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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8381.txt b/8381.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06bf42d --- /dev/null +++ b/8381.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12245 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John +Chaps. XV to XXI, by Alexander Maclaren + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Posting Date: October 19, 2012 [EBook #8381] +Release Date: June, 2005 +First Posted: July 5, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, John Hagerson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ST. JOHN Chaps. XV to XXI + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ST. JOHN Chaps. XV to XXI + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE TRUE VINE (John xv. 1-4) + +THE TRUE BRANCHES OF THE TRUE VINE (John xv. 5-8) + +ABIDING IN LOVE (John xv. 9-11) + +THE ONENESS OF THE BRANCHES (John xv. 12, 13) + +CHRIST'S FRIENDS (John xv. 14-17) + +SHEEP AMONG WOLVES (John xv. 18-20) + +THE WORLD'S HATRED, AS CHRIST SAW IT (John xv. 21-25) + +OUR ALLY (John xv. 26, 27) + +WHY CHRIST SPEAKS (John xvi. 1-6) + +THE DEPARTING CHRIST AND THE COMING SPIRIT (John xvi. 7, 8) + +THE CONVICTING FACTS (John xvi 9-11) + +THE GUIDE INTO ALL TRUTH (John xvi. 12-15) + +CHRIST'S 'LITTLE WHILES' (John xvi. 16-19) + +SORROW TURNED INTO JOY (John xvi. 20-22) + +'IN THAT DAY' (John xvi. 23, 24) + +THE JOYS OP 'THAT DAY' (John xvi. 25-27) + +'FROM' AND 'TO' (John xvi. 28) + +GLAD CONFESSION AND SAD WARNING (John xvi. 29-32) + +PEACE AND VICTORY (John xvi. 33) + +THE INTERCESSOR (John xvii. 1-19) + +'THE LORD THEE KEEPS' (John xvii. 14-16) + +THE HIGH PRIEST'S PRAYER (John xvii. 20-26) + +THE FOLDED FLOCK (John xvii. 24) + +CHRIST'S SUMMARY OF HIS WORK (John xvii. 26) + +CHRIST AND HIS CAPTORS (John xviii. 6-9) + +JESUS BEFORE CAIAPHAS (John xviii. 15-27) + +'ART THOU A KING?' (John xviii. 28-40) + +JESUS SENTENCED (John xix. 1-16) + +AN EYE-WITNESS'S ACCOUNT OF THE CRUCIFIXION (John xix. 17-30) + +THE TITLE ON THE CROSS (John xix. 19) + +THE IRREVOCABLE PAST (John xix. 22) + +CHRIST'S FINISHED AND UNFINISHED WORK (John xix. 30; Rev. xxi. 6) + +CHRIST OUR PASSOVER (John xix. 36) + +JOSEPH AND NICODEMUS (John xix. 38, 39) + +THE GRAVE IN A GARDEN (John xix. 41, R.V.) + +THE RESURRECTION MORNING (John xx. 1-18) + +THE RISEN LORD'S CHARGE AND GIFT (John xx. 21-23) + +THOMAS AND JESUS (John xx. 28) + +THE SILENCE OF SCRIPTURE (John xx. 30, 31) + +AN ELOQUENT CATALOGUE (John xxi. 2) + +THE BEACH AND THE SEA (John xxi. 4) + +'IT IS THE LORD' (John xxi. 7) + +'LOVEST THOU ME?' (John xxi. 15) + +YOUTH AND AGE, AND THE COMMAND FOR BOTH (John xxi. 18, 19) + +'THEY ALSO SERVE WHO ONLY STAND AND WAIT' (John xxi. 21, 22) + + + +THE TRUE VINE + +'I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in +Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth +fruit He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are +clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I +in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in +the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.'--JOHN xv. 14. + +WHAT suggested this lovely parable of the vine and the branches is +equally unimportant and undiscoverable. Many guesses have been made, +and, no doubt, as was the case with almost all our Lord's parables, +some external object gave occasion for it. It is a significant token of +our Lord's calm collectedness, even at that supreme and heart-shaking +moment, that He should have been at leisure to observe, and to use for +His purposes of teaching, something that was present at the instant. +The deep and solemn lessons which He draws, perhaps from some vine by +the wayside, are the richest and sweetest clusters that the vine has +ever grown. The great truth in this chapter, applied in manifold +directions, and viewed in many aspects, is that of the living union +between Christ and those who believe on Him, and the parable of the +vine and the branches affords the foundation for all which follows. + +We take the first half of that parable now. It is somewhat difficult to +trace the course of thought in it, but there seems to be, first of all, +the similitude set forth, without explanation or interpretation, in its +most general terms, and then various aspects in which its applications +to Christian duty are taken up and reiterated, I simply follow the +words which I have read for my text. + +I. We have then, first, the Vine in the vital unity of all its parts. + +'I am the True Vine,' of which the material one to which He perhaps +points, is but a shadow and an emblem. The reality lies in Him. We +shall best understand the deep significance and beauty of this thought +if we recur in imagination to some of those great vines which we +sometimes see in royal conservatories, where for hundred of yards the +pliant branches stretch along the espaliers, and yet one life pervades +the whole, from the root, through the crooked stem, right away to the +last leaf at the top of the farthest branch, and reddens and mellows +every cluster, 'So,' says Christ, 'between Me and the totality of them +that hold by Me in faith there is one life, passing ever from root +through branches, and ever bearing fruit.' + +Let me remind you that this great thought of the unity of life between +Jesus Christ and all that believe upon Him is the familiar teaching of +Scripture, and is set forth by other emblems besides that of the vine, +the queen of the vegetable world; for we have it in the metaphor of the +body and its members, where not only are the many members declared to +be parts of one body, but the name of the collective body, made up of +many members, is Christ. 'So also is'--not as we might expect, 'the +Church,' but--'Christ,' the whole bearing the name of Him who is the +Source of life to every part. Personality remains, individuality +remains: I am I, and He is He, and thou art thou; but across the awful +gulf of individual consciousness which parts us from one another, Jesus +Christ assumes the Divine prerogative of passing and joining Himself to +each of us, if we love Him and trust Him, in a union so close, and with +a communication of life so real, that every other union which we know +is but a faint and far-off adumbration of it. A oneness of life from +root to branch, which is the sole cause of fruitfulness and growth, is +taught us here. + +And then let me remind you that that living unity between Jesus Christ +and all who love Him is a oneness which necessarily results in oneness +of relation to God and men, in oneness of character, and in oneness of +destiny. In relation to God, He is the Son, and we in Him receive the +standing of sons. He has access ever into the Father's presence, and we +through Him and in Him have access with confidence and are accepted in +the Beloved. In relation to men, since He is Light, we, touched with +His light, are also, in our measure and degree, the lights of the +world; and in the proportion in which we receive into our souls, by +patient abiding in Jesus Christ, the very power of His Spirit, we, too, +become God's anointed, subordinately but truly His messiahs, for He +Himself says: 'As the Father hath sent Me, even so I send you.' + +In regard to character, the living union between Christ and His members +results in a similarity if not identity of character, and with His +righteousness we are clothed, and by that righteousness we are +justified, and by that righteousness we are sanctified. The oneness +between Christ and His children is the ground at once of their +forgiveness and acceptance, and of all virtue and nobleness of life and +conduct that can ever be theirs. + +And, in like manner, we can look forward and be sure that we are so +closely joined with Him, if we love Him and trust Him, that it is +impossible but that where He is there shall also His servants be; and +that what He is that shall also His servants be. For the oneness of +life, by which we are delivered from the bondage of corruption and the +law of sin and death here, will never halt nor cease until it brings us +into the unity of His glory, 'the measure of the stature of the +fullness of Christ.' And as He sits on the Father's throne, His +children must needs sit with Him, on His throne. + +Therefore the name of the collective whole, of which the individual +Christian is part, is Christ. And as in the great Old Testament +prophecy of the Servant of the Lord, the figure that rises before +Isaiah's vision fluctuates between that which is clearly the collective +Israel and that which is, as clearly, the personal Messiah; so the +'Christ' is not only the individual Redeemer who bears the body of the +flesh literally here upon earth, but the whole of that redeemed Church, +of which it is said, 'It is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth +all in all.' + +II. Now note, secondly, the Husbandman, and the dressing of the vine. + +The one tool that a vinedresser needs is a knife. The chief secret of +culture is merciless pruning. And so says my text, 'The Father is the +Husbandman.' Our Lord assumes that office in other of His parables. But +here the exigencies of the parabolic form require that the office of +Cultivator should be assigned only to the Father; although we are not +to forget that the Father, in that office, works through and in His Son. + +But we should note that the one kind of husbandry spoken of here is +pruning--not manuring, not digging, but simply the hacking away of all +that is rank and all that is dead. + +Were you ever in a greenhouse or in a vineyard at the season of cutting +back the vines? What flagitious waste it would seem to an ignorant +person to see scattered on the floor the bright green leaves and the +incipient clusters, and to look up at the bare stem, bleeding at a +hundred points from the sharp steel. Yes! But there was not a random +stroke in it all, and there was nothing cut away which it was not loss +to keep and gain to lose; and it was all done artistically, +scientifically, for a set purpose--that the plant might bring forth +more fruit. + +Thus, says Christ, the main thing that is needed--not, indeed, to +improve the life in the branches, but to improve the branches in which +the life is--is excision. There are two forms of it given +here--absolutely dead wood has to be cut out; wood that has life in it, +but which has also rank shoots, that do not come from the all-pervading +and hallowed life, has to be pruned back and deprived of its shoots. + +It seems to me that the very language of the metaphor before us +requires us to interpret the fruitless branches as meaning all those +who have a mere superficial, external adherence to the True Vine. For, +according to the whole teaching of the parable, if there be any real +union, there will be some life, and if there be any life, there will be +some fruit, and, therefore, the branch that has no fruit has no life, +because it has no real union. And so the application, as I take it, is +necessarily to those professing Christians, nominal adherents to +Christianity or to Christ's Church, people that come to church and +chapel, and if you ask them to put down in the census paper what they +are, will say that they are Christians--Churchmen or Dissenters, as the +case may be--but who have no real hold upon Jesus Christ, and no real +reception of anything from Him; and the 'taking away' is simply that, +somehow or other, God makes visible, what is a fact, that they do not +belong to Him with whom they have this nominal connection. + +The longer Christianity continues in any country, the more does the +Church get weighted and lowered in its temperature by the aggregation +round about it of people of that sort. And one sometimes longs and +prays for a storm to come, of some sort or other, to blow the dead wood +out of the tree, and to get rid of all this oppressive and stifling +weight of sham Christians that has come round every one of our +churches. 'His fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His +floor,' and every man that has any reality of Christian life in him +should pray that this pruning and cutting out of the dead wood may be +done, and that He would 'come as a refiner's fire and purify' His +priesthood. + +Then there is the other side, the pruning of the fruitful branches. We +all, in our Christian life, carry with us the two natures--our own poor +miserable selves, and the better life of Jesus Christ within us. The +one flourishes at the expense of the other; and it is the Husbandman's +merciful, though painful work, to cut back unsparingly the rank shoots +that come from self, in order that all the force of our lives may be +flung into the growing of the cluster which is acceptable to Him. + +So, dear friends, let us understand the meaning of all that comes to +us. The knife is sharp and the tendrils bleed, and things that seem +very beautiful and very precious are unsparingly shorn away, and we are +left bare, and, as it seems to ourselves, impoverished. But Oh! it is +all sent that we may fling our force into the production of fruit unto +God. And no stroke will be a stroke too many or too deep if it helps us +to that. Only let us take care that we do not let regrets for the +vanished good harm us just as much as joy in the present good did, and +let us rather, in humble submission of will to His merciful knife, say +to Him, 'Cut to the quick, Lord, if only thereby my fruit unto Thee may +increase.' + +III. Lastly, we have here the branches abiding in the Vine, and +therefore fruitful. + +Our Lord deals with the little group of His disciples as incipiently +and imperfectly, but really, cleansed through 'the word which He has +spoken to them,' and gives them His exhortation towards that conduct +through which the cleansing and the union and the fruitfulness will all +be secured. 'Now ye are clean: abide in Me and I in you. As the branch +cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye +except ye abide in Me.' + +Union with Christ is the condition of all fruitfulness. There may be +plenty of activity and yet barrenness. Works are not fruit. We can +bring forth a great deal 'of ourselves,' and because it is of ourselves +it is nought. Fruit is possible only on condition of union with Him. He +is the productive source of it all. + +There is the great glory and distinctive blessedness of the Gospel. +Other teachers come to us and tell us how we ought to live, and give us +laws, patterns and examples, reasons and motives for pure and noble +lives. The Gospel comes and gives us life, if we will take it, and +unfolds itself in us into all the virtues that we have to possess. What +is the use of giving a man a copy if he cannot copy it? Morality comes +and stands over the cripple, and says to him, 'Look here! This is how +you ought to walk,' and he lies there, paralysed and crippled, after as +before the exhibition of what graceful progression is. But Christianity +comes and bends over him, and lays hold of his hand, and says, 'In the +name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk,' and his feet and +ankle bones receive strength, and 'he leaps, and walks, and praises +God.' Christ gives more than commandments, patterns, motives; He gives +the power to live soberly, righteously, and godly, and in Him alone is +that power to be found. + +Then note that our reception of that power depends upon our own +efforts. 'Abide in Me and I in you.' Is that last clause a commandment +as well as the first? How can His abiding in us be a duty incumbent +upon us? But it is. And we might paraphrase the intention of this +imperative in its two halves, by--Do you take care that you abide in +Christ, and that Christ abides in you. The two ideas are but two sides +of the one great sphere; they complement and do not contradict each +other. We dwell in Him as the part does in the whole, as the branch +does in the vine, recipient of its life and fruit-bearing energy. He +dwells in us as the whole does in the part, as the vine dwells in the +branch, communicating its energy to every part; or as the soul does in +the body, being alive equally in every part, though it be sight in the +eyeball, and hearing in the ear, and colour in the cheek, and strength +in the hand, and swiftness in the foot. + +'Abide in Me and I in you.' So we come down to very plain, practical +exhortations. Dear brethren, suppress yourselves, and empty your lives +of self, that the life of Christ may come in. A lock upon a canal, if +it is empty, will have its gates pressed open by the water in the canal +and will be filled. Empty the heart and Christ will come in. 'Abide in +Him' by continual direction of thought, love, desire to Him; by +continual and reiterated submission of the will to Him, as commanding +and as appointing; by the honest reference to Him of daily life and all +petty duties which otherwise distract us and draw us away from Him. +Then, dwelling in Him we shall share in His life, and shall bring forth +fruit to His praise. + +Here is encouragement for us all. To all of us, sometimes, our lives +seem barren and poor; and we feel as if we had brought forth no fruit +to perfection. Let us get nearer to Him and He will see to the fruit. +Some poor stranded sea-creature on the beach, vainly floundering in the +pools, is at the point of death; but the great tide comes, leaping and +rushing over the sands, and bears it away out into the middle deeps for +renewed activity and joyous life. Let the flood of Christ's life bear +you on its bosom, and you will rejoice and expatiate therein. + +Here is a lesson of solemn warning to professing Christians. The lofty +mysticism and inward life in Jesus Christ all terminate at last in +simple, practical obedience; and the fruit is the test of the life. +'Depart from Me, I never knew you, ye that work iniquity.' + +And here is a lesson of solemn appeal to us all. Our only opportunity +of bearing any fruit worthy of our natures and of God's purpose +concerning us is by vital union with Jesus Christ. If we have not that, +there may be plenty of activity and mountains of work in our lives, but +there will be no fruit. Only that is fruit which pleases God and is +conformed to His purpose concerning us, and all the rest of our busy +doings is no more the fruit a man should bear than cankers are roses, +or than oak-galls are acorns. They are but the work of a creeping grub, +and diseased excrescences that suck into themselves the juices that +should swell the fruit. Open your hearts to Christ and let His life and +His Spirit come into you, and then you will have 'your fruit unto +holiness, and the end everlasting life.' + + + +THE TRUE BRANCHES OF THE TRUE VINE + +'I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in +him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do +nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is +withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they +are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask +what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father +glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.'--JOHN +xv. 5-8. + +No wise teacher is ever afraid of repeating himself. The average mind +requires the reiteration of truth before it can make that truth its +own. One coat of paint is not enough, it soon rubs off. Especially is +this true in regard to lofty spiritual and religious truth, remote from +men's ordinary thinkings, and in some senses unwelcome to them. So our +Lord, the great Teacher, never shrank from repeating His lessons when +He saw that they were but partially apprehended. It was not grievous to +Him to 'say the same things,' because for them it was safe. He broke +the bread of life into small pieces, and fed them little and often. + +So here, in the verses that we have to consider now, we have the +repetition, and yet not the mere repetition, of the great parable of +the vine, as teaching the union of Christians with Christ, and their +consequent fruitfulness. He saw, no doubt, that the truth was but +partially dawning upon His disciples' minds. Therefore He said it all +over again, with deepened meaning, following it out into new +applications, presenting further consequences, and, above all, giving +it a more sharp and definite personal application. + +Are we any swifter scholars than these first ones were? Have we +absorbed into our own thinking this truth so thoroughly and constantly, +and wrought it out in our lives so completely, that we do not need to +be reminded of it any more? Shall we not be wise if we faithfully +listen to His repeated teachings? + +The verses which I have read give us four aspects of this great truth +of union with Jesus Christ; or of its converse, separation from Him. +There is, first, the fruitfulness of union; second, the withering and +destruction of separation; third, the satisfaction of desire which +comes from abiding in Christ; and, lastly, the great, noble issue of +fruitfulness, in God's glory, and our own increasing discipleship. Now +let me touch upon these briefly. + +I. First, then, our Lord sets forth, with no mere repetition, the same +broad idea which He has already been insisting upon--viz., that union +with Him is sure to issue in fruitfulness. He repeats the theme, 'I am +the Vine'; but He points its application by the next clause, 'Ye are +the branches.' That had been implied before, but it needed to be said +more definitely. For are we not all too apt to think of religious truth +as swinging _in vacuo_ as it were, with no personal application to +ourselves, and is not the one thing needful in regard to the truths +which are most familiar to us, to bring them into close connection with +our own personal life and experience? + +'I am the Vine' is a general truth, with no clear personal application. +'Ye are the branches' brings each individual listener into connection +with it. How many of us there are, as there are in every so-called +Christian communion, that listen pleasedly, and, in a fitful sort of +languid way, interestedly, to the most glorious and most solemn words +that come from a preacher's lips, and never dream that what he has been +saying has any bearing upon themselves! And the one thing that is most +of all needed with people like some of you, who have been listening to +the truth all your days, is that it should be sharpened to a point, and +the conviction driven into you, that _you_ have some personal concern +in this great message. 'Ye are the branches' is the one side of that +sharpening and making definite of the truth in its personal +application, and the other side is, 'Thou art the man.' All preaching +and religious teaching is toothless generality, utterly useless, unless +we can manage somehow or other to force it through the wall of +indifference and vague assent to a general proposition, with which +'Gospel-hardened hearers' surround themselves, and make them feel that +the thing has got a point, and that the point is touching their own +consciousness. '_Ye_ are the branches.' + +Note next the great promise of fruitfulness. 'He that abideth in Me, +and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.' + +I need not repeat what I have said in former sermons as to the plain, +practical duties which are included in that abiding in Christ, and +Christ's consequent abiding in us. It means, on the part of professedly +Christian people, a temper and tone of mind very far remote from the +noisy, bustling distractions too common in our present Christianity. We +want quiet, patient waiting within the veil. We want stillness of +heart, brought about by our own distinct effort to put away from +ourselves the strife of tongues and the pride of life. We want +activity, no doubt, but we want a wise passiveness as its foundation. + + 'Think you, midst all this mighty sum + Of things for ever speaking, + That nothing of itself will come, + But we must still be seeking?' + +Get away into the 'secret place of the Most High,' and rise into a +higher altitude and atmosphere than the region of work and effort; and +sitting still with Christ, let His love and His power pour themselves +into your hearts. 'Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers and +shut thy doors about thee.' Get away from the jangling of politics, and +empty controversies and busy distractions of daily duty. The harder our +toil necessarily is, the more let us see to it that we keep a little +cell within the central life where in silence we hold communion with +the Master. 'Abide in Me and I in you.' + +That is the way to be fruitful, rather than by efforts after individual +acts of conformity and obedience, howsoever needful and precious these +are. There is a deeper thing wanted than these. The best way to secure +Christian conduct is to cultivate communion with Christ. It is better +to work at the increase of the central force than at the improvement of +the circumferential manifestations of it. Get more of the sap into the +branch, and there will be more fruit. Have more of the life of Christ +in the soul, and the conduct and the speech will be more Christlike. We +may cultivate individual graces at the expense of the harmony and +beauty of the whole character. We may grow them artificially and they +will be of little worth--by imitation of others, by special efforts +after special excellence, rather than by general effort after the +central improvement of our nature and therefore of our life. But the +true way to influence conduct is to influence the springs of conduct; +and to make a man's life better, the true way is to make the man +better. First of all be, and then do; first of all receive, and then +give forth; first of all draw near to Christ, and then there will be +fruit to His praise. That is the Christian way of mending men, not +tinkering at this, that, and the other individual excellence, but +grasping the secret of total excellence in communion with Him. + +Our Lord is here not merely laying down a law, but giving a promise, +and putting his veracity into pawn for the fulfilment of it. 'If a man +will keep near Me,' He says, 'he shall bear fruit.' + +Notice that little word which now appears for the first time. 'He shall +bear _much_ fruit.' We are not to be content with a little fruit; a +poor shrivelled bunch of grapes that are more like marbles than grapes, +here and there, upon the half-nourished stem. The abiding in Him will +produce a character rich in manifold graces. 'A little fruit' is not +contemplated by Christ at all. God forbid that I should say that there +is no possibility of union with Christ and a little fruit. Little union +will have little fruit; but I would have you notice that the only two +alternatives which come into Christ's view here are, on the one hand, +'no fruit,' and on the other hand, 'much fruit.' And I would ask why it +is that the average Christian man of this generation bears only a berry +or two here and there, like such as are left upon the vines after the +vintage, when the promise is that if he will abide in Christ, he will +bear much fruit? + +This verse, setting forth the fruitfulness of union with Jesus, ends +with the brief, solemn statement of the converse--the barrenness of +separation--'Apart from Me' (not merely 'without,' as the Authorised +Version has it) 'ye can do nothing.' _There_ is the condemnation of all +the busy life of men which is not lived in union with Jesus Christ. It +is a long row of figures which, like some other long rows of algebraic +symbols added up, amount just to _zero_. 'Without me, nothing.' All +your busy life, when you come to sum it up, is made up of plus and +minus quantities, which precisely balance each other, and the net +result, unless you are in Christ, is just nothing; and on your +gravestones the only right epitaph is a great round cypher. 'He did not +do anything. There is nothing left of his toil; the whole thing has +evaporated and disappeared.' That is life apart from Jesus Christ. + +II. And so note, secondly, the withering and destruction following +separation from Him. + +Commentators tell us, I think a little prosaically, that when our Lord +spoke, it was the time of pruning the vine in Palestine, and that, +perhaps, as they went from the upper room to the garden, they might see +in the valley, here and there, the fires that the labourers had kindled +in the vineyards to burn the loppings of the vines. That does not +matter. It is of more consequence to notice how the solemn thought of +withering and destruction forces itself, so to speak, into these +gracious words; and how, even at that moment, our Lord, in all His +tenderness and pity, could not but let words of warning--grave, solemn, +tragical--drop from His lips. + +This generation does not like to hear them, for its conception of the +Gospel is a thing with no minor notes in it, with no threatenings, a +proclamation of a deliverance, and no proclamation of anything from +which deliverance is needed--which is a strange kind of Gospel! But +Jesus Christ could not speak about the blessedness of fruitfulness and +the joy of life in Himself without speaking about its necessary +converse, the awfulness of separation from Him, of barrenness, of +withering, and of destruction. + +Separation is withering. Did you ever see a hawthorn bough that +children bring home from the woods, and stick in the grate; how in a +day or two the little fresh green leaves all shrivel up and the white +blossoms become brown and smell foul, and the only thing to be done +with it is to fling it into the fire and get rid of it? 'And so,' says +Jesus Christ, 'as long as a man holds on to Me and the sap comes into +him, he will flourish, and as soon as the connection is broken, all +that was so fair will begin to shrivel, and all that was green will +grow brown and turn to dust, and all that was blossom will droop, and +there will be no more fruit any more for ever.' Separate from Christ, +the individual shrivels, and the possibilities of fair buds wither and +set into no fruit, and no man is the man he might have been unless he +holds by Jesus Christ and lets His life come into him. + +And as for individuals, so for communities. The Church or the body of +professing Christians that is separate from Jesus Christ dies to all +noble life, to all high activity, to all Christlike conduct, and, being +dead, rots. + +Withering means destruction. The language of our text is a description +of what befalls the actual branches of the literal vine; but it is made +a representation of what befalls the individuals whom these branches +represent, by that added clause, 'like a branch.' Look at the +mysteriousness of the language. 'They gather them.' Who? 'They cast +them into the fire.' Who have the tragic task of flinging the withered +branches into some mysterious fire? All is left vague with unexplained +awfulness. The solemn fact that the withering of manhood by separation +from Jesus Christ requires, and ends in, the consuming of the withered, +is all that we have here. We have to speak of it pityingly, with +reticence, with terror, with tenderness, with awe lest it should be our +fate. + +But O, dear brethren! be on your guard against the tendency of the +thinking of this generation, to paste a bit of blank paper over all the +threatenings of the Bible, and to blot out from its consciousness the +grave issues that it holds forth. One of two things must befall the +branch, either it is in the Vine or it gets into the fire. If we would +avoid the fire let us see to it that we are in the Vine. + +III. Thirdly, we have here the union with Christ as the condition of +satisfied desires. + +'If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye +will, and it shall be done unto you.' Notice how our Lord varies His +phraseology here, and instead of saying 'I in you,' says 'My words in +you.' He is speaking about prayers, consequently the variation is +natural. In fact, His abiding in us is largely the abiding of His words +in us; or, to speak more accurately, the abiding of His words in us is +largely the means of His abiding in us. + +What is meant by Christ's words abiding in us? Something a great deal +more than the mere intellectual acceptance of them. Something very +different from reading a verse of the Gospels of a morning before we go +to our work, and forgetting all about it all the day long; something +very different from coming in contact with Christian truth on a Sunday, +when somebody else preaches to us what he has found in the Bible, and +we take in a little of it. It means the whole of the conscious nature +of a man being, so to speak, saturated with Christ's words; his +desires, his understanding, his affections, his will, all being steeped +in these great truths which the Master spoke. Put a little bit of +colouring matter into the fountain at its source, and you will have the +stream dyed down its course for ever so far. See that Christ's words be +lodged in your inmost selves, by patient meditation upon them, by +continual recurrence to them, and all your life will be glorified and +flash into richness of colouring and beauty by their presence. + +The main effect of such abiding of the Lord's words in us which our +Lord touches upon here is, that in such a case, if our whole inward +nature is influenced by the continual operation upon it of the words of +the Lord, then our desires will be granted. Do not so vulgarise and +lower the nobleness and the loftiness of this great promise as to +suppose that it only means--If you remember His words you will get +anything you like. It means something a great deal better than that. It +means that if Christ's words are the substratum, so to speak, of your +wishes, then your wishes will harmonise with His will, and so 'ye shall +ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' + +Christ loves us a great deal too well to give to our own foolish and +selfish wills the keys of His treasure-house. The condition of our +getting what we will is our willing what He desires; and unless our +prayers are a great deal more the utterance of the submission of our +wills to His than they are the attempt to impose ours upon Him, they +will not be answered. We get our wishes when our wishes are moulded by +His word. + +IV. The last thought that is here is that this union and fruitfulness +lead to the noble ends of glorifying God and increasing discipleship. + +'Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.' Christ's life +was all for the glorifying of God. The lives which are ours in +name--but being drawn from Him, in their depths are much rather the +life of Christ in us than our lives--will have the same end and the +same issue. + +Ah, dear brethren, we come here to a very sharp test for us all. I +wonder how many of us there are, on whom men looking think more loftily +of God and love Him better, and are drawn to Him by strange longings. +How many of us are there about whom people will say, 'There must be +something in the religion that makes a man like that'? How many of us +are there, to look upon whom suggests to men that God, who can make +such a man, must be infinitely sweet and lovely? And yet that is what +we should all be--mirrors of the divine radiance, on which some eyes, +that are too dim and sore to bear the light as it streams from the Sun, +may look, and, beholding the reflection, may learn to love. Does God so +shine in me that I lead men to magnify His name? If I am dwelling with +Christ it will be so. + +I shall not know it. 'Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone'; +but, in meek unconsciousness of the glory that rays from us, we may +walk the earth, reflecting the light and making God known to our +fellows. + +And if thus we abide in Him and bear fruit we shall 'be' or (as the +word might more accurately be rendered), we shall '_become_ His +disciples.' The end of our discipleship is never reached on earth: we +never so much _are_ as we are in the process of _becoming_, His true +followers and servants. + +If we bear fruit because we are knit to Him, the fruit itself will help +us to get nearer Him, and so to be more His disciples and more +fruitful. Character produces conduct, but conduct rests on character, +and strengthens the impulses from which it springs. And thus our action +as Christian men and women will tell upon our inward lives as +Christians, and the more our outward conduct is conformed to the +pattern of Jesus Christ, the more shall we love Him in our inmost +hearts. We ourselves shall eat of the fruit which we ourselves have +borne to Him. + +The alternatives are before us--in Christ, living and fruitful; out of +Christ, barren, and destined to be burned. As the prophet says, 'Will +men take of the wood of the vine for any work?' Vine-wood is worthless, +its only use is to bear fruit; and if it does not do that, there is +only one thing to be done with it, and that is, 'They cast it into the +fire, and it is burned.' + + + +ABIDING IN LOVE + +'As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye In My +love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I +have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things +have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your +joy might be full.'--JOHN xv. 9-11. + +The last of these verses shows that they are to be taken as a kind of +conclusion of the great parable of the Vine and the branches, for it +looks back and declares Christ's purpose in His preceding utterances. +The parable proper is ended, but the thoughts of it still linger in our +Lord's mind, and echo through His words, as the vibration of some great +bell after the stroke has ceased. The main thoughts of the parable were +these two, that participation in Christ's life was the source of all +good, and that abiding in Him was the means of participation in His +life. And these same thoughts, though modified in their form, and free +from the parabolical element, appear in the words that we have to +consider on this occasion. The parable spoke about abiding in Christ; +our text defines that abiding, and makes it still more tender and +gracious by substituting for it, 'abiding in His love.' The parable +spoke of conduct as 'fruit,' the effortless result of communion with +Jesus. Our text speaks of it with more emphasis laid on the human side, +as 'keeping the commandments.' The parable told us that abiding in +Christ was the condition of bearing fruit. Our text tells us the +converse, which is also true, that bearing fruit, or keeping the +commandments, is the condition of abiding in Christ. So our Lord takes +His thought, as it were, and turns it round before us, letting us see +both sides of it, and then tells us that He does all this for one +purpose, which in itself is a token of His love, namely, that our +hearts may be filled with perfect and perennial joy, a drop from the +fountain of His own. + +These three verses have three words which may be taken as their +key-notes--love, obedience, joy. We shall look at them in that order. + +I. First, then, we have here the love in which it is our sweet duty to +abide. 'As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide ye in +My love.' + +What shall we say about these mysterious and profound first words of +this verse? They carry us into the very depths of divinity, and suggest +for us that wonderful analogy between the relation of the Father to the +Son, and that of the Son to His disciples, which appears over and over +again in the solemnities of these last hours and words of Jesus. Christ +here claims to be, in a unique and solitary fashion, the Object of the +Father's love, and He claims to be able to love like God. 'As the +Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you'; as deeply, as purely, as +fully, as eternally, and with all the unnameable perfectnesses which +must belong to the divine affection, does Christ declare that He loves +us. + +I know not whether the majesty and uniqueness of His nature stand out +more clearly in the one or in the other of these two assertions. As +beloved of God, and as loving like God, He equally claims for Himself a +place which none other can fill, and declares that the love which falls +on us from His pierced and bleeding heart is really the love of God. + +In this mysterious, awful, tender, perfect affection He exhorts us to +abide. That comes yet closer to our hearts than the other phrase of +which it is the modification, and in some sense the explanation. The +command to abide in Him suggests much that is blessed, but to have all +that mysterious abiding in Him resolved into abiding in His love is +infinitely tenderer, and draws us still closer to Himself. Obviously, +what is meant is not our continuance in the attitude of love to Him, +but rather our continuance in the sweet and sacred atmosphere of His +love to us. For the connection between the two halves of the verse +necessarily requires that the love in which we are to abide should be +identical with the love which had been previously spoken of, and _that_ +is clearly His love to us, and not ours to Him. But then, on the other +hand, whosoever thus abides in Christ's love to Him will echo it back +again, in an equally continuous love to Him. So that the two things +flow together, and to abide in the conscious possession of Christ's +love to me is the certain and inseparable cause of its effect, my +abiding in the continual exercise and outgoing of my love to Him. + +Now note that this continuance in Christ's love is a thing in our +power, since it is commanded. Although it is His affection to us of +which my text primarily speaks, I can so modify and regulate the flow +of that divine love to my heart that it becomes my duty to continue in +Christ's love to me. + +What a quiet, blessed home that is for us! The image, I suppose, that +underlies all this sweet speech in these last hours, about dwelling in +Christ, in His joy, in His words, in His peace, and the like, is that +of some safe house, into which going, we may be secure. And what sorrow +or care or trouble or temptation would be able to reach us if we were +folded in the protection of that strong love, and always felt that it +was the fortress into which we might continually resort? They who make +their abode there, and dwell behind those firm bastions, need fear no +foes, but are lifted high above them all. 'Abide in My love,' for they +who dwell within the clefts of that Rock need none other defence; and +they to whom the riven heart of Christ is the place of their abode are +safe, whatsoever befalls. 'As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved +you. Abide ye in My love.' + +II. Now note, secondly, the obedience by which we continue in Christ's +love. + +The analogy, on which He has already touched, is still continued. 'If +ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept +My Father's commandments and abide in His love.' Note that Christ here +claims for Himself absolute and unbroken conformity with the Father's +will, and consequent uninterrupted and complete communion with the +Father's love. It is the utterance of a nature conscious of no sin, of +a humanity that never knew one instant's film of separation, howsoever +thin, howsoever brief, between Him and the Father. No more tremendous +words were ever spoken than these quiet ones in which Jesus Christ +declares that never, all His life long, had there been the smallest +deflection or want of conformity between the Father's will and _His_ +desires and doings, and that never had there been one grain of dust, as +it were, between the two polished plates which adhered so closely in +inseparable union of harmony and love. + +And then notice, still further, how Christ here, with His consciousness +of perfect obedience and communion, intercepts _our_ obedience and +diverts it to Himself. He does not say, 'Obey God as I have done, and +He will love you'; but He says, 'Obey _Me_ as I obey God, and _I_ will +love you.' Who is this that thus comes between the child's heart and +the Father's? Does He come _between_ when He stands thus? or does He +rather lead us up to the Father, and to a share in His own filial +obedience? + +He further assures us that, by keeping His commandments, we shall +continue in that sweet home and safe stronghold of His love. Of course +the keeping of the commandments is something more than mere outward +conformity by action. It is the inward harmony of will, and the bowing +of the whole nature. It is, in fact, the same thing (though considered +under a different aspect, and from a somewhat different point of view), +as He has already been speaking about as the 'fruit' of the vine, by +the bearing of which the Father is glorified. And this obedience, the +obedience of the hands because the heart obeys, and does so because it +loves, the bowing of the will in glad submission to the loved and holy +will of the heavens--this obedience is the condition of our continuing +in Christ's love. + +He will love us better, the more we obey His commandments, for although +His tender heart is charged towards all, even the disobedient, with the +love of pity and of desire to help, He cannot but feel a growing thrill +of satisfied and gratified affection towards us, in the measure in +which we become like Himself. The love that wept over us, when we were +enemies, will 'rejoice over us with singing,' when we are friends. The +love that sought the sheep when it was wandering will pour itself yet +more tenderly and with selector gifts upon it when it follows in the +footsteps of the flock, and keeps close at the heels of the Good +Shepherd. 'If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love,' so +we will put nothing between us and Him which will make it impossible +for the tenderest tenderness of that holy love to come to your hearts. + +The obedience which we render for love's sake will make us more capable +of receiving, and more blessedly conscious of possessing, the love of +Jesus Christ. The lightest cloud before the sun will prevent it from +focussing its rays to a burning point on the convex glass. And the +small, thin, fleeting, scarcely visible acts of self-will that +sometimes pass across our skies will prevent our feeling the warmth of +that love upon our shrouded hearts. Every known piece of rebellion +against Christ will shatter all true enjoyment of His favour, unless we +are hopeless hypocrites or self-deceived. The condition of knowing and +feeling the warmth and blessedness of Christ's love to me is the honest +submission of my nature to His commandments. You cannot rejoice in +Jesus Christ unless you do His will. You will have no real comfort and +blessedness in your religion unless it works itself out in your daily +lives. That is why so many of you know nothing, or next to nothing, +about the joy of Christ's felt presence, because you do not, for all +your professions, hourly and momentarily regulate and submit your wills +to His commandments. Do what He wants, and do it because He wants it, +if you wish that His love should fill your hearts. + +And, further, we shall continue in His love by obedience, inasmuch as +every emotion which finds expression in our daily life is strengthened +by the fact that it is expressed. The love which works is love which +grows, and the tree that bears fruit is the tree that is healthy and +increases. So note how all these deepest things of Christian teaching +come at last to a plain piece of practical duty. We talk about the +mysticism of John's Gospel, about the depth of these last sayings of +Jesus Christ. Yes! they are mystical, they are deep--unfathomably deep, +thank God!--but connected by the shortest possible road with the +plainest possible duties. 'Let no man deceive you. He that doeth +righteousness is righteous.' It is of no use to talk about communion +with Jesus Christ, and abiding in Him, in possession of His love, and +all those other properly mystical sides of Christian experience, unless +you verify them for yourselves by the plain way of practice. Doing as +Christ bids us, and doing that habitually, and doing it gladly, then, +and only then, are we in no danger of losing ourselves on the heights, +or of forgetting that Christ's mission has for its last result the +influencing of character and of conduct. 'If ye keep My commandments, +ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's +commandments, and abide in His love.' + +III. Lastly, note the joy which follows on this practical obedience. +'These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain,' (or +'might _be_') 'in you, and that your joy might be full.' + +'My joy might be in you'--a strange time to talk of His 'joy.' In half +an hour he would be in Gethsemane, and we know what happened there. Was +Christ a joyful man? He was a 'Man of sorrows' but one of the old +Psalms says, 'Thou hast loved righteousness ... therefore God hath +anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.' The deep +truth that lies there is the same that He here claims as being +fulfilled in His own experience, that absolute surrender and submission +in love to the beloved commands of a loving Father made Him--in spite +of sorrows, in spite of the baptism with which He was baptized, in +spite of all the burden and the weight of our sins--the most joyful of +men. + +This joy He offers to us, a joy coming from perfect obedience, a joy +coming from a surrender of self at the bidding of love, to a love that +to us seems absolutely good and sweet. There is no joy that humanity is +capable of to compare for a moment with that bright, warm, continuous +sunshine which floods the soul, that is freed from all the clouds and +mists of self and the darkness of sin. Self-sacrifice at the bidding of +Jesus Christ is the recipe for the highest, the most exquisite, the +most godlike gladnesses of which the human heart is capable. Our joy +will remain if His joy is ours. Then our joy will be, up to the measure +of its capacity, ennobled, and filled, and progressive, advancing ever +towards a fuller possession of His joy, and a deeper calm of that pure +and perennial rapture, which makes the settled and celestial bliss of +those who have 'entered into the joy of their Lord.' + +Brother! there is only one gladness that is worth calling so--and that +is, that which comes to us, when we give ourselves utterly away to +Jesus Christ, and let Him do with us as He will. It is better to have a +joy that is central and perennial--though there may be, as there will +be, a surface of sorrow and care--than to have the converse, a surface +of joy, and a black, unsympathetic kernel of aching unrest and sadness. +In one or other of these two states we all live. Either we have to say, +'as sorrowful yet always rejoicing' or we have to feel that 'even in +laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is +heaviness.' Let us choose for ourselves, and let us choose aright, the +gladness which coils round the heart, and endures for ever, and is +found in submission to Jesus Christ, rather than the superficial, +fleeting joys which are rooted on earth and perish with time. + + + +THE ONENESS OF THE BRANCHES + +'This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. +Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for +his friends.'--JOHN xv. 12, 13. + +The union between Christ and His disciples has been tenderly set forth +in the parable of the Vine and the branches. We now turn to the union +between the disciples, which is the consequence of their common union +to the Lord. The branches are parts of one whole, and necessarily bear +a relation to each other. We may modify for our present purpose the +analogous statement of the Apostle in reference to the Lord's Supper, +and as He says, 'We being many, are one body, for we are all partakers +of that one bread,' so we may say--The branches, being many, are one +Vine, for they are all partakers of that one Vine. Of this union +amongst the branches, which results from their common inherence in the +Vine, the natural expression and manifestation is the mutual love, +which Christ here gives as _the_ commandment, and commends to us all by +His own solemn example. + +There are four things suggested to me by the words of our text--the +Obligation, the Sufficiency, the Pattern, and the Motive, of Christian +love. + +I. First, the Obligation of love. + +The two ideas of commandment and love do not go well together. You +cannot pump up love to order, and if you try you generally produce, +what we see in abundance in the world and in the Church, sentimental +hypocrisy, hollow and unreal. But whilst that is true, and whilst it +seems strange to say that we are commanded to love, still we can do a +great deal, directly and indirectly, for the cultivation and +strengthening of any emotion. We can either cast ourselves into the +attitude which is favourable or unfavourable to it. We can either look +at the facts which will create it or at those who will check it. We can +go about with a sharp eye for the lovable or for the unlovable in man. +We can either consciously war against or lazily acquiesce in our own +predominant self-absorption and selfishness. And in these and in a +number of other ways, our feelings towards other Christian people are +very largely under our own control, and therefore are fitting subjects +for commandment. + +Our Lord lays down the obligation which devolves upon all Christian +people, of cherishing a kindly and loving regard to all others who find +their place within the charmed circle of His Church. It is an +obligation because He commands it. He puts Himself here in the position +of the absolute Lawgiver, who has the right of entire and authoritative +control over men's affections and hearts. And it is further obligatory +because such an attitude is the only fitting expression of the mutual +relation of Christian men, through their common relation to the Vine. +If there be the one life-sap circling through all parts of the mighty +whole, how anomalous and how contradictory it is that these parts +should not be harmoniously concordant among themselves! However unlike +any two Christian people are to each other in character, in culture, in +circumstances, the bond that knits those who have the same relations to +Jesus Christ one to another is far deeper, far more real, and ought to +be far closer, than the bond that knits either of them to the men or +women to whom they are likest in all these other respects, and to whom +they are unlike in this central one. Christian men! you are closer to +every other Christian man, down in the depths of your being, however he +may be differenced from you by things that are very hard to get over, +than you are to the people that you like best, and love most, if they +do not participate with you in this common love to Jesus Christ. + +I dread talking mere sentiment about this matter, for there is perhaps +no part of Christian duty which has been so vulgarised and pawed over +by mere unctuous talk, as that of the fellowship that should subsist +between all Christians. But I have one plain question to put,--Does +anybody believe that the present condition of Christendom, and the +relations to one another even of good Christian people in the various +churches and communions of our own and of other lands, is the sort of +thing that Jesus Christ meant, or is anything like a fair and adequate +representation of the deep, essential unity that knits us all together? + +We need far more to realise the fact that our emotions towards our +brother Christians are not matters in which our own inclinations may +have their way, but that there is a simple commandment given to us, and +that we are bound to cherish love to every man who loves Jesus Christ. +Never mind though he does not hold your theology; never mind though he +be very ignorant and narrow as compared with you; never mind though +your outlook on the world may be entirely unlike his. Never mind though +you be a rich man and he a poor one, or you a poor one and he rich, +which is just as hard to get over. Let all these secondary grounds of +union and of separation be relegated to their proper subordinate place; +and let us recognise this, that the children of one Father are +brethren. And do not let it be possible that it shall be said, as so +often has been said, and said truly, that 'brethren' in the Church +means a great deal less than _brothers_ in the world. Lift your eyes +beyond the walls of the little sheepfold in which you live, and hearken +to the bleating of the flocks away out yonder, and feel--'Other sheep +He has which are not of this fold'; and recognise the solemn obligation +of the commandment of love. + +II. Note, secondly, the Sufficiency of love. + +Our Lord has been speaking in a former verse about the keeping of His +commandments. Now He gathers them all up into one. 'This is my +commandment, that ye love one another' All duties to our fellows, and +all duties to our brethren, are summed up in, or resolved into, this +one germinal, encyclopaediacal, all-comprehensive simplification of +duty, into the one word 'love.' + +Where the heart is right the conduct will be right. Love will soften +the tones, will instinctively teach what we ought to be and do; will +take the bitterness out of opposition and diversity, will make even +rebuke, when needful, only a form of expressing itself. If the heart be +right all else will be right; and if there be a deficiency of love +nothing will be right. You cannot help anybody except on condition of +having an honest, beneficent, and benevolent regard towards him. You +cannot do any man in the world any good unless there is a shoot of love +in your heart towards him. You may pitch him benefits, and you will +neither get nor deserve thanks for them; you may try to teach him, and +your words will be hopeless and profitless. The one thing that is +required to bind Christian men together is this common affection. That +being there, everything will come. It is the germ out of which all is +developed. As we read in that great chapter to the Corinthians--the +lyric praise of Charity,--all kinds of blessing and sweetness and +gladness come out of this, It is the central force which, being +present, secures that all shall be right, which, being absent, ensures +that all shall be wrong. + +And is it not beautiful to see how Jesus Christ, leaving the little +flock of His followers in the world, gave them no other instruction for +their mutual relationship? He did not instruct them about institutions +and organisations, about orders of the ministry and sacraments, or +Church polity and the like. He knew that all these would come. His one +commandment was, 'Love one another,' and that will make you wise. Love +one another, and you will shape yourselves into the right forms. He +knew that they needed no exhortations such as ecclesiastics would have +put in the foreground. It was not worth while to talk to them about +organisations and officers. These would come to them at the right time +and in the right way. The 'one thing needful' was that they should be +knit together as true participators of His life. Love was sufficient as +their law and as their guide. + +III. Note, further, the Pattern of love. + +'As I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man +lay down his life for his friends.' Christ sets Himself forward then, +here and in this aspect, as He does in all aspects of human conduct and +character, as being the realised Ideal of them all. And although the +thought is a digression from my present purpose, I cannot but pause for +a moment to reflect upon the strangeness of a man thus calmly saying to +the whole world, 'I am the embodiment of all that love ought to be. You +cannot get beyond Me, nor have anything more pure, more deep, more +self-sacrificing, more perfect, than the love which I have borne to +you.' + +But passing that, the pattern that He proposes for us is even more +august than appears at first sight. For, if you remember, a verse or +two before our Lord had said, 'As the Father hath loved Me so I have +loved you.' Now He says, 'Love one another as I have loved you.' There +stand the three, as it were, the Father, the Son, the disciple. The Son +in the midst receives and transmits the Father's love to the disciple, +and the disciple is to love his fellows, in some deep and august sense, +as the Father loved the Son. The divinest thing in God, and that in +which men can be like God, is love. In all our other attitudes to Him +we rather correspond than copy. His fullness is met by our emptiness, +His giving by our recipiency, His faithfulness by our faith, His +command by our obedience, His light by our eye. But here it is not a +case of correspondence only, but of similarity. My faith _answers_ +God's gift to me, but my love is _like_ God's love. 'Be ye, therefore, +imitators of God as beloved children'; and having received that love +into your hearts, ray it out, 'and walk in love as God also hath loved +us.' + +But then our Lord here, in a very wonderful manner, sets forth the very +central point of His work, even His death upon the Cross for us, as +being the pattern to which our poor affection ought to aspire, and +after which it must tend to be conformed. I need not remind you, I +suppose, that our Lord here is not speaking of the propitiatory +character of His death, nor of the issues which depend upon it, and +upon it alone, viz., the redemption and salvation of the world. He is +not speaking, either, of the peculiar and unique sense in which He lays +down His life for us, His friends and brethren, as none other can do. +He is speaking about it simply in its aspect of being a voluntary +surrender, at the bidding of love, for the good of those whom He loved, +and that, He tells us--that, and nothing else--is the true pattern and +model towards which all our love is bound to tend and to aspire. That +is to say, the heart of the love which He commands is self-sacrifice, +reaching to death if death be needful. And no man loves as Christ would +have him love who does not bear in his heart affection which has so +conquered selfishness that, if need be, he is ready to die. + +The expression of Christian life is not to be found in honeyed words, +or the indolent indulgence in benevolent emotion, but in +self-sacrifice, modelled after that of Christ's sacrificial death, +which is imitable by us. + +Brethren, it is a solemn obligation, which may well make us tremble, +that is laid on us in these words, 'As I have loved you.' Calvary was +less than twenty-four hours off, and He says to us, '_That_ is your +pattern!' Contrast our love at its height with His--a drop to an ocean, +a poor little flickering rushlight held up beside the sun. My love, at +its best, has so far conquered my selfishness that now and then I am +ready to suffer a little inconvenience, to sacrifice a little leisure, +to give away a little money, to spend a little dribble of sympathy upon +the people who are its objects. Christ's love nailed Him to the Cross, +and led Him down from the throne, and shut for a time the gates of the +glory behind Him. And He says, 'That is your pattern!' + +Oh, let us bow down and confess how His word, which commands us, puts +us to shame, when we think of how miserably we have obeyed. + +Remember, too, that the restriction which here seems to be cast around +the flow of His love is not a restriction in reality, but rather a +deepening of it. He says, 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a +man lay down his life for his friends.' But evidently He calls them so +from His point of view, and as He sees them, not from their point of +view, as they see Him--that is to say, He means by 'friends' not those +who love Him, but those whom He loves. The 'friends' for whom He dies +are the same persons as the Apostle, in his sweet variation upon the +words of my text, has called by the opposite name, when He says that He +died for His 'enemies.' + +There is an old, wild ballad that tells of how a knight found, coiling +round a tree in a dismal forest, a loathly dragon breathing out poison; +and how, undeterred by its hideousness and foulness, he cast his arms +round it and kissed it on the mouth. Three times he did it undisgusted, +and at the third the shape changed into a fair lady, and he won his +bride. Christ 'kisses with the kisses of His mouth' His enemies, and +makes them His friends because He loves them. 'If He had never died for +His enemies' says one of the old fathers, 'He would never have +possessed His friends.' And so He teaches us here in what seems to be a +restriction of the purpose of His death and the sweep of His love, that +the way by which we are to meet even alienation and hostility is by +pouring upon it the treasures of an unselfish, self-sacrificing +affection which will conquer at the last. + +Christ's death is the pattern for our lives as well as the hope of our +hearts. + +IV. Lastly, we have here by implication, though not by direct +statement, the Motive of the love. + +Surely that, too, is contained in the words, 'As I have loved you.' +Christ's commandment of love is a new commandment, not so much because +it is a revelation of a new duty, though it is the casting of an old +duty into new prominence, as because it is not merely a revelation of +an obligation, but the communication of power to fulfil it. The novelty +of Christian morality lies here, that in its law there is a +self-fulfilling force. We have not to look to one place for the +knowledge of our duty, and somewhere else for the strength to do it, +but both are given to us in the one thing, the gift of the dying Christ +and His immortal love. + +That love, received into our hearts, will conquer, and it alone will +conquer, our selfishness. That love, received into our hearts, will +mould, and it alone will mould, them into its own likeness. That love, +received into our hearts, will knit, and it alone will knit, all those +who participate in it into a common bond, sweet, deep, sacred, and +all-victorious. + +And so, brethren, if we would know the blessedness and the sweetness of +victory over these miserable, selfish hearts of ours, and to walk in +the liberty of love, we can only get it by keeping close to Jesus +Christ. In any circle, the nearer the points of the circumference are +to the centre, the closer they will necessarily be to one another. As +we draw nearer, each for himself, to our Centre, we shall feel that we +have approximated to all those who stand round the same centre, and +draw from it the same life. In the early spring, when the wheat is +green and young, and scarcely appears above the ground, it comes up in +the lines in which it was sown, parted from one another and distinctly +showing their separation and the furrows. But when the full corn in the +ear waves on the autumn plain, all the lines and separations have +disappeared, and there is one unbroken tract of sunny fruitfulness. And +so when the life in Christ is low and feeble, His servants may be +separated and drawn up in rigid lines of denominations, and churches, +and sects; but as they grow the lines disappear. If to the churches of +England to-day there came a sudden accession of knowledge of Christ, +and of union with Him, the first thing that would go would be the +wretched barriers that separate us from one another. For if we have the +life of Christ in any adequate measure in ourselves, we shall certainly +have grown up above the fences behind which we began to grow, and shall +be able to reach out to all that love the Lord Jesus Christ, and feel +with thankfulness that we are one in Him. + + + +CHRIST'S FRIENDS + +'Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I +call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: +but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My +Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have +chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, +and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the +Father in My name, He may give it you. These things I command you, that +ye love one another.'--JOHN xv. 14-17. + +A wonderful word has just dropped from the Master's lips, when He spoke +of laying down His life for His friends. He lingers on it as if the +idea conveyed was too great and sweet to be taken in at once, and with +soothing reiteration He assures the little group that they, even they, +are His friends. + +I have ventured to take these four verses for consideration now, +although each of them, and each clause of them, might afford ample +material for a discourse, because they have one common theme. They are +a description of what Christ's friends are to Him, of what He is to +them, and of what they should be to one another. So they are a little +picture, in the sweetest form, of the reality, the blessedness, the +obligations, of friendship with Christ. + +I. Notice what Christ's friends do for Him. + +'Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.' In the former +verse, 'friends' means chiefly those whom He loved. Here it means +mainly those who love Him. They love Him because He loves them, of +course; and the two sides of the one thought cannot be parted. But +still in this verse the idea of friendship to Christ is looked at from +the human side, and He tells His disciples that they are His lovers as +well as beloved of Him, on condition of their doing whatsoever He +commands them. + +He lingers, as I said, on the idea itself. As if He would meet the +doubts arising from the sense of unworthiness, and from some dim +perception of how He towers above them, and their limitations, He +reiterates, 'Wonderful as it is, you poor men, half-intelligent lovers +of Mine, _you_ are My friends, beloved of Me, and loving Me, if ye do +whatsoever I command you.' + +How wonderful that stooping love of His is, which condescends to array +itself in the garments of ours! Every form of human love Christ lays +His hand upon, and claims that He Himself exercises it in a +transcendent degree. 'He that doeth the will of My Father which is in +heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother.' That which is +even sacreder, the purest and most complete union that humanity is +capable of--that, too, He consecrates; for even it, sacred as it is, is +capable of a higher consecration, and, sweet as it is, receives a new +sweetness when we think of 'the Bride, the Lamb's wife,' and remember +the parables in which He speaks of the Marriage Supper of the Great +King, and sets forth Himself as the Husband of humanity. And passing +from that Holy of Holies out into this outer court, He lays His hand, +too, on that more common and familiar, and yet precious and sacred, +thing--the bond of friendship. The Prince makes a friend of the beggar. + +Even if we do not think more loftily of Jesus Christ than do those who +regard Him simply as the perfection of humanity, is it not beautiful +and wonderful that He should look with such eyes of beaming love on +that handful of poor, ignorant fishermen, who knew Him so dimly, and +say: 'I pass by all the wise and the mighty, all the lofty and noble, +and My heart clings to you poor, insignificant people?' He stoops to +make them His friends, and there are none so low but that they may be +His. + +This friendship lasts to-day. A peculiarity of Christianity is the +strong personal tie of real love and intimacy which will bind men, to +the end of time, to this Man that died nineteen hundred years ago. We +look back into the wastes of antiquity: mighty names rise there that we +reverence; there are great teachers from whom we have learned, and to +whom, after a fashion, we are grateful. But what a gulf there is +between us and the best and noblest of them! But here is a dead Man, +who to-day is the Object of passionate attachment and a love deeper +than life to millions of people, and will be till the end of time. +There is nothing in the whole history of the world in the least like +that strange bond which ties you and me to the Saviour, and the paradox +of the Apostle remains a unique fact in the experience of humanity: +'Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, ye love.' We stretch out our +hands across the waste, silent centuries, and there, amidst the mists +of oblivion, thickening round all other figures in the past, we touch +the warm, throhbing heart of our Friend, who lives for ever, and for +ever is near us. We here, nearly two millenniums after the words fell +on the nightly air on the road to Gethsemane, have them coming direct +to our hearts. A perpetual bond unites men with Christ to-day; and for +us, as really as in that long-past Paschal night, is it true, 'Ye are +My friends.' + +There are no limitations in that friendship, no misconstructions in +that heart, no alienation possible, no change to be feared. There is +absolute rest for us there. Why should I be solitary if Jesus Christ is +my Friend? Why should I fear if He walks by my side? Why should +anything be burdensome if He lays it upon me and helps me to bear it? +What is there in life that cannot be faced and borne--aye, and +conquered,--if we have Him, as we all may have Him, for the Friend and +the Home of our hearts? + +But notice the condition, 'If ye do what I command you.' Note the +singular blending of friendship and command, involving on our parts the +cultivation of the two things which are not incompatible, absolute +submission and closest friendship. He commands though He is Friend; +though He commands He is Friend. The conditions that He lays down are +the same which have already occupied our attention in former sermons of +this series, and so may be touched very lightly. 'Ye are My friends if +ye do the things which I command you,' may either correspond with His +former saying, 'If a Man love Me he will keep My commandments,' or with +His later one, which immediately precedes our text, 'If ye keep My +commandments ye shall abide in My love.' For this is the relationship +between love and obedience, in regard to Jesus Christ, that the love is +the parent of the obedience, and the obedience is the guard and +guarantee of the love. They who love will obey, they who obey will +strengthen love by acting according to its dictates, and will be in a +condition to feel and realise more the warmth of the rays that stream +down upon them, and to send back more fully answering obedience from +their hearts. Not in mere emotion, not in mere verbal expression, not +in mere selfish realising of the blessings of His friendship, and not +in mere mechanical, external acts of conformity, but in the flowing +down and melting of the hard and obstinate iron will, at the warmth of +His great love, is our love made perfect. The obedience, which is the +child and the preserver of love, is something far deeper than the mere +outward conformity with externally apprehended commandments. To submit +is the expression of love, and love is deepened by submission. + +II. Secondly, note what Christ does for His friends. + +'Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what +his lord doeth.' The slave may see what his lord does, but he does not +know his purpose in his acts--'Theirs not to reason why.' In so far as +the relation of master and servant goes, and still more in that of +owner and slave, there is simple command on the one side and +unintelligent obedience on the other. The command needs no explanation, +and if the servant is in his master's confidence he is more than a +servant. But, says Christ, 'I have called you friends'; and He had +called them so before He now named them so. He had called them so in +act, and He points to all His past relationship, and especially to the +heart-outpourings of the Upper Room, as the proof that He had called +them His friends, in the fact that whatsoever He had heard of the +Father He had made known to them. + +Jesus Christ, then, recognises the obligation of absolute frankness, +and He will tell His friends everything that He can. When He tells them +what He can, the voice of the Father speaks through the Son. Every one +of Christ's friends stands nearer to God than did Moses at the door of +the Tabernacle, when the wondering camp beheld him face to face with +the blaze of the Shekinah glory, and dimly heard the thunderous +utterances of God as He spake to him 'as a man speaks to his friend.' +That was surface-speech compared with the divine depth and fullness of +the communications which Jesus Christ deems Himself bound, and assumes +Himself able, to make to them who love Him and whom He loves. + +Of course to Christ's frankness there are limits. He will not pour out +His treasures into vessels that will spill them; and as He Himself says +in the subsequent part of this great discourse, 'I have many things to +say unto you, but you are not able to carry them now.' His last word +was, 'I have declared Thy name unto My brethren, and _will declare_ +it.' And though here He speaks as if His communication was perfect, we +are to remember that it was necessarily conditioned by the power of +reception on the part of the hearers, and that there was much yet to be +revealed of what God had whispered to Him, ere these men, that +clustered round Him, could understand the message. + +That frank speech is continued to-day. Jesus Christ recognises the +obligation that binds Him to impart to each of us all that each of us +is in our inmost spirits capable of receiving. By the light which He +sheds on the Word, by many a suggestion through human lips, by many a +blessed thought rising quietly within our hearts, and bearing the token +that it comes from a sacreder source than our poor, blundering minds, +He still speaks to us, His friends. + +Ought not that thought of the utter frankness of Jesus make us, for one +thing, very patient, intellectually and spiritually, of the gaps that +are left in His communications and in our knowledge? There are so many +things that we sometimes think we should like to know, things about +that dark future where some of our hearts live so constantly, things +about the depths of His nature and the divine character, things about +the relation between God's love and God's righteousness, things about +the meaning of all this dreadful mystery in which we grope our way. +These and a hundred other questionings suggest to us that it would have +been so easy for Him to have lifted a little corner of the veil, and +let a little more of the light shine out. He holds all in His hand. Why +does He thus open one finger instead of the whole palm? Because He +loves. A friend exercises the right of reticence as well as the +prerogative of speech. And for all the gaps that are left, let us bow +quietly and believe that if it had been better for us He would have +spoken. 'If it were not so I would have told you.' 'Trust Me! I tell +you all that it is good for you to receive.' + +And that frankness may well teach us another lesson, viz., the +obligation of keeping our ears open and our hearts prepared to receive +the speech that does come from Him. Ah, brother! many a message from +your Lord flits past you, like the idle wind through an archway, +because you are not listening for His voice. If we kept down the noise +of that 'household jar within'; if we silenced passion, ambition, +selfishness, worldliness; if we withdrew ourselves, as we ought to do, +from the Babel of this world, and 'hid ourselves in His pavilion from +the strife of tongues'; if we took less of our religion out of books +and from other people, and were more accustomed to 'dwell in the secret +place of the Most High,' and to say, 'Speak, Friend! for Thy friend +heareth,' we should more often understand how real to-day is the voice +of Christ to them that love Him. + + 'Such rebounds the inward ear + Catches often from afar; + Listen, prize them, hold them dear, + For of God--of God--they are.' + +III. Thirdly, notice how Christ's friends come to be so, and why they +are so. + +'Ye have not chosen,' etc. (verse 16). + +Our Lord refers here, no doubt, primarily to the little group of the +Apostles; the choice and ordaining as well as 'the fruit that abides,' +point, in the first place, to their apostolic office, and to the +results of their apostolic labours. But we must widen out the words a +great deal beyond that reference. + +In all the cases of friendship between Christ and men, the origination +and initiation come from Him. 'We love Him because He first loved us.' +He has told us how, in His divine alchemy, He changes by the shedding +of His blood our enmity into friendship. In the previous verse He has +said, 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life +for his friends.' And as I remarked in my last sermon, the friends here +are the same as 'the enemies' for whom, the Apostle tells us that +Christ laid down His life. Since He has thus by the blood of the Cross +changed men's enmity into friendship, it is true universally that the +amity between us and Christ comes entirely from Him. + +But there is more than that in the words. I do not suppose that any +man, whatever his theological notions and standpoint may be, who has +felt the love of Christ in his own heart in however feeble a measure, +but will say, as the Apostle said, 'I was apprehended of Christ.' It is +because He lays His seeking and drawing hand upon us that we ever come +to love Him, and it is true that His choice of us precedes our choice +of Him, and that the Shepherd always comes to seek the sheep that is +lost in the wilderness. + +This, then, is how we come to be His friends; because, when we were +enemies, He loved us, and gave Himself for us, and ever since has been +sending out the ambassadors and the messengers of His love--or, rather, +the rays and beams of it, which are parts of Himself--to draw us to His +heart. And the purpose which all this forthgoing of Christ's initial +and originating friendship has had in view, is set forth in words which +I can only touch in the lightest possible manner. The intention is +twofold. First, it respects service or fruit. 'That ye may _go_'; there +is deep pathos and meaning in that word. He had been telling them that +He was going; now He says to them, 'You are to go. We part here. My +road lies upward; yours runs onward. Go into all the world.' He gives +them a _quasi_-independent position; He declares the necessity of +separation; He declares also the reality of union in the midst of the +separation; He sends _them_ out on their course with His benediction, +as He does _us_. Wheresoever we go in obedience to His will, we carry +the consciousness of His friendship. + +'That ye may bring forth fruit'--He goes back for a moment to the sweet +emblem with which this chapter begins, and recurs to the imagery of the +vine and the fruit. 'Keeping His commandments' does not explain the +whole process by which we do the things that are pleasing in His sight. +We must also take this other metaphor of the bearing of fruit. Neither +an effortless, instinctive bringing forth from the renewed nature and +the Christlike disposition, nor a painful and strenuous effort at +obedience to His law, describe the whole realities of Christian +service. There must be the effort, for men do not grow Christlike in +character as the vine grows its grapes; but there must also be, +regulated and disciplined by the effort, the inward life, for no mere +outward obedience and tinkering at duties and commandments will produce +the fruit that Christ desires and rejoices to have. First comes unity +of life with Him; and then effort. Take care of modern teachings that +do not recognise these two as both essential to the complete ideal of +Christian service--the spontaneous fruit-bearing, and the strenuous +effort after obedience. + +'That your fruit should remain'; nothing corrupts faster than fruit. +There is only one kind of fruit that is permanent, incorruptible. The +only life's activity that outlasts life and the world is the activity +of the men who obey Christ. + +The other half of the issues of this friendship is the satisfying of +our desires, 'That whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name He may +give it you.' We have already had substantially the same promise in +previous parts of this discourse, and therefore I may deal with it very +lightly. How comes it that it is certain that Christ's friends, living +close to Him and bearing fruit, will get what they want? Because what +they want will be 'in His name'--that is to say, in accordance with His +disposition and will. Make your desires Christ's, and Christ's yours, +and you will be satisfied. + +IV. And now, lastly, for one moment, note the mutual friendship of +Christ's friends. + +We have frequently had to consider that point--the relation of the +friends of Christ to each other. 'These things I command you, that ye +love one another.' This whole context is, as it were, enclosed within a +golden circlet by that commandment which appeared in a former verse, at +the beginning of it, 'This is My commandment, that ye love one +another,' and reappears here at the close, thus shutting off this +portion from the rest of the discourse. Friends of a friend should +themselves be friends. We care for the lifeless things that a dear +friend has cared for; books, articles of use of various sorts. If these +have been of interest to him, they are treasures and precious evermore +to us. And here are living men and women, in all diversities of +character and circumstances, but with this stamped upon them +all--Christ's friends, lovers of and loved by Him. And how can we be +indifferent to those to whom Christ is not indifferent? We are knit +together by that bond. We are but poor friends of that Master unless we +feel that all which is dear to Him is dear to us. Let us feel the +electric thrill which ought to pass through the whole linked circle, +and let us beware that we slip not our hands from the grasp of the +neighbour on either side, lest, parted from them, we should be isolated +from Him, and lose some of the love which we fail to transmit. + + + +SHEEP AMONG WOLVES + +'If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. +If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye +are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore +the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The +servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted Me, they +will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep +yours also.'--JOHN xv. 18-20. + +These words strike a discord in the midst of the sweet music to which +we have been listening. The key-note of all that has preceded has been +love--the love of Christ's friends to one another, and of all to Him, +as an answer to His love to all. That love, which is one, whether it +rise to Him or is diffused on the level of earth, is the result of that +unity of life between the Vine and the branches, of which our Lord has +been speaking such great and wonderful things. But that unity of life +between Christians and Christ has another consequence than the spread +of love. Just because it binds them to Him in a sacred community, it +separates them from those who do not share in His life, and hence the +'hate' of our context is the shadow of 'love'; and there result two +communities--to use the much-abused words that designate them--the +Church and 'the World'; and the antagonism between these is deep, +fundamental, and perpetual. + +Unquestionably, our Lord is here speaking with special reference to the +Apostles, who, in a very tragic sense, were 'sent forth as sheep in the +midst of wolves.' If we may trust tradition, every one of that little +company, Speaker as well as hearers, died a martyr's death, with the +exception of John himself, who was preserved from it by a miracle. But, +be that as it may, our Lord is here laying down a universal statement +of the permanent condition of things; and there is no more reason for +restricting the force of these words to the original hearers of them +than there is for restricting the force of any of the rest of this +wonderful discourse. 'The world' will be in antagonism to the Church +until the world ceases to be a world, because it obeys the King; and +then, and not till then, will it cease to be hostile to His subjects. + +I. What makes this hostility inevitable? + +Our Lord here prepares His hearers for what is coming by putting it in +the gentle form of an hypothesis. The frequency with which 'If' occurs +in this section is very remarkable. He will not startle them by the +bare, naked statement which they, in that hour of depression and +agitation, were so little able to endure, but He puts it in the shape +of a 'suppose that,' not because there is any doubt, but in order to +alleviate the pain of the impression which He desires to make. He says, +'If the world hates,' not 'if the world hate'; and the tense of the +original shows that, whilst the form of the statement is hypothetical, +the substance of it is prophetic. + +Jesus points to two things, as you will observe, which make this +hostility inevitable. 'If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me +before it hated you.' And again, 'If ye were of the world, the world +would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have +chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.' The very +language carries with it the implication of necessary and continual +antagonism. For what is 'the world,' in this context, but the aggregate +of men, who have no share in the love and life that flow from Jesus +Christ? Necessarily they constitute a unity, whatever diversities there +may be amongst them, and necessarily, that unity in its banded phalanx +is in antagonism, in some measure, to those who constitute the other +unity, which holds by Christ, and has been drawn by Him from 'out of +the world.' + +If we share Christ's life, we must, necessarily, in some measure, share +His fate. It is the typical example of what the world thinks of, and +does to, goodness. And all who have 'the Spirit of life which was in +Jesus Christ' for the animating principle of their lives, will, just in +the measure in which they possess it, come under the same influences +which carried Him to the Cross. In a world like this, it is impossible +for a man to 'love righteousness and hate iniquity,' and to order his +life accordingly, without treading on somebody's corns; being a rebuke +to the opposite course of conduct, either interfering with men's +self-complacency or with their interests. From the beginning the blind +world has repaid goodness by antagonism and contempt. + +And then our Lord touches another, and yet closely-connected, cause +when He speaks of His selecting the Apostles, and drawing them out of +the world, as a reason for the world's hostility. There are two groups, +and the fundamental principles that underlie each are in deadly +antagonism. In the measure in which you and I are Christians we are in +direct opposition to all the maxims which rule the world and make it a +world. What we believe to be precious it regards as of no account. What +we believe to be fundamental truth it passes by as of little +importance. Much which we feel to be wrong it regards as good. Our +jewels are its tinsel, and its jewels are our tinsel. We and it stand +in diametrical opposition of thought about God, about self, about duty, +about life, about death, about the future; and that opposition goes +right down to the bottom of things. However it may be covered over, +there is a gulf, as in some of those American canons: the towering +cliffs may be very near--only a yard or two seems to separate them; but +they go down for thousands and thousands of feet, and never are any +nearer each other, and between them at the bottom a black, sullen river +flows. 'If ye were of the world, the world would love its own.' If it +loves you, it is because ye are of it. + +II. And so note, secondly, how this hostility is masked and modified. + +There are a great many other bonds that unite men together besides the +bonds of religious life or their absence. There are the domestic ties, +there are the associations of commerce and neighbourhood, there are +surface identities of opinion about many important things. The greater +portion of our lives moves on this surface, whore all men are alike. +'If you tickle us, do we not laugh; if you wound us, do we not bleed?' +We have all the same affections and needs, pursue the same avocations, +do the same sort of things, and a large portion of every one's life is +under the dominion of habit and custom, and determined by external +circumstances. So there is a film of roofing thrown over the gulf. You +can make up a crack in a wall with plaster after a fashion, and it will +hide the solution of continuity that lies beneath. But let bad weather +come, and soon the bricks gape apart as before. And so, as soon as we +get down below the surface of things and grapple with the real, +deep-lying, and formative principles of a life, we come to antagonism, +just as they used to come to it long ago, though the form of it has +become quite different. + +Then there are other causes modifying this hostility. The world has got +a dash of Christianity into it since Jesus Christ spoke. We cannot say +that it is half Christianised, but some of the issues and remoter +consequences of Christianity have permeated the general conscience, and +the ethics of the Gospel are largely diffused in such a land as this. +Thus Christian men and others have, to a large extent, a common code of +morality, as long as they keep on the surface; and they not only do a +good many things exactly alike, but do a great many things from +substantially the same motives, and have the same way of looking at +much. Thus the gulf is partly bridged over; and the hostility takes +another form. We do not wrap Christians in pitch and stick them up for +candles in the Emperor's garden nowadays, but the same thing can be +done in different ways. Newspaper articles, the light laugh of scorn, +the whoop of exultation over the failures or faults of any prominent +man that has stood out boldly on Christ's side; all these indicate what +lies below the surface, and sometimes not so very far below. Many a +young man in a Manchester warehouse, trying to live a godly life, many +a workman at his bench, many a commercial traveller in the inn or on +the road, many a student on the college benches, has to find out that +there is a great gulf between him and the man who sits next to him, and +that he cannot be faithful to his Lord, and at the same time, down to +the depths of his being, a friend of one who has no friendship to his +Master. + +Still another fact masks the antagonism, and that is, that after all, +the world, meaning thereby the aggregate of godless men, has a +conscience that responds to goodness, though grumblingly and +reluctantly. After all, men do know that it is better to be good, that +it is better and wiser to be like Christ, that it is nobler to live for +Him than for self, and that consciousness cannot but modify to some +extent the manifestations of the hostility, but it is there all the +same, and whosoever will be a Christian after Christ's pattern will +find out that it is there. + +Let a man for Christ's sake avow unpopular beliefs, let him try +honestly to act out the New Testament, let him boldly seek to apply +Christian principles to the fashionable and popular sins of his class +or of his country, let him in any way be ahead of the conscience of the +majority, and what a chorus will be yelping at his heels! Dear +brethren, the law still remains, 'If any man will be a friend of the +world he is at enmity with God.' + +III. Thirdly, note how you may escape the hostility. + +A half-Christianised world and a more than half-secularised Church get +on well together. 'When they do agree, their agreement is wonderful.' +And it is a miserable thing to reflect that about the average +Christianity of this generation there is so very little that does +deserve the antagonism of the world. Why should the world care to hate +or trouble itself about a professing Church, large parts of which are +only a bit of the world under another name? There is no need whatever +that there should be any antagonism at all between a godless world and +hosts of professing Christians. If you want to escape the hostility +drop your flag, button your coat over the badge that shows that you +belong to Christ, and do the things that the people round about you do, +and you will have a perfectly easy and undisturbed life. + +Of course, in the bad old slavery days, a Christianity that had not a +word to say about the sin of slave-holding ran no risk of being tarred +and feathered. Of course a Christianity in Manchester that winks hard +at commercial immoralities is very welcome on the Exchange. Of course a +Christianity that lets beer barrels alone may reckon upon having +publicans for its adherents. Of course a Christianity that blesses +flags and sings _Te Deums_ over victories will get its share of the +spoil. Why should the world hate, or persecute, or do anything but +despise a Christianity like that, any more than a man need to care for +a tame tiger that has had its claws pared? If the world can put a hook +in the nostrils of leviathan, and make him play with its maidens, it +will substitute good-nature, half contemptuous, for the hostility which +our Master here predicts. It was out-and-out Christians that He said +the world would hate; the world likes Christians that are like itself. +Christian men and women! be you sure that you deserve the hostility +which my text predicts. + +IV. And now, lastly, note how to meet this antagonism. + +Reckon it as a sign and test of true union with Jesus Christ. And so, +if ever, by reason of our passing at the call of duty or benevolence +outside the circle of those who sympathise with our faith and +fundamental ideas, we encounter it more manifestly than when we 'dwell +among our own people,' let us count the 'reproach of Christ' as a +treasure to be proud of, and to be guarded. + +Be sure that it is your goodness and not your evils or your weakness, +that men dislike. The world has a very keen eye for the inconsistencies +and the faults of professing Christians, and it is a good thing that it +has. The loftier your profession the sharper the judgment that is +applied to you. Many well-meaning Christian people, by an injudicious +use of Christian phraseology in the wrong place, and by the glaring +contradiction between their prayers and their talks and their daily +life, bring down a great deal of deserved hostility upon themselves and +of discredit upon Christianity; and then they comfort themselves and +say they are bearing the 'reproach of the Cross.' Not a bit of it! They +are bearing the natural results of their own failings and faults. And +it is for us to see to it that what provokes, if it does provoke, +hostile judgments and uncharitable criticisms, insulting speeches and +sarcasms, and the sense of our belonging to another regiment and having +other objects, is our cleaving to Jesus Christ, and not the +imperfections and the sins with which we so often spoil that cleaving. +Be you careful for this, that it is Christ in you that men turn from, +and not you yourself and your weakness and sin. + +Meet this antagonism by not dropping your standard one inch. Keep the +flag right at the masthead. If you begin to haul it down, where are you +going to stop? Nowhere, until you have got it draggling in the mud at +the foot. It is of no use to try to conciliate by compromise. All that +we shall gain by that will be, as I have said, indifference and +contempt; all that we shall gain will be a loss to the cause. A great +deal is said in this day, and many efforts are being made--I cannot but +think mistaken efforts--by Christian people to bridge over this gulf in +the wrong way--that is, by trying to make out that Christianity in its +fundamental principles does approximate a great deal more closely to +the things that the world goes by than it really does. It is all vain, +and the only issue of it will be that we shall have a decaying +Christianity and a dying spiritual life. Keep the flag up; emphasise +and accentuate the things that the world disbelieves and denies, not +pushing them to the 'falsehood of extremes,' but not by one jot +diminishing the clearness of our testimony by reason of the world's +unwillingness to receive it. Our victory is to be won only through +absolute faithfulness to Christ's ideal. + +And, lastly, meet hostility with unmoved, patient, Christlike, and +Christ-derived love and sympathy. The patient sunshine pours upon the +glaciers and melts the thick-ribbed ice at last into sweet water. The +patient sunshine beats upon the mist-cloud and breaks up its edges and +scatters it at the last. And our Lord here tells us that our +experience, if we are faithful to Him, will be like His experience, in +that some will hearken to our word though others will persecute, and to +some our testimony will come as a message from God that draws them to +the Lord Himself. These are our only weapons, brethren! The only +conqueror of the world is the love that was in Christ breathed through +us; the only victory over suspicion, contempt, alienation, is pleading, +persistent, long-suffering, self-denying love. The only way to overcome +the world's hostility is by turning the world into a church, and that +can only be done when Christ's servants oppose pity to wrath, love to +hate, and in the strength of His life who has won us all by the same +process, seek to win the world for Him by the manifestation of His +victorious love in our patient love. + +Dear brethren, to which army do you belong? Which community is yours? +Are you in Christ's ranks, or are you in the world's? Do you love Him +back again, or do you meet His open heart with a closed one, and His +hand, laden with blessings, with hands clenched in refusal? To which +class do I belong?--it is the question of questions for us all; and I +pray that you and I, won from our hatred by His love, and wooed out of +our death by His life, and made partakers of His life by His death, may +yield our hearts to Him, and so pass from out of the hostility and +mistrust of a godless world into the friendships and peace of the +sheltering Vine. And then we 'shall esteem the reproach of Christ' if +it fall upon our heads, in however modified and mild a form, 'greater +riches than the treasures of Egypt,' and 'have respect unto the +recompense of the reward.' + +May it be so with us all! + + + +THE WORLD'S HATRED, AS CHRIST SAW IT + +'But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake, because +they know not Him that sent Me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, +they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that +hateth Me, hateth My Father also. If I had not done among them the +works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they +both seen and hated both Me and My Father. But this cometh to pass, +that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They +hated Me without a cause.'--JOHN XV. 21-25. + +Our Lord has been speaking of the world's hostility to His followers, +and tracing that to its hostility to Himself. In these solemn words of +our text He goes still deeper, and parallels the relation which His +disciples bear to Him and the consequent hostility that falls on them, +with the relation which He bears to the Father and the consequent +hostility that falls on Him: 'They hate you because they hate Me.' And +then His words become sadder and pierce deeper, and with a tone of +wounded love and disappointed effort and almost surprise at the world's +requital to Him, He goes on to say, 'They hate Me, because they hate +the Father.' + +So, then, here we have, in very pathetic and solemn words, Christ's +view of the relation of the world to Him and to God. + +I. The first point that He signalises is the world's ignorance. + +'These things they will do unto you,' and they will do them 'for My +name's sake'; they will do them 'because they know not Him that sent +Me.' + +'The world,' in Christ's language, is the aggregate of godless men. Or, +to put it a little more sharply, our Lord, in this context, gives in +His full adhesion to that narrow view which divides those who have come +under the influence of His truth into two portions. There is no mincing +of the matter in the antithesis which Christ here draws; no hesitation, +as if there were a great central mass, too bad for a blessing perhaps, +but too good for a curse; which was neither black nor white, but +neutral grey. No! however it may be with the masses beyond the reach of +the dividing and revealing power of His truth, the men that come into +contact with Him, like a heap of metal filings brought into contact +with a magnet, mass themselves into two bunches, the one those who +yield to the attraction, and the other those who do not. The one is 'My +disciples,' and the other is 'the world.' And now, says Jesus Christ, +all that mass that stands apart from Him, and, having looked upon Him +with the superficial eye of those men round about Him at that day, or +of the men who hear of Him now, have no real love to Him--have, as the +underlying motive of their conduct and their feelings, a real ignorance +of God, 'They know not Him that sent Me.' + +Our Lord assumes that He is so completely the Copy and Revealer of the +divine nature as that any man that looks upon Him has had the +opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, and that any man who turns +away from Him has lost that opportunity. The God that the men who do +not love Jesus Christ believe in, is not the Father that sent Him. It +is a fragment, a distorted image tinted by the lens. The world has its +conception of God; but outside of Jesus Christ and His manifestation of +the whole divine nature, the world's God is but a syllable, a fragment, +a broken part of the perfect completeness. 'The Father of an infinite +majesty,' and of as infinite a tenderness, the stooping God, the +pitying God, the forgiving God, the loving God is known only where +Christ is accepted. In other hearts He may be dimly hoped for, in other +hearts He may be half believed in, in other hearts He may be thought +possible; but hopes and anticipations and fears and doubts are not +knowledge, and they who see not the light in Christ see but the +darkness. Out of Him God is not known, and they that turn away from His +beneficent manifestation turn their faces to the black north, from +which no sun can shine. Brother, do you know God in Christ? Unless you +do, you do not know the God who is. + +But there is a deeper meaning in that word than simply the possession +of true thoughts concerning the divine nature. We know God as we know +one another; because God is a Person, as we are persons, and the only +way to know persons is through familiar acquaintance and sympathy. So +the world which turns away from Christ has no acquaintance with God. + +This is a surface fact. Our Lord goes on to show what lies below it. + +II. His second thought here is--the world's ignorance in the face of +Christ's light is worse than ignorance; it is sin. + +Mark how He speaks: 'If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had +not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.' And then again: +'If I had not done amongst them the works which none other men did, +they had not had sin.' So then He puts before us two forms of His +manifestation of the divine nature, by His words and His works. Of +these two He puts His words foremost, as being a deeper and more +precious and brilliant revelation of what God is than are His miracles. +The latter are subordinate, they come as a second source of +illumination. Men who will not see the beauty and listen to the truth +that lie in His word may perchance be led by His deed. But the word +towers in its nature high above the work, and the miracle to the word +is but like the picture in the child's book to the text, fit for feeble +eyes and infantile judgments, but containing far less of the revelation +of God than the sacred words which He speaks. First the words, next the +miracles. + +But notice, too, how decisively, and yet simply and humbly and +sorrowfully, our Lord here makes a claim which, on the lips of any but +Himself, would have been mere madness of presumption. Think of any of +us saying that our words made all the difference between innocent +ignorance and criminality! Think of any of us saying that to listen to +us, and not be persuaded, was the sin of sins! Think of any of us +pointing to our actions and saying, In these God is so manifest that +not to see Him augurs wickedness, and is condemnation! And yet Jesus +Christ says all this. And, what is more wonderful, nobody wonders that +He says it, and the world believes that He is saying the truth when He +says it. + +How does that come? There is only one answer; only one. His words were +the illuminating manifestation of God, and His deeds were the plain and +unambiguous operation of the divine hand then and there, only because +He Himself was divine, and in Him 'God was manifested in the flesh.' + +But passing from that, notice how our Lord here declares that in +comparison with the sin of not listening to His words, and being taught +by His manifestation, all other sins dwindle into nothing. 'If I had +not spoken, they had not had sin.' That does not mean, of course, that +these men would have been clear of all moral delinquency; it does not +mean that there would not have been amongst them crimes against their +own consciences, crimes against the law written on their own hearts, +crimes against the law of revelation. There were liars, impure men, +selfish men, and men committing all the ordinary forms of human +transgression amongst them. And yet, says Christ, black and bespattered +as these natures are, they are white in comparison with the blackness +of the man who, looking into His face, sees nothing there that he +should desire. Beside the mountain belching out its sulphurous flame +the little pimple of a molehill is nought. And so, says Christ, heaven +heads the count of sins with this--unbelief in Me. + +Ah, brother, as light grows responsibility grows, and this is the +misery of all illumination that comes through Jesus Christ, that where +it does not draw a man into His sweet love, and fill him with the +knowledge of God which is eternal life, it darkens his nature and +aggravates his condemnation, and lays a heavier burden upon his soul. +The truth that the measure of light is the measure of guilt has many +aspects. It turns a face of alleviation to the dark places of the +earth; but just in the measure that it lightens the condemnation of the +heathen, it adds weight to the condemnation of you men and women who +are bathed in the light of Christianity, and all your days have had it +streaming in upon you. The measure of the guilt is the brightness of +the light. No shadows are so black as those which the intense sunshine +of the tropics casts. And you and I live in the very tropical regions +of divine revelation, and 'if we turn away from Him that spoke on earth +and speaketh from heaven, of how much sorer punishment, think you, +shall we be thought worthy' than those who live away out in the +glimmering twilight of an unevangelised paganism, or who stood by the +side of Jesus Christ when they had only His earthly life to teach them? + +III. The ignorance which is sin is the manifestation of hatred. + +Our Lord has sorrowfully contemplated the not knowing God, which in the +blaze of His light can only come from wilful closing of the eyes, and +is therefore the very sin of sins. But that, sad as it is, is not all +which has to be said about that blindness of unbelief in Him. It +indicates a rooted alienation of heart and mind and will from God, and +is, in fact, the manifestation of an unconscious but real hatred. It is +an awful saying, and one which the lips 'into which grace was poured' +could not pronounce without a sigh. But it is our wisdom to listen to +what it was His mercy to say. + +Observe our Lord's identification of Himself with the Father, so as +that the feelings with which men regard Him are, _ipso facto_, the +feelings with which they regard the Father God. 'He that hath seen Me +hath seen the Father.' 'He that hath loved Me hath loved the Father.' +'He that hath hated Me hath hated the Father.' An ugly word--a word +that a great many of us think far too severe and harsh to be applied to +men who simply are indifferent to the divine love. Some say, 'I am +conscious of no hatred. I do not pretend to be a Christian, but I do +not hate God. Take the ordinary run of people round about us in the +world; if you say God is not in all their thoughts, I agree with you; +but if you say that they _hate_ God, I do not believe it.' + +Well, what do you think the fact that men go through their days and +weeks and months and years, and have not God in all their thoughts, +indicates as to the central feeling of their hearts towards God? +Granted that there is not actual antagonism, because there is no +thought at all, do you think it would be possible for a man who loved +God to go on for a twelvemonth and never think of, or care to please, +or desire to be near, the object that he loved? And inasmuch as, deep +down at the bottom of our moral being, there is no such thing possible +as indifference and a perfect equipoise in reference to God, it is +clear enough, I think, that--although the word must not be pressed as +if it meant conscious and active antagonism,--where there is no love +there is hate. + +If a man does not love God as He is revealed to him in Jesus Christ, he +neither cares to please Him nor to think about Him, nor does he order +his life in obedience to His commands. And if it be true that obedience +is the very life-breath of love, disobedience or non-obedience is the +manifestation of antagonism, and antagonism towards God is the same +thing as hate. + +Dear friends, I want some of my hearers to-day who have never honestly +asked themselves the question of what their relation to God is, to go +down into the deep places of their hearts and test themselves by this +simple inquiry: 'Do I do anything to please Him? Do I try to serve Him? +Is it a joy to me to be near Him? Is the thought of Him a delight, like +a fountain in the desert or the cool shadow of a great rock in the +blazing wilderness? Do I turn to Him as my Home, my Friend, my All? If +I do not, am I not deceiving myself by fancying that I stand neutral?' +There is no neutrality in a man's relation to God. It is one thing or +other. 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' 'The friendship of the world +is enmity against God.' + +IV. And now, lastly, note how our Lord here touches the deep thought +that this ignorance, which is sin, and is more properly named hatred, +is utterly irrational and causeless. + +'All this will they do that it might be fulfilled which is written in +their law, They hated Me without a cause.' One hears sighing through +these words the Master's meek wonder that His love should be so met, +and that the requital which He receives at men's hands, for such an +unexampled and lavish outpouring of it, should be such a carelessness, +reposing upon a hidden basis of such a rooted alienation. + +'Without a cause'; yes! that suggests the deep thought that the most +mysterious and irrational thing in men's whole history and experience +is the way in which they recompense God in Christ for what He has done +for them. 'Be astonished, O ye heavens! and wonder, O ye earth!' said +one of the old prophets; the mystery of mysteries, which can give no +account of itself to satisfy reason, which has no apology, excuse, or +vindication, is just that when God loves me I do not love Him back +again; and that when Christ pours out the whole fullness of His heart +upon me, nay dull and obstinate heart gives back so little to Him who +has given me so much. + +'Without a cause.' Think of that Cross; think, as every poor creature +on earth has a right to think, that he and she individually were in the +mind and heart of the Saviour when He suffered and died, and then think +of what we have brought Him for it. De we not stand ashamed at-if I +might use so trivial a word,--the absurdity as well as at the +criminality of our requital? Causeless love on the one side, occasioned +by nothing but itself, and causeless indifference on the other, +occasioned by nothing but itself, are the two powers that meet in this +mystery-men's rejection of the infinite love of God. + +My friend, come away from the unreasonable people, come away from the +men who can give no account of their attitude. Come away from those who +pay benefits by carelessness, and a Love that died by an indifference +that will not cast an eye upon that miracle of mercy, and let His love +kindle the answering flame in your hearts. Then you will know God as +only they who love Christ know Him, and in the sweetness of a mutual +bond will lose the misery of self, and escape the deepening +condemnation of those who see Christ on the Cross and do not care for +the sight, nor learn by it to know the infinite tenderness and holiness +of the Father that sent Him. + + + +OUR ALLY + +'But when the Comforter Is come, whom I will send unto you from the +Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He +shall testify of Me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have +been with Me from the beginning.'--JOHN xv. 26, 27. + +Our Lord has been speaking of a world hostile to His followers and to +Him. He proceeds, in the words which immediately follow our text, to +paint that hostility as aggravated even to the pitch of religious +murder. But here He lets a beam of light in upon the darkness. These +forlorn Twelve, listening to Him, might well have said, 'Thou art about +to leave us; how can we alone face this world in arms, with which Thou +dost terrify us?' And here He lets them see that they will not be left +alone, but have a great Champion, clad in celestial armour, who, coming +straight from God, will be with them and put into their hands a weapon, +with which they may conquer the world, and turn it into a friend, and +with which alone they must meet the world's hate. + +So, then, we have three things in this text; the great promise of an +Ally in the conflict with the world; the witness which that Ally bears, +to fortify against the world; and the consequent witness with which +Christians may win the world. + +I. Now consider briefly the first of these points, the great promise of +an Ally in the conflict with the world. + +I may touch, very lightly, upon the wonderful designation of this +Champion-Friend whom Christ sends, because on former occasions in this +course of sermons we have had to deal with the same thoughts, and there +will be subsequent opportunities of recurring to them. But I may just +emphasise in a few sentences the points which our Lord here signalises +in regard to the Champion whom He sends. There is a double designation +of that Spirit, 'the Comforter' and 'the Spirit of truth.' There is a +double description of His mission, as being 'sent' by Jesus, and as +'proceeding from the Father,' and there is a single statement as to the +position from which He comes to us. A word about each of these things. + +I have already explained in former sermons that the notion of +'Comforter,' as it is understood in modern English, is a great deal too +restricted and narrow to cover the whole ground of this great and +blessed promise. The Comforter whom Christ sends is no mere drier of +men's tears and gentle Consoler of human sorrows, but He is a mightier +Spirit than that, and the word by which He is described in our text, +which means 'one who is summoned to the side of another,' conveys the +idea of a helper who is brought to the man to be helped, in order to +render whatever aid and succour that man's weakness and circumstances +may require. The verses before our text suggest what sort of aid and +succour the disciples will need. They are to be as sheep in the midst +of wolves. Their defenceless purity will need a Protector, a strong +Shepherd. They stand alone amongst enemies. There must be some one +beside them to fight for them, to shield and to encourage them, to be +their Safety and their Peace. And that Paraclete, who is called to our +side, comes for the special help which these special circumstances +require, and is a strong Spirit who will be our Champion and our Ally, +whatever antagonism may storm against us, and however strong and +well-armed may be the assaulting legions of the world's hate. + +Then, still further, the other designation here of this strong +Succourer and Friend is 'the Spirit of truth,' by which is designated, +not so much His characteristic attribute, as rather the weapon which He +wields, or the material with which He works. The 'truth' is His +instrument; that is to say, the Spirit of God sent by Jesus Christ is +the Strengthener, the Encourager, the Comforter, the Fighter for us and +with us, because He wields that great body of truth, the perfect +revelation of God, and man, and duty, and salvation, which is embodied +in the incarnation and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. The truth is His +weapon, and it is by it that He makes us strong. + +Then, still further, there is a twofold description here of the mission +of this divine Champion, as 'sent' by Christ, and 'proceeding from the +Father.' + +In regard to the former, I need only remind you that, in a previous +part of this wonderful discourse, our Lord speaks of that divine Spirit +as being sent by the Father in His name and in answer to His prayer. +The representation here is by no means antagonistic to, or diverse +from, that other representation, but rather the fact that the Father +and the Son, according to the deep teaching of Scripture, are in so far +one as that 'whatsoever the Son seeth the Father do that also the Son +doeth likewise,' makes it possible to attribute to Him the work which, +in another place, is ascribed to the Father. In speaking of the +_Persons_ of the Deity, let us never forget that that word is only +partially applicable to that ineffable Being, and that whilst with us +it implies absolute separation of individuals, it does not mean such +separation in the case of its imperfect transference to the mysteries +of the divine nature; but rather, the Son doeth what the Father doeth, +and therefore the Spirit is sent forth by the Father, and also the Son +sends the Spirit. + +But, on the other hand, we are not to regard that divine Spirit as +merely a Messenger sent by another. He 'proceeds from the Father.' That +word has been the battlefield of theological controversy, with which I +do not purpose to trouble you now. For I do not suppose that in its use +here it refers at all to the subject to which it has been sometimes +applied, nor contains any kind of revelation of the eternal depths of +the divine Nature and its relations to itself. What is meant here is +the historical coming forth into human life of that divine Spirit. And, +possibly, the word 'proceeds' is chosen in order to contrast with the +word 'sent,' and to give the idea of a voluntary and personal action of +the Messenger, who not only is _sent_ by the Father, but of Himself +_proceeds_ on the mighty work to which He is destined. + +Be that as it may, mark only, for the last thought here about the +details of this great promise, that wonderful phrase, twice repeated in +our Lord's words, and emphasised by its verbal repetition in the two +clauses, which in all other respects are so different--'from the +Father.' The word translated '_from_' is not the ordinary word so +rendered, but rather designates _a position at the side of_ than an +_origin from_, and suggests much rather the intimate and ineffable +union between Father, Son, and Spirit, than the source from which the +Spirit comes. I touch upon these things very lightly, and gather them +up into one sentence. Here, then, are the points. A Person who is +spoken of as 'He'--a divine Person whose home from of old has been +close by the Father's side--a Person whose instrument is the revealed +truth ensphered and in germ in the facts of Christ's incarnation and +life--a divine Person, wielding the truth, who is sent by Christ as His +Representative, and in some sense a continuance of His personal +Presence--a divine, personal Spirit coming from the Father, wielding +the truth, sent by Christ, and at the side of all the persecuted and +the weak, all world-hated and Christian men, as their Champion, their +Combatant, their Ally, their Inspiration, and their Power. Is not that +enough to make the weakest strong? Is not that enough to make us 'more +than conquerors through Him that loved us'? All nations have legends of +the gods fighting at the head of their armies, and through the dust of +battle the white horses and the shining armour of the celestial +champions have been seen. The childish dream is a historical reality. +It is not we that fight, it is the Spirit of God that fighteth in us. + +II. And so note, secondly, the witness of the Spirit which fortifies +against the world. + +'He shall bear witness of Me.' Now we must especially observe here that +little phrase, 'unto you.' For that tells us at once that the witness +which our Lord has in mind here is something which is done within the +circle of the Christian believers, and not in the wide field of the +world's history or in nature. Of course it is a great truth that long +before Jesus Christ, and to-day far beyond the limits of His name and +knowledge, to say nothing of His faith and obedience, the Spirit of God +is working. As of old He brooded over the chaotic darkness, ever +labouring to turn chaos into order, and darkness into light, and +deformity into beauty; so today, all over the field of humanity, He is +operating. Grand as that truth is, it is not the truth here. What is +spoken of here is something that is done in and on Christian men, and +not even through them on the world, but in them for themselves. 'He +shall testify of Me' to you. + +Now it is to be noted, also, that the first and special application of +these words is to the little group listening to Him. Never were men +more desolate and beaten down than these were, in the prospect of +Christ's departure. Never were men more utterly bewildered and +dispirited than these were, in the days between His crucifixion and His +resurrection. Think of them during His earthly life, their narrow +understandings, their manifold faults, moral as well as intellectual. +How little perception they had of anything that He said to them, as +their own foolish questions abundantly show! How little they had drunk +in His spirit, as their selfish and ambitious janglings amongst +themselves abundantly show! They were but Jews like their brethren, +believing, indeed, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, but not knowing +what it was that they believed, or of what kind the Messiah was in whom +they were thus partially trusting. But they loved Him and were led by +Him, and so they were brought into a larger place by the Spirit whom +Christ sent. + +What was it that made these dwarfs into giants in six weeks? What was +it that turned their narrowness into breadth; that made them start up +all at once as heroes, and that so swiftly matured them, as the fruits +and flowers are ripened under tropical sunshine? The resurrection and +ascension of Jesus Christ had a great deal to do with the change; but +they were not its whole cause. There is no explanation of the +extraordinary transformation of these men as we see them in the pages +of the Gospels, and as we find them on the pages of the Acts of the +Apostles, except this--the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus +Christ as facts, and the Spirit on Pentecost as an indwelling +Interpreter of the facts. He came, and the weak became strong, and the +foolish wise, and the blind enlightened, and they began to +understand--though it needed all their lives to perfect the +teaching,--what it was that their ignorant hands had grasped and their +dim perceptions had seen, when they touched the hands and looked upon +the face of Jesus Christ. The witness of the Spirit of God working +within them, working upon what they knew of the historical facts of +Christ's life, and interpreting these to them, was the explanation of +their change and growth. And the New Testament is the product of that +change. Christ's life was the truth which the Spirit used, and a +product of His teaching was these Epistles which we have, and which for +us step into the place which the historical facts held for them, and +become the instrument with which the Spirit of God will deepen our +understanding of Christ and enlarge our knowledge of what He is to us. + +So, dear friends, whilst here we have a promise which specially +applies, no doubt, to these twelve Apostles, and the result of which in +them was different from its result in us, inasmuch as the Spirit's +teaching, recorded in the New Testament, becomes for us the +authoritative rule of faith and practice, the promise still applies to +each of us in a secondary and modified sense. For there is nothing in +these great valedictory words of our Lord's which has not a universal +bearing, and is not the revelation of a permanent truth in regard to +the Christian Church. And, therefore, here we have the promise of a +universal gift to all Christian men and women, of an actual divine +Spirit to dwell with each of us, to speak in our hearts. + +And what will He speak there? He will teach us a deeper knowledge of +Jesus Christ. He will help us to understand better what He is. He will +show us more and more of the whole sweep of His work, of the whole +infinite truth for morals and religion, for politics and society, for +time and for eternity, about men and about God, which is wrapped up in +that great saying which we first of all, perhaps under the pressure of +our own sense of sin, grasp as our deliverance from sin: 'God so loved +the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth +in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' That is the sum +of truth which the Spirit of God interprets to every faithful heart. +And as the days roll on, and new problems rise, and new difficulties +present themselves, and new circumstances emerge in our personal life, +we find the truth, which we at first dimly grasped as life and +salvation, opening out into wisdom and depth and meaning that we never +dreamed of in the early hours. A Spirit that bears witness of Christ +and will make us understand Him better every day we live, if we choose, +is the promise that is given here, for all Christian men and women. + +Then note that this inward witness of Christ's depth and preciousness +is our true weapon and stay against a hostile world. A little candle in +a room will make the lightning outside almost invisible; and if I have +burning in my heart the inward experience and conviction of what Jesus +Christ is and what He has done and will do for me--Oh! then, all the +storm without may rage, and it will not trouble me. + +If you take an empty vessel and bring pressure to bear upon it, in go +the sides. Fill it, and they will resist the pressure. So with growing +knowledge of Christ, and growing personal experience of His sweetness +in our souls, we shall be able, untouched and undinted, to throw off +the pressure which would otherwise have crushed us. + +Therefore, dear friends, here is the true secret of tranquillity, in an +age of questioning and doubt. Let me have that divine Voice speaking in +my heart, as I may have, and no matter what questions may be doubtful, +this is sure--'We know in whom we have believed'; and we can say, +'Settle all your controversies any way you like: one thing I know, and +that divine Voice is ever saying it to me in my deepest +consciousness--the Son of God is come and hath given us an +understanding that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that +is true.' Labour for more of this inward, personal conviction of the +preciousness of Jesus Christ to strengthen you against a hostile world. + +And remember that there are conditions under which this Voice speaks in +our souls. One is that we attend to the instrument which the Spirit of +God uses, and that is 'the truth.' If Christians will not read their +Bibles, they need not expect to have the words of these Bibles +interpreted and made real to them by any inward experience. If you want +to have a faith which is vindicated and warranted by your daily +experience, there is only one way to get it, and that is, to use the +truth which the Spirit uses, and to bring yourself into contact, +continual and reverent and intelligent, with the great body of divine +truth that is conveyed in these authoritative words of the Spirit of +God speaking through the first witnesses. + +And there must be moral discipline too. Laziness, worldliness, the +absorption of attention with other things, self-conceit, prejudice, +and, I was going to say, almost above all, the taking of our religion +and religious opinions at secondhand from men and teachers and books--all +these stand in the way of our hearing the Spirit of God when He +speaks. Come away from the babble and go by yourself, and take your +Bibles with you, and read them, and meditate upon them, and get near +the Master of whom they speak, and the Spirit which uses the truth will +use it to fortify you. + +III. And, lastly, note the consequent witness with which the Christian +may win the world. + +'And ye also shall bear witness of Me, because ye have been with Me +from the beginning.' That 'also' has, of course, direct reference to +the Apostles' witness to the facts of our Lord's historical appearance, +His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension; and therefore +their qualification was simply the companionship with Him which enabled +them to say, 'We saw what we tell you; we were witnesses from the +beginning.' + +But then, again, I say that there is no word here that belongs only to +the Apostles; it belongs to us all, and so here is the task of the +Christian Church in all its members. They receive the witness of the +Spirit, and they are Christ's witnesses in the world. + +Note what we have to do--to bear witness; not to argue, not to adorn, +but simply to attest. Note what we have to attest--the fact, not of the +historical life of Jesus Christ, because we are not in a position to be +witnesses of that, but the fact of His preciousness and power, and the +fact of our own experience of what He has done for us. Note, that that +is by far the most powerful agency for winning the world. You can never +make men angry by saying to them, 'We have found tho Messias.' You +cannot irritate people, or provoke them into a controversial opposition +when you say, 'Brother, let me tell you my experience. I was dark, sad, +sinful, weak, solitary, miserable; and I got light, gladness, pardon, +strength, companionship, and a joyful hope. I was blind--you remember +me when my eyes were dark, and I sat begging outside the Temple; I was +blind, now I see--look at my eyeballs.' We can all say that. This is +the witness that needs no eloquence, no genius, no anything except +honesty and experience; and whosoever has tasted and felt and handled +of the Word of Life may surely go to a brother and say, 'Brother, I +have eaten and am satisfied. Will you not help yourselves?' We can all +do it, and we ought to do it. The Christian privilege of being +witnessed to by the Spirit of God in our hearts brings with it the +Christian duty of being witnesses in our turn to the world. That is our +only weapon against the hostility which godless humanity bears to +ourselves and to our Master. We may win men by that; we can win them by +nothing else. 'Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servants +whom I have chosen.' Christian friend, listen to the Master, who says, +'Him that confesseth Me before men, him will I also confess before My +Father in heaven.' + + + +WHY CHRIST SPEAKS + +'These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. +They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that +whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these +things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, +nor Me. But these things have I told you, that, when the time shall +come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said +not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go My +way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou? +But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your +heart.'--JOHN xvi. 1-6. + +The unbroken flow of thought, and the many subtle links of connection +between the parts, of these inexhaustible last words of our Lord make +any attempt at grouping them into sections more or less unsatisfactory +and artificial. But I have ventured to throw these, perhaps too many, +verses together for our consideration now, because a phrase of frequent +recurrence in them manifestly affords a key to their main subject. +Notice how our Lord four times repeats the expression, 'These things +have I spoken unto you.' He is not so much adding anything new to His +words, as rather contemplating the reasons for His speech now, the +reasons for His silence before, and the imperfect apprehension of the +things spoken which His disciples had, and which led to their making +His announcement, thus imperfectly understood, an occasion for sorrow +rather than for joy. There is a kind of landing place or pause here in +the ascending staircase. Our Lord meditates for Himself, and invites us +to meditate with Him, rather upon His past utterances than upon +anything additional to them. So, then, whilst it is true that we have +in two of these verses a repetition, in a somewhat more intense and +detailed form, of the previous warnings of the hostility of the world, +in the main the subject of the present section is that which I have +indicated. And I take the fourfold recurrence of that clause to which I +have pointed as marking out for us the leading ideas that we are to +gather from these words. + +I. There is, first, our Lord's loving reason for His speech. + +This is given in a double form. 'These things have I spoken unto you, +that ye should not be offended.' And, again, 'These things have I told +you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of +them.' These two statements substantially coalesce and point to the +same idea. + +They are separated, as I have said, by a reiteration, in more emphatic +form, of the dark prospect which He has been holding out to His +disciples. He tells them that the world which hates them is to be fully +identified with the apostate Jewish Church. 'The synagogue' is for them +'the world.' There is a solemn lesson in that. The organised body that +calls itself God's Church and House may become the most rampant enemy +of Christ's people, and be the truest embodiment on the face of the +earth of all that He means by 'the world.' A formal church is the true +world always; and to-day as then. And such a body will do the cruellest +things and believe that it is offering up Christ's witnesses as +sacrifices to God. That is partly an aggravation and partly an +alleviation of the sin. It is possible that the inquisitor and the man +in the _San Benito_, whom he ties to the stake, may shake hands yet at +His side up yonder. But a church which has become, the world will do +its persecution and think that it is worship, and call the burning of +God's people an _auto-da-fe_ (act of faith); and the bottom of it all +is that, in the blaze of light, and calling themselves God's, 'they do +not know' either God or Christ. They do not know the one because they +will not know the other. + +But that is all parenthetical in the present section, and so I say +nothing more about it; and ask you, rather, just to look at the loving +reasons which Christ here suggests for His present speech--'that ye +should not be offended,' or stumble. He warns them of the storm before +it bursts, lest, when it bursts, it should sweep them away from their +moorings. Of course, there could be nothing more productive of +intellectual bewilderment, and more likely to lead to doubt as to one's +own convictions, than to find oneself at odds with the synagogue about +the question of the Messiah. A modest man might naturally say, 'Perhaps +I am wrong and they are right.' A coward would be sure to say, 'I will +sink my convictions and fall in with the majority.' The stumbling-block +for these first Jewish converts, in the attitude of the whole mass of +the nation towards Christ and His pretensions, is one of such a +magnitude as we cannot, by any exercise of our imagination, realise. +'And,' says Christ, 'the only way by which you will ever get over the +temptation to intellectual doubt or to cowardly apostasy that arises +from your being thrown out of sympathy with the whole mass of your +people, and the traditions of the generations, is to reflect that I +told you it would be so, before it came to pass.' + +Of course all that has a special bearing upon those to whom it was +originally addressed, and then it has a secondary bearing upon +Christians, whose lot it is to live in a time of actual persecution. +But that does not in the slightest degree destroy the fact that it also +has a bearing upon every one of us. For if you and I are Christian +people, and trying to live like our Master, and to do as He would have +us to do, we too shall often have to stand in such a very small +minority, and be surrounded by people who take such an entirely +opposite view of duty and of truth, as that we shall be only too much +disposed to give up and falter in the clearness, fullness, and +braveness of our utterance, and think, 'Well, perhaps after all it is +better for me to hold my tongue.' + +And then, besides this, there are all the cares and griefs which befall +each of us, with regard to which also, as well as with regard to the +difficulties and dangers and oppositions which we may meet with in a +faithful Christian life, the principles of my text have a distinct and +direct application. He has told us in order that we might not stumble, +because when the hour comes and the sorrow comes with it, we remember +that He told us all about it before. + +It is one of the characteristics of Christianity that Jesus Christ does +not try to enlist recruits by highly-coloured, rosy pictures of the +blessing and joy of serving Him, keeping His hand all the while upon +the weary marches and the wounds and pains. He tells us plainly at the +beginning, 'If you take My yoke upon you, you will have to carry a +heavy burden. You will have to abstain from a great many things that +you would like to do. You will have to do a great many things that your +flesh will not like. The road is rough, and a high wall on each side. +There are lovely flowers and green pastures on the other side of the +hedge, where it is a great deal easier walking upon the short grass +than it is upon the stony path. The roadway is narrow, and the gateway +is very strait, but the track goes steadily up. Will you accept the +terms and come in and walk upon it?' + +It is far better and nobler, and more attractive also, to tell us +frankly and fully the difficulties and dangers than to try and coax us +by dwelling on pleasures and ease. Jesus Christ will have no service on +false pretences, but will let us understand at the beginning that if we +serve under His flag we have to make up our minds to hardships which +otherwise we may escape, to antagonisms which otherwise will not be +provoked, and to more than an ordinary share of sorrow and suffering +and pain. 'Through much tribulation we must enter the Kingdom.' + +And the way by which all these troubles and cares, whether they be +those incident and peculiar to Christian life, or those common to +humanity, can best be met and overcome, is precisely by this thought, +'The Master has told us before.' Sorrows anticipated are more easily +met. It is when the vessel is caught with all its sails set that it is +almost sure to go down, and, at all events, sure to be badly damaged in +the typhoon. But when the barometer has been watched, and its fall has +given warning, and everything movable has been made fast, and every +spare yard has been sent below, and all tightened up and +ship-shape--then she can ride out the storm. Forewarned is forearmed. +Savages think, when an eclipse comes, that a wolf has swallowed the +sun, and it will never come out again. We know that it has all been +calculated beforehand, and since we know that it is coming to-morrow, +when it does come, it is only a passing darkness. Sorrow anticipated is +sorrow half overcome; and when it falls on us, the bewilderment, as if +'some strange thing had happened,' will be escaped when we can remember +that the Master has told us it all beforehand. + +And again, sorrow foretold gives us confidence in our Guide. We have +the chart, and as we look upon it we see marked 'waterless country,' +'pathless rocks,' 'desert and sand,' 'wells and palm-trees.' Well, when +we come to the first of these, and find ourselves, as the map says, in +the waterless country; and when, as we go on step by step, and mile +after mile, we find it is all down there, we say to ourselves, 'The +remainder will be accurate, too,' and if we are in 'Marah' to-day, +where 'the water is bitter,' and nothing but the wood of the tree that +grows there can ever sweeten it, we shall be at 'Elim' to-morrow, where +there are 'the twelve wells and the seventy palm trees.' The chart is +right, and the chart says that the end of it all is 'the land that +flows with milk and honey.' He _has_ told us _this_; if there had been +anything worse than this, He would have told us _that_. 'If it were not +so I would have told you.' The sorrow foretold deepens our confidence +in our Guide. + +Sorrow that comes punctually in accordance with His word plainly comes +in obedience to His will. Our Lord uses a little word in this context +which is very significant. He says, 'When _their hour_ is come.' + +'Their hour'--the time allotted to them. Allotted by whom? Allotted by +Him. He could tell that they would come, because it was as His +instruments that they came. 'Their time' was His appointment. It was +only an 'hour,' a definite, appointed, and brief period in accordance +with His loving purpose. It takes all sorts of weathers to make a year; +and after all the sorts of weathers are run out, the year's results are +realised and the calm comes. And so the good old hymn, with its rhythm +that speaks at once of fear and triumph, has caught the true meaning of +these words of our Lord's-- + + 'Why should I complain + Of want or distress, + Temptation or pain? + He told me no less.' + +'These things have I spoken unto you that ye might not be offended.' + +II. Still further, note our Lord's loving reasons for past silence. +'These things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was +with you.' + +Of course there had been in His early ministry hints, and very plain +references, to persecutions and trials, but we must not restrict the +'these things' of my text to that only, but rather include the whole of +the previous chapter, in which He sets the sorrow and the hostility +which His servants have to endure in their true light, as being the +consequences of their union with Him and of the closeness and the +identity of life and fate between the Vine and the branches. In so +systematic and detailed fashion, and with such an exhibition of the +grounds of its necessity, our Lord had not spoken of the world's +hostility in His earlier ministry, but had reserved it to these last +moments, and the reason why He had given but passing hints before was +because He was there. What a superb confidence that expresses in His +ability to shield His poor followers from all that might hurt and harm +them! He spreads the ample robe of His protection over them, or rather, +to go back to His own metaphor, 'as a hen gathereth her chickens under +her wings' so He gathers them to His own breast, and stretches over +them that which is at once protection and warmth, and keeps them safe. +As long as He is there, no harm can come to them. But He is going away, +and so it is time to speak, and to speak more plainly. + +That, too, yields for us, dear brethren, truths that apply to us quite +as much as to that little group of silent listeners. For us, too, +difficulties and sorrows, though foretold in general terms, are largely +hidden till they are near. It would have been of little use for Christ +to have spoken more plainly in those early days of His ministry. The +disciples managed to forget and to misunderstand His plain utterances, +for instance, about His own death and resurrection. There needs to be +an adaptation between the hearing ear and the spoken word, in order +that the word spoken should be of use, and there are great tracts of +Scripture dealing with the sorrows of life, which lie perfectly dark +and dead to us, until experience vitalises them. The old Greeks used to +send messages from one army to another by means of a roll of parchment +twisted spirally round a baton, and then written on. It was perfectly +unintelligible when it fell into a man's hands that had not a +corresponding baton to twist it upon. Many of Christ's messages to us +are like that. You can only understand the utterances when life gives +you the frame round which to wrap them, and then they flash up into +meaning, and we say at once, 'He told us it all before, and I scarcely +knew that He had told me, until this moment when I need it.' + +Oh, it is merciful that there should be a gradual unveiling of what is +to come to us, that the road should wind, and that we should see so +short a way before us. Did you never say to yourselves, 'If I had known +all this before, I do not think I could have lived to face it'? And did +you not feel how good and kind and loving it was, that in the +revelation there had been concealment, and that while Jesus Christ had +told us in general terms that we must expect sorrows and trials, this +specific form of sorrow and trial had not been foreseen by us until we +came close to it? Thank God for the loving reticence, and for the as +loving eloquence of His speech and of His silence, with regard to +sorrow. + +And take this further lesson, that there ought to be in all our lives +times of close and blessed communion with that Master, when the sense +of His presence with us makes all thought of sorrows and trials in the +future out of place and needlessly disturbing. If these disciples had +drunk in the spirit of Jesus Christ when they were with Him, then they +would not have been so bewildered when He left them. When He was near +them there was something better for them to do than to be 'over +exquisite to cast the fashion of uncertain evils' in the +future--namely, to grow into His life, to drink in the sweetness of His +presence, to be moulded into the likeness of His character, to +understand Him better, and to realise His nearness more fully. And, +dear brethren, for us all there are times--and it is our own fault if +these are not very frequent and blessed--when thus, in such an hour of +sweet communion with the present Christ, the future will be all radiant +and calm, if we look into it, or, better, the present will be so +blessed that there will be no need to think of the future. These men in +the upper chamber, if they had learnt all the lessons that He was +teaching them then, would not have gone out, to sleep in Gethsemane, +and to tell lies in the high priest's hall, and to fly like frightened +sheep from the Cross, and to despair at the tomb. And you and I, if we +sit at His table, and keep our hearts near Him, eating and drinking of +that heavenly manna, shall 'go in the strength of that meat forty days +into the wilderness,' and say-- + + 'E'en let the unknown to-morrow + Bring with it what it may.' + +III. Lastly, I must touch, for the sake of completeness, upon the final +thought in these pregnant verses, and that is, the imperfect +apprehension of our Lord's words, which leads to sorrow instead of joy. + +'Now I go My way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, +Whither goest Thou? But because I have said these things unto you, +sorrow hath filled your heart.' He had been telling them--and it was +the one definite idea that they gathered from His words--that He was +going. And what did they say? They said, 'Going! What is to become of +_us_?' If there had been a little less selfishness and a little more +love, and if they had put their question, 'Going! What is to become of +_Him_?' then it would not have been sorrow that would have filled their +hearts, but a joy that would have flooded out all the sorrow, 'and the +winter of their discontent' would have been changed into 'glorious +summer,' because He was going to Him that sent Him; that is to say, He +was going with His work done and His message accomplished. And +therefore, if they could only have overlooked their own selves, and the +bearing of His departure, as it seemed to them, on themselves, and have +thought of it a little as it affected Him, they would have found that +all the oppressive and the dark in it would have disappeared, and they +would have been glad. + +Ah, dear brethren, that gives us a thought on which I can but touch +now, that the steadfast contemplation of the ascended Christ, who has +gone to the Father, having finished His work, is the sovereign antidote +against all sense of separation and solitude, the sovereign power by +which we may face a hostile world, the sovereign cure for every sorrow. +If we could live in the light of the great triumphant, ascended Lord, +then, Oh, how small would the babble of the world be. If the great +White Throne, and He that sits upon it, were more distinctly before us, +then we could face anything, and sorrow would 'become a solemn scorn of +ills,' and all the transitory would be reduced to its proper +insignificance, and we should be emancipated from fear and every +temptation to unfaithfulness and apostasy. Look up to the Master who +has gone, and as the dying martyr outside the city wall 'saw the +heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing'--having sprung to His feet +to help His poor servant--'at the right hand of God,' so with that +vision in our eyes and the light of that Face flashing upon our faces, +and making them like the angels', we shall be masters of grief and +care, and pain and trial, and enmity and disappointment, and sorrow and +sin, and feel that the absent Christ is the present Christ, and that +the present Christ is the conquering power in us. + +Dear brethren, there is nothing else that will make us victors over the +world and ourselves. If we can grasp Him by our faith and keep +ourselves near Him, then union with Him as of the Vine and the +branches, which will result inevitably in suffering here, will result +as inevitably in joy hereafter. For He will never relax the adamantine +grasp of His strong hand until He raises us to Himself, and 'if so be +that we suffer with Him we shall also be glorified together.' + + + +THE DEPARTING CHRIST AND THE COMING SPIRIT + +'Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go +away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but +if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will +_convince_ the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of +judgment.'--JOHN xvi. 7, 8. + +We read these words in the light of all that has gone after, and to us +they are familiar and almost thread-bare. But if we would appreciate +their sublimity, we must think away nineteen centuries, and all +Christendom, and recall these eleven poor men and their peasant Leader +in the upper room. They were not very wise, nor very strong, and +outside these four walls there was scarcely a creature in the whole +world that had the least belief either in Him or in them. They had +everything against them, and most of all their own hearts. They had +nothing for them but their Master's promise. Their eyes had been dimmed +by their sorrowful hearts, so that they could not see the truth which +He had been trying to reveal to them; and His departure had presented +itself to them only as it affected themselves, and therefore had +brought a sense of loss and desolation. + +And now He bids them think of that departure, as it affects themselves, +as pure gain. 'It is for your profit that I go away.' He explains that +staggering statement by the thought which He has already presented to +them, in varying aspects, of His departure as the occasion for the +coming of that Great Comforter, who, when He is come, will through them +work upon the world, which knows neither them nor Him. They are to go +forth 'as sheep in the midst of wolves,' but in this promise He tells +them that they will become the judges and accusers of the world, which, +by the Spirit dwelling in them, they will be able to overcome, and +convict of error and of fault. + +We must remember that the whole purpose of the words which we are +considering now is the strengthening of the disciples in their conflict +with the world, and that, therefore, the operations of that divine +Spirit which are here spoken of are operations carried on by their +instrumentality and through the word which they spake. With that +explanation we can consider the great words before us. + +I. The first thing that strikes me about them is that wonderful thought +of the gain to Christ's servants from Christ's departure. 'It is +expedient for you that I go away.' + +I need not enlarge here upon what we have had frequent occasion to +remark, the manner in which our Lord here represents the complex whole +of His death and ascension as being His own voluntary act. He 'goes.' +He is neither taken away by death nor rapt up to heaven in a whirlwind, +but of His own exuberant power and by His own will He goes into the +region of the grave and thence to the throne. Contrast the story of His +ascension with that Old Testament story of the ascension of Elijah. One +needed the chariot of fire and the horses of fire to bear him up into +the sphere, all foreign to his mortal and earthly manhood; the Other +needed no outward power to lift Him, nor any vehicle to carry Him from +this dim spot which men call earth, but slowly, serenely, upborne by +His own indwelling energy, and rising as to His native home, He +ascended up on high, and went where the very manner of His going +proclaimed that He had been before. 'If _I go_ away, I will send Him.' + +But that is a digression. What we are concerned with now is the thought +of Christ's departure as being a step in advance, and a positive gain, +even to those poor, bewildered men who were clustering round Him, +depending absolutely upon Himself, and feeling themselves orphaned and +helpless without Him. + +Now if we would feel the full force and singularity of this saying of +our Lord's, let us put side by side with it that other one, 'I have a +desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. +Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.' Why is it +that the Apostle says, 'Though I want to go I am bound to stay?' and +why is it that the Master says, 'It is for your good that I am going,' +but because of the essential difference in the relation of the two to +the people who are to be left, and in the continuance of the work of +the two after they had departed? Paul knew that when he went, whatever +befell those whom he loved and would fain help, he could not stretch a +hand to do anything for them. He knew that death dropped the portcullis +between him and them, and, whatever their sore need on the one side of +the iron gate, he on the other could not succour or save. Jesus Christ +said, 'It is better for you that I should go,' because He knew that all +His influences would flow through the grated door unchecked, and that, +departed, He would still be the life of them that trusted in Him; and, +having left them, would come near them, by the very act of leaving them. + +And so there is here indicated for us--as we shall have occasion to see +more fully, presently,--in that one singular and anomalous fact of +Christ's departure being a positive gain to those that trust in Him, +the singularity and uniqueness of His work for them and His relation to +them. + +The words mean a great deal more than the analogies of our relation to +dear ones or great ones, loves or teachers, who have departed, might +suggest. Of course we all know that it is quite true that death reveals +to the heart the sweetness and the preciousness of the departed ones, +and that its refining touch manifests to our blind eyes what we did not +see so clearly when they were beside us. We all know that it needs +distance to measure men, and the dropping away of the commonplace and +the familiar ere we can see 'the likeness' of our contemporaries 'to +the great of old.' We have to travel across the plains before we can +measure the relative height of the clustered mountains, and discern +which is manifestly the loftiest. And all _this_ is true in reference +to Jesus Christ and His relation to us. But that does not go half-way +towards the understanding of such words as these of my text, which tell +us that so singular and solitary is His relation to us that the thing +which ends the work of all other men, and begins the decay of their +influence, begins for Him a higher form of work and a wider sweep of +sway. He is nearer us when He leaves us, and works with us and in us +more mightily from the throne than He did upon the earth. Who is He of +whom this is true? And what kind of work is it of which it is true that +death continues and perfects it? + +So let me note, before I pass on, that there is a great truth here for +us. We are accustomed to look back to our Lord's earthly ministry, and +to fancy that those who gathered round Him, and heard Him speak, and +saw His deeds, were in a better position for loving Him and trusting +Him than you and I are. It is all a mistake. We have lost nothing that +they had which was worth the keeping; and we have gained a great deal +which they had not. We have not to compare our relation to Christ with +theirs, as we might do our relation to some great thinker or poet, with +that of his contemporaries, but we have Christ in a better form, if I +may so speak; and we, on whom the ends of the world are come, may have +a deeper and a fuller and a closer intimacy with Him than was possible +for men whose perceptions were disturbed by sense, and who had to +pierce through 'the veil, that is to say, His flesh,' before they +reached the Holy of Holies of His spirit. + +II. Note, secondly, the coming for which Christ's going was needful, +and which makes that going a gain. + +'If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart +I will send Him unto you.' Now we have already, in former sermons, +touched upon many of the themes which would naturally be suggested by +these words, and therefore I do not propose to dwell upon them at any +length. There is only one point to which I desire to refer briefly +here, and that is the necessity which here seems to be laid down by our +Lord for His departure, in order that that divine Spirit may come and +dwell with men. That necessity goes down deeper into the mysteries of +the divinity and of the processes and order of divine revelation than +it is given to us to follow. But though we can only speak superficially +and fragmentarily about such a matter, let me just remind you, in the +briefest possible words, of what Scripture plainly declares to us with +regard to this high and, in its fullness, ineffable matter. It tells us +that the complete work of Jesus Christ--not merely His coming upon +earth, or His life amongst men, but also His sacrificial death upon the +Cross--was the necessary preliminary, and in some sense procuring +cause, of the gift of that divine Spirit. It tells us--and there we are +upon ground on which we can more fully verify the statement--that His +work must be completed ere that Spirit can be sent, because the word is +the Spirit's weapon for the world, and the revelation of God in Jesus +must be ended, ere the application of that revelation, which is the +Spirit's work, can be begun in its full energy. + +It tells us, further, (and there our eyesight fails, and we have to +accept what we are told), that Jesus Christ must ascend on high and be +at the right hand of God, ere He can pour down upon men the fullness of +the Spirit which dwelt uncommunicated in Him in the time of His earthly +humiliation. 'Thou hast ascended up on high,' and therefore 'Thou hast +given gifts to men.' We accept the declaration, not knowing all the +deep necessity in the divine Nature on which it rests, but believing +it, because He in whom we have confidence has declared it to us. + +And we are further told--and there our experience may, in some degree, +verify the statement,--that only those, in whose hearts there is union +to Jesus Christ by faith in His completed work and ascended glory, are +capable of receiving that divine gift. So every way, both as regards +the depths of Deity and the processes of revelation, and as regards the +power of the humanity of Christ to impart His Spirit, and as regards +the capacity of us poor recipients to receive it, the words of my text +seem to be confirmed, and we can, though not with full insight, at any +rate with full faith, accept the statement, 'If I go not away, the +Comforter will not come to you.' + +That coming is gain. It teaches a deeper knowledge of Him. It teaches +and gives a fuller possession of the life of righteousness which is +like His own. It draws us into the fellowship of the Son. + +III. Lastly, note here the threefold conflict of the Spirit through the +Church with the world. + +'When He is come He will convict the world' in respect 'of sin and of +righteousness and of judgment.' By the 'reproof,' or rather +'conviction,' which is spoken about here, is meant the process by which +certain facts are borne in upon men's understanding and consciences, +and, along with these facts, the conviction of error and fault in +reference to them. It is no mere process of demonstration of an +intellectual truth, but it is a process of conviction of error in +respect to great moral and religious truth, and of manifestation of the +truths in regard to which the error and the sin have been committed. So +we have here the triple division of the great work which the divine +Spirit does, through Christian men and women, in the world. + +'He shall convict the world of sin.' The outstanding first +characteristic of the whole Gospel message is the new gravity which it +attaches to the fact of sin, the deeper meaning which it gives to the +word, and the larger scope which it shows its blighting influences to +have had in humanity. Apart from the conviction of sin by the Spirit +using the word proclaimed by disciples, the world has scarcely a notion +of what sin is, its inwardness, its universality, the awfulness of it +as a fact affecting man's whole being and all his relations to God. All +these conceptions are especially the product of Christian truth. +Without it, what does the world know about the poison of sin? And what +does it care about the poison until the conviction has been driven home +to the reluctant consciousness of mankind by the Spirit wielding the +word? This conviction comes first in the divine order. I do not say +that the process of turning a man of the world into a member of +Christ's Church always begins, as a matter of fact, with the conviction +of sin. I believe it most generally does so; but without insisting upon +a pedantic adherence to a sequence, and without saying a word about the +depth and intensity of such a conviction, I am here to assert that a +Christianity which is not based upon the conviction of sin is an +impotent Christianity, and will be of very little use to the men who +profess it, and will have no power to propagate itself in the world. +Everything in our conception of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of His +work for us depends upon what we think about this primary fact of man's +condition, that he is a sinful man. The root of all heresy lies there. +Every error that has led away men from Jesus Christ and His Cross may +be traced up to defective notions of sin and a defective realisation of +it. If I do not feel as the Bible would have me feel, that I am a +sinful man, I shall think differently of Jesus Christ and of my need of +Him, and of what He is to me. Christianity may be to me a system of +beautiful ethics, a guide for life, a revelation of much precious +truth, but it will not be the redemptive power without which I am lost. +And Jesus Christ will be shorn of His brightest beams, unless I see Him +as the Redeemer of my soul from sin, which else would destroy and is +destroying it. Is Christianity merely a better morality? Is it merely a +higher revelation of the divine Nature? Or does it _do_ something as +well as _say_ something, and what does it do? Is Jesus Christ only a +Teacher, a Wise Man, an Example, a Prophet, or is He the Sacrifice for +the sins of the world? Oh, brethren, we must begin where this text +begins; and our whole conception of Him and of His work for us must be +based upon this fact, that we are sinful and lost, and that Jesus +Christ, by His sweet and infinite love and all-powerful sacrifice, is +our soul's Redeemer and our only Hope. The world has to be convicted +and convinced of sin as the first step to its becoming a Church. + +The next step of this divine Spirit's conviction is that which +corresponds to the consciousness of sin, the dawning upon the darkened +soul of the blessed sunrise of righteousness. The triple subjects of +conviction must necessarily belong to the world of which our Lord is +speaking. It must be the world that is convinced, and it must be the +world's sin and the world's righteousness and the world's judgment of +which my text speaks. How, then, can there follow on the conviction of +sin as mine a conviction of righteousness as mine? I know but one way, +'Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which +is of God through faith.' When a man is convinced of sin, there will +dawn upon the heart the wondrous thought that a righteousness may be +his, given to him from above, which will sweep away all his sin and +make him righteous as Christ is righteous. That conviction will never +awake in its blessed and hope-giving power unless it be preceded by the +other. It is of no use to exhibit medicine to a man who does not know +himself diseased. It is of no use to talk about righteousness to a man +who has not found himself to be a sinner. And it is of as little use to +talk to a man of sin unless you are ready to tell him of a +righteousness that will cover all his sin. The one conviction without +the other is misery, the second without the first is irrelevant and far +away. + +The world as a world has but dim and inadequate conceptions of what +righteousness is. A Pharisee is its type, or a man that keeps a clean +life in regard to great transgressions; a whited sepulchre of some sort +or other. The world apart from Christ has but languid desires after +even the poor righteousness that it understands, and the world apart +from Christ is afflicted by a despairing scepticism as to the +possibility of ever being righteous at all. And there are men listening +to me now in every one of these three conditions--not caring to be +righteous, not understanding what it is to be righteous, and cynically +disbelieving that it is possible to be so. My brother, here comes the +message to you--first, Thou art sinful; second, God's righteousness +lies at thy side to take and wear if thou wilt. + +The last of these triple convictions is 'judgment.' If there be in the +world these two things both operating, sin and righteousness, and if +the two come together, what then? If there is to be a collision, as +there must be, which will go down? Christ tells us that this divine +Spirit will teach us that righteousness will triumph over sin, and that +there will be a judgment which will destroy that which is the weaker, +though it seems the stronger. Now I take it that the judgment which is +spoken about here is not merely a future retribution beyond the grave, +but that, whilst that is included, and is the principal part of the +idea, we are always to regard the judgment of the hereafter as being +prepared for by the continual judgment here. + +And so there are two thoughts, a blessed one and a terrible one, +wrapped up in that word--a blessed thought for us sinful men, inasmuch +as we may be sure that the divine righteousness, which is given to us, +will judge us and separate us day by day from our sins; and a terrible +thought, inasmuch as if I, a sinful man, do not make friends with and +ally myself to the divine righteousness which is proffered to me, I +shall one day have to front it on the other side of the flood, when the +contact must necessarily be to me destruction. + +Time does not allow me to dwell upon these solemn matters as I fain +would, but let me gather all I have been feebly trying to say to you +now into one sentence. This threefold conviction, in conscience, +understanding, and heart, of sin which is mine, of righteousness which +may be mine, and of judgment which must be mine--this threefold +conviction is that which makes the world into a Church. It is the +message of Christianity to each of us. How do you stand to it? Do you +hearken to the Spirit who is striving to convince you of these? Or do +you gather yourselves together into an obstinate, close-knit unbelief, +or a loose-knit indifference which is as impenetrable? Beware that you +resist not the Spirit of God! + + + +THE CONVICTING FACTS + +'Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of righteousness, because I go +to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of +this world is judged.'--JOHN xvi. 9-11. + +Our Lord has just been telling His disciples how He will equip them, as +His champions, for their conflict with the world. A divine Spirit is +coming to them who will work in them and through them; and by their +simple and unlettered testimony will 'convict,' or convince, the mass +of ungodly men of error and crime in regard to these three things--sin, +righteousness, and judgment. + +He now advances to tell them that this threefold conviction which they, +as counsel for the prosecution, will establish as against the world at +the bar, will be based upon three facts: first, a truth of experience; +second, a truth of history; third, a truth of revelation, all three +facts having reference to Jesus Christ and His relation to men. + +Now these three facts are--the world's unbelief; Christ's ascension and +session at the right hand of God; and the 'judgment of the prince of +this world.' If we remember that what our Lord is here speaking about +is the work of a divine Spirit through the ministration of believing +men, then Pentecost with its thousands 'pricked to the heart,' and the +Roman ruler who trembled, as the prisoner 'reasoned of righteousness +and judgment to come,' are illustrations of the way in which the humble +disciples towered above the pride and strength of the world, and from +criminals at its bar became its accusers. + +These three facts are the staple and the strength of the Christian +ministry. These three facts are misapprehended, and have failed to +produce their right impression, unless they have driven home to our +consciences and understandings the triple conviction of my text. And so +I come to you with the simple questions which are all-important for +each of us: Have you looked these three facts in the face--unbelief, +the ascended Christ, a judged prince of the world, and have you learned +their meaning as it bears on your own character and religious life? + +I. The first point here is the rejection of Jesus Christ as the climax +of the world's sin. + +Strange words! They are in some respects the most striking instance of +that gigantic self-assertion of our Lord, of which we have had occasion +to see so many examples in these valedictory discourses. The world is +full of all unrighteousness and wickedness, lust and immorality, +intemperance, cruelty, hatred; all manner of buzzing evils that stink +and sting around us. But Jesus Christ passes them all by and points to +a mere negative thing, to an inward thing, to the attitude of men +towards Himself; and He says, 'If you want to know what sin is, look at +that!' _There_ is the worst of all sins. There is a typical instance of +what sin is, in which, as in some anatomical preparation, you may see +all its fibres straightened out and made visible. Look at that if you +want to know what the world is, and what the world's sin is. + +Some of us do not think that it is sin at all; and tell us that man is +no more responsible for his belief than he is for the colour of his +hair, and suchlike talk. Well, let me put a very plain question: What +is it that a man turns away from when he turns away from Jesus Christ? +The plainest, the loveliest, the loftiest, the perfectest revelation of +God in His beauty and completeness that ever dawned, or ever will dawn +upon creation. He rejects that. Anything more? Yes! He turns away from +the loveliest human life that ever was, or will be, lived. Anything +more? Yes! He turns away from a miracle of self-sacrificing love, which +endured the Cross for enemies, and willingly embraced agony and shame +and death for the sake of those who inflicted them upon Him. Anything +more? Yes! He turns away from hands laden with, and offering him, the +most precious and needful blessings that a poor soul on earth can +desire or expect. + +And if this be true, if unbelief in Jesus Christ be indeed all this +that I have sketched out, another question arises, What does such an +attitude and act indicate as to the rejector? He stands in the presence +of the loveliest revelation of the divine nature and heart, and he sees +no light in it. Why, but because he has blinded his eyes and cannot +behold? He is incapable of seeing 'God manifest in the flesh,' because +he 'loves the darkness rather than the light.' He turns away from the +revelation of the loveliest and most self-sacrificing love. Why, but +because he bears in himself a heart cased with brass and triple steel +of selfishness, against the manifestation of love? He turns away from +the offered hands heaped with the blessings that he needs. Why, but +because he does not care for the gifts that are offered? Forgiveness, +cleansing, purity a heaven which consists in the perfecting of all +these, have no attractions for him. The fugitive Israelites in the +wilderness said, 'We do not want your light, tasteless manna. It may do +very well for angels, but we have been accustomed to garlic and onions +down in Egypt. They smell strong, and there is some taste in _them_. +Give us _them_.' And so some of you say, 'The offer of pardon is of no +use to me, for I am not troubled with my sin. The offer of purity has +no attraction to me, for I rather like the dirt and wallowing in it. +The offer of a heaven of your sort is but a dreary prospect to me. And +so I turn away from the hands that offer precious things.' The man who +is blind to the God that beams, lambent and loving, upon him in the +face of Jesus Christ--the man who has no stirrings of responsive +gratitude for the great outpouring of love upon the Cross--the man who +does not care for anything that Jesus Christ can give him, surely, in +turning away, commits a real sin. + +I do not deny, of course, that there may be intellectual difficulties +cropping up in connection with the acceptance of the message of +salvation in Jesus Christ, but as, on the one hand, I am free to admit +that many a man may be putting a true trust in Christ which is joined +with a very hesitant grasp of some of the things which, to me, are the +very essence and heart of the Gospel; so, on the other side, I would +have you remember that there is necessarily a moral quality in our +attitude to all moral and religious truth; and that sin does not cease +to be sin because its doer is a thinker or has systematised his +rejection into a creed. Though it is not for us to measure motives and +to peer into hearts, at the bottom there lies what Christ Himself put +His finger on: 'Ye _will_ not come to me that ye might have life.' + +Then, still further, let me remind you that our Lord here presents this +fact of man's unbelief as being an instance in which we may see what +the real nature of sin is. To use learned language, it is a 'typical' +sin. In all other acts of sin you get the poison manipulated into +various forms, associated with other elements, disguised more or less. +But here, because it is purely an inward act having relation to Jesus +Christ, and to God manifested in Him, and not done at the bidding of +the animal nature, or of any of the other strong temptations and +impulses which hurry men into gross and coarse forms of manifest +transgression, you get sin in its essence. Belief in Christ is the +surrender of myself. Sin is living to myself rather than to God. And +there you touch the bottom. All those different kinds of sin, however +unlike they may be to one another--the lust of the sensualist, the +craft of the cheat, the lie of the deceitful, the passion of the +unregulated man, the avarice of the miser--all of them have this one +common root, a diseased and bloated regard to self. The definition of +sin is,--living to myself and making myself my own centre. The +definition of faith is,--making Christ my centre and living for Him. +Therefore, if you want to know what is the sinfulness of sin, there it +is. And if I may use such a word in such a connection, it is all packed +away in its _purest_ form in the act of rejecting that Lord. + +Brother, it is no exaggeration to say that, when you have summoned up +before you the ugliest forms of man's sins that you can fancy, this one +overtops them all, because it presents in the simplest form the +mother-tincture of all sins, which, variously coloured and perfumed and +combined, makes the evil of them all. A heap of rotting, poisonous +matter is offensive to many senses, but the colourless, scentless, +tasteless drop has the poison in its most virulent form, and is not a +bit less virulent, though it has been learnedly distilled and +christened with a scientific name, and put into a dainty jewelled +flask. 'This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, +and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.' +I lay that upon the hearts and consciences of some of my present +hearers as the key to their rejection or disregard of Christ and His +salvation. + +II. Now, secondly, notice the ascension of Jesus Christ as the pledge +and the channel of the world's righteousness--'Because I go to the +Father, and ye see Me no more.' + +He speaks as if the process of departure were already commenced. It had +three stages--death, resurrection, ascension; but these three are all +parts of the one departure. And so He says: 'Because, in the future, +when ye go forth to preach in My name, I shall be there with the +Father, having finished the work for which He sent Me; therefore you +will convince the world of righteousness.' + +Now let me put that briefly in two forms. First of all, the fact of an +ascended Christ is the guarantee and proof of His own complete +fulfilment of the ideal of a righteous man. Or to put it into simpler +words, suppose Jesus Christ is dead; suppose that He never rose from +the grave; suppose that His bones mouldered in some sepulchre; suppose +that there had been no ascension--would it be possible to believe that +He was other than an ordinary man? And would it be possible to believe +that, however beautiful these familiar records of His life, and however +lovely the character which they reveal, there was really in Him no sin +at all? A dead Christ means a Christ who, like the rest of us, had His +limitations and His faults. But, on the other hand, if it be true that +He sprang from the grave because 'it was not possible that He should be +holden of it,' and because in His nature there was no proclivity to +death, since there had been no indulgence in sin; and if it be true +that He ascended up on high because that was His native sphere, and He +rose to it as naturally as the water in the valley will rise to the +height of the hill from which it has descended, then we can see that +God has set His seal upon that life by that resurrection and ascension; +and as we gaze on Him swept up heavenward by His own calm power, a +light falls backward upon all His earthly life, upon His claims to +purity, and to union with the Father, and we say, 'Surely this was a +perfectly righteous Man.' + +And further let me remind you that with the supernatural facts of our +Lord's resurrection and ascension stands or falls the possibility of +His communicating any of His righteousness to us sinful men. If there +be no such possibility, what does Jesus Christ's beauty of character +matter to me? Nothing! I shall have to stumble on as best I can, +sometimes ashamed and rebuked, sometimes stimulated and sometimes +reduced to despair, by looking at the record of His life. If He be +lying dead in a forgotten grave, and hath not 'ascended up on high,' +then there can come from His history and past nothing other in kind, +though, perhaps, a little more in degree, than comes from the history +and the past of the beautiful and white souls that have sometimes lived +in the world. He is a saint like them, He is a teacher like them, He is +a prophet like some of them, and we have but to try our best to copy +that marble purity and white righteousness. But if He hath ascended up +on high, and sits there, wielding the forces of the universe, as we +believe He does, then to Him belongs the divine prerogative of +imparting His nature and His character to them that love Him. Then His +righteousness is not a solitary, uncommunicative perfectness for +Himself, but like a sun in the heavens, which streams out vivifying and +enlightening rays to all that seek His face. If it be true that Christ +has risen, then it is also true that you and I, convicted of sin, and +learning our weakness and our faults, may come to Him, and by the +exercise of that simple and yet omnipotent act of faith, may ally our +incompleteness with His perfectness, our sin with His righteousness, +our emptiness with His fullness, and may have all the grace and the +beauty of Jesus Christ passing over into us to be the Spirit of life in +us, 'making us free from the law of sin and death.' If Christ be risen, +His righteousness may be the world's; if Christ be not risen, His +righteousness is useless to any but to Himself. + +My brother, wed yourself to that dear Lord by faith in Him, and His +righteousness will become yours, and you will be 'found in Him without +spot and blameless,' clothed with white raiment like His own, and +sharing in the Throne which belongs to the righteous Christ. + +III. Lastly, notice the judgment of the world's prince as the prophecy +of the judgment of the world. + +We are here upon ground which is only made known to us by the +revelation of Scripture. We began with a fact of man's experience; we +passed on to a fact of history; now we have a fact certified to us only +on Christ's authority. + +The world _has_ a prince. That ill-omened and chaotic agglomeration of +diverse forms of evil has yet a kind of anarchic order in it, and, like +the fabled serpent's locks on the Gorgon head, they intertwine and +sting one another, and yet they are a unity. We hear very little about +'the prince of the world' in Scripture. Mercifully the existence of +such a being is not plainly revealed until the fact of Christ's victory +over him is revealed. But however ludicrous mediaeval and vulgar +superstitions may have made the notion, and however incredible the +tremendous figure painted by the great Puritan poet has proved to be, +there is nothing ridiculous, and nothing that we have the right to say +is incredible, in the plain declarations that came from Christ's lips +over and over again, that the world, the aggregate of ungodly men, +_has_ a prince. + +And then my text tells us that that prince is 'judged.' The Cross did +that, as Jesus Christ over and over again indicates, sometimes in plain +words, as 'Now is the judgment of this world,' 'Now is the prince of +this world cast out'; sometimes in metaphor, as 'I beheld Satan as +lightning fall from heaven,' 'First bind the strong man and then spoil +his house.' We do not know how far-reaching the influences of the Cross +may be, and what they may have done in those dark regions, but we know +that since that Cross, the power of evil in the world has been broken +in its centre, that God has been disclosed, that new forces have been +lodged in the heart of humanity, which only need to be developed in +order to overcome the evil. We know that since that auspicious day when +'He spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly and +leading them in triumph,' even when He was nailed upon the Cross, the +history of the world has been the judgment of the world. Hoary +iniquities have toppled into the ceaseless washing sea of divine love +which has struck against their bases. Ancient evils have vanished, and +more are on the point of vanishing. A loftier morality, a higher notion +of righteousness, a deeper conception of sin, new hopes for the world +and for men, have dawned upon mankind; and the prince of the world is +led bound, as it were, at the victorious chariot wheels. The central +fortress has been captured, and the rest is an affair of outposts. + +My text has for its last word this--the prince's judgment prophesies +the world's future judgment. The process which began when Jesus Christ +died has for its consummation the divine condemnation of all the evil +that still afflicts humanity, and its deprivation of authority and +power to injure. A final judgment will come, and that it will is +manifested by the fact that Christ, when He came in the form of a +servant and died upon the Cross, judged the prince. When He comes in +the form of a King on the great White Throne He will judge the world +which He has delivered from its prince. + +That thought, my brother, ought to be a hope to us all. Are you glad +when you think that there is a day of judgment coming? Does your heart +leap up when you realise the fact that the righteousness, which is in +the heavens, is sure to conquer and coerce and secure under the hatches +the sin that is riding rampant through the world? It was a joy and a +hope to men who did not know half as much of the divine love and the +divine righteousness as we do. They called upon the rocks and the hills +to rejoice, and the trees of the forest to clap their hands before the +Lord, 'for He cometh to judge the world.' Does your heart throb a glad +Amen to that? + +It ought to be a hope; it is a fear; and there are some of us who do +not like to have the conviction driven home to us, that the end of the +strife between sin and righteousness is that Jesus Christ shall judge +the world and take unto Himself His eternal kingdom. + +But, my friends, hope or fear, it is a fact, as certain in the future, +as the Cross is sure in the past, or the Throne in the present. Let me +ask you this question, the question which Christ has sent all His +servants to ask--Have you loathed your sin? have you opened your heart +to Christ's righteousness? If you have, when men's hearts are failing +them for fear, and they 'call on the rocks and the hills to cover them +from the face of Him that sitteth upon the Throne,' you will 'have a +song as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept,' and lift up your +heads, 'for your redemption draweth nigh.' 'Herein is our love made +perfect, that we may have boldness before Him in the day of judgment.' + + + +THE GUIDE INTO ALL TRUTH + +'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. +Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into +all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall +hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He +shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto +you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that +He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you.'--JOHN xvi. 12-15. + +This is our Lord's last expansion, in these discourses, of the great +promise of the Comforter which has appeared so often in them. First, He +was spoken of simply as dwelling in Christ's servants, without any more +special designation of His work than was involved in the name. Then, +His aid was promised, to remind the Apostles of the facts of Christ's +life, especially of His words; and so the inspiration and authority of +the four Gospels were certified for us. Then He was further promised as +the witness in the disciples to Jesus Christ. And, finally, in the +immediately preceding context, we have His office of 'convincing,' or +convicting, 'the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.' +And now we come to that gracious and gentle work which that divine +Spirit is declared by Christ to do, not only for that little group +gathered round Him then, but for all those who trust themselves to His +guidance. He is to be the 'Spirit of truth' to all the ages, who in +simple verity will help true hearts to know and love the truth. There +are three things in the words before us--first, the avowed +incompleteness of Christ's own teaching; second, the completeness of +the truth into which the Spirit of truth guides; and, last, the unity +of these two. + +I. First, then, we have here the avowed incompleteness of Christ's own +teaching. + +'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.' +Now in an earlier portion of these great discourses, we have our Lord +asserting that '_all_ things whatsoever He had heard of the Father He +had made known' unto His servants. How do these two representations +harmonise? Is it possible to make them agree? Surely, yes. There is a +difference between the germ and the unfolded flower. There is a +difference between principles and the complete development of these. I +suppose you may say that all Euclid is in the axioms and definitions. I +suppose you may also say that when you have learned the axioms and +definitions, there are many things yet to be said, of which you have +not grown to the apprehension. And so our Lord, as far as His frankness +was concerned, and as far as the fundamental and seminal principles of +all religious truth were concerned, had even then declared all that He +had heard of the Father. But yet, in so far as the unfolding of these +was concerned, the tracing of their consequences, the exhibition of +their harmonies, the weaving of them into an ordered whole in which a +man's understanding could lodge, there were many things yet to be said, +which that handful of men were not able to bear. And so our Lord +Himself here declares that His words spoken on earth are not His +completed revelation. + +Of course we find in them, as I believe, hints profound and pregnant, +which only need to be unfolded and smoothed out, as it were, and their +depths fathomed, in order to lead to all that is worthy of being called +Christian truth. But upon many points we cannot but contrast the +desultory, brief, obscure references which came from the Master's lips +with the more systematised, full, and accurate teaching which came from +the servants. The great crucial instance of all is the comparative +reticence which our Lord observed in reference to His sacrificial +death, and the atoning character of His sufferings for the world. I do +not admit that the silence of the Gospels upon that subject is fairly +represented when it is said to be absolute. I believe that that silence +has been exaggerated by those who have no desire to accept that +teaching. But the distinction is plain and obvious, not to be ignored, +rather to be marked as being fruitful of blessed teaching, between the +way in which Christ speaks about His Cross, and the way in which the +Apostles speak about it after Pentecost. + +What then? My text gives us the reason. 'You cannot bear them now.' Now +the word rendered 'bear' here does not mean 'bear' in the sense of +endure, or tolerate, or suffer, but 'bear' in the sense of carry. And +the metaphor is that of some weight--it may be gold, but still it is a +weight--laid upon a man whose muscles are not strong enough to sustain +it. It crushes rather than gladdens. So because they had not strength +enough to carry, had not capacity to receive, our Lord was lovingly +reticent. + +There is a great principle involved in this saying--that revelation is +measured by the moral and spiritual capacities of the men who receive +it. The light is graduated for the diseased eye. A wise oculist does +not flood that eye with full sunshine, but he puts on veils and +bandages, and closes the shutters, and lets a stray beam, ever growing +as the curve is perfected, fall upon it. So from the beginning until +the end of the process of revelation there was a correspondence between +men's capacity to receive the light and the light that was granted; and +the faithful use of the less made them capable of receiving the +greater, and as soon as they were capable of receiving it, it came. 'To +him that hath shall be given.' In His love, then, Christ did not load +these men with principles that they could not carry, nor feed them with +'strong meat' instead of 'milk,' until they were able to bear it. +Revelation is progressive, and Christ is reticent, from regard to the +feebleness of His listeners. + +Now that same principle is true in a modified form about us. How many +things there are which we sometimes feel we should like to know, that +God has not told us, because we have not yet grown up to the point at +which we could apprehend them! Compassed with these veils of flesh and +weakness, groping amidst the shadows of time, bewildered by the +cross-lights that fall upon us from so many surrounding objects, we +have not yet eyes able to behold the ineffable glory. He has many +things to say to us about that blessed future, and that strange and +awful life into which we are to step when we leave this poor world, but +'ye cannot bear them now.' Let us wait with patience until we are ready +for the illumination. For two things go to make revelation, the light +that reveals and the eye that beholds. + +Now one remark before I go further. People tell us, 'Your modern +theology is not in the Gospels.' And they say to us, as if they had +administered a knockdown blow, 'We stick by Jesus, not Paul.' Well, as +I said, I do not admit that there is no 'Pauline' teaching in the +Gospels, but I do confess there is not much. And I say, 'What then?' +Why, this, then--it is exactly what we were to expect; and people who +reject the apostolic form of Christian teaching because it is not found +in the Gospels are flying in the face of Christ's own teaching. You say +you will take His words as the only source of religious truth. You are +going clean contrary to His own words in saying so. Remember that He +proclaimed their incompleteness, and referred us, for the fuller +knowledge of the truth of God, to a subsequent Teacher. + +II. So, secondly, mark here the completeness of the truth into which +the Spirit guides. + +I must trouble you with just a word or two of remark as to the language +of our text. Note the personality, designation, and office of this new +Teacher. 'He,' not '_it_,' He, is the Spirit of truth whose +characteristic and weapon is truth. 'He will guide you'--suggesting a +loving hand put out to lead; suggesting the graciousness, the +gentleness, the gradualness of the teaching. 'Into all truth '--that is +no promise of omniscience, but it is the assurance of gradual and +growing acquaintance with the spiritual and moral truth which is +revealed, such as may be fitly paralleled by the metaphor of men +passing into some broad land, of which there is much still to be +possessed and explored. Not to-day, nor to-morrow, will all the truth +belong to those whom the Spirit guides; but if they are true to His +guidance, 'to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant,' and +the land will all be traversed at the last. 'He shall not speak of +Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak.' Mark the +parallel between the relation of the Spirit-Teacher to Jesus, and the +relation of Jesus to the Father. Of Him, too, it is said by Himself, +'All things whatsoever I have heard of the Father I have declared unto +you.' The mark of Satan is, 'He speaketh of his own'; the mark of the +divine Teacher is, 'He speaketh not of Himself, but whatsoever things,' +in all their variety, in their continuity, in their completeness, 'He +shall hear,'--where? yonder in the depths of the Godhead--'whatsoever +things He shall hear there,' He shall show to you, and especially, 'He +will show you the things that are to come.' These Apostles were living +in a revolutionary time. Men's hearts were 'failing them for fear of +the things that were coming on the earth.' Step by step they would be +taught the evolving glory of that kingdom which they were to be the +instruments in founding; and step by step there would be spread out +before them the vision of the future and all the wonder that should be, +the world that was to come, the new constitution which Christ was to +establish. + +Now, if that be the interpretation, however inadequate, of these great +and wonderful words, there are but two things needful to say about +them. One is that this promise of a complete guidance into truth +applies in a peculiar and unique fashion to the original hearers of it. +I ventured to say that one of the other promises of the Spirit, which I +quoted in my introductory remarks, was the certificate to us of the +inspiration and reliableness of these Four Gospels. And I now remark +that in these words, in their plain and unmistakable meaning, there lie +involved the inspiration and authority of the Apostles as teachers of +religious truth. Here we have the guarantee for the authority over our +faith, of the words which came from these men, and from the other who +was added to their number on the Damascus road. They were guided 'into +_all_ the truth,' and so our task is to receive the truth into which +they were guided. + +The Acts of the Apostles is the best commentary on these words of my +text. There you see how these men rose at once into a new region; how +the truths about their Master which had been bewildering puzzles to +them flashed into light; how the Cross, which had baffled and dispersed +them, became at once the centre of union for themselves and for the +world; how the obscure became lucid, and Christ's death and the +resurrection stood forth to them as the great central facts of the +world's salvation. In the book of the Apocalypse we have part of the +fulfilment of this closing promise: 'He will show you things to come'; +when the Seer was 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day,' and the heavens +were opened, and the history of the Church (whether in chronological +order, or in the exhibition of symbols of the great forces which shall +be arrayed for and against it, over and over again, to the end of time, +does not at present matter), was spread before Him as a scroll. + +Now, dear friends, this great principle of my text has a modified +application also to us all. For that divine Spirit is given to each of +us if we will use Him, is given to any and every man who desires Him, +does dwell in Christian hearts, though, alas! so many of us are so +little conscious of Him, and does teach us the truth which Christ +Himself left incomplete. + +Only let me make one remark here. We do not stand on the same level as +these men who clustered round Christ on His road to Gethsemane, and +received the first fruits of the promise--the Spirit. They, taught by +that divine Guide and by experience, were led into the deeper +apprehension of the words and the deeds, of the life and the death, of +Jesus Christ our Lord. We, taught by that same Spirit, are led into a +deeper apprehension of the words which they spake, both in recording +and interpreting the facts of Christ's life and death. + +And so we come sharp up to this, 'If any man thinketh himself to be a +prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I +speak unto him are the commandments of the Lord.' That is how an +Apostle put his relation to the other possessors of the divine Spirit. +And you and I have to take this as the criterion of all true possession +of the Spirit of God, that it bows in humble submission to the +authoritative teaching of this book. + +III. Lastly, we have here our Lord pointing out the unity of these two. + +In the verse on which I have just been commenting He says nothing about +Himself, and it might easily appear to the listeners as if these two +sources of truth, His own incomplete teaching, and the full teaching of +the divine Spirit, were independent of, if not opposed to, one another. +So in the last words of our text He shows us the blending of the two +streams, the union of the two beams. + +'He shall glorify Me.' Think of a _man_ saying that! The Spirit who +will come from God and 'guide men into all truth' has for His +distinctive office the glorifying of Jesus Christ. So fair is He, so +good, so radiant, that to make Him known _is_ to glorify Him. The +glorifying of Christ is the ultimate and adequate purpose of everything +that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has done, because the +glorifying of Christ is the glorifying of God, and the blessing of the +eyes that behold His glory. + +'For He shall take of Mine, and show it unto you.' All which that +divine Spirit brings is Christ's. So, then, there is no new revelation, +only the interpretation of the revelation. The text is given, and its +last word was spoken, when 'the cloud received Him out of their sight,' +and henceforward all is commentary. The Spirit takes of Christ's; +applies the principles, unfolds the deep meaning of words and deeds, +and especially the meaning of the mystery of the Cradle, and the +tragedy of the Cross, and the mystery of the Ascension, as declaring +that Christ is the Son of God, the Sacrifice for the world. Christ +said, 'I am the Truth.' Therefore, when He promises, 'He will guide you +into all the truth,' we may fairly conclude that 'the truth' into which +the Spirit guides is the personal Christ. It is the whole Christ, the +whole truth, that we are to receive from that divine Teacher; growing +up day by day into the capacity to grasp Christ more firmly, to +understand Him better, and by love and trust and obedience to make Him +more entirely our own. We are like the first settlers upon some great +island-continent. There is a little fringe of population round the +coast, but away in the interior are leagues of virgin forests and +fertile plains stretching to the horizon, and snow-capped summits +piercing the clouds, on which no foot has ever trod. 'He will guide you +into all truth'; through the length and breadth of the boundless land, +the person and the work of Jesus Christ our Lord. + +'All things that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said I that He +shall take of Mine and show it unto you.' What awful words! A divine, +teaching Spirit can only teach concerning God. Christ here explains the +paradox of His words preceding, in which, if He were but human, He +seems to have given that teaching Spirit an unworthy office, by +explaining that whatsoever is His is God's, and whatsoever is God's is +His. + +My brother! do you believe that? Is that what you think about Jesus +Christ? He puts out here an unpresumptuous hand, and grasps all the +constellated glories of the divine Nature, and says, 'They are Mine'; +and the Father looks down from heaven and says, 'Son! Thou art ever +with Me, and all that I have is Thine.' Do you answer, 'Amen! I believe +it?' + +Here are three lessons from these great words which I leave with you +without attempting to unfold them. One is, Believe a great deal more +definitely in, and seek a great deal more consciously and earnestly, +and use a great deal more diligently and honestly, that divine Spirit +who is given to us all. I fear me that over very large tracts of +professing Christendom to-day men stand up with very faltering lips and +confess, 'I believe in the Holy Ghost.' Hence comes much of the +weakness of our modern Christianity, of the worldliness of professing +Christians, 'and when for the time they ought to be teachers, they have +need that one teach them again which be the first principles of the +oracles of God.' 'Quench not, grieve not, despise not the Holy Spirit.' + +Another lesson is, Use the Book that He uses--else you will not grow, +and He will have no means of contact with you. + +And the last is, Try the spirits. If anything calling itself Christian +teaching comes to you and does not glorify Christ, it is +self-condemned. For none can exalt Him highly enough, and no teaching +can present Him too exclusively and urgently as the sole Salvation and +Life of the whole earth, And if it be, as my text tells us, that the +great teaching Spirit is to come, who is to 'guide us into all truth,' +and therein is to glorify Christ, and to show us the things that are +His, then it is also true, 'Hereby know we the Spirit of God. Every +spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of +God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in +the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist.' + + + +CHRIST'S 'LITTLE WHILES' + +'A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, +and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of His +disciples among themselves, What is this that He saith unto us, A +little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and +ye shall see Me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, +What is this that He saith, A little while? we cannot tell what He +saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto +them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, +and ye shall not see Me: and again a little while, and ye shall see +Me?'--JOHN xvi. 16-19. + +A superficial glance at the former part of these verses may fail to +detect their connection with the great preceding promise of the Spirit +who is to guide the disciples 'into all truth.' They appear to stand +quite isolated and apart from that. But a little thought will bring out +an obvious connection. The first words of our text are really the +climax and crown of the promise of the Spirit; for that Spirit is to +'guide into all the truth' by declaring to the disciples the things +that are Christ's, and in consequence of that ministration, they are to +be able to see their unseen Lord. So this is the loftiest thought of +what the divine Spirit does for the Christian heart, that it shows Him +a visible though absent Christ. + +Then we have in the subsequent part of our text the blundering of the +bewildered disciples and the patient answer of the long-suffering +Teacher. So that there are these three points to take up: the times of +disappearance and of sight; the bewildered disciples; and the patient +Teacher. + +I. First of all, then, note the deep teaching of our Lord here, about +the times of disappearance and of Sight. + +The words are plain enough; the difficulty lies in the determination of +the periods to which they refer. He tells us that, after a brief +interval from the time at which He was speaking, there would come a +short parenthesis during which He was not to be seen; and that upon +that would follow a period of which no end is hinted at, during which +He is to be seen. The two words employed in the two consecutive +clauses, for 'sight,' are not the same, and so they naturally suggest +some difference in the manner of vision. + +But the question arises, Where are the limits of these times of which +the Lord speaks? Now it is quite clear, I suppose, that the first of +the 'little whiles' is the few hours that intervened between His +speaking and the Cross. And it is equally clear that His death and +burial began, at all events, the period during which they were not to +see Him. But where does the second period begin, during which they are +to see Him? Is it at His resurrection or at His ascension, when the +process of 'going to the Father' was completed in all its stages; or at +Pentecost, when the Spirit, by whose ministration He was to be made +visible, was poured out? The answer is, perhaps, not to be restricted +to any one of these periods; but I think if we consider that all +disciples, in all ages, have a portion in all the rest of these great +discourses, and if we note the absence of any hint that the promised +seeing of Christ was ever to terminate, and if we mark the diversity of +words under which the two manners of vision are described, and, above +all, if we note the close connection of these words with those which +precede, we shall come to the conclusion that the full realisation of +this great promise of a visible Christ did not begin until that time +when the Spirit, poured out, opened the eyes of His servants, and 'they +saw His glory.' But however we settle the minor question of the +chronology of these periods, the great truth shines out here that, +through all the stretch of the ages, true hearts may truly see the true +Christ. + +If we might venture to suppose that in our text the second of the +periods to which He refers, when they did not see Him, was not +coterminous with, but preceded, the second 'little while,' all would be +clear. Then the first 'little while' would be the few hours before the +Cross. 'Ye shall not see Me' would refer to the days in which He lay in +the tomb. 'Again, a little while' would point to that strange +transitional period between His death and His ascension, in which the +disciples had neither the close intercourse of earlier days nor the +spiritual communion of later ones. And the final period, 'Ye shall see +Me,' would cover the whole course of the centuries till He comes again. + +However that may be, and I only offer it as a possible suggestion, the +thing that we want to fasten upon for ourselves is this--we all, if we +will, may have a vision of Christ as close, as real, as firmly +certifying us of His reality, and making as vivid an impression upon +us, as if He stood there, visible to our senses. And so, 'by this +vision splendid' we may 'be everywhere attended,' and whithersoever we +go, have burning before us the light of His countenance, in the +sunshine of which we shall walk. + +Brother! that is personal Christianity--to see Jesus Christ, and to +live with the thrilling consciousness, printed deep and abiding upon +our spirits, that, in very deed, He is by our sides. O how that +conviction would make life strong and calm and noble and blessed! How +it would lift us up above temptation! 'He endured as seeing Him who is +Invisible.' What should terrify us if Christ stood before us? What +should charm us if we saw Him? Competing glories and attractions would +fade before His presence, as a dim candle dies at noon. It would make +all life full of a blessed companionship. Who could be solitary if he +saw Christ? or feel that life was dreary if that Friend was by his +side? It would fill our hearts with joy and strength, and make us +evermore blessed by the light of His countenance. + +And how are we to get that vision? Remember the connection of my text. +It is because there is a divine Spirit to show men the things that are +Christ's that therefore, unseen, He is visible to the eye of faith. And +therefore the shortest and directest road to the vision of Jesus is the +submitting of heart and mind and spirit to the teaching of that divine +Spirit, who uses the record of the Scriptures as the means by which He +makes Jesus Christ known to us. + +But besides this waiting upon that divine Teacher, let me remind you +that there are conditions of discipline which must be fulfilled upon +our parts, if any clear vision of Jesus Christ is to bless us pilgrims +in this lonely world. And the first of these conditions is--If you want +to see Jesus Christ, think about Him. Occupy your minds with Him. If +men in the city walk the pavements with their eyes fixed upon the +gutters, what does it matter though all the glories of a sunset are +dyeing the western sky? They will see none of them; and if Christ stood +beside you, closer to you than any other, if your eyes were fixed upon +the trivialities of this poor present, you would not see Him. If you +honestly want to see Christ, meditate upon Him. + +And if you want to see Him, shut out competing objects, and the +dazzling cross-lights that come in and hide Him from us. There must be +a 'looking _off_ unto Jesus.' There must be a rigid limitation, if not +excision, of other objects, if we are to grasp Him. If we would see, +and have our hearts filled with, the calm sublimity of the solemn, +white wedge that lifts itself into the far-off blue, we must not let +our gaze stop on the busy life of the valleys or the green slopes of +the lower Alps, but must lift it and keep it fixed aloft. Meditate upon +Him, and shut out other things. + +If you want to see Christ, do His will. One act of obedience has more +power to clear a man's eyes than hours of idle contemplation; and one +act of disobedience has more power to dim his eyes than anything +besides. It is in the dusty common road that He draws near to us, and +the experience of those disciples that journeyed to Emmaus may be ours. +He meets us in the way, and makes 'our hearts burn within us.' The +experience of the dying martyr outside the city gate may be ours. +Sorrows and trials will rend the heavens if they be rightly borne, and +so we shall see Christ 'standing at the right hand of God.' Rebellious +tears blind our eyes, as Mary's did, so that she did not know the +Master and took Him for 'the gardener.' Submissive tears purge the eyes +and wash them clean to see His face. To do His will is the sovereign +method for beholding His countenance. + +Brethren, is this our experience? You professing Christians, do you see +Christ? Are your eyes fixed upon Him? Do you go through life with Him +consciously nearer to you than any beside? Is He closer than the +intrusive insignificances of this fleeting present? Have you Him as +your continual Companion? Oh! when we contrast the difference between +the largeness of this promise--a promise of a thrilling consciousness +of His presence, of a vivid perception of His character, of an +unwavering certitude of His reality--and the fly-away glimpses and +wandering sight, and faint, far-off views, as of a planet weltering +amid clouds, which the most of Christian men have of Christ, what shame +should cover our faces, and how we should feel that if we have not the +fulfilment, it is our own fault! Blessed they of whom it is true that +they see 'no man any more save Jesus only'! and to whom all sorrow, +joy, care, anxiety, work, and repose are but the means of revealing +that sweet and all-sufficient Presence! 'I have set the Lord always +before me, therefore I shall not be moved.' + +II. Now notice, secondly, these bewildered disciples. + +We find, in the early portion of these discourses, that twice they +ventured to interrupt our Lord with more or less relevant questions, +but as the wonderful words flowed on, they seem to have been awed into +silence; and our Lord Himself almost complains of them that 'None of +you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou?' The inexhaustible truths that He +had spoken seem to have gone clear over their heads, but the verbal +repetition of the 'little whiles,' and the recurring ring of the +sentences, seem to have struck upon their ears. So passing by all the +great words, they fasten upon this minor thing, and whisper among +themselves, perhaps lagging behind on the road, as to what He means by +these 'little whiles.' The Revised Version is probably correct, or at +least it has strong manuscript authority in its favour, in omitting the +clause in our Lord's words, 'Because I go to the Father.' The disciples +seem to have quoted, not from the preceding verse, but from a verse a +little before that in the context, where He said that 'the Spirit will +convince the world of righteousness because I go to My Father, and ye +see Me no more.' The contradiction seems to strike them. + +These disciples in their bewilderment seem to me to represent some very +common faults which we all commit in our dealing with the Lord's words, +and to one or two of these I turn for a moment. + +Note this to begin with, how they pass by the greater truths in order +to fasten upon a smaller outstanding difficulty. They have no questions +to ask about the gifts of the Spirit, nor about the unity of Christ and +His disciples as represented in the vine and the branches, nor about +what He tells them of the love that 'lays down its life for its +friends.' But when He comes into the region of chronology, they are all +agog to know the 'when' about which He is so enigmatically speaking. + +Now is not that exactly like us, and does not the Christianity of this +day very much want the hint to pay most attention to the greatest +truths, and let the little difficulties fall into their subordinate +place? The central truths of Christianity are the incarnation and +atonement of Jesus Christ. And yet outside questions, altogether +subordinate and, in comparison with this, unimportant, are filling the +attention and the thoughts of people at present to such an extent that +there is great danger of the central truth of all being either passed +by, or the reception of it being suspended on the clearing up of +smaller questions. + +The truth that Christ is the Son of God, who has died for our +salvation, is the heart of the Gospel. And why should we make our faith +in that, and our living by it, contingent on the clearing up of certain +external and secondary questions; chronological, historical, critical, +philological, scientific, and the like? And why should men be so +occupied in jangling about the latter as that the towering supremacy, +the absolute independence, of the former should be lost sight of? What +would you think of a man in a fire who, when they brought the +fire-escape to him, said, 'I decline to trust myself to it, until you +first of all explain to me the principles of its construction; and, +secondly, tell me all about who made it; and, thirdly, inform me where +all the materials of which it is made came from?' But that is very much +what a number of people are doing to-day in reference to 'the Gospel of +our salvation,' when they demand that the small questions--on which the +central verity does not at all depend--shall be answered and settled +before they cast themselves upon that. + +Another of the blunders of these disciples, in which they show +themselves as our brethren, is that they fling up the attempt to +apprehend the obscurity in a very swift despair. 'We cannot tell what +He saith, and we are not going to try any more. It is all cloud-land +and chaos together.' + +Intellectual indolence, spiritual carelessness, deal thus with +outstanding difficulties, abandoning precipitately the attempt to grasp +them or that which lies behind them. And yet although there are no +gratuitous obscurities in Christ's teaching, He said a great many +things which could not possibly be understood at the time, in order +that the disciples might stretch up towards what was above them, and, +by stretching up, might grow. I do not think that it is good to break +down the children's bread too small. A wise teacher will now and then +blend with the utmost simplicity something that is just a little in +advance of the capacity of the listener, and so encourage a little hand +to stretch itself out, and the arm to grow because it is stretched. If +there are no difficulties there is no effort, and if there is no effort +there is no growth. Difficulties are there in order that we may grapple +with them, and truth is sometimes hidden in a well in order that we may +have the blessing of the search, and that the truth found after the +search may be more precious. The tropics, with their easy, luxuriant +growth, where the footfall turns up the warm soil, grow languid men, +and our less smiling latitude grows strenuous ones. Thank God that +everything is not easy, even in that which is meant for the revelation +of all truth to all men! Instead of turning tail at the first fence, +let us learn that it will do us good to climb, and that the fence is +there in order to draw forth our effort. + +There is another point in which these bewildered disciples are +uncommonly like the rest of us; and that is that they have no patience +to wait for time and growth to solve the difficulty. They want to know +all about it now, or not at all. If they would wait for six weeks they +would understand, as they did. Pentecost explained it all. We, too, are +often in a hurry. There is nothing that the ordinary mind, and often +the educated mind, detests so much as uncertainty, and being +consciously baffled by some outstanding difficulty. And in order to +escape that uneasiness, men are dogmatical when they should be +doubtful, and positively asserting when it would be a great deal more +for the health of their souls and of their listeners to say, 'Well, +really I do not know, and I am content to wait.' So, on both sides of +great controversies, you get men who will not be content to let things +wait, for all must be made clear and plain to-day. + +Ah, brethren! for ourselves, for our own intellectual difficulties, and +for the difficulties of the world, there is nothing like time and +patience. The mysteries that used to plague us when we were boys melted +away when we grew up. And many questions which trouble me to-day, and +through which I cannot find my way, if I lay them aside, and go about +my ordinary duties, and come back to them to-morrow with a fresh eye +and an unwearied brain, will have straightened themselves out and +become clear. We grow into our best and deepest convictions, we are not +dragged into them by any force of logic. So for our own sorrows, +questions, pains, griefs, and for all the riddle of this painful world, + + 'Take it on trust a little while, + Thou soon shalt read the mystery right, + In the full sunshine of His smile.' + +III. Lastly, and very briefly, a word about the patient Teacher. + +'Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him.' He knows all our +difficulties and perplexities. Perhaps it is His supernatural knowledge +that is indicated in the words before us, or perhaps it is merely that +He saw them whispering amongst themselves and so inferred their wish. +Be that as it may, we may take the comfort that we have to do with a +Teacher who accurately understands how much we understand and where we +grope, and will shape His teaching according to our necessities. + +He had not a word of rebuke for the slowness of their apprehension. He +might well have said to them, 'O fools and slow of heart to believe!' +But that word was not addressed to them then, though two of them +deserved it and got it, after events had thrown light on His teaching. +He never rebukes us for either our stupidity or for our carelessness, +but 'has long patience' with us. + +He does give them a kind of rebuke. 'Do ye inquire _among yourselves_?' +That is a hopeful source to go to for knowledge. Why did they not ask +Him, instead of whispering and muttering there behind Him, as if two +people equally ignorant could help each other to knowledge? Inquiry +'among yourselves' is folly; to ask Him is wisdom. We can do much for +one another, but the deepest riddles and mysteries can only be wisely +dealt with in one way. Take them to Him, tell Him about them. Told to +Him, they often dwindle. They become smaller when they are looked at +beside Him, and He will help us to understand as much as may be +understood, and patiently to wait and leave the residue unsolved, until +the time shall come when 'we shall know even as we are known.' + +In the context here, Jesus Christ does not explain to the disciples the +precise point that troubled them. Olivet and Pentecost were to do that; +but He gives them what will tide them over the time until the +explanation shall come, in triumphant hopes of a joy and peace that are +drawing near. + +And so there is a great deal in all our lives, in His dealings with us, +in His revelation of Himself to us, that must remain mysterious and +unintelligible. But if we will keep close to Him, and speak plainly to +Him in prayer and communion about our difficulties, He will send us +triumphant hope and large confidence of a coming joy, that will float +us over the bar and make us feel that the burden is no longer painful +to carry. Much that must remain dark through life will be lightened +when we get yonder; for the vision here is not perfect, and the +knowledge here is as imperfect as the vision. + +Dear friends! the one question for us all is, Do our eyes fix and +fasten on that dear Lord, and is it the description of our own whole +lives, that we see Him and walk with Him? Oh! if so, then life will be +blessed, and death itself will be but as 'a little while' when we +'shall not see Him,' and then we shall open our eyes and behold Him +close at hand, whom we saw from afar, and with wandering eyes, amidst +the mists and illusions of earth. To see Him as He became for our sakes +is heaven on earth. To see Him as He is will be the heaven of heaven, +and before that Face, 'as the sun shining in His strength,' all +sorrows, difficulties, and mysteries will melt as morning mists. + + + +SORROW TURNED INTO JOY + +'Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the +world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall +be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because +her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she +remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the +world. And ye now, therefore, have sorrow; but I will see you again, +and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from +you.'-JOHN xvi. 20-22. + +These words, to which we have come in the ordinary course of our +exposition, make an appropriate text for Easter Sunday. For their one +theme is the joy which began upon that day, and was continued in +increasing measure as the possession of Christ's servants after +Pentecost. Our Lord promises that the momentary sadness and pain shall +be turned into a swift and continual joy. He pledges His word for that, +and bids us believe it on His bare word. He illustrates it by that +tender and beautiful image which, in the pains and bliss of motherhood, +finds an analogy for the pains and bliss of the disciples, inasmuch as, +in both cases, pain leads directly to blessedness in which it is +forgotten. And He crowns His great promises by explaining to us what is +the deepest foundation of our truest gladness, 'I will see you again,' +and by declaring that such a joy is independent of all foes and all +externals, 'and your joy no man taketh from you.' + +There are, then, two or three aspects of the Christian life as a glad +life which are set before us in these words, and to which I ask your +attention. + +I. There is, first, the promise of a joy which is a transformed sorrow. + +'Your sorrow shall be turned into joy,' not merely that the one emotion +is substituted for the other, but that the one emotion, as it were, +becomes the other. This can only mean that _that_, which was the cause +of the one, reverses its action and becomes the cause of the opposite. +Of course the historical and immediate fulfilment of these words lies +in the double result of Christ's Cross upon His servants. For part of +three dreary days it was the occasion of their sorrow, their panic, +their despair; and then, all at once, when with a bound the mighty fact +of the resurrection dawned upon them, that which had been the occasion +for their deep grief, for their apparently hopeless despair, suddenly +became the occasion for a rapture beyond their dreams, and a joy which +would never pass. The Cross of Christ, which for some few hours was +pain, and all but ruin, has ever since been the centre of the deepest +gladness and confidence of a thousand generations. + +I do not need to remind you, I suppose, of the value, as a piece of +evidence of the historical veracity of the Gospel story, of this sudden +change and complete revolution in the sentiments and emotions of that +handful of disciples. What was it that lifted them out of the pit? What +was it that revolutionised in a moment their notions of the Cross and +of its bearing upon them? What was it that changed downhearted, +despondent, and all but apostate, disciples into heroes and martyrs? It +was the one fact which Christendom commemorates to-day: the +resurrection of Jesus Christ. That was the element, added to the dark +potion, which changed it all in a moment into golden flashing light. +The resurrection was what made the death of Christ no longer the +occasion for the dispersion of His disciples, but bound them to Him +with a closer bond. And I venture to say that, unless the first +disciples were lunatics, there is no explanation of the changes through +which they passed in some eight-and-forty hours, except the +supernatural and miraculous fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ +from the dead. That set a light to the thick column of smoke, and made +it blaze up a 'pillar of fire.' That changed sorrow into joy. The same +death which, before the resurrection, drew a pall of darkness over the +heavens, and draped the earth in mourning, by reason of that +resurrection which swept away the cloud and brought out the sunshine, +became the source of joy. A dead Christ was the Church's despair; a +dead and risen Christ is the Church's triumph, because He is 'the +Christ that died... and is alive for evermore.' + +But, more generally, let me remind you how this very same principle, +which applies directly and historically to the resurrection of our +Lord, may be legitimately expanded so as to cover the whole ground of +devout men's sorrows and calamities. Sorrow is the first stage, of +which the second and completed stage is transformation into joy. Every +thundercloud has a rainbow lying in its depths when the sun smites upon +it. Our purest and noblest joys are transformed sorrows. The sorrow of +contrite hearts becomes the gladness of pardoned children; the sorrow +of bereaved, empty hearts may become the gladness of hearts filled with +God; and every grief that stoops upon our path may be, and will be, if +we keep near that dear Lord, changed into its own opposite, and become +the source of blessedness else unattainable. Every stroke of the +bright, sharp ploughshare that goes through the fallow ground, and +every dark winter's day of pulverising frost and lashing tempest and +howling wind, are represented in the broad acres, waving with the +golden grain. All your griefs and mine, brother, if we carry them to +the Master, will flash up into gladness and be "turned into joy." + +II. Still further, another aspect here of the glad life of the true +Christian is, that it is a joy founded upon the consciousness that +Christ's eye is upon us. + +'I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice.' In other parts of +these closing discourses the form of the promise is the converse of +this, as for instance--'Yet a little while, and ye shall see _Me_.' +Here Christ lays hold of the thought by the other handle, and says, +'_I_ will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice.' Now these two +forms of putting the same mutual relationship, of course, agree, in +that they both of them suggest, as the true foundation of the +blessedness which they promise, the fact of communion with a present +Lord. But they differ from one another in colouring, and in the +emphasis which they place upon the two parts of that communion. '_Ye_ +shall see _Me_' fixes attention upon us and our perception of Him. '_I_ +will see you' fixes attention rather upon Him and His beholding of us. +'Ye shall see Me' speaks of our going out after Him and being satisfied +in Him. 'I will see you' speaks of His perfect knowledge, of His loving +care, of His tender, compassionate, complacent, ever-watchful eye +resting upon us, in order that He may communicate to us all needful +good. + +And so it requires a loving heart on our part, in order to find joy in +such a promise. 'His eyes are as a flame of fire,' and He sees all men; +but unless our hearts cleave to Him and we know ourselves to be knit to +Him by the tender bond of love from Him, accepted and treasured in our +souls, then 'I will see you again' is a threat and not a promise. It +depends upon the relation which we bear to Him, whether it is +blessedness or misery to think that He whose flaming eye reads all +men's sins and pierces through all hypocrisies and veils has it fixed +upon us. The sevenfold utterance of His words to the Asiatic +churches-the last recorded words of Jesus Christ-begins with 'I know +thy works.' It was no joy to the lukewarm professors at Laodicea, nor +to the church at Ephesus which had lost the freshness of its early +love, that the Master knew them; but to the faithful souls in +Philadelphia, and to the few in Sardis, who 'had not defiled their +garments,' it was blessedness and life to feel that they walked in the +sunshine of His face. + +Is there any joy to us in the thought that the Lord Christ sees us? Oh! +if our hearts are really His, if our lives are as truly built on Him as +our profession of being Christians alleges that they are, then all that +we need for the satisfaction of our nature, for the supply of our +various necessities, or as an armour against temptation, and an amulet +against sorrow, will be given to us, in the belief that His eye is +fixed upon us. _There_ is the foundation of the truest joy for men. +'There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift Thou up +the light of Thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my +heart more than in the time when their corn and their wine abound.' One +look _towards_ Christ will more than repay and abolish earth's sorrow. +One look _from_ Christ will fill our hearts with sunshine. All tears +are dried on eyes that meet His. Loving hearts find their heaven in +looking into one another's faces, and if Christ be our love, our +deepest and purest joys will be found in His glance and our answering +gaze. + +If one could anyhow take a bit of the Arctic world and float it down +into the tropics, the ice would all melt, and the white dreariness +would disappear, and a new splendour of colour and of light would +clothe the ground, and an unwonted vegetation would spring up where +barrenness had been. And if you and I will only float our lives +southward beneath the direct vertical rays of that great 'Sun of +Righteousness,' then all the dreary winter and ice of our sorrows will +melt, and joy will spring. Brother! the Christian life is a glad life, +because Christ, the infinite and incarnate Lover of our souls, looks +upon the heart that loves and trusts Him. + +III. Still further, note how our Lord here sets forth His disciples' +joy as beyond the reach of violence and independent of externals. + +'No man taketh it from you.' Of course, that refers primarily to the +opposition and actual hostility of the persecuting world, which that +handful of frightened men were very soon to face; and our Lord assures +them here that, whatsoever the power of the devil working through the +world may be able to filch away from them, it cannot filch away the joy +that He gives. But we may extend the meaning beyond that reference. + +Much of our joy, of course, depends upon our fellows, and disappears +when they fade away from our sight and we struggle along in a solitude, +made the more dreary because of remembered companionship. And much of +our joy depends upon the goodwill and help of our fellows, and they can +snatch away all that so depends. They can hedge up our road and make it +uncomfortable and sad for us in many ways, but no man but myself can +put a roof over my head to shut me out from God and Christ; and as long +as I have a clear sky overhead, it matters very little how high may be +the walls that foes or hostile circumstances pile around me, and how +close they may press upon me. And much of our joy necessarily depends +upon and fluctuates with external circumstances of a hundred different +kinds, as we all only too well know. But we do not need to have all our +joy fed from these surface springs. We may dig deeper down if we like. +If we are Christians, we have, like some beleaguered garrison in a +fortress, a well in the courtyard that nobody can get at, and which +never can run dry. 'Your joy no man taketh from you.' + +As long as we have Christ, we cannot be desolate. If He and I were +alone in the universe, or, paradoxical as it may sound, if He and I +were alone, and the universe were not, I should have all that I needed +and my joy would be full, if I loved Him as I ought to do. + +So, my brother! let us see to it that we dig deep enough for the +foundation of our blessedness, and that it is on Christ and nothing +less infinite, less eternal, less unchangeable, that we repose for the +inward blessedness which nothing outside of us can touch. That is the +blessedness which we may all possess, 'For I am persuaded that neither +death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things +present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other +creature, shall be able to separate us' from the eye and the heart of +the risen Christ who lives for us. But remember, though externals have +no power to rob us of our joy, they have a very formidable power to +interfere with the cultivation of that faith, which is the essential +condition of our joy. They cannot force us away from Christ, but they +may tempt us away. The sunshine did for the traveller in the old fable +what the storm could not do; and the world may cause you to think so +much about it that you forget your Master. Its joys may compel Him to +hide His face, and may so fill your eyes that you do not care to look +at His face; and so the sweet bond may be broken, and the consciousness +of a living, loving Jesus may fade, and become filmy and unsubstantial, +and occasional and interrupted. Do you see to it that what the world +cannot do by violence and directly, it does not do by its harlot kisses +and its false promises, tempting you away from the paths where alone +you can meet your Master. + +IV. Lastly, note that this life of joy, which our Lord here speaks of, +is made certain by the promise of a faithful Christ. + +'Verily, verily, I say unto you,'--He was accustomed to use that +impressive and solemn formula, when He was about to speak words beyond +the reach of human wisdom to discover, or of prime importance for men +to accept and believe. He tells these men, who had nothing but His bare +word to rely upon, that the astonishing thing which He is going to +promise them will certainly come to pass. He would encourage them to +rest an unfaltering confidence, for the brief parenthesis of sorrow, +upon His faithful promise of joy. He puts His own character, so to +speak, in pawn. His words are precisely equivalent in meaning to the +solemn Old Testament words which are represented as being the oath of +God, 'As I live saith the Lord,' 'You may be as sure of this thing as +you are of My divine existence, for all My divine Being is pledged to +you to bring it about.' 'Verily, verily, I say unto you,' 'You may be +as sure of this thing as you are of Me, for all that I am is pledged to +fulfil the words of My lips.' + +So Christ puts His whole truthfulness at stake, as it were; and if any +man who has ever loved Jesus Christ and trusted Him aright has not +found this 'joy unspeakable and full of glory,' then Jesus Christ has +said the thing that is not. + +Then why is it that so many professing Christians have such joyless +lives as they have? Simply because they do not keep the conditions. If +we will love Him so as to set our hearts upon Him, if we will desire +Him as our chief good, if we will keep our eyes fixed upon Him, then, +as sure as He is living and is the Truth, He will flood our hearts with +blessedness, and His joy will pour into our souls as the flashing tide +rushes into some muddy and melancholy harbour, and sets everything +dancing that was lying stranded on the slime. If, my brother, you, a +professing Christian, know but little of this joy, why, then, it is +_your_ fault, and not _His_. The joyless lives of so many who say that +they are His disciples cast no shadow of suspicion upon His veracity, +but they do cast a very deep shadow of doubt upon their profession of +faith in Him. + +Is your religion joyful? Is your joy religious? The two questions go +together. And if we cannot answer these questions in the light of God's +eye as we ought to do, let these great promises and my text prick us +into holier living, into more consistent Christian character, and a +closer walk with our Master and Lord. + +The out-and-out Christian is a joyful Christian. The half-and-half +Christian is the kind of Christian that a great many of you are--little +acquainted with 'the joy of the Lord.' Why should we live half way up +the hill and swathed in mists, when we might have an unclouded sky and +a visible sun over our heads, if we would only climb higher and walk in +the light of His face? + + + +'IN THAT DAY' + +'And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto +you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it +you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall +receive, that your joy may be full.'--JOHN xvi. 23, 24. + +Our Lord here sums up the prerogatives and privileges of His servants +in the day that was about to dawn and to last till He came again. There +is nothing absolutely new in the words; substantially the promises +contained in them have appeared in former parts of these discourses +under somewhat different aspects and connections. But our Lord brings +them together here, in this condensed repetition, in order that the +scattered rays, being thus focussed, may have more power to illuminate +with certitude, and to warm into hope. 'Ye shall ask Me nothing.... Ask +and ye shall receive.... Your joy shall be full.' These are the jewels +which He sets in a cluster, the juxtaposition making each brighter, and +gives to us for a parting keepsake. + +Now it is to be noticed that the two askings which are spoken of here +are expressed by different words in the Greek. Our English word 'ask' +means two things, either to question or to request; to ask in the sense +of interrogating, in order to get information and teaching, or in the +sense of beseeching, in order to get gifts. In the former sense the +word is employed in the first clause of my text, with distinct +reference to the disciples' desire, a moment or two before, to ask Him +a very foolish question; and in the second sense it is employed in the +central portion of my text. + +So, then, there are three things here as the marks of the Christian +life all through the ages: the cessation of the ignorant questions +addressed to a present Christ; the satisfaction of desires; and the +perfecting of joy. These are the characteristics of a true Christian +life. My brother, are they in any degree the characteristics of yours? + +I. Note then, first, the end of questionings. + +'In that day ye shall ask Me nothing,' and do not you think that when +the disciples heard that, they would be tempted to say, 'Then what in +all the world are we to do?' To them the thought that He was not to be +at their sides any longer, for them to go to with their difficulties, +must have seemed despair rather than advance; but in Christ's eyes it +was progress. He tells them and us that we gain by losing Him, and are +better off than they were, precisely because He does not any longer +stand at our sides for us to question. It is better for a boy to puzzle +out the meaning of a Latin book by his own brains and the help of a +dictionary than it is lazily to use an interlinear translation. And, +though we do not always feel it, and are often tempted to think how +blessed it would be if we had an infallible Teacher visible here at our +sides, it is a great deal better for us that we have not, and it is a +step in advance that He has gone away. Many eager and honest Christian +souls, hungering after certainty and rest, have cast themselves in +these latter days into the arms of an infallible Church. I doubt +whether any such questioning mind has found what it sought; and I am +sure that it has taken a step downwards, in passing from the spiritual +guidance realised by our own honest industry and earnest use of the +materials supplied to us in Christ's word, to any external authority +which comes to us to save us the trouble of thinking, and to confirm to +us truth which we have not made our own by search and effort. We gain +by losing the visible Christ; and He was proclaiming progress and not +retrogression, when He said: 'In that day ye shall ask Me no more +questions.' + +For what have we instead? We have two things: a completed revelation, +and an inward Teacher. + +We have a completed revelation. Great and wonderful and unspeakably +precious as were and are the words of Jesus Christ, His deeds are far +more. The death of Christ has told us things that Christ before His +death could not tell. The resurrection of Christ has cast light upon +all the darkest places of man's destiny which Christ, before His +resurrection, could not by any words so illuminate. The ascension of +Christ has opened doors for thought, for faith, for hope, which were +fast closed, notwithstanding all His teachings, until He had burst them +asunder and passed to His throne. And the facts which are substituted +for the bodily presence of Jesus with His disciples tell us a great +deal more than they could ever have drawn from Him by questionings, +however persistent and however wisely directed. We have a completed +revelation, and therefore we need 'ask Him nothing.' + +And we have a divine Spirit that will come to us if we will, and teach +us by means of blessing the exercise of our own faculties, and guiding +us, not, indeed, into the uniform perception of the intellectual +aspects of Christian truth, but into the apprehension and the loving +possession, as a power in our lives, of all the truth that we need to +mould our characters and to raise us to the likeness of Himself. + +Only, brother! let us remember what such a method of teaching demands +from us. It needs that we honestly use the revelation that is given us; +it needs that we loyally, lovingly, trustfully, submit ourselves to the +teaching of that Spirit who will dwell in us; it needs that we bring +our lives up to the height of our present knowledge, and make +everything that we know a factor in shaping what we do and what we are. +If thus we will to do His will, 'we shall know of the doctrine'; if +thus we yield ourselves to the divine Spirit, we shall be taught the +practical bearings of all essential truth; and if thus we ponder the +facts and principles that are enshrined in Christ's life, and the +Apostolic commentary on them, as preserved for us in the Scripture, we +shall not need to envy those that could go to Him with their questions, +for _He_ will come to us with His all-satisfying answers. + +Ah! but you say experience does not verify these promises. Look at a +divided Christendom; look at my own difficulties of knowing what I am +to believe and to think. Well, as for a divided Christendom, saintly +souls are all of one Church, and however they may formulate the +intellectual aspects of their creed, when they come to pray, they say +the same things. Roman Catholic and Protestant, and Quaker and +Churchman, and Calvinist and Arminian, and Greek and Latin +Christians--all contribute to the hymn-book of every sect; and we all +sing their songs. So the divisions are like the surface cracks on a dry +field, and a few inches down there is continuity. As for the difficulty +of knowing what I am to believe and think about controverted questions, +no doubt there will remain many gaps in the circle of our knowledge; no +doubt there will be much left obscure and unanswered; but if we will +keep ourselves near the Master, and use honestly and diligently the +helps that He gives us--the outward help in the Word, and the inward +help in His teaching Spirit--we shall not 'walk in darkness,' but shall +have light enough given to be to us 'the Light of Life.' + +Brother, keep close to Christ, and Christ--present though absent--will +teach you. + +II. Secondly, satisfied desires. + +This second great promise of my text, introduced again by the solemn +affirmation, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you,' substantially appeared +in a former part of these discourses with a very significant +difference. 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do.' 'If ye +shall ask anything in My name I will do it.' There Christ presented +Himself as the Answerer of the petitions, because His more immediate +purpose was to set forth His going to the Father as His elevation to a +yet loftier position. Here, on the other hand, He sets forth the Father +as the Answerer of the petitions, because His purpose is to point away +from undue dependence on His own corporeal presence. But the fact that +He thus, as occasion requires, substitutes the one form of speech for +the other, and indifferently represents the same actions as being done +by Himself and by the Father in heaven, carries with it large teachings +which I do not dwell upon now. Only I would ask you to consider how +much is involved in that fact, that, as a matter of course, and without +explanation of the difference, our Lord alternates the two forms, and +sometimes says, 'I will do it,' and sometimes says, 'The Father will do +it.' Does it not point to that great and blessed truth, 'Whatsoever +thing the Father doeth, that also doeth the Son likewise?' + +But passing from that, let me ask you to note very carefully the +limitation, which is here given to the broad universality of the +declaration that desires shall be satisfied. 'If ye shall ask anything +in My name'; there is the definition of Christian prayer. And what does +it mean? Is a prayer, which from the beginning to the end is reeking +with self-will, hallowed because we say, as a kind of charm at the end +of it, 'For Christ's sake. Amen'? Is _that_ praying in Christ's name? +Surely not! What is the 'name' of Christ? His whole revealed character. +So these disciples could not pray in His name 'hitherto,' because His +character was not all revealed. Therefore, to pray in His name is to +pray, recognising what He is, as revealed in His life and death and +resurrection and ascension, and to base all our dependence of +acceptance of our prayers upon that revealed character. Is that all? +Are any kind of wishes, which are presented in dependence upon Christ +as our only Hope and Channel of divine blessing, certain to be +fulfilled? Certainly not. To pray 'in My name' means yet more than +that. It means not only to pray in dependence upon Christ as our only +Ground of hope and Source of acceptance and God's only Channel of +blessing, but it means exactly what the same phrase means when it is +applied to us. If I say that I am doing something in your name, that +means on your behalf, as your representative, as your organ, and to +express your mind and will. And if we pray in Christ's name, that +implies, not only our dependence upon His merit and work, but also the +harmony of our wills with His will, and that our requests are not +merely the hot products of our own selfishness, but are the calm issues +of communion with Him. _Thus_ to pray requires the suppression of self. +Heathen prayer, if there be such a thing, is the violent effort to make +God will what I wish. Christian prayer is the submissive effort to make +my wish what God wills, and that is to pray in Christ's name. + +My brother! do we construct our prayers thus? Do we try to bring our +desires into harmony with Him, before we venture to express them? Do we +go to His footstool to pour out petulant, blind, passionate, +un-sanctified wishes after questionable and contingent good, or do we +wait until He fills our spirits with longings after what it must be His +desire to give, and then breathe out those desires caught from His own +heart, and echoing His own will? Ah! The discipline that is wanted to +make men pray in Christ's name is little understood by multitudes +amongst us. + +Notice how certain such prayer is of being answered. Of course, if it +is in harmony with the will of God, it is sure not to be offered in +vain. Our Revised Version makes a slight alteration in the order of the +words in the first clause of this promise by reading, 'If ye ask +anything of the Father He will give it you _in My name_.' God's gifts +come down through the same channel through which our prayer goes up. We +ask in the name of Christ, and get our answers in the name of Christ. + +But, whether that be the true collocation of ideas or not, mark the +plain principle here, that only desires which are in harmony with the +divine will are sure of being satisfied. What is a bad thing for a +child cannot be a good thing for a man. What is a foolish and wicked +thing for a father down here to do cannot be a kind and a wise thing +for the Father in the heavens to do. If you wish to spoil your child +you say, 'What do you want, my dear? tell me and you shall have it.' +And if God were saying anything like that to us, through the lips of +Jesus Christ His Son, in the text, it would be no blessing, but a +curse. He knows a great deal better what is good for us; and so He +says: 'Bring your wishes into line with My purpose, and then you will +get them'; 'Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give thee the +desires of thine heart.' If you want God most you will be sure to get +Him; if your heart's desires are after Him, your heart's desires will +be satisfied. 'The young lions do roar and suffer hunger.' That is the +world's way of getting good; fighting and striving and snarling, and +forcibly seeking to grasp, and there is hunger after all. There is a +better way than that. Instead of striving and struggling to snatch and +to keep a perishable and questionable portion, let us wait upon God and +quiet our hearts, stilling them into the temper of communion and +conformity with Him, and we shall not ask in vain. + +He who prays in Christ's name must pray Christ's prayer, 'Not My will, +but Thine be done.' And then, though many wishes may be unanswered, and +many weak petitions unfulfilled, and many desires unsatisfied, the +essential spirit of the prayer will be answered, and, His will being +done in us and on us, our wishes will acquiesce in it and desire +nothing besides. To him who can thus pray in Christ's name in the +deepest sense, and after Christ's pattern, every door in God's +treasure-house flies open, and he may take as much of the treasure as +he desires. The Master bends lovingly over such a soul, and looks him +in the eyes, and with outstretched hand says, 'What wilt thou that I +should do unto thee? Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.' + +III. Lastly, the perfect joy which follows upon these two. + +'That your joy may be fulfilled.' Again we have a recurrence of a +promise that has appeared in another connection in an earlier part of +this discourse; but the connection here is worthy of notice. The +promise is of joy that comes from the satisfaction of meek desires in +unison with Christ's will. Is it possible then, that, amidst all the +ups and downs, the changes and the sorrows of this fluctuating, +tempest-tossed life of ours we may have a deep and stable joy? 'That +your joy may be full,' says my text, or 'fulfilled,' like some +jewelled, golden cup charged to the very brim with rich and quickening +wine, so that there is no room for a drop more. Can it be that ever, in +this world, men shall be happy up to the very limits of their capacity? +Was anybody ever so blessed that he could not be more so? Was your cup +ever so full that there was no room for another drop in it? Jesus +Christ says that it may be so, and He tells us how it may be so. Bring +your desires into harmony with God's, and you will have none +unsatisfied amongst them; and so you will be blessed to the full; and +though sorrow comes, as of course it will come, still you may be +blessed. There is no contradiction between the presence of this deep, +central joy and a surface and circumference of sorrow. Rather we need +the surrounding sorrow, to concentrate, and so to intensify, the +central joy in God. There are some flowers which only blow in the +night; and white blossoms are visible with startling plainness in the +twilight, when all the flaunting purples and reds are hid. We do not +know the depth, the preciousness, the power of the 'joy of the Lord,' +until we have felt it shining in our hearts in the midst of the thick +darkness of earthly sorrow, and bringing life into the very death of +our human delights. It may be ours on the conditions that my text +describes. + +My dear friends! there are only two courses before us. Either we must +have a life with superficial, transitory, incomplete gladness, and an +aching centre of vacuity and pain, or we may have a life which, in its +outward aspects and superficial appearance, has much about it that is +sad and trying, but down in the heart of it is calm and joyful. Which +of the two do you deem best, a superficial gladness and a rooted +sorrow, or a superficial sorrow and a central joy? 'Even in laughter +the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' But, +on the other hand, the 'ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to +Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain +joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' + + + +THE JOYS OF 'THAT DAY' + +'These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, +when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you +plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in My Name: and I say +not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father +Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I +came out from God.'--JOHN xvi. 25-27. + +The stream which we have been tracking for so long in these discourses +has now nearly reached its close. Our Lord, in these all but final +words, sums up the great salient features which He has already more +than once specified, of the time when His followers shall live with an +absent and yet present Christ. He reiterates here substantially just +what He has been saying before, but in somewhat different connection, +and with some slight expansion. And this reiteration of the glad +features of the day which was about to dawn suggests how much the +disciples needed, and how much we need, to have repeated over and over +again the blessed and profound lessons of these words. + +What a sublime self-repression there was in the Master! Not one word +escapes from His lips of the personal pain and agony into which He had +to plunge and be baptized, before that day could dawn. All that was +crushed down and kept back, and He only speaks to the disciples and to +us of the joy that comes to them, and not at all of the bitter sorrow +by which it is bought. There are set forth in these words, as it seems +to me, especially three characteristics which belong to the whole +period between the ascension of Jesus Christ and His coming again for +judgment. It is a day of continual and clearer teaching by Him. It is a +day of desires in His name. It is a day of filial experience of a +Father's love. These are the characteristics of the Christian period, +and they ought to be the characteristics of our individual Christian +life. My brother! are they the characteristics of yours? + +Let us note them in order. + +I. First, our Lord tells us that the whole period of the Christian life +upon earth is to be a period of continuous and clearer teaching by +Himself. + +'Hitherto I have spoken to you in proverbs,' or parables. The word +means, not only a comparison or parable, but also, and perhaps +primarily, a mysterious and enigmatical saying. The reference is, of +course, directly to the immediately preceding thoughts, in which His +departure and the sorrow that accompanied it and was to merge into joy, +were described under that touching figure of the woman in travail. But +the reference must be extended very much farther than that. It includes +not only this discourse, but the whole of His teaching by word whilst +He was here upon earth. + +Now the first thing that strikes me here is this strange fact. Here is +a man who knew Himself to be within four-and-twenty hours of His death, +and knew that scarcely another word of instruction was to come from His +lips upon earth, calmly asserting that, for all the subsequent ages of +the world's history, He is to continue its Teacher. We know how the +wisest and profoundest of earthly teachers have their lips sealed by +death, so as that no counsel can come from them any more, and their +disciples long in vain for responses from the silenced oracle, which is +dumb whatever new problems may arise. But Jesus Christ calmly poses +before the world as not having His teaching activity in the slightest +degree suspended by that fact which puts a conclusive and complete +close to all other teachers' words. Rather He says that after death He +will, more clearly than in life, be the Teacher of the world. + +What does He mean by that? Well, remember first of all the facts which +followed this saying--the Cross, the Grave, Olivet, the Heavens, the +Throne. These were still in the future when He spoke. And have not +these--the bitter passion, the supernatural resurrection, the +triumphant ascension, and the everlasting session of the Son at the +right hand of God--taught the whole world the meaning of the Father's +name, and the love of the Father's heart, and the power of the Father's +Son, as nothing else, not even the sweetest and tenderest of His +utterances, could have taught them? When, then, He declares the +continuance of His teaching functions unbroken through death and beyond +it, He refers partly to the future facts of His earthly manifestation, +and still more does He refer to that continuous teaching which, by that +divine Spirit whom He sends, is granted to every believing soul all +through the ages. + +This great truth, which recurs over and over again in these discourses +of our Lord, is far too much dropped out of the consciousness and +creeds of the modern Christian Church. We call ourselves Christ's +disciples. If there be disciples, there must be a Master. His teaching +is by no means merely the effect of the recorded facts and utterances +of the Lord, preserved here in the Book for us, and to be pondered upon +by ourselves, but it is also the hourly communication, to waiting +hearts and souls that keep themselves near the Lord, of deeper insight +into His will, of larger views of His purposes, of a firmer grasp of +the contents of Scripture, and a more complete subjection of the whole +nature to the truth as it is in Jesus. Christian men and women! do you +know anything about what it is to learn of Christ in the sense that He +Himself, and no poor human voice like mine, nor even merely the records +of His past words and deeds as garnered in these Gospels and expounded +by His Apostles, is the source of your growing knowledge of Him? If we +would keep our hearts and minds clearer than we do of the babble of +earthly voices, and be more loyal and humble and constant and patient +in our sitting on the benches in Christ's school till the Master +Himself came to give us His lessons, these great words of my text would +not, as they so often do in the mass of professing Christians, lack the +verification of experience and the assurance that it is so with us. +Have you sat in Christ's school, and do you know the secret and +illuminative whispers of His teaching? If not, there is something wrong +in your Christian character, and something insincere in your Christian +profession. + +Notice, still further, that our Lord here ranks that subsequent +teaching before all that He said upon earth, great and precious as it +was. Now I do not mean for one moment to allege that fresh +communications of truth, uncontained in Scripture, are given to us in +the age-long and continuous teaching of Jesus Christ. That I do not +suppose to be the meaning of the great promises before us, for the +facts of revelation were finished when He ascended, and the inspired +commentary upon the facts of revelation was completed with these +writings which follow the Gospels in our New Testament. But Christ's +teaching brings us up to the understanding of the facts and of the +commentary upon them which Scripture contains, so that what was parable +or proverb, dimly apprehended, mysterious and enigmatical when it was +spoken, and what remains mysterious and enigmatical to us until we grow +up to it, gradually becomes full of significance and weighty with a +plain and certain meaning. This is the teaching which goes on through +the ages--the lifting of His children to the level of apprehending more +and more of the inexhaustible and manifold wisdom which is stored for +us in this Book. The mine has been worked on the surface, but the +deeper it goes the richer is the lode; and no ages will exhaust the +treasures that are hid in Christ Jesus our Lord. + +He uses the new problems, the new difficulties, the new circumstances +of each successive age, and of each individual Christian, in order to +evolve from His word larger lessons, and to make the earlier lessons +more fully and deeply understood. And this generation, with all its new +problems, with all its uneasiness about social questions, with all its +new attitude to many ancient truths, will find that Jesus Christ is, as +He has been to all past generations,--the answer to all its doubts, +using even these doubts as a means of evolving the deeper harmonies of +His Word, and of unveiling in the ancient truth more than former +generations have seen in it. 'Brethren, I write unto you no new +commandment. Again, a new commandment I write unto you.' The +inexhaustible freshness of the old word taught us anew, with deeper +significance and larger applications, by the everlasting Teacher of the +Church, is the hope that shines through these words. I commend to you, +dear brethren, the one simple, personal question, Have I submitted +myself to that Teacher, and said to men and systems and preachers and +books and magazines, and all the rest of the noisy and clamorous +tongues that bewilder under pretence of enlightening this +generation--have I said to them all, 'Hold your peace! and let me, in +the silence of my waiting soul, hear the Teacher Himself speak to me. +Speak, Lord! for Thy servant heareth. Teach me Thy way and lead me, for +Thou art my Master, and I the humblest of Thy scholars'? + +II. In the next place, another of the glad features of this dawning day +is that it is to be a day of desires based upon Christ, and Christlike. + +'In that day ye shall ask in My name.' Our translators have wisely put +a colon at the end of that clause, in order that we may not hurry over +it too quickly in haste to get to the next one. For there is a +substantial blessing and privilege wrapped up in it. Our Lord has just +been saying the same thing in the previous verses, but He repeats it +here in order to emphasise it, and to set it by the subsequent words in +a somewhat different light. But I dwell upon it for a very simple, +practical purpose. I have already explained in former sermons the full, +deep meaning of that phrase, 'asking in Christ's name,' and have +suggested to you that it implies two things--the one, that our desires +should all be based upon His great work as the only ground of our +acceptance with God; and the other, that our desires should all be such +as represent His heart and His mind. When we 'ask in His name' we ask, +first, for His sake, and, second, as in His person. And such desires, +resting their hopes of answer solely upon His mighty sacrifice and +all-sufficient merit, and shaped accurately and fully after the pattern +of the wishes that are dear to His heart, are to be the prerogative and +the joy of His servants, in the new 'day' that is about to dawn. + +Note how beautifully this thought, of wishes moulded into conformity +with Jesus Christ, and offered in reliance upon His great sacrifice, +follows upon that other thought, 'I will tell you plainly of the +Father.' The Master's voice speaks, revealing the paternal heart, the +scholar's voice answers with desires kindled by the revelation. +Longings and aspirations humbly offered for His sake, and after the +pattern of His own, are our true response to His teaching voice. As the +astronomer, the more powerful his telescope, though it may resolve some +of the nebulae that resisted feebler instruments, only has his bounds +of vision enlarged as he looks through it, and sees yet other and +mightier star-clouds lying mysterious beyond its ken--so each new +influx and tidal wave of knowledge of the Father, which Christ gives to +His waiting child, leads on to enlarged desires, to longings to press +still further into the unexplored mysteries of that magnificent and +boundless land, and to nestle still closer into the infinite heart of +God. He declares to us the Father, and the answer of the child to the +declaration of the Father is the cry, 'Abba! Father! show me yet more +of Thy heart.' Thus aspiration and fruition, longing and satisfaction +in unsatiated and inexhaustible and unwearying alternation, are the two +blessed poles between which the life of a Christian may revolve in +smoothness and music. + +My friend! is that anything like the transcript of our experience, that +the more we know of God, the more we long to know of, and to possess, +Him? and the more we long to know of, and to possess, Him, the more +full, gracious, confidential, tender, and continuous are the teachings +of our Master? Is not this a far higher level of Christian life than +that we live upon? And why so? Is Christ's word faithless? Hath He +forgotten to be gracious? Was this promise of His idle wind? Or is it +that you and I have never grasped the fulness of privileges that He +bestows upon us? + +III. Note, lastly, that that day is to be a day of filial experience of +a Father's love. + +'I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father +Himself loveth you because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I +came out from God.' Jesus Christ does not deny His intercession. He +simply does not bring it into evidence here. To deny it would have been +impossible, for soon afterwards we find Him saying, 'I pray for them +which Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine.' But He does not +emphasise it here, in order that He may emphasise another blessed +source of solace--viz., that to those who listen to the Master's +teaching, and have their desires moulded into harmony with His, and +their wishes and hopes all based upon His sacrifice and work, the +divine Father's love directly flows. There is no need of any +intercession to turn Him to be merciful. Men sometimes caricature the +thought of the intercession of Christ, as if it meant that He, by His +prayer, bent the reluctant will of the Father in heaven. All such +horrible misconceptions Christ sweeps out of the field here, even +whilst there remains, in the fact that the prayers of which He is +speaking are offered in His name, the substance and reality of all that +we mean by the intercession of Jesus Christ. + +And now note that God loves the men who love Jesus Christ. So +completely does the Father identify Himself with the Son, that love to +Christ is love to Him, and brings the blessed answer of His love to us. +Whosoever loves Christ loves God. + +Whosoever loves Christ must do so, believing that He 'came forth from +God.' There are the two characteristics of a Christian disciple,--faith +in the divine mission of the Son, and love that flows from faith. Now, +of course, it does not follow from the words before us, that this +divine love which comes down upon the heart which loves Christ is the +original and first flow of that love towards that heart. 'We love Him +because He first loved us.' Christ is not here tracking the stream to +its source, but is pointing to it midway in its flow. If you want to go +up to the fountain-head you have to go up to the divine Father's heart, +who loved when there was no love in us; and, because He loved, sent the +Son. First comes the unmotived, spontaneous, self-originated, +undeserved, infinite love of God to sinners and aliens and enemies; +then the Cross and the mission of Jesus Christ; then the faith in His +divine mission; then the love which is the child of faith, as it grasps +the Cross and recognises the love that lies behind it; and then, after +that, the special, tender, and paternal love of God falling upon the +hearts that love Him in His Son. There is nothing here in the slightest +degree to conflict with the grand universal truth that God loves +enemies and sinners and aliens. But there is the truth, as precious as +the other, that they who have 'known and believed the love that God +hath to us' live under the selectest influences of His loving heart, +and have a place in its tenderness which it is impossible that any +should have who do not so love. And that sweet commerce of a divine +love answering a human, which itself is the answer to a prior divine +love, brings with it the firm confidence that prayers in His name shall +not be prayers in vain. + +So, dear friends, growing knowledge, an ever-present Teacher, the peace +of calm desires built upon Christ's Cross and fashioned after Christ's +Spirit, and the assurance in my quiet and filial heart that my Father +in the heavens loves me, and will neither give me 'serpents' when I ask +for them, thinking them to be 'fishes,' nor refuse 'bread' when I ask +for it--these things ought to mark the lives of all professing +Christians. Are they our experience? If not, why are they not, but +because we do not believe that 'Thou art come forth from God,' nor love +Thee as we ought? + + + +'FROM' AND 'TO' + +'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I +leave the world, and go to the Father.'--JOHN xvi. 28. + +These majestic and strange words are the proper close of our Lord's +discourse, what follows being rather a reply to the disciples' +exclamation. There is nothing absolutely new in them, but what is new +is the completeness and the brevity with which they cover the whole +ground of His being, work, and glory. They fall into two halves, each +consisting of two clauses; the former half describing our Lord's +_descent_, the latter His _ascent_. In each half the two clauses deal +with the same fact, considered from the two opposite ends as it were--the +point of departure and the point of arrival. 'I came forth _from_ +the Father, and am come _into the world: again I _leave_ the world and +go _to_ the Father.' But the first point of departure is the last point +of arrival, and the end comes round to the beginning. Our Lord's +earthly life is, as it were, a jewel enclosed within the flashing gold +of His eternal dwelling with God. + +So I think we shall best apprehend the scope, and appropriate to +ourselves the blessing and power of these words, if we deal with the +four points to which they call our attention--the dwelling with the +Father; the voluntary coming to the earth; the voluntary departure from +the earth; and, once more, the dwelling with the Father. We must grasp +them all if we would know the whole Christ and all that He is able to +do and to be to us and to the world. So, then, I deal simply with these +four points. + +I. Note then, first, the dwelling with the Father. + +If we adopt the most probable reading of the first clause of my text, +it is even more forcible than in our version: 'I came forth _out of_ +the Father.' Such an egress implies a being _in_ the Father in a sense +ineffable for our words, and transcending our thoughts. It implies a +far deeper and closer relation than even that of juxtaposition, +companionship, or outward presence. + +Now, in these great words there is involved obviously, to begin with, +that, during His earthly life, our Lord bore about with Him the +remembrance and consciousness of an individual existence prior to His +life on earth. I need not remind you how frequently such hints drop +from His lips--'Before Abraham was, I am,' and the like. But beyond +that solemn thought of a remembered previous existence there is this +other one--that the words are the assertion by Christ Himself of a +previous, deep, mysterious, ineffable union with the Father. On such a +subject wisdom and reverence bid us speak only as we hear; but I cannot +refrain from emphasising the fact that, if this fourth Gospel be a +genuine record of the teaching of Jesus Christ--and, if it is not, what +genius was he who wrote it?--if it be a genuine record of the teaching +of Jesus Christ, then nothing is more plain than that over and over +again, in all sorts of ways, by implication and by direct statement, to +all sorts of audiences, friends and foes, He reiterated this tremendous +claim to have 'dwelt in the bosom of the Father,' long before He lay on +the breast of Mary. What did He mean when He said, 'No man hath +ascended up into heaven save He which came down from heaven'? What did +He mean when He said, 'What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend +up where He was before'? What did He mean when He said, 'I came down +from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent +Me'? And what did He mean when, in the midst of the solemnities of that +last prayer, He said, 'Glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with +Thee before the world was'? + +Dear friends! it seems to me that if we know anything about Jesus +Christ, we know _that_. If we cannot believe that He thus spoke, we +know nothing about Him on which we can rely. And so, without venturing +to enlarge at all upon these solemn words, I leave this with you as a +plain fact, that the meekest, lowliest, and most sane and wise of +religious teachers made deliberately over and over again this claim, +which is either absolutely true, and lifts Him into the region of the +Deity, or else is fatal to His pretensions to be either meek or modest, +or wise or sane, or a religious teacher to whom it is worth our while +to listen. + +II. Note, secondly, the voluntary coming into the world. + +'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world.' We all talk +in a loose way about men coming into the world when they are born; but +the weight of these words and the solemnity of the occasion on which +they were spoken, and the purpose for which they were spoken--viz., to +comfort and to illuminate these disciples--forbid us to see such a mere +platitude as that in them. There would have been no consolation in them +unless they meant something a great deal more than the undeniable fact +that Jesus Christ was born, and the melancholy fact that Jesus Christ +was about to die. + +'I am _come_ into the world.' There has been a Man who chose to be +born. There has been a Man who appeared here, not 'of the will of the +flesh, nor of the will of man,' but by His own free choice. He willed +to take upon Him the form of humanity. Now the voluntariness of the +entrance of Jesus Christ into the conditions of our human life is +all-important for us, for it underlies the whole value of that life and +its whole power to be blessing and good to us. It underlies, for +instance, the personal sinlessness of Jesus Christ, and hence His power +to bring a new beginning of pure and perfect life into the midst of +humanity. All the rest of mankind, knit together by that mysterious +bond of natural descent which only now for the first time is beginning +to receive its due attention on the part of men of science, by heredity +have the taint upon them. And if Jesus Christ is only one of the +series, then there is no deliverance in Him, for there is no +sinlessness in that life. However fair its record may seem on the +surface, there is beneath, somewhere or other, the leprosy that infects +us all. Unless He came in another fashion from all the rest of us, He +came with the same sin as all the rest of us, and He is no deliverer +from sin. Rather He is one of the series who, like the melancholy +captives on the road to Siberia, each carries a link of the hopeless +chain that binds them all together. But, if it be true that of His own +will He took to Himself humanity, and was born as the Scripture tells +us He was born, His birth being His 'coming' and not His being brought, +then, being free from taint, He can deliver us from taint, and, Himself +unbound by the chain, He can break it from off our necks. The stream is +fouled from its source downwards, and flows on, every successive drop +participant of the primeval pollution. But, down from the white snows +of the eternal hills of God, there comes into it an affluent which has +no stain on its pure waters, and so can purge that into which it +enters. Jesus Christ willed to be born, and to plant a new beginning of +holy life in the very heart of humanity which henceforth should work as +leaven. + +Let me remind you, too, that this voluntary assumption of our nature is +all-important to us, for unless we preserve it clear to our minds and +hearts, the power to sway our affections is struck away from Jesus +Christ. Unless He voluntarily took upon Himself the nature which He +meant to redeem, why should I be thankful to Him for what He did, and +what right has He to claim my love? But if He willingly came down +amongst us, and 'to this end was born, and for this cause,' of His own +loving heart, 'came into the world,' then I am knit to Him by cords +that cannot be broken. One thing only saves for Jesus Christ the +unbounded and perpetual love of mankind, and that is, that from His own +infinite and perpetual love He came into the world. We talk about kings +leaving their palaces and putting on the rags of the beggar, and +learning 'love in huts where poor men lie,' and making experience of +the conditions of their lowliest subjects. But here is a fact, +infinitely beyond all these legends. It is set forth for us in a +touching fashion, in the incident that almost immediately preceded +these parting words of our Lord, when 'Jesus, knowing that He came +forth from God, laid aside His garments and took a towel, and girded +Himself,' and washed the foul feet of these travel-stained men. That +was a parable of the Incarnation. The consciousness of His divine +origin was ever with Him, and that consciousness led Him to lay aside +the garments of His majesty, and to gird Himself with the towel of +service. That He had a body round which to wrap it was more humiliation +than that He wrapped it round the body which He took. And we may learn +there what it is that gives Him His supreme right to our devotion and +our surrender--viz., that, 'being in the form of God, He thought not +equality with God a thing to be covetously retained, but made Himself +of no reputation, and was found in fashion as a Man.' + +III. Note the voluntary leaving the world. + +The stages of that departure are not distinguished. They are threefold +in fact--the death, the resurrection, the ascension, and in all three +we have the majestic, spontaneous energy of Christ as their cause. + +There was a voluntary death, I have so often had occasion to insist +upon that, in the course of these sermons, that I do not need to dwell +upon it now. Let me remind you only how distinctly and in what various +forms that thought is presented to us in the Scriptures. We have our +Lord's own words about His having 'power to lay down His life.' We have +in the story of the Passion hints that seem to suggest that His +relation to death, to which He is about to bow His head, was altogether +different from that of ours. For instance, we read: 'Into Thy hands I +_commend_ My Spirit'; and 'He _gave up_ the Spirit.' We have hints of a +similar nature in the very swiftness of His death and unexpected +brevity of His suffering, to be accounted for by no natural result of +the physical process of crucifixion. The fact is that Jesus Christ is +the Lord of death, and was so even when He seemed to be its Servant, +and that He never showed Himself more completely the Prince of Life and +the Conqueror of Death than when He gave up His life and died, not +because He must, but because He would. There is a scene in a modern +book of fiction of a man sitting on a rock and the ocean stretching +round him. It reaches high upon his breast, but it threatens not his +life, till he, sitting there in his calm, bows his head beneath the +wave and lets it roll over him. So Christ willed to die, and died +because He willed. + +There was also a voluntary resurrection by His own power; for although +Scripture sometimes represents His rising again from the dead as being +the Father's attestation of the Son's finished work, it also represents +it as being, in accordance with His own claim of 'power to lay down My +life, and to take it again,' the Son's triumphant egress from the +prison into which, for the moment, He willed to pass. Jesus 'was raised +from the dead by the glory of the Father,' but also Jesus rose from the +dead by His own power. + +There was also a voluntary ascension to the heavens. There was no need +for Elijah's chariot of fire. There was no need for a whirlwind to +sweep a mortal to the sky. There was no need for any external vehicle +or agency whatsoever. No angels bore Him up upon their wings. But, the +cords of duty which bound Him to earth being cut, He rose to His own +native sphere; and, if one might so say, the natural forces of His +supernatural life bore Him, by inverted gravitation, upward to the +place which was His own. He ascended by His own inherent power. + +Thus, by a voluntary death, He became the Sacrifice for our sins; by +the might of His self-effected resurrection He proclaimed Himself the +Lord of death and the resurrection for all that trust Him; and by +ascending up on high He draws our hearts' desires after Him, so that +we, too, as we see Him lost from our sight, behind the bright Shekinah +cloud that stooped to conceal the last stages of His ascension from our +view, may return to our lowly work 'with great joy,' and 'set our +affection on things above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand +of God.' + +IV. So, lastly, we have here the dwelling again with the Father. + +But that final dwelling with God is not wholly identical with the +initial one. The earthly life was no mere parenthesis, and He who +returned to the Throne carried with Him the manhood which He had +assumed, and bore it thither into the glory in which the Word had dwelt +from the beginning. And this is the true consolation which Christ +offered to these His weeping servants, and which He still offers to us +His waiting children, that now the manhood of Jesus Christ is exalted +to participation in the divine glory, and dwells there in the calm, +invisible sweetness and solemnity of fellowship with the Father. + +If that be so, it is no mere abstract dogma of theology, but it touches +our daily life at all points, and is essential to the fullness of our +satisfaction and our rest in Christ. + +'We see not all things put under Him, but we see Jesus.' Our Brother is +elevated to the Throne, and, if I might so say, He makes the fortunes +of the family, and none of them will be poor as long as He is so rich. +He sends us from the far-off land where He is gone precious gifts of +its produce, and He will send for us to share His throne one day. + +Christ's ascension to the Father is the elevation of our best and +dearest Friend to the Throne of the Universe, and the hands that were +pierced for us on the Cross hold the helm and sway the sceptre of +Creation, and therefore we may calmly meet all events. + +The elevation of Jesus Christ to the Throne fills Heaven for our faith, +our imagination, and our hearts. How different it is to look up into +those awful abysses, and to wonder where, amidst their crushing +infinitude, the spirits of dear ones that are gone are wandering, if +they are at all; and to look up and to think 'My Christ hath passed +through the Heavens,' and is somewhere with a true Body, and with Him +all that loved Him. Without an ascended Christ we recoil from the cold +splendours of an unknown Heaven, as a rustic might from the +unintelligible magnificence of a palace. But if we believe that He is +'at the right hand of God,' then the far-off becomes near, and the +vague becomes definite, and the unsubstantial becomes solid, and what +was a fear becomes a joy, and we can trust ourselves and the dear dead +in His hands, knowing that where He is they are, and that in Him they +and we have all that we need. + +So, dear friends! it all comes to this--make sure that you have hold of +the whole Christ for yourselves. His earthly life is little without the +celestial halo that rings it round. His life is nothing without His +death. His death without His resurrection and ascension maybe a little +more pathetic than millions of other deaths, but is nothing, really, to +us. And the life and death and resurrection are not apprehended in +their fullest power until they are set between the eternal glory before +and the eternal glory after. + +These four facts--the dwelling in the Father; the voluntary coming to +earth; the voluntary leaving earth; and, again, the dwelling with the +Father--are the walls of the strong fortress into which we may flee and +be safe. With them it 'stands four square to every wind that blows.' +Strike away one of them, and it totters into ruin. Make the whole +Christ your Christ; for nothing less than the whole Christ, 'conceived +of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, ... crucified, dead, and +buried, ... ascended into Heaven, and sitting at the right hand of +God,' is strong enough to help your infirmities, vast enough to satisfy +your desires, loving enough to love you as you need, or able to deliver +you from your sins, and to lift you to the glories of His own Throne. + + + +GLAD CONFESSION AND SAD WARNING + +'His disciples said unto Jesus, Lo! now speakest Thou plainly, and +speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that Thou knowest all things, and +needest not that any man should ask Thee: by this we believe that Thou +earnest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, +the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every +man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, +because the Father is with Me.'--JOHN xvi. 29-32. + +The first words of these wonderful discourses were, 'Let not your heart +be troubled.' They struck the key-note of the whole. The aim of all was +to bring peace and confidence unto the disciples' spirits. And this +joyful burst of confession which wells up so spontaneously and +irrepressibly from their hearts, shows that the aim has been reached. +For a moment sorrow, bewilderment, dullness of apprehension, had all +passed away, and the foolish questioners and non-receptive listeners +had been lifted into a higher region, and possessed insight, courage, +confidence. The last sublime utterance of our Lord had gathered all the +scattered rays into a beam so bright that the blindest could not but +see, and the coldest could not but be warmed. + +But yet the calm, clear eye of Christ sees something not wholly +satisfactory in this outpouring of the disciples' confidence. He does +not reject their imperfect faith, but He warns them, as if seeing the +impending hour of denial which was so terribly to contradict the +rapture of that moment. And then, with most pathetic suddenness, He +passes from them to Himself; and in a singularly blended utterance lets +us get a glimpse into His deep solitude and the companions that shared +it. + +My words now make no attempt at anything more than is involved in +following the course of thought in the words before us. + +I. Note the disciples' joyful confession. + +Their words are permeated throughout with allusions to the previous +promises and sayings of our Lord, and the very allusions show how +shallow was their understanding of what they thought so plain. He had +said to them that, in that coming day which was so near its dawn, He +would speak to them 'no more in proverbs, but show them plainly of the +Father'; and they answer, with a kind of rapture of astonishment, that +the promised day has come already, and that even now He is speaking to +them 'plainly,' and without mysterious sayings. Did they understand His +words when they thought them so plain? 'I came forth from the Father, +and am come into the world? Again I leave the world and go unto the +Father,' that summary statement of the central mysteries of +Christianity, which the generations have found to be inexhaustible, and +which to so many minds has been absolutely incredible, seemed to the +shallow apprehension of these disciples to be sun-clear. If they had +understood what He meant, could they have spoken thus, or have left Him +so soon? + +They begin with what they believed to be a fact, His clear utterance. +Then follows a conviction which has allusion to His previous words. +'Now', say they, 'we know that Thou knowest all things, and needest not +that any man should ask Thee.' He had said to them, 'In that day ye +shall ask Me nothing'; and from the fact that he had interpreted their +unspoken words, and had anticipated their desire to ask what they durst +not ask, they draw, and rightly draw, the conclusion of His divine +Omniscience. They think that therein, in His answer to their question +before it is asked, is the fulfilment of that great promise. Was that +all that He meant? Certainly not. Did He merely mean to say, 'You will +ask Me nothing, because I shall know what you want to know, without +your asking'? No! But He meant, 'Ye shall ask Me nothing, because in +that day you will have with you an illuminating Spirit who will solve +all your difficulties.' So, again, a shallow interpretation empties the +words which they accept of their deepest and most precious meaning. + +And then they take yet a further step. First, they begin with a fact; +then from that they infer a conviction; and now, upon the basis of the +inferred conviction, they rear a faith, 'We believe that Thou camest +forth from God.' But what they meant by 'coming forth from God' fell +far short of the greatness of what He meant by the declaration, and +they stand, in this final, articulate confession of their faith, but a +little in advance of Nicodemus the Rabbi, and behind Peter the Apostle +when he said: 'Thou art the Son of the living God.' + +So their confession is a strangely mingled warp and woof of insight and +of ignorance. And they may stand for us both as examples to teach us +what we ought to be, and as beacons teaching us what we should not be. + +Let me note just one or two lessons drawn from the disciples' demeanour +and confession. + +The first remark that I would make is that here we learn what it is +that gives life to a creed--experience. These men had, over and over +again, in our Lord's earlier utterances, heard the declaration that 'He +came forth from God'; and in a sort of fashion they believed it. But, +as so many of our convictions do, it lay dormant and half dead in their +souls. But now, rightly or wrongly, experience had brought them into +contact, as they thought, with a manifest proof of His divine +Omniscience, and the torpid conviction flashed all up at once into +vitality. The smouldering fire of a mere piece of abstract belief was +kindled at once into a glow that shed warmth through their whole +hearts; and although they had professed to believe long ago that He +came from God, now, for the first time, they grasp it as a living +reality. Why? Because experience had taught it to them. It is the only +teacher that teaches us the articles of our creed in a way worth +learning them. Every one of us carries professed beliefs, which lie +there inoperative, bedridden, in the hospital and dormitory of our +souls, until some great necessity or sudden circumstance comes that +flings a beam of light upon them, and then they start and waken. We do +not know the use of the sword until we are in battle. Until the +shipwreck comes, no man puts on the lifebelt in his cabin. Every one of +as has large tracts of Christian truth which we think we most surely +believe, but which need experience to quicken them, and need us to grow +up into the possession of them. Of all our teachers who turn beliefs +assented to into beliefs really believed none is so mighty as Sorrow; +for that makes a man lay a firm hold on the deep things of God's Word. + +Then another lesson that I draw from this glad confession is--the bold +avowal that always accompanies certitude. These men's stammering +tongues are loosed. They have a fact to base themselves upon. They have +a piece of assured knowledge inferred from the fact. They have a faith +built upon the certitude of what they know. Having this, out it all +comes in a gush. No man that believes with all his heart can help +speaking. You silent Christians are so, because you do not more than +half grasp the truth that you say you hold. 'Thy word, when shut up in +my bones, was like a fire'; and it ate its way through all the dead +matter that enclosed it, until at last it flamed out heaven high. Can +you say, 'We know and we believe,' with unfaltering confidence? Not 'we +argue'; not 'we humbly venture to think that on the whole'; not 'we are +inclined rather to believe'; but 'we _know_--that Thou knowest all +things, and that Thou hast come from God.' Seek for that blessed +certitude of knowledge, based upon the facts of individual experience, +which 'makes the tongue of the dumb sing,' and changes all the deadness +of an outward profession of Christianity into a living, rejoicing power. + +Then, further, I draw this lesson. Take care of indolently supposing +that you understand the depths of God's truth. These Apostles fancied +that they had grasped the whole meaning of the Master's words, and were +glad in them. They fed on them, and got something out of them; but how +far they were from the true perception of their meaning! This +generation abhors mystery, and demands that the deepest truths of the +highest subject, which is religion, shall be so broken down into +mincemeat that the 'man in the street' can understand them in the +intervals of reading the newspaper. There are only too many of us who +are disposed to grasp at the most superficial interpretation of +Christian truth, and lazily to rest ourselves in that. A creed which +has no depth in it is like a picture which has no distance. It is flat +and unnatural, and self-condemned by the very fact. It is better that +we should feel that the smallest word that comes from God is like some +little leaf of a water plant on the surface of a pond; if you lift that +you draw a whole trail after it, and nobody knows how far off and how +deep down are the roots. It is better that we should feel how Infinity +and Eternity press in upon us on all sides, and should take as ours the +temper that recognises that till the end we are but learners, seeing +'in a glass, in a riddle,' and therefore patiently waiting for light +and strenuously striving to stretch our souls to the width of the +infinite truth of God. + +II. So, then, look, in the second place, at the sad questions and +forebodings of the Master. + +'Do ye _now_ believe?' That does not cast doubt on the reality of their +faith so much as on its permanence and power. 'Behold the hour cometh +that ye shall be scattered'--as He had told them a little while before +in the upper room, like a flock when the shepherd is stricken +down--'every man to his own.' He does not reject their imperfect +homage, though He discerns so clearly its imperfection and its +transiency, but sadly warns them to beware of the fleeting nature of +their present emotion; and would seek to prepare them, by the +knowledge, for the terrible storm that is going to break upon them. + +So let us learn two or three simple lessons. One is that the dear Lord +accepts imperfect surrender, ignorant faith and love, of which He knows +that it will soon turn to denial. Oh! if He did not, what would become +of us all? _We_ reject half hearts; we will not have a friendship on +which we cannot rely. The sweetness of vows is all sucked out of them +to our apprehension, if we have reason to believe that they will be +falsified in an hour. But the patient Master was willing to put up with +what you and I will not put up with; and to accept what we reject; and +be pleased that they gave Him even that. His 'charity suffereth long, +and is kind.' Let us not be afraid to bring even imperfect +consecration-- + + 'A little faith all undisproved'-- + +to His merciful feet. + +Then another lesson is the need for Christian men sedulously to search +and make sure that their inward life corresponds with their words and +professions. I wonder how many thousands of people will stand up this +day and say, 'I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ +His only Son,' whose words would stick in their throats if that +question of the Master's was put to them, '_Do_ ye now believe?' And I +wonder how many of us are the fools of our own verbal acknowledgments +of Christ. Self-examination is not altogether a wholesome exercise, and +it may easily be carried too far, to the destruction of the spontaneity +and the gladness of the Christian life. A man may set his pulse going +irregularly by simply concentrating his attention upon it, and there +may be self-examination of the wrong sort, which does harm rather than +good. But, on the other hand, we all need to verify our position, lest +our outward life should fatally slip away from correspondence with our +inward. Our words and acts of Christian profession and service are like +bank notes. What will be the end if there is a whole ream of such going +up and down the world, and no balance of bullion in the cellars to meet +them? Nothing but bankruptcy. Do you see to it that your reserve of +gold, deep down in your hearts, always leaves a margin beyond the notes +in circulation issued by you. And in the midst of your professions hear +the Master saying, '_Do ye_ now believe?' + +Another lesson that I draw is, trust no emotions, no religious +experiences, but only Him to whom they turn. + +These men were perfectly sincere, and there was a glow of gladness in +their hearts, and a real though imperfect faith when they spoke. In an +hours time where were they? + +We often deal far too hard measure to these poor disciples, in our +estimate of their conduct at that critical moment. We talk about them +as cowards. Well, they were better and they were worse than cowards; +for their courage failed second, but their faith had failed first. The +Cross made them dastards because it destroyed their confidence in Jesus +Christ. + +'We _trusted_.' Ah! what a world of sorrow there is in those two final +letters of that word! 'We trusted that it had been He who should have +redeemed Israel.' But they do not trust it any more, and so why should +they put themselves in peril for One on whom their faith can no longer +build? + +Would we have been any better if we had been there? Suppose you had +stood afar off and seen Jesus die on the cross, would your faith have +lived? Do we not know what it is to be a great deal more exuberant in +our professions of faith--and real faith it is, no doubt--in some quiet +hour when we are with Him by ourselves, than when swords are flashing +and we are in the presence of His antagonists? Do we not know what it +is to grasp conviction at one moment, and the next to find it gone like +a handful of mist from our clutch? Is our Christian life always lived +upon one high uniform level? Have we no experience of hours of +exhaustion coming after deep religious emotion? 'Let him that is +without sin among you cast the first stone'; there will not be many +stones flung if that law be applied. Let us all, recognising our own +weakness, trust to nothing, either in our convictions or our emotions, +but only to Him, and cry, 'Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe!' + +III. Lastly, note the lonely Christ and His companion. + +'Ye shall leave Me alone'; there is sadness, though it be calm, in that +clause, and then, I suppose, there was a moment's pause before the +quiet voice began again: 'And yet I am not alone, for the Father is +with Me.' There are two currents there, both calm; but the one bright +and the other dark. + +Jesus was the loneliest man that ever lived. All other forms of human +solitude were concentrated in His. He knew the pain of unappreciated +aims, unaccepted love, unbelieved teachings, a heart thrown back upon +itself. No man understood Him, no man knew Him, no man deeply and +thoroughly loved Him or sympathised with Him, and He dwelt apart. He +felt the pain of solitude more sharply than sinful men do. Perfect +purity is keenly susceptible; a heart fully charged with love is +wounded sore when the love is thrown back, and all the more sorely the +more unselfish it is. + +Solitude was no small part of the pain of Christ's passion. Remember +the pitiful appeal in Gethsemane, 'Tarry ye here and watch with Me!' +Remember the threefold vain return to the sleepers in the hope of +finding some sympathy from them. Remember the emphasis with which, more +than once in His life, He foretold the loneliness of His death. And +then let us understand how the bitterness of the cup that He drank had +for not the least bitter of its ingredients the sense that He drank it +alone. + +Now, dear friends! some of us, no doubt, have to live outwardly +solitary lives. We all of us live alone after all fellowship and +communion. Physicists tell us that in the most solid bodies the atoms +do not touch. Hearts come closer than atoms, but yet, after all, we die +alone, and in the depths of our souls we all live alone. So let us be +thankful that the Master knows the bitterness of solitude, and has +Himself trod that path. + +Then we have here the calm consciousness of unbroken communion. Jesus +Christ's sense of union with the Father was deep, close, constant, in +manner and measure altogether transcending any experience of ours. But +still He sets before us a pattern of what we should aim at in these +great words. They show the path of comfort for every lonely heart. 'I +am not alone, for the Father is with Me.' If earth be dark, let us look +to Heaven. If the world with its millions seems to have no friend in it +for us, let us turn to Him who never leaves us. If dear ones are torn +from our grasp, let us grasp God. Solitude is bitter; but, like other +bitters, it is a tonic. It is not all loss if the trees which with +their leafy beauty shut out the sky from us are felled, and so we see +the blue. + +Christ's company is to us what the Father's fellowship was to Christ. +He has borne solitude that He might be the companion of all the lonely, +and the same voice which said, 'Ye shall leave Me alone,' said also, 'I +am with you always, even to the end of the world.' + +But _that_ communion of Christ with the Father was broken, in that +awful hour when He cried: 'My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' We tread +there on the verge of mysteries, beyond our comprehension; but this we +know--that it was our sin and the world's, made His by His willing +identifying of Himself with us, which built up that black wall of +separation. That hour of utter desolation, forsaken by God, deserted by +men, was the hour of the world's redemption. And Jesus Christ was +forsaken by God and deserted by men, that you and I might never be +either the one or the other, but might find in His sweet and constant +companionship at once the society of man and the presence of God. + + + +PEACE AND VICTORY + +'These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. +In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have +overcome the world.'--JOHN xvi. 33. + +So end these wonderful discourses, and so ends our Lord's teaching +before His passion. He gathers up in one mighty word the total +intention of these sweet and deep sayings which we have so long been +pondering together. He sketches in broad outline the continual +characteristics of the disciples' life, and closes all with the +strangest shout of victory, even at the moment when He seems most +utterly defeated. + +We shall, I think, best lay on our hearts and minds the spirit and +purpose of these words if we simply follow their course, and look at +the three things which Christ emphasises here: the inward peace which +is His purpose for us; the outward tribulation which is our certain +fate; and the courageous confidence which Christ's victory for us gives. + +I. Note, then, first, the inward peace. + +'These things have I spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace.' +Peace is not lethargy; and it is very remarkable to notice how, in +immediate connection with this great promise, there occur words which +suggest its opposite--tribulation and battle. 'In the world ye have +tribulation.' 'I have overcome'--that means a fight. These are to go +side by side with the peace that He promises. The two conditions belong +to two different spheres. The Christian life bifurcates, as it were, +into a double root, and moves in two realms--'in Me' and 'in the world' +And the predicates and characteristics of these two lives are, in a +large measure, diametrically opposite. So here, without any +contradiction, our Lord brackets together these two opposite conditions +as both pertaining to the life of a devout soul. He promises a peace +which co-exists with tribulation and disturbance, a peace which is +realised in and through conflict and struggle. The tree will stand, +with its deep roots and its firm bole, unmoved, though wildest winds +may toss its branches and scatter its leaves. In the fortress, +beleaguered by the sternest foes, there may be, right in the very +centre of the citadel, a quiet oratory through whose thick walls the +noise of battle and the shout of victory or defeat can never penetrate. +So we may live in a centre of rest, however wild may be the uproar in +the circumference. 'In Me... peace,' that is the innermost life. 'In +the world... tribulation,' that is only the surface. + +But, then, note that this peace, which exists with, and is realised +through, tribulation and strife, depends upon certain conditions. Our +Lord does not say, 'Ye have peace,' but 'These things I have spoken +that you _may_ have it.' It is a possibility; and He lays down +distinctly and plainly here the twofold set of conditions, in +fulfilment of which a Christian disciple may dwell secure and still, in +the midst of all confusion. Note, then, these two. + +It is peace, if we have it at all, _in Him_. Now you remember how +emphatically and loftily, as one of the very key-notes of these +discourses, our Lord has spoken to us, in them, of 'dwelling in Him' as +the prerogative and the duty of every Christian. We are in Him as in an +atmosphere. In Him our true lives are rooted as a tree in the soil. We +are in Him as a branch in the vine, in Him as the members in a body, in +Him as the residents in a house. We are in Him by simple faith, by the +trust that rests all upon Him, by the love that finds all in Him, by +the obedience that does all for Him. And it is only when we are 'in +Christ' that we rest, and realise peace. All else brings distraction. +Even delights trouble. The world may give excitement, the world may +give vulgar and fleeting joys, the world may give stimulus to much that +is good and true in us, but there is only one thing that gives peace, +and that is that our hearts should dwell in the Fortress, and should +ever be surrounded by Jesus Christ. Brother! let nothing tempt us down +from the heights, and out from the citadel where alone we are at rest; +but in the midst of all the pressing duties, the absorbing cares, the +carking anxieties, the seducing temptations of the world, and in the +presence of all the necessity for noble conflict which the world brings +to every man that is not its slave, let us try to keep the roots of our +lives in contact with that soil from which they draw all their +nourishment, and to wrap ourselves round with the life of Jesus Christ, +which shall make an impenetrable shield between us and 'the fiery darts +of the wicked.' Keep on the lee side of the breakwater and your little +cock-boat will ride out the gale. Keep Christ between you and the +hurtling storm, and there will be a quiet place below the wall where +you may rest, hearing not the loud winds when they call. 'These things +have I spoken that in Me ye might have peace.' + +But there is another condition. Christ speaks the great words which +have been occupying us so long, that they may bring to us peace. I need +not do more than remind you, in a sentence, of the contents of these +wonderful discourses. Think of how they have spoken to us of our +Brother's ascension to Heaven to prepare a place for us; of His coming +again to receive us to Himself; of His presence with us in His absence; +of His indwelling in us and ours in Him; of His gift to us of a divine +Spirit. If we believed all these things; if we realised them and lived +in the faith of them; if we meditated upon them in the midst of our +daily duties; and if they were real to us, and not mere words written +down in a Book, how should anything be able to disturb us, or to shake +our settled confidence? Cleave to the words of the Master, and let them +pour into your hearts the quietness and confidence which nothing else +can give. And then, whatsoever storms may be around, the heart will be +at rest. We find peace nowhere else but where Mary found her repose, +and could shake off care and 'trouble about many things,' sitting at +the feet of Jesus, wrapt in His love and listening to His word. + +II. Then note, secondly, the outward tribulation which is the certain +fate of His followers. + +Of course there is a very sad and true sense in which the warning, 'In +the world ye shall have tribulation,' applies to all men. Pain and +sickness, loss and death, the monotony of hard, continuous, unwelcome +toil, hopes blighted or disappointed even in their fruition, and all +the other 'ills that flesh is heir to,' afflict us all. But our Lord is +not speaking here about the troubles that befall men as men, nor about +the chastisement that befalls them as sinners, nor about the evils +which dog them because they are mortal or because they are bad, but of +the yet more mysterious sorrows which fall upon them because they are +good, 'In the world ye have tribulation,' is the proper rendering and +reading. It had already begun, and it was to be the standing condition +and certain fate of all that followed Him. + +I have already said that the Christian life moves in two spheres, and +hence there must necessarily be antagonism and conflict. Whoever +realises the inward life in Christ will more or less, and sooner or +later, find himself coming into hostile collision with lives which only +move on the surface and belong to the world. If you and I are +Christians after the pattern of Jesus Christ, then we dwell in the +midst of an order of things which is not constituted on or for the +principles that regulate our lives and the objects at which we aim. And +hence, in that fundamental discordance between the Christian life and +society as it is constituted, there must always be, if there be honesty +and consistency on the side of the Christian man, more or less of +collision between him and it. All that you regard as axiomatic the +world regards as folly, if you take Christ for your Teacher. All that +you labour to secure the world does not care to possess, if you have +Him for your aim. All that you live to seek it has abandoned; all that +you desire to obey it will not even consult, if you are taking Christ +and His law for your rule. And therefore there must come, sooner or +later, and more or less intensely in all Christian lives, opposition +and tribulation. You cannot get away from the necessity, so it is as +well to face it. + +No doubt the form of antagonism varies. No doubt the more the world is +penetrated by Christian principles divorced from their root and source, +the less vehement and painful will the collision be. But _there_ is the +gulf, and there it will remain, until the world is a Church. No doubt +some portion of the battlements of organised Christianity has tumbled +into the ditch, and made it a little less deep. Christians have dropped +their standard far too much, and so the antagonism is not so plain as +it ought to be, and as it used to be, and as, some day, it will be. But +there it is, and if you are going to live out and out like a Christian +man, you will get the old sneers flung at you. You will be 'crotchety,' +'impracticable,' 'spoiling sport,' 'not to be dealt with,' 'a wet +blanket,' 'pharisaical,' 'bigoted,' and all the rest of the pretty +words which have been so frequently used about the men that try to live +like Jesus Christ. Never mind! 'In the world ye have tribulation.' 'I +bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,' the branding-iron which +tells to whom the slave belongs. And if it is His initials that I carry +I may be proud of the marks. + +But at any rate there will be antagonism. You young men in your +warehouses, you men that go on 'Change', we people that live by our +pens or our tongues, and find ourselves in opposition to much of the +tendencies of the present day--we have all, in our several ways, to +bear the cross. Do not let us be ashamed of it, and, above all, do not +let us, for the sake of easing our shoulders, be unfaithful to our +Master. 'In the world ye have tribulation'; and the Christian man's +peace has to be like the rainbow that lives above the cataract--still +and radiant, whilst it shines above the hell of white waters that are +tortured below. + +III. Lastly, notice the courageous confidence which comes from the +Lord's victory. + +'Be of good cheer!' It is the old commandment that rang out to Joshua +when, on the departure of Moses, the conduct of the war fell into his +less experienced hands: 'Be strong, and of a good courage; only be thou +strong and very courageous.' So says the Captain of salvation, leaving +His soldiers to face the current of the heady fight in the field. Like +some leader who has climbed the ramparts, or hewed his way through the +broken ranks of the enemies, and rings out the voice of encouragement +and call to his followers, our Captain sets before us His own example: +'I have overcome the world,' He said that the day before Calvary. If +that was victory, what would defeat have been? + +Notice, then, how our Lord's life was a true battle. The world tried to +draw Him away from God by appealing to things desirable to sense, as in +the wilderness; or to things dreadful to sense, as on the cross; and +both the one and the other form of temptation He faced and conquered. +It was no shadow fight which evoked this paean of victory from His +lips. The reality of His conflict is somewhat concealed from us by +reason of its calm and the completeness of His conquest. We do not +appreciate the force that drives a planet upon its path because it is +calm and continuous and silent, but the power that kept Jesus Christ +continually faithful to His Father, continually sure of that Father's +presence, continually averse to all self-will and selfish living, was a +power mightier then all others that have been manifested in the history +of humanity. The Captain of our salvation has really fought the fight +before us. + +But mark, again, that our Lord's life is the type of all victorious +life. The world conquers me when it draws me away from God, when it +makes me its slave, when it coaxes me to trust it, and urges to despair +if I lose it. The world conquers me when it comes between me and God, +when it fills my desires, when it absorbs my energies, when it blinds +my eyes to the things unseen and eternal. I conquer the world when I +put my foot upon its temptations, when I crush it down, when I shake +off its bonds, and when nothing that time and sense, with their +delights or their dreadfulnesses, can bring, prevents me from cleaving +to my Father with all my heart, and from living as His child here. +Whoso thus coerces Time and Sense to be the servants of his filial love +has conquered them both, and whoso lets them draw him away from God is +beaten, however successful he may dream himself to be and men may call +him. + +My friends! there is a lesson for Manchester people. Jesus Christ was +not a very successful man according to the standard of Market Street +and the Exchange. He made but a poor thing of the world, and He was +going to be martyred on the cross the day after He said these words. +And yet that was victory. Ay! Many a man beaten down in the struggle of +daily life, and making very little of it, according to our vulgar +estimate, is the true conqueror. Success means making the world a +stepping-stone to God. + +Still further, note our share in the Master's victory--'_I_ have +overcome the world. Be _ye_ of good cheer.' That seems an irrelevant +way of arguing. What does it matter to me though He has overcome? So +much the better for Him; but what good is it to me? + +It may aid us somewhat to more strenuous fighting, if we know that a +brother has fought and conquered, and I do not under-estimate the +blessing and the benefit of the life of Jesus Christ, as recorded in +these Scriptures, even from that, as I conceive it, miserably +inadequate and imperfect point of view. But the victory of Jesus Christ +is of extremely little practical use to me, if all the use of it is to +show me how to fight. Ah! you must go a deal deeper than that. 'I have +overcome the world, and I will come and put My overcoming Spirit into +your weakness, and fill you with My own victorious life, and make your +hands strong to war and your fingers to fight; and be in you the +conquering and omnipotent Power.' + +My friends! Jesus Christ's victory is ours, and we are victors in it, +because He is more than the pattern of brave warfare, He is even the +Son of God, who gave Himself for us, and gives Himself to us, and +dwells in us our Strength and our Righteousness. + +Lastly, remember that the condition of that victory's being ours is the +simple act of reliance upon Him and upon it. The man who goes into the +battle as that little army of the Hebrews did against the +wide-stretching hosts of the enemy, saying, 'O Lord! we know not what +to do, but our eyes are up unto Thee,' will come out 'more than +conqueror through Him that loved him.' For 'this is the victory that +overcometh the world, even our faith.' + + + +THE INTERCESSOR + +'These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, +Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may +glorify Thee: As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He +should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is +life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus +Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have +finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, +glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with +Thee before the world was. I have manifested Thy name unto the men +which Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest +them Me; and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all +things whatsoever Thou hast given Me, are of Thee. For I have given +unto them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them, +and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed +that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but +for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine. And all Mine are +Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no +more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy +Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that +they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept +them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of +them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be +fulfilled. And now come I to Thee; and these things I speak in the +world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have +given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are +not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou +shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them +from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the +world. Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. As Thou hast +sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. +And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be +sanctified through the truth.'--JOHN xvii. 1-19. + +We may well despair of doing justice to the deep thoughts of this +prayer, which volumes would not exhaust. Who is worthy to speak or to +write about such sacred words? Perhaps we may best gain some glimpses +of their great and holy sublimity by trying to gather their teaching +round the centres of the three petitions, 'glorify' (vs. 1, 5), 'keep' +(v. 11), and 'sanctify' (v. 17). + +I. In verses 1-5, Jesus prays for Himself, that He may be restored to +His pre-incarnate glory; but yet the prayer desires not so much that +glory as affecting Himself, as His being fitted thereby for completing +His work of manifesting the Father. There are three main points in +these verses-the petition, its purpose, and its grounds. + +As to the first, the repetition of the request in verses 1 and 5 is +significant, especially if we note that in the former the language is +impersonal, 'Thy Son,' and continues so till verse 4, where 'I' and +'Me' appear. In verses 1-3, then, the prayer rests upon the ideal +relations of Father and Son, realised in Jesus, while in verses 4 and 5 +the personal element is emphatically presented. The two petitions are +in their scope identical. The 'glorifying' in the former is more fully +explained in the latter as being that which He possessed in that +ineffable fellowship with the Father, not merely before incarnation, +but before creation. In His manhood He possessed and manifested the +'glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth'; +but that glory, lustrous though it was, was pale, and humiliation +compared with the light inaccessible, which shone around the Eternal +Word in the bosom of the Father. Yet He who prayed was the same Person +who had walked in that light before time was, and now in human flesh +asked for what no mere manhood could bear. The first form of the +petition implies that such a partaking in the uncreated glory of the +Father is the natural prerogative of One who is 'the Son,' while the +second implies that it is the appropriate recompense of the earthly +life and character of the man Jesus. + +The petition not only reveals the conscious divinity of the Son, but +also His willing acceptance of the Cross; for the glorifying sought is +that reached through death, resurrection, and ascension, and that +introductory clause, 'the hour is come,' points to the impending +sufferings as the first step in the answer to the petition. The +Crucifixion is always thus treated in this Gospel, as being both the +lowest humiliation and the 'lifting up' of the Son; and here He is +reaching out His hand, as it were, to draw His sufferings nearer. So +willingly and desiringly did this Isaac climb the mount of sacrifice. +Both elements of the great saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews are +here: 'For the joy that was set before Him, [He] endured the Cross.' + +The purpose of the petition is to be noted; namely, the Son's +glorifying of the Father. No taint of selfishness corrupted His prayer. +Not for Himself, but for men, did He desire His glory. He sought return +to that serene and lofty seat, and the elevation of His limited manhood +to the throne, not because He was wearied of earth or impatient of +weakness, sorrows, or limitations, but that He might more fully +manifest by that Glory, the Father's name. To make the Father known is +to make the Father glorious; for He is all fair and lovely. That +revelation of divine perfection, majesty, and sweetness was the end of +Christ's earthly life, and is the end of His heavenly divine activity. +He needs to reassume the prerogatives of which He needed to divest +Himself, and both necessities have one end. He had to lay aside His +garments and assume the form of a servant, that He might make God +known; but, that revelation being complete, He must take His garments +and sit down again, before He can go on to tell all the meaning of what +He has 'done unto us.' + +The ground of the petition is twofold. Verses 2 and 3 represent the +glory sought for, as the completion of the Son's mission and task. +Already He had been endowed with 'authority over all flesh,' for the +purpose of bestowing eternal life; and that eternal life stands in the +knowledge of God, which is the same as the knowledge of Christ. The +present gift to the Son and its purpose are thus precisely parallel +with the further gift desired, and that is the necessary carrying out +of this. The authority and office of the incarnate Christ demand the +glory of, and consequent further manifestation by, the glorified +Christ. The life which He comes to give is a life which flows from the +revelation that He makes of the Father, received, not as mere +intellectual knowledge, but as loving acquaintance. + +The second ground for the petition is in verse 4, the actual perfect +fulfilment by the Son of that mission. What untroubled consciousness of +sinless obedience and transparent shining through His life of the +Father's likeness and will He must have had, who could thus assert His +complete realisation of that Father's revealing purpose, as the ground +of His deserving and desiring participation in the divine glory! Surely +such words are either the acme of self-righteousness or the +self-revealing speech of the Son of God. + +II. With verse 6 we pass to the more immediate reference to the +disciples, and the context from thence to verse 15 may be regarded as +all clustered round the second petition 'keep' (v. 11). That central +request is preceded and followed by considerations of the disciples' +relation to Christ and to the world, which may be regarded as its +grounds. The whole context preceding the petition may be summed up in +two grounds for the prayer--the former set forth at length, and the +latter summarily; the one being the genuine, though incomplete +discipleship of the men for whom Christ prays (vs. 6-10), and the +latter their desolate condition without Jesus (v. 11). + +It is beautiful to see how our Lord here credits the disciples with +genuine grasp, both in heart and head, of His teaching. He had shortly +before had to say, 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast +thou not known Me?' and soon 'they all forsook Him and fled.' But +beneath misconception and inadequate apprehension there lived faith and +love; and He saw 'the full corn in the ear,' when only the green +'blade' was visible, pushing itself above the surface. We may take +comfort from this generous estimate of imperfect disciples. If He did +not tend, instead of quenching, 'dimly burning wicks,' where would He +have 'lights in the world?' + +Verse 6 lays down the beginning of discipleship as threefold: Christ's +act in revealing; the Father's, in giving men to Jesus; and men's, in +keeping the Father's word. 'Thy word' is the whole revelation by +Christ, which is, as this Gospel so often repeats, not His own, but the +Father's. These three facts underlying discipleship are pleas for the +petition to follow; for unless the feeble disciples are 'kept' in the +name, as in a fortress, Christ's work of revelation is neutralised, the +Father's gift to Him made of none effect, and the incipient disciples +will not 'keep' His word. The plea is, in effect, 'Forsake not the +works of thine own hands'; and, like all Christ's prayers, it has a +promise in its depths, since God does not begin what He will not +finish; and it has a warning, too, that we cannot keep ourselves unless +a stronger Hand keeps us. + +Verses 7 and 8 carry on the portraiture of discipleship, and thence +draw fresh pleas. The blessed result of accepting Christ's revelation +is a knowledge, built on happy experience, and, like the acquaintance +of heart with heart, issuing in the firm conviction that Christ's words +and deeds are from God. Why does He say, 'All things whatsoever Thou +hast given,' instead of simply 'that I have' or 'declare'? Probably it +is the natural expression of His consciousness, the lowly utterance of +His obedience, claiming nothing as His own, and yet claiming all, while +the subsequent clause 'are of Thee' expresses the disciples' +conviction. In like fashion our Lord, in verse 8, declares that His +words, in their manifoldness (contrast v. 6, 'Thy word'), were all +received by Him from the Father, and accepted by the disciples, with +the result that they came, as before, to 'know' by inward acquaintance +with Him as a person, and so to have the divinity of His Person +certified by experience, and further came to 'believe' that God had +sent Him, which was a conviction arrived at by faith. So knowledge, +which is personal experience and acquaintance, and faith, which rises +to the heights of the Father's purpose, come from the humble acceptance +of the Christ declaring the Father's name. First faith, then knowledge, +and then a fuller faith built on it, and that faith in its turn passing +into knowledge (v. 25)--these are the blessings belonging to the growth +of true discipleship, and are discerned by the loving eye of Jesus in +very imperfect followers. + +In verse 9 Jesus assumes the great office of Intercessor. 'I pray for +them' is not so much prayer as His solemn presentation of Himself +before the Father as the High-priest of His people. It marks an epoch +in His work. The task of bringing God to man is substantially complete. +That of bringing men by supplication to God is now to begin. It is the +revelation of the permanent office of the departed Lord. Moses on the +Mount holds up the rod, and Israel prevails (Exod. xvii. 9). The +limitation of this prayer to the disciples applies only to the special +occasion, and has no bearing on the sweep of His redeeming purpose or +the desires of His all-pitying heart. The reasons for His intercession +follow in verses 9-11a. The disciples are the Father's, and continue so +even when 'given' to Christ, in accordance with the community of +possession, which oneness of nature and perfectness of love establish +between the Father and the Son. God cannot but care for those who are +His. The Son cannot but pray for those who are His. Their having +recognised Him for what He was binds Him to pray for them. He is +glorified in disciples, and if we show forth His character, He will be +our Advocate. The last reason for His prayer is the loneliness of the +disciples and their exposure in the world without Him. His departure +impelled Him to Intercede, both as being a leaving them defenceless and +as being an entrance into the heavenly state of communion with the +Father. + +In the petition itself (v. 11b), observe the invocation 'Holy Father!' +with special reference to the prayer for preservation from the +corruption of the world. God's holiness is the pledge that He will make +us holy, since He is 'Father' as well. Observe the substance of the +request, that the disciples should be kept, as in a fortress, within +the enclosing circle of the name which God has given to Jesus. The name +is the manifestation of the divine nature. It was given to Jesus, +inasmuch as He, 'the Word,' had from the beginning the office of +revealing God; and that which was spoken of the Angel of the Covenant +is true in highest reality of Jesus: 'My name is in Him.' 'The name of +the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe.' + +Observe the issue of this keeping; namely, the unity of believers. The +depths of that saying are beyond us, but we can at least see thus +far--that the true bond of unity is the name in which all who are one +are kept; that the pattern of the true unity of believers is the +ineffable union of Father and Son, which is oneness of will and nature, +along with distinctness of persons; and that therefore this purpose +goes far deeper than outward unity of organisation. + +Then follow other pleas, which are principally drawn from Christ's +relation to the disciples, now ending; whereas the former ones were +chiefly deduced from the disciples' relation to Him. He can no more do +what He has done, and commits it to the Father. Happy we if we can +leave our unfinished tasks to be taken up by God, and trust those whom +we leave undefended to be shielded by Him! 'I kept' is, in the Greek, +expressive of continuous, repeated action, while 'I guarded' gives the +single issue of the many acts of keeping. Jesus keeps His disciples now +as He did then, by sedulous, patient, reiterated acts, so that they are +safe from evil. But note where He kept them--'in Thy name.' That is our +place of safety, a sure defence and inexpugnable fortress. One, indeed, +was lost; but that was not any slur on Christ's keeping, but resulted +from his own evil nature, as being 'a son of loss' (if we may so +preserve the affinity of the words in the Greek), and from the divine +decree from of old. Sharply defined and closely united are the two +apparent contradictories of man's free choice of destruction and God's +foreknowledge. Christ saw them in harmony, and we shall do so one day. + +Then the flow of the prayer recurs to former thoughts. Going away so +soon, He yearned to leave them sharers of His own emotions in the +prospect of His departure to the Father, and therefore He had admitted +them (and us) to hear this sacred outpouring of His desires. If we laid +to heart the blessed revelations of this disclosure of Christ's heart, +and followed Him with faithful gaze as He ascends to the Father, and +realised our share in that triumph, our empty vessels would be filled +by some of that same joy which was His. Earthly joy can never be full; +Christian joy should never be anything less than full. + +Then follows a final glance at the disciples' relation to the world, to +which they are alien because they are of kindred to Him. This is the +ground for the repetition of the prayer 'keep', with the difference +that formerly it was 'keep _in_ Thy name,' and now it is '_from_ the +evil.' It is good to gaze first on our defence, the 'munitions of +rocks' where we lie safely, and then we can venture to face the thought +of 'the evil,' from which that keeps us, whether it be personal or +abstract. + +III. Verses 16-19 give the final petition for the immediate circle of +disciples, with its grounds. The position of alienation from the world, +in which the disciples stand by reason of their assimilation to Jesus, +is repeated here. It was the reason for the former prayer, 'keep'; it +is the reason for the new petition, 'sanctify.' Keeping comes first, +and then sanctifying, or consecration. Security from evil is given that +we may be wholly devoted to the service of God. The evil in the world +is the great hindrance to that. The likeness to Jesus is the great +ground of hope that we shall be truly consecrated. We are kept 'in the +name'; we are consecrated 'in the truth,' which is the revelation made +by Jesus, and in a very deep sense is Himself. That truth is, as it +were, the element in which the believer lives, and by abiding in which +his real consecration is possible. + +Christ's prayer for us should be our aim and deepest desire for +ourselves, and His declaration of the condition of its fulfilment +should prescribe our firm adhesion to, and constant abiding in, the +truth as revealed and embodied in Him, as the only means by which we +can attain the consecration which is at once, as the closing verses of +the passage tell us, the means by which we may fulfil the purpose for +which we are sent into the world, and the path on which we reach +complete assimilation to His perfect self-surrender. All Christians are +sent into the world by Jesus, as Jesus was sent by the Father. We have +the charge to glorify Him. We have the presence of the Sender with us, +the sent. We are inspired with His Spirit. We cannot do His work +without that entire consecration which shall copy His devotion to the +Father and eager swiftness to do His will. How can such ennobling and +exalted consecration be ours? There is but one way. He has 'consecrated +Himself,' and by union with Him through faith, our selfishness may be +subdued, and the Spirit of Christ may dwell in our hearts, to make us +'living sacrifices, consecrated and acceptable to God.' Then shall we +be truly 'consecrated,' and then only, when we can say, 'I live; yet +not I, but Christ liveth in me.' That is the end of Christ's +consecration of Himself--the prayer which He prayed for His +disciples--and should be the aim which every disciple earnestly pursues. + + + + +'THE LORD THEE KEEPS' + +'...They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray +not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou +shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I +am not of the world.'--JOHN xvii. 14-16. + +We have here a petition imbedded in a reiterated statement of the +disciples' isolated position when left in a hostile world without +Christ's sheltering presence. We cannot fathom the depth of the mystery +of the _praying_ Christ, but we may be sure of this, that His prayers +were always in harmony with the Father's will, were, in fact, the +expression of that will, and were therefore promises and prophecies. +What He prays the Father for His disciples He gives to His disciples. +Once only had He to say, 'If it be possible'; at all other times He +prayed as sure that 'Thou hearest Me always,' and in this very prayer +He speaks in a tone of strange authority, when He prays for all +believers in future ages, and says: 'I will that, where I am, they also +may be with Me.' In this High-priestly prayer, offered when Gethsemane +was almost in sight, and the Judgment Hall and Calvary were near, our +Lord's tender interest in His disciples fills His mind, and even in its +earlier portion, which is in form a series of petitions for Himself, it +is in essence a prayer for them, whilst this central section which +concerns the Apostles, and the closing section which casts the mantle +of His love and care over all who hereafter shall 'believe on Me +through their word,' witnesses to the sublime completeness of His +self-oblivion. Gethsemane heard His prayer for Himself; here He prays +for His people, and the calm serenity and confident assurance of this +prayer, set against the agitation of that other, receives and gives +emphasis by the contrast. + +Our text falls into two parts, the enclosing circle of the repeated +statement of the disciples' isolation in an alien world, and the +enclosed jewel of the all-sufficient prayer which guarantees their +protection. We shall best make its comfort and cheer our own by dealing +with these two successively. + +I. The disciples' isolation. + +Of course we are to interpret the 'world' here in accordance with the +ethical usage of that term in this Gospel, according to which it means +the aggregate of mankind considered as apart from and alien to God. It +is roughly equivalent to the modern phrase, 'society.' + +With that order of things Christ's real followers are not in accord. + +That want of accord depends upon their accord with Jesus. + +Every Christian has the 'mind of Christ' in him, in the measure of his +Christianity. 'It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master' +But Christian discipleship has a better guarantee for the assimilation +of the disciple to his Lord than the ordinary forms of the relation of +teacher and taught ever present. There is a participation in the +Master's life, an implantation in the scholar's spirit of the Teacher's +Spirit. 'Christ in us' is not only 'the hope of glory,' but the power +which makes possible and actual the present possession of a life +kindred with, because derived from, and essentially one with, His life. + +They whose spirits are touched by the indwelling Christ to the 'fine +issues' of sympathy with the law of His earthly life cannot but live in +the world as aliens, and wander amid its pitfalls with 'blank +misgivings' and a chill sense that this is not their rest. They are +knit to One whose 'meat and drink' was to do the will of the Father in +heaven, who 'pleased not Himself,' whose life was all one long service +and sacrifice for men, whose joys were not fed by earthly possessions +or delights. How should they have a sense of community of aims with +grovelling hearts that cling to wealth or ambition, that are not at +peace with God, and have no holdfasts beyond this 'bank and shoal of +time'? A man who has drunk into the spirit of Christ's life is thereby +necessarily thrown out of gear with the world. + +Happy is he if his union with Jesus is so deep and close that it is but +deepened by his experience of the lack of sympathy between the world +and himself! Happy if his consciousness of not being 'of the world' but +quickens his desire to help the world and glorify his Lord, by bringing +His all-sufficiency into its emptiness, and leading it, too, to discern +His sweetness and beauty! + +But how little the life of the average Christian corresponds to this +reiterated utterance of our Lord! Who of us dare venture to take it on +our lips and to say that we are 'not of the world even as He is not of +the world'? Is not our relation to that world of which Jesus here +speaks a contrast rather than a parallel to His? The 'prince of this +world' had nothing in Christ, as He himself declared, but He has much +in each of us. There are stored up heaps of combustibles in every one +of us which catch fire only too swiftly, and burn but too fiercely, +when the 'fiery darts of the wicked' fall among them. Instead of an +instinctive recoil from the view of life characteristic of 'the world,' +we must confess, if we are honest, that it draws us strongly, and many +of us are quite at home with it. Why is this but because we do not +habitually live near enough to our Lord to drink in His Spirit? The +measure of our discord with the world is the measure of our accord with +our Saviour. It is in the degree in which we possess His life that we +come to be aliens here, and it is in the degree in which we keep in +touch with Jesus, and keep our hearts wide open for the entrance of His +Spirit, that we possess His life. A worldly Christian--no uncommon +character--is a Christian who has all but shut himself off from the +life which Christ breathes into the expectant soul. + +II. The disciples' guarded security. + +Jesus encloses His prayer between the two parts of that repeated +statement of the disciples' isolation. It is like some lovely, peaceful +plain circled by grim mountains. The isolation is a necessary +consequence of the disciples' previous union with Him. It involves much +that is painful to the unrenewed part of their natures, but their +Lord's prayer is more than enough for their security and peace. + +'I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.' They are +in it by God's appointment for great purposes, affecting their own +characters and affecting the world, with which Christ will not +interfere. It is their training ground, their school. The sense of +belonging to another order is to be intensified by their experiences in +it, and these are to make more vivid the hopes that yearn towards the +true home, and to develop the 'wrestling thews that throw the world.' +The discipline of life is too precious to be tampered with even by a +Saviour's prayer, and He loves His people too wisely to seek to shelter +them from its roughness, and to procure for them exemption which would +impoverish their characters. + +So let us learn the lesson and shape our desires after the pattern of +our Lord's prayer for us, nor blindly seek for that ease which He would +not ask for us. False asceticism that shrinks from contact with an +alien world, weak running from trials and temptations, selfish desires +for exemption from sorrows, are all rebuked by this prayer. Christ's +relation to the world is our pattern, and we are not to seek for +pillows in an order of things where He 'had not where to lay His head.' + +But He does ask for His people that they may be kept 'from evil,' or +from 'the evil One.' That prayer is, as we have said, a promise and a +prophecy. But the fulfilment of it in each individual disciple hinges +on the disciple's keeping himself in touch with Jesus, whereby the +'much virtue' of His prayer will encompass him and keep him safe. We do +not discuss the alternative renderings, according to one of which 'the +evil' is impersonal, and according to the other of which it is +concentrated in the personal 'prince of this world.' In either case, it +is 'the evil' against which the disciples are to be guarded, whether it +has a personal source or not. + +Here, in Christ's intercession, is the firm ground of our confidence +that we may be 'more than conquerors' in the life-long fight which we +have to wage. The sweet strong old psalm is valid in its assurances +to-day for every soul which puts itself under the shadow of Christ's +protecting intercession: 'The Lord shall keep thee from all evil, He +shall keep thy soul.' We have not 'to lift up our eyes unto the hills,' +for 'vainly is help hoped for from the multitude of the mountains,' but +'Our help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth.' Therefore +we may dwell at peace in the midst of an alien world, having the Father +for our Keeper, and the Son, who overcame the world, for our +Intercessor, our Pattern and our Hope. + +The parallel between Christ and His people applies to their relations +to the present order of things: 'They are not of the world, even as I +am not of the world.' It applies to their mission here: 'As Thou didst +send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.' It applies +to the future: 'I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, +and I come to Thee,' and in that 'coming' lies the guarantee that His +servants will, each in his due time, come out from this alien world and +pass into the state which is home, because He is there. The prayer that +they might be kept from the evil, while remaining in the scene where +evil is rampant, is crowned by the prayer: 'I will that, where I am, +they also may be with Me, that they may behold My glory.' + + + +THE HIGH PRIEST'S PRAYER + +'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe +on Me through their word; That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, +art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the +world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou +givest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: +I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and +that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as +Thou hast loved Me. Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given +Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou +hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. +O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known +Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared +unto them Thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith Thou +hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.'--JOHN xvii. 20-26. + +The remainder of this prayer reaches out to all generations of +believers to the end. We may incidentally note that it shows that Jesus +did not anticipate a speedy end of the history of the world or the +Church; and also that it breathes but one desire, that for the Church's +unity, as though He saw what would be its greatest peril. +Characteristic, too, of the idealism of this Gospel is it that there is +no name for that future community. It is not called 'church,' or +'congregation,' or the like--it is 'them also that believe on Me +through their word,' a great spiritual community, held together by +common faith in Him whom the Apostles preached. Is not that still the +best definition of Christians, and does not such a conception of it +correspond better to its true nature than the formal abstraction, 'the +Church'? + +We can but touch in the most inadequate fashion the profound words of +this section of the prayer which would take volumes to expound fitly. +We note that it contains four periods, in each of which something is +asked or stated, and then a purpose to be attained by the petition or +statement is set forth. + +First comes the prayer for unity and what the answer to it will effect +(v. 21). Now in this verse the unity of believers is principally +regarded as resulting from the inclusion, if we may so say, of them all +in the ineffable union of the Father and the Son. Jesus prays that +'they may all be one,' and also 'that they also may be in us' (Rev. +Ver.). And their unity is no mere matter of formal external +organisation nor of unanimity of creed, or the like, but it is a deep, +vital unity. The pattern of it is the unity of the Father and the Son, +and the power that brings it about is the abiding of all believers 'in +us.' The result of such a manifestation in the world of a multitude of +men, in all of whom one life evidently moves, fusing their +individualities while retaining their personalities, will be the +world's conviction of the divine mission of Jesus. The world was +beginning to feel its convictions moving slowly in that direction, when +it exclaimed: 'Behold how these Christians love one another!' The +alienation of Christians has given barbs and feathers to its arrows of +scorn. But it is 'the unity of the Spirit,' not that of a, great +corporation, that Christ's prayer desires. + +The petitions for what would be given to believers passes for a moment +into a statement of what Jesus had already given to them. He had begun +the unifying gift, and that made a plea for its perfecting. The 'glory' +which He had given to these poor bewildered Galilaeans was but in a +rudimentary stage; but still, wherever there is faith in Him, there is +some communication of His life and Spirit, and some of that veiled and +yet radiant glory, 'full of grace and truth,' which shone through the +covering when the Incarnate Word 'became flesh.' It is the Christ-given +Christ-likeness in each which knits believers into one. It is Christ in +us and we in Christ that fuses us into one, and thereby makes each +perfect. And such flashing back of the light of Jesus from a million +separate crystals, all glowing with one light and made one in the +light, would flash on darkest eyes the lustre of the conviction that +God sent Christ, and that God's love enfolded those Christlike souls +even as it enfolded Him. + +Again (v. 24) comes a petition with its result. And here there is no +mention of the effect of the answer on the world. For the moment the +thoughts of isolation in, and a message to, the world fade away. The +partially-possessed 'glory' seems to have led on Christ's thoughts to +the calm home of perfection waiting for Him who was 'not of the world' +and was sent into it, and for the humble ones who had taken Him for +Lord. 'I will that'--that is a strange tone for a prayer. What +consciousness on Christ's part does it involve? The disciples are not +now called 'them that should believe on Me,' but 'that which Thou hast +given Me,' the individuals melt into the great whole. They are +Christ's, not merely by their faith or man's preaching, but by the +Father's gift. And the fact of that gift is used as a plea with Him, to +'perfect that which concerneth' them, and to complete the unity of +believers with Jesus by bringing them to be 'with Him' in His +triumphant session at the right hand. To 'behold' will be the same as +to share His glory, not only that which we beheld when He tabernacled +among us, but that which He had in the pouring out on Him of God's love +'before the foundation of the world.' Our dim eyes cannot follow the +happy souls as they are lost in the blaze, but we know that they walk +in light and are like Him, for they 'see Him as He is.' + +The last statement (vs. 25, 26) is not petition but vow, and, to our +ears, promise. The contrast of the world and believers appears for the +last time. What made the world a 'world' was its not knowing God; what +made believers isolated in, and having an errand to, the world, was +that they 'knew' (not merely 'believed,' but knew by experience) that +Jesus had been sent from God to make known His name. All our knowledge +of God comes through Him; it is for us to recognise His divine mission, +and then He will unveil, more and more, with blessed continuity of +increasing knowledge, the Name, and with growing knowledge of it +growing measures of God's love will be in us, and Jesus Himself will +'dwell in our hearts by faith' more completely and more blessedly +through an eternity of wider knowledge and more fervent love. + + + +THE FOLDED FLOCK + +'I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; +that they may behold My glory.'--JOHN xvii. 24. + +This wonderful prayer is (_a_) for Jesus Himself, (_b_) for the +Apostles, (_c_) for the whole Church on earth and in heaven. + +I. The prayer. + +'I will' has a strange ring of authority. It is the expression of His +love to men, and of His longing for their presence with Him in His +glory. Not till they are with Him there, shall He 'see of the travail +of His soul and be satisfied.' + +We have here a glimpse of the blessed state of the dead in Christ. + +(_a_) Local presence with Christ. His glorified body is somewhere. The +value of this thought is that it gives solidity to our ideas of a +future life. There they _are_. We need not dwell on the metaphysical +difficulties about locality for disembodied spirits. + +If a spirit can be localised in a body, I suppose it can be localised +without a body; but passing by all that, we have the hope held out here +of a real local presence with the glorified humanity of our Lord. We +speak of the dead as gone _from us_, and we have that idea far more +vividly in our minds than that of their having gone _to Him_. We speak +of the 'departed,' but we do not think of them as 'arrived.' We look +down to the narrow grave, but we forget 'He is not here, He is risen. +Why seek ye the living among the dead?' Ah! if we could only bring home +to our hearts the solid prose of the conviction that where Christ is +there His servants are, and that not in the diffused ubiquity of His +Divine Omnipresence, it would go far to remove the darkness and vague +mist which wrap the future, and to set it as it really is before us, as +a solid definite reality. We see the sails glide away out into the west +as the sun goes down, and we think of them as tossing on a midnight +sea, an unfathomable waste. Try to think of them more truly. As in that +old miracle, He comes to them walking on the water in the night watch, +and if at first they are terrified, His voice brings back hope to the +heart that is beginning to stand still, and immediately they are at the +land whither they go. Now, as they sink from our sight, they are in +port, sails furled and anchor dropped, and green fields round them, +even while we watch the sinking masts, and cannot yet rightly tell +whether the fading sail has faded wholly. + +(_b_) Communion with Christ. + +Our Lord says not only 'that where I am, they also may be,' but adds +'with Me.' That is not a superfluous addition, but emphasises the +thought of a communion which is more intimate and blessed than local +presence alone would be. + +The communion here is real but imperfect. It is perfected there on our +part by the dropping away of flesh and sin, by change of circumstances, +by emancipation from cares and toils necessary here, by the development +of new powers and surroundings, and on His side by new manifestations. + +(_c_) Vision of His glory. + +The crown of this utterance of Christ's will is 'that they may behold +My glory.' In an earlier part of this prayer our Lord had spoken of the +'glory which I had with Thee before the world was.' But probably the +glory 'given' is not that of essential Divinity, but that of His +mediatorial work. To His people 'with Him where He is,' are imparted +fuller views of Christ as Saviour, deeper notions of His work, clearer +perception of His rule in providence and nature. This is the loftiest +employment of the spirits who are perfected and lapped in 'pleasures +for evermore' by their union with the glorified Jesus. + +Surely this is grander than all metaphorical pictures of heaven. + +II. The incipient fulfilment now going on. + +The prayer has been in process of fulfilment ever since. The dead in +Christ have entered on its answer now. + +We need not discuss difficulties about the 'intermediate state,' for +this at all events is true, that to be 'absent from the body' is to be +'present with the Lord.' + +A Christian death is an answer to this prayer. True, for Christians as +for all, the physical necessity is an imperative law. True, the +punitive aspect of death is retained for them. But yet the law is +wielded by Christ, and while death remains, its whole aspect is +changed. So we may think of those who have departed in His faith and +fear as gone in answer to this prayer. + +How beautiful that is! Slowly, one by one, they are gathered in, as the +stars one by one light up. Place after place is filled. + +Thus through the ages the prayer works on, and our dear ones have gone +from us, but they have gone to Him. We weep, but they rejoice. To us +their departure is the result of an iron law, of a penal necessity, of +some secondary cause; but to them it is seen to be the answer to His +mighty prayer. They hear His voice and follow Him when He says, 'Come +up hither.' + +III. The final fulfilment still future. + +The prayer looks forward to a perfect fulfilment. His prayer cannot be +vain. + +(_a_) Perfect in degree. + +(_b_) Perfect in extent, when all shall be gathered together and the +'whole family' shall be 'in heaven,' and Christ's own word receives its +crowning realisation, that 'of all whom the Father hath given Him He +has lost nothing.' + +And these are not some handful picked out by a decree which we can +neither fathom nor alter, but Christ is given to us all, and if we +choose to take Him, then for us He has ascended; and as we watch Him +going up the voice comes to us: 'I go to prepare a place for you. I +will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye +may be also.' + + + +CHRIST'S SUMMARY OF HIS WORK + +'I have declared onto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love +wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.'--JOHN +xvii. 26. + +This is the solemn and calm close of Christ's great High-priestly +prayer; the very last words that He spoke before Gethsemane and His +passion. In it He sums up both the purpose of His life and the +petitions of His prayer, and presents the perfect fulfilment of the +former as the ground on which He asks the fulfilment of the latter. +There is a singular correspondence and contrast between these last +words to God and the last words to the disciples, which immediately +preceded them. These were, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation, but +be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.' In both He sums up His +life, in both He is unconscious of flaw, imperfection, or limitation; +in both He shares His own possessions among His followers. But His +words to men carry a trace of His own conflict and a foreboding of +theirs. For Him life had been, and for them it was to be, tribulation +and a battle, and the highest thing that He could promise them was +victory won by conflict. But from the serene elevation of the prayer +all such thoughts disappear. Unbroken calm lies over it. His life has +been one continual manifestation of the name of God; and the portion +that He promises to His followers is not victory won by strife, but the +participation with Himself in the love of God. + +Both views are true--true to His experience, true to ours. The +difference between them lies in the elevation of the beholder's eye. +Looked at on the outward side, His life and ours must be always a +battle and often a sorrow. Looked at from within, His life was an +unbroken abiding in the love of God, and a continual impartation of the +name of God, and our lives may be an ever growing knowledge of God, +leading to and being a fuller and fuller possession of His love, and of +a present Christ. So let us ponder these deep words: our Lord's own +summing up of His work and aims; His statement of what we may hope to +attain; and the path by which we may attain it. I shall best bring out +the whole fullness of their meaning if I simply follow them word by +word. + +I. Note, first, the backward look of the revealing Son. + +'I have declared Thy name.' + +The first thing that strikes one about these words is their boldness. +Remember that they are spoken to God, at the close of a life the +heights and depths of which they sum up. They are an appeal to God's +righteous judgment of the whole character of the career. Do they +breathe the tone that we might expect? Surely the prophet or teacher +who has most earnestly tried to make himself a mirror, without spot to +darken and without dint to distort the divine ray, will be the first to +feel, as he looks back, the imperfections of his repetition of his +message. But Jesus Christ, when He looks back over His life, has no +flaw, limitation, incompleteness, to record or to confess. As always so +here, He is absolutely unconscious of anything in the nature of +weakness, error, or sin. As when He looked back upon His life as a +conflict, He had no defeats to remember with shame, so here, when He +looks upon it as the revelation of God He feels that everything which +He has received of the Father He has made known unto men. + +And the strange thing is that we admit the claim, and have become so +accustomed to regard it as being perfectly legitimate that we forget +how enormous it is. He takes an attitude here which in any other man +would be repulsive, but in Him is supremely natural. We criticise other +people, we outgrow their teachings, we see where their doctrines have +deviated from truth by excess or defect, or disproportion; but when He +says 'I have declared Thy name,' we feel that He says nothing more than +the simple facts of His life vindicate and confirm. + +Not less remarkable is the implication in these words, not only of the +completeness of His message, but of the fullness of His knowledge of +God, and its entirely underived nature. So He claims for Himself an +altogether special and unique position here: He has learned God from +none; He teaches God to all. 'That was the true Light which lighteth +every man that cometh into the world.' + +Looking a little more closely at these words before us, we have here +Christ's own account of His whole life. The meaning of it all is the +revelation of the heart of God. Not by words, of course; not by words +only, but far more by deeds. And I would have you ask yourselves this +question--If the deeds of a man are a declaration of the name of God, +what sort of a man is He who thus declares Him? Must we not feel that +if these words, or anything like them, really came from the lips of +Jesus Christ, we are here in the presence of something other than a +holy life of a simple humanity, which might help men to climb to the +apprehension of a God who was perfect love; and that when He says 'He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,' we stand before 'God manifest +in the flesh.' + +What is that name of God which the revealing Son declares? Not the mere +syllables by which we call Him, but the manifested character of the +Father. That one name, in the narrower sense of the word, carries the +whole revelation that Jesus Christ has to make; for it speaks of +tenderness, of kindred, of paternal care, of the transmission of a +nature, of the embrace of a divine love. And it delivers men from all +their creeping dreads, from all their dark peradventures, from all +their stinging fears, from all the paralysing uncertainties which, like +clouds, always misty and often thunder-bearing, have shut out the sight +of the divine face. If this Christ, in His weakness and humanity, with +pity welling from His eyes, and making music of His voice, with the +swift help streaming from His fingers-tips to every pain and weariness, +and the gracious righteousness that drew little children and did not +repel publicans and harlots, is our best image of God, then love is the +centre of divinity, and all the rest that we call God is but +circumference and fringe of that central brightness. + + 'So through the thunder comes a human voice + Saying, "O heart I made! a heart beats here."' + +He has declared God's name, His last best name of Love. + +Need I dwell for one moment on the fact that that name is only declared +by this Son? There is no need to deny the presence of manifold other +precious sources in men's experience and lives from which something may +be inferred of what God truly is. But all these, rich and manifold as +they are, fall into nothingness before the life of Jesus Christ, +considered as the making visible of God. For all the rest are partial +and incomplete. 'At sundry times and in divers manners' God flung forth +syllables of the name, and 'fragments of that mighty voice came rolling +down the wind.' But in Jesus Christ the whole name, in all its +syllables, is spoken. Other sources of knowledge are ambiguous, and +need the interpretation of Christ's life and Cross ere they can be +construed into a harmonious whole. Life, nature, our inmost being, +history, all these sources speak with two voices; and it is only when +we hear the deep note that underlies them in the word of Christ that +their discord becomes a harmony. Other sources lack authority. They +come at the most with a 'may be.' He comes with a 'Verily, verily.' +Other sources speak to the understanding, or the conscience, or to +fear. Christ speaks to the heart. Other sources leave the man who +accepts them unaffected. Christ's message penetrates to the +transforming and assimilation of the whole being. + +So, dear brethren! for all generations, and for this generation most of +all, the plain alternative lies between the declaration of the name of +God in Jesus Christ and a godless and orphan world. Modern thought will +make short work of all other sources of certitude about the character +of God, and will leave men alone in the dark. Christ, the historical +fact of the life and death of Jesus Christ, is the sole surviving +source of certitude, which is blessedness, as to whether there is a +God, and what sort of a God He is. + +II. Secondly, note here that strange forward look of the dying Man: 'I +have declared Thy name and _will declare it_.' + +And that was said within eight and forty hours of the Cross, which, if +He had been a simple human teacher and martyr, would have ended all His +activity in the world. But here He is not merely summing up His life, +and laying it aside, writing the last sentence, as it were, which +gathers up the whole of the completed book, but He is closing the first +volume, and in the act of doing so He stretches out His hand to open +the second. 'I will declare it.' When? How? Did not earthly life, then, +put a stop to this Teacher's activity? Was there still prophetic +function to be done after death had sealed His lips? Certainly. + +That anticipation, which at once differentiates Him from all the brood +of merely human teachers and prophets, even the highest, does indeed +include as future, at the moment when He speaks, the swiftly coming and +close Cross; but it goes beyond it. How much of Christendom's knowledge +of God depended upon the Passion, on the threshold of which Christ was +standing? He, hanging on the Cross in weakness, and dying there amidst +the darkness that overspread the land, is a strange Revealer of the +omnipotent, infinite, ever-blessed God. But Oh! if we strike Gethsemane +and Calvary out of Christ's manifestation of the Father, how infinitely +poorer are we and the world! 'God commendeth,' (rather 'establisheth,') +'His love toward us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for +us.' And so as we turn ourselves to the little knoll outside the gate, +where the Nazarene carpenter hangs faint and dying, we--wonder of +Wonders, and yet certainty of certainties!--have to say, 'Lo! this is +our God; we have waited for Him.' + +But that future revelation extends beyond the Cross, and includes +resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, and the whole history of the Church +right onwards through the ages. The difference between the two volumes +of revelation--that which includes the work of Christ upon earth, and +that which includes His revelation from the heavens--is this, that the +first volume contains all the facts, and the second volume contains His +interpretation and application of the facts in the understandings and +hearts of His people. We have no more facts from which to construe God +than these which belong to the earthly life of Jesus Christ, and we +never shall have, here at all events. But whilst the first volume to +the bottom of the last page is finished and tolerates and needs no +additions, day by day, moment by moment, epoch by epoch Christ is +bringing His people to a fuller understanding of the significance of +the first volume, and writing the second more and more upon their +hearts. + +So we have an ever-living Christ, still the active Teacher of His +Church. Times of unsettlement and revolutionary change and the 'shaking +of the things that are made,' like the times in which we live, are but +times in which the great Teacher is setting some new lesson from the +old Book to His slow scholars. There is always a little confusion in +the schoolroom when the classes are being rearranged and new books are +being put into old hands. The tributary stream, as it rushes in, makes +broken water for a moment. Do not let us be afraid when 'the things +that can be shaken' shake, but let us see in the shaking the attendant +of a new curriculum on which the great Teacher is launching His +scholars, and let us learn the new lessons of the old Gospel which He +is then teaching. + +III. Thirdly, note the participation in the Father's love which is the +issue of the knowledge of the Father's name. + +Christ says that His end, an end which is surely attained in the +declaration of the divine name, is that 'the love wherewith Thou hast +loved Me may be in them.' We are here touching upon heights too dizzy +for free and safe walking, on glories too bright for close and steady +gaze. But where Christ has spoken we may reverently follow. Mark, then, +that marvellous thought of the identity between the love which was His +and the love which is ours. 'From everlasting' that divine love lay on +the Eternal Word which in the hoary beginning, before the beginning of +creatures, 'was with God, and was God.' The deepest conception that we +can form of the divine nature is of a Being who in Himself carries the +Subject and the Object of an eternal love, which we speak of in the +deep emblem of 'the Word,' and the God with whom He eternally 'was.' +That love lay upon Christ, without limitation, without reservation, +without interruption, finding nothing there from which it recoiled, and +nothing there which did not respond to it. No mist, no thunderstorm, +ever broke that sunshine, no tempest ever swept across that calm. +Continuous, full, perfect was the love that knit the Father to the Son, +and continuous, full, and perfect was the consciousness of abiding in +that love, which lay like light upon the spirit of Him that said 'I +delight to do Thy will.' 'The Father hath not left Me alone.' + +And all that love Christ gives to us as deep, as continuous, as +unreserved. Our consciousness of God's love is meant by Christ to be +like His own. Alas! alas! is that our experience, Christian people? The +sun always shines on the rainless land of Egypt, except for a month or +two in the year. The contrast between the unclouded blue and continuous +light and heat there, and our murky skies and humid atmosphere, is like +the contrast between our broken and feeble consciousness of the shining +of the divine love and the uninterrupted glory of light and joy of +communion which poured on Christ's heart. But it is possible for us +indefinitely to approximate to such an experience; and the way by which +we reach it is that plain and simple one of accepting Christ's +declaration of the Father's name. + +IV. And so, lastly, notice the indwelling Christ who makes our +participation in the divine love possible: 'And I in them.' + +One may well say, 'How can it be that love should be transferred? How +can it be that the love of God to me shall be identical with the love +of God to Christ?' There is only one answer. If Christ dwells in me, +then God's love to Him falls upon me by no transference, but by my +incorporation into Him. And I would urge that this great truth of the +actual indwelling of Christ in the soul is no mere piece of rhetorical +exaggeration, nor a wild and enthusiastic way of putting the fact that +the influence of His teaching and the beauty of His example can sway +us; but it is a plain and absolute truth that the divine Christ can +come into and abide in the narrow room of our poor hearts. And if He +does this, then 'he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit'; and the +Christ in me receives the sunshine of the divine love. That does not +destroy, but heightens, my individuality. I am more and not less myself +because 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' + +So, dear brethren! it all comes to this--we may each of us, if we will, +have Jesus Christ for Guest and Inhabitant in our hearts. If we have, +then, since God loves Him, He must love me who have Him within me, and +as long as God loves Christ He cannot cease to love me, nor can I cease +to be conscious of His love to me, and whatsoever gifts His love +bestows upon Jesus, pass over in measure, and partially, to myself. +Thus immortality, heaven, glory, all blessedness in heaven and earth, +are the fruit and crystallisation, so to speak, of that oneness with +Christ which is possible for us. And the conditions are simply that we +shall with joyful trust accept His declaration of the Father's name, +and see God manifest in Him; and welcome in our inmost hearts that +great Gospel. Then His prayer, and the travail of His soul, will reach +their end even in me, and 'the love wherewith the Father loved the Son +shall be in me,' and the Son Himself shall dwell in my heart. + + + +CHRIST AND HIS CAPTORS + +'As soon then as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward, +and fell to the ground. Then asked He them again, Whom seek ye? And +they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am +He: if therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way: That the saying +might be fulfilled, which He spake, Of them which Thou gayest Me have I +lost none.'--JOHN xviii. 6-9. + +This remarkable incident is narrated by John only. It fits in with the +purpose which he himself tells us governed his selection of the +incidents which he records. 'These things are written,' says he, near +the end of the Gospel, 'that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of +God, and that, believing, ye might have life in His name.' The whole of +the peculiarities of the substance of John's Gospel are to be explained +on the two grounds that he was writing a supplement to, and not a +substitute for, or a correction of, the Gospels already in existence; +and that his special business was to narrate such facts and words as +set forth the glory of Christ as 'the Only Begotten of the Father.' + +The incident before us is, as I think, one of these. The Evangelist +would have us see in it, as I gather from his manner of narrating it, +mainly three things. He emphasises that strange recoil of the would-be +captors before Christ's majestic, calm 'I am He'; that was a +manifestation of Christ's glory. He emphasises our Lord's patient +standing there, in the midst of the awe-struck crowd, and even inciting +them, as it would seem, to do the work for which they had come out; +that was a manifestation of the voluntariness of Christ's sufferings. +And He emphasises the self-forgetting care with which at that supreme +moment He steps between His faithless, weak friends and danger, with +the wonderful words, 'If ye seek Me, let these go their way'; to the +Evangelist that little incident is an illustration, on a very low +level, and in regard to a comparatively trivial matter, of the very +same principle by which salvation from all evil in time and in +eternity, is guaranteed to all that believe on Him:-- + +I. First, then, consider this remarkable, momentary manifestation of +our Lord's glory. + +'I am He!' When the Band were thus doubly assured by the traitor's kiss +and by His own confession, why did they not lay hands upon Him? There +He stood in the midst of them, alone, defenceless; there was nothing to +hinder their binding Him on the spot. Instead of that they recoil, and +fall in a huddled heap before Him. Some strange awe and terror, of +which they themselves could have given no account, was upon their +spirits. How came it about? Many things may have conspired to produce +it. I am by no means anxious to insist that this was a miracle. Things +of the same sort, though much less in degree, have been often enough +seen; when some innocent and illustrious victim has for a moment +paralysed the hands of his would-be captors and made them feel, though +it were but transiently, 'how awful goodness is.' There must have been +many in that band who had heard Him, though, in the uncertain light of +quivering moonbeams and smoking torches, they failed to recognise Him +till He spoke. There must have been many more who had heard of Him, and +many who suspected that they were about to lay hands on a holy man, +perhaps on a prophet. There must have been reluctant tools among the +inferiors, and no doubt some among the leaders whoso consciences needed +but a touch to be roused to action. To all, His calmness and dignity +would appeal, and the manifest freedom from fear or desire to flee +would tend to deepen the strange thoughts which began to stir in their +hearts. + +But the impression which the narrative seems intended to leave, appears +to me to be of something more than this. It looks as if there were +something more than human in Christ's look and tone. It may have been +the same in kind as the ascendency which a pure and calm nature has +over rude and inferior ones. It may have been the same in kind as has +sometimes made the headsman on the scaffold pause before he struck, and +has bowed rude gaolers into converts before some grey-haired saint or +virgin martyr; yet the difference is so great in degree as practically +to become quite another thing. Though I do not want to insist upon any +'miraculous' explanation of the cause of this incident, yet I would +ask, May it not be that here we see, perhaps apart from Christ's will +altogether, rising up for one moment to the surface, the indwelling +majesty which was always there? + +We do not know the laws that regulated the dwelling of the Godhead, +bodily, within that human frame, but we do know that at one other time +there came upon His features a transfiguration, and over His very +garments a lustre which was not thrown upon them from without, but rose +up from within. And I am inclined to think that here, as there, though +under such widely different circumstances and to such various issues, +there was for a moment a little rending of the veil of His flesh, and +an emission of some flash of the brightness that always tabernacled +within Him; and that, therefore, just as Isaiah, when He saw the King +in His glory, said, 'Woe is me, for I am undone!' and just as Moses +could not look upon the Face, but could only see the back parts, so +here the one stray beam of manifest divinity that shot through the +crevice, as it were, for an instant, was enough to prostrate with a +strange awe even those rude and insensitive men. When He had said 'I am +He,' there was something that made them feel, 'This is One before whom +violence cowers abashed, and in whose presence impurity has to hide its +face.' I do not assert that this is the explanation of that panic +terror. I only ask, May it not be? + +But whatever we may think was the reason, at all events the incident +brings out very strikingly the elevation and dignity of Christ, and the +powerful impressions made by His personality, even at such a time of +humiliation. This Evangelist is always careful to bring out the glory +of Christ, especially when that glory lies side by side with His +lowliness. The blending of these two is one of the remarkable features +in the New Testament portraiture of Jesus Christ. Wherever in our +Lord's life any incident indicates more emphatically than usual the +lowliness of His humiliation, there, by the side of it, you get +something that indicates the majesty of His glory. For instance, He is +born a weak infant, but angels herald His birth; He lies in a manger, +but a star hangs trembling above it, and leads sages from afar, with +their myrrh, and incense, and gold. He submits Himself to the baptism +of repentance, but the heavens open and a voice proclaims, 'This is My +beloved Son!' He sits wearied, on the stone coping of the well, and +craves for water from a peasant woman; but He gives her the Water of +Life. He lies down and sleeps, from pure exhaustion, in the stern of +the little fishing-boat, but He wakes to command the storm, and it is +still. He weeps beside the grave, but He flings His voice into its +inmost recesses, and the sheeted dead comes forth. He well-nigh faints +under the agony in the garden, but an angel from Heaven strengthens +Him. He stands a prisoner at a human bar, but He judges and condemns +His judges. He dies, and that hour of defeat is His hour of triumph, +and the union of shame and glory is most conspicuous in that hour when +on the Cross the 'Son of Man is _glorified_, and God is glorified in +Him.' + +This strange blending of opposites--the glory in the lowliness, and the +abasement in the glory--is the keynote of this singular event. He will +be 'delivered into the hands of men.' Yes; but ere He is delivered He +pauses for an instant, and in that instant comes a flash 'above the +brightness of the noonday sun' to tell of the hidden glory. + +Do not forget that we may well look upon that incident as a prophecy of +what shall be. As one of the suggestive, old commentators on this verse +says: 'He will say "I am He," again, a third time. What will He do +coming to reign, when He did this coming to die? And what will His +manifestation be as a Judge when this was the effect of the +manifestation as He went to be judged?' 'Every eye shall see Him'; and +they that loved not His appearing shall fall before Him when He cometh +to be our Judge; and shall call on the rocks and the hills to cover +them. + +II. There is here, secondly, a manifestation of the voluntariness of +our Lord's suffering. + +When that terrified mob recoiled from Him, why did He stand there so +patiently? The time was propitious for flight, if He had cared to flee. +He might have 'passed through the midst of them and gone His way.' as +He did once before, if He had chosen. He comes from the garden; there +shall be no difficulty in finding Him. He tells who He is; there shall +be no need for the traitor's kiss. He lays them low for a moment, but +He will not flee. When Peter draws his sword He rebukes his ill-advised +appeal to force, and then He holds out His hands and lets them bind +Him. It was not their fetters, but the 'cords of love' which held Him +prisoner. It was not their power, but His own pity which drew Him to +the judgment hall and the Cross. + +Let us dwell upon that thought for a moment. The whole story of the +Gospels is constructed upon the principle, and illustrates the fact, +that our Lord's life, as our Lord's death, was a voluntary surrender of +Himself for man's sin, and that nothing led Him to, and fastened Him +on, the Cross but His own will. He willed to be born. He 'came into the +world' by His own choice. He 'took upon Him the form of a servant.' He +'took part' of the children's 'flesh and blood.' His birth was His own +act, the first of the long series of the acts, by which for the sake of +the love which He bore us, He 'humbled Himself.' Step by step He +voluntarily journeyed towards the Cross, which stood clear before Him +from the very beginning as the necessary end, made necessary by His +love. + +As we get nearer and nearer to the close of the history, we see more +and more distinctly that He willingly went towards the Cross, Take; for +instance, the account of the last portion of our Lord's life, and you +see in the whole of it a deliberate intention to precipitate the final +conflict. Hence the last journey to Jerusalem when 'His face was set,' +and His disciples followed Him amazed. Hence the studied publicity of +His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Hence the studied, growing severity +of His rebukes to the priests and rulers. The same impression is given, +though in a somewhat different way, by His momentary retreat from the +city and by the precautions taken against premature arrest, that He +might not die before the Passover. In both the hastening toward the +city and in the retreating from it, there is apparent the same design: +that He Himself shall lay down His life, and shall determine the how, +and the when, and the where as seems good to Him. + +If we look at the act of death itself, Jesus did not die because He +must. It was not the nails of the Cross, the physical exhaustion, the +nervous shock of crucifixion that killed Him. He died because He would. +'I have power to lay down My life,' He said, 'and I have power'--of +course--'to take it again.' At that last moment, He was Lord and Master +of death when He bowed His head to death, and, if I might so say, He +summoned that grim servant with a 'Come!' and he came, and He set him +his task with a 'Do this!' and he did it. He was manifested as the Lord +of death, having its 'keys' in His hands, when He died upon the Cross. + +Now I pray you to ask yourselves the question, if it be true that +Christ died because He would, why was it that He would die? If because +He chose, what was it that determined His choice? And there are but two +answers, which two are one. The divine motive that ruled His life is +doubly expressed: 'I must do the will of My Father,' and 'I must save +the world.' + +The taunt that those Jewish rulers threw at Him had a deeper truth than +they dreamed, and was an encomium, and not a taunt. 'He saved +others'--yes, and _therefore_, 'Himself He cannot save.' He cannot, +because His choice and will to die are determined by His free love to +us and to all the world. His fixed will 'bore His body to the tree,' +and His love was the strong spring which kept His will fixed. + +You and I have our share in these voluntary sufferings, and our place +in that loving heart which underwent them for us. Oh! should not that +thought speak to all our hearts, and bind us in grateful service and +lifelong surrender to Him who gave Himself for us; and _must_ die +because He loved us all so much that He _could not_ leave us unsaved? + +III. We have, lastly, here, a symbol, or, perhaps, more accurately, an +instance, on a small scale, of Christ's self-sacrificing care for us. + +His words: 'If ye seek Me, let these go their way,' sound more like the +command of a prince than the intercession of a prisoner. The calm +dignity of them strikes one just as much as the perfect +self-forgetfulness of them. + +It was a very small matter which He was securing thereby. The Apostles +would have to die for Him some day, but they were not ready for it yet, +and so He casts the shield of His protection round them for a moment, +and interposes Himself between them and the band of soldiers in order +that their weakness may have a little more time to grow strong. And +though it was wrong and cowardly for them to forsake Him and flee, yet +these words of my text more than half gave them permission and warrant +for their departure: 'Let these go their way.' + +Now John did not think that this small deliverance was all that Christ +meant by these great words: 'Of them which Thou gavest Me have I lost +none!' He saw that it was one case, a very trifling one, a merely +transitory one, yet ruled by the same principles which are at work in +the immensely higher region to which the words properly refer. Of +course they have their proper fulfilment in the spiritual realm, and +are not fulfilled, in the highest sense, till all who have loved and +followed Christ are presented faultless before the Father in the home +above. But the little incident may be a result of the same cause as the +final deliverance is. A dew-drop is shaped by the same laws which mould +the mightiest of the planets. The old divines used to say that God was +greatest in the smallest things, and the self-sacrificing care of Jesus +Christ, as He gives Himself a prisoner that His disciples may go free, +comes from the same deep heart of pitying love, which led Him to die, +the 'just for the unjust.' It may then well stand for a partial +fulfilment of His mighty words, even though these wait for their +complete accomplishment till the hour when all the sheep are gathered +into the one fold, and no evil beasts, nor weary journeys, nor barren +pastures can harass them any more. + +This trivial incident, then, becomes an exposition of highest truth. +Let us learn from such an use of such an event to look upon all common +and transitory circumstances as governed by the same loving hands, and +working to the same ends, as the most purely spiritual. The visible is +the veil which drapes the invisible, and clings so closely to it as to +reveal its outline. The common events of life are all parables to the +devout heart, which is the wise heart. They speak mystic meanings to +ears that can hear. The redeeming love of Jesus is proclaimed by every +mercy which perishes in the using; and all things should tell us of His +self-forgetting, self-sacrificing care. + +Thus, then, we may see in that picture of our Lord's surrendering +Himself that His trembling disciples might go free, an emblem of what +He does for us, in regard to all our foes. He stands between us and +them, receives their arrows into His own bosom, and says, 'Let these go +their way.' God's law comes with its terrors, with its penalties, to us +who have broken it a thousand times. The consciousness of guilt and sin +threatens us all more or less, and with varying intensity in different +minds. The weariness of the world, 'the ills that flesh is heir to,' +the last grim enemy, Death, and that which lies beyond them all, ring +you round. My friends! what are you going to do in order to escape from +them? You are a sinful man, you have broken God's law. That law goes on +crashing its way and crushing down all that is opposed to it. You have +a weary life before you, however joyful it may sometimes be. Cares, and +troubles, and sorrows, and tears, and losses, and disappointments, and +hard duties that you will not be able to perform, and dark days in +which you will be able to see but very little light, are all certain to +come sooner or later; and the last moment will draw near when the King +of Terrors will be at your side; and beyond death there is a life of +retribution in which men reap the things that they have sown here. All +that is true, much of it is true about you at this moment, and it will +all be true some day. In view of that, what are you going to do? + +I preach to you a Saviour who has endured all for us. As a mother might +fling herself out of the sledge that her child might escape the wolves +in full chase, here is One that comes and fronts all your foes, and +says to them, 'Let these go their way. Take Me.' 'By His stripes we are +healed.' 'On Him was laid the iniquity of us all.' + +He died because He chose; He chose because He loved. His love had to +die in order that His death might be our life, and that in it we should +find our forgiveness and peace. He stands between our foes and us. No +evil can strike us unless it strike Him first. He takes into His own +heart the sharpest of all the darts which can pierce ours. He has borne +the guilt and punishment of a world's sin. These solemn penalties have +fallen upon Him that we, trusting in Him, 'may go our way,' and that +there may be 'no condemnation' to us if we are in Christ Jesus. And if +there be no condemnation, we can stand whatever other blows may fall +upon us. They are easier to bear, and their whole character is +different, when we know that Christ has borne them already. Two of the +three whom Christ protected in the garden died a martyr's death; but do +you not think that James bowed his neck to Herod's sword, and Peter let +them gird him and lead him to his cross, more joyfully and with a +different heart, when they thought of Him that had died before them? +The darkest prison cell will not be so very dark if we remember that +Christ has been there before us, and death itself will be softened into +sleep because our Lord has died. 'If therefore,' says He, to the whole +pack of evils baying round us, with their cruel eyes and their hungry +mouths, 'ye seek Me, let these go their way.' So, brother, if you will +fix your trust, as a poor, sinful soul, on that dear Christ, and get +behind Him, and put Him between you and your enemies, then, in time and +in eternity, that saying will be fulfilled in you which He spake, 'Of +them which Thou gavest Me, have I lost none.' + + + +JESUS BEFORE CAIAPHAS + +'And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple: that +disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus into +the palace of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door without. +Then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high +priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. +Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also +one of this Man's disciples? He saith, I am not. And the servants and +officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold: +and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed +himself. The high priest then asked Jesus of His disciples, and of His +doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever +taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always +resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou Me? ask them +which heard Me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I +said. And when He had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by +struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest Thou the high +priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of +the evil: but if well, why smitest thou Me? Now Annas had sent Him +bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. And Simon Peter stood and warmed +himself. They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of His +disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not. One of the servants of the +high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not +I see thee in the garden with Him? Peter then denied again: and +immediately the cock crew.'--JOHN xviii. 15-27. + +The last verses of the preceding passage belong properly to this one, +for they tell us that Jesus was 'first' brought before Annas, a fact +which we owe to John only. Annas himself and his five sons held the +high-priesthood in succession. To the sons has to be added Caiaphas, +who, as we learn from John only, was Annas' son-in-law, and so one of +the family party. That Jesus should have been taken to him, though he +held no office at the time, shows who pulled the strings in the +Sanhedrim. The reference to Caiaphas in verse 14 seems intended to +suggest what sort of a trial might be expected, presided over by such a +man. But verse 15 tells us that Jesus entered in, accompanied by +'another disciple,' 'to the court,' not, as we should have expected, of +Annas, but 'of the high priest,' who, by the testimony of verse 13, can +be no one but Caiaphas. How came that about? Apparently, because Annas +had apartments in the high-priest's official residence. As he obviously +exercised the influence through his sons and son-in-law, who +successively held the office, it was very natural that he should be a +fixture in the palace. + +What John's connection was with this veteran intriguer (assuming that +John was that 'other disciple') we do not know. Probably it was some +family bond that united two such antipathetic natures. At all events, +the Apostle's acquaintance with the judge so far condoned his +discipleship to the criminal, that the doors of the audience chamber +were open to him, though he was known as 'one of them.' + +So he and poor Peter were parted, and the latter left shivering outside +in the grey of the morning. John had not missed him at first, for he +would be too much absorbed in watching Jesus to have thoughts to spare +for Peter, and would conclude that he was following him; but, when he +did miss him, like a brave man he ran the risk of being observed, and +went for him. The sharp-witted porteress, whose business it was to +judge applicants for entrance by a quick glance, at once inferred that +Peter 'also' was one of this man's disciples. Her 'also' shows that she +knew John to be one; and her 'this man' shows that either she did not +know Jesus' name, or thought Him too far beneath her to be named by +her! The time during which Peter had been left outside alone, repenting +now of, and alarmed for what might happen to him on account of, his +ill-aimed blow at Malchus, and feeling the nipping cold, had taken all +his courage out of him. The one thing he wished was to slip in +unnoticed, and so the first denial came to his lips as rashly as many +another word had come in old days. He does not seem to have remained +with John, who probably went up to the upper end of the hall, where the +examination was going on, while Peter, not having the _entree_ and very +much terrified as well as miserable, stayed at the lower end, where the +understrappers were making themselves comfortable round a charcoal +fire, and paying no attention to the proceedings at the other end. He +seemed to be as indifferent as they were, and to be intent only on +getting himself warmed. But what surges of emotion would be tossing in +his heart, which yet he was trying to hide under the mask of being an +unconcerned spectator, like the others! + +The examination of our Lord was conducted by 'the high priest,' by +which title John must mean Caiaphas, as he has just emphatically noted +that he then filled the office. But how is that to be reconciled with +the statement that Jesus was taken to Annas? Apparently by supposing +that, though Annas was present, Caiaphas was spokesman. But did not a +formal trial before Caiaphas follow, and does not John tell us (verse +24) that, after the first examination, Annas sent Jesus bound to +Caiaphas? Yes. And are these things compatible with this account of an +examination conducted by the latter? Yes, if we remember that flagrant +wresting of justice marked the whole proceedings. The condemnation of +Jesus was a judicial murder, in which the highest court of the Jews +'decreed iniquity by a law'; and it was of a piece with all the rest +that he, who was to pose as an impartial judge presently, should, in +the spirit of a partisan, conduct this preliminary inquiry. Observe +that no sentence was pronounced in the case at this stage. This was not +a court at all. What was it? An attempt to entrap the prisoner into +admissions which might be used against Him in the court to be held +presently. The rulers had Jesus in their hands, and they did not know +what to do with Him now that they had Him. They were at a loss to know +what His indictment was to be. To kill Him was the only thing on which +they had made up their minds; the pretext had yet to be found, and so +they tried to get Him to say something which would serve their purpose. + +'The high priest therefore asked Jesus of His disciples, and of His +teaching'! If they did not know about either, why had they arrested +Him? Cunning outwits itself, and falls into the pit it digs for the +innocent. Jesus passed by the question as to His disciples unnoticed, +and by His calm answer as to His teaching showed that He saw the snare. +He reduced Caiaphas and Annas to perpetrating plain injustice, or to +letting Him go free. Elementary fair play to a prisoner prescribes that +he should be accused of some crime by some one, and not that he should +furnish his judges with materials for his own indictment. 'Why askest +thou Me? ask them that have heard Me,' is unanswerable, except by such +an answer as the officious 'servant' gave--a blow and a violent speech. +But Christ's words reach far beyond the momentary purpose; they contain +a wide truth. His teaching loves the daylight. There are no muttered +oracles, no whispered secrets for the initiated, no double voice, one +for the multitude, and another for the adepts. All is above-board, and +all is spoken 'openly to the world.' Christianity has no cliques or +coteries, nothing sectional, nothing reserved. It is for mankind, for +all mankind, all for mankind. True, there are depths in it; true, the +secrets which Jesus can only speak to loving ears in secret are His +sweetest words, but they are 'spoken in the ear' that they may be +'proclaimed on the housetops.' + +The high-priest is silent, for there was nothing that he could say to +so undeniable a demand, and he had no witnesses ready. How many since +his day have treated Jesus as he treated Him--condemned Him or rejected +Him without reason, and then looked about for reasons to justify their +attitude, or even sought to make Him condemn Himself! + +An unjust judge breeds insolent underlings, and if everything else +fails, blows and foul words cover defeat, and treat calm assertion of +right as impertinence to high-placed officials. Caiaphas degraded his +own dignity more than any words of a prisoner could degrade it. + +Our Lord's answer 'reviled not again.' It is meek in majesty and +majestic in meekness. Patient endurance is not forbidden to remonstrate +with insolent injustice, if only its remonstrance bears no heat of +personal anger in it. But Jesus was not so much vindicating His words +to Caiaphas in saying, 'If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the +evil,' as reiterating the challenge for 'witnesses.' He brands the +injustice of Caiaphas, while meekly rebuking the brutality of his +servant. Master and man were alike in smiting Him for words of which +they could not prove the evil. + +There was obviously nothing to be gained by further examination. No +crime had been alleged, much less established; therefore Jesus ought to +have been let go. But Annas treated Him as a criminal, and handed Him +over 'bound,' to be formally tried before the man who had just been +foiled in his attempt to play the inquisitor. What a hideous mockery of +legal procedure! How well the pair, father-in-law and son-in-law, +understood each other! What a confession of a foregone conclusion, +evidence or no evidence, in shackling Jesus as a malefactor! And it was +all done in the name of religion! and perhaps the couple of priests did +not know that they were hypocrites, but really thought that they were +'doing God service.' + +John's account of Peter's denials rises to a climax of peril and of +keenness of suspicion. The unnamed persons who put the second question +must have had their suspicions roused by something in his manner as he +stood by the glinting fire, perhaps by agitation too great to be +concealed. The third question was put by a more dangerous person still, +who not only recognised Peter's features as the firelight fitfully +showed them, but had a personal ground of hostility in his relationship +to Malchus. + +John lovingly spares telling of the oaths and curses accompanying the +denials, but dares not spare the narration of the fact. It has too +precious lessons of humility, of self-distrust, of the possibility of +genuine love being overborne by sudden and strong temptation, to be +omitted. And the sequel of the denials has yet more precious teaching, +which has brought balm to many a contrite heart, conscious of having +been untrue to its deepest love. For the sound of the cock-crow, and +the look from the Lord as He was led away bound past the place where +Peter stood, brought him back to himself, and brought tears to his +eyes, which were sweet as well as bitter. On the resurrection morning +the risen Lord sent the message of forgiveness and special love to the +broken-hearted Apostle, when He said, 'Go, tell My disciples and +Peter,' and on that day there was an interview of which Paul knew (1 +Cor. xv. 5), but the details of which were apparently communicated by +the Apostle to none of his brethren. The denier who weeps is taken to +Christ's heart, and in sacred secrecy has His forgiveness freely given, +though, before he can be restored to his public office, he must, by his +threefold public avowal of love, efface his threefold denial. We may +say, 'Thou knowest that I love thee,' even if we have said, 'I know Him +not,' and come nearer to Jesus, by reason of the experience of His +pardoning love, than we were before we fell. + + + +ART THOU A KING? + +'Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it +was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest +they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. Pilate +then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against +this Man? They answered and said unto him, If He were not a malefactor, +we would not have delivered Him up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto +them, Take ye Him, and judge Him according to your law. The Jews +therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to +death: That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which He spake, +signifying what death He should die. Then Pilate entered into the +judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto Him, Art Thou the +King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of +thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? +Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me: +what hast Thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: +if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I +should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from +hence. Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art Thou a king then? Jesus +answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for +this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the +truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice. Pilate saith +unto Him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again +unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in Him no fault at all. But +ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: +will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then +cried they all again, saying, Not this Man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas +was a robber.'--JOHN xviii. 28-40. + +John evidently intends to supplement the synoptic Gospels' account. He +tells of Christ's appearance before Annas, but passes by that before +Caiaphas, though he shows his knowledge of it. Similarly he touches +lightly on the public hearing before Pilate, but gives us in detail the +private conversation in this section, which he alone records. We may +suppose that he was present at both the hearing before Annas and the +interview within the palace between Jesus and Herod, for he would not +be deterred from entering, as the Jews were, and there seems to have +been no other impediment in the way. The passage has three stages--the +fencing between the Sanhedrists and Pilate, the 'good confession before +Pontius Pilate,' and the preference of Barabbas to Jesus. + +I. The passage of arms between the priests and the governor. 'It was +early,' probably before 6 A.M. A hurried meeting of the Sanhedrim had +condemned Jesus to death, and the next thing was to get the Roman +authority to carry out the sentence. The necessity of appeal to it was +a bitter pill, but it had to be swallowed, for the right of capital +punishment had been withdrawn. A 'religious' scruple, too, stood in the +way--very characteristic of such formalists. Killing an innocent man +would not in the least defile them, or unfit for eating the passover, +but to go into a house that had not been purged of 'leaven,' and was +further unclean as the residence of a Gentile, though he was the +governor, that would stain their consciences--a singular scale of +magnitude, which saw no sin in condemning Jesus, and great sin in going +into Pilate's palace! Perhaps some of our conventional sins are of a +like sort. + +Pilate was, probably, not over-pleased at being roused so early, nor at +having to defer to a scruple which would to him look like insolence; +and through all his bearing to the Sanhedrim a certain irritation shows +itself, which sometimes flashes out in sarcasm, but is for the most +part kept down. His first question is, perhaps, not so simple as it +looks, for he must have had some previous knowledge of the case, since +Roman soldiers had been used for the arrest. But, clearly, those who +brought him a prisoner were bound to be the prosecutors. + +Whether or not Pilate knew that his question was embarrassing, the +rulers felt it so. Why did they not wish to formulate a charge? Partly +from pride. They hugged the delusion that their court was competent to +condemn, and wanted, as we all often do, to shut their eyes to a plain +fact, as if ignoring it annihilated it. Partly because the charge on +which they had condemned Jesus--that of blasphemy in calling Himself +'the Son of God'--was not a crime known to Roman law, and to allege it +would probably have ended in the whole matter being scornfully +dismissed. So they stood on their dignity and tried to bluster. 'We +have condemned Him; that is enough. We look to you to carry out the +sentence at our bidding.' So the 'ecclesiastical authority' has often +said to the 'secular arm' since then, and unfortunately the civil +authority has not always been as wise as Pilate was. + +He saw an opening to get rid of the whole matter, and with just a faint +flavour of irony suggests that, as they have 'a law'--which he, no +doubt, thought of as a very barbarous code--they had better go by it, +and punish as well as condemn. That sarcastic proposal compelled them +to acknowledge their subjection. Pilate had given the reins the least +touch, but enough to make them feel the bit; and though it went sore +against the grain, they will own their master rather than lose their +victim. So their reluctant lips say, 'It is not lawful for us.' Pilate +has brought them on their knees at last, and they forget their dignity, +and own the truth. Malicious hatred will eat any amount of dirt and +humiliation to gain its ends, especially if it calls itself religious +zeal. + +John sees in the issue of this first round in the duel between Pilate +and the rulers the sequence of events which brought about the +fulfilment of our Lord's prediction of His crucifixion, since that was +not a Jewish mode of execution. This encounter of keen wits becomes +tragical and awful when we remember Who it was that these men were +wrangling about. + +II. We have Jesus and Pilate; the 'good confession,' and the +indifferent answer. We must suppose that, unwillingly, the rulers had +brought the accusation that Jesus had attempted rebellion against Rome. +John omits that, because he takes it for granted that it is known. It +is implied in the conversation which now ensued. We must note as +remarkable that Pilate does not conduct his first examination in the +presence of the rulers, but has Jesus brought to him in the palace. +Perhaps he simply wished to annoy the accusers, but more probably his +Roman sense of justice combined with his wish to assert his authority, +and perhaps with a suspicion that there was something strange about the +whole matter--and not least strange that the Sanhedrim, who were not +enthusiastic supporters of Rome, should all at once display such +loyalty--to make him wish to have the prisoner by himself, and try to +fathom the business. With Roman directness he went straight to the +point: 'Art Thou the King of the Jews, as they have been saying?' There +is emphasis on 'Thou'--the emphasis which a practical Roman official +would be likely to put as he looked at the weak, wearied, evidently +poor and helpless man bound before him. There is almost a touch of pity +in the question, and certainly the beginning of the conviction that +this was not a very formidable rival to Caesar. + +The answer to be given depended on the sense in which Pilate asked the +question, to bring out which is the object of Christ's question in +reply. If Pilate was asking of himself, then what he meant by 'a king' +was one of earth's monarchs after the emperor's pattern, and the answer +would be 'No.' If he was repeating a Jewish charge, then, 'a king' +might mean the prophetic King of Israel, who was no rival of earthly +monarchs, and the answer would be 'Yes,' but that 'Yes' would give +Pilate no more reason to crucify Him than the 'No' would have given. + +Pilate is getting tired of fencing, and impatiently answers, with true +Roman contempt for subject-people's thoughts as well as their weapons. +'I ... a Jew?' is said with a curl of the firm lips. He points to his +informants, 'Thine own nation and the chief priests,' and does not say +that their surrender of a would-be leader in a war of independence +struck him as suspicious. But he brushes aside the cobwebs which he +felt were being spun round him, and comes to the point, 'What hast Thou +done?' He is supremely indifferent to ideas and vagaries of +enthusiasts. This poor man before him may call Himself anything He +chooses, but _his_ only concern is with overt acts. Strange to ask the +Prisoner what He had done! It had been well for Pilate if he had held +fast by that question, and based his judgment resolutely on its answer! +He kept asking it all through the case, he never succeeded in getting +an answer; he was convinced that Jesus had done nothing worthy of +death, and yet fear, and a wish to curry favour with the rulers, drove +him to stain the judge's robe with innocent blood, from which he vainly +sought to cleanse his hands. + +Our Lord's double answer claims a kingdom, but first shows what it is +not, and then what it is. It is 'not _of_ this world,' though it is +_in_ this world, being established and developed here, but having +nothing in common with earthly dominions, nor being advanced by their +weapons or methods. Pilate could convince himself that this 'kingdom' +bore no menace to Rome, from the fact that no resistance had been +offered to Christ's capture. But the principle involved in these great +words goes far beyond their immediate application. It forbids Christ's +'servants' to assimilate His kingdom to the world, or to use worldly +powers as the means for the kingdom's advancement. The history of the +Church has sadly proved how hard it is for Christian men to learn the +lesson, and how fatal to the energy and purity of the Church the +forgetfulness of it has been. The temptation to such assimilation +besets all organised Christianity, and is as strong to-day as when +Constantine gave the Church the paralysing gift of 'establishing' it as +a kingdom 'of this world.' + +Pilate did pick out of this saying an increased certainty that he had +nothing to fear from this strange 'King'; and half-amused contempt for +a dreamer, and half-pitying wonder at such lofty claims from such a +helpless enthusiast, prompted his question, 'Art Thou a king then?' One +can fancy the scornful emphasis on that 'Thou.' and can understand how +grotesquely absurd the notion of his prisoner's being a king must have +seemed. + +Having made clear part of the sense in which the avowal was to be +taken, our Lord answered plainly 'Yes.' Thus before the high-priest, He +declared Himself to be the Son of God, and before Pilate He claimed to +be King, at each tribunal putting forward the claim which each was +competent to examine--and, alas! at each meeting similar levity and +refusal to inquire seriously into the validity of the claim. The solemn +revelation to Pilate of the true nature of His kingdom and of Himself +the King fell on careless ears. A deeper mystery than Pilate dreamed of +lay beneath the double designation of His origin; for He not only had +been 'born' like other men, but had 'come into the world,' having 'come +forth from the Father,' and having been before He was born. It was +scarcely possible that Pilate should apprehend the meaning of that +duplication, but some vague impression of a mysterious personality +might reach him, and Jesus would not have fully expressed His own +consciousness if He had simply said, 'I was born.' Let us see that we +keep firm hold of all which that utterance implies and declares. + +The end of the Incarnation is to 'bear witness to the truth.' That +witness is the one weapon by which Christ's kingdom is established. +That witness is not given by words only, precious as these are, but by +deeds which are more than words. These witnessing deeds are not +complete till Calvary and the empty grave and Olivet have witnessed at +once to the perfect incarnation of divine love, to the perfect +Sacrifice for the world's sin, to the Victor over death, and to the +opening of heaven to all believers. Jesus is 'the faithful and true +Witness,' as John calls Him, not without reminiscences of this passage, +just because He is 'the First-begotten of the dead.' As here He told +Pilate that He was a 'king,' because a 'witness,' so John, in the +passage referred to, bases His being 'Prince of the kings of the earth' +on the same fact. + +How little Pilate knew that he was standing at the very crisis of his +fate! A yielding to the impression that was slightly touching his heart +and conscience, and he, too, might have 'heard' Christ's voice. But he +was not 'of the truth,' though he might have been if he had willed, and +so the words were wind to him, and he brushed aside all the mist, as he +thought it, with the light question, which summed up a Roman man of the +world's indifference to ideas, and belief in solid facts like legions +and swords. 'What is truth?' may be the cry of a seeking soul, or the +sneer of a confirmed sceptic, or the shrug of indifference of the +'practical man.' + +It was the last in Pilate's case, as is shown by his not waiting for an +answer, but ending the conversation with it as a last shot. It meant, +too, that he felt quite certain that this man, with his high-strained, +unpractical talk about a kingdom resting on such a filmy nothing, was +absolutely harmless. Therefore the only just thing for him to have done +was to have gone out to the impatient crowd and said so, and flatly +refused to do the dirty work of the priests for them, by killing an +innocent man. But he was too cowardly for that, and, no doubt, thought +that the murder of one poor Jew was a small price to pay for popularity +with his troublesome subjects. Still, like all weak men, he was not +easy in his conscience, and made a futile attempt to get the right +thing done, and yet not to suffer for doing it. The rejection of +Barabbas is touched very lightly by John, and must be left unnoticed +here. The great contribution to our knowledge which John makes is this +private interview between the King who reigns by the truth, and the +representative of earthly rule, based on arms and worldly forces. + + + +JESUS SENTENCED + +'Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him. And the soldiers +platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and they put on Him +a purple robe. And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote Him +with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto +them, Behold, I bring Him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no +fault in Him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and +the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man! When the +chief priests therefore and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, +Crucify Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye Him, and +crucify Him: for I find no fault in Him. The Jews answered him, We have +a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son +of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more +afraid; And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, +Whence art Thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto +Him, Speakest Thou not unto me I knowest Thou not that I have power to +crucify Thee, and have power to release Thee? Jesus answered, Thou +couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee +from above: therefore he that delivered Me unto thee hath the greater +sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him: but the Jews +cried out, saying, If thou let this Man go, thou art not Caesar's +friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. When +Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat +down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but +in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, +and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! +But they cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him! Pilate +saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, +We have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he Him therefore unto them +to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Him away.'--JOHN xix. +1-16. + +The struggle between the vacillation of Pilate and the fixed malignity +of the rulers is the principal theme of this fragment of Christ's +judicial trial. He Himself is passive and all but silent, speaking only +one sentence of calm rebuke. The frequent changes of scene from within +to without the praetorium indicate the steps in the struggle, and +vividly reflect the irresolution of Pilate. These changes may help to +mark the stages in the narrative. + +I. The cruelties and indignities in verses 1-3 were inflicted within +the 'palace,' to which Pilate, with his prisoner, had returned after +the popular vote for Barabbas. John makes that choice of the robber the +reason for the scourging of Jesus. His thought seems to be that Pilate, +having failed in his attempt to get rid of the whole difficulty by +releasing Jesus, according to the 'custom,' ordered the scourging, in +hope that the lighter punishment might satisfy the turbulent crowd, +whom he wished to humour, while, if possible, saving their victim. It +was the expedient of a weak and cynical nature, and, like all weak +attempts at compromise between right and wrong, only emboldened the +hatred which it was meant to appease. If by clamour the rulers had +succeeded in getting Pilate to scourge a man whom he thought innocent, +they might well hope to get him to crucify, if they clamoured loudly +and long enough. + +One attitude only befitted Pilate, since he did not in the least +believe that Jesus threatened the Roman supremacy; namely, to set Him +at liberty, and let the disappointed rulers growl like wild beasts +robbed of their prey. But he did not care enough about a single +half-crazy Jewish peasant to imperil his standing well with his awkward +subjects, for the sake of righteousness. The one good which Rome could +give to its vassal nations was inflexible justice and a sovereign law; +but in Pilate's action there was not even the pretence of legality. +Tricks and expedients run through it all, and never once does he say, +This is the law, this is justice, and by it I stand or fall. + +The cruel scourging, which, in Roman hands, was a much more severe +punishment than the Jewish 'beating with rods' and often ended in +death, was inflicted on the silent, unresisting Christ, not because His +judge thought that it was deserved, but to please accusers whose charge +he knew to be absurd. The underlings naturally followed their betters' +example, and after they had executed Pilate's orders to scourge, +covered the bleeding wounds with some robe, perhaps ragged, but of the +royal colour, and crushed the twisted wreath of thorn-branch down on +the brows, to make fresh wounds there. The jest of crowning such a +poor, helpless creature as Jesus seemed to them, was exactly on the +level of such rude natures, and would be the more exquisite to them +because it was double-barrelled, and insulted the nation as well as the +'King.' They came in a string, as the tense of the original word +suggests, and offered their mock reverence. But that sport became tame +after a little, and mockery passed into violence, as it always does in +such natures. These rough legionaries were cruel and brutal, and they +were unconscious witnesses to His Kingship as founded on suffering; but +they were innocent as compared with the polished gentleman on the +judgment-seat who prostituted justice, and the learned Pharisees +outside who were howling for blood. + +II. In verses 4-8 the scene changes again to without the palace, and +shows us Pilate trying another expedient, equally in vain. The +hesitating governor has no chance with the resolute, rooted hate of the +rulers. Jesus silently and unresistingly follows Pilate from the hall, +still wearing the mockery of royal pomp. Pilate had calculated that the +sight of Him in such guise, and bleeding from the lash, might turn hate +into contempt, and perhaps give a touch of pity. 'Behold the man!' as +he meant it, was as if he had said, 'Is this poor, bruised, spiritless +sufferer worth hate or fear? Does He look like a King or a dangerous +enemy?' Pilate for once drops the scoff of calling Him their King, and +seeks to conciliate and move to pity. The profound meanings which later +ages have delighted to find in his words, however warrantable, are no +part of their design as spoken, and we gain a better lesson from the +scene by keeping close to the thoughts of the actors. What a contrast +between the vacillation of the governor, on the one hand, afraid to do +right and reluctant to do wrong, and the dogged malignity of the rulers +and their tools on the other, and the calm, meek endurance of the +silent Christ, knowing all their thoughts, pitying all, and fixed in +loving resolve, even firmer than the rulers' hate, to bear the utmost, +that He might save a world! + +Some pity may have stirred in the crowd, but the priests and their +immediate dependants silenced it by their yell of fresh hate at the +sight of the prisoner. Note how John gives the very impression of the +fierce, brief roar, like that of wild beasts for their prey, by his +'Crucify, crucify!' without addition of the person. Pilate lost +patience at last, and angrily and half seriously gives permission to +them to take the law into their own hands. He really means, 'I will not +be your tool, and if my conviction of "the Man's" innocence is to be of +no account, _you_ must punish Him; for _I_ will not.' How far he meant +to abdicate authority, and how far he was launching sarcasms, it is +difficult to say. Throughout he is sarcastic, and thereby indicates his +weakness, indemnifying himself for being thwarted by sneers which sit +so ill on authority. + +But the offer, or sarcasm, whichever it was, missed fire, as the appeal +to pity had done, and only led to the production of a new weapon. In +their frantic determination to compass Jesus' death, the rulers +hesitate at no degradation; and now they adduced the charge of +blasphemy, and were ready to make a heathen the judge. To ask a Roman +governor to execute their law on a religious offender, was to drag +their national prerogative in the mud. But formal religionists, +inflamed by religious animosity, are often the degraders of religion +for the gratification of their hatred. They are poor preservers of the +Church who call on the secular arm to execute their 'laws.' Rome went a +long way in letting subject peoples keep their institutions; but it was +too much to expect Pilate to be the hangman for these furious priests, +on a charge scarcely intelligible to him. + +What was Jesus doing while all this hell of wickedness and fury boiled +round Him? Standing there, passive and dumb, 'as a sheep before her +shearers,' Himself is the least conspicuous figure in the history of +His own trial. In silent communion with the Father, in silent +submission to His murderers, in silent pity for us, in silent +contemplation of 'the joy that was set before Him,' He waits on their +will. + +III. Once more the scene changes to the interior of the praetorium (vs. +9-11). The rulers' words stirred a deepened awe in Pilate. He 'was the +more afraid'; then he had been already afraid. His wife's dream, the +impression already produced by the person of Jesus, had touched him +more deeply than probably he himself was aware of; and now this charge +that Jesus had 'made Himself the Son of God' shook him. What if this +strange man were in some sense a messenger of the gods? Had he been +scourging one sent from them? Sceptical he probably was, and therefore +superstitious; and half-forgotten and disbelieved stories of gods who +had 'come down in the likeness of men' would swim up in his memory. If +this Man were such, His strange demeanour would be explained. Therefore +he carried Jesus in again, and, not now as judge, sought to hear from +His own lips His version of the alleged claim. + +Why did not Jesus answer such a question? His silence was answer; but, +besides that, Pilate had not received as he ought what Jesus had +already declared to him as to His kingdom and His relation to 'the +truth,' and careless turning away from Christ's earlier words is +righteously and necessarily punished by subsequent silence, if the same +disposition remains. That it did remain, Christ's silence is proof. Had +there been any use in answering, Pilate would not have asked in vain. +If Jesus was silent, we may be sure that He who sees all hearts and +responds to all true desires was so, because He knew that it was best +to say nothing. The question of His origin had nothing to do with +Pilate's duty then, which turned, not on whence Jesus had come, but on +what Pilate believed Him to have done, or not to have done. He who will +not do the plain duty of the moment has little chance of an answer to +his questions about such high matters. + +The shallow character of the governor's awe and interest is clearly +seen from the immediate change of tone to arrogant reminder of his +absolute authority. 'To me dost Thou not speak?' The pride of offended +dignity peeps out there. He has forgotten that a moment since he half +suspected that the prisoner, whom he now seeks to terrify with the +cross, and to allure with deliverance, was perhaps come from some misty +heaven. Was that a temper which would have received Christ's answer to +his question? + +But one thing he might be made to perceive, and therefore Jesus broke +silence for the only time in this section, and almost the only time +before Pilate. He reads the arrogant Roman the lesson which he and all +his tribe in all lands and ages need--that their power is derived from +God, therefore in its foundation legitimate, and in its exercise to be +guided by His will and used for His purposes. It was God who had +brought the Roman eagles, with their ravening beaks and strong claws, +to the Holy City. Pilate was right in exercising jurisdiction over +Jesus. Let him see that he exercised justice, and let him remember that +the power which he boasted that he 'had' was 'given.' The truth as to +the source of power made the guilt of Caiaphas or of the rulers the +greater, inasmuch as they had neglected the duties to which they had +been appointed, and by handing over Jesus on a charge which they +themselves should have searched out, had been guilty of 'theocratic +felony.' This sudden flash of bold rebuke, reminding Pilate of his +dependence, and charging him with the lesser but yet real 'sin,' went +deeper than any answer to his question would have done, and spurred him +to more earnest effort, as John points out. He 'sought to release Him,' +as if formerly he had been rather simply unwilling to condemn than +anxious to deliver. + +IV. So the scene changes again to outside. Pilate went out alone, +leaving Jesus within, and was met before he had time, as would appear, +to speak, by the final irresistible weapon which the rulers had kept in +reserve. An accusation of treason was only too certain to be listened +to by the suspicious tyrant who was then Emperor, especially if brought +by the authorities of a subject nation. Many a provincial governor had +had but a short shrift in such a case, and Pilate knew that he was a +ruined man if these implacable zealots howling before him went to +Tiberius with such a charge. So the die was cast. With rage in his +heart, no doubt, and knowing that he was sacrificing 'innocent blood' +to save himself, he turned away from the victorious mob, apparently in +silence, and brought Jesus out once more. He had no more words to say +to his prisoner. Nothing remained but the formal act of sentence, for +which he seated himself, with a poor assumption of dignity, yet feeling +all the while, no doubt, what a contemptible surrender he was making. + +Judgment-seats and mosaic pavements do not go far to secure reverence +for a judge who is no better than an assassin, killing an innocent man +to secure his own ends. Pilate's sentence fell most heavily on himself. +If 'the judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted,' he is tenfold +condemned when the innocent is sentenced. + +Pilate returned to his sarcastic mood when he returned to his +injustice, and found some satisfaction in his old jeer, 'your King.' +But the passion of hatred was too much in earnest to be turned or even +affected by such poor scoffs, and the only answer was the renewed roar +of the mob, which had murder in its tone. The repetition of the +governor's taunt, 'Shall I crucify your King?' brought out the answer +in which the rulers of the nation in their fury blindly flung away +their prerogative. It is no accident that it was 'the chief priests' +who answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.' Driven by hate, they +deliberately disown their Messianic hope, and repudiate their national +glory. They who will not have Christ have to bow to a tyrant. Rebellion +against Him brings slavery. + + + +AN EYE-WITNESS'S ACCOUNT OF THE CRUCIFIXION + +'And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a +skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified +Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the +midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the +writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then +read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh +to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then +said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of +the Jews; but that He said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, +What I have written I have written. Then the soldiers, when they had +crucified Jesus, took His garments, and made four parts, to every +soldier a part; and also His coat: now the coat was without seam, woven +from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us +not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the +scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My raiment among +them, and for My vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the +soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and his +mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When +Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He +loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold Thy Son! Then saith He +to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple +took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things +were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I +thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a +spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. +When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: +and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.'--JOHN xix. 17-30. + +In great and small matters John's account adds much to the narrative of +the crucifixion. He alone tells of the attempt to have the title on the +Cross altered, of the tender entrusting of the Virgin to his care, and +of the two 'words' 'I thirst' and 'It is finished.' He gives details +which had been burned into his memory, such as Christ's position 'in +the midst' of the two robbers, and the jar of 'vinegar' standing by the +crosses. He says little about the act of fixing Jesus to the Cross, but +enlarges what the other Evangelists tell as to the soldiers 'casting +lots.' He had heard what they said to one another. He alone distinctly +tells that when He went forth, Jesus was bearing the Cross which +afterwards Simon of Cyrene had to carry, probably because our Lord's +strength failed. + +Who appointed the two robbers to be crucified at the same time? Not the +rulers, who had no such power but probably Pilate, as one more shaft of +sarcasm which was all the sharper both because it seemed to put Jesus +in the same class as they, and because they were of the same class as +the man of the Jews' choice, Barabbas, and possibly were two of his +gang. Jesus was 'in the midst,' where He always is, completely +identified with the transgressors, but central to all things and all +men. As He was in the midst on the Cross, with a penitent on one hand +and a rejecter on the other, He is still in the midst of humanity, and +His judgment-seat will be as central as His Cross was. + +All the Evangelists give the title written over the Cross, but John +alone tells that it was Pilate's malicious invention. He thought that +he was having a final fling at the priests, and little knew how truly +his title, which was meant as a bitter jest, was a fact. He had it put +into the three tongues in use--'Hebrew,' the national tongue; 'Greek,' +the common medium of intercourse between varying nationalities; and +'Latin' the official language. He did not know that he was proclaiming +the universal dominion of Jesus, and prophesying that wisdom as +represented by Greece, law and imperial power as represented by Rome, +and all previous revelation as represented by Israel, would yet bow +before the Crucified, and recognise that His Cross was His throne. + +The 'high-priests' winced, and would fain have had the title altered. +Their wish once more denied Jesus, and added to their condemnation, but +it did not move Pilate. It would have been well for him if he had been +as firm in carrying out his convictions of justice as in abiding by his +bitter jest. He was obstinate in the wrong place, partly because he was +angry with the rulers, and partly to recover his self-respect, which +had been damaged by his vacillation. But his stiff-necked speech had a +more tragic meaning than he knew, for 'what he had written' on his own +life-page on that day could never be erased, and will confront him. We +are all writing an imperishable record, and we shall have to read it +out hereafter, and acknowledge our handwriting. + +John next sets in strong contrast the two groups round the Cross--the +stolid soldiers and the sad friends. The four legionaries went through +their work as a very ordinary piece of military duty. They were well +accustomed to crucify rebel Jews, and saw no difference between these +three and former prisoners. They watched the pangs without a touch of +pity, and only wished that death might come soon, and let them get back +to their barracks. How blind men may be to what they are gazing at! If +knowledge measures guilt, how slight the culpability of the soldiers! +They were scarcely more guilty than the mallet and nails which they +used. The Sufferer's clothes were their perquisite, and their division +was conducted on cool business principles, and with utter disregard of +the solemn nearness of death. Could callous indifference go further +than to cast lots for the robe at the very foot of the Cross? + +But the thing that most concerns us here is that Jesus submitted to +that extremity of shame and humiliation, and hung there naked for all +these hours, gazed on, while the light lasted, by a mocking crowd. He +had set the perfect Pattern of lowly self-abnegation when, amid the +disciples in the upper room, He had 'laid aside His garments,' but now +He humbles Himself yet more, being clothed only 'with shame.' Therefore +should we clothe Him with hearts' love. Therefore God has clothed Him +with the robes of imperial majesty. + +Another point emphasised by John is the fulfilment of prophecy in this +act. The seamless robe, probably woven by loving hands, perhaps by some +of the weeping women who stood there, was too valuable to divide, and +it would be a moment's pastime to cast lots for it. John saw, in the +expedient naturally suggested to four rough men, who all wanted the +robe but did not want to quarrel over it, a fulfilment of the cry of +the ancient sufferer, who had lamented that his enemies made so sure of +his death that they divided his garments and cast lots for his vesture. +But he was 'wiser than he knew,' and, while his words were to his own +apprehension but a vivid metaphor expressing his desperate condition, +'the Spirit which was in' him 'did signify' by them 'the sufferings of +Christ.' Theories of prophecy or sacrifice which deny the correctness +of John's interpretation have the New Testament against them, and +assume to know more about the workings of inspiration than is either +modest or scientific. + +What a contrast the other group presents! John's enumeration of the +women may be read so as to mention four or three, according as 'His +mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas,' is taken to mean one woman +or two. The latter is the more probable supposition, and it is also +probable that the unnamed sister of our Lord's mother was no other than +Salome, John's own mother. If so, entrusting Mary to John's care would +be the more natural. Tender care, joined with consciousness that +henceforth the relation of son and mother was to be supplanted, not +merely by Death's separating fingers, but by faith's uniting bond, +breathed through the word, so loving yet so removing, 'Woman, behold +thy son!' Dying trust in the humble friend, which would go far to make +the friend worthy of it, breathed in the charge, to which no form of +address corresponding to 'Woman' is prefixed. Jesus had nothing else to +give as a parting gift, but He gave these two to each other, and +enriched both. He showed His own loving heart, and implied His faithful +discharge of all filial duties hitherto. And He taught us the lesson, +which many of us have proved to be true, that losses are best made up +when we hear Him pointing us by them to new offices of help to others, +and that, if we will let Him, He will point us too to what will fill +empty places in our hearts and homes. + +The second of the words on the Cross which we owe to John is that +pathetic expression, 'I thirst.' Most significant is the insight into +our Lord's consciousness which John, here as elsewhere, ventures to +give. Not till He knew 'that all things were accomplished' did He give +heed to the pangs of thirst, which made so terrible a part of the +torture of crucifixion. The strong will kept back the bodily cravings +so long as any unfulfilled duty remained. Now Jesus had nothing to do +but to die, and before He died He let flesh have one little +alleviation. He had refused the stupefying draught which would have +lessened suffering by dulling consciousness, but He asked for the +draught which would momentarily slake the agony of parched lips and +burning throat. + +The words of verse 28 are not to be taken as meaning that Jesus said 'I +thirst' with the mere intention of fulfilling the Scripture. His +utterance was the plaint of a real need, not a performance to fill a +part. But it is John who sees in that wholly natural cry the fulfilment +of the psalm (Ps. lxix. 21). All Christ's bodily sufferings may be said +to be summed up in this one word, the only one in which they found +utterance. The same lips that said, 'If any man thirst, let him come +unto Me, and drink,' said this. Infinitely pathetic in itself, that cry +becomes almost awful in its appeal to us when we remember who uttered +it, and why He bore these pangs. The very 'Fountain of living water' +knew the pang of thirst that every one that thirsteth might come to the +waters, and might drink, not water only, but 'wine and milk, without +money or price.' + +John's last contribution to our knowledge of our Lord's words on the +Cross is that triumphant 'It is finished,' wherein there spoke, not +only the common dying consciousness of life being ended, but the +certitude, which He alone of all who have died, or will die, had the +right to feel and utter, that every task was completed, that all God's +will was accomplished, all Messiah's work done, all prophecy fulfilled, +redemption secured, God and man reconciled. He looked back over all His +life and saw no failure, no falling below the demands of the occasion, +nothing that could have been bettered, nothing that should not have +been there. He looked upwards, and even at that moment He heard in His +soul the voice of the Father saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I +am well pleased!' + +Christ's work is finished. It needs no supplement. It can never be +repeated or imitated while the world lasts, and will not lose its power +through the ages. Let us trust to it as complete for all our needs, and +not seek to strengthen 'the sure foundation' which it has laid by any +shifting, uncertain additions of our own. But we may remember, too, +that while Christ's work is, in one aspect, finished, when He bowed His +head, and by His own will 'gave up the ghost,' in another aspect His +work is not finished, nor will be, until the whole benefits of His +incarnation and death are diffused through, and appropriated by, the +world. He is working to-day, and long ages have yet to pass, in all +probability, before the voice of Him that sitteth on the throne shall +say 'It is done!' + + + +THE TITLE ON THE CROSS + +'Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross.'--JOHN xix. 19. + +This title is recorded by all four Evangelists, in words varying in +form but alike in substance. It strikes them all as significant that, +meaning only to fling a jeer at his unruly subjects, Pilate should have +written it, and proclaimed this Nazarene visionary to be He for whom +Israel had longed through weary ages. John's account is the fullest, as +indeed his narrative of all Pilate's shufflings is the most complete. +He alone records that the title was tri-lingual (for the similar +statement in the Authorised Version of Luke is not part of the original +text). He alone gives the Jews' request for an alteration of the title, +and Pilate's bitter answer. That angry reply betrays his motive in +setting up such words over a crucified prisoner's head. They were meant +as a savage taunt of the Jews, not as an insult to Jesus, which would +have been welcome to them. He seems to have regarded our Lord as a +harmless enthusiast, to have had a certain liking for Him, and a +languid curiosity as to Him, which came by degrees to be just tinged +with awe as he felt that he could not quite make Him out. Throughout, +he was convinced that His claim to be a king contained no menace for +Caesar, and he would have let Jesus go but for fear of being +misrepresented at Rome. He felt that the sacrifice of one more Jew was +a small price to pay to avert his accusation to Caesar; he would have +sacrificed a dozen such to keep his place. But he felt that he was +being coerced to do injustice, and his anger and sense of humiliation +find vent in that written taunt. It was a spurt of bad temper and a +measure of his reluctance. + +Besides the interest attaching to it as Pilate's work, it seems to John +significant of much that it should have been fastened on the Cross, and +that it should have been in the three languages, Hebrew (Aramaic), +Greek, and Latin. + +Let us deal with three points in succession. + +I. The title as throwing light on the actors in the tragedy. + +We may consider it, first, in its bearing on Jesus' claims. He was +condemned by the priests on the theocratic charge of blasphemy, because +He made Himself the Son of God. He was sentenced by Pilate on the civil +charge of rebellion, which the priests brought against Him as an +inference necessarily resulting from His claim to be the Son of God. +They drew the same conclusion as Nathanael did long before: 'Rabbi, +Thou art the Son of God,' and therefore 'Thou art the King of Israel.' +And they were so far right that if the former designation is correct, +the latter inevitably follows. + +Both charges, then, turned on His personal claims. To Pilate He +explained the nature of His kingdom, so as to remove any suspicion that +it would bring Him and His subjects into collision with Rome, but He +asserted His kingship, and it was His own claim that gave Pilate the +material for His gibe. It is worth notice, then, that these two claims +from His own lips, made to the authorities who respectively took +cognisance of the theocratic and of the civic life of the nation, and +at the time when His life hung on the decision of the two, were the +causes of His judicial sentence. The people who allege that Jesus never +made the preposterous claims for Himself which Christians have made for +Him, but was a simple Teacher of morality and lofty religion, have +never fairly faced the simple question: 'For what, then, was He +crucified?' It is easy for them to dilate on the hatred of the Jewish +officials and the gross earthliness of the masses, as explaining the +attitude of both, but it is not so easy to explain how material was +found for judicial process. One can understand how Jesus was detested +by rulers, and how they succeeded in stirring up popular feeling +against Him, but not how an indictment that would hold water was framed +against Him. Nor would even Pilate's complaisance have gone so far as +to have condemned a prisoner against whom all that could be said was +that he was disliked because he taught wisely and well and was too good +for his critics. The question is, not what made Jesus disliked, but +what set the Law in motion against Him? And no plausible answer has +ever been given except the one that was nailed above His head on the +Cross. It was not His virtues or the sublimity of His teaching, but His +twofold claim to be Son of God and King of Israel that haled Him to His +death. + +We may further ask why Jesus did not clear up the mistakes, if they +were mistakes, that led to His condemnation. Surely He owed it to the +two tribunals before which He stood, no less than to Himself and His +followers, to disown the erroneous interpretations on which the charges +against Him were based. Even a Caiaphas was entitled to be told, if it +were so, that He meant no blasphemy and was not claiming anything too +high for a reverent Israelite, when He claimed to be the Son of God. If +Jesus let the Sanhedrim sentence Him under a mistake of what His words +meant, He was guilty of His own death. + +We note, further, the light thrown by the Title on Pilate's action. It +shows his sense of the unreality of the charge which he basely allowed +himself to be forced into entertaining as a ground of condemning Jesus. +If this enigmatical prisoner had had a sword, there would have been +some substance in the charge against Him, but He was plainly an +idea-monger, and therefore quite harmless, and His kingship only fit to +be made a jest of and a means of girding at the rulers. 'Practical men' +always under-estimate the power of ideas. The Title shows the same +contempt for 'mere theorisers' as animated his question, 'What is +truth?' How little he knew that this 'King,' at whom he thought that he +could launch clumsy jests, had lodged in the heart of the Empire a +power which would shatter and remould it! + +In his blindness to the radiant truth that stood before him, in the +tragedy of his condemnation of that to which he should have yielded +himself, Pilate stands out as a beacon for all time, warning the world +against looking for the forces that move the world among the powers +that the world recognises and honours. If we would not commit Pilate's +fault over again, we must turn to 'the base things of this world' and +the 'things that are not' and find in them the transforming powers +destined to 'bring to nought things that are.' + +Pilate's gibe was an unconscious prophecy. He thought it an exquisite +jest, for it hurt. He was an instance of that strange irony that runs +through history, and makes, at some crisis, men utter fateful words +that seem put into their lips by some higher power. Caiaphas and he, +the Jewish chief of the Sanhedrim and the Roman procurator, were +foremost in Christ's condemnation, and each of them spoke such words, +profoundly true and far beyond the speaker's thoughts. Was the +Evangelist wrong in saying: 'This spake he not of himself?' + +II. The Title on the Cross as unveiling the ground of Christ's dominion. + +It seemed a ludicrous travesty of royalty that a criminal dying there, +with a crowd of his 'subjects' gloating on his agonies and shooting +arrowy words of scorn at him, should be a King. But His cross _is_ His +throne. It is so because His death is His great work for the world. It +is so because in it we see, with melted hearts, the sublimest +revelation of His love. Absolute authority belongs to utter +self-sacrifice. He, and only He, who gives Himself wholly to and for +me, thereby acquires the right of absolute command over me. He is the +'Prince of all the kings of the earth,' because He has died and become +the 'First-begotten from the dead.' From the hour when He said, 'I, if +I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me,' down to the hour when the +seer heard the storm of praise from 'ten thousand times ten thousand, +and thousands of thousands' breaking round the throne, every New +Testament reference to Christ's dominion is accompanied with a +reference to His cross, and every reference to His cross merges in a +reference to His throne. The crown of thorns was a revelation of the +inmost nature of Christ's rule. The famous Iron Crown of Milan is a +hard, cold circlet within a golden covering blazing with jewels. +Christ's right to sway men, like His power to do so, rests on His +sacrifice for men. A Christianity without a Cross is a Christianity +without authority, as has been seen over and over again in the history +of the Church, and as is being seen again today, if men would only +look. A Christ without a Cross is a Christ without a Kingdom. The +dominion of the world belongs to Him who can sway men's inmost motives. +Hearts are His who has bought them with His own. + +III. The Title as prophesying Christ's universal dominion. + +The three tongues in which it was written were chosen simply to make it +easy to read by the crowd from every part of the Empire assembled at +the Passover. There were Palestinian Jews there who probably read +Aramaic only, and representatives from the widely diffused Jewish +emigration in Greek-speaking lands, as well as Roman officials and Jews +from Italy who would be most familiar with Latin. Pilate wanted his +shaft to reach them all. It was, in its tri-lingual character, a sign +of Israel's degradation and a flourishing of the whip in their faces, +as a government order in English placarded in a Bengalee village might +be, or a Russian ukase in Warsaw. Its very wording betrayed a foreign +hand, for a Jew would have written 'King of Israel,' not 'of the Jews.' + +But John divined a deeper meaning in this Title, just as he found a +similar prophecy of the universality of Christ's death in the analogous +word of Caiaphas. As in that saying he heard a faint prediction that +Jesus should die 'not for that people only, but that He might also +gather into one the scattered children of God,' so he feels that Pilate +was wiser than he knew, and that his written words in their threefold +garb symbolised the relation of Christ and His work to the three great +types of civilisation which it found possessed of the field. It bent +them all to its own purposes, absorbed them into itself, used their +witness and was propagated by means of them, and finally sucked the +life out of them and disintegrated them. The Jew contributed the +morality and monotheism of the Old Testament; the Greek, culture and +the perfected language that should contain the treasure, the fresh +wine-skin for the new wine; the Roman made the diffusion of the kingdom +possible by the _pax Romana_, and at first sheltered the young plant. +All three, no doubt, marred as well as helped the development of +Christianity, and infused into it deleterious elements, which cling to +it to-day, but the prophecy of the Title was fulfilled and these three +tongues became heralds of the Cross and with 'loud, uplifted trumpets +blew' glad tidings to the ends of the world. + +That Title thus became an unconscious prophecy of Christ's universal +dominion. The Psalmist that sang of Messiah's world-wide rule was sure +that 'all nations shall serve Him,' and the reason why he was certain +of it was '_for_ He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.' We may be +certain of it for the same reason. He who can deal with man's primal +needs, and is ready and able to meet every cry of the heart, will never +want suppliants and subjects. He who can respond to our consciousness +of sin and weakness, and can satisfy hungry hearts, will build His sway +over the hearts whom He satisfies on foundations deep as life itself. +The history of the past becomes a prophecy of the future. Jesus has +drawn men of all sorts, of every stage of culture and layer of +civilisation, and of every type of character to Him, and the power +which has carried a peasant of Nazareth to be the acknowledged King of +the civilised world is not exhausted, and will not be till He is +throned as Saviour and Ruler of the whole earth. There is only one +religion in the world that is obviously growing. The gods of Greece and +Rome are only subjects for studies in Comparative Mythology, the +labyrinthine pantheon of India makes no conquests, Buddhism is +moribund. All other religions than Christianity are shut up within +definite and comparatively narrow geographical and chronological +limits. But in spite of premature jubilations of enemies and much hasty +talk about the need for a re-statement (which generally means a +negation) of Christian truth, we have a clear right to look forward +with quiet confidence. Often in the past has the religion of Jesus +seemed to be wearing or worn out, but it has a strange recuperative +power, and is wont to startle its enemies' paeans over its grave by +rising again and winning renewed victories. The Title on the Cross is +for ever true, and is written again in nobler fashion 'on the vesture +and on the thigh' of Him who rides forth at last to rule the nations, +'KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.' + + + +THE IRREVOCABLE PAST + +'What I have written I have written.'--JOHN xix. 22. + +This was a mere piece of obstinacy. Pilate knew that he had prostituted +his office in condemning Jesus, and he revenged himself for weak +compliance by ill-timed mulishness. A cool-headed governor would have +humoured his difficult subjects in such a trifle, as a just one would +have been inflexible in a matter of life and death. But this man's +facile yielding and his stiff-necked obstinacy were both misplaced. 'So +I will, so I command. Let my will suffice for a reason,' was what he +meant. He had written his gibe, and not all the Jews in Jewry should +make him change. + +But his petulant answer to the rulers' request for the removal of the +offensive placard carried in it a deeper meaning, as the Title also +did, and as the people's fierce yell, 'His blood be on us and on our +children,' did. Possibly the Evangelist had some thought of that sort +in recording this saying; but, at all events, I venture to take a +liberty with it which I should not do if it were a word of God's, or if +it were given for our instruction. So I take it now as expressing in a +vivid way, and irrespective of Pilate's intention, the thought of the +irrevocable past. + +I. Every man is perpetually writing a permanent record of himself. + +It is almost impossible to get the average man to think of his life as +a whole, or to realise that the fleeting present leaves indelible +traces. They seem to fade away wholly. The record appears to be written +in water. It is written in ink which is invisible, but as indelible as +invisible. Grammarians define the perfect tense as that which expresses +an action completed in the past and of which the consequences remain in +the present. That is true of all our actions. Our characters, our +circumstances, our remembrances, are all permanent. Every day we make +entries in our diary. + +II. That record, once written, is irrevocable. + +We all know what it is to long that some one action should have been +otherwise, to have taken some one step which perhaps has coloured +years, and which we would give the world not to have taken. But it +cannot be. Remorse cannot alter it. Wishes are vain. Repentance is +vain. A new line of conduct is vain. + +What an awful contrast in this respect between time future and time +past! Think of the indefinite possibilities in the one, the rigid +fixity of the other. Our present actions are like cements that dry +quickly and set hard on exposure to the air--the dirt of the trowel +abides on the soft brick for ever. Many cuneiform inscriptions were +impressed with a piece of wood on clay, and are legible millenniums +after. + +We have to write _currente calamo_, and as soon as written, the MS. is +printed and stereotyped, and no revising proofs nor erasures are +possible. An action, once done, escapes from us wholly. + +How needful, then, to have lofty principles ready at hand! The fresco +painter must have a sure touch, and a quick hand, and a full mind. + +What a boundless field the future offers us! How much it may be! How +much, perhaps, we resolve it shall be! What a shrunken heap the harvest +is! Are you satisfied with what you have written? + +III. This record, written here, is read yonder. + +Our actions carry eternal consequences. These will be read by +ourselves. Character remains. Memory remains. + +We shall read with all illusions stripped away. + +Others will read--God and a universe. + +'We shall all be _manifested_ before the judgment-seat of Christ.' + +IV. This record may be blotted out by the blood of Christ. + +It cannot be made not to have been, but God's pardon will be given, and +in respect to all personal consequences it is made non-existent. +Circumstances may remain, but their pressure is different. Character +may be renewed and sanctified, and even made loftier by the evil past. +Our dead selves may become 'stepping-stones to higher things.' + +Memory may remain, but its sting is gone, and new hopes, and joys, and +work may fill the pages of our record. + +'He took away the handwriting that was against us, nailing it to His +Cross.' + +Our lives and characters may become a palimpsest. 'I will write upon +him My new name.' 'Ye are an epistle of Christ ministered by us.' + + + +CHRIST'S FINISHED AND UNFINISHED WORK + +'Jesus ... said, It is finished.'--JOHN xix. 30. + +'He said unto me, It is done.'--REV. xxi. 6. + +One of these sayings was spoken from the Cross, the other from the +Throne. The Speaker of both is the same. In the one, His voice 'then +shook the earth,' as the rending rocks testified; in the other, His +voice 'will shake not the earth only but also heaven'; for 'new heavens +and a new earth' accompanied the proclamation. In the one, like some +traveller ready to depart, who casts a final glance over his +preparations, and, satisfied that nothing is omitted, gives his +charioteer the signal and rolls away, Jesus Christ looked back over His +life's work, and, knowing that it was accomplished, summoned His +servant Death, and departed. In the other, He sets His seal to the +closed book of the world's history, and ushers in a renovated universe. +The one masks the completion of the work on which the world's +redemption rests, the other marks the completion of the age-long +process by which the world's redemption is actually realised. The one +proclaims that the foundation is laid, the other that the headstone is +set on the finished building. The one bids us trust in a past perfected +work; the other bids us hope in the perfect accomplishment of the +results of that work. Taken singly, these sayings are grand; united, +they suggest thoughts needed always, never more needful than to-day. + +I. We see here the work which was finished on the Cross. + +The Evangelist gives great significance to the words of my first text, +as is shown by his statement in a previous verse: 'Jesus, knowing that +all things were now accomplished, said, I thirst,' and then--'It is +finished.' That is to say, there is something in that dying voice a +great deal deeper and more wonderful than the ordinary human utterance +with which a dying man might say, 'It is all over now. I have done,' +for this utterance came from the consciousness that all things had been +accomplished by Him, and that He had done His life's work. + +Now, there, taking the words even in their most superficial sense, we +come upon the strange peculiarity which marks off the life of Jesus +Christ from every other life that was ever lived. There are no loose +ends left, no unfinished tasks drop from His nerveless hands, to be +taken up and carried on by others. His life is a rounded whole, with +everything accomplished that had been endeavoured, and everything done +that had been commanded. 'His hands have laid the foundation; His hands +shall also finish.' He alone of the sons of men, in the deepest sense, +completed His task, and left nothing for successors. The rest of us are +taken away when we have reared a course or two of the structure, the +dream of building which brightened our youth. The pen drops from +paralysed hands in the middle of a sentence, and a fragment of a book +is left. The painter's brush falls with his palette at the foot of his +easel, and but the outline of what he conceived is on the canvas. All +of us leave tasks half done, and have to go away before the work is +completed. The half-polished columns that lie at Baalbec are but a +symbol of the imperfection of every human life. But this Man said, 'It +is finished,' and 'gave up the ghost.' Now, if we ponder on what lies +in that consciousness of completion, I think we find, mainly, three +things. + +Christ rendered a complete obedience. All through His life we see Him, +hearing with the inward ear the solemn voice of the Father, and +responding to it with that 'I must' which runs through all His days, +from the earliest dawning of consciousness, when He startled His mother +with 'I must be about My Father's business,' until the very last +moments. In that obedience to the all-present necessity which He +cheerfully embraced and perfectly discharged, there was no flaw. He +alone of men looks back upon a life in which His clear consciousness +detected neither transgression nor imperfection. In the midst of His +career He could front His enemies with 'Which of you convinceth Me of +sin?' and no man then, and no man in all the generations that have +elapsed since--though some have been blind enough to try it, and +malicious enough to utter their attempts,--has been able to answer the +challenge. In the midst of His career He said, 'I do always the things +that please Him'; and nobody then or since has been able to lay his +finger upon an act of His in which, either by excess or defect, or +contrariety, the will of God has not been fully represented. At the +beginning of His career He said, in answer to the Baptist's +remonstrance, 'It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,' and at the +end of His career He looked back, and knowing that He had thus done +what became Him--namely, fulfilled it all--He said, 'It is finished!' + +The utterance further expresses Christ's consciousness of having +completed the revelation of God. Jesus Christ has made known the +Father, and the generations since have added nothing to His revelation. +The very people, to-day, that turn away from Christianity, in the name +of higher conceptions of the divine nature, owe their conceptions of it +to the Christ from whom they turn. Not in broken syllables; not 'at +sundry times and in divers manners,' but with the one perfect, +full-toned name of God on His lips, and vocal in His life, He has +declared the Father unto us. In the course of His career He said, 'He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father'; and, looking back on His life +of manifestation of God, He proclaimed, 'It is finished!' And the world +has since, with all its thinking, added nothing to the name which +Christ has declared. + +The utterance farther expresses His consciousness of having made a +completed, atoning Sacrifice. Remember that the words of my first text +followed that awful cry that came from the darkness, and as by one +lightning flash, show us the waves and billows rolling over His head. +'My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?' In that infinitely +pathetic and profound utterance, to the interpretation of which our +powers go but a little way, Jesus Christ blends together, in the most +marvellous fashion, desolation and trust, the consciousness that God is +His God, and the consciousness that He is bereft of the light of His +presence. Brethren! I know of no explanation of these words which does +justice to both the elements that are intertwined so intimately in +them, except the old one, which listens to Him as they come from His +quivering lip, and says, 'The Lord hath made to meet on Him the +iniquity of us all.' + +Ah, brethren! unless there was something a great deal more than the +physical shrinking from physical death in that piteous cry, Jesus +Christ did not die nearly as bravely as many a poor, trembling woman +who, at the stake or the block, has owed her fortitude to Him. Many a +blood-stained criminal has gone out of life with less tremor than that +which, unless you take the explanation that Scripture suggests of the +cry, marred the last hours of Jesus Christ. Having drained the cup, He +held it up inverted when He said 'It is finished!' and not a drop +trickled down the edge. He drank it that we might never need to drink +it; and so His dying voice proclaimed that 'by one offering for sin for +ever,' He 'obtained eternal redemption' for us. + +II. Now, secondly, note the work which began from the Cross. Between my +two texts lie untold centuries, and the whole development of the +consequences of Christ's death, like some great valley stretching +between twin mountain-peaks on either side, which from some points of +view will be foreshortened and invisible, but when gazed down upon, is +seen to stretch widely leagues broad, from mountain ridge to mountain +ridge. So my two texts, by the fact that millenniums have to interpose +between the time when 'It is finished!' is spoken, and the time when +'It is done!' can be proclaimed from the Throne, imply that the +interval is filled by a continuous work of our Lord's, which began at +the moment when the work on the Cross ended. + +Now it has very often been the case, as I take leave to think, that the +interpretation of the former of these two texts has been of such a kind +as to distort the perspective of Christian truth, and to obscure the +fact of that continuous work of our Lord's. Therefore it may not be out +of place if, in a sentence or two, I recall to you the plain teaching +of the New Testament upon this matter. 'It is finished!' Yes; and as +the lower course of some great building is but the foundation for the +higher, when 'finished' it is but begun. The work which, in one aspect, +is the close, in another aspect is the commencement of Christ's further +activity. What did He say Himself, when He was here with His disciples? +'I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.' What was the +last word that came fluttering down, like an olive leaf, into the +bosoms of the men as they stood with uplifted faces gazing upon Him as +He disappeared? 'Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the ages.' +What is the keynote of the book which carries on the story of the +Gospels in the history of the militant Church? 'The former treatise +have I made... of all that Jesus _began_ both to do and to teach, until +the day in which He was taken up'--and, being taken up, continued, in a +new form, both the doing and the teaching. Thus that book, misnamed the +Acts of the Apostles, sets Him forth as the Worker of all the progress +of the Church. Who is it that 'adds to the Church daily such as were +being saved?' The Lord. Who is it that opened the hearts of the hearers +to the message? The Lord. Who is it that flings wide the prison-gates +when His persecuted servants are in chains? The Lord. Who is it that +bids one man attach himself to the chariot of the eunuch of Ethiopia, +and another man go and bear witness in Rome? The Lord. Through the +whole of that book there runs the keynote, as its dominant thought, +that men are but the instruments, and the hand that wields them is +Christ's, and that He who wrought the finished work that culminated on +Calvary is operating a continuous work through the ages from His Throne. + +Take that last book of Scripture, which opens with a view of the +ascended Christ 'walking in the midst of the seven candlesticks, and +holding the stars in His right hand;' which further draws aside the +curtains of the heavenly sanctuary, and lets us see 'the Lamb in the +midst of the Throne,' opening the seven seals--that is to say, setting +loose for their progress through the world the forces that make the +history of humanity, and which culminates in the vision of the final +battle in which the Incarnate Word of God goes forth to victory, with +all the armies of heaven following Him. Are not its whole spirit and +message that Jesus Christ, the Lamb who is the Antagonist of the Beast, +is working through all the history of the world, and will work till its +kingdoms are 'become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ?' + +Now, that continuous operation of Jesus Christ in the midst of men is +not to be weakened down to the mere continued influence of the truths +which He proclaimed, or the Gospel which He brought. There is something +a great deal more than the diminishing vibrations of a force long since +set in operation, and slowly ceasing to act. Dead teachers do still +'rule our spirits from their urns'; but it is no dead Christ who, by +the influence of what He did when He was living, sways the world and +comforts His Church; it is a living Christ who to-day is working in His +people, by His Spirit. Further, He works on the world through His +people by the Word; they plant and water, He 'gives the increase.' And +He is working in the world, for His Church and for the world, by His +wielding of all power that is given to Him, in heaven and on earth. So +that the work that is done upon earth He doeth it all Himself; and +Christian people unduly limit the sphere of Christ's operations when +they look back only to the Cross, and talk about a 'finished work' +there, and forget that that finished work there is but the vestibule of +the continuous work that is being done to-day. + +Christian people! The present work of Christ needs working servants. We +are here in order to carry on His work. The Apostle ventured to say +that he was appointed 'to fill up that which is behind of the +sufferings of Christ'; we may well venture to say that we are here +mainly to apply to the world the benefits resulting from the finished +work upon the Cross. The accomplishment of redemption, and the +realisation of the accomplished redemption, are two wholly different +things. Christ has done the one. He says to us, 'You are honoured to +help Me to do the other.' According to the accurate rendering of a +great saying of the Old Testament, 'Take no rest, and give Him no rest, +till He establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth, Christ's +work is finished; there is nothing for us to do with it but trust it. +Christ's work is going on; come to His help. Ye are fellow-labourers +with and to the Incarnate Truth. + +III. I need not say more than a word about the third thought, suggested +by these texts--viz., the completion of the work which began on the +Cross. + +'It is done!' That lies, no man knows how far, ahead of us. As surely +as astronomers tell us that all this universe is hastening towards a +central point, so surely 'that far-off divine event' is that 'to which +the whole creation moves.' It is the blaze of light which fills the +distant end of the dim vista of human history. Its elements are in part +summed up in the context--the tabernacle of God with men, the perfected +fellowship of the human with the divine, the housing of men in the very +home and heart of God; 'a new heaven and a new earth,' a renovated +universe; the removal of all evil, suffering, sorrow, sin, and tears. +These things are to be, and shall be, when He says 'It is done!' + +Brethren! nothing else than such an issue can be the end of Creation, +for nothing else than such is the purpose of God for man, and God is +not going to be beaten by the world and the devil. Nothing else than +such can be the issue of the Cross; for 'He shall see of the travail of +His soul, and shall be satisfied,' and Christ is not going to labour in +vain, and spend His life, and give His breath and His blood for nought. + +Nothing but the work finished on the Cross guarantees the coming of +that perfected issue. I know not where else there is hope for mankind, +looking on the history of humanity, except in that great message, that +Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come, has died, lives for ever, and +is the world's King and Lord. + +So for ourselves, in regard to the one part of the work, let us listen +to Him saying 'It is finished!' abandon all attempts to eke it out by +additions of our own, and cast ourselves on the finished Revelation, +the finished Obedience, the finished Atonement, made once for all on +the Cross. But as for the continuous work going on through the ages, +let us cast ourselves into it with earnestness, self-sacrifice, +consecration, and continuity, for we are fellow-workers with Christ, +and Christ will work in, with, and for us if we will work for Him. + + + +CHRIST OUR PASSOVER + +'These things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone +of Him shall not be broken.'--JOHN xix. 36. + +The Evangelist, in the words of this text, points to the great Feast of +the Passover and to the Paschal Lamb, as finding their highest +fulfilment, as he calls it, in Jesus Christ. For this purpose of +bringing out the correspondence between the shadow and the substance he +avails himself of a singular coincidence concerning a perfectly +unimportant matter--viz., the abnormally rapid sinking of Christ's +physical strength in the crucifixion, by which the final indignity of +breaking the bones of the sufferers was avoided in His case. John sees, +in that entirely insignificant thing, a kind of fingerpost pointing to +far more important, deeper, and real correspondences. We are not to +suppose that he was so purblind, and attached so much importance to +externals, as that this outward coincidence exhausted in his conception +the correspondence between the two. But It was a trifle that suggested +a greater matter. It was a help aiding gross conceptions and common +minds to grasp the inward relation between Jesus and that Passover +rite. But just as our Lord would have fulfilled the prophecy about the +King coming 'meek, and having salvation,' though He had never ridden on +a literal ass into the literal Jerusalem, so our Lord would have +'fulfilled' the shadow of the Passover with the substance of His own +sacrifice if there had never been this insignificant correspondence, in +outward things, between the two. + +But whilst my text is the Evangelist's commentary, the question arises, +How did he come to recognise that our Lord was all which that Passover +signified? And the answer is, he recognised it through Christ's own +teaching. He does not record the institution of the Lord's Supper. It +did not fall into his scheme to deal with external events of that sort, +and he knew that it had been sufficiently taught by the three earlier +Gospels, to which his is a supplement. But though he did not narrate +the institution, he takes it for granted in the words of my text, and +his vindication of his seeing the fulfilment of 'A bone of Him shall +not be broken' in the incident to which I have referred, lies in this, +that Jesus Christ Himself swept away the Passover and substituted the +memorial feast of the Lord's Supper. 'This do in remembrance of Me,' +said at the table where the Paschal lamb had been eaten, sufficiently +warrants John's allusion here. + +So then, marking the fact that our Evangelist is but carrying out the +lesson that he had learned in the upper room, we may fairly take the +identification of the Paschal lamb with the crucified Christ as being +the last instance in which our Lord Himself laid His hand upon Old +Testament incidents and said, 'They all mean Me.' And it is from that +point of view, and not merely for the purpose of dealing with the words +that I have read as our starting-point, that I wish to speak now. + +I. Now then, the first thing that strikes me is that in this +substitution of Himself for the Passover we have a strange instance of +Christ's supreme authority. + +Try to fling yourself back in imagination to that upper room, where +Jesus and a handful of Galileans were sitting, and remember the +sanctity which immemorial usage had cast round that centre and apex of +the Jewish ritual, established at the Exodus by a solemn divine +appointment, intended to commemorate the birth of the nation, venerable +by antiquity and association with the most vehement pulsations of +national feeling, the centre point of Jewish religion. Christ said: +'Put it all away; do not think about the Exodus; do not think about the +destroying Angel; do not think about the deliverance. Forget all the +past; do this in remembrance of Me.' Take into account that the +Passover had a double sacredness, as a religious festival, and also as +commemorating the birthday of the nation, and then estimate what a +strange sense of His own importance the Man must have had who said: +'That past is done with, and it is _Me_ that you have to think of now.' +If I might venture to take a very modern illustration without +vulgarising a great thing, suppose that on the other side of the +Atlantic somebody were to stand up and say, 'I abrogate the Fourth of +July and Independence Day. Do not think about Washington and the +establishment of the United States any more. Think about me!' That is +exactly what Jesus Christ did. Only instead of a century there were +millenniums of observance which He thus laid aside. So I say that is a +strange exercise of authority. + +What does it imply? It implies two things, and I must say a word about +each of them. It implies that Christ regarded the whole of the ancient +system of Judaism, its history, its law, its rites of worship, as +pointing onwards to Himself, that He recognised in it a system the +whole _raison d'etre_ of which was anticipatory and preparatory of +Himself. For Him the Decalogue was given, for Him priests were +consecrated, for Him kings were anointed, for Him prophets spake, for +Him sacrifices smoked, for Him festivals were appointed, and the nation +and its history were all one long proclamation: 'The King cometh! go ye +forth to meet Him.' You cannot get less than that out of the way in +which He handled, as is told in this Gospel, Jacob's ladder, the +Serpent in the wilderness, the Manna that fell from Heaven, the Pillar +of Cloud that led the people, the Rock that gushed forth water, and +now, last of all, the Passover, which was the very shining apex of the +whole sacrificial and ritual system. + +And remember, too, that this way of dealing with all the institutions +of the nation as meaning, in their inmost purpose, Himself, is exactly +parallel to His way of dealing with the sacred words of Mosaic +commandment and prohibition in the Sermon on the Mount, where He set +side by side as of equal--I was going to say, and I should have been +right in saying, identical--authority what was 'said to them of old +time' and what 'I say unto you.' Amidst the dust of our present +controversies as to the processes by which, and the times at which, the +Old Testament books assumed their present form, there is grave danger +that the essential thing about the whole matter should be obscured. The +way in which what is called Higher Criticism may finally locate the +origins and dates of the various parts of that ancient record and that +ancient system does not in the slightest degree affect the outstanding +characteristic of the whole, that it is the product of the divine hand, +working (if you will) through men who had more freedom of action whilst +they were its organs than our grandfathers thought. Be it so; but still +that divine Hand shaped the whole in order that, besides its +educational effects upon the generations that received it, there should +shine through it all the expectation of the coming King. And I venture +to say that, however grateful we may be to modern investigation for +light upon these other points to which I have referred, the ignorant +reader that reads Jesus Christ into all the Old Testament may be very +uncritical and mistaken in regard to details, but he has got hold of +the root of the matter, and is nearer to the apprehension of the +essence and spirit and purpose of the ancient Revelation than the most +learned critic who does not see that it is the preparation for, and the +prophecy of, Jesus Christ Himself. And the vindication of such a +position lies in this, among other facts, that He in the upper room, in +harmony with, and in completion of, all that He had previously spoken +about His relation to the Old Testament, claimed the Passover as the +prophecy of Himself, and said, 'I am the Lamb of God.' + +I need not dwell, I suppose, on the other consideration that is +involved in this strange exercise of authority--viz., the naturalness, +as without any sense of doing anything presumptuous or extraordinary, +with which Christ assumes His right to handle divine appointments with +the most perfect freedom, to modify them, to reshape them, to divert +them from their first purpose, and to enjoin them with an authority +equal to that with which the Lord said unto Moses, 'Keep ye this day +through your generations.' There is only one supposition on which I, +for my part, can understand that conduct--that He was the possessor of +authority the same as the Authority that had originally instituted the +rite. + +And so, dear brethren! when our Lord said, 'Do this in remembrance of +Me,' I pray you to ask yourselves, What did that involve in regard to +His nature and the source of His authority over us? And what did it +involve in regard to His relation to that ancient Revelation? + +II. And now another point that I would suggest is--we have, in this +substitution of the new rite for the old, our Lord's clear declaration +of what was the very heart of His work in the world. + +'This do in remembrance of Me.' What is it, then, to which He points? +Is it to the wisdom, the tenderness, the deep beauty, the flashing +moral purity that gleamed and shone lambent in His words? No! Is it to +the gracious self--oblivion, the gentle accessibility, the loving pity, +the leisurely heart always ready to help, the eye ready to fill with +tears, the hand ever outstretched and ever laden with blessings? No! It +is the death on the Cross which He, if I might so say, isolates, at +least which He underscores with red lines, and which He would have us +remember, as we remember nothing else. Brethren, rites are +insignificant in many aspects, but are often of enormous importance as +witnesses to truths. And I point to the Lord's Supper, the one rite of +the Christian Church, which is to be repeated over and over and over +again, and see in it the great barrier which has rendered it +impossible, and will render it impossible, as I believe, for evermore, +that a Christianity, which obscures the atoning sacrifice of Christ on +the Cross, should ever pose as the full representation of the Master's +mind, or as the full expression of the Saviour's word. + +What do men and churches that falter in their allegiance to the truth +of Christ's redemptive death do with the Lord's Supper? Nothing! For +the most part they ignore it, or if they retain it, do not, for the +life of them, know how to explain it, or why it should be there. The +explanation of why it is there is the great truth, of which it is the +clear utterance and the strong defence, the truth that 'Jesus Christ +died for our sins according to the Scriptures,' and that 'the Son of +Man came... to give His life a ransom for the many.' + +What did that Passover say? Two things it said, the blood that was +sprinkled on the lintels and on the door-posts was the token to the +destroying Angel, as with his broad, silent pinions he swept through +the land, bringing a blacker night into Egyptian darkness, and leaving +behind him no house 'in which there was not one dead.' All the houses +of which the occupants had put the ruddy mark on the lintels and on the +doorposts, and were wise enough not to go forth from behind the shelter +of that mark on the door, were safe when the morning dawned. And so to +us all who, by our sinfulness, have brought down upon our heads +exposedness to that retribution, which, in a righteously governed +universe, must needs follow sin, and to that death which the separation +from God--the necessary result of sin--most surely is, there is +proffered in that great Sacrifice shelter from the destroying sword. + +But that is not all. Whilst the blood on the posts meant security, the +Lamb on the table meant emancipation. So they who find in the dying +Christ their exemption from the last consequences of transgression, +find, in partaking of the Christ whose sacrifice is their pardon, the +communication of a new power, which sets them free from a worse than +Egyptian bondage, and enables them to shake from their emancipated +limbs the fetters of the grimmest of the Pharaohs that have wielded a +tyrannous dominion over them. Pardon and freedom, the creation of a +nation subject only to the law of Jehovah Himself--these were the facts +that the Passover festival and the Passover lamb signified, and these +are the facts which, in nobler fashion, are brought to us by Jesus +Christ. So, I beseech you, let Him teach you what His work in the world +is, as He lays His own hand on that highest of the ancient festivals, +and endorses the Baptist's declaration, 'Behold the Lamb of God, which +taketh away the sin of the world!' + +III. Now, lastly, let me ask you to notice how, in this regal and +authoritative dealing by our Lord with that ancient festival, there +lies a loving provision for our weakness. + +Surely we may venture to say that Jesus Christ desired to be +remembered, even by that handful of poor people, and by us, not only +for our sakes, but because His heart, too, craved that He should not be +forgotten by those whom He was leaving. As you may remember, the dying +king turned to the bishop standing by him, with the enigmatical word +which no one understood but the receiver of it--'Remember!' so did +Jesus Christ. He appeals to our thankfulness, He appeals to our +affections, He lets us see that He wishes to live in our memories, +because He delights in it, as well as because it is for our profit. + +The Passover was purely and simply a rite of remembrance. I venture to +believe that the Lord's Supper is nothing more. I know how people talk +about the bare, bald, Zwinglian ideas of the Communion. They do look +very bald and bare by the side of modern notions and mediaeval notions +resuscitated. Well, I had rather have the bareness than I would have it +overlaid by coverings under which there is room for abundance of vermin +to lurk. Christ puts the Lord's Supper in the place of the Passover. +The Passover was a purely memorial rite. You Christian people will +understand the spirituality of the whole Gospel system, and the nature +of the only bond which unites men to Jesus and brings spiritual +blessings to them--viz. faith--all the better, the more you cling, in +spite of all that is going on round us to-day, to that simple, +intelligible, Scriptural notion that we commemorate the Sacrifice, not +offer the Sacrifice. Jesus Christ said that the Lord's Supper was to be +observed 'in remembrance of Me.' That was His explanation of its +purpose, and I for one am content to take as the expounder of the laws +of the feast, the feast's own Founder. + +Now one more word. In the Passover men fed on the Sacrifice. Jesus +Christ presents Himself to each of us as at once the Sacrifice for our +sins and the Food of our souls. If you will keep your minds in touch +with the truth about Him, and with Him whom the truth about Him reveals +to you, if you will keep your hearts in touch with that great and +unspeakable sign of God's love, if you will keep your wills in +submission to His authority, if you will let His blood, 'which is the +life,' or as you may otherwise word it, His Spirit, come into your +lives, and be your spirit, your motive, then you will go out from the +table, not like the disciples to flee, and deny, and forget, nor like +the Israelites to wander in a wilderness, but strengthened for many a +day of joyous service and true communion, and will come at last to what +He has promised us: 'Ye shall sit with Me at My table in My Kingdom,' +whence we shall go 'no more out.' + + + +JOSEPH AND NICODEMUS + +'And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but +secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away +the body of Jesus; ... And there came also Nicodemus which at the first +came to Jesus by night.'--JOHN xix. 38, 39. + +While Christ lived, these two men had been unfaithful to their +convictions; but His death, which terrified and paralysed and scattered +His avowed disciples, seems to have shamed and stung them into courage. +They came now, when they must have known that it was too late, to +lavish honour and tears on the corpse of the Master whom they had been +too cowardly to acknowledge, whilst acknowledgment might yet have +availed. How keen an arrow of self-condemnation must have pierced their +hearts as they moved in their offices of love, which they thought that +He could never know, round His dead corpse! + +They were both members of the Sanhedrim; the same motives, no doubt, +had withheld each of them from confessing Christ; the same impulses +united them in this too late confession of discipleship. Nicodemus had +had the conviction, at the beginning of Christ's ministry, that He was +at least a miraculously attested and God-sent Teacher. But the fear +which made him steal to Jesus by night--the unenviable distinction +which the Evangelist pitilessly reiterates at each mention of +him--arrested his growth and kept him dumb when silence was treason. +Joseph of Arimathea is described by two of the Evangelists as 'a +disciple'; by the other two as a devout Israelite, like Simeon and +Anna, 'waiting for the Kingdom of God.' Luke informs us that he had not +concurred in the condemnation of Jesus, but leads us to believe that +his dissent had been merely silent. Perhaps he was more fully convinced +than Nicodemus, and at the same time even more timid in avowing his +convictions. + +We may take these two contrite cowards as they try to atone for their +unfaithfulness to their living Master by their ministrations to Him +dead, as examples of secret disciples, and see here the causes, the +misery, and the cure of such. + +I. Let us look at them as illustrations of secret discipleship and its +causes. + +They were restrained from the avowal of the Messiahship of Jesus by +fear. There is nothing in the organisation of society at this day to +make any man afraid of avowing the ordinary kind of Christianity which +satisfies the most of us; rather it is the proper thing with the bulk +of us middle-class people, to say that in some sense or other we are +Christians. But when it comes to a real avowal, a real carrying out of +a true discipleship, there are as many and as formidable, though very +different, impediments in the way to-day, from those which blocked the +path of these two cowards in our text. In all regions of life it is +hard to work out into practice any moral conviction whatever. How many +of us are there who have beliefs about social and moral questions which +we are ashamed to avow in certain companies for fear of the finger of +ridicule being pointed at us? It is not only in the Church, and in +reference to purely religious belief, that we find the curse of secret +discipleship, but it is everywhere. Wherever there are moral questions +which are yet the subject of controversy, and have not been enthroned +with the hallelujahs of all men, you get people that carry their +convictions shut up in their own breasts, and lock their lips in +silence, when there is most need of frank avowal. The political, +social, and moral conflicts of this day have their 'secret disciples,' +who will only come out of their holes when the battle is over, and will +then shout with the loudest. + +But to turn to the more immediate subject before us, how many men and +women, I wonder, are there who ought to be and are not, distinctly and +openly united with the Christian community? + +I do not mean to say--God forbid that I should--that connection with +any existing church is the same as a connection with Jesus Christ, or +that the neglect to be so associated is tantamount to secret +discipleship; I know there are plenty of other ways of acknowledging +Him than that, but I am quite sure that this is one department in which +a large number of men, in all our congregations--and there are not a +few in this congregation--need a very plain word of earnest +remonstrance. It is one way of manifesting whose you are, that you +should unite yourselves openly with those who belong to Him, and who +try to serve Him. I do not dwell upon this matter, because I do not +wish to be misunderstood, as if I supposed that union to a church is +equivalent to union with Him; or that a connection with a church is the +only, or even the principal way of making an open avowal of Christian +principle; but I am certain that amongst us in this day there is a +laxity in this matter which is doing harm both to the Church and to +some of you. Therefore I say to you, dear friends, suffer the word of +exhortation as to the duty of openly uniting yourselves with the +Christian community. + +But far higher and more important than that--do you ever say anyhow +that you belong to Jesus Christ? In a society like ours, in which the +influence of Christian morality affects a great many people who have no +personal connection with Him, it is not always enough that the life +should preach, because over a very large field of ordinary daily life +the underground influence, so to speak, of Christian ethics has +infiltrated and penetrated, so that many a tree bears a greener leaf +because of the water that has found its way to it from the river, +though it be planted far from its banks. Even those who are not +Christians live outward lives largely regulated by Christian principle. +The whole level of morality has been heaved up, as the coastline has +sometimes been by hidden fires slowly working, by the imperceptible, +gradual influence of the gospel. + +So it needs sometimes that you should _say_ 'I am a Christian,' as well +as that you should live like one. Ask yourselves, dear friends! whether +you have buttoned your greatcoat over your uniform that nobody may know +whose soldier you are. Ask yourselves whether you have sometimes held +your tongues because you knew that if you spoke people would find out +where you came from and what country you belonged to. Ask yourselves, +Have you ever accompanied the witness of your lives with the commentary +of your confession? Did you ever, anywhere but in a church, stand up +and say, 'I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, _my_ Lord'? + +And then ask yourselves another question: Have you ever dared to be +singular? We are all of us in this world often thrust into +circumstances in which it is needful that we should say, 'So do not I +because of the fear of the Lord.' Boys go to school; they used always +to kneel down at their bedsides and say their prayers when they were at +home. They do not like to do it with all those critical and cruel +eyes--and there are no eyes more critical and more cruel than young +eyes--fixed upon them, and so they give up prayer. A young man comes to +Manchester, goes into a warehouse, pure of life, and with a tongue that +has not blossomed into rank fruit of obscenity and blasphemy. And he +hears, at the next desk there, words that first of all bring a blush to +his cheek, and he is tempted into conduct that he knows to be a denial +of his Master. And he covers up his principles, and goes with the +tempters into the evil. I might sketch a dozen other cases, but I need +not. In one form or other, we have all to go through the same ordeal. +We have sometimes to dare to be in a minority of one, if we will not be +untrue to our Master and to ourselves. + +Now the reasons for this unfaithfulness to conviction and to Christ, +are put by the Apostle here in a very blunt fashion--'For fear of the +Jews.' That is not what we say to ourselves; some of us say, 'Oh! I +have got beyond outward organisations. I find it enough to be united to +Christ. The Christian communities are very imperfect. There is not any +of them that I quite see eye to eye with. So I stand apart, +contemplating all, and happy in my unsectarianism.' Yes, I quite admit +the faults, and suppose that as long as men think at all they will not +find any Church which is entirely to their mind; and I rejoice to think +that some day we shall all outgrow visible organisations--when we get +there where the seer 'saw no temple therein.' Admitting all that, I +also know that isolation is always weakness, and that if a man stand +apart from the wholesome friction of his brethren, he will get to be a +great diseased mass of oddities, of very little use either to himself, +or to men, or to God. It is not a good thing, on the whole, that people +should fight for their own hands, and the wisest thing any of us can do +is, preserving our freedom of opinion, to link ourselves with some body +of Christian people, and to find in them our shelter and our home. + +But these two in our text were moved by 'fear.' They dreaded ridicule, +the loss of position, the expulsion from Sanhedrim and synagogue, +social ostracism, and all the armoury of offensive weapons which would +have been used against them by their colleagues. So, ignobly they kept +their thumb on their convictions, and the two of them sat dumb in the +council when the scornful question was asked, 'Have any of the rulers +or of the Pharisees believed on Him?' when they ought to have started +to their feet and said 'Yes, we have!' And when Nicodemus ventured a +feeble remonstrance, which he carefully divested of all appearance of +personal sympathy, and put upon the mere abstract ground of fair +play--'Doth our law judge any man before it hear him?'--one +contemptuous question was enough to reduce him to silence. 'Art thou +also of Galilee?' was enough to cow him into dropping his timid plea +for Him whom in his heart he believed to be the Messiah. + +So with us, the fear of loss of position comes into play. I have heard +of people who settled the congregation which they should honour by +their presence from the consideration of the social advantages which it +offered. I have heard of their saying, 'Oh! we cannot attach ourselves +to such and such a community; there is no society for the children.' +Then many of us are very much afraid of being laughed at. Ridicule, I +think, to sensitive people in a generation like ours, is pretty nearly +as bad as the old rack and the physical torments of martyrdom. We have +all got so nervous and high-strung nowadays, and depend so much upon +other people's good opinion, that it is a dreadful thing to be +ridiculed. Timid people do not come to the front and say what they +believe, and take up unpopular causes, because they cannot bear to be +pointed at and pelted with the abundant epithets of disparagement, +which are always flung at earnest people who will not worship at the +appointed shrines, and have sturdy convictions of their own. + +Ridicule breaks no bones. It has no power if you make up your mind that +it shall not have. Face it, and it will only be unpleasant for a moment +at first. When a child goes into the sea to bathe, he is uncomfortable +till his head has been fairly under water, and then after that he is +all right. So it is with the ridicule which out-and-out Christian +faithfulness may bring on us. It only hurts at the beginning, and +people very soon get tired. Face your fears and they will pass away. It +is not perhaps a good advice to give unconditionally, but it is a very +good one in regard of all moral questions--always do what you are +afraid to do. In nine cases out of ten it will be the right thing to +do. If people would only discount 'the fear of men which bringeth a +snare' by making up their minds to neglect it, there would be fewer +'dumb dogs' and 'secret disciples' haunting and weakening the Church of +Christ. + +II. I have spent too much time upon this part of my subject, and I must +deal briefly with the following. Let me say a word about the +illustrations that we have in this text of the miseries of this secret +discipleship. + +How much these two men lost--all those three years of communion with +the Master; all His teaching, all the stimulus of His example, all the +joy of fellowship with Him! They might have had a treasure in their +memories that would have enriched them for all their days, and they had +flung it all away because they were afraid of the curled lip of a +long-bearded Pharisee or two. + +And so it always is; the secret disciple diminishes his communion with +his Master. It is the valleys which lay their bosoms open to the sun +that rejoice in the light and warmth; the narrow clefts in the rocks +that shut themselves grudgingly up against the light, are all dank and +dark and dismal. And it is the men that come and avow their +discipleship that will have the truest communion with their Lord. Any +neglected duty puts a film between a man and his Saviour; any conscious +neglect of duty piles up a wall between you and Christ. Be sure of +this, that if from cowardly or from selfish regard to position and +advantages, or any other motive, we stand apart from Him, and have our +lips locked when we ought to speak, there will steal over our hearts a +coldness, His face will be averted from us, and our eyes will not dare +to seek, with the same confidence and joy, the light of His countenance. + +What you lose by unfaithful wrapping of your convictions in a napkin +and burying them in the ground is the joyful use of the convictions, +the deeper hold of the truth by which you live, and before which you +bow, and the true fellowship with the Master whom you acknowledge and +confess. And when these men came for Christ's corpse and bore it away, +what a sharp pang went through their hearts! They woke at last to know +what cowardly traitors they had been. If you are a disciple at all, and +a secret one, you will awake to know what you have been doing, and the +pang will be a sharp one. If you do not awake in this life, then the +distance between you and your Lord will become greater and greater; if +you do, then it will be a sad reflection that there are years of +treason lying behind you. Nicodemus and Joseph had the veil torn away +by the contemplation of their dead Master. You may have the veil torn +away from your eyes by the sight of the throned Lord; and when you pass +into the heavens may even there have some sharp pang of condemnation +when you reflect how unfaithful you have been. + +Blessed be His name! The assurance is firm that if a man be a disciple +he shall be saved; but the warning is sure that if he be an unfaithful +and a secret disciple there will be a life-long unfaithfulness to a +beloved Master to be purged away 'so as by fire.' + +III. And so, lastly, let me point you to the cure. + +These men learned to be ashamed of their cowardice, and their dumb lips +learned to speak, and their shy, hidden love forced for itself a +channel by which it could flow out into the light; because of Christ's +death. And in another fashion that same death and Cross are for us, +too, the cure of all cowardice and selfish silence. The sight of +Christ's Cross makes the coward brave. It was no small piece of courage +for Joseph to go to Pilate and avow his sympathy with a condemned +criminal. The love must have been very true which was forced to speak +by disaster and death. And to us the strongest motive for stiffening +our vacillating timidity into an iron fortitude, and fortifying us +strongly against the fear of what man can do to us, is to be found in +gazing upon His dying love who met and conquered all evils and terrors +for our sakes. + +That Cross will kindle a love which will not rest concealed, but will +be 'like the ointment of the right hand which bewrayeth itself.' I can +fancy men to whom Christ is only what He was to Nicodemus at first, 'a +Teacher sent from God,' occupying Nicodemus' position of hidden belief +in His teaching without feeling any need to avow themselves His +followers; but if once into our souls there has come the constraining +and the melting influence of that great and wondrous love which died +for us, then, dear brethren, it is unnatural that we should be silent. +If those 'for whom Christ has died' should hold their peace, 'the +stones would immediately cry out.' That death, wondrous, mysterious, +terrible, but radiant, and glorious with hope, with pardon, with +holiness for us and for all the world--that death smites on the chords +of our hearts, if I may so speak, and brings out music from them all. +The love that died for me will force me to express my love, 'Then shall +the tongue of the dumb sing,' and silence will be impossible. + +The sight of the Cross not only leads to courage, and kindles a love +which demands expression, but it impels to joyful surrender. Joseph +gave a place in his own new tomb, where he hoped that one day his bones +should be laid by the side of the Master against whom he had +sinned--for he had no thought of a resurrection. Nicodemus brought a +lavish, almost an extravagant, amount of costly spices, as if by honour +to the dead he could atone for treason to the living. And both the one +and the other teach us that if once we gain the true vision of that +great and wondrous love that died on the Cross for us, then the natural +language of the loving heart is-- + + 'Here, Lord! I give _myself_ away; + 'Tis all that I can do.' + +If following Him openly involves sacrifices, the sacrifices will be +sweet, so long as our hearts look to His dying love. All love delights +in expression, and most of all in expression by surrender of precious +things, which are most precious because they give love materials which +it may lay at the beloved's feet. What are position, possessions, +reputation, capacities, perils, losses, self, but the 'sweet spices' +which we are blessed enough to be able to lay upon the altar which +glorifies the Giver and the gift? The contemplation of Christ's +sacrifice--and that alone--will so overcome our natural selfishness as +to make sacrifice for His dear sake most blessed. + +I beseech you, then, look ever to Him dying on the Cross for each of +us. It will kindle our courage, it will make our hearts glow with love, +it will turn our silence into melody and music of praise; it will lead +us to heights of consecration and joys of confession; and so it will +bring us at last into the possession of that wondrous honour which He +promised when He said, 'He that confesseth Me before men, him will I +also confess; and he that denieth Me before men, him will I also deny.' + + + +THE GRAVE IN A GARDEN + +'In the garden a new tomb.'--JOHN xix. 41 (R.V.). + +This is possibly no more than a topographical note introduced merely +for the sake of accuracy. But it is quite in John's manner to attach +importance to these apparent trifles and to give no express statement +that he is doing so. There are several other instances in the Gospel +where similar details are given which appear to have had in his eyes a +symbolical meaning--e.g. 'And it was night.' There may have been such a +thought in his mind, for all men in high excitement love and seize +symbols, and I can scarcely doubt that the reason which induced Joseph +to make his grave in a garden was the reason which induced John to +mention so particularly its situation, and that they both discerned in +that garden round the sepulchre, the expression of what was to the one +a dim desire, to the other 'a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus +Christ from the dead'--that they who are laid to rest in the grave +shall come forth again in new and fairer life, as 'the garden causeth +the things that are sown in it to bud.' + +To us at all events on Easter morning, with nature rising on every hand +from her winter death, and 'life re-orient out of dust,' that new +sepulchre in the garden may well serve for the starting-point of the +familiar but ever-precious lessons of the day. + +I. A symbol of death and decay as interwoven with all nature and every +joy. + +We think of Eden and the first coming of death. + +The grave was fittingly in the garden, because nature too is subject to +the law of decay and death. The flowers fade and men die. Meditative +souls have ever gathered lessons of mortality there, and invested death +with an alien softness by likening it to falling leaves and withered +blooms. But the contrast is greater than the resemblance, and painless +dropping of petals is not a parallel to the rending of soul and body. + +The garden's careless wealth of beauty and joy continues unconcerned +whatever befalls us. 'One generation cometh and another goeth, but the +earth abideth for ever.' + +The grave is in the garden because all our joys and works have sooner +or later death associated with them. + +Every relationship. + +Every occupation. + +Every joy. + +The grave in the garden bids us bring the wholesome contemplation of +death into all life. + +It may be a harm and weakening to think of it, but should be a strength. + +II. The dim hopes with which men have fought against death. + +To lay the dead amid blooming nature and fair flowers has been and is +natural to men. The symbolism is most natural, deep, and beautiful, +expressing the possibility of life and even of advance in the life +after apparent decay. There is something very pathetic in so eager a +grasping after some stay for hope. + +All these natural symbols are insufficient. They are not proofs, they +are only pretty analogies. But they are all that men have on which to +build their hopes as to a future life apart from Christ. That future +was vague, a region for hopes and wishes or fears, not for certainty, a +region for poetic fancies. The thoughts of it were very faintly +operative. Men asked, Shall we live again? Conscience seemed to answer, +Yes! The instinct of immortality in men's souls grasped at these things +as proofs of what it believed without them, but there was no clear +light. + +III. The clear light of certain hope which Christ's resurrection brings. + +The grave in the garden reversed Adam's bringing of death into Eden. + +Christ's resurrection as a fact bears on the belief in a future state +as nothing else can. + +It changes hope into certainty. It shows by actual example that death +has nothing to do with the soul; that life is independent of the body; +that a man after death is the same as before it. The risen Lord was the +same in His relations to His disciples, the same in His love, in His +memory, and in all else. + +It changes shadowy hopes of continuous life into a solid certainty of +resurrection life. The former is vague and powerless. It is impossible +to conceive of the future with vividness unless as a bodily life. And +this is the strength of the Christian conception of the future life, +that corporeity is the end and goal of the redeemed man. + +It changes terror and awe into joy, and opens up a future in which He +is. + +We shall be with Him. + +We shall be like Him. + +Now we can go back to all these incomplete analogies and use them +confidently. Our faith does not rest upon them but upon what has +actually been done on this earth. + +Christ is 'the First fruits of them that slept.' What will the harvest +be! + +As the single little seed is poor and small by the side of the gorgeous +flower that comes from it; so will be the change. 'God giveth it a body +as it hath pleased Him.' + +How then to think of death for ourselves and for those who are gone? +Thankfully and hopefully. + + + +THE RESURRECTION MORNING + +'The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet +dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the +sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the +other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken +away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have +laid Him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came +to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did +outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, +and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then +cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and +seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about His head, +not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by +itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the +sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the +scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples +went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the +sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into +the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the +head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And +they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, +Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have +laid Him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw +Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, +Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be +the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell +me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus saith unto +her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to +say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch Me not; for I am not yet +ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I +ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God. +Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, +and that He had spoken these things unto her.'--JOHN xx. 1-18. + +John's purpose in his narrative of the resurrection is not only to +establish the fact, but also to depict the gradual growth of faith in +it, among the disciples. The two main incidents in this passage, the +visit of Peter and John to the tomb and the appearance of our Lord to +Mary, give the dawning of faith before sight and the rapturous faith +born of sight. In the remainder of the chapter are two more instances +of faith following vision, and the teaching of the whole is summed up +in Christ's words to the doubter, 'Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast +believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed!' + +I. The open sepulchre and the bewildered alarm it excited. The act of +resurrection took place before sunrise. 'At midnight,' probably, 'the +Bridegroom came.' It was fitting that He who was to scatter the +darkness of the grave should rise while darkness covered the earth, and +that no eye should behold 'how' that dead was 'raised up.' The +earthquake and the descent of angels and the rolling away of the stone +were after the tomb was empty. + +John's note of time seems somewhat earlier than that of the other +Gospels, but is not so much so as to require the supposition that Mary +preceded the other women. She appears alone here, because the reason +for mentioning her at all is to explain how Peter and John knew of the +empty tomb, and she alone had been the informant. In these Eastern +lands, 'as it began to dawn,' 'very early at the rising of the sun,' +and 'while it was yet dark,' are times very near each other, and Mary +may have reached the sepulchre a little before the others. Her own +words, 'We know not,' show that she had spoken with others who had seen +the empty grave. We must therefore suppose that she had with the others +come to it, seen that the sacred corpse was gone and their spices +useless, exchanged hurried words of alarm and bewilderment, and then +had hastened away before the appearance of the angels. + +The impulse to tell the leaders of the forlorn band the news, which she +thinks to be so bad, was womanly and natural. It was not hope, but +wonder and sorrow that quickened her steps as she ran through the still +morning to find them. Whether they were in one house or not is +uncertain; but, at all events, Peter's denial had not cut him off from +his brethren, and the two who were so constantly associated before and +afterwards were not far apart that morning. The disciple who had stood +by the Cross to almost the last had an open heart, and probably an open +house for the denier. 'Restore such an one, ... considering thyself.' + +Mary had seen the tomb empty, and springs to the conclusion that +'they'--some unknown persons--have taken away the dead body, which, +with clinging love that tries to ignore death, she still calls 'the +Lord.' Possibly she may have thought that the resting-place in Joseph's +new sepulchre was only meant for temporary shelter (ver. 15). At all +events the corpse was gone, and the fact suggested no hope to her. How +often do we, in like manner, misinterpret as dark what is really +pregnant with light, and blindly attribute to 'them' what Jesus does! A +tone of mind thus remote from anticipation of the great fact is a +precious proof of the historical truth of the resurrection; for here +was no soil in which hallucinations would spring, and such people would +not have believed Him risen unless they had seen Him living. + +II. Peter and John at the tomb, the dawning of faith, and the +continuance of bewildered wonder. In the account, we may observe, +first, the characteristic conduct of each of the two. Peter is first to +set out, and John follows, both men doing according to their kind. The +younger runs faster than his companion. He looked into the tomb, and +saw the wrappings lying; but the reverent awe which holds back finer +natures kept him from venturing in. Peter is not said to have looked +before entering. He loved with all his heart, but his love was +impetuous and practical, and he went straight in, and felt no reason +why he should pause. His boldness encouraged his friend, as the example +of strong natures does. Some of my readers will recall Bushnell's noble +sermon on 'Unconscious Influence' from this incident, and I need say no +more about it. + +Observe, too, the further witness of the folded grave-clothes. John +from outside had not seen the napkin, lying carefully rolled up apart +from the other cloths. It was probably laid in a part of the tomb +invisible from without. But the careful disposal of these came to him, +when he saw them, with a great flash of illumination. There had been no +hurried removal. + +Here had been no hostile hands, or there would not have been this +deliberation; nor friendly hands, or there would not have been such +dishonour to the sacred dead as to carry away the body nude. What did +it mean? Could He Himself have done for Himself what He had bade them +do for Lazarus? Could He have laid aside the garments of the grave as +needing them no more? 'They have taken away'--what if it were not +'they' but He? No trace of hurry or struggle was there. He did 'not go +out with haste, nor go by flight,' but calmly, deliberately, in the +majesty of His lordship over death, He rose from His slumber and left +order in the land of confusion. + +Observe, too, the birth of the Apostle's faith. John connects it with +the sight of the folded garments. 'Believed' here must mean more than +recognition of the fact that the grave was empty. The next clause seems +to imply that it means belief in the resurrection. The scripture, which +they 'knew' as scripture, was for John suddenly interpreted, and he was +lifted out of the ignorance of its meaning, which till that moment he +had shared with his fellow-disciples. Their failure to understand +Christ's frequent distinct prophecies that He would rise again the +third day has been thought incredible, but is surely intelligible +enough if we remember how unexampled such a thing was, and how +marvellous is our power of hearing and yet not hearing the plainest +truth. We all in the course of our lives are lost in astonishment when +things befall us which we have been plainly told will befall. The +fulfilment of all divine promises (and threatenings) is a surprise, and +no warnings beforehand teach one tithe so clearly as experience. + +John believed, but Peter still was in the dark. Again the former had +outrun his friend. His more sensitive nature, not to say his deeper +love--for that would be unjust, since their love differed in quality +more than in degree--had gifted him with a more subtle and +swifter-working perception. Perhaps if Peter's heart had not been +oppressed by his sin, he would have been readier to feel the sunshine +of the wonderful hope. We condemn ourselves to the shade when we deny +our Lord by deed or word. + +III. The first appearance of the Lord, and revelation of the new form +of intercourse. Nothing had been said of Mary's return to the tomb; but +how could she stay away? The disciples might go, but she lingered, +woman-like, to indulge in the bitter-sweet of tears. Eyes so filled are +more apt to see angels. No wonder that these calm watchers, in their +garb of purity and joy, had not been seen by the two men. The laws of +such appearance are not those of ordinary optics. Spiritual +susceptibility and need determine who shall see angels, and who shall +see but the empty place. Wonder and adoration held these bright forms +there. They had hovered over the cradle and stood by the shepherds at +Bethlehem, but they bowed in yet more awestruck reverence at the grave, +and death revealed to them a deeper depth of divine love. + +The presence of angels was a trifle to Mary, who had only one +thought--the absence of her Lord. Surely that touch in her unmoved +answer, as if speaking to men, is beyond the reach of art. She says 'My +Lord' now, and 'I know not,' but otherwise repeats her former words, +unmoved by any hope caught from John. Her clinging love needed more +than an empty grave and folded clothes arid waiting angels to stay its +tears, and she turned indifferently and wearily away from the +interruption of the question to plunge again into her sorrow. +Chrysostom suggests that she 'turned herself' because she saw in the +angels' looks that they saw Christ suddenly appearing behind her; but +the preceding explanation seems better. Her not knowing Jesus might be +accounted for by her absorbing grief. One who looked at white-robed +angels, and saw nothing extraordinary, would give but a careless glance +at the approaching figure, and might well fail to recognise Him. But +probably, as in the case of the two travellers to Emmaus, her 'eyes +were holden,' and the cause of non-recognition was not so much a change +in Jesus as an operation on her. + +Be that as it may, it is noteworthy that His voice, which was +immediately to reveal Him, at first suggested nothing to her; and even +His gentle question, with the significant addition to the angels' +words, in 'Whom seekest thou?' which indicated His knowledge that her +tears fell for some person dear and lost, only made her think of Him as +being 'the gardener,' and therefore probably concerned in the removal +of the body. If He were so, He would be friendly; and so she ventured +her pathetic petition, which does not name Jesus (so full is her mind +of the One, that she thinks everybody must know whom she means), and +which so overrated her own strength in saying, 'I will take Him away,' +The first words of the risen Christ are on His lips yet to all sad +hearts. He seeks our confidences, and would have us tell Him the +occasions of our tears. He would have us recognise that all our griefs +and all our desires point to one Person--Himself--as the one real +Object of our 'seeking,' whom finding, we need weep no more. + +Verse 16 tells us that Mary turned herself to see Him when He next +spoke, so that, at the close of her first answer to Him, she must have +once more resumed her gaze into the tomb, as if she despaired of the +newcomer giving the help she had asked. + +Who can say anything about that transcendent recognition, in which all +the stooping love of the risen Lord is smelted into one word, and the +burst of rapture, awe, astonishment, and devotion pours itself through +the narrow channel of one other? If this narrative is the work of some +anonymous author late in the second century, he is indeed a 'Great +Unknown,' and has managed to imagine one of the two or three most +pathetic 'situations' in literature. Surely it is more reasonable to +suppose him no obscure genius, but a well-known recorder of what he had +seen, and knew for fact. Christ's calling by name ever reveals His +loving presence. We may be sure that He knows us by name, and we should +reply by the same swift cry of absolute submission as sprung to Mary's +lips. 'Rabboni! Master!' is the fit answer to His call. + +But Mary's exclamation was imperfect in that it expressed the +resumption of no more than the old bond, and her gladness needed +enlightenment. Things were not to be as they had been. Christ's 'Mary!' +had indeed assured her of His faithful remembrance and of her present +place in His love; but when she clung to His feet she was seeking to +keep what she had to learn to give up. Therefore Jesus, who invited the +touch which was to establish faith and banish doubt (Luke xxiv. 39; +John xx. 27), bids her unclasp her hands, and gently instils the ending +of the blessed past by opening to her the superior joys of the begun +future. His words contain for us all the very heart of our possible +relation to Him, and teach us that we need envy none who companied with +Him here. His ascension to the Father is the condition of our truest +approach to Him. His prohibition encloses a permission. 'Touch Me not! +for I am not yet ascended,' implies 'When I am, you may.' + +Further, the ascended Christ is still our Brother. Neither the mystery +of death nor the impending mystery of dominion broke the tie. Again, +the Resurrection is the beginning of Ascension, and is only then +rightly understood when it is considered as the first upward step to +the throne. 'I ascend,' not 'I have risen, and will soon leave you,' as +if the Ascension only began forty days after on Olivet. It is already +in process. Once more the ascended Christ, our Brother still, and +capable of the touch of reverent love, is yet separated from us by the +character, even while united to us by the fact, of His filial and +dependent relation to God. He cannot say 'Our Father' as if standing on +the common human ground. He is 'Son' as we are not, and we are 'sons' +through Him, and can only call God our Father because He is Christ's. + +Such were the immortal hopes and new thoughts which Mary hastened from +the presence of her recovered Lord to bring to the disciples. Fragrant +though but partially understood, they were like half-opened blossoms +from the tree of life planted in the midst of that garden, to bloom +unfading, and ever disclosing new beauty in believing hearts till the +end of time. + + + +THE RISEN LORD'S CHARGE AND GIFT + +'Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto yon: as My Father hath +sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on +them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins +ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, +they are retained.'--JOHN xx. 21-23. + +The day of the Resurrection had been full of strange rumours, and of +growing excitement. As evening fell, some of the disciples, at any +rate, gathered together, probably in the upper room. They were brave, +for in spite of the Jews they dared to assemble; they were timid, for +they barred themselves in 'for fear of the Jews.' No doubt in little +groups they were eagerly discussing what had happened that day. Fuel +was added to the fire by the return of the two from Emmaus. And then, +at once, the buzz of conversation ceased, for 'He Himself, with His +human air,' stood there in the midst, with the quiet greeting on His +lips, which might have come from any casual stranger, and minimised the +separation that was now ending: 'Peace be unto you!' + +We have two accounts of that evening's interview which remarkably +supplement each other. They deal with two different parts of it. John +begins where Luke ends. The latter Evangelist dwells mainly on the +disciples' fears that it was some ghostly appearance that they saw, and +on the removal of these by the sight, and perhaps the touch, of the +hands and the feet. John says nothing of the terror, but Luke's account +explains John's statement that 'He showed them His hands and His side,' +and that, 'Then were the disciples glad,' the joy expelling the fear. +Luke's account also, by dwelling on the first part of the interview, +explains what else is unexplained in John's narrative, viz. the +repetition of the salutation, 'Peace be unto you!' Our Lord thereby +marked off the previous portion of the conversation as being separate, +and a whole in itself. Their doubts were dissipated, and now something +else was to begin. They who were sure of the risen Lord, and had had +communion with Him, were capable of receiving a deeper peace, and so +'Jesus said to them again, Peace be unto you!' and thereby inaugurated +the second part of the interview. + +Luke's account also helps us in another and very important way. John +simply says that 'the disciples were gathered together,' and that might +mean the Eleven only. Luke is more specific, and tells us what is of +prime importance for understanding the whole incident, that 'the +Eleven... and they that were with them' were assembled. This interview, +the crown of the appearances on Easter Day, is marked as being an +interview with the assembled body of disciples, whom the Lord, having +scattered their doubts, and laid the deep benediction of His peace upon +their hearts, then goes on to invest with a sacred mission, 'As My +Father hath sent Me, even so send I you'; to equip them with the needed +power, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost'; and to unfold to them the solemn +issues of their work, 'Whose sins ye remit they are remitted; and whose +sins ye retain they are retained.' The message of that Easter evening +is for us all; and so I ask you to look at these three points. + +I. The Christian Mission. + +I have already said that the clear understanding of the persons to whom +the words were spoken, goes far to interpret the significance of the +words. Here we have at the very beginning, the great thought that every +Christian man and woman is sent by Jesus. The possession of what +preceded this charge is the thing, and the only thing, that fits a man +to receive it, and whoever possesses these is thereby despatched into +the world as being Christ's envoy and representative. And what are +these preceding experiences? The vision of the risen Christ, the touch +of His hands, the peace that He breathed over believing souls, the +gladness that sprang like a sunny fountain in the hearts that had been +so dry and dark. Those things constituted the disciples' qualification +for being sent, and these things were themselves--even apart from the +Master's words--their sending out on their future life's-work. Thus, +whoever--and thank God I am addressing many who come under the +category!--whoever has seen the Lord, has been in touch with Him, and +has felt his heart filled with gladness, is the recipient of this great +commission. There is no question here of the prerogative of a class, +nor of the functions of an order; it is a question of the universal +aspect of the Christian life in its relation to the Master who sends, +and the world into which it is sent. + +We Nonconformists pride ourselves upon our freedom from what we call +'sacerdotalism.' Ay! and we Nonconformists are quite willing to assert +our priesthood in opposition to the claims of a class, and are as +willing to forget it, should the question of the duties of the priest +come into view. You do not believe in priests, but a great many of you +believe that it is ministers that are 'sent,' and that you have no +charge. Officialism is the dry-rot of all the Churches, and is found as +rampant amongst democratic Nonconformists as amongst the more +hierarchical communities. Brethren! you are included in Christ's words +of sending on this errand, if you are included in this greeting of +'Peace be unto you!' 'I send,' not the clerical order, not the priest, +but 'you,' because you have seen the Lord, and been glad, and heard the +low whisper of His benediction creeping into your hearts. + +Mark, too, how our Lord reveals much of Himself, as well as of our +position, when He thus speaks. For He assumes here the royal tone, and +claims to possess as absolute authority over the lives and work of all +Christian people as the Father exercised when He sent the Son. But we +must further ask ourselves the question, what is the parallel that our +Lord here draws, not only between His action in sending us, and the +Father's action in sending Him, but also between the attitude of the +Son who was sent, and of the disciples whom He sends? And the answer is +this--the work of Jesus Christ is continued by, prolonged in, and +carried on henceforward through, the work that He lays upon His +servants. Mark the exact expression that our Lord here uses. 'As My +Father _hath_ sent,' that is a past action, continuing its consequences +in the present. It is not 'as My Father _did_ send once,' but as 'My +Father _hath_ sent,' which means 'is also at present sending,' and +continues to send. Which being translated into less technical +phraseology is just this, that we here have our Lord presenting to us +the thought that, though in a new form, His work continues during the +ages, and is now being wrought through His servants. What He does by +another, He does by Himself. We Christian men and women do not +understand our function in the world, unless we have realised this: +'Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ' and His interests and His +work are entrusted to our hands. + +How shall the servants continue and carry on the work of the Master? +The chief way to do it is by proclaiming everywhere that finished work +on which the world's hopes depend. But note,--'_as_ My Father hath sent +Me, so send I you,'--then we are not only to carry on His work in the +world, but if one might venture to say so, we are to reproduce His +attitude towards God and the world. He was sent to be 'the Light of the +world'; and so are we. He was sent to 'seek and to save that which was +lost'; so are we. He was sent not to do His own will, but the will of +the Father that sent Him; so are we. He took upon Himself with all +cheerfulness the office to which He was appointed, and said, 'My meat +is to do the will of Him that sent Me,--and to finish His work'; and +that must be our voice too. He was sent to pity, to look upon the +multitudes with compassion, to carry to them the healing of His touch, +and the sympathy of His heart; so must we. We are the representatives +of Jesus Christ, and if I might dare to use such a phrase, He is to be +incarnated again in the hearts, and manifested again in the lives, of +His servants. Many weak eyes, that would be dazzled and hurt if they +were to gaze on the sun, may look at the clouds cradled by its side, +and dyed with its lustre, and learn something of the radiance and the +glory of the illuminating light from the illuminated vapour. And thus, +'as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.' + +Now let us turn to + +II. The Christian Equipment. + +'He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost!' The +symbolical action reminds us of the Creation story, when into the +nostrils was breathed 'the breath of life, and man became a living +soul.' The symbol is but a symbol, but what it teaches us is that every +Christian man who has passed through the experiences which make him +Christ's envoy, receives the equipment of a new life, and that that +life is the gift of the risen Lord. This Prometheus came from the dead +with the spark of life guarded in His pierced hands, and He bestowed it +upon us; for the Spirit of life, which is the Spirit of Christ, is +granted to all Christian men. Dear brethren! we have not lived up to +the realities of our Christian confession, unless into our death has +come, and there abides, this life derived from Jesus Himself, the +communication of which goes along with all faith in Him. + +But the gift which Jesus brought to that group of timid disciples in +the upper room did not make superfluous the further gift on the day of +Pentecost. The communication of the divine Spirit to men runs parallel +with, depends on, and follows, the revelation of divine truth, so the +ascended Lord gave more of that life to the disciples, who had been +made capable of more of it by the fact of beholding His ascension, than +the risen Lord could give on that Easter Day. But whilst thus there are +measures and degrees, the life is given to every believer in +correspondence with the clearness and the contents of his faith. + +It is the power that will fit any of us for the work for which we are +sent into the world. If we are here to represent Jesus Christ, and if +it is true of us that 'as He is, so are we, in this world,' that +likeness can only come about by our receiving into our spirits a +kindred life which will effloresce and manifest itself to men in +kindred beauty of foliage and of fruit. If we are to be 'the lights of +the world,' our lamps must be fed with oil. If we are to be Christ's +representatives, we must have Christ's life in us. Here, too, is the +only source of strength and life to us Christian people, when we look +at the difficulties of our task and measure our own feebleness against +the work that lies before us. I suppose no man has ever tried honestly +to be what Christ wished him to be amidst his fellows, whether as +preacher or teacher or guide in any fashion, who has not hundreds of +times clasped his hands in all but despair, and said, 'Who is +sufficient for these things?' That is the temper into which the power +will come. The rivers run in the valleys, and it is the lowly sense of +our own unfitness for the task which yet presses upon us, and +imperatively demands to be done, that makes us capable of receiving +that divine gift. + +It is for lack of it that so much of so-called 'Christian effort' comes +to nothing. The priests may pile the wood upon the altar, and compass +it all day long with vain cries, and nothing happens. It is not till +the fire comes down from heaven that sacrifice and altar and wood and +water in the trench, are licked up and converted into fiery light. So, +dear brethren! it is because the Christian Church as a whole, and we as +individual members of it, so imperfectly realise the A B C of our +faith, our absolute dependence on the inbreathed life of Jesus Christ, +to fit us for any of our work, that so much of our work is ploughing +the sands, and so often we labour for vanity and spend our strength for +nought. What is the use of a mill full of spindles and looms until the +fire-born impulse comes rushing through the pipes? Then they begin to +move. + +Let me remind you, too, that the words which our Lord here employs +about these great gifts, when accurately examined, do lead us to the +thought that we, even we, are not altogether passive in the reception +of that gift. For the expression, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost' might, +with more completeness of signification, be rendered, 'take ye the Holy +Ghost.' True, the outstretched hand is nothing, unless the giving hand +is stretched out too. True, the open palm and the clutching fingers +remain empty, unless the open palm above drops the gift. But also true, +things in the spiritual realm that are given have to be asked for, +because asking opens the heart for their entrance. True, that gift was +given once for all, and continuously, but the appropriation and the +continual possession of it largely depend upon ourselves. There must be +desire before there can be possession. If a man does not take his +pitcher to the fountain the pitcher remains empty, though the fountain +never ceases to spring. There must be taking by patient waiting. The +old Friends had a lovely phrase when they spoke about 'waiting for the +springing of the life.' If we hold out a tremulous hand, and our cup is +not kept steady, the falling water will not enter it, and much will be +spilt upon the ground. Wait on the Lord, and the life will rise like a +tide in the heart. There must be a taking by the faithful use of what +we possess. 'To him that hath shall be given.' There must be a taking +by careful avoidance of what would hinder. In the winter weather the +water supply sometimes fails in a house. Why? Because there is a plug +of ice in the service-pipe. Some of us have a plug of ice, and so the +water has not come, + +'_Take_ the Holy Spirit!' + +Now, lastly, we have here + +III. The Christian power over sin. + +I am not going to enter upon controversy. The words which close our +Lord's great charge here have been much misunderstood by being +restricted. It is eminently necessary to remember here that they were +spoken to the whole community of Christian souls. The harm that has +been done by their restriction to the so-called priestly function of +absolution has been, not only the monstrous claims which have been +thereon founded, but quite as much the obscuration of the large effects +that follow from the Christian discharge by all believers of the office +of representing Jesus Christ. + +We must interpret these words in harmony with the two preceding points, +the Christian mission and the Christian equipment. So interpreted, they +lead us to a very plain thought which I may put thus. This same Apostle +tells us in his letter that 'Jesus Christ was manifested to take away +sin.' His work in this world, which we are to continue, was 'to put +away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.' We continue that work when,--as +we have all, if Christians, the right to do--we lift up our voices with +triumphant confidence, and call upon our brethren to 'behold the Lamb +of God which taketh away the sin of the world!' The proclamation has a +twofold effect, according as it is received or rejected; to him who +receives it his sins melt away, and the preacher of forgiveness through +Christ has the right to say to his brother, 'Thy sins are forgiven +because thou believest on Him.' The rejecter or the neglecter binds his +sin upon himself by his rejection or neglect. The same message is, as +the Apostle puts it, 'a savour of life unto life, or of death unto +death.' These words are the best commentary on this part of my text. +The same heat, as the old Fathers used to say, 'softens wax and hardens +clay.' The message of the word will either couch a blind eye, and let +in the light, or draw another film of obscuration over the visual orb. + +And so, Christian men and women have to feel that to them is entrusted +a solemn message, that they walk in the world charged with a mighty +power, that by the preaching of the Word, and by their own utterance of +the forgiving mercy of the Lord Jesus, they may 'remit' or 'retain' not +only the punishment of sin, but sin itself. How tender, how diligent, +how reverent, how--not bowed down, but--erect under the weight of our +obligations, we should be, if we realised that solemn thought! + + + + THOMAS AND JESUS + +'And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with +them. Then came Jesus.'--JOHN xx. 26. + +There is nothing more remarkable about the narrative of the +resurrection, taken as a whole, than the completeness with which our +Lord's appearances met all varieties of temperament, condition, and +spiritual standing. Mary, the lover; Peter, the penitent; the two +disciples on the way to Emmaus, the thinkers; Thomas, the stiff +unbeliever--the presence of the Christ is enough for them all; it cures +those that need cure, and gladdens those that need gladdening. I am not +going to do anything so foolish as to try to tell over again, less +vividly, this well-known story. We all remember its outlines, I +suppose: the absence of Thomas from Christ's first meeting with the +assembled disciples on Easter evening; the dogged disbelief with which +he met their testimony; his arrogant assumption of the right to lay +down the conditions on which he should believe, and Christ's gracious +acceptance of the conditions; the discovery when they were offered that +they were not needful; the burst of glad conviction which lifted him to +the loftiest height reached while Christ was on earth, and then the +summing up of all in our Lord's words--'Blessed are they that have not +seen and yet have believed!'--the last Beatitude, that links us and all +the generations yet to come with the story, and is like a finger +pointing to it, as containing very special lessons for them all. + +I simply seek to try to bring out the force and instructiveness of the +story. The first point is-- + +I. The isolation that misses the sight of the Christ. + +'Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.' No +reason is assigned. The absence may have been purely accidental, but +the specification of Thomas as 'one of the Twelve,' seems to suggest +that his absence was regarded by the Evangelist as a dereliction of +apostolic duty; and the cause of it may be found, I think, with +reasonable probability, if we take into account the two other facts +that the same Evangelist records concerning this Apostle. One is his +exclamation, in which a constitutional tendency to accept the blackest +possibilities as certainties, blends very strangely and beautifully +with an intense and brave devotion to his Master. 'Let us also go,' +said Thomas, when Christ announced His intention, but a few days before +the Passion, of returning to the grave of Lazarus, 'that we may die +with Him.' 'He is going to His death, that I am sure of, and I am going +to be beside Him even in His death.' A constitutional pessimist! The +only other notice that we have of him is that he broke in--with +apparent irreverence which was not real,--with a brusque contradiction +of Christ's saying that they knew the way, and they knew His goal. +'Lord! we know not whither Thou goest'--there spoke pained love +fronting the black prospect of eternal separation,--'and how can we +know the way?'--there spoke almost impatient despair. + +So is not that the kind of man who on the Resurrection day would have +been saying to himself, even more decidedly and more bitterly than the +two questioning thinkers on the road to Emmaus had said it, 'We trusted +that this had been He, but it is all over now'? The keystone was struck +out of the arch, and this brick tumbled away of itself. The hub was +taken out of the wheel, and the spokes fell apart. The divisive +tendency was begun, as I have had occasion to remark in other sermons. +Thomas did the very worst thing that a melancholy man can do, went away +to brood in a corner by himself, and so to exaggerate all his +idiosyncrasies, to distort the proportion of truth, to hug his despair, +by separating himself from his fellows. Therefore he lost what they +got, the sight of the Lord. He 'was not with them when Jesus came.' +Would he not have been better in the upper room than gloomily turning +over in his mind the dissolution of the fair company and the shipwreck +of all his hopes? + +May we not learn a lesson? I venture to apply these words, dear +friends, to our gatherings for worship. The worst thing that a man can +do when disbelief, or doubt, or coldness shrouds his sky, and blots out +the stars, is to go away alone and shut himself up with his own, +perhaps morbid, or, at all events, disturbing thoughts. The best thing +that he can do is to go amongst his fellows. If the sermon does not do +him any good, the prayers and the praises and the sense of brotherhood +will help him. If a fire is going out, draw the dying coals close +together, and they will make each other break into a flame. One great +reason for some of the less favourable features that modern +Christianity presents, is that men are beginning to think less than +they ought to do, and less than they used to do, of the obligation and +the blessing, whatever their spiritual condition, of gathering together +for the worship of God. But, further, there is a far wider thought than +that here, which I have already referred to, and which I do not need to +dwell upon, namely, that, although, of course, there are very plain +limits to be put to the principle, yet it is a principle, that solitude +is not the best medicine for any disturbed or saddened soul. It is true +that 'solitude is the mother-country of the strong,' and that unless we +are accustomed to live very much alone, we shall not live very much +with God. But on the other hand, if you cut yourself off from the +limiting, and therefore developing, society of your fellows, you will +rust, you will become what they call eccentric. Your idiosyncrasies +will swell into monstrosities, your peculiarities will not be subjected +to the gracious process of pruning which society with your fellows, and +especially with Christian hearts, will bring to them. And in every way +you will be more likely to miss the Christ than if you were kindly with +your kind, and went up to the house of God in company. + +Take the next point that is here: + +II. The stiff incredulity that prescribed terms. + +When Thomas came back to his brethren, they met him with the witness +that they had seen the Lord, and he met them as they had met the +witnesses that brought the same message to them. They had thought the +women's words 'idle tales.' Thomas gives them back their own +incredulity. I need not remind you of what I have already had occasion +to say, how much this frank acknowledgment that none of these, who were +afterwards to be witnesses of the Resurrection to the world, accepted +testimony to the Resurrection as enough to convince them, enhances the +worth of their testimony, and how entirely it shatters the conception +that the belief in the Resurrection was a mist that rose from the +undrained swamps of their own heated imaginations. + +But notice how Thomas exaggerated their position, and took up a far +more defiant tone than any of them had done. He is called 'doubting +Thomas.' He was no doubter. Flat, frank, dogged disbelief, and not +hesitation or doubt, was his attitude. The very form in which he puts +his requirement shows how he was hugging his unbelief, and how he had +no idea that what he asked would ever be granted. 'Unless I have +so-and-so I will not,' indicates an altogether spiritual attitude from +what 'If I have so-and-so, I will,' would have indicated. The one is +the language of willingness to be persuaded, the other is a token of a +determination to be obstinate. What right had he--what right has any +man--to say, 'So-and-so must be made plain to me, or I will not accept +a certain truth'? You have a right to ask for satisfactory evidence; +you have no right to make up your minds beforehand what that must +necessarily be. Thomas showed his hand not only in the form of his +expression, not only in his going beyond his province and prescribing +the terms of surrender, but also in the terms which he prescribed. +True, he is only saying to the other Apostles, 'I will give in if I +have what you had,' for Jesus Christ had said to them, 'Handle Me and +see!' But although thus they could say nothing in opposition, it is +clear that he was asking more than was needful, and more than he had +any right to ask. And he shows his hand, too, in another way. 'I will +not believe!'--what business had he, what business have you, to bring +any question of will into the act of belief or credence? Thus, in all +these four points, the form of the demand, the fact of the demand, the +substance of the demand, and the implication in it that to give or +withhold assent was a matter to be determined by inclination, this man +stands not as an example of a doubter, but as an example, of which +there are too many copies amongst us always, of a determined +disbeliever and rejecter. + +So I come to the third point, and that is: + +III. The revelation that turned the denier into a rapturous confessor. + +What a strange week that must have been between the two Sundays--that +of the Resurrection and the next! Surely it would have been kinder if +the Christ had not left the disciples, with their new-found, tremulous, +raw conviction. It would have been less kind if He had been with them, +for there is nothing that is worse for the solidity of a man's +spiritual development than that it should be precipitated, and new +thoughts must have time to take the shape of the mind into which they +come, and to mould the shape of the mind into which they come. So they +were left to quiet reflection, to meditation, to adjust their thoughts, +to get to understand the bearings of the transcendent fact. And as a +mother will go a little way off from her little child, in order to +encourage it to try to walk, they were left alone to make experiments +of that self-reliance which was also reliance on Him, and which was to +be their future and their permanent condition. So the week passed, and +they became steadier and quieter, and began to be familiar with the +thought, and to see some glimpses of what was involved in the mighty +fact, of a risen Saviour. Then He comes back again, and when He comes +He singles out the unbeliever, leaving the others alone for the moment, +and He gives him back, granted, his arrogant conditions. How much +ashamed of them Thomas must have been when he heard them quoted by the +Lord's own lips! How different they would sound from what they had +sounded when, in the self-sufficiency of his obstinate determination, +he had blurted them out in answer to his brethren's testimony! There is +no surer way of making a good man ashamed of his wild words than just +to say them over again to him when he is calm and cool. Christ's +granting the request was Christ's sharpest rebuke of the request. But +there was not only the gracious and yet chastising granting of the +foolish desire, but there was a penetrating warning: 'Be not faithless, +but believing.' What did that mean? Well, it meant this: 'It is not a +question of evidence, Thomas; it is a question of disposition. Your +incredulity is not due to your not having enough to warrant your +belief, but to your tendency and attitude of mind and heart.' There is +light enough in the sun; it is our eyes that are wrong, and deep below +most questions, even of intellectual credence, lies the disposition of +the man. The ultimate truths of religion cannot be matters of +demonstration any more than the fundamental truths of any science can +be proved; any more than Euclid's axioms can be demonstrated; any more +than the sense of beauty or the ear for music depend on the +understanding. 'Be not faithless, but believing.' The eye that is sound +will see the light. + +And there is another lesson here. The words of our Lord, literally +rendered, are, 'become not faithless, but believing.' There are two +tendencies at work with us, and the one or the other will progressively +lay hold upon us, and we shall increasingly yield to it. You can +cultivate the habit of incredulity until you descend into the class of +the faithless; or you can cultivate the opposite habit and disposition +until you rise to the high level of a settled and sovereign belief. + +It is clear that Thomas did not reach forth his hand and touch. The +rush of instantaneous conviction swept him along and bore him far away +from the state of mind which had asked for such evidence. Our Lord's +words must have pierced his heart, as he thought: 'Then He was here all +the while; He heard my wild words; He loves me still.' As Nathanael, +when he knew that Jesus had seen him under the fig-tree, broke out with +the exclamation, 'Rabbi! Thou art the Son of God,' so Thomas, smitten +as by a lightning flash with the sense of Jesus' all-embracing +knowledge and all-forgiving love, forgets his incredulity and breaks +into the rapturous confession, the highest ever spoken while He was on +earth: 'My Lord and my God!' So swiftly did his whole attitude change. +It was as when the eddying volumes of smoke in some great conflagration +break into sudden flame, the ruddier and hotter, the blacker they were. +Sight may have made Thomas believe that Jesus was risen, but it was +something other and more inward than sight that opened his lips to cry, +'My Lord and my God!' Finally, we note-- + +IV. A last Beatitude that extends to all generations. + +'Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.' I need not +do more than just in a sentence remind you that we shall very poorly +understand either this saying or this Gospel or the greater part of the +New Testament, if we do not make it very clear to our minds that +'believing' is not credence only but trust. The object of the +Christian's faith is not a proposition; it is not a dogma nor a truth, +but a Person. And the act of faith is not an acceptance of a given +fact, a Resurrection or any other, as true, but it is a reaching out of +the whole nature to Him and a resting upon Him. I have said that Thomas +had no right to bring his will to bear on the act of belief, considered +as the intellectual act of accepting a thing as true. But Christian +faith, being more than intellectual belief, does involve the activity +of the will. Credence is the starting-point, but it is no more. There +may be belief in the truth of the gospel and not a spark of faith in +the Christ revealed by the gospel. + +Even in regard to that lower kind of belief, the assent which does not +rest on sense has its own blessing. We sometimes are ready to think +that it would have been easier to believe if 'we had seen with our +eyes, and our hands had handled the (incarnate) Word of Life' but that +is a mistake. + +This generation, and all generations that have not seen Him, are not in +a less advantageous position in regard either to credence or to trust, +than were those that companied with Him on earth, and the blessing +Which He breathed out in that upper room comes floating down the ages +like a perfume diffused through the atmosphere, and is with us fragrant +as it was in the 'days of His flesh.' There is nothing in the world's +history comparable to the warmth and closeness of conscious contact +with that Christ, dead for nearly nineteen centuries now, which is the +experience today of thousands of Christian men and women. All other +names pass, and as they recede through the ages, thickening veils of +oblivion, mists of forgetfulness, gather round them. They melt away +into the fog and are forgotten. Why is it that one Person, and one +Person only, triumphs even in this respect over space and time, and is +the same close Friend with whom millions of hearts are in loving touch, +as He was to those that gathered around Him upon earth? + +What is the blessing of this faith that does not rest on sense, and +only in a small measure on testimony or credence? Part of its blessing +is that it delivers us from the tyranny of sense, sets us free from the +crowding oppression of 'things seen and temporal'; draws back the veil +and lets us behold 'the things that are unseen and eternal.' Faith is +sight, the sight of the inward eye. It is the direct perception of the +unseen. It sees Him who is invisible. The vision which is given to the +eye of faith is more real in the true sense of that word, more +substantial in the true sense of that word, more reliable and more near +than that sight by which the bodily eye beholds external things. We +see, when we trust, greater things than when we look. The blessing of +blessings is that the faith which triumphs over the things seen and +temporal, brings into every life the presence of the unseen Lord. + +Brethren! do not confound credence with trust. Remember that trust does +involve an element of will. Ask yourselves if the things seen and +temporal are great enough, lasting enough, real enough to satisfy you, +and then remember whose lips said, 'Become not faithless but +believing,' and breathed His last Beatitude upon those 'who have not +seen and yet have believed.' We may all have that blessing lying like +dew upon us, amidst the dust and scorching heat of the things seen and +temporal. We shall have it, if our heart's trust is set on Him, whom +one of the listeners on that Sunday spoke of long after, in words which +seem to echo that promise, as 'Jesus in whom though now ye see Him not, +yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, +receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.' + + + +THE SILENCE OF SCRIPTURE + +'And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, +which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye +might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that +believing ye might have life through His name.'--JOHN XX. 30, 31. + +It is evident that these words were originally the close of this +Gospel, the following chapter being an appendix, subsequently added by +the writer himself. In them we have the Evangelist's own acknowledgment +of the incompleteness of his Gospel, and his own statement of the +purpose which he had in view in composing it. That purpose was first of +all a doctrinal one, and he tells us that in carrying it out he omitted +many things that he could have put in if he had chosen. But that +doctrinal purpose was subordinate to a still further aim. His object +was not only to present the truth that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of +God, but to present it in such a way as to induce his readers to +believe in that Christ. And he desired that they might have faith in +order that they might have life. + +Now, it is a very good old canon in judging of a book that 'in every +work' we are to 'regard the writer's end,' and if that simple principle +had been applied to this Gospel, a great many of the features in it +which have led to some difficulty would have been seen to be naturally +explained by the purpose which the Evangelist had in view. + +But this text may be applied very much more widely than to John's +Gospel. We may use it to point our thoughts to the strange silences and +incompletenesses of the whole of Revelation, and to the explanation of +these incompletenesses by the consideration of the purpose which it all +had in view. In that sense I desire to look at these words before us. + +I. First, then, we have here set forth the incompleteness of Scripture. + +Take this Gospel first. Anybody who looks at it can see that it is a +fragment. It is not meant to be a biography; it is avowedly a +selection, and a selection under the influence, as I shall have to show +you presently, of a distinct dogmatic purpose. There is nothing in it +about Christ's birth, nothing in it about His baptism, nor about His +selection of His Apostles. There is scarcely anything about the facts +of His outward life at all. There is scarcely a word about the whole of +His ministry in Galilee. There is not one of His parables, there are +only seven of His miracles before the Resurrection, and two of these +occur also in the other Evangelists. There is scarcely any of His +ethical teaching; there is not a word about the Lord's Supper. + +And so I might go on enumerating many remarkable gaps in this Gospel. +Nearly half of it is taken up with the incidents of one week at the end +of His life, and the incidents of and after the Resurrection. Of the +remainder-by far the larger portion consists of several conversations +which are hung upon miracles that seem to be related principally for +the sake of these. The whole of the phenomena show us at once the +fragmentary character of this Gospel as stamped upon the very surface. + +And when we turn to the other three, the same thing is true, though +less strikingly so. Why was it that in the Church, after the completion +of the Scriptural canon, there sprang up a whole host of Apocryphal +Gospels, full of childish stories of events which people felt had been +passed over with strange silence, in the teachings of the four +Evangelists: stories of His childhood, for instance, and stories about +what happened between His death and His resurrection? A great many +miracles were added to those that have been told us in Scripture. The +condensed hints of the canonical Gospels received a great expansion, +which indicated how much their silence about certain points had been +felt. What a tiny pamphlet they make! Is it not strange that the +greatest event in the world's history should be told in such brief +outline, and that here, too, the mustard seed, 'less than the least of +all seeds,' should have become such a great tree? Put the four Gospels +down by the side of the two thick octavo volumes, which it is the +regulation thing to write nowadays, as the biography of any man that +has a name at all, and you will feel their incompleteness as +biographies. They are but a pen-and-ink drawing of the Sun! And yet, +although they be so tiny that you might sit down and read them all in +an evening over the fire, is it not strange that they have stamped on +the mind of the world an image so deep and so sharp, of such a +character as the world never saw elsewhere? They are fragments, but +they have left a symmetrical and an unique impression on the +consciousness of the whole world. + +And then, if you turn to the whole Book, the same thing is true, though +in a modified sense there. I have no time to dwell upon that fruitful +field, but the silence of Scripture is quite as eloquent as its speech. +Think, for instance, of how many things in the Bible are taken for +granted which one would not expect to be taken for granted in a book of +religious instruction. It takes for granted the being of a God. It +takes for granted our relations to Him. It takes for granted our moral +nature. In its later portions, at all events, it takes for granted the +future life. Look at how the Bible, as a whole, passes by, without one +word of explanation or alleviation, a great many of the difficulties +which gather round some of its teaching. For instance, we find no +attempt to explain the divine nature of our Lord; or the existence of +the three Persons in the Godhead. It has not a word to say in +explanation of the mystery of prayer; or of the difficulty of +reconciling the Omnipotent will of God on the one hand, with our own +free will on the other. It has not a word to explain, though many a +word to proclaim and enforce, the fact of Christ's death as the +atonement for the sins of the whole world. Observe, too, how scanty the +information on points on which the heart craves for more light. How +closely, for instance, the veil is kept over the future life! How many +questions which are not prompted by mere curiosity, our sorrow and our +love ask in vain! + +Nor is the incompleteness of Scripture as a historical book less +marked. Nations and men appear on its pages abruptly, rending the +curtain of oblivion, and striding to the front of the stage for a +moment, and then they disappear, swallowed up of night. It has no care +to tell the stories of any of its heroes, except for so long as they +were the organs of that divine breath, which, breathed through the +weakest reed, makes music. The self-revelation of God, not the acts and +fortunes of even His noblest servants, is the theme of the Book. It is +full of gaps about matters that any sciolist or philosopher or +theologian would have filled up for it. There it stands, a Book unique +in the world's history, unique in what it says, and no less unique in +what it does not say. + +'Many other things truly did' that divine Spirit in His march through +the ages, 'which are not written in this book; but these are written +that ye might believe.' + +II. And so that brings me next to say a word or two about the more +immediate purpose which explains all these gaps and incompletenesses. + +John's Gospel, and the other three Gospels, and the whole Bible, New +Testament and Old, have this for their purpose, to produce in men's +hearts the faith in Jesus as 'the Christ' and as 'the Son of God.' + +I need not speak at length about this one Gospel with any special +regard to that thought. I have already said that the Evangelist avows +that his work is a selection, that he declares that the purpose that +determined his selection was doctrinal, and that he picked out facts +which would tend to represent Jesus Christ to us in the twofold +capacity,--as the Christ, the Fulfiller of all the expectations and +promises of the Old Covenant, and as the Son of God. The one of these +titles is a name of office, the other a name of nature; the one +declares that He had come to be, and to do, all to which types and +prophecies and promises had dimly pointed, and the other declares that +He was 'the Eternal Word,' which 'in the beginning was with God and was +God,' and was manifest here upon earth to us. + +This was his purpose, and this representation of Jesus Christ is that +which shapes all the facts and all the phenomena of this Gospel, from +the very first words of it to its close. + +And so, although it is wide from my present subject, I may just make +one parenthetical remark, to the effect that it is ridiculous in the +face of this statement for 'critics' to say, as some of them do: 'The +author of the fourth Gospel has not told us this, that, and the other +incident in Christ's life, therefore, he did not know it.' Then some of +them will draw the conclusion that John's Gospel is not to be trusted +in the given case, because he does not give us a certain incident, and +others might draw the conclusion that the other three Evangelists are +not to be trusted because they do give it us. And the whole fabric is +built up upon a blunder, and would have been avoided if people had +listened when John said to them: 'I knew a great many things about +Jesus Christ, but I did not put them down here because I was not +writing a biography, but preaching a gospel; and what I wanted to +proclaim was that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.' + +But now we may extend that a great deal further. It is just as true +about the whole New Testament. The four Gospels are written to tell us +these two facts about Christ. They are none of them merely biographies; +as such they are singularly deficient, as we have seen. But they are +biographies _plus_ a doctrine; and the biography is told mainly for the +sake of carrying this twofold truth into men's understandings and +hearts, that Jesus is, first of all, the Christ, and second, the Son of +God. + +And then comes the rest of the New Testament, which is nothing more +than the working out of the theoretical and practical consequence of +these great truths. All the Epistles, the Book of Revelation, and the +history of the Church, as embodied in the Acts of the Apostles,--all +these are but the consequences of that fundamental truth; and the whole +of Scripture in its later portions is but the drawing of the inferences +and the presenting of the duties that flow from the facts that 'Jesus +is the Christ, the Son of God.' + +And what about the Old Testament? Why, this about it: that whatever may +be the conclusion as to the date and authorship of any of the books in +it,--and I am not careful to contend about these at present;--and +whatever a man may believe about the verbal prophecies which most of us +recognise there,--there is stamped unmistakably upon the whole system, +of which the Old Testament is the record, an onward-looking attitude. +It is all anticipatory of 'good things to come,' and of a Person who +will bring them. Sacrifice, sacred offices, such as priesthood and +kingship, and the whole history of Israel, have their faces turned to +the future. 'They that went before, and they that followed after, cried +"Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord!"' This +Christ towers up above the history of the world and the process of +revelation, like Mount Everest among the Himalayas. To that great peak +all the country on the one side runs upwards, and from it all the +valleys on the other descend; and the springs are born there which +carry verdure and life over the world. + +Christ, the Son of God, is the centre of Scripture; and the +Book--whatever be the historical facts about its origin, its +authorship, and the date of the several portions of which it is +composed--the Book is a unity, because there is driven right through +it, like a core of gold, either in the way of prophecy and +onward-looking anticipation, or in the way of history and grateful +retrospect, the reference to the one 'Name that is above every name,' +the name of the Christ, the Son of God. + +And all its incompleteness, its fragmentariness, its carelessness about +persons, are intended, as are the slight parts in a skilful artist's +handiwork, to emphasise the beauty and the sovereignty of that one +central Figure on which all lights are concentrated, and on which the +painter has lavished all the resources of his art. So God--for _God_ is +the Author of the Bible--on this great canvas has painted much in +sketchy outline, and left much unfilled in, that every eye may be fixed +on the central Figure, the Christ of God, on whose head comes down the +Dove, and round whom echoes the divine declaration: 'This is My Beloved +Son, in whom I am well pleased.' + +But it is not merely in order to represent Jesus as the Christ of God +that these things are written, but it is that that representation may +become the object of our faith. If the intention of Scripture had been +simply to establish the fact that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of +God, it might have been done in a very different fashion. A theological +treatise would have been enough to do that. But if the object be that +men should not only accept with their understandings the truth +concerning Christ's office and nature, but that their hearts should go +out to Him, and that they should rest their sinful souls upon Him _as_ +the Son of God and the Christ, then there is no other way to accomplish +that, but by the history of His life and the manifestation of His +heart. If the object were simply to make us know about Christ, we do +not need a Book like this; but if the object is to lead us to put our +faith in Him, then we must have what we have here, the infinitely +touching and tender Figure of Jesus Christ Himself, set before us in +all its sweetness and beauty as He lived and moved and died for us. + +And so, dear friends, let me put one last word here about this part of +my subject. If this be the purpose of Scripture, then let us learn on +the one hand the wretched insufficiency of a mere orthodox creed, and +let us learn on the other hand the equal insufficiency of a mere +creedless emotion. + +If the purpose of Scripture, in these Gospels, and all its parts, is +that we should believe 'that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,' that +purpose is not accomplished when we simply yield our understanding to +that truth and accept it as a great many people do. That was much more +the fault of the last generation than of this, though many of us may +still make the mistake of supposing that we are Christians because we +idly assent to--or, at least, do not deny, and so fancy that we +accept--Christian truth. But, as Luther says in one of his rough +figures, 'Human nature is like a drunken peasant; if you put him up on +the horse on the one side, he is sure to tumble down on the other.' And +so the reaction from the heartless, unpractical orthodoxy of half a +century ago has come with a vengeance to-day, when everybody is saying, +'Oh! give me a Christianity without dogma!' Well, I say that too, about +a great many of the metaphysical subtleties which have been called +Doctrinal Christianity. But this doctrine of the nature and office of +Jesus Christ cannot be given up, and the Christianity which Christ and +His Apostles taught be retained. Do you believe that Jesus is the +Christ, the Son of God? Do you trust your soul to Him in these +characters? If you do, I think we can shake hands. If you do not, +Scripture has failed to do its work on you, and you have not reached +the point which all God's lavish revelation has been expended on the +world that you and all men might attain. + +III. Now, lastly, notice the ultimate purpose of the whole. + +Scripture is not given to us merely to make us know something about God +in Christ, nor only in order that we may have faith in the Christ thus +revealed to us, but for a further end--great, glorious, but, blessed be +His Name! not distant--namely, that we may 'have life in His name.' +'Life' is deep, mystical, inexplicable by any other words than itself. +It includes pardon, holiness, well-being, immortality, Heaven; but it +is more than they all. + +This life comes into our dead hearts and quickens them by union with +God. That which is joined to God lives. Each being according to its +nature, is, on condition of the divine power acting upon it. This bit +of wood upon which I put my hand, and the hand which I put upon it, +would equally crumble into nothingness if they were separated from God. + +You can separate your wills and your spiritual nature from Him, and +thus separated you are 'dead in trespasses and in sins.' And, O +brother! the message comes to you: there is life in that great Christ, +'in His name'; that is to say, in that revealed character of His by +which He is made known to us as the Christ and the Son of God. + +Union with Him in His Sonship will bring life into dead hearts. He is +the true 'Prometheus' who has come from Heaven with 'fire,' the fire of +the divine Life in the 'reed' of His humanity, and He imparts it to us +all if we will. He lays Himself upon us, as the prophet laid himself on +the little child in the upper chamber; and lip to lip, and beating +heart to dead heart, He touches our death, and it is quickened into +life. + +The condition on which that great Name will bring to us life is simply +our faith. Do you believe in Him, and trust yourself to Him, as He who +came to fulfil all that prophet, priest, and king, sacrifice, altar, +and Temple of old times prophesied and looked for? Do you trust in Him +as the Son of God who comes down to earth that we in Him might find the +immortal life which He is ready to give? If you do, then, dear +brethren! the end that God has in view in all His revelation, that +Christ had in view in His bitter Passion, has been accomplished for +you. If you do not it has not. You may admire Him, you may think +loftily of Him, you may be ready to call Him by many great and +appreciative names, but Oh! unless you have learned to see in Him the +divine Saviour of your souls, you have not seen what God means you to +see. + +But if you have, then all other questions about this Book, important as +they are in their places, may settle themselves as they will; you have +got the kernel, the thing that it was meant to bring you. Many an +erudite scholar, who has studied the Bible all his life, has missed the +purpose for which it was given; and many a poor old woman in her garret +has found it. It is not meant to wrangle over, it is not meant to be +read as an interesting product of the religious consciousness, it is +not to be admired as all that remains of the literature of a nation +that had a genius for religion; but it is to be taken as being God's +great Word to the world, the record of the revelation that He has given +us in His Son. The Eternal Word is the theme of all the written word. +Have you made the jewel which is brought us in that casket your own? Is +Jesus to you the Son of the living God, believing on whom you share His +life, and become 'sons of God' by Him? Can you take on to your thankful +lips that triumphant and rapturous confession of the doubting +Thomas,--the flag flying on the completed roof-tree of this Gospel--'My +Lord and my God'? If you can, you will receive the blessing which +Christ then promised to all of us standing beyond the limits of that +little group, 'who have not seen and yet have believed'--even that +eternal life which flows into our dead spirits from the Christ, the Son +of God, who is the Light of the world, and the Life of men. + + + +AN ELOQUENT CATALOGUE + +'There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and +Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of +His disciples.'--JOHN xxi. 2. + +This chapter, containing the infinitely significant and pathetic +account of our Lord's appearance to these disciples by the Sea of +Tiberias, is evidently an appendix to the Gospel of John. The design of +that Gospel is complete with the previous chapter, and there is a +formal close, as of the whole book, at the end thereof. But whilst +obviously an appendix, this chapter is as obviously the work of the +same hand as wrote the Gospel. There are many minute points of identity +between the style of it and of the rest of the work, so that there can +be no difficulty or doubt as to whence it came. This enumeration of +these seven disciples, regarded as being the work of John himself, +seems to me to be significant, and to contain a good many lessons. And +I desire to turn to these now. + +I. First of all, the fact that they were together is significant. + +How did they come to hold together? How had they not yielded to the +temptation to seek safety by flight, which would have been the natural +course after the death of their Leader on a charge of treason against +the Roman power? The process of disintegration had begun, and we see it +going on in the conduct of the disciples before the Resurrection. The +'Shepherd was smitten,' and, as a matter of course, 'the sheep' began +to 'scatter.' And yet here we find them back in Galilee, in their old +haunts, and not trying to escape by separation, which would have been +the first step suggested to ordinary men in an ordinary state of +things. But where everybody knew them, and they knew everybody, and +everybody knew them to be disciples of Jesus Christ, thither they go, +and hold together as if they had still a living centre and a uniting +bond. How did that come about? The fact that after Christ's death there +was a group of men united together simply and solely as disciples, and +exhibiting their unity as disciples conspicuously, in the face of the +men that knew them best, this forms a strange phenomenon that needs an +explanation. And there is only one explanation of it, that Jesus Christ +had risen from the dead. That drew them together once more. You cannot +build a Church on a dead Christ; and of all the proofs of the +Resurrection, I take it that there is none that it is harder for an +unbeliever to account for, in harmony with his hypothesis, than the +simple fact that Christ's disciples held together after He was dead, +and presented a united front to the world. + +So, then, the fact of the group is itself significant, and we may claim +it as being a morsel of evidence for the historical veracity of the +resurrection of Jesus Christ. + +II. Then the composition of this group is significant. + +Taken in comparison with the original nucleus of the Church, the +calling of which we find recorded in the first chapter of this Gospel, +it is to be noticed that of the five men who made the Primitive Church, +there are three who reappear here by name--viz. Simon Peter, John and +Nathanael, and Nathanael never appears anywhere else except in these +two places. Then, note that there are two unnamed men here, 'two other +of His disciples'; who, I think, in all probability are the two of the +original five that we do not find named here--viz. 'Philip and Andrew, +Simon Peter's brother'--both of them connected with Bethsaida, the +place where probably this appearance of the risen Lord took place. + +So, then, I think, the fair inference from the list before us is that +we have here the original nucleus again, the first five, with a couple +more, and the couple more are 'Thomas, who is called Didymus'--and we +shall see the reason for _his_ presence in a moment--and the brother of +John, one of the first pair. + +Thus, then, to the original little group that had gathered round Him at +the first, and to whom He had been so often manifested in this very +scene where they were standing now, He is revealed again. There, along +the beach, is the place where James and John and Simon and Andrew were +called from their nets three short years ago. Across yonder, on the +other side of the lake, is the bit of green grass where the thousands +were fed. Behind it is the steep slope down which the devil-possessed +herd rushed. There, over the shoulder of the hill, is the road that +leads up to Cana of Galilee, which they had trod together on that +never-to-be-forgotten first morning, and from which little village one +of the group came. They who had companied with Him all the time of His +too short fellowship, and had seen all His manifestations, were +fittingly chosen to be the recipients of this last appearance, which +was to be full of instruction as to the work of the Church, its +difficulties, its discouragements, its rewards, its final success, and +His benediction of it until the very end of time. It was not for +nothing that they who were gathered together were that first nucleus of +the Church, who received again from their Master the charge to be +'fishers of men.' + +And then, if we look at the list, having regard to the history of those +that make it up, it seems to me that that also brings us some valuable +considerations. Foremost stand, as receiving this great manifestation +of Jesus Christ, the two greatest sinners of the whole band, 'Simon +Peter, and Thomas, which is called Didymus,' the denier and the +doubter. Singularly contrasted these two men were in much of their +disposition; and yet alike in the fact that the Crucifixion had been +too much for their faith. The one of them was impetuous, the other of +them slow. The one was always ready to say more than he meant; the +other always ready to do more than he said. The one was naturally +despondent, disposed to look ahead and to see the gloomiest side of +everything--'Let us also go that we may die with Him'--the other never +looking an inch beyond his nose, and always yielding himself up to the +impulse of the moment. And yet both of them were united in this, that +the one, from a sudden wave of cowardice which swept him away from his +deepest convictions and made him for an hour untrue to his warmest +love, and the other, from giving way to his constitutional tendency to +despondency, and to taking the blackest possible view of +everything--they had both of them failed in their faith, the one +turning out a denier and the other turning out a doubter. And yet here +they are, foremost upon the list of those who saw the Risen Christ. + +Well, there are two lessons there, and the one is this--let us +Christian people learn with what open hearts and hands we should +welcome a penitent when he comes back. The other is,--let us learn who +they are to whom Jesus Christ deigns to manifest Himself--not +immaculate monsters, but men that, having fallen, have learned humility +and caution, and by penitence have risen to a securer standing, and +have turned even their transgressions into steps in the ladder that +lifts them to Christ. It was something that the first to whom the risen +Saviour appeared when He came victorious and calm from the grave, was +the woman 'out of whom He had cast seven devils,' and the blessed truth +which that teaches is the same as that which is to be drawn from this +list of those whom He regarded, and whom we regard, as then +constituting the true nucleus of His Church--a list which is headed by +the blackest denier and the most obstinate and captious sceptic in the +whole company. 'There were together Simon Peter and Thomas, which is +called Didymus,' and the little group was glad to have them, and +welcomed them, as it becomes us to welcome brethren who have fallen, +and who come again saying, 'I repent.' + +Well, then, take the next: he was 'Nathanael, of Cana in Galilee'; a +guileless 'Israelite indeed,' so swift to believe, so ready with his +confession, so childlike in his wonder, so ardent in his love and +faith. The only thing that Christ is recorded as having said to him is +this: 'Because I said... believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things +than these.' A promise of growing clearness of vision and growing +fullness of manifestation was made to this man, who never appears +anywhere else in Scripture but in these two scenes, and so may stand to +us as the type of the opposite kind of Christian experience from that +stormy one of the doubter and the denier--viz. that of persistent, +quiet, continuous growth, which is marked by faithful use of the +present amount of illumination, and is rewarded by a continual increase +of the same. If the keynote to the two former lives is, that sin +confessed helps a man to climb, the keynote to this man's is the other +truth, that they are still more blessed who, with no interruptions, +backslidings, inconsistencies, or denials, by patient continuousness in +well-doing, widen the horizon of their Christian vision and purge their +eyesight for daily larger knowledge. To these, as to the others, there +is granted the vision of the risen Lord, and to them also is entrusted +the care of His sheep and His lambs. We do not _need_ to go away into +the depths and the darkness in order to realise the warmth and the +blessedness of the light. There is no _necessity_ that any Christian +man's career should be broken by denials like Peter's or by doubts like +Thomas's, but we may 'grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord +and Saviour.' 'So is the kingdom of heaven, first the blade, then the +ear, after that the full corn in the ear.' + +Then, still further, there were here 'the two sons of Zebedee.' These +were the men of whom the Master said that they were 'sons of thunder,' +who, by natural disposition, in so far as they resembled one another +(which they seem to have done), were eager, energetic, somewhat +bigoted, ready with passionate rebukes, and not unwilling to invoke +destructive vengeance, all for the love of Him. They were also touched +with some human ambition which led them to desire a place at His right +hand and His left, but the ambition, too, was touched with love towards +Him, which half redeemed it. But by dwelling with Him one of them, at +least, had become of all the group the likest his Master. And the old +monastic painters taught a very deep truth when, in their pictures of +the apostles, they made John's almost a copy of the Master's face. To +him, too, there was granted in like manner a place amongst this blessed +company, and it is surely a trace of _his_ hand that his place should +seem so humble. Any other but himself would certainly have put James +and John in their natural place beside Peter. It must have been himself +who slipped himself and his brother into so inconspicuous a position in +the list, and further veiled his personality under the patronymic, 'the +sons of Zebedee.' + +Last of all come 'two other of His disciples,' not worth naming. +Probably, as I have said, they were the missing two out of the five of +the first chapter; but possibly they were only 'disciples' in the wider +sense, and not of the Apostolic group at all. Nobody can tell. What +does it matter? The lesson to be gathered from their presence in this +group is one that most of us may very well take to heart. There is a +place for commonplace, undistinguished people, whose names are not +worth repeating in any record; there is a place for us one-talented +folk, in Christ's Church, and we, too, have a share in the +manifestation of His love. We do not need to be brilliant, we do not +need to be clever, we do not need to be influential, we do not need to +be energetic, we do not need to be anything but quiet, waiting souls, +in order to have Christ showing Himself to us, as we toil wearily +through the darkness of the night. Undistinguished disciples have a +place in His heart, a sphere and a function in His Church, and a share +in His revelation of Himself. + +III. The last point that I touch is this, that the purpose of this +group is significant. + +What did they thus get together for? 'Simon Peter saith, I go a +fishing. They say, We also go with thee.' So they went back again to +their old trade, and they had not left the nets and the boats and the +hired servants for ever, as they once thought they had. + +What sent them back? Not doubt or despair; because they had seen Jesus +Christ up in Jerusalem, and had come down to Galilee at His command on +purpose to meet Him. 'There shall ye see Him, lo! I have told you,' was +ringing in their ears, and they went back in full confidence of His +appearance there. It is very like Peter that he should have been the +one to suggest filling an hour of the waiting time with manual labour. +The time would be hanging heavily on his hands. John could have 'sat +still in the house,' like Mary, the heart all the busier, because the +hands lay quietly in the lap. But that was not Peter's way, and John +was ready to keep him company. Peter thought that the best thing they +could do, till Jesus chose to come, was to get back to their work, and +he was sensible and right. The best preparation for Christ's +appearance, and the best attitude to be found in by Him, is doing our +daily work, however secular and small it may be. A dirty, wet fishing +boat, all slimy with scales, was a strange place in which to wait for +the manifestation of a risen Saviour. But it was the right place, +righter than if they had been wandering about amongst the fancied +sanctities of the synagogues. + +They went out to do their work; and to them was fulfilled the old +saying, 'I, being in the way, the Lord met me.' Jesus Christ will come +to you and me in the street if we carry the waiting heart there, and in +the shop, and the factory, and the counting-house, and the kitchen, and +the nursery, and the study, or wherever we may be. For all things are +sacred when done with a hallowed heart, and He chooses to make Himself +known to us amidst the dusty commonplaces of daily life. + +He had said to them before the Crucifixion: 'When I sent you forth +without purse or scrip, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing.' +And then He said, as changing the conditions: 'But now he that hath a +purse or scrip, let him take it.' As long as He was with them they were +absolved from these common tasks. Now that He had left them the +obligation recurred. And the order of things for His servants in all +time coming was therein declared to be: no shirking of daily tasks on +the plea of wanting divine communications; keep at your work, and if it +last all night, stick to it; and if there are no fish in the net, never +mind; out with it again. And be sure that sooner or later you will see +Him standing on the beach, and hear His voice, and be blessed by His +smile. + + + +THE BEACH AND THE SEA + +'When the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore; but the +disciples knew not that it was Jesus.'--JOHN xxi. 4. + +The incident recorded in this appendix to John's Gospel is separated +from the other appearances of our risen Lord in respect of place, time, +and purpose. They all occurred in and about Jerusalem; this took place +in Galilee. The bulk of them happened on the day of the Resurrection, +one of them a week after. This, of course, to allow time for the +journey, must have been at a considerably later date. Their object was, +mainly, to establish the reality of the Resurrection, the identity of +Christ's physical body, and to confirm the faith of the disciples +therein. Here, these purposes retreat into the background; the object +of this incident is to reveal the permanent relations between the risen +Lord and His struggling Church. + +The narrative is rich in details which might profitably occupy us, but +the whole may be gathered up in two general points of view in +considering the revelation which we have here in the participation of +Christ in His servants' work, and also the revelation which we have in +the preparation by Christ of a meal for His toiling servants. We take +this whole narrative thus regarded as our subject on this Easter +morning. + +I. First we have here a revelation of the permanent relation of Jesus +Christ to His Church and to the individuals who compose it, in this, +that the risen Lord on the shore shares in the toil of His servants on +the restless sea. + +The little group of whom we read in this narrative reminds us of the +other group of the first disciples in the first chapter of this Gospel. +Four out of the five persons named in our text appear there: Simon +Peter, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, James and +John. And a very natural inference is that the 'two others' unnamed +here are the two others of that chapter, viz. Andrew and Philip. If so, +we have at the end, the original little group gathered together again; +with the addition of the doubting Thomas. + +Be that as it may, there they are on the shore of the sea, and Peter +characteristically takes the lead and suggests a course that they all +accept: 'I go a fishing.' 'We also go with thee.' + +Now we must not read that as if it meant: 'It is all over! Our hopes +are vain! We dreamed that we were going to be princes in the Messiah's +Kingdom, we have woke up to find that we are only fishermen. Let us go +back to our nets and our boats!' No! all these men had seen the risen +Lord, and had received from His breath the gift of the Holy Spirit. +They had all gone from Jerusalem to Galilee, in obedience to His +command, and were now waiting for His promised appearance. Very noble +and beautiful is the calm patience with which they fill the time of +expectation with doing common and long-abandoned tasks. They go back to +the nets and the boats long since forsaken at the Master's bidding. +That is not like fanatics. That is not like people who would be liable +to the excesses of excitement that would lead to the 'hallucination,' +which is the modern explanation of the resurrection faith, on the part +of the disciples. + +And it is a precious lesson for us, dear brethren! that whatever may be +our memories, and whatever may be our hopes, the very wisest thing we +can do is to stick to the common drudgery, and even to go back to +abandoned tasks. It stills the pulses. 'Study to be quiet; and to do +our own business' is the best remedy for all excitement, whether it be +of sorrow or of hope. And not seldom to us, if we will learn and +practise that lesson, as to these poor men in the tossing fisherman's +boat, the accustomed and daily duties will be the channel through which +the presence of the Master will be manifested to us. + +So they go, and there follow the incidents which I need not repeat, +because we all know them well enough. Only I wish to mark the distinct +allusion throughout the whole narrative to the earlier story of the +first miraculous draught of fishes which was connected with their call +to the Apostleship, and was there by Christ declared to have a +symbolical meaning. The correspondences and the contrasts are obvious. +The scene is the same; the same green mountains look down upon the same +blue waters. It was the same people that were concerned. They were, +probably enough, in the same fishing-boat. In both there had been a +night of fruitless toil; in both there was the command to let down the +net once more; in both obedience was followed by instantaneous and +large success. + +So much for the likenesses; the contrasts are these. In the one case +the Master is in the boat with them, in the other He is on the shore; +in the one the net is breaking; in the other, 'though there were so +many, yet did it not break.' In the one Peter, smitten by a sense of +his own sinfulness, says, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O +Lord!' In the other, Peter, with a deeper knowledge of his own +sinfulness, but also with the sweet knowledge of forgiveness, casts +himself into the sea, and flounders through the shallows to reach the +Lord. The one is followed by the call to higher duty and to the +abandonment of possessions; the other is followed by rest and the +mysterious meal on the shore. + +That is to say, whilst both of the stories point the lesson of service +to the Master, the one of them exhibits the principles of service to +Him whilst He was still with them, and the other exhibits the +principles of service to Him when He is removed from struggling and +toiling on the billows to the calm of the peaceful shore in the morning +light. + +So we may take that night of toil as full of meaning. Think of them as +the darkness fell, and the solemn bulk of the girdling hills lay +blacker upon the waters, and the Syrian sky was mirrored with all its +stars sparkling in the still lake. All the night long cast after cast +was made, and time after time the net was drawn in and nothing in it +but tangle and mud. And when the first streak of the morning breaks +pale over the Eastern hills they are still so absorbed in their tasks +that they do not recognise the voice that hails them from the nearer +shore: 'Lads, have ye any meat?' And they answer it with a half surly +and wholly disappointed monosyllabic 'No!' It is an emblem for us all; +weary and wet, tugging at the oar in the dark, and often seeming to +fail. What then? If the last cast has brought nothing, try another. Out +with the nets once more! Never mind the darkness, and the cold, and the +wetting spray, and the weariness. You cannot expect to be as +comfortable in a fishing-boat as in your drawing-room. You cannot +expect that your nets will be always full. Failure and disappointment +mingle in the most successful lives. Christian work has often to be +done with no results at all apparent to the doer, but be sure of this, +that they who learn and practise the homely, wholesome virtue of +persistent adherence to the task that God sets them, will catch some +gleams of a Presence most real and most blessed, and before they die +will know that 'their labour has not been in vain in the Lord.' 'They +that sow in tears shall reap in joy.' + +And so, finally, about this first part of my subject, there stands out +before us here the blessed picture of the Lord Himself, the Risen Lord, +with the halo of death and resurrection round about Him; there, on the +firm beach, in the increasing light of the morning, interested in, +caring about, directing and crowning with His own blessing, the +obedient work of His servants. + +The simple prose fact of the story, in its plain meaning, is more +precious than any 'spiritualising' of it. Take the fact. Jesus Christ, +fresh from the grave, who had been down into those dark regions of +mystery where the dead sleep and wait, and had come back into this +world, and was on the eve of ascending to the Father--this Christ, the +possessor of such experience, takes an interest in seven poor men's +fishing, and cares to know whether their ragged old net is full or is +empty. There never was a more sublime and wonderful binding together of +the loftiest and the lowliest than in that question in the mouth of the +Risen Lord. If men had been going to dream about what would be fitting +language for a risen Saviour, if we had to do here with a legend, and +not with a piece of plain, prosaic fact, do you think that the +imagination would ever have entered the mind of the legend-maker to put +such a question as that into such lips at such a time? 'Lads, have ye +any meat?' + +It teaches us that anything that interests us is not without interest +to Christ. Anything that is big enough to occupy our thoughts and our +efforts is large enough to be taken into His. All our ignoble toils, +and all our petty anxieties, touch a chord that vibrates in that deep +and tender heart. Though other sympathy may be unable to come down to +the minutenesses of our little lives, and to wind itself into the +narrow room in which our histories are prisoned, Christ's sympathy can +steal into the narrowest cranny. The risen Lord is interested in our +poor fishing and our disappointments. + +And not only that, here is a promise for us, a prophecy for us, of +certain guidance and direction, if only we will come to Him and +acknowledge our dependence upon Him. The question that was put to them, +'Lads, have ye any meat?' was meant to evoke the answer, 'No!' The +consciousness of my failure is the pre-requisite to my appeal to Him to +prosper my work. And just as before He would, on the other margin of +that same shore, multiply the loaves and the fishes, He put to them the +question, 'How many have ye?' that they might know clearly the +inadequacy of their own resources for the hungry crowd, so here, in +order to prepare their hearts for the reception of His guidance and His +blessing, He provides that they be brought to catalogue and confess +their failures. So He does with us all, beats the self-confidence out +of us, blessed be His name! and makes us know ourselves to be empty in +order that He may pour Himself into us, and flood us with the joy of +His presence. + +Then comes the guidance given. We may be sure that it is given to us +all to-day, if we wait upon Him and ask Him. 'Cast the net on the right +side of the ship, and ye shall find.' His command is followed by swift, +unanswering, unquestioning obedience, which in its turn is immediately +succeeded by the large blessing which the Master then gave on the +instant, which He gives still, though often, in equal love and +unquestioned wisdom, it comes long after faith has discerned His +presence and obedience has bowed to His command. + +It may be that we shall not see the results of our toil till the +morning dawns and the great net is drawn to land by angel hands. But we +may be sure that while we are toiling on the tossing sea, He watches +from the shore, is interested in all our weary efforts, will guide us +if we own to Him our weakness, and will give us to see at last issues +greater than we had dared to hope from our poor service. The dying +martyr looked up and saw Him 'standing at the right hand of God,' in +the attitude of interested watchfulness and ready help. This Easter +morning bids us lift our eyes to a risen Lord who 'has not left us to +serve alone,' nor gone up on high, like some careless general to a safe +height, while his forsaken soldiers have to stand the shock of onset +without him. From this height He bends down and 'covers our heads in +the day of battle.' 'He was received up,' says the Evangelist, 'and sat +on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere.' +Strange contrast between His throned rest and their wandering toils for +Him! But the contrast gives place to a deeper identity of work and +condition, as the Gospel goes on to say, 'The Lord also _working with +them_ and confirming the word with signs following.' + +Though we be on the tossing sea and He on the quiet shore, between us +there is a true union and communion, His heart is with us, if our +hearts be with Him, and from Him will pass over all strength, grace, +and blessing to us, if only we know His presence, and owning our +weakness, obey His command and expect His blessing. + +II. Look at the other half of this incident before us. I pass over the +episode of the recognition of Jesus by John, and of Peter struggling to +His feet, interesting as it is, in order to fix upon the central +thought of the second part of the narrative, viz. the risen Lord on the +shore, in the increasing light of the morning, 'preparing a table' for +His toiling servants. That 'fire of coals' and the simple refreshment +that was being dressed upon it had been prepared there by Christ's own +hand. We are not told that there was anything miraculous about it. He +had gathered the charcoal; He had procured the fish; He had dressed it +and prepared it. They are bidden to 'bring of the fish they had +caught'; He accepts their service, and adds the result of their toil, +as it would seem, to the provision which His own hand has prepared. He +summons them to a meal, not the midday repast, for it was still early +morning. They seat themselves, smitten by a great awe. The meal goes on +in silence. No word is spoken on either side. Their hearts know Him. He +waits on them, making Himself their Servant as well as their Host. He +'taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise,' as He had done in the +miracles by the same shore and on that sad night in the upper room that +seemed so far away now, and in the roadside inn at Emmaus, when +something in His manner or action disclosed Him to the wondering two at +the table. + +Now what does all that teach us? Two things; and first--neglecting for +a moment the difference between shore and sea--here we have the fact of +Christ's providing, even by doing menial offices, for His servants. + +These seven men were wet and weary, cold and hungry. The first thing +they wanted when they came out of the fishing-boat was their breakfast. +If they had been at home, their wives and children would have got it +ready for them. Jesus had a great deal to say to them that day, a great +deal to teach them, much to do for them, and for the whole world, by +the words that followed; but the first thing that He thinks about is to +feed them. And so, cherishing no overstrained contempt for material +necessities and temporal mercies, let us remember that it is His hand +that feeds us still, and let us be glad to think that this Christ, +risen from the dead and with His heart full of the large blessings that +He was going to bestow, yet paused to consider: 'They are coming on +shore after a night's hard toil, they will be faint and weary; let Me +feed their bodies before I begin to deal with their hearts and spirits.' + +And He will take care of you, brother! and of us all. The 'bread will +be given' us, at any rate, and 'the water made sure.' It was a modest +meal that He with His infinite resources thought enough for toiling +fishermen. 'One fish,' as the original shows us, 'one loaf of bread.' +No more! He could as easily have spread a sumptuous table for them. +There is no covenant for superfluities, necessaries will be given. Let +us bring down our wishes to His gifts and promises, and recognise the +fact that 'he who needs least is the nearest the gods,' and he that +needs least is surest of getting from Christ what he needs. + +But then, besides that, the supply of all other deeper and loftier +necessities is here guaranteed. The symbolism of our text divides, +necessarily, the two things which in fact are not divided. It is not +all toiling on the restless sea here, any more than it is all rest and +fruition yonder; but all that your spirit needs, for wisdom, patience, +heroism, righteousness, growth, Christ will give you _in_ your work; +and that is better than giving it to you after your work, and the very +work which is blessed by Him, and furthered and prospered by Him, the +very work itself will come to be moat and nourishment. 'Out of the +eater will come forth meat,' and the slain 'lions' of past struggles +and sorrows, the next time we come to them, will be 'full of honey.' + +Finally, there is a great symbolical prophecy here if we emphasise the +distinction between the night and the morning, between the shore and +the sea. We can scarcely fail to catch this meaning in the incident +which sets forth the old blessed assurance that the risen Lord is +preparing a feast on the shore while His servants are toiling on the +darkling sea. + +All the details, such as the solid shore in contrast with the changeful +sea, the increasing morning in contrast with the toilsome night, the +feast prepared, have been from of old consecrated to shadow forth the +differences between earth and heaven. It would be blindness not to see +here a prophecy of the glad hour when Christ shall welcome to their +stable home, amid the brightness of unsetting day, the souls that have +served Him amidst the fluctuations and storms of life, and seen Him in +its darkness, and shall satisfy all their desires with the 'bread of +heaven.' + +Our poor work which He deigns to accept forms part of the feast which +is spread at the end of our toil, when 'there shall be no more sea.' He +adds the results of our toil to the feast which He has prepared. The +consequences of what we have done here on earth make no small part of +the blessedness of heaven. + + 'Their works and alms and all their good endeavour + Stayed not behind, nor in the grave were trod.' + +The souls which a Paul or a John has won for the Master, in their +vocation as 'fishers of men,' are their 'hope and joy and crown of +rejoicing, in the presence of our Lord Jesus.' The great benediction +which the Spirit bade the Apocalyptic seer write over 'the dead which +die in the Lord,' is anticipated in both its parts by this mysterious +meal on the beach. 'They rest from their labours' inasmuch as they find +the food prepared for them, and sit down to partake; 'Their works do +follow them' inasmuch as they 'bring of the fish which they have +caught.' + +Finally, Christ Himself waits on them, therein fulfilling in symbol +what He has told us in great words that dimly shadow wonders +unintelligible until experienced: 'Verily I say unto you, He shall gird +Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth, and +serve them.' + +So here is a vision to cheer us all. Life must be full of toil and of +failure. We are on the midnight sea, and have to tug, weary and wet, at +a heavy oar, and to haul an often empty net. But we do not labour +alone. He comes to us across the storm, and is with us in the night, a +most real, because unseen Presence. If we accept the guidance of His +directing word, His indwelling Spirit, and His all-sufficient example, +and seek to ascertain His will in outward Providences, we shall not be +left to waste our strength in blunders, nor shall our labour be in +vain. In the morning light we shall see Him standing serene on the +steadfast shore. The 'Pilot of the Galilean lake' will guide our frail +boat through the wild surf that marks the breaking of the sea of life +on the shore of eternity; and when the sun rises over the Eastern hills +we shall land on the solid beach, bringing our 'few small fishes' with +us, which He will accept. And there we shall rest, nor need to ask who +He is that serves us, for we shall know that 'It is the Lord!' + + + +'IT IS THE LORD!' + +'Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the +Lord.--JOHN xxi. 7. + +It seems a very strange thing that these disciples had not, at an +earlier period of this incident, discovered the presence of Christ, +inasmuch as the whole was so manifestly a repetition of that former +event by which the commencement of their ministry had been signalised, +when He called them to become 'fishers of men.' We are apt to suppose +that when once again they embarked on the lake, and went back to their +old trade, it must have been with many a thought of Him busy at their +hearts. Yonder--perhaps we fancy them thinking--is the very point where +we saw Him coming out of the shadows of the mountains, that night when +He walked on the water; yonder is the little patch of grass where He +made them all sit down whilst we bore the bread to them: there is the +very spot where we were mending our nets when He came up to us and +called us to Himself; and now it is all over. We have loved and lost +Him; He has been with us, and has left us. 'We trusted that it had been +He who should have redeemed Israel,' and the Cross has ended it all! +So, we are apt to think, they must have spoken; but there does not seem +to have been about them any such sentimental remembrance. John takes +pains in this narrative, I think, to show them to us as plain, rough +men, busy about their night's work, and thinking a great deal more of +their want of success in fishing, than about the old associations which +we are apt to put into their minds. Then through the darkness He comes, +as they had seen Him come once before, when they know Him not; and He +speaks to them as He had spoken before, and they do not detect His +voice yet; and He repeats the old miracle, and their eyes are all +holden, excepting the eyes of him who loved, and _he_ first says, 'It +is the Lord!' Now, besides all the other features of this incident by +which it becomes the revelation of the Lord's presence with His Church, +and the exhibition of the work of the Church during all the course of +the world's history, it contains valuable lessons on other points, such +as these which I shall try to bring before you. + +Now and always, as in that morning twilight on the Galilean lake, +Christ comes to men. Everywhere He is present, everywhere revealing +Himself. Now, as then, our eyes are 'holden' by our own fault, so that +we recognise not the merciful Presence which is all around us. Now, as +then, it is they who are nearest to Christ by love who see Him first. +Now, as then, they who are nearest to Him by love, are so because He +loves them, and because they know and believe the love which He has to +them. I find, then, in this part of the story three thoughts,--First, +they only see aright who see Christ in everything. Secondly, they only +see Christ who love Him. Lastly, they only love Him who know that He +loves them, + +I. First then, they only see aright who see Christ in everything. + +This word of John's, 'It is the Lord!'--ought to be the conviction with +the light of which we go out to the examination of all events, and to +the consideration of all the circumstances of our daily life. We +believe that unto Christ is given 'all power in heaven and upon earth.' +We believe that to Him belongs creative power--that 'without Him was +not anything made which was made.' We believe that from Him came all +life at first. In Him life was, as in its deep source. He is the +Fountain of life. We believe that as no being comes into existence +without His creative power, so none continues to exist without His +sustaining energy. We believe that He allots to all men their natural +characters and their circumstances. We believe that the history of the +world is but the history of His influence, and that the centre of the +whole universe is the cross of Calvary. In the light of such +convictions, I take it, every man that calls himself a Christian ought +to go out to meet life and to study all events. Let me try, then, to +put before you, very briefly, one or two of the provinces in which we +are to take this conviction as the keynote to all our knowledge. + +No man will understand the world aright, to begin with, who cannot say +about all creation, 'It is the Lord!' Nature is but the veil of the +invisible and ascended Lord: and if we would pierce to the deepest +foundations of all being, we cannot stop until we get down to the +living power of Christ our Saviour and the Creator of the world, by +whom all things were made, and whose will pouring out into this great +universe, is the sustaining principle and the true force which keeps it +from nothingness and from quick decay. + +Why, what did Christ work all His miracles upon earth for? Not solely +to give us a testimony that the Father had sent Him; not solely to make +us listen to His words as a Teacher sent from God; not solely as proof +of His Messiahship,--but besides all these purposes there was surely +this other, that for once He would unveil to us the true Author of all +things, and the true Foundation of all being. Christ's miracles +interrupted the order of the world, because they made visible to men +for once the true and constant Orderer of the order. They interrupted +the order in so far as they struck out the intervening links by which +the creative and sustaining word of God acts in nature, and suspended +each event directly from the firm staple of His will. They revealed the +eternal Orderer of that order in that they showed the Incarnate Word +wielding the forces of nature, which He has done from of old and still +does. We are then to take all these signs and wonders that He wrought, +as a perennial revelation of the real state of things with regard to +this natural world, and to see in them all, signs and tokens that into +every corner and far-off region of the universe His loving hand +reaches, and His sustaining power goes forth. Into what province of +nature did He not go? He claimed to be the Lord of life by the side of +the boy's bier at the gate of Nain, in the chamber of the daughter of +Jairus, by the grave of Lazarus. He asserted for Himself authority over +all the powers and functions of our bodily life, when He gave eyes to +the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame. He showed that He was +Lord over the fowl of the air, the beasts of the earth, the fish of the +sea. And He asserted His dominion over inanimate nature, when the +fig-tree, cursed by Him, withered away to its roots, and the winds and +waves sunk into silence at His gentle voice. He let us get a glimpse +into the dark regions of His rule over the unseen, when 'with authority +He commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out.' And all these +things He did, in order that we, walking in this fair world, +encompassed by the glories of this wonderful universe, should be +delivered from the temptation of thinking that it is separated from +Him, or independent of His creative and sustaining power; and in order +that we should feel that the continuance of all which surrounds us, the +glories of heaven and the loveliness of earth, are as truly owing to +the constant intervention of His present will, and the interposition +beneath them of His sustaining hand, as when first, by the 'Word of +God' who 'was with God and who was God,' speaking forth His fiat, there +came light and beauty out of darkness and chaos. + +O Christian men! we shall never understand the Christian thought about +God's universe, until we are able to say, Preservation is a continual +creation; and beneath all the ordinary workings of Nature, as we +faithlessly call it, and the apparently dead play of secondary causes, +there are welling forth, and energising, the living love and the +blessed power of Christ, the Maker, and Monarch, and Sustainer of all. +'It is the Lord!' is the highest teaching of all science. The mystery +of the universe, and the meaning of God's world, are shrouded in +hopeless obscurity, until we learn to feel that all laws suppose a +Lawgiver, and that all working involves a divine energy; and that +beneath all which appears there lies for ever rising up through it and +giving it its life and power, the one true living Being, the Father in +heaven, the Son by whom He works, and the Holy Ghost the Spirit. +Darkness lies on Nature, except to those who in + + 'the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean, and the living air, + And the blue sky,' + +see that Form which these disciples saw in the morning twilight. Let +'It is the Lord!' be the word on our lips as we gaze on them all, and +nature will then be indeed to us the open secret, the secret of the +Lord which 'He will show to them that fear Him.' + +Then again, the same conviction is the only one that is adequate either +to explain or to make tolerable the circumstances of our earthly +condition. To most men--ah! to all of us in our faithless times--the +events that befall ourselves, seem to be one of two things equally +horrible, the play of a blind Chance, or the work of an iron Fate. I +know not which of these two ghastly thoughts about the circumstances of +life is the more depressing, ruining all our energy, depriving us of +all our joy, and dragging us down with its weight. But brethren, and +friends, there are but these three ways for it--either our life is the +subject of a mere chaotic chance; or else it is put into the mill of an +iron destiny, which goes grinding on and crushing with its remorseless +wheels, regardless of what it grinds up; or else, through it all, in it +all, beneath it and above it all, there is the Will which is Love, and +the Love which is Christ! Which of these thoughts is the one that +commends itself to your own hearts and consciences, and which is the +one under which you would fain live if you could? I understand not how +a man can front the awful possibilities of a future on earth, knowing +all the points at which he is vulnerable, and all the ways by which +disaster may come down upon him, and retain his sanity, unless he +believes that all is ruled, not merely by a God far above him, who may +be as unsympathising as He is omnipotent, but by his Elder Brother, the +Son of God, who showed His heart by all His dealings with us here +below, and who loves as tenderly, and sympathises as closely with us as +ever He did when on earth He gathered the weary and the sick around +Him. Is it not a thing, men and women, worth having, to have this for +the settled conviction of your hearts, that Christ is moving all the +pulses of your life, and that nothing falls out without the +intervention of His presence and the power of His will working through +it? Do you not think such a belief would nerve you for difficulty, +would lift you buoyantly over trials and depressions, and would set you +upon a vantage ground high above all the petty annoyances of life? Tell +me, is there any other place where a man can plant his foot and say, +'Now I am on a rock and I care not what comes'? The riddle of +Providence is solved, and the discipline of Providence is being +accomplished when we have grasped this conviction--All events do serve +me, for all circumstances come from His will and pleasure, which is +love; and everywhere I go--be it in the darkness of disaster or in the +sunshine of prosperity--I shall see standing before me that familiar +and beloved Shape, and shall be able to say, 'It is the Lord!' Friends +and brethren, that is the faith to live by, that is the faith to die +by; and without it life is a mockery and a misery. + +Once more this same conviction, 'It is the Lord! should guide us in all +our thoughts about the history and destinies of mankind and of Christ's +Church. The Cross is the centre of the world's history, the incarnation +and the crucifixion of our Lord are the pivot round which all the +events of the ages revolve. 'The testimony of Jesus was the spirit of +prophecy,' and the growing power of Jesus is the spirit of history, and +in every book that calls itself the history of a nation, unless there +be written, whether literally or in spirit, this for its motto, 'It is +the Lord!' all will be shallow and incomplete. + +'They that went before and they that came after,' when He entered into +the holy city in His brief moment of acceptance and pomp, surrounded +Him with hosannas and jubilant gladness. It is a deep and true symbol +of the whole history of the world. All the generations that went before +Him, though they knew it not, were preparing the way of the Lord, and +heralding the advent of Him who was 'the desire of all nations' and +'the light of men'; and all the generations that come after, though +they know it not, are swelling the pomp of His triumph and hastening +the time of His crowning and dominion. 'It is the Lord!' is the secret +of all national existence. It is the secret of all the events of the +world. The tangled web of human history is only then intelligible when +that is taken as its clue, 'From Him are all things, and to Him are all +things.' The ocean from which the stream of history flows, and that +into which it empties itself, are one. He began it, He sustains it. +'The help that is done upon earth He doeth it Himself,' and when all is +finished, it will be found that all things have indeed come from +Christ, been sustained and directed by Christ, and have tended to the +glory and exaltation of that Redeemer, who is King of kings and Lord of +lords, Maker of the worlds, and before whose throne are for ever +gathered for service, whether they know it or not, the forces of the +Gentiles, the riches of the nations, the events of history, the fates +and destinies of every man. + +I need not dwell upon the way in which such a conviction as this, my +friends, living and working in our hearts, would change for us the +whole aspect of life, and make everything bright and beautiful, blessed +and calm, strengthening us for all which we might have to do, nerving +us for duty, and sustaining us against every trial, leading us on, +triumphant and glad, through regions all sparkling with tokens of His +presence and signs of His love, unto His throne at last, to lay down +our praises and our crowns before Him. Only let me leave with you this +one word of earnest entreaty, that you will lay to heart the solemn +alternative--either see Christ in everything, and be blessed; or miss +Him, and be miserable. Oh! it is a waste, weary world, unless it is +filled with signs of His presence. It is a dreary seventy years, +brother, of pilgrimage and strife, unless, as you travel along the +road, you see the marks that He who went before you has left by the +wayside for your guidance and your sustenance. If you want your days to +be true, noble, holy, happy, manly, and Godlike, believe us, it is only +when they all have flowing through them this conviction, 'It is the +Lord!' that they all become so. + +II. Then, secondly, only they who love, see Christ. + +John, the Apostle of Love, knew Him first. In religious matters, love +is the foundation of knowledge. There is no way of knowing a Person +except love. The knowledge of God and the knowledge of Christ are not +to be won by the exercise of the understanding. A man cannot argue his +way into knowing Christ. No skill in drawing inferences will avail him +there. The treasures of wisdom--earthly wisdom--are all powerless in +that region. Man's understanding and natural capacity--let it keep +itself within its own limits and region, and it is strong and good; but +in the region of acquaintance with God and Christ, the wisdom of this +world is foolishness, and man's understanding is not the organ by which +he can know Christ. Oh no! there is a better way than that: 'He that +loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.' As it is, in feebler +measure, with regard to our personal acquaintance with one another, +where it is not so much the power of the understanding, or the +quickness of the perception, or the talent and genius of a man, that +make the foundation of his knowledge of his friend, as the force of his +sympathy and the depth of his affection; so--with the necessary +modification arising from the transference from earthly acquaintances +to the great Friend and Lover of our souls in heaven--so is it with +regard to our knowledge of Christ. Love will trace Him everywhere, as +dear friends can detect each other in little marks which are +meaningless to others. Love's quick eye pierces through disguises +impenetrable to a colder scrutiny. Love has in it a longing for His +presence which makes us eager and quick to mark the lightest sign that +He for whom it longs is near, as the footstep of some dear one is heard +by the sharp ear of affection long before any sound breaks the silence +to those around. Love leads to likeness to the Lord, and that likeness +makes the clearer vision of the Lord possible. Love to Him strips from +our eyes the film that self and sin, sense and custom, have drawn over +them. It is these which hide Him from us. It is because men are so +indifferent to, so forgetful of, their best Friend that they fail to +behold Him, 'It is the Lord!' is written large and plain on all things, +but like the great letters on a map, they are so obvious and fill so +wide a space, that they are not seen. They who love Him know Him, and +they who know Him love Him. The true eye-salve for our blinded eyes is +applied when we have turned with our hearts to Christ. The simple might +of faithful love opens them to behold a more glorious vision than the +mountain 'full of chariots of fire,' which once flamed before the +prophet's servant of old--even the august and ever-present form of the +Lord of life, the Lord of history, the Lord of providence. When they +who love Jesus turn to see 'the Voice that speaks with them,' they ever +behold the Son of Man in His glory; and where others see but the dim +beach and a mysterious stranger, it is to their lips that the glad cry +first comes, 'It is the Lord!' + +And is it not a blessed thing, brethren! that thus this high and +glorious prerogative of recognising the marks of Christ's presence +everywhere, of going through life gladdened by the assurance of His +nearness, does not depend on what belongs to few men only, but on what +may belong to all? When we say that 'not many wise men after the flesh, +not many mighty, not many noble, are called'--when we say that love is +the means of knowledge--we are but in other words saying that the way +is open to all, and that no characteristics belonging to classes, no +powers that must obviously always belong to but a handful, are +necessary for the full apprehension of the power and blessedness of +Christ's Gospel. The freeness and the fullness of that divine message, +the glorious truth that it is for all men, and is offered to all, are +couched in that grand principle, Love that thou mayest know; love, and +thou art filled with the fullness of God, Not for the handful, not for +the _elite_ of the world; not for the few, but for the many; not for +the wise, but for all; not for classes, but for humanity--for all that +are weak, and sinful, and needy, and foolish, and darkened He comes, +who only needs that the heart that looks should love, and then it shall +behold! + +But if that were the whole that I have to say, I should have said but +little to the purpose. It very little avails to tell men to love. We +cannot love to order, or because we think it duty. There is but one way +of loving, and that is to see the lovely. The disciple who loved Jesus +was 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.' Generalise that, and it teaches us +this, that + +III. They love who know that Christ loves them. His divine and eternal +mercy is the foundation of the whole. Our love, brethren, can never be +any thing else than our echo to His voice of tenderness than the +reflected light upon our hearts of the full glory of His affection. No +man loveth God except the man who has first learned that God loves him. +'We love Him, because He first loved us.' And when we say, 'Love +Christ,' if we could not go on to say, 'Nay, rather let Christ's love +come down upon you'--we had said worse than nothing. The fountain that +rises in my heart can only spring up heavenward, because the water of +it has flowed down into my heart from the higher level. All love must +descend first, before it can ascend. We have, then, no Gospel to +preach, if we have only this to preach, 'Love, and thou art saved.' But +we have a Gospel that is worth the preaching, when we can come to men +who have no love in their hearts, and say, 'Brethren! listen to +this--you have to bring nothing, you are called upon to originate no +affection; you have nothing to do but simply to receive the everlasting +love of God in Christ His Son, which was without us, which began before +us, which flows forth independent of us, which is unchecked by all our +sins, which triumphs over all our transgressions, and which will make +us--loveless, selfish, hardened, sinful men--soft, and tender, and full +of divine affection, by the communication of its own self. + +Oh, then, look to Christ, that you may love Him! Think, brethren, of +that full, and free, and boundless mercy which, from eternity, has been +pouring itself out in floods of grace and loving-kindness over all +creatures. Think of that everlasting love which presided at the +foundation of the earth, and has sustained it ever since. Think of that +Saviour who has died for us, and lives for us. Think of Christ, the +heart of God, and the fullness of the Father's mercy; and do not think +of yourselves at all. Do not ask yourselves, to begin with, the +question, Do I love Him or do I not? You will never love by that means. +If a man is cold, let him go to the fire and warm himself. If he is +dark, let him stand in the sunshine, and he will be light. If his heart +is all clogged and clotted with sin and selfishness, let him get under +the influence of the love of Christ, and look away from himself and his +own feelings, towards that Saviour whose love shed abroad is the sole +means of kindling ours. You have to go down deeper than _your_ +feelings, _your_ affections, _your_ desires, _your_ character. There +you will find no resting-place, no consolation, no power. Dig down to +the living Rock, Christ and His infinite love to you, and let _it_ be +the strong foundation, built into which you and your love may become +living stones, a holy temple, partaking of the firmness and nature of +that on which it rests. They that love do so because they know that +Christ loves them; and they that love see Him everywhere; and they that +see Him everywhere are blessed for evermore. And let no man here +torture himself, or limit the fullness of this message that we preach, +by questionings whether Christ loves Him or not. Are you a man? are you +sinful? have you broken God's law? do you need a Saviour? Then put away +all these questions, and believe that Christ's personal love is +streaming out for the whole world, and that there is a share for you if +you like to take it and be blessed! + +There is one last thought arising from the whole subject before us, +that may be worth mention before I close. Did you ever notice how this +whole incident might be turned, by a symbolical application, to the +hour of death, and the vision which may meet us when we come thither? +It admits of the application, and perhaps was intended to receive the +application, of such a symbolic reference. The morning is dawning, the +grey of night going away, the lake is still; and yonder, standing on +the shore, in the uncertain light, there is one dim Figure, and one +disciple catches a sight of Him, and another casts himself into the +water, and they find 'a fire of coals, and fish laid thereon, and +bread,' and Christ gathers them around His table, and they all know +that 'It is the Lord!' It is what the death of the Christian man, who +has gone through life recognising Christ everywhere, may well +become:--the morning breaking, and the finished work, and the Figure +standing on the quiet beach, so that the last plunge into the cold +flood that yet separates us, will not be taken with trembling +reluctance; but, drawn to Him by the love beaming out of His face, and +upheld by the power of His beckoning presence, we shall struggle +through the latest wave that parts us, and scarcely feel its chill, nor +know that we _have_ crossed it; till falling blessed at His feet, we +see, by the nearer and clearer vision of His face, that this is indeed +heaven. And looking back upon 'the sea that brought us thither,' we +shall behold its waters flashing in the light of that everlasting +morning, and hear them breaking in music upon the eternal shore. And +then, brethren, when all the weary night-watchers on the stormy ocean +of life are gathered together around Him who watched with them from His +throne on the bordering mountains of eternity, where the day shines for +ever--then He will seat them at His table in His kingdom, and none will +need to ask, 'Who art Thou?' or 'Where am I?' for all shall know that +'It is the Lord!' and the full, perfect, unchangeable vision of His +blessed face will be heaven! + + + +'LOVEST THOU ME?' + +'Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more +than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love +Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs.'--JOHN xxi. 15. + +Peter had already seen the risen Lord. There had been that interview on +Easter morning, on which the seal of sacred secrecy was impressed; +when, alone, the denier poured out his heart to his Lord, and was taken +to the heart that he had wounded. Then there had been two interviews on +the two successive Sundays in which the Apostle, in common with his +brethren, had received, as one of the group, the Lord's benediction, +the Lord's gift of the Spirit, and the Lord's commission. But something +more was needed; there had been public denial, there must be public +confession. If he had slipped again into the circle of the disciples, +with no special treatment or reference to his fall, it might have +seemed a trivial fault to others, and even to himself. And so, after +that strange meal on the beach, we have this exquisitely beautiful and +deeply instructive incident of the special treatment needed by the +denier before he could be publicly reinstated in his office. + +The meal seems to have passed in silence. That awe which hung over the +disciples in all their intercourse with Jesus during the forty days, +lay heavy on them, and they sat there, huddled round the fire, eating +silently the meal which Christ had provided, and no doubt gazing +silently at the silent Lord. What a tension of expectation there must +have been as to how the oppressive silence was to be broken! and how +Peter's heart must have throbbed, and the others' ears been pricked up, +when it was broken by 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?' We may +listen with pricked-up ears too. For we have here, in Christ's +treatment of the Apostle, a revelation of how He behaves to a soul +conscious of its fault; and in Peter's demeanour an illustration of how +a soul, conscious of its fault, should behave to Him. + +There are three stages here: the threefold question, the threefold +answer, and the threefold charge. Let us look at these. + +I. The threefold question. + +The reiteration in the interrogation did not express doubt as to the +veracity of the answer, nor dissatisfaction with its terms; but it did +express, and was meant, I suppose, to suggest to Peter and to the +others, that the threefold denial needed to be obliterated by the +threefold confession; and that every black mark that had been scored +deep on the page by that denial needed to be covered over with the +gilding or bright colouring of the triple acknowledgment. And so Peter +thrice having said, 'I know Him not!' Jesus with a gracious violence +forced him to say thrice, 'Thou knowest that I love Thee.' The same +intention to compel Peter to go back upon his past comes out in two +things besides the triple form of the question. The one is the +designation by which he is addressed, 'Simon, son of Jonas,' which +travels back, as it were, to the time before he was a disciple, and +points a finger to his weak humanity before it had come under the +influence of Jesus Christ. 'Simon, son of Jonas,' was the name that he +bore in the days before his discipleship. It was the name by which +Jesus had addressed him, therefore, on that never-to-be-forgotten +turning-point of his life, when he was first brought to Him by his +brother Andrew. It was the name by which Jesus had addressed him at the +very climax of his past life when, high up, he had been able to see +far, and in answer to the Lord's question, had rung out the confession: +'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!' So the name by which +Jesus addresses him now says to him in effect: 'Remember thy human +weakness; remember how thou wert drawn to Me; remember the high-water +mark of thy discipleship, when I was plain before thee as the Son of +God, and remembering all these, answer Me--lovest thou Me?' + +The same intention to drive Peter back to the wholesome remembrance of +a stained past is obvious in the first form of the question. Our Lord +mercifully does not persist in giving to it that form in the second and +third instances: 'Lovest thou Me more than these?' More than these, +what? I cannot for a moment believe that that question means something +so trivial and irrelevant as 'Lovest thou Me more than these nets, and +boats, and the fishing?' No; in accordance with the purpose that runs +through the whole, of compelling Peter to retrospect, it says to him, +'Do you remember what you said a dozen hours before you denied Me, +"Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I"? Are you going to take +that stand again? Lovest thou Me more than these that never discredited +their boasting so shamefully?' + +So, dear brethren! here we have Jesus Christ, in His treatment of this +penitent and half-restored soul, forcing a man, with merciful +compulsion, to look steadfastly and long at his past sin, and to +retrace step by step, shameful stage by shameful stage, the road by +which he had departed so far. Every foul place he is to stop and look +at, and think about. Each detail he has to bring up before his mind. +Was it not cruel of Jesus thus to take Peter by the neck, as it were, +and hold him right down, close to the foul things that he had done, and +say to him, 'Look! look! look ever! and answer, Lovest thou Me?' No; it +was not cruel; it was true kindness. Peter had never been so abundantly +and permanently penetrated by the sense of the sinfulness of his sin, +as after he was sure, as he had been made sure in that great interview, +that it was all forgiven. So long as a man is disturbed by the dread of +consequences, so long as he is doubtful as to his relation to the +forgiving Love, he is not in a position beneficially and sanely to +consider his evil in its moral quality only. But when the conviction +comes to a man, 'God is pacified towards thee for all that thou hast +done'; and when he can look at his own evil without the smallest +disturbance rising from slavish fear of issues, then lie is in a +position rightly to estimate its darkness and its depth. And there can +be no better discipline for us all than to remember our faults, and +penitently to travel back over the road of our sins, just because we +are sure that God in Christ has forgotten them. The beginning of +Christ's merciful treatment of the forgiven man is to compel him to +remember, that he may learn and be ashamed. + +And then there is another point here, in this triple question. How +significant and beautiful it is that the only thing that Jesus Christ +cares to ask about is the sinner's love! We might have expected: +'Simon, son of Jonas, are you sorry for what you did? Simon, son of +Jonas, will you promise never to do the like any more?' No! These +things will come if the other thing is there. 'Lovest thou Me?' Jesus +Christ sues each of us, not for obedience primarily, not for +repentance, not for vows, not for conduct, but for a heart; and that +being given, all the rest will follow. That is the distinguishing +characteristic of Christian morality, that Jesus seeks first for the +surrender of the affections, and believes, and is warranted in the +belief, that if these are surrendered, all else will follow; and love +being given, loyalty and service and repentance and hatred of self-will +and of self-seeking will follow in her train. All the graces of human +character which Christ seeks, and is ready to impart, are, as it were, +but the pages and ministers of the regal Love, who follow behind and +swell the _cortege_ of her servants. + +Christ asks for love. Surely that indicates the depth of His own! In +this commerce He is satisfied with nothing less, and can ask for +nothing more; and He seeks for love because He is love, and has given +love. Oh! to all hearts burdened, as all our hearts ought to be--unless +the burden has been cast off in one way--by the consciousness of our +own weakness and imperfection, surely, surely, it is a gospel that is +contained in that one question addressed to a man who had gone far +astray, 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou?' + +Here, again, we have Jesus Christ, in His dealing with the penitent, +willing to trust discredited professions. We think that one of the +signs of our being wise people is that experience shall have taught us +'once' being 'bit, twice' to be 'shy,' and if a man has once deceived +us by flaming professions and ice-cold acts, never to trust him any +more. And we think that is 'worldly wisdom,' and 'the bitter fruit of +earthly experience,' and 'sharpness,' and 'shrewdness,' and so forth. +Jesus Christ, even whilst reminding Peter, by that 'more than these,' +of his utterly hollow and unreliable boasting, shows Himself ready to +accept once again the words of one whose unveracity He had proved. +'Charity hopeth all things, believeth all things,' and Jesus Christ is +ready to trust us when we say, 'I love Thee,' even though often in the +past our professed love has been all disproved. + +We have here, in this question, our Lord revealing Himself as willing +to accept the imperfect love which a disciple can offer Him. Of course, +many of you well know that there is a very remarkable play of +expression here. In the two first questions the word which our Lord +employs for 'love' is not the same as that which appears in Peter's two +first answers. Christ asks for one kind of love; Peter proffers +another. I do not enter upon discussion as to the distinction between +these two apparent synonyms. The kind of love which Christ asks for is +higher, nobler, less emotional, and more associated with the whole mind +and will. It is the inferior kind, the more warm, more sensuous, more +passionate and emotional, which Peter brings. And then, in the third +question, our Lord, as it were, surrenders and takes Peter's own word, +as if He had said, 'Be it so! You shrink from professing the higher +kind; I will take the lower; and I will educate and bring that up to +the height that I desire you to stand at.' Ah, brother! however stained +and imperfect, however disproved by denials, however tainted by earthly +associations, Jesus Christ will accept the poor stream of love, though +it be but a trickle when it ought to be a torrent, which we can bring +Him. + +These are the lessons which it seems to me lie in this triple question. +I have dealt with them at the greater length, because those which +follow are largely dependent upon them. But let me turn now briefly, in +the second place, to-- + +II. The triple answer. + +'Yea, Lord! Thou knowest that I love Thee.' Is not that beautiful, that +the man who by Christ's Resurrection, as the last of the answers shows, +had been led to the loftiest conception of Christ's omniscience, and +regarded Him as knowing the hearts of all men, should, in the face of +all that Jesus Christ knew about his denial and his sin, have dared to +appeal to Christ's own knowledge? What a superb and all-conquering +confidence in Christ's depth of knowledge and forgivingness of +knowledge that answer showed! He felt that Jesus could look beneath the +surface of his sin, and see that below it there was, even in the midst +of the denial, a heart that in its depths was true. It is a tremendous +piece of confident appeal to the deeper knowledge, and therefore the +larger love and more abundant forgiveness, of the righteous Lord--'Thou +knowest that I love Thee.' + +Brethren! a Christian man ought to be sure of his love to Jesus Christ. +You do not study your conduct in order to infer from it your love to +others. You do not study your conduct in order to infer from it your +love to your wife, or your husband, or your parents, or your children, +or your friend. Love is not a matter of inference; it is a matter of +consciousness and intuition. And whilst self-examination is needful for +us all for many reasons, a Christian man ought to be as sure that he +loves Jesus Christ as he is sure that he loves his dearest upon earth. + +It used to be the fashion long ago--this generation has not depth +enough to keep up the fashion--for Christian people to talk as if it +were a point they longed to know, whether they loved Jesus Christ or +not. There is no reason why it should be a point we long to know. You +know all about your love to one another, and you are sure about that. +Why are you not sure about your love to Jesus Christ? 'Oh! but,' you +say, 'look at my sins and failures'; and if Peter had looked only at +his sins, do you not think that his words would have stuck in his +throat? He did look, but he looked in a very different way from that of +trying to ascertain from his conduct whether he loved Jesus Christ or +not. Brethren, any sin is inconsistent with Christian love to Christ. +Thank God, we have no right to say of any sin that it is incompatible +with that love! More than that; a great, gross, flagrant, sudden fall +like Peter's is a great deal less inconsistent with love to Christ than +are the continuously unworthy, worldly, selfish, Christ-forgetting +lives of hosts of complacent professing Christians to-day. White ants +will eat up the carcase of a dead buffalo quicker than a lion will. And +to have denied Christ once, twice, thrice, in the space of an hour, and +under strong temptation, is not half so bad as to call Him 'Master' and +'Lord,' and day by day, week in, week out, in works to deny Him. The +triple answer declares to us that in spite of a man's sins he ought to +be conscious of his love, and be ready to profess it when need is. + +III. Lastly, we have here the triple commission. + +I do not dwell upon it at any length, because in its original form it +applies especially to the Apostolic office. But the general principles +which underlie this threefold charge, to feed and to tend both 'the +sheep' and 'the lambs,' may be put in a form that applies to each of +us, and it is this--the best token of a Christian's love to Jesus +Christ is his service of man for Christ's sake. 'Lovest thou Me?' 'Yea! +Lord.' Thou hast _said_; go and _do_, 'Feed My lambs; feed My sheep.' +We need the profession of words; we need, as Peter himself enjoined at +a subsequent time, to be ready to 'give to every man that asketh us a +reason of the hope,' and an acknowledgment of the love, that are in us. +But if you want men to believe in your love, however Jesus Christ may +know it, go and work in the Master's vineyard. The service of man is +the garb of the love of God. 'He that loveth God will love his brother +also.' Do not confine that thought of service, and feeding, and +tending, to what we call evangelistic and religious work. That is one +of its forms, but it is only one of them. Everything in which Christian +men can serve their fellows is to be taken by them as their worship of +their Lord, and is taken by the world as the convincing proof of the +reality of their love. + +Love to Jesus Christ is the qualification for all such service. If we +are knit to Him by true affection, which is based upon our +consciousness of our own falls and evils, and our reception of His +forgiving mercy, then we shall have the qualities that fit us, and the +impulse that drives us, to serve and help our fellows. I do not +say--God forbid!--that there is no philanthropy apart from Christian +faith, but I do say that, on the wide scale, and in the long run, they +who are knit to Jesus Christ by love will be those who render the +greatest help to all that are 'afflicted in mind, body, or estate'; and +that the true basis and qualification for efficient service of our +fellows is the utter surrender of our hearts to Him who is the Fountain +of love, and from whom comes all our power to live in the world, as the +images and embodiments of the love which has saved us that we might +help to save others. + +Brethren! let us all ask ourselves Christ's question to the denier. Let +us look our past evils full in the face, that we may learn to hate +them, and that we may learn more the width and the sweep of the power +of His pardoning mercy. God grant that we may all be able to say, 'Thou +knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee!' + + + +YOUTH AND AGE, AND THE COMMAND FOR BOTH + +_Annual Sermon to the Young_ + +'... When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither +thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy +hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou +wouldest not.... And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, Follow +Me.'--JOHN xxi. 18, 19. + +The immediate reference of these words is, of course, to the martyrdom +of the Apostle Peter. Our Lord contrasts the vigorous and somewhat +self-willed youth and the mellowed old age of His servant, and shadows +forth his death, in bonds, by violence. And then He bids him, +notwithstanding this prospect of the issue of his faithfulness, 'Follow +Me.' + +Now I venture, though with some hesitation, to give these words a +slightly different application. I see in them two pictures of youth and +of old age, and a commandment based upon both. You young people are +often exhorted to a Christian life on the ground of the possible +approach of death. I would not undervalue that motive, but I seek now +to urge the same thing upon you from a directly opposite consideration, +the probability that many of you will live to be old. All the chief +reasons for our being Christians are of the same force, whether we are +to die to-night, or to live for a century. So in my text I wish you to +note what you are now; what, if you live, you are sure to become; and +what, in the view of both stages, you will be wise to do. 'When thou +wast young thou girdedst thyself, and wentest whither thou wouldest. +When thou shalt be old another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither +thou wouldest not.' Therefore, 'Follow Me.' + +I. So, then, note the picture here of what you are. + +Most of you young people are but little accustomed to reflect upon +yourselves, or upon the special characteristics and prerogatives of +your time of life. But it will do you no harm to think for a minute or +two of what these characteristics are, that you may know your +blessings, and that you may shun the dangers which attach to them. + +'When thou wast young thou girdedst thyself.' _There_ is a picture +easily translated, and significant of much. The act of girding implies +preparation for action, and may be widened out to express that most +blessed prerogative of youth, the cherishing of bright imaginations of +its future activity and course. The dreams of youth are often laughed +at, but if a young man or woman be faithful to them they are the +prophecies of the future, and are given in order that at the opening of +the flower nature may put forth her power; and so we may be able to +live through many a dreary hour in the future. Only, seeing that you do +live so much in rich foreshadowings and fair anticipations of the times +that are to come, take care that you do not waste that divine faculty, +the freshness of which is granted to you as a morning gift, the 'dew of +your youth.' See that you do not waste it in anticipations which cling +like mist to the low levels of life, but that you lift it higher and +embrace worthy objects. It is good that you should anticipate, that you +should live by hope. It is good that you should be drawn onwards by +bright visions, whether they be ever fulfilled or no. But there are +dangers in the exercise, and dreaming with some of you takes the place +of realising your dreams, and you build for yourselves fair fabrics in +imagination which you never take one step to accomplish and make real. +Be not the slaves and fools of your imaginations, but cultivate the +faculty of hoping largely; for the possibilities of human life are +elastic, and no man or woman, in their most sanguine, early +anticipations, if only these be directed to the one real good, has ever +exhausted or attained the possibilities open to every soul. + +Again, girding _one's self_ implies independent self-reliance, and that +is a gift and a stewardship given (as all gifts are stewardships) to +the young. We all fancy, in our early days, that we are going to build +'towers that will reach to heaven.' Now _we_ have come, and we will +show people how to do it! The past generations have failed, but ours is +full of brighter promise. There is something very touching, to us older +men almost tragical, in the unbounded self-confidence of the young life +that we see rushing to the front all round us. We know so well the +disillusion that is sure to come, the disappointments that will cloud +the morning sky. We would not carry one shadow from the darkened +experience of middle life into the roseate tints of the morning. The +'vision splendid' + + Will fade away + Into the light of common day,' + +soon enough. But for the present this self-reliant confidence is one of +the blessings of your early days. + +Only remember, it is dangerous, too. It may become want of reverence, +which is ruinous, or presumption and rashness. Remember what a cynical +head of a college said, 'None of us is infallible, not even the +youngest,' and blend modesty with confidence, and yet be buoyant and +strong, and trust in the power that may make you strong. And then your +self-confidence will not be rashness. + +'Thou wentest whither thou wouldest.' That is another characteristic of +youth, after it has got beyond the schoolboy stage. Your own will tends +to become your guide. For one thing, at your time of life, most other +inward guides are comparatively weak. You have but little experience. +Most of you have not cultivated largely the habit of patient +reflection, and thinking twice before you act once. That comes: it +would not be good that it should be over-predominant in you. 'Old heads +on young shoulders' are always monstrosities, and it is all right that, +in your early days, you should largely live by impulse, if only, as +well as a will, there be a conscience at work which will do instead of +the bitter experience which comes to guide some of the older of us. + +Again, yours is the age when passion is strong. I speak now especially +to young men. Restraints are removed for many of you. There are dozens +of young men listening to me now, away from their father's home, +separated from the purifying influence of sisters and of family life, +living in solitary lodgings, at liberty to spend their evenings where +they choose, and nobody be a bit the wiser. Ah, my dear young friend! +'thou wentest whither thou wouldest' and thou wouldest whither thou +oughtest not to go. + +There is nothing more dangerous than getting into the habit of saying, +'I do as I like,' however you cover it over. Some of you say, 'I +indulge natural inclinations; I am young; a man must have his fling. +Let me sow my wild oats in a quiet corner, where nobody will see the +crop coming up; and when I get to be as old as you are, I will do as +you do; young men will be young men,' etc., etc. You know all that sort +of talk. Take this for a certain fact: that whoever puts the reins into +the charge of his own will when he is young, has put the reins _and the +whip_ into hands which will drive over the precipice. + +My friend! 'I will' is no word for you. There is a far diviner and +better one than that--'I ought.' Have you learnt that? Do you yield to +that sovereign imperative, and say, 'I _must_, because I _ought_ and, +therefore, I _will_'? Bow passion to reason, reason to conscience, +conscience to God--and then, be as strong in the will and as stiff in +the neck as ever you choose; but only then. So much, then, for my first +picture. + +II. Now let me ask you to turn with me for a moment to the second +one--What you will certainly become if you live. + +I have already explained that putting this meaning on the latter +portion of our first verse is somewhat forcing it from its original +signification. And yet it is so little of violence that the whole of +the language naturally lends itself to make a picture of the difference +between the two stages of life. + +All the bright visions that dance before your youthful mind will fade +away. We begin by thinking that we are going to build temples, or +'towers that shall reach to heaven,' and when we get into middle life +we have to say to ourselves: 'Well! I have scarcely material enough to +carry out the large design that I had. I think that I will content +myself with building a little hovel, that I may live in, and perhaps it +will keep the weather off me.' Hopes diminish; dreams vanish; limited +realities take their place, and we are willing to hold out our hands +and let some one else take the responsibilities that we were so eager +to lay upon ourselves at the first. Strength will fade away. 'Even the +youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail.' +Physical weariness, weakness, the longing for rest, the consciousness +of ever-narrowed and narrowing powers, will come to you, and if you +grow up to be old men, which it is probable that many of you will do, +you will have to sit and watch the tide of your life ebb, ebb, ebbing +away moment by moment. + +Self-will will be wonderfully broken, for there are far stronger forces +that determine a man's life than his own wishes and will. We are like +swimmers in the surf of the Indian Ocean, powerless against the +battering of the wave which pitches us, for all our science, and for +all our muscle, where it will. Call it environment, call it fate, call +it circumstances, call it providence, call it God--there is something +outside of us bigger than we are, and the man who begins life, thinking +'Thus I will, thus I command, let my determination stand instead of all +other reason'; has to say at last, 'I could not do what I wanted. I had +to be content to do what I could.' Thus our self-will gets largely +broken down; and patient acceptance of the inevitable comes to be the +wisdom and peace of the old man. + +And, last of all, the picture shows us an irresistible approximation to +an unwelcome goal: 'Another shall carry thee whither thou wouldest not.' + +Life to the old seems to you to be so empty and ashen grey that you +wonder they care to live. But life to them, for all its +disappointments, its weariness, its foiled efforts, its vanished hopes, +its departed companions, is yet life, and most of them cling to it like +a miser to his gold. But yet, like a man sucked into Niagara above the +falls, they are borne on the irresistible, smooth flood, nearer and +nearer to the edge of the rock, and they hear the mighty sound in their +ears long before they reach the place where the plunge is to be taken +from sunshine into darkness and foam. + +So 'when thou shalt be old' your fancy will be gone, your physical +strength will be gone, your freshness will be gone, your faculty of +hoping will work feebly and have little to work on; on earth your sense +of power will be humbled, and yet you will not want to be borne to the +place whither you must be borne. + +Fancy two portraits, one of a little chubby boy in child's dress, with +a round face and clustering curls and smooth cheeks and red lips, and +another of an old man, with wearied eyes, and thin locks, and wrinkled +cheeks, and a bowed frame. The difference between the two is but the +symbol of the profounder differences that separate the two selves, +which yet are the one self--the impetuous, self-reliant, self-willed, +hopeful, buoyant youth, and the weary, feeble, broken, old man. And +that is what you will come to, if you live, as sure as I am speaking to +you, and you are listening to me. + +III. And now, lastly, what in the view of both these stages it is wise +for you to do. + +'When He had spoken thus, He saith unto him, Follow Me.' What do we +mean by following Christ? We mean submission to His authority. 'Follow +Me' as Captain, Commander, absolute Lawgiver, and Lord. We mean +imitation of His example. These two words include all human duty, and +promise to every man perfection if he obeys. 'Follow Me'--it is enough, +more than enough, to make a man complete and blessed. We mean choosing +and keeping close to Him, as Companion as well as Leader and Lord. No +man or woman will ever be solitary, though friends may go, and +associates may change, and companions may leave them, and life may +become empty and dreary as far as human sympathy is concerned--no man +or woman will ever be solitary if stepping in Christ's footsteps, close +at His heels, and realising His presence. + +But you cannot follow Him, and He has no right to tell you to follow +Him, unless He is something more and other to you than Example, and +Commander, and Companion. What business has Jesus Christ to demand that +a man should go after Him to the death? Only this business, that He has +gone to the death for the man. You must follow Christ first, my friend, +by coming to Him as a sinful creature, and finding your whole salvation +and all your hope in humble reliance on the merit of His death. Then +you may follow Him in obedience, and imitation, and glad communion. + +That being understood, I would press upon you this thought, that such a +following of Jesus Christ will preserve for you all that is blessed in +the characteristics of your youth, and will prevent them from becoming +evil. He will give you a basis for your hopes and fulfil your most +sanguine dreams, if these are based on His promises, and their +realisation sought in the path of His feet. As Isaiah prophesies, 'the +mirage shall become a pool.' That which else is an illusion, dancing +ahead and deceiving thirsty travellers into the belief that sand is +water, shall become to you really 'pools of water,' if your hopes are +fixed on Jesus Christ. If you follow Him, your strength will not ebb +away with shrunken sinews and enfeebled muscles. If you trust Christ, +your self-will will be elevated by submission, and become strong to +control your rebellious nature, because it is humble to submit to His +supreme command. And if you trust and follow Jesus Christ, your hope +will be buoyant, and bright, and blessed, and prolong its buoyancy, and +brightness, and blessedness into 'old age, when others fade.' If you +will follow Christ your old age will, if you reach it, be saved from +the bitterest pangs that afflict the aged, and will be brightened by +future possibilities. There will be no need for lingering laments over +past blessings, no need for shrinking reluctance to take the inevitable +step. An old age of peaceful, serene brightness caught from the nearer +gleam of the approaching heaven, and quiet as the evenings in the late +autumn, not without a touch of frost, perhaps, but yet kindly and +fruitful, may be ours. And instead of shrinking from the end, if we +follow Jesus, we shall put our hands quietly and trustfully into His, +as a little child does into its mother's soft, warm palm, and shall not +ask whither He leads, assured that since it is He who leads we shall be +led aright. + +Dear young friends! 'Follow Me!' is Christ's merciful invitation to +you. You will never again be so likely to obey it as you are now. Well +begun is half ended. 'I would have you innocent of much transgression.' +You need Him to keep you in the slippery ways of youth. You could not +go into some of those haunts, where some of you have been, if you +thought to yourselves, 'Am I following Jesus as I cross this wicked +threshold?' You may never have another message of mercy brought to your +ears. If you do become a religious man in later life, you will be +laying up for yourselves seeds of remorse and sorrow, and in some cases +memories of pollution and filth, that will trouble you all your days. +'To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.' + + + +'THEY ALSO SERVE WHO ONLY STAND AND WAIT' + +'Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do! +Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that +to thee? Follow thou Me.'--John xxi. 21, 22. + +We have seen in a former sermon that the charge of the risen Christ to +Peter, which immediately precedes these verses, allotted to him service +and suffering. The closing words of that charge 'Follow Me!' had a deep +significance, as uniting both parts of his task in the one supreme +command of imitation of his Master. + +But the same words had also a simpler meaning, as inviting the Apostle +to come apart with Christ at the moment, for some further token of His +love or indication of His will. Peter follows; but in following, +naturally turns to see what the little group, sitting silent there by +the coal fire on the beach, may be doing, and he notices John coming +towards them, with intent to join them. + +What emboldened John to thrust himself, uncalled for, into so secret an +interview? The words in which he is described in the context answer the +question. 'He was the disciple whom Jesus loved, which also leaned on +His breast at Supper, and said, Lord! which is he that betrayeth Thee?' +He was also bound by close ties to Peter. So with the familiarity of +'perfect love which casteth out fear,' he felt that the Master could +have no secrets from him, and no charge to give to his friend which he +might not share. + +Peter's swift question, 'Lord! and what shall this man do?' though it +has been often blamed, does not seem very blameworthy. There was +perhaps a little touch of his old vivacity in it, indicating that he +had not been sufficiently subdued and sobered by the prospect which +Christ had held out to him; but far more than that there was a natural +interest in his friend's fate, and something of a wish to have his +company on the path which he was to tread. Christ's answer, 'If I will +that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me!' +gently rebukes any leaven of evil that there may have been in the +question; warns him against trying to force other people into his +groove; with solemn emphasis reiterates his own duty; and, in effect, +bids him let his brother alone, and see that he himself discharges the +ministry which he has received of the Lord. + +The enigmatical words of Christ, and the long life of the Apostle, +which seemed to explain them, naturally bred an interpretation of them +in the Early Church which is recorded here, as I believe, by the +Evangelist himself, to the effect that John, like another Enoch at the +beginning of a new world, was to escape the common lot. And very +beautiful is the quiet way in which the Evangelist put that error on +one side, by the simple repetition of his Master's words, emphasising +their hypothetical form and their enigmatical character: 'Jesus said +not unto him, He shall not die; but _if_ I will that he _tarry_ till I +come, what is that to thee?' + +Now all this, I think, is full of lessons. Let me try to draw one or +two of them briefly now. + +I. First, then, we have in that majestic 'If I will!' the revelation of +the risen Christ as the Lord of life and death. + +In His charge to Peter, Christ had asserted His right absolutely to +control His servant's conduct and fix his place in the world, and His +power to foresee and forecast his destiny and his end. But in these +words He goes a step further. 'I _will_ that he tarry'; to communicate +life and to sustain life is a divine prerogative; to act by the bare +utterance of His will upon physical nature is a divine prerogative. +Jesus Christ here claims that His will goes out with sovereign power +amongst the perplexities of human history and into the depths of that +mystery of life; and that He, the Son of Man, 'quickens whom He will,' +and has power 'to kill and to make alive.' The words would be absurd, +if not something worse, upon any but divine lips, that opened with +conscious authority, and whose Utterer knew that His hand was laid upon +the innermost springs of being. + +So, in this entirely incidental fashion, you have one of the strongest +and plainest instances of the quiet, unostentatious and habitual manner +in which Jesus Christ claimed for Himself properly divine prerogatives. + +Remember that He who thus spoke was standing before these seven men +there, in the morning light, on the beach, fresh from the grave. His +resurrection had proved Him to be the Lord of death. He had bound it to +His chariot-wheels as a Conqueror. He had risen and He stood there +before them with no more mark of the corruption of the grave upon Him +than there are traces of the foul water in which a sea bird may have +floated, on its white wing that flashes in the sunshine as it soars. +And surely as these men looked to Christ, 'declared to be the Son of +God with power, by His resurrection from the dead, 'they may have +begun, however 'foolish and slow of heart' they were 'to believe,' to +understand that 'to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, +that He might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living,' both of +death and of life. + +These two Apostles' later history was full of proofs that Christ's +claim was valid. Peter is shut up in prison and delivered once, at the +very last moment, when hope was almost dead, in order that he might +understand that when he was put into another prison and _not_ +delivered, the blow of martyrdom fell upon him, not because of the +strength of his persecutors, but because of the will of his Lord. And +John had to see his brother James, to whom he had been so closely knit, +with whom he had pledged himself to drink the cup that Christ drank of, +whom he had desired to have associated with himself in the special +honours in the Messianic Kingdom--he had to see him slain, first of the +Apostles, while he himself lingered here long after all his early +associates were gone. He had, no doubt, many a longing to depart. +Solitary, surrounded by a new world, pressed by many cares, he must +often have felt that the cross which he had to carry was no lighter +than that laid on those who had passed to their rest by martyrdom. To +him it would often be martyrdom to live. His personal longing is heard +for a moment in the last words of the Apocalypse, 'Amen! even so, come, +Lord Jesus!'--but undoubtedly for the most part he stayed his heart on +his Lord's will, and waited in meek patience till he heard the welcome +announcement, 'The Master is come and calleth for thee.' + +And, dear friends! that same belief that the risen Christ is the Lord +of life and death, is the only one that can stay our hearts, or make us +bow with submission to His divine will. He who has conquered death by +undergoing it is death's Lord as well as ours, and when He wills to +bring His friends home to Himself, saith to that black-robed servant, +'Go, and he goeth; do this and he doeth it.' The vision which John saw +long after this on another shore, washed by a stormier sea, spoke the +same truth as does this majestic 'I will'--'He that liveth and became +dead and is alive for evermore,' is by virtue of His divine eternal +life, and has become in His humanity by virtue of His death and +resurrection the Lord of life and death. The hands that were nailed to +the Cross turn the keys of death and Hades. 'He openeth and no man +shutteth; He shutteth and no man openeth.' + +II. We have here before us, in this incident, the service of patient +waiting. + +'If I will that he tarry, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.' Peter +is the man of action, not great at reflection; full of impulse, +restless until his hands can do something to express his thoughts and +his emotions. On the very Mount of Transfiguration he wanted to set to +work and build 'three tabernacles,' instead of listening awed to the +divine colloquy. In Galilee he cannot wait quietly for his Master to +come, but must propose to his friends to 'go a fishing.' In the +fishing-boat, as soon as he sees the Lord he must struggle through the +sea to get at Him; whilst John sits quiet in the boat, blessed in the +consciousness of his Master's presence and in silently gazing at Him +verily there. All through the first part of the Acts of the Apostles +his bold energy goes flashing and flaming. It is always his voice that +rings out in the front, whether preaching on the Pentecost Day, +bringing healing to the sick, or fronting the Sanhedrim. His element is +in the shock of conflict and the strain of work. + +John, on the other hand, seldom appears in the narrative. When he does +so he stands a silent figure by the side of Peter, and disappears from +it altogether before very long. We do not hear that he did anything. He +seems to have had no part in the missionary work of the Church. + +He 'tarried,' that was all. The word is the same--'abide'--which is so +often upon his lips in his Gospel and in his Epistles, as expressive of +the innermost experience of the Christian soul, the condition of all +fruitfulness, blessedness, knowledge and Christ-likeness. Christ's +charge to John to 'tarry' did not only, as his brethren misinterpreted +it, mean that his life was to be continued, but it prescribed the +manner of his life. It was to be patient contemplation, a 'dwelling in +the house of the Lord,' a keeping of his heart still, like some little +tarn up amongst the silent hills, for heaven with all its blue to +mirror itself in. + +And that quiet life of contemplation bore its fruit. In his meditation +the deeds and words of his Master slowly grew ever more and more +luminous to him. Deeper meanings came out, revealing new +constellations, as he gazed into that opening heaven of memory. He +reaped 'the harvest of a quiet eye' and garnered the sheaves of it in +his Gospel, the holy of holies of the New Testament; and in his +Epistles, in which he proclaims the first and last word of revelation, +'God is love'--the pure diamond that hangs at the end of the golden +chain let down from Heaven. Often, no doubt, his brethren thought him +'but an idler in the land,' but at last his 'tarrying' was vindicated. + +Now, dear brethren! in all times of the world's history that form of +Christian service needs to be pressed upon busy people. And there never +was a time in the world's history, or in the Church's history, when it +more needed to be pressed upon the ordinary Christian man than at this +day. The good and the bad of our present Christianity, and of our +present social life, conspire to make people think that those who are +not at work in some external form of Christian service for the good of +their fellows are necessarily idlers. Many of them are so, but by no +means all, and there is always the danger that the external work which +good, earnest people do shall become greater than can be wholesomely +and safely done by them without their constant recourse to this +solitary meditation, and to tarrying before God. + +The stress and bustle of our everyday life; the feverish desire for +immediate results; the awakened conviction that Christianity is nothing +if not practical; the new sense of responsibility for the condition of +our fellows; the large increase of all sorts of domestic, evangelistic, +and missionary work among all churches in this day--things to be +profoundly thankful for, like all other good things have their possible +dangers; and it is laid on my heart to warn you of these now. For the +sake of our own personal hold on Jesus Christ, for the sake of our +progress in the knowledge of His truth, and for the sake of the very +work which some of us count so precious, there is need that we shall +betake ourselves to that still communion. The stream that is to water +half a continent must rise high in the lonely hills, and be fed by many +a mountain rill in the solitude, and the men who are to keep the +freshness of their Christian zeal, and of the consecration which they +will ever feel is being worn away by the attrition even of faithful +service, can only renew and refresh it by resorting again to the +Master, and imitating Him who prepared Himself for a day of teaching in +the Temple by a night of communion on the Mount of Olives. + +Further, there is here a lesson of tolerance for us all. Practical men +are always disposed, as I said, to force everybody else into their +groove. Martha is always disposed to think that Mary is idle when she +is 'sitting at Christ's feet,' and wants to have her come into the +kitchen and help her there. The eye which sees must not say to the hand +which toils, nor the hand to the eye, 'I have no need of thee.' There +are men who cannot think much; there are men who cannot work much. +There are men whom God has chosen for diligent external service; there +are men whom God has chosen for solitary retired musing; and we cannot +dispense with either the one or the other. Did not John Bunyan do more +for the world when he was shut up in Bedford Gaol and dreamed his dream +than by all his tramping about Bedfordshire, preaching to a handful of +cottagers? And has not the Christian literature of the prison, which +includes three at least of Paul's Epistles, proved of the greatest +service and most precious value to the Church? + +We need all to listen to the voice which says, 'Come ye apart by +yourselves into a solitary place, and rest awhile.' Work is good, but +the foundation of work is better. Activity is good, but the life which +is the basis of activity is even more. There is plenty of so-called +Christian work to-day which I fear me is not life but mechanism; has +slipped off its original foundations, and is, therefore, powerless. Let +us tolerate the forms of service least like our own, not seek to force +other men into our paths nor seek to imitate them. Let Peter flame in +the van, and beard high priests, and stir and fight; and let John sit +in his quiet horns, caring for his Lord's mother, and holding +fellowship with his Lord's Spirit. + +III. Lastly, we have here the lesson of patient acquiescence in +Christ's undisclosed will. + +The error into which the brethren of the Apostle fell as to the meaning +of the Lord's words was a very natural one, especially when taken with +the commentary which John's unusually protracted life seemed to append +to it. We know that that belief lingered long after the death of the +Apostle; and that legends, like the stories that are found in many +nations of heroes that have disappeared, but are sleeping in some +mountain recess, clustered round John's grave; over which the earth was +for many a century believed to heave and fall with his gentle breathing. + +John did not know exactly what his Master meant. He would not venture +upon a counter-interpretation. Perhaps his brethren were right, he does +not know; perhaps they were wrong, he does not know. One thing he is +quite sure of, that what his Master said was: '_If_ I will that he +tarry.' And he acquiesces quietly in the certainty that it shall be as +his Master wills; and, in the uncertainty what that will is, he says in +effect: 'I do not know, and it does not much matter. If I am to go to +find Him, well! If He is to come to find me, well again! Whichever way +it be, I know that the patient tarrying here will lead to a closer +communion hereafter, and so I leave it all in His hands.' + +Dear brethren! that is a blessed state that you and I may come to; a +state of quiet submission, not of indifference but of acquiescence in +the undisclosed will of our loving Christ about all matters, and about +this alternative of life or death amongst the rest. The soul that has +had communion with Jesus Christ amidst the imperfections here will be +able to refer all the mysteries and problems of its future to Him with +unshaken confidence. For union with Him carries with it the assurance +of its own perpetuity, and 'in its sweetness yieldeth proof that it was +born for immortality.' The Psalmist learned to say, 'Thou shalt +afterward receive me to glory,' because he could say, 'I am continually +with Thee.' And in like manner we may all rise from the experience of +the present to confidence in that immortal future. Death with his +'abhorred shears' cuts other close ties, but their edge turns on the +knot that binds the soul to its Saviour. He who has felt the power of +communion with the ever-living Christ cannot but feel that such union +must be for ever, and that because Christ lives, and as long as Christ +lives, he will live also. + +Therefore, to the soul thus abiding in Christ that alternative of life +or death which looms so large to us when we have not Christ with us, +will dwindle down into very small dimensions. If I live there will be +work for me to do here, and His love to possess; if I die there will be +work for me to do there too, and His love to possess in still more +abundant measure. So it will not be difficult for such a soul to leave +the decision of this as of all other things with the Lord of life and +death, and to lie acquiescent in His gracious hands. That calm +acceptance of His will and patience with Christ's '_If_' is the reward +of tarrying in silent communion with Him. + +My dear friend! has death to you dwindled to a very little thing? Can +you say that you are quite sure that it will not touch your truest +self? Are you able to leave the alternative in His hands, content with +His decision and content with the uncertainty that wraps His decision? +Can you say, + + 'Lord! It belongs not to my care, + Whether I die or live'? + +The answer to these questions is involved in the answer to the +other:--Have you trusted your sinful soul for salvation to Jesus +Christ, and are you drawing from Him a life which bears fruit in glad +service and in patient communion? Then it will not much matter whether +you are in heaven or on earth, for in both places and states the +essence of your life will be the same, your Companion one, and your +work identical. If it be 'Christ' for me to live it will be 'gain' for +me to die. + + + +END OF VOL. III. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. +John Chaps. XV to XXI, by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 8381.txt or 8381.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/3/8/8381/ + +Produced by Charles Franks, John Hagerson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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XV to XXI + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8381] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, John Hagerson +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ST. JOHN Chaps. XV to XXI + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ST. JOHN Chaps. XV to XXI + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE TRUE VINE (John xv. 1-4) + +THE TRUE BRANCHES OF THE TRUE VINE (John xv. 5-8) + +ABIDING IN LOVE (John xv. 9-11) + +THE ONENESS OF THE BRANCHES (John xv. 12, 13) + +CHRIST'S FRIENDS (John xv. 14-17) + +SHEEP AMONG WOLVES (John xv. 18-20) + +THE WORLD'S HATRED, AS CHRIST SAW IT (John xv. 21-25) + +OUR ALLY (John xv. 26, 27) + +WHY CHRIST SPEAKS (John xvi. 1-6) + +THE DEPARTING CHRIST AND THE COMING SPIRIT (John xvi. 7, 8) + +THE CONVICTING FACTS (John xvi 9-11) + +THE GUIDE INTO ALL TRUTH (John xvi. 12-15) + +CHRIST'S 'LITTLE WHILES' (John xvi. 16-19) + +SORROW TURNED INTO JOY (John xvi. 20-22) + +'IN THAT DAY' (John xvi. 23, 24) + +THE JOYS OP 'THAT DAY' (John xvi. 25-27) + +'FROM' AND 'TO' (John xvi. 28) + +GLAD CONFESSION AND SAD WARNING (John xvi. 29-32) + +PEACE AND VICTORY (John xvi. 33) + +THE INTERCESSOR (John xvii. 1-19) + +'THE LORD THEE KEEPS' (John xvii. 14-16) + +THE HIGH PRIEST'S PRAYER (John xvii. 20-26) + +THE FOLDED FLOCK (John xvii. 24) + +CHRIST'S SUMMARY OF HIS WORK (John xvii. 26) + +CHRIST AND HIS CAPTORS (John xviii. 6-9) + +JESUS BEFORE CAIAPHAS (John xviii. 15-27) + +'ART THOU A KING?' (John xviii. 28-40) + +JESUS SENTENCED (John xix. 1-16) + +AN EYE-WITNESS'S ACCOUNT OF THE CRUCIFIXION (John xix. 17-30) + +THE TITLE ON THE CROSS (John xix. 19) + +THE IRREVOCABLE PAST (John xix. 22) + +CHRIST'S FINISHED AND UNFINISHED WORK (John xix. 30; Rev. xxi. 6) + +CHRIST OUR PASSOVER (John xix. 36) + +JOSEPH AND NICODEMUS (John xix. 38, 39) + +THE GRAVE IN A GARDEN (John xix. 41, R.V.) + +THE RESURRECTION MORNING (John xx. 1-18) + +THE RISEN LORD'S CHARGE AND GIFT (John xx. 21-23) + +THOMAS AND JESUS (John xx. 28) + +THE SILENCE OF SCRIPTURE (John xx. 30, 31) + +AN ELOQUENT CATALOGUE (John xxi. 2) + +THE BEACH AND THE SEA (John xxi. 4) + +'IT IS THE LORD' (John xxi. 7) + +'LOVEST THOU ME?' (John xxi. 15) + +YOUTH AND AGE, AND THE COMMAND FOR BOTH (John xxi. 18, 19) + +'THEY ALSO SERVE WHO ONLY STAND AND WAIT' (John xxi. 21, 22) + + + +THE TRUE VINE + +'I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every +branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every +branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it, that it may bring forth +more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken +unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear +fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, +except ye abide in Me.'--JOHN xv. 14. + +WHAT suggested this lovely parable of the vine and the branches is +equally unimportant and undiscoverable. Many guesses have been made, +and, no doubt, as was the case with almost all our Lord's parables, +some external object gave occasion for it. It is a significant token +of our Lord's calm collectedness, even at that supreme and heart- +shaking moment, that He should have been at leisure to observe, and +to use for His purposes of teaching, something that was present at +the instant. The deep and solemn lessons which He draws, perhaps from +some vine by the wayside, are the richest and sweetest clusters that +the vine has ever grown. The great truth in this chapter, applied in +manifold directions, and viewed in many aspects, is that of the +living union between Christ and those who believe on Him, and the +parable of the vine and the branches affords the foundation for all +which follows. + +We take the first half of that parable now. It is somewhat difficult +to trace the course of thought in it, but there seems to be, first of +all, the similitude set forth, without explanation or interpretation, +in its most general terms, and then various aspects in which its +applications to Christian duty are taken up and reiterated, I simply +follow the words which I have read for my text. + +I. We have then, first, the Vine in the vital unity of all its parts. + +'I am the True Vine,' of which the material one to which He perhaps +points, is but a shadow and an emblem. The reality lies in Him. We +shall best understand the deep significance and beauty of this +thought if we recur in imagination to some of those great vines which +we sometimes see in royal conservatories, where for hundred of yards +the pliant branches stretch along the espaliers, and yet one life +pervades the whole, from the root, through the crooked stem, right +away to the last leaf at the top of the farthest branch, and reddens +and mellows every cluster, 'So,' says Christ, 'between Me and the +totality of them that hold by Me in faith there is one life, passing +ever from root through branches, and ever bearing fruit.' + +Let me remind you that this great thought of the unity of life +between Jesus Christ and all that believe upon Him is the familiar +teaching of Scripture, and is set forth by other emblems besides that +of the vine, the queen of the vegetable world; for we have it in the +metaphor of the body and its members, where not only are the many +members declared to be parts of one body, but the name of the +collective body, made up of many members, is Christ. 'So also is'-- +not as we might expect, 'the Church,' but--'Christ,' the whole +bearing the name of Him who is the Source of life to every part. +Personality remains, individuality remains: I am I, and He is He, and +thou art thou; but across the awful gulf of individual consciousness +which parts us from one another, Jesus Christ assumes the Divine +prerogative of passing and joining Himself to each of us, if we love +Him and trust Him, in a union so close, and with a communication of +life so real, that every other union which we know is but a faint and +far-off adumbration of it. A oneness of life from root to branch, +which is the sole cause of fruitfulness and growth, is taught us +here. + +And then let me remind you that that living unity between Jesus +Christ and all who love Him is a oneness which necessarily results in +oneness of relation to God and men, in oneness of character, and in +oneness of destiny. In relation to God, He is the Son, and we in Him +receive the standing of sons. He has access ever into the Father's +presence, and we through Him and in Him have access with confidence +and are accepted in the Beloved. In relation to men, since He is +Light, we, touched with His light, are also, in our measure and +degree, the lights of the world; and in the proportion in which we +receive into our souls, by patient abiding in Jesus Christ, the very +power of His Spirit, we, too, become God's anointed, subordinately +but truly His messiahs, for He Himself says: 'As the Father hath sent +Me, even so I send you.' + +In regard to character, the living union between Christ and His +members results in a similarity if not identity of character, and +with His righteousness we are clothed, and by that righteousness we +are justified, and by that righteousness we are sanctified. The +oneness between Christ and His children is the ground at once of +their forgiveness and acceptance, and of all virtue and nobleness of +life and conduct that can ever be theirs. + +And, in like manner, we can look forward and be sure that we are so +closely joined with Him, if we love Him and trust Him, that it is +impossible but that where He is there shall also His servants be; and +that what He is that shall also His servants be. For the oneness of +life, by which we are delivered from the bondage of corruption and +the law of sin and death here, will never halt nor cease until it +brings us into the unity of His glory, 'the measure of the stature of +the fullness of Christ.' And as He sits on the Father's throne, His +children must needs sit with Him, on His throne. + +Therefore the name of the collective whole, of which the individual +Christian is part, is Christ. And as in the great Old Testament +prophecy of the Servant of the Lord, the figure that rises before +Isaiah's vision fluctuates between that which is clearly the +collective Israel and that which is, as clearly, the personal +Messiah; so the 'Christ' is not only the individual Redeemer who +bears the body of the flesh literally here upon earth, but the whole +of that redeemed Church, of which it is said, 'It is His body, the +fullness of Him that filleth all in all.' + +II. Now note, secondly, the Husbandman, and the dressing of the vine. + +The one tool that a vinedresser needs is a knife. The chief secret of +culture is merciless pruning. And so says my text, 'The Father is the +Husbandman.' Our Lord assumes that office in other of His parables. +But here the exigencies of the parabolic form require that the office +of Cultivator should be assigned only to the Father; although we are +not to forget that the Father, in that office, works through and in +His Son. + +But we should note that the one kind of husbandry spoken of here is +pruning--not manuring, not digging, but simply the hacking away of +all that is rank and all that is dead. + +Were you ever in a greenhouse or in a vineyard at the season of +cutting back the vines? What flagitious waste it would seem to an +ignorant person to see scattered on the floor the bright green leaves +and the incipient clusters, and to look up at the bare stem, bleeding +at a hundred points from the sharp steel. Yes! But there was not a +random stroke in it all, and there was nothing cut away which it was +not loss to keep and gain to lose; and it was all done artistically, +scientifically, for a set purpose--that the plant might bring forth +more fruit. + +Thus, says Christ, the main thing that is needed--not, indeed, to +improve the life in the branches, but to improve the branches in +which the life is--is excision. There are two forms of it given here +--absolutely dead wood has to be cut out; wood that has life in it, +but which has also rank shoots, that do not come from the all- +pervading and hallowed life, has to be pruned back and deprived of +its shoots. + +It seems to me that the very language of the metaphor before us +requires us to interpret the fruitless branches as meaning all those +who have a mere superficial, external adherence to the True Vine. +For, according to the whole teaching of the parable, if there be any +real union, there will be some life, and if there be any life, there +will be some fruit, and, therefore, the branch that has no fruit has +no life, because it has no real union. And so the application, as I +take it, is necessarily to those professing Christians, nominal +adherents to Christianity or to Christ's Church, people that come to +church and chapel, and if you ask them to put down in the census +paper what they are, will say that they are Christians--Churchmen or +Dissenters, as the case may be--but who have no real hold upon Jesus +Christ, and no real reception of anything from Him; and the 'taking +away' is simply that, somehow or other, God makes visible, what is a +fact, that they do not belong to Him with whom they have this nominal +connection. + +The longer Christianity continues in any country, the more does the +Church get weighted and lowered in its temperature by the aggregation +round about it of people of that sort. And one sometimes longs and +prays for a storm to come, of some sort or other, to blow the dead +wood out of the tree, and to get rid of all this oppressive and +stifling weight of sham Christians that has come round every one of +our churches. 'His fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge +His floor,' and every man that has any reality of Christian life in +him should pray that this pruning and cutting out of the dead wood +may be done, and that He would 'come as a refiner's fire and purify' +His priesthood. + +Then there is the other side, the pruning of the fruitful branches. +We all, in our Christian life, carry with us the two natures--our own +poor miserable selves, and the better life of Jesus Christ within us. +The one flourishes at the expense of the other; and it is the +Husbandman's merciful, though painful work, to cut back unsparingly +the rank shoots that come from self, in order that all the force of +our lives may be flung into the growing of the cluster which is +acceptable to Him. + +So, dear friends, let us understand the meaning of all that comes to +us. The knife is sharp and the tendrils bleed, and things that seem +very beautiful and very precious are unsparingly shorn away, and we +are left bare, and, as it seems to ourselves, impoverished. But Oh! +it is all sent that we may fling our force into the production of +fruit unto God. And no stroke will be a stroke too many or too deep +if it helps us to that. Only let us take care that we do not let +regrets for the vanished good harm us just as much as joy in the +present good did, and let us rather, in humble submission of will to +His merciful knife, say to Him, 'Cut to the quick, Lord, if only +thereby my fruit unto Thee may increase.' + +III. Lastly, we have here the branches abiding in the Vine, and +therefore fruitful. + +Our Lord deals with the little group of His disciples as incipiently +and imperfectly, but really, cleansed through 'the word which He has +spoken to them,' and gives them His exhortation towards that conduct +through which the cleansing and the union and the fruitfulness will +all be secured. 'Now ye are clean: abide in Me and I in you. As the +branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no +more can ye except ye abide in Me.' + +Union with Christ is the condition of all fruitfulness. There may be +plenty of activity and yet barrenness. Works are not fruit. We can +bring forth a great deal 'of ourselves,' and because it is of +ourselves it is nought. Fruit is possible only on condition of union +with Him. He is the productive source of it all. + +There is the great glory and distinctive blessedness of the Gospel. +Other teachers come to us and tell us how we ought to live, and give +us laws, patterns and examples, reasons and motives for pure and +noble lives. The Gospel comes and gives us life, if we will take it, +and unfolds itself in us into all the virtues that we have to +possess. What is the use of giving a man a copy if he cannot copy it? +Morality comes and stands over the cripple, and says to him, 'Look +here! This is how you ought to walk,' and he lies there, paralysed +and crippled, after as before the exhibition of what graceful +progression is. But Christianity comes and bends over him, and lays +hold of his hand, and says, 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, +rise up and walk,' and his feet and ankle bones receive strength, and +'he leaps, and walks, and praises God.' Christ gives more than +commandments, patterns, motives; He gives the power to live soberly, +righteously, and godly, and in Him alone is that power to be found. + +Then note that our reception of that power depends upon our own +efforts. 'Abide in Me and I in you.' Is that last clause a +commandment as well as the first? How can His abiding in us be a duty +incumbent upon us? But it is. And we might paraphrase the intention +of this imperative in its two halves, by--Do you take care that you +abide in Christ, and that Christ abides in you. The two ideas are but +two sides of the one great sphere; they complement and do not +contradict each other. We dwell in Him as the part does in the whole, +as the branch does in the vine, recipient of its life and fruit- +bearing energy. He dwells in us as the whole does in the part, as the +vine dwells in the branch, communicating its energy to every part; or +as the soul does in the body, being alive equally in every part, +though it be sight in the eyeball, and hearing in the ear, and colour +in the cheek, and strength in the hand, and swiftness in the foot. + +'Abide in Me and I in you.' So we come down to very plain, practical +exhortations. Dear brethren, suppress yourselves, and empty your +lives of self, that the life of Christ may come in. A lock upon a +canal, if it is empty, will have its gates pressed open by the water +in the canal and will be filled. Empty the heart and Christ will come +in. 'Abide in Him' by continual direction of thought, love, desire to +Him; by continual and reiterated submission of the will to Him, as +commanding and as appointing; by the honest reference to Him of daily +life and all petty duties which otherwise distract us and draw us +away from Him. Then, dwelling in Him we shall share in His life, and +shall bring forth fruit to His praise. + +Here is encouragement for us all. To all of us, sometimes, our lives +seem barren and poor; and we feel as if we had brought forth no fruit +to perfection. Let us get nearer to Him and He will see to the fruit. +Some poor stranded sea-creature on the beach, vainly floundering in +the pools, is at the point of death; but the great tide comes, +leaping and rushing over the sands, and bears it away out into the +middle deeps for renewed activity and joyous life. Let the flood of +Christ's life bear you on its bosom, and you will rejoice and +expatiate therein. + +Here is a lesson of solemn warning to professing Christians. The +lofty mysticism and inward life in Jesus Christ all terminate at last +in simple, practical obedience; and the fruit is the test of the +life. 'Depart from Me, I never knew you, ye that work iniquity.' + +And here is a lesson of solemn appeal to us all. Our only opportunity +of bearing any fruit worthy of our natures and of God's purpose +concerning us is by vital union with Jesus Christ. If we have not +that, there may be plenty of activity and mountains of work in our +lives, but there will be no fruit. Only that is fruit which pleases +God and is conformed to His purpose concerning us, and all the rest +of our busy doings is no more the fruit a man should bear than +cankers are roses, or than oak-galls are acorns. They are but the +work of a creeping grub, and diseased excrescences that suck into +themselves the juices that should swell the fruit. Open your hearts +to Christ and let His life and His Spirit come into you, and then you +will have 'your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' + + + +THE TRUE BRANCHES OF THE TRUE VINE + +'I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I +in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can +do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a +branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into +the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words +abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done +unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; +so shall ye be My disciples.'--JOHN xv. 5-8. + +No wise teacher is ever afraid of repeating himself. The average mind +requires the reiteration of truth before it can make that truth its +own. One coat of paint is not enough, it soon rubs off. Especially is +this true in regard to lofty spiritual and religious truth, remote +from men's ordinary thinkings, and in some senses unwelcome to them. +So our Lord, the great Teacher, never shrank from repeating His +lessons when He saw that they were but partially apprehended. It was +not grievous to Him to 'say the same things,' because for them it was +safe. He broke the bread of life into small pieces, and fed them +little and often. + +So here, in the verses that we have to consider now, we have the +repetition, and yet not the mere repetition, of the great parable of +the vine, as teaching the union of Christians with Christ, and their +consequent fruitfulness. He saw, no doubt, that the truth was but +partially dawning upon His disciples' minds. Therefore He said it all +over again, with deepened meaning, following it out into new +applications, presenting further consequences, and, above all, giving +it a more sharp and definite personal application. + +Are we any swifter scholars than these first ones were? Have we +absorbed into our own thinking this truth so thoroughly and +constantly, and wrought it out in our lives so completely, that we do +not need to be reminded of it any more? Shall we not be wise if we +faithfully listen to His repeated teachings? + +The verses which I have read give us four aspects of this great truth +of union with Jesus Christ; or of its converse, separation from Him. +There is, first, the fruitfulness of union; second, the withering and +destruction of separation; third, the satisfaction of desire which +comes from abiding in Christ; and, lastly, the great, noble issue of +fruitfulness, in God's glory, and our own increasing discipleship. +Now let me touch upon these briefly. + +I. First, then, our Lord sets forth, with no mere repetition, the +same broad idea which He has already been insisting upon--viz., that +union with Him is sure to issue in fruitfulness. He repeats the +theme, 'I am the Vine'; but He points its application by the next +clause, 'Ye are the branches.' That had been implied before, but it +needed to be said more definitely. For are we not all too apt to +think of religious truth as swinging _in vacuo_ as it were, with no +personal application to ourselves, and is not the one thing needful +in regard to the truths which are most familiar to us, to bring them +into close connection with our own personal life and experience? + +'I am the Vine' is a general truth, with no clear personal +application. 'Ye are the branches' brings each individual listener +into connection with it. How many of us there are, as there are in +every so-called Christian communion, that listen pleasedly, and, in a +fitful sort of languid way, interestedly, to the most glorious and +most solemn words that come from a preacher's lips, and never dream +that what he has been saying has any bearing upon themselves! And the +one thing that is most of all needed with people like some of you, +who have been listening to the truth all your days, is that it should +be sharpened to a point, and the conviction driven into you, that +_you_ have some personal concern in this great message. 'Ye are the +branches' is the one side of that sharpening and making definite of +the truth in its personal application, and the other side is, 'Thou +art the man.' All preaching and religious teaching is toothless +generality, utterly useless, unless we can manage somehow or other to +force it through the wall of indifference and vague assent to a +general proposition, with which 'Gospel-hardened hearers' surround +themselves, and make them feel that the thing has got a point, and +that the point is touching their own consciousness. '_Ye_ are the +branches.' + +Note next the great promise of fruitfulness. 'He that abideth in Me, +and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.' + +I need not repeat what I have said in former sermons as to the plain, +practical duties which are included in that abiding in Christ, and +Christ's consequent abiding in us. It means, on the part of +professedly Christian people, a temper and tone of mind very far +remote from the noisy, bustling distractions too common in our +present Christianity. We want quiet, patient waiting within the veil. +We want stillness of heart, brought about by our own distinct effort +to put away from ourselves the strife of tongues and the pride of +life. We want activity, no doubt, but we want a wise passiveness as +its foundation. + + 'Think you, midst all this mighty sum + Of things for ever speaking, + That nothing of itself will come, + But we must still be seeking?' + +Get away into the 'secret place of the Most High,' and rise into a +higher altitude and atmosphere than the region of work and effort; +and sitting still with Christ, let His love and His power pour +themselves into your hearts. 'Come, My people, enter thou into thy +chambers and shut thy doors about thee.' Get away from the jangling +of politics, and empty controversies and busy distractions of daily +duty. The harder our toil necessarily is, the more let us see to it +that we keep a little cell within the central life where in silence +we hold communion with the Master. 'Abide in Me and I in you.' + +That is the way to be fruitful, rather than by efforts after +individual acts of conformity and obedience, howsoever needful and +precious these are. There is a deeper thing wanted than these. The +best way to secure Christian conduct is to cultivate communion with +Christ. It is better to work at the increase of the central force +than at the improvement of the circumferential manifestations of it. +Get more of the sap into the branch, and there will be more fruit. +Have more of the life of Christ in the soul, and the conduct and the +speech will be more Christlike. We may cultivate individual graces at +the expense of the harmony and beauty of the whole character. We may +grow them artificially and they will be of little worth--by imitation +of others, by special efforts after special excellence, rather than +by general effort after the central improvement of our nature and +therefore of our life. But the true way to influence conduct is to +influence the springs of conduct; and to make a man's life better, +the true way is to make the man better. First of all be, and then do; +first of all receive, and then give forth; first of all draw near to +Christ, and then there will be fruit to His praise. That is the +Christian way of mending men, not tinkering at this, that, and the +other individual excellence, but grasping the secret of total +excellence in communion with Him. + +Our Lord is here not merely laying down a law, but giving a promise, +and putting his veracity into pawn for the fulfilment of it. 'If a +man will keep near Me,' He says, 'he shall bear fruit.' + +Notice that little word which now appears for the first time. 'He +shall bear _much_ fruit.' We are not to be content with a little +fruit; a poor shrivelled bunch of grapes that are more like marbles +than grapes, here and there, upon the half-nourished stem. The +abiding in Him will produce a character rich in manifold graces. 'A +little fruit' is not contemplated by Christ at all. God forbid that I +should say that there is no possibility of union with Christ and a +little fruit. Little union will have little fruit; but I would have +you notice that the only two alternatives which come into Christ's +view here are, on the one hand, 'no fruit,' and on the other hand, +'much fruit.' And I would ask why it is that the average Christian +man of this generation bears only a berry or two here and there, like +such as are left upon the vines after the vintage, when the promise +is that if he will abide in Christ, he will bear much fruit? + +This verse, setting forth the fruitfulness of union with Jesus, ends +with the brief, solemn statement of the converse--the barrenness of +separation--'Apart from Me' (not merely 'without,' as the Authorised +Version has it) 'ye can do nothing.' _There_ is the condemnation of +all the busy life of men which is not lived in union with Jesus +Christ. It is a long row of figures which, like some other long rows +of algebraic symbols added up, amount just to _zero_. 'Without me, +nothing.' All your busy life, when you come to sum it up, is made up +of plus and minus quantities, which precisely balance each other, and +the net result, unless you are in Christ, is just nothing; and on +your gravestones the only right epitaph is a great round cypher. 'He +did not do anything. There is nothing left of his toil; the whole +thing has evaporated and disappeared.' That is life apart from Jesus +Christ. + +II. And so note, secondly, the withering and destruction following +separation from Him. + +Commentators tell us, I think a little prosaically, that when our +Lord spoke, it was the time of pruning the vine in Palestine, and +that, perhaps, as they went from the upper room to the garden, they +might see in the valley, here and there, the fires that the labourers +had kindled in the vineyards to burn the loppings of the vines. That +does not matter. It is of more consequence to notice how the solemn +thought of withering and destruction forces itself, so to speak, into +these gracious words; and how, even at that moment, our Lord, in all +His tenderness and pity, could not but let words of warning--grave, +solemn, tragical--drop from His lips. + +This generation does not like to hear them, for its conception of the +Gospel is a thing with no minor notes in it, with no threatenings, a +proclamation of a deliverance, and no proclamation of anything from +which deliverance is needed--which is a strange kind of Gospel! But +Jesus Christ could not speak about the blessedness of fruitfulness +and the joy of life in Himself without speaking about its necessary +converse, the awfulness of separation from Him, of barrenness, of +withering, and of destruction. + +Separation is withering. Did you ever see a hawthorn bough that +children bring home from the woods, and stick in the grate; how in a +day or two the little fresh green leaves all shrivel up and the white +blossoms become brown and smell foul, and the only thing to be done +with it is to fling it into the fire and get rid of it? 'And so,' +says Jesus Christ, 'as long as a man holds on to Me and the sap comes +into him, he will flourish, and as soon as the connection is broken, +all that was so fair will begin to shrivel, and all that was green +will grow brown and turn to dust, and all that was blossom will +droop, and there will be no more fruit any more for ever.' Separate +from Christ, the individual shrivels, and the possibilities of fair +buds wither and set into no fruit, and no man is the man he might +have been unless he holds by Jesus Christ and lets His life come into +him. + +And as for individuals, so for communities. The Church or the body of +professing Christians that is separate from Jesus Christ dies to all +noble life, to all high activity, to all Christlike conduct, and, +being dead, rots. + +Withering means destruction. The language of our text is a +description of what befalls the actual branches of the literal vine; +but it is made a representation of what befalls the individuals whom +these branches represent, by that added clause, 'like a branch.' Look +at the mysteriousness of the language. 'They gather them.' Who? 'They +cast them into the fire.' Who have the tragic task of flinging the +withered branches into some mysterious fire? All is left vague with +unexplained awfulness. The solemn fact that the withering of manhood +by separation from Jesus Christ requires, and ends in, the consuming +of the withered, is all that we have here. We have to speak of it +pityingly, with reticence, with terror, with tenderness, with awe +lest it should be our fate. + +But O, dear brethren! be on your guard against the tendency of the +thinking of this generation, to paste a bit of blank paper over all +the threatenings of the Bible, and to blot out from its consciousness +the grave issues that it holds forth. One of two things must befall +the branch, either it is in the Vine or it gets into the fire. If we +would avoid the fire let us see to it that we are in the Vine. + +III. Thirdly, we have here the union with Christ as the condition of +satisfied desires. + +'If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye +will, and it shall be done unto you.' Notice how our Lord varies His +phraseology here, and instead of saying 'I in you,' says 'My words in +you.' He is speaking about prayers, consequently the variation is +natural. In fact, His abiding in us is largely the abiding of His +words in us; or, to speak more accurately, the abiding of His words +in us is largely the means of His abiding in us. + +What is meant by Christ's words abiding in us? Something a great deal +more than the mere intellectual acceptance of them. Something very +different from reading a verse of the Gospels of a morning before we +go to our work, and forgetting all about it all the day long; +something very different from coming in contact with Christian truth +on a Sunday, when somebody else preaches to us what he has found in +the Bible, and we take in a little of it. It means the whole of the +conscious nature of a man being, so to speak, saturated with Christ's +words; his desires, his understanding, his affections, his will, all +being steeped in these great truths which the Master spoke. Put a +little bit of colouring matter into the fountain at its source, and +you will have the stream dyed down its course for ever so far. See +that Christ's words be lodged in your inmost selves, by patient +meditation upon them, by continual recurrence to them, and all your +life will be glorified and flash into richness of colouring and +beauty by their presence. + +The main effect of such abiding of the Lord's words in us which our +Lord touches upon here is, that in such a case, if our whole inward +nature is influenced by the continual operation upon it of the words +of the Lord, then our desires will be granted. Do not so vulgarise +and lower the nobleness and the loftiness of this great promise as to +suppose that it only means--If you remember His words you will get +anything you like. It means something a great deal better than that. +It means that if Christ's words are the substratum, so to speak, of +your wishes, then your wishes will harmonise with His will, and so +'ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' + +Christ loves us a great deal too well to give to our own foolish and +selfish wills the keys of His treasure-house. The condition of our +getting what we will is our willing what He desires; and unless our +prayers are a great deal more the utterance of the submission of our +wills to His than they are the attempt to impose ours upon Him, they +will not be answered. We get our wishes when our wishes are moulded +by His word. + +IV. The last thought that is here is that this union and fruitfulness +lead to the noble ends of glorifying God and increasing discipleship. + +'Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.' Christ's +life was all for the glorifying of God. The lives which are ours in +name--but being drawn from Him, in their depths are much rather the +life of Christ in us than our lives--will have the same end and the +same issue. + +Ah, dear brethren, we come here to a very sharp test for us all. I +wonder how many of us there are, on whom men looking think more +loftily of God and love Him better, and are drawn to Him by strange +longings. How many of us are there about whom people will say, 'There +must be something in the religion that makes a man like that'? How +many of us are there, to look upon whom suggests to men that God, who +can make such a man, must be infinitely sweet and lovely? And yet +that is what we should all be--mirrors of the divine radiance, on +which some eyes, that are too dim and sore to bear the light as it +streams from the Sun, may look, and, beholding the reflection, may +learn to love. Does God so shine in me that I lead men to magnify His +name? If I am dwelling with Christ it will be so. + +I shall not know it. 'Moses wist not that the skin of his face +shone'; but, in meek unconsciousness of the glory that rays from us, +we may walk the earth, reflecting the light and making God known to +our fellows. + +And if thus we abide in Him and bear fruit we shall 'be' or (as the +word might more accurately be rendered), we shall '_become_ His +disciples.' The end of our discipleship is never reached on earth: we +never so much _are_ as we are in the process of _becoming_, His true +followers and servants. + +If we bear fruit because we are knit to Him, the fruit itself will +help us to get nearer Him, and so to be more His disciples and more +fruitful. Character produces conduct, but conduct rests on character, +and strengthens the impulses from which it springs. And thus our +action as Christian men and women will tell upon our inward lives as +Christians, and the more our outward conduct is conformed to the +pattern of Jesus Christ, the more shall we love Him in our inmost +hearts. We ourselves shall eat of the fruit which we ourselves have +borne to Him. + +The alternatives are before us--in Christ, living and fruitful; out +of Christ, barren, and destined to be burned. As the prophet says, +'Will men take of the wood of the vine for any work?' Vine-wood is +worthless, its only use is to bear fruit; and if it does not do that, +there is only one thing to be done with it, and that is, 'They cast +it into the fire, and it is burned.' + + + +ABIDING IN LOVE + +'As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye In +My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; +even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His +love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might +remain in you, and that your joy might be full.'--JOHN xv. 9-11. + +The last of these verses shows that they are to be taken as a kind of +conclusion of the great parable of the Vine and the branches, for it +looks back and declares Christ's purpose in His preceding utterances. +The parable proper is ended, but the thoughts of it still linger in +our Lord's mind, and echo through His words, as the vibration of some +great bell after the stroke has ceased. The main thoughts of the +parable were these two, that participation in Christ's life was the +source of all good, and that abiding in Him was the means of +participation in His life. And these same thoughts, though modified +in their form, and free from the parabolical element, appear in the +words that we have to consider on this occasion. The parable spoke +about abiding in Christ; our text defines that abiding, and makes it +still more tender and gracious by substituting for it, 'abiding in +His love.' The parable spoke of conduct as 'fruit,' the effortless +result of communion with Jesus. Our text speaks of it with more +emphasis laid on the human side, as 'keeping the commandments.' The +parable told us that abiding in Christ was the condition of bearing +fruit. Our text tells us the converse, which is also true, that +bearing fruit, or keeping the commandments, is the condition of +abiding in Christ. So our Lord takes His thought, as it were, and +turns it round before us, letting us see both sides of it, and then +tells us that He does all this for one purpose, which in itself is a +token of His love, namely, that our hearts may be filled with perfect +and perennial joy, a drop from the fountain of His own. + +These three verses have three words which may be taken as their key- +notes--love, obedience, joy. We shall look at them in that order. + +I. First, then, we have here the love in which it is our sweet duty +to abide. 'As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide ye +in My love.' + +What shall we say about these mysterious and profound first words of +this verse? They carry us into the very depths of divinity, and +suggest for us that wonderful analogy between the relation of the +Father to the Son, and that of the Son to His disciples, which +appears over and over again in the solemnities of these last hours +and words of Jesus. Christ here claims to be, in a unique and +solitary fashion, the Object of the Father's love, and He claims to +be able to love like God. 'As the Father hath loved Me, so have I +loved you'; as deeply, as purely, as fully, as eternally, and with +all the unnameable perfectnesses which must belong to the divine +affection, does Christ declare that He loves us. + +I know not whether the majesty and uniqueness of His nature stand out +more clearly in the one or in the other of these two assertions. As +beloved of God, and as loving like God, He equally claims for Himself +a place which none other can fill, and declares that the love which +falls on us from His pierced and bleeding heart is really the love of +God. + +In this mysterious, awful, tender, perfect affection He exhorts us to +abide. That comes yet closer to our hearts than the other phrase of +which it is the modification, and in some sense the explanation. The +command to abide in Him suggests much that is blessed, but to have +all that mysterious abiding in Him resolved into abiding in His love +is infinitely tenderer, and draws us still closer to Himself. +Obviously, what is meant is not our continuance in the attitude of +love to Him, but rather our continuance in the sweet and sacred +atmosphere of His love to us. For the connection between the two +halves of the verse necessarily requires that the love in which we +are to abide should be identical with the love which had been +previously spoken of, and _that_ is clearly His love to us, and not +ours to Him. But then, on the other hand, whosoever thus abides in +Christ's love to Him will echo it back again, in an equally +continuous love to Him. So that the two things flow together, and to +abide in the conscious possession of Christ's love to me is the +certain and inseparable cause of its effect, my abiding in the +continual exercise and outgoing of my love to Him. + +Now note that this continuance in Christ's love is a thing in our +power, since it is commanded. Although it is His affection to us of +which my text primarily speaks, I can so modify and regulate the flow +of that divine love to my heart that it becomes my duty to continue +in Christ's love to me. + +What a quiet, blessed home that is for us! The image, I suppose, that +underlies all this sweet speech in these last hours, about dwelling +in Christ, in His joy, in His words, in His peace, and the like, is +that of some safe house, into which going, we may be secure. And what +sorrow or care or trouble or temptation would be able to reach us if +we were folded in the protection of that strong love, and always felt +that it was the fortress into which we might continually resort? They +who make their abode there, and dwell behind those firm bastions, +need fear no foes, but are lifted high above them all. 'Abide in My +love,' for they who dwell within the clefts of that Rock need none +other defence; and they to whom the riven heart of Christ is the +place of their abode are safe, whatsoever befalls. 'As the Father +hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide ye in My love.' + +II. Now note, secondly, the obedience by which we continue in +Christ's love. + +The analogy, on which He has already touched, is still continued. 'If +ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have +kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.' Note that +Christ here claims for Himself absolute and unbroken conformity with +the Father's will, and consequent uninterrupted and complete +communion with the Father's love. It is the utterance of a nature +conscious of no sin, of a humanity that never knew one instant's film +of separation, howsoever thin, howsoever brief, between Him and the +Father. No more tremendous words were ever spoken than these quiet +ones in which Jesus Christ declares that never, all His life long, +had there been the smallest deflection or want of conformity between +the Father's will and _His_ desires and doings, and that never had +there been one grain of dust, as it were, between the two polished +plates which adhered so closely in inseparable union of harmony and +love. + +And then notice, still further, how Christ here, with His +consciousness of perfect obedience and communion, intercepts _our_ +obedience and diverts it to Himself. He does not say, 'Obey God as I +have done, and He will love you'; but He says, 'Obey _Me_ as I obey +God, and _I_ will love you.' Who is this that thus comes between the +child's heart and the Father's? Does He come _between_ when He stands +thus? or does He rather lead us up to the Father, and to a share in +His own filial obedience? + +He further assures us that, by keeping His commandments, we shall +continue in that sweet home and safe stronghold of His love. Of +course the keeping of the commandments is something more than mere +outward conformity by action. It is the inward harmony of will, and +the bowing of the whole nature. It is, in fact, the same thing +(though considered under a different aspect, and from a somewhat +different point of view), as He has already been speaking about as +the 'fruit' of the vine, by the bearing of which the Father is +glorified. And this obedience, the obedience of the hands because the +heart obeys, and does so because it loves, the bowing of the will in +glad submission to the loved and holy will of the heavens--this +obedience is the condition of our continuing in Christ's love. + +He will love us better, the more we obey His commandments, for +although His tender heart is charged towards all, even the +disobedient, with the love of pity and of desire to help, He cannot +but feel a growing thrill of satisfied and gratified affection +towards us, in the measure in which we become like Himself. The love +that wept over us, when we were enemies, will 'rejoice over us with +singing,' when we are friends. The love that sought the sheep when it +was wandering will pour itself yet more tenderly and with selector +gifts upon it when it follows in the footsteps of the flock, and +keeps close at the heels of the Good Shepherd. 'If ye keep My +commandments, ye shall abide in My love,' so we will put nothing +between us and Him which will make it impossible for the tenderest +tenderness of that holy love to come to your hearts. + +The obedience which we render for love's sake will make us more +capable of receiving, and more blessedly conscious of possessing, the +love of Jesus Christ. The lightest cloud before the sun will prevent +it from focussing its rays to a burning point on the convex glass. +And the small, thin, fleeting, scarcely visible acts of self-will +that sometimes pass across our skies will prevent our feeling the +warmth of that love upon our shrouded hearts. Every known piece of +rebellion against Christ will shatter all true enjoyment of His +favour, unless we are hopeless hypocrites or self-deceived. The +condition of knowing and feeling the warmth and blessedness of +Christ's love to me is the honest submission of my nature to His +commandments. You cannot rejoice in Jesus Christ unless you do His +will. You will have no real comfort and blessedness in your religion +unless it works itself out in your daily lives. That is why so many +of you know nothing, or next to nothing, about the joy of Christ's +felt presence, because you do not, for all your professions, hourly +and momentarily regulate and submit your wills to His commandments. +Do what He wants, and do it because He wants it, if you wish that His +love should fill your hearts. + +And, further, we shall continue in His love by obedience, inasmuch as +every emotion which finds expression in our daily life is +strengthened by the fact that it is expressed. The love which works +is love which grows, and the tree that bears fruit is the tree that +is healthy and increases. So note how all these deepest things of +Christian teaching come at last to a plain piece of practical duty. +We talk about the mysticism of John's Gospel, about the depth of +these last sayings of Jesus Christ. Yes! they are mystical, they are +deep--unfathomably deep, thank God!--but connected by the shortest +possible road with the plainest possible duties. 'Let no man deceive +you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous.' It is of no use to +talk about communion with Jesus Christ, and abiding in Him, in +possession of His love, and all those other properly mystical sides +of Christian experience, unless you verify them for yourselves by the +plain way of practice. Doing as Christ bids us, and doing that +habitually, and doing it gladly, then, and only then, are we in no +danger of losing ourselves on the heights, or of forgetting that +Christ's mission has for its last result the influencing of character +and of conduct. 'If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My +love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His +love.' + +III. Lastly, note the joy which follows on this practical obedience. +'These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain,' (or +'might _be_') 'in you, and that your joy might be full.' + +'My joy might be in you'--a strange time to talk of His 'joy.' In +half an hour he would be in Gethsemane, and we know what happened +there. Was Christ a joyful man? He was a 'Man of sorrows' but one of +the old Psalms says, 'Thou hast loved righteousness ... therefore God +hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.' The +deep truth that lies there is the same that He here claims as being +fulfilled in His own experience, that absolute surrender and +submission in love to the beloved commands of a loving Father made +Him--in spite of sorrows, in spite of the baptism with which He was +baptized, in spite of all the burden and the weight of our sins--the +most joyful of men. + +This joy He offers to us, a joy coming from perfect obedience, a joy +coming from a surrender of self at the bidding of love, to a love +that to us seems absolutely good and sweet. There is no joy that +humanity is capable of to compare for a moment with that bright, +warm, continuous sunshine which floods the soul, that is freed from +all the clouds and mists of self and the darkness of sin. Self- +sacrifice at the bidding of Jesus Christ is the recipe for the +highest, the most exquisite, the most godlike gladnesses of which the +human heart is capable. Our joy will remain if His joy is ours. Then +our joy will be, up to the measure of its capacity, ennobled, and +filled, and progressive, advancing ever towards a fuller possession +of His joy, and a deeper calm of that pure and perennial rapture, +which makes the settled and celestial bliss of those who have +'entered into the joy of their Lord.' + +Brother! there is only one gladness that is worth calling so--and +that is, that which comes to us, when we give ourselves utterly away +to Jesus Christ, and let Him do with us as He will. It is better to +have a joy that is central and perennial--though there may be, as +there will be, a surface of sorrow and care--than to have the +converse, a surface of joy, and a black, unsympathetic kernel of +aching unrest and sadness. In one or other of these two states we all +live. Either we have to say, 'as sorrowful yet always rejoicing' or +we have to feel that 'even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and +the end of that mirth is heaviness.' Let us choose for ourselves, and +let us choose aright, the gladness which coils round the heart, and +endures for ever, and is found in submission to Jesus Christ, rather +than the superficial, fleeting joys which are rooted on earth and +perish with time. + + + +THE ONENESS OF THE BRANCHES + +'This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have +loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay +down his life for his friends.'--JOHN xv. 12, 13. + +The union between Christ and His disciples has been tenderly set +forth in the parable of the Vine and the branches. We now turn to the +union between the disciples, which is the consequence of their common +union to the Lord. The branches are parts of one whole, and +necessarily bear a relation to each other. We may modify for our +present purpose the analogous statement of the Apostle in reference +to the Lord's Supper, and as He says, 'We being many, are one body, +for we are all partakers of that one bread,' so we may say--The +branches, being many, are one Vine, for they are all partakers of +that one Vine. Of this union amongst the branches, which results from +their common inherence in the Vine, the natural expression and +manifestation is the mutual love, which Christ here gives as _the_ +commandment, and commends to us all by His own solemn example. + +There are four things suggested to me by the words of our text--the +Obligation, the Sufficiency, the Pattern, and the Motive, of +Christian love. + +I. First, the Obligation of love. + +The two ideas of commandment and love do not go well together. You +cannot pump up love to order, and if you try you generally produce, +what we see in abundance in the world and in the Church, sentimental +hypocrisy, hollow and unreal. But whilst that is true, and whilst it +seems strange to say that we are commanded to love, still we can do a +great deal, directly and indirectly, for the cultivation and +strengthening of any emotion. We can either cast ourselves into the +attitude which is favourable or unfavourable to it. We can either +look at the facts which will create it or at those who will check it. +We can go about with a sharp eye for the lovable or for the unlovable +in man. We can either consciously war against or lazily acquiesce in +our own predominant self-absorption and selfishness. And in these and +in a number of other ways, our feelings towards other Christian +people are very largely under our own control, and therefore are +fitting subjects for commandment. + +Our Lord lays down the obligation which devolves upon all Christian +people, of cherishing a kindly and loving regard to all others who +find their place within the charmed circle of His Church. It is an +obligation because He commands it. He puts Himself here in the +position of the absolute Lawgiver, who has the right of entire and +authoritative control over men's affections and hearts. And it is +further obligatory because such an attitude is the only fitting +expression of the mutual relation of Christian men, through their +common relation to the Vine. If there be the one life-sap circling +through all parts of the mighty whole, how anomalous and how +contradictory it is that these parts should not be harmoniously +concordant among themselves! However unlike any two Christian people +are to each other in character, in culture, in circumstances, the +bond that knits those who have the same relations to Jesus Christ one +to another is far deeper, far more real, and ought to be far closer, +than the bond that knits either of them to the men or women to whom +they are likest in all these other respects, and to whom they are +unlike in this central one. Christian men! you are closer to every +other Christian man, down in the depths of your being, however he may +be differenced from you by things that are very hard to get over, +than you are to the people that you like best, and love most, if they +do not participate with you in this common love to Jesus Christ. + +I dread talking mere sentiment about this matter, for there is +perhaps no part of Christian duty which has been so vulgarised and +pawed over by mere unctuous talk, as that of the fellowship that +should subsist between all Christians. But I have one plain question +to put,--Does anybody believe that the present condition of +Christendom, and the relations to one another even of good Christian +people in the various churches and communions of our own and of other +lands, is the sort of thing that Jesus Christ meant, or is anything +like a fair and adequate representation of the deep, essential unity +that knits us all together? + +We need far more to realise the fact that our emotions towards our +brother Christians are not matters in which our own inclinations may +have their way, but that there is a simple commandment given to us, +and that we are bound to cherish love to every man who loves Jesus +Christ. Never mind though he does not hold your theology; never mind +though he be very ignorant and narrow as compared with you; never +mind though your outlook on the world may be entirely unlike his. +Never mind though you be a rich man and he a poor one, or you a poor +one and he rich, which is just as hard to get over. Let all these +secondary grounds of union and of separation be relegated to their +proper subordinate place; and let us recognise this, that the +children of one Father are brethren. And do not let it be possible +that it shall be said, as so often has been said, and said truly, +that 'brethren' in the Church means a great deal less than _brothers_ +in the world. Lift your eyes beyond the walls of the little sheepfold +in which you live, and hearken to the bleating of the flocks away out +yonder, and feel--'Other sheep He has which are not of this fold'; +and recognise the solemn obligation of the commandment of love. + +II. Note, secondly, the Sufficiency of love. + +Our Lord has been speaking in a former verse about the keeping of His +commandments. Now He gathers them all up into one. 'This is my +commandment, that ye love one another' All duties to our fellows, and +all duties to our brethren, are summed up in, or resolved into, this +one germinal, encyclopaediacal, all-comprehensive simplification of +duty, into the one word 'love.' + +Where the heart is right the conduct will be right. Love will soften +the tones, will instinctively teach what we ought to be and do; will +take the bitterness out of opposition and diversity, will make even +rebuke, when needful, only a form of expressing itself. If the heart +be right all else will be right; and if there be a deficiency of love +nothing will be right. You cannot help anybody except on condition of +having an honest, beneficent, and benevolent regard towards him. You +cannot do any man in the world any good unless there is a shoot of +love in your heart towards him. You may pitch him benefits, and you +will neither get nor deserve thanks for them; you may try to teach +him, and your words will be hopeless and profitless. The one thing +that is required to bind Christian men together is this common +affection. That being there, everything will come. It is the germ out +of which all is developed. As we read in that great chapter to the +Corinthians--the lyric praise of Charity,--all kinds of blessing and +sweetness and gladness come out of this, It is the central force +which, being present, secures that all shall be right, which, being +absent, ensures that all shall be wrong. + +And is it not beautiful to see how Jesus Christ, leaving the little +flock of His followers in the world, gave them no other instruction +for their mutual relationship? He did not instruct them about +institutions and organisations, about orders of the ministry and +sacraments, or Church polity and the like. He knew that all these +would come. His one commandment was, 'Love one another,' and that +will make you wise. Love one another, and you will shape yourselves +into the right forms. He knew that they needed no exhortations such +as ecclesiastics would have put in the foreground. It was not worth +while to talk to them about organisations and officers. These would +come to them at the right time and in the right way. The 'one thing +needful' was that they should be knit together as true participators +of His life. Love was sufficient as their law and as their guide. + +III. Note, further, the Pattern of love. + +'As I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man +lay down his life for his friends.' Christ sets Himself forward then, +here and in this aspect, as He does in all aspects of human conduct +and character, as being the realised Ideal of them all. And although +the thought is a digression from my present purpose, I cannot but +pause for a moment to reflect upon the strangeness of a man thus +calmly saying to the whole world, 'I am the embodiment of all that +love ought to be. You cannot get beyond Me, nor have anything more +pure, more deep, more self-sacrificing, more perfect, than the love +which I have borne to you.' + +But passing that, the pattern that He proposes for us is even more +august than appears at first sight. For, if you remember, a verse or +two before our Lord had said, 'As the Father hath loved Me so I have +loved you.' Now He says, 'Love one another as I have loved you.' +There stand the three, as it were, the Father, the Son, the disciple. +The Son in the midst receives and transmits the Father's love to the +disciple, and the disciple is to love his fellows, in some deep and +august sense, as the Father loved the Son. The divinest thing in God, +and that in which men can be like God, is love. In all our other +attitudes to Him we rather correspond than copy. His fullness is met +by our emptiness, His giving by our recipiency, His faithfulness by +our faith, His command by our obedience, His light by our eye. But +here it is not a case of correspondence only, but of similarity. My +faith _answers_ God's gift to me, but my love is _like_ God's love. +'Be ye, therefore, imitators of God as beloved children'; and having +received that love into your hearts, ray it out, 'and walk in love as +God also hath loved us.' + +But then our Lord here, in a very wonderful manner, sets forth the +very central point of His work, even His death upon the Cross for us, +as being the pattern to which our poor affection ought to aspire, and +after which it must tend to be conformed. I need not remind you, I +suppose, that our Lord here is not speaking of the propitiatory +character of His death, nor of the issues which depend upon it, and +upon it alone, viz., the redemption and salvation of the world. He is +not speaking, either, of the peculiar and unique sense in which He +lays down His life for us, His friends and brethren, as none other +can do. He is speaking about it simply in its aspect of being a +voluntary surrender, at the bidding of love, for the good of those +whom He loved, and that, He tells us--that, and nothing else--is the +true pattern and model towards which all our love is bound to tend +and to aspire. That is to say, the heart of the love which He +commands is self-sacrifice, reaching to death if death be needful. +And no man loves as Christ would have him love who does not bear in +his heart affection which has so conquered selfishness that, if need +be, he is ready to die. + +The expression of Christian life is not to be found in honeyed words, +or the indolent indulgence in benevolent emotion, but in self- +sacrifice, modelled after that of Christ's sacrificial death, which +is imitable by us. + +Brethren, it is a solemn obligation, which may well make us tremble, +that is laid on us in these words, 'As I have loved you.' Calvary was +less than twenty-four hours off, and He says to us, '_That_ is your +pattern!' Contrast our love at its height with His--a drop to an +ocean, a poor little flickering rushlight held up beside the sun. My +love, at its best, has so far conquered my selfishness that now and +then I am ready to suffer a little inconvenience, to sacrifice a +little leisure, to give away a little money, to spend a little +dribble of sympathy upon the people who are its objects. Christ's +love nailed Him to the Cross, and led Him down from the throne, and +shut for a time the gates of the glory behind Him. And He says, 'That +is your pattern!' + +Oh, let us bow down and confess how His word, which commands us, puts +us to shame, when we think of how miserably we have obeyed. + +Remember, too, that the restriction which here seems to be cast +around the flow of His love is not a restriction in reality, but +rather a deepening of it. He says, 'Greater love hath no man than +this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' But evidently He +calls them so from His point of view, and as He sees them, not from +their point of view, as they see Him--that is to say, He means by +'friends' not those who love Him, but those whom He loves. The +'friends' for whom He dies are the same persons as the Apostle, in +his sweet variation upon the words of my text, has called by the +opposite name, when He says that He died for His 'enemies.' + +There is an old, wild ballad that tells of how a knight found, +coiling round a tree in a dismal forest, a loathly dragon breathing +out poison; and how, undeterred by its hideousness and foulness, he +cast his arms round it and kissed it on the mouth. Three times he did +it undisgusted, and at the third the shape changed into a fair lady, +and he won his bride. Christ 'kisses with the kisses of His mouth' +His enemies, and makes them His friends because He loves them. 'If He +had never died for His enemies' says one of the old fathers, 'He +would never have possessed His friends.' And so He teaches us here in +what seems to be a restriction of the purpose of His death and the +sweep of His love, that the way by which we are to meet even +alienation and hostility is by pouring upon it the treasures of an +unselfish, self-sacrificing affection which will conquer at the last. + +Christ's death is the pattern for our lives as well as the hope of +our hearts. + +IV. Lastly, we have here by implication, though not by direct +statement, the Motive of the love. + +Surely that, too, is contained in the words, 'As I have loved you.' +Christ's commandment of love is a new commandment, not so much +because it is a revelation of a new duty, though it is the casting of +an old duty into new prominence, as because it is not merely a +revelation of an obligation, but the communication of power to fulfil +it. The novelty of Christian morality lies here, that in its law +there is a self-fulfilling force. We have not to look to one place +for the knowledge of our duty, and somewhere else for the strength to +do it, but both are given to us in the one thing, the gift of the +dying Christ and His immortal love. + +That love, received into our hearts, will conquer, and it alone will +conquer, our selfishness. That love, received into our hearts, will +mould, and it alone will mould, them into its own likeness. That +love, received into our hearts, will knit, and it alone will knit, +all those who participate in it into a common bond, sweet, deep, +sacred, and all-victorious. + +And so, brethren, if we would know the blessedness and the sweetness +of victory over these miserable, selfish hearts of ours, and to walk +in the liberty of love, we can only get it by keeping close to Jesus +Christ. In any circle, the nearer the points of the circumference are +to the centre, the closer they will necessarily be to one another. As +we draw nearer, each for himself, to our Centre, we shall feel that +we have approximated to all those who stand round the same centre, +and draw from it the same life. In the early spring, when the wheat +is green and young, and scarcely appears above the ground, it comes +up in the lines in which it was sown, parted from one another and +distinctly showing their separation and the furrows. But when the +full corn in the ear waves on the autumn plain, all the lines and +separations have disappeared, and there is one unbroken tract of +sunny fruitfulness. And so when the life in Christ is low and feeble, +His servants may be separated and drawn up in rigid lines of +denominations, and churches, and sects; but as they grow the lines +disappear. If to the churches of England to-day there came a sudden +accession of knowledge of Christ, and of union with Him, the first +thing that would go would be the wretched barriers that separate us +from one another. For if we have the life of Christ in any adequate +measure in ourselves, we shall certainly have grown up above the +fences behind which we began to grow, and shall be able to reach out +to all that love the Lord Jesus Christ, and feel with thankfulness +that we are one in Him. + + + +CHRIST'S FRIENDS + +'Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth +I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his +lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I +have heard of My Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not +chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye +should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should +remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He +may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one +another.'--JOHN xv. 14-17. + +A wonderful word has just dropped from the Master's lips, when He +spoke of laying down His life for His friends. He lingers on it as if +the idea conveyed was too great and sweet to be taken in at once, and +with soothing reiteration He assures the little group that they, even +they, are His friends. + +I have ventured to take these four verses for consideration now, +although each of them, and each clause of them, might afford ample +material for a discourse, because they have one common theme. They +are a description of what Christ's friends are to Him, of what He is +to them, and of what they should be to one another. So they are a +little picture, in the sweetest form, of the reality, the +blessedness, the obligations, of friendship with Christ. + +I. Notice what Christ's friends do for Him. + +'Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.' In the former +verse, 'friends' means chiefly those whom He loved. Here it means +mainly those who love Him. They love Him because He loves them, of +course; and the two sides of the one thought cannot be parted. But +still in this verse the idea of friendship to Christ is looked at +from the human side, and He tells His disciples that they are His +lovers as well as beloved of Him, on condition of their doing +whatsoever He commands them. + +He lingers, as I said, on the idea itself. As if He would meet the +doubts arising from the sense of unworthiness, and from some dim +perception of how He towers above them, and their limitations, He +reiterates, 'Wonderful as it is, you poor men, half-intelligent +lovers of Mine, _you_ are My friends, beloved of Me, and loving Me, +if ye do whatsoever I command you.' + +How wonderful that stooping love of His is, which condescends to +array itself in the garments of ours! Every form of human love Christ +lays His hand upon, and claims that He Himself exercises it in a +transcendent degree. 'He that doeth the will of My Father which is in +heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother.' That which is +even sacreder, the purest and most complete union that humanity is +capable of--that, too, He consecrates; for even it, sacred as it is, +is capable of a higher consecration, and, sweet as it is, receives a +new sweetness when we think of 'the Bride, the Lamb's wife,' and +remember the parables in which He speaks of the Marriage Supper of +the Great King, and sets forth Himself as the Husband of humanity. +And passing from that Holy of Holies out into this outer court, He +lays His hand, too, on that more common and familiar, and yet +precious and sacred, thing--the bond of friendship. The Prince makes +a friend of the beggar. + +Even if we do not think more loftily of Jesus Christ than do those +who regard Him simply as the perfection of humanity, is it not +beautiful and wonderful that He should look with such eyes of beaming +love on that handful of poor, ignorant fishermen, who knew Him so +dimly, and say: 'I pass by all the wise and the mighty, all the lofty +and noble, and My heart clings to you poor, insignificant people?' He +stoops to make them His friends, and there are none so low but that +they may be His. + +This friendship lasts to-day. A peculiarity of Christianity is the +strong personal tie of real love and intimacy which will bind men, to +the end of time, to this Man that died nineteen hundred years ago. We +look back into the wastes of antiquity: mighty names rise there that +we reverence; there are great teachers from whom we have learned, and +to whom, after a fashion, we are grateful. But what a gulf there is +between us and the best and noblest of them! But here is a dead Man, +who to-day is the Object of passionate attachment and a love deeper +than life to millions of people, and will be till the end of time. +There is nothing in the whole history of the world in the least like +that strange bond which ties you and me to the Saviour, and the +paradox of the Apostle remains a unique fact in the experience of +humanity: 'Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, ye love.' We stretch +out our hands across the waste, silent centuries, and there, amidst +the mists of oblivion, thickening round all other figures in the +past, we touch the warm, throhbing heart of our Friend, who lives for +ever, and for ever is near us. We here, nearly two millenniums after +the words fell on the nightly air on the road to Gethsemane, have +them coming direct to our hearts. A perpetual bond unites men with +Christ to-day; and for us, as really as in that long-past Paschal +night, is it true, 'Ye are My friends.' + +There are no limitations in that friendship, no misconstructions in +that heart, no alienation possible, no change to be feared. There is +absolute rest for us there. Why should I be solitary if Jesus Christ +is my Friend? Why should I fear if He walks by my side? Why should +anything be burdensome if He lays it upon me and helps me to bear it? +What is there in life that cannot be faced and borne--aye, and +conquered,--if we have Him, as we all may have Him, for the Friend +and the Home of our hearts? + +But notice the condition, 'If ye do what I command you.' Note the +singular blending of friendship and command, involving on our parts +the cultivation of the two things which are not incompatible, +absolute submission and closest friendship. He commands though He is +Friend; though He commands He is Friend. The conditions that He lays +down are the same which have already occupied our attention in former +sermons of this series, and so may be touched very lightly. 'Ye are +My friends if ye do the things which I command you,' may either +correspond with His former saying, 'If a Man love Me he will keep My +commandments,' or with His later one, which immediately precedes our +text, 'If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love.' For +this is the relationship between love and obedience, in regard to +Jesus Christ, that the love is the parent of the obedience, and the +obedience is the guard and guarantee of the love. They who love will +obey, they who obey will strengthen love by acting according to its +dictates, and will be in a condition to feel and realise more the +warmth of the rays that stream down upon them, and to send back more +fully answering obedience from their hearts. Not in mere emotion, not +in mere verbal expression, not in mere selfish realising of the +blessings of His friendship, and not in mere mechanical, external +acts of conformity, but in the flowing down and melting of the hard +and obstinate iron will, at the warmth of His great love, is our love +made perfect. The obedience, which is the child and the preserver of +love, is something far deeper than the mere outward conformity with +externally apprehended commandments. To submit is the expression of +love, and love is deepened by submission. + +II. Secondly, note what Christ does for His friends. + +'Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what +his lord doeth.' The slave may see what his lord does, but he does +not know his purpose in his acts--'Theirs not to reason why.' In so +far as the relation of master and servant goes, and still more in +that of owner and slave, there is simple command on the one side and +unintelligent obedience on the other. The command needs no +explanation, and if the servant is in his master's confidence he is +more than a servant. But, says Christ, 'I have called you friends'; +and He had called them so before He now named them so. He had called +them so in act, and He points to all His past relationship, and +especially to the heart-outpourings of the Upper Room, as the proof +that He had called them His friends, in the fact that whatsoever He +had heard of the Father He had made known to them. + +Jesus Christ, then, recognises the obligation of absolute frankness, +and He will tell His friends everything that He can. When He tells +them what He can, the voice of the Father speaks through the Son. +Every one of Christ's friends stands nearer to God than did Moses at +the door of the Tabernacle, when the wondering camp beheld him face +to face with the blaze of the Shekinah glory, and dimly heard the +thunderous utterances of God as He spake to him 'as a man speaks to +his friend.' That was surface-speech compared with the divine depth +and fullness of the communications which Jesus Christ deems Himself +bound, and assumes Himself able, to make to them who love Him and +whom He loves. + +Of course to Christ's frankness there are limits. He will not pour +out His treasures into vessels that will spill them; and as He +Himself says in the subsequent part of this great discourse, 'I have +many things to say unto you, but you are not able to carry them now.' +His last word was, 'I have declared Thy name unto My brethren, and +_will declare_ it.' And though here He speaks as if His communication +was perfect, we are to remember that it was necessarily conditioned +by the power of reception on the part of the hearers, and that there +was much yet to be revealed of what God had whispered to Him, ere +these men, that clustered round Him, could understand the message. + +That frank speech is continued to-day. Jesus Christ recognises the +obligation that binds Him to impart to each of us all that each of us +is in our inmost spirits capable of receiving. By the light which He +sheds on the Word, by many a suggestion through human lips, by many a +blessed thought rising quietly within our hearts, and bearing the +token that it comes from a sacreder source than our poor, blundering +minds, He still speaks to us, His friends. + +Ought not that thought of the utter frankness of Jesus make us, for +one thing, very patient, intellectually and spiritually, of the gaps +that are left in His communications and in our knowledge? There are +so many things that we sometimes think we should like to know, things +about that dark future where some of our hearts live so constantly, +things about the depths of His nature and the divine character, +things about the relation between God's love and God's righteousness, +things about the meaning of all this dreadful mystery in which we +grope our way. These and a hundred other questionings suggest to us +that it would have been so easy for Him to have lifted a little +corner of the veil, and let a little more of the light shine out. He +holds all in His hand. Why does He thus open one finger instead of +the whole palm? Because He loves. A friend exercises the right of +reticence as well as the prerogative of speech. And for all the gaps +that are left, let us bow quietly and believe that if it had been +better for us He would have spoken. 'If it were not so I would have +told you.' 'Trust Me! I tell you all that it is good for you to +receive.' + +And that frankness may well teach us another lesson, viz., the +obligation of keeping our ears open and our hearts prepared to +receive the speech that does come from Him. Ah, brother! many a +message from your Lord flits past you, like the idle wind through an +archway, because you are not listening for His voice. If we kept down +the noise of that 'household jar within'; if we silenced passion, +ambition, selfishness, worldliness; if we withdrew ourselves, as we +ought to do, from the Babel of this world, and 'hid ourselves in His +pavilion from the strife of tongues'; if we took less of our religion +out of books and from other people, and were more accustomed to +'dwell in the secret place of the Most High,' and to say, 'Speak, +Friend! for Thy friend heareth,' we should more often understand how +real to-day is the voice of Christ to them that love Him. + + 'Such rebounds the inward ear + Catches often from afar; + Listen, prize them, hold them dear, + For of God--of God--they are.' + +III. Thirdly, notice how Christ's friends come to be so, and why they +are so. + +'Ye have not chosen,' etc. (verse 16). + +Our Lord refers here, no doubt, primarily to the little group of the +Apostles; the choice and ordaining as well as 'the fruit that +abides,' point, in the first place, to their apostolic office, and to +the results of their apostolic labours. But we must widen out the +words a great deal beyond that reference. + +In all the cases of friendship between Christ and men, the +origination and initiation come from Him. 'We love Him because He +first loved us.' He has told us how, in His divine alchemy, He +changes by the shedding of His blood our enmity into friendship. In +the previous verse He has said, 'Greater love hath no man than this, +that a man lay down his life for his friends.' And as I remarked in +my last sermon, the friends here are the same as 'the enemies' for +whom, the Apostle tells us that Christ laid down His life. Since He +has thus by the blood of the Cross changed men's enmity into +friendship, it is true universally that the amity between us and +Christ comes entirely from Him. + +But there is more than that in the words. I do not suppose that any +man, whatever his theological notions and standpoint may be, who has +felt the love of Christ in his own heart in however feeble a measure, +but will say, as the Apostle said, 'I was apprehended of Christ.' It +is because He lays His seeking and drawing hand upon us that we ever +come to love Him, and it is true that His choice of us precedes our +choice of Him, and that the Shepherd always comes to seek the sheep +that is lost in the wilderness. + +This, then, is how we come to be His friends; because, when we were +enemies, He loved us, and gave Himself for us, and ever since has +been sending out the ambassadors and the messengers of His love--or, +rather, the rays and beams of it, which are parts of Himself--to draw +us to His heart. And the purpose which all this forthgoing of +Christ's initial and originating friendship has had in view, is set +forth in words which I can only touch in the lightest possible +manner. The intention is twofold. First, it respects service or +fruit. 'That ye may _go_'; there is deep pathos and meaning in that +word. He had been telling them that He was going; now He says to +them, 'You are to go. We part here. My road lies upward; yours runs +onward. Go into all the world.' He gives them a _quasi_-independent +position; He declares the necessity of separation; He declares also +the reality of union in the midst of the separation; He sends _them_ +out on their course with His benediction, as He does _us_. +Wheresoever we go in obedience to His will, we carry the +consciousness of His friendship. + +'That ye may bring forth fruit'--He goes back for a moment to the +sweet emblem with which this chapter begins, and recurs to the +imagery of the vine and the fruit. 'Keeping His commandments' does +not explain the whole process by which we do the things that are +pleasing in His sight. We must also take this other metaphor of the +bearing of fruit. Neither an effortless, instinctive bringing forth +from the renewed nature and the Christlike disposition, nor a painful +and strenuous effort at obedience to His law, describe the whole +realities of Christian service. There must be the effort, for men do +not grow Christlike in character as the vine grows its grapes; but +there must also be, regulated and disciplined by the effort, the +inward life, for no mere outward obedience and tinkering at duties +and commandments will produce the fruit that Christ desires and +rejoices to have. First comes unity of life with Him; and then +effort. Take care of modern teachings that do not recognise these two +as both essential to the complete ideal of Christian service--the +spontaneous fruit-bearing, and the strenuous effort after obedience. + +'That your fruit should remain'; nothing corrupts faster than fruit. +There is only one kind of fruit that is permanent, incorruptible. The +only life's activity that outlasts life and the world is the activity +of the men who obey Christ. + +The other half of the issues of this friendship is the satisfying of +our desires, 'That whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name He +may give it you.' We have already had substantially the same promise +in previous parts of this discourse, and therefore I may deal with it +very lightly. How comes it that it is certain that Christ's friends, +living close to Him and bearing fruit, will get what they want? +Because what they want will be 'in His name'--that is to say, in +accordance with His disposition and will. Make your desires Christ's, +and Christ's yours, and you will be satisfied. + +IV. And now, lastly, for one moment, note the mutual friendship of +Christ's friends. + +We have frequently had to consider that point--the relation of the +friends of Christ to each other. 'These things I command you, that ye +love one another.' This whole context is, as it were, enclosed within +a golden circlet by that commandment which appeared in a former +verse, at the beginning of it, 'This is My commandment, that ye love +one another,' and reappears here at the close, thus shutting off this +portion from the rest of the discourse. Friends of a friend should +themselves be friends. We care for the lifeless things that a dear +friend has cared for; books, articles of use of various sorts. If +these have been of interest to him, they are treasures and precious +evermore to us. And here are living men and women, in all diversities +of character and circumstances, but with this stamped upon them all-- +Christ's friends, lovers of and loved by Him. And how can we be +indifferent to those to whom Christ is not indifferent? We are knit +together by that bond. We are but poor friends of that Master unless +we feel that all which is dear to Him is dear to us. Let us feel the +electric thrill which ought to pass through the whole linked circle, +and let us beware that we slip not our hands from the grasp of the +neighbour on either side, lest, parted from them, we should be +isolated from Him, and lose some of the love which we fail to +transmit. + + + +SHEEP AMONG WOLVES + +'If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated +you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but +because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the +world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I +said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they +have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have +kept My saying, they will keep yours also.'--JOHN xv. 18-20. + +These words strike a discord in the midst of the sweet music to which +we have been listening. The key-note of all that has preceded has +been love--the love of Christ's friends to one another, and of all to +Him, as an answer to His love to all. That love, which is one, +whether it rise to Him or is diffused on the level of earth, is the +result of that unity of life between the Vine and the branches, of +which our Lord has been speaking such great and wonderful things. But +that unity of life between Christians and Christ has another +consequence than the spread of love. Just because it binds them to +Him in a sacred community, it separates them from those who do not +share in His life, and hence the 'hate' of our context is the shadow +of 'love'; and there result two communities--to use the much-abused +words that designate them--the Church and 'the World'; and the +antagonism between these is deep, fundamental, and perpetual. + +Unquestionably, our Lord is here speaking with special reference to +the Apostles, who, in a very tragic sense, were 'sent forth as sheep +in the midst of wolves.' If we may trust tradition, every one of that +little company, Speaker as well as hearers, died a martyr's death, +with the exception of John himself, who was preserved from it by a +miracle. But, be that as it may, our Lord is here laying down a +universal statement of the permanent condition of things; and there +is no more reason for restricting the force of these words to the +original hearers of them than there is for restricting the force of +any of the rest of this wonderful discourse. 'The world' will be in +antagonism to the Church until the world ceases to be a world, +because it obeys the King; and then, and not till then, will it cease +to be hostile to His subjects. + +I. What makes this hostility inevitable? + +Our Lord here prepares His hearers for what is coming by putting it +in the gentle form of an hypothesis. The frequency with which 'If' +occurs in this section is very remarkable. He will not startle them +by the bare, naked statement which they, in that hour of depression +and agitation, were so little able to endure, but He puts it in the +shape of a 'suppose that,' not because there is any doubt, but in +order to alleviate the pain of the impression which He desires to +make. He says, 'If the world hates,' not 'if the world hate'; and the +tense of the original shows that, whilst the form of the statement is +hypothetical, the substance of it is prophetic. + +Jesus points to two things, as you will observe, which make this +hostility inevitable. 'If the world hate you, ye know that it hated +Me before it hated you.' And again, 'If ye were of the world, the +world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I +have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.' +The very language carries with it the implication of necessary and +continual antagonism. For what is 'the world,' in this context, but +the aggregate of men, who have no share in the love and life that +flow from Jesus Christ? Necessarily they constitute a unity, whatever +diversities there may be amongst them, and necessarily, that unity in +its banded phalanx is in antagonism, in some measure, to those who +constitute the other unity, which holds by Christ, and has been drawn +by Him from 'out of the world.' + +If we share Christ's life, we must, necessarily, in some measure, +share His fate. It is the typical example of what the world thinks +of, and does to, goodness. And all who have 'the Spirit of life which +was in Jesus Christ' for the animating principle of their lives, +will, just in the measure in which they possess it, come under the +same influences which carried Him to the Cross. In a world like this, +it is impossible for a man to 'love righteousness and hate iniquity,' +and to order his life accordingly, without treading on somebody's +corns; being a rebuke to the opposite course of conduct, either +interfering with men's self-complacency or with their interests. From +the beginning the blind world has repaid goodness by antagonism and +contempt. + +And then our Lord touches another, and yet closely-connected, cause +when He speaks of His selecting the Apostles, and drawing them out of +the world, as a reason for the world's hostility. There are two +groups, and the fundamental principles that underlie each are in +deadly antagonism. In the measure in which you and I are Christians +we are in direct opposition to all the maxims which rule the world +and make it a world. What we believe to be precious it regards as of +no account. What we believe to be fundamental truth it passes by as +of little importance. Much which we feel to be wrong it regards as +good. Our jewels are its tinsel, and its jewels are our tinsel. We +and it stand in diametrical opposition of thought about God, about +self, about duty, about life, about death, about the future; and that +opposition goes right down to the bottom of things. However it may be +covered over, there is a gulf, as in some of those American canons: +the towering cliffs may be very near--only a yard or two seems to +separate them; but they go down for thousands and thousands of feet, +and never are any nearer each other, and between them at the bottom a +black, sullen river flows. 'If ye were of the world, the world would +love its own.' If it loves you, it is because ye are of it. + +II. And so note, secondly, how this hostility is masked and modified. + +There are a great many other bonds that unite men together besides +the bonds of religious life or their absence. There are the domestic +ties, there are the associations of commerce and neighbourhood, there +are surface identities of opinion about many important things. The +greater portion of our lives moves on this surface, whore all men are +alike. 'If you tickle us, do we not laugh; if you wound us, do we not +bleed?' We have all the same affections and needs, pursue the same +avocations, do the same sort of things, and a large portion of every +one's life is under the dominion of habit and custom, and determined +by external circumstances. So there is a film of roofing thrown over +the gulf. You can make up a crack in a wall with plaster after a +fashion, and it will hide the solution of continuity that lies +beneath. But let bad weather come, and soon the bricks gape apart as +before. And so, as soon as we get down below the surface of things +and grapple with the real, deep-lying, and formative principles of a +life, we come to antagonism, just as they used to come to it long +ago, though the form of it has become quite different. + +Then there are other causes modifying this hostility. The world has +got a dash of Christianity into it since Jesus Christ spoke. We +cannot say that it is half Christianised, but some of the issues and +remoter consequences of Christianity have permeated the general +conscience, and the ethics of the Gospel are largely diffused in such +a land as this. Thus Christian men and others have, to a large +extent, a common code of morality, as long as they keep on the +surface; and they not only do a good many things exactly alike, but +do a great many things from substantially the same motives, and have +the same way of looking at much. Thus the gulf is partly bridged +over; and the hostility takes another form. We do not wrap Christians +in pitch and stick them up for candles in the Emperor's garden +nowadays, but the same thing can be done in different ways. Newspaper +articles, the light laugh of scorn, the whoop of exultation over the +failures or faults of any prominent man that has stood out boldly on +Christ's side; all these indicate what lies below the surface, and +sometimes not so very far below. Many a young man in a Manchester +warehouse, trying to live a godly life, many a workman at his bench, +many a commercial traveller in the inn or on the road, many a student +on the college benches, has to find out that there is a great gulf +between him and the man who sits next to him, and that he cannot be +faithful to his Lord, and at the same time, down to the depths of his +being, a friend of one who has no friendship to his Master. + +Still another fact masks the antagonism, and that is, that after all, +the world, meaning thereby the aggregate of godless men, has a +conscience that responds to goodness, though grumblingly and +reluctantly. After all, men do know that it is better to be good, +that it is better and wiser to be like Christ, that it is nobler to +live for Him than for self, and that consciousness cannot but modify +to some extent the manifestations of the hostility, but it is there +all the same, and whosoever will be a Christian after Christ's +pattern will find out that it is there. + +Let a man for Christ's sake avow unpopular beliefs, let him try +honestly to act out the New Testament, let him boldly seek to apply +Christian principles to the fashionable and popular sins of his class +or of his country, let him in any way be ahead of the conscience of +the majority, and what a chorus will be yelping at his heels! Dear +brethren, the law still remains, 'If any man will be a friend of the +world he is at enmity with God.' + +III. Thirdly, note how you may escape the hostility. + +A half-Christianised world and a more than half-secularised Church +get on well together. 'When they do agree, their agreement is +wonderful.' And it is a miserable thing to reflect that about the +average Christianity of this generation there is so very little that +does deserve the antagonism of the world. Why should the world care +to hate or trouble itself about a professing Church, large parts of +which are only a bit of the world under another name? There is no +need whatever that there should be any antagonism at all between a +godless world and hosts of professing Christians. If you want to +escape the hostility drop your flag, button your coat over the badge +that shows that you belong to Christ, and do the things that the +people round about you do, and you will have a perfectly easy and +undisturbed life. + +Of course, in the bad old slavery days, a Christianity that had not a +word to say about the sin of slave-holding ran no risk of being +tarred and feathered. Of course a Christianity in Manchester that +winks hard at commercial immoralities is very welcome on the +Exchange. Of course a Christianity that lets beer barrels alone may +reckon upon having publicans for its adherents. Of course a +Christianity that blesses flags and sings _Te Deums_ over victories +will get its share of the spoil. Why should the world hate, or +persecute, or do anything but despise a Christianity like that, any +more than a man need to care for a tame tiger that has had its claws +pared? If the world can put a hook in the nostrils of leviathan, and +make him play with its maidens, it will substitute good-nature, half +contemptuous, for the hostility which our Master here predicts. It +was out-and-out Christians that He said the world would hate; the +world likes Christians that are like itself. Christian men and women! +be you sure that you deserve the hostility which my text predicts. + +IV. And now, lastly, note how to meet this antagonism. + +Reckon it as a sign and test of true union with Jesus Christ. And so, +if ever, by reason of our passing at the call of duty or benevolence +outside the circle of those who sympathise with our faith and +fundamental ideas, we encounter it more manifestly than when we +'dwell among our own people,' let us count the 'reproach of Christ' +as a treasure to be proud of, and to be guarded. + +Be sure that it is your goodness and not your evils or your weakness, +that men dislike. The world has a very keen eye for the +inconsistencies and the faults of professing Christians, and it is a +good thing that it has. The loftier your profession the sharper the +judgment that is applied to you. Many well-meaning Christian people, +by an injudicious use of Christian phraseology in the wrong place, +and by the glaring contradiction between their prayers and their +talks and their daily life, bring down a great deal of deserved +hostility upon themselves and of discredit upon Christianity; and +then they comfort themselves and say they are bearing the 'reproach +of the Cross.' Not a bit of it! They are bearing the natural results +of their own failings and faults. And it is for us to see to it that +what provokes, if it does provoke, hostile judgments and uncharitable +criticisms, insulting speeches and sarcasms, and the sense of our +belonging to another regiment and having other objects, is our +cleaving to Jesus Christ, and not the imperfections and the sins with +which we so often spoil that cleaving. Be you careful for this, that +it is Christ in you that men turn from, and not you yourself and your +weakness and sin. + +Meet this antagonism by not dropping your standard one inch. Keep the +flag right at the masthead. If you begin to haul it down, where are +you going to stop? Nowhere, until you have got it draggling in the +mud at the foot. It is of no use to try to conciliate by compromise. +All that we shall gain by that will be, as I have said, indifference +and contempt; all that we shall gain will be a loss to the cause. A +great deal is said in this day, and many efforts are being made--I +cannot but think mistaken efforts--by Christian people to bridge over +this gulf in the wrong way--that is, by trying to make out that +Christianity in its fundamental principles does approximate a great +deal more closely to the things that the world goes by than it really +does. It is all vain, and the only issue of it will be that we shall +have a decaying Christianity and a dying spiritual life. Keep the +flag up; emphasise and accentuate the things that the world +disbelieves and denies, not pushing them to the 'falsehood of +extremes,' but not by one jot diminishing the clearness of our +testimony by reason of the world's unwillingness to receive it. Our +victory is to be won only through absolute faithfulness to Christ's +ideal. + +And, lastly, meet hostility with unmoved, patient, Christlike, and +Christ-derived love and sympathy. The patient sunshine pours upon the +glaciers and melts the thick-ribbed ice at last into sweet water. The +patient sunshine beats upon the mist-cloud and breaks up its edges +and scatters it at the last. And our Lord here tells us that our +experience, if we are faithful to Him, will be like His experience, +in that some will hearken to our word though others will persecute, +and to some our testimony will come as a message from God that draws +them to the Lord Himself. These are our only weapons, brethren! The +only conqueror of the world is the love that was in Christ breathed +through us; the only victory over suspicion, contempt, alienation, is +pleading, persistent, long-suffering, self-denying love. The only way +to overcome the world's hostility is by turning the world into a +church, and that can only be done when Christ's servants oppose pity +to wrath, love to hate, and in the strength of His life who has won +us all by the same process, seek to win the world for Him by the +manifestation of His victorious love in our patient love. + +Dear brethren, to which army do you belong? Which community is yours? +Are you in Christ's ranks, or are you in the world's? Do you love Him +back again, or do you meet His open heart with a closed one, and His +hand, laden with blessings, with hands clenched in refusal? To which +class do I belong?--it is the question of questions for us all; and I +pray that you and I, won from our hatred by His love, and wooed out +of our death by His life, and made partakers of His life by His +death, may yield our hearts to Him, and so pass from out of the +hostility and mistrust of a godless world into the friendships and +peace of the sheltering Vine. And then we 'shall esteem the reproach +of Christ' if it fall upon our heads, in however modified and mild a +form, 'greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,' and 'have respect +unto the recompense of the reward.' + +May it be so with us all! + + + +THE WORLD'S HATRED, AS CHRIST SAW IT + +'But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake, +because they know not Him that sent Me. If I had not come and +spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no +cloke for their sin. He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also. If +I had not done among them the works which none other man did, +they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both +Me and My Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be +fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me without a +cause.'--JOHN XV. 21-25. + +Our Lord has been speaking of the world's hostility to His followers, +and tracing that to its hostility to Himself. In these solemn words +of our text He goes still deeper, and parallels the relation which +His disciples bear to Him and the consequent hostility that falls on +them, with the relation which He bears to the Father and the +consequent hostility that falls on Him: 'They hate you because they +hate Me.' And then His words become sadder and pierce deeper, and +with a tone of wounded love and disappointed effort and almost +surprise at the world's requital to Him, He goes on to say, 'They +hate Me, because they hate the Father.' + +So, then, here we have, in very pathetic and solemn words, Christ's +view of the relation of the world to Him and to God. + +I. The first point that He signalises is the world's ignorance. + +'These things they will do unto you,' and they will do them 'for My +name's sake'; they will do them 'because they know not Him that sent +Me.' + +'The world,' in Christ's language, is the aggregate of godless men. +Or, to put it a little more sharply, our Lord, in this context, gives +in His full adhesion to that narrow view which divides those who have +come under the influence of His truth into two portions. There is no +mincing of the matter in the antithesis which Christ here draws; no +hesitation, as if there were a great central mass, too bad for a +blessing perhaps, but too good for a curse; which was neither black +nor white, but neutral grey. No! however it may be with the masses +beyond the reach of the dividing and revealing power of His truth, +the men that come into contact with Him, like a heap of metal filings +brought into contact with a magnet, mass themselves into two bunches, +the one those who yield to the attraction, and the other those who do +not. The one is 'My disciples,' and the other is 'the world.' And +now, says Jesus Christ, all that mass that stands apart from Him, +and, having looked upon Him with the superficial eye of those men +round about Him at that day, or of the men who hear of Him now, have +no real love to Him--have, as the underlying motive of their conduct +and their feelings, a real ignorance of God, 'They know not Him that +sent Me.' + +Our Lord assumes that He is so completely the Copy and Revealer of +the divine nature as that any man that looks upon Him has had the +opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, and that any man who +turns away from Him has lost that opportunity. The God that the men +who do not love Jesus Christ believe in, is not the Father that sent +Him. It is a fragment, a distorted image tinted by the lens. The +world has its conception of God; but outside of Jesus Christ and His +manifestation of the whole divine nature, the world's God is but a +syllable, a fragment, a broken part of the perfect completeness. 'The +Father of an infinite majesty,' and of as infinite a tenderness, the +stooping God, the pitying God, the forgiving God, the loving God is +known only where Christ is accepted. In other hearts He may be dimly +hoped for, in other hearts He may be half believed in, in other +hearts He may be thought possible; but hopes and anticipations and +fears and doubts are not knowledge, and they who see not the light in +Christ see but the darkness. Out of Him God is not known, and they +that turn away from His beneficent manifestation turn their faces to +the black north, from which no sun can shine. Brother, do you know +God in Christ? Unless you do, you do not know the God who is. + +But there is a deeper meaning in that word than simply the possession +of true thoughts concerning the divine nature. We know God as we know +one another; because God is a Person, as we are persons, and the only +way to know persons is through familiar acquaintance and sympathy. So +the world which turns away from Christ has no acquaintance with God. + +This is a surface fact. Our Lord goes on to show what lies below it. + +II. His second thought here is--the world's ignorance in the face of +Christ's light is worse than ignorance; it is sin. + +Mark how He speaks: 'If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had +not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.' And then +again: 'If I had not done amongst them the works which none other men +did, they had not had sin.' So then He puts before us two forms of +His manifestation of the divine nature, by His words and His works. +Of these two He puts His words foremost, as being a deeper and more +precious and brilliant revelation of what God is than are His +miracles. The latter are subordinate, they come as a second source of +illumination. Men who will not see the beauty and listen to the truth +that lie in His word may perchance be led by His deed. But the word +towers in its nature high above the work, and the miracle to the word +is but like the picture in the child's book to the text, fit for +feeble eyes and infantile judgments, but containing far less of the +revelation of God than the sacred words which He speaks. First the +words, next the miracles. + +But notice, too, how decisively, and yet simply and humbly and +sorrowfully, our Lord here makes a claim which, on the lips of any +but Himself, would have been mere madness of presumption. Think of +any of us saying that our words made all the difference between +innocent ignorance and criminality! Think of any of us saying that to +listen to us, and not be persuaded, was the sin of sins! Think of any +of us pointing to our actions and saying, In these God is so manifest +that not to see Him augurs wickedness, and is condemnation! And yet +Jesus Christ says all this. And, what is more wonderful, nobody +wonders that He says it, and the world believes that He is saying the +truth when He says it. + +How does that come? There is only one answer; only one. His words +were the illuminating manifestation of God, and His deeds were the +plain and unambiguous operation of the divine hand then and there, +only because He Himself was divine, and in Him 'God was manifested in +the flesh.' + +But passing from that, notice how our Lord here declares that in +comparison with the sin of not listening to His words, and being +taught by His manifestation, all other sins dwindle into nothing. 'If +I had not spoken, they had not had sin.' That does not mean, of +course, that these men would have been clear of all moral +delinquency; it does not mean that there would not have been amongst +them crimes against their own consciences, crimes against the law +written on their own hearts, crimes against the law of revelation. +There were liars, impure men, selfish men, and men committing all the +ordinary forms of human transgression amongst them. And yet, says +Christ, black and bespattered as these natures are, they are white in +comparison with the blackness of the man who, looking into His face, +sees nothing there that he should desire. Beside the mountain +belching out its sulphurous flame the little pimple of a molehill is +nought. And so, says Christ, heaven heads the count of sins with +this--unbelief in Me. + +Ah, brother, as light grows responsibility grows, and this is the +misery of all illumination that comes through Jesus Christ, that +where it does not draw a man into His sweet love, and fill him with +the knowledge of God which is eternal life, it darkens his nature and +aggravates his condemnation, and lays a heavier burden upon his soul. +The truth that the measure of light is the measure of guilt has many +aspects. It turns a face of alleviation to the dark places of the +earth; but just in the measure that it lightens the condemnation of +the heathen, it adds weight to the condemnation of you men and women +who are bathed in the light of Christianity, and all your days have +had it streaming in upon you. The measure of the guilt is the +brightness of the light. No shadows are so black as those which the +intense sunshine of the tropics casts. And you and I live in the very +tropical regions of divine revelation, and 'if we turn away from Him +that spoke on earth and speaketh from heaven, of how much sorer +punishment, think you, shall we be thought worthy' than those who +live away out in the glimmering twilight of an unevangelised +paganism, or who stood by the side of Jesus Christ when they had only +His earthly life to teach them? + +III. The ignorance which is sin is the manifestation of hatred. + +Our Lord has sorrowfully contemplated the not knowing God, which in +the blaze of His light can only come from wilful closing of the eyes, +and is therefore the very sin of sins. But that, sad as it is, is not +all which has to be said about that blindness of unbelief in Him. It +indicates a rooted alienation of heart and mind and will from God, +and is, in fact, the manifestation of an unconscious but real hatred. +It is an awful saying, and one which the lips 'into which grace was +poured' could not pronounce without a sigh. But it is our wisdom to +listen to what it was His mercy to say. + +Observe our Lord's identification of Himself with the Father, so as +that the feelings with which men regard Him are, _ipso facto_, the +feelings with which they regard the Father God. 'He that hath seen Me +hath seen the Father.' 'He that hath loved Me hath loved the Father.' +'He that hath hated Me hath hated the Father.' An ugly word--a word +that a great many of us think far too severe and harsh to be applied +to men who simply are indifferent to the divine love. Some say, 'I am +conscious of no hatred. I do not pretend to be a Christian, but I do +not hate God. Take the ordinary run of people round about us in the +world; if you say God is not in all their thoughts, I agree with you; +but if you say that they _hate_ God, I do not believe it.' + +Well, what do you think the fact that men go through their days and +weeks and months and years, and have not God in all their thoughts, +indicates as to the central feeling of their hearts towards God? +Granted that there is not actual antagonism, because there is no +thought at all, do you think it would be possible for a man who loved +God to go on for a twelvemonth and never think of, or care to please, +or desire to be near, the object that he loved? And inasmuch as, deep +down at the bottom of our moral being, there is no such thing +possible as indifference and a perfect equipoise in reference to God, +it is clear enough, I think, that--although the word must not be +pressed as if it meant conscious and active antagonism,--where there +is no love there is hate. + +If a man does not love God as He is revealed to him in Jesus Christ, +he neither cares to please Him nor to think about Him, nor does he +order his life in obedience to His commands. And if it be true that +obedience is the very life-breath of love, disobedience or non- +obedience is the manifestation of antagonism, and antagonism towards +God is the same thing as hate. + +Dear friends, I want some of my hearers to-day who have never +honestly asked themselves the question of what their relation to God +is, to go down into the deep places of their hearts and test +themselves by this simple inquiry: 'Do I do anything to please Him? +Do I try to serve Him? Is it a joy to me to be near Him? Is the +thought of Him a delight, like a fountain in the desert or the cool +shadow of a great rock in the blazing wilderness? Do I turn to Him as +my Home, my Friend, my All? If I do not, am I not deceiving myself by +fancying that I stand neutral?' There is no neutrality in a man's +relation to God. It is one thing or other. 'Ye cannot serve God and +Mammon.' 'The friendship of the world is enmity against God.' + +IV. And now, lastly, note how our Lord here touches the deep thought +that this ignorance, which is sin, and is more properly named hatred, +is utterly irrational and causeless. + +'All this will they do that it might be fulfilled which is written in +their law, They hated Me without a cause.' One hears sighing through +these words the Master's meek wonder that His love should be so met, +and that the requital which He receives at men's hands, for such an +unexampled and lavish outpouring of it, should be such a +carelessness, reposing upon a hidden basis of such a rooted +alienation. + +'Without a cause'; yes! that suggests the deep thought that the most +mysterious and irrational thing in men's whole history and experience +is the way in which they recompense God in Christ for what He has +done for them. 'Be astonished, O ye heavens! and wonder, O ye earth!' +said one of the old prophets; the mystery of mysteries, which can +give no account of itself to satisfy reason, which has no apology, +excuse, or vindication, is just that when God loves me I do not love +Him back again; and that when Christ pours out the whole fullness of +His heart upon me, nay dull and obstinate heart gives back so little +to Him who has given me so much. + +'Without a cause.' Think of that Cross; think, as every poor creature +on earth has a right to think, that he and she individually were in +the mind and heart of the Saviour when He suffered and died, and then +think of what we have brought Him for it. De we not stand ashamed at- +if I might use so trivial a word,--the absurdity as well as at the +criminality of our requital? Causeless love on the one side, +occasioned by nothing but itself, and causeless indifference on the +other, occasioned by nothing but itself, are the two powers that meet +in this mystery-men's rejection of the infinite love of God. + +My friend, come away from the unreasonable people, come away from the +men who can give no account of their attitude. Come away from those +who pay benefits by carelessness, and a Love that died by an +indifference that will not cast an eye upon that miracle of mercy, +and let His love kindle the answering flame in your hearts. Then you +will know God as only they who love Christ know Him, and in the +sweetness of a mutual bond will lose the misery of self, and escape +the deepening condemnation of those who see Christ on the Cross and +do not care for the sight, nor learn by it to know the infinite +tenderness and holiness of the Father that sent Him. + + + +OUR ALLY + +'But when the Comforter Is come, whom I will send unto you from +the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the +Father, He shall testify of Me: And ye also shall bear witness, +because ye have been with Me from the beginning.'--JOHN xv. 26, +27. + +Our Lord has been speaking of a world hostile to His followers and to +Him. He proceeds, in the words which immediately follow our text, to +paint that hostility as aggravated even to the pitch of religious +murder. But here He lets a beam of light in upon the darkness. These +forlorn Twelve, listening to Him, might well have said, 'Thou art +about to leave us; how can we alone face this world in arms, with +which Thou dost terrify us?' And here He lets them see that they will +not be left alone, but have a great Champion, clad in celestial +armour, who, coming straight from God, will be with them and put into +their hands a weapon, with which they may conquer the world, and turn +it into a friend, and with which alone they must meet the world's +hate. + +So, then, we have three things in this text; the great promise of an +Ally in the conflict with the world; the witness which that Ally +bears, to fortify against the world; and the consequent witness with +which Christians may win the world. + +I. Now consider briefly the first of these points, the great promise +of an Ally in the conflict with the world. + +I may touch, very lightly, upon the wonderful designation of this +Champion-Friend whom Christ sends, because on former occasions in +this course of sermons we have had to deal with the same thoughts, +and there will be subsequent opportunities of recurring to them. But +I may just emphasise in a few sentences the points which our Lord +here signalises in regard to the Champion whom He sends. There is a +double designation of that Spirit, 'the Comforter' and 'the Spirit of +truth.' There is a double description of His mission, as being 'sent' +by Jesus, and as 'proceeding from the Father,' and there is a single +statement as to the position from which He comes to us. A word about +each of these things. + +I have already explained in former sermons that the notion of +'Comforter,' as it is understood in modern English, is a great deal +too restricted and narrow to cover the whole ground of this great and +blessed promise. The Comforter whom Christ sends is no mere drier of +men's tears and gentle Consoler of human sorrows, but He is a +mightier Spirit than that, and the word by which He is described in +our text, which means 'one who is summoned to the side of another,' +conveys the idea of a helper who is brought to the man to be helped, +in order to render whatever aid and succour that man's weakness and +circumstances may require. The verses before our text suggest what +sort of aid and succour the disciples will need. They are to be as +sheep in the midst of wolves. Their defenceless purity will need a +Protector, a strong Shepherd. They stand alone amongst enemies. There +must be some one beside them to fight for them, to shield and to +encourage them, to be their Safety and their Peace. And that +Paraclete, who is called to our side, comes for the special help +which these special circumstances require, and is a strong Spirit who +will be our Champion and our Ally, whatever antagonism may storm +against us, and however strong and well-armed may be the assaulting +legions of the world's hate. + +Then, still further, the other designation here of this strong +Succourer and Friend is 'the Spirit of truth,' by which is +designated, not so much His characteristic attribute, as rather the +weapon which He wields, or the material with which He works. The +'truth' is His instrument; that is to say, the Spirit of God sent by +Jesus Christ is the Strengthener, the Encourager, the Comforter, the +Fighter for us and with us, because He wields that great body of +truth, the perfect revelation of God, and man, and duty, and +salvation, which is embodied in the incarnation and work of Jesus +Christ our Lord. The truth is His weapon, and it is by it that He +makes us strong. + +Then, still further, there is a twofold description here of the +mission of this divine Champion, as 'sent' by Christ, and 'proceeding +from the Father.' + +In regard to the former, I need only remind you that, in a previous +part of this wonderful discourse, our Lord speaks of that divine +Spirit as being sent by the Father in His name and in answer to His +prayer. The representation here is by no means antagonistic to, or +diverse from, that other representation, but rather the fact that the +Father and the Son, according to the deep teaching of Scripture, are +in so far one as that 'whatsoever the Son seeth the Father do that +also the Son doeth likewise,' makes it possible to attribute to Him +the work which, in another place, is ascribed to the Father. In +speaking of the _Persons_ of the Deity, let us never forget that that +word is only partially applicable to that ineffable Being, and that +whilst with us it implies absolute separation of individuals, it does +not mean such separation in the case of its imperfect transference to +the mysteries of the divine nature; but rather, the Son doeth what +the Father doeth, and therefore the Spirit is sent forth by the +Father, and also the Son sends the Spirit. + +But, on the other hand, we are not to regard that divine Spirit as +merely a Messenger sent by another. He 'proceeds from the Father.' +That word has been the battlefield of theological controversy, with +which I do not purpose to trouble you now. For I do not suppose that +in its use here it refers at all to the subject to which it has been +sometimes applied, nor contains any kind of revelation of the eternal +depths of the divine Nature and its relations to itself. What is +meant here is the historical coming forth into human life of that +divine Spirit. And, possibly, the word 'proceeds' is chosen in order +to contrast with the word 'sent,' and to give the idea of a voluntary +and personal action of the Messenger, who not only is _sent_ by the +Father, but of Himself _proceeds_ on the mighty work to which He is +destined. + +Be that as it may, mark only, for the last thought here about the +details of this great promise, that wonderful phrase, twice repeated +in our Lord's words, and emphasised by its verbal repetition in the +two clauses, which in all other respects are so different--'from the +Father.' The word translated '_from_' is not the ordinary word so +rendered, but rather designates _a position at the side of_ than an +_origin from_, and suggests much rather the intimate and ineffable +union between Father, Son, and Spirit, than the source from which the +Spirit comes. I touch upon these things very lightly, and gather them +up into one sentence. Here, then, are the points. A Person who is +spoken of as 'He'--a divine Person whose home from of old has been +close by the Father's side--a Person whose instrument is the revealed +truth ensphered and in germ in the facts of Christ's incarnation and +life--a divine Person, wielding the truth, who is sent by Christ as +His Representative, and in some sense a continuance of His personal +Presence--a divine, personal Spirit coming from the Father, wielding +the truth, sent by Christ, and at the side of all the persecuted and +the weak, all world-hated and Christian men, as their Champion, their +Combatant, their Ally, their Inspiration, and their Power. Is not +that enough to make the weakest strong? Is not that enough to make us +'more than conquerors through Him that loved us'? All nations have +legends of the gods fighting at the head of their armies, and through +the dust of battle the white horses and the shining armour of the +celestial champions have been seen. The childish dream is a +historical reality. It is not we that fight, it is the Spirit of God +that fighteth in us. + +II. And so note, secondly, the witness of the Spirit which fortifies +against the world. + +'He shall bear witness of Me.' Now we must especially observe here +that little phrase, 'unto you.' For that tells us at once that the +witness which our Lord has in mind here is something which is done +within the circle of the Christian believers, and not in the wide +field of the world's history or in nature. Of course it is a great +truth that long before Jesus Christ, and to-day far beyond the limits +of His name and knowledge, to say nothing of His faith and obedience, +the Spirit of God is working. As of old He brooded over the chaotic +darkness, ever labouring to turn chaos into order, and darkness into +light, and deformity into beauty; so today, all over the field of +humanity, He is operating. Grand as that truth is, it is not the +truth here. What is spoken of here is something that is done in and +on Christian men, and not even through them on the world, but in them +for themselves. 'He shall testify of Me' to you. + +Now it is to be noted, also, that the first and special application +of these words is to the little group listening to Him. Never were +men more desolate and beaten down than these were, in the prospect of +Christ's departure. Never were men more utterly bewildered and +dispirited than these were, in the days between His crucifixion and +His resurrection. Think of them during His earthly life, their narrow +understandings, their manifold faults, moral as well as intellectual. +How little perception they had of anything that He said to them, as +their own foolish questions abundantly show! How little they had +drunk in His spirit, as their selfish and ambitious janglings amongst +themselves abundantly show! They were but Jews like their brethren, +believing, indeed, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, but not knowing +what it was that they believed, or of what kind the Messiah was in +whom they were thus partially trusting. But they loved Him and were +led by Him, and so they were brought into a larger place by the +Spirit whom Christ sent. + +What was it that made these dwarfs into giants in six weeks? What was +it that turned their narrowness into breadth; that made them start up +all at once as heroes, and that so swiftly matured them, as the +fruits and flowers are ripened under tropical sunshine? The +resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ had a great deal to do +with the change; but they were not its whole cause. There is no +explanation of the extraordinary transformation of these men as we +see them in the pages of the Gospels, and as we find them on the +pages of the Acts of the Apostles, except this--the resurrection and +the ascension of Jesus Christ as facts, and the Spirit on Pentecost +as an indwelling Interpreter of the facts. He came, and the weak +became strong, and the foolish wise, and the blind enlightened, and +they began to understand--though it needed all their lives to perfect +the teaching,--what it was that their ignorant hands had grasped and +their dim perceptions had seen, when they touched the hands and +looked upon the face of Jesus Christ. The witness of the Spirit of +God working within them, working upon what they knew of the +historical facts of Christ's life, and interpreting these to them, +was the explanation of their change and growth. And the New Testament +is the product of that change. Christ's life was the truth which the +Spirit used, and a product of His teaching was these Epistles which +we have, and which for us step into the place which the historical +facts held for them, and become the instrument with which the Spirit +of God will deepen our understanding of Christ and enlarge our +knowledge of what He is to us. + +So, dear friends, whilst here we have a promise which specially +applies, no doubt, to these twelve Apostles, and the result of which +in them was different from its result in us, inasmuch as the Spirit's +teaching, recorded in the New Testament, becomes for us the +authoritative rule of faith and practice, the promise still applies +to each of us in a secondary and modified sense. For there is nothing +in these great valedictory words of our Lord's which has not a +universal bearing, and is not the revelation of a permanent truth in +regard to the Christian Church. And, therefore, here we have the +promise of a universal gift to all Christian men and women, of an +actual divine Spirit to dwell with each of us, to speak in our +hearts. + +And what will He speak there? He will teach us a deeper knowledge of +Jesus Christ. He will help us to understand better what He is. He +will show us more and more of the whole sweep of His work, of the +whole infinite truth for morals and religion, for politics and +society, for time and for eternity, about men and about God, which is +wrapped up in that great saying which we first of all, perhaps under +the pressure of our own sense of sin, grasp as our deliverance from +sin: 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that +whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting +life.' That is the sum of truth which the Spirit of God interprets to +every faithful heart. And as the days roll on, and new problems rise, +and new difficulties present themselves, and new circumstances emerge +in our personal life, we find the truth, which we at first dimly +grasped as life and salvation, opening out into wisdom and depth and +meaning that we never dreamed of in the early hours. A Spirit that +bears witness of Christ and will make us understand Him better every +day we live, if we choose, is the promise that is given here, for all +Christian men and women. + +Then note that this inward witness of Christ's depth and preciousness +is our true weapon and stay against a hostile world. A little candle +in a room will make the lightning outside almost invisible; and if I +have burning in my heart the inward experience and conviction of what +Jesus Christ is and what He has done and will do for me--Oh! then, +all the storm without may rage, and it will not trouble me. + +If you take an empty vessel and bring pressure to bear upon it, in go +the sides. Fill it, and they will resist the pressure. So with +growing knowledge of Christ, and growing personal experience of His +sweetness in our souls, we shall be able, untouched and undinted, to +throw off the pressure which would otherwise have crushed us. + +Therefore, dear friends, here is the true secret of tranquillity, in +an age of questioning and doubt. Let me have that divine Voice +speaking in my heart, as I may have, and no matter what questions may +be doubtful, this is sure--'We know in whom we have believed'; and we +can say, 'Settle all your controversies any way you like: one thing I +know, and that divine Voice is ever saying it to me in my deepest +consciousness--the Son of God is come and hath given us an +understanding that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him +that is true.' Labour for more of this inward, personal conviction of +the preciousness of Jesus Christ to strengthen you against a hostile +world. + +And remember that there are conditions under which this Voice speaks +in our souls. One is that we attend to the instrument which the +Spirit of God uses, and that is 'the truth.' If Christians will not +read their Bibles, they need not expect to have the words of these +Bibles interpreted and made real to them by any inward experience. If +you want to have a faith which is vindicated and warranted by your +daily experience, there is only one way to get it, and that is, to +use the truth which the Spirit uses, and to bring yourself into +contact, continual and reverent and intelligent, with the great body +of divine truth that is conveyed in these authoritative words of the +Spirit of God speaking through the first witnesses. + +And there must be moral discipline too. Laziness, worldliness, the +absorption of attention with other things, self-conceit, prejudice, +and, I was going to say, almost above all, the taking of our religion +and religious opinions at secondhand from men and teachers and books +--all these stand in the way of our hearing the Spirit of God when He +speaks. Come away from the babble and go by yourself, and take your +Bibles with you, and read them, and meditate upon them, and get near +the Master of whom they speak, and the Spirit which uses the truth +will use it to fortify you. + +III. And, lastly, note the consequent witness with which the +Christian may win the world. + +'And ye also shall bear witness of Me, because ye have been with Me +from the beginning.' That 'also' has, of course, direct reference to +the Apostles' witness to the facts of our Lord's historical +appearance, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension; +and therefore their qualification was simply the companionship with +Him which enabled them to say, 'We saw what we tell you; we were +witnesses from the beginning.' + +But then, again, I say that there is no word here that belongs only +to the Apostles; it belongs to us all, and so here is the task of the +Christian Church in all its members. They receive the witness of the +Spirit, and they are Christ's witnesses in the world. + +Note what we have to do--to bear witness; not to argue, not to adorn, +but simply to attest. Note what we have to attest--the fact, not of +the historical life of Jesus Christ, because we are not in a position +to be witnesses of that, but the fact of His preciousness and power, +and the fact of our own experience of what He has done for us. Note, +that that is by far the most powerful agency for winning the world. +You can never make men angry by saying to them, 'We have found tho +Messias.' You cannot irritate people, or provoke them into a +controversial opposition when you say, 'Brother, let me tell you my +experience. I was dark, sad, sinful, weak, solitary, miserable; and I +got light, gladness, pardon, strength, companionship, and a joyful +hope. I was blind--you remember me when my eyes were dark, and I sat +begging outside the Temple; I was blind, now I see--look at my +eyeballs.' We can all say that. This is the witness that needs no +eloquence, no genius, no anything except honesty and experience; and +whosoever has tasted and felt and handled of the Word of Life may +surely go to a brother and say, 'Brother, I have eaten and am +satisfied. Will you not help yourselves?' We can all do it, and we +ought to do it. The Christian privilege of being witnessed to by the +Spirit of God in our hearts brings with it the Christian duty of +being witnesses in our turn to the world. That is our only weapon +against the hostility which godless humanity bears to ourselves and +to our Master. We may win men by that; we can win them by nothing +else. 'Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servants whom I +have chosen.' Christian friend, listen to the Master, who says, 'Him +that confesseth Me before men, him will I also confess before My +Father in heaven.' + + + +WHY CHRIST SPEAKS + +'These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be +offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time +cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God +service. And these things will they do unto you, because they +have not known the Father, nor Me. But these things have I told +you, that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told +you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the +beginning, because I was with you. But now I go My way to Him +that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou? But +because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled +your heart.'--JOHN xvi. 1-6. + +The unbroken flow of thought, and the many subtle links of connection +between the parts, of these inexhaustible last words of our Lord make +any attempt at grouping them into sections more or less +unsatisfactory and artificial. But I have ventured to throw these, +perhaps too many, verses together for our consideration now, because +a phrase of frequent recurrence in them manifestly affords a key to +their main subject. Notice how our Lord four times repeats the +expression, 'These things have I spoken unto you.' He is not so much +adding anything new to His words, as rather contemplating the reasons +for His speech now, the reasons for His silence before, and the +imperfect apprehension of the things spoken which His disciples had, +and which led to their making His announcement, thus imperfectly +understood, an occasion for sorrow rather than for joy. There is a +kind of landing place or pause here in the ascending staircase. Our +Lord meditates for Himself, and invites us to meditate with Him, +rather upon His past utterances than upon anything additional to +them. So, then, whilst it is true that we have in two of these verses +a repetition, in a somewhat more intense and detailed form, of the +previous warnings of the hostility of the world, in the main the +subject of the present section is that which I have indicated. And I +take the fourfold recurrence of that clause to which I have pointed +as marking out for us the leading ideas that we are to gather from +these words. + +I. There is, first, our Lord's loving reason for His speech. + +This is given in a double form. 'These things have I spoken unto you, +that ye should not be offended.' And, again, 'These things have I +told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told +you of them.' These two statements substantially coalesce and point +to the same idea. + +They are separated, as I have said, by a reiteration, in more +emphatic form, of the dark prospect which He has been holding out to +His disciples. He tells them that the world which hates them is to be +fully identified with the apostate Jewish Church. 'The synagogue' is +for them 'the world.' There is a solemn lesson in that. The organised +body that calls itself God's Church and House may become the most +rampant enemy of Christ's people, and be the truest embodiment on the +face of the earth of all that He means by 'the world.' A formal +church is the true world always; and to-day as then. And such a body +will do the cruellest things and believe that it is offering up +Christ's witnesses as sacrifices to God. That is partly an +aggravation and partly an alleviation of the sin. It is possible that +the inquisitor and the man in the _San Benito_, whom he ties to the +stake, may shake hands yet at His side up yonder. But a church which +has become, the world will do its persecution and think that it is +worship, and call the burning of God's people an _auto-da-fe_ (act of +faith); and the bottom of it all is that, in the blaze of light, and +calling themselves God's, 'they do not know' either God or Christ. +They do not know the one because they will not know the other. + +But that is all parenthetical in the present section, and so I say +nothing more about it; and ask you, rather, just to look at the +loving reasons which Christ here suggests for His present speech-- +'that ye should not be offended,' or stumble. He warns them of the +storm before it bursts, lest, when it bursts, it should sweep them +away from their moorings. Of course, there could be nothing more +productive of intellectual bewilderment, and more likely to lead to +doubt as to one's own convictions, than to find oneself at odds with +the synagogue about the question of the Messiah. A modest man might +naturally say, 'Perhaps I am wrong and they are right.' A coward +would be sure to say, 'I will sink my convictions and fall in with +the majority.' The stumbling-block for these first Jewish converts, +in the attitude of the whole mass of the nation towards Christ and +His pretensions, is one of such a magnitude as we cannot, by any +exercise of our imagination, realise. 'And,' says Christ, 'the only +way by which you will ever get over the temptation to intellectual +doubt or to cowardly apostasy that arises from your being thrown out +of sympathy with the whole mass of your people, and the traditions of +the generations, is to reflect that I told you it would be so, before +it came to pass.' + +Of course all that has a special bearing upon those to whom it was +originally addressed, and then it has a secondary bearing upon +Christians, whose lot it is to live in a time of actual persecution. +But that does not in the slightest degree destroy the fact that it +also has a bearing upon every one of us. For if you and I are +Christian people, and trying to live like our Master, and to do as He +would have us to do, we too shall often have to stand in such a very +small minority, and be surrounded by people who take such an entirely +opposite view of duty and of truth, as that we shall be only too much +disposed to give up and falter in the clearness, fullness, and +braveness of our utterance, and think, 'Well, perhaps after all it is +better for me to hold my tongue.' + +And then, besides this, there are all the cares and griefs which +befall each of us, with regard to which also, as well as with regard +to the difficulties and dangers and oppositions which we may meet +with in a faithful Christian life, the principles of my text have a +distinct and direct application. He has told us in order that we +might not stumble, because when the hour comes and the sorrow comes +with it, we remember that He told us all about it before. + +It is one of the characteristics of Christianity that Jesus Christ +does not try to enlist recruits by highly-coloured, rosy pictures of +the blessing and joy of serving Him, keeping His hand all the while +upon the weary marches and the wounds and pains. He tells us plainly +at the beginning, 'If you take My yoke upon you, you will have to +carry a heavy burden. You will have to abstain from a great many +things that you would like to do. You will have to do a great many +things that your flesh will not like. The road is rough, and a high +wall on each side. There are lovely flowers and green pastures on the +other side of the hedge, where it is a great deal easier walking upon +the short grass than it is upon the stony path. The roadway is +narrow, and the gateway is very strait, but the track goes steadily +up. Will you accept the terms and come in and walk upon it?' + +It is far better and nobler, and more attractive also, to tell us +frankly and fully the difficulties and dangers than to try and coax +us by dwelling on pleasures and ease. Jesus Christ will have no +service on false pretences, but will let us understand at the +beginning that if we serve under His flag we have to make up our +minds to hardships which otherwise we may escape, to antagonisms +which otherwise will not be provoked, and to more than an ordinary +share of sorrow and suffering and pain. 'Through much tribulation we +must enter the Kingdom.' + +And the way by which all these troubles and cares, whether they be +those incident and peculiar to Christian life, or those common to +humanity, can best be met and overcome, is precisely by this thought, +'The Master has told us before.' Sorrows anticipated are more easily +met. It is when the vessel is caught with all its sails set that it +is almost sure to go down, and, at all events, sure to be badly +damaged in the typhoon. But when the barometer has been watched, and +its fall has given warning, and everything movable has been made +fast, and every spare yard has been sent below, and all tightened up +and ship-shape--then she can ride out the storm. Forewarned is +forearmed. Savages think, when an eclipse comes, that a wolf has +swallowed the sun, and it will never come out again. We know that it +has all been calculated beforehand, and since we know that it is +coming to-morrow, when it does come, it is only a passing darkness. +Sorrow anticipated is sorrow half overcome; and when it falls on us, +the bewilderment, as if 'some strange thing had happened,' will be +escaped when we can remember that the Master has told us it all +beforehand. + +And again, sorrow foretold gives us confidence in our Guide. We have +the chart, and as we look upon it we see marked 'waterless country,' +'pathless rocks,' 'desert and sand,' 'wells and palm-trees.' Well, +when we come to the first of these, and find ourselves, as the map +says, in the waterless country; and when, as we go on step by step, +and mile after mile, we find it is all down there, we say to +ourselves, 'The remainder will be accurate, too,' and if we are in +'Marah' to-day, where 'the water is bitter,' and nothing but the wood +of the tree that grows there can ever sweeten it, we shall be at +'Elim' to-morrow, where there are 'the twelve wells and the seventy +palm trees.' The chart is right, and the chart says that the end of +it all is 'the land that flows with milk and honey.' He _has_ told us +_this_; if there had been anything worse than this, He would have +told us _that_. 'If it were not so I would have told you.' The sorrow +foretold deepens our confidence in our Guide. + +Sorrow that comes punctually in accordance with His word plainly +comes in obedience to His will. Our Lord uses a little word in this +context which is very significant. He says, 'When _their hour_ is +come.' + +'Their hour'--the time allotted to them. Allotted by whom? Allotted +by Him. He could tell that they would come, because it was as His +instruments that they came. 'Their time' was His appointment. It was +only an 'hour,' a definite, appointed, and brief period in accordance +with His loving purpose. It takes all sorts of weathers to make a +year; and after all the sorts of weathers are run out, the year's +results are realised and the calm comes. And so the good old hymn, +with its rhythm that speaks at once of fear and triumph, has caught +the true meaning of these words of our Lord's-- + + 'Why should I complain + Of want or distress, + Temptation or pain? + He told me no less.' + +'These things have I spoken unto you that ye might not be offended.' + +II. Still further, note our Lord's loving reasons for past silence. +'These things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was +with you.' + +Of course there had been in His early ministry hints, and very plain +references, to persecutions and trials, but we must not restrict the +'these things' of my text to that only, but rather include the whole +of the previous chapter, in which He sets the sorrow and the +hostility which His servants have to endure in their true light, as +being the consequences of their union with Him and of the closeness +and the identity of life and fate between the Vine and the branches. +In so systematic and detailed fashion, and with such an exhibition of +the grounds of its necessity, our Lord had not spoken of the world's +hostility in His earlier ministry, but had reserved it to these last +moments, and the reason why He had given but passing hints before was +because He was there. What a superb confidence that expresses in His +ability to shield His poor followers from all that might hurt and +harm them! He spreads the ample robe of His protection over them, or +rather, to go back to His own metaphor, 'as a hen gathereth her +chickens under her wings' so He gathers them to His own breast, and +stretches over them that which is at once protection and warmth, and +keeps them safe. As long as He is there, no harm can come to them. +But He is going away, and so it is time to speak, and to speak more +plainly. + +That, too, yields for us, dear brethren, truths that apply to us +quite as much as to that little group of silent listeners. For us, +too, difficulties and sorrows, though foretold in general terms, are +largely hidden till they are near. It would have been of little use +for Christ to have spoken more plainly in those early days of His +ministry. The disciples managed to forget and to misunderstand His +plain utterances, for instance, about His own death and resurrection. +There needs to be an adaptation between the hearing ear and the +spoken word, in order that the word spoken should be of use, and +there are great tracts of Scripture dealing with the sorrows of life, +which lie perfectly dark and dead to us, until experience vitalises +them. The old Greeks used to send messages from one army to another +by means of a roll of parchment twisted spirally round a baton, and +then written on. It was perfectly unintelligible when it fell into a +man's hands that had not a corresponding baton to twist it upon. Many +of Christ's messages to us are like that. You can only understand the +utterances when life gives you the frame round which to wrap them, +and then they flash up into meaning, and we say at once, 'He told us +it all before, and I scarcely knew that He had told me, until this +moment when I need it.' + +Oh, it is merciful that there should be a gradual unveiling of what +is to come to us, that the road should wind, and that we should see +so short a way before us. Did you never say to yourselves, 'If I had +known all this before, I do not think I could have lived to face it'? +And did you not feel how good and kind and loving it was, that in the +revelation there had been concealment, and that while Jesus Christ +had told us in general terms that we must expect sorrows and trials, +this specific form of sorrow and trial had not been foreseen by us +until we came close to it? Thank God for the loving reticence, and +for the as loving eloquence of His speech and of His silence, with +regard to sorrow. + +And take this further lesson, that there ought to be in all our lives +times of close and blessed communion with that Master, when the sense +of His presence with us makes all thought of sorrows and trials in +the future out of place and needlessly disturbing. If these disciples +had drunk in the spirit of Jesus Christ when they were with Him, then +they would not have been so bewildered when He left them. When He was +near them there was something better for them to do than to be 'over +exquisite to cast the fashion of uncertain evils' in the future-- +namely, to grow into His life, to drink in the sweetness of His +presence, to be moulded into the likeness of His character, to +understand Him better, and to realise His nearness more fully. And, +dear brethren, for us all there are times--and it is our own fault if +these are not very frequent and blessed--when thus, in such an hour +of sweet communion with the present Christ, the future will be all +radiant and calm, if we look into it, or, better, the present will be +so blessed that there will be no need to think of the future. These +men in the upper chamber, if they had learnt all the lessons that He +was teaching them then, would not have gone out, to sleep in +Gethsemane, and to tell lies in the high priest's hall, and to fly +like frightened sheep from the Cross, and to despair at the tomb. And +you and I, if we sit at His table, and keep our hearts near Him, +eating and drinking of that heavenly manna, shall 'go in the strength +of that meat forty days into the wilderness,' and say-- + + 'E'en let the unknown to-morrow + Bring with it what it may.' + +III. Lastly, I must touch, for the sake of completeness, upon the +final thought in these pregnant verses, and that is, the imperfect +apprehension of our Lord's words, which leads to sorrow instead of +joy. + +'Now I go My way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, +Whither goest Thou? But because I have said these things unto you, +sorrow hath filled your heart.' He had been telling them--and it was +the one definite idea that they gathered from His words--that He was +going. And what did they say? They said, 'Going! What is to become of +_us_?' If there had been a little less selfishness and a little more +love, and if they had put their question, 'Going! What is to become +of _Him_?' then it would not have been sorrow that would have filled +their hearts, but a joy that would have flooded out all the sorrow, +'and the winter of their discontent' would have been changed into +'glorious summer,' because He was going to Him that sent Him; that is +to say, He was going with His work done and His message accomplished. +And therefore, if they could only have overlooked their own selves, +and the bearing of His departure, as it seemed to them, on +themselves, and have thought of it a little as it affected Him, they +would have found that all the oppressive and the dark in it would +have disappeared, and they would have been glad. + +Ah, dear brethren, that gives us a thought on which I can but touch +now, that the steadfast contemplation of the ascended Christ, who has +gone to the Father, having finished His work, is the sovereign +antidote against all sense of separation and solitude, the sovereign +power by which we may face a hostile world, the sovereign cure for +every sorrow. If we could live in the light of the great triumphant, +ascended Lord, then, Oh, how small would the babble of the world be. +If the great White Throne, and He that sits upon it, were more +distinctly before us, then we could face anything, and sorrow would +'become a solemn scorn of ills,' and all the transitory would be +reduced to its proper insignificance, and we should be emancipated +from fear and every temptation to unfaithfulness and apostasy. Look +up to the Master who has gone, and as the dying martyr outside the +city wall 'saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing'-- +having sprung to His feet to help His poor servant--'at the right +hand of God,' so with that vision in our eyes and the light of that +Face flashing upon our faces, and making them like the angels', we +shall be masters of grief and care, and pain and trial, and enmity +and disappointment, and sorrow and sin, and feel that the absent +Christ is the present Christ, and that the present Christ is the +conquering power in us. + +Dear brethren, there is nothing else that will make us victors over +the world and ourselves. If we can grasp Him by our faith and keep +ourselves near Him, then union with Him as of the Vine and the +branches, which will result inevitably in suffering here, will result +as inevitably in joy hereafter. For He will never relax the +adamantine grasp of His strong hand until He raises us to Himself, +and 'if so be that we suffer with Him we shall also be glorified +together.' + + + +THE DEPARTING CHRIST AND THE COMING SPIRIT + +'Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that +I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto +you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is +come, He will _convince_ the world of sin, and of righteousness, +and of judgment.'--JOHN xvi. 7, 8. + +We read these words in the light of all that has gone after, and to +us they are familiar and almost thread-bare. But if we would +appreciate their sublimity, we must think away nineteen centuries, +and all Christendom, and recall these eleven poor men and their +peasant Leader in the upper room. They were not very wise, nor very +strong, and outside these four walls there was scarcely a creature in +the whole world that had the least belief either in Him or in them. +They had everything against them, and most of all their own hearts. +They had nothing for them but their Master's promise. Their eyes had +been dimmed by their sorrowful hearts, so that they could not see the +truth which He had been trying to reveal to them; and His departure +had presented itself to them only as it affected themselves, and +therefore had brought a sense of loss and desolation. + +And now He bids them think of that departure, as it affects +themselves, as pure gain. 'It is for your profit that I go away.' He +explains that staggering statement by the thought which He has +already presented to them, in varying aspects, of His departure as +the occasion for the coming of that Great Comforter, who, when He is +come, will through them work upon the world, which knows neither them +nor Him. They are to go forth 'as sheep in the midst of wolves,' but +in this promise He tells them that they will become the judges and +accusers of the world, which, by the Spirit dwelling in them, they +will be able to overcome, and convict of error and of fault. + +We must remember that the whole purpose of the words which we are +considering now is the strengthening of the disciples in their +conflict with the world, and that, therefore, the operations of that +divine Spirit which are here spoken of are operations carried on by +their instrumentality and through the word which they spake. With +that explanation we can consider the great words before us. + +I. The first thing that strikes me about them is that wonderful +thought of the gain to Christ's servants from Christ's departure. 'It +is expedient for you that I go away.' + +I need not enlarge here upon what we have had frequent occasion to +remark, the manner in which our Lord here represents the complex +whole of His death and ascension as being His own voluntary act. He +'goes.' He is neither taken away by death nor rapt up to heaven in a +whirlwind, but of His own exuberant power and by His own will He goes +into the region of the grave and thence to the throne. Contrast the +story of His ascension with that Old Testament story of the ascension +of Elijah. One needed the chariot of fire and the horses of fire to +bear him up into the sphere, all foreign to his mortal and earthly +manhood; the Other needed no outward power to lift Him, nor any +vehicle to carry Him from this dim spot which men call earth, but +slowly, serenely, upborne by His own indwelling energy, and rising as +to His native home, He ascended up on high, and went where the very +manner of His going proclaimed that He had been before. 'If _I go_ +away, I will send Him.' + +But that is a digression. What we are concerned with now is the +thought of Christ's departure as being a step in advance, and a +positive gain, even to those poor, bewildered men who were clustering +round Him, depending absolutely upon Himself, and feeling themselves +orphaned and helpless without Him. + +Now if we would feel the full force and singularity of this saying of +our Lord's, let us put side by side with it that other one, 'I have a +desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. +Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.' Why is +it that the Apostle says, 'Though I want to go I am bound to stay?' +and why is it that the Master says, 'It is for your good that I am +going,' but because of the essential difference in the relation of +the two to the people who are to be left, and in the continuance of +the work of the two after they had departed? Paul knew that when he +went, whatever befell those whom he loved and would fain help, he +could not stretch a hand to do anything for them. He knew that death +dropped the portcullis between him and them, and, whatever their sore +need on the one side of the iron gate, he on the other could not +succour or save. Jesus Christ said, 'It is better for you that I +should go,' because He knew that all His influences would flow +through the grated door unchecked, and that, departed, He would still +be the life of them that trusted in Him; and, having left them, would +come near them, by the very act of leaving them. + +And so there is here indicated for us--as we shall have occasion to +see more fully, presently,--in that one singular and anomalous fact +of Christ's departure being a positive gain to those that trust in +Him, the singularity and uniqueness of His work for them and His +relation to them. + +The words mean a great deal more than the analogies of our relation +to dear ones or great ones, loves or teachers, who have departed, +might suggest. Of course we all know that it is quite true that death +reveals to the heart the sweetness and the preciousness of the +departed ones, and that its refining touch manifests to our blind +eyes what we did not see so clearly when they were beside us. We all +know that it needs distance to measure men, and the dropping away of +the commonplace and the familiar ere we can see 'the likeness' of our +contemporaries 'to the great of old.' We have to travel across the +plains before we can measure the relative height of the clustered +mountains, and discern which is manifestly the loftiest. And all +_this_ is true in reference to Jesus Christ and His relation to us. +But that does not go half-way towards the understanding of such words +as these of my text, which tell us that so singular and solitary is +His relation to us that the thing which ends the work of all other +men, and begins the decay of their influence, begins for Him a higher +form of work and a wider sweep of sway. He is nearer us when He +leaves us, and works with us and in us more mightily from the throne +than He did upon the earth. Who is He of whom this is true? And what +kind of work is it of which it is true that death continues and +perfects it? + +So let me note, before I pass on, that there is a great truth here +for us. We are accustomed to look back to our Lord's earthly +ministry, and to fancy that those who gathered round Him, and heard +Him speak, and saw His deeds, were in a better position for loving +Him and trusting Him than you and I are. It is all a mistake. We have +lost nothing that they had which was worth the keeping; and we have +gained a great deal which they had not. We have not to compare our +relation to Christ with theirs, as we might do our relation to some +great thinker or poet, with that of his contemporaries, but we have +Christ in a better form, if I may so speak; and we, on whom the ends +of the world are come, may have a deeper and a fuller and a closer +intimacy with Him than was possible for men whose perceptions were +disturbed by sense, and who had to pierce through 'the veil, that is +to say, His flesh,' before they reached the Holy of Holies of His +spirit. + +II. Note, secondly, the coming for which Christ's going was needful, +and which makes that going a gain. + +'If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I +depart I will send Him unto you.' Now we have already, in former +sermons, touched upon many of the themes which would naturally be +suggested by these words, and therefore I do not propose to dwell +upon them at any length. There is only one point to which I desire to +refer briefly here, and that is the necessity which here seems to be +laid down by our Lord for His departure, in order that that divine +Spirit may come and dwell with men. That necessity goes down deeper +into the mysteries of the divinity and of the processes and order of +divine revelation than it is given to us to follow. But though we can +only speak superficially and fragmentarily about such a matter, let +me just remind you, in the briefest possible words, of what Scripture +plainly declares to us with regard to this high and, in its fullness, +ineffable matter. It tells us that the complete work of Jesus Christ +--not merely His coming upon earth, or His life amongst men, but also +His sacrificial death upon the Cross--was the necessary preliminary, +and in some sense procuring cause, of the gift of that divine Spirit. +It tells us--and there we are upon ground on which we can more fully +verify the statement--that His work must be completed ere that Spirit +can be sent, because the word is the Spirit's weapon for the world, +and the revelation of God in Jesus must be ended, ere the application +of that revelation, which is the Spirit's work, can be begun in its +full energy. + +It tells us, further, (and there our eyesight fails, and we have to +accept what we are told), that Jesus Christ must ascend on high and +be at the right hand of God, ere He can pour down upon men the +fullness of the Spirit which dwelt uncommunicated in Him in the time +of His earthly humiliation. 'Thou hast ascended up on high,' and +therefore 'Thou hast given gifts to men.' We accept the declaration, +not knowing all the deep necessity in the divine Nature on which it +rests, but believing it, because He in whom we have confidence has +declared it to us. + +And we are further told--and there our experience may, in some +degree, verify the statement,--that only those, in whose hearts there +is union to Jesus Christ by faith in His completed work and ascended +glory, are capable of receiving that divine gift. So every way, both +as regards the depths of Deity and the processes of revelation, and +as regards the power of the humanity of Christ to impart His Spirit, +and as regards the capacity of us poor recipients to receive it, the +words of my text seem to be confirmed, and we can, though not with +full insight, at any rate with full faith, accept the statement, 'If +I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you.' + +That coming is gain. It teaches a deeper knowledge of Him. It teaches +and gives a fuller possession of the life of righteousness which is +like His own. It draws us into the fellowship of the Son. + +III. Lastly, note here the threefold conflict of the Spirit through +the Church with the world. + +'When He is come He will convict the world' in respect 'of sin and of +righteousness and of judgment.' By the 'reproof,' or rather +'conviction,' which is spoken about here, is meant the process by +which certain facts are borne in upon men's understanding and +consciences, and, along with these facts, the conviction of error and +fault in reference to them. It is no mere process of demonstration of +an intellectual truth, but it is a process of conviction of error in +respect to great moral and religious truth, and of manifestation of +the truths in regard to which the error and the sin have been +committed. So we have here the triple division of the great work +which the divine Spirit does, through Christian men and women, in the +world. + +'He shall convict the world of sin.' The outstanding first +characteristic of the whole Gospel message is the new gravity which +it attaches to the fact of sin, the deeper meaning which it gives to +the word, and the larger scope which it shows its blighting +influences to have had in humanity. Apart from the conviction of sin +by the Spirit using the word proclaimed by disciples, the world has +scarcely a notion of what sin is, its inwardness, its universality, +the awfulness of it as a fact affecting man's whole being and all his +relations to God. All these conceptions are especially the product of +Christian truth. Without it, what does the world know about the +poison of sin? And what does it care about the poison until the +conviction has been driven home to the reluctant consciousness of +mankind by the Spirit wielding the word? This conviction comes first +in the divine order. I do not say that the process of turning a man +of the world into a member of Christ's Church always begins, as a +matter of fact, with the conviction of sin. I believe it most +generally does so; but without insisting upon a pedantic adherence to +a sequence, and without saying a word about the depth and intensity +of such a conviction, I am here to assert that a Christianity which +is not based upon the conviction of sin is an impotent Christianity, +and will be of very little use to the men who profess it, and will +have no power to propagate itself in the world. Everything in our +conception of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of His work for us +depends upon what we think about this primary fact of man's +condition, that he is a sinful man. The root of all heresy lies +there. Every error that has led away men from Jesus Christ and His +Cross may be traced up to defective notions of sin and a defective +realisation of it. If I do not feel as the Bible would have me feel, +that I am a sinful man, I shall think differently of Jesus Christ and +of my need of Him, and of what He is to me. Christianity may be to me +a system of beautiful ethics, a guide for life, a revelation of much +precious truth, but it will not be the redemptive power without which +I am lost. And Jesus Christ will be shorn of His brightest beams, +unless I see Him as the Redeemer of my soul from sin, which else +would destroy and is destroying it. Is Christianity merely a better +morality? Is it merely a higher revelation of the divine Nature? Or +does it _do_ something as well as _say_ something, and what does it +do? Is Jesus Christ only a Teacher, a Wise Man, an Example, a +Prophet, or is He the Sacrifice for the sins of the world? Oh, +brethren, we must begin where this text begins; and our whole +conception of Him and of His work for us must be based upon this +fact, that we are sinful and lost, and that Jesus Christ, by His +sweet and infinite love and all-powerful sacrifice, is our soul's +Redeemer and our only Hope. The world has to be convicted and +convinced of sin as the first step to its becoming a Church. + +The next step of this divine Spirit's conviction is that which +corresponds to the consciousness of sin, the dawning upon the +darkened soul of the blessed sunrise of righteousness. The triple +subjects of conviction must necessarily belong to the world of which +our Lord is speaking. It must be the world that is convinced, and it +must be the world's sin and the world's righteousness and the world's +judgment of which my text speaks. How, then, can there follow on the +conviction of sin as mine a conviction of righteousness as mine? I +know but one way, 'Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the +law, but that which is of God through faith.' When a man is convinced +of sin, there will dawn upon the heart the wondrous thought that a +righteousness may be his, given to him from above, which will sweep +away all his sin and make him righteous as Christ is righteous. That +conviction will never awake in its blessed and hope-giving power +unless it be preceded by the other. It is of no use to exhibit +medicine to a man who does not know himself diseased. It is of no use +to talk about righteousness to a man who has not found himself to be +a sinner. And it is of as little use to talk to a man of sin unless +you are ready to tell him of a righteousness that will cover all his +sin. The one conviction without the other is misery, the second +without the first is irrelevant and far away. + +The world as a world has but dim and inadequate conceptions of what +righteousness is. A Pharisee is its type, or a man that keeps a clean +life in regard to great transgressions; a whited sepulchre of some +sort or other. The world apart from Christ has but languid desires +after even the poor righteousness that it understands, and the world +apart from Christ is afflicted by a despairing scepticism as to the +possibility of ever being righteous at all. And there are men +listening to me now in every one of these three conditions--not +caring to be righteous, not understanding what it is to be righteous, +and cynically disbelieving that it is possible to be so. My brother, +here comes the message to you--first, Thou art sinful; second, God's +righteousness lies at thy side to take and wear if thou wilt. + +The last of these triple convictions is 'judgment.' If there be in +the world these two things both operating, sin and righteousness, and +if the two come together, what then? If there is to be a collision, +as there must be, which will go down? Christ tells us that this +divine Spirit will teach us that righteousness will triumph over sin, +and that there will be a judgment which will destroy that which is +the weaker, though it seems the stronger. Now I take it that the +judgment which is spoken about here is not merely a future +retribution beyond the grave, but that, whilst that is included, and +is the principal part of the idea, we are always to regard the +judgment of the hereafter as being prepared for by the continual +judgment here. + +And so there are two thoughts, a blessed one and a terrible one, +wrapped up in that word--a blessed thought for us sinful men, +inasmuch as we may be sure that the divine righteousness, which is +given to us, will judge us and separate us day by day from our sins; +and a terrible thought, inasmuch as if I, a sinful man, do not make +friends with and ally myself to the divine righteousness which is +proffered to me, I shall one day have to front it on the other side +of the flood, when the contact must necessarily be to me destruction. + +Time does not allow me to dwell upon these solemn matters as I fain +would, but let me gather all I have been feebly trying to say to you +now into one sentence. This threefold conviction, in conscience, +understanding, and heart, of sin which is mine, of righteousness +which may be mine, and of judgment which must be mine--this threefold +conviction is that which makes the world into a Church. It is the +message of Christianity to each of us. How do you stand to it? Do you +hearken to the Spirit who is striving to convince you of these? Or do +you gather yourselves together into an obstinate, close-knit +unbelief, or a loose-knit indifference which is as impenetrable? +Beware that you resist not the Spirit of God! + + + +THE CONVICTING FACTS + +'Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of righteousness, +because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, +because the prince of this world is judged.'--JOHN xvi. 9-11. + +Our Lord has just been telling His disciples how He will equip them, +as His champions, for their conflict with the world. A divine Spirit +is coming to them who will work in them and through them; and by +their simple and unlettered testimony will 'convict,' or convince, +the mass of ungodly men of error and crime in regard to these three +things--sin, righteousness, and judgment. + +He now advances to tell them that this threefold conviction which +they, as counsel for the prosecution, will establish as against the +world at the bar, will be based upon three facts: first, a truth of +experience; second, a truth of history; third, a truth of revelation, +all three facts having reference to Jesus Christ and His relation to +men. + +Now these three facts are--the world's unbelief; Christ's ascension +and session at the right hand of God; and the 'judgment of the prince +of this world.' If we remember that what our Lord is here speaking +about is the work of a divine Spirit through the ministration of +believing men, then Pentecost with its thousands 'pricked to the +heart,' and the Roman ruler who trembled, as the prisoner 'reasoned +of righteousness and judgment to come,' are illustrations of the way +in which the humble disciples towered above the pride and strength of +the world, and from criminals at its bar became its accusers. + +These three facts are the staple and the strength of the Christian +ministry. These three facts are misapprehended, and have failed to +produce their right impression, unless they have driven home to our +consciences and understandings the triple conviction of my text. And +so I come to you with the simple questions which are all-important +for each of us: Have you looked these three facts in the face-- +unbelief, the ascended Christ, a judged prince of the world, and have +you learned their meaning as it bears on your own character and +religious life? + +I. The first point here is the rejection of Jesus Christ as the +climax of the world's sin. + +Strange words! They are in some respects the most striking instance +of that gigantic self-assertion of our Lord, of which we have had +occasion to see so many examples in these valedictory discourses. The +world is full of all unrighteousness and wickedness, lust and +immorality, intemperance, cruelty, hatred; all manner of buzzing +evils that stink and sting around us. But Jesus Christ passes them +all by and points to a mere negative thing, to an inward thing, to +the attitude of men towards Himself; and He says, 'If you want to +know what sin is, look at that!' _There_ is the worst of all sins. +There is a typical instance of what sin is, in which, as in some +anatomical preparation, you may see all its fibres straightened out +and made visible. Look at that if you want to know what the world is, +and what the world's sin is. + +Some of us do not think that it is sin at all; and tell us that man +is no more responsible for his belief than he is for the colour of +his hair, and suchlike talk. Well, let me put a very plain question: +What is it that a man turns away from when he turns away from Jesus +Christ? The plainest, the loveliest, the loftiest, the perfectest +revelation of God in His beauty and completeness that ever dawned, or +ever will dawn upon creation. He rejects that. Anything more? Yes! He +turns away from the loveliest human life that ever was, or will be, +lived. Anything more? Yes! He turns away from a miracle of self- +sacrificing love, which endured the Cross for enemies, and willingly +embraced agony and shame and death for the sake of those who +inflicted them upon Him. Anything more? Yes! He turns away from hands +laden with, and offering him, the most precious and needful blessings +that a poor soul on earth can desire or expect. + +And if this be true, if unbelief in Jesus Christ be indeed all this +that I have sketched out, another question arises, What does such an +attitude and act indicate as to the rejector? He stands in the +presence of the loveliest revelation of the divine nature and heart, +and he sees no light in it. Why, but because he has blinded his eyes +and cannot behold? He is incapable of seeing 'God manifest in the +flesh,' because he 'loves the darkness rather than the light.' He +turns away from the revelation of the loveliest and most self- +sacrificing love. Why, but because he bears in himself a heart cased +with brass and triple steel of selfishness, against the manifestation +of love? He turns away from the offered hands heaped with the +blessings that he needs. Why, but because he does not care for the +gifts that are offered? Forgiveness, cleansing, purity a heaven which +consists in the perfecting of all these, have no attractions for him. +The fugitive Israelites in the wilderness said, 'We do not want your +light, tasteless manna. It may do very well for angels, but we have +been accustomed to garlic and onions down in Egypt. They smell +strong, and there is some taste in _them_. Give us _them_.' And so +some of you say, 'The offer of pardon is of no use to me, for I am +not troubled with my sin. The offer of purity has no attraction to +me, for I rather like the dirt and wallowing in it. The offer of a +heaven of your sort is but a dreary prospect to me. And so I turn +away from the hands that offer precious things.' The man who is blind +to the God that beams, lambent and loving, upon him in the face of +Jesus Christ--the man who has no stirrings of responsive gratitude +for the great outpouring of love upon the Cross--the man who does not +care for anything that Jesus Christ can give him, surely, in turning +away, commits a real sin. + +I do not deny, of course, that there may be intellectual difficulties +cropping up in connection with the acceptance of the message of +salvation in Jesus Christ, but as, on the one hand, I am free to +admit that many a man may be putting a true trust in Christ which is +joined with a very hesitant grasp of some of the things which, to me, +are the very essence and heart of the Gospel; so, on the other side, +I would have you remember that there is necessarily a moral quality +in our attitude to all moral and religious truth; and that sin does +not cease to be sin because its doer is a thinker or has systematised +his rejection into a creed. Though it is not for us to measure +motives and to peer into hearts, at the bottom there lies what Christ +Himself put His finger on: 'Ye _will_ not come to me that ye might +have life.' + +Then, still further, let me remind you that our Lord here presents +this fact of man's unbelief as being an instance in which we may see +what the real nature of sin is. To use learned language, it is a +'typical' sin. In all other acts of sin you get the poison +manipulated into various forms, associated with other elements, +disguised more or less. But here, because it is purely an inward act +having relation to Jesus Christ, and to God manifested in Him, and +not done at the bidding of the animal nature, or of any of the other +strong temptations and impulses which hurry men into gross and coarse +forms of manifest transgression, you get sin in its essence. Belief +in Christ is the surrender of myself. Sin is living to myself rather +than to God. And there you touch the bottom. All those different +kinds of sin, however unlike they may be to one another--the lust of +the sensualist, the craft of the cheat, the lie of the deceitful, the +passion of the unregulated man, the avarice of the miser--all of them +have this one common root, a diseased and bloated regard to self. The +definition of sin is,--living to myself and making myself my own +centre. The definition of faith is,--making Christ my centre and +living for Him. Therefore, if you want to know what is the sinfulness +of sin, there it is. And if I may use such a word in such a +connection, it is all packed away in its _purest_ form in the act of +rejecting that Lord. + +Brother, it is no exaggeration to say that, when you have summoned up +before you the ugliest forms of man's sins that you can fancy, this +one overtops them all, because it presents in the simplest form the +mother-tincture of all sins, which, variously coloured and perfumed +and combined, makes the evil of them all. A heap of rotting, +poisonous matter is offensive to many senses, but the colourless, +scentless, tasteless drop has the poison in its most virulent form, +and is not a bit less virulent, though it has been learnedly +distilled and christened with a scientific name, and put into a +dainty jewelled flask. 'This is the condemnation, that light is come +into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because +their deeds are evil.' I lay that upon the hearts and consciences of +some of my present hearers as the key to their rejection or disregard +of Christ and His salvation. + +II. Now, secondly, notice the ascension of Jesus Christ as the pledge +and the channel of the world's righteousness--'Because I go to the +Father, and ye see Me no more.' + +He speaks as if the process of departure were already commenced. It +had three stages--death, resurrection, ascension; but these three are +all parts of the one departure. And so He says: 'Because, in the +future, when ye go forth to preach in My name, I shall be there with +the Father, having finished the work for which He sent Me; therefore +you will convince the world of righteousness.' + +Now let me put that briefly in two forms. First of all, the fact of +an ascended Christ is the guarantee and proof of His own complete +fulfilment of the ideal of a righteous man. Or to put it into simpler +words, suppose Jesus Christ is dead; suppose that He never rose from +the grave; suppose that His bones mouldered in some sepulchre; +suppose that there had been no ascension--would it be possible to +believe that He was other than an ordinary man? And would it be +possible to believe that, however beautiful these familiar records of +His life, and however lovely the character which they reveal, there +was really in Him no sin at all? A dead Christ means a Christ who, +like the rest of us, had His limitations and His faults. But, on the +other hand, if it be true that He sprang from the grave because 'it +was not possible that He should be holden of it,' and because in His +nature there was no proclivity to death, since there had been no +indulgence in sin; and if it be true that He ascended up on high +because that was His native sphere, and He rose to it as naturally as +the water in the valley will rise to the height of the hill from +which it has descended, then we can see that God has set His seal +upon that life by that resurrection and ascension; and as we gaze on +Him swept up heavenward by His own calm power, a light falls backward +upon all His earthly life, upon His claims to purity, and to union +with the Father, and we say, 'Surely this was a perfectly righteous +Man.' + +And further let me remind you that with the supernatural facts of our +Lord's resurrection and ascension stands or falls the possibility of +His communicating any of His righteousness to us sinful men. If there +be no such possibility, what does Jesus Christ's beauty of character +matter to me? Nothing! I shall have to stumble on as best I can, +sometimes ashamed and rebuked, sometimes stimulated and sometimes +reduced to despair, by looking at the record of His life. If He be +lying dead in a forgotten grave, and hath not 'ascended up on high,' +then there can come from His history and past nothing other in kind, +though, perhaps, a little more in degree, than comes from the history +and the past of the beautiful and white souls that have sometimes +lived in the world. He is a saint like them, He is a teacher like +them, He is a prophet like some of them, and we have but to try our +best to copy that marble purity and white righteousness. But if He +hath ascended up on high, and sits there, wielding the forces of the +universe, as we believe He does, then to Him belongs the divine +prerogative of imparting His nature and His character to them that +love Him. Then His righteousness is not a solitary, uncommunicative +perfectness for Himself, but like a sun in the heavens, which streams +out vivifying and enlightening rays to all that seek His face. If it +be true that Christ has risen, then it is also true that you and I, +convicted of sin, and learning our weakness and our faults, may come +to Him, and by the exercise of that simple and yet omnipotent act of +faith, may ally our incompleteness with His perfectness, our sin with +His righteousness, our emptiness with His fullness, and may have all +the grace and the beauty of Jesus Christ passing over into us to be +the Spirit of life in us, 'making us free from the law of sin and +death.' If Christ be risen, His righteousness may be the world's; if +Christ be not risen, His righteousness is useless to any but to +Himself. + +My brother, wed yourself to that dear Lord by faith in Him, and His +righteousness will become yours, and you will be 'found in Him +without spot and blameless,' clothed with white raiment like His own, +and sharing in the Throne which belongs to the righteous Christ. + +III. Lastly, notice the judgment of the world's prince as the +prophecy of the judgment of the world. + +We are here upon ground which is only made known to us by the +revelation of Scripture. We began with a fact of man's experience; we +passed on to a fact of history; now we have a fact certified to us +only on Christ's authority. + +The world _has_ a prince. That ill-omened and chaotic agglomeration +of diverse forms of evil has yet a kind of anarchic order in it, and, +like the fabled serpent's locks on the Gorgon head, they intertwine +and sting one another, and yet they are a unity. We hear very little +about 'the prince of the world' in Scripture. Mercifully the +existence of such a being is not plainly revealed until the fact of +Christ's victory over him is revealed. But however ludicrous +mediaeval and vulgar superstitions may have made the notion, and +however incredible the tremendous figure painted by the great Puritan +poet has proved to be, there is nothing ridiculous, and nothing that +we have the right to say is incredible, in the plain declarations +that came from Christ's lips over and over again, that the world, the +aggregate of ungodly men, _has_ a prince. + +And then my text tells us that that prince is 'judged.' The Cross did +that, as Jesus Christ over and over again indicates, sometimes in +plain words, as 'Now is the judgment of this world,' 'Now is the +prince of this world cast out'; sometimes in metaphor, as 'I beheld +Satan as lightning fall from heaven,' 'First bind the strong man and +then spoil his house.' We do not know how far-reaching the influences +of the Cross may be, and what they may have done in those dark +regions, but we know that since that Cross, the power of evil in the +world has been broken in its centre, that God has been disclosed, +that new forces have been lodged in the heart of humanity, which only +need to be developed in order to overcome the evil. We know that +since that auspicious day when 'He spoiled principalities and powers, +making a show of them openly and leading them in triumph,' even when +He was nailed upon the Cross, the history of the world has been the +judgment of the world. Hoary iniquities have toppled into the +ceaseless washing sea of divine love which has struck against their +bases. Ancient evils have vanished, and more are on the point of +vanishing. A loftier morality, a higher notion of righteousness, a +deeper conception of sin, new hopes for the world and for men, have +dawned upon mankind; and the prince of the world is led bound, as it +were, at the victorious chariot wheels. The central fortress has been +captured, and the rest is an affair of outposts. + +My text has for its last word this--the prince's judgment prophesies +the world's future judgment. The process which began when Jesus +Christ died has for its consummation the divine condemnation of all +the evil that still afflicts humanity, and its deprivation of +authority and power to injure. A final judgment will come, and that +it will is manifested by the fact that Christ, when He came in the +form of a servant and died upon the Cross, judged the prince. When He +comes in the form of a King on the great White Throne He will judge +the world which He has delivered from its prince. + +That thought, my brother, ought to be a hope to us all. Are you glad +when you think that there is a day of judgment coming? Does your +heart leap up when you realise the fact that the righteousness, which +is in the heavens, is sure to conquer and coerce and secure under the +hatches the sin that is riding rampant through the world? It was a +joy and a hope to men who did not know half as much of the divine +love and the divine righteousness as we do. They called upon the +rocks and the hills to rejoice, and the trees of the forest to clap +their hands before the Lord, 'for He cometh to judge the world.' Does +your heart throb a glad Amen to that? + +It ought to be a hope; it is a fear; and there are some of us who do +not like to have the conviction driven home to us, that the end of +the strife between sin and righteousness is that Jesus Christ shall +judge the world and take unto Himself His eternal kingdom. + +But, my friends, hope or fear, it is a fact, as certain in the +future, as the Cross is sure in the past, or the Throne in the +present. Let me ask you this question, the question which Christ has +sent all His servants to ask--Have you loathed your sin? have you +opened your heart to Christ's righteousness? If you have, when men's +hearts are failing them for fear, and they 'call on the rocks and the +hills to cover them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the +Throne,' you will 'have a song as in the night when a holy solemnity +is kept,' and lift up your heads, 'for your redemption draweth nigh.' +'Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness before +Him in the day of judgment.' + + + +THE GUIDE INTO ALL TRUTH + +'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them +now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide +you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but +whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show +you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of +Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath +are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall +show it unto you.'--JOHN xvi. 12-15. + +This is our Lord's last expansion, in these discourses, of the great +promise of the Comforter which has appeared so often in them. First, +He was spoken of simply as dwelling in Christ's servants, without any +more special designation of His work than was involved in the name. +Then, His aid was promised, to remind the Apostles of the facts of +Christ's life, especially of His words; and so the inspiration and +authority of the four Gospels were certified for us. Then He was +further promised as the witness in the disciples to Jesus Christ. +And, finally, in the immediately preceding context, we have His +office of 'convincing,' or convicting, 'the world of sin, and of +righteousness, and of judgment.' And now we come to that gracious and +gentle work which that divine Spirit is declared by Christ to do, not +only for that little group gathered round Him then, but for all those +who trust themselves to His guidance. He is to be the 'Spirit of +truth' to all the ages, who in simple verity will help true hearts to +know and love the truth. There are three things in the words before +us--first, the avowed incompleteness of Christ's own teaching; +second, the completeness of the truth into which the Spirit of truth +guides; and, last, the unity of these two. + +I. First, then, we have here the avowed incompleteness of Christ's +own teaching. + +'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them +now.' Now in an earlier portion of these great discourses, we have +our Lord asserting that '_all_ things whatsoever He had heard of the +Father He had made known' unto His servants. How do these two +representations harmonise? Is it possible to make them agree? Surely, +yes. There is a difference between the germ and the unfolded flower. +There is a difference between principles and the complete development +of these. I suppose you may say that all Euclid is in the axioms and +definitions. I suppose you may also say that when you have learned +the axioms and definitions, there are many things yet to be said, of +which you have not grown to the apprehension. And so our Lord, as far +as His frankness was concerned, and as far as the fundamental and +seminal principles of all religious truth were concerned, had even +then declared all that He had heard of the Father. But yet, in so far +as the unfolding of these was concerned, the tracing of their +consequences, the exhibition of their harmonies, the weaving of them +into an ordered whole in which a man's understanding could lodge, +there were many things yet to be said, which that handful of men were +not able to bear. And so our Lord Himself here declares that His +words spoken on earth are not His completed revelation. + +Of course we find in them, as I believe, hints profound and pregnant, +which only need to be unfolded and smoothed out, as it were, and +their depths fathomed, in order to lead to all that is worthy of +being called Christian truth. But upon many points we cannot but +contrast the desultory, brief, obscure references which came from the +Master's lips with the more systematised, full, and accurate teaching +which came from the servants. The great crucial instance of all is +the comparative reticence which our Lord observed in reference to His +sacrificial death, and the atoning character of His sufferings for +the world. I do not admit that the silence of the Gospels upon that +subject is fairly represented when it is said to be absolute. I +believe that that silence has been exaggerated by those who have no +desire to accept that teaching. But the distinction is plain and +obvious, not to be ignored, rather to be marked as being fruitful of +blessed teaching, between the way in which Christ speaks about His +Cross, and the way in which the Apostles speak about it after +Pentecost. + +What then? My text gives us the reason. 'You cannot bear them now.' +Now the word rendered 'bear' here does not mean 'bear' in the sense +of endure, or tolerate, or suffer, but 'bear' in the sense of carry. +And the metaphor is that of some weight--it may be gold, but still it +is a weight--laid upon a man whose muscles are not strong enough to +sustain it. It crushes rather than gladdens. So because they had not +strength enough to carry, had not capacity to receive, our Lord was +lovingly reticent. + +There is a great principle involved in this saying--that revelation +is measured by the moral and spiritual capacities of the men who +receive it. The light is graduated for the diseased eye. A wise +oculist does not flood that eye with full sunshine, but he puts on +veils and bandages, and closes the shutters, and lets a stray beam, +ever growing as the curve is perfected, fall upon it. So from the +beginning until the end of the process of revelation there was a +correspondence between men's capacity to receive the light and the +light that was granted; and the faithful use of the less made them +capable of receiving the greater, and as soon as they were capable of +receiving it, it came. 'To him that hath shall be given.' In His +love, then, Christ did not load these men with principles that they +could not carry, nor feed them with 'strong meat' instead of 'milk,' +until they were able to bear it. Revelation is progressive, and +Christ is reticent, from regard to the feebleness of His listeners. + +Now that same principle is true in a modified form about us. How many +things there are which we sometimes feel we should like to know, that +God has not told us, because we have not yet grown up to the point at +which we could apprehend them! Compassed with these veils of flesh +and weakness, groping amidst the shadows of time, bewildered by the +cross-lights that fall upon us from so many surrounding objects, we +have not yet eyes able to behold the ineffable glory. He has many +things to say to us about that blessed future, and that strange and +awful life into which we are to step when we leave this poor world, +but 'ye cannot bear them now.' Let us wait with patience until we are +ready for the illumination. For two things go to make revelation, the +light that reveals and the eye that beholds. + +Now one remark before I go further. People tell us, 'Your modern +theology is not in the Gospels.' And they say to us, as if they had +administered a knockdown blow, 'We stick by Jesus, not Paul.' Well, +as I said, I do not admit that there is no 'Pauline' teaching in the +Gospels, but I do confess there is not much. And I say, 'What then?' +Why, this, then--it is exactly what we were to expect; and people who +reject the apostolic form of Christian teaching because it is not +found in the Gospels are flying in the face of Christ's own teaching. +You say you will take His words as the only source of religious +truth. You are going clean contrary to His own words in saying so. +Remember that He proclaimed their incompleteness, and referred us, +for the fuller knowledge of the truth of God, to a subsequent +Teacher. + +II. So, secondly, mark here the completeness of the truth into which +the Spirit guides. + +I must trouble you with just a word or two of remark as to the +language of our text. Note the personality, designation, and office +of this new Teacher. 'He,' not '_it_,' He, is the Spirit of truth +whose characteristic and weapon is truth. 'He will guide you'-- +suggesting a loving hand put out to lead; suggesting the +graciousness, the gentleness, the gradualness of the teaching. 'Into +all truth '--that is no promise of omniscience, but it is the +assurance of gradual and growing acquaintance with the spiritual and +moral truth which is revealed, such as may be fitly paralleled by the +metaphor of men passing into some broad land, of which there is much +still to be possessed and explored. Not to-day, nor to-morrow, will +all the truth belong to those whom the Spirit guides; but if they are +true to His guidance, 'to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more +abundant,' and the land will all be traversed at the last. 'He shall +not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He +speak.' Mark the parallel between the relation of the Spirit-Teacher +to Jesus, and the relation of Jesus to the Father. Of Him, too, it is +said by Himself, 'All things whatsoever I have heard of the Father I +have declared unto you.' The mark of Satan is, 'He speaketh of his +own'; the mark of the divine Teacher is, 'He speaketh not of Himself, +but whatsoever things,' in all their variety, in their continuity, in +their completeness, 'He shall hear,'--where? yonder in the depths of +the Godhead--'whatsoever things He shall hear there,' He shall show +to you, and especially, 'He will show you the things that are to +come.' These Apostles were living in a revolutionary time. Men's +hearts were 'failing them for fear of the things that were coming on +the earth.' Step by step they would be taught the evolving glory of +that kingdom which they were to be the instruments in founding; and +step by step there would be spread out before them the vision of the +future and all the wonder that should be, the world that was to come, +the new constitution which Christ was to establish. + +Now, if that be the interpretation, however inadequate, of these +great and wonderful words, there are but two things needful to say +about them. One is that this promise of a complete guidance into +truth applies in a peculiar and unique fashion to the original +hearers of it. I ventured to say that one of the other promises of +the Spirit, which I quoted in my introductory remarks, was the +certificate to us of the inspiration and reliableness of these Four +Gospels. And I now remark that in these words, in their plain and +unmistakable meaning, there lie involved the inspiration and +authority of the Apostles as teachers of religious truth. Here we +have the guarantee for the authority over our faith, of the words +which came from these men, and from the other who was added to their +number on the Damascus road. They were guided 'into _all_ the truth,' +and so our task is to receive the truth into which they were guided. + +The Acts of the Apostles is the best commentary on these words of my +text. There you see how these men rose at once into a new region; how +the truths about their Master which had been bewildering puzzles to +them flashed into light; how the Cross, which had baffled and +dispersed them, became at once the centre of union for themselves and +for the world; how the obscure became lucid, and Christ's death and +the resurrection stood forth to them as the great central facts of +the world's salvation. In the book of the Apocalypse we have part of +the fulfilment of this closing promise: 'He will show you things to +come'; when the Seer was 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day,' and the +heavens were opened, and the history of the Church (whether in +chronological order, or in the exhibition of symbols of the great +forces which shall be arrayed for and against it, over and over +again, to the end of time, does not at present matter), was spread +before Him as a scroll. + +Now, dear friends, this great principle of my text has a modified +application also to us all. For that divine Spirit is given to each +of us if we will use Him, is given to any and every man who desires +Him, does dwell in Christian hearts, though, alas! so many of us are +so little conscious of Him, and does teach us the truth which Christ +Himself left incomplete. + +Only let me make one remark here. We do not stand on the same level +as these men who clustered round Christ on His road to Gethsemane, +and received the first fruits of the promise--the Spirit. They, +taught by that divine Guide and by experience, were led into the +deeper apprehension of the words and the deeds, of the life and the +death, of Jesus Christ our Lord. We, taught by that same Spirit, are +led into a deeper apprehension of the words which they spake, both in +recording and interpreting the facts of Christ's life and death. + +And so we come sharp up to this, 'If any man thinketh himself to be a +prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I +speak unto him are the commandments of the Lord.' That is how an +Apostle put his relation to the other possessors of the divine +Spirit. And you and I have to take this as the criterion of all true +possession of the Spirit of God, that it bows in humble submission to +the authoritative teaching of this book. + +III. Lastly, we have here our Lord pointing out the unity of these +two. + +In the verse on which I have just been commenting He says nothing +about Himself, and it might easily appear to the listeners as if +these two sources of truth, His own incomplete teaching, and the full +teaching of the divine Spirit, were independent of, if not opposed +to, one another. So in the last words of our text He shows us the +blending of the two streams, the union of the two beams. + +'He shall glorify Me.' Think of a _man_ saying that! The Spirit who +will come from God and 'guide men into all truth' has for His +distinctive office the glorifying of Jesus Christ. So fair is He, so +good, so radiant, that to make Him known _is_ to glorify Him. The +glorifying of Christ is the ultimate and adequate purpose of +everything that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has done, +because the glorifying of Christ is the glorifying of God, and the +blessing of the eyes that behold His glory. + +'For He shall take of Mine, and show it unto you.' All which that +divine Spirit brings is Christ's. So, then, there is no new +revelation, only the interpretation of the revelation. The text is +given, and its last word was spoken, when 'the cloud received Him out +of their sight,' and henceforward all is commentary. The Spirit takes +of Christ's; applies the principles, unfolds the deep meaning of +words and deeds, and especially the meaning of the mystery of the +Cradle, and the tragedy of the Cross, and the mystery of the +Ascension, as declaring that Christ is the Son of God, the Sacrifice +for the world. Christ said, 'I am the Truth.' Therefore, when He +promises, 'He will guide you into all the truth,' we may fairly +conclude that 'the truth' into which the Spirit guides is the +personal Christ. It is the whole Christ, the whole truth, that we are +to receive from that divine Teacher; growing up day by day into the +capacity to grasp Christ more firmly, to understand Him better, and +by love and trust and obedience to make Him more entirely our own. We +are like the first settlers upon some great island-continent. There +is a little fringe of population round the coast, but away in the +interior are leagues of virgin forests and fertile plains stretching +to the horizon, and snow-capped summits piercing the clouds, on which +no foot has ever trod. 'He will guide you into all truth'; through +the length and breadth of the boundless land, the person and the work +of Jesus Christ our Lord. + +'All things that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said I that He +shall take of Mine and show it unto you.' What awful words! A divine, +teaching Spirit can only teach concerning God. Christ here explains +the paradox of His words preceding, in which, if He were but human, +He seems to have given that teaching Spirit an unworthy office, by +explaining that whatsoever is His is God's, and whatsoever is God's +is His. + +My brother! do you believe that? Is that what you think about Jesus +Christ? He puts out here an unpresumptuous hand, and grasps all the +constellated glories of the divine Nature, and says, 'They are Mine'; +and the Father looks down from heaven and says, 'Son! Thou art ever +with Me, and all that I have is Thine.' Do you answer, 'Amen! I +believe it?' + +Here are three lessons from these great words which I leave with you +without attempting to unfold them. One is, Believe a great deal more +definitely in, and seek a great deal more consciously and earnestly, +and use a great deal more diligently and honestly, that divine Spirit +who is given to us all. I fear me that over very large tracts of +professing Christendom to-day men stand up with very faltering lips +and confess, 'I believe in the Holy Ghost.' Hence comes much of the +weakness of our modern Christianity, of the worldliness of professing +Christians, 'and when for the time they ought to be teachers, they +have need that one teach them again which be the first principles of +the oracles of God.' 'Quench not, grieve not, despise not the Holy +Spirit.' + +Another lesson is, Use the Book that He uses--else you will not grow, +and He will have no means of contact with you. + +And the last is, Try the spirits. If anything calling itself +Christian teaching comes to you and does not glorify Christ, it is +self-condemned. For none can exalt Him highly enough, and no teaching +can present Him too exclusively and urgently as the sole Salvation +and Life of the whole earth, And if it be, as my text tells us, that +the great teaching Spirit is to come, who is to 'guide us into all +truth,' and therein is to glorify Christ, and to show us the things +that are His, then it is also true, 'Hereby know we the Spirit of +God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the +flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus +Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of +Antichrist.' + + + +CHRIST'S 'LITTLE WHILES' + +'A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little +while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father. Then said +some of His disciples among themselves, What is this that He +saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and +again, a little while, and ye shall see Me: and, Because I go to +the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He saith, A +little while? we cannot tell what He saith. Now Jesus knew that +they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire +among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not +see Me: and again a little while, and ye shall see Me?' +--JOHN xvi. 16-19. + +A superficial glance at the former part of these verses may fail to +detect their connection with the great preceding promise of the +Spirit who is to guide the disciples 'into all truth.' They appear to +stand quite isolated and apart from that. But a little thought will +bring out an obvious connection. The first words of our text are +really the climax and crown of the promise of the Spirit; for that +Spirit is to 'guide into all the truth' by declaring to the disciples +the things that are Christ's, and in consequence of that +ministration, they are to be able to see their unseen Lord. So this +is the loftiest thought of what the divine Spirit does for the +Christian heart, that it shows Him a visible though absent Christ. + +Then we have in the subsequent part of our text the blundering of the +bewildered disciples and the patient answer of the long-suffering +Teacher. So that there are these three points to take up: the times +of disappearance and of sight; the bewildered disciples; and the +patient Teacher. + +I. First of all, then, note the deep teaching of our Lord here, about +the times of disappearance and of Sight. + +The words are plain enough; the difficulty lies in the determination +of the periods to which they refer. He tells us that, after a brief +interval from the time at which He was speaking, there would come a +short parenthesis during which He was not to be seen; and that upon +that would follow a period of which no end is hinted at, during which +He is to be seen. The two words employed in the two consecutive +clauses, for 'sight,' are not the same, and so they naturally suggest +some difference in the manner of vision. + +But the question arises, Where are the limits of these times of which +the Lord speaks? Now it is quite clear, I suppose, that the first of +the 'little whiles' is the few hours that intervened between His +speaking and the Cross. And it is equally clear that His death and +burial began, at all events, the period during which they were not to +see Him. But where does the second period begin, during which they +are to see Him? Is it at His resurrection or at His ascension, when +the process of 'going to the Father' was completed in all its stages; +or at Pentecost, when the Spirit, by whose ministration He was to be +made visible, was poured out? The answer is, perhaps, not to be +restricted to any one of these periods; but I think if we consider +that all disciples, in all ages, have a portion in all the rest of +these great discourses, and if we note the absence of any hint that +the promised seeing of Christ was ever to terminate, and if we mark +the diversity of words under which the two manners of vision are +described, and, above all, if we note the close connection of these +words with those which precede, we shall come to the conclusion that +the full realisation of this great promise of a visible Christ did +not begin until that time when the Spirit, poured out, opened the +eyes of His servants, and 'they saw His glory.' But however we settle +the minor question of the chronology of these periods, the great +truth shines out here that, through all the stretch of the ages, true +hearts may truly see the true Christ. + +If we might venture to suppose that in our text the second of the +periods to which He refers, when they did not see Him, was not +coterminous with, but preceded, the second 'little while,' all would +be clear. Then the first 'little while' would be the few hours before +the Cross. 'Ye shall not see Me' would refer to the days in which He +lay in the tomb. 'Again, a little while' would point to that strange +transitional period between His death and His ascension, in which the +disciples had neither the close intercourse of earlier days nor the +spiritual communion of later ones. And the final period, 'Ye shall +see Me,' would cover the whole course of the centuries till He comes +again. + +However that may be, and I only offer it as a possible suggestion, +the thing that we want to fasten upon for ourselves is this--we all, +if we will, may have a vision of Christ as close, as real, as firmly +certifying us of His reality, and making as vivid an impression upon +us, as if He stood there, visible to our senses. And so, 'by this +vision splendid' we may 'be everywhere attended,' and whithersoever +we go, have burning before us the light of His countenance, in the +sunshine of which we shall walk. + +Brother! that is personal Christianity--to see Jesus Christ, and to +live with the thrilling consciousness, printed deep and abiding upon +our spirits, that, in very deed, He is by our sides. O how that +conviction would make life strong and calm and noble and blessed! How +it would lift us up above temptation! 'He endured as seeing Him who +is Invisible.' What should terrify us if Christ stood before us? What +should charm us if we saw Him? Competing glories and attractions +would fade before His presence, as a dim candle dies at noon. It +would make all life full of a blessed companionship. Who could be +solitary if he saw Christ? or feel that life was dreary if that +Friend was by his side? It would fill our hearts with joy and +strength, and make us evermore blessed by the light of His +countenance. + +And how are we to get that vision? Remember the connection of my +text. It is because there is a divine Spirit to show men the things +that are Christ's that therefore, unseen, He is visible to the eye of +faith. And therefore the shortest and directest road to the vision of +Jesus is the submitting of heart and mind and spirit to the teaching +of that divine Spirit, who uses the record of the Scriptures as the +means by which He makes Jesus Christ known to us. + +But besides this waiting upon that divine Teacher, let me remind you +that there are conditions of discipline which must be fulfilled upon +our parts, if any clear vision of Jesus Christ is to bless us +pilgrims in this lonely world. And the first of these conditions is-- +If you want to see Jesus Christ, think about Him. Occupy your minds +with Him. If men in the city walk the pavements with their eyes fixed +upon the gutters, what does it matter though all the glories of a +sunset are dyeing the western sky? They will see none of them; and if +Christ stood beside you, closer to you than any other, if your eyes +were fixed upon the trivialities of this poor present, you would not +see Him. If you honestly want to see Christ, meditate upon Him. + +And if you want to see Him, shut out competing objects, and the +dazzling cross-lights that come in and hide Him from us. There must +be a 'looking _off_ unto Jesus.' There must be a rigid limitation, if +not excision, of other objects, if we are to grasp Him. If we would +see, and have our hearts filled with, the calm sublimity of the +solemn, white wedge that lifts itself into the far-off blue, we must +not let our gaze stop on the busy life of the valleys or the green +slopes of the lower Alps, but must lift it and keep it fixed aloft. +Meditate upon Him, and shut out other things. + +If you want to see Christ, do His will. One act of obedience has more +power to clear a man's eyes than hours of idle contemplation; and one +act of disobedience has more power to dim his eyes than anything +besides. It is in the dusty common road that He draws near to us, and +the experience of those disciples that journeyed to Emmaus may be +ours. He meets us in the way, and makes 'our hearts burn within us.' +The experience of the dying martyr outside the city gate may be ours. +Sorrows and trials will rend the heavens if they be rightly borne, +and so we shall see Christ 'standing at the right hand of God.' +Rebellious tears blind our eyes, as Mary's did, so that she did not +know the Master and took Him for 'the gardener.' Submissive tears +purge the eyes and wash them clean to see His face. To do His will is +the sovereign method for beholding His countenance. + +Brethren, is this our experience? You professing Christians, do you +see Christ? Are your eyes fixed upon Him? Do you go through life with +Him consciously nearer to you than any beside? Is He closer than the +intrusive insignificances of this fleeting present? Have you Him as +your continual Companion? Oh! when we contrast the difference between +the largeness of this promise--a promise of a thrilling consciousness +of His presence, of a vivid perception of His character, of an +unwavering certitude of His reality--and the fly-away glimpses and +wandering sight, and faint, far-off views, as of a planet weltering +amid clouds, which the most of Christian men have of Christ, what +shame should cover our faces, and how we should feel that if we have +not the fulfilment, it is our own fault! Blessed they of whom it is +true that they see 'no man any more save Jesus only'! and to whom all +sorrow, joy, care, anxiety, work, and repose are but the means of +revealing that sweet and all-sufficient Presence! 'I have set the +Lord always before me, therefore I shall not be moved.' + +II. Now notice, secondly, these bewildered disciples. + +We find, in the early portion of these discourses, that twice they +ventured to interrupt our Lord with more or less relevant questions, +but as the wonderful words flowed on, they seem to have been awed +into silence; and our Lord Himself almost complains of them that +'None of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou?' The inexhaustible truths +that He had spoken seem to have gone clear over their heads, but the +verbal repetition of the 'little whiles,' and the recurring ring of +the sentences, seem to have struck upon their ears. So passing by all +the great words, they fasten upon this minor thing, and whisper among +themselves, perhaps lagging behind on the road, as to what He means +by these 'little whiles.' The Revised Version is probably correct, or +at least it has strong manuscript authority in its favour, in +omitting the clause in our Lord's words, 'Because I go to the +Father.' The disciples seem to have quoted, not from the preceding +verse, but from a verse a little before that in the context, where He +said that 'the Spirit will convince the world of righteousness +because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.' The contradiction +seems to strike them. + +These disciples in their bewilderment seem to me to represent some +very common faults which we all commit in our dealing with the Lord's +words, and to one or two of these I turn for a moment. + +Note this to begin with, how they pass by the greater truths in order +to fasten upon a smaller outstanding difficulty. They have no +questions to ask about the gifts of the Spirit, nor about the unity +of Christ and His disciples as represented in the vine and the +branches, nor about what He tells them of the love that 'lays down +its life for its friends.' But when He comes into the region of +chronology, they are all agog to know the 'when' about which He is so +enigmatically speaking. + +Now is not that exactly like us, and does not the Christianity of +this day very much want the hint to pay most attention to the +greatest truths, and let the little difficulties fall into their +subordinate place? The central truths of Christianity are the +incarnation and atonement of Jesus Christ. And yet outside questions, +altogether subordinate and, in comparison with this, unimportant, are +filling the attention and the thoughts of people at present to such +an extent that there is great danger of the central truth of all +being either passed by, or the reception of it being suspended on the +clearing up of smaller questions. + +The truth that Christ is the Son of God, who has died for our +salvation, is the heart of the Gospel. And why should we make our +faith in that, and our living by it, contingent on the clearing up of +certain external and secondary questions; chronological, historical, +critical, philological, scientific, and the like? And why should men +be so occupied in jangling about the latter as that the towering +supremacy, the absolute independence, of the former should be lost +sight of? What would you think of a man in a fire who, when they +brought the fire-escape to him, said, 'I decline to trust myself to +it, until you first of all explain to me the principles of its +construction; and, secondly, tell me all about who made it; and, +thirdly, inform me where all the materials of which it is made came +from?' But that is very much what a number of people are doing to-day +in reference to 'the Gospel of our salvation,' when they demand that +the small questions--on which the central verity does not at all +depend--shall be answered and settled before they cast themselves +upon that. + +Another of the blunders of these disciples, in which they show +themselves as our brethren, is that they fling up the attempt to +apprehend the obscurity in a very swift despair. 'We cannot tell what +He saith, and we are not going to try any more. It is all cloud-land +and chaos together.' + +Intellectual indolence, spiritual carelessness, deal thus with +outstanding difficulties, abandoning precipitately the attempt to +grasp them or that which lies behind them. And yet although there are +no gratuitous obscurities in Christ's teaching, He said a great many +things which could not possibly be understood at the time, in order +that the disciples might stretch up towards what was above them, and, +by stretching up, might grow. I do not think that it is good to break +down the children's bread too small. A wise teacher will now and then +blend with the utmost simplicity something that is just a little in +advance of the capacity of the listener, and so encourage a little +hand to stretch itself out, and the arm to grow because it is +stretched. If there are no difficulties there is no effort, and if +there is no effort there is no growth. Difficulties are there in +order that we may grapple with them, and truth is sometimes hidden in +a well in order that we may have the blessing of the search, and that +the truth found after the search may be more precious. The tropics, +with their easy, luxuriant growth, where the footfall turns up the +warm soil, grow languid men, and our less smiling latitude grows +strenuous ones. Thank God that everything is not easy, even in that +which is meant for the revelation of all truth to all men! Instead of +turning tail at the first fence, let us learn that it will do us good +to climb, and that the fence is there in order to draw forth our +effort. + +There is another point in which these bewildered disciples are +uncommonly like the rest of us; and that is that they have no +patience to wait for time and growth to solve the difficulty. They +want to know all about it now, or not at all. If they would wait for +six weeks they would understand, as they did. Pentecost explained it +all. We, too, are often in a hurry. There is nothing that the +ordinary mind, and often the educated mind, detests so much as +uncertainty, and being consciously baffled by some outstanding +difficulty. And in order to escape that uneasiness, men are +dogmatical when they should be doubtful, and positively asserting +when it would be a great deal more for the health of their souls and +of their listeners to say, 'Well, really I do not know, and I am +content to wait.' So, on both sides of great controversies, you get +men who will not be content to let things wait, for all must be made +clear and plain to-day. + +Ah, brethren! for ourselves, for our own intellectual difficulties, +and for the difficulties of the world, there is nothing like time and +patience. The mysteries that used to plague us when we were boys +melted away when we grew up. And many questions which trouble me to- +day, and through which I cannot find my way, if I lay them aside, and +go about my ordinary duties, and come back to them to-morrow with a +fresh eye and an unwearied brain, will have straightened themselves +out and become clear. We grow into our best and deepest convictions, +we are not dragged into them by any force of logic. So for our own +sorrows, questions, pains, griefs, and for all the riddle of this +painful world, + + 'Take it on trust a little while, + Thou soon shalt read the mystery right, + In the full sunshine of His smile.' + +III. Lastly, and very briefly, a word about the patient Teacher. + +'Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him.' He knows all our +difficulties and perplexities. Perhaps it is His supernatural +knowledge that is indicated in the words before us, or perhaps it is +merely that He saw them whispering amongst themselves and so inferred +their wish. Be that as it may, we may take the comfort that we have +to do with a Teacher who accurately understands how much we +understand and where we grope, and will shape His teaching according +to our necessities. + +He had not a word of rebuke for the slowness of their apprehension. +He might well have said to them, 'O fools and slow of heart to +believe!' But that word was not addressed to them then, though two of +them deserved it and got it, after events had thrown light on His +teaching. He never rebukes us for either our stupidity or for our +carelessness, but 'has long patience' with us. + +He does give them a kind of rebuke. 'Do ye inquire _among +yourselves_?' That is a hopeful source to go to for knowledge. Why +did they not ask Him, instead of whispering and muttering there +behind Him, as if two people equally ignorant could help each other +to knowledge? Inquiry 'among yourselves' is folly; to ask Him is +wisdom. We can do much for one another, but the deepest riddles and +mysteries can only be wisely dealt with in one way. Take them to Him, +tell Him about them. Told to Him, they often dwindle. They become +smaller when they are looked at beside Him, and He will help us to +understand as much as may be understood, and patiently to wait and +leave the residue unsolved, until the time shall come when 'we shall +know even as we are known.' + +In the context here, Jesus Christ does not explain to the disciples +the precise point that troubled them. Olivet and Pentecost were to do +that; but He gives them what will tide them over the time until the +explanation shall come, in triumphant hopes of a joy and peace that +are drawing near. + +And so there is a great deal in all our lives, in His dealings with +us, in His revelation of Himself to us, that must remain mysterious +and unintelligible. But if we will keep close to Him, and speak +plainly to Him in prayer and communion about our difficulties, He +will send us triumphant hope and large confidence of a coming joy, +that will float us over the bar and make us feel that the burden is +no longer painful to carry. Much that must remain dark through life +will be lightened when we get yonder; for the vision here is not +perfect, and the knowledge here is as imperfect as the vision. + +Dear friends! the one question for us all is, Do our eyes fix and +fasten on that dear Lord, and is it the description of our own whole +lives, that we see Him and walk with Him? Oh! if so, then life will +be blessed, and death itself will be but as 'a little while' when we +'shall not see Him,' and then we shall open our eyes and behold Him +close at hand, whom we saw from afar, and with wandering eyes, amidst +the mists and illusions of earth. To see Him as He became for our +sakes is heaven on earth. To see Him as He is will be the heaven of +heaven, and before that Face, 'as the sun shining in His strength,' +all sorrows, difficulties, and mysteries will melt as morning mists. + + + +SORROW TURNED INTO JOY + +'Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, +but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your +sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail +hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is +delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for +joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now, therefore, +have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall +rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.'-JOHN xvi. 20-22. + +These words, to which we have come in the ordinary course of our +exposition, make an appropriate text for Easter Sunday. For their one +theme is the joy which began upon that day, and was continued in +increasing measure as the possession of Christ's servants after +Pentecost. Our Lord promises that the momentary sadness and pain +shall be turned into a swift and continual joy. He pledges His word +for that, and bids us believe it on His bare word. He illustrates it +by that tender and beautiful image which, in the pains and bliss of +motherhood, finds an analogy for the pains and bliss of the +disciples, inasmuch as, in both cases, pain leads directly to +blessedness in which it is forgotten. And He crowns His great +promises by explaining to us what is the deepest foundation of our +truest gladness, 'I will see you again,' and by declaring that such a +joy is independent of all foes and all externals, 'and your joy no +man taketh from you.' + +There are, then, two or three aspects of the Christian life as a glad +life which are set before us in these words, and to which I ask your +attention. + +I. There is, first, the promise of a joy which is a transformed +sorrow. + +'Your sorrow shall be turned into joy,' not merely that the one +emotion is substituted for the other, but that the one emotion, as it +were, becomes the other. This can only mean that _that_, which was +the cause of the one, reverses its action and becomes the cause of +the opposite. Of course the historical and immediate fulfilment of +these words lies in the double result of Christ's Cross upon His +servants. For part of three dreary days it was the occasion of their +sorrow, their panic, their despair; and then, all at once, when with +a bound the mighty fact of the resurrection dawned upon them, that +which had been the occasion for their deep grief, for their +apparently hopeless despair, suddenly became the occasion for a +rapture beyond their dreams, and a joy which would never pass. The +Cross of Christ, which for some few hours was pain, and all but ruin, +has ever since been the centre of the deepest gladness and confidence +of a thousand generations. + +I do not need to remind you, I suppose, of the value, as a piece of +evidence of the historical veracity of the Gospel story, of this +sudden change and complete revolution in the sentiments and emotions +of that handful of disciples. What was it that lifted them out of the +pit? What was it that revolutionised in a moment their notions of the +Cross and of its bearing upon them? What was it that changed +downhearted, despondent, and all but apostate, disciples into heroes +and martyrs? It was the one fact which Christendom commemorates to- +day: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That was the element, added to +the dark potion, which changed it all in a moment into golden +flashing light. The resurrection was what made the death of Christ no +longer the occasion for the dispersion of His disciples, but bound +them to Him with a closer bond. And I venture to say that, unless the +first disciples were lunatics, there is no explanation of the changes +through which they passed in some eight-and-forty hours, except the +supernatural and miraculous fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ +from the dead. That set a light to the thick column of smoke, and +made it blaze up a 'pillar of fire.' That changed sorrow into joy. +The same death which, before the resurrection, drew a pall of +darkness over the heavens, and draped the earth in mourning, by +reason of that resurrection which swept away the cloud and brought +out the sunshine, became the source of joy. A dead Christ was the +Church's despair; a dead and risen Christ is the Church's triumph, +because He is 'the Christ that died... and is alive for evermore.' + +But, more generally, let me remind you how this very same principle, +which applies directly and historically to the resurrection of our +Lord, may be legitimately expanded so as to cover the whole ground of +devout men's sorrows and calamities. Sorrow is the first stage, of +which the second and completed stage is transformation into joy. +Every thundercloud has a rainbow lying in its depths when the sun +smites upon it. Our purest and noblest joys are transformed sorrows. +The sorrow of contrite hearts becomes the gladness of pardoned +children; the sorrow of bereaved, empty hearts may become the +gladness of hearts filled with God; and every grief that stoops upon +our path may be, and will be, if we keep near that dear Lord, changed +into its own opposite, and become the source of blessedness else +unattainable. Every stroke of the bright, sharp ploughshare that goes +through the fallow ground, and every dark winter's day of pulverising +frost and lashing tempest and howling wind, are represented in the +broad acres, waving with the golden grain. All your griefs and mine, +brother, if we carry them to the Master, will flash up into gladness +and be "turned into joy." + +II. Still further, another aspect here of the glad life of the true +Christian is, that it is a joy founded upon the consciousness that +Christ's eye is upon us. + +'I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice.' In other parts +of these closing discourses the form of the promise is the converse +of this, as for instance--'Yet a little while, and ye shall see +_Me_.' Here Christ lays hold of the thought by the other handle, and +says, '_I_ will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice.' Now +these two forms of putting the same mutual relationship, of course, +agree, in that they both of them suggest, as the true foundation of +the blessedness which they promise, the fact of communion with a +present Lord. But they differ from one another in colouring, and in +the emphasis which they place upon the two parts of that communion. +'_Ye_ shall see _Me_' fixes attention upon us and our perception of +Him. '_I_ will see you' fixes attention rather upon Him and His +beholding of us. 'Ye shall see Me' speaks of our going out after Him +and being satisfied in Him. 'I will see you' speaks of His perfect +knowledge, of His loving care, of His tender, compassionate, +complacent, ever-watchful eye resting upon us, in order that He may +communicate to us all needful good. + +And so it requires a loving heart on our part, in order to find joy +in such a promise. 'His eyes are as a flame of fire,' and He sees all +men; but unless our hearts cleave to Him and we know ourselves to be +knit to Him by the tender bond of love from Him, accepted and +treasured in our souls, then 'I will see you again' is a threat and +not a promise. It depends upon the relation which we bear to Him, +whether it is blessedness or misery to think that He whose flaming +eye reads all men's sins and pierces through all hypocrisies and +veils has it fixed upon us. The sevenfold utterance of His words to +the Asiatic churches-the last recorded words of Jesus Christ-begins +with 'I know thy works.' It was no joy to the lukewarm professors at +Laodicea, nor to the church at Ephesus which had lost the freshness +of its early love, that the Master knew them; but to the faithful +souls in Philadelphia, and to the few in Sardis, who 'had not defiled +their garments,' it was blessedness and life to feel that they walked +in the sunshine of His face. + +Is there any joy to us in the thought that the Lord Christ sees us? +Oh! if our hearts are really His, if our lives are as truly built on +Him as our profession of being Christians alleges that they are, then +all that we need for the satisfaction of our nature, for the supply +of our various necessities, or as an armour against temptation, and +an amulet against sorrow, will be given to us, in the belief that His +eye is fixed upon us. _There_ is the foundation of the truest joy for +men. 'There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift +Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness +in my heart more than in the time when their corn and their wine +abound.' One look _towards_ Christ will more than repay and abolish +earth's sorrow. One look _from_ Christ will fill our hearts with +sunshine. All tears are dried on eyes that meet His. Loving hearts +find their heaven in looking into one another's faces, and if Christ +be our love, our deepest and purest joys will be found in His glance +and our answering gaze. + +If one could anyhow take a bit of the Arctic world and float it down +into the tropics, the ice would all melt, and the white dreariness +would disappear, and a new splendour of colour and of light would +clothe the ground, and an unwonted vegetation would spring up where +barrenness had been. And if you and I will only float our lives +southward beneath the direct vertical rays of that great 'Sun of +Righteousness,' then all the dreary winter and ice of our sorrows +will melt, and joy will spring. Brother! the Christian life is a glad +life, because Christ, the infinite and incarnate Lover of our souls, +looks upon the heart that loves and trusts Him. + +III. Still further, note how our Lord here sets forth His disciples' +joy as beyond the reach of violence and independent of externals. + +'No man taketh it from you.' Of course, that refers primarily to the +opposition and actual hostility of the persecuting world, which that +handful of frightened men were very soon to face; and our Lord +assures them here that, whatsoever the power of the devil working +through the world may be able to filch away from them, it cannot +filch away the joy that He gives. But we may extend the meaning +beyond that reference. + +Much of our joy, of course, depends upon our fellows, and disappears +when they fade away from our sight and we struggle along in a +solitude, made the more dreary because of remembered companionship. +And much of our joy depends upon the goodwill and help of our +fellows, and they can snatch away all that so depends. They can hedge +up our road and make it uncomfortable and sad for us in many ways, +but no man but myself can put a roof over my head to shut me out from +God and Christ; and as long as I have a clear sky overhead, it +matters very little how high may be the walls that foes or hostile +circumstances pile around me, and how close they may press upon me. +And much of our joy necessarily depends upon and fluctuates with +external circumstances of a hundred different kinds, as we all only +too well know. But we do not need to have all our joy fed from these +surface springs. We may dig deeper down if we like. If we are +Christians, we have, like some beleaguered garrison in a fortress, a +well in the courtyard that nobody can get at, and which never can run +dry. 'Your joy no man taketh from you.' + +As long as we have Christ, we cannot be desolate. If He and I were +alone in the universe, or, paradoxical as it may sound, if He and I +were alone, and the universe were not, I should have all that I +needed and my joy would be full, if I loved Him as I ought to do. + +So, my brother! let us see to it that we dig deep enough for the +foundation of our blessedness, and that it is on Christ and nothing +less infinite, less eternal, less unchangeable, that we repose for +the inward blessedness which nothing outside of us can touch. That is +the blessedness which we may all possess, 'For I am persuaded that +neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, +nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor +any other creature, shall be able to separate us' from the eye and +the heart of the risen Christ who lives for us. But remember, though +externals have no power to rob us of our joy, they have a very +formidable power to interfere with the cultivation of that faith, +which is the essential condition of our joy. They cannot force us +away from Christ, but they may tempt us away. The sunshine did for +the traveller in the old fable what the storm could not do; and the +world may cause you to think so much about it that you forget your +Master. Its joys may compel Him to hide His face, and may so fill +your eyes that you do not care to look at His face; and so the sweet +bond may be broken, and the consciousness of a living, loving Jesus +may fade, and become filmy and unsubstantial, and occasional and +interrupted. Do you see to it that what the world cannot do by +violence and directly, it does not do by its harlot kisses and its +false promises, tempting you away from the paths where alone you can +meet your Master. + +IV. Lastly, note that this life of joy, which our Lord here speaks +of, is made certain by the promise of a faithful Christ. + +'Verily, verily, I say unto you,'--He was accustomed to use that +impressive and solemn formula, when He was about to speak words +beyond the reach of human wisdom to discover, or of prime importance +for men to accept and believe. He tells these men, who had nothing +but His bare word to rely upon, that the astonishing thing which He +is going to promise them will certainly come to pass. He would +encourage them to rest an unfaltering confidence, for the brief +parenthesis of sorrow, upon His faithful promise of joy. He puts His +own character, so to speak, in pawn. His words are precisely +equivalent in meaning to the solemn Old Testament words which are +represented as being the oath of God, 'As I live saith the Lord,' +'You may be as sure of this thing as you are of My divine existence, +for all My divine Being is pledged to you to bring it about.' +'Verily, verily, I say unto you,' 'You may be as sure of this thing +as you are of Me, for all that I am is pledged to fulfil the words of +My lips.' + +So Christ puts His whole truthfulness at stake, as it were; and if +any man who has ever loved Jesus Christ and trusted Him aright has +not found this 'joy unspeakable and full of glory,' then Jesus Christ +has said the thing that is not. + +Then why is it that so many professing Christians have such joyless +lives as they have? Simply because they do not keep the conditions. +If we will love Him so as to set our hearts upon Him, if we will +desire Him as our chief good, if we will keep our eyes fixed upon +Him, then, as sure as He is living and is the Truth, He will flood +our hearts with blessedness, and His joy will pour into our souls as +the flashing tide rushes into some muddy and melancholy harbour, and +sets everything dancing that was lying stranded on the slime. If, my +brother, you, a professing Christian, know but little of this joy, +why, then, it is _your_ fault, and not _His_. The joyless lives of so +many who say that they are His disciples cast no shadow of suspicion +upon His veracity, but they do cast a very deep shadow of doubt upon +their profession of faith in Him. + +Is your religion joyful? Is your joy religious? The two questions go +together. And if we cannot answer these questions in the light of +God's eye as we ought to do, let these great promises and my text +prick us into holier living, into more consistent Christian +character, and a closer walk with our Master and Lord. + +The out-and-out Christian is a joyful Christian. The half-and-half +Christian is the kind of Christian that a great many of you are-- +little acquainted with 'the joy of the Lord.' Why should we live half +way up the hill and swathed in mists, when we might have an unclouded +sky and a visible sun over our heads, if we would only climb higher +and walk in the light of His face? + + + +'IN THAT DAY' + +'And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say +unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will +give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and +ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.'--JOHN xvi. 23, 24. + +Our Lord here sums up the prerogatives and privileges of His servants +in the day that was about to dawn and to last till He came again. +There is nothing absolutely new in the words; substantially the +promises contained in them have appeared in former parts of these +discourses under somewhat different aspects and connections. But our +Lord brings them together here, in this condensed repetition, in +order that the scattered rays, being thus focussed, may have more +power to illuminate with certitude, and to warm into hope. 'Ye shall +ask Me nothing.... Ask and ye shall receive.... Your joy shall be +full.' These are the jewels which He sets in a cluster, the +juxtaposition making each brighter, and gives to us for a parting +keepsake. + +Now it is to be noticed that the two askings which are spoken of here +are expressed by different words in the Greek. Our English word 'ask' +means two things, either to question or to request; to ask in the +sense of interrogating, in order to get information and teaching, or +in the sense of beseeching, in order to get gifts. In the former +sense the word is employed in the first clause of my text, with +distinct reference to the disciples' desire, a moment or two before, +to ask Him a very foolish question; and in the second sense it is +employed in the central portion of my text. + +So, then, there are three things here as the marks of the Christian +life all through the ages: the cessation of the ignorant questions +addressed to a present Christ; the satisfaction of desires; and the +perfecting of joy. These are the characteristics of a true Christian +life. My brother, are they in any degree the characteristics of +yours? + +I. Note then, first, the end of questionings. + +'In that day ye shall ask Me nothing,' and do not you think that when +the disciples heard that, they would be tempted to say, 'Then what in +all the world are we to do?' To them the thought that He was not to +be at their sides any longer, for them to go to with their +difficulties, must have seemed despair rather than advance; but in +Christ's eyes it was progress. He tells them and us that we gain by +losing Him, and are better off than they were, precisely because He +does not any longer stand at our sides for us to question. It is +better for a boy to puzzle out the meaning of a Latin book by his own +brains and the help of a dictionary than it is lazily to use an +interlinear translation. And, though we do not always feel it, and +are often tempted to think how blessed it would be if we had an +infallible Teacher visible here at our sides, it is a great deal +better for us that we have not, and it is a step in advance that He +has gone away. Many eager and honest Christian souls, hungering after +certainty and rest, have cast themselves in these latter days into +the arms of an infallible Church. I doubt whether any such +questioning mind has found what it sought; and I am sure that it has +taken a step downwards, in passing from the spiritual guidance +realised by our own honest industry and earnest use of the materials +supplied to us in Christ's word, to any external authority which +comes to us to save us the trouble of thinking, and to confirm to us +truth which we have not made our own by search and effort. We gain by +losing the visible Christ; and He was proclaiming progress and not +retrogression, when He said: 'In that day ye shall ask Me no more +questions.' + +For what have we instead? We have two things: a completed revelation, +and an inward Teacher. + +We have a completed revelation. Great and wonderful and unspeakably +precious as were and are the words of Jesus Christ, His deeds are far +more. The death of Christ has told us things that Christ before His +death could not tell. The resurrection of Christ has cast light upon +all the darkest places of man's destiny which Christ, before His +resurrection, could not by any words so illuminate. The ascension of +Christ has opened doors for thought, for faith, for hope, which were +fast closed, notwithstanding all His teachings, until He had burst +them asunder and passed to His throne. And the facts which are +substituted for the bodily presence of Jesus with His disciples tell +us a great deal more than they could ever have drawn from Him by +questionings, however persistent and however wisely directed. We have +a completed revelation, and therefore we need 'ask Him nothing.' + +And we have a divine Spirit that will come to us if we will, and +teach us by means of blessing the exercise of our own faculties, and +guiding us, not, indeed, into the uniform perception of the +intellectual aspects of Christian truth, but into the apprehension +and the loving possession, as a power in our lives, of all the truth +that we need to mould our characters and to raise us to the likeness +of Himself. + +Only, brother! let us remember what such a method of teaching demands +from us. It needs that we honestly use the revelation that is given +us; it needs that we loyally, lovingly, trustfully, submit ourselves +to the teaching of that Spirit who will dwell in us; it needs that we +bring our lives up to the height of our present knowledge, and make +everything that we know a factor in shaping what we do and what we +are. If thus we will to do His will, 'we shall know of the doctrine'; +if thus we yield ourselves to the divine Spirit, we shall be taught +the practical bearings of all essential truth; and if thus we ponder +the facts and principles that are enshrined in Christ's life, and the +Apostolic commentary on them, as preserved for us in the Scripture, +we shall not need to envy those that could go to Him with their +questions, for _He_ will come to us with His all-satisfying answers. + +Ah! but you say experience does not verify these promises. Look at a +divided Christendom; look at my own difficulties of knowing what I am +to believe and to think. Well, as for a divided Christendom, saintly +souls are all of one Church, and however they may formulate the +intellectual aspects of their creed, when they come to pray, they say +the same things. Roman Catholic and Protestant, and Quaker and +Churchman, and Calvinist and Arminian, and Greek and Latin +Christians--all contribute to the hymn-book of every sect; and we all +sing their songs. So the divisions are like the surface cracks on a +dry field, and a few inches down there is continuity. As for the +difficulty of knowing what I am to believe and think about +controverted questions, no doubt there will remain many gaps in the +circle of our knowledge; no doubt there will be much left obscure and +unanswered; but if we will keep ourselves near the Master, and use +honestly and diligently the helps that He gives us--the outward help +in the Word, and the inward help in His teaching Spirit--we shall not +'walk in darkness,' but shall have light enough given to be to us +'the Light of Life.' + +Brother, keep close to Christ, and Christ--present though absent-- +will teach you. + +II. Secondly, satisfied desires. + +This second great promise of my text, introduced again by the solemn +affirmation, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you,' substantially appeared +in a former part of these discourses with a very significant +difference. 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do.' 'If +ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it.' There Christ +presented Himself as the Answerer of the petitions, because His more +immediate purpose was to set forth His going to the Father as His +elevation to a yet loftier position. Here, on the other hand, He sets +forth the Father as the Answerer of the petitions, because His +purpose is to point away from undue dependence on His own corporeal +presence. But the fact that He thus, as occasion requires, +substitutes the one form of speech for the other, and indifferently +represents the same actions as being done by Himself and by the +Father in heaven, carries with it large teachings which I do not +dwell upon now. Only I would ask you to consider how much is involved +in that fact, that, as a matter of course, and without explanation of +the difference, our Lord alternates the two forms, and sometimes +says, 'I will do it,' and sometimes says, 'The Father will do it.' +Does it not point to that great and blessed truth, 'Whatsoever thing +the Father doeth, that also doeth the Son likewise?' + +But passing from that, let me ask you to note very carefully the +limitation, which is here given to the broad universality of the +declaration that desires shall be satisfied. 'If ye shall ask +anything in My name'; there is the definition of Christian prayer. +And what does it mean? Is a prayer, which from the beginning to the +end is reeking with self-will, hallowed because we say, as a kind of +charm at the end of it, 'For Christ's sake. Amen'? Is _that_ praying +in Christ's name? Surely not! What is the 'name' of Christ? His whole +revealed character. So these disciples could not pray in His name +'hitherto,' because His character was not all revealed. Therefore, to +pray in His name is to pray, recognising what He is, as revealed in +His life and death and resurrection and ascension, and to base all +our dependence of acceptance of our prayers upon that revealed +character. Is that all? Are any kind of wishes, which are presented +in dependence upon Christ as our only Hope and Channel of divine +blessing, certain to be fulfilled? Certainly not. To pray 'in My +name' means yet more than that. It means not only to pray in +dependence upon Christ as our only Ground of hope and Source of +acceptance and God's only Channel of blessing, but it means exactly +what the same phrase means when it is applied to us. If I say that I +am doing something in your name, that means on your behalf, as your +representative, as your organ, and to express your mind and will. And +if we pray in Christ's name, that implies, not only our dependence +upon His merit and work, but also the harmony of our wills with His +will, and that our requests are not merely the hot products of our +own selfishness, but are the calm issues of communion with Him. +_Thus_ to pray requires the suppression of self. Heathen prayer, if +there be such a thing, is the violent effort to make God will what I +wish. Christian prayer is the submissive effort to make my wish what +God wills, and that is to pray in Christ's name. + +My brother! do we construct our prayers thus? Do we try to bring our +desires into harmony with Him, before we venture to express them? Do +we go to His footstool to pour out petulant, blind, passionate, un- +sanctified wishes after questionable and contingent good, or do we +wait until He fills our spirits with longings after what it must be +His desire to give, and then breathe out those desires caught from +His own heart, and echoing His own will? Ah! The discipline that is +wanted to make men pray in Christ's name is little understood by +multitudes amongst us. + +Notice how certain such prayer is of being answered. Of course, if it +is in harmony with the will of God, it is sure not to be offered in +vain. Our Revised Version makes a slight alteration in the order of +the words in the first clause of this promise by reading, 'If ye ask +anything of the Father He will give it you _in My name_.' God's gifts +come down through the same channel through which our prayer goes up. +We ask in the name of Christ, and get our answers in the name of +Christ. + +But, whether that be the true collocation of ideas or not, mark the +plain principle here, that only desires which are in harmony with the +divine will are sure of being satisfied. What is a bad thing for a +child cannot be a good thing for a man. What is a foolish and wicked +thing for a father down here to do cannot be a kind and a wise thing +for the Father in the heavens to do. If you wish to spoil your child +you say, 'What do you want, my dear? tell me and you shall have it.' +And if God were saying anything like that to us, through the lips of +Jesus Christ His Son, in the text, it would be no blessing, but a +curse. He knows a great deal better what is good for us; and so He +says: 'Bring your wishes into line with My purpose, and then you will +get them'; 'Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give thee the +desires of thine heart.' If you want God most you will be sure to get +Him; if your heart's desires are after Him, your heart's desires will +be satisfied. 'The young lions do roar and suffer hunger.' That is +the world's way of getting good; fighting and striving and snarling, +and forcibly seeking to grasp, and there is hunger after all. There +is a better way than that. Instead of striving and struggling to +snatch and to keep a perishable and questionable portion, let us wait +upon God and quiet our hearts, stilling them into the temper of +communion and conformity with Him, and we shall not ask in vain. + +He who prays in Christ's name must pray Christ's prayer, 'Not My +will, but Thine be done.' And then, though many wishes may be +unanswered, and many weak petitions unfulfilled, and many desires +unsatisfied, the essential spirit of the prayer will be answered, +and, His will being done in us and on us, our wishes will acquiesce +in it and desire nothing besides. To him who can thus pray in +Christ's name in the deepest sense, and after Christ's pattern, every +door in God's treasure-house flies open, and he may take as much of +the treasure as he desires. The Master bends lovingly over such a +soul, and looks him in the eyes, and with outstretched hand says, +'What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Be it unto thee even as +thou wilt.' + +III. Lastly, the perfect joy which follows upon these two. + +'That your joy may be fulfilled.' Again we have a recurrence of a +promise that has appeared in another connection in an earlier part of +this discourse; but the connection here is worthy of notice. The +promise is of joy that comes from the satisfaction of meek desires in +unison with Christ's will. Is it possible then, that, amidst all the +ups and downs, the changes and the sorrows of this fluctuating, +tempest-tossed life of ours we may have a deep and stable joy? 'That +your joy may be full,' says my text, or 'fulfilled,' like some +jewelled, golden cup charged to the very brim with rich and +quickening wine, so that there is no room for a drop more. Can it be +that ever, in this world, men shall be happy up to the very limits of +their capacity? Was anybody ever so blessed that he could not be more +so? Was your cup ever so full that there was no room for another drop +in it? Jesus Christ says that it may be so, and He tells us how it +may be so. Bring your desires into harmony with God's, and you will +have none unsatisfied amongst them; and so you will be blessed to the +full; and though sorrow comes, as of course it will come, still you +may be blessed. There is no contradiction between the presence of +this deep, central joy and a surface and circumference of sorrow. +Rather we need the surrounding sorrow, to concentrate, and so to +intensify, the central joy in God. There are some flowers which only +blow in the night; and white blossoms are visible with startling +plainness in the twilight, when all the flaunting purples and reds +are hid. We do not know the depth, the preciousness, the power of the +'joy of the Lord,' until we have felt it shining in our hearts in the +midst of the thick darkness of earthly sorrow, and bringing life into +the very death of our human delights. It may be ours on the +conditions that my text describes. + +My dear friends! there are only two courses before us. Either we must +have a life with superficial, transitory, incomplete gladness, and an +aching centre of vacuity and pain, or we may have a life which, in +its outward aspects and superficial appearance, has much about it +that is sad and trying, but down in the heart of it is calm and +joyful. Which of the two do you deem best, a superficial gladness and +a rooted sorrow, or a superficial sorrow and a central joy? 'Even in +laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is +heaviness.' But, on the other hand, the 'ransomed of the Lord shall +return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their +heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing +shall flee away.' + + + +THE JOYS OF 'THAT DAY' + +'These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time +cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I +shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in +My Name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for +you: For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, +and have believed that I came out from God.'--JOHN xvi. 25-27. + +The stream which we have been tracking for so long in these +discourses has now nearly reached its close. Our Lord, in these all +but final words, sums up the great salient features which He has +already more than once specified, of the time when His followers +shall live with an absent and yet present Christ. He reiterates here +substantially just what He has been saying before, but in somewhat +different connection, and with some slight expansion. And this +reiteration of the glad features of the day which was about to dawn +suggests how much the disciples needed, and how much we need, to have +repeated over and over again the blessed and profound lessons of +these words. + +What a sublime self-repression there was in the Master! Not one word +escapes from His lips of the personal pain and agony into which He +had to plunge and be baptized, before that day could dawn. All that +was crushed down and kept back, and He only speaks to the disciples +and to us of the joy that comes to them, and not at all of the bitter +sorrow by which it is bought. There are set forth in these words, as +it seems to me, especially three characteristics which belong to the +whole period between the ascension of Jesus Christ and His coming +again for judgment. It is a day of continual and clearer teaching by +Him. It is a day of desires in His name. It is a day of filial +experience of a Father's love. These are the characteristics of the +Christian period, and they ought to be the characteristics of our +individual Christian life. My brother! are they the characteristics +of yours? + +Let us note them in order. + +I. First, our Lord tells us that the whole period of the Christian +life upon earth is to be a period of continuous and clearer teaching +by Himself. + +'Hitherto I have spoken to you in proverbs,' or parables. The word +means, not only a comparison or parable, but also, and perhaps +primarily, a mysterious and enigmatical saying. The reference is, of +course, directly to the immediately preceding thoughts, in which His +departure and the sorrow that accompanied it and was to merge into +joy, were described under that touching figure of the woman in +travail. But the reference must be extended very much farther than +that. It includes not only this discourse, but the whole of His +teaching by word whilst He was here upon earth. + +Now the first thing that strikes me here is this strange fact. Here +is a man who knew Himself to be within four-and-twenty hours of His +death, and knew that scarcely another word of instruction was to come +from His lips upon earth, calmly asserting that, for all the +subsequent ages of the world's history, He is to continue its +Teacher. We know how the wisest and profoundest of earthly teachers +have their lips sealed by death, so as that no counsel can come from +them any more, and their disciples long in vain for responses from +the silenced oracle, which is dumb whatever new problems may arise. +But Jesus Christ calmly poses before the world as not having His +teaching activity in the slightest degree suspended by that fact +which puts a conclusive and complete close to all other teachers' +words. Rather He says that after death He will, more clearly than in +life, be the Teacher of the world. + +What does He mean by that? Well, remember first of all the facts +which followed this saying--the Cross, the Grave, Olivet, the +Heavens, the Throne. These were still in the future when He spoke. +And have not these--the bitter passion, the supernatural +resurrection, the triumphant ascension, and the everlasting session +of the Son at the right hand of God--taught the whole world the +meaning of the Father's name, and the love of the Father's heart, and +the power of the Father's Son, as nothing else, not even the sweetest +and tenderest of His utterances, could have taught them? When, then, +He declares the continuance of His teaching functions unbroken +through death and beyond it, He refers partly to the future facts of +His earthly manifestation, and still more does He refer to that +continuous teaching which, by that divine Spirit whom He sends, is +granted to every believing soul all through the ages. + +This great truth, which recurs over and over again in these +discourses of our Lord, is far too much dropped out of the +consciousness and creeds of the modern Christian Church. We call +ourselves Christ's disciples. If there be disciples, there must be a +Master. His teaching is by no means merely the effect of the recorded +facts and utterances of the Lord, preserved here in the Book for us, +and to be pondered upon by ourselves, but it is also the hourly +communication, to waiting hearts and souls that keep themselves near +the Lord, of deeper insight into His will, of larger views of His +purposes, of a firmer grasp of the contents of Scripture, and a more +complete subjection of the whole nature to the truth as it is in +Jesus. Christian men and women! do you know anything about what it is +to learn of Christ in the sense that He Himself, and no poor human +voice like mine, nor even merely the records of His past words and +deeds as garnered in these Gospels and expounded by His Apostles, is +the source of your growing knowledge of Him? If we would keep our +hearts and minds clearer than we do of the babble of earthly voices, +and be more loyal and humble and constant and patient in our sitting +on the benches in Christ's school till the Master Himself came to +give us His lessons, these great words of my text would not, as they +so often do in the mass of professing Christians, lack the +verification of experience and the assurance that it is so with us. +Have you sat in Christ's school, and do you know the secret and +illuminative whispers of His teaching? If not, there is something +wrong in your Christian character, and something insincere in your +Christian profession. + +Notice, still further, that our Lord here ranks that subsequent +teaching before all that He said upon earth, great and precious as it +was. Now I do not mean for one moment to allege that fresh +communications of truth, uncontained in Scripture, are given to us in +the age-long and continuous teaching of Jesus Christ. That I do not +suppose to be the meaning of the great promises before us, for the +facts of revelation were finished when He ascended, and the inspired +commentary upon the facts of revelation was completed with these +writings which follow the Gospels in our New Testament. But Christ's +teaching brings us up to the understanding of the facts and of the +commentary upon them which Scripture contains, so that what was +parable or proverb, dimly apprehended, mysterious and enigmatical +when it was spoken, and what remains mysterious and enigmatical to us +until we grow up to it, gradually becomes full of significance and +weighty with a plain and certain meaning. This is the teaching which +goes on through the ages--the lifting of His children to the level of +apprehending more and more of the inexhaustible and manifold wisdom +which is stored for us in this Book. The mine has been worked on the +surface, but the deeper it goes the richer is the lode; and no ages +will exhaust the treasures that are hid in Christ Jesus our Lord. + +He uses the new problems, the new difficulties, the new circumstances +of each successive age, and of each individual Christian, in order to +evolve from His word larger lessons, and to make the earlier lessons +more fully and deeply understood. And this generation, with all its +new problems, with all its uneasiness about social questions, with +all its new attitude to many ancient truths, will find that Jesus +Christ is, as He has been to all past generations,--the answer to all +its doubts, using even these doubts as a means of evolving the deeper +harmonies of His Word, and of unveiling in the ancient truth more +than former generations have seen in it. 'Brethren, I write unto you +no new commandment. Again, a new commandment I write unto you.' The +inexhaustible freshness of the old word taught us anew, with deeper +significance and larger applications, by the everlasting Teacher of +the Church, is the hope that shines through these words. I commend to +you, dear brethren, the one simple, personal question, Have I +submitted myself to that Teacher, and said to men and systems and +preachers and books and magazines, and all the rest of the noisy and +clamorous tongues that bewilder under pretence of enlightening this +generation--have I said to them all, 'Hold your peace! and let me, in +the silence of my waiting soul, hear the Teacher Himself speak to me. +Speak, Lord! for Thy servant heareth. Teach me Thy way and lead me, +for Thou art my Master, and I the humblest of Thy scholars'? + +II. In the next place, another of the glad features of this dawning +day is that it is to be a day of desires based upon Christ, and +Christlike. + +'In that day ye shall ask in My name.' Our translators have wisely +put a colon at the end of that clause, in order that we may not hurry +over it too quickly in haste to get to the next one. For there is a +substantial blessing and privilege wrapped up in it. Our Lord has +just been saying the same thing in the previous verses, but He +repeats it here in order to emphasise it, and to set it by the +subsequent words in a somewhat different light. But I dwell upon it +for a very simple, practical purpose. I have already explained in +former sermons the full, deep meaning of that phrase, 'asking in +Christ's name,' and have suggested to you that it implies two things +--the one, that our desires should all be based upon His great work +as the only ground of our acceptance with God; and the other, that +our desires should all be such as represent His heart and His mind. +When we 'ask in His name' we ask, first, for His sake, and, second, +as in His person. And such desires, resting their hopes of answer +solely upon His mighty sacrifice and all-sufficient merit, and shaped +accurately and fully after the pattern of the wishes that are dear to +His heart, are to be the prerogative and the joy of His servants, in +the new 'day' that is about to dawn. + +Note how beautifully this thought, of wishes moulded into conformity +with Jesus Christ, and offered in reliance upon His great sacrifice, +follows upon that other thought, 'I will tell you plainly of the +Father.' The Master's voice speaks, revealing the paternal heart, the +scholar's voice answers with desires kindled by the revelation. +Longings and aspirations humbly offered for His sake, and after the +pattern of His own, are our true response to His teaching voice. As +the astronomer, the more powerful his telescope, though it may +resolve some of the nebulae that resisted feebler instruments, only +has his bounds of vision enlarged as he looks through it, and sees +yet other and mightier star-clouds lying mysterious beyond its ken-- +so each new influx and tidal wave of knowledge of the Father, which +Christ gives to His waiting child, leads on to enlarged desires, to +longings to press still further into the unexplored mysteries of that +magnificent and boundless land, and to nestle still closer into the +infinite heart of God. He declares to us the Father, and the answer +of the child to the declaration of the Father is the cry, 'Abba! +Father! show me yet more of Thy heart.' Thus aspiration and fruition, +longing and satisfaction in unsatiated and inexhaustible and +unwearying alternation, are the two blessed poles between which the +life of a Christian may revolve in smoothness and music. + +My friend! is that anything like the transcript of our experience, +that the more we know of God, the more we long to know of, and to +possess, Him? and the more we long to know of, and to possess, Him, +the more full, gracious, confidential, tender, and continuous are the +teachings of our Master? Is not this a far higher level of Christian +life than that we live upon? And why so? Is Christ's word faithless? +Hath He forgotten to be gracious? Was this promise of His idle wind? +Or is it that you and I have never grasped the fulness of privileges +that He bestows upon us? + +III. Note, lastly, that that day is to be a day of filial experience +of a Father's love. + +'I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the +Father Himself loveth you because ye have loved Me, and have believed +that I came out from God.' Jesus Christ does not deny His +intercession. He simply does not bring it into evidence here. To deny +it would have been impossible, for soon afterwards we find Him +saying, 'I pray for them which Thou hast given Me, for they are +Thine.' But He does not emphasise it here, in order that He may +emphasise another blessed source of solace--viz., that to those who +listen to the Master's teaching, and have their desires moulded into +harmony with His, and their wishes and hopes all based upon His +sacrifice and work, the divine Father's love directly flows. There is +no need of any intercession to turn Him to be merciful. Men sometimes +caricature the thought of the intercession of Christ, as if it meant +that He, by His prayer, bent the reluctant will of the Father in +heaven. All such horrible misconceptions Christ sweeps out of the +field here, even whilst there remains, in the fact that the prayers +of which He is speaking are offered in His name, the substance and +reality of all that we mean by the intercession of Jesus Christ. + +And now note that God loves the men who love Jesus Christ. So +completely does the Father identify Himself with the Son, that love +to Christ is love to Him, and brings the blessed answer of His love +to us. Whosoever loves Christ loves God. + +Whosoever loves Christ must do so, believing that He 'came forth from +God.' There are the two characteristics of a Christian disciple,-- +faith in the divine mission of the Son, and love that flows from +faith. Now, of course, it does not follow from the words before us, +that this divine love which comes down upon the heart which loves +Christ is the original and first flow of that love towards that +heart. 'We love Him because He first loved us.' Christ is not here +tracking the stream to its source, but is pointing to it midway in +its flow. If you want to go up to the fountain-head you have to go up +to the divine Father's heart, who loved when there was no love in us; +and, because He loved, sent the Son. First comes the unmotived, +spontaneous, self-originated, undeserved, infinite love of God to +sinners and aliens and enemies; then the Cross and the mission of +Jesus Christ; then the faith in His divine mission; then the love +which is the child of faith, as it grasps the Cross and recognises +the love that lies behind it; and then, after that, the special, +tender, and paternal love of God falling upon the hearts that love +Him in His Son. There is nothing here in the slightest degree to +conflict with the grand universal truth that God loves enemies and +sinners and aliens. But there is the truth, as precious as the other, +that they who have 'known and believed the love that God hath to us' +live under the selectest influences of His loving heart, and have a +place in its tenderness which it is impossible that any should have +who do not so love. And that sweet commerce of a divine love +answering a human, which itself is the answer to a prior divine love, +brings with it the firm confidence that prayers in His name shall not +be prayers in vain. + +So, dear friends, growing knowledge, an ever-present Teacher, the +peace of calm desires built upon Christ's Cross and fashioned after +Christ's Spirit, and the assurance in my quiet and filial heart that +my Father in the heavens loves me, and will neither give me +'serpents' when I ask for them, thinking them to be 'fishes,' nor +refuse 'bread' when I ask for it--these things ought to mark the +lives of all professing Christians. Are they our experience? If not, +why are they not, but because we do not believe that 'Thou art come +forth from God,' nor love Thee as we ought? + + + +FROM' AND 'TO' + +'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, +I leave the world, and go to the Father.'--JOHN xvi. 28. + +These majestic and strange words are the proper close of our Lord's +discourse, what follows being rather a reply to the disciples' +exclamation. There is nothing absolutely new in them, but what is new +is the completeness and the brevity with which they cover the whole +ground of His being, work, and glory. They fall into two halves, each +consisting of two clauses; the former half describing our Lord's +_descent_, the latter His _ascent_. In each half the two clauses deal +with the same fact, considered from the two opposite ends as it were +--the point of departure and the point of arrival. 'I came forth +_from_ the Father, and am come _into the world: again I _leave_ the +world and go _to_ the Father.' But the first point of departure is +the last point of arrival, and the end comes round to the beginning. +Our Lord's earthly life is, as it were, a jewel enclosed within the +flashing gold of His eternal dwelling with God. + +So I think we shall best apprehend the scope, and appropriate to +ourselves the blessing and power of these words, if we deal with the +four points to which they call our attention--the dwelling with the +Father; the voluntary coming to the earth; the voluntary departure +from the earth; and, once more, the dwelling with the Father. We must +grasp them all if we would know the whole Christ and all that He is +able to do and to be to us and to the world. So, then, I deal simply +with these four points. + +I. Note then, first, the dwelling with the Father. + +If we adopt the most probable reading of the first clause of my text, +it is even more forcible than in our version: 'I came forth _out of_ +the Father.' Such an egress implies a being _in_ the Father in a +sense ineffable for our words, and transcending our thoughts. It +implies a far deeper and closer relation than even that of +juxtaposition, companionship, or outward presence. + +Now, in these great words there is involved obviously, to begin with, +that, during His earthly life, our Lord bore about with Him the +remembrance and consciousness of an individual existence prior to His +life on earth. I need not remind you how frequently such hints drop +from His lips--'Before Abraham was, I am,' and the like. But beyond +that solemn thought of a remembered previous existence there is this +other one--that the words are the assertion by Christ Himself of a +previous, deep, mysterious, ineffable union with the Father. On such +a subject wisdom and reverence bid us speak only as we hear; but I +cannot refrain from emphasising the fact that, if this fourth Gospel +be a genuine record of the teaching of Jesus Christ--and, if it is +not, what genius was he who wrote it?--if it be a genuine record of +the teaching of Jesus Christ, then nothing is more plain than that +over and over again, in all sorts of ways, by implication and by +direct statement, to all sorts of audiences, friends and foes, He +reiterated this tremendous claim to have 'dwelt in the bosom of the +Father,' long before He lay on the breast of Mary. What did He mean +when He said, 'No man hath ascended up into heaven save He which came +down from heaven'? What did He mean when He said, 'What and if ye +shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before'? What did He +mean when He said, 'I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, +but the will of Him that sent Me'? And what did He mean when, in the +midst of the solemnities of that last prayer, He said, 'Glorify Thou +Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was'? + +Dear friends! it seems to me that if we know anything about Jesus +Christ, we know _that_. If we cannot believe that He thus spoke, we +know nothing about Him on which we can rely. And so, without +venturing to enlarge at all upon these solemn words, I leave this +with you as a plain fact, that the meekest, lowliest, and most sane +and wise of religious teachers made deliberately over and over again +this claim, which is either absolutely true, and lifts Him into the +region of the Deity, or else is fatal to His pretensions to be either +meek or modest, or wise or sane, or a religious teacher to whom it is +worth our while to listen. + +II. Note, secondly, the voluntary coming into the world. + +'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world.' We all +talk in a loose way about men coming into the world when they are +born; but the weight of these words and the solemnity of the occasion +on which they were spoken, and the purpose for which they were +spoken--viz., to comfort and to illuminate these disciples--forbid us +to see such a mere platitude as that in them. There would have been +no consolation in them unless they meant something a great deal more +than the undeniable fact that Jesus Christ was born, and the +melancholy fact that Jesus Christ was about to die. + +'I am _come_ into the world.' There has been a Man who chose to be +born. There has been a Man who appeared here, not 'of the will of the +flesh, nor of the will of man,' but by His own free choice. He willed +to take upon Him the form of humanity. Now the voluntariness of the +entrance of Jesus Christ into the conditions of our human life is +all-important for us, for it underlies the whole value of that life +and its whole power to be blessing and good to us. It underlies, for +instance, the personal sinlessness of Jesus Christ, and hence His +power to bring a new beginning of pure and perfect life into the +midst of humanity. All the rest of mankind, knit together by that +mysterious bond of natural descent which only now for the first time +is beginning to receive its due attention on the part of men of +science, by heredity have the taint upon them. And if Jesus Christ is +only one of the series, then there is no deliverance in Him, for +there is no sinlessness in that life. However fair its record may +seem on the surface, there is beneath, somewhere or other, the +leprosy that infects us all. Unless He came in another fashion from +all the rest of us, He came with the same sin as all the rest of us, +and He is no deliverer from sin. Rather He is one of the series who, +like the melancholy captives on the road to Siberia, each carries a +link of the hopeless chain that binds them all together. But, if it +be true that of His own will He took to Himself humanity, and was +born as the Scripture tells us He was born, His birth being His +'coming' and not His being brought, then, being free from taint, He +can deliver us from taint, and, Himself unbound by the chain, He can +break it from off our necks. The stream is fouled from its source +downwards, and flows on, every successive drop participant of the +primeval pollution. But, down from the white snows of the eternal +hills of God, there comes into it an affluent which has no stain on +its pure waters, and so can purge that into which it enters. Jesus +Christ willed to be born, and to plant a new beginning of holy life +in the very heart of humanity which henceforth should work as leaven. + +Let me remind you, too, that this voluntary assumption of our nature +is all-important to us, for unless we preserve it clear to our minds +and hearts, the power to sway our affections is struck away from +Jesus Christ. Unless He voluntarily took upon Himself the nature +which He meant to redeem, why should I be thankful to Him for what He +did, and what right has He to claim my love? But if He willingly came +down amongst us, and 'to this end was born, and for this cause,' of +His own loving heart, 'came into the world,' then I am knit to Him by +cords that cannot be broken. One thing only saves for Jesus Christ +the unbounded and perpetual love of mankind, and that is, that from +His own infinite and perpetual love He came into the world. We talk +about kings leaving their palaces and putting on the rags of the +beggar, and learning 'love in huts where poor men lie,' and making +experience of the conditions of their lowliest subjects. But here is +a fact, infinitely beyond all these legends. It is set forth for us +in a touching fashion, in the incident that almost immediately +preceded these parting words of our Lord, when 'Jesus, knowing that +He came forth from God, laid aside His garments and took a towel, and +girded Himself,' and washed the foul feet of these travel-stained +men. That was a parable of the Incarnation. The consciousness of His +divine origin was ever with Him, and that consciousness led Him to +lay aside the garments of His majesty, and to gird Himself with the +towel of service. That He had a body round which to wrap it was more +humiliation than that He wrapped it round the body which He took. And +we may learn there what it is that gives Him His supreme right to our +devotion and our surrender--viz., that, 'being in the form of God, He +thought not equality with God a thing to be covetously retained, but +made Himself of no reputation, and was found in fashion as a Man.' + +III. Note the voluntary leaving the world. + +The stages of that departure are not distinguished. They are +threefold in fact--the death, the resurrection, the ascension, and in +all three we have the majestic, spontaneous energy of Christ as their +cause. + +There was a voluntary death, I have so often had occasion to insist +upon that, in the course of these sermons, that I do not need to +dwell upon it now. Let me remind you only how distinctly and in what +various forms that thought is presented to us in the Scriptures. We +have our Lord's own words about His having 'power to lay down His +life.' We have in the story of the Passion hints that seem to suggest +that His relation to death, to which He is about to bow His head, was +altogether different from that of ours. For instance, we read: 'Into +Thy hands I _commend_ My Spirit'; and 'He _gave up_ the Spirit.' We +have hints of a similar nature in the very swiftness of His death and +unexpected brevity of His suffering, to be accounted for by no +natural result of the physical process of crucifixion. The fact is +that Jesus Christ is the Lord of death, and was so even when He +seemed to be its Servant, and that He never showed Himself more +completely the Prince of Life and the Conqueror of Death than when He +gave up His life and died, not because He must, but because He would. +There is a scene in a modern book of fiction of a man sitting on a +rock and the ocean stretching round him. It reaches high upon his +breast, but it threatens not his life, till he, sitting there in his +calm, bows his head beneath the wave and lets it roll over him. So +Christ willed to die, and died because He willed. + +There was also a voluntary resurrection by His own power; for +although Scripture sometimes represents His rising again from the +dead as being the Father's attestation of the Son's finished work, it +also represents it as being, in accordance with His own claim of +'power to lay down My life, and to take it again,' the Son's +triumphant egress from the prison into which, for the moment, He +willed to pass. Jesus 'was raised from the dead by the glory of the +Father,' but also Jesus rose from the dead by His own power. + +There was also a voluntary ascension to the heavens. There was no +need for Elijah's chariot of fire. There was no need for a whirlwind +to sweep a mortal to the sky. There was no need for any external +vehicle or agency whatsoever. No angels bore Him up upon their wings. +But, the cords of duty which bound Him to earth being cut, He rose to +His own native sphere; and, if one might so say, the natural forces +of His supernatural life bore Him, by inverted gravitation, upward to +the place which was His own. He ascended by His own inherent power. + +Thus, by a voluntary death, He became the Sacrifice for our sins; by +the might of His self-effected resurrection He proclaimed Himself the +Lord of death and the resurrection for all that trust Him; and by +ascending up on high He draws our hearts' desires after Him, so that +we, too, as we see Him lost from our sight, behind the bright +Shekinah cloud that stooped to conceal the last stages of His +ascension from our view, may return to our lowly work 'with great +joy,' and 'set our affection on things above, where Christ is, +sitting at the right hand of God.' + +IV. So, lastly, we have here the dwelling again with the Father. + +But that final dwelling with God is not wholly identical with the +initial one. The earthly life was no mere parenthesis, and He who +returned to the Throne carried with Him the manhood which He had +assumed, and bore it thither into the glory in which the Word had +dwelt from the beginning. And this is the true consolation which +Christ offered to these His weeping servants, and which He still +offers to us His waiting children, that now the manhood of Jesus +Christ is exalted to participation in the divine glory, and dwells +there in the calm, invisible sweetness and solemnity of fellowship +with the Father. + +If that be so, it is no mere abstract dogma of theology, but it +touches our daily life at all points, and is essential to the +fullness of our satisfaction and our rest in Christ. + +'We see not all things put under Him, but we see Jesus.' Our Brother +is elevated to the Throne, and, if I might so say, He makes the +fortunes of the family, and none of them will be poor as long as He +is so rich. He sends us from the far-off land where He is gone +precious gifts of its produce, and He will send for us to share His +throne one day. + +Christ's ascension to the Father is the elevation of our best and +dearest Friend to the Throne of the Universe, and the hands that were +pierced for us on the Cross hold the helm and sway the sceptre of +Creation, and therefore we may calmly meet all events. + +The elevation of Jesus Christ to the Throne fills Heaven for our +faith, our imagination, and our hearts. How different it is to look +up into those awful abysses, and to wonder where, amidst their +crushing infinitude, the spirits of dear ones that are gone are +wandering, if they are at all; and to look up and to think 'My Christ +hath passed through the Heavens,' and is somewhere with a true Body, +and with Him all that loved Him. Without an ascended Christ we recoil +from the cold splendours of an unknown Heaven, as a rustic might from +the unintelligible magnificence of a palace. But if we believe that +He is 'at the right hand of God,' then the far-off becomes near, and +the vague becomes definite, and the unsubstantial becomes solid, and +what was a fear becomes a joy, and we can trust ourselves and the +dear dead in His hands, knowing that where He is they are, and that +in Him they and we have all that we need. + +So, dear friends! it all comes to this--make sure that you have hold +of the whole Christ for yourselves. His earthly life is little +without the celestial halo that rings it round. His life is nothing +without His death. His death without His resurrection and ascension +maybe a little more pathetic than millions of other deaths, but is +nothing, really, to us. And the life and death and resurrection are +not apprehended in their fullest power until they are set between the +eternal glory before and the eternal glory after. + +These four facts--the dwelling in the Father; the voluntary coming to +earth; the voluntary leaving earth; and, again, the dwelling with the +Father--are the walls of the strong fortress into which we may flee +and be safe. With them it 'stands four square to every wind that +blows.' Strike away one of them, and it totters into ruin. Make the +whole Christ your Christ; for nothing less than the whole Christ, +'conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, ... crucified, +dead, and buried, ... ascended into Heaven, and sitting at the right +hand of God,' is strong enough to help your infirmities, vast enough +to satisfy your desires, loving enough to love you as you need, or +able to deliver you from your sins, and to lift you to the glories of +His own Throne. + + + +GLAD CONFESSION AND SAD WARNING + +'His disciples said unto Jesus, Lo! now speakest Thou plainly, +and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that Thou knowest all +things, and needest not that any man should ask Thee: by this we +believe that Thou earnest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do +ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that +ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me +alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.' +--JOHN xvi. 29-32. + +The first words of these wonderful discourses were, 'Let not your +heart be troubled.' They struck the key-note of the whole. The aim of +all was to bring peace and confidence unto the disciples' spirits. +And this joyful burst of confession which wells up so spontaneously +and irrepressibly from their hearts, shows that the aim has been +reached. For a moment sorrow, bewilderment, dullness of apprehension, +had all passed away, and the foolish questioners and non-receptive +listeners had been lifted into a higher region, and possessed +insight, courage, confidence. The last sublime utterance of our Lord +had gathered all the scattered rays into a beam so bright that the +blindest could not but see, and the coldest could not but be warmed. + +But yet the calm, clear eye of Christ sees something not wholly +satisfactory in this outpouring of the disciples' confidence. He does +not reject their imperfect faith, but He warns them, as if seeing the +impending hour of denial which was so terribly to contradict the +rapture of that moment. And then, with most pathetic suddenness, He +passes from them to Himself; and in a singularly blended utterance +lets us get a glimpse into His deep solitude and the companions that +shared it. + +My words now make no attempt at anything more than is involved in +following the course of thought in the words before us. + +I. Note the disciples' joyful confession. + +Their words are permeated throughout with allusions to the previous +promises and sayings of our Lord, and the very allusions show how +shallow was their understanding of what they thought so plain. He had +said to them that, in that coming day which was so near its dawn, He +would speak to them 'no more in proverbs, but show them plainly of +the Father'; and they answer, with a kind of rapture of astonishment, +that the promised day has come already, and that even now He is +speaking to them 'plainly,' and without mysterious sayings. Did they +understand His words when they thought them so plain? 'I came forth +from the Father, and am come into the world? Again I leave the world +and go unto the Father,' that summary statement of the central +mysteries of Christianity, which the generations have found to be +inexhaustible, and which to so many minds has been absolutely +incredible, seemed to the shallow apprehension of these disciples to +be sun-clear. If they had understood what He meant, could they have +spoken thus, or have left Him so soon? + +They begin with what they believed to be a fact, His clear utterance. +Then follows a conviction which has allusion to His previous words. +'Now', say they, 'we know that Thou knowest all things, and needest +not that any man should ask Thee.' He had said to them, 'In that day +ye shall ask Me nothing'; and from the fact that he had interpreted +their unspoken words, and had anticipated their desire to ask what +they durst not ask, they draw, and rightly draw, the conclusion of +His divine Omniscience. They think that therein, in His answer to +their question before it is asked, is the fulfilment of that great +promise. Was that all that He meant? Certainly not. Did He merely +mean to say, 'You will ask Me nothing, because I shall know what you +want to know, without your asking'? No! But He meant, 'Ye shall ask +Me nothing, because in that day you will have with you an +illuminating Spirit who will solve all your difficulties.' So, again, +a shallow interpretation empties the words which they accept of their +deepest and most precious meaning. + +And then they take yet a further step. First, they begin with a fact; +then from that they infer a conviction; and now, upon the basis of +the inferred conviction, they rear a faith, 'We believe that Thou +camest forth from God.' But what they meant by 'coming forth from +God' fell far short of the greatness of what He meant by the +declaration, and they stand, in this final, articulate confession of +their faith, but a little in advance of Nicodemus the Rabbi, and +behind Peter the Apostle when he said: 'Thou art the Son of the +living God.' + +So their confession is a strangely mingled warp and woof of insight +and of ignorance. And they may stand for us both as examples to teach +us what we ought to be, and as beacons teaching us what we should not +be. + +Let me note just one or two lessons drawn from the disciples' +demeanour and confession. + +The first remark that I would make is that here we learn what it is +that gives life to a creed--experience. These men had, over and over +again, in our Lord's earlier utterances, heard the declaration that +'He came forth from God'; and in a sort of fashion they believed it. +But, as so many of our convictions do, it lay dormant and half dead +in their souls. But now, rightly or wrongly, experience had brought +them into contact, as they thought, with a manifest proof of His +divine Omniscience, and the torpid conviction flashed all up at once +into vitality. The smouldering fire of a mere piece of abstract +belief was kindled at once into a glow that shed warmth through their +whole hearts; and although they had professed to believe long ago +that He came from God, now, for the first time, they grasp it as a +living reality. Why? Because experience had taught it to them. It is +the only teacher that teaches us the articles of our creed in a way +worth learning them. Every one of us carries professed beliefs, which +lie there inoperative, bedridden, in the hospital and dormitory of +our souls, until some great necessity or sudden circumstance comes +that flings a beam of light upon them, and then they start and waken. +We do not know the use of the sword until we are in battle. Until the +shipwreck comes, no man puts on the lifebelt in his cabin. Every one +of as has large tracts of Christian truth which we think we most +surely believe, but which need experience to quicken them, and need +us to grow up into the possession of them. Of all our teachers who +turn beliefs assented to into beliefs really believed none is so +mighty as Sorrow; for that makes a man lay a firm hold on the deep +things of God's Word. + +Then another lesson that I draw from this glad confession is--the +bold avowal that always accompanies certitude. These men's stammering +tongues are loosed. They have a fact to base themselves upon. They +have a piece of assured knowledge inferred from the fact. They have a +faith built upon the certitude of what they know. Having this, out it +all comes in a gush. No man that believes with all his heart can help +speaking. You silent Christians are so, because you do not more than +half grasp the truth that you say you hold. 'Thy word, when shut up +in my bones, was like a fire'; and it ate its way through all the +dead matter that enclosed it, until at last it flamed out heaven +high. Can you say, 'We know and we believe,' with unfaltering +confidence? Not 'we argue'; not 'we humbly venture to think that on +the whole'; not 'we are inclined rather to believe'; but 'we _know_-- +that Thou knowest all things, and that Thou hast come from God.' Seek +for that blessed certitude of knowledge, based upon the facts of +individual experience, which 'makes the tongue of the dumb sing,' and +changes all the deadness of an outward profession of Christianity +into a living, rejoicing power. + +Then, further, I draw this lesson. Take care of indolently supposing +that you understand the depths of God's truth. These Apostles fancied +that they had grasped the whole meaning of the Master's words, and +were glad in them. They fed on them, and got something out of them; +but how far they were from the true perception of their meaning! This +generation abhors mystery, and demands that the deepest truths of the +highest subject, which is religion, shall be so broken down into +mincemeat that the 'man in the street' can understand them in the +intervals of reading the newspaper. There are only too many of us who +are disposed to grasp at the most superficial interpretation of +Christian truth, and lazily to rest ourselves in that. A creed which +has no depth in it is like a picture which has no distance. It is +flat and unnatural, and self-condemned by the very fact. It is better +that we should feel that the smallest word that comes from God is +like some little leaf of a water plant on the surface of a pond; if +you lift that you draw a whole trail after it, and nobody knows how +far off and how deep down are the roots. It is better that we should +feel how Infinity and Eternity press in upon us on all sides, and +should take as ours the temper that recognises that till the end we +are but learners, seeing 'in a glass, in a riddle,' and therefore +patiently waiting for light and strenuously striving to stretch our +souls to the width of the infinite truth of God. + +II. So, then, look, in the second place, at the sad questions and +forebodings of the Master. + +'Do ye _now_ believe?' That does not cast doubt on the reality of +their faith so much as on its permanence and power. 'Behold the hour +cometh that ye shall be scattered'--as He had told them a little +while before in the upper room, like a flock when the shepherd is +stricken down--'every man to his own.' He does not reject their +imperfect homage, though He discerns so clearly its imperfection and +its transiency, but sadly warns them to beware of the fleeting nature +of their present emotion; and would seek to prepare them, by the +knowledge, for the terrible storm that is going to break upon them. + +So let us learn two or three simple lessons. One is that the dear +Lord accepts imperfect surrender, ignorant faith and love, of which +He knows that it will soon turn to denial. Oh! if He did not, what +would become of us all? _We_ reject half hearts; we will not have a +friendship on which we cannot rely. The sweetness of vows is all +sucked out of them to our apprehension, if we have reason to believe +that they will be falsified in an hour. But the patient Master was +willing to put up with what you and I will not put up with; and to +accept what we reject; and be pleased that they gave Him even that. +His 'charity suffereth long, and is kind.' Let us not be afraid to +bring even imperfect consecration-- + + 'A little faith all undisproved'-- + +to His merciful feet. + +Then another lesson is the need for Christian men sedulously to +search and make sure that their inward life corresponds with their +words and professions. I wonder how many thousands of people will +stand up this day and say, 'I believe in God the Father Almighty, and +in Jesus Christ His only Son,' whose words would stick in their +throats if that question of the Master's was put to them, '_Do_ ye +now believe?' And I wonder how many of us are the fools of our own +verbal acknowledgments of Christ. Self-examination is not altogether +a wholesome exercise, and it may easily be carried too far, to the +destruction of the spontaneity and the gladness of the Christian +life. A man may set his pulse going irregularly by simply +concentrating his attention upon it, and there may be self- +examination of the wrong sort, which does harm rather than good. But, +on the other hand, we all need to verify our position, lest our +outward life should fatally slip away from correspondence with our +inward. Our words and acts of Christian profession and service are +like bank notes. What will be the end if there is a whole ream of +such going up and down the world, and no balance of bullion in the +cellars to meet them? Nothing but bankruptcy. Do you see to it that +your reserve of gold, deep down in your hearts, always leaves a +margin beyond the notes in circulation issued by you. And in the +midst of your professions hear the Master saying, '_Do ye_ now +believe?' + +Another lesson that I draw is, trust no emotions, no religious +experiences, but only Him to whom they turn. + +These men were perfectly sincere, and there was a glow of gladness in +their hearts, and a real though imperfect faith when they spoke. In +an hours time where were they? + +We often deal far too hard measure to these poor disciples, in our +estimate of their conduct at that critical moment. We talk about them +as cowards. Well, they were better and they were worse than cowards; +for their courage failed second, but their faith had failed first. +The Cross made them dastards because it destroyed their confidence in +Jesus Christ. + +'We _trusted_.' Ah! what a world of sorrow there is in those two +final letters of that word! 'We trusted that it had been He who +should have redeemed Israel.' But they do not trust it any more, and +so why should they put themselves in peril for One on whom their +faith can no longer build? + +Would we have been any better if we had been there? Suppose you had +stood afar off and seen Jesus die on the cross, would your faith have +lived? Do we not know what it is to be a great deal more exuberant in +our professions of faith--and real faith it is, no doubt--in some +quiet hour when we are with Him by ourselves, than when swords are +flashing and we are in the presence of His antagonists? Do we not +know what it is to grasp conviction at one moment, and the next to +find it gone like a handful of mist from our clutch? Is our Christian +life always lived upon one high uniform level? Have we no experience +of hours of exhaustion coming after deep religious emotion? 'Let him +that is without sin among you cast the first stone'; there will not +be many stones flung if that law be applied. Let us all, recognising +our own weakness, trust to nothing, either in our convictions or our +emotions, but only to Him, and cry, 'Hold Thou me up, and I shall be +safe!' + +III. Lastly, note the lonely Christ and His companion. + +'Ye shall leave Me alone'; there is sadness, though it be calm, in +that clause, and then, I suppose, there was a moment's pause before +the quiet voice began again: 'And yet I am not alone, for the Father +is with Me.' There are two currents there, both calm; but the one +bright and the other dark. + +Jesus was the loneliest man that ever lived. All other forms of human +solitude were concentrated in His. He knew the pain of unappreciated +aims, unaccepted love, unbelieved teachings, a heart thrown back upon +itself. No man understood Him, no man knew Him, no man deeply and +thoroughly loved Him or sympathised with Him, and He dwelt apart. He +felt the pain of solitude more sharply than sinful men do. Perfect +purity is keenly susceptible; a heart fully charged with love is +wounded sore when the love is thrown back, and all the more sorely +the more unselfish it is. + +Solitude was no small part of the pain of Christ's passion. Remember +the pitiful appeal in Gethsemane, 'Tarry ye here and watch with Me!' +Remember the threefold vain return to the sleepers in the hope of +finding some sympathy from them. Remember the emphasis with which, +more than once in His life, He foretold the loneliness of His death. +And then let us understand how the bitterness of the cup that He +drank had for not the least bitter of its ingredients the sense that +He drank it alone. + +Now, dear friends! some of us, no doubt, have to live outwardly +solitary lives. We all of us live alone after all fellowship and +communion. Physicists tell us that in the most solid bodies the atoms +do not touch. Hearts come closer than atoms, but yet, after all, we +die alone, and in the depths of our souls we all live alone. So let +us be thankful that the Master knows the bitterness of solitude, and +has Himself trod that path. + +Then we have here the calm consciousness of unbroken communion. Jesus +Christ's sense of union with the Father was deep, close, constant, in +manner and measure altogether transcending any experience of ours. +But still He sets before us a pattern of what we should aim at in +these great words. They show the path of comfort for every lonely +heart. 'I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.' If earth be dark, +let us look to Heaven. If the world with its millions seems to have +no friend in it for us, let us turn to Him who never leaves us. If +dear ones are torn from our grasp, let us grasp God. Solitude is +bitter; but, like other bitters, it is a tonic. It is not all loss if +the trees which with their leafy beauty shut out the sky from us are +felled, and so we see the blue. + +Christ's company is to us what the Father's fellowship was to Christ. +He has borne solitude that He might be the companion of all the +lonely, and the same voice which said, 'Ye shall leave Me alone,' +said also, 'I am with you always, even to the end of the world.' + +But _that_ communion of Christ with the Father was broken, in that +awful hour when He cried: 'My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' We +tread there on the verge of mysteries, beyond our comprehension; but +this we know--that it was our sin and the world's, made His by His +willing identifying of Himself with us, which built up that black +wall of separation. That hour of utter desolation, forsaken by God, +deserted by men, was the hour of the world's redemption. And Jesus +Christ was forsaken by God and deserted by men, that you and I might +never be either the one or the other, but might find in His sweet and +constant companionship at once the society of man and the presence of +God. + + + +PEACE AND VICTORY + +'These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have +peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good +cheer; I have overcome the world.'--JOHN xvi. 33. + +So end these wonderful discourses, and so ends our Lord's teaching +before His passion. He gathers up in one mighty word the total +intention of these sweet and deep sayings which we have so long been +pondering together. He sketches in broad outline the continual +characteristics of the disciples' life, and closes all with the +strangest shout of victory, even at the moment when He seems most +utterly defeated. + +We shall, I think, best lay on our hearts and minds the spirit and +purpose of these words if we simply follow their course, and look at +the three things which Christ emphasises here: the inward peace which +is His purpose for us; the outward tribulation which is our certain +fate; and the courageous confidence which Christ's victory for us +gives. + +I. Note, then, first, the inward peace. + +'These things have I spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace.' +Peace is not lethargy; and it is very remarkable to notice how, in +immediate connection with this great promise, there occur words which +suggest its opposite--tribulation and battle. 'In the world ye have +tribulation.' 'I have overcome'--that means a fight. These are to go +side by side with the peace that He promises. The two conditions +belong to two different spheres. The Christian life bifurcates, as it +were, into a double root, and moves in two realms--'in Me' and 'in +the world' And the predicates and characteristics of these two lives +are, in a large measure, diametrically opposite. So here, without any +contradiction, our Lord brackets together these two opposite +conditions as both pertaining to the life of a devout soul. He +promises a peace which co-exists with tribulation and disturbance, a +peace which is realised in and through conflict and struggle. The +tree will stand, with its deep roots and its firm bole, unmoved, +though wildest winds may toss its branches and scatter its leaves. In +the fortress, beleaguered by the sternest foes, there may be, right +in the very centre of the citadel, a quiet oratory through whose +thick walls the noise of battle and the shout of victory or defeat +can never penetrate. So we may live in a centre of rest, however wild +may be the uproar in the circumference. 'In Me... peace,' that is the +innermost life. 'In the world... tribulation,' that is only the +surface. + +But, then, note that this peace, which exists with, and is realised +through, tribulation and strife, depends upon certain conditions. Our +Lord does not say, 'Ye have peace,' but 'These things I have spoken +that you _may_ have it.' It is a possibility; and He lays down +distinctly and plainly here the twofold set of conditions, in +fulfilment of which a Christian disciple may dwell secure and still, +in the midst of all confusion. Note, then, these two. + +It is peace, if we have it at all, _in Him_. Now you remember how +emphatically and loftily, as one of the very key-notes of these +discourses, our Lord has spoken to us, in them, of 'dwelling in Him' +as the prerogative and the duty of every Christian. We are in Him as +in an atmosphere. In Him our true lives are rooted as a tree in the +soil. We are in Him as a branch in the vine, in Him as the members in +a body, in Him as the residents in a house. We are in Him by simple +faith, by the trust that rests all upon Him, by the love that finds +all in Him, by the obedience that does all for Him. And it is only +when we are 'in Christ' that we rest, and realise peace. All else +brings distraction. Even delights trouble. The world may give +excitement, the world may give vulgar and fleeting joys, the world +may give stimulus to much that is good and true in us, but there is +only one thing that gives peace, and that is that our hearts should +dwell in the Fortress, and should ever be surrounded by Jesus Christ. +Brother! let nothing tempt us down from the heights, and out from the +citadel where alone we are at rest; but in the midst of all the +pressing duties, the absorbing cares, the carking anxieties, the +seducing temptations of the world, and in the presence of all the +necessity for noble conflict which the world brings to every man that +is not its slave, let us try to keep the roots of our lives in +contact with that soil from which they draw all their nourishment, +and to wrap ourselves round with the life of Jesus Christ, which +shall make an impenetrable shield between us and 'the fiery darts of +the wicked.' Keep on the lee side of the breakwater and your little +cock-boat will ride out the gale. Keep Christ between you and the +hurtling storm, and there will be a quiet place below the wall where +you may rest, hearing not the loud winds when they call. 'These +things have I spoken that in Me ye might have peace.' + +But there is another condition. Christ speaks the great words which +have been occupying us so long, that they may bring to us peace. I +need not do more than remind you, in a sentence, of the contents of +these wonderful discourses. Think of how they have spoken to us of +our Brother's ascension to Heaven to prepare a place for us; of His +coming again to receive us to Himself; of His presence with us in His +absence; of His indwelling in us and ours in Him; of His gift to us +of a divine Spirit. If we believed all these things; if we realised +them and lived in the faith of them; if we meditated upon them in the +midst of our daily duties; and if they were real to us, and not mere +words written down in a Book, how should anything be able to disturb +us, or to shake our settled confidence? Cleave to the words of the +Master, and let them pour into your hearts the quietness and +confidence which nothing else can give. And then, whatsoever storms +may be around, the heart will be at rest. We find peace nowhere else +but where Mary found her repose, and could shake off care and +'trouble about many things,' sitting at the feet of Jesus, wrapt in +His love and listening to His word. + +II. Then note, secondly, the outward tribulation which is the certain +fate of His followers. + +Of course there is a very sad and true sense in which the warning, +'In the world ye shall have tribulation,' applies to all men. Pain +and sickness, loss and death, the monotony of hard, continuous, +unwelcome toil, hopes blighted or disappointed even in their +fruition, and all the other 'ills that flesh is heir to,' afflict us +all. But our Lord is not speaking here about the troubles that befall +men as men, nor about the chastisement that befalls them as sinners, +nor about the evils which dog them because they are mortal or because +they are bad, but of the yet more mysterious sorrows which fall upon +them because they are good, 'In the world ye have tribulation,' is +the proper rendering and reading. It had already begun, and it was to +be the standing condition and certain fate of all that followed Him. + +I have already said that the Christian life moves in two spheres, and +hence there must necessarily be antagonism and conflict. Whoever +realises the inward life in Christ will more or less, and sooner or +later, find himself coming into hostile collision with lives which +only move on the surface and belong to the world. If you and I are +Christians after the pattern of Jesus Christ, then we dwell in the +midst of an order of things which is not constituted on or for the +principles that regulate our lives and the objects at which we aim. +And hence, in that fundamental discordance between the Christian life +and society as it is constituted, there must always be, if there be +honesty and consistency on the side of the Christian man, more or +less of collision between him and it. All that you regard as +axiomatic the world regards as folly, if you take Christ for your +Teacher. All that you labour to secure the world does not care to +possess, if you have Him for your aim. All that you live to seek it +has abandoned; all that you desire to obey it will not even consult, +if you are taking Christ and His law for your rule. And therefore +there must come, sooner or later, and more or less intensely in all +Christian lives, opposition and tribulation. You cannot get away from +the necessity, so it is as well to face it. + +No doubt the form of antagonism varies. No doubt the more the world +is penetrated by Christian principles divorced from their root and +source, the less vehement and painful will the collision be. But +_there_ is the gulf, and there it will remain, until the world is a +Church. No doubt some portion of the battlements of organised +Christianity has tumbled into the ditch, and made it a little less +deep. Christians have dropped their standard far too much, and so the +antagonism is not so plain as it ought to be, and as it used to be, +and as, some day, it will be. But there it is, and if you are going +to live out and out like a Christian man, you will get the old sneers +flung at you. You will be 'crotchety,' 'impracticable,' 'spoiling +sport,' 'not to be dealt with,' 'a wet blanket,' 'pharisaical,' +'bigoted,' and all the rest of the pretty words which have been so +frequently used about the men that try to live like Jesus Christ. +Never mind! 'In the world ye have tribulation.' 'I bear in my body +the marks of the Lord Jesus,' the branding-iron which tells to whom +the slave belongs. And if it is His initials that I carry I may be +proud of the marks. + +But at any rate there will be antagonism. You young men in your +warehouses, you men that go on 'Change', we people that live by our +pens or our tongues, and find ourselves in opposition to much of the +tendencies of the present day--we have all, in our several ways, to +bear the cross. Do not let us be ashamed of it, and, above all, do +not let us, for the sake of easing our shoulders, be unfaithful to +our Master. 'In the world ye have tribulation'; and the Christian +man's peace has to be like the rainbow that lives above the cataract +--still and radiant, whilst it shines above the hell of white waters +that are tortured below. + +III. Lastly, notice the courageous confidence which comes from the +Lord's victory. + +'Be of good cheer!' It is the old commandment that rang out to Joshua +when, on the departure of Moses, the conduct of the war fell into his +less experienced hands: 'Be strong, and of a good courage; only be +thou strong and very courageous.' So says the Captain of salvation, +leaving His soldiers to face the current of the heady fight in the +field. Like some leader who has climbed the ramparts, or hewed his +way through the broken ranks of the enemies, and rings out the voice +of encouragement and call to his followers, our Captain sets before +us His own example: 'I have overcome the world,' He said that the day +before Calvary. If that was victory, what would defeat have been? + +Notice, then, how our Lord's life was a true battle. The world tried +to draw Him away from God by appealing to things desirable to sense, +as in the wilderness; or to things dreadful to sense, as on the +cross; and both the one and the other form of temptation He faced and +conquered. It was no shadow fight which evoked this paean of victory +from His lips. The reality of His conflict is somewhat concealed from +us by reason of its calm and the completeness of His conquest. We do +not appreciate the force that drives a planet upon its path because +it is calm and continuous and silent, but the power that kept Jesus +Christ continually faithful to His Father, continually sure of that +Father's presence, continually averse to all self-will and selfish +living, was a power mightier then all others that have been +manifested in the history of humanity. The Captain of our salvation +has really fought the fight before us. + +But mark, again, that our Lord's life is the type of all victorious +life. The world conquers me when it draws me away from God, when it +makes me its slave, when it coaxes me to trust it, and urges to +despair if I lose it. The world conquers me when it comes between me +and God, when it fills my desires, when it absorbs my energies, when +it blinds my eyes to the things unseen and eternal. I conquer the +world when I put my foot upon its temptations, when I crush it down, +when I shake off its bonds, and when nothing that time and sense, +with their delights or their dreadfulnesses, can bring, prevents me +from cleaving to my Father with all my heart, and from living as His +child here. Whoso thus coerces Time and Sense to be the servants of +his filial love has conquered them both, and whoso lets them draw him +away from God is beaten, however successful he may dream himself to +be and men may call him. + +My friends! there is a lesson for Manchester people. Jesus Christ was +not a very successful man according to the standard of Market Street +and the Exchange. He made but a poor thing of the world, and He was +going to be martyred on the cross the day after He said these words. +And yet that was victory. Ay! Many a man beaten down in the struggle +of daily life, and making very little of it, according to our vulgar +estimate, is the true conqueror. Success means making the world a +stepping-stone to God. + +Still further, note our share in the Master's victory--'_I_ have +overcome the world. Be _ye_ of good cheer.' That seems an irrelevant +way of arguing. What does it matter to me though He has overcome? So +much the better for Him; but what good is it to me? + +It may aid us somewhat to more strenuous fighting, if we know that a +brother has fought and conquered, and I do not under-estimate the +blessing and the benefit of the life of Jesus Christ, as recorded in +these Scriptures, even from that, as I conceive it, miserably +inadequate and imperfect point of view. But the victory of Jesus +Christ is of extremely little practical use to me, if all the use of +it is to show me how to fight. Ah! you must go a deal deeper than +that. 'I have overcome the world, and I will come and put My +overcoming Spirit into your weakness, and fill you with My own +victorious life, and make your hands strong to war and your fingers +to fight; and be in you the conquering and omnipotent Power.' + +My friends! Jesus Christ's victory is ours, and we are victors in it, +because He is more than the pattern of brave warfare, He is even the +Son of God, who gave Himself for us, and gives Himself to us, and +dwells in us our Strength and our Righteousness. + +Lastly, remember that the condition of that victory's being ours is +the simple act of reliance upon Him and upon it. The man who goes +into the battle as that little army of the Hebrews did against the +wide-stretching hosts of the enemy, saying, 'O Lord! we know not what +to do, but our eyes are up unto Thee,' will come out 'more than +conqueror through Him that loved him.' For 'this is the victory that +overcometh the world, even our faith.' + + + +THE INTERCESSOR + +'These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and +said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son +also may glorify Thee: As Thou hast given Him power over all +flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast +given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee +the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have +glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou +gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine +own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world +was. I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me +out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and +they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things +whatsoever Thou hast given Me, are of Thee. For I have given unto +them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them, +and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have +believed that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them: I pray not for +the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are +Thine. And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am +glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these +are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through +Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be +one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them +in Thy name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of +them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might +be fulfilled. And now come I to Thee; and these things I speak in +the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I +have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because +they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray +not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou +shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, +even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth: +Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so +have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I +sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the +truth.'--JOHN xvii. 1-19. + +We may well despair of doing justice to the deep thoughts of this +prayer, which volumes would not exhaust. Who is worthy to speak or to +write about such sacred words? Perhaps we may best gain some glimpses +of their great and holy sublimity by trying to gather their teaching +round the centres of the three petitions, 'glorify' (vs. 1, 5), +'keep' (v. 11), and 'sanctify' (v. 17). + +I. In verses 1-5, Jesus prays for Himself, that He may be restored to +His pre-incarnate glory; but yet the prayer desires not so much that +glory as affecting Himself, as His being fitted thereby for +completing His work of manifesting the Father. There are three main +points in these verses-the petition, its purpose, and its grounds. + +As to the first, the repetition of the request in verses 1 and 5 is +significant, especially if we note that in the former the language is +impersonal, 'Thy Son,' and continues so till verse 4, where 'I' and +'Me' appear. In verses 1-3, then, the prayer rests upon the ideal +relations of Father and Son, realised in Jesus, while in verses 4 and +5 the personal element is emphatically presented. The two petitions +are in their scope identical. The 'glorifying' in the former is more +fully explained in the latter as being that which He possessed in +that ineffable fellowship with the Father, not merely before +incarnation, but before creation. In His manhood He possessed and +manifested the 'glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of +grace and truth'; but that glory, lustrous though it was, was pale, +and humiliation compared with the light inaccessible, which shone +around the Eternal Word in the bosom of the Father. Yet He who prayed +was the same Person who had walked in that light before time was, and +now in human flesh asked for what no mere manhood could bear. The +first form of the petition implies that such a partaking in the +uncreated glory of the Father is the natural prerogative of One who +is 'the Son,' while the second implies that it is the appropriate +recompense of the earthly life and character of the man Jesus. + +The petition not only reveals the conscious divinity of the Son, but +also His willing acceptance of the Cross; for the glorifying sought +is that reached through death, resurrection, and ascension, and that +introductory clause, 'the hour is come,' points to the impending +sufferings as the first step in the answer to the petition. The +Crucifixion is always thus treated in this Gospel, as being both the +lowest humiliation and the 'lifting up' of the Son; and here He is +reaching out His hand, as it were, to draw His sufferings nearer. So +willingly and desiringly did this Isaac climb the mount of sacrifice. +Both elements of the great saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews are +here: 'For the joy that was set before Him, [He] endured the Cross.' + +The purpose of the petition is to be noted; namely, the Son's +glorifying of the Father. No taint of selfishness corrupted His +prayer. Not for Himself, but for men, did He desire His glory. He +sought return to that serene and lofty seat, and the elevation of His +limited manhood to the throne, not because He was wearied of earth or +impatient of weakness, sorrows, or limitations, but that He might +more fully manifest by that Glory, the Father's name. To make the +Father known is to make the Father glorious; for He is all fair and +lovely. That revelation of divine perfection, majesty, and sweetness +was the end of Christ's earthly life, and is the end of His heavenly +divine activity. He needs to reassume the prerogatives of which He +needed to divest Himself, and both necessities have one end. He had +to lay aside His garments and assume the form of a servant, that He +might make God known; but, that revelation being complete, He must +take His garments and sit down again, before He can go on to tell all +the meaning of what He has 'done unto us.' + +The ground of the petition is twofold. Verses 2 and 3 represent the +glory sought for, as the completion of the Son's mission and task. +Already He had been endowed with 'authority over all flesh,' for the +purpose of bestowing eternal life; and that eternal life stands in +the knowledge of God, which is the same as the knowledge of Christ. +The present gift to the Son and its purpose are thus precisely +parallel with the further gift desired, and that is the necessary +carrying out of this. The authority and office of the incarnate +Christ demand the glory of, and consequent further manifestation by, +the glorified Christ. The life which He comes to give is a life which +flows from the revelation that He makes of the Father, received, not +as mere intellectual knowledge, but as loving acquaintance. + +The second ground for the petition is in verse 4, the actual perfect +fulfilment by the Son of that mission. What untroubled consciousness +of sinless obedience and transparent shining through His life of the +Father's likeness and will He must have had, who could thus assert +His complete realisation of that Father's revealing purpose, as the +ground of His deserving and desiring participation in the divine +glory! Surely such words are either the acme of self-righteousness or +the self-revealing speech of the Son of God. + +II. With verse 6 we pass to the more immediate reference to the +disciples, and the context from thence to verse 15 may be regarded as +all clustered round the second petition 'keep' (v. 11). That central +request is preceded and followed by considerations of the disciples' +relation to Christ and to the world, which may be regarded as its +grounds. The whole context preceding the petition may be summed up in +two grounds for the prayer--the former set forth at length, and the +latter summarily; the one being the genuine, though incomplete +discipleship of the men for whom Christ prays (vs. 6-10), and the +latter their desolate condition without Jesus (v. 11). + +It is beautiful to see how our Lord here credits the disciples with +genuine grasp, both in heart and head, of His teaching. He had +shortly before had to say, 'Have I been so long time with you, and +yet hast thou not known Me?' and soon 'they all forsook Him and +fled.' But beneath misconception and inadequate apprehension there +lived faith and love; and He saw 'the full corn in the ear,' when +only the green 'blade' was visible, pushing itself above the surface. +We may take comfort from this generous estimate of imperfect +disciples. If He did not tend, instead of quenching, 'dimly burning +wicks,' where would He have 'lights in the world?' + +Verse 6 lays down the beginning of discipleship as threefold: +Christ's act in revealing; the Father's, in giving men to Jesus; and +men's, in keeping the Father's word. 'Thy word' is the whole +revelation by Christ, which is, as this Gospel so often repeats, not +His own, but the Father's. These three facts underlying discipleship +are pleas for the petition to follow; for unless the feeble disciples +are 'kept' in the name, as in a fortress, Christ's work of revelation +is neutralised, the Father's gift to Him made of none effect, and the +incipient disciples will not 'keep' His word. The plea is, in effect, +'Forsake not the works of thine own hands'; and, like all Christ's +prayers, it has a promise in its depths, since God does not begin +what He will not finish; and it has a warning, too, that we cannot +keep ourselves unless a stronger Hand keeps us. + +Verses 7 and 8 carry on the portraiture of discipleship, and thence +draw fresh pleas. The blessed result of accepting Christ's revelation +is a knowledge, built on happy experience, and, like the acquaintance +of heart with heart, issuing in the firm conviction that Christ's +words and deeds are from God. Why does He say, 'All things whatsoever +Thou hast given,' instead of simply 'that I have' or 'declare'? +Probably it is the natural expression of His consciousness, the lowly +utterance of His obedience, claiming nothing as His own, and yet +claiming all, while the subsequent clause 'are of Thee' expresses the +disciples' conviction. In like fashion our Lord, in verse 8, declares +that His words, in their manifoldness (contrast v. 6, 'Thy word'), +were all received by Him from the Father, and accepted by the +disciples, with the result that they came, as before, to 'know' by +inward acquaintance with Him as a person, and so to have the divinity +of His Person certified by experience, and further came to 'believe' +that God had sent Him, which was a conviction arrived at by faith. So +knowledge, which is personal experience and acquaintance, and faith, +which rises to the heights of the Father's purpose, come from the +humble acceptance of the Christ declaring the Father's name. First +faith, then knowledge, and then a fuller faith built on it, and that +faith in its turn passing into knowledge (v. 25)--these are the +blessings belonging to the growth of true discipleship, and are +discerned by the loving eye of Jesus in very imperfect followers. + +In verse 9 Jesus assumes the great office of Intercessor. 'I pray for +them' is not so much prayer as His solemn presentation of Himself +before the Father as the High-priest of His people. It marks an epoch +in His work. The task of bringing God to man is substantially +complete. That of bringing men by supplication to God is now to +begin. It is the revelation of the permanent office of the departed +Lord. Moses on the Mount holds up the rod, and Israel prevails (Exod. +xvii. 9). The limitation of this prayer to the disciples applies only +to the special occasion, and has no bearing on the sweep of His +redeeming purpose or the desires of His all-pitying heart. The +reasons for His intercession follow in verses 9-11a. The disciples +are the Father's, and continue so even when 'given' to Christ, in +accordance with the community of possession, which oneness of nature +and perfectness of love establish between the Father and the Son. God +cannot but care for those who are His. The Son cannot but pray for +those who are His. Their having recognised Him for what He was binds +Him to pray for them. He is glorified in disciples, and if we show +forth His character, He will be our Advocate. The last reason for His +prayer is the loneliness of the disciples and their exposure in the +world without Him. His departure impelled Him to Intercede, both as +being a leaving them defenceless and as being an entrance into the +heavenly state of communion with the Father. + +In the petition itself (v. 11b), observe the invocation 'Holy +Father!' with special reference to the prayer for preservation from +the corruption of the world. God's holiness is the pledge that He +will make us holy, since He is 'Father' as well. Observe the +substance of the request, that the disciples should be kept, as in a +fortress, within the enclosing circle of the name which God has given +to Jesus. The name is the manifestation of the divine nature. It was +given to Jesus, inasmuch as He, 'the Word,' had from the beginning +the office of revealing God; and that which was spoken of the Angel +of the Covenant is true in highest reality of Jesus: 'My name is in +Him.' 'The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth +into it and is safe.' + +Observe the issue of this keeping; namely, the unity of believers. +The depths of that saying are beyond us, but we can at least see thus +far--that the true bond of unity is the name in which all who are one +are kept; that the pattern of the true unity of believers is the +ineffable union of Father and Son, which is oneness of will and +nature, along with distinctness of persons; and that therefore this +purpose goes far deeper than outward unity of organisation. + +Then follow other pleas, which are principally drawn from Christ's +relation to the disciples, now ending; whereas the former ones were +chiefly deduced from the disciples' relation to Him. He can no more +do what He has done, and commits it to the Father. Happy we if we can +leave our unfinished tasks to be taken up by God, and trust those +whom we leave undefended to be shielded by Him! 'I kept' is, in the +Greek, expressive of continuous, repeated action, while 'I guarded' +gives the single issue of the many acts of keeping. Jesus keeps His +disciples now as He did then, by sedulous, patient, reiterated acts, +so that they are safe from evil. But note where He kept them--'in Thy +name.' That is our place of safety, a sure defence and inexpugnable +fortress. One, indeed, was lost; but that was not any slur on +Christ's keeping, but resulted from his own evil nature, as being 'a +son of loss' (if we may so preserve the affinity of the words in the +Greek), and from the divine decree from of old. Sharply defined and +closely united are the two apparent contradictories of man's free +choice of destruction and God's foreknowledge. Christ saw them in +harmony, and we shall do so one day. + +Then the flow of the prayer recurs to former thoughts. Going away so +soon, He yearned to leave them sharers of His own emotions in the +prospect of His departure to the Father, and therefore He had +admitted them (and us) to hear this sacred outpouring of His desires. +If we laid to heart the blessed revelations of this disclosure of +Christ's heart, and followed Him with faithful gaze as He ascends to +the Father, and realised our share in that triumph, our empty vessels +would be filled by some of that same joy which was His. Earthly joy +can never be full; Christian joy should never be anything less than +full. + +Then follows a final glance at the disciples' relation to the world, +to which they are alien because they are of kindred to Him. This is +the ground for the repetition of the prayer 'keep', with the +difference that formerly it was 'keep _in_ Thy name,' and now it is +'_from_ the evil.' It is good to gaze first on our defence, the +'munitions of rocks' where we lie safely, and then we can venture to +face the thought of 'the evil,' from which that keeps us, whether it +be personal or abstract. + +III. Verses 16-19 give the final petition for the immediate circle of +disciples, with its grounds. The position of alienation from the +world, in which the disciples stand by reason of their assimilation +to Jesus, is repeated here. It was the reason for the former prayer, +'keep'; it is the reason for the new petition, 'sanctify.' Keeping +comes first, and then sanctifying, or consecration. Security from +evil is given that we may be wholly devoted to the service of God. +The evil in the world is the great hindrance to that. The likeness to +Jesus is the great ground of hope that we shall be truly consecrated. +We are kept 'in the name'; we are consecrated 'in the truth,' which +is the revelation made by Jesus, and in a very deep sense is Himself. +That truth is, as it were, the element in which the believer lives, +and by abiding in which his real consecration is possible. + +Christ's prayer for us should be our aim and deepest desire for +ourselves, and His declaration of the condition of its fulfilment +should prescribe our firm adhesion to, and constant abiding in, the +truth as revealed and embodied in Him, as the only means by which we +can attain the consecration which is at once, as the closing verses +of the passage tell us, the means by which we may fulfil the purpose +for which we are sent into the world, and the path on which we reach +complete assimilation to His perfect self-surrender. All Christians +are sent into the world by Jesus, as Jesus was sent by the Father. We +have the charge to glorify Him. We have the presence of the Sender +with us, the sent. We are inspired with His Spirit. We cannot do His +work without that entire consecration which shall copy His devotion +to the Father and eager swiftness to do His will. How can such +ennobling and exalted consecration be ours? There is but one way. He +has 'consecrated Himself,' and by union with Him through faith, our +selfishness may be subdued, and the Spirit of Christ may dwell in our +hearts, to make us 'living sacrifices, consecrated and acceptable to +God.' Then shall we be truly 'consecrated,' and then only, when we +can say, 'I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' That is the +end of Christ's consecration of Himself--the prayer which He prayed +for His disciples--and should be the aim which every disciple +earnestly pursues. + + + + +'THE LORD THEE KEEPS' + +'...They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I +pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that +Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the +world, even as I am not of the world.'--JOHN xvii. 14-16. + +We have here a petition imbedded in a reiterated statement of the +disciples' isolated position when left in a hostile world without +Christ's sheltering presence. We cannot fathom the depth of the +mystery of the _praying_ Christ, but we may be sure of this, that His +prayers were always in harmony with the Father's will, were, in fact, +the expression of that will, and were therefore promises and +prophecies. What He prays the Father for His disciples He gives to +His disciples. Once only had He to say, 'If it be possible'; at all +other times He prayed as sure that 'Thou hearest Me always,' and in +this very prayer He speaks in a tone of strange authority, when He +prays for all believers in future ages, and says: 'I will that, where +I am, they also may be with Me.' In this High-priestly prayer, +offered when Gethsemane was almost in sight, and the Judgment Hall +and Calvary were near, our Lord's tender interest in His disciples +fills His mind, and even in its earlier portion, which is in form a +series of petitions for Himself, it is in essence a prayer for them, +whilst this central section which concerns the Apostles, and the +closing section which casts the mantle of His love and care over all +who hereafter shall 'believe on Me through their word,' witnesses to +the sublime completeness of His self-oblivion. Gethsemane heard His +prayer for Himself; here He prays for His people, and the calm +serenity and confident assurance of this prayer, set against the +agitation of that other, receives and gives emphasis by the contrast. + +Our text falls into two parts, the enclosing circle of the repeated +statement of the disciples' isolation in an alien world, and the +enclosed jewel of the all-sufficient prayer which guarantees their +protection. We shall best make its comfort and cheer our own by +dealing with these two successively. + +I. The disciples' isolation. + +Of course we are to interpret the 'world' here in accordance with the +ethical usage of that term in this Gospel, according to which it +means the aggregate of mankind considered as apart from and alien to +God. It is roughly equivalent to the modern phrase, 'society.' + +With that order of things Christ's real followers are not in accord. + +That want of accord depends upon their accord with Jesus. + +Every Christian has the 'mind of Christ' in him, in the measure of +his Christianity. 'It is enough for the disciple that he be as his +Master' But Christian discipleship has a better guarantee for the +assimilation of the disciple to his Lord than the ordinary forms of +the relation of teacher and taught ever present. There is a +participation in the Master's life, an implantation in the scholar's +spirit of the Teacher's Spirit. 'Christ in us' is not only 'the hope +of glory,' but the power which makes possible and actual the present +possession of a life kindred with, because derived from, and +essentially one with, His life. + +They whose spirits are touched by the indwelling Christ to the 'fine +issues' of sympathy with the law of His earthly life cannot but live +in the world as aliens, and wander amid its pitfalls with 'blank +misgivings' and a chill sense that this is not their rest. They are +knit to One whose 'meat and drink' was to do the will of the Father +in heaven, who 'pleased not Himself,' whose life was all one long +service and sacrifice for men, whose joys were not fed by earthly +possessions or delights. How should they have a sense of community of +aims with grovelling hearts that cling to wealth or ambition, that +are not at peace with God, and have no holdfasts beyond this 'bank +and shoal of time'? A man who has drunk into the spirit of Christ's +life is thereby necessarily thrown out of gear with the world. + +Happy is he if his union with Jesus is so deep and close that it is +but deepened by his experience of the lack of sympathy between the +world and himself! Happy if his consciousness of not being 'of the +world' but quickens his desire to help the world and glorify his +Lord, by bringing His all-sufficiency into its emptiness, and leading +it, too, to discern His sweetness and beauty! + +But how little the life of the average Christian corresponds to this +reiterated utterance of our Lord! Who of us dare venture to take it +on our lips and to say that we are 'not of the world even as He is +not of the world'? Is not our relation to that world of which Jesus +here speaks a contrast rather than a parallel to His? The 'prince of +this world' had nothing in Christ, as He himself declared, but He has +much in each of us. There are stored up heaps of combustibles in +every one of us which catch fire only too swiftly, and burn but too +fiercely, when the 'fiery darts of the wicked' fall among them. +Instead of an instinctive recoil from the view of life characteristic +of 'the world,' we must confess, if we are honest, that it draws us +strongly, and many of us are quite at home with it. Why is this but +because we do not habitually live near enough to our Lord to drink in +His Spirit? The measure of our discord with the world is the measure +of our accord with our Saviour. It is in the degree in which we +possess His life that we come to be aliens here, and it is in the +degree in which we keep in touch with Jesus, and keep our hearts wide +open for the entrance of His Spirit, that we possess His life. A +worldly Christian--no uncommon character--is a Christian who has all +but shut himself off from the life which Christ breathes into the +expectant soul. + +II. The disciples' guarded security. + +Jesus encloses His prayer between the two parts of that repeated +statement of the disciples' isolation. It is like some lovely, +peaceful plain circled by grim mountains. The isolation is a +necessary consequence of the disciples' previous union with Him. It +involves much that is painful to the unrenewed part of their natures, +but their Lord's prayer is more than enough for their security and +peace. + +'I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.' They are +in it by God's appointment for great purposes, affecting their own +characters and affecting the world, with which Christ will not +interfere. It is their training ground, their school. The sense of +belonging to another order is to be intensified by their experiences +in it, and these are to make more vivid the hopes that yearn towards +the true home, and to develop the 'wrestling thews that throw the +world.' The discipline of life is too precious to be tampered with +even by a Saviour's prayer, and He loves His people too wisely to +seek to shelter them from its roughness, and to procure for them +exemption which would impoverish their characters. + +So let us learn the lesson and shape our desires after the pattern of +our Lord's prayer for us, nor blindly seek for that ease which He +would not ask for us. False asceticism that shrinks from contact with +an alien world, weak running from trials and temptations, selfish +desires for exemption from sorrows, are all rebuked by this prayer. +Christ's relation to the world is our pattern, and we are not to seek +for pillows in an order of things where He 'had not where to lay His +head.' + +But He does ask for His people that they may be kept 'from evil,' or +from 'the evil One.' That prayer is, as we have said, a promise and a +prophecy. But the fulfilment of it in each individual disciple hinges +on the disciple's keeping himself in touch with Jesus, whereby the +'much virtue' of His prayer will encompass him and keep him safe. We +do not discuss the alternative renderings, according to one of which +'the evil' is impersonal, and according to the other of which it is +concentrated in the personal 'prince of this world.' In either case, +it is 'the evil' against which the disciples are to be guarded, +whether it has a personal source or not. + +Here, in Christ's intercession, is the firm ground of our confidence +that we may be 'more than conquerors' in the life-long fight which we +have to wage. The sweet strong old psalm is valid in its assurances +to-day for every soul which puts itself under the shadow of Christ's +protecting intercession: 'The Lord shall keep thee from all evil, He +shall keep thy soul.' We have not 'to lift up our eyes unto the +hills,' for 'vainly is help hoped for from the multitude of the +mountains,' but 'Our help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and +earth.' Therefore we may dwell at peace in the midst of an alien +world, having the Father for our Keeper, and the Son, who overcame +the world, for our Intercessor, our Pattern and our Hope. + +The parallel between Christ and His people applies to their relations +to the present order of things: 'They are not of the world, even as I +am not of the world.' It applies to their mission here: 'As Thou +didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.' It +applies to the future: 'I am no more in the world, but these are in +the world, and I come to Thee,' and in that 'coming' lies the +guarantee that His servants will, each in his due time, come out from +this alien world and pass into the state which is home, because He is +there. The prayer that they might be kept from the evil, while +remaining in the scene where evil is rampant, is crowned by the +prayer: 'I will that, where I am, they also may be with Me, that they +may behold My glory.' + + + +THE HIGH PRIEST'S PRAYER + +'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall +believe on Me through their word; That they all may be one; as +Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one +in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the +glory which Thou givest Me I have given them; that they may be +one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may +be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou +hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. Father, +I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where +I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: +for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. O +righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known +Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have +declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it; that the love +wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.' +--JOHN xvii. 20-26. + +The remainder of this prayer reaches out to all generations of +believers to the end. We may incidentally note that it shows that +Jesus did not anticipate a speedy end of the history of the world or +the Church; and also that it breathes but one desire, that for the +Church's unity, as though He saw what would be its greatest peril. +Characteristic, too, of the idealism of this Gospel is it that there +is no name for that future community. It is not called 'church,' or +'congregation,' or the like--it is 'them also that believe on Me +through their word,' a great spiritual community, held together by +common faith in Him whom the Apostles preached. Is not that still the +best definition of Christians, and does not such a conception of it +correspond better to its true nature than the formal abstraction, +'the Church'? + +We can but touch in the most inadequate fashion the profound words of +this section of the prayer which would take volumes to expound fitly. +We note that it contains four periods, in each of which something is +asked or stated, and then a purpose to be attained by the petition or +statement is set forth. + +First comes the prayer for unity and what the answer to it will +effect (v. 21). Now in this verse the unity of believers is +principally regarded as resulting from the inclusion, if we may so +say, of them all in the ineffable union of the Father and the Son. +Jesus prays that 'they may all be one,' and also 'that they also may +be in us' (Rev. Ver.). And their unity is no mere matter of formal +external organisation nor of unanimity of creed, or the like, but it +is a deep, vital unity. The pattern of it is the unity of the Father +and the Son, and the power that brings it about is the abiding of all +believers 'in us.' The result of such a manifestation in the world of +a multitude of men, in all of whom one life evidently moves, fusing +their individualities while retaining their personalities, will be +the world's conviction of the divine mission of Jesus. The world was +beginning to feel its convictions moving slowly in that direction, +when it exclaimed: 'Behold how these Christians love one another!' +The alienation of Christians has given barbs and feathers to its +arrows of scorn. But it is 'the unity of the Spirit,' not that of a, +great corporation, that Christ's prayer desires. + +The petitions for what would be given to believers passes for a +moment into a statement of what Jesus had already given to them. He +had begun the unifying gift, and that made a plea for its perfecting. +The 'glory' which He had given to these poor bewildered Galilaeans +was but in a rudimentary stage; but still, wherever there is faith in +Him, there is some communication of His life and Spirit, and some of +that veiled and yet radiant glory, 'full of grace and truth,' which +shone through the covering when the Incarnate Word 'became flesh.' It +is the Christ-given Christ-likeness in each which knits believers +into one. It is Christ in us and we in Christ that fuses us into one, +and thereby makes each perfect. And such flashing back of the light +of Jesus from a million separate crystals, all glowing with one light +and made one in the light, would flash on darkest eyes the lustre of +the conviction that God sent Christ, and that God's love enfolded +those Christlike souls even as it enfolded Him. + +Again (v. 24) comes a petition with its result. And here there is no +mention of the effect of the answer on the world. For the moment the +thoughts of isolation in, and a message to, the world fade away. The +partially-possessed 'glory' seems to have led on Christ's thoughts to +the calm home of perfection waiting for Him who was 'not of the +world' and was sent into it, and for the humble ones who had taken +Him for Lord. 'I will that'--that is a strange tone for a prayer. +What consciousness on Christ's part does it involve? The disciples +are not now called 'them that should believe on Me,' but 'that which +Thou hast given Me,' the individuals melt into the great whole. They +are Christ's, not merely by their faith or man's preaching, but by +the Father's gift. And the fact of that gift is used as a plea with +Him, to 'perfect that which concerneth' them, and to complete the +unity of believers with Jesus by bringing them to be 'with Him' in +His triumphant session at the right hand. To 'behold' will be the +same as to share His glory, not only that which we beheld when He +tabernacled among us, but that which He had in the pouring out on Him +of God's love 'before the foundation of the world.' Our dim eyes +cannot follow the happy souls as they are lost in the blaze, but we +know that they walk in light and are like Him, for they 'see Him as +He is.' + +The last statement (vs. 25, 26) is not petition but vow, and, to our +ears, promise. The contrast of the world and believers appears for +the last time. What made the world a 'world' was its not knowing God; +what made believers isolated in, and having an errand to, the world, +was that they 'knew' (not merely 'believed,' but knew by experience) +that Jesus had been sent from God to make known His name. All our +knowledge of God comes through Him; it is for us to recognise His +divine mission, and then He will unveil, more and more, with blessed +continuity of increasing knowledge, the Name, and with growing +knowledge of it growing measures of God's love will be in us, and +Jesus Himself will 'dwell in our hearts by faith' more completely and +more blessedly through an eternity of wider knowledge and more +fervent love. + + + +THE FOLDED FLOCK + +'I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where +I am; that they may behold My glory.'--JOHN xvii. 24. + +This wonderful prayer is (_a_) for Jesus Himself, (_b_) for the +Apostles, (_c_) for the whole Church on earth and in heaven. + +I. The prayer. + +'I will' has a strange ring of authority. It is the expression of His +love to men, and of His longing for their presence with Him in His +glory. Not till they are with Him there, shall He 'see of the travail +of His soul and be satisfied.' + +We have here a glimpse of the blessed state of the dead in Christ. + +(_a_) Local presence with Christ. His glorified body is somewhere. +The value of this thought is that it gives solidity to our ideas of a +future life. There they _are_. We need not dwell on the metaphysical +difficulties about locality for disembodied spirits. + +If a spirit can be localised in a body, I suppose it can be localised +without a body; but passing by all that, we have the hope held out +here of a real local presence with the glorified humanity of our +Lord. We speak of the dead as gone _from us_, and we have that idea +far more vividly in our minds than that of their having gone _to +Him_. We speak of the 'departed,' but we do not think of them as +'arrived.' We look down to the narrow grave, but we forget 'He is not +here, He is risen. Why seek ye the living among the dead?' Ah! if we +could only bring home to our hearts the solid prose of the conviction +that where Christ is there His servants are, and that not in the +diffused ubiquity of His Divine Omnipresence, it would go far to +remove the darkness and vague mist which wrap the future, and to set +it as it really is before us, as a solid definite reality. We see the +sails glide away out into the west as the sun goes down, and we think +of them as tossing on a midnight sea, an unfathomable waste. Try to +think of them more truly. As in that old miracle, He comes to them +walking on the water in the night watch, and if at first they are +terrified, His voice brings back hope to the heart that is beginning +to stand still, and immediately they are at the land whither they go. +Now, as they sink from our sight, they are in port, sails furled and +anchor dropped, and green fields round them, even while we watch the +sinking masts, and cannot yet rightly tell whether the fading sail +has faded wholly. + +(_b_) Communion with Christ. + +Our Lord says not only 'that where I am, they also may be,' but adds +'with Me.' That is not a superfluous addition, but emphasises the +thought of a communion which is more intimate and blessed than local +presence alone would be. + +The communion here is real but imperfect. It is perfected there on +our part by the dropping away of flesh and sin, by change of +circumstances, by emancipation from cares and toils necessary here, +by the development of new powers and surroundings, and on His side by +new manifestations. + +(_c_) Vision of His glory. + +The crown of this utterance of Christ's will is 'that they may behold +My glory.' In an earlier part of this prayer our Lord had spoken of +the 'glory which I had with Thee before the world was.' But probably +the glory 'given' is not that of essential Divinity, but that of His +mediatorial work. To His people 'with Him where He is,' are imparted +fuller views of Christ as Saviour, deeper notions of His work, +clearer perception of His rule in providence and nature. This is the +loftiest employment of the spirits who are perfected and lapped in +'pleasures for evermore' by their union with the glorified Jesus. + +Surely this is grander than all metaphorical pictures of heaven. + +II. The incipient fulfilment now going on. + +The prayer has been in process of fulfilment ever since. The dead in +Christ have entered on its answer now. + +We need not discuss difficulties about the 'intermediate state,' for +this at all events is true, that to be 'absent from the body' is to +be 'present with the Lord.' + +A Christian death is an answer to this prayer. True, for Christians +as for all, the physical necessity is an imperative law. True, the +punitive aspect of death is retained for them. But yet the law is +wielded by Christ, and while death remains, its whole aspect is +changed. So we may think of those who have departed in His faith and +fear as gone in answer to this prayer. + +How beautiful that is! Slowly, one by one, they are gathered in, as +the stars one by one light up. Place after place is filled. + +Thus through the ages the prayer works on, and our dear ones have +gone from us, but they have gone to Him. We weep, but they rejoice. +To us their departure is the result of an iron law, of a penal +necessity, of some secondary cause; but to them it is seen to be the +answer to His mighty prayer. They hear His voice and follow Him when +He says, 'Come up hither.' + +III. The final fulfilment still future. + +The prayer looks forward to a perfect fulfilment. His prayer cannot +be vain. + +(_a_) Perfect in degree. + +(_b_) Perfect in extent, when all shall be gathered together and the +'whole family' shall be 'in heaven,' and Christ's own word receives +its crowning realisation, that 'of all whom the Father hath given Him +He has lost nothing.' + +And these are not some handful picked out by a decree which we can +neither fathom nor alter, but Christ is given to us all, and if we +choose to take Him, then for us He has ascended; and as we watch Him +going up the voice comes to us: 'I go to prepare a place for you. I +will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there +ye may be also.' + + + +CHRIST'S SUMMARY OF HIS WORK + +'I have declared onto them Thy name, and will declare it: that +the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in +them.'--JOHN xvii. 26. + +This is the solemn and calm close of Christ's great High-priestly +prayer; the very last words that He spoke before Gethsemane and His +passion. In it He sums up both the purpose of His life and the +petitions of His prayer, and presents the perfect fulfilment of the +former as the ground on which He asks the fulfilment of the latter. +There is a singular correspondence and contrast between these last +words to God and the last words to the disciples, which immediately +preceded them. These were, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation, +but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.' In both He sums up +His life, in both He is unconscious of flaw, imperfection, or +limitation; in both He shares His own possessions among His +followers. But His words to men carry a trace of His own conflict and +a foreboding of theirs. For Him life had been, and for them it was to +be, tribulation and a battle, and the highest thing that He could +promise them was victory won by conflict. But from the serene +elevation of the prayer all such thoughts disappear. Unbroken calm +lies over it. His life has been one continual manifestation of the +name of God; and the portion that He promises to His followers is not +victory won by strife, but the participation with Himself in the love +of God. + +Both views are true--true to His experience, true to ours. The +difference between them lies in the elevation of the beholder's eye. +Looked at on the outward side, His life and ours must be always a +battle and often a sorrow. Looked at from within, His life was an +unbroken abiding in the love of God, and a continual impartation of +the name of God, and our lives may be an ever growing knowledge of +God, leading to and being a fuller and fuller possession of His love, +and of a present Christ. So let us ponder these deep words: our +Lord's own summing up of His work and aims; His statement of what we +may hope to attain; and the path by which we may attain it. I shall +best bring out the whole fullness of their meaning if I simply follow +them word by word. + +I. Note, first, the backward look of the revealing Son. + +'I have declared Thy name.' + +The first thing that strikes one about these words is their boldness. +Remember that they are spoken to God, at the close of a life the +heights and depths of which they sum up. They are an appeal to God's +righteous judgment of the whole character of the career. Do they +breathe the tone that we might expect? Surely the prophet or teacher +who has most earnestly tried to make himself a mirror, without spot +to darken and without dint to distort the divine ray, will be the +first to feel, as he looks back, the imperfections of his repetition +of his message. But Jesus Christ, when He looks back over His life, +has no flaw, limitation, incompleteness, to record or to confess. As +always so here, He is absolutely unconscious of anything in the +nature of weakness, error, or sin. As when He looked back upon His +life as a conflict, He had no defeats to remember with shame, so +here, when He looks upon it as the revelation of God He feels that +everything which He has received of the Father He has made known unto +men. + +And the strange thing is that we admit the claim, and have become so +accustomed to regard it as being perfectly legitimate that we forget +how enormous it is. He takes an attitude here which in any other man +would be repulsive, but in Him is supremely natural. We criticise +other people, we outgrow their teachings, we see where their +doctrines have deviated from truth by excess or defect, or +disproportion; but when He says 'I have declared Thy name,' we feel +that He says nothing more than the simple facts of His life vindicate +and confirm. + +Not less remarkable is the implication in these words, not only of +the completeness of His message, but of the fullness of His knowledge +of God, and its entirely underived nature. So He claims for Himself +an altogether special and unique position here: He has learned God +from none; He teaches God to all. 'That was the true Light which +lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' + +Looking a little more closely at these words before us, we have here +Christ's own account of His whole life. The meaning of it all is the +revelation of the heart of God. Not by words, of course; not by words +only, but far more by deeds. And I would have you ask yourselves this +question--If the deeds of a man are a declaration of the name of God, +what sort of a man is He who thus declares Him? Must we not feel that +if these words, or anything like them, really came from the lips of +Jesus Christ, we are here in the presence of something other than a +holy life of a simple humanity, which might help men to climb to the +apprehension of a God who was perfect love; and that when He says 'He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,' we stand before 'God +manifest in the flesh.' + +What is that name of God which the revealing Son declares? Not the +mere syllables by which we call Him, but the manifested character of +the Father. That one name, in the narrower sense of the word, carries +the whole revelation that Jesus Christ has to make; for it speaks of +tenderness, of kindred, of paternal care, of the transmission of a +nature, of the embrace of a divine love. And it delivers men from all +their creeping dreads, from all their dark peradventures, from all +their stinging fears, from all the paralysing uncertainties which, +like clouds, always misty and often thunder-bearing, have shut out +the sight of the divine face. If this Christ, in His weakness and +humanity, with pity welling from His eyes, and making music of His +voice, with the swift help streaming from His fingers-tips to every +pain and weariness, and the gracious righteousness that drew little +children and did not repel publicans and harlots, is our best image +of God, then love is the centre of divinity, and all the rest that we +call God is but circumference and fringe of that central brightness. + + 'So through the thunder comes a human voice + Saying, "O heart I made! a heart beats here."' + +He has declared God's name, His last best name of Love. + +Need I dwell for one moment on the fact that that name is only +declared by this Son? There is no need to deny the presence of +manifold other precious sources in men's experience and lives from +which something may be inferred of what God truly is. But all these, +rich and manifold as they are, fall into nothingness before the life +of Jesus Christ, considered as the making visible of God. For all the +rest are partial and incomplete. 'At sundry times and in divers +manners' God flung forth syllables of the name, and 'fragments of +that mighty voice came rolling down the wind.' But in Jesus Christ +the whole name, in all its syllables, is spoken. Other sources of +knowledge are ambiguous, and need the interpretation of Christ's life +and Cross ere they can be construed into a harmonious whole. Life, +nature, our inmost being, history, all these sources speak with two +voices; and it is only when we hear the deep note that underlies them +in the word of Christ that their discord becomes a harmony. Other +sources lack authority. They come at the most with a 'may be.' He +comes with a 'Verily, verily.' Other sources speak to the +understanding, or the conscience, or to fear. Christ speaks to the +heart. Other sources leave the man who accepts them unaffected. +Christ's message penetrates to the transforming and assimilation of +the whole being. + +So, dear brethren! for all generations, and for this generation most +of all, the plain alternative lies between the declaration of the +name of God in Jesus Christ and a godless and orphan world. Modern +thought will make short work of all other sources of certitude about +the character of God, and will leave men alone in the dark. Christ, +the historical fact of the life and death of Jesus Christ, is the +sole surviving source of certitude, which is blessedness, as to +whether there is a God, and what sort of a God He is. + +II. Secondly, note here that strange forward look of the dying Man: +'I have declared Thy name and _will declare it_.' + +And that was said within eight and forty hours of the Cross, which, +if He had been a simple human teacher and martyr, would have ended +all His activity in the world. But here He is not merely summing up +His life, and laying it aside, writing the last sentence, as it were, +which gathers up the whole of the completed book, but He is closing +the first volume, and in the act of doing so He stretches out His +hand to open the second. 'I will declare it.' When? How? Did not +earthly life, then, put a stop to this Teacher's activity? Was there +still prophetic function to be done after death had sealed His lips? +Certainly. + +That anticipation, which at once differentiates Him from all the +brood of merely human teachers and prophets, even the highest, does +indeed include as future, at the moment when He speaks, the swiftly +coming and close Cross; but it goes beyond it. How much of +Christendom's knowledge of God depended upon the Passion, on the +threshold of which Christ was standing? He, hanging on the Cross in +weakness, and dying there amidst the darkness that overspread the +land, is a strange Revealer of the omnipotent, infinite, ever-blessed +God. But Oh! if we strike Gethsemane and Calvary out of Christ's +manifestation of the Father, how infinitely poorer are we and the +world! 'God commendeth,' (rather 'establisheth,') 'His love toward us +in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us.' And so as we +turn ourselves to the little knoll outside the gate, where the +Nazarene carpenter hangs faint and dying, we--wonder of Wonders, and +yet certainty of certainties!--have to say, 'Lo! this is our God; we +have waited for Him.' + +But that future revelation extends beyond the Cross, and includes +resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, and the whole history of the +Church right onwards through the ages. The difference between the two +volumes of revelation--that which includes the work of Christ upon +earth, and that which includes His revelation from the heavens--is +this, that the first volume contains all the facts, and the second +volume contains His interpretation and application of the facts in +the understandings and hearts of His people. We have no more facts +from which to construe God than these which belong to the earthly +life of Jesus Christ, and we never shall have, here at all events. +But whilst the first volume to the bottom of the last page is +finished and tolerates and needs no additions, day by day, moment by +moment, epoch by epoch Christ is bringing His people to a fuller +understanding of the significance of the first volume, and writing +the second more and more upon their hearts. + +So we have an ever-living Christ, still the active Teacher of His +Church. Times of unsettlement and revolutionary change and the +'shaking of the things that are made,' like the times in which we +live, are but times in which the great Teacher is setting some new +lesson from the old Book to His slow scholars. There is always a +little confusion in the schoolroom when the classes are being +rearranged and new books are being put into old hands. The tributary +stream, as it rushes in, makes broken water for a moment. Do not let +us be afraid when 'the things that can be shaken' shake, but let us +see in the shaking the attendant of a new curriculum on which the +great Teacher is launching His scholars, and let us learn the new +lessons of the old Gospel which He is then teaching. + +III. Thirdly, note the participation in the Father's love which is +the issue of the knowledge of the Father's name. + +Christ says that His end, an end which is surely attained in the +declaration of the divine name, is that 'the love wherewith Thou hast +loved Me may be in them.' We are here touching upon heights too dizzy +for free and safe walking, on glories too bright for close and steady +gaze. But where Christ has spoken we may reverently follow. Mark, +then, that marvellous thought of the identity between the love which +was His and the love which is ours. 'From everlasting' that divine +love lay on the Eternal Word which in the hoary beginning, before the +beginning of creatures, 'was with God, and was God.' The deepest +conception that we can form of the divine nature is of a Being who in +Himself carries the Subject and the Object of an eternal love, which +we speak of in the deep emblem of 'the Word,' and the God with whom +He eternally 'was.' That love lay upon Christ, without limitation, +without reservation, without interruption, finding nothing there from +which it recoiled, and nothing there which did not respond to it. No +mist, no thunderstorm, ever broke that sunshine, no tempest ever +swept across that calm. Continuous, full, perfect was the love that +knit the Father to the Son, and continuous, full, and perfect was the +consciousness of abiding in that love, which lay like light upon the +spirit of Him that said 'I delight to do Thy will.' 'The Father hath +not left Me alone.' + +And all that love Christ gives to us as deep, as continuous, as +unreserved. Our consciousness of God's love is meant by Christ to be +like His own. Alas! alas! is that our experience, Christian people? +The sun always shines on the rainless land of Egypt, except for a +month or two in the year. The contrast between the unclouded blue and +continuous light and heat there, and our murky skies and humid +atmosphere, is like the contrast between our broken and feeble +consciousness of the shining of the divine love and the uninterrupted +glory of light and joy of communion which poured on Christ's heart. +But it is possible for us indefinitely to approximate to such an +experience; and the way by which we reach it is that plain and simple +one of accepting Christ's declaration of the Father's name. + +IV. And so, lastly, notice the indwelling Christ who makes our +participation in the divine love possible: 'And I in them.' + +One may well say, 'How can it be that love should be transferred? How +can it be that the love of God to me shall be identical with the love +of God to Christ?' There is only one answer. If Christ dwells in me, +then God's love to Him falls upon me by no transference, but by my +incorporation into Him. And I would urge that this great truth of the +actual indwelling of Christ in the soul is no mere piece of +rhetorical exaggeration, nor a wild and enthusiastic way of putting +the fact that the influence of His teaching and the beauty of His +example can sway us; but it is a plain and absolute truth that the +divine Christ can come into and abide in the narrow room of our poor +hearts. And if He does this, then 'he that is joined to the Lord is +one Spirit'; and the Christ in me receives the sunshine of the divine +love. That does not destroy, but heightens, my individuality. I am +more and not less myself because 'I live, yet not I, but Christ +liveth in me.' + +So, dear brethren! it all comes to this--we may each of us, if we +will, have Jesus Christ for Guest and Inhabitant in our hearts. If we +have, then, since God loves Him, He must love me who have Him within +me, and as long as God loves Christ He cannot cease to love me, nor +can I cease to be conscious of His love to me, and whatsoever gifts +His love bestows upon Jesus, pass over in measure, and partially, to +myself. Thus immortality, heaven, glory, all blessedness in heaven +and earth, are the fruit and crystallisation, so to speak, of that +oneness with Christ which is possible for us. And the conditions are +simply that we shall with joyful trust accept His declaration of the +Father's name, and see God manifest in Him; and welcome in our inmost +hearts that great Gospel. Then His prayer, and the travail of His +soul, will reach their end even in me, and 'the love wherewith the +Father loved the Son shall be in me,' and the Son Himself shall dwell +in my heart. + + + +CHRIST AND HIS CAPTORS + +'As soon then as He had said unto them, I am He, they went +backward, and fell to the ground. Then asked He them again, Whom +seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have +told you that I am He: if therefore ye seek Me, let these go +their way: That the saying might he fulfilled, which He spake, Of +them which Thou gayest Me have I lost none.'--JOHN xviii. 6-9. + +This remarkable incident is narrated by John only. It fits in with +the purpose which he himself tells us governed his selection of the +incidents which he records. 'These things are written,' says he, near +the end of the Gospel, 'that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son +of God, and that, believing, ye might have life in His name.' The +whole of the peculiarities of the substance of John's Gospel are to +be explained on the two grounds that he was writing a supplement to, +and not a substitute for, or a correction of, the Gospels already in +existence; and that his special business was to narrate such facts +and words as set forth the glory of Christ as 'the Only Begotten of +the Father.' + +The incident before us is, as I think, one of these. The Evangelist +would have us see in it, as I gather from his manner of narrating it, +mainly three things. He emphasises that strange recoil of the would- +be captors before Christ's majestic, calm 'I am He'; that was a +manifestation of Christ's glory. He emphasises our Lord's patient +standing there, in the midst of the awe-struck crowd, and even +inciting them, as it would seem, to do the work for which they had +come out; that was a manifestation of the voluntariness of Christ's +sufferings. And He emphasises the self-forgetting care with which at +that supreme moment He steps between His faithless, weak friends and +danger, with the wonderful words, 'If ye seek Me, let these go their +way'; to the Evangelist that little incident is an illustration, on a +very low level, and in regard to a comparatively trivial matter, of +the very same principle by which salvation from all evil in time and +in eternity, is guaranteed to all that believe on Him:-- + +I. First, then, consider this remarkable, momentary manifestation of +our Lord's glory. + +'I am He!' When the Band were thus doubly assured by the traitor's +kiss and by His own confession, why did they not lay hands upon Him? +There He stood in the midst of them, alone, defenceless; there was +nothing to hinder their binding Him on the spot. Instead of that they +recoil, and fall in a huddled heap before Him. Some strange awe and +terror, of which they themselves could have given no account, was +upon their spirits. How came it about? Many things may have conspired +to produce it. I am by no means anxious to insist that this was a +miracle. Things of the same sort, though much less in degree, have +been often enough seen; when some innocent and illustrious victim has +for a moment paralysed the hands of his would-be captors and made +them feel, though it were but transiently, 'how awful goodness is.' +There must have been many in that band who had heard Him, though, in +the uncertain light of quivering moonbeams and smoking torches, they +failed to recognise Him till He spoke. There must have been many more +who had heard of Him, and many who suspected that they were about to +lay hands on a holy man, perhaps on a prophet. There must have been +reluctant tools among the inferiors, and no doubt some among the +leaders whoso consciences needed but a touch to be roused to action. +To all, His calmness and dignity would appeal, and the manifest +freedom from fear or desire to flee would tend to deepen the strange +thoughts which began to stir in their hearts. + +But the impression which the narrative seems intended to leave, +appears to me to be of something more than this. It looks as if there +were something more than human in Christ's look and tone. It may have +been the same in kind as the ascendency which a pure and calm nature +has over rude and inferior ones. It may have been the same in kind as +has sometimes made the headsman on the scaffold pause before he +struck, and has bowed rude gaolers into converts before some grey- +haired saint or virgin martyr; yet the difference is so great in +degree as practically to become quite another thing. Though I do not +want to insist upon any 'miraculous' explanation of the cause of this +incident, yet I would ask, May it not be that here we see, perhaps +apart from Christ's will altogether, rising up for one moment to the +surface, the indwelling majesty which was always there? + +We do not know the laws that regulated the dwelling of the Godhead, +bodily, within that human frame, but we do know that at one other +time there came upon His features a transfiguration, and over His +very garments a lustre which was not thrown upon them from without, +but rose up from within. And I am inclined to think that here, as +there, though under such widely different circumstances and to such +various issues, there was for a moment a little rending of the veil +of His flesh, and an emission of some flash of the brightness that +always tabernacled within Him; and that, therefore, just as Isaiah, +when He saw the King in His glory, said, 'Woe is me, for I am +undone!' and just as Moses could not look upon the Face, but could +only see the back parts, so here the one stray beam of manifest +divinity that shot through the crevice, as it were, for an instant, +was enough to prostrate with a strange awe even those rude and +insensitive men. When He had said 'I am He,' there was something that +made them feel, 'This is One before whom violence cowers abashed, and +in whose presence impurity has to hide its face.' I do not assert +that this is the explanation of that panic terror. I only ask, May it +not be? + +But whatever we may think was the reason, at all events the incident +brings out very strikingly the elevation and dignity of Christ, and +the powerful impressions made by His personality, even at such a time +of humiliation. This Evangelist is always careful to bring out the +glory of Christ, especially when that glory lies side by side with +His lowliness. The blending of these two is one of the remarkable +features in the New Testament portraiture of Jesus Christ. Wherever +in our Lord's life any incident indicates more emphatically than +usual the lowliness of His humiliation, there, by the side of it, you +get something that indicates the majesty of His glory. For instance, +He is born a weak infant, but angels herald His birth; He lies in a +manger, but a star hangs trembling above it, and leads sages from +afar, with their myrrh, and incense, and gold. He submits Himself to +the baptism of repentance, but the heavens open and a voice +proclaims, 'This is My beloved Son!' He sits wearied, on the stone +coping of the well, and craves for water from a peasant woman; but He +gives her the Water of Life. He lies down and sleeps, from pure +exhaustion, in the stern of the little fishing-boat, but He wakes to +command the storm, and it is still. He weeps beside the grave, but He +flings His voice into its inmost recesses, and the sheeted dead comes +forth. He well-nigh faints under the agony in the garden, but an +angel from Heaven strengthens Him. He stands a prisoner at a human +bar, but He judges and condemns His judges. He dies, and that hour of +defeat is His hour of triumph, and the union of shame and glory is +most conspicuous in that hour when on the Cross the 'Son of Man is +_glorified_, and God is glorified in Him.' + +This strange blending of opposites--the glory in the lowliness, and +the abasement in the glory--is the keynote of this singular event. He +will be 'delivered into the hands of men.' Yes; but ere He is +delivered He pauses for an instant, and in that instant comes a flash +'above the brightness of the noonday sun' to tell of the hidden +glory. + +Do not forget that we may well look upon that incident as a prophecy +of what shall be. As one of the suggestive, old commentators on this +verse says: 'He will say "I am He," again, a third time. What will He +do coming to reign, when He did this coming to die? And what will His +manifestation be as a Judge when this was the effect of the +manifestation as He went to be judged?' 'Every eye shall see Him'; +and they that loved not His appearing shall fall before Him when He +cometh to be our Judge; and shall call on the rocks and the hills to +cover them. + +II. There is here, secondly, a manifestation of the voluntariness of +our Lord's suffering. + +When that terrified mob recoiled from Him, why did He stand there so +patiently? The time was propitious for flight, if He had cared to +flee. He might have 'passed through the midst of them and gone His +way.' as He did once before, if He had chosen. He comes from the +garden; there shall be no difficulty in finding Him. He tells who He +is; there shall be no need for the traitor's kiss. He lays them low +for a moment, but He will not flee. When Peter draws his sword He +rebukes his ill-advised appeal to force, and then He holds out His +hands and lets them bind Him. It was not their fetters, but the +'cords of love' which held Him prisoner. It was not their power, but +His own pity which drew Him to the judgment hall and the Cross. + +Let us dwell upon that thought for a moment. The whole story of the +Gospels is constructed upon the principle, and illustrates the fact, +that our Lord's life, as our Lord's death, was a voluntary surrender +of Himself for man's sin, and that nothing led Him to, and fastened +Him on, the Cross but His own will. He willed to be born. He 'came +into the world' by His own choice. He 'took upon Him the form of a +servant.' He 'took part' of the children's 'flesh and blood.' His +birth was His own act, the first of the long series of the acts, by +which for the sake of the love which He bore us, He 'humbled +Himself.' Step by step He voluntarily journeyed towards the Cross, +which stood clear before Him from the very beginning as the necessary +end, made necessary by His love. + +As we get nearer and nearer to the close of the history, we see more +and more distinctly that He willingly went towards the Cross, Take; +for instance, the account of the last portion of our Lord's life, and +you see in the whole of it a deliberate intention to precipitate the +final conflict. Hence the last journey to Jerusalem when 'His face +was set,' and His disciples followed Him amazed. Hence the studied +publicity of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Hence the studied, +growing severity of His rebukes to the priests and rulers. The same +impression is given, though in a somewhat different way, by His +momentary retreat from the city and by the precautions taken against +premature arrest, that He might not die before the Passover. In both +the hastening toward the city and in the retreating from it, there is +apparent the same design: that He Himself shall lay down His life, +and shall determine the how, and the when, and the where as seems +good to Him. + +If we look at the act of death itself, Jesus did not die because He +must. It was not the nails of the Cross, the physical exhaustion, the +nervous shock of crucifixion that killed Him. He died because He +would. 'I have power to lay down My life,' He said, 'and I have +power'--of course--'to take it again.' At that last moment, He was +Lord and Master of death when He bowed His head to death, and, if I +might so say, He summoned that grim servant with a 'Come!' and he +came, and He set him his task with a 'Do this!' and he did it. He was +manifested as the Lord of death, having its 'keys' in His hands, when +He died upon the Cross. + +Now I pray you to ask yourselves the question, if it be true that +Christ died because He would, why was it that He would die? If +because He chose, what was it that determined His choice? And there +are but two answers, which two are one. The divine motive that ruled +His life is doubly expressed: 'I must do the will of My Father,' and +'I must save the world.' + +The taunt that those Jewish rulers threw at Him had a deeper truth +than they dreamed, and was an encomium, and not a taunt. 'He saved +others'--yes, and _therefore_, 'Himself He cannot save.' He cannot, +because His choice and will to die are determined by His free love to +us and to all the world. His fixed will 'bore His body to the tree,' +and His love was the strong spring which kept His will fixed. + +You and I have our share in these voluntary sufferings, and our place +in that loving heart which underwent them for us. Oh! should not that +thought speak to all our hearts, and bind us in grateful service and +lifelong surrender to Him who gave Himself for us; and _must_ die +because He loved us all so much that He _could not_ leave us unsaved? + +III. We have, lastly, here, a symbol, or, perhaps, more accurately, +an instance, on a small scale, of Christ's self-sacrificing care for +us. + +His words: 'If ye seek Me, let these go their way,' sound more like +the command of a prince than the intercession of a prisoner. The calm +dignity of them strikes one just as much as the perfect self- +forgetfulness of them. + +It was a very small matter which He was securing thereby. The +Apostles would have to die for Him some day, but they were not ready +for it yet, and so He casts the shield of His protection round them +for a moment, and interposes Himself between them and the band of +soldiers in order that their weakness may have a little more time to +grow strong. And though it was wrong and cowardly for them to forsake +Him and flee, yet these words of my text more than half gave them +permission and warrant for their departure: 'Let these go their way.' + +Now John did not think that this small deliverance was all that +Christ meant by these great words: 'Of them which Thou gavest Me have +I lost none!' He saw that it was one case, a very trifling one, a +merely transitory one, yet ruled by the same principles which are at +work in the immensely higher region to which the words properly +refer. Of course they have their proper fulfilment in the spiritual +realm, and are not fulfilled, in the highest sense, till all who have +loved and followed Christ are presented faultless before the Father +in the home above. But the little incident may be a result of the +same cause as the final deliverance is. A dew-drop is shaped by the +same laws which mould the mightiest of the planets. The old divines +used to say that God was greatest in the smallest things, and the +self-sacrificing care of Jesus Christ, as He gives Himself a prisoner +that His disciples may go free, comes from the same deep heart of +pitying love, which led Him to die, the 'just for the unjust.' It may +then well stand for a partial fulfilment of His mighty words, even +though these wait for their complete accomplishment till the hour +when all the sheep are gathered into the one fold, and no evil +beasts, nor weary journeys, nor barren pastures can harass them any +more. + +This trivial incident, then, becomes an exposition of highest truth. +Let us learn from such an use of such an event to look upon all +common and transitory circumstances as governed by the same loving +hands, and working to the same ends, as the most purely spiritual. +The visible is the veil which drapes the invisible, and clings so +closely to it as to reveal its outline. The common events of life are +all parables to the devout heart, which is the wise heart. They speak +mystic meanings to ears that can hear. The redeeming love of Jesus is +proclaimed by every mercy which perishes in the using; and all things +should tell us of His self-forgetting, self-sacrificing care. + +Thus, then, we may see in that picture of our Lord's surrendering +Himself that His trembling disciples might go free, an emblem of what +He does for us, in regard to all our foes. He stands between us and +them, receives their arrows into His own bosom, and says, 'Let these +go their way.' God's law comes with its terrors, with its penalties, +to us who have broken it a thousand times. The consciousness of guilt +and sin threatens us all more or less, and with varying intensity in +different minds. The weariness of the world, 'the ills that flesh is +heir to,' the last grim enemy, Death, and that which lies beyond them +all, ring you round. My friends! what are you going to do in order to +escape from them? You are a sinful man, you have broken God's law. +That law goes on crashing its way and crushing down all that is +opposed to it. You have a weary life before you, however joyful it +may sometimes be. Cares, and troubles, and sorrows, and tears, and +losses, and disappointments, and hard duties that you will not be +able to perform, and dark days in which you will be able to see but +very little light, are all certain to come sooner or later; and the +last moment will draw near when the King of Terrors will be at your +side; and beyond death there is a life of retribution in which men +reap the things that they have sown here. All that is true, much of +it is true about you at this moment, and it will all be true some +day. In view of that, what are you going to do? + +I preach to you a Saviour who has endured all for us. As a mother +might fling herself out of the sledge that her child might escape the +wolves in full chase, here is One that comes and fronts all your +foes, and says to them, 'Let these go their way. Take Me.' 'By His +stripes we are healed.' 'On Him was laid the iniquity of us all.' + +He died because He chose; He chose because He loved. His love had to +die in order that His death might be our life, and that in it we +should find our forgiveness and peace. He stands between our foes and +us. No evil can strike us unless it strike Him first. He takes into +His own heart the sharpest of all the darts which can pierce ours. He +has borne the guilt and punishment of a world's sin. These solemn +penalties have fallen upon Him that we, trusting in Him, 'may go our +way,' and that there may be 'no condemnation' to us if we are in +Christ Jesus. And if there be no condemnation, we can stand whatever +other blows may fall upon us. They are easier to bear, and their +whole character is different, when we know that Christ has borne them +already. Two of the three whom Christ protected in the garden died a +martyr's death; but do you not think that James bowed his neck to +Herod's sword, and Peter let them gird him and lead him to his cross, +more joyfully and with a different heart, when they thought of Him +that had died before them? The darkest prison cell will not be so +very dark if we remember that Christ has been there before us, and +death itself will be softened into sleep because our Lord has died. +'If therefore,' says He, to the whole pack of evils baying round us, +with their cruel eyes and their hungry mouths, 'ye seek Me, let these +go their way.' So, brother, if you will fix your trust, as a poor, +sinful soul, on that dear Christ, and get behind Him, and put Him +between you and your enemies, then, in time and in eternity, that +saying will be fulfilled in you which He spake, 'Of them which Thou +gavest Me, have I lost none.' + + + +JESUS BEFORE CAIAPHAS + +'And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple: +that disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with +Jesus into the palace of the high priest. But Peter stood at the +door without. Then went out that other disciple, which was known +unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and +brought in Peter. Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto +Peter, Art not thou also one of this Man's disciples? He saith, I +am not. And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a +fire of coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and +Peter stood with them, and warmed himself. The high priest then +asked Jesus of His disciples, and of His doctrine. Jesus answered +him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, +and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret +have I said nothing. Why askest thou Me? ask them which heard Me, +what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said. And +when He had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by +struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest Thou +the high priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, +bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou Me? Now +Annas had sent Him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. And Simon +Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore unto him, Art +not thou also one of His disciples? He denied it, and said, I am +not. One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman +whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden +with Him? Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock +crew.'--JOHN xviii. 15-27. + +The last verses of the preceding passage belong properly to this one, +for they tell us that Jesus was 'first' brought before Annas, a fact +which we owe to John only. Annas himself and his five sons held the +high-priesthood in succession. To the sons has to be added Caiaphas, +who, as we learn from John only, was Annas' son-in-law, and so one of +the family party. That Jesus should have been taken to him, though he +held no office at the time, shows who pulled the strings in the +Sanhedrim. The reference to Caiaphas in verse 14 seems intended to +suggest what sort of a trial might be expected, presided over by such +a man. But verse 15 tells us that Jesus entered in, accompanied by +'another disciple,' 'to the court,' not, as we should have expected, +of Annas, but 'of the high priest,' who, by the testimony of verse +13, can be no one but Caiaphas. How came that about? Apparently, +because Annas had apartments in the high-priest's official residence. +As he obviously exercised the influence through his sons and son-in- +law, who successively held the office, it was very natural that he +should be a fixture in the palace. + +What John's connection was with this veteran intriguer (assuming that +John was that 'other disciple') we do not know. Probably it was some +family bond that united two such antipathetic natures. At all events, +the Apostle's acquaintance with the judge so far condoned his +discipleship to the criminal, that the doors of the audience chamber +were open to him, though he was known as 'one of them.' + +So he and poor Peter were parted, and the latter left shivering +outside in the grey of the morning. John had not missed him at first, +for he would be too much absorbed in watching Jesus to have thoughts +to spare for Peter, and would conclude that he was following him; +but, when he did miss him, like a brave man he ran the risk of being +observed, and went for him. The sharp-witted porteress, whose +business it was to judge applicants for entrance by a quick glance, +at once inferred that Peter 'also' was one of this man's disciples. +Her 'also' shows that she knew John to be one; and her 'this man' +shows that either she did not know Jesus' name, or thought Him too +far beneath her to be named by her! The time during which Peter had +been left outside alone, repenting now of, and alarmed for what might +happen to him on account of, his ill-aimed blow at Malchus, and +feeling the nipping cold, had taken all his courage out of him. The +one thing he wished was to slip in unnoticed, and so the first denial +came to his lips as rashly as many another word had come in old days. +He does not seem to have remained with John, who probably went up to +the upper end of the hall, where the examination was going on, while +Peter, not having the _entree_ and very much terrified as well as +miserable, stayed at the lower end, where the understrappers were +making themselves comfortable round a charcoal fire, and paying no +attention to the proceedings at the other end. He seemed to be as +indifferent as they were, and to be intent only on getting himself +warmed. But what surges of emotion would be tossing in his heart, +which yet he was trying to hide under the mask of being an +unconcerned spectator, like the others! + +The examination of our Lord was conducted by 'the high priest,' by +which title John must mean Caiaphas, as he has just emphatically +noted that he then filled the office. But how is that to be +reconciled with the statement that Jesus was taken to Annas? +Apparently by supposing that, though Annas was present, Caiaphas was +spokesman. But did not a formal trial before Caiaphas follow, and +does not John tell us (verse 24) that, after the first examination, +Annas sent Jesus bound to Caiaphas? Yes. And are these things +compatible with this account of an examination conducted by the +latter? Yes, if we remember that flagrant wresting of justice marked +the whole proceedings. The condemnation of Jesus was a judicial +murder, in which the highest court of the Jews 'decreed iniquity by a +law'; and it was of a piece with all the rest that he, who was to +pose as an impartial judge presently, should, in the spirit of a +partisan, conduct this preliminary inquiry. Observe that no sentence +was pronounced in the case at this stage. This was not a court at +all. What was it? An attempt to entrap the prisoner into admissions +which might be used against Him in the court to be held presently. +The rulers had Jesus in their hands, and they did not know what to do +with Him now that they had Him. They were at a loss to know what His +indictment was to be. To kill Him was the only thing on which they +had made up their minds; the pretext had yet to be found, and so they +tried to get Him to say something which would serve their purpose. + +'The high priest therefore asked Jesus of His disciples, and of His +teaching'! If they did not know about either, why had they arrested +Him? Cunning outwits itself, and falls into the pit it digs for the +innocent. Jesus passed by the question as to His disciples unnoticed, +and by His calm answer as to His teaching showed that He saw the +snare. He reduced Caiaphas and Annas to perpetrating plain injustice, +or to letting Him go free. Elementary fair play to a prisoner +prescribes that he should be accused of some crime by some one, and +not that he should furnish his judges with materials for his own +indictment. 'Why askest thou Me? ask them that have heard Me,' is +unanswerable, except by such an answer as the officious 'servant' +gave--a blow and a violent speech. But Christ's words reach far +beyond the momentary purpose; they contain a wide truth. His teaching +loves the daylight. There are no muttered oracles, no whispered +secrets for the initiated, no double voice, one for the multitude, +and another for the adepts. All is above-board, and all is spoken +'openly to the world.' Christianity has no cliques or coteries, +nothing sectional, nothing reserved. It is for mankind, for all +mankind, all for mankind. True, there are depths in it; true, the +secrets which Jesus can only speak to loving ears in secret are His +sweetest words, but they are 'spoken in the ear' that they may be +'proclaimed on the housetops.' + +The high-priest is silent, for there was nothing that he could say to +so undeniable a demand, and he had no witnesses ready. How many since +his day have treated Jesus as he treated Him--condemned Him or +rejected Him without reason, and then looked about for reasons to +justify their attitude, or even sought to make Him condemn Himself! + +An unjust judge breeds insolent underlings, and if everything else +fails, blows and foul words cover defeat, and treat calm assertion of +right as impertinence to high-placed officials. Caiaphas degraded his +own dignity more than any words of a prisoner could degrade it. + +Our Lord's answer 'reviled not again.' It is meek in majesty and +majestic in meekness. Patient endurance is not forbidden to +remonstrate with insolent injustice, if only its remonstrance bears +no heat of personal anger in it. But Jesus was not so much +vindicating His words to Caiaphas in saying, 'If I have spoken evil, +bear witness of the evil,' as reiterating the challenge for +'witnesses.' He brands the injustice of Caiaphas, while meekly +rebuking the brutality of his servant. Master and man were alike in +smiting Him for words of which they could not prove the evil. + +There was obviously nothing to be gained by further examination. No +crime had been alleged, much less established; therefore Jesus ought +to have been let go. But Annas treated Him as a criminal, and handed +Him over 'bound,' to be formally tried before the man who had just +been foiled in his attempt to play the inquisitor. What a hideous +mockery of legal procedure! How well the pair, father-in-law and son- +in-law, understood each other! What a confession of a foregone +conclusion, evidence or no evidence, in shackling Jesus as a +malefactor! And it was all done in the name of religion! and perhaps +the couple of priests did not know that they were hypocrites, but +really thought that they were 'doing God service.' + +John's account of Peter's denials rises to a climax of peril and of +keenness of suspicion. The unnamed persons who put the second +question must have had their suspicions roused by something in his +manner as he stood by the glinting fire, perhaps by agitation too +great to be concealed. The third question was put by a more dangerous +person still, who not only recognised Peter's features as the +firelight fitfully showed them, but had a personal ground of +hostility in his relationship to Malchus. + +John lovingly spares telling of the oaths and curses accompanying the +denials, but dares not spare the narration of the fact. It has too +precious lessons of humility, of self-distrust, of the possibility of +genuine love being overborne by sudden and strong temptation, to be +omitted. And the sequel of the denials has yet more precious +teaching, which has brought balm to many a contrite heart, conscious +of having been untrue to its deepest love. For the sound of the cock- +crow, and the look from the Lord as He was led away bound past the +place where Peter stood, brought him back to himself, and brought +tears to his eyes, which were sweet as well as bitter. On the +resurrection morning the risen Lord sent the message of forgiveness +and special love to the broken-hearted Apostle, when He said, 'Go, +tell My disciples and Peter,' and on that day there was an interview +of which Paul knew (1 Cor. xv. 5), but the details of which were +apparently communicated by the Apostle to none of his brethren. The +denier who weeps is taken to Christ's heart, and in sacred secrecy +has His forgiveness freely given, though, before he can be restored +to his public office, he must, by his threefold public avowal of +love, efface his threefold denial. We may say, 'Thou knowest that I +love thee,' even if we have said, 'I know Him not,' and come nearer +to Jesus, by reason of the experience of His pardoning love, than we +were before we fell. + + + +ART THOU A KING? + +'Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and +it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment +hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the +passover. Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What +accusation bring ye against this Man? They answered and said unto +him, If He were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered Him +up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye Him, and judge +Him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It +is not lawful for us to put any man to death: That the saying of +Jesus might be fulfilled, which He spake, signifying what death +He should die. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, +and called Jesus, and said unto Him, Art Thou the King of the +Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or +did others tell it thee of Me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine +own nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me: +what hast Thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this +world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants +fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My +kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art Thou +a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To +this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, +that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of +the truth heareth My voice. Pilate saith unto Him, What is truth? +And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and +saith unto them, I find in Him no fault at all. But ye have a +custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will +ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then +cried they all again, saying, Not this Man, but Barabbas. Now +Barabbas was a robber.'--JOHN xviii. 28-40. + +John evidently intends to supplement the synoptic Gospels' account. +He tells of Christ's appearance before Annas, but passes by that +before Caiaphas, though he shows his knowledge of it. Similarly he +touches lightly on the public hearing before Pilate, but gives us in +detail the private conversation in this section, which he alone +records. We may suppose that he was present at both the hearing +before Annas and the interview within the palace between Jesus and +Herod, for he would not be deterred from entering, as the Jews were, +and there seems to have been no other impediment in the way. The +passage has three stages--the fencing between the Sanhedrists and +Pilate, the 'good confession before Pontius Pilate,' and the +preference of Barabbas to Jesus. + +I. The passage of arms between the priests and the governor. 'It was +early,' probably before 6 A.M. A hurried meeting of the Sanhedrim had +condemned Jesus to death, and the next thing was to get the Roman +authority to carry out the sentence. The necessity of appeal to it +was a bitter pill, but it had to be swallowed, for the right of +capital punishment had been withdrawn. A 'religious' scruple, too, +stood in the way--very characteristic of such formalists. Killing an +innocent man would not in the least defile them, or unfit for eating +the passover, but to go into a house that had not been purged of +'leaven,' and was further unclean as the residence of a Gentile, +though he was the governor, that would stain their consciences--a +singular scale of magnitude, which saw no sin in condemning Jesus, +and great sin in going into Pilate's palace! Perhaps some of our +conventional sins are of a like sort. + +Pilate was, probably, not over-pleased at being roused so early, nor +at having to defer to a scruple which would to him look like +insolence; and through all his bearing to the Sanhedrim a certain +irritation shows itself, which sometimes flashes out in sarcasm, but +is for the most part kept down. His first question is, perhaps, not +so simple as it looks, for he must have had some previous knowledge +of the case, since Roman soldiers had been used for the arrest. But, +clearly, those who brought him a prisoner were bound to be the +prosecutors. + +Whether or not Pilate knew that his question was embarrassing, the +rulers felt it so. Why did they not wish to formulate a charge? +Partly from pride. They hugged the delusion that their court was +competent to condemn, and wanted, as we all often do, to shut their +eyes to a plain fact, as if ignoring it annihilated it. Partly +because the charge on which they had condemned Jesus--that of +blasphemy in calling Himself 'the Son of God'--was not a crime known +to Roman law, and to allege it would probably have ended in the whole +matter being scornfully dismissed. So they stood on their dignity and +tried to bluster. 'We have condemned Him; that is enough. We look to +you to carry out the sentence at our bidding.' So the 'ecclesiastical +authority' has often said to the 'secular arm' since then, and +unfortunately the civil authority has not always been as wise as +Pilate was. + +He saw an opening to get rid of the whole matter, and with just a +faint flavour of irony suggests that, as they have 'a law'--which he, +no doubt, thought of as a very barbarous code--they had better go by +it, and punish as well as condemn. That sarcastic proposal compelled +them to acknowledge their subjection. Pilate had given the reins the +least touch, but enough to make them feel the bit; and though it went +sore against the grain, they will own their master rather than lose +their victim. So their reluctant lips say, 'It is not lawful for us.' +Pilate has brought them on their knees at last, and they forget their +dignity, and own the truth. Malicious hatred will eat any amount of +dirt and humiliation to gain its ends, especially if it calls itself +religious zeal. + +John sees in the issue of this first round in the duel between Pilate +and the rulers the sequence of events which brought about the +fulfilment of our Lord's prediction of His crucifixion, since that +was not a Jewish mode of execution. This encounter of keen wits +becomes tragical and awful when we remember Who it was that these men +were wrangling about. + +II. We have Jesus and Pilate; the 'good confession,' and the +indifferent answer. We must suppose that, unwillingly, the rulers had +brought the accusation that Jesus had attempted rebellion against +Rome. John omits that, because he takes it for granted that it is +known. It is implied in the conversation which now ensued. We must +note as remarkable that Pilate does not conduct his first examination +in the presence of the rulers, but has Jesus brought to him in the +palace. Perhaps he simply wished to annoy the accusers, but more +probably his Roman sense of justice combined with his wish to assert +his authority, and perhaps with a suspicion that there was something +strange about the whole matter--and not least strange that the +Sanhedrim, who were not enthusiastic supporters of Rome, should all +at once display such loyalty--to make him wish to have the prisoner +by himself, and try to fathom the business. With Roman directness he +went straight to the point: 'Art Thou the King of the Jews, as they +have been saying?' There is emphasis on 'Thou'--the emphasis which a +practical Roman official would be likely to put as he looked at the +weak, wearied, evidently poor and helpless man bound before him. +There is almost a touch of pity in the question, and certainly the +beginning of the conviction that this was not a very formidable rival +to Caesar. + +The answer to be given depended on the sense in which Pilate asked +the question, to bring out which is the object of Christ's question +in reply. If Pilate was asking of himself, then what he meant by 'a +king' was one of earth's monarchs after the emperor's pattern, and +the answer would be 'No.' If he was repeating a Jewish charge, then, +'a king' might mean the prophetic King of Israel, who was no rival of +earthly monarchs, and the answer would be 'Yes,' but that 'Yes' would +give Pilate no more reason to crucify Him than the 'No' would have +given. + +Pilate is getting tired of fencing, and impatiently answers, with +true Roman contempt for subject-people's thoughts as well as their +weapons. 'I ... a Jew?' is said with a curl of the firm lips. He +points to his informants, 'Thine own nation and the chief priests,' +and does not say that their surrender of a would-be leader in a war +of independence struck him as suspicious. But he brushes aside the +cobwebs which he felt were being spun round him, and comes to the +point, 'What hast Thou done?' He is supremely indifferent to ideas +and vagaries of enthusiasts. This poor man before him may call +Himself anything He chooses, but _his_ only concern is with overt +acts. Strange to ask the Prisoner what He had done! It had been well +for Pilate if he had held fast by that question, and based his +judgment resolutely on its answer! He kept asking it all through the +case, he never succeeded in getting an answer; he was convinced that +Jesus had done nothing worthy of death, and yet fear, and a wish to +curry favour with the rulers, drove him to stain the judge's robe +with innocent blood, from which he vainly sought to cleanse his +hands. + +Our Lord's double answer claims a kingdom, but first shows what it is +not, and then what it is. It is 'not _of_ this world,' though it is +_in_ this world, being established and developed here, but having +nothing in common with earthly dominions, nor being advanced by their +weapons or methods. Pilate could convince himself that this 'kingdom' +bore no menace to Rome, from the fact that no resistance had been +offered to Christ's capture. But the principle involved in these +great words goes far beyond their immediate application. It forbids +Christ's 'servants' to assimilate His kingdom to the world, or to use +worldly powers as the means for the kingdom's advancement. The +history of the Church has sadly proved how hard it is for Christian +men to learn the lesson, and how fatal to the energy and purity of +the Church the forgetfulness of it has been. The temptation to such +assimilation besets all organised Christianity, and is as strong to- +day as when Constantine gave the Church the paralysing gift of +'establishing' it as a kingdom 'of this world.' + +Pilate did pick out of this saying an increased certainty that he had +nothing to fear from this strange 'King'; and half-amused contempt +for a dreamer, and half-pitying wonder at such lofty claims from such +a helpless enthusiast, prompted his question, 'Art Thou a king then?' +One can fancy the scornful emphasis on that 'Thou.' and can +understand how grotesquely absurd the notion of his prisoner's being +a king must have seemed. + +Having made clear part of the sense in which the avowal was to be +taken, our Lord answered plainly 'Yes.' Thus before the high-priest, +He declared Himself to be the Son of God, and before Pilate He +claimed to be King, at each tribunal putting forward the claim which +each was competent to examine--and, alas! at each meeting similar +levity and refusal to inquire seriously into the validity of the +claim. The solemn revelation to Pilate of the true nature of His +kingdom and of Himself the King fell on careless ears. A deeper +mystery than Pilate dreamed of lay beneath the double designation of +His origin; for He not only had been 'born' like other men, but had +'come into the world,' having 'come forth from the Father,' and +having been before He was born. It was scarcely possible that Pilate +should apprehend the meaning of that duplication, but some vague +impression of a mysterious personality might reach him, and Jesus +would not have fully expressed His own consciousness if He had simply +said, 'I was born.' Let us see that we keep firm hold of all which +that utterance implies and declares. + +The end of the Incarnation is to 'bear witness to the truth.' That +witness is the one weapon by which Christ's kingdom is established. +That witness is not given by words only, precious as these are, but +by deeds which are more than words. These witnessing deeds are not +complete till Calvary and the empty grave and Olivet have witnessed +at once to the perfect incarnation of divine love, to the perfect +Sacrifice for the world's sin, to the Victor over death, and to the +opening of heaven to all believers. Jesus is 'the faithful and true +Witness,' as John calls Him, not without reminiscences of this +passage, just because He is 'the First-begotten of the dead.' As here +He told Pilate that He was a 'king,' because a 'witness,' so John, in +the passage referred to, bases His being 'Prince of the kings of the +earth' on the same fact. + +How little Pilate knew that he was standing at the very crisis of his +fate! A yielding to the impression that was slightly touching his +heart and conscience, and he, too, might have 'heard' Christ's voice. +But he was not 'of the truth,' though he might have been if he had +willed, and so the words were wind to him, and he brushed aside all +the mist, as he thought it, with the light question, which summed up +a Roman man of the world's indifference to ideas, and belief in solid +facts like legions and swords. 'What is truth?' may be the cry of a +seeking soul, or the sneer of a confirmed sceptic, or the shrug of +indifference of the 'practical man.' + +It was the last in Pilate's case, as is shown by his not waiting for +an answer, but ending the conversation with it as a last shot. It +meant, too, that he felt quite certain that this man, with his high- +strained, unpractical talk about a kingdom resting on such a filmy +nothing, was absolutely harmless. Therefore the only just thing for +him to have done was to have gone out to the impatient crowd and said +so, and flatly refused to do the dirty work of the priests for them, +by killing an innocent man. But he was too cowardly for that, and, no +doubt, thought that the murder of one poor Jew was a small price to +pay for popularity with his troublesome subjects. Still, like all +weak men, he was not easy in his conscience, and made a futile +attempt to get the right thing done, and yet not to suffer for doing +it. The rejection of Barabbas is touched very lightly by John, and +must be left unnoticed here. The great contribution to our knowledge +which John makes is this private interview between the King who +reigns by the truth, and the representative of earthly rule, based on +arms and worldly forces. + + + +JESUS SENTENCED + +'Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him. And the +soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and +they put on Him a purple robe. And said, Hail, King of the Jews! +and they smote Him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth +again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring Him forth to you, +that ye may know that I find no fault in Him. Then came Jesus +forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And +Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man! When the chief priests +therefore and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify +Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye Him, and +crucify Him: for I find no fault in Him. The Jews answered him, +We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made +Himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, +he was the more afraid; And went again into the judgment hall, +and saith unto Jesus, Whence art Thou? But Jesus gave him no +answer. Then saith Pilate unto Him, Speakest Thou not unto me I +knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and have +power to release Thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no +power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above: +therefore he that delivered Me unto thee hath the greater sin. +And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him: but the Jews +cried out, saying, If thou let this Man go, thou art not Caesar's +friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. +When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, +and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the +Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation +of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the +Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with Him, away +with Him, crucify Him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify +your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but +Caesar. Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be +crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Him away.' +--JOHN xix. 1-16. + +The struggle between the vacillation of Pilate and the fixed +malignity of the rulers is the principal theme of this fragment of +Christ's judicial trial. He Himself is passive and all but silent, +speaking only one sentence of calm rebuke. The frequent changes of +scene from within to without the praetorium indicate the steps in the +struggle, and vividly reflect the irresolution of Pilate. These +changes may help to mark the stages in the narrative. + +I. The cruelties and indignities in verses 1-3 were inflicted within +the 'palace,' to which Pilate, with his prisoner, had returned after +the popular vote for Barabbas. John makes that choice of the robber +the reason for the scourging of Jesus. His thought seems to be that +Pilate, having failed in his attempt to get rid of the whole +difficulty by releasing Jesus, according to the 'custom,' ordered the +scourging, in hope that the lighter punishment might satisfy the +turbulent crowd, whom he wished to humour, while, if possible, saving +their victim. It was the expedient of a weak and cynical nature, and, +like all weak attempts at compromise between right and wrong, only +emboldened the hatred which it was meant to appease. If by clamour +the rulers had succeeded in getting Pilate to scourge a man whom he +thought innocent, they might well hope to get him to crucify, if they +clamoured loudly and long enough. + +One attitude only befitted Pilate, since he did not in the least +believe that Jesus threatened the Roman supremacy; namely, to set Him +at liberty, and let the disappointed rulers growl like wild beasts +robbed of their prey. But he did not care enough about a single half- +crazy Jewish peasant to imperil his standing well with his awkward +subjects, for the sake of righteousness. The one good which Rome +could give to its vassal nations was inflexible justice and a +sovereign law; but in Pilate's action there was not even the pretence +of legality. Tricks and expedients run through it all, and never once +does he say, This is the law, this is justice, and by it I stand or +fall. + +The cruel scourging, which, in Roman hands, was a much more severe +punishment than the Jewish 'beating with rods' and often ended in +death, was inflicted on the silent, unresisting Christ, not because +His judge thought that it was deserved, but to please accusers whose +charge he knew to be absurd. The underlings naturally followed their +betters' example, and after they had executed Pilate's orders to +scourge, covered the bleeding wounds with some robe, perhaps ragged, +but of the royal colour, and crushed the twisted wreath of thorn- +branch down on the brows, to make fresh wounds there. The jest of +crowning such a poor, helpless creature as Jesus seemed to them, was +exactly on the level of such rude natures, and would be the more +exquisite to them because it was double-barrelled, and insulted the +nation as well as the 'King.' They came in a string, as the tense of +the original word suggests, and offered their mock reverence. But +that sport became tame after a little, and mockery passed into +violence, as it always does in such natures. These rough legionaries +were cruel and brutal, and they were unconscious witnesses to His +Kingship as founded on suffering; but they were innocent as compared +with the polished gentleman on the judgment-seat who prostituted +justice, and the learned Pharisees outside who were howling for +blood. + +II. In verses 4-8 the scene changes again to without the palace, and +shows us Pilate trying another expedient, equally in vain. The +hesitating governor has no chance with the resolute, rooted hate of +the rulers. Jesus silently and unresistingly follows Pilate from the +hall, still wearing the mockery of royal pomp. Pilate had calculated +that the sight of Him in such guise, and bleeding from the lash, +might turn hate into contempt, and perhaps give a touch of pity. +'Behold the man!' as he meant it, was as if he had said, 'Is this +poor, bruised, spiritless sufferer worth hate or fear? Does He look +like a King or a dangerous enemy?' Pilate for once drops the scoff of +calling Him their King, and seeks to conciliate and move to pity. The +profound meanings which later ages have delighted to find in his +words, however warrantable, are no part of their design as spoken, +and we gain a better lesson from the scene by keeping close to the +thoughts of the actors. What a contrast between the vacillation of +the governor, on the one hand, afraid to do right and reluctant to do +wrong, and the dogged malignity of the rulers and their tools on the +other, and the calm, meek endurance of the silent Christ, knowing all +their thoughts, pitying all, and fixed in loving resolve, even firmer +than the rulers' hate, to bear the utmost, that He might save a +world! + +Some pity may have stirred in the crowd, but the priests and their +immediate dependants silenced it by their yell of fresh hate at the +sight of the prisoner. Note how John gives the very impression of the +fierce, brief roar, like that of wild beasts for their prey, by his +'Crucify, crucify!' without addition of the person. Pilate lost +patience at last, and angrily and half seriously gives permission to +them to take the law into their own hands. He really means, 'I will +not be your tool, and if my conviction of "the Man's" innocence is to +be of no account, _you_ must punish Him; for _I_ will not.' How far +he meant to abdicate authority, and how far he was launching +sarcasms, it is difficult to say. Throughout he is sarcastic, and +thereby indicates his weakness, indemnifying himself for being +thwarted by sneers which sit so ill on authority. + +But the offer, or sarcasm, whichever it was, missed fire, as the +appeal to pity had done, and only led to the production of a new +weapon. In their frantic determination to compass Jesus' death, the +rulers hesitate at no degradation; and now they adduced the charge of +blasphemy, and were ready to make a heathen the judge. To ask a Roman +governor to execute their law on a religious offender, was to drag +their national prerogative in the mud. But formal religionists, +inflamed by religious animosity, are often the degraders of religion +for the gratification of their hatred. They are poor preservers of +the Church who call on the secular arm to execute their 'laws.' Rome +went a long way in letting subject peoples keep their institutions; +but it was too much to expect Pilate to be the hangman for these +furious priests, on a charge scarcely intelligible to him. + +What was Jesus doing while all this hell of wickedness and fury +boiled round Him? Standing there, passive and dumb, 'as a sheep +before her shearers,' Himself is the least conspicuous figure in the +history of His own trial. In silent communion with the Father, in +silent submission to His murderers, in silent pity for us, in silent +contemplation of 'the joy that was set before Him,' He waits on their +will. + +III. Once more the scene changes to the interior of the praetorium +(vs. 9-11). The rulers' words stirred a deepened awe in Pilate. He +'was the more afraid'; then he had been already afraid. His wife's +dream, the impression already produced by the person of Jesus, had +touched him more deeply than probably he himself was aware of; and +now this charge that Jesus had 'made Himself the Son of God' shook +him. What if this strange man were in some sense a messenger of the +gods? Had he been scourging one sent from them? Sceptical he probably +was, and therefore superstitious; and half-forgotten and disbelieved +stories of gods who had 'come down in the likeness of men' would swim +up in his memory. If this Man were such, His strange demeanour would +be explained. Therefore he carried Jesus in again, and, not now as +judge, sought to hear from His own lips His version of the alleged +claim. + +Why did not Jesus answer such a question? His silence was answer; +but, besides that, Pilate had not received as he ought what Jesus had +already declared to him as to His kingdom and His relation to 'the +truth,' and careless turning away from Christ's earlier words is +righteously and necessarily punished by subsequent silence, if the +same disposition remains. That it did remain, Christ's silence is +proof. Had there been any use in answering, Pilate would not have +asked in vain. If Jesus was silent, we may be sure that He who sees +all hearts and responds to all true desires was so, because He knew +that it was best to say nothing. The question of His origin had +nothing to do with Pilate's duty then, which turned, not on whence +Jesus had come, but on what Pilate believed Him to have done, or not +to have done. He who will not do the plain duty of the moment has +little chance of an answer to his questions about such high matters. + +The shallow character of the governor's awe and interest is clearly +seen from the immediate change of tone to arrogant reminder of his +absolute authority. 'To me dost Thou not speak?' The pride of +offended dignity peeps out there. He has forgotten that a moment +since he half suspected that the prisoner, whom he now seeks to +terrify with the cross, and to allure with deliverance, was perhaps +come from some misty heaven. Was that a temper which would have +received Christ's answer to his question? + +But one thing he might be made to perceive, and therefore Jesus broke +silence for the only time in this section, and almost the only time +before Pilate. He reads the arrogant Roman the lesson which he and +all his tribe in all lands and ages need--that their power is derived +from God, therefore in its foundation legitimate, and in its exercise +to be guided by His will and used for His purposes. It was God who +had brought the Roman eagles, with their ravening beaks and strong +claws, to the Holy City. Pilate was right in exercising jurisdiction +over Jesus. Let him see that he exercised justice, and let him +remember that the power which he boasted that he 'had' was 'given.' +The truth as to the source of power made the guilt of Caiaphas or of +the rulers the greater, inasmuch as they had neglected the duties to +which they had been appointed, and by handing over Jesus on a charge +which they themselves should have searched out, had been guilty of +'theocratic felony.' This sudden flash of bold rebuke, reminding +Pilate of his dependence, and charging him with the lesser but yet +real 'sin,' went deeper than any answer to his question would have +done, and spurred him to more earnest effort, as John points out. He +'sought to release Him,' as if formerly he had been rather simply +unwilling to condemn than anxious to deliver. + +IV. So the scene changes again to outside. Pilate went out alone, +leaving Jesus within, and was met before he had time, as would +appear, to speak, by the final irresistible weapon which the rulers +had kept in reserve. An accusation of treason was only too certain to +be listened to by the suspicious tyrant who was then Emperor, +especially if brought by the authorities of a subject nation. Many a +provincial governor had had but a short shrift in such a case, and +Pilate knew that he was a ruined man if these implacable zealots +howling before him went to Tiberius with such a charge. So the die +was cast. With rage in his heart, no doubt, and knowing that he was +sacrificing 'innocent blood' to save himself, he turned away from the +victorious mob, apparently in silence, and brought Jesus out once +more. He had no more words to say to his prisoner. Nothing remained +but the formal act of sentence, for which he seated himself, with a +poor assumption of dignity, yet feeling all the while, no doubt, what +a contemptible surrender he was making. + +Judgment-seats and mosaic pavements do not go far to secure reverence +for a judge who is no better than an assassin, killing an innocent +man to secure his own ends. Pilate's sentence fell most heavily on +himself. If 'the judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted,' he +is tenfold condemned when the innocent is sentenced. + +Pilate returned to his sarcastic mood when he returned to his +injustice, and found some satisfaction in his old jeer, 'your King.' +But the passion of hatred was too much in earnest to be turned or +even affected by such poor scoffs, and the only answer was the +renewed roar of the mob, which had murder in its tone. The repetition +of the governor's taunt, 'Shall I crucify your King?' brought out the +answer in which the rulers of the nation in their fury blindly flung +away their prerogative. It is no accident that it was 'the chief +priests' who answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.' Driven by hate, +they deliberately disown their Messianic hope, and repudiate their +national glory. They who will not have Christ have to bow to a +tyrant. Rebellion against Him brings slavery. + + + +AN EYE-WITNESS'S ACCOUNT OF THE CRUCIFIXION + +'And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the +place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where +they crucified Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, +and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on +the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE +JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where +Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in +Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the +Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that He +said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written +I have written. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, +took His garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; +and also His coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the +top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not +rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the +scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My raiment +among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots. These things +therefore the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus +His mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, +and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the +disciple standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, +Woman, behold Thy Son! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy +mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own +home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now +accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I +thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they +filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it +to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He +said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the +ghost.'--JOHN xix. 17-30. + +In great and small matters John's account adds much to the narrative +of the crucifixion. He alone tells of the attempt to have the title +on the Cross altered, of the tender entrusting of the Virgin to his +care, and of the two 'words' 'I thirst' and 'It is finished.' He +gives details which had been burned into his memory, such as Christ's +position 'in the midst' of the two robbers, and the jar of 'vinegar' +standing by the crosses. He says little about the act of fixing Jesus +to the Cross, but enlarges what the other Evangelists tell as to the +soldiers 'casting lots.' He had heard what they said to one another. +He alone distinctly tells that when He went forth, Jesus was bearing +the Cross which afterwards Simon of Cyrene had to carry, probably +because our Lord's strength failed. + +Who appointed the two robbers to be crucified at the same time? Not +the rulers, who had no such power but probably Pilate, as one more +shaft of sarcasm which was all the sharper both because it seemed to +put Jesus in the same class as they, and because they were of the +same class as the man of the Jews' choice, Barabbas, and possibly +were two of his gang. Jesus was 'in the midst,' where He always is, +completely identified with the transgressors, but central to all +things and all men. As He was in the midst on the Cross, with a +penitent on one hand and a rejecter on the other, He is still in the +midst of humanity, and His judgment-seat will be as central as His +Cross was. + +All the Evangelists give the title written over the Cross, but John +alone tells that it was Pilate's malicious invention. He thought that +he was having a final fling at the priests, and little knew how truly +his title, which was meant as a bitter jest, was a fact. He had it +put into the three tongues in use--'Hebrew,' the national tongue; +'Greek,' the common medium of intercourse between varying +nationalities; and 'Latin' the official language. He did not know +that he was proclaiming the universal dominion of Jesus, and +prophesying that wisdom as represented by Greece, law and imperial +power as represented by Rome, and all previous revelation as +represented by Israel, would yet bow before the Crucified, and +recognise that His Cross was His throne. + +The 'high-priests' winced, and would fain have had the title altered. +Their wish once more denied Jesus, and added to their condemnation, +but it did not move Pilate. It would have been well for him if he had +been as firm in carrying out his convictions of justice as in abiding +by his bitter jest. He was obstinate in the wrong place, partly +because he was angry with the rulers, and partly to recover his self- +respect, which had been damaged by his vacillation. But his stiff- +necked speech had a more tragic meaning than he knew, for 'what he +had written' on his own life-page on that day could never be erased, +and will confront him. We are all writing an imperishable record, and +we shall have to read it out hereafter, and acknowledge our +handwriting. + +John next sets in strong contrast the two groups round the Cross--the +stolid soldiers and the sad friends. The four legionaries went +through their work as a very ordinary piece of military duty. They +were well accustomed to crucify rebel Jews, and saw no difference +between these three and former prisoners. They watched the pangs +without a touch of pity, and only wished that death might come soon, +and let them get back to their barracks. How blind men may be to what +they are gazing at! If knowledge measures guilt, how slight the +culpability of the soldiers! They were scarcely more guilty than the +mallet and nails which they used. The Sufferer's clothes were their +perquisite, and their division was conducted on cool business +principles, and with utter disregard of the solemn nearness of death. +Could callous indifference go further than to cast lots for the robe +at the very foot of the Cross? + +But the thing that most concerns us here is that Jesus submitted to +that extremity of shame and humiliation, and hung there naked for all +these hours, gazed on, while the light lasted, by a mocking crowd. He +had set the perfect Pattern of lowly self-abnegation when, amid the +disciples in the upper room, He had 'laid aside His garments,' but +now He humbles Himself yet more, being clothed only 'with shame.' +Therefore should we clothe Him with hearts' love. Therefore God has +clothed Him with the robes of imperial majesty. + +Another point emphasised by John is the fulfilment of prophecy in +this act. The seamless robe, probably woven by loving hands, perhaps +by some of the weeping women who stood there, was too valuable to +divide, and it would be a moment's pastime to cast lots for it. John +saw, in the expedient naturally suggested to four rough men, who all +wanted the robe but did not want to quarrel over it, a fulfilment of +the cry of the ancient sufferer, who had lamented that his enemies +made so sure of his death that they divided his garments and cast +lots for his vesture. But he was 'wiser than he knew,' and, while his +words were to his own apprehension but a vivid metaphor expressing +his desperate condition, 'the Spirit which was in' him 'did signify' +by them 'the sufferings of Christ.' Theories of prophecy or sacrifice +which deny the correctness of John's interpretation have the New +Testament against them, and assume to know more about the workings of +inspiration than is either modest or scientific. + +What a contrast the other group presents! John's enumeration of the +women may be read so as to mention four or three, according as 'His +mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas,' is taken to mean one +woman or two. The latter is the more probable supposition, and it is +also probable that the unnamed sister of our Lord's mother was no +other than Salome, John's own mother. If so, entrusting Mary to +John's care would be the more natural. Tender care, joined with +consciousness that henceforth the relation of son and mother was to +be supplanted, not merely by Death's separating fingers, but by +faith's uniting bond, breathed through the word, so loving yet so +removing, 'Woman, behold thy son!' Dying trust in the humble friend, +which would go far to make the friend worthy of it, breathed in the +charge, to which no form of address corresponding to 'Woman' is +prefixed. Jesus had nothing else to give as a parting gift, but He +gave these two to each other, and enriched both. He showed His own +loving heart, and implied His faithful discharge of all filial duties +hitherto. And He taught us the lesson, which many of us have proved +to be true, that losses are best made up when we hear Him pointing us +by them to new offices of help to others, and that, if we will let +Him, He will point us too to what will fill empty places in our +hearts and homes. + +The second of the words on the Cross which we owe to John is that +pathetic expression, 'I thirst.' Most significant is the insight into +our Lord's consciousness which John, here as elsewhere, ventures to +give. Not till He knew 'that all things were accomplished' did He +give heed to the pangs of thirst, which made so terrible a part of +the torture of crucifixion. The strong will kept back the bodily +cravings so long as any unfulfilled duty remained. Now Jesus had +nothing to do but to die, and before He died He let flesh have one +little alleviation. He had refused the stupefying draught which would +have lessened suffering by dulling consciousness, but He asked for +the draught which would momentarily slake the agony of parched lips +and burning throat. + +The words of verse 28 are not to be taken as meaning that Jesus said +'I thirst' with the mere intention of fulfilling the Scripture. His +utterance was the plaint of a real need, not a performance to fill a +part. But it is John who sees in that wholly natural cry the +fulfilment of the psalm (Ps. lxix. 21). All Christ's bodily +sufferings may be said to be summed up in this one word, the only one +in which they found utterance. The same lips that said, 'If any man +thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink,' said this. Infinitely +pathetic in itself, that cry becomes almost awful in its appeal to us +when we remember who uttered it, and why He bore these pangs. The +very 'Fountain of living water' knew the pang of thirst that every +one that thirsteth might come to the waters, and might drink, not +water only, but 'wine and milk, without money or price.' + +John's last contribution to our knowledge of our Lord's words on the +Cross is that triumphant 'It is finished,' wherein there spoke, not +only the common dying consciousness of life being ended, but the +certitude, which He alone of all who have died, or will die, had the +right to feel and utter, that every task was completed, that all +God's will was accomplished, all Messiah's work done, all prophecy +fulfilled, redemption secured, God and man reconciled. He looked back +over all His life and saw no failure, no falling below the demands of +the occasion, nothing that could have been bettered, nothing that +should not have been there. He looked upwards, and even at that +moment He heard in His soul the voice of the Father saying, 'This is +My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!' + +Christ's work is finished. It needs no supplement. It can never be +repeated or imitated while the world lasts, and will not lose its +power through the ages. Let us trust to it as complete for all our +needs, and not seek to strengthen 'the sure foundation' which it has +laid by any shifting, uncertain additions of our own. But we may +remember, too, that while Christ's work is, in one aspect, finished, +when He bowed His head, and by His own will 'gave up the ghost,' in +another aspect His work is not finished, nor will be, until the whole +benefits of His incarnation and death are diffused through, and +appropriated by, the world. He is working to-day, and long ages have +yet to pass, in all probability, before the voice of Him that sitteth +on the throne shall say 'It is done!' + + + +THE TITLE ON THE CROSS + +'Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross.' +--JOHN xix. 19. + +This title is recorded by all four Evangelists, in words varying in +form but alike in substance. It strikes them all as significant that, +meaning only to fling a jeer at his unruly subjects, Pilate should +have written it, and proclaimed this Nazarene visionary to be He for +whom Israel had longed through weary ages. John's account is the +fullest, as indeed his narrative of all Pilate's shufflings is the +most complete. He alone records that the title was tri-lingual (for +the similar statement in the Authorised Version of Luke is not part +of the original text). He alone gives the Jews' request for an +alteration of the title, and Pilate's bitter answer. That angry reply +betrays his motive in setting up such words over a crucified +prisoner's head. They were meant as a savage taunt of the Jews, not +as an insult to Jesus, which would have been welcome to them. He +seems to have regarded our Lord as a harmless enthusiast, to have had +a certain liking for Him, and a languid curiosity as to Him, which +came by degrees to be just tinged with awe as he felt that he could +not quite make Him out. Throughout, he was convinced that His claim +to be a king contained no menace for Caesar, and he would have let +Jesus go but for fear of being misrepresented at Rome. He felt that +the sacrifice of one more Jew was a small price to pay to avert his +accusation to Caesar; he would have sacrificed a dozen such to keep +his place. But he felt that he was being coerced to do injustice, and +his anger and sense of humiliation find vent in that written taunt. +It was a spurt of bad temper and a measure of his reluctance. + +Besides the interest attaching to it as Pilate's work, it seems to +John significant of much that it should have been fastened on the +Cross, and that it should have been in the three languages, Hebrew +(Aramaic), Greek, and Latin. + +Let us deal with three points in succession. + +I. The title as throwing light on the actors in the tragedy. + +We may consider it, first, in its bearing on Jesus' claims. He was +condemned by the priests on the theocratic charge of blasphemy, +because He made Himself the Son of God. He was sentenced by Pilate on +the civil charge of rebellion, which the priests brought against Him +as an inference necessarily resulting from His claim to be the Son of +God. They drew the same conclusion as Nathanael did long before: +'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God,' and therefore 'Thou art the King of +Israel.' And they were so far right that if the former designation is +correct, the latter inevitably follows. + +Both charges, then, turned on His personal claims. To Pilate He +explained the nature of His kingdom, so as to remove any suspicion +that it would bring Him and His subjects into collision with Rome, +but He asserted His kingship, and it was His own claim that gave +Pilate the material for His gibe. It is worth notice, then, that +these two claims from His own lips, made to the authorities who +respectively took cognisance of the theocratic and of the civic life +of the nation, and at the time when His life hung on the decision of +the two, were the causes of His judicial sentence. The people who +allege that Jesus never made the preposterous claims for Himself +which Christians have made for Him, but was a simple Teacher of +morality and lofty religion, have never fairly faced the simple +question: 'For what, then, was He crucified?' It is easy for them to +dilate on the hatred of the Jewish officials and the gross +earthliness of the masses, as explaining the attitude of both, but it +is not so easy to explain how material was found for judicial +process. One can understand how Jesus was detested by rulers, and how +they succeeded in stirring up popular feeling against Him, but not +how an indictment that would hold water was framed against Him. Nor +would even Pilate's complaisance have gone so far as to have +condemned a prisoner against whom all that could be said was that he +was disliked because he taught wisely and well and was too good for +his critics. The question is, not what made Jesus disliked, but what +set the Law in motion against Him? And no plausible answer has ever +been given except the one that was nailed above His head on the +Cross. It was not His virtues or the sublimity of His teaching, but +His twofold claim to be Son of God and King of Israel that haled Him +to His death. + +We may further ask why Jesus did not clear up the mistakes, if they +were mistakes, that led to His condemnation. Surely He owed it to the +two tribunals before which He stood, no less than to Himself and His +followers, to disown the erroneous interpretations on which the +charges against Him were based. Even a Caiaphas was entitled to be +told, if it were so, that He meant no blasphemy and was not claiming +anything too high for a reverent Israelite, when He claimed to be the +Son of God. If Jesus let the Sanhedrim sentence Him under a mistake +of what His words meant, He was guilty of His own death. + +We note, further, the light thrown by the Title on Pilate's action. +It shows his sense of the unreality of the charge which he basely +allowed himself to be forced into entertaining as a ground of +condemning Jesus. If this enigmatical prisoner had had a sword, there +would have been some substance in the charge against Him, but He was +plainly an idea-monger, and therefore quite harmless, and His +kingship only fit to be made a jest of and a means of girding at the +rulers. 'Practical men' always under-estimate the power of ideas. The +Title shows the same contempt for 'mere theorisers' as animated his +question, 'What is truth?' How little he knew that this 'King,' at +whom he thought that he could launch clumsy jests, had lodged in the +heart of the Empire a power which would shatter and remould it! + +In his blindness to the radiant truth that stood before him, in the +tragedy of his condemnation of that to which he should have yielded +himself, Pilate stands out as a beacon for all time, warning the +world against looking for the forces that move the world among the +powers that the world recognises and honours. If we would not commit +Pilate's fault over again, we must turn to 'the base things of this +world' and the 'things that are not' and find in them the +transforming powers destined to 'bring to nought things that are.' + +Pilate's gibe was an unconscious prophecy. He thought it an exquisite +jest, for it hurt. He was an instance of that strange irony that runs +through history, and makes, at some crisis, men utter fateful words +that seem put into their lips by some higher power. Caiaphas and he, +the Jewish chief of the Sanhedrim and the Roman procurator, were +foremost in Christ's condemnation, and each of them spoke such words, +profoundly true and far beyond the speaker's thoughts. Was the +Evangelist wrong in saying: 'This spake he not of himself?' + +II. The Title on the Cross as unveiling the ground of Christ's +dominion. + +It seemed a ludicrous travesty of royalty that a criminal dying +there, with a crowd of his 'subjects' gloating on his agonies and +shooting arrowy words of scorn at him, should be a King. But His +cross _is_ His throne. It is so because His death is His great work +for the world. It is so because in it we see, with melted hearts, the +sublimest revelation of His love. Absolute authority belongs to utter +self-sacrifice. He, and only He, who gives Himself wholly to and for +me, thereby acquires the right of absolute command over me. He is the +'Prince of all the kings of the earth,' because He has died and +become the 'First-begotten from the dead.' From the hour when He +said, 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me,' down to the +hour when the seer heard the storm of praise from 'ten thousand times +ten thousand, and thousands of thousands' breaking round the throne, +every New Testament reference to Christ's dominion is accompanied +with a reference to His cross, and every reference to His cross +merges in a reference to His throne. The crown of thorns was a +revelation of the inmost nature of Christ's rule. The famous Iron +Crown of Milan is a hard, cold circlet within a golden covering +blazing with jewels. Christ's right to sway men, like His power to do +so, rests on His sacrifice for men. A Christianity without a Cross is +a Christianity without authority, as has been seen over and over +again in the history of the Church, and as is being seen again today, +if men would only look. A Christ without a Cross is a Christ without +a Kingdom. The dominion of the world belongs to Him who can sway +men's inmost motives. Hearts are His who has bought them with His +own. + +III. The Title as prophesying Christ's universal dominion. + +The three tongues in which it was written were chosen simply to make +it easy to read by the crowd from every part of the Empire assembled +at the Passover. There were Palestinian Jews there who probably read +Aramaic only, and representatives from the widely diffused Jewish +emigration in Greek-speaking lands, as well as Roman officials and +Jews from Italy who would be most familiar with Latin. Pilate wanted +his shaft to reach them all. It was, in its tri-lingual character, a +sign of Israel's degradation and a flourishing of the whip in their +faces, as a government order in English placarded in a Bengalee +village might be, or a Russian ukase in Warsaw. Its very wording +betrayed a foreign hand, for a Jew would have written 'King of +Israel,' not 'of the Jews.' + +But John divined a deeper meaning in this Title, just as he found a +similar prophecy of the universality of Christ's death in the +analogous word of Caiaphas. As in that saying he heard a faint +prediction that Jesus should die 'not for that people only, but that +He might also gather into one the scattered children of God,' so he +feels that Pilate was wiser than he knew, and that his written words +in their threefold garb symbolised the relation of Christ and His +work to the three great types of civilisation which it found +possessed of the field. It bent them all to its own purposes, +absorbed them into itself, used their witness and was propagated by +means of them, and finally sucked the life out of them and +disintegrated them. The Jew contributed the morality and monotheism +of the Old Testament; the Greek, culture and the perfected language +that should contain the treasure, the fresh wine-skin for the new +wine; the Roman made the diffusion of the kingdom possible by the +_pax Romana_, and at first sheltered the young plant. All three, no +doubt, marred as well as helped the development of Christianity, and +infused into it deleterious elements, which cling to it to-day, but +the prophecy of the Title was fulfilled and these three tongues +became heralds of the Cross and with 'loud, uplifted trumpets blew' +glad tidings to the ends of the world. + +That Title thus became an unconscious prophecy of Christ's universal +dominion. The Psalmist that sang of Messiah's world-wide rule was +sure that 'all nations shall serve Him,' and the reason why he was +certain of it was '_for_ He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.' +We may be certain of it for the same reason. He who can deal with +man's primal needs, and is ready and able to meet every cry of the +heart, will never want suppliants and subjects. He who can respond to +our consciousness of sin and weakness, and can satisfy hungry hearts, +will build His sway over the hearts whom He satisfies on foundations +deep as life itself. The history of the past becomes a prophecy of +the future. Jesus has drawn men of all sorts, of every stage of +culture and layer of civilisation, and of every type of character to +Him, and the power which has carried a peasant of Nazareth to be the +acknowledged King of the civilised world is not exhausted, and will +not be till He is throned as Saviour and Ruler of the whole earth. +There is only one religion in the world that is obviously growing. +The gods of Greece and Rome are only subjects for studies in +Comparative Mythology, the labyrinthine pantheon of India makes no +conquests, Buddhism is moribund. All other religions than +Christianity are shut up within definite and comparatively narrow +geographical and chronological limits. But in spite of premature +jubilations of enemies and much hasty talk about the need for a re- +statement (which generally means a negation) of Christian truth, we +have a clear right to look forward with quiet confidence. Often in +the past has the religion of Jesus seemed to be wearing or worn out, +but it has a strange recuperative power, and is wont to startle its +enemies' paeans over its grave by rising again and winning renewed +victories. The Title on the Cross is for ever true, and is written +again in nobler fashion 'on the vesture and on the thigh' of Him who +rides forth at last to rule the nations, 'KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF +LORDS.' + + + +THE IRREVOCABLE PAST + +'What I have written I have written.'--JOHN xix. 22. + +This was a mere piece of obstinacy. Pilate knew that he had +prostituted his office in condemning Jesus, and he revenged himself +for weak compliance by ill-timed mulishness. A cool-headed governor +would have humoured his difficult subjects in such a trifle, as a +just one would have been inflexible in a matter of life and death. +But this man's facile yielding and his stiff-necked obstinacy were +both misplaced. 'So I will, so I command. Let my will suffice for a +reason,' was what he meant. He had written his gibe, and not all the +Jews in Jewry should make him change. + +But his petulant answer to the rulers' request for the removal of the +offensive placard carried in it a deeper meaning, as the Title also +did, and as the people's fierce yell, 'His blood be on us and on our +children,' did. Possibly the Evangelist had some thought of that sort +in recording this saying; but, at all events, I venture to take a +liberty with it which I should not do if it were a word of God's, or +if it were given for our instruction. So I take it now as expressing +in a vivid way, and irrespective of Pilate's intention, the thought +of the irrevocable past. + +I. Every man is perpetually writing a permanent record of himself. + +It is almost impossible to get the average man to think of his life +as a whole, or to realise that the fleeting present leaves indelible +traces. They seem to fade away wholly. The record appears to be +written in water. It is written in ink which is invisible, but as +indelible as invisible. Grammarians define the perfect tense as that +which expresses an action completed in the past and of which the +consequences remain in the present. That is true of all our actions. +Our characters, our circumstances, our remembrances, are all +permanent. Every day we make entries in our diary. + +II. That record, once written, is irrevocable. + +We all know what it is to long that some one action should have been +otherwise, to have taken some one step which perhaps has coloured +years, and which we would give the world not to have taken. But it +cannot be. Remorse cannot alter it. Wishes are vain. Repentance is +vain. A new line of conduct is vain. + +What an awful contrast in this respect between time future and time +past! Think of the indefinite possibilities in the one, the rigid +fixity of the other. Our present actions are like cements that dry +quickly and set hard on exposure to the air--the dirt of the trowel +abides on the soft brick for ever. Many cuneiform inscriptions were +impressed with a piece of wood on clay, and are legible millenniums +after. + +We have to write _currente calamo_, and as soon as written, the MS. +is printed and stereotyped, and no revising proofs nor erasures are +possible. An action, once done, escapes from us wholly. + +How needful, then, to have lofty principles ready at hand! The fresco +painter must have a sure touch, and a quick hand, and a full mind. + +What a boundless field the future offers us! How much it may be! How +much, perhaps, we resolve it shall be! What a shrunken heap the +harvest is! Are you satisfied with what you have written? + +III. This record, written here, is read yonder. + +Our actions carry eternal consequences. These will be read by +ourselves. Character remains. Memory remains. + +We shall read with all illusions stripped away. + +Others will read--God and a universe. + +'We shall all be _manifested_ before the judgment-seat of Christ.' + +IV. This record may be blotted out by the blood of Christ. + +It cannot be made not to have been, but God's pardon will be given, +and in respect to all personal consequences it is made non-existent. +Circumstances may remain, but their pressure is different. Character +may be renewed and sanctified, and even made loftier by the evil +past. Our dead selves may become 'stepping-stones to higher things.' + +Memory may remain, but its sting is gone, and new hopes, and joys, +and work may fill the pages of our record. + +'He took away the handwriting that was against us, nailing it to His +Cross.' + +Our lives and characters may become a palimpsest. 'I will write upon +him My new name.' 'Ye are an epistle of Christ ministered by us.' + + + +CHRIST'S FINISHED AND UNFINISHED WORK + +'Jesus ... said, It is finished.'--JOHN xix. 30. + +'He said unto me, It is done.'--REV. xxi. 6. + +One of these sayings was spoken from the Cross, the other from the +Throne. The Speaker of both is the same. In the one, His voice 'then +shook the earth,' as the rending rocks testified; in the other, His +voice 'will shake not the earth only but also heaven'; for 'new +heavens and a new earth' accompanied the proclamation. In the one, +like some traveller ready to depart, who casts a final glance over +his preparations, and, satisfied that nothing is omitted, gives his +charioteer the signal and rolls away, Jesus Christ looked back over +His life's work, and, knowing that it was accomplished, summoned His +servant Death, and departed. In the other, He sets His seal to the +closed book of the world's history, and ushers in a renovated +universe. The one masks the completion of the work on which the +world's redemption rests, the other marks the completion of the age- +long process by which the world's redemption is actually realised. +The one proclaims that the foundation is laid, the other that the +headstone is set on the finished building. The one bids us trust in a +past perfected work; the other bids us hope in the perfect +accomplishment of the results of that work. Taken singly, these +sayings are grand; united, they suggest thoughts needed always, never +more needful than to-day. + +I. We see here the work which was finished on the Cross. + +The Evangelist gives great significance to the words of my first +text, as is shown by his statement in a previous verse: 'Jesus, +knowing that all things were now accomplished, said, I thirst,' and +then--'It is finished.' That is to say, there is something in that +dying voice a great deal deeper and more wonderful than the ordinary +human utterance with which a dying man might say, 'It is all over +now. I have done,' for this utterance came from the consciousness +that all things had been accomplished by Him, and that He had done +His life's work. + +Now, there, taking the words even in their most superficial sense, we +come upon the strange peculiarity which marks off the life of Jesus +Christ from every other life that was ever lived. There are no loose +ends left, no unfinished tasks drop from His nerveless hands, to be +taken up and carried on by others. His life is a rounded whole, with +everything accomplished that had been endeavoured, and everything +done that had been commanded. 'His hands have laid the foundation; +His hands shall also finish.' He alone of the sons of men, in the +deepest sense, completed His task, and left nothing for successors. +The rest of us are taken away when we have reared a course or two of +the structure, the dream of building which brightened our youth. The +pen drops from paralysed hands in the middle of a sentence, and a +fragment of a book is left. The painter's brush falls with his +palette at the foot of his easel, and but the outline of what he +conceived is on the canvas. All of us leave tasks half done, and have +to go away before the work is completed. The half-polished columns +that lie at Baalbec are but a symbol of the imperfection of every +human life. But this Man said, 'It is finished,' and 'gave up the +ghost.' Now, if we ponder on what lies in that consciousness of +completion, I think we find, mainly, three things. + +Christ rendered a complete obedience. All through His life we see +Him, hearing with the inward ear the solemn voice of the Father, and +responding to it with that 'I must' which runs through all His days, +from the earliest dawning of consciousness, when He startled His +mother with 'I must be about My Father's business,' until the very +last moments. In that obedience to the all-present necessity which He +cheerfully embraced and perfectly discharged, there was no flaw. He +alone of men looks back upon a life in which His clear consciousness +detected neither transgression nor imperfection. In the midst of His +career He could front His enemies with 'Which of you convinceth Me of +sin?' and no man then, and no man in all the generations that have +elapsed since--though some have been blind enough to try it, and +malicious enough to utter their attempts,--has been able to answer +the challenge. In the midst of His career He said, 'I do always the +things that please Him'; and nobody then or since has been able to +lay his finger upon an act of His in which, either by excess or +defect, or contrariety, the will of God has not been fully +represented. At the beginning of His career He said, in answer to the +Baptist's remonstrance, 'It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,' +and at the end of His career He looked back, and knowing that He had +thus done what became Him--namely, fulfilled it all--He said, 'It is +finished!' + +The utterance further expresses Christ's consciousness of having +completed the revelation of God. Jesus Christ has made known the +Father, and the generations since have added nothing to His +revelation. The very people, to-day, that turn away from +Christianity, in the name of higher conceptions of the divine nature, +owe their conceptions of it to the Christ from whom they turn. Not in +broken syllables; not 'at sundry times and in divers manners,' but +with the one perfect, full-toned name of God on His lips, and vocal +in His life, He has declared the Father unto us. In the course of His +career He said, 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father'; and, +looking back on His life of manifestation of God, He proclaimed, 'It +is finished!' And the world has since, with all its thinking, added +nothing to the name which Christ has declared. + +The utterance farther expresses His consciousness of having made a +completed, atoning Sacrifice. Remember that the words of my first +text followed that awful cry that came from the darkness, and as by +one lightning flash, show us the waves and billows rolling over His +head. 'My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?' In that infinitely +pathetic and profound utterance, to the interpretation of which our +powers go but a little way, Jesus Christ blends together, in the most +marvellous fashion, desolation and trust, the consciousness that God +is His God, and the consciousness that He is bereft of the light of +His presence. Brethren! I know of no explanation of these words which +does justice to both the elements that are intertwined so intimately +in them, except the old one, which listens to Him as they come from +His quivering lip, and says, 'The Lord hath made to meet on Him the +iniquity of us all.' + +Ah, brethren! unless there was something a great deal more than the +physical shrinking from physical death in that piteous cry, Jesus +Christ did not die nearly as bravely as many a poor, trembling woman +who, at the stake or the block, has owed her fortitude to Him. Many a +blood-stained criminal has gone out of life with less tremor than +that which, unless you take the explanation that Scripture suggests +of the cry, marred the last hours of Jesus Christ. Having drained the +cup, He held it up inverted when He said 'It is finished!' and not a +drop trickled down the edge. He drank it that we might never need to +drink it; and so His dying voice proclaimed that 'by one offering for +sin for ever,' He 'obtained eternal redemption' for us. + +II. Now, secondly, note the work which began from the Cross. Between +my two texts lie untold centuries, and the whole development of the +consequences of Christ's death, like some great valley stretching +between twin mountain-peaks on either side, which from some points of +view will be foreshortened and invisible, but when gazed down upon, +is seen to stretch widely leagues broad, from mountain ridge to +mountain ridge. So my two texts, by the fact that millenniums have to +interpose between the time when 'It is finished!' is spoken, and the +time when 'It is done!' can be proclaimed from the Throne, imply that +the interval is filled by a continuous work of our Lord's, which +began at the moment when the work on the Cross ended. + +Now it has very often been the case, as I take leave to think, that +the interpretation of the former of these two texts has been of such +a kind as to distort the perspective of Christian truth, and to +obscure the fact of that continuous work of our Lord's. Therefore it +may not be out of place if, in a sentence or two, I recall to you the +plain teaching of the New Testament upon this matter. 'It is +finished!' Yes; and as the lower course of some great building is but +the foundation for the higher, when 'finished' it is but begun. The +work which, in one aspect, is the close, in another aspect is the +commencement of Christ's further activity. What did He say Himself, +when He was here with His disciples? 'I will not leave you +comfortless, I will come to you.' What was the last word that came +fluttering down, like an olive leaf, into the bosoms of the men as +they stood with uplifted faces gazing upon Him as He disappeared? +'Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the ages.' What is the +keynote of the book which carries on the story of the Gospels in the +history of the militant Church? 'The former treatise have I made... +of all that Jesus _began_ both to do and to teach, until the day in +which He was taken up'--and, being taken up, continued, in a new +form, both the doing and the teaching. Thus that book, misnamed the +Acts of the Apostles, sets Him forth as the Worker of all the +progress of the Church. Who is it that 'adds to the Church daily such +as were being saved?' The Lord. Who is it that opened the hearts of +the hearers to the message? The Lord. Who is it that flings wide the +prison-gates when His persecuted servants are in chains? The Lord. +Who is it that bids one man attach himself to the chariot of the +eunuch of Ethiopia, and another man go and bear witness in Rome? The +Lord. Through the whole of that book there runs the keynote, as its +dominant thought, that men are but the instruments, and the hand that +wields them is Christ's, and that He who wrought the finished work +that culminated on Calvary is operating a continuous work through the +ages from His Throne. + +Take that last book of Scripture, which opens with a view of the +ascended Christ 'walking in the midst of the seven candlesticks, and +holding the stars in His right hand;' which further draws aside the +curtains of the heavenly sanctuary, and lets us see 'the Lamb in the +midst of the Throne,' opening the seven seals--that is to say, +setting loose for their progress through the world the forces that +make the history of humanity, and which culminates in the vision of +the final battle in which the Incarnate Word of God goes forth to +victory, with all the armies of heaven following Him. Are not its +whole spirit and message that Jesus Christ, the Lamb who is the +Antagonist of the Beast, is working through all the history of the +world, and will work till its kingdoms are 'become the kingdoms of +our God and of His Christ?' + +Now, that continuous operation of Jesus Christ in the midst of men is +not to be weakened down to the mere continued influence of the truths +which He proclaimed, or the Gospel which He brought. There is +something a great deal more than the diminishing vibrations of a +force long since set in operation, and slowly ceasing to act. Dead +teachers do still 'rule our spirits from their urns'; but it is no +dead Christ who, by the influence of what He did when He was living, +sways the world and comforts His Church; it is a living Christ who +to-day is working in His people, by His Spirit. Further, He works on +the world through His people by the Word; they plant and water, He +'gives the increase.' And He is working in the world, for His Church +and for the world, by His wielding of all power that is given to Him, +in heaven and on earth. So that the work that is done upon earth He +doeth it all Himself; and Christian people unduly limit the sphere of +Christ's operations when they look back only to the Cross, and talk +about a 'finished work' there, and forget that that finished work +there is but the vestibule of the continuous work that is being done +to-day. + +Christian people! The present work of Christ needs working servants. +We are here in order to carry on His work. The Apostle ventured to +say that he was appointed 'to fill up that which is behind of the +sufferings of Christ'; we may well venture to say that we are here +mainly to apply to the world the benefits resulting from the finished +work upon the Cross. The accomplishment of redemption, and the +realisation of the accomplished redemption, are two wholly different +things. Christ has done the one. He says to us, 'You are honoured to +help Me to do the other.' According to the accurate rendering of a +great saying of the Old Testament, 'Take no rest, and give Him no +rest, till He establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth, +Christ's work is finished; there is nothing for us to do with it but +trust it. Christ's work is going on; come to His help. Ye are fellow- +labourers with and to the Incarnate Truth. + +III. I need not say more than a word about the third thought, +suggested by these texts--viz., the completion of the work which +began on the Cross. + +'It is done!' That lies, no man knows how far, ahead of us. As surely +as astronomers tell us that all this universe is hastening towards a +central point, so surely 'that far-off divine event' is that 'to +which the whole creation moves.' It is the blaze of light which fills +the distant end of the dim vista of human history. Its elements are +in part summed up in the context--the tabernacle of God with men, the +perfected fellowship of the human with the divine, the housing of men +in the very home and heart of God; 'a new heaven and a new earth,' a +renovated universe; the removal of all evil, suffering, sorrow, sin, +and tears. These things are to be, and shall be, when He says 'It is +done!' + +Brethren! nothing else than such an issue can be the end of Creation, +for nothing else than such is the purpose of God for man, and God is +not going to be beaten by the world and the devil. Nothing else than +such can be the issue of the Cross; for 'He shall see of the travail +of His soul, and shall be satisfied,' and Christ is not going to +labour in vain, and spend His life, and give His breath and His blood +for nought. + +Nothing but the work finished on the Cross guarantees the coming of +that perfected issue. I know not where else there is hope for +mankind, looking on the history of humanity, except in that great +message, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come, has died, lives +for ever, and is the world's King and Lord. + +So for ourselves, in regard to the one part of the work, let us +listen to Him saying 'It is finished!' abandon all attempts to eke it +out by additions of our own, and cast ourselves on the finished +Revelation, the finished Obedience, the finished Atonement, made once +for all on the Cross. But as for the continuous work going on through +the ages, let us cast ourselves into it with earnestness, self- +sacrifice, consecration, and continuity, for we are fellow-workers +with Christ, and Christ will work in, with, and for us if we will +work for Him. + + + +CHRIST OUR PASSOVER + +'These things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, +A bone of Him shall not be broken.'--JOHN xix. 36. + +The Evangelist, in the words of this text, points to the great Feast +of the Passover and to the Paschal Lamb, as finding their highest +fulfilment, as he calls it, in Jesus Christ. For this purpose of +bringing out the correspondence between the shadow and the substance +he avails himself of a singular coincidence concerning a perfectly +unimportant matter--viz., the abnormally rapid sinking of Christ's +physical strength in the crucifixion, by which the final indignity of +breaking the bones of the sufferers was avoided in His case. John +sees, in that entirely insignificant thing, a kind of fingerpost +pointing to far more important, deeper, and real correspondences. We +are not to suppose that he was so purblind, and attached so much +importance to externals, as that this outward coincidence exhausted +in his conception the correspondence between the two. But It was a +trifle that suggested a greater matter. It was a help aiding gross +conceptions and common minds to grasp the inward relation between +Jesus and that Passover rite. But just as our Lord would have +fulfilled the prophecy about the King coming 'meek, and having +salvation,' though He had never ridden on a literal ass into the +literal Jerusalem, so our Lord would have 'fulfilled' the shadow of +the Passover with the substance of His own sacrifice if there had +never been this insignificant correspondence, in outward things, +between the two. + +But whilst my text is the Evangelist's commentary, the question +arises, How did he come to recognise that our Lord was all which that +Passover signified? And the answer is, he recognised it through +Christ's own teaching. He does not record the institution of the +Lord's Supper. It did not fall into his scheme to deal with external +events of that sort, and he knew that it had been sufficiently taught +by the three earlier Gospels, to which his is a supplement. But +though he did not narrate the institution, he takes it for granted in +the words of my text, and his vindication of his seeing the +fulfilment of 'A bone of Him shall not be broken' in the incident to +which I have referred, lies in this, that Jesus Christ Himself swept +away the Passover and substituted the memorial feast of the Lord's +Supper. 'This do in remembrance of Me,' said at the table where the +Paschal lamb had been eaten, sufficiently warrants John's allusion +here. + +So then, marking the fact that our Evangelist is but carrying out the +lesson that he had learned in the upper room, we may fairly take the +identification of the Paschal lamb with the crucified Christ as being +the last instance in which our Lord Himself laid His hand upon Old +Testament incidents and said, 'They all mean Me.' And it is from that +point of view, and not merely for the purpose of dealing with the +words that I have read as our starting-point, that I wish to speak +now. + +I. Now then, the first thing that strikes me is that in this +substitution of Himself for the Passover we have a strange instance +of Christ's supreme authority. + +Try to fling yourself back in imagination to that upper room, where +Jesus and a handful of Galileans were sitting, and remember the +sanctity which immemorial usage had cast round that centre and apex +of the Jewish ritual, established at the Exodus by a solemn divine +appointment, intended to commemorate the birth of the nation, +venerable by antiquity and association with the most vehement +pulsations of national feeling, the centre point of Jewish religion. +Christ said: 'Put it all away; do not think about the Exodus; do not +think about the destroying Angel; do not think about the deliverance. +Forget all the past; do this in remembrance of Me.' Take into account +that the Passover had a double sacredness, as a religious festival, +and also as commemorating the birthday of the nation, and then +estimate what a strange sense of His own importance the Man must have +had who said: 'That past is done with, and it is _Me_ that you have +to think of now.' If I might venture to take a very modern +illustration without vulgarising a great thing, suppose that on the +other side of the Atlantic somebody were to stand up and say, 'I +abrogate the Fourth of July and Independence Day. Do not think about +Washington and the establishment of the United States any more. Think +about me!' That is exactly what Jesus Christ did. Only instead of a +century there were millenniums of observance which He thus laid +aside. So I say that is a strange exercise of authority. + +What does it imply? It implies two things, and I must say a word +about each of them. It implies that Christ regarded the whole of the +ancient system of Judaism, its history, its law, its rites of +worship, as pointing onwards to Himself, that He recognised in it a +system the whole _raison d'etre_ of which was anticipatory and +preparatory of Himself. For Him the Decalogue was given, for Him +priests were consecrated, for Him kings were anointed, for Him +prophets spake, for Him sacrifices smoked, for Him festivals were +appointed, and the nation and its history were all one long +proclamation: 'The King cometh! go ye forth to meet Him.' You cannot +get less than that out of the way in which He handled, as is told in +this Gospel, Jacob's ladder, the Serpent in the wilderness, the Manna +that fell from Heaven, the Pillar of Cloud that led the people, the +Rock that gushed forth water, and now, last of all, the Passover, +which was the very shining apex of the whole sacrificial and ritual +system. + +And remember, too, that this way of dealing with all the institutions +of the nation as meaning, in their inmost purpose, Himself, is +exactly parallel to His way of dealing with the sacred words of +Mosaic commandment and prohibition in the Sermon on the Mount, where +He set side by side as of equal--I was going to say, and I should +have been right in saying, identical--authority what was 'said to +them of old time' and what 'I say unto you.' Amidst the dust of our +present controversies as to the processes by which, and the times at +which, the Old Testament books assumed their present form, there is +grave danger that the essential thing about the whole matter should +be obscured. The way in which what is called Higher Criticism may +finally locate the origins and dates of the various parts of that +ancient record and that ancient system does not in the slightest +degree affect the outstanding characteristic of the whole, that it is +the product of the divine hand, working (if you will) through men who +had more freedom of action whilst they were its organs than our +grandfathers thought. Be it so; but still that divine Hand shaped the +whole in order that, besides its educational effects upon the +generations that received it, there should shine through it all the +expectation of the coming King. And I venture to say that, however +grateful we may be to modern investigation for light upon these other +points to which I have referred, the ignorant reader that reads Jesus +Christ into all the Old Testament may be very uncritical and mistaken +in regard to details, but he has got hold of the root of the matter, +and is nearer to the apprehension of the essence and spirit and +purpose of the ancient Revelation than the most learned critic who +does not see that it is the preparation for, and the prophecy of, +Jesus Christ Himself. And the vindication of such a position lies in +this, among other facts, that He in the upper room, in harmony with, +and in completion of, all that He had previously spoken about His +relation to the Old Testament, claimed the Passover as the prophecy +of Himself, and said, 'I am the Lamb of God.' + +I need not dwell, I suppose, on the other consideration that is +involved in this strange exercise of authority--viz., the +naturalness, as without any sense of doing anything presumptuous or +extraordinary, with which Christ assumes His right to handle divine +appointments with the most perfect freedom, to modify them, to +reshape them, to divert them from their first purpose, and to enjoin +them with an authority equal to that with which the Lord said unto +Moses, 'Keep ye this day through your generations.' There is only one +supposition on which I, for my part, can understand that conduct-- +that He was the possessor of authority the same as the Authority that +had originally instituted the rite. + +And so, dear brethren! when our Lord said, 'Do this in remembrance of +Me,' I pray you to ask yourselves, What did that involve in regard to +His nature and the source of His authority over us? And what did it +involve in regard to His relation to that ancient Revelation? + +II. And now another point that I would suggest is--we have, in this +substitution of the new rite for the old, our Lord's clear +declaration of what was the very heart of His work in the world. + +'This do in remembrance of Me.' What is it, then, to which He points? +Is it to the wisdom, the tenderness, the deep beauty, the flashing +moral purity that gleamed and shone lambent in His words? No! Is it +to the gracious self--oblivion, the gentle accessibility, the loving +pity, the leisurely heart always ready to help, the eye ready to fill +with tears, the hand ever outstretched and ever laden with blessings? +No! It is the death on the Cross which He, if I might so say, +isolates, at least which He underscores with red lines, and which He +would have us remember, as we remember nothing else. Brethren, rites +are insignificant in many aspects, but are often of enormous +importance as witnesses to truths. And I point to the Lord's Supper, +the one rite of the Christian Church, which is to be repeated over +and over and over again, and see in it the great barrier which has +rendered it impossible, and will render it impossible, as I believe, +for evermore, that a Christianity, which obscures the atoning +sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, should ever pose as the full +representation of the Master's mind, or as the full expression of the +Saviour's word. + +What do men and churches that falter in their allegiance to the truth +of Christ's redemptive death do with the Lord's Supper? Nothing! For +the most part they ignore it, or if they retain it, do not, for the +life of them, know how to explain it, or why it should be there. The +explanation of why it is there is the great truth, of which it is the +clear utterance and the strong defence, the truth that 'Jesus Christ +died for our sins according to the Scriptures,' and that 'the Son of +Man came... to give His life a ransom for the many.' + +What did that Passover say? Two things it said, the blood that was +sprinkled on the lintels and on the door-posts was the token to the +destroying Angel, as with his broad, silent pinions he swept through +the land, bringing a blacker night into Egyptian darkness, and +leaving behind him no house 'in which there was not one dead.' All +the houses of which the occupants had put the ruddy mark on the +lintels and on the doorposts, and were wise enough not to go forth +from behind the shelter of that mark on the door, were safe when the +morning dawned. And so to us all who, by our sinfulness, have brought +down upon our heads exposedness to that retribution, which, in a +righteously governed universe, must needs follow sin, and to that +death which the separation from God--the necessary result of sin-- +most surely is, there is proffered in that great Sacrifice shelter +from the destroying sword. + +But that is not all. Whilst the blood on the posts meant security, +the Lamb on the table meant emancipation. So they who find in the +dying Christ their exemption from the last consequences of +transgression, find, in partaking of the Christ whose sacrifice is +their pardon, the communication of a new power, which sets them free +from a worse than Egyptian bondage, and enables them to shake from +their emancipated limbs the fetters of the grimmest of the Pharaohs +that have wielded a tyrannous dominion over them. Pardon and freedom, +the creation of a nation subject only to the law of Jehovah Himself-- +these were the facts that the Passover festival and the Passover lamb +signified, and these are the facts which, in nobler fashion, are +brought to us by Jesus Christ. So, I beseech you, let Him teach you +what His work in the world is, as He lays His own hand on that +highest of the ancient festivals, and endorses the Baptist's +declaration, 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of +the world!' + +III. Now, lastly, let me ask you to notice how, in this regal and +authoritative dealing by our Lord with that ancient festival, there +lies a loving provision for our weakness. + +Surely we may venture to say that Jesus Christ desired to be +remembered, even by that handful of poor people, and by us, not only +for our sakes, but because His heart, too, craved that He should not +be forgotten by those whom He was leaving. As you may remember, the +dying king turned to the bishop standing by him, with the enigmatical +word which no one understood but the receiver of it--'Remember!' so +did Jesus Christ. He appeals to our thankfulness, He appeals to our +affections, He lets us see that He wishes to live in our memories, +because He delights in it, as well as because it is for our profit. + +The Passover was purely and simply a rite of remembrance. I venture +to believe that the Lord's Supper is nothing more. I know how people +talk about the bare, bald, Zwinglian ideas of the Communion. They do +look very bald and bare by the side of modern notions and mediaeval +notions resuscitated. Well, I had rather have the bareness than I +would have it overlaid by coverings under which there is room for +abundance of vermin to lurk. Christ puts the Lord's Supper in the +place of the Passover. The Passover was a purely memorial rite. You +Christian people will understand the spirituality of the whole Gospel +system, and the nature of the only bond which unites men to Jesus and +brings spiritual blessings to them--viz. faith--all the better, the +more you cling, in spite of all that is going on round us to-day, to +that simple, intelligible, Scriptural notion that we commemorate the +Sacrifice, not offer the Sacrifice. Jesus Christ said that the Lord's +Supper was to be observed 'in remembrance of Me.' That was His +explanation of its purpose, and I for one am content to take as the +expounder of the laws of the feast, the feast's own Founder. + +Now one more word. In the Passover men fed on the Sacrifice. Jesus +Christ presents Himself to each of us as at once the Sacrifice for +our sins and the Food of our souls. If you will keep your minds in +touch with the truth about Him, and with Him whom the truth about Him +reveals to you, if you will keep your hearts in touch with that great +and unspeakable sign of God's love, if you will keep your wills in +submission to His authority, if you will let His blood, 'which is the +life,' or as you may otherwise word it, His Spirit, come into your +lives, and be your spirit, your motive, then you will go out from the +table, not like the disciples to flee, and deny, and forget, nor like +the Israelites to wander in a wilderness, but strengthened for many a +day of joyous service and true communion, and will come at last to +what He has promised us: 'Ye shall sit with Me at My table in My +Kingdom,' whence we shall go 'no more out.' + + + +JOSEPH AND NICODEMUS + +'And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, +but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might +take away the body of Jesus; ... And there came also Nicodemus +which at the first came to Jesus by night.'--JOHN xix. 38, 39. + +While Christ lived, these two men had been unfaithful to their +convictions; but His death, which terrified and paralysed and +scattered His avowed disciples, seems to have shamed and stung them +into courage. They came now, when they must have known that it was +too late, to lavish honour and tears on the corpse of the Master whom +they had been too cowardly to acknowledge, whilst acknowledgment +might yet have availed. How keen an arrow of self-condemnation must +have pierced their hearts as they moved in their offices of love, +which they thought that He could never know, round His dead corpse! + +They were both members of the Sanhedrim; the same motives, no doubt, +had withheld each of them from confessing Christ; the same impulses +united them in this too late confession of discipleship. Nicodemus +had had the conviction, at the beginning of Christ's ministry, that +He was at least a miraculously attested and God-sent Teacher. But the +fear which made him steal to Jesus by night--the unenviable +distinction which the Evangelist pitilessly reiterates at each +mention of him--arrested his growth and kept him dumb when silence +was treason. Joseph of Arimathea is described by two of the +Evangelists as 'a disciple'; by the other two as a devout Israelite, +like Simeon and Anna, 'waiting for the Kingdom of God.' Luke informs +us that he had not concurred in the condemnation of Jesus, but leads +us to believe that his dissent had been merely silent. Perhaps he was +more fully convinced than Nicodemus, and at the same time even more +timid in avowing his convictions. + +We may take these two contrite cowards as they try to atone for their +unfaithfulness to their living Master by their ministrations to Him +dead, as examples of secret disciples, and see here the causes, the +misery, and the cure of such. + +I. Let us look at them as illustrations of secret discipleship and +its causes. + +They were restrained from the avowal of the Messiahship of Jesus by +fear. There is nothing in the organisation of society at this day to +make any man afraid of avowing the ordinary kind of Christianity +which satisfies the most of us; rather it is the proper thing with +the bulk of us middle-class people, to say that in some sense or +other we are Christians. But when it comes to a real avowal, a real +carrying out of a true discipleship, there are as many and as +formidable, though very different, impediments in the way to-day, +from those which blocked the path of these two cowards in our text. +In all regions of life it is hard to work out into practice any moral +conviction whatever. How many of us are there who have beliefs about +social and moral questions which we are ashamed to avow in certain +companies for fear of the finger of ridicule being pointed at us? It +is not only in the Church, and in reference to purely religious +belief, that we find the curse of secret discipleship, but it is +everywhere. Wherever there are moral questions which are yet the +subject of controversy, and have not been enthroned with the +hallelujahs of all men, you get people that carry their convictions +shut up in their own breasts, and lock their lips in silence, when +there is most need of frank avowal. The political, social, and moral +conflicts of this day have their 'secret disciples,' who will only +come out of their holes when the battle is over, and will then shout +with the loudest. + +But to turn to the more immediate subject before us, how many men and +women, I wonder, are there who ought to be and are not, distinctly +and openly united with the Christian community? + +I do not mean to say--God forbid that I should--that connection with +any existing church is the same as a connection with Jesus Christ, or +that the neglect to be so associated is tantamount to secret +discipleship; I know there are plenty of other ways of acknowledging +Him than that, but I am quite sure that this is one department in +which a large number of men, in all our congregations--and there are +not a few in this congregation--need a very plain word of earnest +remonstrance. It is one way of manifesting whose you are, that you +should unite yourselves openly with those who belong to Him, and who +try to serve Him. I do not dwell upon this matter, because I do not +wish to be misunderstood, as if I supposed that union to a church is +equivalent to union with Him; or that a connection with a church is +the only, or even the principal way of making an open avowal of +Christian principle; but I am certain that amongst us in this day +there is a laxity in this matter which is doing harm both to the +Church and to some of you. Therefore I say to you, dear friends, +suffer the word of exhortation as to the duty of openly uniting +yourselves with the Christian community. + +But far higher and more important than that--do you ever say anyhow +that you belong to Jesus Christ? In a society like ours, in which the +influence of Christian morality affects a great many people who have +no personal connection with Him, it is not always enough that the +life should preach, because over a very large field of ordinary daily +life the underground influence, so to speak, of Christian ethics has +infiltrated and penetrated, so that many a tree bears a greener leaf +because of the water that has found its way to it from the river, +though it be planted far from its banks. Even those who are not +Christians live outward lives largely regulated by Christian +principle. The whole level of morality has been heaved up, as the +coastline has sometimes been by hidden fires slowly working, by the +imperceptible, gradual influence of the gospel. + +So it needs sometimes that you should _say_ 'I am a Christian,' as +well as that you should live like one. Ask yourselves, dear friends! +whether you have buttoned your greatcoat over your uniform that +nobody may know whose soldier you are. Ask yourselves whether you +have sometimes held your tongues because you knew that if you spoke +people would find out where you came from and what country you +belonged to. Ask yourselves, Have you ever accompanied the witness of +your lives with the commentary of your confession? Did you ever, +anywhere but in a church, stand up and say, 'I believe in Jesus +Christ, His only Son, _my_ Lord'? + +And then ask yourselves another question: Have you ever dared to be +singular? We are all of us in this world often thrust into +circumstances in which it is needful that we should say, 'So do not I +because of the fear of the Lord.' Boys go to school; they used always +to kneel down at their bedsides and say their prayers when they were +at home. They do not like to do it with all those critical and cruel +eyes--and there are no eyes more critical and more cruel than young +eyes--fixed upon them, and so they give up prayer. A young man comes +to Manchester, goes into a warehouse, pure of life, and with a tongue +that has not blossomed into rank fruit of obscenity and blasphemy. +And he hears, at the next desk there, words that first of all bring a +blush to his cheek, and he is tempted into conduct that he knows to +be a denial of his Master. And he covers up his principles, and goes +with the tempters into the evil. I might sketch a dozen other cases, +but I need not. In one form or other, we have all to go through the +same ordeal. We have sometimes to dare to be in a minority of one, if +we will not be untrue to our Master and to ourselves. + +Now the reasons for this unfaithfulness to conviction and to Christ, +are put by the Apostle here in a very blunt fashion--'For fear of the +Jews.' That is not what we say to ourselves; some of us say, 'Oh! I +have got beyond outward organisations. I find it enough to be united +to Christ. The Christian communities are very imperfect. There is not +any of them that I quite see eye to eye with. So I stand apart, +contemplating all, and happy in my unsectarianism.' Yes, I quite +admit the faults, and suppose that as long as men think at all they +will not find any Church which is entirely to their mind; and I +rejoice to think that some day we shall all outgrow visible +organisations--when we get there where the seer 'saw no temple +therein.' Admitting all that, I also know that isolation is always +weakness, and that if a man stand apart from the wholesome friction +of his brethren, he will get to be a great diseased mass of oddities, +of very little use either to himself, or to men, or to God. It is not +a good thing, on the whole, that people should fight for their own +hands, and the wisest thing any of us can do is, preserving our +freedom of opinion, to link ourselves with some body of Christian +people, and to find in them our shelter and our home. + +But these two in our text were moved by 'fear.' They dreaded +ridicule, the loss of position, the expulsion from Sanhedrim and +synagogue, social ostracism, and all the armoury of offensive weapons +which would have been used against them by their colleagues. So, +ignobly they kept their thumb on their convictions, and the two of +them sat dumb in the council when the scornful question was asked, +'Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?' when +they ought to have started to their feet and said 'Yes, we have!' And +when Nicodemus ventured a feeble remonstrance, which he carefully +divested of all appearance of personal sympathy, and put upon the +mere abstract ground of fair play--'Doth our law judge any man before +it hear him?'--one contemptuous question was enough to reduce him to +silence. 'Art thou also of Galilee?' was enough to cow him into +dropping his timid plea for Him whom in his heart he believed to be +the Messiah. + +So with us, the fear of loss of position comes into play. I have +heard of people who settled the congregation which they should honour +by their presence from the consideration of the social advantages +which it offered. I have heard of their saying, 'Oh! we cannot attach +ourselves to such and such a community; there is no society for the +children.' Then many of us are very much afraid of being laughed at. +Ridicule, I think, to sensitive people in a generation like ours, is +pretty nearly as bad as the old rack and the physical torments of +martyrdom. We have all got so nervous and high-strung nowadays, and +depend so much upon other people's good opinion, that it is a +dreadful thing to be ridiculed. Timid people do not come to the front +and say what they believe, and take up unpopular causes, because they +cannot bear to be pointed at and pelted with the abundant epithets of +disparagement, which are always flung at earnest people who will not +worship at the appointed shrines, and have sturdy convictions of +their own. + +Ridicule breaks no bones. It has no power if you make up your mind +that it shall not have. Face it, and it will only be unpleasant for a +moment at first. When a child goes into the sea to bathe, he is +uncomfortable till his head has been fairly under water, and then +after that he is all right. So it is with the ridicule which out-and- +out Christian faithfulness may bring on us. It only hurts at the +beginning, and people very soon get tired. Face your fears and they +will pass away. It is not perhaps a good advice to give +unconditionally, but it is a very good one in regard of all moral +questions--always do what you are afraid to do. In nine cases out of +ten it will be the right thing to do. If people would only discount +'the fear of men which bringeth a snare' by making up their minds to +neglect it, there would be fewer 'dumb dogs' and 'secret disciples' +haunting and weakening the Church of Christ. + +II. I have spent too much time upon this part of my subject, and I +must deal briefly with the following. Let me say a word about the +illustrations that we have in this text of the miseries of this +secret discipleship. + +How much these two men lost--all those three years of communion with +the Master; all His teaching, all the stimulus of His example, all +the joy of fellowship with Him! They might have had a treasure in +their memories that would have enriched them for all their days, and +they had flung it all away because they were afraid of the curled lip +of a long-bearded Pharisee or two. + +And so it always is; the secret disciple diminishes his communion +with his Master. It is the valleys which lay their bosoms open to the +sun that rejoice in the light and warmth; the narrow clefts in the +rocks that shut themselves grudgingly up against the light, are all +dank and dark and dismal. And it is the men that come and avow their +discipleship that will have the truest communion with their Lord. Any +neglected duty puts a film between a man and his Saviour; any +conscious neglect of duty piles up a wall between you and Christ. Be +sure of this, that if from cowardly or from selfish regard to +position and advantages, or any other motive, we stand apart from +Him, and have our lips locked when we ought to speak, there will +steal over our hearts a coldness, His face will be averted from us, +and our eyes will not dare to seek, with the same confidence and joy, +the light of His countenance. + +What you lose by unfaithful wrapping of your convictions in a napkin +and burying them in the ground is the joyful use of the convictions, +the deeper hold of the truth by which you live, and before which you +bow, and the true fellowship with the Master whom you acknowledge and +confess. And when these men came for Christ's corpse and bore it +away, what a sharp pang went through their hearts! They woke at last +to know what cowardly traitors they had been. If you are a disciple +at all, and a secret one, you will awake to know what you have been +doing, and the pang will be a sharp one. If you do not awake in this +life, then the distance between you and your Lord will become greater +and greater; if you do, then it will be a sad reflection that there +are years of treason lying behind you. Nicodemus and Joseph had the +veil torn away by the contemplation of their dead Master. You may +have the veil torn away from your eyes by the sight of the throned +Lord; and when you pass into the heavens may even there have some +sharp pang of condemnation when you reflect how unfaithful you have +been. + +Blessed be His name! The assurance is firm that if a man be a +disciple he shall be saved; but the warning is sure that if he be an +unfaithful and a secret disciple there will be a life-long +unfaithfulness to a beloved Master to be purged away 'so as by fire.' + +III. And so, lastly, let me point you to the cure. + +These men learned to be ashamed of their cowardice, and their dumb +lips learned to speak, and their shy, hidden love forced for itself a +channel by which it could flow out into the light; because of +Christ's death. And in another fashion that same death and Cross are +for us, too, the cure of all cowardice and selfish silence. The sight +of Christ's Cross makes the coward brave. It was no small piece of +courage for Joseph to go to Pilate and avow his sympathy with a +condemned criminal. The love must have been very true which was +forced to speak by disaster and death. And to us the strongest motive +for stiffening our vacillating timidity into an iron fortitude, and +fortifying us strongly against the fear of what man can do to us, is +to be found in gazing upon His dying love who met and conquered all +evils and terrors for our sakes. + +That Cross will kindle a love which will not rest concealed, but will +be 'like the ointment of the right hand which bewrayeth itself.' I +can fancy men to whom Christ is only what He was to Nicodemus at +first, 'a Teacher sent from God,' occupying Nicodemus' position of +hidden belief in His teaching without feeling any need to avow +themselves His followers; but if once into our souls there has come +the constraining and the melting influence of that great and wondrous +love which died for us, then, dear brethren, it is unnatural that we +should be silent. If those 'for whom Christ has died' should hold +their peace, 'the stones would immediately cry out.' That death, +wondrous, mysterious, terrible, but radiant, and glorious with hope, +with pardon, with holiness for us and for all the world--that death +smites on the chords of our hearts, if I may so speak, and brings out +music from them all. The love that died for me will force me to +express my love, 'Then shall the tongue of the dumb sing,' and +silence will be impossible. + +The sight of the Cross not only leads to courage, and kindles a love +which demands expression, but it impels to joyful surrender. Joseph +gave a place in his own new tomb, where he hoped that one day his +bones should be laid by the side of the Master against whom he had +sinned--for he had no thought of a resurrection. Nicodemus brought a +lavish, almost an extravagant, amount of costly spices, as if by +honour to the dead he could atone for treason to the living. And both +the one and the other teach us that if once we gain the true vision +of that great and wondrous love that died on the Cross for us, then +the natural language of the loving heart is-- + + 'Here, Lord! I give _myself_ away; + 'Tis all that I can do.' + +If following Him openly involves sacrifices, the sacrifices will be +sweet, so long as our hearts look to His dying love. All love +delights in expression, and most of all in expression by surrender of +precious things, which are most precious because they give love +materials which it may lay at the beloved's feet. What are position, +possessions, reputation, capacities, perils, losses, self, but the +'sweet spices' which we are blessed enough to be able to lay upon the +altar which glorifies the Giver and the gift? The contemplation of +Christ's sacrifice--and that alone--will so overcome our natural +selfishness as to make sacrifice for His dear sake most blessed. + +I beseech you, then, look ever to Him dying on the Cross for each of +us. It will kindle our courage, it will make our hearts glow with +love, it will turn our silence into melody and music of praise; it +will lead us to heights of consecration and joys of confession; and +so it will bring us at last into the possession of that wondrous +honour which He promised when He said, 'He that confesseth Me before +men, him will I also confess; and he that denieth Me before men, him +will I also deny.' + + + +THE GRAVE IN A GARDEN + +'In the garden a new tomb.'--JOHN xix. 41 (R.V.). + +This is possibly no more than a topographical note introduced merely +for the sake of accuracy. But it is quite in John's manner to attach +importance to these apparent trifles and to give no express statement +that he is doing so. There are several other instances in the Gospel +where similar details are given which appear to have had in his eyes +a symbolical meaning--e.g. 'And it was night.' There may have been +such a thought in his mind, for all men in high excitement love and +seize symbols, and I can scarcely doubt that the reason which induced +Joseph to make his grave in a garden was the reason which induced +John to mention so particularly its situation, and that they both +discerned in that garden round the sepulchre, the expression of what +was to the one a dim desire, to the other 'a lively hope by the +resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead'--that they who are laid +to rest in the grave shall come forth again in new and fairer life, +as 'the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to bud.' + +To us at all events on Easter morning, with nature rising on every +hand from her winter death, and 'life re-orient out of dust,' that +new sepulchre in the garden may well serve for the starting-point of +the familiar but ever-precious lessons of the day. + +I. A symbol of death and decay as interwoven with all nature and +every joy. + +We think of Eden and the first coming of death. + +The grave was fittingly in the garden, because nature too is subject +to the law of decay and death. The flowers fade and men die. +Meditative souls have ever gathered lessons of mortality there, and +invested death with an alien softness by likening it to falling +leaves and withered blooms. But the contrast is greater than the +resemblance, and painless dropping of petals is not a parallel to the +rending of soul and body. + +The garden's careless wealth of beauty and joy continues unconcerned +whatever befalls us. 'One generation cometh and another goeth, but +the earth abideth for ever.' + +The grave is in the garden because all our joys and works have sooner +or later death associated with them. + +Every relationship. + +Every occupation. + +Every joy. + +The grave in the garden bids us bring the wholesome contemplation of +death into all life. + +It may be a harm and weakening to think of it, but should be a +strength. + +II. The dim hopes with which men have fought against death. + +To lay the dead amid blooming nature and fair flowers has been and is +natural to men. The symbolism is most natural, deep, and beautiful, +expressing the possibility of life and even of advance in the life +after apparent decay. There is something very pathetic in so eager a +grasping after some stay for hope. + +All these natural symbols are insufficient. They are not proofs, they +are only pretty analogies. But they are all that men have on which to +build their hopes as to a future life apart from Christ. That future +was vague, a region for hopes and wishes or fears, not for certainty, +a region for poetic fancies. The thoughts of it were very faintly +operative. Men asked, Shall we live again? Conscience seemed to +answer, Yes! The instinct of immortality in men's souls grasped at +these things as proofs of what it believed without them, but there +was no clear light. + +III. The clear light of certain hope which Christ's resurrection +brings. + +The grave in the garden reversed Adam's bringing of death into Eden. + +Christ's resurrection as a fact bears on the belief in a future state +as nothing else can. + +It changes hope into certainty. It shows by actual example that death +has nothing to do with the soul; that life is independent of the +body; that a man after death is the same as before it. The risen Lord +was the same in His relations to His disciples, the same in His love, +in His memory, and in all else. + +It changes shadowy hopes of continuous life into a solid certainty of +resurrection life. The former is vague and powerless. It is +impossible to conceive of the future with vividness unless as a +bodily life. And this is the strength of the Christian conception of +the future life, that corporeity is the end and goal of the redeemed +man. + +It changes terror and awe into joy, and opens up a future in which He +is. + +We shall be with Him. + +We shall be like Him. + +Now we can go back to all these incomplete analogies and use them +confidently. Our faith does not rest upon them but upon what has +actually been done on this earth. + +Christ is 'the First fruits of them that slept.' What will the +harvest be! + +As the single little seed is poor and small by the side of the +gorgeous flower that comes from it; so will be the change. 'God +giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him.' + +How then to think of death for ourselves and for those who are gone? +Thankfully and hopefully. + + + +THE RESURRECTION MORNING + +'The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it +was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away +from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, +and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, +They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know +not where they have laid Him. Peter therefore went forth, and +that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both +together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first +to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the +linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter +following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen +clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about His head, not lying +with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by +itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first +to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew +not the scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then +the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood +without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped +down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in +white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, +where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, +why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken +away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. And when +she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus +standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, +Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to +be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou have borne Him +hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him +away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith +unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, +Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to +My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your +Father; and to My God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told +the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken +these things unto her.'--JOHN xx. 1-18. + +John's purpose in his narrative of the resurrection is not only to +establish the fact, but also to depict the gradual growth of faith in +it, among the disciples. The two main incidents in this passage, the +visit of Peter and John to the tomb and the appearance of our Lord to +Mary, give the dawning of faith before sight and the rapturous faith +born of sight. In the remainder of the chapter are two more instances +of faith following vision, and the teaching of the whole is summed up +in Christ's words to the doubter, 'Because thou hast seen Me, thou +hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have +believed!' + +I. The open sepulchre and the bewildered alarm it excited. The act of +resurrection took place before sunrise. 'At midnight,' probably, 'the +Bridegroom came.' It was fitting that He who was to scatter the +darkness of the grave should rise while darkness covered the earth, +and that no eye should behold 'how' that dead was 'raised up.' The +earthquake and the descent of angels and the rolling away of the +stone were after the tomb was empty. + +John's note of time seems somewhat earlier than that of the other +Gospels, but is not so much so as to require the supposition that +Mary preceded the other women. She appears alone here, because the +reason for mentioning her at all is to explain how Peter and John +knew of the empty tomb, and she alone had been the informant. In +these Eastern lands, 'as it began to dawn,' 'very early at the rising +of the sun,' and 'while it was yet dark,' are times very near each +other, and Mary may have reached the sepulchre a little before the +others. Her own words, 'We know not,' show that she had spoken with +others who had seen the empty grave. We must therefore suppose that +she had with the others come to it, seen that the sacred corpse was +gone and their spices useless, exchanged hurried words of alarm and +bewilderment, and then had hastened away before the appearance of the +angels. + +The impulse to tell the leaders of the forlorn band the news, which +she thinks to be so bad, was womanly and natural. It was not hope, +but wonder and sorrow that quickened her steps as she ran through the +still morning to find them. Whether they were in one house or not is +uncertain; but, at all events, Peter's denial had not cut him off +from his brethren, and the two who were so constantly associated +before and afterwards were not far apart that morning. The disciple +who had stood by the Cross to almost the last had an open heart, and +probably an open house for the denier. 'Restore such an one, ... +considering thyself.' + +Mary had seen the tomb empty, and springs to the conclusion that +'they'--some unknown persons--have taken away the dead body, which, +with clinging love that tries to ignore death, she still calls 'the +Lord.' Possibly she may have thought that the resting-place in +Joseph's new sepulchre was only meant for temporary shelter (ver. +15). At all events the corpse was gone, and the fact suggested no +hope to her. How often do we, in like manner, misinterpret as dark +what is really pregnant with light, and blindly attribute to 'them' +what Jesus does! A tone of mind thus remote from anticipation of the +great fact is a precious proof of the historical truth of the +resurrection; for here was no soil in which hallucinations would +spring, and such people would not have believed Him risen unless they +had seen Him living. + +II. Peter and John at the tomb, the dawning of faith, and the +continuance of bewildered wonder. In the account, we may observe, +first, the characteristic conduct of each of the two. Peter is first +to set out, and John follows, both men doing according to their kind. +The younger runs faster than his companion. He looked into the tomb, +and saw the wrappings lying; but the reverent awe which holds back +finer natures kept him from venturing in. Peter is not said to have +looked before entering. He loved with all his heart, but his love was +impetuous and practical, and he went straight in, and felt no reason +why he should pause. His boldness encouraged his friend, as the +example of strong natures does. Some of my readers will recall +Bushnell's noble sermon on 'Unconscious Influence' from this +incident, and I need say no more about it. + +Observe, too, the further witness of the folded grave-clothes. John +from outside had not seen the napkin, lying carefully rolled up apart +from the other cloths. It was probably laid in a part of the tomb +invisible from without. But the careful disposal of these came to +him, when he saw them, with a great flash of illumination. There had +been no hurried removal. + +Here had been no hostile hands, or there would not have been this +deliberation; nor friendly hands, or there would not have been such +dishonour to the sacred dead as to carry away the body nude. What did +it mean? Could He Himself have done for Himself what He had bade them +do for Lazarus? Could He have laid aside the garments of the grave as +needing them no more? 'They have taken away'--what if it were not +'they' but He? No trace of hurry or struggle was there. He did 'not +go out with haste, nor go by flight,' but calmly, deliberately, in +the majesty of His lordship over death, He rose from His slumber and +left order in the land of confusion. + +Observe, too, the birth of the Apostle's faith. John connects it with +the sight of the folded garments. 'Believed' here must mean more than +recognition of the fact that the grave was empty. The next clause +seems to imply that it means belief in the resurrection. The +scripture, which they 'knew' as scripture, was for John suddenly +interpreted, and he was lifted out of the ignorance of its meaning, +which till that moment he had shared with his fellow-disciples. Their +failure to understand Christ's frequent distinct prophecies that He +would rise again the third day has been thought incredible, but is +surely intelligible enough if we remember how unexampled such a thing +was, and how marvellous is our power of hearing and yet not hearing +the plainest truth. We all in the course of our lives are lost in +astonishment when things befall us which we have been plainly told +will befall. The fulfilment of all divine promises (and threatenings) +is a surprise, and no warnings beforehand teach one tithe so clearly +as experience. + +John believed, but Peter still was in the dark. Again the former had +outrun his friend. His more sensitive nature, not to say his deeper +love--for that would be unjust, since their love differed in quality +more than in degree--had gifted him with a more subtle and swifter- +working perception. Perhaps if Peter's heart had not been oppressed +by his sin, he would have been readier to feel the sunshine of the +wonderful hope. We condemn ourselves to the shade when we deny our +Lord by deed or word. + +III. The first appearance of the Lord, and revelation of the new form +of intercourse. Nothing had been said of Mary's return to the tomb; +but how could she stay away? The disciples might go, but she +lingered, woman-like, to indulge in the bitter-sweet of tears. Eyes +so filled are more apt to see angels. No wonder that these calm +watchers, in their garb of purity and joy, had not been seen by the +two men. The laws of such appearance are not those of ordinary +optics. Spiritual susceptibility and need determine who shall see +angels, and who shall see but the empty place. Wonder and adoration +held these bright forms there. They had hovered over the cradle and +stood by the shepherds at Bethlehem, but they bowed in yet more +awestruck reverence at the grave, and death revealed to them a deeper +depth of divine love. + +The presence of angels was a trifle to Mary, who had only one +thought--the absence of her Lord. Surely that touch in her unmoved +answer, as if speaking to men, is beyond the reach of art. She says +'My Lord' now, and 'I know not,' but otherwise repeats her former +words, unmoved by any hope caught from John. Her clinging love needed +more than an empty grave and folded clothes arid waiting angels to +stay its tears, and she turned indifferently and wearily away from +the interruption of the question to plunge again into her sorrow. +Chrysostom suggests that she 'turned herself' because she saw in the +angels' looks that they saw Christ suddenly appearing behind her; but +the preceding explanation seems better. Her not knowing Jesus might +be accounted for by her absorbing grief. One who looked at white- +robed angels, and saw nothing extraordinary, would give but a +careless glance at the approaching figure, and might well fail to +recognise Him. But probably, as in the case of the two travellers to +Emmaus, her 'eyes were holden,' and the cause of non-recognition was +not so much a change in Jesus as an operation on her. + +Be that as it may, it is noteworthy that His voice, which was +immediately to reveal Him, at first suggested nothing to her; and +even His gentle question, with the significant addition to the +angels' words, in 'Whom seekest thou?' which indicated His knowledge +that her tears fell for some person dear and lost, only made her +think of Him as being 'the gardener,' and therefore probably +concerned in the removal of the body. If He were so, He would be +friendly; and so she ventured her pathetic petition, which does not +name Jesus (so full is her mind of the One, that she thinks everybody +must know whom she means), and which so overrated her own strength in +saying, 'I will take Him away,' The first words of the risen Christ +are on His lips yet to all sad hearts. He seeks our confidences, and +would have us tell Him the occasions of our tears. He would have us +recognise that all our griefs and all our desires point to one +Person--Himself--as the one real Object of our 'seeking,' whom +finding, we need weep no more. + +Verse 16 tells us that Mary turned herself to see Him when He next +spoke, so that, at the close of her first answer to Him, she must +have once more resumed her gaze into the tomb, as if she despaired of +the newcomer giving the help she had asked. + +Who can say anything about that transcendent recognition, in which +all the stooping love of the risen Lord is smelted into one word, and +the burst of rapture, awe, astonishment, and devotion pours itself +through the narrow channel of one other? If this narrative is the +work of some anonymous author late in the second century, he is +indeed a 'Great Unknown,' and has managed to imagine one of the two +or three most pathetic 'situations' in literature. Surely it is more +reasonable to suppose him no obscure genius, but a well-known +recorder of what he had seen, and knew for fact. Christ's calling by +name ever reveals His loving presence. We may be sure that He knows +us by name, and we should reply by the same swift cry of absolute +submission as sprung to Mary's lips. 'Rabboni! Master!' is the fit +answer to His call. + +But Mary's exclamation was imperfect in that it expressed the +resumption of no more than the old bond, and her gladness needed +enlightenment. Things were not to be as they had been. Christ's +'Mary!' had indeed assured her of His faithful remembrance and of her +present place in His love; but when she clung to His feet she was +seeking to keep what she had to learn to give up. Therefore Jesus, +who invited the touch which was to establish faith and banish doubt +(Luke xxiv. 39; John xx. 27), bids her unclasp her hands, and gently +instils the ending of the blessed past by opening to her the superior +joys of the begun future. His words contain for us all the very heart +of our possible relation to Him, and teach us that we need envy none +who companied with Him here. His ascension to the Father is the +condition of our truest approach to Him. His prohibition encloses a +permission. 'Touch Me not! for I am not yet ascended,' implies 'When +I am, you may.' + +Further, the ascended Christ is still our Brother. Neither the +mystery of death nor the impending mystery of dominion broke the tie. +Again, the Resurrection is the beginning of Ascension, and is only +then rightly understood when it is considered as the first upward +step to the throne. 'I ascend,' not 'I have risen, and will soon +leave you,' as if the Ascension only began forty days after on +Olivet. It is already in process. Once more the ascended Christ, our +Brother still, and capable of the touch of reverent love, is yet +separated from us by the character, even while united to us by the +fact, of His filial and dependent relation to God. He cannot say 'Our +Father' as if standing on the common human ground. He is 'Son' as we +are not, and we are 'sons' through Him, and can only call God our +Father because He is Christ's. + +Such were the immortal hopes and new thoughts which Mary hastened +from the presence of her recovered Lord to bring to the disciples. +Fragrant though but partially understood, they were like half-opened +blossoms from the tree of life planted in the midst of that garden, +to bloom unfading, and ever disclosing new beauty in believing hearts +till the end of time. + + + +THE RISEN LORD'S CHARGE AND GIFT + +'Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto yon: as My Father +hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He +breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. +Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and +whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.'--JOHN xx. 21-23. + +The day of the Resurrection had been full of strange rumours, and of +growing excitement. As evening fell, some of the disciples, at any +rate, gathered together, probably in the upper room. They were brave, +for in spite of the Jews they dared to assemble; they were timid, for +they barred themselves in 'for fear of the Jews.' No doubt in little +groups they were eagerly discussing what had happened that day. Fuel +was added to the fire by the return of the two from Emmaus. And then, +at once, the buzz of conversation ceased, for 'He Himself, with His +human air,' stood there in the midst, with the quiet greeting on His +lips, which might have come from any casual stranger, and minimised +the separation that was now ending: 'Peace be unto you!' + +We have two accounts of that evening's interview which remarkably +supplement each other. They deal with two different parts of it. John +begins where Luke ends. The latter Evangelist dwells mainly on the +disciples' fears that it was some ghostly appearance that they saw, +and on the removal of these by the sight, and perhaps the touch, of +the hands and the feet. John says nothing of the terror, but Luke's +account explains John's statement that 'He showed them His hands and +His side,' and that, 'Then were the disciples glad,' the joy +expelling the fear. Luke's account also, by dwelling on the first +part of the interview, explains what else is unexplained in John's +narrative, viz. the repetition of the salutation, 'Peace be unto +you!' Our Lord thereby marked off the previous portion of the +conversation as being separate, and a whole in itself. Their doubts +were dissipated, and now something else was to begin. They who were +sure of the risen Lord, and had had communion with Him, were capable +of receiving a deeper peace, and so 'Jesus said to them again, Peace +be unto you!' and thereby inaugurated the second part of the +interview. + +Luke's account also helps us in another and very important way. John +simply says that 'the disciples were gathered together,' and that +might mean the Eleven only. Luke is more specific, and tells us what +is of prime importance for understanding the whole incident, that +'the Eleven... and they that were with them' were assembled. This +interview, the crown of the appearances on Easter Day, is marked as +being an interview with the assembled body of disciples, whom the +Lord, having scattered their doubts, and laid the deep benediction of +His peace upon their hearts, then goes on to invest with a sacred +mission, 'As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you'; to equip +them with the needed power, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost'; and to +unfold to them the solemn issues of their work, 'Whose sins ye remit +they are remitted; and whose sins ye retain they are retained.' The +message of that Easter evening is for us all; and so I ask you to +look at these three points. + +I. The Christian Mission. + +I have already said that the clear understanding of the persons to +whom the words were spoken, goes far to interpret the significance of +the words. Here we have at the very beginning, the great thought that +every Christian man and woman is sent by Jesus. The possession of +what preceded this charge is the thing, and the only thing, that fits +a man to receive it, and whoever possesses these is thereby +despatched into the world as being Christ's envoy and representative. +And what are these preceding experiences? The vision of the risen +Christ, the touch of His hands, the peace that He breathed over +believing souls, the gladness that sprang like a sunny fountain in +the hearts that had been so dry and dark. Those things constituted +the disciples' qualification for being sent, and these things were +themselves--even apart from the Master's words--their sending out on +their future life's-work. Thus, whoever--and thank God I am +addressing many who come under the category!--whoever has seen the +Lord, has been in touch with Him, and has felt his heart filled with +gladness, is the recipient of this great commission. There is no +question here of the prerogative of a class, nor of the functions of +an order; it is a question of the universal aspect of the Christian +life in its relation to the Master who sends, and the world into +which it is sent. + +We Nonconformists pride ourselves upon our freedom from what we call +'sacerdotalism.' Ay! and we Nonconformists are quite willing to +assert our priesthood in opposition to the claims of a class, and are +as willing to forget it, should the question of the duties of the +priest come into view. You do not believe in priests, but a great +many of you believe that it is ministers that are 'sent,' and that +you have no charge. Officialism is the dry-rot of all the Churches, +and is found as rampant amongst democratic Nonconformists as amongst +the more hierarchical communities. Brethren! you are included in +Christ's words of sending on this errand, if you are included in this +greeting of 'Peace be unto you!' 'I send,' not the clerical order, +not the priest, but 'you,' because you have seen the Lord, and been +glad, and heard the low whisper of His benediction creeping into your +hearts. + +Mark, too, how our Lord reveals much of Himself, as well as of our +position, when He thus speaks. For He assumes here the royal tone, +and claims to possess as absolute authority over the lives and work +of all Christian people as the Father exercised when He sent the Son. +But we must further ask ourselves the question, what is the parallel +that our Lord here draws, not only between His action in sending us, +and the Father's action in sending Him, but also between the attitude +of the Son who was sent, and of the disciples whom He sends? And the +answer is this--the work of Jesus Christ is continued by, prolonged +in, and carried on henceforward through, the work that He lays upon +His servants. Mark the exact expression that our Lord here uses. 'As +My Father _hath_ sent,' that is a past action, continuing its +consequences in the present. It is not 'as My Father _did_ send +once,' but as 'My Father _hath_ sent,' which means 'is also at +present sending,' and continues to send. Which being translated into +less technical phraseology is just this, that we here have our Lord +presenting to us the thought that, though in a new form, His work +continues during the ages, and is now being wrought through His +servants. What He does by another, He does by Himself. We Christian +men and women do not understand our function in the world, unless we +have realised this: 'Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ' and +His interests and His work are entrusted to our hands. + +How shall the servants continue and carry on the work of the Master? +The chief way to do it is by proclaiming everywhere that finished +work on which the world's hopes depend. But note,--'_as_ My Father +hath sent Me, so send I you,'--then we are not only to carry on His +work in the world, but if one might venture to say so, we are to +reproduce His attitude towards God and the world. He was sent to be +'the Light of the world'; and so are we. He was sent to 'seek and to +save that which was lost'; so are we. He was sent not to do His own +will, but the will of the Father that sent Him; so are we. He took +upon Himself with all cheerfulness the office to which He was +appointed, and said, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, +--and to finish His work'; and that must be our voice too. He was +sent to pity, to look upon the multitudes with compassion, to carry +to them the healing of His touch, and the sympathy of His heart; so +must we. We are the representatives of Jesus Christ, and if I might +dare to use such a phrase, He is to be incarnated again in the +hearts, and manifested again in the lives, of His servants. Many weak +eyes, that would be dazzled and hurt if they were to gaze on the sun, +may look at the clouds cradled by its side, and dyed with its lustre, +and learn something of the radiance and the glory of the illuminating +light from the illuminated vapour. And thus, 'as My Father hath sent +Me, even so send I you.' + +Now let us turn to + +II. The Christian Equipment. + +'He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost!' The +symbolical action reminds us of the Creation story, when into the +nostrils was breathed 'the breath of life, and man became a living +soul.' The symbol is but a symbol, but what it teaches us is that +every Christian man who has passed through the experiences which make +him Christ's envoy, receives the equipment of a new life, and that +that life is the gift of the risen Lord. This Prometheus came from +the dead with the spark of life guarded in His pierced hands, and He +bestowed it upon us; for the Spirit of life, which is the Spirit of +Christ, is granted to all Christian men. Dear brethren! we have not +lived up to the realities of our Christian confession, unless into +our death has come, and there abides, this life derived from Jesus +Himself, the communication of which goes along with all faith in Him. + +But the gift which Jesus brought to that group of timid disciples in +the upper room did not make superfluous the further gift on the day +of Pentecost. The communication of the divine Spirit to men runs +parallel with, depends on, and follows, the revelation of divine +truth, so the ascended Lord gave more of that life to the disciples, +who had been made capable of more of it by the fact of beholding His +ascension, than the risen Lord could give on that Easter Day. But +whilst thus there are measures and degrees, the life is given to +every believer in correspondence with the clearness and the contents +of his faith. + +It is the power that will fit any of us for the work for which we are +sent into the world. If we are here to represent Jesus Christ, and if +it is true of us that 'as He is, so are we, in this world,' that +likeness can only come about by our receiving into our spirits a +kindred life which will effloresce and manifest itself to men in +kindred beauty of foliage and of fruit. If we are to be 'the lights +of the world,' our lamps must be fed with oil. If we are to be +Christ's representatives, we must have Christ's life in us. Here, +too, is the only source of strength and life to us Christian people, +when we look at the difficulties of our task and measure our own +feebleness against the work that lies before us. I suppose no man has +ever tried honestly to be what Christ wished him to be amidst his +fellows, whether as preacher or teacher or guide in any fashion, who +has not hundreds of times clasped his hands in all but despair, and +said, 'Who is sufficient for these things?' That is the temper into +which the power will come. The rivers run in the valleys, and it is +the lowly sense of our own unfitness for the task which yet presses +upon us, and imperatively demands to be done, that makes us capable +of receiving that divine gift. + +It is for lack of it that so much of so-called 'Christian effort' +comes to nothing. The priests may pile the wood upon the altar, and +compass it all day long with vain cries, and nothing happens. It is +not till the fire comes down from heaven that sacrifice and altar and +wood and water in the trench, are licked up and converted into fiery +light. So, dear brethren! it is because the Christian Church as a +whole, and we as individual members of it, so imperfectly realise the +A B C of our faith, our absolute dependence on the inbreathed life of +Jesus Christ, to fit us for any of our work, that so much of our work +is ploughing the sands, and so often we labour for vanity and spend +our strength for nought. What is the use of a mill full of spindles +and looms until the fire-born impulse comes rushing through the +pipes? Then they begin to move. + +Let me remind you, too, that the words which our Lord here employs +about these great gifts, when accurately examined, do lead us to the +thought that we, even we, are not altogether passive in the reception +of that gift. For the expression, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost' might, +with more completeness of signification, be rendered, 'take ye the +Holy Ghost.' True, the outstretched hand is nothing, unless the +giving hand is stretched out too. True, the open palm and the +clutching fingers remain empty, unless the open palm above drops the +gift. But also true, things in the spiritual realm that are given +have to be asked for, because asking opens the heart for their +entrance. True, that gift was given once for all, and continuously, +but the appropriation and the continual possession of it largely +depend upon ourselves. There must be desire before there can be +possession. If a man does not take his pitcher to the fountain the +pitcher remains empty, though the fountain never ceases to spring. +There must be taking by patient waiting. The old Friends had a lovely +phrase when they spoke about 'waiting for the springing of the life.' +If we hold out a tremulous hand, and our cup is not kept steady, the +falling water will not enter it, and much will be spilt upon the +ground. Wait on the Lord, and the life will rise like a tide in the +heart. There must be a taking by the faithful use of what we possess. +'To him that hath shall be given.' There must be a taking by careful +avoidance of what would hinder. In the winter weather the water +supply sometimes fails in a house. Why? Because there is a plug of +ice in the service-pipe. Some of us have a plug of ice, and so the +water has not come, + +'_Take_ the Holy Spirit!' + +Now, lastly, we have here + +III. The Christian power over sin. + +I am not going to enter upon controversy. The words which close our +Lord's great charge here have been much misunderstood by being +restricted. It is eminently necessary to remember here that they were +spoken to the whole community of Christian souls. The harm that has +been done by their restriction to the so-called priestly function of +absolution has been, not only the monstrous claims which have been +thereon founded, but quite as much the obscuration of the large +effects that follow from the Christian discharge by all believers of +the office of representing Jesus Christ. + +We must interpret these words in harmony with the two preceding +points, the Christian mission and the Christian equipment. So +interpreted, they lead us to a very plain thought which I may put +thus. This same Apostle tells us in his letter that 'Jesus Christ was +manifested to take away sin.' His work in this world, which we are to +continue, was 'to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.' We +continue that work when,--as we have all, if Christians, the right to +do--we lift up our voices with triumphant confidence, and call upon +our brethren to 'behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of +the world!' The proclamation has a twofold effect, according as it is +received or rejected; to him who receives it his sins melt away, and +the preacher of forgiveness through Christ has the right to say to +his brother, 'Thy sins are forgiven because thou believest on Him.' +The rejecter or the neglecter binds his sin upon himself by his +rejection or neglect. The same message is, as the Apostle puts it, 'a +savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.' These words are +the best commentary on this part of my text. The same heat, as the +old Fathers used to say, 'softens wax and hardens clay.' The message +of the word will either couch a blind eye, and let in the light, or +draw another film of obscuration over the visual orb. + +And so, Christian men and women have to feel that to them is +entrusted a solemn message, that they walk in the world charged with +a mighty power, that by the preaching of the Word, and by their own +utterance of the forgiving mercy of the Lord Jesus, they may 'remit' +or 'retain' not only the punishment of sin, but sin itself. How +tender, how diligent, how reverent, how--not bowed down, but--erect +under the weight of our obligations, we should be, if we realised +that solemn thought! + + + + THOMAS AND JESUS + +'And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and +Thomas with them. Then came Jesus.'--JOHN xx. 26. + +There is nothing more remarkable about the narrative of the +resurrection, taken as a whole, than the completeness with which our +Lord's appearances met all varieties of temperament, condition, and +spiritual standing. Mary, the lover; Peter, the penitent; the two +disciples on the way to Emmaus, the thinkers; Thomas, the stiff +unbeliever--the presence of the Christ is enough for them all; it +cures those that need cure, and gladdens those that need gladdening. +I am not going to do anything so foolish as to try to tell over +again, less vividly, this well-known story. We all remember its +outlines, I suppose: the absence of Thomas from Christ's first +meeting with the assembled disciples on Easter evening; the dogged +disbelief with which he met their testimony; his arrogant assumption +of the right to lay down the conditions on which he should believe, +and Christ's gracious acceptance of the conditions; the discovery +when they were offered that they were not needful; the burst of glad +conviction which lifted him to the loftiest height reached while +Christ was on earth, and then the summing up of all in our Lord's +words--'Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed!'-- +the last Beatitude, that links us and all the generations yet to come +with the story, and is like a finger pointing to it, as containing +very special lessons for them all. + +I simply seek to try to bring out the force and instructiveness of +the story. The first point is-- + +I. The isolation that misses the sight of the Christ. + +'Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.' No +reason is assigned. The absence may have been purely accidental, but +the specification of Thomas as 'one of the Twelve,' seems to suggest +that his absence was regarded by the Evangelist as a dereliction of +apostolic duty; and the cause of it may be found, I think, with +reasonable probability, if we take into account the two other facts +that the same Evangelist records concerning this Apostle. One is his +exclamation, in which a constitutional tendency to accept the +blackest possibilities as certainties, blends very strangely and +beautifully with an intense and brave devotion to his Master. 'Let us +also go,' said Thomas, when Christ announced His intention, but a few +days before the Passion, of returning to the grave of Lazarus, 'that +we may die with Him.' 'He is going to His death, that I am sure of, +and I am going to be beside Him even in His death.' A constitutional +pessimist! The only other notice that we have of him is that he broke +in--with apparent irreverence which was not real,--with a brusque +contradiction of Christ's saying that they knew the way, and they +knew His goal. 'Lord! we know not whither Thou goest'--there spoke +pained love fronting the black prospect of eternal separation,--'and +how can we know the way?'--there spoke almost impatient despair. + +So is not that the kind of man who on the Resurrection day would have +been saying to himself, even more decidedly and more bitterly than +the two questioning thinkers on the road to Emmaus had said it, 'We +trusted that this had been He, but it is all over now'? The keystone +was struck out of the arch, and this brick tumbled away of itself. +The hub was taken out of the wheel, and the spokes fell apart. The +divisive tendency was begun, as I have had occasion to remark in +other sermons. Thomas did the very worst thing that a melancholy man +can do, went away to brood in a corner by himself, and so to +exaggerate all his idiosyncrasies, to distort the proportion of +truth, to hug his despair, by separating himself from his fellows. +Therefore he lost what they got, the sight of the Lord. He 'was not +with them when Jesus came.' Would he not have been better in the +upper room than gloomily turning over in his mind the dissolution of +the fair company and the shipwreck of all his hopes? + +May we not learn a lesson? I venture to apply these words, dear +friends, to our gatherings for worship. The worst thing that a man +can do when disbelief, or doubt, or coldness shrouds his sky, and +blots out the stars, is to go away alone and shut himself up with his +own, perhaps morbid, or, at all events, disturbing thoughts. The best +thing that he can do is to go amongst his fellows. If the sermon does +not do him any good, the prayers and the praises and the sense of +brotherhood will help him. If a fire is going out, draw the dying +coals close together, and they will make each other break into a +flame. One great reason for some of the less favourable features that +modern Christianity presents, is that men are beginning to think less +than they ought to do, and less than they used to do, of the +obligation and the blessing, whatever their spiritual condition, of +gathering together for the worship of God. But, further, there is a +far wider thought than that here, which I have already referred to, +and which I do not need to dwell upon, namely, that, although, of +course, there are very plain limits to be put to the principle, yet +it is a principle, that solitude is not the best medicine for any +disturbed or saddened soul. It is true that 'solitude is the mother- +country of the strong,' and that unless we are accustomed to live +very much alone, we shall not live very much with God. But on the +other hand, if you cut yourself off from the limiting, and therefore +developing, society of your fellows, you will rust, you will become +what they call eccentric. Your idiosyncrasies will swell into +monstrosities, your peculiarities will not be subjected to the +gracious process of pruning which society with your fellows, and +especially with Christian hearts, will bring to them. And in every +way you will be more likely to miss the Christ than if you were +kindly with your kind, and went up to the house of God in company. + +Take the next point that is here: + +II. The stiff incredulity that prescribed terms. + +When Thomas came back to his brethren, they met him with the witness +that they had seen the Lord, and he met them as they had met the +witnesses that brought the same message to them. They had thought the +women's words 'idle tales.' Thomas gives them back their own +incredulity. I need not remind you of what I have already had +occasion to say, how much this frank acknowledgment that none of +these, who were afterwards to be witnesses of the Resurrection to the +world, accepted testimony to the Resurrection as enough to convince +them, enhances the worth of their testimony, and how entirely it +shatters the conception that the belief in the Resurrection was a +mist that rose from the undrained swamps of their own heated +imaginations. + +But notice how Thomas exaggerated their position, and took up a far +more defiant tone than any of them had done. He is called 'doubting +Thomas.' He was no doubter. Flat, frank, dogged disbelief, and not +hesitation or doubt, was his attitude. The very form in which he puts +his requirement shows how he was hugging his unbelief, and how he had +no idea that what he asked would ever be granted. 'Unless I have so- +and-so I will not,' indicates an altogether spiritual attitude from +what 'If I have so-and-so, I will,' would have indicated. The one is +the language of willingness to be persuaded, the other is a token of +a determination to be obstinate. What right had he--what right has +any man--to say, 'So-and-so must be made plain to me, or I will not +accept a certain truth'? You have a right to ask for satisfactory +evidence; you have no right to make up your minds beforehand what +that must necessarily be. Thomas showed his hand not only in the form +of his expression, not only in his going beyond his province and +prescribing the terms of surrender, but also in the terms which he +prescribed. True, he is only saying to the other Apostles, 'I will +give in if I have what you had,' for Jesus Christ had said to them, +'Handle Me and see!' But although thus they could say nothing in +opposition, it is clear that he was asking more than was needful, and +more than he had any right to ask. And he shows his hand, too, in +another way. 'I will not believe!'--what business had he, what +business have you, to bring any question of will into the act of +belief or credence? Thus, in all these four points, the form of the +demand, the fact of the demand, the substance of the demand, and the +implication in it that to give or withhold assent was a matter to be +determined by inclination, this man stands not as an example of a +doubter, but as an example, of which there are too many copies +amongst us always, of a determined disbeliever and rejecter. + +So I come to the third point, and that is: + +III. The revelation that turned the denier into a rapturous +confessor. + +What a strange week that must have been between the two Sundays--that +of the Resurrection and the next! Surely it would have been kinder if +the Christ had not left the disciples, with their new-found, +tremulous, raw conviction. It would have been less kind if He had +been with them, for there is nothing that is worse for the solidity +of a man's spiritual development than that it should be precipitated, +and new thoughts must have time to take the shape of the mind into +which they come, and to mould the shape of the mind into which they +come. So they were left to quiet reflection, to meditation, to adjust +their thoughts, to get to understand the bearings of the transcendent +fact. And as a mother will go a little way off from her little child, +in order to encourage it to try to walk, they were left alone to make +experiments of that self-reliance which was also reliance on Him, and +which was to be their future and their permanent condition. So the +week passed, and they became steadier and quieter, and began to be +familiar with the thought, and to see some glimpses of what was +involved in the mighty fact, of a risen Saviour. Then He comes back +again, and when He comes He singles out the unbeliever, leaving the +others alone for the moment, and He gives him back, granted, his +arrogant conditions. How much ashamed of them Thomas must have been +when he heard them quoted by the Lord's own lips! How different they +would sound from what they had sounded when, in the self-sufficiency +of his obstinate determination, he had blurted them out in answer to +his brethren's testimony! There is no surer way of making a good man +ashamed of his wild words than just to say them over again to him +when he is calm and cool. Christ's granting the request was Christ's +sharpest rebuke of the request. But there was not only the gracious +and yet chastising granting of the foolish desire, but there was a +penetrating warning: 'Be not faithless, but believing.' What did that +mean? Well, it meant this: 'It is not a question of evidence, Thomas; +it is a question of disposition. Your incredulity is not due to your +not having enough to warrant your belief, but to your tendency and +attitude of mind and heart.' There is light enough in the sun; it is +our eyes that are wrong, and deep below most questions, even of +intellectual credence, lies the disposition of the man. The ultimate +truths of religion cannot be matters of demonstration any more than +the fundamental truths of any science can be proved; any more than +Euclid's axioms can be demonstrated; any more than the sense of +beauty or the ear for music depend on the understanding. 'Be not +faithless, but believing.' The eye that is sound will see the light. + +And there is another lesson here. The words of our Lord, literally +rendered, are, 'become not faithless, but believing.' There are two +tendencies at work with us, and the one or the other will +progressively lay hold upon us, and we shall increasingly yield to +it. You can cultivate the habit of incredulity until you descend into +the class of the faithless; or you can cultivate the opposite habit +and disposition until you rise to the high level of a settled and +sovereign belief. + +It is clear that Thomas did not reach forth his hand and touch. The +rush of instantaneous conviction swept him along and bore him far +away from the state of mind which had asked for such evidence. Our +Lord's words must have pierced his heart, as he thought: 'Then He was +here all the while; He heard my wild words; He loves me still.' As +Nathanael, when he knew that Jesus had seen him under the fig-tree, +broke out with the exclamation, 'Rabbi! Thou art the Son of God,' so +Thomas, smitten as by a lightning flash with the sense of Jesus' all- +embracing knowledge and all-forgiving love, forgets his incredulity +and breaks into the rapturous confession, the highest ever spoken +while He was on earth: 'My Lord and my God!' So swiftly did his whole +attitude change. It was as when the eddying volumes of smoke in some +great conflagration break into sudden flame, the ruddier and hotter, +the blacker they were. Sight may have made Thomas believe that Jesus +was risen, but it was something other and more inward than sight that +opened his lips to cry, 'My Lord and my God!' Finally, we note-- + +IV. A last Beatitude that extends to all generations. + +'Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.' I need +not do more than just in a sentence remind you that we shall very +poorly understand either this saying or this Gospel or the greater +part of the New Testament, if we do not make it very clear to our +minds that 'believing' is not credence only but trust. The object of +the Christian's faith is not a proposition; it is not a dogma nor a +truth, but a Person. And the act of faith is not an acceptance of a +given fact, a Resurrection or any other, as true, but it is a +reaching out of the whole nature to Him and a resting upon Him. I +have said that Thomas had no right to bring his will to bear on the +act of belief, considered as the intellectual act of accepting a +thing as true. But Christian faith, being more than intellectual +belief, does involve the activity of the will. Credence is the +starting-point, but it is no more. There may be belief in the truth +of the gospel and not a spark of faith in the Christ revealed by the +gospel. + +Even in regard to that lower kind of belief, the assent which does +not rest on sense has its own blessing. We sometimes are ready to +think that it would have been easier to believe if 'we had seen with +our eyes, and our hands had handled the (incarnate) Word of Life' but +that is a mistake. + +This generation, and all generations that have not seen Him, are not +in a less advantageous position in regard either to credence or to +trust, than were those that companied with Him on earth, and the +blessing Which He breathed out in that upper room comes floating down +the ages like a perfume diffused through the atmosphere, and is with +us fragrant as it was in the 'days of His flesh.' There is nothing in +the world's history comparable to the warmth and closeness of +conscious contact with that Christ, dead for nearly nineteen +centuries now, which is the experience today of thousands of +Christian men and women. All other names pass, and as they recede +through the ages, thickening veils of oblivion, mists of +forgetfulness, gather round them. They melt away into the fog and are +forgotten. Why is it that one Person, and one Person only, triumphs +even in this respect over space and time, and is the same close +Friend with whom millions of hearts are in loving touch, as He was to +those that gathered around Him upon earth? + +What is the blessing of this faith that does not rest on sense, and +only in a small measure on testimony or credence? Part of its +blessing is that it delivers us from the tyranny of sense, sets us +free from the crowding oppression of 'things seen and temporal'; +draws back the veil and lets us behold 'the things that are unseen +and eternal.' Faith is sight, the sight of the inward eye. It is the +direct perception of the unseen. It sees Him who is invisible. The +vision which is given to the eye of faith is more real in the true +sense of that word, more substantial in the true sense of that word, +more reliable and more near than that sight by which the bodily eye +beholds external things. We see, when we trust, greater things than +when we look. The blessing of blessings is that the faith which +triumphs over the things seen and temporal, brings into every life +the presence of the unseen Lord. + +Brethren! do not confound credence with trust. Remember that trust +does involve an element of will. Ask yourselves if the things seen +and temporal are great enough, lasting enough, real enough to satisfy +you, and then remember whose lips said, 'Become not faithless but +believing,' and breathed His last Beatitude upon those 'who have not +seen and yet have believed.' We may all have that blessing lying like +dew upon us, amidst the dust and scorching heat of the things seen +and temporal. We shall have it, if our heart's trust is set on Him, +whom one of the listeners on that Sunday spoke of long after, in +words which seem to echo that promise, as 'Jesus in whom though now +ye see Him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and +full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of +your souls.' + + + +THE SILENCE OF SCRIPTURE + +'And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His +disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are +written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son +of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.' +--JOHN XX. 30, 31. + +It is evident that these words were originally the close of this +Gospel, the following chapter being an appendix, subsequently added +by the writer himself. In them we have the Evangelist's own +acknowledgment of the incompleteness of his Gospel, and his own +statement of the purpose which he had in view in composing it. That +purpose was first of all a doctrinal one, and he tells us that in +carrying it out he omitted many things that he could have put in if +he had chosen. But that doctrinal purpose was subordinate to a still +further aim. His object was not only to present the truth that Jesus +was the Christ, the Son of God, but to present it in such a way as to +induce his readers to believe in that Christ. And he desired that +they might have faith in order that they might have life. + +Now, it is a very good old canon in judging of a book that 'in every +work' we are to 'regard the writer's end,' and if that simple +principle had been applied to this Gospel, a great many of the +features in it which have led to some difficulty would have been seen +to be naturally explained by the purpose which the Evangelist had in +view. + +But this text may be applied very much more widely than to John's +Gospel. We may use it to point our thoughts to the strange silences +and incompletenesses of the whole of Revelation, and to the +explanation of these incompletenesses by the consideration of the +purpose which it all had in view. In that sense I desire to look at +these words before us. + +I. First, then, we have here set forth the incompleteness of +Scripture. + +Take this Gospel first. Anybody who looks at it can see that it is a +fragment. It is not meant to be a biography; it is avowedly a +selection, and a selection under the influence, as I shall have to +show you presently, of a distinct dogmatic purpose. There is nothing +in it about Christ's birth, nothing in it about His baptism, nor +about His selection of His Apostles. There is scarcely anything about +the facts of His outward life at all. There is scarcely a word about +the whole of His ministry in Galilee. There is not one of His +parables, there are only seven of His miracles before the +Resurrection, and two of these occur also in the other Evangelists. +There is scarcely any of His ethical teaching; there is not a word +about the Lord's Supper. + +And so I might go on enumerating many remarkable gaps in this Gospel. +Nearly half of it is taken up with the incidents of one week at the +end of His life, and the incidents of and after the Resurrection. Of +the remainder-by far the larger portion consists of several +conversations which are hung upon miracles that seem to be related +principally for the sake of these. The whole of the phenomena show us +at once the fragmentary character of this Gospel as stamped upon the +very surface. + +And when we turn to the other three, the same thing is true, though +less strikingly so. Why was it that in the Church, after the +completion of the Scriptural canon, there sprang up a whole host of +Apocryphal Gospels, full of childish stories of events which people +felt had been passed over with strange silence, in the teachings of +the four Evangelists: stories of His childhood, for instance, and +stories about what happened between His death and His resurrection? A +great many miracles were added to those that have been told us in +Scripture. The condensed hints of the canonical Gospels received a +great expansion, which indicated how much their silence about certain +points had been felt. What a tiny pamphlet they make! Is it not +strange that the greatest event in the world's history should be told +in such brief outline, and that here, too, the mustard seed, 'less +than the least of all seeds,' should have become such a great tree? +Put the four Gospels down by the side of the two thick octavo +volumes, which it is the regulation thing to write nowadays, as the +biography of any man that has a name at all, and you will feel their +incompleteness as biographies. They are but a pen-and-ink drawing of +the Sun! And yet, although they be so tiny that you might sit down +and read them all in an evening over the fire, is it not strange that +they have stamped on the mind of the world an image so deep and so +sharp, of such a character as the world never saw elsewhere? They are +fragments, but they have left a symmetrical and an unique impression +on the consciousness of the whole world. + +And then, if you turn to the whole Book, the same thing is true, +though in a modified sense there. I have no time to dwell upon that +fruitful field, but the silence of Scripture is quite as eloquent as +its speech. Think, for instance, of how many things in the Bible are +taken for granted which one would not expect to be taken for granted +in a book of religious instruction. It takes for granted the being of +a God. It takes for granted our relations to Him. It takes for +granted our moral nature. In its later portions, at all events, it +takes for granted the future life. Look at how the Bible, as a whole, +passes by, without one word of explanation or alleviation, a great +many of the difficulties which gather round some of its teaching. For +instance, we find no attempt to explain the divine nature of our +Lord; or the existence of the three Persons in the Godhead. It has +not a word to say in explanation of the mystery of prayer; or of the +difficulty of reconciling the Omnipotent will of God on the one hand, +with our own free will on the other. It has not a word to explain, +though many a word to proclaim and enforce, the fact of Christ's +death as the atonement for the sins of the whole world. Observe, too, +how scanty the information on points on which the heart craves for +more light. How closely, for instance, the veil is kept over the +future life! How many questions which are not prompted by mere +curiosity, our sorrow and our love ask in vain! + +Nor is the incompleteness of Scripture as a historical book less +marked. Nations and men appear on its pages abruptly, rending the +curtain of oblivion, and striding to the front of the stage for a +moment, and then they disappear, swallowed up of night. It has no +care to tell the stories of any of its heroes, except for so long as +they were the organs of that divine breath, which, breathed through +the weakest reed, makes music. The self-revelation of God, not the +acts and fortunes of even His noblest servants, is the theme of the +Book. It is full of gaps about matters that any sciolist or +philosopher or theologian would have filled up for it. There it +stands, a Book unique in the world's history, unique in what it says, +and no less unique in what it does not say. + +'Many other things truly did' that divine Spirit in His march through +the ages, 'which are not written in this book; but these are written +that ye might believe.' + +II. And so that brings me next to say a word or two about the more +immediate purpose which explains all these gaps and incompletenesses. + +John's Gospel, and the other three Gospels, and the whole Bible, New +Testament and Old, have this for their purpose, to produce in men's +hearts the faith in Jesus as 'the Christ' and as 'the Son of God.' + +I need not speak at length about this one Gospel with any special +regard to that thought. I have already said that the Evangelist avows +that his work is a selection, that he declares that the purpose that +determined his selection was doctrinal, and that he picked out facts +which would tend to represent Jesus Christ to us in the twofold +capacity,--as the Christ, the Fulfiller of all the expectations and +promises of the Old Covenant, and as the Son of God. The one of these +titles is a name of office, the other a name of nature; the one +declares that He had come to be, and to do, all to which types and +prophecies and promises had dimly pointed, and the other declares +that He was 'the Eternal Word,' which 'in the beginning was with God +and was God,' and was manifest here upon earth to us. + +This was his purpose, and this representation of Jesus Christ is that +which shapes all the facts and all the phenomena of this Gospel, from +the very first words of it to its close. + +And so, although it is wide from my present subject, I may just make +one parenthetical remark, to the effect that it is ridiculous in the +face of this statement for 'critics' to say, as some of them do: 'The +author of the fourth Gospel has not told us this, that, and the other +incident in Christ's life, therefore, he did not know it.' Then some +of them will draw the conclusion that John's Gospel is not to be +trusted in the given case, because he does not give us a certain +incident, and others might draw the conclusion that the other three +Evangelists are not to be trusted because they do give it us. And the +whole fabric is built up upon a blunder, and would have been avoided +if people had listened when John said to them: 'I knew a great many +things about Jesus Christ, but I did not put them down here because I +was not writing a biography, but preaching a gospel; and what I +wanted to proclaim was that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.' + +But now we may extend that a great deal further. It is just as true +about the whole New Testament. The four Gospels are written to tell +us these two facts about Christ. They are none of them merely +biographies; as such they are singularly deficient, as we have seen. +But they are biographies _plus_ a doctrine; and the biography is told +mainly for the sake of carrying this twofold truth into men's +understandings and hearts, that Jesus is, first of all, the Christ, +and second, the Son of God. + +And then comes the rest of the New Testament, which is nothing more +than the working out of the theoretical and practical consequence of +these great truths. All the Epistles, the Book of Revelation, and the +history of the Church, as embodied in the Acts of the Apostles,--all +these are but the consequences of that fundamental truth; and the +whole of Scripture in its later portions is but the drawing of the +inferences and the presenting of the duties that flow from the facts +that 'Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.' + +And what about the Old Testament? Why, this about it: that whatever +may be the conclusion as to the date and authorship of any of the +books in it,--and I am not careful to contend about these at +present;--and whatever a man may believe about the verbal prophecies +which most of us recognise there,--there is stamped unmistakably upon +the whole system, of which the Old Testament is the record, an +onward-looking attitude. It is all anticipatory of 'good things to +come,' and of a Person who will bring them. Sacrifice, sacred +offices, such as priesthood and kingship, and the whole history of +Israel, have their faces turned to the future. 'They that went +before, and they that followed after, cried "Hosanna! Blessed be He +that cometh in the name of the Lord!"' This Christ towers up above +the history of the world and the process of revelation, like Mount +Everest among the Himalayas. To that great peak all the country on +the one side runs upwards, and from it all the valleys on the other +descend; and the springs are born there which carry verdure and life +over the world. + +Christ, the Son of God, is the centre of Scripture; and the Book-- +whatever be the historical facts about its origin, its authorship, +and the date of the several portions of which it is composed--the +Book is a unity, because there is driven right through it, like a +core of gold, either in the way of prophecy and onward-looking +anticipation, or in the way of history and grateful retrospect, the +reference to the one 'Name that is above every name,' the name of the +Christ, the Son of God. + +And all its incompleteness, its fragmentariness, its carelessness +about persons, are intended, as are the slight parts in a skilful +artist's handiwork, to emphasise the beauty and the sovereignty of +that one central Figure on which all lights are concentrated, and on +which the painter has lavished all the resources of his art. So God-- +for _God_ is the Author of the Bible--on this great canvas has +painted much in sketchy outline, and left much unfilled in, that +every eye may be fixed on the central Figure, the Christ of God, on +whose head comes down the Dove, and round whom echoes the divine +declaration: 'This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' + +But it is not merely in order to represent Jesus as the Christ of God +that these things are written, but it is that that representation may +become the object of our faith. If the intention of Scripture had +been simply to establish the fact that Jesus was the Christ and the +Son of God, it might have been done in a very different fashion. A +theological treatise would have been enough to do that. But if the +object be that men should not only accept with their understandings +the truth concerning Christ's office and nature, but that their +hearts should go out to Him, and that they should rest their sinful +souls upon Him _as_ the Son of God and the Christ, then there is no +other way to accomplish that, but by the history of His life and the +manifestation of His heart. If the object were simply to make us know +about Christ, we do not need a Book like this; but if the object is +to lead us to put our faith in Him, then we must have what we have +here, the infinitely touching and tender Figure of Jesus Christ +Himself, set before us in all its sweetness and beauty as He lived +and moved and died for us. + +And so, dear friends, let me put one last word here about this part +of my subject. If this be the purpose of Scripture, then let us learn +on the one hand the wretched insufficiency of a mere orthodox creed, +and let us learn on the other hand the equal insufficiency of a mere +creedless emotion. + +If the purpose of Scripture, in these Gospels, and all its parts, is +that we should believe 'that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,' +that purpose is not accomplished when we simply yield our +understanding to that truth and accept it as a great many people do. +That was much more the fault of the last generation than of this, +though many of us may still make the mistake of supposing that we are +Christians because we idly assent to--or, at least, do not deny, and +so fancy that we accept--Christian truth. But, as Luther says in one +of his rough figures, 'Human nature is like a drunken peasant; if you +put him up on the horse on the one side, he is sure to tumble down on +the other.' And so the reaction from the heartless, unpractical +orthodoxy of half a century ago has come with a vengeance to-day, +when everybody is saying, 'Oh! give me a Christianity without dogma!' +Well, I say that too, about a great many of the metaphysical +subtleties which have been called Doctrinal Christianity. But this +doctrine of the nature and office of Jesus Christ cannot be given up, +and the Christianity which Christ and His Apostles taught be +retained. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Do +you trust your soul to Him in these characters? If you do, I think we +can shake hands. If you do not, Scripture has failed to do its work +on you, and you have not reached the point which all God's lavish +revelation has been expended on the world that you and all men might +attain. + +III. Now, lastly, notice the ultimate purpose of the whole. + +Scripture is not given to us merely to make us know something about +God in Christ, nor only in order that we may have faith in the Christ +thus revealed to us, but for a further end--great, glorious, but, +blessed be His Name! not distant--namely, that we may 'have life in +His name.' 'Life' is deep, mystical, inexplicable by any other words +than itself. It includes pardon, holiness, well-being, immortality, +Heaven; but it is more than they all. + +This life comes into our dead hearts and quickens them by union with +God. That which is joined to God lives. Each being according to its +nature, is, on condition of the divine power acting upon it. This bit +of wood upon which I put my hand, and the hand which I put upon it, +would equally crumble into nothingness if they were separated from +God. + +You can separate your wills and your spiritual nature from Him, and +thus separated you are 'dead in trespasses and in sins.' And, O +brother! the message comes to you: there is life in that great +Christ, 'in His name'; that is to say, in that revealed character of +His by which He is made known to us as the Christ and the Son of God. + +Union with Him in His Sonship will bring life into dead hearts. He is +the true 'Prometheus' who has come from Heaven with 'fire,' the fire +of the divine Life in the 'reed' of His humanity, and He imparts it +to us all if we will. He lays Himself upon us, as the prophet laid +himself on the little child in the upper chamber; and lip to lip, and +beating heart to dead heart, He touches our death, and it is +quickened into life. + +The condition on which that great Name will bring to us life is +simply our faith. Do you believe in Him, and trust yourself to Him, +as He who came to fulfil all that prophet, priest, and king, +sacrifice, altar, and Temple of old times prophesied and looked for? +Do you trust in Him as the Son of God who comes down to earth that we +in Him might find the immortal life which He is ready to give? If you +do, then, dear brethren! the end that God has in view in all His +revelation, that Christ had in view in His bitter Passion, has been +accomplished for you. If you do not it has not. You may admire Him, +you may think loftily of Him, you may be ready to call Him by many +great and appreciative names, but Oh! unless you have learned to see +in Him the divine Saviour of your souls, you have not seen what God +means you to see. + +But if you have, then all other questions about this Book, important +as they are in their places, may settle themselves as they will; you +have got the kernel, the thing that it was meant to bring you. Many +an erudite scholar, who has studied the Bible all his life, has +missed the purpose for which it was given; and many a poor old woman +in her garret has found it. It is not meant to wrangle over, it is +not meant to be read as an interesting product of the religious +consciousness, it is not to be admired as all that remains of the +literature of a nation that had a genius for religion; but it is to +be taken as being God's great Word to the world, the record of the +revelation that He has given us in His Son. The Eternal Word is the +theme of all the written word. Have you made the jewel which is +brought us in that casket your own? Is Jesus to you the Son of the +living God, believing on whom you share His life, and become 'sons of +God' by Him? Can you take on to your thankful lips that triumphant +and rapturous confession of the doubting Thomas,--the flag flying on +the completed roof-tree of this Gospel--'My Lord and my God'? If you +can, you will receive the blessing which Christ then promised to all +of us standing beyond the limits of that little group, 'who have not +seen and yet have believed'--even that eternal life which flows into +our dead spirits from the Christ, the Son of God, who is the Light of +the world, and the Life of men. + + + +AN ELOQUENT CATALOGUE + +'There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and +Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two +other of His disciples.'--JOHN xxi. 2. + +This chapter, containing the infinitely significant and pathetic +account of our Lord's appearance to these disciples by the Sea of +Tiberias, is evidently an appendix to the Gospel of John. The design +of that Gospel is complete with the previous chapter, and there is a +formal close, as of the whole book, at the end thereof. But whilst +obviously an appendix, this chapter is as obviously the work of the +same hand as wrote the Gospel. There are many minute points of +identity between the style of it and of the rest of the work, so that +there can be no difficulty or doubt as to whence it came. This +enumeration of these seven disciples, regarded as being the work of +John himself, seems to me to be significant, and to contain a good +many lessons. And I desire to turn to these now. + +I. First of all, the fact that they were together is significant. + +How did they come to hold together? How had they not yielded to the +temptation to seek safety by flight, which would have been the +natural course after the death of their Leader on a charge of treason +against the Roman power? The process of disintegration had begun, and +we see it going on in the conduct of the disciples before the +Resurrection. The 'Shepherd was smitten,' and, as a matter of course, +'the sheep' began to 'scatter.' And yet here we find them back in +Galilee, in their old haunts, and not trying to escape by separation, +which would have been the first step suggested to ordinary men in an +ordinary state of things. But where everybody knew them, and they +knew everybody, and everybody knew them to be disciples of Jesus +Christ, thither they go, and hold together as if they had still a +living centre and a uniting bond. How did that come about? The fact +that after Christ's death there was a group of men united together +simply and solely as disciples, and exhibiting their unity as +disciples conspicuously, in the face of the men that knew them best, +this forms a strange phenomenon that needs an explanation. And there +is only one explanation of it, that Jesus Christ had risen from the +dead. That drew them together once more. You cannot build a Church on +a dead Christ; and of all the proofs of the Resurrection, I take it +that there is none that it is harder for an unbeliever to account +for, in harmony with his hypothesis, than the simple fact that +Christ's disciples held together after He was dead, and presented a +united front to the world. + +So, then, the fact of the group is itself significant, and we may +claim it as being a morsel of evidence for the historical veracity of +the resurrection of Jesus Christ. + +II. Then the composition of this group is significant. + +Taken in comparison with the original nucleus of the Church, the +calling of which we find recorded in the first chapter of this +Gospel, it is to be noticed that of the five men who made the +Primitive Church, there are three who reappear here by name--viz. +Simon Peter, John and Nathanael, and Nathanael never appears anywhere +else except in these two places. Then, note that there are two +unnamed men here, 'two other of His disciples'; who, I think, in all +probability are the two of the original five that we do not find +named here--viz. 'Philip and Andrew, Simon Peter's brother'--both of +them connected with Bethsaida, the place where probably this +appearance of the risen Lord took place. + +So, then, I think, the fair inference from the list before us is that +we have here the original nucleus again, the first five, with a +couple more, and the couple more are 'Thomas, who is called Didymus' +--and we shall see the reason for _his_ presence in a moment--and the +brother of John, one of the first pair. + +Thus, then, to the original little group that had gathered round Him +at the first, and to whom He had been so often manifested in this +very scene where they were standing now, He is revealed again. There, +along the beach, is the place where James and John and Simon and +Andrew were called from their nets three short years ago. Across +yonder, on the other side of the lake, is the bit of green grass +where the thousands were fed. Behind it is the steep slope down which +the devil-possessed herd rushed. There, over the shoulder of the +hill, is the road that leads up to Cana of Galilee, which they had +trod together on that never-to-be-forgotten first morning, and from +which little village one of the group came. They who had companied +with Him all the time of His too short fellowship, and had seen all +His manifestations, were fittingly chosen to be the recipients of +this last appearance, which was to be full of instruction as to the +work of the Church, its difficulties, its discouragements, its +rewards, its final success, and His benediction of it until the very +end of time. It was not for nothing that they who were gathered +together were that first nucleus of the Church, who received again +from their Master the charge to be 'fishers of men.' + +And then, if we look at the list, having regard to the history of +those that make it up, it seems to me that that also brings us some +valuable considerations. Foremost stand, as receiving this great +manifestation of Jesus Christ, the two greatest sinners of the whole +band, 'Simon Peter, and Thomas, which is called Didymus,' the denier +and the doubter. Singularly contrasted these two men were in much of +their disposition; and yet alike in the fact that the Crucifixion had +been too much for their faith. The one of them was impetuous, the +other of them slow. The one was always ready to say more than he +meant; the other always ready to do more than he said. The one was +naturally despondent, disposed to look ahead and to see the gloomiest +side of everything--'Let us also go that we may die with Him'--the +other never looking an inch beyond his nose, and always yielding +himself up to the impulse of the moment. And yet both of them were +united in this, that the one, from a sudden wave of cowardice which +swept him away from his deepest convictions and made him for an hour +untrue to his warmest love, and the other, from giving way to his +constitutional tendency to despondency, and to taking the blackest +possible view of everything--they had both of them failed in their +faith, the one turning out a denier and the other turning out a +doubter. And yet here they are, foremost upon the list of those who +saw the Risen Christ. + +Well, there are two lessons there, and the one is this--let us +Christian people learn with what open hearts and hands we should +welcome a penitent when he comes back. The other is,--let us learn +who they are to whom Jesus Christ deigns to manifest Himself--not +immaculate monsters, but men that, having fallen, have learned +humility and caution, and by penitence have risen to a securer +standing, and have turned even their transgressions into steps in the +ladder that lifts them to Christ. It was something that the first to +whom the risen Saviour appeared when He came victorious and calm from +the grave, was the woman 'out of whom He had cast seven devils,' and +the blessed truth which that teaches is the same as that which is to +be drawn from this list of those whom He regarded, and whom we +regard, as then constituting the true nucleus of His Church--a list +which is headed by the blackest denier and the most obstinate and +captious sceptic in the whole company. 'There were together Simon +Peter and Thomas, which is called Didymus,' and the little group was +glad to have them, and welcomed them, as it becomes us to welcome +brethren who have fallen, and who come again saying, 'I repent.' + +Well, then, take the next: he was 'Nathanael, of Cana in Galilee'; a +guileless 'Israelite indeed,' so swift to believe, so ready with his +confession, so childlike in his wonder, so ardent in his love and +faith. The only thing that Christ is recorded as having said to him +is this: 'Because I said... believest thou? Thou shalt see greater +things than these.' A promise of growing clearness of vision and +growing fullness of manifestation was made to this man, who never +appears anywhere else in Scripture but in these two scenes, and so +may stand to us as the type of the opposite kind of Christian +experience from that stormy one of the doubter and the denier--viz. +that of persistent, quiet, continuous growth, which is marked by +faithful use of the present amount of illumination, and is rewarded +by a continual increase of the same. If the keynote to the two former +lives is, that sin confessed helps a man to climb, the keynote to +this man's is the other truth, that they are still more blessed who, +with no interruptions, backslidings, inconsistencies, or denials, by +patient continuousness in well-doing, widen the horizon of their +Christian vision and purge their eyesight for daily larger knowledge. +To these, as to the others, there is granted the vision of the risen +Lord, and to them also is entrusted the care of His sheep and His +lambs. We do not _need_ to go away into the depths and the darkness +in order to realise the warmth and the blessedness of the light. +There is no _necessity_ that any Christian man's career should be +broken by denials like Peter's or by doubts like Thomas's, but we may +'grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.' 'So is +the kingdom of heaven, first the blade, then the ear, after that the +full corn in the ear.' + +Then, still further, there were here 'the two sons of Zebedee.' These +were the men of whom the Master said that they were 'sons of +thunder,' who, by natural disposition, in so far as they resembled +one another (which they seem to have done), were eager, energetic, +somewhat bigoted, ready with passionate rebukes, and not unwilling to +invoke destructive vengeance, all for the love of Him. They were also +touched with some human ambition which led them to desire a place at +His right hand and His left, but the ambition, too, was touched with +love towards Him, which half redeemed it. But by dwelling with Him +one of them, at least, had become of all the group the likest his +Master. And the old monastic painters taught a very deep truth when, +in their pictures of the apostles, they made John's almost a copy of +the Master's face. To him, too, there was granted in like manner a +place amongst this blessed company, and it is surely a trace of _his_ +hand that his place should seem so humble. Any other but himself +would certainly have put James and John in their natural place beside +Peter. It must have been himself who slipped himself and his brother +into so inconspicuous a position in the list, and further veiled his +personality under the patronymic, 'the sons of Zebedee.' + +Last of all come 'two other of His disciples,' not worth naming. +Probably, as I have said, they were the missing two out of the five +of the first chapter; but possibly they were only 'disciples' in the +wider sense, and not of the Apostolic group at all. Nobody can tell. +What does it matter? The lesson to be gathered from their presence in +this group is one that most of us may very well take to heart. There +is a place for commonplace, undistinguished people, whose names are +not worth repeating in any record; there is a place for us one- +talented folk, in Christ's Church, and we, too, have a share in the +manifestation of His love. We do not need to be brilliant, we do not +need to be clever, we do not need to be influential, we do not need +to be energetic, we do not need to be anything but quiet, waiting +souls, in order to have Christ showing Himself to us, as we toil +wearily through the darkness of the night. Undistinguished disciples +have a place in His heart, a sphere and a function in His Church, and +a share in His revelation of Himself. + +III. The last point that I touch is this, that the purpose of this +group is significant. + +What did they thus get together for? 'Simon Peter saith, I go a +fishing. They say, We also go with thee.' So they went back again to +their old trade, and they had not left the nets and the boats and the +hired servants for ever, as they once thought they had. + +What sent them back? Not doubt or despair; because they had seen +Jesus Christ up in Jerusalem, and had come down to Galilee at His +command on purpose to meet Him. 'There shall ye see Him, lo! I have +told you,' was ringing in their ears, and they went back in full +confidence of His appearance there. It is very like Peter that he +should have been the one to suggest filling an hour of the waiting +time with manual labour. The time would be hanging heavily on his +hands. John could have 'sat still in the house,' like Mary, the heart +all the busier, because the hands lay quietly in the lap. But that +was not Peter's way, and John was ready to keep him company. Peter +thought that the best thing they could do, till Jesus chose to come, +was to get back to their work, and he was sensible and right. The +best preparation for Christ's appearance, and the best attitude to be +found in by Him, is doing our daily work, however secular and small +it may be. A dirty, wet fishing boat, all slimy with scales, was a +strange place in which to wait for the manifestation of a risen +Saviour. But it was the right place, righter than if they had been +wandering about amongst the fancied sanctities of the synagogues. + +They went out to do their work; and to them was fulfilled the old +saying, 'I, being in the way, the Lord met me.' Jesus Christ will +come to you and me in the street if we carry the waiting heart there, +and in the shop, and the factory, and the counting-house, and the +kitchen, and the nursery, and the study, or wherever we may be. For +all things are sacred when done with a hallowed heart, and He chooses +to make Himself known to us amidst the dusty commonplaces of daily +life. + +He had said to them before the Crucifixion: 'When I sent you forth +without purse or scrip, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing.' +And then He said, as changing the conditions: 'But now he that hath a +purse or scrip, let him take it.' As long as He was with them they +were absolved from these common tasks. Now that He had left them the +obligation recurred. And the order of things for His servants in all +time coming was therein declared to be: no shirking of daily tasks on +the plea of wanting divine communications; keep at your work, and if +it last all night, stick to it; and if there are no fish in the net, +never mind; out with it again. And be sure that sooner or later you +will see Him standing on the beach, and hear His voice, and be +blessed by His smile. + + + +THE BEACH AND THE SEA + +'When the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore; but the +disciples knew not that it was Jesus.'--JOHN xxi. 4. + +The incident recorded in this appendix to John's Gospel is separated +from the other appearances of our risen Lord in respect of place, +time, and purpose. They all occurred in and about Jerusalem; this +took place in Galilee. The bulk of them happened on the day of the +Resurrection, one of them a week after. This, of course, to allow +time for the journey, must have been at a considerably later date. +Their object was, mainly, to establish the reality of the +Resurrection, the identity of Christ's physical body, and to confirm +the faith of the disciples therein. Here, these purposes retreat into +the background; the object of this incident is to reveal the +permanent relations between the risen Lord and His struggling Church. + +The narrative is rich in details which might profitably occupy us, +but the whole may be gathered up in two general points of view in +considering the revelation which we have here in the participation of +Christ in His servants' work, and also the revelation which we have +in the preparation by Christ of a meal for His toiling servants. We +take this whole narrative thus regarded as our subject on this Easter +morning. + +I. First we have here a revelation of the permanent relation of Jesus +Christ to His Church and to the individuals who compose it, in this, +that the risen Lord on the shore shares in the toil of His servants +on the restless sea. + +The little group of whom we read in this narrative reminds us of the +other group of the first disciples in the first chapter of this +Gospel. Four out of the five persons named in our text appear there: +Simon Peter, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, +James and John. And a very natural inference is that the 'two others' +unnamed here are the two others of that chapter, viz. Andrew and +Philip. If so, we have at the end, the original little group gathered +together again; with the addition of the doubting Thomas. + +Be that as it may, there they are on the shore of the sea, and Peter +characteristically takes the lead and suggests a course that they all +accept: 'I go a fishing.' 'We also go with thee.' + +Now we must not read that as if it meant: 'It is all over! Our hopes +are vain! We dreamed that we were going to be princes in the +Messiah's Kingdom, we have woke up to find that we are only +fishermen. Let us go back to our nets and our boats!' No! all these +men had seen the risen Lord, and had received from His breath the +gift of the Holy Spirit. They had all gone from Jerusalem to Galilee, +in obedience to His command, and were now waiting for His promised +appearance. Very noble and beautiful is the calm patience with which +they fill the time of expectation with doing common and long- +abandoned tasks. They go back to the nets and the boats long since +forsaken at the Master's bidding. That is not like fanatics. That is +not like people who would be liable to the excesses of excitement +that would lead to the 'hallucination,' which is the modern +explanation of the resurrection faith, on the part of the disciples. + +And it is a precious lesson for us, dear brethren! that whatever may +be our memories, and whatever may be our hopes, the very wisest thing +we can do is to stick to the common drudgery, and even to go back to +abandoned tasks. It stills the pulses. 'Study to be quiet; and to do +our own business' is the best remedy for all excitement, whether it +be of sorrow or of hope. And not seldom to us, if we will learn and +practise that lesson, as to these poor men in the tossing fisherman's +boat, the accustomed and daily duties will be the channel through +which the presence of the Master will be manifested to us. + +So they go, and there follow the incidents which I need not repeat, +because we all know them well enough. Only I wish to mark the +distinct allusion throughout the whole narrative to the earlier story +of the first miraculous draught of fishes which was connected with +their call to the Apostleship, and was there by Christ declared to +have a symbolical meaning. The correspondences and the contrasts are +obvious. The scene is the same; the same green mountains look down +upon the same blue waters. It was the same people that were +concerned. They were, probably enough, in the same fishing-boat. In +both there had been a night of fruitless toil; in both there was the +command to let down the net once more; in both obedience was followed +by instantaneous and large success. + +So much for the likenesses; the contrasts are these. In the one case +the Master is in the boat with them, in the other He is on the shore; +in the one the net is breaking; in the other, 'though there were so +many, yet did it not break.' In the one Peter, smitten by a sense of +his own sinfulness, says, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O +Lord!' In the other, Peter, with a deeper knowledge of his own +sinfulness, but also with the sweet knowledge of forgiveness, casts +himself into the sea, and flounders through the shallows to reach the +Lord. The one is followed by the call to higher duty and to the +abandonment of possessions; the other is followed by rest and the +mysterious meal on the shore. + +That is to say, whilst both of the stories point the lesson of +service to the Master, the one of them exhibits the principles of +service to Him whilst He was still with them, and the other exhibits +the principles of service to Him when He is removed from struggling +and toiling on the billows to the calm of the peaceful shore in the +morning light. + +So we may take that night of toil as full of meaning. Think of them +as the darkness fell, and the solemn bulk of the girdling hills lay +blacker upon the waters, and the Syrian sky was mirrored with all its +stars sparkling in the still lake. All the night long cast after cast +was made, and time after time the net was drawn in and nothing in it +but tangle and mud. And when the first streak of the morning breaks +pale over the Eastern hills they are still so absorbed in their tasks +that they do not recognise the voice that hails them from the nearer +shore: 'Lads, have ye any meat?' And they answer it with a half surly +and wholly disappointed monosyllabic 'No!' It is an emblem for us +all; weary and wet, tugging at the oar in the dark, and often seeming +to fail. What then? If the last cast has brought nothing, try +another. Out with the nets once more! Never mind the darkness, and +the cold, and the wetting spray, and the weariness. You cannot expect +to be as comfortable in a fishing-boat as in your drawing-room. You +cannot expect that your nets will be always full. Failure and +disappointment mingle in the most successful lives. Christian work +has often to be done with no results at all apparent to the doer, but +be sure of this, that they who learn and practise the homely, +wholesome virtue of persistent adherence to the task that God sets +them, will catch some gleams of a Presence most real and most +blessed, and before they die will know that 'their labour has not +been in vain in the Lord.' 'They that sow in tears shall reap in +joy.' + +And so, finally, about this first part of my subject, there stands +out before us here the blessed picture of the Lord Himself, the Risen +Lord, with the halo of death and resurrection round about Him; there, +on the firm beach, in the increasing light of the morning, interested +in, caring about, directing and crowning with His own blessing, the +obedient work of His servants. + +The simple prose fact of the story, in its plain meaning, is more +precious than any 'spiritualising' of it. Take the fact. Jesus +Christ, fresh from the grave, who had been down into those dark +regions of mystery where the dead sleep and wait, and had come back +into this world, and was on the eve of ascending to the Father--this +Christ, the possessor of such experience, takes an interest in seven +poor men's fishing, and cares to know whether their ragged old net is +full or is empty. There never was a more sublime and wonderful +binding together of the loftiest and the lowliest than in that +question in the mouth of the Risen Lord. If men had been going to +dream about what would be fitting language for a risen Saviour, if we +had to do here with a legend, and not with a piece of plain, prosaic +fact, do you think that the imagination would ever have entered the +mind of the legend-maker to put such a question as that into such +lips at such a time? 'Lads, have ye any meat?' + +It teaches us that anything that interests us is not without interest +to Christ. Anything that is big enough to occupy our thoughts and our +efforts is large enough to be taken into His. All our ignoble toils, +and all our petty anxieties, touch a chord that vibrates in that deep +and tender heart. Though other sympathy may be unable to come down to +the minutenesses of our little lives, and to wind itself into the +narrow room in which our histories are prisoned, Christ's sympathy +can steal into the narrowest cranny. The risen Lord is interested in +our poor fishing and our disappointments. + +And not only that, here is a promise for us, a prophecy for us, of +certain guidance and direction, if only we will come to Him and +acknowledge our dependence upon Him. The question that was put to +them, 'Lads, have ye any meat?' was meant to evoke the answer, 'No!' +The consciousness of my failure is the pre-requisite to my appeal to +Him to prosper my work. And just as before He would, on the other +margin of that same shore, multiply the loaves and the fishes, He put +to them the question, 'How many have ye?' that they might know +clearly the inadequacy of their own resources for the hungry crowd, +so here, in order to prepare their hearts for the reception of His +guidance and His blessing, He provides that they be brought to +catalogue and confess their failures. So He does with us all, beats +the self-confidence out of us, blessed be His name! and makes us know +ourselves to be empty in order that He may pour Himself into us, and +flood us with the joy of His presence. + +Then comes the guidance given. We may be sure that it is given to us +all to-day, if we wait upon Him and ask Him. 'Cast the net on the +right side of the ship, and ye shall find.' His command is followed +by swift, unanswering, unquestioning obedience, which in its turn is +immediately succeeded by the large blessing which the Master then +gave on the instant, which He gives still, though often, in equal +love and unquestioned wisdom, it comes long after faith has discerned +His presence and obedience has bowed to His command. + +It may be that we shall not see the results of our toil till the +morning dawns and the great net is drawn to land by angel hands. But +we may be sure that while we are toiling on the tossing sea, He +watches from the shore, is interested in all our weary efforts, will +guide us if we own to Him our weakness, and will give us to see at +last issues greater than we had dared to hope from our poor service. +The dying martyr looked up and saw Him 'standing at the right hand of +God,' in the attitude of interested watchfulness and ready help. This +Easter morning bids us lift our eyes to a risen Lord who 'has not +left us to serve alone,' nor gone up on high, like some careless +general to a safe height, while his forsaken soldiers have to stand +the shock of onset without him. From this height He bends down and +'covers our heads in the day of battle.' 'He was received up,' says +the Evangelist, 'and sat on the right hand of God, and they went +forth and preached everywhere.' Strange contrast between His throned +rest and their wandering toils for Him! But the contrast gives place +to a deeper identity of work and condition, as the Gospel goes on to +say, 'The Lord also _working with them_ and confirming the word with +signs following.' + +Though we be on the tossing sea and He on the quiet shore, between us +there is a true union and communion, His heart is with us, if our +hearts be with Him, and from Him will pass over all strength, grace, +and blessing to us, if only we know His presence, and owning our +weakness, obey His command and expect His blessing. + +II. Look at the other half of this incident before us. I pass over +the episode of the recognition of Jesus by John, and of Peter +struggling to His feet, interesting as it is, in order to fix upon +the central thought of the second part of the narrative, viz. the +risen Lord on the shore, in the increasing light of the morning, +'preparing a table' for His toiling servants. That 'fire of coals' +and the simple refreshment that was being dressed upon it had been +prepared there by Christ's own hand. We are not told that there was +anything miraculous about it. He had gathered the charcoal; He had +procured the fish; He had dressed it and prepared it. They are bidden +to 'bring of the fish they had caught'; He accepts their service, and +adds the result of their toil, as it would seem, to the provision +which His own hand has prepared. He summons them to a meal, not the +midday repast, for it was still early morning. They seat themselves, +smitten by a great awe. The meal goes on in silence. No word is +spoken on either side. Their hearts know Him. He waits on them, +making Himself their Servant as well as their Host. He 'taketh bread +and giveth them and fish likewise,' as He had done in the miracles by +the same shore and on that sad night in the upper room that seemed so +far away now, and in the roadside inn at Emmaus, when something in +His manner or action disclosed Him to the wondering two at the table. + +Now what does all that teach us? Two things; and first--neglecting +for a moment the difference between shore and sea--here we have the +fact of Christ's providing, even by doing menial offices, for His +servants. + +These seven men were wet and weary, cold and hungry. The first thing +they wanted when they came out of the fishing-boat was their +breakfast. If they had been at home, their wives and children would +have got it ready for them. Jesus had a great deal to say to them +that day, a great deal to teach them, much to do for them, and for +the whole world, by the words that followed; but the first thing that +He thinks about is to feed them. And so, cherishing no overstrained +contempt for material necessities and temporal mercies, let us +remember that it is His hand that feeds us still, and let us be glad +to think that this Christ, risen from the dead and with His heart +full of the large blessings that He was going to bestow, yet paused +to consider: 'They are coming on shore after a night's hard toil, +they will be faint and weary; let Me feed their bodies before I begin +to deal with their hearts and spirits.' + +And He will take care of you, brother! and of us all. The 'bread will +be given' us, at any rate, and 'the water made sure.' It was a modest +meal that He with His infinite resources thought enough for toiling +fishermen. 'One fish,' as the original shows us, 'one loaf of bread.' +No more! He could as easily have spread a sumptuous table for them. +There is no covenant for superfluities, necessaries will be given. +Let us bring down our wishes to His gifts and promises, and recognise +the fact that 'he who needs least is the nearest the gods,' and he +that needs least is surest of getting from Christ what he needs. + +But then, besides that, the supply of all other deeper and loftier +necessities is here guaranteed. The symbolism of our text divides, +necessarily, the two things which in fact are not divided. It is not +all toiling on the restless sea here, any more than it is all rest +and fruition yonder; but all that your spirit needs, for wisdom, +patience, heroism, righteousness, growth, Christ will give you _in_ +your work; and that is better than giving it to you after your work, +and the very work which is blessed by Him, and furthered and +prospered by Him, the very work itself will come to be moat and +nourishment. 'Out of the eater will come forth meat,' and the slain +'lions' of past struggles and sorrows, the next time we come to them, +will be 'full of honey.' + +Finally, there is a great symbolical prophecy here if we emphasise +the distinction between the night and the morning, between the shore +and the sea. We can scarcely fail to catch this meaning in the +incident which sets forth the old blessed assurance that the risen +Lord is preparing a feast on the shore while His servants are toiling +on the darkling sea. + +All the details, such as the solid shore in contrast with the +changeful sea, the increasing morning in contrast with the toilsome +night, the feast prepared, have been from of old consecrated to +shadow forth the differences between earth and heaven. It would be +blindness not to see here a prophecy of the glad hour when Christ +shall welcome to their stable home, amid the brightness of unsetting +day, the souls that have served Him amidst the fluctuations and +storms of life, and seen Him in its darkness, and shall satisfy all +their desires with the 'bread of heaven.' + +Our poor work which He deigns to accept forms part of the feast which +is spread at the end of our toil, when 'there shall be no more sea.' +He adds the results of our toil to the feast which He has prepared. +The consequences of what we have done here on earth make no small +part of the blessedness of heaven. + + 'Their works and alms and all their good endeavour + Stayed not behind, nor in the grave were trod.' + +The souls which a Paul or a John has won for the Master, in their +vocation as 'fishers of men,' are their 'hope and joy and crown of +rejoicing, in the presence of our Lord Jesus.' The great benediction +which the Spirit bade the Apocalyptic seer write over 'the dead which +die in the Lord,' is anticipated in both its parts by this mysterious +meal on the beach. 'They rest from their labours' inasmuch as they +find the food prepared for them, and sit down to partake; 'Their +works do follow them' inasmuch as they 'bring of the fish which they +have caught.' + +Finally, Christ Himself waits on them, therein fulfilling in symbol +what He has told us in great words that dimly shadow wonders +unintelligible until experienced: 'Verily I say unto you, He shall +gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth, +and serve them.' + +So here is a vision to cheer us all. Life must be full of toil and of +failure. We are on the midnight sea, and have to tug, weary and wet, +at a heavy oar, and to haul an often empty net. But we do not labour +alone. He comes to us across the storm, and is with us in the night, +a most real, because unseen Presence. If we accept the guidance of +His directing word, His indwelling Spirit, and His all-sufficient +example, and seek to ascertain His will in outward Providences, we +shall not be left to waste our strength in blunders, nor shall our +labour be in vain. In the morning light we shall see Him standing +serene on the steadfast shore. The 'Pilot of the Galilean lake' will +guide our frail boat through the wild surf that marks the breaking of +the sea of life on the shore of eternity; and when the sun rises over +the Eastern hills we shall land on the solid beach, bringing our 'few +small fishes' with us, which He will accept. And there we shall rest, +nor need to ask who He is that serves us, for we shall know that 'It +is the Lord!' + + + +'IT IS THE LORD!' + +'Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is +the Lord.--JOHN xxi. 7. + +It seems a very strange thing that these disciples had not, at an +earlier period of this incident, discovered the presence of Christ, +inasmuch as the whole was so manifestly a repetition of that former +event by which the commencement of their ministry had been +signalised, when He called them to become 'fishers of men.' We are +apt to suppose that when once again they embarked on the lake, and +went back to their old trade, it must have been with many a thought +of Him busy at their hearts. Yonder--perhaps we fancy them thinking-- +is the very point where we saw Him coming out of the shadows of the +mountains, that night when He walked on the water; yonder is the +little patch of grass where He made them all sit down whilst we bore +the bread to them: there is the very spot where we were mending our +nets when He came up to us and called us to Himself; and now it is +all over. We have loved and lost Him; He has been with us, and has +left us. 'We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed +Israel,' and the Cross has ended it all! So, we are apt to think, +they must have spoken; but there does not seem to have been about +them any such sentimental remembrance. John takes pains in this +narrative, I think, to show them to us as plain, rough men, busy +about their night's work, and thinking a great deal more of their +want of success in fishing, than about the old associations which we +are apt to put into their minds. Then through the darkness He comes, +as they had seen Him come once before, when they know Him not; and He +speaks to them as He had spoken before, and they do not detect His +voice yet; and He repeats the old miracle, and their eyes are all +holden, excepting the eyes of him who loved, and _he_ first says, 'It +is the Lord!' Now, besides all the other features of this incident by +which it becomes the revelation of the Lord's presence with His +Church, and the exhibition of the work of the Church during all the +course of the world's history, it contains valuable lessons on other +points, such as these which I shall try to bring before you. + +Now and always, as in that morning twilight on the Galilean lake, +Christ comes to men. Everywhere He is present, everywhere revealing +Himself. Now, as then, our eyes are 'holden' by our own fault, so +that we recognise not the merciful Presence which is all around us. +Now, as then, it is they who are nearest to Christ by love who see +Him first. Now, as then, they who are nearest to Him by love, are so +because He loves them, and because they know and believe the love +which He has to them. I find, then, in this part of the story three +thoughts,--First, they only see aright who see Christ in everything. +Secondly, they only see Christ who love Him. Lastly, they only love +Him who know that He loves them, + +I. First then, they only see aright who see Christ in everything. + +This word of John's, 'It is the Lord!'--ought to be the conviction +with the light of which we go out to the examination of all events, +and to the consideration of all the circumstances of our daily life. +We believe that unto Christ is given 'all power in heaven and upon +earth.' We believe that to Him belongs creative power--that 'without +Him was not anything made which was made.' We believe that from Him +came all life at first. In Him life was, as in its deep source. He is +the Fountain of life. We believe that as no being comes into +existence without His creative power, so none continues to exist +without His sustaining energy. We believe that He allots to all men +their natural characters and their circumstances. We believe that the +history of the world is but the history of His influence, and that +the centre of the whole universe is the cross of Calvary. In the +light of such convictions, I take it, every man that calls himself a +Christian ought to go out to meet life and to study all events. Let +me try, then, to put before you, very briefly, one or two of the +provinces in which we are to take this conviction as the keynote to +all our knowledge. + +No man will understand the world aright, to begin with, who cannot +say about all creation, 'It is the Lord!' Nature is but the veil of +the invisible and ascended Lord: and if we would pierce to the +deepest foundations of all being, we cannot stop until we get down to +the living power of Christ our Saviour and the Creator of the world, +by whom all things were made, and whose will pouring out into this +great universe, is the sustaining principle and the true force which +keeps it from nothingness and from quick decay. + +Why, what did Christ work all His miracles upon earth for? Not solely +to give us a testimony that the Father had sent Him; not solely to +make us listen to His words as a Teacher sent from God; not solely as +proof of His Messiahship,--but besides all these purposes there was +surely this other, that for once He would unveil to us the true +Author of all things, and the true Foundation of all being. Christ's +miracles interrupted the order of the world, because they made +visible to men for once the true and constant Orderer of the order. +They interrupted the order in so far as they struck out the +intervening links by which the creative and sustaining word of God +acts in nature, and suspended each event directly from the firm +staple of His will. They revealed the eternal Orderer of that order +in that they showed the Incarnate Word wielding the forces of nature, +which He has done from of old and still does. We are then to take all +these signs and wonders that He wrought, as a perennial revelation of +the real state of things with regard to this natural world, and to +see in them all, signs and tokens that into every corner and far-off +region of the universe His loving hand reaches, and His sustaining +power goes forth. Into what province of nature did He not go? He +claimed to be the Lord of life by the side of the boy's bier at the +gate of Nain, in the chamber of the daughter of Jairus, by the grave +of Lazarus. He asserted for Himself authority over all the powers and +functions of our bodily life, when He gave eyes to the blind, hearing +to the deaf, feet to the lame. He showed that He was Lord over the +fowl of the air, the beasts of the earth, the fish of the sea. And He +asserted His dominion over inanimate nature, when the fig-tree, +cursed by Him, withered away to its roots, and the winds and waves +sunk into silence at His gentle voice. He let us get a glimpse into +the dark regions of His rule over the unseen, when 'with authority He +commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out.' And all these +things He did, in order that we, walking in this fair world, +encompassed by the glories of this wonderful universe, should be +delivered from the temptation of thinking that it is separated from +Him, or independent of His creative and sustaining power; and in +order that we should feel that the continuance of all which surrounds +us, the glories of heaven and the loveliness of earth, are as truly +owing to the constant intervention of His present will, and the +interposition beneath them of His sustaining hand, as when first, by +the 'Word of God' who 'was with God and who was God,' speaking forth +His fiat, there came light and beauty out of darkness and chaos. + +O Christian men! we shall never understand the Christian thought +about God's universe, until we are able to say, Preservation is a +continual creation; and beneath all the ordinary workings of Nature, +as we faithlessly call it, and the apparently dead play of secondary +causes, there are welling forth, and energising, the living love and +the blessed power of Christ, the Maker, and Monarch, and Sustainer of +all. 'It is the Lord!' is the highest teaching of all science. The +mystery of the universe, and the meaning of God's world, are shrouded +in hopeless obscurity, until we learn to feel that all laws suppose a +Lawgiver, and that all working involves a divine energy; and that +beneath all which appears there lies for ever rising up through it +and giving it its life and power, the one true living Being, the +Father in heaven, the Son by whom He works, and the Holy Ghost the +Spirit. Darkness lies on Nature, except to those who in + + 'the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean, and the living air, + And the blue sky,' + +see that Form which these disciples saw in the morning twilight. Let +'It is the Lord!' be the word on our lips as we gaze on them all, and +nature will then be indeed to us the open secret, the secret of the +Lord which 'He will show to them that fear Him.' + +Then again, the same conviction is the only one that is adequate +either to explain or to make tolerable the circumstances of our +earthly condition. To most men--ah! to all of us in our faithless +times--the events that befall ourselves, seem to be one of two things +equally horrible, the play of a blind Chance, or the work of an iron +Fate. I know not which of these two ghastly thoughts about the +circumstances of life is the more depressing, ruining all our energy, +depriving us of all our joy, and dragging us down with its weight. +But brethren, and friends, there are but these three ways for it-- +either our life is the subject of a mere chaotic chance; or else it +is put into the mill of an iron destiny, which goes grinding on and +crushing with its remorseless wheels, regardless of what it grinds +up; or else, through it all, in it all, beneath it and above it all, +there is the Will which is Love, and the Love which is Christ! Which +of these thoughts is the one that commends itself to your own hearts +and consciences, and which is the one under which you would fain live +if you could? I understand not how a man can front the awful +possibilities of a future on earth, knowing all the points at which +he is vulnerable, and all the ways by which disaster may come down +upon him, and retain his sanity, unless he believes that all is +ruled, not merely by a God far above him, who may be as +unsympathising as He is omnipotent, but by his Elder Brother, the Son +of God, who showed His heart by all His dealings with us here below, +and who loves as tenderly, and sympathises as closely with us as ever +He did when on earth He gathered the weary and the sick around Him. +Is it not a thing, men and women, worth having, to have this for the +settled conviction of your hearts, that Christ is moving all the +pulses of your life, and that nothing falls out without the +intervention of His presence and the power of His will working +through it? Do you not think such a belief would nerve you for +difficulty, would lift you buoyantly over trials and depressions, and +would set you upon a vantage ground high above all the petty +annoyances of life? Tell me, is there any other place where a man can +plant his foot and say, 'Now I am on a rock and I care not what +comes'? The riddle of Providence is solved, and the discipline of +Providence is being accomplished when we have grasped this +conviction--All events do serve me, for all circumstances come from +His will and pleasure, which is love; and everywhere I go--be it in +the darkness of disaster or in the sunshine of prosperity--I shall +see standing before me that familiar and beloved Shape, and shall be +able to say, 'It is the Lord!' Friends and brethren, that is the +faith to live by, that is the faith to die by; and without it life is +a mockery and a misery. + +Once more this same conviction, 'It is the Lord! should guide us in +all our thoughts about the history and destinies of mankind and of +Christ's Church. The Cross is the centre of the world's history, the +incarnation and the crucifixion of our Lord are the pivot round which +all the events of the ages revolve. 'The testimony of Jesus was the +spirit of prophecy,' and the growing power of Jesus is the spirit of +history, and in every book that calls itself the history of a nation, +unless there be written, whether literally or in spirit, this for its +motto, 'It is the Lord!' all will be shallow and incomplete. + +'They that went before and they that came after,' when He entered +into the holy city in His brief moment of acceptance and pomp, +surrounded Him with hosannas and jubilant gladness. It is a deep and +true symbol of the whole history of the world. All the generations +that went before Him, though they knew it not, were preparing the way +of the Lord, and heralding the advent of Him who was 'the desire of +all nations' and 'the light of men'; and all the generations that +come after, though they know it not, are swelling the pomp of His +triumph and hastening the time of His crowning and dominion. 'It is +the Lord!' is the secret of all national existence. It is the secret +of all the events of the world. The tangled web of human history is +only then intelligible when that is taken as its clue, 'From Him are +all things, and to Him are all things.' The ocean from which the +stream of history flows, and that into which it empties itself, are +one. He began it, He sustains it. 'The help that is done upon earth +He doeth it Himself,' and when all is finished, it will be found that +all things have indeed come from Christ, been sustained and directed +by Christ, and have tended to the glory and exaltation of that +Redeemer, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, Maker of the +worlds, and before whose throne are for ever gathered for service, +whether they know it or not, the forces of the Gentiles, the riches +of the nations, the events of history, the fates and destinies of +every man. + +I need not dwell upon the way in which such a conviction as this, my +friends, living and working in our hearts, would change for us the +whole aspect of life, and make everything bright and beautiful, +blessed and calm, strengthening us for all which we might have to do, +nerving us for duty, and sustaining us against every trial, leading +us on, triumphant and glad, through regions all sparkling with tokens +of His presence and signs of His love, unto His throne at last, to +lay down our praises and our crowns before Him. Only let me leave +with you this one word of earnest entreaty, that you will lay to +heart the solemn alternative--either see Christ in everything, and be +blessed; or miss Him, and be miserable. Oh! it is a waste, weary +world, unless it is filled with signs of His presence. It is a dreary +seventy years, brother, of pilgrimage and strife, unless, as you +travel along the road, you see the marks that He who went before you +has left by the wayside for your guidance and your sustenance. If you +want your days to be true, noble, holy, happy, manly, and Godlike, +believe us, it is only when they all have flowing through them this +conviction, 'It is the Lord!' that they all become so. + +II. Then, secondly, only they who love, see Christ. + +John, the Apostle of Love, knew Him first. In religious matters, love +is the foundation of knowledge. There is no way of knowing a Person +except love. The knowledge of God and the knowledge of Christ are not +to be won by the exercise of the understanding. A man cannot argue +his way into knowing Christ. No skill in drawing inferences will +avail him there. The treasures of wisdom--earthly wisdom--are all +powerless in that region. Man's understanding and natural capacity-- +let it keep itself within its own limits and region, and it is strong +and good; but in the region of acquaintance with God and Christ, the +wisdom of this world is foolishness, and man's understanding is not +the organ by which he can know Christ. Oh no! there is a better way +than that: 'He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.' As +it is, in feebler measure, with regard to our personal acquaintance +with one another, where it is not so much the power of the +understanding, or the quickness of the perception, or the talent and +genius of a man, that make the foundation of his knowledge of his +friend, as the force of his sympathy and the depth of his affection; +so--with the necessary modification arising from the transference +from earthly acquaintances to the great Friend and Lover of our souls +in heaven--so is it with regard to our knowledge of Christ. Love will +trace Him everywhere, as dear friends can detect each other in little +marks which are meaningless to others. Love's quick eye pierces +through disguises impenetrable to a colder scrutiny. Love has in it a +longing for His presence which makes us eager and quick to mark the +lightest sign that He for whom it longs is near, as the footstep of +some dear one is heard by the sharp ear of affection long before any +sound breaks the silence to those around. Love leads to likeness to +the Lord, and that likeness makes the clearer vision of the Lord +possible. Love to Him strips from our eyes the film that self and +sin, sense and custom, have drawn over them. It is these which hide +Him from us. It is because men are so indifferent to, so forgetful +of, their best Friend that they fail to behold Him, 'It is the Lord!' +is written large and plain on all things, but like the great letters +on a map, they are so obvious and fill so wide a space, that they are +not seen. They who love Him know Him, and they who know Him love Him. +The true eye-salve for our blinded eyes is applied when we have +turned with our hearts to Christ. The simple might of faithful love +opens them to behold a more glorious vision than the mountain 'full +of chariots of fire,' which once flamed before the prophet's servant +of old--even the august and ever-present form of the Lord of life, +the Lord of history, the Lord of providence. When they who love Jesus +turn to see 'the Voice that speaks with them,' they ever behold the +Son of Man in His glory; and where others see but the dim beach and a +mysterious stranger, it is to their lips that the glad cry first +comes, 'It is the Lord!' + +And is it not a blessed thing, brethren! that thus this high and +glorious prerogative of recognising the marks of Christ's presence +everywhere, of going through life gladdened by the assurance of His +nearness, does not depend on what belongs to few men only, but on +what may belong to all? When we say that 'not many wise men after the +flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called'--when we say that +love is the means of knowledge--we are but in other words saying that +the way is open to all, and that no characteristics belonging to +classes, no powers that must obviously always belong to but a +handful, are necessary for the full apprehension of the power and +blessedness of Christ's Gospel. The freeness and the fullness of that +divine message, the glorious truth that it is for all men, and is +offered to all, are couched in that grand principle, Love that thou +mayest know; love, and thou art filled with the fullness of God, Not +for the handful, not for the _elite_ of the world; not for the few, +but for the many; not for the wise, but for all; not for classes, but +for humanity--for all that are weak, and sinful, and needy, and +foolish, and darkened He comes, who only needs that the heart that +looks should love, and then it shall behold! + +But if that were the whole that I have to say, I should have said but +little to the purpose. It very little avails to tell men to love. We +cannot love to order, or because we think it duty. There is but one +way of loving, and that is to see the lovely. The disciple who loved +Jesus was 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.' Generalise that, and it +teaches us this, that + +III. They love who know that Christ loves them. His divine and +eternal mercy is the foundation of the whole. Our love, brethren, can +never be any thing else than our echo to His voice of tenderness than +the reflected light upon our hearts of the full glory of His +affection. No man loveth God except the man who has first learned +that God loves him. 'We love Him, because He first loved us.' And +when we say, 'Love Christ,' if we could not go on to say, 'Nay, +rather let Christ's love come down upon you'--we had said worse than +nothing. The fountain that rises in my heart can only spring up +heavenward, because the water of it has flowed down into my heart +from the higher level. All love must descend first, before it can +ascend. We have, then, no Gospel to preach, if we have only this to +preach, 'Love, and thou art saved.' But we have a Gospel that is +worth the preaching, when we can come to men who have no love in +their hearts, and say, 'Brethren! listen to this--you have to bring +nothing, you are called upon to originate no affection; you have +nothing to do but simply to receive the everlasting love of God in +Christ His Son, which was without us, which began before us, which +flows forth independent of us, which is unchecked by all our sins, +which triumphs over all our transgressions, and which will make us-- +loveless, selfish, hardened, sinful men--soft, and tender, and full +of divine affection, by the communication of its own self. + +Oh, then, look to Christ, that you may love Him! Think, brethren, of +that full, and free, and boundless mercy which, from eternity, has +been pouring itself out in floods of grace and loving-kindness over +all creatures. Think of that everlasting love which presided at the +foundation of the earth, and has sustained it ever since. Think of +that Saviour who has died for us, and lives for us. Think of Christ, +the heart of God, and the fullness of the Father's mercy; and do not +think of yourselves at all. Do not ask yourselves, to begin with, the +question, Do I love Him or do I not? You will never love by that +means. If a man is cold, let him go to the fire and warm himself. If +he is dark, let him stand in the sunshine, and he will be light. If +his heart is all clogged and clotted with sin and selfishness, let +him get under the influence of the love of Christ, and look away from +himself and his own feelings, towards that Saviour whose love shed +abroad is the sole means of kindling ours. You have to go down deeper +than _your_ feelings, _your_ affections, _your_ desires, _your_ +character. There you will find no resting-place, no consolation, no +power. Dig down to the living Rock, Christ and His infinite love to +you, and let _it_ be the strong foundation, built into which you and +your love may become living stones, a holy temple, partaking of the +firmness and nature of that on which it rests. They that love do so +because they know that Christ loves them; and they that love see Him +everywhere; and they that see Him everywhere are blessed for +evermore. And let no man here torture himself, or limit the fullness +of this message that we preach, by questionings whether Christ loves +Him or not. Are you a man? are you sinful? have you broken God's law? +do you need a Saviour? Then put away all these questions, and believe +that Christ's personal love is streaming out for the whole world, and +that there is a share for you if you like to take it and be blessed! + +There is one last thought arising from the whole subject before us, +that may be worth mention before I close. Did you ever notice how +this whole incident might be turned, by a symbolical application, to +the hour of death, and the vision which may meet us when we come +thither? It admits of the application, and perhaps was intended to +receive the application, of such a symbolic reference. The morning is +dawning, the grey of night going away, the lake is still; and yonder, +standing on the shore, in the uncertain light, there is one dim +Figure, and one disciple catches a sight of Him, and another casts +himself into the water, and they find 'a fire of coals, and fish laid +thereon, and bread,' and Christ gathers them around His table, and +they all know that 'It is the Lord!' It is what the death of the +Christian man, who has gone through life recognising Christ +everywhere, may well become:--the morning breaking, and the finished +work, and the Figure standing on the quiet beach, so that the last +plunge into the cold flood that yet separates us, will not be taken +with trembling reluctance; but, drawn to Him by the love beaming out +of His face, and upheld by the power of His beckoning presence, we +shall struggle through the latest wave that parts us, and scarcely +feel its chill, nor know that we _have_ crossed it; till falling +blessed at His feet, we see, by the nearer and clearer vision of His +face, that this is indeed heaven. And looking back upon 'the sea that +brought us thither,' we shall behold its waters flashing in the light +of that everlasting morning, and hear them breaking in music upon the +eternal shore. And then, brethren, when all the weary night-watchers +on the stormy ocean of life are gathered together around Him who +watched with them from His throne on the bordering mountains of +eternity, where the day shines for ever--then He will seat them at +His table in His kingdom, and none will need to ask, 'Who art Thou?' +or 'Where am I?' for all shall know that 'It is the Lord!' and the +full, perfect, unchangeable vision of His blessed face will be +heaven! + + + +'LOVEST THOU ME?' + +'Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me +more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that +I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs.'--JOHN xxi. 15. + +Peter had already seen the risen Lord. There had been that interview +on Easter morning, on which the seal of sacred secrecy was impressed; +when, alone, the denier poured out his heart to his Lord, and was +taken to the heart that he had wounded. Then there had been two +interviews on the two successive Sundays in which the Apostle, in +common with his brethren, had received, as one of the group, the +Lord's benediction, the Lord's gift of the Spirit, and the Lord's +commission. But something more was needed; there had been public +denial, there must be public confession. If he had slipped again into +the circle of the disciples, with no special treatment or reference +to his fall, it might have seemed a trivial fault to others, and even +to himself. And so, after that strange meal on the beach, we have +this exquisitely beautiful and deeply instructive incident of the +special treatment needed by the denier before he could be publicly +reinstated in his office. + +The meal seems to have passed in silence. That awe which hung over +the disciples in all their intercourse with Jesus during the forty +days, lay heavy on them, and they sat there, huddled round the fire, +eating silently the meal which Christ had provided, and no doubt +gazing silently at the silent Lord. What a tension of expectation +there must have been as to how the oppressive silence was to be +broken! and how Peter's heart must have throbbed, and the others' +ears been pricked up, when it was broken by 'Simon, son of Jonas, +lovest thou Me?' We may listen with pricked-up ears too. For we have +here, in Christ's treatment of the Apostle, a revelation of how He +behaves to a soul conscious of its fault; and in Peter's demeanour an +illustration of how a soul, conscious of its fault, should behave to +Him. + +There are three stages here: the threefold question, the threefold +answer, and the threefold charge. Let us look at these. + +I. The threefold question. + +The reiteration in the interrogation did not express doubt as to the +veracity of the answer, nor dissatisfaction with its terms; but it +did express, and was meant, I suppose, to suggest to Peter and to the +others, that the threefold denial needed to be obliterated by the +threefold confession; and that every black mark that had been scored +deep on the page by that denial needed to be covered over with the +gilding or bright colouring of the triple acknowledgment. And so +Peter thrice having said, 'I know Him not!' Jesus with a gracious +violence forced him to say thrice, 'Thou knowest that I love Thee.' +The same intention to compel Peter to go back upon his past comes out +in two things besides the triple form of the question. The one is the +designation by which he is addressed, 'Simon, son of Jonas,' which +travels back, as it were, to the time before he was a disciple, and +points a finger to his weak humanity before it had come under the +influence of Jesus Christ. 'Simon, son of Jonas,' was the name that +he bore in the days before his discipleship. It was the name by which +Jesus had addressed him, therefore, on that never-to-be-forgotten +turning-point of his life, when he was first brought to Him by his +brother Andrew. It was the name by which Jesus had addressed him at +the very climax of his past life when, high up, he had been able to +see far, and in answer to the Lord's question, had rung out the +confession: 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!' So the +name by which Jesus addresses him now says to him in effect: +'Remember thy human weakness; remember how thou wert drawn to Me; +remember the high-water mark of thy discipleship, when I was plain +before thee as the Son of God, and remembering all these, answer Me-- +lovest thou Me?' + +The same intention to drive Peter back to the wholesome remembrance +of a stained past is obvious in the first form of the question. Our +Lord mercifully does not persist in giving to it that form in the +second and third instances: 'Lovest thou Me more than these?' More +than these, what? I cannot for a moment believe that that question +means something so trivial and irrelevant as 'Lovest thou Me more +than these nets, and boats, and the fishing?' No; in accordance with +the purpose that runs through the whole, of compelling Peter to +retrospect, it says to him, 'Do you remember what you said a dozen +hours before you denied Me, "Though all should forsake Thee, yet will +not I"? Are you going to take that stand again? Lovest thou Me more +than these that never discredited their boasting so shamefully?' + +So, dear brethren! here we have Jesus Christ, in His treatment of +this penitent and half-restored soul, forcing a man, with merciful +compulsion, to look steadfastly and long at his past sin, and to +retrace step by step, shameful stage by shameful stage, the road by +which he had departed so far. Every foul place he is to stop and look +at, and think about. Each detail he has to bring up before his mind. +Was it not cruel of Jesus thus to take Peter by the neck, as it were, +and hold him right down, close to the foul things that he had done, +and say to him, 'Look! look! look ever! and answer, Lovest thou Me?' +No; it was not cruel; it was true kindness. Peter had never been so +abundantly and permanently penetrated by the sense of the sinfulness +of his sin, as after he was sure, as he had been made sure in that +great interview, that it was all forgiven. So long as a man is +disturbed by the dread of consequences, so long as he is doubtful as +to his relation to the forgiving Love, he is not in a position +beneficially and sanely to consider his evil in its moral quality +only. But when the conviction comes to a man, 'God is pacified +towards thee for all that thou hast done'; and when he can look at +his own evil without the smallest disturbance rising from slavish +fear of issues, then lie is in a position rightly to estimate its +darkness and its depth. And there can be no better discipline for us +all than to remember our faults, and penitently to travel back over +the road of our sins, just because we are sure that God in Christ has +forgotten them. The beginning of Christ's merciful treatment of the +forgiven man is to compel him to remember, that he may learn and be +ashamed. + +And then there is another point here, in this triple question. How +significant and beautiful it is that the only thing that Jesus Christ +cares to ask about is the sinner's love! We might have expected: +'Simon, son of Jonas, are you sorry for what you did? Simon, son of +Jonas, will you promise never to do the like any more?' No! These +things will come if the other thing is there. 'Lovest thou Me?' Jesus +Christ sues each of us, not for obedience primarily, not for +repentance, not for vows, not for conduct, but for a heart; and that +being given, all the rest will follow. That is the distinguishing +characteristic of Christian morality, that Jesus seeks first for the +surrender of the affections, and believes, and is warranted in the +belief, that if these are surrendered, all else will follow; and love +being given, loyalty and service and repentance and hatred of self- +will and of self-seeking will follow in her train. All the graces of +human character which Christ seeks, and is ready to impart, are, as +it were, but the pages and ministers of the regal Love, who follow +behind and swell the _cortege_ of her servants. + +Christ asks for love. Surely that indicates the depth of His own! In +this commerce He is satisfied with nothing less, and can ask for +nothing more; and He seeks for love because He is love, and has given +love. Oh! to all hearts burdened, as all our hearts ought to be-- +unless the burden has been cast off in one way--by the consciousness +of our own weakness and imperfection, surely, surely, it is a gospel +that is contained in that one question addressed to a man who had +gone far astray, 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou?' + +Here, again, we have Jesus Christ, in His dealing with the penitent, +willing to trust discredited professions. We think that one of the +signs of our being wise people is that experience shall have taught +us 'once' being 'bit, twice' to be 'shy,' and if a man has once +deceived us by flaming professions and ice-cold acts, never to trust +him any more. And we think that is 'worldly wisdom,' and 'the bitter +fruit of earthly experience,' and 'sharpness,' and 'shrewdness,' and +so forth. Jesus Christ, even whilst reminding Peter, by that 'more +than these,' of his utterly hollow and unreliable boasting, shows +Himself ready to accept once again the words of one whose unveracity +He had proved. 'Charity hopeth all things, believeth all things,' and +Jesus Christ is ready to trust us when we say, 'I love Thee,' even +though often in the past our professed love has been all disproved. + +We have here, in this question, our Lord revealing Himself as willing +to accept the imperfect love which a disciple can offer Him. Of +course, many of you well know that there is a very remarkable play of +expression here. In the two first questions the word which our Lord +employs for 'love' is not the same as that which appears in Peter's +two first answers. Christ asks for one kind of love; Peter proffers +another. I do not enter upon discussion as to the distinction between +these two apparent synonyms. The kind of love which Christ asks for +is higher, nobler, less emotional, and more associated with the whole +mind and will. It is the inferior kind, the more warm, more sensuous, +more passionate and emotional, which Peter brings. And then, in the +third question, our Lord, as it were, surrenders and takes Peter's +own word, as if He had said, 'Be it so! You shrink from professing +the higher kind; I will take the lower; and I will educate and bring +that up to the height that I desire you to stand at.' Ah, brother! +however stained and imperfect, however disproved by denials, however +tainted by earthly associations, Jesus Christ will accept the poor +stream of love, though it be but a trickle when it ought to be a +torrent, which we can bring Him. + +These are the lessons which it seems to me lie in this triple +question. I have dealt with them at the greater length, because those +which follow are largely dependent upon them. But let me turn now +briefly, in the second place, to-- + +II. The triple answer. + +'Yea, Lord! Thou knowest that I love Thee.' Is not that beautiful, +that the man who by Christ's Resurrection, as the last of the answers +shows, had been led to the loftiest conception of Christ's +omniscience, and regarded Him as knowing the hearts of all men, +should, in the face of all that Jesus Christ knew about his denial +and his sin, have dared to appeal to Christ's own knowledge? What a +superb and all-conquering confidence in Christ's depth of knowledge +and forgivingness of knowledge that answer showed! He felt that Jesus +could look beneath the surface of his sin, and see that below it +there was, even in the midst of the denial, a heart that in its +depths was true. It is a tremendous piece of confident appeal to the +deeper knowledge, and therefore the larger love and more abundant +forgiveness, of the righteous Lord--'Thou knowest that I love Thee.' + +Brethren! a Christian man ought to be sure of his love to Jesus +Christ. You do not study your conduct in order to infer from it your +love to others. You do not study your conduct in order to infer from +it your love to your wife, or your husband, or your parents, or your +children, or your friend. Love is not a matter of inference; it is a +matter of consciousness and intuition. And whilst self-examination is +needful for us all for many reasons, a Christian man ought to be as +sure that he loves Jesus Christ as he is sure that he loves his +dearest upon earth. + +It used to be the fashion long ago--this generation has not depth +enough to keep up the fashion--for Christian people to talk as if it +were a point they longed to know, whether they loved Jesus Christ or +not. There is no reason why it should be a point we long to know. You +know all about your love to one another, and you are sure about that. +Why are you not sure about your love to Jesus Christ? 'Oh! but,' you +say, 'look at my sins and failures'; and if Peter had looked only at +his sins, do you not think that his words would have stuck in his +throat? He did look, but he looked in a very different way from that +of trying to ascertain from his conduct whether he loved Jesus Christ +or not. Brethren, any sin is inconsistent with Christian love to +Christ. Thank God, we have no right to say of any sin that it is +incompatible with that love! More than that; a great, gross, +flagrant, sudden fall like Peter's is a great deal less inconsistent +with love to Christ than are the continuously unworthy, worldly, +selfish, Christ-forgetting lives of hosts of complacent professing +Christians to-day. White ants will eat up the carcase of a dead +buffalo quicker than a lion will. And to have denied Christ once, +twice, thrice, in the space of an hour, and under strong temptation, +is not half so bad as to call Him 'Master' and 'Lord,' and day by +day, week in, week out, in works to deny Him. The triple answer +declares to us that in spite of a man's sins he ought to be conscious +of his love, and be ready to profess it when need is. + +III. Lastly, we have here the triple commission. + +I do not dwell upon it at any length, because in its original form it +applies especially to the Apostolic office. But the general +principles which underlie this threefold charge, to feed and to tend +both 'the sheep' and 'the lambs,' may be put in a form that applies +to each of us, and it is this--the best token of a Christian's love +to Jesus Christ is his service of man for Christ's sake. 'Lovest thou +Me?' 'Yea! Lord.' Thou hast _said_; go and _do_, 'Feed My lambs; feed +My sheep.' We need the profession of words; we need, as Peter himself +enjoined at a subsequent time, to be ready to 'give to every man that +asketh us a reason of the hope,' and an acknowledgment of the love, +that are in us. But if you want men to believe in your love, however +Jesus Christ may know it, go and work in the Master's vineyard. The +service of man is the garb of the love of God. 'He that loveth God +will love his brother also.' Do not confine that thought of service, +and feeding, and tending, to what we call evangelistic and religious +work. That is one of its forms, but it is only one of them. +Everything in which Christian men can serve their fellows is to be +taken by them as their worship of their Lord, and is taken by the +world as the convincing proof of the reality of their love. + +Love to Jesus Christ is the qualification for all such service. If we +are knit to Him by true affection, which is based upon our +consciousness of our own falls and evils, and our reception of His +forgiving mercy, then we shall have the qualities that fit us, and +the impulse that drives us, to serve and help our fellows. I do not +say--God forbid!--that there is no philanthropy apart from Christian +faith, but I do say that, on the wide scale, and in the long run, +they who are knit to Jesus Christ by love will be those who render +the greatest help to all that are 'afflicted in mind, body, or +estate'; and that the true basis and qualification for efficient +service of our fellows is the utter surrender of our hearts to Him +who is the Fountain of love, and from whom comes all our power to +live in the world, as the images and embodiments of the love which +has saved us that we might help to save others. + +Brethren! let us all ask ourselves Christ's question to the denier. +Let us look our past evils full in the face, that we may learn to +hate them, and that we may learn more the width and the sweep of the +power of His pardoning mercy. God grant that we may all be able to +say, 'Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee!' + + + +YOUTH AND AGE, AND THE COMMAND FOR BOTH + +_Annual Sermon to the Young_ + +'... When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst +whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt +stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry +thee whither thou wouldest not.... And when He had spoken this, +He saith unto him, Follow Me.'--JOHN xxi. 18, 19. + +The immediate reference of these words is, of course, to the +martyrdom of the Apostle Peter. Our Lord contrasts the vigorous and +somewhat self-willed youth and the mellowed old age of His servant, +and shadows forth his death, in bonds, by violence. And then He bids +him, notwithstanding this prospect of the issue of his faithfulness, +'Follow Me.' + +Now I venture, though with some hesitation, to give these words a +slightly different application. I see in them two pictures of youth +and of old age, and a commandment based upon both. You young people +are often exhorted to a Christian life on the ground of the possible +approach of death. I would not undervalue that motive, but I seek now +to urge the same thing upon you from a directly opposite +consideration, the probability that many of you will live to be old. +All the chief reasons for our being Christians are of the same force, +whether we are to die to-night, or to live for a century. So in my +text I wish you to note what you are now; what, if you live, you are +sure to become; and what, in the view of both stages, you will be +wise to do. 'When thou wast young thou girdedst thyself, and wentest +whither thou wouldest. When thou shalt be old another shall gird +thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.' Therefore, 'Follow +Me.' + +I. So, then, note the picture here of what you are. + +Most of you young people are but little accustomed to reflect upon +yourselves, or upon the special characteristics and prerogatives of +your time of life. But it will do you no harm to think for a minute +or two of what these characteristics are, that you may know your +blessings, and that you may shun the dangers which attach to them. + +'When thou wast young thou girdedst thyself.' _There_ is a picture +easily translated, and significant of much. The act of girding +implies preparation for action, and may be widened out to express +that most blessed prerogative of youth, the cherishing of bright +imaginations of its future activity and course. The dreams of youth +are often laughed at, but if a young man or woman be faithful to them +they are the prophecies of the future, and are given in order that at +the opening of the flower nature may put forth her power; and so we +may be able to live through many a dreary hour in the future. Only, +seeing that you do live so much in rich foreshadowings and fair +anticipations of the times that are to come, take care that you do +not waste that divine faculty, the freshness of which is granted to +you as a morning gift, the 'dew of your youth.' See that you do not +waste it in anticipations which cling like mist to the low levels of +life, but that you lift it higher and embrace worthy objects. It is +good that you should anticipate, that you should live by hope. It is +good that you should be drawn onwards by bright visions, whether they +be ever fulfilled or no. But there are dangers in the exercise, and +dreaming with some of you takes the place of realising your dreams, +and you build for yourselves fair fabrics in imagination which you +never take one step to accomplish and make real. Be not the slaves +and fools of your imaginations, but cultivate the faculty of hoping +largely; for the possibilities of human life are elastic, and no man +or woman, in their most sanguine, early anticipations, if only these +be directed to the one real good, has ever exhausted or attained the +possibilities open to every soul. + +Again, girding _one's self_ implies independent self-reliance, and +that is a gift and a stewardship given (as all gifts are +stewardships) to the young. We all fancy, in our early days, that we +are going to build 'towers that will reach to heaven.' Now _we_ have +come, and we will show people how to do it! The past generations have +failed, but ours is full of brighter promise. There is something very +touching, to us older men almost tragical, in the unbounded self- +confidence of the young life that we see rushing to the front all +round us. We know so well the disillusion that is sure to come, the +disappointments that will cloud the morning sky. We would not carry +one shadow from the darkened experience of middle life into the +roseate tints of the morning. The 'vision splendid' + + Will fade away + Into the light of common day,' + +soon enough. But for the present this self-reliant confidence is one +of the blessings of your early days. + +Only remember, it is dangerous, too. It may become want of reverence, +which is ruinous, or presumption and rashness. Remember what a +cynical head of a college said, 'None of us is infallible, not even +the youngest,' and blend modesty with confidence, and yet be buoyant +and strong, and trust in the power that may make you strong. And then +your self-confidence will not be rashness. + +'Thou wentest whither thou wouldest.' That is another characteristic +of youth, after it has got beyond the schoolboy stage. Your own will +tends to become your guide. For one thing, at your time of life, most +other inward guides are comparatively weak. You have but little +experience. Most of you have not cultivated largely the habit of +patient reflection, and thinking twice before you act once. That +comes: it would not be good that it should be over-predominant in +you. 'Old heads on young shoulders' are always monstrosities, and it +is all right that, in your early days, you should largely live by +impulse, if only, as well as a will, there be a conscience at work +which will do instead of the bitter experience which comes to guide +some of the older of us. + +Again, yours is the age when passion is strong. I speak now +especially to young men. Restraints are removed for many of you. +There are dozens of young men listening to me now, away from their +father's home, separated from the purifying influence of sisters and +of family life, living in solitary lodgings, at liberty to spend +their evenings where they choose, and nobody be a bit the wiser. Ah, +my dear young friend! 'thou wentest whither thou wouldest' and thou +wouldest whither thou oughtest not to go. + +There is nothing more dangerous than getting into the habit of +saying, 'I do as I like,' however you cover it over. Some of you say, +'I indulge natural inclinations; I am young; a man must have his +fling. Let me sow my wild oats in a quiet corner, where nobody will +see the crop coming up; and when I get to be as old as you are, I +will do as you do; young men will be young men,' etc., etc. You know +all that sort of talk. Take this for a certain fact: that whoever +puts the reins into the charge of his own will when he is young, has +put the reins _and the whip_ into hands which will drive over the +precipice. + +My friend! 'I will' is no word for you. There is a far diviner and +better one than that--'I ought.' Have you learnt that? Do you yield +to that sovereign imperative, and say, 'I _must_, because I _ought_ +and, therefore, I _will_'? Bow passion to reason, reason to +conscience, conscience to God--and then, be as strong in the will and +as stiff in the neck as ever you choose; but only then. So much, +then, for my first picture. + +II. Now let me ask you to turn with me for a moment to the second +one--What you will certainly become if you live. + +I have already explained that putting this meaning on the latter +portion of our first verse is somewhat forcing it from its original +signification. And yet it is so little of violence that the whole of +the language naturally lends itself to make a picture of the +difference between the two stages of life. + +All the bright visions that dance before your youthful mind will fade +away. We begin by thinking that we are going to build temples, or +'towers that shall reach to heaven,' and when we get into middle life +we have to say to ourselves: 'Well! I have scarcely material enough +to carry out the large design that I had. I think that I will content +myself with building a little hovel, that I may live in, and perhaps +it will keep the weather off me.' Hopes diminish; dreams vanish; +limited realities take their place, and we are willing to hold out +our hands and let some one else take the responsibilities that we +were so eager to lay upon ourselves at the first. Strength will fade +away. 'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men +shall utterly fail.' Physical weariness, weakness, the longing for +rest, the consciousness of ever-narrowed and narrowing powers, will +come to you, and if you grow up to be old men, which it is probable +that many of you will do, you will have to sit and watch the tide of +your life ebb, ebb, ebbing away moment by moment. + +Self-will will be wonderfully broken, for there are far stronger +forces that determine a man's life than his own wishes and will. We +are like swimmers in the surf of the Indian Ocean, powerless against +the battering of the wave which pitches us, for all our science, and +for all our muscle, where it will. Call it environment, call it fate, +call it circumstances, call it providence, call it God--there is +something outside of us bigger than we are, and the man who begins +life, thinking 'Thus I will, thus I command, let my determination +stand instead of all other reason'; has to say at last, 'I could not +do what I wanted. I had to be content to do what I could.' Thus our +self-will gets largely broken down; and patient acceptance of the +inevitable comes to be the wisdom and peace of the old man. + +And, last of all, the picture shows us an irresistible approximation +to an unwelcome goal: 'Another shall carry thee whither thou wouldest +not.' + +Life to the old seems to you to be so empty and ashen grey that you +wonder they care to live. But life to them, for all its +disappointments, its weariness, its foiled efforts, its vanished +hopes, its departed companions, is yet life, and most of them cling +to it like a miser to his gold. But yet, like a man sucked into +Niagara above the falls, they are borne on the irresistible, smooth +flood, nearer and nearer to the edge of the rock, and they hear the +mighty sound in their ears long before they reach the place where the +plunge is to be taken from sunshine into darkness and foam. + +So 'when thou shalt be old' your fancy will be gone, your physical +strength will be gone, your freshness will be gone, your faculty of +hoping will work feebly and have little to work on; on earth your +sense of power will be humbled, and yet you will not want to be borne +to the place whither you must be borne. + +Fancy two portraits, one of a little chubby boy in child's dress, +with a round face and clustering curls and smooth cheeks and red +lips, and another of an old man, with wearied eyes, and thin locks, +and wrinkled cheeks, and a bowed frame. The difference between the +two is but the symbol of the profounder differences that separate the +two selves, which yet are the one self--the impetuous, self-reliant, +self-willed, hopeful, buoyant youth, and the weary, feeble, broken, +old man. And that is what you will come to, if you live, as sure as I +am speaking to you, and you are listening to me. + +III. And now, lastly, what in the view of both these stages it is +wise for you to do. + +'When He had spoken thus, He saith unto him, Follow Me.' What do we +mean by following Christ? We mean submission to His authority. +'Follow Me' as Captain, Commander, absolute Lawgiver, and Lord. We +mean imitation of His example. These two words include all human +duty, and promise to every man perfection if he obeys. 'Follow Me'-- +it is enough, more than enough, to make a man complete and blessed. +We mean choosing and keeping close to Him, as Companion as well as +Leader and Lord. No man or woman will ever be solitary, though +friends may go, and associates may change, and companions may leave +them, and life may become empty and dreary as far as human sympathy +is concerned--no man or woman will ever be solitary if stepping in +Christ's footsteps, close at His heels, and realising His presence. + +But you cannot follow Him, and He has no right to tell you to follow +Him, unless He is something more and other to you than Example, and +Commander, and Companion. What business has Jesus Christ to demand +that a man should go after Him to the death? Only this business, that +He has gone to the death for the man. You must follow Christ first, +my friend, by coming to Him as a sinful creature, and finding your +whole salvation and all your hope in humble reliance on the merit of +His death. Then you may follow Him in obedience, and imitation, and +glad communion. + +That being understood, I would press upon you this thought, that such +a following of Jesus Christ will preserve for you all that is blessed +in the characteristics of your youth, and will prevent them from +becoming evil. He will give you a basis for your hopes and fulfil +your most sanguine dreams, if these are based on His promises, and +their realisation sought in the path of His feet. As Isaiah +prophesies, 'the mirage shall become a pool.' That which else is an +illusion, dancing ahead and deceiving thirsty travellers into the +belief that sand is water, shall become to you really 'pools of +water,' if your hopes are fixed on Jesus Christ. If you follow Him, +your strength will not ebb away with shrunken sinews and enfeebled +muscles. If you trust Christ, your self-will will be elevated by +submission, and become strong to control your rebellious nature, +because it is humble to submit to His supreme command. And if you +trust and follow Jesus Christ, your hope will be buoyant, and bright, +and blessed, and prolong its buoyancy, and brightness, and +blessedness into 'old age, when others fade.' If you will follow +Christ your old age will, if you reach it, be saved from the +bitterest pangs that afflict the aged, and will be brightened by +future possibilities. There will be no need for lingering laments +over past blessings, no need for shrinking reluctance to take the +inevitable step. An old age of peaceful, serene brightness caught +from the nearer gleam of the approaching heaven, and quiet as the +evenings in the late autumn, not without a touch of frost, perhaps, +but yet kindly and fruitful, may be ours. And instead of shrinking +from the end, if we follow Jesus, we shall put our hands quietly and +trustfully into His, as a little child does into its mother's soft, +warm palm, and shall not ask whither He leads, assured that since it +is He who leads we shall be led aright. + +Dear young friends! 'Follow Me!' is Christ's merciful invitation to +you. You will never again be so likely to obey it as you are now. +Well begun is half ended. 'I would have you innocent of much +transgression.' You need Him to keep you in the slippery ways of +youth. You could not go into some of those haunts, where some of you +have been, if you thought to yourselves, 'Am I following Jesus as I +cross this wicked threshold?' You may never have another message of +mercy brought to your ears. If you do become a religious man in later +life, you will be laying up for yourselves seeds of remorse and +sorrow, and in some cases memories of pollution and filth, that will +trouble you all your days. 'To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden +not your hearts.' + + + +'THEY ALSO SERVE WHO ONLY STAND AND WAIT' + +'Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man +do! Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, +what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.'--John xxi. 21, 22. + +We have seen in a former sermon that the charge of the risen Christ +to Peter, which immediately precedes these verses, allotted to him +service and suffering. The closing words of that charge 'Follow Me!' +had a deep significance, as uniting both parts of his task in the one +supreme command of imitation of his Master. + +But the same words had also a simpler meaning, as inviting the +Apostle to come apart with Christ at the moment, for some further +token of His love or indication of His will. Peter follows; but in +following, naturally turns to see what the little group, sitting +silent there by the coal fire on the beach, may be doing, and he +notices John coming towards them, with intent to join them. + +What emboldened John to thrust himself, uncalled for, into so secret +an interview? The words in which he is described in the context +answer the question. 'He was the disciple whom Jesus loved, which +also leaned on His breast at Supper, and said, Lord! which is he that +betrayeth Thee?' He was also bound by close ties to Peter. So with +the familiarity of 'perfect love which casteth out fear,' he felt +that the Master could have no secrets from him, and no charge to give +to his friend which he might not share. + +Peter's swift question, 'Lord! and what shall this man do?' though it +has been often blamed, does not seem very blameworthy. There was +perhaps a little touch of his old vivacity in it, indicating that he +had not been sufficiently subdued and sobered by the prospect which +Christ had held out to him; but far more than that there was a +natural interest in his friend's fate, and something of a wish to +have his company on the path which he was to tread. Christ's answer, +'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow +thou Me!' gently rebukes any leaven of evil that there may have been +in the question; warns him against trying to force other people into +his groove; with solemn emphasis reiterates his own duty; and, in +effect, bids him let his brother alone, and see that he himself +discharges the ministry which he has received of the Lord. + +The enigmatical words of Christ, and the long life of the Apostle, +which seemed to explain them, naturally bred an interpretation of +them in the Early Church which is recorded here, as I believe, by the +Evangelist himself, to the effect that John, like another Enoch at +the beginning of a new world, was to escape the common lot. And very +beautiful is the quiet way in which the Evangelist put that error on +one side, by the simple repetition of his Master's words, emphasising +their hypothetical form and their enigmatical character: 'Jesus said +not unto him, He shall not die; but _if_ I will that he _tarry_ till +I come, what is that to thee?' + +Now all this, I think, is full of lessons. Let me try to draw one or +two of them briefly now. + +I. First, then, we have in that majestic 'If I will!' the revelation +of the risen Christ as the Lord of life and death. + +In His charge to Peter, Christ had asserted His right absolutely to +control His servant's conduct and fix his place in the world, and His +power to foresee and forecast his destiny and his end. But in these +words He goes a step further. 'I _will_ that he tarry'; to +communicate life and to sustain life is a divine prerogative; to act +by the bare utterance of His will upon physical nature is a divine +prerogative. Jesus Christ here claims that His will goes out with +sovereign power amongst the perplexities of human history and into +the depths of that mystery of life; and that He, the Son of Man, +'quickens whom He will,' and has power 'to kill and to make alive.' +The words would be absurd, if not something worse, upon any but +divine lips, that opened with conscious authority, and whose Utterer +knew that His hand was laid upon the innermost springs of being. + +So, in this entirely incidental fashion, you have one of the +strongest and plainest instances of the quiet, unostentatious and +habitual manner in which Jesus Christ claimed for Himself properly +divine prerogatives. + +Remember that He who thus spoke was standing before these seven men +there, in the morning light, on the beach, fresh from the grave. His +resurrection had proved Him to be the Lord of death. He had bound it +to His chariot-wheels as a Conqueror. He had risen and He stood there +before them with no more mark of the corruption of the grave upon Him +than there are traces of the foul water in which a sea bird may have +floated, on its white wing that flashes in the sunshine as it soars. +And surely as these men looked to Christ, 'declared to be the Son of +God with power, by His resurrection from the dead, 'they may have +begun, however 'foolish and slow of heart' they were 'to believe,' to +understand that 'to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, +that He might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living,' both +of death and of life. + +These two Apostles' later history was full of proofs that Christ's +claim was valid. Peter is shut up in prison and delivered once, at +the very last moment, when hope was almost dead, in order that he +might understand that when he was put into another prison and _not_ +delivered, the blow of martyrdom fell upon him, not because of the +strength of his persecutors, but because of the will of his Lord. And +John had to see his brother James, to whom he had been so closely +knit, with whom he had pledged himself to drink the cup that Christ +drank of, whom he had desired to have associated with himself in the +special honours in the Messianic Kingdom--he had to see him slain, +first of the Apostles, while he himself lingered here long after all +his early associates were gone. He had, no doubt, many a longing to +depart. Solitary, surrounded by a new world, pressed by many cares, +he must often have felt that the cross which he had to carry was no +lighter than that laid on those who had passed to their rest by +martyrdom. To him it would often be martyrdom to live. His personal +longing is heard for a moment in the last words of the Apocalypse, +'Amen! even so, come, Lord Jesus!'--but undoubtedly for the most part +he stayed his heart on his Lord's will, and waited in meek patience +till he heard the welcome announcement, 'The Master is come and +calleth for thee.' + +And, dear friends! that same belief that the risen Christ is the Lord +of life and death, is the only one that can stay our hearts, or make +us bow with submission to His divine will. He who has conquered death +by undergoing it is death's Lord as well as ours, and when He wills +to bring His friends home to Himself, saith to that black-robed +servant, 'Go, and he goeth; do this and he doeth it.' The vision +which John saw long after this on another shore, washed by a stormier +sea, spoke the same truth as does this majestic 'I will'--'He that +liveth and became dead and is alive for evermore,' is by virtue of +His divine eternal life, and has become in His humanity by virtue of +His death and resurrection the Lord of life and death. The hands that +were nailed to the Cross turn the keys of death and Hades. 'He +openeth and no man shutteth; He shutteth and no man openeth.' + +II. We have here before us, in this incident, the service of patient +waiting. + +'If I will that he tarry, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.' +Peter is the man of action, not great at reflection; full of impulse, +restless until his hands can do something to express his thoughts and +his emotions. On the very Mount of Transfiguration he wanted to set +to work and build 'three tabernacles,' instead of listening awed to +the divine colloquy. In Galilee he cannot wait quietly for his Master +to come, but must propose to his friends to 'go a fishing.' In the +fishing-boat, as soon as he sees the Lord he must struggle through +the sea to get at Him; whilst John sits quiet in the boat, blessed in +the consciousness of his Master's presence and in silently gazing at +Him verily there. All through the first part of the Acts of the +Apostles his bold energy goes flashing and flaming. It is always his +voice that rings out in the front, whether preaching on the Pentecost +Day, bringing healing to the sick, or fronting the Sanhedrim. His +element is in the shock of conflict and the strain of work. + +John, on the other hand, seldom appears in the narrative. When he +does so he stands a silent figure by the side of Peter, and +disappears from it altogether before very long. We do not hear that +he did anything. He seems to have had no part in the missionary work +of the Church. + +He 'tarried,' that was all. The word is the same--'abide'--which is +so often upon his lips in his Gospel and in his Epistles, as +expressive of the innermost experience of the Christian soul, the +condition of all fruitfulness, blessedness, knowledge and Christ- +likeness. Christ's charge to John to 'tarry' did not only, as his +brethren misinterpreted it, mean that his life was to be continued, +but it prescribed the manner of his life. It was to be patient +contemplation, a 'dwelling in the house of the Lord,' a keeping of +his heart still, like some little tarn up amongst the silent hills, +for heaven with all its blue to mirror itself in. + +And that quiet life of contemplation bore its fruit. In his +meditation the deeds and words of his Master slowly grew ever more +and more luminous to him. Deeper meanings came out, revealing new +constellations, as he gazed into that opening heaven of memory. He +reaped 'the harvest of a quiet eye' and garnered the sheaves of it in +his Gospel, the holy of holies of the New Testament; and in his +Epistles, in which he proclaims the first and last word of +revelation, 'God is love'--the pure diamond that hangs at the end of +the golden chain let down from Heaven. Often, no doubt, his brethren +thought him 'but an idler in the land,' but at last his 'tarrying' +was vindicated. + +Now, dear brethren! in all times of the world's history that form of +Christian service needs to be pressed upon busy people. And there +never was a time in the world's history, or in the Church's history, +when it more needed to be pressed upon the ordinary Christian man +than at this day. The good and the bad of our present Christianity, +and of our present social life, conspire to make people think that +those who are not at work in some external form of Christian service +for the good of their fellows are necessarily idlers. Many of them +are so, but by no means all, and there is always the danger that the +external work which good, earnest people do shall become greater than +can be wholesomely and safely done by them without their constant +recourse to this solitary meditation, and to tarrying before God. + +The stress and bustle of our everyday life; the feverish desire for +immediate results; the awakened conviction that Christianity is +nothing if not practical; the new sense of responsibility for the +condition of our fellows; the large increase of all sorts of +domestic, evangelistic, and missionary work among all churches in +this day--things to be profoundly thankful for, like all other good +things have their possible dangers; and it is laid on my heart to +warn you of these now. For the sake of our own personal hold on Jesus +Christ, for the sake of our progress in the knowledge of His truth, +and for the sake of the very work which some of us count so precious, +there is need that we shall betake ourselves to that still communion. +The stream that is to water half a continent must rise high in the +lonely hills, and be fed by many a mountain rill in the solitude, and +the men who are to keep the freshness of their Christian zeal, and of +the consecration which they will ever feel is being worn away by the +attrition even of faithful service, can only renew and refresh it by +resorting again to the Master, and imitating Him who prepared Himself +for a day of teaching in the Temple by a night of communion on the +Mount of Olives. + +Further, there is here a lesson of tolerance for us all. Practical +men are always disposed, as I said, to force everybody else into +their groove. Martha is always disposed to think that Mary is idle +when she is 'sitting at Christ's feet,' and wants to have her come +into the kitchen and help her there. The eye which sees must not say +to the hand which toils, nor the hand to the eye, 'I have no need of +thee.' There are men who cannot think much; there are men who cannot +work much. There are men whom God has chosen for diligent external +service; there are men whom God has chosen for solitary retired +musing; and we cannot dispense with either the one or the other. Did +not John Bunyan do more for the world when he was shut up in Bedford +Gaol and dreamed his dream than by all his tramping about +Bedfordshire, preaching to a handful of cottagers? And has not the +Christian literature of the prison, which includes three at least of +Paul's Epistles, proved of the greatest service and most precious +value to the Church? + +We need all to listen to the voice which says, 'Come ye apart by +yourselves into a solitary place, and rest awhile.' Work is good, but +the foundation of work is better. Activity is good, but the life +which is the basis of activity is even more. There is plenty of so- +called Christian work to-day which I fear me is not life but +mechanism; has slipped off its original foundations, and is, +therefore, powerless. Let us tolerate the forms of service least like +our own, not seek to force other men into our paths nor seek to +imitate them. Let Peter flame in the van, and beard high priests, and +stir and fight; and let John sit in his quiet horns, caring for his +Lord's mother, and holding fellowship with his Lord's Spirit. + +III. Lastly, we have here the lesson of patient acquiescence in +Christ's undisclosed will. + +The error into which the brethren of the Apostle fell as to the +meaning of the Lord's words was a very natural one, especially when +taken with the commentary which John's unusually protracted life +seemed to append to it. We know that that belief lingered long after +the death of the Apostle; and that legends, like the stories that are +found in many nations of heroes that have disappeared, but are +sleeping in some mountain recess, clustered round John's grave; over +which the earth was for many a century believed to heave and fall +with his gentle breathing. + +John did not know exactly what his Master meant. He would not venture +upon a counter-interpretation. Perhaps his brethren were right, he +does not know; perhaps they were wrong, he does not know. One thing +he is quite sure of, that what his Master said was: '_If_ I will that +he tarry.' And he acquiesces quietly in the certainty that it shall +be as his Master wills; and, in the uncertainty what that will is, he +says in effect: 'I do not know, and it does not much matter. If I am +to go to find Him, well! If He is to come to find me, well again! +Whichever way it be, I know that the patient tarrying here will lead +to a closer communion hereafter, and so I leave it all in His hands.' + +Dear brethren! that is a blessed state that you and I may come to; a +state of quiet submission, not of indifference but of acquiescence in +the undisclosed will of our loving Christ about all matters, and +about this alternative of life or death amongst the rest. The soul +that has had communion with Jesus Christ amidst the imperfections +here will be able to refer all the mysteries and problems of its +future to Him with unshaken confidence. For union with Him carries +with it the assurance of its own perpetuity, and 'in its sweetness +yieldeth proof that it was born for immortality.' The Psalmist +learned to say, 'Thou shalt afterward receive me to glory,' because +he could say, 'I am continually with Thee.' And in like manner we may +all rise from the experience of the present to confidence in that +immortal future. Death with his 'abhorred shears' cuts other close +ties, but their edge turns on the knot that binds the soul to its +Saviour. He who has felt the power of communion with the ever-living +Christ cannot but feel that such union must be for ever, and that +because Christ lives, and as long as Christ lives, he will live also. + +Therefore, to the soul thus abiding in Christ that alternative of +life or death which looms so large to us when we have not Christ with +us, will dwindle down into very small dimensions. If I live there +will be work for me to do here, and His love to possess; if I die +there will be work for me to do there too, and His love to possess in +still more abundant measure. So it will not be difficult for such a +soul to leave the decision of this as of all other things with the +Lord of life and death, and to lie acquiescent in His gracious hands. +That calm acceptance of His will and patience with Christ's '_If_' is +the reward of tarrying in silent communion with Him. + +My dear friend! has death to you dwindled to a very little thing? Can +you say that you are quite sure that it will not touch your truest +self? Are you able to leave the alternative in His hands, content +with His decision and content with the uncertainty that wraps His +decision? Can you say, + + 'Lord! It belongs not to my care, + Whether I die or live'? + +The answer to these questions is involved in the answer to the +other:--Have you trusted your sinful soul for salvation to Jesus +Christ, and are you drawing from Him a life which bears fruit in glad +service and in patient communion? Then it will not much matter +whether you are in heaven or on earth, for in both places and states +the essence of your life will be the same, your Companion one, and +your work identical. If it be 'Christ' for me to live it will be +'gain' for me to die. + + + +END OF VOL. III. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. +John Chaps. 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