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diff --git a/8070-h/8070-h.htm b/8070-h/8070-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43f9d99 --- /dev/null +++ b/8070-h/8070-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,24394 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Expositions of Holy Scriptures, by Alexander Maclaren</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scriptures, by Alexander Maclaren + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scriptures + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8070] +[Most recently updated: September 23, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, David King and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>Expositions of Holy Scriptures</h1> + +<h2>by Alexander Maclaren, D. D., Litt. D.</h2> + +<h3>ST. JOHN</h3> + +<p class="center"> +Vols. I and II +</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">THE WORD IN ETERNITY, IN THE WORLD, AND IN THE FLESH (John i. 1-14)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">THE LIGHT AND THE LAMPS (John i. 8; v. 35)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">'THREE TABERNACLES' (John i. 14; Rev. vii. 15; xxi. 3)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">THE FULNESS OF CHRIST (John i. 16)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">GRACE AND TRUTH (John i. 17)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">THE WORLD'S SIN-BEARER (John i. 29)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">THE FIRST DISCIPLES: I. JOHN AND ANDREW (John i. 37-39)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">THE FIRST DISCIPLES: II. SIMON PETER (John i. 40-42)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">THE FIRST DISCIPLES: III. PHILIP (John i. 43)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">THE FIRST DISCIPLES: IV. NATHANAEL (John i. 45-49)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">THE FIRST DISCIPLES: V. BELIEVING AND SEEING (John i. 50, 51)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">JESUS THE JOY-BRINGER (John ii. 1-11)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">THE FIRST MIRACLE IN CANA—THE WATER MADE WINE (John ii. 11)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">CHRIST CLEANSING THE TEMPLE (John ii. 16)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15">THE DESTROYERS AND THE RESTORER (John ii. 19)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap16">TEACHER OR SAVIOUR? (John iii. 2)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap17">WIND AND SPIRIT (John iii. 8)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap18">THE BRAZEN SERPENT (John iii. 14)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap19">CHRIST'S MUSTS (John iii. 14)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap20">THE LAKE AND THE RIVER (John iii. 16)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap21">THE WEARIED CHRIST (John iv. 6, 32)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap22">'GIVE ME TO DRINK' (John iv. 7, 26)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap23">THE GIFT AND THE GIVER (John iv. 10)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap24">THE SPRINGING FOUNTAIN (John iv. 14)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap25">THE SECOND MIRACLE (John iv. 54)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap26">THE THIRD MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL (John v, 8)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap27">THE LIFE-GIVER AND JUDGE (John v. 17-27)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap28">THE FOURTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL (John vi. 11)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap29">'FRAGMENTS' OR 'BROKEN PIECES' (John vi. 12)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap30">THE FIFTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL (John vi. 19, 20)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap31">HOW TO WORK THE WORK OF GOD (John vi. 28, 29)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap32">THE MANNA (John vi. 48-50)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap33">ONE SAYING WITH TWO MEANINGS (John vii. 33, 34; xiii. 33)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap34">THE ROCK AND THE WATER (John vii. 37, 38)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap35">THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (John viii. 12)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap36">THREE ASPECTS OF FAITH (John viii. 30, 31)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap37">'NEVER IN BONDAGE' (John viii. 33)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap38">ONE METAPHOR AND TWO MEANINGS (John ix. 4; Romans xiii. 12)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap39">THE SIXTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL—THE BLIND MADE TO +SEE, AND THE SEEING MADE BLIND (John ix. 6,7)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap40">THE GIFTS TO THE FLOCK (John x. 9)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap41">THE GOOD SHEPHERD (John x. 14, 15)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap42">'OTHER SHEEP' (John x. 16 R.V.)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap43">THE DELAYS OF LOVE (John xi. 5, 6)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap44">CHRIST'S QUESTION TO EACH (John xi. 26, 27)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap45">THE OPEN GRAVE AT BETHANY (John xi. 30-45)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap46">THE SEVENTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL—THE RAISING OF LAZARUS (John xi. 43, 44)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap47">CAIAPHAS (John xi. 49, 50)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap48">LOVE'S PRODIGALITY CENSURED AND VINDICATED (John xii. 1-1l)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap49">A NEW KIND OF KING (John xii. 12-26)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap50">AFTER CHRIST: WITH CHRIST (John xii. 26)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap51">THE UNIVERSAL MAGNET (John xii. 32)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap52">THE SON OF MAN (John xii. 34)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap53">A PARTING WARNING (John xii. 35, 36 R V.)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap54">THE LOVE OF THE DEPARTING CHRIST (John xiii. 1)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap55">THE SERVANT-MASTER (John xiii. 3-5)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap56">THE DISMISSAL OF JUDAS (John xiii. 27)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap57">THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John xiii. 31, 32)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap58">CANNOT AND CAN (John xiii. 33)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap59">SEEKING JESUS (John xiii. 33)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap60">'AS I HAVE LOVED' (John xiii. 34, 35)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap61">'QUO VADIS?' (John xiii. 37, 38)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap62">A RASH VOW (John xiii. 38)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap63">FAITH IN GOD AND CHRIST (John xiv. 1)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap64">'MANY MANSIONS' (John xiv. 2)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap65">THE FORERUNNER (John xiv. 2, 3)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap66">THE WAY (John xiv. 4-7)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap67">THE TRUE VISION OF GOD (John xiv. 8-11)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap68">CHRIST'S WORKS AND OURS (John xiv. 12-14)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap69">LOVE AND OBEDIENCE (John xiv. 15)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap70">THE COMFORTER GIVEN (John xiv. 16, 17)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap71">THE ABSENT PRESENT CHRIST (John xiv. 18, 19)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap72">THE GIFTS OF THE PRESENT CHRIST (John xiv. 20, 21)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap73">WHO BRING CHRIST (John xiv. 22-24)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap74">THE TEACHER SPIRIT (John xiv. 25, 26)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap75">CHRIST'S PEACE (John xiv. 27)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap76">JOY AND FAITH, THE FRUITS OF CHRIST'S DEPARTURE (John xiv. 28, 29)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap77">CHRIST FORESEEING HIS PASSION (John xiv. 30, 31)</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>THE WORD IN ETERNITY, IN THE WORLD, AND IN THE FLESH</h2> + +<p> +'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was +God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by Him; +and without Him was not any thing made that was made. 4. In Him was life; and +the life was the light of men. 5. And the light shineth in darkness; and the +darkness comprehended it not. 6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was +John. 7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all +men through him might believe. 8. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear +witness of that Light. 9. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man +that cometh into the world. 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by +Him, and the world knew Him not. 11. He came unto His own, and His own received +Him not. 12. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the +sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: 13. Which were born, not of +blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14. +And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the +glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.'—JOHN i. +1-14. +</p> + +<p> +The other Gospels begin with Bethlehem; John begins with 'the bosom of the +Father.' Luke dates his narrative by Roman emperors and Jewish high-priests; +John dates his 'in the beginning.' To attempt adequate exposition of these +verses in our narrow limits is absurd; we can only note the salient points of +this, the profoundest page in the New Testament. +</p> + +<p> +The threefold utterance in verse 1 carries us into the depths of eternity, +before time or creatures were. Genesis and John both start from 'the +beginning,' but, while Genesis works downwards from that point and tells what +followed, John works upwards and tells what preceded—if we may use that term in +speaking of what lies beyond time. Time and creatures came into being, and, +when they began, the Word 'was.' Surely no form of speech could more +emphatically declare absolute, uncreated being, outside the limits of time. +Clearly, too, no interpretation of these words fathoms their depth, or makes +worthy sense, which does not recognise that the Word is a person. The second +clause of verse 1 asserts the eternal communion of the Word with God. The +preposition employed means accurately 'towards,' and expresses the thought that +in the Word there was motion or tendency towards, and not merely association +with, God. It points to reciprocal, conscious communion, and the active going +out of love in the direction of God. The last clause asserts the community of +essence, which is not inconsistent with distinction of persons, and makes the +communion of active Love possible; for none could, in the depths of eternity, +dwell with and perfectly love and be loved by God, except one who Himself was +God. +</p> + +<p> +Verse 1 stands apart as revealing the pretemporal and essential nature of the +Word. In it the deep ocean of the divine nature is partially disclosed, though +no created eye can either plunge to discern its depths or travel beyond our +horizon to its boundless, shoreless extent. The remainder of the passage deals +with the majestic march of the self-revealing Word through creation, and +illumination of humanity, up to the climax in the Incarnation. +</p> + +<p> +John repeats the substance of verse 1 in verse 2, apparently in order to +identify the Agent of creation with the august person whom he has disclosed as +filling eternity. By Him creation was effected, and, because He was what verse +1 has declared Him to be, therefore was it effected by Him. Observe the three +steps marked in three consecutive verses. 'All things were made by Him'; +literally 'became,' where the emergence into existence of created things is +strongly contrasted with the divine 'was' of verse 1. 'Through Him' declares +that the Word is the agent of creation; 'without Him' (literally, 'apart from +Him') declares that created things continue in existence because He +communicates it to them. Man is the highest of these 'all things,' and verse 4 +sets forth the relation of the Word to Him, declaring that 'life,' in all the +width and height of its possible meanings, inheres in Him, and is communicated +by Him, with its distinguishing accompaniment, in human nature, of light, +whether of reason or of conscience. +</p> + +<p> +So far, John has been speaking as from the upper or divine side, but in verse 5 +he speaks from the under or human, and shows us how the self-revelation of the +Word has, by some mysterious necessity, been conflict. The 'darkness' was not +made by Him, but it is there, and the beams of the light have to contend with +it. Something alien must have come in, some catastrophe have happened, that the +light should have to stream into a region of darkness. +</p> + +<p> +John takes 'the Fall' for granted, and in verse 5 describes the whole condition +of things, both within and beyond the region of special revelation. The shining +of the light is continuous, but the darkness is obstinate. It is the tragedy +and crime of the world that the darkness will not have the light. It is the +long-suffering mercy of God that the light repelled is not extinguished, but +shines meekly on. +</p> + +<p> +Verses 6-13 deal with the historical appearance of the Word. The Forerunner is +introduced, as in the other Gospels; and, significantly enough, this Evangelist +calls him only 'John,'—omitting 'the Baptist,' as was very natural to him, the +other John, who would feel less need for distinguishing the two than others +did. The subordinate office of a witness to the light is declared positively +and negatively, and the dignity of such a function is implied. To witness to +the light, and to be the means of leading men to believe, was honour for any +man. +</p> + +<p> +The limited office of the Forerunner serves as contrast to the transcendent +lustre of the true Light. The meaning of verse 9 may be doubtful, but verses 10 +and 11 clearly refer to the historical manifestation of the Word, and probably +verse 9 does so too. Possibly, however, it rather points to the inner +revelation by the Word, which is the 'light of men.' In that case the phrase +'that cometh into the world' would refer to 'every man,' whereas it is more +natural in this context to refer it to 'the light,' and to see in the verse a +reference to the illumination of humanity consequent on the appearance of Jesus +Christ. The use of 'world' and 'came' in verses 10 and 11 points in that +direction. Verse 9 represents the Word as 'coming'; verse 10 regards Him as +come—'He was in the world.' +</p> + +<p> +Note the three clauses, so like, and yet so unlike the august three in verse 1. +Note the sad issue of the coming—'The world knew Him not.' In that 'world' +there was one place where He might have looked for recognition, one set of +people who might have been expected to hail Him; but not only the wide world +was blind ('knew not'), but the narrower circle of 'His own' fought against +what they knew to be light ('received not'). +</p> + +<p> +But the rejection was not universal, and John proceeds to develop the blessed +consequences of receiving the light. For the first time he speaks the great +word 'believe.' The act of faith is the condition or means of 'receiving.' It +is the opening of the mental eye for the light to pour in. We possess Jesus in +the measure of our faith. The object of faith is 'His name,' which means, not +this or that collocation of letters by which He is designated, but His whole +self-revelation. The result of such faith is 'the right to become children of +God,' for through faith in the only-begotten Son we receive the communication +of a divine life which makes us, too, sons. That new life, with its consequence +of sonship, does not belong to human nature as received from parents, but is a +gift of God mediated through faith in the Light who is the Word. +</p> + +<p> +Verse 14 is not mere repetition of the preceding, but advances beyond it in +that it declares the wonder of the way by which that divine Word did enter into +the world. John here, as it were, draws back the curtain, and shows us the +transcendent miracle of divine love, for which he has been preparing in all the +preceding. Note that he has not named 'the Word' since verse 1, but here he +again uses the majestic expression to bring out strongly the contrast between +the ante-temporal glory and the historical lowliness. These four words, 'The +Word became flesh,' are the foundation of all our knowledge of God, of man, of +the relations between them, the foundation of all our hopes, the guarantee of +all our peace, the pledge of all blessedness. 'He tabernacled among us.' As the +divine glory of old dwelt between the cherubim, so Jesus is among men the true +Temple, wherein we see a truer glory than that radiant light which filled the +closed chamber of the holy of holies. Rapturous remembrances rose before the +Apostle as he wrote, 'We beheld His glory'; and he has told us what he has +beheld and seen with his eyes, that we also may have fellowship with him in +beholding. The glory that shone from the Incarnate Word was no menacing or +dazzling light. He and it were 'full of grace and truth,' perfect Love bending +to inferiors and sinners, with hands full of gifts and a heart full of +tenderness and the revelation of reality, both as regards God and man. His +grace bestows all that our lowness needs, His truth teaches all that our +ignorance requires. All our gifts and all our knowledge come from the Incarnate +Word, in whom believing we are the children of God. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>THE LIGHT AND THE LAMPS</h2> + +<p> +'He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.'—JOHN i. 8. +</p> + +<p> +'He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season to +rejoice in His light.'—JOHN v. 35. +</p> + +<p> +My two texts both refer to John the Baptist. One of them is the Evangelist's +account of him, the other is our Lord's eulogium upon him. The latter of my +texts, as the Revised Version shows, would be more properly rendered, 'He was a +lamp' rather than 'He was a light,' and the contrast between the two words, the +'light' and 'the lamps,' is my theme. I gather all that I would desire to say +into three points: 'that Light' and its witnesses; the underived Light and the +kindled lamps; the undying Light and the lamps that go out. +</p> + +<p> +I. First of all, then, the contrast suggested to us is between 'that Light' and +its witnesses. +</p> + +<p> +John, in that profound prologue which is the deepest part of Scripture, and +lays firm and broad in the depths the foundation-stones of a reasonable faith, +draws the contrast between 'that Light' and them whose business it was to bear +witness to it. As for the former, I cannot here venture to dilate upon the +great, and to me absolutely satisfying and fundamental, thoughts that lie in +these eighteen first verses of this Gospel. 'The Word was with God,' and that +Word was the Agent of Creation, the Fountain of Life, the Source of the Light +which is inseparable from all human life. John goes back, with the simplicity +of a child's speech, which yet is deeper than all philosophies, to a Beginning, +far anterior to 'the Beginning' of which Genesis speaks, and declares that +before creation that Light shone; and he looks out over the whole world, and +declares, that before and beyond the limits of the historical manifestation of +the Word in the flesh, its beams spread over the whole race of man. But they +are all focussed, if I may so speak, and gathered to a point which burns as +well as illuminates, in the historical manifestation of Jesus Christ in the +flesh. 'That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the +world.' +</p> + +<p> +Next, he turns to the highest honour and the most imperative duty laid, not +only upon mighty men and officials, but upon all on whose happy eyeballs this +Light has shone, and into whose darkened hearts the joy and peace and purity of +it have flowed, and he says, 'He was sent'—and they are sent—'to bear witness +of that Light.' It is the noblest function that a man can discharge. It is a +function that is discharged by the very existence through the ages of a +community which, generation after generation, subsists, and generation after +generation manifests in varying degrees of brightness, and with various +modifications of tint, the same light. There is the family character in all +true Christians, with whatever diversities of idiosyncrasies, and national life +or ecclesiastical distinctions. Whether it be Francis of Assisi or John Wesley, +whether it be Thomas a Kempis or George Fox, the light is one that shines +through these many-coloured panes of glass, and the living Church is the +witness of a living Lord, not only before it, and behind it, and above it, but +living in it. They are 'light' because they are irradiated by Him. They are +'light' because they are 'in the Lord.' But not only by the fact of the +existence of such a community is the witness-bearing effected, but it comes as +a personal obligation, with immense weight of pressure and immense +possibilities of joy in the discharge of it, to every Christian man and woman. +</p> + +<p> +What, then, is the witness that we all are bound to bear, and shall bear if we +are true to our obligations and to our Lord? Mainly, dear brethren, the witness +of experience. That a Christian man shall be able to stand up and say, 'I know +this because I live it, and I testify to Jesus Christ because I for myself have +found Him to be the life of my life, the Light of all my seeing, the joy of my +heart, my home, and my anchorage'—that is the witness that is impregnable. And +there is no better sign of the trend of Christian thought to-day than the fact +that the testimony of experience is more and more coming to be recognised by +thoughtful men and writers as being the sovereign attestation of the reality of +the Light. 'I see'; that is the proof that light has touched my eyeballs. And +when a man can contrast, as some of us can, our present vision with our +erstwhile darkness, then the evidence, like that of the sturdy blind man in the +Gospels, who had nothing to say in reply to the subtleties and Rabbinical traps +and puzzles but only 'I was blind; now I see'—his experience is likely to have +the effect that it had in another miracle of healing: 'Beholding the man which +was healed standing amongst them, they could say nothing against it.' I should +think they could not. +</p> + +<p> +But there is one thing that will always characterise the true witnesses to that +Light, and that is self-suppression. Remember the beautiful, immovable humility +of the Baptist about whom these texts were spoken: 'What sayest thou of +thyself?' 'I am a Voice,' that is all. 'Art thou that Prophet?' 'No!' 'Art thou +the Christ?' 'No! I am nothing but a Voice.' And remember how, when John's +disciples tried to light the infernal fires of jealousy in his quiet heart by +saying, 'He whom thou didst baptise, and to whom thou didst give witness'—He +whom thou didst start on His career—'is baptising,' poaching upon thy +preserves, 'and all men come unto Him,' the only answer that he gave was, 'The +friend of the Bridegroom'—who stands by in a quiet, dark corner—'rejoices +greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice.' Keep yourself out of sight, +Christian teachers and preachers; put Christ in the front, and hide behind Him. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now let me ask you to look at the other contrast that is suggested by our +other text. The underived light and the kindled lamps. +</p> + +<p> +It is possible to read the words of that second text thus—'He was a lamp +kindled and (therefore) shining.' But whether that be the meaning, or whether +the usual rendering is correct, the emblem itself carries the same thought, for +a lamp must be lit by contact with a light, and must be fed with oil, if its +flame is to be sustained. And so the very metaphor-whatever the force of the +ambiguous word—in its eloquent contrast between the Light and the lamp, +suggests this thought, that the one is underived, self-fed, and therefore +undying, and that the other owes all its flame to the touch of that uncreated +Light, and burns brightly only on condition of its keeping up the contact with +Him, and being fed continually from His stores of radiance. +</p> + +<p> +I need not say more than a word with regard to the former member of that +contrast suggested here. That unlit Light derives its brilliancy, according to +the Scriptural teaching, from nothing but its divine union with the Father. So +that long before there were eyes to see, there was the eradiation and +outshining of the Father's glory. I do not enter into these depths, but this I +would say, that what is called the 'originality' of Jesus is only explained +when we reverently see in that unique life the shining through a pure humanity, +as through a sheet of alabaster, of that underived, divine Light. Jesus is an +insoluble problem to men who will not see in Him the Eternal Light which 'in +the beginning was with God.' You find in Him no trace of gradual acquisition of +knowledge, or of arguing or feeling His way to His beliefs. You find in Him no +trace of consciousness of a great horizon of darkness encompassing the region +where He sees light. You find in Him no trace of a recognition of other sources +from which He has drawn any portion of His light. You find in Him the distinct +declaration that His relation to truth is not the relation of men who learn, +and grow, and acquire, and know in part; for, says He, 'I am the Truth.' He +stands apart from us all, and above us all, in that He owes His radiance to +none, and can dispense it to every man. The question which the puzzled Jews +asked about Him, 'How knoweth this Man letters, having never learned?' may be +widened out to all the characteristics of His human life. To me the only answer +is: 'Thou art the King of glory, O Christ! Thou art the Everlasting Son of the +Father.' +</p> + +<p> +Dependent on Him are the little lights which He has lit, and in the midst of +which He walks. Union with Jesus Christ—'that Light'—is the condition of all +human light. That is true over all regions, as I believe. 'The inspiration of +the Almighty giveth understanding.' The candle of the Lord shines in every man, +and 'that true Light lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' Thinker, +student, scientist, poet, author, practical man—all of them are lit from the +uncreated Source, and all of them, if they understand their own nature, would +say, 'In Thy light do we see Light.' +</p> + +<p> +But especially is this great thought true and exemplified within the limits of +the Christian life. For the Christian to be touched with Christ's Promethean +finger is to flame into light. And the condition of continuing to shine is to +continue the contact which first illuminated. A break in the contact, of a +finger's breadth, is as effectual as one of a mile. Let Christian men and +women, if they would shine, remember, 'Ye are light in the Lord'; and if we +stray, and get without the circle of the Light, we pass into darkness, and +ourselves cease to shine. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, it is threadbare truth, that the condition of Christian vitality and +radiance is close and unbroken contact with Jesus Christ, the Source of all +light. Threadbare; but if we lived as if we believed it, the Church would be +revolutionised and the world illuminated; and many a smoking wick would flash +up into a blazing torch. Let Christian people remember that the words of my +text define no special privilege or duty of any official or man of special +endowments, but that to all of us has been said, 'Ye are My witnesses,' and to +all of us is offered the possibility of being 'burning and shining lights' if +we keep ourselves close to that Light. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, the second of my texts suggests—the contrast between the Undying +Light and the lamps that go out. +</p> + +<p> +'For a season ye were willing to rejoice in His light.' There is nothing in the +present condition of the civilised and educated world more remarkable and more +difficult for some people to explain than the contrast between the relation +which Jesus Christ bears to the present age, and the relation which all other +great names in the past—philosophers, poets, guides of men—bear to it. There is +nothing in the world the least like the vividness, the freshness, the +closeness, of the personal relation which thousands and thousands of people, +with common sense in their heads, bear to that Man who died nineteen hundred +years ago. All others pass, sooner or later, into the darkness. Thickening +mists of oblivion, fold by fold, gather round the brightest names. But here is +Jesus Christ, whom all classes of thinkers and social reformers have to reckon +with to-day, who is a living power amongst the trivialities of the passing +moment, and in whose words and in the teaching of whose life serious men feel +that there lie undeveloped yet, and certainly not yet put into practice, +principles which are destined to revolutionise society and change the world. +And how does that come? +</p> + +<p> +I am not going to enter upon that question; I only ask you to think of the +contrast between His position, in this generation, to communities and +individuals, and the position of all other great names which lie in the past. +Why, it does not take more than a lifetime such as mine, for instance, to +remember how the great lights that shone seventy years ago in English thinking +and in English literature, have for the most part gone out, and what we young +men thought to be bright particular stars, this new generation pooh-poohs as +mere exhalations from the marsh or twinkling and uncertain tapers, and you will +find their books in the twopenny-box at the bookseller's door. A cynical +diplomatist, in one of our modern dramas, sums it up, after seeing the death of +a revolutionary, 'I have known eight leaders of revolts.' And some of us could +say, 'We have known about as many guides of men who have been forgotten and +passed away.' 'His Name shall endure for ever. His name shall continue as long +as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him; all generations shall call Him +blessed.' Even Shelley had the prophecy forced from him— +</p> + +<p> + 'The moon of Mahomet<br /> + Arose and it shall set,<br /> + While blazoned as on heaven's eternal noon,<br /> + The Cross leads generations on.' +</p> + +<p> +We may sum up the contrast between the undying Light and the lamps that go out +in the old words: 'They truly were many, because they were not suffered to +continue by reason of death, but this Man, because He continueth ever… is able +to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God through Him.' +</p> + +<p> +So, brethren, when lamps are quenched, let us look to the Light. When our own +lives are darkened because our household light is taken from its candlestick, +let us lift up our hearts and hopes to Him that abideth for ever. Do not let us +fall into the folly, and commit the sin, of putting our heart's affections, our +spirit's trust, upon any that can pass and that must change. We need a Person +whom we can clasp, and who never will glide from our hold. We need a Light +uncreated, self-fed, eternal. 'Whilst ye have the Light, believe in the Light, +that ye may be the children of light.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>'THREE TABERNACLES'</h2> + +<p> +'The Word … dwelt among us.'—JOHN i. 14. +</p> + +<p> +'… He that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them.'—REV. vii. 15. +</p> + +<p> +'… Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with +them.'—REV. xxi. 3. +</p> + +<p> +The word rendered 'dwelt' in these three passages, is a peculiar one. It is +only found in the New Testament—in this Gospel and in the Book of Revelation. +That fact constitutes one of the many subtle threads of connection between +these two books, which at first sight seem so extremely unlike each other; and +it is a morsel of evidence in favour of the common authorship of the Gospel and +of the Apocalypse, which has often, and very vehemently in these latter days of +criticism, been denied. +</p> + +<p> +The force of the word, however, is the matter to which I desire especially to +draw attention. It literally means 'to dwell in a tent,' or, if we may use such +a word, 'to tabernacle,' and there is no doubt a reference to the Tabernacle in +which the divine Presence abode in the wilderness and in the land of Israel +before the erection. In all three passages, then, we may see allusion to that +early symbolical dwelling of God with man. 'The Word tabernacled among us'; so +is the truth for earth and time. 'He that sitteth upon the throne shall spread +His tabernacle upon' the multitude which no man can number, who have made their +robes white in the blood of the Lamb; that is the truth for the spirits of just +men made perfect, the waiting Church, which expects the redemption of the body. +'God shall tabernacle with them'; that is the truth for the highest condition +of humanity, when the Tabernacle of God shall be with redeemed men in the new +earth. 'Let us build three tabernacles,' one for the Incarnate Christ, one for +the interspace between earth and heaven, and one for the culmination of all +things. And it is to these three aspects of the one thought, set forth in rude +symbol by the movable tent in the wilderness, that I ask you to turn now. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, we have to think of that Tabernacle for earth. 'The Word was +made flesh, and dwelt, as in a tent, amongst us.' +</p> + +<p> +The human nature, the visible, material body of Jesus Christ, in which there +enshrined itself the everlasting Word, which from the beginning was the Agent +of all divine revelation, that is the true Temple of God. When we begin to +speak about the special presence of Omnipresence in any one place, we soon lose +ourselves, and get into deep waters of glory, where there is no standing. And I +do not care to deal here with theological definitions or thorny questions, but +simply to set forth, as the language of my text sets before us, that one +transcendent, wonderful, all-blessed thought that this poor human nature is +capable of, and has really once in the history of the world received into +itself, the real, actual presence of the whole fulness of the Divinity. What +must be the kindred and likeness between Godhood and manhood when into the +frail vehicle of our humanity that wondrous treasure can be poured; when the +fire of God can burn in the bush of our human nature, and that nature not be +consumed? So it has been. 'In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead +bodily.' +</p> + +<p> +And when we come with our questions, How? In what manner? How can the lesser +contain the greater? we have to be content with the recognition that the manner +is beyond our fathoming, and to accept the fact, pressed upon our faith, that +our hearts may grasp it and be at peace. God hath dwelt in humanity. The +everlasting Word, who is the forthcoming of all the fulness of Deity into the +realm of finite creatures, was made flesh and dwelt among us. +</p> + +<p> +But the Tabernacle was not only the dwelling-place of God, it was also and, +therefore, the place of Revelation of God. So in our text there follows, 'we +beheld His glory.' As in the tent in the wilderness there hovered between the +outstretched wings of the silent cherubim, above the Mercy-seat, the brightness +of the symbolical cloud which was expressly named 'the glory of God,' and was +the visible manifestation of His real presence; so John would have us think +that in that lowly humanity, with its curtains and its coverings of flesh, +there lay shrined in the inmost place the brightness of the light of the +manifest glory of God. 'We beheld His glory.' The rapturous adoration of the +remembrance overcomes him, and he breaks his sentence, reckless of grammatical +connection, as the fulness of the blessed memory floods into his soul. 'That +glory was as of the Only Begotten of the Father.' The manifestation of God in +Christ is unique, as becomes Him who partakes of the nature of that God of whom +He is the Representative and the Revealer. +</p> + +<p> +And how did that glory make itself known to us? By miracle? Yes! As we read in +the story of the first that Christ wrought, 'He manifested forth His glory and +His disciples believed upon Him.' By miracle? Yes! As we read His own promise +at the grave of Lazarus: 'Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, +thou shouldest see the glory of God?' But, blessed be His name, miracle is not +the highest manifestation of Christ's glory and of God's. The uniqueness of the +revelation of Christ's glory in God does not depend upon the deeds which He +wrought. For, as the context goes on to tell, the Word which tabernacled among +us was 'full of grace and truth,' and therein is the glory most gloriously +revealed. +</p> + +<p> +The lambent light of stooping love that shone forth warning and attracting in +His gentle life, and the clear white beam of unmingled truth that streamed from +the radiant purity of Christ's life, revealed God to hearts that pine for love +and spirits that hunger for truth, as no others of God's self-revealing works +have done. And that revelation of the glory of God in the fulness of grace and +truth is the highest possible revelation. For the divinest thing in God is +love, and the true 'glory of God' is neither some symbolical flashing light nor +the pomp of mere power and majesty; nor even those inconceivable and +incommunicable attributes which we christen with names like Omnipotence and +Omnipresence and Infinitude, and the like. These are all at the fringes of the +brightness. The true central heart and lustrous light of the glory of God lie +In His love, and of that glory Christ is the unique Representative and +Revealer, because He is the only Begotten Son, and 'full of grace and truth.' +</p> + +<p> +Thus the Word tabernacled amongst us. And though the Tabernacle to outward +seeming was covered by curtains and skins that hid all the glowing splendour +within; yet in that lowly life that was lived in the body of His humiliation, +and knew our limitations and our weaknesses, 'the glory of the Lord was +revealed; and all flesh hath seen it together' and acknowledged the divine +Presence there. +</p> + +<p> +Still further the Tabernacle was the place of sacrifice. So in the tabernacle +of His flesh Jesus offered up the one sacrifice for sins for ever. In the +offering up of His human life in continuous obedience, and in the offering up +of His body and blood in the bitter Passion of the Cross, He brought men nigh +unto God. +</p> + +<p> +Therefore, because of all these things, because the Tabernacle is the +dwelling-place of God, the place of revelation, and the place of sacrifice, +therefore, finally is it the meeting-place betwixt God and man. In the Old +Testament it is always called by the name which our Revised Version has +accurately substituted for 'tabernacle of the congregation,' namely 'tent of +meeting.' The correctness of that rendering and the meaning of the name are +established by several passages in the Old Testament, as for instance, 'There I +will meet with you, to speak there unto thee, and there I will meet with the +children of Israel.' So in Christ, who by His Incarnation lays His hand upon +both, God touches man and man touches God. We who are afar off are made nigh, +and in that 'true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man' we meet God +and are glad. +</p> + +<p> + 'And so the word was flesh, and wrought<br /> + With human hands the creed of creeds,<br /> + In loveliness of perfect deeds.' +</p> + +<p> +The temple for earth is 'the temple of His body.' +</p> + +<p> +II. We have the Tabernacle for the Heavens. +</p> + +<p> +In the context of our second passage we have a vision of the great multitude +redeemed out of all nations and kindreds, 'standing before the Throne and +before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands.' The palms +in their hands give important help towards understanding the vision. As has +been often remarked, there are no heathen emblems in the Book of the +Apocalypse. All its metaphors move within the circle of Jewish experiences and +facts. So that we are not to think of the Roman palm of victory, but of the +Jewish palm which was borne at the Feast of Tabernacles. What was the Feast of +Tabernacles? A festival established on purpose to recall to the minds and to +the gratitude of the Jews settled in their own land the days of their wandering +in the wilderness. Part of the ritual of it was that during its celebration +they builded for themselves booths or tabernacles of leaves and boughs of +trees, under which they dwelt, thus reminding themselves of their nomad +condition. +</p> + +<p> +Now what beauty and power it gives to the word of my text, if we take in this +allusion to the Jewish festival! The great multitude bearing the palms are +keeping the feast, memorial of past wilderness wanderings; and 'He that sitteth +on the throne shall spread His tabernacle above them,' as the word might be +here rendered. That is to say, He Himself shall build and be the tent in which +they dwell; He Himself shall dwell with them in it. He Himself, in closer union +than can be conceived of here, shall keep them company during that feast. +</p> + +<p> +What a thought of that condition—the condition as I believe represented in this +vision—of the spirits of the just made perfect, 'who wait for the adoption, to +wit, the resurrection of the body,' is given us if we take this point of view +to interpret the whole lovely symbolism. It is all a time of glad, grateful +remembrance of the wilderness march. It is all a time in which festal joys +shall be theirs, and the memory of the trials and the weariness and the sorrow +and the solitude that are past shall deepen to a more exquisite poignancy of +delight, the rest and the fellowship and the felicity of that calm Presence, +and God Himself shall spread His tent above them, lodge with them, and they +with Him. +</p> + +<p> +And so, dear brethren, rest in that assurance, that though we know so little of +that state, we know this: 'Absent from the body, present with the Lord,' and +that the happy company who bear the palms shall dwell in God, and God in them. +</p> + +<p> +III. And now, lastly, look at that final vision which we have in these texts, +which we may call the Tabernacle for the renewed earth. +</p> + +<p> +I do not pretend to interpret the scenery and the setting of these Apocalyptic +visions with dogmatic confidence, but it seems to me as if the emblems of this +final vision coincide with dim hints in many other portions of Scripture; to +the effect that some cosmical change having passed upon this material world in +which we dwell, it, in some regenerated form, shall be the final abode of a +regenerated and redeemed humanity. That, I think, is the natural interpretation +of a great deal of Scriptural teaching. +</p> + +<p> +For that highest condition there is set forth this as the all-sufficing light +upon it. 'Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle +with them.' The climax and the goal of all the divine working, and the long +processes of God's love for, and discipline of, the world, are to be this, that +He and men shall abide together in unity and concord. That is God's wish from +the beginning. We read in one of the profound utterances of the Book of +Proverbs how from of old the 'delights' of the Incarnate Wisdom which +foreshadowed the Incarnate Word 'were with the sons of men.' And, at the close +of all things, when the vision of this final chapter shall be fulfilled, God +will say, settling Himself in the midst of a redeemed humanity, 'Lo! here will +I dwell, for I have desired it. This is My rest for ever.' He will tabernacle +with men, and men with Him. +</p> + +<p> +We know not, and never shall know until experience strips the bandages from our +eyes, what new methods of participation of the divine nature, and new +possibilities of intimacy and intercourse with Him may be ours when the veils +of flesh and sense and time have all dropped away. New windows may be opened in +our spirits, from which we shall perceive new aspects of the divine character. +New doors may be opened in our souls, from out of which we may pass to touch +parts of His nature, all impalpable and inconceivable to us now. And when all +the veils of a discordant moral nature are taken away, and we are pure, then we +shall see, then we shall draw nigh to God. The thing that chiefly separates man +from God is man's sin. When that is removed, the centrifugal force which kept +our tiny orb apart from the great central sun being withdrawn, we shall, as it +were, fall into the brightness and be one, not losing our sense of +individuality, which would be to lose all the blessedness, but united with Him +in a union far more intimate than earth can parallel. 'The Tabernacle of God +shall be with men, and He will tabernacle with them.' +</p> + +<p> +Do not let us forget that this highest and ultimate hope that is held forth +here, of the union and communion, perfect and perpetual, of humanity with God, +does not sweep aside Jesus Christ. For through all eternity the Everlasting +Word, the Christ who bears our nature in its glorified form, or, rather, whose +nature in its glorified form we shall bear, is the Medium of Revelation, and +the Medium of communication between man and God. +</p> + +<p> +'I saw no Temple therein,' says this final vision of the Apocalypse, but 'God +Almighty and the Lamb,' and these are the Temples thereof. Therefore through +eternity God shall tabernacle with men, as He does tabernacle with us now +through Him, in whom dwelleth as in its perennial habitation, 'all the fulness +of the Godhead bodily.' +</p> + +<p> +So we have the three tabernacles, for earth, for heaven, for the renewed earth; +and these three, if I may say so, are like the triple division of that ancient +Tabernacle in the wilderness: the Outer Court; the Holy Place; the Holiest of +all. Let us enter into that outer court, and abide and commune with that God +who comes near to us, revealing, forgiving, in the person of His Son, and then +we shall pass from court to court, 'and go from strength to strength, until +every one of us in Zion appear before God'; and enter into the Holiest of all, +where 'within the veil' we shall receive splendours of revelation undreamed of +here, and enjoy depths of communion to which the selectest moments of +fellowship with God on earth are shallow and poor. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>THE FULNESS OF CHRIST</h2> + +<p> +'And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.'—JOHN 1.16. +</p> + +<p> +What a remarkable claim that is which the Apostle here makes for his Master! On +the one side he sets His solitary figure as the universal Giver; on the other +side are gathered the whole race of men, recipients from Him. As in the +wilderness the children of Israel clustered round the rock from which poured +out streams, copious enough for all the thirsty camp, John, echoing his +Master's words, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,' here +declares 'Of <i>His</i> fulness have <i>all we</i> received.' +</p> + +<p> +I. Notice, then, the one ever full Source. +</p> + +<p> +The words of my text refer back to those of the fourteenth verse: 'The Word was +made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.' 'And of His fulness +have all we received.' The 'fulness' here seems to mean that of which the +Incarnate Word was full, the 'grace and truth' which dwelt without measure in +Him; the unlimited and absolute completeness and abundance of divine powers and +glories which 'tabernacled' in Him. And so the language of my text, both +verbally and really, is substantially equivalent to that of the Apostle Paul. +'In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in +Him.' The whole infinite Majesty, and inexhaustible resources of the divine +nature, were incorporated and insphered in that Incarnate Word from whom all +men may draw. +</p> + +<p> +There are involved in that thought two ideas. One is the unmistakable assertion +of the whole fulness of the divine nature as being in the Incarnate Word, and +the other is that the whole fulness of the divine nature dwells in the +Incarnate Word in order that men may get at it. +</p> + +<p> +The words of my text go back, as I said, to the previous verse; but notice what +an advance upon that previous verse they present to us. There we read, 'We +beheld His glory.' To <i>behold</i> is much, but to <i>possess</i> is more. It +is much to say that Christ comes to manifest God, but that is a poor, starved +account of the purpose of His coming, if that is all you have to say. He comes +to manifest Him. Yes! but He comes to communicate Him, not merely to dazzle us +with a vision, not merely to show us Him as from afar, not merely to make Him +known to understanding or to heart; but to bestow—in no mere metaphor, but in +simple, literal fact—the absolute possession of the divine nature. 'We beheld +His glory' is a reminiscence that thrills the Evangelist, though half a century +has passed since the vision gleamed upon his eyes; but 'of His fulness have all +we received' is infinitely and unspeakably more. And the manifestation was +granted that the possession might be sure, for this is the very centre and +heart of Christianity, that in Him who is Christianity God is not merely made +known, but given; not merely beheld, but possessed. +</p> + +<p> +In order that that divine fulness might belong to us there was needed that the +Word should be made flesh; and there was further needed that incarnation should +be crowned by sacrifice, and that life should be perfected in death. The +alabaster box had to be broken before the house could be filled with the odour +of the ointment. If I may so say, the sack, the coarse-spun sack of Christ's +humanity, had to be cut asunder in order that the wealth that was stored in it +might be poured into our hands. God came near us in the life, but God became +ours in the death, of His dear Son. Incarnation was needed for that great +privilege—'we beheld His glory'; but the Crucifixion was needed in order to +make possible the more wondrous prerogative: 'Of His fulness have all we +received.' God gives Himself to men in the Christ whose life revealed and whose +death imparted Him to the world. +</p> + +<p> +And so He is the sole Source. All men, in a very real sense, draw from His +fulness. 'In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.' The life of the +body and the life of the spirit willing, knowing, loving, all which makes life +into light, all comes to us through that everlasting Word of God. And when that +Word has 'become flesh and dwelt among us,' His gifts are not only the gifts of +light and life, which all men draw from Him, but the gifts of grace and truth +which all those who love Him receive at His hands. His gifts, like the water +from some fountain, may flow underground into many of the pastures of the +wilderness; and many a man is blessed by them who knows not from whence they +come. It is He from whom all the truth, all the grace which illuminates and +blesses humanity, flow into all lands in all ages. +</p> + +<p> +II. Consider, then, again, the many receivers from the one Source. 'Of His +fulness have all we received.' +</p> + +<p> +Observe, we are not told definitely what it is that we receive. If we refer +back to words in a previous verse, they may put us on the right track for +answering the question, What is it that we get? 'He came unto His own,' says +verse 11, 'and His own received Him not; but as many as received Him, to them +gave He power,' etc. That answers the question, What do we receive? Christ is +more than all His gifts. All His gifts are treasured up in Him and inseparable +from Him. We get Jesus Christ Himself. +</p> + +<p> +The blessings that we receive may be stated in many different ways. You may say +we get pardon, purity, hope, joy, the prospect of Heaven, power for service; +all these and a hundred more designations by which we might describe the one +gift. All these are but the consequences of our having got the Christ within +our hearts. He does not give pardon and the rest, as a king might give pardon +and honours, a thousand miles off, bestowing it by a mere word, upon some +criminal, but He gives all that He gives because He gives Himself. The real +possession that we receive is neither more nor less than a loving Saviour, to +enter our spirits and abide there, and be the spirit of our spirits, and the +life of our lives. +</p> + +<p> +Then, notice the universality of this possession. John has said, in the +previous words, '<i>We</i> beheld His glory.' He refers there, of course, to +the comparatively small circle of the eye-witnesses of our Master's life; who, +at the time when he wrote, must have been very, very few in number. They had +had the prerogative of seeing with their eyes and handling with their hands the +Word of life that 'was manifested unto us'; and with that prerogative the duty +of bearing witness of Him to the rest of men. But in the 'receiving,' John +associates with himself, and with the other eyewitnesses, all those who had +listened to their word, and had received the truth in the love of it. '<i>We +beheld</i>' refers to the narrower circle; 'we <i>all</i> received' to the +wider sweep of the whole Church. There is no exclusive class, no special +prerogative. Every Christian man, the weakest, the lowliest, the most +uncultured, rude, ignorant, foolish, the most besotted in the past, who has +wandered furthest away from the Master; whose spirit has been most destitute of +all sparks of goodness and of God—receives from out of His fulness. 'If any man +have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.' And every one of us, if we +will, may have dwelling in our hearts, in the greatness of His strength, in the +sweetness of His love, in the clearness of His illuminating wisdom, the +Incarnate Word, the Comforter, the All-in-all whom 'we all receive.' +</p> + +<p> +And, as I said, that word 'all' might have even a wider extension without going +beyond the limits of the truth. For on the one side there stands Christ, the +universal Giver; and grouped before Him, in all attitudes of weakness and of +want, is gathered the whole race of mankind. And from Him there pours out a +stream copious enough to supply all the necessities of every human soul that +lives to-day, of every human soul that has lived in the past, of every one that +shall live in the future. There is no limit to the universality except only the +limit of the human will: 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life +freely.' +</p> + +<p> +Think of that solitary figure of the Christ reared up, as it were, before the +whole race of man, as able to replenish all their emptiness with His fulness, +and to satisfy all their thirst with His sufficiency. Dear brother! you have a +great gaping void in your heart—an aching emptiness there, which you know +better than I can tell you. Look to Him who can fill it and it shall be filled. +He can supply all your wants as He can supply all the wants of every soul of +man. And after generations have drawn from Him, the water will not have sunk +one hairsbreadth in the great fountain, but there will be enough for all coming +eternities as there has been enough for all past times. He is like His own +miracle—the thousands are gathered on the grass, they do 'all eat and are +filled.' As their necessities required the bread was multiplied, and at the +last there was more left than there had seemed to be at the beginning. So 'of +His fulness have all we received'; and after a universe has drawn from it, for +an Eternity, the fulness is not turned into scantiness or emptiness. +</p> + +<p> +III. And so, lastly, notice the continuous flow from the inexhaustible Source. +'Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.' +</p> + +<p> +The word 'for' is a little singular. Of course it means <i>instead of, in +exchange for</i>; and the Evangelist's idea seems to be that as one supply of +grace is given and used, it is, as it were, given back to the Bestower, who +substitutes for it a fresh and unused vessel, filled with new grace. He might +have said, grace <i>upon</i> grace; one supply being piled upon the other. But +his notion is, rather, one supply given in substitution for the other, 'new +lamps for old ones.' +</p> + +<p> +Just as a careful gardener will stand over a plant that needs water, and will +pour the water on the surface until the earth has drunk it up, and then add a +little more; so He gives step by step, grace for grace, an uninterrupted +bestowal, yet regulated according to the absorbing power of the heart that +receives it. Underlying that great thought are two things: the continuous +communication of grace, and the progressive communication of grace. We have +here the continuous communication of grace. God is always pouring Himself out +upon us in Christ. There is a perpetual out flow from Him to us: if there is +not a perpetual inflow into us from Him it is our fault, and not His. He is +always giving, and His intention is that our lives shall be a continual +reception. Are they? How many Christian men there are whose Christian lives at +the best are like some of those Australian or Siberian rivers; in the dry +season, a pond here, a stretch of sand, waterless and barren there, then +another place with a drop of muddy water in some hollow, and then another +stretch of sand, and so on. Why should not the ponds be linked together by a +flashing stream? God is always pouring Himself out; why do we not always take +Him in? +</p> + +<p> +There is but one answer, and the answer is, that we do not fulfil the +condition, which condition is simple faith. 'As many as received Him, to them +gave He power to become the sons of God; even to them that believed on His +name.' Faith is the condition of receiving, and wherever there is a continuous +trust there will be an unbroken grace; and wherever there are interrupted gifts +it is because there has been an intermitted trust in Him. Do not let your lives +be like some dimly lighted road, with a lamp here, and a stretch of darkness, +and then another twinkling light; let the light run all along the side of your +path, because at every moment your heart is turning to Christ with trust. Make +your faith continuous, and God will make His grace incessant, and out of His +fulness you will draw continual supplies of needed strength. +</p> + +<p> +But not only have we here the notion of continuous, but also, as it seems to +me, of progressive gifts. Each measure of Christ received, if we use it aright, +makes us capable of possessing more of Christ. And the measure of our capacity +is the measure of His gift, and the more we can hold the more we shall get. The +walls of our hearts are elastic, the vessel expands by being filled out; it +throbs itself wider by desire and faith. The wider we open our mouths the +larger will be the gift that God puts into them. Each measure and stage of +grace utilised and honestly employed will make us capable and desirous, and, +therefore, possessors, of more and more of the grace that He gives. So the +ideal of the Christian life, and God's intention concerning us, is not only +that we should have an uninterrupted, but a growing possession, of Christ and +of His grace. +</p> + +<p> +Is that the case with you, my friend? Can you hold more of God than you could +twenty years ago? Is there any more capacity in your soul for more of Christ +than there was long, long ago? If there is you have more of Him; if you have +not more of Him it is because you cannot contain more; and you cannot contain +more because you have not desired more, and because you have been so wretchedly +unfaithful in your use of what you had. The ideal is, 'they go from strength to +strength,' and the end of that is, 'every one of them appeareth before God.' +</p> + +<p> +So, dear brother, as the dash of the waves will hollow out some little +indentation on the coast, and make it larger and larger until there is a great +bay, with its headlands miles apart, and its deep bosom stretching far into the +interior, and all the expanse full of flashing waters and leaping waves, so the +giving Christ works a place for Himself in a man's heart, and makes the spirit +which receives and faithfully uses the gifts which He brings, capable of more +of Himself, and fills the widened space with larger gifts and new grace. +</p> + +<p> +Only remember the condition of having Him is trusting to His name and longing +for His presence. 'If any man open the door I will come in.' We have Him if we +trust Him. That trust is no mere passive reception, such as is the case with +some empty jar which lies open-mouthed on the shore and lets the sea wash into +it and out of it, as may happen. But the 'receive' of our text might be as +truly rendered 'take.' Faith is an active taking, not a passive receiving. We +must 'lay hold on eternal life.' Faith is the hand that grasps the offered +gift, the mouth that feeds upon the bread of God, the voice that says to +Christ, 'Come in, Thou blessed of the Lord; why standest Thou without?' Such a +faith alone brings us into vital connection with Jesus. Without it, you will be +none the richer for all His fulness, and may perish of famine in the midst of +plenty, like a man dying of hunger outside the door of a granary. They who +believe take the Saviour who is given, and they who take receive, and they who +receive obtain day by day growing grace from the fulness of Christ, and so come +ever nearer to the realisation of the ultimate purpose of the Father, that they +should be 'filled with all the fulness of God.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>GRACE AND TRUTH</h2> + +<p> +'The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.'—JOHN 1. +17. +</p> + +<p> +There are scarcely any traces, in the writings of the Apostle John, of that +great controversy as to the relation of the Law and the Gospel which occupied +and embittered so much of the work of the Apostle Paul. We have floated into an +entirely different region in John's writings. The old controversies are +dead—settled, I suppose, mainly by Paul's own words, and also to a large extent +by the logic of events. This verse is almost the only one in which John touches +upon that extinct controversy, and here the Law is introduced simply as a foil +to set off the brightness of the Gospel. All artists know the value of contrast +in giving prominence. A dark background flashes up brighter colours into +brilliancy. White is never so white as when it is relieved against black. And +so here the special preciousness and distinctive peculiarities of what we +receive in Christ are made more vivid and more distinct by contrast with what +in old days 'was given by Moses.' +</p> + +<p> +Every word in this verse is significant. 'Law' is set against 'grace and +truth.' It was 'given'; they 'came.' Moses is contrasted with Christ. So we +have a threefold antithesis as between Law and Gospel: in reference to their +respective contents; in reference to the manner of their communication; and in +reference to the person of their Founders. And I think, if we look at these +three points, we shall get some clear apprehension of the glories of that +Gospel which the Apostle would thereby commend to our affection and to our +faith. +</p> + +<p> +I. First of all, then, we have here the special glory of the contents of the +Gospel heightened by the contrast with Law. +</p> + +<p> +Law has no tenderness, no pity, no feeling. Tables of stone and a pen of iron +are its fitting vehicles. Flashing lightnings and rolling thunders symbolise +the fierce light which it casts upon men's duty and the terrors of its +retribution. Inflexible, and with no compassion for human weakness, it tells us +what we ought to be, but it does not help us to be it. It 'binds heavy burdens, +and grievous to be borne,' upon men's consciences, but puts not forth 'the tip +of a finger' to enable men to bear them. And this is true about law in all +forms, whether it be the Mosaic Law, or whether it be the law of our own +country, or whether it be the laws written upon men's consciences. These all +partake of the one characteristic, that they help nothing to the fulfilment of +their own behests, and that they are barbed with threatenings of retribution. +Like some avenging goddess, law comes down amongst men, terrible in her purity, +awful in her beauty, with a hard light in her clear grey eyes—in the one hand +the tables of stone, bearing the commandments which we have broken, and in the +other a sharp two-edged sword. +</p> + +<p> +And this is the opposite of all that comes to us in the Gospel. The contrast +divides into two portions. The 'Law' is set against 'grace and truth.' Let us +look at these two in order. +</p> + +<p> +What we have in Christ is not law, but grace. Law, as I said, has no heart; the +meaning of the Gospel is the unveiling of the heart of God. Law commands and +demands; it says: 'This shalt thou do, or else—'; and it has nothing more that +it can say. What is the use of standing beside a lame man, and pointing to a +shining summit, and saying to him, 'Get up there, and you will breathe a purer +atmosphere'? He is lying lame at the foot of it. There is no help for any soul +in law. Men are not perishing because they do not know what they ought to do. +Men are not bad because they doubt as to what their duty is. The worst man in +the world knows a great deal more of what he ought to do than the best man in +the world practises. So it is not for want of precepts that so many of us are +going to destruction, but it is for want of power to fulfil the precepts. +</p> + +<p> +Grace is love giving. Law demands, grace bestows. Law comes saying 'Do this,' +and our consciences respond to the imperativeness of the obligation. But grace +comes and says, 'I will help thee to do it.' Law is God requiring; grace is God +bestowing. 'Give what Thou commandest, and then command what Thou wilt.' +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brethren! we have all of us written upon the fleshly tablets of our hearts +solemn commandments which we know are binding upon us; and which we sometimes +would fain keep, but cannot. Is this not a message of hope and blessedness that +comes to us? Grace has drawn near in Jesus Christ, and a giving God, who +bestows upon us a life that will unfold itself in accordance with the highest +law, holds out the fulness of His gift in that Incarnate Word. Law has no +heart; the Gospel is the unveiling of the heart of God. Law commands; grace is +God bestowing Himself. +</p> + +<p> +And still further, law condemns. Grace is love that bends down to an evildoer, +and deals not on the footing of strict retribution with the infirmities and the +sins of us poor weaklings. And so, seeing that no man that lives but hears in +his heart an accusing voice, and that every one of us knows what it is to gaze +upon lofty duties that we have shrunk from, upon plain obligations from the +yoke of which we have selfishly and cowardly withdrawn our necks; seeing that +every man, woman, and child listening to me now has, lurking in some corner of +their hearts, a memory that only needs to be quickened to be a torture, and +deeds that only need to have the veil drawn away from them to terrify and shame +them—oh! surely it ought to be a word of gladness for every one of us that, in +front of any law that condemns us, stands forth the gentle, gracious form of +the Christ that brings pardon, and 'the grace of God that bringeth salvation +unto all men.' Thank God! law needed to be 'given,' but it was only the +foundation on which was to be reared a better thing. 'The law was given By +Moses'—'a schoolmaster,' as conscience is to-day, 'to bring us to Christ' by +whom comes the grace that loves, that stoops, that gives, and that pardons. +</p> + +<p> +Still further, there is another antithesis here. The Gospel which comes by +Christ is not law, but truth. The object of law is to regulate conduct, and +only subordinately to inform the mind or to enlighten the understanding. The +Mosaic Law had for its foundation, of course, a revelation of God. But that +revelation of God was less prominent, proportionately, than the prescription +for man's conduct. The Gospel is the opposite of this. It has for its object +the regulation of conduct; but that object is less prominent, proportionately, +than the other, the manifestation and the revelation of God. The Old Testament +says 'Thou shalt'; the New Testament says 'God is.' The Old was Law; the New is +Truth. +</p> + +<p> +And so we may draw the inference, on which I do not need to dwell, how +miserably inadequate and shallow a conception of Christianity that is which +sets it forth as being mainly a means of regulating conduct, and how false and +foolish that loose talk is that we hear many a time.—'Never mind about +theological subtleties; conduct is the main thing.' Not so. The Gospel is not +law; the Gospel is truth. It is a revelation of God to the understanding and to +the heart, in order that thereby the will may be subdued, and that then the +conduct may be shaped and moulded. But let us begin where it begins, and let us +remember that the morality of the New Testament has never long been held up +high and pure, where the theology of the New Testament has been neglected and +despised. 'The law came by Moses; truth came by Jesus Christ.' +</p> + +<p> +But, still further, let me remind you that, in the revelation of a God who is +gracious, giving to our emptiness and forgiving our sins—that is to say, in the +revelation of grace—we have a far deeper, nobler, more blessed conception of +the divine nature than in law. It is great to think of a righteous God, it is +great and ennobling to think of One whose pure eyes cannot look upon sin, and +who wills that men should live pure and noble and Godlike lives. But it is far +more and more blessed, transcending all the old teaching, when we sit at the +feet of the Christ who gives, and who pardons, and look up into His deep eyes, +with the tears of compassion shining in them, and say: 'Lo! This is our God! We +have waited for Him and He will save us.' That is a better truth, a deeper +truth than prophets and righteous men of old possessed; and to us there has +come, borne on the wings of the mighty angel of His grace, the precious +revelation of the Father-God whose heart is love. 'The law was given by Moses,' +but brighter than the gleam of the presence between the Cherubim is the lambent +light of gentle tenderness that shines from the face of Jesus Christ. Grace, +and therefore truth, a deeper truth, came by Him. +</p> + +<p> +And, still further, let me remind you of how this contrast is borne out by the +fact that all that previous system was an adumbration, a shadow and a +premonition of the perfect revelation that was to come. Temple, priest, +sacrifice, law, the whole body of the Mosaic constitution of things was, as it +were, a shadow thrown along the road in advance by the swiftly coming King. The +shadow fell before Him, but when He came the shadow disappeared. The former was +a system of types, symbols, pictures. Here is the reality that antiquates and +fulfils and transcends them all. 'The law was given by Moses; grace and truth +came by Jesus Christ.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, secondly, look at the other contrast that is here, between giving and +coming. +</p> + +<p> +I do not know that I have quite succeeded in making clear to my own mind the +precise force of this antithesis. Certainly there is a profound meaning if one +can fathom it; perhaps one might put it best in something like the following +fashion. +</p> + +<p> +The word rendered 'came' might be more correctly translated 'became,' or 'came +into being.' The law was <i>given</i>; grace and truth <i>came to be</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Now, what do we mean when we talk about a law being given? We simply mean, I +suppose, that it is promulgated, either in oral or in written words. It is, +after all, no more than so many words. It is given when it is spoken or +published. It is a verbal communication at the best. 'But grace and truth came +to be.' They are realities; they are not words. They are not communicated by +sentences, they are actual existences; and they spring into being as far as +man's historical possession and experience of them are concerned—they spring +into being in Jesus Christ, and through Him they belong to us all. Not that +there was no grace, no manifest lore of God, in the world, nor any true +knowledge of Him before the Incarnation, but the earlier portions of this +chapter remind us that all of grace, however restrained and partial, that all +of truth, however imperfect and shadowy it may have been, which were in the +world before Christ came, were owing to the operation of that Eternal Word 'Who +became flesh and dwelt among us,' and that these, in comparison with the +affluence and the fulness and the nearness of grace and truth after Christ's +coming, were so small and remote that it is not an exaggeration to say that, as +far as man's possession and experience of them are concerned, the giving love +of God and the clear and true knowledge of His deep heart of tenderness and +grace, sprang into being with the historical manifestation of Jesus Christ the +Lord. +</p> + +<p> +He comes to reveal by no words. His gift is not like the gift that Moses +brought down from the mountain, merely a writing upon tables; His gift is not +the letter of an outward commandment, nor the letter of an outward revelation. +It is the thing itself which He reveals by being it. He does not speak about +grace, He brings it; He does not show us God by His words, He shows us God by +His acts. He does not preach about Him, but He lives Him, He manifests Him. His +gentleness, His compassion, His miracles, His wisdom, His patience, His tears, +His promises; all these are the very Deity in action before our eyes; and +instead of a mere verbal revelation, which is so imperfect and so worthless, +grace and truth, the living realities, are flashed upon a darkened world in the +face of Jesus Christ. How cold, how hard, how superficial, in comparison with +that fleshly table of the heart of Christ on which grace and truth were +written, are the stony tables of law, which bore after all, for all their +majesty, only words which are breath and nothing besides. +</p> + +<p> +III. And so, lastly, look at the contrast that is drawn here between the +persons of the Founders. +</p> + +<p> +I do not suppose that we are to take into consideration the difference between +the limitations of the one and the completeness of the other. I do not suppose +that the Apostle was thinking about the difference between the reluctant +service of the Lawgiver and the glad obedience of the Son; or between the +passion and the pride that sometimes marred Moses' work, and the continual +calmness and patient meekness that perfected the sacrifice of Jesus. Nor do I +suppose that there flashed before his memory the difference between that +strange tomb where God buried the prophet, unknown of men, in the stern +solitude of the desert, true symbol of the solemn mystery and awful solitude +with which the law which we have broken invests death, to our trembling +consciences, and the grave in the garden with the spring flowers bursting round +it, and visited by white-robed angels, who spoke comfort to weeping friends, +true picture of what His death makes the grave for all His followers. +</p> + +<p> +But I suppose he was mainly thinking of the contrast between the relation of +Moses to his law, and of Christ to His Gospel. Moses was but a medium. His +personality had nothing to do with his message. You may take away Moses, and +the law stands all the same. But Christ is so interwoven with Christ's message +that you cannot rend the two apart; you cannot have the figure of Christ melt +away, and the gift that Christ brought remain. If you extinguish the sun you +cannot keep the sunlight; if you put away Christ in the fulness of His manhood +and of His divinity, in the power of His Incarnation and the omnipotence of His +cross—if you put away Christ from Christianity, it collapses into dust and +nothingness. +</p> + +<p> +So, dear brethren, do not let any of us try that perilous experiment. You +cannot melt away Jesus and keep grace and truth. You cannot tamper with His +character, with His nature, with the mystery of His passion, with the atoning +power of His cross, and preserve the blessings that He has brought to the +world. If you want the grace which is the unveiling of the heart of God, the +gift of a giving God and the pardon of a forgiving Judge; or if you want the +truth, the reality of the knowledge of Him, you can only get them by accepting +Christ. 'I <i>am</i> the Truth, and the Way, and the Life.' There <i>is</i> a +'law given which gives life,' and 'righteousness <i>is</i> by that law.' There +is a Person who is the Truth, and our knowledge of the truth is through that +Person, and through Him alone. By humble faith receive Him into your hearts, +and He will come bringing to you the fulness of grace and truth. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>THE WORLD'S SIN-BEARER</h2> + +<p> +'The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of +God, which taketh away the sin of the world.'—JOHN i. 29. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord, on returning from His temptation in the wilderness, came straight to +John the Baptist. He was welcomed with these wonderful and rapturous words, +familiarity with which has deadened our sense of their greatness. How audacious +they would sound to some of their first hearers! Think of these two, one of +them a young Galilean carpenter, to whom His companion witnesses and declares +that He is of worldwide and infinite significance. It was the first public +designation of Jesus Christ, and it throws into exclusive prominence one aspect +of His work. +</p> + +<p> +John the Baptist summing up the whole of former revelation which concentrated +in Him, pointed a designating finger to Jesus and said, 'That is He!' My text +is the sum of all Christian teaching ever since. My task, and that of all +preachers, if we understand it aright, is but to repeat the same message, and +to concentrate attention on the same fact—'The Lamb of God which taketh away +the sin of the world.' It is the one thing needful for you, dear friend, to +believe. It is the truth that we all need most of all. There is no reason for +our being gathered together now, except that I may beseech you to behold for +yourselves the Lamb of God which takes away the world's sin. +</p> + +<p> +I. Now let me ask you to note, first, that Jesus Christ is the world's +sin-bearer. +</p> + +<p> +The significance of the first clause of my text, 'the Lamb of God,' is +deplorably weakened if it is taken to mean only, or mainly, that Jesus Christ, +in the sweetness of His human nature, is gentle and meek and patient and +innocent and pure. It <i>does</i> mean all that, thank God! But it was no mere +description of Christ's disposition which John the Baptist conceived himself to +be uttering, as is clear by the words that follow in the next clause. His +reason for selecting (under divine guidance, as I believe) that image of 'the +Lamb of God,' went a great deal deeper than anything in the temper of the +Person of whom he was speaking. Many streams of ancient prophecy and ritual +converge upon this emblem, and if we want to understand what is meant by the +designation 'the Lamb of God,' we must not content ourselves with the +sentimentalisms which some superficial teachers have supposed to exhaust the +significance of the expression; but we must submit to be led back by John, who +was the summing up of all the ancient Revelation, to the sources in that +Revelation from which he drew this metaphor. +</p> + +<p> +First and chiefest of these, as I take it, are the words which no Jew ever +doubted referred to the Messiah, until after He had come, and the Rabbis would +not believe in Him, and so were bound to hunt up another interpretation—I mean +the great words in the prophecy which, I suppose, is familiar to most of us, +where there are found two representations, one, 'He was led as a Lamb to the +slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His +mouth'; and the other, still more germane to the purpose of my text, 'the Lord +hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all…. By His knowledge shall He justify +many, for He shall bear their iniquities.' John the Baptist, looking back +through the ages to that ancient prophetic utterance, points to the young Man +standing by his side, and says, 'There it is fulfilled.' +</p> + +<p> +But the prophetic symbol of the Lamb, and the thought that He bore the iniquity +of the many, had their roots in the past, and pointed back to the sacrificial +lamb, the lamb of the daily sacrifice, and especially to the lamb slain at the +Passover, which was an emblem and sacrament of deliverance from bondage. Thus +the conceptions of vicarious suffering, and of a death which is a deliverance, +and of blood which, sprinkled on the doorposts, guards the house from the +destroying angel, are all gathered into these words. +</p> + +<p> +Nor do these exhaust the sources of this figure, as it comes from the venerable +and sacred past. For when we read 'the Lamb <i>of God</i>,' who is there that +does not recognise, unless his eyes are blinded by obstinate prejudice, a +glance backward to that sweet and pathetic story when the father went up with +his son to the top of Mount Moriah, and to the boy's question, 'Where is the +lamb?' answered, 'My son, God Himself will provide the lamb!' John says, +'Behold the Lamb that God <i>has</i> provided, the Sacrifice, on whom is laid a +world's sins, and who bears them away.' +</p> + +<p> +Note, too, the universality of the power of Christ's sacrificial work. John +does not say 'the <i>sins</i>,' as the Litany, following an imperfect +translation, makes him say. But he says, 'the <i>sin</i> of the world,' as if +the whole mass of human transgression was bound together, in one black and +awful bundle, and laid upon the unshrinking shoulders of this better Atlas who +can bear it all, and bear it all away. Your sin, and mine, and every man's, +they were all laid upon Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Now remember, dear brethren, that in this wondrous representation there lie, +plain and distinct, two things which to me, and I pray they may be to you, are +the very foundation of the Gospel to which we have to trust. One is that on +Christ Jesus, in His life and in His death, were laid the guilt and the +consequences of a world's sin. I do not profess to be ready with an explanation +of how that is possible. That it is a fact I believe, on the authority of +Christ Himself and of Scripture; that it is inconsistent with the laws of human +nature may be asserted, but never can be proved. Theories manifold have been +invented in order to make it plain. I do not know that any of them have gone to +the bottom of the bottomless. But Christ in His perfect manhood, wedded, as I +believe it is, to true divinity, is capable of entering into—not merely by +sympathy, though that has much to do with it—such closeness of relation with +human kind, and with every man, as that on Him can be laid the iniquity of us +all. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brethren! what was the meaning of 'I have a baptism to be baptized with,' +unless the cold waters of the flood into which He unshrinkingly stepped, and +allowed to flow over Him, were made by the gathered accumulation of the sins of +the whole world? What was the meaning of the agony in Gethsemane? What was the +meaning of that most awful word ever spoken by human lips, in which the +consciousness of union with, and of separation from, God, were so marvellously +blended, 'My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?' unless the Guiltless was +then loaded with the sins of the world, which rose between Him and God? +</p> + +<p> +Dear friends, it seems to me that unless this transcendent element be fairly +recognised as existing in the passion and death of Jesus Christ, His demeanour +when He came to die was far less heroic and noble and worthy of imitation than +have been the deaths of hundreds of people who drew all their strength to die +from Him. I do not venture to bring a theory, but I press upon you the fact, He +bears the sins of the world, and in that awful load are yours and mine. +</p> + +<p> +There is the other truth here, as clearly, and perhaps more directly, meant by +the selection of the expression in my text, that the Sin-bearer not only +carries, but carries <i>away</i>, the burden that is laid upon Him. Perhaps +there may be a reference—in addition to the other sources of the figure which I +have indicated as existing in ritual, and prophecy, and history—there may be a +reference in the words to yet another of the eloquent symbols of that ancient +system which enshrined truths that were not peculiar to any people, but were +the property of humanity. You remember, no doubt, the singular ceremonial +connected with the scapegoat, and many of you will recall the wonderful +embodiment of it given by the Christian genius of a modern painter. The sins of +the nation were symbolically laid upon its head, and it was carried out to the +edge of the wilderness and driven forth to wander alone, bearing away upon +itself into the darkness and solitude—far from man and far from God—the whole +burden of the nation's sins. Jesus Christ takes away the sin which He bears, +and there is, as I believe, only one way by which individuals, or society, or +the world at large, can thoroughly get rid of the guilt and penal consequences +and of the dominion of sin, and that is, by beholding the Lamb of God that +takes upon Himself, that He may carry away out of sight, the sin of the world. +So much, then, for the first thought that I wish to suggest to you. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now let me ask you to look with me at a second thought, that such a world's +Sin-bearer is the world's deepest need. +</p> + +<p> +The sacrifices of every land witness to the fact that humanity all over the +world, and through all the ages, and under all varieties of culture, has been +dimly conscious that its deepest need was that the fact of sin should be dealt +with. I know that there are plenty of modern ingenious ways of explaining the +universal prevalence of an altar and a sacrifice, and the slaying of innocent +creatures, on other grounds, some of which I think it is not uncharitable to +suppose are in favour mainly because they weaken this branch of the evidence +for the conformity of Christian truth with human necessities. But +notwithstanding these, I venture to affirm, with all proper submission to wiser +men, that you cannot legitimately explain the universal prevalence of +sacrifice, unless you take into account as one—I should say the main—element in +it, this universally diffused sense that things are wrong between man and the +higher Power, and need to be set right even by such a method. +</p> + +<p> +But I do not need to appeal only to this world-wide fact as being a declaration +of what man's deepest need is. I would appeal to every man's own +consciousness—hard though it be to get at it; buried as it is, with some of us, +under mountains of indifference and neglect; and callous as it is with many of +us by reason of indulgence in habits of evil. I believe that in every one of +us, if we will be honest, and give heed to the inward voice, there does echo a +response and an amen to the Scripture declaration, 'God hath shut up all under +sin.' I ask you about yourselves, is it not so? Do you not know that, however +you may gloss over the thing, or forget it amidst a whirl of engagements and +occupations, or try to divert your thoughts into more or less noble or ignoble +channels of pleasures and pursuits, there does lie, in each of our hearts, the +sense, dormant often, but sometimes like a snake in its hybernation, waking up +enough to move, and sometimes enough to sting—there does lie, in each of us, +the consciousness that we are wrong with God, and need something to put us +right? +</p> + +<p> +And, brethren, let modern philanthropists of all sorts take this lesson: The +thing that the world wants is to have sin dealt with—dealt with in the way of +conscious forgiveness; dealt with in the way of drying up its source, and +delivering men from the power of it. Unless you do that, I do not say you do +nothing, but you pour a bottle full of cold water into Vesuvius, and try to put +the fire out with that. You may educate, you may cultivate, you may refine; you +may set political and economical arrangements right in accordance with the +newest notions of the century, and what then? Why! the old thing will just +begin over again, and the old miseries will appear again, because the old +grandmother of them all is there, the sin that has led to them. +</p> + +<p> +Now do not misunderstand me, as if I were warring against good and noble men +who are trying to remedy the world's evils by less thorough methods than +Christ's Gospel. They will do a great deal. But you may have high education, +beautiful refinement of culture and manners; you may divide out political power +in accordance with the most democratic notions; you may give everybody 'a +living wage,' however extravagant his notions of a living wage may be. You may +carry out all these panaceas and the world will groan still, because you have +not dealt with the tap-root of all the mischief. You cannot cure an internal +cancer with a plaster upon the little finger, and you will never stanch the +world's wounds until you go to the Physician that has balm and bandage, even +Jesus Christ, that takes away the sins of the world. I profoundly distrust all +these remedies for the world's misery as in themselves inadequate, even whilst +I would help them all, and regard them all as then blessed and powerful, when +they are consequences and secondary results of the Gospel, the first task of +which is to deal by forgiveness and by cleansing with individual transgression. +</p> + +<p> +And if I might venture to go a step further, I would like to say that this +aspect of our Lord's work on which John the Baptist concentrated all our +attention is the only one which gives Him power to sway men, and which makes +the Gospel—the record of His work—the kingly power in the world that it is +meant to be. Depend upon it, that in the measure in which Christian teachers +fail to give supreme importance to that aspect of Christ's work they fail +altogether. There are many other aspects which, as I have just said, follow in +my conception from this first one; but if, as is obviously the tendency in many +quarters to-day, Christianity be thought of as being mainly a means of social +improvement, or if its principles of action be applied to life without that +basis of them all, in the Cross which takes away the world's iniquity, then it +needs no prophet to foretell that such a Christianity will only have +superficial effects, and that, in losing sight of this central thought, it will +have cast away all its power. +</p> + +<p> +I beseech you, dear brethren, remember that Jesus Christ is something more than +a social reformer, though He is the first of them, and the only one whose work +will last. Jesus Christ is something more than a lovely pattern of human +conduct, though He is that. Jesus Christ is something more than a great +religious genius who set forth the Fatherhood of God as it had never been set +forth before. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the record not only of what He said +but of what He did, not only that He lived but that He died; and all His other +powers, and all His other benefits and blessings to society, come as results of +His dealing with the individual soul when He takes away its guilt and +reconciles it to God. +</p> + +<p> +III. And so, lastly, let me ask you to notice that this Sin-bearer of the world +is our Sin-bearer if we 'behold' Him. +</p> + +<p> +John was simply summoning ignorant eyes to look, and telling of what they would +see. But his call is susceptible, without violence, of a far deeper meaning. +This is really the one truth that I want to press upon you, dear +friends—'Behold the Lamb of God!' +</p> + +<p> +What is that beholding? Surely it is nothing else than our recognising in Him +the great and blessed work which I have been trying to describe, and then +resting ourselves upon that great Lord and sufficient Sacrifice. And such an +exercise of simple trust is well named beholding, because they who believe do +see, with a deeper and a truer vision than sense can give. You and I can see +Christ more really than these men who stood round Him, and to whom His flesh +was 'a veil'—as the Epistle to the Hebrews calls it—hiding His true divinity +and work. They who thus behold by faith lack nothing either of the directness +or of the certitude that belong to vision. 'Seeing is believing,' says the +cynical proverb. The Christian version inverts its terms, 'Believing is +seeing.' 'Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see Him not, yet +believing ye rejoice.' +</p> + +<p> +And your simple act of 'beholding,' by the recognition of His work and the +resting of yourself upon it, makes the world's Sin-bearer your Sin-bearer. You +appropriate the general blessing, like a man taking in a little piece of a +boundless prairie for his very own. Your possession does not make my possession +of Him less, for every eye gets its own beam, and however many eyes wait upon +Him, they all receive the light on to their happy eyeballs. You can make Christ +your own, and have all that He has done for the world as your possession, and +can experience in your own hearts the sense of your own forgiveness and +deliverance from the power and guilt of your own sin, on the simple condition +of looking unto Jesus. The serpent is lifted on the pole, the dying camp cannot +go to it, but the filming eyes of the man in his last gasp may turn to the +gleaming image hanging on high; and as he looks the health begins to tingle +back into his veins, and he is healed. +</p> + +<p> +And so, dear brethren, behold Him; for unless you do, though He has borne the +world's sin, your sin will not be there, but will remain on your back to crush +you down. 'O Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy +upon <i>me</i>!' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>THE FIRST DISCIPLES: I. JOHN AND ANDREW</h2> + +<p> +'And the two disciples heard Him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38. Then Jesus +turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said +unto Him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest +Thou? 39. He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where He dwelt, +and abode with Him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.'—JOHN i. 37-39. +</p> + +<p> +In these verses we see the head waters of a great river, for we have before us +nothing less than the beginnings of the Christian Church. So simply were the +first disciples made. The great society of believers was born like its Master, +unostentatiously and in a corner. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus has come back from His conflict in the wilderness after His baptism, and +has presented Himself before John the Baptist for his final attestation. It was +a great historical moment when the last of the Prophets stood face to face with +the Fulfilment of all prophecy. In his words, 'Behold the Lamb of God which +taketh away the sin of the world!' Jewish prophecy sang its swan-song, uttered +its last rejoicing, 'Eureka! I have found Him!' and died as it spoke. +</p> + +<p> +We do not sufficiently estimate the magnificent self-suppression and +unselfishness of the Baptist, in that he, with his own lips, here repeats his +testimony in order to point his disciples away from himself, and to attach them +to Jesus. If he could have been touched by envy he would not so gladly have +recognised it as his lot to decrease while Jesus increased. Bare magnanimity +that in a teacher! The two who hear John's words are Andrew, Simon Peter's +brother, and an anonymous man. The latter is probably the Evangelist. For it is +remarkable that we never find the names of James and John in this Gospel +(though from the other Gospels we know how closely they were associated with +our Lord), and that we only find them referred to as 'the sons of Zebedee,' +once near the close of the book. That fact points, I think, in the direction of +John's authorship of this Gospel. +</p> + +<p> +These two, then, follow behind Jesus, fancying themselves unobserved, not +desiring to speak to Him, and probably with some notion of tracking Him to His +home, in order that they may seek an interview at a later period. But He who +notices the first beginnings of return to Him, and always comes to meet men, +and is better to them than their wishes, will not let them steal behind Him +uncheered, nor leave them to struggle with diffidence and delay. So He turns to +them, and the events ensue which I have read in the verses that follow as my +text. +</p> + +<p> +We have, I think, three things especially to notice here. First, the Master's +question to the whole world, 'What seek ye?' Second, the Master's invitation to +the whole world, 'Come and see!' Lastly, the personal communion which brings +men's hearts to Him, 'They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that +day.' +</p> + +<p> +I. So, then, first look at this question of Christ to the whole world, 'What +seek ye?' +</p> + +<p> +As it stands, on its surface, and in its primary application, it is the most +natural of questions. Our Lord hears footsteps behind Him, and, as any one +would do, turns about, with the question which any one would ask, 'What is it +that you want?' That question would derive all its meaning from the look with +which it was accompanied, and the tone in which it was spoken. It might mean +either annoyance and rude repulsion of a request, even before it was presented, +or it might mean a glad wish to draw out the petition, and more than half a +pledge to bestow it. All depends on the smile with which it was asked and the +intonation of voice which carried it to their ears. And if we had been there we +should have felt, as these two evidently felt, that though in form a question, +it was in reality a promise, and that it drew out their shy wishes, made them +conscious to themselves of what they desired, and gave them confidence that +their desire would be granted. Clearly it had sunk very deep into the +Evangelist's mind; and now, at the end of his life, when his course is nearly +run, the never-to-be-forgotten voice sounds still in his memory, and he sees +again, in sunny clearness, all the scene that had transpired on that day by the +fords of the Jordan. The first words and the last words of those whom we have +learned to love are cut deep on our hearts. +</p> + +<p> +It was not an accident that the first words which the Master spoke in His +Messianic office were this profoundly significant question, 'What seek ye?' He +asks it of us all, He asks it of us to-day. Well for them who can answer, +'Rabbi! where dwellest <i>Thou</i>?' 'It is Thou whom we seek!' So, venturing +to take the words in that somewhat wider application, let me just suggest to +you two or three directions in which they seem to point. +</p> + +<p> +First, the question suggests to us this: the need of having a clear +consciousness of what is our object in life. The most of men have never +answered that question. They live from hand to mouth, driven by circumstances, +guided by accidents, impelled by unreflecting passions and desires, knowing +what they want for the moment, but never having tried to shape the course of +their lives into a consistent whole, so as to stand up before God in Christ +when He puts the question to them, 'What seek ye?' and to answer the question. +</p> + +<p> +These incoherent, instinctive, unreflective lives that so many of you are +living are a shame to your manhood, to say nothing more. God has made us for +something else than that we should thus be the sport of circumstances. It is a +disgrace to any of us that our lives should be like some little fishing-boat, +with an unskilful or feeble hand at the tiller, yawing from one point of the +compass to another, and not keeping a straight and direct course. I pray you, +dear brethren, to front this question: 'After all, and at bottom, what is it I +am living for? Can I formulate the aims and purposes of my life in any +intelligible statement of which I should not be ashamed?' Some of you are not +ashamed to do what you would be very much ashamed to say, and you practically +answer the question, 'What are you seeking?' by pursuits that you durst not +call by their own ugly names. +</p> + +<p> +There may be many of us who are living for our lusts, for our passions, for our +ambitions, for avarice, who are living in all uncleanness and godlessness. I do +not know. There are plenty of shabby, low aims in all of us which do not bear +being dragged out into the light of day. I beseech you to try and get hold of +the ugly things and bring them up to the surface, however much they may seek to +hide in the congenial obscurity and twist their slimy coils round something in +the dark. If you dare not put your life's object into words, bethink yourselves +whether it ought to be your life's object at all. +</p> + +<p> +Ah, brethren! if we would ask ourselves this question, and answer it with any +thoroughness, we should not make so many mistakes as to the places where we +look for the things for which we are seeking. If we knew what we were really +seeking, we should know where to go to look for it. Let me tell you what you +are seeking, whether you know it or not. You are seeking for rest for your +heart, a home for your spirits; you are seeking for perfect truth for your +understandings, perfect beauty for your affections, perfect goodness for your +conscience. You are seeking for all these three, gathered into one white beam +of light, and you are seeking for it all in a Person. Many of you do not know +this, and so you go hunting in all manner of impossible places for that which +you can only find in one. To the question, 'What seek ye?' the deepest of all +answers, the only real answer, is, 'My soul thirsteth for God, for the living +God.' If you know that, you know where to look for what you need! 'Do men +gather grapes of thorns?' If these are really the things that you are seeking +after, in all your mistaken search—oh! how mistaken is the search! Do men look +for pearls in cockle-shells, or for gold in coal-pits; and why should you look +for rest of heart, mind, conscience, spirit, anywhere and in anything short of +God? 'What seek ye?'—the only answer is, 'We seek <i>Thee</i>!' +</p> + +<p> +And then, still further, let me remind you how these words are not only a +question, but are really a veiled and implied promise. The question, 'What do +you want of Me?' may either strike an intending suppliant like a blow, and +drive him away with his prayer sticking in his throat unspoken, or it may sound +like a merciful invitation, 'What is thy petition, and what is thy request, and +it shall be granted unto thee?' We know which of the two it was here. Christ +asks all such questions as this (and there are many of them in the New +Testament), not for His information, but for our strengthening. He asks people, +not because He does not know before they answer, but that, on the one hand, +their own minds may be clear as to their wishes, and so they may wish the more +earnestly because of the clearness; and that, on the other hand, their desires +being expressed, they may be the more able to receive the gift which He is +willing to bestow. So He here turns to these men, whose purpose He knew well +enough, and says to them, 'What seek ye?' Herein He is doing the very same +thing on a lower level, and in an outer sphere, as is done when He appoints +that we shall pray for the blessings which He is yearning to bestow, but which +He makes conditional on our supplications, only because by these supplications +our hearts are opened to a capacity for receiving them. +</p> + +<p> +We have, then, in the words before us, thus understood, our Lord's gracious +promise to give what is desired on the simple condition that the suppliant is +conscious of his own wants, and turns to Him for the supply of them. 'What seek +ye?' It is a blank cheque that He puts into their hands to fill up. It is the +key of His treasure-house which He offers to us all, with the assured +confidence that if we open it we shall find all that we need. +</p> + +<p> +Who is He that thus stands up before a whole world of seeking, restless +spirits, and fronts them with the question which is a pledge, conscious of His +capacity to give to each of them what each of them requires? Who is this that +professes to be able to give all these men and women and children bread here in +the wilderness? There is only one answer—the Christ of God. +</p> + +<p> +And He has done what He promises. No man or woman ever went to Him, and +answered this question, and presented their petition for any real good, and was +refused. No man can ask from Christ what Christ cannot bestow. No man can ask +from Christ what Christ will not bestow. In the loftiest region, the region of +inward and spiritual gifts, which are the best gifts, we can get everything +that we want, and our only limit is, not His boundless omnipotence and +willingness, but our own poor, narrow, and shrivelled desires. 'Ask, and ye +shall receive; seek, and ye shall find.' +</p> + +<p> +Christ stands before us, if I may so say, like some of those fountains erected +at some great national festival, out of which pour for all the multitude every +variety of draught which they desire, and each man that goes with his empty cup +gets it filled, and gets it filled with that which he wishes. 'What seek ye?' +Wisdom? You students, you thinkers, you young men that are fighting with +intellectual difficulties and perplexities, 'What seek ye?' Truth? He gives us +that. You others, 'What seek ye?' Love, peace, victory, self-control, hope, +anodyne for sorrow? Whatever you desire, you will find in Jesus Christ. The +first words with which He broke the silence when He spake to men as the +Messias, were at once a searching question, probing their aims and purposes, +and a gracious promise pledging Him to a task not beyond His power, however far +beyond that of all others, even the task of giving to each man his heart's +desire. 'What seek ye?' 'Seek, and ye shall find.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Then, still further, notice how, in a similar fashion, we may regard here +the second words which our Lord speaks as being His merciful invitation to the +world. 'Come and see.' +</p> + +<p> +The disciples' answer was simple and timid. They did not venture to say, 'May +we talk to you?' 'Will you take us to be your disciples?' All they can muster +courage to ask now is, 'Where dwellest Thou?' At another time, perhaps, we will +go to this Rabbi and speak with Him. His answer is, 'Come, come now; come, and +by intercourse with Me learn to know Me.' His temporary home was probably +nothing more than some selected place on the river's bank, for 'He had not +where to lay His head'; but such as it was, He welcomes them to it. 'Come and +see!' +</p> + +<p> +Take a plain, simple truth out of that. Christ is always glad when people +resort to Him. When He was here in the world, no hour was inconvenient or +inopportune; no moment was too much occupied; no physical wants of hunger, or +thirst, or slumber were ever permitted to come between Him and seeking hearts. +He was never impatient. He was never wearied of speaking, though He was often +wearied in speaking. He never denied Himself to any one or said, 'I have +something else to do than to attend to you.' And just as in literal fact, +whilst He was here upon earth, nothing was ever permitted to hinder His drawing +near to any man who wanted to draw near to Him, so nothing now hinders it; and +He is glad when any of us resort to Him and ask Him to let us speak to Him and +be with Him. His weariness or occupation never shut men out from Him then. His +glory does not shut them out now. +</p> + +<p> +Then there is another thought here. This invitation of the Master is also a +very distinct call to a firsthand knowledge of Jesus Christ. Andrew and John +had heard from the Baptist about Him, and now what He bids them to do is to +come and hear Himself. That is what He calls you, dear brethren, to do. Do not +listen to us, let the Master Himself speak to you. Many who reject Christianity +reject it through not having listened to Jesus Himself teaching them, but only +to theologians and other human representations of the truth. Go and ask Christ +to speak to you with His own lips of truth, and take Him as the Expositor of +His own system. Do not be contented with traditional talk and second-hand +information. Go to Christ, and hear what He Himself has to say to you. +</p> + +<p> +Then, still further, in this 'Come and see' there is a distinct call to the +personal act of faith. Both of these words, '<i>come</i>' and '<i>see</i>,' are +used in the New Testament as standing emblems of faith. Coming to Christ is +trusting Him; trusting Him is seeing Him, looking unto Him. 'Come unto Me, and +I will give you rest,' 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the +earth.' There are two metaphors, both of them pointing to one thing, and that +one thing is the invitation from the dear lips of the loving Lord to every man, +woman, and child in this congregation. 'Come and see!' 'Put your trust in Me, +draw near to Me by desire and penitence, draw near to Me in the fixed thought +of your mind, in the devotion of your will, in the trust of your whole being. +Come to Me, and see Me by faith; and then—and then—your hearts will have found +what they seek, and your weary quest will be over, and, like the dove, you will +fold your wings and nestle at the foot of the Cross, and rest for evermore. +Come! "Come and see!"' +</p> + +<p> +III. So, lastly, we have in these words a parable of the blessed experience +which binds men's hearts to Jesus for ever. 'They came and saw where He dwelt, +and abode with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.' +</p> + +<p> +'Dwelt' and 'abode' are the same words in the original. It is one of John's +favourite words, and in its deepest meaning expresses the close, still +communion which the soul may have with Jesus Christ, which communion, on that +never-to-be-forgotten day, when he and Andrew sat with Him in the quiet, +confidential fellowship that disclosed Christ's glory 'full of grace and truth' +to their hearts, made them His for ever. +</p> + +<p> +If the reckoning of time here is made according to the Hebrew fashion, the +'tenth hour' will be ten o'clock in the morning. So, one long day of talk! If +it be according to the Roman legal fashion, the hour will be four o'clock in +the afternoon, which would only give time for a brief conversation before the +night fell. But, in any case, sacred reserve is observed as to what passed in +that interview. A lesson for a great deal of blatant talk, in this present day, +about conversion and the details thereof! +</p> + +<p> + 'Not easily forgiven<br /> + Are those, who setting wide the doors, that bar<br /> + The secret bridal chambers of the heart.<br /> + Let in the day.' +</p> + +<p> +John had nothing to say to the world about what the Master said to him and his +brother in that long day of communion. +</p> + +<p> +One plain conclusion from this last part of our narrative is that the +impression of Christ's own personality is the strongest force to make +disciples. The character of Jesus Christ is, after all, the central and +standing evidence and the mightiest credential of Christianity. It bears upon +its face the proof of its own truthfulness. If such a character was not lived, +how did it ever come to be described, and described by such people? And if it +was lived, how did it come to be so? The historical veracity of the character +of Jesus Christ is guaranteed by its very uniqueness. And the divine origin of +Jesus Christ is forced upon us as the only adequate explanation of His +historical character. 'Truly this man was the Son of God.' +</p> + +<p> +I believe that to lift Him up is the work of all Christian preachers and +teachers; as far as they can to hide themselves behind Jesus Christ, or at the +most to let themselves appear, just as the old painters used to let their own +likenesses appear in their great altar-pieces—a little kneeling figure there, +away in a dark corner of the background. Present Christ, and He will vindicate +His own character; He will vindicate His own nature; He will vindicate His own +gospel. 'They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him,' and the end of +it was that they abode with Him for evermore. And so it will always be. +</p> + +<p> +Once more, personal experience of the grace and sweetness of this Saviour binds +men to Him as nothing else will: +</p> + +<p> + 'He must be loved ere that to you<br /> + He will seem worthy of your love.' +</p> + +<p> +The deepest and sweetest and most precious part of His character and of His +gifts can only be known on condition of possessing Him and them, and they can +be possessed only on condition of holding fellowship with Him. I do not say to +any man: 'Try trust in order to be sure that Jesus Christ is worthy to be +trusted,' for by its very nature faith cannot be an experiment or provisional. +I do not say that my experience is evidence to you, but at the same time I do +say that it is worth any man's while to reflect upon this, that none who ever +trusted in Him have been put to shame. No man has looked to Jesus and has said: +'Ah! I have found Him out! His help is vain, His promises empty.' Many men have +fallen away from Him, I know, but not because they have proved Him untruthful, +but because they have become unfaithful. +</p> + +<p> +And so, dear brethren, I come to you with the old message, 'Oh! taste,' and +thus you will 'see that the Lord is good.' There must be the faith first, and +then there will be the experience, which will make anything seem to you more +credible than that He whom you have loved and trusted, and who has answered +your love and your trust, should be anything else than the Son of God, the +Saviour of mankind. Come to Him and you will see. The impregnable argument will +be put into your mouth—'Whether this man be a sinner or no, I know not. One +thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.' Look to Him, listen to Him, +and when He asks you, 'What seek ye?' answer, 'Rabbi, where dwellest Thou? It +is Thou whom I seek.' He will welcome you to close blessed intercourse with +Him, which will knit you to Him with cords that cannot be broken, and with His +loving voice making music in memory and heart, you will be able triumphantly to +confess—'Now we believe, not because of any man's saying, for we have heard Him +ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>THE FIRST DISCIPLES: II. SIMON PETER</h2> + +<p> +'One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon +Peter's brother. 41. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto +him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 42. +And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon +the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a +stone.'—JOHN i. 40-42. +</p> + +<p> +There are many ways by which souls are brought to their Saviour. Sometimes, +like the merchantman seeking goodly pearls, men seek Him earnestly and find +Him. Sometimes, by the intervention of another, the knowledge of Him is kindled +in dark hearts. Sometimes He Himself takes the initiative, and finds those that +seek Him not. We have illustrations of all these various ways in these simple +records of the gathering in of the first disciples. Andrew and his friend, with +whom we were occupied in our last sermon, looked for Christ and found Him. +Peter, with whom we have to do now, was brought to Christ by his brother; and +the third of the group, consisting of Philip, was sought by Christ while he was +not thinking of Him, and found an unsought treasure; and then Philip again, +like Andrew, finds a friend, and brings him to Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Each of the incidents has its own lesson, and each of them adds something to +the elucidation of John's two great subjects: the revelation of Jesus as the +Son of God, and the development of that faith in Him which gives us life. It +may be profitable to consider each group in succession, and mark the various +aspects of these two subjects presented by each. +</p> + +<p> +In this incident, then, we have two things mainly to consider: first, the +witness of the disciple; second, the self-revelation of the Master. +</p> + +<p> +I. The witness of the disciple. +</p> + +<p> +We have seen that the unknown companion of Andrew was probably the Evangelist +himself, who, in accordance with his uniform habit, suppresses his own name, +and that that omission points to John's authorship of this Gospel. Another +morsel of evidence as to the date and purpose of the Gospel lies in the mention +here of Andrew as 'Simon Peter's brother.' We have not yet heard anything about +Simon Peter. The Evangelist has never mentioned his name, and yet he takes it +for granted that his hearers knew all about Peter, and knew him better than +they did Andrew. That presupposes a considerable familiarity with the incidents +of the Gospel story, and is in harmony with the theory that this fourth Gospel +is the latest of the four, and was written for the purpose of supplementing, +not of repeating, their narrative. Hence a number of the phenomena of the +Gospel, which have troubled critics, are simply and sufficiently explained. +</p> + +<p> +But that by the way. Passing that, notice first the illustration that we get +here of how instinctive and natural the impulse is, when a man has found Jesus +Christ, to tell some one else about Him. Nobody said to Andrew, 'Go and look +for your brother,' and yet, as soon as he had fairly realised the fact that +this Man standing before him was the Messiah, though the evening seems to have +come, he hurries away to find his brother, and share with him the glad +conviction. +</p> + +<p> +Now, that is always the case. If a man has any real depth of conviction, he +cannot rest till he tries to share it with somebody else. Why, even a dog that +has had its leg mended, will bring other limping dogs to the man that was kind +to it. Whoever really believes anything becomes a propagandist. +</p> + +<p> +Look round about us to-day! and hearken to the Babel, the wholesale Babel of +noises, where every sort of opinion is trying to make itself heard. It sounds +like a country fair where every huckster is shouting his loudest. That shows +that the men believe the things that they profess. Thank God that there is so +much earnestness in the world! And now are Christians to be dumb whilst all +this vociferous crowd is calling its wares, and quacks are standing on their +platforms shouting out their specifics, which are mostly delusions? Have you +not a medicine that will cure everything, a real heal-all, a veritable +pain-killer? If you believe that you have, certainly you will never rest till +you share your boon with your brethren. +</p> + +<p> +If the natural effect of all earnest conviction, viz. a yearning and an +absolute necessity to speak it out, is no part of your Christian experience, +very grave inferences ought to be drawn from that. This man, before he was +four-and-twenty hours a disciple, had made another. Some of you have been +disciples for as many years, and have never even tried to make one. Whence +comes that silence which is, alas, so common among us? +</p> + +<p> +It is very plain that, making all allowance for changed manners, for social +difficulties, for timidity, for the embarrassment that besets people when they +talk to other people about religion, which is 'such an awkward subject to +introduce into mixed company,' and the like,—making all allowance for these, +there is a deplorable number of Christian people who ought to be, in their own +circles, evangelists and missionaries, who are, if I may venture to quote very +rude words which the Bible uses, 'Dumb dogs lying down, and loving to slumber.' +'He first findeth his own brother, Simon!' +</p> + +<p> +Now, take another lesson out of this witness of the disciple, as to the channel +in which such effort naturally runs. 'He <i>first</i> findeth <i>his own +brother</i>'; does not that imply a second finding by the other of the two? The +language of the text suggests that the Evangelist's tendency to the suppression +of himself, of which I have spoken, hides away, if I may so say, in this +singular expression, the fact that he too went to look for a brother, but that +Andrew found his brother before John found his. If so, each of the original +pair of disciples went to look for one who was knit to him by close ties of +kindred and affection, and found him and brought him to Christ; and before the +day was over the Christian Church was doubled, because each member of it, by +God's grace, had added another. Home, then, and those who are nearest to us, +present the natural channels for Christian work. Many a very earnest and busy +preacher, or Sunday-school teacher, or missionary, has brothers and sisters, +husband or wife, children or parents at home to whom he has never said a word +about Christ. There is an old proverb, 'The shoemaker's wife is always the +worst shod.' The families of many very busy Christian teachers suffer wofully +for want of remembering 'he first findeth his own brother.' It is a poor affair +if all your philanthropy and Christian energy go off noisily in Sunday-schools +and mission-stations, and if your own vineyard is neglected, and the people at +your own fireside never hear anything from you about the Master whom you say +you love. Some of you want that hint; will you take it? +</p> + +<p> +But then, the principle is one that might be fairly expanded beyond the home +circle. The natural relationships into which we are brought by neighbourhood +and by ordinary associations prescribe the direction of our efforts. What, for +instance, are we set down in this swarming population of Lancashire for? For +business and personal ends? Yes, partly. But is that all? Surely, if we believe +that 'there is a divinity that shapes our ends' and determines the bounds of +our habitation, we must believe that other purposes affecting other people are +also meant by God to be accomplished through us, and that where a man who knows +and loves Christ Jesus is brought into neighbourly contact with thousands who +do not, he is thereby constituted his brethren's keeper, and is as plainly +called to tell them of Christ as if a voice from Heaven had bid him do it. What +is to be said of the depth and vital energy of the Christianity that neither +hears the call nor feels the impulse to share its blessing with the famishing +Lazarus at its gate? What will be the fate of such a church? Why, if you live +in luxury in your own well drained and ventilated house, and take no heed to +the typhoid fever or cholera in the slums at its back, the chances are that +seeds of the disease will find their way to you, and kill your wife, or child, +or yourself. And if you Christian people, living in the midst of godless +people, do not try to heal them, they will infect you. If you do not seek to +impress your conviction that Christ is the Messiah upon an unbelieving +generation, the unbelieving generation will impress upon you its doubts whether +He is; and your lips will falter, and a pallor will come over the complexion of +your love, and your faith will become congealed and turn into ice. +</p> + +<p> +Notice again the simple word which is the most powerful means of influencing +most men. +</p> + +<p> +Andrew did not begin to argue with his brother. Some of us can do that and some +of us cannot. Some of us are influenced by argument and some of us are not. You +may pound a man's mistaken creed to atoms with sledge-hammers of reasoning, and +he is not much the nearer being a Christian than he was before; just as you may +pound ice to pieces and it is pounded ice after all. The mightiest argument +that we can use, and the argument that we can all use, if we have got any +religion in us at all, is that of Andrew, 'We have found the Messias.' +</p> + +<p> +I recently read a story in some newspaper or other about a minister who +preached a very elaborate course of lectures in refutation of some form of +infidelity, for the special benefit of a man that attended his place of +worship. Soon after, the man came and declared himself a Christian. The +minister said to him, 'Which of my discourses was it that removed your doubts?' +The reply was, 'Oh! it was not any of your sermons that influenced me. The +thing that set me thinking was that a poor woman came out of the chapel beside +me, and stumbled on the steps, and I stretched out my hand to help her, and she +said "Thank you!" Then she looked at me and said, "Do you love Jesus Christ, my +blessed Saviour?" And I did not, and I went home and thought about it; and now +I can say <i>I</i> love Jesus.' The poor woman's word, and her frank confession +of her experience, were all the transforming power. +</p> + +<p> +If you have found Christ, you can say that you have. Never mind about the how! +Any how! Only say it! A boy that is sent on an errand by his father has only +one duty to perform, and that is to repeat what he was told. Whether we have +any eloquence or not, whether we have any logic or not, whether we can speak +persuasively and gracefully or not, if we have laid hold of Christ at all we +can say that we have; and it is at our peril that we do not. We can say it to +somebody. There is surely some one who will listen to you more readily than to +any one else. Surely you have not lived all your life and bound nobody to you +by kindness and love, so that they will gladly attend to what you say. Well, +then, <i>use</i> the power that is given to you. +</p> + +<p> +Remember the beginnings of the Christian Church—two men, each of whom found his +brother. Two and two make four; and if every one of us would go, according to +the old law of warfare, and each of us slay our man, or rather each of us give +life by God's grace to some one, or try to do it, our congregations and our +churches would grow as fast as, according to the old problem, the money grew +that was paid down for the nails in the horse's shoes. Two snowflakes on the +top of a mountain gather an avalanche by the time they reach the valley. 'He +first findeth his brother, Simon.' +</p> + +<p> +II. And now I turn to the second part of this text, the self-revelation of the +Master. +</p> + +<p> +The bond which knit these men to Christ at first was by no means the perfect +Christian faith which they afterwards attained. They recognised Him as the +Messiah, they were personally attached to Him, they were ready to accept His +teaching and to obey His commandments. That was about as far as they had gone. +But they were scholars. They had entered the school. The rest would come. It +would be absurd to expect that Christ would begin by preaching to them faith in +His divinity and atoning work. He binds them to <i>Himself</i>. That is lesson +enough for a beginner for one day. +</p> + +<p> +It was the impression which Christ Himself made on Simon which completed the +work begun by his brother. What, then, was the impression? He comes all full of +wonder and awe, and he is met by a look and a sentence. The look, which is +described by an unusual word, was a penetrating gaze which regarded Peter with +fixed attention. It must have been remarkable, to have lived in John's memory +for all these years. Evidently, as I think, a more than natural insight is +implied. So, also, the saying with which our Lord received Peter seems to me to +be meant to show more than natural knowledge: 'Thou art Simon, the son of +Jonas.' Christ may, no doubt, have learned the Apostle's name and lineage from +his brother, or in some other ordinary way. But if you observe the similar +incident which follows in the conversation with Nicodemus, and the emphatic +declaration of the next chapter that Jesus knew both 'all men,' and 'what was +in man'—both human nature as a whole, and each individual—it is more natural to +see here superhuman knowledge. +</p> + +<p> +So then, the first point in our Lord's self-revelation here is that He shows +Himself possessed of supernatural and thorough knowledge. One remembers the +many instances where our Lord read men's hearts, and the prayer addressed to +Him probably, by Peter, 'Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men,' and +the vision which John saw of 'eyes like a flame of fire,' and the sevenfold 'I +know thy works.' +</p> + +<p> +It may be a very awful thought, 'Thou, God, seest me.' It is a very unwelcome +thought to a great many men, and it will be so to us unless we can give it the +modification which it receives from the belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, +and feel sure that the eyes which are blazing with divine omniscience are dewy +with divine and human love. +</p> + +<p> +Do you believe it? Do you feel that Christ is looking at you, and searching you +altogether? Do you rejoice in it? Do you carry it about with you as a +consolation and a strength in moments of weakness and in times of temptation? +Is it as blessed to you to feel 'Thou Christ beholdest me now,' as it is for a +child to feel that, when it is playing in the garden, its mother is sitting up +at the window watching it, and that no harm can come? There have been men +driven mad in prisons because they knew that somewhere in the wall there was a +little pinhole, through which a gaoler's eye was always, or might be always, +glaring down at them. And the thought of an absolute Omniscience up there, +searching me to the depths of my nature, may become one from which I recoil +shudderingly, and will not be altogether a blessed one unless it comes to me in +this shape:—'My Christ knows me altogether and loves me better than He knows. +And so I will spread myself out before Him, and though I feel that there is +much in me which I dare not tell to men, I will rejoice that there is nothing +which I need to tell to Him. He knows me through and through. He knew me when +He died for me. He knew me when He forgave me. He knew me when He undertook to +cleanse me. Like this very Peter I will say, "Lord, Thou knowest all things," +and, like him, I will cling the closer to His feet, because I know, and He +knows, my weakness and my sin.' +</p> + +<p> +Another revelation of our Lord's relation to His disciples is given in the fact +that He changes Simon's name. Jehovah, in the Old Testament, changes the names +of Abraham and of Jacob. Babylonian kings in the Old Testament change the names +of their vassal princes. Masters impose names on their slaves; and I suppose +that even the marriage custom of the wife's assuming the name of the husband +rests originally upon the same idea of absolute authority. That idea is +conveyed in the fact that our Lord changes Peter's name, and so takes absolute +possession of him, and asserts His mastery over him. We belong to Him +altogether, because He has given Himself altogether for us. His absolute +authority is the correlative of His utter self-surrender. He who can come to me +and say, 'I have spared not my life for thee,' and He only, has the right to +come to me and say, 'yield yourself wholly to Me.' So, Christian friends, your +Master wants all your service; do you give yourselves up to Him out and out, +not by half and half. +</p> + +<p> +Lastly, that change of name implies Christ's power and promise to bestow a new +character and new functions and honours. Peter was by no means a 'Peter' then. +The name no doubt mainly implies official function, but that official function +was prepared for by personal character; and in so far as the name refers to +character, it means firmness. At that epoch Peter was rash, impulsive, +headstrong, self-confident, vain, and therefore, necessarily changeable. Like +the granite, all fluid and hot, and fluid because it was hot, he needed to cool +in order to solidify into rock. And not until his self-confidence had been +knocked out of him, and he had learned humility by falling; not until he had +been beaten from all his presumption, and tamed down, and sobered and steadied +by years of difficulty and responsibilities, did he become the rock that Christ +meant him to be. All <i>that</i> lay concealed in the future, but in the change +of his name, while he stood on the very threshold of his Christian career, +there was preached to him, and there is preached to us, this great truth, that +if you will go to Jesus Christ He will make a new man of you. No man's +character is so obstinately rooted in evil but that Christ can change its set +and direction. No man's natural dispositions are so faulty and low but that +Christ can develop counterbalancing virtues, and out of the evil and weakness +make strength. He will not make a Peter into a John, or a John into a Paul, but +He will deliver Peter from the 'defects of his qualities,' and lead them up +into a higher and a nobler region. There are no outcasts in the view of the +transforming Christ. He dismisses no people out of His hospital as incurable, +because anybody, everybody, the blackest, the most rooted in evil, those who +have longest indulged in any given form of transgression, may all come to Him; +with the certainty that if they will cleave to Him, He will read all their +character and all its weaknesses, and then with a glad smile of welcome and +assured confidence on His face, will ensure to them a new nature and new +dignities. 'Thou art Simon—thou shalt be Peter.' +</p> + +<p> +The process will be long. It will be painful. There will be a great deal pared +off. The sculptor makes the marble image by chipping away the superfluous +marble. Ah! and when you have to chip away superfluous flesh and blood it is +bitter work, and the chisel is often deeply dyed in gore, and the mallet seems +to be very cruel. Simon did not know all that had to be done to make a Peter of +him. We have to thank God's providence that we do not know all the sorrows and +trials of the process of making us what He wills us to be. But we may be sure +of this, that if only we keep near our Master, and let Him have His way with +us, and work His will upon us, and if only we will not wince from the blows of +the Great Artist's chisel, then out of the roughest block He will carve the +fairest statue; and He will fulfil for us at last His great promise: 'I will +give unto him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man +knoweth save he that receiveth it.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>THE FIRST DISCIPLES: III. PHILIP</h2> + +<p> +'The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and +saith unto him, Follow Me.'—JOHN i. 43. +</p> + +<p> +'The day following'—we have a diary in this chapter and the next, extending +from the day when John the Baptist gives his official testimony to Jesus, up +till our Lord's first journey to Jerusalem. The order of events is this. The +deputation from the Sanhedrim to John occupied the first day. On the second +Jesus comes back to John after His temptation, and receives his solemn +attestation. On the third day, John repeats his testimony, and three disciples, +probably four, make the nucleus of the Church. These are the two pairs of +brothers, James and John, Andrew and Peter, who stand first in every catalogue +of the Apostles, and were evidently nearest to Christ. +</p> + +<p> +'The day following' of our text is the fourth day. On it our Lord determines to +return to Galilee. His objects in His visit to John were accomplished—to +receive his public attestation, and to gather the first little knot of His +followers. Thus launched upon His course, He desired to return to His native +district. +</p> + +<p> +These events had occurred where John was baptising, in a place called in the +English version Bethabara, which means 'The house of crossing,' or as we might +say, Ferry-house. The traditional site for John's baptism is near Jericho, but +the next chapter (verse i.) shows that it was only a day's journey from Cana of +Galilee, and must therefore have been much further north than Jericho. A ford, +still bearing the name Abarah, a few miles south of the lake of Gennesaret, has +lately been discovered. Our Lord, then, and His disciples had a day's walking +to take them back to Galilee. But apparently before they set out on that +morning, Philip and Nathanael were added to the little band. So these two days +saw six disciples gathered round Jesus. +</p> + +<p> +Andrew and John sought Christ and found Him. To them He revealed Himself as +very willing to be approached, and glad to welcome any to His side. Peter, who +comes next, was brought to Christ by his brother, and to him Christ revealed +Himself as reading his heart, and promising and giving him higher functions and +a more noble character. +</p> + +<p> +Now we come to the third case, 'Jesus findeth Philip,' who was not seeking +Jesus, and who was brought by no one. To him Christ reveals Himself as drawing +near to many a heart that has not thought of Him, and laying a masterful hand +of gracious authority on the springs of life and character in that autocratic +word 'Follow Me.' So we have a gradually heightening revelation of the Master's +graciousness to all souls, to them that seek and to them that seek Him not. It +is only to the working out of these simple thoughts that I ask your attention +now. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, let us deal with the revelation that is given us here of the +seeking Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Every one who reads this chapter with even the slightest attention must observe +how 'seeking' and 'finding' are repeated over and over again. Christ turns to +Andrew and John with the question, 'What <i>seek</i> ye?' Andrew, as the +narrative says, '<i>findeth</i> his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, "We +have <i>found</i> the Messias!"' Then again, Jesus <i>finds</i> Philip; and +again, Philip, as soon as he has been won to Jesus, goes off to <i>find</i> +Nathanael; and his glad word to him is, once more, 'We have <i>found</i> the +Messias.' It is a reciprocal play of finding and seeking all through these +verses. +</p> + +<p> +There are two kinds of finding. There is a casual stumbling upon a thing that +you were not looking for, and there is a finding as the result of seeking. It +is the latter which is here. Christ did not casually stumble upon Philip, upon +that morning, before they departed from the fords of the Jordan on their short +journey to Cana of Galilee. He went to look for this other Galilean, one who +was connected with Andrew and Peter, a native of the same little village. He +went and found him; and whilst Philip was all unexpectant and undesirous, the +Master came to him and laid His hand upon him, and drew him to Himself. +</p> + +<p> +Now that is what Christ often does. There are men like the merchantman who went +all over the world seeking goodly pearls, who with some eager longing to +possess light, or truth, or goodness, or rest, search up and down and find it +nowhere, because they are looking for it in a hundred different places. They +are expecting to find a little here and a little there, and to piece all +together to make of the fragments one all-sufficing restfulness. Then when they +are most eager in their search, or when, perhaps, it has all died down into +despair and apathy, the veil seems to be withdrawn, and they see Him whom they +have been seeking all the time and knew not that He was there beside them. All, +and more than all, that they sought for in the many pearls is stored for them +in the one Pearl of great price. The ancient covenant stands firm to-day as for +ever. 'Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' +</p> + +<p> +But then there are others, like Paul on the road to Damascus or like Matthew +the publican, sitting at the receipt of custom, on whom there is laid a sudden +hand, to whom there comes a sudden conviction, on whose eyes, not looking to +the East, there dawns the light of Christ's presence. Such cases occur all +through the ages, for He is not to be confined, bless His name! within the +narrow limits of answering seeking souls, or of showing Himself to people that +are brought to Him by human instrumentality; but far beyond these bounds He +goes, and many a time discloses His beauty and His sweetness to hearts that +wist not of Him, and who can only say, 'Lo! God was in this place, and I knew +it not.' 'Thou wast found of them that sought Thee not.' +</p> + +<p> +As it was in His miracles upon earth, so it has been in the sweet and gracious +works of His grace ever since. Sometimes He healed in response to the yearning +desire that looked out of sick eyes, or that spoke from parched lips, and no +man that ever came to Him and said 'Heal me!' was sent away beggared of His +blessing. Sometimes He healed in response to the beseeching of those who, with +loving hearts, carried their dear ones and laid them at His feet. But +sometimes, to magnify the spontaneity and the completeness of His own love, and +to show us that He is bound and limited by no human co-operation, and that He +is His own motive, He reached out the blessing to a hand that was not extended +to grasp it; and by His question, 'Wilt thou be made whole?' kindled desires +that else had lain dormant for ever. +</p> + +<p> +And so in this story before us; He will welcome and over-answer Andrew and John +when they come seeking; He will turn round to them with a smile on His face, +that converts the question, 'What seek ye?' into an invitation, 'Come and see.' +And when Andrew brings his brother to Him, He will go more than halfway to meet +him. But when these are won, there still remains another way by which He will +have disciples brought into His Kingdom, and that is by Himself going out and +laying His hand on the man and drawing him to His heart by the revelation of +His love. But further, and in a deeper sense, He really seeks us all, and, +unasked, bestows His love upon us. +</p> + +<p> +Whether we seek Him or no, there is no heart upon earth which Christ does not +desire; and no man or woman within the sound of His gospel whom He is not in a +very real sense seeking that He may draw them to Himself. His own word is a +wonderful one: 'The Father <i>seeketh</i> such to worship Him'; as if God went +all up and down the world looking for hearts to love Him and to turn to Him +with reverent thankfulness. And as the Father, so the Son—who is for us the +revelation of the Father: 'The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that +which was lost.' No one on earth wanted Him, or dreamed of His coming. When He +bowed the heavens and gathered Himself into the narrow space of the manger in +Bethlehem, and took upon Him the limitations and the burdens and the weaknesses +of manhood, it was not in response to any petition, it was in reply to no +seeking; but He came spontaneously, unmoved, obeying but the impulse of His own +heart, and because He would have mercy. He who is the Beginning, and will be +First in all things, was first in this, that before they called He answered, +and came upon earth unbesought and unexpected, because His own infinite love +brought Him hither. Christ's mercy to a world does not come like water in a +well that has to be pumped up, by our petitions, by our search, but like water +in some fountain, rising sparkling into the sunlight by its own inward impulse. +He is His own motive; and came to a forgetful and careless world, like a +shepherd who goes after his flock in the wilderness, not because they bleat for +him, while they crop the herbage which tempts them ever further from the fold +and remember him and it no more, but because he cannot have them lost. Men are +not conscious of needing Christ till He comes. The supply creates the demand. +He is like the 'dew which tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of +men.' +</p> + +<p> +But not only does Christ seek us all, inasmuch as the whole conception and +execution of His great work are independent of man's desires, but He seeks us +each in a thousand ways. He longs to have each of us for His disciples. He +seeks each of us for His disciples, by the motion of His Spirit on our spirits, +by stirring conviction in our consciences, by pricking us often with a sense of +our own evil, by all our restlessness and dissatisfaction, by the +disappointments and the losses, as by the brightnesses and the goodness of +earthly providences, and often through such agencies as my lips and the lips of +other men. The Master Himself, who seeks all mankind, has sought and is seeking +you at this moment. Oh! yield to His search. The shepherd goes out on the +mountain side, for all the storm and the snow, and wades knee-deep through the +drifts until he finds the sheep. And your Shepherd, who is also your Brother, +has come looking for you, and at this moment is putting out His hand and laying +hold of some of you through my poor words, and saying to you, as He said to +Philip, 'Follow Me!' +</p> + +<p> +II. And now let us next consider that word of authority which, spoken to the +one man in our text, is really spoken to us all. +</p> + +<p> +'Jesus findeth Philip, and saith unto him, "Follow Me!"' No doubt a great deal +more passed, but no doubt what more passed was less significant and less +important for the development of faith in this man than what is recorded. The +word of authority, the invitation which was a demand, the demand which was an +invitation, and the personal impression which He produced upon Philip's heart, +were the things that bound him to Jesus Christ for ever. 'Follow Me,' spoken at +the beginning of the journey of Christ and His disciples back to Galilee, might +have meant merely, on the surface, 'Come back with us.' But the words have, of +course, a much deeper meaning. They mean—be My disciple. Think what is implied +in them, and ask yourself whether the demand that Christ makes in these words +is an unreasonable one, and then ask yourselves whether you have yielded to it +or not. +</p> + +<p> +We lose the force of the image by much repetition. Sheep follow a shepherd. +Travellers follow a guide. Here is a man upon some dangerous cornice of the +Alps, with a ledge of limestone as broad as the palm of your hand, and perhaps +a couple of feet of snow above that, for him to walk upon, a precipice on +either side; and his guide says, as he ropes himself to him, 'Now, tread where +I tread!' Travellers follow their guides. Soldiers follow their commanders. +There is the hell of the battlefield; here a line of wavering, timid, raw +recruits. Their commander rushes to the front and throws himself upon the +advancing enemy with the one word, 'Follow' and the coward becomes a hero. +Soldiers follow their captains. Your Shepherd comes to you and calls, 'Follow +Me.' Your Captain and Commander comes to you and calls, 'Follow Me.' In all the +dreary wilderness, in all the difficult contingencies and conjunctions, in all +the conflicts of life, this Man strides in front of us and proposes Himself to +us as Guide, Example, Consoler, Friend, Companion, everything; and gathers up +all duty, all blessedness, in the majestic and simple words, 'Follow Me.' +</p> + +<p> +It is a call at the least to accept Him as a Teacher, but the whole gist of the +context here is to show us that from the beginning Christ's disciples did not +look upon Him as a Rabbi's disciples did, as being simply a teacher, but +recognised Him as the Messias, the Son of God, the King of Israel. So that they +were called upon by this command to accept His teaching in a very special way, +not merely as Hillel or Gamaliel asked their disciples to accept theirs. Do you +do that? Do you take Him as your illumination about all matters of theoretical +truth, and of practical wisdom? Is His declaration of God your theology? Is His +declaration of His own Person your creed? Do you think about His Cross as He +did when He elected to be remembered in all the world by the broken body and +the shed blood, which were the symbols of His reconciling death? Is His +teaching, that the Son of Man comes to 'give His life a ransom for many,' the +ground of your hope? Do you follow Him in your belief, and following Him in +your belief, do you accept Him as, by His death and passion, the Saviour of +your soul? That is the first step—to follow Him, to trust Him wholly for what +He is, the Incarnate Son of God, the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, +and therefore for your sins and mine. This is a call to faith. +</p> + +<p> +It is also a call to obedience. 'Follow Me' certainly means 'Do as I bid you,' +but softens all the harshness of that command. Sedulously plant your tremulous +feet in His firm footsteps. Where you see His track going across the bog be not +afraid to walk after Him, though it may seem to lead you into the deepest and +the blackest of it. 'Follow Him' and you will be right. 'Follow Him' and you +will be blessed. Do as Christ did, or as according to the best of your judgment +it seems to you that Christ would have done if He had been in your +circumstances; and you will not go far wrong. 'The Imitation of Christ,' which +Thomas a Kempis wrote his book about, is the sum of all practical Christianity. +'Follow Me!' makes discipleship to be something more than intellectual +acceptance of His teaching, something more than even reliance for my salvation +upon His work. It makes discipleship—springing out of these two—the acceptance +of His teaching and the consequent reliance, by faith, upon His word—to be a +practical reproduction of His character and conduct in mine. +</p> + +<p> +It is a call to communion. If a man follows Christ he will walk close behind +Him, and near enough to Him to hear Him speak, and to be 'guided by His eye.' +He will be separated from other people, and from other paths. In these four +things, then—Faith, Obedience, Imitation, Communion—lies the essence of +discipleship. No man is a Christian who has not in some measure all four. Have +you got them? +</p> + +<p> +What right has Jesus Christ to ask me to follow Him? Why should I? Who is He +that He should set Himself up as being the perfect Example and the Guide for +all the world? What has He done to bind me to Him, that I should take Him for +my Master, and yield myself to Him in a subjection that I refuse to the +mightiest names in literature, and thought, and practical benevolence? Who is +this that assumes thus to dominate over us all? Ah! brethren, there is only one +answer. 'This is none other than the Son of God who has given Himself a ransom +for me, and therefore has the right, and only therefore has the right, to say +to me, "Follow Me."' +</p> + +<p> +III. And now one last word. Think for a moment about this silently and swiftly +obedient disciple. +</p> + +<p> +Philip says nothing. Of course the narrative is mere sketchy outline. He is +silent, but he yields. Ah, brethren, how quickly a soul may be won or lost! +That moment, when Philip's decision was trembling in the balance, was but a +moment. It might have gone the other way, for Christ has no pressed men in His +army; they are all volunteers. It might have gone the other way. A moment may +settle for you whether you will be His disciple or not. People tell us that the +belief in instantaneous conversions is unphilosophical. It seems to me that the +objections to them are unphilosophical. All decisions are matters of an +instant. Hesitation may be long, weighing and balancing may be a protracted +process, but the decision is always a moment's work, a knife-edge. And there is +no reason whatever why any one listening to me may not now, if he or she will, +do as this man Philip did on the spot, and when Christ says 'Follow Me,' turn +to Him and answer, 'I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.' +</p> + +<p> +There is an old church tradition which says that the disciple who at a +subsequent period answered Christ, 'Lord! suffer me first to go and bury my +father,' was this same Apostle. I do not think that at all likely, but the +tradition suggests to us one last thought about the reasons why people are kept +back from yielding this obedience to Christ's invitation. Many of you are kept +back, as that procrastinating follower was, because there are some other duties +which you feel, or make to be, more important. 'I will think about Christianity +and turning religious when this, that, or the other thing has been got over. I +have my position in life to make. I have a great many things to do that must be +done at once, and really, I have not time to think about it.' +</p> + +<p> +Then there are some of you that are kept from following Christ because you have +never yet found out that you need a guide at all. Then there are some of you +that are kept back because you like very much better to go your own way, and to +follow your own inclination, and dislike the idea of following the will of +another. There are a host of other reasons that I do not need to deal with now; +but oh! brethren, none of them is worth pleading. They are excuses, they are +not reasons. 'They all with one consent began to make excuse'—excuses, not +reasons; and manufactured excuses, in order to cover a decision which has been +taken before, and on other grounds altogether, which it is not convenient to +bring up to the surface. I am not going to deal with these in detail, but I +beseech you, do not let what I venture to call Christ's seeking of you once +more, even by my poor words now, be in vain. +</p> + +<p> +Follow Him. Trust, obey, imitate, hold fellowship with Him. You will always +have a Companion, you will always have a Protector. 'He that followeth Me,' +saith He, 'shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' And +if you will listen to the Shepherd's voice and follow Him, that sweet old +promise will be true, in its divinest and sweetest sense, about your life, in +time; and about your life in the moment of death, the isthmus between two +worlds, and about your life in eternity—'They shall not hunger nor thirst, +neither shall the sun nor heat smite them; for He that hath mercy on them shall +lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them.' 'Follow thou Me.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>THE FIRST DISCIPLES: IV. NATHANAEL</h2> + +<p> +'Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of whom Moses +in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. +46. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? +Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and +saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 48. Nathanael +saith unto Him, Whence knowest Thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, +Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. +49. Nathanael answered and saith unto Him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou +art the King of Israel.'—JOHN i. 45-49. +</p> + +<p> +The words are often the least part of a conversation. The Evangelist can tell +us what Nathanael said to Jesus, and what Jesus said to Nathanael, but no +Evangelist can reproduce the look, the tone, the magnetic influence which +streamed out from Christ, and, we may believe, more than anything He said, +riveted these men to Him. +</p> + +<p> +It looks as if Nathanael and his companions were very easily convinced, as if +their adhesion to such tremendous claims as those of Jesus Christ was much too +facile a thing to be a very deep one. But what can be put down in black and +white goes a very short way to solve the secret of the power which drew them to +Himself. +</p> + +<p> +The incident which is before us now runs substantially on the same lines as the +previous bringing of Peter to Jesus Christ. In both cases the man is brought by +a friend, in both cases the friend's weapon is simply the expression of his own +personal experience, 'We have found the Messias,' although Philip has a little +more to say about Christ's correspondence with the prophetic word. In both +cases the work is finished by our Lord Himself manifesting His own supernatural +knowledge to the inquiring spirit, though in the case of Nathanael that process +is a little more lengthened out than in the case of Peter, because there was a +little ice of hesitation and of doubt to be melted away. And Nathanael, +starting from a lower point than Peter, having questions and hesitations which +the other had not, rises to a higher point of faith and certitude, and from his +lips first of all comes the full articulate confession, beyond which the +Apostles never went as long as our Lord was upon earth: 'Rabbi, Thou art the +Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.' So that both in regard to the +revelation that is given of the character of our Lord, and in regard to the +teaching that is given of the development and process of faith in a soul, this +last narrative fitly crowns the whole series. In looking at it with you now, I +think I shall best bring out its force by asking you to take it as falling into +these three portions: first, the preparation—a soul brought to Christ by a +brother; then the conversation—a soul fastened to Christ by Himself; and then +the rapturous confession—'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of +Israel.' +</p> + +<p> +I. Look, then, first of all, at the preparation—a soul brought to Christ by a +brother. +</p> + +<p> +'Philip findeth Nathanael.' Nathanael, in all probability, as commentators will +tell you, is the Apostle Bartholomew; and in the catalogues of the Apostles in +the Gospels, Philip and he are always associated together. So that the two men, +friends before, had their friendship riveted and made more close by this +sacredest of all bonds, that the one had been to the other the means of +bringing him to Jesus Christ. There is nothing that ties men to each other like +that. If you want to know the full sweetness of association with friends, and +of human love, get some heart knit to yours by this sacred and eternal bond +that it owes to you its first knowledge of the Saviour. So all human ties will +be sweetened, ennobled, elevated, and made perpetual. +</p> + +<p> +'We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write: +Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.' Philip knows nothing about Christ's +supernatural birth, nor about its having been in Bethlehem; to him He is the +son of a Nazarene peasant. But, notwithstanding that, He is the great, +significant, mysterious Person for whom the whole sacred literature of Israel +had been one long yearning for centuries; and he has come to believe that this +Man standing beside him is the Person on whom all previous divine +communications for a millennium past focussed and centred. +</p> + +<p> +I need not dwell upon these words, because to do so would be to repeat +substantially what I said in a former sermon on these first disciples, about +the value of personal conviction as a means of producing conviction in the +minds of others, and about the necessity and the possibility of all who have +found Christ for themselves saying so to others, and thereby becoming His +missionaries and evangelists. +</p> + +<p> +I do not need to repeat what I said on that occasion; therefore I pass on to +the very natural hesitation and question of Nathanael: 'Can there any good +thing come out of Nazareth?' A prejudice, no doubt, but a very harmless one; a +very thin ice which melted as soon as Christ's smile beamed upon him. And a +most natural prejudice. Nathanael came from Cana of Galilee, a little hill +village, three or four miles from Nazareth. We all know the bitter feuds and +jealousies of neighbouring villages, and how nothing is so pleasant to the +inhabitants of one as a gibe about the inhabitants of another. And in +Nathanael's words there simply speaks the rustic jealousy of Cana against +Nazareth. +</p> + +<p> +It is easy to blame him, but do you think that you or I, if we had been in his +place, would have been likely to have said anything very different? Suppose you +were told that a peasant out of Ross-shire was a man on whom the whole history +of this nation hung. Do you think you would be likely to believe it without +first saying, 'That is a strange place for such a person to be born in'? +Galilee was the despised part of Palestine, and Nazareth obviously was a +proverbially despised village of Galilee; and this Jesus was a carpenter's son +that nobody had ever heard of. It seemed to be a strange head on which the +divine dove should flutter down, passing by all the Pharisees and the Scribes, +all the great people and wise people. Nathanael's prejudice was but the giving +voice to a fault that is as wide as humanity, and which we have every day of +our lives to fight with; not only in regard to religious matters but in regard +to all others—namely, the habit of estimating people, and their work, and their +wisdom, and their power to teach us, by the class to which they are supposed to +belong, or even by the place from which they come. +</p> + +<p> +'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' 'Can a German teach an Englishman +anything that he does not know?' 'Is a Protestant to owe anything of spiritual +illumination to a Roman Catholic?' 'Are we Dissenters to receive any wisdom or +example from Churchmen?' 'Will a Conservative be able to give any lessons in +politics to a Liberal?' 'Is there any other bit of England that can teach +Lancashire?' Take care that whilst you are holding up your hands in horror +against the prejudices of our Lord's contemporaries, who stumbled at His +origin, you are not doing the same thing in regard to all manner of subjects +twenty times a day. +</p> + +<p> +That is one very plain lesson, and not at all too secular for a sermon. Take +another. This three-parts innocent prejudice of Nathanael brings into clear +relief for us what a very real obstacle to the recognition of our Lord's +Messianic authority His apparent lowly origin was. We have got over it, and it +is no difficulty to us; but it was so then. When Jesus Christ came into this +world Judaea was ruled by the most heartless of aristocracies, an aristocracy +of cultured pedants. Wherever you get such a class you get people who think +that there can be nobody worth looking at, or worth attending to, outside the +little limits of their own supercilious superiority. Why did Jesus Christ come +from 'the men of the earth,' as the Rabbis called all who had not learned to +cover every plain precept with spiders' webs of casuistry? Why, for one thing, +in accordance with the general law that the great reformers and innovators +always come from outside these classes, that the Spirit of the Lord shall come +on a herdsman like Amos, and fishermen and peasants spread the Gospel through +the world; and that in politics, in literature, in science, as well as in +religion, it is always true that 'not many wise men after the flesh, not many +mighty, not many noble are called.' To the cultivated classes you have to look +for a great deal that is precious and good, but for fresh impulse, in unbroken +fields, you have to look outside them. And so the highest of all lives is +conformed to the general law. +</p> + +<p> +More than that, 'Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph,' came thus because He +was the poor man's Christ, because He was the ignorant man's Christ, because +His word was not for any class, but as broad as the world. He came poor, +obscure, unlettered, that all who, like Him, were poor and untouched by the +finger of earthly culture, might in Him find their Brother, their Helper, and +their Friend. +</p> + +<p> +'Philip saith unto him, Come and see.' He is not going to argue the question. +He gives the only possible answer to it—'You ask Me, can any good thing come +out of Nazareth?' 'Come and see whether it is a good thing or no; and if it is, +and if it came out of Nazareth, well then, the question has answered itself.' +The quality of a thing cannot be settled by the origin of the thing. +</p> + +<p> +As it so happened, this Man did not come out of Nazareth at all, though neither +Philip nor Nathanael knew it; but if He had, it would have been all the same. +The right answer was 'Come and see.' +</p> + +<p> +Now although, of course, there is no kind of correspondence between the mere +prejudice of this man Nathanael and the rooted intellectual doubts of other +generations, yet 'Come and see' carries in it the essence of all Christian +apologetics. By far the wisest thing that any man who has to plead the cause of +Christianity can do is to put Christ well forward, and let people look at Him, +and trust Him to produce His own impression. We may argue round, and round, and +round about Him for evermore, and we shall never convince as surely as by +simply holding Him forth. 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' +Yet we are so busy proving Christianity that we sometimes have no time to +preach it; so busy demonstrating that Jesus Christ is this, that, and the other +thing, or contradicting the notion that He is not this, that, and the other +thing, that we forget simply to present Him for men to look at. Depend upon it, +whilst argument has its function, and there are men that must be approached +thereby; on the whole, and for the general, the best way of propagating +Christianity is to proclaim it, and the second best way is to prove it. Our +arguments do fare very often very much as did that elaborate discourse that a +bishop once preached to prove the existence of a God, at the end of which a +simple old woman who had not followed his reasoning very intelligently, +exclaimed, 'Well, for all he says, I can't help thinking there is a God after +all.' The errors that are quoted to be confuted often remain more clear in the +hearers' minds than the attempted confutations. Hold forth Christ—cry aloud to +men, 'Come and see!' and some eyes will turn and some hearts cleave to Him. +</p> + +<p> +And on the other side, dear brethren, you have not done fairly by Christianity +until you have complied with this invitation, and submitted your mind and heart +honestly to the influence and the impression that Christ Himself would make +upon it. +</p> + +<p> +II. We come now to the second stage—the conversation between Christ and +Nathanael, where we see a soul fastened to Christ by Himself. +</p> + +<p> +In general terms, as I remarked, the method by which our Lord manifests His +Messiahship to this single soul is a revelation of His supernatural knowledge +of him. But a word or two may be said about the details. Mark the emphasis with +which the Evangelist shows us that our Lord speaks this discriminating +characterisation of Nathanael before Nathanael had come to Him: 'He saw him +coming.' So it was not with a swift, penetrating glance of intuition that He +read his character in his face. It was not that He generalised rapidly from one +action which He had seen him do. It was not from any previous personal +knowledge of him, for, obviously, from the words of Philip to Nathanael, the +latter had never seen Jesus Christ. As Nathanael was drawing near Him, before +he had done anything to show himself, our Lord speaks the words which show that +He had read his very heart: 'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' +</p> + +<p> +That is to say, here is a man who truly represents that which was the ideal of +the whole nation. The reference is, no doubt, to the old story of the occasion +on which Jacob's name was changed to Israel. And we shall see a further +reference to the same story in the subsequent verses. Jacob had wrestled with +God in that mysterious scene by the brook Jabbok, and had overcome, and had +received instead of the name Jacob, 'a supplanter,' the name of Israel, 'for as +a Prince hast thou power with God and hast prevailed.' And, says Christ: 'This +man also is a son of Israel, one of God's warriors, who has prevailed with Him +by prayer.' 'In whom is no guile'—Jacob in his early life had been marked and +marred by selfish craft. Subtlety and guile had been the very keynote of his +character. To drive that out of him, years of discipline and pain and sorrow +had been needed. And not until it had been driven out of him could his name be +altered, and he become Israel. This man has had the guile driven out of him. By +what process? The words are a verbal quotation from Psalm xxxii.: 'Blessed is +he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man +unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no +guile.' Clear, candid openness of spirit, and the freedom of soul from all that +corruption which the Psalmist calls 'guile,' is the property of him only who +has received it, by confession, by pardon, and by cleansing, from God. Thus +Nathanael, in his wrestling, had won the great gift. His transgression had been +forgiven; his iniquity had been covered; to him God had not imputed his sin; +and in his spirit, therefore, there was no guile. Ah, brother! if that black +drop is to be cleansed out of your heart, it must be by the same +means—confession to God and pardon from God. And then you too will be a prince +with Him, and your spirit will be frank and free, and open and candid. +</p> + +<p> +Nathanael, with astonishment, says, 'Lord, whence knowest Thou me?' Not that he +appropriates the description to himself, or recognises the truthfulness of it, +but he is surprised that Christ should have means of forming any judgment with +reference to him, and so he asks Him, half expecting an answer which will show +the natural origin of our Lord's knowledge: 'Whence knowest Thou me?' Then +comes the answer, which, to supernatural insight into Nathanael's character, +adds supernatural knowledge of Nathanael's secret actions: 'Before that Philip +called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. And it is because I +saw thee under the fig-tree that I knew thee to be "an Israelite indeed, in +whom there is no guile."' So then, under the fig-tree, Nathanael must have been +wrestling in prayer; under the fig-tree must have been confessing his sins; +under the fig-tree must have been longing and looking for the Deliverer who was +to 'turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' So solitary had been that vigil, and so +little would any human eye that had looked upon it have known what had been +passing in his mind, that Christ's knowledge of it and of its significance at +once lights up in Nathanael's heart the fire of the glad conviction, 'Thou art +the Son of God.' If we had seen Nathanael, we should only have seen a man +sitting, sunk in thought, under a fig-tree; but Jesus had seen the spiritual +struggle which had no outward marks, and to have known which He must have +exercised the divine prerogative of reading the heart. +</p> + +<p> +I ask you to consider whether Nathanael's conclusion was not right, and whether +that woman of Samaria was not right when she hurried back to the city, leaving +her water-pot, and said, 'Come and see a man that told me <i>all</i> that ever +I did.' That 'all' was a little stretch of facts, but still it was true in +spirit. And her inference was absolutely true: 'Is not this the Christ, the Son +of God?' This is the first miracle that Jesus Christ wrought. His supernatural +knowledge, which cannot be struck out from the New Testament representations of +His character, is as much a mark of divinity as any of the other of His earthly +manifestations. It is not the highest; it does not appeal to our sympathies as +some of the others do, but it is irrefragable. Here is a man to whom all men +with whom He came in contact were like those clocks with a crystal face which +shows us all the works. How does He come to have this perfect and absolute +knowledge? +</p> + +<p> +That omniscience, as manifested here, shows us how glad Christ is when He sees +anything good, anything that He can praise in any of us. 'Behold an Israelite +indeed, in whom there is no guile.' Not a word about Nathanael's prejudice, not +a word about any of his faults (though no doubt he had plenty of them), but the +cordial praise that he was an honest, a sincere man, following after God and +after truth. There is nothing which so gladdens Christ as to see in us any +faint traces of longing for, and love towards, and likeness to, His own self. +His omniscience is never so pleased as when beneath heaps and mountains of +vanity and sin it discerns in a man's heart some poor germ of goodness and +longing for His grace. +</p> + +<p> +And then again, notice how we have here our Lord's omniscience set forth as +cognisant of all our inward crises and struggles, 'When thou wast under the fig +tree, I saw thee.' I suppose all of us could look back to some place or other, +under some hawthorn hedge, or some boulder by the seashore, or some +mountain-top, or perhaps in some back-parlour, or in some crowded street, where +some never-to-be-forgotten epoch in our soul's history passed, unseen by all +eyes, and which would have shown no trace to any onlooker, except perhaps a +tightly compressed lip. Let us rejoice to feel that Christ sees all these +moments which no other eye can see. In our hours of crisis, and in our +monotonous, uneventful moments, in the rush of the furious waters, when the +stream of our lives is caught among rocks, and in the long, languid reaches of +its smoothest flow, when we are fighting with our fears or yearning for His +light, or even when sitting dumb and stolid, like snow men, apathetic and +frozen in our indifference, He sees us, and pities, and will help the need +which He beholds. +</p> + +<p> + 'Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,<br /> + And thy Saviour is not by;<br /> + Think not thou canst weep a tear,<br /> + And thy Saviour is not near.' +</p> + +<p> +'When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.' +</p> + +<p> +III. One word more about this rapturous confession, which crowns the whole: +'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.' +</p> + +<p> +Where had Nathanael learned these great names? He was a disciple of John the +Baptist, and he had no doubt heard John's testimony as recorded in this same +chapter, when he told us how the voice from Heaven had bid him recognise the +Messiah by the token of the descending Dove, and how he 'saw and bare record +that this is the Son of God.' John's testimony was echoed in Nathanael's +confession. Undoubtedly he attached but vague ideas to the name, far less +articulate and doctrinal than we have the privilege of doing. To him 'Son of +God' could not have meant all that it ought to mean to us, but it meant +something that he saw clearly, and a great deal beyond that he saw but dimly. +It meant that God had sent, and was in some special sense the Father of, this +Jesus of Nazareth. +</p> + +<p> +'Thou art the King of Israel,' John had been preaching, 'The Kingdom of Heaven +is at hand.' The Messiah was to be the theocratic King, the King, not of +'Judah' nor of 'the Jews,' but of 'Israel,' the nation that had entered into +covenant with God. So the substance of the confession was the Messiahship of +Jesus, as resting upon His special divine relationship and leading to His +Kingly sway. +</p> + +<p> +Notice also the enthusiasm of the confession; one's ear hears clearly a tone of +rapture in it. The joy-bells of the man's heart are all a-ringing. It is no +mere intellectual acknowledgment of Christ as Messiah. The difference between +mere head-belief and heart-faith lies precisely in the presence of these +elements of confidence, of enthusiastic loyalty, and absolute submission. +</p> + +<p> +So the great question for each of us is, not, Do I believe as a piece of my +intellectual creed that Christ is 'the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of +Israel'? I suppose almost all my hearers here now do that. That will not make +you a Christian, my friend. That will neither save your soul nor quiet your +heart, nor bring you peace and strength in life, nor open the gates of the +Kingdom of Heaven to you. A man may be miserable, wholly sunk in all manner of +wickedness and evil, die the death of a dog, and go to punishment hereafter, +though he believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the King of Israel. +You want something more than that. You want just this element of rapturous +acknowledgment, of loyal submission, absolute obedience, of unfaltering trust. +</p> + +<p> +Look at these first disciples, six brave men that had all that loyalty and love +to Him; though there was not a soul in the world but themselves to share their +convictions. Do they not shame you? When He comes to you, as He does come, with +this question, 'Whom do ye say that I am?' may God give you grace to answer, +'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,' and not only to answer it +with your lips, but to trust Him wholly with your hearts, and with enthusiastic +devotion to bow your whole being in adoring wonder and glad submission at His +feet. If we are 'Israelites indeed,' our hearts will crown Him as the 'King of +Israel.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>THE FIRST DISCIPLES: V. BELIEVING AND SEEING</h2> + +<p> +'Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under +the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. 51. And +He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see +heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of +Man.'—JOHN i. 50, 51. +</p> + +<p> +Here we have the end of the narrative of the gathering together of the first +disciples, which has occupied several sermons. We have had occasion to point +out how each incident in the series has thrown some fresh light upon two main +subjects, namely, upon some phase or other of the character and work of Jesus +Christ, or upon the various ways by which faith, which is the condition of +discipleship, is kindled in men's souls. These closing words may be taken as +the crowning thoughts on both these matters. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord recognises and accepts the faith of Nathanael and his fellows, but, +like a wise Teacher, lets His pupils at the very beginning get a glimpse of how +much lies ahead for them to learn; and in the act of accepting the faith gives +just one hint of the great tract of yet uncomprehended knowledge of Him which +lies before them; 'Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, +believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.' He accepts +Nathanael's confession and the confession of his fellows. Human lips have given +Him many great and wonderful titles in this chapter. John called Him 'the Lamb +of God'; the first disciples hailed Him as the 'Messias, which is the Christ'; +Nathanael fell before Him with the rapturous exclamation, 'Thou art the Son of +God; Thou art the King of Israel!' All these crowns had been put on His head by +human hands, but here He crowns Himself. He makes a mightier claim than any +that they had dreamed of, and proclaims Himself to be the medium of all +communication and intercourse between heaven and earth: 'Hereafter ye shall see +heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of +Man.' +</p> + +<p> +So, then, there are two great principles that lie in these verses, and are +contained in, first, our Lord's mighty promise to His new disciples, and +second, in our Lord's witness to Himself. Let me say a word or two about each +of these. +</p> + +<p> +I. Our Lord's promise to His new disciples. +</p> + +<p> +Christ's words here may be translated either as a question or as an +affirmation. It makes comparatively little difference to the substantial +meaning whether we read 'believest thou?' or 'thou believest.' In the former +case there will be a little more vivid expression of surprise and admiration at +the swiftness of Nathanael's faith, but in neither case are we to find anything +of the nature of blame or of doubt as to the reality of his belief. The +question, if it be a question, is no question as to whether Nathanael's faith +was a genuine thing or not. There is no hint that he has been too quick with +his confession, and has climbed too rapidly to the point that he has attained. +But in either case, whether the word be a question or an affirmation, we are to +see in it the solemn and glad recognition of the reality of Nathanael's +confession and belief. +</p> + +<p> +Here is the first time that that word 'belief' came from Christ's lips; and +when we remember all the importance that has been attached to it in the +subsequent history of the Church, and the revolution in human thought which +followed upon our Lord's demand of our faith, there is an interest in noticing +the first appearance of the word. It was an epoch in the history of the world +when Christ first claimed and accepted a man's faith. +</p> + +<p> +Of course the second part of this verse, 'Thou shalt see greater things than +these,' has its proper fulfilment in the gradual manifestation of His person +and character, which followed through the events recorded in the Gospels. His +life of service, His words of wisdom, His deeds of power and of pity, His death +of shame and of glory, His Resurrection and His Ascension, these are the +'greater things' which Nathanael is promised. They all lay unrevealed yet, and +what our Lord means is simply this: 'If you will continue to trust in Me, as +you have trusted Me, and stand beside Me, you will see unrolled before your +eyes and comprehended by your faith the great facts which will make the +manifestation of God to the world.' But though that be the original application +of the words, yet I think we may fairly draw from them some lessons that are of +importance to ourselves; and I ask you to look at the hint that they give us +about three things,—faith and discipleship, faith and sight, faith and +progress. 'Believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.' +</p> + +<p> +First, here is light thrown upon the relation between faith and discipleship. +It is clear that our Lord here uses the word for the first time in the full +Christian sense, that He regards the exercise of faith as being practically +synonymous with being a disciple, that from the very first, believers were +disciples, and disciples were believers. +</p> + +<p> +Then, notice still further that our Lord here employs the word 'belief' without +any definition of what or whom it is that they were to believe. He Himself, and +not certain thoughts about Him, is the true object of a man's faith. We may +believe a proposition, but faith must grasp a person. Even when the person is +made known to us by a proposition which we have to believe before we can trust +the person, still the essence of faith is not the intellectual process of +laying hold upon a certain thought, and acquiescing in it, but the moral +process of casting myself in full confidence upon the Being that is revealed to +me by the thought,—of laying my hand, and leaning my weight, on the Man about +whom it tells me. And so faith, which is discipleship, has in it for its very +essence the personal element of trust in Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Then, further, notice how widely different from our creed was Nathanael's +creed, and yet how identical with our faith, if we are Christians, was +Nathanael's faith. He knew nothing about the very heart of Christ's work, His +atoning death. He knew nothing about the highest glory of Christ's person, His +divine Sonship, in its unique and lofty sense. These lay unrevealed, and were +amongst the greater things which he was yet to see; but though thus his +knowledge was imperfect, and his creed incomplete as compared with ours, his +faith was the very same. He laid hold upon Christ, he clave to Him with all his +heart, he was ready to accept His teaching, he was willing to do His will, and +as for the rest—'Thou shalt see greater things than these.' So, dear brethren, +from these words of my text here, from the unhesitating attribution of the +lofty notion of faith to this man, from the way in which our Lord uses the +word, are gathered these three points that I beseech you to ponder: there is no +discipleship without faith; faith is the personal grasp of Christ Himself; the +contents of creeds may differ whilst the element of faith remains the same. I +beseech you let Christ come to you with the question of my text, and as He +looks you in the eyes, hear Him say to you, 'Believest <i>thou</i>?' +</p> + +<p> +Secondly, notice how in this great promise to the new disciples there is light +thrown upon another subject, viz. the connection between faith and sight. There +is a great deal about seeing in this context. Christ said to the first two that +followed Him, 'Come and see.' Philip met Nathanael's thin film of prejudice +with the same words, 'Come and see.' Christ greeted the approaching Nathanael +with 'When thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee.' And now His promise is +cast into the same metaphor: 'Thou shalt see greater things than these.' +</p> + +<p> +There is a double antithesis here. 'I saw thee,' 'Thou shalt see Me.' 'Thou +wast convinced because thou didst feel that thou wert the passive object of My +vision. Thou shalt be still more convinced when illuminated by Me. Thou shalt +see even as thou art seen. I saw thee, and that bound thee to Me; thou shalt +see Me, and that will confirm the bond.' +</p> + +<p> +There is another antithesis, namely—between believing and seeing. 'Thou +believest—that is thy present; thou shalt see, that is thy hope for the +future.' Now I have already explained that, in the proper primary meaning and +application of the words, the sight which is here promised is simply the +observance with the outward eye of the historical facts of our Lord's life +which were yet to be learned. But still we may gather a truth from this +antithesis which will be of use to us. 'Thou believest—thou shalt see'; that is +to say, in the loftiest region of spiritual experience you must believe first, +in order that you may see. +</p> + +<p> +I do not mean, as is sometimes meant, by that statement that a man has to try +to force his understanding into the attitude of accepting religious truth, in +order that he may have an experience which will convince him that it is true. I +mean a very much simpler thing than that, and a very much truer one, viz. this, +that unless we trust to Christ and take our illumination from Him, we shall +never behold a whole set of truths which, when once we trust Him, are all plain +and clear to us. It is no mysticism to say that. What do you <i>know</i> about +God?—I put emphasis upon the word 'know'—What do you know about Him, however +much you may argue and speculate and think probable, and fear, and hope, and +question, about Him? What do you know about Him apart from Jesus Christ? What +do you know about human duty, apart from Him? What do you know of all that dim +region that lies beyond the grave, apart from Him? If you trust Him, if you +fall at His feet and say 'Rabbi! Thou art my Teacher and mine illumination,' +then you will see. You will see God, man, yourselves, duty; you will see light +upon a thousand complications and perplexities; and you will have a brightness +above that of the noonday sun, streaming into the thickest darkness of death +and the grave and the awful hereafter. Christ is the Light. In that 'Light +shall we see light.' And just as it needs the sun to rise in order that my eye +may behold the outer world, so it needs that I shall have Christ shining in my +heaven to illuminate the whole universe, in order that I may see clearly. +'Believe and thou shalt see.' For only when we trust Him do the mightiest +truths that affect humanity stand plain and clear before us. +</p> + +<p> +And besides that, if we trust Christ, we get a living experience of a multitude +of facts and principles which are all mist and darkness to men except through +their faith; an experience which is so vivid and brings such certitude as that +it may well be called vision. The world says, 'Seeing is believing.' So it is +about the coarse things that you can handle, but about everything that is +higher than these invert the proverb, and you get the truth. 'Seeing is +believing.' Yes, in regard to outward things. Believing is seeing in regard to +God and spiritual truth. 'Believest thou? thou shalt see.' +</p> + +<p> +Then, thirdly, there is light here about another matter, the connection between +faith and progress. 'Thou shalt see greater things than these.' A wise teacher +stimulates his scholars from the beginning, by giving them glimpses of how much +there is ahead to be learnt. That does not drive them to despair; it braces all +their powers. And so Christ, as His first lesson to these men, substantially +says, 'You have learnt nothing yet, you are only beginning.' That is true about +us all. Faith at first, both in regard to its contents and its quality, is very +rudimentary and infantile. A man when he is first converted—perhaps +suddenly—knows after a fashion that he himself is a very sinful, wretched, poor +creature, and he knows that Jesus Christ has died for him, and is his Saviour, +and his heart goes out to Him, in confidence and love and obedience. But he is +only standing at the door and peeping in as yet. He has only mastered the +alphabet. He is but on the frontier of the promised land. His faith has brought +him into contact with infinite power, and what will be the end of that? He will +indefinitely grow. His faith has started him on a course to which there is no +natural end. As long as it keeps alive he will be growing and growing, and +getting nearer and nearer to the great centre of all. +</p> + +<p> +So here is a grand possibility opened out in these simple words, a possibility +which alone meets what you need, and what you are craving for, whether you know +it or not, namely, something that will give you ever new powers and +acquirements; something which will ensure your closer and ever closer approach +to an absolute object of joy and truth; something that will ensure you against +stagnation and guarantee unceasing progress. Everything else gets worn out, +sooner or later; if not in this world, then in another. There is one course on +which a man can enter with the certainty that there is no end to it, that it +will open out, and out, and out as he advances—with the certainty that, come +life, come death, it is all the same. +</p> + +<p> +When the plant grows too tall for the greenhouse they lift the roof, and it +grows higher still. Whether you have your growth in this lower world, or +whether you have your top up in the brightness and the blue of heaven, the +growth is in one direction. There is a way that secures endless progress, and +here lies the secret of it: 'Thou believest! thou shalt see greater things than +these.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, brethren, that is a grand possibility, and it is a solemn lesson for some +of you. You professing Christian people, are you any taller than you were when +you were born? Have you grown at all? Are you growing now? Have you seen any +further into the depths of Jesus Christ than you did on that first day when you +fell at His feet and said, 'Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of +Israel'? His promise to you then was, 'Thou believest, thou shalt see greater +things.' If you have not seen greater things it is because your faith has +broken down, if it has not expired. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now let me turn to the second thought which lies in these great words. +</p> + +<p> +We have here, as I said, our Lord crowning Himself by His own witness to His +own dignity. 'Hereafter ye shall see the heavens opened.' Mark how, with +superbly autocratic lips, He bases this great utterance upon nothing else but +His own word. Prophets ever said, 'Thus saith the Lord.' Christ ever said: +'Verily, verily, I say unto you.' 'Because He could swear by no greater, He +sware by Himself.' He puts His own assurance instead of all argument and of all +support to His words. +</p> + +<p> +'Hereafter.' A word which is possibly not genuine, and is omitted, as you will +observe, in the Revised Version. If it is to be retained it must be translated, +not 'hereafter,' as if it were pointing to some indefinite period in the +future, but 'from henceforth,' as if asserting that the opening heavens and the +descending angels began to be manifested from that first hour of His official +work. 'Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and +descending.' That is an allusion from the story of Jacob at Bethel. We have +found reference to Jacob's history already in the conversation with Nathanael, +'An Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' And here is an unmistakable +reference to that story, when the fugitive, with his head on the stony pillow, +and the violet Syrian sky, with all its stars, rounding itself above him, +beheld the ladder on which the angels of God ascended and descended. 'So,' says +Christ, 'you shall see, in no vision of the night, in no transitory appearance, +but in a practical waking reality, that ladder come down again, and the angels +of God moving upon it in their errands of mercy.' +</p> + +<p> +And who, or what, is this ladder? Christ. Do not read these words as meaning +that the angels of God were to come down on Him to help, and to honour, and to +succour Him as they did once or twice in His life, but as meaning that they are +to ascend and descend by Him for the help and blessing of the whole world. +</p> + +<p> +That is to say, to put it into plain words, Christ is the sole medium of +communication between heaven and earth, the ladder with its foot upon the earth +in His humanity, and its top in the heavens. 'No man hath ascended up into +heaven save He which came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in +heaven.' +</p> + +<p> +My time will not allow me to expand these thoughts as I would have done; let me +put them in the briefest outline. Christ is the medium of all communication +between heaven and earth, inasmuch as He is the medium of all revelation. I +have spoken incidentally about that in the former part of this sermon, so I do +not dwell on it now. Christ is the ladder between heaven and earth, inasmuch as +in Him the sense of separation, and the reality of separation, are swept away. +Sin has shut heaven; there comes down from it many a blessing upon unthankful +heads, but between it in its purity and the earth in its muddy foulness 'there +is a great gulf fixed.' It is not because God is great and I am small, or +because He is Infinite and I am a mere pin-point as against a great continent, +it is not because He lives for ever, and my life is but a hand-breadth, it is +not because of the difference between His Omniscience and my ignorance, His +strength and my weakness, that I am parted from Him. 'Your sins have separated +between you and your God,' and no man, build he Babels ever so high, can reach +thither. There is one means by which the separation is at an end, and by which +all objective hindrances to union, and all subjective hindrances, are alike +swept away. Christ has come, and in Him the heavens have bended down to touch, +and touching to bless, this low earth, and man and God are at one once more. +</p> + +<p> +He is the ladder, or sole medium of communication, inasmuch as by Him all +divine blessings, grace, helps, and favours, come down angel-like, into our +weak and needy hearts. Every strength, every mercy, every spiritual power, +consolation in every sorrow, fitness for duty, illumination in darkness, all +gifts that any of us can need, come to us down on that one shining way, the +mediation and the work of the Divine-Human Christ, the Lord. +</p> + +<p> +He is the ladder, the sole medium of communication between heaven and earth, +inasmuch as by Him my poor desires and prayers and intercessions, my wishes, my +sighs, my confessions rise to God. 'No man cometh to the Father but by Me.' He +is the ladder, the means of all communication between heaven and earth, +inasmuch as at the last, if ever we enter there at all, we shall enter through +Him and through Him alone, who is 'the Way, the Truth, and the Life.' +</p> + +<p> +Ah, dear brethren! men are telling us now that there is no connection between +earth and heaven except such as telescopes and spectroscopes can make out. We +are told that there is no ladder, that there are no angels, that possibly there +is no God, or if that there be, we have nothing to do with Him nor He with us; +that our prayers cannot get to His ears, if He have ears, nor His hand be +stretched out to help us, if He have a hand. I do not know how this cultivated +generation is to be brought back again to faith in God and delivered from that +ghastly doubt which empties heaven and saddens earth to its victims, but by +giving heed to the word which Christ spoke to the whole race while He addressed +Nathanael, 'Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and +descending upon the Son of Man.' If He be the Son of God, then all these +heavenly messengers reach the earth by Him. If He be the Son of Man, then every +man may share in the gifts which through Him are brought into the world, and +His Manhood, which evermore dwelt in heaven, even while on earth, and was ever +girt about by angel presences, is at once the measure of what each of us may +become, and the power by which we may become it. +</p> + +<p> +One thing is needful for this wonderful consummation, even our faith. And oh! +how blessed it will be if in waste solitudes we can see the open heaven, and in +the blackest night the blaze of the glory of a present Christ, and hear the +soft rustle of angels' wings filling the air, and find in every place 'a house +of God and a gate of heaven,' because He is there. All that may be yours on one +condition: 'Believest thou? Thou shalt see heaven open, and the angels of God +ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>JESUS THE JOY-BRINGER</h2> + +<p> +'And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of +Jesus was there: 2. And both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the +marriage. 3. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, +They have no wine. 4. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? +Mine hour is not yet come. 5. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He +saith unto you, do it. 6. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, +after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins +apiece. 7. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they +filled them up to the brim. 8. And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear +unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 9. When the ruler of the +feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but +the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the +bridegroom, 10. And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth +good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou +hast kept the good wine until now. 11. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in +Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on +Him.'—JOHN ii. 1-11. +</p> + +<p> +The exact dating of this first miracle indicates an eye-witness. As Nazareth +was some thirty miles distant from the place where John was baptizing, and Cana +about four miles from Nazareth, the 'third day' is probably reckoned from the +day of the calling of Philip. Jesus and His disciples seem to have been invited +to the marriage feast later than the other guests, as Mary was already there. +She appears to have been closely connected with the family celebrating the +feast, as appears from her knowledge of the deficiency in the wine, and her +direction to the servants. +</p> + +<p> +The first point, which John makes all but as emphatic as the miracle itself, is +the new relation between Mary and Jesus, the lesson she had to learn, and her +sweet triumphant trust. Now that she sees her Son surrounded by His disciples, +the secret hope which she had nourished silently for so long bursts into flame, +and she turns to Him with beautiful faith in His power to help, even in the +small present need. What an example her first word to Him sets us all! Like the +two sad sisters at Bethany, she is sure that to tell Him of trouble is enough, +for that His own heart will impel Him to share, and perchance to relieve it. +Let us tell Jesus our wants and leave Him to deal with them as He knows how. +</p> + +<p> +Of course, His addressing her as 'Woman' has not the meaning which it would +have with us, for the term is one of respect and courtesy, but there is a plain +intimation of a new distance in it, which is strengthened by the question, +'What is there in common between us?' What in common between a mother and her +son! Yes, but she has to learn that the assumption of the position of Messiah +in which her mother's pride so rejoiced, carried necessarily a consequence, the +first of the swords which were to pierce that mother's heart of hers. That her +Son should no more call her 'mother,' but 'woman,' told her that the old days +of being subject to her were past for ever, and that the old relation was +merged in the new one of Messiah and disciple—a bitter thought, which many a +parent has to taste the bitterness of still, when wider outlooks and new sense +of a vocation come to their children. Few mothers are able to accept the +inevitable as Mary did, Jesus' 'hour' is not to be prescribed to Him, but His +own consciousness of the fit time must determine His action. What gave Him the +signal that the hour was struck is not told us, nor how soon after that moment +it came. But the saying gently but decisively declares His freedom, His +infallible accuracy, and certain intervention at the right time. We may think +that He delays, but He always helps, 'and that right early.' +</p> + +<p> +Mary's sweet humility and strong trust come out wonderfully in her direction to +the servants, which is the exact opposite of what might have been expected +after the cold douche administered to her eagerness to prompt Jesus. Her faith +had laid hold of the little spark of promise in that 'not yet,' and had fanned +it into a flame. 'Then He will intervene, and I can leave Him to settle when.' +How firm, though ignorant, must have been the faith which did not falter even +at the bitter lesson and the apparent repulse, and how it puts to shame our +feebler confidence in our better known Lord, if ever He delays our requests! +Mary left all to Jesus; His commands were to be implicitly obeyed. Do we submit +to Him in that absolute fashion both as to the time and the manner of His +responses to our petitions? +</p> + +<p> +The next point is the actual miracle. It is told with remarkable vividness and +equally remarkable reserve. We do not even learn in what precisely it +consisted. Was all the water in the vessels turned into wine? Did the change +affect only what was drawn out? No answer is possible to these questions. Jesus +spoke no word of power, nor put forth His hand. His will silently effected the +change on matter. So He manifested forth His glory as Creator and Sustainer, as +wielding the divine prerogative of affecting material things by His bare +volition. +</p> + +<p> +The reality of the miracle is certified by the jovial remark of the 'ruler of +the feast.' As Bengel says: 'The ignorance of the ruler proves the goodness of +the wine; the knowledge of the servants, the reality of the miracle.' His +palate, at any rate, was not so dulled as to be unable to tell a good 'brand' +when he tasted it, nor is there any reason to suppose that Jesus was supplying +more wine to a company that had already had more than enough. +</p> + +<p> +The ruler's words are not meant to apply to the guests at that feast, but are +quite general. But this Evangelist is fond of quoting words which have deeper +meanings than the speakers dreamed, and with his mystically contemplative eye +he sees hints and symbols of the spiritual in very common things. So we are not +forcing higher meanings into the ruler's jest, but catching one intention of +John's quotation of it, when we see in it an unconscious utterance of the great +truth that Jesus keeps His best wine till the last. How many poor deluded souls +are ever finding that the world does the very opposite, luring men on to be its +slaves and victims by brilliant promises and shortlived delights, which sooner +or later lose their deceitful lustre and become stale, and often positively +bitter! 'The end of that mirth is heaviness.' The dreariest thing in all the +world is a godless old age, and one of the most beautiful things in all the +world is the calm sunset which so often glorifies a godly life that has been +full of effort for Jesus, and of sorrows patiently borne as being sent by Him. +</p> + +<p> + 'Full often clad in radiant vest<br /> + Deceitfully goes forth the morn,' +</p> + +<p> +but Christ more than keeps His morning's promises, and Christian experience is +steadily progressive, if Christians cling close to Him, and Heaven will supply +the transcendent confirmation of the blessed truth that was spoken unawares by +the 'ruler' at that humble feast. +</p> + +<p> +What effect the miracle produced on others is not told; probably the guests +shared the ruler's ignorance, but its effect on the disciples is that they +'believed on Him.' They had 'believed' already, or they would not have been +disciples (John i. 50), but their faith was deepened as well as called forth +afresh. Our faith ought to be continuously and increasingly responsive to His +continuous manifestations of Himself which we can all find in our own +experience. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus 'manifested His glory' in this first sign. What were the rays of that +mild radiance? Surely the chief of them, in addition to the revelation of His +sovereignty over matter, to which we have already referred, is that therein He +hallowed the sweet sacred joys of marriage and family life, that therein He +revealed Himself as looking with sympathetic eye on the ties that bind us +together, and on the gladness of our common humanity, that therein He reveals +Himself as able and glad to sanctify and elevate our joys and infuse into them +a strange new fragrance and power. The 'water' of our ordinary lives is changed +into 'wine.' Jesus became 'acquainted with grief' in order that He might impart +to every believing and willing soul His own joy, and that by its remaining in +us, our joy might be full. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>THE FIRST MIRACLE IN CANA—THE WATER MADE WINE</h2> + +<p> +'This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth +His glory.'—JOHN ii. 11. +</p> + +<p> +The keynote of this Gospel was struck in the earlier verses of the first +chapter in the great words, 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we +beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.' To these words there is an evident +reference in this language. The Evangelist regards Christ's first miracle as +the first ray of that forth-flashing glory of the Incarnate Word. To this +Evangelist all miracles are especially important as being <i>signs</i>, which +is the word he generally employs to designate them. They are not mere portents, +but significant revelations as well as wonders. It is not, I think, accidental +that there are just seven miracles of our Lord's, before His crucifixion, +recorded by John, and one of the Risen Lord. +</p> + +<p> +These signs are all set forth by the Evangelist as manifestations of various +aspects of that one white light, of uncreated glory which rays from Christ. +They are, if I may so say, the sevenfold colours into which the one beam is +analysed. Each of them might be looked at in turn as presenting some fresh +thought of what the 'glory…full of grace and truth' is. +</p> + +<p> +I begin with the first of the series. What, then, is the 'glory of the only +Begotten Son' which flashes forth upon us from the miracle? My object is simply +to try to answer that question for you. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, we see here the revelation of His creative power. +</p> + +<p> +It is very noteworthy that the miraculous fact is veiled entirely in the +narrative. Not a word is said of the method of operation, it is not even said +that the miracle was wrought; we are only told what preceded it, and what +followed it. Itself is shrouded in deep silence. The servants fill the +water-pots.—'Draw out now,' and they draw, 'and bear it to the governor of the +feast.' Where the miraculous act comes in we do not know; what was its nature +we cannot tell. How far it extended is left obscure. Was all the large quantity +of water in these six great vessels of stone transformed into wine, or was the +change effected in the moment when the portion that was wanted was drawn from +them and on that portion only? We cannot answer the question. Probably, I +think, the latter; but at all events a veil is dropped over the fact. +</p> + +<p> +Only this, we see that in this miracle, even more conspicuously than in any +other of our Lord's, there are no means at all employed. Sometimes He used +material vehicles, anointing a man's eyes with clay, or moistening the ear with +the spittle; sometimes sending a man to bathe in the Pool of Siloam; sometimes +laying His hand on the sick; sometimes healing from a distance by the mere +utterance of His word. But here there is not even a word; no means of any kind +employed, but the silent forth-putting of His will, which, without token, +without visible audible indication of any sort, passes with sovereign power +into the midst of material things and there works according to His own purpose. +Is not this the signature of divinity, that without means the mere +forth-putting of the will is all that is wanted to mould matter as plastic to +His command? It is not even, 'He spake and it was done,' but silently He +willed, and 'the conscious water knew its Lord, and blushed.' This is the glory +of the Incarnate Word. +</p> + +<p> +Now that was no interruption of the order of things established in the +Creation. There was no suspension of natural laws here. What happened was only +this, that the power which generally works through mediating links came into +immediate connection with the effect. What does it matter whether your engine +transmits its powers through half a dozen cranks, or two or three less? What +does it matter whether the chain be longer or shorter? Some parenthetical links +are dropped here, that is all that is unusual. For in all ordinary natural +operations, as we call them, the profound prologue of this Gospel teaches us to +believe that Christ, the Eternal Word, works according to His will. He was the +Agent of creation. He is the Agent of that preservation which is only a +continual creation. In Him is life, and all living things live because of the +continual presence and operation upon them of His divine power. And again I +say, what is phenomenal and unusual in this miracle is but the suppression of +two or three of the connecting links between the continual cause of all +creatural existences, and its effect. So let us learn that whether through a +long chain of so-called causes, or whether close up against the effect, without +the intervention of these parenthetical and transmitting media, the divine +power works. The power is one, and the reason for the effect is one, that +Christ ever works in the world, and is that Eternal Word, 'without whom was not +anything made that was made.' 'This beginning of miracles did Christ… and +manifested His glory.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Then, again, we see here, I think, the revelation of one great purpose of +our Lord's coming, to hallow all common, and especially all family, life. +</p> + +<p> +What a strange contrast there is between the simple gladness of the rustic +village wedding and the tremendous scene of the Temptation in the wilderness, +which preceded it only by a few days! What a strange contrast there is between +the sublime heights of the first chapter and the homely incident which opens +the ministry! What a contrast between the rigid asceticism of the Forerunner, +'who came neither eating nor drinking,' and the Son of Man, who enters thus +freely and cheerfully into the common joys and relationships of human nature! +How unlike the scene at the marriage-feast must have been to the anticipations +of the half-dozen disciples that had gathered round Him, all a-tingling with +expectation as to what would be the first manifestation of His Messianic power! +The last thing they would have dreamed of would have been to find Him in the +humble home in Cana of Galilee. Some people say 'this miracle is unworthy of +Him, for it was wrought upon such a trivial occasion.' And was it a trivial +occasion that prompted Him thus to commence His career, not by some high and +strained and remote exhibition of more than human saintliness or power, but by +entering like a Brother into the midst of common, homespun, earthly joys, and +showing how His presence ennobled and sanctified these? Surely the world has +gained from Him, among the many gifts that He has given to it, few that have +been the fountain of more sacred sweetness and blessedness than is opened in +that fact that the first manifestation of His glory had for its result the +hallowing of the marriage tie. +</p> + +<p> +And is it not in accordance with the whole meaning and spirit of His works that +'forasmuch as the brethren were partakers of' anything, 'He Himself likewise +should take part of the same,' and sanctify every incident of life by His +sharing of it? So He protests against that faithless and wicked division of +life into sacred and secular, which has wrought such harm both in the sacred +and in the secular regions. So He protests against the notion that religion has +to do with another world rather than with this. So He protests against the +narrowing conception of His work which would remove from its influence anything +that interests humanity. So He says, as it were, at the very beginning of His +career, 'I am a Man, and nothing that is human do I reckon foreign to Myself.' +</p> + +<p> +Brethren! let us learn the lesson that all life is the region of His Kingdom; +that the sphere of His rule is everything which a man can do or feel or think. +Let us learn that where His footsteps have trod is hallowed ground. If a prince +shares for a few moments in the festivities of his gathered people on some +great occasion, how ennobled the feast seems! If he joins in their sports or in +their occupations for a while as an act of condescension, how they return to +them with renewed vigour! And so we. We have had our King in the midst of all +our family life, in the midst of all our common duties; therefore are they +consecrated. Let us learn that all things done with the consciousness of His +presence are sacred. He has hallowed every corner of human life by His +presence; and the consecration, like some pungent and perennial perfume, +lingers for us yet in the else scentless air of daily life, if we follow His +footsteps. +</p> + +<p> +Sanctity is not singularity. There is no need to withdraw from any region of +human activity and human interest in order to develop the whitest saintliness, +the most Christlike purity. The saint is to be in the world, but not of it; +like the Master, who went straight from the wilderness and its temptations to +the homely gladness of the rustic marriage. +</p> + +<p> +III. Still further, we have here a symbol of Christ's glory as the ennobler and +heightener of all earthly joys. +</p> + +<p> +That may be taken with perhaps a permissible play of fancy as one meaning, at +any rate, of the transformation of water into wine; the less savoury and +fragrant and powerful liquid into the more so. Wine, in the Old Testament +especially, is the symbol of gladness, and though it received a deeper and a +sacreder meaning in the New Testament as being the emblem of His blood shed for +us, it is the Old Testament point of view that prevails here. And therefore, I +say, we may read in the incident the symbol of His transforming power. He +comes, the Man of Sorrows, with the gift of joy in His hand. It is not an +unworthy object—not unworthy, I mean, of a divine sacrifice—to make men glad. +It is worth His while to come from Heaven to agonise and to die, in order that +He may sprinkle some drops of incorruptible and everlasting joy over the weary +and sorrowful hearts of earth. We do not always give its true importance to +gladness in the economy of our lives, because we are so accustomed to draw our +joys from ignoble sources that in most of our joys there is something not +altogether creditable or lofty. But Christ came to bring gladness, and to +transform its earthly sources into heavenly fountains; and so to change all the +less sweet, satisfying, and potent draughts which we take from earth's cisterns +into the wine of the Kingdom; the new wine, strong and invigorating, 'making +glad the heart of man.' +</p> + +<p> +Our commonest blessings, our commonest joys, if only they be not foul and +filthy, are capable of this transformation. Link them with Christ; be glad in +Him. Bring Him into your mirth, and it will change its character. Like a taper +plunged into a jar of oxygen, it will blaze up more brightly. Earth, at its +best and highest, without Him is like some fair landscape lying in the shadow; +and when He comes to it, it is like the same scene when the sun blazes out upon +it, flashes from every bend of the rippling river, brings beauty into many a +shady corner, opens all the flowering petals and sets all the birds singing in +the sky. The whole scene changes when a beam of light from Him falls upon +earthly joys. He will transform them and ennoble them and make them perpetual. +Do not meddle with mirth over which you cannot make the sign of the Cross and +ask Him to bless it; and do not keep Him out of your gladness, or it will leave +bitterness on your lips, howsoever sweet it tastes at first. +</p> + +<p> +Ay! and not only can this Master transform the water at the marriage feast into +the wine of gladness, but the cups that we all carry, into which our tears have +dropped—upon these too He can lay His hand and change them into cups of +blessing and of salvation. +</p> + +<p> +'Blessed are they… who, passing through the valley of weeping, gather their +tears into a well; the rain also covereth it with blessings.' So the old Psalm +put the thought that sorrow may be turned into a solemn joy, and may lie at the +foundation of our most flowery fruitfulness. And the same lesson we may learn +from this symbol. The Christ who transforms the water of earthly gladness into +the wine of heavenly blessedness, can do the same thing for the bitter waters +of sorrow, and can make them the occasions of solemn joy. When the leaves drop +we see through the bare branches. Shivering and cold they may look, but we see +the stars beyond, and that is better. 'This beginning of miracles' will Jesus +repeat in every sad heart that trusts itself to Him. +</p> + +<p> +IV. And last of all, we have here a token of His glory as supplying the +deficiencies of earthly sources. +</p> + +<p> +'His mother saith unto Him, "They have no wine."' The world's banquet runs out, +Christ supplies an infinite gift. These great water-pots that stood there, if +the whole contents of them were changed, as is possible, contained far more +than sufficient for the modest wants of the little company. The water that +flowed from each of them, in obedience to the touch of the servant's hand, if +the change were effected then, as is possible, would flow on so long as any +thirsted or any asked. And Christ gives to each of us, if we choose, a fountain +that will spring unto life eternal. And when the world's platters are empty, +and the world's cups are all drained dry, He will feed and satisfy the immortal +hunger and the blessed thirst of every spirit that longs for Him. +</p> + +<p> +The rude speech of the governor of the feast may lend itself to another aspect +of this same thought. He said, in jesting surprise, 'Thou hast kept the good +wine until now,' whereas the world gives its best first, and when the palate is +dulled and the appetite diminished, then 'that which is worse.' How true that +is; how tragically true in some of our lives! In the individual the early days +of hope and vigour, when all things were fresh and wondrous, when everything +was apparelled in the glory of a dream, contrast miserably with the bitter +experiences of life that most of us have made. Habit comes, and takes the edge +off everything. We drag remembrance, like a lengthening chain, through all our +life; and with remembrance come remorse and regret. 'The vision splendid' no +more attends men, as they plod on their way through the weariness of middle +life, or pass down into the deepening shadows of advancing and solitary old +age. The best comes first, for the men who have no good but this world's. And +some of you have got nothing in your cups but dregs that you scarcely care to +drink. +</p> + +<p> +But Jesus Christ keeps the best till the last. His gifts become sweeter every +day. No time can cloy them. Advancing years make them more precious and more +necessary. The end is better in this course than the beginning. And when life +is over, and we pass into the heavens, the word will come to our lips, with +surprise and with thankfulness, as we find how much better it all is than we +had ever dreamed it should be: 'Thou hast kept the good wine until now.' +</p> + +<p> +Oh, my brother! do not touch that cup that is offered to you by the harlot +world, spiced and fragrant and foaming; 'at the last it biteth like a serpent, +and stingeth like an adder.' But take the pure joys which the Christ, loved, +trusted, obeyed, summoned to your feast and welcomed in your heart, will bring +to you; and these shall grow and greaten until the perfection of the Heavens. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHRIST CLEANSING THE TEMPLE</h2> + +<p> +'Take these things hence; make not My Father's house an house of +merchandise.'—JOHN ii. 16. +</p> + +<p> +The other Evangelists do not record this cleansing of the Temple at the +beginning of Christ's ministry, but, as we all know, tell of a similar act at +its very close. John, on the other hand, has no notice of the latter incident. +The question, then, naturally arises, are these diverse narratives accounts of +the same event? The answer seems to me to be in the negative, because John's +Gospel is evidently intended to supplement the other three, and to record +incidents either unknown to, or unnoticed by, them, and, as a matter of fact, +the whole of this initial visit of our Lord to Jerusalem is omitted by the +three Evangelists. Then the two incidents are distinctly different in tone, in +setting, and in the words with which our Lord accompanies them. They are both +appropriate in the place in which they stand, the one as the initial and the +other as all but the final act of His Messiahship. So we may learn from the +repetition of this cleansing the solemn lesson: that outward reformation of +religious corruptions is of small and transient worth. For in three +years—perhaps in as many weeks—the abuse that He corrected returned in full +force. +</p> + +<p> +Now, this narrative has many points of interest, but I think I shall best bring +out its meaning if I remind you, by way of introduction, that the Temple of +Jerusalem was succeeded by the Temple of the Christian Church, and that each +individual Christian man is a temple. So there are three things that I want to +set before you: what Christ did in the Temple; what He does in the Church; what +He will do to each of us if we will let Him. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, what Christ did in the Temple. +</p> + +<p> +Now, the scene in our narrative is not unlike that which may be witnessed in +any Roman Catholic country in the cathedral place or outside the church on the +saint's day, where there are long rows of stalls, fitted up with rosaries, and +images of the saint, and candles, and other apparatus for worship. +</p> + +<p> +The abuse had many practical grounds on which it could be defended. It was very +convenient to buy sacrifices on the spot, instead of having to drag them from a +distance. It was no less convenient to be able to exchange foreign money, +possibly bearing upon it the head of an emperor, for the statutory half-shekel. +It was profitable to the sellers, and no doubt to the priests, who were +probably sleeping partners in the concern, or drew rent for the ground on which +the stalls stood. And so, being convenient for all and profitable to many, the +thing became a recognised institution. +</p> + +<p> +Being familiar it became legitimate, and no one thought of any incongruity in +it until this young Nazarene felt a flash of zeal for the sanctity of His +Father's house consuming Him. Catching up some of the reeds which served as +bedding for the cattle, He twisted them into the semblance of a scourge, which +could hurt neither man nor beast. He did not use it. It was a symbol, not an +instrument. According to the reading adopted in the Revised Version, it was the +sheep and cattle, not their owners, whom He 'drove out.' And then, dropping the +scourge, He turned to the money-changers, and, with the same hand, overthrew +their tables. And then came the turn of the sellers of doves. He would not hurt +the birds, nor rob their owners. And so He neither overthrew nor opened the +cages, but bade them 'Take these things hence'; and then came the illuminating +words, 'Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise.' +</p> + +<p> +Now this incident is very unlike our Lord's usual method, even if we do not +exaggerate the violence which He employed. It is unlike in two respects: in the +use of compulsion, and in aiming at mere outward reformation. And both of these +points are intimately connected with its place in His career. +</p> + +<p> +It was the first public appearance of Jesus before His nation as Messiah. He +inaugurates His work by a claim—by an act of authority—to be the King of Israel +and the Lord of the Temple. If we remember the words from the last prophet, in +which Malachi says that 'the Messenger of the Covenant…shall suddenly come to +His Temple, and purify the sons of Levi,' we get the significance of this +incident. We have to mark in it our Lord's deliberate assumption of the role of +Messiah; His shaping His conduct so as to recall to all susceptible hearts that +last utterance of prophecy, and to recognise the fact that at the beginning of +His career He was fully conscious of His Son-ship, and inaugurated His work by +the solemn appeal to the nation to recognise Him as their Lord. +</p> + +<p> +And this is the reason, as I take it, why the anomalous incident is in its +place at the beginning of His career no less than the repetition of it was at +the close. And this is the explanation of the anomaly of the incident. It is +His solemn, authoritative claiming to be God's Messenger, the Messiah long +foretold. +</p> + +<p> +Then, further, this incident is a singular manifestation of Christ's unique +power. How did it come that all these sordid hucksters had not a word to say, +and did not lift a finger in opposition, or that the Temple Guard offered no +resistance, and did not try to quell the unseemly disturbance, or that the very +officials, when they came to reckon with Him, had nothing harsher to say than, +'What sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things'? No +miracle is needed to explain that singular acquiescence. We see in lower forms +many instances of a similar thing. A man ablaze with holy indignation, and +having a secret ally in the hearts of those whom He rebukes, will awe a crowd +even if he does not infect them. But that is not the full explanation. I see +here an incident analogous to that strange event at the close of Christ's +ministry, when, coming out from beneath the shadows of the olives in the +garden, He said to the soldiers 'Whom seek ye?' and they fell backwards and +wallowed on the ground. An overwhelming impression of His personal majesty, and +perhaps some forth-putting of that hidden glory which did swim up to the +surface on the mountain of Transfiguration, bowed all these men before Him, +like reeds before the wind. And though there was no recognition of His claim, +there was something in the Claimant that forbade resistance and silenced +remonstrance. +</p> + +<p> +Further, this incident is a revelation of Christ's capacity for righteous +indignation. No two scenes can be more different than the two recorded in this +chapter: the one that took place in the rural seclusion of Cana, nestling among +the Galilean hills, the other that was done in the courts of the Temple +swarming with excited festival-keepers; the one hallowing the common joys of +daily life, the other rebuking the profanation of what assumed to be a great +deal more sacred than a wedding festival; the one manifesting the love and +sympathy of Jesus, His power to ennoble all human relationships, and His +delight in ministering to need and bringing gladness, and the other setting +forth the sterner aspect of His character as consumed with holy zeal for the +sanctity of God's name and house. Taken together, one may say that they cover +the whole ground of His character, and in some very real sense are a summary of +all His work. The programme contains the whole of what is to follow hereafter. +</p> + +<p> +We may well take the lesson, which no generation ever needed more than the +present, both by reason of its excellences and of its defects, that there were +no love worthy of a perfect spirit in which there did not lie dormant a dark +capacity of wrath, and that Christ Himself would not have been the Joy-bringer, +the sympathising Gladdener which He manifested Himself as being in the +'beginning of miracles in Cana of Galilee' unless, side by side, there had lain +in Him the power of holy indignation and, if need be, of stern rebuke. +Brethren, we must retain our conception of His anger if we are not to maim our +conception of His love. There is no wrath like the wrath of the Lamb. The +Temple court, with the strange figure of the Christ with a scourge in His hand, +is a revelation which this generation, with its exaggerated sentimentalism, +with its shrinking, by reason of its good and of its evil, from the very notion +of a divine retribution based upon the eternal antagonism between good and +evil, most sorely needs. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, secondly, notice what Christ does in His Church. +</p> + +<p> +I need not remind you how God's method of restoration is always to restore with +a difference and a progress. The ruined Temple on Zion was not to be followed +by another house of stone and lime, but by 'a spiritual house,' builded +together for 'a habitation of God in the Spirit.' The Christian Church takes +the place of that material sanctuary, and is the dwelling-place of God. +</p> + +<p> +That being so, let us take the lesson that that house, too, may be desecrated. +There may be, as there were in the original Temple, the externals of worship, +and yet, eating out the reality of these, there may be an inward mercenary +spirit. +</p> + +<p> +Note how insensibly such corruption creeps in to a community. You cannot embody +an idea in a form or in an external association without immediately dragging it +down, and running the risk of degradation. It is just like a drop of +quicksilver which you cannot expose to the air but instantaneously its +brightness is dimmed by the scum that forms on its surface. A church as an +outward institution is exposed to all the dangers to which other institutions +are exposed. And these creep on insensibly, as this abuse had crept on. So it +is not enough that we should be at ease in our consciences in regard to our +practices as Christian communities. We become familiar with any abuse, and as +we become familiar we lose the power of rightly judging of it. Therefore +conscience needs to be guided and enlightened quite as much as to be obeyed. +</p> + +<p> +How long has it taken the Christian Church to learn the wickedness of slavery? +Has the Christian Church yet learned the unchristianity of War? Are there no +abuses amongst us, which subsequent generations will see to be so glaring that +they will talk about us as we talk about our ancestors, and wonder whether we +were Christians at all when we could tolerate such things? They creep on +gradually, and they need continual watchfulness if they are not to assume the +mastery. +</p> + +<p> +The special type of corruption which we find in this incident is one that +besets the Church always. Of course, if I were preaching to ministers, I should +have a great deal to say about that. For men that are necessarily paid for +preaching have a sore temptation to preach for pay. But it is not only we +professionals who have need to lay to heart this incident. It is all Christian +communities, established and non-established churches, Roman Catholic and +Protestant. The same danger besets them all. There must be money to work the +outward business of the house of God. But what about people that 'run' churches +as they run mills? What about people whose test of the prosperity of a +Christian community is its balance-sheet? What about the people that hang on to +religious communities and services for the sake of what they can make out of +them? We have heard a great deal lately about what would happen 'if Christ came +to Chicago.' If Christ came to any community of professing Christians in this +land, do you not think He would need to have the scourge in His hand, and to +say 'Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise'? He will come; He does +come; He is always coming if we would listen to Him. And at long intervals He +comes in some tremendous and manifest fashion, and overthrows the +money-changers' tables. +</p> + +<p> +Ah, brethren! if Jesus Christ had not thus come, over and over again, to His +Church, Christian men would have killed Christianity long ago. Did you ever +think that Christianity is the only religion that has shown recuperative power +and that has been able to fling off its peccant humours? They used to say—I do +not know whether it is true or not—that Thames water was good to put on board +ship because of its property of corrupting and then clearing itself, and +becoming fit to drink. We and our brethren, all through the ages, have been +corrupting the Water of Life. And how does it come to be sweet and powerful +still? This tree has substance in it when it casts its leaves. That unique +characteristic of Christianity, its power of reformation, is not +self-reformation, but it is a coming of the Lord to His temple to 'purify the +sons of Levi, that their offering may be pleasant as in days of yore.' +</p> + +<p> +So one looks upon the spectacle of churches labouring under all manner of +corruptions; and one need not lose heart. The shortest day is the day before +the year turns; and when the need is sorest the help is nearest. And so I, for +my part, believe that very much of the organisations of all existing churches +will have to be swept away. But I believe too, with all my heart—and I hope +that you do—that, though the precious wheat is riddled in the sieve, and the +chaff falls to the ground, not one grain will go through the meshes. Whatever +becomes of churches, the Church of Christ shall never have its strength so +sapped by abuses that it must perish, or its lustre so dimmed that the Lord of +the Temple must depart from His sanctuary. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, note what Christ will do for each of us if we will let Him. +</p> + +<p> +It is not a community only which is the temple of God. For the Apostles in many +places suggest, and in some distinctly say, 'ye are the temples' individually, +as well as the Temple collectively, of the Most High. And so every Christian +soul—by virtue of that which is the deepest truth of Christianity, the +indwelling of Christ in men's hearts by faith—is a temple of God; and every +human soul is meant to be and may become such. That temple can be profaned. +There are many ways in which professing Christians make it a house of +merchandise. There are forms of religion which are little better than +chaffering with God, to give Him so much service if He will repay us with so +much Heaven. There are too many temptations, to which we yield, to bring +secular thoughts into our holiest things. Some of us, by reason not of wishing +wealth but of dreading penury, find it hard to shut worldly cares out of our +hearts. We all need to be on our guard lest the atmosphere in which we live in +this great city shall penetrate even into our moments of devotion, and the +noise of the market within earshot of the Holy of Holies shall disturb the +chant of the worshippers. It is Manchester's temptation, and it is one that +most of us need to be guarded against. +</p> + +<p> +So engrossed, and, as we should say, necessarily engrossed—or, at all events, +legitimately engrossed—are we in the pursuits of our daily commerce, that we +have scarcely time enough or leisure of heart and mind enough to come into 'the +secret place of the Most High.' The worshippers stop outside trading for beasts +and doves, and they have no time to go into the Temple and present their +offerings. +</p> + +<p> +It is our besetting danger. Forewarned is forearmed, to some extent. Would that +we could all hear, as we go about our ordinary avocations, that solemn voice, +'Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise,' and could keep the inner +sanctuary still from the noises, and remote from the pollutions, of the market +hard by! +</p> + +<p> +We cannot cast out these or any other desecrating thoughts and desires by +ourselves, except to a very small degree. And if we do, then there happens what +our Lord warned us against in profound words. The house may be emptied of the +evil tenant in some measure by our own resolution and self-reformation. But if +it is not occupied by Him, it remains 'empty,' though it is 'swept and +garnished.' Nature abhors a vacuum, and into the empty house there come the old +tenant and seven brethren blacker than himself. The only way to keep the world +out of my heart is to have Christ filling it. If we will ask Him He will come +to us. And if He has the scourge in His hand, let Him be none the less welcome +a guest for that. He will come, and when He enters, it will be like the rising +of the sun, when all the beasts of the forest slink away and lay them down in +their dens. It will be like the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord +of the whole earth into the temple of Dagon, when the fish-like image fell +prone and mutilated on the threshold. If we say to Him, 'Arise, O Lord, into +Thy rest, Thou and the Ark of Thy strength,' He will enter in, and by His +entrance will 'make the place of His feet glorious' and pure. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a>THE DESTROYERS AND THE RESTORER</h2> + +<p> +'Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this Temple, and in three days I +will raise it up.'—JOHN ii. 19. +</p> + +<p> +This is our Lord's answer to the Jewish request for a sign which should warrant +His action in cleansing the Temple. There are two such cleansings recorded in +the Gospels; this one His first public act, and another, omitted by John, but +recorded in the other Gospels, which was almost His last public act. +</p> + +<p> +It has been suggested that these are but two versions of one incident; and +although there is no objection in principle to admitting the possibility of +that explanation, yet in fact it appears to me insufficient and unnecessary. +For each event is appropriate in its own place. In each there is a distinct +difference in tone. The incident recorded in the present chapter has our Lord's +commentary, 'Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise'; in that +recorded in the Synoptic Gospels the profanation is declared as greater, and +the rebuke is more severe. The 'house of merchandise' has become, by their +refusal to render to Him what was His, 'a den of thieves.' In the later +incident there is a reference in our Lord's quotation from the Old Testament to +the entrance of the Gentiles into the Kingdom. There is no such reference here. +In the other Gospels there is no record of this question which the Jews asked, +nor of our Lord's significant answer, whilst yet a caricatured and mistaken +version of that answer was known to the other Evangelists, and is put by them +into the mouths of the false witnesses at our Lord's trial. They thus attest +the accuracy of our narrative even while they seem not to have known of the +incident. +</p> + +<p> +All these things being taken into account, I think that we have to do with a +double, of which there are several instances in the Gospels, the same event +recurring under somewhat varied circumstances, and reflecting varied aspects of +truth. But it is to our Lord's words in vindication of His right to cleanse the +Temple rather than to the incident on which they are based that I wish to turn +your attention now: 'Destroy this Temple,' said our Lord, as His sufficient and +only answer to the demand for a sign, 'and in three days I will raise it up.' +</p> + +<p> +Now these words, enigmatical as they are, seem to me to be very profound and +significant; and I wish, on this Easter Sunday, to look at them as throwing a +light upon the gladness of this day. They suggest to me three things: I find in +them, first, an enigmatical forecast of our Lord's own history; second, a +prophetic warning of Israel's; and last, a symbolical foreshadowing of His +world-wide work as the Restorer of man's destructions. 'Destroy this Temple, +and in three days I will raise it up.' +</p> + +<p> +I. First then, I think, we see here an enigmatical forecast of our Lord's own +history. +</p> + +<p> +Notice, first, that marvellous and unique consciousness of our Lord's as to His +own dignity and nature. 'He spake of the temple of His body.' Think that here +is a man, apparently one of ourselves, walking amongst us, living the common +life of humanity, who declares that in Him, in an altogether solitary and +peculiar fashion, there abides the fulness of Deity. Think that there has been +a Man who said, 'In this place is One greater than the Temple.' And people have +believed Him, and do believe Him, and have found that the tremendous audacity +of the words is simple verity, and that Christ is, in inmost reality, all which +the Temple was but in the poorest symbol. In it there had dwelt, though there +dwelt no longer at the time when He was speaking, a material and symbolical +brightness, the expression of something which, for want of a better name, we +call the 'presence of God.' But what was that flashing fire between the +cherubim that brooded over the Mercy-seat, with a light that was lambent and +lustrous as the light of love and of life—what was that to the glory, moulded +in meekness and garbed in gentleness, the glory that shone, merciful and +hospitable and inviting—a tempered flame on which the poorest, diseased, blind +eyes could look, and not wince—from the face and from the character of Jesus +Christ the Lord? He is greater than the Temple, for in Him, in no symbol but in +reality, abode and abides the fulness of that unnameable Being whom we name +Father and God. And not only does the fulness abide, but in Him that awful +Remoteness becomes for us a merciful Presence; the infinite abyss and closed +sea of the divine nature hath an outlet, and becomes a 'river of water of +life.' And as the ancient name of that Temple was the 'Tent of Meeting,' the +place where Israel and God, in symbolical and ceremonial form, met together, +so, in inmost reality in Christ's nature, Manhood and Divinity cohere and +unite, and in Him all of us, the weak, the sinful, the alien, the rebellious, +may meet our Father. 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' 'In this +place is One greater than the Temple.' +</p> + +<p> +And so this Jewish Peasant, at the very beginning of His earthly career, stands +up there, in the presence of the ancestral sanctities and immemorial +ceremonials which had been consecrated by all these ages and commanded by God +Himself, and with autocratic hand sweeps them all on one side, as one that +should draw a curtain that the statue might be seen, and remains poised Himself +in the vacant place, that all eyes may look upon Him, and on Him alone. +'Destroy this Temple…. He spake of the temple of His body.' +</p> + +<p> +Still further, notice how here we have, at the very beginning of our Lord's +career, His distinct prevision of how it was all going to end. People that are +willing to honour Jesus Christ, and are not willing to recognise His death as +the great purpose for which He came, tell us that, like as with other reformers +and heroes and martyrs, His death was the result of the failure of His purpose. +And some of them talk to us very glibly, in their so-called 'Lives of Jesus +Christ' about the alteration in Christ's plan which came when He saw that His +message was not going to be received. I do not enter upon all the reasons why +such a construction of Christ's work cannot hold water, but here is one—for any +one who believes this story before us—that at the very beginning, before He had +gone half a dozen steps in His public career, when the issues of the +experiment, if it was a man that was making the experiment, were all untried; +when, if it were merely a martyr-enthusiast that was beginning his struggle, +some flickering light of hope that He would be received of His brethren must +have shone, or He would never have ventured upon the path—that then, with no +mistake, with no illusion, with no expectation of a welcome and a Hosanna, but +with the clearest certitude of what lay before Him, our Lord <i>beheld</i> and +accepted His Cross. Its shadow fell upon His path from the beginning, because +the Cross was the purpose for which He came. 'To this end was I born, and for +this cause came I into the world,' said He—when the reality of it was almost +within arm's length of Him—'to bear witness to the Truth,' and His bearing +witness to the truth was perfected and accomplished on the Cross. Here, at the +very commencement of His career, we have it distinctly set forth, 'the Son of +Man came to give His life a ransom for many.' +</p> + +<p> +And, brethren, that fact is important, not only because it helps us to +understand that His death is the centre of His work, but also because it helps +us to a loving and tender thought of Him, how all His life long, with that +issue distinctly before Him, He journeyed towards it of His own loving will; +how every step that He took on earth's flinty roads, taken with bleeding and +pure feet, He took knowing whither He was going. This Isaac climbs the mountain +to the place of sacrifice, with no illusions as to what He is going up the +mountain for. He knows that He goes up to be the lamb of the offering, and +knowing it, He goes. Therefore let us love Him with love as persistent as was +His own, who discerning the end from the beginning, willed to be born and to +live because He had resolved to die, for you and me and every man. +</p> + +<p> +And then, further, we have here our Lord's claim to be Himself the Agent of His +own resurrection. '<i>I</i> will raise it up in three days.' Of course, in +Scripture, we more frequently find the Resurrection treated as being the result +of the power of God the Father. We more ordinarily read that Christ was raised; +but sometimes we read, as here, that Christ rises, and we have solemn words of +His own, 'I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.' +Think of a man saying, 'I am going to bring My own body from the dust of +death,' and think of the man who said that <i>doing</i> it. If that is true, if +this prediction was uttered, and being uttered was fulfilled—what then? I do +not need to answer the question. My brother, this day declares that Jesus +Christ is the Son of God. 'Destroy this Temple'—there is a challenge—'and in +three days I will raise it up'; and He did it. And He is the Lord of the Temple +as well as the Temple. Down on your knees before Him, with all your hearts and +with all your confidence, and worship, and trust, and love for evermore 'the +Second Man,' who 'is the Lord from Heaven!' +</p> + +<p> +II. Now let us turn to the other aspects of these words. I think we see here, +in the next place, a prophetic warning of the history of the men to whom He was +speaking. +</p> + +<p> +There must be a connection between the interpretation of the words which our +Evangelist assures us is the correct one, and the interpretation which would +naturally have occurred to a listener, that by 'this Temple' our Lord really +meant simply the literal building in which He spoke. There is such a +connection, and though our Lord did not only mean the Temple, He <i>did</i> +mean the Temple. To say so is not forcing double meanings in any fast and loose +fashion upon Scripture, nor playing with ambiguities, nor indulging in any of +the vices to which spiritualising interpretation of Scripture leads, but it is +simply grasping the central idea of the words of my text. Rightly understood +they lead us to this: 'The death of Christ was the destruction of the Jewish +Temple and polity, and the raising again of Christ from the dead on the third +day was the raising again of that destroyed Theocracy and Temple in a new and +nobler fashion.' Let us then look for a moment, and it shall only be for a +moment, at these two thoughts. +</p> + +<p> +If any one had said to any of that howling mob that stood round Christ at the +judgment-seat of the High Priest, and fancied themselves condemning Him to +death, because He had blasphemed the Temple: 'You, at this moment, are pulling +down the holy and beautiful house in which your fathers praised; and what you +are doing now is the destruction of your national worship and of yourselves,' +the words would have been received with incredulity; and yet they were simple +truth. Christ's death destroyed that outward Temple. The veil was 'rent in +twain from the top to the bottom' at the moment He died; which was the +declaration indeed that henceforward the Holiest of All was patent to the foot +of every man, but was also the declaration that there was no more sanctity now +within those courts, and that Temple, and priesthood, and sacrifice, and altar, +and ceremonial and all, were antiquated. That 'which was perfect having come,' +Christ's death having realised all which Temple-worship symbolised, that which +was the shadow was put away when the substance appeared. +</p> + +<p> +And in another fashion, it is also true that the death of our Lord Jesus +Christ, inflicted by Jewish hands, was the destruction of the Jewish worship, +in the way of natural sequence and of divine chastisement. When the husbandmen +rejected the Son who was sent 'last of all,' there was nothing more for it but +that they should be 'cast out of the vineyard,' and the firebrand which the +Roman soldier, forty years afterwards, tossed into the Holiest of All, and +which burned the holy and beautiful house with fire, was lit on the day when +Israel cried 'Crucify Him! Crucify Him!' +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brethren! What a lesson it is to us all of how blind even so-called +religious zeal may be; how often it is true that men in their madness and their +ignorance destroy the very institutions which they are trying to conserve! How +it warns us to beware lest we, unknowing what we are about, and thinking that +we are fighting for the honour of God, may really all the while be but serving +ourselves and rejecting His message and His Messenger! +</p> + +<p> +And then let me remind you that another thing is also true, that just as the +Jewish rejection of Christ was their own rejection as the people of God, and +their attempted destruction of Christ the destruction of the Jewish Temple, so +the other side of the truth is also here, viz. that His rising again is the +restoration of the destroyed Temple in nobler and fairer form. Of course the +one real Temple is the body of Jesus Christ, as we have said, where sacrifice +is offered, where God dwells, where men meet with God. But in a secondary and +derivative sense, in the place of the Jewish Temple has come the Christian +Church, which is, in a far deeper and more inward fashion, what that ancient +system aspired to be. +</p> + +<p> +Christ has builded up the Church on His Resurrection. On His Resurrection, I +say, for there is nothing else on which it could rest. If men ask me what is +the great evidence of Christ's Resurrection, my answer is—the existence in the +world of a Church. Where did it come from? How is it possible to conceive that +without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ such a structure as the Christian +society should have been built upon a dead man's grave? It would have gone to +pieces, as all similar associations would have gone. What had happened after +that moment of depression which scattered them every man to his own, and led +some of them to say, with pathetic use of the past tense to describe their +vanished expectations, 'We <i>trusted</i> that it had been He which should have +redeemed Israel'? What was the force that instead of driving them asunder drew +them together? What was the power that, instead of quenching their almost dead +hopes, caused them to flame up with renewed vigour heaven-high? How came it +that that band of cowardly, dispirited Jewish peasants, who scattered in +selfish fear and heart-sick disappointment, were in a few days found bearding +all antagonism, and convinced that their hopes had only erred by being too +faint and dim? The only answer is in their own message, which explained it all: +'Him hath God raised from the dead, whereof we are all witnesses.' +</p> + +<p> +The destroyed Temple disappears, and out of the dust and smoke of the vanishing +ruins there rises, beautiful and serene, though incomplete and fragmentary and +defaced with many a stain, the fairer reality, the Church of the living Christ. +'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, we have here a foreshadowing of our Lord's world-wide work as the +Restorer of man's destructions. +</p> + +<p> +Man's folly, godlessness, worldliness, lust, sin, are ever working to the +destruction of all that is sacred in humanity and in life, and to the +desecrating of every shrine. We ourselves, in regard to our own hearts, which +are made to be the temples of the 'living God,' are ever, by our sins, +shortcomings, and selfishness, bringing pollution into the holiest of all; +'breaking down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers,' and setting up +the abomination of desolation in the holy places of our hearts. We pollute them +all—conscience, imagination, memory, will, intellect. How many a man listening +to me now has his nature like the facade of some of our cathedrals, with the +empty niches and broken statues proclaiming that wanton desecration and +destruction have been busy there? +</p> + +<p> +My brother! what have you done with your heart? 'Destroy this temple.' Christ +spoke to men who did not know what they were doing; and He speaks to you. It is +the inmost meaning of the life of many of you. Hour by hour, day by day, action +by action, you are devastating and profaning the sanctities of your nature, and +the sacred places there where God ought to live. +</p> + +<p> +Listen to His confident promise. He knows that in me He is able to restore to +more than pristine beauty all which I, by my sin, have destroyed; to +reconsecrate all which I, by my profanity, have polluted; to cast out the evil +deities that desecrate and deform the shrine; and to make my poor heart, if +only I will let Him come in to the ruined chamber, a fairer temple and +dwelling-place of God. +</p> + +<p> +'In three days,' does He do it? In one sense—Yes! Thank God! the power that +hallows and restores the desecrated and cast-down temple in a man's heart, was +lodged in the world in those three days of death and resurrection. The fact +that He 'died for our sins,' the fact that He was 'raised again for our +justification,' are the plastic and architectonic powers which will build up +any character into a temple of God. +</p> + +<p> +And yet more than 'forty and six years' will that temple have to be 'in +building.' It is a lifelong task till the top-stone be brought forth. Only let +us remember this: Christ, who is Architect and Builder, Foundation and +Top-stone; ay! and Deity indwelling in the temple, and building it by His +indwelling—this Christ is not one of those who 'begin to build and are not able +to finish.' He realises all His plans. There are no ruined edifices in 'the +City'; nor any half-finished fanes of worship within the walls of that great +Jerusalem whose builder and maker is Christ. +</p> + +<p> +If you will put yourselves in His hands, and trust yourselves to Him, He will +take away all your incompleteness, and will make you body, soul, and spirit, +temples of the Lord God; as far above the loftiest beauty and whitest sanctity +of any Christian character here on earth as is the building of God, 'the house +not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,' above 'the earthly house of this +tabernacle.' +</p> + +<p> +He will perfect this restoring work at the last, when His Word to His servant +Death, as He points him to us, shall be 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise +it up.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a>TEACHER OR SAVIOUR?</h2> + +<p> +'The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou +art a Teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, +except God be with him.'—JOHN iii. 2. +</p> + +<p> +The connection in which the Evangelist introduces the story of Nicodemus throws +great light on the aspect under which we are to regard it. He has just been +saying that upon our Lord's first visit to Jerusalem at the Passover there was +a considerable amount of interest excited, and a kind of imperfect faith in Him +drawn out, based solely on His miracles. He adds that this faith was regarded +by Christ as unreliable; and he goes on to explain that our Lord exercised +great reserve in His dealings with the persons who professed it, for the reason +that 'He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for He +knew what was in man.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, if you note that reiteration of the word 'man,' you will understand the +description which is given of the person who is next introduced. 'He knew what +was in man. There was a <i>man</i> of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of +the Jews.' It would have been enough to have said, 'There was a Pharisee.' When +John says 'a <i>man</i> of the Pharisees,' he is not merely carried away by the +echo in his ears of his own last words, but it is as if he had said, 'Now, here +is one illustration of the sort of thing that I have been speaking about; one +specimen of an imperfect faith built upon miracles; and one illustration of the +way in which Jesus Christ dealt with it.' +</p> + +<p> +Nicodemus was 'a Pharisee.' That tells us the school to which he belonged, and +the general drift of his thought. He was 'a ruler of the Jews.' That tells us +that he held an official position in the supreme court of the nation, to which +the Romans had left some considerable shadow of power in ecclesiastical +matters. And this man comes to Christ and acknowledges Him. Christ deals with +him in a very suggestive fashion. His confession, and the way in which our Lord +received it, are what I desire to consider briefly in this sermon. +</p> + +<p> +I. Note then, first, this imperfect confession. +</p> + +<p> +Everything about it, pretty nearly, is wrong. 'He came to Jesus by night,' +half-ashamed and wholly afraid of speaking out the conviction that was working +in him. He was a man in position. He could not compromise himself in the eyes +of his co-Sanhedrists. 'It would be a grave thing for a man like me to be found +in converse with this new Rabbi and apparent Prophet. I must go cautiously, and +have regard to my reputation and my standing in the world; and shall steal to +Him by night.' There is something wrong with any convictions about Jesus Christ +which let themselves be huddled up in secret. The true apprehension of Him is +like a fire in a man's bones, that makes him 'weary of forbearing' when he +locks his lips, and forces him to speak. If Christians can be dumb, there is +something dreadfully wrong with their Christianity. If they do not regard Jesus +Christ in such an aspect as to oblige them to stand out in the world and say, +'Whatever anybody says or thinks about it, I am Christ's man,' then be sure +that they do not yet know Him as they ought to do. +</p> + +<p> +Nicodemus 'came to Jesus by night,' and therein condemned himself. He said, +'Rabbi, we know.' There is more than a <i>soupcon</i> of patronage in that. He +is giving Jesus Christ a certificate, duly signed and sealed by Rabbinical +authority. He evidently thinks that it is no small matter that he and some of +his fellows should have been disposed to look with favour upon this new +Teacher. And so he comes, if not patronising the young man, at all events +extremely conscious of his own condescension in recognising Him with his 'We +know.' +</p> + +<p> +Had he the right to speak for any of his colleagues? If so, then at that very +early stage of our Lord's ministry there was a conviction beginning to work in +that body of ecclesiastics which casts a very lurid light on their subsequent +proceedings. It was a good long while after, when Jesus Christ's attitude +towards them had been a little more clearly made out than it was at the +beginning, that they said officially, 'As for this fellow, we know not whence +He is.' They 'knew' when He did not seem to be trenching on their prerogatives, +or driving His Ithuriel-spear through their traditional professions of +orthodoxy and punctilious casuistries. But when He trod on their toes, when He +ripped up their pretensions, when He began to show His antagonism to their +formalism and traditionalism, <i>then</i> they did not know where He came from. +And there are many of us who are very polite to Jesus Christ as long as He does +not interfere with us, and who begin to doubt His authority when He begins to +rebuke our sins. +</p> + +<p> +The man that said 'We know,' and then proceeded to tell Christ the grounds upon +which He was accepted by him, was not in the position which becomes sinful men +drawing near to their Saviour. 'We know that Thou art a Teacher'—contrast that, +with its ring of complacency, and, if not superior, at least co-ordinate, +authority, with 'Jesus! Master! have mercy on me,' or with 'Lord! save or I +perish,' and you get the difference between the way in which a formalist, +conceited of his knowledge, and a poor, perishing sinner, conscious of his +ignorance and need, go to the Saviour. +</p> + +<p> +Further, this imperfect confession was of secondary value, because it was built +altogether upon miraculous evidence. Now, there has been a great deal of +exaggeration about the value of the evidence of miracle. The undue elevation to +which it was lifted in the apologetic literature of the eighteenth century, +when it was almost made out as if there was no other proof that Jesus came from +God than that He wrought miracles, has naturally led, in this generation and in +the last one, to an equally exaggerated undervaluing of its worth. Jesus Christ +did appeal to signs; He did also most distinctly place faith that rested merely +upon miracle as second best; when He said, for instance, 'If ye believe not Me, +yet believe the works.' Nicodemus says, 'We know that Thou art a Teacher sent +from God, because no man can do these miracles except God be with him.' Ah! +Nicodemus! did not the substance of the teaching reveal the source of the +teaching even more completely than the miracles that accompanied it? Surely, if +I may use an old illustration, the bell that rings in to the sermon (which is +the miracles) is less conclusive as to the divine source of the teaching than +is the sermon itself. Christ Himself is His own best evidence, and His words +shine in their own light, and need no signs in order to authenticate their +source. The signs are there, and are precious in my eyes less as credentials of +His authority than as revelations of His character and His work. They are +wonders; that is much. They are proofs; as I believe. But, high above both of +these characteristics, they are signs of the spiritual work that He does, and +manifestations of His redeeming power. And so a faith that had no ears for the +ring of the divine voice in the words, and no eyes for the beauty and +perfection of the character, was vulgar and low and unreliable, inasmuch as it +could give no better reason for itself than that Jesus had wrought miracles, +</p> + +<p> +I need not remind you of how noticeable it is that at this very early stage in +our Lord's ministry there were a sufficient number of miracles done to be +qualified by the Evangelist as 'many,' and to have been a very powerful factor +in bringing about this real, though imperfect, faith. John has only told us of +one miracle prior to this; and the other Evangelists do not touch upon these +early days of our Lord's ministry at all. So that we are to think of a whole +series of works of power and supernatural grace which have found no record in +these short narratives. How much more Jesus Christ was, and did, and said, than +any book can ever tell! These are but parts of His ways; a whisper of His +power. The fulness of it remains unrevealed after all revelation. +</p> + +<p> +But the central deficiency of this confession lies in the altogether inadequate +conception of Jesus Christ and His work which it embodies. 'We know that Thou +art a Teacher, a miracle-worker, a man sent from God, and in communion with +Him.' These are large recognitions, far too large to be spoken of any but a +select few of the sons of men. But they fall miserably beneath the grandeur, +and do not even approach within sight of the central characteristic, of Christ +and of His work. Nicodemus is the type of large numbers of men nowadays. All +the people that have a kind of loose, superficial connection with Christianity +re-echo substantially his words. They compliment Jesus Christ out of His +divinity and out of His redeeming work, and seem to think that they are rather +conferring an honour upon Christianity when they condescend to say, 'We, the +learned pundits of literature; we, the arbiters of taste; we, the guides of +opinion; we, the writers in newspapers and magazines and periodicals; we, the +leaders in social and philanthropic movements—we recognise that Thou art a +Teacher.' Yes, brethren, and the recognition is utterly inadequate to the facts +of the case, and is insult, and not recognition. +</p> + +<p> +II. Let me ask you to look now, in the next place, at the way in which Jesus +Christ deals with this imperfect confession. +</p> + +<p> +It was a great thing for a young Rabbi from Nazareth, who had no certificate +from the authorities, to find an opening thus into the very centre of the +Sanhedrim. There is nothing in life, to an ardent young soul, at the beginning +of his career—especially if he feels that he has a burden laid upon him to +deliver to his fellows—half so sweet as the early recognition by some man of +wisdom and weight and influence, that he too is a messenger from God. In later +years praise and acknowledgment cloy. And one might have expected some passing +word from the Master that would have expressed such a feeling as that, if He +had been only a young Teacher seeking for recognition. I remember that in that +strange medley of beauty and absurdity, the Koran, somewhere or other, there is +an outpouring of Mahomet's heart about the blessedness of his first finding a +soul that would believe in him. And it is strange that Jesus Christ had no more +welcome for this man than the story tells that He had. For He meets him without +a word of encouragement; without a word that seemed to recognise even a growing +and a groping confidence, and yet He would not 'quench the smoking flax.' Yes! +sometimes the kindest way to deal with an imperfect conception is to show +unsparingly why it is imperfect; and sometimes the apparent repelling of a +partial faith is truly the drawing to Himself by the Christ of the man, though +his faith be not approved. +</p> + +<p> +So, notice how our Lord meets the imperfections of this acknowledgment. He +begins by pointing out what is the deepest and universal need of men. Nicodemus +had said, 'Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come from God.' And Christ +says, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must be born again.' What has that to +do with Nicodemus's acknowledgment? Apparently nothing; really everything. For, +if you will think for a moment, you will see how it meets it precisely, and +forces the Rabbi to deepen his conception of the Lord. The first thing that you +and I want, for our participation in the Kingdom of God, is a radical +out-and-out change in our whole character and nature. 'Ye must be born again'; +now, whatever more that means, it means, at all events, this—a thorough-going +renovation and metamorphosis of a man's nature, as the sorest need that the +world and all the individuals that make up the world have. +</p> + +<p> +The deepest ground of that necessity lies in the fact of sin. Brother, we can +only verify our Lord's assertion by honestly searching the depths of our own +hearts, and looking at ourselves in the light of God. Think what is meant when +we say, 'He is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.' Think of that absolute +purity, that, to us, awful aversion from all that is evil, from all that is +sinful. Think of what sort of men they must be who can see the Lord. And then +look at yourself. Are we fit to pass that threshold? Are we fit to gaze into +that Face? Is it possible that we should have fellowship with Him? Oh, +brethren, if we rightly meditate upon two facts, the holiness of God and our +own characters, I think we shall feel that Jesus Christ has truly stated the +case when He says, 'Ye must be born again.' Unless you and I can get ourselves +radically changed, there is no Heaven for us; there is no fellowship with God +for us. We must stand before Him, and feel that a great gulf is fixed between +us and Him. +</p> + +<p> +And so when a man comes with his poor little 'Thou art a Teacher,' no words are +wanted in order to set in glaring light the utter inadequacy of such a +conception as that. What the world wants is not a Teacher, it is a Life-giver. +What men want is not to be told the truth; they know it already. What they want +is not to be told their duty; they know that too. What they want is some power +that shall turn them clean round. And what each of us wants before we can see +the Lord is that, if it may be, something shall lay hold of us, and utterly +change our natures, and express from our hearts the black drop that lies there +tainting everything. +</p> + +<p> +Now, this necessity is met in Jesus Christ. For there were two 'musts' in His +talk with Nicodemus, and both of them bore directly on the one purpose of +deepening Nicodemus's inadequate conception of what He was and what He did. He +said, 'Ye must be born again,' in order that his hearer, and we, might lay to +heart this, that we need something more than a Teacher, even a Life-giver; and +He said, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up,' in order that we might all know +that in Him the necessity is met, and that the Son of Man, who came down from +Heaven, and is in Heaven, even whilst He is on earth, is the sole ladder by +which men can ascend into Heaven and gaze upon God. +</p> + +<p> +Thus it is Christ's work as Redeemer, Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, Christ's +power as bringing to the world a new and holy life, and breathing it into all +that trust in Him, which make the very centre of His work. Set by the side of +that this other, 'Thou art a Teacher sent from God.' Ah, brethren, that will +not do; it will not do for you and me! We want something a great deal deeper +than that. The secret of Jesus is not disclosed until we have passed into the +inner shrine, where we learn that He is the Sacrifice for the world, and the +Source and Fountain of a new life. I beseech you, take Christ's way of dealing +with this certificate of His character given by the Rabbi who did not know his +own necessities, and ponder it. +</p> + +<p> +Mark the underlying principle which is here—viz. if you want to understand +Christ you must understand sin; and whoever thinks lightly of it will think +meanly of Him. An underestimate of the reality, the universality, the gravity +of the fact of sin lands men in the superficial and wholly impotent conception, +'Rabbi! Thou art a Teacher sent from God.' A true knowledge of myself as a +sinful man, of my need of pardon, of my need of cleansing, of my need of a new +nature, which must be given from above, and cannot be evolved from within, +leads me, and I pray it may lead you, to cast yourself down before Him, with no +complaisant words of intellectual recognition upon your lips, but with the old +cry, 'Lord! be merciful to me a sinner.' +</p> + +<p> +III. And now, dear friends, one last word. Notice when and where this imperfect +disciple was transformed into a courageous confessor. +</p> + +<p> +We do not know what came immediately of this conversation. We only know that +some considerable time after, Nicodemus had not screwed himself up to the point +of acknowledging out and out, like a brave man, that he was Christ's follower; +but that he timidly ventured in the Sanhedrim to slip in a remonstrance +ingeniously devised to conceal his own opinions, and yet to do some benefit to +Christ, when he said, 'Does our law judge any man before it hear him?' And, of +course, the timid remonstrance was swept aside, as it deserved to be, by the +ferocious antagonism of his co-Sanhedrists. +</p> + +<p> +But when the Cross came, and it had become more dangerous to avow discipleship, +he plucked up courage, or rather courage flowed into him from that Cross, and +he went boldly and 'craved the body of Jesus,' and got it, and buried it. No +doubt when he looked at Jesus hanging on the Cross, he remembered that night in +Jerusalem when the Lord had said, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up,' and he +remembered how He had spoken about the serpent lifted in the wilderness, and a +great light blazed in upon him, which for ever ended all hesitation and +timidity for him. And so he was ready to be a martyr, or anything else, for the +sake of Him whom he now found to be far more than a 'Teacher,' even the +Sacrifice by whose stripes he was healed. +</p> + +<p> +Dear brethren, I bring that Cross to you now, and pray you to see there +Christ's real work for us, and for the world. He has taught us, but He has done +more. He has not only spoken, He has died. He has not only shown us the path on +which to walk, He has made it possible for us to walk in it. He is not merely +one amongst the noble band that have guided and inspired and instructed +humanity, but He stands alone—not <i>a</i> Teacher, but <i>the</i> Redeemer, +'the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.' +</p> + +<p> +If He is a Teacher, take His teachings, and what are they? These, that He is +the Son of God; that 'He came from God'; that He 'went to God'; that He 'gives +His life a ransom for many'; that He is to be the Judge of mankind; that if we +trust in Him, our sins are forgiven and our nature is renewed. Do not go +picking and choosing amongst His teachings, for these which I have named are as +surely His as 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to +them,' or any other of the moral teachings which the world professes to admire. +Take the whole teachings of the whole Christ, and you will confess Him to be +the Redeemer of your souls, and the Life-giver by whom, and by whom alone, we +enter the Kingdom of God. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap17"></a>WIND AND SPIRIT</h2> + +<p> +'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and them hearest the sound thereof, but +canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is +born of the Spirit.'—JOHN iii. 8. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps a gust of night wind swept round the chamber where Nicodemus sat +listening to Jesus, and gave occasion for this condensed parable. But there is +occasion sufficient for it in the word 'Spirit,' which, both in the language in +which our Lord addressed the ruler of the Sanhedrim, and in that which John +employed in recording the conversation, as in our own English, means both +'spirit' and 'breath.' This double signification of the word gives rise to the +analogies in our text, and it also raises the question as to the precise +meaning of the text. There are two alternatives, one adopted by our Authorised +and Revised Version, and one which you will find relegated to the margin of the +latter. We may either read 'the wind bloweth' or 'the Spirit breathes.' I must +not be tempted here to enter into a discussion of the grounds upon which the +one or the other of these two renderings may be preferred. Suffice it to say +that I adhere to the rendering which lies before us, and find here a comparison +between the salient characteristics of the physical fact and the operations of +the Divine Spirit upon men's spirits. +</p> + +<p> +But then, there is another step to be taken. Our Lord has just been laying down +the principle that like begets like, that flesh produces flesh, and spirit, +spirit. And so, applying that principle, He says here, not as might be +expected, 'So is the work of the Divine Spirit in begetting new life in men,' +but 'So is he that is born of the Spirit.' There are three things brought into +relation with one another: the physical fact; the operations of the Spirit of +God, of which that physical fact in its various characteristics may be taken as +a symbol; and the result of its operations in the new man who is made 'after +the image of Him that created him.' +</p> + +<p> +It is to the last of these that I wish to turn. Here you have the ideal of the +Christian life, considered as the product of the free Spirit of God, the +picture of what all Christian people have the capacity of being, the obligation +to be, and are, just in the measure in which that new life, which the Spirit of +God bestows, is dominant in them and moulding their character. So I take these +characteristics just as they arise. +</p> + +<p> +I. Here you have the freedom of the new life. +</p> + +<p> +'The wind bloweth where it listeth.' Of course, in these days of weather +forecasts and hoisting cones, we know that the wind is subject to as rigid +physical laws as any other phenomena. But Jesus Christ speaks here, as the +Bible always speaks about Nature, from two points of view—one the popular, +regarding the thing as it looks on the surface, and the other what I may call +the poetico-devout—finding 'sermons in stones, books in the running brooks,' +and hints of the spiritual world in all the phenomena of the natural. So, just +as in spite of meteorological science, there has passed into common speech the +proverbial simile 'as free as the wind,' so Jesus Christ says here, 'The wind +bloweth where it listeth, … so is every one that is born of the Spirit.' He +passes by the intermediate link, the Spirit that is the parent of the life, and +deals with the resulting life and declares that it is self-impelled and +self-directed. Is that a characteristic to be desired or admired? Is doing as +we list precisely the description of the noblest life? It is the description of +the purely animal one. It is the description of an entirely ignoble and base +one. It may become the description of an atrociously criminal one. But we do +not generally think that a man that says 'Thus I will; thus I command; let the +fact that I will it stand in the place of all reason,' is speaking from a lofty +point of view. +</p> + +<p> +But there are two sorts of 'listing.' There is the listing which is the +yielding to the mob of ignoble passions and clamant desires of the animal +nature within us, and there is the 'listing' which is obeying the impulses of a +higher will, that has been blended with ours. And there you come to the secret +of true freedom, which does not consist in doing as I like, but in liking to do +as God wishes me to do. When our Lord says 'where it listeth,' He implies that +a change has passed over a man, when that new life is born within him, whereby +the law, the known will of God, is written upon his heart, and, inscribed on +these fleshly tables, becomes no longer an iron force external to him, but a +vital impulse within him. That is freedom, to have my better will absolutely +conterminous and coincident with the will of God, so far as I know it. Just as +a man is not imprisoned by limits beyond which he has no desire to go, so +freedom, and elevation, and nobility come by obeying, not the commands of an +external authority, but the impulse of an inward life. +</p> + +<p> +'Ye have not received the spirit of bondage,' because God hath given us the +Spirit of power, and of love, and of self-control, which keeps down that base +and inferior 'listing,' and elevates the higher and the nobler one, 'Where the +Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,' because duty has become delight, and +there is no desire in the new and higher nature for anything except that which +God enjoins. The true freedom is when, by the direction of our will, we change +'must' into 'I delight to do Thy will.' So we are set free from the bondage and +burden of a law that is external, and is not loved, and are brought into the +liberty of, for dear love's sake, doing the will of the beloved. +</p> + +<p> + 'Myself shall to my darling be<br /> + Both law and impulse,' +</p> + +<p> +says one of the poets about a far inferior matter. It is true in reference to +the Christian life, and the 'liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,' +</p> + +<p> +But, then, in order freely to understand the sweep and the greatness of this +perfect law of liberty, we must remember that the new life is implanted in us +precisely in order that we may suppress, and, if need be, cast out and +exorcise, that lower 'listing,' of which I have said that it is always ignoble +and sometimes animal. For this freedom will bring with it the necessity for +continual warfare against all that would limit and restrain it—namely, the +passions and desires and inclinations of our baser or nobler, but godless, +self. These are, as it were, deposed by the entrance of the new life. But it is +a dangerous thing to keep dethroned and discrowned tyrants alive, and the best +thing is to behead them, as well as to cast them from their throne. 'If ye, +through the Spirit, do put to death the deeds' and inclinations and wills 'of +the flesh, ye shall live'; and if you do not, they will live and will kill you. +So the freedom of the new life is a militant freedom, and we have to fight to +maintain it. As Burke said about the political realm, 'the price of liberty is +eternal vigilance,' so we say about the new life of the Christian man—he is +free only on condition that he keeps well under hatches the old tyrants, who +are ever plotting and struggling to have dominion once again. +</p> + +<p> +Still further, whilst this new life makes us free from the harshness of a law +that can only proclaim duty, and also makes us free from our own baser selves, +it makes us free from all human authority. The true foundation of the Christian +democracy is that each individual soul has direct and immediate access to, and +direct and real possession of, God, in his spirit and life. Therefore, in the +measure in which we draw into ourselves the new life and the Spirit of God +shall we be independent of men round us, and be able to say, 'With me it is a +very small matter to be judged of you or of man's judgment.' That new life +ought to make men <i>original</i>, in the deep and true sense of the word, as +drawing their conceptions of duty and their methods of life, not at second hand +from other men, but straight from God Himself. If the Christian Church was +fuller of that divine life than it is, it would be fuller of all varieties of +Christian beauty and excellence, and all these would be the work of 'that one +and the selfsame Spirit dividing to every man severally as He will.' If this +congregation were indeed filled with the new life, there would be an exuberance +of power, and a harmonious diversity of characteristics about it, and a burning +up of the conventionalities of Christian profession such as we do not dream of +to-day. 'The wind bloweth where it listeth.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Here we have this new life in its manifestation. +</p> + +<p> +'Thou hearest the sound,' or, as the Word might literally be rendered, the +'voice thereof,' from the little whisper among the young soft leaves of the +opening beeches in our woods to-day, up to the typhoon that spreads devastation +over leagues of tropical ocean. That voice, now a murmur, now a roar, is the +only manifestation of the unseen force that sweeps around us. And if you are a +Christian man or woman your new life should be thus perceptible to others, in a +variety of ways, no doubt, and in many degrees of force. You cannot show its +roots; you are bound to show its fruits. You cannot lay bare your spirits, and +say to the world, 'Look! there is the presence of a divine germ in me,' but you +can go about amongst men, and witness to the possession of it by the life that +you live. There are a great many Christian people from whom, if you were to +listen ever so intently, you would not hear a sough or a ripple. There is a +dead calm; the 'rushing mighty wind' has died down; and there is nothing but a +greasy swell upon the windless ocean. 'The wind bloweth,' and the 'sound' is +heard. The wind ceases, and there is a hideous silence. And that is the +condition of many a man and woman that has a name to live and is dead. Does +anybody hear the whisper of that breath in your life, Christian man? It is not +for me to answer the question; it is for you to ask it and answer it for +yourselves. +</p> + +<p> +And Christians should be in the world, as the very breath of life amidst +stagnation. When the Christian Church first sprung into being it did come into +that corrupt, pestilential march of ancient heathenism with healing on its +wings, and like fresh air from the pure hills into some fever-stricken +district. Wherever there has been a new outburst, in the experience of +individuals and of churches, of that divine life, there has come, and the world +has felt that there has come, a new force that breathes over the dry bones, and +they live. Alas, alas! that so frequently the professing Christian Church has +ceased to discharge its plain function, to breathe on the slain that they may +live. +</p> + +<p> +They are curing, or say they are curing, consumption nowadays, by taking the +patient and keeping him in the open air, and letting the wind of heaven blow +freely about him. That, and not shutting people in warm chambers, and coddling +them with the prescriptions of social and political reformation, that is the +cure for the world's diseases. Wherever the new life is vigorous in men, men +will hear the sound thereof, and recognise that it comes from heaven. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, here we have the new life in its double secret. +</p> + +<p> +I have been saying that it has a means of manifestation which all Christian +people are bound to exemplify. But our Lord draws a broad distinction between +that which can be manifested and that which cannot. As I said, you can show the +leaves and the fruits; the roots are covered. 'Thou hearest the sound thereof, +but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.' +</p> + +<p> +The origin of that new life is 'hid with Christ in God.' And so, since we are +not dependent upon external things for the communication of the life, we should +not be dependent upon them for its continuation and its nourishment, and we +should realise that, if we are Christians, we are living in two regions, and, +though as regards the surface life we belong to the things of time, as regards +the deepest life, we belong to eternity. All the surface springs may run dry. +What then? As long as there is a deep-seated fountain that comes welling up, +the fields will be green, and we may laugh at famine and drought. If it be true +that 'our lives are hid with Christ in God,' then it ought to be true that the +nourishments, as well as the direction and impulse of them, are drawn from Him, +and that we seek not so much for the abundance of the things that minister to +the external as for the fulness of those that sustain the inward, the true +life, the life of Christ in the soul. +</p> + +<p> +The world does not know where that Christian life comes from. If you are a +Christian, you ought to bear in your character a certain indefinable something +that will suggest to the people round you that the secret power of your life is +other than the power which moulds theirs. You may be naturalised, and you may +speak fairly well the language of the country in which you are a sojourner, but +there ought to be something in your accent which tells where you come from, and +betrays the foreigner. We ought to move amongst men, having about us that which +cannot be explained by what is enough to explain their lives. A Christian life +should be the manifestation to the world of the supernatural. +</p> + +<p> +They 'know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth.' No; that new life in its +feeblest infancy, and before it speaks, if I may so say, is, by its very +existence, a prophet, and declares that there must be, beyond this 'bank and +shoal of time,' a region to which it is native, and in which it may grow to +maturity. You will find in your greenhouses exotics that stand there, after all +your pains and coals, stunted, and seeming to sigh for the tropical heat which +is their home. The earnest of our inheritance, the first-fruits of the Spirit, +the Christian life which originated in, and is sustained by, the flowing of the +divine life into us, demands that, somehow or other, the stunted plant should +be lifted and removed into that 'higher house where these are planted'—and what +shall be the spread of its branches, and the lustre of its leaves, and what the +gorgeousness of its blossoms, and what the perennial sweetness of its fruits +then and there, 'it doth not yet appear.' +</p> + +<p> +They 'know not whither it goeth.' And even those who themselves possess it know +not, nor shall know, through the ages of a progressive approximation to the +ever-approached and never-attained perfection. 'This spake He of the Holy +Ghost, which they that believe on Him should receive.' Trust Christ, and 'the +law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus shall make you free from the law of +sin and death.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap18"></a>THE BRAZEN SERPENT</h2> + +<p> +'Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.'—JOHN iii. 14. +</p> + +<p> +This is the second of the instances in this Gospel in which our Lord lays His +hand upon an institution or incident of the Old Testament, as shadowing forth +some aspect of His work. In the first of these instances, under the image of +the ladder that Jacob saw, our Lord presented Himself as the sole medium of +communication between heaven and earth; here He goes a step further into the +heart of His work, and under the image, very eloquent to the Pharisee to whom +He was speaking, of the brazen serpent lifted up on the pole in the desert, +proclaims Himself as the medium of healing and of life to a poisoned world. +</p> + +<p> +Now, Nicodemus has a great many followers to-day. He took up a position which +many take up. He recognised Christ as a Teacher, and was willing to accord to +the almost unknown young man from Galilee the coveted title of 'Rabbi.' He came +to Him with a little touch of condescension, and evidently thought that for +him, a ruler of the Jews, a member of the upper and educated classes, to be +willing to speak of Jesus as a Teacher, was an endorsement that the young +aspirant might be gratified to receive. 'Rabbi, <i>we</i> know that Thou art a +Teacher sent from God'—but he stopped there. He is not the only one who +compliments Jesus Christ, while he degrades Him from His unique position. Now, +to this inadequate conception of our Lord's Person and work, Christ opposed the +solemn insistence on the incapacity of human nature as it is, to enter into +communion with, and submission to, God. And then He passes on to speak—in +precise parallelism with the position that He took up when He likened Himself +to the Ladder of Jacob's vision—of Himself as being the Son of Man that came +down from Heaven, and therefore is able to reveal heavenly things. In my text +He further unveils in symbol the mystery and dignity of His Person and of His +work, whilst He speaks of a mysterious lifting up of this Son of Man who came +down from heaven. These are the truths that the conception of Christ as a great +Teacher needs for its completion; the contrariety of human nature with the +divine will, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Crucifixion of the +Incarnate Son. And so we have here three points, to which I desire to turn, as +setting forth the conception of His own work which Jesus Christ presented as +completing the conception of it, to which Nicodemus had attained. +</p> + +<p> +I. There is, first, the lifting up of the Son of Man. +</p> + +<p> +Now, of course, the sole purpose of setting that brazen serpent on the pole was +to render it conspicuous, and all that Nicodemus could <i>then</i> understand +by the symbol was that, in some unknown way, this heaven-descended Son of Man +should be set forth before Israel and the world as being the Healer of all +their diseases. But we are wiser, after the event, than the ruler of the Jews +could be at the threshold of Christ's ministry. We have also to remember that +this is not the only occasion, though it is the first, on which our Lord used +this very significant expression. For twice over in this Gospel we find it upon +His lips—once when, addressing the unbelieving multitude, He says 'When ye have +lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He'; and once when in +soliloquy, close on Calvary, He says, as the vision of a world flocking to Him +rises before Him on occasion of the wish of a few Greek proselytes to see Him, +'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' We do not need, though we +have, the Evangelist's commentary, 'this He spake signifying what death He +should die.' +</p> + +<p> +So, if we accept the historical veracity of this Gospel, we here perceive Jesus +Christ, at the very beginning of His career, and before the dispositions of the +nation towards Him had developed themselves in action, discerning its end, and +seeing, gaunt and grim before Him, the Cross that was lifted up on Calvary. +Enthusiasts and philanthropists and apostles of all sorts, in the regions of +science and beneficence and morals and religion, begin their career with +trusting that their 'brethren should have understood' that God was speaking +through them. But no illusion of that sort, according to these Evangelists, +drew Jesus Christ out of His seclusion at Nazareth and impelled Him on His +career. From the beginning He knew that the Cross was to be the end. That Cross +was not to Him a necessity, accepted as the price of faithfulness in doing His +work, so that His attitude was, 'I will speak what is in Me, though I die for +it,' but it was to Him the very heart of the work which He came to do. +Therefore, after He had said to the ruler of the Jews that the Son of Man, as +descended from Heaven, was able to <i>speak</i> of heavenly things, He added +the deeper necessity, He 'must be lifted up.' Where lay the 'must'? In the +requirement of the work which He had set Himself to do. Beneath this great +saying there lies a pathetic, stern, true conception of the condition of human +nature. That desert encampment, with the poisoned men dying on every hand, is +the emblem under which Jesus Christ, the gentlest and the sweetest soul that +ever lived, looked out upon humanity. And it was because the facts of human +nature called for something far more than a teacher that He said 'the Son of +Man must be lifted up.' For what they needed, and what He had set Himself to +bring, could only be brought by One who yielded Himself up for the sins of the +whole world. +</p> + +<p> +But that 'must,' which thus arose from the requirements of the task that He had +set before Him, had its source in His own heart; it was no necessity imposed +upon Him from without. True, it was a necessity laid on Him by filial +obedience, but also true, it was the necessity accepted by Him in pursuance of +the impulse of His own heart. He must die because He must save, and He must +save because He loved. So He was not nailed to the Cross by the nails and +hammers of the Roman soldiers, and the taunt that was flung at Him as He hung +there had a deeper meaning, as scoffs thrown at Him and His cause ordinarily +have, than the scoffers understood: 'He saved others,' and therefore 'Himself +He cannot save.' +</p> + +<p> +So here we have Christ accepting, as well as discerning, the Cross. And we have +more than that. We have Christ looking at the Cross as being, not humiliation, +but exaltation. 'The Son of Man must be lifted up.' And what does that mean? It +means the same thing that He said when, near the end, He declared, 'The hour is +come that the Son of Man should be glorified.' We are accustomed to speak—and +we speak rightly—of His death as being the lowest point of the humiliation +which was inherent in the very fact of His humanity. He condescended to be +born; He stooped yet more to die. But whilst that is true, the other side is +also true—that in the Cross Christ is lifted up, and that it is His Throne. For +what see we there? The highest exhibition, the tenderest revelation, of His +perfect love. And what see we there besides? The supreme manifestation of the +highest power. +</p> + +<p> + ''Twas great to speak a world from nought,<br /> + 'Tis greater to redeem.' +</p> + +<p> +To save humanity, to make it possible that men should receive that second +birth, and should enter into the Kingdom of God—that was a greater work, +because a work not only of creation, but of restoration, than it was to send +forth the stars on their courses and to 'preserve' the ancient heavens 'from +wrong.' There is a revelation of divine might when we 'lift up our eyes on +high,' and see how, 'because He is great in power, not one faileth.' But there +is a mightier revelation of divine power when we see how, from amidst the ruins +of humanity, He can restore the divine image, and piece together, as it were, +without sign of flaw or crack or one fragment wanting, the fair image that was +shattered into fragments by the blow of Sin's heavy mace. Power in its highest +operation, power in its tenderest efficacy, power in its widest sweep, are set +forth on the Cross of Christ, and that weak Man hanging there, dying in the +dark, is 'the power of God' as well as 'the wisdom of God.' The Cross is +Christ's Throne, but it is His sovereign manifestation of love and power only +if it is what, as I believe He told us it was, and what His servants from His +lips caught the interpretation of it as being, the death for the sins of the +sin-stricken world. Unless we can believe that, when He died, He died for us, I +know not why Christ's death should appeal to our love. But if we recognise—as I +pray that we all may recognise—that our deep need for something far more than +Teacher or Pattern has been met in that great 'one Sacrifice for sins for +ever,' then the magnetism of the Cross begins to tell, and we understand what +He meant when He said, 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' +Brethren, the Cross is His Throne, from which He rules the world, and if you +strike His sacrifice for sins out of your conception of His work, you have +robbed Him of sovereignty, and taken out of His hand the sceptre by which He +governs the hearts and wills of rebellious and restored men. +</p> + +<p> +II. Notice, again, how we have here the look at the uplifted Son of Man. +</p> + +<p> +I do not need to paint for you what your own imaginations can sufficiently +paint for yourselves—the scene in the wilderness where the dying men from the +very outskirts of the camp could turn a filmy eye to the brazen serpent hanging +in their midst. That look is the symbol of what we need, in order that the +life-giving power of Christ should enter into our death. There is no better +description of the act of Christian faith than that picture of the dying +Israelite turning his languid eye to the symbol of healing and life. That trust +which Jesus emphasises here in 'whosoever <i>believeth</i> on Him,' He opposes +very emphatically to Nicodemus's confession, 'We know that Thou art a Teacher.' +We know—you have to go a step further, Nicodemus! 'We know'; well and good, but +are you included in 'whosoever believeth'? Faith is an advance on credence. +There is an intellectual side to it, but its essence is what is the essence of +trust always, the act of the will throwing itself on that which is discerned to +be trustworthy. You know that a given man is reliable—that is not relying on +him. You have to go a step further. And so, dear brethren, you may believe +thirty-nine or thirty-nine thousand Articles with an unfaltering credence, and +you may be as far away from faith as if you did not believe one of them. There +may be a perfect belief and an absolute want of faith. And on the other hand, +blessed be God! there may be a real and an operative trust with a very +imperfect or mistaken creed. The wild flowers on the rock bloom fair and +bright, though they have scarcely any soil in which to strike their roots, and +the plants in the most fertile garden may fail to produce flowers and seed. So +trust and credence are not always of the same magnitude. +</p> + +<p> +This trust is no arbitrary condition. The Israelite was bid to turn to the +brazen serpent. There was no connection between his look and his healing, +except in so far as the symbol was a help to, and looking at it was a test of, +his faith in the healing power of God. But it is no arbitrary appointment, as +many people often think it is, which connects inseparably together the look of +faith and the eternal life that Christ gives. For seeing that salvation is no +mere external gift of shutting up some outward Hell and opening the door to +some outward Heaven, but is a state of heart and mind, of relation to God, the +only way by which that salvation can come into a man's heart is that he, +knowing his need of it, shall trust Christ, and through Him the new life will +flow into his heart. Faith is trust, and trust is the stretching out of the +hand to take the precious gift, the opening of the heart for the influx of the +grace, the eating of the bread, the drinking of the water, of life. +</p> + +<p> +It is the only possible condition. God forbid that I should even seem to +depreciate other forms of healing men's evils and redressing men's wrongs, and +diminishing the sorrows of humanity! We welcome them all; but education, art, +culture, refinement, improved environment, bettered social and political +conditions, whilst they do a great deal, do not go down to the bottom of the +necessity. And after you have built your colleges and art museums and stately +pleasure-houses, and set every man in an environment that is suited to develop +him, you will find out what surely the world might have found out already, +that, as in some stately palace built in the Campagna, the malaria is in the +air, and steals in at the windows, and infects all the inhabitants. Thank God +for all these other things! but you cannot heal a man who has poison in his +veins by administering cosmetics, and you cannot put out Vesuvius with a jugful +of water. If the camp is to be healed, the Christ must be lifted up. +</p> + +<p> +III. And now, lastly, here we have the life that comes with a look at the +lifted-up Son of Man. +</p> + +<p> +Those of you who are using the Revised Version will see that there is a little +change made here, partly by the exclusion of a clause and partly by changing +the order of the words. The alteration is not only nearer the original text, +but brings out a striking thought. It reads that 'whosoever believeth may in +Him have eternal life.' Now, it is far too late a period of my discourse to +enlarge upon all that these great words would suggest to us, but let me just, +in a sentence or two, mark the salient points. +</p> + +<p> +'Eternal life'; do not bring that down to the narrow and inadequate conception +of unending existence. It involves that, but it means a great deal more. It +means a life of such a sort as is worth calling life, which is a life in union +with God, and therefore full of blessedness, full of purity, full of +satisfaction, full of desire and aspiration, and all these with the stamp of +unendingness deeply impressed upon them. And that is what comes to us through +the look. Not only is the process of dying arrested, but there is substituted +for it a new process of growing possession of a new life. You 'must be born +again,' Christ had been saying to Nicodemus. The change that passes upon a man +when once he has anchored his trust on Jesus Christ, the uplifted Son of Man, +is so profound that it is nothing else than a new birth, and a new life comes +into his veins untainted by the poison, and with no proclivity to death. +</p> + +<p> +'May have eternal life'—now, here, on the instant. That eternal life is no +future gift to be bestowed upon mortal men when they have passed through the +agony of death, but it is a gift which comes to us here, and may come to any +man on the instant of his looking to Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +'May in Him have eternal life'—union with Christ by faith, that profound +incorporation—if I may use the word—into Him, which the New Testament sets +forth in all sorts of aspects as the very foundation of the blessings of +Christianity; that union is the condition of eternal life. So, dear brethren, +we all need that the poison shall be cast out of our veins. We all need that +the tendency downwards to a condition which can only be described as death may +be arrested, and the motion reversed. We all need that our knowledge shall be +vitalised into faith. We all need that the past shall be forgiven, and the +power of sin upon us in the present shall be cancelled. 'The blood of Jesus +Christ cleanseth from all sin,' because it was shed for the remission of the +sins of the many, and is transfused, an untainted principle of life, into our +veins. What Jesus said to Nicodemus by night in that quiet chamber in +Jerusalem, what He said in effect and act upon the Cross, when uplifted there, +is what He says to each of us from the Throne where He is now lifted up: +'Whosoever believeth shall in Me have eternal life.' Take Him at His word, and +you will find that it is true. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap19"></a>CHRIST'S MUSTS</h2> + +<p> +'… Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.'—JOHN iii. 14. +</p> + +<p> +I have chosen this text for the sake of one word in it, that solemn 'must' +which was so often on our Lord's lips. I have no purpose of dealing with the +remainder of this clause, nor indeed with it at all, except as one instance of +His use of the expression. But I have felt it might be interesting, and might +set old truths in a brighter light, if we gather together the instances in +which Christ speaks of the great necessity which dominated His life, and shaped +even small acts. +</p> + +<p> +The expression is most frequently used in reference to the Passion and +Resurrection. There are many instances in the Gospels, in which He speaks of +that <i>must</i>. The first of these is that of my text. Then there is another +class, of which His word to His mother when a twelve-year-old child may be +taken as a type: 'Wist ye not that I <i>must</i> be about My Father's +business?' where the mysterious consciousness of a special relation to God in +the child's heart drew Him to the Temple and to His Father's work. Other +similar instances are those in which He responded to the multitude when they +wanted to keep Him to themselves: 'I <i>must</i> preach in other cities also'; +or as when He said, 'I <i>must</i> work the works of Him that sent Me while it +is day.' +</p> + +<p> +Yet another aspect of the same necessity is presented when, looking far beyond +the earthly work and suffering, He discerned the future triumph which was to be +the issue of these, and said, 'Other sheep I have… them also I <i>must</i> +bring.' +</p> + +<p> +And yet another is in reference to a very small matter: His selection of a +place for a few hours' rest on His last fateful journey to Jerusalem, when He +said, 'Zaccheus,… to-day I <i>must</i> abide at thy house.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, if we put these instances together, we shall get some precious glimpses +into our Lord's heart, and His view of life. +</p> + +<p> +I. Here we see Christ recognising and accepting the necessity for His death. +</p> + +<p> +My text, if we accept John's Gospel, contributes an altogether new element to +our conception of our Lord as announcing His death. For the other three Gospels +lay emphasis on it as being part of His teaching, especially during the later +stage of His ministry. But it does not follow that He began to think about it +or to see it, when He began to speak about it. There are reasons for the +earlier comparative reticence, and there is no ground for the conclusion that +then first began to dawn upon a disappointed enthusiast the grim reality that +His work was not going to prosper, and that martyrdom was necessary. That is a +notion that has been frequently upheld of late years, but to me it seems +altogether incongruous with the facts of the case. And, if John's Gospel is a +true record, that theory is shivered against this text, which represents Him at +the very beginning of His career—the time when, according to that other theory, +He was full of the usual buoyant and baseless anticipations of a reformer +commencing His course—as telling Nicodemus, 'Even so <i>must</i> the Son of Man +be lifted up.' In like manner, in the previous chapter of this same Gospel, we +have the significant though enigmatical utterance: 'Destroy this Temple, and in +three days I will raise it up'; with the Evangelist's authoritative comment: +'He spake of the Temple of His body.' So, from the beginning of His career, the +end was clear before Him. +</p> + +<p> +And why <i>must</i> He go to the Cross? Not merely, as the other Evangelists +put it, in order that 'it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophets.' +It was not that Jesus must die because the prophets had said that Messiah +should, but that the prophets had said that Messiah should because Jesus must. +There was a far deeper necessity than the fulfilment of any prophetic +utterance, even the necessity which shaped that utterance. The work of Jesus +Christ could not be done unless He died. He could not be the Saviour of the +world unless He was the sacrifice for the sins of the world. +</p> + +<p> +We cannot see all the grounds of that solemn imperative, but this we can see, +that it was because of the requirements of the divine righteousness, and +because of the necessities of sinful men. And so Christ's was no martyr's +death, who had to die as the penalty of the faithful discharge of His duty. It +was not the penalty that He paid for doing His work, but it was the work +itself. Not that gracious life, nor 'the loveliness of perfect deeds,' nor His +words of sweet wisdom, nor His acts of transcendent power, equalled only by the +pity that moved the power, completed His task, but He 'came to give His life a +ransom for many.' +</p> + +<p> +'Must' is a hard word. It may express an unwelcome necessity. Was this +necessity unwelcome? When He said, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up,' was He +shrinking, or reluctantly submitting? Ah, no! He <i>must</i> die because He +<i>would</i> save, and He <i>would</i> save because He <i>did</i> love. His +filial obedience to God coincided with His pity for men: and not merely in +obedience to the requirements of the divine righteousness, but in compassion +for the necessities of sinners, necessity was laid upon Him. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brethren! nothing held Christ to the Cross but His own desire to save us. +Neither priests nor Romans carried Him thither. What fastened Him to it was not +the nails driven by rude hands. And the reason why He did not, as the taunters +bade Him do, come down from it, was neither a physical nor a moral necessity +unwelcome to Himself, but the yielding of His own will to do all which was +needed for man's salvation. +</p> + +<p> +This sacrifice was bound to the altar by the cords of love. We have heard of +martyrs who have refused to be tied to the stake, and have kept themselves +motionless in the centre of the fierce flames by the force of their wills. +Jesus Christ fastened Himself to the Cross and died because He would. +</p> + +<p> +And, oh! if we think of that sweet, serene life as having clear before it from +the very first steps that grim end, how infinitely it gains in pathetic beauty +and in heart-touchingness! What wonderful self-abnegation! How he was at +leisure from Himself, with a heart of pity for every sorrow, and loins girt for +all service, though during all His life the Cross closed the vista! Think that +human shrinking was felt by Him, think that it was so held back that His +purpose never faltered, think that each of us may say, 'He <i>must</i> die +because He <i>would</i> save me'; and then ask, 'What shall I render to the +Lord for all His benefits toward me?' +</p> + +<p> +II. In a second class of these utterances, we see Christ impelled by filial +obedience and the consciousness of His mission. +</p> + +<p> +'Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' That was a strange +utterance for a boy of twelve. It seems to negative the supposition that what +is called the 'Messianic consciousness' dawned upon Jesus Christ first after +His baptism and the descent of the Spirit. But however that may be, it and the +similar passages to which I have already referred, bearing upon His discharge +of His work prior to His death, teach that the necessity was an inward +necessity springing from His consciousness of Sonship, and His recognition of +the work that He had to do. And so He is our great Example of spontaneous +obedience, which does violence to itself if it does not obey. It was instinct +that sent the boy into the Temple. Where should a Son be but in His Father's +house? How could He not be doing His Father's business? +</p> + +<p> +Thus He stands before us, the pattern for the only obedience that is worth +calling so, the obedience which would be pained and ill at ease unless it were +doing the work of God. Religion is meant to make it a second nature, or, as I +have ventured to call it, an instinct—a spontaneous, uncalculating, +irrepressible desire—to be in fellowship with God, and to be doing His will. +That is the meaning of our Christianity. There is no obedience in reluctant +obedience; forced service is slavery, not service. Christianity is given for +the specific purpose that it may bring us so into touch with Jesus Christ as +that the mind which was in Him may be in us; and that we too may be able to +say, with a kind of wonder that people should have expected to find us in any +other place, or doing anything else, 'Wist ye not that because I am a Son, +<i>I</i> must be about my Father's business?' As certainly as the sunflower +follows the sun, so certainly will a man animated by the mind that was in Jesus +Christ, like Him find his very life's breath in doing the Father's will. +</p> + +<p> +So then, brethren, what about our grudging service? What about our reluctant +obedience? What about the widespread mistake that religion prohibits wished-for +things and enforces unwelcome duties? If my Christianity does not make me +recoil from what it forbids, and spring eagerly to what it commends, my +Christianity is of very little use. If when in the Temple we are like idle boys +in school, always casting glances at the clock and the door, and wishing +ourselves outside, we may just as well be out as in. Glad obedience is true +obedience. Only he who can say, 'Thy law is within my heart, and I do Thy will +because I love Thee, and cannot but do as Thou desirest,' has found the joy +possible to a Christian life. It is not 'harsh and crabbed,' as those that look +upon it from the outside may 'suppose,' but musical and full of sweetness. +There is nothing more blessed than when 'I choose' covers exactly the same +ground as 'I ought.' And when duty is delight, delight will never become +disgust, nor joy pass away. +</p> + +<p> +III. We see, in yet another use of this great 'must,' Christ anticipating His +future triumph. +</p> + +<p> +'Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and +there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.' Striking as these words are in +themselves, they are still more striking when we notice their connection; for +they follow immediately upon His utterance about laying down His life for the +sheep. So, then, this was a work beyond the Cross, and whatever it was, it was +to be done after He had died. +</p> + +<p> +I need not point out to you how far afield Christ's vision goes out into the +dim, waste places, where on the dark mountains the straying sheep are torn and +frightened and starving. I need not dwell upon how far ahead in the future His +glance travels, or how magnificent and how rebuking to our petty narrowness +this great word is. 'There shall be one <i>flock</i>' (not fold); and they +shall be one, not because they are within the bounds of any visible 'fold,' but +because they are gathered round the one Shepherd, and in their common relation +to Him are knit together in unity. +</p> + +<p> +But what sort of a Man is this who considers that His widest work is to be done +by Him after He is dead? 'Them also I <i>must</i> bring.' Thou? how? when? +Surely such words as these, side by side with a clear prevision of the death +that was so soon to come, are either meaningless or the utterance of an +arrogance bordering on insanity, or they anticipate what an Evangelist declares +did take place—that the Lord was 'taken up into heaven and sat at the right +hand of God,' whilst His servants 'went everywhere preaching the Word, the Lord +also working with them and confirming the Word' with the signs He wrought. +</p> + +<p> +'Them also I must bring.' That is not merely a necessity rooted in the nature +of God and the wants of men. It is not merely a necessity springing from +Christ's filial obedience and sense of a mission; but it is a 'must' of +destiny, a 'must' which recognises the sure results of His passion; a 'must' +which implies the power of the Cross to be the reconciliation of the world. And +so for all pessimistic thoughts to-day, or at any time, and when Christian +men's hearts may be trembling for the Ark of God—although, perhaps, there may +be little reason for the tremor—and in the face of all blatant antagonisms and +of proud Goliaths despising the 'foolishness of preaching,' we fall back upon +Christ's great 'must.' It is written in the councils of Heaven more +unchangeably than the heavens; it is guaranteed by the power of the Cross; it +is certain, by the eternal life of the crucified Saviour, that He will one day +be the King of humanity, and <i>must</i> bring His wandering sheep to couch in +peace, one flock round one Shepherd. +</p> + +<p> +IV. Lastly, we have Christ applying the greatest principle to the smallest +duty. +</p> + +<p> +'Zaccheus! make haste and come down; to-day I <i>must</i> abide in thy house.' +Why must He? Because Zaccheus was to be saved, and was worth saving. What was +the 'must'? To stop for an hour or two on His road to the Cross. So He teaches +us that in a life penetrated by the thought of the divine will, which we gladly +obey, there are no things too great, and none too trivial, to be brought under +the dominion of that law, and to be regulated by that divine necessity. +Obedience is obedience, whether in large things or in small. There is no scale +of magnitude applicable to the distinction between God's will and that which is +not God's will. Gravitation rules the motes that dance in the sunshine as well +as the mass of Jupiter. A triangle with its apex in the sun, and its base +beyond the solar system, has the same properties and comes under the same laws +as one that a schoolboy scrawls upon his slate. God's truth is not too great to +rule the smallest duties. The star in the East was a guide to the humble house +at Bethlehem, and there are starry truths high in the heavens that avail for +our guidance in the smallest acts of life. +</p> + +<p> +So, brethren, bring your doings under that all-embracing law of duty—duty, +which is the heathen expression for the will of God. There are great regions of +life in which lower necessities have play. Circumstances, our past, bias and +temper, relationship, friendship, civic duty, and the like—all these bring +their necessities; but let us think of them all as being, what indeed they are, +manifestations to us of the will of our Father. There are great tracts of life +in which either of two courses may be right, and we are left to the decision of +choice rather than of duty; but high above all these, let us see towering that +divine necessity. It is a daily struggle to bring 'I will' to coincide with 'I +ought'; and there is only one adequate and always powerful way of securing that +coincidence, and that is to keep close to Jesus Christ and to drink in His +spirit. Then, when duty and delight are conterminous, 'the rough places will be +plain, and the crooked things straight, and every mountain shall be brought +low, and every valley shall be exalted,' and life will be blessed, and service +will be freedom. Joy and liberty and power and peace will fill our hearts when +this is the law of our being; 'All that the Lord hath spoken, that <i>must</i> +I do.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap20"></a>THE LAKE AND THE RIVER</h2> + +<p> +'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever +believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'—JOHN iii. 16. +</p> + +<p> +I venture to say that my text shows us a lake, a river, a pitcher, and a +draught. 'God so loved the world'—that is the lake. A lake makes a river for +itself—'God so loved the world that He <i>gave</i> His… Son.' But the river +does not quench any one's thirst unless he has something to lift the water +with: 'God so loved the world that He gave His… Son, that whosoever +<i>believeth</i> on Him.' Last comes the draught: 'shall not perish, but have +<i>everlasting life.</i>' +</p> + +<p> +I. The great lake, God's love. +</p> + +<p> +Before Jesus Christ came into this world no one ever dreamt of saying 'God +<i>loves</i>.' Some of the Old Testament psalmists had glimpses of that truth +and came pretty near expressing it. But among all the 'gods many and lords +many,' there were lustful gods and beautiful gods, and idle gods, and fighting +gods and peaceful gods: but not one of whom worshippers said, 'He loves.' Once +it was a new and almost incredible message, but we have grown accustomed to it, +and it is not strange any more to us. But if we would try to think of what it +means, the whole truth would flash up into fresh newness, and all the miseries +and sorrows and perplexities of our lives would drift away down the wind, and +we should be no more troubled with them. 'God loves' is the greatest thing that +can be said by lips. +</p> + +<p> +'God … loved the world.' Now when we speak of loving a number of +individuals—the broader the stream, the shallower it is, is it not? The most +intense patriot in England does not love her one ten-thousandth part as well as +he loves his own little girl. When we think or feel anything about a great +multitude of people, it is like looking at a forest. We do not see the trees, +we see the whole wood. But that is not how God loves the world. Suppose I said +that I loved the people in India, I should not mean by that that I had any +feeling about any individual soul of all those dusky millions, but only that I +massed them all together; or made what people call a generalisation of them. +But that is not the way in which God loves. He loves all because He loves each. +And when we say, 'God so loved the world,' we have to break up the mass into +its atoms, and to think of each atom as being an object of His love. We all +stand out in God's love just as we should do to one another's eyes, if we were +on the top of a mountain-ridge with a clear sunset sky behind us. Each little +black dot of the long procession would be separately visible. And we all stand +out like that, every man of us isolated, and getting as much of the love of God +as if there was not another creature in the whole universe but God and +ourselves. Have you ever realised that when we say, 'He loved the world,' that +really means, as far as each of us is concerned, He loves <i>me</i>? And just +as the whole beams of the sun come pouring down into every eye of the crowd +that is looking up to it, so the whole love of God pours down, not upon a +multitude, an abstraction, a community, but upon every single soul that makes +up that community. He loves us all because He loves us each. We shall never get +all the good of that thought until we translate it, and lay it upon our hearts. +It is all very well to say, 'Ah yes! God is love,' and it is all very well to +say He loves 'the world.' But I will tell you what is a great deal better—to +say—what Paul said—'Who loved <i>me</i> and gave Himself for <i>me</i>.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, there is one other suggestion that I would make to you before I go on, and +that is that all through the New Testament, but especially in John's Gospel, +'the world' does not only mean men, but <i>sinful</i> men, men separated from +God. And the great and blessed truth taught here is that, however I may drag +myself away from God, I cannot drive Him away from me, and that however little +I may care for Him, or love Him, or think about Him, it does not make one +hairs-breadth of difference as to the fact that He loves me. I know, of course, +that if a man does not love Him back again, God's love has to take shapes that +it would not otherwise take, which may be extremely inconvenient for the man. +But though the shape may alter, <i>must</i> alter, the fact remains; and every +sinful soul on the earth, including Judas Iscariot—who is said to head the list +of crimes—has God's love resting upon him. +</p> + +<p> +II. The river. +</p> + +<p> +Now, to go back to my metaphor, the lake makes a river. 'God so loved the world +that He gave His only begotten Son.' +</p> + +<p> +So then, it was not Christ's death that turned God from hating and being angry, +but it was God's love that appointed Christ's death. If you will only remember +that, a great many of the shallow and popular objections to the great doctrine +of the Atonement disappear at once. 'God so loved … that He gave.' But some +people say that when we preach that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that God's +wrath might not fall upon men, our teaching is immoral, because it means +'Christ came, and so God loved.' It is the other way about, friend. 'God so +loved … that He gave.' +</p> + +<p> +But now let me carry you back to the Old Testament. Do you remember the story +of the father taking his boy who carried the bundle of wood and the fire, and +tramping over the mountains till they reached the place where the sacrifice was +to be offered? Do you remember the boy's question that brings tears quickly to +the reader's eyes: 'Here is the wood, and here is the fire, where is the lamb'? +Do you not think it would be hard for the father to steady his voice and say, +'My son, God will provide the lamb'? And do you remember the end of that story? +'The Angel of the Lord said unto Abraham, Because thou hast done this thing, +and hast not <i>withheld</i> thy son, <i>thine only son</i>, from Me, therefore +blessing I will bless thee,' etc. Remember that one of the Apostles said, using +the very same word that is used in Genesis as to Abraham's giving up his son to +God, 'He <i>spared not</i> His own Son, but delivered Him up to the death for +us all.' Does not that point to a mysterious parallel? Somehow or other—we have +no right to attempt to say how—somehow or other, God not only <i>sent</i> His +Son, as it is said in the next verse to my text, but far more tenderly, +wonderfully, pathetically, God <i>gave</i>—gave up His Son, and the sacrifice +was enhanced, because it was His only begotten Son. +</p> + +<p> +Ah! dear brethren, do not let us be afraid of following out all that is +included in that great word, 'God … <i>loved</i> the world.' For there is no +love which does not delight in giving, and there is no love that does not +delight in depriving itself, in some fashion, of what it gives. And I, for my +part, believe that Paul's words are to be taken in all their blessed depth and +wonderfulness of meaning when he says, 'He gave up'—as well as gave—'Him to the +death for us all.' +</p> + +<p> +And now, do you not think that we are able in some measure to estimate the +greatness of that little word 'so'? 'God <i>so</i> loved'—<i>so</i> deeply, so +holily, <i>so</i> perfectly—that He 'gave His only begotten Son'; and the gift +of that Son is, as it were, the river by which the love of God comes to every +soul in the world. +</p> + +<p> +Now there are a great many people who would like to put the middle part of this +great text of ours into a parenthesis. They say that we should bring the first +words and the last words of this text together, and never mind all that lies +between. People who do not like the doctrine of the Cross would say, 'God so +loved the world that He gave… everlasting life'; and there an end. 'If there is +a God, and if He loves the world, why cannot He save the world without more +ado? There is no need for these interposed clauses. God so loved the world that +everybody will go to heaven'—that is the gospel of a great many of you; and it +is the gospel of a great many wise and learned people. But it is not John's +Gospel, and it is not Christ's Gospel. The beginning and the end of the text +cannot be buckled up together in that rough-and-ready fashion. They have to be +linked by a chain; and there are two links in the chain: God forges the one, +and we have to forge the other. 'God so loved the world that He gave'—then He +has done His work. 'That whosoever believeth'—that is your work. And it is in +vain that God forges <i>His</i> link, unless you will forge <i>yours</i> and +link it up to His. 'God so loved the world,' that is step number one in the +process; 'that He gave,' that is step number two; and then there comes another +'that'—'that whosoever believeth,' that is step number three; and they are all +needed before you come to number four, which is the landing-place and not a +step—'should not perish, but have everlasting life.' +</p> + +<p> +III. The pitcher. +</p> + +<p> +I come to what I called the pitcher, with which we draw the water for our own +use—'that whosoever believeth.' You perhaps say, 'Yes, I believe. I accept +every word of the Gospel, I quite believe that Jesus Christ died, as a matter +of history; and I quite believe that He died for men's sins.' And what then? Is +that what Jesus Christ meant by believing? To believe <i>about</i> Him is not +to believe <i>on</i> Him; and unless you believe on Him you will get no good +out of Him. There is the lake, and the river must flow past the shanties in the +clearing in the forest, if the men there are to drink. But it may flow past +their doors, as broad as the Mississippi, and as deep as the ocean; but they +will perish with thirst, unless they dip in their hands, like Gideon's men, and +carry the water to their own lips. Dear friend, what you have to do—and your +soul's salvation, and your peace and joy and nobleness in this life and in the +next depend absolutely upon it—is simply to trust in Jesus Christ and His death +for your sins. +</p> + +<p> +I sometimes wish we had never heard that word 'faith.' For as soon as we begin +to talk about 'faith,' people begin to think that we are away up in some +theological region far above everyday life. Suppose we try to bring it down a +little nearer to our businesses and bosoms, and instead of using a word that is +kept sacred for employment in religious matters, and saying 'faith,' we say +'trust.' That is what you give to your wives and husbands, is it not? And that +is exactly what you have to give to Jesus Christ, simply to lay hold of Him as +a man lays hold of the heart that loves him, and leans his whole weight upon +it. Lean hard on Him, hang on Him, or, to take the other metaphor that is one +of the Old Testament words for trust, 'flee for refuge' to Him. Fancy a man +with the avenger of blood at his back, and the point of the pursuer's spear +almost pricking his spine—don't you think he would make for the City of Refuge +with some speed? That is what you have to do. He that believeth, and by trust +lays hold of the Hand that holds him up, will never fall; and he that does not +lay hold of that Hand will never stand, to say nothing of rising. And so by +these two links God's love of the world is connected with the salvation of the +world. +</p> + +<p> +IV. The draught. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, we have here the draught of living water. Did you ever think why our +text puts 'should not perish' first? Is it not because, unless we put our trust +in Him, we shall certainly perish, and because, therefore, that certainty of +perishing must be averted before we can have 'everlasting life'? +</p> + +<p> +Now I am not going to enlarge on these two solemn expressions, 'perishing' and +'everlasting life.' I only say this: men do not need to wait until they die +before they 'perish.' There are men and women here now who are dead—dead while +they live, and when they come to die, the perishing, which is condemnation and +ruin, will only be the making visible, in another condition of life, of what is +the fact to-day. Dear brethren, you do not need to die in order to perish in +your sins, and, blessed be God, you can have everlasting life before you die. +You can have it now, and there is only one way to have it, and that is to lay +hold of Him who is the Life. And when you have Jesus Christ in your heart, whom +you will be sure to have if you trust Him, then you will have life—life +eternal, here and now, and death will only make manifest the eternal life which +you had while you were alive here, and will perfect it in fashions that we do +not yet know anything about. +</p> + +<p> +Only remember, as I have been trying to show you, the order that runs through +this text. Remember the order of these last words, and that we must first of +all be delivered from eternal and utter death, before we can be invested with +the eternal and absolute life. +</p> + +<p> +Now, dear brethren, I dare say I have never spoken to the great majority of you +before; it is quite possible I may never speak to any of you again. I have +asked God to help me to speak so as that souls should be drawn to the Saviour. +And I beseech you now, as my last word, that you would listen, not to me, but +to Him. For it is He that says to us, 'God so loved the world, that He gave His +Son, that whosoever'—'whosoever,' a blank cheque, like the M. or N. of the +Prayer-book, or the A. B. of a schedule; you can put your own name in it—'that +whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have'—here, now—'everlasting +life.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap21"></a>THE WEARIED CHRIST</h2> + +<p> +'Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well…. He +said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.'—JOHN iv. 6,32. +</p> + +<p> +Two pictures result from these two verses, each striking in itself, and gaining +additional emphasis by the contrast. It was during a long hot day's march that +the tired band of pedestrians turned into the fertile valley. There, whilst the +disciples went into the little hill-village to purchase, if they could, some +food from the despised inhabitants, Jesus, apparently too exhausted to +accompany them, 'sat <i>thus</i> on the well.' That little word <i>thus</i> +seems to have a force difficult to reproduce in English. It is apparently +intended to enhance the idea of utter weariness, either because the word +'wearied' is in thought to be supplied, 'sat, being thus wearied, on the well'; +or because it conveys the notion which might be expressed by our 'just as He +was'; as a tired man flings Himself down anywhere and anyhow, without any kind +of preparation beforehand, and not much caring where it is that he rests. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, utterly worn out, Jesus Christ sits on the well, whilst the western sun +lengthens out the shadows on the plain. The disciples come back, and what a +change they find. Hunger gone, exhaustion ended, fresh vigour in their wearied +Master. What had made the difference? The woman's repentance and joy. And He +unveils the secret of His reinvigoration when He says, 'I have meat to eat that +ye know not of'—the hidden manna. 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent +Me, and to finish His work.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, I think if we take just three points of view, we shall gain the lessons of +this remarkable contrast. Note, then, the wearied Christ; the devoted Christ; +the reinvigorated Christ. +</p> + +<p> +I. The wearied Christ. +</p> + +<p> +How precious it is to us that this Gospel, which has the loftiest things to say +about the manifest divinity of our Lord, and the glory that dwelt in Him, is +always careful to emphasise also the manifest limitations and weaknesses of the +Manhood. John never forgets either term of his great sentence in which all the +gospel is condensed, 'the Word became flesh.' Ever he shows us 'the Word'; ever +'the flesh.' Thus it is he only who records the saying on the Cross, 'I +thirst.' It is he who tells us how Jesus Christ, not merely for the sake of +getting a convenient opening of a conversation, or to conciliate prejudices, +but because He needed what He asked, said to the woman of Samaria, 'Give Me to +drink.' So the weariness of the Master stands forth for us as pathetic proof +that it was no shadowy investiture with an apparent Manhood to which He +stooped, but a real participation in our limitations and weaknesses, so that +work to Him was fatigue, even though in Him dwelt the manifest glory of that +divine nature which 'fainteth not, neither is weary.' +</p> + +<p> +Not only does this pathetic incident teach us for our firmer faith, and more +sympathetic and closer apprehension, the reality of the Manhood of Jesus +Christ, but it supplies likewise some imperfect measure of His love, and +reveals to us one condition of His power. Ah! if He had not Himself known +weariness He never could have said, 'Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and +heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' It was because Himself 'took our +infirmities,' and amongst these the weakness of tired muscles and exhausted +frame, that 'He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He +increaseth strength.' The Creator must have no share in the infirmities of the +creature. It must be His unwearied power that calls them all by their names; +and because He is great in might 'not one' of the creatures of His hand can +'fail.' But the Redeemer must participate in that from which He redeems; and +the condition of His strength being 'made perfect in our weakness' is that our +weakness shall have cast a shadow upon the glory of His strength. The measure +of His love is seen in that, long before Calvary, He entered into the +humiliation and sufferings and sorrows of humanity; a condition of His power is +seen in that, forasmuch as the 'children were partakers of flesh and blood, He +also Himself likewise took part of the same,' not only that 'through death He +might deliver' from death, but that in life He might redeem from the ills and +sorrows of life. +</p> + +<p> +Nor does that exhausted Figure, reclining on Jacob's Well, preach to us only +what <i>He</i> was. It proclaims to us likewise what <i>we</i> should be. For +if His work was carried on to the edge of His capacity, and if He shrank not +from service because it involved toil, what about the professing followers of +Jesus Christ, who think that they are exempted from any form of service because +they can plead that it will weary them? What about those who say that they +tread in His footsteps, and have never known what it was to yield up one +comfort, one moment of leisure, one thrill of enjoyment, or to encounter one +sacrifice, one act of self-denial, one aching of weariness for the sake of the +Lord who bore all for them? The wearied Christ proclaims His manhood, proclaims +His divinity and His love, and rebukes us who consent to 'walk in the way of +His commandments' only on condition that it can be done without dust or heat; +and who are ready to run the race that is set before us, only if we can come to +the goal without perspiration or turning a hair. 'Jesus, being wearied with His +journey, sat thus on the well.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Still further, notice here the devoted Christ. +</p> + +<p> +It is not often that He lets us have a glimpse into the innermost chambers of +His heart, in so far as the impelling motives of His course are concerned. But +here He lays them bare. 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to +finish His work.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, it is no mere piece of grammatical pedantry when I ask you to notice that +the language of the original is so constructed as to give prominence to the +idea that the aim of Christ's life was the doing of the Father's will; and that +it is the aim rather than the actual performance and realisation of the aim +which is pointed at by our Lord. The words would be literally rendered 'My meat +is <i>that I may do</i> the will of Him that sent Me and finish His work'—that +is to say, the very nourishment and refreshment of Christ was found in making +the accomplishment of the Father's commandment His ever-impelling motive, His +ever-pursued goal. The expression carries us into the inmost heart of Jesus, +dealing, as it does, with the one all-pervading motive rather than with the +resulting actions, fair and holy as these were. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, the secret of our lives, if they are at all to be worthy and noble, +must be the same—the recognition, not only as they say now, that we have a +mission, but that there <i>is</i> a Sender; which is a wholly different view of +our position, and that He who sends is the loving Father, who has spoken to us +in that dear Son, who Himself made it His aim thus to obey, in order that it +might be possible for us to re-echo His voice, and to repeat His aim. The +recognition of the Sender, the absolute submission of our wills to His, must +run through all the life. You may do your daily work, whatever it be, with this +for its motto, 'the will of the Lord be done'; and they who thus can look at +their trade, or profession, and see the trivialities and monotonies of their +daily occupations, in the transfiguring light of that great thought, will never +need to complain that life is small, ignoble, wearisome, insignificant. As with +pebbles in some clear brook with the sunshine on it, the water in which they +are sunk glorifies and magnifies them. If you lift them out, they are but bits +of dull stone; lying beneath the sunlit ripples they are jewels. Plunge the +prose of your life, and all its trivialities, into that great stream, and it +will magnify and glorify the smallest and the homeliest. Absolute submission to +the divine will, and the ever-present thrilling consciousness of doing it, were +the secret of Christ's life, and ought to be the secret of ours. +</p> + +<p> +Note the distinction between doing the will and perfecting the work. That +implies that Jesus Christ, like us, reached forward, in each successive act of +obedience to the successive manifestations of the Father's will, to something +still undone. The work will never be perfected or finished except on condition +of continual fulfilment, moment by moment, of the separate behests of that +divine will. For the Lord, as for His servants, this was the manner of +obedience, that He 'pressed towards the mark,' and by individual acts of +conformity secured that at last the whole 'work' should have been so completely +accomplished that He might be able to say upon the Cross, 'It is finished.' If +we have any right to call ourselves His, we too have thus to live. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, notice the reinvigorated Christ. +</p> + +<p> +I have already pointed out the lovely contrast between the two pictures, the +beginning and the end of this incident; so I need not dwell upon that. The +disciples wondered when they found that Christ desired and needed none of the +homely sustenance that they had brought to Him. And when He answered their +sympathy rather than their curiosity—for they did not ask Him any questions, +but they said to Him, 'Master, eat'—with 'I have meat to eat that ye know not +of,' they, in their blind, blundering fashion, could only imagine that some one +had brought Him something. So they gave occasion for the great words upon which +we have been touching. +</p> + +<p> +Notice, however, that Christ here sets forth the lofty aim at conformity to the +divine will and fulfilment of the divine Work as being the meat of the soul. It +is the true food for us all. The spirit which feeds upon such food will grow +and be nourished. And the soul which feeds upon its own will and fancies, and +not upon the plain brown bread of obedience, which is wholesome, though it be +often bitter, will feed upon ashes, which will grate upon the teeth and hurt +the palate. Such a soul will be like those wretched infants that are discovered +sometimes at 'baby-farms,' starved and stunted, and not grown to half their +right size. If you would have your spirits strong, robust, well nourished, live +by obedience, and let the will of God be the food of your souls, and all will +be well. +</p> + +<p> +Souls thus fed can do without a good deal that others need. Why, enthusiasm for +anything lifts a man above physical necessities and lower desires, even in its +poorest forms. A regiment of soldiers making a forced march, or an athlete +trying to break the record, will tramp, tramp on, not needing food, or rest, or +sleep, until they have achieved their purpose, poor and ignoble though it may +be. In all regions of life, enthusiasm and lofty aims make the soul lord of the +body and of the world. +</p> + +<p> +And in the Christian life we shall be thus lords, exactly in proportion to the +depth and earnestness of our desires to do the will of God. They who thus are +fed can afford 'to scorn delights and live laborious days.' They who thus are +fed can afford to do with plain living, if there be high impulses as well as +high thinking. And sure I am that nothing is more certain to stamp out the +enthusiasm of obedience which ought to mark the Christian life than the +luxurious fashion of living which is getting so common to-day amongst +professing Christians. +</p> + +<p> +It is not in vain that we read the old story about the Jewish boys whose faces +were radiant and whose flesh was firmer when they were fed on pulse and water +than on all the wine and dainties of the Babylonish court. 'Set a knife to thy +throat if thou be a man given to appetite,' and let us remember that the less +we use, and the less we feel that we need, of outward goods, the nearer do we +approach to the condition in which holy desires and lofty aims will visit our +spirits. +</p> + +<p> +I commend to you, brethren, the story of our text, in its most literal +application, as well as in the loftier spiritual lessons that may be drawn from +it. To be near Christ, and to desire to live for Him, delivers us from +dependence upon earthly things; and in those who thus do live the old word +shall be fulfilled, 'Better is a little that a righteous man hath, than the +abundance of many wicked.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap22"></a>'GIVE ME TO DRINK'</h2> + +<p> +'… Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink…. Jesus saith unto her,<br /> +I that speak unto thee am He.'—JOHN iv. 7, 26. +</p> + +<p> +This Evangelist very significantly sets side by side our Lord's conversations +with Nicodemus and with the woman of Samaria. The persons are very different: +the one a learned Rabbi of reputation, influence, and large theological +knowledge of the then fashionable kind; the other an alien woman, poor—for she +had to do this menial task of water-drawing in the heat of the day—and of +questionable character. +</p> + +<p> +The diversity of persons necessitates great differences in the form of our +Lord's address to each; but the resemblances are as striking as the +divergencies. In both we have His method of gradually unveiling the truth to a +susceptible soul, beginning with symbol and a hint, gradually enlarging the +hint and translating the symbol; and finally unveiling Himself as the Giver and +the Gift. There is another resemblance; in both the characteristic gift is that +of the Spirit of Life, and, perhaps, in both the symbol is the same. For we +read in one of 'water and the Spirit'; and in the other of the fountain within, +springing into everlasting life. However that may be, the process of teaching +is all but identical in substance in both cases, though in form so various. +</p> + +<p> +The words of our Lord which I have taken for our text now are His first and +last utterance in this conversation. What a gulf lies between! They are linked +together by the intervening sayings, and constitute with these a great ladder, +of which the foot is fast on earth, and the top fixed in heaven. On the one +hand, He owns the lowest necessities; on the other, He makes the highest +claims. Let us ponder on this remarkable juxtaposition, and try to gather the +lessons that are plain in it. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, I think we see here the mystery of the dependent Christ. +</p> + +<p> +'Give Me to drink': 'I am He.' Try to see the thing for a moment with the +woman's eyes. She comes down from her little village, up amongst the cliffs on +the hillside, across the narrow, hot valley, beneath the sweltering sunshine +reflected from the bounding mountains, and she finds, in the midst of the lush +vegetation round the ancient well, a solitary, weary Jew, travel-worn, +evidently exhausted—for His disciples had gone away to buy food, and He was too +wearied to go with them—looking into the well, but having no dipper or vessel +by which to get any of its cool treasure. We lose a great deal of the meaning +of Christ's request if we suppose that it was merely a way of getting into +conversation with the woman, a 'breaking of the ice.' It was a great deal more +than that. It was the utterance of a felt and painful necessity, which He +Himself could not supply without a breach of what He conceived to be His filial +dependence. He could have brought water out of the well. He did not need to +depend upon the pitcher that the disciples had perhaps unthinkingly carried +away with them when they went to buy bread. He did not need to ask the woman to +give, but He chose to do so. We lose much if we do not see in this incident far +more than the woman saw, but we lose still more if we do not see what she did +see. And the words which the Master spoke to her are no mere way of introducing +a conversation on religious themes; but He asked for a draught which He needed, +and which He had no other way of getting. +</p> + +<p> +So, then, here stands, pathetically set forth before us, our Lord's true +participation in two of the distinguishing characteristics of our weak +humanity—subjection to physical necessities and dependence on kindly help. We +find Him weary, hungry, thirsty, sometimes slumbering. And all these instances +are documents and proofs for us that He was a true man like ourselves, and +that, like ourselves, He depended on 'the woman that ministered to Him' for the +supply of His necessities, and so knew the limitations of our social and else +helpless humanity. +</p> + +<p> +But then a wearied and thirsty man is nothing of much importance. But here is a +Man who <i>humbled Himself</i> to be weary and to thirst. The keynote of this +Gospel, the one thought which unlocks all its treasures, and to the elucidation +of which, in all its aspects, the whole book is devoted, is, 'The Word was made +flesh.' Only when you let in the light of the last utterance of our text, 'I +that speak unto thee am He,' do we understand the pathos, the sublimity, the +depth and blessedness of meaning which lie in the first one, 'Give Me to +drink.' When we see that He bowed Himself, and willingly stretched out His +hands for the fetters, we come to understand the significance of these traces +of His manhood. The woman says, with wonder, 'How is it that Thou, being a Jew, +askest drink of me?' and that was wonderful. But, as He hints to her, if she +had known more clearly who this Person was, that seemed to be a Jew, a deeper +wonder would have crept over her spirit. The wonder is that the Eternal Word +should need the water of the well, and should ask it of a poor human creature. +</p> + +<p> +And why this humiliation? He could, as I have said, have wrought a miracle. He +that fed five thousand, He that had turned water into wine at the rustic +marriage-feast, would have had no difficulty in quenching His thirst if he had +chosen to use His miraculous power therefore. But He here shows us that the +true filial spirit will rather die than cast off its dependence on the Father, +and the same motive which led Him to reject the temptation in the wilderness, +and to answer with sublime confidence, 'Man doth not live by bread alone, but +by every word from the mouth of God,' forbids Him here to use other means of +securing the draught that He so needed than the appeal to the sympathy of an +alien, and the swift compassion of a woman's heart. +</p> + +<p> +And then, let us remember that the motive of this willing acceptance of the +limitations and weaknesses of humanity is, in the deepest analysis, simply His +love to us; as the mediaeval hymn has it, 'Seeking me, Thou satest weary.' +</p> + +<p> +In that lonely Traveller, worn, exhausted, thirsty, craving for a draught of +water from a stranger's hand, is set forth 'the glory of the Father, full of +grace and truth.' A strange manifestation of divine glory this! But if we +understand that the glory of God is the lustrous light of His self-revealing +love, perhaps we shall understand how, from that faint, craving voice, 'Give Me +to drink,' that glory sounds forth more than in the thunders that rolled about +the rocky peak of Sinai. Strange to think, brethren, that the voice from those +lips dry with thirst, which was low and weak, was the voice that spoke to the +sea, 'Peace! be still,' and there was a calm; that said to demons, 'Come out of +him!' and they evacuated their fortress; that cast its command into the grave +of Lazarus, and he came forth; and which one day all that are in the grave +shall hear, and hearing shall obey. 'Give Me to drink.' 'I that speak unto thee +am He.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Secondly, we may note here the self-revealing Christ. +</p> + +<p> +The process by which Jesus gradually unveils His full character to this woman, +so unspiritual and unsusceptible as she appeared at first sight to be, is +interesting and instructive. It would occupy too much of your time for me to do +more than set it before you in the barest outline. Noting the singular +divergence between the two sayings which I have taken as our text, it is +interesting to notice how the one gradually merges into the other. First of +all, Jesus Christ, as it were, opens a finger of His hand to let the woman have +a glimpse of the gift lying there, that that may kindle desire, and hints at +some occult depth in His person and nature all undreamed of by her yet, and +which would be the occasion of greater wonder, and of a reversal of their +parts, if she knew it. Then, in answer to her, half understanding that He meant +more than met the ear, and yet opposing the plain physical difficulties that +were in the way, in that He had 'nothing to draw with, and the well is deep,' +and asking whether He were greater than our father Jacob, who also had given, +and given not only a draught, but the well, our Lord enlarges her vision of the +blessedness of the gift, though He says but little more of its nature, except +in so far as that may be gathered from the fact that the water that He will +give will be a permanent source of satisfaction, forbidding the pangs of +unquenched desire ever again to be felt as pangs; and from the other fact that +it will be an inward possession, leaping up with a fountain's energy, and a +life within itself, towards, and into everlasting life. Next, he strongly +assails conscience and demands repentance, and reveals Himself as the reader of +the secrets of the heart. Then He discloses the great truths of spiritual +worship. And, finally, as a prince in disguise might do, He flings aside the +mantle of which He had let a fold or two be blown back in the previous +conversation, and stands confessed. 'I that speak unto thee am He.' That is to +say, the kindling of desire, the proffer of the all-satisfying gift, the +quickening of conscience, the revelation of a Father to be worshipped in spirit +and in truth, and the final full disclosure of His person and office as the +Giver of the gift which shall slake all the thirsts of men—these are the stages +of His self-revelation. +</p> + +<p> +Then note, not only the process, but the substance of the revelation of +Himself. The woman had a far more spiritual and lofty conception of the office +of Messiah than the Jews had. It is not the first time that heretics have +reached a loftier ideal of some parts of the truth than the orthodox attain. To +the Jew the Messiah was a conquering king, who would help them to ride on the +necks of their enemies, and pay back their persecutions and oppressions. To +this Samaritan woman—speaking, I suppose, the conceptions of her race—the +Messiah was One who was to '<i>tell</i> us all things.' +</p> + +<p> +Jesus Christ accepts the position, endorses her anticipations, and in effect +presents Himself before her and before us as the Fountain of all certitude and +knowledge in regard to spiritual matters. For all that we can know, or need to +know, with regard to God and man and their mutual relations; for all that we +can or need know in regard to manhood, its ideal, its obligations, its +possibilities, its destinies; for all that we need to know of men in their +relation to one another, we have to turn to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who +'will tell us all things.' He is the Fountain of light; He is the Foundation of +certitude; and they who seek, not hypotheses and possibilities and conjectures +and dreams, but the solid substance of a reliable knowledge, must grasp Him, +and esteem the words of His mouth and the deeds of His life more than their +necessary food. +</p> + +<p> +He meets this woman's conceptions as He had met those of Nicodemus. To him He +had unveiled Himself as the Son of God, and the Son of Man who came down from +heaven, and is in heaven, and ascends to heaven. To the woman He reveals +Himself as the Messiah, who will tell us all truth, and to both as the Giver of +the gift which shall communicate and sustain and refresh the better life. But I +cannot help dwelling for a moment upon the remarkable, beautiful, and +significant designation which our Lord employs here. 'I that speak unto thee.' +The word in the original, translated by our version 'speak,' is even more +sweet, because more familiar, and conveys the idea of unrestrained frank +intercourse. Perhaps we might render 'I who am talking with Thee!' and that our +Lord desired to emphasise to the woman's heart the notion of His familiar +intercourse with her, Messiah though He were, seems to me confirmed by the fact +that He uses the same expression, with additional grace and tenderness about +it, when He says, with such depth of meaning, to the blind man whom He had +healed, 'Thou hast both seen Him,' with the eyes to which He gave sight and +object of sight, 'and it is He that <i>talketh</i> with thee.' The familiar +Christ who will come and speak to us face to face and heart to heart, 'as a man +speaketh with his friend,' is the Christ who will tell us all things, and whom +we may wholly trust. +</p> + +<p> +Note too how this revelation has for its condition the docile acceptance of the +earlier and imperfect teachings. If the woman had not yielded herself to our +Lord's earlier words, and, though with very dim insight, yet with a heart that +sought to be taught, followed Him as He stepped from round to round of the +ascending ladder, she had never stood on the top and seen this great vision. If +you see nothing more in Jesus Christ than a man like yourself, compassed with +our infirmities, and yet sweet and gracious and good and pure, be true to what +you know, and put it into practice, and be ready to accept all the light that +dawns. They that begin down at the bottom with hearing 'Give me to drink,' may +stand at the top, and hear Him speak to them His unveiled truth and His full +glory. 'To him that hath shall be given.' 'If any man wills to do His will he +shall know of the teaching.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, we have here the universal Christ. +</p> + +<p> +The woman wondered that, being a Jew, He spoke to her. As I have said, our +Lord's first utterance is simply the expression of a real physical necessity. +But it is none the less what the woman felt it to be, a strange overleaping of +barriers that towered very high. A Samaritan, a woman, a sinner, is the +recipient of the first clear confession from Jesus Christ of His Messiahship +and dignity. She was right in her instinct that something lay behind His +sweeping aside of the barriers and coming so close to her with His request. +These two, the prejudices of race and the contempt for woman, two of the crying +evils of the old world, were overpassed by our Lord as if He never saw them. +They were too high for men's puny limbs; they made no obstacle to the march of +His divine compassion. And therein lies a symbol, if you like, but none the +less a prophecy that will be fulfilled, of the universal adaptation and +destination of the Gospel, and its independence of all distinctions of race and +sex, condition, moral character. In Jesus Christ 'there is neither Jew nor +Greek, male nor female, neither bond nor free'; ye 'are all one in Christ.' If +He had been but a Jew, it was wonderful that He should talk to a Samaritan. But +there is nothing in the character and life of Christ, as recorded in Scripture, +more remarkable and more plain than the entire absence of any racial +peculiarities, or of characteristics owing to His position in space or time. So +unlike His nation was He that the very <i>elite</i> of His nation snarled at +Him and said, 'Thou art a Samaritan!' So unlike them was He that one feels that +a character so palpitatingly human to its core, and so impossible to explain +from its surroundings, is inexplicable, but on the New Testament theory that He +is not a Jew, or man only, but the Son of Man, the divine embodiment of the +ideal of humanity, whose dwelling was on earth, but His origin and home in the +bosom of God. Therefore Jesus Christ is the world's Christ, your Christ, my +Christ, every man's Christ, the Tree of Life that stands in the midst of the +garden, that all men may draw near to it and gather of its fruit. +</p> + +<p> +Brother, answer His proffer of the gift as this woman did: 'Sir, give me this +water, that I thirst not; neither go all the way to the world's broken cisterns +to draw'; and He will put into your hearts that indwelling fountain of life, so +that you may say like this woman's townspeople: 'Now I have heard Him myself, +and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap23"></a>THE GIFT AND THE GIVER</h2> + +<p> +'Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it +is that saith unto thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and +He would have given thee living water.'—JOHN iv. 10. +</p> + +<p> +This Gospel has two characteristics seldom found together: deep thought and +vivid character-drawing. Nothing can be more clear-cut and dramatic than the +scene in the chapter before us. There is not a word of description of this +Samaritan woman. She paints herself, and it is not a beautiful picture. She is +apparently of the peasant class, from a little village nestling on the hill +above the plain, come down in the broiling sunshine to Jacob's well. She is of +mature age, and has had a not altogether reputable past. She is frivolous, +ready to talk with strangers, with a tongue quick to turn grave things into +jests; and yet she possesses, hidden beneath masses of unclean vanities, a +conscience and a yearning for something better than she has, which Christ's +words awoke, and which was finally so enkindled as to make her fit to receive +the full declaration of His Messiahship, which Pharisees and priests could not +be trusted with. +</p> + +<p> +I need scarcely do more than remind you of the way in which the conversation +between this strangely assorted pair began. The solitary Jew, sitting spent +with travel on the well, asks for a draught of water; not in order to get an +opening for preaching, but because He needs it. She replies with an exclamation +of light wonder, half a jest and half a sarcasm, and challenging a response in +the same tone. +</p> + +<p> +But Christ lifts her to a higher level by the words of my text, which awed +levity, and prepared for a fuller revelation. 'Thou dost wonder that I, being a +Jew, ask drink of thee, a Samaritan. If thou knewest who I am, thy wonder at My +asking would be more. If thou knewest what I have to give, we should change +places, and thou wouldest ask, and I should bestow.' +</p> + +<p> +So then, we have here gift, Giver, way of getting, and ignorance that hinders +asking. Let us look at these. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, the gift of God. Now it is quite clear that our Lord means the same +thing, whatever it may be, by the two expressions, the 'gift of God' and the +'living water.' For, unless He does, the whole sequence of my text falls to +pieces. 'Living water' was suggested, no doubt, by the circumstances of the +moment. There, in the well, was an ever-springing source, and, says He, a like +supply, ever welling up for thirsty lips and foul hands, ever sweet and ever +sufficient, God is ready to give. +</p> + +<p> +We may remember how, all through Scripture, we hear the tinkle of these waters +as they run. The force of the expression is to be gathered largely from the Old +Testament and the uses of the metaphor there. It has been supposed that by the +'living water' which God gives is here meant some one specific gift, such as +that of the Holy Spirit, which sometimes is expressed by the metaphor. Rather I +should be disposed to say the 'living water' is eternal life. 'With Thee is the +fountain of life.' And so, in the last resort, the gift of God is God Himself. +Nothing else will suffice for us, brethren. We need Him, and we need none but +Him. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord, in the subsequent part of this conversation, again touches upon this +great metaphor, and suggests one or two characteristics, blessings, and +excellences of it. 'It shall be <i>in</i> him,' it is something that we may +carry about with us in our hearts, inseparable from our being, free from all +possibility of being filched away by violence, being rent from us by sorrows, +or even being parted from us by death. What a man has outside of him he only +seems to have. Our only real possessions are those which have passed into the +substance of our souls. All else we shall leave behind. The only good is inward +good; and this water of life slakes our thirst because it flows into the +deepest place of our being, and abides there for ever. +</p> + +<p> +Oh! you that are seeking your satisfaction from fountains that remain outside +of you after all your efforts, learn that all of them, by reason of their +externality, will sooner or later be 'broken cisterns that can hold no water.' +And I beseech you, if you want rest for your souls and stilling for their +yearnings, look for it there, where only it can be found, in Him, who not only +dwells in the heavens to rule and to shower down blessings, but enters into the +waiting heart and abides there, the inward, and therefore the only real, +possession and riches. 'It shall be in him a fountain of water.' +</p> + +<p> +It is 'springing up'—with an immortal energy, with ever fresh fulness, by its +own inherent power, needing no pumps nor machinery, but ever welling forth its +refreshment, an emblem of the joyous energy and continual freshness of +vitality, which is granted to those who carry God in their hearts, and +therefore can never be depressed beyond measure, nor ever feel that the burden +of life is too heavy to bear, or its sorrows too sharp to endure. +</p> + +<p> +It springs up 'into eternal life,' for water must seek its source, and rise to +the level of its origin, and this fountain within a man, that reaches up ever +towards the eternal life from which it came, and which it gives to its +possessor, will bear him up, as some strong spring will lift the clods that +choked its mouth, will bear him up towards the eternal life which is native to +it, and therefore native to him. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, no man is so poor, so low, so narrow in capacity, so limited in heart +and head, but that he needs a whole God to make him restful. Nothing else will. +To seek for satisfaction elsewhere is like sailors who in their desperation, +when the water-tanks are empty, slake their thirst with the treacherous blue +that washes cruelly along the battered sides of their ship. A moment's +alleviation is followed by the recurrence, in tenfold intensity, of the pangs +of thirst, and by madness, and death. Do not drink the salt water that flashes +and rolls by your side when you can have recourse to the fountain of life that +is with God. +</p> + +<p> +'Oh!' you say, 'commonplace, threadbare pulpit rhetoric.' Yes! Do you live as +if it were true? It will never be too threadbare to be dinned into your head +until it has passed into your lives and regulated them. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, in the next place, notice the Giver. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus Christ blends in one sentence, startling in its boldness, the gift of +God, and Himself as the Bestower. This Man, exhausted for want of a draught of +water, speaks with parched lips a claim most singularly in contrast with the +request which He had just made: 'I will give thee the living water.' No wonder +that the woman was bewildered, and could only say, 'The well is deep, and Thou +hast nothing to draw with.' She might have said, 'Why then dost Thou ask me?' +The words were meant to create astonishment, in order that the astonishment +might awaken interest, which would lead to the capacity for further +illumination. Suppose you had been there, had seen the Man whom she saw, had +heard the two things that she heard, and knew no more about Him than she knew, +what would <i>you</i> have thought of Him and His words? Perhaps you would have +been more contemptuous than she was. See to it that, since you know so much +that explains and warrants them, you do not treat them worse than she did. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus Christ claims to give God's gifts. He is able to give to that poor, +frivolous, impure-hearted and impure-lifed woman, at her request, the eternal +life which shall still all the thirst of her soul, that had often in the past +been satiated and disgusted, but had never been satisfied by any of its +draughts. +</p> + +<p> +And He claims that in this giving He is something more than a channel, because, +says He, 'If thou hadst asked of Me I would give thee.' We sometimes think of +the relation between God and Christ as being typified by that of some +land-locked sea amidst remote mountains, and the affluent that brings its +sparkling treasures to the thirsting valley. But Jesus Christ is no mere +vehicle for the conveyance of a divine gift, but His own heart, His own power, +His own love are in it; and it is His gift just as much as it is God's. +</p> + +<p> +Now I do not do more than pause for one moment to ask you to think of what +inference is necessarily involved in such a claim as this. If we know anything +about Jesus Christ at all, we know that He spoke in this tone, not +occasionally, but habitually. It will not do to pick out other bits of His +character or actions and admire these and ignore the characteristic of His +teachings—His claims for Himself. And I have only this one word to say, if +Jesus Christ ever said anything the least like the words of my text, and if +they were not true, what was He but a fanatic who had lost His head in the +fancy of His inspiration? And if He said these words and they <i>were</i> true, +what is He then? What but that which this Gospel insists from its beginning to +its end that He was—the Eternal Word of God, by whom all divine revelation from +the beginning has been made, and who at last 'became flesh' that we might +'receive of His fulness,' and therein 'be filled with all the fulness of God.' +Other alternative I, for my part, see none. +</p> + +<p> +But I would have you notice, too, the connection between these human needs of +the Saviour and His power to give the divine gift. Why did He not simply say to +this woman, 'If thou knewest who I am?' Why did He use this periphrasis of my +text, 'Who it is that saith unto thee, "Give Me to drink"'? Why but because He +wanted to fix her attention on the startling contradiction between His +appearance and His claims—on the one hand asserting divine prerogative, on the +other forcing into prominence human weakness and necessity, because these two +things, the human weakness and the divine prerogative, are inseparably braided +together and intertwined. Some of you will remember the great scene in +Shakespeare where the weakness of Caesar is urged as a reason for rejecting his +imperial authority:— +</p> + +<p> + 'Ay! and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans<br /> + Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,<br /> + Alas! it cried, "Give me some drink, …<br /> + Like a sick girl."' +</p> + +<p> +And the inference that is drawn is, how can he be fit to be a ruler of men? But +we listen to our Caesar and Emperor, when He asks this woman for water, and +when He says on the Cross, 'I thirst,' and we feel that these are not the least +of His titles to be crowned with many crowns. They bring Him nearer to us, and +they are the means by which His love reaches its end, of bestowing upon us all, +if we will have it, the cup of salvation. Unless He had said the one of these +two things, He never could have said the other. Unless the dry lips had +petitioned, 'Give Me to drink,' the gracious lips could never have said, 'I +will give thee living water.' Unless, like Jacob of old, this Shepherd could +say, 'In the day the drought consumed Me,' it would have been impossible that +the flock 'shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more, … for the +Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to living fountains of +water.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Again, notice how to get the gift. +</p> + +<p> +Christ puts together, as if they were all but contemporaneous, 'thou wouldst +have asked of Me,' and 'I would have given thee.' The hand on the telegraph +transmits the message, and back, swift as the lightning, flashes the response. +The condition, the only condition, and the indispensable condition, of +possessing that water of life—the summary expression for all the gifts of God +in Jesus Christ, which at the last are essentially God Himself—is the desire to +possess it turned to Jesus Christ. Is it not strange that men should not +desire; is it not strange and sad that such foolish creatures are we that we do +not want what we need; that our wishes and needs are often diametrically +opposite? All men desire happiness, but some of us have so vitiated our tastes +and our palates by fiery intoxicants that the water of life seems dreadfully +tasteless and unstimulating, and so we will rather go back again to the +delusive, poisoned drinks than glue our lips to the river of God's pleasures. +</p> + +<p> +But it is not enough that there should be the desire. It must be turned to Him. +In fact the asking of my text, so far as you and I are concerned, is but +another way of speaking the great keyword of personal religion, faith in Jesus +Christ. For they who ask, know their necessity, are convinced of the power of +Him to whom they appeal to grant their requests, and rely upon His love to do +so. And these three things, the sense of need, the conviction of Christ's +ability to save and to satisfy, and of His infinite love that desires to make +us blessed—these three things fused together make the faith which receives the +gift of God. +</p> + +<p> +Remember, brethren, that another of the scriptural expressions for the act of +trusting in Him, is <i>taking</i>, not asking. You do not need to ask, as if +for something that is not provided. What we all need to do is to open our eyes +to see what is there. If we like to put out our hands and take it. Why should +we be saying, 'Give me to drink,' when a pierced hand reaches out to us the cup +of salvation, and says, 'Drink ye all of it'? 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, +come … and drink … without money and without price.' +</p> + +<p> +There is no other condition but desire turned to Christ, and that is the +necessary condition. God cannot give men salvation, as veterinary surgeons +drench unwilling horses—forcing the medicine down their throats through +clenched teeth. There must be the opened mouth, and wherever there is, there +will be the full supply. 'Ask, and ye shall receive'; take, and ye shall +possess. +</p> + +<p> +IV. Lastly, mark the ignorance that prevents asking. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus Christ looked at this poor woman and discerned in her, though, as I said, +it was hidden beneath mountains of folly and sin, a thirsty soul that was dimly +longing for something better. And He believed that, if once the mystery of His +being and the mercy of God's gifts were displayed before her, she would melt +into a yearning of desire that is certain to be fulfilled. In some measure the +same thing is true of us all. For surely, surely, if only you saw realities, +and things as they are, some of you would not be content to continue as you +are—without this water of life. Blind, blind, blind, are the men who grope at +noon-day as in the dark and turn away from Jesus. If you knew, not with the +head only, but with the whole nature, if you knew the thirst of your soul, the +sweetness of the water, the readiness of the Giver, and the dry and parched +land to which you condemn yourselves by your refusal, surely you would bethink +yourself and fall at His feet and ask, and get, the water of life. +</p> + +<p> +But, brethren, there is a worse case than ignorance; there is the case of +people that know and refuse, not by reason of imperfect knowledge, but by +reason of averted will. And I beseech you to ponder whether that may not be +your condition. 'Whosoever <i>will</i>, let him come.' 'Ye <i>will</i> not come +unto Me that ye might have life.' I do not think I venture much when I say that +I am sure there are people hearing me now, not Christians, who are as certain, +deep down in their hearts, that the only rest of the soul is in God, and the +only way to get it is through Christ, as any saint of God's ever was. But the +knowledge does not touch their will because they like the poison and they do +not want the life. +</p> + +<p> +Oh! dear friends, the instantaneousness of Christ's answer, and the certainty +of it, are as true for each of us as they were for this woman. The offer is +made to us all, just as it was to her. We can gather round that Rock like the +Israelites in the wilderness, and slake every thirst of our souls from its +outgushing streams. Jesus Christ says to each of us, as He did to her, +tenderly, warningly, invitingly, and yet rebukingly, 'If thou knewest … thou +wouldst ask, … and I would give.' +</p> + +<p> +Take care lest, by continual neglect, you force Him at last to change His +words, and to lament over you, as He did over the city that He loved so well, +and yet destroyed. 'If thou <i>hadst</i> known in thy day the things that +belong to thy peace. But now they are hid from thine eyes.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap24"></a>THE SPRINGING FOUNTAIN</h2> + +<p> +'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up +into everlasting life.'—JOHN iv. 14. +</p> + +<p> +There are two kinds of wells, one a simple reservoir, another containing the +waters of a spring. It is the latter kind which is spoken about here, as is +clear not only from the meaning of the word in the Greek, but also from the +description of it as 'springing up.' That suggests at once the activity of a +fountain. A fountain is the emblem of motion, not of rest. Its motion is +derived from itself, not imparted to it from without. Its 'silvery column' +rises ever heavenward, though gravitation is too strong for it, and drags it +back again. +</p> + +<p> +So Christ promises to this ignorant, sinful Samaritan woman that if she chose +He would plant in her soul a gift which would thus well up, by its own inherent +energy, and fill her spirit with music, and refreshment, and satisfaction. +</p> + +<p> +What is that gift? The answer may be put in various ways which really all come +to one. It is Himself, the unspeakable Gift, His own greatest gift; or it is +the Spirit 'which they that believe on Him should receive,' and whereby He +comes and dwells in men's hearts; or it is the resulting life, kindred with the +life bestowed, a consequence of the indwelling Christ and the present Spirit. +</p> + +<p> +And so the promise is that they who believe in Him and rest upon His love shall +receive into their spirits a new life principle which shall rise in their +hearts like a fountain, 'springing up into everlasting life.' +</p> + +<p> +I think we shall best get the whole depth and magnitude of this great promise +if, throwing aside all mere artificial order, we simply take the words as they +stand here in the text, and think, first, of Christ's gift as a fountain +within; then as a fountain springing, leaping up, by its own power; and then as +a fountain 'springing into everlasting life.' +</p> + +<p> +I. First, Christ's gift is represented here as a fountain within. +</p> + +<p> +Most men draw their supplies from without; they are rich, happy, strong, only +when externals minister to them strength, happiness, riches. For the most of +us, what we have is that which determines our felicity. +</p> + +<p> +Take the lowest type of life, for instance, the men of whom the majority, alas! +I suppose, in every time is composed, who live altogether on the low plane of +the world, and for the world alone, whether their worldliness take the form of +sensuous appetite, or of desire to acquire wealth and outward possessions. The +thirst of the body is the type of the experience of all such people. It is +satisfied and slaked for a moment, and then back comes the tyrannous appetite +again. And, alas! the things that you drink to satisfy the thirst of your souls +are too often like a publican's adulterated beer, which has got salt in it, and +chemicals, and all sorts of things to stir up, instead of slaking and +quenching, the thirst. So 'he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with +silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.' The appetite grows by what +it feeds on, and a little lust yielded to to-day is a bigger one to-morrow, and +half a glass to-day grows to a bottle in a twelvemonth. As the old classical +saying has it, he 'who begins by carrying a calf, before long is able to carry +an ox'; so the thirst in the soul needs and drinks down a constantly increasing +draught. +</p> + +<p> +And even if we rise up into a higher region and look at the experience of the +men who have in some measure learned that 'a man's life consisteth not in the +abundance of the things that he possesseth,' nor in the abundance of the +gratification that his animal nature gets, but that there must be an inward +spring of satisfaction, if there is to be any satisfaction at all; if we take +men who live for thought, and truth, and mental culture, and yield themselves +up to the enthusiasm for some great cause, and are proud of saying, 'My mind to +me a kingdom is,' though they present a far higher style of life than the +former, yet even that higher type of man has so many of his roots in the +external world that he is at the mercy of chances and changes, and he, too, has +deep in his heart a thirst that nothing, no truth, no wisdom, no culture, +nothing that addresses itself to one part of his nature, though it be the +noblest and the loftiest, can ever satisfy and slake. +</p> + +<p> +I am sure I have some such people in my audience, and to them this message +comes. You may have, if you will, in your own hearts, a springing fountain of +delight and of blessedness which will secure that no unsatisfied desires shall +ever torment you. Christ in His fulness, His Spirit, the life that flows from +both and is planted within our hearts, these are offered to us all; and if we +have them we carry inclosed within ourselves all that is essential to our +felicity; and we can say, 'I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to +be self-satisfying,' not with the proud, stoical independence of a man who does +not want either God or man to make him blessed, but with the humble +independence of a man who can say 'my sufficiency is of God.' +</p> + +<p> +No independence of externals is possible, nor wholesome if it were possible, +except that which comes from absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +If you have Christ in your heart then life is possible, peace is possible, joy +is possible, under all circumstances and in all places. Everything which the +soul can desire, it possesses. You will be like the garrison of a beleaguered +castle, in the courtyard of which is a sparkling spring, fed from some source +high up in the mountains, and finding its way in there by underground channels +which no besiegers can ever touch. Sorrows will come, and make you sad, but +though there may be much darkness round about you, there will be light in the +darkness. The trees may be bare and leafless, but the sap has gone down to the +roots. The world may be all wintry and white with snow, but there will be a +bright little fire burning on your own hearthstone. You will carry within +yourselves all the essentials to blessedness. If you have 'Christ in the +vessel' you can smile at the storm. They that drink from earth's fountains +'shall thirst again'; but they who have Christ in their hearts will have a +fountain within which will not freeze in the bitterest cold, nor fail in the +fiercest heat. 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a fountain.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Christ's gift is a springing fountain. +</p> + +<p> +The emblem, of course, suggests motion by its own inherent impulse. Water may +be stagnant, or it may yield to the force of gravity and slide down a +descending river-bed, or it may be pumped up and lifted by external force +applied to it, or it may roll as it does in the sea, drawn by the moon, driven +by the winds, borne along by currents that owe their origin to outward heat or +cold. But a fountain rises by an energy implanted within itself, and is the +very emblem of joyous, free, self-dependent and self-regulated activity. +</p> + +<p> +And so, says Christ, 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a +springing fountain'; it shall not lie there stagnant, but leap like a living +thing, up into the sunshine, and flash there, turned into diamonds, when the +bright rays smile upon it. +</p> + +<p> +So here is the promise of two things: the promise of activity, and of an +activity which is its own law. +</p> + +<p> +The promise of activity. There seems small blessing, in this overworked world, +in a promise of more active exertion; but what an immense part of our nature +lies dormant and torpid if we are not Christians! How much of the work that is +done is dreary, wearisome, collar-work, against the grain. Do not the wheels of +life often go slowly? Are you not often weary of the inexpressible monotony and +fatigue? And do you not go to your work sometimes, though with a fierce feeling +of 'need-to-do-it,' yet also with inward repugnance? And are there not great +parts of your nature that have never woke into activity at all, and are ill at +ease, because there is no field of action provided for them? The mind is like +millstones; if you do not put the wheat into them to grind, they will grind +each other's faces. So some of us are fretting ourselves to pieces, or are sick +of a vague disease, and are morbid and miserable because the highest and +noblest parts of our nature have never been brought into exercise. Surely this +promise of Christ's should come as a true Gospel to such, offering, as it does, +if we will trust ourselves to Him, a springing fountain of activity in our +hearts that shall fill our whole being with joyous energy, and make it a +delight to live and to work. It will bring to us new powers, new motives; it +will set all the wheels of life going at double speed. We shall be quickened by +the presence of that mighty power, even as a dim taper is brightened and flames +up when plunged into a jar of oxygen. And life will be delightsome in its +hardest toil, when it is toil for the sake of, and by the indwelling strength +of, that great Lord and Master of our work. +</p> + +<p> +And there is not only a promise of activity here, but of activity which is its +own law and impulse. That is a blessed promise in two ways. In the first place, +law will be changed into delight. We shall not be driven by a commandment +standing over us with whip and lash, or coming behind us with spur and goad, +but that which we ought to do we shall rejoice to do; and inclination and duty +will coincide in all our lives when our life is Christ's life in us. +</p> + +<p> +That should be a blessing to some of you who have been fighting against evil +and trying to do right with more or less success, more or less interruptedly +and at intervals, and have felt the effort to be a burden and a wearisomeness. +Here is a promise of emancipation from all that constraint and yoke of bondage +which duty discerned and unloved ever lays upon a man's shoulders. When we +carry within us the gift of a life drawn from Jesus Christ, and are able to say +like Him, 'Lo, I come to do Thy will, and Thy law is within my heart,' only +then shall we have peace and joy in our lives. 'The law of the Spirit of life +in Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and death.' +</p> + +<p> +And then, in the second place, that same thought of an activity which is its +own impulse and its own law, suggests another aspect of this blessedness, +namely, that it sets us free from the tyranny of external circumstances which +absolutely shape the lives of so many of us. The lives of all must be to a +large extent moulded by these, but they need not, and should not be completely +determined by them. It is a miserable thing to see men and women driven before +the wind like thistledown. Circumstances must influence us, but they may either +influence us to base compliance and passive reception of their stamp, or to +brave resistance and sturdy nonconformity to their solicitations. So used, they +will influence us to a firmer possession of the good which is most opposite to +them, and we shall be the more unlike our surroundings, the more they abound in +evil. You can make your choice whether, if I may so say, you shall be like +balloons that are at the mercy of the gale and can only shape their course +according as it comes upon them and blows them along, or like steamers that +have an inward power that enables them to keep their course from whatever point +the wind blows, or like some sharply built sailing-ship that, with a strong +hand at the helm, and canvas rightly set, can sail almost in the teeth of the +wind and compel it to bear her along in all but the opposite direction to that +in which it would carry her if she lay like a log on the water. +</p> + +<p> +I beseech you all, and especially you young people, not to let the world take +and shape you, like a bit of soft clay put into a brick-mould, but to lay a +masterful hand upon it, and compel it to help you, by God's grace, to be +nobler, and truer, and purer. +</p> + +<p> +It is a shame for men to live the lives that so many amongst us live, as +completely at the mercy of externals to determine the direction of their lives +as the long weeds in a stream that yield to the flow of the current. It is of +no use to preach high and brave maxims, telling men to assert their lordship +over externals, unless we can tell them how to find the inward power that will +enable them to do so. But we can preach such noble exhortations to some purpose +when we can point to the great gift which Christ is ready to give, and exhort +them to open their hearts to receive that indwelling power which shall make +them free from the dominion of these tyrant circumstances and emancipate them +into the 'liberty of the sons of God.' 'The water that I shall give him shall +be in him a leaping fountain.' +</p> + +<p> +III. The last point here is that Christ's gift is a fountain 'springing up into +everlasting life.' +</p> + +<p> +The water of a fountain rises by its own impulse, but howsoever its silver +column may climb it always falls back into its marble basin. But this fountain +rises higher, and at each successive jet higher, tending towards, and finally +touching, its goal, which is at the same time its course. The water seeks its +own level, and the fountain climbs until it reaches Him from whom it comes, and +the eternal life in which He lives. We might put that thought in two ways. +First, the gift is eternal in its duration. The water with which the world +quenches its thirst perishes. All supplies and resources dry up like winter +torrents in summer heat. All created good is but for a time. As for some, it +perishes in the use; as for other, it evaporates and passes away, or is 'as +water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up'; as for all, we have +to leave it behind when we go hence. But this gift springs into everlasting +life, and when we go it goes with us. The Christian character is identical in +both worlds, and however the forms and details of pursuits may vary, the +essential principle remains one. So that the life of a Christian man on earth +and his life in heaven are but one stream, as it were, which may, indeed, like +some of those American rivers, run for a time through a deep, dark canyon, or +in an underground passage, but comes out at the further end into broader, +brighter plains and summer lands; where it flows with a quieter current and +with the sunshine reflected on its untroubled surface, into the calm ocean. He +has one gift and one life for earth and heaven—Christ and His Spirit, and the +life that is consequent upon both. +</p> + +<p> +And then the other side of this great thought is that the gift tends to, is +directed towards, or aims at and reaches, everlasting life. The whole of the +Christian experience on earth is a prophecy and an anticipation of heaven. The +whole of the Christian experience of earth evidently aims towards that as its +goal, and is interpreted by that as its end. What a contrast that is to the low +and transient aims which so many of us have! The lives of many men go creeping +along the surface when they might spring heavenwards. My friend! which is it to +be with you? Is your life to be like one of those Northern Asiatic rivers that +loses itself in the sands, or that flows into, or is sluggishly lost in, a bog; +or is it going to tumble over a great precipice, and fall sounding away down +into the blackness; or is it going to leap up 'into everlasting life'? Which of +the two aims is the wiser, is the nobler, is the better? +</p> + +<p> +And a life that thus springs will reach what it springs towards. A fountain +rises and falls, for the law of gravity takes it down; this fountain rises and +reaches, for the law of pressure takes it up, and the water rises to the level +of its source. Christ's gift mocks no man, it sets in motion no hopes that it +does not fulfil; it stimulates to no work that it does not crown with success. +If you desire a life that reaches its goal, a life in which all your desires +are satisfied, a life that is full of joyous energy, that of a free man +emancipated from circumstances and from the tyranny of unwelcome law, and +victorious over externals, open your hearts to the gift that Christ offers you; +the gift of Himself, of His death and passion, of His sacrifice and atonement, +of His indwelling and sanctifying Spirit. +</p> + +<p> +He offered all the fulness of that grace to this Samaritan woman, in her +ignorance, in her profligacy, in her flippancy. He offers it to you. His offer +awoke an echo in her heart, will it kindle any response in yours? Oh! when He +says to you, 'The water that I shall give will be in you a fountain springing +into everlasting life,' I pray you to answer as she did—'Sir!—Lord—give me this +water, that I thirst not; neither come to earth's broken cisterns to draw.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap25"></a>THE SECOND MIRACLE</h2> + +<p> +'This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when He was come out of +Judaea into Galilee.'—JOHN iv. 54. +</p> + +<p> +The Evangelist evidently intends us to connect together the two miracles in +Cana. His object may, possibly, be mainly chronological, and to mark the epochs +in our Lord's ministry. But we cannot fail to see how remarkably these two +miracles are contrasted. The one takes place at a wedding, a homely scene of +rural festivity and gladness. But life has deeper things in it than gladness, +and a Saviour who preferred the house of feasting to the house of mourning +would be no Saviour for us. The second miracle, then, turns to the darker side +of human experience. The happiest home has its saddened hours; the truest +marriage joy has associated with it many a care and many an anxiety. Therefore, +He who began by breathing blessing over wedded joy goes on to answer the +piteous pleading of parental anxiety. It was fitting that the first miracle +should deal with gladness, for that is God's purpose for His creatures, and +that the second should deal with sicknesses and sorrows, which are additions to +that purpose made needful by sin. +</p> + +<p> +Again, the first miracle was wrought without intercession, as the outcome of +Christ's own determination that His hour for working it was come. The second +miracle was drawn from Him by the imperfect faith and the agonising pleading of +the father. +</p> + +<p> +But the great peculiarity of this second miracle in Cana is that it is moulded +throughout so as to develop and perfect a weak faith. Notice how there are +three words in the narrative, each of which indicates a stage in the history. +'Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not <i>believe</i>.' … 'The man +<i>believed</i> the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.' +… 'Himself <i>believed</i> and his whole house.' +</p> + +<p> +We have here, then, Christ manifested as the Discerner, the Rebuker, the +Answerer, and therefore the Strengthener, of a very insufficient and ignorant +faith. It is a lovely example of the truth of that ancient prophecy, 'He will +not quench the smoking flax.' So these three stages, as it seems to me, are the +three points to observe. We have, first of all, Christ lamenting over an +imperfect faith. Then we have Him testing, and so strengthening, a growing +faith. And then we have the absent Christ rewarding and crowning a tested +faith. I think if we look at these three stages in the story we shall get the +main points which the Evangelist intends us to observe. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, we have here our Lord lamenting over an ignorant and sensuous +faith. +</p> + +<p> +At first sight His words, in response to the hurried, eager appeal of the +father, seem to be strangely unfeeling, far away from the matter in hand. Think +of how breathlessly, feeling that not an instant is to be lost, the poor man +casts himself at the Master's feet, and pleads that his boy is 'at the point of +death.' And just think how, like a dash of cold water upon this hot impatience, +must have come these strange words that seem to overleap his case altogether, +and to be gazing beyond him—'Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not +believe.' 'What has that to do with me and my dying boy, and my impatient agony +of petition?' 'It has everything to do with you.' +</p> + +<p> +It is the revelation, first of all, of Christ's singular calmness and majestic +leisure, which befitted Him who needed not to hurry, because He was conscious +of absolute power. As when the pleading message was sent to Him: 'He whom Thou +lovest is sick, He abode still two days in the same place where He was'; +because He loved Lazarus and Martha and Mary; and just as when Jairus is +hurrying Him to the bed where his child lies dead, He pauses on the way to +attend to the petition of another sufferer; so, in like calmness of majestic +leisure, He here puts aside the apparently pressing and urgent necessity in +order to deal with a far deeper, more pressing one. +</p> + +<p> +For in the words there is not only a revelation of our Lord's majestic leisure, +but there is also an indication of what He thought of most importance in His +dealing with men. It was worthy of His care to heal the boy; it was far more +needful that He should train and lead the father to faith. The one can wait +much better than the other. +</p> + +<p> +And there is in the words, too, something like a sigh of profound sorrow. +Christ is not so much rebuking as lamenting. It is His own pained heart that +speaks; He sees in the man before Him more than the man's words indicated; +reading his heart with that divine omniscience which pierces beyond the +surface, and beholding in him the very same evil which affected all his +countrymen. So He speaks to him as one of a class, and thus somewhat softens +the rebuke even while the answer to the nobleman's petition seems thereby to +become still less direct, and His own sorrowful gaze at the wide-reaching +spirit of blindness seems thereby to become more absorbed and less conscious of +the individual sufferer kneeling at His feet. +</p> + +<p> +Christ had just come from Samaria, the scorn of the Jews, and there He had +found people who needed no miracles, whose conception of the Messiah was not +that of a mere wonder-worker, but of one who will 'tell us all things,' and who +believed on Him not because of the portents which He wrought, but because they +heard Him themselves, and His words touched their consciences and stirred +strange longings in their hearts. On the other hand, this Evangelist has +carefully pointed out in the preceding chapters how such recognition as Christ +had thus far received 'in His own country' had been entirely owing to His +miracles, and had been therefore regarded by Christ Himself as quite unreliable +(chap. ii. 23-25), while even Nicodemus, the Pharisee, had seen no better +reason for regarding Him as a divinely sent Teacher than 'these miracles that +Thou doest.' And now here He is no sooner across the border again than the same +spirit meets Him. He hears it even in the pleading, tearful tones of the +father's voice, and that so clearly that it is for a moment more prominent even +to His pity than the agony and the prayer. And over that Christ sorrows. Why? +Because, to their own impoverishing, the nobleman and his fellows were blind to +all the beauty of His character. The graciousness of His nature was nothing to +them. They had no eyes for His tenderness and no ears for His wisdom; but if +some vulgar sign had been wrought before them, then they would have run after +Him with their worthless faith. And that struck a painful chord in Christ's +heart when He thought of how all the lavishing of His love, all the grace and +truth which shone radiant and lambent in His life, fell upon blind eyes, +incapable of beholding His beauty; and of how the manifest revelation of a +Godlike character had no power to do what could be done by a mere outward +wonder. +</p> + +<p> +This is not to disparage the 'miraculous evidence.' It is only to put in its +proper place the spirit, which was blind to the self-attesting glory of His +character, which beheld it and did not recognise it as 'the glory of the Only +Begotten of the Father.' +</p> + +<p> +That very same blindness to the divine which is in Jesus Christ, because +material things alone occupy the heart and appeal to the mind, is still the +disease of humanity. It still drives a knife into the loving heart of the +pitying and helpful Christ. The special form which it takes in such a story as +this before us is long since gone. The sense-bound people of this generation do +not ask for signs. Miracles are rather a hindrance than a help to the reception +of Christianity in many quarters. People are more willing to admire, after a +fashion, the beauty of Christ's character, and the exalted purity of His +teaching (meaning thereby, generally, the parts of it which are not exclusively +His), than to accept His miracles. So far round has the turn in the wheel gone +in these days. +</p> + +<p> +But although the form is entirely different the spirit still remains. Are there +not plenty of us to whom sense is the only certitude? We think that the only +knowledge is the knowledge that comes to us from that which we can see and +touch and handle, and the inferences that we may draw from these; and to many +all that world of thought and beauty, all those divine manifestations of +tenderness and grace, are but mist and cloudland. Intellectually, though in a +somewhat modified sense, this generation has to take the rebuke: 'Except ye +see, ye will not believe.' +</p> + +<p> +And practically do not the great mass of men regard the material world as +all-important, and work done or progress achieved there as alone deserving the +name of 'work' or 'progress,' while all the glories of a loving Christ are dim +and unreal to their sense-bound eyes? Is it not true to-day, as it was in the +old time, that if a man would come among you, and bring you material good, that +would be the prophet for you? True wisdom, beauty, elevating thoughts, divine +revelations; all these go over your heads. But when a man comes and multiplies +loaves, then you say, 'This is of a truth the prophet that should come into the +world.' 'Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.' +</p> + +<p> +And on the other side, is it not sadly true about those of us who have the +purest and the loftiest faith, that we feel often as if it was very hard, +almost impossible, to keep firm our grasp of One who never is manifested to our +sense? Do we not often feel, 'O that I could for once, for once only, hear a +voice that would speak to my outward ear, or see some movement of a divine +hand'? The loftiest faith still leans towards, and has an hankering after, some +external and visible manifestation, and we need to subject ourselves to the +illuminating rebuke of the Master who says, 'Except ye see signs and wonders, +ye will not believe,' and, therefore, your faith that craves the support of +some outward thing, and often painfully feels that it is feeble without it, is +as yet but very imperfect and rudimentary. +</p> + +<p> +II. And so we have here, as the next stage of the narrative, our Lord testing, +and thus strengthening, a growing faith. +</p> + +<p> +The nobleman's answer to our Lord's strange words sounds, at first sight, as if +these had passed over him, producing no effect at all. 'Sir, come down ere my +child die'; it is almost as if he had said, 'Do not talk to me about these +things at present. Come and heal my boy. That is what I want; and we will speak +of other matters some other time.' But it is not exactly that. Clearly enough, +at all events, he did not read in Christ's words a reluctance to yield to his +request, still less a refusal of it. Clearly he did not misunderstand the sad +rebuke which they conveyed, else he would not have ventured to reiterate his +petition. He does not pretend to anything more than he has, he does not seek to +disclaim the condemnation that Christ brings against him, nor to assume that he +has a loftier degree or a purer kind of faith than he possesses. He holds fast +by so much of Christ's character as he can apprehend; and that is the beginning +of all progress. What he knows he knows. He has sore need; that is something. +He has come to the Helper; that is more. He is only groping after Him, but he +will not say a word beyond what he knows and feels; and, therefore, there is +something in him to work upon; and faith is already beginning to bud and +blossom. And so his prayer is his best answer to Christ's word: 'Sir, come down +ere my child die.' +</p> + +<p> +Ah! dear brethren, any true man who has ever truly gone to Christ with a sense +even of some outward and temporal need, and has ever really prayed at all, has +often to pass through this experience, that the first result of his agonising +cry shall be only the revelation to him of the unworthiness and imperfection of +his own faith, and that there shall seem to be strange delay in the coming of +the blessing so longed for. And the true attitude for a man to take when there +is unveiled before him, in his consciousness, in answer to his cry for help, +the startling revelation of his own unworthiness and imperfection—the true +answer to such dealing is simply to reiterate the cry. And then the Master +bends to the petition, and because He sees that the second prayer has in it +less of sensuousness than the first, and that some little germ of a higher +faith is beginning to open, He yields, and yet He does not yield. 'Sir, come +down ere my child die.' Jesus saith unto him, 'Go thy way, thy son liveth.' +</p> + +<p> +Why did He not go with the suppliant? Why, in the act of granting, does He +refuse? For the suppliant's sake. The whole force and beauty of the story come +out yet more vividly if we take the contrast between it and the other +narrative, which presents some points of similarity with it—that of the healing +of the centurion's servant at Capernaum. There the centurion prays that Christ +would but speak, and Christ says, 'I will come.' There the centurion does not +feel that His presence is necessary, but that His word is enough. Here the +nobleman says 'Come,' because it has never entered his mind that Christ can do +anything unless He stands like a doctor by the boy's bed. And he says, too, +'Come, <i>ere my child die</i>,' because it has never entered his mind that +Christ can do anything if his boy has once passed the dark threshold. +</p> + +<p> +And because his faith is thus feeble, Christ refuses its request, because He +knows that so to refuse is to strengthen. Asked but to 'speak' by a strong +faith, He rewards it by more than it prays, and offers to 'come.' Asked to +'come' by a weak faith, He rewards it by less, which yet is more, than it had +requested; and refuses to come, that He may heal at a distance; and thus +manifests still more wondrously His power and His grace. +</p> + +<p> +His gentle and wise treatment is telling; and he who was so sense-bound that +'unless he saw signs and wonders he would not believe,' turns and goes away, +bearing the blessing, as he trusts, in his hands, while yet there is no sign +whatever that he has received it. +</p> + +<p> +Think of what a change had passed upon that man in the few moments of his +contact with Christ. When he ran to His feet, all hot and breathless and +impatient, with his eager plea, he sought only for the deliverance of his boy, +and sought it at the moment, and cared for nothing else. When he goes away from +Him, a little while afterwards, he has risen to this height, that he believes +the bare word, and turns his back upon the Healer, and sets his face to +Capernaum in the confidence that he possesses the unseen gift. So has his faith +grown. +</p> + +<p> +And that is what you and I have to do. We have Christ's bare word, and no more, +to trust to for everything. We must be content to go out of the +presence-chamber of the King with only His promise, and to cleave to that. A +feeble faith requires the support of something sensuous and visible, as some +poor trailing plant needs a prop round which it may twist its tendrils. A +stronger faith strides away from the Master, happy and peaceful in its assured +possession of a blessing for which it has nothing to rely upon but a simple +bare word. That is the faith that we have to exercise. Christ has spoken. That +was enough for this man, who from the babyhood of Christian experience sprang +at once to its maturity. Is it enough for you? Are you content to say, 'Thy +word, Thy naked word, is all that I need, for Thou hast spoken, and Thou wilt +do it'? +</p> + +<p> +'Go thy way; thy son liveth.' What a test! Suppose the father had not gone his +way, would his son have lived? No! The son's life and the father's reception +from Christ of what he asked were suspended upon that one moment. Will he trust +Him, or will he not? Will he linger, or will he depart? He departs, and in the +act of trusting he gets the blessing, and his boy is saved. +</p> + +<p> +And look how the narrative hints to us of the perfect confidence of the father +now. Cana was only a few miles from Capernaum. The road from the little city +upon the hill down to where the waters of the lake flashed in the sunshine by +the quays of Capernaum was only a matter of a few hours; but it was the next +day, and well on into the next day, before he met the servants that came to him +with the news of his boy's recovery. So sure was he that his petition was +answered that he did not hurry to return home, but leisurely and quietly went +onwards the next day to his child. Think of the difference between the +breathless rush up to Cana, and the quiet return from it. 'He that believeth +shall not make haste.' +</p> + +<p> +III. And so, lastly, we have here the absent Christ crowning and rewarding the +faith which has been tested. +</p> + +<p> +We have the picture of the father's return. The servants meet him. Their +message, which they deliver before he has time to speak, is singularly a verbal +repetition of the promise of the Master, 'Thy son liveth.' His faith, though it +be strong, has not yet reached to the whole height of the blessing, for he +inquires 'at what hour he began to <i>amend</i>,' expecting some slow and +gradual recovery; and he is told 'that at the seventh hour,' the hour when the +Master spoke, 'the fever left him,' and all at once and completely was he +cured. So, more than his faith had expected is given to him; and Christ, when +he lays His hand upon a man, does His work thoroughly, though not always at +once. +</p> + +<p> +Why was the miracle wrought in that strange fashion? Why did our Lord fling out +His power as from a distance rather than go and stand at the boy's bedside? We +have already seen the reason in the peculiar condition of the father's mind; +but now notice what it was that he had learned by such a method of healing, not +only the fact of Christ's healing power, but also the fact that the bare +utterance of His will, whether He were present or absent, had power. And so a +loftier conception of Christ would begin to dawn on him. +</p> + +<p> +And for us that working of Christ at a distance is prophetic. It represents to +us His action to-day. Still He answers our cries that He would come down to our +help by sending forth from the city on the hills, the city of the wedding +feast, His healing power to descend upon the sick-beds and the sorrows and the +sins that afflict the villages beneath. 'He sendeth forth His commandment upon +earth, His word runneth very swiftly.' +</p> + +<p> +This new experience enlarged and confirmed the man's faith. The second stage to +which he had been led by Christ's treatment was simply belief in our Lord's +specific promise, an immense advance on his first position of belief which +needed sight as its basis. +</p> + +<p> +But he had not yet come to the full belief of, and reliance upon, that Healer +recognised as Messiah. But the experience which he now has had, though it be an +experience based upon miracle, is the parent of a faith which is not merely the +child of wonder, nor the result of beholding an outward sign. And so we +read:—'So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said +unto him, Thy son liveth. And himself believed and his whole house.' +</p> + +<p> +A partial faith brings experience which confirms and enlarges faith; and they +who dimly apprehend Him, and yet humbly love Him, and imperfectly trust Him, +will receive into their bosoms such large gifts of His love and gracious Spirit +that their faith will be strengthened, and they will grow into the full stature +of peaceful confidence. +</p> + +<p> +The way to increase faith is to exercise faith. And the true parent of perfect +faith is the experience of the blessings that come from the crudest, rudest, +narrowest, blindest, feeblest faith that a man can exercise. Trust Him as you +can, do not be afraid of inadequate conceptions, or of a feeble grasp. Trust +Him as you can, and He will give you so much more than you expected that you +will trust Him more, and be able to say: 'Now I believe, because I have heard +Him myself, and know that this is the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap26"></a>THE THIRD MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL</h2> + +<p> +'Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.'—JOHN v.8 +</p> + +<p> +This third of the miracles recorded in John's Gospel finds a place there, as it +would appear, for two reasons: first, because it marks the beginning of the +angry unbelief on the part of the Jewish rulers, the development of which it is +one part of the purpose of this Gospel to trace; second, because it is the +occasion for that great utterance of our Lord about His Sonship and His divine +working as the Father also works, which occupies the whole of the rest of the +chapter, and is the foundation of much which follows in the Gospel. It is for +these reasons, and not for the mere sake of adding another story of a +miraculous cure to the many which the other Evangelists have given us, that +John narrates for us this history. +</p> + +<p> +If, then, we consider the reason for the introduction of the miracle into the +Gospel, we may be saved from the necessity of dwelling, except very lightly, +upon some of the preliminary details which preceded the actual cure. It does +not matter much to us for our present purpose which Feast it was on which Jesus +went up to Jerusalem, nor whether the pool was by the sheep-market or by the +sheep-gate, nor whereabouts in Jerusalem Bethesda might happen to be. It may be +of importance for us to notice that the mention of the angel who appears in the +fourth verse is not a part of the original narrative. The true text only tells +us of an intermittent pool which possessed, or was supposed to possess, +curative energy; and round which the kindness of some forgotten benefactor had +built five rude porches. There lay a crowd of wasted forms, and pale, sorrowful +faces, with all varieties of pain and emaciation and impotence marked upon +them, who yet were gathered in Bethesda, which being interpreted means 'a house +of mercy.' It is the type of a world full of men suffering various sicknesses, +but all sick; the type of a world that gathers with an eagerness, not far +removed from despair, round anything that seems to promise, however vaguely, to +help and to heal; the type of a world, blessed be God, which, amidst all its +sad variety of woe and weariness, yet sits in the porches of 'a house of +mercy,' and has in the midst a 'fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness,' +whose energy is as mighty for the last comer of all the generations as for the +first that stepped into its cleansing flood. +</p> + +<p> +This poor man, sick and impotent for eight and thirty years—many of which he +had spent, as it would appear, day by day, wearily dragging his paralysed limbs +to the fountain with daily diminishing hope—this poor man attracts the regard +of Christ when He enters, and He puts to him the strange question, 'Wilt thou +be made whole?' Surely there was no need to ask that; but no doubt the many +disappointments and the long years of waiting and of suffering had stamped +apathy upon the sufferer's face, and Christ saw that the first thing that was +needed, in order that His healing power might have a point of contact in the +man's nature, was to kindle some little flicker of hope in him once more. +</p> + +<p> +And so, no doubt, with a smile on His face, which converted the question into +an offer, He says: 'Wilt thou be made whole?' meaning thereby to say, 'I will +heal thee if thou wilt.' And there comes the weary answer, as if the man had +said: 'Will I be made whole? What have I been lying here all these years for? I +have nobody to put me into the pool.' +</p> + +<p> +Yes, it is a hopeful prospect to hold out to a man whose disease is inability +to walk, that if he will walk to the water he will get cured, and be able to +walk afterwards. Why, he could not even roll himself into the pond, and so +there he had lain, a type of the hopeless efforts at self-healing which we sick +men put forth, a type of the tantalising gospels which the world preaches to +its subjects when it says to a paralysed man: 'Walk that you may be healed; +keep the commandments that you may enter into life.' +</p> + +<p> +And so we have come at last to the main point of the narrative before us, and I +fix upon these words, the actual words in which the cure was conveyed, as +communicating to us some very important lessons and thoughts about Christ and +our relation to Him. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, I see in them Christ manifesting Himself as the Giver of power to the +powerless who trust Him. +</p> + +<p> +His words may seem at first hearing to partake of the very same almost cruel +irony as the condition of cure which had already proved hopelessly +impracticable. He, too, says, 'Walk that you may be cured'; and He says it to a +paralysed and impotent man. But the two things are very different, for before +this cripple could attempt to drag his impotent limbs into an upright position, +and take up the little light couch and sling it over his shoulders, he must +have had some kind of trust in the person that told him to do so. A very +ignorant trust, no doubt, it was; but all that was set before him about Jesus +Christ he grasped and rested upon. He only knew Him as a Healer, and he trusted +Him as such. The contents of a man's faith have nothing to do with the reality +of his faith; and he that, having only had the healing power of Christ revealed +to him, lays hold of that Healer, cleaves to Him with as genuine a faith as the +man who has the whole fulness and sublimity of Christ's divine and human +character and redeeming work laid out before him, and who cleaves to these. The +hand that grasps is one, whatsoever be the thing that it grasps. +</p> + +<p> +So it is no spiritualising of this story, or reading into it a deeper and more +religious meaning than belongs to it, to say that what passed in that man's +heart and mind before he caught up his little bed and walked away with it, was +essentially the same action of mind and heart by which a sinful man, who knows +that Christ is his Redeemer, grasps His Cross and trusts his soul to Him. In +the one case, as in the other, there is confidence in the person; only in the +one case the person was only known as a Healer, and in the other the person is +known as a Saviour. But the faith is the same whatever it apprehends. +</p> + +<p> +Christ comes and says to him, 'Rise, take up thy bed and walk.' There is a +movement of confidence in the man's heart; he tries to obey, and in the act of +obedience the power comes to him. +</p> + +<p> +Ah, brother! it is always so. All Christ's commandments are gifts. When He says +to you, 'Do this!' He pledges Himself to give you power to do it. Whatsoever He +enjoins He strengthens for. He binds Himself, by His commandments, and every +word of His lips which says to us 'Thou shalt!' contains as its kernel a word +of His which says 'I will.' So when He commands, He bestows; and we get the +power to keep His commandments when in humble faith we make the effort to do +His will. It is only when we try to obey for the love's sake of Him that has +healed us that we are able to obey. And be sure of this, whensoever we attempt +to do what we know to be the Master's will, because He has given Himself for +us, our power will be equal to our desire, and enough for our duty. As St. +Augustine says: 'Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.' +</p> + +<p> +'Rise, take up thy bed and walk,' or as in another case, 'Stretch forth thy +hand.' 'And he stretched it forth, and his hand was restored whole as the +other.' Christ gives power to keep His commandments to the impotent who try to +obey, because they have been healed by Him. +</p> + +<p> +II. In the next place, we have in this miracle our Lord set forth as the +absolute Master, because He is the Healer. +</p> + +<p> +The Pharisees and their friends had no eyes for the miracle; but if they found +a man carrying his light couch on the Sabbath day, that was a thing that +excited their interest, and must be seen to immediately. +</p> + +<p> +And so, paying no attention to the fact that it was a paralysed man who was +doing this, with the true narrow instinct of the formalist, they lay hold only +of the fact of the broken Rabbinical restrictions, and try to stop him with +these. 'It is the Sabbath day! It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.' +</p> + +<p> +And they get an answer which goes a great deal deeper than the speaker knew, +and puts the whole subject of Christian obedience on its right footing. 'He +answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed +and walk.' As if he had said: 'He gave me the power, had He not a right to tell +me what to do with it? It was His gift that I could lift my bed; was I not +bound to walk when and where He that had made me able to walk at all chose to +bid me?' +</p> + +<p> +And if you generalise that it just comes to this: the only person that has a +right to command you is the Christ who saves you. He has the absolute authority +to do as He will with your restored spiritual powers, because He has bestowed +them all upon you. His dominion is built upon His benefits. He is the King +because He is the Saviour. He rules because He has redeemed. He begins with +giving, and it is only afterwards that He commands; and He turns to each of us +with that smile upon His lips, and with tenderness in His voice which will bind +any man, who is not an ingrate, to Him for ever. 'If ye love Me, keep My +commandments.' +</p> + +<p> +There is always something hard and distasteful to the individual will in the +tone of authority assumed by any man whatsoever. We always more or less rebel +and shrink from that; and there is only one thing that makes commandment sweet, +and that is when it drops like honey from the honeycomb, from lips that we +love. So does it in the case of Christ's commands to us. It is joy to know and +to do the will of One to whom the whole heart turns with gratitude and +affection. And Christ blesses and privileges us by the communication to us of +His pleasure concerning us, that we may have the gladness of yielding to His +desires, and so meeting the love which commands with the happy love which +obeys. 'He that made me whole, the same said unto me…' and what He says it must +be joy to do. +</p> + +<p> +So, 'My yoke is easy and My burden is light,' not because Christ diminishes the +requirements of law; not because the standard of Christian obedience is lowered +beneath any other standard of conduct and character. It is far higher. The +things which make Christian duty are often very painful in themselves. There is +always self-sacrifice in Christian virtue, and self-sacrifice has always a +sting in it; but the 'yoke is easy and the burden is light,' because, if I may +so say, the yoke is padded with the softest velvet of love, and lies upon our +necks lightly because He has laid it there. All the rigid harshness of precept +is done away when the precept comes from Christ's lips, and His commandment +'makes the crooked things straight and the rough places plain'; and turns duty, +distasteful duty, into joyful service. The blessed basis of Christian +obedience, and of Christ's authority, is Christ's redemption. +</p> + +<p> +III. And then, still further, we have here our Lord setting Himself forth as +the divine Son, whose working needs and knows no rest. +</p> + +<p> +We find, in the subsequent part of the chapter, that 'the Jews,' as they are +called, by which is meant the antagonistic portion of the nation, sought to +slay Christ 'because He had done these things on the Sabbath day.' But Jesus +answered them, 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.' Unquestionably the +form which the healing took was intended by our Lord to bring into prominence +the very point which these pedantic casuists laid hold of. He meant to draw +attention to His sweeping aside of the Rabbinical casuistries of the law of the +Sabbath. And He meant to do it in order that He might have the occasion of +making this mighty claim, which is lodged in these solemn and profound words, +to possess a Sonship, which, like the divine working, wrought, needing and +knowing no repose. +</p> + +<p> +'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.' The rest, which the old story in +Genesis attributed to the Creator after the Creation, was not to be construed +as if it meant the rest of inactivity; but it was the rest of continuous +action. God's rest and God's work are one. Throughout all the ages preservation +is a continuous creation. The divine energy is streaming out for evermore, as +the bush that burns unconsumed, as the sun that flames undiminished for ever, +pouring out from the depth of that divine nature, and for ever sustaining a +universe. So that there is no Sabbath, in the sense of a cessation from action, +proper to the divine nature; because all His action is repose, and 'e'en in His +very motion there is rest.' And this divine coincidence of activity and of +repose belongs to the divine Son in His divine-human nature. With that +arrogance which is the very audacity of blasphemy, if it be not the simplicity +of a divine consciousness, He puts His own work side by side with the Father's +work, as the same in principle, the same in method, the same in purpose, the +same in its majestic coincidence of repose and of energy. +</p> + +<p> +'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore for Me, as for Him, there is +no need of a Sabbath of repose.' Human activity is dissipated by toil, human +energy is exhausted by expenditure. Man works and is weary; man works and is +distracted. For the recovery of the serenity of his spirit, and for the renewal +of his physical strength, repose of body and gathering in of mind, such as the +Sabbath brought, were needed; but neither is needed for Him who toils unwearied +in the heavens; and neither is needed for the divine nature of Him who labours +in labours parallel with the Father's here upon the earth. +</p> + +<p> +Now remember that this is no abolition of the Sabbatic rest for Christ's +followers. Rather the ground on which He here asserts His superiority over, and +His non-dependence upon, such a repose shows, or at all events implies, that +all mere human workers need such rest, and should thankfully accept it. But it +is a claim on His part to a divine equality. It is a claim on His part to do +works which are other than human works. It is a claim on His part to be the +Lord of a divine institution, living above the need of it, and able to mould it +at His will. +</p> + +<p> +And so it opens up depths, into which we cannot go now, of the relations of +that divine Father and that divine Son; and makes us feel that the little +incident in which He turned to a paralysed man and said: 'Rise, take up thy bed +and walk,' on the Sabbath day, like some small floating leaf of sea-weed upon +the surface, has great deep tendrils that go down and down into the very abyss +of things, and lays hold upon that central truth of Christianity, the divinity +of the Son of God, who is One with the ever-working Father. +</p> + +<p> +IV. Lastly, we have in this incident yet another lesson. We have the Healer who +is also the Judge, warning the healed of the possibilities of a relapse. +</p> + +<p> +'Jesus findeth him in the Temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made +whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.' The man's +eight-and-thirty years of illness had apparently been brought on by +dissipation. It was a sin of flesh, avenged in the flesh, that had given him +that miserable life. One would have thought he had got warning enough, but we +all know the old proverb about what happened when the devil was ill, and what +befell his resolutions when he got better. And so Christ comes to him again +with this solemn warning: 'There is a worse thing than eight-and-thirty years +of paralysis. You fell once, and sore was your punishment. If you fall twice, +your punishment will be sorer.' Why? Because the first one had done him no +good. So here are lessons for us. There is always danger that we shall fall +back into old sins, even if we think we have overcome them. The mystic +influence of habit, enfeebled will, the familiar temptation, the imagination +rebelling, the memory tempting, sometimes even, as in the case of a man that +has been a drunkard, the physical effect of the odour of his temptation upon +his nostrils—all these things make it extremely unlikely that a man who has +once been under the condemnation of any evil shall never be tempted to fall +under its sway again. +</p> + +<p> +And such a fall is not only more criminal than the former, it is more deadly +than the former. 'It were better for them not to have known the way of +righteousness, than after they have known it to turn aside.' 'The last state of +that man is worse than the first.' +</p> + +<p> +My brother, there is no blacker condemnation; and if I may use a strong word, +there is no hotter hell, than that which belongs to an apostate Christian. 'It +has happened unto them according to the true proverb. The dog is turned to his +vomit again.' Very unpolite, a very coarse metaphor? Yes; to express a far +worse reality. +</p> + +<p> +Christian men and women! you have been made whole. 'Sin no more, lest a worse +thing come unto you.' And turn to that Lord and say, 'Hold Thou me up and I +shall be saved.' Then the enemies will not be able to recapture you, and the +chains which have dropped from your wrists will never enclose them any more. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap27"></a>THE LIFE-GIVER AND JUDGE</h2> + +<p> +'But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18. Therefore +the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the +Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. +19. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The +Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things +soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20. For the Father loveth +the Son, and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth: and He will shew Him +greater works than these, that ye may marvel. 21. For as the Father raiseth up +the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. 22. For +the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 23. +That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that +honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him. 24. +Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him +that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but +is passed from death unto life. 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is +coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and +they that hear shall live. 26. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath +He given to the Son to have life in Himself; 27. And hath given Him authority +to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.'—JOHN v. 17-27. +</p> + +<p> +'The Jews' were up in arms because Jesus had delivered a man from thirty-eight +years of misery. They had no human sympathies for the sufferer, whom hope +deferred had made sick and hopeless, but they shuddered at the breach of the +Sabbath. 'Sacrifice' was more important in their view than 'mercy.' They did +not acknowledge that the miracle proved Christ's Messiahship, but they were +quite sure that doing it on the Sabbath proved His wickedness. How formalism +twists men's judgments of the relative magnitude of form and spirit! +</p> + +<p> +Jesus' vindication of His action roused them still farther, for He put it on a +ground which seemed to them nothing short of blasphemy: 'My Father worketh even +until now, and I work.' They fastened on one point in that great saying, +namely, that it claimed Sonship in a special sense, and vindicated His right to +disregard the Sabbath law on that ground. God's rest is not inaction. +'Preservation is a continual creation.' All being subsists because God is ever +working. The Son co-operates with the Father, and for Him, as for the Father, +the Sabbath law does not apply. The charge of breaking the Sabbath fades into +insignificance before the sin, in the objectors' eyes, of making such claims. +Therefore our Lord proceeds to expand and justify them. +</p> + +<p> +He makes, first, a general statement in verses 19 and 20, in which He sets +forth the relation involved in the very idea of Fatherhood and Sonship. He, as +perfect Son of God, is perfectly one with the Father in will and act, and so +knit to Him in sympathy that a self-originated action is impossible, not by +reason of defect of power, but by reason of unity of being. That perfect unity +is expressed negatively ('can do nothing') and then positively ('doeth +likewise'). But it is not manifest in actions alone, but has its deep roots in +the perfect love which flows ever from each to each, and in the Father's +perfect communication to the Son, and the Son's perfect reception from the +Father. Jesus claimed to stand in such a relation to the Father that He was +able to do whatsoever the Father did, and 'in like manner' as the Father did +it; that He was the unique object of the Father's love, and capable of +receiving complete communications as to 'all things that Himself doeth'; that +He lived in such complete unity with the Father that His every act was the +result of it, and that no trace of self-will had ever tinged His perfect +spirit. What man has ever made such claims and not been treated as insane? He +makes them, and likewise says that He is 'lowly of heart'; and the world +listens, if not believing, at any rate reverent, as in the presence of the best +man that ever lived. Strange goodness, to claim such divine prerogatives, +unless the claim is valid! +</p> + +<p> +It is expanded in verses 21-23 into two great classes of works, which Jesus +says that He does. Both are distinctively divine works. To give life and to +judge the world are equally beyond human power; they are equally His actions. +These are the 'greater works' which He foretells in verse 20, and they are +greater than the miracle of healing which had originated the whole +conversation. To give life at first, and to give it again to the dead, and not +only to revivify, but to raise them, are plainly competent to no power short of +the divine; and here Jesus calmly claims them. +</p> + +<p> +That tremendous claim is here made in the widest sense, including both the +corporeally and the spiritually dead, who are afterwards treated of separately. +The Son is the fountain of life in all the aspects of that wide-reaching word; +and He 'quickeneth whom He will,' as He had spontaneously healed the impotent +man. Does that assertion contradict the other, just before it, that He does +nothing of Himself? No; for His will, while His, is ever harmonious with the +Father's, just as His love, which is ever coincident with the Father's. Does +that assertion imply His arbitrary pleasure, or make man's will a cipher? No; +for His will is guided by righteous love, and wills to quicken those who comply +with His conditions. But the assertion does declare that His will to quicken is +omnipotent, and that His voice can pierce 'the dull, cold ear of death,' and +bring back the soul to the empty house of this tabernacle, or rouse the spirit +'dead in trespasses.' +</p> + +<p> +The other divine prerogative of judging is inseparable from that of +revivifying, and in regard to it Christ's claim is still higher, for He says +that it is wholly vested in Him as Son. The idea of judgment here, like that of +quickening, with which it is associated, is to be taken in its more general +sense ('<i>all</i> judgment'), and therefore as including both the present +judgment, for which Jesus said that He was come into the world, and which men +pass on themselves by the very fact of their attitude to Him and His Gospel, +and also the future final judgment, which manifests character and determines +destiny. Both these has the Father given into the hands of the Son. +</p> + +<p> +The purpose, so far as men are concerned, of the Son's investiture, with these +solemn prerogatives, is that He may receive universal divine honour. A narrower +purpose was stated in verse 20, where the persons seeing His works are only His +then audience, and the effect sought to be produced is merely 'marvel.' But +wonder is meant to lead on to recognition of the meaning of His power, and of +the mystery of His person, and that, again, to rendering to Him precisely the +same honour as is due to the Father. No more unmistakable demand for worship, +no more emphatic assertion of divinity, can be made than lie in these words. To +worship Christ does not intercept the honour due to God; to worship the Son is +to worship the Father; and no man honours the Father who sent Him who does not +honour the Son whom He has sent. +</p> + +<p> +In verses 24-27 the two related prerogatives are presented in their spiritual +aspect, while in the later verses of the chapter the resurrection and +quickening of the literally dead are dealt with. Mark the significant new term +introduced in verse 24, 'He that believeth.' That spiritual resurrection from +the death of sin and self is wrought on 'whom He will,' but He wills that it +shall be wrought on them who believe. Similarly, in verse 25, it is 'they that +hear' who 'shall live.' It must be so, for there is no other way by which life +from Him, who is the Life, can pass into and quicken us than by our opening our +hearts by faith for its inflow. The mysteries of the Son's divinity and of His +imparted life are deep, but the condition of receiving that life is plain. If +we will trust Jesus, we shall live; if not, we are dead. Trusting Him is +trusting the Father that sent Him, and that Father becomes accessible to our +trust when we 'hear' Christ's 'word.' +</p> + +<p> +The effects of faith are immediate, and the poor present may be enriched and +clothed in celestial light for each of us, if we will. For Jesus does not point +first to the mysteries of the resurrection of the dead, and the tremendous +solemnities of the final judgment, but to what we may each enter upon at any +moment. The believing man '<i>hath</i> eternal life,' and 'cometh not into +judgment.' That life is not reserved to be entered on in the blessed future, +but is a present possession. True, it will blossom into unexampled nobleness +when it is transported into its native country, like some exotic in our colder +climates if it were carried back to the tropics. But it is a present +possession, and heaven is not different in kind from the Christian life on +earth, but differs mainly in degree and in circumstances. And he that has the +life here and now is, by its moulding of his outward life, preserved from the +sins which would bring him into judgment, and the merciful judgment to which he +is still subject is that for which his truest self longs. And that blessed +condition carries in it the pledge that, at the last great day, which is to +others a 'day of wrath, a dreadful day,' he whom Christ has quickened by His +own indwelling life shall have 'boldness before Him.' +</p> + +<p> +Obviously, in these verses the present effects of faith are in view, since +Jesus emphatically declares that the 'hour now is' when they can be realised. +Once more He states in the strongest terms, and as the reason for the assurance +that faith secures to us life, His possession of the two divine prerogatives of +quickening and judging. What a paradox it is to say that it is '<i>given</i>' +to Him to have 'life in <i>Himself</i>'! And when was that gift given? In the +depths of eternity. +</p> + +<p> +He 'sits on no precarious throne, nor borrows leave to be,' and hence He can +impart life and lose none. Inseparably connected with that given, and yet +self-inherent, life, is the capacity for executing judgment which belongs to +Him as 'a Son of man.' It has been as 'the Son' of the Father that it has been +considered, in the previous verses, as belonging to Him; but now it is as a +true man that He is fitted to bear, and actually is clothed with, that judicial +power. No doubt He is Judge of all, because by His incarnation and earthly life +He presents to all the offer of eternal life, by their attitude to which offer +men are judged. But the connection of thought seems rather to be that Christ's +Manhood, inextricably intertwined with His divinity, is equally needed with the +latter to constitute Him our Judge. He 'knoweth our frame,' from the inside, as +it were, and the participation in our nature which fits Him to 'be a merciful +and faithful High Priest' also fits Him to be the Judge of mankind. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap28"></a>THE FOURTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL</h2> + +<p> +'And Jesus took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the +disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the +fishes as much as they would.'—JOHN vi. 11. +</p> + +<p> +This narrative of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand is introduced +into John's Gospel with singular abruptness. We read in the first verse of the +chapter: 'After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee,' <i>i.e.</i> +from the western to the eastern side. But the Evangelist does not tell us how +or when He got to the western side. 'These things,' which are recorded in the +previous chapter, are the healing of the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda, +the consequent outburst of Jewish hostility, and the profound and solemn +discourse of our Lord, in which He claims filial relationship to the Father. So +that we must insert between the chapters a journey from Jerusalem to Galilee, +and a lapse at all events of some months—or, if the feast referred to in the +previous chapter be, as it may be, the Passover, an interval of nearly a year. +So little care for the mere framework of events has this fourth Gospel; so +entirely would the Evangelist have us see that his reason for narrating this +miracle is mainly its spiritual lessons and the revelation which it makes of +Christ as Himself the Bread of Life. +</p> + +<p> +Similarly, he has no care to tell us anything about the reasons for our Lord's +retirement with His disciples from Galilee to the eastern bank. These we have +to learn from the other Evangelists. They give us several concurrent +motives—the news of the death of John the Baptist; and of the desire of the +bloody tyrant to see Jesus, which foreboded evil; also the return of the twelve +Apostles from their trial journey, which involved the necessity of rest for +them; and, perhaps, the approach of the Passover, which our Lord did not +purpose to observe in Jerusalem because of the Jewish hostility, and which, +therefore, suggested the withdrawal to temporary retirement. +</p> + +<p> +All these reasons concurring, He and His disciples would seek for a brief space +of seclusion and repose. But the hope of securing such was vain. The people +followed in crowds so eagerly, so hastily, in such enormous numbers, that no +natural or ordinary provision for their wants could be thought of. Hence the +occasion for the miracle before us. +</p> + +<p> +Now I think that this narrative, with which I wish to deal, falls mainly into +two portions, both of which suggest for us some important lessons. There is, +first, the preparations for the sign; and then there is the sign itself. Let us +look at these two points in succession. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, the preparations for the sign. +</p> + +<p> +Now it is to be observed that this is the only incident before our Lord's last +journey to Jerusalem which is recorded by all four Evangelists; therefore the +variations between the narratives are of especial interest, and these +variations are very considerable. We find, for instance, that in John's account +the question as to how the bread was to be provided came from Christ; in the +other Evangelists' accounts that question is discussed first amongst the +Apostles privately. We find from John's narrative that the question was +suggested even before the multitudes had come to Jesus. We find in the Synoptic +Gospels that it arose at the close of a long day of teaching and of healing. +</p> + +<p> +Now it is possible that this diversity of time may be the solution of the +diversity of the person proposing. That is to say, it is quite legitimate to +conclude that John's account takes up the incident at an earlier period than +the other Evangelists do, and that the full order of events was this; that, +privately, at the beginning of the day, whilst the people were yet flocking to +our Lord, He, to one of the disciples alone, suggests the question, 'Whence +shall we buy bread that these may eat?' and that the answer, 'Two hundred +pennyworth of bread is not sufficient that every one of them may take a +little,' explains for us the suggestion of the same amount at a subsequent part +of the day, by the Apostles when they asked our Lord the question, 'Shall we go +and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread that these may eat?' +</p> + +<p> +Be that as it may, we may pause for a moment upon this question of our Lord's, +'Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?' +</p> + +<p> +Now notice what a lovely glimpse we get there into the quick-rising sympathy of +the Saviour with all forms of human necessity. He had gone away to snatch a +brief moment of rest. The rest is denied Him; the hurrying crowds come pressing +with their vulgar curiosity—for it was nothing better—after Him. No movement of +impatience passes across His mind; no reluctance as He turns away from the +vanishing prospect of a quiet afternoon with His friends. He looks upon them, +and the first thought is a quick, instinctive movement of a divine and yet most +human sympathy. The question rises in His mind of how He was to provide for +them; they were not hungry yet; they had not thought where their bread was to +come from. But He cared for the careless, and His heart was prophetic of their +necessities, and quick to determine 'what He should do' to supply them. So is +it ever. Before we call, He answers. Thy mercy, O loving Christ! needs no more +than the sight of human necessities, or even the anticipation of them, swiftly +to bestir itself for their satisfaction and their supply. +</p> + +<p> +But, farther, He selects for the question Philip, a man who seems to have been +what is called—as if it were the highest praise—an 'intensely practical +person'; who seems to have had little faith in anything that he could not get +hold of by his senses, and who lived upon the low level of 'common sense.' He +always lays stress upon 'seeing.' His answer to Nathanael when he said, 'Can +any good thing come out of Nazareth?' was, 'Come and see.' A very good answer, +and yet one that relies only on the external manifestation of Christ to the +senses. Then, on another occasion, he breaks in upon the lofty spiritualities +of our Lord's final discourse to His disciples, with the <i>malapropos</i> +request, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.' And so here, to the +man who believed in his eyesight, and did not easily apprehend much else, Jesus +puts this question, 'Where is the bread to come from for all these people? This +He said to prove him.' He hoped that the question might have shaped itself in +the hearer's mind into a promise, and that he might have been able to say in +answer, 'Thou canst supply; we need not buy.' +</p> + +<p> +So Christ does still. He puts problems before us, too, to settle; takes us, as +it were, into His confidence with interrogations that try us, whether we can +rise above the level of the material and visible, or whether all our +conceptions of possibilities are bounded by these. And sometimes, even though +the question at first sight seems to evoke only such a response as it did here, +it works more deeply down below afterwards, and we are helped by the very +difficulty to rise to a clear faith. +</p> + +<p> +Philip's answer is very significant. 'Two hundred pennyworth of bread are not +sufficient.' He casts his eye over the multitude, he makes a rough, rapid +calculation, one does not exactly see the data on which it was based; and he +comes to the conclusion, 'Two hundred pennyworth' (in our English money some L. +7 or L. 8 worth) would give them each a morsel. And no doubt he thought himself +very practical. He was a man of figures; he believed in what could be put into +tables and statistics. Yes; and like a great many other people of his sort, he +left out one small element in his calculation, and that was Jesus Christ, and +so his answer went creeping along the low levels, dragging itself like a +half-wounded snake, when it might have risen on the wings of faith into the +empyrean, and soared and sung. +</p> + +<p> +So learn that when we have to deal with Christ's working—and when have we not +to deal with Christ's working?—perhaps probabilities that can be tabulated are +not altogether the best bases upon which to rest our calculations. Learn that +the audacity of a faith that expects great things, though there be nothing +visible upon which to build, is wiser and more prudent than the creeping +common-sense that adheres to facts which are shadows, and forgets that the +chief fact is that we have an Almighty Helper and Friend at our sides. +</p> + +<p> +Still further, among these preliminaries, let us point to the exhibition of the +inadequate resources which Christ, according to the fuller narrative in the +other Evangelists, desired to know. 'There is a little lad here with five +barley loaves'—one per thousand—'and two small fishes'—insufficient in quantity +and very, very common in quality, for barley bread was the food of the poorest. +'But what are they among so many?' And Christ says, 'Bring them to Me.' +</p> + +<p> +Christ's preparation for making our poor resources adequate for anything is to +drive home into our hearts the consciousness of their insufficiency. We need, +first of all, to be brought to this, 'All that I have is this wretched little +stock; and what is that measured against the work that I have to do, and the +claims upon me?' Only when we are brought to that can His great power pour +itself into us and fill us with rejoicing and overcoming strength. The old +mystics used to say, and they said truly: 'You must be emptied of yourself +before you can be filled by God.' And the first thing for any man to learn, in +preparation for receiving a mightier power than his own into his opening heart, +is to know that all his own strength is utter and absolute weakness. 'What are +they among so many?' When we have once gone right down into the depths of felt +impotence, and when our work has risen before us, as if it were far too great +for our poor strengths which are weaknesses, then we are brought, and only +then, into the position in which we may begin to hope that power equal to our +desire will be poured into our souls. +</p> + +<p> +And so the last of the preparations that I will touch upon is that majestic +preparation for blessing by obedience. 'And Jesus said, Make the men sit down.' +And there they sat themselves, as Mark puts it in his picturesque way, like so +many garden plots—the rectangular oblongs in a garden in which pot-herbs are +grown—on the green grass, below the blue sky, by the side of the quiet lake. +Cannot you fancy how some of them seated themselves with a scoff, and some with +a quiet smile of incredulity; and some half sheepishly and reluctantly; and +some in mute expectancy; and some in foolish wonder; and yet all of them with a +partial obedience? And says John in the true translation: 'So the men sat down, +therefore Jesus took the loaves.' Sit you down where He bids you, and your +mouths will not be long empty. Do the things He tells you, and you will get the +food that you need. Our business is to obey and to wait, and His business is, +when we are seated, to open His hand and let the mercy drop. So much for the +preparations for this great miracle. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, in the next place, a word as to the sign itself. +</p> + +<p> +I take two lessons, and two only, out of it. I see in it, first, a revelation +of Christ, as continually through all the ages sustaining men's physical life. +And I see in it, second, a symbol of Christ as Himself the Bread of Life. +</p> + +<p> +As to the first, there is here, I believe, a revelation of the law of the +universe, of Christ as being through all the ages the Sustainer of the physical +life of men. What was done then once, with the suppression of certain links in +the chain, is done always, with the introduction of those links. The miraculous +moment in the narrative is not described to us. We do not know where or when +there came in the supernatural power which multiplied the loaves—probably as +they passed from the hand of the Master. But be that as it may, it was Christ's +will that made the provision which fed all these five thousand. And I believe +that the teaching of Scripture is in accordance with the deepest philosophy, +that the one cause of all physical phenomena is the will of a present God; +howsoever that may usually conform to the ordinary method of working which +people generalise and call laws. The reason why anything is, and the reason why +all things change, is the energy there and then of the indwelling God who is in +all His works, and who is the only Will and Power in the physical world. +</p> + +<p> +And I believe, further, that Scripture teaches us that that continuous will, +which is the cause of all phenomena and the underlying subsistence on which all +things repose, is all managed and mediated by Him who from of old was named the +Word; 'in whom was life, and without whom was not anything made that was made.' +Our Christ is Creator, our Christ is Sustainer, our Christ moves the stars and +feeds the sparrows. He was 'before all things, and in Him all things consist.' +He opens His hand—and there is the print of a nail in it—and 'satisfies the +desire of every living thing.' +</p> + +<p> +So learn how to think of second causes, and see in this story a transient +manifestation, in unusual form, of an eternal and permanent fact. Jesus took +the loaves and distributed to them that were set down. +</p> + +<p> +And so, secondly, the miracle is a <i>sign</i>—a symbol of Him as the true +Bread and Food of the world. That is the explanation and commentary which He +Himself appends to it in the subsequent part of the chapter, in the great +discourse which is founded upon this miracle. +</p> + +<p> +'I am the Bread of Life.' There is a triple statement by our Lord upon this +subject in the remaining portion of the chapter. He says, 'I am the Bread of +Life.' My personality is that which not only sustains life when it is given, +but gives life to them that feed upon it. But more than that, 'the bread which +I will give,' pointing to some future 'giving' beyond the present moment, and +therefore something more than His life and example, 'is My flesh, which'—in +some as yet unexplained way—'I give for the life of the world.' And that there +may be no misunderstanding, there is a third, deeper, more mysterious statement +still: 'My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.' Repulsive and +paradoxical, but in its very offensiveness and paradox, proclaiming that it +covers a mighty truth, and the truth, brother, is this, the one Food that gives +life to will, affections, conscience, understanding, to the whole spirit of a +man, is that great Sacrifice of the Incarnate Lord who gave upon the Cross His +flesh, and on the Cross shed His blood, for the life of the world that was +'dead in trespasses and sins.' Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us, and +we feed on the sacrifice. Let your conscience, your heart, your desires, your +anticipations, your understanding, your will, your whole being feed on Him. He +will be cleansing, He will be love, He will be fruition, He will be hope, He +will be truth, He will be righteousness, He will be all. Feed upon Him by that +faith which is the true eating of the true Bread, and your souls shall live. +</p> + +<p> +And notice finally here, the result of this miracle as transferred to the +region of symbol. 'They did all eat and were filled'; men, women, children, +both sexes, all ages, all classes, found the food that they needed in the bread +that came from Christ's hands. If any man wants dainties that will tickle the +palates of Epicureans, let him go somewhere else. But if he wants bread, to +keep the life in and to stay his hunger, let him go to this Christ who is +'human nature's daily food.' +</p> + +<p> +The world has scoffed for nineteen centuries at the barley bread that the +Gospel provides; coarse by the side of its confectionery, but it is enough to +give life to all who eat it. It goes straight to the primal necessities of +human nature. It does not coddle a class, or pander to unwholesome, diseased, +or fastidious appetites. It is the food of the world, and not of a section. All +men can relish it, all men need it. It is offered to them all. +</p> + +<p> +And more than that; notice the inexhaustible abundance. 'They did all eat, and +were filled.' And then they took up—not 'of the fragments,' as our Bible gives +it, conveying the idea of the crumbs that littered the grass after the repast +was over, but of the 'broken pieces'—the portions that came from Christ's +hands—twelve baskets full, an immensely greater quantity than they had to start +with. 'The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received.' Other goods and other +possessions perish with the using, but this increases with use. The more one +eats, the more there is for him to eat. And all the world may live upon it for +ever, and there will be more at the end than there was at the beginning. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, why do ye 'spend your money for that which is not bread'? There is no +answer worthy of a rational soul, no answer that will stand either the light of +conscience or the clearer light of the Day of Judgment. I come to you now, and +although my poor words may be but like the barley bread and the two +fishes—nothing amongst all this gathered audience—I come with Christ in my +hands, and I say to you, 'Eat, and your souls shall live.' He will spread a +table for you in the wilderness, and take you to sit at last at His table in +His Kingdom. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap29"></a>'FRAGMENTS' OR 'BROKEN PIECES'</h2> + +<p> +'When they were filled, He said unto His disciples, Gather up the fragments +that remain, that nothing be lost.'—JOHN vi. 12. +</p> + +<p> +The Revised Version correctly makes a very slight, but a very significant +change in the words of this verse. Instead of 'fragments' it reads 'broken +pieces.' The change seems very small, but the effect of it is considerable. It +helps our picture of the scene by correcting a very common misapprehension as +to what it was which the Apostles are bid to gather up. The general notion, I +suppose, is that the 'fragments' are the crumbs that fell from each man's +hands, as he ate, and the picture before the imagination of the ordinary reader +is that of the Apostles' carefully collecting the <i>debris</i> of the meal +from the grass where it had dropped. But the true notion is that the 'broken +pieces which remain over' are the unused portions into which our Lord's +miracle-working hand had broken the bread, and the true picture is that of the +Apostles carefully putting away in store for future use the abundant provision +which their Lord had made, beyond the needs of the hungry thousands. And that +conception of the command teaches far more beautiful and deeper lessons than +the other. +</p> + +<p> +For if the common translation and notion be correct, all that is taught us, or +at least what is principally taught us, is the duty of thrift and careful +economy; whereas the other shows more clearly that what is taught us is that +Jesus Christ always gets ready for His people something over and above the +exact limits of their bare need at the moment, that He prepares for His poor +and hungry dependants in royal fashion, leaving ever a wide margin of +difference between what would be just enough to keep the life in them, and His +liberal housekeeping. Further, we are taught a lesson of wise husbandry and +economy in the use of that overplus of grace which Christ ministers, and are +instructed that the laws of prudent thrift have as honoured a place in the +management of spiritual as of temporal wealth. 'Gather up,' says our Lord, 'the +pieces which I broke, the large provision which I made for possible wants. My +gifts are in excess of the requirements of the moment. Take care of them till +you need them.' That is a worthier interpretation of His command than one which +merely sees in it an exhortation to thrifty taking care of the crumbs that fell +from the lips of the hungry eaters. +</p> + +<p> +Looking at this command, then, with this slight alteration of rendering, and +consequent widening of scope, we may briefly try to gather up the lessons which +it obviously suggests. +</p> + +<p> +I. We have that thought, to which I have already referred, as more strikingly +brought out by the slight alteration of translation, which, by the use of +'<i>broken</i> pieces,' suggests the connection with Christ's <i>breaking</i> +the loaves and fishes. We are taught to think of the large surplus in Christ's +gifts over and above our need. Our Lord has Himself given us a commentary upon +this miracle. All Christ's miracles are parables, for all teach us, on the +level of natural and outward things, lessons that are true in regard to the +spiritual world; but this one is especially symbolical, as indeed are all these +recorded in John's Gospel. And here we have Christ, on the day after the +miracle, commenting upon it in His long and profound discourse upon the Bread +of Life, which plainly intimates that He meant His office of feeding the hungry +crowds, with bread supernaturally increased by the touch of His hand, to be but +a picture and a guide which might lead to the apprehension of the higher view +of Himself as the 'bread of God which came down from heaven,' feeding and +'giving life to the world' by His broken body and shed blood. +</p> + +<p> +So that we are not inventing a fanciful interpretation of an incident not meant +to have any meaning deeper than shows on the surface, when we say that the +abundance far beyond what the eaters could make use of at the moment really +represented the large surplus of inexhaustible resources and unused grace which +is treasured for us all in Christ Jesus. Whom He feeds He feasts. His gifts +answer our need, and over-answer it, for He is 'able to do exceeding abundantly +above that which we ask or think,' and neither our conceptions, nor our +petitions, nor our present powers of receiving, are the real limits of the +illimitable grace that is laid up for us in Christ, and which, potentially, we +have each of us in our hands whenever we lay our hands on Him. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, dear friends! what you and I have ever had and felt of Christ's power, +sweetness, preciousness, and love is as nothing compared with the infinite +depths of all those which lie in Him. The sea fills the little creeks along its +shore, but it rolls in unfathomed depths, boundless to the horizon away out +there in the mid-Atlantic. And all the present experience of all Christian +people, of what Christ is, is like the experience of the first settlers in some +great undiscovered continent; who timidly plant a little fringe of population +round its edge and grow their scanty crops there, whilst the great prairies of +miles and miles, with all their wealth and fertility, are lying untrodden and +unknown in the heart of the untraversed continent. The most powerful telescope +leaves nebulae unresolved, which, though they seem but a dim dust of light, are +all ablaze with mighty suns. The 'goodness' which He has 'wrought before the +sons of men for them that fear' Him is, as the Psalmist adoringly exclaims, +wondrously 'great,' but still greater is that which the same verse of the Psalm +celebrates—the goodness which He has 'laid up for them that fear Him.' The gold +which is actually coined and passing from hand to hand, is but a fraction, a +mere scale, as it were, off the surface of the great uncoined mass of bullion +that lies stored in the vaults there. Christ is a great deal more than any man, +or than all men, have yet found Him to be. 'Gather up the broken pieces'; and +see that nothing of that infinite preciousness of His be lost by us. +</p> + +<p> +II. Then there is another very simple lesson which I draw. This command +suggests for us Christ's thrift (if I may use the word) in the employment of +His miraculous power. +</p> + +<p> +Surely they might have said: 'If thou canst multiply five loaves into all this +abundance, why should we be trudging about, each with a basket on his back full +of bread, when we have with us He whose word can make it for us at any moment?' +Yes, but a law which characterises all the miraculous, in both the Old and the +New Testament, and which broadly distinguishes Christ's miracles from all the +false miracles of false religions is this, that the miraculous is pared down to +the smallest possible amount, that not one hairsbreadth beyond the necessity +shall be done by miracle; that whatever men can do they shall do; that their +work shall stop as late, and begin again as soon as possible. Thus, though +Christ was going to raise Lazarus, men's hands had to roll away the stone; and +when Christ had raised Lazarus, men's hands had to loose the napkins from his +face. And though Christ was able to say to the daughter of Jairus, '<i>Talitha +cumi!</i>' (damsel, arise!) His next word was: 'Give her something to eat.' +Where the miraculous was needed it was used, and not a hairsbreadth beyond +absolute necessity did it extend. +</p> + +<p> +And so here Christ multiplies the bread, and yet each of the Apostles has to +take a basket, probably some kind of woven wicker-work article which they would +carry for holding their little necessaries in their peregrinations; each +Apostle has to take his basket, and perhaps emptying it of some of his humble +apparel, to fill it with these bits of bread; for Christ was not going to work +miracles where men's thrift and prudence could be employed. +</p> + +<p> +Nor does He do so now. We live by faith, and our dependence on Him can never be +too absolute. Only laziness sometimes dresses itself in the garb and speaks +with the tongue of faith, and pretends to be truthful when it is only slothful. +'Why criest thou unto Me?' said God to Moses, 'speak unto the children of +Israel that they go forward.' True faith sets us to work. It is not to be +perverted into idle and false depending upon Him to work for us, when by the +use of our own ten fingers and our own brains, guided and strengthened by His +working in us, we can do the work that is set before us. +</p> + +<p> +III. Still further, there is another lesson here. Not only does the injunction +show us Christ's thrift in the employment of the supernatural, but it teaches +us our duty of thrift and care in the use of the spiritual grace bestowed upon +us. +</p> + +<p> +These men had given to them this miraculously made bread; but they had to +exercise ordinary thrift in the preservation of the supernatural gift. Christ +has been given to you by the most stupendous miracle that ever was or can be +wrought, and if you are Christian people, you have the Spirit of Christ given +to you, to dwell in your hearts, to make you wise and fair, gentle and strong, +and altogether Christlike. But you have to take care of these gifts. You have +to exercise the common virtues of economy and thrift in your use of the divine +gifts as in your use of the common things of daily life. You have to use wisely +and not waste the Bread of God that came down from heaven, or that Bread of God +will not feed you. You have to provide the basket in which to carry the +unexhausted residue of the divine gift, or you may stand hungry in the very +midst of plenty, and whilst within arm's length of you there is bread enough +and to spare to feed the whole world. +</p> + +<p> +The lesson of my text, which is most eminently brought out if we adopt the +translation which I have referred to at the beginning of these remarks, is, +then, just this: Christian men, be watchful stewards of that great gift of a +living Christ, the food of your souls, that has been by miracle bestowed upon +you. Such gathering together for future need of the unused residue of grace may +be accomplished by three ways. First, there must be a diligent use of the grace +given. See that you use to the very full, in the measure of your present power +of absorbing and your present need, the gift bestowed upon you. Be sure that +you take in as much of Christ as you can contain before you begin to think of +what to do with the overplus. If we are not careful to take what we can, and to +use what we need, of Christ, there is little chance of our being faithful +stewards of the surplus. The water in a mill-stream runs over the trough in +great abundance when the wheel is not working, and one reason why so many +Christians seem to have so much more given to them in Christ than they need is +because they are doing no work to use up the gift. +</p> + +<p> +A second essential to such stewardship is the careful guarding of the grace +given from whatever would injure it. Let not worldliness, business, cares of +the world, the sorrows of life, its joys, duties, anxieties or pleasures—let +not these so come into your hearts that they will elbow Christ out of your +hearts, and dull your appetite for the true Bread that came down from heaven. +</p> + +<p> +And lastly, not only by use and by careful guarding, but also by earnest desire +for larger gifts of the Christ who is large beyond all measure, shall we +receive more and more of His sweetness and His preciousness into our hearts, +and of His beauty and glory into our transfigured characters. The basket that +we carry, this recipient heart of ours, is elastic. It can stretch to hold any +amount that you like to put into it. The desire for more of Christ's grace will +stretch its capacity, and as its capacity increases the inflowing gift +greatens, and a larger Christ fills the larger room of my poor heart. +</p> + +<p> +So the lesson is taught us of our prudence in the care and use of the grace +bestowed on us, and we are bidden to cherish a happy confidence in the +inexhaustible resources of Christ, and the continual gift in the future of even +larger measures of grace, which are all ours already, given to us at the first +reception of Him into our hearts, and only needing our faithfulness to be +growingly ours in experience as they are ours from the first in germ. +</p> + +<p> +IV. Finally, a solemn warning is implied in this command, and its reason 'that +nothing be lost.' +</p> + +<p> +Then there is a possibility of losing the gift that is freely given to us. We +may waste the bread, and so, sometime or other when we are hungry, awake to the +consciousness that it has dropped out of our slack hands. The abundance of +Christ's grace may, so far as you are profited or enriched by it, be like the +unclaimed millions of money which nobody asks for and that is of use to no +living soul. You may be paupers while all God's riches in glory are at your +disposal, and starving while baskets full of bread broken for us by Christ lie +unused at our sides. Some of us have never tasted the sweetness or been fed by +the nutritiousness of that Bread of God which came down from heaven. And more +marvellous still, there may be some of us, who having come to Christ hungry and +been fed by Him, have ceased to care for the pure nourishment and taste for the +manna, and are turning again with gross appetite to the husks in the swine's +trough. Negligent Christians! worldly Christians! you who care more for money +and other dainties and delights which perish with the using—backsliding +Christians, who once hungered and thirsted for more of Christ, and now have no +longing for Him—awake to the danger in which you stand of letting all your +spiritual wealth slip through your fingers; behold the treasures, yet +unreached, within your grasp, and seek to garner and realise them. Gather up +the broken pieces which remain over, lest everything be lost. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap30"></a>THE FIFTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL</h2> + +<p> +'So when they had rowed about five-and-twenty or thirty furlongs, they see +Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid. +20. But He said unto them, It is I; be not afraid.'—JOHN vi. 19,20. +</p> + +<p> +There are none of our Lord's parables recorded in this Gospel, but all the +miracles which it narrates are parables. Moral and religious truth is +communicated by the outward event, as in the parable it is communicated by the +story. The mere visible fact becomes more than semi-transparent. The analogy +between the spiritual and the natural world which men instinctively apprehend, +of which the poet and the orator and the religious teacher have always made +abundant use, and which it has sometimes been attempted, unsuccessfully as I +think, to elevate to the rank of a scientific truth, underlies the whole series +of these miracles. It is the principal if not the only key to the meaning of +this one before us. +</p> + +<p> +The symbolism which regards life under the guise of a voyage, and its troubles +and difficulties under the metaphor of storm and tempest, is especially natural +to nations that take kindly to the water, like us Englishmen. I do not know +that there is any instance, either in the Old or in the New Testament, of the +use of that to us very familiar metaphor; but the emblem of the sea as the +symbol of trouble, unrest, rebellious power, is very familiar to the writers of +the Old Testament. And the picture of the divine path as in the waters, and of +the divine prerogative as being to 'tread upon the heights of the sea,' as Job +has it, is by no means unknown. So the natural symbolism, and the Old Testament +use of the expressions, blend together, as I think, in suggesting the one point +of view from which this miracle is to be regarded. +</p> + +<p> +It is found in two of the other Evangelists, and the condensed account of it +which we have in this Gospel, by its omission of Peter's walking on the water, +and of some other smaller but graphic details that the other Evangelists give +us, serves to sharpen the symbolical meaning of the whole story, and to bring +that as its great purpose and signification into prominence. +</p> + +<p> +We shall, I think, then, best gain the lessons intended to be drawn if we +simply follow the points of the narrative in their order as they stand here. +</p> + +<p> +I. We have here, first of all, then, the struggling toilers. +</p> + +<p> +The other Evangelists tell us that after the feeding of the five thousand our +Lord 'constrained' His disciples to get into the ship, and to pass over to the +other side. The language implies unwillingness, to some extent, on their part, +and the exercise of authority upon His. Our Evangelist, who does not mention +the constraint, supplies us with the reason for it. The preceding miracle had +worked up the excitement of the mob to a very dangerous point. Crowds are +always the same, and this crowd thought, as any other crowd anywhere and in any +age would have done, that the prophet that could make bread at will was the +kind of prophet whom they wanted. So they determined to take Him by force, and +make Him a king; and Christ, seeing the danger, and not desiring that His +Kingdom should be furthered by such unclean hands and gross motives, determined +to withdraw Himself into the loneliness of the bordering hills. It was wise to +divide the little group; it would distract attention; it might lead some of the +people, as we know it did lead them, to follow the boat when they found it was +gone. It would save the Apostles from being affected by the coarse, smoky +enthusiasm of the crowd. It would save them from revealing the place of His +retirement. It might enable Him to steal away more securely unobserved; so they +are sent across to the other side of the lake, some five or six miles. An hour +or two might have done it, but for some unknown reason they seem to have +lingered. Perhaps they had no special call for haste. The Paschal moon, nearly +full, would be shining down upon the waters; their hearts and minds would be +busy with the miracle which they had just seen. And so they may have drifted +along, not caring much when they reached their destination. But suddenly one of +the gusts of wind which are frequently found upon mountain lakes, especially +towards nightfall, rose and soon became a gale with which they could not +battle. Our Evangelist does not tell us how long it lasted, but we get a note +of time from St. Mark, who says it was 'about the fourth watch of the night'; +that is between the hours of three and six in the morning of the subsequent +day. So that for some seven or eight hours at least they had been tugging at +the useless oars, or sitting shivering, wet and weary, in the boat. +</p> + +<p> +Is it not the history of the Church in a nutshell? Is it not the symbol of life +for us all? The solemn law under which we live demands persistent effort, and +imposes continual antagonism upon us; there is no reason why we should regard +that as evil, or think ourselves hardly used, because we are not fair-weather +sailors. The end of life is to make men; the meaning of all events is to mould +character. Anything that makes me stronger is a blessing, anything that +develops my <i>morale</i> is the highest good that can come to me. If therefore +antagonism mould in me +</p> + +<p> + 'The wrestling thews that throw the world,' +</p> + +<p> +and give me good, strong muscles, and put tan and colour into my cheek, I need +not mind the cold and the wet, nor care for the whistling of the wind in my +face, nor the dash of the spray over the bows. Summer sailing in fair weather, +amidst land-locked bays, in blue seas, and under calm skies, may be all very +well for triflers, but +</p> + +<p> + 'Blown seas and storming showers' +</p> + +<p> +are better if the purpose of the voyage be to brace us and call out our powers. +</p> + +<p> +And so be thankful if, when the boat is crossing the mouth of some glen that +opens upon the lake, a sudden gust smites the sheets and sends you to the helm, +and takes all your effort to keep you from sinking. Do not murmur, or think +that God's Providence is strange, because many and many a time when 'it is +dark, and Jesus is not yet come to us,' the storm of wind comes down upon the +lake and threatens to drive us from our course. Let us rather recognise Him as +the Lord who, in love and kindness, sends all the different kinds of weather +which, according to the old proverb, make up the full-summed year. +</p> + +<p> +And then notice how, in this first picture of our text, the symbolism so +naturally lends itself to spiritual meanings, not only in regard to the tempest +that caught the unthinking voyagers, but also in regard to other points; such +as the darkness amidst which they had to fight the tempest, and the absence of +the Master. Once before, they had been caught in a similar storm on the lake, +but it was daylight then, and Jesus was with them, and that made all the +difference. This time it was night, and they looked up in vain to the green +Eastern hills, and wondered where in their folds He was lurking, so far from +their help. Mark gives us one sweet touch when he tells us that Christ on the +hillside there <i>saw</i> them toiling in rowing, but they did not see Him. No +doubt they felt themselves deserted, and sent many a wistful glance of longing +towards the shore where He was. Hard thoughts of Him may have been in some of +their minds. 'Master, carest Thou not?' would be springing to some of their +lips with more apparent reason than in the other storm on the lake. But His +calm and loving gaze looked down pitying on all their fear and toil. The +darkness did not hide from Him, nor His own security on the steadfast land make +Him forget, nor his communion with the Father so absorb Him as to exclude +thoughts of them. +</p> + +<p> +It is a parable and a prophecy of the perpetual relation between the absent +Lord and the toiling Church. He is on the mountain while we are on the sea. The +stable eternity of the Heavens holds Him; we are tossed on the restless +mutability of time, over which we toil at His command. He is there interceding +for us. Whilst He prays He beholds, and He beholds that He may help us by His +prayer. The solitary crew were not so solitary as they thought. That little +dancing speck on the waters, which held so much blind love and so much fear and +trouble, was in His sight, as on the calm mountain-top He communed with God. No +wonder that weary hearts and lonely ones, groping amidst the darkness, and +fighting with the tempests and the sorrows of lift, have ever found in our +story a symbol that comes to them with a prophecy of hope and an assurance of +help, and have rejoiced to know that they on the sea are beheld of the Christ +in the sky, and that 'the darkness hideth not from' His loving eye. +</p> + +<p> +II. And now turn to the next stage of the story before us. We have the +approaching Christ. +</p> + +<p> +'When they had rowed about five-and-twenty or thirty furlongs,' and so were +just about the middle of the lake, 'they see Jesus walking on the sea and +drawing nigh unto the ship.' They were about half-way across the lake. We do +not know at what hour in the fourth watch the Master came. But probably it was +towards daybreak. Toiling had endured for a night. It would be in accordance +with the symbolism that joy and help should come with the morning. +</p> + +<p> +If we look for a moment at the miraculous fact, apart from the symbolism, we +have a revelation here of Christ as the Lord of the material universe, a +kingdom wider in its range and profounder in its authority than that which that +shouting crowd had sought to force upon Him. His will consolidated the yielding +wave, or sustained His material body on the tossing surges. Whether we suppose +the miracle as wrought on the one or the other, makes no difference to its +value as a manifestation of the glory of Christ, and of His power over the +physical order of things. In the latter case there would, perhaps, be a hint of +a power residing in His material frame, of which we possibly have other phases, +as in the Transfiguration, which may be a prophecy of what lordship over nature +is possible to a sinless manhood. However that may be, we have here a wonderful +picture which is true for all ages of the mighty Christ, to whose gentle +footfall the unquiet surges are as a marble pavement; and who draws near in the +purposes of His love, unhindered by antagonism, and using even opposing forces +as the path for His triumphant progress. Two lessons may be drawn from this. +One is that in His marvellous providence Christ uses all the tumults and +unrest, the opposition and tempests which surround the ship that bears His +followers, as the means of achieving His purposes. We stand before a mystery to +which we have no key when we think of these two certain facts; first, the +Omnipotent redeeming will of God in Christ; and, second, the human antagonism +which is able to rear itself against that. And we stand in the presence of +another mystery, most blessed, and yet which we cannot unthread, when we think, +as we most assuredly may, that in some mysterious fashion He works His purposes +by the very antagonism to His purposes, making even head-winds fill the sails, +and planting His foot on the white crests of the angry and changeful billows. +How often in the world's history has this scene repeated itself, and by a +divine irony the enemies have become the helpers of Christ's cause, and what +they plotted for destruction has turned out rather to the furtherance of the +Gospel! 'He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and with the residue thereof +He girdeth Himself.' +</p> + +<p> +Another lesson for our individual lives is this, that Christ, in His sweetness +and His gentle sustaining help, comes near to us all across the sea of sorrow +and trouble. A more tender, a more gracious sense of His nearness to us is ever +granted to us in the time of our darkness and our grief than is possible to us +in the sunny hours of joy. It is always the stormy sea that Christ comes +across, to draw near to us; and they who have never experienced the tempest +have yet to learn the inmost sweetness of His presence. When it is night, and +it is dark, at the hour which is the keystone of night's black arch, Christ +comes to us, striding across the stormy waters. Sorrow brings <i>Him</i> near +to <i>us</i>. Do you see that sorrow does not drive <i>you</i> away from Him! +</p> + +<p> +III. Then, still further, we note in the story before us the terror and the +recognition. +</p> + +<p> +St. John does not tell us why they were afraid. There is no need to tell us. +They see, possibly in the chill uncertain light of the grey dawn breaking over +the Eastern hills, a Thing coming to them across the water there. They had +fought gallantly with the storm, but this questionable shape freezes their +heart's blood, and a cry, that is audible above even the howling of the wind +and the dash of the waves, gives sign of the superstitious terror that crept +round the hearts of those commonplace, rude men. +</p> + +<p> +I do not dwell upon the fact that the average man, if he fancies that anything +from out of the Unseen is near him, shrinks in fear. I do not ask you whether +that is not a sign and indication of the deep conviction that lies in men's +souls, of a discord between themselves and the unseen world; but I ask you if +we do not often mistake the coming Master, and tremble before Him when we ought +to be glad? +</p> + +<p> +We are often so absorbed with our work, so busy tugging at the oar, so +anxiously watching the set of current, so engaged in keeping the helm right, +that we have no time and no eyes to look across the ocean and see who it is +that is coming to us through all the hurly-burly. Our tears fill our eyes, and +weave a veil between us and the Master. And when we do see that there is +Something there, we are often afraid of it, and shrink from it. And sometimes +when a gentle whisper of consolation, or some light air, as it were, of +consciousness of His presence, breathes through our souls, we think that it is +only a phantasm of our own making, and that the coming Christ is nothing more +than the play of our thoughts and imaginations. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brethren, let no absorption in cares and duties, let no unchildlike +murmurings, let no selfish abandonment to sorrow, blind you to the Lord who +always comes near troubled hearts, if they will only look and see! Let no +reluctance to entertain religious ideas, no fear of contact with the Unseen, no +shrinking from the thought of Christ as a <i>Kill-joy</i> keep you from seeing +Him as He draws near to you in your troubles. And let no sly, mocking +Mephistopheles of doubt, nor any poisonous air, blowing off the foul and +stagnant marshes of present materialism, make you fancy that the living +Reality, treading on the flood there, is a dream or a fancy or the projection +of your own imagination on to the void of space. He is real, whatever may be +phenomenal and surface. The storm is not so real as the Christ, the waves not +so substantial as He who stands upon them. They will pass and quieten, He will +abide for ever. Lift up your hearts and be glad, because the Lord comes to you +across the waters, and hearken to His voice: 'It is I! Be not afraid.' +</p> + +<p> +The encouragement not to fear follows the proclamation, 'It is I!' What a +thrill of glad confidence must have poured itself into their hearts, when once +they rose to the height of that wondrous fact! +</p> + +<p> + 'Well roars the storm to those who hear<br /> + A deeper voice across the storm.' +</p> + +<p> +There is no fear in the consciousness of His presence. It is His old word: 'Be +not afraid!' And He breathes it whithersoever He comes; for His coming is the +banishment of danger and the exorcism of dread. So that if only you and I, in +the midst of all storm and terror, can say 'It is the Lord,' then we may catch +up the grand triumphant chorus of the old psalm, and say: 'Though the waters +thereof roar and be troubled, and the mountains be carried into the midst of +the sea, yet I will not fear.' The Lord is with us; the everlasting Christ is +our Helper, our Refuge, and our Strength. +</p> + +<p> +IV. So, lastly, we have here in this story the end of the tempest and of the +voyage. +</p> + +<p> +Our Evangelist does not record, as the others do, that the storm ceased upon +Christ's being welcomed into the little boat. The other Evangelists do not +record, as he does, the completion of the voyage. 'Immediately the ship was at +the land whither they went.' The two things are cause and effect. I do not +suppose, as many do, that a subordinate miracle is to be seen in that last +clause of our text, or that the 'immediately' is to be taken as if it meant +that without one moment's delay, or interval, the voyage was completed; but +only, which I think is all that is needful, that the falling of the tempest and +the calming of the waters which followed upon the Master's entrance into the +vessel made the remainder of the voyage comparatively brief and swift. +</p> + +<p> +It is not always true, it is very seldom true, that when Christ comes on board +opposition ends, and the haven is reached. But it is always true that when +Christ comes on board a new spirit enters into the men who have Him for their +companion, and are conscious that they have. It makes their work easy, and +makes them 'more than conquerors' over what yet remains. With what a different +spirit the weary men would bend their backs to the oars once more when they had +the Master on board, and with what a different spirit you and I will set +ourselves to our work if we are sure of His presence. The worst of trouble is +gone when Christ shares it with us. There is a wonderful charm to stay His +rough wind in the assurance that in all our affliction He is afflicted. If we +feel that we are following in His footsteps, we feel that He stands between us +and the blast, a refuge from the storm and a covert from the tempest. And if +still, as no doubt will be the case, we have our share of trouble and storm and +sorrow and difficulty, yet the worst of the gale will be passed, and though a +long swell may still heave, the terror and the danger will have gone with the +night, and hope and courage and gladness revive as the morning's sun breaks +over the still unquiet waves, and shows us our Master with us and the white +walls of the port glinting in the level beams. +</p> + +<p> +Friends, life is a voyage, anyhow, with plenty of storm and danger and +difficulty and weariness and exposure and anxiety and dread and sorrow, for +every soul of man. But if you will take Christ on board, it will be a very +different thing from what it will be if you cross the wan waters alone. Without +Him you will make shipwreck of yourselves; with Him your voyage may seem +perilous and be tempestuous, but He will 'make the storm a calm,' and will +bring you to the haven of your desire. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap31"></a>HOW TO WORK THE WORK OF GOD</h2> + +<p> +'Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of +God? 29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye, +believe on Him whom He hath sent.'—JOHN vi. 28, 29. +</p> + +<p> +The feeding of the five thousand was the most 'popular' of Christ's miracles. +The Evangelist tells us, with something between a smile and a sigh, that 'when +the people saw it, they said, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come +into the world,' and they were so delighted with Him and with it, that they +wanted to get up an insurrection on the spot, and make a King of Him. I wonder +if there are any of that sort of people left. If two men were to come into +Manchester to-morrow morning, and one of them were to offer material good, and +the other wisdom and peace of heart, which of them, do you think, would have +the larger following? We need not cast a stone at the unblushing, frank +admiration that these men had for a Prophet who could feed them, for that is +exactly the sort of prophet that a great number of us would like best if they +spoke out. +</p> + +<p> +So Jesus Christ had to escape from the inconvenient enthusiasm of these +mistaken admirers of His; and they followed Him in their eagerness, but were +met with words which lift them into another region and damp their zeal. He +tries to turn away their thoughts from the miracle to a far loftier gift. He +contrasts the trouble which they willingly took in order to get a meal with +their indifference as to obtaining the true bread from heaven, and He bids them +work for it just as they had shown themselves ready to work for the other. +</p> + +<p> +They put to Him this question of my text, so strangely blending as it does +right and wrong, 'You have bid us work; tell us how to work? What must we do +that we may work the works of God?' Christ answers, in words that illuminate +their confusions and clear the whole matter, 'This is the work of God, that ye +believe on Him whom He hath sent.' +</p> + +<p> +I. Faith, then, is a work. +</p> + +<p> +You know that the commonplace of evangelical teaching opposes faith to works; +and the opposition is perfectly correct, if it be rightly understood. But I +have a strong impression that a great deal of our preaching goes clean over the +heads of our hearers, because we take for granted, and they fancy that they +understand, the meaning of terms because the terms themselves are so familiar. +And I believe that many people go to churches and chapels all their lives long, +and hear this doctrine dinned into them, that they are to be saved by faith, +and not by works, and never approach a definite understanding of what it means. +</p> + +<p> +So let me just for a moment try to clear up the terms of this apparently +paradoxical statement that faith is a work. What do we mean by faith? What do +you mean by saying that you have faith in your friend, in your wife, in your +husband, in your guide? You simply mean, and we mean, that you trust the +person, grasping him by the act of trust. On trust the whole fabric of human +society depends, as well as in another aspect of the same expression does the +whole fabric of Manchester commerce. Faith, confidence, the leaning of myself +on one discerned to be true, trusty, strong, sufficient for the purpose in +hand, whatever it may be—that, and nothing more mysterious, nothing further +away from daily life and the common emotions which knit us to one another, is, +as I take it, what the New Testament means when it insists upon faith. +</p> + +<p> +Ah, we all exercise it. You put it forth in certain low levels and directions. +'The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her,' is the short summary of +the happy lives of many, I have no doubt, of my present hearers. Have you none +of that confidence to spare for God? Is it all meant to be poured out upon +weak, fallible, changeful creatures like ourselves, and none of it to rise to +the One in whom absolute confidence may eternally be fixed? +</p> + +<p> +But then, of course, as we may see by the exercise of the same emotion in +regard to one Another, the under side (as I have been accustomed to say to you) +of this confidence in God or Christ is diffidence of myself. There is no real +exercise of confidence which does not involve, as an essential part of itself, +the going out from myself in order that I may lay all the weight and the +responsibility of the matter in hand upon Him in whom I trust. And so Christian +faith is compounded of these two elements, or rather, it has these two sides +which correspond to one another. The same figure is convex or concave according +as you look at it from one side or another. If you look at faith from one side, +it rises towards God; if from the other, it hollows itself out into a great +emptiness. And so the under side of faith is distrust; and he that puts his +confidence in God thereby goes out of himself, and declares that in himself +there is nothing to rest upon. +</p> + +<p> +Now that two-sided confidence and diffidence, trust and distrust, which are +one, is truly a work. It is not an easy one either; it is the exercise of our +own inmost nature. It is an effort of will. It has to be done by coercing +ourselves. It has to be maintained in the face of many temptations and +difficulties. The contrast between faith and work is between an inward act and +a crowd of outward performances. But the faith which knits me to God is my act, +and I am responsible for it. +</p> + +<p> +But yet it is not a work, just because it is a ceasing from my own works, and +going out from myself that He may enter in. Only remember, when we say, 'Not by +works of righteousness, but by the faith of Christ,' we are but proclaiming +that the inward man must exercise that act of self-abnegation and confession of +its own impotence, and ceasing from all reliance on anything which it does, +whereby, and whereby alone, it can be knit to God. 'Labour not for the meat +that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto eternal life…. This is +the work of God, that ye believe.' You are responsible for doing that, or for +not doing it. +</p> + +<p> +II. Secondly, faith, and not a multitude of separate acts, is what pleases God. +</p> + +<p> +Mark the difference between the form of the question and that of the answer. +The people say, 'What are we to do that we may work the <i>works</i> of God?' +Christ answers in the singular: 'This is the <i>work</i>.' They thought of a +great variety of observances and deeds. He gathers them all up into one. They +thought of a pile, and that the higher it rose the more likely they were to be +accepted. He unified the requirement, and He brought it all down to this one +act, in which all other acts are included, and on which alone the whole weight +of a man's salvation is to rest. 'What shall we do that we might work the works +of God?' is a question asked in all sorts of ways, by the hearts of men all +round about us; and what a babble of answers comes! The priest says, 'Rites and +ceremonies.' The thinker says, 'Culture, education.' The moralist says, 'Do +this, that, and the other thing,' and enumerates a whole series of separate +acts. Jesus Christ says, 'One thing is needful…. This is the work of God.' He +brushes away the sacerdotal answer and the answer of the mere moralist, and He +says, 'No! Not <i>do</i>; but <i>trust</i>.' In so far as that is act, it is +the only act that you need. +</p> + +<p> +That is evidently reasonable. The man is more than his work; motive is more +important than action; character is deeper than conduct. God is pleased, not by +what men do, but by what men are. We must <i>be</i> first, and then we shall +<i>do</i>. And it is obviously reasonable, because we can find analogies to the +requirement in all other relations of life. What would you care for a child +that scrupulously obeyed, and did not love or trust? What would a prince think +of a subject who was ostentatious in acts of loyalty, and all the while was +plotting and nurturing treason in his heart? +</p> + +<p> +If doing separate acts of righteousness be the way to work the works of God, +then no man has ever done them. For it is a plain fact that every man falls +below his own conscience—which conscience is less scrupulous than the divine +law. The worst of us knows a great deal more than the best of us does; and our +lives, universally, are, at the best, lives of partial effort after unreached +attainments of obedience and of virtue. +</p> + +<p> +But, even supposing that we could perform, far more completely than we do, the +requirements of our own consciences, and conform to the evident duties of our +position and relations, do you think that without faith we should be therein +working the works of God? Suppose a man were able fully to realise his own +ideal of goodness, without any confidence in God underlying all his acts; do +you think that these would be acts that would please God? It seems to me that, +however lovely and worthy of admiration, looked at with human eyes only, many +lives are, which have nobly and resolutely fought against evil, and struggled +after good, if they have lacked the crowning grace of doing this for God's +sake, they lack, I was going to say, almost everything; I will not say that, +but I will say that they lack that which makes them acceptable, well-pleasing +to Him. The poorest, the most imperfect realisation of our duty and ideal of +conduct which has in it a love towards God and a faith in Him that would fain +do better if it could, is a nobler thing, I venture to say, in the eyes of +Heaven—which are the truth-seeing eyes—than the noblest achievements of an +untrusting soul. It does not seem to me that to say so is bigotry or narrowness +or anything else but the plain deduction from this, that a man's relation to +God is the deepest thing about him, and that if that be right, other things +will come right, and if that be wrong nothing is as right as it might be. +</p> + +<p> +Here we have Jesus Christ laying the foundation for the doctrine which is often +said to be Pauline, as if that meant something else than coming from Jesus +Christ. We often hear people say, 'Oh, your evangelical teaching of +justification by faith, and all that, comes out of Paul's Epistles, not out of +Christ's teaching, nor out of John's Gospel.' Well, there is a difference, +which it is blindness not to recognise, between the seeds of teaching in our +Lord's words, and the flowers and fruit of these seeds, which we get in the +more systematised and developed teaching of the Epistles. I frankly admit that, +and I should expect it, with my belief as to who Christ is, and who Paul is. +But in that saying, 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He +hath sent,' is the germ of everything that Paul has taught us about the works +of the law being of no avail, and faith being alone and unfailing in its power +of uniting men to God, and bringing them into the possession of eternal life. +The saying stands in John's Gospel, and so Paul and John alike received, though +in different fashions, and wrought out on different lines of subsequent +teaching, the germinal impulse from these words of the Master. Let us hear no +more about salvation by faith being a Pauline addition to Christ's Gospel, for +the lips of Christ Himself have declared 'this is the work of God, that ye +believe on Him whom He hath sent.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Thirdly, this faith is the productive parent of all separate works of God. +</p> + +<p> +The teaching that I have been trying to enforce has, I know, been so presented +as to make a pillow for indolence, and to be closely allied to immorality. It +has been so presented, but it has not been so presented half as often as its +enemies would have us believe. For I know of but very few, and those by no +means the most prominent and powerful of the preachers of the great doctrine of +salvation by faith, who have not added, as its greatest teacher did: 'Let ours +also be careful to maintain good works for necessary uses.' But the true +teaching is not that trust is a substitute for work, but that it is the +foundation of work. The Gospel is, first of all, Trust; then, set yourselves to +do the works of faith. It works by love, it is the opening of the heart to the +entrance of the life of Christ, and, of course, when that life comes in, it +will act in the man in a manner appropriate to its origin and source, and he +that by faith has been joined to Jesus Christ, and has opened his heart to +receive into that heart the life of Christ, will, as a matter of course, bring +forth, in the measure of his faith, the fruits of righteousness. +</p> + +<p> +We are surely not despising fruits and flowers when we insist upon the root +from which they shall come. A man may take separate acts of partial goodness, +as you see children in the springtime sticking daisies on the spikes of a +thorn-twig picked from the hedges. But these will die. The basis of all +righteousness is faith, and the manifestation of faith is practical +righteousness. 'Show Me thy faith by thy works' is Christ's teaching quite as +much as it is the teaching of His sturdy servant James. And so, dear friends, +we are going the shortest way to enrich lives with all the beauties of possible +human perfection when we say, 'Begin at the beginning. The longest way round is +the shortest way home; trust Him with all your hearts first, and that will +effloresce into "whatsoever things are lovely and whatever things are of good +report."' In the beautiful metaphor of the Apostle Peter, in his second +Epistle, Faith is the damsel who leads in the chorus of consequent graces; and +we are exhorted to 'add to our faith virtue,' and all the others that unfold +themselves in harmonious sequence from that one central source. +</p> + +<p> +If I had time I should be glad to turn for a moment to the light which such +considerations cast upon subjects that are largely occupying the attention of +the Christian Church to-day. I should like to insist that, before you talk much +about applied Christianity, you should be very sure that in men there <i>is</i> +a Christianity to apply. I venture to profess my own humble belief that in +ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, Christian ministers and churches will do no +more for the social, political, and intellectual and moral advancement of men +and the elevation of the people by sticking to their own work and preaching +this Gospel—'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath +sent.' +</p> + +<p> +IV. Lastly, this faith secures the bread of life. +</p> + +<p> +The bread of life is the starting-point of the whole conversation. In the +widest possible sense it is whatsoever truly stills the hunger of the immortal +soul. In a deeper sense it is the person of Jesus Christ Himself, for He not +only says that He will <i>give</i>, but that He <i>is</i> the Bread of Life. +And, in the deepest sense of all, it is His flesh broken for us in His +sacrifice on the Cross. That bread is a gift. So the paradox results which +stands in our text—<i>work</i> for the bread which God will <i>give</i>. If it +be a gift, that fact determines what sort of work must be done in order to +possess it. If it be a gift, then the only work is to accept it. If it be a +gift, then we are out of the region of <i>quid pro quo</i>; and have not to +bring, as Chinese do, great strings of copper cash that, all added up together, +do not amount to a shilling, in order to buy what God will bestow upon us. If +it be a gift, then to trust the Giver and to accept the gift is the only +condition that is possible. +</p> + +<p> +It is not a condition that God has invented and arbitrarily imposed. The +necessity of it is lodged deep in the very nature of the case. Air cannot get +to the lungs of a mouse in an air-pump. Light cannot come into a room where all +the shutters are up and the keyhole stopped. If a man chooses to perch himself +on some little stool of his own, with glass legs to it, and to take away his +hand from the conductor, no electricity will come to him. If I choose to lock +my lips, Jesus Christ does not prise open my clenched teeth to put the bread of +life into my unwilling mouth. If we ask, we get; if we take, we get. +</p> + +<p> +And so the paradox comes, that we work for a gift, with a work which is not +work because it is a departure from myself. It is the same blessed paradox +which the prophet spoke when he said, 'Buy … without money and without price.' +Oh! what a burden of hopeless effort and weary toil—like that of the man that +had to roll the stone up the hill, which ever slipped back again—is lifted from +our shoulders by such a word as this that I have been poorly trying to speak +about now! 'Thou art careful and troubled about many things,' poor soul! trying +to be good; trying to fight yourself, and the world, and the devil. Try the +other plan, and listen to Him saying, 'Give up self-imposed effort in thine own +strength. Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap32"></a>THE MANNA</h2> + +<p> +'I am that bread of life. 49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and +are dead. 50. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may +eat thereof, and not die.'—JOHN vi. 48-50. +</p> + +<p> +'This is of a truth that Prophet,' said the Jews, when Christ had fed the five +thousand on the five barley loaves and the two small fishes. That was the kind +of Teacher for them; they were quite unaffected by the wisdom of His words and +the beauty of His deeds, but a miracle that found food precisely met their +wants, and so there was excited an impure enthusiasm, very unwelcome to Jesus. +Therefore He withdrew Himself from it, and when the people followed Him, all +full of expectation, to get some more loaves and see some more miracles, He met +them with a douche of cold water that cooled their enthusiasm and flung them +back into a critical, questioning mood. They pointed to the miracle of the +manna, and hinted that, if He expected them to accept Him, He must do as Moses +had done, or something like it. Probably there was a Jewish tradition in +existence then to the effect that the Messiah was to repeat the miracle of the +manna. But, at all events, Christ lays hold of the reference that they put into +His hands, and He said in effect, 'Manna? Yes; I give, and am, the true Manna.' +</p> + +<p> +So this is the third of the instances in this Gospel in which our Lord pointed +to Old Testament incidents and institutions as symbolising Himself. In the +first of them, when He likened Himself to the ladder that Jacob saw, He claimed +to be the Medium of communication between heaven and earth. In the second of +them, when He likened Himself to the brazen serpent lifted in the camp, He +claimed to be the Healer of a sin-stricken and poisoned world. And now, with an +allusion both to the miracle and to the Jewish demand for the repetition of the +manna sign, He claims to be the true Food for a starving world. So there are +three things in my text: Christ's claim, His requirements, and His promise; the +bread, the eating, the issues. +</p> + +<p> +I. Here is a claim of Christ's. +</p> + +<p> +As I have already said, in the whole wonderful conversation of which I have +selected a portion for my text, there is a double reference to the miracle of +the loaves and of the manna. What our Lord means to assert for Himself is that +which is common to both of these—viz. that He supplies the great primal wants +of humanity, the hunger of the heart. There may be another reference also, +which I just notice without dwelling upon it. Barley loaves were the coarsest +and least valuable form of bread. They were not only of little worth, but +altogether inadequate to feeding the five thousand. The palates, unaccustomed +to the stinging savours of the garlic and the leeks of Egypt, loathed the light +bread. And so Jesus Christ comes into the world in lowly form, like the barley +loaf or the light bread from which men whose tastes have been vitiated by the +piquant savours of more earthly nourishment turn away as insipid. And yet He in +His lowliness, He in His savourlessness, is that which meets the deepest wants +of humanity, and is every man's fare because He will be any man's satisfaction. +</p> + +<p> +But I wish to bring before your notice the wonderful way in which our Lord, in +this great dissertation concerning Himself as the Bread of Life, gradually +unfolds the depths of His meaning and of His offer. He began with saying that +He, the Son of Man, will give to men the bread that 'endures to everlasting +life.' And then when that saying is but dimly understood, and yet awakes some +strange new desires and appetites in the hearers, and they come to Him and ask, +'Lord, evermore give us this bread,' He answers them with opening another +finger of His hand, as it were, and showing them a little more of the treasure +that lies in His palm. For He says, 'I <i>am</i> that Bread of Life.' That is +an advance on the previous saying. He gives bread, and any man that was +conscious of possessing some great truth or some great blessing which, believed +and accepted, would refresh and nourish humanity, might have said the same +thing. But now we pass into the <i>penumbra</i> of a greater mystery: 'I am +that Bread of Life.' You cannot separate what Christ gives from what Christ is. +You can take the truths that another man proclaims, altogether irrespective of +him and his personality. That only disturbs, and the sooner it is got rid of, +the firmer and the purer our possession of the message for which he is only the +medium. You can take Plato's teaching and do as you like with Plato. But you +cannot take Christ's teaching and do as you like with Christ. His personality +is the centre of His gift to the world. 'I am that Bread of Life.' That He +should give it is much; that He should <i>be</i> it is far more. +</p> + +<p> +And notice how, when He has thus drawn us a little further into the magic +circle of the light, He not only asserts the inseparableness of His gift from +His Person, but also asserts, with a reference, no doubt, to the manna, 'I am +the Bread that came down from heaven.' The listeners immediately laid hold of +that one point, and neglected for the moment all the rest, and they fixed with +a true instinct—although it was for the purpose of contradicting it—on this +central point, 'that came down from heaven.' They said one to the other, 'How +can this man say that He came down from heaven? Is not this Jesus the Son of +Joseph, whose father and mother we know?' So, brethren, as the manna that +descended from above in the dew of the night was to the bread that was baked in +a baker's oven, so is the Christ to the manhood that has its origin in the +natural processes of birth. The Incarnation of the Son of God, becoming Son of +Man for us and for our salvation, is involved in this great claim. You do not +get to the heart of Christ's message unless you have accepted this as the truth +concerning Him, that 'in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, +and the Word was God,' and that at a definite point in the long process of the +ages, 'the Word became flesh, and dwelt amongst us.' He will never be 'the +Bread of Life' unless He is 'the Bread that came down from heaven.' For +humanity needs that the blue heavens that bend remote above should come down; +and we cannot be lifted 'out of the horrible pit and the miry clay' unless a +Hand from above be reached down into the depths of our degradation, and lift us +from our lowness. Heaven must come to earth, if earth is to rise to heaven. The +ladder must be let down from above, if ever from the lower levels men are to +ascend thither where at the summit the face of God can be seen. +</p> + +<p> +But that is not all. Our Lord, if I may recur to a former figure, went on to +open another finger of His hand, and to show still more of the gift. For He not +only said, 'the Son of Man gives the bread,' and 'I am the Bread that came down +from heaven,' but He went on to say, in a subsequent stage of the conversation, +'the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the +world.' Now, notice that '<i>will</i> give.' Then, though the Word was made +flesh, and the manna came down from heaven, the especial gift of His flesh for +the life of the world was, at the time of His speaking, a future thing. And +what He meant is still more clearly brought out, when we read other words which +are the very climax of this conversation, when He declares that the condition +of our having life in ourselves is our 'eating the flesh and drinking the blood +of the Son of Man.' The figure is made repulsive on purpose, in order that it +may provoke us to penetrate to its meaning. It was even more repulsive to the +Jew, with his religious horror of touching or tasting anything in which the +blood was. And yet our Lord not only speaks of Himself as the Bread, but of His +flesh and blood as being the Food of the world. The separation of the two +clearly indicates a violent death, and I, for my part, have no manner of doubt +that, in these great words in which our Lord lays bare the deepest foundations +of His claim to be the Food of humanity, there is couched, in the veiled +language which was necessary at the then stage of His mission, a distinct +reference to His death, as being the Sacrifice on which a hunger-stricken world +may feed and be satisfied. +</p> + +<p> +So here we have, in three steps, the great central truth of the Gospel set +forth in symbolical aspect: the Son that gives, the Son that is, the Bread of +the world, and the death whereby His flesh and blood are separated and become +the nourishment of all sin-stricken souls. I do not say one word to enforce +these claims, but I beseech you deal fairly with these Gospel narratives, and +do not go on picking out of them bits of Christ's actions or words, which +commend themselves to you, and ignoring all the rest. There is no more reason +to believe that Jesus Christ ever said, 'As ye would that men should do to you, +do ye even so to them likewise,' or any other part of that Sermon on the Mount +which some people take as their Christianity, than there is to believe that He +said, 'The bread which I give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of +the world.' Believe it or not, it is not dealing with the Scripture records as +you deal with other historical records if, for subjective reasons, you brush +aside all that department of our Lord's teaching. And if you do accept it, what +becomes of His 'sweet reasonableness'? What becomes of His meekness and +lowliness of heart? I was going to say what becomes of His sanity, that He +should stand up, a youngish man from Nazareth, in the synagogue of Capernaum, +and should say, 'I, heaven-descended, and slain by men, am the Bread of Life to +the whole world'? +</p> + +<p> +I was going to make another observation, which I must just pass with the +slightest notice, and that is that, taking this point of view and giving full +weight to these three stages of our Lord's progressive revelation of Himself, +we have the answer to the question, What is the connection between these +discourses and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper? Our modern sacramentarian +friends will have it that Jesus Christ is speaking of the Communion in this +chapter. I take it, and I venture to think it the reasonable explanation, that +He is not speaking about the Communion, but that this discourse and that rite +are dealing with the same truths—the one in articulate words, the other in +equivalent symbols. And so we have not to read into the text any allusion to +the rite, but to see in the text and in the rite the proclamation of the same +thing—viz. that the flesh and the blood of the Sacrifice for sins is the food +on which a sinful and cleansed world may feed. +</p> + +<p> +II. So, secondly, let me ask you to note our Lord's requirement here. +</p> + +<p> +He carries on the metaphor. 'This is the Bread which cometh down from heaven, +that a man may eat thereof and not die.' The eating necessarily follows from +the symbol of the bread, as the designation of the way by which we all, with +our hungry hearts, may feed upon this Bread of God. I need not remind you that +in many a place, and in this whole context, we find the explanation of the +symbol very plainly. In another part of this conversation we read, under +another metaphor which comes to the same thing, 'He that cometh unto Me shall +never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. So the eating and +the coming are diverse symbols for the one thing, the believing. When a man +eats he appropriates to himself, and incorporates into his very being, the food +of which he partakes. And when a man trusts Christ he appropriates to himself, +and incorporates into his inmost being, the very life of Jesus Christ. You say, +'That is mysticism'; but it is the New Testament teaching, that when I trust +Christ I get more than His gifts—I get Himself; that when my faith goes out to +Him it not only rests me on Him, but it brings Him into me, and that food of +the spirit becomes the life, as we shall see, of <i>my</i> spirit. +</p> + +<p> +That condition is indispensable. It is useless to have food on your table or +your plate or in your hand, it does not nourish you there: you must eat it, and +then you gain sustenance from it. Many a hungry man has died at the door of a +granary. Some of us are starving, though beside us there is 'the Bread of God +that came down from heaven.' Brethren, you must eat, and I venture to put the +question to you—<i>not</i> Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the world's +Saviour? <i>not</i> Do you believe in an Incarnation? <i>not</i> Do you believe +in an Atonement? but Have you claimed your portion in the Bread? Have you taken +it into your own lips? <i>Crede et manducasti</i>, said Augustine, +'believe'—or, rather, <i>trust</i>—'and thou hast eaten.' Have <i>you</i>? +</p> + +<p> +Further, let me remind you that under this eating is included not only some +initial act of faith, but a continuous course of partaking. The dinner you ate +this day last year is of no use for to-day's hunger. The act of faith done long +ago will not bring the Bread to nourish you now. You must repeat the meal. And +very strikingly and beautifully in the last part of this conversation our Lord +varies the word for eating, and substitutes—as if He were speaking to those who +had fulfilled the previous condition—another one which implies the ruminant +action of certain animals. And that is what Christian men have to do, to feed +over and over and over again on the 'Bread of God which came down from heaven.' +Christ, and especially in and through His death for us, can nourish and sustain +our wills, giving them the pattern of what they should desire, and the motive +for which they should desire it. Christ, and especially through His death, can +feed our consciences, and take away from them all the painful sense of guilt, +while He sharpens them to a far keener sensitiveness to evil. Christ, and +especially through His death, can feed our understandings, and unveil therein +the deepest truths concerning God and man, concerning man's destiny and God's +mercy. Christ, and especially in His death, can feed our affections, and +minister to love and desire and submission and hope their celestial +nourishment. He is 'the Bread of God,' and we have but to eat of that which is +laid before us. +</p> + +<p> +III. So, lastly, we have here the issues. +</p> + +<p> +'Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.' This Bread +secures that if 'a man eat thereof he shall not die.' The bread that perishes +feeds a life that perishes; but this Bread not only sustains but creates a life +that cannot perish, and, taken into the spirits of men that are 'dead in +trespasses and sins,' imparts to them a life that has no affinity to evil, and +therefore no dread of extinction. +</p> + +<p> +If 'a man eats thereof he shall not die,' Christ annihilates for us the mere +accident of physical death. That is only a momentary jolt on the course. That +may all be crammed into a parenthesis. 'He shall not die,' but live the true +life which comes from the possession of union with Him who is the Life. The +bread which we eat sustains life; the Bread which He gives originates it. The +bread which we eat is assimilated to our bodily frame, the Bread which He gives +assimilates our spiritual nature to His. And so it comes to be the only food +that stills a hungry heart, the only food that satisfies and yet never cloys, +which, eating, we are filled, and being filled are made capable of more, and, +being capable of more, receive more. In blessed and eternal alternation, +fruition and desire, satisfaction and appetite, go on. +</p> + +<p> +'Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread?' You cannot answer the +question with any reasonable answer. Oh, dear friends! I beseech you, listen to +that Lord who is saying to each of us, 'Take, eat, this is My body, which is +broken for you.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap33"></a>ONE SAYING WITH TWO MEANINGS</h2> + +<p> +'Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go +unto Him that sent Me. 34. Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and where I +am, thither ye cannot come.'—JOHN vii. 33, 34. +</p> + +<p> +'Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me; and as I +said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.'—JOHN +xiii. 33. +</p> + +<p> +No greater contrast can be conceived than that between these two groups to whom +such singularly similar words were addressed. The one consists of the officers, +tools of the Pharisees and of the priests, who had been sent to seize Christ, +and would fain have carried out their masters' commission, but were restrained +by a strange awe, inexplicable even to themselves. The other consists of the +little company of His faithful, though slow, scholars, who made a great many +mistakes, and sometimes all but tired out even His patience, and yet were +forgiven much because they loved much. Hatred animated one group, loving sorrow +the other. +</p> + +<p> +Christ speaks to them both in nearly the same words, but with what a different +tone, meaning, and application! To the officers the saying is an exhibition of +His triumphant confidence that their malice is impotent and their arms +paralysed; that when He wills He will <i>go</i>, not be dragged by them or any +man, but go to a safe asylum, where foes can neither find nor follow. The +officers do not understand what He means. They think that, bad Jew as they have +always believed Him to be, He may very possibly consummate His apostasy by +going over to the Gentiles altogether; but, at any rate, they feel that He is +to escape their hands. +</p> + +<p> +The disciples understand little more as to whither He goes, as they themselves +confess a moment after; but they gather from His words His loving pity, and +though the upper side of the saying seems to be menacing and full of +separation, there is an under side that suggests the possibility of a reunion +for them. +</p> + +<p> +The words are nearly the same in both cases, but they are not absolutely +identical. There are significant omissions and additions in the second form of +them. 'Little children' is the tenderest of all the names that ever came from +Christ's lips to His disciples, and never was heard on His lips except on this +one occasion, for parting words ought to be very loving words. 'A little while +I am with you,' but He does not say, 'And then I go to Him that sent Me.' 'Ye +shall seek Me,' but He does not say, 'And shall not find Me.' 'As I said unto +the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come, so now I say to you,' that little word +'now' makes the announcement a truth for the present only. His disciples shall +not seek Him in vain, but when they seek they shall find. And though for a +moment they be parted from Him, it is with the prospect and the confidence of +reunion. Let us, then, look at the two main thoughts here. First, the two +'seekings,' the seeking which is vain, and the seeking which is never vain; and +the two 'cannots,' the inability of His enemies for evermore to come where He +is, and the inability of His friends, for a little season, to come where He is. +</p> + +<p> +I. The two seekings. +</p> + +<p> +As I have observed, there is a very significant omission in one of the forms of +the words. The enemies are told that they will never find Him, but no such dark +words are spoken to the friends. So, then, hostile seeking of the Christ is in +vain, and loving seeking of Him by His friends, though they understand Him but +very poorly, and therefore seek Him that they may know Him better, is always +answered and over-answered. +</p> + +<p> +Let me deal just for a moment or two with each of these. In their simplest use +the words of my first text merely mean this: 'You cannot touch Me, I am passing +into a safe asylum where your hands can never reach Me.' +</p> + +<p> +We may generalise that for a moment, though it does not lie directly in our +path, and preach the old blessed truth that no man with hostile intent seeking +for Christ in His person, in His Gospel, or in His followers and friends, can +ever find Him. All the antagonism that has stormed against Him and His cause +and words, and His followers and lovers, has been impotent and vain. The +pursuers are like dogs chasing a bird, sniffing along the ground after their +prey, which all the while sits out of their reach on a bough, and carols to the +sky. As in the days of His flesh, His foes could not touch His person till He +chose, and vainly sought Him when it pleased Him to hide from them, so ever +since, in regard to His cause, and in regard to all hearts that love Him, no +weapon that is formed against them shall prosper. They shall be wrapped, when +need be, in a cloud of protecting darkness, and stand safe within its shelter. +Take good cheer, all you that are trying to do anything, however little, +however secular it may appear to be, for the good and well-being of your +fellows! All such service is a prolongation of Christ's work, and an effluence +from His, if there be any good in it at all; and it is immortal and safe, as is +His. 'Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me.' +</p> + +<p> +But then, besides that, there is another thought. It is not merely hostile +seeking of Him that is hopeless vain. When the dark days came over Israel, +under the growing pressure of the Roman yoke, and amidst the agonies of that +last siege, and the unutterable sufferings which all but annihilated the +nation, do you not think that there were many of these people who said to +themselves: 'Ah! if we had only that Jesus of Nazareth back with us for a day +or two; if we had only listened to Him!' Do you not think that before Israel +dissolved in blood there were many of those who had stood hostile or alienated, +who desired to see 'one of the days of the Son of Man,' and did not see it? +They sought Him, not in anger any more; they sought Him, not in penitence, or +else they would have found Him; but they sought Him simply in distress, and +wishing that they could have back again what they had cared so little for when +they had it. +</p> + +<p> +And are there no people listening to me now, to whom these words apply?— +</p> + +<p> + 'He that will not, when he may,<br /> + When he will it shall be—Nay!' +</p> + +<p> +Although it is (blessed be His name) always true that a seeking heart finds +Him, and whensoever there is the faintest trace of penitent desire to get hold +of Christ's hand it does grasp ours, it is also true that things neglected once +cannot be brought back; that the sowing time allowed to pass can never return; +and that they who have turned, as some of you have turned, dear friends, all +your lives, a deaf ear to the Christ that asks you to love Him and trust Him, +may one day wish that it had been otherwise, and go to look for Him and not +find Him. +</p> + +<p> +There is another kind of seeking that is vain, an intellectual seeking without +the preparation of the heart. There are, no doubt, some people here to-day that +would say, 'We have been seeking the truth about religion all our lives, and we +have not got to it yet.' Well, I do not want to judge either your motives or +your methods, but I know this, that there is many a man who goes on the quest +for religious certainty, and looks <i>at</i>, if not <i>for</i> Jesus Christ, +and is not really capable of discerning Him when he sees Him, because his eye +is not single, or because his heart is full of worldliness or indifference, or +because he begins with a foregone conclusion, and looks for facts to establish +that; or because he will not cast down and put away evil things that rise up +between him and his Master. +</p> + +<p> +My brother! if you go to look for Jesus Christ with a heart full of the world, +if you go to look for Him while you wish to hold on by all the habitudes and +earthlinesses of your past, you will never find Him. The sensualist seeks for +Him, the covetous man seeks for Him, the passionate, ill-tempered man seeks for +Him; the woman plunged in frivolities, or steeped to the eyebrows in domestic +cares,—these may in some feeble fashion go to look for Him and they will not +find Him, because they have sought for Him with hearts overcharged with other +things and filled with the affairs of this life, its trifles and its sins. +</p> + +<p> +I turn for a moment to the seeking that is not vain. 'Ye shall seek Me' is not +on Christ's lips to any heart that loves Him, however imperfectly, a sentence +of separation or an appointment of a sorrowful lot, but it is a blessed law, +the law of the Christian life. +</p> + +<p> +That life is all one great seeking after Christ. Love seeks the absent when +removed from our sight. If we care anything about Him at all, our hearts will +turn to Him as naturally as, when the winter begins to pinch, the migrating +birds seek the sunny south, impelled by an instinct that they do not themselves +understand. +</p> + +<p> +The same law which sends loving thoughts out across the globe to seek for +husband, child, or friend when absent, sets the really Christian heart seeking +for the Christ, whom, having not seen, it loves, as surely as the ivy tendril +feels out for a support. As surely as the roots of a mountain-ash growing on +the top of a boulder feel down the side of the rock till they reach the soil; +as surely as the stork follows the warmth to the sunny Mediterranean, so +surely, if your heart loves Christ, will the very heart and motive of your +action be the search for Him. +</p> + +<p> +And if you do <i>not</i> seek Him, brother, as surely as He is parted from our +sense you will lose Him, and He will be parted from you wholly, for there is no +way by which a person who is not before our eyes may be kept near us except +only by diligent effort on our part to keep thought and love and will all in +contact with Him; thought meditating, love going out towards Him, will +submitting. Unless there be this effort, you will lose your Master as surely as +a little child in a crowd will lose his nurse and his guide, if his hand slips +from out the protecting hand. The dark shadow of the earth on which you stand +will slowly steal over His silvery brightness, as when the moon is eclipsed, +and you will not know how you have lost Him, but only be sadly aware that your +heaven is darkened. 'Ye shall seek Me,' is the condition of all happy communion +between Christ and us. +</p> + +<p> +And that seeking, dear brother, in the threefold form in which I have spoken of +it—effort to keep Him in our thoughts, in our love, and over our will—is +neither a seeking which starts from a sense that we do not possess Him, nor one +which ends in disappointment. But we seek for Him because we already have Him +in a measure, and we seek Him that we may possess Him more abundantly, and +anything is possible rather than that such a search shall be vain. Men may go +to created wells, and find no water, and return ashamed, and with their vessels +empty, but every one who seeks for that Fountain of salvation shall draw from +it with joy. It is as impossible that a heart which desires Jesus Christ shall +not have Him, as it is that lungs dilated shall not fill with air, or as it is +that an empty vessel put out in a rainfall shall not be replenished. He does +not hide Himself, but He desires to be found. May I say that as a mother will +sometimes pretend to her child to hide, that the child's delight may be the +greater in searching and in finding, so Christ has gone away from our sight in +order, for one reason, that He may stimulate our desires to feel after Him! If +we seek Him hid in God, we shall find Him for the joy of our hearts. +</p> + +<p> +A great thinker once said that he would rather have the search after truth than +the possession of truth. It was a rash word, but it pointed to the fact that +there is a search which is only one shade less blessed than the possession. And +if that be so in regard to any pure and high truth, it is still more so about +Christ Himself. To seek for Him is joy; to find Him is joy. What can be a +happier life than the life of constant pursuit after an infinitely precious +object, which is ever being sought and ever being found; sought with a profound +consciousness of its preciousness, found with a widening appreciation and +capacity for its enjoyment? 'Ye shall seek Me' is a word not of evil but of +good cheer; for buried in the depth of the commandment to search is the promise +that we shall find. +</p> + +<p> +II, Secondly, let us look briefly at these two 'cannots.' +</p> + +<p> +'Whither I go, ye cannot come,' says He to His enemies, with no limitation, +with no condition. The 'cannot' is absolute and permanent, so long as they +retain their enmity. To His friends, on the other hand, He says, 'So now I say +to you,' the law for to-day, the law for this side the flood, but not the law +for the beyond, as He explains more fully in the subsequent words: 'Thou canst +not follow Me now, but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.' +</p> + +<p> +So, then, Christ is somewhere. When He passed from life it was not into a state +only, but into a place; and He took with Him a material body, howsoever +changed. He is somewhere, and there friend and enemy alike cannot enter, so +long as they are compassed with 'the earthly house of this tabernacle.' But the +incapacity is deeper than that. No sinful man can pass thither. Where has He +gone? The preceding words give us the answer. 'God shall glorify Him in +Himself.' The prospect of that assumption into the inmost glory of the divine +nature directly led our Lord to think of the change it would bring about in the +relation of His humble friends to Him. While for Himself He triumphs in the +prospect, He cannot but turn a thought to their lonesomeness, and hence come +the words of our text. He has passed into the bosom and blaze of divinity. Can +I walk there, can I pass into that tremendous fiery furnace? 'Who shall dwell +with the everlasting burnings?' 'Ye cannot follow Me now.' No man can go +thither except Christ goes thither. +</p> + +<p> +There are deep mysteries lying in that word of our Lords,—'I go to prepare a +place for you.' We know not what manner of activity on His part that definitely +means. It seems as if somehow or other the presence in Heaven of our Brother in +His glorified humanity was necessary in order that the golden pavement should +be trodden by our feet, and that our poor, feeble manhood should live and not +be shrivelled up in the blaze of that central brightness. +</p> + +<p> +We know not how He prepares the place, but heaven, whatever it be, is no place +for a man unless the Man, Christ Jesus, be there. He is the Revealer of God, +not only for earth, but for heaven; not only for time, but for eternity. 'No +man cometh unto the Father but by Me,' is true everywhere and always, there as +here. So I suppose that, but for His presence, heaven itself would be dark, and +its King invisible, and if a man could enter there he would either be blasted +with unbearable flashes of brightness or grope at its noonday as the blind, +because his eye was not adapted to such beams. Be that as it may, 'the +Forerunner is for us entered.' He has gone before, because He knows the great +City, 'His own calm home, His habitation from eternity.' He has gone before to +make ready a lodging for us, in whose land He has dwelt so long, and He will +meet us, who would else be bewildered like some dweller in a desert if brought +to the capital, when we reach the gates, and guide our unaccustomed steps to +the mansion prepared for us. +</p> + +<p> +But the power to enter there, even when He is there, depends on our union with +Christ by faith. When we are joined to Him, the absolute 'cannot,' based upon +flesh, and still more upon sin, which is a radical and permanent impossibility, +is changed into a relative and temporary incapacity. If we have faith in +Christ, and are thereby drawing a kindred life from Him, our nature will be in +process of being changed into that which is capable of bearing the brilliance +of the felicities of heaven. But just as these friends of Christ, though they +loved Him very truly, and understood Him a little, were a long way from being +ready to follow Him, and needed the schooling of the Cross, and Olivet, and +Pentecost, as well as the discipline of life and toil, before they were fully +ripe for the harvest, so we, for the most part, have to pass through analogous +training before we are prepared for the place which Christ has prepared for us. +Certainly, so soon as a heart has trusted Christ, it is capable of entering +where He is, and the real reason why the disciples could not come where He went +was that they did not yet clearly know Him as the divine Sacrifice for theirs +and the world's sins, and, however much they believed in Him as Messiah, had +not yet, nor could have, the knowledge on which they could found their trust in +Him as their Saviour. +</p> + +<p> +But, while that is true, it is also true that each advance in the grace and +knowledge of our Lord and Saviour will bring with it capacity to advance +further into the heart of the far-off land, and to see more of the King in His +beauty. So, as long as His friends were wrapped in such dark clouds of +misconception and error, as long as their Christian characters were so +imperfect and incomplete as they were at the time of my text being spoken, they +could not go thither and follow Him. But it was a diminishing impossibility, +and day by day they approximated more and more to His likeness, because they +understood Him more, and trusted Him more, and loved Him more, and grew towards +Him, and, therefore, day by day became more and more able to enter into that +Kingdom. +</p> + +<p> +Are you growing in power so to do? Is the only thing which unfits you for +heaven the fact that you have a mortal body? In other respects are you fit to +go into that heaven, and walk in its brightness and not be consumed? The answer +to the question is found in another one—Are you joined to Jesus Christ by +simple faith? The incapacity is absolute and eternal if the enmity is eternal. +</p> + +<p> +State and place are determined yonder by character, and character is determined +by faith. Take a bottle of some solution in which heterogeneous substances have +all been melted up together, and let it stand on a shelf and gradually settle +down, and its contents will settle in regular layers, the heaviest at the +bottom and the lightest at the top, and stratify themselves according to +gravity. And that is how the other world is arranged—stratified. When all the +confusions of this present are at an end, and all the moisture is driven off, +men and women will be left in layers, like drawing to like. As Peter said about +Judas with equal wisdom and reticence, 'He went to his own place.' That is +where we shall all go, to the place we are fit for. +</p> + +<p> +God does not slam the door of heaven in anybody's face; it stands wide open. +But there is a mystic barrier, unseen, but most real, more repellent than +cherub and flaming sword, which makes it impossible for any foot to cross that +threshold except the foot of the man whose heart and nature have been made +Christlike, and fitted for heaven by simple faith in Him. +</p> + +<p> +Love Him and trust Him, and then your life on earth will be a blessed seeking +and a blessed finding of Him whom to seek is joyous effort, whom to find is an +Elysium of rest. You will walk here not parted from Him, but with your thoughts +and your love, which are your truest self, going up where He is, until you drop +'the muddy vesture of decay' which unfits you whilst you wear it for the +presence-chamber of the King, and so you will enter in and be 'for ever with +the Lord.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap34"></a>THE ROCK AND THE WATER</h2> + +<p> +'In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, +If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. 38. He that believeth on +Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living +water.'—JOHN vii. 37,38. +</p> + +<p> +The occasion and date of this great saying are carefully given by the +Evangelist, because they throw much light on its significance and importance. +It was 'on the last day, that great day of the Feast,' that 'Jesus stood and +cried.' The Feast was that of Tabernacles, which was instituted in order to +keep in mind the incidents of the desert wandering. On the anniversary of this +day the Jews still do as they used to, and in many a foul ghetto and frowsy +back street of European cities, you will find them sitting beneath the booths +of green branches, commemorating the Exodus and its wonders. Part of that +ceremonial was that on each morning of the seven, and possibly on the eighth, +'the last day of the Feast,' a procession of white-robed priests wound down the +rocky footpath from the Temple to Siloam, and there in a golden vase drew water +from the spring, chanting, as they ascended and re-entered the Temple gates +where they poured out the water as a libation, the words of the prophet, 'with +joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.' +</p> + +<p> +Picture the scene to yourselves—the white-robed priests toiling up the pathway, +the crowd in the court, the sparkling water poured out with choral song. And +then, as the priests stood with their empty vases, there was a little stir in +the crowd, and a Man who had been standing watching, lifted up a loud voice and +cried, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto <i>Me</i>, and drink.' Strange +words to say, anywhere and anywhen, daring words to say there in the Temple +court! For there and then they could mean nothing less than Christ's laying His +hand on that old miracle, which was pointed to by the rite, when the rock +yielded the water, and asserting that all which it did and typified was +repeated, fulfilled, and transcended in Himself, and that not for a handful of +nomads in the wilderness, but for all the world, in all its generations. +</p> + +<p> +So here is one more instance to add to those to which I have directed your +attention on former occasions, in which, in this Gospel, we find Christ +claiming to be the fulfilment of incidents and events in that ancient covenant, +Jacob's ladder, the brazen serpent, the manna, and now the rock that yielded +the water. He says of them all that they are the shadow, and the substance is +in Him. +</p> + +<p> +I. So then, we have to look, first, at Christ's view of humanity as set forth +here. +</p> + +<p> +You remember the story of how the people in the wilderness, distressed by that +most imperative of all physical cravings, thirst, turned upon Moses and Aaron +and said, 'Why have ye brought us here to die in the wilderness, where there +are neither vines nor pomegranates,' but a land of thirst and death? Just as +Christ, in the former instances to which we have already referred, selected and +pointed to the poisoned and serpent-stricken camp as an emblem of humanity, and +just as He pointed to the hunger of the men that were starving there, as an +emblem, go here He says: 'That is the world—a congregation of thirsty men +raging in their pangs, and not knowing where to find solace or slaking for +their thirst.' I do not need to go over all the dominant desires that surge up +in men's souls, the mind craving for knowledge, the heart calling out for love, +the whole nature feeling blindly and often desperately after something external +to itself, which it can grasp, and in which it can feel satisfied. You know +them; we all know them. Like some plant growing in a cellar, and with feeble +and blanched tendrils feeling towards the light which is so far away, every man +carries about within himself a whole host of longing desires, which need to +find something round which they may twine, and in which they can be at rest. +</p> + +<p> +'The misery of man is great upon him,' because, having these desires, he +misreads so many of them, and stifles, ignores, atrophies to so large an extent +the noblest of them. I know of no sadder tragedy than the way in which we +misinterpret the meaning of these inarticulate cries that rise from the depths +of our hearts, and misunderstand what it is that we are groping after, when we +put out empty, and, alas! too often unclean, hands, to lay hold on our true +good. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, you do not know what you want, many of you, and there is something +pathetic in the endless effort to fill up the heart by a multitude of diverse +and small things, when all the while the deepest meaning of aspirations, +yearnings, longings, unrest, discontent is, 'My soul thirsteth for God, for the +living God.' Nothing less than infinitude will satisfy the smallest heart of +the humblest and least developed man. Nothing less than to have all our +treasures in one accessible, changeless Infinity will ever give rest to a human +soul. You have tried a multiplicity of trifles. It takes a great many bags of +coppers to make up L. 1000, and they are cumbrous to carry. Would it not be +better to part with a multitude of goodly pearls, if need be, in order to have +all your wealth, and the satisfaction of all your desires, in the 'One Pearl of +great price'? It is God for whom men are thirsting, and, alas! so many of us +know it not. As the old prophet says, in words that never lose their pathetic +power, 'they have hewn out for themselves cisterns'—one is not enough—they need +many. They are only cisterns, which hold what is put into them, and they are +'broken cisterns,' which cannot hold it. Yet we turn to these with a strange +infatuation, which even the experience that teaches fools does not teach us to +be folly. We turn <i>to</i> these; and we turn <i>from</i> the Fountain; the +one, the springing, the sufficient, the unfailing, the exuberant Fountain of +living waters. Some of you have cisterns on the tops of your houses, with a +coating of green scum and soot on them, and do you like that foul draught +better than the bright blessing that comes out of the heart of the rock, +flashing and pure? +</p> + +<p> +But not only are these desires misread, but the noblest of them are stifled. I +have said that the condition of humanity is that of thirst. Christ speaks in my +text as if that thirst was by no means universal, and, alas! it is not, +'<i>If</i> any man thirst'; there are some of us that do not, for we are all so +constituted that, unless by continual self-discipline, and self-suppression, +and self-evolution, the lower desires will overgrow the loftier ones, and kill +them, as weeds will some precious crop. And some of you are so much taken up +with gratifying the lowest necessities and longings of your nature, that you +leave the highest all uncared for, and the effect of that is that the +unsatisfied longing avenges itself, for your neglect of it, by infusing unrest +and dissatisfaction into what else would satisfy the lowest. 'He that loveth +silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with +increase,' but he that loves God will be satisfied with less than silver, and +will continue satisfied when decrease comes. If you would suck the last drop of +sweetness out of the luscious purple grapes that grow on earth, you must have +the appetite after the best things, recognised, and ministered to, and +satisfied. And when we are satisfied with God, we shall 'have learnt in +whatsoever state we are, therewith to be self-sufficing.' But, as I say, the +highest desires are neglected, and the lowest are cockered and pampered, and so +the taste is depraved. Many of you have no wish for God, and no desire after +high and noble things, and are perfectly contented to browse on the low levels, +or to feed on 'the husks that the swine do eat,' whilst all the while the +loftiest of your powers is starving within. Brethren, before we can come to the +Rock that yields the water, there must be the sense of need. Do you know what +it is that you want? Have you any desire after righteousness and purity and +nobleness, and the vision of God flaming in upon the pettinesses and +commonplaces of this life which is 'sound and fury, signifying nothing,' and is +trivial in all its pretended greatness, unless you have learned that you need +God most of all, and will never be at rest till you have Him? +</p> + +<p> +II. Secondly, note here Christ's consciousness of Himself. +</p> + +<p> +Is there anything in human utterances more majestic and wonderful than this +saying of my text, 'If any man thirst, let him come to Me'? There He claims to +be separate altogether from those whose thirst He would satisfy. There He +claims to be able to meet every aspiration, every spiritual want, every true +desire in this complex nature of ours. There He claims to be able to do this +for one, and therefore for all. There He claims to be able to do it for all the +generations of mankind, right away down to the end. Who is He who thus plants +Himself in the front of the race, knows their deep thirsts, takes account of +the impotence of anything created to satisfy them, assumes the divine +prerogative, and says, 'I come to satisfy every desire in every soul, to the +end of time'? Yes, and from that day when He stood in the Temple and cried +these words, down to this day, there have been, and there are, millions who can +say, 'We have drawn water from this fountain of salvation, and it has never +failed us.' Christ's audacious presentation of Himself to the world as adequate +to fill all its needs, and slake all its thirst, has been verified by nineteen +centuries of experience, and there are many men and women all over the world +to-day who would be ready to set to their seals that Christ is true, and that +He, indeed, is all-sufficient for the soul. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, I do not wish to dwell upon this aspect of our Lord's character in +more than a sentence, but I beseech you to ask yourselves what is the +impression that is left of the character of a man who says such things, unless +He was something more than one of our race? Jesus Christ, it is as clear as +day, in these words makes a claim which only divinity can warrant Him in +making, or can fulfil when it is made. And I would urge you to consider what +the alternative is, if you do not believe that Jesus Christ here sets Himself +forth as the Incarnate Word of God, sufficient for all humanity. 'I am meek and +lowly in heart'—and His lowliness of heart is proved in a strange fashion, if +He stands up before the race and says, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me +and drink.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Note, further, Christ's invitation. +</p> + +<p> +'Let him come … and drink'—two expressions for one thing. That invitation +sounds all through Scripture, and, perhaps, there was lingering in our Lord's +mind, besides the reference to the rock that yielded the water, some echo of +the words of the second Isaiah: 'Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the +waters.' 'Nay!' said Christ, 'not to the waters, but to Me.' And then we hear +from His own lips the same invitation addressed to the woman of Samaria, with +the difference that to her, an alien, He pointed only to the natural water in +the well that had been Jacob's, whereas, to these people, the descendants of +the chosen race, He pointed to the miracle in the desert, and claimed to fulfil +that. And on the very last page of Scripture, as it is now arranged, there +stands the echo again of this saying of my text, 'Let him that is athirst +come'—there must be the sense of need, as I was saying, before there is the +coming—'and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, dear friends, beneath these two metaphorical expressions there lies one +simple condition. I put it into three words, which, for the sake of being +easily remembered, I cast into an alliterative form: approach Christ, +appropriate Christ, adhere to Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Approach Christ. You come by faith, you come by love, you come by communion. +And you can come if you will, though He is now on the throne. +</p> + +<p> +Appropriate Christ. It is vain that the water should be gushing from the rock +there, unless you make it your own by drinking. It must pass your lips. It must +become your personal possession. You must enclose a piece of the common, and +make it your very own. 'He loved <i>us</i>, and gave Himself for <i>us</i>'; +well and good, but strike out the 'us' and put in 'me.' 'He loved <i>me</i> and +gave Himself for <i>me</i>.' The river may be flowing right past your door, yet +your lips may be cracked with thirst, even whilst you hear the tinkle of its +music amongst the sedges and the pebbles. Appropriate Christ. 'Come … and +drink.' +</p> + +<p> +Adhere to Christ. You were thirsty yesterday: you drank. That will not slake +to-day's thirst, nor prevent its recurrence. And you must keep on drinking if +you are to keep from perishing of thirst. Day by day, drop by drop, draught by +draught, you must drink. According to the ancient Jewish legend, which Paul in +one of his letters refers to, about this very miracle, you must have the Rock +following you all through your desert pilgrimage, and you must drink daily and +hourly, by continual faith, love, and communion. +</p> + +<p> +IV. We have here not only these points, but a fourth. Christ's promise. +</p> + +<p> +'He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' +That is one case of the universal law that a man who trusts Christ becomes like +the Christ whom he trusts. Derivatively and by impartation, no doubt, but still +the man who has gone to that Rock, to the springing fountain as it pushes +forth, receives into himself an inward life by the communication of Christ's +divine Spirit, so that he has in him a fountain 'springing up into life +everlasting.' The Book of Proverbs says, 'The good man shall be satisfied from +himself,' but the good man is only satisfied from himself when he can say, 'I +live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' and from that better self he will be +satisfied. +</p> + +<p> +So we may have a well in the courtyard, and may be able to bear in ourselves +the fountain of water, and where the divine life of Christ by His Spirit has +through faith been implanted within us, it will come out from us. There is a +question for you Christian people—do any rivers of living water flow out of +you? If they do not, it is to be doubted whether you have drunk of the +fountain. There are many professing Christians who are like the foul little +rivers that pass under the pavements in Manchester, all impure, and covered +over so that nobody sees them. 'Out of him shall flow rivers of living +water'—that is Christ's way of communicating the blessing of eternal life to +the world—by the medium of those who have already received it. Christian men +and women, if your faith has brought the life into you, see to it that +approaching Christ, and appropriating Christ, and adhering to Christ, you are +becoming assimilated to Christ, and in your daily life, God's grace fructifying +through you to all, are 'become as rivers of water in a dry place, and the +shadow of a great rock in a weary land.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap35"></a>THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD</h2> + +<p> +'… I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in +darkness, but shall have the light of life.'—JOHN viii. 12. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus Christ was His own great theme. Whatever be the explanation of the fact, +there stands the fact that, if we know anything at all about His habitual tone +of teaching, we know that it was full of Himself. We know, too, that what He +said about Himself was very unlike the language becoming a wise and humble +religious teacher. Both the prominence given to His own personality, and the +tremendous claims He advances for Himself, are hard to reconcile with any +conception of His nature and work except one,—that there we see God manifest in +the flesh. Are such words as these fit to be spoken by any man conscious of his +own limitations and imperfections of life and knowledge? Would they not be +fatal to any one's pretensions to be a teacher of religion or morality? They +assert that the Speaker is the Source of illumination for the world; the only +Source; the Source for all. They assert that 'following' Him, whether in belief +or in deed, is the sure deliverance from all darkness, either of error or of +sin; and implants in every follower a light which is life. And the world, +instead of turning away from such monstrous assumptions, and drowning them in +scornful laughter, or rebelling against them, has listened, and largely +believed, and has not felt them to mar the beauty of meekness, which, by a +strange anomaly, this Man says that He has. +</p> + +<p> +Words parallel to these are frequent on our Lord's lips. In each instance they +have some special appropriateness of application, as is probably the case here. +The suggestion has been reasonably made, that there is an allusion in them to +part of the ceremonial connected with the Feast of Tabernacles, at which we +find our Lord present in the previous chapter. Commentators tell us that on the +first evening of the Feast, two huge golden lamps, which stood one on each side +of the altar of burnt offering in the Temple court, were lighted as the night +began to fall, and poured out a brilliant flood over Temple and city and deep +gorge; while far into the midnight, troops of rejoicing worshippers clustered +about them with dance and song. The possibility of this reference is +strengthened by the note of place which our Evangelist gives. 'These things +spake Jesus in the treasury, as He taught in the Temple,' for the 'treasury' +stood in the same court, and doubtless the golden lamps were full in sight of +the listening groups. It is also strengthened by the unmistakable allusion in +the previous chapter to another portion of the ceremonial of the Feast, where +our Lord puts forth another of His great self-revelations and demands, in +singular parallelism with that of our text, in the words, 'If any man thirst, +let him come unto Me and drink.' That refers to the custom during the Feast of +drawing water from the fountain of Siloam, which was poured out on the altar, +while the gathered multitude chanted the old strain of Isaiah's prophecy: 'With +joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.' It is to be remembered, +too, in estimating the probability of our text belonging to these +Temple-sayings at the Feast, that the section which separates it from them, and +contains the story about the woman taken in adultery, is judged by the best +critics to be out of place here, and is not found in the most valuable +manuscripts. If, then, we suppose this allusion to be fairly probable, I think +it gives a special direction and meaning to these grand words, which it may be +worth while to think of briefly. +</p> + +<p> +The first thing to notice is—the intention of the ceremonial to which our Lord +here points as a symbol of Himself. What was the meaning of these great lights +that went flashing through the warm autumn nights of the festival? All the +parts of that Feast were intended to recall some feature of the forty years' +wanderings in the wilderness; the lights by the altar were memorials of the +pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. When, then, Jesus says, 'I am the +Light of the world,' He would declare Himself as being in reality, and to every +soul of man to the end of time, what that cloud with its heart of fire was in +outward seeming to one generation of desert wanderers. +</p> + +<p> +Now, the main thing which <i>it</i> was to these, was the visible vehicle of +the divine presence. 'The Lord went before them in a pillar of a cloud.' 'The +Lord looked through the pillar.' 'The Lord came down in the cloud and spake +with him.' The 'cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord +appeared.' Such is the way in which it is ever spoken of, as being the +manifestation to Israel in sensible form of the presence among them of God +their King. 'The glory of the Lord' has a very specific meaning in the Old +Testament. It usually signifies that brightness, the flaming heart of the +cloudy pillar, which for the most part, as it would appear, veiled by the +cloud, gathered radiance as the world grew darker at set of sun, and sometimes, +at great crises in the history, as at the Red Sea, or on Sinai, or in loving +communion with the law-giver, or in swift judgment against the rebels, rent the +veil and flamed on men's eyes. I need not remind you how this same pillar of +cloud and fire, which at once manifested and hid God, was thereby no unworthy +symbol of Him who remains, after all revelation, unrevealed. Whatsoever sets +forth, must also shroud, the infinite glory. Concerning all by which He makes +Himself known to eye, or mind, or heart, it must be said, 'And there was the +hiding of His power.' The fire is ever folded in the cloud. Nay, at bottom, the +light which is full of glory is therefore inaccessible, and the thick darkness +in which He dwells is but the 'glorious privacy' of perfect light. +</p> + +<p> +That guiding pillar, which moved before the moving people—a cloud to shelter +from the scorching heat, a fire to cheer in the blackness of night—spread +itself above the sanctuary of the wilderness; and 'the glory of the Lord filled +the Tabernacle.' When the moving Tabernacle gave place to the fixed Temple, +again '<i>the</i> cloud filled the house of the Lord'; and there—dwelling +between the cherubim, the types of the whole order of creatural life, and above +the mercy-seat, that spoke of pardon, and the ark that held the law, and behind +the veil, in the thick darkness of the holy of holies, where no feet trod, save +once a year one white-robed priest, in the garb of a penitent, and bearing the +blood that made atonement—shone the light of the glory of God, the visible +majesty of the present Deity. +</p> + +<p> +But long centuries had passed since that light had departed. 'The glory' had +ceased from the house that now stood on Zion, and the light from between the +cherubim. Shall we not, then, see a deep meaning and reference to that awful +blank, when Jesus standing there in the courts of that Temple, whose inmost +shrine was, in a most sad sense, empty, pointed to the quenched lamps that +commemorated a departed Shechinah, and said, 'I am the Light of the world'? +</p> + +<p> +He is the Light of the world, because in Him is the glory of God. His words are +madness, and something very like blasphemy, unless they are vindicated by the +visible indwelling in Him of the present God. The cloud of the humanity, 'the +veil, that is to say, His flesh,' enfolds and tempers; and through its +transparent folds reveals, even while it swathes, the Godhead. Like some fleecy +vapour flitting across the sun, and irradiated by its light, it enables our +weak eyes to see light, and not darkness, in the else intolerable blaze. Yes! +Thou art the Light of the world, because in Thee dwelleth 'the fulness of the +Godhead bodily.' Thy servant hath taught us the meaning of Thy words, when he +said: 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, +the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' +</p> + +<p> +Then, subordinate to this principal thought, is the other on which I may touch +for a moment—that Christ, like that pillar of cloud and fire, <i>guides</i> us +in our pilgrimage. You may remember how emphatically the Book of Numbers (chap. +ix.) dwells upon the absolute control of all the marches and halts by the +movements of the cloud. When it was taken up, they journeyed; when it settled +down, they encamped. As long as it lay spread above the Tabernacle, there they +stayed. Impatient eyes might look, and impatient spirits chafe—no matter. The +camp might be pitched in a desolate place, away from wells and palm-trees, away +from shade, among fiery serpents, and open to fierce foes—no matter. As long as +the pillar was motionless, no man stirred. Weary slow days might pass in this +compulsory inactivity; but 'whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, +that the cloud tarried upon the Tabernacle, the children of Israel journeyed +not.' And whenever It lifted itself up,—no matter how short had been the halt, +how weary and footsore the people, how pleasant the resting-place—up with the +tent-pegs immediately, and away. If the signal were given at midnight, when all +but the watchers slept, or at midday, it was all the same. There was the true +Commander of their march. It was not Moses, nor Jethro, with his quick Arab eye +and knowledge of the ground, that guided them; but that stately, solemn pillar, +that floated before them. How they must have watched for the gathering up of +its folds as they lay softly stretched along the Tabernacle roof; and for its +sinking down, and spreading itself out, like a misty hand of blessing, as it +sailed in the van! +</p> + +<p> +'I am the Light of the world.' We have in Him a better guide through worse +perplexities than theirs. By His Spirit within us, by that all-sufficient and +perfect example of His life, by the word of His Gospel, and by the manifold +indications of His providence, Jesus Christ is our Guide. If ever we go astray, +it is not His fault, but ours. How gentle and loving that guidance is, none who +have not yielded to it can tell. How wise and sure, none but those who have +followed it know. He does not say 'Go,' but 'Come.' When He puts forth His +sheep, He goes before them. In all rough places His quick hand is put out to +save us. In danger He lashes us to Himself, as Alpine guides do when there is +perilous ice to get across. As one of the psalms puts it, with wonderful +beauty: 'I will guide thee with Mine eye'—a glance, not a blow—a look of +directing love, that at once heartens to duty and tells duty. We must be very +near Him to catch that look, and very much in sympathy with Him to understand +it; and when we do, we must be swift to obey. Our eyes must be ever toward the +Lord, or we shall often be marching on, unwitting that the pillar has spread +itself for rest, or idly dawdling in our tents long after the cloud has +gathered itself up for the march. Do not let impatience lead you to hasty +interpretation of His plans before they are fairly evolved. Many men by +self-will, by rashness, by precipitate hurry in drawing conclusions about what +they ought to do, have ruined their lives. Take care, in the old-fashioned +phrase, of 'running before you are sent.' There should always be a good clear +space between the guiding ark and you, 'about two thousand cubits by measure,' +that there may be no mistakes about the road. It is neither reverent nor wise +to be treading on the heels of our Guide in our eager confidence that we know +where He wants us to go. +</p> + +<p> +Do not let the warmth by the camp-fire, or the pleasantness of the shady place +where your tent is pitched, keep you there when the cloud lifts. Be ready for +change, be ready for continuance, because you are in fellowship with your +Leader and Commander; and let Him say, Go, and you go; Do this, and you gladly +do it, until the hour when He will whisper, Come; and, as you come, the river +will part, and the journey will be over, and 'the fiery, cloudy pillar,' that +'guided you all your journey through,' will spread itself out an abiding glory, +in that higher home where 'the Lamb is the light thereof.' +</p> + +<p> +All true following of Christ begins with faith, or we might almost say that +following <i>is</i> faith, for we find our Lord substituting the former +expression for the latter in another passage of this Gospel parallel with the +present. 'I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me +should not walk in darkness.' The two ideas are not equivalent, but faith is +the condition of following; and following is the outcome and test, because it +is the operation, of faith. None but they who trust Him will follow Him. He who +does not follow, does not trust. To follow Christ, means to long and strive +after His companionship; as the Psalmist says, 'My soul followeth hard after +Thee.' It means the submission of the will, the effort of the whole nature, the +daily conflict to reproduce His example, the resolute adoption of His command +as my law, His providence as my will, His fellowship as my joy. And the root +and beginning of all such following is in coming to Him, conscious of mine own +darkness, and trustful in His great light. We must rely on a Guide before we +accept His directions; and it is absurd to pretend that we trust Him, if we do +not go as He bids us. So 'Follow thou Me' is, in a very real sense, the sum of +all Christian duty. +</p> + +<p> +That thought opens out very wide fields, into which we must not even glance +now; but I cannot help pausing here to repeat the remark already made, as to +the gigantic and incomprehensible self-confidence that speaks here. 'Followeth +<i>Me</i>'; then Jesus Christ calmly proposes Himself as the aim and goal for +every soul of man; sets up His own doings as an all-sufficient rule for us all, +with all our varieties of temper, character, culture, and work, and quietly +assumes to have a right of precedence before, and of absolute command over, the +whole world. They are all to keep <i>behind</i> Him, He thinks, be they saints +or sages, kings or beggars; and the liker they are to Himself, He thinks, the +nearer they will be to perfectness and life. He puts Himself at the head of the +mystic march of the generations, and, like the mysterious Angel that Joshua saw +in the plain by Jericho, makes the lofty claim: 'Nay, but as <i>Captain</i> of +the Lord's host am I come up.' Do we admit His claim because we know His Name? +Do we yield Him full trust because we have learned that He is the Light of men +since He is the Word of God? Do we follow Him with loyal obedience, longing +love, and lowly imitation, since He has been and is to us the Saviour of our +souls? +</p> + +<p> +In the measure in which we do, the great promises of this wonderful saying will +be verified and understood by us—'He that followeth Me shall not walk in +darkness.' That saying has, as one may say, a lower and a higher fulfilment. In +the lower, it refers to practical life and its perplexities. Nobody who has not +tried it would believe how many difficulties are cleared out of a man's road by +the simple act of trying to follow Christ. No doubt there will still remain +obscurities enough as to what we ought to do, to call for the best exercise of +patient wisdom; but an enormous proportion of them vanish like mist when the +sun breaks through, when once we honestly set ourselves to find out whither the +pillared Light is guiding. It is a reluctant will, and intrusive likings and +dislikings, that obscure the way for us, much oftener than real obscurity in +the way itself. It is seldom impossible to discern the divine will, when we +only wish to know it that we may do it. And if ever it is impossible for us, +surely that impossibility is like the cloud resting on the Tabernacle—a sign +that for the present His will is that we should be still, and wait, and watch. +</p> + +<p> +But there is a higher meaning in the words than even this promise of practical +direction. In the profound symbolism of Scripture, especially of this Gospel, +'darkness' is the name for the whole condition of the soul averted from God. So +our Lord here is declaring that to follow Him is the true deliverance from that +midnight of the soul. There are a darkness of ignorance, a darkness of +impurity, a darkness of sorrow; and in that threefold gloom, thickening to a +darkness of death, are they enwrapt who follow not the Light. That is the grim, +tragical side of this saying, too sad, too awful for our lips to speak much of, +and best left in the solemn impressiveness of that one word. But the hopeful, +blessed side of it is, that the feeblest beginnings of trust in Jesus Christ, +and the first tottering steps that try to tread in His, bring us into the +light. It does not need that we have reached our goal, it is enough that our +faces are turned to it, and our hearts desire to attain it, then we may be sure +that the dominion of the darkness over us is broken. To follow, though it be +afar off, and with unequal steps, fills our path with increasing brightness, +and even though evil and ignorance and sorrow may thrust their blackness in +upon our day, they are melting in the growing glory, and already we may give +thanks 'unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the +inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of +darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.' +</p> + +<p> +But we have not merely the promise that we shall be led by the light and +brought into the light. A yet deeper and grander gift is offered here: 'He +shall have the light of life.' I suppose that means, not, as it is often +carelessly taken to mean, a light which illuminates the life, but, like the +similar phrases of this Gospel, 'bread of life,' 'water of life,'—light which +is life. 'In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.' These two are +one in their source, which is Jesus, the Word of God. Of Him we have to say, +'With Thee is the fountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light.' They are +one in their deepest nature; the life is the light, and the light the life. And +this one gift is bestowed upon every soul that follows Christ. Not only will +our outward lives be illumined or guided from without, but our inward being +will be filled with the brightness. 'Ye were sometimes darkness, now are ye +light in the Lord.' +</p> + +<p> +That pillar of fire remained apart and without. But this true and better Guide +of our souls enters in and dwells in us, in all the fulness of His triple gift +of life, and light, and love. Within us He will chiefly prove Himself the Guide +of our spirits, and will not merely cast His beams on the path of our feet, but +will fill and flood us with His own brightness. All light of knowledge, of +goodness, of gladness will be ours, if Christ be ours; and ours He surely will +be if we follow Him. Let us take heed, lest turning away from Him we follow the +will-o'-the-wisps of our own fancies, or the dancing lights, born of +putrescence, that flicker above the swamps, for they will lead us into doleful +lands where evil things haunt, and into outer darkness. Let us take heed how we +use that light of God; for Christ, like His symbol of old, has a double aspect +according to the eye which looks. 'It came between the camp of the Egyptians +and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave +light by night to these.' He is either a Stone of stumbling or a sure +Foundation, a savour of life or of death, and which He is depends on ourselves. +Trusted, loved, followed, He is light. Neglected, turned from, He is darkness. +Though He be the Light of the world, it is only the man who follows Him to whom +He can give the light of life. Therefore, man's awful prerogative of perverting +the best into the worst forced Him, who came to be the light of men, to that +sad and solemn utterance: 'For judgment I am come into this world, that they +which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap36"></a>THREE ASPECTS OF FAITH</h2> + +<p> +'Many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on +Him….'—JOHN viii. 30,31. +</p> + +<p> +The Revised Version accurately represents the original by varying the +expression in these two clauses, retaining 'believed on Him' in the former, and +substituting the simple 'believed Him' in the latter. The variation in two +contiguous clauses can scarcely be accidental in so careful a writer as the +Apostle John. And the reason and meaning of it are obvious enough on the face +of the narrative. His purpose is to distinguish between more and less perfect +acceptance of Jesus Christ. The more perfect is the former, 'they believed on +Him'; the less perfect is the latter, the simple acceptance of His word on His +claim of Messiahship, which is stigmatised as shallow, and proved to be +transient by the context. +</p> + +<p> +They were 'Jews' which believed, and they continued to be so whilst they were +believing. Now, the word 'Jew' in this Gospel always connotes antagonism to +Jesus Christ; and as for these persons, how slight and unreliable their +adhesion to the Lord is, comes out in the course of the next few verses; and by +the end of the chapter they are taking up stones to stone Him. So John would +show us that there is a kind of acceptance which may be real, and may be the +basis of something much better hereafter, but which, if it does not grow, rots +and disappears; and he would draw a broad line of distinction between that and +the other mental act, far deeper, more wholesome, more lasting and vital, which +he designates as 'believing <i>on</i> Him.' I take these words, then, for +consideration, not so much to deal with other thoughts suggested by them, as +because they afford me a starting-point for the consideration of the various +phases of the act of believing, its blessings and its nature, and its relation +to its objects, which are expressed in the New Testament by the various +grammatical connections and constructions of this word. +</p> + +<p> +Now, the facts with which I wish to deal may be very briefly stated. There are +three ways in which the New Testament represents the act of believing, and its +relation to its Object, Christ. These three are, first, the simple one which +appears in the text as 'believed Him.' Then there is a second, which appears in +two forms, slightly different, but which, for our purpose, may be treated as +substantially the same—'believing on Him.' And then there is a third, which, +literally and accurately translated is, 'believing unto' or 'into Him.' That +phrase is John's favourite one, and rather unfortunately, though perhaps +necessarily, it has been generally rendered by our translators by the less +forcible 'believing in,' which gives the idea of repose in, but does not give +the idea of motion towards. These three, then, I think, do set forth, if we +will ponder them, very large lessons as to the essence of this act of +believing, as to the Object upon which it fastens, and as to the blessings +which flow from it, which it will be worth our while to consider now. I may +cast the whole into the shape of three exhortations: believe Him, believe on +Him, believe unto Him. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, believe Christ. +</p> + +<p> +We accept a man's words when we trust the man. Even if belief, or faith, is +represented in the New Testament, as it very rarely is, as having for its +object the words of revelation, behind that acceptance of the words lies +confidence in the person speaking. And the beginning of all true Christian +faith has in it, not merely the intellectual acceptance of certain propositions +as true, but a confidence in the veracity of Him by whom they are made known to +us—even Jesus Christ our Lord. +</p> + +<p> +I do not need to insist upon that at any length here—it would take me away from +my present purpose; but what I do wish to emphasise is, that from the very +starting-point, the smallest germ of the most rudimentary and imperfect faith +which knits a soul to Jesus Christ has Him for its Object, and is thus +distinguished from the mere acceptance of truths which, on other grounds than +the authority of the speaker, may legitimately commend themselves to a man. +</p> + +<p> +Then believe Him. Now, that breaks up into two thoughts, which are all that I +intend to deduce from it now, although many more might be suggested. The one is +this, that the least and the lowest that Jesus Christ asks from us is the +entire and unhesitating acceptance of His utterances as final, conclusive, and +absolutely true. Whatever more Jesus Christ may be, He is, by His life and +words, the Communicator of divine and certain truth. He is a Teacher, though He +is a great deal more. And whatever more Christian faith may be—and it is a +great deal more—it requires, at least, the frank and full recognition of the +authority of every word that comes from His lips. A Christianity without a +creed is a dream. Bones without flesh are very dry, no doubt; but what about +flesh without bones? An inert, shapeless mass. You will never have a vigorous +and true Christian life if it is to be moulded according to the fantastic dream +of these latter days, which tells us that we may take Jesus as the Guide of our +conduct and need not mind about what He says to us. 'Believe Me' is His +requirement. The words of His mouth, and the revelations which He has made in +the sweetness of His life, and in all the graciousness of His dealings, are the +very unveiling to man of absolute and final and certain truth. +</p> + +<p> +But then, on the other hand, let us remember that, while all this is most clear +and distinct in the teaching of Scripture, it carries us but a very short way. +We find, in the instance from which we take our starting-point in this sermon, +the broad distinction drawn, and practically illustrated in the conduct of the +persons concerned, between the simple acceptance of what Christ says, and a +true faith that clings to Him for evermore. And the same kind of disparagement +of the lower process of merely accepting His word is found more than once in +connection with the same phrases. We find, for instance, the two which are +connected in our texts used in a previous conversation between our Lord and His +antagonists. When He says to them, 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on +Him whom He hath sent,' they reply, dragging down His claim to a lower level, +'What sign showest Thou, that we may see, and believe Thee?' He demanded belief +<i>on</i> Himself; they answer, 'We are ready to <i>believe you</i>, on +condition that we see something that may make the rendering of our belief a +logical necessity for us.' +</p> + +<p> +Let us lay to heart the rudimentary and incomplete character of a faith which +simply accepts the teaching of Jesus Christ, and does no more. The notion that +orthodoxy is Christianity, that a man who does not contradict the teaching of +the New Testament is thereby a Christian, is a very old and very perilous and +very widespread one. There are many of us who have no better claim to be called +Christians than this, that we never denied anything that Jesus Christ said, +though we are not sufficiently interested in it, I was going to say, even to +deny it. This rudimentary faith, which contents itself with the acceptance of +the truth revealed, hardens into mere formalism, or liquefies into mere +careless indifference as to the very truth that it professes to believe. There +is nothing more impotent than creeds which lie dormant in our brains, and have +no influence upon our lives. I wonder how many readers of this sermon, who +fancy themselves good Christians, do with their creed as the Japanese used to +do with their Emperor—keep him in a palace behind bamboo screens, and never let +him do anything, whilst all the reality of power was possessed by another man, +who did not profess to be a king at all. Do you think you are Christians +because you would sign thirty-nine or three hundred and ninety articles of +Christianity, if they were offered to you, while there is not one of them that +influences either your thinking or your conduct? Do not let us have these +'sluggish kings,' with a mayor of the place to do the real government, but set +on the throne of your hearts the principles of your religion, and see to it +that all your convictions be translated into practice, and all your practice be +informed by your convictions. +</p> + +<p> +This belief in a set of dogmas, on the authority of Jesus Christ, about which +dogmas we do not care a rush, and which make no difference upon our lives, is +the faith about which James has so many hard things to say; and he ventures +upon a parallel that I should not like to venture on unless I were made bold by +his example: 'Thou believest, O vain man! thou doest well: the devils also +believe, and'—better than you, in that their belief does something for them, +they 'believe—and <i>tremble</i>!' But what shall we say about a man who +professes himself a disciple, and neither trembles, nor thrills, nor hopes, nor +dreads, nor desires, nor does any single thing because of his creed? Believe +Jesus, but do not stop there. +</p> + +<p> +II. Believe on Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Now, as I have remarked already, and as many of you know, there is a slightly +different, twofold form of this phrase in Scripture. I need not trouble you +with the minute distinction between the one and the other. Both forms coincide +in the important point on which I wish to touch. That representation of +believing on Christ carries us away at once from the mere act of acceptance of +His word on His authority to the far more manifestly voluntary, moral, and +personal act of reliance upon Him. The metaphor is expanded in various ways in +Scripture, and instead of offering any thoughts of my own about it, I would +simply ask attention to three of the forms in which it is set forth in the Old +and in the New Testaments. +</p> + +<p> +The first of them, and the one which we may regard as governing the others, is +that found in the words of Isaiah, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a sure +Foundation'; and, as the Apostle Peter comments, 'He that believeth on Him +shall not be confounded.' There the thoughts presented are the superposition of +the building upon its Foundation, the rest of the soul, and the rearing of the +life on the basis of Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +How much that metaphor says to us about Him as the Foundation, in all the +aspects in which we can apply that term! He is the Basis of our hope, the +Guarantee of our security, the Foundation-stone of our beliefs, the very Ground +on which our whole life reposes, the Source of our tranquillity, the Pledge of +our peace. All that I think, feel, desire, wish, and do, ought to be rested +upon that dear Lord, and builded on Him by simple faith. By patient persistence +of effort rearing up the fabric of my life firmly upon Him, and grafting every +stone of it—if I might so use the metaphor—into the bedding-stone, which is +Christ, I shall be strong, peaceful, and pure. +</p> + +<p> +The storm comes, the waters rise, the winds howl, the hail and the rain 'sweep +away the refuge of lies,' and the dwellers in these frail and foundationless +houses are hurrying in wild confusion from one peak to another, before the +steadily rising tide. But he that builds on that Foundation 'shall not make +haste,' as Isaiah has it; shall not need to hurry to shift his quarters before +the flood overtake him; shall look out serene upon all the hurtling fury of the +wild storm, and the rise of the sullen waters. So, reliance on Christ, and the +honest making of Him the Basis, not of our hopes only, but of our thinkings and +of our doings, and of our whole being, is the secret of security, and the +pledge of peace. +</p> + +<p> +Then there is another form of the same phrase, 'believing on,' in which is +suggested not so much the figure of building upon a foundation, as of some +feeble man resting upon a strong stay, or clinging to an outstretched and +mighty arm. The same metaphor is implied in the word 'reliance.' We lean upon +Christ when, forsaking all other props, and realising His sufficiency and +sweetness, we rest the whole weight of our weariness and all the impotence of +our weakness upon His strong and unwearied arm, and so are saved. All other +stays are like that one to which the prophet compares the King of Egypt—the +papyrus reed in the Nile stream, on which, if a man leans, it will break into +splinters which will go into his flesh, and make a poisoned wound. But if we +lean on Christ, we lean on a brazen wall and an iron pillar, and anything is +possible sooner than that that stay shall give. +</p> + +<p> +There is still another form of the metaphor, in which neither building upon a +foundation, nor leaning upon a support which is thought of as below what rests +upon it, are suggested, but rather the hanging upon something firm and secure +which is above what hangs from it. The same picture is suggested by our word +'dependence.' 'As a nail fastened in a sure place,' said one of the prophets, +'on Him shall hang all the glory of His Father's house.' +</p> + +<p> + 'Hangs my helpless soul on Thee.' +</p> + +<p> +The rope lowered over the cliffs supports the adventurous bird-nester in safety +above the murmuring sea. They who clasp Christ's hand outstretched from above, +may swing over the deepest, most vacuous abyss, and fear no fall. +</p> + +<p> +So, brother, build on Christ, rely on Him, depend on Him, and it shall not be +in vain. But if you will not build on the sure Foundation, do not wonder if the +rotten one gives way. If you will not lean on the strong Stay, complain not +when the weak one crumbles to dust beneath your weight. And if you choose to +swing over the profound depth at the end of a piece of pack-thread, instead of +holding on by an adamantine chain wrapped round God's throne, you must be +prepared for its breaking and your being smashed to pieces below. +</p> + +<p> +III. The last exhortation that comes out of this comparative study of these +phrases is—Believe into Christ. +</p> + +<p> +That is a very pregnant and remarkable expression, and it can scarcely, as you +see, be rendered into our language without a certain harshness; but still it is +worth while to face the harshness for the sake of getting the double +signification that is involved in it. For when we speak of believing unto or +into Him, we suggest two things, both of which, apparently, were in the minds +of the writers of the New Testament. One is motion towards, and the other is +repose in, that dear Lord. +</p> + +<p> +So, then, true Christian faith is the flight of the soul towards Christ. +Therein is one of the special blessednesses of the Christian life, that it has +for its object and aim absolutely infinite and unattainable completeness and +glory, so that unwearied freshness, inexhaustible buoyancy, endless progress, +are the dower of every spirit that truly trusts in Christ. All other aims and +objects are limited, transient, and will be left behind. Every other landmark +will sink beneath the horizon, where so many of our landmarks have sunk +already, and where they will all disappear when the last moment comes. But we +may have, and if we are Christian people we shall have, bright before us, +sufficiently certain of being reached to make our efforts hopeful and +confident, sufficiently certain of never being reached to make our efforts +blessed with endless aspirations, the great light and love of that dear Lord, +to yearn after whom is better than to possess all besides, and following hard +after whom, even in the very motion there is rest, and in the search there is +finding. Religion is the flight of the soul, the aspiration of the whole man +after the unattainable Attainable—'that I may know Him, and be found in Him.' +</p> + +<p> +Oh, how such thoughts ought to shame us who call ourselves Christians! Growth, +progress, getting nearer to Christ, yearning ever with a great desire after +Him!—do not the words seem irony when applied to most of us? Think of the +average type of sluggish contentment with present attainments that marks +Christian people—tortoises in their crawling rather than eagles in their +flight. And let us take our portion of shame, and remember that the faith which +believes Him, and that which believes on Him, both need to be crowned and +perfected by that which believes towards Him, of which the motto is, +'Forgetting the things that are behind, I reach forward to the things that are +before.' +</p> + +<p> +But there is another side to this last phase of faith. That true believing +towards or unto Christ is the rest of the soul in Him. By faith that deep and +most real union of the believing soul with Jesus Christ is effected which may +be fitly described as our entrance into and abode in Him. The believer is as if +incorporated into Him in whom he believes. Indeed, the Apostle ventures to use +a more startling expression than <i>incorporation</i> when he says that 'he +that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.' If by faith we press towards, by +faith we shall be in, Christ. Faith is at once motion and rest, search and +finding, desire and fruition. The felicity of this last form of the phrase is +its expression of both these ideas, which are united in fact as in word. A rare +construction of the verb <i>to believe</i>, with the simple preposition +<i>in</i>, coincides with this part of the meaning of <i>believing unto</i> or +<i>into</i>, and need not be separately considered. +</p> + +<p> +With this understanding of its meaning, we see how natural is John's preference +for this construction. For surely, if he has anything to tell us, it is that +the true Christian life is a life enclosed, as it were, in Jesus Christ. Nor +need I remind you how Paul, though he starts from a different point of view, +yet coincides with John in this teaching. For, to him, to be 'in Christ' is the +sum of all blessedness, righteousness, peace, and power. As in an atmosphere, +we may dwell in Him. He may be the strong Habitation to which we may +continually resort. One of the Old Testament words for trusting means taking +refuge, and such a thought is naturally suggested by this New Testament form of +expression. 'I flee unto Thee to hide me.' In that Fortress we dwell secure. +</p> + +<p> +To be in Jesus, wedded to Him by the conjunction of will and desire, wedded to +Him in the oneness of a believing spirit and in the obedience of a life, to be +thus in Christ is the crown and climax of faith, and the condition of all +perfection. To be in Christ is life; to be out of Him is death. In Him we have +redemption; in Him we have wisdom, truth, peace, righteousness, hope, +confidence. To be in Him is to be in heaven. We enter by faith. Faith is not +the acceptance merely of His Word, but is the reliance of the soul on Him, the +flight of the soul towards Him, the dwelling of the soul in Him. 'Come, My +people, into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee … until the +indignation be overpast.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap37"></a>'NEVER IN BONDAGE'</h2> + +<p> +'We… were never in bondage to any man: how gayest Thou, Ye shall be made +free!'—JOHN viii. 33. +</p> + +<p> +'Never in bondage to any man'? Then what about Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Syria? +Was there not a Roman garrison looking down from the castle into the very +Temple courts where this boastful falsehood was uttered? It required some +hardihood to say, 'Never in bondage to any man,' in the face of such a history, +and such a present. But was it not just an instance of the strange power which +we all have and exercise, of ignoring disagreeable facts, and by ingenious +manipulation taking the wrinkles out of the photograph? The Jews were perhaps +not misunderstanding Jesus Christ quite so much as these words may suggest. If +He had been promising, as they chose to assume, political and external liberty, +I fancy they would have risen to the bait a little more eagerly than they did +to His words. +</p> + +<p> +But be that as it may, this strange answer of theirs suggests that power of +ignoring what we do not want to see, not only in the way in which I have +suggested, but also in another. For if they had any inkling of what Jesus meant +by slavery and freedom, they, by such words as these, put away from themselves +the thought that they were, in any deep and inward sense, bondsmen, and that a +message of liberty had any application to them. Ah, dear friends! there was a +great deal of human nature in these men, who thus put up a screen between them +and the penetrating words of our Lord. Were they not doing just what many of +us—all of us to some extent—do: ignoring the facts of their own necessities, of +their own spiritual condition, denying the plain lessons of experience? Like +them, are not we too often refusing to look in the face the fact that we all, +apart from Him, are really in bondage? Because we do not realise the slavery, +are we not indifferent to the offer of freedom? 'We were never in bondage'; +consequently we add, 'How sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?' So then, my text +brings us to think of three things: our bondage, our ignorance of our bondage, +our consequent indifference to Christ's offer of liberty. Let me say a word or +two about each of these. +</p> + +<p> +First as to— +</p> + +<p> +I. Our bondage. +</p> + +<p> +Christ follows the vain boast in the text, with the calm, grave, profound +explanation of what He meant: 'Whoso committeth sin is the slave of sin.' That +is true in two ways. By the act of sinning a man shows that he is the slave of +an alien power that has captured him; and in the act of sinning, he rivets the +chains and increases the tyranny. He is a slave, or he would not obey sin. He +is more a slave because he has again obeyed it. Now, do not let us run away +with the idea that when Jesus speaks of sin and its bondage, He is thinking +only, or mainly, of gross outrages and contradictions of the plain law of +morality and decency, that He is thinking only of external acts which all men +brand as being wrong, or of those which law qualifies as crimes. We have to go +far deeper than that, and into a far more inward region of life than that, +before we come to apprehend the inwardness and the depth of the Christian +conception of what sin is. We have to bring our whole life close up against +God, and then to judge its deeds thereby. Therefore, though I know I am +speaking to a mass of respectable, law-abiding people, very few of you having +any knowledge of the grosser and uglier forms of transgression, and I dare say +none of you having any experience of what it is to sin against human law, +though I do not charge you—God forbid!—with <i>vices</i>, and still less with +<i>crimes</i>, I bring to each man's conscience a far more searching word than +either of these two, when I say, 'We all have <i>sinned</i> and come short of +the glory of God.' This declaration of the universality and reality of the +bondage of sin is only the turning into plain words of a fact which is of +universal experience, though it may be of a very much less universal +consciousness. We may not be aware of the fact, because, as I have to show you, +we do not direct our attention to it. But there it is; and the truth is that +every man, however noble his aspirations sometimes, however pure and high his +convictions, and however honest in the main may be his attempts to do what is +right, when he deals honestly with himself, becomes more or less conscious of +just that experience which a great expert in soul analysis and self-examination +made: 'I find a law'—an influence working upon my heart with the inevitableness +and certainty of law—'that when I would do good, evil is present with me.' +</p> + +<p> +We all know that, whether we regard it as we ought or no. We all say Amen to +that, when it is forced upon our attention. There <i>is</i> something in us +that thwarts aspiration towards good, and inclines to evil. +</p> + +<p> + 'What will but felt the fleshly screen?' +</p> + +<p> +And it is not only a screen. It not only prevents us from rising as high as we +would, but it sinks us so low as to do deeds that something within us recoils +from and brands as evil. Jesus teaches us that he who commits sin is the slave +of sin; that is to say, that an alien power has captured and is coercing the +wrongdoer. That teaching does not destroy responsibility, but it kindles hope. +A foreign foe, who has invaded the land, may be driven out of the land, and all +his prisoners set free, if a stronger than he comes against him. Christianity +is called gloomy and stern, because it preaches the corruption of man's heart. +Is it not a gospel to draw a distinction between the evil that a man does, and +the self that a man may be? Is it not better, more hopeful, more of a true +evangel, to say to a man, 'Sin dwelleth in you,' than to say, 'What is called +sin is only the necessary action of human nature'? To believe that their +present condition is not slavery makes men hopeless of ever gaining freedom, +and the true gospel of the emancipation of humanity rests on the Christian +doctrine of the bondage of sin. +</p> + +<p> +Let me remind you that freedom consists not in the absence of external +constraints, but in the animal in us being governed by the will, for when the +flesh is free the man is a slave. And it means that the will should be governed +by the conscience; and it means that the conscience should be governed by God. +These are the stages. Men are built in three stories, so to speak. Down at the +bottom, and to be kept there, are inclinations, passions, lust, desires, all +which are but blind aimings after their appropriate satisfaction, without any +question as to whether the satisfaction is right or wrong; and above that a +dominant will which is meant to control, and above that a conscience. That is +the pyramid; and as by the sunshine on the gilded top of some spire, the +shining apex, the conscience, is illnmined when the light of God falls upon it. +And when a man is built in that fashion, and keeps to that fashion, then, and +only then, is he free. +</p> + +<p> +I need not remind you of how the metaphor of my text receives its most tragical +and yet most common illustration and confirmation in the awful fact of the +power of any evil thing, once thought or done by a man, to reproduce itself, +onwards and ever onwards. It is a far commoner thing for a man never to have +done some given evil, never to have got drunk, never to have stolen, or the +like, than to have done it only once. I have heard of a mysterious illness, in +which at first medical analysis detected with difficulty one single bacterion +in a great quantity of blood. But in a few days, so had they multiplied that no +drop could be taken anywhere from the veins which was not full of them. That is +how men get under the slavery of any evil thing; and habit becomes stronger +than anything except that "strong Son of God, immortal Love," whose Spirit can +conquer even it." Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? +Then may ye that are wont to do evil learn to do well." The bondage is real and +hard. +</p> + +<p> +My text suggests to us that strange, sad fact +</p> + +<p> +II. OUR IGNORANCE OF OUR SLAVERY. +</p> + +<p> +"We were never in bondage to any man," said the Jews. We are but too apt to +repeat the empty boast, and as they forgot Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, +Antiochus,and Cesar, we forget our failures, our faults, our sins. We ignore +them. Is not that, too, a plain fact of experience? A sadly large percentage of +men never have really opened their eyes to the undeniable truth that sin has +dominion over them. They go along on the surface of things, keeping to the +shallows of human life, occupying themselves with their various duties and +enjoyments, and they never know, just because they shut their eyes to facts, or +rather turn their eyes away from facts-what is their real condition in God's +sight. Some of my present hearers are, in regard to this matter, what the old +Puritans used to call "Gospel-hardened." They have their hearts and minds, I +was going to say water-proofed, by repeated application to them, as I am trying +to apply them now, of truths which but add one more film to the layers between +their hearts and the Gospel. Because they are so familiar with the words of our +message, they all but lose the faculty of bringing its power into contact with +themselves. Oh! if I could overcome that tendency which there is in all regular +church and chapel-goers to make themselves comfortable in their corners, and +suppose that the man in the pulpit is saying what he ought to say, and that +they need not give much heed to his message because they have heard it all +before-if I could once get the sharp point of this great Christian truth of our +slavery under sin, through the manifold layers with which your heart is +encrusted, you would find out the weight of a good many things that some of you +think very phantasmal and of little consequence. +</p> + +<p> +There is nothing about us that is more remarkable and more awful, when you come +to think of it, than the power that we have, by not attending to something, of +making that something practically non-existent. The great search-lights, that +they now have on battleships, will fling a beam of terrible revealing power on +one sma11 segment of the vast circle of the sea; and all the rest, though it +may be filled with the enemy's fleet, will be lying in darkness. So just +because we cannot get you to think of the facts of your slavery to sin, the +facts are non-existent as far as you are concerned. Let me plead with you. +Surely! sure1y, it is not a thing worthy of a man never to go down into the +deep places of your own hearts and see the ugly things that coil and wrestle +and swarm and multiply there! Ezekiel was once led to a place where, through a +hole broken in the wall, there was showed him an inner chamber, on the walls of +which were painted the hideous idols of the heathen. And there, in the presence +of the foul shapes, stood venerable priests and official dignitaries of Israel, +with their censers in their hands, and their backs to the oracle of God. There +is a chamber like that in all our hearts; and it would be a great deal better +that we should go down, through the hole in the wall, and see it, than that we +should live, as so many of us do, in this fool's paradise of ignorance of our +own sin. It is because we will not attend to the facts that we ignore the +facts. The evils that we do, and that we cherish undone in our hearts, are like +the wreckers on some stormy coast, that begin operations by taking the tongue +out of the bell that hangs on the buoy, and putting out the light that beams +from the beacon. Sin chokes conscience; and so the worse a man is, the less he +feels himself to be bad; and while a saint will be tortured with agonies of +remorse for some slight peccadillo, a brigand will add a murder or two to his +list, and wipe his mouth and say, "I have done no harm." We are ignorant of our +sin because we bribe our consciences, because we drug our consciences, because +we will not attend to the facts of our own spiritual being. +</p> + +<p> +That ignorance of our bondage is characteristic of the tone of mind of this +generation. Things have changed in that respect, as in a great many others, +since I was a boy. I do not hear now, from people who desire to unite +themselves to Jesus Christ, the deep poignant penitence and confession of sin +that one used to hear. I do not hear the facts of sin, its gravity and +universality, preached from pulpits in the way it used to be. I notice in the +ordinary, average man a tendency to think more about environment and heredity, +than about individidual responsibility, and on the whole a very much lowered +sense of the depth and the power and the universality of transgression. And +that is why, to a large extent, the Christianity of this generation is so +shallow a thing as it is. +</p> + +<p> +That brings me, lastly, to say a word about +</p> + +<p> +III. THE CONSEQUENT INDIFFERENCE TO CHRIST'S OFFER OF FREEDOM. +</p> + +<p> +"How sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?" Of course, if they had no +consciousness of bondage, there was no attraction for them in a promise of +freedom. +</p> + +<p> +That remark opens out two thoughts, on which I do not dwell. First, the +ignoring of the fact of sin which is so common amongst us all to-day, makes it +impossible to understand Christ and Christianity. Brethren, that great Gospel, +and that great Lord who is the subject of the Gospel, have many other aspects +than this. But this is the central thought as to it and Him, that it is the +emancipation from sin, because He is the Emancipator. "The spirit of the Lord +is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach deliverance to the captives." +And wherever we find, as we do find, in many quarters to-day, that the central +fact of Christianity, the Death for the sin of the world, is deposed from its +place, there the life-blood is ebbing out of the Gospel. Historically, the +beginning of almost all heresies has been the under-estimate of the fact of +sin. As long as you dwell in the shallows of human experience, a shallow +Christianity and a shallow Christ will be enough for you. But when once you get +to understand the depths of your own need, and the depths of your brother's +need, then nothing less than the Christ that died to solve the problem, +insoluble else, of how to emancipate the soul and the world from the tyranny of +sin, will be enough for you. Once "the waters of the great deep are broken up," +and the floods are out, there is nothing for it but the Ark. It is not enough +then to speak of a human Christ; it is not enough, when a man's conscience has +been roused, not to exaggeration, but to clear sight, of what he isit is not +enough then to speak of an example Christ, or of a teaching Christ. Ah! we want +more than that. We want "that which first of all I delivered unto you, how that +Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." +</p> + +<p> +And, brethren, just as the ignoring of the fact of sin makes the understanding +of Christ and His word impossible, so it makes real reception of Him for +ourselves impossible. Many men are brought near to Jesus by other roads; thank +God for it! There are a thousand ways to the Cross, but it is the Cross that we +must clasp if in any true sense we are to clasp Christ. And there is all the +difference between the superficial, partial, and easy-going profession of +Christianity which is so common amongst us to-day, and the life and death +clutching and clinging to Him which comes when, and only when, a man feels that +the tyrant whom he served as a slave, is close behind him, and that his only +chance of freedom is to hold fast by the horns of the altar of the Sanctuary, +and to cleave to the Christ in Whom, and in Whom alone, we are free indeed. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap38"></a>ONE METAPHOR AND TWO MEANINGS</h2> + +<p> +'I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh +when no man can work.'—JOHN ix. 4. +</p> + +<p> +'The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the +works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.'—ROMANS xiii. 12. +</p> + +<p> +The contrast between these two sayings will strike you at once. Using the same +metaphors, they apply them in exactly opposite directions. In the one, life is +the day, and the state beyond death the night; in the other, life is the night, +and the state beyond death the day. Remarkable as the contrast is, it comes to +be still more so if we remember the respective speakers. For each of them says +what we should rather have expected the other to say. It would have been +natural for Paul to have given utterance to the stimulus to diligence caused by +the consciousness that the time of work was brief; and it would have been as +natural for Jesus, who, as we believe, came from God, from the place of the +eternal supernal glory, to have said that life here was night as compared with +the illumination that He had known. But it is the divine Master who gives +utterance to the common human consciousness of a brief life ending in +inactivity, and it is the servant who takes the higher point of view. +</p> + +<p> +So strange did the words of my first text seem as coming from our Lord's lips, +that the sense of incongruity seems to have been the occasion of the remarkable +variation of reading which the Revised Version has adopted when it says +'<i>We</i> must work the works of Him that sent Me.' But that thought seems to +me to be perfectly irrelevant to our Lord's purpose in this context, where He +is vindicating His own action, and not laying down the duty of His servants. He +is giving here one of these glimpses, that we so rarely get, into His own +inmost heart. And so we have to take the sharp contrast between the Master's +thought and the servant's thought, and to combine them, if we would think +rightly about the present and the future, and do rightly in the present. +</p> + +<p> +I. Let me ask you to look at the Master's thought about the present and the +future. +</p> + +<p> +As I have already said, our Lord gives utterance here to the very common, in +fact, universal human consciousness. The contrast between the intense little +spot of light and the great ring of darkness round about it; between 'the warm +precincts of the cheerful day' and the cold solitudes of the inactive night has +been the commonplace and stock-in-trade of moralists and thoughtful men from +the beginning; has given pathos to poetry, solemnity to our days; and has been +the ally of base as well as of noble things. For to say to a man, 'there are +twelve hours in the day of life, and then comes darkness, the blackness that +swallows up all activity,' may either be made into a support of all lofty and +noble thoughts, or, by the baser sort, may be, and has been, made into a +philosophy of the 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die' kind; 'Gather ye +roses while ye may'; 'A short life and a merry one.' The thought stimulates to +diligence, but it does nothing to direct the diligence. It makes men work +furiously, but it never will prevent them from working basely. 'Whatsoever thy +hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,' is a conclusion from the +consideration that 'there is neither wisdom nor knowledge nor device in the +grave whither we go,' but what the hand should find to do must be settled from +altogether different considerations. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord here takes the common human point of view, and says, 'Life is the time +for activity, and it must be the more diligent because it is ringed by the +darkness of the night.' What precisely does our Lord intend by His use of that +metaphor of the night? No figures, we know, run upon all-fours. The point of +comparison may be simply in some one feature common to the two things compared, +and so all sorts of mischief may be done by trying to extend the analogy to +other features. Now, there are a great many points in which day and night may +respectively be taken as analogues of Life and Death and the state beyond +death. There is a 'night of weeping'; there is a 'night of ignorance.' But our +Lord Himself tells us what is the one point of comparison which alone is in His +mind, when He says, 'The night cometh, when no man can work.' It is simply the +night as a season of compulsory inactivity that suggests the comparison in our +text. And so we have here the presentation of that dear Lord as influenced by +the common human motive, and feeling that there was work to be done which must +be crowded into a definite space, because when that space was past, there would +be no more opportunity for the work to be done. +</p> + +<p> +Look at how, in the words of my first text, we have, as I said, a glimpse into +His inmost heart. He lets us see that all His life was under the solemn +compulsion of that great <i>must</i> which was so often upon His lips, that He +felt that He was here to do the Father's will, and that that obligation lay +upon Him with a pressure which He neither could, nor would if He could, have +got rid of. +</p> + +<p> +There are two kinds of 'musts' in our lives. There is the unwelcome necessity +which grips us with iron and sharpened fangs; the needs-be which crushes down +hopes and dreams and inclinations, and forces the slave to his reluctant task. +And there is the 'must' which has passed into the will, into the heart, and has +moulded the inmost desire to conformity with the obligation which no more +stands over against us as a taskmaster with whip and chain, but has passed +within us and is there an inspiration and a joy. He that can say, as Jesus +Christ in His humanity could, and did say: 'My meat'—the refreshment of my +nature, the necessary sustenance of my being—'is to do the will of my Father'; +that man, and that man alone, feels no pressure that is pain from the +incumbency of the necessity that blessedly rules His life. When 'I will' and 'I +choose' coincide, like two of Euclid's triangles atop of one another, line for +line and angle for angle, then comes liberty into the life. He that can say, +not with a knitted brow and an unwilling ducking of his head to the yoke, 'I +must do it,' but can say, 'Thy law is within my heart,' that is the Christlike, +the free, the happy man. +</p> + +<p> +Further, our Lord here, in His thoughts of the present and the future, lets us +see what He thought that the work of God in the world was. The disciples looked +at the blind man sitting by the wayside, and what he suggested to them was a +curious, half theological, half metaphysical question, in which Rabbinical +subtlety delighted. 'Who did sin, this man or his parents?' They only thought +of talking over the theological problem involved in the fact that, before he +had done anything in this world to account for the calamity, he was <i>born</i> +blind. Jesus Christ looked at the man, and He did not think about theological +cobwebs. What was suggested to Him was to fight against the evil and abolish +it. It is sometimes necessary to discuss the origin of an evil thing, of a +sorrow or a sin, in order to understand how to deal with and get rid of it. But +unless that is the case, our first business is not to say, 'How comes this +about?' but our business is to take steps to make it cease to come about. Cure +the man first and then argue to your heart's content about what made him blind, +but cure him first. And so Jesus Christ taught us that the meaning of the day +of life was that we should set ourselves to abolish the works of the devil, and +that the work of God was that we should fight against sin and sorrow, and in so +far as it was in our power, abolish these, in all the variety of their forms, +in all the vigour of their abundant growth. Sorrow and sin are God's call to +every one of His sons and daughters to set themselves to cast them out of His +fair creation; and 'the day' is the opportunity for doing that. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord here, as I have already suggested, shows us very touchingly and +beautifully, how entirely He bore our human nature, and had entered into our +conditions, in that He, too, felt that common human emotion, and was spurred to +unhasting and yet unresting diligence by the thought of the coming of the +night. I suppose that although we have few chronological data in this Gospel of +John, the hour of our Lord's death was really very near at that time. He had +just escaped from a formidable attempt upon His life. 'They took up stones to +stone Him, but He, passing through the midst of them, went His way,' is the +statement which immediately precedes the account of His meeting with this blind +man. And so under the pressure, perhaps, of that immediate experience which +revealed the depths of hatred that was ready for anything against Him, He gives +utterance to this expression: 'If it be the case that the time is at hand, then +the more need that, Sabbath day as it is, I should pause here.' Though the +multitude were armed with stones to stone Him, He stopped in His flight because +there was a poor blind man there whom He felt that He needed to cure. Beautiful +it is, and drawing Him very near to us,—and it should draw us very near to +Him—that thus He shared in that essentially human consciousness of the +limitation of the power to work, by the ring of blackness that encircled the +little spot of illuminated light. +</p> + +<p> +But some will say, 'How is it possible that such a consciousness as this should +really have been in the mind of Jesus Christ?' 'Did He not know that His death +was not to be the end of His work? Did He not know, and say over and over +again, in varying forms, that when He passed from earth, it was not into +inactivity? Is it not the very characteristic of His mission that it is +different from that of all other helpers and benefactors and teachers of the +world, in that His death stands in the very middle of His work, and that on the +one side of it there is activity, and on the other side of it there is still, +and in some sense loftier and greater, activity?' Yes; all that is perfectly +true, and I do not for a moment believe that our Lord was forgetting that the +life on the earth was but the first volume of His biography, and of the records +of His deeds, and that He contemplated them, as He contemplated always, the +life beyond, as working in and on and over and through His servants, even unto +the end of the world. +</p> + +<p> +But you have only to remember the difference between the earthly and the +heavenly life of the Lord fully to understand the point of view that He takes +here. The one is the basis of the other; the one is the seedtime, the other is +the harvest. The one has only the limited years of the earthly life, in which +it can be done; the other has the endless years of Eternity, through which it +is to be continued. And if any part of that earthly life of the Lord had been +void of its duty, and of its discharge of the Father's will, not even He, +amidst the blaze of the heavenly glory, could have thereafter filled up the +tiny gap. All the earthly years were needed to be filled with service, up to +the great service and sacrifice of the Cross, in order that upon them might be +reared the second stage and phase of His heavenly life. With regard to the one, +He said on the Cross, 'It is finished.' But when He died He passed not into the +night of inactivity, but into the day of greater service. And that higher and +heavenly form of His work continues, and not until 'the kingdoms of this world +are become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ,' and the whole benefit +and effect of His earthly life are imparted to the whole race of man, will it +be said, 'It is done,' and the angels of heaven proclaim the completion of His +work for man. But seeing that that work has its twofold forms, Jesus, like us, +had to be conscious of the limitations of life, and of the night that followed +the day. +</p> + +<p> +II. And now turn, in the second place, to the servant's thought. +</p> + +<p> +As I have already pointed out, it is the precise reversal of the other. What to +Christ is 'day' to Paul is 'night.' What to Christ is 'night' to Paul is 'day.' +Now the first point that I would make is this, that the future would never have +been 'day' to Paul if Jesus had not gone down into the darkness of the 'night.' +I have said that there was only one point of comparison in our Lord's mind +between night and death. But we may venture to extend the figure a little, and +to say that the Light went into the 'valley of the shadow of Death,' and lit it +up from end to end. The Life went into the palace of Death, and breathed life +into all there. There is a great picture by one of the old monkish masters, on +the walls of a Florentine convent, which represents the descent of Jesus to +that dim region of the dead. Around Him there is a halo of light that shines +into the gloomy corridor, up which the thronging patriarchs and saints of the +Old Dispensation are coming, with outstretched hands of eager welcome and +acceptance, to receive the blessing. Ah! it is true, 'the people that walked in +darkness have seen a great Light; and to them that dwelt in the region of the +shadow of death, unto them hath the Light shined.' Christ the Light has gone +down into the darkness, and what to Him was night He has made for us day. Just +as Scripture all but confines the name of <i>death</i> to Christ's experience +upon the Cross, and by virtue of that experience softens it down for the rest +of us into the blessed image of <i>sleep</i>, so the Master has turned the +night of death into the dawning of the day. +</p> + +<p> +Further, to the servant the brightness of that future day dimmed all earth's +garish glories into darkness. It was because Paul saw the Beyond flaming with +such lustre that the nearer distance to him seemed to have sunk into gloom. +Just as a man or other object between you and the western sky when the sun is +there will be all dark, so earth with heaven behind it becomes a mere shadowy +outline. The day that is beyond outshines all the lustres and radiances of +earth, and turns them into darkness. You go into a room out of blazing tropical +sunshine, and it is all gloom and obscurity. He whose eyes are fixed on the day +that is to come will find that here he walks as one in the night. +</p> + +<p> +And the brightness of that day, as well as the darkness of the present night, +directed the servant as to what he should be diligent in. Since it is true that +'the day is at hand,' let us put on the armour of light, and dress ourselves in +garb fitting for it. Since it is true that 'the night is far spent' let us put +off the works of darkness. +</p> + +<p> +III. And so that brings me to the last point, and that is the combination of +the Master's and the servant's thought, and the effect that it should produce +upon us. +</p> + +<p> +It is not enough either for our hearts or our minds that we should say 'the +night cometh when no man can work.' Life is day, but it is night also. Death is +night but it is dawning as well. We cannot understand either the present or the +future unless we link them together. That death which is the cessation of +activity in one aspect, is, for Christ's servants, as truly as for Christ, the +beginning of an activity in a higher and nobler form. I do not believe in a +heaven of rest, meaning by that, inaction; I still less believe in a death +which puts an end to the activity of the human spirit. I believe that this +world is our school, our apprenticeship, the place where we learn our trade and +exercise our faculties, where we paint the picture, as it were, which we offer +when we desire to be admitted to the great guild of artists, and according to +the result of which, in the eye of the Judge, is our place hereafter. What the +Germans call 'proof pieces'—that is the meaning of life. And though 'the night +cometh when no man can work,' the day cometh when the characters we have made +ourselves here, the habits we have cultivated and indulged in, the capacities +we have exercised, and the set and drift of all our activity upon earth, will +determine the work that we get to do there. +</p> + +<p> +So then, stereoscoping these two thoughts, we get the solid image that results +from them both. And it teaches us not only diligence, and thus supplies +stimulus, but it determines the direction of our diligence, and thus supplies +guidance. We ought to be misers of our time and opportunities. Jesus Christ +said, 'I must work the work of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night +cometh.' How much more ought you and I to say so? And some of us ought very +specially to say it, and to feel it, because the hour when we shall have to lay +down our tools is getting very near, and the shadows are lengthening. If you +had been in the fields in these summer evenings during the last few days, you +would have seen the haymakers at work with more and more diligence as the +evening drew on darker and darker. Dear friends, some of us are at the eleventh +hour. Let us fill it with diligent work. The night cometh. +</p> + +<p> +But my texts not only stimulate to diligence, but they direct the diligence. If +it be that there is a day beyond, and that Christ's folk are 'the children of +the day,' then 'let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober.' +We have to cast ourselves on Him as our Saviour, to love Him as our Lord and +Friend, to take Him as our Pattern and our Guide, our Help, our Light, and our +Life. And then we shall neither be deceived by life's garish splendours nor +oppressed by its gloom and its sorrow; we shall neither shrink from that last +moment, as a night of inaction, nor be too eager to cast off the burden of our +present work, but we shall cheerfully toil at what will prepare us for 'the +day,' and the bell at night that rings us out of mill and factory will not be +unwelcome, for it will ring us in to higher work and nobler service. The +transition will be like one of those summer nights in the Arctic circle, when +the sun does not dip. Through a little thin film of less light we shall pass +into the perfect day, where 'the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the light +thereof,' and 'there shall be no more night.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap39"></a>THE SIXTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL—THE BLIND MADE TO SEE, AND THE SEEING +MADE BLIND</h2> + +<p> +'When Jesus had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the +spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7. And said +unto him, Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent). +He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing.'—JOHN ix. 6, 7. +</p> + +<p> +The proportionate length at which this miracle and its accompanying effects are +recorded, indicates very clearly the Evangelist's idea of their relative +importance. Two verses are given to the story of the miracle; all the rest of +the chapter to its preface and its issues. It was a great thing to heal a man +that was blind from his birth, but the story of the gradual illumination of his +spirit until it came to the full light of the perception of Christ as the Son +of God, was far more to the Evangelist, and ought to be far more to us than +giving the outward eye power to discern the outward light. +</p> + +<p> +The narrative has a prologue and an epilogue, and the true point of view from +which to look at it is found in the solemn words with which our Lord closes the +incident. 'For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not +might see, and that they which see might be made blind.' +</p> + +<p> +So then the mere sign, important as it is, is the least thing that we have to +look at in our contemplations now. +</p> + +<p> +I. We have here our Lord unveiling His deepest motives for bestowing an +unsought blessing. +</p> + +<p> +It is remarkable, I think, that out of the eight miracles recorded in this +Gospel, there is only one in which our Lord responds to a request to manifest +His miraculous power; the others are all spontaneous. +</p> + +<p> +In the other Gospels He heals sometimes because of the pleading of the +sufferer; sometimes because of the request of compassionate friends or +bystanders; sometimes unasked, because His own heart went out to those that +were in pain and sickness. But in John's Gospel, predominantly we have the Son +of God, who acts throughout as moved by His own deep heart. That view of Christ +reaches its climax in His own profound words about His own laying down of His +life: 'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world. Again, I leave +the world and go unto the Father.' So, not so much influenced by others as +deriving motive and impulse and law from Himself, He moves upon earth a +fountain and not a reservoir, the Originator and the Beginner of the blessings +that He bears. +</p> + +<p> +And that is the point of view from which most strikingly the prologue of our +narrative sets forth His action in the miracle here. 'As Jesus passed by,' says +the story, 'He saw a man which was blind from his birth.' He fixes His eye upon +him. No cry from the blind man's lips draws Him. He sits there unconscious of +the kind eyes that were fastened upon him. The disciples stand at Christ's +side, and have no share in His feelings. They ask Him to do nothing. To them +the blind man is—what? A theological problem. No trace of pity touches their +hearts. They do not even seem to have reckoned upon or expected Christ's +miraculous intervention. And that is a very remarkable feature in the Gospels. +At all events, they evidently do not expect it here; but all that the sight of +this lifelong sufferer does in them is to raise a question, 'Who did sin; he or +his parents?' Perhaps they do not quite see to the bottom of the alternative +that they are suggesting; and we need not trouble ourselves to ask whether +there was a full-blown notion of the pre-existence of the man's soul in their +minds as they ask the question. Perhaps they remembered the impotent man to +whom our Lord said, 'Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.' And +they may have thought that they had His sanction to the doctrine—as old as +Job's friends—that wherever there was great suffering there must first have +been great sin. +</p> + +<p> +That is all that the sight of sorrow does for some people. It leads to +censorious judgments, or to mere idle and curious speculations. Christ lets us +see what it did for Him, and what it is meant to do for us. 'Neither hath this +man sinned nor his parents, but he is born blind that the works of God may be +made manifest in him.' That is to say, human sorrow is to be looked at by us as +an opportunity for the manifestation through us of God's mercy in relieving and +stanching the wounds through which the lifeblood is ebbing away. Do not stand +coldly curious or uncharitably censorious. Do not make miserable men +theological problems, but see in them a call for service. See in them an +opportunity for letting the light of God, so much of it as is in you, shine +from you, and your hands move in works of mercy. +</p> + +<p> +And then the Master goes on to state still more distinctly the law which +dominated His life, and which ought to dominate ours: 'I must work the works of +Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.' Then +poor men's misery is an occasion for the love of God manifesting itself. Yes. +But the love of God manifests itself through human media, through persons; and +if we adopt the reading of these words which you will find in the Revised +Version, and instead of saying '<i>I</i> must work,' read '<i>We</i> must +work,' then we have Christ extending the law which ruled over His own life to +all His followers, and making it supremely obligatory and binding upon each of +us. He for His part, as I have said, moves through this Gospel as the Son of +God, whose mercy, and all whose doings are self-originated. But the other side +of that is that He moves through this Gospel in the humble attitude of filial +obedience, ever recognising that the Father's will is supreme in His life; and +that He is bound, with an obligation in which He rejoices, to do the will of +Him that sent Him. The consciousness of a mission, the sense of filial +obedience, the joyful surrender and harmonising of the will of the Son with the +will of the Father; these things were the secret of the Master's life. +</p> + +<p> +And coupled with them, even in Him there was the consciousness that time was +short; and although beyond the Cross and the grave there stretched for Him an +eternity in which He would work for the blessing of the world, yet the special +work which He had to do, while wearing the veil and weakness of flesh, had but +few days and hours in which it could be done. Therefore, as we ought to do, He +worked under the limitations of mortality, and recognised in the brevity of +life another call to eager and continuous service. +</p> + +<p> +These were His motives which, in common with Him, we may share. But He adds +another in which we have no share; and declares the unique consciousness which +ever stirred Him to His self-manifesting and God-manifesting acts: 'As long as +I am in the world I am the Light of the world.' +</p> + +<p> +Thus, moved by sorrow, recognising in man's misery the dumb cry for help, +seeing in it the opportunity for the manifestation of the higher mercy of God; +taking all evil to be the occasion for a brighter display of the love and the +good which are divine; feeling that His one purpose upon earth was to crowd the +moments with obedience to the will, and with the doing of the works of Him that +sent Him; and possessing the sole and strange consciousness that from His +person streams out all the light which illuminates the world—the Christ pauses +before the unconscious blind man, and looking upon the poor, useless eyeballs, +unaware how near light and sight stood, obeys the impulse that shapes His whole +life, 'and when He had spoken <i>thus</i>,' proceeds to the strange cure. +</p> + +<p> +II. So we come, in the next place, to consider Christ as veiling His power +under material means. +</p> + +<p> +There is only one other instance in the Gospels where a miracle is wrought in +the singular fashion which is here employed, namely, the healing of the +deaf-mute recorded in Mark's Gospel, where, in like manner, our Lord makes clay +of the spittle, and anoints the ears of the deaf man with the clay. The variety +of method in our Lord's miracles serves important purposes, as teaching us that +the methods are nothing, and that He moved freely amongst them all, the real +cause in every case being one and the same, the bare forth-putting of His will; +and teaching us further that in each specific case there were reasons in the +moral and religious condition of the persons operated upon for the adoption of +the specific means employed, which we of course have no means of discovering. +There is here, first then, healing by material means. The clay had no power of +healing; the water of Siloam had no power of healing. The thing that healed was +Christ's will, but He uses these externals to help the poor blind man to +believe that he is going to be healed. He condescends to drape and veil His +power in order that the dim eye, unaccustomed to the light, may look upon that +shadowed representation of it when it could not gaze upon the pure brightness; +as an eye may look upon a shaded lamp which could not bear its brilliance +unsoftened and naked. +</p> + +<p> +This healing by material means in order to accommodate Himself to the weak +faith which He seeks to evoke, and to strengthen thereby, is parallel, in +principle, to His own Incarnation, and to His appointment of external rites and +ordinances. Baptism, the Lord's Supper, a visible Church, outward means of +worship, and so on, all these come under that same category. There is no life +nor power in them except His will works through them, but they are crutches and +helps for a weak and sense-bound faith to climb to the apprehension of the +spiritual reality. It is not the clay, it is not the water, it is not the +Church, the ordinances, the outward worship, the form of prayer, the +sacrament—it is none of these things that have the healing and the grace in +them. They are only ladders by which we may ascend to Him. So let us neither +presumptuously antedate the time when we shall be able to do without them—the +Heaven in 'which there is no Temple'—nor grovellingly and superstitiously +elevate them to a place of importance and of power in the Christian life which +Christ never meant them to fill. He heals through material means; the true +source of healing is His own loving will. +</p> + +<p> +Further, He heals at a distance. We have here a parallel with the story of the +nobleman's son at Capernaum, which we have already considered. There, too, we +have the same phenomenon, the healing power sent forth from the Master, and +operating far away from His corporeal personal presence. This was a test of +faith, as the use of the clay had been a help to faith. Still He works His +healing from afar, because to Him there is neither near nor far. In His divine +ubiquity, that Son of Man, who in His glorified manhood is at the right hand of +God the Father Almighty, is here and everywhere where there are weakness and +suffering that turn to Him; ready to help, ready to bless and heal. 'Lo, I am +with you always, even unto the end of the world.' +</p> + +<p> +Our Evangelist sees in the very name of that fountain in which the man washed, +a symbol which is not to be passed by. 'Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam,' which, +says John, 'is by interpretation, <i>Sent.</i>' We have heard already about the +Pool of Siloam in this section of the Gospel. In Chapter vii. we read, 'In the +last day, that great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said, "If any man thirst +let him come to Me and drink."' These words were probably spoken on the last +day of the Feast of Tabernacles, on which one part of the ceremonial was the +drawing, with exuberant rejoicing, of water from the Pool of Siloam, and +bearing it up to the Temple. In these words Christ pointed to that fountain +which rises 'fast by the oracles of God,' and wells up from beneath the hill, +that on which the Temple is built, as being a symbol of Himself. +</p> + +<p> +And here the Evangelist would have us suppose that, in like manner, the very +name which the fountain bore (whether as being an outgush from beneath the +Temple rock, or whether as being the gift of God) as applicable to Himself. The +lesson to be learned is that the fountain in which we have to be cleansed 'from +sin and from uncleanness,' whose waters are the lotion that will give eyesight +to the blind, the true 'fountain of perpetual youth,' which men have sought for +in every land, is Christ Himself. In Him we have the welling forth of the heart +of God, the water of life, the water of gladness, the immortal stream of which +'whoso drinketh shall never thirst,' and which, touching the blind eyeballs, +washes away obscuration and gives new power of vision. +</p> + +<p> +III. Then, still further, we have here our Lord suspending healing on +obedience. +</p> + +<p> +'Go and wash.' As He said to the impotent man: 'Stretch forth thine hand'; as +He said to the paralytic in this Gospel: 'Take up thy bed and walk'; so here He +says, 'Go and wash.' And some friendly hand being stretched out to the blind +man, or he himself feeling his way over the familiar path, he comes to the pool +and washes, and returns seeing. +</p> + +<p> +There is a double lesson there, on which I have no need to dwell. There is, +first, the general truth that healing is suspended by Christ on compliance with +His conditions. He does not simply say to any man, Be whole. He could and did +say so sometimes in regard to bodily healing. But He cannot do so as regards +the cure of our blind souls. To the sin-sick and sin-blinded man He says, 'Thou +shalt be whole, if'—or 'I will make thee whole, provided that'—what?—provided +that thou goest to the fountain where He has lodged the healing power. The +condition on which sight comes to the blind is compliance with Christ's +invitation, 'Come to Me; trust in Me; and thou shalt be whole.' +</p> + +<p> +Then there is a special lesson here, and that is, Obedience brings sight. 'If +any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine.' Are there any of you +groping in darkness, compassed about with theological perplexities and +religious doubts? Obey what you know. Do what you see clearly you ought to do. +Bow your wills to the recognised truth. He who has turned all his knowledge +into action will get more knowledge as soon as he needs it. 'Go and wash; and +he went, and came seeing.' +</p> + +<p> +IV. And now, lastly, we have here our Lord shadowing His highest work as the +Healer of blind souls. +</p> + +<p> +It is impossible for me to enter upon that wonderfully dramatic and instructive +narrative which follows the account of the miracle, and describe the +controversies between the sturdy, quick-witted, candid, blind man, and the +narrow, bitter Pharisees. But just notice one or two points. +</p> + +<p> +The two parties are evidently represented as types of two contrasted classes. +The blind man stands for an example of honest ignorance, knowing itself +ignorant, and not to be coaxed or frightened or in any way provoked to +pretending to knowledge which it does not possess; firmly holding by what it +does know, and because conscious of its little knowledge, therefore waiting for +light and willing to be led. Hence he is at once humble and sturdy, docile and +independent, ready to listen to any voice which can really teach, and +formidably quick to prick with wholesome sarcasm the inflated claims of mere +official pretenders. The Pharisees, on the other hand, are sure that they know +everything that can be known about anything in the region of religion and +morality, and in their absolute confidence of their absolute possession of the +truth, in their blank unconsciousness that it was more than their official +property and stock-in-trade, in their complete incapacity to discern the glory +of a miracle which contravened ecclesiastical proprieties and +conventionalities, in their contempt for the ignorance which they were +responsible for and never thought of enlightening, in their cruel taunt +directed against the man's calamity, and in their swift resort to the weapon of +excommunication of one whom it was much easier to cast out than to answer, are +but too plain a type of a character which is as ready to corrupt the teachers +of the Church as of the synagogue. +</p> + +<p> +One cannot but notice how constantly the phrase 'We know' occurs. The parents +of the man use it thrice. The Pharisees have it on their lips in their first +interview with him: 'We know that this man is a sinner.' He answers, declining +to affirm anything about the character of the Man Jesus, because he, for his +part, 'knows not,' but standing firmly by the solid reality which he 'knows,' +in a very solid fashion, that his eyes have been opened. So we have the first +encounter between knowledge which is ignorant, and ignorance which knows, to +the manifest victory of the latter. Again, in the second round, they try to +overbear the man's cool sarcasm with their vehement assertion of knowledge that +God spake to Moses, but by the admission that even their knowledge did not +reach to the determination of the question of the origin of Jesus' mission, lay +themselves open to the sudden thrust of keen-eyed, honest humility's sharp +rapier-like retort. 'Herein is a marvellous thing,' that you <i>Know-alls</i>, +whose business it is to know where a professed miracle-worker comes from, 'know +not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes.' 'Now we know' (to use +your own words) 'that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper +of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth.' +</p> + +<p> +Then observe how, on both sides, a process is going on. The man is getting more +and more light at each step. He begins with 'a Man which is called Jesus.' Then +he gets to a 'prophet,' then he comes to 'a worshipper of God, and one that +does His will.' Then he comes to, 'If this man were not of God,' in some very +special sense, 'He could do nothing.' These are his own reflections, the +working out of the impression made by the fact on an honest mind; and because +he had so used the light which he had, therefore Jesus gives him more, and +finds him with the question, 'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' Then the +man who had shown himself so strong in his own convictions, so independent, and +hard to cajole or coerce, shows himself now all docile and submissive, and +ready to accept whatever Jesus says: 'Lord, who is He, that I might believe on +Him?' That was not credulity. He already knew enough of Christ to know that he +ought to trust Him. And to his docility there is given the full revelation; and +he hears the words which Pharisees and unrighteous men were not worthy to hear: +'Thou hast both <i>seen</i> it is He that talketh with thee.' Then intellectual +conviction, moral reliance, and the utter prostration and devotion of the whole +man bow him at Christ's feet. 'Lord, I believe; and He worshipped Him.' +</p> + +<p> +There is the story of the progress of an honest, ignorant soul that knew itself +blind, into the illumination of perfect vision. +</p> + +<p> +And as he went upwards, so steadily and tragically, downwards went the others. +For they had light and they would not look at it; and it blasted and blinded +them. They had the manifestation of Christ, and they scoffed and jeered at it, +and turned their backs upon it, and it became a curse to them; falling not like +dew but like vitriol on their spirits, blistering, not refreshing. +</p> + +<p> +Therefore Christ pronounces their fate, and sums up the story in the solemn +two-edged sentence: 'For judgment am I come into the world, that they which see +not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.' +</p> + +<p> +The purpose of His coming is not to judge, but to save. But if men will not let +Him save, the effect of His coming will be to harm. Therefore, His coming will +separate men into two parts, as a magnet will draw all the iron filings out of +a heap and leave the brass. He comes not to judge, but His coming does judge. +He is set for the rise or for the fall of men, and is 'a discerner of the +thoughts and intents of the heart.' +</p> + +<p> +Light has a twofold effect. It is torture to the diseased eye; it is gladdening +to the sound one. Christ is the light, as He is also both the power of seeing +and the thing seen. Therefore, it cannot but be that His shining upon men's +hearts shall judge them, and shall either enlighten or darken. +</p> + +<p> +We all have eyes—the organs by which we may see 'the light of the knowledge of +the glory of God.' We have all blinded ourselves by our sin. Christ is come to +show us God, to be the light by which we see God, and to strengthen and restore +our faculty of seeing Him. If you welcome Him, and take Him into your hearts, +He will be at once light and eyesight to you. But if you turn away from Him He +will be blindness and darkness to you. He comes to pour eyesight on the blind, +but He comes therefore also, most assuredly, to make still blinder those who do +not know themselves to be blind, and conceit themselves to be clear-sighted. 'I +thank Thee, Father, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, +and hast revealed them unto babes.' +</p> + +<p> +They who see themselves to be blind, who know themselves to be ignorant, the +lowly who recognise their sinfulness and misery and helplessness, and turn in +their sore need to Christ, will be led by paths of growing knowledge and +blessedness to the perfect day where their strengthened vision will be able to +see light in the blaze which to us now is darkness. They who say 'I see,' and +know not that they are miserable and blind, nor hearken to His counsel to +'anoint their eyes with eye salve that they may see,' will have yet another +film drawn over their eyes by the shining of the light which they reject, and +will pass into darkness where only enough of light and of eyesight remain to +make guilt. Jesus Christ is for us light and vision. Trust to Him, and your +eyes will be blessed because they see God. Turn from Him and Egyptian darkness +will settle on your soul. 'To him that hath shall be given, and from him that +hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap40"></a>THE GIFTS TO THE FLOCK</h2> + +<p> +'… By Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and +find pasture.'—JOHN x. 9. +</p> + +<p> +One does not know whether the width or the depth of this marvellous promise is +the more noteworthy. Jesus Christ presents Himself before the whole race of +man, and declares Himself able to deal with the needs of every individual in +the tremendous whole. 'If <i>any man</i>'—no matter who, where, when. +</p> + +<p> +For all noble and happy life there are at least three things needed: security, +sustenance, and a field for the exercise of activity. To provide these is the +end of all human society and government. Jesus Christ here says that He can +give all these to every one. +</p> + +<p> +The imagery of the sheep and the fold is still, of course, in His mind, and +colours the form of the representation. But the substance is the declaration +that, to any and every soul, no matter how ringed about with danger, no matter +how hampered and hindered in work, no matter how barren of all supply earth may +be, He will give these, the primal requisites of life. 'He shall be saved, and +shall go in and out, and find pasture.' +</p> + +<p> +Now I only wish to deal with these three aspects of the blessedness of a true +Christian life which our Lord holds forth here as accessible to us all: +security, the unhindered exercise of activity, and sustenance or provision. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, in and through Christ any man may be saved. +</p> + +<p> +I take it that the word 'saved' here is rather used with reference to the +imagery of the parable than in its full Christian sense of ultimate and +everlasting salvation, and that its meaning in its present connection might +perhaps better be set forth by the rendering 'safe' than 'saved.' At the same +time, the two ideas pass into one another; and the declaration of my text is +that because, step by step, conflict by conflict, in passing danger after +danger, external and internal, Jesus Christ, through our union with Him, will +keep us safe, at the last we shall reach eternal and everlasting salvation. 'He +will save us' by the continual exercise of His protecting power, 'into His +everlasting kingdom.' There is none other shelter for men's defenceless heads +and naked, soft, unarmed bodies except only the shelter that is found in Him. +There are creatures of low grade in the animal world which have the instinct, +because their own bodies are so undefended and impotent to resist contact with +sharp and penetrating substances, that they take refuge in the abandoned shells +of other creatures. You and I have to betake ourselves behind the defences of +that strong love and mighty Hand if ever we are to pass through life without +fatal harm. +</p> + +<p> +For consider that, even in regard to outward dangers, union with Jesus Christ +defends and delivers us. Suppose two men, two Manchester merchants, made +bankrupt by the same commercial crisis; or two shipwrecked sailors lashed upon +a raft; or two men sitting side by side in a railway carriage and smashed by +the same collision. One is a Christian and the other is not. The same blow is +altogether different in aspect and actual effect upon the two men. They endure +the same thing externally, in body or in fortune. The outward man is similarly +affected, but the man is differently affected. The one is crushed, or +embittered, or driven to despair, or to drink, or to something or other to +soothe the bitterness; the other bows himself with 'It is the Lord! Let Him do +what seemeth Him good.' +</p> + +<p> +So the two disasters are utterly different, though in form they may be the +same, and he that has entered into the fold by Jesus Christ is safe, not +<i>from</i> outward disaster—that would be but a poor thing—but <i>in</i> it. +For to the true heart that lives in fellowship with Jesus Christ, Sorrow, +though it be dark-robed, is bright-faced, soft-handed, gentle-hearted, an angel +of God. 'By Me if any man enter in, he shall be safe.' +</p> + +<p> +And further, in our union with Jesus Christ, by simple faith in Him and loyal +submission and obedience, we do receive an impenetrable defence against the +true evils, and the only things worth calling dangers. For the only real evil +is the peril that we shall lose our confidence and be untrue to our best +selves, and depart from the living God. Nothing is evil except that which +tempts, and succeeds in tempting, us away from Him. And in regard to all such +danger, to cleave to Christ, to realise His presence, to think of Him, to wear +His name as an amulet on our hearts, to put the thought of Him between us and +temptation as a filter through which the poisonous air shall pass, and be +deprived of its virus, is the one secret of safety and victory. +</p> + +<p> +Real gift of power from Jesus Christ, the influx of His strength into our +weakness, of some portion of the Spirit of life that was in Him into our +deadness, is promised, and the promise is abundantly fulfilled to all men who +trust Him when their hour of temptation comes. As the dying martyr, when he +looked up into heaven, saw Jesus Christ 'standing at the right hand of God' +ready to help, and, as it were, having started from His eternal seat on the +Throne in the eagerness of His desire to succour His servant, so we may all +see, if we will, that dear Lord ready to succour us, and close by our sides to +deliver us from the evil in the evil, its power to tempt. If we could carry +that vision into our daily life, and walk in its light, when temptation rings +us round, how poor all the inducements to go away from Him would look! +</p> + +<p> +There is a power in the remembrance of Jesus to slay every wicked thought; and +the things that tempt us most, that most directly appeal to our worst sides, to +our sense, our ambition, our pride, our distrust, our self-will, all these lose +their power upon us, and are discovered in their emptiness and insignificance, +when once this thought flashes across the mind—Jesus Christ is my Defence, and +Jesus Christ is my Pattern and my Companion. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brother! do not trust yourself out amongst the pitfalls and snares of life +without Him. If you do, the real evil of all evils will seize you for its own; +but keep close to that dear Lord, and then 'there shall no evil befall thee, +neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.' The hidden temptation thou +wilt pass by without being harmed; the manifest temptation thou wilt trample +under foot. 'Thou shalt not be afraid for the pestilence that walketh in +darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.' Hidden known +temptations will be equally powerless; and in the fold into which all pass by +faith in Christ thou shalt be safe. And so, kept safe from each danger and in +each moment of temptation, the aggregate and sum of the several deliverances +will amount to the everlasting salvation which shall be perfected in the +heavens. +</p> + +<p> +Only remember the condition, 'By Me if any man enter in.' That is not a thing +to be done once for all, but needs perpetual repetition. When we clasp anything +in our hands, however tight the initial grasp, unless there is a continual +effort of renewed tightening, the muscles become lax, and we have to renew the +tension, if we are to keep the grasp. So in our Christian life it is only the +continual repetition of the act which our Lord here calls 'entering in by Him' +that will bring to us this continual exemption from, and immunity in, the +dangers that beset us. +</p> + +<p> +Keep Christ between you and the storm. Keep on the lee side of the Rock of +Ages. Keep behind the breakwater, for there is a wild sea running outside; and +your little boat, undecked and with a feeble hand at the helm, will soon be +swamped. Keep within the fold, for wolves and lions lie in every bush. Or, in +plain English, live moment by moment in the realising of Christ's presence, +power, and grace. So, and only so, shall you be safe. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, secondly, note, in Jesus Christ any man may find a field for the +unrestricted exercise of his activity. +</p> + +<p> +That metaphor of 'going in and out' is partly explained to us by the image of +the flock, which passes into the fold for peaceful repose, and out again, +without danger, for exercise and food; and is partly explained by the frequent +use, in the Old Testament and in common conversation, of the expression 'going +out and in' as the designation of the two-sided activity of human life. The one +side is the contemplative life of interior union with God by faith and love; +the other, the active life of practical obedience in the field of work which +God provides for us. These two are both capable of being raised to their +highest power, and of being discharged with the most unrestricted and joyous +activity, on condition of our keeping close to Christ, and living by the faith +of Him. +</p> + +<p> +Note, then, 'He shall go in.' That comes first, though it interferes with the +propriety of the metaphor, since the previous words already contemplate an +initial 'entering in by Me, the Door.' That is to say, that, given the union +with Jesus Christ by faith, there must then, as the basis of all activity, +follow very frequent and deep inward acts of contemplation, of faith, and +aspiration, and desire. You must go into the depths of God through Christ. You +must go into the depths of your own souls through Him. You must become +accustomed to withdraw yourselves from spreading yourselves out over the +distractions of any external activity, howsoever imperative, charitable, or +necessary, and live alone with Jesus, 'in the secret place of the Most High.' +It is through Him that we have access to the mysteries and innermost shrine of +the Temple. It is through Him that we draw near to the depths of Deity. It is +through Him that we learn the length and breadth and height and depth of the +largest and loftiest and noblest truths that concern the spirit. It is through +Him that we become familiar with the inmost secrets of our own selves. And only +they who habitually live this hidden and sunken life of solitary and secret +communion will ever do much in the field of outward work. Christians of this +generation are far too much accustomed to live only in the front rooms of the +house, that look out upon the street; and they know very little—far too little +for their soul's health, and far too little for the freshness of their work and +its prosperity—of that inward life of silent contemplation and expectant +adoration, by which all strength is fed. Do not keep all your goods in the shop +windows, and have nothing on your shelves but dummies, as is the case with far +too many of us to-day. Remember that the Lord said first, 'He shall go in,' and +unless you do you will not be 'saved.' +</p> + +<p> +But then, further, if there have been, and continue to be, this unrestricted +exercise through Christ of that sweet and silent life of solitary communion +with Him, then there will follow upon that an enlargement of opportunity, and +power for outward service such as nothing but emancipation by faith in Him can +ever bring. Howsoever, by external circumstances, you and I may be hampered and +hindered, however often we may feel that if something outside of us were +different, the development of our active powers would be far more satisfactory, +and we could do a great deal more in Christ's cause, the true hindrance lies +never without, but within; and it is only to be overcome by that plunging into +the depths of fellowship with Him. And then, if we carry with us into the field +of work, whether it be the commonplace, dusty, tedious, and often repulsive +duties of our monotonous business; or whether it be the field of more +distinctly unselfish and Christian service—if we carry with us into all places +where we go to labour, the sweet thought of His presence, of His example, of +His love, and of the smile that may come on His face as the reward of faithful +service, then we shall find that external labour, drawing its pattern, its +motive, its law, and the power for its discharge, from communion with Him, is +no more task-work nor slavery; and even 'the rough places will be made smooth, +and the crooked things will be made straight,' and distasteful work will be +made at least tolerable, and hard burdens will be lightened, and the things +that are 'seen and temporal' will shimmer into transparency, through which will +shine out the things that are 'unseen and eternal.' +</p> + +<p> +Some of us are constitutionally made to prefer the one of these forms of +Christian activity; some of us to prefer the other. The tendencies of this +generation are far too much to the latter, to the exclusion of the former. It +is hard to reconcile the conflicting claims, and I know of no better way to hit +the just medium than by trying to keep ourselves always in touch with Jesus +Christ, and then outward labour of any sort, whether for the bread that +perishes or for His kingdom and righteousness, will never become so absorbing +but that in it we may have our hearts in heaven, and the silent hour of +communion with Him will never be so prolonged as to neglect outward duties. +There was a demoniac boy in the plain, and therefore it was impossible to build +tabernacles on the Mount of Transfiguration. But the disciples that had not +climbed the Mount were all impotent to cast out the demoniac boy. We, if we +keep near to Jesus Christ, will find that through Him we can 'go in and out,' +and in both be pursuing the one uniform purpose of serving and pleasing Him. So +shall be fulfilled in our cases the Psalmist's prayer, that 'I may dwell in the +house of the Lord all the days of ray life, to behold His beauty, and to +inquire in His Temple.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, in Jesus Christ any man may receive sustenance. 'They shall find +pasture.' +</p> + +<p> +The imagery of the sheep and the fold is still, of course, present to the +Master's mind, and shapes the form in which this great promise is set forth. +</p> + +<p> +I need only remind you, in illustration of it, of two facts, one, that in Jesus +Christ Himself all the true needs of humanity are met and satisfied. He is 'the +Bread of God that came down from heaven to give life to the world.' Do I want +an outward object for my intellect? I have it in Him. Does my heart feel with +its tendrils, which have no eyes at the ends of them, after something round +which it may twine, and not fear that the prop shall ever rot or be cut down or +pulled up? Jesus Christ is the home of love in which the dove may fold its +wings and be at rest. Do I want (and I do if I am not a fool) an absolute and +authoritative command to be laid upon my will; some one 'whose looks enjoin, +whose lightest words are spells'? I find absolute authority, with no taint of +tyranny, and no degradation to the subject, in that Infinite Will of His. Does +my conscience need some strong detergent to be laid upon it which shall take +out the stains that are most indurated, inveterate, and ingrained? I find it +only in the 'blood that cleanseth from all sin.' Do my aspirations and desires +seek for some solid and substantial and unquestionable and imperishable good to +which, reaching out, they may be sure that they are not anchoring on cloudland? +Christ is our hope. For all this complicated and craving commonwealth that I +carry within my soul, there is but one satisfaction, even Jesus Christ Himself. +Nothing else nourishes the whole man at once, but in Him are all the +constituents that the human system requires for its nutriment and its growth in +every part. So in and through Christ we find 'pasture.' +</p> + +<p> +But beyond that, if we are knit to Him by simple and continual faith, love, and +obedience, then what is else barrenness becomes full of nourishment, and the +unsatisfying gifts of the world become rich and precious. They are nought when +they are put first, they are much when they are put second. +</p> + +<p> +I remember when I was in Australia seeing some wretched cattle trying to find +grass on a yellow pasture where there was nothing but here and there a brown +stalk that crumbled to dust in their mouths as they tried to eat it. That is +the world without Jesus Christ. And I saw the same pasture six weeks after, +when the rains had come, and the grass was high, rich, juicy, satisfying. That +is what the world may be to you, if you will put it second, and seek first that +your souls shall be fed on Jesus Christ. Then, and only then, will what is else +water be turned by His touch and blessing into wine that shall fill the great +jars to the brim, and be pronounced by skilled palates to be the good wine. 'I +will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall +their fold be. There shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall +they feed upon the mountains of Israel.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap41"></a>THE GOOD SHEPHERD</h2> + +<p> +'I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. 15. As the +Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the +sheep.'—JOHN x. 14,15. +</p> + +<p> +'I am the Good Shepherd.' Perhaps even Christ never spoke more fruitful words +than these. Just think how many solitary, wearied hearts they have cheered, and +what a wealth of encouragement and comfort there has been in them for all +generations. The little child as it lays itself down to sleep, cries— +</p> + +<p> + 'Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me,<br /> + Bless Thy little lamb to-night,' +</p> + +<p> +and the old man lays himself down to die murmuring to himself, 'Though I walk +through the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art +with me.' 'I am the Good Shepherd.' No preaching can do anything but weaken and +dilute the force of such words, and yet, though in all their sweet, homely +simplicity they appeal to every heart, there are great depths in them that are +worth pondering, and profound thoughts that need some elucidation. +</p> + +<p> +There are three points to be noticed—First, the general force of the metaphor, +and then the two specific applications of it which our Lord Himself makes. +</p> + +<p> +I. First of all, then, let me say a few words as to the general application of +the metaphor. The usual notion of these words confines itself to the natural +meaning, and runs out into very true, but perhaps a little sentimental, +considerations, laying hold of what is so plain on the very surface that I need +not spend any time in speaking about it. Christ's pattern is my law; Christ's +providence is my guidance and defence—which in the present case means Christ's +companionship—is my safety, my sustenance—which in the present case means that +Christ Himself is the bread of my soul. The Good Shepherd exercises care, which +absolves the sheep from care, and in the present case means that my only duty +is meek following and quiet trust. 'I am the Good Shepherd'—here is guidance, +guardianship, companionship, sustenance—all responsibility laid upon His broad +shoulders, and all tenderness in His deep heart, and so for us simple obedience +and quiet trust. +</p> + +<p> +Another way by which we get the whole significance of this symbol is by +noticing how the idea is strengthened by the word that accompanies it. Christ +does not say 'I am a Shepherd,' but He says, 'I am <i>the good</i> Shepherd.' +At first sight that word 'good' is interpreted, as I have said, in a kind of +sentimental, poetic way, as expressing our Lord's tenderness and love and care; +but I do not think that is the full meaning here. You find up and down this +Gospel of St. John phrases such as, 'I am the true bread,' 'I am the true +vine,' and the meaning of the word that is here translated 'good' is very +nearly parallel with that idea. The true bread, the true vine, the true +Shepherd—which comes to this, to use modern phraseology, that Jesus Christ, in +His relation to you and me, fulfils all that in figure and shadow is +represented to the meditative eye by that lower relationship between the +material shepherd and his sheep. That is the picture, this the reality. There +is another point to be made clear, and that is, that whilst the word 'good' is +perhaps a fair enough representation of that which is employed by our Lord, +there is a special force and significance attached to the original, which is +lost in our Bible. I do not know that it could have been preserved; but still +it is necessary to state it. The expression here is the one that is generally +rendered 'fair,' or 'lovely,' or 'beautiful,' and it belongs to the genius of +that wonderful tongue in which the New Testament is written that it has a name +for moral purity, considered as being lovely, the highest goodness, and the +serenest beauty, which was what the old Greeks taught, howsoever little they +may have practised it in their lives. And so here the thought is that +<i>the</i> Shepherd stands before us, the realisation of all which that name +means, set forth in such a fashion as to be infinitely lovely and perfectly +fair, and to draw the admiration of any man who can appreciate that which is +beautiful, and can admire that which is of good report. +</p> + +<p> +There is another point still in reference to this first view of the text. Our +Lord not only declares that He is the reality of which the earthly shepherd is +the shadow, and that He as such is the flawless, perfect One, but that He alone +is the reality. 'I am the Good Shepherd; in Me and in Me alone is that which +men need.' And that leads me to another point which must just be mentioned, +that we shall not reach the full meaning of these great words without taking +into account the history of the metaphor in the Old Testament. Christ gives a +second edition of the figure, and we are to remember all that went before. 'The +Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want'; 'Thou leddest Thy people like a flock, +by the hand of Moses and Aaron.' These are but specimens of a continuous series +of utterances in the old Revelation in which Jehovah Himself is the Shepherd of +mankind; and there is also another class of passages of which I will quote one +or two. 'He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, and carry them in His arms.' +'Awake, O sword, against the Man who is my fellow; smite the Shepherd, and the +sheep shall be scattered.' There were, we should remember, two streams of +representation, according to the one of which God Himself was the Shepherd of +Israel, and according to the other of which the Messiah was the Shepherd; and +here, as I believe, Jesus lays His hand on both the one and the other, and +says: 'They are Mine, and they testify of Me.' So sweet, so gracious are the +words, that we lose the sense of the grandeur of them, and need to think before +we are able to understand how great and immense the claim that is made here +upon our faith, and that this Man stands before us and arrogates to Himself the +divine prerogative witnessed from of old by psalmist and prophet, and says that +for Him were meant the prophecies of ancient times that spake of a human +shepherd, and asserts that all the sustenance, care, authority, command, which +the emblem suggests meet in Him in perfect measure. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now let us turn to the two special points which our Lord emphasises here, +as being those in which His relation as the Good Shepherd is most conspicuously +given. The language of my text runs: 'I am the Good Shepherd, and know My +sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the +Father.' Our Western ways fail to bring out the full meaning of the emblem; but +all Eastern travellers tell us what a strange bond of sympathy and loving +regard, and docile recognition, springs up between the shepherd and his sheep +away there in the Eastern pastures and deserts; and how he knows every one, +though to a stranger's eye they are so like each other; and how even the dumb +instincts and the narrow intelligence of the silly sheep recognise the +shepherd, and will not be deceived by shepherd's garments worn to deceive, and +will not follow the voice of a stranger. +</p> + +<p> +But we must further note that Christ lays hold of the dumb instincts of the +animal, as illustrating, at the one end of the scale, the relation between Him +and His followers, and lays hold of the communion between the Father and the +Son at the other end of the scale, as illustrating the same thing. 'I know My +sheep.' That is a knowledge like the knowledge of the shepherd, a bond of close +intimacy. But He does not know them by reason of looking at them and thinking +about them. It is something far more blessed than that. He knows me because He +loves me; He knows me because He has sympathy with me, and I know Him, if I +know Him at all, by my love, and I know Him by my sympathy, and I know Him by +my communion. A loveless heart does not know the Shepherd, and unless the +Shepherd's heart was all love He would not know His sheep. The Shepherd's love +is an individualised love. He knows His flock as a flock because He knows the +units of it, and we can rest ourselves upon the personal knowledge, which is +personal love and sympathy, of Jesus Christ. 'And My sheep know Me'—not by +force of intellect, not by understanding certain truths, all-important as that +may be, but by having our hearts harmonised in Him, and our spirits put into +sympathy and communion with Him. 'They know Me,' and rest comes with the +knowledge; 'they know Me,' and in that knowing is the best answer to all doubt +and fear. They are exposed to danger, but in the fold they can go quietly to +rest, for they know that He is at the door watching through all dangers. +</p> + +<p> +III. Turn for a moment to the last point, 'I lay down My life for the sheep.' I +have said that our Western ways fail to bring out fully the element of the +metaphor which refers to the kind of sympathy between the shepherd and the +sheep; and our Western life also fails to bring out this other element also. +Shepherds in England never have need to lay down their life for the sheep. +Shepherds in Palestine often did, and sometimes do. You remember David with the +lion and the bear, which is but an illustration of the reality which underlies +this metaphor. So, then, in some profound way, the shepherd's death is the +sheep's safety. First of all, look at that most unmistakable, emphatic—I was +going to say vehement, at any rate, intense—expression of the absolute +voluntariness of Christ's death, 'I lay down My life,' as a man might strip off +a vesture. And this application of the metaphor is made all the stronger by the +words which follow: 'Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My +life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of +Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.' We +read, 'Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered,' but here, somehow +or other, the smiting of the Shepherd is not the scattering but the gathering +of the flock. Here, somehow or other, the dead Shepherd has power to guard, to +guide, to defend them. Here, somehow or other, the death of the Shepherd is the +security of the sheep; and I say to you, the flock, that for every soul the +entrance into the flock of God is through the door of the dying Christ, who +laid down His life for the sheep, and makes them His sheep who trust in Him. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap42"></a>'OTHER SHEEP'</h2> + +<p> +[Footnote: Preached before the Baptist Missionary Society.] +</p> + +<p> +'Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and +they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock and one +Shepherd.'—JOHN x. 16 (R.V.). +</p> + +<p> +There were many strange and bitter lessons in this discourse for the false +shepherds, the Pharisees, to whom it was first spoken. But there was not one +which would jar more upon their minds, and as they fancied, on their sacredest +convictions, than this, that God's flock was wider than God's fold. Our Lord +distinctly recognises Judaism with its middle wall of partition as a divine +institution, and then as distinctly carries His gaze beyond it. To His hearers +'this fold,' their own national polity, held all the flock. Without were dogs, +a doleful land, where 'the wild beasts of the desert met with the wild beasts +of the islands.' And now this new Teacher, not content with declaring them +hirelings, and Himself the only true Shepherd of Israel, breaks down the hedges +and speaks of Himself as the Shepherd of men. No wonder that they said, 'He +hath a devil and is mad.' +</p> + +<p> +During His earthly life our Lord, as we know, confined His own personal +ministry for the most part to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Not +exclusively so, for He made at least one journey into the coasts of Tyre and +Sidon, teaching and healing; a Syro-Phcenician woman held His feet, and +received her request; and one of His miracles, of feeding the multitude, was +wrought for hungry Gentiles. But while His work was in Israel, it was for +mankind; and while 'this fold,' generally speaking, circumscribed His toils, it +did not confine His love nor His thoughts. More than once world-wide +declarations and promises broke from His lips, even before the final universal +commission, 'Preach the Gospel to every creature.' 'I, if I be lifted up, will +draw all men unto Me.' 'I am the Light of the world.' These and other similar +sayings give us His lofty consciousness that He has received 'the heathen for +His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.' +Parallel with them in substance are the words before us, which, for our present +purpose, we may regard as containing lessons from our Lord Himself of how He +looked and would have us look on the heathen world, on His work and ours, and +on the certain issues of both. +</p> + +<p> +I. We have here Christ teaching us how to think of the heathen world. +</p> + +<p> +Observe that His words are not a declaration that all mankind are His sheep. +The previous verses have distinctly defined a class of men as possessing the +name, and the succeeding ones reiterate the definition, and with equal +distinctness exclude another class. 'Ye believe not, because ye are not My +sheep as I said unto you.' His sheep are they who know Him and are known of +Him. Between Him and them there is a communion of love, a union of life, and a +consequent reciprocal knowledge, which transcends the closest intimacies of +earthly life, and finds its only analogue in that deep and mysterious oneness +which subsists between the Father, who alone knoweth the Son, and the only +begotten Son, who being ever in the bosom of the Father, alone knoweth Him and +revealeth Him to us. 'I know My sheep and am known of Mine; as the Father +knoweth Me and I know the Father. They hear My voice and follow Me, and I give +unto them eternal life.' Such are the characteristics of that relation between +Christ and men by which they become His sheep. It is such souls as these whom +our Lord beholds in the wasteful wilderness. He is speaking not of a relation +which all men bear to Him by virtue of their creation, but of one which +<i>they</i> bear to Him who believe in His name. +</p> + +<p> +Now this interpretation of the words does by no means contradict, but rather +presupposes and rests upon the truth that all mankind come within the love of +the divine heart, that He died for all, that all may be the subjects of His +mediatorial kingdom, recipients of the offered mercy of God in Christ, and +committed to the stewardship of the missionary Church. Resting upon these +truths, the words of our text advance a step further and contemplate those who +'shall hereafter believe on Me.' Whether they be few or many is not the matter +in hand. Whether at any future time they shall include all the dwellers upon +earth is not the matter in hand. That every soul of man is included in the +adaptation and intention and offer of the Gospel is not the matter in hand. But +this is the matter in hand, that Jesus Christ in that moment of lofty elevation +when He looked onwards to giving His life for the sheep, looked outwards also, +far afield, and saw in every nation and people souls that He knew were His, and +would one day know Him, and be led by Him 'in green pastures and beside still +waters.' +</p> + +<p> +But where or what were they when He spoke? He does not mean that already they +had heard His voice and were following His steps, and knew His love, and had +received eternal life at His hand. This He cannot mean, for the plain reason +that He goes on to speak of His 'bringing' them and of their 'hearing,' a work +yet to be done. It can only be, then, that He speaks of them thus in the +fullness of that divine knowledge which 'calls things that are not as though +they were.' It is then a prophetic word which He speaks here. +</p> + +<p> +We have only to think of the condition of the civilised heathendom of Christ's +own day in order to feel the force of our text in its primary application. +While the work of salvation was being prepared for the world in the life and +death of our Lord, the world was being prepared for the tidings of salvation. +Everywhere men were losing their faith in their idols, and longing for some +deliverer. Some had become weary of the hollowness of philosophical +speculation, and, like Pilate, were asking 'What is truth?' whilst, unlike Him, +they waited for an answer, and will believe it when it comes from the lips of +the Incarnate wisdom. Such were the Magi who were led by their starry science +to His cradle, and went back to the depths of the Eastern lands with a better +light than had guided them thither. Such were not a few of the early Christian +converts, who had long been seeking hopelessly for goodly pearls, and had so +been learning to know the worth of the One when it was offered to them. There +were men who had been long sickening with despair amidst the rottenness of +decaying mythologies and corrupting morals, and longing for some breath from +heaven to blow health to themselves and to the world, and had so been learning +to welcome 'the rushing mighty wind' when it came in power. There were simple +souls, without as well as within the chosen people, waiting for the +Consolation, though they knew not whence it was to come. There were many who +had already learned to believe that 'salvation is of the Jews,' though they had +still to learn that salvation is in Jesus. Such were that Aethiopian statesman +who was poring over Isaiah when Philip joined him, the Roman centurion at +Caesarea whose prayers and alms came up with acceptance before God, these +Greeks of the West who came to His cross as the Eastern sages to His cradle, +and were in Christ's eyes the advance guard and first scattered harbingers of +the flocks who should come flying for refuge to Him lifted on the Cross, 'like +doves to their windows.' The whole world showed that the fullness of time had +come; and the history of the early years of the Church reveals in how many +souls the process of preparation had been silently going on. It was like the +flush of early spring, when all the buds that had been maturing and swelling in +the cold, burst, and the tender flowers that had been reaching upwards to the +surface in all the hard winter laugh out in beauty, and a green veil covers all +the hedges at the first flash of the April sun. +</p> + +<p> +Not only these were in our Lord's thoughts when He saw His sheep in heathen +lands. There were many who had no such previous preparation, but were plunged +in all the darkness, nor knew that it was dark. Not only those wearied of +idolatry, and dissatisfied with creeds outworn, but the barbarous people of +Illyricum, the profligates of Corinth, hard rude men like the jailer at +Philippi, and many more were before His penetrating eye. He who sees beneath +the surface, and beyond the present, beholds His sheep where men can only see +wolves. He sees an Apostle in the blaspheming Saul, a teacher for all +generations in the African Augustine while yet a sensualist and a Manichee, a +reformer in the eager monk Luther, a poet-evangelist in the tinker Bunyan. He +sees the future saint in the present sinner, the angel's wings budding on many +a shoulder where the world's burdens lie heavy, and the new name written on +many a forehead that as yet bears but the mark of the beast, and the number of +His name. +</p> + +<p> +And the sheep whom He sees while He speaks are not only the men of that +generation. These mighty words are world-wide and world-lasting. The whole of +the ages are in His mind. All nations are gathered before His prophetic vision, +even as they shall one day be gathered before His judgment throne, and in all +the countless mass His hand touches and His love clasps those who to the very +end of time shall come to His call with loving faith, shall follow His steps +with glad obedience. +</p> + +<p> +Thus does Christ look out upon the world that lay beyond the fold. I cannot +stay to do more than refer in passing to the spirit which the words of our text +breathe. There is the lofty consciousness that He is the Leader and Guide, the +Friend and Helper of all, that He stands solitary in His power to bless. There +is the full confidence that the earth is His to its uttermost border. There is +the clear vision of the sorrowful condition of these heathen people, without a +shepherd and without a fold, wandering on every high mountain and dying in +every thirsty land where there is no water. There are the tenderest pity and +yearning love for them in their extremity. There is the clear assurance that +they will come and be blessed in Him. I pass by all the other thoughts, which +naturally found themselves on these words, in order to urge the one which is +most appropriate to our present engagement. Let us, dear brethren, take Christ +as our pattern in our contemplations of the heathen world. +</p> + +<p> +He has set us the example of an outgoing look directed far beyond the limits of +the existing churches, far beyond the point of present achievement. We are but +too apt to circumscribe our operative thoughts and our warm sympathies within +the circle of our sight, or of our own personal associations. Our selfishness +and our indolence affect the objects of our contemplations quite as much as +they do the character of our work. They vitiate both, by making ourselves the +great object of both, and by weakening the force of both in a ratio that +increases rapidly with the increasing distance from that favourite centre. It +is but a subtle form of the same disease which keeps our thoughts penned within +the bounds of any fold, or limited by the progress already achieved. For us the +whole world is the possession of our Lord, who has died to redeem us. By us the +whole ought to be contemplated with that same spirit of prophetic confidence +which filled Him when He said, 'Other sheep I have which are not of this fold.' +To press onwards, 'forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to +those which are before,' is the only fitting attitude for Christian men, either +in regard to the gradual purifying of their own characters, or in regard to the +gradual winning of the world for Christ. We ought to make all past successes +stepping-stones to nobler things. The true use of the present is to reach up +from it to a loftier future. The distance beckons; well for us if it do not +beckon us in vain. We have yet to learn the first lesson of our Master's +spirit, as expressed in these words, if we have not become familiar with the +pitying contemplation of the wastes beyond the fold, nor fixed deep in our +minds the faith that the amplitude of its walls will have to be widened with +growing years till it fills the world. The cry echoes to us from of old, +'Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on +the right hand and on the left.' We take the first step to respond to the +summons when we make the 'regions beyond' one of the standing subjects of our +devout thoughts, and take heed of supposing that the Church as we know it, has +the same measurement which the man with the golden rod has measured for the +eternal courts of Jerusalem, that shall be the joy of the whole earth. The very +genius of the Gospel is aspiring. It is content with nothing short of +universality for the sweep, and eternity for the duration, and absolute +completeness for the measure, of its bestowments on man. We should be like men +on a voyage of discovery, whose task is felt to be incomplete until headland +after headland that fades in the dim distance has been rounded and surveyed, +and the flag of our country planted upon it. After each has been passed another +arises from the water, onwards we must go. There is no pause for our thoughts, +none for our sympathy, none for our work, till our keels have visited, and the +'shout of a King' has been heard on every shore that fills 'the breadth of Thy +land, O Emmanuel!' The limits of the visible community of Christ's Church +to-day are far within the borders to which it must one day stretch. It is for +us, taught by His words, to understand that we are yet as it were but encamped +by Jericho, and at the beginning of the campaign. Ai and Bethhoron, and many a +fight more are before us yet. The camp of the invaders, when they lay around +the city of palm-trees, with the mountains in front and the Jordan behind, was +not more unlike the settled order of the nation when it filled the land, than +the ranks of Christ's army to-day are to the mighty multitudes that shall one +day name His name, and follow His banner. Let us live in the future, and lay +strongly hold on the distant; for both are our Lord's, and by so doing we shall +the better do our Master's work in the present, and at hand. +</p> + +<p> +He has set us the example of a <i>penetrating</i> gaze into heathenism, which +reveals beneath its monotonous miseries, the souls that are His. We ought to +look on every field of Christian effort with the assurance that in it there are +some who will hear His voice. As it was when He came, so it is ever and +everywhere. The world is being prepared for the Gospel. In some broad regions, +faith in idolatry is dying out, and the moral condition of the people is +undergoing a slow elevation. Individuals are being weaned from their gods, they +know not how, and they will not know why till they hear of Christ. He sees in +every land where the Gospel is being taken 'a people prepared for the Lord.' He +sees the gold gleaming in the crevices of the caves, the gems, rough and +unpolished, lying in the matrix. He looks not merely on the great mass of +idolaters, but He sees the single souls who shall hear. It is for us to look on +the same mass with confidence caught from His. Neither apathetic indifference +nor faint-hearted doubt should be permitted to weaken our hands. The prospect +may seem very dark, the power of the enemy very great, our resources very +inadequate; but let us look with Christ's eye, we shall know that everywhere we +may hope to find a response to our message. Who they may be, we know not. How +many they may be, we know not. How they may be guided by Him, they know not. +But He knows all. We may know that they are there. And as we cannot tell who +they are but only that they are, we are bound to cherish hopes for all—the most +degraded and outcast of our race. We have no right to give up any field or any +man as hopeless. Christ's sheep will be found coming out of the midst of wolves +and goats. Darkness may cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but if +we look upon it as Christ did, and as He would have us to look, we shall see +lights flickering here and there in the obscurity, which shall burst out into a +blaze. The prophetic eye, the boundlessly hopeful heart, the strong confidence +that in every land where He is preached there will be those who shall +hear—these are what He gives us when He says, 'Other sheep I have, which are +not of this fold.' +</p> + +<p> +There is one other thought connected with these words which may be briefly +referred to. It is that even now, in all lands where the Gospel has been +preached, there are those whom Christ has received, although they have no +connection with His visible Church. +</p> + +<p> +There are many goats within the fold. There are many sheep without it. Even in +lands where the Gospel has long been preached, we do not venture to identify +profession by Church fellowship with living union with Christ. Much more is +this true of our missionary efforts, and the apparent converts whom they make. +The results that appear are no measure of the results that have actually been +accomplished. We often hear of men who had caught up some stray word in a +Bengali market-place, or received a tract by the roadside from some passing +missionary, and who, having carried away the seed in their hearts, had long +been living as Christians remote from all churches and unknown by any. We can +easily conceive that timidity in some cases, and distance in others, swell the +ranks of these secret disciples. Though they follow not the footsteps of the +flock, the Shepherd will lead them in their solitude. There will be many more +names in the Lamb's book of life, depend upon it, than ever are written on the +roll-calls of our churches, or in missionary statistics. The shooting-stars +that yearly fill our sky are visible to us for a moment, when their orbit +passes into the lighted heavens, and then they disappear in the shadow of the +earth. But astronomers tell us that they are always there though to us they +seem to blaze but for a moment. We cannot see them, but they move on their +darkling path and have a sun round which they circle. So be sure that in many +heathen lands there are believing souls, seen by us but for an instant and then +lost, who yet fill their unseen place, and move obedient round the Sun of +Righteousness. Their names on earth are dark, but when the manifestation of the +sons of God shall come, they shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, +and as the stars for ever and ever. Our work has results beyond our knowledge +now. When the Church, the Lamb's wife, shall lift up her eyes at the end of the +days, prophecy tells us that she shall wonder to see her thronging children, +whom she had never known till then, and will say, 'Who hath begotten me these? +Behold I was left alone. These, where had they been?' These were God's hidden +ones, nourished and brought up beyond the pale of the outward Church, but +brought at last to share her triumph, and to abide at her side. 'Other sheep I +have, which are not of this fold.' +</p> + +<p> +What confidence then, what tender pity, what hope should fill our minds when we +look on the heathen world! We must never be contented with present +achievements. We are committed to a task which cannot end till all the world +hears the joyful sound and is blessed by walking in the light of His +countenance. When the great Roman Catholic missionary, the Apostle of the East, +was lying on his dying bed among the barbarous people whom he loved, his +passing spirit was busy about his work, and, even in the article of death, +while the glazing eye saw no more clearly and the ashen lips had begun to +stiffen into eternal silence, visions of further conquests flashed before him, +and his last word was 'Amplius'—<i>Onward</i>! It ought to be the motto of the +missionary work of us, who boast a purer faith, to carry to the heathen and to +fire our own souls. If ever we are tempted to repose, to despondency, to rest +and be thankful when we number up our work and our converts, let us listen to +His voice as it speaks in that supreme hour when He beheld the vision of the +Cross, and beyond it that of a gathered world: 'Other sheep I have, which are +not of this fold.' +</p> + +<p> +We have here— +</p> + +<p> +II. Christ teaching us how to think of His work and ours. +</p> + +<p> +'Them also I must bring.' A necessity is laid upon Him, which springs at once +from that divine work which is the law of His life, and from His own love and +pity. The means for accomplishing this necessary work are implied in the +context, as in other parallel Scriptural sayings, to be His propitiatory death. +The instrumentality employed is not only His own personal agency on earth, nor +only His throned rule on the right hand of God with power over the Spirit of +holiness, but also the work of His Church, and His work through them. Of that +He is mainly speaking when He says, 'Them also I must bring.' Here, then, are +some truths which ought to underlie and shape as well as animate our efforts +for heathenism. +</p> + +<p> +And first, remember that the same sovereign necessity which was laid on Him +presses on us. +</p> + +<p> +The 'Spirit of life' which was in Christ had its 'law,' which was the will of +God. That shaped all His being, and He set us the example of perfectly clear +recognition of, and perfect obedience to it, from the first moment when He +said, 'I must be about My Father's business,' to the last, when He sighed +forth, 'Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.' Hence the frequent sayings +setting forth His work as determined by an imperative 'must,' which, whether it +be alleged in reference to some apparently small or to some manifestly great +thing in His life, is always equally imperative, and whether it seem to be +based on the need for the fulfilment of some prophetic word, or on the +proprieties and congruities of sonship, reposes at last on the will of God. His +final words on the Passover night, before he went out to Gethsemane in the +moonlight, contain the influence which moulded His whole earthly life, 'As the +Father gave Me commandment, even so I do.' +</p> + +<p> +And this divine will constitutes for Him the deepest ground of the necessity in +the case before us. The eternal counsels of God had willed that 'all the ends +of the earth should see the salvation of the Lord'; therefore, whatever the +toils and the pains, the loss and the death, He, whose meat and drink was to do +the will of Him that sent Him, must give Himself to the task, nor rest till, +one by one, the weary wanderers are brought back on His shoulders and folded in +His love. +</p> + +<p> +In all which, let us remember, Jesus Christ is our pattern, not in His work for +the salvation of men, but in the spirit in which He did His work. The solemn +law of duty before which He bowed His head is a law for us also. The +authoritative imperative which He obeyed has power over us. If we would have +our lives holy and strong, wise and good, we must have 'the law of the Spirit +of life in Christ Jesus, making us free from the law of sin and death,' for the +obedience to the higher law enfranchises from slavery to the lower, and all +other authority ceases over us when we are Christ's men. We are bound to +service directed to the same end as His—even the salvation of the world. The +same voice which says to Him, 'I will give Thee for a light to the Gentiles,' +says to us, 'Ye are My witnesses, and My servant whom I have chosen.' The same +Will which hath constituted Him the anointed Prophet, says of us, 'Touch not +Mine anointed and do My prophets no harm.' We are redeemed that we may show +forth God's praises. Not for ourselves alone, nor for purposes terminating in +our own personal acceptance with God, or the perfecting of our own characters, +priceless as these are, but for ends which affect the world has God had mercy +on us. We are bought with a price that we may be the servants of God. We have +received that we may give forth, +</p> + +<p> + 'God doth with us, as we with torches do,<br /> + Not light them for themselves.' +</p> + +<p> +'Arise, shine, for thy light is come.' +</p> + +<p> +This missionary work of ours, then, is not one that can be taken up and laid +down at our own pleasure. It is no excrescence, or accidental outgrowth of the +Church's life. We are all too apt to think of it as an extra, a kind of work of +supererogation, which those may engage in who have a liking that way, and which +those who do not care about it may leave alone, and no harm done. When shall we +come to feel deeply, constantly, practically, that it must be done, and that we +are sinning when we neglect it? Dear brethren, have we laid on our hearts and +consciences the solemn weight of that necessity which moulded His life? Have we +felt the awful power of God's plainly spoken will, driving us to this task? Do +we know anything of that spirit which hears ever-pealing in our ears that awful +commandment, 'Go, go to all the world, preach, preach the Gospel to every +creature?' God commands us to take the trumpet, and if we would not soil our +souls with gross and palpable sin, we must set it to our lips and sound an +alarm, that by His grace shall wake the sleepers, and make the hoary walls of +the robber-city that has afflicted the earth for so many weary millenniums, +rock to their fall, that the redeemed of the Lord may pass over and set the +captives free. +</p> + +<p> +If we felt this as we ought, surely our consecration would be more complete, +and our service more worthy. A clear conviction of God's will pointing the path +for us, is, in all things, a wondrous help to vigorous action, to calmness of +heart, and thus to success. In this mighty work, it would brace us for larger +efforts, and fit us for larger results. It would simplify and deepen our +motives, and thus evolve from them nobler deeds and purer sacrifices. To all +objections from so-called prudence, to all calculations from sparse results, to +all cavils of onlookers who may carp and seek to hinder, we should have one +all-sufficient answer. It is not for us to bandy arguments on such points as +these. We care nothing for difficulties, for discouragements, for cost. We may +think about these till we lose all the manly chivalry of Christian character, +like the Apostle who gazed on the white crests of the angry breakers flashing +in the pale moonlight, till he forgot who stood on the storm, and began to sink +in his great fear. A nobler spirit ought to be ours. The toil is sore, the +sacrifices many, and the yield seems small. Be it so! To all such thoughts we +have one answer—Oh! that we felt more its solemn power!—such is the will of +God. We are doing as we are bid, and we mean to go on. 'Them also must I +bring,' says the Master. 'Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if I preach +not the Gospel,' echoes the Apostle. Let us, in the consecration of resolved +hearts, and in trembling obedience to the divine will, add our choral Amen, and +in the face of all the paralysing suggestions of our own selfishness, and all +the tempting voices of worldly wisdom and unbelieving scornfulness that would +stay our enterprise, let us fling back the grand old answer, 'Whether it be +right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye, for +we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.' +</p> + +<p> +We must not forget, however, that it was no abhorrent toil to which Christ +reluctantly consented. But in this case, as always with Him, the words of +prophecy were true, 'I delight to do Thy will.' The schism between law and +choice had no existence for Him; and when He says that He must bring the +wandering sheep into the fold, He means not more because of God's will than +because of His own yearning desire to pour out the treasures of His mercy. +</p> + +<p> +So it ought to be with us. Our missionary work should not be degraded beneath +the level of duty indeed, but neither should it be left on that level. We ought +not only to be led to it by a power without, but impelled by an energy within. +If we would be like our Master, we must know the necessity arising from our own +heart's promptings, which leads us to work for Him. He has very imperfectly +caught the spirit of the Gospel who has never felt the word as a fire in his +bones, making him weary of forbearing. If we only take to this work because we +are bid, and without sympathy for men, and longing desire to bring them all to +Him who has blessed us, we may almost as well leave it alone. We shall do very +little good to anybody, to ourselves little, to the world less. That our own +hearts may teach us this necessity, we must live near our Master, and know His +grace for ourselves. In proportion as we do, we shall be eager to proclaim it, +and not stand idling in a corner of the market-place, till some unmistakable +order sends us into the vineyard, but go for the relief of our own feelings. +'This is a day of good tidings, and we cannot hold our peace,' said the poor +lepers in the camp to one another. The same feeling that we must tell the good +news just because we know it, and it will make our brethren glad, is part of +the Christian character. A blessed necessity, then, is laid upon us. A blessed +work is given us, which brings with it at once the joy of obedience to our +Father's will, and the joy of gratifying a deep instinct of our nature. 'Them +also must I bring,' said the Saviour, because He loved men. 'To me who am less +than the least of all saints, is this <i>grace</i> given, that I should preach +among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches,' echoes the Apostle. Let us live in +the light of our Lord's eye, and drink deep of His spirit, till the talk +becomes a grace and privilege, not a burden, and till silence and idleness in +His cause shall be felt to be impossible, because it would be violence to our +own feelings, and the loss of a great joy as well as sin against our Father's +will. +</p> + +<p> +Consider again, by what means the sheep are to be brought to Christ? The +context distinctly answers the question. There His propitiatory death is +emphatically set forth as the power by which it is to be accomplished. The +verse before our text says, 'I lay down My life for the sheep'; that after our +text says, 'Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life.' It +is the same connection of means and end as appears in the wonderful words with +which He received the Greeks who came up to the feast, and heard the great +truth, for want of which their philosophy and art came to nothing. 'Except a +corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone'—'I, if I be lifted +up from the earth will draw all men unto Me.' +</p> + +<p> +Yes, brethren! the Cross of Christ, and it alone, gathers men into a unity; for +it alone draws men to Christ. His death, as our propitiation, effects such a +change in the aspects of the divine government, and in the incidence of the +divine justice, that 'we who were far off are made nigh by the blood of +Christ.' His death, as the constraining motive of life in the hearts which +receive it, draws them away from their own ways by the cords of love, and binds +them to Him. His death is His purchase of the gifts of that divine Spirit for +the rebellious, who now convinces the world and endows the Church, 'till we all +come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.' The First +Begotten from the dead is therefore the prince of all the kings of the earth, +and He so rides among the nations as to bring the world to Himself. The +philosophy of history lies in the words, 'Other sheep I have, them also I must +bring.' +</p> + +<p> +Christian missions abundantly prove that the Cross and the proclamation of the +Cross have this power, and that nothing else has. It is not the ethics of +Christianity, nor the abstract truths which may be deduced from its story, but +it is the story of the suffering Redeemer that gives it its power over human +hearts, in all conditions, and climates, and stages of culture. The magnetism +of the Cross alone is mighty enough to overcome the gravitation of the soul to +sin and the world. We hear much nowadays about a new reformation which is to be +effected on Christianity, by purifying it of its historical facts and of its +repulsive sacrificial aspect. When this is done, and the pure spiritual ideas +are disengaged from their fleshly garb, then, we are told, will be the +apotheosis and glorification of Christ. This will be the real lifting up from +the earth; this will draw all men. Aye, and when this is done what will be +left? Christianity will be purified back again into a vague Deism, which one +would have thought had proved itself toothless and impotent, centuries ago. +Spiritualising will turn out to be very like evaporating, the residuum will be +a miserably unsatisfactory something, near akin to nothing, and certainly +incapable either of firing its disciples with a desire to spread their faith, +if we may call it so by courtesy, or of drawing men to itself. A Christianity +without a Sacrifice on the altar will be a Christianity without worshippers in +the Temple. The King of Kings who rides forth conquering is clothed in a +vesture dipped in blood. The Christian Emperor saw in the heavens the Cross, +with the legend: 'In this sign thou shalt conquer!' It is an emblem true for +all time. The Cross is the power unto salvation. The races scattered on the +earth have often sought to make for themselves a rallying-point, and their +attempts at union have become Babels, centres of repulsion and confusion. God +has given us the Centre, the Tree of life in the midst. The crucified Saviour +is the Root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign for the people; to it +shall the Gentiles seek, and resting beneath the shadow of the Cross be at +peace. 'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' +</p> + +<p> +Once more our Lord teaches us here to identify the work of the Church with His +own. What His servants do for Him He does, for from Him they derive the power +to do it, and from Him comes the blessing which makes it effectual. He works in +us, He works with us, He works for us. He works in us. We have the grace of His +Spirit to touch our hearts and sanctify us for service. He puts it into the +wills and desires of His Church to consecrate themselves to the task. He +teaches them sympathy and self-devotion. He breathes world-wide aspirations +into them. He raises up men to go forth. He works <i>with</i> us, helping our +weakness, enlightening our ignorance, directing our steps, giving power to the +student at his dry task of grammar and dictionary, being mouth and wisdom to +them that speak in His name, touching the hearts of them that hear. In our +basket He puts the seed-corn; the furrows of the field He makes soft with +showers, and when it is sown He blesses the springing thereof. He works for us, +opening doors among the nations, ordering the courses of providence, and +holding His hand around His servants, so that they are immortal till their work +is done; and can ever lift up thankful voices to Him who leads them joyful +captives at His own triumphal car, as it rolls on its stately march, scattering +the sweet odours of His name wherever the long procession sweeps through the +world. We neither go a warfare at our own charges, nor in our own might. He +will fight with us, and He will pay us liberally at the last. When we count up +our own resources, do not we often leave Christ out of the reckoning? Do we not +measure our strength against the enemies', and forget that one weak man, plus +Christ, is always in the majority? 'It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of +My Father which speaketh in you.' 'I laboured, yet not I, but the grace of God +which was with me.' So helped, so inspired, we are wrong to despond; we are +wrong not to expect great things and attempt great things; we are wrong not to +dare, we are wrong to do the work of the Lord negligently. Let us feel that +Christ's work is ours, and we shall be bowed beneath the solemnity of the +thought, shall accept joyfully the necessity. Let us feel that our work is +Christ's, and we shall rejoice in infirmity that His power may rest upon us, +shall bid adieu to faint-hearted fears, and be sure that then it must prosper. +'Arise, O Lord! plead Thine own cause.' Not unto us, O Lord! not unto us, but +to Thy name give glory. +</p> + +<p> +'The Lord ascended into Heaven and sat on the right hand of God, and they went +everywhere preaching the word.' It seems a strange contrast between the rest of +the Lord, sitting in sublime expectancy of conscious power til His enemies +become His footstool, and the toils of His scattered disciples. It is like that +moment which the genius of the great painter has caught in an immortal work, +when Jesus in rapt communion with the mighty dead, and crowned with the +accepting word from Heaven, floated transfigured above the Holy Mount, while +below His disciples wrestled impotently with the demon that would not be cast +out. But it is not really contrast. He has not so parted the toils as that His +are over ere ours begin. He has not left His Church militant to bear the brunt +of the battle while the Captain of the Lord's host only watches the current of +the heady fight—like Moses from the safe mountain. The Evangelist goes on to +tell us that the Lord also was working with them and sharing their toils, +lightening their burdens, preparing for them successes on earth, and a rest +like His when He shall gird Himself and serve them. Thus, the first time that +the heavens opened again to mortal eyes after they closed on His ascending +form, was to show Him to the martyr in the council chamber, not sitting +careless or restful, but <i>standing</i> at the right hand of God, to intercede +for, to strengthen, to receive and glorify His dying servant. He goes with us +where we go, and through our works and gifts and prayers, through our +proclamation of the Cross, He worketh His will, and shall finally accomplish +that great necessity laid upon Him by the Father's counsels, and upon us by His +commandment, and to be effected by His death, that He should die, not for that +nation only, but also that He should gather together in one the children of God +who are scattered abroad. +</p> + +<p> +We have here— +</p> + +<p> +III. Our Lord teaching us how to think of the certain issues of His work and +ours. +</p> + +<p> +'They shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd.' We +may regard these words as embracing two things; a nearer issue, namely, the +response that will always attend His call; and a more remote, namely, the +completion of His work. There is, of course, a very blessed sense in which the +latter words are true now, and have been ever since Paul could say to those who +had been aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, 'He hath made both one. Now, +therefore, ye are no more foreigners but fellow-citizens with the saints.' But +the fold which now exists, limited in numbers, with its members but partially +conscious of their unity, and surrounded by those who follow hireling +shepherds, does not exhaust these great words. They shall not be accomplished +till that far-off future have come. +</p> + +<p> +But for the present we have the predictions of the former clause, 'They shall +hear My voice.' What manner of expectations does it teach us to cherish? It +seems to speak not of universal reception of Christ's message, but of some as +hearing and some as forbearing. It teaches us to look for divers results +attending our missionary work. There will always be a Dionysius the Areopagite, +the woman Lydia, the kindly barbarians, the conscience-stricken jailer. There +will always be the scoffers, who mock when they hear of 'Jesus and the +resurrection'; the hesitating who compound with conscience by promising to hear +again of this matter, the fierce opponents who invoke constituted authorities +or mob violence to crush the message. +</p> + +<p> +Again, the words seem to contemplate a long task. There is nothing about the +rate at which His Kingdom shall spread, not a syllable to answer inquiries as +to when the end shall come. The whole tone of the language suggests the idea +that bringing back the sheep is to take a long time, and to cost many a tedious +journey into the wilderness. Not a sudden outburst, but a slow kindling of the +flame, is what our Lord teaches us here to expect. +</p> + +<p> +But while thus calm in tone and moderate in expectation, the words breathe a +hope as confident as it is calm, as clear as it is moderate. There will always +be a response. His voice shall never be lifted up in the snow-storm or lonely +hillsides only to be blown back into His own ears, unheard and unheeded. Be +they few or many, they shall hear. Be the toil longer or shorter, more or less +severe, it shall not be in vain. +</p> + +<p> +And to these expectations we shall do wisely if we attune ours. Omit from your +hopes what your Lord has omitted from His promises; do not ask what He has not +told. Do not wonder if you encounter what He met, for the disciple is not +greater than his Master, and only if they have kept My saying will they keep +yours also. But, on the other hand, expect as much as He has prophesied; accept +it when it comes as the fruit of His work, not of yours, and build a firm faith +that your labour shall not be in vain on these calm and prescient words. +</p> + +<p> +So much for the course of the kingdom. And what of the end? One by one the +sheep have been brought, at last they are all gathered in, not a hoof left +behind. The stars steal singly into their places in the heavens as the darkness +deepens, and He 'bringeth them forth by number,' until at the noon of night the +sky is crowded with their lights, and 'for that He is great in power, not one +faileth.' What expectations are we here taught to cherish then of the final +issue? +</p> + +<p> +Mark, to begin with, that there is implied the ultimate universality of His +dominion and sole supremacy of His throne. There is to be but one Shepherd, and +over all the earth a great unity of obedience to Him. Here is the knell of all +authority that does not own Him, and the subordination of all that does. The +hirelings, the blind guides, that have misled and afflicted humanity for so +many weary ages, shall be all sunk in oblivion. The false gods shall be +discrowned, and lie shattered on their temple-sill, and there shall be no +worshippers to care for or to try to repair their discomfiture. Bow your heads +before Him, thinkers who have led men on devious paths and spoken but a partial +truth and a wisdom all confused with foolishness! Lower your swords before Him, +warriors who have builded your cities on blood and led men like sheep to the +slaughter! He is more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. Cast +your crowns before Him, princes and all judges of the earth, for He is King by +right of the crown of thorns! This is the Lord of all—Teacher, Leader, Ruler of +all men. All other names shall be forgotten but His shall abide. If they have +been shepherds who would not come in by the door, a ransomed world shall +rejoice over their fall with the ancient hymn, 'Other gods beside Thee have had +dominion over us; they are dead, they shall not live, Thou hast destroyed them, +and made all their memory to perish.' If they have been subject to the chief +Shepherd and ensamples to the flock, they will rejoice to decrease before His +increase, and having helped to bring the Bride to the Bridegroom, will gladly +stand aside and be forgotten in the perfect love that enters into full fruition +at the last. Then when none contest nor intercept the reverential obedience +that the whole world brings to Him, shall be fulfilled the firm promise which +declared long ago: 'I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He will feed them +and be their Shepherd.' +</p> + +<p> +Mark again the blessed nature of the relation between Christ and all men which +is here foretold. From of old, the shepherd has been in all nations the emblem +of kingly power, of leadership of every sort. How often the fact has +contradicted the symbol let history tell. But with Jesus the reality does not +only contradict, but even transcends, the tender old comparison. He rules with +a gentle sway. His sceptre is no rod of iron, but the shepherd's crook, and the +inmost meaning of its use is that it may 'comfort' us, as David learned to +feel. There gather round the metaphor all thoughts of merciful guidance, of +tender care, of a helping arm when we are weak, of a loving bosom where we are +carried when we are weary. It speaks of a seeking love that roams over every +high hill till it finds, and of a strong shoulder that bears us back when He +has found. It tells of sweet hours of rest in the hot noontide by still waters, +of ample provision for all the soul's longings in green pastures. It speaks of +footsteps that go before, in which men may follow and find them ways of +pleasantness. It speaks of gentle callings by name which draw the heart. It +speaks of defence when lion and bear come ravening down, and of safe couching +by night when the silent stars behold the sleeping sheep and the wakeful +shepherd. He Himself gives its highest significance to the emblem, in the words +of this great discourse, when He fixes on His knowledge, His calling of His +sheep, His going before them, His giving His life for them. Such are the +gracious blessings which here He teaches us to think of as possessed in the +happy days that shall be, by all the world. +</p> + +<p> +And, on the other hand, the symbol speaks of confiding love in the hearts of +men, of a great peacefulness of meek obedience stilling and gladdening their +wills, of the consciousness of His perfect love, and the knowledge of all His +gracious character, of sweet answering communion with Him, of safety from all +enemies, of freedom, of familiar passage in and out to God. Thus knit together +shall be the one fold and the one Shepherd. 'They shall feed in the ways, and +their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, +neither shall the heat nor sun smite them, for He that hath mercy on them shall +feed them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them.' +</p> + +<p> +Mark again what a vision is here given of the relations of men with one +another. +</p> + +<p> +They are to be all gathered into a peaceful unity. They are to be one because +they all hearken to one voice. It is to be observed that our Lord does not say, +as our English Bible makes Him say, that there is to be one fold. He drops that +word of set purpose in the latter clause of our text, and substitutes for it +another, which may perhaps be best rendered flock. Why this change in the +expression? Because, as it would seem, he would have us learn that the unity of +that blessed future time is not to be like the unity of the Jewish Church, a +formal and external one. That ancient polity was a fold. It held its members +together by outward bonds of uniformity. But the universal Church of the future +is to be a flock. It is to be really and visibly one. But it is to be so, not +because it is hemmed in by one enclosure, but because it is to be gathered +round one Shepherd. The more closely they are drawn to Him, the more near will +they be to each other. The centre in which all the radii meet keeps them all in +their places. 'We being many are one bread, for we are all partakers of that +one bread.' In the ritual of the Old Covenant, the great golden candlestick +with its seven branches stood in the court of the Temple, emblem of the formal +oneness of the people, which was meant to be the light of the Lord to a dark +world. In the vision of the New Covenant, the seer in Patmos beheld not the one +lamp with its branches, but the seven golden candlesticks, which were made into +a holier and a freer unity because the Son of Man walked in their midst—emblem +of the oneness in diversity of the peoples, who were sometimes darkness, but +shall one day be light in the Lord. There may continue to be national +distinctions. There may or there may not be any external unity. But at all +events our Lord turns away our thoughts from the outward to the inward, and +bids us be sure that though the folds be many the flock shall be one, because +they shall all hear and follow Him. +</p> + +<p> +The words, however, suggest for us the blessed thought of the peaceful +relations that shall then subsist among men. The tribes of the earth shall +couch beside each other like the quiet sheep in the fold, and having learned of +His great meekness, they shall no more bite nor devour one another. Alas! alas! +the words seem too good to be true. They seem long, long of coming to pass. +Ever since they were spoken the old bloody work has been going on, and the old +lusts of the human heart have been busy sowing the dragon's teeth that shall +spring up in wars and fightings. In savage lands warfare rages on, ceaseless, +ignoble, unrecorded, and seemingly purposeless as that of animalcules in a drop +of water. On civilised soil, men, who love the same Christ and worship Him in +the same tongue, are fronting each other at this hour. The war of actual +swords, and the war of conflicting creeds, and the jostling of human +selfishness in the rough road of life, are all around us, and their seeds are +within ourselves. The race of men do not live like folded sheep, rather like a +flock of wolves, who first run over and then devour their weaker fellows. +</p> + +<p> +But here is a fairer hope, and it will be fulfilled when all evil thoughts, and +all selfish desires, and all jealous grudgings shall vanish from men's hearts, +as unclean spirits at cockcrow, and shall leave them, self-forgetful, yielding +of their own prerogatives, desirous of no other man's, abhorrent of inflicting, +and patient of receiving wrong. There will be no fuel then to blow into +sulphurous flame, though all the blasts from hell were to fan the embers. But +peace and concord shall be in all men, for Christ shall be in all. National +distinctions may abide, but national enmities—the oldest and deepest, shall +disappear. There shall still be Assyria, and Egypt, and Israel, but their +former relation will be replaced by a bond of amity in their common possession +of Him who is our peace. 'In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt, and +with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord shall +bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, +and Israel mine inheritance.' God be thanked! that though we see, and our +fathers have seen, so much that seems to contradict our hopes of a peaceful +world, and though to-day the hell-hounds of war are baying over the earth, and +though nowhere can we see signs even of the approach of the halcyon time, yet +we can wait for the vision, knowing that it will come at the appointed time, +when +</p> + +<p> + 'No war or battle's sound<br /> + Is heard the world around,<br /> + The idle spear and shield are high uphung;<br /> + The trumpet speaks not to the armed throng,<br /> + And Kings sit still, with awful eye,<br /> + As if they surely knew their Sovereign Lord was by.' +</p> + +<p> +Such are the thoughts which our Lord would teach us as to the present and as to +the future of our missionary work. For the one, moderate expectations of +success, not unchequered by disappointment, and a brave patience in long toil. +For the other, hopes which cannot be too glowing, and a faith which cannot be +too obstinate. The one is being fulfilled in our own and our brethren's +experience even now; we may be therefore all the more sure that the other will +be so in due time. If we look with Christ's eyes, we shall not be depressed by +the apparent unbroken surface of heathenism but see, as He did, everywhere +souls that belong to Him, who may and must be won; we shall joyfully embrace +the work which He has given us to do; we shall arm ourselves against the +discouragements of the present, by living much in the past at the foot of the +Cross, till we catch the true image of the Saviour's love, and much in the +future in the midst of the ransomed flock, till we too behold the roses +blossoming in the wilderness, the bright waters covering all the dry places in +the desert, and the families of men sitting, clothed and in their right mind, +at the feet of Jesus. +</p> + +<p> +Our missionary work is the pure and inevitable result of a belief in these +words of my text. Can a man believe that Christ has other sheep for whom He +died because He must bring them in, whom He will bring in because He died, and +<i>not</i> work according to his power in the line of the divine purposes? The +missionary spirit is but the Christian spirit working in one particular +direction. Missionary societies are but one of the authentic outcomes of +Christian principles, as natural as holiness of life, or the act of prayer. +</p> + +<p> +To secure, then, a more vigorous energy in such work, we need chiefly what we +need for all Christian growth—namely, more and deeper communion with Christ, a +more vivid realisation of His grace and love for ourselves. And then we need +that, under the double stimulus of His love and of His commandment—which at +bottom are one—our minds should be more frequently occupied with this subject +of Christian missions. Most of us know too little about the matter to feel very +much. And then we need that we should more seriously reflect upon the facts in +relation to our own personal responsibility and duty. You complain of the +triteness of such appeals as this sermon. Brethren, have you ever tried that +recipe for freshening up well-worn truths, namely, thinking about them in +connection with the simplest, most important of all questions—what, then, ought +I to do in view of these truths? Am I exaggerating when I say, that not +one-half of the professing Christians of our day give an hour in the year to +pondering that question, with reference to missionary work? Oh! dear friends, +see to it that you live in Christ for yourselves, and then see to it that you +think His thoughts about the heathen world, till your pity is stirred and your +mind braced to the firm resolve that you too will work the works of Christ and +bring in the wanderers. +</p> + +<p> +We have had as large results as Christ has led us to expect, and far larger +than we deserved. Christian missions are yet in their infancy—alas! that it +should be so. But in these seventy years since they may be said to have begun, +what wonderful successes have been achieved. We are often told that we have +done nothing. Is it so? The plant has been got together, methods of working +have been systematised, mistakes in some measure corrected. We have spent much +of our time in learning how to work, and that process is by no means over yet. +But with all these deductions, which ought fairly to be made, how much has been +accomplished? The Bible has been put into the languages of seven hundred +millions of men. The beginnings of a Christian literature have been supplied +for five-sixths of the world. Half a million of professed converts have been +gathered in, or as many as there were at the end of the first century, after +about the same number of years of labour, and with apostles for missionaries +and miracles for proof. And if these still bear on their ankles the marks of +the fetters, and limp as they walk, or cannot see very clearly at first, it is +no more than might be expected from their long darkness in the prison-house, +and it is no more than Paul had to contend with at Ephesus and Corinth. +</p> + +<p> +Every church that has engaged in the toil has shared in the blessing, and has +its own instances of special prosperity. We have had Jamaica; the London +Missionary Society, Madagascar, and the South Seas; the Wesleyans, Fiji; the +Episcopal Societies, Tinnevelly; the American brethren, Burmah, and the Karens. +Some of the ruder mythologies have been so utterly extirpated that the children +of idolaters have seen the gods whom their fathers worshipped for the first +time in the British Museum. While over those more compact and scientific +systems which lie like an incubus on mighty peoples, there has crept a +sickening consciousness of a coming doom, and they already half own their +conqueror in the Stronger One than they. +</p> + +<p> + 'They feel from Judah's land<br /> + The dreaded Infant's hand.' +</p> + +<p> +'Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, the idols are upon the beasts.' Surely God has +granted us success enough for our thankful confidence, more than enough for our +deserts. I repeat it, it is as much as He promised, as much as we had any right +to expect, and it is a vast deal more than any other system of belief or of no +belief, any of your spiritualised Christianities, or still more intangible +creeds has ever managed, or ever thought of trying. To those who taunt us with +no success, and who perhaps would not dislike Christian missions so much if +they disliked Christian truth a little less, we may very fairly and calmly +answer—This rod has budded at all events; do you the same with your +enchantments. +</p> + +<p> +But the past is no measure of the future. From the very nature of the +undertaking the ratio of progress increases at a rapid rate. The first ten +years of labour in India showed twenty-seven converts, the seventh ten showed +more than twenty-seven thousand. The preparation may be as slow as the solemn +gathering of the thunder-clouds, as they noiselessly steal into their places, +and slowly upheave their grey billowing crests; the final success may be as +swift as the lightning which flashes in an instant from one side of the heavens +to the other. It takes long years to hew the tunnel, to 'make the crooked +straight, and the rough places plain,' and then smooth and fleet the great +power rushes along the rails. To us the cry comes, 'Prepare ye in the desert an +highway for our God.' The toil is sore and long, but 'the glory of the Lord +shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.' The Alpine summits lie +white and ghastly in the spring sunshine, and it seems to pour ineffectual +beams on their piled cold; but by slow degrees it is silently loosening the +bands of the snow, and after a while a goat's step, as it passes along a rocky +ledge, or a breath of wind will move a tiny particle, and in an instant its +motion spreads over a mile of mountain side, and the avalanche is rushing +swifter and mightier at every foot down to the valley below, where it will all +turn into sweet water, and ripple glancing in the sunshine. Such is our work. +It may seem very hopeless, and be mostly unobservable in surface results, but +it is very real for all that. The conquering impulse, for which our task may +have been to prepare the way, will be given, and then we shall wonder to see +how surely the kingdom was coming, even when we observed it not. +</p> + +<p> +Ye have need of patience, and to feed your patience, ye have need of fellowship +with Christ, of faith in His promises, of sympathy with His mind. God has given +us, dear brethren, special reason for renewed consecration to this service in +the blessings which have during the year terminated our anxieties and crowned +our work for our own Society. But let us not dwell upon what has been done. +These successes are brooks by the way at which we may drink—nothing more. We +ought to be like shepherds in the lonely mountain glens, who see in the +fast-falling snow and the bitter blast a summons to the hillside, and there all +the night long wherever the drift lies deepest and the wind bites the most +sharply, search the most eagerly for the poor half-dead creatures, and as they +find each, bear it back to the safe shelter, nor stay behind to count the +rescued, nor to rest their weariness, for all the bright light in the cottage +and the blackness without, but forth again on the same quest, till all the +Master's sheep have been rescued from the white death that lay treacherous +around, and are sleeping at peace in His folds. A mighty Voice ought ever to be +sounding in our ears, 'Other sheep I have,' and the answer of our hearts and of +our lives should be, 'Them also, O Lord! will I try to bring.' Not till the +far-off issue is accomplished shall we have a right to rest, and then we, with +all those He has helped us to gather to His side, shall be among that flock, +whom He who is at once Lamb and Shepherd, our Brother and our Lord, our +Sacrifice and King, 'shall feed and lead by living fountains of waters,' in the +sweet pastures of the upper world, where there are no ravening wolves, nor +false guides to terrify and bewilder His flock any more at all for ever. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap43"></a>THE DELAYS OF LOVE</h2> + +<p> +'Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He had heard +therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He +was.'—JOHN xi. 5, 6. +</p> + +<p> +We learn from a later verse of this chapter that Lazarus had been dead four +days when Christ reached Bethany. The distance from that village to the +probable place of Christ's abode, when He received the message, was about a +day's journey. If, therefore, to the two days on which He abode still after the +receipt of the news, we add the day which the messengers took to reach Him and +the day which He occupied in travelling, we get the four days since which +Lazarus had been laid in his grave. Consequently the probability is that, when +our Lord had the message, the man was dead. Christ did not remain still, +therefore, in order to work a greater miracle by raising Lazarus from the dead +than He would have done by healing, but He stayed—strange as it would +appear—for reasons closely connected with the highest well-being of all the +beloved three, and <i>because</i> He loved them. +</p> + +<p> +John is always very particular in his use of that word 'therefore,' and he +points out many a subtle and beautiful connection of cause and effect by his +employment of it. I do not know that any of them are more significant and more +full of illumination with regard to the ways of divine providence than the +instance before us. How these two sisters must have looked down the rocky road +that led up from Jericho during those four weary days, to see if there were any +signs of His coming. How strange it must have appeared to the disciples +themselves that He made no sign of movement, notwithstanding the message. +Perhaps John's scrupulous carefulness in pointing out that His love was +Christ's reason for His quiescence may reflect a remembrance of the doubts that +had crept over the minds of himself and his brethren during these two days of +strange inaction. The Evangelist will have us learn a lesson, which reaches far +beyond the instance in hand, and casts light on many dark places. +</p> + +<p> +I. Christ's delays are the delays of love. +</p> + +<p> +We have all of us, I suppose, had experience of desires for the removal of +bitterness or sorrows, or for the fulfilment of expectations and wishes, which +we believed, on the best evidence that we could find, to be in accordance with +His will, and which we have been able to make prayers out of, in true faith and +submission, which prayers have had to be offered over and over and over again, +and no answer has come, It is part of the method of Providence that the lifting +away of the burden and the coming of the desires should be a hope deferred. And +instead of stumbling at the mystery, or feeling as if it made a great demand +upon our faith, would it not be wiser for us to lay hold of that little word of +the Apostle's here, and to see in it a small window that opens out on to a +boundless prospect, and a glimpse into the very heart of the divine motives in +His dealings with us? +</p> + +<p> +If we could once get that conviction into our hearts, how quietly we should go +about our work! What a beautiful and brave patience there would be in us, if we +habitually felt that the only reason which actuates God's providence in its +choice of times of fulfilling our desires and lifting away our bitterness is +our own good! Nothing but the purest and simplest love, transparent and without +a fold in it, sways Him in all that He does. Why should it be so difficult for +us to believe this? If we were more in the way of looking at life, with all its +often unwelcome duty, and its arrows of pain and sorrow, and all the +disappointments and other ills that it is heir to, as a discipline, and were to +think less about the unpleasantness, and more about the purpose, of what +befalls us, we should find far less difficulty in understanding that His delay +is born of love, and is a token of His tender care. +</p> + +<p> +Sorrow is prolonged for the same reason as it was sent. It is of little use to +send it for a little while. In the majority of cases, time is an element in its +working its right effect upon us. If the weight is lifted, the elastic +substance beneath springs up again. As soon as the wind passes over the +cornfield, the bowing ears raise themselves. You have to steep foul things in +water for a good while before the pure liquid washes out the stains. And so +time is an element in all the good that we get out of the discipline of life. +Therefore, the same love which sends must necessarily protract, beyond our +desires, the discipline under which we are put. If we thought of it, as I have +said, more frequently as discipline and schooling, and less frequently as pain +and a burden, we should understand the meaning of things a great deal better +than we do, and should be able to face them with braver hearts, and with a +patient, almost joyous, endurance. +</p> + +<p> +If we think of some of the purposes of our sorrows and burdens, we shall +discern still more clearly that time is needed for accomplishing them, and +that, therefore, love must delay its coming to take them away. For example, the +object of them all, and the highest blessing that any of us can obtain, is that +our wills should be bent until they coincide with God's, and that takes time. +The shipwright, when he gets a bit of timber that he wants to make a 'knee' out +of, knows that to mould it into the right form is not the work of a day. A will +may be <i>broken</i> at a blow, but it will take a while to <i>bend</i> it. And +just because swiftly passing disasters have little permanent effect in moulding +our wills, it is a blessing, and not an evil, to have some standing fact in our +lives, which will make a continual demand upon us for continually repeated acts +of bowing ourselves beneath His sweet, though it may seem severe, will. God's +love in Jesus Christ can give us nothing better than the opportunity of bowing +our wills to His, and saying, 'Not mine, but Thine be done.' If that is why He +stops on the other side of Jordan, and does not come even to the loving +messages of beloved hearts, then He shows His love in the sweetest and the +loftiest form. So, dear friends, if you carry a lifelong sorrow, do not think +that it is a mystery why it should lie upon your shoulders when there are +omnipotence and an infinite heart in the heavens. If it has the effect of +bending you to His purpose, it is the truest token of His loving care that He +can send. In like manner, is it not worth carrying a weight of unfulfilled +wishes, and a weariness of unalleviated sorrows, if these do teach us three +things, which are one thing—faith, endurance, prayerfulness, and so knit us by +a threefold cord that cannot be broken, to the very heart of God Himself? +</p> + +<p> +II. This delayed help always comes at the right time. +</p> + +<p> +Do not let us forget that Heaven's clock is different from ours. In our day +there are twelve hours, and in God's a thousand years. What seems long to us is +to Him 'a little while.' Let us not imitate the shortsighted impatience of His +disciples, who said, 'What is this that He saith, A little while? We cannot +tell what He saith.' The time of separation looked so long in anticipation to +them, and to Him it had dwindled to a moment. For two days, eight-and-forty +hours, He delayed His answer to Mary and Martha, and they thought it an +eternity, while the heavy hours crept by, and they only said, 'It's very weary, +He cometh not, they said.' How long did it look to them when they had got +Lazarus back? +</p> + +<p> +The longest protraction of the fulfilment of the most yearning expectation and +fulfilled desire will seem but as the winking of an eyelid when we get to +estimate duration by the same scale by which He estimates it, the scale of +Eternity. The ephemeral insect, born in the morning and dead when the day +fades, has a still minuter scale than ours, but we should not think of +regulating our estimate of long and short by it. Do not let us commit the equal +absurdity of regulating the march of His providence by the swift beating of our +timepieces. God works leisurely because God has eternity to work in. +</p> + +<p> +The answer always comes at the right time, and is punctual though delayed. For +instance, Peter is in prison. The Church keeps praying for him; prays on, day +after day. No answer. The week of the feast comes. Prayer is made intensely and +fervently and continuously. No answer. The slow hours pass away. The last day +of his life, as it would appear, comes and goes. No answer. The night gathers; +prayer rises to heaven. The last hour of the last watch of the last night that +he had to live has come, and as the veil of darkness is thinning, and the day +is beginning to break, 'the angel of the Lord shone round about him.' But there +is no haste in his deliverance. All is done leisurely, as in the confidence of +ample time to spare, and perfect security. He is bidden to arise quickly, but +there is no hurry in the stages of his liberation. 'Gird thyself and bind on +thy sandals.' He is to take time to lace them. There is no fear of the +quaternion of soldiers waking, or of there not being time to do all. We can +fancy the half-sleeping and wholly-bewildered Apostle fumbling at the +sandal-strings, in dread of some movement rousing his guards, and the calm +angel face looking on. The sandals fastened, he is bidden to put on his +garments and follow. With equal leisure and orderliness he is conducted through +the first and the second guard of sleeping soldiers, and then through the +prison gate. He might have been lifted at once clean out of his dungeon, and +set down in the house many were gathered praying for him. But more signal was +the demonstration of power which a deliverance so gradual gave, when it led him +slowly past all obstacles and paralysed their power. God is never in haste. He +never comes too soon nor too late. 'The Lord shall help them, and that right +early.' Sennacherib's army is round the city, famine is within the walls. +To-morrow will be too late. But to-night the angel strikes, and the enemies are +all dead men. So God's delay makes the deliverance the more signal and joyous +when it is granted. And though hope deferred may sometimes make the heart sick, +the desire, when it comes, is a tree of life. +</p> + +<p> +III. The best help is not delayed. +</p> + +<p> +The principle which we have been illustrating applies only to one half—and that +the less important half—of our prayers and of Christ's answers. For in regard +to spiritual blessings, and our petitions for fuller, purer, and diviner life, +there is no delay. In that region the law is not 'He abode still two days in +the same place,' but 'Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet +speaking I will hear.' If you have been praying for deeper knowledge of God, +for lives liker His, for hearts more filled with the Spirit, and have not had +the answer, do not fall back upon the misapplication of such a principle as +this of my text, which has nothing to do with that region; but remember that +the only reason why good people do not immediately get the blessings of the +Christian life for which they ask lies in themselves, and not at all in God. +'Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and have not, because'—not because He +delays, but because—'ye ask amiss,' or because, having asked, you get up from +your knees and go away, not looking to see whether the blessing is coming down +or not. +</p> + +<p> +Ah! there is a sad amount of lying and hypocrisy in prayers for spiritual +blessings. Many petitioners do not want to have them. They would not know what +to do with them if they got them. They make the requests because their fathers +did so before them, and because these are the right kind of things to say in a +prayer. Such prayers get no answers. If a man prays for some spiritual +enlargement, and then goes out into the world and lives clean contrary to his +prayers, what right has he to say that God delays His answers? No, He does not +delay His answers, but we push back His answers, and the gift that <i>is</i> +given we will not take. Let us remember that the two halves of the divine +dealings are not regulated by the same principle, though they be regulated by +the same motive; and that the love which often delays for our good, in regard +to the desires that have reference to outward things, is swift as the lightning +to answer every petition which moves within the circle of our spiritual life. +</p> + +<p> +'Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye stand praying, believe that' then and +there 'ye receive them'; and the undelaying God will take care that 'you shall +have them.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap44"></a>CHRIST'S QUESTION TO EACH</h2> + +<p> +<i>For the Young</i> +</p> + +<p> +'… Believest then this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord.'—JOHN xi. 26, 27. +</p> + +<p> +As each of these annual sermons which I have preached for so long comes round, +I feel more solemnly the growing probability that it may be the last. Like a +man nearing the end of his day's work, I want to make the most of the remaining +moments. Whether this is the last sermon of the sort that I shall preach or +not, it is certainly the last of the kind that some of you will hear from me, +or possibly from any one. +</p> + +<p> +So, dear friends, I have felt that neither you nor I can afford to waste this +hour in considering subjects of secondary interest, appropriate as some of them +might be. I wish to come to the main point at once, and to press upon you all, +and especially on the younger portion of this audience, the question of your +own personal religion. +</p> + +<p> +The words of my text, as you will probably remember, were addressed by our Lord +to Martha, as she was writhing in agony over her dead brother. Christ +proclaims, with singular calmness and majesty, His character and work as the +Resurrection and the Life, and then seeks to draw her from her absorbing sorrow +to an effort of faith which shall grasp the truths He proclaims. He flashes out +this sudden question, like the swift thrust of a gleaming dagger. It is a +demand for credence to His assertion—on His bare word—tremendous as that +assertion is. And nobly was the demand met by the as swift, unfaltering answer, +'Yea, Lord,' I believe in Thee, and so I believe in Thy word. +</p> + +<p> +Now, friends, Jesus Christ is putting the same question to each of us. And I +pray that our answers may be Martha's. +</p> + +<p> +I. Note, first, the significance of the question. +</p> + +<p> +'This.' What is <i>this</i>? The answer will tell us what are the central +essential facts, faith in which makes a Christian. Of course the form in which +our Lord's previous utterance was cast was coloured by the circumstances under +which He spoke, and was so shaped as to meet the momentary exigency. But whilst +thus the form is determined by the fact that He was speaking to a heart wrung +by separation, and as a preliminary to a mighty act of resurrection, the +essential truths which are so expressed are those which, as I believe, +constitute the fundamental truths of Christianity—the very core and heart of +the Gospel. +</p> + +<p> +Turn, then, but for a moment, to what immediately precedes my text. Our Lord +says three things. First, He asserts His supernatural character and divine +relation to life: 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.' Next, He declares that +it is possible for Him to communicate to dying and to dead men a life which +triumphs over death, and laughs at change, and persists through the superficial +experience which we christen by the name of Death, unaffected, undiminished, as +some sweet spring might gush up in the heart of a salt, solitary sea. And then +He declares that the condition on which He, the Life-giver, gives of His +immortal life to dying men, is their trust in Him. These three—His character +and work, the gifts of which His hands are full, and the way by which the gifts +may be appropriated by us men—these three are, as I take it, the central facts +of Christianity. 'Believest thou this?' +</p> + +<p> +The question comes to us all; and in these days of unsettlement it is well to +have some clear understanding of what is the 'irreducible minimum' of Christian +teaching. I take it that it lies here. There are two opposite errors which, +like all opposite errors, are bolted together, and revolve round a common +centre. The one of them is the extreme conservative tendency which regards +every pin and bolt of the tabernacle as if it were equally sacred with the +altar and the ark. And the other is the tendency which christens itself +'liberal and progressive,' and which is always ready to exchange old lamps, +though they have burnt brightly in the past, for new ones that are as yet only +glittering metal and untried. In these days, when it is a presumption against +any opinion, that our fathers believed it (an error into which young people are +most prone to fall), and when, by the energy of contradiction, that error has +evoked, and is evoking, the opposite exaggeration that adheres to all that is +traditional, to all that has been regarded as belonging to the essentials of +the Christian faith, and so is fearful, trembling for the Ark of God when there +is no need, let us fall back upon these great words of the Master, and see that +the things which constitute the living heart of His message and gift to the +world are neither more nor less than these three: the supernatural Christ, the +life which He imparts, and the condition on which He bestows it. 'Believest +thou this?' If you do, you need take very little heed of the fluctuations of +contemporary opinion as to other matters, valuable and important as these may +be in their place; and may let men say what they will about disputed +questions—about the method by which the vehicle of revelation has been created +and preserved, about the regulation of the external forms of the Church, about +a hundred other things that men often lose their tempers and spoil their +Christianity by fighting for, and fall back upon the great central verity, a +Christ from above, the Giver of Life to all that put their trust in Him. +</p> + +<p> +Let me expand this question for you. 'We all have sinned and come short of the +glory of God'—'believest thou this?' 'We must all appear before the +judgment-seat of Christ'—'believest thou this?' 'God so loved the world that He +gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not +perish'—'believest thou this?' 'The Son of Man came… to give His life a ransom +for many'—'believest thou this?' 'Being justified by faith we have peace with +God through our Lord Jesus Christ'—'believest thou this?' 'Now is Christ risen +from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept'—'believest thou +this?' 'I go to prepare a place for you'—'believest thou this?' 'Where I am +there shall also My servant be'—'believest thou this?' 'So shall we ever be +with the Lord'—'believest thou this?' That is Christianity; and not theories +about inspiration, and priesthood, and sacramental efficacy, or any of the +other thorny questions which have, in the course of ages, started up. Here is +the living centre; hold fast, I beseech you, by it. +</p> + +<p> +Then, again, the significance of this question is in the direction of making +clear for us the way by which men lay hold of these great truths. The truths +are of such a sort as that merely to say, 'Oh yes, I believe it; it is quite +true!' is by no means sufficient. If a man tells me that two parallel lines +produced ever so far will never meet, I say, 'Yes, I believe it'; and there is +nothing more to be done or said. If a man says to me, 'Two and two make four,' +I say, 'Yes'; and there my assent ends. If a man says, 'It is right to do +right,' it is quite clear that the attitude of intellectual assent, which was +quite enough for the other order of statements, is not enough for this one; and +to merely say, 'Oh yes, it is right to do right,' is by no means the only +attitude which we ought to take in regard to such a truth. And if God comes to +me and says, 'Thou art a sinful man, and Jesus Christ has died for thee; and if +thou takest Him for thy Saviour thou shalt be saved in this life, and saved for +ever,' it is just as clear that no mere acceptance of the saying as a verity +exhausts my proper attitude in reference to it. Or to come to plainer words, no +man will really, and out and out, and adequately, believe this gospel unless he +does a great deal more than assent to it or refrain from contradicting it. +</p> + +<p> +So I desire to urge this form of the question on you now. Dear brethren, do you +<i>trust</i> in 'this,' which you say you believe? There is no greater enemy of +the Christian faith than the ordinary lazy—what the philosophers call +<i>otiose</i>, which is only a grand word for lazy—assent of the understanding, +because men will not take the trouble to contradict it or think about it. +</p> + +<p> +That is the sort of Christianity which is the Christianity of a good many +church and chapel-goers. They do not care enough about the subject to +contradict the ordinary run of belief. Of all impotent things there is nothing +more impotent than a creed which lies idly in a man's head, and never has +touched his heart or his will. Why, I should get on a great deal better if I +were talking to people that had never heard anything about the gospel than I +have any chance of getting on with you, who have been drenched with it all your +days, till it goes over you and runs off like water off a duck's back. The +shells that were hurled against the earthworks of Sebastopol broke away the +front surface of the mounds, and then the rubbish protected the fortifications; +and that is what happens with many of my hearers. You have heard the gospel so +often that the <i>debris</i> of your old hearings is raised between you and me, +and my words cannot get at you. 'Believest thou this?'—not in the fashion in +which people stand up in church or chapel and look about them and rattle off +the Creed every Sunday of their lives, and attach not the ghost of an idea to a +single clause of it; but in the sense that the conviction of these truths is so +deep in your hearts that it moves your whole nature to cast yourselves on Jesus +Christ as your Saviour and your all. That is the belief to which alone the life +that is promised here will come. Oh! brethren, I have no business to ask you +the question, and you have no need to answer it to me! Sometimes good, +well-meaning people do a mint of harm by pushing such questions into the faces +of people unprepared. But take the question into your own hearts, and remember +what belief is, and what it is that you have to believe, and answer according +to its true significance, and in the light of conscience, the solemn question +that I press upon you. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, secondly, let me ask you to think of what depends upon the answer. +</p> + +<p> +In the case before us—if I may look back to it for an instant—there is a very +illuminative instance of what did depend upon it. Martha had to believe that +Christ was the Resurrection and the Life as a condition precedent to her seeing +that He was so. For, as He said Himself before He spoke the mighty word which +raised Lazarus, 'Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou +shouldest see the glory of God?' and so her faith was the condition of her +being able to verify the facts which her faith grasped. Well, let me put that +into plainer words. It is just this—a man gets from Christ what he trusts +Christ to give him, and there is no other way of proving the truth of His +promises than by accepting His promises, and then they fulfil themselves. You +cannot know that a medicine will cure you till you swallow it. You must first +'taste' before you 'see that God is good.' Faith verifies itself by the +experience it brings. +</p> + +<p> +And what does it bring? I said, all for which a man trusts Christ. All is +summed up in that one favourite word of our Lord as revealed in this fourth +Gospel, which includes in itself everything of blessedness and of +righteousness—life, life eternal. Dear brethren, you and I, apart from Jesus +Christ, are dead in trespasses and sins. The life that we live in the flesh is +an apparent life, which covers over the true death of separation from God. And +you young people, fix this in your minds at the beginning, it will save you +many a heartache, and many an error—there is nothing worth calling life, except +that which comes to a quiet heart submissive and enfranchised through faith in +Jesus Christ. And if you will trust yourselves to Him, and answer this question +with your ringing 'Yea, Lord!' then you will get a life which will quicken you +out of your deadness; a life which will mould you day by day into more entire +beauty of character and conformity with Himself; a life which will shed +sweetness and charm over dusty commonplaces, and make sudden verdure spring in +dreary, herbless deserts; a life which will bring a solemn joy into sorrow, a +strength for every duty; which will bring manna in the wilderness, honey from +the rock, light in darkness, and a present God for your sufficient portion; a +life which will run on into the dim glories of eternity, and know no change but +advancement, through the millenniums of ages. +</p> + +<p> +But, dear brethren, whilst thus, on condition of their faith, the door into all +divine and endless blessedness and progress is flung wide open for men, do not +forget the other side of the issues which depend on this question. For if it is +true that Jesus Christ is Life, and the Source of it, and that faith in Him is +the way by which you and I get it, then there is no escape from the solemn +conclusion that to be out of Christ, and not to be exercising faith in Him, is +to be infected with death, and to be shut up in a charnel-house. I dare not +suppress the plain teaching of Jesus Christ Himself: 'He that hath the Son hath +life; he that hath not the Son hath not life.' The issues that depend upon the +answer to this question of my text may be summed up, if I may venture to say +so, by taking the words of our Lord Himself and converting them into their +opposite. He said, 'He that believeth … though he were dead, yet shall he live; +and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die.' That implies, He +that believeth <i>not</i> in Christ, though he were living, yet shall he die, +and whosoever liveth and believeth <i>not</i> shall never live. <i>These</i> +are the issues—the alternative issues—that depend on your answer to this +question. +</p> + +<p> +III. And now, lastly, let me ask you to think of the direct personal appeal to +every soul that lies in this question. +</p> + +<p> +I have dwelt upon two out of the three words of which the question is +composed—'<i>believest</i> thou <i>this</i>?' Let me dwell for a moment on the +third of them—'believest <i>thou</i>?' +</p> + +<p> +Now that suggests the thought on which I do not need to dwell, but which I seek +briefly to lay upon your hearts and consciences—viz., the intensely personal +act of your own faith, by which alone Jesus Christ can be of any use to you. Do +not be led away by any vague notions which people have about the benefits of a +Church or its ordinances. Do not suppose that any sacraments or any priest can +do for you what you have to do in the awful solitude of your own determining +will—put out your hand and grasp Jesus Christ. Can any person or thing be the +condition or channel of spiritual blessing to you, except in so far as your own +individual act of trust comes into play? You must take the bread with your own +hands, you must masticate it with your own teeth, you must digest it with your +own organs, before it can minister nourishment to your blood and force to your +life. And there is only one way by which any man can come into any vital and +life-giving connection with Jesus Christ, and that is, by the exercise of his +own personal faith. +</p> + +<p> +And remember, too, that as the exercise of uniting trust in Jesus Christ is +exclusively your own affair, so exclusively your own affair is the +responsibility of answering this question. To you alone is it addressed. You, +and only you, have to answer it. +</p> + +<p> +There was once a poor woman who went after Jesus Christ, and put out a pale, +wasted, tremulous finger to touch the hem of His garment. His fine +sensitiveness detected the light pressure of that petitioning finger, and +allowed virtue to go out, though the crowd surged about Him and thronged Him. +No crowds come between you and Jesus Christ. You and He, the two of you, have, +so to speak, the world to yourselves, and straight to <i>you</i> comes this +question, 'Believest <i>thou</i>?' +</p> + +<p> +Ah! brethren, that habit of skulking into the middle of the multitude, and +letting the most earnest appeal from the pulpit go diffused over the audience +is the reason why you sit there quiet, complacent, perhaps wholly unaffected by +what I am trying to make a pointed, individual address. Suppose all the other +people in this place of worship were away but you and I, would not the word +that I am trying to speak come with more force to your hearts than it does now? +Well, think away the world and all its millions, and realise the fact that you +stand in Christ's presence, with all His regard concentrated upon you, and that +to thee individually this question comes from a gracious, loving heart, which +longs that you answer, 'Yea, Lord, I believe!' +</p> + +<p> +Why should you not? Suppose you said to Him, 'No, Lord, I do not'; and suppose +He said, 'Why do you not?' what do you think you would say then? You will have +to answer it one day, in very solemn circumstances, when all the crowds will +fall away, as they do from a soldier called out of the ranks to go up and +answer for mutiny to his commanding officer. 'Every one of us shall give an +account of himself,' and the lips that said so lovingly at the grave of +Lazarus, 'Believest thou this?' and are saying it again, dear friend, to you, +even through my poor words, will ask it once more. For this is the question the +answer to which settles whether we shall stand at His right hand or at His +left. Say now, with humble faith, 'Yea, Lord!' and you will have the blessing +of them who have not seen, and yet have believed. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap45"></a>THE OPEN GRAVE AT BETHANY</h2> + +<p> +'Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha +met Him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, +when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, +saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where +Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if +Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her +weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the +spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They say unto Him, +Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him! +And some of them said. Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of the blind, +have caused that even this man should not have died! Jesus therefore again +groaning in Himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon +it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was +dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead +four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest +believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone +from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, +Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I know that Thou hearest Me +always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may +believe that Thou hast sent Me. And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a +loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand +and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus +saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to +Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him.'—JOHN xi. +30-45. +</p> + +<p> +Why did Jesus stay outside Bethany and summon Martha and Mary to come to Him? +Apparently that He might keep Himself apart from the noisy crowd of +conventional mourners whose presence affronted the majesty and sanctity of +sorrow, and that He might speak to the hearts of the two real mourners. A +divine decorum forbade Him to go to the house. The Life-bringer keeps apart. +His comforts are spoken in solitude. He reverenced grief. How beautifully His +sympathetic delicacy contrasts with the heartless rush of those who 'were +comforting' Mary when they thought that she was driven to go suddenly to the +grave by a fresh burst of sorrow! If they had had any real sympathy or +perception, they would have stayed where they were, and let the poor burdened +heart find ease in lonely weeping. But, like all vulgar souls, they had one +idea—never to leave mourners alone or let them weep. +</p> + +<p> +Three stages seem discernible in the self-revelation of Jesus in this crowning +miracle: His agitation and tears, His majestic confidence in His life-giving +power now to be manifested, and His actual exercise of that power. +</p> + +<p> +I. The repetition by Mary of Martha's words, as her first salutation, tells a +pathetic story of the one thought that had filled both sisters' hearts in these +four dreary days. Why had He not come? How easily He could have come! How +surely He could have prevented all this misery! Confidence in His power blends +strangely with doubt as to His care. A hint of reproach is in the words, but +more than a hint of faith in His might. He does not rebuke the rash judgment +implied, for He knew the true love underlying it; but He does not directly +answer Mary, as He had done Martha, for the two sisters needed different +treatment. +</p> + +<p> +We note that Mary has no such hope as Martha had expressed. Her more passive, +meditative disposition had bowed itself, and let the grief overwhelm her. So in +her we see a specimen of the excess of sorrow which indulges in the monotonous +repetition of what would have happened if something else that did not happen +had happened, and which is too deeply dark to let a gleam of hope shine in. +Words will do little to comfort such grief. Silent sharing of its weeping and +helpful deeds will do most. +</p> + +<p> +So a great wave of emotion swept across the usually calm soul of Jesus, which +John bids us trace to its cause by 'therefore' (ver. 33). The sight of Mary's +real, and the mourners' half-real, tears, and the sound of their loud +'keening,' shook His spirit, and He yielded to, and even encouraged, the rush +of feeling ('troubled Himself'). But not only sympathy and sorrow ruffled the +clear mirror of His spirit; another disturbing element was present. He 'was +moved with indignation' (Rev. Ver. marg.). Anger at Providence often mingles +with our grief, but that was not Christ's indignation. The only worthy +explanation of that strange ingredient in Christ's agitation is that it was +directed against the source of death,—namely, sin. He saw the cause manifested +in the effects. He wept for the one, He was wroth at the other. The tears +witnessed to the perfect love of the man, and of the God revealed in the man; +the indignation witnessed to the recoil and aversion from sin of the perfectly +righteous Man, and of the holy God manifested in Him. We get one glimpse into +His heart, as on to some ocean heaving and mist-covered. The momentary sight +proclaims the union in Him, as the Incarnate Word, of pity for our woes and of +aversion from our sins. +</p> + +<p> +His question as to the place of the tomb is not what we should have expected; +but its very abruptness indicates effort to suppress emotion, and resolve to +lose no time in redressing the grief. Most sweetly human are the tears that +start afresh after the moment's repression, as the little company begin to move +towards the grave. And most sadly human are the unsympathetic criticisms of His +sacred sorrow. Even the best affected of the bystanders are cool enough to note +them as tokens of His love, at which perhaps there is a trace of wonder; while +others snarl out a sarcasm which is double-barrelled, as casting doubt on the +reality either of the love or of the power. 'It is easy to weep, but if He had +cared for him, and could work miracles, He might surely have kept him alive.' +How blind men are! 'Jesus wept,' and all that the lookers-on felt was +astonishment that He should have cared so much for a dead man of no importance, +or carping doubt as to the genuineness of His grief and the reality of His +power. He shows us His pity and sorrow still—to no more effect with many. +</p> + +<p> +II. The passage to the tomb was marked by his continued agitation. But his +arrival there brought calm and majesty. Now the time has come which He had in +view when He left his refuge beyond Jordan; and, as is often the case with +ourselves, suddenly tremor and tumult leave the spirit when face to face with a +moment of crisis. There is nothing more remarkable in this narrative than the +contrast between Jesus weeping and indignant, and Jesus serene and +authoritative as He stands fronting the cave-sepulchre. The sudden +transformation must have awed the gazers. +</p> + +<p> +He points to the stone, which, probably like that of many a grave discovered in +Palestine, rolled in a groove cut in the rocky floor in front of the tomb. The +command accords with His continual habit of confining the miraculous within the +narrowest limits. He will do nothing by miracle which can be done without it. +Lazarus could have heard and emerged, though the stone had remained. If the +story had been a myth, he very likely would have done so. Like 'loose him, and +let him go,' this is a little touch that cannot have been invented, and helps +to confirm the simple, historical character of the account. +</p> + +<p> +Not less natural, though certainly as unlikely to have been told unless it had +happened, is Martha's interruption. She must have heard what was going on, and, +with her usual activity, have joined the procession, though we left her in the +house. She thinks that Jesus is going into the grave; and a certain reverence +for the poor remains, as well as for Him, makes her shrink from the thought of +even His loving eyes seeing them now. Clearly she has forgotten the dim hopes +which had begun in her when she talked with Jesus. Therefore He gently reminds +her of these; for His words (ver. 40) can scarcely refer to anything but that +interview, though the precise form of expression now used is not found in the +report of it (vers. 25-27). +</p> + +<p> +We mark Christ's calm confidence in His own power. His identification of its +effect with the outflashing of the glory of God, and His encouragement to her +to exercise faith by suspending her sight of that glory upon her faith. Does +that mean that He would not raise her brother unless she believed? No; for He +had determined to 'awake him out of sleep' before He left Peraea. But Martha's +faith was the condition of her seeing the glory of God in the miracle. We may +see a thousand emanations of that glory, and see none of it. We shall see it if +we exercise faith. In the natural world, 'seeing is believing'; in the +spiritual, believing is seeing. +</p> + +<p> +Equally remarkable, as breathing serenest confidence, is the wonderful filial +prayer. Our Lord speaks as if the miracle were already accomplished, so sure is +He: 'Thou heardest Me.' Does this thanksgiving bring Him down to the level of +other servants of God who have wrought miracles by divine power granted them? +Certainly not; for it is in full accord with the teaching of all this Gospel, +according to which 'the Son can do nothing of Himself,' but yet, whatsoever +things the Father doeth, 'these also doeth the Son likewise.' Both sides of the +truth must be kept in view. The Son is not independent of the Father, but the +Son is so constantly and perfectly one with the Father that He is conscious of +unbroken communion, of continual wielding of the whole divine power. +</p> + +<p> +But the practical purpose of the thanksgiving is to be specially noted. It +suspends His whole claims on the single issue about to be decided. It summons +the people to mark the event. Never before had He thus heralded a miracle. +Never had He deigned to say thus solemnly, 'If God does not work through Me +now, reject Me as an impostor; if He does, yield to Me as Messiah.' The moment +stands alone in His life. What a scene! There is the open tomb, with its dead +occupant; there are the eager, sceptical crowd, the sisters pausing in their +weeping to gaze, with some strange hopes beginning to creep into their hearts, +the silent disciples, and, in front of them all, Jesus, with the radiance of +power in the eyes that had just been swimming in tears, and a new elevation in +His tones. How all would be hushed in expectance of the next moment's act! +</p> + +<p> +III. The miracle itself is told in the fewest words. What more was there to +tell? The two ends, as it were, of a buried chain, appear above ground. Cause +and effect were brought together. Rather, here was no chain of many links, as +in physical phenomena, but here was the life-giving word, and there was the +dead man living again. The 'loud voice' was as needless as the rolling away of +the stone. It was but the sign of Christ's will acting. And the acting of His +will, without any other cause, produces physical effects. +</p> + +<p> +Lazarus was far away from that rock cave. But, wherever he was, he could hear, +and he must obey. So, with graveclothes entangling his feet, and a napkin about +his livid face, he came stumbling out into the light that dazed his eyes, +closed for four dark days, and stood silent and motionless in that awestruck +crowd. One Person there was not awestruck. Christ's calm voice, that had just +reverberated through the regions of the dead, spoke the simple command, 'Loose +him, and let him go.' To Him it was no wonder that He should give back a life. +For the Christ who wept is the Christ whose voice all that are in the graves +shall hear, and shall come forth. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap46"></a>THE SEVENTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL—THE RAISING OF LAZARUS</h2> + +<p> +'And when Jesus thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, Come +forth. 44. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with +grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin.'—JOHN xi. 43, 44. +</p> + +<p> +The series of our Lord's miracles before the Passion, as recorded in this +Gospel, is fitly closed with the raising of Lazarus. It crowns the whole, +whether we regard the greatness of the fact, the manner of our Lord's working, +the minuteness and richness of the accompanying details, the revelation of our +Lord's heart, the consolations which it suggests to sorrowing spirits, or the +immortal hopes which it kindles. +</p> + +<p> +And besides all this, the miracle is of importance for the development of the +Evangelist's purpose, in that it makes the immediate occasion of the embittered +hostility which finally precipitates the catastrophe of the Cross. Therefore +the great length to which the narrative extends. +</p> + +<p> +Of course it is impossible for us to attempt, even in the most cursory manner, +to go over the whole. We must content ourselves with dealing with one or two of +the salient points. And there are three things in this narrative which I think +well worthy of our notice. There is the revelation of Christ as our Brother, by +emotion and sorrow. There is the revelation of Christ as our Lord by His +consciousness of divine power. There is the revelation of Christ as our Life by +His mighty life-giving word. And to these three points I ask you to turn +briefly. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, we have here a revelation of Christ as our Brother, by emotion +and sorrow. +</p> + +<p> +This miracle stands alone in the whole majestic series of His mighty works by +the fact that it is preceded by a storm of emotion, which shakes the frame of +the Master, which He is represented by the Evangelist not so much as +suppressing as fostering, and which diverges and parts itself into the two +feelings expressed by His groans and by His tears. The word which is rendered +in our version 'He groaned in the spirit,' and which is twice repeated in the +narrative, is, according to the investigations of the most careful philological +commentators, expressive not only of the outward sign of an emotion, but of the +nature of it. And the nature of the emotion is not merely the grief and the +sympathy which distilled in tears, but it is something deeper and other than +that. The word contains in it at least a tinge of the passion of 'indignation' +(as it is expressed in the margin of the Revised Version). What caused the +indignation? Cannot we fancy how there rose up, as in pale, spectral procession +before His vision, the whole long series of human sorrows and losses, of which +one was visible there before Him? He saw, in the one individual case, the whole +<i>genus</i>. He saw the whole mass represented there, the ocean in the drop, +and He looked beyond the fact and linked it with its cause. And as there rose +before Him the reality of man's desolation through sin, and the thought that +all this misery, loss, pain, parting, death, was a contradiction of the divine +purpose, and an interruption of God's order, and that it had all been pulled +down upon men's desperate heads by their own evil and their own folly, there +rose in His heart the anger which is part of the perfectness of humanity when +it looks upon sorrow linked by adamantine chains with sin. +</p> + +<p> +But the lightning of the wrath dissolved soon into the rain of pity and of +sorrow, and, as we read, 'Jesus wept.' Looking upon the weeping Mary and the +lamenting crowd, and Himself feeling the pain of the parting from the friend +whom He loved, the tears, which are the confession of human nature that it is +passing through an emotion too deep for words, came to His all-seeing eyes. +</p> + +<p> +Oh! brethren, surely—surely in this manifestation, or call it better, this +revelation of Christ the Lord, expressed in these two emotions—surely there are +large and blessed lessons for us! On them I can only touch in the lightest +manner. Here, for one thing, is the blessed sign and proof of His true +brotherhood with us. This Evangelist, to whom it was given to tell the Church +and the world more than any of the others had imparted to them of the divine +uniqueness of the Master's person, had also given to him in charge the +corresponding and complementary message—to insist upon the reality and the +verity of His manhood. His proclamation was 'the Word was made flesh,' and he +had to dwell on both parts of that message, showing Him as the Word and showing +Him as flesh. So he insists upon all the points which emerge in the course of +his narrative that show the reality of Christ's corporeal manhood. +</p> + +<p> +He joins with the others, who had no such lofty proclamation entrusted to them, +in telling us how He was 'bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,' in that He +hungered and thirsted and slept, and was wearied; how He was man, reasonable +soul and human spirit, in that He grieved and rejoiced, and wondered and +desired, and mourned and wept. And so we can look upon Him, and feel that this +in very deed is One of ourselves, with a spirit participant of all human +experiences, and a heart tremulously vibrating with every emotion that belongs +to man. +</p> + +<p> +Here we are also taught the sanction and the limits of sorrow. Christianity has +nothing to do with the false Stoicism and the false religion which is partly +pride and partly insincerity, that proclaims it wrong to weep when God smites. +But just as clearly and distinctly as the story before us says to us, 'Weep for +yourselves and for the loved ones that are gone,' so distinctly does it draw +the limits within which sorrow is sacred and hallowing, and beyond which it is +harmful and weakening. Set side by side the grief of these two poor weeping +sisters, and the grief of the weeping Christ, and we get a large lesson. They +could only repine that something else had not happened differently which would +have made all different. 'If Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.' +One of the two sits with folded arms in the house, letting her sorrow flow over +her pained head. Martha is unable, by reason of her grief, to grasp the +consolation that is held out to her; her sorrow has made the hopes of the +future seem to her very dim and of small account, and she puts away 'Thy +brother shall rise again' with almost an impatient sweep of her hand. 'I know +that he will rise in the resurrection at the last day. But oh! that is so far +away, and what I want is present comfort.' Thus oblivious of duty, murmuring +with regard to the accidents which might have been different, and unfitted to +grasp the hopes that fill the future, these two have been hurt by their grief, +and have let it overflow its banks and lay waste the land. But this Christ in +His sorrow checks His sorrow that He may do His work; in His sorrow is +confident that the Father hears; in His sorrow thinks of the bystanders, and +would bring comfort and cheer to them. A sorrow which makes us more conscious +of communion with the Father who is always listening, which makes us more +conscious of power to do that which He has put it into our hand to do, which +makes us more tender in our sympathies with all that mourn, and swifter and +readier for our work—such a sorrow is doing what God meant for us; and is a +blessing in so thin a disguise that we can scarcely call it veiled at all. +</p> + +<p> +And then, still further, there are here other lessons on which I cannot touch. +Such, for instance, is the revelation in this emotion of the Master's, of a +personal love that takes individuals to His heart, and feels all the sweetness +and the power of friendship. That personal love is open to every one of us, and +into the grace and the tenderness of it we may all penetrate. 'The disciple +whom Jesus loved' is the Evangelist who, without jealousy, is glad to tell us +that the same loving Lord took into the same sanctuary of His pure heart, Mary +and Martha, and her brother. That which was given to them was not taken from +him, and they each possessed the whole of the Master's love. So for every one +of us that heart is wide open, and you and I, brethren, may contract such +personal relations to the Master that we shall live with Christ as a man with +his friend, and may feel that His heart is all ours. +</p> + +<p> +So much for the lessons of the emotions whereby Christ is manifested to us as +our Brother. +</p> + +<p> +II. And now turn, in the next place, and that very briefly, to what lies side +by side with this in the story, and at first sight may seem strangely +contradictory of it, but in fact only completes the idea, viz. the majesties, +calm consciousness of divine power by which He is revealed as our Lord. +</p> + +<p> +At one step from the agitation and the storm of feeling there comes, 'Take ye +away the stone.' And in answer to the lamentations of the sister are spoken the +great and wonderful words, 'Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, +thou shouldst see the glory of God?' And He looks back there to the message +that had been sent to the sisters in response to their unspoken hope that He +would come, 'This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that +the Son of God may be glorified thereby.' And He shows us that from the first +moment, with the spontaneousness which, as I have already remarked in previous +sermons on these 'signs,' characterises all the miracles of John's Gospel, 'He +Himself knew what He would do,' and in the consciousness of His divine power +had resolved that the dead Lazarus should be the occasion for the +manifestation, the flashing out to the world, of the glory of God in the +life-giving Son. +</p> + +<p> +And then, in the same tone of majestic consciousness, there follows that +thanksgiving <i>prior</i> to the miracle as for the accomplished miracle. 'I +thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me, and I knew that Thou hearest Me always: but +because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou +hast sent Me.' The best commentary upon these words, the deepest and the +fullest exposition of the large truths that lie in them concerning the +co-operation of the Father and the Son, is to be found in the passage from the +fifth chapter of this Gospel, wherein there is set forth, drawn with the +firmest hand, the clearest lines of truth upon this great and profound subject. +'The Son does nothing of Himself,' but 'whatsoever the Father doeth, that doeth +the Son likewise.' A consciousness of continual co-operation with the Almighty +Father, a consciousness that His will continually coincides with the Father's +will, that unto Him there comes the power ever to do all that Omnipotence can +do, and that though we may speak of a gift given and a power derived, the +relation between the giving Father and the recipient Son is altogether +different from, and other than the relation between, the man that asks and the +God that bestows. Poor Martha said, 'I know that even now, whatsoever Thou +askest of God He will give Thee.' She thought of Him as a good Man whose +prayers had power with Heaven. But up into an altogether other region soars the +consciousness expressed in these words as of a divine Son whose work is wholly +parallel with the Father's work, and of whom the two things that sound +contradictory can both be said. His omnipotence is His own; His omnipotence is +the Father's: 'As the Father hath life' and therefore power in Himself, 'so +hath He <i>given</i>'—there is the one half of the paradox—'so hath He given to +the Son to have life <i>in Himself</i>'; there is the other. And unless you put +them both together you do not think of Christ as Christ has taught us to think. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, we have here the revelation of Christ as our Life in His mighty, +life-giving word. +</p> + +<p> +The miracle, as I have said, stands high in the scale, not only by reason of +what to us seems the greatness of the fact, though of course, properly +speaking, in miracles there is no distinction as to the greatness of the fact, +but also by reason of the manner of the working. The voice thrown into the cave +reaches the ears of the sheeted dead: 'Lazarus, come forth!' And then, in words +which convey the profound impression of awfulness and solemnity which had been +made upon the Evangelist, we have the picture of the man with the graveclothes +wrapped about his limbs, stumbling forth; and loving hands are bidden to take +away the napkin which covered his face. Perhaps the hand trembled as it was put +forth, not knowing what awful sight the veil might cover. +</p> + +<p> +With tenderest reticence, no word is spoken as to what followed. No hint +escapes of the joy, no gleam of the experiences which the traveller brought +back with him from that 'bourne' whence he had come. Surely some draught of +Lethe must have been given him, that his spirit might be lulled into a +wholesome forgetfulness, else life must have been a torment to him. +</p> + +<p> +But be that as it may, what we have to notice is the fact here, and what it +teaches us as a fact. Is it not a revelation of Jesus Christ as the absolute +Lord of Life and Death, giving the one, putting back the other? Death has +caught hold of his prey. 'Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, and the +lawful captive delivered? Yea, the prey shall be taken from the mighty.' His +bare word is divinely operative. He says to that grisly shadow 'Come!' and he +cometh; He says to him 'Go!' and he goeth. And as a shepherd will drive away +the bear that has a lamb between his bloody fangs, and the brute retreats, +snarling and growling, but dropping his prey, so at the Lord's voice Lazarus +comes back to life, and disappointed Death skulks away to the darkness. +</p> + +<p> +The miracle shows Him as Lord of Death and Giver of Life. And it teaches +another lesson, namely, the continuous persistency of the bond between Christ +and His friend, unbroken and untouched by the superficial accident of life or +death. Wheresoever Lazarus was he heard the voice, and wheresoever Lazarus was +he knew the voice, and wheresoever Lazarus was he obeyed the voice. And so we +are taught that the relationship between Christ our life, and all them that +love and trust Him, is one on which the tooth of death that gnaws all other +bonds in twain hath no power at all. Christ is the Life, and, therefore, Christ +is the Resurrection, and the thing that we call death is but a film which +spreads on the surface, but has no power to penetrate into the depths of the +relationship between us and Him. +</p> + +<p> +Such, in briefest words, are the lessons of the miracle as a fact, but before I +close I must remind you that it is to be looked at not only as a fact, but as a +prophecy and as a parable. +</p> + +<p> +It is a prophecy in a modified sense, telling us at all events that He has the +power to bid men back from the dust and darkness, and giving us the assurance +which His own words convey to us yet more distinctly: 'The hour is coming when +all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth.' My +brother! there be two resurrections in that one promise: the resurrection of +Christ's friends and the resurrection of Christ's foes. And though to both His +voice will be the awakening, some shall rise to joy and immortality and 'some +to shame and everlasting contempt.' You will hear the voice; settle it for +yourselves whether when He calls and thou answerest thou wilt say, 'Lo! here am +I,' joyful to look upon Him; or whether thou wilt rise reluctant, and 'call +upon the rocks and the hills to cover thee, and to hide thee from the face of +Him that sitteth upon the Throne.' +</p> + +<p> +And this raising is a parable as well as a prophecy; for even as Christ was the +life of this Lazarus, so, in a deeper and more real sense, and not in any +shadowy, metaphorical, mystical sense, is Jesus Christ the life of every spirit +that truly lives at all. We are 'dead in trespasses and sins.' For separation +from God is death in all regions, death for the body in its kind, death for the +mind, for the soul, for the spirit in their kinds; and only they who receive +Christ into their hearts do live. Every Christian man is a miracle. There has +been a true coming into the human of the divine, a true supernatural work, the +infusion into a dead soul of the God-life which is the Christ-life. +</p> + +<p> +And you and I may have that life. What is the condition? 'They that hear shall +live.' Do you hear? Do you welcome? Do you take that Christ into your hearts? +Is He your Life, my brother? +</p> + +<p> +It is possible to resist that voice, to stuff your ears so full of clay, and +worldliness, and sin, and self-reliance as that it shall not echo in your +hearts. 'The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of +the Son of Man, and they that hear shall live,' and obtain to-day 'a better +resurrection' than the resurrection of the body. If you do not hear that voice, +then you will 'remain in the congregation of the dead.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap47"></a>CAIAPHAS</h2> + +<p> +'And one of them, named Caiaphas being the high priest that same year, said +unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, +that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish +not.'—JOHN xi. 49,50. +</p> + +<p> +The resurrection of Lazarus had raised a wave of popular excitement. Any stir +amongst the people was dangerous, especially at the Passover time, which was +nigh at hand, when Jerusalem would be filled with crowds of men, ready to take +fire from any spark that might fall amongst them. So a hasty meeting of the +principal ecclesiastical council of the Jews was summoned, in order to dismiss +the situation, and concert measures for repressing the nascent enthusiasm. One +might have expected to find there some disposition to inquire honestly into the +claims of a Teacher who had such a witness to His claims as a man alive that +had been dead. But nothing of the sort appears in their ignoble calculations. +Like all weak men, they feel that 'something must be done' and are perfectly +unable to say what. They admit Christ's miracles: 'This man doeth many +miracles,' but they are not a bit the nearer to recognising His mission, being +therein disobedient to their law and untrue to their office. They fear that any +disturbance will bring Rome's heavy hand down on them, and lead to the loss of +what national life they still possess. But even that fear is not patriotism nor +religion. It is pure self-interest. 'They will take away <i>our</i> place'—the +Temple, probably—'and our nation.' The holy things were, in their eyes, their +special property. And so, at this supreme moment, big with the fate of +themselves and of their nation, their whole anxiety is about personal +interests. They hesitate, and are at a loss what to do. +</p> + +<p> +But however they may hesitate, there is one man who knows his own +mind—Caiaphas, the high priest. He has no doubt as to what is the right thing +to do. He has the advantage of a perfectly clear and single purpose, and no +sort of restraint of conscience or delicacy keeps him from speaking it out. He +is impatient at their vacillation, and he brushes it all aside with the brusque +and contemptuous speech: 'Ye know nothing at all!' 'The one point of view for +us to take is that of our own interests. Let us have that clearly understood; +when we once ask what is "expedient for us," there will be no doubt about the +answer. This man must die. Never mind about His miracles, or His teaching, or +the beauty of His character. His life is a perpetual danger to our +prerogatives. I vote for death!' And so he clashes his advice down into the +middle of their waverings, like a piece of iron into yielding water; and the +strong man, restrained by no conscience, and speaking out cynically the thought +that is floating in all their minds, but which they dare not utter, is master +of the situation, and the resolve is taken. 'From that day forth' they +determined to put Him to death. +</p> + +<p> +But John regards this selfish, cruel advice as a prophecy. Caiaphas spoke wiser +things than he knew. The Divine Spirit breathed in strange fashion through even +such lips as his, and moulded his savage utterance into such a form as that it +became a fit expression for the very deepest thought about the nature and the +power of Christ's death. He did indeed die for that people—thinks the +Evangelist—even though they have rejected Him, and the dreaded Romans +<i>have</i> come and taken away our place and nation—but His death had a wider +purpose, and was not for that nation only, but that also 'He should gather +together in one the children of God that are scattered abroad.' +</p> + +<p> +Let us, then, take these two aspects of the man and his counsel: the +unscrupulous priest and his savage advice; the unconscious prophet and his +great prediction. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, let us take the former point of view, and think of this +unscrupulous priest and his savage advice. 'It is expedient for us that one man +die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.' +</p> + +<p> +Remember who he was, the high priest of the nation, with Aaron's mitre on his +brow, and centuries of illustrious traditions embodied in his person; set by +his very office to tend the sacred flame of their Messianic hopes, and with +pure hands and heart to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people; the head +and crown of the national religion, in whose heart justice and mercy should +have found a sanctuary if they had fled from all others; whose ears ought to +have been opened to the faintest whisper of the voice of God; whose lips should +ever have been ready to witness for the truth. +</p> + +<p> +And see what he is! A crafty schemer, as blind as a mole to the beauty of +Christ's character and the greatness of His words; utterly unspiritual; +undisguisedly selfish; rude as a boor; cruel as a cut-throat; and having +reached that supreme height of wickedness in which he can dress his ugliest +thought in the plainest words, and send them into the world unabashed. What a +lesson this speech of Caiaphas, and the character disclosed by it, read to all +persons who have a professional connection with religion! +</p> + +<p> +He can take one point of view only, in regard to the mightiest spiritual +revelation that the world ever saw; and that is, its bearing upon his own +miserable personal interests, and the interests of the order to which he +belongs. And so, whatever may be the wisdom, or miracles, or goodness of Jesus, +because He threatens the prerogatives of the priesthood, He must die and be got +out of the way. +</p> + +<p> +This is only an extreme case of a temper and a tendency which is perennial. +Popes and inquisitors and priests of all Churches have done the same, in their +degree, in all ages. They have always been tempted to look upon religion and +religious truth and religious organisations as existing somehow for their +personal advantage. And so 'the Church is in danger!' generally means 'my +position is threatened,' and heretics are got rid of, because their teaching is +inconvenient for the prerogatives of a priesthood, and new truth is fought +against, because officials do not see how it harmonises with their +pre-eminence. +</p> + +<p> +It is not popes and priests and inquisitors only that are examples of the +tendency. The warning is needed by every man who stands in such a position as +mine, whose business it is professionally to handle sacred things, and to +administer Christian institutions and Christian ritual. All such men are +tempted to look upon the truth as their stock-in-trade, and to fight against +innovations, and to array themselves instinctively against progress, and frown +down new aspects and new teachers of truth, simply because they threaten, or +appear to threaten, the position and prerogatives of the teachers that be. +Caiaphas's sin is possible, and Caiaphas's temptation is actual, for every man +whose profession it is to handle the oracles of God. +</p> + +<p> +But the lessons of this speech and character are for us all. Caiaphas's +sentence is an undisguised, unblushing avowal of a purely selfish standpoint. +It is not a common depth of degradation to stand up, and without a blush to +say: 'I look at all claims of revelation, at all professedly spiritual truth, +and at everything else, from one delightfully simple point of view—I ask +myself, how does it bear upon what I think to be to my advantage?' What a deal +of perplexity a man is saved if he takes up that position! Yes! and how he has +damned himself in the very act of doing it! For, look what this absorbing and +exclusive self-regard does in the illustration before us, and let us learn what +it will do to ourselves. +</p> + +<p> +This selfish consideration of our own interests will make us as blind as bats +to the most radiant beauty of truth; aye, and to Christ Himself, if the +recognition of Him and of His message seems to threaten any of these. They tell +us that fishes which live in the water of caverns come to lose their eyesight; +and men that are always living in the dark holes of their own selfishly +absorbed natures, they, too, lose their spiritual sight; and the fairest, +loftiest, truest, and most radiant visions (which are realities) pass before +their eyes, and they see them not. When you put on regard for yourselves as +they do blinkers upon horses, you have no longer the power of wide, +comprehensive vision, but only see straight forward upon the narrow line which +you fancy to be marked out by your own interests. If ever there comes into the +selfish man's mind a truth, or an aspect of Christ's mission, which may seem to +cut against some of his practices or interests, how blind he is to it! When +Lord Nelson was at Copenhagen, and they hoisted the signal of recall, he put +his telescope up to his blind eye and said, 'I do not see it!' And that is +exactly what this self-absorbed regard to our own interests does with hundreds +of men who do not in the least degree know it. It blinds them to the plain will +of the Commander-in-chief flying there at the masthead. 'There are none so +blind as those who will not see'; and there are none who so certainly will not +see as those who have an uneasy suspicion that if they do see they will have to +change their tack. So I say, look at the instance before us, and learn the +lesson of the blindness to truth and beauty which are Christ Himself, which +comes of a regard to one's own interests. +</p> + +<p> +Then again, this same self-regard may bring a man down to any kind and degree +of wrongdoing. Caiaphas was brought down by it, being the supreme judge of his +nation, to be an assassin and an accomplice of murderers. And it is only a +question of accident and of circumstances how far that man will descend who +once yields himself up to the guidance of such a disposition and tendency. We +have all of us to fight against the developed selfishness which takes the form +of this, that, and the other sin; and we have all of us, if we are wise, to +fight against the undeveloped sin which lies in all selfishness. Remember that +if you begin with laying down as the canon of your conduct, 'It is expedient +for me,' you have got upon an inclined plane that tilts at a very sharp angle, +and is very sufficiently greased, and ends away down yonder in the depths of +darkness and of death, and it is only a question of time how far and how fast, +how deep and irrevocable, will be your descent. +</p> + +<p> +And lastly, this same way of looking at things which takes 'It is expedient' as +the determining consideration, has in it an awful power of so twisting and +searing a man's conscience as that he comes to look at evil and never to know +that there is anything wrong in it. This cynical high priest in our text had no +conception that he was doing anything but obeying the plainest dictates of the +most natural self-preservation when he gave his opinion that they had better +kill Christ than have any danger to their priesthood. The crime of the actual +crucifixion was diminished because the doers were so unconscious that it was a +crime; but the crime of the process by which they had come to be unconscious—Oh +how that was increased and deepened! So, if we fix our eyes sharply and +exclusively on what makes for our own advantage, and take that as the point of +view from which we determine our conduct, we may, and we shall, bring ourselves +into such a condition as that our consciences will cease to be sensitive to +right and wrong; and we shall do all manner of bad things, and never know it. +We shall 'wipe our mouths and say: "I have done no harm."' So, I beseech you, +remember this, that to live for self is hell, and that the only antagonist of +such selfishness, which leads to blindness, crime, and a seared conscience, is +to yield ourselves to the love of God in Jesus Christ and to say: 'I live, yet +not I, but Christ liveth in me.' +</p> + +<p> +II. And now turn briefly to the second aspect of this saying, into which the +former, if I may so say, melts away. We have the unconscious prophet and his +great prediction. +</p> + +<p> +The Evangelist conceives that the man who filled the office of high priest, +being the head of the theocratic community, was naturally the medium of a +divine oracle. When he says, 'being the high priest <i>that year</i>, Caiaphas +prophesied,' he does not imply that the high priestly office was annual, but +simply desires to mark the fateful importance of that year for the history of +the world and the priesthood. 'In that year' the great 'High Priest for ever' +came and stood for a moment by the side of the earthly high priest—the +Substance by the shadow—and by His offering of Himself as the one Sacrifice for +sin for ever, deprived priesthood and sacrifice henceforward of all their +validity. So that Caiaphas was in reality the last of the high priests, and +those that succeeded him for something less than half a century were but like +ghosts that walked after cock-crow. And what the Evangelist would mark is the +importance of 'that year,' as making Caiaphas ever memorable to us. Solemn and +strange that the long line of Aaron's priesthood ended in such a man—the river +in a putrid morass—and that of all the years in the history of the nation, 'in +that year' should such a person fill such an office! +</p> + +<p> +'Being high priest he prophesied.' And was there anything strange in a bad +man's prophesying? Did not the Spirit of God breathe through Balaam of old? Is +there anything incredible in a man's prophesying unconsciously? Did not Pilate +do so, when he nailed over the Cross, 'This is the King of the Jews,' and wrote +it in Hebrew, and in Greek, and in Latin, conceiving himself to be perpetrating +a rude jest, while he was proclaiming an everlasting truth? When the Pharisees +stood at the foot of the Cross and taunted Him, 'He saved others, Himself He +cannot save,' did they not, too, speak deeper things than they knew? And were +not the lips of this unworthy, selfish, unspiritual, unscrupulous, cruel priest +so used as that, all unconsciously, his words lent themselves to the +proclamation of the glorious central truth of Christianity, that Christ died +for the nation that slew Him and rejected Him, nor for them alone, but for all +the world? Look, though but for a moment, at the thoughts that come from this +new view of the words which we have been considering. +</p> + +<p> +They suggest to us, first of all, the twofold aspect of Christ's death. From +the human point of view it was a savage murder by forms of law for political +ends: Caiaphas and the priests slaying Him to avoid a popular tumult that might +threaten their prerogatives, Pilate consenting to His death to avoid the +unpopularity that might follow a refusal. From the divine point of view it is +God's great sacrifice for the sin of the world. It is the most signal instance +of that solemn law of Providence which runs all through the history of the +world, whereby bad men's bad deeds, strained through the fine network, as it +were, of the divine providence, lose their poison and become nutritious and +fertilising. 'Thou makest the wrath of men to praise Thee; with the residue +thereof Thou girdest Thyself.' The greatest crime ever done in the world is the +greatest blessing ever given to the world. Man's sin works out the loftiest +divine purpose, even as the coral insects blindly build up the reef that keeps +back the waters, or as the sea in its wild, impotent rage, seeking to overwhelm +the land, only throws upon the beach a barrier that confines its waves and +curbs their fury. +</p> + +<p> +Then, again, this second aspect of the counsel of Caiaphas suggests for us the +twofold consequences of that death on the nation itself. This Gospel of John +was probably written after the destruction of Jerusalem. By the time that our +Evangelist penned these words, the Romans <i>had</i> come and taken away their +place and their nation. The catastrophe that Caiaphas and his party had, by +their short-sighted policy, tried to prevent, had been brought about by the +very deed itself. For Christ's death was practically the reason for the +destruction of the Jewish commonwealth. When 'the husbandmen said, Come! let us +kill Him, and seize on the inheritance,' which is simply putting Caiaphas's +counsel into other language, they thereby deprived themselves of the +inheritance. And so Christ's death was the destruction and not the salvation of +the nation. +</p> + +<p> +And yet, it was true that He died for that people, for every man of them, for +Caiaphas as truly as for John, for Judas as truly as for Peter, for all the +Scribes and the Pharisees that mocked round His Cross, as truly as for the +women that stood silently weeping there. He died for them all, and John, +looking back upon the destruction of his nation, can yet say, 'He died for that +people.' Yes! and just because He did, and because they rejected Him, His +death, which they would not let be their salvation, became their destruction +and their ruin. Oh! brethren, it is always so! He is either 'a savour of life +unto life, or a savour of death unto death!' 'Behold! I lay in Zion for a +foundation, a tried Stone.' Build upon it and you are safe. If you do not build +upon it, that Stone becomes 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.' You +must either build upon Christ or fall over Him; you must either build +<i>upon</i> Christ, or be crushed to powder <i>under</i> Him. Make your choice! +The twofold effect is wrought ever, but we can choose which of the two shall be +wrought upon us. +</p> + +<p> +Lastly, we have here the twofold sphere in which our Lord's mighty death works +its effects. +</p> + +<p> +I have already said that this Gospel was written after the fall of Jerusalem. +The whole tone of it shows that the conception of the Church as quite separate +from Judaism was firmly established. The narrower national system had been +shivered, and from out of the dust and hideous ruin of its crushing fall had +emerged the fairer reality of a Church as wide as the world. The Temple on +Zion—which was but a small building after all—had been burned with fire. It was +<i>their</i> place, as Caiaphas called it. But the clearing away of the +narrower edifice had revealed the rising walls of the great temple, the +Christian Church, whose roof overarches every land, and in whose courts all men +may stand and praise the Lord. So John, in his home in Ephesus, surrounded by +flourishing churches in which Jews formed a small and ever-decreasing element, +recognised how far the dove with the olive-branch In its mouth flew, and how +certainly that nation was only a little fragment of the many for whom Christ +died. +</p> + +<p> +'The children of God that were scattered abroad' were all to be united round +that Cross. Yes! the only thing that unites men together is their common +relation to a Divine Redeemer. That bond is deeper than all national bonds, +than all blood-bonds, than community of race, than family, than friendship, +than social ties, than community of opinion, than community of purpose and +action. It is destined to absorb them all. All these are transitory and they +are imperfect; men wander isolated notwithstanding them all. But if we are knit +to Christ, we are knit to all who are also knit to Him. One life animates all +the limbs, and one life's blood circulates through all the veins. 'So also is +Christ.' We are one in Him, in whom all the body fitly joined together maketh +increase, and in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth. If we +have yielded to the power of that Cross which draws us to itself, we shall have +been more utterly alone, in our penitence and in our conscious surrender to +Christ, than ever we were before. But He sets the solitary in families, and +that solemn experience of being alone with our Judge and our Saviour will be +followed by the blessed sense that we are no more solitary, but +'fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God.' +</p> + +<p> +That death brings men into the <i>family</i> of God. He will 'gather into one +the scattered children of God.' They are called children by anticipation. For +surely nothing can be clearer than that the doctrine of all John's writings is +that men are not children of God by virtue of their humanity, except in the +inferior sense of being made by Him, and in His image as creatures with spirit +and will, but <i>become</i> children of God through faith in the Son of God, +which brings about that new birth, whereby we become partakers of the Divine +nature. 'To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons +of God, even to them that believe on His name.' +</p> + +<p> +So I beseech you, turn yourselves to that dear Christ who has died for us all, +for us each, for me and for thee, and put your confidence in His great +sacrifice. You will find that you pass from isolation into society, from death +into life, from the death of selfishness into the life of God. Listen to Him, +who says: 'Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must +bring, and they shall hear My voice: and there shall be one flock' because +there is 'one Shepherd.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap48"></a>LOVE'S PRODIGALITY CENSURED AND VINDICATED</h2> + +<p> +'Then Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was +which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead. There they made Him a +supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table +with Him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and +anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was +filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of His disciples, Judas +Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray Him, Why was not this ointment sold +for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared +for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was +put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of My burying hath +she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but Me ye have not always. +Much people of the Jews therefore knew that He was there: and they came not for +Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom He had raised from +the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to +death; because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed +on Jesus.'—JOHN xii. 1-11. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus came from Jericho, where He had left Zacchaeus rejoicing in the salvation +that had come to his house, and whence Bartimaeus, rejoicing in His new power +of vision, seems to have followed Him. A few hours brought Him to Bethany, and +we know from other Evangelists what a tension of purpose marked Him, and awed +the disciples, as He pressed on before them up the rocky way. His mind was full +of the struggle and death which were so near. The modest village feast in the +house of Simon the leper comes in strangely amid the gathering gloom; but, no +doubt, Jesus accepted it, as He did everything, and entered into the spirit of +the hour. He would not pain His hosts by self-absorbed aloofness at the table. +The reason for the feast is obviously the raising of Lazarus, as is suggested +by his being twice mentioned in verses 1 and 2. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord had withdrawn to Ephraim so immediately after the miracle that the +opportunity of honouring Him had not occurred. It was a brave tribute to pay +Him in the face of the Sanhedrim's commandment (ch. xi. 57). This incident sets +in sharpest contrast the two figures of Mary, the type of love which delights +to give its best, and Judas, the type of selfishness which is only eager to +get; and it shows us Jesus casting His shield over the uncalculating giver, and +putting meaning into her deed. +</p> + +<p> +I. In Eastern fashion, the guests seem to have all been males, no doubt the +magnates of the village, and Jesus with His disciples. The former would have +become accustomed to seeing Lazarus, but Christ's immediate followers would +gaze curiously on him. And how he would gaze on Jesus, whom he had probably not +seen since the napkin had been taken from his face. The two sisters were true +to their respective characters. The bustling, practical Martha had perhaps not +very fine or quickly moved emotions. She could not say graceful things to their +benefactor, and probably she did not care to sit at His feet and drink in His +teaching; but she loved Him with all her heart all the same, and showed it by +serving. No doubt, she took care that the best dishes were carried to Jesus +first, and, no doubt, as is the custom in those lands, she plied Him with +invitations to partake. We do Martha less than justice if we do not honour her, +and recognise that her kind of service is true service. She has many successors +among Christ's true followers, who cannot 'gush' nor rise to the heights of His +loftiest teaching, but who have taken Him for their Lord, and can, at any rate, +do humble, practical service in kitchen or workshop. Their more 'intellectual' +or poetically emotional brethren are tempted to look down on them, but Jesus is +as ready to defend Martha against Mary, if she depreciates her, as He is to +vindicate Mary's right to her kind of expression of love, if Martha should seek +to force her own kind on her sister. 'There are differences of ministries, but +the same Lord.' +</p> + +<p> +Mary was one of the unpractical sort, whom Martha is very apt to consider +supremely useless, and often to lose patience with. Could she not find +something useful to do in all the bustle of the feast? Had she no hands that +could carry a dish, and no common sense that could help things on? Apparently +not. Every one else was occupied, and how should she show the love that welled +up in her heart as she looked at Lazarus sitting there beside Jesus? She had +one costly possession, the pound of perfume. Clearly it was her own, for she +would not have taken it if Lazarus and Mary had been joint owners. So, without +thinking of anything but the great burden of love which she blessedly bore, she +'poured it on His head' (Mark) and on His feet, which the fashion of reclining +at meals made accessible to her, standing behind Him, True love is profuse, not +to say prodigal. It knows no better use for its best than to lavish it on the +beloved, and can have no higher joy than that. It does not stay to calculate +utility as seen by colder eyes. It has even a subtle delight in the very +absence of practical results, for the expression of itself is the purer +thereby. A basin of water and a towel would have done as well or better for +washing Christ's feet, but not for relieving Mary's full heart. Do we know +anything of that omnipotent impulse? Can we complacently set our givings beside +Mary's? +</p> + +<p> +II. Judas is the foil to Mary. His sullen, black selfishness, stretching out +hands like talons in eagerness to get, makes more radiant, and is itself made +darker by, her shining deed of love. Goodness always rouses evil to +self-assertion, and the other Evangelists connect Mary's action with Judas's +final treachery as part of its impelling cause. They also show that his +specious objection, by its apparent common sense and charitableness, found +assent in the disciples. Three hundred pence worth of good ointment wasted +which might have helped so many poor! Yes, and how much poorer the world would +have been if it had not had this story! Mary was more utilitarian than her +censors. She served the highest good of all generations by her uncalculating +profusion, by which the poor have gained more than some few of them might have +lost. +</p> + +<p> +Judas's criticism is still repeated. The world does not understand Christian +self-sacrifice, for ends which seem to it shadowy as compared with the solid +realities of helping material progress or satisfying material wants. A hundred +critics, who do not do much for the poor themselves, will descant on the waste +of money in religious enterprises, and smile condescendingly at the enthusiasts +who are so unpractical. But love knows its own meaning, and need not be abashed +by the censure of the unloving. +</p> + +<p> +John flashes out into a moment's indignation at the greed of Judas, which was +masquerading as benevolence. His scathing laying bare of Judas's mean and +thievish motive is no mere suspicion, but he must have known instances of +dishonesty. When a man has gone so far in selfish greed that he has left common +honesty behind him, no wonder if the sight of utterly self-surrendering love +looks to him folly. The world has no instruments by which it can measure the +elevation of the godly life. Mary would not be Mary if Judas approved of her or +understood her. +</p> + +<p> +III. Jesus vindicates the act of His censured servant. His words fall into two +parts, of which the former puts a meaning into Mary's act, of which she +probably had not been aware, while the latter meets the carping criticism of +Judas. That Jesus should see in the anointing a reference to His burying, +pathetically indicates how that near end filled His thoughts, even while +sharing in the simple feast. The clear vision of the Cross so close did not so +absorb Him as to make Him indifferent either to Mary's love or to the +villagers' humble festivity. However weighed upon, His heart was always +sufficiently at leisure from itself to care for His friends and to defend them. +He accepts every offering that love brings, and, in accepting, gives it a +significance beyond the offerer's thought. We know not what use He may make of +our poor service; but we may be sure that, if that which we can see to is +right—namely, its motive,—He will take care of what we cannot see to—namely, +its effect,—and will find noble use for the sacrifices which unloving critics +pronounce useless waste. +</p> + +<p> +'The poor always ye have with you.' Opportunities for the exercise of brotherly +liberality are ever present, and therefore the obligation to it is constant. +But these permanent duties do not preclude the opportunities for such special +forms of expressing special love to Jesus as Mary had shown, and as must soon +end. The same sense of approaching separation as in the former clause gives +pathos to that restrained 'not always.' The fact of His being just about to +leave them warranted extraordinary tokens of love, as all loving hearts know +but too well. But, over and above the immediate reference of the words, they +carry the wider lesson that, besides the customary duties of generous giving +laid on us by the presence of ordinary poverty and distresses, there is room in +Christian experience for extraordinary outflows from the fountain of a heart +filled with love to Christ. The world may mock at it as useless prodigality, +but Jesus sees that it is done for Him, and therefore He accepts it, and +breathes meaning into it. +</p> + +<p> +'Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also +this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.' The Evangelist +who records that promise does not mention Mary's name; John, who does mention +the name, does not record the promise. It matters little whether our names are +remembered, so long as Jesus beam them graven on His heart. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap49"></a>A NEW KIND OF KING</h2> + +<p> +'On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that +Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to +meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the +name of the Lord. And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it +is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an +ass's colt. These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when +Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of +Him, and that they had done these things unto Him. The people therefore that +was with Him when He called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the +dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met Him, for that they heard +that He had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, +Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing! behold, the world is gone after Him. And +there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: The +same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired +him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and +again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus, and Jesus answered them, saying, The hour +is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto +you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but +if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; +and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If +any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My +servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour.'—JOHN xii. 12-26. +</p> + +<p> +The difference between John's account of the entry into Jerusalem and those of +the Synoptic Gospels is very characteristic. His is much briefer, but it brings +the essentials out clearly, and is particular in showing its place as a link in +the chain that drew on the final catastrophe, and in noting its effect on +various classes. +</p> + +<p> +'The next day' in verse 12 was probably the Sunday before the crucifixion. To +understand the events of that day we must try to realise how rapidly, and, as +the rulers thought, dangerously, excitement was rising among the crowds who had +come up for the Passover, and who had heard of the raising of Lazarus. The +Passover was always a time when national feeling was ready to blaze up, and any +spark might light the fire. It looked as if Lazarus were going to be the match +this time, and so, on the Saturday, the rulers had made up their minds to have +him put out of the way in order to stop the current that was setting in, of +acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. +</p> + +<p> +They had already made up their minds to dispose of Jesus, and now, with cynical +contempt for justice, they determined to 'put Lazarus also to death.' So there +were to be two men who were to 'die for the people.' Keeping all this wave of +popular feeling in view, it might have been expected that Jesus would, as +hitherto, have escaped into privacy, or discouraged the offered homage of a +crowd whose Messianic ideal was so different from His. +</p> + +<p> +John is mainly concerned in bringing out two points in his version of the +incident. First, he tells us what we should not have gathered from the other +Evangelists, that the triumphal procession began in Jerusalem, not in Bethany. +It was the direct result of the ebullition of enthusiasm occasioned by the +raising of Lazarus. The course of events seems to have been that 'the common +people of the Jews' came streaming out to Bethany on the Sunday to gape and +gaze at the risen man and Him who had raised him, that they and some of those +who had been present at the raising went back to the city and carried thither +the intelligence that Jesus was coming in from Bethany next day, and that then +the procession to meet Him was organised. +</p> + +<p> +The meaning of the popular demonstration was plain, both from the palm +branches, signs of victory and rejoicing, and from the chant, which is in part +taken from Psalm cxviii. The Messianic application of that quotation is made +unmistakable by the addition, 'even the King of Israel.' In the Psalm, 'he that +cometh in the name of Jehovah,' means the worshipper drawing near to the +Temple, but the added words divert the expression to Jesus, hail Him as the +King, and invoke Him as 'Saviour.' Little did that shouting crowd understand +what sort of a Saviour He was. Deliverance from Rome was what they were +thinking of. +</p> + +<p> +We must remember what gross, unspiritual notions of the Messiah they had, and +then we are prepared to feel how strangely unlike His whole past conduct Jesus' +action now was. He had shrunk from crowds and their impure enthusiasm; He had +slipped away into solitude when they wished to come by force to make Him a +King, and had in every possible way sought to avoid publicity and the rousing +of popular excitement. Now He deliberately sets Himself to intensify it. His +choice of an ass on which to ride into Jerusalem was, and would be seen by many +to be, a plain appropriation to Himself of a very distinct Messianic prophecy, +and must have raised the heat of the crowd by many degrees. One can fancy the +roar of acclaim which hailed Him when He met the multitude, and the wild +emotion with which they strewed His path with garments hastily drawn off and +cast before Him. +</p> + +<p> +Why did He thus contradict all His past, and court the smoky enthusiasm which +He had hitherto damped? Because He knew that 'His hour' had come, and that the +Cross was at hand, and He desired to bring it as speedily as might be, and thus +to shorten the suffering that He would not avoid, and to finish the work which +He was eager to complete. The impatience, as we might almost call it, which had +marked Him on all that last journey, reached its height now, and may indicate +to us for our sympathy and gratitude both His human longing to get the dark +hour over and His fixed willingness to die for us. +</p> + +<p> +But even while Jesus accepted the acclamations and deliberately set Himself to +stir up enthusiasm, He sought to purify the gross ideas of the crowd. What more +striking way could He have chosen of declaring that all the turbulent passions +and eagerness for a foot-to-foot conflict with Rome which were boiling in their +breasts were alien to His purposes and to the true Messianic ideal, than that +choosing of the meek, slow-pacing ass to bear Him? A conquering king would have +made his triumphal entry in a chariot or on a battle-horse. This strange type +of monarch is throned on an ass. It was not only for a verbal fulfilment of the +prophecy, but for a demonstration of the essential nature of His kingdom, that +He thus entered the city. +</p> + +<p> +John characteristically takes note of the effects of the entry on two classes, +the disciples and the rulers. The former remembered with a sudden flash of +enlightenment the meaning of the entry when the Cross and the Resurrection had +taught them it. The rulers marked the popular feeling running high with +bewilderment, and were, as Jesus meant them to be, made more determined to take +vigorous measures to stop this madness of the mob. +</p> + +<p> +The second incident in this passage contrasts remarkably with the first, and +yet is, in one aspect, a continuation of it. In the former, Jesus brought into +prominence the true nature of His rule by His choosing the ass to carry Him, so +declaring that His dominion rested, not on conquest, but on meekness. In the +latter, He reveals a yet deeper aspect of His work, and teaches that His +influence over men is won by utter self-sacrifice, and that His subjects must +tread the same path of losing their lives by which He passes to His glory. The +details of the incident are of small importance as compared with that great and +solemn lesson; but we may note them in a few words. The desire of a few Greeks +to see Him was probably only a reflection of the popular enthusiasm, and was +prompted mainly by curiosity and the characteristic Greek eagerness to see any +'new thing.' The addressing of the request to Philip is perhaps explained by +the fact that he 'was of Bethsaida of Galilee,' and had probably come into +contact with these Greeks in the neighbouring Decapolis, on the other side of +the lake. Philip's consultation of his fellow-townsman, Andrew, who is +associated with him in other places, probably implies hesitation in granting so +unprecedented a request. They did not know what Jesus might say to it. And what +He did say was very unlike anything that they could have anticipated. +</p> + +<p> +The trivial request was as a narrow window through which Jesus' yearning spirit +saw a great expanse—nothing less than the coming to Him of myriads of Gentiles, +the 'much fruit' of which He immediately speaks, the 'other sheep' whom He +'must bring.' The thought must have been ever present to Him, or it would never +have leaped to utterance on such an occasion. The little window shows us, too, +what was habitually in His mind and heart. He, as it were, hears the striking +of the hour of His glorification; in which expression the ideas of His being +glorified by drawing men to the knowledge of His love, and of the Cross being +not the lowest depth of His humiliation, but the highest apex of His glory—as +it is always represented in this Gospel—seemed to be fused together. +</p> + +<p> +The seed must die if a harvest is to spring from it. That is the law for all +moral and spiritual reformations. Every cause must have its martyrs. No man can +be fruit-bearing unless he sacrifices himself. We shall not 'quicken' our +fellows unless we 'die,' either literally or by the not less real martyrdom of +rigid self-crucifixion and suppression. +</p> + +<p> +But that necessity is not only for Apostles or missionaries of great causes; it +is the condition of all true, noble life, and prescribes the path not only for +those who would live for others, but for all who would truly live their own +lives. Self-renunciation guards the way to the 'tree of life.' That lesson was +specially needed by 'Greeks,' for ignorance of it was the worm that gnawed the +blossoms of their trees, whether of art or of literature. It is no less needed +by our sensuously luxurious and eagerly acquisitive generation. The world's +war-cries to-day are two—'Get!' 'Enjoy!' Christ's command is, 'Renounce!' And +in renouncing we shall realise both of these other aims, which they who pursue +them only, never attain. +</p> + +<p> +Christ's servant must be Christ's follower: indeed service is following. The +Cross has aspects in which it stands alone, and is incapable of being +reproduced and makes all repetition needless. But it has also an aspect in +which it not only <i>may</i>, but <i>must</i>, be reproduced in every disciple. +And he who takes it for the ground of his trust only, and not as the pattern of +his life, has need to ask himself whether his trust in it is genuine or worth +anything. Of course they who follow a leader will arrive where the leader has +gone, and though our feet are feeble and our progress devious and slow, we have +here His promise that we shall not be lost in the desert, but, sustained by +Him, will reach His side, and at last be where He is. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap50"></a>AFTER CHRIST: WITH CHRIST</h2> + +<p> +'If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My +servant be.'—John xii. 26. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord was strangely moved by the apparently trivial incident of certain +Greeks desiring to see Him. He recognised and hailed in them the first-fruits +of the Gentiles. The Eastern sages at His cradle, and these representatives of +Western culture within a few hours of the Cross, were alike prophets. So, in +His answer to their request, our Lord passes beyond the immediate bearing of +the request, and contemplates it in its relation to the future developments of +His work. And the thought that the Son of Man is now about to begin to be +glorified, at once brings Him face to face with the fact which must precede the +glory, viz., His death. +</p> + +<p> +That great law that a higher life can only be reached by the decay of the +lower, of which the Cross is the great instance, He illustrates, first, by an +example from Nature, the corn of wheat which must die ere it brings forth +fruit. Then He declares that this is a universal law, 'He that loveth his life +shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto +life eternal.' And then He declares that this universal law, which has its +adumbration in Nature, and applies to all mankind, and is manifested in its +highest form on the Cross, is the law of the Christian discipleship. 'If any +man serve Me, let him follow Me,' and, as a consequence, 'where I am, there +shall also My servant be.' +</p> + +<p> +In two clauses He covers the whole ground of the present and the future. Many +thinkers and teachers have tried to crystallise their systems into some brief +formula which may stick in the memory and be capable of a handy application. +'Follow Nature,' said ancient sages, attaching a nobler meaning to the +condensed commandment than its modern repeaters often do; 'Follow duty,' say +others; 'Follow <i>Me</i>' says Christ. That is enough for life. And for all +the dim regions beyond, this prospect is sufficient, 'Where I am, there shall +also My servant be.' One Form towers above the present and the future, and they +both derive their colouring and their worth from Him and our relation to Him. +'To follow'—that is the condensed summary of life's duty. 'To be with'—that is +the crystallising of all our hopes. +</p> + +<p> +I. The all-sufficient law for life. +</p> + +<p> +'If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.' Everything is smelted down into that; +and there you have a sufficient directory for every man's every action. +</p> + +<p> +Now although it has nothing to do with my present purpose, I can scarcely avoid +pausing, just for a moment, to ask you to consider the perfect uniqueness of +such an utterance as that. Think of one Man standing up before all mankind, and +coolly and deliberately saying to them, 'I am the realised Ideal of human +conduct; I am Incarnate Perfection; and all of you, in all the infinite variety +of condition, culture, and character, are to take Me for your pattern and your +guide.' The world has listened, and the world has not laughed nor been angry. +Neither indignation nor mockery, which one might have expected would have +extinguished such absurdity, has waited upon Christ's utterance. I have no time +to dwell on this; it is apart from my purpose, but I would ask you fairly to +consider how strange it is, and to ask how it is to be accounted for, that a +Man said that, and that the wisest part of the world has consented to take Him +at His own valuation; and after such an utterance as that, yet calls Him 'meek +and lowly of heart.' +</p> + +<p> +But I pass away from that. What does He mean by this commandment, 'Follow Me'? +Of course I need not remind you that it brings all duty down to the imitation +of Jesus Christ. That is a commonplace that I do not need to dwell upon, nor to +follow out into the many regions into which it would lead us, and where we +might find fruitful subjects of contemplation; because I desire, in a sentence +or two, to insist upon the special form of following which is here enjoined. It +is a very grand thing to talk about the imitation of Christ, and even in its +most superficial acceptation it is a good guide for all men. But no man has +penetrated to the depths of that stringent and all-comprehensive commandment +who has not recognised that there is one special thing in which Christ is to be +our Pattern, and that is in regard to the very thing in which we think that He +is most unique and inimitable. It is His Cross, and not His life; it is His +death, and not His virtues, which He is here thinking about, and laying it upon +all of us as the encyclopaedia and sum of all morality that we should be +conformed to it. I have already pointed out to you in my introductory remarks +the force of the present context. And so I need not further enlarge upon that, +nor vindicate my declaration that Christ's death is the pattern which is here +set before us. Of course we cannot imitate that in its effects, except in a +very secondary and figurative fashion. But the spirit that underlay it, as the +supreme Example of self-sacrifice, is commended to us all as the royal law for +our lives, and unless we are conformed thereto we have no right to call +ourselves Christ's disciples. To die for the sake of higher life, to give up +our own will utterly in obedience to God, and in the unselfish desire to help +and bless others, that is the <i>Alpha</i> and the <i>Omega</i> of +discipleship. It always has been so and always will be so. And so, dear +brethren, let us lay it to our own hearts, and make very stringent inquiry into +our own conduct, whether we have ever come within sight of what makes a true +disciple—viz., that we should be 'conformable unto His death.' +</p> + +<p> +Now our modern theology has far too much obscured this plain teaching of the +New Testament, because it has been concerned—I do not say too much, but too +exclusively, concerned—in setting forth the other aspect of Christ's death, by +which it is what none of ours can ever even begin to be, the sacrifice for a +world's sin. But, mind, there are two ways of looking at Christ's Cross. You +must begin with recognising it as the basis of all your hope, the power by +which you are delivered from sin as guilt, habit, and condemnation. And then +you must take it, if it is to be the sacrifice and atonement for your sins, for +the example of your lives, and mould yourselves after it. 'If any man serve Me, +let him follow Me,' and here is the special region in which the following is to +be realised: 'He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his +life shall keep it unto life eternal.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, further, let me remind you that this brief, crystallised commandment, the +essence of all practical godliness and Christianity, makes the blessed +peculiarity of Christian morality. People ask what it is that distinguishes the +teaching of the New Testament in regard to duty, from the teaching of lofty +moralists and sages of old. Not the specific precepts, though these are, in +many cases, deeper. Not the individual commandments, though the perspective of +human excellences and virtues has been changed in Christianity, and the gentler +and sweeter graces have been enthroned in the place where the world's morality +has generally set the more ostentatious ones; the hero is, roughly speaking, +the world's type, the saint is the New Testament's. But the true characteristic +of Christian teaching as to conduct lies in this, that the law is in a Person, +and that the power to obey the law comes from the love of the Person. All +things are different; unwelcome duties are made less repulsive, and hard tasks +are lightened, and sorrows are made tolerable, if only we are following Him. +You remember the old story in Scottish history of the knight to whom was +entrusted the king's heart; how, beset by the bands of the infidels, he tossed +the golden casket into the thickest of their ranks and said, 'Go on, I follow +thee'; and death itself was light when that thought spurred his steed forward. +</p> + +<p> +And so, brethren, it is far too hard a task to tread the road of duty which our +consciences command us, unless we are drawn by Him Who is before us there on +the road, and see the shining of His garments as He sets His face forward, and +draws us after Him. It is easy to climb a glacier when the guide has cut with +his ice-axe the steps in which he sets his feet, and we may set ours. The +sternness of duty, and the rigidity of law, and the coldness of 'I ought,' are +all changed when duty consists in following Christ, and He is before us on the +rocky and narrow road. +</p> + +<p> +This precept is all-sufficient. Of course it will be a task of wisdom, of +common sense, of daily culture in prudence and other graces; to apply the +generalised precept to the specific cases that emerge in our lives. But whilst +the application may require a great many subordinate by-laws, the royal statute +is one, and simple, and enough. 'Follow Me.' Is it not a strange thing—it seems +to me to be a perfectly unique thing, inexplicable except upon one +hypothesis—that a life so brief, of which the records are so fragmentary, in +which some of the relationships in which we stand had no place, and which was +lived out in a world so utterly different from our own, should yet avail to be +a guide to men, not in regard to specific points, so much as in regard to the +imperial supremacy in it of these motives—Even Christ pleased not Himself; 'My +meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.' +</p> + +<p> +And so, brethren, take this sharp test and apply it honestly to your own lives, +day by day, in all their <i>minutiae</i> as well as in their great things. 'If +any man <i>serve</i> Me,' how miserably that Christian 'service' has been +evacuated of its deepest meaning, and superficialised and narrowed! +'Service'—that means people getting into a building and singing and praying. +Service—that means acts of beneficence, teaching and preaching and giving +material or spiritual helps of various kinds. These things have almost +monopolised the word. But Christ enlarges its shrivelled contents once more, +and teaches us that, far above all specifically so-called acts of religious +worship, and more indispensable than so-called acts of Christian activity and +service, lies the self-sacrificing conformity of character to Him. 'If any man +serve Me,' let him sing and praise and pray? Yes; 'If any man serve Me,' let +him try to help other people, and in the service of man do service to Me? Yes; +but deeper than all, and fundamental to the others, 'If any man serve Me, let +him <i>follow</i> Me'—Is that <i>my</i> discipleship? Let each one of us +professing Christians ask himself. +</p> + +<p> +II. We have here the all-sufficient hope for the future. +</p> + +<p> +I know few things more beautiful than the perfectly <i>naive</i> way in which +the greatest of thoughts is here set forth by the simplest of figures. If two +men are walking on the same road to a place, the one that is in front will get +there first, and his friend that is coming up after him will get there second, +if he keeps on; and they will be united at the end, because, one after the +other, they travel the road. And so says Christ: 'Of course, if you follow Me, +you will join Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be.' The +implications of a Christian life, which is true following of Christ here, +necessarily led to the confidence that in that future there will be union with +Him. That is a deep thought, which might afford material for much to be said, +but on which I cannot dwell now. +</p> + +<p> +I remarked at an early stage of this sermon how singular it was that our Lord +should present Himself as the Pattern for all human excellence. Is it not even +more singular that He should venture to present His own companionship as the +sufficient recompense for every sorrow, for every effort, for all pain, for all +pilgrimage? To be with Him, He thinks, is enough for any man and enough for all +men. Who did He think Himself to be? What did <i>He</i> suppose His relation to +the rest of us to be, who could thus calmly suggest to the world that the only +thing that a heart needed for blessedness was to be beside Him? And we believe +it, too little as it influences our lives. 'To be with Christ' is 'very much +better'; better than all beneath the stars; better than all on this side +eternity. +</p> + +<p> +What does our Lord mean by this all-sufficient hope? We know very little of +that dim region beyond, but we know that until He comes again His departed +servants are absent from the body. And, in our sense of the word, there can be +no <i>place</i> for spirits thus free from corporeal environment. And so place, +to-day at all events for the departed saints, and in a subordinate degree all +through eternity, even when they are clothed with a glorified body, must be but +a symbol of state, of condition, of spiritual character. 'Where I am there +shall My servant be,' means specially '<i>What I</i> am, <i>that</i> shall My +servant be.' This perfect conformity to that dear Lord, whose footsteps we have +followed; assimilation there, which is the issue of imitation here, though +broken and imperfect, this is the hope that may gladden and animate every +Christian heart. +</p> + +<p> +To be with Him is to be like Him, and therefore to be conscious of His presence +in some fashion so intimate, so certain, as that all our earthly notions of +presence, derived from the juxtaposition of corporeal frames, are infinite +distance as compared with it. That is what my text dimly shadows for us. We +know not how that union, which is to be as close as is possible while the +distinction of personality is retained, may be accomplished. But this we know, +that the coalescence of two drops of mercury, the running together of two drops +of water, the blending of heart with heart here in love, are distance in +comparison with the complete union of Christ and of the happy soul that rests +in Him, as in an atmosphere and an ocean. Oh, brethren! it is not a thing to +talk about; it is a thing to take to our hearts, and in silence to be thankful +for; 'absent from the body; present with the Lord.' +</p> + +<p> +And is that not enough? The ground of it is enough. 'If we believe that Jesus +died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with +Him.' That future companionship is guaranteed to the Christian man by the words +of Incarnate Truth, and by the resurrection of his Lord. The ground of it is +enough, and the contents are enough—enough for faith; enough for hope; enough +for peace; enough for work; and eminently enough for comfort. +</p> + +<p> +Ah! there are many other questions that we would fain ask, but to which there +is no reply; but as the good old rough music of one of the eighteenth-century +worthies has it, we have sufficient. +</p> + +<p> + 'My knowledge of that life is small,<br /> + The eye of faith is dim;<br /> + But 'tis enough that Christ knows all,<br /> + And I shall be with Him.' +</p> + +<p> +'It is enough for the disciple that he be as' (that is, with) 'his Master.' So +let us take that thought to our hearts and animate ourselves with it, for it is +legitimate for us to do so. That one hope is sufficient for us all. +</p> + +<p> +Only let us remember that, according to the teaching of my text, the +companionship that blesses the future is the issue of following Him now. I know +of no magic in death that is able to change the direction in which a man's face +is turned. As he is travelling and has travelled, so he will travel when he +comes through the tunnel, and out into the brighter light yonder. The line of a +railway marked upon a map may stop at the boundaries of the country with which +the map is concerned, but it is clearly going somewhere, and in the same +direction. You want the other sheet of the map in order to see whither it is +going. That is like your life. The map stops very abruptly, but the line does +not stop. Take an unfinished row of tenements. On the last house there stick +out bricks preparatory to the continuation of the row. And so our lives are, as +it were, studded over with protuberances and preparations for the attachment +thereto of a 'house not made with hands,' and yet conformed in its architecture +to the row that we have built. The man that follows will attain. For life, the +all-sufficient law is, <i>after Christ</i>; for hope, the all-sufficient +assurance is, <i>with Christ</i>. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap51"></a>THE UNIVERSAL MAGNET</h2> + +<p> +'I, if I be lifted up … will draw all men unto Me.'—JOHN xii. 32. +</p> + +<p> +'Never man spake like this Man,' said the wondering Temple officials who were +sent to apprehend Jesus. There are many aspects of our Lord's teaching in which +it strikes one as unique; but perhaps none is more singular than the boundless +boldness of His assertions of His importance to the world. Just think of such +sayings as these: 'I am the Light of the world'; 'I am the Bread of Life'; 'I +am the Door'; 'A greater than Solomon is here'; 'In this place is One greater +than the Temple.' We do not usually attach much importance to men's estimate of +themselves; and gigantic claims such as these are generally met by incredulity +or scorn. But the strange thing about Christ's loftiest assertions of His +world-wide worth and personal sinlessness is that they provoke no +contradiction, and that the world takes Him at His own valuation. So profound +is the impression that He has made, that men assent when He says, 'I am meek +and lowly in heart,' and do not answer as they would to anybody else, 'If you +were, you would never have said so.' +</p> + +<p> +Now there is no more startling utterance of this extraordinary +self-consciousness of Jesus Christ than the words that I have used for my text. +They go deep down into the secret of His power. They open a glimpse into His +inmost thoughts about Himself which He very seldom shows us. And they come to +each of us with a very touching and strong personal appeal as to what we are +doing with, and how we individually are responding to, that universal appeal on +which He says that He is exercising. +</p> + +<p> +I. So I wish to dwell on these words now, and ask you first to notice here our +Lord's forecasting of the Cross. +</p> + +<p> +A handful of Greeks had come up to Jerusalem to the Passover, and they desired +to see Jesus, perhaps only because they had heard about Him, and to gratify +some fleeting curiosity; perhaps for some deeper and more sacred reason. But in +that tiny incident our Lord sees the first green blade coming up above the +ground which was the prophet of an abundant harvest; the first drop of a great +abundance of rain. He recognises that He is beginning to pass out from Israel +into the world. But the thought of His world-wide influence thus indicated and +prophesied immediately brings along with it the thought of what must be gone +through before that influence can be established. And he discerns that, like +the corn of wheat that falls into the ground, the condition of fruitfulness for +Him is death. +</p> + +<p> +Now we are to remember that our Lord here is within a few hours of Gethsemane, +and a few days of the Cross, and that events had so unfolded themselves that it +needed no prophet to see that there could only be one end to the duel which he +had deliberately brought about between Himself and the rulers of Israel. So +that I build nothing upon the anticipation of the Cross, which comes out at +this stage in our Lord's history, for any man in His position might have seen, +as clearly as He did, that His path was blocked, and that very near at hand, by +the grim instrument of death. But then remember that this same expression of my +text occurs at a very much earlier period of our Lord's career, and that if we +accept this Gospel of John, at the very beginning of it He said, 'As Moses +lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted +up'; and that that was no mere passing thought is obvious from the fact that +midway in His career, if we accept the testimony of the same Gospel, He used +the same expression to cavilling opponents when He said: 'When ye have lifted +up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He.' And so at the beginning, +in the middle, and at the end of His career the same idea is cast into the same +words, a witness of the hold that it had upon Him, and the continual presence +of it to His consciousness. +</p> + +<p> +I do not need to refer here to other illustrations and proofs of the same +thing, only I desire to say, as plainly and strongly as I can, that modern +ideas that Jesus Christ only recognised the necessity of His death at a late +stage of His work, and that like other reformers, He began with buoyant hope, +and thought that He had but to speak and the world would hear, and, like other +reformers, was disenchanted by degrees, are, in my poor judgment, utterly +baseless, and bluntly contradicted by the Gospel narratives. And so, dear +brethren, this is the image that rises before us, and that ought to appeal to +us all very plainly; a Christ who, from the first moment of His consciousness +of Messiahship—and how early that consciousness was I am not here to +inquire—was conscious likewise of the death that was to close it. 'He came not +to be ministered unto, but to minister,' and likewise for <i>this</i> end, 'to +give His life a ransom for the many.' That gracious, gentle life, full of all +charities, and long-suffering, and sweet goodness, and patience, was not the +life of a Man whose heart was at leisure from all anxiety about Himself, but +the life of a Man before whom there stood, ever grim and distinct away on the +horizon, the Cross and <i>Himself</i> upon it. You all remember a well-known +picture that suggests the 'Shadow of Death,' the shadow of the Cross falling, +unseen by Him, but seen with open eyes of horror by His mother. But the reality +is a far more pathetic one than that; it is this, that He came on purpose to +die. +</p> + +<p> +But now there is another point suggested by these remarkable words, and that is +that our Lord regarded the Cross of shame as exaltation or 'lifting up.' I do +not believe that the use of this remarkable phrase in our text finds its +explanation in the few inches of elevation above the surface of the ground to +which the crucified victims were usually raised. That is there, of course, but +there is something far deeper and more wonderful than that in the background, +and it is this in part, that that Cross, to Christ's eyes, bore a double +aspect. So far as the inflicters or the externals of it were concerned, it was +ignominy, shame, agony, the very lowest point of humiliation. But there was +another side to it. What in one aspect is the <i>nadir</i>, the lowest point +beneath men's feet, is in another aspect the <i>zenith</i>, the very highest +point in the bending heaven above us. So throughout this Gospel, and very +emphatically in the text, we find that we have the complement of the Pauline +view of the Cross, which is, that it was shame and agony. For our Lord says, +'Now the hour is come when the Son of Man shall be glorified.' Whether it is +glory or shame depends on what it was that bound Him there. The reason for His +enduring it makes it the very climax and flaming summit of His flaming love. +And, therefore, He is lifted up not merely because the Cross is elevated above +the ground on the little elevation of Calvary, but that Cross is His throne, +because there, in highest and sovereign fashion, are set forth His glories, the +glories of His love, and of the 'grace and truth' of which He was 'full.' +</p> + +<p> +So let us not forget this double aspect, and whilst we bow before Him who +'endured the Cross, despising the shame,' let us also try to understand and to +feel what He means when, in the vision of it, He said, 'the hour is come that +the Son of Man shall be glorified.' It was meant for mockery, but mockery +veiled unsuspected truth when they twined round His pale brows the crown of +thorns, thereby setting forth unconsciously the everlasting truth that +sovereignty is won by suffering; and placed in His unresisting hand the sceptre +of reed, thereby setting forth the deep truth of His kingdom, that dominion is +exercised in gentleness. Mightier than all rods of iron, or sharp swords which +conquerors wield, and more lustrous and splendid than tiaras of gold glistening +with diamonds, are the sceptre of reed in the hands, and the crown of thorns on +the head, of the exalted, because crucified, Man of Sorrows. +</p> + +<p> +But there is still another aspect of Christ's vision of His Cross, for the +'lifting up' on it necessarily draws after it the lifting up to the dominion of +the heavens. And so the Apostle, using a word kindred with that of my text, but +intensifying it by addition, says, 'He became obedient even unto the death of +the Cross, wherefore God also hath highly lifted Him up.' +</p> + +<p> +So here we have Christ's own conception of His death, that it was inevitable, +that it was exaltation even in the act of dying, and that it drew after it, of +inevitable necessity, dominion exercised from the heavens over all the earth. +He was lifted up on Calvary, and because He was lifted up He has carried our +manhood into the place of glory, and sitteth at the right hand of the Majesty +on high. So much for the first point to which I would desire to turn your +attention. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now we have here our Lord disclosing the secret of His attractive power. +</p> + +<p> +'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' That 'if' +expresses no doubt, it only sets forth the condition. The Christ lifted up on +the Cross is the Christ that draws men. Now I would have you notice the fact +that our Lord thus unveils, as it were, where His power to influence +individuals and humanity chiefly resides. He speaks about His death in +altogether a different fashion from that of other men, for He does not merely +say, 'If I be lifted up from the earth, this story of the Cross will draw men,' +but He says, 'I will' do it; and thus contemplates, as I shall have to say in a +moment, continuous personal influence all through the ages. +</p> + +<p> +Now that is not how other people have to speak about their deaths, for all +other men who have influenced the world for good or for evil, thinkers and +benefactors, and reformers, social and religious, all of them come under the +one law that their death is no part of their activity, but terminates their +work, and that thereafter, with few exceptions, and for brief periods, their +influence is a diminishing quantity. So one Apostle had to say, 'To abide in +the flesh is more needful for you,' and another had to say, 'I will endeavour +that after my decease ye may keep in mind the things that I have told you'; and +all thinkers and teachers and helpers glide away further and further, and are +wrapped about with thicker and thicker mists of oblivion, and their influence +becomes less and less. +</p> + +<p> +The best that history can say about any of them is, 'This man, having served +his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep.' But that other Man who was +lifted on the Cross saw no corruption, and the death which puts a period to all +other men's work was planted right in the centre of His, and was itself part of +that work, and was followed by a new form of it which is to endure for ever. +</p> + +<p> +The Cross is the magnet of Christianity. Jesus Christ draws men, but it is by +His Cross mainly, and that He felt this profoundly is plain enough, not only +from such utterances as this of my text, but, to go no further, from the fact +that He has asked us to remember only one thing about Him, and has established +that ordinance of the Communion or the Lord's Supper, which is to remind us +always, and to bear witness to the world, of where is the centre of His work, +and the fact which He most desires that men should keep in mind, not the +graciousness of His words, not their wisdom, not the good deeds that He did, +but 'This is My body broken for you … this cup is the New Testament in My +blood.' A religion which has for its chief rite the symbol of a death, must +enshrine that death in the very heart of the forces to which it trusts to renew +the world, and to bless individual souls. +</p> + +<p> +If, then, that is true, if Jesus Christ was not all wrong when He spoke as He +did in my text, then the question arises, what is it about His death that makes +it the magnet that will draw all men? Men are drawn by cords of love. They may +be driven by other means, but they are drawn only by love. And what is it that +makes Christ's death the highest and noblest and most wonderful and +transcendent manifestation of love that the world has ever seen, or ever can +see? No doubt you will think me very narrow and old-fashioned when I answer the +question, with the profoundest conviction of my own mind, and, I hope, the +trust of my own heart. The one thing that entitles men to interpret Christ's +death as the supreme manifestation of love is that it was a death voluntarily +undertaken for a world's sins. +</p> + +<p> +If you do not believe that, will you tell me what claim on your heart Christ +has because He died? Has Socrates any claim on your heart? And are there not +hundreds and thousands of martyrs who have just as much right to be regarded +with reverence and affection as this Galilean carpenter's Son has, unless, when +He died, He died as the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and for +yours and mine? I know all the pathetic beauty of the story. I know how many +men's hearts are moved in some degree by the life and death of our Lord, who +yet would hesitate to adopt the full-toned utterance which I have now been +giving. But I would beseech you, dear friends, to lay this question seriously +to heart, whether there is any legitimate reason for the reverence, the love, +the worship, which the world is giving to this Galilean young man, if you +strike out the thought that it was because He loved the world that He chose to +die to loose it from the bands of its sin. It may be, it is, a most pathetic +and lovely story, but it has not power to draw all men, unless it deals with +that which all men need, and unless it is the self-surrender of the Son of God +for the whole world. +</p> + +<p> +III. And now, lastly, we have here our Lord anticipating continuous and +universal influence. +</p> + +<p> +I have already drawn attention to the peculiar fullness of the form of +expression in my text, which, fairly interpreted, does certainly imply that our +Lord at that supreme moment looked forward, as I have already said, to His +death, not as putting a period to His work, but as being the transition from +one form of influence operating upon a very narrow circle, to another form of +influence which would one day flood the world. I do not need to dwell upon that +thought, beyond seeking to emphasise this truth, that one ought to feel that +Jesus Christ has a living connection now with each of us. It is not merely that +the story of the Cross is left to work its results, but, as I for my part +believe, that the dear Lord, who, before He became Man, was the Light of the +World, and enlightened every man that came into it, after His death is yet more +the Light of the World, and is exercising influence all over the earth, not +only by conscience and the light that is within us, nor only through the +effects of the record of His past, but by the continuous operations of His +Spirit. I do not dwell upon that thought further than to say that I beseech you +to think of Jesus Christ, not as One who died for our sins only, but as one who +lives to-day, and to-day, in no rhetorical exaggeration but in simple and +profound truth, is ready to help and to bless and to be with every one of us. +'It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the +right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.' +</p> + +<p> +But, beyond that, mark His confidence of universal influence: 'I <i>will</i> +draw all men.' I need not dwell upon the distinct adaptation of Christian +truth, and of that sacrifice on the Cross, to the needs of all men. It is the +universal remedy, for it goes direct to the universal epidemic. The thing that +men and women want most, the thing that <i>you</i> want most, is that your +relation with God shall be set right, and that you shall be delivered from the +guilt of past sin, from the exposure to its power in the present and in the +future. Whatever diversities of climate, civilisation, culture, character the +world holds, every man is like every other man in this, that he has 'sinned and +come short of the glory of God.' And it is because Christ's Cross goes direct +to deal with that condition of things that the preaching of it is a gospel, not +for this phase of society or that type of men or the other stage of culture, +but that it is meant for, and is able to deliver and to bless, every man. +</p> + +<p> +So, brethren, a universal attraction is raying out from Christ's Cross, and +from Himself to each of us. But that universal attraction can be resisted. If a +man plants his feet firmly and wide apart, and holds on with both hands to some +staple or holdfast, then the drawing cannot draw. There is the attraction, but +he is not attracted. You demagnetise Christianity, as all history shows, if you +strike out the death on the Cross for a world's sin. What is left is not a +magnet, but a bit of scrap iron. And you can take yourself away from the +influence of the attraction if you will, some of us by active resistance, some +of us by mere negligence, as a cord cast over some slippery body with the +purpose of drawing it, may slip off, and the thing lie there unmoved. +</p> + +<p> +And so I come to you now, dear friends, with the plain question, What are you +doing in response to Christ's drawing of you? He has died for you on the Cross; +does that not draw? He lives to bless you; does that not draw? He loves you +with love changeless as a God, with love warm and emotional as a man; does that +not draw? He speaks to you, I venture to say, through my poor words, and says, +'Come unto Me, and I will give you rest'; does that not draw? We are all in the +bog. He stands on firm ground, and puts out a hand. If you like to clutch it, +by the pledge of the nail-prints on the palm, He will lift you from 'the +horrible pit and the miry clay, and set your feet upon a rock.' God grant that +all of us may say, 'Draw us, and we will run after Thee'! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap52"></a>THE SON OF MAN</h2> + +<p> +'… Who is this Son of Man?'—JOHN xii. 34. +</p> + +<p> +I have thought that a useful sermon may be devoted to the consideration of the +remarkable name which our Lord gives to Himself—'the Son of Man.' And I have +selected this instance of its occurrence, rather than any other, because it +brings out a point which is too frequently overlooked, viz. that the name was +an entirely strange and enigmatical one to the people who heard it. This +question of utter bewilderment distinctly shows us that, and negatives, as it +seems to me, the supposition which is often made, that the name 'Son of Man,' +upon the lips of Jesus Christ, was equivalent to Messiah. Obviously there is no +such significance attached to it by those who put this question. As obviously, +for another reason, the two names do not cover the same ground; for our Lord +sedulously avoided calling Himself the Christ, and habitually called Himself +the Son of Man. +</p> + +<p> +Now one thing to observe about this name is that it is never found upon the +lips of any but Jesus Christ. No man ever called him the Son of Man whilst He +was upon earth, and only once do we find it applied to Him in the rest of +Scripture, and that is on the occasion on which the first martyr, Stephen, +dying at the foot of the old wall, saw 'the heavens opened, and the Son of Man +standing at the right hand of God.' Two other apparent instances of the use of +the expression occur, both of them in the Book of Revelation, both of them +quotations from the Old Testament, and in both the more probable reading gives +'a Son of Man,' not '<i>the</i> Son of Man.' +</p> + +<p> +One more preliminary remark and I will pass to the title itself. The name has +been often supposed to be taken from the remarkable prophecy in the Book of +Daniel, of one 'like a son of man,' who receives from the Ancient of Days an +everlasting kingdom which triumphs over those kingdoms of brute force which the +prophet had seen. No doubt there is a connection between the prophecy and our +Lord's use of the name, but it is to be observed that what the prophet speaks +of is not 'the Son,' but 'one <i>like</i> a son of man'; or in other words, +that what the prophecy dwells upon is simply the manhood of the future King in +contradistinction to the bestial forms of Lion and Leopard and Bear, whose +kingdoms go down before him. Of course Christ fulfils that prediction, and is +the 'One like a son of man,' but we cannot say that the title is derived from +the prophecy, in which, strictly speaking, it does not occur. +</p> + +<p> +What, then, is the force of this name, as applied to Himself by our Lord? +</p> + +<p> +First, we have in it Christ putting out His hand, if I may say so, to draw us +to Himself—identifying Himself with us. Then we have, just as distinctly, +Christ, by the use of this name, in a very real sense distinguishing Himself +from us, and claiming to hold a unique and solitary relation to mankind. And +then we have Christ, by the use of this name in its connection with the ancient +prophecy, pointing us onward to a wonderful future. +</p> + +<p> +I. First then, Christ thereby identifies Himself with us. +</p> + +<p> +The name Son of Man, whatever more it means, declares the historical fact of +His Incarnation, and the reality and genuineness, the completeness and +fullness, of His assumption of humanity. And so it is significant to notice +that the name is employed continually in the places in the Gospels where +especial emphasis is to be placed, for some reason or other, upon our Lord's +manhood, as, for instance, when He would bring into view the depth of His +humiliation. It is this name that He uses when He says: 'Foxes have holes and +the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His +head.' The use of the term there is very significant and profound; He contrasts +His homelessness, not with the homes of men that dwell in palaces, but with the +homes of the inferior creatures. As if He would say, 'Not merely am I +individually homeless and shelterless, but I am so because I am truly a man, +the only creature that builds houses, and the only creature that has not a +home. Foxes have holes, anywhere they can rest, the birds of the air have,' not +as our Bible gives it, 'nests,' but 'roosting-places, any bough will do for +them. All living creatures are at home in this material universe; I, as a +Representative of humanity, wander a pilgrim and a sojourner.' We are all +restless and homeless; the creatures correspond to their environment. We have +desires and longings, wild yearnings, and deep-seated needs, that 'wander +through eternity'; the Son of Man, the representative of manhood, 'hath not +where to lay His head.' +</p> + +<p> +Then the same expression is employed on occasions when our Lord desires to +emphasise the completeness of His participation in all our conditions. As, for +instance, 'the Son of Man came eating and drinking,' knowing the ordinary +limitations and necessities of corporeal humanity; having the ordinary +dependence upon external things; nor unwilling to taste, with pure and thankful +lip, whatever gladness may be found in man's path through the supply of natural +appetites. +</p> + +<p> +And the name is employed habitually on occasions when He desires to emphasise +His manhood as having truly taken upon itself the whole weight and weariness of +man's sin, and the whole burden of man's guilt, and the whole tragicalness of +the penalties thereof, as in the familiar passages, so numerous that I need +only refer to them and need not attempt to quote them, in which we read of the +Son of Man being 'betrayed into the hands of sinners'; or in those words, for +instance, which so marvellously blend the lowliness of the Man and the lofty +consciousness of the mysterious relation which He bears to the whole world; +'The Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give +His life a ransom for the many.' +</p> + +<p> +Now if we gather all these instances together (and they are only specimens +culled almost at random), and meditate for a moment on the Name as illuminated +by such words as these, they suggest to us, first, how truly and how blessedly +He is 'bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.' All our human joys were His. +He knew all human sorrow. The ordinary wants of human nature belonged to Him; +He hungered, He thirsted, and was weary; He ate and drank and slept. The +ordinary wants of the human heart He knew; He was hurt by hatred, stung by +ingratitude, yearned for love; His spirit expanded amongst friends, and was +pained when they fell away. He fought and toiled, and sorrowed and enjoyed. He +had to pray, to trust, and to weep. He was a Son of Man, a true man among men. +His life was brief; we have but fragmentary records of it for three short +years. In outward form it covers but a narrow area of human experience, and +large tracts of human life seem to be unrepresented in it. Yet all ages and +classes of men, in all circumstances, however unlike those of the peasant Rabbi +who died when he was just entering mature manhood, may feel that this man comes +closer to them than all beside. Whether for stimulus for duty, or for grace and +patience in sorrow, or for restraint in enjoyment, or for the hallowing of all +circumstances and all tasks, the presence and example of the Son of Man are +sufficient. Wherever we go, we may track His footsteps by the drops of His +blood upon the sharp flints that we have to tread. In all narrow passes, where +the briars tear the wool of the flock, we may see, left there on the thorns, +what they rent from the pure fleece of the Lamb of God that went before. The +Son of Man is our Brother and our Example. +</p> + +<p> +And is it not beautiful, and does it not speak to us touchingly and sweetly of +our Lord's earnest desire to get very near us and to bring us very near to Him, +that this name, which emphasises humiliation and weakness and the likeness to +ourselves, should be the name that is always upon His lips? Just as, if I may +compare great things with small, some teacher or philanthropist, that went away +from civilised into savage life, might leave behind him the name by which he +was known in Europe, and adopt some barbarous designation that was significant +in the language of the savage tribe to whom he was sent, and say to them: 'That +is my name now, call me by that,' so this great Leader of our souls, who has +landed upon our coasts with His hands full of blessings, His heart full of +love, has taken a name that makes Him one of ourselves, and is never wearied of +speaking to our hearts, and telling us that it is that by which He chooses to +be known. It is a touch of the same infinite condescension which prompted His +coming, that makes Him choose as His favourite and habitual designation the +name of weakness and identification, the name 'Son of Man.' +</p> + +<p> +II. But now turn to what is equally distinct and clear in this title. Here we +have our Lord distinguishing Himself from us, and plainly claiming a unique +relationship to the whole world. +</p> + +<p> +Just fancy how absurd it would be for one of us to be perpetually insisting on +the fact that he was a man, to be taking that as his continual description of +himself, and pressing it upon people's attention as if there was something +strange about it. The idea is preposterous; and the very frequency and emphasis +with which the name comes from our Lord's lips, lead one to suspect that there +is something lying behind it more than appears on the surface. That impression +is confirmed and made a conviction, if you mark the article which is prefixed, +<i>the</i> Son of Man. A Son of man is a very different idea. When He says +'<i>the</i> Son of Man' He seems to declare that in Himself there are gathered +up all the qualities that constitute humanity; that He is, to use modern +language, the realised Ideal of manhood, the typical Man, in whom is everything +that belongs to manhood, and who stands forth as complete and perfect. +Appropriately, then, the name is continually used with suggestions of authority +and dignity contrasting with those of humiliation. 'The Son of Man is Lord of +the Sabbath,' 'The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins' and the +like. So that you cannot get away from this, that this Man whom the whole world +has conspired to profess to admire for His gentleness, and His meekness, and +His lowliness, and His religious sanity, stood forward and said: 'I am complete +and perfect, and everything that belongs to manhood you will find in Me.' +</p> + +<p> +And it is very significant in this connection that the designation occurs more +frequently in the first three Gospels than in the fourth; which is alleged to +present higher notions of the nature and personality of Jesus Christ than are +found in the other three. There are more instances in Matthew's Gospel in which +our Lord calls Himself the Son of Man, with all the implication of uniqueness +and completeness which that name carries; there are more even in the Gospel of +the Servant, the Gospel according to Mark, than in the Gospel of the Word of +God, the Gospel according to John. And so I think we are entitled to say that +by this name, which the testimony of all our four Gospels makes it certain, +even to the most suspicious reader, that Christ applied to Himself, He declared +His humanity, His absolutely perfect and complete humanity. +</p> + +<p> +In substance He is claiming the same thing for Himself that Paul claimed for +Him when he called Him 'the second Adam.' There have been two men in the world, +says Paul, the fallen Adam, with his infantile and undeveloped perfections, and +the Christ, with His full and complete humanity. All other men are fragments, +He is the 'entire and perfect chrysolite.' As one of our epigrammatic +seventeenth-century divines has it, 'Aristotle is but the rubbish of an Adam,' +and Adam is but the dim outline sketch of a Jesus. Between these two there has +been none. The one Man as God meant him, the type of man, the perfect humanity, +the realised ideal, the home of all the powers of manhood, is He who Himself +claimed that place for Himself, and stepped into it with the strange words upon +His lips, 'I am meek and lowly of heart.' +</p> + +<p> +'Who is this Son of Man?' Ah, brethren! 'who can bring a clean thing out of an +unclean? Not one.' A perfect Son of Man, born of a woman, 'bone of our bone and +flesh of our flesh,' must be more than a Son of Man. And that moral +completeness and that ideal perfection in all the faculties and parts of His +nature which drove the betrayer to clash down the thirty pieces of silver in +the sanctuary in despair that 'he had betrayed innocent blood'; which made +Pilate wash his hands 'of the blood of this just person'; which stopped the +mouths of the adversaries when He challenged them to convince Him of sin, and +which all the world ever since has recognised and honoured, ought surely to +lead us to ask the question, 'Who is this Son of Man?' and to answer it, as I +pray we all may answer it, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!' +</p> + +<p> +This fact of His absolute completeness invests His work with an altogether +unique relationship to the rest of mankind. And so we find the name employed +upon His own lips in connections in which He desires to set Himself forth as +the single and solitary medium of all blessing and salvation to the world—as, +for instance, 'The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for the many'; 'Ye +shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on +the Son of Man.' He is what the ladder was in the vision to the patriarch, with +his head upon the stone and the Syrian sky over him—the Medium of all +communication between earth and heaven. And that ladder which joins heaven to +earth, and brings all angels down on the solitary watchers, comes straight +down, as the sunbeams do, to every man wherever he is. Each of us sees the +shortest line from his own standing-place to the central light, and its beams +come straight to the apple of each man's eye. So because Christ is more than a +man, because He is <i>the</i> Man, His blessings come to each of us direct and +straight, as if they had been launched from the throne with a purpose and a +message to us alone. Thus He who is in Himself perfect manhood touches all men, +and all men touch Him, and the Son of Man, whom God hath sealed, will give to +every one of us the bread from heaven. The unique relationship which brings Him +into connection with every soul of man upon earth, and makes Him the Saviour, +Helper, and Friend of us all, is expressed when He calls Himself the Son of +Man. +</p> + +<p> +III. And now one last word in regard to the predictive character of this +designation. +</p> + +<p> +Even if we cannot regard it as being actually a quotation of the prophecy in +the Book of Daniel, there is an evident allusion to that prophecy, and to the +whole circle of ideas presented by it, of an everlasting dominion, which shall +destroy all antagonistic power, and of a solemn coming for judgment of One like +a Son of Man. +</p> + +<p> +We find, then, the name occurring on our Lord's lips very frequently in that +class of passages with which we are so familiar, and which are so numerous that +I need not quote them to you; in which He speaks of the second coming of the +Son of Man; as, for instance, that one which connects itself most distinctly +with the Book of Daniel, the words of high solemn import before the tribunal of +the High Priest. 'Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting at the right +hand of power, and coming in the glories of heaven'; or as when He says, 'He +hath given Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of +Man'; or as when the proto-martyr, with his last words, declared in sudden +burst of surprise and thrill of gladness, 'I see the heavens opened, and the +Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' +</p> + +<p> +Two thoughts are all that I can touch on here. The name carries with it a +blessed message of the present activity and perpetual manhood of the risen +Lord. Stephen does not see Him as all the rest of Scripture paints Him, +<i>sitting</i> at the right hand of God, but <i>standing</i> there. The emblem +of His sitting at the right hand of God represents triumphant calmness in the +undisturbed confidence of victory. It declares the completeness of the work +that He has done upon earth, and that all the history of the future is but the +unfolding of the consequences of that work which by His own testimony waa +finished when He bowed His head and died. But the dying martyr sees him +<i>standing</i>, as if He had sprung to His feet in response to the cry of +faith from the first of the long train of sufferers. It is as if the Emperor +upon His seat, looking down upon the arena where the gladiators are contending +to the death, could not sit quiet amongst the flashing axes of the lictors and +the purple curtains of His throne, and see their death-struggles, but must +spring to His feet to help them, or at least bend down with the look and with +the reality of sympathy. So Christ, the Son of Man, bearing His manhood with +Him, +</p> + +<p> + 'Still bends on earth a Brother's eye,' +</p> + +<p> +and is the ever-present Helper of all struggling souls that put their trust in +Him. +</p> + +<p> +Then as to the other and main thought here in view—the second coming of that +perfect Manhood to be our Judge. It is too solemn a subject for human lips to +say much about. It has been vulgarised, and the power taken out of it by many +well-meant attempts to impress it upon men's hearts. But that coming is +<i>certain</i>. That manhood could not end its relationship to us with the +Cross, nor yet with the slow, solemn, upward progress which bore Him, pouring +down blessings, up into the same bright cloud that had dwelt between the +cherubim and had received Him into its mysterious recesses at the +Transfiguration. That He should come again is the only possible completion of +His work. +</p> + +<p> +That Judge is our Brother. So in the deepest sense we are tried by our Peer. +Man's knowledge at its highest cannot tell the moral desert of anything that +any man does. You may judge action, you may sentence for breaches of law, you +may declare a man clear of any blame for such, but for any one to read the +secrets of another heart is beyond human power; and if He that is the Judge +were only a man there would be wild work, and many a blunder in the sentences +that were given. But when we think that it is the Son of Man that is our Judge, +then we know that the Omniscience of divinity, that ponders the hearts and +reads the motives, will be all blended with the tenderness and sympathy of +humanity; that we shall be judged by One who knows all our frame, not only with +the knowledge of a Maker, if I may so say, as from outside, but with the +knowledge of a possessor, as from within; that we shall be judged by One who +has fought and conquered in all temptations; and most blessed of all, that we +shall be judged by One with whom we have only to plead His own work and His own +love and His Cross that we may stand acquitted before His throne. +</p> + +<p> +So, brethren, in that one mighty Name all the past, present, and future are +gathered and blended together. In the past His Cross fills the retrospect: for +the future there rises up, white and solemn, His judgment throne. 'The Son of +Man <i>is</i> come to give His life a ransom for the many'; that is the centre +point of all history. The Son of Man <i>shall</i> come to judge the world; that +is the one thought that fills the future. Let us lay hold by true faith on the +mighty work which He has done on the Cross, then we shall rejoice to see our +Brother on the throne, when the 'judgment is set and the books are opened.' Oh, +friends, cleave to Him ever in trust and love, in communion and imitation, in +obedience and confession, that ye may be accounted worthy 'to stand before the +Son of Man' in that day! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap53"></a>A PARTING WARNING</h2> + +<p> +'Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among you. +Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and he that +walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, +believe on the light, that ye may become sons of light.'—JOHN xii. 35,36 +(R.V.). +</p> + +<p> +These are the last words of our Lord's public ministry. He afterwards spoke +only to His followers in the sweet seclusion of the sympathetic home at +Bethany, and amid the sanctities of the upper chamber. 'Yet a little while am I +with you';—the sun had all but set. Two days more, and the Cross was reared on +Calvary, but there was yet time to turn to the light. And so His divine charity +'hoped all things,' and continued to plead with those who had so long rejected +Him. As befits a last appeal, the words unveil the heart of Christ. They are +solemn with warning, radiant with promise, almost beseeching in their +earnestness. He loves too well not to warn, but He will not leave the +bitterness of threatening as a last savour on the palate, and so the lips, into +which grace is poured, bade farewell to His enemies with the promise and the +hope that even they may become 'the sons of light.' +</p> + +<p> +The solemnity of the occasion, then, gives great force to the words; and the +remembrance of it sets us on the right track for estimating their significance. +Let us see what lessons for us there may be in Christ's last words to the +world. +</p> + +<p> +I. There is, first, a self-revelation. +</p> + +<p> +It is no mere grammatical pedantry that draws attention to the fact that four +times in this text does our Lord employ the definite article, and speak of 'the +light.' And that that is no mere accident is obvious from the fact that, in the +last clause of our text, where the general idea of light is all that is meant +to be emphatic, the article is omitted. 'Yet a little while is <i>the</i> light +with you; walk while ye have <i>the</i> light…. While ye have <i>the</i> light, +believe in <i>the</i> light, that ye may be the children of light.' +</p> + +<p> +So then, most distinctly here, in His final appeal to the world, He draws back +the curtain, as it were, takes away the shade that had covered the lamp, and +lets one full beam stream out for the last impression that He leaves. Is it not +profoundly significant and impressive that then, of all times, over and over +again, in the compass of these short verses, this Galilean peasant makes the +tremendous assertion that He is what none other can be, in a solitary and +transcendent sense, <i>the</i> Light of Mankind? Undismayed by universal +rejection, unfaltering in spite of the curling lips of incredulity and scorn, +unbroken by the near approach of certain martyrdom, He presents Himself before +the world as its Light. Nothing in the history of mad, fanatical claims to +inspiration and divine authority is to be compared with these assertions of our +Lord. He is the fontal Source, He says, of all illumination; He stands before +the whole race, and claims to be 'the Master-Light of all our seeing.' +Whatsoever ideas of clearness of knowledge, of rapture of joy, of whiteness of +purity, are symbolised by that great emblem, He declares that He manifests them +all to men. Others may shine; but they are, as He said, 'lights kindled,' and +therefore 'burning.' Others may shine, but they have caught their radiance from +Him. All teachers, all helpers, all thinkers draw their inspiration, if they +have any, from Him, in whom was life, and the Life was the Light of men. +</p> + +<p> +There has been blazing in the heavens of late a new star, that burst upon +astonished astronomers in a void spot; but its brilliancy, though far +transcending that of our sun, soon began to wane, and before long, apparently, +there will be blackness again where there was blackness before. So all lights +but His are temporary as well as derived, and men 'willing for a season to +rejoice' in the fleeting splendours, and to listen to the teacher of a day, +lose the illumination of his presence and guidance of his thoughts as the ages +roll on. But <i>the</i> Light is 'not for an age, but for all time.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, brethren, this is Christ's estimate of Himself. I dwell not on it for the +purpose of seeking to exhaust its depth of significance. In it there lies the +assertion that He, and He only, is the source of all valid knowledge of the +deepest sort concerning God and men, and their mutual relations. In it lie the +assertion that He, and He only, is the source of all true gladness that may +blend with our else darkened lives, and the further assertion that from Him, +and from Him alone, can flow to us the purity that shall make us pure. We have +to turn to that Man close by His Cross, on whom while He spoke the penumbra of +the eclipse of death was beginning to show itself, and to say to Him what the +Psalmist said of old to the Jehovah whom he knew, and whom we recognise as +indwelling in Jesus: 'With Thee is the fountain of life. Thou makest us to +drink of the river of Thy pleasures. In Thy light shall we see light.' +</p> + +<p> +So Christ thought of Himself; so Christ would have as to think of Him. And it +becomes a question for us how, if we refuse to accept that claim of a solitary, +underived, eternal, and universal power of illuminating mankind, we can save +His character for the veneration of the world. We cannot go picking and +choosing amongst the Master's words, and say 'This is historical, and that +mythical.' We cannot select some of them, and leave others on one side. You +must take the whole Christ if you take any Christ. And the whole Christ is He +who, within sight of Calvary, and in the face of all but universal rejection, +lifted up His voice, and, as His valediction to the world, declared, 'I am the +Light of the world.' So He says to us. Oh that we all might cast ourselves +before Him, with the cry, 'Lighten our darkness, O Lord, we beseech Thee!' +</p> + +<p> +II. Secondly, we have here a double exhortation. +</p> + +<p> +'Walk in the light; believe in the light.' These two sum up all our duties; or +rather, unveil for us the whole fullness of the possible privileges and +blessings of which our relation to that light is capable. It is obvious that +the latter of them is the deeper in idea, and the prior in order of sequence. +There must be the 'belief' in the light before there is the 'walk' in the +light. Walking includes the ideas of external activity and of progress. And so, +putting these two exhortations together, we get the whole of Christianity +considered as subjective. 'Believe in the light; trust in the light,' and then +'walk' in it. A word, then, about each of these branches of this double +exhortation. +</p> + +<p> +'Trust in the light.' The figure seems to be dropped at first sight; for it +wants little faith to believe in the sunshine at midday; and when the light is +pouring out, how can a man but see it? But the apparent incongruity of the +metaphor points to something very deep in regard to the spiritual side. We +cannot but believe in the light that meets the eye when it meets it, but it is +possible for a man to blind himself to the shining of this light. Therefore the +exhortation is needed—'Believe in the light,' for only by believing it can you +see it. Just as the eye is the organ of sight, just as its nerves are sensitive +to the mysterious finger of the beam, just as on its mirroring surface impinges +the gentle but mighty force that has winged its way across all the space +between us and the sun, and yet falls without hurting, so faith, the 'inward +eye which makes the bliss' of the solitary soul, is the one organ by which you +and I can see the light. 'Seeing is believing,' says the old proverb. That is +true in regard to the physical. Believing is seeing, is much rather the way to +put it in regard to the spiritual and divine. +</p> + +<p> +Only as we trust the light do we see the light. Unless you and I put our +confidence in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, we have no adequate +knowledge of Him and no clear vision of Him. We must know that we may love; but +we must love that we may know. We must believe that we may see. True, we must +see that we may believe, but the preliminary vision which precedes belief is +slight and dim as compared with the solidity and the depth of assurance with +which we apprehend the reality and know the lustre of Him whom our faith has +grasped. You will never know the glory of the light, nor the sweetness with +which it falls upon the gazing eye, until you turn your face to that Master, +and so receive on your susceptible and waiting heart the warmth and the +radiance which He only can bestow. 'Believe in the light.' Trust it; or rather, +trust Him who is it. He cannot deceive. This light from heaven can never lead +astray. Absolutely we may rely upon it; unconditionally we must follow it. Lean +upon Him—to take another metaphor—with all your weight. His arm is strong to +bear the burden of our weaknesses, sorrows, and, above all, our sins. 'While ye +have light, trust the light.' +</p> + +<p> +But then that is not enough. Man, with his double relations, must have an +active and external as well as an inward and contemplative life. And so our +Lord, side by side with the exhortation on which I have been touching, puts the +other one, 'Walk in the light.' Our inward emotions, however deep and precious, +however real the affiance, however whole-hearted the love, are maimed and +stunted, and not what the light requires, unless there follows upon them the +activity of the walk. What do we get the daylight for? To sit and gaze at it? +By no means; but that it may guide us upon our path and help us in all our +work. And so all Christian people need ever to remember that Jesus Christ has +indissolubly bound together these two phases of our relation to Him as the +light of life-inward and blessed contemplation by faith and outward practical +activity. To walk is, of course, the familiar metaphor for the external life of +man, and all our deeds are to be in conformity with the Light, and in communion +with Him. This is the deepest designation, perhaps, of the true character of a +Christian life in its external aspect—that it walks in Christ, doing nothing +but as His light shines, and ever bearing along with it conscious fellowship +with Him who is thus the guiding and irradiating and gladdening and sanctifying +life of our lives, '<i>Walk</i> in the light as He <i>is</i> in the light.' Our +days fleet and change; His are stable and the same. For, although these words +which I have quoted, in their original application refer to God the Father, +they are no less true about Him who rests at the right hand of God, and is one +light with Him. He <i>is</i> in the light. We may approximate to that stable +and calm radiance, even though our lives are passed through changing scenes, +and effort and struggle are their characteristics. And oh! how blessed, +brother, such a life will be, all gladdened by the unsetting and unclouded +sunshine that even in the shadiest places shines, and turns the darkness of the +valley of the shadow of death into solemn light; teaching gloom to glow with a +hidden sun! +</p> + +<p> +But there is not only the idea of activity here, there is the further notion of +progress. Unless Christian people to their faith add work, and have both their +faith and their consequent work in a continual condition of progress and +growth, there is little reason to believe that they apprehend the light at all. +If you trust the light you will walk in it; and if your days are not in +conformity nor in communion with Him, and are not advancing nearer and nearer +to the central blaze, then it becomes you to ask yourselves whether you have +verily seen at all, or trusted at all, 'the Light of life.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Thirdly, there is here a warning. +</p> + +<p> +'Walk whilst ye have the light, lest the darkness come upon you.' That is the +summing up of the whole history of that stiff-necked and marvellous people. For +what has all the history of Israel been since that day but groping in the +wilderness without any pillar of fire? But there is more than that in it. +Christ gives us this one solemn warning of what falls on us if we turn away +from Him. Rejected light is the parent of the densest darkness, and the man +who, having the light, does not trust it, piles around himself thick clouds of +obscurity and gloom, far more doleful and impenetrable than the twilight that +glimmers round the men who have never known the daylight of revelation. The +history of un-Christian and anti-Christian Christendom is a terrible commentary +upon these words of the Master, and the cries that we hear all round us to-day +from men who will not follow the light of Christ, and moan or boast that they +dwell in agnostic darkness, tell us that, of all the eclipses that can fall +upon heart and mind, there is none so dismal or thunderously dark as that of +the men who, having seen the light of Christ in the sky, have turned from it +and said, 'It is no light, it is only a mock sun.' Brethren, tempt not that +fate. +</p> + +<p> +And if Christian men and women do not advance in their knowledge and their +conformity, like clouds of darkness will fall upon them. None is so hopeless as +the unprogressive Christian, none so far away as those who have been brought +nigh and have never come any nigher. If you believe the light, see that you +growingly trust and walk in it, else darkness will come upon you, and you will +not know whither you go. +</p> + +<p> +IV. And lastly, there is here a hope and a promise. +</p> + +<p> +'That ye may be the sons of light.' +</p> + +<p> +Faith and obedience turn a man into the likeness of that in which he trusts. If +we trust Jesus we open our hearts to Him; and if we open our hearts to Him He +will come in. If you are in a darkened room, what have you to do in order to +have it filled with glad sunshine? Open the shutters and pull up the blinds, +and the light will do all the rest. If you trust the light, it will rush in and +fill every crevice and cranny of your hearts. Faith and obedience will mould +us, by their natural effect, into the resemblance of that on which we lean. As +one of the old German mystics said, 'What thou lovest, that thou dost become.' +And it is blessedly true. The same principle makes Christians like Christ, and +makes idolaters like their gods. 'They that make them are like unto them; so is +every one that trusteth in them,' says one of the Psalms. 'They followed after +vanity and are become vain,' says the chronicler of Israel's defections. 'We +with unveiled faces beholding'—or mirroring—'the glory of the Lord, are changed +into the same image.' Trust the light and you become 'sons of the light.' +</p> + +<p> +And so, dear friends, all of us may hope that by degrees, as the reward of +faith and of walking, we still may bear the image of the heavenly, even here on +earth. While as yet we only believe in the light, we may participate in its +transforming power, like some far-off planet on the utmost bounds of some solar +system, that receives faint and small supplies of light and warmth, through a +thick atmosphere of vapour, and across immeasurable spaces. But we have the +assurance that we shall be carried nearer our centre, and then, like the +planets that are closer to the sun than our earth is, we shall feel the fuller +power of the heat, and be saturated with the glory of the light. 'We shall see +Him as He is'; and then we too 'shall blaze forth like the sun in the kingdom +of our Father.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap54"></a>THE LOVE OF THE DEPARTING CHRIST</h2> + +<p> +'… When Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this +world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved +them unto the end.'—JOHN xiii. 1. +</p> + +<p> +The latter half of St. John's Gospel, which begins with these words, is the +Holy of Holies of the New Testament. Nowhere else do the blended lights of our +Lord's superhuman dignity and human tenderness shine with such lambent +brightness. Nowhere else is His speech at once so simple and so deep. Nowhere +else have we the heart of God so unveiled to us. On no other page, even of the +Bible, have so many eyes, glistening with tears, looked and had the tears +dried. The immortal words which Christ spoke in that upper chamber are His +highest self-revelation in speech, even as the Cross to which they led up is +His most perfect self-revelation in act. +</p> + +<p> +To this most sacred part of the New Testament my text is the introduction. It +unveils to us gleams of Christ's heart, and does what the Evangelists very +seldom venture to do, viz. gives us some sort of analysis of the influences +which then determined the flow and the shape of our Lord's love. +</p> + +<p> +Many good commentators prefer to read the last words of my text, 'He loved them +unto the <i>uttermost</i>' rather than 'unto the <i>end</i>'—so taking them to +express the depth and degree rather than the permanence and perpetuity of our +Lord's love. And that seems to me to be by far the worthier and the nobler +meaning, as well as the one which is borne out by the usual signification of +the expression in other Greek authors. It is much to know that the emotions of +these last moments did not interrupt Christ's love. It is even more to know +that in some sense they perfected it, giving even a greater vitality to its +tenderness, and a more precious sweetness to its manifestations. So understood, +the words explain for us why it was that in the sanctity of the upper chamber +there ensued the marvellous act of the foot-washing, the marvellous discourses +which follow, and the climax of all, that High-priestly prayer. They give +utterance to a love which Christ's consciousness at that solemn hour tended to +shapen and to deepen. +</p> + +<p> +So, under the Evangelist's guidance, we may venture to gaze at least a little +way into these depths, and with all reverence to try and see something at all +events of the fringe and surface of the love 'which passeth knowledge.' 'Jesus, +knowing that His hour was come, that He should depart out of the world unto the +Father, having loved His own which were in the world, loved them then unto the +uttermost.' +</p> + +<p> +My object will be best accomplished by simply following the guidance of the +words before us, and asking you to look first at that love as a love which was +not interrupted, but perfected by the prospect of separation. +</p> + +<p> +I. It would take us much too far away, however interesting the contemplation +might be, to dwell with any particularity upon our Lord's consciousness as it +is here set forth in that 'He knew that His hour was come, that He should +depart out of the world unto the Father.' But I can scarcely avoid noticing, +though only in a few sentences, the salient points of that Christ-consciousness +as it is set forth here. +</p> + +<p> +'He knew that His hour was come.' All His life was passed under the +consciousness of a divine necessity laid upon Him, to which He lovingly and +cheerfully yielded Himself. On His lips there are no words more significant, +and few more frequent, than that divine 'I must!' 'It behoves the Son of Man' +to do this, that, and the other—yielding to the necessity imposed by the +Father's will, and sealed by His own loving resolve to be the Saviour of the +world. And in like manner, all through His life He declares Himself conscious +of the hours which mark the several crises and stages of His mission. They come +to Him and He discerns them. No external power can coerce Him to any act till +the hour come. No external power can hinder Him from the act when it comes. +When the hour strikes He hears the phantom sound of the bell; and, hearing, He +obeys. And thus, at the last and supreme moment, to Him it dawned +unquestionable and irrevocable. How did He meet it? Whilst on the one hand +there was the shrinking of which we have such pathetic testimony in the broken +prayer that He Himself amended—'Father! save Me from this hour…. Yet for this +cause came I unto this hour,'—there is a strange, triumphant joy, blending with +the shrinking, that the decisive hour is at last come. +</p> + +<p> +Mark, too, the form which the consciousness took—not that now the hour had come +for suffering or death or bearing the sins of the world—all which aspects of it +were nevertheless present to Him, as we know; but that now He was soon to leave +all the world beneath Him and to return to the Father. +</p> + +<p> +The terror, the agony, the shame, the mysterious burden of a world's sins were +now to be laid upon Him—all these elements are submerged, as it were, and +become less conspicuous than the one thought of leaving behind all the +limitations, and the humiliations, and the compelled association with evil +which, like a burning brand laid upon a tender skin, was an hourly and +momentary agony to Him, and soaring above them all, unto His own calm home, His +habitation from eternity with the Father, as He had been before the world was. +How strange this blending of shrinking and of eagerness, of sorrow and of joy, +of human trembling consciousness of impending death, and of triumphant +consciousness of the approach of the hour when the Son of Man, even in His +bitterest agony and deepest humiliation, should, paradoxically, be glorified, +and should 'leave the world to go unto the Father'! +</p> + +<p> +We cannot enter with any particularity or depth into this marvellous and unique +consciousness, but it is set forth here—and that is the point to which +especially I desire to turn your attention—as the basis and the reason for a +special tenderness softening His voice, and taking possession of His heart, as +He thought of the impending separation. +</p> + +<p> +And is that not beautiful? And does it not help us to realise how truly 'bone +of our bone and flesh of our flesh,' and bearing a heart thrilling with all +innocent human emotions that divine Saviour was? We, too, have known what it is +to feel, because of approaching separation from dear ones, the need for a +tenderer tenderness. At such moments the masks of use and wont drop away, and +we are eager to find some word, to put our whole souls into some look, our +whole strength into one clinging embrace that may express all our love, and may +be a joy to two hearts for ever after to remember. The Master knew that +longing, and felt the pain of separation; and He, too, yielded to the human +impulse which makes the thought of parting the key to unlock the hidden +chambers of the most jealously guarded heart, and let the shyest of its +emotions come out for once into the daylight. So, 'knowing that His hour was +come, He loved them unto the uttermost.' +</p> + +<p> +But there is not only in this a wonderful expression of the true humanity of +the Christ, but along with that a suggestion of something more sacred and +deeper still. For surely amidst all the parting scenes that the world's +literature has enshrined, amidst all the examples of self-oblivion at the last +moment, when a martyr has been the comforter of his weeping friends, there are +none that without degradation to this can be set by the side of this supreme +and unique instance of self-oblivion. Did not Christ, for the sake of that +handful of poor people, first and directly, and for the rest of us afterwards, +of course, secondarily and indirectly, so suppress all the natural emotions of +these last moments as that their absolute absence is unique and singular, and +points onwards to something more, viz. that this Man who was susceptible of all +human affections, and loved us with a love which is not merely high above our +grasp, absolute, perfect, changeless and divine, but with a love like our own +human affection, had also more than a man's heart to give us, and gave us more, +when, that He might comfort and sustain, He crushed down Himself and went to +the Cross with words of tenderness and consolation and encouragement for others +upon His lips? Knowing all that was lying before Him, He was neither absorbed +nor confounded, but carried a heart at leisure to love even then 'unto the +uttermost.' +</p> + +<p> +And if the prospect only sharpened and perfected, nor interrupted for one +instant the flow of His love, the reality has no power to do aught else. In the +glory, when He reached it, He poured out the same loving heart; and to-day He +looks down upon us with the same Face that bent over the table in the upper +room, and the same tenderness flows to us. When John saw his Master next, after +His Ascension, amidst the glories of the vision in his rocky Patmos, though His +face was as the sun shineth in his strength, it was the old face. Though His +hand bore the stars in a cluster, it was the hand that had been pierced with +the nails. Though the breast was girded with the golden girdle of sovereignty +and of priesthood, it was the breast on which John's happy head had lain; and +though the 'Voice was as the sound of many waters,' it soothed itself to a +murmur, gentle as that with which the tideless sea about him rippled upon the +silvery sand when He said, 'Fear not … I am the First and the Last.' Knowing +that He goes to the Father, He loves to the uttermost, and being with the +Father, He still so loves. +</p> + +<p> +II. And now I must, with somewhat less of detail, dwell upon the other points +which this text brings out for us. It suggests to us next that we have in the +love of Jesus Christ a love which is faithful to the obligations of its own +past. +</p> + +<p> +Having loved, He loves. Because He had been a certain thing, therefore He is +and He shall be that same. That is an argument that implies divinity. About +nothing human can we say that because it has been therefore it shall be. Alas! +about much that is human we have to say the converse, that because it has been, +therefore it will cease to be. And though, blessed be God! they are few and +they are poor who have had no experience in their lives of human hearts whose +love in the past has been such that it manifestly is for ever, yet we cannot +with the same absolute confidence say about one another, even about the +dearest, 'Having loved, he loves.' But we can say so about Christ. There is no +exhaustion in that great stream that pours out from His heart; no diminution in +its flow. +</p> + +<p> +They tell us that the central light of our system, that great sun itself, +pouring out its rays exhausts its warmth, and were it not continually +replenished, must gradually, and even though continually replenished, will +ultimately cease to blaze, and be a dead, cold mass of ashes. But this central +Light, this heart of Christ, which is the Sun of the World, will endure like +the sun, and after the sun is cold, His love will last for ever. He pours it +out and has none the less to give. There is no bankruptcy in His expenditure, +no exhaustion in His effort, no diminution in His stores. 'Thy mercy endureth +for ever'; 'Thou hast loved, therefore Thou wilt love' is an inference for time +and for eternity, on which we may build and rest secure. +</p> + +<p> +III. Then, still further, we have here this love suggested as being a love +which has special tenderness towards its own. 'Having loved His own, He loved +them to the uttermost.' +</p> + +<p> +These poor men who, with all their errors, did cleave to Him; who, in some dim +way, understood somewhat of His greatness and His sweetness—and do you and I do +more?—who, with all their sins, yet were true to Him in the main; who had +surrendered very much to follow Him, and had identified themselves with Him, +were they to have no special place in His heart because in that heart the whole +world lay? Is there any reason why we should be afraid of saying that the +universal love of Jesus Christ, which gathers into His bosom all mankind, does +fall with special tenderness and sweetness upon those who have made Him theirs +and have surrendered themselves to be His? Surely it must be that He has +special nearness to those who love Him; surely it is reasonable that He should +have special delight in those who try to resemble Him; surely it is only what +one might expect of Him that He should in a special manner honour the drafts, +so to speak, of those who have confidence in Him, and are building their whole +lives upon Him. Surely, because the sun shines down upon dunghills and all +impurities, that is no reason why it should not lie with special brightness on +the polished mirror that reflects its lustre. Surely, because Jesus Christ +loves—Blessed be His name!—the publicans and the harlots and the outcasts and +the sinners, that is no reason why He should not bend with special tenderness +over those who, loving Him, try to serve Him, and have set their whole hopes +upon Him. The rainbow strides across the sky, but there is a rainbow in every +little dewdrop that hangs glistening on the blades of grass. There is nothing +limited, nothing sectional, nothing narrow in the proclamation of a special +tenderness of Christ towards His own, when you accompany with that truth this +other, that all men are besought by Him to come into that circle of 'His own,' +and that only they themselves shut any out therefrom. Blessed be His name! the +whole world dwells in His love, but there is an inner chamber in which He +discovers all His heart to those who find in that heart their Heaven and their +all. 'He came to His own,' in the wider sense of the word, and 'His own +received Him not'; but also, 'having loved His own He loved them unto the end.' +There are textures and lives which can only absorb some of the rays of light in +the spectrum; some that are only capable of taking, so to speak, the violet +rays of judgment and of wrath, and some who open their hearts for the ruddy +brightness at the other end of the line. Do you see to it, brethren, that you +are of that inner circle who receive the whole Christ into their hearts, and to +whom He can unfold the fullness of His love. +</p> + +<p> +IV. And, lastly, my text suggests that love of Christ as being made specially +tender by the necessities and the dangers of His friends. 'He loved His own +which were in the world,' and so loving them, 'loved them to the uttermost.' +</p> + +<p> +We have, running through these precious discourses which follow my text, many +allusions to the separation which was to ensue, and to His leaving His +followers in circumstances of peculiar peril, defenceless and solitary. 'I come +unto Thee, and am no more in the world,' says He in the final High-priestly +prayer, 'but these are in the world. Holy Father, keep them through Thine own +name.' The same contrast between the certain security of the Shepherd and the +troubled perils of the scattered flock seems to be in the words of my text, and +suggests a sweet and blessed reason for the special tenderness with which He +looked upon them. As a dying father on his deathbed may yearn over orphans that +he is leaving defenceless, so Christ is here represented as conscious of an +accession even to the tender longings of His heart, when He thought of the +loneliness and the dangers to which His followers were to be exposed. +</p> + +<p> +Ah! It seems a harsh contrast between the Emperor, sitting throned there +between the purple curtains, and the poor athletes wrestling in the arena +below. It seems strange to think that a loving Master has gone up into the +mountain, and has left His disciples to toil in rowing on the stormy sea of +life; but the contrast is only apparent. For you and I, if we love and trust +Him, are with Him 'in the heavenly places' even whilst we toil here, and He is +with us, working with us, even whilst He 'sitteth at the right hand of God.' +</p> + +<p> +We may be sure of this, brethren, that that love ever increases its +manifestations according to our deepening necessities. The darker the night the +more lustrous the stars. The deeper, the narrower, the savager, the Alpine +gorge, usually the fuller and the swifter the stream that runs through it. And +the more that enemies and fears gather round about us, the sweeter will be the +accents of our Comforter's voice, and the fuller will be the gifts of +tenderness and grace with which He draws near to us. Our sorrows, dangers, +necessities, are doors through which His love can come nigh. +</p> + +<p> +So, dear friends, we have had experience of sweet and transient human love; we +have had experience of changeful and ineffectual love; turn away from them all +to this immortal, deep heart of Christ's, welling over with a love which no +change can affect, which no separation can diminish, which no sin can provoke, +which becomes greater and tenderer as our necessities increase, and ask Him to +fill your hearts with that, that you may 'know the length and breadth and depth +and height of that love which passeth knowledge,' and so 'be filled with all +the fullness of God.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap55"></a>THE SERVANT-MASTER</h2> + +<p> +'Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He +was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside His +garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poureth water +into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the +towel wherewith He was girded.'—JOHN xiii. 3-5. +</p> + +<p> +It has been suggested that the dispute as to 'which was the greatest,' which +broke the sanctities of the upper chamber, was connected with the unwillingness +of each of the Apostles to perform the menial office of washing the feet of his +companions. They had come in from Bethany, and needed the service. But +apparently it was omitted, and although we can scarcely suppose that the +transcendent act which is recorded in my text was performed at the beginning of +the meal, yet I think we shall not be wrong if we see in it a reference to the +neglected service. +</p> + +<p> +The Evangelist who tells us of the dispute, and does not tell us of the +foot-washing, preserves a sentence which finds its true meaning only in this +incident, 'I am among you as He that serveth.' And although John is the only +recorder of this pathetic incident, there are allusions in other parts of +Scripture which seem to hint at it. As, for instance, when Paul speaks of +'taking upon Him the form of a servant'; and still more strikingly when Peter +employs the remarkable word, which he does employ in his exhortation, 'Be ye +clothed with humility.' For the word rendered there 'clothed' occurs only in +that one place in Scripture, and means literally the putting on of a slave's +costume. One can scarcely help, then, seeing in these three passages to which I +have referred echoes of this incident which John alone preserves to us. And so +we get at once a hint of the harmony and of the incompleteness of the Gospel +records. +</p> + +<p> +I. Consider the motives of this act. +</p> + +<p> +Now that is ground upon which the Evangelists very seldom enter. They tell us +what Christ did, but very rarely do they give us any glimpses into why He did +it. But this section of the Gospel is remarkable for its full and careful +analysis of what Christ's impelling motives were in the final acts of His life. +How did John find out why Christ did this deed? Perhaps he who had 'leaned upon +His bosom at supper,' and was evidently very closely associated with Him, may, +in some unrecorded hour of intimate communion during the forty days between the +Resurrection and the Ascension, have heard from the Master the exposition of +His motives. But more probably, I think, the long years of growing likeness to +his Lord, and of meditation upon the depth of meaning in the smallest events +that his faithful memory recalled, taught him to understand Christ's purpose +and motives. 'The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,' and the liker +we get to our Master and the more we are filled with His Spirit, the more easy +will it be for us to divine the purpose and the motives of His actions, whether +as they are recorded in the Scripture or as they come to us in the experience +of daily life. +</p> + +<p> +But, passing that point, I desire for a moment to fix your attention on the +twofold key to our Lord's action which is given in this context. There is, +first of all, in the first verse of the chapter, a general exposition of what +was uppermost in His mind and heart during the whole of the period in the upper +room. The act in our text, and the wonderful words which follow in the +subsequent chapters, crowned by that great intercessory prayer, seem to me to +be all explained for us by this first unveiling of His motives. 'When Jesus +knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the +Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the +end.' +</p> + +<p> +And then the words of my text, which apply more specifically to the single +incident with which they are brought into connection, tell us in addition why +this one manifestation of Christ's love was given. 'Knowing that the Father had +given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to +God.' There, then, are two explanations of motive, the one covering a wider +area than the other, but both converging on the incident before us. +</p> + +<p> +The first of these is just this—the consciousness of impending separation moved +Christ to a more than ordinarily tender manifestation of His love. For the +rendering which you will find in the margin of the Revised Version, 'He loved +them <i>to the uttermost</i>,' seems to me to be truer to the Evangelist's +meaning than the other, 'He loved them unto the end.' For it was more to John's +purpose to tell us that the shadow of the Cross only brought to the surface in +more blessed and wonderful representation the deep love of His heart, than +simply to tell us that that shadow did not stop its flow. It is much to know +that all through His sorrow He continued to love; it is far more to know that +the sorrow sharpened its poignancy, and deepened its depth, and made more +tender its tenderness. +</p> + +<p> +How near to the man Christ that thought brings us! Do we not all know the +impulse to make parting moments tender moments? The masks of use and wont drop +off; the reticence which we, perhaps wisely, ordinarily cultivate in regard to +our deepest feelings melts away. We yearn to condense all our unspoken love +into some one word, act, look, or embrace, which it may afterwards be life to +two hearts to remember. And Jesus Christ felt this. Because He was going away +He could not but pour out Himself yet more completely than in the ordinary +tenor of His life. The earthquake lays bare hidden veins of gold, and the heart +opens itself out when separation impends. We shall never understand the works +of Jesus Christ if we do as we are all apt to do, think of them as having only +a didactic and doctrinal purpose. We must remember that there is in Him the +true play of a human heart, and that it was to relieve His own love, as well as +to teach these men their duty, that he rose from the supper, and prepared +Himself to wash the disciples' feet. +</p> + +<p> +Then, on the other hand, the other motive which is brought by the Evangelists +more immediately into connection with this incident is, 'knowing that the +Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and +went to God.' +</p> + +<p> +The consciousness of the highest dignity impels to the lowliest submission. +'All things given into His hands,' means universal and absolute dominion. 'That +He was come from God,' means pre-existence, voluntary incarnation, an eternal +divine nature, and unbroken communion with the Father. 'That He went to God,' +means a voluntary departure from this low world, and a return to 'His own calm +home, His habitation from eternity.' +</p> + +<p> +And, gathered all together, the phrases imply His absolute consciousness of His +divine nature. It was that that sent Him with the towel round His loins to wash +the foul feet of the pedestrians who had come by the dusty and hot way from +Bethany, and through all the abominations of an Eastern city, into the upper +chamber. +</p> + +<p> +This was He who from the beginning 'was with God, and was God.' This was He who +was the Lord of Death, Victor over the grave. This was He who by His own power +ascended up on high, and reigns on the throne of the universe to-day. This was +He whose breast the same Evangelist had seen before he wrote his Gospel, +'girded with the golden girdle' of priesthood and of sovereignty; and holding, +in the hands that had laid the towel on the disciples' feet, the seven stars. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brethren! if we believed our creeds, how our hearts would melt with wonder +and awe that He who was so high stooped so low! 'Knowing that He came from God, +and went to God,' and that even when He was kneeling there before these men, +'the Father had given all things into His hands,' what did He do? Triumph? Show +His majesty? Flash His power? Demand service? 'Girded Himself with a towel and +washed His disciples' feet'! +</p> + +<p> +The consciousness of loftiness does not alone avail to explain the transcendent +lowliness. You need the former motive to be joined with it, because it is only +love which bends loftiness to service, and turns the consciousness of +superiority into yearning to divest oneself of the superiorities that separate, +and to emphasise the emotions which unite. +</p> + +<p> +II. The detailed completeness of the act. +</p> + +<p> +The remarkable particularity of the account of the stages of the humiliation +suggests the eye-witness. John carried them all in his mind ineffaceably, and +long, long years after that memorable hour we hear him recalling each detail of +the scene. We can see the little group startled by the disturbance of the order +of the meal as He rose from the table, and the hushed wonder and the +open-lipped expectation with which they watched to see what the next step would +be. He rises from the table and divests Himself of the upper garments which +impeded movement. 'What will He do next?' He takes the basin, standing there to +be ready for washing the apostles' feet, but unused, and not even filled with +water. He fills it Himself, asking none to help Him. He girds the towel round +Him; and then, perhaps, begins with the betrayer; at any rate, not with Peter. +</p> + +<p> +Cannot you see them, as they look? Do not you feel the solemnity of the +detailed particular account of each step? +</p> + +<p> +And may we not also say that all is a parable, or illustration, on a lower +level, of the very same principles which were at work in the mightier fact of +the greater condescension of His 'becoming flesh and dwelling among us'? He +'rose from the table,' as He rose from His place in 'the bosom of the Father.' +He disturbed the meal as He broke the festivities of the heavens. He divested +Himself of His garments, as 'He thought not equality with God a thing to be +worn eagerly'; and 'He girded Himself with the towel,' as He put on the +weakness of flesh. Himself He filled the basin, by His own work providing the +means of cleansing; and Himself applied the cleansing to the feet of those who +were with Him. It is all a working out of the same double motive which drew Him +downwards to our earth. The reason why He stooped, with His hands to wash the +disciples' feet, is the same as the reason why He had hands to wash with—viz., +that knowing Himself to be high over all, and loving all, He chose to become +one with us, that we might become like unto Him. So the details of the act are +a parable of His incarnation and death. +</p> + +<p> +III. And then, still further, note the purpose of the deed. +</p> + +<p> +Now although I have said that we never rightly understand our Lord's actions if +we are always looking for dogmatic or doctrinal purposes, and thinking of them +rather as being lectures, and sometimes rebukes in act, than as being the +outgush of His emotions and His human-divine nature, yet we have also to take +into account their moral and spiritual lessons. His acts are words and His +words are acts. And although the main and primary purpose of this incident, in +so far as it had any other purpose than to relieve Christ's own love by +manifesting itself, and to comfort the disciples' hearts by the tender +manifestation, was to teach them their duty, as we shall presently see, yet the +special aspect of cleansing, which comes out so emphatically and prominently in +the episode of Peter's refusal, is to be carried all along through the +interpretation of the incident. This was the reason why Jesus Christ came from +heaven and assumed flesh, and this was the reason why Jesus Christ, assuming +flesh, bowed Himself to this menial office—to make men clean. +</p> + +<p> +I venture to say that we never understand Jesus Christ and His work until we +recognise this as its prominent purpose, to cleanse us from sin. An inadequate +conception of what we need, shallow, superficial views of the gravity and +universality and obstinacy of the fact of sin, are an impenetrable veil between +us and all real understanding of Jesus Christ. There is no adequate motive for +such an astounding fact as the incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God, +except the purpose of redeeming the world. If you do not believe that you—you +individually, and all of us your brethren—need to be cleansed, you will find it +hard to believe in the divinity and atonement of Jesus Christ. If you have been +down into the depths of your own heart, and found out what tremendous, diabolic +power your own evil nature and sin have upon you, then you will not be content +with anything less than the incarnate God who stoops from heaven to bear the +burden of your sin, and to take it all away. If you want to understand why He +laid aside His garments and took the servile form of our manhood, the appeal of +man's sin to His love and the answer of His Divine condescension are the only +explanation. +</p> + +<p> +Again, let me remind you that there is no cleansing without Christ. Can you do +it for yourselves, do you think? There is an old proverb, 'One hand washes the +other.' That is true about stains on the flesh. It is not true about stains on +our spirits. Nobody can do it for us but Jesus Christ alone. He kneels before +us, having the right and the power to wash us because He has died for us. Kings +of England used to touch for 'the king's evil,' and lay their pure fingers upon +feculent masses of corruption. Our King's touch is sovereign for the corruption +and incipient putrefaction of our sin; and there is no power in heaven or earth +that will make a man clean except the power of Jesus Christ. It is either Jesus +Christ or filthiness. +</p> + +<p> +If I might pass from my text for one moment, I would remind you of the episode +which immediately follows, and suggest that if Jesus Christ is not cleansing us +He is nothing to us. 'If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in Me.' I know, of +course, that it is possible to have partial, rudimentary, and sometimes +reverent conceptions of that Lord without recognising in Him the great +'Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.' But I am sure of this, that +there is no real, living possession of Jesus Christ such as men's souls need, +and such as will outlast the disintegrating influences of death, unless it be +such a possession of Him as appropriates for its own, primarily, His cleansing +power. First of all He must cleanse, and then all other aspects of His glory, +and gifts of His grace, will pour into our hearts. +</p> + +<p> +No understanding of Christ, then, without the recognition that cleansing is the +purpose and the vindication of His incarnation and sacrifice; no cleansing +without Christ; no Christ worth calling by the name without cleansing. +</p> + +<p> +IV. And so, lastly, note the pattern in this act. +</p> + +<p> +You will remember that it is followed by solemn words spoken after He had taken +His garments and resumed His place at the table, in which there blended, in the +most wonderful fashion, the consciousness of authority, both as Teacher of +truth and as Guide of life, and the sweetest and most loving lowliness. In them +Jesus prescribed the wonderful act of His condescending love and cleansing +power as the law of the Christian life. There are too many of us who profess to +be quite willing to trust to Jesus Christ as the Cleanser of our souls who are +not nearly so willing to accept His Example as the pattern for our lives; and I +would have you note, as an extremely remarkable point, that all the New +Testament references to our Lord as being our Example are given in immediate +connection with His passion. The very part of His life which we generally +regard as being most absolutely unique and inimitable is the fact in His life +which Apostles and Evangelists select as the one to set before us for our +example. +</p> + +<p> +Do you ask if any man can copy the sufferings of Jesus Christ? In regard to +their virtue and efficacy, No. In regard to their motive—in one aspect, No; in +another aspect, Yes. In regard to the spirit that impelled Him we may copy Him. +The smallest trickle of water down a city gutter will carve out of the mud at +its side little banks and cliffs, and exhibit all the phenomena of erosion on +the largest scale, as the Mississippi does over half a continent, and the +tiniest little wave in a basin will fall into the same curves as the billows of +mid-ocean. You and I, in our little lives, may even aspire to 'do as I have +done to you.' +</p> + +<p> +The true use of superiority is service. <i>Noblesse oblige</i>! Bank, wealth, +capacity, talents, all things are given to us that we may use them to the last +particle for our fellows. Only when the world and society have awakened to that +great truth which the towel-girded, kneeling Christ has taught us, will society +be organised on the principles that God meant. +</p> + +<p> +But, further, the highest form of service is to cleanse. Cleansing is always +dirty work for the cleaners, as every housemaid knows. You cannot make people +clean by scolding them, by lecturing them, by patronising them. You have to go +down into the filth if you mean to lift them out of it; and leave your +smelling-bottles behind; and think nothing repulsive if your stooping to it may +save a brother. +</p> + +<p> +The only way by which we can imitate that example is by, first of all, +participating in it for ourselves. We must, first of all, have the Cross as our +trust, before it can become our pattern and our law. We must first say, 'Lord! +not my feet only, but also my hands and my head,' and then, in the measure in +which we ourselves have received the cleansing benediction, we shall be +impelled and able to lay our gentle hands on foulness and leprosy; and to say +to all the impure, 'Jesus Christ, who hath cleansed <i>me</i>, makes +<i>thee</i> clean.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap56"></a>THE DISMISSAL OF JUDAS</h2> + +<p> +'… Then said Jesus unto Judas, That thou doest, do quickly.'—JOHN xiii. 27. +</p> + +<p> +When our Lord gave the morsel, dipped in the dish, to Judas, only John knew the +significance of the act. But if we supplement the narrative here with that +given by Matthew, we shall find that, accompanying the gift of the sop, was a +brief dialogue in which the betrayer, with unabashed front, hypocritically +said, 'Lord! Is it I?' and heard the solemn, sad answer, 'Thou sayest!' Two +things, then, appealed to him at the moment: one, the conviction that he was +discovered; the other, the wonderful assurance that he was still loved, for the +gift of the morsel was a token of friendliness. He shut his heart against them +both; and as he shut his heart against Christ he opened it to the devil. So +'after the sop Satan entered into him.' At that moment a soul committed +suicide; and none of those that sat by, with the exception of Christ and the +'disciple whom He loved,' so much as dreamed of the tragedy going on before +their eyes. +</p> + +<p> +I know not that there are anywhere words more weighty and wonderful than those +of our text. And I desire to try if I can at all make you feel as I feel, their +solemn signification and force. 'That thou doest, do quickly.' +</p> + +<p> +I. I hear in them, first, the voice of despairing love abandoning the conflict. +</p> + +<p> +If I have rightly construed the meaning of the incident, this is the plain +meaning of it. And you will observe that the Revised Version, more accurately +and closely rendering the words of our text, begins with a '<i>Therefore</i>.' +'Therefore said Jesus unto him,' because the die was cast; because the will of +Judas had conclusively welcomed Satan, and conclusively rejected Christ; +therefore, knowing that remonstrance was vain, knowing that the deed was, in +effect, done, Jesus Christ, that Incarnate Charity which 'believeth all things, +and hopeth all things,' abandoned the man to himself, and said, 'There, then, +if thou wilt thou must. I have done all I can; my last arrow is shot, and it +has missed the target. That then doest, do quickly.' +</p> + +<p> +There is a world of solemn meaning in that one little word 'doest.' It teaches +us the old lesson, which sense is so apt to forget, that the true actor in +man's deeds is 'the hidden man of the heart,' and that when it has acted, it +matters comparatively little whether the mere tool and instrument of the hands +or of the other organs have carried out the behest. The thing is done before it +is done when the man has resolved, with a fixed will, to do it. The betrayal +was as good as in process, though no step beyond the introductory ones, which +could easily have been cancelled, had yet been accomplished. Because there was +a fixed purpose which could not be altered by anything now, therefore Jesus +Christ regards the act as completed. It is what we think in our hearts that we +are; and our fixed determinations, our inclinations of will, are far more truly +our doings than the mere consequences of these, embodied in actuality. It is +but a poor estimate of a man that judges him by the test of what he has done. +What he has wanted to do is the true man; what he has attempted to do. 'It was +well that it was in thine heart!' saith God to the king who thought of building +the Temple which he was never allowed to rear. 'It is ill that is in thine +heart,' says He by whom actions are weighed, to the sinner in purpose, though +his clean hands lie idly in his lap. These hidden movements of desire and will +that never come to the surface are our true selves. Look after them, and the +deeds will take care of themselves. Serpent's eggs have serpents in them. And +he that has determined upon a sin has done the sin, whether his hands have been +put to it or no. +</p> + +<p> +But, then, turn for a moment to the other thought that is suggested here—that +solemn picture of a soul left to do as it will, because divine love has no +other restraints which it can impose, and is bankrupt of motives that it can +adduce to prevent it from its madness. Now I do not believe, for my part, that +any man in this world is so all-round 'sold unto sin' as that the seeking love +of God gives him up as irreclaimable. I do not believe that there are any +people concerning whom it is true that it is impossible for the grace of God to +find some chink and cranny in their souls through which it can enter and change +them. There are no hopeless cases as long as men are here. But, then, though +there may not be so, in regard to the whole sweep of the man's nature, yet +every one of us, over and over again, has known what it is to come exactly into +that position in regard to some single evil or other, concerning which we have +so set our teeth and planted our feet at such an angle of resistance as that +God gives up dealing with us and leaves us, as He did with Balaam when He +opposed his covetous inclinations to all the remonstrances of Heaven. God said +at last to him 'Go!' because it was the best way to teach him what a fool he +had been in wanting to go. Thus, when we determine to set ourselves against the +pleadings and the beseechings of divine love, the truest kindness is to fling +the reins upon our necks, and let us gallop ourselves into a sweat and +weariness, and then we shall be more amenable to the touch of the rein +thereafter. +</p> + +<p> +Are there any people whom God is teaching obedience to His light touch, by +letting them run their course after some one specific sin? Perhaps there are. +At all events, let us remember that that position of being allowed to do as we +like is one to which we all tend, in the measure in which we indulge our +inclinations, and shut our hearts against God's pleadings. There is such a +thing as a conscience seared as with a hot iron. They used to say that there +were witches' marks on the body, places where, if you stuck a pin in, there was +no feeling. Men cover themselves all over with marks of that sort, which are +not sensitive even to the prick of a divine remonstrance, rebuke, or +retribution. They 'wipe their mouths and say I have done no harm.' You can tie +up the clapper of the bell that swings on the black rock, on which, if you +drift, you go to pieces. You can silence the Voice by the simple process of +neglecting it. Judas set his teeth against two things, the solemn conviction +that Jesus Christ knew his sin, and the saving assurance that Jesus Christ +loved him still. And whosoever resists either of these two is getting +perilously near to the point where, not in petulance but in pity, God will say, +'Very well, I have called and ye have refused. Now go, and do what you want to +do, and see how you like it when it is done. What thou doest, do quickly.' Do +you remember the other word, 'If '<i>twere</i> done when 'tis done, then 'twere +well it were done quickly'? But since consequences last when deeds are past, +perhaps you had better halt before you determine to do them. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, secondly, I hear in these words the voice of strangely blended majesty +and humiliation. +</p> + +<p> +'What thou doest, do!' Judas thought he had got possession of Christ's person, +and was His master in a very real sense. When lo! all at once the victim +assumes the position of the Lord and commands, showing the traitor that instead +of thwarting and counterworking, he was but carrying out the designs of his +fancied victim; and that he was an instrument in Christ's hands for the +execution of His will. And these two thoughts, how, in effect, all antagonism, +all malicious hatred, all violent opposition of every sort but work in with +Christ's purpose, and carry out His intention; and how, at the moments of +deepest apparent degradation, He towers, in manifest Majesty and Masterhood, +seem to me to be plainly taught in the word before us. +</p> + +<p> +He uses his foes for the furtherance of His purpose. That has been the history +of the world ever since. 'The floods, O Lord, have lifted up their voice.' And +what have they done? Smashing against the breakwater, they but consolidate its +mighty blocks, and prove that 'the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of +many waters.' It has been so in the past, it is so to-day; it will be so till +the end. Every Judas is unconsciously the servant of Him whom he seeks to +betray; and finds out to his bewilderment that what he meant for a death-blow +is fulfilling the very purpose and will of the Lord against whom he has turned. +</p> + +<p> +Again, the combination here, in such remarkable juxtaposition, of the two +things, a willing submission to the utmost extremity of shame, which the +treasonous heart can froth out in its malice and, at the same time, a rising up +in conscious majesty and lordship, are suggested to us by the words before us. +That combination of utter lowliness and transcendent loftiness runs through the +whole life and history of our Lord. Did you ever think how strong an argument +that strange combination, brought out so inartificially throughout the whole of +the Gospels, is for their historical veracity? Suppose the problem had been +given to poets to create and to set in a series of appropriate scenes a +character with these two opposites stamped equally upon it, neither of them +impinging upon the domain of the other—viz., utter humility and humiliation in +circumstance, and majestic sovereignty and elevation above all circumstances—do +you think that any of them could have solved the problem, though—Aeschylus and +Shakespeare had been amongst them, as these four men that wrote these four +little tracts that we call Gospels have done? How comes it that this most +difficult of literary problems has been so triumphantly solved by these men? I +think there is only one answer, 'Because they were reporters, and imagined +nothing, but observed everything, and repeated what had happened.' He +reconciled these opposites who was the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with +grief, and yet the Eternal Son of the Father; and the Gospels have solved the +problem only because they are simple records of its solution by Him. +</p> + +<p> +Wherever in His history there is some trait of lowliness there is by the side +of it a flash of majesty. Wherever in His history there is some gleaming out +from the veil of flesh of the hidden glory of divinity, there is immediately +some drawing of the veil across the glory. And the two things do not contradict +nor confuse, but we stand before that double picture of a Christ betrayed and +of a Christ commanding His betrayer, and using his treason, and we say, 'The +Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Again, I hear the voice of instinctive human weakness. +</p> + +<p> +'That thou doest, do quickly.' It may be doubtful, and some of you perhaps may +not be disposed to follow me in my remark, but to my ear that sounds just like +the utterance of that instinctive dislike of suspense and of the long hanging +over us of the sword by a hair, which we all know so well. Better to suffer +than to wait for suffering. The loudest thunder-crash is not so awe-inspiring +as the dread silence of nature when the sky is black before the peal rolls +through the clouds. Many a martyr has prayed for a swift ending of his +troubles. Many a sorrowing heart, that has been sitting cowering under the +anticipation of coming evils, has wished that the string could be pulled, as it +were, and they could all come down in one cold flood, and be done with, rather +than trickle drop by drop. They tell us that the bravest soldiers dislike the +five minutes when they stand in rank before the first shot is fired. And with +all reverence I venture to think that He who knew all our weaknesses in so far +as weakness was not sin, is here letting us see how He, too, desired that the +evil which was coming might come quickly, and that the painful tension of +expectation might be as brief as possible. That may be doubtful; I do not dwell +upon it, but I suggest it for your consideration. +</p> + +<p> +IV. And then I pass on to the last of the tones that I hear in these +utterances—the voice of the willing Sacrifice for the sins of the world. +</p> + +<p> +'That thou doest, do quickly.' There is nothing more obvious throughout the +whole of the latter portion of the Gospel narrative than the way in which, +increasingly towards its close, Jesus seemed to hasten to the Cross. You +remember His own sayings: 'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I +straitened till it be accomplished. I am come to cast fire on the earth; would +it were already kindled!' You remember with what a strange air—I was going to +use an inappropriate word, and say, of alacrity; but, at all events, of fixed +resolve—He journeyed from Galilee, in that last solemn march to Jerusalem, and +how the disciples followed, astonished at the unwonted look of decision and +absorption that was printed upon His countenance. If we consider His doings in +that last week in Jerusalem, how he courted publicity, how He avoided no +encounter with His official enemies, how He sharpened His tones, not exactly so +as to provoke, but certainly so as by no means to conciliate, we shall see, I +think, in it all, His consciousness that the hour had come, and His absolute +readiness and willingness to be offered for the world's sin. He stretches out +His hands, as it were, to draw the Cross nearer to Himself, not with any share +in the weakness of a fanatical aspiration after martyrdom, but under a far +deeper and more wonderful impulse. +</p> + +<p> +Why was Christ so willing, so eager, if I may use the word, that His death +should be accomplished? Two reasons, which at the bottom are one, answer the +question. He thus hastened to His Cross because He would obey the Father's +will, and because He loved the whole world—you and me and all our fellows. We +were each in His heart. It was because He wanted to save thee that He said to +Judas, 'Do it quickly, that the world's salvation and that man's salvation may +be accomplished.' These were the cords that bound Him to the altar. Let us +never forget that Judas with his treachery, and rulers with their hostility, +and Pilate with his authority, and the soldiers with their nails, and +centurions with their lances, and the grim figure of Death itself with its +shaft, would have been all equally powerless against Christ if it had not been +his loving will to die on the Cross for each of us. +</p> + +<p> +Therefore, brethren, as we hear this voice, let us discern in it the tones +which warn us of the danger of yielding to inclination and stifling His +rebukes, till He abandons us for the moment in despair; let us hear in it the +pathetic voice of a Brother, who knows all our weaknesses and has felt our +emotions; let us hear the voice of Sovereign Authority which uses its enemies +for its purposes, and is never loftier than when it is most lowly, whose Cross +is His throne of glory, whose exaltation is His deepest humiliation, and let us +hear a love which, discerning each of us through all the ages and the crowds, +went willingly to the Cross because He willed that He should be our Saviour. +</p> + +<p> +And seeing that time is short, and the future precarious, and delay may darken +into loss and rejection, let us take these words as spoken to us in another +sense, and hear in them the warning that 'to-day, if we will hear His voice, we +harden not our hearts,' and when He says to us, in regard to repentance and +faith, and Christian consecration and service, 'That thou doest, do quickly,' +let us answer, 'I made haste and delayed not, but made haste to keep Thy +commandments.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap57"></a>THE GLORY OF THE CROSS</h2> + +<p> +'Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, +and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify +Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.'—JOHN xiii. 31, 32. +</p> + +<p> +There is something very weird and awful in the brief note of time with which +the Evangelist sends Judas on his dark errand. 'He … went immediately out, and +it was night.' Into the darkness that dark soul went. That hour was 'the power +of darkness,' the very keystone of the black arch of man's sin, and some shadow +of it fell upon the soul of Christ Himself. +</p> + +<p> +In immediate connection with the departure of the traitor comes this singular +burst of triumph in our text. The Evangelist emphasises the connection by that: +'<i>Therefore</i>, when he was gone out, Jesus said.' There is a wonderful +touch of truth and naturalness in that connection. The traitor was gone. His +presence had been a restraint; and now that that 'spot in their feast of +charity' had disappeared, the Master felt at ease; and like some stream, out of +the bed of which a black rock has been taken, His words flow more freely. How +intensely real and human the narrative becomes when we see that Christ, too, +felt the oppression of an uncongenial presence, and was relieved and glad at +its removal! The departure of the traitor evoked these words of triumph in +another way, too. At his going away, we may say, the match was lit that was to +be applied to the train. He had gone out on his dark errand, and that brought +the Cross within measurable distance of our Lord. Out of a new sense of its +nearness He speaks here. So the note of time not only explains to us why our +Lord spoke, but puts us on the right track for understanding His words, and +makes any other interpretation of them than one impossible. What Judas went to +do was the beginning of Christ's glorifying. We have here, then, a triple +glorification—the Son of Man glorified in His Cross; God glorified in the Son +of Man; and the Son of Man glorified in God. Let us look at these three +thoughts for a few moments now. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, we have here the Son of Man glorified in His Cross. +</p> + +<p> +The words are a paradox. Strange, that at such a moment, when there rose up +before Christ all the vision of the shame and the suffering, the pain and the +death, and the mysterious sense of abandonment, which was worse than them all, +He should seem to stretch out His hands to bring the Cross nearer to Himself, +and that His soul should fill with triumph! +</p> + +<p> +There is a double aspect under which our Lord regarded His sufferings. On the +one hand we mark in Him an unmistakable shrinking from the Cross, the innocent +shrinking of His manhood expressed in such words as 'I have a baptism to be +baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished'; and in such +incidents as the agony in Gethsemane. And yet, side by side with that, not +overcome by it, but not overcoming it, there is the opposite feeling, the +reaching out almost with eagerness to bring the Cross nearer to Himself. These +two lie close by each other in His heart. Like the pellucid waters of the Rhine +and the turbid stream of the Moselle, that flow side by side over a long space, +neither of them blending discernibly with the other, so the shrinking and the +desire were contemporaneous in Christ's mind. Here we have the triumphant +anticipation rising to the surface, and conquering for a time the shrinking. +</p> + +<p> +Why did Christ think of His Cross as a glorifying? The New Testament generally +represents it as the very lowest point of His degradation; John's Gospel always +represents it as the very highest point of His glory. And the two things are +both true; just as the zenith of our sky is the nadir of the sky for those on +the other side of the world. The same fact which in one aspect sounds the very +lowest depth of Christ's humiliation, in another aspect is the very highest +culminating point of His glory. +</p> + +<p> +How did the Cross glorify Christ? In two ways. It was the revelation of His +heart; it was the throne of His sovereign power. +</p> + +<p> +It was the revelation of His heart. All his life long He had been trying to +tell the world how much He loved it. His love had been, as it were, filtered by +drops through His words, through His deeds, through His whole demeanour and +bearing; but in His death it comes in a flood, and pours itself upon the world. +All His life long he had been revealing His heart, through the narrow rifts of +His deeds, like some slender lancet windows; but in His death all the barriers +are thrown down, and the brightness blazes out upon men. All through His life +He had been trying to communicate His love to the world, and the fragrance came +from the box of ointment exceeding precious, but when the box was broken the +house was filled with the odour. +</p> + +<p> +For Him to be known was to be glorified. So pure and perfect was He, that +revelation of His character and glorification of Himself were one and the same +thing. Because His Cross reveals to the world for all time, and for eternity, +too, a love which shrinks from no sacrifice, a love which is capable of the +most entire abandonment, a love which is diffused over the whole surface of +humanity and through all the ages, a love which comes laden with the richest +and the highest gifts, even the turning of selfish and sinful hearts into its +own pure and perfect likeness, therefore does He say, in contemplation of that +Cross which was to reveal Him for what He was to the world, and to bring His +love to every one of us, 'Now is the Son of Man glorified.' +</p> + +<p> +We can fancy a mother, for instance, in the anticipation of shame, and +ignominy, and suffering, and sorrow, and death which she encounters for the +sake of some prodigal child, forgetting all the ignominy, and the shame, and +the suffering, and the sorrow, and the death, because all these are absorbed in +the one thought: 'If I bear them, my poor, wandering, rebellious child will +know at last how much I loved him.' So Christ yearns to impart the knowledge of +Himself to us, because by that knowledge we may be won to His love and service; +and hence when He looks forward to the agony, and contumely, and sorrow of the +close, every other thought is swallowed up in this one: 'They will be the means +by which the whole world will find out how deep my heart of love to it was.' +Therefore does He triumph and say, 'Now is the Son of Man glorified.' +</p> + +<p> +Still further, He regards His Cross as the means of His glorifying, because it +is His throne of saving power. The paradoxical words of our text rest upon His +profound conviction that in His death He was about to put forth a mightier and +diviner power than ever He had manifested in His life. They are the same in +effect and in tone as the great words: 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men +unto Me.' Now I want you to ask yourselves one question: In what sense is +Christ's Cross Christ's glorifying, unless His Cross bears an altogether +different relation to His life from what the death of a great teacher or +benefactor ordinarily bears to his? It is impossible that Christ could have +spoken such words as these of my text if He had simply thought of His death as +a Plato or a John Howard might have thought of his, as being the close of his +activity for the welfare of his fellows. Unless Christ's death has in it some +substantive value, unless it is something more than the mere termination of His +work for the world, I see not how the words before us can be interpreted. If +His death is His glorifying, it must be because in that death something is done +which was not completed by the life, however fair; by the words, however wise +and tender; by the works of power, however restorative and healing. Here is +something more than these present. What more? This more, that His Cross is the +'propitiation for the sins of the whole world.' He is glorified therein, not as +a Socrates might be glorified by his calm and noble death; not because nothing +in His life became Him better than the leaving of it; not because the page that +tells the story of His passion is turned to by us as the tenderest and most +sacred in the world's records; but because in that death He wrestled with and +overcame our foes, and because, like the Jewish hero of old, dying, He pulled +down the house which our tyrants had built, and overwhelmed them in its ruins. +'Now is the Son of Man glorified.' +</p> + +<p> +And so, brethren, there blend, in that last act of our Lord's—for His death was +His act—in strange fashion, the two contradictory ideas of glory and shame; +like some sky, all full of dark thunderclouds, and yet between them the +brightest blue and the blazing sunshine. In the Cross, Death crowns Him the +Prince of Life, and His Cross is His throne. All His life long He was the Light +of the World, but the very noontide hour of His glory was that hour when the +shadow of eclipse lay over all the land, and He hung on the Cross dying in the +dark. At His 'eventide it was light.' 'He endured the Cross, despising the +shame'; and lo! the shame flashed up into the very brightness of glory, and the +ignominy and the suffering became the jewels of His crown. 'Now is the Son of +Man glorified.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Now let us turn for a moment to the second of the threefold glorifications +that are set forth here: God glorified in the Son of Man. +</p> + +<p> +The mystery deepens as we advance. That God should be glorified in a man is not +strange, but that He should be so glorified in the eminent and special fashion +which Jesus contemplates here, is strange; and stranger still when we think +that the act in which He was to be glorified was the death of an innocent Man. +If God, in any special and eminent manner, is glorified in the Cross of Jesus +Christ, that implies, as it seems to me, two things at all events—many more +which I have not time to touch upon, but two things very plainly. One is that +'God was in Christ,' in some singular and eminent manner. If all His life was a +continual manifestation of the divine character, if Christ's words were the +divine wisdom, if Christ's compassion was the divine pity, if Christ's +lowliness was the divine gentleness, if His whole human life and nature were +the brightest and clearest manifestation to the world of what God is, we can +understand that the Cross was the highest point of the revelation of the divine +nature to the world, and so was the glorifying of God in Him. But if we take +any lower view of the relation between God and Christ, I know not how we can +acquit these words of our Master of the charge of being a world too wide for +the facts of the case. +</p> + +<p> +The words involve, as it seems to me, not only that idea of a close, unique +union and indwelling of God in Christ, but they involve also this other: that +these sufferings bore no relation to the deserts of the person who endured +them. If Christ, with His pure and perfect character—the innocency and +nobleness of which all that read the Gospels admit—if Christ suffered so; if +the highest virtue that was ever seen in this world brought no better wages +than shame and spitting and the Cross; if Christ's life and Christ's death are +simply a typical example of the world's treatment of its greatest benefactors; +then, if they have any bearing at all on the character of God, they cast a +shadow rather than a light upon the divine government, and become not the least +formidable of the difficulties and knots that will have to be untied hereafter +before it shall be clear that God did everything well. But if we can say, 'He +hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows'; if we can say, 'God was in +Christ reconciling the world to Himself'; if we can say, that His death was the +death of Him whom God had appointed to live and die for us, and 'to bear our +sins in His own body on the tree,' then, though deep mysteries come with the +thought, still we can see that, in a very unique manner, God is glorified and +exalted in His death. +</p> + +<p> +For if the dying Christ be the Son of God dying for us, then the Cross +glorifies God, because it teaches us that the glory of the divine character is +the divine love. Of wisdom, or of power, or of any of the more 'majestic' +attributes of the divine nature, that weak Man, hanging dying on the Cross, was +a strange embodiment; but if the very heart of the divine brightness be the +pure white fire of love; if there be nothing diviner in God than His giving of +Himself to His creatures; if the highest glory of the divine nature be to pity +and to bestow, then the Cross upon which Christ died towers above all other +revelations as the most awful, the most sacred, the most tender, the most +complete, the most heart-touching, the most soul-subduing manifestation of the +divine nature; and stars and worlds, and angels and mighty creatures, and +things in the heights and things in the depths, to each of which have been +entrusted some broken syllables of the divine character to make known to the +world, dwindle and fade before the brightness, the lambent, gentle brightness +that beams out from the Cross of Christ, which proclaims—God is love, is pity, +is pardon. +</p> + +<p> +And is it not so—is it not so? Is not the thought that has flowed from Christ's +Cross through Christendom of what our Father in Heaven is, the highest and the +most blessed that the world has ever had? Has it not scattered doubts that lay +like mountains of ice upon man's heart? Has it not swept the heavens clear of +clouds that wrapped it in darkness? Has it not delivered men from the dreams of +gods angry, gods capricious, gods vengeful, gods indifferent, gods simply +mighty and vast and awful and unspeakable? Has it not taught us that love is +God, and God is love; and so brought to the whole world the true Gospel, the +Gospel of the grace of God? In that Cross the Father is glorified. +</p> + +<p> +III. Now, lastly, we have here the Son of Man glorified in the Father. +</p> + +<p> +The mysteries and the paradoxes seem to deepen as we advance. 'If God be +glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway +glorify Him.' Do these words sound to you as if they expressed no more than the +confidence of a good man, who, when he was dying, believed that he would be +accepted of a loving Father, and would be at rest from his sufferings? To me +they seem to say infinitely more than that. 'He shall also glorify Him in +Himself.' Mark that 'in Himself.' That is the obvious antithesis to what has +been spoken about in the previous clause, a glorifying which consisted in a +manifestation to the external universe, whereas this is a glorifying within the +depths of the divine nature. And the best commentary upon it is our Lord's own +words: 'Father! glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the +world was.' We get a glimpse, as it were, into the very centre of the +brightness of God; and there, walking in that beneficent furnace, we see 'One +like unto the Son of Man.' Christ anticipates that, in some profound and +unspeakable sense, He shall, as it were, be caught up into the divinity, and +shall dwell, as indeed He did dwell from the beginning, 'in the bosom of the +Father.' 'He shall glorify Him in Himself.' +</p> + +<p> +But then mark, still further, that this reception into the bosom of the Father +is given to the Son of Man. That is to say, the Man Christ Jesus, the Son of +Mary, the Brother of us all, 'bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,' the +very Person that walked upon earth and dwelt amongst us is taken up into the +heart of God, and in His manhood enters into that same glory, which, from the +beginning, the Eternal Word had with God. +</p> + +<p> +And still further, not only have we here set forth, in most wondrous language, +the reception and incorporation, if we may use such words, into the very centre +of divinity, as granted to the Son of Man, but we have that glorifying set +forth as commencing immediately upon the completion of God's glorifying by +Christ upon the Cross. 'He shall straightway glorify Him.' At the instant then, +that He said, 'It is finished,' and all that the Cross could do to glorify God +was done, at that instant there began, with not a pin-point of interval between +them, God's glorifying of the Son in Himself. It began in that Paradise into +which we know that upon that day He entered. It was manifested to the world +when He 'raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory.' It reached a still +higher point when 'they brought Him near unto the Ancient of Days,' and +ascending up on high, a dominion and a throne and a glory were given to Him +which last now, whilst the Son of Man sits in the heavens on the throne of His +glory, wielding the attributes of divinity, and administering the laws of the +universe and the mysteries of providence. It shall rise to its highest +manifestation before an assembled world, when He 'shall come in His glory, and +before Him shall be gathered all nations.' +</p> + +<p> +This, then, was the vision that lay before the Christ in that upper room, the +vision of Himself glorified in His extreme shame, because His Cross manifested +His love and His saving power; of God glorified in Him above all other of His +acts of manifestation when He died on the Cross, and revealed the very heart of +God; and of Himself glorified in the Father when, exalted high above all +creatures, He sitteth upon the Father's throne and rules the Father's realm. +</p> + +<p> +And yet from that high, and, to us, inaccessible and all but inconceivable +summit of His elevation, He looks down ready to bless each poor creature here, +toiling and moiling amidst sufferings, and meannesses, and commonplaces, and +monotony, if we will only put our trust in Him, and love Him, and see the +brightness of the Father's face in Him. He cares for us all; and if we will but +take Him as our Saviour, His all-prevalent prayer, presented within the veil +for us, will certainly be fulfilled at last: 'Father, I will that they also +whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My +glory.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap58"></a>CANNOT AND CAN</h2> + +<p> +'Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me: and as I +said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come; so now I say to you.'—JOHN +xiii. 33. +</p> + +<p> +The preceding context shows how large and black the Cross loomed before Jesus +now, and how radiant the glory beyond shone out to Him. But it was only for a +moment that either of these two absorbed His thoughts; and with wonderful +self-forgetfulness and self-command, He turned away at once from the +consideration of how the near future was to affect Him, to the thought of how +it was to affect the handful of helpless disciples who had to be left alone. +Impending separation breaks up the fountains of the heart, and we all know the +instinct that desires to crowd all the often hidden love into some one last +token. So here our Lord addresses His disciples by a name that is never used +except this once, 'little children,' a fond diminutive that not only reveals an +unusual depth of tender emotion, but also breathes a pitying sense of their +defencelessness when they are to be left alone. So might a dying mother look at +her little ones. +</p> + +<p> +But the words that follow, at first sight, are dark with the sense of a final +and complete separation. 'Ye shall seek Me'—and not only so, but He seems to +put back His humble friends into the same place as had been occupied by His +bitter foes—'as I said to the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come; so now I say +to you.' There was something that prevented both classes alike from keeping Him +company; and He had to walk His path both into the darkness and into the glory, +alone. +</p> + +<p> +The words apply in their fullness only to the parenthesis of time whilst He lay +in the grave, and the disciples despairingly thought that all was ended. It was +a brief period: it was a revolutionary moment; and though it was soon to end, +they needed to be guarded against it. But though the words do not apply to the +permanent relation between the glorified Christ and us, His disciples, yet +partly by similarity, and still more by contrast, they do suggest great +Christian blessedness and imperative Christian duties. These gather themselves +mainly round two contrasts, a transitory 'cannot' soon to be changed into a +permanent 'can'; and a momentary seeking, soon to be converted into a blessed +seeking which finds. I now deal only with the former. +</p> + +<p> +We have here a transitory 'cannot' soon to be changed into a permanent 'can.' +</p> + +<p> +'Whither I go ye cannot come.' Does not one hear a tone of personal sorrow in +that saying? Jesus had always hungered for understanding and sympathetic +companions, and one of His lifelong sorrows had been His utter loneliness; but +He had never, in all the time that He had been with them, so put out His hand, +feeling for some warm clasp of a human hand to help Him in His struggle, as He +did during the hours terminating with Gethsemane. And perhaps we may venture to +say that we hear in this utterance an expression of Christ's sorrow for Himself +that He had to tread the dark way, and to pass into the brightness beyond, all +alone. He yearned for the impossible human companionship, as well as sorrowed +for the imperfections which made it impossible. +</p> + +<p> +Why was it that they could not 'follow Him now'? The answer to that question is +found in the consideration of whither it was that He went. When that bright +Shekinah-cloud at the Ascension received Him into its radiant folds, it showed +why they could not follow Him, because it revealed that He went unto the +Father, when He left the world. So we are brought face to face with the old, +solemn thought that character makes capacity for heaven. 'Who shall ascend into +the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place?' asked the +Psalmist; and a prophet put the question in a still sharper form, and by the +very form of the question suggested a negative answer—'Who among us shall dwell +with the devouring fire; who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' +Who can pass into that Presence, and stand near God, without being, like the +maiden in the old legend, shrivelled into ashes by the contact of the celestial +fire? 'Holiness' is that 'without which no man shall see the Lord.' And we, all +of us, in the depths of our own hearts, if we rightly understand the voices +that ever echo there, must feel that the condition which is, obviously and +without any need for arguing it, required for abiding with God, and so going +into the glory where Christ is, is a condition which none of us can fulfil. In +that respect the imperfect and immature friends, the little children, the babes +who loved and yet knew not Him whom they loved, and the scowling enemies, were +at one. For they had all of them the one human heart, and in that heart the +deep-lying alienation and contrariety to God. Therefore Christ trod the +winepress alone, and alone 'ascended up where He was before.' +</p> + +<p> +But let us remember that this 'cannot' was only a transitory cannot. For we +must underscore very deeply that word in my text 'so <i>now</i> I say to you,' +and a moment afterwards, when one of the Apostles puts the question: 'Why +cannot I follow Thee now?' the answer is: 'Thou canst not follow Me now; but +thou shalt follow Me afterwards.' The text, too, is succeeded immediately by +the wonderful parting consolations and counsels spoken to the disciples, +through all of which there gleams the promise that they will be with Him where +He is, and behold His glory. Set side by side with these sad words of our Lord +in the text, by which He unloosed their clasping hands from Him, and turned His +face to His solitary path, the triumphant language in which habitually the rest +of the New Testament speaks of the Christian man's relation to Christ. Think of +that great passage: 'Ye are come unto the city of the living God, the heavenly +Jerusalem, … and to God the Judge of all, … and to Jesus the Mediator of the +new Covenant.' What has become of the impossibility? Vanished. Where is the +'cannot'? Turned into a blessed 'can.' And so Apostles have no scruple in +saying, 'Our citizenship is in Heaven,' nor in saying, 'We sit together with +Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' The path that was blocked is open. The +impossibility that towered up like a great black wall has melted away; and the +path into the Holiest of all is made patent by the blood of Christ. For in that +death there lies the power that sweeps away all the impediments of man's sin, +and in that life of the risen, glorified, indwelling Christ there lies the +power which cleanses the inmost heart from 'all filthiness of flesh and +spirit,' and makes it possible for our mortal feet to walk on the immortal +path, and for us, with all our unworthiness, with all our shrinking, to stand +in His presence and not be ashamed or consumed. 'Ye cannot come' was true for a +few days. 'Ye can come' is true for ever; and for all Christian men. +</p> + +<p> +But let us not forget that the one attitude of heart and mind, by which a poor, +sinful man, who dare not draw near to God, receives into himself the merit and +power of the death, and the indwelling power of the life, of Jesus Christ, is +personal faith in Jesus Christ. To trust Him is to come to Him, and it is +represented in Scripture as conferring an instantaneous fitness for access to +God. People pray sometimes that they may be made 'meet for the inheritance of +the saints in light,' and the prayer is, in a sense, wise and true. But they +too often forget that the Apostle says, in the original connection of the words +which they so quote: 'He <i>hath</i> translated us from the tyranny of the +darkness, and <i>hath</i> made us meet for the inheritance of the saints in +light.' That is to say, whenever a poor soul, compassed and laden with its +infirmity and sin, turns itself to that Lord whose Cross conquers sin, and +whose blood infused into our veins—the Spirit of whose life granted to us—gives +us to partake of His own righteousness, that moment that soul can tread the +path that brings into the presence of God, and 'has access with confidence by +the faith of Him.' So, brethren, seeing that thus the incapacity may all be +swept away, and that instead of a 'cannot,' which relegates us to darkness, we +may receive a 'can' which leads us into the light, let us see to it that this +communion, which is possible for all Christian men, is real in our cases, and +that we use the access which is given to us, and dwell for ever in, and with, +the Lord. +</p> + +<p> +I have said that the act of faith, by associating a man with Jesus Christ in +the power of His death and of His life, makes any who exercise it capable of +passing into the presence of God. But I would remind you, too, that to make us +more fit for more full and habitual communion is the very purpose for which all +the discipline of our earthly life, its sorrows and its joys, its tasks and its +repose, is exercised upon us—'He for our profit, that we might be partakers of +His holiness.' Surely if we habitually took that point of view in reference to +our work, in reference to our joys, in reference to our trials, everything +would be different. We are being prepared with sedulous love, with patient +reiteration of 'line upon line, precept upon precept,' with singularly varied +methods but a uniform purpose, by all that meets us in life, to be more capable +of treading the eternal path into the eternal light. Is that how we daily think +of our own circumstances? Do we bring that great thought to bear upon all that +we, sometimes faithlessly, call mysterious or murmuringly think of—if we dare +not speak our thought—as being cruel and hard? What does it matter if some +precious things be lifted off our shoulders, and out of our hearts, if their +being taken away makes it more possible for us to tread with a lighter step the +path of peace? What matters it though many things that we would fain keep are +withdrawn from us, if by the withdrawal we are sent a little further forward on +the road that leads to God? As George Herbert says, sorrows and joys are like +battledores that drive a shuttlecock, and they may all 'toss us to His breast.' +In faith, however infantile it may be, there is an undeveloped capacity, a germ +of fitness, for dwelling with God. But that capacity is meant to be increased, +and the little children are meant to be helped to grow up into full-grown men, +'the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,' by all that comes here +to them on earth. Do you not think we should understand life better, do you not +think it would all be flashed up into new radiance, do you not think we should +more seldom stand bewildered at what we choose to call the inscrutable +dispensations of Providence, if this were the point of view from which we +looked at them all—that they were fitting us for perpetual abiding with our +Father God? +</p> + +<p> +Nor let us forget that there was a transient 'cannot' of another sort. For +'flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.' So, as life is changed +when we think of it as helping us toward Him, death is changed when we think of +it as being, if I may so say, the usher in attendance on the Presence-chamber, +who draws back the thin curtain that separates us from the throne, and takes us +by the hands and leads us into the Presence. Surely if we habitually thought +thus of that otherwise grim chamberlain, we should be willing to put our hands +into His, as a little child will, when straying, into the hands of a stranger +who says, 'Come with me and I will take you home to your father.' 'As I said +unto the Jews … so now I say to you, whither I go, ye cannot come.' +</p> + +<p> +Let us press on you and on myself the one thought that comes out of all that I +have been saying, the blessed possibility, which, because it is a possibility, +is an obligation, to use far more than most of us do, the right of access to +the King who is our Father. There are nobles and corporate bodies, who regard +it as one of their chief distinctions that they have always the right of +<i>entree</i> to the court of the sovereign. Every Christian man has that. And +in old days, when a baron did not show himself at court, suspicion naturally +arose, and he was in danger of being thought disaffected, if not traitorous. +Ah! if you and I were judged according to that law, what would become of us? We +can go when we like. How seldom we do go! We can live in the heavens whilst our +work lies down here. We prefer the low earth to the lofty sky. 'We are +come'—ideally, and in the depths of our nature, our affinities are there—'unto +God, the Judge of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant.' Are we +come? Are we day by day, in all the pettiness of our ordinary lives, when +compassed by hard duties, weighed upon by sore distress—still keeping our +hearts in heaven, and our feet familiar with the path that leads us to God? +'Set your affection on things above, where Jesus is, sitting at the right hand +of God.' For there is no 'cannot' for His servants in regard to their access to +any place where He is. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap59"></a>SEEKING JESUS</h2> + +<p> +'… Ye shall seek Me.'—JOHN xiii. 33. +</p> + +<p> +In the former sermon on this verse I pointed out that it, in its fullness, +applies only to the brief period between the crucifixion and the resurrection, +but that, partly by contrast and partly by analogy, it suggests permanent +relations between Christ and His disciples. These relations were mainly—as I +pointed out then—two: there was that one expressed by the subsequent words of +the verse, 'Whither I go, ye cannot come'—a brief 'cannot,' soon to be changed +into a permanent 'can'; and there was a second, a brief, sad, and vain seeking, +soon to be changed into a seeking which finds. It is to the latter that I wish +to turn now. +</p> + +<p> +'Ye shall seek Me' fell, like the clods on a coffin-lid, with a hollow sound on +the hearts of the Apostles. It comes to us as a permission and a command and a +promise. I do not dwell on that sad seeking, which was so brief but so bitter. +We all know what it is to put out an empty hand into the darkness and the void, +and to grope for a touch which we know, whilst we grope, that we shall not +find. And these poor, helpless disciples, by their forlorn sense of separation, +by their yearning that brought no satisfaction, by their very listless despair, +were saying, during these hours of agony into which an eternity of pain was +condensed, 'Oh! that He were beside us again!' +</p> + +<p> +That sad seeking ended when He came to them, and 'then were the disciples glad +when they saw the Lord.' But another kind of seeking began, when 'the cloud +received Him out of their sight'; as joyful as the other was laden with sorrow, +as sure to find the object of its quest as the other was certain to be +disappointed. What He said in the darkness to them, He says in the light to us: +What 'I say unto you I say unto all,' <i>Seek!</i> So now we have to deal with +that joyful search which is sure of finding its object, and is only a little, +if at all, less blessed than the finding itself. +</p> + +<p> +I. Every Christian is, by his very name, a seeker after Christ. +</p> + +<p> +There are two kinds of seeking, one like that of a bird whose young have been +stolen away, which flutters here and there, because it knows not where that is +which it seeks; another, like the flight of the same bird, when the migrating +instinct rises in its little breast, and straight as an arrow it goes, not +because it knows not its goal, but because it knows it, yonder where the sun is +warm and the sky is blue, and winter is left behind in the cold north. 'Ye +shall seek Me' is the word of promise, which changes the vain search that is +ignorant of where the object of its quest is, into a blessed going out of the +heart towards that which it knows to be the home of its homelessness. Thus the +text brings out the very central blessedness and peculiarity of the Christian +life, that it has no uncertainty in its aims, and that, instead of seeking for +things which may or may not be found, or if found may or may not prove to be +what we dreamt them to be. It seeks for a Person whom it knows where to find, +and of whom it knows that all its desires will be met in Him. We have, then, on +the one side the multifarious, divergent searchings of man; and on the other +side the one quest in which all these others are gathered up, and translated +into blessedness—the seeking after Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Men know that they need, if I may so put it, four things: truth for the +understanding, love round which the heart may coil, authority for the will +which may direct and restrain, and energy for the practical life. But, apart +from the quest after Christ, men for the most part seek these necessary goods +in divers objects, and fragmentarily look for the completion of their desires. +But fragments will never satisfy a man's soul, and they who have to go to one +place for truth, and to another for love, and to another for authority, and to +another for energy, are wofully likely never to find what they search for. They +are seeking in the manifold what can be found only in the One. It is as if some +vessel, full of precious stones, were thrown down before men, and whilst they +are racing after the diamonds, they lose the emeralds and the sapphires. But +the wise concentrate their seekings on the 'one Pearl of great price,' in whom +is truth for the brain, love for the heart, authority for the will, power for +the life, and all summed in that which is more blessed than all, the Person of +the Brother who died for us, the Christ who lives to fill our hearts for ever. +One sun dims all the stars; and the 'one entire and perfect Chrysolite' beggars +and reduces to fragments 'all the precious things that thou canst desire.' +</p> + +<p> +To seek Him is the very hall-mark of a Christian, and that seeking comes to be +an earnest desire and effort after more conscious communion with Him, and a +more entire possession of His imparted life which is righteousness and peace +and joy and power. According to the Rabbis, the manna tasted to each man what +each man most desired. The manifoldness of the one Christ is far more manifold +than the manifoldness of the multiplicity of fragmentary and partial aims which +foolish men perceive. +</p> + +<p> +The ways of seeking are very plain. First of all, we seek if, and in proportion +as, we make the effort to occupy our thoughts and minds, not with theological +dogmas, but with the living Christ Himself. Ah! brethren, it is hard to do, and +I daresay a great many of you are thinking that it is far harder for you, in +the distractions and rush and conflict of business and daily life, than it is +for people like me, whom you imagine as sitting in a study, with nothing to +distract us. I do not know about that; I fancy it is about equally hard for us +all; but it is possible. I have been in Alpine villages where, at the end of +every squalid alley, there towered up a great, pure, silent, white peak. That +is what our lives may be; however noisome, crowded, petty the little lane in +which we live, the Alp is at the end of it there, if we only choose to lift our +eyes and look. It is possible that not only 'into the sessions of sweet silent +thought,' but into the rush and bustle of the workshop or the exchange, there +may come, like 'some sweet, beguiling melody, so sweet we know not we are +listening to it,' the thought that changes pettiness into greatness, that makes +all things go smoothly and easily, that is a test and a charm to discover and +to destroy temptation, the thought of a present Christ, the Lover of my soul, +and the Helper of my life. +</p> + +<p> +Again, we seek Him when, by aspiration and desire, we bring Him—as He is always +brought thereby—into our hearts and into our lives. The measure of our desire +is the measure of our possession. Wishing is the opening of our hearts, but, +alas, often we wish and desire, and the heart opens and nothing enters. Wishes +are like the tentacles of some marine organism waving about in a waste ocean, +feeling for the food that they do not find. But if we open our hearts for Him, +that is simultaneous with the coming of Him to us. 'Ye have not, because ye ask +not.' Do not forget, dear friends, that desire, if it is genuine, will take a +very concrete form and will be prayer. And it is prayer—by which I do not mean +the utterance of words without desire, any more than I mean desire without the +direct casting of it into the form of supplication—it is prayer that brings +Christ into any, and it is prayer that will bring Him into every, life. +</p> + +<p> +Nor let us forget that there is another way of seeking besides these two, of +looking up to Him through, and in the midst of, all the shows and trifles of +this low life, and the reaching out of our desires towards Him, as the roots of +a tree beneath the soil go straight for the river. That other way is imitation +and obedience. It is vain to think of Him, and it is unreal to pretend to +desire Him, if we are not seeking Him by treading in the path that He has trod, +and which leads to Him. Imitation and obedience—these are the steps by which we +go straight through all the trivialities of life into the presence of the Lord +Himself. The smallest deflection from the path that leads to Him will carry us +away into doleful wastes. The least invisible cloud that steals across the sky +will blot out half a hemisphere of stars; and we seek not Christ unless, +thinking of Him, and desiring Him, we also walk in the path in which He has +walked, and so come where He is. He Himself has said that if His servant +follows Him, where He is there shall also His servant be. These things make up +the seeking which ought to mark us all. +</p> + +<p> +I note that— +</p> + +<p> +II. The Christian seeker always finds. +</p> + +<p> +I pointed out in my last sermon the strange identity of our Lord's words to His +humble friends, with those which on another occasion He used to His bitter +enemies. He reminds the disciples of that identity in the verse from which my +text comes: 'As I said to the Jews … so now I say to you.' But there was one +thing that He said to the Jews that He did not say to them. To the former He +said, 'Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me'; and He did not say that—even +for the sad hours it was not quite true—He did not say that to His followers, +and He does not say it to us. +</p> + +<p> +If we seek we shall find. There is no disappointment in the Christian life. +Anything is possible rather than that a man should desire Christ and not have +Him. That has never been the experience of any seeking soul. And so I urge upon +you what has already been suggested, that inasmuch as, by reason of His +infinite longing to give truth and love and guidance and energy and His whole +Self, to all of us, the amount of our possession of the power and life of Jesus +Christ depends on ourselves. If you take to the fountain a tiny cup, you will +only bring away a tiny cupful. If you take a great vessel you will bring +<i>it</i> away full. As long as the woman in the old story held out her vessels +to the miraculous flow of the oil, the flow continued. When she had no more +vessels to take, the flow stopped. If a man holds a flagon beneath a spigot +with an unsteady hand, half of the precious liquor will be spilt on the ground. +Those who fulfil the conditions, of which I have already been speaking, may +make quite sure that according to their faith will it be unto them. And if you, +dear friend, have not in your experience the conscious presence of a Christ who +is all that you need, there is no one in heaven or earth or hell to blame for +it but only your own self. 'I have never said to any of the seed of Jacob, Seek +ye My face in vain'; and when the Lord said, 'Ye shall seek Me,' He was +implicitly binding Himself to meet the seeking soul, and give Himself to the +desiring heart. +</p> + +<p> +Remember, too, that this seeking, which is always crowned with finding, is the +only search in which failure is impossible. There is only one course of life +that has no disappointments. We all know how frequently we are foiled in our +quests; we all know how often a prize won is a bitterer disappointment than a +prize unattained. Like a jelly-fish in the water, as long as it is there its +tenuous substance is lovely, expanded, tinged with delicate violets and blues, +and its long filaments float in lines of beauty. Lay it on the beach, and it is +a shapeless lump, and it poisons and stings. You fish your prize out of the +great ocean, and when you have it, does it disappoint, or does it fulfil, the +raised expectations of the quest? There is One who does not disappoint. There +is one gold mine that comes up to the prospectus. There is one spring that +never runs dry. The more deep our Christian experience is, the more we shall +take the rapturous exclamation of the Arabian queen to ourselves: 'The half was +not told us!' +</p> + +<p> +And so, lastly, I suggest that— +</p> + +<p> +III. The finding impels to fresh seeking. +</p> + +<p> +The object of the Christian man's quest is Jesus Christ. He is Incarnate +Infinitude; and that cannot be exhausted. The seeker after Jesus Christ is the +Christian soul. That soul is the incarnate possibility of indefinite expansion +and approximation and assimilation; and that cannot be exhausted. And so, with +a Christ who is infinite, and a seeker whose capacities may be indefinitely +expanded, there can be no satiety, there can be no limit, there can be no end +to the process. This wine-skin will not burst when the new wine is put into it. +Rather like some elastic vessel, as you pour it will fill out and expand. +Possession enlarges, and the more of Christ's fullness is poured into a human +heart, the more is that heart widened out to receive a greater blessing. +</p> + +<p> +Dear brethren, there is one course of life, and I believe but one, on which we +may all enter with the sure confidence that in the nature of things, in the +nature of Christ, and in the nature of ourselves, there is no end to growth and +progress. Think of the freshness and blessedness and energy that puts into a +life. To have an unattained and unattainable object, a goal to which we can +never come, but to which we may ever be approximating, seems to me to be the +secret of perpetual joy and of perpetual youthfulness. To say, 'forgetting the +things that are behind, I reach forward unto the things that are before,' is a +charm and an amulet that repels monotony and weariness, and goes with a man to +the very end, and when all other aims and objects have died down into grey +ashes, that flame, like the fabled lamp in Virgil's tomb, burns clear in the +grave, and lights us to the eternity beyond. +</p> + +<p> +For certainly, if there be neither satiety nor limit to Christian progress +here, there can be no better and stronger evidence that Christian progress here +is but the first 'lap' of the race, the first <i>stadium</i> of the course, and +that beyond that narrow, dark line which lies across the path, it runs on, +rising higher, and will run on for ever. +</p> + +<p> + 'On earth the broken arc; in heaven the perfect round.' +</p> + +<p> +Seek for what you are sure to find; seek for what will never disappoint you; +seek for what will abide with you for ever. The very first word of Christ's +recorded in Scripture is a question which He puts to us all: '<i>What</i> seek +ye?' Well for us, if like the two to whom it was originally addressed, we +answer, 'We are not seeking a What; we are seeking a Whom.—Master, where +dwellest Thou?' And if we have that answer in our hearts, we shall receive the +invitation which they received, 'Come and see,'—come and seek. 'Ye shall seek +Me' is a gracious invitation, an imperative command, and a faithful promise +that if we seek we shall find. 'Whoso findeth <i>Him</i> findeth life; whoso +misseth <i>Him</i>'—whatever else he has sought and found—'wrongeth his own +soul.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap60"></a>'AS I HAVE LOVED'</h2> + +<p> +'A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have loved +you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My +disciples, if ye have love one to another.'—JOHN xiii. 34, 35. +</p> + +<p> +Wishes from dying lips are sacred. They sink deep into memories and mould +faithful lives. The sense of impending separation had added an unwonted +tenderness to our Lord's address, and He had designated His disciples by the +fond name of 'little children.' The same sense here gives authority to His +words, and moulds them into the shape of a command. The disciples had held +together because He was in their midst. Will the arch stand when the keystone +is struck out? Will not the spokes fall asunder when the nave of the wheel is +taken away? He would guard them from the disintegrating tendencies that were +sure to set in when He was gone; and He would point them to a solace for His +absence, and to a kind of substitute for His presence. For to love the brethren +whom they see would be, in some sense, a continuing to love the Christ whom +they had ceased to see. And so, immediately after He said: 'Whither I go ye +cannot come,' He goes on to say: 'Love one another as I have loved you.' +</p> + +<p> +He called this a 'new commandment,' though to love one's neighbour as one's +self was a familiar commonplace amongst the Jews, and had a recognised position +in Rabbinical teaching. But His commandment proposed a new object of love, it +set forth a new measure of love, so greatly different from all that had +preceded it as to become almost a new kind of love, and it suggested and +supplied a new motive power for love. This commandment 'could give life' and +fulfil itself. Therefore it comes to us as a 'new commandment'—even to us—and, +unlike the words which preceded it, which we were considering in former +sermons, it is wholly and freshly applicable to-day as in the ages that are +passed. I ask you, first, to consider— +</p> + +<p> +I. The new scope of the new commandment. +</p> + +<p> +'Love one another.' The newness of the precept is realised, if we think for a +moment of the new phenomenon which obedience to it produced. When the words +were spoken, the then-known civilised Western world was cleft by great, deep +gulfs of separation, like the crevasses in a glacier, by the side of which our +racial animosities and class differences are merely superficial cracks on the +surface. Language, religion, national animosities, differences of condition, +and saddest of all, difference of sex, split the world up into alien fragments. +A 'stranger' and an 'enemy' were expressed in one language, by the same word. +The learned and the unlearned, the slave and his master, the barbarian and the +Greek, the man and the woman, stood on opposite sides of the gulfs, flinging +hostility across. A Jewish peasant wandered up and down for three years in His +own little country, which was the very focus of narrowness and separation and +hostility, as the Roman historian felt when he called the Jews the 'haters of +the human race'; He gathered a few disciples, and He was crucified by a +contemptuous Roman governor, who thought that the life of one fanatical Jew was +a small price to pay for popularity with his troublesome subjects, and in a +generation after, the clefts were being bridged and all over the Empire a +strange new sense of unity was being breathed, and 'Barbarian, Scythian, bond +and free,' male and female, Jew and Greek, learned and ignorant, clasped hands +and sat down at one table, and felt themselves 'all one in Christ Jesus.' They +were ready to break all other bonds, and to yield to the uniting forces that +streamed out from His Cross. There never had been anything like it. No wonder +that the world began to babble about sorcery, and conspiracies, and complicity +in unnameable vices. It was only that the disciples were obeying the 'new +commandment,' and a new thing had come into the world—a community held together +by love and not by geographical accidents or linguistic affinities, or the iron +fetters of the conqueror. You sow the seed in furrows separated by ridges, and +the ground is seamed, but when the seed springs the ridges are hidden, no +division appears, and as far as the eye can reach, the cornfield stretches, +rippling in unbroken waves of gold. The new commandment made a new thing, and +the world wondered. +</p> + +<p> +Now then, brethren, do not let us forget that, although to obey this +commandment is in some respects a great deal harder to-day than it was then, +the diverse circumstances in which Christian individuals and Christian +communities are this day placed may modify the form of our obedience, but do +not in the smallest degree weaken the obligation, for the individual Christian +and for societies of Christians, to follow this commandment. The multiplication +of numbers, the cessation of the armed hostility of the world, the great +varieties in intellectual position in regard to the truths of Christianity, +divergencies of culture, and many other things, are separating forces, But our +Christianity is worth very little, if it cannot master these separating +tendencies, even as in the early days of freshness, the Christianity that +sprang in these new converts' minds mastered the far more powerful separating +tendencies with which they had to contend. +</p> + +<p> +Every Christian man is under the obligation to recognise his kindred with every +other Christian man—his kindred in the deep foundations of his spiritual being, +which are far deeper, and ought to be far more operative in drawing together, +than the superficial differences of culture or opinion or the like, which may +part us. The bond that holds Christian men together is their common relation to +the one Lord, and that ought to influence their attitude to one another. You +say I am talking commonplaces. Yes; and the condition of Christianity this day +is the sad and tragical sign that the commonplaces need to be talked about, +till they are rubbed into the conscience of the Church as they never have been +before. +</p> + +<p> +Do not let us suppose that Christian love is mere sentiment. I shall have to +speak a word or two about that presently, but I would fain lift the whole +subject, if I can, out of the region of mere unctuous words and gush of +half-feigned emotion, which mean nothing, and would make you feel that it is a +very practical commandment, gripping us hard, when our Lord says to us, 'Love +one another.' +</p> + +<p> +I have spoken about the accidental conditions which make obedience to this +commandment difficult. The real reason which makes the obedience to it +difficult is the slackness of our own hold on the Centre. In the measure in +which we are filled with Jesus Christ, in that measure will that expression of +His spirit and His life become natural to us. Every Christian has affinities +with every other Christian, in the depths of his being, so as that he is a +great deal more like his brother, who is possessor of 'like precious faith,' +however unlike the two may be in outlook, in idiosyncrasy, and culture and in +creed, than he is to another man with whom he may have a far closer sympathy in +all these matters than he has with the brother in question, but from whom he is +parted by this, that the one trusts and loves and obeys Jesus Christ, and the +other does not. So, for individuals and for churches, the commandment takes +this shape—Go down to the depths and you will find that you are closer to the +Christian man or community which seems furthest from you, than you are to the +non-Christian who seems nearest to you. Therefore, let your love follow your +kinship, and your heart recognise the oneness that knits you together. That is +a revolutionary commandment; what would become of our present organisations of +Christianity if it were obeyed? That is a revolutionary commandment; what would +become of our individual relations to the whole family who, in every place, and +in many tongues, and with many creeds, call on Jesus as on their Lord, their +Lord and ours, if it were obeyed? I leave you to answer the question. Only I +say the commandment has for its first scope all who, in every place, love the +Lord Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +But there is more than that involved in it. The very same principle which makes +this love to one another imperative upon all disciples, makes it equally +imperative upon every follower of Jesus Christ to embrace in a real affection +all whom Jesus so loved as to die for them. If I am to love a Christian man +because he and I love Christ, I am to love everybody, because Christ loves me +and everybody, and because He died on the Cross for me and for all men. And so +one of the other Apostles, or, at least, the letter which goes by his name, +laid hold on the true connection when, instead of concentrating Christian +affection on the Church, and letting the world go to the devil as an alien +thing, he said: 'Add to your faith,' this, that, and the other, and 'brotherly +kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity.' The particular does not exclude +the general, it leads to the general. The fire kindled upon the hearth gives +warmth to all the chamber. The circles are concentric, and the widest sweep is +struck from the same middle point as the narrow. So the new commandment does +not cut humanity into two halves, but gathers all diversity into one, and +spreads the great reconciling of Christian love over all the antagonisms and +oppositions of earth. Let me ask you to notice— +</p> + +<p> +II. The example of the new commandment, 'As I have loved you.' +</p> + +<p> +That solemn 'as' lifts itself up before us, shines far ahead of us, ought to +draw us to itself in hope, and not to repel us from itself in despair. 'As I +have loved'—what a tremendous thing for a man to stand up before his fellows, +and say, 'Take Me as the perfect example of perfect love; and let My +example—un-dimmed by the mists of gathering centuries, and un-weakened by the +change of condition, and circumstance, fresh as ever after ages have passed, +and closely-fitting as ever all varieties of human character and +condition—stand before you; the ideal that I have realised, and you will be +blessed in the proportion in which you seek, though you fail, to realise it!' +There is, I venture to believe, only one aspect of Jesus Christ in which such a +setting forth of Himself as the perfect Incarnation of perfect love is +warrantable; and that is found in the old belief that His very birth was the +result of His love, and that His death was the climax of that love. And if so, +we have to turn to Bethlehem, and the whole life, and the Cross at its end, as +being the Christ-given example and model for our love to our brethren. +</p> + +<p> +What do we see there? I have said that there is too much of mere sickly +sentimentality about the ordinary treatment of this great commandment, and that +I desired to lift it out of that region into a far nobler, more strenuous, and +difficult one. This is what we see in that life and in that death:—First of +all—the activity of love—'Let <i>us</i> not love in words, but in deed and in +truth'; then we see the self-forgetfulness of love—'Even Christ pleased not +Himself'; then we see the self-sacrifice of love—'Greater love hath no man than +this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' And in these three points, +on which I would fain enlarge if I might, active love, self-oblivious love, +self-sacrificing love, you have the pattern set for us all. Christian love is +no mere sickly maiden, full of sentimental emotions and honeyed words. She is a +strenuous virgin, girt for service, a heroine ready for dangers, and prepared +to be a martyr if it be needful. Love's language is sacrifice. 'I give thee +myself,' is its motto. And that is the pattern that is set before us all—'as I +have loved you.' +</p> + +<p> +I have tried to show you how the commandment was new in many particulars, and +it is for ever new in this particular, that it is for ever before us, +unattained, and drawing faithful hearts to itself, and ever opening out into +new heroisms and, therefore, blessedness, of self-sacrifice, and ever leading +us to confess the differences, deep, tragic, sinful, between us and Him who—we +sometimes think too presumptuously—we venture to say is our Lord and Master. +</p> + +<p> +Did you ever see in some great picture gallery a copyist sitting in front of a +Raffaelle, and comparing his poor feeble daub, all out of drawing, and with +little of the divine beauty that the master had breathed over his canvas, even +if it preserved the mere mechanical outline? That is what you and I should do +with our lives: take them and put them down side by side with the original. We +shall have to do it some day. Had we better not do it now, and try to bring the +copy a little nearer to the masterpiece; and let that 'as I have loved you' +shine before us and draw us on to unattainable heights? +</p> + +<p> +And now, lastly, we have here— +</p> + +<p> +III. The motive power for obedience to the commandment. +</p> + +<p> +That is as new as all the rest. That 'as' expresses the manner of the love, but +it also expresses the motive and the power. It might be translated into the +equivalent 'in the fashion in which,' or it might be translated into the +equivalent 'since—' 'I have loved you.' The original might bear the rendering, +'that ye also may love one another.' That is to say, what keeps men from +obeying this commandment is the instinctive self-regard which is natural to us +all. There are muscles in the body which are so constructed that they close +tightly; and the heart is something like one of these sphincter muscles—it +shuts by nature, especially if there has been anything put inside it over which +it can shut and keep it all to itself. But there is one thing that dethrones +Self, and enthrones the angel Love in a heart, and that is, that into that +heart there shall come surging the sense of the great love 'wherewith I have +loved you.' That melts the iceberg; nothing else will. +</p> + +<p> +That love of Christ to us, received into our hearts, and there producing an +answering love to Him, will make us, in the measure in which we live in it and +let it rule us, love everything and every person that He loves. That love of +Jesus Christ, stealing into our hearts and there sweetening the ever-springing +'issues of life,' will make them flow out in glad obedience to any commandment +of His. That love of Jesus Christ, received into our hearts, and responded to +by our answering love, will work, as love always does, a magical +transformation. A great monastic teacher wrote his precious book about <i>The +Imitation of Christ</i>. 'Imitation' is a great word, 'Transformation' is a +greater. 'We all,' receiving on the mirror of our loving hearts the love of +Jesus Christ, 'are changed into the same likeness.' Thus, then, the love, which +is our pattern, is also our motive and our power for obedience, and the more we +bring ourselves under its influences, the more we shall love all those who are +beloved by, and lovers of, Jesus. +</p> + +<p> +That is the one foundation for a world knit together in the bonds of amity and +concord. There have been attempts at brotherhood, and the guillotine has ended +what was begun in the name of 'fraternity.' Men build towers, but there is no +cement between the bricks, unless the love of Christ holds them together, and +therefore Babel after Babel comes down about the ears of its builders. But +notwithstanding all that is dark to-day, and though the war-clouds are +lowering, and the hearts of men are inflamed with fierce passions, Christ's +commandment is Christ's promise; and though the vision tarry, it will surely +come. So even to-day Christian men ought to stand for Christ's peace, and for +Christ's love. The old commandment which we have had from the beginning, is the +new commandment that fits to-day as it fits all the ages. It is a dream, say +some. Yes, a dream; but a morning dream which comes true. Let us do the little +we can to make it true, and to bring about the day when the flock of men will +gather round the one Shepherd, who loved them to the death, and who has bid +them and helped them to 'love one another as'—and since—'He has loved them.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap61"></a>QUO VADIS?</h2> + +<p> +'Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now! I will lay down my +life for Thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake? +Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied +Me thrice.'—JOHN xiii. 37, 38. +</p> + +<p> +Peter's main characteristics are all in operation here; his eagerness to be in +the front, his habit of blurting out his thoughts and feelings, his passionate +love for his Master, and withal his inability to understand Him, and his +self-confident arrogance. He has broken in upon Christ's solemn words, entirely +deaf to their deep meaning, but blindly and blunderingly laying hold of one +thought only, that Jesus is departing, and that he is to be left alone. So he +asks the question, 'Lord! thither goest Thou?'—not so much caring about that, +as meaning by his question—'tell me where, and then I will come too'; pledging +himself to follow faithfully, as a dog behind his master, wherever He went. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord answered the underlying meaning of the words, repeating with a +personal application what He had just before said as a general +principle—'Whither I go thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shall follow Me +afterwards.' Then followed this noteworthy dialogue. +</p> + +<p> +The whole significance of the incident is preserved for us in the beautiful +legend which tells us how, near the city of Rome, on the Appian Way, as Peter +was flying for his life, he met the Lord, and again said to Him: 'Lord, whither +goest Thou?' The words of the question, as given in the Vulgate, are the name +of the site of the supposed interview, and of the little church which stands on +it. The Master answered: 'I go to Rome, to be crucified again.' The answer +smote the heart of the Apostle, and turned the cowardly fugitive into a hero; +and he followed his Lord, and went gladly to his death. For it was that death +which had to be accomplished before Peter was able to follow his Lord. +</p> + +<p> +Now, as to the words before us, I think we shall best gather their +significance, and lay it upon our own hearts, if we simply follow the windings +of the dialogue. There are three points: the audacious question, the rash vow, +and the sad forecast. +</p> + +<p> +I. The audacious question. +</p> + +<p> +As Peter's first question, 'Lord, whither goest Thou?' meant not so much what +it said, as 'I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest; tell me, that I may'; +so the second question, in like manner, is really not so much a question, 'Why +cannot I follow Thee now?' as the nearest possible approach to a flat +contradiction of our Lord. Peter puts his words into the shape of an +interrogation; what he means is, 'Yes, I can follow Thee; and in proof thereof, +I will lay down my life for Thy sake.' The man's persistence, the man's love +leading him to lack of reverence, came out in this (as I have ventured to call +it) audacious question. Its underlying meaning was a refusal to believe the +Master's word. But yet there was in it a nobility of resolution—broken +afterwards, but never mind about that—to endure anything rather than to be +separate from the Lord. Yet, though it was noble in its motive, but lacking in +reverence in its form, there was a deeper error than that in it. Peter did not +know what 'following' meant, and he had to be taught that first. One of the +main reasons why he could not follow was because he did not understand what was +involved. It was something more than marching behind his Master, even to a +Cross. There was a deeper discipline and a more strenuous effort needed than +would have availed for such a kind of following. +</p> + +<p> +Let us look a little onwards into his life. Recall that scene on the morning of +the day by the banks of the lake, when he waded through the shallow water, and +cast himself, dripping, at his Master's feet, and, having by his threefold +confession obliterated his threefold denial, was taken back to his Lord's love, +and received the permission for which he had hungered, and which he had been +told, in the upper room, could not 'now' be given: 'Jesus said to him, Follow +thou Me.' What a flood of remembrances must then have rushed over the penitent +Peter! how he must have thought to himself, 'So soon, so soon is the "canst +not" changed into a <i>canst</i>! So soon has the "afterwards" come to be the +present!' +</p> + +<p> +And long years after that, when he was an old man, and experience had taught +him what <i>following</i> meant, he shared his privilege with all the dispersed +strangers to whom he wrote, and said to them, with a definite reference to this +incident, and to the other after the Resurrection, 'leaving us an example, that +we (not only, as I used to think, in my exuberant days of ignorance) should +follow in His steps.' +</p> + +<p> +So, brethren, this blundering, loving, audacious question suggests to us that +to follow Jesus Christ is the supreme direction for all conduct. Men of all +creeds, men of no creed, admit that. The +</p> + +<p> + 'Loveliness of perfect deeds,<br /> + More strong than all poetic thought,' +</p> + +<p> +which is set forth in that life constitutes the living law to which all conduct +is to be conformed, and will be noble in proportion as it is conformed. +</p> + +<p> +<i>There</i> is the great blessing, and solemn obligation, and lofty +prerogative of Christian morality, that for obedience to a precept it +substitutes following a Person, and instead of saying to men 'Be good' it says +to them 'Be Christlike.' It brings the conception of duty out of the region of +abstractions into the region of living realities. For the cold statuesque ideal +of perfection it substitutes a living Man, with a heart to love, and a hand to +help us. Thereby the whole aspect of striving after the right is changed; for +the work is made easier, and companionship comes in to aid morality, when Jesus +Christ says to us, 'Be like Me; and then you will be good and blessed.' Effort +will be all but as blessed as attainment, and the sense of pressing hard after +Him will be only less restful than the consciousness of having attained. To +follow Him is bliss, to reach Him is heaven. +</p> + +<p> +But in order that this following should be possible, there must be something +done that had not been done when Peter asked, 'Why cannot I follow Thee now?' +One reason why he could not was, as I said, because he did not know yet what +'following' meant, and because he was yet unfit for this assimilation of his +character and of his conduct to the likeness of his Lord. And another reason +was because the Cross still lay before the Lord, and until that death of +infinite love and utter self-sacrifice for others had been accomplished, the +pattern was not yet complete, nor the highest ideal of human life realised in +life. Therefore the 'following' was impossible. Christ must die before He has +completed the example that we are to follow, and Christ must die before the +impulse shall be given to us, which shall make us able to tread, however +falteringly and far behind, in His footsteps. +</p> + +<p> +The essence of His life and of His death lies in the two things, entire +suppression of personal will in obedience to the will of the Father, and entire +self-sacrifice for the sake of humanity. And however there is—and God forbid +that I should ever forget in my preaching that there is—a uniqueness in that +sacrifice, in that life, and in that death, which beggars all imitation, and +needs and tolerates no repetition whilst the world lasts, still along with +this, there is that which is imitable in the life and imitable in the death of +the Master. To follow Jesus is to live denying self for God, and to live +sacrificing self for men. Nothing less than these are included in the solemn +words, 'leaving us'—even in the act and article of death when He 'suffered for +us'—'an example that we should follow His steps.' +</p> + +<p> +The word rendered 'example' refers to the headline which the writing-master +gives his pupils to copy, line by line. We all know how clumsy the pothooks and +hangers are, how blurred the page with many a blot. And yet there, at the top +of it, stands the Master's fair writing, and though even the last line on the +page will be blotted and blurred, when we turn it over and begin on the new +leaf, the copy will be like the original, 'and we shall be like Him, for we +shall see Him as He is.' 'Thou shalt follow Me afterwards' is a commandment; +blessed be God, it is also a promise. For let us not forget that the +'following' ends in an attaining; even as the Lord Himself has said in another +connection, when He spake: 'If any man serve Me, let him follow Me, and where I +am, there shall also My servant be.' Of course, if we follow, we shall come to +the same place one day. And so the great promise will be fulfilled; 'they shall +follow the Lamb,' in that higher life, 'whithersoever He goeth'; and not as +here imperfectly, and far behind, but close beside Him, and keeping step for +step, being with Him first, and following Him afterwards. +</p> + +<p> +But let us remember that with regard to that future following and its +completeness, the same present incapacity applies, as clogs and mars the +'following,' which is conforming our lives to His. For, as He Himself has said +to us, 'I go to prepare a place for you,' and until He had passed through death +and into His glory, there was no standing-ground for human feet on the golden +pavements, and heaven was inaccessible to man until Christ had died. Thus, as +all life is changed when it is looked upon as being a following of Jesus, so +death becomes altogether other when it is so regarded. The first martyr outside +the city wall, bruised and battered by the cruel stones, remembered his +Master's death, and shaped his own to be like it. As Jesus, when He died, had +said: 'Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit,' Stephen, dying, said: 'Lord +Jesus, receive My spirit.' As the Master had given His last breath to the +prayer, 'Father, forgive them; they know not what they do,' so Stephen shaped +his last utterance to a conformity with his Lord's, in which the difference is +as significant as the likeness, and said, 'Lord, lay not this sin to their +charge.' And then, as the record beautifully says, amidst all that wild hubbub +and cruel assault, 'he fell on sleep,' as a child on its mother's breast. Death +is changed when it becomes the following of Christ. +</p> + +<p> +II. We have here a rash vow. +</p> + +<p> +'I will lay down my life for Thy sake.' What a strange inversion of parts is +here! 'Lay down thy life for My sake'—with Calvary less than four-and-twenty +hours off, when Christ laid down His life for Peter's sake. Peter was guilty of +an anachronism in the words, for the time did not come for the disciple to die +for his Lord till after the Lord had died for His disciple. But he was right in +feeling, though he felt it only in regard to an external and physical act, that +to follow Jesus, it was necessary to be ready to die for Him. And that is the +great truth which underlies and half redeems the rashness of this vow, and +needs to be laid upon our hearts, if we are ever to be the true followers of +the Master. Death for Christ is necessary if we are to follow Him. There is +nothing that a man can do deeply and truly, in a manner worthy of a Christian, +which has not underlying it, either the death of self-will and all the godless +nature, or if need be the actual physical death, which is a much smaller +matter. You cannot follow Christ except you die daily. No man has ever yet +trodden in His footsteps except on condition of, moment by moment, slaying +self, suppressing self, abjuring self, breaking the connection of self with the +material world, and yielding up himself as a living sacrifice, in a living +death, to the Lord of life and death. Do not think that 'following Christ' is a +mere sentimental expression for so much morality as we can conveniently get +into our daily life. But remember that here, with all his rashness, with all +his ignorance, with all his superficiality, the Apostle has laid hold upon the +great permanent, but alas! much-forgotten principle, that to die is essential +to following Jesus. +</p> + +<p> +This daily dying, which is a far harder thing to do than to go to a cross once, +and have done with it—was impossible for Peter then, though he did not know it. +His vow was a rash one, because the laying down of Christ's life, for Peter's +sake and for ours, had not yet been accomplished. <i>There</i> is the +motive-power by which, and by which alone, drawn in gratitude, and melted down +from all our selfishness, we, too, in our measure and our turn, are able to +yield ourselves, in daily crucifixion of our evil, and daily abnegation of +self-trust, and self-pleasing, and self-will, to the Lord that has died for us. +He must lay down His life for our sakes, and we must know He has done it, and +rest upon Him as our great Sacrifice and our atoning Priest, or else we shall +never be so loosed from the tyranny of self as to be ready to live by dying, +and to die that we may live for His sake. 'I go to Rome to be crucified again' +were the words in which the old legend braced the fugitive and made a hero of +him, and sent him back to be crucified like his Lord and to offer up his +physical life, as he had long since offered up his self-will and his arrogance +to the Lord that had died for him. +</p> + +<p> +O Lord our Father! help us, we beseech Thee, that we may be of the sheep that +hear the Shepherd's voice and follow Him. Strengthen our faith in that dear +Lord who has laid down His life for us, that we may daily, by self-denial and +self-sacrifice, lay down our lives for Him, and follow Him here in all the +footsteps of His love. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap62"></a>A RASH VOW</h2> + +<p> +'Jesus answered him, Wilt them lay down thy life for My sake? Verily, verily I +say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice.'—JOHN +xiii. 38. +</p> + +<p> +In the last sermon I partly considered the dialogue of which this is the +concluding portion, and found that it consisted of an audacious question: 'Why +cannot I follow Thee now?' which really meant a contradiction of our Lord; of a +rash vow; 'I will lay down my life for Thy sake'—and of a sad forecast: 'The +cock shall not crow till thou hast denied Me thrice.' I paused in the middle of +considering the second of these three stages, the rash vow. I then pointed out +that, however ignorant the Apostle was of what 'following Christ' meant, he had +hit the mark, and stumbled unknowingly upon the very essence of the Christian +life, and an eternal truth, when he recognised that, somehow or other, to +'follow Christ' meant to die for Him. That is so, and is so always, for there +is no following Christ which is not a 'dying daily,' by self-immolation and +detachment from the world, and from the life of sense and self. But this rash +vow has to be looked at from a somewhat different point of view, and we have to +consider not only the strangely blended right and wrong, error and deep truth, +that lie in its substance, but the strangely blended right and wrong in the +state of feeling and thought, on the part of the Apostle, which it represents. +And taking up the dropped thread, I first deal with that, and then with the sad +forecast which follows. +</p> + +<p> +So then, looking at these words as being like all our words, even the best of +them, strangely mingled of right and wrong, good and evil, I find in them— +</p> + +<p> +I. A noble, sincere, but transient emotion and impulse. +</p> + +<p> +'I will lay down my life for Thy sake.' Peter meant it, every word of it; and +he would have done it too, if only a gibbet or cross could have been set up +then and there in the upper room. But unfortunately the moments of elevation +and high-wrought enthusiasm, and the calls to martyrdom, do not always +coincide. In the upper room, with its sacred atmosphere, it was easy to feel, +and would have been easy to do, nobly. But it was not so easy, lying drowsily +in Gethsemane, in the cold spring night, waiting for the Master's coming out +from beneath the trembling shadows of the olive trees, or huddled up by the +fire at the lower end of the hall in the grey morning, when vitality is at its +lowest. +</p> + +<p> +So the sincere, noble utterance was but the expression of impulse and emotion +which lifted Peter for a moment, and did him good, but which likewise, running +through him, left him dry, and all the weaker because of the gush of feeling +which had foamed itself away in empty words. For let us never forget that +however high, noble, or divinely inspired emotion may be, in its nature it is +transient and is sure to be followed by reaction. Like the winter torrents in +some parched land, the more they foam, the more speedily does the bed of them +dry up again, and the more they carry down the very soil in which growth and +fertility would be possible. A rush of feeling is apt to leave behind hard, +insensitive rock. There is a close connection between a predominantly emotional +Christianity and a very imperfect life. Feeling is apt to be a substitute for +action. Is it not a very remarkable thing that the word 'benevolence,' which +means 'kindly feeling,' has come to take on the meaning rightly belonging to +'beneficence,' which means 'kindly doing'? The emotional man blinds and +hoodwinks himself, by thinking that his quick sensibility and lofty enthusiasm +and warmth of emotion are action or as good as action. 'Be thou warmed and +filled,' he says to his brother, and, in a lazy expansion of heart, forgets +that he has never lifted a finger to help. +</p> + +<p> +God forbid that I should seem to deprecate emotional religion or religious +emotion! that is the last thing that needs to be done in this generation. If +the Churches want one thing more than another, it is that their Christianity +should become far more emotional than it is, and their impulses stronger, +swifter, more spontaneous, more overmastering, and that they should be urged by +these, and not merely by the reluctant recognition that such and such a piece +of sacrifice or effort is a debt that they are obliged to clear off. Their +service will be glad service, only when it is impulsive service and emotional +service. Dear brethren, a Christian man whose life is not influenced by the +deepest and most fervid emotion of love to the great Love that died for him, is +a monster. 'The Lord's fire is in Jerusalem, and His furnace in Zion'—is that a +description of the fervour of this Church, or of any Church in Christendom? A +furnace? An ice-house! Think of some deserted cottage, with the roof fallen in, +and in the cold chimney-place a rusty grate with some dead embers in it, and +the snow lying upon the top of it—that is a truer description of a great many +of our churches than 'the Lord's furnace.' +</p> + +<p> +But the lesson to be taken from this incident before us is not the danger of +emotion; it is rather the necessity of emotion, but with two provisoes, that it +shall be emotion based upon a clear recognition of the great truth that He has +laid down His life for me; and that it shall be emotion harnessed to work, and +not wasted in words. The mightier the plunge of the fall, the more electrical +energy you can get out of it, and set that to work to drive the wheels of life. +Do not be afraid of emotion; you will make little of your Christianity unless +you have it. But be sure that it is under the guidance of a clear perception of +the truth that evokes it, and that it is all used to turn the wheels of life. +'Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not +pay.' Better is it that emotion should be reticent and active than that it +should be voluble and idle. It is a good servant, but a bad master. A man that +trusts to impulse and emotion to further his Christian course, is like a ship +in that belt of variable winds that lies near the Equator, where there will be +a fine ten-knot breeze for an hour or two, and then a sickly, stagnating calm. +Push further south, and get into the steady 'trades,' where the wind blows with +equable and persistent force all the year round in the same direction. Convert +impulses and emotions into steadfast principle, warmed by emotion and borne on +by impulse. +</p> + +<p> +II. Again, this rash vow is an illustration of a confidence, also strangely +blended of good and evil. +</p> + +<p> +'I will lay down my life for Thy sake.' As I have said, Peter meant it. His +words are paralleled by other words, in which two of the Lord's disciples +answered His solemn question: 'Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink +of?' with the unhesitating answer, 'We are able.' A great teacher has regarded +that saying as one of 'the ventures of faith.' Perhaps it was. Perhaps there +was as much self-confidence as faith in it. Certainly there was more +self-confidence than faith in Peter's answer, and his self-confidence collapsed +when the trial came. +</p> + +<p> +The world and the Church hold entirely antagonistic notions about the value of +self-reliance. The world says that it is a condition of power. The Church says +that it is the root of weakness. Self-confidence shuts a man out from the help +of God, and so shuts him out from the source of power. For if you will think +for a moment, you will see that the faith which the New Testament, in +conformity with all wise knowledge of one's self, preaches as the one secret of +power, has for its obverse—its other side—diffidence and self-distrust. No man +trusts God as God ought to be trusted, who does not distrust himself as himself +ought to be distrusted. To level a mountain is the only way to carry the water +across where it stood. You can, by mechanism and locks, take a canal up to the +top of a hill, but you cannot take a river up to the top, and the river of +God's help flows through the valley and seeks the lowest levels. Faith and +self-despair are the upper and the under sides of the same thing, like some +cunningly-woven cloth, the one side bearing a different pattern from the other, +and yet made of the same yarn, and the same threads passing from the upper to +the under sides. So faith and self-distrust are but two names for one composite +whole. +</p> + +<p> +I was once shown an old Jewish coin which had on the one side the words +'sackcloth and ashes,' and on the other side the words 'a crown of gold.' The +coin meant to contrast what Israel had been with what Israel then was. The +crown had come first; the sackcloth and ashes last. But we may use it for +illustrating this point, on which I am now dwelling. Wherever, and only where, +there are the sackcloth and ashes of self-despair there will be the crown of +gold of an answering faith. When thus, as Wesley has it, in his great hymn: +'Confident in self-despair,' we cling to God, then we can say: 'When I am weak +then am I strong,' 'Behold! we have no might, but our eyes are upon Thee.' If +Peter had only said, 'By Thy help I will lay down my life for Thy sake,' his +confidence would have been reasonable and blessed self-confidence, because it +would have been confidence in a self inspired by divine power. +</p> + +<p> +And so, brethren, whilst utter diffidence is right for us, and is the condition +of all our reception of energy according to our need, the most absolute +confidence—a confidence which, to the eye of the man that measures only visible +things, will seem sheer insanity—is sobriety for a Christian. The world is +perfectly right when it says: 'If you believe you can do a thing, you have gone +a long way towards doing it.' The expectation of success has often the knack of +fulfilling itself. But the world does not know our secret, and our secret is +that our humble faith brings into the field the reserves with the Captain of +our salvation at their head. Therefore a self-distrusting Christian can say, +and say without exaggeration or presumption, 'I can do all things in Christ, +strengthening me from within.' +</p> + +<p> +The Church's ideals are possibilities, when you bring God into the account, and +they look like insanity when you do not. Take, for instance, missions. What an +absurdity to talk about a handful of Christian people—for we are only a handful +as compared with the whole world—carrying their Gospel into every corner of the +earth, and finding everywhere a response to it. Yes; it is absurd; but, wise +Mr. Calculator, counter of heads, you have forgotten God in your estimate of +whether it is reasonable or unreasonable. Again, take the Christian ideal of +absolute perfection of character. 'What nonsense to talk as if any man could +ever come to that.' Yes!—as if any <i>man</i> could come to that, I grant you. +But if God is with him, the nonsense is to suppose that he will not come to it. +Here is a row of cyphers as long as your arm. They mean nothing. Put a 1 at the +left-hand end of the row; and what does it mean then? So the faith that brings +Christ into the life, and into the Church, makes 'nobodies' into mighty +men—'laughs at impossibilities, and cries, It shall be done!' +</p> + +<p> +Still further, here, in this rash vow, we have an underestimate of +difficulties. There was another incident in the life of the Apostle, a strange +replica of this one, into which he pushed himself, just as he did into the high +priest's hall, partly out of curiosity and a wish to be prominent; partly out +of love to his Master. Without a moment's consideration of the peril into which +he was thrusting himself, he sat in the boat, and said, 'Bid me come to Thee on +the water.' He forgot that He was heavy, and that water was not solid, and that +the wind was high and the lake rough, and when he put his foot over the side +and felt the cold waves creeping up his knees, his courage ebbed out with his +faith, and he began to sink. Then he cried, 'Lord! help me!' If he had thought +for a moment of the reality of the case, he would have sat still in the boat. +If he had thought of what would be in his way in following Jesus to death, he +would have hesitated to vow. But it is so much easier to resolve heroisms in a +quiet corner than to do them when the strain comes, and it is so much easier to +do some one great thing that has in it enthusiasm and nobility, and +conspicuousness of sacrifice, especially if it can be got over in a moment, +like having one's head cut off with an axe, than it is to 'die daily.' Ah! +brethren, it is the little difficulties that make <i>the</i> difficulty. You +read in the newspapers in the autumn, every now and then, of trains, in that +wonderful country across the water, being stopped by caterpillars. The +Christian train is stopped by an army of caterpillars, far oftener than it is +by some solid and towering barrier. Our Christian lives are a great deal +likelier to come to failure, because we do not take into account the multiplied +small antagonisms than because we are not ready to face the greater ones. What +would you think of a bridge builder, who built a bridge across some mountain +torrent and made no allowance for freshets and floods when the ice melted? His +bridge and his piers would be gone the first winter. You remember who it was +that said that he went into the Franco-German War 'with a light heart,' and in +seven weeks came Sedan and the dethronement of an Emperor, and the surrender of +an army. 'Blessed is he that feareth always.' There is no more fatal error than +an underestimate of our difficulties. +</p> + +<p> +III. Let me say a word about the sad forecast here. +</p> + +<p> +'Thou shalt deny me thrice.' +</p> + +<p> +We cannot say that poor Peter's fall was at all an anomalous or uncommon thing. +He did exactly what a great many of us are doing. He could—and I have no doubt +he would—have gone to the death for Jesus Christ; but he could not stand being +laughed at for Him. He would have been ready to meet the executioner's sharp +sword, but the servant-girl's sharp tongue was more than he could bear. And so +he denied Jesus, not because he was afraid of his skin—for I do not suppose +that the servants had any notion of doing anything more than amusing themselves +with a few clumsy gibes at his expense—but because he could not bear to be made +sport of. +</p> + +<p> +Now, dear brethren, I suppose we are all of us more or less movers in circles +in which it sometimes is not considered 'good form' to show that we are +Christian people. You young men in your warehouses, you students at the +University, where it is a sign of being 'fossils' and 'behind the times' and +'not up to date' to say 'I am a Christian,' and all of us in our several places +have sometimes to gather our courage together, and not be afraid to declare +whose we are. No doubt life is a better witness than words, but no doubt also +life is not so good a witness as it might be, unless it sometimes has the +commentary of words as well. Thus, to confess Christ means two things; to say +sometimes—in the face of a smile of scorn, which is often harder to bear than +something much more dangerous—'I am His,' and to live Christ, and to say by +conduct 'I am His,' 'Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I also +confess before My Father, and whosoever shall deny Me, him will I also deny.' +Do not button your coats over your uniform. Do not take the cockade out of your +hats when you go amongst 'the other side.' Live Jesus, and, when advisable, +preach Jesus. +</p> + +<p> +But Peter's fall, which is typical of what we are all tempted to do, has in it +a gracious message; for it proclaims the possibility of recovery from any depth +of descent, and of coming back again from any distance of wandering. Did you +ever notice how Peter's fall was burnt in upon his memory, so as that when he +began to preach after Pentecost, the shape that his indictment of his hearers +takes is, 'Ye denied the Holy One and the Just,' and how, long after—if the +second Epistle which goes by his name is his—in summing up the crimes of the +heretics whom he is branding, he speaks of their 'denying the Lord that bought +them.' He never forgot his denial, and it remained with him as the expression +for all that was wrong in a man's relation to Jesus Christ. And I suppose not +only was it burnt in upon his memory, but it burnt out all his self-confidence. +</p> + +<p> +It is beautiful to see how, in his letter, he speaks over and over again of +'fear' as being a wise temper of mind for a Christian. As George Herbert has +it, 'A sad, wise valour is the true complexion.' Thus the man that had been so +confident in himself learned to say 'Be ready to give to every man that asketh +you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.' +</p> + +<p> +And do you not think that his fall drew him closer to Jesus Christ than ever he +had been before, as he learned more of His pardoning love and mercy? Was he not +nearer the Lord on that morning when the two together, alone, talked after the +Resurrection? Was he not nearer Him when he struggled to his feet from the boat +on the lake, on that morning when he was received back into his office as +Christ's Apostle? Did he ever forget how he had sinned? Did he ever forget how +Christ had pardoned? Did he ever forget how Christ loved and would keep him? +Ah, no! The rope that is broken is strongest where it is spliced, not because +it was broken, but because a cunning hand has strengthened it. We may be the +stronger for our sins, not because sin strengthens, for it weakens, but because +God restores. It is possible that we may build a fairer structure on the ruins +of our old selves. It is possible that we may turn every field of defeat into a +field of victory. It is possible that we may +</p> + +<p> + 'Fall to rise; be beaten, to fight better.' +</p> + +<p> +If only we cling to the Lord our Strength, the promise shall be ours—whatever +our failures, denials, backslidings, inconsistencies—'though he fall he shall +not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap63"></a>FAITH IN GOD AND CHRIST</h2> + +<p> +'Let not your heart be troubled … believe in God, believe also in Me.'—JOHN +xiv. 1. +</p> + +<p> +The twelve were sitting in the upper chamber, stupefied with the dreary, +half-understood prospect of Christ's departure. He, forgetting His own burden, +turns to comfort and encourage them. These sweet and great words most +singularly blend gentleness and dignity. Who can reproduce the cadence of +soothing tenderness, soft as a mother's hand, in that 'Let not your heart be +troubled'? And who can fail to feel the tone of majesty in that 'Believe in +God, believe also in Me'? +</p> + +<p> +The Greek presents an ambiguity in the latter half of the verse, for the verb +may be either indicative or imperative, and so we may read four different ways, +according as we render each of the two 'believes' in either of these two +fashions. Our Authorised and Revised Versions concur in adopting the indicative +'Ye believe' in the former clause and the imperative in the latter. But I +venture to think that we get a more true and appropriate meaning if we keep +both clauses in the same mood, and read them both as imperatives: 'Believe in +God, believe also in Me.' It would be harsh, I think, to take one as an +affirmation and the other as a command. It would be irrelevant, I think, to +remind the disciples of their belief in God. It would break the unity of the +verse and destroy the relation of the latter half to the former, the former +being a negative precept: 'Let not your heart be troubled'; and the latter +being a positive one: 'Instead of being troubled, believe in God, and believe +in Me.' So, for all these reasons, I venture to adopt the reading I have +indicated. +</p> + +<p> +I. Now in these words the first thing that strikes me is that Christ here +points to Himself as the object of precisely the same religious trust which is +to be given to God. +</p> + +<p> +It is only our familiarity with these words that blinds us to their +wonderfulness and their greatness. Try to hear them for the first time, and to +bring into remembrance the circumstances in which they were spoken. Here is a +man sitting among a handful of His friends, who is within four-and-twenty hours +of a shameful death, which to all appearance was the utter annihilation of all +His claims and hopes, and He says, 'Trust in God, and trust in Me'! I think +that if we had heard that for the first time, we should have understood a +little better than some of us do the depth of its meaning. +</p> + +<p> +What is it that Christ asks for here? Or rather let me say, What is it that +Christ offers to us here? For we must not look at the words as a demand or as a +command, but rather as a merciful invitation to do what it is life and blessing +to do. It is a very low and inadequate interpretation of these words which +takes them as meaning little more than 'Believe in God, believe that He is; +believe in Me, believe that I am.' But it is scarcely less so to suppose that +the mere assent of the understanding to His teaching is all that Christ is +asking for here. By no means; what He invites us to goes a great deal deeper +than that. The essence of it is an act of the will and of the heart, not of the +understanding at all. A man may believe in Him as a historical person, may +accept all that is said about Him here, and yet not be within sight of the +trust in Him of which He here speaks. For the essence of the whole is not the +intellectual process of assent to a proposition, but the intensely personal act +of yielding up will and heart to a living person. Faith does not grasp a +doctrine, but a heart. The trust which Christ requires is the bond that unites +souls with Him; and the very life of it is entire committal of myself to Him in +all my relations and for all my needs, and absolute utter confidence in Him as +all-sufficient for everything that I can require. Let us get away from the cold +intellectualism of 'belief' into the warm atmosphere of 'trust,' and we shall +understand better than by many volumes what Christ here means and the sphere +and the power and the blessedness of that faith which Christ requires. +</p> + +<p> +Further, note that, whatever may be this believing in Him which He asks from us +or invites us to render, it is precisely the same thing which He bids us render +to God. The two clauses in the original bring out that idea even more vividly +than in our version, because the order of the words in the latter clause is +inverted; and they read literally thus: 'Believe in God, in Me also believe.' +The purpose of the inversion is to put these two, God and Christ, as close +together as possible; and to put the two identical emotions at the beginning +and at the end, at the two extremes and outsides of the whole sentence. Could +language be more deliberately adopted and moulded, even in its consecution and +arrangement, to enforce this thought, that whatever it is that we give to +Christ, it is the very same thing that we give to God? And so He here proposes +Himself as the worthy and adequate recipient of all these emotions of +confidence, submission, resignation, which make up religion in its deepest +sense. +</p> + +<p> +That tone is by no means singular in this place. It is the uniform tone and +characteristic of our Lord's teaching. Let me remind you just in a sentence of +one or two instances. What did He think of Himself who stood up before the +world and, with arms outstretched, like that great white Christ in +Thorwaldsen's lovely statue, said to all the troop of languid and burdened and +fatigued ones crowding at His feet: 'Come unto Me all ye that are weary and are +heavy laden, and I will give you rest'? That surely is a divine prerogative. +What did He think of Himself who said, 'All men should honour the Son even as +they honour the Father'? What did He think of Himself who, in that very Sermon +on the Mount (to which the advocates of a maimed and mutilated Christianity +tell us they pin their faith, instead of to mystical doctrines) declared that +He Himself was the Judge of humanity, and that all men should stand at His bar +and receive from Him 'according to the deeds done in their body'? Upon any +honest principle of interpreting these Gospels, and unless you avowedly go +picking and choosing amongst His words, accepting this and rejecting that, you +cannot eliminate from the scriptural representation of Jesus Christ the fact +that He claimed as His own the emotions of the heart to which only God has a +right and only God can satisfy. +</p> + +<p> +I do not dwell upon that point, but I say, in one sentence, we have to take +that into account if we would estimate the character of Jesus Christ as a +Teacher and as a Man. I would not turn away from Him any imperfect conceptions, +as they seem to me, of His nature and His work—rather would I foster them, and +lead them on to a fuller recognition of the full Christ—but this I am bound to +say, that for my part I believe that nothing but the wildest caprice, dealing +with the Gospels according to one's own subjective fancies, irrespective +altogether of the evidence, can strike out from the teaching of Christ this its +characteristic difference. What signalises Him, and separates Him from all +other religious teachers, is not the clearness or the tenderness with which He +reiterated the truths about the divine Father's love, or about morality, and +justice, and truth, and goodness; but <i>the</i> peculiarity of His call to the +world is, 'Believe in Me.' And if He said that, or anything like it, and if the +representations of His teaching in these four Gospels, which are the only +source from which we get any notion of Him at all, are to be accepted, why, +then, one of two things follows. Either He was wrong, and then He was a crazy +enthusiast, only acquitted of blasphemy because convicted of insanity; or +else—or else—He was 'God, manifest in the flesh.' It is vain to bow down before +a fancy portrait of a bit of Christ, and to exalt the humble sage of Nazareth, +and to leave out the very thing that makes the difference between Him and all +others, namely, these either audacious or most true claims to be the Son of +God, the worthy Recipient and the adequate Object of man's religious emotions. +'Believe in God, in Me also believe.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, secondly, notice that faith in Christ and faith in God are not two, +but one. +</p> + +<p> +These two clauses on the surface present juxtaposition. Looked at more closely +they present interpenetration and identity. Jesus Christ does not merely set +Himself up by the side of God, nor are we worshippers of two Gods when we bow +before Jesus and bow before the Father; but faith in Christ is faith in God, +and faith in God which is not faith in Christ is imperfect, incomplete, and +will not long last. To trust in Him is to trust in the Father; to trust in the +Father is to trust in Him. +</p> + +<p> +What is the underlying truth that is here? How comes it that these two objects +blend into one, like two figures in a stereoscope; and that the faith which +flows to Jesus Christ rests upon God? This is the underlying truth, that Jesus +Christ, Himself divine, is the divine Revealer of God. I need not dwell upon +the latter of these two thoughts: how there is no real knowledge of the real +God in the depth of His love, the tenderness of His nature or the lustrousness +of His holiness; how there is no certitude; how the God that we see outside of +Jesus Christ is sometimes doubt, sometimes hope, sometimes fear, always far-off +and vague, an abstraction rather than a person, 'a stream of tendency' without +us, that which is unnameable, and the like. I need not dwell upon the thought +that Jesus Christ has showed us a Father, has brought a God to our hearts whom +we can love, whom we can know really though not fully, of whom we can be sure +with a certitude which is as deep as the certitude of our own personal being; +that He has brought to us a God before whom we do not need to crouch far off, +that He has brought to us a God whom we can trust. Very significant is it that +Christianity alone puts the very heart of religion in the act of trust. Other +religions put it in dread, worship, service, and the like. Jesus Christ alone +says, the bond between men and God is that blessed one of trust. And He says so +because He alone brings us a God whom it is not ridiculous to tell men to +trust. +</p> + +<p> +And, on the other hand, the truth that underlies this is not only that Jesus +Christ is the Revealer of God, but that He Himself is divine. Light shines +through a window, but the light and the glass that makes it visible have +nothing in common with one another. The Godhead shines through Christ, but +<i>He</i> is not a mere transparent medium. It is Himself that He is showing us +when He is showing us God. 'He that hath seen Me hath seen'—not the light that +streams through Me—but 'hath seen,' in Me, 'the Father.' And because He is +Himself divine and the divine Revealer, therefore the faith that grasps Him is +inseparably one with the faith that grasps God. Men could look upon a Moses, an +Isaiah, or a Paul, and in them recognise the eradiation of the divinity that +imparted itself through them, but the medium was forgotten in proportion as +that which it revealed was beheld. You cannot forget Christ in order to see God +more clearly, but to behold Him is to behold God. +</p> + +<p> +And if that be true, these two things follow. One is that all imperfect +revelation of God is prophetic of, and leads up towards, the perfect revelation +in Jesus Christ. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives that truth in a +very striking fashion. He compares all other means of knowing God to +fragmentary syllables of a great word, of which one was given to one man and +another to another. God 'spoke at sundry times and in manifold portions to the +fathers by the prophets'; but the whole word is articulately uttered by the +Son, in whom He has 'spoken unto us in these last times.' The imperfect +revelation, by means of those who were merely mediums for the revelation leads +up to Him who is Himself the Revelation, the Revealer, and the Revealed. +</p> + +<p> +And in like manner, all the imperfect faith that, laying hold of other +fragmentary means of knowing God, has tremulously tried to trust Him, finds its +climax and consummate flower in the full-blossomed faith that lays hold upon +Jesus Christ. The unconscious prophecies of heathendom; the trust that select +souls up and down the world have put in One whom they dimly apprehended; the +faith of the Old Testament saints; the rudimentary beginnings of a knowledge of +God and of a trust in Him which are found in men to-day, and amongst us, +outside of the circle of Christianity—all these things are as manifestly +incomplete as a building reared half its height, and waiting for the +corner-stone to be brought forth, the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ, +and the intelligent and full acceptance of Him and faith in Him. +</p> + +<p> +And another thing is true, that without faith in Christ such faith in God as is +possible is feeble, incomplete, and will not long last. Historically a pure +theism is all but impotent. There is only one example of it on a large scale in +the world, and that is a kind of bastard Christianity—Mohammedanism; and we all +know what good that is as a religion. There are plenty of people amongst us +nowadays who claim to be very advanced thinkers, and who call themselves +Theists, and not Christians. Well, I venture to say that that is a phase that +will not last. There is little substance in it. The God whom men know outside +of Jesus Christ is a poor, nebulous thing; an idea, not a reality. He, or +rather It, is a film of cloud shaped into a vague form, through which you can +see the stars. It has little power to restrain. It has less to inspire and +impel. It has still less to comfort; it has least of all to satisfy the heart. +You will have to get something more substantial than the far-off god of an +unchristian Theism if you mean to sway the world and to satisfy men's hearts. +</p> + +<p> +And so, dear brethren, I come to this—perhaps the word may be fitting for some +that listen to me—'Believe in God,' and that you may, 'believe also in Christ.' +For sure I am that when the stress comes, and you <i>want</i> a god, unless +your god is the God revealed in Jesus Christ, he will be a powerless deity. If +you have not faith in Christ, you will not long have faith in God that is vital +and worth anything. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, this trust in Christ is the secret of a quiet heart. +</p> + +<p> +It is of no use to say to men, 'Let not your hearts be troubled,' unless you +finish the verse and say, 'Believe in God, believe also in Christ.' For unless +we trust we shall certainly be troubled. The state of man in this world is like +that of some of those sunny islands in southern seas, around which there often +rave the wildest cyclones, and which carry in their bosoms, beneath all their +riotous luxuriance of verdant beauty, hidden fires, which ever and anon shake +the solid earth and spread destruction. Storms without and earthquakes +within—that is the condition of humanity. And where is the 'rest' to come from? +All other defences are weak and poor. We have heard about 'pills against +earthquakes.' That is what the comforts and tranquillising which the world +supplies may fairly be likened to. Unless we trust we are, and we shall be, and +should be, 'troubled.' +</p> + +<p> +If we trust we may be quiet. Trust is always tranquillity. To cast a burden off +myself on others' shoulders is always a rest. But trust in Jesus Christ brings +infinitude on my side. Submission is repose. When we cease to kick against the +pricks they cease to prick and wound us. Trust opens the heart, like the +windows of the Ark tossing upon the black and fatal flood, for the entrance of +the peaceful dove with the olive branch in its mouth. Trust brings Christ to my +side in all His tenderness and greatness and sweetness. If I trust, 'all is +right that seems most wrong.' If I trust, conscience is quiet. If I trust, life +becomes 'a solemn scorn of ills.' If I trust, inward unrest is changed into +tranquillity, and mad passions are cast out from him that sits 'clothed and in +his right mind' at the feet of Jesus. +</p> + +<p> +'The wicked is like the troubled sea which cannot rest.' But if I trust, my +soul will become like the glassy ocean when all the storms sleep, and 'birds of +peace sit brooding on the charmed wave.' 'Peace I leave with you.' 'Let not +your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me.' +</p> + +<p> +Help us, O Lord! to yield our hearts to Thy dear Son, and in Him to find +Thyself and eternal rest. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap64"></a>'MANY MANSIONS'</h2> + +<p> +'In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told +you.'—JOHN xiv. 2. +</p> + +<p> +Sorrow needs simple words for its consolation; and simple words are the best +clothing for the largest truths. These eleven poor men were crushed and +desolate at the thought of Christ's going; they fancied that if He left them +they lost Him. And so, in simple, childlike words, which the weakest could +grasp, and in which the most troubled could find peace, He said to them, after +having encouraged their trust in Him, 'There is plenty of room for you as well +as for Me where I am going; and the frankness of our intercourse in the past +might make you sure that if I were going to leave you I would have told you all +about it. Did I ever hide from you anything that was painful? Did I ever allure +you to follow Me by false promises? Should I have kept silence about it if our +separation was to be eternal?' So, simply, as a mother might hush her babe upon +her breast, He soothes their sorrow. And yet, in the quiet words, so level to +the lowest apprehension, there lie great truths, far deeper than we yet have +appreciated, and which will enfold themselves in their majesty and their +greatness through eternity. 'In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were +not so, I would have told you.' +</p> + +<p> +I. Now note in these words, first, the 'Father's house,' and its ample room. +</p> + +<p> +There is only one other occasion recorded in which our Lord used this +expression, and it occurs in this same Gospel near the beginning; where in the +narrative of the first cleansing of the Temple we read that He said, 'Make not +My Father's house a house of merchandise.' The earlier use of the words may +help to throw light upon one aspect of this latter employment of it, for there +blend in the image the two ideas of what I may call domestic familiarity, and +of that great future as being the reality of which the earthly Temple was +intended to be the dim prophecy and shadow. Its courts, its many chambers, its +ample porches with room for thronging worshippers, represented in some poor way +the wide sweep and space of that higher house; and the sense of Sonship, which +drew the Boy to His Father's house in the earliest hours of conscious +childhood, speaks here. +</p> + +<p> +Think for a moment of how sweet and familiar the conception of heaven as the +Father's house makes it to us. There is something awful, even to the best and +holiest souls, in the thought of even the glories beyond. The circumstances of +death, which is its portal, our utter unacquaintance with all that lies behind +the veil, the terrible silence and distance which falls upon our dearest ones +as they are sucked into the cloud, all tend to make us feel that there is much +that is solemn and awful even in the thought of eternal future blessedness. But +how it is all softened when we say, 'My Father's house.' Most of us have long +since left behind us the sweet security, the sense of the absence of all +responsibility, the assurance of defence and provision, which used to be ours +when we lived as children in a father's house here. But we may all look forward +to the renewal, in far nobler form, of these early days, when the father's +house meant the inexpugnable fortress where no evil could befall us, the +abundant home where all wants were supplied, and where the shyest and timidest +child could feel at ease and secure. It is all coming again, brother, and +amidst the august and unimaginable glories of that future the old feeling of +being little children, nestling safe in the Father's house, will fill our quiet +hearts once more. +</p> + +<p> +And then consider how the conception of that Future as the Father's house +suggests answers to so many of our questions about the relationship of the +inmates to one another. Are they to dwell isolated in their several mansions? +Is that the way in which children in a home dwell with each other? Surely if He +be the Father, and heaven be His house, the relation of the redeemed to one +another must have in it more than all the sweet familiarity and unrestrained +frankness which subsists in the families of earth. A solitary heaven would be +but half a heaven, and would ill correspond with the hopes that inevitably +spring from the representation of it as 'my Father's house.' +</p> + +<p> +But consider further that this great and tender name for heaven has its deepest +meaning in the conception of it as a spiritual state of which the essential +elements are the loving manifestation and presence of God as Father, the +perfect consciousness of sonship, the happy union of all the children in one +great family, and the derivation of all their blessedness from their Elder +Brother. +</p> + +<p> +The earthly Temple, to which there is some allusion in this great metaphor, was +the place in which the divine glory was manifested to seeking souls, though in +symbol, yet also in reality, and the representation of our text blends the two +ideas of the free, frank intercourse of the home and of the magnificent +revelations of the Holy of holies. Under either aspect of the phrase, whether +we think of 'my Father's house' as temple or as home, it sets before us, as the +main blessedness and glory of heaven, the vision of the Father, the +consciousness of sonship, and the complete union with Him. There are many +subsidiary and more outward blessednesses and glories which shine dimly through +the haze of metaphors and negations, by which alone a state of which we have no +experience can be revealed to us; but these are secondary. The heaven of heaven +is the possession of God the Father through the Son in the expanding spirits of +His sons. The sovereign and filial position which Jesus Christ in His manhood +occupies in that higher house, and which He shares with all those who by Him +have received the adoption of sons, is the very heart and nerve of this great +metaphor. +</p> + +<p> +But I think we must go a step further than that, and recognise that in the +image there is inherent the teaching that that glorious future is not merely a +state, but also a place. Local associations are not to be divorced from the +words; and although we can say but little about such a matter, yet everything +in the teaching of Scripture points to the thought that howsoever true it may +be that the essence of heaven is condition, yet that also heaven has a local +habitation, and is a place in the great universe of God. Jesus Christ has at +this moment a human body, glorified. That body, as Scripture teaches us, is +somewhere, and where He is there shall also His servant be. In the context He +goes on to tell us that 'He goes to prepare a place for us,' and though I would +not insist upon the literal interpretation of such words, yet distinctly the +drift of the representation is in the direction of localising, though not of +materialising, the abode of the blessed. So I think we can say, not merely that +<i>what</i> He is that shall also His servants be, but that <i>where</i> He is +there shall also His servants be. And from the representation of my text, +though we cannot fathom all its depths, we can at least grasp this, which gives +solidity and reality to our contemplations of the future, that heaven is a +place, full of all sweet security and homelike repose, where God is made known +in every heart and to every consciousness as a loving Father, and of which all +the inhabitants are knit together in the frankest fraternal intercourse, +conscious of the Father's love, and rejoicing in the abundant provisions of His +royal House. +</p> + +<p> +And then there is a second thought to be suggested from these words, and that +is of the ample room in this great house. The original purpose of the words of +my text, as I have already reminded you, was simply to soothe the fears of a +handful of disciples. +</p> + +<p> +There was room where Christ went for eleven poor men. Yes, room enough for +them! but Christ's prescient eye looked down the ages, and saw all the unborn +millions that would yet be drawn to Him uplifted on the Cross, and some glow of +satisfaction flitted across His sorrow, as He saw from afar the result of the +impending travail of His soul in the multitudes by whom God's heavenly house +should yet be filled. 'Many mansions!' the thought widens out far beyond our +grasp. Perhaps that upper room, like most of the roof-chambers in Jewish +houses, was open to the skies, and whilst He spoke, the innumerable lights that +blaze in that clear heaven shone down upon them, and He may have pointed to +these. The better Abraham perhaps looked forth, like His prototype, on the +starry heavens, and saw in the vision of the future those who through Him +should receive the 'adoption of sons' and dwell for ever in the house of the +Lord, 'so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is +by the seashore innumerable.' +</p> + +<p> +Ah! brethren, if we could only widen our measurement of the walls of the New +Jerusalem to the measurement of that 'golden rod which the man, that is the +angel,' as John says, applied to it, we should understand how much bigger it is +than any of these poor sects and communities of ours here on earth. If we would +lay to heart, as we ought to do, the deep meaning of that indefinite 'many' in +my text, it would rebuke our narrowness. There will be a great many occupants +of the mansions in heaven that Christian men here on earth—the most Catholic of +them—will be very much surprised to see there, and thousands will find their +entrance there that never found their entrance into any communities of +so-called Christians here on earth. +</p> + +<p> +That one word 'many' should deepen our confidence in the triumphs of Christ's +Cross, and it may be used to heighten our own confidence as to our own poor +selves. A chamber in the great Temple waits for each of us, and the question +is, Shall we occupy it, or shall we not? The old Rabbis had a tradition which, +like a great many of their apparently foolish sayings, covers in picturesque +guise a very deep truth. They said that, however many the throngs of +worshippers who came up to Jerusalem at the passover, the streets of the city +and the courts of the sanctuary were never crowded. And so it is with that +great city. There is room for all. There are throngs, but no crowds. Each finds +a place in the ample sweep of the Father's house, like some of the great +palaces that barbaric Eastern kings used to build, in whose courts armies might +encamp, and the chambers of which were counted by the thousand. And surely in +all that ample accommodation, you and I may find some corner where we, if we +will, may lodge for evermore. +</p> + +<p> +I do not dwell upon subsidiary ideas that may be drawn from the expressions. +'Mansions' means places of permanent abode, and suggests the two thoughts, so +sweet to travellers and toilers in this fleeting, labouring life, of +unchangeableness and of repose. Some have supposed that the variety in the +attainments of the redeemed, which is reasonable and scriptural, might be +deduced from our text, but that does not seem to be relevant to our Lord's +purpose. +</p> + +<p> +One other suggestion may be made without enlarging upon it. There is only one +other occasion in this Gospel in which the word here translated 'mansions' is +employed, and it is this: 'We will come and make our abode with him.' Our +mansion is in God; God's dwelling-place is in us. So ask yourselves, Have you a +place in that heavenly home? When prodigal children go away from the father's +house, sometimes a broken-hearted parent will keep the boy's room just as it +used to be when he was young and pure, and will hope and weary through long +days for him to come back and occupy it again. God is keeping a room for you in +His house; do you see that you fill it. +</p> + +<p> +II. In the next place, note here the sufficiency of Christ's revelation for our +needs. +</p> + +<p> +'If it were not so I would have told you.' He sets Himself forward in very +august fashion as being the Revealer and Opener of that house for us. There is +a singular tone about all our Lord's few references to the future—a tone of +decisiveness; not as if He were speaking, as a man might do, that which he had +thought out, or which had come to him, but as if He was speaking of what he had +Himself beheld, 'We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.' He +stands like one on a mountain top, looking down into the valleys beyond, and +telling His comrades in the plain behind Him what He sees. He speaks of that +unseen world always as One who had been in it, and who was reporting +experiences, and not giving forth opinions. His knowledge was the knowledge of +One who dwelt with the Father, and left the house in order to find and bring +back His wandering brethren. It was 'His own calm home, His habitation from +eternity,' and therefore He could tell us with decisiveness, with simplicity, +with assurance, all which we need to know about the geography of that unknown +land—the plan of that, by us unvisited, house. Very remarkable, therefore, is +it, that with this tone there should be such reticence in Christ's references +to the future. The text implies the <i>rationale</i> of such reticence. 'If it +were not so I would have told you.' I tell you all that you need, though I tell +you a great deal less than you sometimes wish. +</p> + +<p> +The gaps in our knowledge of the future, seeing that we have such a Revealer as +we have in Christ, are remarkable. But my text suggests this to us—we have as +much as we need. <i>I</i> know, and many of <i>you</i> know, by bitter +experience, how many questions, the answers to which would seem to us to be +such a lightening of our burdens, our desolated and troubled hearts suggest +about that future, and how vainly we ply heaven with questions and interrogate +the unreplying Oracle. But we know as much as we need. We know that God is +there. We know that it is the Father's house. We know that Christ is in it. We +know that the dwellers there are a family. We know that sweet security and +ample provision are there; and, for the rest, if we I needed to have heard +more, He would have told us. +</p> + +<p> + 'My knowledge of that life is small,<br /> + The eye of faith is dim;<br /> + But 'tis enough that Christ knows all;<br /> + And I shall be with Him.' +</p> + +<p> +Let the gaps remain. The gaps are part of the revelation, and we know enough +for faith and hope. +</p> + +<p> +May we not widen the application of that thought to other matters than to our +bounded and fragmentary conceptions of a future life? In times like the +present, of doubt and unrest, it is a great piece of Christian wisdom to +recognise the limitations of our knowledge and the sufficiency of the fragments +that we have. What do we get a revelation for? To solve theological puzzles and +dogmatic difficulties? to inflate us with the pride of +<i>quasi</i>-omniscience? or to present to us God in Christ for faith, for +love, for obedience, for imitation? Surely the latter, and for such purposes we +have enough. +</p> + +<p> +So let us recognise that our knowledge is very partial. A great stretch of wall +is blank, and there is not a window in it. If there had been need for one, it +would have been struck out. He has been pleased to leave many things obscure, +not arbitrarily, so as to try our faith—for the implication of the words before +us is that the relation between Him and us binds Him to the utmost possible +frankness, and that all which we need and He can tell us He does tell—but for +high reasons, and because of the very conditions of our present environment, +which forbid the more complete and all-round knowledge. +</p> + +<p> +So let us recognise our limitations. We know in part, and we are wise if we +affirm in part. Hold by the Central Light, which is Jesus Christ. 'Many things +did Jesus which are not written in this book,' and many gaps and deficiencies +from a human point of view exist in the contexture of revelation. 'But these +are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ,' for which enough has +been told us, 'and that, believing, ye may have life in His name.' If that +purpose be accomplished in us, God will not have spoken, nor we have heard, in +vain. Let us hold by the Central Light, and then the circumference of darkness +will gradually retreat, and a wider sphere of illumination be ours, until the +day when we enter our mansion in the Father's house, and then 'in Thy Light +shall we see light'; and we shall 'know even as we are known.' +</p> + +<p> +Let your Elder Brother lead you back, dear friend, to the Father's bosom, and +be sure that if you trust Him and listen to Him, you will know enough on earth +to turn earth into a foretaste of Heaven, and will find at last your place in +the Father's house beside the Brother who has prepared it for you. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap65"></a>THE FORERUNNER</h2> + +<p> +'… I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I +will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be +also.'—JOHN xiv. 2, 3. +</p> + +<p> +What divine simplicity and depth are in these words! They carry us up into the +unseen world, and beyond time; and yet a little child can lay hold on them, and +mourning hearts and dying men find peace and sweetness in them. A very familiar +image underlies them. It was customary for travellers in those old days to send +some of their party on in advance, to find lodging and make arrangements for +them in some great city. Many a time one or other of the disciples had been +'sent before His face into every place where He Himself should come.' On that +very morning two of them had gone in, at His bidding, from Bethany to make +ready the table at which they were sitting. Christ here takes that office upon +Himself. The emblem is homely, the thing meant is transcendent. +</p> + +<p> +Not less wonderful is the blending of majesty and lowliness. The office which +He takes upon Himself is that of an inferior and a servant. And yet the +discharge of it, in the present case, implies His authority over every corner +of the universe, His immortal life, and the sufficiency of His presence to make +a heaven. Nor can we fail to notice the blending of another pair of opposites: +His certainty of His impending death, and His certainty, notwithstanding and +thereby, of His continual work and His final return, are inseparably interlaced +here. How comes it that, in all His premonitions of His death, Jesus Christ +never spoke about it as failure or as the interruption or end of His activity, +but always as the transition to, and the condition of, His wider work? 'I go, +and if I go I return, and take you to Myself.' +</p> + +<p> +So, then, there are three things here, the departure with its purpose, the +return, and the perfected union. +</p> + +<p> +I. The Departure. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord's going away from that little group was a journey in two stages. +Calvary was the first; Olivet was the second. He means by the phrase the whole +continuous process which begins with His death and ends in His ascension. Both +are embraced in His words, and each co-operates to the attainment of the great +purpose. +</p> + +<p> +He prepares a place for us by His death. The High Priest, in the ancient +ritual, once a year was privileged to lift the heavy veil and pass into the +darkened chamber, where only the light between the cherubim was visible, +because he bore in his hand the blood of the sacrifice. But in our New +Testament system the path into 'the holiest of all,' the realisation of the +most intimate fellowship with heavenly things and communion with God Himself, +are made possible, and the way patent for every foot, because Jesus has died. +And as the communion upon earth, so the perfecting of the communion in the +heavens. Who of us could step within those awful sanctities, or stand serene +amidst the region of eternal light and stainless purity, unless, in His death, +He had borne the sins of the world, and, having 'overcome' its 'sharpness' by +enduring its blow, had 'opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers'? +</p> + +<p> +Old legends tell us of magic gates that resisted all attempts to force them, +but upon which, if one drop of a certain blood fell, they flew open. And so, by +His death, Christ has opened the gates and made the heaven of perfect purity a +dwelling-place for sinful men. +</p> + +<p> +But the second stage of His departure is that which more eminently is in +Christ's mind here. He prepares a place for us by His entrance into and His +dwelling in the heavenly places. The words are obscure because we have but few +others with which to compare them, and no experience by which to interpret +them. We know so little about the matter that it is not wise to say much; but +though there be vast tracts of darkness round the little spot of light, this +should only make the spot of light more vivid and more precious. We know +little, but we know enough for mind and heart to rest upon. Our ignorance of +the ways in which Christ by His ascension prepares a heaven for His followers +should neither breed doubt nor disregard of His assurance that He does. +</p> + +<p> +If Christ had not ascended, would there have been 'a place' at all? He has gone +with a human body, which, glorified as it is, still has relations to space, and +must be somewhere. And we may even say that His ascending up on high has made a +place where His servants are. But apart from that suggestion, which, perhaps, +is going beyond our limits, we may see that Christ's presence in heaven is +needful to make it a heaven for poor human souls. There, as here (Scripture +assures us), and throughout eternity as to-day, Jesus Christ is the Mediator of +all human knowledge and possession of God. It is from Him and through Him that +there come to men, whether they be men on earth or men in the heavens, all that +they know, all that they hope, all that they enjoy, of the wisdom, love, +beauty, peace, power, which flow from God. Take away from the heaven of the +Christian expectation that which comes to the spirit through Jesus Christ, and +you have nothing left. He and His mediation and ministration alone make the +brightness and the blessedness of that high state. The very glories of all that +lies beyond the veil would have an aspect appalling and bewildering to us, +unless our Brother were there. Like some poor savages brought into a great +city, or rustics into the presence of a king and his court, we should be ill at +ease amidst the glories and solemnities of that future life unless we saw +standing there our Kinsman, to whom we can turn, and who makes it possible for +us to feel that it is home. Christ's presence makes heaven the home of our +hearts. +</p> + +<p> +Not only did He go to prepare a place, but He is continuously preparing it for +us all through the ages. We have to think of a double form of the work of +Christ, His past work in His earthly life, and His present in His exaltation. +We have to think of a double form of His present activity—His work with and in +us here on earth, and His work for us there in the heavens. We have to think of +a double form of His work in the heavens—that which the Scripture represents in +a metaphor, the full comprehension of which surpasses our present powers and +experiences, as being His priestly intercession; and that which my text +represents in a metaphor, perhaps a little more level to our apprehension, as +being His preparing a place for us. Behind the veil there is a working Christ, +who, in the heavens, is preparing a place for all that love Him. +</p> + +<p> +II. In the next place, note the Return. +</p> + +<p> +The purpose of our Lord's departure, as set forth by Himself here, guarantees +for us His coming back again. That is the force of the simple argumentation of +my text, and of the pathetic and soothing repetition of the sweet words, 'I go +to prepare a place for you; and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come +again and receive you unto Myself.' Because the departure had for its purpose +the preparing of the place, therefore it is necessarily followed by a return. +He who went away as the Forerunner has not done His work until He comes back, +and, as Guide, leads those for whom He had prepared the place to the place +which He had prepared for them. +</p> + +<p> +Now that return of our Lord, like His departure, may be considered as having +two stages. Unquestionably the main meaning and application of the words is to +that final and personal coming which stands at the end of history, and to which +the hopes of every Christian soul ought to be steadfastly directed. He will 'so +come in like manner as' He has gone. We are not to water down such words as +these into anything short of a return precisely corresponding in its method to +the departure; and as the departure was visible, corporeal, literal, personal, +and local, so the return is to be visible, corporeal, literal, personal, local +too. He is to come as He went, a visible Manhood, only throned amongst the +clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This is the aim that He sets +before Him in His departure. He leaves in order that He may come back again. +</p> + +<p> +And, oh, dear friends! remember—and let us live in the strength of the +remembrance—that this return ought to be the prominent subject of Christian +aspiration and desire. There is much about the conception of that solemn +return, with all the convulsions that attend it, and the judgment of which it +is preliminary, that may well make men's hearts chill within them. But for you +and me, if we have any love in our hearts and loyalty in our spirits to that +King, 'His coming' should be 'prepared as the <i>morning</i>,' and we should +join in the great burst of rapture of many a psalm, which calls upon rocks and +hills to break forth into singing, and trees of the field to clap their hands, +because He cometh as the King to judge the earth. His own parable tells us how +we ought to regard His coming. When the fig-tree's branch begins to supple, and +the little leaves to push their way through the polished stem, then we know +that summer is at hand. His coming should be as the approach of that glorious, +fervid time, in which the sunshine has tenfold brilliancy and power, the time +of ripened harvests and matured fruits, the time of joy for all creatures that +love the sun. It should be the glad hope of all His servants. +</p> + +<p> +We have a double witness to bear in the midst of this as of every generation. +One half of the witness stretches backwards to the Cross, and proclaims 'Christ +has come'; the other reaches onwards to the Throne, and proclaims 'Christ will +come.' Between these two high uplifted piers swings the chain of the world's +history, which closes with the return, to judge and to save, of the Lord who +came to die and has gone to prepare a place for us. +</p> + +<p> +But do not let us forget that we may well take another point of view than this. +Scripture knows of many comings of the Lord preliminary to, and in principle +one with, His last coming. For nations all great crises of their history are +'comings of the Lord,' the Judge, and we are strictly in the line of Scripture +analogy when, in reference to individuals, we see in each single death a true +coming of the Lord. +</p> + +<p> +That is the point of view in which we ought to look upon a Christian's +death-bed. 'The Master <i>is come</i>, and calleth for thee.' Beyond all +secondary causes, deeper than disease or accident, lies the loving will of Him +who is the Lord of life and of death. Death is Christ's minister, 'mighty and +beauteous, though his face be dark,' and he, too, stands amidst the ranks of +the 'ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of +salvation.' It is Christ that says of one, 'I will that this man tarry,' and to +another, 'Go!' and he goeth. But whensoever a Christian man lies down to die, +Christ says, 'Come!' and he comes. How that thought should hallow the +death-chamber as with the print of the Master's feet! How it should quiet our +hearts and dry our tears! How it should change the whole aspect of that 'shadow +feared of man'! With Him for our companion, the lonely road will not be dreary; +and though in its anticipation, our timid hearts may often be ready to say, +'Surely the darkness shall cover me,' if we have Him by our sides, 'even the +night shall be light about us.' The dying martyr beneath the city wall lifted +up his face to the heavens, and said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!' It was +the echo of the Master's promise, 'I will come again, and receive you to +Myself.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, notice the Perfected Union. +</p> + +<p> +The departure for such a purpose necessarily involved the return again. Both +are stages in the process, which is perfected by complete union—'That where I +am there ye may be also.' +</p> + +<p> +Christ, as I have been saying, is Heaven. His presence is all that we need for +peace, for joy, for purity, for rest, for love, for growth. To be 'with Him,' +as He tells us in another part of these wonderful last words in the upper +chamber, is to 'behold His glory.' And to behold His glory, as John tells us in +his Epistle, is to be like Him. So Christ's presence means the communication to +us of all the lustre of His radiance, of all the whiteness of His purity, of +all the depth of His blessedness, and of a share in His wondrous dominion. His +glorified manhood will pass into ours, and they that are with Him where He is +will rest as in the centre and home of their spirits, and find Him +all-sufficient. His presence is my Heaven. +</p> + +<p> +That is almost all we know. Oh! it is more than all we need to know. The +curtain is the picture. It is because what is there transcends in glory all our +present experience that Scripture can only hint at it and describe it by +negations—such as 'no night,' 'no sorrow,' 'no tears,' 'former things passed +away'; and by symbols of glory and lustre gathered from all that is loftiest +and noblest in human buildings and society. But all these are but secondary and +poor. The living heart of the hope, and the lambent centre of the brightness, +is, 'So shall we ever be with the Lord.' +</p> + +<p> +And it is enough. It is enough to make the bond of union between us in the +outer court and them in the holy place. Parted friends will fix to look at the +same star at the same moment of the night and feel some union; and if we from +amidst the clouds of earth, and they from amidst the pure radiance of their +heaven, turn our eyes to the same Christ, we are not far apart. If He be the +companion of each of us, He reaches a hand to each, and, clasping it, the +parted ones are united; and 'whether we wake or sleep we live <i>together</i>,' +because we both live with Him. +</p> + +<p> +Brother! Is Jesus Christ so much to you that a heaven which consists in +nearness and likeness to Him has any attraction for you? Let Him be your +Saviour, your Sacrifice, your Helper, your Companion. Obey Him as your King, +love Him as your Friend, trust Him as your All. And be sure that then the +darkness will be but the shadow of His hand, and instead of dreading death as +that which separates you from life and love and action and joy, you will be +able to meet it peacefully, as that which rends the thin veil, and unites you +with Him who is the Heaven of heavens. +</p> + +<p> +He has gone to prepare a place for us. And if we will let Him, He will prepare +us for the place, and then come and lead us thither. 'Thou wilt show me the +path of life' which leads through death. 'In Thy presence is fullness of joy, +and at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap66"></a>THE WAY</h2> + +<p> +'And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we +know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, +I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by +Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from +henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.'—JOHN xiv. 4-7. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord has been speaking of His departure, of its purpose, of His return as +guaranteed by that purpose, and of His servants' eternal and perfect reunion +with Him. But even these cheering and calming thoughts do not exhaust His +consolations, as they did not satisfy all the disciples' needs. They might +still have said, 'Yes; we believe that You will come back again, and we believe +that we shall be together; but what about the parenthesis of absence?' And here +is the answer, or at least part of it: 'Whither I go ye know, and the way ye +know'; or, if we adopt the shortened form which the Revised Version gives us, +'Whither I go ye know the way.' +</p> + +<p> +When you say to a man, 'You know the way,' you mean 'Come.' And in these words +there lie, as it seems to me, a veiled invitation to the disciples to come to +Him before He came back for them, and the assurance that they, though +separated, might still find and tread the road to the Father's house, and so be +with Him still. They are not left desolate. The Christ who is absent is present +as the path to Himself. And so the parenthesis is bridged across. Now in these +verses we have several large and important lessons which I think may best be +drawn by simply seeking to follow their course. +</p> + +<p> +I. Observe the disciples' unconscious knowledge. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus Christ says: 'Ye know the way and ye know the goal.' One of them ventures +flatly to contradict Him, and to traverse both assertions with a brusque and +thorough-going negative. 'We do <i>not</i> know whither Thou goest,' says +Thomas; 'how can we know the way?' He is the same man in this conversation that +we find him in the interview before our Lord's journey to raise Lazarus, and in +the interview after our Lord's resurrection. In all three cases he appears as +mainly under the dominion of sense, as slow to apprehend anything beyond its +limits, as morbidly melancholy and disposed to take the blackest possible view +of things—a practical pessimist—and yet with a certain kind of frank +outspokenness which half redeems the other characteristics from blame. He could +not understand all the Lord's deep words just spoken. His mind was befogged and +dimmed, and he blurts out his ignorance, knowing that the best place to carry +it to is to the Illuminator who can make it light. +</p> + +<p> +'We know not whither Thou goest, and how can we know the way?' Was Jesus right? +was Thomas right? or were they both right? The fact is that Thomas and all his +fellows knew, after a fashion, but they did not know that they knew. They had +heard much in the past as to where Christ was going. Plainly enough it had been +rung in their ears over and over again. It had made some kind of lodgment in +their heads, and, in that sense, they did know. It is this unused and +unconscious knowledge of theirs to which Christ appeals, and which He tries to +draw out into consciousness and power when He says, 'You know whither I am +going, and you know the road.' Is not that exactly what a patient teacher will +do with some flustered child when he says to it: 'Take time! You know it well +enough if you will only think'? So the Master says here: 'Do not be agitated +and troubled in heart. Reflect, remember, overhaul your stores, and think what +I have told you over and over again, and you will find that you <i>do</i> know +whither I am going, and that you <i>do</i> know the way.' +</p> + +<p> +The patient gentleness of the Master with the slowness of the scholars is +beautifully exemplified here, as is also the method, which He lovingly and +patiently adopts, of sending men back to consult their own consciousness as +illuminated by His teaching, and to see whether there is not lying somewhere, +unrecked of and unemployed in some dusty corner of their mind, a truth that +only needs to be dragged out and cleaned in order to show itself for what it +is, the all-sufficient light and strength for the moment's need. +</p> + +<p> +The dialogue is an instance of what is true about us all, that we have in our +possession truths given to us by Jesus Christ, the whole sweep and bearing of +which, the whole majesty and power and illuminating capacity of which, we do +not dream of yet. How much in our creeds lies dim and undeveloped! Time and +circumstances and some sore agony of spirit are needed in order to make us +realise the riches that we possess, and the certitudes to which our troubled +spirits may cling; and the practice of far more patient, honest, profound +meditation and reflection than finds favour with the average Christian man is +needed, too, in order that the truths possessed may be possessed, and that we +may know what we know, and understand 'the things that are given to us of God.' +</p> + +<p> +In all your creeds, there are large tracts that you, in some kind of a fashion, +do believe; and yet they have no vitality in your consciousness nor power in +your lives. And the Master here does with these disciples exactly what He is +trying to do day by day with us, namely, fling us back on ourselves, or rather +upon His revelation in us, and get us to fathom its depths and to walk round +about its magnitudes, and so to understand the things that we say we believe. +</p> + +<p> +All our knowledge is ignorance. Ignorance that confesses itself to Him is in +the way of becoming knowledge. His light will touch the smoke and change it +into red spires of flame. If you do not know, go to Him and say, 'Lord! I do +not.' An accurate understanding of where the darkness lies is the first step to +the light. We are meant to carry all our inadequate and superficial +realisations of His truth into His presence, that, from Him, we may gain deeper +knowledge, a firmer faith, and a more joyous certitude in His inexhaustible +lessons. In every article and item of the Christian faith there is a +transcendent element which surpasses our present comprehension. Let us be +confident that the light will break; and let us welcome the new illumination +when it comes, sure that it comes from God. Be not puffed up with the conceit +that you know all. Be sure of this, that, according to the good old metaphor, +we are but as children on the shore of the great ocean, gathering a few of the +shells that it has washed to our feet, itself stretching boundless, and, thank +God, sunlit, before us. 'Ye know the way.' 'Master, we know not the way.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Observe here, in the second place, our Lord's great self-revelation which +meets this unconscious knowledge. +</p> + +<p> +'Jesus saith unto him: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh +unto the Father but by Me.' Now it is quite plain, I think, from the whole +strain of the context and the purpose of these words that the main idea in them +is the first—'I am the Way.' And that is made more certain because of the last +words of the verse, which, summing up the force of the three preceding +assertions, dwell only upon the metaphor of the Way; 'No man cometh unto the +Father but by Me.' So that of these three great words, the Way, the Truth, the +Life, we are to regard the second and the third as explanatory of the first. +They are not co-ordinate, but the first is the more general, and the other two +show how the first comes to be true. 'I am the Way' because 'I am the Truth and +the Life.' +</p> + +<p> +There are no words of the Master, perhaps, to which my previous remarks are +more necessary to be applied than these. We know; and yet oh! what an overplus +of glory and of depth is here that we do not know and never can know. The most +fragmentary and inadequate grasp of them with heart and mind will bring light +to the mind and quietness and peace to the heart; but the whole meaning of them +goes beyond men and angels. We can only skim the surface and seek to shift back +the boundaries of our knowledge a little further, and to embrace within its +limits a little more of the broad land into which the words bring us. So just +take a thought or two which may tend in that direction. +</p> + +<p> +Note, then, as belonging to all three of these clauses that remarkable '<i>I +am</i>.' We show a way, Christ <i>is</i> it. We speak truth, Christ <i>is</i> +it. Parents impart life, which they have received, Christ <i>is</i> Life. He +separates Himself from all men by that representation that He is not merely the +communicator or the teacher or the guide, but that He Himself is, in His own +personal Being, Way, Truth, Life. He said that, when Calvary was within +arm's-length. What did He think about Himself, and what should we think of Him? +</p> + +<p> +And then note, further, that He sets forth His unique relation to the truth as +being one ground on which He is the Way to God. He <i>is</i> the Truth in +reference to the divine nature. That Truth, then, is not a mere matter of +words. It is not only His speech that teaches us, but Himself that shows us +God. His whole life and character, His personality, are the true representation +within human conditions of the Invisible God; and when He says, 'I am the Way +and the Truth,' He is saying substantially the same thing as the great prologue +of this Gospel says when it calls Him the Word and the Light of men, and as +Paul says when he names Him 'the Image of the Invisible God.' There is all the +difference between talking about God and showing Him. Men reveal God by their +words; Christ reveals Him by Himself and the facts of His life. The truest and +highest representation of the divine nature that men can ever have is in the +face of Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +I need only remind you in a sentence about other and lower applications of this +great saying, which do not, as I think, enter into the purpose of the context. +He is the Truth, inasmuch as, in the life and historical manifestation of Jesus +Christ as recorded in the Scriptures, men find foundation truths of a moral and +spiritual sort. 'Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, +whatsoever things are lovely and of good report,' He is these, and all true +ethics is but the formulating into principles of all the facts of the life and +character of Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Further, my text says He is the Way because He is the Life. On the one side God +is brought to all hearts, and in some real sense to our comprehension, by the +life of Jesus Christ, and so He is the Way. But that is not enough. There must +be an action upon us as well as an action having reference to the divine +nature. God is brought to men by the manifestation in Christ; and we, the dead, +are quickened by the communication of the Life. The one phrase points to all +His work as a Revealer, the other points to all His work upon us as life-giving +Spirit, a Quickener and an Inspirer. Dead men cannot walk a road. It is of no +use to make a path if it starts from a cemetery. Christ taught that men apart +from Him are dead, and that the only life that they can have by which they can +be knit to God is the divine life which was in Himself, and of which He is the +source and the principle for the whole world. He does not tell us here what yet +is true, and what He abundantly tells in other parts of this great +conversation, that the only way by which the life which He brings can be +diffused and communicated is by His death. 'Except a corn of wheat fall into +the ground and die, it abideth alone.' He is the Life, and—paradox of mystery +and yet fact which is the very heart and centre of His Gospel—His only way of +giving His life to us is by giving up His physical life for us. He must die +that He may be the life-spring for the world. The alabaster box must be broken +if the ointment and its fragrance are to be poured out; and 'death is the gate +of life' in a deeper than the ordinary sense of the saying, inasmuch as the +death of the Life which is Christ is the life of the death which we are. +</p> + +<p> +And so, because, on the one hand, He brings a God to our hearts that we can +love and trust, and because, on the other, He communicates to our spirits, dead +in the only true death which is the separation from God by sin, the life by +which we are knit to God, He is the Way to the Father. +</p> + +<p> +And what about people that never heard of Him, to whom that Way has been +closed, to whom that Truth has never been manifested, to whom that Life has +never been brought? Ah! Christ has other ways of working than through His +historical manifestation, for there is no truth more plainly taught in this +great fourth Gospel than this, that that Light 'lighteth every man that cometh +into the world.' The eternal Word works through all the earth, in ways beyond +our ken, and wherever any man has, however imperfectly, felt after and grasped +the thought of a Father in the heavens, there the Word, which is the Light of +men, has wrought. +</p> + +<p> +But for us to whom this Book has come, for what people call in bitter irony +'Christendom,' the law of my text rigidly applies, and it is being worked out +all round us to-day. 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.' And here we +are, in this England of ours, and in our sister nations on the continent of +Europe and in America, face to face as I believe with this alternative—either +Jesus Christ the Revealer of God and the Life of men, or an empty Heaven. And +for you, individually, it is either—take Christ for the Way, or wander in the +wilderness and forget your Father. It is either—take Christ for the Truth, or +be given over to the insufficiencies of mere natural, political, and +intellectual truths, and the shows and illusions of time and sense. It is +either—take Christ for your Life, or remain in your deadness, separate from +God. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, we have here the disciples' ignorance and the new vision which +dispels it. +</p> + +<p> +'If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also, and from henceforth +ye know Him, and have seen Him.' Our Lord accepts for the moment Thomas's +standpoint. He supplements His former allegation of the disciples' knowledge +with the admission of the ignorance which went with it as its shadow, and was +only too sadly and plainly shown by their failure to discern in Him the +manifestation of the Father. He has just told them that they did know what they +thought they knew not; He now tells them that they did not know what they +thought they knew so well, after so many years of companionship—even Himself. +The proof that they did not is that they did not know the Father as revealed in +Him, nor Him as revealing the Father. If they missed that, they missed +everything; and for all they had known of His graciousness, were strangers to +His truest Self. Their ignorance would turn out knowledge, if they would think, +and their supposed knowledge would turn out ignorance. +</p> + +<p> +The lesson for us is that the true test of the completeness and worth of our +knowledge of Christ lies in its being knowledge of God the Father, brought near +to us by Him. This saying puts a finger on the radical deficiency of all merely +humanitarian views of Christ's person, however clearly they may see and +admiringly extol the beauty of His character and the 'sweet reasonableness' of +His wisdom. They all break down here, and are arraigned as so shallow and +incomplete that they do not deserve to be called knowledge of Him at all. If +you know anything about Jesus Christ rightly, this is what you know about Him, +that in Him you see God. If you have not seen God in Him, you have not got to +the heart of the mystery. The knowledge of Christ which stops with the Man and +the Martyr, and the Teacher and the beautiful, gentle Brother, is knowledge so +partial that even He cannot venture to call it other than ignorance. Oh! +brethren, do our conceptions of Him meet this test which He Himself has laid +down, and can we say that, seeing Him, we see in Him God? +</p> + +<p> +And then our Lord passes on to another thought, the new vision which at the +moment was being granted to this unconscious ignorance that was passing into +conscious knowledge. 'From henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him.' We must +give that 'from henceforth,' as a note of time, a somewhat liberal +interpretation, and apply it to the whole series of utterances and deeds of +which the words of our text are but a portion. And, if so, we come to this—it +was in the wisdom, and the gentleness, and the deep truths of that upper +chamber; it was in the agony and submission of Gethsemane; it was in the meek +patience before the judges, and the silent acceptance of ignominy and shame; it +was in the willing, loving endurance of the long hours upon the Cross, that +Christ inaugurated the new stage in His revelation of God and in His +life-giving to the world. And it is from thenceforth and thereby that in the +man Jesus, men know and see 'the Father' as they never did before. The Cross +and the Passion of Christ are the unveiling to the world of the heart of God; +and by the side of that new vision the fairest and the loftiest and the +sweetest of Christ's former manifestations and utterances sink into comparative +insignificance. It is the dying Christ that reveals the living God. +</p> + +<p> +So, dear friends, He is your way to God. See that ye seek the Father by Him +alone. He is your Truth; grapple Him to your hearts, and by patient meditation +and continual faithfulness enrich yourselves with all the communicated +treasures that you have already received in Him. He is your Life; cleave to +Him, that the quick Spirit that was in Him may pass into you and make you +victors over all deaths, temporal and eternal. Know Him as a Friend, not as a +mere historical person, or with mere head-knowledge, for to know a friend is +something far deeper than to know a truth. 'Acquaint thyself with Him and be at +peace.' 'This is life eternal, to know,' with the knowledge which is life and +possession, 'Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap67"></a>THE TRUE VISION OF GOD</h2> + +<p> +'Philip saith unto Jesus, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9. +Jesus saith unto Him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not +known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest +thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and +the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but +the Father, that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in +the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' +sake.'—JOHN xiv. 8-11. +</p> + +<p> +The vehement burst with which Philip interrupts the calm flow of our Lord's +discourse is not the product of mere frivolity or curiosity. One hears the ring +of earnestness in it, and the yearnings of many years find voice. Philip had +felt out of his depth, no doubt, in the profound teachings which our Lord had +been giving, but His last words about seeing God set a familiar chord +vibrating. As an Old Testament believer he knew that Moses had once led the +elders of Israel up to the mount where 'they saw the God of Israel,' and that +to many others had been granted sensible manifestations of the divine presence. +As a disciple he longed for some similar sign to confirm his faith. As a man he +was conscious of the deep need which all of us have, whether we are conscious +of it or not, for something more real and tangible than an unseeable and +unknowable God. The peculiarities of Philip's temperament strengthened the +desire. The first appearance that he makes in the Gospels is characteristically +like this his last. To all Nathanael's objections he had only the reply, 'Come +and see.' And here he says: 'Oh! if we could <i>see</i> the Father it would be +enough.' He was one of the men to whom seeing is believing, and so he speaks. +</p> + +<p> +His petition is childlike in its simplicity, beautiful in its trust, noble and +true in its estimate of what men need. He longs to see God. He believes that +Christ can show God; he is sure that the sight of God will satisfy the heart. +These are errors, or truths, according to what is meant by 'seeing.' Philip +meant a palpable manifestation, and so far he was wrong. Give the word its +highest and its truest meaning, and Philip's error becomes grand truth. Our +Lord gently, lovingly, and with only a hint of rebuke, answers the request, and +seeks to disengage the error from the truth. His answer lies in the verses that +we have read. Let us try to follow them, and, as we may, to skim their surface, +for their depths are beyond us. +</p> + +<p> +First of all, then, we have the sight of God in Christ as enough to answer +men's longings. There is a world of sadness and tenderness, of suppressed pain +and of grieved affection, in the first words of our Lord's reply. 'Have I been +so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?' He seldom names +His disciples. When He does, there is a deep cadence of affection in the +designation. This man was one of the first disciples, the little original band +called by Christ Himself, and thus had been with Him all the time of His +ministry, and the Master wonders with a gentle wonder that, before eyes that +loved Him as much as Philip's did, His continual self-revelation had been made +to so little purpose. In the answer, in its first portion, there lies the +reiteration of the thoughts that I was trying to dwell upon in the last sermon, +which, therefore, I may lightly touch now—viz., that the sight of Christ is the +sight of God—'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father'—and that not to know +Christ as thus showing God is not to know Him at all—'Thou hast not known Me, +Philip.' Further, there is the thought that the sight of God in Christ is +sufficient, 'How sayest thou, Shew us the Father?' From all this we may gather +some thoughts on which I lightly touch. +</p> + +<p> +I. The first is, that we all do need to have God made visible to us. +</p> + +<p> +The history of heathendom shows us that, in every land men have said, 'The gods +have come down to us in the likeness of men.' And the highest cultivation of +this highly cultivated and self-conscious twentieth century has not removed us +from the same necessity that the rudest savage has, to have some kind of +manifestation of the divine nature other than the dim and vague ones which are +possible apart from the revelation of God in Christ. A God who is only the +product of inferences from creation, or providence, or the mysteries of +history, or the wonders of my own inner life, the creature of logic or of +reflection, is very powerless to sway and influence men. The limitations of our +faculties and the boundlessness of our hearts both cry out for a God who is +nearer to us than that, and whom we can see and love and be sure of. The whole +world wants the making visible of divinity as its deepest want. And <i>your</i> +heart and mind require it. Nothing else will ever stay our hunger, will ever +answer our questioning minds. +</p> + +<p> +Christ meets this need. How can you make wisdom visible? How can a man see love +or purity? How do I see your spirit? By the deeds of your body. And the only +way by which God can ever come near enough to men to be a constant power and a +constant motive in their lives is by their seeing Him at work in a Man, who +amongst them is His image and revelation. Christ's whole life is the making +visible of the invisible God. He is the manifestation to the world of the +unseen Father. +</p> + +<p> +That vision is enough—enough for mind, enough for heart, enough for will. There +is none else that is sufficient, but this is. 'How sayest thou, Shew us the +Father?' If we can see God it suffices us. Then the mind settles down upon the +thought of Him as the basis of all being, and of all change, and the heart can +twine itself round Him, and the seeking soul folds its wings and is at rest, +and the troubled spirit is quiet, and the accusing conscience is silent, and +the rebellious will is subdued, and the stormy passions are quieted, and in the +inner kingdom is a great peace. The sight of God in Christ brings rest to every +heart, and, Oh! the absence of the vision is the true secret of all disquiet. +We are troubled and careful, and tossed from one stormy billow to another, and +swept over by all the winds that blow, because we see not God, our Father, in +the face of Jesus. 'Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,' is either a +puerile petition, or the deepest and noblest prayer of the human heart. Blessed +are they who have learned what it is to see, and know where that great sight is +to be seen! +</p> + +<p> +Our present knowledge and vision are far higher than that mere external symbol +of God which this man wanted. The elders of Israel saw the God of Israel, but +what they saw was but some symbolical manifestation of that which in itself is +unseen and unattainable. But we who see God in Christ see no symbol but the +Reality, and there is nothing more possible or to be hoped for here. Our +present manifestation and sight of God in Christ does fall, in some ways +unknown to us, beneath the bright hopes that we are entitled to cherish. But +howsoever imperfect it may be, as measured against the perfection of the vision +when we shall see face to face, and know even as we are known, it is enough, +and more than enough, for all the questionings and desires of our hungering +spirits. +</p> + +<p> +II. Our Lord goes on to a further answer, and points to the divine and mutual +indwelling by which this sight is made possible. +</p> + +<p> +'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words +that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself, but the Father that dwelleth in +Me, He doeth the works.' There are here, mainly, two things, Christ's claim to +the oneness of unbroken communion, and Christ's claim, consequently, to the +oneness of complete co-operation. 'I am in the Father' indicates the +suppression of all independent and therefore rebellious will, consciousness, +thought and action; 'And the Father in Me' indicates the influx into that +perfectly filial Manhood of the whole fullness of God in unbroken, continuous, +gentle, deep flow. These are the two sides of this great mystery on which +neither wisdom nor reverence lead us to dilate; and they combine to express the +closest and most uninterrupted blending, interpenetration, and communion. +</p> + +<p> +And then follows the other claim, that because of this continuous mutual +indwelling there is perfect cooperation. This is also stated in terms +corresponding to the preceding double representation. 'The words that I speak +unto you, I speak not of Myself,' corresponds to, 'I am in the Father.' 'The +Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works,' corresponds to 'The Father in +Me.' The two put together teach us this, that by reason of that mysterious and +ineffable union of communion, Jesus Christ in all His words and in all His +works is the perfect instrument of the divine will, so that His words are God's +words, and His works are God's works; so that, when He speaks, His gentle +wisdom, His loving sympathy, His melting tenderness, His authoritative +commands, His prophetic threatenings, are the speech of God, and that when He +acts, whether it be by miracle or in the ordinary deeds of His life, what we +see is God working before our eyes as we never see Him in any human being. +</p> + +<p> +And from all this follow just two or three considerations which I name. Note +the absolute absence of any consciousness on Christ's part of the smallest +deflection or disharmony between Himself and the Father. Two triangles laid on +each other are in every line, point, and angle absolutely coincident. That +humanity is capable of receiving the whole inflow of God, and that indwelling +God is perfectly expressed in the humanity. There is no trace of a +consciousness of sin. Everything that Jesus Christ said He knew to be God's +speaking; everything that He did He knew to be God's acting. There were no +barriers between the two. Jesus Christ was conscious of no separation—not the +thinnest film of air between these Two who adhered and inhered so closely and +so continuously. It is an awful assertion. +</p> + +<p> +Now I pray you to ask yourselves the question: If this was what Christ said, +what did He think of Himself? And is this a Man, like the rest of us, with +blotches and sins, with failures to embody His own ideas, and still more to +carry out in life the will that He knows to be God's will? Is this a man like +other men who thus speaks to us? If Jesus had this consciousness, either He was +ludicrously, tragically, blasphemously, utterly mistaken and untrustworthy, or +He is what the Church in all ages has confessed Him to be, 'the Everlasting Son +of the Father.' +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, our Lord further sets before us the faith to which He invites us +on the ground of His union with, and revelation of, God. +</p> + +<p> +'Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me, or else believe Me +for the very works' sake.' Observe that the verb at the beginning of this last +verse of our text passes into a plural form. Our Lord has done with Philip +especially, and speaks now to all who hear Him, and to us amongst the rest of +His auditors. He bids us <i>believe</i> Him, and believe something about Him on +the strength of His own testimony, or, in default of that, and as second best, +believe Him on the testimony of His works. I gather together what I have to say +about this point into three remarks. +</p> + +<p> +The true bond of union between men and Jesus Christ is faith. We have to trust, +and that is better than sight. We have to trust <i>Him</i>. He is the personal +Object of our faith. In all faith there is what I may call a moral and a +voluntary element. A man believes a proposition because it is forced upon him, +and his intelligence is obliged to accept it. A man trusts Christ because he +<i>will</i> trust Him, and the moral and voluntary element carries us far +beyond the mere intellectual conception of faith as the assent to a set of +theological propositions. Faith really is the outgoing of the whole man—heart, +will, intellect, and all—to a person whom it grasps. But the Christ that you +and I have to trust is the Christ as He Himself has declared Himself to us. +'Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.' There is a bastard, +mutilated kind of thing that calls itself Christian faith, that goes about the +world in this generation, which believes in Jesus Christ in all sorts of +beautiful ways, but it will not believe in Him as the Personal Revelation and +making visible of the unseen God. Jesus Christ Himself tells us here that that +is not the kind of faith which He invites us to put forth. If we put forth that +only, we have not yet come to understand Him. Oh, dear friends! Christ as here +declared to us by Himself is the only Christ to whom it is right to give our +trust. If He be not God manifest in the flesh, I ought not to trust Him. I may +admire Him as a historical personage; I may reverence Him for His wisdom and +beauty; I may even in some vague way have a kind of love to Him. But what in +the name of common sense shall I trust Him for? And why should He call upon me +to exercise faith in Him unless He stand before me as the adequate Object of a +man's trust—namely, the manifest God? +</p> + +<p> +And then, further, note that believing in the sense of trusting is seeing and +knowing. Philip said, 'Shew us the Father.' Christ answers, 'Believe, and thou +dost see.' If you look back upon the previous verses of this chapter, you will +find that in the earlier portion of them the key-word is 'know'; that in the +second portion of them the key-word is 'see'; that in this portion of them the +key-word is 'believe.' The world says, 'Ah! seeing is believing.' The Gospel +says, 'Believing is seeing.' The true way to knowledge, and to a better vision +than the uncertain vision of the eye, is faith. In certitude and in directness, +the knowledge of God that we have through faith in the Christ whom our eyes +have never seen is far ahead of the certitude and the directness that attach to +our mere bodily sight; and so the key to all divine knowledge, and the sure +road to the truest vision of God, is faith. +</p> + +<p> +Further, faith, even if based upon lower than the highest grounds, is still +faith, and acceptable to Him: 'Or else believe Me for the very works' sake.' +The 'works' are mainly, I suppose, though not exclusively, His miracles. And if +so, we are here taught that, if a man has not come to that point of spiritual +susceptibility in which the image of Jesus Christ lays hold upon His heart and +obliges him to trust Him and to love Him, there are yet the miracles to look +at; and the faith that grasps them, and by help of that ladder climbs to Him, +though it be second best, is yet real. The evidence of miracles is subordinate, +and yet it is valid and true. So our Lord contradicts both the exaggerations of +past generations and the exaggerations of this, and neither asserts that the +great reason for faith is miracles, nor that miracles are of no use at all. +Former centuries in the Christian Church reiterated the former exaggeration, +and thus partly provoked the exaggeration of this day. Let us keep the middle +course: there is a better way of coming to Christ than through the gate of +miracles, and that is that He should stamp His own divine sweetness and +elevation upon our minds and hearts. But if we have not reached that point, do +not let us kick away the ladder that may help us to it. 'Believe Him for the +very works' sake.' Imperfect faith may be the highway to perfection. Let us +follow the light, if it be but a far-off glimmer, sure that it will bring us +into noontide day if we are faithful to its leading. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, dear friends, let us remember that no faith avails itself of +all the treasures laid up for it, which does not lay hold upon Christ in the +character in which He presents Himself. The only adequate, worthy trust in Him +is the trust which grasps Him as the Incarnate God and Saviour. Only such a +faith does justice to His own claim. Only such a faith is the sure path to +vision and to knowledge. Only such a faith draws down the blessing of a +questioning intellect answered, a hungry heart satisfied, a conscience, +accusing and prophetic of a judgment to come, cleansed and purified. +</p> + +<p> +To each of us Christ addresses His merciful invitation, 'Believe Me that I am +in the Father, and the Father in Me.' May we all answer, 'We believe that Thou +art the Christ, the Son of the living God!' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap68"></a>CHRIST'S WORKS AND OURS</h2> + +<p> +'Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do +shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto +My Father. 13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the +Father may be glorified in the Son. 14. If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I +will do it.'—JOHN xiv. 12-14. +</p> + +<p> +I have already pointed out in a previous sermon that the key-word of this +context is 'Believe!' In three successive verses we find it, each time widening +in its application. We have first the question to the single disciple: 'Philip! +believest thou not?' We have then the invitation addressed to the whole group: +'Believe Me!' And here we have a wholly general expression referring to all +who, in every generation and corner of the world, put their trust in Christ, +and extending the sunshine of this great promise to whosoever believeth in Him. +Our Lord has pointed to <i>believing</i> as the great antidote to a troubled +heart, as the sure way of knowing the Father, as the better substitute for +sight; and now here He opens before us still more wonderful prerogatives and +effects of faith. His words carry us up into lofty and misty regions, where we +can neither breathe freely nor see clearly, except as we hold to His words. +Therefore He prefaces them with His 'Verily, verily!' bidding us listen to them +with sharpened attention as the disclosure of something wonderful, and receive +them with unfaltering confidence, on His authority, however marvellous and +otherwise undiscoverable they may be. +</p> + +<p> +What is it, then, that He thus commends to our acceptance? If I may venture a +paraphrase which may at least have the advantage of being cast into less +familiar words, it is just this, that because of, and after, Christ's departure +from earth, He will, in response to prayer, work upon faithful souls in such a +fashion as that they will do what He did, and in some sense will do even more. +</p> + +<p> +I. We have here the continuous work of the exalted Lord for and through His +servants. +</p> + +<p> +These disciples, of course, were trembling and oppressed with the thought that +the departure of Jesus would be the end of His ceaseless activity for them, on +which they had depended implicitly for so long. Henceforward, whatever distress +or need might come, that Voice would be silent, and that Hand motionless, and +they would be left to face every storm, uncompanioned and uncounselled. Some of +us know how dreary such experience makes life, and we can understand how these +men shrank from the prospect. Christ's words give strength to meet that trial, +and not only tell them that after He is gone they will be able to do what they +cannot do now, and what He used to do for them, but that in them He will work +as well as for them, and be the power of their action, after He has departed. +</p> + +<p> +For, notice the remarkable connection of the words with which we are dealing. +'He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall <i>he</i> do,' and the +ground of that is 'because I go to My Father,' and whatsoever the believer +'shall ask, <i>I</i> will do.' +</p> + +<p> +So, then, there are here two very distinct paths on which Christ represents to +us that His future activity will travel; the one, that of doing for us, in +response to our prayers; the other that of working on us and in us, so that our +acts are His and His acts are ours. We may look at these two for a moment +separately. +</p> + +<p> +Here, then, there is clearly stated this great thought, that Christ's removal +from the world is not the end of His activity in the world and on material +things, but that, absent, He still is a present power, and having passed +through death, and been removed from sense, He can still operate upon the +things round us, and move these according to His will. We are not to water down +such words as these into any such thought as that the continuous influence of +the memory and history of His past will be a present power in all ages. +</p> + +<p> +That is true, gloriously and uniquely true, but that is not the truth which He +speaks here. Over and above that perpetual influence of past recorded work, +there is the present influence of His present work, and to-day He is working as +truly as He wrought when on earth. One form of His work was finished on +Calvary, as His dying breath proclaimed; but there is another work of Christ in +the midst of the ages, moving the pawns on the chessboard of the world, and +presiding over the fortunes of the solemn conflict, which will not be ended +until that day when the angel voices shall chant, 'It is done! The kingdoms of +the world are the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.' The living Christ +works by a true forth-putting of His own present power upon material things, +and amidst the providences of life. And therefore these disciples were not to +be cast down as if His work for them were ended. +</p> + +<p> +Now it is clear, of course, that such words as these do demand for their +vindication something perfectly unique and solitary in the nature and person of +Jesus Christ. All other men's work is cut in twain by death. 'This man, having +served his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was gathered to his +fathers, and saw corruption,' that is the epitaph over the greatest thinkers, +statesmen, heroes, poets, the epitaph for the tenderest and most hopeful. +Father, mother, husband, wife, child, friend, all cease to act when they die, +and though thunders should break, they are silent and can help no more. But +Christ is living to-day, and working all around us. +</p> + +<p> +Now, brethren, it is of the last importance for the joyousness of our Christian +lives, and for the courage of our conflict with sorrow and sin, that we should +give a very prominent place in our creeds, and our hearts, to this great truth +of a living Christ. What a joyful sense of companionship it brings to the +solitary, what calmness of vision in contemplating the complications and +calamities of the world's history, if we grasp firmly the assurance that the +living Christ is actually working by the present forth-putting of His power in +the world to-day! +</p> + +<p> +But that is not all. There is another path on which our Lord shows us here a +glimpse of His working, not only for us, but on and in and therefore through +us, so that the deeds that we do in faith that rests upon Him are in one aspect +His, and in another ours. +</p> + +<p> +'The works that I do shall He do also'; because 'whatsoever ye shall ask I will +do it.' +</p> + +<p> +We have not to think only of a Lord whose activity for us, beneficent and +marvellous as it is, was finished in the misty past upon the Cross, nor have we +only to think of a Lord whose activity for us, mighty and comforting as it is +to all the solitary and struggling, is wrought as from the heights of the +heavens, but we have to think of One who is beside us and in us and knows the +hidden paths that no eye sees, and no foot but His can tread, into the inmost +recesses of our souls, and there can enter as King and righteousness, as life +and strength. This is the deepest of the lessons that He would teach us here. +'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' and through me, if I keep close +to Him, will work mightily in forms that my poor manhood could never have +reached. The emblem of the vine and the branches, and the other emblem of the +house and its inhabitants, and the other of the head and the members, all point +to this one same thing which shallow and unspiritual men call 'mystical,' but +which is the very heart of the Christian prerogative and the anchor of the +Christian hope. Christ in us is our present righteousness and our hope of a +future glory. +</p> + +<p> +And now mark that a still more solemn and mysterious aspect of this union of +Jesus Christ and the believer is given, since it is set forth as resulting in +our doing Christ's works, and Christ doing ours; and therein is paralleled with +the yet more wonderful and ineffable union between the Father and the Son. It +is no accident that in one clause He says, 'I am in the Father, and the Father +in Me. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself, but the Father +that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works'; and that in the next He says, 'The +works that I do shall he do also'; and so bids us see in that union between the +Father and the Son, and in that consequent union of co-operation between Him +and His Father, a pattern after which our union with Him is to be moulded, both +as regards the closeness of its intimacy and as regards the resulting +manifestations in life. Christ is in us and we in Christ in some measure as the +Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son. And the works that we do He +does in some fashion that faintly echoes and shadows the perfect co-operation +of the Father and the Son in the works that the Christ did upon the earth. +</p> + +<p> +All the doings of a Christian man, if done in faith, and holding by Christ, are +Christ's doings, inasmuch as He is the life and the power which does them all. +And Christ's deeds are reproduced and perpetuated in His humble follower, +inasmuch as the life which is imparted will unfold itself according to its own +kind; and he that loves Christ will be changed into His likeness, and become a +partaker of His Spirit. So let us curb all self-dependence and self-will, that +that mighty tide may flow into us; and let us cast from us all timidity, +distrust, and gloom, and be strong in the assurance that we have a Christ +living in the heavens to work for us, and living within us to work through us. +</p> + +<p> +There is no record of the Ascension in John's Gospel, but these words of my +text unveil to us the inmost meaning of that Ascension, and are in full accord +with the great picture which one of the Evangelists has drawn—a picture in two +halves, which yet are knit together into one. 'So then, after He had spoken +unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God; +and they went forth and preached everywhere.' What a contrast between the +two—the repose above, the toil below! Yes! But the next words knit them +together—'The Lord also working with them, and confirming the word with signs +following.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Note, in the next place, the greater work of the servants on and for whom +the Lord works. 'Greater works than these shall he do.' Is, then, the servant +greater than his Lord, and he that is sent greater than He that sent him? Not +so, for whatsoever the servant does is done because the Lord is with and in +him, and the contrast that is drawn between the works that Christ does on earth +and the greater works that the servant is to do hereafter is, properly and at +bottom, the contrast between Christ's manifestations in the time of His earthly +limitation and humiliation, and His manifestations in the time of His Ascension +and celestial glory. +</p> + +<p> +We need not be afraid that such great words as these in any measure trench on +the unique and unapproachable character of the earthly work of Christ in its +two aspects, which are one—of Revelation and Redemption. These are finished, +and need no copy, no repetition, no perpetuation, until the end of time. But +the work of objective Revelation, which was completed when He ascended, and the +work of Redemption which was finished when He rose—these require to be applied +through the ages. And it is in regard to the application of the finished work +of Christ to the actual accomplishment of its contemplated consequences, that +the comparison is drawn between the limited sphere and the small results of +Christ's work upon earth, and the worldwide sweep and majestic magnitude of the +results of the application of that work by His servants' witnessing work. The +wider and more complete spiritual results achieved by the ministration of the +servants than by the ministration of the Lord is the point of comparison here. +And I need only remind you that the poorest Christian who can go to a brother +soul, and by word or life can draw that soul to a Christ whom it apprehends as +dying for its sins and raised for its glorifying, does a mightier thing than it +was possible for the Master to do by life or lip whilst He was here upon earth. +For the Redemption had to be completed in act before it could be proclaimed in +word; and Christ had no such weapon in His hands with which to draw men's +souls, and cast down the high places of evil, as we have when we can say, 'We +testify unto you that the Son of God hath died for our sins, and is raised +again according to the Scriptures.' Nor need I do more than remind you of the +comparison, so exalting for His humility and so humbling for our +self-exaltation, between the narrow sphere in which His earthly ministrations +had to operate and the worldwide scope which is given to His servants. 'He laid +His hands on a few sick folk, and healed them'; and at the end of His life +there were one hundred and twenty disciples in Jerusalem and five hundred in +Galilee, and you might have put them all into this chapel and had ample room to +spare. That was all that Jesus Christ had done; while to-day and now the world +is being leavened and the kingdoms of the earth are beginning to recognise His +name. 'Greater works than these shall he do' who lets Christ in him do all His +works. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, notice the conditions on which the exalted Lord works for and on +His servants. +</p> + +<p> +These are two, faith and prayer. +</p> + +<p> +'He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also.' Faith, the +simple act of loving trust in Jesus Christ, opens the door of our hearts and +natures for the entrance of all His solemn Omnipotence, and makes us possessors +of it. It is the condition, and the only condition, and plainly the +indispensable condition, of possessing this divine Christ's power, that we +should trust ourselves to Him that gives it. And if we do, then we shall not +trust in vain, but to us there will come power that will surpass our desire, +and fill us with its own rejoicing and pure energy. Faith will make us like +Christ. Faith is intensely practical. 'He that believeth shall <i>do</i>.' It +is no mere cold assent to a creed which is utterly impotent to operate upon +men's acts, no mere hysterical emotion which is utterly impotent to energise +into nobilities of service and miracles of consecration, but it is the affiance +of the whole nature which spreads itself before Him and prays, 'Fill my +emptiness and vitalise me with Thine own Spirit.' That is the faith which is +ever answered by the inrush of the divine power, and the measure of our +capacity of receiving is the measure of His gift to us. +</p> + +<p> +So if Christian individuals and Christian communities are impotent, or all but +impotent, there is no difficulty in understanding why. They have cut the +connection, they have shut the tap. They lack faith; and so their power is +weakness. 'Why could we not cast him out?' said they, perplexed when they had +no need to be. 'Why could you not cast him out? Because you do not believe that +I, working in you, can cast him out. That is why; and the only why.' Let us +learn that the secret of Christians' weakness is the weakness of their +Christian faith. +</p> + +<p> +And the other condition is prayer. 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name I will +do it,' and He repeats it, for confirmation and for greater emphasis. 'If ye +shall ask anything in My name,' or, as perhaps that clause ought to be read +with some versions, 'If ye shall ask Me anything in My name I will do it.' +</p> + +<p> +Three points may be named here. Our power depends upon our prayer. God's and +Christ's fullness and willingness to communicate do not depend upon our prayer. +But our capacity to receive of that fullness, and so the possibility of its +communication to us, do depend upon our prayer. 'We have not because we ask +not.' +</p> + +<p> +The power of our prayer depends upon our conscious oneness with the revealed +Christ. 'If ye shall ask in My name,' says He. And people think they have +fulfilled the condition when, in a mechanical and external manner, they say, as +a formula at the end of petitions that have been all stuffed full of self-will +and selfishness, 'for Christ's sake. Amen!' and then they wonder they do not +get them answered! Is that asking in Christ's name? +</p> + +<p> +Christ's name is the revelation of Christ's character, and to do a thing in the +name of another person is to do it as His representative, and as realising that +in some deep and real sense—for the present purpose at all events—we are one +with Him. And it is when we know ourselves to be united to Christ and one with +Him, and representative in a true fashion of Himself, as well as when, in +humble reliance on His work for us and His loving heart, we draw near, that our +prayer has power, as the old divines used to say, 'to move the Hand that moves +the world,' and to bring down a rush of blessing upon our heads. Prayer in the +name of Christ is hard to offer. It needs much discipline and watchfulness; it +excludes all self-will and selfishness. And if, as my text tells us, the end of +the Son's working is the glory of the Father, that same end, and not our own +ease or comfort, must be the end and object of all prayer which is offered in +His name. When we so pray we get an answer. And the reason why such multitudes +of prayers never travel higher than the roof, and bring no blessings to him who +prays, is because they are not prayers in Christ's name. +</p> + +<p> +Prayer in His name will pass into prayer to Him. As He not obscurely teaches us +here (if we adopt the reading to which I have already referred), He has an ear +to hear such requests, and He wields divine power to answer. Surely it was not +blasphemy nor any diversion of the worship due to God alone, when the dying +martyr outside the city wall cried and said, 'Lord Jesus! receive my spirit.' +Nor is it any departure from the solemnest obligations laid upon us by the +unity of the divine nature, nor are we bringing idolatrous petitions to another +than the Father, when we draw near to Christ and ask Him to give us that which +He gives as the Father's gift, and to work on us that which the Father that +dwelleth in Him works through Him for us. +</p> + +<p> +Trust yourselves to Christ, and let your desires be stilled, to listen to His +voice in you, and let that voice speak. And then, dear brethren, we shall be +lifted above ourselves, and strength will flow into us, and we shall be able to +say, 'I can do all things, through the Christ that dwells in me and makes me +strong.' And just as the glad, sunny waters of the incoming tide fill the empty +places of some oozy harbour, where all the ships are lying as if dead, and the +mud is festering in the sunshine, so into the slimy emptiness of our corrupt +hearts there will pour the flashing sunlit wave, the ever fresh rush of His +power; and 'everything will live whithersoever it cometh,' and we shall be able +to say in all humility, and yet in glad recognition of Christ's faithfulness to +this, His transcendent promise, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' +'because the life which I live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap69"></a>LOVE AND OBEDIENCE</h2> + +<p> +'If ye love Me, keep My commandments.'—JOHN xiv, 15. +</p> + +<p> +As we have seen in former sermons, the keyword of the preceding context is +'Believe!' and that word passes now into 'Love.' The order here is the order of +experience. There is first the believing gaze upon the Christ as He is +revealed—the image of the invisible God. That kindles love, and prompts to +obedience. +</p> + +<p> +There is another very beautiful and subtle link of connection between these +words and the preceding. Our Lord has just been saying, 'Whatsoever ye shall +ask in My name, that will I do.' Is the parallel wholly accidental or fanciful +between the Lord who does as the servant asks and the servant who is to do as +the Lord commands? On both sides there is love delighting to be set in motion +by a message from the other side. On the one part there is love supreme which +commands and delights to be asked, on the other part there is love dependent, +which asks and delights to be commanded; and though the gulf between the two is +great, and the difference between Christ's law and our petitions is infinite, +yet there is an analogy. +</p> + +<p> +I pause on these words, though they are introduced here only as the basis of +the great promise which follows, because they open out into such wide fields. +They contain the all-sufficient law of Christian conduct. They contain the one +motive adequate to bring that law into realisation. They disclose the very +roots of Christian morality, and part of the secret of Christ's unique power +and influence amongst men. They come with a message of encouragement to all +souls despairing of being able to do that which they would, and of freedom to +all men burdened with a crowd of minute and external regulations. 'If ye love +Me, keep My commandments'—there are three points to be dwelt upon here—namely, +the all-sufficient ideal or guide of life, the all-powerful motive which Christ +brings to bear, and the all-subduing gaze of faith by which that motive is +brought into action. +</p> + +<p> +I. We have here the all-sufficient ideal or guide for life. +</p> + +<p> +Jesus Christ is not speaking merely to that little handful of men in the upper +chamber, but to all generations and to all lands, to the end of time and round +the world. The authoritative tone which He assumes here is very noteworthy. He +speaks as Jehovah spoke from Sinai, and quotes the very words of the old law +when He speaks of 'keeping My commandments.' There are distinctly involved in +this quite incidental utterance of Christ's two startling things—one the +assumption of His right to impose His will upon every human being, and the +other His assumption that His will contains the all-sufficient directory for +human conduct. +</p> + +<p> +What, then, are His commandments? Those which He spoke are plain and simple; +and people who wish to pick holes in the greatness of Christ's work in the +world tell us that you can match almost all His precepts up and down amongst +moralists and philosophers, and they crow very loud if, scratching amongst +Rabbinical dust-heaps, they find something that looks like anything that He +once said. Be it so! What does that matter? Christ's 'commandments' are Christ +Himself. This is the originality and uniqueness of Christ as a moral Teacher, +that He says, not 'Do this, that, and the other thing,' but 'Copy Me.' 'Take My +yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' His +commandments are Himself; and the sum of them all is this—a character perfectly +self-oblivious, and wholly penetrated and saturated with joyful, filial +submission to the Father, and uttermost and entire giving Himself away to His +brethren. That is Christ's commandment which He bids us keep, and His law is to +be found in His life. +</p> + +<p> +And then, if that be so, what a change passes on the aspect of law, when we +take Christ as being our living embodiment of it! Everything that was hard, +repellent, far-off, cold, vanishes. We have no longer 'tables of stone,' but +'fleshy tables of the heart'; and the Law stands before us, a Being to be +loved, to be clung to, to be trusted, and whom it is blessedness to know and +perfection to resemble. The rails upon which the train travels may be rigid, +but they mean safety, and they carry men smoothly into otherwise inaccessible +lands. So the life of Jesus Christ brought to us is the firm and plain track +along which we are to travel; and all that was difficult and hard in the cold +thought of <i>duty</i> becomes changed into the attraction of a living Pattern +and Example. This living and breathing and loving commandment is all-sufficient +for every detail and complexity of human life. It is so by the confession of +believers and of unbelievers, by the joyful confession of the one, and by the +frank acknowledgment of many of the others. Listen to one of them. 'Whatever +else may be taken away from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left, a +unique Figure, not more unlike all His predecessors than all His followers…. +Religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in selecting this Man as the +ideal Representative and Guide of humanity; nor even now would it be easy, even +for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the +abstract into the concrete than to endeavour so to live that Christ would +approve our life.' +</p> + +<p> +It is enough for conduct, it is enough for character, it is enough in all +perplexities of conflicting duties, that we listen to and obey the voice that +says, 'Keep My commandments.' +</p> + +<p> +II. Now note, secondly, the all-powerful motive. +</p> + +<p> +Probably my text is best understood as the Revised Version understands it, +which reads, 'If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments,' making it an +assurance and not an injunction. Christ speaks with the calm confidence that +love to Him will have power enough to sway the life. His utterance here is not +the addition of another commandment to the list, but rather the pointing out of +how they may all be kept. +</p> + +<p> +The principle that underlies these words, then, is this, that love is the +foundation of obedience, and obedience is the sure outcome and result of love. +That is true in regard to those lower forms of love, which may teach us +something of the operation of the higher. We all know that love which is real, +and not simply passion and selfishness with a mask on, delights most chiefly in +knowing and conforming to the will of the beloved, and that there is nothing +sweeter than to be commanded by the dear voice and to obey for dear love's +sake. And you have only to take that which is the experience of every true +heart, in a thousand sweet ways in daily life, and to lift it into the higher +region, and to transfer it to the bond that unites us with Jesus Christ, to see +that He has invoked no illusory, but an omnipotent power when He has rested the +whole force of His transforming and sanctifying energy upon this one principle, +'If ye love Me, the Lawgiver, ye will keep the commandments of My Law.' +</p> + +<p> +That is exactly what distinguishes and lifts the morality of the Gospel above +all other systems. The worst man in the world knows a great deal more of his +duty than the best man does. It is not for want of knowledge that men go to the +devil, but it is for want of power or will to live their knowledge. And what +morality fails to do, with its clearest utterances of human duty, Christ comes +and does. The one law is like the useless proclamations posted up in some +rebellious district, where there is no army to back them, and the king's +authority from whom they come is flouted. The other law gets itself obeyed. +Such is the difference between the powerless morality of the world and the +commandment of Jesus Christ. Here is the road plain and straight. What matters +that, if there is no force to draw the cart along it? There might as well be no +road at all. Here stand all your looms, polished and in perfect order, but +there is no steam in the boilers; and so there is no motion, and nothing is +woven. What we want is not law, but power, and what the Gospel gives us, and +stands alone in giving us, is not merely the knowledge of the will of God, and +the clear revelation of what we ought to be, but the power to become it. +</p> + +<p> +Love does that, and love alone. That strong force brought into action in our +hearts will drive out from thence all rivals, all false and low things. The +true way to cleanse the Augean stables, as the old myth has it, was to turn the +river into them. It would have been endless work to wheel out the filth in +wheelbarrows loaded by spades: turn the stream in, and it will sweep away all +the foulness. When the Ark comes into the Temple, Dagon lies, a mutilated +stump, upon the threshold. When Christ comes into my heart, then all the +obscene and twilight-loving shapes that lurked there, and defiled it, will +vanish like ghosts at cock-crowing before His calm and pure Presence. He, and +He alone, entering my heart by the portals of my love, will coerce my evil and +stimulate my good. And if I love Him, I shall keep His commandments. +</p> + +<p> +Now, brethren, here is a plain test and a double-barrelled one, which tries +both our love and our obedience with a sharp touchstone. 'If ye love Me, ye +will keep My commandments.' That implies, first, that there is no love worth +calling so which does not keep the commandment. All the emotional and the +mystic, and the so-called higher parts of Christian experience, have to be +content to submit to this plain test—do they help us to live as Christ would +have us, and that because He would have us? Love to Him that does not keep His +commandments is either spurious or dangerously feeble. The true sign of its +presence in the heart and the noblest of its operations is not to be found in +high-pitched expressions of fervid emotion, nor even in the sacred joys of +solitary communion, but in its making us, while in the rough struggle of daily +life, and surrounded by trivial tasks, live near Him, and by Him, and for Him, +and like Him. If I live so, I love Him; if not, not. Not that I mean to say +that in regard to each individual action of a Christian man's life there must +be the conscious presence of reference to the supreme love, but that each +individual action of the life ought to come from a character of which that +reference to the supreme love is the very formative principle and foundation. +The colouring matter put in at the fountain will dye every drop of the stream; +and they whose inmost hearts are tinged and tinctured with the sweet love of +Jesus Christ, from their hearts will go forth issues of life all coloured and +moulded thereby. Test your Christian love by your practical obedience. +</p> + +<p> +And, on the other hand, there is no obedience worth calling so which is not the +child of love; and all the multitude of right things which Christians do +without that motive are made short work of by that consideration. Obedience +which is formal, mechanical, matter-of-course, without the presence in it of a +loving submission of the will; obedience which is reluctant, calculated, forced +upon us by dread, imitated from others—all that is nothing; and Jesus Christ +does not count it as obedience at all. This is a sieve with very small meshes, +and there will be a great deal of rubbish left in it after the shaking. 'If ye +love Me, keep My commandments.' The 'keeping of My commandments' which has not +'love to Me' underlying it is no keeping at all. +</p> + +<p> +III. And so, lastly, notice the all-subduing gaze. +</p> + +<p> +That is not included in my text, but it is necessary in order to complete the +view of the forces to which Jesus Christ here entrusts the hallowing of life +and the sanctifying of our nature; and we are led to refer to it by what I have +already pointed out; the connection between the 'love' of my text and the +'believe' of the preceding verses. I can fancy a man saying, 'Keep His +commandments? Woe is me! How am I to keep?' The answer is 'Love.' And I can +fancy him saying 'Love?' Yes! 'And how am I to love? I cannot get up love at +the word of command, or by any voluntary effort.' And the answer comes again, +'Believe!' Trust Christ, and you will love Him. Love Him and you will do His +will. And then the question comes again, 'Believe what?' And the answer comes, +'Believe that He is the Son of God who died for you.' +</p> + +<p> +Nothing else will kindle a man's love than the faithful contemplation and grasp +of Christ in that character and aspect. Only the redeeming Christ affords a +reasonable ground for our love to Him. Here is a dead man, dead for nineteen +centuries, expecting you and me to have towards Him a vivid personal affection +which will influence our conduct and our character. What right has He to expect +that? There is only one reasonable ground upon which I may be called to love +Jesus Christ, and that is that He died for me, and such a love towards such a +Christ is the only thing which will wield power sufficient to guide, to coerce, +to restrain, to constrain, and to sustain my weak, wayward, rebellious, and +sluggish will. All other emotions of so-called admiration and worship and +reverence and affection for Jesus Christ are apt to be tepid; but this one has +power and warmth in it. +</p> + +<p> +Here is a unique fact in the history of the world, that not only did He make +this astounding claim upon all subsequent generations; but that all subsequent +generations have responded to it, and that to-day there are millions of men who +love Jesus Christ with a love warm, personal, deep, powerful—the spring of all +their goodness and the Lord of their lives. Why do they? For one reason only. +Because they believe that He died for them individually, and that He lives an +ascended yet ever-present Helper and Lover of their souls. +</p> + +<p> +My brethren, that conviction, and that conviction only, as I venture to affirm, +has power to send a glow of love into the heart which will move all the limbs +in swift and happy obedience. That conviction, and that conviction alone, will +melt the thick-ribbed ice of our spirits and will make it flow down in sweet +waters. The love that has looked upon the Cross will be the fulfilling of the +law of Him that speaks from the Throne. When our faith has grasped Him, as +enduring that cross for us, then our love will be awakened to hear and to do +His commandments. +</p> + +<p> +'We love Him because He first loved us,' and such love will flower and fruit in +obedience. I shall keep His commandments when I love Him. I shall love Him with +a love that makes my will plastic and my life a glad service, when by faith I +grasp Him as the Incarnate Lord, 'who loved me and gave Himself for me.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap70"></a>THE COMFORTER GIVEN</h2> + +<p> +'And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He +may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot +receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He +dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.'—JOHN xiv. 16,17. +</p> + +<p> +The 'and' at the beginning of these words shows us that they are continuous +with and the consequence of what precedes. 'If ye love Me, <i>ye</i> will +<i>keep</i> My commandments, and <i>I</i> will <i>pray</i> … and <i>He</i> will +<i>send</i>.' Such is the series; but we must also remember that, as we have +seen in previous sermons, the obedience spoken of in the clause before my text +is itself treated as a consequence of some preceding steps. The ladder that is +fixed upon earth and has its summit in heaven has for its rungs, first and +lowest, 'believe'; second, 'love'; third, 'obey.' And thus the context carries +us from the very basis of the Christian life up into its highest reward, even +the larger gift to an obedient spirit of that Great Spirit, who is the +Comforter and the Teacher. +</p> + +<p> +And there is another very striking link of connection between these words and +the preceding. There are, if I may so say, two telephones across the abyss that +separates the ascended Christ and us. One of them is contained in His words, +'If ye ask anything in My name I will do it'; the other is contained in these +words, 'If ye keep My commandments I will ask.' Love on this side of the great +cleft sets love on the other side of it in motion in a twofold fashion. If we +ask, He does; if we do, He asks. His action is the answer to our prayers, and +His prayers are the answer to our obedient action. So we have here these +points—the praying Christ and the giving Father; the abiding Gift; the blind +world and the recipient disciples. +</p> + +<p> +I. Note, then, first, the praying Christ and the giving Father. +</p> + +<p> +'I will ask and He will give' seems a strange drop from the lofty claims with +which we have become familiar in the earlier verses of this chapter. 'Believe +in God, believe also in Me'; 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father'; 'If +ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it'; 'Keep My commandments.' All +these distinctly express, or necessarily imply, divine nature, prerogatives, +and authority. But here the voice that spake the perfect revelation of God, and +gave utterance authoritatively to the perfect law of life, softens and lowers +its tones in petition; and Jesus Christ joins the rank of the suppliants. Now +common sense tells us that apparently diverse views lying so close together in +one continuous stream of speech cannot have seemed to the utterer of them to be +contradictory; and I venture to affirm that there is no explanation which does +justice to these two sides of Christ's consciousness—the one all divine and +authoritative and lofty, and the other all lowly and identifying Himself with +petitioners and suppliants everywhere—except the old-fashioned and to-day +discredited belief that He is 'God manifest in the flesh,' who prays in His +Manhood and hears prayer in His Divinity. The bare humanistic view which +emphasises such utterances as these of my text does not, for the life of it, +know what to do with the other ones, and cannot manage to unite these two +images into a stereoscopic solid. That is reserved for the faith which believes +in the Manhood and in the Deity of our Lord and Saviour. +</p> + +<p> +His intercession is the great hope of the Christian heart. His intercession is +the great activity of His present exalted and glorious state. His intercession +is no mere verbal utterance, nor the representation to the Father of an alien +or a diverse will, but His intercession, mysterious as it is, and unfathomable +to our poor, short lines and light plummets, must mean this at all events—His +continual activity in presenting before the divine Father, as the motive and +condition of His petition being granted, His own great work upon the Cross. The +High Priest passes within the veil, bearing in His hand the offering which He +has made, and by reason of that offering, and of His powerful presence before +the mercy-seat, all the spiritual gifts which redeem and regenerate and +sanctify humanity are for ever coming forth. 'I will pray, and He will give,' +is but one way of saying, 'Seeing then, that we have a great High Priest over +the House of God who is entered within the veil, let us draw near.' +</p> + +<p> +But I would have you notice how, as is always the case in all utterances of +Jesus Christ which express the lowest humiliation and completest identification +of Himself with humanity, there is ever present some touch of obscured glory, +some all but suppressed flash of brightness which will not be wholly concealed. +Note two things in this great utterance; one, Christ's quiet assumption that +all through the ages, and today, nineteen centuries after He died, He knows, at +the moment of their being done, His servants' deeds. 'Keep my commandments, +and, knowing that you keep them, I will then and there pray for you.' He claims +in the lowly words an altogether supernatural, abnormal, divine cognisance of +all the acts of men down the ages and across the gulf between earth and heaven. +</p> + +<p> +And the other signature of divinity stamped on the prayer of Christ is His +certitude of the answer. 'I will ask and He will give': He puts, as it were, +the Father's act in pledge to us, and assures us, in a tone of certainty, which +is not merely the assurance of faith, but the certitude of One who is 'one with +the Father,' that His prayer brings ever its answer. 'Father! I will that they +whom Thou hast given Me be with Me.' How strange! How far beyond the +warrantable language of man! And how impossible for a fisherman of Bethsaida to +imagine, if he had not heard, that strange blending of submission and of +authority which speaks in such words! +</p> + +<p> +Then, remember what I have already said, that, according to the teaching of +this verse, taken in connection with its context, that which put in motion +Christ's Intercessory activity, as represented in my text, is the obedience of +a Christian man. If you obey He will pray, and the Father will send. So the +reward of imperfect obedience is the larger measure given to us of that divine +Spirit by whose indwelling obedience becomes possible, and self-surrender a joy +and a power. And that is not merely because of the natural operation by which +any kind of conduct tends to repeat itself in more complete measure, nor is it +merely a case of 'to him that hath shall be given'; as a man's arm is +strengthened by exercise, and any faculty becomes more assured, and swift, and +at the command of its owner, by use. But there is a distinct supernatural +impartation to every obedient heart of divine gifts which come straight through +Jesus Christ to it. He Himself, in this immediate context, says, 'If I depart I +will send Him unto you,' and the true conception is that in that Spirit's gift, +which is a reality waiting as its crown and reward upon our poor stained +obedience, the whole Godhead is present; the Father the Source, the Son the +Channel, the Spirit the Gift. +</p> + +<p> +II. And so, secondly, note what our text tells us of that abiding gift. +</p> + +<p> +'He will send another Comforter,' 'that He may abide with you for ever, even +the Spirit of Truth.' I suppose I may take it for granted that most of my +audience know all that need be said as to the meaning of this word 'Comforter.' +In our present modern English it has a very much narrower range of meaning than +its etymology would give it, and than probably it had when it was first used in +an English translation. 'Comforter' means a great deal more than 'consoler,' +though we have narrowed it to that signification almost exclusively. It means +not only one who administers sweet whispers of consolation in sorrow, but one +who, in any circumstances, by his presence makes strong. And the original Greek +word, of which it is the translation here, has a precisely analogous meaning; +its original signification being that of 'one who is called to the aid of +another,' primarily as an advocate in a court of law, but more widely as a +helper in any form whatsoever. And that is the idea which is to be attached to +the word here:—a Comforter who makes strong by His presence; the Paraclete, who +is our Advocate, Helper, Guide, and Instructor. Need I dwell upon the great +thoughts that spring from that metaphor; how we have to look for a Person, and +not merely a vague influence; a divine Person who will be by our sides on +condition of our faith, love, and obedience, to be our Strength in all +weakness, our Peace in all trouble, our Wisdom in all darkness, our Guide in +every perplexity, our Comforter and Cherisher, our Righteousness when sin is +strong, the Victor over our temptations, and the Companion and Sweetener of our +solitude? The metaphors with which Scripture represents this great personal +Influence are full of instruction and beauty. He comes as 'the Fire,' which +melts, which warms, which cleanses, which quickens. He comes as the 'rushing, +mighty Wind,' which bears health upon its wings, and sometimes breathes softly +as an infant's breath, and sometimes sweeps with irresistible power. He comes +as the 'Oil,' gently flowing, lubricating, making every joint supple, +nourishing. He comes as the 'Water of Life,' refreshing, vitalising, quickening +all growth. He comes fluttering down as the Dove of God, the bird of peace that +will brood upon our hearts. The predicates which Scripture attaches to that +great Name are equally various, and are full of teaching as to the manner in +which He is the Comforter and the Advocate. He is the Spirit of Holiness, the +Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Power, the Spirit of Love, +the Spirit of a sound Mind, the Spirit of Sonship, the Spirit of Supplication, +and of many great things besides. And this sweet, strong, all-sufficient Person +is offered to each of us, and waits to enter our hearts. +</p> + +<p> +And, says Christ, this Strengthener and Advocate is to replace Me and to carry +on My work. 'He will send <i>another</i> Comforter.' Who was the other but the +Master who was speaking? So all that that handful of men had found of sweetness +and shelter and assured guidance, and stay for their weakness, and +enlightenment for their darkness, and companionship for their solitude, and a +breast on which to rest their heads, and love in which to bathe their hearts, +all <i>these</i> this divine Spirit will bring to each of us if we will. +</p> + +<p> +And further, our Lord tells us that this strong continuer of His presence will +be a permanent Companion. 'He will abide with you for ever.' He was comforting +the disciples who were trembling at the thought of His departure, and knowing +that all the sweetness of these three short years had come to an end; and He +says to them, and through them to all the ages to the end of time: 'Here is the +abiding Guest, that nothing but your own sin will ever cast out from your +hearts.' +</p> + +<p> +And Christ tells us how this great Spirit will do His work. He is the 'Spirit +of Truth,' not as if He brought new truth. To suppose that He does so, opens +the door to all manner of fanaticism, but the truth, the revelation of which is +all summed and finished in the person and work of Jesus Christ, is the weapon +by which the divine Spirit works all His conquests, the staff on which He makes +us lean and be strong. He is the Spirit by whom the truth passes into our +personal possession, by no mere imperfect form of outward teaching which is +always confused and insufficient, but by the inward teaching that deals with +our hearts and our spirits. +</p> + +<p> +But Christ speaks, too, of the blind world. There is a tone of deep sadness in +His words. The thought of the immense multitude of men who were incapacitated +to receive this Strengthener steals across and casts a momentary shadow upon +even the brightness and greatness of His promise. 'The world cannot receive +because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him.' The 'world' is the mass of man, +considered as godless and separate from Him, and there is a bit of the world in +us all; but there are men who are wholly under its influence and dominion. And +these men, says Christ, are perfectly incapable of receiving the teaching of +this divine Comforter. Of course there are other operations of that Great +Spirit of which we shall have to hear as we go on further in this context, in +which His work 'convicts the world of sin and of righteousness and of +judgment.' But what our Lord is speaking of here is the work of that Spirit who +comes in response to His prayer which rises in consequence of our obedience, +and who, coming, brings with Him strength and purity and peace and wisdom; and +that aspect of His operations a heart that is all full and seething with the +world is unfit to receive. It cannot see Him. Embruted natures are altogether +incapacitated for high thoughts, for the perception of natural beauty, for the +appreciation of art; and worldly men, by the very same law, are incapable of +receiving this divine Spirit. A savage stares at the sunshine and sees nothing +but a glare. And worldly men—that is to say, men whose tastes, inclinations, +desires, hopes, purposes, strivings, are all bound by this visible diurnal +round—lack the organ that enables them to see that divine Spirit moving round +about them. Whether you have put your eyes out by fleshly lusts, or, as many +men in this generation have done, by intellectual self-sufficiency and conceit, +if the world, in its grosser or in its most refined forms, is your master, you +are stone blind to all the best realities of the universe, and you cannot see +the things that are. If you look out upon the history of the Church, or upon +the present condition of Christendom, and say, 'I see no divine Spirit working +there'; well, then, the only thing that is to be said to you is, 'Go to an +oculist; your sight is bad. Perhaps there is solid land, as some of us see it, +where you see only mist.' This generation needs the preaching of a supernatural +power at work beside us, and among us, and until we come to believe +<i>that</i>, we do not understand the fullness of Christ's gift. +</p> + +<p> +III. Then, lastly, note the recipient disciples. +</p> + +<p> +Observe that the order of clauses is reversed in the last part of the text. The +world cannot receive, because it does not know. The disciple knows, because he +receives. Possession and knowledge reciprocally interchange places, and may be +regarded as cause and effect of one another. That is to say, at bottom they are +one and the same thing. Knowledge is possession, and possession is the only +knowledge. These disciples knew Christ in a fashion. He had just been telling +them that they did not know Him; but so far as they did dimly grasp Him, they +saw the Spirit—in another form, indeed, than they would hereafter see—but still +truly, though imperfectly. Beholding the Spirit, though 'through a glass +darkly,' and cherishing their partial possession of Him, they will come to +more, and steadfastly increase from the morning's twilight to the midday glory. +So He says: 'He dwelleth with you' now, and 'He shall be <i>in</i> you' +hereafter. There is a better form of possession opening before them, which came +at Pentecost, and has lasted ever since. From thenceforward we have a Spirit +that not only stands by our sides and holds fellowship with us (for the two +'withs' of our text are two different words, expressing respectively proximity +and communion), but who actually dwells in the central depths of our natures, +and whom we thus possess more perfectly and blessedly than is possible to even +the closest outward proximity, and the sweetest outward fellowship. +</p> + +<p> +That possession of an abiding and indwelling Spirit is the gift of Christ to +every Christian soul, and is to be found by us all upon the path so plainly +marked out in our text and its connections—'believe,' 'love,' 'obey.' Then the +Dove of God will flutter down upon our heads and nestle in our hearts, and +brooding over the solemn and solitary sea of our chaotic spirits, will bring up +from it a new world glistening in fresh order and beauty, and 'very good' in +its Maker's eyes. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap71"></a>THE ABSENT PRESENT CHRIST</h2> + +<p> +'I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and +the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live +also.'—JOHN xiv. 18,19. +</p> + +<p> +The sweet and gracious comfortings with which Christ had been soothing the +disciples' fears went very deep, but hitherto they had not gone deep enough. It +was much that they should know the purpose of His going, whither He went, and +that they had an interest in His departure. It was much that they should have +before them the prospect of reunion; much that they should know that all +through His absence He would be working in them, and that they should be +assured that, absent, He would send them a great gift. But reunion, influence +from afar, and gifts from the other side of the gulf were not all that their +hearts needed. And so here our Lord gives yet more, in the paradoxes that, +absent He will be present, unseen visible, and dying will be for them for ever, +living and life-giving. These great thoughts go to the centre of their needs +and of ours; and on them I now touch briefly. +</p> + +<p> +There are then in the words I have read, though they be but a fragment of a +closely-linked-together context, these three great thoughts: the absent Christ +the present Christ; the unseen Christ the seen Christ; the Christ who dies the +living and life-giving Christ. Let us look at these as they stand. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, then, the absent Christ is the present Christ. +</p> + +<p> +'I will not leave you comfortless,' or, as the Revised Version has it, +'desolate—I come to you.' Now, most of us know, I suppose, that the literal +meaning of the word rendered 'comfortless,' or 'desolate,' is '<i>orphans</i>.' +But that is rather an unusual form in which to represent the relation between +our Lord and His disciples, and so, possibly, our versions are accurate in +giving the general idea of desolation rather than the specific idea conveyed +directly by the word. But still it is to be remembered that this whole +conversation begins with 'Little children'; and there seems to be no strong +reason for suppressing the literal meaning of the word, if only it be +remembered that it is employed not so much to define Christ's relation to his +brethren as to describe the comfortless and helpless condition of that little +group when left by Him. They would be like fatherless and motherless children +in a cold world. And what is to hinder that? One thing only. 'I come to you.' +'Then, and only then, will you cease to be desolate and orphans. My presence +will change everything and turn winter into glorious summer.' +</p> + +<p> +Now, what is this 'coming'? It is to be observed that our Lord says, not 'I +will,' as a future, but 'I come,' or 'I am coming,' as an immediately +impending, and, we may almost say, present, thing. There can be no reference in +the word to that final coming to judgment which lies so far ahead; because, if +there were, then there would follow from the text, that, until that period, all +that love Him here upon earth are to wander about as orphans, desolate and +forsaken; and that certainly can never be. So that we have to recognise here +the promise of a coming which is contemporaneous with His absence, and which +is, in fact, but the reverse side of His bodily absence. +</p> + +<p> +It is true about Him that He 'departs from' His people in bodily form 'for a +season, that they may receive Him' in a better form 'for ever.' This, then, is +the heart and centre of the consolation here, that howsoever the external +presence may be withdrawn, and the 'foolish senses' may have to speak of an +absent Christ, we may rejoice in the certainty that He is with all those that +love Him, and all the more with them because of the very withdrawal of the +earthly manifestation which has served its purpose, and now is laid aside as an +impediment rather than as a help to the full communion. We confound +<i>bodily</i> with <i>real</i>. The bodily presence is at an end; the real +presence lasts for ever. +</p> + +<p> +I do not need to insist, I suppose, upon the manifest implication of absolute +divinity which lies in such words as these. 'I come.' 'Being absent, I am +present in all generations. I am present with every single heart.' That is +equivalent to the Omnipresence of deity; that is equivalent to or implies the +undying existence of the divine nature, and He that says, when He is leaving +earth and withdrawing the sweetness of His visible form from the eyes of men, +'I come,' in the very act of going, 'and I am with you always, with all of you +to the end of the ages,' can be no less than God, manifest in the flesh for a +time, and present in the Spirit with His children for ever. +</p> + +<p> +I cannot but think that the average Christian life of this day wofully fails in +the simple, conscious realisation of this great truth, and that we are all far +too little living in the calm, happy, strengthening assurance that we are never +alone, but have Jesus Christ with each of us more closely, more truly, in a +more available fashion, and with more omnipotence of influence, than they had +who were nearest Him during the days that He lived upon earth. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brethren! if we really believed, not as an article of our creed which has +become so familiar to us that it produces little impression upon us, but as a +vital and ever-present conviction of our souls, that with us there was ever the +real presence of the real Christ, how all burdens and cares would be lightened, +how all perplexities would begin to smooth themselves out and be straightened, +how all the force would be sucked out of temptations, and how sorrows and joys +and all things would be changed in their aspect by that one conviction +intensely realised and constantly with us! A present Christ is the Strength, +the Righteousness, the Peace, the Joy, and as we shall see, in the most literal +sense, the Life of every Christian soul. +</p> + +<p> +Then, note, further, that this coming of our Lord is identified with that of +His divine Spirit. He has been speaking of sending that 'other Comforter,' but +though He be Another, He is yet so indissolubly united with Him who sends as +that the coming of the Spirit is the coming of Jesus. He is no gift wafted to +us as from the other side of a gulf, but by reason of the unity of the Godhead +and the divinity of the sent Spirit, Jesus Christ and the Spirit whom He sends +are inseparable though separate, and so indissolubly united that where the +Spirit is, there is Christ, and where Christ is, there is the Spirit. These are +amongst the deep things which the disciples were 'not able to carry' at that +stage of their development, and which waited for a further explanation. Enough +for them and enough for us, to know that we have Christ in the Spirit and the +Spirit in Christ; and to remember 'that if any man have not the Spirit of +Christ, he is none of His.' +</p> + +<p> +We stand here on the margin of a shoreless and fathomless sea; and for my part +I venture to think that the men who talk about the incredibilities and the +contradictions of the orthodox faith would show themselves a little wiser if +they were more conscious of the limitation of human faculty, and remembered +that to pronounce upon contradictions in the doctrine of the divine Nature +implies that the pronouncer stands above and goes round about the whole of that +nature. So, for my part, abjuring omniscience and the comprehension of Deity, I +accept the statement that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit come +together and dwell in the heart. +</p> + +<p> +Then, note, further, that this present Christ is the only Remedy for the +orphanhood of the world. The words had a tender and pathetic reference to that +little, bewildered group of followers, deprived of their Guide, their Teacher, +and their Companion. He who had been as eyes to their weak vision, and +Counsellor and Inspirer and everything for three blessed years, was going away +to leave them unsheltered to the storm, and we can understand how forlorn and +terrified they were, when they looked forward to fronting the things that must +come to them, without His presence. Therefore He cheers them with the assurance +that they will not be left without Him, but that, present still, just because +He is absent, He will be all that He ever had been to them. +</p> + +<p> +And the promise was fulfilled. How did that dis-spirited group of cowardly men +ever pluck up courage to hold together at all after the Crucifixion? Why was it +that they did not follow the example of John's disciples, and dissolve and +disappear; and say, 'The game is up. It is no use holding together any longer'? +The process of separation began on the very day of the Crucifixion. Only one +thing could have stopped it, and that is the Resurrection and the presence with +His Church of the risen Christ in His power and in all the fullness of His +gifts. If it had not been that He came to them, they would have disappeared, +and Christianity would have been one more of the abortive sects forgotten in +Judaism. But, as it is, the whole of the New Testament after Pentecost is +aflame with the consciousness of a present Christ, working amongst His people. +And although it be true that, in one aspect, we are absent from the Lord when +we are present with the body, in another aspect, and an infinitely higher one, +it is true that the strength of the Christian life of Apostles and martyrs was +this, the assurance that Christ Himself—no mere rhetorical metaphor for His +influence or His example, or His memory lingering in their imaginations, but +the veritable Christ Himself—was present with them, to strengthen and to bless. +</p> + +<p> +That same conviction you and I must have, if the world is not to be a desert +and a dreary place for us. In a very profound sense it is true that if you take +away Jesus Christ, the elder Brother, who alone reveals to men the Father, we +are all orphans, fatherless children, who look up into an empty heaven and see +nothing there. It is only Christ who reveals to us the Father and makes our +happy hearts feel that we are of His children. And in the wider sense of the +word 'orphans,' is not life a desolation without Him? Hollow joys, fleeting +blessednesses, roses whose thorns last long after the petals have dropped, real +sorrows, shows and shams, bitternesses and disappointments—are not these our +life, in so far as Christ has been driven out of it? Oh! there is only one +thing that saves us from being as desolate, fatherless children, groping in the +dark for the lost Father's hand, and dying for want of it, and that is that the +Christ Himself shall come to us and be with us. +</p> + +<p> +II. The unseen Christ is a seen Christ. +</p> + +<p> +It is clear that the period referred to in the second clause of our text is the +same as that referred to in the first, that 'yet a little while' covers the +whole space up to His Ascension; and that if there be any reference at all to +the forty days of His earthly life, during which literally, the work 'saw Him +no more,' but the Apostles 'saw Him,' that reference is only secondary. These +transitory appearances are not of sufficient moment or duration to bear the +weight of so great a promise as this. The vision, which is the consequence of +the coming, has the same extension in time as the coming—that is to say, it is +continuous and permanent. We must read here the great promise of a perpetual +vision of the present Christ. +</p> + +<p> +It is clear, too, that the word 'see' is employed in these two clauses in two +different senses. In the former it refers only to bodily sight, in the latter +to spiritual perception. For a few short hours still, the ungodly mass of men +were to have that outward vision which might have been so much to them, but +which they had used so badly that 'they seeing saw not.' It was to cease, and +they who loved Him would not miss it when it did; but the withdrawal which hid +Him from sense and sense-bound souls would reveal Him more clearly to His +friends. They, too, had but dimly seen Him while He stood by them; they would +gaze on Him with truer insight when He was present though absent. +</p> + +<p> +So this is what every Christian life may and should be—the continual sight of a +continually-present Christ. It is His part to come. It is ours to see, to be +conscious of Him who does come. +</p> + +<p> +Faith is the sight of the soul, and it is far better than the sight of the +senses. It is more direct. My eye does not touch what I look at. Gulfs of +millions of miles may lie between me and it. But my faith is not only eye, but +hand, and not only beholds, but grasps, and comes into contact with that to +which it is directed. It is far more clear. Sense may deceive; faith, built +upon His Word, cannot deceive. Its information is far more certain, far more +valid. I have better reason for believing in Jesus Christ than I have for +believing in the things that I touch and handle. So that there is no need for +men to say, 'Oh, if we had only seen Him with our eyes!' You would very likely +not have known Him if you had. There is no reason for thinking that the Church +has retrograded in its privileges, because it has to love instead of beholding, +and to believe instead of touching. That is advance, and we are better than +they, inasmuch as the blessing of those 'who have not seen, and yet have +believed,' comes down upon our heads. The vision of Christ which is granted to +the faithful soul is better and not worse, more and not less, other in kind +indeed, but loftier in degree too, than that which was granted to the men who +saw Him upon earth. Sense disturbs, faith alone beholds. +</p> + +<p> +'The world seeth Me no more.' Why? Because it is a world. 'Ye see Me.' Why? +Because, and in the measure in which you have turned away your eyes from seeing +vanity. If you want the eye of the soul to be opened, you must shut the eye of +sense. And the more we turn away from looking at the dazzling lies with which +time and the material universe befool and bewilder us, the more shall we see +Him whom to see is to live for ever. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, brethren! does that strong word 'see' in any measure express the vividness, +the directness, the certainty of our realisation of our Master's presence? Is +Jesus Christ as clear, as perceptible, as sure to us as the men round us are? +Which are the shadows and which are the realities to us? The things which are +seen, which the senses crown as 'real,' or the things which cannot be seen +because they are so great, and tower above us, invisible in their eternity? +Which world are our eyes most open to, the world where Christ is, or the world +here? Our happy eyes may behold and our blessed hands may handle the Word of +Life which was manifested to us. Let us beware that we turn not away from the +one thing worthy to be looked at, to gaze upon a desolate and dreary world. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, the present and seen Christ is living and life-giving. +</p> + +<p> +The last words of my text may be connected with the preceding, as the marginal +rendering of the Revised Version shows. But it is probably better to take them +as standing independently, and presenting another and co-ordinate element of +the blessedness arising from the coming of the Christ. Because He comes, His +life passes into the hearts of the men to whom He comes, and who gaze upon Him. +</p> + +<p> +Time forbids me to dwell upon that majestic proclamation of His own absolute +and divine life, from lips that were so soon to be paled with death. Mark the +grand 'I live'—the timeless present tense, which expresses unbroken, underived, +undying, and, as I believe, divine life. It is all but a quotation of the great +Old Testament name 'Jehovah.' The depth and sweep of its meaning are given to +us in this Apostle's Apocalypse, where Christ is called 'the living One,' who +lived whilst He died, and having died 'is alive for evermore.' +</p> + +<p> +And this Christ, coming to all His friends, possessor of the fullness of life +in Himself, and proclaiming His absolute possession of that life, even whilst +He stands within arm's-length of Calvary, is Life-giver to all that love Him +and trust Him. +</p> + +<p> +We live <i>because</i> He lives. In all senses of the word 'life,' as I +believe, the life of men is derived from the Christ who is the Agent of +creation, the channel from whom life passes from the Godhead into the +creatures, and who is also the one means by whom any of us can ever hope to +live the better life which is the only true one, and consists in fellowship +with God and union to Him. +</p> + +<p> +We shall live <i>as long as</i> He lives, and His being is the pledge and the +guarantee of the immortal being of all who love Him. Anything is possible, +rather than that it should be credible that a soul, which has drawn spiritual +life from Jesus Christ here upon earth, should ever be rent apart from Him by +such a miserable and external trifle as the mere dissolution of the bodily +frame. As long as Christ lives our life is secure. If the Head has life, the +members 'cannot see corruption,' 'Take <i>me</i> not away in the midst of my +days: <i>Thy</i> years are throughout all generations' was the prayer of a +saint of old, deeply feeling the contrast of the worshipper's transiency and +God's eternity, and dimly hoping that the contrast might be changed into +likeness. The great promise of our text answers the prayer, and assures us that +the worshipper is to live as long as does He whom He adores. +</p> + +<p> +We shall live as He lives, nor ever cease the appropriation of His being until +all His life we know, and all its fullness has expanded our natures—and that +will be never. Therefore we shall not die. +</p> + +<p> +Men's lives have been prolonged by the transfusion of blood from vigorous +frames. Jesus Christ passes His own blood into our veins and makes us immortal. +The Church chose for one of its ancient emblems of the Saviour the pelican, +which fed its young, according to the fable, with blood from its own breast. So +Christ vitalises us. He in us is our Life. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, without Jesus Christ we are orphans in a fatherless world. Without +Him, our wearied and yet unsatisfied eyes have only trifles and trials and +trash to look at. Without Him, we are 'dead whilst we live.' He and He only can +give us back a Father, and renew in us the spirit of sons. He and only He can +satisfy our eyes with the sight which is purity and restfulness and joy. He and +He only can breathe life into our death. Oh! let Him do it for you. He comes to +us with all these gifts in His hands, for He comes to give us Himself, and in +Himself, as 'in a box where sweets compacted lie,' are all that lonely hearts +and wearied eyes and dead souls can ever need. All are yours if you are +Christ's. All are yours if He is yours. And He is yours if by faith and love +you make yourself His and Him your own. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap72"></a>THE GIFTS OF THE PRESENT CHRIST</h2> + +<p> +'At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. +He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he +that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will +manifest Myself to him.'—JOHN xiv. 20, 21. +</p> + +<p> +We have heard our Lord in the previous verse unveiling His deepest and +strongest encouragements to His downcast followers. These were: His presence +with them, their true sight of Him, and their participation in His life. The +first part of our present text is closely connected with these, for it gives us +their upshot and consequence. Because Christ's true disciple is conscious of +Christ's presence, sees Him with the eyes of his spirit, and draws life from +Him, therefore he will know by experience the deep truths of Christ's +indwelling at once in the Father and in His servant, and of His servant's +indwelling in Him. Our Lord had just previously been exhorting His disciples to +<i>believe</i> that He was in the Father and the Father in Him; and had been +gently wondering at the slowness of their faith. Now He tells them that, when +He is gone, their spiritual stature will be so increased as that they shall +<i>know</i> the thing which, with Him by their side, they found it so hard to +believe. +</p> + +<p> +The second part of our present text is the close of this whole section of our +Lord's discourse, and in it He urges the requirement of practical obedience, as +the sign and test of love, and as the condition of receiving these high and +wonderful things of which He has been speaking. He has been unveiling spiritual +blessings, which may seem recondite and up in the clouds, and which, as a +matter of fact, have often been perverted into dreamy mysticisms of a most +immoral and unpractical kind. And so He brings us sharp back again here to very +plain truths, and would teach us that all these lofty and ineffable gifts of +which He has been dimly speaking are to be reached only by the commonplace road +of honest obedience and simple conformity to His commandments. In these last +words of my text, He administers the antidote and the check to the possible +abuses of the great things which He has been saying. +</p> + +<p> +I. Note, then, first, the knowledge that comes with the Christ who comes. +</p> + +<p> +'At that day' covers the whole period of which He has been speaking, between +His withdrawal from the disciples and His final corporeal coming to +judgment—that great day of which generations are but the moments. In it the men +who love Him are to have His presence, His vision, His life, and because they +have, 'Ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you,' The +principle that underlies these wonderful words is that Christian experience is +the best teacher of fundamental Christian truth. Observe with what decision, +and with what strange boldness, our Lord carries that principle into regions +where we might suppose at first sight that it was altogether inapplicable. 'Ye +shall know that I am in My Father.' How can such a thing as the relation +between Christ and God ever be a matter of consciousness to us here upon earth? +Must it not always be a truth that we must take on trust and believe because we +have been told it, without having any verification in ourselves? Not so; +remember what has gone before. If a man has the consciousness of Christ's +presence with Him, sees Him with the true inward eye, which is the only real +organ of real vision, and is drawing from Him, moment by moment, His own high +and immortal life, then is it not true that this man's experiences are of such +a sort as to be utterly inexplicable, except on the ground that they come from +a divine source? If I have these experiences I know that it is Jesus Christ who +gives them, and I know that He could not give them, if He did not dwell in God +and were not divine. These new influences, this revolution in my being, this +healing, constraining, cleansing touch, these calming, gladdening, elevating +powers, these new hopes, these reversed desires, loving all to which I was +formerly indifferent, and growing dead to all that formerly appealed most +strongly to me; all these things bear upon their very front the signature that +they are wrought by a divine hand, and as sure as I am of my own Christian +consciousness, so sure am I that all its experiences proclaim their Author, and +that Christ who gives me them is in God. 'Ye shall know that I am in My +Father.' +</p> + +<p> +The New Testament, as I read it, is full at every point of the divinity of +Jesus Christ; and many profound and learned arguments on that subject have been +urged by theologians, and these are all well and needful in their places, but +the true way to be sure of it is to have Him dwelling with us and working in +us; and then what was an article of belief becomes an article of knowledge, and +we know Him to be our Saviour and the Son of God. +</p> + +<p> +In like manner, and yet more obviously, the other elements of this knowledge +which Christ promises here may be shown to flow naturally and necessarily from +Christian experiences. 'That ye are in Me, and I in you,'—if a Christian man +carries the consciousness of Christ's presence, and has Him as a Sun in his +darkness, and as a Life-source feeding his deadness with life, then he knows +with a consciousness which is irrefragable that Jesus Christ is in him, for he +feels His touch; and he knows that he is in Christ, for he is aware of the +power that girdles him, and in which he has peace and righteousness and all. +</p> + +<p> +So, dear brethren, let us learn what the Christian man's experience ought to be +and to do for him. It should change the articles of our creed into elements of +our consciousness. It should make all the fundamentals of the Gospel vitally +and vividly true; and certified by what has passed within our own spirits We +should be able to say: 'We have the witness in ourselves.' And though there +will remain much that is uncertain, much in Christian doctrine which is not +capable of that clear and all-sufficing verification; much about which we must +still depend on the mere teaching of others, or on our own study, the central +facts which make the Gospel may all become, by this plain and short path, +elements of our very consciousness which stand undeniable to us, whosoever +denies them. +</p> + +<p> +Such a direct way to knowledge is reasonable, is in full analogy with the +manner by which we attain to the knowledge of everything except the mere +external facts, the knowledge of which has arrogated to itself the exclusive +name of 'science,' How do you know anything about love? You may read poems and +tragedies to the end of time, and you will not understand it until you come +under its spell for yourself; and then all the things that men said about it +cease to be mere words, because you yourself have experienced the emotion. +</p> + +<p> + 'He must be loved, ere that to you<br /> + He will seem worthy of your love,' +</p> + +<p> +and the only way to be sure, with a vital certitude, of Christ, is to take +Christ for your very own, and then He comes into your very being, and dwells +there quickening, the Sun and the Life. +</p> + +<p> +So, dear brethren, though such certitude arising from experience, which in its +nature is the very highest, is not available for other people, the fact that so +many millions of men allege that in varying degrees they possess this certitude +is available for other people, and there is nothing to be said by the +unbeliever to this, the attestation of the Christian consciousness to the truth +of the truths which it has tried. 'Whether this man be a sinner or no, I know +not.' You may jangle as much as you like about the questionable and +controversial points that surround the Christian revelation, I do not care in +the present connection what answer you give to them. 'Whether this man be a +sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I +see.' And we may push the war into the enemy's quarters, and say: 'Why! herein +is a marvellous thing, that you that know everything do not know whence this +man is, and yet He has opened mine eyes. You want facts; there are some. You +want verification; we have verified by experience, and we set to our seals that +God is true.' +</p> + +<p> +'Oh but,' you say, 'this is not a fair account of the way in which Christian +men and women generally feel about this matter.' Well, all that I can say about +that is, so much the worse for the so-called Christian men and women. And if +they are Christians, and do not know by this inward experience that Christ is +divine and their Saviour, then there is only one of two reasons to be given for +it; either their experience is so wretchedly superficial and fragmentary, so +rudimentary as to be scarcely worth calling by the name or, having the facts, +they have failed to appreciate their significance, and to make their own by +reflection the certitudes which are their own. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, it becomes every Christian man and woman to be able to say, 'Because +I have Christ with me, and see Him, and derive my life from Him, I know that He +is in the Father, and I in Him, and He in me.' And if you cannot say that, it +is your own grasp of Him, or your meditation upon what you have got by your +grasp, that is painfully and sinfully defective. +</p> + +<p> +II. My text speaks of the obedience which is the sign and test of love. +</p> + +<p> +The words here are substantially equivalent to former words in the chapter +which we have already considered, where our Lord says: 'If ye love Me, ye will +keep My commandments.' +</p> + +<p> +There is, however, a slight difference in the point of view in the two sayings; +the former begins with the root and traces it upwards and outwards to its +fruits, love blossoming into obedience. Our text reverses the process, and +takes the thing by the other end; begins with the fruits and traces them +downwards and inwards to the root. 'He that hath and keepeth My commandments, +he it is that loveth Me.' The two sayings substantially mean the same thing; +but in the one love is put first as the cause of obedience, and in the other +obedience is put first, as the certain fruit and sure sign of love. The +connection between these and the preceding words is, as I have already pointed +out, that our Lord here brings all His lofty promises down to the sharp, +practical requirement of obedience, as the only condition on which they can be +fulfilled. +</p> + +<p> +So note, and very briefly about this matter, how remarkably our Lord here +declares the <i>possession</i> of His commandments to be a sign of love to Him. +'He that <i>hath</i>,' a word which is generally passed over in our reading—'He +that hath My commandments, He it is that loveth Me.' Of course there are two +ways of having His commandments; there is having them in the Bible, and there +is having them in the heart;—present before my eye, as a law that I ought to +obey, or present within my will, as a power that shapes it. And the latter is +the only kind of 'having' that Christ regards as real and valid. The rest is +only preparatory and superficial. Love possesses the knowledge of the loved +one's will. Is not that true? Do we not all know how strange is the power of +divining desires that goes along with true affection, and how the power, not +only of divining, but of treasuring, these desires is the test and the +thermometer of our true love? Some of us, perhaps, keep laid away in sacred, +secret places tattered, yellow, old bits of paper with the words of a dear one +on them, that we would not part with. 'He that hath My commandments' laid up in +lavender in the deepest recesses of his faithful heart, he it is 'that loveth +Me.' +</p> + +<p> +In like manner, our Lord says, the practical obedience to His commandments is +the sure sign and test of love. I need not dwell upon that. There are two +motives for keeping commandments—one because they are commanded, and one +because we love Him that commands. The one is slavery, the other is liberty. +The one is like the Arctic regions, cold and barren, the other is like tropical +lands, full of warmth and sunshine, glorious and glad fertility. +</p> + +<p> +The form of the sentence suggests how easy it is for people to delude +themselves about their love to Jesus Christ. That emphatic 'he,' and the +putting first of the character before its root is pointed out, are directed +against false pretensions to love. The love that Christ stamps with His +hall-mark, and passes as genuine, is no mere emotion, however passionate, +however sweet; no mere sentiment, however pure, however deep. The tiniest +little rivulet that drives a mill is better than a Niagara that rushes and +foams and tumbles idly. And there is much so-called love to Jesus Christ that +goes masquerading up and down the world, from which the paint is stripped by +the sharp application of the words of my text. Character and conduct are the +true demonstrations of Christian love, and it is only love so attested that He +accepts. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, notice the further and sweeter gifts of divine love and +manifestation which reward our love and obedience. +</p> + +<p> +'He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will +manifest Myself to him.' Two things, then, He tells us, are the rich rewards +and sparkling crowns with which He crowns our poor love to Him—the love of the +Father and the love of the Christ, separate and yet united, and the further +manifestation of Christ's sweetness to the waiting heart. +</p> + +<p> +Note, as to the first, the extraordinary boldness of that majestic saying: 'If +a man loves <i>Me</i>, My Father will love <i>him</i>.' God regards our love to +Jesus Christ as the fulfilling of the law, as equivalent to our supreme love to +Himself, as containing in it the germ of all that is pleasing in His sight. And +so, upon our hearts, if we love Christ, there falls the benediction of the +Father's love. Of course I need not remind you that our Lord here is not +beginning at the very beginning of everything; for prior to all men's love to +Christ is Christ's love to men, and ours to Him is but the reflection and the +echo called forth by His to us. 'We love Him because He first loved us' digs a +story deeper down in the building than the words of my text, which is speaking, +not of the process by which a man comes to receive the love of God for the +first time, but of the process by which a Christian man grows in his possession +of it. That being understood, here is a great lesson. It is not all the same to +God whether a man is a scoundrel or a saint. The divine love is over all its +works, and embraces every variety of humanity, the most degraded, alien, +hostile. But in this generation, as it seems to me, there is great need for +preaching that whilst that is gloriously and blessedly true, the other thing is +just as true, that to know the deepest depth and to taste the sweetest +sweetness of the love of our Father God, there must be in our hearts love to +Him whom He has sent, which manifests itself by our obedience. God's love is a +moral love; and whilst the sunbeams play upon the ice and melt it sometimes, +they flash back from, and rest most graciously and fully on, the rippling +stream into which the ice has turned. God loves them that love Him not, but the +depths of His heart and the secret, sacred favours of His grace can only be +bestowed upon those who in some measure are conformed, and are growingly being +conformed, to His likeness in Jesus Christ, and who love Him and obey Him. +</p> + +<p> +And, in like manner, my text tells us that if we wish to know all that it is +possible for us here, amidst the clouds, and shadows, and darknesses, to know +of that dear Lord, the path to such knowledge is plain. Walk in the way of +obedience, and Christ will meet you with the unveiling of more and more of His +love. To live what we believe is the sure way to increase its amount. To be +faithful to the little is the certain way to inherit the much. And Christ +manifests Himself, in all deep and recondite sweetness, gentleness, +constraining power, to the men who treasure the partial knowledge as yet +possessed, in their loving hearts and obedient wills, and who make a conscience +of translating all their knowledge into conduct, and of basing all their +conduct on knowledge of Him. He gives us His whole self at the first, but we +traverse the breadth of the gift by degrees. He puts Himself into our hands and +into our hearts when we humbly trust Him and imperfectly try to love Him. But +the flower is but a bud when we get it, and, as we hold it, it opens its petals +to the light. +</p> + +<p> +So, if 'any man wills to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine'; and if, +touched by His divine love and infinite sacrifice for me, I cast my poor self +upon Him, and try to love Him back again, and to keep His commandments because +I love, then day by day I shall realise more and more of His strong, immortal, +all-satisfying love, and see more and more deeply into that Saviour, whose +infinite beauties remain unrevealed after all revelation, and to know more and +more of whom shall be the Heaven of Heavens yonder, as it is the joy and life +of the soul here. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap73"></a>WHO BRING CHRIST</h2> + +<p> +'Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest +Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a +man love Me he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will +come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not, keepeth not +My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent +Me.'—JOHN xiv. 22-24. +</p> + +<p> +This Judas held but a low place amongst the Apostles. In all the lists he is +one of the last of the groups of fours, into which they are divided, and which +were evidently arranged according to their spiritual nearness to the Master. +His question is exactly that which a listener, with some dim, confused glimmer +of Christ's meaning, might be expected to ask. He grasps at His last words +about manifesting Himself to certain persons; he rightly feels that he and his +brethren possess the qualification of love. He rightly understands that our +Lord contemplates no public showing of Himself, and that disappoints him. It +was only a day or two ago that Jesus seemed to them to have begun to do what +they had always wanted Him to do, manifest Himself to the world. And now, as he +thinks, something unknown to them must have happened in order to make Him +change His course, and go back to the old plan of a secret communication. And +so he says, 'Lord! what has come to pass to induce you to abandon and falter +upon the course on which we entered, when you rode into Jerusalem with the +shouting crowd?' +</p> + +<p> +His question is no better in intelligence, though it is a great deal better in +spirit, than the taunt of Christ's brethren, 'If Thou do these things, show +Thyself to the world.' Judas, too, thought of the simple flashing of His +Messianic glory, in some visible, vulgar form, before else blind eyes. +</p> + +<p> +How sad and chilling such a question must have been to Jesus! Slow scholars we +all are; and with what wonderful patience, without a word of pain, or of +rebuke, He reiterates His lesson, here a little and there a little, and once +more unfolds the conditions of His self-revelation, and the fullness of the +blessings that He brings. He moulds His words so as to meet both the clauses of +Judas's foolish question—'To us, not to the world'; and quietly tells them the +positive conditions and the negative disqualifications for His self-revelation. +So my text deals with two things, the crown of loving obedience in the +possession of a fuller Christ, and the impassable barrier to His manifestation +which unloving disobedience makes. Or to put it into briefer words, we have in +one of the verses—first, what brings Christ and what Christ brings; and, in the +other, second, what keeps away Christ and all His gifts. Now let us look at +these two things. +</p> + +<p> +I. We have what brings Christ and what Christ brings. +</p> + +<p> +'If a man love Me, He will keep My word' (not 'words,' as our Authorised +Version has it), 'and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and +make Our abode with him.' Now notice how here, in the first part of this verse, +our Lord subtly and significantly alters the form of the statement which He has +already made. He had formerly said, 'If ye love Me, ye will keep My +commandments,' but now He casts it into a purely impersonal form, and says, 'If +a man,' anybody, not 'you' only, but anybody—'If a man love Me, he,' anybody, +'will keep My word.' And why the change? Why, I suppose, in order to strike +full and square against that complacent assumption of Judas that it was 'to us +and not to the world' that the showing was to take place. Our Lord, by the +studiously impersonal form into which He casts the promise, proclaims its +universality, and says this to His ignorant questioner, 'Do not suppose that +you Apostles have the monopoly. You may not even have a share in My +self-manifestation. Anybody may have it. And there is no "world," as you +suppose, to which I do not show Myself. Anybody may have the vision if he +observes the conditions.' +</p> + +<p> +Now I need not dwell at any length upon the earlier words of this text, because +we have had to consider them in previous sermons on the former verses of this +chapter. I need only remark that here, as there, our Lord brings out the +thought that the very life-blood of love is the treasuring of the word of the +beloved One; and that there is no joy comparable to the joy of the loving heart +that yields itself to the Beloved's will. That is true about earth, and it +makes the sweetest and selectest blessedness of our ordinary existence. And it +is true about heaven, and it makes the liberty and the gladness of the bond +that knits us to Him. +</p> + +<p> +But I would like just to notice, before I come to the more immediate subject of +my discourse, that remarkable expression, 'He will keep My <i>word</i>.' That +is more than a 'commandment' is it not? Christ's 'word' is wider than +<i>precept</i>. It includes all His sayings, and it includes them all as in one +vital unity and organic whole. We are not to go picking and choosing among +them; they are one. And it includes this other thought, that every word of +Christ, be it revelation of the deep things of God, or be it a promise of the +great shower of blessings which, out of His full hand, He will drop upon our +heads, enshrines within itself a commandment. He utters no revelations, simply +that we may know. He utters no comforting words, simply that our sore hearts +may be healed, but in all His utterances there is a practical bearing; and +every word of His teaching, every word of His sweet, whispered assurances of +love and favour to the waiting heart, has in it the imperativeness of His +manifested will, and has a direct bearing upon duty. All His <i>words</i> are +gathered into one word, and all the variety of His sayings is, in their unity, +the law of our lives. So much by way of observation on the mere language of my +text. And now let us look at what, as He says to us here, are the rewards and +crown of loving obedience. +</p> + +<p> +Christ will show Himself to the loving heart. That is true on the very lowest +level. Every act of obedience to any moral truth is rewarded by additional +insight. Every act of submission to His will cleanses the lenses of the +telescope from some film that has gathered upon them, and so the stars look +brighter and larger and nearer. All duty done opens out into a loftier +conception of duty, and a clearer vision of Him. 'To him that hath shall be +given.' As we climb the hill we get a wider view. Obedience is in all things +the parent of insight. +</p> + +<p> +But in reference to our relation to Him, we have to do not with truths only, +but with a Person. How do we learn to know people? There is only one way—that +is, by loving them. Sympathy is the parent of all true knowledge of one +another. They tell us in the foolish old proverb that 'love is blind.' No! +There is not such a pair of clear eyes anywhere as the eyes of love; and if we +want to see into a man, the first condition is that we feel kindly towards him. +Sympathy is the parent of insight into persons, as Obedience is the parent of +insight into duty. +</p> + +<p> +But both of these illustrations are only imperfect preparations for the great +truth here, which is that our loving obedience to the discerned will of Jesus +Christ has not only an operation inwards upon us, but has an effect outwards +upon Him. I am afraid that Christian people in this generation have but a very +imperfect belief in the actual, supernatural, and, if you like to call it so, +miraculous manifestation of Jesus Christ, His very Self, to men that love Him +and cleave to Him. Do you believe as a simple revealed truth, plain as a +sunbeam in such words as these, that Jesus Christ Himself will do something on +you, and in you, and for you, if you love Him and trust Him; that His hand will +be laid on your eyes as it was laid of old; that He will indeed, in no +metaphor, but in reality, show Himself to you? I may be mistaken, but I think +that too commonly it is the case, that even good Christian people have a far +more vivid and realising and real faith in the past work of Christ on earth +than in the present work of Christ in themselves. They think the one a plain +truth, and the other something like a metaphor, whereas the New Testament +teaches us, as plainly as it can teach us anything, that, far above all the +natural operations of truth upon our understandings, hearts, and wills, there +is an actual, supernatural, continuous communication of Christ to hearts that +love Him, which leads day by day, if they be faithful, to a fuller knowledge, a +sweeter love, a larger possession, of a fuller Christ. And it is this that He +tells us of, to fire our ambition to attain, in such words as these. +</p> + +<p> +Brethren, one piece of honest, loving obedience is worth all the study and +speculation of an unloving heart when the question is, 'How are we to see +Christ?' +</p> + +<p> +Again, Jesus shows Himself to the obedient heart in indissoluble union with the +Father. Look at the majesty, and, except upon one hypothesis, the insane +presumption, of such words as these: 'If a man love Me, My Father will love +<i>him</i>'; as if identifying love to Christ with love to Himself. And look at +that wondrous union, the consciousness of which speaks in '<i>We</i> will +come.' Think of a <i>man</i> saying that. It is blasphemous insanity; or else +the speech of Him who is conscious of union with the Father, close and +indissoluble and transcending all analogies. '<i>We</i> will come,' together, +hand-in-hand, if I may so say; or rather, His coming is the Father's coming. +Just as in heaven so closely are they represented as united, that there is but +one throne 'for God and the Lamb,' so on earth so closely are they represented +as united, that there is but one coming of the Father in the Son. +</p> + +<p> +And this is the only belief, as it seems to me, that will keep this generation +from despair and moral suicide. The question for this generation is, Is it +possible for men to know God? Science, both of material things and of inward +experiences, is more and more unanimous in its proclamation; 'Behold! we know +not anything'; and the only attitude to take before that great black vault +above us is to say, 'We know nothing.' The world has learned half of a great +verse of the Gospel: 'No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him.' If +the world is not to go mad, if hearts are not to be tortured into despair, if +morality and enthusiasm and poetry and everything higher and nobler than the +knowledge of material phenomena and their sequences is not to perish from the +earth, the world must learn the next half of the verse, and say, 'The only +begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.' Christ +shows Himself in indissoluble union with the Father. +</p> + +<p> +Lastly about this matter, Christ shows Himself to obedient love by a true +coming. 'We will come and make our mansion with him.' And that coming is a fact +of a higher order, and not to be confounded either with the mere divine +Omnipresence, by which God is everywhere, nor to be reduced to a figment of our +own imaginations, or a strong way of promising increased perception on our part +of Christ's fullness. That great central Sun, if I might use so violent a +figure, draws nearer and nearer and nearer to the planets that move about it, +and having once been far off on an almost infinitely distant horizon, +approaches until planet and Sun unite. +</p> + +<p> +Dear brethren, if we could only get to the attitude of simple acceptance of +this as a literal truth, and believe that, in prose reality, Christ comes to +every heart that loves Him, would not all the world be different to us? +</p> + +<p> +That coming is a permanent residence: 'We will make our abode with him.' Very +beautiful is it to notice that our Lord here employs that same sweet and +significant word, with which He began this wonderful series of encouragements, +when He said, 'In My Father's house are many mansions.' Yonder they dwell for +ever with God; here God in Christ for ever dwells with the loving heart. It is +a permanent abode so long as the conditions are fulfilled, but only so long. If +self-will, rising in the Christian heart from its torpor and apparent death, +reasserts itself and shakes off Christ's yoke, Christ's presence vanishes. In +the last hours of the Holy City there was heard by the trembling priests amidst +the midnight darkness the motion of departing Deity, and a great voice said: +'Let us depart hence'; and to-morrow the shrine was empty, and the day after it +was in flames. Brethren, if you would keep the Christ in whom is God, remember +that He cannot be kept but by the act of loving obedience. +</p> + +<p> +II. Now, in the next place, my text gives us the negative side, and shows us +what keeps away Christ and all His blessings. +</p> + +<p> +An unloving disobedience closes the eyes to the vision, and the heart against +the entrance, of that dear Lord. Our Master lays down for us two principles, +and leaves us to draw the conclusion for ourselves. +</p> + +<p> +The first is, 'He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings.' No love, no +obedience. That is plainly true, because the heart of all the commandments is +love, and where that is not, disobedience to their very spirit is. It is +plainly true, because there is no power that will lead men to true obedience to +Christ's yoke except the power of love. His commandments are too alien from our +nature ever to be kept, unless by the might of love. It was only the rising +sunbeam that could draw music from the stony lips of Memnon, as he gazed out +across the desert, and it is only when Christ's love shines on our faces that +we open our lips in praise, and move our hands in service. Those great +rocking-stones down in Cornwall stand unmoved by any tempest, but a child's +finger, laid on the right place, will set them vibrating. And so the heavy, +hard, stony bulk of our hearts lies torpid and immovable, until He lays His +loving finger upon them, and then they rock at His will. There is no keeping of +Christ's commandments without love. That makes short work of a great deal that +calls itself Christianity, does it not? Reluctant obedience is no obedience; +self-interested obedience is no obedience; constrained obedience is no +obedience; outward acts of service, if the heart be wanting, are rubbish and +dung. Morality without religion is nought. The one thing that makes a good man +is love to Jesus Christ; and where that is, there, and only there, is +obedience. +</p> + +<p> + 'Talk they of morals? O Thou Bleeding Lamb!<br /> + The grand morality is love of Thee.' +</p> + +<p> +'If a man love Me not, he will not keep My words.' +</p> + +<p> +Then the second principle is, disobedience to Christ is disobedience to God. +'The Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's.' Christ's consciousness +of union so speaks out here as that He is quite sure that all His words are +God's words, and that all God's words are spoken by Him. Paul has to say, 'So +speak I, not the Lord.' And you would not think a man a very sound or safe +religious teacher who said to you, to begin with, 'Now, mind, everything that I +say, God says.' There are no errors then, no deterioration of the treasure by +the vessel in which it lies. The water does not taste of the vase in which it +is carried. The personality of Jesus Christ is never, through all His +utterances, so separated from God but that God speaks in Him; and, listening to +His voice, we hear the absolute utterance of the uncreated and eternal Wisdom. +</p> + +<p> +Therefore follows the conclusion, which our Lord does not state, but leaves us +to supply. If it be true that the absence of love of Him is disobedience to +Him, and if it be true that disobedience to Him is disobedience to God, then it +plainly follows that what keeps away Christ and all His gifts, and God in Him, +is unloving obedience. What brings Him is the obedience of love; what repels +Him is alienation and rebellion. If the heart be full of confusion, of the +world, of self, of unbridled inclinations, of careless indifference to His +bleeding love, He 'can but listen at the gate and hear the household jar +within.' +</p> + +<p> +And so, dear friends, from all this there follow one or two points, which I +touch very briefly. One is, that it is possible for men not to see Christ, +though He stands there close before them. It is possible to grope at noonday as +at midnight, to see only 'bracken green and cold grey stone' on the hillside, +where another man sees the chariots of fire and the horses of fire. It is +possible for you—and, alas! it is the condition of some of my hearers—to look +upon Christ and to turn away and say, 'I see no beauty in Him that I should +desire Him,' whilst the man beside yon, looking at the same facts and the same +face, can see in Him the 'Chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely.' +</p> + +<p> +Another thought is, that Christ's showing of Himself to men is in no sense +arbitrary. It is you that determine what you shall see. You can hermetically +seal your heart against Him, you can blind yourself to all His beauty. The door +of your hearts is hinged to open from within, and if you do not open it, it +remains shut, and Christ remains outside. +</p> + +<p> +Another thought is, that you do not need to do anything to blind yourselves. +Simple negation is fatal. 'If a man love not'; that is all. The absence of love +is your ruin. +</p> + +<p> +And the last thought is this, that my text does not begin at the beginning. +Jesus Christ has been speaking about manifestations of Himself to the loving +and obedient; but there are manifestations of Himself made that we may +<i>become</i> loving and obedient. You can build a barrier over which these +sweeter revelations, of which loyal love and docile submission are the +conditions, cannot rise. But you cannot build a barrier over which the prior +revelations to the unthankful and disobedient cannot rise. No mountains of sin +and neglect and alienation can be piled so high but that the flood of pardoning +grace will rise above their crests, and pour itself into your hearts. You ask, +How can I get the love and obedience of which you have been singing the praises +now? There is only one answer, brethren. We know that we love Him when we know +that He loves us; and we know that He loves us when we see Him dying on His +Cross. So here is the ladder, that is planted in the miry clay of the horrible +pit, and fastens its golden hooks on His throne. The first round is, Behold the +dying Christ and His love to me. The second is, Let that love melt my heart +into sweet responsive love. The third is, Let my love mould my life into +obedience. And then Christ, and God in Him, will come to me and show Himself to +me; and give me a fuller knowledge and a deeper love, and make His dwelling +with me. And then there is only one round still to roach, and that will land us +by the Throne of God, in the many mansions of the Father's house, where we +shall make our abode with Him for evermore. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap74"></a>THE TEACHER SPIRIT</h2> + +<p> +'These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the +Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He +shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, +whatsoever I have said unto you.'—JOHN xiv. 25, 26. +</p> + +<p> +This wonderful outpouring of consolation and instruction with which our Lord +sought to soothe the pain of parting is nearing its end. We have to conceive of +a slight pause here, whilst He looks back upon what He has been saying and +contrasts His teaching with that of the Comforter, whom He has once already, +though in a different connection, promised to His followers. He speaks of His +earthly residence with them as being 'an abiding,' distinctly therein referring +to what He has just said, that the Father and He will, in the future, 'make +their abode' with His disciples. He contrasts the outward and transitory +presence which was now nearing its end, with the inward and continuous +presence, which its end was to inaugurate. +</p> + +<p> +And, in like manner, with, at first sight, startling humility, He contrasts +'these things,' the partial and to a large extent unintelligible utterances +which He had given with His human lips, with the complete, universal teaching +of that divine Spirit, who was to instruct in 'all things' pertaining to man's +salvation. We have then, here, sketched in broad outline, the great truths +concerning the ever-present, inward Teacher of God's Church who is to come, now +that the earthly manifestation of Christ, whom the twelve called their +'Teacher,' had reached a close. I think we may best gain the deep instruction +which lies in the words before us, if we look at three points of view which +they bring into prominence: the Teacher, His lesson, and His scholars. +</p> + +<p> +I. Now, as to the first, the promised Teacher. +</p> + +<p> +I need not repeat what I have said in former sermons as to the wide sweep of +that word 'the Comforter,' beyond just reminding you that it means literally +one who is called to the side of another, primarily for the purpose of being +his representative in some legal process; and, more widely, for any purpose of +help, encouragement, and strength. That being so, 'Comforter,' in its modern +sense of <i>Consoler</i>, is far too narrow for the full force of the word, +which means much rather 'Comforter,' in its ancient and etymological sense of +one who, in company with another, makes Him strong and brave. +</p> + +<p> +But the point to which I desire to turn attention now is this, that this +comforting and strengthening office of the divine Spirit is brought into +immediate connection here with the conception of Him as a Teacher. That is to +say, the best strength that God, by His Spirit, can give us is by our firm +grasp and growing clearness of understanding of the truths which are wrapped up +in Jesus Christ. All power for endurance, for service, is there, and when the +Spirit of God teaches a man what God reveals in Christ, He therein and thereby +most fully discharges His office of Strengthener. +</p> + +<p> +Then note still further the other designation of this divine Teacher which is +here given: 'The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.' We might have expected, +as indeed we find in another context in this great final discourse, the 'Spirit +of <i>Truth</i>' as appropriate in connection with the office of teaching. But +is there not a profound lesson for us here in this, that, side by side with the +thought of illumination, there lies the thought of purity built upon +consecration, which is the Scripture definition of holiness? That suggests that +there is an indissoluble connection between the real knowledge of God's truth +and practical holiness of life. That connection is of a double sort. There is +no holiness without such knowledge, and there is no such knowledge without +holiness. +</p> + +<p> +There is no real knowledge of Christ and His truth without purity of heart. The +man who has no music in his soul can never be brought to understand the deep +harmonies of the great masters and magicians of sound. The man who has no eye +for beauty can never be brought to bow his spirit before some of those +embodiments of loveliness and sublimity which the painter's brush has cast upon +the canvas. And the man who has no longings after purity, nor has attained to +any degree of moral conformity with the divine image, is not in possession of +the sense which is needed in order that he should understand the 'deep things +of God.' +</p> + +<p> +The scholars in this school have to wash their hands before they go to school, +and come there with clean hands and clean hearts. Foulness and the love of it +are bars to all understanding of God's truth. And, on the other hand, the +truest inducements, motives, and powers for purity are found in that great word +which is all 'according to godliness,' and is meant much rather to make us good +than to make us wise. +</p> + +<p> +So, in this designation of the teaching Spirit as holy, there lie lessons for +two classes of people. All fanatical professions of possessing divine +illumination, which are not warranted and sealed by purity of life, are lies or +self-delusion. And, on the other hand, coldblooded intellectualism will never +force the locks of the palace of divine truth, but they that come there must +have clean hands and a pure heart; and only those who have the love and the +longing for goodness will be wise scholars in Christ's school. Your theology is +nothing unless its distinct outcome is morality, and you must be prepared to +accept the painful, the punitive, the purifying influences of that divine +Spirit on your moral natures if you want to have His enlightening influences +shining on the 'truth as it is in Jesus.' 'If any man wills to do His will, +he,' and only he, 'shall know of the doctrine.' Knowledge and holiness are as +inseparable in divine things as light and heat. +</p> + +<p> +And still further note that this great Teacher is 'sent by God' in Christ's +name. That pregnant phrase, 'In My name,' cannot be represented by any one form +of expression into which we may translate it, but covers a larger space. God in +Christ's name sends the Spirit. That is to say, in some deep sense God acts as +Christ's representative; just as Christ comes in the Father's name and acts as +His representative. And, again, God sends in Christ's name; that is, the +historical manifestation of Christ is the basis on which the sending of the +Spirit is possible and rests. The revelation had to be complete before He who +came to unfold the meaning of the revelation had material to work upon. The +Spirit, which is sent in Christ's name, has, for the basis of His mission, and +the means by which He acts, the recorded facts of Christ's life and death, +these and none other. +</p> + +<p> +And then note finally about this matter, the strong and unmistakable +declaration here, that that divine Spirit is a person: 'He shall teach you all +things.' They tell us that the doctrine of the Trinity is not in the New +Testament. The word is not, but the thing is. In this verse we have the Father, +the Son, and the Spirit brought into such close and indissoluble union as is +only vindicated from the charge of blasphemy by the belief in the divinity of +each. Just as the Apostolic benediction, 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, +and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit' +necessarily involves the divinity of all who are thus invoked, so we stand here +in the presence of a truth which pierces into the deeps of Deity. That divine +Spirit is more than an influence. 'He shall teach,' and He can be grieved by +evil and sin. I do not enlarge upon these thoughts. My purpose is mainly to +bring them out clearly before you. +</p> + +<p> +II. I pass in the second place to the consideration of the Lesson which this +promised Teacher gives. +</p> + +<p> +Mark the words, 'He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your +remembrance, whatsoever <i>I</i> have said unto you.' Now as we have seen in +the exposition of the words 'in My name,' the whole subject-matter of the +divine Spirit's teaching is the life and work and death and person of Jesus +Christ. 'He shall teach you all things' is wider than 'He shall bring all +things which I have said to you to your remembrance.' But whilst that is so, +the clear implication of the words before us is that Christ is the lesson book, +of which the divine Spirit is the Teacher. His weapon, to take another +metaphor, with which He plies men's hearts and minds and wills, convincing the +world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, and leading those who are +convinced into deeper knowledge and larger wisdom, is the recorded facts +concerning the life and manifestation of Jesus Christ. The significance of this +lesson book, the history of our Lord, cannot be unfolded all at once. There is +something altogether unique in the incorruption and germinant power of all His +deeds and of all His words. This Carpenter of Nazareth has reached the heights +which the greatest thinkers and poets of the past have never reached, or only +in little snatches and fragments of their words. <i>His</i> words open out, +generation after generation, into undreamed-of wisdom, and there are found to +be hived in them stores of sweetness that were never suspected until the +occasion came that drew them forth. The world and the Church received Christ, +as it were, in the dark; and, as with some man receiving a precious gift as the +morning was dawning, each fresh moment revealed, as the light grew, new +beauties and new preciousness in the thing possessed. So Christ, in His +infinite significance, fresh and new for all generations, was given at first, +and ever since the Church and the world have been learning the meaning of the +gift which they received. Christ's words are inexhaustible, and the Spirit's +teaching is to unveil more and more of the infinite significance that lies in +the apparently least significant of them. +</p> + +<p> +Now, then, note that if this be our Lord's meaning here, Jesus Christ plainly +anticipated that, after His departure from earth, there should be a development +of Christian doctrine. We are often taunted with the fact, which is exaggerated +for the purpose of controversy, that a clear and full statement of the central +truths which orthodox Christianity holds, is found rather in the Apostolic +epistles than in the Master's words, and the shallow axiom is often quoted with +great approbation: 'Jesus Christ is our Master, and not Paul.' I do not grant +that the germs and the central truths of the Gospel are not to be found in +Christ's words, but I admit that the full, articulate statement of them is to +be found rather in the servant's letters, and I say that that is exactly what +Jesus Christ told us to expect, that after He was gone, words that had been all +obscure, and thoughts that had been only fragmentarily intelligible, would come +to be seen clearly, and would be discerned for what they were. The earlier +disciples had only a very partial grasp of Christ's nature. They knew next to +nothing of the great doctrine of sacrifice; they knew nothing about His +resurrection; they did not in the least understand that He was going back to +heaven; they had but glimmering conceptions of the spirituality or universality +of His Kingdom. Whilst they were listening to Him at that table they did not +believe in the atonement; but they dimly believed in the divinity of Jesus +Christ; they did not believe in His resurrection; they did not believe in His +ascension; they did not believe that He was founding a spiritual kingdom, a +kingdom was to rule over all the world till the end of time. None of these +truths were in their mind. They had all been in germ in His words. And after He +was gone, there came over them a breath of the teaching Spirit, and the +unintelligible flashed up into significance. The history of the Church is the +proof of the truth of this promise, and if anybody says to me, 'Where is the +fulfilment of the promise of a Spirit that will bring all things to your +remembrance?' I say—here in this Book! These four Gospels, these Apostolic +Epistles, show that the word which our Lord here speaks has been gloriously +fulfilled. Christ anticipated a development of doctrine, and it casts no slur +or suspicion on the truthfulness of the apostolic representation of the +Christian truths, that they are only sparsely and fragmentarily to be found in +the records of Christ's life, +</p> + +<p> +Then there is another practical conclusion from the words before us, on which I +touch for a moment, and that is, that if Jesus Christ and the deep +understanding of Him be the true lesson of the divine, teaching Spirit, then +real progress consists, not in getting beyond Christ, but in getting more fully +into Him. We hear a great deal in these days about advanced thought and +progressive Christianity. I hope I believe in the continuous advance of +Christian thought as joyfully as any man, but my notion of it—and I humbly +venture to say Christ's notion of it—is to get more and more into His heart, +and to find within Him, and not away from Him, 'all the treasures of wisdom and +knowledge.' We leave all other great men behind. All other teachers' words +become feeble by age, as their persons become ghostly, wrapped in thickening +folds of oblivion; but the progress of the Church consists in absorbing more +and more of Christ, in understanding Him better, and becoming more and more +moulded by His influence. The Spirit's teaching brings out the ever fresh +significance of the ancient and perpetual revelation of God in Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +III. And now, lastly, note the Scholars. +</p> + +<p> +Primarily, of course, these are the Apostolic group but the Apostles, in all +these discourses, stand as the representatives of the Church, and not as +separated from it. And whilst the teaching Spirit could 'bring to the +remembrance' of those only who first heard them 'the words that He said unto +them,' that Spirit's teaching function is not limited to those who listened to +the Lord Jesus. The fire that was kindled on Pentecost has not died down into +grey ashes, nor the river that then broke forth been sucked up by thirsty sands +of successive generations, but the fire is still with us, and the river still +flows near our lips, and we, too, may be taught by that divine Spirit. For this +very Evangelist, in writing his Epistle, has at least two distinct references +to, and almost verbal quotations of, this promise, when he says, addressing all +his Asiatic brethren, 'Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all +things.' And again, 'The unction which ye have of Him abideth with you, and ye +need not that any man should teach you.' +</p> + +<p> +So, then, Christian men and women, every believing soul has this divine Spirit +for His Teacher, and the humblest of us may, if we will, learn of Him and be +led by Him into profounder knowledge of that great Lord. +</p> + +<p> +Oh! dear brethren, the belief in the actual presence with the Church of a +Spirit that teaches all faithful members thereof, is far too much hesitatingly +held by the common Christianity of this day. We ought to be the standing +witnesses in the world of the reality of a supernatural influence, and how can +we be, if we do not believe it ourselves, and never feel that we are under it? +</p> + +<p> +But whilst a continuous inspiration from that self-same Spirit is the +prerogative of all believing souls, let us not forget that the early teaching +is the standard by which all such must be tried. As to the first disciples the +office of the divine Spirit was to bring before them the deep significance of +their Master's life and words, so to us the office of the teaching Spirit is to +bring to our minds the deep significance of the record by these earliest +scholars of what they learned from Him. The authority of the New Testament over +our faith is based upon these words, and Paul's warning applies especially to +this generation, with its thoughts about a continuous inspiration and +outgrowing of the New Testament teaching: 'If a man think himself to be +spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the +commandments of the Lord.' +</p> + +<p> +Now from all this take three counsels. Let this great promise fill us with +shame. Look at Christendom. Does it not contradict such words as these? +Disputatious sects, Christians scarcely agreed upon any one of the great +central doctrines, seem a strange fulfilment. The present condition of +Christendom does not prove that Jesus Christ did not send the Spirit, but it +does prove that Christ's followers have been wofully remiss and negligent in +their acceptance and use of the Spirit. What slow scholars we are! How little +we have learnt! How we have let passion, prejudice, human voices, the babble of +men's tongues, anybody and everybody, take the office of teaching us God's +truth, instead of waiting before Him and letting His Spirit teach us! It is the +shame of us Christians that, with such a Teacher, we, 'when for the time we +ought to be teachers, have need that one teach us again which be the first +principles of the oracles of Christ!' +</p> + +<p> +Let it fill us with desire and with diligence. Let it fill us with calm hope. +They tell us that Christianity is effete. Have we got all out of Jesus Christ +that is in Him? Is the process that has been going on for all these centuries +to stop now? No! Depend upon it that the new problems of this generation will +find their solution where the old problems of past generations have found +theirs, and the old commandment of the old Christ will be the new commandment +of the new Christ. +</p> + +<p> +Foolish men, both on the Christian and on the anti-Christian side, stand and +point to the western sky and say, 'The Sun is setting.' But there is a flush in +the opposite horizon in an hour, as at midsummer; and that which sank in the +west rises fresh and bright in the east for a new day. Jesus Christ is the +Christ for all the ages and for every soul, and the world will only learn more +and more of His inexhaustible fullness. So let us be ever quiet, patient, +hopeful amidst the babble of tongues and the surges of controversy, assured +that all change will but make more plain the inexhaustible significance of the +infinite Christ, and that humble and obedient hearts will ever possess the +promised Teacher, nor ever cry in vain, 'Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art +my God. Thy Spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap75"></a>CHRIST'S PEACE</h2> + +<p> +'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, +give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be +afraid.'—JOHN xiv. 27. +</p> + +<p> +'Peace be unto you!' was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both in +meeting and in parting. It carries us back to a state of society in which every +stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep unrest of the human +heart. Christ was about closing His discourse, and the common word of +leave-taking came naturally to His lips; just as when He first met His +followers after the Resurrection, He soothed their fears by the calm and +familiar greeting, 'Peace be unto you!' But common words deepen their force and +meaning when He uses them. In Him 'all things become new,' and on His lips the +conventional threadbare salutation changes into a tender and mysterious +communication of a real gift. His words are deeds, and His wishes for His +disciples fulfil themselves. +</p> + +<p> +I. So we have here, first, the greeting, which is a gift. +</p> + +<p> +'Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.' We have seen, in former +discourses on this chapter, how prominently and repeatedly our Lord insists on +the great truth of His dwelling with and in His disciples. He gives His peace +because He gives Himself; and in the bestowal of His life He bestows, in so far +as we possess the gift, the qualities and attributes of that life. His peace is +inseparable from His presence. It comes with Him, like an atmosphere; it is +never where He is not. It was His peace inasmuch as, in His own experience, He +possessed it. His manhood was untroubled by perturbation or tumult, by passions +or contending desires, and no outward things could break His calm. If we open +our hearts by lowly faith, love, and aspiration for His entrance, we too may be +at rest; for His peace, like all which He is and has, is His that it may be +ours. +</p> + +<p> +The first requisite for peace is consciousness of harmonious and loving +relations between me and God. The deepest secret of Christ's peace was His +unbroken consciousness of unbroken communion with the Father, in which His will +submitted and the whole being of the man hung in filial dependence upon God. +And the centre and foundation of all the peace-giving power of Jesus Christ is +this, that in His death, by His one offering for sin for ever, He has swept +away the occasion of antagonism, and so made peace between the twain, the +Father in the heavens and the child, rebellious and prodigal, here below. +Little as these disciples dreamed of it, the death impending, which was already +beginning to cast its shadow over their souls, was the condition of securing to +them and to us the true beginning of all real peace, the rectifying of our +antagonistic relation to God, and the bringing Him and us into perfect concord. +</p> + +<p> +My brother, no man can be at rest down to the very roots of His being, in the +absence of the consciousness that he is at peace with God. There may be tumults +of gladness, there may be much of stormy brightness in the life, but there +cannot be the calm, still, impregnable, all-pervading, and central tranquillity +that our souls hunger for, unless we know and feel that we are right with God, +and that there is nothing between us and Him. And it is because Jesus Christ, +dying on the Cross, has made it possible for you and me to feel this, that He +Is our peace, and that He can say, 'Peace I leave with you.' +</p> + +<p> +Another requisite is that we must be at peace with ourselves. There must be no +stinging conscience, there must be no unsatisfied desires, there must be no +inner schism between inclination and duty, reason and will, passion and +judgment. There must be the quiet of a harmonised nature which has one object, +one aim, one love; which—to use a very vulgar phrase—has 'all its eggs in one +basket,' and has no contradictions running through its inmost self. There is +only one way to get that peace—cleaving to Jesus Christ and making Him our +Lord, our righteousness, our aim, our all. Your consciences will sting, and +that destroys peace; or if they do not sting, they will be torpid, and that +destroys peace, for death is not peace. Unless we take Christ for our love, for +the light of our minds, for the Sovereign Arbiter and Lord of our will, for the +home of our desires, for the aim of our efforts, we shall never know what it is +to be at rest. Unsatisfied and hungry we shall go through life, seeking what +nothing short of an Infinite Humanity can ever give us, and that is a heart to +lean our heads upon, an adequate object for all our faculties, and so a quiet +satisfaction of all our desires. 'Wherefore do ye spend your money for that +which is not bread?' A question that no man can answer without convicting +himself of folly! There is One, and only One, who is enough for me, poor and +weak and lowly and fleeting as I am, and as my earthly life is. Take that One +for your Treasure, and you are rich indeed. The world without Christ is nought. +Christ without the world is enough. +</p> + +<p> +Nor is there any other way of healing the inner discord, schism, and +contradiction of our anarchic nature, except in bringing it all into submission +to His merciful rule. Look at that troubled kingdom that each of us carries +about within himself, passion dragging this way, conscience that, a hundred +desires all arrayed against one another, inclination here, duty there, till we +are torn in pieces like a man drawn asunder by wild horses. And what is to be +done with all that rebellious self, over which the poor soul rules as it may, +and rules so poorly? Oh! there is an inner unrest, the necessary fate of every +man who does not take Christ for his King. But when He enters the heart with +His silken leash, the old fable comes true, and He binds the lions and the +ravenous beasts there with its slender tie and leads them along, tamed, by the +cord of love, and all harnessed to pull together in the chariot that He guides. +There is only one way for a man to be at peace with himself through and +through, and that is that he should put the guidance of his life into the hands +of Jesus Christ, and let Him do with it as He will. There is one power, and +only one, that can draw after it all the multitudinous heaped waters of the +weltering ocean, and that is the quiet, silver moon in the heavens that pulls +the tidal wave, into which melt and merge all currents and small breakers, and +rolls it round the whole earth. And so Christ, shining down lambent, and +gentle, but changeless, from the darkest of our skies, will draw, in one great +surge of harmonised motion, all the else contradictory currents of our stormy +souls. 'My peace I give unto you.' +</p> + +<p> +Another element in true tranquillity, which again is supplied only by Jesus +Christ, is peace with men. 'Whence come wars and fightings amongst you? From +your lusts.' Or to translate the old-fashioned phraseology into modern English, +the reason why men are in antagonism with one another is the central +selfishness of each, and there is only one way by which men's relations can be +thoroughly sweetened, and that is, by the divine love of Jesus Christ pouring +into their hearts, and casting out the devil of selfishness, and so blending +them all into one harmonious whole. +</p> + +<p> +The one basis of true, happy relations between man and man, without which there +is not the all-round tranquillity that we require, lies in the common relation +of all, if it may be, but certainly in the individual relation of myself, to +Him who is the Lover and the Friend of all. And in the measure in which the law +of the Spirit of life which was in Jesus Christ is in me, in that measure do I +find it possible to reproduce His gentleness, sympathy, compassion, insight +into men's sorrows, patience with men's offences, and all which makes, in our +relations to one another, the harmony and the happiness of humanity. +</p> + +<p> +Another of the elements or aspects of peace is peace with the outer world. 'It +is hard to kick against the pricks,' but if you do not kick against them, they +will not prick you. We beat ourselves all bruised and bleeding against the bars +of the prison-house in trying to escape from it, but if we do not beat +ourselves against them, they will not hurt us. If we do not want to get out of +prison, it does not matter though we are locked in. And so it is not external +calamities, but the resistance of the will to these, that makes the +disturbances of life. Submission is peace, and when a man with Christ in his +heart can say what Christ said, 'Not My will, but Thine be done,' Oh! then, +some faint beginnings, at least, of tranquillity come to the most agitated and +buffeted; and even in the depths of our sorrow we may have a deeper depth of +calm. If we have yielded ourselves to the Father's will, through that dear Son +who has set the example and communicates the power of filial obedience, then +all winds blow us to our haven, and all 'things work together for good,' and +nothing 'that is at enmity with joy' can shake our settled peace. Storms may +break upon the rocky shore of our islanded lives, but deep in the centre there +will be a secluded, inland dell 'which heareth not the loud winds when they +call,' and where no tempest can ever reach. Peace may be ours in the midst of +warfare and of storms, for Christ with us reconciles us to God, harmonises us +with ourselves, brings us into amity with men, and makes the world all good. +</p> + +<p> +II. So, secondly, note here the world's gift, which is an illusion. +</p> + +<p> +'Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.' Our Lord contrasts, as it seems to +me, primarily the manner of the world's bestowment, and then passes insensibly +into a contrast between the character of the world's gifts and His own. That +phrase 'the world' may have a double sense. It may mean either mankind in +general or the whole external and material frame of things. I think we may use +both significations in elucidating the words before us. +</p> + +<p> +Regarding it in the former of them, the thought is suggested—Christ +<i>gives</i>; men can only <i>wish</i>. 'Peace be unto you' comes from many a +lip, and is addressed to many an ear, unfulfilled. Christ says 'peace,' and His +word is a conveyance. How little we can do for one another's tranquillity, how +soon we come to the limits of human love and human help! How awful and +impassable is the isolation in which each human soul lives! After all love and +fellowship we dwell alone on our little island in the deep, separated by 'the +salt, unplumbed, estranging sea,' and we can do little more than hoist signals +of goodwill, and now and then for a moment stretch our hands across the +'echoing straits between.' But it is little after all that husband or wife can +do for one another's central peace, little that the dearest friend can give. We +have to depend upon ourselves and upon Christ for peace. That which the world +wishes Christ gives. +</p> + +<p> +And then, if we take the other signification of the 'world,' and the other +application of the whole promise, we may say—Outward things can give a man no +real peace. The world is for excitement; Christ alone has the secret of +tranquillity. It is as if to a man in a fever a physician should come and say: +'I cannot give you anything to soothe you; here is a glass of brandy for you.' +That would not help the fever, would it? The world comes to us and says: 'I +cannot give you rest: here is a sharp excitement for you, more highly spiced +and titillating for your tongue than the last one, which has turned flat and +stale.' That is about the best that it can do. +</p> + +<p> +Oh! what a confession of unrest are the rush and recklessness, the fever and +the fret of our modern life with its ever renewed and ever disappointed quest +after good! You go about our streets and look men in the face, and you see how +all manner of hungry desires and eager wishes have imprinted themselves there. +And now and then—how seldom!—you come across a face out of which beams a deep +and settled peace. How many of you are there who dare not be quiet because then +you are most troubled? How many of you are there who dare not reflect because +then you are wretched? How many of you are uncomfortable when alone, either +because you are utterly vacuous, or because then you are surrounded by the +ghosts of ugly thoughts that murder sleep and stuff every pillow with thorns? +The world will bring you excitement; Christ, and Christ alone will bring you +rest. +</p> + +<p> +The peace that earth gives is a poor affair at best. It is shallow; a very thin +plating over a depth of restlessness, like some skin of turf on a volcano, +where a foot below the surface sulphurous fumes roll, and hellish turbulence +seethes. That is the kind of rest that the world brings. +</p> + +<p> +Oh! dear friends, there is nothing in this world that will fill and satisfy +your hearts except only Jesus Christ. The world is for excitement; and Christ +is the only real Giver of real peace. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, note the duty of the recipients of that peace of Christ's: 'Let +not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' +</p> + +<p> +The words that introduced this great discourse return again at its close, +somewhat enlarged and with a deepened soothing and tenderness. There are two +things referred to as the source of restlessness, troubled agitation or +disturbance of heart; and that mainly, I suppose, because of terror in the +outlook towards a dim and unknown future. The disciples are warned to fight +against these if they would keep the gift of peace. +</p> + +<p> +That is to say, casting the exhortation into a more general expression, +Christ's gift of peace does not dispense with the necessity for our own effort +after tranquillity. There is much in the outer world that will disturb us to +the very end, and there is much within ourselves that will surge up and seek to +shake our repose and break our peace; and we have to coerce and keep down the +temptations to anxiety, the temptations to undue agitation of desire, the +temptations to tumults of sorrow, the temptations to cowardly fears of the +unknown future. All these will continue, even though we have Christ's peace in +our hearts, and it is for us to see to it that we treasure the peace, 'and in +everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be +made known unto God,' that nothing may break the calm which we possess. +</p> + +<p> +So, then, another thought arises from this final exhortation, and that is, that +it is useless to tell a man, 'Do not be troubled, and do not be afraid,' unless +he first has Christ's peace as his. Is that peace yours, my brother, because +Jesus Christ is yours? If so, then there is no reason for your being troubled +or dreading any future. If it is not, you are mad not to be troubled, and you +are insane if you are not afraid. The word for you is, 'Be troubled, ye +careless ones,' for there is reason for it, and be afraid of that which is +certainly coming. The one thing that gives security and makes it possible to +possess a calm heart is the possession of Jesus Christ by faith. Without Him it +is a waste of breath to say to people, 'Do not be frightened,' and it is wicked +counsel to say to men, 'Be at ease.' They ought to be terrified, and they ought +to be troubled, and they will be some day, whether they think so or not. +</p> + +<p> +But then the last thought from this exhortation is—and now I speak to Christian +people—your imperfect possession of this peace is all your own fault. Why, +there are hundreds of professing Christian people who have some kind of faint, +rudimentary faith, and there are many of them, I dare say, listening to me now, +who have no assured possession of any of those elements, of which I have been +speaking, as the constituent parts of Christ's peace. You are <i>not</i> sure +that you are right with God. You do <i>not</i> know what it is to possess +satisfied desires. You <i>do</i> know what it is to have conflicting +inclinations and impulses; you have envy and malice and hostility against men; +and the world's storms and disasters do strike and disturb you. Why? Because +you have not a firm grasp of Jesus Christ. 'I have set the Lord always at my +right hand, therefore I shall not be moved'; there is the secret. Keep near +Him, my brother; and then all things are fair, and your heart is at peace. +</p> + +<p> +I remember once standing by the side of a little Highland loch on a calm autumn +day, when all the winds were still, and every birch-tree stood unmoved, and +every twig was reflected on the steadfast mirror, into the depths of which +Heaven's own blue seemed to have found its way. That is what our hearts may be, +if we let Christ put His guarding hand round them to keep the storms off, and +have Him within us for our rest. But the man who does not trust Jesus 'is like +the troubled sea which cannot rest,' but goes moaning round half the world, +homeless and hungry, rolling and heaving, monotonous and yet changeful, salt +and barren—the true emblem of every soul that has not listened to the merciful +call, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap76"></a>JOY AND FAITH, THE FRUITS OF CHRIST'S DEPARTURE</h2> + +<p> +'Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye +loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father +is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when +it is come to pass, ye might believe.'—JOHN xiv. 28, 29. +</p> + +<p> +Our Lord here casts a glance backward on the course of His previous words, and +gathers together the substance and purpose of these. He brings out the +intention of His warnings and the true effect of the departure, concerning +which He had given them notice, as being twofold. In the first verse of my text +His words about that going away, and the going away itself, are represented as +the source of joy, which is an advance on the peace that He had just previously +been promising. In the second of our verses these two things—His words, and the +facts which they revealed—are represented as being the very ground and +nourishment of faith. +</p> + +<p> +So, then, we have these two thoughts to look at now, the departed Lord, the +fountain of joy to all who love Him; the departed Lord, the ground and food of +faith. +</p> + +<p> +I. The departure of the Lord is a fountain of joy to those who love Him. +</p> + +<p> +In the first part of our text the going away of Jesus is contemplated in two +aspects. +</p> + +<p> +The first is that with which we have already become familiar in previous +sermons on this chapter—viz., its bearing upon the disciples; and in that +respect it is declared that Christ's going is Christ's coming. +</p> + +<p> +But then we have a new aspect, one on which, in His sublime self-repression, He +very seldom touches—viz., its bearing upon Himself; and in that aspect we are +taught here to regard our Lord's going as ministering to His exaltation and +joy, and therefore as being a source of joy to all His lovers. +</p> + +<p> +So, then, we have these thoughts, Christ's going is Christ's coming, and +Christ's going is Christ's exaltation, and for both reasons that departure +ought to minister to His friends' gladness. Let us look at these three things +for a little while. +</p> + +<p> +First of all, there comes a renewed utterance of that great thought which runs +through the whole chapter, that the departure of Jesus Christ is in reality the +coming of Christ. The word 'again' is a supplement, and somewhat restricts and +destroys the true flow of thought and meaning of the words. For if we read, as +our Authorised Version does, 'I go away and come again unto you,' we are +inevitably led to think of a coming, separated by a considerable distance of +time from the departure, and for most of us that which is suggested is the +final coming and return, in bodily form, of the Lord Jesus. +</p> + +<p> +Now great and glorious as that hope is, it is too far away to be in itself a +sufficient comfort to the mourning disciples, and too remote to be for us, if +taken alone, a sufficient ground of joy and of rest. But if you strike out the +intrusive word '<i>again</i>,' and read the sentence as being what it is, a +description of one continuous process, of which the parts are so closely +connected as to be all but contemporaneous, you get the true idea. 'I go away, +and I come to you.' There is no gap, the thing runs on without a break. There +is no moment of absolute absence; there are not two motions, one from us and +the other back again towards us, but all is one. The 'going' is the 'coming'; +the solemn series of events which began on Calvary, and ended on Olivet, to the +eye of sense were successive stages in the departure of Jesus Christ. But +looked at with a deeper understanding of their true meaning, they are +successive stages in His approach towards us. His death, His resurrection, His +ascension, were not steps in the cessation of His presence, but they were +simply steps in the transition from a lower to a higher kind of that presence. +He changed the limitations and externalities of a mere bodily, local nearness +for the realities of a spiritual presence. To the eye of sense, the 'going +away' was the reality, and the 'coming' a metaphor. To the eye enlightened to +see things as they are, the dropping away of the visible corporeal was but the +inauguration of the higher and the more real. And we need to reverse our +notions of what is real and what is figurative in Christ's presence, and to +feel that that form of His presence which we may all have to-day is far more +real than the form which ceased when the Shekinah cloud 'received Him out of +their sight,' before we can penetrate to the depth of His words, or grasp the +whole fullness of blessing and of consolation which lie in them here. In a very +deep and real sense, 'He therefore departed from us for a season that we might +receive Him for ever.' +</p> + +<p> +The real presence of Jesus Christ to-day, and through the long ages with every +waiting heart, is the very keynote to the solemn music of these chapters. And +again I press upon you, and upon myself, the question, Do we believe it? Do we +live in the faith of it? Does it fill the same place in the perspective of our +Christian creed as it does in the revelation of the Scripture, or have we +refined it and watered it down, until it comes to be little more than merely +the continuous influence of the record of His past, just as any great and +sovereign spirit that has influenced mankind may still 'rule the nations from +his urn'? Or do we take Him at His word, and believe that He meant what He +said, in something far other than a violent figure for the continuance of His +influence and of the inspiration drawn from Him, 'Lo! I am with you alway, even +unto the end of the world'? 'Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend up into +heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from above, the Word,' the Incarnate +Word, 'is nigh thee, in thy heart,' if thou lovest and trustest Him. +</p> + +<p> +Then, again, the other aspect of our Lord's coming, which is emphasised here, +is that in which it is regarded as affecting Himself. Christ's going is +Christ's exaltation. +</p> + +<p> +Now observe that, in the first clause of our verse, there is simply specified +the fact of departure, without any reference to the 'whither'; because all that +was wanted was to contrast the going and the coming. But, in the second clause, +in which the emphasis rests not so much upon the fact of departure as upon the +goal to which He went, we read: 'I go <i>to the Father</i>.' Hitherto we have +been contemplating Christ's departure simply in its bearing upon us, but here, +with exquisite tenderness, He unveils another aspect of it, and that in order +that He may change His disciples' sadness into joy; and says to them, 'If ye +were not so absorbed in yourselves, you would have a thought to spare about Me, +and you would feel that you should be glad because I am about to be exalted.' +</p> + +<p> +Very, very seldom does He open such a glimpse into His heart, and it is all the +more tender and impressive when He does. What a hint of the continual +self-sacrifice of the human life of Jesus Christ lies in this thought, that He +bids His disciples rejoice with Him, because the time is getting nearer its +end, and He goes back to the Father! And what shall we say of the nature of Him +to whom it was martyrdom to live, and a supreme instance of self-sacrificing +humiliation to be 'found in fashion as a man'? +</p> + +<p> +He tells His followers here that a reason for their joy in His departure is to +be found in this fact, that He goes to the Father, who is greater than Himself. +</p> + +<p> +Now mark, with regard to that remarkable utterance, that the whole course of +thought in the context requires, as it seems to me, that we should suppose that +for Christ to 'go to the Father' was to share in the Father's greatness. Why +else should the disciples be bidden to rejoice in it? or why should He say +anything at all about the greatness of the Father? If so, then this follows, +that the greatness to which He here alludes is such as He enters by His +ascension. Or, in other words, that the inferiority, of whatever nature it may +be, to which He here alludes, falls away when He passes hence. +</p> + +<p> +Now these words are often quoted triumphantly, as if they were dead against +what I venture to call the orthodox and Scriptural doctrine of the divinity of +our Lord Jesus Christ. And it may be worth while to remark that that doctrine +accepts this saying as fully as it does Christ's other word, 'I and My Father +are one,' I venture to think that it is the only construction of Scripture +phraseology which does full justice to all the elements. But be that as it may, +I wish to remind you that the creed which confesses the unity of the Godhead +and the divinity of Jesus Christ is not to be overthrown by pelting this verse +at it; for this verse is part of that creed, which as fully declares that the +Father is greater than the Son, as it declares that the Son is One with the +Father. You may be satisfied with it or no, but as a matter of simple honesty +it must be recognised that the creed of the Catholic Church does combine both +the elements of these representations. +</p> + +<p> +Now we can only speak in this matter as Scripture guides us. The depths of +Deity are far too deep to be sounded by our plummets, and he is a bold man who +ventures to say that he knows what is impossible in reference to the divine +nature. He needs to have gone all round God, and down to the depths, and up to +the heights of a bottomless and summitless infinitude, before he has a right to +say that. But let me remind you that we can dimly see that the very names +'Father' and 'Son' do imply some sort of subordination, but that that +subordination, inasmuch as it is in the timeless and inward relations of +divinity, must be supposed to exist after the ascension, as it existed before +the incarnation; and, therefore, any such mysterious difference is not that +which is referred to here. What <i>is</i> referred to is what dropped away from +the Man Jesus Christ, when He ascended up on high. As Luther has it, in his +strong, simple way, in one of his sermons, 'Here He was a poor, sad, suffering +Christ'; and that garb of lowliness falls from Him, like the mantle that fell +from the prophet as he went up in the chariot of fire, when He passes behind +the brightness of the Shekinah cloud that hides Him from our sight. That in +which the Father was greater than He, in so far as our present purpose is +concerned, was that which He left behind when He ascended, even the pain, the +suffering, the sorrow, the restrictions, the humiliation, that made so much of +the burden of His life. Therefore we, as His followers, have to rejoice in an +ascended Christ, beneath whose feet are foes, and far away from whose human +personality are all the ills that flesh is heir to. 'If ye loved Me, ye would +rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father; for My Father is greater than +I.' +</p> + +<p> +So then the third thought, in this first part of our subject, is that on both +these grounds Christ's ascension and departure are a source of joy. The two +aspects of His departure, as affecting Him and as affecting us, are inseparably +welded together. There can be no presence with us, man by man, through all the +ages, and in every land, unless He, whose presence it is, participates in the +absolute glory of divinity. For to be with you and me and all our suffering +brethren, through the centuries and over the world, involves something more +than belongs to mere humanity. Therefore, the two sources of gladness are +confluent—Christ's ascension as affecting us is inseparably woven in with +Christ's ascension as affecting Himself. +</p> + +<p> +Love will delight to dwell upon that thought of its exalted Lover. We may +fairly apply the simplicity of human relationships and affections to the +elucidation of what ought to be our affection to Him, our Lord. And surely if +our dearest one were far away from us, in some lofty position, our hearts and +our thoughts would ever be going thither, and we should live more there than +here, where we are 'cribbed, cabined, and confined.' And if we love Jesus +Christ with any depth of earnestness and fervour of affection, there will be no +thought more sweet to us, and none which will more naturally flow into our +hearts, whenever they are for a moment at leisure, than this, the thought of +Him, our Brother and Forerunner, who has ascended up on high; and in the midst +of the glory of the throne bears us in His heart, and uses His glory for our +blessing. Love will spring to where the beloved is; and if we be Christians in +any deep and real sense, our hearts will have risen with Christ, and we shall +be sitting with Him at the right hand of God. My brother, measure your +Christianity, and the reality of your love to Jesus Christ, by this—is it to +you natural, and a joy, to turn to Him, and ever to make present to your mind +the glories in which He loves and lives, and intercedes, and reigns, for you? +'If ye love Me, ye will rejoice, because I go unto the Father.' +</p> + +<p> +II. And now I can deal with the second verse of our text very briefly. For our +purpose it is less important than the former one. In it we find our Lord +setting forth, secondly, His departure and His announcement of His departure as +the ground and food of faith. +</p> + +<p> +He knew what a crash was coming, and with exquisite tenderness, gentleness, +knowledge of their necessities, and suppression of all His own feelings and +emotions, He gave Himself to prepare the disciples for the storm, that, +forewarned, they might be forearmed, and that when it did burst upon them, it +might not take them by surprise. +</p> + +<p> +So He does still, about a great many other things, and tells us beforehand of +what is sure to come to us, that when we are caught in the midst of the tempest +we may not bate one jot of heart or hope. +</p> + +<p> + Why should I complain<br /> + Of want or distress,<br /> + Temptation or pain?<br /> + He told me no less.' +</p> + +<p> +And when my sorrows come to me, I may say about them what He says about His +departure—He has told us before, that when it comes we may believe. +</p> + +<p> +But note how, in these final words of my text, Christ avows that the great aim +of His utterances and of His departure is to evoke our faith. And what does He +mean by faith? He means, first of all, a grasp of the historic facts—His death, +His resurrection, His ascension. He means, next, the understanding of these as +He Himself has explained them—a death of sacrifice, a resurrection of victory +over death and the grave, and an ascension to rule and guide His Church and the +world, and to send His divine Spirit into men's hearts if they will receive it. +And He means, therefore, as the essence of the faith that He would produce in +all our hearts—a reliance upon Himself as thus revealed, Sacrifice by His +death, Victor by His resurrection, King and interceding Priest by His +ascension—a reliance upon Himself as absolute as the facts are sure, as +unfaltering as is His eternal sameness. The faith that grasps the Christ, dead, +risen, ascended, as its all in all, for time and for eternity, is the faith +which by all His work, and by all His words about His work, He desires to +kindle in our hearts. Has He kindled it in yours? +</p> + +<p> +Then there is a second thought—viz., that these facts, as interpreted by +Himself, are the ground and the nourishment of our faith. How differently they +looked when seen from the further side and when seen from the hither side! +Anticipated and dimly anticipated, they were all doleful and full of dismay; +remembered and looked back upon, they were radiant and bright. The disciples +felt, with shrinking hearts and fainting spirits, that their whole reliance +upon Jesus Christ was on the point of being shattered, and that everything was +going when He died. 'We <i>trusted</i>,' said two of them, with such a sad use +of the past tense, 'we <i>trusted</i> that this <i>had been</i> He which should +have redeemed Israel. But we do not trust it any more, nor do we expect Him to +be Israel's Redeemer now.' But after the facts were all unveiled, there came +back the memory of His words, and they said to one another, 'Did He not tell us +that it was all to be so? How blind we were not to understand Him!' +</p> + +<p> +And so 'the Cross, the grave, the skies,' are the foundations of our faith; and +they who see Him dying, rising, ascended, henceforth will find it impossible to +doubt. Feed your faith upon these great facts, and take Christ's own +explanation of them, and your faith will be strong. +</p> + +<p> +Again, we learn here that faith is the condition of the true presence of our +absent Lord. Faith is that on our side which corresponds to His spiritual +coming to us. Whosoever trusts Him possesses Him, and He is with and in every +soul that, loving Him, relies upon Him, in a closeness so close and a presence +so real that heaven itself does not bring the spirit of the believer and the +Spirit of the Lord nearer one another, though it takes away the bodily film +that sometimes seems to part their lives. +</p> + +<p> +We, too, may and should be glad when we lift our eyes to that Throne where our +Brother reigns. We too, may be glad that He is there, because His being there +is the reason why He can be here; and we, too, may feed our faith upon Him, and +so bring Him in very deed to dwell in our hearts. If we would have Christ +within us, let us trust Him dying, rising, living in the heavens; and then we +shall learn how, by all three apparent departures, He is drawing the closer to +the souls that love and trust. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap77"></a>CHRIST FORESEEING HIS PASSION</h2> + +<p> +'Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the Prince of this world cometh, +and hath nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and +as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, Let us go hence.'—JOHN +xiv. 30,31. +</p> + +<p> +The summons to departure which closes these verses shows that we have now +reached the end of that sacred hour in the upper room. In obedience to the +summons, we have to fancy the little group leaving its safe shelter, as sailors +might put out from behind a breakwater into a stormy sea. They pass from its +seclusion and peace into the joyous stir of the crowded streets, filled with +feast-keeping multitudes, on whom the full paschal moon looked down, pure and +calming. Somewhere between the upper chamber and the crossing of the brook +Kedron, the divine words of the following chapters were spoken, but this +discourse, closely connected as it is with them, reaches its fitting close in +these penetrating, solemn words of outlook into the near future, so calm, so +weighty, so resolute, so almost triumphant, with which Christ seeks finally to +impart to His timorous friends some of His own peace and assurance of victory. +</p> + +<p> +They lead us into a region seldom opened to our view, and never to be looked +upon but with reverent awe. For they tell us what Christ thought about His +sufferings, and how He felt as He went down to that cold, black river, in which +He was to be baptized. 'Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place +where thou standest is holy ground.' So, reverently listening to the words, +sacred because of the Speaker, the theme, and the circumstances, we note in +them these things: His calm anticipation of the assailant, His unveiling of the +secret and motive of His apparent defeat, and His resolute advance to the +conflict. Let us look at these three points. +</p> + +<p> +I. First, we have here our Lord's calm anticipation of the assailant. +</p> + +<p> +'Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the Prince of this world cometh, +and hath nothing in Me.' One of the other Gospels tells us, in finishing its +account of our Lord's temptation in the wilderness, that when Satan had ended +all these temptations 'he departed from Him for a season.' And now we have the +second and the intenser form of that assault. The first was addressed to +desires, and sought to stimulate ambition and ostentation and the animal +appetites, and so, through the cravings of human nature, to shake the Master's +fixed faith. The second used sharper and more fatal weapons, and appealed, not +to desire of enjoyment, or ease, or good, but to the natural human shrinking +from pain and suffering and shame and death. He that was impervious on the side +of natural necessities and more subtle spiritual desires might yet be reached +through terror. And so the second form of the assault, instead of tempting the +traveller by the sunshine to cast aside his cloak, tempted him by storm and +tempest to fling it aside; and the one, as the other, was doomed to failure. +</p> + +<p> +Note how the Master, with that clear eye which saw to the depths as well as the +heights, and before which men and things were but, as it were, transparent +media through which unseen spiritual powers wrought, just as He discerns the +Father's will as supreme and sovereign, sees here—beneath Judas's treachery, +and Pharisees' and priests' envy, and the people's stolid indifference, and the +Roman soldiers' impartial scorn—the workings of a personal source and centre of +all. The 'Prince of this world,' who rules men and things when they are severed +from God, 'cometh.' Christ's sensitive nature apprehends the approach of the +evil thing, as some organisations can tell when a thunderstorm is about to +burst. His divine Omniscience, working as it did, even within the limits of +humanity, knows not only when the storm is about to burst upon Him, but knows +who it is that has raised the tempest. And so He says, 'The Prince of this +world cometh.' +</p> + +<p> +But note, as yet more important, that tremendous and unique consciousness of +absolute invulnerability against the assaults. 'He hath nothing in Me.' He is +'the Prince of the world,' but His dominion stops outside My breast. He has no +rule or authority there. His writs do not run, nor is His dominion recognised, +within that sacred realm. +</p> + +<p> +Was there ever a man who could say that? Are there any of us, the purest and +the noblest, who, standing single-handed in front of the antagonistic power of +evil, and believing it to be consolidated and consecrated in a person, dare to +profess that there is not a thing in us on which he can lay his black claw and +say—'That is mine?' Is there nothing inflammable within us which the 'fiery +darts of the wicked' can kindle? Are there any of us who bar our doors so +tightly as that we can say that none of his seductions will find their way +therein, and that nothing there will respond to them? Christ sets Himself here +against the whole embattled and embodied power of evil, and puts Himself in +contrast to the universal human experience, when He calmly declares 'He hath +nothing in Me.' It is an assertion of His absolute freedom from sinfulness, and +it involves, as I take it, the other assertion—that as He is free from sin, so +He is not subject to that consequence of sin, which is death, as we know it. +Another part of Scripture speaks to us in strange language, which yet has in it +a deep truth, of 'him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.' Men +fall under the rightful dominion of the king of evil when they sin, and part of +the proof of his dominion is the fact of physical death, with its present +accompaniments. Thus, in His calm anticipation, Jesus stands waiting for the +enemy's charge, knowing that all its forces will be broken against the serried +ranks of His immaculate purity, and that He will come from the dreadful close +unwounded all, and triumphant for evermore. +</p> + +<p> +But do not let us suppose that because Christ, in His anticipation of suffering +and death, knew Himself invulnerable, with not even a spot on His heel into +which the arrow could go, therefore the conflict was an unreal or shadowy one. +It was a true fight, and it was a real struggle that He was anticipating, thus +calmly in these solemn words, as knowing Himself the Victor ere He entered on +the dreadful field. +</p> + +<p> +II. So note, secondly, in these words, our Lord's unveiling of the motive and +aim of His apparent defeat. +</p> + +<p> +'But that the world might know that I love the Father, and, as the Father gave +Me commandment, even so I do.' There may be some uncertainty about the exact +grammatical relation of these clauses to one another, with which I need not +trouble you, because it does not affect their substantial meaning. However we +solve the mere grammatical questions, the fundamental significance of the whole +remains unaffected, and it is this: that Christ's sufferings and death were, in +one aspect, for the purpose that the world might know His love to the Father, +and, in another aspect, were obedience to the Father's commandment. And if we +consider these two aspects, I think we shall get some thoughts worth +considering as to the way in which the Master Himself looks upon these +sufferings and that death. +</p> + +<p> +The first point I note in this division of my discourse is that Christ would +have us regard His sufferings and His death as His own act. Note that +remarkable phrase, 'thus I <i>do</i>.' A strange word to be used in such a +connection, but full of profound meaning. We speak, and rightly, of the solemn +events of these coming days as the passion of our Lord, but they were His +action quite as much as His passion. He was no mere passive sufferer. In them +all He acted, or, as He says here, we may look upon them all, not as things +inflicted upon Him from without by any power, however it might seem to have the +absolute control of His fate, but as things which He did Himself. +</p> + +<p> +There is one Man who died, not of physical necessity, but because of free +choice. There is one Man who chose to be born, and who chose to die; who, in +His choosing to be born, chose humiliation, and who, in choosing to die, chose +yet deeper humiliation. This sacrifice was a voluntary sacrifice, or, to speak +more accurately, He was both Priest and Sacrifice, when 'through the Eternal +Spirit He offered Himself without spot unto God.' The living Christ is the Lord +of Life, and lives because He will; the dying Christ is the Lord of Death, and +dies because He chose. He would have us learn that all His bitter sufferings, +inflicted from without as they were, and traceable to a deeper source than +merely human antagonism, were also self-inflicted and self-chosen, and further +traceable to the Father's will in harmony with His own. 'Thus I do,' and thus +He did when He died. +</p> + +<p> +Then, further, our Lord would have us regard these sufferings and that death as +being His crowning act of obedience to His Father's will. That is in accordance +with the whole tone of His self-consciousness, especially as set before us in +this precious Gospel of John, which traces up everything to the submission of +the divine Son to the divine Father, a submission which is no mere external +act, but results from, and is the expression of, the absolute unity of will and +the perfect oneness of mutual love. And so, because He loved the Father, +therefore He came to do the Father's will, and the crowning act of His +obedience was this, that He was 'obedient unto death, even the death of the +Cross.' It was a voluntary sacrifice, but that voluntariness was not self-will. +It was a sacrifice in obedience to the Father's will, but that obedience was +not reluctant. Christ was the embodiment of the divine purpose, formed before +the ages and realised in time, when He bowed His head and yielded up the ghost. +The highest proof of His filial obedience was the Cross. And to it He points +us, if we would know what it is to love and obey the Father. +</p> + +<p> +Now it is to be noticed that this motive of our Lord's death is not the usual +one given in Scripture. And I can suppose the question being put, 'Why did not +Jesus Christ say, in that supreme moment, that He went to the Cross because of +His love to us rather than because of His love to the Father?' But I think the +answer is not far to seek. There are several satisfactory ones which may be +given. One is that this making prominent of His love to God rather than to us, +as the motive for His death, is in accordance with that comparative reticence +on the part of Jesus as to the atoning aspect of His death, which I have had +frequent occasion to point out, and which does not carry in it the implication +that that doctrine was a new thing in the Christian preaching after Pentecost. +Another reason may be drawn from the whole strain and tone of this chapter, +which, as I have already said, traces up everything to the loving relations of +obedience between the Father and Son. And yet another reason may be given in +that the very statement of Christ's love to God, and loving obedience to the +Father's commandment as the motive of His death, includes in it necessarily the +other thing—love to us. For what was the Father's commandment which Christ with +all His heart accepted, and with His glad will obeyed unto death? It was that +the Son should come as the Ransom for the world. The Son of man was sent, 'not +to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a Ransom for +many.' Or, as He Himself said, in one of His earliest discourses, 'God so loved +the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him +should not perish.' And for what He gave that Son is clearly stated in the +context itself of that passage—'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the +wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.' +</p> + +<p> +To speak of Christ's acceptance of the Father's commandment, then, is but +another way of saying that Christ, in all the fullness of His self-surrender, +entered into and took as His own the great, eternal divine purpose, that the +world should be redeemed by His death upon the Cross. The heavenward side of +His love to man is His love to the Father, God. +</p> + +<p> +Now there is another aspect still in which our Lord would here have us regard +His sufferings and death, and that is that they are of worldwide significance. +</p> + +<p> +Think for a moment of the obscurity of the speaker, a Jewish peasant in an +upper room, with a handful of poor men around Him, all of them ready to forsake +Him, within a few hours of His ignominious death; and yet He says, 'I am about +to die, that the echo of it may reverberate through the whole world.' He puts +Himself forth as of worldwide significance, and His death as adapted to move +mankind, and as one day to be known all over the world. There is nothing in +history to approach to the gigantic arrogance of Jesus Christ, and it is only +explicable on the ground of His divinity. +</p> + +<p> +'This I do that <i>the world</i> may know.' And what did it matter to the +world? Why should it be of any importance that the world should know? For one +plain reason, because true knowledge of the true nature and motive of that +death breaks the dominion of the Prince of this world, and sets men free from +his tyranny. Emancipation, hope, victory, purity, the passing from the tyranny +of the darkness into the blessed kingdom of the light—all depend on the world's +knowing that Christ's death was His own voluntary act of submission to the +infinite love and will of the Father, which will and love He made His own, and +therefore died, the sacrifice for the world's sin. +</p> + +<p> +The enemy was approaching. He was to be hoist with his own petard. 'He digged a +pit; he digged it deep,' and into the pit which he had digged he himself fell. +'Oh, death! I will be thy plague' by entering into thy realm. 'Oh, grave! I +will be thy destruction' by dwelling for a moment within thy dark portals and +rending them irreparably as I pass from them. The Prince of this world was +defeated when he seemed to triumph, and Christ's mighty words came true: 'Now +shall the Prince of this world be cast out.' He would have the world know—with +the knowledge which is of the heart as well as the head, which is life as well +as understanding, which is possession and appropriation—the mystery, the +meaning, the motive of His death, because the world thereby ceases to be a +world, and becomes the kingdom of Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +III. Lastly, notice here the resolute advance to the conflict. +</p> + +<p> +'Arise, let us go hence'—a word of swift alacrity. Evidently He rose to His +feet whilst they lay round the table. He bids them rise with Him and follow Him +on the path. +</p> + +<p> +But there is more in the words than the mere close of a conversation, and a +summons to change of place. They indicate a kind of divine impatience to be in +the fight, and to have it over. The same emotion is plainly revealed in the +whole of the latter days of our Lord's life. You remember how His disciples +followed amazed, as He strode up the road from Jericho, hastening to His Cross. +You remember His deliberate purpose to draw upon Himself public notice during +that dangerous and explosive week before the Passover, as shown in the +publicity of His entry into Jerusalem, His sharp rebukes of the rulers in the +Temple, and in every other incident of those days. You remember His words to +the betrayer: 'That thou doest, do quickly.' These latter hours of the Lord +were strongly marked by the emotion to which He gave utterance in His earlier +words: 'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it +be accomplished!' Perhaps that feeling indicated His human shrinking; for we +all know how we sometimes are glad to precipitate an unwelcome thing, and how +the more we dread it, the more we are anxious to get it over. But there is far +more than that in it. There is the resolved determination to carry out the +Father's purpose for the world's salvation, which was His own purpose, and was +none the less His though He knew all the suffering which it involved. +</p> + +<p> +Let us adore the steadfast will, which never faltered, though the natural human +weakness was there too, and which, as impelled by some strong spring, kept +persistently pressing towards the Cross that on it He might die, the world's +Redeemer. +</p> + +<p> +And do not let us forget that He summoned His lovers and disciples to follow +Him on the road. 'Let us go hence.' It is ours to take up our cross daily and +follow the Master, to do with persistent resolve our duty, whether it be +welcome or unwelcome, and to see to it that we plant no faltering and reluctant +foot in our Master's footsteps. For us, too, if we have learned to flee to the +Cross for our redemption and salvation, the resolve of our Redeemer and the +very passion of the Saviour itself become the pattern and law of our lives. We, +too, have to cast ourselves into the fight, and to take up our cross, 'that the +world may know that we love the Father, and as the Father hath given us +commandment.' And if we so live, then our death, too, in some humble measure, +may be like His—the crowning act of obedience to the Father's will; in which we +are neither passively nor resistingly dragged under by a force that we cannot +effectually resist, but in which we go down willingly into the dark valley +where death 'makes our sacrifice complete.' +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scriptures, by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 8070-h.htm or 8070-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/0/7/8070/ + +Produced by Charles Franks, David King and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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