notice the fact that our Lord thus unveils, as it were, where His\npower to influence individuals and humanity chiefly resides. He speaks\nabout His death in altogether a different fashion from that of other\nmen, for He does not merely say, 'If I be lifted up from the earth,\nthis story of the Cross will draw men,' but He says, 'I will' do it;\nand thus contemplates, as I shall have to say in a moment, continuous\npersonal influence all through the ages.\n\nNow that is not how other people have to speak about their deaths, for\nall other men who have influenced the world for good or for evil,\nthinkers and benefactors, and reformers, social and religious, all of\nthem come under the one law that their death is no part of their\nactivity, but terminates their work, and that thereafter, with few\nexceptions, and for brief periods, their influence is a diminishing\nquantity. So one Apostle had to say, 'To abide in the flesh is more\nneedful for you,' and another had to say, 'I will endeavour that after\nmy decease ye may keep in mind the things that I have told you'; and\nall thinkers and teachers and helpers glide away further and further,\nand are wrapped about with thicker and thicker mists of oblivion, and\ntheir influence becomes less and less.\n\nThe best that history can say about any of them is, 'This man, having\nserved his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep.' But that\nother Man who was lifted on the Cross saw no corruption, and the death\nwhich puts a period to all other men's work was planted right in the\ncentre of His, and was itself part of that work, and was followed by a\nnew form of it which is to endure for ever.\n\nThe Cross is the magnet of Christianity. Jesus Christ draws men, but it\nis by His Cross mainly, and that He felt this profoundly is plain\nenough, not only from such utterances as this of my text, but, to go no\nfurther, from the fact that He has asked us to remember only one thing\nabout Him, and has established that ordinance of the Communion or the\nLord's Supper, which is to remind us always, and to bear witness to the\nworld, of where is the centre of His work, and the fact which He most\ndesires that men should keep in mind, not the graciousness of His\nwords, not their wisdom, not the good deeds that He did, but 'This is\nMy body broken for you \u2026 this cup is the New Testament in My blood.' A\nreligion which has for its chief rite the symbol of a death, must\nenshrine that death in the very heart of the forces to which it trusts\nto renew the world, and to bless individual souls.\n\nIf, then, that is true, if Jesus Christ was not all wrong when He spoke\nas He did in my text, then the question arises, what is it about His\ndeath that makes it the magnet that will draw all men? Men are drawn by\ncords of love. They may be driven by other means, but they are drawn\nonly by love. And what is it that makes Christ's death the highest and\nnoblest and most wonderful and transcendent manifestation of love that\nthe world has ever seen, or ever can see? No doubt you will think me\nvery narrow and old-fashioned when I answer the question, with the\nprofoundest conviction of my own mind, and, I hope, the trust of my own\nheart. The one thing that entitles men to interpret Christ's death as\nthe supreme manifestation of love is that it was a death voluntarily\nundertaken for a world's sins.\n\nIf you do not believe that, will you tell me what claim on your heart\nChrist has because He died? Has Socrates any claim on your heart? And\nare there not hundreds and thousands of martyrs who have just as much\nright to be regarded with reverence and affection as this Galilean\ncarpenter's Son has, unless, when He died, He died as the Sacrifice for\nthe sins of the whole world, and for yours and mine? I know all the\npathetic beauty of the story. I know how many men's hearts are moved in\nsome degree by the life and death of our Lord, who yet would hesitate\nto adopt the full-toned utterance which I have now been giving. But I\nwould beseech you, dear friends, to lay this question seriously to\nheart, whether there is any legitimate reason for the reverence, the\nlove, the worship, which the world is giving to this Galilean young\nman, if you strike out the thought that it was because He loved the\nworld that He chose to die to loose it from the bands of its sin. It\nmay be, it is, a most pathetic and lovely story, but it has not power\nto draw all men, unless it deals with that which all men need, and\nunless it is the self-surrender of the Son of God for the whole world.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, we have here our Lord anticipating continuous and\nuniversal influence.\n\nI have already drawn attention to the peculiar fullness of the form of\nexpression in my text, which, fairly interpreted, does certainly imply\nthat our Lord at that supreme moment looked forward, as I have already\nsaid, to His death, not as putting a period to His work, but as being\nthe transition from one form of influence operating upon a very narrow\ncircle, to another form of influence which would one day flood the\nworld. I do not need to dwell upon that thought, beyond seeking to\nemphasise this truth, that one ought to feel that Jesus Christ has a\nliving connection now with each of us. It is not merely that the story\nof the Cross is left to work its results, but, as I for my part\nbelieve, that the dear Lord, who, before He became Man, was the Light\nof the World, and enlightened every man that came into it, after His\ndeath is yet more the Light of the World, and is exercising influence\nall over the earth, not only by conscience and the light that is within\nus, nor only through the effects of the record of His past, but by the\ncontinuous operations of His Spirit. I do not dwell upon that thought\nfurther than to say that I beseech you to think of Jesus Christ, not as\nOne who died for our sins only, but as one who lives to-day, and\nto-day, in no rhetorical exaggeration but in simple and profound truth,\nis ready to help and to bless and to be with every one of us. 'It is\nChrist that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the\nright hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.'\n\nBut, beyond that, mark His confidence of universal influence: 'I _will_\ndraw all men.' I need not dwell upon the distinct adaptation of\nChristian truth, and of that sacrifice on the Cross, to the needs of\nall men. It is the universal remedy, for it goes direct to the\nuniversal epidemic. The thing that men and women want most, the thing\nthat _you_ want most, is that your relation with God shall be set\nright, and that you shall be delivered from the guilt of past sin, from\nthe exposure to its power in the present and in the future. Whatever\ndiversities of climate, civilisation, culture, character the world\nholds, every man is like every other man in this, that he has 'sinned\nand come short of the glory of God.' And it is because Christ's Cross\ngoes direct to deal with that condition of things that the preaching of\nit is a gospel, not for this phase of society or that type of men or\nthe other stage of culture, but that it is meant for, and is able to\ndeliver and to bless, every man.\n\nSo, brethren, a universal attraction is raying out from Christ's Cross,\nand from Himself to each of us. But that universal attraction can be\nresisted. If a man plants his feet firmly and wide apart, and holds on\nwith both hands to some staple or holdfast, then the drawing cannot\ndraw. There is the attraction, but he is not attracted. You demagnetise\nChristianity, as all history shows, if you strike out the death on the\nCross for a world's sin. What is left is not a magnet, but a bit of\nscrap iron. And you can take yourself away from the influence of the\nattraction if you will, some of us by active resistance, some of us by\nmere negligence, as a cord cast over some slippery body with the\npurpose of drawing it, may slip off, and the thing lie there unmoved.\n\nAnd so I come to you now, dear friends, with the plain question, What\nare you doing in response to Christ's drawing of you? He has died for\nyou on the Cross; does that not draw? He lives to bless you; does that\nnot draw? He loves you with love changeless as a God, with love warm\nand emotional as a man; does that not draw? He speaks to you, I venture\nto say, through my poor words, and says, 'Come unto Me, and I will give\nyou rest'; does that not draw? We are all in the bog. He stands on firm\nground, and puts out a hand. If you like to clutch it, by the pledge of\nthe nail-prints on the palm, He will lift you from 'the horrible pit\nand the miry clay, and set your feet upon a rock.' God grant that all\nof us may say, 'Draw us, and we will run after Thee'!\n\n\n\n\nTHE SON OF MAN\n\n\n'\u2026 Who is this Son of Man?'\u2014JOHN xii. 34.\n\nI have thought that a useful sermon may be devoted to the consideration\nof the remarkable name which our Lord gives to Himself\u2014'the Son of\nMan.' And I have selected this instance of its occurrence, rather than\nany other, because it brings out a point which is too frequently\noverlooked, viz. that the name was an entirely strange and enigmatical\none to the people who heard it. This question of utter bewilderment\ndistinctly shows us that, and negatives, as it seems to me, the\nsupposition which is often made, that the name 'Son of Man,' upon the\nlips of Jesus Christ, was equivalent to Messiah. Obviously there is no\nsuch significance attached to it by those who put this question. As\nobviously, for another reason, the two names do not cover the same\nground; for our Lord sedulously avoided calling Himself the Christ, and\nhabitually called Himself the Son of Man.\n\nNow one thing to observe about this name is that it is never found upon\nthe lips of any but Jesus Christ. No man ever called him the Son of Man\nwhilst He was upon earth, and only once do we find it applied to Him in\nthe rest of Scripture, and that is on the occasion on which the first\nmartyr, Stephen, dying at the foot of the old wall, saw 'the heavens\nopened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' Two\nother apparent instances of the use of the expression occur, both of\nthem in the Book of Revelation, both of them quotations from the Old\nTestament, and in both the more probable reading gives 'a Son of Man,'\nnot '_the_ Son of Man.'\n\nOne more preliminary remark and I will pass to the title itself. The\nname has been often supposed to be taken from the remarkable prophecy\nin the Book of Daniel, of one 'like a son of man,' who receives from\nthe Ancient of Days an everlasting kingdom which triumphs over those\nkingdoms of brute force which the prophet had seen. No doubt there is a\nconnection between the prophecy and our Lord's use of the name, but it\nis to be observed that what the prophet speaks of is not 'the Son,' but\n'one _like_ a son of man'; or in other words, that what the prophecy\ndwells upon is simply the manhood of the future King in\ncontradistinction to the bestial forms of Lion and Leopard and Bear,\nwhose kingdoms go down before him. Of course Christ fulfils that\nprediction, and is the 'One like a son of man,' but we cannot say that\nthe title is derived from the prophecy, in which, strictly speaking, it\ndoes not occur.\n\nWhat, then, is the force of this name, as applied to Himself by our\nLord?\n\nFirst, we have in it Christ putting out His hand, if I may say so, to\ndraw us to Himself\u2014identifying Himself with us. Then we have, just as\ndistinctly, Christ, by the use of this name, in a very real sense\ndistinguishing Himself from us, and claiming to hold a unique and\nsolitary relation to mankind. And then we have Christ, by the use of\nthis name in its connection with the ancient prophecy, pointing us\nonward to a wonderful future.\n\nI. First then, Christ thereby identifies Himself with us.\n\nThe name Son of Man, whatever more it means, declares the historical\nfact of His Incarnation, and the reality and genuineness, the\ncompleteness and fullness, of His assumption of humanity. And so it is\nsignificant to notice that the name is employed continually in the\nplaces in the Gospels where especial emphasis is to be placed, for some\nreason or other, upon our Lord's manhood, as, for instance, when He\nwould bring into view the depth of His humiliation. It is this name\nthat He uses when He says: 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air\nhave nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.' The use\nof the term there is very significant and profound; He contrasts His\nhomelessness, not with the homes of men that dwell in palaces, but with\nthe homes of the inferior creatures. As if He would say, 'Not merely am\nI individually homeless and shelterless, but I am so because I am truly\na man, the only creature that builds houses, and the only creature that\nhas not a home. Foxes have holes, anywhere they can rest, the birds of\nthe air have,' not as our Bible gives it, 'nests,' but\n'roosting-places, any bough will do for them. All living creatures are\nat home in this material universe; I, as a Representative of humanity,\nwander a pilgrim and a sojourner.' We are all restless and homeless;\nthe creatures correspond to their environment. We have desires and\nlongings, wild yearnings, and deep-seated needs, that 'wander through\neternity'; the Son of Man, the representative of manhood, 'hath not\nwhere to lay His head.'\n\nThen the same expression is employed on occasions when our Lord desires\nto emphasise the completeness of His participation in all our\nconditions. As, for instance, 'the Son of Man came eating and\ndrinking,' knowing the ordinary limitations and necessities of\ncorporeal humanity; having the ordinary dependence upon external\nthings; nor unwilling to taste, with pure and thankful lip, whatever\ngladness may be found in man's path through the supply of natural\nappetites.\n\nAnd the name is employed habitually on occasions when He desires to\nemphasise His manhood as having truly taken upon itself the whole\nweight and weariness of man's sin, and the whole burden of man's guilt,\nand the whole tragicalness of the penalties thereof, as in the familiar\npassages, so numerous that I need only refer to them and need not\nattempt to quote them, in which we read of the Son of Man being\n'betrayed into the hands of sinners'; or in those words, for instance,\nwhich so marvellously blend the lowliness of the Man and the lofty\nconsciousness of the mysterious relation which He bears to the whole\nworld; 'The Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to\nminister, and to give His life a ransom for the many.'\n\nNow if we gather all these instances together (and they are only\nspecimens culled almost at random), and meditate for a moment on the\nName as illuminated by such words as these, they suggest to us, first,\nhow truly and how blessedly He is 'bone of our bone, and flesh of our\nflesh.' All our human joys were His. He knew all human sorrow. The\nordinary wants of human nature belonged to Him; He hungered, He\nthirsted, and was weary; He ate and drank and slept. The ordinary wants\nof the human heart He knew; He was hurt by hatred, stung by\ningratitude, yearned for love; His spirit expanded amongst friends, and\nwas pained when they fell away. He fought and toiled, and sorrowed and\nenjoyed. He had to pray, to trust, and to weep. He was a Son of Man, a\ntrue man among men. His life was brief; we have but fragmentary records\nof it for three short years. In outward form it covers but a narrow\narea of human experience, and large tracts of human life seem to be\nunrepresented in it. Yet all ages and classes of men, in all\ncircumstances, however unlike those of the peasant Rabbi who died when\nhe was just entering mature manhood, may feel that this man comes\ncloser to them than all beside. Whether for stimulus for duty, or for\ngrace and patience in sorrow, or for restraint in enjoyment, or for the\nhallowing of all circumstances and all tasks, the presence and example\nof the Son of Man are sufficient. Wherever we go, we may track His\nfootsteps by the drops of His blood upon the sharp flints that we have\nto tread. In all narrow passes, where the briars tear the wool of the\nflock, we may see, left there on the thorns, what they rent from the\npure fleece of the Lamb of God that went before. The Son of Man is our\nBrother and our Example.\n\nAnd is it not beautiful, and does it not speak to us touchingly and\nsweetly of our Lord's earnest desire to get very near us and to bring\nus very near to Him, that this name, which emphasises humiliation and\nweakness and the likeness to ourselves, should be the name that is\nalways upon His lips? Just as, if I may compare great things with\nsmall, some teacher or philanthropist, that went away from civilised\ninto savage life, might leave behind him the name by which he was known\nin Europe, and adopt some barbarous designation that was significant in\nthe language of the savage tribe to whom he was sent, and say to them:\n'That is my name now, call me by that,' so this great Leader of our\nsouls, who has landed upon our coasts with His hands full of blessings,\nHis heart full of love, has taken a name that makes Him one of\nourselves, and is never wearied of speaking to our hearts, and telling\nus that it is that by which He chooses to be known. It is a touch of\nthe same infinite condescension which prompted His coming, that makes\nHim choose as His favourite and habitual designation the name of\nweakness and identification, the name 'Son of Man.'\n\nII. But now turn to what is equally distinct and clear in this title.\nHere we have our Lord distinguishing Himself from us, and plainly\nclaiming a unique relationship to the whole world.\n\nJust fancy how absurd it would be for one of us to be perpetually\ninsisting on the fact that he was a man, to be taking that as his\ncontinual description of himself, and pressing it upon people's\nattention as if there was something strange about it. The idea is\npreposterous; and the very frequency and emphasis with which the name\ncomes from our Lord's lips, lead one to suspect that there is something\nlying behind it more than appears on the surface. That impression is\nconfirmed and made a conviction, if you mark the article which is\nprefixed, _the_ Son of Man. A Son of man is a very different idea. When\nHe says '_the_ Son of Man' He seems to declare that in Himself there\nare gathered up all the qualities that constitute humanity; that He is,\nto use modern language, the realised Ideal of manhood, the typical Man,\nin whom is everything that belongs to manhood, and who stands forth as\ncomplete and perfect. Appropriately, then, the name is continually used\nwith suggestions of authority and dignity contrasting with those of\nhumiliation. 'The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath,' 'The Son of Man\nhath power on earth to forgive sins' and the like. So that you cannot\nget away from this, that this Man whom the whole world has conspired to\nprofess to admire for His gentleness, and His meekness, and His\nlowliness, and His religious sanity, stood forward and said: 'I am\ncomplete and perfect, and everything that belongs to manhood you will\nfind in Me.'\n\nAnd it is very significant in this connection that the designation\noccurs more frequently in the first three Gospels than in the fourth;\nwhich is alleged to present higher notions of the nature and\npersonality of Jesus Christ than are found in the other three. There\nare more instances in Matthew's Gospel in which our Lord calls Himself\nthe Son of Man, with all the implication of uniqueness and completeness\nwhich that name carries; there are more even in the Gospel of the\nServant, the Gospel according to Mark, than in the Gospel of the Word\nof God, the Gospel according to John. And so I think we are entitled to\nsay that by this name, which the testimony of all our four Gospels\nmakes it certain, even to the most suspicious reader, that Christ\napplied to Himself, He declared His humanity, His absolutely perfect\nand complete humanity.\n\nIn substance He is claiming the same thing for Himself that Paul\nclaimed for Him when he called Him 'the second Adam.' There have been\ntwo men in the world, says Paul, the fallen Adam, with his infantile\nand undeveloped perfections, and the Christ, with His full and complete\nhumanity. All other men are fragments, He is the 'entire and perfect\nchrysolite.' As one of our epigrammatic seventeenth-century divines has\nit, 'Aristotle is but the rubbish of an Adam,' and Adam is but the dim\noutline sketch of a Jesus. Between these two there has been none. The\none Man as God meant him, the type of man, the perfect humanity, the\nrealised ideal, the home of all the powers of manhood, is He who\nHimself claimed that place for Himself, and stepped into it with the\nstrange words upon His lips, 'I am meek and lowly of heart.'\n\n'Who is this Son of Man?' Ah, brethren! 'who can bring a clean thing\nout of an unclean? Not one.' A perfect Son of Man, born of a woman,\n'bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,' must be more than a Son of\nMan. And that moral completeness and that ideal perfection in all the\nfaculties and parts of His nature which drove the betrayer to clash\ndown the thirty pieces of silver in the sanctuary in despair that 'he\nhad betrayed innocent blood'; which made Pilate wash his hands 'of the\nblood of this just person'; which stopped the mouths of the adversaries\nwhen He challenged them to convince Him of sin, and which all the world\never since has recognised and honoured, ought surely to lead us to ask\nthe question, 'Who is this Son of Man?' and to answer it, as I pray we\nall may answer it, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!'\n\nThis fact of His absolute completeness invests His work with an\naltogether unique relationship to the rest of mankind. And so we find\nthe name employed upon His own lips in connections in which He desires\nto set Himself forth as the single and solitary medium of all blessing\nand salvation to the world\u2014as, for instance, 'The Son of Man came to\ngive His life a ransom for the many'; 'Ye shall see the heavens opened,\nand the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.' He\nis what the ladder was in the vision to the patriarch, with his head\nupon the stone and the Syrian sky over him\u2014the Medium of all\ncommunication between earth and heaven. And that ladder which joins\nheaven to earth, and brings all angels down on the solitary watchers,\ncomes straight down, as the sunbeams do, to every man wherever he is.\nEach of us sees the shortest line from his own standing-place to the\ncentral light, and its beams come straight to the apple of each man's\neye. So because Christ is more than a man, because He is _the_ Man, His\nblessings come to each of us direct and straight, as if they had been\nlaunched from the throne with a purpose and a message to us alone. Thus\nHe who is in Himself perfect manhood touches all men, and all men touch\nHim, and the Son of Man, whom God hath sealed, will give to every one\nof us the bread from heaven. The unique relationship which brings Him\ninto connection with every soul of man upon earth, and makes Him the\nSaviour, Helper, and Friend of us all, is expressed when He calls\nHimself the Son of Man.\n\nIII. And now one last word in regard to the predictive character of\nthis designation.\n\nEven if we cannot regard it as being actually a quotation of the\nprophecy in the Book of Daniel, there is an evident allusion to that\nprophecy, and to the whole circle of ideas presented by it, of an\neverlasting dominion, which shall destroy all antagonistic power, and\nof a solemn coming for judgment of One like a Son of Man.\n\nWe find, then, the name occurring on our Lord's lips very frequently in\nthat class of passages with which we are so familiar, and which are so\nnumerous that I need not quote them to you; in which He speaks of the\nsecond coming of the Son of Man; as, for instance, that one which\nconnects itself most distinctly with the Book of Daniel, the words of\nhigh solemn import before the tribunal of the High Priest. 'Hereafter\nshall ye see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and\ncoming in the glories of heaven'; or as when He says, 'He hath given\nHim authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man';\nor as when the proto-martyr, with his last words, declared in sudden\nburst of surprise and thrill of gladness, 'I see the heavens opened,\nand the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'\n\nTwo thoughts are all that I can touch on here. The name carries with it\na blessed message of the present activity and perpetual manhood of the\nrisen Lord. Stephen does not see Him as all the rest of Scripture\npaints Him, _sitting_ at the right hand of God, but _standing_ there.\nThe emblem of His sitting at the right hand of God represents\ntriumphant calmness in the undisturbed confidence of victory. It\ndeclares the completeness of the work that He has done upon earth, and\nthat all the history of the future is but the unfolding of the\nconsequences of that work which by His own testimony waa finished when\nHe bowed His head and died. But the dying martyr sees him _standing_,\nas if He had sprung to His feet in response to the cry of faith from\nthe first of the long train of sufferers. It is as if the Emperor upon\nHis seat, looking down upon the arena where the gladiators are\ncontending to the death, could not sit quiet amongst the flashing axes\nof the lictors and the purple curtains of His throne, and see their\ndeath-struggles, but must spring to His feet to help them, or at least\nbend down with the look and with the reality of sympathy. So Christ,\nthe Son of Man, bearing His manhood with Him,\n\n  'Still bends on earth a Brother's eye,'\n\nand is the ever-present Helper of all struggling souls that put their\ntrust in Him.\n\nThen as to the other and main thought here in view\u2014the second coming of\nthat perfect Manhood to be our Judge. It is too solemn a subject for\nhuman lips to say much about. It has been vulgarised, and the power\ntaken out of it by many well-meant attempts to impress it upon men's\nhearts. But that coming is _certain_. That manhood could not end its\nrelationship to us with the Cross, nor yet with the slow, solemn,\nupward progress which bore Him, pouring down blessings, up into the\nsame bright cloud that had dwelt between the cherubim and had received\nHim into its mysterious recesses at the Transfiguration. That He should\ncome again is the only possible completion of His work.\n\nThat Judge is our Brother. So in the deepest sense we are tried by our\nPeer. Man's knowledge at its highest cannot tell the moral desert of\nanything that any man does. You may judge action, you may sentence for\nbreaches of law, you may declare a man clear of any blame for such, but\nfor any one to read the secrets of another heart is beyond human power;\nand if He that is the Judge were only a man there would be wild work,\nand many a blunder in the sentences that were given. But when we think\nthat it is the Son of Man that is our Judge, then we know that the\nOmniscience of divinity, that ponders the hearts and reads the motives,\nwill be all blended with the tenderness and sympathy of humanity; that\nwe shall be judged by One who knows all our frame, not only with the\nknowledge of a Maker, if I may so say, as from outside, but with the\nknowledge of a possessor, as from within; that we shall be judged by\nOne who has fought and conquered in all temptations; and most blessed\nof all, that we shall be judged by One with whom we have only to plead\nHis own work and His own love and His Cross that we may stand acquitted\nbefore His throne.\n\nSo, brethren, in that one mighty Name all the past, present, and future\nare gathered and blended together. In the past His Cross fills the\nretrospect: for the future there rises up, white and solemn, His\njudgment throne. 'The Son of Man _is_ come to give His life a ransom\nfor the many'; that is the centre point of all history. The Son of Man\n_shall_ come to judge the world; that is the one thought that fills the\nfuture. Let us lay hold by true faith on the mighty work which He has\ndone on the Cross, then we shall rejoice to see our Brother on the\nthrone, when the 'judgment is set and the books are opened.' Oh,\nfriends, cleave to Him ever in trust and love, in communion and\nimitation, in obedience and confession, that ye may be accounted worthy\n'to stand before the Son of Man' in that day!\n\n\n\n\nA PARTING WARNING\n\n\n'Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among\nyou. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and\nhe that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye\nhave the light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of\nlight.'\u2014JOHN xii. 35,36 (R.V.).\n\nThese are the last words of our Lord's public ministry. He afterwards\nspoke only to His followers in the sweet seclusion of the sympathetic\nhome at Bethany, and amid the sanctities of the upper chamber. 'Yet a\nlittle while am I with you';\u2014the sun had all but set. Two days more,\nand the Cross was reared on Calvary, but there was yet time to turn to\nthe light. And so His divine charity 'hoped all things,' and continued\nto plead with those who had so long rejected Him. As befits a last\nappeal, the words unveil the heart of Christ. They are solemn with\nwarning, radiant with promise, almost beseeching in their earnestness.\nHe loves too well not to warn, but He will not leave the bitterness of\nthreatening as a last savour on the palate, and so the lips, into which\ngrace is poured, bade farewell to His enemies with the promise and the\nhope that even they may become 'the sons of light.'\n\nThe solemnity of the occasion, then, gives great force to the words;\nand the remembrance of it sets us on the right track for estimating\ntheir significance. Let us see what lessons for us there may be in\nChrist's last words to the world.\n\nI. There is, first, a self-revelation.\n\nIt is no mere grammatical pedantry that draws attention to the fact\nthat four times in this text does our Lord employ the definite article,\nand speak of 'the light.' And that that is no mere accident is obvious\nfrom the fact that, in the last clause of our text, where the general\nidea of light is all that is meant to be emphatic, the article is\nomitted. 'Yet a little while is _the_ light with you; walk while ye\nhave _the_ light\u2026. While ye have _the_ light, believe in _the_ light,\nthat ye may be the children of light.'\n\nSo then, most distinctly here, in His final appeal to the world, He\ndraws back the curtain, as it were, takes away the shade that had\ncovered the lamp, and lets one full beam stream out for the last\nimpression that He leaves. Is it not profoundly significant and\nimpressive that then, of all times, over and over again, in the compass\nof these short verses, this Galilean peasant makes the tremendous\nassertion that He is what none other can be, in a solitary and\ntranscendent sense, _the_ Light of Mankind? Undismayed by universal\nrejection, unfaltering in spite of the curling lips of incredulity and\nscorn, unbroken by the near approach of certain martyrdom, He presents\nHimself before the world as its Light. Nothing in the history of mad,\nfanatical claims to inspiration and divine authority is to be compared\nwith these assertions of our Lord. He is the fontal Source, He says, of\nall illumination; He stands before the whole race, and claims to be\n'the Master-Light of all our seeing.' Whatsoever ideas of clearness of\nknowledge, of rapture of joy, of whiteness of purity, are symbolised by\nthat great emblem, He declares that He manifests them all to men.\nOthers may shine; but they are, as He said, 'lights kindled,' and\ntherefore 'burning.' Others may shine, but they have caught their\nradiance from Him. All teachers, all helpers, all thinkers draw their\ninspiration, if they have any, from Him, in whom was life, and the Life\nwas the Light of men.\n\nThere has been blazing in the heavens of late a new star, that burst\nupon astonished astronomers in a void spot; but its brilliancy, though\nfar transcending that of our sun, soon began to wane, and before long,\napparently, there will be blackness again where there was blackness\nbefore. So all lights but His are temporary as well as derived, and men\n'willing for a season to rejoice' in the fleeting splendours, and to\nlisten to the teacher of a day, lose the illumination of his presence\nand guidance of his thoughts as the ages roll on. But _the_ Light is\n'not for an age, but for all time.'\n\nNow, brethren, this is Christ's estimate of Himself. I dwell not on it\nfor the purpose of seeking to exhaust its depth of significance. In it\nthere lies the assertion that He, and He only, is the source of all\nvalid knowledge of the deepest sort concerning God and men, and their\nmutual relations. In it lie the assertion that He, and He only, is the\nsource of all true gladness that may blend with our else darkened\nlives, and the further assertion that from Him, and from Him alone, can\nflow to us the purity that shall make us pure. We have to turn to that\nMan close by His Cross, on whom while He spoke the penumbra of the\neclipse of death was beginning to show itself, and to say to Him what\nthe Psalmist said of old to the Jehovah whom he knew, and whom we\nrecognise as indwelling in Jesus: 'With Thee is the fountain of life.\nThou makest us to drink of the river of Thy pleasures. In Thy light\nshall we see light.'\n\nSo Christ thought of Himself; so Christ would have as to think of Him.\nAnd it becomes a question for us how, if we refuse to accept that claim\nof a solitary, underived, eternal, and universal power of illuminating\nmankind, we can save His character for the veneration of the world. We\ncannot go picking and choosing amongst the Master's words, and say\n'This is historical, and that mythical.' We cannot select some of them,\nand leave others on one side. You must take the whole Christ if you\ntake any Christ. And the whole Christ is He who, within sight of\nCalvary, and in the face of all but universal rejection, lifted up His\nvoice, and, as His valediction to the world, declared, 'I am the Light\nof the world.' So He says to us. Oh that we all might cast ourselves\nbefore Him, with the cry, 'Lighten our darkness, O Lord, we beseech\nThee!'\n\nII. Secondly, we have here a double exhortation.\n\n'Walk in the light; believe in the light.' These two sum up all our\nduties; or rather, unveil for us the whole fullness of the possible\nprivileges and blessings of which our relation to that light is\ncapable. It is obvious that the latter of them is the deeper in idea,\nand the prior in order of sequence. There must be the 'belief' in the\nlight before there is the 'walk' in the light. Walking includes the\nideas of external activity and of progress. And so, putting these two\nexhortations together, we get the whole of Christianity considered as\nsubjective. 'Believe in the light; trust in the light,' and then 'walk'\nin it. A word, then, about each of these branches of this double\nexhortation.\n\n'Trust in the light.' The figure seems to be dropped at first sight;\nfor it wants little faith to believe in the sunshine at midday; and\nwhen the light is pouring out, how can a man but see it? But the\napparent incongruity of the metaphor points to something very deep in\nregard to the spiritual side. We cannot but believe in the light that\nmeets the eye when it meets it, but it is possible for a man to blind\nhimself to the shining of this light. Therefore the exhortation is\nneeded\u2014'Believe in the light,' for only by believing it can you see it.\nJust as the eye is the organ of sight, just as its nerves are sensitive\nto the mysterious finger of the beam, just as on its mirroring surface\nimpinges the gentle but mighty force that has winged its way across all\nthe space between us and the sun, and yet falls without hurting, so\nfaith, the 'inward eye which makes the bliss' of the solitary soul, is\nthe one organ by which you and I can see the light. 'Seeing is\nbelieving,' says the old proverb. That is true in regard to the\nphysical. Believing is seeing, is much rather the way to put it in\nregard to the spiritual and divine.\n\nOnly as we trust the light do we see the light. Unless you and I put\nour confidence in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, we have\nno adequate knowledge of Him and no clear vision of Him. We must know\nthat we may love; but we must love that we may know. We must believe\nthat we may see. True, we must see that we may believe, but the\npreliminary vision which precedes belief is slight and dim as compared\nwith the solidity and the depth of assurance with which we apprehend\nthe reality and know the lustre of Him whom our faith has grasped. You\nwill never know the glory of the light, nor the sweetness with which it\nfalls upon the gazing eye, until you turn your face to that Master, and\nso receive on your susceptible and waiting heart the warmth and the\nradiance which He only can bestow. 'Believe in the light.' Trust it; or\nrather, trust Him who is it. He cannot deceive. This light from heaven\ncan never lead astray. Absolutely we may rely upon it; unconditionally\nwe must follow it. Lean upon Him\u2014to take another metaphor\u2014with all your\nweight. His arm is strong to bear the burden of our weaknesses,\nsorrows, and, above all, our sins. 'While ye have light, trust the\nlight.'\n\nBut then that is not enough. Man, with his double relations, must have\nan active and external as well as an inward and contemplative life. And\nso our Lord, side by side with the exhortation on which I have been\ntouching, puts the other one, 'Walk in the light.' Our inward emotions,\nhowever deep and precious, however real the affiance, however\nwhole-hearted the love, are maimed and stunted, and not what the light\nrequires, unless there follows upon them the activity of the walk. What\ndo we get the daylight for? To sit and gaze at it? By no means; but\nthat it may guide us upon our path and help us in all our work. And so\nall Christian people need ever to remember that Jesus Christ has\nindissolubly bound together these two phases of our relation to Him as\nthe light of life-inward and blessed contemplation by faith and outward\npractical activity. To walk is, of course, the familiar metaphor for\nthe external life of man, and all our deeds are to be in conformity\nwith the Light, and in communion with Him. This is the deepest\ndesignation, perhaps, of the true character of a Christian life in its\nexternal aspect\u2014that it walks in Christ, doing nothing but as His light\nshines, and ever bearing along with it conscious fellowship with Him\nwho is thus the guiding and irradiating and gladdening and sanctifying\nlife of our lives, '_Walk_ in the light as He _is_ in the light.' Our\ndays fleet and change; His are stable and the same. For, although these\nwords which I have quoted, in their original application refer to God\nthe Father, they are no less true about Him who rests at the right hand\nof God, and is one light with Him. He _is_ in the light. We may\napproximate to that stable and calm radiance, even though our lives are\npassed through changing scenes, and effort and struggle are their\ncharacteristics. And oh! how blessed, brother, such a life will be, all\ngladdened by the unsetting and unclouded sunshine that even in the\nshadiest places shines, and turns the darkness of the valley of the\nshadow of death into solemn light; teaching gloom to glow with a hidden\nsun!\n\nBut there is not only the idea of activity here, there is the further\nnotion of progress. Unless Christian people to their faith add work,\nand have both their faith and their consequent work in a continual\ncondition of progress and growth, there is little reason to believe\nthat they apprehend the light at all. If you trust the light you will\nwalk in it; and if your days are not in conformity nor in communion\nwith Him, and are not advancing nearer and nearer to the central blaze,\nthen it becomes you to ask yourselves whether you have verily seen at\nall, or trusted at all, 'the Light of life.'\n\nIII. Thirdly, there is here a warning.\n\n'Walk whilst ye have the light, lest the darkness come upon you.' That\nis the summing up of the whole history of that stiff-necked and\nmarvellous people. For what has all the history of Israel been since\nthat day but groping in the wilderness without any pillar of fire? But\nthere is more than that in it. Christ gives us this one solemn warning\nof what falls on us if we turn away from Him. Rejected light is the\nparent of the densest darkness, and the man who, having the light, does\nnot trust it, piles around himself thick clouds of obscurity and gloom,\nfar more doleful and impenetrable than the twilight that glimmers round\nthe men who have never known the daylight of revelation. The history of\nun-Christian and anti-Christian Christendom is a terrible commentary\nupon these words of the Master, and the cries that we hear all round us\nto-day from men who will not follow the light of Christ, and moan or\nboast that they dwell in agnostic darkness, tell us that, of all the\neclipses that can fall upon heart and mind, there is none so dismal or\nthunderously dark as that of the men who, having seen the light of\nChrist in the sky, have turned from it and said, 'It is no light, it is\nonly a mock sun.' Brethren, tempt not that fate.\n\nAnd if Christian men and women do not advance in their knowledge and\ntheir conformity, like clouds of darkness will fall upon them. None is\nso hopeless as the unprogressive Christian, none so far away as those\nwho have been brought nigh and have never come any nigher. If you\nbelieve the light, see that you growingly trust and walk in it, else\ndarkness will come upon you, and you will not know whither you go.\n\nIV. And lastly, there is here a hope and a promise.\n\n'That ye may be the sons of light.'\n\nFaith and obedience turn a man into the likeness of that in which he\ntrusts. If we trust Jesus we open our hearts to Him; and if we open our\nhearts to Him He will come in. If you are in a darkened room, what have\nyou to do in order to have it filled with glad sunshine? Open the\nshutters and pull up the blinds, and the light will do all the rest. If\nyou trust the light, it will rush in and fill every crevice and cranny\nof your hearts. Faith and obedience will mould us, by their natural\neffect, into the resemblance of that on which we lean. As one of the\nold German mystics said, 'What thou lovest, that thou dost become.' And\nit is blessedly true. The same principle makes Christians like Christ,\nand makes idolaters like their gods. 'They that make them are like unto\nthem; so is every one that trusteth in them,' says one of the Psalms.\n'They followed after vanity and are become vain,' says the chronicler\nof Israel's defections. 'We with unveiled faces beholding'\u2014or\nmirroring\u2014'the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.'\nTrust the light and you become 'sons of the light.'\n\nAnd so, dear friends, all of us may hope that by degrees, as the reward\nof faith and of walking, we still may bear the image of the heavenly,\neven here on earth. While as yet we only believe in the light, we may\nparticipate in its transforming power, like some far-off planet on the\nutmost bounds of some solar system, that receives faint and small\nsupplies of light and warmth, through a thick atmosphere of vapour, and\nacross immeasurable spaces. But we have the assurance that we shall be\ncarried nearer our centre, and then, like the planets that are closer\nto the sun than our earth is, we shall feel the fuller power of the\nheat, and be saturated with the glory of the light. 'We shall see Him\nas He is'; and then we too 'shall blaze forth like the sun in the\nkingdom of our Father.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE LOVE OF THE DEPARTING CHRIST\n\n\n'\u2026 When Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of\nthis world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the\nworld, He loved them unto the end.'\u2014JOHN xiii. 1.\n\nThe latter half of St. John's Gospel, which begins with these words, is\nthe Holy of Holies of the New Testament. Nowhere else do the blended\nlights of our Lord's superhuman dignity and human tenderness shine with\nsuch lambent brightness. Nowhere else is His speech at once so simple\nand so deep. Nowhere else have we the heart of God so unveiled to us.\nOn no other page, even of the Bible, have so many eyes, glistening with\ntears, looked and had the tears dried. The immortal words which Christ\nspoke in that upper chamber are His highest self-revelation in speech,\neven as the Cross to which they led up is His most perfect\nself-revelation in act.\n\nTo this most sacred part of the New Testament my text is the\nintroduction. It unveils to us gleams of Christ's heart, and does what\nthe Evangelists very seldom venture to do, viz. gives us some sort of\nanalysis of the influences which then determined the flow and the shape\nof our Lord's love.\n\nMany good commentators prefer to read the last words of my text, 'He\nloved them unto the _uttermost_' rather than 'unto the _end_'\u2014so taking\nthem to express the depth and degree rather than the permanence and\nperpetuity of our Lord's love. And that seems to me to be by far the\nworthier and the nobler meaning, as well as the one which is borne out\nby the usual signification of the expression in other Greek authors. It\nis much to know that the emotions of these last moments did not\ninterrupt Christ's love. It is even more to know that in some sense\nthey perfected it, giving even a greater vitality to its tenderness,\nand a more precious sweetness to its manifestations. So understood, the\nwords explain for us why it was that in the sanctity of the upper\nchamber there ensued the marvellous act of the foot-washing, the\nmarvellous discourses which follow, and the climax of all, that\nHigh-priestly prayer. They give utterance to a love which Christ's\nconsciousness at that solemn hour tended to shapen and to deepen.\n\nSo, under the Evangelist's guidance, we may venture to gaze at least a\nlittle way into these depths, and with all reverence to try and see\nsomething at all events of the fringe and surface of the love 'which\npasseth knowledge.' 'Jesus, knowing that His hour was come, that He\nshould depart out of the world unto the Father, having loved His own\nwhich were in the world, loved them then unto the uttermost.'\n\nMy object will be best accomplished by simply following the guidance of\nthe words before us, and asking you to look first at that love as a\nlove which was not interrupted, but perfected by the prospect of\nseparation.\n\nI. It would take us much too far away, however interesting the\ncontemplation might be, to dwell with any particularity upon our Lord's\nconsciousness as it is here set forth in that 'He knew that His hour\nwas come, that He should depart out of the world unto the Father.' But\nI can scarcely avoid noticing, though only in a few sentences, the\nsalient points of that Christ-consciousness as it is set forth here.\n\n'He knew that His hour was come.' All His life was passed under the\nconsciousness of a divine necessity laid upon Him, to which He lovingly\nand cheerfully yielded Himself. On His lips there are no words more\nsignificant, and few more frequent, than that divine 'I must!' 'It\nbehoves the Son of Man' to do this, that, and the other\u2014yielding to the\nnecessity imposed by the Father's will, and sealed by His own loving\nresolve to be the Saviour of the world. And in like manner, all through\nHis life He declares Himself conscious of the hours which mark the\nseveral crises and stages of His mission. They come to Him and He\ndiscerns them. No external power can coerce Him to any act till the\nhour come. No external power can hinder Him from the act when it comes.\nWhen the hour strikes He hears the phantom sound of the bell; and,\nhearing, He obeys. And thus, at the last and supreme moment, to Him it\ndawned unquestionable and irrevocable. How did He meet it? Whilst on\nthe one hand there was the shrinking of which we have such pathetic\ntestimony in the broken prayer that He Himself amended\u2014'Father! save Me\nfrom this hour\u2026. Yet for this cause came I unto this hour,'\u2014there is a\nstrange, triumphant joy, blending with the shrinking, that the decisive\nhour is at last come.\n\nMark, too, the form which the consciousness took\u2014not that now the hour\nhad come for suffering or death or bearing the sins of the world\u2014all\nwhich aspects of it were nevertheless present to Him, as we know; but\nthat now He was soon to leave all the world beneath Him and to return\nto the Father.\n\nThe terror, the agony, the shame, the mysterious burden of a world's\nsins were now to be laid upon Him\u2014all these elements are submerged, as\nit were, and become less conspicuous than the one thought of leaving\nbehind all the limitations, and the humiliations, and the compelled\nassociation with evil which, like a burning brand laid upon a tender\nskin, was an hourly and momentary agony to Him, and soaring above them\nall, unto His own calm home, His habitation from eternity with the\nFather, as He had been before the world was. How strange this blending\nof shrinking and of eagerness, of sorrow and of joy, of human trembling\nconsciousness of impending death, and of triumphant consciousness of\nthe approach of the hour when the Son of Man, even in His bitterest\nagony and deepest humiliation, should, paradoxically, be glorified, and\nshould 'leave the world to go unto the Father'!\n\nWe cannot enter with any particularity or depth into this marvellous\nand unique consciousness, but it is set forth here\u2014and that is the\npoint to which especially I desire to turn your attention\u2014as the basis\nand the reason for a special tenderness softening His voice, and taking\npossession of His heart, as He thought of the impending separation.\n\nAnd is that not beautiful? And does it not help us to realise how truly\n'bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,' and bearing a heart\nthrilling with all innocent human emotions that divine Saviour was? We,\ntoo, have known what it is to feel, because of approaching separation\nfrom dear ones, the need for a tenderer tenderness. At such moments the\nmasks of use and wont drop away, and we are eager to find some word, to\nput our whole souls into some look, our whole strength into one\nclinging embrace that may express all our love, and may be a joy to two\nhearts for ever after to remember. The Master knew that longing, and\nfelt the pain of separation; and He, too, yielded to the human impulse\nwhich makes the thought of parting the key to unlock the hidden\nchambers of the most jealously guarded heart, and let the shyest of its\nemotions come out for once into the daylight. So, 'knowing that His\nhour was come, He loved them unto the uttermost.'\n\nBut there is not only in this a wonderful expression of the true\nhumanity of the Christ, but along with that a suggestion of something\nmore sacred and deeper still. For surely amidst all the parting scenes\nthat the world's literature has enshrined, amidst all the examples of\nself-oblivion at the last moment, when a martyr has been the comforter\nof his weeping friends, there are none that without degradation to this\ncan be set by the side of this supreme and unique instance of\nself-oblivion. Did not Christ, for the sake of that handful of poor\npeople, first and directly, and for the rest of us afterwards, of\ncourse, secondarily and indirectly, so suppress all the natural\nemotions of these last moments as that their absolute absence is unique\nand singular, and points onwards to something more, viz. that this Man\nwho was susceptible of all human affections, and loved us with a love\nwhich is not merely high above our grasp, absolute, perfect, changeless\nand divine, but with a love like our own human affection, had also more\nthan a man's heart to give us, and gave us more, when, that He might\ncomfort and sustain, He crushed down Himself and went to the Cross with\nwords of tenderness and consolation and encouragement for others upon\nHis lips? Knowing all that was lying before Him, He was neither\nabsorbed nor confounded, but carried a heart at leisure to love even\nthen 'unto the uttermost.'\n\nAnd if the prospect only sharpened and perfected, nor interrupted for\none instant the flow of His love, the reality has no power to do aught\nelse. In the glory, when He reached it, He poured out the same loving\nheart; and to-day He looks down upon us with the same Face that bent\nover the table in the upper room, and the same tenderness flows to us.\nWhen John saw his Master next, after His Ascension, amidst the glories\nof the vision in his rocky Patmos, though His face was as the sun\nshineth in his strength, it was the old face. Though His hand bore the\nstars in a cluster, it was the hand that had been pierced with the\nnails. Though the breast was girded with the golden girdle of\nsovereignty and of priesthood, it was the breast on which John's happy\nhead had lain; and though the 'Voice was as the sound of many waters,'\nit soothed itself to a murmur, gentle as that with which the tideless\nsea about him rippled upon the silvery sand when He said, 'Fear not \u2026 I\nam the First and the Last.' Knowing that He goes to the Father, He\nloves to the uttermost, and being with the Father, He still so loves.\n\nII. And now I must, with somewhat less of detail, dwell upon the other\npoints which this text brings out for us. It suggests to us next that\nwe have in the love of Jesus Christ a love which is faithful to the\nobligations of its own past.\n\nHaving loved, He loves. Because He had been a certain thing, therefore\nHe is and He shall be that same. That is an argument that implies\ndivinity. About nothing human can we say that because it has been\ntherefore it shall be. Alas! about much that is human we have to say\nthe converse, that because it has been, therefore it will cease to be.\nAnd though, blessed be God! they are few and they are poor who have had\nno experience in their lives of human hearts whose love in the past has\nbeen such that it manifestly is for ever, yet we cannot with the same\nabsolute confidence say about one another, even about the dearest,\n'Having loved, he loves.' But we can say so about Christ. There is no\nexhaustion in that great stream that pours out from His heart; no\ndiminution in its flow.\n\nThey tell us that the central light of our system, that great sun\nitself, pouring out its rays exhausts its warmth, and were it not\ncontinually replenished, must gradually, and even though continually\nreplenished, will ultimately cease to blaze, and be a dead, cold mass\nof ashes. But this central Light, this heart of Christ, which is the\nSun of the World, will endure like the sun, and after the sun is cold,\nHis love will last for ever. He pours it out and has none the less to\ngive. There is no bankruptcy in His expenditure, no exhaustion in His\neffort, no diminution in His stores. 'Thy mercy endureth for ever';\n'Thou hast loved, therefore Thou wilt love' is an inference for time\nand for eternity, on which we may build and rest secure.\n\nIII. Then, still further, we have here this love suggested as being a\nlove which has special tenderness towards its own. 'Having loved His\nown, He loved them to the uttermost.'\n\nThese poor men who, with all their errors, did cleave to Him; who, in\nsome dim way, understood somewhat of His greatness and His\nsweetness\u2014and do you and I do more?\u2014who, with all their sins, yet were\ntrue to Him in the main; who had surrendered very much to follow Him,\nand had identified themselves with Him, were they to have no special\nplace in His heart because in that heart the whole world lay? Is there\nany reason why we should be afraid of saying that the universal love of\nJesus Christ, which gathers into His bosom all mankind, does fall with\nspecial tenderness and sweetness upon those who have made Him theirs\nand have surrendered themselves to be His? Surely it must be that He\nhas special nearness to those who love Him; surely it is reasonable\nthat He should have special delight in those who try to resemble Him;\nsurely it is only what one might expect of Him that He should in a\nspecial manner honour the drafts, so to speak, of those who have\nconfidence in Him, and are building their whole lives upon Him. Surely,\nbecause the sun shines down upon dunghills and all impurities, that is\nno reason why it should not lie with special brightness on the polished\nmirror that reflects its lustre. Surely, because Jesus Christ\nloves\u2014Blessed be His name!\u2014the publicans and the harlots and the\noutcasts and the sinners, that is no reason why He should not bend with\nspecial tenderness over those who, loving Him, try to serve Him, and\nhave set their whole hopes upon Him. The rainbow strides across the\nsky, but there is a rainbow in every little dewdrop that hangs\nglistening on the blades of grass. There is nothing limited, nothing\nsectional, nothing narrow in the proclamation of a special tenderness\nof Christ towards His own, when you accompany with that truth this\nother, that all men are besought by Him to come into that circle of\n'His own,' and that only they themselves shut any out therefrom.\nBlessed be His name! the whole world dwells in His love, but there is\nan inner chamber in which He discovers all His heart to those who find\nin that heart their Heaven and their all. 'He came to His own,' in the\nwider sense of the word, and 'His own received Him not'; but also,\n'having loved His own He loved them unto the end.' There are textures\nand lives which can only absorb some of the rays of light in the\nspectrum; some that are only capable of taking, so to speak, the violet\nrays of judgment and of wrath, and some who open their hearts for the\nruddy brightness at the other end of the line. Do you see to it,\nbrethren, that you are of that inner circle who receive the whole\nChrist into their hearts, and to whom He can unfold the fullness of His\nlove.\n\nIV. And, lastly, my text suggests that love of Christ as being made\nspecially tender by the necessities and the dangers of His friends. 'He\nloved His own which were in the world,' and so loving them, 'loved them\nto the uttermost.'\n\nWe have, running through these precious discourses which follow my\ntext, many allusions to the separation which was to ensue, and to His\nleaving His followers in circumstances of peculiar peril, defenceless\nand solitary. 'I come unto Thee, and am no more in the world,' says He\nin the final High-priestly prayer, 'but these are in the world. Holy\nFather, keep them through Thine own name.' The same contrast between\nthe certain security of the Shepherd and the troubled perils of the\nscattered flock seems to be in the words of my text, and suggests a\nsweet and blessed reason for the special tenderness with which He\nlooked upon them. As a dying father on his deathbed may yearn over\norphans that he is leaving defenceless, so Christ is here represented\nas conscious of an accession even to the tender longings of His heart,\nwhen He thought of the loneliness and the dangers to which His\nfollowers were to be exposed.\n\nAh! It seems a harsh contrast between the Emperor, sitting throned\nthere between the purple curtains, and the poor athletes wrestling in\nthe arena below. It seems strange to think that a loving Master has\ngone up into the mountain, and has left His disciples to toil in rowing\non the stormy sea of life; but the contrast is only apparent. For you\nand I, if we love and trust Him, are with Him 'in the heavenly places'\neven whilst we toil here, and He is with us, working with us, even\nwhilst He 'sitteth at the right hand of God.'\n\nWe may be sure of this, brethren, that that love ever increases its\nmanifestations according to our deepening necessities. The darker the\nnight the more lustrous the stars. The deeper, the narrower, the\nsavager, the Alpine gorge, usually the fuller and the swifter the\nstream that runs through it. And the more that enemies and fears gather\nround about us, the sweeter will be the accents of our Comforter's\nvoice, and the fuller will be the gifts of tenderness and grace with\nwhich He draws near to us. Our sorrows, dangers, necessities, are doors\nthrough which His love can come nigh.\n\nSo, dear friends, we have had experience of sweet and transient human\nlove; we have had experience of changeful and ineffectual love; turn\naway from them all to this immortal, deep heart of Christ's, welling\nover with a love which no change can affect, which no separation can\ndiminish, which no sin can provoke, which becomes greater and tenderer\nas our necessities increase, and ask Him to fill your hearts with that,\nthat you may 'know the length and breadth and depth and height of that\nlove which passeth knowledge,' and so 'be filled with all the fullness\nof God.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE SERVANT-MASTER\n\n\n'Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and\nthat He was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and\nlaid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After\nthat He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples'\nfeet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.'\u2014JOHN\nxiii. 3-5.\n\nIt has been suggested that the dispute as to 'which was the greatest,'\nwhich broke the sanctities of the upper chamber, was connected with the\nunwillingness of each of the Apostles to perform the menial office of\nwashing the feet of his companions. They had come in from Bethany, and\nneeded the service. But apparently it was omitted, and although we can\nscarcely suppose that the transcendent act which is recorded in my text\nwas performed at the beginning of the meal, yet I think we shall not be\nwrong if we see in it a reference to the neglected service.\n\nThe Evangelist who tells us of the dispute, and does not tell us of the\nfoot-washing, preserves a sentence which finds its true meaning only in\nthis incident, 'I am among you as He that serveth.' And although John\nis the only recorder of this pathetic incident, there are allusions in\nother parts of Scripture which seem to hint at it. As, for instance,\nwhen Paul speaks of 'taking upon Him the form of a servant'; and still\nmore strikingly when Peter employs the remarkable word, which he does\nemploy in his exhortation, 'Be ye clothed with humility.' For the word\nrendered there 'clothed' occurs only in that one place in Scripture,\nand means literally the putting on of a slave's costume. One can\nscarcely help, then, seeing in these three passages to which I have\nreferred echoes of this incident which John alone preserves to us. And\nso we get at once a hint of the harmony and of the incompleteness of\nthe Gospel records.\n\nI. Consider the motives of this act.\n\nNow that is ground upon which the Evangelists very seldom enter. They\ntell us what Christ did, but very rarely do they give us any glimpses\ninto why He did it. But this section of the Gospel is remarkable for\nits full and careful analysis of what Christ's impelling motives were\nin the final acts of His life. How did John find out why Christ did\nthis deed? Perhaps he who had 'leaned upon His bosom at supper,' and\nwas evidently very closely associated with Him, may, in some unrecorded\nhour of intimate communion during the forty days between the\nResurrection and the Ascension, have heard from the Master the\nexposition of His motives. But more probably, I think, the long years\nof growing likeness to his Lord, and of meditation upon the depth of\nmeaning in the smallest events that his faithful memory recalled,\ntaught him to understand Christ's purpose and motives. 'The secret of\nthe Lord is with them that fear Him,' and the liker we get to our\nMaster and the more we are filled with His Spirit, the more easy will\nit be for us to divine the purpose and the motives of His actions,\nwhether as they are recorded in the Scripture or as they come to us in\nthe experience of daily life.\n\nBut, passing that point, I desire for a moment to fix your attention on\nthe twofold key to our Lord's action which is given in this context.\nThere is, first of all, in the first verse of the chapter, a general\nexposition of what was uppermost in His mind and heart during the whole\nof the period in the upper room. The act in our text, and the wonderful\nwords which follow in the subsequent chapters, crowned by that great\nintercessory prayer, seem to me to be all explained for us by this\nfirst unveiling of His motives. 'When Jesus knew that His hour was come\nthat He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved\nHis own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.'\n\nAnd then the words of my text, which apply more specifically to the\nsingle incident with which they are brought into connection, tell us in\naddition why this one manifestation of Christ's love was given.\n'Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that\nHe was come from God, and went to God.' There, then, are two\nexplanations of motive, the one covering a wider area than the other,\nbut both converging on the incident before us.\n\nThe first of these is just this\u2014the consciousness of impending\nseparation moved Christ to a more than ordinarily tender manifestation\nof His love. For the rendering which you will find in the margin of the\nRevised Version, 'He loved them _to the uttermost_,' seems to me to be\ntruer to the Evangelist's meaning than the other, 'He loved them unto\nthe end.' For it was more to John's purpose to tell us that the shadow\nof the Cross only brought to the surface in more blessed and wonderful\nrepresentation the deep love of His heart, than simply to tell us that\nthat shadow did not stop its flow. It is much to know that all through\nHis sorrow He continued to love; it is far more to know that the sorrow\nsharpened its poignancy, and deepened its depth, and made more tender\nits tenderness.\n\nHow near to the man Christ that thought brings us! Do we not all know\nthe impulse to make parting moments tender moments? The masks of use\nand wont drop off; the reticence which we, perhaps wisely, ordinarily\ncultivate in regard to our deepest feelings melts away. We yearn to\ncondense all our unspoken love into some one word, act, look, or\nembrace, which it may afterwards be life to two hearts to remember. And\nJesus Christ felt this. Because He was going away He could not but pour\nout Himself yet more completely than in the ordinary tenor of His life.\nThe earthquake lays bare hidden veins of gold, and the heart opens\nitself out when separation impends. We shall never understand the works\nof Jesus Christ if we do as we are all apt to do, think of them as\nhaving only a didactic and doctrinal purpose. We must remember that\nthere is in Him the true play of a human heart, and that it was to\nrelieve His own love, as well as to teach these men their duty, that he\nrose from the supper, and prepared Himself to wash the disciples' feet.\n\nThen, on the other hand, the other motive which is brought by the\nEvangelists more immediately into connection with this incident is,\n'knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that\nHe was come from God, and went to God.'\n\nThe consciousness of the highest dignity impels to the lowliest\nsubmission. 'All things given into His hands,' means universal and\nabsolute dominion. 'That He was come from God,' means pre-existence,\nvoluntary incarnation, an eternal divine nature, and unbroken communion\nwith the Father. 'That He went to God,' means a voluntary departure\nfrom this low world, and a return to 'His own calm home, His habitation\nfrom eternity.'\n\nAnd, gathered all together, the phrases imply His absolute\nconsciousness of His divine nature. It was that that sent Him with the\ntowel round His loins to wash the foul feet of the pedestrians who had\ncome by the dusty and hot way from Bethany, and through all the\nabominations of an Eastern city, into the upper chamber.\n\nThis was He who from the beginning 'was with God, and was God.' This\nwas He who was the Lord of Death, Victor over the grave. This was He\nwho by His own power ascended up on high, and reigns on the throne of\nthe universe to-day. This was He whose breast the same Evangelist had\nseen before he wrote his Gospel, 'girded with the golden girdle' of\npriesthood and of sovereignty; and holding, in the hands that had laid\nthe towel on the disciples' feet, the seven stars.\n\nOh, brethren! if we believed our creeds, how our hearts would melt with\nwonder and awe that He who was so high stooped so low! 'Knowing that He\ncame from God, and went to God,' and that even when He was kneeling\nthere before these men, 'the Father had given all things into His\nhands,' what did He do? Triumph? Show His majesty? Flash His power?\nDemand service? 'Girded Himself with a towel and washed His disciples'\nfeet'!\n\nThe consciousness of loftiness does not alone avail to explain the\ntranscendent lowliness. You need the former motive to be joined with\nit, because it is only love which bends loftiness to service, and turns\nthe consciousness of superiority into yearning to divest oneself of the\nsuperiorities that separate, and to emphasise the emotions which unite.\n\nII. The detailed completeness of the act.\n\nThe remarkable particularity of the account of the stages of the\nhumiliation suggests the eye-witness. John carried them all in his mind\nineffaceably, and long, long years after that memorable hour we hear\nhim recalling each detail of the scene. We can see the little group\nstartled by the disturbance of the order of the meal as He rose from\nthe table, and the hushed wonder and the open-lipped expectation with\nwhich they watched to see what the next step would be. He rises from\nthe table and divests Himself of the upper garments which impeded\nmovement. 'What will He do next?' He takes the basin, standing there to\nbe ready for washing the apostles' feet, but unused, and not even\nfilled with water. He fills it Himself, asking none to help Him. He\ngirds the towel round Him; and then, perhaps, begins with the betrayer;\nat any rate, not with Peter.\n\nCannot you see them, as they look? Do not you feel the solemnity of the\ndetailed particular account of each step?\n\nAnd may we not also say that all is a parable, or illustration, on a\nlower level, of the very same principles which were at work in the\nmightier fact of the greater condescension of His 'becoming flesh and\ndwelling among us'? He 'rose from the table,' as He rose from His place\nin 'the bosom of the Father.' He disturbed the meal as He broke the\nfestivities of the heavens. He divested Himself of His garments, as 'He\nthought not equality with God a thing to be worn eagerly'; and 'He\ngirded Himself with the towel,' as He put on the weakness of flesh.\nHimself He filled the basin, by His own work providing the means of\ncleansing; and Himself applied the cleansing to the feet of those who\nwere with Him. It is all a working out of the same double motive which\ndrew Him downwards to our earth. The reason why He stooped, with His\nhands to wash the disciples' feet, is the same as the reason why He had\nhands to wash with\u2014viz., that knowing Himself to be high over all, and\nloving all, He chose to become one with us, that we might become like\nunto Him. So the details of the act are a parable of His incarnation\nand death.\n\nIII. And then, still further, note the purpose of the deed.\n\nNow although I have said that we never rightly understand our Lord's\nactions if we are always looking for dogmatic or doctrinal purposes,\nand thinking of them rather as being lectures, and sometimes rebukes in\nact, than as being the outgush of His emotions and His human-divine\nnature, yet we have also to take into account their moral and spiritual\nlessons. His acts are words and His words are acts. And although the\nmain and primary purpose of this incident, in so far as it had any\nother purpose than to relieve Christ's own love by manifesting itself,\nand to comfort the disciples' hearts by the tender manifestation, was\nto teach them their duty, as we shall presently see, yet the special\naspect of cleansing, which comes out so emphatically and prominently in\nthe episode of Peter's refusal, is to be carried all along through the\ninterpretation of the incident. This was the reason why Jesus Christ\ncame from heaven and assumed flesh, and this was the reason why Jesus\nChrist, assuming flesh, bowed Himself to this menial office\u2014to make men\nclean.\n\nI venture to say that we never understand Jesus Christ and His work\nuntil we recognise this as its prominent purpose, to cleanse us from\nsin. An inadequate conception of what we need, shallow, superficial\nviews of the gravity and universality and obstinacy of the fact of sin,\nare an impenetrable veil between us and all real understanding of Jesus\nChrist. There is no adequate motive for such an astounding fact as the\nincarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God, except the purpose of\nredeeming the world. If you do not believe that you\u2014you individually,\nand all of us your brethren\u2014need to be cleansed, you will find it hard\nto believe in the divinity and atonement of Jesus Christ. If you have\nbeen down into the depths of your own heart, and found out what\ntremendous, diabolic power your own evil nature and sin have upon you,\nthen you will not be content with anything less than the incarnate God\nwho stoops from heaven to bear the burden of your sin, and to take it\nall away. If you want to understand why He laid aside His garments and\ntook the servile form of our manhood, the appeal of man's sin to His\nlove and the answer of His Divine condescension are the only\nexplanation.\n\nAgain, let me remind you that there is no cleansing without Christ. Can\nyou do it for yourselves, do you think? There is an old proverb, 'One\nhand washes the other.' That is true about stains on the flesh. It is\nnot true about stains on our spirits. Nobody can do it for us but Jesus\nChrist alone. He kneels before us, having the right and the power to\nwash us because He has died for us. Kings of England used to touch for\n'the king's evil,' and lay their pure fingers upon feculent masses of\ncorruption. Our King's touch is sovereign for the corruption and\nincipient putrefaction of our sin; and there is no power in heaven or\nearth that will make a man clean except the power of Jesus Christ. It\nis either Jesus Christ or filthiness.\n\nIf I might pass from my text for one moment, I would remind you of the\nepisode which immediately follows, and suggest that if Jesus Christ is\nnot cleansing us He is nothing to us. 'If I wash thee not, thou hast no\npart in Me.' I know, of course, that it is possible to have partial,\nrudimentary, and sometimes reverent conceptions of that Lord without\nrecognising in Him the great 'Fountain opened for sin and for\nuncleanness.' But I am sure of this, that there is no real, living\npossession of Jesus Christ such as men's souls need, and such as will\noutlast the disintegrating influences of death, unless it be such a\npossession of Him as appropriates for its own, primarily, His cleansing\npower. First of all He must cleanse, and then all other aspects of His\nglory, and gifts of His grace, will pour into our hearts.\n\nNo understanding of Christ, then, without the recognition that\ncleansing is the purpose and the vindication of His incarnation and\nsacrifice; no cleansing without Christ; no Christ worth calling by the\nname without cleansing.\n\nIV. And so, lastly, note the pattern in this act.\n\nYou will remember that it is followed by solemn words spoken after He\nhad taken His garments and resumed His place at the table, in which\nthere blended, in the most wonderful fashion, the consciousness of\nauthority, both as Teacher of truth and as Guide of life, and the\nsweetest and most loving lowliness. In them Jesus prescribed the\nwonderful act of His condescending love and cleansing power as the law\nof the Christian life. There are too many of us who profess to be quite\nwilling to trust to Jesus Christ as the Cleanser of our souls who are\nnot nearly so willing to accept His Example as the pattern for our\nlives; and I would have you note, as an extremely remarkable point,\nthat all the New Testament references to our Lord as being our Example\nare given in immediate connection with His passion. The very part of\nHis life which we generally regard as being most absolutely unique and\ninimitable is the fact in His life which Apostles and Evangelists\nselect as the one to set before us for our example.\n\nDo you ask if any man can copy the sufferings of Jesus Christ? In\nregard to their virtue and efficacy, No. In regard to their motive\u2014in\none aspect, No; in another aspect, Yes. In regard to the spirit that\nimpelled Him we may copy Him. The smallest trickle of water down a city\ngutter will carve out of the mud at its side little banks and cliffs,\nand exhibit all the phenomena of erosion on the largest scale, as the\nMississippi does over half a continent, and the tiniest little wave in\na basin will fall into the same curves as the billows of mid-ocean. You\nand I, in our little lives, may even aspire to 'do as I have done to\nyou.'\n\nThe true use of superiority is service. _Noblesse oblige_! Bank,\nwealth, capacity, talents, all things are given to us that we may use\nthem to the last particle for our fellows. Only when the world and\nsociety have awakened to that great truth which the towel-girded,\nkneeling Christ has taught us, will society be organised on the\nprinciples that God meant.\n\nBut, further, the highest form of service is to cleanse. Cleansing is\nalways dirty work for the cleaners, as every housemaid knows. You\ncannot make people clean by scolding them, by lecturing them, by\npatronising them. You have to go down into the filth if you mean to\nlift them out of it; and leave your smelling-bottles behind; and think\nnothing repulsive if your stooping to it may save a brother.\n\nThe only way by which we can imitate that example is by, first of all,\nparticipating in it for ourselves. We must, first of all, have the\nCross as our trust, before it can become our pattern and our law. We\nmust first say, 'Lord! not my feet only, but also my hands and my\nhead,' and then, in the measure in which we ourselves have received the\ncleansing benediction, we shall be impelled and able to lay our gentle\nhands on foulness and leprosy; and to say to all the impure, 'Jesus\nChrist, who hath cleansed _me_, makes _thee_ clean.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE DISMISSAL OF JUDAS\n\n\n'\u2026 Then said Jesus unto Judas, That thou doest, do quickly.'\u2014JOHN xiii.\n27.\n\nWhen our Lord gave the morsel, dipped in the dish, to Judas, only John\nknew the significance of the act. But if we supplement the narrative\nhere with that given by Matthew, we shall find that, accompanying the\ngift of the sop, was a brief dialogue in which the betrayer, with\nunabashed front, hypocritically said, 'Lord! Is it I?' and heard the\nsolemn, sad answer, 'Thou sayest!' Two things, then, appealed to him at\nthe moment: one, the conviction that he was discovered; the other, the\nwonderful assurance that he was still loved, for the gift of the morsel\nwas a token of friendliness. He shut his heart against them both; and\nas he shut his heart against Christ he opened it to the devil. So\n'after the sop Satan entered into him.' At that moment a soul committed\nsuicide; and none of those that sat by, with the exception of Christ\nand the 'disciple whom He loved,' so much as dreamed of the tragedy\ngoing on before their eyes.\n\nI know not that there are anywhere words more weighty and wonderful\nthan those of our text. And I desire to try if I can at all make you\nfeel as I feel, their solemn signification and force. 'That thou doest,\ndo quickly.'\n\nI. I hear in them, first, the voice of despairing love abandoning the\nconflict.\n\nIf I have rightly construed the meaning of the incident, this is the\nplain meaning of it. And you will observe that the Revised Version,\nmore accurately and closely rendering the words of our text, begins\nwith a '_Therefore_.' 'Therefore said Jesus unto him,' because the die\nwas cast; because the will of Judas had conclusively welcomed Satan,\nand conclusively rejected Christ; therefore, knowing that remonstrance\nwas vain, knowing that the deed was, in effect, done, Jesus Christ,\nthat Incarnate Charity which 'believeth all things, and hopeth all\nthings,' abandoned the man to himself, and said, 'There, then, if thou\nwilt thou must. I have done all I can; my last arrow is shot, and it\nhas missed the target. That then doest, do quickly.'\n\nThere is a world of solemn meaning in that one little word 'doest.' It\nteaches us the old lesson, which sense is so apt to forget, that the\ntrue actor in man's deeds is 'the hidden man of the heart,' and that\nwhen it has acted, it matters comparatively little whether the mere\ntool and instrument of the hands or of the other organs have carried\nout the behest. The thing is done before it is done when the man has\nresolved, with a fixed will, to do it. The betrayal was as good as in\nprocess, though no step beyond the introductory ones, which could\neasily have been cancelled, had yet been accomplished. Because there\nwas a fixed purpose which could not be altered by anything now,\ntherefore Jesus Christ regards the act as completed. It is what we\nthink in our hearts that we are; and our fixed determinations, our\ninclinations of will, are far more truly our doings than the mere\nconsequences of these, embodied in actuality. It is but a poor estimate\nof a man that judges him by the test of what he has done. What he has\nwanted to do is the true man; what he has attempted to do. 'It was well\nthat it was in thine heart!' saith God to the king who thought of\nbuilding the Temple which he was never allowed to rear. 'It is ill that\nis in thine heart,' says He by whom actions are weighed, to the sinner\nin purpose, though his clean hands lie idly in his lap. These hidden\nmovements of desire and will that never come to the surface are our\ntrue selves. Look after them, and the deeds will take care of\nthemselves. Serpent's eggs have serpents in them. And he that has\ndetermined upon a sin has done the sin, whether his hands have been put\nto it or no.\n\nBut, then, turn for a moment to the other thought that is suggested\nhere\u2014that solemn picture of a soul left to do as it will, because\ndivine love has no other restraints which it can impose, and is\nbankrupt of motives that it can adduce to prevent it from its madness.\nNow I do not believe, for my part, that any man in this world is so\nall-round 'sold unto sin' as that the seeking love of God gives him up\nas irreclaimable. I do not believe that there are any people concerning\nwhom it is true that it is impossible for the grace of God to find some\nchink and cranny in their souls through which it can enter and change\nthem. There are no hopeless cases as long as men are here. But, then,\nthough there may not be so, in regard to the whole sweep of the man's\nnature, yet every one of us, over and over again, has known what it is\nto come exactly into that position in regard to some single evil or\nother, concerning which we have so set our teeth and planted our feet\nat such an angle of resistance as that God gives up dealing with us and\nleaves us, as He did with Balaam when He opposed his covetous\ninclinations to all the remonstrances of Heaven. God said at last to\nhim 'Go!' because it was the best way to teach him what a fool he had\nbeen in wanting to go. Thus, when we determine to set ourselves against\nthe pleadings and the beseechings of divine love, the truest kindness\nis to fling the reins upon our necks, and let us gallop ourselves into\na sweat and weariness, and then we shall be more amenable to the touch\nof the rein thereafter.\n\nAre there any people whom God is teaching obedience to His light touch,\nby letting them run their course after some one specific sin? Perhaps\nthere are. At all events, let us remember that that position of being\nallowed to do as we like is one to which we all tend, in the measure in\nwhich we indulge our inclinations, and shut our hearts against God's\npleadings. There is such a thing as a conscience seared as with a hot\niron. They used to say that there were witches' marks on the body,\nplaces where, if you stuck a pin in, there was no feeling. Men cover\nthemselves all over with marks of that sort, which are not sensitive\neven to the prick of a divine remonstrance, rebuke, or retribution.\nThey 'wipe their mouths and say I have done no harm.' You can tie up\nthe clapper of the bell that swings on the black rock, on which, if you\ndrift, you go to pieces. You can silence the Voice by the simple\nprocess of neglecting it. Judas set his teeth against two things, the\nsolemn conviction that Jesus Christ knew his sin, and the saving\nassurance that Jesus Christ loved him still. And whosoever resists\neither of these two is getting perilously near to the point where, not\nin petulance but in pity, God will say, 'Very well, I have called and\nye have refused. Now go, and do what you want to do, and see how you\nlike it when it is done. What thou doest, do quickly.' Do you remember\nthe other word, 'If '_twere_ done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it\nwere done quickly'? But since consequences last when deeds are past,\nperhaps you had better halt before you determine to do them.\n\nII. Now, secondly, I hear in these words the voice of strangely blended\nmajesty and humiliation.\n\n'What thou doest, do!' Judas thought he had got possession of Christ's\nperson, and was His master in a very real sense. When lo! all at once\nthe victim assumes the position of the Lord and commands, showing the\ntraitor that instead of thwarting and counterworking, he was but\ncarrying out the designs of his fancied victim; and that he was an\ninstrument in Christ's hands for the execution of His will. And these\ntwo thoughts, how, in effect, all antagonism, all malicious hatred, all\nviolent opposition of every sort but work in with Christ's purpose, and\ncarry out His intention; and how, at the moments of deepest apparent\ndegradation, He towers, in manifest Majesty and Masterhood, seem to me\nto be plainly taught in the word before us.\n\nHe uses his foes for the furtherance of His purpose. That has been the\nhistory of the world ever since. 'The floods, O Lord, have lifted up\ntheir voice.' And what have they done? Smashing against the breakwater,\nthey but consolidate its mighty blocks, and prove that 'the Lord on\nhigh is mightier than the noise of many waters.' It has been so in the\npast, it is so to-day; it will be so till the end. Every Judas is\nunconsciously the servant of Him whom he seeks to betray; and finds out\nto his bewilderment that what he meant for a death-blow is fulfilling\nthe very purpose and will of the Lord against whom he has turned.\n\nAgain, the combination here, in such remarkable juxtaposition, of the\ntwo things, a willing submission to the utmost extremity of shame,\nwhich the treasonous heart can froth out in its malice and, at the same\ntime, a rising up in conscious majesty and lordship, are suggested to\nus by the words before us. That combination of utter lowliness and\ntranscendent loftiness runs through the whole life and history of our\nLord. Did you ever think how strong an argument that strange\ncombination, brought out so inartificially throughout the whole of the\nGospels, is for their historical veracity? Suppose the problem had been\ngiven to poets to create and to set in a series of appropriate scenes a\ncharacter with these two opposites stamped equally upon it, neither of\nthem impinging upon the domain of the other\u2014viz., utter humility and\nhumiliation in circumstance, and majestic sovereignty and elevation\nabove all circumstances\u2014do you think that any of them could have solved\nthe problem, though\u2014Aeschylus and Shakespeare had been amongst them, as\nthese four men that wrote these four little tracts that we call Gospels\nhave done? How comes it that this most difficult of literary problems\nhas been so triumphantly solved by these men? I think there is only one\nanswer, 'Because they were reporters, and imagined nothing, but\nobserved everything, and repeated what had happened.' He reconciled\nthese opposites who was the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief,\nand yet the Eternal Son of the Father; and the Gospels have solved the\nproblem only because they are simple records of its solution by Him.\n\nWherever in His history there is some trait of lowliness there is by\nthe side of it a flash of majesty. Wherever in His history there is\nsome gleaming out from the veil of flesh of the hidden glory of\ndivinity, there is immediately some drawing of the veil across the\nglory. And the two things do not contradict nor confuse, but we stand\nbefore that double picture of a Christ betrayed and of a Christ\ncommanding His betrayer, and using his treason, and we say, 'The Word\nwas made flesh, and dwelt among us.'\n\nIII. Again, I hear the voice of instinctive human weakness.\n\n'That thou doest, do quickly.' It may be doubtful, and some of you\nperhaps may not be disposed to follow me in my remark, but to my ear\nthat sounds just like the utterance of that instinctive dislike of\nsuspense and of the long hanging over us of the sword by a hair, which\nwe all know so well. Better to suffer than to wait for suffering. The\nloudest thunder-crash is not so awe-inspiring as the dread silence of\nnature when the sky is black before the peal rolls through the clouds.\nMany a martyr has prayed for a swift ending of his troubles. Many a\nsorrowing heart, that has been sitting cowering under the anticipation\nof coming evils, has wished that the string could be pulled, as it\nwere, and they could all come down in one cold flood, and be done with,\nrather than trickle drop by drop. They tell us that the bravest\nsoldiers dislike the five minutes when they stand in rank before the\nfirst shot is fired. And with all reverence I venture to think that He\nwho knew all our weaknesses in so far as weakness was not sin, is here\nletting us see how He, too, desired that the evil which was coming\nmight come quickly, and that the painful tension of expectation might\nbe as brief as possible. That may be doubtful; I do not dwell upon it,\nbut I suggest it for your consideration.\n\nIV. And then I pass on to the last of the tones that I hear in these\nutterances\u2014the voice of the willing Sacrifice for the sins of the\nworld.\n\n'That thou doest, do quickly.' There is nothing more obvious throughout\nthe whole of the latter portion of the Gospel narrative than the way in\nwhich, increasingly towards its close, Jesus seemed to hasten to the\nCross. You remember His own sayings: 'I have a baptism to be baptized\nwith, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished. I am come to\ncast fire on the earth; would it were already kindled!' You remember\nwith what a strange air\u2014I was going to use an inappropriate word, and\nsay, of alacrity; but, at all events, of fixed resolve\u2014He journeyed\nfrom Galilee, in that last solemn march to Jerusalem, and how the\ndisciples followed, astonished at the unwonted look of decision and\nabsorption that was printed upon His countenance. If we consider His\ndoings in that last week in Jerusalem, how he courted publicity, how He\navoided no encounter with His official enemies, how He sharpened His\ntones, not exactly so as to provoke, but certainly so as by no means to\nconciliate, we shall see, I think, in it all, His consciousness that\nthe hour had come, and His absolute readiness and willingness to be\noffered for the world's sin. He stretches out His hands, as it were, to\ndraw the Cross nearer to Himself, not with any share in the weakness of\na fanatical aspiration after martyrdom, but under a far deeper and more\nwonderful impulse.\n\nWhy was Christ so willing, so eager, if I may use the word, that His\ndeath should be accomplished? Two reasons, which at the bottom are one,\nanswer the question. He thus hastened to His Cross because He would\nobey the Father's will, and because He loved the whole world\u2014you and me\nand all our fellows. We were each in His heart. It was because He\nwanted to save thee that He said to Judas, 'Do it quickly, that the\nworld's salvation and that man's salvation may be accomplished.' These\nwere the cords that bound Him to the altar. Let us never forget that\nJudas with his treachery, and rulers with their hostility, and Pilate\nwith his authority, and the soldiers with their nails, and centurions\nwith their lances, and the grim figure of Death itself with its shaft,\nwould have been all equally powerless against Christ if it had not been\nhis loving will to die on the Cross for each of us.\n\nTherefore, brethren, as we hear this voice, let us discern in it the\ntones which warn us of the danger of yielding to inclination and\nstifling His rebukes, till He abandons us for the moment in despair;\nlet us hear in it the pathetic voice of a Brother, who knows all our\nweaknesses and has felt our emotions; let us hear the voice of\nSovereign Authority which uses its enemies for its purposes, and is\nnever loftier than when it is most lowly, whose Cross is His throne of\nglory, whose exaltation is His deepest humiliation, and let us hear a\nlove which, discerning each of us through all the ages and the crowds,\nwent willingly to the Cross because He willed that He should be our\nSaviour.\n\nAnd seeing that time is short, and the future precarious, and delay may\ndarken into loss and rejection, let us take these words as spoken to us\nin another sense, and hear in them the warning that 'to-day, if we will\nhear His voice, we harden not our hearts,' and when He says to us, in\nregard to repentance and faith, and Christian consecration and service,\n'That thou doest, do quickly,' let us answer, 'I made haste and delayed\nnot, but made haste to keep Thy commandments.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE GLORY OF THE CROSS\n\n\n'Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man\nglorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God\nshall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify\nHim.'\u2014JOHN xiii. 31, 32.\n\nThere is something very weird and awful in the brief note of time with\nwhich the Evangelist sends Judas on his dark errand. 'He \u2026 went\nimmediately out, and it was night.' Into the darkness that dark soul\nwent. That hour was 'the power of darkness,' the very keystone of the\nblack arch of man's sin, and some shadow of it fell upon the soul of\nChrist Himself.\n\nIn immediate connection with the departure of the traitor comes this\nsingular burst of triumph in our text. The Evangelist emphasises the\nconnection by that: '_Therefore_, when he was gone out, Jesus said.'\nThere is a wonderful touch of truth and naturalness in that connection.\nThe traitor was gone. His presence had been a restraint; and now that\nthat 'spot in their feast of charity' had disappeared, the Master felt\nat ease; and like some stream, out of the bed of which a black rock has\nbeen taken, His words flow more freely. How intensely real and human\nthe narrative becomes when we see that Christ, too, felt the oppression\nof an uncongenial presence, and was relieved and glad at its removal!\nThe departure of the traitor evoked these words of triumph in another\nway, too. At his going away, we may say, the match was lit that was to\nbe applied to the train. He had gone out on his dark errand, and that\nbrought the Cross within measurable distance of our Lord. Out of a new\nsense of its nearness He speaks here. So the note of time not only\nexplains to us why our Lord spoke, but puts us on the right track for\nunderstanding His words, and makes any other interpretation of them\nthan one impossible. What Judas went to do was the beginning of\nChrist's glorifying. We have here, then, a triple glorification\u2014the Son\nof Man glorified in His Cross; God glorified in the Son of Man; and the\nSon of Man glorified in God. Let us look at these three thoughts for a\nfew moments now.\n\nI. First, we have here the Son of Man glorified in His Cross.\n\nThe words are a paradox. Strange, that at such a moment, when there\nrose up before Christ all the vision of the shame and the suffering,\nthe pain and the death, and the mysterious sense of abandonment, which\nwas worse than them all, He should seem to stretch out His hands to\nbring the Cross nearer to Himself, and that His soul should fill with\ntriumph!\n\nThere is a double aspect under which our Lord regarded His sufferings.\nOn the one hand we mark in Him an unmistakable shrinking from the\nCross, the innocent shrinking of His manhood expressed in such words as\n'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it\nbe accomplished'; and in such incidents as the agony in Gethsemane. And\nyet, side by side with that, not overcome by it, but not overcoming it,\nthere is the opposite feeling, the reaching out almost with eagerness\nto bring the Cross nearer to Himself. These two lie close by each other\nin His heart. Like the pellucid waters of the Rhine and the turbid\nstream of the Moselle, that flow side by side over a long space,\nneither of them blending discernibly with the other, so the shrinking\nand the desire were contemporaneous in Christ's mind. Here we have the\ntriumphant anticipation rising to the surface, and conquering for a\ntime the shrinking.\n\nWhy did Christ think of His Cross as a glorifying? The New Testament\ngenerally represents it as the very lowest point of His degradation;\nJohn's Gospel always represents it as the very highest point of His\nglory. And the two things are both true; just as the zenith of our sky\nis the nadir of the sky for those on the other side of the world. The\nsame fact which in one aspect sounds the very lowest depth of Christ's\nhumiliation, in another aspect is the very highest culminating point of\nHis glory.\n\nHow did the Cross glorify Christ? In two ways. It was the revelation of\nHis heart; it was the throne of His sovereign power.\n\nIt was the revelation of His heart. All his life long He had been\ntrying to tell the world how much He loved it. His love had been, as it\nwere, filtered by drops through His words, through His deeds, through\nHis whole demeanour and bearing; but in His death it comes in a flood,\nand pours itself upon the world. All His life long he had been\nrevealing His heart, through the narrow rifts of His deeds, like some\nslender lancet windows; but in His death all the barriers are thrown\ndown, and the brightness blazes out upon men. All through His life He\nhad been trying to communicate His love to the world, and the fragrance\ncame from the box of ointment exceeding precious, but when the box was\nbroken the house was filled with the odour.\n\nFor Him to be known was to be glorified. So pure and perfect was He,\nthat revelation of His character and glorification of Himself were one\nand the same thing. Because His Cross reveals to the world for all\ntime, and for eternity, too, a love which shrinks from no sacrifice, a\nlove which is capable of the most entire abandonment, a love which is\ndiffused over the whole surface of humanity and through all the ages, a\nlove which comes laden with the richest and the highest gifts, even the\nturning of selfish and sinful hearts into its own pure and perfect\nlikeness, therefore does He say, in contemplation of that Cross which\nwas to reveal Him for what He was to the world, and to bring His love\nto every one of us, 'Now is the Son of Man glorified.'\n\nWe can fancy a mother, for instance, in the anticipation of shame, and\nignominy, and suffering, and sorrow, and death which she encounters for\nthe sake of some prodigal child, forgetting all the ignominy, and the\nshame, and the suffering, and the sorrow, and the death, because all\nthese are absorbed in the one thought: 'If I bear them, my poor,\nwandering, rebellious child will know at last how much I loved him.' So\nChrist yearns to impart the knowledge of Himself to us, because by that\nknowledge we may be won to His love and service; and hence when He\nlooks forward to the agony, and contumely, and sorrow of the close,\nevery other thought is swallowed up in this one: 'They will be the\nmeans by which the whole world will find out how deep my heart of love\nto it was.' Therefore does He triumph and say, 'Now is the Son of Man\nglorified.'\n\nStill further, He regards His Cross as the means of His glorifying,\nbecause it is His throne of saving power. The paradoxical words of our\ntext rest upon His profound conviction that in His death He was about\nto put forth a mightier and diviner power than ever He had manifested\nin His life. They are the same in effect and in tone as the great\nwords: 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' Now I want\nyou to ask yourselves one question: In what sense is Christ's Cross\nChrist's glorifying, unless His Cross bears an altogether different\nrelation to His life from what the death of a great teacher or\nbenefactor ordinarily bears to his? It is impossible that Christ could\nhave spoken such words as these of my text if He had simply thought of\nHis death as a Plato or a John Howard might have thought of his, as\nbeing the close of his activity for the welfare of his fellows. Unless\nChrist's death has in it some substantive value, unless it is something\nmore than the mere termination of His work for the world, I see not how\nthe words before us can be interpreted. If His death is His glorifying,\nit must be because in that death something is done which was not\ncompleted by the life, however fair; by the words, however wise and\ntender; by the works of power, however restorative and healing. Here is\nsomething more than these present. What more? This more, that His Cross\nis the 'propitiation for the sins of the whole world.' He is glorified\ntherein, not as a Socrates might be glorified by his calm and noble\ndeath; not because nothing in His life became Him better than the\nleaving of it; not because the page that tells the story of His passion\nis turned to by us as the tenderest and most sacred in the world's\nrecords; but because in that death He wrestled with and overcame our\nfoes, and because, like the Jewish hero of old, dying, He pulled down\nthe house which our tyrants had built, and overwhelmed them in its\nruins. 'Now is the Son of Man glorified.'\n\nAnd so, brethren, there blend, in that last act of our Lord's\u2014for His\ndeath was His act\u2014in strange fashion, the two contradictory ideas of\nglory and shame; like some sky, all full of dark thunderclouds, and yet\nbetween them the brightest blue and the blazing sunshine. In the Cross,\nDeath crowns Him the Prince of Life, and His Cross is His throne. All\nHis life long He was the Light of the World, but the very noontide hour\nof His glory was that hour when the shadow of eclipse lay over all the\nland, and He hung on the Cross dying in the dark. At His 'eventide it\nwas light.' 'He endured the Cross, despising the shame'; and lo! the\nshame flashed up into the very brightness of glory, and the ignominy\nand the suffering became the jewels of His crown. 'Now is the Son of\nMan glorified.'\n\nII. Now let us turn for a moment to the second of the threefold\nglorifications that are set forth here: God glorified in the Son of\nMan.\n\nThe mystery deepens as we advance. That God should be glorified in a\nman is not strange, but that He should be so glorified in the eminent\nand special fashion which Jesus contemplates here, is strange; and\nstranger still when we think that the act in which He was to be\nglorified was the death of an innocent Man. If God, in any special and\neminent manner, is glorified in the Cross of Jesus Christ, that\nimplies, as it seems to me, two things at all events\u2014many more which I\nhave not time to touch upon, but two things very plainly. One is that\n'God was in Christ,' in some singular and eminent manner. If all His\nlife was a continual manifestation of the divine character, if Christ's\nwords were the divine wisdom, if Christ's compassion was the divine\npity, if Christ's lowliness was the divine gentleness, if His whole\nhuman life and nature were the brightest and clearest manifestation to\nthe world of what God is, we can understand that the Cross was the\nhighest point of the revelation of the divine nature to the world, and\nso was the glorifying of God in Him. But if we take any lower view of\nthe relation between God and Christ, I know not how we can acquit these\nwords of our Master of the charge of being a world too wide for the\nfacts of the case.\n\nThe words involve, as it seems to me, not only that idea of a close,\nunique union and indwelling of God in Christ, but they involve also\nthis other: that these sufferings bore no relation to the deserts of\nthe person who endured them. If Christ, with His pure and perfect\ncharacter\u2014the innocency and nobleness of which all that read the\nGospels admit\u2014if Christ suffered so; if the highest virtue that was\never seen in this world brought no better wages than shame and spitting\nand the Cross; if Christ's life and Christ's death are simply a typical\nexample of the world's treatment of its greatest benefactors; then, if\nthey have any bearing at all on the character of God, they cast a\nshadow rather than a light upon the divine government, and become not\nthe least formidable of the difficulties and knots that will have to be\nuntied hereafter before it shall be clear that God did everything well.\nBut if we can say, 'He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows';\nif we can say, 'God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself'; if\nwe can say, that His death was the death of Him whom God had appointed\nto live and die for us, and 'to bear our sins in His own body on the\ntree,' then, though deep mysteries come with the thought, still we can\nsee that, in a very unique manner, God is glorified and exalted in His\ndeath.\n\nFor if the dying Christ be the Son of God dying for us, then the Cross\nglorifies God, because it teaches us that the glory of the divine\ncharacter is the divine love. Of wisdom, or of power, or of any of the\nmore 'majestic' attributes of the divine nature, that weak Man, hanging\ndying on the Cross, was a strange embodiment; but if the very heart of\nthe divine brightness be the pure white fire of love; if there be\nnothing diviner in God than His giving of Himself to His creatures; if\nthe highest glory of the divine nature be to pity and to bestow, then\nthe Cross upon which Christ died towers above all other revelations as\nthe most awful, the most sacred, the most tender, the most complete,\nthe most heart-touching, the most soul-subduing manifestation of the\ndivine nature; and stars and worlds, and angels and mighty creatures,\nand things in the heights and things in the depths, to each of which\nhave been entrusted some broken syllables of the divine character to\nmake known to the world, dwindle and fade before the brightness, the\nlambent, gentle brightness that beams out from the Cross of Christ,\nwhich proclaims\u2014God is love, is pity, is pardon.\n\nAnd is it not so\u2014is it not so? Is not the thought that has flowed from\nChrist's Cross through Christendom of what our Father in Heaven is, the\nhighest and the most blessed that the world has ever had? Has it not\nscattered doubts that lay like mountains of ice upon man's heart? Has\nit not swept the heavens clear of clouds that wrapped it in darkness?\nHas it not delivered men from the dreams of gods angry, gods\ncapricious, gods vengeful, gods indifferent, gods simply mighty and\nvast and awful and unspeakable? Has it not taught us that love is God,\nand God is love; and so brought to the whole world the true Gospel, the\nGospel of the grace of God? In that Cross the Father is glorified.\n\nIII. Now, lastly, we have here the Son of Man glorified in the Father.\n\nThe mysteries and the paradoxes seem to deepen as we advance. 'If God\nbe glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall\nstraightway glorify Him.' Do these words sound to you as if they\nexpressed no more than the confidence of a good man, who, when he was\ndying, believed that he would be accepted of a loving Father, and would\nbe at rest from his sufferings? To me they seem to say infinitely more\nthan that. 'He shall also glorify Him in Himself.' Mark that 'in\nHimself.' That is the obvious antithesis to what has been spoken about\nin the previous clause, a glorifying which consisted in a manifestation\nto the external universe, whereas this is a glorifying within the\ndepths of the divine nature. And the best commentary upon it is our\nLord's own words: 'Father! glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had\nwith Thee before the world was.' We get a glimpse, as it were, into the\nvery centre of the brightness of God; and there, walking in that\nbeneficent furnace, we see 'One like unto the Son of Man.' Christ\nanticipates that, in some profound and unspeakable sense, He shall, as\nit were, be caught up into the divinity, and shall dwell, as indeed He\ndid dwell from the beginning, 'in the bosom of the Father.' 'He shall\nglorify Him in Himself.'\n\nBut then mark, still further, that this reception into the bosom of the\nFather is given to the Son of Man. That is to say, the Man Christ\nJesus, the Son of Mary, the Brother of us all, 'bone of our bone and\nflesh of our flesh,' the very Person that walked upon earth and dwelt\namongst us is taken up into the heart of God, and in His manhood enters\ninto that same glory, which, from the beginning, the Eternal Word had\nwith God.\n\nAnd still further, not only have we here set forth, in most wondrous\nlanguage, the reception and incorporation, if we may use such words,\ninto the very centre of divinity, as granted to the Son of Man, but we\nhave that glorifying set forth as commencing immediately upon the\ncompletion of God's glorifying by Christ upon the Cross. 'He shall\nstraightway glorify Him.' At the instant then, that He said, 'It is\nfinished,' and all that the Cross could do to glorify God was done, at\nthat instant there began, with not a pin-point of interval between\nthem, God's glorifying of the Son in Himself. It began in that Paradise\ninto which we know that upon that day He entered. It was manifested to\nthe world when He 'raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory.' It\nreached a still higher point when 'they brought Him near unto the\nAncient of Days,' and ascending up on high, a dominion and a throne and\na glory were given to Him which last now, whilst the Son of Man sits in\nthe heavens on the throne of His glory, wielding the attributes of\ndivinity, and administering the laws of the universe and the mysteries\nof providence. It shall rise to its highest manifestation before an\nassembled world, when He 'shall come in His glory, and before Him shall\nbe gathered all nations.'\n\nThis, then, was the vision that lay before the Christ in that upper\nroom, the vision of Himself glorified in His extreme shame, because His\nCross manifested His love and His saving power; of God glorified in Him\nabove all other of His acts of manifestation when He died on the Cross,\nand revealed the very heart of God; and of Himself glorified in the\nFather when, exalted high above all creatures, He sitteth upon the\nFather's throne and rules the Father's realm.\n\nAnd yet from that high, and, to us, inaccessible and all but\ninconceivable summit of His elevation, He looks down ready to bless\neach poor creature here, toiling and moiling amidst sufferings, and\nmeannesses, and commonplaces, and monotony, if we will only put our\ntrust in Him, and love Him, and see the brightness of the Father's face\nin Him. He cares for us all; and if we will but take Him as our\nSaviour, His all-prevalent prayer, presented within the veil for us,\nwill certainly be fulfilled at last: 'Father, I will that they also\nwhom Thou hast given Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold\nMy glory.'\n\n\n\n\nCANNOT AND CAN\n\n\n'Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me:\nand as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come; so now I say\nto you.'\u2014JOHN xiii. 33.\n\nThe preceding context shows how large and black the Cross loomed before\nJesus now, and how radiant the glory beyond shone out to Him. But it\nwas only for a moment that either of these two absorbed His thoughts;\nand with wonderful self-forgetfulness and self-command, He turned away\nat once from the consideration of how the near future was to affect\nHim, to the thought of how it was to affect the handful of helpless\ndisciples who had to be left alone. Impending separation breaks up the\nfountains of the heart, and we all know the instinct that desires to\ncrowd all the often hidden love into some one last token. So here our\nLord addresses His disciples by a name that is never used except this\nonce, 'little children,' a fond diminutive that not only reveals an\nunusual depth of tender emotion, but also breathes a pitying sense of\ntheir defencelessness when they are to be left alone. So might a dying\nmother look at her little ones.\n\nBut the words that follow, at first sight, are dark with the sense of a\nfinal and complete separation. 'Ye shall seek Me'\u2014and not only so, but\nHe seems to put back His humble friends into the same place as had been\noccupied by His bitter foes\u2014'as I said to the Jews, whither I go ye\ncannot come; so now I say to you.' There was something that prevented\nboth classes alike from keeping Him company; and He had to walk His\npath both into the darkness and into the glory, alone.\n\nThe words apply in their fullness only to the parenthesis of time\nwhilst He lay in the grave, and the disciples despairingly thought that\nall was ended. It was a brief period: it was a revolutionary moment;\nand though it was soon to end, they needed to be guarded against it.\nBut though the words do not apply to the permanent relation between the\nglorified Christ and us, His disciples, yet partly by similarity, and\nstill more by contrast, they do suggest great Christian blessedness and\nimperative Christian duties. These gather themselves mainly round two\ncontrasts, a transitory 'cannot' soon to be changed into a permanent\n'can'; and a momentary seeking, soon to be converted into a blessed\nseeking which finds. I now deal only with the former.\n\nWe have here a transitory 'cannot' soon to be changed into a permanent\n'can.'\n\n'Whither I go ye cannot come.' Does not one hear a tone of personal\nsorrow in that saying? Jesus had always hungered for understanding and\nsympathetic companions, and one of His lifelong sorrows had been His\nutter loneliness; but He had never, in all the time that He had been\nwith them, so put out His hand, feeling for some warm clasp of a human\nhand to help Him in His struggle, as He did during the hours\nterminating with Gethsemane. And perhaps we may venture to say that we\nhear in this utterance an expression of Christ's sorrow for Himself\nthat He had to tread the dark way, and to pass into the brightness\nbeyond, all alone. He yearned for the impossible human companionship,\nas well as sorrowed for the imperfections which made it impossible.\n\nWhy was it that they could not 'follow Him now'? The answer to that\nquestion is found in the consideration of whither it was that He went.\nWhen that bright Shekinah-cloud at the Ascension received Him into its\nradiant folds, it showed why they could not follow Him, because it\nrevealed that He went unto the Father, when He left the world. So we\nare brought face to face with the old, solemn thought that character\nmakes capacity for heaven. 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord,\nor who shall stand in His holy place?' asked the Psalmist; and a\nprophet put the question in a still sharper form, and by the very form\nof the question suggested a negative answer\u2014'Who among us shall dwell\nwith the devouring fire; who among us shall dwell with everlasting\nburnings?' Who can pass into that Presence, and stand near God, without\nbeing, like the maiden in the old legend, shrivelled into ashes by the\ncontact of the celestial fire? 'Holiness' is that 'without which no man\nshall see the Lord.' And we, all of us, in the depths of our own\nhearts, if we rightly understand the voices that ever echo there, must\nfeel that the condition which is, obviously and without any need for\narguing it, required for abiding with God, and so going into the glory\nwhere Christ is, is a condition which none of us can fulfil. In that\nrespect the imperfect and immature friends, the little children, the\nbabes who loved and yet knew not Him whom they loved, and the scowling\nenemies, were at one. For they had all of them the one human heart, and\nin that heart the deep-lying alienation and contrariety to God.\nTherefore Christ trod the winepress alone, and alone 'ascended up where\nHe was before.'\n\nBut let us remember that this 'cannot' was only a transitory cannot.\nFor we must underscore very deeply that word in my text 'so _now_ I say\nto you,' and a moment afterwards, when one of the Apostles puts the\nquestion: 'Why cannot I follow Thee now?' the answer is: 'Thou canst\nnot follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.' The text, too,\nis succeeded immediately by the wonderful parting consolations and\ncounsels spoken to the disciples, through all of which there gleams the\npromise that they will be with Him where He is, and behold His glory.\nSet side by side with these sad words of our Lord in the text, by which\nHe unloosed their clasping hands from Him, and turned His face to His\nsolitary path, the triumphant language in which habitually the rest of\nthe New Testament speaks of the Christian man's relation to Christ.\nThink of that great passage: 'Ye are come unto the city of the living\nGod, the heavenly Jerusalem, \u2026 and to God the Judge of all, \u2026 and to\nJesus the Mediator of the new Covenant.' What has become of the\nimpossibility? Vanished. Where is the 'cannot'? Turned into a blessed\n'can.' And so Apostles have no scruple in saying, 'Our citizenship is\nin Heaven,' nor in saying, 'We sit together with Him in heavenly places\nin Christ Jesus.' The path that was blocked is open. The impossibility\nthat towered up like a great black wall has melted away; and the path\ninto the Holiest of all is made patent by the blood of Christ. For in\nthat death there lies the power that sweeps away all the impediments of\nman's sin, and in that life of the risen, glorified, indwelling Christ\nthere lies the power which cleanses the inmost heart from 'all\nfilthiness of flesh and spirit,' and makes it possible for our mortal\nfeet to walk on the immortal path, and for us, with all our\nunworthiness, with all our shrinking, to stand in His presence and not\nbe ashamed or consumed. 'Ye cannot come' was true for a few days. 'Ye\ncan come' is true for ever; and for all Christian men.\n\nBut let us not forget that the one attitude of heart and mind, by which\na poor, sinful man, who dare not draw near to God, receives into\nhimself the merit and power of the death, and the indwelling power of\nthe life, of Jesus Christ, is personal faith in Jesus Christ. To trust\nHim is to come to Him, and it is represented in Scripture as conferring\nan instantaneous fitness for access to God. People pray sometimes that\nthey may be made 'meet for the inheritance of the saints in light,' and\nthe prayer is, in a sense, wise and true. But they too often forget\nthat the Apostle says, in the original connection of the words which\nthey so quote: 'He _hath_ translated us from the tyranny of the\ndarkness, and _hath_ made us meet for the inheritance of the saints in\nlight.' That is to say, whenever a poor soul, compassed and laden with\nits infirmity and sin, turns itself to that Lord whose Cross conquers\nsin, and whose blood infused into our veins\u2014the Spirit of whose life\ngranted to us\u2014gives us to partake of His own righteousness, that moment\nthat soul can tread the path that brings into the presence of God, and\n'has access with confidence by the faith of Him.' So, brethren, seeing\nthat thus the incapacity may all be swept away, and that instead of a\n'cannot,' which relegates us to darkness, we may receive a 'can' which\nleads us into the light, let us see to it that this communion, which is\npossible for all Christian men, is real in our cases, and that we use\nthe access which is given to us, and dwell for ever in, and with, the\nLord.\n\nI have said that the act of faith, by associating a man with Jesus\nChrist in the power of His death and of His life, makes any who\nexercise it capable of passing into the presence of God. But I would\nremind you, too, that to make us more fit for more full and habitual\ncommunion is the very purpose for which all the discipline of our\nearthly life, its sorrows and its joys, its tasks and its repose, is\nexercised upon us\u2014'He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His\nholiness.' Surely if we habitually took that point of view in reference\nto our work, in reference to our joys, in reference to our trials,\neverything would be different. We are being prepared with sedulous\nlove, with patient reiteration of 'line upon line, precept upon\nprecept,' with singularly varied methods but a uniform purpose, by all\nthat meets us in life, to be more capable of treading the eternal path\ninto the eternal light. Is that how we daily think of our own\ncircumstances? Do we bring that great thought to bear upon all that we,\nsometimes faithlessly, call mysterious or murmuringly think of\u2014if we\ndare not speak our thought\u2014as being cruel and hard? What does it matter\nif some precious things be lifted off our shoulders, and out of our\nhearts, if their being taken away makes it more possible for us to\ntread with a lighter step the path of peace? What matters it though\nmany things that we would fain keep are withdrawn from us, if by the\nwithdrawal we are sent a little further forward on the road that leads\nto God? As George Herbert says, sorrows and joys are like battledores\nthat drive a shuttlecock, and they may all 'toss us to His breast.' In\nfaith, however infantile it may be, there is an undeveloped capacity, a\ngerm of fitness, for dwelling with God. But that capacity is meant to\nbe increased, and the little children are meant to be helped to grow up\ninto full-grown men, 'the measure of the stature of the fullness of\nChrist,' by all that comes here to them on earth. Do you not think we\nshould understand life better, do you not think it would all be flashed\nup into new radiance, do you not think we should more seldom stand\nbewildered at what we choose to call the inscrutable dispensations of\nProvidence, if this were the point of view from which we looked at them\nall\u2014that they were fitting us for perpetual abiding with our Father\nGod?\n\nNor let us forget that there was a transient 'cannot' of another sort.\nFor 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.' So, as life is\nchanged when we think of it as helping us toward Him, death is changed\nwhen we think of it as being, if I may so say, the usher in attendance\non the Presence-chamber, who draws back the thin curtain that separates\nus from the throne, and takes us by the hands and leads us into the\nPresence. Surely if we habitually thought thus of that otherwise grim\nchamberlain, we should be willing to put our hands into His, as a\nlittle child will, when straying, into the hands of a stranger who\nsays, 'Come with me and I will take you home to your father.' 'As I\nsaid unto the Jews \u2026 so now I say to you, whither I go, ye cannot\ncome.'\n\nLet us press on you and on myself the one thought that comes out of all\nthat I have been saying, the blessed possibility, which, because it is\na possibility, is an obligation, to use far more than most of us do,\nthe right of access to the King who is our Father. There are nobles and\ncorporate bodies, who regard it as one of their chief distinctions that\nthey have always the right of _entree_ to the court of the sovereign.\nEvery Christian man has that. And in old days, when a baron did not\nshow himself at court, suspicion naturally arose, and he was in danger\nof being thought disaffected, if not traitorous. Ah! if you and I were\njudged according to that law, what would become of us? We can go when\nwe like. How seldom we do go! We can live in the heavens whilst our\nwork lies down here. We prefer the low earth to the lofty sky. 'We are\ncome'\u2014ideally, and in the depths of our nature, our affinities are\nthere\u2014'unto God, the Judge of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new\nCovenant.' Are we come? Are we day by day, in all the pettiness of our\nordinary lives, when compassed by hard duties, weighed upon by sore\ndistress\u2014still keeping our hearts in heaven, and our feet familiar with\nthe path that leads us to God? 'Set your affection on things above,\nwhere Jesus is, sitting at the right hand of God.' For there is no\n'cannot' for His servants in regard to their access to any place where\nHe is.\n\n\n\n\nSEEKING JESUS\n\n\n'\u2026 Ye shall seek Me.'\u2014JOHN xiii. 33.\n\nIn the former sermon on this verse I pointed out that it, in its\nfullness, applies only to the brief period between the crucifixion and\nthe resurrection, but that, partly by contrast and partly by analogy,\nit suggests permanent relations between Christ and His disciples. These\nrelations were mainly\u2014as I pointed out then\u2014two: there was that one\nexpressed by the subsequent words of the verse, 'Whither I go, ye\ncannot come'\u2014a brief 'cannot,' soon to be changed into a permanent\n'can'; and there was a second, a brief, sad, and vain seeking, soon to\nbe changed into a seeking which finds. It is to the latter that I wish\nto turn now.\n\n'Ye shall seek Me' fell, like the clods on a coffin-lid, with a hollow\nsound on the hearts of the Apostles. It comes to us as a permission and\na command and a promise. I do not dwell on that sad seeking, which was\nso brief but so bitter. We all know what it is to put out an empty hand\ninto the darkness and the void, and to grope for a touch which we know,\nwhilst we grope, that we shall not find. And these poor, helpless\ndisciples, by their forlorn sense of separation, by their yearning that\nbrought no satisfaction, by their very listless despair, were saying,\nduring these hours of agony into which an eternity of pain was\ncondensed, 'Oh! that He were beside us again!'\n\nThat sad seeking ended when He came to them, and 'then were the\ndisciples glad when they saw the Lord.' But another kind of seeking\nbegan, when 'the cloud received Him out of their sight'; as joyful as\nthe other was laden with sorrow, as sure to find the object of its\nquest as the other was certain to be disappointed. What He said in the\ndarkness to them, He says in the light to us: What 'I say unto you I\nsay unto all,' _Seek!_ So now we have to deal with that joyful search\nwhich is sure of finding its object, and is only a little, if at all,\nless blessed than the finding itself.\n\nI. Every Christian is, by his very name, a seeker after Christ.\n\nThere are two kinds of seeking, one like that of a bird whose young\nhave been stolen away, which flutters here and there, because it knows\nnot where that is which it seeks; another, like the flight of the same\nbird, when the migrating instinct rises in its little breast, and\nstraight as an arrow it goes, not because it knows not its goal, but\nbecause it knows it, yonder where the sun is warm and the sky is blue,\nand winter is left behind in the cold north. 'Ye shall seek Me' is the\nword of promise, which changes the vain search that is ignorant of\nwhere the object of its quest is, into a blessed going out of the heart\ntowards that which it knows to be the home of its homelessness. Thus\nthe text brings out the very central blessedness and peculiarity of the\nChristian life, that it has no uncertainty in its aims, and that,\ninstead of seeking for things which may or may not be found, or if\nfound may or may not prove to be what we dreamt them to be. It seeks\nfor a Person whom it knows where to find, and of whom it knows that all\nits desires will be met in Him. We have, then, on the one side the\nmultifarious, divergent searchings of man; and on the other side the\none quest in which all these others are gathered up, and translated\ninto blessedness\u2014the seeking after Jesus Christ.\n\nMen know that they need, if I may so put it, four things: truth for the\nunderstanding, love round which the heart may coil, authority for the\nwill which may direct and restrain, and energy for the practical life.\nBut, apart from the quest after Christ, men for the most part seek\nthese necessary goods in divers objects, and fragmentarily look for the\ncompletion of their desires. But fragments will never satisfy a man's\nsoul, and they who have to go to one place for truth, and to another\nfor love, and to another for authority, and to another for energy, are\nwofully likely never to find what they search for. They are seeking in\nthe manifold what can be found only in the One. It is as if some\nvessel, full of precious stones, were thrown down before men, and\nwhilst they are racing after the diamonds, they lose the emeralds and\nthe sapphires. But the wise concentrate their seekings on the 'one\nPearl of great price,' in whom is truth for the brain, love for the\nheart, authority for the will, power for the life, and all summed in\nthat which is more blessed than all, the Person of the Brother who died\nfor us, the Christ who lives to fill our hearts for ever. One sun dims\nall the stars; and the 'one entire and perfect Chrysolite' beggars and\nreduces to fragments 'all the precious things that thou canst desire.'\n\nTo seek Him is the very hall-mark of a Christian, and that seeking\ncomes to be an earnest desire and effort after more conscious communion\nwith Him, and a more entire possession of His imparted life which is\nrighteousness and peace and joy and power. According to the Rabbis, the\nmanna tasted to each man what each man most desired. The manifoldness\nof the one Christ is far more manifold than the manifoldness of the\nmultiplicity of fragmentary and partial aims which foolish men\nperceive.\n\nThe ways of seeking are very plain. First of all, we seek if, and in\nproportion as, we make the effort to occupy our thoughts and minds, not\nwith theological dogmas, but with the living Christ Himself. Ah!\nbrethren, it is hard to do, and I daresay a great many of you are\nthinking that it is far harder for you, in the distractions and rush\nand conflict of business and daily life, than it is for people like me,\nwhom you imagine as sitting in a study, with nothing to distract us. I\ndo not know about that; I fancy it is about equally hard for us all;\nbut it is possible. I have been in Alpine villages where, at the end of\nevery squalid alley, there towered up a great, pure, silent, white\npeak. That is what our lives may be; however noisome, crowded, petty\nthe little lane in which we live, the Alp is at the end of it there, if\nwe only choose to lift our eyes and look. It is possible that not only\n'into the sessions of sweet silent thought,' but into the rush and\nbustle of the workshop or the exchange, there may come, like 'some\nsweet, beguiling melody, so sweet we know not we are listening to it,'\nthe thought that changes pettiness into greatness, that makes all\nthings go smoothly and easily, that is a test and a charm to discover\nand to destroy temptation, the thought of a present Christ, the Lover\nof my soul, and the Helper of my life.\n\nAgain, we seek Him when, by aspiration and desire, we bring Him\u2014as He\nis always brought thereby\u2014into our hearts and into our lives. The\nmeasure of our desire is the measure of our possession. Wishing is the\nopening of our hearts, but, alas, often we wish and desire, and the\nheart opens and nothing enters. Wishes are like the tentacles of some\nmarine organism waving about in a waste ocean, feeling for the food\nthat they do not find. But if we open our hearts for Him, that is\nsimultaneous with the coming of Him to us. 'Ye have not, because ye ask\nnot.' Do not forget, dear friends, that desire, if it is genuine, will\ntake a very concrete form and will be prayer. And it is prayer\u2014by which\nI do not mean the utterance of words without desire, any more than I\nmean desire without the direct casting of it into the form of\nsupplication\u2014it is prayer that brings Christ into any, and it is prayer\nthat will bring Him into every, life.\n\nNor let us forget that there is another way of seeking besides these\ntwo, of looking up to Him through, and in the midst of, all the shows\nand trifles of this low life, and the reaching out of our desires\ntowards Him, as the roots of a tree beneath the soil go straight for\nthe river. That other way is imitation and obedience. It is vain to\nthink of Him, and it is unreal to pretend to desire Him, if we are not\nseeking Him by treading in the path that He has trod, and which leads\nto Him. Imitation and obedience\u2014these are the steps by which we go\nstraight through all the trivialities of life into the presence of the\nLord Himself. The smallest deflection from the path that leads to Him\nwill carry us away into doleful wastes. The least invisible cloud that\nsteals across the sky will blot out half a hemisphere of stars; and we\nseek not Christ unless, thinking of Him, and desiring Him, we also walk\nin the path in which He has walked, and so come where He is. He Himself\nhas said that if His servant follows Him, where He is there shall also\nHis servant be. These things make up the seeking which ought to mark us\nall.\n\nI note that\u2014\n\nII. The Christian seeker always finds.\n\nI pointed out in my last sermon the strange identity of our Lord's\nwords to His humble friends, with those which on another occasion He\nused to His bitter enemies. He reminds the disciples of that identity\nin the verse from which my text comes: 'As I said to the Jews \u2026 so now\nI say to you.' But there was one thing that He said to the Jews that He\ndid not say to them. To the former He said, 'Ye shall seek Me, and\nshall not find Me'; and He did not say that\u2014even for the sad hours it\nwas not quite true\u2014He did not say that to His followers, and He does\nnot say it to us.\n\nIf we seek we shall find. There is no disappointment in the Christian\nlife. Anything is possible rather than that a man should desire Christ\nand not have Him. That has never been the experience of any seeking\nsoul. And so I urge upon you what has already been suggested, that\ninasmuch as, by reason of His infinite longing to give truth and love\nand guidance and energy and His whole Self, to all of us, the amount of\nour possession of the power and life of Jesus Christ depends on\nourselves. If you take to the fountain a tiny cup, you will only bring\naway a tiny cupful. If you take a great vessel you will bring _it_ away\nfull. As long as the woman in the old story held out her vessels to the\nmiraculous flow of the oil, the flow continued. When she had no more\nvessels to take, the flow stopped. If a man holds a flagon beneath a\nspigot with an unsteady hand, half of the precious liquor will be spilt\non the ground. Those who fulfil the conditions, of which I have already\nbeen speaking, may make quite sure that according to their faith will\nit be unto them. And if you, dear friend, have not in your experience\nthe conscious presence of a Christ who is all that you need, there is\nno one in heaven or earth or hell to blame for it but only your own\nself. 'I have never said to any of the seed of Jacob, Seek ye My face\nin vain'; and when the Lord said, 'Ye shall seek Me,' He was implicitly\nbinding Himself to meet the seeking soul, and give Himself to the\ndesiring heart.\n\nRemember, too, that this seeking, which is always crowned with finding,\nis the only search in which failure is impossible. There is only one\ncourse of life that has no disappointments. We all know how frequently\nwe are foiled in our quests; we all know how often a prize won is a\nbitterer disappointment than a prize unattained. Like a jelly-fish in\nthe water, as long as it is there its tenuous substance is lovely,\nexpanded, tinged with delicate violets and blues, and its long\nfilaments float in lines of beauty. Lay it on the beach, and it is a\nshapeless lump, and it poisons and stings. You fish your prize out of\nthe great ocean, and when you have it, does it disappoint, or does it\nfulfil, the raised expectations of the quest? There is One who does not\ndisappoint. There is one gold mine that comes up to the prospectus.\nThere is one spring that never runs dry. The more deep our Christian\nexperience is, the more we shall take the rapturous exclamation of the\nArabian queen to ourselves: 'The half was not told us!'\n\nAnd so, lastly, I suggest that\u2014\n\nIII. The finding impels to fresh seeking.\n\nThe object of the Christian man's quest is Jesus Christ. He is\nIncarnate Infinitude; and that cannot be exhausted. The seeker after\nJesus Christ is the Christian soul. That soul is the incarnate\npossibility of indefinite expansion and approximation and assimilation;\nand that cannot be exhausted. And so, with a Christ who is infinite,\nand a seeker whose capacities may be indefinitely expanded, there can\nbe no satiety, there can be no limit, there can be no end to the\nprocess. This wine-skin will not burst when the new wine is put into\nit. Rather like some elastic vessel, as you pour it will fill out and\nexpand. Possession enlarges, and the more of Christ's fullness is\npoured into a human heart, the more is that heart widened out to\nreceive a greater blessing.\n\nDear brethren, there is one course of life, and I believe but one, on\nwhich we may all enter with the sure confidence that in the nature of\nthings, in the nature of Christ, and in the nature of ourselves, there\nis no end to growth and progress. Think of the freshness and\nblessedness and energy that puts into a life. To have an unattained and\nunattainable object, a goal to which we can never come, but to which we\nmay ever be approximating, seems to me to be the secret of perpetual\njoy and of perpetual youthfulness. To say, 'forgetting the things that\nare behind, I reach forward unto the things that are before,' is a\ncharm and an amulet that repels monotony and weariness, and goes with a\nman to the very end, and when all other aims and objects have died down\ninto grey ashes, that flame, like the fabled lamp in Virgil's tomb,\nburns clear in the grave, and lights us to the eternity beyond.\n\nFor certainly, if there be neither satiety nor limit to Christian\nprogress here, there can be no better and stronger evidence that\nChristian progress here is but the first 'lap' of the race, the first\n_stadium_ of the course, and that beyond that narrow, dark line which\nlies across the path, it runs on, rising higher, and will run on for\never.\n\n  'On earth the broken arc; in heaven the perfect round.'\n\nSeek for what you are sure to find; seek for what will never disappoint\nyou; seek for what will abide with you for ever. The very first word of\nChrist's recorded in Scripture is a question which He puts to us all:\n'_What_ seek ye?' Well for us, if like the two to whom it was\noriginally addressed, we answer, 'We are not seeking a What; we are\nseeking a Whom.\u2014Master, where dwellest Thou?' And if we have that\nanswer in our hearts, we shall receive the invitation which they\nreceived, 'Come and see,'\u2014come and seek. 'Ye shall seek Me' is a\ngracious invitation, an imperative command, and a faithful promise that\nif we seek we shall find. 'Whoso findeth _Him_ findeth life; whoso\nmisseth _Him_'\u2014whatever else he has sought and found\u2014'wrongeth his own\nsoul.'\n\n\n\n\n'AS I HAVE LOVED'\n\n\n'A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have\nloved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know\nthat ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.'\u2014JOHN xiii.\n34, 35.\n\nWishes from dying lips are sacred. They sink deep into memories and\nmould faithful lives. The sense of impending separation had added an\nunwonted tenderness to our Lord's address, and He had designated His\ndisciples by the fond name of 'little children.' The same sense here\ngives authority to His words, and moulds them into the shape of a\ncommand. The disciples had held together because He was in their midst.\nWill the arch stand when the keystone is struck out? Will not the\nspokes fall asunder when the nave of the wheel is taken away? He would\nguard them from the disintegrating tendencies that were sure to set in\nwhen He was gone; and He would point them to a solace for His absence,\nand to a kind of substitute for His presence. For to love the brethren\nwhom they see would be, in some sense, a continuing to love the Christ\nwhom they had ceased to see. And so, immediately after He said:\n'Whither I go ye cannot come,' He goes on to say: 'Love one another as\nI have loved you.'\n\nHe called this a 'new commandment,' though to love one's neighbour as\none's self was a familiar commonplace amongst the Jews, and had a\nrecognised position in Rabbinical teaching. But His commandment\nproposed a new object of love, it set forth a new measure of love, so\ngreatly different from all that had preceded it as to become almost a\nnew kind of love, and it suggested and supplied a new motive power for\nlove. This commandment 'could give life' and fulfil itself. Therefore\nit comes to us as a 'new commandment'\u2014even to us\u2014and, unlike the words\nwhich preceded it, which we were considering in former sermons, it is\nwholly and freshly applicable to-day as in the ages that are passed. I\nask you, first, to consider\u2014\n\nI. The new scope of the new commandment.\n\n'Love one another.' The newness of the precept is realised, if we think\nfor a moment of the new phenomenon which obedience to it produced. When\nthe words were spoken, the then-known civilised Western world was cleft\nby great, deep gulfs of separation, like the crevasses in a glacier, by\nthe side of which our racial animosities and class differences are\nmerely superficial cracks on the surface. Language, religion, national\nanimosities, differences of condition, and saddest of all, difference\nof sex, split the world up into alien fragments. A 'stranger' and an\n'enemy' were expressed in one language, by the same word. The learned\nand the unlearned, the slave and his master, the barbarian and the\nGreek, the man and the woman, stood on opposite sides of the gulfs,\nflinging hostility across. A Jewish peasant wandered up and down for\nthree years in His own little country, which was the very focus of\nnarrowness and separation and hostility, as the Roman historian felt\nwhen he called the Jews the 'haters of the human race'; He gathered a\nfew disciples, and He was crucified by a contemptuous Roman governor,\nwho thought that the life of one fanatical Jew was a small price to pay\nfor popularity with his troublesome subjects, and in a generation\nafter, the clefts were being bridged and all over the Empire a strange\nnew sense of unity was being breathed, and 'Barbarian, Scythian, bond\nand free,' male and female, Jew and Greek, learned and ignorant,\nclasped hands and sat down at one table, and felt themselves 'all one\nin Christ Jesus.' They were ready to break all other bonds, and to\nyield to the uniting forces that streamed out from His Cross. There\nnever had been anything like it. No wonder that the world began to\nbabble about sorcery, and conspiracies, and complicity in unnameable\nvices. It was only that the disciples were obeying the 'new\ncommandment,' and a new thing had come into the world\u2014a community held\ntogether by love and not by geographical accidents or linguistic\naffinities, or the iron fetters of the conqueror. You sow the seed in\nfurrows separated by ridges, and the ground is seamed, but when the\nseed springs the ridges are hidden, no division appears, and as far as\nthe eye can reach, the cornfield stretches, rippling in unbroken waves\nof gold. The new commandment made a new thing, and the world wondered.\n\nNow then, brethren, do not let us forget that, although to obey this\ncommandment is in some respects a great deal harder to-day than it was\nthen, the diverse circumstances in which Christian individuals and\nChristian communities are this day placed may modify the form of our\nobedience, but do not in the smallest degree weaken the obligation, for\nthe individual Christian and for societies of Christians, to follow\nthis commandment. The multiplication of numbers, the cessation of the\narmed hostility of the world, the great varieties in intellectual\nposition in regard to the truths of Christianity, divergencies of\nculture, and many other things, are separating forces, But our\nChristianity is worth very little, if it cannot master these separating\ntendencies, even as in the early days of freshness, the Christianity\nthat sprang in these new converts' minds mastered the far more powerful\nseparating tendencies with which they had to contend.\n\nEvery Christian man is under the obligation to recognise his kindred\nwith every other Christian man\u2014his kindred in the deep foundations of\nhis spiritual being, which are far deeper, and ought to be far more\noperative in drawing together, than the superficial differences of\nculture or opinion or the like, which may part us. The bond that holds\nChristian men together is their common relation to the one Lord, and\nthat ought to influence their attitude to one another. You say I am\ntalking commonplaces. Yes; and the condition of Christianity this day\nis the sad and tragical sign that the commonplaces need to be talked\nabout, till they are rubbed into the conscience of the Church as they\nnever have been before.\n\nDo not let us suppose that Christian love is mere sentiment. I shall\nhave to speak a word or two about that presently, but I would fain lift\nthe whole subject, if I can, out of the region of mere unctuous words\nand gush of half-feigned emotion, which mean nothing, and would make\nyou feel that it is a very practical commandment, gripping us hard,\nwhen our Lord says to us, 'Love one another.'\n\nI have spoken about the accidental conditions which make obedience to\nthis commandment difficult. The real reason which makes the obedience\nto it difficult is the slackness of our own hold on the Centre. In the\nmeasure in which we are filled with Jesus Christ, in that measure will\nthat expression of His spirit and His life become natural to us. Every\nChristian has affinities with every other Christian, in the depths of\nhis being, so as that he is a great deal more like his brother, who is\npossessor of 'like precious faith,' however unlike the two may be in\noutlook, in idiosyncrasy, and culture and in creed, than he is to\nanother man with whom he may have a far closer sympathy in all these\nmatters than he has with the brother in question, but from whom he is\nparted by this, that the one trusts and loves and obeys Jesus Christ,\nand the other does not. So, for individuals and for churches, the\ncommandment takes this shape\u2014Go down to the depths and you will find\nthat you are closer to the Christian man or community which seems\nfurthest from you, than you are to the non-Christian who seems nearest\nto you. Therefore, let your love follow your kinship, and your heart\nrecognise the oneness that knits you together. That is a revolutionary\ncommandment; what would become of our present organisations of\nChristianity if it were obeyed? That is a revolutionary commandment;\nwhat would become of our individual relations to the whole family who,\nin every place, and in many tongues, and with many creeds, call on\nJesus as on their Lord, their Lord and ours, if it were obeyed? I leave\nyou to answer the question. Only I say the commandment has for its\nfirst scope all who, in every place, love the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nBut there is more than that involved in it. The very same principle\nwhich makes this love to one another imperative upon all disciples,\nmakes it equally imperative upon every follower of Jesus Christ to\nembrace in a real affection all whom Jesus so loved as to die for them.\nIf I am to love a Christian man because he and I love Christ, I am to\nlove everybody, because Christ loves me and everybody, and because He\ndied on the Cross for me and for all men. And so one of the other\nApostles, or, at least, the letter which goes by his name, laid hold on\nthe true connection when, instead of concentrating Christian affection\non the Church, and letting the world go to the devil as an alien thing,\nhe said: 'Add to your faith,' this, that, and the other, and 'brotherly\nkindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity.' The particular does not\nexclude the general, it leads to the general. The fire kindled upon the\nhearth gives warmth to all the chamber. The circles are concentric, and\nthe widest sweep is struck from the same middle point as the narrow. So\nthe new commandment does not cut humanity into two halves, but gathers\nall diversity into one, and spreads the great reconciling of Christian\nlove over all the antagonisms and oppositions of earth. Let me ask you\nto notice\u2014\n\nII. The example of the new commandment, 'As I have loved you.'\n\nThat solemn 'as' lifts itself up before us, shines far ahead of us,\nought to draw us to itself in hope, and not to repel us from itself in\ndespair. 'As I have loved'\u2014what a tremendous thing for a man to stand\nup before his fellows, and say, 'Take Me as the perfect example of\nperfect love; and let My example\u2014un-dimmed by the mists of gathering\ncenturies, and un-weakened by the change of condition, and\ncircumstance, fresh as ever after ages have passed, and closely-fitting\nas ever all varieties of human character and condition\u2014stand before\nyou; the ideal that I have realised, and you will be blessed in the\nproportion in which you seek, though you fail, to realise it!' There\nis, I venture to believe, only one aspect of Jesus Christ in which such\na setting forth of Himself as the perfect Incarnation of perfect love\nis warrantable; and that is found in the old belief that His very birth\nwas the result of His love, and that His death was the climax of that\nlove. And if so, we have to turn to Bethlehem, and the whole life, and\nthe Cross at its end, as being the Christ-given example and model for\nour love to our brethren.\n\nWhat do we see there? I have said that there is too much of mere sickly\nsentimentality about the ordinary treatment of this great commandment,\nand that I desired to lift it out of that region into a far nobler,\nmore strenuous, and difficult one. This is what we see in that life and\nin that death:\u2014First of all\u2014the activity of love\u2014'Let _us_ not love in\nwords, but in deed and in truth'; then we see the self-forgetfulness of\nlove\u2014'Even Christ pleased not Himself'; then we see the self-sacrifice\nof love\u2014'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his\nlife for his friends.' And in these three points, on which I would fain\nenlarge if I might, active love, self-oblivious love, self-sacrificing\nlove, you have the pattern set for us all. Christian love is no mere\nsickly maiden, full of sentimental emotions and honeyed words. She is a\nstrenuous virgin, girt for service, a heroine ready for dangers, and\nprepared to be a martyr if it be needful. Love's language is sacrifice.\n'I give thee myself,' is its motto. And that is the pattern that is set\nbefore us all\u2014'as I have loved you.'\n\nI have tried to show you how the commandment was new in many\nparticulars, and it is for ever new in this particular, that it is for\never before us, unattained, and drawing faithful hearts to itself, and\never opening out into new heroisms and, therefore, blessedness, of\nself-sacrifice, and ever leading us to confess the differences, deep,\ntragic, sinful, between us and Him who\u2014we sometimes think too\npresumptuously\u2014we venture to say is our Lord and Master.\n\nDid you ever see in some great picture gallery a copyist sitting in\nfront of a Raffaelle, and comparing his poor feeble daub, all out of\ndrawing, and with little of the divine beauty that the master had\nbreathed over his canvas, even if it preserved the mere mechanical\noutline? That is what you and I should do with our lives: take them and\nput them down side by side with the original. We shall have to do it\nsome day. Had we better not do it now, and try to bring the copy a\nlittle nearer to the masterpiece; and let that 'as I have loved you'\nshine before us and draw us on to unattainable heights?\n\nAnd now, lastly, we have here\u2014\n\nIII. The motive power for obedience to the commandment.\n\nThat is as new as all the rest. That 'as' expresses the manner of the\nlove, but it also expresses the motive and the power. It might be\ntranslated into the equivalent 'in the fashion in which,' or it might\nbe translated into the equivalent 'since\u2014' 'I have loved you.' The\noriginal might bear the rendering, 'that ye also may love one another.'\nThat is to say, what keeps men from obeying this commandment is the\ninstinctive self-regard which is natural to us all. There are muscles\nin the body which are so constructed that they close tightly; and the\nheart is something like one of these sphincter muscles\u2014it shuts by\nnature, especially if there has been anything put inside it over which\nit can shut and keep it all to itself. But there is one thing that\ndethrones Self, and enthrones the angel Love in a heart, and that is,\nthat into that heart there shall come surging the sense of the great\nlove 'wherewith I have loved you.' That melts the iceberg; nothing else\nwill.\n\nThat love of Christ to us, received into our hearts, and there\nproducing an answering love to Him, will make us, in the measure in\nwhich we live in it and let it rule us, love everything and every\nperson that He loves. That love of Jesus Christ, stealing into our\nhearts and there sweetening the ever-springing 'issues of life,' will\nmake them flow out in glad obedience to any commandment of His. That\nlove of Jesus Christ, received into our hearts, and responded to by our\nanswering love, will work, as love always does, a magical\ntransformation. A great monastic teacher wrote his precious book about\n_The Imitation of Christ_. 'Imitation' is a great word,\n'Transformation' is a greater. 'We all,' receiving on the mirror of our\nloving hearts the love of Jesus Christ, 'are changed into the same\nlikeness.' Thus, then, the love, which is our pattern, is also our\nmotive and our power for obedience, and the more we bring ourselves\nunder its influences, the more we shall love all those who are beloved\nby, and lovers of, Jesus.\n\nThat is the one foundation for a world knit together in the bonds of\namity and concord. There have been attempts at brotherhood, and the\nguillotine has ended what was begun in the name of 'fraternity.' Men\nbuild towers, but there is no cement between the bricks, unless the\nlove of Christ holds them together, and therefore Babel after Babel\ncomes down about the ears of its builders. But notwithstanding all that\nis dark to-day, and though the war-clouds are lowering, and the hearts\nof men are inflamed with fierce passions, Christ's commandment is\nChrist's promise; and though the vision tarry, it will surely come. So\neven to-day Christian men ought to stand for Christ's peace, and for\nChrist's love. The old commandment which we have had from the\nbeginning, is the new commandment that fits to-day as it fits all the\nages. It is a dream, say some. Yes, a dream; but a morning dream which\ncomes true. Let us do the little we can to make it true, and to bring\nabout the day when the flock of men will gather round the one Shepherd,\nwho loved them to the death, and who has bid them and helped them to\n'love one another as'\u2014and since\u2014'He has loved them.'\n\n\n\n\nQUO VADIS?\n\n\n'Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now! I will lay\ndown my life for Thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy\nlife for My sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not\ncrow, till thou hast denied Me thrice.'\u2014JOHN xiii. 37, 38.\n\nPeter's main characteristics are all in operation here; his eagerness\nto be in the front, his habit of blurting out his thoughts and\nfeelings, his passionate love for his Master, and withal his inability\nto understand Him, and his self-confident arrogance. He has broken in\nupon Christ's solemn words, entirely deaf to their deep meaning, but\nblindly and blunderingly laying hold of one thought only, that Jesus is\ndeparting, and that he is to be left alone. So he asks the question,\n'Lord! thither goest Thou?'\u2014not so much caring about that, as meaning\nby his question\u2014'tell me where, and then I will come too'; pledging\nhimself to follow faithfully, as a dog behind his master, wherever He\nwent.\n\nOur Lord answered the underlying meaning of the words, repeating with a\npersonal application what He had just before said as a general\nprinciple\u2014'Whither I go thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shall\nfollow Me afterwards.' Then followed this noteworthy dialogue.\n\nThe whole significance of the incident is preserved for us in the\nbeautiful legend which tells us how, near the city of Rome, on the\nAppian Way, as Peter was flying for his life, he met the Lord, and\nagain said to Him: 'Lord, whither goest Thou?' The words of the\nquestion, as given in the Vulgate, are the name of the site of the\nsupposed interview, and of the little church which stands on it. The\nMaster answered: 'I go to Rome, to be crucified again.' The answer\nsmote the heart of the Apostle, and turned the cowardly fugitive into a\nhero; and he followed his Lord, and went gladly to his death. For it\nwas that death which had to be accomplished before Peter was able to\nfollow his Lord.\n\nNow, as to the words before us, I think we shall best gather their\nsignificance, and lay it upon our own hearts, if we simply follow the\nwindings of the dialogue. There are three points: the audacious\nquestion, the rash vow, and the sad forecast.\n\nI. The audacious question.\n\nAs Peter's first question, 'Lord, whither goest Thou?' meant not so\nmuch what it said, as 'I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest;\ntell me, that I may'; so the second question, in like manner, is really\nnot so much a question, 'Why cannot I follow Thee now?' as the nearest\npossible approach to a flat contradiction of our Lord. Peter puts his\nwords into the shape of an interrogation; what he means is, 'Yes, I can\nfollow Thee; and in proof thereof, I will lay down my life for Thy\nsake.' The man's persistence, the man's love leading him to lack of\nreverence, came out in this (as I have ventured to call it) audacious\nquestion. Its underlying meaning was a refusal to believe the Master's\nword. But yet there was in it a nobility of resolution\u2014broken\nafterwards, but never mind about that\u2014to endure anything rather than to\nbe separate from the Lord. Yet, though it was noble in its motive, but\nlacking in reverence in its form, there was a deeper error than that in\nit. Peter did not know what 'following' meant, and he had to be taught\nthat first. One of the main reasons why he could not follow was because\nhe did not understand what was involved. It was something more than\nmarching behind his Master, even to a Cross. There was a deeper\ndiscipline and a more strenuous effort needed than would have availed\nfor such a kind of following.\n\nLet us look a little onwards into his life. Recall that scene on the\nmorning of the day by the banks of the lake, when he waded through the\nshallow water, and cast himself, dripping, at his Master's feet, and,\nhaving by his threefold confession obliterated his threefold denial,\nwas taken back to his Lord's love, and received the permission for\nwhich he had hungered, and which he had been told, in the upper room,\ncould not 'now' be given: 'Jesus said to him, Follow thou Me.' What a\nflood of remembrances must then have rushed over the penitent Peter!\nhow he must have thought to himself, 'So soon, so soon is the \"canst\nnot\" changed into a _canst_! So soon has the \"afterwards\" come to be\nthe present!'\n\nAnd long years after that, when he was an old man, and experience had\ntaught him what _following_ meant, he shared his privilege with all the\ndispersed strangers to whom he wrote, and said to them, with a definite\nreference to this incident, and to the other after the Resurrection,\n'leaving us an example, that we (not only, as I used to think, in my\nexuberant days of ignorance) should follow in His steps.'\n\nSo, brethren, this blundering, loving, audacious question suggests to\nus that to follow Jesus Christ is the supreme direction for all\nconduct. Men of all creeds, men of no creed, admit that. The\n\n  'Loveliness of perfect deeds,\n  More strong than all poetic thought,'\n\nwhich is set forth in that life constitutes the living law to which all\nconduct is to be conformed, and will be noble in proportion as it is\nconformed.\n\n_There_ is the great blessing, and solemn obligation, and lofty\nprerogative of Christian morality, that for obedience to a precept it\nsubstitutes following a Person, and instead of saying to men 'Be good'\nit says to them 'Be Christlike.' It brings the conception of duty out\nof the region of abstractions into the region of living realities. For\nthe cold statuesque ideal of perfection it substitutes a living Man,\nwith a heart to love, and a hand to help us. Thereby the whole aspect\nof striving after the right is changed; for the work is made easier,\nand companionship comes in to aid morality, when Jesus Christ says to\nus, 'Be like Me; and then you will be good and blessed.' Effort will be\nall but as blessed as attainment, and the sense of pressing hard after\nHim will be only less restful than the consciousness of having\nattained. To follow Him is bliss, to reach Him is heaven.\n\nBut in order that this following should be possible, there must be\nsomething done that had not been done when Peter asked, 'Why cannot I\nfollow Thee now?' One reason why he could not was, as I said, because\nhe did not know yet what 'following' meant, and because he was yet\nunfit for this assimilation of his character and of his conduct to the\nlikeness of his Lord. And another reason was because the Cross still\nlay before the Lord, and until that death of infinite love and utter\nself-sacrifice for others had been accomplished, the pattern was not\nyet complete, nor the highest ideal of human life realised in life.\nTherefore the 'following' was impossible. Christ must die before He has\ncompleted the example that we are to follow, and Christ must die before\nthe impulse shall be given to us, which shall make us able to tread,\nhowever falteringly and far behind, in His footsteps.\n\nThe essence of His life and of His death lies in the two things, entire\nsuppression of personal will in obedience to the will of the Father,\nand entire self-sacrifice for the sake of humanity. And however there\nis\u2014and God forbid that I should ever forget in my preaching that there\nis\u2014a uniqueness in that sacrifice, in that life, and in that death,\nwhich beggars all imitation, and needs and tolerates no repetition\nwhilst the world lasts, still along with this, there is that which is\nimitable in the life and imitable in the death of the Master. To follow\nJesus is to live denying self for God, and to live sacrificing self for\nmen. Nothing less than these are included in the solemn words, 'leaving\nus'\u2014even in the act and article of death when He 'suffered for us'\u2014'an\nexample that we should follow His steps.'\n\nThe word rendered 'example' refers to the headline which the\nwriting-master gives his pupils to copy, line by line. We all know how\nclumsy the pothooks and hangers are, how blurred the page with many a\nblot. And yet there, at the top of it, stands the Master's fair\nwriting, and though even the last line on the page will be blotted and\nblurred, when we turn it over and begin on the new leaf, the copy will\nbe like the original, 'and we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him\nas He is.' 'Thou shalt follow Me afterwards' is a commandment; blessed\nbe God, it is also a promise. For let us not forget that the\n'following' ends in an attaining; even as the Lord Himself has said in\nanother connection, when He spake: 'If any man serve Me, let him follow\nMe, and where I am, there shall also My servant be.' Of course, if we\nfollow, we shall come to the same place one day. And so the great\npromise will be fulfilled; 'they shall follow the Lamb,' in that higher\nlife, 'whithersoever He goeth'; and not as here imperfectly, and far\nbehind, but close beside Him, and keeping step for step, being with Him\nfirst, and following Him afterwards.\n\nBut let us remember that with regard to that future following and its\ncompleteness, the same present incapacity applies, as clogs and mars\nthe 'following,' which is conforming our lives to His. For, as He\nHimself has said to us, 'I go to prepare a place for you,' and until He\nhad passed through death and into His glory, there was no\nstanding-ground for human feet on the golden pavements, and heaven was\ninaccessible to man until Christ had died. Thus, as all life is changed\nwhen it is looked upon as being a following of Jesus, so death becomes\naltogether other when it is so regarded. The first martyr outside the\ncity wall, bruised and battered by the cruel stones, remembered his\nMaster's death, and shaped his own to be like it. As Jesus, when He\ndied, had said: 'Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit,' Stephen,\ndying, said: 'Lord Jesus, receive My spirit.' As the Master had given\nHis last breath to the prayer, 'Father, forgive them; they know not\nwhat they do,' so Stephen shaped his last utterance to a conformity\nwith his Lord's, in which the difference is as significant as the\nlikeness, and said, 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' And then,\nas the record beautifully says, amidst all that wild hubbub and cruel\nassault, 'he fell on sleep,' as a child on its mother's breast. Death\nis changed when it becomes the following of Christ.\n\nII. We have here a rash vow.\n\n'I will lay down my life for Thy sake.' What a strange inversion of\nparts is here! 'Lay down thy life for My sake'\u2014with Calvary less than\nfour-and-twenty hours off, when Christ laid down His life for Peter's\nsake. Peter was guilty of an anachronism in the words, for the time did\nnot come for the disciple to die for his Lord till after the Lord had\ndied for His disciple. But he was right in feeling, though he felt it\nonly in regard to an external and physical act, that to follow Jesus,\nit was necessary to be ready to die for Him. And that is the great\ntruth which underlies and half redeems the rashness of this vow, and\nneeds to be laid upon our hearts, if we are ever to be the true\nfollowers of the Master. Death for Christ is necessary if we are to\nfollow Him. There is nothing that a man can do deeply and truly, in a\nmanner worthy of a Christian, which has not underlying it, either the\ndeath of self-will and all the godless nature, or if need be the actual\nphysical death, which is a much smaller matter. You cannot follow\nChrist except you die daily. No man has ever yet trodden in His\nfootsteps except on condition of, moment by moment, slaying self,\nsuppressing self, abjuring self, breaking the connection of self with\nthe material world, and yielding up himself as a living sacrifice, in a\nliving death, to the Lord of life and death. Do not think that\n'following Christ' is a mere sentimental expression for so much\nmorality as we can conveniently get into our daily life. But remember\nthat here, with all his rashness, with all his ignorance, with all his\nsuperficiality, the Apostle has laid hold upon the great permanent, but\nalas! much-forgotten principle, that to die is essential to following\nJesus.\n\nThis daily dying, which is a far harder thing to do than to go to a\ncross once, and have done with it\u2014was impossible for Peter then, though\nhe did not know it. His vow was a rash one, because the laying down of\nChrist's life, for Peter's sake and for ours, had not yet been\naccomplished. _There_ is the motive-power by which, and by which alone,\ndrawn in gratitude, and melted down from all our selfishness, we, too,\nin our measure and our turn, are able to yield ourselves, in daily\ncrucifixion of our evil, and daily abnegation of self-trust, and\nself-pleasing, and self-will, to the Lord that has died for us. He must\nlay down His life for our sakes, and we must know He has done it, and\nrest upon Him as our great Sacrifice and our atoning Priest, or else we\nshall never be so loosed from the tyranny of self as to be ready to\nlive by dying, and to die that we may live for His sake. 'I go to Rome\nto be crucified again' were the words in which the old legend braced\nthe fugitive and made a hero of him, and sent him back to be crucified\nlike his Lord and to offer up his physical life, as he had long since\noffered up his self-will and his arrogance to the Lord that had died\nfor him.\n\nO Lord our Father! help us, we beseech Thee, that we may be of the\nsheep that hear the Shepherd's voice and follow Him. Strengthen our\nfaith in that dear Lord who has laid down His life for us, that we may\ndaily, by self-denial and self-sacrifice, lay down our lives for Him,\nand follow Him here in all the footsteps of His love.\n\n\n\n\nA RASH VOW\n\n\n'Jesus answered him, Wilt them lay down thy life for My sake? Verily,\nverily I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied\nMe thrice.'\u2014JOHN xiii. 38.\n\nIn the last sermon I partly considered the dialogue of which this is\nthe concluding portion, and found that it consisted of an audacious\nquestion: 'Why cannot I follow Thee now?' which really meant a\ncontradiction of our Lord; of a rash vow; 'I will lay down my life for\nThy sake'\u2014and of a sad forecast: 'The cock shall not crow till thou\nhast denied Me thrice.' I paused in the middle of considering the\nsecond of these three stages, the rash vow. I then pointed out that,\nhowever ignorant the Apostle was of what 'following Christ' meant, he\nhad hit the mark, and stumbled unknowingly upon the very essence of the\nChristian life, and an eternal truth, when he recognised that, somehow\nor other, to 'follow Christ' meant to die for Him. That is so, and is\nso always, for there is no following Christ which is not a 'dying\ndaily,' by self-immolation and detachment from the world, and from the\nlife of sense and self. But this rash vow has to be looked at from a\nsomewhat different point of view, and we have to consider not only the\nstrangely blended right and wrong, error and deep truth, that lie in\nits substance, but the strangely blended right and wrong in the state\nof feeling and thought, on the part of the Apostle, which it\nrepresents. And taking up the dropped thread, I first deal with that,\nand then with the sad forecast which follows.\n\nSo then, looking at these words as being like all our words, even the\nbest of them, strangely mingled of right and wrong, good and evil, I\nfind in them\u2014\n\nI. A noble, sincere, but transient emotion and impulse.\n\n'I will lay down my life for Thy sake.' Peter meant it, every word of\nit; and he would have done it too, if only a gibbet or cross could have\nbeen set up then and there in the upper room. But unfortunately the\nmoments of elevation and high-wrought enthusiasm, and the calls to\nmartyrdom, do not always coincide. In the upper room, with its sacred\natmosphere, it was easy to feel, and would have been easy to do, nobly.\nBut it was not so easy, lying drowsily in Gethsemane, in the cold\nspring night, waiting for the Master's coming out from beneath the\ntrembling shadows of the olive trees, or huddled up by the fire at the\nlower end of the hall in the grey morning, when vitality is at its\nlowest.\n\nSo the sincere, noble utterance was but the expression of impulse and\nemotion which lifted Peter for a moment, and did him good, but which\nlikewise, running through him, left him dry, and all the weaker because\nof the gush of feeling which had foamed itself away in empty words. For\nlet us never forget that however high, noble, or divinely inspired\nemotion may be, in its nature it is transient and is sure to be\nfollowed by reaction. Like the winter torrents in some parched land,\nthe more they foam, the more speedily does the bed of them dry up\nagain, and the more they carry down the very soil in which growth and\nfertility would be possible. A rush of feeling is apt to leave behind\nhard, insensitive rock. There is a close connection between a\npredominantly emotional Christianity and a very imperfect life. Feeling\nis apt to be a substitute for action. Is it not a very remarkable thing\nthat the word 'benevolence,' which means 'kindly feeling,' has come to\ntake on the meaning rightly belonging to 'beneficence,' which means\n'kindly doing'? The emotional man blinds and hoodwinks himself, by\nthinking that his quick sensibility and lofty enthusiasm and warmth of\nemotion are action or as good as action. 'Be thou warmed and filled,'\nhe says to his brother, and, in a lazy expansion of heart, forgets that\nhe has never lifted a finger to help.\n\nGod forbid that I should seem to deprecate emotional religion or\nreligious emotion! that is the last thing that needs to be done in this\ngeneration. If the Churches want one thing more than another, it is\nthat their Christianity should become far more emotional than it is,\nand their impulses stronger, swifter, more spontaneous, more\novermastering, and that they should be urged by these, and not merely\nby the reluctant recognition that such and such a piece of sacrifice or\neffort is a debt that they are obliged to clear off. Their service will\nbe glad service, only when it is impulsive service and emotional\nservice. Dear brethren, a Christian man whose life is not influenced by\nthe deepest and most fervid emotion of love to the great Love that died\nfor him, is a monster. 'The Lord's fire is in Jerusalem, and His\nfurnace in Zion'\u2014is that a description of the fervour of this Church,\nor of any Church in Christendom? A furnace? An ice-house! Think of some\ndeserted cottage, with the roof fallen in, and in the cold\nchimney-place a rusty grate with some dead embers in it, and the snow\nlying upon the top of it\u2014that is a truer description of a great many of\nour churches than 'the Lord's furnace.'\n\nBut the lesson to be taken from this incident before us is not the\ndanger of emotion; it is rather the necessity of emotion, but with two\nprovisoes, that it shall be emotion based upon a clear recognition of\nthe great truth that He has laid down His life for me; and that it\nshall be emotion harnessed to work, and not wasted in words. The\nmightier the plunge of the fall, the more electrical energy you can get\nout of it, and set that to work to drive the wheels of life. Do not be\nafraid of emotion; you will make little of your Christianity unless you\nhave it. But be sure that it is under the guidance of a clear\nperception of the truth that evokes it, and that it is all used to turn\nthe wheels of life. 'Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than\nthat thou shouldest vow and not pay.' Better is it that emotion should\nbe reticent and active than that it should be voluble and idle. It is a\ngood servant, but a bad master. A man that trusts to impulse and\nemotion to further his Christian course, is like a ship in that belt of\nvariable winds that lies near the Equator, where there will be a fine\nten-knot breeze for an hour or two, and then a sickly, stagnating calm.\nPush further south, and get into the steady 'trades,' where the wind\nblows with equable and persistent force all the year round in the same\ndirection. Convert impulses and emotions into steadfast principle,\nwarmed by emotion and borne on by impulse.\n\nII. Again, this rash vow is an illustration of a confidence, also\nstrangely blended of good and evil.\n\n'I will lay down my life for Thy sake.' As I have said, Peter meant it.\nHis words are paralleled by other words, in which two of the Lord's\ndisciples answered His solemn question: 'Are ye able to drink of the\ncup that I drink of?' with the unhesitating answer, 'We are able.' A\ngreat teacher has regarded that saying as one of 'the ventures of\nfaith.' Perhaps it was. Perhaps there was as much self-confidence as\nfaith in it. Certainly there was more self-confidence than faith in\nPeter's answer, and his self-confidence collapsed when the trial came.\n\nThe world and the Church hold entirely antagonistic notions about the\nvalue of self-reliance. The world says that it is a condition of power.\nThe Church says that it is the root of weakness. Self-confidence shuts\na man out from the help of God, and so shuts him out from the source of\npower. For if you will think for a moment, you will see that the faith\nwhich the New Testament, in conformity with all wise knowledge of one's\nself, preaches as the one secret of power, has for its obverse\u2014its\nother side\u2014diffidence and self-distrust. No man trusts God as God ought\nto be trusted, who does not distrust himself as himself ought to be\ndistrusted. To level a mountain is the only way to carry the water\nacross where it stood. You can, by mechanism and locks, take a canal up\nto the top of a hill, but you cannot take a river up to the top, and\nthe river of God's help flows through the valley and seeks the lowest\nlevels. Faith and self-despair are the upper and the under sides of the\nsame thing, like some cunningly-woven cloth, the one side bearing a\ndifferent pattern from the other, and yet made of the same yarn, and\nthe same threads passing from the upper to the under sides. So faith\nand self-distrust are but two names for one composite whole.\n\nI was once shown an old Jewish coin which had on the one side the words\n'sackcloth and ashes,' and on the other side the words 'a crown of\ngold.' The coin meant to contrast what Israel had been with what Israel\nthen was. The crown had come first; the sackcloth and ashes last. But\nwe may use it for illustrating this point, on which I am now dwelling.\nWherever, and only where, there are the sackcloth and ashes of\nself-despair there will be the crown of gold of an answering faith.\nWhen thus, as Wesley has it, in his great hymn: 'Confident in\nself-despair,' we cling to God, then we can say: 'When I am weak then\nam I strong,' 'Behold! we have no might, but our eyes are upon Thee.'\nIf Peter had only said, 'By Thy help I will lay down my life for Thy\nsake,' his confidence would have been reasonable and blessed\nself-confidence, because it would have been confidence in a self\ninspired by divine power.\n\nAnd so, brethren, whilst utter diffidence is right for us, and is the\ncondition of all our reception of energy according to our need, the\nmost absolute confidence\u2014a confidence which, to the eye of the man that\nmeasures only visible things, will seem sheer insanity\u2014is sobriety for\na Christian. The world is perfectly right when it says: 'If you believe\nyou can do a thing, you have gone a long way towards doing it.' The\nexpectation of success has often the knack of fulfilling itself. But\nthe world does not know our secret, and our secret is that our humble\nfaith brings into the field the reserves with the Captain of our\nsalvation at their head. Therefore a self-distrusting Christian can\nsay, and say without exaggeration or presumption, 'I can do all things\nin Christ, strengthening me from within.'\n\nThe Church's ideals are possibilities, when you bring God into the\naccount, and they look like insanity when you do not. Take, for\ninstance, missions. What an absurdity to talk about a handful of\nChristian people\u2014for we are only a handful as compared with the whole\nworld\u2014carrying their Gospel into every corner of the earth, and finding\neverywhere a response to it. Yes; it is absurd; but, wise Mr.\nCalculator, counter of heads, you have forgotten God in your estimate\nof whether it is reasonable or unreasonable. Again, take the Christian\nideal of absolute perfection of character. 'What nonsense to talk as if\nany man could ever come to that.' Yes!\u2014as if any _man_ could come to\nthat, I grant you. But if God is with him, the nonsense is to suppose\nthat he will not come to it. Here is a row of cyphers as long as your\narm. They mean nothing. Put a 1 at the left-hand end of the row; and\nwhat does it mean then? So the faith that brings Christ into the life,\nand into the Church, makes 'nobodies' into mighty men\u2014'laughs at\nimpossibilities, and cries, It shall be done!'\n\nStill further, here, in this rash vow, we have an underestimate of\ndifficulties. There was another incident in the life of the Apostle, a\nstrange replica of this one, into which he pushed himself, just as he\ndid into the high priest's hall, partly out of curiosity and a wish to\nbe prominent; partly out of love to his Master. Without a moment's\nconsideration of the peril into which he was thrusting himself, he sat\nin the boat, and said, 'Bid me come to Thee on the water.' He forgot\nthat He was heavy, and that water was not solid, and that the wind was\nhigh and the lake rough, and when he put his foot over the side and\nfelt the cold waves creeping up his knees, his courage ebbed out with\nhis faith, and he began to sink. Then he cried, 'Lord! help me!' If he\nhad thought for a moment of the reality of the case, he would have sat\nstill in the boat. If he had thought of what would be in his way in\nfollowing Jesus to death, he would have hesitated to vow. But it is so\nmuch easier to resolve heroisms in a quiet corner than to do them when\nthe strain comes, and it is so much easier to do some one great thing\nthat has in it enthusiasm and nobility, and conspicuousness of\nsacrifice, especially if it can be got over in a moment, like having\none's head cut off with an axe, than it is to 'die daily.' Ah!\nbrethren, it is the little difficulties that make _the_ difficulty. You\nread in the newspapers in the autumn, every now and then, of trains, in\nthat wonderful country across the water, being stopped by caterpillars.\nThe Christian train is stopped by an army of caterpillars, far oftener\nthan it is by some solid and towering barrier. Our Christian lives are\na great deal likelier to come to failure, because we do not take into\naccount the multiplied small antagonisms than because we are not ready\nto face the greater ones. What would you think of a bridge builder, who\nbuilt a bridge across some mountain torrent and made no allowance for\nfreshets and floods when the ice melted? His bridge and his piers would\nbe gone the first winter. You remember who it was that said that he\nwent into the Franco-German War 'with a light heart,' and in seven\nweeks came Sedan and the dethronement of an Emperor, and the surrender\nof an army. 'Blessed is he that feareth always.' There is no more fatal\nerror than an underestimate of our difficulties.\n\nIII. Let me say a word about the sad forecast here.\n\n'Thou shalt deny me thrice.'\n\nWe cannot say that poor Peter's fall was at all an anomalous or\nuncommon thing. He did exactly what a great many of us are doing. He\ncould\u2014and I have no doubt he would\u2014have gone to the death for Jesus\nChrist; but he could not stand being laughed at for Him. He would have\nbeen ready to meet the executioner's sharp sword, but the\nservant-girl's sharp tongue was more than he could bear. And so he\ndenied Jesus, not because he was afraid of his skin\u2014for I do not\nsuppose that the servants had any notion of doing anything more than\namusing themselves with a few clumsy gibes at his expense\u2014but because\nhe could not bear to be made sport of.\n\nNow, dear brethren, I suppose we are all of us more or less movers in\ncircles in which it sometimes is not considered 'good form' to show\nthat we are Christian people. You young men in your warehouses, you\nstudents at the University, where it is a sign of being 'fossils' and\n'behind the times' and 'not up to date' to say 'I am a Christian,' and\nall of us in our several places have sometimes to gather our courage\ntogether, and not be afraid to declare whose we are. No doubt life is a\nbetter witness than words, but no doubt also life is not so good a\nwitness as it might be, unless it sometimes has the commentary of words\nas well. Thus, to confess Christ means two things; to say sometimes\u2014in\nthe face of a smile of scorn, which is often harder to bear than\nsomething much more dangerous\u2014'I am His,' and to live Christ, and to\nsay by conduct 'I am His,' 'Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him\nwill I also confess before My Father, and whosoever shall deny Me, him\nwill I also deny.' Do not button your coats over your uniform. Do not\ntake the cockade out of your hats when you go amongst 'the other side.'\nLive Jesus, and, when advisable, preach Jesus.\n\nBut Peter's fall, which is typical of what we are all tempted to do,\nhas in it a gracious message; for it proclaims the possibility of\nrecovery from any depth of descent, and of coming back again from any\ndistance of wandering. Did you ever notice how Peter's fall was burnt\nin upon his memory, so as that when he began to preach after Pentecost,\nthe shape that his indictment of his hearers takes is, 'Ye denied the\nHoly One and the Just,' and how, long after\u2014if the second Epistle which\ngoes by his name is his\u2014in summing up the crimes of the heretics whom\nhe is branding, he speaks of their 'denying the Lord that bought them.'\nHe never forgot his denial, and it remained with him as the expression\nfor all that was wrong in a man's relation to Jesus Christ. And I\nsuppose not only was it burnt in upon his memory, but it burnt out all\nhis self-confidence.\n\nIt is beautiful to see how, in his letter, he speaks over and over\nagain of 'fear' as being a wise temper of mind for a Christian. As\nGeorge Herbert has it, 'A sad, wise valour is the true complexion.'\nThus the man that had been so confident in himself learned to say 'Be\nready to give to every man that asketh you a reason for the hope that\nis in you, with meekness and fear.'\n\nAnd do you not think that his fall drew him closer to Jesus Christ than\never he had been before, as he learned more of His pardoning love and\nmercy? Was he not nearer the Lord on that morning when the two\ntogether, alone, talked after the Resurrection? Was he not nearer Him\nwhen he struggled to his feet from the boat on the lake, on that\nmorning when he was received back into his office as Christ's Apostle?\nDid he ever forget how he had sinned? Did he ever forget how Christ had\npardoned? Did he ever forget how Christ loved and would keep him? Ah,\nno! The rope that is broken is strongest where it is spliced, not\nbecause it was broken, but because a cunning hand has strengthened it.\nWe may be the stronger for our sins, not because sin strengthens, for\nit weakens, but because God restores. It is possible that we may build\na fairer structure on the ruins of our old selves. It is possible that\nwe may turn every field of defeat into a field of victory. It is\npossible that we may\n\n    'Fall to rise; be beaten, to fight better.'\n\nIf only we cling to the Lord our Strength, the promise shall be\nours\u2014whatever our failures, denials, backslidings,\ninconsistencies\u2014'though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for\nthe Lord upholdeth him with His hand.'\n\n\n\n\nFAITH IN GOD AND CHRIST\n\n\n'Let not your heart be troubled \u2026 believe in God, believe also in\nMe.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 1.\n\nThe twelve were sitting in the upper chamber, stupefied with the\ndreary, half-understood prospect of Christ's departure. He, forgetting\nHis own burden, turns to comfort and encourage them. These sweet and\ngreat words most singularly blend gentleness and dignity. Who can\nreproduce the cadence of soothing tenderness, soft as a mother's hand,\nin that 'Let not your heart be troubled'? And who can fail to feel the\ntone of majesty in that 'Believe in God, believe also in Me'?\n\nThe Greek presents an ambiguity in the latter half of the verse, for\nthe verb may be either indicative or imperative, and so we may read\nfour different ways, according as we render each of the two 'believes'\nin either of these two fashions. Our Authorised and Revised Versions\nconcur in adopting the indicative 'Ye believe' in the former clause and\nthe imperative in the latter. But I venture to think that we get a more\ntrue and appropriate meaning if we keep both clauses in the same mood,\nand read them both as imperatives: 'Believe in God, believe also in\nMe.' It would be harsh, I think, to take one as an affirmation and the\nother as a command. It would be irrelevant, I think, to remind the\ndisciples of their belief in God. It would break the unity of the verse\nand destroy the relation of the latter half to the former, the former\nbeing a negative precept: 'Let not your heart be troubled'; and the\nlatter being a positive one: 'Instead of being troubled, believe in\nGod, and believe in Me.' So, for all these reasons, I venture to adopt\nthe reading I have indicated.\n\nI. Now in these words the first thing that strikes me is that Christ\nhere points to Himself as the object of precisely the same religious\ntrust which is to be given to God.\n\nIt is only our familiarity with these words that blinds us to their\nwonderfulness and their greatness. Try to hear them for the first time,\nand to bring into remembrance the circumstances in which they were\nspoken. Here is a man sitting among a handful of His friends, who is\nwithin four-and-twenty hours of a shameful death, which to all\nappearance was the utter annihilation of all His claims and hopes, and\nHe says, 'Trust in God, and trust in Me'! I think that if we had heard\nthat for the first time, we should have understood a little better than\nsome of us do the depth of its meaning.\n\nWhat is it that Christ asks for here? Or rather let me say, What is it\nthat Christ offers to us here? For we must not look at the words as a\ndemand or as a command, but rather as a merciful invitation to do what\nit is life and blessing to do. It is a very low and inadequate\ninterpretation of these words which takes them as meaning little more\nthan 'Believe in God, believe that He is; believe in Me, believe that I\nam.' But it is scarcely less so to suppose that the mere assent of the\nunderstanding to His teaching is all that Christ is asking for here. By\nno means; what He invites us to goes a great deal deeper than that. The\nessence of it is an act of the will and of the heart, not of the\nunderstanding at all. A man may believe in Him as a historical person,\nmay accept all that is said about Him here, and yet not be within sight\nof the trust in Him of which He here speaks. For the essence of the\nwhole is not the intellectual process of assent to a proposition, but\nthe intensely personal act of yielding up will and heart to a living\nperson. Faith does not grasp a doctrine, but a heart. The trust which\nChrist requires is the bond that unites souls with Him; and the very\nlife of it is entire committal of myself to Him in all my relations and\nfor all my needs, and absolute utter confidence in Him as\nall-sufficient for everything that I can require. Let us get away from\nthe cold intellectualism of 'belief' into the warm atmosphere of\n'trust,' and we shall understand better than by many volumes what\nChrist here means and the sphere and the power and the blessedness of\nthat faith which Christ requires.\n\nFurther, note that, whatever may be this believing in Him which He asks\nfrom us or invites us to render, it is precisely the same thing which\nHe bids us render to God. The two clauses in the original bring out\nthat idea even more vividly than in our version, because the order of\nthe words in the latter clause is inverted; and they read literally\nthus: 'Believe in God, in Me also believe.' The purpose of the\ninversion is to put these two, God and Christ, as close together as\npossible; and to put the two identical emotions at the beginning and at\nthe end, at the two extremes and outsides of the whole sentence. Could\nlanguage be more deliberately adopted and moulded, even in its\nconsecution and arrangement, to enforce this thought, that whatever it\nis that we give to Christ, it is the very same thing that we give to\nGod? And so He here proposes Himself as the worthy and adequate\nrecipient of all these emotions of confidence, submission, resignation,\nwhich make up religion in its deepest sense.\n\nThat tone is by no means singular in this place. It is the uniform tone\nand characteristic of our Lord's teaching. Let me remind you just in a\nsentence of one or two instances. What did He think of Himself who\nstood up before the world and, with arms outstretched, like that great\nwhite Christ in Thorwaldsen's lovely statue, said to all the troop of\nlanguid and burdened and fatigued ones crowding at His feet: 'Come unto\nMe all ye that are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you\nrest'? That surely is a divine prerogative. What did He think of\nHimself who said, 'All men should honour the Son even as they honour\nthe Father'? What did He think of Himself who, in that very Sermon on\nthe Mount (to which the advocates of a maimed and mutilated\nChristianity tell us they pin their faith, instead of to mystical\ndoctrines) declared that He Himself was the Judge of humanity, and that\nall men should stand at His bar and receive from Him 'according to the\ndeeds done in their body'? Upon any honest principle of interpreting\nthese Gospels, and unless you avowedly go picking and choosing amongst\nHis words, accepting this and rejecting that, you cannot eliminate from\nthe scriptural representation of Jesus Christ the fact that He claimed\nas His own the emotions of the heart to which only God has a right and\nonly God can satisfy.\n\nI do not dwell upon that point, but I say, in one sentence, we have to\ntake that into account if we would estimate the character of Jesus\nChrist as a Teacher and as a Man. I would not turn away from Him any\nimperfect conceptions, as they seem to me, of His nature and His\nwork\u2014rather would I foster them, and lead them on to a fuller\nrecognition of the full Christ\u2014but this I am bound to say, that for my\npart I believe that nothing but the wildest caprice, dealing with the\nGospels according to one's own subjective fancies, irrespective\naltogether of the evidence, can strike out from the teaching of Christ\nthis its characteristic difference. What signalises Him, and separates\nHim from all other religious teachers, is not the clearness or the\ntenderness with which He reiterated the truths about the divine\nFather's love, or about morality, and justice, and truth, and goodness;\nbut _the_ peculiarity of His call to the world is, 'Believe in Me.' And\nif He said that, or anything like it, and if the representations of His\nteaching in these four Gospels, which are the only source from which we\nget any notion of Him at all, are to be accepted, why, then, one of two\nthings follows. Either He was wrong, and then He was a crazy\nenthusiast, only acquitted of blasphemy because convicted of insanity;\nor else\u2014or else\u2014He was 'God, manifest in the flesh.' It is vain to bow\ndown before a fancy portrait of a bit of Christ, and to exalt the\nhumble sage of Nazareth, and to leave out the very thing that makes the\ndifference between Him and all others, namely, these either audacious\nor most true claims to be the Son of God, the worthy Recipient and the\nadequate Object of man's religious emotions. 'Believe in God, in Me\nalso believe.'\n\nII. Now, secondly, notice that faith in Christ and faith in God are not\ntwo, but one.\n\nThese two clauses on the surface present juxtaposition. Looked at more\nclosely they present interpenetration and identity. Jesus Christ does\nnot merely set Himself up by the side of God, nor are we worshippers of\ntwo Gods when we bow before Jesus and bow before the Father; but faith\nin Christ is faith in God, and faith in God which is not faith in\nChrist is imperfect, incomplete, and will not long last. To trust in\nHim is to trust in the Father; to trust in the Father is to trust in\nHim.\n\nWhat is the underlying truth that is here? How comes it that these two\nobjects blend into one, like two figures in a stereoscope; and that the\nfaith which flows to Jesus Christ rests upon God? This is the\nunderlying truth, that Jesus Christ, Himself divine, is the divine\nRevealer of God. I need not dwell upon the latter of these two\nthoughts: how there is no real knowledge of the real God in the depth\nof His love, the tenderness of His nature or the lustrousness of His\nholiness; how there is no certitude; how the God that we see outside of\nJesus Christ is sometimes doubt, sometimes hope, sometimes fear, always\nfar-off and vague, an abstraction rather than a person, 'a stream of\ntendency' without us, that which is unnameable, and the like. I need\nnot dwell upon the thought that Jesus Christ has showed us a Father,\nhas brought a God to our hearts whom we can love, whom we can know\nreally though not fully, of whom we can be sure with a certitude which\nis as deep as the certitude of our own personal being; that He has\nbrought to us a God before whom we do not need to crouch far off, that\nHe has brought to us a God whom we can trust. Very significant is it\nthat Christianity alone puts the very heart of religion in the act of\ntrust. Other religions put it in dread, worship, service, and the like.\nJesus Christ alone says, the bond between men and God is that blessed\none of trust. And He says so because He alone brings us a God whom it\nis not ridiculous to tell men to trust.\n\nAnd, on the other hand, the truth that underlies this is not only that\nJesus Christ is the Revealer of God, but that He Himself is divine.\nLight shines through a window, but the light and the glass that makes\nit visible have nothing in common with one another. The Godhead shines\nthrough Christ, but _He_ is not a mere transparent medium. It is\nHimself that He is showing us when He is showing us God. 'He that hath\nseen Me hath seen'\u2014not the light that streams through Me\u2014but 'hath\nseen,' in Me, 'the Father.' And because He is Himself divine and the\ndivine Revealer, therefore the faith that grasps Him is inseparably one\nwith the faith that grasps God. Men could look upon a Moses, an Isaiah,\nor a Paul, and in them recognise the eradiation of the divinity that\nimparted itself through them, but the medium was forgotten in\nproportion as that which it revealed was beheld. You cannot forget\nChrist in order to see God more clearly, but to behold Him is to behold\nGod.\n\nAnd if that be true, these two things follow. One is that all imperfect\nrevelation of God is prophetic of, and leads up towards, the perfect\nrevelation in Jesus Christ. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews\ngives that truth in a very striking fashion. He compares all other\nmeans of knowing God to fragmentary syllables of a great word, of which\none was given to one man and another to another. God 'spoke at sundry\ntimes and in manifold portions to the fathers by the prophets'; but the\nwhole word is articulately uttered by the Son, in whom He has 'spoken\nunto us in these last times.' The imperfect revelation, by means of\nthose who were merely mediums for the revelation leads up to Him who is\nHimself the Revelation, the Revealer, and the Revealed.\n\nAnd in like manner, all the imperfect faith that, laying hold of other\nfragmentary means of knowing God, has tremulously tried to trust Him,\nfinds its climax and consummate flower in the full-blossomed faith that\nlays hold upon Jesus Christ. The unconscious prophecies of heathendom;\nthe trust that select souls up and down the world have put in One whom\nthey dimly apprehended; the faith of the Old Testament saints; the\nrudimentary beginnings of a knowledge of God and of a trust in Him\nwhich are found in men to-day, and amongst us, outside of the circle of\nChristianity\u2014all these things are as manifestly incomplete as a\nbuilding reared half its height, and waiting for the corner-stone to be\nbrought forth, the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ, and the\nintelligent and full acceptance of Him and faith in Him.\n\nAnd another thing is true, that without faith in Christ such faith in\nGod as is possible is feeble, incomplete, and will not long last.\nHistorically a pure theism is all but impotent. There is only one\nexample of it on a large scale in the world, and that is a kind of\nbastard Christianity\u2014Mohammedanism; and we all know what good that is\nas a religion. There are plenty of people amongst us nowadays who claim\nto be very advanced thinkers, and who call themselves Theists, and not\nChristians. Well, I venture to say that that is a phase that will not\nlast. There is little substance in it. The God whom men know outside of\nJesus Christ is a poor, nebulous thing; an idea, not a reality. He, or\nrather It, is a film of cloud shaped into a vague form, through which\nyou can see the stars. It has little power to restrain. It has less to\ninspire and impel. It has still less to comfort; it has least of all to\nsatisfy the heart. You will have to get something more substantial than\nthe far-off god of an unchristian Theism if you mean to sway the world\nand to satisfy men's hearts.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, I come to this\u2014perhaps the word may be fitting\nfor some that listen to me\u2014'Believe in God,' and that you may, 'believe\nalso in Christ.' For sure I am that when the stress comes, and you\n_want_ a god, unless your god is the God revealed in Jesus Christ, he\nwill be a powerless deity. If you have not faith in Christ, you will\nnot long have faith in God that is vital and worth anything.\n\nIII. Lastly, this trust in Christ is the secret of a quiet heart.\n\nIt is of no use to say to men, 'Let not your hearts be troubled,'\nunless you finish the verse and say, 'Believe in God, believe also in\nChrist.' For unless we trust we shall certainly be troubled. The state\nof man in this world is like that of some of those sunny islands in\nsouthern seas, around which there often rave the wildest cyclones, and\nwhich carry in their bosoms, beneath all their riotous luxuriance of\nverdant beauty, hidden fires, which ever and anon shake the solid earth\nand spread destruction. Storms without and earthquakes within\u2014that is\nthe condition of humanity. And where is the 'rest' to come from? All\nother defences are weak and poor. We have heard about 'pills against\nearthquakes.' That is what the comforts and tranquillising which the\nworld supplies may fairly be likened to. Unless we trust we are, and we\nshall be, and should be, 'troubled.'\n\nIf we trust we may be quiet. Trust is always tranquillity. To cast a\nburden off myself on others' shoulders is always a rest. But trust in\nJesus Christ brings infinitude on my side. Submission is repose. When\nwe cease to kick against the pricks they cease to prick and wound us.\nTrust opens the heart, like the windows of the Ark tossing upon the\nblack and fatal flood, for the entrance of the peaceful dove with the\nolive branch in its mouth. Trust brings Christ to my side in all His\ntenderness and greatness and sweetness. If I trust, 'all is right that\nseems most wrong.' If I trust, conscience is quiet. If I trust, life\nbecomes 'a solemn scorn of ills.' If I trust, inward unrest is changed\ninto tranquillity, and mad passions are cast out from him that sits\n'clothed and in his right mind' at the feet of Jesus.\n\n'The wicked is like the troubled sea which cannot rest.' But if I\ntrust, my soul will become like the glassy ocean when all the storms\nsleep, and 'birds of peace sit brooding on the charmed wave.' 'Peace I\nleave with you.' 'Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust\nalso in Me.'\n\nHelp us, O Lord! to yield our hearts to Thy dear Son, and in Him to\nfind Thyself and eternal rest.\n\n\n\n\n'MANY MANSIONS'\n\n\n'In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would\nhave told you.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 2.\n\nSorrow needs simple words for its consolation; and simple words are the\nbest clothing for the largest truths. These eleven poor men were\ncrushed and desolate at the thought of Christ's going; they fancied\nthat if He left them they lost Him. And so, in simple, childlike words,\nwhich the weakest could grasp, and in which the most troubled could\nfind peace, He said to them, after having encouraged their trust in\nHim, 'There is plenty of room for you as well as for Me where I am\ngoing; and the frankness of our intercourse in the past might make you\nsure that if I were going to leave you I would have told you all about\nit. Did I ever hide from you anything that was painful? Did I ever\nallure you to follow Me by false promises? Should I have kept silence\nabout it if our separation was to be eternal?' So, simply, as a mother\nmight hush her babe upon her breast, He soothes their sorrow. And yet,\nin the quiet words, so level to the lowest apprehension, there lie\ngreat truths, far deeper than we yet have appreciated, and which will\nenfold themselves in their majesty and their greatness through\neternity. 'In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I\nwould have told you.'\n\nI. Now note in these words, first, the 'Father's house,' and its ample\nroom.\n\nThere is only one other occasion recorded in which our Lord used this\nexpression, and it occurs in this same Gospel near the beginning; where\nin the narrative of the first cleansing of the Temple we read that He\nsaid, 'Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise.' The earlier\nuse of the words may help to throw light upon one aspect of this latter\nemployment of it, for there blend in the image the two ideas of what I\nmay call domestic familiarity, and of that great future as being the\nreality of which the earthly Temple was intended to be the dim prophecy\nand shadow. Its courts, its many chambers, its ample porches with room\nfor thronging worshippers, represented in some poor way the wide sweep\nand space of that higher house; and the sense of Sonship, which drew\nthe Boy to His Father's house in the earliest hours of conscious\nchildhood, speaks here.\n\nThink for a moment of how sweet and familiar the conception of heaven\nas the Father's house makes it to us. There is something awful, even to\nthe best and holiest souls, in the thought of even the glories beyond.\nThe circumstances of death, which is its portal, our utter\nunacquaintance with all that lies behind the veil, the terrible silence\nand distance which falls upon our dearest ones as they are sucked into\nthe cloud, all tend to make us feel that there is much that is solemn\nand awful even in the thought of eternal future blessedness. But how it\nis all softened when we say, 'My Father's house.' Most of us have long\nsince left behind us the sweet security, the sense of the absence of\nall responsibility, the assurance of defence and provision, which used\nto be ours when we lived as children in a father's house here. But we\nmay all look forward to the renewal, in far nobler form, of these early\ndays, when the father's house meant the inexpugnable fortress where no\nevil could befall us, the abundant home where all wants were supplied,\nand where the shyest and timidest child could feel at ease and secure.\nIt is all coming again, brother, and amidst the august and unimaginable\nglories of that future the old feeling of being little children,\nnestling safe in the Father's house, will fill our quiet hearts once\nmore.\n\nAnd then consider how the conception of that Future as the Father's\nhouse suggests answers to so many of our questions about the\nrelationship of the inmates to one another. Are they to dwell isolated\nin their several mansions? Is that the way in which children in a home\ndwell with each other? Surely if He be the Father, and heaven be His\nhouse, the relation of the redeemed to one another must have in it more\nthan all the sweet familiarity and unrestrained frankness which\nsubsists in the families of earth. A solitary heaven would be but half\na heaven, and would ill correspond with the hopes that inevitably\nspring from the representation of it as 'my Father's house.'\n\nBut consider further that this great and tender name for heaven has its\ndeepest meaning in the conception of it as a spiritual state of which\nthe essential elements are the loving manifestation and presence of God\nas Father, the perfect consciousness of sonship, the happy union of all\nthe children in one great family, and the derivation of all their\nblessedness from their Elder Brother.\n\nThe earthly Temple, to which there is some allusion in this great\nmetaphor, was the place in which the divine glory was manifested to\nseeking souls, though in symbol, yet also in reality, and the\nrepresentation of our text blends the two ideas of the free, frank\nintercourse of the home and of the magnificent revelations of the Holy\nof holies. Under either aspect of the phrase, whether we think of 'my\nFather's house' as temple or as home, it sets before us, as the main\nblessedness and glory of heaven, the vision of the Father, the\nconsciousness of sonship, and the complete union with Him. There are\nmany subsidiary and more outward blessednesses and glories which shine\ndimly through the haze of metaphors and negations, by which alone a\nstate of which we have no experience can be revealed to us; but these\nare secondary. The heaven of heaven is the possession of God the Father\nthrough the Son in the expanding spirits of His sons. The sovereign and\nfilial position which Jesus Christ in His manhood occupies in that\nhigher house, and which He shares with all those who by Him have\nreceived the adoption of sons, is the very heart and nerve of this\ngreat metaphor.\n\nBut I think we must go a step further than that, and recognise that in\nthe image there is inherent the teaching that that glorious future is\nnot merely a state, but also a place. Local associations are not to be\ndivorced from the words; and although we can say but little about such\na matter, yet everything in the teaching of Scripture points to the\nthought that howsoever true it may be that the essence of heaven is\ncondition, yet that also heaven has a local habitation, and is a place\nin the great universe of God. Jesus Christ has at this moment a human\nbody, glorified. That body, as Scripture teaches us, is somewhere, and\nwhere He is there shall also His servant be. In the context He goes on\nto tell us that 'He goes to prepare a place for us,' and though I would\nnot insist upon the literal interpretation of such words, yet\ndistinctly the drift of the representation is in the direction of\nlocalising, though not of materialising, the abode of the blessed. So I\nthink we can say, not merely that _what_ He is that shall also His\nservants be, but that _where_ He is there shall also His servants be.\nAnd from the representation of my text, though we cannot fathom all its\ndepths, we can at least grasp this, which gives solidity and reality to\nour contemplations of the future, that heaven is a place, full of all\nsweet security and homelike repose, where God is made known in every\nheart and to every consciousness as a loving Father, and of which all\nthe inhabitants are knit together in the frankest fraternal\nintercourse, conscious of the Father's love, and rejoicing in the\nabundant provisions of His royal House.\n\nAnd then there is a second thought to be suggested from these words,\nand that is of the ample room in this great house. The original purpose\nof the words of my text, as I have already reminded you, was simply to\nsoothe the fears of a handful of disciples.\n\nThere was room where Christ went for eleven poor men. Yes, room enough\nfor them! but Christ's prescient eye looked down the ages, and saw all\nthe unborn millions that would yet be drawn to Him uplifted on the\nCross, and some glow of satisfaction flitted across His sorrow, as He\nsaw from afar the result of the impending travail of His soul in the\nmultitudes by whom God's heavenly house should yet be filled. 'Many\nmansions!' the thought widens out far beyond our grasp. Perhaps that\nupper room, like most of the roof-chambers in Jewish houses, was open\nto the skies, and whilst He spoke, the innumerable lights that blaze in\nthat clear heaven shone down upon them, and He may have pointed to\nthese. The better Abraham perhaps looked forth, like His prototype, on\nthe starry heavens, and saw in the vision of the future those who\nthrough Him should receive the 'adoption of sons' and dwell for ever in\nthe house of the Lord, 'so many as the stars of the sky in multitude,\nand as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.'\n\nAh! brethren, if we could only widen our measurement of the walls of\nthe New Jerusalem to the measurement of that 'golden rod which the man,\nthat is the angel,' as John says, applied to it, we should understand\nhow much bigger it is than any of these poor sects and communities of\nours here on earth. If we would lay to heart, as we ought to do, the\ndeep meaning of that indefinite 'many' in my text, it would rebuke our\nnarrowness. There will be a great many occupants of the mansions in\nheaven that Christian men here on earth\u2014the most Catholic of them\u2014will\nbe very much surprised to see there, and thousands will find their\nentrance there that never found their entrance into any communities of\nso-called Christians here on earth.\n\nThat one word 'many' should deepen our confidence in the triumphs of\nChrist's Cross, and it may be used to heighten our own confidence as to\nour own poor selves. A chamber in the great Temple waits for each of\nus, and the question is, Shall we occupy it, or shall we not? The old\nRabbis had a tradition which, like a great many of their apparently\nfoolish sayings, covers in picturesque guise a very deep truth. They\nsaid that, however many the throngs of worshippers who came up to\nJerusalem at the passover, the streets of the city and the courts of\nthe sanctuary were never crowded. And so it is with that great city.\nThere is room for all. There are throngs, but no crowds. Each finds a\nplace in the ample sweep of the Father's house, like some of the great\npalaces that barbaric Eastern kings used to build, in whose courts\narmies might encamp, and the chambers of which were counted by the\nthousand. And surely in all that ample accommodation, you and I may\nfind some corner where we, if we will, may lodge for evermore.\n\nI do not dwell upon subsidiary ideas that may be drawn from the\nexpressions. 'Mansions' means places of permanent abode, and suggests\nthe two thoughts, so sweet to travellers and toilers in this fleeting,\nlabouring life, of unchangeableness and of repose. Some have supposed\nthat the variety in the attainments of the redeemed, which is\nreasonable and scriptural, might be deduced from our text, but that\ndoes not seem to be relevant to our Lord's purpose.\n\nOne other suggestion may be made without enlarging upon it. There is\nonly one other occasion in this Gospel in which the word here\ntranslated 'mansions' is employed, and it is this: 'We will come and\nmake our abode with him.' Our mansion is in God; God's dwelling-place\nis in us. So ask yourselves, Have you a place in that heavenly home?\nWhen prodigal children go away from the father's house, sometimes a\nbroken-hearted parent will keep the boy's room just as it used to be\nwhen he was young and pure, and will hope and weary through long days\nfor him to come back and occupy it again. God is keeping a room for you\nin His house; do you see that you fill it.\n\nII. In the next place, note here the sufficiency of Christ's revelation\nfor our needs.\n\n'If it were not so I would have told you.' He sets Himself forward in\nvery august fashion as being the Revealer and Opener of that house for\nus. There is a singular tone about all our Lord's few references to the\nfuture\u2014a tone of decisiveness; not as if He were speaking, as a man\nmight do, that which he had thought out, or which had come to him, but\nas if He was speaking of what he had Himself beheld, 'We speak that we\ndo know, and testify that we have seen.' He stands like one on a\nmountain top, looking down into the valleys beyond, and telling His\ncomrades in the plain behind Him what He sees. He speaks of that unseen\nworld always as One who had been in it, and who was reporting\nexperiences, and not giving forth opinions. His knowledge was the\nknowledge of One who dwelt with the Father, and left the house in order\nto find and bring back His wandering brethren. It was 'His own calm\nhome, His habitation from eternity,' and therefore He could tell us\nwith decisiveness, with simplicity, with assurance, all which we need\nto know about the geography of that unknown land\u2014the plan of that, by\nus unvisited, house. Very remarkable, therefore, is it, that with this\ntone there should be such reticence in Christ's references to the\nfuture. The text implies the _rationale_ of such reticence. 'If it were\nnot so I would have told you.' I tell you all that you need, though I\ntell you a great deal less than you sometimes wish.\n\nThe gaps in our knowledge of the future, seeing that we have such a\nRevealer as we have in Christ, are remarkable. But my text suggests\nthis to us\u2014we have as much as we need. _I_ know, and many of _you_\nknow, by bitter experience, how many questions, the answers to which\nwould seem to us to be such a lightening of our burdens, our desolated\nand troubled hearts suggest about that future, and how vainly we ply\nheaven with questions and interrogate the unreplying Oracle. But we\nknow as much as we need. We know that God is there. We know that it is\nthe Father's house. We know that Christ is in it. We know that the\ndwellers there are a family. We know that sweet security and ample\nprovision are there; and, for the rest, if we I needed to have heard\nmore, He would have told us.\n\n    'My knowledge of that life is small,\n    The eye of faith is dim;\n    But 'tis enough that Christ knows all;\n    And I shall be with Him.'\n\nLet the gaps remain. The gaps are part of the revelation, and we know\nenough for faith and hope.\n\nMay we not widen the application of that thought to other matters than\nto our bounded and fragmentary conceptions of a future life? In times\nlike the present, of doubt and unrest, it is a great piece of Christian\nwisdom to recognise the limitations of our knowledge and the\nsufficiency of the fragments that we have. What do we get a revelation\nfor? To solve theological puzzles and dogmatic difficulties? to inflate\nus with the pride of _quasi_-omniscience? or to present to us God in\nChrist for faith, for love, for obedience, for imitation? Surely the\nlatter, and for such purposes we have enough.\n\nSo let us recognise that our knowledge is very partial. A great stretch\nof wall is blank, and there is not a window in it. If there had been\nneed for one, it would have been struck out. He has been pleased to\nleave many things obscure, not arbitrarily, so as to try our faith\u2014for\nthe implication of the words before us is that the relation between Him\nand us binds Him to the utmost possible frankness, and that all which\nwe need and He can tell us He does tell\u2014but for high reasons, and\nbecause of the very conditions of our present environment, which forbid\nthe more complete and all-round knowledge.\n\nSo let us recognise our limitations. We know in part, and we are wise\nif we affirm in part. Hold by the Central Light, which is Jesus Christ.\n'Many things did Jesus which are not written in this book,' and many\ngaps and deficiencies from a human point of view exist in the\ncontexture of revelation. 'But these are written that ye may believe\nthat Jesus is the Christ,' for which enough has been told us, 'and\nthat, believing, ye may have life in His name.' If that purpose be\naccomplished in us, God will not have spoken, nor we have heard, in\nvain. Let us hold by the Central Light, and then the circumference of\ndarkness will gradually retreat, and a wider sphere of illumination be\nours, until the day when we enter our mansion in the Father's house,\nand then 'in Thy Light shall we see light'; and we shall 'know even as\nwe are known.'\n\nLet your Elder Brother lead you back, dear friend, to the Father's\nbosom, and be sure that if you trust Him and listen to Him, you will\nknow enough on earth to turn earth into a foretaste of Heaven, and will\nfind at last your place in the Father's house beside the Brother who\nhas prepared it for you.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FORERUNNER\n\n\n'\u2026 I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for\nyou, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am,\nthere ye may be also.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 2, 3.\n\nWhat divine simplicity and depth are in these words! They carry us up\ninto the unseen world, and beyond time; and yet a little child can lay\nhold on them, and mourning hearts and dying men find peace and\nsweetness in them. A very familiar image underlies them. It was\ncustomary for travellers in those old days to send some of their party\non in advance, to find lodging and make arrangements for them in some\ngreat city. Many a time one or other of the disciples had been 'sent\nbefore His face into every place where He Himself should come.' On that\nvery morning two of them had gone in, at His bidding, from Bethany to\nmake ready the table at which they were sitting. Christ here takes that\noffice upon Himself. The emblem is homely, the thing meant is\ntranscendent.\n\nNot less wonderful is the blending of majesty and lowliness. The office\nwhich He takes upon Himself is that of an inferior and a servant. And\nyet the discharge of it, in the present case, implies His authority\nover every corner of the universe, His immortal life, and the\nsufficiency of His presence to make a heaven. Nor can we fail to notice\nthe blending of another pair of opposites: His certainty of His\nimpending death, and His certainty, notwithstanding and thereby, of His\ncontinual work and His final return, are inseparably interlaced here.\nHow comes it that, in all His premonitions of His death, Jesus Christ\nnever spoke about it as failure or as the interruption or end of His\nactivity, but always as the transition to, and the condition of, His\nwider work? 'I go, and if I go I return, and take you to Myself.'\n\nSo, then, there are three things here, the departure with its purpose,\nthe return, and the perfected union.\n\nI. The Departure.\n\nOur Lord's going away from that little group was a journey in two\nstages. Calvary was the first; Olivet was the second. He means by the\nphrase the whole continuous process which begins with His death and\nends in His ascension. Both are embraced in His words, and each\nco-operates to the attainment of the great purpose.\n\nHe prepares a place for us by His death. The High Priest, in the\nancient ritual, once a year was privileged to lift the heavy veil and\npass into the darkened chamber, where only the light between the\ncherubim was visible, because he bore in his hand the blood of the\nsacrifice. But in our New Testament system the path into 'the holiest\nof all,' the realisation of the most intimate fellowship with heavenly\nthings and communion with God Himself, are made possible, and the way\npatent for every foot, because Jesus has died. And as the communion\nupon earth, so the perfecting of the communion in the heavens. Who of\nus could step within those awful sanctities, or stand serene amidst the\nregion of eternal light and stainless purity, unless, in His death, He\nhad borne the sins of the world, and, having 'overcome' its 'sharpness'\nby enduring its blow, had 'opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all\nbelievers'?\n\nOld legends tell us of magic gates that resisted all attempts to force\nthem, but upon which, if one drop of a certain blood fell, they flew\nopen. And so, by His death, Christ has opened the gates and made the\nheaven of perfect purity a dwelling-place for sinful men.\n\nBut the second stage of His departure is that which more eminently is\nin Christ's mind here. He prepares a place for us by His entrance into\nand His dwelling in the heavenly places. The words are obscure because\nwe have but few others with which to compare them, and no experience by\nwhich to interpret them. We know so little about the matter that it is\nnot wise to say much; but though there be vast tracts of darkness round\nthe little spot of light, this should only make the spot of light more\nvivid and more precious. We know little, but we know enough for mind\nand heart to rest upon. Our ignorance of the ways in which Christ by\nHis ascension prepares a heaven for His followers should neither breed\ndoubt nor disregard of His assurance that He does.\n\nIf Christ had not ascended, would there have been 'a place' at all? He\nhas gone with a human body, which, glorified as it is, still has\nrelations to space, and must be somewhere. And we may even say that His\nascending up on high has made a place where His servants are. But apart\nfrom that suggestion, which, perhaps, is going beyond our limits, we\nmay see that Christ's presence in heaven is needful to make it a heaven\nfor poor human souls. There, as here (Scripture assures us), and\nthroughout eternity as to-day, Jesus Christ is the Mediator of all\nhuman knowledge and possession of God. It is from Him and through Him\nthat there come to men, whether they be men on earth or men in the\nheavens, all that they know, all that they hope, all that they enjoy,\nof the wisdom, love, beauty, peace, power, which flow from God. Take\naway from the heaven of the Christian expectation that which comes to\nthe spirit through Jesus Christ, and you have nothing left. He and His\nmediation and ministration alone make the brightness and the\nblessedness of that high state. The very glories of all that lies\nbeyond the veil would have an aspect appalling and bewildering to us,\nunless our Brother were there. Like some poor savages brought into a\ngreat city, or rustics into the presence of a king and his court, we\nshould be ill at ease amidst the glories and solemnities of that future\nlife unless we saw standing there our Kinsman, to whom we can turn, and\nwho makes it possible for us to feel that it is home. Christ's presence\nmakes heaven the home of our hearts.\n\nNot only did He go to prepare a place, but He is continuously preparing\nit for us all through the ages. We have to think of a double form of\nthe work of Christ, His past work in His earthly life, and His present\nin His exaltation. We have to think of a double form of His present\nactivity\u2014His work with and in us here on earth, and His work for us\nthere in the heavens. We have to think of a double form of His work in\nthe heavens\u2014that which the Scripture represents in a metaphor, the full\ncomprehension of which surpasses our present powers and experiences, as\nbeing His priestly intercession; and that which my text represents in a\nmetaphor, perhaps a little more level to our apprehension, as being His\npreparing a place for us. Behind the veil there is a working Christ,\nwho, in the heavens, is preparing a place for all that love Him.\n\nII. In the next place, note the Return.\n\nThe purpose of our Lord's departure, as set forth by Himself here,\nguarantees for us His coming back again. That is the force of the\nsimple argumentation of my text, and of the pathetic and soothing\nrepetition of the sweet words, 'I go to prepare a place for you; and if\nI go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto\nMyself.' Because the departure had for its purpose the preparing of the\nplace, therefore it is necessarily followed by a return. He who went\naway as the Forerunner has not done His work until He comes back, and,\nas Guide, leads those for whom He had prepared the place to the place\nwhich He had prepared for them.\n\nNow that return of our Lord, like His departure, may be considered as\nhaving two stages. Unquestionably the main meaning and application of\nthe words is to that final and personal coming which stands at the end\nof history, and to which the hopes of every Christian soul ought to be\nsteadfastly directed. He will 'so come in like manner as' He has gone.\nWe are not to water down such words as these into anything short of a\nreturn precisely corresponding in its method to the departure; and as\nthe departure was visible, corporeal, literal, personal, and local, so\nthe return is to be visible, corporeal, literal, personal, local too.\nHe is to come as He went, a visible Manhood, only throned amongst the\nclouds of heaven with power and great glory. This is the aim that He\nsets before Him in His departure. He leaves in order that He may come\nback again.\n\nAnd, oh, dear friends! remember\u2014and let us live in the strength of the\nremembrance\u2014that this return ought to be the prominent subject of\nChristian aspiration and desire. There is much about the conception of\nthat solemn return, with all the convulsions that attend it, and the\njudgment of which it is preliminary, that may well make men's hearts\nchill within them. But for you and me, if we have any love in our\nhearts and loyalty in our spirits to that King, 'His coming' should be\n'prepared as the _morning_,' and we should join in the great burst of\nrapture of many a psalm, which calls upon rocks and hills to break\nforth into singing, and trees of the field to clap their hands, because\nHe cometh as the King to judge the earth. His own parable tells us how\nwe ought to regard His coming. When the fig-tree's branch begins to\nsupple, and the little leaves to push their way through the polished\nstem, then we know that summer is at hand. His coming should be as the\napproach of that glorious, fervid time, in which the sunshine has\ntenfold brilliancy and power, the time of ripened harvests and matured\nfruits, the time of joy for all creatures that love the sun. It should\nbe the glad hope of all His servants.\n\nWe have a double witness to bear in the midst of this as of every\ngeneration. One half of the witness stretches backwards to the Cross,\nand proclaims 'Christ has come'; the other reaches onwards to the\nThrone, and proclaims 'Christ will come.' Between these two high\nuplifted piers swings the chain of the world's history, which closes\nwith the return, to judge and to save, of the Lord who came to die and\nhas gone to prepare a place for us.\n\nBut do not let us forget that we may well take another point of view\nthan this. Scripture knows of many comings of the Lord preliminary to,\nand in principle one with, His last coming. For nations all great\ncrises of their history are 'comings of the Lord,' the Judge, and we\nare strictly in the line of Scripture analogy when, in reference to\nindividuals, we see in each single death a true coming of the Lord.\n\nThat is the point of view in which we ought to look upon a Christian's\ndeath-bed. 'The Master _is come_, and calleth for thee.' Beyond all\nsecondary causes, deeper than disease or accident, lies the loving will\nof Him who is the Lord of life and of death. Death is Christ's\nminister, 'mighty and beauteous, though his face be dark,' and he, too,\nstands amidst the ranks of the 'ministering spirits sent forth to\nminister to them that shall be heirs of salvation.' It is Christ that\nsays of one, 'I will that this man tarry,' and to another, 'Go!' and he\ngoeth. But whensoever a Christian man lies down to die, Christ says,\n'Come!' and he comes. How that thought should hallow the death-chamber\nas with the print of the Master's feet! How it should quiet our hearts\nand dry our tears! How it should change the whole aspect of that\n'shadow feared of man'! With Him for our companion, the lonely road\nwill not be dreary; and though in its anticipation, our timid hearts\nmay often be ready to say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me,' if we\nhave Him by our sides, 'even the night shall be light about us.' The\ndying martyr beneath the city wall lifted up his face to the heavens,\nand said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!' It was the echo of the\nMaster's promise, 'I will come again, and receive you to Myself.'\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the Perfected Union.\n\nThe departure for such a purpose necessarily involved the return again.\nBoth are stages in the process, which is perfected by complete\nunion\u2014'That where I am there ye may be also.'\n\nChrist, as I have been saying, is Heaven. His presence is all that we\nneed for peace, for joy, for purity, for rest, for love, for growth. To\nbe 'with Him,' as He tells us in another part of these wonderful last\nwords in the upper chamber, is to 'behold His glory.' And to behold His\nglory, as John tells us in his Epistle, is to be like Him. So Christ's\npresence means the communication to us of all the lustre of His\nradiance, of all the whiteness of His purity, of all the depth of His\nblessedness, and of a share in His wondrous dominion. His glorified\nmanhood will pass into ours, and they that are with Him where He is\nwill rest as in the centre and home of their spirits, and find Him\nall-sufficient. His presence is my Heaven.\n\nThat is almost all we know. Oh! it is more than all we need to know.\nThe curtain is the picture. It is because what is there transcends in\nglory all our present experience that Scripture can only hint at it and\ndescribe it by negations\u2014such as 'no night,' 'no sorrow,' 'no tears,'\n'former things passed away'; and by symbols of glory and lustre\ngathered from all that is loftiest and noblest in human buildings and\nsociety. But all these are but secondary and poor. The living heart of\nthe hope, and the lambent centre of the brightness, is, 'So shall we\never be with the Lord.'\n\nAnd it is enough. It is enough to make the bond of union between us in\nthe outer court and them in the holy place. Parted friends will fix to\nlook at the same star at the same moment of the night and feel some\nunion; and if we from amidst the clouds of earth, and they from amidst\nthe pure radiance of their heaven, turn our eyes to the same Christ, we\nare not far apart. If He be the companion of each of us, He reaches a\nhand to each, and, clasping it, the parted ones are united; and\n'whether we wake or sleep we live _together_,' because we both live\nwith Him.\n\nBrother! Is Jesus Christ so much to you that a heaven which consists in\nnearness and likeness to Him has any attraction for you? Let Him be\nyour Saviour, your Sacrifice, your Helper, your Companion. Obey Him as\nyour King, love Him as your Friend, trust Him as your All. And be sure\nthat then the darkness will be but the shadow of His hand, and instead\nof dreading death as that which separates you from life and love and\naction and joy, you will be able to meet it peacefully, as that which\nrends the thin veil, and unites you with Him who is the Heaven of\nheavens.\n\nHe has gone to prepare a place for us. And if we will let Him, He will\nprepare us for the place, and then come and lead us thither. 'Thou wilt\nshow me the path of life' which leads through death. 'In Thy presence\nis fullness of joy, and at Thy right hand there are pleasures for\nevermore.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE WAY\n\n\n'And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto Him,\nLord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?\nJesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man\ncometh unto the Father, but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have\nknown My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen\nHim.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 4-7.\n\nOur Lord has been speaking of His departure, of its purpose, of His\nreturn as guaranteed by that purpose, and of His servants' eternal and\nperfect reunion with Him. But even these cheering and calming thoughts\ndo not exhaust His consolations, as they did not satisfy all the\ndisciples' needs. They might still have said, 'Yes; we believe that You\nwill come back again, and we believe that we shall be together; but\nwhat about the parenthesis of absence?' And here is the answer, or at\nleast part of it: 'Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know'; or, if\nwe adopt the shortened form which the Revised Version gives us,\n'Whither I go ye know the way.'\n\nWhen you say to a man, 'You know the way,' you mean 'Come.' And in\nthese words there lie, as it seems to me, a veiled invitation to the\ndisciples to come to Him before He came back for them, and the\nassurance that they, though separated, might still find and tread the\nroad to the Father's house, and so be with Him still. They are not left\ndesolate. The Christ who is absent is present as the path to Himself.\nAnd so the parenthesis is bridged across. Now in these verses we have\nseveral large and important lessons which I think may best be drawn by\nsimply seeking to follow their course.\n\nI. Observe the disciples' unconscious knowledge.\n\nJesus Christ says: 'Ye know the way and ye know the goal.' One of them\nventures flatly to contradict Him, and to traverse both assertions with\na brusque and thorough-going negative. 'We do _not_ know whither Thou\ngoest,' says Thomas; 'how can we know the way?' He is the same man in\nthis conversation that we find him in the interview before our Lord's\njourney to raise Lazarus, and in the interview after our Lord's\nresurrection. In all three cases he appears as mainly under the\ndominion of sense, as slow to apprehend anything beyond its limits, as\nmorbidly melancholy and disposed to take the blackest possible view of\nthings\u2014a practical pessimist\u2014and yet with a certain kind of frank\noutspokenness which half redeems the other characteristics from blame.\nHe could not understand all the Lord's deep words just spoken. His mind\nwas befogged and dimmed, and he blurts out his ignorance, knowing that\nthe best place to carry it to is to the Illuminator who can make it\nlight.\n\n'We know not whither Thou goest, and how can we know the way?' Was\nJesus right? was Thomas right? or were they both right? The fact is\nthat Thomas and all his fellows knew, after a fashion, but they did not\nknow that they knew. They had heard much in the past as to where Christ\nwas going. Plainly enough it had been rung in their ears over and over\nagain. It had made some kind of lodgment in their heads, and, in that\nsense, they did know. It is this unused and unconscious knowledge of\ntheirs to which Christ appeals, and which He tries to draw out into\nconsciousness and power when He says, 'You know whither I am going, and\nyou know the road.' Is not that exactly what a patient teacher will do\nwith some flustered child when he says to it: 'Take time! You know it\nwell enough if you will only think'? So the Master says here: 'Do not\nbe agitated and troubled in heart. Reflect, remember, overhaul your\nstores, and think what I have told you over and over again, and you\nwill find that you _do_ know whither I am going, and that you _do_ know\nthe way.'\n\nThe patient gentleness of the Master with the slowness of the scholars\nis beautifully exemplified here, as is also the method, which He\nlovingly and patiently adopts, of sending men back to consult their own\nconsciousness as illuminated by His teaching, and to see whether there\nis not lying somewhere, unrecked of and unemployed in some dusty corner\nof their mind, a truth that only needs to be dragged out and cleaned in\norder to show itself for what it is, the all-sufficient light and\nstrength for the moment's need.\n\nThe dialogue is an instance of what is true about us all, that we have\nin our possession truths given to us by Jesus Christ, the whole sweep\nand bearing of which, the whole majesty and power and illuminating\ncapacity of which, we do not dream of yet. How much in our creeds lies\ndim and undeveloped! Time and circumstances and some sore agony of\nspirit are needed in order to make us realise the riches that we\npossess, and the certitudes to which our troubled spirits may cling;\nand the practice of far more patient, honest, profound meditation and\nreflection than finds favour with the average Christian man is needed,\ntoo, in order that the truths possessed may be possessed, and that we\nmay know what we know, and understand 'the things that are given to us\nof God.'\n\nIn all your creeds, there are large tracts that you, in some kind of a\nfashion, do believe; and yet they have no vitality in your\nconsciousness nor power in your lives. And the Master here does with\nthese disciples exactly what He is trying to do day by day with us,\nnamely, fling us back on ourselves, or rather upon His revelation in\nus, and get us to fathom its depths and to walk round about its\nmagnitudes, and so to understand the things that we say we believe.\n\nAll our knowledge is ignorance. Ignorance that confesses itself to Him\nis in the way of becoming knowledge. His light will touch the smoke and\nchange it into red spires of flame. If you do not know, go to Him and\nsay, 'Lord! I do not.' An accurate understanding of where the darkness\nlies is the first step to the light. We are meant to carry all our\ninadequate and superficial realisations of His truth into His presence,\nthat, from Him, we may gain deeper knowledge, a firmer faith, and a\nmore joyous certitude in His inexhaustible lessons. In every article\nand item of the Christian faith there is a transcendent element which\nsurpasses our present comprehension. Let us be confident that the light\nwill break; and let us welcome the new illumination when it comes, sure\nthat it comes from God. Be not puffed up with the conceit that you know\nall. Be sure of this, that, according to the good old metaphor, we are\nbut as children on the shore of the great ocean, gathering a few of the\nshells that it has washed to our feet, itself stretching boundless,\nand, thank God, sunlit, before us. 'Ye know the way.' 'Master, we know\nnot the way.'\n\nII. Observe here, in the second place, our Lord's great self-revelation\nwhich meets this unconscious knowledge.\n\n'Jesus saith unto him: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man\ncometh unto the Father but by Me.' Now it is quite plain, I think, from\nthe whole strain of the context and the purpose of these words that the\nmain idea in them is the first\u2014'I am the Way.' And that is made more\ncertain because of the last words of the verse, which, summing up the\nforce of the three preceding assertions, dwell only upon the metaphor\nof the Way; 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.' So that of these\nthree great words, the Way, the Truth, the Life, we are to regard the\nsecond and the third as explanatory of the first. They are not\nco-ordinate, but the first is the more general, and the other two show\nhow the first comes to be true. 'I am the Way' because 'I am the Truth\nand the Life.'\n\nThere are no words of the Master, perhaps, to which my previous remarks\nare more necessary to be applied than these. We know; and yet oh! what\nan overplus of glory and of depth is here that we do not know and never\ncan know. The most fragmentary and inadequate grasp of them with heart\nand mind will bring light to the mind and quietness and peace to the\nheart; but the whole meaning of them goes beyond men and angels. We can\nonly skim the surface and seek to shift back the boundaries of our\nknowledge a little further, and to embrace within its limits a little\nmore of the broad land into which the words bring us. So just take a\nthought or two which may tend in that direction.\n\nNote, then, as belonging to all three of these clauses that remarkable\n'_I am_.' We show a way, Christ _is_ it. We speak truth, Christ _is_\nit. Parents impart life, which they have received, Christ _is_ Life. He\nseparates Himself from all men by that representation that He is not\nmerely the communicator or the teacher or the guide, but that He\nHimself is, in His own personal Being, Way, Truth, Life. He said that,\nwhen Calvary was within arm's-length. What did He think about Himself,\nand what should we think of Him?\n\nAnd then note, further, that He sets forth His unique relation to the\ntruth as being one ground on which He is the Way to God. He _is_ the\nTruth in reference to the divine nature. That Truth, then, is not a\nmere matter of words. It is not only His speech that teaches us, but\nHimself that shows us God. His whole life and character, His\npersonality, are the true representation within human conditions of the\nInvisible God; and when He says, 'I am the Way and the Truth,' He is\nsaying substantially the same thing as the great prologue of this\nGospel says when it calls Him the Word and the Light of men, and as\nPaul says when he names Him 'the Image of the Invisible God.' There is\nall the difference between talking about God and showing Him. Men\nreveal God by their words; Christ reveals Him by Himself and the facts\nof His life. The truest and highest representation of the divine nature\nthat men can ever have is in the face of Jesus Christ.\n\nI need only remind you in a sentence about other and lower applications\nof this great saying, which do not, as I think, enter into the purpose\nof the context. He is the Truth, inasmuch as, in the life and\nhistorical manifestation of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Scriptures,\nmen find foundation truths of a moral and spiritual sort. 'Whatsoever\nthings are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are\nlovely and of good report,' He is these, and all true ethics is but the\nformulating into principles of all the facts of the life and character\nof Jesus Christ.\n\nFurther, my text says He is the Way because He is the Life. On the one\nside God is brought to all hearts, and in some real sense to our\ncomprehension, by the life of Jesus Christ, and so He is the Way. But\nthat is not enough. There must be an action upon us as well as an\naction having reference to the divine nature. God is brought to men by\nthe manifestation in Christ; and we, the dead, are quickened by the\ncommunication of the Life. The one phrase points to all His work as a\nRevealer, the other points to all His work upon us as life-giving\nSpirit, a Quickener and an Inspirer. Dead men cannot walk a road. It is\nof no use to make a path if it starts from a cemetery. Christ taught\nthat men apart from Him are dead, and that the only life that they can\nhave by which they can be knit to God is the divine life which was in\nHimself, and of which He is the source and the principle for the whole\nworld. He does not tell us here what yet is true, and what He\nabundantly tells in other parts of this great conversation, that the\nonly way by which the life which He brings can be diffused and\ncommunicated is by His death. 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the\nground and die, it abideth alone.' He is the Life, and\u2014paradox of\nmystery and yet fact which is the very heart and centre of His\nGospel\u2014His only way of giving His life to us is by giving up His\nphysical life for us. He must die that He may be the life-spring for\nthe world. The alabaster box must be broken if the ointment and its\nfragrance are to be poured out; and 'death is the gate of life' in a\ndeeper than the ordinary sense of the saying, inasmuch as the death of\nthe Life which is Christ is the life of the death which we are.\n\nAnd so, because, on the one hand, He brings a God to our hearts that we\ncan love and trust, and because, on the other, He communicates to our\nspirits, dead in the only true death which is the separation from God\nby sin, the life by which we are knit to God, He is the Way to the\nFather.\n\nAnd what about people that never heard of Him, to whom that Way has\nbeen closed, to whom that Truth has never been manifested, to whom that\nLife has never been brought? Ah! Christ has other ways of working than\nthrough His historical manifestation, for there is no truth more\nplainly taught in this great fourth Gospel than this, that that Light\n'lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' The eternal Word works\nthrough all the earth, in ways beyond our ken, and wherever any man\nhas, however imperfectly, felt after and grasped the thought of a\nFather in the heavens, there the Word, which is the Light of men, has\nwrought.\n\nBut for us to whom this Book has come, for what people call in bitter\nirony 'Christendom,' the law of my text rigidly applies, and it is\nbeing worked out all round us to-day. 'No man cometh unto the Father\nbut by Me.' And here we are, in this England of ours, and in our sister\nnations on the continent of Europe and in America, face to face as I\nbelieve with this alternative\u2014either Jesus Christ the Revealer of God\nand the Life of men, or an empty Heaven. And for you, individually, it\nis either\u2014take Christ for the Way, or wander in the wilderness and\nforget your Father. It is either\u2014take Christ for the Truth, or be given\nover to the insufficiencies of mere natural, political, and\nintellectual truths, and the shows and illusions of time and sense. It\nis either\u2014take Christ for your Life, or remain in your deadness,\nseparate from God.\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here the disciples' ignorance and the new vision\nwhich dispels it.\n\n'If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also, and from\nhenceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.' Our Lord accepts for the\nmoment Thomas's standpoint. He supplements His former allegation of the\ndisciples' knowledge with the admission of the ignorance which went\nwith it as its shadow, and was only too sadly and plainly shown by\ntheir failure to discern in Him the manifestation of the Father. He has\njust told them that they did know what they thought they knew not; He\nnow tells them that they did not know what they thought they knew so\nwell, after so many years of companionship\u2014even Himself. The proof that\nthey did not is that they did not know the Father as revealed in Him,\nnor Him as revealing the Father. If they missed that, they missed\neverything; and for all they had known of His graciousness, were\nstrangers to His truest Self. Their ignorance would turn out knowledge,\nif they would think, and their supposed knowledge would turn out\nignorance.\n\nThe lesson for us is that the true test of the completeness and worth\nof our knowledge of Christ lies in its being knowledge of God the\nFather, brought near to us by Him. This saying puts a finger on the\nradical deficiency of all merely humanitarian views of Christ's person,\nhowever clearly they may see and admiringly extol the beauty of His\ncharacter and the 'sweet reasonableness' of His wisdom. They all break\ndown here, and are arraigned as so shallow and incomplete that they do\nnot deserve to be called knowledge of Him at all. If you know anything\nabout Jesus Christ rightly, this is what you know about Him, that in\nHim you see God. If you have not seen God in Him, you have not got to\nthe heart of the mystery. The knowledge of Christ which stops with the\nMan and the Martyr, and the Teacher and the beautiful, gentle Brother,\nis knowledge so partial that even He cannot venture to call it other\nthan ignorance. Oh! brethren, do our conceptions of Him meet this test\nwhich He Himself has laid down, and can we say that, seeing Him, we see\nin Him God?\n\nAnd then our Lord passes on to another thought, the new vision which at\nthe moment was being granted to this unconscious ignorance that was\npassing into conscious knowledge. 'From henceforth ye know Him and have\nseen Him.' We must give that 'from henceforth,' as a note of time, a\nsomewhat liberal interpretation, and apply it to the whole series of\nutterances and deeds of which the words of our text are but a portion.\nAnd, if so, we come to this\u2014it was in the wisdom, and the gentleness,\nand the deep truths of that upper chamber; it was in the agony and\nsubmission of Gethsemane; it was in the meek patience before the\njudges, and the silent acceptance of ignominy and shame; it was in the\nwilling, loving endurance of the long hours upon the Cross, that Christ\ninaugurated the new stage in His revelation of God and in His\nlife-giving to the world. And it is from thenceforth and thereby that\nin the man Jesus, men know and see 'the Father' as they never did\nbefore. The Cross and the Passion of Christ are the unveiling to the\nworld of the heart of God; and by the side of that new vision the\nfairest and the loftiest and the sweetest of Christ's former\nmanifestations and utterances sink into comparative insignificance. It\nis the dying Christ that reveals the living God.\n\nSo, dear friends, He is your way to God. See that ye seek the Father by\nHim alone. He is your Truth; grapple Him to your hearts, and by patient\nmeditation and continual faithfulness enrich yourselves with all the\ncommunicated treasures that you have already received in Him. He is\nyour Life; cleave to Him, that the quick Spirit that was in Him may\npass into you and make you victors over all deaths, temporal and\neternal. Know Him as a Friend, not as a mere historical person, or with\nmere head-knowledge, for to know a friend is something far deeper than\nto know a truth. 'Acquaint thyself with Him and be at peace.' 'This is\nlife eternal, to know,' with the knowledge which is life and\npossession, 'Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast\nsent.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE TRUE VISION OF GOD\n\n\n'Philip saith unto Jesus, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth\nus. 9. Jesus saith unto Him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet\nhast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the\nFather; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou\nnot that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I\nspeak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in\nMe, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the\nFather in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake.'\u2014JOHN xiv.\n8-11.\n\nThe vehement burst with which Philip interrupts the calm flow of our\nLord's discourse is not the product of mere frivolity or curiosity. One\nhears the ring of earnestness in it, and the yearnings of many years\nfind voice. Philip had felt out of his depth, no doubt, in the profound\nteachings which our Lord had been giving, but His last words about\nseeing God set a familiar chord vibrating. As an Old Testament believer\nhe knew that Moses had once led the elders of Israel up to the mount\nwhere 'they saw the God of Israel,' and that to many others had been\ngranted sensible manifestations of the divine presence. As a disciple\nhe longed for some similar sign to confirm his faith. As a man he was\nconscious of the deep need which all of us have, whether we are\nconscious of it or not, for something more real and tangible than an\nunseeable and unknowable God. The peculiarities of Philip's temperament\nstrengthened the desire. The first appearance that he makes in the\nGospels is characteristically like this his last. To all Nathanael's\nobjections he had only the reply, 'Come and see.' And here he says:\n'Oh! if we could _see_ the Father it would be enough.' He was one of\nthe men to whom seeing is believing, and so he speaks.\n\nHis petition is childlike in its simplicity, beautiful in its trust,\nnoble and true in its estimate of what men need. He longs to see God.\nHe believes that Christ can show God; he is sure that the sight of God\nwill satisfy the heart. These are errors, or truths, according to what\nis meant by 'seeing.' Philip meant a palpable manifestation, and so far\nhe was wrong. Give the word its highest and its truest meaning, and\nPhilip's error becomes grand truth. Our Lord gently, lovingly, and with\nonly a hint of rebuke, answers the request, and seeks to disengage the\nerror from the truth. His answer lies in the verses that we have read.\nLet us try to follow them, and, as we may, to skim their surface, for\ntheir depths are beyond us.\n\nFirst of all, then, we have the sight of God in Christ as enough to\nanswer men's longings. There is a world of sadness and tenderness, of\nsuppressed pain and of grieved affection, in the first words of our\nLord's reply. 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not\nknown Me, Philip?' He seldom names His disciples. When He does, there\nis a deep cadence of affection in the designation. This man was one of\nthe first disciples, the little original band called by Christ Himself,\nand thus had been with Him all the time of His ministry, and the Master\nwonders with a gentle wonder that, before eyes that loved Him as much\nas Philip's did, His continual self-revelation had been made to so\nlittle purpose. In the answer, in its first portion, there lies the\nreiteration of the thoughts that I was trying to dwell upon in the last\nsermon, which, therefore, I may lightly touch now\u2014viz., that the sight\nof Christ is the sight of God\u2014'He that hath seen Me hath seen the\nFather'\u2014and that not to know Christ as thus showing God is not to know\nHim at all\u2014'Thou hast not known Me, Philip.' Further, there is the\nthought that the sight of God in Christ is sufficient, 'How sayest\nthou, Shew us the Father?' From all this we may gather some thoughts on\nwhich I lightly touch.\n\nI. The first is, that we all do need to have God made visible to us.\n\nThe history of heathendom shows us that, in every land men have said,\n'The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.' And the highest\ncultivation of this highly cultivated and self-conscious twentieth\ncentury has not removed us from the same necessity that the rudest\nsavage has, to have some kind of manifestation of the divine nature\nother than the dim and vague ones which are possible apart from the\nrevelation of God in Christ. A God who is only the product of\ninferences from creation, or providence, or the mysteries of history,\nor the wonders of my own inner life, the creature of logic or of\nreflection, is very powerless to sway and influence men. The\nlimitations of our faculties and the boundlessness of our hearts both\ncry out for a God who is nearer to us than that, and whom we can see\nand love and be sure of. The whole world wants the making visible of\ndivinity as its deepest want. And _your_ heart and mind require it.\nNothing else will ever stay our hunger, will ever answer our\nquestioning minds.\n\nChrist meets this need. How can you make wisdom visible? How can a man\nsee love or purity? How do I see your spirit? By the deeds of your\nbody. And the only way by which God can ever come near enough to men to\nbe a constant power and a constant motive in their lives is by their\nseeing Him at work in a Man, who amongst them is His image and\nrevelation. Christ's whole life is the making visible of the invisible\nGod. He is the manifestation to the world of the unseen Father.\n\nThat vision is enough\u2014enough for mind, enough for heart, enough for\nwill. There is none else that is sufficient, but this is. 'How sayest\nthou, Shew us the Father?' If we can see God it suffices us. Then the\nmind settles down upon the thought of Him as the basis of all being,\nand of all change, and the heart can twine itself round Him, and the\nseeking soul folds its wings and is at rest, and the troubled spirit is\nquiet, and the accusing conscience is silent, and the rebellious will\nis subdued, and the stormy passions are quieted, and in the inner\nkingdom is a great peace. The sight of God in Christ brings rest to\nevery heart, and, Oh! the absence of the vision is the true secret of\nall disquiet. We are troubled and careful, and tossed from one stormy\nbillow to another, and swept over by all the winds that blow, because\nwe see not God, our Father, in the face of Jesus. 'Show us the Father,\nand it sufficeth us,' is either a puerile petition, or the deepest and\nnoblest prayer of the human heart. Blessed are they who have learned\nwhat it is to see, and know where that great sight is to be seen!\n\nOur present knowledge and vision are far higher than that mere external\nsymbol of God which this man wanted. The elders of Israel saw the God\nof Israel, but what they saw was but some symbolical manifestation of\nthat which in itself is unseen and unattainable. But we who see God in\nChrist see no symbol but the Reality, and there is nothing more\npossible or to be hoped for here. Our present manifestation and sight\nof God in Christ does fall, in some ways unknown to us, beneath the\nbright hopes that we are entitled to cherish. But howsoever imperfect\nit may be, as measured against the perfection of the vision when we\nshall see face to face, and know even as we are known, it is enough,\nand more than enough, for all the questionings and desires of our\nhungering spirits.\n\nII. Our Lord goes on to a further answer, and points to the divine and\nmutual indwelling by which this sight is made possible.\n\n'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The\nwords that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself, but the Father that\ndwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.' There are here, mainly, two\nthings, Christ's claim to the oneness of unbroken communion, and\nChrist's claim, consequently, to the oneness of complete co-operation.\n'I am in the Father' indicates the suppression of all independent and\ntherefore rebellious will, consciousness, thought and action; 'And the\nFather in Me' indicates the influx into that perfectly filial Manhood\nof the whole fullness of God in unbroken, continuous, gentle, deep\nflow. These are the two sides of this great mystery on which neither\nwisdom nor reverence lead us to dilate; and they combine to express the\nclosest and most uninterrupted blending, interpenetration, and\ncommunion.\n\nAnd then follows the other claim, that because of this continuous\nmutual indwelling there is perfect cooperation. This is also stated in\nterms corresponding to the preceding double representation. 'The words\nthat I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself,' corresponds to, 'I am in\nthe Father.' 'The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works,'\ncorresponds to 'The Father in Me.' The two put together teach us this,\nthat by reason of that mysterious and ineffable union of communion,\nJesus Christ in all His words and in all His works is the perfect\ninstrument of the divine will, so that His words are God's words, and\nHis works are God's works; so that, when He speaks, His gentle wisdom,\nHis loving sympathy, His melting tenderness, His authoritative\ncommands, His prophetic threatenings, are the speech of God, and that\nwhen He acts, whether it be by miracle or in the ordinary deeds of His\nlife, what we see is God working before our eyes as we never see Him in\nany human being.\n\nAnd from all this follow just two or three considerations which I name.\nNote the absolute absence of any consciousness on Christ's part of the\nsmallest deflection or disharmony between Himself and the Father. Two\ntriangles laid on each other are in every line, point, and angle\nabsolutely coincident. That humanity is capable of receiving the whole\ninflow of God, and that indwelling God is perfectly expressed in the\nhumanity. There is no trace of a consciousness of sin. Everything that\nJesus Christ said He knew to be God's speaking; everything that He did\nHe knew to be God's acting. There were no barriers between the two.\nJesus Christ was conscious of no separation\u2014not the thinnest film of\nair between these Two who adhered and inhered so closely and so\ncontinuously. It is an awful assertion.\n\nNow I pray you to ask yourselves the question: If this was what Christ\nsaid, what did He think of Himself? And is this a Man, like the rest of\nus, with blotches and sins, with failures to embody His own ideas, and\nstill more to carry out in life the will that He knows to be God's\nwill? Is this a man like other men who thus speaks to us? If Jesus had\nthis consciousness, either He was ludicrously, tragically,\nblasphemously, utterly mistaken and untrustworthy, or He is what the\nChurch in all ages has confessed Him to be, 'the Everlasting Son of the\nFather.'\n\nIII. Lastly, our Lord further sets before us the faith to which He\ninvites us on the ground of His union with, and revelation of, God.\n\n'Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me, or else\nbelieve Me for the very works' sake.' Observe that the verb at the\nbeginning of this last verse of our text passes into a plural form. Our\nLord has done with Philip especially, and speaks now to all who hear\nHim, and to us amongst the rest of His auditors. He bids us _believe_\nHim, and believe something about Him on the strength of His own\ntestimony, or, in default of that, and as second best, believe Him on\nthe testimony of His works. I gather together what I have to say about\nthis point into three remarks.\n\nThe true bond of union between men and Jesus Christ is faith. We have\nto trust, and that is better than sight. We have to trust _Him_. He is\nthe personal Object of our faith. In all faith there is what I may call\na moral and a voluntary element. A man believes a proposition because\nit is forced upon him, and his intelligence is obliged to accept it. A\nman trusts Christ because he _will_ trust Him, and the moral and\nvoluntary element carries us far beyond the mere intellectual\nconception of faith as the assent to a set of theological propositions.\nFaith really is the outgoing of the whole man\u2014heart, will, intellect,\nand all\u2014to a person whom it grasps. But the Christ that you and I have\nto trust is the Christ as He Himself has declared Himself to us.\n'Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.' There is a\nbastard, mutilated kind of thing that calls itself Christian faith,\nthat goes about the world in this generation, which believes in Jesus\nChrist in all sorts of beautiful ways, but it will not believe in Him\nas the Personal Revelation and making visible of the unseen God. Jesus\nChrist Himself tells us here that that is not the kind of faith which\nHe invites us to put forth. If we put forth that only, we have not yet\ncome to understand Him. Oh, dear friends! Christ as here declared to us\nby Himself is the only Christ to whom it is right to give our trust. If\nHe be not God manifest in the flesh, I ought not to trust Him. I may\nadmire Him as a historical personage; I may reverence Him for His\nwisdom and beauty; I may even in some vague way have a kind of love to\nHim. But what in the name of common sense shall I trust Him for? And\nwhy should He call upon me to exercise faith in Him unless He stand\nbefore me as the adequate Object of a man's trust\u2014namely, the manifest\nGod?\n\nAnd then, further, note that believing in the sense of trusting is\nseeing and knowing. Philip said, 'Shew us the Father.' Christ answers,\n'Believe, and thou dost see.' If you look back upon the previous verses\nof this chapter, you will find that in the earlier portion of them the\nkey-word is 'know'; that in the second portion of them the key-word is\n'see'; that in this portion of them the key-word is 'believe.' The\nworld says, 'Ah! seeing is believing.' The Gospel says, 'Believing is\nseeing.' The true way to knowledge, and to a better vision than the\nuncertain vision of the eye, is faith. In certitude and in directness,\nthe knowledge of God that we have through faith in the Christ whom our\neyes have never seen is far ahead of the certitude and the directness\nthat attach to our mere bodily sight; and so the key to all divine\nknowledge, and the sure road to the truest vision of God, is faith.\n\nFurther, faith, even if based upon lower than the highest grounds, is\nstill faith, and acceptable to Him: 'Or else believe Me for the very\nworks' sake.' The 'works' are mainly, I suppose, though not\nexclusively, His miracles. And if so, we are here taught that, if a man\nhas not come to that point of spiritual susceptibility in which the\nimage of Jesus Christ lays hold upon His heart and obliges him to trust\nHim and to love Him, there are yet the miracles to look at; and the\nfaith that grasps them, and by help of that ladder climbs to Him,\nthough it be second best, is yet real. The evidence of miracles is\nsubordinate, and yet it is valid and true. So our Lord contradicts both\nthe exaggerations of past generations and the exaggerations of this,\nand neither asserts that the great reason for faith is miracles, nor\nthat miracles are of no use at all. Former centuries in the Christian\nChurch reiterated the former exaggeration, and thus partly provoked the\nexaggeration of this day. Let us keep the middle course: there is a\nbetter way of coming to Christ than through the gate of miracles, and\nthat is that He should stamp His own divine sweetness and elevation\nupon our minds and hearts. But if we have not reached that point, do\nnot let us kick away the ladder that may help us to it. 'Believe Him\nfor the very works' sake.' Imperfect faith may be the highway to\nperfection. Let us follow the light, if it be but a far-off glimmer,\nsure that it will bring us into noontide day if we are faithful to its\nleading.\n\nOn the other hand, dear friends, let us remember that no faith avails\nitself of all the treasures laid up for it, which does not lay hold\nupon Christ in the character in which He presents Himself. The only\nadequate, worthy trust in Him is the trust which grasps Him as the\nIncarnate God and Saviour. Only such a faith does justice to His own\nclaim. Only such a faith is the sure path to vision and to knowledge.\nOnly such a faith draws down the blessing of a questioning intellect\nanswered, a hungry heart satisfied, a conscience, accusing and\nprophetic of a judgment to come, cleansed and purified.\n\nTo each of us Christ addresses His merciful invitation, 'Believe Me\nthat I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.' May we all answer, 'We\nbelieve that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!'\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST'S WORKS AND OURS\n\n\n'Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works\nthat I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do;\nbecause I go unto My Father. 13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My\nname, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14.\nIf ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 12-14.\n\nI have already pointed out in a previous sermon that the key-word of\nthis context is 'Believe!' In three successive verses we find it, each\ntime widening in its application. We have first the question to the\nsingle disciple: 'Philip! believest thou not?' We have then the\ninvitation addressed to the whole group: 'Believe Me!' And here we have\na wholly general expression referring to all who, in every generation\nand corner of the world, put their trust in Christ, and extending the\nsunshine of this great promise to whosoever believeth in Him. Our Lord\nhas pointed to _believing_ as the great antidote to a troubled heart,\nas the sure way of knowing the Father, as the better substitute for\nsight; and now here He opens before us still more wonderful\nprerogatives and effects of faith. His words carry us up into lofty and\nmisty regions, where we can neither breathe freely nor see clearly,\nexcept as we hold to His words. Therefore He prefaces them with His\n'Verily, verily!' bidding us listen to them with sharpened attention as\nthe disclosure of something wonderful, and receive them with\nunfaltering confidence, on His authority, however marvellous and\notherwise undiscoverable they may be.\n\nWhat is it, then, that He thus commends to our acceptance? If I may\nventure a paraphrase which may at least have the advantage of being\ncast into less familiar words, it is just this, that because of, and\nafter, Christ's departure from earth, He will, in response to prayer,\nwork upon faithful souls in such a fashion as that they will do what He\ndid, and in some sense will do even more.\n\nI. We have here the continuous work of the exalted Lord for and through\nHis servants.\n\nThese disciples, of course, were trembling and oppressed with the\nthought that the departure of Jesus would be the end of His ceaseless\nactivity for them, on which they had depended implicitly for so long.\nHenceforward, whatever distress or need might come, that Voice would be\nsilent, and that Hand motionless, and they would be left to face every\nstorm, uncompanioned and uncounselled. Some of us know how dreary such\nexperience makes life, and we can understand how these men shrank from\nthe prospect. Christ's words give strength to meet that trial, and not\nonly tell them that after He is gone they will be able to do what they\ncannot do now, and what He used to do for them, but that in them He\nwill work as well as for them, and be the power of their action, after\nHe has departed.\n\nFor, notice the remarkable connection of the words with which we are\ndealing. 'He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall _he_ do,'\nand the ground of that is 'because I go to My Father,' and whatsoever\nthe believer 'shall ask, _I_ will do.'\n\nSo, then, there are here two very distinct paths on which Christ\nrepresents to us that His future activity will travel; the one, that of\ndoing for us, in response to our prayers; the other that of working on\nus and in us, so that our acts are His and His acts are ours. We may\nlook at these two for a moment separately.\n\nHere, then, there is clearly stated this great thought, that Christ's\nremoval from the world is not the end of His activity in the world and\non material things, but that, absent, He still is a present power, and\nhaving passed through death, and been removed from sense, He can still\noperate upon the things round us, and move these according to His will.\nWe are not to water down such words as these into any such thought as\nthat the continuous influence of the memory and history of His past\nwill be a present power in all ages.\n\nThat is true, gloriously and uniquely true, but that is not the truth\nwhich He speaks here. Over and above that perpetual influence of past\nrecorded work, there is the present influence of His present work, and\nto-day He is working as truly as He wrought when on earth. One form of\nHis work was finished on Calvary, as His dying breath proclaimed; but\nthere is another work of Christ in the midst of the ages, moving the\npawns on the chessboard of the world, and presiding over the fortunes\nof the solemn conflict, which will not be ended until that day when the\nangel voices shall chant, 'It is done! The kingdoms of the world are\nthe kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.' The living Christ works by\na true forth-putting of His own present power upon material things, and\namidst the providences of life. And therefore these disciples were not\nto be cast down as if His work for them were ended.\n\nNow it is clear, of course, that such words as these do demand for\ntheir vindication something perfectly unique and solitary in the nature\nand person of Jesus Christ. All other men's work is cut in twain by\ndeath. 'This man, having served his generation by the will of God, fell\non sleep and was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption,' that is\nthe epitaph over the greatest thinkers, statesmen, heroes, poets, the\nepitaph for the tenderest and most hopeful. Father, mother, husband,\nwife, child, friend, all cease to act when they die, and though\nthunders should break, they are silent and can help no more. But Christ\nis living to-day, and working all around us.\n\nNow, brethren, it is of the last importance for the joyousness of our\nChristian lives, and for the courage of our conflict with sorrow and\nsin, that we should give a very prominent place in our creeds, and our\nhearts, to this great truth of a living Christ. What a joyful sense of\ncompanionship it brings to the solitary, what calmness of vision in\ncontemplating the complications and calamities of the world's history,\nif we grasp firmly the assurance that the living Christ is actually\nworking by the present forth-putting of His power in the world to-day!\n\nBut that is not all. There is another path on which our Lord shows us\nhere a glimpse of His working, not only for us, but on and in and\ntherefore through us, so that the deeds that we do in faith that rests\nupon Him are in one aspect His, and in another ours.\n\n'The works that I do shall He do also'; because 'whatsoever ye shall\nask I will do it.'\n\nWe have not to think only of a Lord whose activity for us, beneficent\nand marvellous as it is, was finished in the misty past upon the Cross,\nnor have we only to think of a Lord whose activity for us, mighty and\ncomforting as it is to all the solitary and struggling, is wrought as\nfrom the heights of the heavens, but we have to think of One who is\nbeside us and in us and knows the hidden paths that no eye sees, and no\nfoot but His can tread, into the inmost recesses of our souls, and\nthere can enter as King and righteousness, as life and strength. This\nis the deepest of the lessons that He would teach us here. 'I live, yet\nnot I, but Christ liveth in me,' and through me, if I keep close to\nHim, will work mightily in forms that my poor manhood could never have\nreached. The emblem of the vine and the branches, and the other emblem\nof the house and its inhabitants, and the other of the head and the\nmembers, all point to this one same thing which shallow and unspiritual\nmen call 'mystical,' but which is the very heart of the Christian\nprerogative and the anchor of the Christian hope. Christ in us is our\npresent righteousness and our hope of a future glory.\n\nAnd now mark that a still more solemn and mysterious aspect of this\nunion of Jesus Christ and the believer is given, since it is set forth\nas resulting in our doing Christ's works, and Christ doing ours; and\ntherein is paralleled with the yet more wonderful and ineffable union\nbetween the Father and the Son. It is no accident that in one clause He\nsays, 'I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. The words that I speak\nunto you I speak not of Myself, but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He\ndoeth the works'; and that in the next He says, 'The works that I do\nshall he do also'; and so bids us see in that union between the Father\nand the Son, and in that consequent union of co-operation between Him\nand His Father, a pattern after which our union with Him is to be\nmoulded, both as regards the closeness of its intimacy and as regards\nthe resulting manifestations in life. Christ is in us and we in Christ\nin some measure as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son.\nAnd the works that we do He does in some fashion that faintly echoes\nand shadows the perfect co-operation of the Father and the Son in the\nworks that the Christ did upon the earth.\n\nAll the doings of a Christian man, if done in faith, and holding by\nChrist, are Christ's doings, inasmuch as He is the life and the power\nwhich does them all. And Christ's deeds are reproduced and perpetuated\nin His humble follower, inasmuch as the life which is imparted will\nunfold itself according to its own kind; and he that loves Christ will\nbe changed into His likeness, and become a partaker of His Spirit. So\nlet us curb all self-dependence and self-will, that that mighty tide\nmay flow into us; and let us cast from us all timidity, distrust, and\ngloom, and be strong in the assurance that we have a Christ living in\nthe heavens to work for us, and living within us to work through us.\n\nThere is no record of the Ascension in John's Gospel, but these words\nof my text unveil to us the inmost meaning of that Ascension, and are\nin full accord with the great picture which one of the Evangelists has\ndrawn\u2014a picture in two halves, which yet are knit together into one.\n'So then, after He had spoken unto them, He was received up into\nheaven, and sat at the right hand of God; and they went forth and\npreached everywhere.' What a contrast between the two\u2014the repose above,\nthe toil below! Yes! But the next words knit them together\u2014'The Lord\nalso working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.'\n\nII. Note, in the next place, the greater work of the servants on and\nfor whom the Lord works. 'Greater works than these shall he do.' Is,\nthen, the servant greater than his Lord, and he that is sent greater\nthan He that sent him? Not so, for whatsoever the servant does is done\nbecause the Lord is with and in him, and the contrast that is drawn\nbetween the works that Christ does on earth and the greater works that\nthe servant is to do hereafter is, properly and at bottom, the contrast\nbetween Christ's manifestations in the time of His earthly limitation\nand humiliation, and His manifestations in the time of His Ascension\nand celestial glory.\n\nWe need not be afraid that such great words as these in any measure\ntrench on the unique and unapproachable character of the earthly work\nof Christ in its two aspects, which are one\u2014of Revelation and\nRedemption. These are finished, and need no copy, no repetition, no\nperpetuation, until the end of time. But the work of objective\nRevelation, which was completed when He ascended, and the work of\nRedemption which was finished when He rose\u2014these require to be applied\nthrough the ages. And it is in regard to the application of the\nfinished work of Christ to the actual accomplishment of its\ncontemplated consequences, that the comparison is drawn between the\nlimited sphere and the small results of Christ's work upon earth, and\nthe worldwide sweep and majestic magnitude of the results of the\napplication of that work by His servants' witnessing work. The wider\nand more complete spiritual results achieved by the ministration of the\nservants than by the ministration of the Lord is the point of\ncomparison here. And I need only remind you that the poorest Christian\nwho can go to a brother soul, and by word or life can draw that soul to\na Christ whom it apprehends as dying for its sins and raised for its\nglorifying, does a mightier thing than it was possible for the Master\nto do by life or lip whilst He was here upon earth. For the Redemption\nhad to be completed in act before it could be proclaimed in word; and\nChrist had no such weapon in His hands with which to draw men's souls,\nand cast down the high places of evil, as we have when we can say, 'We\ntestify unto you that the Son of God hath died for our sins, and is\nraised again according to the Scriptures.' Nor need I do more than\nremind you of the comparison, so exalting for His humility and so\nhumbling for our self-exaltation, between the narrow sphere in which\nHis earthly ministrations had to operate and the worldwide scope which\nis given to His servants. 'He laid His hands on a few sick folk, and\nhealed them'; and at the end of His life there were one hundred and\ntwenty disciples in Jerusalem and five hundred in Galilee, and you\nmight have put them all into this chapel and had ample room to spare.\nThat was all that Jesus Christ had done; while to-day and now the world\nis being leavened and the kingdoms of the earth are beginning to\nrecognise His name. 'Greater works than these shall he do' who lets\nChrist in him do all His works.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the conditions on which the exalted Lord works for\nand on His servants.\n\nThese are two, faith and prayer.\n\n'He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also.' Faith,\nthe simple act of loving trust in Jesus Christ, opens the door of our\nhearts and natures for the entrance of all His solemn Omnipotence, and\nmakes us possessors of it. It is the condition, and the only condition,\nand plainly the indispensable condition, of possessing this divine\nChrist's power, that we should trust ourselves to Him that gives it.\nAnd if we do, then we shall not trust in vain, but to us there will\ncome power that will surpass our desire, and fill us with its own\nrejoicing and pure energy. Faith will make us like Christ. Faith is\nintensely practical. 'He that believeth shall _do_.' It is no mere cold\nassent to a creed which is utterly impotent to operate upon men's acts,\nno mere hysterical emotion which is utterly impotent to energise into\nnobilities of service and miracles of consecration, but it is the\naffiance of the whole nature which spreads itself before Him and prays,\n'Fill my emptiness and vitalise me with Thine own Spirit.' That is the\nfaith which is ever answered by the inrush of the divine power, and the\nmeasure of our capacity of receiving is the measure of His gift to us.\n\nSo if Christian individuals and Christian communities are impotent, or\nall but impotent, there is no difficulty in understanding why. They\nhave cut the connection, they have shut the tap. They lack faith; and\nso their power is weakness. 'Why could we not cast him out?' said they,\nperplexed when they had no need to be. 'Why could you not cast him out?\nBecause you do not believe that I, working in you, can cast him out.\nThat is why; and the only why.' Let us learn that the secret of\nChristians' weakness is the weakness of their Christian faith.\n\nAnd the other condition is prayer. 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name\nI will do it,' and He repeats it, for confirmation and for greater\nemphasis. 'If ye shall ask anything in My name,' or, as perhaps that\nclause ought to be read with some versions, 'If ye shall ask Me\nanything in My name I will do it.'\n\nThree points may be named here. Our power depends upon our prayer.\nGod's and Christ's fullness and willingness to communicate do not\ndepend upon our prayer. But our capacity to receive of that fullness,\nand so the possibility of its communication to us, do depend upon our\nprayer. 'We have not because we ask not.'\n\nThe power of our prayer depends upon our conscious oneness with the\nrevealed Christ. 'If ye shall ask in My name,' says He. And people\nthink they have fulfilled the condition when, in a mechanical and\nexternal manner, they say, as a formula at the end of petitions that\nhave been all stuffed full of self-will and selfishness, 'for Christ's\nsake. Amen!' and then they wonder they do not get them answered! Is\nthat asking in Christ's name?\n\nChrist's name is the revelation of Christ's character, and to do a\nthing in the name of another person is to do it as His representative,\nand as realising that in some deep and real sense\u2014for the present\npurpose at all events\u2014we are one with Him. And it is when we know\nourselves to be united to Christ and one with Him, and representative\nin a true fashion of Himself, as well as when, in humble reliance on\nHis work for us and His loving heart, we draw near, that our prayer has\npower, as the old divines used to say, 'to move the Hand that moves the\nworld,' and to bring down a rush of blessing upon our heads. Prayer in\nthe name of Christ is hard to offer. It needs much discipline and\nwatchfulness; it excludes all self-will and selfishness. And if, as my\ntext tells us, the end of the Son's working is the glory of the Father,\nthat same end, and not our own ease or comfort, must be the end and\nobject of all prayer which is offered in His name. When we so pray we\nget an answer. And the reason why such multitudes of prayers never\ntravel higher than the roof, and bring no blessings to him who prays,\nis because they are not prayers in Christ's name.\n\nPrayer in His name will pass into prayer to Him. As He not obscurely\nteaches us here (if we adopt the reading to which I have already\nreferred), He has an ear to hear such requests, and He wields divine\npower to answer. Surely it was not blasphemy nor any diversion of the\nworship due to God alone, when the dying martyr outside the city wall\ncried and said, 'Lord Jesus! receive my spirit.' Nor is it any\ndeparture from the solemnest obligations laid upon us by the unity of\nthe divine nature, nor are we bringing idolatrous petitions to another\nthan the Father, when we draw near to Christ and ask Him to give us\nthat which He gives as the Father's gift, and to work on us that which\nthe Father that dwelleth in Him works through Him for us.\n\nTrust yourselves to Christ, and let your desires be stilled, to listen\nto His voice in you, and let that voice speak. And then, dear brethren,\nwe shall be lifted above ourselves, and strength will flow into us, and\nwe shall be able to say, 'I can do all things, through the Christ that\ndwells in me and makes me strong.' And just as the glad, sunny waters\nof the incoming tide fill the empty places of some oozy harbour, where\nall the ships are lying as if dead, and the mud is festering in the\nsunshine, so into the slimy emptiness of our corrupt hearts there will\npour the flashing sunlit wave, the ever fresh rush of His power; and\n'everything will live whithersoever it cometh,' and we shall be able to\nsay in all humility, and yet in glad recognition of Christ's\nfaithfulness to this, His transcendent promise, 'I live, yet not I, but\nChrist liveth in me,' 'because the life which I live in the flesh I\nlive by faith of the Son of God.'\n\n\n\n\nLOVE AND OBEDIENCE\n\n\n'If ye love Me, keep My commandments.'\u2014JOHN xiv, 15.\n\nAs we have seen in former sermons, the keyword of the preceding context\nis 'Believe!' and that word passes now into 'Love.' The order here is\nthe order of experience. There is first the believing gaze upon the\nChrist as He is revealed\u2014the image of the invisible God. That kindles\nlove, and prompts to obedience.\n\nThere is another very beautiful and subtle link of connection between\nthese words and the preceding. Our Lord has just been saying,\n'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.' Is the parallel\nwholly accidental or fanciful between the Lord who does as the servant\nasks and the servant who is to do as the Lord commands? On both sides\nthere is love delighting to be set in motion by a message from the\nother side. On the one part there is love supreme which commands and\ndelights to be asked, on the other part there is love dependent, which\nasks and delights to be commanded; and though the gulf between the two\nis great, and the difference between Christ's law and our petitions is\ninfinite, yet there is an analogy.\n\nI pause on these words, though they are introduced here only as the\nbasis of the great promise which follows, because they open out into\nsuch wide fields. They contain the all-sufficient law of Christian\nconduct. They contain the one motive adequate to bring that law into\nrealisation. They disclose the very roots of Christian morality, and\npart of the secret of Christ's unique power and influence amongst men.\nThey come with a message of encouragement to all souls despairing of\nbeing able to do that which they would, and of freedom to all men\nburdened with a crowd of minute and external regulations. 'If ye love\nMe, keep My commandments'\u2014there are three points to be dwelt upon\nhere\u2014namely, the all-sufficient ideal or guide of life, the\nall-powerful motive which Christ brings to bear, and the all-subduing\ngaze of faith by which that motive is brought into action.\n\nI. We have here the all-sufficient ideal or guide for life.\n\nJesus Christ is not speaking merely to that little handful of men in\nthe upper chamber, but to all generations and to all lands, to the end\nof time and round the world. The authoritative tone which He assumes\nhere is very noteworthy. He speaks as Jehovah spoke from Sinai, and\nquotes the very words of the old law when He speaks of 'keeping My\ncommandments.' There are distinctly involved in this quite incidental\nutterance of Christ's two startling things\u2014one the assumption of His\nright to impose His will upon every human being, and the other His\nassumption that His will contains the all-sufficient directory for\nhuman conduct.\n\nWhat, then, are His commandments? Those which He spoke are plain and\nsimple; and people who wish to pick holes in the greatness of Christ's\nwork in the world tell us that you can match almost all His precepts up\nand down amongst moralists and philosophers, and they crow very loud\nif, scratching amongst Rabbinical dust-heaps, they find something that\nlooks like anything that He once said. Be it so! What does that matter?\nChrist's 'commandments' are Christ Himself. This is the originality and\nuniqueness of Christ as a moral Teacher, that He says, not 'Do this,\nthat, and the other thing,' but 'Copy Me.' 'Take My yoke upon you and\nlearn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' His commandments are\nHimself; and the sum of them all is this\u2014a character perfectly\nself-oblivious, and wholly penetrated and saturated with joyful, filial\nsubmission to the Father, and uttermost and entire giving Himself away\nto His brethren. That is Christ's commandment which He bids us keep,\nand His law is to be found in His life.\n\nAnd then, if that be so, what a change passes on the aspect of law,\nwhen we take Christ as being our living embodiment of it! Everything\nthat was hard, repellent, far-off, cold, vanishes. We have no longer\n'tables of stone,' but 'fleshy tables of the heart'; and the Law stands\nbefore us, a Being to be loved, to be clung to, to be trusted, and whom\nit is blessedness to know and perfection to resemble. The rails upon\nwhich the train travels may be rigid, but they mean safety, and they\ncarry men smoothly into otherwise inaccessible lands. So the life of\nJesus Christ brought to us is the firm and plain track along which we\nare to travel; and all that was difficult and hard in the cold thought\nof _duty_ becomes changed into the attraction of a living Pattern and\nExample. This living and breathing and loving commandment is\nall-sufficient for every detail and complexity of human life. It is so\nby the confession of believers and of unbelievers, by the joyful\nconfession of the one, and by the frank acknowledgment of many of the\nothers. Listen to one of them. 'Whatever else may be taken away from us\nby rational criticism, Christ is still left, a unique Figure, not more\nunlike all His predecessors than all His followers\u2026. Religion cannot be\nsaid to have made a bad choice in selecting this Man as the ideal\nRepresentative and Guide of humanity; nor even now would it be easy,\neven for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of\nvirtue from the abstract into the concrete than to endeavour so to live\nthat Christ would approve our life.'\n\nIt is enough for conduct, it is enough for character, it is enough in\nall perplexities of conflicting duties, that we listen to and obey the\nvoice that says, 'Keep My commandments.'\n\nII. Now note, secondly, the all-powerful motive.\n\nProbably my text is best understood as the Revised Version understands\nit, which reads, 'If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments,' making\nit an assurance and not an injunction. Christ speaks with the calm\nconfidence that love to Him will have power enough to sway the life.\nHis utterance here is not the addition of another commandment to the\nlist, but rather the pointing out of how they may all be kept.\n\nThe principle that underlies these words, then, is this, that love is\nthe foundation of obedience, and obedience is the sure outcome and\nresult of love. That is true in regard to those lower forms of love,\nwhich may teach us something of the operation of the higher. We all\nknow that love which is real, and not simply passion and selfishness\nwith a mask on, delights most chiefly in knowing and conforming to the\nwill of the beloved, and that there is nothing sweeter than to be\ncommanded by the dear voice and to obey for dear love's sake. And you\nhave only to take that which is the experience of every true heart, in\na thousand sweet ways in daily life, and to lift it into the higher\nregion, and to transfer it to the bond that unites us with Jesus\nChrist, to see that He has invoked no illusory, but an omnipotent power\nwhen He has rested the whole force of His transforming and sanctifying\nenergy upon this one principle, 'If ye love Me, the Lawgiver, ye will\nkeep the commandments of My Law.'\n\nThat is exactly what distinguishes and lifts the morality of the Gospel\nabove all other systems. The worst man in the world knows a great deal\nmore of his duty than the best man does. It is not for want of\nknowledge that men go to the devil, but it is for want of power or will\nto live their knowledge. And what morality fails to do, with its\nclearest utterances of human duty, Christ comes and does. The one law\nis like the useless proclamations posted up in some rebellious\ndistrict, where there is no army to back them, and the king's authority\nfrom whom they come is flouted. The other law gets itself obeyed. Such\nis the difference between the powerless morality of the world and the\ncommandment of Jesus Christ. Here is the road plain and straight. What\nmatters that, if there is no force to draw the cart along it? There\nmight as well be no road at all. Here stand all your looms, polished\nand in perfect order, but there is no steam in the boilers; and so\nthere is no motion, and nothing is woven. What we want is not law, but\npower, and what the Gospel gives us, and stands alone in giving us, is\nnot merely the knowledge of the will of God, and the clear revelation\nof what we ought to be, but the power to become it.\n\nLove does that, and love alone. That strong force brought into action\nin our hearts will drive out from thence all rivals, all false and low\nthings. The true way to cleanse the Augean stables, as the old myth has\nit, was to turn the river into them. It would have been endless work to\nwheel out the filth in wheelbarrows loaded by spades: turn the stream\nin, and it will sweep away all the foulness. When the Ark comes into\nthe Temple, Dagon lies, a mutilated stump, upon the threshold. When\nChrist comes into my heart, then all the obscene and twilight-loving\nshapes that lurked there, and defiled it, will vanish like ghosts at\ncock-crowing before His calm and pure Presence. He, and He alone,\nentering my heart by the portals of my love, will coerce my evil and\nstimulate my good. And if I love Him, I shall keep His commandments.\n\nNow, brethren, here is a plain test and a double-barrelled one, which\ntries both our love and our obedience with a sharp touchstone. 'If ye\nlove Me, ye will keep My commandments.' That implies, first, that there\nis no love worth calling so which does not keep the commandment. All\nthe emotional and the mystic, and the so-called higher parts of\nChristian experience, have to be content to submit to this plain\ntest\u2014do they help us to live as Christ would have us, and that because\nHe would have us? Love to Him that does not keep His commandments is\neither spurious or dangerously feeble. The true sign of its presence in\nthe heart and the noblest of its operations is not to be found in\nhigh-pitched expressions of fervid emotion, nor even in the sacred joys\nof solitary communion, but in its making us, while in the rough\nstruggle of daily life, and surrounded by trivial tasks, live near Him,\nand by Him, and for Him, and like Him. If I live so, I love Him; if\nnot, not. Not that I mean to say that in regard to each individual\naction of a Christian man's life there must be the conscious presence\nof reference to the supreme love, but that each individual action of\nthe life ought to come from a character of which that reference to the\nsupreme love is the very formative principle and foundation. The\ncolouring matter put in at the fountain will dye every drop of the\nstream; and they whose inmost hearts are tinged and tinctured with the\nsweet love of Jesus Christ, from their hearts will go forth issues of\nlife all coloured and moulded thereby. Test your Christian love by your\npractical obedience.\n\nAnd, on the other hand, there is no obedience worth calling so which is\nnot the child of love; and all the multitude of right things which\nChristians do without that motive are made short work of by that\nconsideration. Obedience which is formal, mechanical, matter-of-course,\nwithout the presence in it of a loving submission of the will;\nobedience which is reluctant, calculated, forced upon us by dread,\nimitated from others\u2014all that is nothing; and Jesus Christ does not\ncount it as obedience at all. This is a sieve with very small meshes,\nand there will be a great deal of rubbish left in it after the shaking.\n'If ye love Me, keep My commandments.' The 'keeping of My commandments'\nwhich has not 'love to Me' underlying it is no keeping at all.\n\nIII. And so, lastly, notice the all-subduing gaze.\n\nThat is not included in my text, but it is necessary in order to\ncomplete the view of the forces to which Jesus Christ here entrusts the\nhallowing of life and the sanctifying of our nature; and we are led to\nrefer to it by what I have already pointed out; the connection between\nthe 'love' of my text and the 'believe' of the preceding verses. I can\nfancy a man saying, 'Keep His commandments? Woe is me! How am I to\nkeep?' The answer is 'Love.' And I can fancy him saying 'Love?' Yes!\n'And how am I to love? I cannot get up love at the word of command, or\nby any voluntary effort.' And the answer comes again, 'Believe!' Trust\nChrist, and you will love Him. Love Him and you will do His will. And\nthen the question comes again, 'Believe what?' And the answer comes,\n'Believe that He is the Son of God who died for you.'\n\nNothing else will kindle a man's love than the faithful contemplation\nand grasp of Christ in that character and aspect. Only the redeeming\nChrist affords a reasonable ground for our love to Him. Here is a dead\nman, dead for nineteen centuries, expecting you and me to have towards\nHim a vivid personal affection which will influence our conduct and our\ncharacter. What right has He to expect that? There is only one\nreasonable ground upon which I may be called to love Jesus Christ, and\nthat is that He died for me, and such a love towards such a Christ is\nthe only thing which will wield power sufficient to guide, to coerce,\nto restrain, to constrain, and to sustain my weak, wayward, rebellious,\nand sluggish will. All other emotions of so-called admiration and\nworship and reverence and affection for Jesus Christ are apt to be\ntepid; but this one has power and warmth in it.\n\nHere is a unique fact in the history of the world, that not only did He\nmake this astounding claim upon all subsequent generations; but that\nall subsequent generations have responded to it, and that to-day there\nare millions of men who love Jesus Christ with a love warm, personal,\ndeep, powerful\u2014the spring of all their goodness and the Lord of their\nlives. Why do they? For one reason only. Because they believe that He\ndied for them individually, and that He lives an ascended yet\never-present Helper and Lover of their souls.\n\nMy brethren, that conviction, and that conviction only, as I venture to\naffirm, has power to send a glow of love into the heart which will move\nall the limbs in swift and happy obedience. That conviction, and that\nconviction alone, will melt the thick-ribbed ice of our spirits and\nwill make it flow down in sweet waters. The love that has looked upon\nthe Cross will be the fulfilling of the law of Him that speaks from the\nThrone. When our faith has grasped Him, as enduring that cross for us,\nthen our love will be awakened to hear and to do His commandments.\n\n'We love Him because He first loved us,' and such love will flower and\nfruit in obedience. I shall keep His commandments when I love Him. I\nshall love Him with a love that makes my will plastic and my life a\nglad service, when by faith I grasp Him as the Incarnate Lord, 'who\nloved me and gave Himself for me.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE COMFORTER GIVEN\n\n\n'And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,\nthat He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the\nworld cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him:\nbut ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.'\u2014JOHN\nxiv. 16,17.\n\nThe 'and' at the beginning of these words shows us that they are\ncontinuous with and the consequence of what precedes. 'If ye love Me,\n_ye_ will _keep_ My commandments, and _I_ will _pray_ \u2026 and _He_ will\n_send_.' Such is the series; but we must also remember that, as we have\nseen in previous sermons, the obedience spoken of in the clause before\nmy text is itself treated as a consequence of some preceding steps. The\nladder that is fixed upon earth and has its summit in heaven has for\nits rungs, first and lowest, 'believe'; second, 'love'; third, 'obey.'\nAnd thus the context carries us from the very basis of the Christian\nlife up into its highest reward, even the larger gift to an obedient\nspirit of that Great Spirit, who is the Comforter and the Teacher.\n\nAnd there is another very striking link of connection between these\nwords and the preceding. There are, if I may so say, two telephones\nacross the abyss that separates the ascended Christ and us. One of them\nis contained in His words, 'If ye ask anything in My name I will do\nit'; the other is contained in these words, 'If ye keep My commandments\nI will ask.' Love on this side of the great cleft sets love on the\nother side of it in motion in a twofold fashion. If we ask, He does; if\nwe do, He asks. His action is the answer to our prayers, and His\nprayers are the answer to our obedient action. So we have here these\npoints\u2014the praying Christ and the giving Father; the abiding Gift; the\nblind world and the recipient disciples.\n\nI. Note, then, first, the praying Christ and the giving Father.\n\n'I will ask and He will give' seems a strange drop from the lofty\nclaims with which we have become familiar in the earlier verses of this\nchapter. 'Believe in God, believe also in Me'; 'He that hath seen Me\nhath seen the Father'; 'If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do\nit'; 'Keep My commandments.' All these distinctly express, or\nnecessarily imply, divine nature, prerogatives, and authority. But here\nthe voice that spake the perfect revelation of God, and gave utterance\nauthoritatively to the perfect law of life, softens and lowers its\ntones in petition; and Jesus Christ joins the rank of the suppliants.\nNow common sense tells us that apparently diverse views lying so close\ntogether in one continuous stream of speech cannot have seemed to the\nutterer of them to be contradictory; and I venture to affirm that there\nis no explanation which does justice to these two sides of Christ's\nconsciousness\u2014the one all divine and authoritative and lofty, and the\nother all lowly and identifying Himself with petitioners and suppliants\neverywhere\u2014except the old-fashioned and to-day discredited belief that\nHe is 'God manifest in the flesh,' who prays in His Manhood and hears\nprayer in His Divinity. The bare humanistic view which emphasises such\nutterances as these of my text does not, for the life of it, know what\nto do with the other ones, and cannot manage to unite these two images\ninto a stereoscopic solid. That is reserved for the faith which\nbelieves in the Manhood and in the Deity of our Lord and Saviour.\n\nHis intercession is the great hope of the Christian heart. His\nintercession is the great activity of His present exalted and glorious\nstate. His intercession is no mere verbal utterance, nor the\nrepresentation to the Father of an alien or a diverse will, but His\nintercession, mysterious as it is, and unfathomable to our poor, short\nlines and light plummets, must mean this at all events\u2014His continual\nactivity in presenting before the divine Father, as the motive and\ncondition of His petition being granted, His own great work upon the\nCross. The High Priest passes within the veil, bearing in His hand the\noffering which He has made, and by reason of that offering, and of His\npowerful presence before the mercy-seat, all the spiritual gifts which\nredeem and regenerate and sanctify humanity are for ever coming forth.\n'I will pray, and He will give,' is but one way of saying, 'Seeing\nthen, that we have a great High Priest over the House of God who is\nentered within the veil, let us draw near.'\n\nBut I would have you notice how, as is always the case in all\nutterances of Jesus Christ which express the lowest humiliation and\ncompletest identification of Himself with humanity, there is ever\npresent some touch of obscured glory, some all but suppressed flash of\nbrightness which will not be wholly concealed. Note two things in this\ngreat utterance; one, Christ's quiet assumption that all through the\nages, and today, nineteen centuries after He died, He knows, at the\nmoment of their being done, His servants' deeds. 'Keep my commandments,\nand, knowing that you keep them, I will then and there pray for you.'\nHe claims in the lowly words an altogether supernatural, abnormal,\ndivine cognisance of all the acts of men down the ages and across the\ngulf between earth and heaven.\n\nAnd the other signature of divinity stamped on the prayer of Christ is\nHis certitude of the answer. 'I will ask and He will give': He puts, as\nit were, the Father's act in pledge to us, and assures us, in a tone of\ncertainty, which is not merely the assurance of faith, but the\ncertitude of One who is 'one with the Father,' that His prayer brings\never its answer. 'Father! I will that they whom Thou hast given Me be\nwith Me.' How strange! How far beyond the warrantable language of man!\nAnd how impossible for a fisherman of Bethsaida to imagine, if he had\nnot heard, that strange blending of submission and of authority which\nspeaks in such words!\n\nThen, remember what I have already said, that, according to the\nteaching of this verse, taken in connection with its context, that\nwhich put in motion Christ's Intercessory activity, as represented in\nmy text, is the obedience of a Christian man. If you obey He will pray,\nand the Father will send. So the reward of imperfect obedience is the\nlarger measure given to us of that divine Spirit by whose indwelling\nobedience becomes possible, and self-surrender a joy and a power. And\nthat is not merely because of the natural operation by which any kind\nof conduct tends to repeat itself in more complete measure, nor is it\nmerely a case of 'to him that hath shall be given'; as a man's arm is\nstrengthened by exercise, and any faculty becomes more assured, and\nswift, and at the command of its owner, by use. But there is a distinct\nsupernatural impartation to every obedient heart of divine gifts which\ncome straight through Jesus Christ to it. He Himself, in this immediate\ncontext, says, 'If I depart I will send Him unto you,' and the true\nconception is that in that Spirit's gift, which is a reality waiting as\nits crown and reward upon our poor stained obedience, the whole Godhead\nis present; the Father the Source, the Son the Channel, the Spirit the\nGift.\n\nII. And so, secondly, note what our text tells us of that abiding gift.\n\n'He will send another Comforter,' 'that He may abide with you for ever,\neven the Spirit of Truth.' I suppose I may take it for granted that\nmost of my audience know all that need be said as to the meaning of\nthis word 'Comforter.' In our present modern English it has a very much\nnarrower range of meaning than its etymology would give it, and than\nprobably it had when it was first used in an English translation.\n'Comforter' means a great deal more than 'consoler,' though we have\nnarrowed it to that signification almost exclusively. It means not only\none who administers sweet whispers of consolation in sorrow, but one\nwho, in any circumstances, by his presence makes strong. And the\noriginal Greek word, of which it is the translation here, has a\nprecisely analogous meaning; its original signification being that of\n'one who is called to the aid of another,' primarily as an advocate in\na court of law, but more widely as a helper in any form whatsoever. And\nthat is the idea which is to be attached to the word here:\u2014a Comforter\nwho makes strong by His presence; the Paraclete, who is our Advocate,\nHelper, Guide, and Instructor. Need I dwell upon the great thoughts\nthat spring from that metaphor; how we have to look for a Person, and\nnot merely a vague influence; a divine Person who will be by our sides\non condition of our faith, love, and obedience, to be our Strength in\nall weakness, our Peace in all trouble, our Wisdom in all darkness, our\nGuide in every perplexity, our Comforter and Cherisher, our\nRighteousness when sin is strong, the Victor over our temptations, and\nthe Companion and Sweetener of our solitude? The metaphors with which\nScripture represents this great personal Influence are full of\ninstruction and beauty. He comes as 'the Fire,' which melts, which\nwarms, which cleanses, which quickens. He comes as the 'rushing, mighty\nWind,' which bears health upon its wings, and sometimes breathes softly\nas an infant's breath, and sometimes sweeps with irresistible power. He\ncomes as the 'Oil,' gently flowing, lubricating, making every joint\nsupple, nourishing. He comes as the 'Water of Life,' refreshing,\nvitalising, quickening all growth. He comes fluttering down as the Dove\nof God, the bird of peace that will brood upon our hearts. The\npredicates which Scripture attaches to that great Name are equally\nvarious, and are full of teaching as to the manner in which He is the\nComforter and the Advocate. He is the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of\nTruth, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Power, the Spirit of Love,\nthe Spirit of a sound Mind, the Spirit of Sonship, the Spirit of\nSupplication, and of many great things besides. And this sweet, strong,\nall-sufficient Person is offered to each of us, and waits to enter our\nhearts.\n\nAnd, says Christ, this Strengthener and Advocate is to replace Me and\nto carry on My work. 'He will send _another_ Comforter.' Who was the\nother but the Master who was speaking? So all that that handful of men\nhad found of sweetness and shelter and assured guidance, and stay for\ntheir weakness, and enlightenment for their darkness, and companionship\nfor their solitude, and a breast on which to rest their heads, and love\nin which to bathe their hearts, all _these_ this divine Spirit will\nbring to each of us if we will.\n\nAnd further, our Lord tells us that this strong continuer of His\npresence will be a permanent Companion. 'He will abide with you for\never.' He was comforting the disciples who were trembling at the\nthought of His departure, and knowing that all the sweetness of these\nthree short years had come to an end; and He says to them, and through\nthem to all the ages to the end of time: 'Here is the abiding Guest,\nthat nothing but your own sin will ever cast out from your hearts.'\n\nAnd Christ tells us how this great Spirit will do His work. He is the\n'Spirit of Truth,' not as if He brought new truth. To suppose that He\ndoes so, opens the door to all manner of fanaticism, but the truth, the\nrevelation of which is all summed and finished in the person and work\nof Jesus Christ, is the weapon by which the divine Spirit works all His\nconquests, the staff on which He makes us lean and be strong. He is the\nSpirit by whom the truth passes into our personal possession, by no\nmere imperfect form of outward teaching which is always confused and\ninsufficient, but by the inward teaching that deals with our hearts and\nour spirits.\n\nBut Christ speaks, too, of the blind world. There is a tone of deep\nsadness in His words. The thought of the immense multitude of men who\nwere incapacitated to receive this Strengthener steals across and casts\na momentary shadow upon even the brightness and greatness of His\npromise. 'The world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither\nknoweth Him.' The 'world' is the mass of man, considered as godless and\nseparate from Him, and there is a bit of the world in us all; but there\nare men who are wholly under its influence and dominion. And these men,\nsays Christ, are perfectly incapable of receiving the teaching of this\ndivine Comforter. Of course there are other operations of that Great\nSpirit of which we shall have to hear as we go on further in this\ncontext, in which His work 'convicts the world of sin and of\nrighteousness and of judgment.' But what our Lord is speaking of here\nis the work of that Spirit who comes in response to His prayer which\nrises in consequence of our obedience, and who, coming, brings with Him\nstrength and purity and peace and wisdom; and that aspect of His\noperations a heart that is all full and seething with the world is\nunfit to receive. It cannot see Him. Embruted natures are altogether\nincapacitated for high thoughts, for the perception of natural beauty,\nfor the appreciation of art; and worldly men, by the very same law, are\nincapable of receiving this divine Spirit. A savage stares at the\nsunshine and sees nothing but a glare. And worldly men\u2014that is to say,\nmen whose tastes, inclinations, desires, hopes, purposes, strivings,\nare all bound by this visible diurnal round\u2014lack the organ that enables\nthem to see that divine Spirit moving round about them. Whether you\nhave put your eyes out by fleshly lusts, or, as many men in this\ngeneration have done, by intellectual self-sufficiency and conceit, if\nthe world, in its grosser or in its most refined forms, is your master,\nyou are stone blind to all the best realities of the universe, and you\ncannot see the things that are. If you look out upon the history of the\nChurch, or upon the present condition of Christendom, and say, 'I see\nno divine Spirit working there'; well, then, the only thing that is to\nbe said to you is, 'Go to an oculist; your sight is bad. Perhaps there\nis solid land, as some of us see it, where you see only mist.' This\ngeneration needs the preaching of a supernatural power at work beside\nus, and among us, and until we come to believe _that_, we do not\nunderstand the fullness of Christ's gift.\n\nIII. Then, lastly, note the recipient disciples.\n\nObserve that the order of clauses is reversed in the last part of the\ntext. The world cannot receive, because it does not know. The disciple\nknows, because he receives. Possession and knowledge reciprocally\ninterchange places, and may be regarded as cause and effect of one\nanother. That is to say, at bottom they are one and the same thing.\nKnowledge is possession, and possession is the only knowledge. These\ndisciples knew Christ in a fashion. He had just been telling them that\nthey did not know Him; but so far as they did dimly grasp Him, they saw\nthe Spirit\u2014in another form, indeed, than they would hereafter see\u2014but\nstill truly, though imperfectly. Beholding the Spirit, though 'through\na glass darkly,' and cherishing their partial possession of Him, they\nwill come to more, and steadfastly increase from the morning's twilight\nto the midday glory. So He says: 'He dwelleth with you' now, and 'He\nshall be _in_ you' hereafter. There is a better form of possession\nopening before them, which came at Pentecost, and has lasted ever\nsince. From thenceforward we have a Spirit that not only stands by our\nsides and holds fellowship with us (for the two 'withs' of our text are\ntwo different words, expressing respectively proximity and communion),\nbut who actually dwells in the central depths of our natures, and whom\nwe thus possess more perfectly and blessedly than is possible to even\nthe closest outward proximity, and the sweetest outward fellowship.\n\nThat possession of an abiding and indwelling Spirit is the gift of\nChrist to every Christian soul, and is to be found by us all upon the\npath so plainly marked out in our text and its connections\u2014'believe,'\n'love,' 'obey.' Then the Dove of God will flutter down upon our heads\nand nestle in our hearts, and brooding over the solemn and solitary sea\nof our chaotic spirits, will bring up from it a new world glistening in\nfresh order and beauty, and 'very good' in its Maker's eyes.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ABSENT PRESENT CHRIST\n\n\n'I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little\nwhile, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live,\nye shall live also.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 18,19.\n\nThe sweet and gracious comfortings with which Christ had been soothing\nthe disciples' fears went very deep, but hitherto they had not gone\ndeep enough. It was much that they should know the purpose of His\ngoing, whither He went, and that they had an interest in His departure.\nIt was much that they should have before them the prospect of reunion;\nmuch that they should know that all through His absence He would be\nworking in them, and that they should be assured that, absent, He would\nsend them a great gift. But reunion, influence from afar, and gifts\nfrom the other side of the gulf were not all that their hearts needed.\nAnd so here our Lord gives yet more, in the paradoxes that, absent He\nwill be present, unseen visible, and dying will be for them for ever,\nliving and life-giving. These great thoughts go to the centre of their\nneeds and of ours; and on them I now touch briefly.\n\nThere are then in the words I have read, though they be but a fragment\nof a closely-linked-together context, these three great thoughts: the\nabsent Christ the present Christ; the unseen Christ the seen Christ;\nthe Christ who dies the living and life-giving Christ. Let us look at\nthese as they stand.\n\nI. First, then, the absent Christ is the present Christ.\n\n'I will not leave you comfortless,' or, as the Revised Version has it,\n'desolate\u2014I come to you.' Now, most of us know, I suppose, that the\nliteral meaning of the word rendered 'comfortless,' or 'desolate,' is\n'_orphans_.' But that is rather an unusual form in which to represent\nthe relation between our Lord and His disciples, and so, possibly, our\nversions are accurate in giving the general idea of desolation rather\nthan the specific idea conveyed directly by the word. But still it is\nto be remembered that this whole conversation begins with 'Little\nchildren'; and there seems to be no strong reason for suppressing the\nliteral meaning of the word, if only it be remembered that it is\nemployed not so much to define Christ's relation to his brethren as to\ndescribe the comfortless and helpless condition of that little group\nwhen left by Him. They would be like fatherless and motherless children\nin a cold world. And what is to hinder that? One thing only. 'I come to\nyou.' 'Then, and only then, will you cease to be desolate and orphans.\nMy presence will change everything and turn winter into glorious\nsummer.'\n\nNow, what is this 'coming'? It is to be observed that our Lord says,\nnot 'I will,' as a future, but 'I come,' or 'I am coming,' as an\nimmediately impending, and, we may almost say, present, thing. There\ncan be no reference in the word to that final coming to judgment which\nlies so far ahead; because, if there were, then there would follow from\nthe text, that, until that period, all that love Him here upon earth\nare to wander about as orphans, desolate and forsaken; and that\ncertainly can never be. So that we have to recognise here the promise\nof a coming which is contemporaneous with His absence, and which is, in\nfact, but the reverse side of His bodily absence.\n\nIt is true about Him that He 'departs from' His people in bodily form\n'for a season, that they may receive Him' in a better form 'for ever.'\nThis, then, is the heart and centre of the consolation here, that\nhowsoever the external presence may be withdrawn, and the 'foolish\nsenses' may have to speak of an absent Christ, we may rejoice in the\ncertainty that He is with all those that love Him, and all the more\nwith them because of the very withdrawal of the earthly manifestation\nwhich has served its purpose, and now is laid aside as an impediment\nrather than as a help to the full communion. We confound _bodily_ with\n_real_. The bodily presence is at an end; the real presence lasts for\never.\n\nI do not need to insist, I suppose, upon the manifest implication of\nabsolute divinity which lies in such words as these. 'I come.' 'Being\nabsent, I am present in all generations. I am present with every single\nheart.' That is equivalent to the Omnipresence of deity; that is\nequivalent to or implies the undying existence of the divine nature,\nand He that says, when He is leaving earth and withdrawing the\nsweetness of His visible form from the eyes of men, 'I come,' in the\nvery act of going, 'and I am with you always, with all of you to the\nend of the ages,' can be no less than God, manifest in the flesh for a\ntime, and present in the Spirit with His children for ever.\n\nI cannot but think that the average Christian life of this day wofully\nfails in the simple, conscious realisation of this great truth, and\nthat we are all far too little living in the calm, happy, strengthening\nassurance that we are never alone, but have Jesus Christ with each of\nus more closely, more truly, in a more available fashion, and with more\nomnipotence of influence, than they had who were nearest Him during the\ndays that He lived upon earth.\n\nOh, brethren! if we really believed, not as an article of our creed\nwhich has become so familiar to us that it produces little impression\nupon us, but as a vital and ever-present conviction of our souls, that\nwith us there was ever the real presence of the real Christ, how all\nburdens and cares would be lightened, how all perplexities would begin\nto smooth themselves out and be straightened, how all the force would\nbe sucked out of temptations, and how sorrows and joys and all things\nwould be changed in their aspect by that one conviction intensely\nrealised and constantly with us! A present Christ is the Strength, the\nRighteousness, the Peace, the Joy, and as we shall see, in the most\nliteral sense, the Life of every Christian soul.\n\nThen, note, further, that this coming of our Lord is identified with\nthat of His divine Spirit. He has been speaking of sending that 'other\nComforter,' but though He be Another, He is yet so indissolubly united\nwith Him who sends as that the coming of the Spirit is the coming of\nJesus. He is no gift wafted to us as from the other side of a gulf, but\nby reason of the unity of the Godhead and the divinity of the sent\nSpirit, Jesus Christ and the Spirit whom He sends are inseparable\nthough separate, and so indissolubly united that where the Spirit is,\nthere is Christ, and where Christ is, there is the Spirit. These are\namongst the deep things which the disciples were 'not able to carry' at\nthat stage of their development, and which waited for a further\nexplanation. Enough for them and enough for us, to know that we have\nChrist in the Spirit and the Spirit in Christ; and to remember 'that if\nany man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.'\n\nWe stand here on the margin of a shoreless and fathomless sea; and for\nmy part I venture to think that the men who talk about the\nincredibilities and the contradictions of the orthodox faith would show\nthemselves a little wiser if they were more conscious of the limitation\nof human faculty, and remembered that to pronounce upon contradictions\nin the doctrine of the divine Nature implies that the pronouncer stands\nabove and goes round about the whole of that nature. So, for my part,\nabjuring omniscience and the comprehension of Deity, I accept the\nstatement that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit come together\nand dwell in the heart.\n\nThen, note, further, that this present Christ is the only Remedy for\nthe orphanhood of the world. The words had a tender and pathetic\nreference to that little, bewildered group of followers, deprived of\ntheir Guide, their Teacher, and their Companion. He who had been as\neyes to their weak vision, and Counsellor and Inspirer and everything\nfor three blessed years, was going away to leave them unsheltered to\nthe storm, and we can understand how forlorn and terrified they were,\nwhen they looked forward to fronting the things that must come to them,\nwithout His presence. Therefore He cheers them with the assurance that\nthey will not be left without Him, but that, present still, just\nbecause He is absent, He will be all that He ever had been to them.\n\nAnd the promise was fulfilled. How did that dis-spirited group of\ncowardly men ever pluck up courage to hold together at all after the\nCrucifixion? Why was it that they did not follow the example of John's\ndisciples, and dissolve and disappear; and say, 'The game is up. It is\nno use holding together any longer'? The process of separation began on\nthe very day of the Crucifixion. Only one thing could have stopped it,\nand that is the Resurrection and the presence with His Church of the\nrisen Christ in His power and in all the fullness of His gifts. If it\nhad not been that He came to them, they would have disappeared, and\nChristianity would have been one more of the abortive sects forgotten\nin Judaism. But, as it is, the whole of the New Testament after\nPentecost is aflame with the consciousness of a present Christ, working\namongst His people. And although it be true that, in one aspect, we are\nabsent from the Lord when we are present with the body, in another\naspect, and an infinitely higher one, it is true that the strength of\nthe Christian life of Apostles and martyrs was this, the assurance that\nChrist Himself\u2014no mere rhetorical metaphor for His influence or His\nexample, or His memory lingering in their imaginations, but the\nveritable Christ Himself\u2014was present with them, to strengthen and to\nbless.\n\nThat same conviction you and I must have, if the world is not to be a\ndesert and a dreary place for us. In a very profound sense it is true\nthat if you take away Jesus Christ, the elder Brother, who alone\nreveals to men the Father, we are all orphans, fatherless children, who\nlook up into an empty heaven and see nothing there. It is only Christ\nwho reveals to us the Father and makes our happy hearts feel that we\nare of His children. And in the wider sense of the word 'orphans,' is\nnot life a desolation without Him? Hollow joys, fleeting blessednesses,\nroses whose thorns last long after the petals have dropped, real\nsorrows, shows and shams, bitternesses and disappointments\u2014are not\nthese our life, in so far as Christ has been driven out of it? Oh!\nthere is only one thing that saves us from being as desolate,\nfatherless children, groping in the dark for the lost Father's hand,\nand dying for want of it, and that is that the Christ Himself shall\ncome to us and be with us.\n\nII. The unseen Christ is a seen Christ.\n\nIt is clear that the period referred to in the second clause of our\ntext is the same as that referred to in the first, that 'yet a little\nwhile' covers the whole space up to His Ascension; and that if there be\nany reference at all to the forty days of His earthly life, during\nwhich literally, the work 'saw Him no more,' but the Apostles 'saw\nHim,' that reference is only secondary. These transitory appearances\nare not of sufficient moment or duration to bear the weight of so great\na promise as this. The vision, which is the consequence of the coming,\nhas the same extension in time as the coming\u2014that is to say, it is\ncontinuous and permanent. We must read here the great promise of a\nperpetual vision of the present Christ.\n\nIt is clear, too, that the word 'see' is employed in these two clauses\nin two different senses. In the former it refers only to bodily sight,\nin the latter to spiritual perception. For a few short hours still, the\nungodly mass of men were to have that outward vision which might have\nbeen so much to them, but which they had used so badly that 'they\nseeing saw not.' It was to cease, and they who loved Him would not miss\nit when it did; but the withdrawal which hid Him from sense and\nsense-bound souls would reveal Him more clearly to His friends. They,\ntoo, had but dimly seen Him while He stood by them; they would gaze on\nHim with truer insight when He was present though absent.\n\nSo this is what every Christian life may and should be\u2014the continual\nsight of a continually-present Christ. It is His part to come. It is\nours to see, to be conscious of Him who does come.\n\nFaith is the sight of the soul, and it is far better than the sight of\nthe senses. It is more direct. My eye does not touch what I look at.\nGulfs of millions of miles may lie between me and it. But my faith is\nnot only eye, but hand, and not only beholds, but grasps, and comes\ninto contact with that to which it is directed. It is far more clear.\nSense may deceive; faith, built upon His Word, cannot deceive. Its\ninformation is far more certain, far more valid. I have better reason\nfor believing in Jesus Christ than I have for believing in the things\nthat I touch and handle. So that there is no need for men to say, 'Oh,\nif we had only seen Him with our eyes!' You would very likely not have\nknown Him if you had. There is no reason for thinking that the Church\nhas retrograded in its privileges, because it has to love instead of\nbeholding, and to believe instead of touching. That is advance, and we\nare better than they, inasmuch as the blessing of those 'who have not\nseen, and yet have believed,' comes down upon our heads. The vision of\nChrist which is granted to the faithful soul is better and not worse,\nmore and not less, other in kind indeed, but loftier in degree too,\nthan that which was granted to the men who saw Him upon earth. Sense\ndisturbs, faith alone beholds.\n\n'The world seeth Me no more.' Why? Because it is a world. 'Ye see Me.'\nWhy? Because, and in the measure in which you have turned away your\neyes from seeing vanity. If you want the eye of the soul to be opened,\nyou must shut the eye of sense. And the more we turn away from looking\nat the dazzling lies with which time and the material universe befool\nand bewilder us, the more shall we see Him whom to see is to live for\never.\n\nOh, brethren! does that strong word 'see' in any measure express the\nvividness, the directness, the certainty of our realisation of our\nMaster's presence? Is Jesus Christ as clear, as perceptible, as sure to\nus as the men round us are? Which are the shadows and which are the\nrealities to us? The things which are seen, which the senses crown as\n'real,' or the things which cannot be seen because they are so great,\nand tower above us, invisible in their eternity? Which world are our\neyes most open to, the world where Christ is, or the world here? Our\nhappy eyes may behold and our blessed hands may handle the Word of Life\nwhich was manifested to us. Let us beware that we turn not away from\nthe one thing worthy to be looked at, to gaze upon a desolate and\ndreary world.\n\nIII. Lastly, the present and seen Christ is living and life-giving.\n\nThe last words of my text may be connected with the preceding, as the\nmarginal rendering of the Revised Version shows. But it is probably\nbetter to take them as standing independently, and presenting another\nand co-ordinate element of the blessedness arising from the coming of\nthe Christ. Because He comes, His life passes into the hearts of the\nmen to whom He comes, and who gaze upon Him.\n\nTime forbids me to dwell upon that majestic proclamation of His own\nabsolute and divine life, from lips that were so soon to be paled with\ndeath. Mark the grand 'I live'\u2014the timeless present tense, which\nexpresses unbroken, underived, undying, and, as I believe, divine life.\nIt is all but a quotation of the great Old Testament name 'Jehovah.'\nThe depth and sweep of its meaning are given to us in this Apostle's\nApocalypse, where Christ is called 'the living One,' who lived whilst\nHe died, and having died 'is alive for evermore.'\n\nAnd this Christ, coming to all His friends, possessor of the fullness\nof life in Himself, and proclaiming His absolute possession of that\nlife, even whilst He stands within arm's-length of Calvary, is\nLife-giver to all that love Him and trust Him.\n\nWe live _because_ He lives. In all senses of the word 'life,' as I\nbelieve, the life of men is derived from the Christ who is the Agent of\ncreation, the channel from whom life passes from the Godhead into the\ncreatures, and who is also the one means by whom any of us can ever\nhope to live the better life which is the only true one, and consists\nin fellowship with God and union to Him.\n\nWe shall live _as long as_ He lives, and His being is the pledge and\nthe guarantee of the immortal being of all who love Him. Anything is\npossible, rather than that it should be credible that a soul, which has\ndrawn spiritual life from Jesus Christ here upon earth, should ever be\nrent apart from Him by such a miserable and external trifle as the mere\ndissolution of the bodily frame. As long as Christ lives our life is\nsecure. If the Head has life, the members 'cannot see corruption,'\n'Take _me_ not away in the midst of my days: _Thy_ years are throughout\nall generations' was the prayer of a saint of old, deeply feeling the\ncontrast of the worshipper's transiency and God's eternity, and dimly\nhoping that the contrast might be changed into likeness. The great\npromise of our text answers the prayer, and assures us that the\nworshipper is to live as long as does He whom He adores.\n\nWe shall live as He lives, nor ever cease the appropriation of His\nbeing until all His life we know, and all its fullness has expanded our\nnatures\u2014and that will be never. Therefore we shall not die.\n\nMen's lives have been prolonged by the transfusion of blood from\nvigorous frames. Jesus Christ passes His own blood into our veins and\nmakes us immortal. The Church chose for one of its ancient emblems of\nthe Saviour the pelican, which fed its young, according to the fable,\nwith blood from its own breast. So Christ vitalises us. He in us is our\nLife.\n\nBrethren, without Jesus Christ we are orphans in a fatherless world.\nWithout Him, our wearied and yet unsatisfied eyes have only trifles and\ntrials and trash to look at. Without Him, we are 'dead whilst we live.'\nHe and He only can give us back a Father, and renew in us the spirit of\nsons. He and only He can satisfy our eyes with the sight which is\npurity and restfulness and joy. He and He only can breathe life into\nour death. Oh! let Him do it for you. He comes to us with all these\ngifts in His hands, for He comes to give us Himself, and in Himself, as\n'in a box where sweets compacted lie,' are all that lonely hearts and\nwearied eyes and dead souls can ever need. All are yours if you are\nChrist's. All are yours if He is yours. And He is yours if by faith and\nlove you make yourself His and Him your own.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIFTS OF THE PRESENT CHRIST\n\n\n'At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I\nin you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that\nloveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I\nwill love him, and will manifest Myself to him.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 20, 21.\n\nWe have heard our Lord in the previous verse unveiling His deepest and\nstrongest encouragements to His downcast followers. These were: His\npresence with them, their true sight of Him, and their participation in\nHis life. The first part of our present text is closely connected with\nthese, for it gives us their upshot and consequence. Because Christ's\ntrue disciple is conscious of Christ's presence, sees Him with the eyes\nof his spirit, and draws life from Him, therefore he will know by\nexperience the deep truths of Christ's indwelling at once in the Father\nand in His servant, and of His servant's indwelling in Him. Our Lord\nhad just previously been exhorting His disciples to _believe_ that He\nwas in the Father and the Father in Him; and had been gently wondering\nat the slowness of their faith. Now He tells them that, when He is\ngone, their spiritual stature will be so increased as that they shall\n_know_ the thing which, with Him by their side, they found it so hard\nto believe.\n\nThe second part of our present text is the close of this whole section\nof our Lord's discourse, and in it He urges the requirement of\npractical obedience, as the sign and test of love, and as the condition\nof receiving these high and wonderful things of which He has been\nspeaking. He has been unveiling spiritual blessings, which may seem\nrecondite and up in the clouds, and which, as a matter of fact, have\noften been perverted into dreamy mysticisms of a most immoral and\nunpractical kind. And so He brings us sharp back again here to very\nplain truths, and would teach us that all these lofty and ineffable\ngifts of which He has been dimly speaking are to be reached only by the\ncommonplace road of honest obedience and simple conformity to His\ncommandments. In these last words of my text, He administers the\nantidote and the check to the possible abuses of the great things which\nHe has been saying.\n\nI. Note, then, first, the knowledge that comes with the Christ who\ncomes.\n\n'At that day' covers the whole period of which He has been speaking,\nbetween His withdrawal from the disciples and His final corporeal\ncoming to judgment\u2014that great day of which generations are but the\nmoments. In it the men who love Him are to have His presence, His\nvision, His life, and because they have, 'Ye shall know that I am in My\nFather, and ye in Me, and I in you,' The principle that underlies these\nwonderful words is that Christian experience is the best teacher of\nfundamental Christian truth. Observe with what decision, and with what\nstrange boldness, our Lord carries that principle into regions where we\nmight suppose at first sight that it was altogether inapplicable. 'Ye\nshall know that I am in My Father.' How can such a thing as the\nrelation between Christ and God ever be a matter of consciousness to us\nhere upon earth? Must it not always be a truth that we must take on\ntrust and believe because we have been told it, without having any\nverification in ourselves? Not so; remember what has gone before. If a\nman has the consciousness of Christ's presence with Him, sees Him with\nthe true inward eye, which is the only real organ of real vision, and\nis drawing from Him, moment by moment, His own high and immortal life,\nthen is it not true that this man's experiences are of such a sort as\nto be utterly inexplicable, except on the ground that they come from a\ndivine source? If I have these experiences I know that it is Jesus\nChrist who gives them, and I know that He could not give them, if He\ndid not dwell in God and were not divine. These new influences, this\nrevolution in my being, this healing, constraining, cleansing touch,\nthese calming, gladdening, elevating powers, these new hopes, these\nreversed desires, loving all to which I was formerly indifferent, and\ngrowing dead to all that formerly appealed most strongly to me; all\nthese things bear upon their very front the signature that they are\nwrought by a divine hand, and as sure as I am of my own Christian\nconsciousness, so sure am I that all its experiences proclaim their\nAuthor, and that Christ who gives me them is in God. 'Ye shall know\nthat I am in My Father.'\n\nThe New Testament, as I read it, is full at every point of the divinity\nof Jesus Christ; and many profound and learned arguments on that\nsubject have been urged by theologians, and these are all well and\nneedful in their places, but the true way to be sure of it is to have\nHim dwelling with us and working in us; and then what was an article of\nbelief becomes an article of knowledge, and we know Him to be our\nSaviour and the Son of God.\n\nIn like manner, and yet more obviously, the other elements of this\nknowledge which Christ promises here may be shown to flow naturally and\nnecessarily from Christian experiences. 'That ye are in Me, and I in\nyou,'\u2014if a Christian man carries the consciousness of Christ's\npresence, and has Him as a Sun in his darkness, and as a Life-source\nfeeding his deadness with life, then he knows with a consciousness\nwhich is irrefragable that Jesus Christ is in him, for he feels His\ntouch; and he knows that he is in Christ, for he is aware of the power\nthat girdles him, and in which he has peace and righteousness and all.\n\nSo, dear brethren, let us learn what the Christian man's experience\nought to be and to do for him. It should change the articles of our\ncreed into elements of our consciousness. It should make all the\nfundamentals of the Gospel vitally and vividly true; and certified by\nwhat has passed within our own spirits We should be able to say: 'We\nhave the witness in ourselves.' And though there will remain much that\nis uncertain, much in Christian doctrine which is not capable of that\nclear and all-sufficing verification; much about which we must still\ndepend on the mere teaching of others, or on our own study, the central\nfacts which make the Gospel may all become, by this plain and short\npath, elements of our very consciousness which stand undeniable to us,\nwhosoever denies them.\n\nSuch a direct way to knowledge is reasonable, is in full analogy with\nthe manner by which we attain to the knowledge of everything except the\nmere external facts, the knowledge of which has arrogated to itself the\nexclusive name of 'science,' How do you know anything about love? You\nmay read poems and tragedies to the end of time, and you will not\nunderstand it until you come under its spell for yourself; and then all\nthe things that men said about it cease to be mere words, because you\nyourself have experienced the emotion.\n\n  'He must be loved, ere that to you\n  He will seem worthy of your love,'\n\nand the only way to be sure, with a vital certitude, of Christ, is to\ntake Christ for your very own, and then He comes into your very being,\nand dwells there quickening, the Sun and the Life.\n\nSo, dear brethren, though such certitude arising from experience, which\nin its nature is the very highest, is not available for other people,\nthe fact that so many millions of men allege that in varying degrees\nthey possess this certitude is available for other people, and there is\nnothing to be said by the unbeliever to this, the attestation of the\nChristian consciousness to the truth of the truths which it has tried.\n'Whether this man be a sinner or no, I know not.' You may jangle as\nmuch as you like about the questionable and controversial points that\nsurround the Christian revelation, I do not care in the present\nconnection what answer you give to them. 'Whether this man be a sinner\nor no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I\nsee.' And we may push the war into the enemy's quarters, and say: 'Why!\nherein is a marvellous thing, that you that know everything do not know\nwhence this man is, and yet He has opened mine eyes. You want facts;\nthere are some. You want verification; we have verified by experience,\nand we set to our seals that God is true.'\n\n'Oh but,' you say, 'this is not a fair account of the way in which\nChristian men and women generally feel about this matter.' Well, all\nthat I can say about that is, so much the worse for the so-called\nChristian men and women. And if they are Christians, and do not know by\nthis inward experience that Christ is divine and their Saviour, then\nthere is only one of two reasons to be given for it; either their\nexperience is so wretchedly superficial and fragmentary, so rudimentary\nas to be scarcely worth calling by the name or, having the facts, they\nhave failed to appreciate their significance, and to make their own by\nreflection the certitudes which are their own.\n\nBrethren, it becomes every Christian man and woman to be able to say,\n'Because I have Christ with me, and see Him, and derive my life from\nHim, I know that He is in the Father, and I in Him, and He in me.' And\nif you cannot say that, it is your own grasp of Him, or your meditation\nupon what you have got by your grasp, that is painfully and sinfully\ndefective.\n\nII. My text speaks of the obedience which is the sign and test of love.\n\nThe words here are substantially equivalent to former words in the\nchapter which we have already considered, where our Lord says: 'If ye\nlove Me, ye will keep My commandments.'\n\nThere is, however, a slight difference in the point of view in the two\nsayings; the former begins with the root and traces it upwards and\noutwards to its fruits, love blossoming into obedience. Our text\nreverses the process, and takes the thing by the other end; begins with\nthe fruits and traces them downwards and inwards to the root. 'He that\nhath and keepeth My commandments, he it is that loveth Me.' The two\nsayings substantially mean the same thing; but in the one love is put\nfirst as the cause of obedience, and in the other obedience is put\nfirst, as the certain fruit and sure sign of love. The connection\nbetween these and the preceding words is, as I have already pointed\nout, that our Lord here brings all His lofty promises down to the\nsharp, practical requirement of obedience, as the only condition on\nwhich they can be fulfilled.\n\nSo note, and very briefly about this matter, how remarkably our Lord\nhere declares the _possession_ of His commandments to be a sign of love\nto Him. 'He that _hath_,' a word which is generally passed over in our\nreading\u2014'He that hath My commandments, He it is that loveth Me.' Of\ncourse there are two ways of having His commandments; there is having\nthem in the Bible, and there is having them in the heart;\u2014present\nbefore my eye, as a law that I ought to obey, or present within my\nwill, as a power that shapes it. And the latter is the only kind of\n'having' that Christ regards as real and valid. The rest is only\npreparatory and superficial. Love possesses the knowledge of the loved\none's will. Is not that true? Do we not all know how strange is the\npower of divining desires that goes along with true affection, and how\nthe power, not only of divining, but of treasuring, these desires is\nthe test and the thermometer of our true love? Some of us, perhaps,\nkeep laid away in sacred, secret places tattered, yellow, old bits of\npaper with the words of a dear one on them, that we would not part\nwith. 'He that hath My commandments' laid up in lavender in the deepest\nrecesses of his faithful heart, he it is 'that loveth Me.'\n\nIn like manner, our Lord says, the practical obedience to His\ncommandments is the sure sign and test of love. I need not dwell upon\nthat. There are two motives for keeping commandments\u2014one because they\nare commanded, and one because we love Him that commands. The one is\nslavery, the other is liberty. The one is like the Arctic regions, cold\nand barren, the other is like tropical lands, full of warmth and\nsunshine, glorious and glad fertility.\n\nThe form of the sentence suggests how easy it is for people to delude\nthemselves about their love to Jesus Christ. That emphatic 'he,' and\nthe putting first of the character before its root is pointed out, are\ndirected against false pretensions to love. The love that Christ stamps\nwith His hall-mark, and passes as genuine, is no mere emotion, however\npassionate, however sweet; no mere sentiment, however pure, however\ndeep. The tiniest little rivulet that drives a mill is better than a\nNiagara that rushes and foams and tumbles idly. And there is much\nso-called love to Jesus Christ that goes masquerading up and down the\nworld, from which the paint is stripped by the sharp application of the\nwords of my text. Character and conduct are the true demonstrations of\nChristian love, and it is only love so attested that He accepts.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the further and sweeter gifts of divine love and\nmanifestation which reward our love and obedience.\n\n'He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him,\nand will manifest Myself to him.' Two things, then, He tells us, are\nthe rich rewards and sparkling crowns with which He crowns our poor\nlove to Him\u2014the love of the Father and the love of the Christ, separate\nand yet united, and the further manifestation of Christ's sweetness to\nthe waiting heart.\n\nNote, as to the first, the extraordinary boldness of that majestic\nsaying: 'If a man loves _Me_, My Father will love _him_.' God regards\nour love to Jesus Christ as the fulfilling of the law, as equivalent to\nour supreme love to Himself, as containing in it the germ of all that\nis pleasing in His sight. And so, upon our hearts, if we love Christ,\nthere falls the benediction of the Father's love. Of course I need not\nremind you that our Lord here is not beginning at the very beginning of\neverything; for prior to all men's love to Christ is Christ's love to\nmen, and ours to Him is but the reflection and the echo called forth by\nHis to us. 'We love Him because He first loved us' digs a story deeper\ndown in the building than the words of my text, which is speaking, not\nof the process by which a man comes to receive the love of God for the\nfirst time, but of the process by which a Christian man grows in his\npossession of it. That being understood, here is a great lesson. It is\nnot all the same to God whether a man is a scoundrel or a saint. The\ndivine love is over all its works, and embraces every variety of\nhumanity, the most degraded, alien, hostile. But in this generation, as\nit seems to me, there is great need for preaching that whilst that is\ngloriously and blessedly true, the other thing is just as true, that to\nknow the deepest depth and to taste the sweetest sweetness of the love\nof our Father God, there must be in our hearts love to Him whom He has\nsent, which manifests itself by our obedience. God's love is a moral\nlove; and whilst the sunbeams play upon the ice and melt it sometimes,\nthey flash back from, and rest most graciously and fully on, the\nrippling stream into which the ice has turned. God loves them that love\nHim not, but the depths of His heart and the secret, sacred favours of\nHis grace can only be bestowed upon those who in some measure are\nconformed, and are growingly being conformed, to His likeness in Jesus\nChrist, and who love Him and obey Him.\n\nAnd, in like manner, my text tells us that if we wish to know all that\nit is possible for us here, amidst the clouds, and shadows, and\ndarknesses, to know of that dear Lord, the path to such knowledge is\nplain. Walk in the way of obedience, and Christ will meet you with the\nunveiling of more and more of His love. To live what we believe is the\nsure way to increase its amount. To be faithful to the little is the\ncertain way to inherit the much. And Christ manifests Himself, in all\ndeep and recondite sweetness, gentleness, constraining power, to the\nmen who treasure the partial knowledge as yet possessed, in their\nloving hearts and obedient wills, and who make a conscience of\ntranslating all their knowledge into conduct, and of basing all their\nconduct on knowledge of Him. He gives us His whole self at the first,\nbut we traverse the breadth of the gift by degrees. He puts Himself\ninto our hands and into our hearts when we humbly trust Him and\nimperfectly try to love Him. But the flower is but a bud when we get\nit, and, as we hold it, it opens its petals to the light.\n\nSo, if 'any man wills to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine';\nand if, touched by His divine love and infinite sacrifice for me, I\ncast my poor self upon Him, and try to love Him back again, and to keep\nHis commandments because I love, then day by day I shall realise more\nand more of His strong, immortal, all-satisfying love, and see more and\nmore deeply into that Saviour, whose infinite beauties remain\nunrevealed after all revelation, and to know more and more of whom\nshall be the Heaven of Heavens yonder, as it is the joy and life of the\nsoul here.\n\n\n\n\nWHO BRING CHRIST\n\n\n'Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt\nmanifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and\nsaid unto him, If a man love Me he will keep My words: and My Father\nwill love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.\nHe that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye\nhear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 22-24.\n\nThis Judas held but a low place amongst the Apostles. In all the lists\nhe is one of the last of the groups of fours, into which they are\ndivided, and which were evidently arranged according to their spiritual\nnearness to the Master. His question is exactly that which a listener,\nwith some dim, confused glimmer of Christ's meaning, might be expected\nto ask. He grasps at His last words about manifesting Himself to\ncertain persons; he rightly feels that he and his brethren possess the\nqualification of love. He rightly understands that our Lord\ncontemplates no public showing of Himself, and that disappoints him. It\nwas only a day or two ago that Jesus seemed to them to have begun to do\nwhat they had always wanted Him to do, manifest Himself to the world.\nAnd now, as he thinks, something unknown to them must have happened in\norder to make Him change His course, and go back to the old plan of a\nsecret communication. And so he says, 'Lord! what has come to pass to\ninduce you to abandon and falter upon the course on which we entered,\nwhen you rode into Jerusalem with the shouting crowd?'\n\nHis question is no better in intelligence, though it is a great deal\nbetter in spirit, than the taunt of Christ's brethren, 'If Thou do\nthese things, show Thyself to the world.' Judas, too, thought of the\nsimple flashing of His Messianic glory, in some visible, vulgar form,\nbefore else blind eyes.\n\nHow sad and chilling such a question must have been to Jesus! Slow\nscholars we all are; and with what wonderful patience, without a word\nof pain, or of rebuke, He reiterates His lesson, here a little and\nthere a little, and once more unfolds the conditions of His\nself-revelation, and the fullness of the blessings that He brings. He\nmoulds His words so as to meet both the clauses of Judas's foolish\nquestion\u2014'To us, not to the world'; and quietly tells them the positive\nconditions and the negative disqualifications for His self-revelation.\nSo my text deals with two things, the crown of loving obedience in the\npossession of a fuller Christ, and the impassable barrier to His\nmanifestation which unloving disobedience makes. Or to put it into\nbriefer words, we have in one of the verses\u2014first, what brings Christ\nand what Christ brings; and, in the other, second, what keeps away\nChrist and all His gifts. Now let us look at these two things.\n\nI. We have what brings Christ and what Christ brings.\n\n'If a man love Me, He will keep My word' (not 'words,' as our\nAuthorised Version has it), 'and My Father will love him, and We will\ncome unto him, and make Our abode with him.' Now notice how here, in\nthe first part of this verse, our Lord subtly and significantly alters\nthe form of the statement which He has already made. He had formerly\nsaid, 'If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments,' but now He casts\nit into a purely impersonal form, and says, 'If a man,' anybody, not\n'you' only, but anybody\u2014'If a man love Me, he,' anybody, 'will keep My\nword.' And why the change? Why, I suppose, in order to strike full and\nsquare against that complacent assumption of Judas that it was 'to us\nand not to the world' that the showing was to take place. Our Lord, by\nthe studiously impersonal form into which He casts the promise,\nproclaims its universality, and says this to His ignorant questioner,\n'Do not suppose that you Apostles have the monopoly. You may not even\nhave a share in My self-manifestation. Anybody may have it. And there\nis no \"world,\" as you suppose, to which I do not show Myself. Anybody\nmay have the vision if he observes the conditions.'\n\nNow I need not dwell at any length upon the earlier words of this text,\nbecause we have had to consider them in previous sermons on the former\nverses of this chapter. I need only remark that here, as there, our\nLord brings out the thought that the very life-blood of love is the\ntreasuring of the word of the beloved One; and that there is no joy\ncomparable to the joy of the loving heart that yields itself to the\nBeloved's will. That is true about earth, and it makes the sweetest and\nselectest blessedness of our ordinary existence. And it is true about\nheaven, and it makes the liberty and the gladness of the bond that\nknits us to Him.\n\nBut I would like just to notice, before I come to the more immediate\nsubject of my discourse, that remarkable expression, 'He will keep My\n_word_.' That is more than a 'commandment' is it not? Christ's 'word'\nis wider than _precept_. It includes all His sayings, and it includes\nthem all as in one vital unity and organic whole. We are not to go\npicking and choosing among them; they are one. And it includes this\nother thought, that every word of Christ, be it revelation of the deep\nthings of God, or be it a promise of the great shower of blessings\nwhich, out of His full hand, He will drop upon our heads, enshrines\nwithin itself a commandment. He utters no revelations, simply that we\nmay know. He utters no comforting words, simply that our sore hearts\nmay be healed, but in all His utterances there is a practical bearing;\nand every word of His teaching, every word of His sweet, whispered\nassurances of love and favour to the waiting heart, has in it the\nimperativeness of His manifested will, and has a direct bearing upon\nduty. All His _words_ are gathered into one word, and all the variety\nof His sayings is, in their unity, the law of our lives. So much by way\nof observation on the mere language of my text. And now let us look at\nwhat, as He says to us here, are the rewards and crown of loving\nobedience.\n\nChrist will show Himself to the loving heart. That is true on the very\nlowest level. Every act of obedience to any moral truth is rewarded by\nadditional insight. Every act of submission to His will cleanses the\nlenses of the telescope from some film that has gathered upon them, and\nso the stars look brighter and larger and nearer. All duty done opens\nout into a loftier conception of duty, and a clearer vision of Him. 'To\nhim that hath shall be given.' As we climb the hill we get a wider\nview. Obedience is in all things the parent of insight.\n\nBut in reference to our relation to Him, we have to do not with truths\nonly, but with a Person. How do we learn to know people? There is only\none way\u2014that is, by loving them. Sympathy is the parent of all true\nknowledge of one another. They tell us in the foolish old proverb that\n'love is blind.' No! There is not such a pair of clear eyes anywhere as\nthe eyes of love; and if we want to see into a man, the first condition\nis that we feel kindly towards him. Sympathy is the parent of insight\ninto persons, as Obedience is the parent of insight into duty.\n\nBut both of these illustrations are only imperfect preparations for the\ngreat truth here, which is that our loving obedience to the discerned\nwill of Jesus Christ has not only an operation inwards upon us, but has\nan effect outwards upon Him. I am afraid that Christian people in this\ngeneration have but a very imperfect belief in the actual,\nsupernatural, and, if you like to call it so, miraculous manifestation\nof Jesus Christ, His very Self, to men that love Him and cleave to Him.\nDo you believe as a simple revealed truth, plain as a sunbeam in such\nwords as these, that Jesus Christ Himself will do something on you, and\nin you, and for you, if you love Him and trust Him; that His hand will\nbe laid on your eyes as it was laid of old; that He will indeed, in no\nmetaphor, but in reality, show Himself to you? I may be mistaken, but I\nthink that too commonly it is the case, that even good Christian people\nhave a far more vivid and realising and real faith in the past work of\nChrist on earth than in the present work of Christ in themselves. They\nthink the one a plain truth, and the other something like a metaphor,\nwhereas the New Testament teaches us, as plainly as it can teach us\nanything, that, far above all the natural operations of truth upon our\nunderstandings, hearts, and wills, there is an actual, supernatural,\ncontinuous communication of Christ to hearts that love Him, which leads\nday by day, if they be faithful, to a fuller knowledge, a sweeter love,\na larger possession, of a fuller Christ. And it is this that He tells\nus of, to fire our ambition to attain, in such words as these.\n\nBrethren, one piece of honest, loving obedience is worth all the study\nand speculation of an unloving heart when the question is, 'How are we\nto see Christ?'\n\nAgain, Jesus shows Himself to the obedient heart in indissoluble union\nwith the Father. Look at the majesty, and, except upon one hypothesis,\nthe insane presumption, of such words as these: 'If a man love Me, My\nFather will love _him_'; as if identifying love to Christ with love to\nHimself. And look at that wondrous union, the consciousness of which\nspeaks in '_We_ will come.' Think of a _man_ saying that. It is\nblasphemous insanity; or else the speech of Him who is conscious of\nunion with the Father, close and indissoluble and transcending all\nanalogies. '_We_ will come,' together, hand-in-hand, if I may so say;\nor rather, His coming is the Father's coming. Just as in heaven so\nclosely are they represented as united, that there is but one throne\n'for God and the Lamb,' so on earth so closely are they represented as\nunited, that there is but one coming of the Father in the Son.\n\nAnd this is the only belief, as it seems to me, that will keep this\ngeneration from despair and moral suicide. The question for this\ngeneration is, Is it possible for men to know God? Science, both of\nmaterial things and of inward experiences, is more and more unanimous\nin its proclamation; 'Behold! we know not anything'; and the only\nattitude to take before that great black vault above us is to say, 'We\nknow nothing.' The world has learned half of a great verse of the\nGospel: 'No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him.' If the\nworld is not to go mad, if hearts are not to be tortured into despair,\nif morality and enthusiasm and poetry and everything higher and nobler\nthan the knowledge of material phenomena and their sequences is not to\nperish from the earth, the world must learn the next half of the verse,\nand say, 'The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He\nhath declared Him.' Christ shows Himself in indissoluble union with the\nFather.\n\nLastly about this matter, Christ shows Himself to obedient love by a\ntrue coming. 'We will come and make our mansion with him.' And that\ncoming is a fact of a higher order, and not to be confounded either\nwith the mere divine Omnipresence, by which God is everywhere, nor to\nbe reduced to a figment of our own imaginations, or a strong way of\npromising increased perception on our part of Christ's fullness. That\ngreat central Sun, if I might use so violent a figure, draws nearer and\nnearer and nearer to the planets that move about it, and having once\nbeen far off on an almost infinitely distant horizon, approaches until\nplanet and Sun unite.\n\nDear brethren, if we could only get to the attitude of simple\nacceptance of this as a literal truth, and believe that, in prose\nreality, Christ comes to every heart that loves Him, would not all the\nworld be different to us?\n\nThat coming is a permanent residence: 'We will make our abode with\nhim.' Very beautiful is it to notice that our Lord here employs that\nsame sweet and significant word, with which He began this wonderful\nseries of encouragements, when He said, 'In My Father's house are many\nmansions.' Yonder they dwell for ever with God; here God in Christ for\never dwells with the loving heart. It is a permanent abode so long as\nthe conditions are fulfilled, but only so long. If self-will, rising in\nthe Christian heart from its torpor and apparent death, reasserts\nitself and shakes off Christ's yoke, Christ's presence vanishes. In the\nlast hours of the Holy City there was heard by the trembling priests\namidst the midnight darkness the motion of departing Deity, and a great\nvoice said: 'Let us depart hence'; and to-morrow the shrine was empty,\nand the day after it was in flames. Brethren, if you would keep the\nChrist in whom is God, remember that He cannot be kept but by the act\nof loving obedience.\n\nII. Now, in the next place, my text gives us the negative side, and\nshows us what keeps away Christ and all His blessings.\n\nAn unloving disobedience closes the eyes to the vision, and the heart\nagainst the entrance, of that dear Lord. Our Master lays down for us\ntwo principles, and leaves us to draw the conclusion for ourselves.\n\nThe first is, 'He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings.' No love,\nno obedience. That is plainly true, because the heart of all the\ncommandments is love, and where that is not, disobedience to their very\nspirit is. It is plainly true, because there is no power that will lead\nmen to true obedience to Christ's yoke except the power of love. His\ncommandments are too alien from our nature ever to be kept, unless by\nthe might of love. It was only the rising sunbeam that could draw music\nfrom the stony lips of Memnon, as he gazed out across the desert, and\nit is only when Christ's love shines on our faces that we open our lips\nin praise, and move our hands in service. Those great rocking-stones\ndown in Cornwall stand unmoved by any tempest, but a child's finger,\nlaid on the right place, will set them vibrating. And so the heavy,\nhard, stony bulk of our hearts lies torpid and immovable, until He lays\nHis loving finger upon them, and then they rock at His will. There is\nno keeping of Christ's commandments without love. That makes short work\nof a great deal that calls itself Christianity, does it not? Reluctant\nobedience is no obedience; self-interested obedience is no obedience;\nconstrained obedience is no obedience; outward acts of service, if the\nheart be wanting, are rubbish and dung. Morality without religion is\nnought. The one thing that makes a good man is love to Jesus Christ;\nand where that is, there, and only there, is obedience.\n\n  'Talk they of morals? O Thou Bleeding Lamb!\n   The grand morality is love of Thee.'\n\n'If a man love Me not, he will not keep My words.'\n\nThen the second principle is, disobedience to Christ is disobedience to\nGod. 'The Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's.' Christ's\nconsciousness of union so speaks out here as that He is quite sure that\nall His words are God's words, and that all God's words are spoken by\nHim. Paul has to say, 'So speak I, not the Lord.' And you would not\nthink a man a very sound or safe religious teacher who said to you, to\nbegin with, 'Now, mind, everything that I say, God says.' There are no\nerrors then, no deterioration of the treasure by the vessel in which it\nlies. The water does not taste of the vase in which it is carried. The\npersonality of Jesus Christ is never, through all His utterances, so\nseparated from God but that God speaks in Him; and, listening to His\nvoice, we hear the absolute utterance of the uncreated and eternal\nWisdom.\n\nTherefore follows the conclusion, which our Lord does not state, but\nleaves us to supply. If it be true that the absence of love of Him is\ndisobedience to Him, and if it be true that disobedience to Him is\ndisobedience to God, then it plainly follows that what keeps away\nChrist and all His gifts, and God in Him, is unloving obedience. What\nbrings Him is the obedience of love; what repels Him is alienation and\nrebellion. If the heart be full of confusion, of the world, of self, of\nunbridled inclinations, of careless indifference to His bleeding love,\nHe 'can but listen at the gate and hear the household jar within.'\n\nAnd so, dear friends, from all this there follow one or two points,\nwhich I touch very briefly. One is, that it is possible for men not to\nsee Christ, though He stands there close before them. It is possible to\ngrope at noonday as at midnight, to see only 'bracken green and cold\ngrey stone' on the hillside, where another man sees the chariots of\nfire and the horses of fire. It is possible for you\u2014and, alas! it is\nthe condition of some of my hearers\u2014to look upon Christ and to turn\naway and say, 'I see no beauty in Him that I should desire Him,' whilst\nthe man beside yon, looking at the same facts and the same face, can\nsee in Him the 'Chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely.'\n\nAnother thought is, that Christ's showing of Himself to men is in no\nsense arbitrary. It is you that determine what you shall see. You can\nhermetically seal your heart against Him, you can blind yourself to all\nHis beauty. The door of your hearts is hinged to open from within, and\nif you do not open it, it remains shut, and Christ remains outside.\n\nAnother thought is, that you do not need to do anything to blind\nyourselves. Simple negation is fatal. 'If a man love not'; that is all.\nThe absence of love is your ruin.\n\nAnd the last thought is this, that my text does not begin at the\nbeginning. Jesus Christ has been speaking about manifestations of\nHimself to the loving and obedient; but there are manifestations of\nHimself made that we may _become_ loving and obedient. You can build a\nbarrier over which these sweeter revelations, of which loyal love and\ndocile submission are the conditions, cannot rise. But you cannot build\na barrier over which the prior revelations to the unthankful and\ndisobedient cannot rise. No mountains of sin and neglect and alienation\ncan be piled so high but that the flood of pardoning grace will rise\nabove their crests, and pour itself into your hearts. You ask, How can\nI get the love and obedience of which you have been singing the praises\nnow? There is only one answer, brethren. We know that we love Him when\nwe know that He loves us; and we know that He loves us when we see Him\ndying on His Cross. So here is the ladder, that is planted in the miry\nclay of the horrible pit, and fastens its golden hooks on His throne.\nThe first round is, Behold the dying Christ and His love to me. The\nsecond is, Let that love melt my heart into sweet responsive love. The\nthird is, Let my love mould my life into obedience. And then Christ,\nand God in Him, will come to me and show Himself to me; and give me a\nfuller knowledge and a deeper love, and make His dwelling with me. And\nthen there is only one round still to roach, and that will land us by\nthe Throne of God, in the many mansions of the Father's house, where we\nshall make our abode with Him for evermore.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TEACHER SPIRIT\n\n\n'These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But\nthe Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My\nname, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your\nremembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 25, 26.\n\nThis wonderful outpouring of consolation and instruction with which our\nLord sought to soothe the pain of parting is nearing its end. We have\nto conceive of a slight pause here, whilst He looks back upon what He\nhas been saying and contrasts His teaching with that of the Comforter,\nwhom He has once already, though in a different connection, promised to\nHis followers. He speaks of His earthly residence with them as being\n'an abiding,' distinctly therein referring to what He has just said,\nthat the Father and He will, in the future, 'make their abode' with His\ndisciples. He contrasts the outward and transitory presence which was\nnow nearing its end, with the inward and continuous presence, which its\nend was to inaugurate.\n\nAnd, in like manner, with, at first sight, startling humility, He\ncontrasts 'these things,' the partial and to a large extent\nunintelligible utterances which He had given with His human lips, with\nthe complete, universal teaching of that divine Spirit, who was to\ninstruct in 'all things' pertaining to man's salvation. We have then,\nhere, sketched in broad outline, the great truths concerning the\never-present, inward Teacher of God's Church who is to come, now that\nthe earthly manifestation of Christ, whom the twelve called their\n'Teacher,' had reached a close. I think we may best gain the deep\ninstruction which lies in the words before us, if we look at three\npoints of view which they bring into prominence: the Teacher, His\nlesson, and His scholars.\n\nI. Now, as to the first, the promised Teacher.\n\nI need not repeat what I have said in former sermons as to the wide\nsweep of that word 'the Comforter,' beyond just reminding you that it\nmeans literally one who is called to the side of another, primarily for\nthe purpose of being his representative in some legal process; and,\nmore widely, for any purpose of help, encouragement, and strength. That\nbeing so, 'Comforter,' in its modern sense of _Consoler_, is far too\nnarrow for the full force of the word, which means much rather\n'Comforter,' in its ancient and etymological sense of one who, in\ncompany with another, makes Him strong and brave.\n\nBut the point to which I desire to turn attention now is this, that\nthis comforting and strengthening office of the divine Spirit is\nbrought into immediate connection here with the conception of Him as a\nTeacher. That is to say, the best strength that God, by His Spirit, can\ngive us is by our firm grasp and growing clearness of understanding of\nthe truths which are wrapped up in Jesus Christ. All power for\nendurance, for service, is there, and when the Spirit of God teaches a\nman what God reveals in Christ, He therein and thereby most fully\ndischarges His office of Strengthener.\n\nThen note still further the other designation of this divine Teacher\nwhich is here given: 'The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.' We might\nhave expected, as indeed we find in another context in this great final\ndiscourse, the 'Spirit of _Truth_' as appropriate in connection with\nthe office of teaching. But is there not a profound lesson for us here\nin this, that, side by side with the thought of illumination, there\nlies the thought of purity built upon consecration, which is the\nScripture definition of holiness? That suggests that there is an\nindissoluble connection between the real knowledge of God's truth and\npractical holiness of life. That connection is of a double sort. There\nis no holiness without such knowledge, and there is no such knowledge\nwithout holiness.\n\nThere is no real knowledge of Christ and His truth without purity of\nheart. The man who has no music in his soul can never be brought to\nunderstand the deep harmonies of the great masters and magicians of\nsound. The man who has no eye for beauty can never be brought to bow\nhis spirit before some of those embodiments of loveliness and sublimity\nwhich the painter's brush has cast upon the canvas. And the man who has\nno longings after purity, nor has attained to any degree of moral\nconformity with the divine image, is not in possession of the sense\nwhich is needed in order that he should understand the 'deep things of\nGod.'\n\nThe scholars in this school have to wash their hands before they go to\nschool, and come there with clean hands and clean hearts. Foulness and\nthe love of it are bars to all understanding of God's truth. And, on\nthe other hand, the truest inducements, motives, and powers for purity\nare found in that great word which is all 'according to godliness,' and\nis meant much rather to make us good than to make us wise.\n\nSo, in this designation of the teaching Spirit as holy, there lie\nlessons for two classes of people. All fanatical professions of\npossessing divine illumination, which are not warranted and sealed by\npurity of life, are lies or self-delusion. And, on the other hand,\ncoldblooded intellectualism will never force the locks of the palace of\ndivine truth, but they that come there must have clean hands and a pure\nheart; and only those who have the love and the longing for goodness\nwill be wise scholars in Christ's school. Your theology is nothing\nunless its distinct outcome is morality, and you must be prepared to\naccept the painful, the punitive, the purifying influences of that\ndivine Spirit on your moral natures if you want to have His\nenlightening influences shining on the 'truth as it is in Jesus.' 'If\nany man wills to do His will, he,' and only he, 'shall know of the\ndoctrine.' Knowledge and holiness are as inseparable in divine things\nas light and heat.\n\nAnd still further note that this great Teacher is 'sent by God' in\nChrist's name. That pregnant phrase, 'In My name,' cannot be\nrepresented by any one form of expression into which we may translate\nit, but covers a larger space. God in Christ's name sends the Spirit.\nThat is to say, in some deep sense God acts as Christ's representative;\njust as Christ comes in the Father's name and acts as His\nrepresentative. And, again, God sends in Christ's name; that is, the\nhistorical manifestation of Christ is the basis on which the sending of\nthe Spirit is possible and rests. The revelation had to be complete\nbefore He who came to unfold the meaning of the revelation had material\nto work upon. The Spirit, which is sent in Christ's name, has, for the\nbasis of His mission, and the means by which He acts, the recorded\nfacts of Christ's life and death, these and none other.\n\nAnd then note finally about this matter, the strong and unmistakable\ndeclaration here, that that divine Spirit is a person: 'He shall teach\nyou all things.' They tell us that the doctrine of the Trinity is not\nin the New Testament. The word is not, but the thing is. In this verse\nwe have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit brought into such close and\nindissoluble union as is only vindicated from the charge of blasphemy\nby the belief in the divinity of each. Just as the Apostolic\nbenediction, 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God\nthe Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit' necessarily involves\nthe divinity of all who are thus invoked, so we stand here in the\npresence of a truth which pierces into the deeps of Deity. That divine\nSpirit is more than an influence. 'He shall teach,' and He can be\ngrieved by evil and sin. I do not enlarge upon these thoughts. My\npurpose is mainly to bring them out clearly before you.\n\nII. I pass in the second place to the consideration of the Lesson which\nthis promised Teacher gives.\n\nMark the words, 'He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to\nyour remembrance, whatsoever _I_ have said unto you.' Now as we have\nseen in the exposition of the words 'in My name,' the whole\nsubject-matter of the divine Spirit's teaching is the life and work and\ndeath and person of Jesus Christ. 'He shall teach you all things' is\nwider than 'He shall bring all things which I have said to you to your\nremembrance.' But whilst that is so, the clear implication of the words\nbefore us is that Christ is the lesson book, of which the divine Spirit\nis the Teacher. His weapon, to take another metaphor, with which He\nplies men's hearts and minds and wills, convincing the world of sin and\nof righteousness and of judgment, and leading those who are convinced\ninto deeper knowledge and larger wisdom, is the recorded facts\nconcerning the life and manifestation of Jesus Christ. The significance\nof this lesson book, the history of our Lord, cannot be unfolded all at\nonce. There is something altogether unique in the incorruption and\ngerminant power of all His deeds and of all His words. This Carpenter\nof Nazareth has reached the heights which the greatest thinkers and\npoets of the past have never reached, or only in little snatches and\nfragments of their words. _His_ words open out, generation after\ngeneration, into undreamed-of wisdom, and there are found to be hived\nin them stores of sweetness that were never suspected until the\noccasion came that drew them forth. The world and the Church received\nChrist, as it were, in the dark; and, as with some man receiving a\nprecious gift as the morning was dawning, each fresh moment revealed,\nas the light grew, new beauties and new preciousness in the thing\npossessed. So Christ, in His infinite significance, fresh and new for\nall generations, was given at first, and ever since the Church and the\nworld have been learning the meaning of the gift which they received.\nChrist's words are inexhaustible, and the Spirit's teaching is to\nunveil more and more of the infinite significance that lies in the\napparently least significant of them.\n\nNow, then, note that if this be our Lord's meaning here, Jesus Christ\nplainly anticipated that, after His departure from earth, there should\nbe a development of Christian doctrine. We are often taunted with the\nfact, which is exaggerated for the purpose of controversy, that a clear\nand full statement of the central truths which orthodox Christianity\nholds, is found rather in the Apostolic epistles than in the Master's\nwords, and the shallow axiom is often quoted with great approbation:\n'Jesus Christ is our Master, and not Paul.' I do not grant that the\ngerms and the central truths of the Gospel are not to be found in\nChrist's words, but I admit that the full, articulate statement of them\nis to be found rather in the servant's letters, and I say that that is\nexactly what Jesus Christ told us to expect, that after He was gone,\nwords that had been all obscure, and thoughts that had been only\nfragmentarily intelligible, would come to be seen clearly, and would be\ndiscerned for what they were. The earlier disciples had only a very\npartial grasp of Christ's nature. They knew next to nothing of the\ngreat doctrine of sacrifice; they knew nothing about His resurrection;\nthey did not in the least understand that He was going back to heaven;\nthey had but glimmering conceptions of the spirituality or universality\nof His Kingdom. Whilst they were listening to Him at that table they\ndid not believe in the atonement; but they dimly believed in the\ndivinity of Jesus Christ; they did not believe in His resurrection;\nthey did not believe in His ascension; they did not believe that He was\nfounding a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom was to rule over all the world\ntill the end of time. None of these truths were in their mind. They had\nall been in germ in His words. And after He was gone, there came over\nthem a breath of the teaching Spirit, and the unintelligible flashed up\ninto significance. The history of the Church is the proof of the truth\nof this promise, and if anybody says to me, 'Where is the fulfilment of\nthe promise of a Spirit that will bring all things to your\nremembrance?' I say\u2014here in this Book! These four Gospels, these\nApostolic Epistles, show that the word which our Lord here speaks has\nbeen gloriously fulfilled. Christ anticipated a development of\ndoctrine, and it casts no slur or suspicion on the truthfulness of the\napostolic representation of the Christian truths, that they are only\nsparsely and fragmentarily to be found in the records of Christ's life,\n\nThen there is another practical conclusion from the words before us, on\nwhich I touch for a moment, and that is, that if Jesus Christ and the\ndeep understanding of Him be the true lesson of the divine, teaching\nSpirit, then real progress consists, not in getting beyond Christ, but\nin getting more fully into Him. We hear a great deal in these days\nabout advanced thought and progressive Christianity. I hope I believe\nin the continuous advance of Christian thought as joyfully as any man,\nbut my notion of it\u2014and I humbly venture to say Christ's notion of\nit\u2014is to get more and more into His heart, and to find within Him, and\nnot away from Him, 'all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' We\nleave all other great men behind. All other teachers' words become\nfeeble by age, as their persons become ghostly, wrapped in thickening\nfolds of oblivion; but the progress of the Church consists in absorbing\nmore and more of Christ, in understanding Him better, and becoming more\nand more moulded by His influence. The Spirit's teaching brings out the\never fresh significance of the ancient and perpetual revelation of God\nin Jesus Christ.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, note the Scholars.\n\nPrimarily, of course, these are the Apostolic group but the Apostles,\nin all these discourses, stand as the representatives of the Church,\nand not as separated from it. And whilst the teaching Spirit could\n'bring to the remembrance' of those only who first heard them 'the\nwords that He said unto them,' that Spirit's teaching function is not\nlimited to those who listened to the Lord Jesus. The fire that was\nkindled on Pentecost has not died down into grey ashes, nor the river\nthat then broke forth been sucked up by thirsty sands of successive\ngenerations, but the fire is still with us, and the river still flows\nnear our lips, and we, too, may be taught by that divine Spirit. For\nthis very Evangelist, in writing his Epistle, has at least two distinct\nreferences to, and almost verbal quotations of, this promise, when he\nsays, addressing all his Asiatic brethren, 'Ye have an unction from the\nHoly One, and know all things.' And again, 'The unction which ye have\nof Him abideth with you, and ye need not that any man should teach\nyou.'\n\nSo, then, Christian men and women, every believing soul has this divine\nSpirit for His Teacher, and the humblest of us may, if we will, learn\nof Him and be led by Him into profounder knowledge of that great Lord.\n\nOh! dear brethren, the belief in the actual presence with the Church of\na Spirit that teaches all faithful members thereof, is far too much\nhesitatingly held by the common Christianity of this day. We ought to\nbe the standing witnesses in the world of the reality of a supernatural\ninfluence, and how can we be, if we do not believe it ourselves, and\nnever feel that we are under it?\n\nBut whilst a continuous inspiration from that self-same Spirit is the\nprerogative of all believing souls, let us not forget that the early\nteaching is the standard by which all such must be tried. As to the\nfirst disciples the office of the divine Spirit was to bring before\nthem the deep significance of their Master's life and words, so to us\nthe office of the teaching Spirit is to bring to our minds the deep\nsignificance of the record by these earliest scholars of what they\nlearned from Him. The authority of the New Testament over our faith is\nbased upon these words, and Paul's warning applies especially to this\ngeneration, with its thoughts about a continuous inspiration and\noutgrowing of the New Testament teaching: 'If a man think himself to be\nspiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you\nare the commandments of the Lord.'\n\nNow from all this take three counsels. Let this great promise fill us\nwith shame. Look at Christendom. Does it not contradict such words as\nthese? Disputatious sects, Christians scarcely agreed upon any one of\nthe great central doctrines, seem a strange fulfilment. The present\ncondition of Christendom does not prove that Jesus Christ did not send\nthe Spirit, but it does prove that Christ's followers have been wofully\nremiss and negligent in their acceptance and use of the Spirit. What\nslow scholars we are! How little we have learnt! How we have let\npassion, prejudice, human voices, the babble of men's tongues, anybody\nand everybody, take the office of teaching us God's truth, instead of\nwaiting before Him and letting His Spirit teach us! It is the shame of\nus Christians that, with such a Teacher, we, 'when for the time we\nought to be teachers, have need that one teach us again which be the\nfirst principles of the oracles of Christ!'\n\nLet it fill us with desire and with diligence. Let it fill us with calm\nhope. They tell us that Christianity is effete. Have we got all out of\nJesus Christ that is in Him? Is the process that has been going on for\nall these centuries to stop now? No! Depend upon it that the new\nproblems of this generation will find their solution where the old\nproblems of past generations have found theirs, and the old commandment\nof the old Christ will be the new commandment of the new Christ.\n\nFoolish men, both on the Christian and on the anti-Christian side,\nstand and point to the western sky and say, 'The Sun is setting.' But\nthere is a flush in the opposite horizon in an hour, as at midsummer;\nand that which sank in the west rises fresh and bright in the east for\na new day. Jesus Christ is the Christ for all the ages and for every\nsoul, and the world will only learn more and more of His inexhaustible\nfullness. So let us be ever quiet, patient, hopeful amidst the babble\nof tongues and the surges of controversy, assured that all change will\nbut make more plain the inexhaustible significance of the infinite\nChrist, and that humble and obedient hearts will ever possess the\npromised Teacher, nor ever cry in vain, 'Teach me to do Thy will, for\nThou art my God. Thy Spirit is good, lead me into the land of\nuprightness.'\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST'S PEACE\n\n\n'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world\ngiveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it\nbe afraid.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 27.\n\n'Peace be unto you!' was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both\nin meeting and in parting. It carries us back to a state of society in\nwhich every stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep\nunrest of the human heart. Christ was about closing His discourse, and\nthe common word of leave-taking came naturally to His lips; just as\nwhen He first met His followers after the Resurrection, He soothed\ntheir fears by the calm and familiar greeting, 'Peace be unto you!' But\ncommon words deepen their force and meaning when He uses them. In Him\n'all things become new,' and on His lips the conventional threadbare\nsalutation changes into a tender and mysterious communication of a real\ngift. His words are deeds, and His wishes for His disciples fulfil\nthemselves.\n\nI. So we have here, first, the greeting, which is a gift.\n\n'Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.' We have seen, in\nformer discourses on this chapter, how prominently and repeatedly our\nLord insists on the great truth of His dwelling with and in His\ndisciples. He gives His peace because He gives Himself; and in the\nbestowal of His life He bestows, in so far as we possess the gift, the\nqualities and attributes of that life. His peace is inseparable from\nHis presence. It comes with Him, like an atmosphere; it is never where\nHe is not. It was His peace inasmuch as, in His own experience, He\npossessed it. His manhood was untroubled by perturbation or tumult, by\npassions or contending desires, and no outward things could break His\ncalm. If we open our hearts by lowly faith, love, and aspiration for\nHis entrance, we too may be at rest; for His peace, like all which He\nis and has, is His that it may be ours.\n\nThe first requisite for peace is consciousness of harmonious and loving\nrelations between me and God. The deepest secret of Christ's peace was\nHis unbroken consciousness of unbroken communion with the Father, in\nwhich His will submitted and the whole being of the man hung in filial\ndependence upon God. And the centre and foundation of all the\npeace-giving power of Jesus Christ is this, that in His death, by His\none offering for sin for ever, He has swept away the occasion of\nantagonism, and so made peace between the twain, the Father in the\nheavens and the child, rebellious and prodigal, here below. Little as\nthese disciples dreamed of it, the death impending, which was already\nbeginning to cast its shadow over their souls, was the condition of\nsecuring to them and to us the true beginning of all real peace, the\nrectifying of our antagonistic relation to God, and the bringing Him\nand us into perfect concord.\n\nMy brother, no man can be at rest down to the very roots of His being,\nin the absence of the consciousness that he is at peace with God. There\nmay be tumults of gladness, there may be much of stormy brightness in\nthe life, but there cannot be the calm, still, impregnable,\nall-pervading, and central tranquillity that our souls hunger for,\nunless we know and feel that we are right with God, and that there is\nnothing between us and Him. And it is because Jesus Christ, dying on\nthe Cross, has made it possible for you and me to feel this, that He Is\nour peace, and that He can say, 'Peace I leave with you.'\n\nAnother requisite is that we must be at peace with ourselves. There\nmust be no stinging conscience, there must be no unsatisfied desires,\nthere must be no inner schism between inclination and duty, reason and\nwill, passion and judgment. There must be the quiet of a harmonised\nnature which has one object, one aim, one love; which\u2014to use a very\nvulgar phrase\u2014has 'all its eggs in one basket,' and has no\ncontradictions running through its inmost self. There is only one way\nto get that peace\u2014cleaving to Jesus Christ and making Him our Lord, our\nrighteousness, our aim, our all. Your consciences will sting, and that\ndestroys peace; or if they do not sting, they will be torpid, and that\ndestroys peace, for death is not peace. Unless we take Christ for our\nlove, for the light of our minds, for the Sovereign Arbiter and Lord of\nour will, for the home of our desires, for the aim of our efforts, we\nshall never know what it is to be at rest. Unsatisfied and hungry we\nshall go through life, seeking what nothing short of an Infinite\nHumanity can ever give us, and that is a heart to lean our heads upon,\nan adequate object for all our faculties, and so a quiet satisfaction\nof all our desires. 'Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is\nnot bread?' A question that no man can answer without convicting\nhimself of folly! There is One, and only One, who is enough for me,\npoor and weak and lowly and fleeting as I am, and as my earthly life\nis. Take that One for your Treasure, and you are rich indeed. The world\nwithout Christ is nought. Christ without the world is enough.\n\nNor is there any other way of healing the inner discord, schism, and\ncontradiction of our anarchic nature, except in bringing it all into\nsubmission to His merciful rule. Look at that troubled kingdom that\neach of us carries about within himself, passion dragging this way,\nconscience that, a hundred desires all arrayed against one another,\ninclination here, duty there, till we are torn in pieces like a man\ndrawn asunder by wild horses. And what is to be done with all that\nrebellious self, over which the poor soul rules as it may, and rules so\npoorly? Oh! there is an inner unrest, the necessary fate of every man\nwho does not take Christ for his King. But when He enters the heart\nwith His silken leash, the old fable comes true, and He binds the lions\nand the ravenous beasts there with its slender tie and leads them\nalong, tamed, by the cord of love, and all harnessed to pull together\nin the chariot that He guides. There is only one way for a man to be at\npeace with himself through and through, and that is that he should put\nthe guidance of his life into the hands of Jesus Christ, and let Him do\nwith it as He will. There is one power, and only one, that can draw\nafter it all the multitudinous heaped waters of the weltering ocean,\nand that is the quiet, silver moon in the heavens that pulls the tidal\nwave, into which melt and merge all currents and small breakers, and\nrolls it round the whole earth. And so Christ, shining down lambent,\nand gentle, but changeless, from the darkest of our skies, will draw,\nin one great surge of harmonised motion, all the else contradictory\ncurrents of our stormy souls. 'My peace I give unto you.'\n\nAnother element in true tranquillity, which again is supplied only by\nJesus Christ, is peace with men. 'Whence come wars and fightings\namongst you? From your lusts.' Or to translate the old-fashioned\nphraseology into modern English, the reason why men are in antagonism\nwith one another is the central selfishness of each, and there is only\none way by which men's relations can be thoroughly sweetened, and that\nis, by the divine love of Jesus Christ pouring into their hearts, and\ncasting out the devil of selfishness, and so blending them all into one\nharmonious whole.\n\nThe one basis of true, happy relations between man and man, without\nwhich there is not the all-round tranquillity that we require, lies in\nthe common relation of all, if it may be, but certainly in the\nindividual relation of myself, to Him who is the Lover and the Friend\nof all. And in the measure in which the law of the Spirit of life which\nwas in Jesus Christ is in me, in that measure do I find it possible to\nreproduce His gentleness, sympathy, compassion, insight into men's\nsorrows, patience with men's offences, and all which makes, in our\nrelations to one another, the harmony and the happiness of humanity.\n\nAnother of the elements or aspects of peace is peace with the outer\nworld. 'It is hard to kick against the pricks,' but if you do not kick\nagainst them, they will not prick you. We beat ourselves all bruised\nand bleeding against the bars of the prison-house in trying to escape\nfrom it, but if we do not beat ourselves against them, they will not\nhurt us. If we do not want to get out of prison, it does not matter\nthough we are locked in. And so it is not external calamities, but the\nresistance of the will to these, that makes the disturbances of life.\nSubmission is peace, and when a man with Christ in his heart can say\nwhat Christ said, 'Not My will, but Thine be done,' Oh! then, some\nfaint beginnings, at least, of tranquillity come to the most agitated\nand buffeted; and even in the depths of our sorrow we may have a deeper\ndepth of calm. If we have yielded ourselves to the Father's will,\nthrough that dear Son who has set the example and communicates the\npower of filial obedience, then all winds blow us to our haven, and all\n'things work together for good,' and nothing 'that is at enmity with\njoy' can shake our settled peace. Storms may break upon the rocky shore\nof our islanded lives, but deep in the centre there will be a secluded,\ninland dell 'which heareth not the loud winds when they call,' and\nwhere no tempest can ever reach. Peace may be ours in the midst of\nwarfare and of storms, for Christ with us reconciles us to God,\nharmonises us with ourselves, brings us into amity with men, and makes\nthe world all good.\n\nII. So, secondly, note here the world's gift, which is an illusion.\n\n'Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.' Our Lord contrasts, as it\nseems to me, primarily the manner of the world's bestowment, and then\npasses insensibly into a contrast between the character of the world's\ngifts and His own. That phrase 'the world' may have a double sense. It\nmay mean either mankind in general or the whole external and material\nframe of things. I think we may use both significations in elucidating\nthe words before us.\n\nRegarding it in the former of them, the thought is suggested\u2014Christ\n_gives_; men can only _wish_. 'Peace be unto you' comes from many a\nlip, and is addressed to many an ear, unfulfilled. Christ says 'peace,'\nand His word is a conveyance. How little we can do for one another's\ntranquillity, how soon we come to the limits of human love and human\nhelp! How awful and impassable is the isolation in which each human\nsoul lives! After all love and fellowship we dwell alone on our little\nisland in the deep, separated by 'the salt, unplumbed, estranging sea,'\nand we can do little more than hoist signals of goodwill, and now and\nthen for a moment stretch our hands across the 'echoing straits\nbetween.' But it is little after all that husband or wife can do for\none another's central peace, little that the dearest friend can give.\nWe have to depend upon ourselves and upon Christ for peace. That which\nthe world wishes Christ gives.\n\nAnd then, if we take the other signification of the 'world,' and the\nother application of the whole promise, we may say\u2014Outward things can\ngive a man no real peace. The world is for excitement; Christ alone has\nthe secret of tranquillity. It is as if to a man in a fever a physician\nshould come and say: 'I cannot give you anything to soothe you; here is\na glass of brandy for you.' That would not help the fever, would it?\nThe world comes to us and says: 'I cannot give you rest: here is a\nsharp excitement for you, more highly spiced and titillating for your\ntongue than the last one, which has turned flat and stale.' That is\nabout the best that it can do.\n\nOh! what a confession of unrest are the rush and recklessness, the\nfever and the fret of our modern life with its ever renewed and ever\ndisappointed quest after good! You go about our streets and look men in\nthe face, and you see how all manner of hungry desires and eager wishes\nhave imprinted themselves there. And now and then\u2014how seldom!\u2014you come\nacross a face out of which beams a deep and settled peace. How many of\nyou are there who dare not be quiet because then you are most troubled?\nHow many of you are there who dare not reflect because then you are\nwretched? How many of you are uncomfortable when alone, either because\nyou are utterly vacuous, or because then you are surrounded by the\nghosts of ugly thoughts that murder sleep and stuff every pillow with\nthorns? The world will bring you excitement; Christ, and Christ alone\nwill bring you rest.\n\nThe peace that earth gives is a poor affair at best. It is shallow; a\nvery thin plating over a depth of restlessness, like some skin of turf\non a volcano, where a foot below the surface sulphurous fumes roll, and\nhellish turbulence seethes. That is the kind of rest that the world\nbrings.\n\nOh! dear friends, there is nothing in this world that will fill and\nsatisfy your hearts except only Jesus Christ. The world is for\nexcitement; and Christ is the only real Giver of real peace.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the duty of the recipients of that peace of Christ's:\n'Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'\n\nThe words that introduced this great discourse return again at its\nclose, somewhat enlarged and with a deepened soothing and tenderness.\nThere are two things referred to as the source of restlessness,\ntroubled agitation or disturbance of heart; and that mainly, I suppose,\nbecause of terror in the outlook towards a dim and unknown future. The\ndisciples are warned to fight against these if they would keep the gift\nof peace.\n\nThat is to say, casting the exhortation into a more general expression,\nChrist's gift of peace does not dispense with the necessity for our own\neffort after tranquillity. There is much in the outer world that will\ndisturb us to the very end, and there is much within ourselves that\nwill surge up and seek to shake our repose and break our peace; and we\nhave to coerce and keep down the temptations to anxiety, the\ntemptations to undue agitation of desire, the temptations to tumults of\nsorrow, the temptations to cowardly fears of the unknown future. All\nthese will continue, even though we have Christ's peace in our hearts,\nand it is for us to see to it that we treasure the peace, 'and in\neverything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our\nrequests be made known unto God,' that nothing may break the calm which\nwe possess.\n\nSo, then, another thought arises from this final exhortation, and that\nis, that it is useless to tell a man, 'Do not be troubled, and do not\nbe afraid,' unless he first has Christ's peace as his. Is that peace\nyours, my brother, because Jesus Christ is yours? If so, then there is\nno reason for your being troubled or dreading any future. If it is not,\nyou are mad not to be troubled, and you are insane if you are not\nafraid. The word for you is, 'Be troubled, ye careless ones,' for there\nis reason for it, and be afraid of that which is certainly coming. The\none thing that gives security and makes it possible to possess a calm\nheart is the possession of Jesus Christ by faith. Without Him it is a\nwaste of breath to say to people, 'Do not be frightened,' and it is\nwicked counsel to say to men, 'Be at ease.' They ought to be terrified,\nand they ought to be troubled, and they will be some day, whether they\nthink so or not.\n\nBut then the last thought from this exhortation is\u2014and now I speak to\nChristian people\u2014your imperfect possession of this peace is all your\nown fault. Why, there are hundreds of professing Christian people who\nhave some kind of faint, rudimentary faith, and there are many of them,\nI dare say, listening to me now, who have no assured possession of any\nof those elements, of which I have been speaking, as the constituent\nparts of Christ's peace. You are _not_ sure that you are right with\nGod. You do _not_ know what it is to possess satisfied desires. You\n_do_ know what it is to have conflicting inclinations and impulses; you\nhave envy and malice and hostility against men; and the world's storms\nand disasters do strike and disturb you. Why? Because you have not a\nfirm grasp of Jesus Christ. 'I have set the Lord always at my right\nhand, therefore I shall not be moved'; there is the secret. Keep near\nHim, my brother; and then all things are fair, and your heart is at\npeace.\n\nI remember once standing by the side of a little Highland loch on a\ncalm autumn day, when all the winds were still, and every birch-tree\nstood unmoved, and every twig was reflected on the steadfast mirror,\ninto the depths of which Heaven's own blue seemed to have found its\nway. That is what our hearts may be, if we let Christ put His guarding\nhand round them to keep the storms off, and have Him within us for our\nrest. But the man who does not trust Jesus 'is like the troubled sea\nwhich cannot rest,' but goes moaning round half the world, homeless and\nhungry, rolling and heaving, monotonous and yet changeful, salt and\nbarren\u2014the true emblem of every soul that has not listened to the\nmerciful call, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,\nand I will give you rest.'\n\n\n\n\nJOY AND FAITH, THE FRUITS OF CHRIST'S DEPARTURE\n\n\n'Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you.\nIf ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father:\nfor My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come\nto pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.'\u2014JOHN xiv.\n28, 29.\n\nOur Lord here casts a glance backward on the course of His previous\nwords, and gathers together the substance and purpose of these. He\nbrings out the intention of His warnings and the true effect of the\ndeparture, concerning which He had given them notice, as being twofold.\nIn the first verse of my text His words about that going away, and the\ngoing away itself, are represented as the source of joy, which is an\nadvance on the peace that He had just previously been promising. In the\nsecond of our verses these two things\u2014His words, and the facts which\nthey revealed\u2014are represented as being the very ground and nourishment\nof faith.\n\nSo, then, we have these two thoughts to look at now, the departed Lord,\nthe fountain of joy to all who love Him; the departed Lord, the ground\nand food of faith.\n\nI. The departure of the Lord is a fountain of joy to those who love\nHim.\n\nIn the first part of our text the going away of Jesus is contemplated\nin two aspects.\n\nThe first is that with which we have already become familiar in\nprevious sermons on this chapter\u2014viz., its bearing upon the disciples;\nand in that respect it is declared that Christ's going is Christ's\ncoming.\n\nBut then we have a new aspect, one on which, in His sublime\nself-repression, He very seldom touches\u2014viz., its bearing upon Himself;\nand in that aspect we are taught here to regard our Lord's going as\nministering to His exaltation and joy, and therefore as being a source\nof joy to all His lovers.\n\nSo, then, we have these thoughts, Christ's going is Christ's coming,\nand Christ's going is Christ's exaltation, and for both reasons that\ndeparture ought to minister to His friends' gladness. Let us look at\nthese three things for a little while.\n\nFirst of all, there comes a renewed utterance of that great thought\nwhich runs through the whole chapter, that the departure of Jesus\nChrist is in reality the coming of Christ. The word 'again' is a\nsupplement, and somewhat restricts and destroys the true flow of\nthought and meaning of the words. For if we read, as our Authorised\nVersion does, 'I go away and come again unto you,' we are inevitably\nled to think of a coming, separated by a considerable distance of time\nfrom the departure, and for most of us that which is suggested is the\nfinal coming and return, in bodily form, of the Lord Jesus.\n\nNow great and glorious as that hope is, it is too far away to be in\nitself a sufficient comfort to the mourning disciples, and too remote\nto be for us, if taken alone, a sufficient ground of joy and of rest.\nBut if you strike out the intrusive word '_again_,' and read the\nsentence as being what it is, a description of one continuous process,\nof which the parts are so closely connected as to be all but\ncontemporaneous, you get the true idea. 'I go away, and I come to you.'\nThere is no gap, the thing runs on without a break. There is no moment\nof absolute absence; there are not two motions, one from us and the\nother back again towards us, but all is one. The 'going' is the\n'coming'; the solemn series of events which began on Calvary, and ended\non Olivet, to the eye of sense were successive stages in the departure\nof Jesus Christ. But looked at with a deeper understanding of their\ntrue meaning, they are successive stages in His approach towards us.\nHis death, His resurrection, His ascension, were not steps in the\ncessation of His presence, but they were simply steps in the transition\nfrom a lower to a higher kind of that presence. He changed the\nlimitations and externalities of a mere bodily, local nearness for the\nrealities of a spiritual presence. To the eye of sense, the 'going\naway' was the reality, and the 'coming' a metaphor. To the eye\nenlightened to see things as they are, the dropping away of the visible\ncorporeal was but the inauguration of the higher and the more real. And\nwe need to reverse our notions of what is real and what is figurative\nin Christ's presence, and to feel that that form of His presence which\nwe may all have to-day is far more real than the form which ceased when\nthe Shekinah cloud 'received Him out of their sight,' before we can\npenetrate to the depth of His words, or grasp the whole fullness of\nblessing and of consolation which lie in them here. In a very deep and\nreal sense, 'He therefore departed from us for a season that we might\nreceive Him for ever.'\n\nThe real presence of Jesus Christ to-day, and through the long ages\nwith every waiting heart, is the very keynote to the solemn music of\nthese chapters. And again I press upon you, and upon myself, the\nquestion, Do we believe it? Do we live in the faith of it? Does it fill\nthe same place in the perspective of our Christian creed as it does in\nthe revelation of the Scripture, or have we refined it and watered it\ndown, until it comes to be little more than merely the continuous\ninfluence of the record of His past, just as any great and sovereign\nspirit that has influenced mankind may still 'rule the nations from his\nurn'? Or do we take Him at His word, and believe that He meant what He\nsaid, in something far other than a violent figure for the continuance\nof His influence and of the inspiration drawn from Him, 'Lo! I am with\nyou alway, even unto the end of the world'? 'Say not in thine heart,\nWho shall ascend up into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from\nabove, the Word,' the Incarnate Word, 'is nigh thee, in thy heart,' if\nthou lovest and trustest Him.\n\nThen, again, the other aspect of our Lord's coming, which is emphasised\nhere, is that in which it is regarded as affecting Himself. Christ's\ngoing is Christ's exaltation.\n\nNow observe that, in the first clause of our verse, there is simply\nspecified the fact of departure, without any reference to the\n'whither'; because all that was wanted was to contrast the going and\nthe coming. But, in the second clause, in which the emphasis rests not\nso much upon the fact of departure as upon the goal to which He went,\nwe read: 'I go _to the Father_.' Hitherto we have been contemplating\nChrist's departure simply in its bearing upon us, but here, with\nexquisite tenderness, He unveils another aspect of it, and that in\norder that He may change His disciples' sadness into joy; and says to\nthem, 'If ye were not so absorbed in yourselves, you would have a\nthought to spare about Me, and you would feel that you should be glad\nbecause I am about to be exalted.'\n\nVery, very seldom does He open such a glimpse into His heart, and it is\nall the more tender and impressive when He does. What a hint of the\ncontinual self-sacrifice of the human life of Jesus Christ lies in this\nthought, that He bids His disciples rejoice with Him, because the time\nis getting nearer its end, and He goes back to the Father! And what\nshall we say of the nature of Him to whom it was martyrdom to live, and\na supreme instance of self-sacrificing humiliation to be 'found in\nfashion as a man'?\n\nHe tells His followers here that a reason for their joy in His\ndeparture is to be found in this fact, that He goes to the Father, who\nis greater than Himself.\n\nNow mark, with regard to that remarkable utterance, that the whole\ncourse of thought in the context requires, as it seems to me, that we\nshould suppose that for Christ to 'go to the Father' was to share in\nthe Father's greatness. Why else should the disciples be bidden to\nrejoice in it? or why should He say anything at all about the greatness\nof the Father? If so, then this follows, that the greatness to which He\nhere alludes is such as He enters by His ascension. Or, in other words,\nthat the inferiority, of whatever nature it may be, to which He here\nalludes, falls away when He passes hence.\n\nNow these words are often quoted triumphantly, as if they were dead\nagainst what I venture to call the orthodox and Scriptural doctrine of\nthe divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it may be worth while to\nremark that that doctrine accepts this saying as fully as it does\nChrist's other word, 'I and My Father are one,' I venture to think that\nit is the only construction of Scripture phraseology which does full\njustice to all the elements. But be that as it may, I wish to remind\nyou that the creed which confesses the unity of the Godhead and the\ndivinity of Jesus Christ is not to be overthrown by pelting this verse\nat it; for this verse is part of that creed, which as fully declares\nthat the Father is greater than the Son, as it declares that the Son is\nOne with the Father. You may be satisfied with it or no, but as a\nmatter of simple honesty it must be recognised that the creed of the\nCatholic Church does combine both the elements of these\nrepresentations.\n\nNow we can only speak in this matter as Scripture guides us. The depths\nof Deity are far too deep to be sounded by our plummets, and he is a\nbold man who ventures to say that he knows what is impossible in\nreference to the divine nature. He needs to have gone all round God,\nand down to the depths, and up to the heights of a bottomless and\nsummitless infinitude, before he has a right to say that. But let me\nremind you that we can dimly see that the very names 'Father' and 'Son'\ndo imply some sort of subordination, but that that subordination,\ninasmuch as it is in the timeless and inward relations of divinity,\nmust be supposed to exist after the ascension, as it existed before the\nincarnation; and, therefore, any such mysterious difference is not that\nwhich is referred to here. What _is_ referred to is what dropped away\nfrom the Man Jesus Christ, when He ascended up on high. As Luther has\nit, in his strong, simple way, in one of his sermons, 'Here He was a\npoor, sad, suffering Christ'; and that garb of lowliness falls from\nHim, like the mantle that fell from the prophet as he went up in the\nchariot of fire, when He passes behind the brightness of the Shekinah\ncloud that hides Him from our sight. That in which the Father was\ngreater than He, in so far as our present purpose is concerned, was\nthat which He left behind when He ascended, even the pain, the\nsuffering, the sorrow, the restrictions, the humiliation, that made so\nmuch of the burden of His life. Therefore we, as His followers, have to\nrejoice in an ascended Christ, beneath whose feet are foes, and far\naway from whose human personality are all the ills that flesh is heir\nto. 'If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the\nFather; for My Father is greater than I.'\n\nSo then the third thought, in this first part of our subject, is that\non both these grounds Christ's ascension and departure are a source of\njoy. The two aspects of His departure, as affecting Him and as\naffecting us, are inseparably welded together. There can be no presence\nwith us, man by man, through all the ages, and in every land, unless\nHe, whose presence it is, participates in the absolute glory of\ndivinity. For to be with you and me and all our suffering brethren,\nthrough the centuries and over the world, involves something more than\nbelongs to mere humanity. Therefore, the two sources of gladness are\nconfluent\u2014Christ's ascension as affecting us is inseparably woven in\nwith Christ's ascension as affecting Himself.\n\nLove will delight to dwell upon that thought of its exalted Lover. We\nmay fairly apply the simplicity of human relationships and affections\nto the elucidation of what ought to be our affection to Him, our Lord.\nAnd surely if our dearest one were far away from us, in some lofty\nposition, our hearts and our thoughts would ever be going thither, and\nwe should live more there than here, where we are 'cribbed, cabined,\nand confined.' And if we love Jesus Christ with any depth of\nearnestness and fervour of affection, there will be no thought more\nsweet to us, and none which will more naturally flow into our hearts,\nwhenever they are for a moment at leisure, than this, the thought of\nHim, our Brother and Forerunner, who has ascended up on high; and in\nthe midst of the glory of the throne bears us in His heart, and uses\nHis glory for our blessing. Love will spring to where the beloved is;\nand if we be Christians in any deep and real sense, our hearts will\nhave risen with Christ, and we shall be sitting with Him at the right\nhand of God. My brother, measure your Christianity, and the reality of\nyour love to Jesus Christ, by this\u2014is it to you natural, and a joy, to\nturn to Him, and ever to make present to your mind the glories in which\nHe loves and lives, and intercedes, and reigns, for you? 'If ye love\nMe, ye will rejoice, because I go unto the Father.'\n\nII. And now I can deal with the second verse of our text very briefly.\nFor our purpose it is less important than the former one. In it we find\nour Lord setting forth, secondly, His departure and His announcement of\nHis departure as the ground and food of faith.\n\nHe knew what a crash was coming, and with exquisite tenderness,\ngentleness, knowledge of their necessities, and suppression of all His\nown feelings and emotions, He gave Himself to prepare the disciples for\nthe storm, that, forewarned, they might be forearmed, and that when it\ndid burst upon them, it might not take them by surprise.\n\nSo He does still, about a great many other things, and tells us\nbeforehand of what is sure to come to us, that when we are caught in\nthe midst of the tempest we may not bate one jot of heart or hope.\n\n  Why should I complain\n  Of want or distress,\n  Temptation or pain?\n  He told me no less.'\n\nAnd when my sorrows come to me, I may say about them what He says about\nHis departure\u2014He has told us before, that when it comes we may believe.\n\nBut note how, in these final words of my text, Christ avows that the\ngreat aim of His utterances and of His departure is to evoke our faith.\nAnd what does He mean by faith? He means, first of all, a grasp of the\nhistoric facts\u2014His death, His resurrection, His ascension. He means,\nnext, the understanding of these as He Himself has explained them\u2014a\ndeath of sacrifice, a resurrection of victory over death and the grave,\nand an ascension to rule and guide His Church and the world, and to\nsend His divine Spirit into men's hearts if they will receive it. And\nHe means, therefore, as the essence of the faith that He would produce\nin all our hearts\u2014a reliance upon Himself as thus revealed, Sacrifice\nby His death, Victor by His resurrection, King and interceding Priest\nby His ascension\u2014a reliance upon Himself as absolute as the facts are\nsure, as unfaltering as is His eternal sameness. The faith that grasps\nthe Christ, dead, risen, ascended, as its all in all, for time and for\neternity, is the faith which by all His work, and by all His words\nabout His work, He desires to kindle in our hearts. Has He kindled it\nin yours?\n\nThen there is a second thought\u2014viz., that these facts, as interpreted\nby Himself, are the ground and the nourishment of our faith. How\ndifferently they looked when seen from the further side and when seen\nfrom the hither side! Anticipated and dimly anticipated, they were all\ndoleful and full of dismay; remembered and looked back upon, they were\nradiant and bright. The disciples felt, with shrinking hearts and\nfainting spirits, that their whole reliance upon Jesus Christ was on\nthe point of being shattered, and that everything was going when He\ndied. 'We _trusted_,' said two of them, with such a sad use of the past\ntense, 'we _trusted_ that this _had been_ He which should have redeemed\nIsrael. But we do not trust it any more, nor do we expect Him to be\nIsrael's Redeemer now.' But after the facts were all unveiled, there\ncame back the memory of His words, and they said to one another, 'Did\nHe not tell us that it was all to be so? How blind we were not to\nunderstand Him!'\n\nAnd so 'the Cross, the grave, the skies,' are the foundations of our\nfaith; and they who see Him dying, rising, ascended, henceforth will\nfind it impossible to doubt. Feed your faith upon these great facts,\nand take Christ's own explanation of them, and your faith will be\nstrong.\n\nAgain, we learn here that faith is the condition of the true presence\nof our absent Lord. Faith is that on our side which corresponds to His\nspiritual coming to us. Whosoever trusts Him possesses Him, and He is\nwith and in every soul that, loving Him, relies upon Him, in a\ncloseness so close and a presence so real that heaven itself does not\nbring the spirit of the believer and the Spirit of the Lord nearer one\nanother, though it takes away the bodily film that sometimes seems to\npart their lives.\n\nWe, too, may and should be glad when we lift our eyes to that Throne\nwhere our Brother reigns. We too, may be glad that He is there, because\nHis being there is the reason why He can be here; and we, too, may feed\nour faith upon Him, and so bring Him in very deed to dwell in our\nhearts. If we would have Christ within us, let us trust Him dying,\nrising, living in the heavens; and then we shall learn how, by all\nthree apparent departures, He is drawing the closer to the souls that\nlove and trust.\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST FORESEEING HIS PASSION\n\n\n'Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the Prince of this world\ncometh, and hath nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love\nthe Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise,\nLet us go hence.'\u2014JOHN xiv. 30,31.\n\nThe summons to departure which closes these verses shows that we have\nnow reached the end of that sacred hour in the upper room. In obedience\nto the summons, we have to fancy the little group leaving its safe\nshelter, as sailors might put out from behind a breakwater into a\nstormy sea. They pass from its seclusion and peace into the joyous stir\nof the crowded streets, filled with feast-keeping multitudes, on whom\nthe full paschal moon looked down, pure and calming. Somewhere between\nthe upper chamber and the crossing of the brook Kedron, the divine\nwords of the following chapters were spoken, but this discourse,\nclosely connected as it is with them, reaches its fitting close in\nthese penetrating, solemn words of outlook into the near future, so\ncalm, so weighty, so resolute, so almost triumphant, with which Christ\nseeks finally to impart to His timorous friends some of His own peace\nand assurance of victory.\n\nThey lead us into a region seldom opened to our view, and never to be\nlooked upon but with reverent awe. For they tell us what Christ thought\nabout His sufferings, and how He felt as He went down to that cold,\nblack river, in which He was to be baptized. 'Put off thy shoes from\noff thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground.' So,\nreverently listening to the words, sacred because of the Speaker, the\ntheme, and the circumstances, we note in them these things: His calm\nanticipation of the assailant, His unveiling of the secret and motive\nof His apparent defeat, and His resolute advance to the conflict. Let\nus look at these three points.\n\nI. First, we have here our Lord's calm anticipation of the assailant.\n\n'Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the Prince of this world\ncometh, and hath nothing in Me.' One of the other Gospels tells us, in\nfinishing its account of our Lord's temptation in the wilderness, that\nwhen Satan had ended all these temptations 'he departed from Him for a\nseason.' And now we have the second and the intenser form of that\nassault. The first was addressed to desires, and sought to stimulate\nambition and ostentation and the animal appetites, and so, through the\ncravings of human nature, to shake the Master's fixed faith. The second\nused sharper and more fatal weapons, and appealed, not to desire of\nenjoyment, or ease, or good, but to the natural human shrinking from\npain and suffering and shame and death. He that was impervious on the\nside of natural necessities and more subtle spiritual desires might yet\nbe reached through terror. And so the second form of the assault,\ninstead of tempting the traveller by the sunshine to cast aside his\ncloak, tempted him by storm and tempest to fling it aside; and the one,\nas the other, was doomed to failure.\n\nNote how the Master, with that clear eye which saw to the depths as\nwell as the heights, and before which men and things were but, as it\nwere, transparent media through which unseen spiritual powers wrought,\njust as He discerns the Father's will as supreme and sovereign, sees\nhere\u2014beneath Judas's treachery, and Pharisees' and priests' envy, and\nthe people's stolid indifference, and the Roman soldiers' impartial\nscorn\u2014the workings of a personal source and centre of all. The 'Prince\nof this world,' who rules men and things when they are severed from\nGod, 'cometh.' Christ's sensitive nature apprehends the approach of the\nevil thing, as some organisations can tell when a thunderstorm is about\nto burst. His divine Omniscience, working as it did, even within the\nlimits of humanity, knows not only when the storm is about to burst\nupon Him, but knows who it is that has raised the tempest. And so He\nsays, 'The Prince of this world cometh.'\n\nBut note, as yet more important, that tremendous and unique\nconsciousness of absolute invulnerability against the assaults. 'He\nhath nothing in Me.' He is 'the Prince of the world,' but His dominion\nstops outside My breast. He has no rule or authority there. His writs\ndo not run, nor is His dominion recognised, within that sacred realm.\n\nWas there ever a man who could say that? Are there any of us, the\npurest and the noblest, who, standing single-handed in front of the\nantagonistic power of evil, and believing it to be consolidated and\nconsecrated in a person, dare to profess that there is not a thing in\nus on which he can lay his black claw and say\u2014'That is mine?' Is there\nnothing inflammable within us which the 'fiery darts of the wicked' can\nkindle? Are there any of us who bar our doors so tightly as that we can\nsay that none of his seductions will find their way therein, and that\nnothing there will respond to them? Christ sets Himself here against\nthe whole embattled and embodied power of evil, and puts Himself in\ncontrast to the universal human experience, when He calmly declares 'He\nhath nothing in Me.' It is an assertion of His absolute freedom from\nsinfulness, and it involves, as I take it, the other assertion\u2014that as\nHe is free from sin, so He is not subject to that consequence of sin,\nwhich is death, as we know it. Another part of Scripture speaks to us\nin strange language, which yet has in it a deep truth, of 'him that had\nthe power of death, that is, the devil.' Men fall under the rightful\ndominion of the king of evil when they sin, and part of the proof of\nhis dominion is the fact of physical death, with its present\naccompaniments. Thus, in His calm anticipation, Jesus stands waiting\nfor the enemy's charge, knowing that all its forces will be broken\nagainst the serried ranks of His immaculate purity, and that He will\ncome from the dreadful close unwounded all, and triumphant for\nevermore.\n\nBut do not let us suppose that because Christ, in His anticipation of\nsuffering and death, knew Himself invulnerable, with not even a spot on\nHis heel into which the arrow could go, therefore the conflict was an\nunreal or shadowy one. It was a true fight, and it was a real struggle\nthat He was anticipating, thus calmly in these solemn words, as knowing\nHimself the Victor ere He entered on the dreadful field.\n\nII. So note, secondly, in these words, our Lord's unveiling of the\nmotive and aim of His apparent defeat.\n\n'But that the world might know that I love the Father, and, as the\nFather gave Me commandment, even so I do.' There may be some\nuncertainty about the exact grammatical relation of these clauses to\none another, with which I need not trouble you, because it does not\naffect their substantial meaning. However we solve the mere grammatical\nquestions, the fundamental significance of the whole remains\nunaffected, and it is this: that Christ's sufferings and death were, in\none aspect, for the purpose that the world might know His love to the\nFather, and, in another aspect, were obedience to the Father's\ncommandment. And if we consider these two aspects, I think we shall get\nsome thoughts worth considering as to the way in which the Master\nHimself looks upon these sufferings and that death.\n\nThe first point I note in this division of my discourse is that Christ\nwould have us regard His sufferings and His death as His own act. Note\nthat remarkable phrase, 'thus I _do_.' A strange word to be used in\nsuch a connection, but full of profound meaning. We speak, and rightly,\nof the solemn events of these coming days as the passion of our Lord,\nbut they were His action quite as much as His passion. He was no mere\npassive sufferer. In them all He acted, or, as He says here, we may\nlook upon them all, not as things inflicted upon Him from without by\nany power, however it might seem to have the absolute control of His\nfate, but as things which He did Himself.\n\nThere is one Man who died, not of physical necessity, but because of\nfree choice. There is one Man who chose to be born, and who chose to\ndie; who, in His choosing to be born, chose humiliation, and who, in\nchoosing to die, chose yet deeper humiliation. This sacrifice was a\nvoluntary sacrifice, or, to speak more accurately, He was both Priest\nand Sacrifice, when 'through the Eternal Spirit He offered Himself\nwithout spot unto God.' The living Christ is the Lord of Life, and\nlives because He will; the dying Christ is the Lord of Death, and dies\nbecause He chose. He would have us learn that all His bitter\nsufferings, inflicted from without as they were, and traceable to a\ndeeper source than merely human antagonism, were also self-inflicted\nand self-chosen, and further traceable to the Father's will in harmony\nwith His own. 'Thus I do,' and thus He did when He died.\n\nThen, further, our Lord would have us regard these sufferings and that\ndeath as being His crowning act of obedience to His Father's will. That\nis in accordance with the whole tone of His self-consciousness,\nespecially as set before us in this precious Gospel of John, which\ntraces up everything to the submission of the divine Son to the divine\nFather, a submission which is no mere external act, but results from,\nand is the expression of, the absolute unity of will and the perfect\noneness of mutual love. And so, because He loved the Father, therefore\nHe came to do the Father's will, and the crowning act of His obedience\nwas this, that He was 'obedient unto death, even the death of the\nCross.' It was a voluntary sacrifice, but that voluntariness was not\nself-will. It was a sacrifice in obedience to the Father's will, but\nthat obedience was not reluctant. Christ was the embodiment of the\ndivine purpose, formed before the ages and realised in time, when He\nbowed His head and yielded up the ghost. The highest proof of His\nfilial obedience was the Cross. And to it He points us, if we would\nknow what it is to love and obey the Father.\n\nNow it is to be noticed that this motive of our Lord's death is not the\nusual one given in Scripture. And I can suppose the question being put,\n'Why did not Jesus Christ say, in that supreme moment, that He went to\nthe Cross because of His love to us rather than because of His love to\nthe Father?' But I think the answer is not far to seek. There are\nseveral satisfactory ones which may be given. One is that this making\nprominent of His love to God rather than to us, as the motive for His\ndeath, is in accordance with that comparative reticence on the part of\nJesus as to the atoning aspect of His death, which I have had frequent\noccasion to point out, and which does not carry in it the implication\nthat that doctrine was a new thing in the Christian preaching after\nPentecost. Another reason may be drawn from the whole strain and tone\nof this chapter, which, as I have already said, traces up everything to\nthe loving relations of obedience between the Father and Son. And yet\nanother reason may be given in that the very statement of Christ's love\nto God, and loving obedience to the Father's commandment as the motive\nof His death, includes in it necessarily the other thing\u2014love to us.\nFor what was the Father's commandment which Christ with all His heart\naccepted, and with His glad will obeyed unto death? It was that the Son\nshould come as the Ransom for the world. The Son of man was sent, 'not\nto be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a Ransom\nfor many.' Or, as He Himself said, in one of His earliest discourses,\n'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that\nwhosoever believeth in Him should not perish.' And for what He gave\nthat Son is clearly stated in the context itself of that passage\u2014'As\nMoses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of\nMan be lifted up.'\n\nTo speak of Christ's acceptance of the Father's commandment, then, is\nbut another way of saying that Christ, in all the fullness of His\nself-surrender, entered into and took as His own the great, eternal\ndivine purpose, that the world should be redeemed by His death upon the\nCross. The heavenward side of His love to man is His love to the\nFather, God.\n\nNow there is another aspect still in which our Lord would here have us\nregard His sufferings and death, and that is that they are of worldwide\nsignificance.\n\nThink for a moment of the obscurity of the speaker, a Jewish peasant in\nan upper room, with a handful of poor men around Him, all of them ready\nto forsake Him, within a few hours of His ignominious death; and yet He\nsays, 'I am about to die, that the echo of it may reverberate through\nthe whole world.' He puts Himself forth as of worldwide significance,\nand His death as adapted to move mankind, and as one day to be known\nall over the world. There is nothing in history to approach to the\ngigantic arrogance of Jesus Christ, and it is only explicable on the\nground of His divinity.\n\n'This I do that _the world_ may know.' And what did it matter to the\nworld? Why should it be of any importance that the world should know?\nFor one plain reason, because true knowledge of the true nature and\nmotive of that death breaks the dominion of the Prince of this world,\nand sets men free from his tyranny. Emancipation, hope, victory,\npurity, the passing from the tyranny of the darkness into the blessed\nkingdom of the light\u2014all depend on the world's knowing that Christ's\ndeath was His own voluntary act of submission to the infinite love and\nwill of the Father, which will and love He made His own, and therefore\ndied, the sacrifice for the world's sin.\n\nThe enemy was approaching. He was to be hoist with his own petard. 'He\ndigged a pit; he digged it deep,' and into the pit which he had digged\nhe himself fell. 'Oh, death! I will be thy plague' by entering into thy\nrealm. 'Oh, grave! I will be thy destruction' by dwelling for a moment\nwithin thy dark portals and rending them irreparably as I pass from\nthem. The Prince of this world was defeated when he seemed to triumph,\nand Christ's mighty words came true: 'Now shall the Prince of this\nworld be cast out.' He would have the world know\u2014with the knowledge\nwhich is of the heart as well as the head, which is life as well as\nunderstanding, which is possession and appropriation\u2014the mystery, the\nmeaning, the motive of His death, because the world thereby ceases to\nbe a world, and becomes the kingdom of Jesus Christ.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice here the resolute advance to the conflict.\n\n'Arise, let us go hence'\u2014a word of swift alacrity. Evidently He rose to\nHis feet whilst they lay round the table. He bids them rise with Him\nand follow Him on the path.\n\nBut there is more in the words than the mere close of a conversation,\nand a summons to change of place. They indicate a kind of divine\nimpatience to be in the fight, and to have it over. The same emotion is\nplainly revealed in the whole of the latter days of our Lord's life.\nYou remember how His disciples followed amazed, as He strode up the\nroad from Jericho, hastening to His Cross. You remember His deliberate\npurpose to draw upon Himself public notice during that dangerous and\nexplosive week before the Passover, as shown in the publicity of His\nentry into Jerusalem, His sharp rebukes of the rulers in the Temple,\nand in every other incident of those days. You remember His words to\nthe betrayer: 'That thou doest, do quickly.' These latter hours of the\nLord were strongly marked by the emotion to which He gave utterance in\nHis earlier words: 'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I\nstraitened till it be accomplished!' Perhaps that feeling indicated His\nhuman shrinking; for we all know how we sometimes are glad to\nprecipitate an unwelcome thing, and how the more we dread it, the more\nwe are anxious to get it over. But there is far more than that in it.\nThere is the resolved determination to carry out the Father's purpose\nfor the world's salvation, which was His own purpose, and was none the\nless His though He knew all the suffering which it involved.\n\nLet us adore the steadfast will, which never faltered, though the\nnatural human weakness was there too, and which, as impelled by some\nstrong spring, kept persistently pressing towards the Cross that on it\nHe might die, the world's Redeemer.\n\nAnd do not let us forget that He summoned His lovers and disciples to\nfollow Him on the road. 'Let us go hence.' It is ours to take up our\ncross daily and follow the Master, to do with persistent resolve our\nduty, whether it be welcome or unwelcome, and to see to it that we\nplant no faltering and reluctant foot in our Master's footsteps. For\nus, too, if we have learned to flee to the Cross for our redemption and\nsalvation, the resolve of our Redeemer and the very passion of the\nSaviour itself become the pattern and law of our lives. We, too, have\nto cast ourselves into the fight, and to take up our cross, 'that the\nworld may know that we love the Father, and as the Father hath given us\ncommandment.' And if we so live, then our death, too, in some humble\nmeasure, may be like His\u2014the crowning act of obedience to the Father's\nwill; in which we are neither passively nor resistingly dragged under\nby a force that we cannot effectually resist, but in which we go down\nwillingly into the dark valley where death 'makes our sacrifice\ncomplete.'","title":"Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIV","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":237719}