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JLAST DISCOURSES

0/ OUR LORD

IVesidiiigs for every

Day of Lent

■n

Dt. a. G. MORTIMER.

•

LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

PRINCETON. N. J.

PRESENTED BY

The Estate of Rev. Robert Williams

Scct,on_._...._8,.rAS8

I \Vi

ll\'„

TLhc Xast Discourses ot our Xorb*

THE LAST DISCOURSES
OF OUR LORD.;

ARRANGED AS

READINGS FOR THE FORTY DAYS OF LENT.

BY THE REV.

ALFRED G. MORTIMER, D.D.,

RECTOR OF S. MARK'S, PHILADELPHIA.

AUTHOR OF "HELPS TO MEDITATION," "LENTEN PREACHING,"
"THE CHURCH'S LESSONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN YEAR," ETC.

THOMAS WHITTAKER,

2 AND 3, Bible House.
1905.

THE RIGHT REVEREND

OZI WILLIAM WHITAKER, D.D., LL.D.,

BISHOP OF PENNSYLVANIA,
IN MEMORY OF TWELVE YEARS WORK

IN HIS DIOCESE,

THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS INSCRIBED

WITH AFFECTIONATE RESPECT.

Conttnte.

£ent.

PAGE

I.— THE DEPARTURE OF JUDAS i

S. John xiii. 31, 32.

2.— THE NEW COMMANDMENT 10

S. John xiii. 33-35.

3.— THE QUESTION OF S. PETER 19

S. John xiii. 36-38.

4.— THE TRAINING OF S. PETER 27

S. John xiii. 38.

5.— THE MANY MANSIONS OF THE FATHER'S

HOUSE 33

S. John xiv. 1-3.

6.— THE QUESTION OF S. THOMAS 41

S. John xiv. 4-6.

7.— CHRIST AS THE WAY 50

S. John xiv, 6.

8. -CHRIST AS THE TRUTH 56

S. John xiv. 6.

g.— CHRIST AS THE LIFE 64

S. John xiv. 6.

vii.

&tnt

I'AGE

10.— S. PHILIP'S REQUEST 72

S. John xiv. 7-11.

II.— CHRIST'S ANSWER TO S. PHILIP ... 80
S. John xiv. 10-14.

12.— THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER 87

S. John xiv. 13, 14.

13. -LOVE 94

S. John xiv. 15.

14.— THE COMFORTER 104

S. John xiv. 16.

15.— THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH iii

S. John xiv. 16, 17.

16.— CHRIST'S COMING THROUGH THE

HOLY GHOST 119

S. John xiv. 18-20.

17.— THE QUESTION OF S. JUDE 127

S. John xiv. 22-24.

18.— CHRIST'S LEGACY TO HIS DISCIPLES 135
S. John xiv. 25-27.

19.— UNSELFISH SORROW 143

S. John xiv. 28-31.

20.— CHRIST THE VINE 151

S. John xv. i.

21.— THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES ... 160

S. John xv. 2, 3.

viii.

Contentg. ^^
Btnt

PAGE

22.— THE FRUITS OF UNION WITH CHRIST i68
S. John xv. 4, 5.

23.— THE RESULT OF SEPARATION FROM

CHRIST 176

S. John xv. 6-10.

24.— THE JOY OF UNION WITH CHRIST ... 184

S. John xv. ii.

25.— THE FRIENDS OF CHRIST 191

S. John xv. 12-15.

26.— THE LAW OF VOCATION 200

S. John xv. 16.

27.— THE WORLD'S HATRED 210

S. John xv. 17-21.

28.— THE WORLD'S IGNORANCE 218

S. John xv. 21-25.

2g.— THE ADVOCATE AS CHRIST'S WITNESS 225

S. John xv. 26, 27.

30.— PERSECUTION THE RESULT OF THE

WORLD'S HATRED 233

S. John xvi. 1-4.

31. -THE EXPEDIENCY OF UNPLEASANT

TRUTHS 239

S. John xvi. 4-7.

32.— THE HOLY GHOST AND SIN 246

S. John xvi. 7, 8.

ix.

Btnt

PAGE

33.— THE HOLY GHOST AND RIGHTEOUS-
NESS 253

S. John xvi. 8, 10.

34.— THE HOLY GHOST AND JUDGMENT ... 259
S. John xvi. 8 and ii.

35.— THE HOLY GHOST OUR GUIDE 267

S. John xvi. 12-15.

36.— NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL SIGHT ... 277
S. John xvi. 16-19.

37.— SORROW TURNED INTO JOY 284

S. John xvi. 20-33.

38.— THE FATHER AND THE SON 293

S. John xvii. 1-5.

39.— THE SON AND THE DISCIPLES 304

S. John xvii. 6-19.

40.— THE SON AND THE CHURCH 314

S. John xvii. 20-26.

(preface.

Among the most sublime utterances of our Blessed
Lord, would be placed, by the majority of Christians,
His last Discourses. These were delivered partly
in the Upper Chamber in Jerusalem and partly in
some place on the way to Gethsemane. They
are recorded by S. John in his Gospel, and are
addressed to the eleven faithful apostles, and they
constitute at once Christ's farewell and His final
revelation to them.

The pathetic occasion on which they were spoken,
and the sublime character of the subjects of which
they treat, endow these Discourses with a profound
and unique interest for every Christian, and yet
they rarely form the subject of addresses, and
among our devotional works I know of only one
in which they are treated with any fulness, namely,
" The Upper Chamber," by the Rev. Father Bensoni

XI.

'^ (preface.

S.SJ.E., which forms two volumes of the series
entitled " The Final Passover." I read carefully
the other volumes of this Series some ten years
ago, but omitted these two, intending to take them
up on another occasion. I, however, forgot them
until my attention was called to them a few weeks
ago, after this book was in the printer's hands.
I regret, therefore, that I have not had the
advantage of consulting them.

I am acquainted with many Commentaries, and
the best known works on the Passion, but the
only one which I have used with any frequency
in this book is Bishop Westcott's Commentary on
S. John ; and my indebtedness to this, as to other
works of the same author, is very great indeed.

These addresses were originally given as Medita-
tions in S. Mark's, Philadelphia, last Lent. They
were taken down as delivered by a stenographer,
from whose notes they are reproduced. 1 have,
however, rearranged them in forty portions, so as to
furnish devotional readings or subjects for medita-
tion for the forty days of Lent.

I have drawn attention to the most important
variations in the text, and to inaccurate and

Xll.

(Preface> ^

inadequate translations. Beyond this, my plan has
been simply to take the Words of our Lord
paragraph by paragraph, explaining them and
applying them, according to my ability, to the
practical needs of Christians in our day.

In putting forth these addresses I have gratefully
to acknowledge, as on a former occasion, the
encouragement and assistance of Mr. Elbridge T.
Gerry, of New York. Together with the two
volumes on the Passion, they form a somewhat
complete, practical and devotional study of the
last hours of our Blessed Lord's life. Mr. Gerry has
thought that such a series of works may be helpful
to the large class of persons whose occupation
prohibits them from attending addresses, except in
the evening, on week days in Lent. They may
also, perhaps, be useful for daily readings at
Lenten Services.

A. G. M.

S. Mark's, Philadelphia,
All Saints, 1904.

xiu.

Baet ®t0cour0e0 of ^ut Borb,

THE DEPARTURE OF JUDAS.

S. John xiii. 31, 32.

"Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of
man glorified, and God is glorified in Him, If God be glorified in
Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway
glorify Him."

[UR Lord's last Words to the world which
He died to save were spoken from the
pulpit of the Cross, but His last dis-
courses to the disciples whom He had trained to
carry on His work seem to have been spoken
immediately after the institution of the Holy
Eucharist, partly in the upper chamber, partly on
the way to Gethsemane, or perhaps on the way to
the Temple where His final prayer of self-consecration
was uttered.

I B

^^ @.6^ ^cbncBba^.

The Words from the Cross consist of seven short
sentences embodying great principles. The dis-
courses, on the other hand, constitute the longest
unbroken utterances of our Blessed Lord. In them
He announces to His disciples the sad news of His
departure from them, reveals to them the purposes
and issues of that departure, and prepares them
to expect and to receive that further gift of the
Holy Ghost, through Whose power they were to
accomplish the work for which their Master had
trained them.

The associations which gatiier around these dis-
courses are most solemn, whether we regard them
from the point of view of the occasion on which
they were uttered — ^just after the celebration of the
first Eucharist, just after the Apostles had made their
first communion ; or whether we regard them from
the point of view of their subject matter — their
Lord's departure, and its consequences.

These discourses stand alone among the utterances
of Christ, not only because of their length — we have
noliced that they constitute the longest unbroken
utterances of our Lord, which have come down to us
in the Gospels — but still more on account of the
sublimity of their subject matter, and of a certain
deep and affectionate pathos which pervades them
throughout, and which may be traced to the sadness

€^t ©eparture of %ub<XB. ^

of the impending separation which the Divine
Master announces to His disciples.

That our Lord's words on this occasion sank most
deeply into the minds of His hearers, there can
be no doubt. Indeed, this is evident, from the
fulness and vividness with which they are recorded
by the Apostle most capable of understanding them,
the Apostle of Love, who, after meditating upon them
during a long lifetime, handed them down to the
Church as one of her most precious treasures, to be
pondered over and studied by every devout Christian.
Surely, we shall make no mistake if we devote some
part of each day this Lent to their prayerful
consideration. And may that Holy Spirit, who
enabled S. John so perfectly to record these teachings
of our Lord, unfold their meaning to us, guiding us,
according to Christ's gracious promise, into the
fulness of truth in our meditation upon His
words.

The discourses begin with the departure of Judas
from the upper chamber, that is, with the thirty-first
verse of the thirteenth chapter of S. John ; and
they continue without break, or with but one slight
break to the end of the sixteenth chapter ; and
then conclude with our Lord's prayer of consecration
in the seventeenth chapter.

The departure of Judas was a crisis in our Lord's

^ (^g^ T3?ebne6b(Xg,

Passion. It marked His victory ; for it was the
moment when the element of evil in the apostolic
company was expelled. And that element of evil
represented by Judas went forth to work out its own
malicious purpose in betraying Jesus Christ into the
hands of His enemies. We must keep this in mind,
in order that we may understand the words with
which our Lord begins His discourse, " Therefore,
when he was gone out, Jesus saith, Now is the Son of
Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him : and God
shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straight-
way glorify Him."

We must observe that these words are spoken of
the relation of the Son of Man to God, not of the
Son of God to the Father. That is to say, they are
spoken in reference to our Lord's human nature.
Man in Christ has glorified God by entire fulfilment
of His Will ; and therefore God can now glorify the
Son of man by taking His glorified humanity from
henceforth into perfect fellowship with Himself.
Thus, we read, that S. Stephen, " being full of the
Holy Ghost, looked up stcdfastly into Heaven, and
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God.""^

The act of self-sacrifice, even unto death, and
therefore the conquest of death, is, you will notice,

* Acts vii. 55.

€f)C departure of %nb(Xs. ^

spoken of as past, even though it had not yet
occurred ; because, in dismissing Judas to do his
work, our Lord accepted the issues of that work.
The departure of Judas, with Christ's consent, was
the decisive act by which the Passion was accepted,
by which Christ perfectly fulfilled God's Will.

Our Lord came into the world, not only to die for
man, but to live for man, to live a life of perfect
obedience and absolute dependence upon His
Father's Will. In the beginning of His ministry
He said, " My meat is to do the will of Him that
sent Me, and to accomplish His work."* This was
the motto of Christ's life. It had been prophesied
of Him in the Psalms, " Lo, I come ; in the volume
of the book it is written of Me, that I should fulfil
Thy will, O my God : I am content to do it."f

Man had fallen in Adam by disobedience to the
revealed Will of God ; and from Adam to Jesus
Christ every child of man had fallen in the same
way. Now One came, the Son of Man, the
representative of humanity, the second Adam, Who
was not only to die a death which should be a
sacrifice for the sins of the world, but was to live a
life which should make that death of sacrificial
efficacy. It was not the mere act of dying to
redeem mankind ; it was that the Sufferer upon the

* S. John iv. 34. t Psalm xl. 9, 10.

Cross had perfectly fulfilled His Father's Will, had
perfectly glorified God, even in accepting the sorrows
of the Passion, the humiliation and death upon the
Cross — it was the sinlessness, the perfect obedience of
the Victim, which gave to the Sacrifice its efficacy.
Others might have died, and died willingly ; but
their death would not have availed, even for
themselves, as a sacrifice, because their life was
marred by sin. But Christ was the Lamb without
blemish ; His whole life was absolutely perfect —
not one thought, not one word, not one act, which
was not in absolute conformity to His Father's
Will.

And therefore, in dismissing Judas to accomplish
his traitorous purpose, our Lord accepted what He
knew was involved in the departure of Judas, and
was able to turn to the Father and say these words,
" Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is
glorified in Him ; and God shall also glorify Him in
Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him."

If we ask the question of such deep importance to
us all, Why were we created ? there are many ways
in which we may answer it ; but one certainly is, To
glorify God. This is the true purpose, the highest
end, the final cause, of our creation. And therefore
our Lord Jesus Christ, in accepting God's purpose
that He should die for the sins of the world, is able

Z^c ©eyarfure of ^ubas.

:)^

to say, " Now is the Son of man glorified, and God
is glorified in Him."

To what extent do we make this the end of our
life ? How far do we live for the glory of God ?
Most men make the glory of self the great object of
their life. Their happiness is great when something
occurs to glorify t/ie?/i, when they win the praise
of men, not when they glorify God. What interest
we take in the favourable criticisms which others
make upon our words or actions ! How delighted we
arc when we read in some newspaper a tribute to our
cleverness, or popularity, or generosity !

We are delighted, not because we deserve praise,
but because we have obtained it. Very possibly we
know that we do not deserve it, that our cleverness
was not altogether original, that our popularity was
not deserved, that our generosity was not unselfish.
But we do not stop to think of these things ; we are
happy because we have won the approbation of the
world, because we have obtained glory for ourselves,
even though, perhaps, we despise the organ which
praises us, and are well aware that its opinions are of
little value. How pleased we are when someone
tells us of the flattering words which someone else
has spoken concerning us, not because we value that
person's judgment, but because we like to be admired
and glorified.

How different it was with our Blessed Lord ! He
realised that the full purpose of man's life was to
glorify God ; and therefore He accepted a life of
humiliation, and died amid the execrations of the
mob. But He is able to say, " Now is the Son of
Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him." He
teaches us, by this, that man's true glory is to do
God's Will, to accomplish God's work, and so to
fulfil the purpose for which he was created. We all
know how worthless is the world's praise, how ill
bestowed ; and yet, how many of us crave it, and, to
obtain it, descend to the use of means which our
conscience tells us are altogether unworthy.

We have said that the departure of Judas marked
a crisis in our Lord's Passion, that it was the moment
when the element of evil in the Apostolic company
was expelled ; and that this expulsion involved for
our Blessed Lord those sorrows of the Passion which
culminated in the Sacrifice of the Cross.

So in our own lives, any great effort which leads
to the expulsion of evil, marks a crisis, and often
involves a sacrifice. We cannot drive out the evil
which is within us, without painful effort ; nor can we
give up the evil which is without us in the world,
without making some sacrifice. But until we do this
in obedience to God's call, surrendering perhaps
something which is very attractive in this world, but

€^c ©eparfure of 3uba6» ^«-

which, for us, is incompatible with perfect obedience
to God's Will, there can be no real progress in the
spiritual life. The expulsion of evil must come first,
the breaking ofif from what is wrong ; and then will
follow the unfolding and development of the powers
of the soul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And this will result in the growth of Christian virtues,
and the manifestation of the fruits of the Holy-
Spirit; in short, in the formation of a Christ-like
character ; and by this we glorify God, and are
glorified, not by man, but by God.

II.

SixBt Z^ux&biX^ in S^tnt.

THE NEW CO:\II\IANDArENT.

S. John xiii. 33-35.

"Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek
Me : and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come ; so
now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye
love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if yc have
love one to another.'*

^jUR Lord Jesus Christ, haviiifr uttered the
joyous burst of praise at the departure
of Judas, which we considered yesterday,
now turns to His disciples and says, " Little children,
yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek
Me : and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go,
ye cannot come ; so now I say to ) ou.".

" Little children." The exact word (YcKvia) occurs

€^t (ftcro Comntanbtnenf. ^

here only in the Gospels, though it is found six
times, and perhaps a seventh time, in the Epistles
of S. John,* and once (probably) in S, Paul.f It
is an expression of deep affection, of solicitude for
those who are yet immature and need protection
and care, and to whom a great sorrow and trial is
shortly to come, in their Master's departure. This
sad news He reveals to them when He says, "Yet
a little while I am with you," — only a few more
hours. And then He goes on to add, " Ye shall
seek Me." He does not say, as He said to the
Jews, "Ye shall seek Me, and ye shall not find
Me : "I but, as He said to the Jews on another

occasion, " Ye shall seek Me whither I go,

ye cannot come."|| They were to seek Him and
find Him ; nay, more, to be found of Him. But
they could not go with Him where He was going ;
at least, not yet. So He says, " Whither I go, ye
cannot come." Naturally, they wanted to know why.
It was because they were immature, little children,
babes in Christ, that they were not yet ready to
follow Him into the kingdom of His glory. And
the season of bereavement, of sorrow, bitter as it
was, was to be a season of spiritual growth, and
especially a growth in that virtue, which is the

* C/. I S. John ii. i, 12, 28 ; iii. 7, 18 ; iv. 4 ; v. 21.

t Gal. iv. 19. J S. John vii. 34. (| S. John viii. 21.

greatest of all virtues, the most godlike — the virtue
of love — that " charity which is the bond of perfect-
ness"* the bond by which the soul is united to
God, Who is Love.

And so the Master gives to His little children
a new commandment, to be the law of their life
during the period of their waiting and development.
He says, " A new commandment I give unto you,
That ye love one another ; as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another. By this shall all
men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have
love one to another."

In what sense was this new ? Not in the letter,
for love had always been the principle of the
decalogue ; but new in its motive, and scope, and
model. The old commandment was given from
Sinai, and was summarised by the Law-giver, " Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyselff The new
commandment is associated with Calvary. It is
a commandment of love, like the old, but enlarged
in its motive, and scope, and model. The motive
is the realisation of a new tie which binds Christians
together as fellow-members of the Body of Christ
in a new family, the Church, which is the Household
of God.

Then the scope is changed. It is not merely

* Col. iii. 14. t Levit. xix. 18.

€^c aXm Commanbmcnt ^

your neighbour whom you are to love, but all that
great multitude who make up the family of Christ,
in Whom " There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
female."*

And lastly, the model proposed is different.
You are no longer to love your neighbour as
yourself, but as Christ loved you. The model
proposed is not self-love, but the self-sacrificing
love of Christ.

We must observe, however, that there is a
limitation. Our Blessed Lord is not speaking of
that love which we should have for all men as
common children of a heavenly Father, but that
love which we should have for our fellow-Christians,
those who, in addition to being children of God
are members of Christ, and therefore bound to one
another in the closest possible union, in the mystical
Body of Christ our Lord. It is not, therefore,
philanthropy towards our fellow-men in general
that our Lord is inculcating, but love of the
brethren, of those who are knit together in the
bonds of love, because they are fellow-members
of Christ's Body.

We must observe, too, that the character of the
commandment is altogether new. Christians are

* Gal. iii. 28.

^' ^ixBt S^^utBbdg in £enf.

to love one another, not merely as neighbours, not
only as they love themselves, that is, with a love
which is more or less selfish, but with the self-
sacrificing love which Christ manifests to all. The
selfish love might lead us to please our neighbour
in things which were not for his edification. The
self-sacrificing love would cause us to edi/y him
in things which, perhaps, did not altogether please
him.

We see that Christ proposes no one less than
Himself as our Model. His love was practical and
active. It was not merely a sentiment or feeling.
It led Him to perform works of mercy, to minister
to the sick, to sympathise with the sorrowful, to
rejoice at the marriage in Cana, to weep at the
grave of Lazarus ; and finally, as He reminds His
disciples in the next chapter, it led Him to lay
down His life for the brethren.

Another point we must notice in regard to this
new commandment is, that it was to be the outward
sign of discipleship. " By this shall all men know
that ye arc My disciples, if ye have love one to
another." That this was realised and acted upon
in the early days of Christian fervour we learn
from one of the first writers of the Church,
TertuUian, who tells us that the heathen, wondering
at this mutual love of Christians, were in the habit

€^c (Uen? Commanbntent. ^

of saying, "See how these Christians love one
another."*

How rapidly Christianity grew and spread in
those early days, in spite of opposition and
persecution, perhaps because of them ; but chiefly
on account of the fulfilment of this new command-
ment of love. The world wondered at a religion
which not only proposed mutual love as an ideal
of human conduct, but actually enabled men to
fulfil this law of love. And the secret of
Christianity's growth was the power of this new
commandment ; just as in later times, and, alas ! in
our own days, the non-fulfilment of the law of
mutual love is the principal cause of the weakness
and decay of the Christian religion, resulting not
only in the rending of Christ's body by innumer-
able schisms, but even in the Church itself, in that
party spirit which is incompatible with the law of
love.

Well may we lay this command of our Lord
to heart. It comes to us with all the force of
farewell words. We cannot heal the schisms of
the Church, but we can, by our mutual love to
one another, greatly diminish the bitterness of
party spirit ; for we can at least resolve to try to
understand one another, and never to speak with

* TertulL, "Apolog.,"c. 39.
15

^ §mi 2^§ut6bag in £enf.

unnecessary bitterness of those from whom we are
conscientiously constrained to differ.

This is, of course, but a negative carrying out
of the commandment. And we may all do more
than this, by actively striving to minister to our
brethren in need, recognising in each a member of
Christ's flock, bound therefore to us by the ties of
holiest love.

Some have thought that this new commandment
refers to the institution of the Holy Eucharist,
which was to be the sacrament of love. But the
institution of a sacrament can scarcely be called a
commandment. And yet there is an element of
truth in the suggestion, since the Holy Eucharist
is the special manifestation of Christ's love to us
in supplying our soul's need, by giving us, as its
food. His Body and Blood ; and more, since every
Eucharist is the memorial of that act of love by
which, upon the Cross, our Lord gave His life for
us, of that Sacrifice by which we are redeemed.

Rightly, then, has the Church appointed these
words, " A new commandment I give unto you.
That ye love one another," as the first antiphon to
be sung during the ceremony of the feet-washing on
Thursday in Holy Week, from whence, as you know,
the day derives its name. Maundy Thursday ; so
that the anniversary of the institution of the

€^e (Tlen> CommMtmcnt ^^

Blessed Sacrament is always associated, by its
nam % with this new commandment which Christ
gave to His disciples.

And surely this brinies before us another reason
why we should love one another, not only that
we are members of Christ's one Body, the Church,
but that we are fellow-partakers of that one Body
in the Eucharistic feast. Not only are we incor-
porated into Him by baptism, but we feed on
Him through Communion ; so that, by being
nourished with the same spiritual food, we are knit
together in the closest relationships of life.

We are to love one another as Christ loved us,
Who being in the form of God, was impelled by
love for man in his perishing condition to take
upon Him the form of a servant, and to become
obedient unto the death of the Cross. From His
throne in Heaven the Son of God beheld us in
our need, and hastened to our succour, thou;:^h to
help us and save us cost Him all the humiliation
of the Incarnation, all the sorrows of the Passion !

And if we would fulfil this new commandment,
we must, according to our own measure, strive to
hasten to the succour of those members of Christ's
Body whom we see to be in distress, and whom
we are able to aid, either in mind, by sympathy ;
in body, by ministering to their sickness ; or in

17 C

estate, by supplying their wants. We must not
grudge the trouble or pains this may involve ; for
we are to love our brethren, not with a selfish
love, but with the self-sacrificing love with which
Christ loved us.

III.

THE QUESTION OF S. PETER.

S. John xiii. 36-38.

''Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, whither goest Thou? Jesus
answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now ; but thou
shalt follow Me afterwards. Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot
I follow Thee now ? I will lay down my life for Thy sake.
Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake ?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou
hast denied Me thrice."

UR Lord's announcement of His approaching
departure leads to questions from four of
His disciples, questions which reveal some-
thing of the character and spiritual comprehension
of each of the questioners, and something of the
difficulties which His words presented to their minds.
The questioners were S. Peter, S. Thomas, S.Philip,
and S. Jude, each of whom, taking up our Lord's

-o^ ^mt ^xiia^ in &enf.

words, seeks further enlightenment as to their
meaning.

S. Peter as usual is the first to speak, for we read
that, " Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, whither
goest Thou ? Jesus answered him, Whither I go,
thou canst not follow Me now ; but thou shalt
follow Me afterwards. Peter saith unto Him, Lord,
why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down
my life for Thy sake."

It was a natural question to ask, when S. Peter
heard our Lord speak of His departure, but it showed
a very imperfect comprehension on his part in regard
to much of Christ's past teaching ; for it probably
implied that S. Peter, like most of the other
disciples, looked forward to the setting up of a
temporal kingdom in this world, with our Lord
as the Messiah. It showed that S. Peter had not
understood the revelation of the Passion, at which,
indeed, he stumbled so badly, that his Master then
said to him, " Get thee behind Me, Satan."*

Our Lord's answer to his question is not direct.
It was an answer to what was passing in S. Peter's
mind, rather than to S. Peter's words. The Apostle
had asked, " Lord, whither goest Thou ? " and Christ
replied, " Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me
now ; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards."

* S. Matt. xvi. 23.
20

€^c iXucBJion of g, (peter. ^

From this it is evident that when S. Peter said,
"Lord, whither goest Thou?"' he was not moved
so much by curiosity in regard to the place where
our Lord was going, as by his desire to go with
Him, to accompany Him. So that, without directly
announcing the goal of His journey, our Lord warns
S. Peter that he cannot follow Him now ; though He
comforts him with the assurance that he shall follow
Him afterwards.

S. Peter could not follow Christ where He was
going, to another world, at that time for many
reasons. First of all, S. Peter was not spiritually pre-
pared for his place in heaven ; his own character had
not yet been sufficiently disciplined and developed ;
his own faith which seemed to him so strong, was
not even able to bear the shock of temptation in
the high-priest's hall, where he denied his Master.
He was not morally ready. But there was another
reason — his work was not yet done ; indeed, it had
scarcely begun, that work for which his Master had
been for three years training him, the work of
preaching the Gospel, and organising the infant
Church in the world. Before S. Peter could follow
Christ to his reward, he must do his work ; he must
suffer ; and, by suffering, be made perfect, that he
might become one of the foundation stones of the
City of God. How great was the work that S. Peter

^ ^ixBi S^tbdg in SLCnt,

was to accomplish in this world before he won his
crown !

But our Lord gives him a promise, *' Thou shalt
follow Me afterwards." And that promise, remember,
was renewed to him after his denial, after his peni-
tence, after his pardon ; when, at the Lake of Galilee,
our Lord told him the manner of death by which he
should glorify his Master, and follow Him into the
world beyond ; for then He said to Peter, '* Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou
girdest thyself, and walkest 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 S. John remarks,
'* This spake He, signifying by what death he should
glorify God.""*^

" Whither goest Thou ? " Many who have visited
Rome will remember a little church, called the
Chapel of the Domine Quo Vadis — " Lord, whither
goest Thou ? " It is associated with a legend of very
early authority,! that when S. Peter was fleeing from
Rome, from the Mamertine Prison, our Lord met
him ; and to his question, '' Lord, whither goest
Thou ? " replied, " I am going to Rome to be
crucified again." S. Peter, from these words, undcr-

* S. John xxi. i8, 19.

t It is referred to by Origcn in " Joann " xx. 12.

t^c 4jue6tion of ^. (peter. ^

stood that the hour of his own martyrdom had come ;
and, returning to his prison at Rome, was shortly
afterwards crucified, under Nero. The place where
the meeting is said to have taken place is marked by
the Chapel of the Doinine Quo Vadis.

S. Peter says to our Lord, ** Why cannot I follow
Thee now ? I will lay down my life for Thy sake."
Here we recognise the impetuous nature which
always desires to act at once, and frets at waiting.
We cannot but admire the spirit that prompted these
words. The tendency of the world in regard to
unpleasant duty is, as a rule, not to act at once, but
to put off as long as possible the disagreeable duty.
But S. Peter, with his impulsive temperament, is not
content with the promise, " Thou shalt follow Me
afterwards," but asks, " Why cannot I follow Thee
now ? I will lay down my life for Thy sake." He
did not ask where our Lord was going, but he
recognised from our Lord's words that He was
going into some great peril, and at once offers to
share the peril with Him, even though it should
involve the sacrifice of his very life.

" I will lay down my life for Thy sake." He
thought he had counted the cost when he said
these words ; he believed that he could lay down his
life for Christ before Christ had laid down His life
for him. But later on he learned that it was only

'^ ^ixBt S^ibag in &cni.

through Christ's Passion that his own martyrdom
became possible.

He was to wait. How much has to be learned in
periods of waiting ; how much, too, has to be done in
those times of delay, that we may be able, when the
opportunity offers, to embrace it, and to accomplish
God's work. S. Peter was tested that very night in
the high-priest's house ; the opportunity offered, but
he was not ready. And so, alas ! he denied his
Master from fear of a maid-servant. But afterwards
when, in that period of long waiting, he had learned,
by the things which he had suffered, and had come
to experience the grace of Jesus Christ, he was
able to lay down his life as a martyr. In the
high-priest's house he did not even dare to confess
Christ before a few soldiers and servants, but after
the period of waiting and preparation he cheerfully
went back to Rome, to suffer and to die for his
Master.

What a lesson there is for us here ! — that the
periods of waiting in this world, when God does
not seem to have anything very especial for us to
do, must be used as periods of learning and of
working. How many there arc who say, " I do
not know what my vocation is in life ; God has
not shown me my work, and therefore I will do
nothing, until He does call mc."

t^c ^uegtion of ^. (pcicx. ^

By such, when the call comes, the discovery is
often made that they are not able to follow Him.
They are like the foolish virgins, who, while pro-
fessing to be waiting for Christ, when the cry was
heard, " Behold, the Bridegroom cometh ; go ye
out to meet Him,"* discovered that, in their period
of waiting, the oil in their lamps had become
exhausted.

It is in times of waiting that we should be learning
and labouring, striving to fashion and sharpen the
instrument ourselves ; so that, when God is ready
to use it, the instrument may be found ready for
His purpose.

If we take the lives of those who have accomplished
the greatest work for God, we shall find that almost
always they had to wait many, many years before
the opportunity offered for carrying out what they
felt to be their life's work. But we shall also
discover that they did not spend these years in
idleness ; they spent them in prayer and the study
of God's Word ; so that when the moment came
that the opportunity presented itself, the work was
done with marvellous celerity and success, because
they had been so long preparing themselves to
do it.

To how many it is just the other way ! They

* S. Matt. XXV. 6.

•^ ^ixBt St^ibag in £enf.

waste the periods of waiting ; and when the time
of work comes, they find that they have so blunted
their spiritual perceptions and ruined their natural
gifts, that they are no longer adle to do the work
which God puts before them ; not because they are
not willing to do it, but because they have lost,
they have forfeited, the power to do it. " Thou canst
not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me
afterwards."

IV.

THE TRAINING OF S. PETER.

S. John xiii. 38.

' ' Jesus answereth, Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake ?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee. The cock shall not crow, till thou hast
denied Me thrice."

UR Lord's repetition of S. Peter's exact
words, " Thy life for Me wilt thou lay-
down ? " has a deep pathos. It is as
though He accepted the essential truth of S. Peter's
generous assertion, while He pointed out the
impossibility of its fulfilment at that time. He
tells S. Peter he will have an opportunity that very
night of proving himself, not by dying for his
Master, but by confessing that he is a disciple. An
opportunity ? Nay, three opportunities ; and that
in every case he shall not only lamentably fail

'^^^ ^ivBJ ^dfurbag in &enf.

to confess his Master, but shall shamefully deny
Him!

There are few episodes in the Gospels more full
of instruction than this ; for, from the example of
S. Peter, we learn that real strength is to be
measured, not by generous impulses, but by the
recognition of two fundamental truths — our own
natural weakness and inability, and God's unceasing
love.

As a great ascetic writer teaches,* the foundation
of all spiritual hfe must be laid in distrust of self and
perfect trust in God. S. Peter learned these truths
by the experience of the three years spent with our
Blessed Lord, and they were not entirely grasped
by him until the last disastrous fall which our Lord
here foretells — his threefold denial. Then S. Peter
fully learned his own weakness ; and from the look
of Jesus, which won him back to penitence, and the
words of Jesus after His Resurrection, he learned the
infinite and unchanging love of God.

With S. Peter, the generous impulse was always
present ; but, through over-confidence in self, it only
led to humiliation and failure. We may notice three
instances especially : when S. Peter saw our Lord
walking upon the sea, he did not hesitate to say,
" Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the
* C/. Scupoli's ''Spiritual Combat."
28

t^t Zv(Xxnxna of g« (pcict. ^

water." And when Jesus said, " Come," he cast
himself upon the water, and walked upon the very
waves. But, alas ! he looked for a moment away
from Christ, and observed that the wind was
boisterous, and the waves threatening, and his faith
began to fail, and he began to sink. He cried,
" Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? "*
There S. Peter learned the instability of his own
faith, and the constancy of Christ's love. His hand
was outstretched to save him the moment he began
to sink.

The second instance follows immediately upon
S. Peter's great confession of Christ's Divinity. To
the question, " Whom do men say that I, the Son of
Man, am ? "f the Apostles gave various answers ;
but S. Peter was the first and only one to say, " Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. "J Our
Lord praises him for this great confession, and gives
him a glorious promise and privilege. And yet we
read only a few verses further on in the chapter, that
when Christ proceeded to tell S. Peter of His
Passion, the Apostle stumbled at it, " and began to
rebuke Him, saying, be it far from Thee, Lord : this

* Cf. S. Matt. xiv. 28-34. t S. Matt. xvi. 13.

X S. Matt. xvi. 16.

^ ^ixBi ^(Xtutbdg in £enf.

shall not be unto Thee." But Christ " turned, and
said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan ; thou art
an offence unto Me ; for thou mindest not the
things that be of God, but those that be of men."*

S. Peter's third great fall was in the high-priest's
palace, and it took place after our Lord's warning :
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not
crow till thou hast denied Me thrice."

S. Peter, knowing that some great peril threatened
his Master, had said : " Lord, ... I will lay down
my life for Thy sake." Christ tells him that before
the night is past he will have learned his own
weakness. It will not be a question of laying down
his life, but only an acknowledgment of his disciple-
ship. S. Peter thinks that this is impossible —
" Although all shall be offended, yet will not I."
But he learns with bitter shame that his Master
knows him better than he knows himself; that his
own boasted strength, apart from Christ's grace, is
utter weakness. And this knowledge for ever
destroys his self-confidence, and establishes the
conviction of his own natural weakness. Thus he
learns to distrust himself; but he learns more — to
trust Christ ; for, when he had so shamefully denied
his Master thrice, we read that " the Lord turned,
and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the

* C/. S. Matt. xvi. 21-24.

t^c ^r dining of g> Qpeter. ^

word of the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before
the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And
Peter went out, and wept bitterly.'"^

What was there in that look of Jesus which
pierced S. Peter's heart, and recalled him to
penitence ? It is worth while noticing carefully the
exact word which S. Luke uses (eVe/SXe-y/^ei/). The verb
compounded with the preposition (iv), signifies, not
merely to look upon a person, but to look with a
swift, penetrating glance. So that it implies that our
Lord looked S. Peter through and through, and read
his very heart

It is not a little suggestive that this same word
is used of the look which our Lord cast upon S.
Peter the first time He met him, when He said to
him, " Thou art Simon the son of Jona : thou shalt
be called Cephas. "f The look recalled our Lord's
warning (this S. Luke tells us). But may it not also
have recalled that first meeting with his Master,
when He uttered the glorious promise, " Thou shalt
be called Cephas " — the rock ? As S. Peter pondered
upon his sin, what memories must have flooded his
mind — the glorious promise, the shameful failure,
but also the unwearied love of his Master !

On Easter Day, we know that our Lord appeared
to S. Peter, although we are not told what passed

* S. Luke xxii. 6 1, 62. f S. John i. 42,

between them ; for a veil is drawn over the inter-
course of the penitent soul with the great Absolver.
But later, by the Lake of Galilee, we learn that
S. Peter was fully restored to his pastorate. After
that he is a different man ; he has learned the two
great truths — to distrust himself and to trust God.
With the exception of the incident at Antioch,
recorded in the Epistle to the Galatians, there is no
further trace of weakness in S. Peter.

I said that this episode is full of instruction for us
all ; for we all alike have to learn by experience these
two fundamental truths of the spiritual life. We
have to learn them where S. Peter learned them — in
the school of temptation. And until we have learned
them, we, like S. Peter, shall be constantly liable to
find our most generous impulses leading us to
shameful failure.

THE MANY MANSIONS OF THE
FATHER'S HOUSE.

S. John xiv. 1-3.

' ' Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also
in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions : if it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you
unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

HE question of S. Thomas, which follows
that of S. Peter, is introduced by, and arises
out of, the section with which the fourteenth
chapter of S. John begins, " Let not your heart be
troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in Me."

There had been much to fill the disciples' hearts
with sorrow and alarm ; not only the announcement

33 r)

^ i^ixBt (Qtonbag in &enf.

of their Master's departure, but the warning of the
treachery of Judas — "One of you shall betray Me;"*
and of the weakness of S. Peter — " Thou shalt deny
Me."t There was much to fill their minds with
terror. So now, in the touching words with which
this chapter opens, our Lord consoles His disciples —
" Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God,
believe also in Me."

It is difficult to decide the correct translation of
the latter part of this verse. The two verbs " believe "
in the Greek are precisely the same. They may be
either in the indicative or the imperative mood. So
that the translation may be either, " Ye believe in
God, and ye believe in Me ; " or it may be, " Believe
in God, and believe in Me." The rendering in our
Bible is unfortunate, in that it translates the first
verb as indicative, and the other as imperative.
Probably the best scholars agree that both should
be imperative — " Believe in God, and believe in Me
also."

Thus you will see the reason why they were not to
be troubled. "Let not your heart be troubled." Why?
Believe in God, and believe in Me also. Why should
you not be troubled ? Because you believe in God.
This means something much more than a mere
intellectual acceptance of the fact of God's existence.

* S. Jolui xiii. 21. t S. Matt. xxvi. 34.

th (tttdng (fflctngjong. ^

It implies that faith in God which issues in perfect
trust in Him. The preposition (ds) which S. John
uses with the verb sicrnifies, or rather suggests, a
complete transference of trust of oneself to another.
Believe in God; that is, put all your trust in Him.
If you do, you will not be troubled.

Belief in God! and what does this imply? As I
have said, not merely a belief in God's existence, but
some realisation of God's character, a belief in His
attributes of Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Love.
If we believe in God's Omniscience, we realise that
He knows our necessities and troubles before we ask,
and our ignorance in asking. If we believe in His
Omnipotence, we know that He can help us in all
our troubles, that no difficulties are too great for
Him. And if we believe in His Love, that He loves
us ; then we shall be sure, not merely that He can
help us to the uttermost, but that He wz// help us as
is best for us. Believe, then, in God, and you will
not be troubled.

And then our Lord goes on to say, " Believe also
in Me." The exact repetition of the phrase implies
that Christ is what the Father is — God. Believe in
God, and believe in Me. And surely this was the
reason why their hearts were not to be troubled,
either by the news of His departure, or the warning
of the treachery of Judas, or of the denial of S.

^^ ^ix&i (Qtonbag in i^txd.

Peter ; for, if Christ be God, He can comfort, console,
and help them in all their trials.

Then our Lord goes on to say, " In My Father's
house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would
have told you ; for I go to prepare a place for you."

Throughout these last discourses of our Blessed
Lord we observe the prominence of the word
"Father;" and that God, as our Father, is set before
us as the goal of life. Jesus says, " I go unto the
Father."* And He invites us to come to the
Father, through Him — "No man cometh unto the
Father, but by Me."t So here He says, " In My
Father's house are many mansions."

The word translated " mansion " (ftov^) occurs only
twice in the New Testament, both times in this
chapter — in this verse, and again in the twenty-third
verse, where our Lord, speaking of His Father, says,
" We will come . . and make our abode {yLovr]v) with
Him.":}: The word " abode " in the latter verse is
the same word which is here translated "mansion."
Now, what precisely does the word mean ? The
word " mansions " is itself taken from the Latin
translation (mansiones), and adequately represents
the Greek. It literally means the stopping-places
by the roadside where travellers on a journey found
rest and refreshment. Hence, there are bound up

* St. Joliu xiv. 28. t ^' Jolin xiv. 6. % ^' J**^"'" ^i^. 23.

with it two ideas — repose and progress. They were
places where the traveller reposed for the night, in
order that he might have strength for a fresh effort
in his journey the next day. The fact that our
Blessed Lord is speaking of mansions in heaven has
led some to draw the inference that in heaven our
life will be one of progress ; at least, the word used
suggests this inference.

" In My Father's house are many mansions."
There will be room for all tliere. He is about to
tell them how they will be treated in this world ;
that they will be driven out of the synagogues ; that
they will be outcasts among their own nation ; but,
He says, there will be plenty of room for all in
heaven. When S. Mary and S. Joseph came to
Bethlehem, to be enrolled in the census, they found
that there was no room in the inn. But in heaven
there is no such danger ; there will be room for
all.

" If it were not so, I would have told you ; (for) I
go to prepare a place for you." The best manu-
scripts give us the word " for," which is not in our
Bibles. It makes the sentence much clearer. It is
as though our Lord would say, I have not withheld
from you the sorrowful news of My departure ; and
therefore I would not hesitate to tell you even
sadder news, if it were necessary. But now I tell

^ ^ixBt (^lonbag in SLcnt.

you joyful news — that there are many mansions in
My Father's house, and that I go to prepare a place
for you.

This, indeed, is the bright side of Christ's depar-
ture. If He does not go to make preparation for us,
we cannot follow. The disciples, doubtless, would
have wished Him to have stayed with them on this
earth ; but He tells them that, in going before to
prepare a place for them in heaven, He affords them
both the possibility and opportunity of following
where He has gone before.

In the next verse He says, " And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I will
receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye
may be also." From these words we learn that our
Lord's departure is the condition of His return. His
visible separation from them is necessary as the
condition of His real union with them, through the
operation of the Holy Ghost.

The Christian, after Pentecost, is nearer to Christ
than the Apostles were before the Passion. They
were near to Him locally. They could see Him, and
hear Him. and touch Him, with their bodily senses ;
but there was no real spiritual union between Him
and them. After the coming of the Holy Ghost
they were to be incorporated into Christ, to become
living members of His Body. So that, in this sense,

His departure was necessary as the condition of His
return to them through a more intimate union than
at that time they could conceive of.

Our rendering, " I will come again, and receive
you unto Myself," is not quite correct. It should
be, " I am coming again, and I will receive you unto
Myself." The first verb is in the present tense ; the
second, in the future. Thus the Greek brings out
the fact that our Lord is constantly coming. Though
in this passage He is referring, primarily, to His last
coming at the end of the world, we must not limit
His coming to that ; for Christ comes to the world,
to the Church, and to each individual Christian,
continually. He came to them at His Resurrection ;
He came again at Pentecost, through the operation
of the Holy Ghost ; He comes to each sinner at the
moment of conversion ; He comes to us in every
Communion ; He comes to us in our daily study of
His Word, if we read it prayerfully. And lastly,
He comes to us at the moment of death and at
the Day of Judgment. And all these comings are
comprehended in those words, " I am coming
again."

But while the Greek present implies, not a mere
act, but a state — that Christ is constantly coming —
the future can only be referred to one occasion, " I
will receive you unto Myself," that is, at the moment

^^ -^ixQi (^onbag in SLCni.

of death, when He calls us away from this world
of sorrow and sin, and takes us to be with Him.

"That where I am, ye may be also." Where
Christ is, there is Paradise. So He said to the
penitent robber on the cross, " To-day shalt thou
be with Me in Paradise."* Thou shalt be with Me ;
therefore, thou shalt be in Paradise. After His
Ascension, Paradise was heaven ; for, as we profess
in our Creed, " He ascended into heaven, and sitteth
on the right hand of God the Father Almighty."

Our Lord's glorified humanity is not ubiquitous.
Locally, it is now only in one place, at the right hand
of God the Father in heaven. Sacramentaily, supra-
locally. His humanity is present in the Blessed
Sacrament. But we have no reason to suppose
that it is present with the souls in the Intermediate
State. His divinity is there, as everywhere, but not
His Humanity.

So in these words our Lord assures us that after
we have left this world of sin, and passed through a
state of purification, we shall be with Him, where He
is reigning with all the saints.

* .S. Luke xxiii. 43.

VI.

THE QUESTION OF S. THOMAS.

S. John xiv. 4-6.

" And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith
unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest ; and how can we
know the way ? Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and
the Life : no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."

UR Blessed Lord, consoling His disciples in
their grief at His departure, tells them that
He goes to prepare a place for them in His
Father's house ; that where He is, they may be with
Him ; that He is coming again, and will receive
them unto Himself. And then He adds, " Whither
I go> ys know the way ; " for this is the correct
reading, and not, as we find in our Bible, " Whither I
go ye know, and the way ye know."

Our Lord meant to remind them that He had so

^ ^ixBt ZwBba^ in SLCnt.

often told them of the way by which they were to
follow Him, that they ought to know it well. It was
to be a way of suffering and of sacrifice, the way
of the Holy Cross ; for how many times He had
warned them that no one could be His disciple, who
did not take up his cross and follow Him. '' Whither
I go," He says, *'ye know the way." I am going to
My Father in heaven ; His house, in which are the
many mansions, is My goal ; and the way by which
I must reach it is the way of suffering, the way of
self-sacrifice and love.

At this point S. Thomas interrupts, and says,
" Lord, we know not whither Thou goest ; and how
know we the way ? " (the word " can " is not found
in the best text). It is most interesting to observe
that the questions asked by the different Apostles
are in strict accord with what we know of their
temperament and spiritual character. S. Peter's
question, " Why cannot I follow Thee now } I will
lay down my life for Thy sake,"''' is precisely the
utterance which might be expected from one of his
sanguine, impulsive nature. So, too, we shall find
that the interruption of S. Thomas is just what
might be expected from a man of his natural
temperament and spiritual development.

S. Thomas is a very distinct type of character

* S. John xiii. 37,
42

t^c 4jue6tton of ^. t^om<XB. ^^

among our Lord's disciples. He represents the
anxious, intellectual seeker after truth, who has an
almost morbid fear of things he cannot grasp, and a
tendency to despondency, but with a real love for his
Master. He will not allow himself to be carried by
enthusiasm to say that he believes more than he does
believe.

We have an instance of this in connection with our
Lord's visit to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the
dead. When the news came that Lazarus was sick,
we read that Christ " abode two days still in the same
place where He was. Then after that, saith He to
His disciples, let us go into Judsea again. His
disciples say unto Him, Master, the Jews of late
sought to stone Thee ; and goest Thou thither
again?" After answering this question, Christ said,
" Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go, that I may
awake him out of sleep." The disciples thought that
He spoke of taking of rest in sleep ; but our Lord
told them plainly that Lazarus was dead. And
S. Thomas was the first to say, " Let us also go, that
we may die with Him."*

If we examine these words of S. Thomas in

connection with their context, we shall observe that

they manifest the same characteristics which led S.

Thomas to interrupt our Lord with the remark :

* C/. S. John xi. 6-17.

^ ^ixBt S^uesbag in feenf.

" Lord, we know not whither Thou goest ; and how
know we the way ? " and after His Resurrection to
refuse to believe the testimony of his fellow-disciples,
that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.

We may notice, in regard to the death of Lazarus,
that S. Thomas keeps strictly within the limits of
that which he k7iew. He knew two things, the death
of Lazarus and the hostility of the Jews. Jesus had
invited His disciples to go with Him, saying that He
was going to awaken Lazarus out of sleep ; that is,
to raise him from the dead. About the raising from
the dead, S. Thomas says nothing ; but about the
hostility of the Jews, he realises that this probably
meant death to his Master and to those who were
with Him.

S. Thomas was no coward. He truly loved his
Master. Therefore he said, " Let us also go, that we
may die with Him." He did not shrink from suffering
with his Lord, but he would not commit himself to
expressing a hope which he did not really possess,
that Lazarus would be raised from the dead, and that
his Master would escape the hostility of the Jews.
S. Thomas will die for the love which he has, the
love of Jesus Christ, but he will not pretend to the
faith which he has not. To follow Christ where He
goes, is the duty of His disciples, even thoui^^h his
Master goes into danger. Therefore S. Thomas

t^c (XxtCBtion of ^. t^om<XB. ^

says, " Let us also go, that we may die with
Him."

In the third passage in S. John's Gospel, in which
S. Thomas is introduced to us, we find him
deliberately rejecting the testimony of his fellow-
disciples concerning Christ's Resurrection, and
saying, " Except I shall see in His hands the print
of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the
nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not
believe."* S. Thomas refuses human testimony,
though it was the testimony of so many of his
friends, and demands the evidence of his own
senses — the senses of sight and touch. Jesus, in
consideration of his natural difficulty of faith, offers
him the evidence for which he asks, but adds,
reproachfully, " Because thou hast seen Me, thou
hast believed : blessed are they that have not seen,
and yet have believed."f

Altogether, we may consider S. Thomas as a type
of one who loved Christ, and was faithful to Christ,
but who saw intellectual difficulties at every step, and
was too honest to pretend that he did not see them.
Very probably S. Thomas looked for the establish-
ment of Christ's Messianic kingdom on earth ; so
that, when our Lord spoke of His departure, S.
Thomas said, in effect : All we know is, that Thou

* S. John XX. 25. t S. John xx, 29.

-^^ :S'ir6f Jue0bag in £enf.

art going to leave us ; for that Thou hast told us ;
but whither Thou art going we know not. Wilt
Thou go to the dispersed among the Gentiles ? Art
Thou s^oincf to restore the kin^rdom to Israel ?
Thou hast told us that Thou art to be "lifted up ;"
but how is this exaltation to take place ? Thou hast
told us that Thou art going ; but whither art Thou
going, and by what way ?

To some like S. Thomas, inclined to find the
difficulties in revelation, rather than to see, as others
do, its positive truth, the objections of S. Thomas
may seem reasonable, and our Lord's answer may
appear to be wanting in directness. But this is only
because they are so occupied with the superficial
form of the answer that they fail to grasp its com-
prehensive significance ; for when our Lord replies,
* I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life : no man
Cometh unto the Father, but by Mc. If ye had
known Me, ye should have known My Father also :
from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him,"
He not only answers the question of S. Thomas, but
does more — answers the difficulty which is really
contained in the question.

The statement of S. Thomas was twofold : Wc
do not know whither Thou art going; how can we
know the way? Wc do not know the goal, or end,
of Th)' journey. How, then, can wc know the way

t^t ^ueation of ^. ^^omctB. ^

by which it is to be reached ? Incidentally, and yet
most clearly, our Lord, in the second part of the
verse, states the Goal, or End, of His journey. It
is the Father — " No man cometh unto the Father,
but by Me." They ought to have known this ; for
He had already told them, " In My Father's house
are many mansions . . . I go to prepare a place
for you."* But it was of more real importance that
they should know the waj' by which they were to
follow Him, not immediately, but afterwards ; the
way which was to bring them to those many
mansions, the way which was to bring them to that
goal of life — itself the true end for which they had
been created.

As we have said, our Lord did reveal the end, or
goal. And yet, this was not the important question,
since faith must be content to follow step by step
where it is led, and to wait until the goal is reached,
and the end is revealed.

" Lead, kindly Light; I do not ask to see
The distant scene ; one step enough for me."

S. Thomas was unwilling to take the one step,
unless he could see where it was to lead him, unless
he could know the far-off end.

" I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The

* S. John xiv. 2.

^ "SixBt S^ueebag in SLCnt.

three terms here are not co-ordinate. The latter two
are the unfolding, or explication of the first. " I am
the Way," signifies that Christ is the means, or way,
by which all are to come to the Father. And He is
the means, or way, because He is the Truth and the
Life.

Among the types of Christ in the Old Testament,
few are more prominent than the Ark of the
Covenant, which contained, as we are told, three
things — the Rod of Aaron, which blossomed ; the
Tables of the Law, on which God had written the
Ten Commandments ; and the Pot of Manna.*

The Rod typifies Christ as the Way, the staff for
the journey of life, the staff of discipline. " Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil : for Thou art with me ;
Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me."f The Tables
of the Law, which God gave from Sinai, symbolise
Christ as the Truth, the eternal Truth, which is to
guide us in all our actions ; of which Christ said,
' Think not that I am come to destroy the law . . .
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil (fill out, or
complete)."}:

And the Pot of Manna represents Christ as the

* Cf. Ileb. ix. 4; I'^x. xvi. H, 34; Numb. xvii. lO ; Ex. xxv. 16;
Deut. x. 5.

t Psalm xxiii. 4. % S. Matt. v. 17.

€^c ^ucBiion of ^. Z^ottKXB. ^

Life ; for He said, " I am the bread of life ; " and
again, ** I am the living bread which came down from
heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for
ever : and the bread that I will give is My flesh
for the life of the world."*

After Christ's answer, S. Thomas remains silent ;
perhaps, in order that he may ponder over and
reflect upon our Lord's words.

* S. John vi. 35-51.

49 E

VII.

CHRIST AS THE WAY.

S. John xiv. 6.

" Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life : no
man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."

THOMAS asked to know whither his
Master was going. Christ reph'es, that the
important matter is to know the zuaj^ by
which they may attain to the end or goal of their
journey ; although He does repeat what He had
told them before, that the End is the Father — His
Father and their Father. And of this He reminds
them again in the message which He sends to
them on Easter morning, by S. Mary Magdalene,
" I am ascending unto My Father, and your Father ;
and to My God, and your God."*

* S. John XX. 17.
50

He is the only Way by which the goal can be
reached. " No man cometh unto the Father, but
by" (through) "Me." He is the Way by which
God and man are united ; by which earth and
Heaven are joined ; by which time and eternity are
bridged.

Christianity differs from all other religions,
especially in this ; that it demands faith in a
Person, and not merely in a system of teaching.
In this Christianity stands absolutely alone, that it
requires faith in the Person of Jesus Christ. He
is ''the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

When S. Paul was preaching to the Athenians
on Areopagus, we are told that he preached unto
them "Jesus, and the resurrection."* He preached
to them, not a system of philosophy, not a code
of morals, but faith in a living Person, Jesus, Who
had risen from the dead.

He is the Way to the knowledge of God. No
man can come to know God, but through knowing
Christ ; as He says, "If ye had known Me, ye
should have known My Father also."t He is the
Way to the knowledge of God, not only because
He teaches us about God, but because He reveals
the Father in Himself. As He afterwards said to
S. Philip, '* He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father."!

* Acts xvii. 1 8. t S. John xiv. 7. % S. John xiv. 9.

^ ^econb TJJebneebaj in £enf.

Hence, it is not enough to study the words of
Christ, important though that may be. We must
study Christ Himself; we must come to know Him
if we are to know His Father, if we are to know
God.

One of the passions most deeply implanted in
human nature is the passion of curiosity, the thirst
for knowledge. We strive to gratify it from the
first hours of our conscious existence. And as the
child grows into the man, if that thirst be not
destroyed by sin, it will impel the intellect into
new fields of investigation, until at last it leads the
mind to the knowledge of God in Christ.

Each man should be like the pearl merchant in
the parable, " seeking goodly pearls ; "* seeking them
in many regions of knowledge, in many kingdoms
of nature ; finding, with joy, pearls of truth, and
yet always feeling that there is something more,
something beyond ; until he learns at last that the
one Pearl of great price, without which the heart
of man can never rest satisfied, is the knowledge
of God ; and finds this knowledge, finally, in Christ,
Who is the only Way by which a man can come
to the Father.

But man has not only an intellect, and therefore
the passion of curiosity, the desire for knowledge.

* Cf. S. Mall. xiii. 45, 46.
52

He has also a heart, and therefore the passion of
love, the desire to possess, and to be possessed by,
the object of his love. It is not enough for a man
to know God, or, rather, to know that there is a
God ; it is not sufficient for a man to know al^out
God, he must know by experience something of
God's character and attributes. Man craves to love
God, to possess God, to be possessed by God ; in a
word, man desires, above all things, union with
God. And as Christ is the Way to the knowledge
of God, so is He the only Way by which a man
may attain to union with God, and this in a two-
fold manner.

(i) Man craves to be united with God, but
recognises, as the insuperable obstacle to that union,
his own sin. He is alienated from God by sin, and
he realises that it is only by the removal of his
sin that he can be made one with God. And
Christ comes to pay the penalty of sin, to expiate
it, to reconcile God and man, to atone for sin, and
so to make God and man at one again. Christ,
then, is the Way to the union with God, through
His Passion on the Cross, by which He took away
the sins of the world, by which He removed the
obstacle to man's approach to God.

(2) This, however, is not all. It is only the
negative part of the work of union, the taking away

of the sin which alienated man from God, the
removal of the hindrance to his union with God.
There is something more, something greater. By
sacramental incorporation into Christ, through
Baptism, that union is begun ; and by feeding upon
Christ, especially in the Holy Eucharist, the union
grows, and is perfected. And so, in this way also,
the second great passion of man's nature is
satisfied ; and, through Christ, man is enabled to
love God, to possess God, and to be possessed by
Him,

But yet again Christ is the Way, because He is
our Example. S. Peter teaches us that we become
" partakers of the divine nature."* That is, of
course, through Baptism ; so that, having become
" partakers of the divine nature " (that is, being
"in Christ"), we may follow the example of His
perfect manhood, we may become godlike, not only
in nature, but in character.

Hence, at every step, Christ is the Way ; for He
is not only the Means by which we approach the
Father, but the Example, by following Whom we
become Christ-like, and therefore godlike. " Follow
Me," He said ; and this command implies some-
thing more than enrolling ourselves under His

* 2 S. Peter i. 4.

banner. It means following His example, walking
in the Waj/.

S. Paul tells us that, if any man is " in Christ,"
he is a new creature ;* and further says, that the
effect of our being "in Christ," or baptised, ought
to be manifested by our walking in " newness of
life."t

Every day, then, of our journey heavenward we
find Christ is the Way, the Way by which we are
to advance, slowly but surely, to the End, the
Father, where He Himself waits for us, that He
may present us to the Father as redeemed by His
precious blood, made partakers of His divine
nature, moulded in character after the example of
His holy life, and so meet to be the children of
God throughout eternity.

* Cf. 2 Cor. V. 17. t Rom. vi. 4.

VIII.

CHRIST AS THE TRUTH.

S. John xiv. 6.

" Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Lite : no
man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."

S vvc have already observed, Christ is the
Way, because He is the Truth and the
Life. Let us consider each of these
attributes separately.

He is the Truth, first and in the most absolute
sense, because He is Eternal Truth, God. Truth
with Him, therefore, is not a gift acquired or
bestowed, but is His essential character ; for God's
so-called attributes differ from those of man, in
that they are all essential to God. God is Truth,
and Mercy, and Love. He docs not merely possess

these characteristics in such a way that we could
conceive of His being without them ; they are His
essential being.

Christ, therefore, does not say, what I teach you
is true, but I am the Truth ; because He does
not say, believe in My teachings, but, believe in
Me. He demands faith in His Person, not only
in His doctrine. But, not only is He Himself the
Truth, but the purpose of His life was to bear
witness to truth. At that great moment when He
stood before the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate,
and was asked by him the question, " Art Thou
a king then ? Jesus answered. Thou sayest it,
because I am a king. To this end have I been
born, and for this purpose am I come into the
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice."*

How faithfully He bore witness to truth, how
fearlessly He died for truth, the Gospels teach us ;
and in the book of Revelation His title, twice
repeated, is "the faithful witness,"f "the faithful
and true witness. "J

If we are to follow the example of Christ, surely
we must be witnesses to truth. This must be the
great end and purpose of our lives. And yet, how
many there are who either think that truth is very

* S. John xviii. 37. f Rev. i. 5. | Rev. iii. 14.

unimportant, or that truth is unattainable. Some
devote their lives to the investigation of truths of
secondary importance, of mere phenomena, about
the real cause of which they are content to be
ignorant. They spend their time in studying in-
dividual facts, and drawing from them unimportant
generalisations. But the supreme truth regarding
our own nature, regarding the character of God,
and His purposes for us, the truth which relates
not only to time but to eternity — in regard to this
truth they are satisfied to know nothing !

Some, it is true, will contend that nothing can
be known of these things, that God has never
given to man any revelation. For such we can
only have great pity. To Christians they seem
like the blind mole, who is content with his burrow
in the earth. The mole is content, because he cannot
see, and has no cravings for anything which he does
not possess. But the intellect of man can never
be content with such an answer ; for the very
passion of curiosity, which impels man to seek an
answer to the great questions of his soul's life,
assures man that He who implanted that passion
in him intends it to be satisfied in the revelation
of His Son Jesus Christ, Who is the Truth.

Yes, Jesus Qmst is_the^ Tnjth^__^^ is

the revelation of God to the world. All truth is

in God, and all truth is revealed to us in Christ ;
for in Him is summed up all that is eternal and
absolute in the changing phenomena of finite being.
He is the revelation of the Father ; and this, not
so much on account of what he tells us in His
teachings of the Father's character, as that He
reveals the Father's character in His own life, mani-
festing those attributes of God, which it is most
important that we should know. So, in the next
verse Christ says, " If ye had known Me, ye should
have known My Father also : and from henceforth
ye know Him, and have seen Him."

There was but one way in which man could
ever come to know God, and that was through the
Incarnation. " The Word became flesh, and dwelt
among us ; "* and from the study of His life and
the knowledge of His Person, we come to know
God's character.

We learn God's purposes of love in Christ's
sacrifice upon the Cross ; His goodness and mercy,
in the actions of His life ; and God's power, in
His victory over sin and death. In proportion as
we know Christ, we shall know the Father. There
is no other Way by which we can come to the
Father, but through Christ.

We have referred to the thirst of the soul for

* S. John i. 14.

truth as an evidence that truth must be attainable ;
for it is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive of
the existence of an appetite for which there is no
possibility of satisfaction. Hunger connotes the
existence of food ; thirst of drink ; and so on with
every appetite of our nature.

Why, then, should the religious appetite be the
only exception, the thirst for God alone be without
any means by which it may be satisfied ? He Who
made man, and implanted in man the various
appetites of his nature, also supplied man with the
means of gratifying each one. Why, then, should
He have implanted in man that craving to know
the mystery of His Being, that thirst for truth,
which is so noticeable in every soul, if He never
intended to gratify it ?

The history of philosophy is the history of man's
attempt to solve the riddle of his existence, by his
own unaided intellect, and without recourse to
revelation. And what is the history of philosophy ?
The history of various systems, each of which
undertook to solve the problem of man's life ; the
history of great minds who have turned all the
powers of their intellect upon the greatest of all
subjects, and after years of laborious thought have
cried, " Eureka ! " and have given to the world a
system of philosophy ; who have gathered around

them disciples, and have founded schools, and
have passed away! And another great mind has
come, and picked to pieces their system, has
pointed out its fallacies, and proposed another
system as a substitute for it. And the world has
accepted this, until some one else has treated it
in the same manner, and swept it aside. Each,
perhaps, has contributed some elements of truth
which have remained, as truth always does remain,
but they have only been a few grains amid bushels
of chaff.

If there is one thing which the history of
philosophy teaches us, surely it is that philosophy
can never lead man to absolute truth ; that the
human mind, unaided, is doomed to wander in the
schools of philosophy, chasing the phantom which
always eludes its grasp ! The very fact that
systems of philosophy are always changing, that
no one has ever lasted, ought to be, one would
think, sufficient to prevent any man from resting
in them.

But turn from philosophy to the revelation of
God in Jesus Christ, and what a contrast we
behold ! Nearly two thousand years have passed
since it was given to the world, the most profound
minds of every age have been occupied in its study ;
and with what result ? Not one of its doctrines

•^ ^econb 2^^ut6bag in £enf.

has been changed or proved to be untrue. Men,
by prayer and study have come to understand it
better, and to find in it, with the changing
difficulties of centuries, the solution of all life's
problems.

He Who said, " I am the truth," also said, '' If
any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."*
In the knowledge of Him can be quenched the thirst
of our soul for truth ; but that knowledge must
be acquired gradually, and involves labour. The
disciples, who had been with our Lord some three
years, had not all come to know Him in the same
measure. It is true, they had not then the Holy
Spirit to guide them into all truth, as we have.
But some of them had come to know Him better
than others ; S. Peter and S. John, better than
S. Thomas and S. Philip.

If we are to attain the truth, we must seek after
it ; we must be like the " merchant man, seeking
goodly pearls. "f He found many, but he was not
satisfied till he found the one pearl of great price.
Then he was content to sell all that he had, that
he might possess it. This parable is the history
of many a great soul ; it portrays the experience
of many a mighty intellect. It is the epitome,
for instance, of the life of S. Augustine, who, seeking

* S. John vii. 37. f C/. S. Matt. xiii. 45, 46.

after truth, passed through many forms ot error
and partial truth, until at last he attained unto
the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and then bore
witness to the fact that in Him he found the Truth
which satisfied his whole nature. His well-known
words sum up the experience of almost every great
soul, " Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our
heart is restless, until it rests in Thee."*

* S. Aug. "Confess. ;" Migne, P. L. xxxii., col. 66i.

IX.

^econb Stibdg in &cnt.

CHRIST AS THE LIFE.

S. John xiv. 6.

" Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life : no
man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."

HRIST is not only the Truth, but the Life.
As He is the Truth because He is God ; so
is He the Life because He is God. " As
the Father hath Hfe in Himself; so hath He given to
the Son to have life in Himself."* He is the Life
because He is God, and because God is the only
self-existent Being. Every other living creature
derives its life from some other life. God alone
is underived ; God alone is self-existent ; God alone
is Life.

But God, in His infinite love, has given to us, His

* S. John V. 26.

creatures, to have life, to have even eternal life,
though that life is not underived like the life of God ;
for we read that, " The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ."* And our Lord says, " I am
the resurrection, and the life ; "f and, speaking of
His sheep, says, " I give unto them eternal life ; and
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of My hand."J

What a mystery life is in all its phases : physical
life — the life of the body, the life which is interrupted
by physical death ; mental life — the life of the
intellect, which is not interrupted by death ; spiritual
life — the life of the soul, which also is eternal !

Who can tell us what life is, except that it is the
gift of God ; that it comes from Him Who is Life ;
that it depends upon Him for its conservation and
continuance ? In other words, that our life of body,
and mind, and soul, is an effect, of which God is the
continuous cause. But there is a link between the
effect and its cause, a condition which God imposed
when He gave, first, the gift of life ; a condition,
upon the fulfilment of which not only the continuance,
but the perfection of life in all its phases, depends,
the condition of food.

The fact that we must eat to live, is one of the
universal facts of the world's life. The tiniest

* Rom. vi. 23. t S. John xi. 25. J S. John x. 28.

65 F

^ ^econb S^ibag in B!,cnt

vegetable, as well as the largest animal, can retain
the gift of life but for a few days, unless it fulfil
the God-imposed condition, that it eaf. And this
condition applies, not only to the life of the body,
but to the life of the mind and of the soul. All are
effects, of which God is the Cause, and in each case
food is the link between the Cause and effect, the
link which cannot be ignored without the forfeiture
of life.

Not only does the body starve without food, but
the mind also. Food, surely, we may say, is
something taken from without, and assimilated by
us through certain processes of digestion. The
mind of the infant unfolds and develops by feeding
upon the outer world, by investigating the sights and
sounds around it. After awhile it makes more rapid
progress by feeding upon the experiences of others.
If a child were shut up in a room where it never saw
or heard anything of the outer world, its intellectual
life would be dwarfed, it could be scarcely called
intellectual life at all. So, too, is it with the soul ;
it has need of food, and that food is the Word
of God, Jesus Christ.

As we have seen, our Lord Jesus Christ said, " I
am the resurrection, and the life ; " and, speaking of
those who believed on Him — " I give unto them
eternal life." And we find that He most emphatically

Christ <X6 iU &ife. ^

connects this gift of life with feeding upon His Body
He says, " I am the living bread which came down
from Heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall
live for ever : and the bread that I will give is My
flesh, for the life of the world." " Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.
Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath
eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last
day."^^

We shall observe here that our Lord confines the
gift of life to those who feed on His flesh ; that He
actually asserts that those who do not eat His flesh
have no life in them. And He further associates the
resurrection of the dead and eternal life with this
feeding upon His flesh.

But we may approach this subject from quite
another point of view. The fact that we must eat
to live, is such a commonplace in life, that in our
familiarity with it we often fail to realise what an
enormous factor food is, not only in the physical life
of man, but in his moral and spiritual well-being. It
teaches man many lessons which he needs to learn ;
and it not only teaches ^ but enforces its lessons.
Indeed, we may assert that food is the principal
natural instrument in man's progress in this life, the
* S. Johnvi. 51, 53, 54.
67

chief agent for making him what God purposes man
to be. Almost every step forward in his development,
physical and moral, may be traced to some law of
food.

But it stops not with its work upon man as an
individual ; it deals with him as a social being, and
impels him continually on the road to civilisation.
But more still, it helps to develop his moral being,
and guides his spiritual appetites towards God.
Indeed, it is not too much to say, as we study the
laws of food in relation to man, that the condition,
that every one must eat to live, was imposed by God
as a means of preparing man for the great gift of
eternal life, and the joys of union with God in
Heaven. Let us briefly examine some of these
laws.

Food teaches man that he is dependent ; depen-
dent upon his fellow-man, and still more upon God.
It absolutely contradicts and forbids the dream of
independence which is so dear to man's pride. Man
cannot live without food for one day, without
beginning to suffer the pangs of hunger ; he cannot
live thus for one week, without endangering his life ;
and to obtain the food he eats he is dependent on
others — on those who employ him, and so furnish
him with the means of purchasing food, and on those
who work for him, and so provide him with the food

he purchases. Left alone in his primeval condition,
man doubtless procured food for himself; but now
he has become quite dependent upon his fellow-men.
And still more is he dependent upon God, Who
gives or withholds the rain and the sunshine, upon
which the blessings of harvest depend.

Again, food teaches man the necessity of labour ;
he must work if he is to eat ; and, if, by the
accident of wealth, he is dispensed from the need
of actually working himself, his very wealth repre-
sents the accumulation of the work of others.
Without labour man cannot eat, and therefore
cannot live.

At this point we may notice the effect of food
upon man's mental development ; for all labour-
savinsf devices which are the result of man's
intellectual ingenuity can be ultimately traced back
to expedients for producing more easily the
necessities of life, which may be summed up under
the head of food.

But we may also notice the influence of food in
the social sphere. The common meal becomes the
symbol of union, and binds man to his fellow-man in
the ties of aUiance and friendship. And when the
meal partakes of a religious character, it is the
means of man's union with God — looked upon as
a sacrifice, it removes the obstacles to union with

'^ ^econb Sy^bdg in &enf>

God caused by sin ; and, regarded as a Sacrament, it
becomes the instrument by which man is brought
into closest communion with God.

These are but a few of the lines along which
we may trace the work food accomplishes in making
man what God would have him to be ; and all these
lines meet in the Person and work of Jesus Christ,
Who is the Bread of life and the Food of man.
Food taught man the law of dependence upon his
fellow-man and upon God. And surely this was
the great lesson of the life of Jesus Christ, Who
said, ^' My meat is to do the will of Him that
sent Me, and to accomplish His work;"* Who
taught absolute dependence upon God, and also
enjoined subjection to those in authority in this
world. The dream of independence finds no support
in our Lord's teaching ; on the contrary, its keynote
is, " Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased ;
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."t

Food taught man the necessity of labour ; and
the Son of God came into the world as a labouring
Man, rising early, and late taking rest, saying, " I
must work the works of Him that sent Me, while
it is day : the night cometh, when no man can
work."t

Food, too, had its effect upon man as a social

* S. John iv. 34. t S. Luke xiv. 1 1. J S. John ix. 4.

being, becoming the bond of union with his fellow-
man, and the instrument of sacrifice and communion
with God. And our Lord Jesus Christ, above all,
came to teach men that they are brethren, to
bind them together in the bonds of love. And
further, He came to be the Sacrifice Which should
take away the sin of the world, and should make
God and man at one. And in the Sacrament of
the Eucharist He not only becomes the Food of
man's soul, but the Means by which man is united
to God.

All the laws, therefore, of food seem to have
prepared the human race for this great revelation
of God in Jesus Christ, that He is the Life of man,
and that this Life is imparted to man by feeding
upon His flesh.

^econb ^aturbctg in £enf.

S. PHILIP'S REQUEST.

S. John xiv. 7-11.

" If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also : and
from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto
Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto
him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
Me, Philip ? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ; and how
sayest thou then. Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in Me ? the words that I speak unto you
I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth
the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in
Me : or else believe Me for the very works' sake."

F ye had known Me, ye should have known
My Father also: from henceforth ye know
Him, and have seen Him."
Before we consider the application of this verse we
must notice the difference between the two verbs

^. (p^i(ip*B (Reciueet. ^

translated by " to know." " If ye had known Me "
(eyvcoKeiTe). The word used here means, to know a
thing by observation. It is as though our Lord had
said, If you had used your opportunities during the
three years which you have lived with Me, you would
have come to know Me from what you have seen and
heard of Me, in such a way that you would have
" known My Father also."

But here we have a different verb (rjbeire), which
signifies, to know a thing by reflection. There are
certain things which we come to know by the
exercise of our senses. There are others which
we know by reflection. Our Lord says : If ye had
come to know Me by observation during My life,
ye would have known, by reflection, My Father; for
ye would have seen Him manifested in Me.

This verse concludes our Lord's answer to the
question of S. Thomas. S. Thomas, however, is
silent, apparently because he desired to ponder over
and reflect upon Christ's words. But here S. Philip
takes up the conversation and asks, as though the
request had been suggested by what our Lord had
just said, " Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufiflceth
us."

S. Philip, in spiritual comprehension, seems to
have been the slowest and dullest among the
apostles ; for, while the objection of S. Thomas

^ ^econb ^dtutbcij in SLcnt.

is the objection of a thoughtful man, the request
of S. Phih'p is based upon a merely superficial
apprehension of our Lord's teaching. He takes
up our Lord's last words, "If ye had known Me,
ye should have known My Father also : and from
henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him,"
and says, " Lord, shew us the Father, and it suffices
us." Instead of spiritual sight, he asks for bodily
sight, not considering how impossible was his
request.

If we look back to the beginning of S. Phih'p's
spiritual life, we shall find the same characteristics
manifested. He was one of the first five disciples whom
Jesus called, as S. John records in the first chapter of
his Gospel. Of these five, two came to Christ of
their own volition or seeking ; two were brought to
Him by their friends. S. Philip stands alone among
the five as the one who had to be sought by Christ.
We read that, Jesus '' findeth Philip, and saith unto
him, Follow Me."* He has to be sought, and
found, and commanded to follow Him ; and then he
obeys. He had probably had the same teaching as
the others in the school of S. John Baptist ; so that,
like them, he was prepared to receive Christ ; and
having accepted His call, he brings his friend
Nathanael to our Lord.

* S. Jolin i. 43.

In his conversation with Nathanael we, however,
recognise the same dulness in the blunders which he
makes about Christ's Person. He says to Nathanael,
" We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law,
and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph."* Nathanael objects, " Can there
any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " The
prophets to whom Philip referred had foretold that
the Messiah should come from Bethlehem.

S. Philip makes two blunders. Our Lord was not,
in a true sense, Jesus of Nazareth ; and He was not
the Son of Joseph. It is true, that He dwelt at
Nazareth after His return from Egypt, and so was
often spoken of by the common people as " Jesus of
Nazareth."

But if Philip referred to the prophets, he ought to
have remembered that ^/ley spoke of One Who
should come from Bethlehem. And then, too, Jesus
was not the Son of Joseph ; He was the Son of
Mary, by the operation the Holy Ghost.

S. Philip is brought before us in the Gospels in
two other passages, which do not, however, throw
any special light upon his character. But the cir-
cumstances of his call, and of his bringing his
friend Nathanael to Christ, suggest very much the
type of spiritual character which is manifested in

* S. John i. 45,

^ ^econb ^aturbag in SLtnt

the request, " Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth

us."

S. PhiHp's difficulty is not unbelief, so much as
spiritual dulness ; for the very request, " Shew us the
Father," implies the belief that Christ could show
them the Father ; but also exposes his want of
spiritual preception in supposing that the Father
could be seen with bodily eyes.

Our Blessed Lord's reply is full of deepest pathos
and reproach, " Have I been so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?" Here
the word " to know " is to know by observation.
Have you witnessed My life so long, and learned
nothing from it ? Have you listened to My words so
often, and forgotten what they taught ? "I and the
Father are one." '* The Father is in Me, and I in
Him."* " He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father ; " not because he hath seen the Father in
His absolute Being, but because he hath seen God
revealed in the Fatherly relation, revealed as
Father ; for in Christ, as S. Paul tells us in the
Epistle to the Colossians, "dwellcth all the plentitude
of the Godhead bodilywise."t

In this reproach of our Lord to S. Philip we have
a most important spiritual distinction brought before
us, perhaps the most important in the whole spiritual

* S. John X, 30 ; 38, f Col. ii. 9.

^. (p^idf'B (Request. ^

life — the difference between knowing Christ, and
knowing about Christ. S. Philip had followed our
Lord for some three years. He knew a great deal
about Him ; he knew what He had said ; He knew
what He had done — the works of wonder, the words
of love; but, somehow, he had not come to know
Christ.

There are many Christians who really desire to
serve Christ faithfully, who, either from spiritual
dulness, or from some other cause, are very much
like S. Philip. They know a great deal about God ;
they have read the Gospels through again and again ;
they have read many books on our Lord's life ; they
have heard sermons, and lectures, and meditations.
And in these various ways they have come to amass
a great deal of information about Christ. They
could answer almost any question which could be
asked them in regard to our Lord's history. But
they do not know Christ in the intimate knowledge
of spiritual communion with Him; they do not know
Him in the intimacy of spiritual friendship.

It sometimes happens that we have read a great
deal about some great man, one of the world's
heroes, who happens to be contemporary with us.
We have read, perhaps, a great many biographies
of this man ; and we have formed our own mental
picture of the man and of his character. We think

^ ^econb ^aturbag in &ent,

we know him. But some day it comes to pass that
we are introduced to him, and come to know him as
a friend. And very often we find that all our
conceptions of him are wrong. He is not a bit
like what we thought he was.

So it is with Christ. Knowing a3out Christ, and
knowing Christ, are very different things. We come
to know about Christ by reading about Him. We
come to know Him, chiefly in meditation, in prayer,
and in communion. You get to know a man, not by
reading about him, but by talking to him. An
hour's conversation reveals more to you of the man,
than reading many books about him.

So you get to know Christ through prayer,
especially mental prayer, or meditation. And I
suppose it is on this account, on account of its
immense value, that Satan tries to discourage people
so much in regard to meditation. He tries to make
them satisfied with knowing about God, with reading
books which are interesting, instead of going through
the hard work of speaking to God in meditation,
listening for His Voice ; and so coming to know
Him through personal intercourse.

Let us prayerfully consider Christ's reproach to S.
Philip, and ask ourselves whether it applies to us —
" Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast
thou not known Me, Philip ? " How many years is

it since we gave ourselves to Christ ? Can we say,
humbly but sincerely, that we have learned to know
Him as the Lord of our Life, as our Master, and as
our Friend ?

^econb Otonbag in &cnt.

CHRIST'S ANSWER TO S. PHILIP,

S. John xiv. 10-14.

" Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me ?
the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself: but the
Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. BeHeve Me that I
am in the Father, and the Father in Me : or else believe Me for the
very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth
on Me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works
than these shall He do ; because I go unto My Father. And
whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father
may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I
will do it."

F we examine our Lord's answer, we find it
falls very clearly into three divisions : first,
there is the reproach, " Have I been so
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
Me, Philip? "then there is the dogmatic statement,

e^rtefB Answer to ^. (p^tftp. ^

" He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ; " and
finally, an indication of the lines of evidence which
should have led S. Philip to a clearer apprehension
of our Lord's person and teaching. Let us turn our
attention to this last part of Christ's answer.

The difficulties which are brought before our Lord
by different persons on different occasions, ought to
be of special interest to us, inasmuch as they often
call our attention to great principles which are in
danger of being overlooked. Christ seldom meets a
difficulty by a categorical yes or no ; but if His
answer sometimes seems less direct, it is because it
is more exhaustive, because our Lord answers not
merely the verbal question, but unfolds principles
which are involved in it.

In the case under our consideration Christ appeals
to evidence of two kinds — objective and subjective.
First, He points out that both His words and His
works bear witness to His relation to the Father,
and to His intimate communion with Him. He
says, " Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in Me? The words that I speak
unto you, I speak not of Myself: but the Father that
dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me
that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me : or
else believe Me for the very works' sake."

Here He appeals to the objective evidence of His
words and works. And He reminds S. Philip that

8i G

^ ^econb (gtonbdg in £enf.

He had often called their attention to the fact that
neither His words nor His works were self-originated;
that both alike proceeded from His relation to the
Father. For instance, He had said, " My doctrine is
not Mine, but His that sent Me ; "* and, " I have not
spoken of Myself ; but the Father Which sent Me,
He gave Me a commandment, what I should say,
and what I should speak."t

Then, in regard to His works. He had said,
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father
do : for what things soever He doeth, these also
doeth the Son likewise.''^ And in reference to both
words and works, Christ had said, " When ye have
lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I
am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My
Father hath taught Me, I speak these things. And
He that sent Me is with Me : the Father hath not
left Me alone ; for I do always those things that
please Him."§

With these aids from Christ's own words, the
Apostles ought to have been able to draw the
inference of His relation to the Father, and of the
fact that He in His own Person manifested to them
the Father; as He said to S. Thomas, *' If 3/c had

* S. John vii. 16. f S, John xii. 49. | S. John v. 19,

§ S. John viii. 28, 29.

Cgrjgfg ^mmx to g, (pgtfty> ^

known Me, ye should have known My Father also
from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him."*

The same dogmatic statement which He makes
in these words they could have reached themselves,
if they had known Him as they ought to have known
Him. His gracious words and wonderful works
themselves bore witness of His communion with the
Father.

To use an imperfect illustration, we are told of
the Apostles S. Peter and S. John, who were ignorant
and unlearned men, that when they were brought
before the authorities of the Jewish Church, "they
took knowledge of them, that they had been with
Jesus."t That is to say, the Jewish authorities
explained the marvellous power of their preaching,
and the miracle which they had wrought in the Name
of Jesus, by the fact that they had been with Jesus.
They drew this inference from their words and
actions, which would otherwise have been incom-
prehensible in unlettered and ignorant men ; they
saw that they were the effects of their communion
with Christ.

So in the passage we are considering, though in a
much higher sense, our Lord points to His own
words and works as proving His communion with
His Father, and as proving His Father's witness to

* S. John xiv. 7. f Acts iv. 13.

^ ^econb (tttonbag in S^cni,

Him. He says, " Believe Me that I am in the
Father, and the P'ather in Me : or else believe Me
for the very works' sake." " Believe Me," He says ;
that is, have faith in Me, on account of My teaching ;
for I have taught you that I am in the Father, and
the Father in Me. But if you have not this faith, at
least use your reason, and from the divinity of My
works deduce the necessary divinity of My nature.
Believe Me, because you know Me. Or, if you do
not, use your intellect and ask yourselves, could any
mere man have uttered the words ; have done the
miracles, that I have done?

Then our Lord passes from the objective evidence
of his words and works to certain subjective evidence
which was not at that time in their possession, but
which He promises soon shall be theirs. He says,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believeth on
Me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and
greater works than these shall he do ; because I go
unto the Father."

Christ turns from the objective manifestation of
God — that is, His manifestation outside of themselves
by teaching and miracles — to the subjective manifes-
tation of God, the manifestation of God which they
shall experience in their own souls, in the exercise
of new powers to be committed to them. They had
wondered at His gracious words, which reached the

C^rjgfg (^ngn^er to g. (P^iftp> ^

hearts and swayed the minds of the multitude.
They had marvelled at His miracles of healing the
sick and raising the dead. And He tells them, as an
evidence of the truth of His mission, that they shall
do greater works than these. And we know His
promise was fulfilled. After Pentecost, their
preaching did reach men's souls, and through the
Name of their Master they were able to heal the
sick and to raise the dead.

But in what sense were their works to be greater
than their Master's? Not greater in kind, but
greater in scope. The number of disciples who were
gathered together in the upper chamber at Jerusalem
after Christ's Ascension, as a result of His three
years' preaching, was only some hundred and twenty;
but the effect of S. Peter's sermon on the Day of
Pentecost is seen in the gathering into the Church
of about three thousand souls ! And the marvel of
Christianity at its birth was its missionary power.
In less than a generation it had spread almost
throughout the then civilised world.

Our Lord has appealed to His works as an
objective evidence of the truth of His mission, and
now announces that the believer shall find in himself
a subjective proof of its truth in the experience of a
new power, greater even than that which His Master
had manifested — the power of converting the world

'O^ ^econb (Ulonbag in &tni.

to Christ. And this was to follow as the result of
His departure to His Father ; for our Lord says,
" Greater works than these shall he do ; because I go
unto the Father."

But here we may ask in what sense, precisely,
these greater gifts to the Church were to be the
result of Christ's going to His Father. He tells us —
because He would send the Holy Ghost the
Comforter ; and because He would begin His work
of intercession at the right hand of the Father.

Of the mission of the Holy Ghost He treats fully
in the rest of His discourse. But first He refers to
the effects of His intercession in the new power
which should be attached to the prayer of the
Christian. This we may consider more fully in the
next section.

XII.

^econb Cueebag in &tnt.

THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER,

S. John xiv. 13, 14.

*' Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My
name, I will do it."

N these words our Lord reveals the instru-
ment by which His disciples are to do
greater works than those which they had
seen Him do. The instrument is prayer ; not,
however, mere prayer, but prayer in the Name,
and therefore through the power, of Jesus Christ.
All can pray to God as their Creator. The heathen
can thus pray, and their prayers are heard. But the
Christian prays, not merely to God as his Creator,
but to God as his Father — his Father, because he is

an adopted son of God, adopted through incorpora-
tion into Christ, a member of Christ, therefore a son
of God. So he is taught to pray, "Our Father,
Which art in heaven." Moreover, he can plead not
only with God as a Father, but he can plead the
merits, the infinite merits, of his great Elder Brother,
the Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer with a Christian is something very different
from prayer with a heathen. It is the prayer, not
merely of the creature to his Creator, not only of a
son to his Father ; but prayer made in the Name and
through the merits of Jesus Christ, Who sitteth at
the right hand of the Father, and adds to our prayer
the plea of His merits, the power of His all-prevailing
intercession.

In these discourses our Lord returns many times
to the subject of prayer. But if we examine His
words at this point we may pass over, with but a
brief notice, the other references to it First, we may
observe in this passage the scope of prayer — " What-
soever ye shall ask in My Name ; " how enormous !
"Whatsoever!" You will say the scope is unlimited.
But no ; it is limited by the purpose of prayer —
" Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
All prayer must have as its end the glorification of
God through Jesus Christ. This, therefore, shuts out

t^t (porocx of C^rtgtian (praget> ^

those things which are not for God's glory, and
therefore not for our own real good.

" Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name," that has
God's glory as its end, " that will I do." People are
often puzzled to know what they ought to pray for ;
sometimes, what they ought no^ to pray for. In
regard to prayer, we may divide all things into three
classes :

First, there are those things which we know are for
God's glory and in accordance with God's Will ;
such, for instance, as all things which pertain to our
spiritual growth and sanctification. For these we
may pray, with the absolute certainty that they will
be granted. For it is revealed to us that, "This is
the Will of God, even your sanctification."* Every-
thing connected with our spiritual life, with our
growth in goodness, we can pray for without doubt.
We know that God wills to give it to us, desires that
we should pray for it. We have the assurance of
Christ's own promise that our prayer will be granted,
if we do not put an obstacle in the way by our sins.

Then, secondly, there is that large class of things
about which we are quite sure that they are not for
God's glory, not for our own good ; as, for instance,
when we want to have our own way, knowing that it
is not the right way ; when we desire success in some

* I Thess. iv. 3.

'^^ ^cconb ^ueebag in SLCnt

undertaking, which is not right or honest. These
things are excluded entirely from the scope of
Christian prayer ; for they are not for God's glory.

Between these two divisions lies a third — that
large class of things about which we are not sure
whether they are according to God's Will or not ;
success, for instance, in our undertakings in this
world ; the restoration of health when we are sick ;
the acquisition of wealth in business ; and many
other things which may or may not be for God's
glory and our own good. For these, therefore, we
are to pray, with the proviso, " Not my will, but
Thine, be done." We can pray to God to bless our
undertakings in the world, the work we do, if we add,
" Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." We
can ask Him to restore us to health when we are
sick, if we are sure that we are entirely resigned to
His Will, believing that He knows what is best for
us ; and therefore leaving ourselves in His hands,
to suffer or to get well, as He deems best for
us.

We learn, then, from this passage, first, the scope
of Christian prayer — " Whatsoever ye shall ask in
My Name ; " secondly, its purpose — " that the Father
may be glorified in the Son ; " and thirdly, what is,
perhaps, most important of all, we are taught the
channel of Christian prayer — " in My Name." That

€^c (porotv of C^ttgftan (prager^ ^^

means, through My Person and character, through
the merits of My Passion, through the power of My
intercession ; for the channel of Christian prayer is
the merits of Christ. Therefore, we finish our
prayers with the words, " through Jesus Christ."

It is in this that Christian prayer differs from all
other prayer — that it pleads the Name which is
above every name, the Name of Jesus ! Others may
base their prayers upon God's mercy, or upon His love.
The Christian adds to this the all-prevailing plea of
Christ's own promise, " Whatsoever ye shall ask in
My Name, that will I do." This plea is infinite in
its power, as the merits of Christ are infinite.

We plead, by all that Christ did for us, all that He
suffered for us ; " By the mystery of Thy Holy
Incarnation ; by Thy Holy Nativity and Circum-
cision ; by Thy Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation,
Good Lord, deliver us. By Thine Agony and Bloody
Sweat ; by Thy Cross and Passion ; by Thy precious
Death and Burial ; by Thy glorious Resurrection and
Ascension ; and by the Coming of the Holy Ghost,
Good Lord, deliver us."

And more still — not only by all that He did for us,
all that He suffered for us upon earth, we plead what
He is now doing for us in heaven — His continual
intercession at the right hand of the Father, where
He ever liveth to make intercession for us. The

-^^ ^econb ZncQ^dT^ in £enf.

Christian's prayer is of all-prevailing power ; because
it flows through the channel of Christ's merits, it
is made in the Name of Christ's Person.

In the sixteenth chapter our Lord repeats this
promise — "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatso-
ever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will
give it you." But there He adds, " Hitherto have ye
asked nothing in My Name : ask, and ye shall
receive, that your joy may be fulfilled."*

You will observe that Christ Himself draws atten-
tion to the fact of the difference between Christian
prayer and other prayer. He says, " Hitherto have
ye asked nothing tn My Name." The disciples had
prayed ; they had asked, and had obtained, doubtless,
many things from God ; but they had never used the
all-prevailing plea, the Name of Christ Henceforth
their joy was to be fulfilled in prayer ; for they were
to pray with an assurance based upon Christ's own
words, '' Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My
Name, He will give it you."

We must not, however, forget that, while Christ is
the Channel of Prayer, the Holy Ghost is the Agent
of Prayer. Prayer — Christian prayer, at least — is
His work in the soul ; as S. Paul teaches us, " The
Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for we know not
what we should pray for as we ought : but the Spirit

* S. Jolin xvi. 23, 24.
92

€^c (power of C^ttBttdn (ftr<xger> ^

Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered."*

You will observe that S. Paul points out three
ways in which the Holy Spirit is to help us in our
prayers. He is to help us in the matter of prayer, to
teach us what we should pray for. He is to help us
in the manner of our prayer, to teach us to pray as
we ought ; to teach us how to pray. And then
again, He is to make " intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered." Our Lord
Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father in
heaven intercedes for us ; and the Holy Ghost in our
own soul, acting upon our spirit, with aspirations,
and desires, and sighs, and groanings, which cannot
find words to express themselves, intercedes also.

But here we must leave this inexhaustible subject,
striving to learn from Christ's own words some
simple lessons in regard to the supreme duty of
prayer.

* Rom. viii, 26.

XIII.

2^^tri) T3?ebne6bag in SLCni,

LOVE.

S. John xiv. 15.
"If ye love Me, keep My commandments.'

HE thought of love follows the thought of
faith. In our last meditation we saw
that faith by the agency of prayer can
work even greater things than those which Christ
did upon earth. Here we are taught that love
issues in works of devotion especially manifested
in an obedience which shows itself in loving self-
sacrifice.

Our translation has " keep my commandments,"
but in the best manuscripts the verb is in the future,
not in the imperative : it is rr/pjyo-T/re not TTjpTja-are —
If ye love Mc, ye will keep My commandments.

And this indeed is required by the relation of
obedience to love. As our Lord implies, obedience
is the necessary consequence of love. It is
unnecessary to say, "If ye love Me, keep My
commandments ; " for if you love, you will obey.
And this is what our Lord is pointing out in this
passage that obedience is the proof of perfect love,
and therefore that disobedience is an evidence of
the imperfection of love. For it is absolutely
impossible to love God and wilfully to disobey
His commandments.

We may also notice that in the original the
word translated " My" {ra^ evroXas ras (fias) is emphatic.
Indeed, we might render the passage, " ye will keep
the commandments, which are in a special sense
Mine." Our Lord is evidently referring to the
Gospel, since the commandments given therein
are especially His, in that they are characteristic
of His teaching which love will lead us to carry
out with scrupulous fidelity.

Love is the " antiphon " of these discourses.
We find it enjoined in no less than seven
distinct passages. In four, it is love directed
towards God and associated with obedience,* as
in the verse under our consideration ; and in
three it is love directed especially towards our

* S. John xiv. 15, 21, 23 ; xv. 9.

^ 2;^trb TJJebneebag in £ent.

neighbour."^' In this verse obedience is set forth
as the consequence of love. "If ye love Me, ye will
keep My commandments." And similarly in verse
23, " If a man love Me, he will keep My words."
In verse 21, it is adduced as the evidence of love:
" He that hath My commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth Me." In the next
chapter, verse 9, obedience is shown to be the
preservative of love : "If ye keep My command-
ments, ye shall abide in My love."

In all these passages it is love towards God of
which Christ is speaking. In the other three
instances in these discourses in which our Lord
enjoins love it is the fruit of love towards God
manifested in love towards our neighbour ; and
in two of them our Lord proposes, as the model
of that love which He commands us to show
towards our neighbour, nothing less than His
own wondrous love towards us. " A new com-
mandment I give unto you. That ye love one
another; as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another." And again, "This is My command-
ment, That ye love one another, as I have loved
you ; " and here He adds, " Greater love hath no
man than this that a man lay down his life for
his friends," thus adducing the supreme act of

* S. John xiii. 34 ; xv. 12, 17.

love by which He redeemed the world as the
pattern of that love which we should show to
one another.

Our Lord Jesus Christ would therefore teach
us that love is the true motive of all Christian
life and of Christian obedience. It is the force,
the principle, which is to regenerate the world
by conquering sin. There are really only two
great moral forces working in this world — the
force of sin and the force of love. We can trace
them from the very beginning making their way
down the great stream of human history. We
find them everywhere present, always in conflict
and meeting for their supreme effort in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There we learn what, perhaps, we should not
have found out by our own observation, that the
force of love is stronger than that of sin. As we
look upon this world, marred and ruined by sin,
we might be led to suppose that sin was stronger
than love, because it seems to be so much more
universal, and so much more certain in its effects.
Everywhere we see the marks of sin ; not only
in the prisons, and hospitals, and asylums, in
which sin's victims are restrained or ministered to,
but in almost every home, in almost every life,
not only is sin present, but present to wreck all

97 H

^ 2^^irb TJ?ebne6i)dg in &eni

that is fairest, all that is truest, all that is best in
man.

U we regard the world as a great battle-field
in which the forces of sin and love are in ceaseless
conflict, it would seem to the superficial observer
that sin carried the warfare into every part of
love's country, making prisoners everywhere. We
see homes in which love reigns, homes of peace
and happiness, but after a while sin finds entrance
there, peace departs, happiness dies, the home is
wrecked. This is the dark side of the picture,
and it is true that the power of sin is enormous,
that its captives are drawn from every class.

But is there not another side to the picture — a
brighter one ? We see bands of devoted men and
women going down into the slums of our great
cities to wage a hand-to-hand battle with sin.
What is the motive that sends them there ?
What is the force which gives them courage to
meet the foe, to persevere through long years in
their work, to endure all sorts of hardships and
ingratitude. The motive, the force is love ! And
if we see sin entering the homes of love and
carrying off as prisoners those who dwell therein,
we also behold the servants of love rescuing sin's
prisoners, even those who have fallen most under
its degrading power, and bringin;^ them back in
triumph to the obedience of love.

£ot?e» -"^

Again, we behold men and women leaving
not only their homes but their country, taking
their lives in their hands and going as missionaries
to the heathen, meeting the dangers of exposure,
disease, and the violence and treachery of those
under the dominion of false religions, who, under
the influence of their native savagery, stop at no
cruelty in their efforts to destroy missionaries
bringing them the gospel of peace.

Again, we ask, what is the spirit which inspires
these missionaries ? What is the motive which
leads them to abandon the comforts of civilisation,
to face the dangers and difficulties of missionary
work ? What is the force which supports them
through many years under the disappointments
of almost fruitless effort. It is the love of souls
which flows from the love of God. It is the
carrying out of our Lord's command, '' That ye
love one another, as I have loved you."

There is, however, another way in which we
may estimate the relative strength of these forces
of sin and love. It is by tracing them each to
their source, to their origin. If we do this we
shall find that sin has its origin in the devil ; it
is diaboHcal in its very nature and source. But
love, on the other hand, has its origin in God,
since " God is Love ; " so that its source and

^ ^^irb TJJeinecbag in £enf.

nature is divine. Sin is a tremendous force, and
its author is a creature of enormous power, but
not almighty, not infinite. Love, on the other
hand, is of God, and God is ahnighty, God is
infinite, God is supreme. So that if we trace the
two forces to their origin, we shall be saved the
mistake, so natural to one who simply observes
them in their conflict around us — the mistake
of thinking that sin is more powerful than love.

Again, we may investigate the relative power
of these two forces, not only in a thousand petty
engagements in the world about us to-day, but in
their supreme effort, in their great duel on Calvary.
There we see all the forces of sin marshalled and
directed by their leader, Satan, in the attempt to
crush out, in the Person of Jesus Christ, supreme
goodness and supreme love. And what is the
result? Sin can point to the dead Body of Jesus
Christ hanging upon the cross, and can say, " See
what I have done. I have killed the only perfect
and sinless man. He came to set free from my
power the human race. He came to redeem my
slaves. He taught the Gospel of love. He lived
a life of love, and now it is all over. There He
hangs upon the cross, dead, killed by those
whom He came to save. And it was I who
incited them to do the deed, incited them to

lOO

£oioe. ^

murder Him Who desired to be their Deliverer.
Can you doubt my power? Which is stronger,
sin or love ? "

It is true that the Passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ, His death upon the cross, is a witness to
the power and malice of sin ; but it is also a
witness to the power of love. For the Christian
beholding Christ upon the cross can reply to the
challenge of the evil one, " Great is your power,
but in compassing the death of Christ, you over-
reached yourself, and your power was shattered
in the very act by which you thought you had
gained the victory."

There is another point of view from which the
death of Christ may be regarded. It is a
manifestation of the greatness of love : " Greater
love hath no man than this. That a man lay
down his life for his friends." It was love that
led the Son of God to become Incarnate, to
endure all the ills which this sinful world could
inflict upon him. It was love which took Him
through the length and breadth of the land,
healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the
hungry, teaching the ignorant. It was love which
led Him to accept the return which an ungrateful
world rendered Him for all these benefits. It
was love which made Him willing to suffer and to
die for man. loi

-o^ ^^trb n3?ebnegbag in &enf.

All the cruelty, all the humiliations of the
Passion, were but opportunities for manifesting
the greatness of His love. The wounds which
were inflicted upon the sacred Body of Jesus by
the Roman scourges, were but so many gaping
lips eloquent with the language of love. " Behold,
and see if there be any sorrow like unto My
sorrow," says the prophet, speaking in the Person
of Christ, and from the greatness of My sorrow
learn the greatness of My love.

It was love which led Him to sufl"er, not only
the ignominies and cruelties of the Passion, but
to die. " Greater love hath no man than this,
That a man lay down his life for his friends." But
love is stronger than death, and on the third day,
Love arose triumphant from the dead. After
forty days, Love ascended into heaven to reign
there in His own Kingdom, and on earth still to
sway by His Divine power the hearts and minds
of His subjects. Sin could inflict death ; but
Jesus passed through the grave and gate of death
and rose again, and " death hath now no more
dominion over Him."

So it is now in tliis world, so will it always be
while this world shall last, sin may persecute,
may scourge, may crucify, may kill the body ;
but there is a world beyond, a kingdom of love

102

in which sin shall be no more. And those who
have been subjects of Jesus Christ in this life will
bear witness through all eternity to the power of
His love, that it was stronger than sin, stronger
than death ; that by it, that is, by letting it rule
their lives, they conquer sin. " If ye love Me, ye
will keep My commandments," said our Lord
to His disciples, and " This is My commandment,
That ye love one another, as I have loved you."
If we keep these commandments we shall be
doing Christ's work in this world, helping to
redeem the world from sin, for Love is the
regenerative force of Christian life.

103

XIV.

Z^ixt ^^utfibcig in &cni.

THE COMFORTER.

S, John xiv. i6.

"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever."

EFORE we consider the teaching in this
verse, it will be worth our while to notice
the word which is translated, or mis-trans-
lated, " pray." It should be, " I will ask the Father,"
not ''pray the Father." Prayer implies the entire
subordination of the suppliant, and the immeasurable
superiority of Him to Whom prayer is directed.
But this is not the case with our Lord's prayers,
and so wc find in the original a word used here
which is never used of our prayers to God. The
verb here is epcorau^ and it is used in regard to prayer,

104

€^t Comforter. -«•

only of petitions addressed to God by our Blessed
Lord Himself. Wherever the prayers of the disciples
are spoken of another word (itVeTv) is used. The
word epcorai/, to ask, implies some sort of fellowship
or equality between the person who asks and Him
to Whom the request is addressed.

We find this word used in the Synoptic Gospels
where the disciples ask our Lord to do things
for them in the spirit of fellowship, not of prayer.
But wherever the word is used of prayer in the
Gospels, it is used only in regard to our Lord's
prayers to His Father. He asks, not as we ask,
realising our inferiority. He asks with a sense of
divine fellowship, so He says, " I will ask the Father,
and He shall give you another Comforter." You
will notice that there is no sense of uncertainty
as to whether the prayer will be granted. Christ
says, I will ask, and the Father will give.

" I will ask the Father, and He will give you
another Comforter." This title of the Holy Ghost
occurs only in these discourses. We find it first
in this verse, afterwards in the twenty-sixth verse
of this chapter, in the twenty-sixth verse of the
next chapter, and in the seventh verse of the
sixteenth chapter. The word is only used in one
other passage in the New Testament, and there
it refers to our Lord Himself For in his first

105

^ Z^ix'b 2^^ur6bag in &enf.

Epistle, S. John says, " And if any man sin we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous ; and He is the propitiation for our
sins. *

Beautiful as the title " Comforter " is, and truly
as it represents one great aspect of the work of the
Holy Ghost, it is difficult to see how it can be
regarded as a translation of the Greek irapdKKrjTos in
these passages, since the Greek word can only be
passive, while the word Comforter is active in its
signification. If we take the word Paraclete to
pieces we find it is compounded of two words, Trapd
and kKtjtos, and that it means literally one who is
called to your side to help you in some emergency or
difficulty. The word Trapd/cXj^ro? is a forensic term, a
legal term, generally applied to the advocate for the
defence in a lawsuit, and thus it perfectly brings
before us what the Holy Ghost is — a Divine Person,
Who is called to our side to help us, to plead for us.
As S. Paul says, *' The Spirit Itself maketh inter-
cession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered. "-f The translation in S. John's Epistle,
" the Advocate," is an accurate representation of
the Greek, which "Comforter" is not.

Our Lord says, " I will ask the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter." Wc may notice

* I S. John ii. i. f Rom. viii. 26.

106

t^e Comforter. ^

the word " another/' which implies that they had
already had one Comforter, our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, and this S. John shows in the passage we
have just quoted, where he says, "If any man sin we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous." Their Comforter, their Advocate, Christ,
was about to depart, and He promises that another
Comforter, another Advocate, should take His place,
and by His operation bring back to them, under a
new and more intimate relationship, their Lord and
Master. For Christ goes on to say, " I will not
leave you orphans or comfortless : I will come to
you."

Since the title "' The Comforter " brings before
us a very important aspect of the work of the
Holy Ghost in our souls, it may be well for us
to dwell for a moment on the character of the
comfort which he ministers. " Comforter," which is
a Latin word, really means the strengthener, one
who, by his words, encourages another, arousing
in him the spirit of bravery or courage. We
often use the word comfort in such a different
sense that it is well to notice its true significance.
We speak of the comforts of life or of home,
even meaning its luxuries. But luxuries have
an enervating rather than a stimulating effect
upon us, whereas the derivation of the word

107

-^ ^gtrb ^^urgbag in &ent>

** comfort," signifies that which strengthens us,
not that which enervates us.

The Holy Ghost ministers to us in our sorrows,
bringing to us consolations of grace, and He
does this chiefly in three ways : —

First, He enlightens our intellect, enabling us
to see the true end and purpose of sorrow and
adversity, that by it God's Will is fulfilled in us,
and that through adversity the various faculties
of the soul are developed and character is
moulded and formed for eternity. It was this
illumination of his intellect by the Holy Ghost,
v^hich enabled S. Paul to say, " Our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."*

Then again the Holy Spirit strengthens our
will by His grace, enabling us to endure our trials
with patience, and teaching us the blessedness of
this endurance according to the words of S. James,
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation;
for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown
of life, which the Lord hath promised to them
that love Him."f We must remember S. Paul's
words, that " God is faithful, Who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but
will with the temptation make the way to escape,

* I Cor. iv. 17. t •^- Jiinics i. 12,

108

€^e Comforter. ^

that ye may be able to bear it""*^ The way to
escape, of which he speaks, is evidently not escape
from the trial, but from failure under trial ; for
the purpose for which this way of escape is given
is that we may be able to bear the trial, that is,
that we may be strong to endure patiently
whatever testing God sends us. It is not getting
rid of difficulties which perfects us in Christian
life and character ; but patient endurance of them,
nay, even joyful endurance ; because we realise
the greatness of the work which they are intended
to effect in us. As S. James says, " Count it
all joy when ye fall into divers temptations ;
knowing this, that the trying of your faith
worketh patience. But let patience have her
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing."f

And, lastly, the Holy Ghost kindles our affec-
tions with love for God, so that we not merely
endure our adversities and bear our cross, because
we see that they are the means by which
character is formed, and the latent possibilities
of the soul developed ; but because we love and
trust God Who has sent them, and because we
desire to show that love by accepting with
trustful patience, whatever of affliction or adversity

* I Cor. X. 13. f St. James i. 2-4.

109

God wills us to bear. Thus the Christian endures
his sufferings, not in a mere spirit of stoical
courage, but with loving trustfulness, regarding
them not as a mark of God's displeasure, but
rather of God's love. For it is revealed, " Whom
the Lord loveth. He chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom He receiveth."* What true
consolation there is in the thought that the Holy
Spirit is always with us in our infirmities,
strengthening us to bear our trials, teaching us
to love the cross, encouraging us to persevere
under adversity, until it has done its work in us,
and God in His good providence removes it.

* Hebrews xii. 6.

IIO

XV.

e^trb f rtbag in &ent.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH.

S. John xiv. i6, 17.

"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever. Even the Spirit of
Truth ; Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not,
neither knoweth Him : but ye know Him ; for He dwelleth with you,
and shall be in you."

HE second title by which our Blessed
Lord describes the Holy Ghost in this
passage is " The Spirit of Truth," and
this title implies the distinct personality and true
divinity of the Holy Ghost.

" The Spirit of Truth." What does this mean ?
The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ, Who is
the Truth, and He is to guide Christ's children
into all truth, as we are told in the next chapter.*

* S. John XV. 26.
Ill

-^ tf^iti Sribag in &eni

All truth is contained in the " deposit " of the
Day of Pentecost. This was given to the Church
at Pentecost potentially, and is the deposit over which
S. Paul exhorts S. Timothy to keep guard.* And
this deposit was '' the faith once for all delivered
unto the saints," for which S. Jude, in his Epistle,
exhorts us earnestly to contend.j- While we must
realise the perfection of this Pentecostal gift, that
it contained in the germ all truth ; so that there
can be no new doctrines of the faith, we must
also remember that it is the office of the Holy
Ghost to unfold this truth according to the needs
of different ages.

This unfolding, or development of the truth, is
the special function of the Holy Ghost as the
Spirit of Truth. Thus He supplies the wants of
every age, bringing home to the mind of the
Church truth which was contained in the revela-
tion of Pentecost, truth which is enshrined in the
words of Holy Scripture, but which has often
remained unnoticed or imperfectly comprehended by
the Church, until some need for it has arisen. Then
the Holy Ghost has supplied that need by showing
to the Church, not new truth, but some aspect of
the original deposit which met the exigencies of
the times. This, which we may see again and

* Cf. \ S. Timothy vi. 20. f Cf. S. Jude 3.

112

e^e ^pitit of ttut^. ^

again in Church history, is our assurance, that in
all the difficulties of future ages, the Spirit of
Truth will preserve the Church from error, and
unfolding the Pentecostal revelation more and more,
will guide the Church to the comprehension of all
necessary truth.

There are many doctrines of the Church which
illustrate this work of the Spirit of Truth.
Doctrines, which were implicitly contained in the
original deposit, of the faith, but which were not
explicitly defined until need for them arose in the
Church. Such, for instance, are the doctrines of the
Holy Trinity, and of the Incarnation of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

These are contained in Holy Scripture. They
were implicitly held by the Apostolic Church.
And yet we find that writers of the second and
third centuries treat of them vaguely, and some-
times even inaccurately. But, when in the fourth
and fifth centuries heretics arose who denied these
doctrines, then the Church, under the guidance of
the Holy Ghost in her ecumenical councils, defined
accurately what was the truth, and gave us the
Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, the former by
conciliar action, the latter by natural growth, but
both under the direct guidance of the Holy Ghost,
Who is the Spirit of Truth.

113 I

There are many other doctrines which have
been unfolded from time to time ; but we must
bear in mind that every doctrine in its full growth
is identical with the original revelation of the Day
of Pentecost. Some persons have thought on this
account that the doctrines of the Church have
changed, but we must remember that there is
a change which destroys, and a change which
perfects, the identity of things. For instance, all
growth is change, yet the oak of the forest has
perfect identity with the acorn from which it
sprang, and the change of ages, which has passed
upon it, perfects its identity by unfolding its
stateliness, and beauty, and strength. On the
other hand all decay is change. When the
branches of the oak droop, when the tree dies and
falls into the dust, this stage is corruption.

By this rule we may test the doctrines of the
Church in comparison with those of the heretics.
For instance, as we have shown, wc may trace
this growth in the expression of the doctrine of
the Holy Trinity from the Baptismal formula to
the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. This is
growth, but absolute identity. So we may follow
the doctrine of the Incarnation from the formula,
" The Word became Flesh,"* to the full definitions

* S, John i. 49.
114

t^t ^pixii of txui^. -^

of the ecumenical councils against Arians,
Apollinarians, Nestorians, and Eutychians. So,
too, with the doctrine of the Blessed Sacrament.
Here again we have growth but identity.

If we test the same doctrines among schismatics
and heretics, we find the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity represented by a series of heresies, from
Sabellius to Socinus, or we may trace the
progress of the perversion of the doctrine of the
Incarnation from Nestorius to Strauss, or of the
Holy Eucharist from Luther to Zwinglius. Here
is change indeed, but change in which identity is
lost. The oak has mouldered and fallen to the
ground.

That this is the teaching not of the Church
alone, but also of Holy Scripture, we shall see if
we read carefully the second chapter of the First
Epistle of S, John. " But ye have an unction
from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
I have not written unto you because ye know
not the truth, but because ye know it, and that
no lie is of the truth . . . But the anointing
which ye have received of Him abideth in you,
and ye need not that any man teach you : but as
the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and
is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught
you, ye shall abide in Him."*

* I S. John ii. 20, 21, and 27,

•^^^ g^irb f rtbag in feent.

In these words, S. John, writing to the Church
at the end of the first century, affirms :

(i) That it had already received the unction
of the Spirit of Truth, and that, therefore, its
members had no need to seek for knowledge
elsewhere, because this unction enabled them to
know all things ; for it was the unction of the
Holy Spirit.

(2) That they had no need of human teachers :
" Ye need not that any man teach you."

(3) That this unction was absolute truth, that
it is no lie ; that is, it is not mixed with any
falsehood, error, or doubt. This unction rested
first on our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, the
Head of the Church, and from Him descends
upon His Body which is the Church, and goes
" down to the skirts of His clothing," that is, to the
members who abide in the Church.

In regard to the character of the presence of
the Holy Spirit in the Church, our Lord in this
passage teaches us three things :

(i) " He shall abide with you for ever." Christ's
historical presence might at that time be measured
by hours, He was soon to leave them ; at the
longest, from the beginning of His ministry, it
was measured only by years. But the Holy
Ghost comes that He may abide with the Church

116

t^e ^ytrtt of trui^. «•»•

for ever. This is not a transient presence, but a
continual presence, preserving the Church from all
error, guiding her into all truth.

(2) It is, however, a presence which the world
cannot apprehend : *' Whom the world cannot
receive because it seeth Him not neither knoweth
Him." With the world, lack of the capacity of
sight made reception of the Holy Ghost impossible ;
with the disciples, on the other hand, His presence
brought knowledge which gave them greater power
of reception of the Holy Spirit. For Christ goes
on to say : " But ye know Him : for He dwelleth
with you and shall be in you."

We may ask how they had come to know the
Holy Ghost when this was apparently the first
time they had heard of Him. They had come
to know Him through Christ, for in Christ the
Spirit was always truly present, though not in
His characteristic manifestation ; just as Christ
now is ever present with His Church through
the operation of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine
of the Circumincession teaches us that where
any one Person of the Holy Trinity is, there
the Others are also. That whatever any one
Person of the Holy Trinity does the Others share
in that action. So the Holy Spirit was in Christ
when Christ was in the world, just as Christ is

117

'^§ ^^irb :§'ribag in kcnt.

present now through the operations of the Holy
Spirit.

(3) " Dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."
" Dwelleth with you " {nap' vfxiv fxevei) might be
nnore accurately rendered, " abideth by your side."
And in these words we have brought before us an
important theological doctrine. Before Pentecost
the Holy Ghost was abiding close to them, as it
were by their side, for He was the Spirit of Christ.
But there was no indwelling of the Holy Ghost
in man until Pentecost. We observe that our
Lord, speaking of the Holy Ghost, says to the
disciples, He abideth by your side (that is, before
Pentecost), but He adds, " And He shall be in
you," that is, in the near future, after Pentecost.

In the Old Testament the Holy Ghost was
God's Agent, as He is now ; but He worked in
a different way. " He spake by the Prophets "
the Creed tells us, but He did not dwell in them.
His action upon them and upon others was but
transient. Now in the Church and in the Christian
soul it is permanent ; there is an abiding presence.
He is given to us that He may abide with us for
ever.

118

XVI.

Z^ith ^aturbag in SLtni.

CHRISrS COMING THROUGH THE
HOLY GHOST.

S. John xiv. 18-20.

" I will not leave you comfortless : I will come to you. Yet a little
while, and the world seeth Me no more ; but ye see Me : because I
live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in My
Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My command-
ments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me : and he that loveth
Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest Myself to him. ' '

THIRD cause of consolation which our
Lord sets before His disciples in this
chapter is that after His departure, and
through the gift of the Holy Ghost, He Himself
will come to His disciples in a union more intimate
than the fellowship which they had enjoyed with
Him in His life on earth. He says, " I will not leave

119

i^ixi ^afurbdg in &cnt.

you comfortless : I will come to you." The word
translated "comfortless" (dpcpavovs) is really "orphans."
'• I will not leave you orphans." The very word
which describes their sorrow confirms their son-
ship. When He departs for a brief space they
will be like orphans. But even this shows their
true relation to Christ, that they are His children,
and He promises, " I will not leave you orphans :
I will come to you : " or as we should read
it, "I am coming to you," for the verb {^px^f^^O
is in the present tense, not in the future. " I am
continually coming to you and to the Church in
all the work of the Holy Ghost ; " for all the great
operations of the Holy Spirit in the Church are but
the energies of the living and reigning Lord Jesus
Christ, Who comes to us also as individuals through
the work of the Holy Ghost in our own .souls.

In how many ways does our Blessed Lord come to
us through the work of the Holy Ghost in us ? He
comes to us in the hour of prayer : we not only pray
in His Name, that is through His merits, but with
Him, in the realisation of His great intercession at
the right hand of the Father. He comes to us at the
time of meditation, when we are pondering upon the
words in the Holy Gospel, which depict some scene
in His life, or record His teaching. The sacred page
glows under the illumination of the Hcjly Ghost, and

120

C^rtefe Coming. ^^

the actions and utterances of our Lord come to us
with greater power probably than they exercised
over the Apostles who heard them, but had not
the Holy Spirit to bring them home to their
souls.

He comes to us at the moment of temptation to
help us by His grace to resist and to conquer — He
Who once " was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin."* He comes to us in the Holy
Communion to give us strength to bear the burdens
of life, to do the work to which we are called, to
guide us in our difficulties that we may not only
rejoice in our union with Him, but in the power of
His grace may fulfil God's purposes for us, meeting
with courage the obstacles which the world puts
in our way.

He comes to us in our joys to show His interest
in us. He comes to us in our sorrows to tell us
of His sympathy for us. He comes to us in the
days of sickness to teach us to bear with patience
the discipline of ill health, and to unite our little
sufferings to the great pains of His Passion.

Lastly, He comes to us in the hour of death to
strengthen us for the last great struggle. If David
could say, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for Thou art

* Heb. iv. 15.
121

with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me/"''
how much more can we make these words our own
as we pass through the valley of the shadow leaning
upon our Beloved. As He has come to us in all
the various vicissitudes of our life here, so He will
take us to be with Him in that glorious life hereafter,
where, if we have been faithful, we shall learn that
our light affliction in this world has worked for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory in
the world beyond, in heaven itself.

"Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no
more ; but ye see Me : because I live ye shall live
also." The world was to behold Him but a little
while longer, for its followers deprived themselves
of the power of seeing Him by their own act when
they crucified Him. But even while they still behold
Him, they only behold Him with that outward
vision which could see but His natural life. His
disciples, however, had another kind of vision, so
that, although His death was to remove Him from
their natural sight, it did not interfere with that
spiritual vision through which they received mani-
festations of Himself, and, indeed, after Pentecost
this power of spiritual vision, by which they received
revelations of Christ, was to be immensely increased.

" The world seeth Me no more ; but ye see Me."

* Psalm xxiii. 4.
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C^txBfB Coming, ^

Ye see Me always. But He promises more than
this : " Because I live, ye shall live also." Fellow-
ship with Christ involved not only sig-k^ but /z/e.
Not only were they to receive revelations of Christ,
but they were so to be made one with Christ through
Baptism, so that, with S. Paul, they could say, '' I
live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."* And
this incorporation is the work of the Holy Ghost.
Made one with Christ in Baptism, that union grows
and increases, as we feed upon Christ through medi-
tation upon His words, and in the Holy Eucharist
receive the very Body and Blood of Christ, so that
we are able to live by His life.

" At that day ye shall know that I am in My
Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." " At that
day." At what day ? The day in which the new
revelation is realised : the day which began at
Pentecost, and lasts for the Church until Christ's
return. But for the individual soul it is the day
in which we realise the fulness of our fellowship
with Christ through the operation of the Holy
Ghost ; it is the day of our intensest joy, the day of
our spiritual awakening, the day when we realise
we are Christ's, not merely in name, but in deed,
the day in which we realise that we live, and yet
not we, but Christ liveth in us.

* Gal. ii. 20.
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^^ C^trb gaturbgg in &cnt

"At that day ye shall know that I am in the
Father." Then should they apprehend Christ's
union with Him Who is not only t/ie Father, but
His Father. That is to say, they should then
realise the true relation of Christ to God the
Father, and their relation to the Father through
their union with Christ This is what S. Paul
means when he says, " For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For
ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again
to fear ; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."* We are
children of God, not only by creation, as all the
heathen are God's children, but we are children by
adoption, that is, God is our Father because He is
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and because
we are incorporated into His Body and live with
His Life.

" At that day ye shall know that I am in My
Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." So we are
taught that in order to know the Father, in order
to see the Father (as S. Philip asked to see Him),
we must have communion with Jesus Christ in

* Rom. viii. 14-18.
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C^mf 6 Coming. ^

His Humanity. But, on the other hand, in order
to have the fullest and most intimate union with
this Humanity, we must realise its exaltation into
God, for only as Christ is in the Father is He able
to be with us and in us, through the operation of
the Holy Spirit.

" He that hath My commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth Me : and he that loveth
Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest Myself to him." This verse
must be compared with the fifteenth verse, of which
it is the converse, " If ye love Me, ye will keep My
commandments." There obedience is shown to be
the consequence of love : '' If ye love Me, ye will
keep My commandments." Here obedience is shown
to be the evidence of love : " He that hath My
commandments and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth Me."

But more, " and he that loveth Me shall be loved
of My Father," not merely in the sense and in
the degree in which God loves the world at large,
but in a peculiar and individual degree, as the father
loves the child who is specially dear to him because
he fulfils all his purposes and satisfies all his hopes.
In other words, we shall be loved of the Father
because we love Christ, Who is the superlative
object of the Father's affection, the only begotten

125

^ ^^irb ^aturbag in SLcni.

Son of God, and this love for Christ we prove by
our obedience to His teachings.

But there is yet more, " And I will love him,
and will manifest Myself to him." The word
"manifest" in this verse is emphatic and signifies a
close revelation of Christ's Person. " He that loveth
Me, shall be loved of My Father : and I will love
him, and will manifest Myself to him." The word
" manifest " implies that our Lord will make clear
to those who love Him with this perfect love, His
nature and character, in a union so intimate that
it can only exist in the soul which has given itself
up altogether to the love of Christ.

126

XVII.

€^trb (tttonbdg in Sitnt

THE QUESTION OF S. JUDE.

S. John xiv. 22-24.

"Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou
wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus
answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My
words : and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him,
and make Our abode with him. He that lovcth Me not keepeth
not My sayings : and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the
Father's which sent Me."

UDAS said unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord,
how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself
unto us, and not unto the world ? "
This Judas is the apostle who is brought before us
in the lists of the apostles given by S. Matthew and
S. Mark* under the name of Thaddaeus, and in that

* S. Matt. X. 3. S. Mark iii. 18.
127

^ tf^ixi) (Utonbag in S^tnt

jriven by S. Luke as Judas the son (not the brother)
of James.* We know absolutely nothing about him
except that he asked this question of our Lord.
Some have identified him with the S. Jude who wrote
the Epistle. But that Judas was a brother not a son
of James, and was one of our Lord's '* brethren ; "
moreover it is extremely doubtful, or rather im-
probable, that any of our Lord's brethren were
numbered among the twelve Apostles. We are so
distinctly told in the Gospels " neither did His
brethren believe in Him,"t that it seems impossible
to suppose that they could have been among the
Apostles. Since we know nothing about this S.
Jude, except that he asked this question of our
Lord, we are not able, as in the case of S. Peter
and S. Thomas and S. Philip, to investigate his
character and spiritual development.

He interrupts our Lord with a fourth question,
and, as in the previous questions, Christ's answer
clears up certain difficulties. S. Peter had asked,
'' Why cannot I follow Thee now ? " and Christ had
shown that none can follow Him into His Kingdom
in Heaven until they have been prepared for it by
following Him in obedience and suffering in His

* S. Luke vi. i6. Our version is wrong in inserting "brother" in
this place.

t S. John vii. 5. Cj. also S. Mark iii. 21.

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t^c ^uegtion of ^> %xibe. ^

Kingdom on earth. S. Thomas had asked, " We
know not whither Thou goest ; and how can we know
the way ? " and Jesus had revealed that He Himself
was the Way : " No man cometh to the Father but
by Me." " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
S. Philip had said, " Show us the Father, and it
sufficeth us," and our Lord had replied to him : " He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father," and then
had gone on to show him how He Himself revealed
the Father.

Now another disciple, S. Jude, asks a further
question. " How is it that Thou wilt manifest
Thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? " The
clause translated " how is it," etc. (W yeyovev) ought to
be, " What has happened that Thou wilt manifest
Thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? What has
happened to change Thy plans ? Surely as Messiah
Thou wouldest reveal Thy glory publicly to the
world. For this the Jewish nation has long hoped.
What then has happened to cause Thee to change
these plans and to tell us that Thou art about to limit
the revelation of Thy glory to us, Thy disciples ? "

This is the idea which the question of S. Jude
expresses, and we shall remember that a similar idea
is contained in the words of His brethren to our Lord
at an earlier period of His ministry, when they said
to Him, " Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that Thy

129 K

^ i^ix'b (tttonbctg in Si,cnt.

disciples also may see the works that Thou doest.
For there is no man that doeth anything in secret,
and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If
Thou do these things show Thyself to the world."*
As is so often the case, our Lord's reply does not
appear to be a direct answer to the question,
although, if we study it carefully, we shall find
that it is more than an answer, in that it indicates
the true cause why Christ did not manifest His
Messiahship at that time to the world.

The Jews were expecting a political Messiah, who
should deliver them from foreign foes, from their
Roman masters, and should make the nation glorious
as it was in the time of Solomon, or rather, more
glorious than it had ever been. There is little doubt
that most of the Apostles shared in this expectation
in spite of many warning utterances of Christ. Even
after His resurrection we find that they asked Him,
" Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the
kingdom to Israel ?"t They looked for the setting
up of a temporal kingdom of great power and glory,
and it was not until they had been enlightened by
the gift of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost that they
were able to understand that Christ's kingdom was
not of this world, was not a temporal kingdom
amongst the kingdoms of the earth, but was a

♦ S. Juhn vii. 3, 4. t Acts i, 6.

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t^c <£^uegtton of g> gube. ^

universal kingdom over men's minds and souls, a
spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of truth and
righteousness.

But let us examine our Lord's answer, for it
contains a very important declaration of the law
of the progress of God's revelation to man. We see
first the condition of this revelation, that it depends
upon obedience resting upon personal love, and then
the mode of this revelation, which is shown to be the
operation of the Holy Ghost. For in verse twenty-
six our Lord goes on to speak of the Holy Ghost,
Who was to bring all things to their remembrance.
To this is added a recapitulation of Christ's work for
His people, both in Heaven and earth, with which
the chapter concludes.

''Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love
Me, he will keep My words ; and My Father will
love him, and We will come unto him, and make
Our abode with Him." The first clause is practically
a repetition of verse fifteen, " If ye love Me, ye will
keep My commandments." If a man love Me, he
will keep My zuord, not words, for here the word
referred to is the Gospel, containing, as it does,
Christ's own commands. But to this He adds, not
as in verse eighteen, " I will come to you" but " We
will come," My Father and I. Thus implying, of
course. His true divinity.

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'^ Z^it'b (Blonbdg in iLCnt,

" We will come to him and make Our abode with
him." Here the thought carries us back to the first
verse. " In My Father's house are many mansions."

We have already noticed that the word ftoi"?, trans-
lated " mansions," occurs only twice in the New
Testament, both times in this chapter — in the first
verse and in the present verse. '* For We will make
Our abode with him" is, if we are to retain the same
translation of f ovj;, " We will make our inansion with
him."

Surely this introduces us to one of the deepest
mysteries of Christian experience. Not only has
Christ gone to prepare a place for us in the many
mansions of His Father's house, but if we, through
love and obedience, prepare a place for God in our
souls, He will come and take up His abode with us.
This verse is paralleled by the passage in the Epistle
to the Church of Laodicea : " Behold, I stand at the
door, and knock : if any man hear My voice, and
open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with
him."-

It is comparatively easy for us to conceive of
Christ preparing a place for us in Heaven, but now
He reveals to us that we need not wait for this, that
if we will but prepare our hearts, God the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit will come and make Their

* Rev. iii. 20.
132

tU iX^CBtion of g> gube, ^

abode in us ; so that we can have Heaven within
us with all its joys, even though we are surrounded
by the sorrows and struggles of the life of this
world.

But this wonderful union of the soul with God,
which is the climax of our Lord's revelation, has its
condition. We must not forget it. The condition is
obedience which springs from personal love. " If a
man love Me, he will keep My words : and My
Father will love him, and We will come unto him,
and make Our abode with him." The capacity to
receive Christ's revelation and the capacity to
possess God's presence in the soul depends upon this
loving obedience. Therefore, our Lord goes on to
say, " He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My
sayings ; and the word which ye hear is not Mine,
but the Father's Which sent Me."

This is the real answer to S. Jude's question,
" What has happened that Thou wilt manifest
Thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? " That
which had happened was this, that the love of the
disciples rendered them, even imperfect as they
were — rendered t/ie7n capable of receiving Christ's
revelation ; while the lack of love on the part of the
world rendered the world incapable of receiving it.
The reason that Christ would manifest His glory to
the disciples and not to the world, was that the world

133

^^ tf^ix'b (Blonbag in £enf.

had no eyes to see, no capacity to receive it, and the
want of sight and the want of capacity was to be
traced back to the lack of love. Thus we are told
that disobedience to Christ's words (that is, to the
constituent parts of His one word, the Gospel) is,
in fact, disobedience to God, manifesting Himself
under the aspect of Love.

There are some, alas, who reject Christ's words,
and yet profess to believe in God. Those, for
instance, whom we call Unitarians. If we were to
ask them what was their conception of God, they
would probably reply, " God is Love," and yet they
reject the one and only manifestation of perfect love
in Jesus Christ, which the world has ever seen.
When our Lord says, " He that loveth Me not,
keepeth not My sayings : and the words which ye
hear are not Mine, but the Father's, Which sent Me."
He shows that those who love Him not, and keep not
His commandments, cannot receive the full revelation
of the Father — that in rejecting Christ's words, they
are really rejecting God, manifested under His
attribute of Love.

134

XVIII.

CHRISrS LEGACY TO HIS DISCIPLES.

S. John xiv. 25-27.

" These things have I spoken unto you, bemg yet present with you.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whonr. the Fathei
will 5.-end in My name. He shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you : not as the
world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid."

N the last section our Lord revealed the
condition on which the reception of
revelation depends — obedience resting upon
personal love, without which the capacity to receive
revelation cannot exist. Now we are told of the
mode of revelation. It is by the operation of the
Holy Ghost, and in regard to this operation we

135

•0^^ t^ix'b ^uesbdg in Si^cni,

are taught four things, (i) That the Holy GhoFt
is sent by the Father. (2) That He comes in
Christ's name, character, and power. (3) That He
comes to teach us all things ; and (4) that Ke is
to bring to our remembrance and to make clear
to our understanding all that Christ taught His
disciples.

"These things have I spoken unto you, being
yet present with you." " These things " refer to
the consolations given by our Lord to His disciples
in the previous part of the chapter, and they are
put in antithesis to the " all things " which the Holy
Ghost was to teach them. The earthiy teaching
of Christ was limited by the circumstances under
which it was given, especially by the unenlightened
character of the disciples before Pentecost. This
teaching of Christ, however, was to be completed
by being filled out and developed by the Holy
Ghost in the Church.

" But the Comforter, Which is the Holy Ghost."
This is the only place in the Gospel in which we
have the full emphatic title " the Holy Ghost."
In our Bible we find the title several times in the
Synoptic Gospels,"*^ but the form in the original
Greek is quite different. There it is, nuevfia "lyiou,

* S. Malt. i. 18, 20; iii. 11 ; S. Mark i. 8 ; S. Luke iii. 16;
S. John i. 3^.

136

C^tiBf 6 £egacg fo ^xb ©iBctpfeB. ^

without the article. Whereas here it is, t6 nvevfia t6
ayiov, signifying the Spirit, Which is the Holy Ghost.
Our Lord in this passage, and again in the thirteenth
verse of the sixteenth chapter, speaks of the Holy
Ghost as the Teacher and Guide, Who is to lead
them into all truth. As the latter passage is
somewhat fuller in its treatment of this aspect of
the work of the Holy Spirit, we shall pass over
the present verse and consider it when we come
to treat of the parallel passage.

" Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto
you ; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid." This is our Lord's solemn farewell and
last legacy to His disciples. " Peace I leave with
you, My peace I give unto you." And what sort
of peace is tliis, of which our Lord speaks as I/z's
peace, and which He contrasts with the world's
peace. The peace which He gives, His own peace,
is the result of struggle endured and victory won.
The world's peace, on the other hand, is generally
the result of a compromise or truce with evil.
The world's peace is the absence of struggle, the
shrinking from, rather than the meeting and over-
coming of difficulties. " My peace I give unto you."
It will not save you, our Lord would tell us, from
struggle and persecution and sorrow, but it is an

137

*^ ^^^y^ ^ueabag in &ent.

interior peace which the world cannot give, and,
thank God, cannot take away — a peace which is
the result of the presence of the Prince of Peace
within your souls.

Our Blessed Lord once told His Apostles of
quite another sort of peace ; for we read that He
said to them, " When a strong man armed keepeth
his palace, his goods are in peace."* The " strong
man " in this passage is, of course, the Devil, his
goods are the souls of men, and captivity to him
is described as a sort of peace, the peace of the
slave who has abandoned all hope of liberty and has
accepted a degrading bondage. This is the peace
of the world, the result of a compromise with evil,
of a truce with the Devil, by which he is allowed
to retain possession, or at least an abiding-place,
in the soul of man. But the peace of which our
Lord speaks as His legacy to His disciples is the
very opposite to this.

" But (Christ goes on to say) when a stronger than
he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he
taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted,
and divideth his spoils." The "stronger" is Christ,
Who sets free the captives of Satan, and, if they
will, takes up His abode in their souls. This peace,
as we have said, will not secure thcni any exemption

* .S. Luke xi. 21.

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Cgrtef B feegacg to ^jb <S)teciyfeB. ^

from the struggles of life : the evil spirit will come
back again and again and endeavour to regain his
entrance into the soul, to recapture those who have
been freed from his power ; but the presence of
Christ, the Prince of Peace, Who conquered the
Evil One upon Calvary, is the assurance that,
though the struggle be fierce and temptations
many, the soul is absolutely safe so long as He
is enthroned in it as King.

After our Lord's resurrection He came to His
disciples with the greeting, " Peace be unto you."
Thrice the greeting is given,* but never before the
resurrection, although it is anticipated in the
passage we are now considering. It was by the
struggle of His Passion, by the conflict on the
battle-field of Calvary, that Christ won the peace
which He promised as His legacy, which He
bestowed as His Easter gift. And surely the
lesson we may learn is that we cannot have real
peace without struggle, that it must be the result
of victory.

The very laws of political science teach us this ;
for nations now at peace have won their peace
upon the battle-field, and in order to retain it keep
themselves always prepared for war ; not that they
desire war, but that preparation for it is the only

* S. John XX. 19, 21, rind 26. Cf. S. Luke xxiv. 36.

way of avoiding it. If tlien we are to appropriate
to ourselves the peace which Christ offers us, we
must fight the necessary battle, drive the foe out
of our soul, the foe who has gained an entrance
into our heart, and then, after we have invited the
Prince of Peace to make His abode with us, after
we have enthroned Him as our King, we must
be always ready to fight for Him, always watching
against the attacks by which the Evil One tries to
drive Jesus from the soul and once more to make
himself its master.

Now our Blessed Lord turns back and takes
up the first words of the chapter, " Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." There
is a wonderful sequence of thought in these last
discourses which people often fail to discern. The
chapter begins with the words, " Let not your heart
be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in
Me." And now having given to His disciples
various reasons why they are not to be troubled,
various causes of consolation, He reiterates the
words, " Let not your heart be troubled." Why
not? What has He said to console?

In this chapter of thirty-one verses wc find no
less than eight distinct causes of consolation which
Christ sets before His disciples. He told them first
of the many mansions in His Father's house which

140

Cgmt'g feegacg to ^ig 'E)i0ciyfe6. g»

He was going to prepare for them ; that there was
room enough for them all in Heaven. He told
them next that He was Himself the Way to the
Father, the Way by which they were to attain to
the mansions of His house. Then He told them
thirdly that in Him they could see the Father.
Fourthly, He revealed to them that they were to
carry on His work, and were even to do a greater
work than He had done in the world. Fifthly,
He promised them that He would send them
another Comforter, the Holy Ghost. Sixthly, that
the Holy Ghost, when He was come, should reveal
to them Christ, as Christ Himself had revealed
to them the Father. As a seventh cause of con-
solation He assured them that the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit would come and take up their
abode in the obedient and loving heart. And
lastly. He assures them that the result of this
presence within them, of Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, would be a peace which the world could
not give.

As we have read these chapters we have probably
dwelt upon certain verses which were full of con-
solation, but perhaps have failed to discern how
the whole chapter is filled with consolation for those
who were grieved at the thought of their Master's
departure ; and not for them only, but for all

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-^ ^^jtbT^uegbag in feenf.

Christ'sJdisciples. Many deep mysteries are treated
of thriwghout the discourse, but through them all
runs the golden thread of consolation.

It is not only that our Lord consoles the Apostles
with loving words, which touch their hearts and
heal the wounds which sorrow has inflicted, but
that He shows them how much there is connected
with His departure which is to be a blessing to
them, and more than a blessing — a joy. He tells
them that if they love Him they will rejoice at
His departure, because it means the consummation
of His work and His glorification as the Son of
Man. But not only this, He reveals to them that
their own joy will be great because by His
glorification they will receive new gifts and powers,
especially the gift of the Holy Ghost, through
Whom He Himself will be restored to them in a
closer and more intimate fellowship than that which
they had enjoyed when He was upon earth.

142

XIX.

UNSELFISH SORROW.

S. John xiv. 28-31.

"Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again
unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto
the Father : for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told
you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might
believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you : for the Prince
of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. But that the world
may know that I love the Father ; and as the Father gave Me
commandment, even so do I. Arise, let us go hence."

F ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because
I said I go unto the Father." Unselfish
sorrow has in it an element of joy in
the thought of the gain of another through our
bereavement. Our Lord reminds His disciples
that if they love Him, while they may sorrow at
the thought of being parted from Him, they will
rejoice in the realisation of His exaltation, in the

143

'^ Sourt^ TJ^ebnecbag in Silent

fact that His sufferings have come to an end, that
His work is done, and that He is about to
enter into His reward in the glory of the Father.

Surely this ought often to be a consolation to
us when we are mourning for one who has been
taken from us. Our sorrow may be deep, but it
is sorrow for our own loss ; and if we are unselfish
in our sorrow, we shall rejoice in the gain of the
friend we loved who has gone to the Father — that
is, if he is one of the dead who died for Christ ; for
his work shall follow him, and we must rejoice
that he rests from his labours. Of course, our
predominant feeling will be sorrow, not joy ; but
it will be sorrow which is lightened by moments
of joy as we think of the happiness of being with
Christ in the kingdom of His love. And this idea
is very strikingly expressed in the tense of the
words translated, "ye would rejoice" (c;tap7;re). In
the Greek it is an aorist, and so implies a
momentary feeling of joy, not a continual state.
Their state of mind must, of course, be one of
sorrow at His departure, and yet sorrow brightened
with flashes of realisation of the happiness into
which their Master was about to enter.

"For My Father is greater than I." These
words bring before us a very deep theological
question, which we shall pass over, merely pointing

144

out that the Father is not essentially greater than
the Son, for the Son is of the same substance or
essence as the Father, as we are taught in the
Nicene Creed. The Father is not greater in
essence but in relation^ since in the relationship of
Father and Son, the relationship of paternity is
superior to that of sonship, since the son derives
his being from the father not the father from the
son. In the Godhead the Father is the Source
possessing an underived essence, while in the Son
the divine essence is communicated from the
Father by eternal generation. This is the
explanation of this mysterious passage given by
the Greek fathers.

Western theologians, however, while recognising
this as true, rather dwell upon the fact that at
the time our Lord spoke. He was, as S. Paul
says, "In the form of slave," and that He was,
therefore, referring to the inferiority of His
position as Man. This is best expressed in the
Athanasian Creed: "Equal to the Father, as
touching His Godhead: and inferior to the Father,
as touching His Manhood." The two views are,
however, mutually complementary, and together
tell us all that we can know of this mysterious
subject.

" And now I have told you before it come to

145 L

'^ §omi^ T37ebne6i)ag in feenf.

pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might
believe." " Now," that is at this crisis when your
faith is about to be put to the test by My
crucifixion. I tell you this in order that in that
hour of trial ye may believe — that is, that your
faith may not fail. I am telling you beforehand
that I am going to the Father that your faith
may be strengthened by the remembrance that I
forewarned you of the trial through which you
must pass.

" The prince of this world cometh, and hath
nothing in Me." Our Blessed Lord here, as in
other places, clearly recognises the personality of
the devil. He is the prince of this world, the ruler
of those who are the children of the world. Our
Lord points him out as the chief of all the
subordinate evil spirits, and knows that the hour
is approaching when, for the last time, he is
to come to tempt, and so to test Him, as
he tempts every man. It was not the first
time that the devil had come to Him, for he
came to Him in the wilderness at the beginning
of His ministry, when after He had fasted forty
days and forty nights he came to tempt Him.
The devil came to Him many times throughout
His life, and now comes for the last supreme
effort in the trial of His Passion, and Death.

146

(UncefftB^ borrow, ^

He "hath nothing in Me." In these words our
Lord bears witness to His own sinlessness. Satan
might search Him through and through, might ply
Him with every form of temptation ; but he would
find in Him nothing which he could claim as even
a momentary yielding to evil — nothing of failure,
nothing even of imperfection. Christ goes forth to
the final duel with the prince of this world with
calm confidence in regard to its result, with entire
certainty of ultimate victory. He knows that the
victory will involve great suffering, unspeakable
humiliation, even an ignominious death, but its
results will be the final conquest of the evil one,
the setting free of his captives, the redemption of
man.

" But that the world may know that I love the
Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment,
even so I do." This was the secret of our Lord's
whole life, the perfect fulfilment of His Father's
will, the entire accomplishment of His Father's
work, the carrying out of God's plans for man's
redemption. Christ's was the one absolutely perfect
human life lived in this world. In it He showed
His love for His Father by keeping His Father's
commandments, doing His Father's will at the
very cost of life itself.

He points to this as the evidence by which the

147

^ ^ouxt^ ^ebneebag in &enf.

world may know His love of the Father. His was a
life spent largely in waiting for His Father's call.
Thirty years spent in obscurity at Nazareth,
waiting until the hour should come when His
Father should call Him forth to the work of
His ministry, and throughout that ministry all things
were done, without hurry, but without delay, in
accordance with His Father's Will. In neither the
triumphs nor sorrows of His life does He anticipate
by one minute, the hour of His Father's purpose
for Him. When His Blessed Mother at the
marriage of Cana of Galilee told Him of the
needs of the guests, saying, " They have no wine,"
His answer is, " Mine hour is not yet come," that
is, the moment for working the miracle had not
yet arrived, though apparently, almost immediately
after, the time was fulfilled, and the miracle
performed.

If we are to manifest our love for God, it must
be by following the example of Christ in this, by
realising that the true purpose of our life is to do
God's Will and to accomplish God's work; for God
has a work for each of us to do — a work which He
reveals to us, not all at once, but gradually as life
goes on. Sometimes we have to wait a long while
for this revelation, and there is the danger that we
may become impatient, and because we are tired

148

(Un6efft6^ Norton). ^

of waiting for God's call, may throw ourselves
into some work which is not the work which God
meant us to do. We must learn from our Lord
to tarry God's leisure, to put our trust in God
to believe that at the right moment He will
manifest to us His will.

As we have seen in the case of S. Peter, the time
of waiting must not be a time of idleness, but a
time of preparation, during which we are learning
those things which we shall need to put in practice
when God calls us to our work. What quietness
and dignity this thought gives to every life. Life
has a purpose — the purpose for which we were
created — and our eternity depends upon the
fulfilment of this purpose.

Life is not given us that we may drift aimlessly
along, sometimes doing one thing, sometimes
another, so that, when our years draw to a close,
we wonder whether our life has been of any use
to us, or to anyone else. Life is given us to love
and to labour. Love without labour is enervating,
and labour without love makes us hard, and bitter,
and hopeless ; for that which ennobles labour and
makes it a joy is that it should be done for one
we love. Thus a husband works for his wife and
children, so, only in a higher sense, the Christian
works for God.

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^- Soutt^ Ti7ebne6bag in SLCni.

Christ said, *' That the world may know that
I love the Father ; and as the Father gave
Me commandment, even so I do." We must
say, " That the world may know that I love God —
and it is part of my duty to show that I love
God — I must keep His commandments, and
accomplish the work which He has given me to
do."

" Arise, let us go hence." Thus our Lord
finishes the discourses in the Upper Chamber.

150

XX.

CHRIST THE VINE.

S. John xv. i.

" I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman."

HE allegory of the Vine and the branches
beeiiis the second division of our Lord's
discourses. In the first, which were spoken
in the Upper Chamber, Christ comforts His apostles
in regard to His departure, which He plainly reveals
to them, and answers certain questions put to Him
by S. Peter, S. Thomas, S. Philip, and S. Jude. These
discourses close with the last words of the fourteenth
chapter, "Arise, let us go hence." In the fifteenth
and sixteenth chapters He continues His discourses
vouchsafing to them a revelation even more sublime

151

•^ Soutt^ ^^^urcbag in SLCnt.

leading them deeper and deeper into the mysteries a^
His union with them.

But where were these last discourses uttered ?
There are several views. First, the opinion that
they were spoken in the same place, in the Upper
Chamber; that when our Lord said, "Arise, let JS go
hence," the disciples arose from the couches on
which they were reclining, but stood around Him
in the room, bidding Him farewell and hearing His
last words; so that it was still in the Upper Chamber
that He delivered tlie discourses recorded in these
chapters.

There are two objections to this view ; one that it
is quite inconsistent with the words, " Arise, let us go
hence ; " the other that it is inconceivable to suppose
that the great High-Priestly prayer in the seven-
teenth chapter could have been uttered while they
were standing about the room.

A second view, which is original and modern, is
suggested by Coleridge in his " Treatise on the Life
of our Lord." He thinks that they adjourned to
another chamber, which had been prepared for the
celebration of the first Eucharist ; that the institution
of the Holy Eucharist took place at this point,
and that the discourses and High- Priestly prayer
followed after the First Communion of the apostles.
Coleridge's theory is, however, so unnatural and

152

efriet t^e (gine. ^

forced that it is scarcely worth considering. It
has been adopted by some few Roman theologians,
but it is so evidently a theory constructed for an
ulterior purpose, and not to meet the circumstances
of the case that, like the first view, we may dismiss
it.

There remains, therefore, a third opinion that our
Lord uttered these discourses on the way to Geth-
semane, probably in some place where a halt could be
made. This halt seems necessary, because we cannot
conceive of His speaking any of these sublime
and solemn words as He was walking through
the streets of the city, but there is no place on the
western side of the city, in the descent to the Brook
Cedron, so far as we can see, where He could have
made this halt. The place is too public, and the
eighteenth chapter of S. John, in telling us that they
went over the Brook Cedron, seems to require that
the discourses should have been delivered before
they crossed the Cedron, and, therefore, before they
entered Gethsemane.

It has been suggested* that after they left the
Upper Chamber they made a final visit to the
Temple, for Josephusf in his "Antiquities" tells us
that during the festivals it was the custom of the

* By Bishop Westcott in his '' Commentary on S. John."
t Joseph., "Ant.," xviii. 2, 2.

priests to open the gates of the Temple at midnight,
so that pilgrims could go in to make their devotions.
Nothing could be more fitting than that our Blessed
Lord should make a final visit to that place He loved
so well, His Father's House, and that there in the
Temple courts He should utter the prayer of
consecration, in which He revealed the purpose of
His work and the destiny of His Church.

But there is another argument for this visit to the
Temple, for Josephus informs us* that on the gates
of the Temple was wrought a magnificent golden
vine, which was intended to typify the relation of
God's chosen people to Himself This vine was a
type of Israel, as we learn from the prophet Isaiah,t
and it seems quite probable that it supplied the
imagery of our Lord's allegory of the vine, with
which the discourse opens. Pointing the disciples to
the familiar object upon the Temple gates, our Lord
may have said, " I am the true Vine, and My Father
is the Husbandman."

While we cannot claim for Bishop Westcott's view
anything more than that it fulfils all the conditions of
the problem, as no other theory does, yet we must be
struck by the extraordinary fitness of the Temple to
be the place in which our Lord uttered not only

* Joseph., "Ant.," xv. ii, 3, and Bell, " Ju'l.," v. 5, 4.
t C/. Isaiah v. 1-8.

€^mt t^e QOinc.

:n^

His last discourse to His disciples, but also His
great Hi^h-Priestly prayer. From the time when
Araunah's threshing-floor was set apart by David
as the site of God's Temple, priesthood and sacri-
fice had been confined in their association to that
spot. Nowhere else could sacrifice be offered,
nowhere else did the priests fulfil their sacerdotal
functions.

There is, therefore, not only an appropriateness,
but a wonderful suggestiveness in the thought that
in the courts of God's house, which for so many
centuries had been dedicated to His worship, and
yet had been so often desecrated by imperfect
service, the great High Priest of the New Covenant
should perfectly fulfil the idea of priesthood, as
the one Mediator between God and man ; and not
only of priesthood, but of sacrifice, as the one
Sacrifice by which the world was redeemed, and
that He should there consecrate Himself as the
Victim and Priest for all humanity.

Let us try to picture the scene. It is past mid-
night. The city is wrapt in slumber. The silver
light of the Pascal moon penetrates the courts of
the Temple, where a few pilgrims have found their
way that they may join their presence, if not their
voices, to those servants of the Lord of whom the
Psalmist speaks, who "by night stand in tlie house

155

^ Sourf^ €l^nxBi<X2 in &cnt

of the Lord, even in the courts of the house of
our God.'"''

In some retired spot our Blessed Lord, alone with
His disciples, utters His last discourses and bids
farewell for ever to that House of His Father, in
which, from His boyhood's days. He had so often
worshipped. Alas, He knows that its glory was
about to depart, that when the veil of that temple
was rent, at the moment of His death, a more
acceptable sacrifice would have been offered than
those sacrifices which in so many thousands had
been offered upon the altars of the Temple — " a
full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of
the whole world." And He knows too that this
sacrifice should live on, in an unbloody form, upon
the altars of the Christian Church in the sacrifice
of the Holy Eucharist — that Eucharist, which, like
the vine upon the Temple gates, was to symbolise
the union between God and His chosen people,
but, unlike the golden vine, was not only to
symbolise^ but to be the means by which that
union was to be consummated.

" I am the true Vine, and My Father is the
Husbandman." The construction \w the Greek is
very suggestive, it is, " I am the Vine, the true
Vine." The words,t " I am the Vine," mark the

* Psalm cxxxv. 2. f ^ afxjreXos rj dXtjOiurj.

156

identification of Ctirist with the image ; the addition
*' the true Vine," implies the absolute fulfilment
of the image in Him ; for Christ in His Person
brings to complete fulfilment the vital relation of
all parts to the whole — the conception of unity and
multiplicity, of growth and yet identity, which are
set forth in the image of the vine.

As we have said, the vine was the image of Israel,
the image of that theocratic and sacramental com-
munity which had its centre in the Altar and Ark
of testimony and the Holy Place, This was what
the vine on the gates of the Temple symbolised,
but, alas, the Jewish Church had never justified
this image, had never fulfilled God's purposes for
it. It had not been true to God's call, and so Christ
puts Himself in the place of the Jewish Church
w^hen He says, " I am the true Vine." Israel failed
to satisfy the images symbolised in the natural vine,
He fulfils them perfectly in His Church.

The Old Covenant awakened a glorious hope in
God's people, but the hope w^as never realised because
of their disobedience. The New Covenant which
was to be sealed with Christ's Blood, began, not with
hope only, but with realisation. Christ says, " I am
the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman,"
and in these words He shows how He fulfils perfectly
all that was symbolised under the Old Covenant of
God with Israel. 157

To those who have studied ' the prophecies of
Isaiah, this thought will be familiar, for the " Servant
of Jehovah," who occupies so prominent a position in
his writings, is in his earlier prophecies the Jewish
nation, but becomes in the later the Messiah Him-
self. The Jewish nation was chosen to be God's
servant in this world, it had a mission to mankind,
but after ages of testing it failed altogether to
fulfil this service for which God had raised it up,
and God's purpose for Judaism passed into the work
of Messiah, when Christ came to be the Saviour of
the world.

So our Lord says, " I am the true Vine, and My
Father is the Husbandman." I am the Vine, but
" no man can come to Me, except the Father Which
hath sent Me draw him."* The care of God the
Father for His Church is here touchingly brought
before us under the figure of the husbandman. The
Church is not merely the concern of Christ, or of the
Holy Spirit, but God the Father is the Husbandman.
It is by His Will that the disciplines and adversities
are sent by which the Church is purged and purified.
Christ's Body, the Church, is the object of the
Father's special love and special care, though the
Holy Ghost is the Agent by Whose operations the
Father's purposes for the Church are effected.

* S. John vi. 44.

158

€gmt i^e (^tne. ^

The word which is translated husbandman (yeapyos)
implies more than its English equivalent sug^^ests.
It is not as in the parable of the fig tree in S. Luke*
(dfiTreXovpyos) the dresser of the vineyard, but the
owner of the land as well. As members of Christ's
Body we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, but
not only citizens of the Kingdom, but by adoption
children of the King ; so that we can address
Him as " Our Father, Which art in Heaven." The
Kingdom is His. It is the Church of the livino-
God, Who is Owner as well as Husbandman.

* S. Luke xiii. 7.

159

XXI.

Sourt^ ^xii(XT^ in £enf.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES.

S. John xv. 2, 3.

"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."

VERY branch in Me." In these words the
Christian is identified with Christ ; for the
union between the soul and Christ is shown
to be as close as the union between the branch and
the vine which bears it. But at this point our atten-
tion is drawn to a possibility in spiritual experience
which is often overlooked in the treatment of this
allegory. All would say that there are two kinds
of branches — fruitful branches and those that are
withered.

This, however, is not the division which our Blessed

160

Lord makes when He says, " Every branch in Me that
beareth not fruit He taketh away." He shows that
it is possible to come into organic relation with the
vine, with Christ, to be " in it," in Christ, a part of
Christ, and yet to bring forth no fruit. It is possible
to be baptised and to be a communicant, and perhaps
not even to be separated from Christ by any mortal
sin, and yet (because there is no effort of our own, no
correspondence with grace) to live a life which is quite
unfruitful, a life which is represented by those
branches which are not withered, but which bear
no fruit.

The unfruitful shoots seem often to be as strong- and
vigorous as those which bear fruit. They draw their
nourishment from the same stock, they produce
abundance of leaves ; but as our Blessed Lord shows
in the parable of the Fig tree, if they produce nothing
but leaves they are worthless, and therefore are not
allowed to cumber the vine. Christ says of them,
" Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He (My
Father, the Husbandman) taketh away."

S. Paul in his second Epistle to the Corinthians
exhorts his readers to be careful that they receive not
the grace of God in vain.^ Our Lord is referring to
this class of Christians, who do receive the grace of
God, who frequent all the sacraments and means of

* Cf. 2 Cor. vi. I.

i6i M

•^^ ^onti^ -§Txb(X^ in £enf.

grace, but because they do not use the grace which
they have received, receive it in vain. These repre-
sent the branches which the Father taketh away,
and they are not to be confounded with the withered
branches which are separated from the Hfe of the vine
and draw no nourishment from it because they are
already dead, whose fate is considered in the sixth
verse.

But there is another class of branches — those that
are not only in Christ, but who by virtue of their
union with Him, bring forth fruit. What does the
Father do with these ? " Every branch that beareth
fruit He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit." How important it is that we should keep this
teaching before us. It is not enough to be in Christ,
to be a member of His Church through Baptism ; it is
not enough to be free from mortal sin, to have no
hindrance to our union with Him, to the work of
Christ in our souls. There must be a correspondence
with this grace, a fruitfulncss in our life. — And then
ihe Father will send such disciplines into our life as
may help us to bring forth more fruit.

Of the fruitful branches we are told that the Father
purgeth them. The word rendered " purgeth "
(Ka^atpfi) primarily signifies a cleansing by lustrations,
a removal by washing of anything that could hinder
the vine from bringing forth fruit. It also evidently

162

signifies here pruning with a knife — not only the
spraying of the vine to cleanse it from insects
which might injure it, but pruning it ; so that all the
vital forces of the vine may go into production of fruit,
and not merely into the production of useless branches
and leaves.

Our Lord says to His disciples, " Now are ye clean
through the Word which I have spoken unto you."
Here He applies the idea of cleansing contained in
the word " ptirgeth." The word " now " means
" already." The spiritual cleansing of the Apostles
had been potentially completed, though it was not
realised until the day of Pentecost. The Word by
which they had been cleansed is of course the Gospel,
the whole revelation of Christ which they had poten-
tially received, and which the Holy Ghost was to
bring home to their understandings.

But what is the fruit which the vine is to produce ?
It is evidently the fruit of a Christ-like life, for the
branches of a vine do not bring forth fruit of their
own, but the fruit of the vine. The good works
which are done through the grace of Christ are
really not so much our own good works as the work
of Christ in us. Sometimes these fruits are spoken
of as fruits of the Spirit, because, as our Lord teaches
us in these discourses, it is the Holy Spirit which
enables us to produce them.

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•o^ ^ontf^ ^xxb(XT^ in £enf.

S. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians gives us a
list of this fruit, which, while it does not include all the
fruits of the Spirit, is well worthy of our study. He
says, " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, lon$^-
suffering. gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem-
perance."* It will be very useful for us to take this
list and look into our lives and see how far we are
producing these fruits ; in other words, to examine
ourselves in regard to them. For if we are in Christ
as fruit-bearing branches, the proof will be manifested
in the fruit we are bringing forth.

If we examine S. Paul's list we shall find that these
nine fruits fall into three divisions, corresponding to
our three-fold duties towards God, our neighbour, and
ourselves. He begins with the fruit of the Spirit
towards God — love, joy, and peace. These are not
the only fruits which we can bring forth in the fulfil-
ment of our duty to God, but they are three very
representative fruits.

Love is the first, the greatest of all Christian virtues,
that without which no other virtue is of any value, that
which, if we possess it in its fulness, will enable us
sooner or later to produce all the other virtues. Then
joy : there are many Christians who forget that joy is
one of the fruits of the Spirit and seem to think the
Christian life must be all sadness and gloom ; but if we

* Gal, V. 22-23.
164

are filled with the love of God we shall certainly
rejoice, and our lives will be happy even though
sometimes sorrowful. Then there is the virtue of
peace. A life inspired with the love of God must be
a life not only of joy but of peace, that peace which
does not save us from the struggles of life, but which
preserves in our souls an interior peace as the result
of Christ's presence there. Have we this love and
joy and peace in our life towards God ?

In regard to our neighbour, S. Paul mentions
three fruits — long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness.
These too are not the only virtues which we must
manifest towards our neighbour, but they are very
important ones. Long-suffering ! how impatient we
often are with people because they are so slow and
stupid, because they irritate us or do not understand
us ; yet how patient God is with us and what great
cause we give Him for displeasure.

How many good resolutions we make and how few
we keep, how many things we begin for the glory of
God and how few we finish, how many faults we
intend to conquer, yet how few we succeed in really
eradicating. Yet God is patient with us. His long-
suffering is wonderful. As we say in the penitential
psalm against Anger, " O Lord, rebuke me not in
Thine indignation : neither chasten me in Thy dis-
pleasure."* And again in another of the penitential

* Psalm vi. i.

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'^ ^onxt^ ^xxb(XT^ in £enf.

psalms, " If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark
what is done amiss : O Lord, who may abide it ? For
there is mercy with Thee : therefore shalt Thou be
feared."* We must strive to exercise the same long-
suffering towards our neighbour which we pray
God to show towards us.

Then gentleness and goodness : these are really
active and passive sides of the same virtue, related
to one another as benevolence is to beneficence. The
word translated gentleness, Xprjo-TOTTjs, is that kindly
disposition towards others, that good will to all men,
which we associate with the idea of a benevolent
character. The word dyadoa-vvr], translated " good-
ness " on the other hand, is the active and practical
carrying out of the spirit of benevolence in works of
mercy — the ministering to the needs of those in sor-
row or suffering. In our self-examination do we find
these three virtues conspicuous in our relations with
the world around us ? Are we patient with those
who try us, do we show good will to all men, and are
we striving so far as we have opportunity to relieve
the needs of others with a Christ-like beneficence ?

And lastly in regard to ourselves, are we careful to
exercise the virtues of faith, meekness, and temper-
ance ? Faith in this passage does not mean faith
towards God, but ralhcr what we should speak of as
* Psalm cxxx. 3, 4.
166

"fidelity," a trustworthy character. Meekness is a
virtue which of course we have to exercise towards
others, but which we can regard as belonging to our
duty to ourselves, in that we must cultivate a meek
spirit ; for meekness has been defined as the conquest
of passion. And then Temperance, which includes so
many virtues, is really the virtue of self-control, of
holding ourselves well in hand — a virtue which we
have opportunities of practising every day of our lives
in some form or other.

If we are bringing forth these fruits, the Father will
purge us with the discipline of life that we may bring
them forth in even greater abundance. Adversity is
a great opportunity for the practice of all the Christian
virtues, and of none more than these virtues which
S. Paul speaks of as the fruit of the Spirit.

167

XXII.

Sourt^ ^ctfurbag in &tni.

THE FRUITS OF UNION WITH CHRIST.

S. John xv. 4, 5.

''Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit or
itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in
Me. 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."

HERE are few images or figures which bring
before us the reciprocal conditions of our
union with Christ so perfectly as the image
of the vine. Let us therefore examine it carefully.

" If ye abide in Me." The abiding in Christ
depends upon the wi// of the believer. It is not
merely a negative result of our incorporation into
Christ by baptism, it demands the effort of our

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t^t ^xuiU of (Union wxt^ C^rief. Se-

own will for its continuance. We must abide in
Him, not only He in us. There is, we see, a
reciprocal " abiding." Christ wills to abide in us,
and we must will to abide in Him. If we do not
cling to Him by the exercise of our will we shall
not long abide in Him.

" As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except
it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide
in Me." The preposition which is translated by '*of"
(aTTo) indicates the source of the fruit. The branch
cannot bear fruit "of itself" as if it had vital forces
of its own ; the life by which it lives is the life of
the whole vine, and it can only preserve its own
life, as a branch, by preserving its relation to the
vine.

The same mystery is taught us by S. Paul when
he describes the Church of Christ under the figure of
a " body and its members." The whole Church is
the mystical Body of Christ, we are members of that
body ; and we can have no life apart from Christ.
Different members have different functions, the eye
is the organ of sight, the ear is the organ of hearing ;
but the eye cannot see and the ear cannot hear apart
from the body. The life of the body is functionised
in the eye for the purpose of sight, in the ear for the
purpose of hearing ; but at the moment of death,
though the eye and the ear retain all their intricate

169

parts, they can neither see nor hear, because they are
separated from the life of the body.

We may carry the analogy a step further and
show how the researches of science often help
true faith. If we were to ask the scientist about
the mystery of life, he would have to admit that
it has escaped all the investigations of science.
No one knows what life is. He would perhaps
say, as some do, that, since each of the myriad cells of
which the body is composed has its own life,
the life of the body is the sum total of the
life of all these cells. Further, he would have to
admit, what is not inconsistent with this theory, that
when the life of the whole body departs at the
moment which we call death, the life of all the
cells begins to decay and gradually dies also, not
immediately, but very soon as corruption sets in,
some cells living longer than others.

But how wonderfully this illustrates the depen-
dence of our spiritual life upon union with Christ.
We are each of us members of His one Body,
living with His Life ; and so long as we abide in
Him, and preserve our organic union with Him,
we each live our true spiritual life, producing the
fruits which are the result of our union with Christ.

But the moment we cease to abide in Him, the
moment that wc arc separated from Him, our

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t^c fruits of (Union mii^ Christ ^

spiritual life begins to decay just as the life of
each of the many cells of the body begins to fail
when life is withdrawn from the whole body. The
cell can only preserve its life by its relation to the
whole body, it cannot live apart from the body,
neither can we live, spiritually, apart from Christ.
This is what our Lord teaches us in these words,
" As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except
it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye
abide in Me."

" 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."
In this passage the whole allegory is summed up
and expressed with even greater definiteness. " Ye
are the branches " states distinctly what had been
assumed before. Christ had said, " Every branch
in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away," but had
not told us who the branches were. Now He says
emphatically, " I am the Vine, ye are the branches,"
and adds, ''without Me ye can do nothing." This
does not mean that without Christ's aid we can
do nothing, as so many people suppose, and as
our English translation implies. The Greek
word translated " without " {x<^pls) means apart from,
separated from ; so that we might render it " apart
from Me ye can do nothing." When once there

171

is a separation between Christ and ourselves, when
we have ceased to abide in Him, when the organic
union has been interrupted we can do nothing.
" Ye can do nothing." What does this signify ? It
means we can produce no fruit which the Father
will recognise as the fruit of the vine, as Christian
fruit.

If we are to understand this we must realise
that the New Testament regards every man as
living in this world in one of two distinct states
— the state of nature or the state of grace. This
is what S. Paul means when he speaks of the
" natural " man and the " spiritual " man, and says
that " the natural man receiveth not the thincfs
of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness
unto him : neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned."* And that "they that
are after the flesh do mind the thincrs of the flesh :
but they that are after the Spirit the things of
the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death ;
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God,
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. But ye arc not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God

* I Cor. ii. 14.
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t^t f ruit6 of QXnion mt^ C^xxBt ^

dwell in you.""^' By " flesh " and " spirit " in this
passage S. Paul means man in his natural state,
and man in his spiritual state.

Man in his natural state can produce natural
virtues ; for Solon was prudent, Aristides was just,
Leonidas exhibited the virtue of fortitude, and
Socrates was temperate. These virtues are not
without their value in our life as citizens of this
world, but they have to be raised to a different
plane if they are to be recognised by God as
fruits of the true Vine, Christ.

The motive and end is different in the natural
and in the Christian virtues. The motive in the
Christian virtue is the love of God, its end the
glory of God ; whereas the motive of the natural
virtue is love of man, often love of self, and its end
generally the glory of self Man can live apart from
Christ in a state of nature, producing natural fruits
and looking for a reward in natural beatitude, that
is in the happiness which belongs to a man in a state
of nature. But this is not the happiness to which
the Christian looks forward.

Our Lord emphatically tells Nicodemus, " Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God." " Born again " (avadev) may be translated
*' born from above ; " and lest there should be any

* Rom. viii. 5-9,

^onri^ ^dfurbag in £eni

doubt as to the means by which this new birth is
to be attained, Christ adds, " Except a man be
born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit."*

The whole teaching of the New Testament is quite
consistent on this point. It takes its origin from
these words of our Lord, and is recognised and
developed especially in the writings of S. Paul and
S. John. The happiness to which the Christian soul
looks forward is to see God and to dwell with God in
eternity, and this our Lord says can belong only to
those who are " born from above," " born of water
and Spirit."

Natural virtues are not to be despised ; but Christ
did not come into this world to live and die only that
man might produce the natural virtues, which he had
been able to produce before the Incarnation. Christ
came to take us into union with Himself that we
might produce the fruits of His life, the fruits of the
true Vine, the Christian virtues, and that the practice
of these virtues might prepare us for a life in heaven
in which every faculty of our nature should find its
beatitude — a life in which the intellect should attain to
its highest powers in seeing God, and the soul should

* S. John iii. 3, 5, and 6.

th ftmiB of (Union wtt^ Cartel *«•

find its supreme happiness in loving God. But this
must depend absolutely upon our abiding in Christ ;
for, as He tells us, " apart from Me ye can do
nothing " — nothing, that is, which pertains to our
life as Christians.

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XXIIl.

5'ourt^ (Itlonbaj in SLCnt

THE RESULT OF SEPARATION FROM

CHRIST.

S. John xv. 6-io,

'* 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.
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."

F a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth
as a branch, and is withered." Hitherto
Christ has spoken only of branches which
maintain a vital union with Himself. These fall into
two classes — those that bear fruit and those that do
not bear fruit. The latter were taken away, the

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(geguft of ^eygration from C^rigi ^

former were purged that they might bring forth
more fruit. Now our Lord passes to the consider-
ation of those who by their own wilful act, that is
by mortal sin, have become separated from Him.
The unfruitful branches are taken away, these,
however, are cast forth, that is, cast out of the
vineyard and become withered.

Here we have brought into sharpest contrast
the consequences of union with Christ and of the
loss of that union. Union with Christ results in
the production of fruit, separation from Christ not
only implies loss of the power of fruit bearing, but
the rejection of the branch itself. It is cast forth
and withered. For a while it may remain upon the
vine, disfiguring it by its lifeless aspect ; but it will
not be for long.

We must carefully observe that our Blessed Lord
in this allegory distinctly recognises three classes of
branches, representing three kinds of Christians : —
those who abide in Him and produce fruit ; those
who abide in Him, but do not produce fruit ; and
those who neither abide in Him nor bear fruit.
The fate of this last class is brought before us in
the words we are considering. They are cast forth
from the vineyard and withered. But more than
this : " men gather them and cast them into the fire
and they are burned."

177 N

^^ '^ouxi^ (Qitonbag in &eni

The vine is the most productive of all trees, that
is, it produces the greatest amount of fruit in
proportion to its size. In passing through vine-
yards in a wine-producing country we cannot but
be struck with the insignificant size of the vines
which are so abundantly laden with grapes. We
must not think of the vines which we see in hot-
houses in England or trained against the walls of a
house, but of the vineyards where grape-growing is
the industry of the country.

One reason why these vines are kept so small is
that all their strength may be put forth in producing
fruit, because the grapes are the only things of value
which the vine produces. The wood of the vine is
quite valueless. There are many trees, like the
walnut tree, which produce fruit, and the wood of
which is also of great value. Rut it is not so with
the vine, the withered branches are burned because
they are worthless. S. Augustine has a beautiful
saying in regard to this. " To the branch one of
two things is fitting, either the vine or the fire."*
The scene suggested by this verse is the withered
and worthless branches of a great vineyard, gathered
outside the vineyard, and burning, while the fruitful
branches remain in the vine producing their luxuriant
fruit.

* "Unum de duobus palmiti congruit, aut vitis aut ignis."

178

(geguft of Reparation from C^mt, ^

But let us notice the sugg^estiveness of the words
which describe the scene — " cast forth as a branch
and withered ; and men gather them and cast them
into the fire, and they are burned." Of the five
verbs in this sentence the tenses of the first two,
"cast forth" and "withered" {^^X^drj, e^r]pdv6rj), are

aorists, the last three (a-wdyova-iv, ^dXKovo-iv, KaUrai),

"gather," "cast into the fire," and "are burned,"
are in the present tense. The " casting forth " and
the " becoming withered " are definite acts, the
result of a definite sin by which we separate
ourselves from Christ. But the " being gathered
together," the " being cast into the fire," and " being
burned," are states which continue — at least so the
Greek implies.

How true this is of spiritual experience. The
action which severs our vital union with the vine
will take but a short time to complete — one wilful
deliberate act of mortal sin ; but the burning to
which our Lord refers, as continuing, is evidently
not the punishment of eternity ; for He says they
are dem^;' cast into the fire and being burned. The
verbs are present, not future ; they refer not to
something which will happen after the Day of
Judgment, but to something which is taking place
now, to something which happens in this life, and
which continues.

179

'^^ ^onrt^ (tttonbdg in &ent.

What is this ? Surely it is that fiery furnace of
temptation in which we all move. But this has no
more power to injure those who are in Christ than
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace had to injure the three
holy children who walked in it unhurt. There was
with them, as there is with us, the form of a fourth
like unto the Son of God.* If we are in Christ
temptation cannot hurt us. If we are not in Christ
men gather us together. The word (awdyova-iv)
suggests the binding of the withered branches into
bundles for the fire. So when the soul is separated
from Christ its binding begins, a binding with the
chains of sin, the soul is bound together with
others, its companions in evil habits, and then
bound hand and foot, so to speak, is cast into the
fires of temptation.

What are the chains by which the sinner is
bound ? A collect of our Prayer Book tells us,
— *' tied and bound with the chains of our sins."
Who forged those chains which bind the sinner .''
He forged them himself. Each separate link was
some act of sin ; these acts, repeated again and
again, went to form a habit of sin ; and we all
know what it is to be tied and bound with the
chains of evil habits. So strong they are that,
though we make many efforts to get free, we

* C/. Daniel iii. 19-26.
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(Refiuft of ^eyarafion from C^mt.

cannot break them. They were not forged all at
once, but very gradually. There was a time when
it would have been easy to have broken the bad
habit, but after perhaps years of indulgence our
case seems hopeless. We know, however, that it
is not hopeless, that there are no limits to the
power of the precious Blood of Jesus Christ, that
if we come to Him with penitence one drop of
His Blood can break those chains and set the
sinner free ; for we know that the Blood of Jesus
Christ cleanseth us from all sin.*

The phrase, '' men bring them together," suggests
especially the difficulty of freeing ourselves from
evil companions who have tempted us. " If I
could only get away from that one companion,"
says the sinner to himself; "but when I am with
him all my good resolutions vanish, and I seem
to be bound by chains which I cannot break."
Perhaps his companion is saying the same to
himself; each wishes to get free, neither has the
strength to break away, and so both, bound together,
go on burning in the furnace of temptation like the
rejected branches in the fires outside the vineyard.

"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

* C/. I S. John i. 7.
181

much fruit ; so shall ye be My disciples." In these
two verses are shown the blessings of union with
Christ in prayer fulfilled and fruit produced, and
we are reminded that the fruitfulness of the vine is
the glory of the husbandman. Therefore, Christ
says, " Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear
much fruit."

Two great results of union with Christ are here
brought before us — the glory of God is seen in
the fruit we produce, and the answer to prayer is
the evidence of our discipleship. Everyone can
pray, even those who are not in a state of grace,
but it is the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man that availeth much.* God hears the prayers
of sinners, if it were not so we should indeed be
hopeless. But still mc^re does God grant the prayers
of His saints, of those who are living the life of
uni^.. through Jesus Christ.

" As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved
you : continue ye in My love. If ye keep My
commandments, yo shall abide in My love ; even
as I have kept My Father's commandments, and
abide in His Love." Throughout all these dis-
courses wc find a sort of antiphon constantly
recurring, an antiphon in which the relation of
love to obedience is continually brought before us.

* C/. S. James v. 1 6.
182

(Reauff of geparafton from C^mt« ^

" If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments."*
*' He that hath My commandments and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth Me." " If ye keep My
commandments, ye shall abide in My love."t Thus
we are first taught that obedience is the consequence
of love, then that it is the evidence of love, and
lastly, that it is the preservative of love, that if we
keep Christ's commands we shall abide in His love.
Love is the greatest and most godlike of the
Christian virtues. The end and aim of every
spiritual life must be to grow in love, and we
learn that there is but one way to this — the path
of obedience.

* S. John xiv. 15. f S. John xiv. 21 ; xv. 10.

183

XXIV.

THE JOY OF UNION WITH CHRIST.

S. John xv. ii.

"These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain
in you, and that your joy might be full."

llTH this verse commences a fresh section of
the discourse. After having treated of the
union between Christ and the soul, as
typified by the vine and the branches, and the
fearful results of its forfeiture, our Lord Jesus
Christ goes on to tell us of some of the issues of
that union, some of its consequences to His disciples
— consequences both joyful and sad. And first He
speaks of the joy which is the fruit of their union
with Him. He says, "These things have I spoken
unto you that My joy might remain in you, and
that your joy miglit be full."

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t^c gog of (Union wii^ C^xid. s«-

What were these things which He had spoken
unto them ? They fall under two heads. He had
told them of His departure — that surely could not
fill them with anything but sorrow, except in so far
as their love led them to rejoice that His work was
accomplished, His glory won, and that He was going to
His Father. Again He had told them of the various
consolations which should sustain them under the
sorrow of His departure. And finally He had
revealed to them the privileges which should flow
from their union with Him, and these last were the
things which were to fill them with joy, and that joy
was to be not only their own, but His joy also. He
says, " These things have I spoken unto you that My
joy might remain in you." The words in the original
for " My joy " (17 Xapj? 7 e/Lt?)) are very emphatic. They
remind us of the expression, " My peace I give unto
you." The joy which is Mine, the peace which is
Mine, I give unto you. Not as a passing emotion
but as a permanent possession.

" That My joy might remain with you." In what
characteristics did this joy differ from the world's
joy ^ (i) In permanence. The world's joy never
lasts. It is a tumultuous emotion which quickly
passes away. Christian joy is a permanent posses-
sion, like Christian peace — the world cannot bestow
it and the world cannot destroy it. S. Paul speaks

185

-^9 ^oxitt^ ^uesbag in &ent

of himself as rejoicing in tribulation. He says, " I am
exceeding joyful in all our tribulation."*

(2) Again, it is the outcome of sorrow. In the next
chapter Christ contrasts the joy of the disciples with
that of the world. He says, " The world shall rejoice :
and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be
turned into joy."f Sorrow is the raw material of
Christian joy, f(^r it is, our Lord says, " turned into
joy." How sad to have no sorrow which can be
turned into joy.

This, too, is the teaching of the Psalmist. " He that
now goeth on his way weeping, and beareth forth
good seed : shall doubtless come again with joy, and
bring his sheaves with him. "J

And it is referred to in the book of Revelation
as one of the joys of heaven: "And God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes : and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor cry-
ing, neither shall there be any more pain : for
the former things are passed away."§ How sad in
that great day to have no tears for God to wipe
away.

(3) But this joy is not only the outcome of
sorrow, it gives us courage to bear (Uir trials. As
we read of our Lord Himself, "Who for the joy that

* 2 Cor. vii. 4. t '^- Jo^" ^vi. 20.

X Psalm cxxvi. 6, Prayer Book Version. § Rev. xxi. 4.

186

€U gog of (Union mtf} €6n6t ^

was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the
shame."*

(4) And lastly, it is the result of self-sacrificing
love. Such was the joy of our Lord to which we
have just referred ; such is the joy of His followers —
the joy of suffering for love's sake, for love of God
and for love of those whom God loves. This, too, is
the joy of missionary work for Christ.

We must, however, remember that joy is the second
fruit of the Holy Ghost, and that our Lord not only
spoke of His joy remaining in His disciples, but of
their own joy being full. Most Christians admit, in
theory at least, that love is an important virtue of
Christian life, and lament perhaps their own want of
charity ; but (e\v go on to realise that joy is just as
much the fruit of the Holy Ghost as love is, and,
while not equally important in Christian life, certainly
ought to be found there. Love, joy, peace — these are
the first three fruits of the work of the Holy Spirit in
our lives. How many of us speak of Christian life as
though it were altogether a life of sorrow. And yet
joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and no one can
read the Epistles of S. Paul, for instance, without
observing how large a place joy occupies in his life.

In these last discourses of our Blessed Lord, uttered
as they were on the very tlireshold of His Passion,

* Heb. xii. 2.

187

5'ourt^ ZuCBixXT^ in £enf.

and filled with references to His departure, there is
yet found again and again the note of joy. Not only
in this passage, but in the next chapter, He promises
that sorrow shall be turned into joy, that when they
see Him again their heart shall rejoice, and that their
joy no man taketh from them. That they are to
pray, not only that they may receive what they ask
for, but that their joy may be full. And He finishes
the discourse with the words, " Be of good cheer (that
is, rejoice), I have overcome the world."

But what is the special function of joy in the
Christian life, the special office of this fruit of the
Holy Spirit? A consideration of the Old Testament
phrase, " the oil of joy,"-'' " the oil of gladness,"t will
help us to answer this question. What is the function
of oil ? Among other things it saves friction ; we pour
oil into the wheels of a machine and it prevents the
friction which would otherwise take place. Without
oil the machine would soon tear itself to pieces, so to
speak, through friction ; but oil [)revents this. So joy
in spiritual life saves us from that friction which does
so much to spoil all that is beautiful in life. If you
go about rejoicing, happy in your union with Chiist,
glad to bear life's sorrows, to meet its tribulations in
the thought that they are but the seeds of future joys,
how little life's tribulations will be able to injure you,

* Isaiah Ixi. 3. f Psalm xlv. 7.

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tU gog of (Union mi^ C^xid. ^

how great will be your power to help others in their
journey through life.

We all know how helpful a cheerful person is, one
whose presence is like sunshine in the house, who,
when things go wrong, instead of making them worse
by bemoaning them, starts in at once to remedy them,
if that is possible, or, if not, to set an example of
bearing them cheerfully. Take two Christians, one
who cultivates the spirit of joy and one who does not.
The first will go through life so happily that tempta-
tions will lose half their force and trials, half their
power to weary him. The other looks at the dark
side of life, exaggerates its trials and difficulties, and
gets out of every difficulty the greatest amount of
friction possible. What he needs is to pour the oil
of joy into the machinery of life, and, if he did, many
things would be possible to him which he deems quite
hopeless. Take a rusty piece of machinery, turn the
crank, and the wheel moves with great difficulty,
perhaps refuses to move at all. But pour oil upon
the axle and begin to turn the wheel slowly. There
will be some difficulty at first, but soon, as the oil is
absorbed, the rust wears off and the machine does its
work. It is a type of human life. Joy is that which
lubricates life's machinery and makes it work easily.

A great writer on the spiritual life asks what is
the first weapon with which to meet temptation,

189

-^^ ^onxtf^ S^ueebdg in £enf.

and answers cheerfulness. What, he says, is the
second one ? Again cheerfulness. But what is the
third ? Still cheerfulness, always cheerfulness. He
pictures two children running along the road, one
of them falls, and lays there crying till someone
comes along and picks him up. The other also falls,
but picks himself up and goes on his way. Those
children are types of two classes — those who cultivate
the spirit of joy and those who do not. The one after
every fall wastes time and strength in useless lamen-
tations ; the other gathers himself together and with
an act of contrition for the past, at once sets him-
self to do better in the present, and to be more
careful in the future.

We must bear in mind, however, that joy is d. fruit
of the Holy Spirit, not a gifty that its production
depends first upon our union with Christ, then upon
our own efforts, our own endeavours, to bear life's
trials, to meet life's temptations in the spirit of cheer-
fulness.

190

XXV.

f ift§ TTebneBbag in £ent.

THE FRIENDS OF CHRIST.

S. John xv. 12-15.

*'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. 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."

[ERE we have a repetition of the antiphon of
these discourses — love and its consequence
obedience. But not only is the measure of
the love given here, as in the promulgation of the new
commandment — " As I have loved you," but lest
there should be any mistake the manner in which
this love is to be manifested is indicated in the tense

191

§0- ^iftf} ^tbnCBbd^ in &enf>

of the verb " loved " (vy<^7rr]aa). It is an aorist, and
therefore points to some distinct act of love, and that
act is shown to be the supreme act of love by which
Christ laid down His life for the world, for He says,
" Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends." And yet our Lord's
act was even greater than this, for He laid down His
life not only for His friends, but for His enemies, for
those who murdered Him. And even those whom
He honoured by the name of friends, how poorly they
showed their friendship, for one betrayed Him,
another denied Him, and all forsook Him in His
hour of adversity.

He teaches us here that the measure of love is
the sacrifice of life. He offered up His life for us
upon the Cross through death, and if we are to love
the brethren as He commands, we must offer up our
life, not through death but through loving service.

S. John develops this thought very beautifully
in his first Epistle, w^here he says, ''Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because He laid down His life
for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and
seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the
love of God in him ? "*

* I S. John iii. i6, 17.
192

t^c SyJenbg of C^mt> ^

There is a legend that in extreme old age S. John
confined his preaching to his flock at Ephesus to one
text — " Little children, love one another." Whether
the legend is true or not there can be no doubt that
his Epistle is but the development of that text, and
that he learnt this sublime doctrine from the last
discourses of his divine Master.

There is a very striking play upon the words
translated " life " and " good " in the Greek of the
above passage, which is lost in our translation. In
the original both words mean life, but in a different
sense. The first (^vxn) signifies that physical life
which S. John says we ought, if need be, to lay
down for the brethren. The second (/Stos-) means
the life which we live in this world, the life which
is made up of what we say and do. This is the
word we use when we describe the history of a
man's life under the term "biography." S. John
says we ought to lay down our very /z/e for the
brethren, and yet too often we grudge to spend
our means in his service. He implies that there
may be times when the actual sacrifice of life for
others become a duty ; the soldier realises this
when he dies for his country. This may be
exceptional, but for all of us, he says, as opportunity
offers, there must be a readiness to employ time
and means and strength in our neighbour's service.

193 O

*' 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." How precious is
the privilege of friendship with one of the world's
great men ! How much more precious to be a
friend of Jesus Christ ! a friend of God ! One man
stands out upon the pages of Old Testament history
who won that title, Abraham the friend of God.'''
But all who are the disciples of Jesus Christ and
show forth the evidence of love by obedience are His
friends ; for He says, " Ye are My friends, if ye do
whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you
not servants." Literally, we may render it, " No
longer (ovKeri,) do I call you servants, that is slaves,
but I call you friends (<^tXovs), that is objects of My
love."

The disciples of Christ, however, continued to call
themselves His bondslaves. It is S. Paul's favourite
word to describe his relation to Christ, and not only
S. Paul, but all alike retain this title. And why?
Because it is included in the higher title of friends.
Because they were His friends they loved to remind
themselves and others that friendship with Jesus

* C/i 2 Chron. xx. 7 : Isaiah xli. 8 ; S. James ii. 23.
194

t^c ifrienbg of C^xi&t ^

Christ depends upon absolute obedience, upon the
whole service of life. Christ had said, " Ye are My
friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." Hence,
while He also said, " No longer do I call you servants
but friends," they went on styling themselves His
bondslaves, and leaving it to Him to designate them
by the nobler title of friends.

The mere slave is an instrument only for perform-
ing his lord's commands, but does not aspire to any
knowledge of his lord's motives or purposes. He
does what he is told without knowing the reason or
the object of what he does. But the obedience of
friends differs from servile obedience in this, that it is
based on love and knowledge and sympathy. They
obeyed because they loved Christ, because they
knew Christ, because of their sympathy with His
work, and, as He Himself points out, because He
took them into His confidence and revealed to them
the purposes of His work as His Father had revealed
that work to Him. " 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 " — not all the mysteries of the
Father's counsels, but all that it was fitting that man
should know, all that Christ as Man had heard of the
divine purposes. These counsels, for the Apostles
and for us, are contained in the Divine Revelation,

195

^ Stft^ T^ebnegbag in &enf>

and our work under the guidance of the Holy Ghost
is so to study them that we may work for God
intelligently, not merely as bondslaves but as the
friends of Jesus Christ.

Friendship implies privileges, but it involves also
responsibilities. It would be difficult to exaggerate
the privileges we have as the friends of God —
the special revelations through the Holy Spirit
in regard to the mysteries of our religion and
to the purposes of God for us. But while we
may dwell on these with thankfulness it may
perhaps be even more helpful to us to consider
the responsibilities which are involved in this
relationship to Christ.

The first responsibility is love, to love Christ
and to manifest that love by obedience to His
commands, and especially by such love of the
brethren as He indicates when He says, " Love
one another as I have loved you." Of this we
have already treated ; we will pass, therefore, to
the second condition demanded by friendship —
loyalty. We must be loyal to Christ when others
are disloyal, that is, we must be ready to confess
Christ among those who show Him no allegiance.
We must be prepared to proclaim ourselves His
servants and His friends, when to do so will
bring upon us ridicule or even persecution, and

196

t^c Snenbg of Christ ^

we must show our loyalty not only with our lips
but in our lives, not only by proclaiming by
words that we are friends of Jesus Christ, but
by showing by our deeds our devotion to His
services, by keeping His commandments, even
when to do so involves the world's opposition.

And lastly, we must remember that as friends
of Jesus Christ His interests must be our
interests. What are the interests of Jesus
Christ in this world ? Perhaps they may be
most briefly summed up as the interests of
His Church, especially in missionary enterprise
at home and abroad. How inconsistent it is of
us to claim the title, friends of Christ, when we
have no interest in the expansion of His
kingdom upon earth. Everything that belongs
to the well-being of Christ's Church ought to
be of intensest interest to us. We should,
therefore, read a great deal about the needs
of the Church at home and abroad. We should
strive by all means in our power to spread this
information among others, to interest others in
the Church's work, and to ask ourselves what we
can do practically to further the Church's work.

We should begin perhaps in our own house-
hold, among our own friends. Could we help
them to know more about the Church of Jesus

197

•»? ^ifi^ nX>ebne0bftg in &ent.

Christ, to take more interest in her claims ?
Then in our own parish. What do we know
of its needs? Are we doing our best to supply
them according to our own ability, whether that
be great or small ? Are more workers needed
in our parish, and is there something to be
done which we could do? Then, further, the
claims of our diocese, and of our own Com-
munion. Are we really interested in Church news
because the interests of Jesus Christ require that
we should care for everything that pertains to
the welfare of His kingdom ? Do we take as
much interest in Church news as we do in the
world's news, of what is going on in politics or
literature or social life ?

Yet further, we are members of the Church
Catholic, and therefore ought to care deeply for
all that affects the life of the whole body of
Christians. We cannot work for every Com-
munion, but we can pray, and especially pray
that some day all may be one according to
Christ's own prayer, that divisions may be healed,
and misunderstandings removed, and that, with-
out any sacrifice of truth, love may prevail and
bring together those who are now separated
though part of the same Body of Christ.

Then there is missionary work amongst the

198

t^c Srtenb6 of C^xxBt ^

heathen. What an immense interest of Jesus
Christ this is. Millions there are still to be
converted to Christianity, millions who know
nothing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, of the
salvation He won for all men, of the means of
grace by which man is enabled to conquer sin.

This is perhaps the largest demand which
friendship for Jesus Christ makes upon us,
that we should make His interests our
interests, the great interests of our lives.
Let us examine how far we have failed in
this and strive by His help to be more faith-
ful in our friendship for the future.

199

XXVI.

fift^ t^nxBU^ in feenf.

THE LAW OF VOCATION.

S. John xv. i6.

"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."

HIS section of the fifteenth chapter closes
with these wonderful words so full of en-
couragement and consolation to us. The
tenses of the verbs are aorists, not perfects, there-
fore it should be rendered, " Ye did not choose Me,
but I chose you." The Apostles did not choose
Christ as their Master, He first chose them as
His friends, and then He ordained them, that is,
instituted them to a certain office and work as His
apostles.

200

t^c &(Xro of (pocation. ^

In these words we are taught one of the most
important lessons of Christian life — the principle of
Vocation. Every Christian who thinks seriously
has at some time or other asked with anxiety,
" What is my vocation in life ? " This is especially
a question for the youn^, and yet how often it is
either ignored or misunderstood. Everyone has a
vocation in life, and it is of the utmost importance
that each one should strive first to know what his
vocation is, and then to walk worthy of it.

But what do we mean by vocation ? A very large
number of persons probably mean the state of life
which ^kej' choose as their business or profession,
and they choose it probably with regard only to
worldly success or worldly enjoyment. But surely
this is not the meaning of vocation. Vocation is a
state of life to which we are called by God, not
one which we choose for ourselves. Of course we
must realise that God reveals to us our vocation
largely through His providence, that is, through the
environment in which He has placed us. Parents'
wishes, personal gifts and inclinations, all may
be legitimate means of finding out what is God's
work for us, if only we start with the realisation
that we want to find out what is God's Will for us,
and not merely to gratify our own ambitions.

Surely this is what we are taught by our Lord's

201

words to His apostles, " Ye did not choose Me,
but I chose you, and ordained you " — to be My
apostles. Very likely they thought that in follow-
ing Christ they had made the choice, and so in a
sense they had ; for we can obey or disobey God's
call, and in determining to obey we are choosing
God. But before we can make that determination
God must have chosen us, and spoken to our
hearts through His preventing grace, thus enabling
us to recognise His call, and to obey it.

How few, even of those who grow up in Christian
homes, are brought up to consider vocation from this
point of view. They are asked what they would
like to be, what they would like to do, and while
recognising, as we have done, that inclination is
often a factor in deciding vocation, yet prayer that
we may know God's Will for us should have the first
place, and the end we must have in view in finding
out our vocation must not be only worldly success
but rather God's glory. God has a work for me
to do, and there is a state of life in which I can best
do that work. I must ask earnestly in prayer that
God will show me what that state of life is, I must
not decide upon it merely with a view to worldly
ambition.

When we have in this way learnt what our
vocation is, wc must walk worthy of it, as S.

202

t^c &(XW of (gocdfton. ^

Paul exhorts us,* and if at times we shrink from
the responsibilities it involves, and are inclined to
say that the work is too great for us, we have as
our encouragement these words, " Ye did not choose
Me, but I chose you, and ordained you" to this work.
How great is the comfort through life of this revela-
tion— if I have sought guidance in regard to my state
in life, I need not afterwards fear that I have made a
terrible mistake and that I am quite in the wrong
place. There are many in this condition, but pro-
bably in most instances it is because they chose their
vocation quite irrespective of God's guidance. They
did not seek from Him humbly and earnestly a
manifestation of His Will, they did not ask Him,
'' Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do .? " They
only considered what they wished to do, what would
gratify their inclinations or ambitions in life, and
so they found out, when it was too late, that they
had made a mistake — a mistake which perhaps could
not be rectified, and which spoilt their lives.

How different it is with those who have sought the
guidance of God in the matter of vocation, and who
can say, " I did not choose, but God called me to
this work, and therefore, because He called me, He
will give me the grace I need to accomplish it, the
opportunities which are necessary for bringing it to a

* Cf. Eph. iv. I.
203

*9 ftftg g^urobag in &ent.

successful issue — successful in that it will be the
fulfilment of God's Will.

We may observe that our Lord indicates four
consequences of His choice and ordination. He
says, " I 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 to you."

First they are to go. This implies the taking up
of an independent and definite work. They are not
to drift about, as so many do, without any real
purpose, any definite work in life. There is some-
thing for each to do, and they are ordained that they
may go and do it. If I do not know what my work
is I ought to feel very anxious lest it should be
my own fault that I do not know it, lest I should
have shut my eyes to God's leading, closed my
ears to the voice which would have guided me to
the work which God ordained for me.

Secondly, they are to bring forth fruit. This is
a most important and precious revelation. If we
arc doingf the work which God has called us to
do, that work is certain to be fruitful. We have
Christ's own promise that it shall be. People
often labour with energy at a work of their own
choosing, but it ends in failure ; because God's
blessing does not rest upon it. But there can be

204

tU &aw of (gocafton, ^

no such thing as failure to one who is walking in
the vocation to which God has called him, doing
the work which God has given him.. We have a
very striking illustration of this in the miraculous
draught of fishes which preceded the call of S.
Peter. We read* that after our Lord had been
teaching from S. Peter's boat, He said unto him,
" Launch out into the deep, and let down your
nets for a draught. And Simon answering said
unto Him, Master, we have toiled all the night :
nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the
net. And when they had done this they
inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their
net brake." He had toiled all night and had
taken nothing, but when he let down his net
at the command of Jesus Christ, it was filled
with fishes. There are many who toil all through
the dark night of this life ard find at the end
that they have taken nothing — nothing, that is,
which will follow them into the world to come.
Life has been wasted, its opportunities lost, its
true work left undone ; because they have been
working according to their own will, not accord-
ing to the will of God. There are others
whose lives do not seem to be particularly
successful from this world's point of view, who

* Cf. S. Luke V. I- 1 1.
205

-^ ^ift^ Z^uxBba^ in &cnt.

when their net is drawn ashore at the last day
will find it filled with fishes.

Thirdly, their fruit is to remam, " that your
fruit should remain." There are many men
whose names are known all over the world,
who, after years of enormous effort, have
amassed an immense amount of this world's
fruits in the shape of wealth or popularity or
power, but when they come to die none of that
fruit will remain to them. Think of the
millionaire who by his wealth one day controls
the little world in which he lives, the next day
he dies and whose is that wealth ? It is no
longer his, he cannot control one penny of it.
He has not taken it with him. The fruit of all
his labours is {^one to others, nothing perhaps
remains to him except the remorse of lost
opportunities, of an ill-spent life. But to those,
on the other hand, whose work has been done
for God, and under His guidance, our Lord
promises that their fruit shall remain. Their
works do follow them into the world beyond, into
eternity, to be their joy in God's kingdom in
heaven.

Lastly, there is the promise, " That whatsoever
ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, He
may give it to you," the promise that in answer

206

t^c &(Xro of QOocdtion.

^>^

to prayer through Christ, all that is necessary
for the fulfilment of vocation shall be given —
wisdom to meet the difficulties of the work to
which God has called us, strength to accomplish
it, the grace of perseverance to the end. He
who has called us will, in answer to our prayers,
give us all that we need to enable us to obey
His call and to do His work.

We must briefly notice the bearing of these
words upon the vocation of the Apostles. Christ
assures them that He chose them, and why ?
Surely, because He saw in each a special fit-
ness for the apostolate. The apostles were of
different temperaments, possessing different gifts,
but each had that which was necessary to enable
him to fulfil his vocation. One of the twelve
was unfaithful to his vocation — Judas Iscariot —
but his call was as true a call as was the
vocation of the others, and from what we
know of him, he seems to have possessed
even greater natural gifts than his fellow
apostles possessed. He was the only Judsean
among them ; the others were all Galilean
peasants and fishermen. He was probably the only
educated man, and possibly was a man of some
means. He may have made greater sacrifices
of this world's position and goods than the

207

-^ ^ift^ S^^urebaj in SLtnt

others made, when they obeyed Christ's call
and followed Him as their Master.

There is no reason to suppose that he was
not quite in earnest when he took up the
yoke of Christ. He had a besetting sin, but
so had all, and when he enrolled himself in the
apostolic band and accepted the poverty which
was their lot, he doubtless thought that he would
be free from temptation to his besetting sin,
which was covetousness ; for inasmuch as following
Christ involved poverty, he would have little
temptation to covetousness. But because of his
administrative ability he was chosen to bear the
bag, to be the almoner of the apostolic college,
and again had to handle money, and to face his
besetting sin.

With a renewal of temptation we may be sure
grace was given him to enable him to overcome the
temptation. But he first yielded to his besetting
sin of covetousness — he became a thief ; and then
apparently he lost his faith in Jesus Christ and
lived untrue to his vocation. So he forfeited by
his own act the apostolic office, and another
S. Matthias, was raised up to do his work and
to receive the reward, the crown that would
have been his.

Judas is an awful example — not to the godless,

208

t^c &(XKo of (goc(Xfton« ^

but to religious people ; the example of one who
had a real call from Jesus Christ, who recognised
his vocation and accepted it ; but because he
did not walk worthy of it, because he was not
faithful in persevering in it, he lost his vocation,
and with it lost his soul.

309

XXVII.

f iff^ f ribag in £ent.

THE WORLD'S HATRED.

S. John xv. 17-21.

" These things I command you, that ye love one another. 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 your's also. But all these things will they do unto you for My
Name's sake."

N the earlier part of the fifteenth chapter
our Blessed Lord revealed to His disciples,
under the image of the vine and its
branches, the vital union which exists between
Himself and the soul of the believer, pointing out,
on the one hand, the consequences of the severance

210

of this union, and on the other the blessings of
its continuance. In the former case He draws
attention to the worthlessness of the branches, their
unfruitfulness, and their destruction by fire ; in the
latter He warns of the purging and pruning
necessary that they may bring forth more abundant
fruit, and promises three great privileges as the
result of this union with Him — a special power in
prayer, and the glorious titles of disciples and
friends of Jesus Christ. At the seventeenth verse
we are introduced to a new section, which extends
to the seventh verse of the next chapter. In this
section Christ tells of the consequences of His friend-
ship as manifested in the world's treatment of those
who love Him, and are His disciples and friends.
He draws our attention to the dark side of the
picture, and shows that in contrast to the joys and
glories and privileges which pertain to those who
love Him, there will be sorrows, trials, and
persecutions, which arise from the world's hatred
of Christ and His followers.

The seventeenth verse is often regarded as
summing up the last section, but it really belongs
to the next, to which it forms an introduction.
The antiphon is repeated, " These things I command
you, that ye love one another," and in sharpest
contrast is put the result of obedience, as seen in

211

^ f tf<^ f ribdg in &eni

the world's hatred of those who love God and love
one another.

" 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." What
does Christ mean here by the " world " (6 Koafios) ?
He means humanity apart from grace, man apart
from Christ, the natural man as distinguished from
the supernatural.

The world in which we live has its interests, its
ambitions, its code of morals, its loves, and its
hates. But our Blessed Lord describes it as
diametrically opposed to Him, to His teaching, to
His works, and to those who have enrolled them-
selves as His disciples and friends. The world can
love with a certain sort of affection, for He says,
"If ye were of the world, the world would love
his own." And the world can hate, and it hates
those who are not its own, whose lives arc ;i
continual reproach to it, and whose allegiance is
given, not to its claims, but to Christ. The words
of Christ in this passage imply that it is impossible
to belong to the world and to belong to Him, for
He says, " Because ye are not of the world,
therefore the world hateth you."

212

He forewarns His disciples of the world's hate.
He points out that it is only what they must
expect, since it is but a repetition of the world's
treatment of their Master. He shows that the
immediate cause of this hatred will be their
mutual love for one another, because that love
testifies that they belong to Him, and also because
this love witnesses against the world's supreme
characteristic of utter selfishness, for the world's
love is a selfish love. Our Lord says, " If ye were
of the world, the world would love his own." If
ye were of the world, deriving your life from the
world, finding in its praises your reward, in its
customs your enjoyment and pleasure, the world
would recognise you as belonging to it, and so
would love you — not with that spiritual love which
is implied in the use of the verb dyanav, which
signifies a love founded upon the worthiness of
its object, and upon an appreciation of the character
of the one we love. The word e<^tXet> used of the
world's love, signifies natural love, the love of
passion.

"If ye were of the world, the world would love
his own," and that not because of the worthiness
of those who belong to the world, but often for the
very opposite reason, because in everything they
accept the world's low standard, and so fulfil the

213

^ f ift^ fribdg in feenf.

claims which the world makes upon them. In the
clause, " the world would love his own," we may-
notice the expression " his own " (r6 tBiov). It is
neuter, and signifies not a person, but a quality.
The world does not love them as persons, as
individuals, it only cares for those qualities in
them which belong to it, and especially that
quality of selfishness, which is the special
characteristic of worldliness.

We may also observe that the fivefold repetition
of the word " world " in this passage brings into
very strong relief the antagonism that there must
be between the world and those who love Christ.
Christ goes on to say, " 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. But all these things
will they do unto you for My Name's sake."
" Remember the word that I said unto you." We
find this saying also in S. Matthew.* Persecution,
we are told, is to be expected. If we are Christ-
like we must expect to suffer as Christ did, to
be treated as Christ was treated. If we are
nominal Christians, but not Christ-like, the world
will probably let us alone.

* S. Matt. X. 24.
214

e^e nrorf^B gatreb.

£^

The thought by which our Lord would sustain His
disciples under persecution is contained in the utter-
ance, " These things will they do unto you for My
Name's sake." All sufferings which you endure in the
world because you are manifesting a Christ-like life
are borne for Christ's sake. What a sustaining
thought He had said of Himself, " Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends." Now He says to them, If ye
love Me, ye must be ready to suffer for Me, and
ye must recognise in your sufferings a glorious
opportunity of showing your love. If in our time
of trial we keep this thought steadfastly before us,
that it is for Christ's sake that we endure the trial,
it will rob our sufferings of all their bitterness and
transmute them into glorious privileges. It was
this thought which enabled the martyrs so gladly
to suffer and die for Christ.

With what transparent honesty our Lord puts
before His disciples the consequences of following
Him — not only in this passage, but again and
again throughout the Gospels does He call upon
everyone who comes to Him to count the cost
before they take up His yoke. To the man who
proclaimed, " Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever
Thou goest," He said, "Foxes have holes, birds
of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath

215

^ S^f^^ Sribdg in BLCnt.

not where to lay His head."* How many times,
too, He said to His disciples, " If any man will
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross and follow Me/'f And, " Whosoever doth
not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be
My disciple."t

Our Blessed Master will allow none to enrol them-
selves under His banner before they realise what
His service involves of suffering and self-denial.
The reward, He tells them, is the greatest that
the human heart can conceive of, but the journey
to be traversed before the reward is won is by a
narrow and strait and difficult path. Opposition
must be encountered and persecution endured.
They will go forth as disciples of love, and they
will meet in return only hate. The world will hate
them because they love Christ, and love one
another.

Christ says, " Remember the word that I said
unto you." It ought to be a very real help to us
in time of trouble to remember that our Master
warned us to expect trial. S. Paul says, " There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man : but God is faithful, Who ^jjill
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are
able ; but will with the temptation make the way to

* S. Luke xix. 57, 58. t S. Mult. xvi. J4. % ^' ^-i''^^' '^'^■- -7-

216

escape, that ye may be able to bear it."* Trial,
testing, is common to all men, necessary for all,
and especially for the Christian, but with the trial
God will always send the way of escape, the means
of grace by using which we may be able — not to
get rid of the temptation, but to bear it ; for it is
by endurance of temptation that we win the crown
of life.f

The hatred of the world of which Christ forewarns
His disciples was very definite in its manifestation,
for we read of it first as shown by the Jews, and
then after the fall of Jerusalem we find it in the
various persecutions of Christians under the Roman
Empire. Now the world has lost some of its powers
of persecution, but it has not lost its hatred of all
who are Christ's. The form of its manifestation
is more civilised, but the spirit is the same.

* I Cor. X, 13. -f Cf. S. James i. 12 ; 2 Timothy iv. 8.

217

XXVIII.

THE WORLD'S IGNORANCE.

S. John xv. 21-25.

" 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 fullilled
that is written in their law, They hated me witliout a cause."

E have seen that tlie immediate cause
of the world's hatred is the spirit of
love manifested in a Christ-like life,
but our Lord also ascribes this hatred to another
cause — ignorance, "because they know not Him
that 'sent Me." All sin may be ultimately traced

218

t^c TJJorfb'B 3gnorance.

i)c-

to ignorance, as our Lord shows us, when He
prays for His murderers, saying, " Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do."*
Ignorance with regard to the intellect and per-
version of the will are the two causes of sin,
though ignorance is the primary cause.

Christ, when weeping over Jerusalem, said, " If
thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this
thy day, the things which belong unto thy
peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes

because thou knewest not the time of

thy visitation."! Here He traces their rejection
of His love to ignorance. On another occasion
He said, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would
notrx In this passage He points out that
perversion of will prevented them from listening
to His pleading with them.

However, to confine ourselves to the passage
under our consideration, we shall observe that
Christ very distinctly traces the cause of the
world's hatred and rejection of Him to ignorance.

* S. Luke xxiii. 34. f Cf. S. Luke xix. 41-44.

X S. !Matt.. xxiii. t^*].

219

" They know not Him that sent Me." The Jews
of our Lord's day knew a great deal about God
and His revelation to men. It was an intensely
religious age. The leaders of the nation held
their positions by virtue of their religious
profession. They were : Pharisees or Sadducees,
Scribes, Elders or Priests ; and all these titles
told either of their religious views or of their
religious occupation.

The services of the Temple had probably
never been performed with greater splendour,
and the Temple itself as restored by Herod
had attained to its greatest magnificence. Then
the study of the letter of Holy Scripture was
pursued with painstaking industry and passionate
devotion. It had reached its highest development ;
there were volumes of traditional comments on
the letter of Holy Scripture, but the spirit, alas,
was neglected or forgotten.

The Jews then knew about God, about the
Father Who had sent Christ, but they did not
know Him, they did not apprehend His character,
His attributes of love and mercy and truth. The
ignorance to which our Lord refers was not a
theological but a moral ignorance. Theology was
recognised as the very queen of sciences in those
day, but, alas, it was divorced from practical life.

220

€U T37orfb*6 35ttorance.

H-

The positive enactments of Holy Scripture in
regard to tithing, mint and anise and cummin*
were strictly observed, and the ritual law in
regard to the washing of pots and cups was
rigidly enforced, but the weightier matters of the
law, righteousness and truth and mercy, were
sadly overlooked.

" If I had not come and spoken unto them, they
had not had sin : but now they have no cloke

for their sin If I had not done among

them the works which none other man did, they
had not had sin, but now they have both seen
and hated both Me and My Father." The
complete parallelism of these two verses is very
striking. " If I had not come and spoken unto
them, they had not had sin." " If I had not
done among them the works which none other
man did, they had not had sin." In the first our
Lord points to His teachings as a testimony to His
Person and mission, in the second He points to His
works ; and He shows that if the ignorance of those
who persecuted Him had been the ignorance of those
who had never come in contact with truth, it
would have been excusable, but that it was ignorance
persevered in in spite of the evidence of Christ's
teachings and of His miracles and works of mercy.

* S. Matt, xxiii. 23.
221

-o^ Stft^ ^gfutbag in &enf.

Their ignorance was wilful ignorance, and there-
fore it was sin, and sin which had no cloke, that
is, no excuse. They had abundant evidence of the
truth of Christ's claims, they even investigated some
of the evidence, as in the case of the man born
blind," but though they were constrained to admit
the facts, they absolutely refused to acknowledge
the inference which the facts suggested. " They
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of the mouth of Christ, "-(• but they rejected His
teachings. . They could not deny His many miracles
of healing the sick and raising the dead, but they
refused to acknowledge that He came from God.
They shut their eyes to the truth ; they hated it, and
as Christ says, in hating it, hated both Himself and
His Father.

This was the result of their sin, and their sin was
the result of wilful ignorance. Darkness hates light,
it cannot endure it, because light disperses and
destroys darkness. Sin hates goodness, because
goodness is a constant reproach to the sinner. Error
hates truth, because error is of the Evil One and
truth is of God. How clearly our Lord points out
the difference between ignorance which is a mis-
fortune, and that ignorance which is wilful, and
therefore without excuse, we see this when He pleads

* Cy. S. John ix. 13-34. t O^ ^- Luke iv. 22.

222

for His murderers, saying, " They know not what
they do."

Then again, Christ points to the warnings of the
prophets. Their own Scriptures not only prophesied
of the coming of the Messiah, but of His rejection,
and of the hatred with which He would be met.
" But this Cometh to pass, that the word might be
fulfilled which is written in their law. They hated
Me without a cause." The Jews had everything : the
evidence of our Lord's words and of His miraculous
works ; they had also the witness of their own
Scriptures, but they would not believe, and therefore
He holds them responsible for their unbelief

There are many lessons which we may learn from
this passage. What do we love ? Light or darkness,
goodness or evil, error or truth ? Are we content
with the theological knowledge of Christ, or do we
strive to know Him as our Master and our Friend ?
Some may say, " How can I know whether I am
right, whether what I believe is truth } " The
answer is not so difficult as it seems. We can
know by the guiding of the Holy Ghost, Who is
the Spirit of Truth, and of Whom our Lord tells
us that He shall guide the Church into all truth.
There are many theological opinions about which
there may be different views, but the essential truth
into which the Holy Ghost has guided the Church

223

§0^ iS^ft^ ^dtutbag in &enf.

can without much difficulty be recognised because
it is held and taught by every part of the Church.

That parts of the Church may err in regard to
theological opinion, is not inconsistent with God's
promise. It is impossible that the whole Church
can be led astray ; so that wherever we find a truth
taught by every part of the Church we may be
sure of its authority ; and we shall find upon
investigation that this includes all essential truth,
that the matters of theological speculation upon
which different communions in the Church disagree
do not touch the vital truths of the Christian creed.

We must pray to be delivered from prejudice,
and, claiming Christ's promise, we must ask the
Holy Ghost to guide us into all truth, and to this
end diligently study that truth which comes to us
with the authority of the Holy Catholic Church.

224

XXIX.

^ift^ (Ittonbag in &cnt

THE ADVOCATE AS CHRIST'S WITNESS.

S. John xv. 26, 27.

" 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."

EFORE we proceed to a consideration of
the special teaching of this passage — that
the Comforter or Advocate is to bear
witness to Christ — it will be well to examine
carefully its theological bearing upon the doctrine
of the Holy Ghost. We must first notice the
emphatic use in the Greek of the personal pronouns,
that they are not contained in the verb, but that a
separate personal pronoun is employed in referring
both to Christ and to the Holy Ghost.

225 Q

-^ ^iftf^ (fflonbgg in &enf.

In the clause, " When the Comforter is come
Whom I will send unto you from the Father," our
Lord uses the emphatic " I " (Eyf^), and its use
involves a claim to divine power, to equality with
the Father. For in a previous passage relating to
the Holy Ghost Christ had said, " Whom the Father
will send in My Name."* Now He says emphatically,
" Whom / will send," claiming to do that which He
had before ascribed to the Father.

Again, in the clause " He shall testify of Me,"
the personal pronoun (cWvor) which is rendered "He"
is masculine, but in the Greek the word for Spirit
(nvlviia) is neuter, so that the concord in gender,
between the pronoun and the noun to which it
refers, is violated in order to bring out clearly the
personality of the Holy Ghost.

We must further notice the expression "which
proceedeth from the Father." It will carry our
thoughts at once to the article of our Creed con-
cerning the Holy Ghost — " Who proceedeth from
the Father and the Son ; " an article of faith which,
in its wording rather than its essential doctrine,
separates the Eastern Church from the rest of
Christendom.

The Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the
Father and the Son, not as from two origins, but

* S. John xiv. 26.
226

as from one, not by two spirations, but by one
spiration. He proceeds, therefore, by an act of the
will ; and as we have no name for this procession
suggested by what occurs in man, and as the act of
intellect by which the Father generates the Son is
virtually distinct from the act of will by which the
Father with the Son breathes forth the Holy Spirit,
the general word " spiration " (breathing) is used for
this procession of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy
Ghost (like the Son) is not distinct in essence from
the Father from Whom He proceeds, this procession
is called " immanent procession," for in Theology the
word procession signifies the origination of one thing
from another, but where the thing originated is not
really distinct in essence from the principle which
originated it, the procession is termed " immanent
procession."

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father onljy
as the Source, Fountain, or Beginning. He is the
eternal love of the Father and the Son mutually
breathed forth by them, and is, as it were, the bond
of union in the Eternal Trinity.

In the Creed, as set forth by the Council of
Chalcedon, A.D. 451, the article to which we have
referred reads, " Who proceedeth from the Father ; "
the words, ** and the Son," having been added later
and without conciliar authority. Hence they are

227

•»§ f ift3 (fflonbag in feent.

rejected by the Eastern Church, which accuses the
West of having; altered the Creed by interpolating
these words. The point of agreement in regard to
the doctrine of the procession is that both Churches
hold that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father
only as from the Source, Fountain, or Beginning, but
that He proceeds through or by the Son.

Althougli the words " from the Son " crept into
the Creed without adequate authority, the West
cannot surrender them, now that they have become
part of her recognised theology, without seeming to
throw doubt upon the doctrine which they teach —
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and
Son by mutual spiration, though from the Father
only as the Source. But in its explanation of the
manner of this procession the Western Theologians
entirely accept the language of the Greek Fathers,
that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father,
through or by the Son, the difference therefore is
one rather of words than of faith.

We may further point out that there are two
Missions of the Holy Ghost — His eternal Mission
by which He proceeds from the Father and the Son
in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity, and His
temporal Mission by which He proceeds from the
Father and the Son to accomplish His work in the
world. The question may be asked to which of

228

these processions is our Lord referring in the passage
under our consideration. "The Comforter . . .
Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even
the Spirit of Truth, Which proceedeth from the
Father." There seems no doubt that Christ is
referring to the temporal mission of the Holy Ghost.
This is evident, first from the purpose of His Mission
— to testify unto Christ in the world — and then also
from the pronoun used in the phrase " from the
Father" (Trapd). This pronoun signifies from the
side of a person, not like dTro, from a source.

With this explanation let us pass on to the con-
sideration of the special function in the temporal
Mission of the Holy Ghost to which our Lord draws
attention — the work of witnessing to Christ. If we
compare the twenty-sixth verse with that which
precedes it, we shall see that the witness of the Holy
Ghost is contrasted with the hatred of the world,
which is the main subject of this section of our
Lord's discourse.

Christ had traced this hatred to ignorance of the
Father.* He had further showm that this ignorance
was inexcusable, because the Jews had the testimony
of their own Scriptures and prophets, which bore
witness to the Messiah. These Scriptures and
prophecies He had Himself so fulfilled as to leave

* C/. ver. 21.
229

-^ f tft^ ^ottbAg in &eni

no doubt in the mind of an unprejudiced Jew that
He was the Messiah.

He now goes on to show that in the future the
world should be still more without excuse, because
the Holy Ghost should testify unto Him, which He
has done through the marvellous works wrought in the
Christian Church by His power. Not only did the
miracles worked by the Apostles after the Day of
Pentecost, through the agency of the Holy Ghost,
bear witness to Him, but the world has before it
a constant miracle in the existence of the Church
of Christ as a perpetual testimony to the truth of
His teachings and to the divinity of His Person.
This testimony is not confined to the apostolic age,
but in its fullest application is to be taken of the
interpretation of Christ's life and work as given by
the Holy Ghost through the teachings of the
Church.

Not only was the Holy Ghost to bear this witness
unto the world, but they themselves were also to
bear witness. That is, they were to testify to what
they had seen and heard without them — to the
objective facts of the life and teachings of their
Master. And they were also to testify to that
which they had experienced within them — to the
subjective experiences of their own soul's life.

The passage further points out their fitness to bear

230

this testimony because they had been with Christ
from the beginning, and so were peculiarly com-
petent to give evidence of all that He had said
and done in His historic life on earth. This
injunction is repeated by our Lord just before His
Ascension into Heaven, when He says to them,
"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto
Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."*

This command is handed on by the Apostles to
us, and no duty can be more binding on us than that
of bearing witness to the world of the truth of Chris-
tianity ; but the witness which we can bear is not so
much to the objective facts of our Lord's life, as to
its subjective power manifested in our own lives,
enabling us to show forth in a world, which hates
the light and loves darkness, the brightness of a
Christ-like life.

Our Blessed Lord in giving this command to His
Apostles knew that it would be the most convincing
evidence of the truth of His claims, that it would be
the force by which the world should be won to Him.
The evidence of the Apostles alone would have been
powerless, but they were to bear witness in conjunc-
tion with the witness of the Holy Ghost. So it is

* Acts i. 8.
231

-9$ ftft^ (fflonbag in feeni

now. It is not by the eloquence of preaching, nor
the cogency of argument, it is not by the brilliancy
of our learning or the attraction of worldly success
that we are to win souls to Christ, but by the simple
testimon}^ of Christian lives lived under the guidance
of the Holy Ghost.

232

XXX.

Stft^ 2;ue6b<xj in SLtnt

PERSECUTION THE RESULT OF THE
WORLD'S HATRED.

S. John xvi. 1-4.

"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."

T this point we have a division of chapters,
but there is no break in the discourse, for
the first six verses of the sixteenth chapter
belong to the section we have been considering —
the section in which our Lord treats of the hatred
of the world towards those who are united to Him,
and are living with His Life, as the branches are
united and live with the life of the vine. Christ

233

•^^^ Stft^ ^uefibdg in £enf.

has shown that the hatred of the world proceeds
from ignorance of God, but that this ignorance is
rendered inexcusable in the case of the Jews by
the testimony of their own scriptures, and in that
of the world at large, by the testimony of the
Holy Spirit in the Church of Christ.

He now proceeds to foretell the issue of this
hatred in persecution, which shall take the form,
first, of excommunication, and shall then manifest
itself in an attempt to extirpate His teaching by
personal violence towards His followers, ending in
the crime of murder on the part of their persecutors,
and in the glories of martyrdom for those who are
faithful to Him. Christ further shows that in its
blindness the world shall hide its crime by the
assumption of religious zeal, and shall think that in
taking the lives of God's servants they are offering
Him religious service.

These things Christ foretells in order that, when
they come to pass, the Apostles may not be offended.
While this is the only passage in S. John's Gospel
in which the word " offended " is used, it occurs
frequently in the synoptists, and it may be well,
therefore, to examine its exact significance. The
Greek word (o-KaudaXa) of which this is a Latinised
equivalent, is derived from a noun which signified
originally the spring or trigger of a trap for

234

(gemfi of iU ^orfb^g ^afreb. ^

catching birds. Then it came to be appHed to an
obstacle put in a person's way to cause him to
stumble or fall, so that, in this sense, a stumbling-
block would be a good rendering of the word.
In our verb " to scandalise " we have the actual
Greek word used metaphorically, in somewhat the
same sense as the word " offend " is here employed.

Our Lord further reveals that His purpose in
foretelling the persecutions which await them is to
forewarn them, lest they should stumble or fall
when they actually occur. To be forewarned is
to be forearmed ; and nothing is more striking in
the Gospels than the frequency and distinctness
with which Christ forewarns His Apostles that those
who follow Him must expect persecution, that they
cannot be His disciples without taking up the cross
of suffering. In this passage He tells them that
one form of suffering will be persecution, caused
by the hatred of the world towards all who show
themselves to be His disciples by following in the
steps of His life. Let us examine this revelation
a little more in detail.

The form which persecution was first to take,
our Lord tells them, would be excommunication —
*' They shall put you out of the synagogues." We
know that this decision was reached by the Jewish
Church after the miracle of the healing of the blind

235

'^^ :S'tft^ €ncBb(X^ in SLcni.

man recorded in S. John ix., where we read, " The
Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess
that he was Christ, he should be put out of the
synagogue."* And later we are told " they cast
Him out," or excommunicated Him.t

Christ tells them, however, that persecution shall
not stop at excommunication, that the time shall
come when "whosoever killeth you will think that
he doeth God service." Here our Lord not only
foretells that martyrdom awaits them, but reveals
to them the motives by which their adversaries
shall seek to justify their cruelty; for He points
out that the excuse will be religious zeal, that they
shall think that they are doing God service in
putting you to death. And we may notice that the
word translated " service " (Xarpemj/) signifies the
highest act of religious worship — the worship which
is due to God alone.

This prophecy has been fulfilled again and again
in the history of the Church. For not only were
our Lord's disciples persecuted by the Jews, and,
as in the case of S. Stephen, S. James, and others,
put to death by them ; but they were persecuted
by the Roman Emperors throughout three centuries,
when the blood of the martyrs became the seed
of the Church.

* S. John ix. 22. f S. John v. 34.

236

(gtend of fge ^orfb'B j^afreb. ^

This, however, does not exhaust the prophecy,
for Christians, alas, have put their fellow-Christians
to death in vain attempts to extirpate what they
deemed to be heresy, and have excused their
cruelty by ascribing it to religious zeal. They
thought that they were doing God service. Such
was certainly the feeling of Mary, Queen of England,
as she reluctantly signed the death-warrants pre-
sented to her by her ecclesiastical advisers, who
thus attempted to stamp out rebellion against
Romanism. Possibly the same excuse may have
been made by her successor, Elizabeth, for the far
greater number of persons put to death in her reign
for their religious convictions. Such, doubtless, was
the motive which led to the establishment of the
Inquisition, whose cruelties, while they shock a
more refined age, were undoubtedly in the first
instance the outcome of religious zeal against
heresy.

" All these things will they do unto you, because
they have not known the Father, nor Me." We
may observe how emphatically our Blessed Lord
traces the real cause of these cruelties to ignorance
of the character of God — " They have not known
the Father, nor Me ; " and this ignorance is in
Christians absolutely inexcusable. The heathen
who does these things because he knows not God,

237

^ fift^ gueebdg ttt &enl

can plead ignorance as an excuse, but the Christian
who does them is inexcusable. For while he knows
a great deal about God and God's revelation, he
cannot know God Himself ; for God is Love, and
it is inconceivable that a God, Whose character is
love, could justify cruelty, even for the purpose
of enforcing orthodoxy.

Truth, to be of any value to a man, must be
the result of intellectual or moral conviction, not
of physical compulsion. To enforce a verbal accept-
ance of theological dogmas by threats of physical
pain or death, can never result in either intellectual
or moral conviction. At most it can but convert
a heretic into a hypocrite, and that at the cost
of employing measures which must always be
abhorrent to a God of Love.

238

XXXI.

^ixt^ T3?ebne6bag in SLCnt

THE EXPEDIENCY OF UNPLEASANT
TRUTHS.

S. John xvi. 4-7.

"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. Nevertheless I tell you the truth ;
It is expedient for you that I go away."

UT these things have I told you, that when
the time shall come, ye may remember
that I told you of them." These are
important words ; for they are applicable not only to
the Apostles themselves in the troubles which were
coming upon them, but to Christians of all ages,
even to ourselves in the difficulties of life. For in
the trials and temptations which come to us in our

239

^ ^irt^ ^ctncBbaT^ in feent.

efforts to serve God and to keep His commandments,
which come to us often just because we are striving
to be faithful to His precepts, we shall find strength
and help in the thought that our Lord warned us
that we must expect just such difficulties, that He
told us clearly that all who followed Him would be
treated by the world as He was treated, that He
called upon us to count the cost before we enrolled
ourselves in His service, and to remember, when
trial or suffering befell us, that He had warned us
that this would be our lot.

S. Peter takes up and enforces this teaching when
he says, " Beloved, think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened unto you : But rejoice,
inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ;
that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be
glad with exceeding joy."* How often we forget
this admonition, and think it very strange, and,
perhaps, even unjust, that we should have to endure
certain sorrows or sufferings — unjust, because we
have always striven to serve God faithfully. And
yet our Lord and His Apostles point out to us that
this is precisely the reason why we must expect
peculiar sufferings; for the world hates those who are
Christ's, and persecutes them. And not only the

* I S. Peter iv. 12, 13.
240

(Brpebtencg of (Unpfeacant Zxutf^B. ^

world, but he who is the Prince of this world, the
devil, will bring peculiar temptations to bear upon
those who are striving most earnestly to follow the
steps of their Lord's life.

S. Peter exhorts us to rejoice, inasmuch as by
these trials we are made partakers of Christ's
sufferings ; and what can be a greater privilege to
the Christian than to share his Master's Cross ? As
we have already noticed, our Lord draws attention to
the same privilege when He says, " All these things
will they do unto you for My Name's sake."*

" 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." While Christ was with them He could
comfort them and guide them, but now that He is
about to leave them, He tells them of all the sorrows
which shall befall them, in order that when they
happen. His disciples may be prepared for them, and
may not be overwhelmed as by unexpected trials.
But Christ does more than this. He goes on to
promise them another Comforter, Who, like Himself,
and even more than Himself, shall comfort and guide
them. These things He had not told them at the

* S. John XV. 21.

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^ ^ixi^ T^ebnecbag in £enf.

beginning-, because, while He was with them, He
could help them to meet their difficulties as they arose.
He now tells them of another Guide, Who shall
never leave them, Who shall guide them into all
truth and shall comfort them in all sorrows. The
coming of this Comforter, however, depends on
Christ's departure.

He says, " 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." Surely these
are words of gentle reproof. They were so absorbed
in their own sorrow at the thought of losing Him,
that they did not stop to think or to ask how His
departure would affect Himself. They knew He
was leaving them ; in the thought of their own loss
they did not enquire concerning His gain. He was
going to the Father Who had sent Him; He was
going to prepare a place for them in the Father's
house. Surely these words opened out wonderful
possibilities in the great future beyond the grave ;
yet they were so occupied in their present grief, that
they had little interest in what He said about the
future.

" None of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou ? "
But some may say, did not S. Peter and S. Thomas
substantially ask this question. S. Peter used the

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very words, " Lord, whither goest Thou ? "* and S.
Thomas suggested this question when he said, " Lord,
we know not whither Thou goest, how know we the
way? "f This is true ; but if we examine what they
said a Httle more carefully, we shall observe that
they were both thinking of themselves, of our Lord's
departure in relation to themselves, and that they
were neither of them solicitous about their Master's
future, except in so far as it affected themselves.

Christ's answer to S. Peter shows this, for He says,
" Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now ; but
thou shalt follow Me afterwards." S. Peter's question,
'* Lord, whither goest Thou ? " had for its motive
S. Peter's intention to go with his Master ; and
similarly S. Thomas is more concerned with the fact
that he is not clear about the way in which he
himself is to walk, than he is in regard to the goal
of his Master's journey. When, therefore, Christ
says, *' None of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou?
But because I have said these things unto you,
sorrow hath filled your heart," He is referring not
so much to the verbal question, " Whither goest
Thou ? " as to the fact that their sorrow was so
entirely selfish, that they were occupied exclusively
in the consideration of the effect of their Master's
departure upon their own lives.

* S. John xiii. 36. f S. John xiv. 5.
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•o^ ^ixi^ T3?ebnegbag in &enf>

" Nevertheless, I tell you the truth ; It is expedient
for you that I go away." In these words we have
a great practical lesson. Our Lord does not hesitate
to tell them the truth, when it is expedient for them
to know that truth, even though that knowledge is to
fill their heart with sorrow. How often we shrink
from telling other people unpleasant truths, which
we ought to tell them, because we are afraid of
displeasing them, or of causing them pain. Again,
^ we do not like others to tell us unpleasant truths,
because they hurt our vanity. But, alas, we are
quite ready to speak unpleasant truths to gratify our
malice against those whom we do not love, or
perhaps even without this excuse, when we indulge
in idle gossip.

How different was our Lord's rule. He says,
" Although these things fill you with sorrow, never-
theless, I tell you the truth." He told them what
was unpleasant, because it was for their good. He
did not hold back part of the truth, as people so
often do, for fear of offending them. He told them
the whole truth because it was important that they
should know it, although it was hard for them to
hear it. It was expedient for them that He should
go away, in order that the Comforter might come
unto them ; and instead of waiting for them to find
this out for themselves, Christ tells them of it, tells

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(B;ryebtencg of (Unyfeaeant txni^B. ^

them plainly, though it pains them to hear it, tells
them not only that He is about to leave them, but
that His departure, the very thought of which fills
them with sorrow, is for their ultimate benefit.

245

XXXIL

THE HOLY GHOST AND SIN.

S. John xvi. 7, 8.

*' 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 reprove the world of sin,
of righteousness, and of judgment."

N these words our Lord not only tells His
disciples why it is expedient that He
should go away — that the Comforter may
come unto them — but He reveals to them the
purpose and work for which the Comforter shall
come as it regards the world at large. Of course,
we must bear in mind that the work of the Holy
Ghost in the world is many-sided. He comes to
bear witness to Christ ; He comes to guide the
Church into all trulh ; He comes to endow the

246

Church with special powers of grace ; but His work
upon the world and in the individual soul is summed
up with great conciseness, and yet with sufficient
fulness in the v/ords, " He shall reprove the world
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." Most
persons probably read these words without adequately
understanding them, certainly without realising that
in them is contained an epitome of the work of
the Holy Spirit upon the soul of man.

First we must point out that the word translated
" reprove " (eXe-y^ei) ought to be convict. The word
itself signifies to convince by argument, and so, in
this case, to convict the world of sin. But what do
we mean by convict ? What is the full force of this
word ? It is a word of very wide meaning, for it
implies, first an authoritative examination, and
then someone who has a right to make the
examination — as in a court of justice the court has
authority to examine witnesses. It further implies
unquestionable proof; in a court conviction cannot
follow unless the crime has been proved. And
lastly it implies the power to punish, for no court
convicts a man of crime unless it can pass sentence
upon that man.

If we apply this to the conviction of the world
by the Holy Ghost we shall see that the term
conviction involves such a conviction, that he who

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•«^ ^irt^ ^^^utBbdg in &cnt

rejects it, rejects it with his eyes open and at his
peril. And this is precisely what happens when
an individual rejects the work and teaching of the
Holy Ghost.

We cannot apply this to the heathen who know
not God, nor to those nominal Christians who have
never really come into contact with the work of the
Holy Ghost, and whose rejection of Christ's claims
upon them is not so much wilful, as from ignorance
of the overwhelming force of those claims. We
must refer it rather to those who have seen the light
and turned from it, because they loved darkness
better ; who have seen the truth and rejected it,
because its acceptance involved sacrifices which they
were not prepared to make. But it refers also,
thank God, to those who have seen and followed the
guiding of the light, and have heard and obeyed the
teachings of the truth.

The work of the Holy Ghost is put by our Lord
under three categories or heads — sin. righteousness,
and judgment. And this division is in a sense
exhaustive, since sin, righteousness, and judgment
are the cardinal elements in the determination of
man's spiritual state in the world ; for in them his
past, his prese7it, and his future are summed up.
Man's past is summed up in the word " sin ; " if
the conviction of sin has led to its proper result

248

tf}C %oi2 (B^M Ci.xi^ ^tn.

r^©-

in penitence, his present will be an intense striving
for righteousness ; and this will enable him to look
forward, with hope and confidence in the mercy
of God, to the future, to the judgment which
awaits all men.

Let us further consider these three states more in
detail, and first the work of the Holy Ghost in
convicting man of sin. The first work of the Holy
Ghost upon the soul of man is its illumination.
God's light shines in the soul revealing to man
two things — his present condition — what he is ; and
his future possibilities — what he may become by the
help of God's grace. And this self-knowledge is the
basis of all future growth in righteousness. We
need to pray, ** Lord, show me myself ; Lord,
let me not deceive myself."

The first revelation of self to a sinner is indeed
overwhelming. Long forgotten sins stand out
clearly in the light of the Spirit of Truth, and the
soul too often seems a chaos of conflicting passions
and desires. We see good and noble purposes
formed, but never carried into execution. We see
grievous sins realised, feebly struggled against, and
then constantly yielded to.

The Holy Ghost first brings home to man that he
is a fallen creature, possessed of great possibilities of
good or evil, but unable, by himself, to rise from sin

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'^^ ^ixt^ S^^utfibag in £enf.

to break its chains, to live the life of righteousness.
So that he can express his conviction of sin in
S. Paul's words, " For the good that I would I do
not : but the evil which I would not, that I do . . .
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is
present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man : But I see another law in my
members, warring against the law of my mind, and
brinf^ing me into captivity to the law of sin which is
in my members. O wretched man that I am ! who
shall deliver me from the body of this death ? "*

This is the first step in the work of the Holy
Ghost in man's soul — to convict him of sin. We
must first learn the possibilities of evil in us, and
then the dangers which threaten us and our own
absolute inability of ourselves to overcome this evil.
After this we must realise that we are subject to the
influence of one of two powers, of one of two spirits
— the Spirit of good, the Holy Ghost, or the spirit of
evil, the devil. We must recognise the fact that we
are not, and that we never can be independent. Our
will is free to choose which it will serve of these two
masters, but serve it must, either enrolling itself in
the service of God, which is perfect freedom, but not
independence, or in the service of the devil, which is
degrading bondage.

* Romans vii. 19-24.
250

The Holy Ghost shall convict the world of sin.
The world is always making mistakes about sin,
taking erroneous views of it — that sin is a misfortune
which cannot be avoided, or a disease which man has
inherited. In either case it persuades itself that it is
something which man cannot help, and for which,
therefore, he is not really responsible. The world
will not admit the guil^ of sin.

Our Lord says that the Holy Ghost will convict
the world " of sin because they believed not on Me."
Since Christ came into the world sin may be traced
back to rejection of Him ; and it is this which the
Holy Ghost brings home to the soul, that sin is
practically the result of unbelief in Christ as the Son
of God, unbelief in Christ as the Redeemer of man,
unbelief in the power of His precious Blood to wash
away sin. For the basis of repentance is faith. If
you do not believe in the power of Christ's precious
Blood to cleanse you from all sin, you will never
rightly repent of your sin. You may have remorse
for it, you may regret it, but you will not repent
of it.

The Holy Ghost shall convict the world " of sin,
because they believed not on Me." It is the work of
God's Spirit to bring this faith home to your soul, to
make it not only an intellectual opinion, but a moral
conviction, so that you may not merely believe in

251

-o^' ^xxt^ ^^^urebag in &enf.

theory that Christ has made provision in His Church
for the absolution and remission of your sins, but
that the moral conviction of sin may lead you to use
diligently the means which Christ has provided and
appointed for its remission.

But not only does the Holy Ghost convict the
soul of sin, it provides the remedy. For the Holy
Ghost is the Agent in the Sacraments of the Church;
by Baptism He applies the precious Blood of Christ
to the remission of all sin both original and actual ;
and for post-baptismal sin through the absolution of
the Church He restores the soul to the state of grace
by the renewed application of the Blood of Christ.

The Holy Ghost convicts the world of rejecting
Christ, of leaving unused His sacraments of grace, of
refusing to see that sin is rebellion, lawlessness, of
attributing sin to other and insufficient causes — to
weakness or ignorance, instead of error in the
intellect and perversion in the soul, and therefore
the rejection alike of truth and righteousness. The
Holy Ghost convicts the world of the erroneousness
of its theories and brings home to the penitent a true
conception of the malice of sin, a realisation of what
sin is in God's sight, and so, lays in the sinner's soul
the foundation of penitence.

252

XXXIII.

^ixt^ S^tbag in &enf.

THE HOLY GHOST AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.

S. John xvi. 8, lo.
"And when He is come, He will convict the world . . . ot
righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more."

E have seen that the cardinal elements in
the determination of man's spiritual state
are three — sin, righteousness, and judgment ;
for in them his past, present, and future are severally
summed up. We are told by our Lord, in the
passage under our consideration, that the Holy
Ghost has a special work to do in the human soul
in regard to each of these. We have treated of
His work in convicting the world of sin ; we have,
therefore, for our consideration to-day His work in
convicting the world of righteousness.

253

The first work of the Holy Ghost in the sinner's
soul, as we have seen, is to reveal to it its true state,
to bestow upon it the gift of self-knowledge, and,
if he use it, the gift of penitence. This is strikingly
brought before us in the parable of the woman
and the ten pieces of silver,* which is indeed the
great parable of the work of the Holy Spirit

The woman begins her work by lighting a candle,
which typifies the illumination of the soul by the
Holy Ghost, the light of the candle revealing the
condition of her house. She sees the dust of sin,
the result, perhaps, of years of neglect. Then follows
the diligent sweeping, which brings before us the
work of penitence ; and as this sweeping proceeds
and the dust is removed, the piece of silver is
discovered hidden away among the dust. The light
shines upon it, and the silver piece responds to
the light, reflecting it with metallic glitter.

At this point in the parable we reach the second
stage of the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul —
the discovery of its innate possibilities of righteous-
ness. Some have seen a striking analogy between
the coin stamped with the image of the reigning
sovereign and the soul impressed with the image
of God, the Lord of all ; but, beautiful as the analogy
is, it can scarcely be pressed in this case, since

* Cf. S. T.uke XV. 8-10.

254

the word {dpaxfMrjv) translated a " piece of silver "
signifies the Greek drachma, which did not, like
the Latin denarius, bear upon it the emperor's
image and superscription, but was generally stamped
with some device — an owl or tortoise, or the head
of Minerva.

While we may not press the analogy, the fact is
no less true that the soul of man bears impressed
upon it the image of God ; and it is the revelation
of this, its intrinsic value because of its immense
possibilities, which is the second stage of the work
of the Holy Ghost in man's soul. The Holy Spirit
not only reveals to the sinner what he is, but
shows him what he may become if he will correspond
with God's grace, diligently sweeping away the dust
of sin through penitence, and earnestly striving to
perfect the work of righteousness in his life.

But this, again, is the special work of the Holy
Ghost, Who is the Sanctifier of the elect, and Who,
after He has convicted the world of the need and
possibility of righteousness, proceeds to the work
of sanctification in the soul which surrenders itself
to His guidance. But in what does this work
consist ?

First, in bringing home to the soul the righteous-
ness of Christ as the only righteousness possible.
Our Lord said of the Comforter, " He shall testify

255

^ ^ixi^ Snbctg in SLcni,

of Me," and again, " He shall glorify Me, for He
shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto
you."*

Then in the work of imparting to the soul this
righteousness through incorporation with Christ by
Baptism, and through feeding upon Him in the
Holy Communion ; for we must remember that the
Holy Ghost is the Agent of all the Sacraments. The
priest may pour water upon the child and say the
words which Christ commanded, but it is the Holy
Ghost Who regenerates that child. For, as our
Lord said to Nicodemus, '* Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the Kingdom of God."-f- The priest may consecrate
the elements in the Holy Eucharist, but it is the
Holy Ghost Who makes the Bread and Wine to
become the Body and Blood of Christ. And yet
ap^ain, if this righteousness should be lost by
yielding to mortal sin, it is the Holy Ghost Who,
working in the Sacrament of Penance, restores the
soul to the state of grace.

" He will convict the world .... of righteous-
ness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me
no more." In these words our Lord associates
righteousness with His Ascension ; for the life and
death, the resurrection and ascension of Christ

* S. John XV. 26 ; xvi. 14. f S. John iii. 5.

256

placed righteousness in a new light, and brought
it within the reach of every believer. Christ's
Ascension, the consummation of His life and work,
was the vindication of God's righteousness, of
Christ's righteousness. And more, the exaltation
of the Son of Man to the life of glory at the right
hand of the Father in Heaven was necessary, as
our Lord reminded His disciples, in order that He
might send that Holy Spirit, Who should convict
the world of righteousness, and sanctify all who
should yield themselves to His gracious influence.

So S. Paul, quoting from the Psalmist,* says,
" When He ascended up on high, He led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men/'-f* What were
these gifts ? First, the Holy Ghost ; for Christ said,
" 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."{
Then the gifts of grace which the Holy Ghost
brings to the soul.

Lastly, to encourage us in our pursuit of right-
eousness, there is the thought, the conviction, that
since, and because of, Christ's Ascension there is
reigning in Heaven glorified Humanity in the Person
of the Son of God, the Lord of righteousness ;
and there comes to us from the throne of Heaven

* Psalm Ixviii. i8. f Eph. iv. 8. j John xvi. 7.

257 S

^ ^m frtbftg in &ent.

this message, " To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with My Father in
His throne."*

* Rev. iii. 21.

258

XXXIV.

^ixi^ ^dturbag in £enf.

THE HOLY GHOST AND JUDGMENT.

S. John xvi. 8 and ii.

*'And when He is come, He will convict the world .... of
judgment, because the prince of this world is judged."

F man's past state has been one of sin, and
his present condition ought to be a state of
righteousness, there can be no doubt in the
mind of the Christian that there awaits him in the
future the Day of Judgment. And it is the work of
the Holy Ghost to convince man of this, to bring it
home to him, not merely as a dogma of faith to
which his intellect gives assent, but as a tremendous
moral fact which must influence the whole of life ;
for the teaching of S. Paul, that " we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ ; that

259

every one may receive the things done in his body,
accordinor to that he hath done, whether it be good
or bad,"* is an essential dogma of a Christian's faith.

This is accomplished largely by arousing in man,
or, if it be already aroused, deepening in him, a sense
of responsibility, a conviction of the strictness of the
account which he must give for his life here. A
conviction that the day will come when he will have
to render an account of his stewardship, when he will
be accused by the accuser of the brethren, the devil
himself, of wasting his Lord's goods, of misusing or
not using the talents committed to him for the work
of life in this world.

There is in every man the sense of responsibility ;
for this is one of the innate ideas implanted in man
by God Who created him. If you were to stop an
unbeliever in the street and ask him, " Are you a
responsible being ? " what would he answer ? He
would certainly say, " Yes ; every man who is not
deprived of the light of reason is a responsible
being." He will say this ; for there is in everyone
an innate conviction, the voice of natural conscience,
which brings home to him, more or less, a sense of
responsibility.

But if you were to go on to ask, " To whom arc
you responsible?" you would not find the same

* 2 Cor. V. lo.

260

universal agreement in the answer. The Christian,
without hesitation, would say, " I am responsible to
God ; " the unbeliever might reply, " I am responsible
to society, to my fellow-men, or, perhaps, to my own
higher self. I am responsible to my conscience
which, if I do wrong, reproaches me and pursues me
with the accusations and pangs of remorse."

We shall not consider the unbeliever's answer
further than to observe that it is quite inadequate,
and is extorted from him only by the undeniable fact
of the existence in every man of a sense of responsi-
bility. Our Lord reveals to us that it is the work of
the Holy Ghost to convince the world of judgment,
that is, to enlighten the natural conscience in regard
to this innate sense of responsibiHty, to be its guide
and to teach it why it is responsible, in what way
and to whom.

But first, what do we mean by this word " respon-
sible " ? Its derivation suggests that it means we
must give an answer, when we are examined, con-
cerning the thoughts, words, and actions of our life.
We are responsible because God, Who created us,
endowed us with the light of reason and with a sense
of right and wrong, with a knowledge of good and
evil. The lower animals and those unfortunate
human beings who are bereft of reason, are not
responsible because they have not the light of reason

261

and the knowledge of ri^ht and wrong to guide
them. There is an instinct in the lower animals
which prevents them from doing things harmful to
themselves, and leads them to choose what is best
for their own limited life. Yet this instinct does not
give them the power of moral choice. A dog may-
be trained to do certain things and to abstain from
others, but the motive is remembrance of pleasure or
pain, or fear of punishment ; it is not a sense of right
and wrong, not a knowledge of good and evil.

Again, we are responsible because there is a
tribunal before which we must stand to give account
of our life in this world. As S. Paul says, " We
shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ,"
and " and every one of us shall give account of
himself to God."* It is the work then of the Holy
Ghost to convince us of this tremendous fact which
awaits us in the future, that there is a day of judg-
ment when we must render our account to God, and
to teach us now to prepare for that great day. This
preparation should affect our daily lives, should lead
us so to live " That we may have boldness in the day
o f judgment"!

The conviction that there is a day of judgment
when we must give an account of our stewardship,
will lead practically to great carefulness and watch-

* Rom. xiv. lo and 12. f i S. John iv. 17.

262

fulness in our present lives. It will also kindle a
great desire for accurate self-knowledge, and will
impel us, therefore, to such steps as will enable us to
advance in this important duty. But self-knowledge
and watchfulness alike demand the practice of self-
examination ; for if we are to give an account we
must keep an account, and self-examination is the
means by which our account is kept.

Again, if we are to watch we must practice con-
stant self-examination ; for this is really what
watchfulness means. The watchman on the walls
of a beleaguered city is constantly examining or
watching all that takes place without the city, in
order that he may detect any covert approach of the
enemy, and give the alarm to those within. The
only way in which we can follow this example in
regard to our spiritual life is by frequent examination
of our thoughts and words and deeds, to see if
temptation has been yielded to, and more, to find
out precisely through what temptations the devil
is striving to gain an entrance into our souls.

Then, too, self-examination is necessary in order
that we may repair the breaches which have been
made in our spiritual fortifications by our yielding to
temptation. For self-examination reveals not only
the temptations by which Satan is striving to over-
come us, but the extent to which they have been

263

•^ ^ixi^ ^(tturbag in &ent.

consented to, and therefore the extent of the injury
to the fortifications of our soul. This will lead, on
the one hand, to penitence by which we remove the
guilt of sin and heal its wounds, and on the other
hand to efforts to acquire the opposite virtues. For
penitence alone is but negative in its effects, the
undoing of the injury done to our souls through sin,
and it is only through the acquisition of Christian
virtues, especially such as are of the very opposite
character to our sins, that we can acquire strength
and develop spiritual character.

In this work of self-examination we must carefully
bear in mind that we have not only to give account
of what we have done amiss, but also of what we
have left undone, of the opportunities which we have
neglected, of having wasted the goods committed to
us. Our Blessed Lord in more than one of His
parables warns us of this. In the Parable of the
Talents and in the Parable of the Pounds, it was the
man who had not used his one talent or pound who
was cast into the outer darkness ; and in the Parable
of the Judgment Day, those on the left hand,
who received the sentence of condemnation, were
told that it was because they had left undone
works of mercy, because they had failed to use
opportunities of loving service to their fcllow-nicn,
that they were condemned.

264

We must further notice that our Lord tells us that
the Holy Ghost shall convict the world of judgment,
because "the prince of this world is judged," or
rather hath been judged ; for the tense is the perfect
(KCKpirat). The prince of this world, Satan, was
judged on the Cross, when guilty man was redeemed,
for the Cross was indeed the judgment seat of
Christ, where the debt of sin was paid, the devil
condemned, and man, through the merits of Christ,
acquitted.

The devil, as his very name implies, comes before
God as the accuser of man, but finds himself accused
of man's fall, and condemned in the very act by
which he thought to gain the victory, the act by
which he strove to put to death the Son of God. As
S. Ambrose has said, The wolf seized the Lamb of
God in his jaws, but found his jaw broken on the
Rock of Ages ; for Satan's power over man was
broken by the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ.

The Cross of our Lord is the judgment throne not
only for Satan, but for all men who come in contact
with it ; for all men are judged by their relation to
the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. Sin was the
cause of our Lord's Passion — our sins ; and we must
say in the words of the great penitent, David,
" Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God."* He

* Psalm li. 14.
265

^ ^ixi^ Safutbag in SLtni,

was thinking of his guilt with respect to the shedding
of Uriah's Blood, we of our share in the shedding of
the Blood of Christ by our sins.

We are judged by our relation to His Passion ; for
that Blood which was shed upon the Cross either
cries out against us for vengeance, or is poured upon
us, cleansing us through penitence. Satan has been
judged and condemned, and for him there is no
further judgment ; we are being judged now. We
are called upon to judge ourselves day by day ; for
there is a tribunal of mercy before which we may
even now give our account, and receive acquittal for
our debts in preparation for that great day when all
accounts will be rendered, and each will receive
either acquittal or condemnation.

266

XXXV.

THE HOLY GHOST OUR GUIDE.

S. John xvi. 12-15.

' ' 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
shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine : there-
fore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall shew it unto you."

|E have spoken of the work of the Holy-
Ghost towards the world, and towards the
individual soul in the world, as manifested
in convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. In the next section, which we are
to consider to-day, our Lord turns to the work of
the Holy Ghost in relation to the Church, to His
work among those who have passed from sin unto

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^ (fflonbdg in ^ofg ^uL

righteousness, and are members of Christ's mystical
Body, the Church. The office of the Paraclete is
not confined to the conviction of the world ; He
carries forward the work begun by Christ in the
disciples, and, by guiding them into all the truth,
He glorifies Christ, and inspires and directs the
Church.

" 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." This is
one of the most important passages, one of the
most encouraging promises, in the Bible ; for it
is upon this promise that the Church depends
absolutely as the teacher of truth. Our Lord had
laid down certain principles in His teaching, but
One was needed to guide the Church in the
application of those principles, One who could
supply a divine commentary upon them, applying
them, not only to the needs of individual life, but
to those of the universal Church.

Especially was there need that the meaning of
our Lord's Passion should be unfolded ; but this
was not possible until the Resurrection and the
Ascension and the life of glory which followed

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tU l^ofg <g^ogt out (guibe. ^

had made clear the significance of the Passion.
It was the office of the Spirit of Truth, the Divine
Paraclete, to reveal this and other necessary truths
to the Church. The work of the Holy Spirit is
not to reveal new truths to the Church, but to
develop and unfold, and make clear the truths
which our Lord had taught. For Christ tells us,
" He shall not speak of Himself ; but whatsoever
He shall hear, that shall He speak." And again,
" He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto
you."

We have already treated of the work of the
Spirit of Truth in regard to the dogmas of the
Church. Let us to-day rather dwell upon His
guidance in the study of Holy Scripture. We are
meditating upon Christ's words to-day, as thousands
of Christians of every age, since Christ uttered them,
have meditated upon them. And it is a wonderful
thought that we meditate upon them, because the
Holy Ghost brings them home to us with ever
new significance, according to the needs of our
age, and indeed according to the needs of each
individual soul.

To those who are familiar with the commentaries
upon Holy Scripture which every age has contributed
to the treasures of the Church, it is marvellous to
see, as the centuries roll by, that the inspired

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words of Holy Writ are never exhausted. Each
great writer or Father of the Cliurch contributes
some beautiful thought which has come to him
through the guiding of the Holy Ghost. And yet
the gold-mine of Holy Scripture can still be
worked for more treasure ; and indeed one of the
most striking discoveries that we make is that each
age finds in Holy Scripture just the treasure of
truth which it needs to meet the difficulties of its
own times.

There are some who approach Holy Scripture
under the guidance of their own conceit, and apply
to it merely the resources of their own unaided
reason. Some of these have come to the conclusion,
in our times, that most of the Bible is untrue.
But those who approach its study, relying upon
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, find in it just
the stores of truth which enable them to meet
their own difficulties, to grapple with the problems
of their own life. And yet what they find is not
new truth. It was always there, waiting to be
discovered by those who sought it under the Holy
Spirit's guidance.

The discovery of the laws of electricity and their
application has transformed the conditions of man's
life in the world to-day, and has enabled him to
harness the forces of nature to supply his needs ;

2/0

t^C %0i2 <K^06t out ^UX'tt.

yet the force of electricity is no new force ; it has
existed from the beginning, but its immense power
and manifold application is only now being dis-
covered by man. So in the spiritual world the
Holy Ghost is guiding us to the discovery of new
treasures in the inexhaustible mine of spiritual
truth, treasures which will supply the needs and
meet the difficulties of our own times.

'' I have yet many things to say unto you, but
ye cannot bear them now." Why not ? Chiefly
for two reasons — because the Passion without the
Resurrection and the life of glory, the sufferings
of our Lord without the Holy Ghost to enable
us to understand them, would indeed crush us.
"Ye cannot bear them now." The word translated
"bear" (8ao-ratet»/) suggests the bearing of the cross,
and none could bear the Cross of Christ until the
gift of the Holy Ghost should make clear the
purpose of the Cross. Our Lord says, " Ye cannot
bear them now," and how soon they learnt the
truth of this ; for they stumbled at our Lord's
Passion, they fell under that Cross, one denied
Him, all forsook Him.

We cannot follow Christ in the power of mere
natural courage. The apostles were not wanting
in that gift — quite the contrary. S. Peter, when
he was surrounded by the soldiers and the servants

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^ (Utonbgg in j^ofg ^uL

of the High Priest, could draw his sword and cut
off the ear of Malchus, though he was but one
against a multitude. He was not wanting then in
natural courage, and yet he denied his Master.
If we are to bear the Cross, it must be through
the guidance of the Holy Ghost, teaching us the
relation of the Cross to the glories of eternity,
teaching us the meaning of the Passion, as
interpreted by the Resurrection, the Ascension,
and the glorified life in Heaven.

But our Lord says, " When He, the Spirit of
truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth,"
or rather into all the truth, for the words in the
Greek imply truth in all its parts (els ttju aky]6tLap
Trda-av). The order of the words is somewhat
peculiar, and this very peculiarity of arrangement
implies that the Holy Ghost was to guide them
into comi)lete understanding and sympathy with
the Truth, Jesus Christ Himself.

We must notice that the words are not, as
translated, " into all truth," but " into all t/ie truth."
The Holy Ghost was not to guide them into
all truth, in which might be included scientific
truth, mathematical truth, and the laws of the
physical world, but into all the truth, that is, the
truth of which our Lord had been speaking when
He said, " I am the Truth." Those truths which

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t^c l^ofg (g^Qgt our (guibe. ^

concern His kingdom and Person and work, those
truths upon the knowledge of which man's welfare
and happiness depends.

There is not the slightest intimation that if the
Church should be foolish enough to dogmatise in
regard to science or mathematics, she would not
make gross blunders, as the Roman Church did
in the time of Galileo, but there is the promise
that where she is concerned about the truth which
is in Jesus, about God's revelation to man through
Christ, she shall be guided by the Holy Ghost into
that truth in all its parts.

We must observe, too, the force of the word
"guide." "He will guide you." Christ is the
Way, and the Truth, and the Life. In that Way,
in that Truth, in that Life, the Holy Ghost is the
Guide. And that way leads to the Father, Whose
House is in Heaven, and Who is the goal of every
Christian life. The Holy Ghost is to be the guide,
therefore we are not mere passive instruments, but
living agents. Christ does not say the Holy Ghost
shall transport you into all truth, or compel you to
believe the truth ; we can follow the Guide, or we
can refuse to follow. There is room left for the
working of our own intellect, for the exercise of
our own will. If we do not follow the Guide, it
is our own fault, but we fare not compelled to
follow. 273 T

-^ (Btonbag in ^ot^^ n^eeft,

"For He shall not speak of Himself; but what-
soever He shall hear, that shall He speak. . . .
He shall take of Mine, and shall shew it unto you."
The test of the Holy Ghost's teaching lies in the
fact that His teaching is the perfect expression of
the one will of God. There is no originality in
the teaching of the Holy Ghost. He is to unfold
God's revelation, but if people turn away from
revelation, which it is the work of the Holy Ghost
to bring home to them, and look to the Spirit
alone for illumination, they are likely to mistake
their own tastes and their own prejudices for the
truth. History shows us many instances of those
who have ignored the fact that the work of the
Holy Spirit is not to speak of Himself, but to
take of the things of Christ, and show them to us.
Such persons have fallen into all sorts of error,
and even absurdity, from the time of Tertullian
down to our own day, while claiming a special
enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and
of the Son, and His operation is the operation of
the one Will of the undivided unity. The message
of the Holy Ghost is a complex message, but it
is complete. Nothing is kept back which is made
known to Him in the order of divine wisdom, and
the order of that wisdom is the revelation which

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t^c %oi2 (K^oet our (Buibe. -«•

is contained in the great fact of the Incarnation,
and its consequences — the Passion, the Church, and
the Sacraments.

'* He will show you things to come." The Greek
word {ra €px6fj.eva) signifies that the Holy Ghost is
to show you things that are coming, that He will
reveal to you the future. The Holy Ghost, then,
is to declare unto the Church the whole of
Christianity, the constitution and economy of the
Christian Church in this world and in the world
to come. Too often we confine our thouohts of
the Christian Church to the world in which we
live, to the Church Militant, we forget that by far
the greater part of the Church now is in the world
beyond — either in the Church Expectant, or already
enjoying the Beatific Vision of God in the Church
Triumphant. And Christ tells us that the Holy
Ghost is to reveal to us the future, that is, the
interests of the Church in Heaven. And surely
these interests ought to be to us matters of great
solicitude.

" He shall glorify Me : for He shall receive of
Mine, and shall show it unto you." It is very
noticeable that the work of the Holy Ghost in
relation to God the Son is presented as parallel
to that of the Son in relation to the Father, The
Son came to glorify the Father. — " I seek not Mine

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^ (tttonbgg in j^ofg TJJeeft.

own glory."* The work of the Son of God in
the world was then to glorify His Father, and the
work of the Holy Ghost in the world is to glorify
the Son.

" He shall glorify Me," and further, as we read
in the opening verses of the next chapter, the work
of the Father is also to glorify the Son. " Father,
the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee."t These passages are a
striking testimony to the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity. It is quite impossible to understand them,
or to accept them, without believing in the doctrine
of the Holy Trinity ; for they are both an exhibition
of the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, and a very remarkable setting forth of their
threefold Personality. What the Father does, the
Son does ; what the Son does, the Holy Ghost
does. The undivided Will, the undivided operation,
the oneness of purpose, of substance, is shown on
the one side, and yet there are three distinct
Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

* S. John viii. 50. f S. John xvii. I.

276

XXXVL

2^ue6b(Xg in ^o(2 T3?eefe,

NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL SIGHT.

S. John xvi. 16-19.

"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 there-
fore, 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 enquire 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 ? "

LITTLE while, and ye shall not see Me."
The best manuscripts read, " Ye shall see
Me no more" (ov^eVi). It is difficult for
English readers to understand these words, because,
unfortunately, the translators have used our verb " to

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'^^ Znui(X^ in l^ofg TJ?eeft.

see" to represent two quite different verbs with
different meanings in the Greek. The first verb
(Oeapeire) in the clause, " A Uttle while, and ye shall
not see Me," refers to physical sight, and might be
better rendered by the word " behold." The noun
derived from it (ol Beapoi) signifies " the spectators,"
those who look on and behold ; so that this clause
might be paraphrased, "A little while, and ye shall
behold Me no more with your physical eyes."

The second verb (o-^fo-Be) in the clause, " Again, a
little while, and ye shall see Me," signifies also
spiritual sight, spiritual perception or knowledge, so
that we might paraphrase the whole passage, " A
little while, and ye shall behold Me no more with
your physiccd eyes, and again, a little while, and }'e
shall see Me — not with the eyes of the body, but
through the power of the Holy Ghost."

But this " little while," what does it mean ? It
meant for the disciples, the period between our
Lord's Passion and the Day of Pentecost. During
that time, they neither beheld Him with the eyes of
their body, nor saw Him with the eyes of their mind,
except, indeed, when He chose to manifest Himself
to them on certain occasions during the great Forty
Days after Easter. But when the Holy Ghost was
come, while they were nu longer to behold Him
physically, they were to sec Him more clearly than

278

they had ever seen Him before, with the eyes of the
mind illuminated by the power of the Holy Ghost.

He had said to them, when speaking of the Holy
Spirit, " Whom the world cannot receive, because it
seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him."* Here we
have the same word " behold " (Oecopel). We cannot
behold the Holy Ghost, that is, we cannot see Him
with physical sight, with our natural eyes. There-
fore, as our Lord said the world cannot receive Him ;
for as a rule, the world will only believe in that
of which it can receive physical demonstration.

So we find that some in the so-called Christian
world speak of the Holy Ghost as an " Influence,"
but do not believe in Him as a real Person. Those
who have the eyes of their mind enlightened by the
Holy Ghost are able to believe in that which they
cannot see, and of which there can be no physical
demonstration, and to believe with a conviction
which, in force, far surpasses the effects of any mere
natural knowledge.

But this passage brings before us a very practical
question in our spiritual life. Christ says, " Again, a
little while, and ye shall see me," meaning that after
the Day of Pentecost, the natural powers of the soul
should be so quickened by the gift of the Holy
Ghost, that we should be able to see Him through

* S. John xiv. 17.
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-^ tuCBbiXT^ in ^ofT^ Weeft.

the exercise of spiritual vision, even more clearly
than we can see things by physical sight. And He
further points out that this shall be accomplished by
the Holy Spirit, Who shall. He says, " Take of Mine
and shall shew it unto you ; "* for by this operation
of the Holy Spirit He comes to them again,
according to His promise, " I will not leave you
orphans, I will come to you."t

Now we have to ask ourselves very seriously
whether we are exercising this power of the Holy
Ghost, whether we do see Christ with the eyes of our
soul, see Him, that is, with the clearness and fulness
which spiritual vision implies. The Holy Ghost, so
our Lord tells us, is so to take of the things which
are His, and declare them unto us, that Christ's
Person, Christ's words, Christ's works may be even
more clearly comprehended by us than they were by
the disciples who walked with Him on earth. Can
we say that this is true of our experience, that wc
do see and know Christ in this intimate and close
manner."* If we do not, it is because we are not
using the gift of the Holy Spirit, because we are not
exercising our faculty of spiritual perception.

But you may say, " How can I use this gift, how
can I train this spiritual faculty?" In more ways
than one; but chiefly in prayer and meditation, and by

* S. John xvi. 15. f S. John xiv. 18.

280

prayer I do not mean only asking God to give us those
things which we need, but telling God of our love,
of our trust, of our joy in communion with Him. It
is, however, in the exercise of meditation that we
train our spiritual perception best — in meditating
upon the words of Christ until the sacred page
seems to glow under the light of the Holy Spirit,
and the words, which we have so often read, are seen
to contain deeper truths than are manifest on the
surface, truths, which meet the needs of our own
individual souls, which satisfy the cravings of our
spiritual nature.

Worldly people find it impossible to meditate
upon Divine truth ; impossible, because they have
never developed the power of spiritual vision. They
can meditate, and do meditate, upon the things of
the world, but they have so accustomed themselves
to the mere gas-light of the world, that the sunlight
of God's presence confuses and blinds them, and in
it they, therefore, see nothing. Many people too,
who are not worldly, find it difficult to meditate,
because meditation is a purely spiritual exercise, and
their spiritual faculties are undeveloped.

Again, we may ask the question. How are we
using the gift of spiritual sight in regard to the Holy
Eucharist ? Do we, as S. Paul says, discern the
Lord's body therein? It is not enough to say,

281

Of course I believe in the Real Presence. I believe
that when our Lord said, " This is My Body, This is
My Blood," He said what was absolutely true. We
may believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the
Holy Eucharist, and yet not discern His Body there.
Let us go on to ask whether our belief is a mere
intellectual assent to a theological doctrine, which
appeals to our reason, or whether it is a spiritual
power, by which we see Jesus Christ in the Sacrament
of His love.

If we would see Him in meditation, if we would
discern His Body in the Holy Eucharist, we must
train our spiritual vision ; for spiritual gifts, like
intellectual gifts, have to be trained. If we are
going to study languages, or literature, or science, we
train our intellectual powers in that special direction.
A man of science may not be a linguist, not only
because he has not, as we should say, the gift of
languages, but sometimes because he has never
trained the gift, which, perhaps, he once had.

We read in the life of Charles Darwin that, in his
early days, he was specially drawn by religion, and
had some ideas of entering the ministry ; also that he
was very fond of music. However, he turned all his
energies in the direction of science, and carefully
trained his mind for scientific investigation. And in
a letter that he wrote in later life to a friend, he

282

remarks that he has entirely lost his fondness for
music ; and we know that he quite gave up his
religion. It would probably not be correct to say
that this was because of his scientific knowledge ; for
there are many great scientists who are dsvout
Christians. It was rather because he allowed the
religious faculty to become atrophied by disuse,
while he trained the faculty of scientific observation
to its highest excellence.

If we desire to see Christ, as He may be seen
through the operation of the Holy Ghost in our souls,
we must train our spiritual sight through the exercise
of prayer and meditation, and then we shall realise
a complete fulfilment oi our Lord's promises, " I will
come to you." " Again, a little while, and ye shall
see Me."

283

XXXVII.

T3?ebne0ba5 in %oi^ TTeeft.

SORROW TURNED INTO JOY.

S. John xvi. 20-33.

"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. 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. 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 shew
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 lovcth you, because yc have loved Me, and have
believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father,
and am come into the world : again, I leave the world, and go to the
Father. His disciples said unto Him, Lo, now speakcst Thou plainly,

284

gotten? Znrncb info 3og. ^

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. 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 over-
come the world."

E shall weep and lament, but the world shall
rejoice." This, of course, refers primarily
to the sorrow of the Apostles at their
Master's death, and to the joy of the world at the
accomplishment of its wicked purpose. But in
foretelling the sorrow that should come upon them,
Christ also indicates the ultimate consequence of
that sorrow — that it should be turned into joy —
and He illustrates this from the sorrows of a woman
in travail.

While the joy to which our Lord refers was, in
the case of the Apostles, to issue from Christ's
Resurrection and the life of power which should
follow it, yet His promise is not exhausted by this
fulfilment ; for, as in so many of our Lord's utter-
ances, we may trace the revelation of a great
principle, that all sorrow, which is not caused
directly by our own sin, is the raw material, so
to speak, of future joy, if it be borne rightly, and in

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-o^ HTebnegbag in ^ofg TTeel

reliance upon the Holy Ghost. This, of course, does
not refer to the selfish sorrow of the world, but to
those sorrows of the Christian life which come to us
with God's permission, as disciplines and trials, to
prepare us for the joys of Heaven.

Indeed, it is perhaps not too much to say that
sorrow is one of the most precious things we have
in this world, developing, as it does, sympathy and
love for one another, faith and trust in God. The
joys of this life are enhanced by the background of
difficulty and suffering-, out of which they emerge,
and the joys of Heaven on their negative side will
be largely the consciousness of freedom from the
disappointments and dangers of the world.

The joy of pardoned sin in this life can be
measured by the depth of sorrow, which our peni-
tence produces in us, as the Psalmist teaches in that
verse, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy."*
The harvest of joy seems here to be proportioned to
the tears that are sown, and so we find among the
joys of God's people in Heaven that " God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes."t

" And your joy no man taketh from you." What
a glorious promise. We know something of the joys
of earth, of the world, of the intoxicating joys of
pleasure, of worldly success ; and wc know, not as a

* Psalm cxxvi. 6. f Revelations xxi. 4.

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^otxoro Zuxnci into 3og. ^

matter of faith, but of absolute experience, that these
joys do not last. They are taken from us, and what
is left behind is generally the bitter sting of remorse
in remembrance of the very joy which seemed at the
moment so transporting. But the joy of which our
Lord speaks, the joy which is the fruit of godly
sorrow, this joy abides, for no man can take it from
us.

" In that day ye shall ask Me nothing." That is,
no question ; for all will then be clear. They would
not need their Master's guidance then, for they
would have the guidance of the Holy Ghost, Who
should lead them into all truth.

" Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name,
He will give it you. Hitherto ye have ask nothing
in My Name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your
joy may be full." Here we have another repetition
of the promise of special power in prayer, as
the result of our Lord's intercession in Heaven,
and of the intercession of the Holy Ghost in
the human soul. A special efficacy is attached to
the prayers of those who are in union with Christ,
and especially to the prayers of those who have
tasted the cup of sorrow. " A broken and contrite
heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise."*

" These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs ;

* Psalm li. 17.
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^ nrebnegbdg in j^ofg TTeeft.

but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak
unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of
the Father." Christ had taught them under images
and parables, under the image of the vine, under the
parable of the woman in travail. Now the Holy
Ghost was to unfold these images, and through Him
Christ was to speak plainly, and to declare clearly,
the relations of God the Father to man.

" 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." "At that day." The day, that is, when
we possess the Holy Spirit, and act in His strength
and see by His light. In that day the fulness of
knowledge will lead to the fulness of prayer, and our
new relationship as sons by adoption, will constitute
us in a special sense the objects of God's love.

" I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father
for you " ; (as though you had no direct claim upon
the Father, and it was necessary that I should plead
for you ;) '' for the Father Himself loveth you, because
ye have loved Me." The result of our incorporation
into Christ through the operation of the Holy Spirit,
making us members of Christ and children of God, is
freedom of access to the Father through Jesus
Christ, and a special claim upon God's love; God

288

borrow ^urneb into ^og. ^

becomes our Father in a new sense, and loves us
with a Father's love, and this must be a great
encouragement to us in prayer.

If we were to dwell a little more upon God's love
for us, and worry ourselves less about our love for
God, it would often be better for us in our spiritual
life. Many persons complain, " My heart is so cold,
I cannot love God. I want to love Him, but I am
not able. What can I do ? " The answer is that
all do not love God in the same way, and that there
is a very real love of God, which does not produce
any sensible emotion in our heart, that our Lord
made the evidence of love to consist in keeping
God's commandments, not in feeling deep emotion.

But you ask, " What can I do .'* " Meditate upon
God's love for you in creating you, in sending His
Son to die for you, in watching over you through all
the vicissitudes of life, in vouchsafing to you a
knowledge of the Catholic Faith, in sending you
many calls to repentance, in bestowing upon you
privileges and gifts without number. Meditate upon
God's love for you ; that will help you to love God
better. For love begets love. Many a person has
learned to love another by learning how great was
that other person's love for him or her. Dwell upon
God's love for you ; realise that, as incorporated into
Christ, you are the object of God's love. Remember

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TJ?ebne6bag in ^o{^ T3?eeft.

that you did not first love God, but that He loved
you.* Dwell upon this and it will cause your love
for God to burn up, and fill your heart and life with
love.

" I came forth from the Father, and am come into
the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to
the Father." In this passage we may notice in
passing our Lord's clear assertion of His unity of
essence with the Father.

" His disciples said unto Him, 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 camest forth from God." This was the
supreme confession of their faith before the Passion,
and how was it elicited, to what may it be traced ?
" Now are we sure that Thou knowest all things, and
needest not that any man should ask Thee." Christ
had interpreted their thoughts. They had been
saying to one another, " 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."
Christ, Who had not heard their discussion, read
their thoughts and answered them, " Do ye enquire
among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and
yc shall not see Me : and again, a little while, and ye

* C/ I S. John iv. lo.

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^oxxoro Zuxncb into 3og. ^

shall see Me ? " It was because our Lord read their
thoughts and hearts that they were ready to confess
that He came forth from God, for God alone can read
the thoughts and hearts of men.

Christ's last words to them in these discourses are,
" 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. These
things have I 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."
In these words our Lord accepts their act of faith.
" Do ye now believe ? " He means to say, " Yes, you
do believe with all the power of your natural heart,
but you have not yet received the Holy Ghost, and
so your faith has a weakness which belongs to all
natural faith, and then He clearly points out four
things : —

(i) Their desertion of Him, the temporary failure
of their faith. " Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is
now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to
his own, and shall leave Me alone." (2) Then, lest
that revelation should overwhelm them with dis-
couragement, He tells of their ultimate triumph,
" These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me
ye might have peace." Their failure will be only for

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n3?ebne6bag in l^ofg ^ctL

a little while. He will rise again, and having won
by His death and resurrection the great victory over
evil, He will come to them again on Easter Day
with the gift of peace — His peace ; that is, the
peace of those who possess Him, and who, in that
possession, can face all the struggles of life with a
courage born of the assurance of ultimate victory.

(3) But lest they should misunderstand the
character of this peace which He would give them,
He warns them, saying unto them, " In the world ye
shall have tribulation." That is, although in the
possession of peace and the assurance of victory,
yet so long as they were in this world, there must be
struggle and sorrow.

(4) But, He says, " Be of good cheer ; I have
overcome the world." And because I have over-
come it, when the Holy Spirit brings to you the
power and grace which I have promised you, ye
shall overcome it also. " Be of good cheer," for
though, in the world, tribulation be your lot, the
victory is secure. Abide in Me, and I will abide
in you, and as I have overcome the world, ye too
shall overcome it.

292

XXXVIII.

THE FATHER AND THE SON.

S. John xvii. 1-5.

" 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."

HIS chapter stands absolutely alone and
unapproachable in Holy Writ ; for it con-
tains our Lord's High Priestly prayer,
or, as it may be termed, His prayer of self-con-
secration. This prayer is indeed sublime ; for
in it we are permitted to know something of

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^ (^dunbdj ^^utBbdg.

the communion of our Lord Jesus Christ with
His Father. We see His two natures, human
and divine, so blended in one consciousness that,
while preserving and displaying the prerogatives
of both, we behold them united under the one
Person of the Son of God.

We are often told that our Lord prayed, but
never so fully as here what He said to the
Father in His prayers. Now we have revealed
to us in this chapter the very words of the
great prayer of self-consecration, which our Lord
uttered before He entered Gethsemane and His
Passion began.

The prayer seems to have been uttered at mid-
night in the courts of the Temple. This point
we have already discussed.* And that it was
spoken aloud in the hearing of the disciples is
evident both from the fact that S. John reports
what our Lord said, and also because we read
(in verse 13), "These things I speak in the world,
that they might have My joy fulfilled in them-
selves."

The chapter begins with the passage, " These
words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to
Heaven, and said." " These words " refer to the
discourses upon which we have been meditating

* Page 154.

294

throughout this Lent. The prayer which follows
the discourses falls into three very clear divisions,
bringing before us (i) The relation of the Son
to the Father (vv. 1-5) ; (2) The relation of the
Son to the disciples (vv. 6-19) ; (3) The relation
of the Son to His Church throughout all time
(vv. 20-25).

The clause, " He lifted up His eyes to Heaven,"
which in the Greek is connected with the verb
" Said," marks the new region to which our Lord's
thoughts are turned, His sense of perfect fellow-
ship with the spiritual world. As in the Seven
Words from the Cross, the first three are spoken
to man, and the last four addressed to His
Father ; so here, our Lord having uttered these
long discourses, in which He gives His final
instructions to His disciples, turns away from the
things of earth, and addresses Himself in prayer
to His Father in Heaven, allowing His disciples,
for their comfort and edification, to hear what He
says. The first word of the prayer is " Father,"
and it is the keynote of the first division of the
prayer, which treats of the relation of the Son
to the Father. We may notice that the prayer
is not directly personal. Christ does not say
"glorify Me," but "glorify Thy Son."

" Father, the hour is come." It is worthy of

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^ (Utdimbag €^ur6bag.

notice that in no fewer than six passages S.
John refers to our Lord's "hour." S. John reveals
to us a conception of our Lord's life and work
in which all things are in accordance with the
Father's Will and rigidly ordered as to time by
that Will. At the Marriage of Cana of Galilee,
when His mother says to Him, " They have no
wine," Jesus replies, ** Mine hour is not yet
come."* Twice we are told that His enemies
sought to take Him, but that '* no man laid hands
upon Him, because His hour was not yet come."t
Again we read that before the Feast of the
Passover, "Jesus knew that His hour was come.":}:
To His Apostles our Lord says, "The hour is come
that the Son of Man should be glorified. "§ And
lastly, in His High Priestly prayer. He begins
with the words, " Father, the hour is come ; glorify
Thy Son."

Nothing can be more clear from this than that
Christ recognised God's Will, God's providence, as
ruling precisely the order of His life. But not
only has our Lord His hour, we have ours. God's
providence orders our life, we cannot hurry things,
we must wait till our hour is come ; wait, praying
that, wlicn it does come, we may rcco;^nisc it

* S. John ii. 4. t 'S. John vii. 30; viii 20. j S. John xiii. i.

§ S. John xii. 23.

296

and seize the opportunity. How often we beat
our wings, as it were, in vain against the prison
bars, longing for the door to open ; but we have
to learn that the door of opportunity does not
open till the moment ordered by God's Will.

We, who this Lent have been following Jesus
Christ, must learn from Him this lesson before
we go any further, that we must be patient and
wait till our hour comes, that we cannot be
saints at once, cannot conquer all our temptations
in one battle, cannot accomplish all the work
that God has for us to do by one effort, we
must be patient, but we must also be watchful,
that when the hour does come, it may find us
ready to act.

" Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also
may glorify Thee." This glorifying of the Son
is the fuller manifestation of His true nature
seen in the fact of His victory over death,
and established by His Resurrection and Ascen-
sion. ''Glorify Thy Son." How we shrink from
suffering, and yet it is the only path to glory ;
for " If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him."*

Death, how dreadful it seems, and yet it is
the gate which opens into the realms of glory.
So Christ, standing upon the threshold of death — that

* 2 Tim. ii. 12.
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'^ (ttlaunbag ^^urebog.

death, the issue of which was to be eternal life
for us all— says, " Glorify Thy Son ; " for " the
hour is come." How easy it is for us to say
it, how difficult to realise it, that only through
death can we pass to our true life. If we could
make this world as happy as Heaven, we should
not want the eternal life of Heaven.

This world is but the waiting-place. All tears
and sorrows will end with the joy of serving
Christ and with the sunshine of His Presence.
For when death comes to those who have been
waiting with full trust in Christ, waiting and
working for Him, it will be but the opening of
the prison door by which they pass into the
glories of His Kingdom. Our Blessed Lord, after
His Resurrection, told S. Peter by what manner
of death He should die, and S. John's comment on
this is, "This spake He, signifying by what death
He should glorify God."

" As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh."
The word translated " power " (e^ovaiav) signifies
rather authority, and the verb is in the aorist,
{f8a>Kai,) so that a more accurate rendering would be
'*even as Thou gavest Him authority over all
flesh." The term "all flesh" describes mankind in
its solidarity. Christ, as the Incarnate Son of
God, exercises legitimate authority over all man-

298

kind, as its true Head and Representative now
reigning at the Right Hand of God. As the Son
of Man, the second Adam, the representative Man,
Christ is the sum of humanity, and, therefore,
has authority and sovereignty over it.

" Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all
flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him." The words translated
" as many as Thou hast given Him " are, in their
original form, very remarkable.* Literally it is
that " the whole of that which Thou hast given
Him, to them should He give eternal life." And
we have a contrast between "all flesh" over
which He has authority, and all " given Him,"
that is, all the elect, who are drawn to Him by
the Father, to whom He gives eternal life. For
only those can come to Him whom the Father
draws, and to these, who accept Him, He gives
eternal life, and what this eternal life is, He
explains in the next verse.

"And this is (the) life eternal, that they might
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
Whom Thou hast sent." (Literally, "that they know
Thee and Whom Thou didst send.") We learn
from this verse, first that eternal life is the gift
of Christ, it cannot be obtained otherwise ; and

* nau 6 debcoKas a.vT(o,
299

secondly, that it consists in a knowledge of the
Father, the only true God, Who is manifested
and revealed by Christ and in Christ.

Here knowledge implies the apprehension of
truth by the whole nature of man. We may
know a great deal about God by studying reve-
lation and theology, but that is not "the eternal
life." The eternal life is a personal knowledge
of God, which involves not only an intellectual
apprehension and moral conviction, but the action
of the whole nature upon that conviction, the appro-
priation of the knowledge so that it influences the
whole life. This is the eternal life — to know God
and Jesus Christ ; for you cannot know God with-
out knowing His Son, Jesus Christ, Who reveals
Him.

"I have glorified Thee on the earth ; I have
finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."
The first two tenses are aorists {€56^a(Ta, reXacoo-af), so
that the translation should be, " I glorified Thee
on earth, having accomplished the work." The
accomplishment of this work was the means by
which Christ glorified the Father. But what was
this work which the Father gave Him to do, and
which He here claims to have accomplished? It
was a life of unswerving obedience, of perfect
love, which made His Death meritorious. There

300

have been theologians in the past, who have
looked upon the sacrifice of our Lord's death as
an isolated act, as though it was the mere fact
of His dying which redeemed the world.

Our Lord's sacrifice, however, was not only the
act of death, but the sacrifice of the perfect life
which culminated in death. It was the offering
of the life of One Who had never disobeyed one
of God's laws, never faltered in fulfilling one of
His Father's commands, never swerved from the
path of Divine Love. It was this which made
the Life, offered on the Cross through death,
efficacious for taking away the sins of the whole
world. The life of love issued in the Hfe of
obedience, which was the consequence and evidence
of His love. The Passion and Death were the
climax of this obedience, and they are here spoken
of as though already accomplished, because they
were then accepted. The perfect Life was finished,
the perfect work was done, and Christ stood, as
it were, before the altar on which He was to be
offered as a sacrifice.

There is, however, another point brought before
us in this passage — a point of great importance,
though sometimes overlooked. It is the entire
absence of any sense of failure on the part of our
Lord in regard to His work; He says, " I have

301

-^ (ttlaunbdg 2^^ut6bag.

finished," or, rather, " I have accomplished (reXftwo-af)
the work which Thou gavest Me to do." And on
the Cross, just before He died. He again said, " It

is finished " (rereXeorai).*

Throughout our Lord's life we see the same con-
sciousness of absolute power, the conviction that
His work was progressing steadily to its appointed
end. And yet, looked at from a mere human point
of view, it seemed to be a failure, for all His disciples
deserted Him and fled, and He was condemned
to death. Humanly speaking, our Lord's life ended
in failure, and yet, never for one moment, even in
His darkest hour, did He utter one word which
implied that His work was anything but a success.

And this consciousness of success amid apparent
failure is, in itself, an indication of His Divinity,
for no mere man could have said to the Father,
" I have accomplished the work which Thou gavest
Me to do." S. Paul, when his life was drawing
to a close, writing from his prison in Rome to
S. Timothy, says, " I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith."t He says, " I have finished
my course^' not I have finished my work. " I have
fought the good fight, I have kept the faith." He

• S. John xix. 30. f 2 Timothy iv. 6, 7.

302

could be thankful for what he had accomplished
through the grace of God, but he was conscious
of many failures in his work. Only Christ could
say, " I have finished the work which Thou gavest
Me to do."

Throughout this chapter the pronoun " I " is
emphatic, and who is the " I " ? There can be no
doubt from the next verse, " And now, O Father,
glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world
was." In these words our Lord claims, as He
does again in the twenty-fourth verse, to have lived
with God before the world came into being, claims
eternal Sonship, claims to have possessed a glory
which He laid aside when He became Man, and
which, now that His work is accomplished. He
is to reassume.

303

XXXIX.

THE SON AND THE DISCIPLES.

S. John xvii. 6-19.

" 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 thcni. And now I am no more in the world, but these are
in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keej:) 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 I come 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 uf 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."

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." Here
the prayer passes into a new channel, and as our
Lord had prayed for Himself, so now He prays for
His disciples. The petition ''glorify Me" becomes
" sanctify them " and " keep them." In this first
verse we may notice a threefold declaration : (i) Of
the relation of the disciples to Christ ; (2) of their
relation to the Father ; and (3) of their own intrinsic
worth. And each of these statements is a plea in
favour of the petitions which follow, and together
with them make a portrait of a true disciple.

First Christ says of them, " I have manifested Thy
Name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of
the world." The Father must draw them (out of
the world) to Christ ; for our Lord said, " No man
can come to Me, except the Father, which hath
sent Me, draw Him."*

* S. John vi. 44.

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^ (&oob :§'rtba8»

" I have manifested Thy Name." What Name ?
We, who have been studying our Lord's last
discourses this Lent, can have no hesitation in
answering this question ; for we must have been
struck by the fact that the one absorbing subject
of the addresses is the revelation to the disciples,
and through the disciples to the world, of God as
t/ie FatJier. The Name which Christ manifested
to them was the name " Father."

In the Old Testament God revealed Himself to
His people under various names, the greatest of
which was Jehovah, the Self-existent One, The
revelation of God under the Name Jehovah to the
Israelites was an immense advance in their know-
ledge of God ; for they learned that He was not
only their Creator, but that He was Himself
Underived and Self-existent. In the New Testa-
ment, however, the advance in the knowledge of
God is enormous when Christ reveals Him as the
Father. The Father, that is, of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, and of all those who, by incorporation
into Christ, have become His sons by adoption.
From the philosophic conception of God as
Underived and Self-existent, we pass to the tender
and comforting revelation of God as " Our Father,
Which art in Heaven."

In this first declaration, then, Christ manifests

306

their relation to Himself, in the next He shows
their relation to the Father. " Thine they were,
and Thou gavest them Me." They belonged to
God, not merely as His creatures, like the rest of
mankind ; not merely as Israelites, like the rest
of their race, but as Israelites indeed, who responded
to God ; and because they belonged to Him in a
special sense through this response, they were given
to His Son.

But, thirdly, our Lord reveals something of their
own intrinsic worth, when He says, " And they have
kept Thy word. What word ? The whole revelation
of Christ which we include under the name of the
Gospel. They not merely heard this Gospel as
others did, but they kep^ it. In the Parable of
the Sower we are told of the seed falling on various
kinds of ground, some by the wayside, some upon
rock, some among thorns, but some upon good
ground ; and we read, " That on the good ground
are they, which in an honest and good heart, having
heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with
patience."* These keep the word of God as our
Lord declares the Apostles had kept it.

" 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

* S. Luke viii. 15.

^^•

(Koob Stiixxg.

they have received them, and have known surely
that I came out from Thee, and they have believed
that thou didst send Me." All careful students of
S. John's Gospel must have observed his habit of
using certain emphatic words to emphasise the point
of his argument. There are three such words in
this passage, which together bring out the character-
istics of faithfulness in the Apostles. They are the
words " received," " known," and " believed." They
received the words, that is, the revelation which
Christ gave them ; and they came to know {^yvoiaav) by
personal experience, and therefore with certainty,
that I catne out from Thee, and therefore believed
that Thou didst send Me. The characteristics
of the disciples are gathered up under two heads
of knowledge and faith, both alike directed to
the recognition of Christ and His Mission.

" 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." I am praying
for them ; the verb is in the present tense, and the
" I " is emphatic. I am not praying for the world.
The exclusion of the world from this particular
prayer of Christ's is no limitation of the extent of
His love for the world, but is the necessary conse-
quence of the circumstance of the prayer. At this

308

moment He is interceding exclusively for those who
have been prepared by Him beforehand to continue
His work. Later in the prayer He does pray for
others, for those who should be brought to know
Hiin through the instrumentality of the Apostles.

When He says, " I am praying for them ; I am
not praying for the world," it does not mean at all
that the salvation of the world is not dear to His
heart, and ever in His thoughts ; for on the Cross
His arms were wide stretched for three longr hours
in intercession for the world. But here the inter-
cession is for His disciples, and the declaration of
the grounds upon which His prayer is urged, is
followed by a statement of the circumstances which
make it necessary.

Christ leaves the world, but the Apostles still
remain. The Master must be separated from His
scholars, for Christ goes to the Father, and so enters
upon a new sphere of His mediatorial work in
which His mode of action shall be changed ; and
so He prays, " Holy Father, keep through (in) Thine
own Name those whom Thou hast given Me, that
they may be one, as We are." The correct reading
here is "Keep in Thine own Name." Christ had
already said I have manifested Thy Name of Father
to them, now keep them in that Holy Name, keep
them in its power, help them to realise what

309

^ (Boob 5^fib<xg.

is implied in Thy Fatherhood, that they may be
one, as We are. That is, that as children of the
same Father, they may be like brethren who dwell
together in unity.

" 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." The two words translated "kept" in
this passage are not exactly the same, the second
signifying rather to keep watch over, to guard
(e(/)vXa^a). While He was with them, our Lord
preserved them and watched over them ; now that
He is leaving them He asks His Father to take
them under His care."

" And now I come 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."
In the clause " these things I speak in the world " we
find additional evidence for the fact, implied by S.
John's record of this prayer, that it was spoken aloud
for the encouragement and edification of the disciples
that they might draw strength and joy from the
words which they heard ; for they heard their Master
interceding for them, and committing them to the
care of His Father. 310

t^c ^on (Xni it}t ^xmipiu. ^

Then our Lord goes on to repeat, what He had
already told them, that the world should hate them
because they were not of the world, and He makes
this a plea that His Father should keep them and
preserve them from the world. Because Christ's
followers are not of the world, their lives are a
reproach to the world ; the world's laws, the world's
maxims, the world's fashions, and the world's ambitions,
all are untrue ; and because the Christian's life wit-
nesses against these things, it is a reproach to the
world, and awakens the world's hatred.

But Christ goes on to say, " I pray not that Thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou
shouldest keep them from the evil." We must
remember here that the word translated "pray"
(epcurw), as in the fourteenth chapter, is used
exclusively of our Lord's prayers to the Father, and
might perhaps be better rendered by " ask," inasmuch
as it implies fellowship and equality with the Father,
rather than the inferiority of the suppliant.

Our Lord prays not that they should be taken out
of the world, for then what hope would there be for
the world ? Their presence in the world was to be
the leaven which was to leaven the world, the salt
which was to preserve the world from corruption, the
light set upon a hill to disperse the darkness, and to
attract to it all that was good in the world. So

311

^^ (Boob iS'ribag.

Christ says, " I pray not that Thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest
keep them from the evil." There is little question
but that the correct translation is " Keep them from
the Evil One," the devil, who is the prince of the
world.

Then comes the central petition of the prayer.
" Sanctify them through Thy truth : Thy word is
truth," and this is repeated in the nineteenth verse,
" For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also
might be sanctified through the truth." The word
" sanctify " in these passages means to consecrate,
and the instrument, as we see, by which the con-
secration is to be effected is truth.

This suggests to us in a very striking manner the
real end and purpose of truth. If you were to ask
a man of the world what was the purpose of truth,
he would probably say that the end or purpose of
truth was wisdom, that man investigates truth, in
order that by its acquisition he may become wise.
But if we were to ask the Christian, who has studied
Christ's words, he will tell you that the end of truth
is not wisdom, but holiness, sanctification ; that the
purpose of the investigation of truth is the
development of character.

By truth here, of course, we do not mean merely
investigating the secrets of nature or the principles

312

of mathematics. A man may have discovered
wonderful truths in the sphere of natural science, or
made great progress in the study of mathematics,
and this may be of use to him in his work in the
world ; but it will not affect his character in the
slightest degree. The truth of which our Lord is
speaking, is a truth which manifests its effects in the
sanctification of life and in the development of
character. " Sanctify them through Thy truth."
This is the central petition of this section of the
prayer. As Christ had prayed for Himself, " Father,
glorify Thy Son," so He prays for the disciples,
" Sanctify them through Thy truth."

" As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so
have I also sent them into the world." Their mission
was to be the same as His. They were to carry on
His work. For their sakes Christ says, " I consecrate
Myself, and this consecration was to be effected by
His sacrifice on the Cross. The disciples too were to
be consecrated through a knowledge of God's truth,
which knowledge should lead them to follow Christ's
example in consecrating themselves through sacrifice,
that they might carry on His work in the world.

313

XL.

THE SON AND THE CHURCH.

S. John xvii. 20-26.

" 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 gavest 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."

N each of the three divisions of our Lord's
High Priestly prayer, there is a central
petition which is, as it were, the keynote
to that part of the prayer. As we have seen, in

314

the first division it was, " Father, glorify Thy Son ; "
in the second, " Sanctify them through Thy truth."
In the third we shall observe not less clearly that
it is the prayer, " That they all may be one," and this
petition is repeated again and again four times. The
prayer began with the concerns of Christ Himself,
then passed to the special needs of His immediate
disciples, and is now extended to embrace all those
who, by the .labours of the apostles, shall be brought
into the body of Christ ; for these last verses are
our Lord's great intercession for His Church.

He prays first for the unity of the Church, " 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 this is repeated in the next verse. Surely this
prayer for unity, so dear to our Lord's heart, ought
to be precious to the heart of every Christian. Even
though for many centuries the unity of the Church
has been broken, and there may now seem little
prospect of any immediate answer to that prayer, yet
we must go on praying it.

In the Liturgy of the Western Church, the Prayer
for Unity is one of the three prayers which the priest
says immediately before his own Communion.

"O Lord Jesus Christ, Who saidst unto Thine Apostles, Peace I
leave with you, My Peace I give unto you ; regard not my sins, but

-^ i^ofg ^aturbag.

the faith of Thy Church ; and grant her that peace and unity wliich
is agreeable to Thy will, Who livest and reignest God for ever and
ever. Amen."

This prayer has been adopted by the Society for the
Promotion of tlie Unity of Christendom, as the
prayer to be said daily by its members.

Our Blessed Lord not only prays for the unity
of His Church, but indicates one great result of that
unity. " That the world may believe that Thou hast
sent Me." There is probably nothing which so hinders
Christian work as the divisions and want of unity
which are manifest among Christians themselves.
When there is so much quarrelling and fighting
amongst ourselves, how can we commend our cause
to those who are not Christians, but whom we wish
to win to Christ .'* If we are to convert the world,
we must begin by striving for greater unity among
the divided Churches of Christendom. And yet
much as we desire union, earnestly as we ought to
pray for it, we must not be willing to gain it at
the expense of truth, or as the result of the com-
promise of truth.

There is a plan of union which some people of our
own day propose, which would be quite disastrous to
truth. It is that everyone should give up that which
others object to, so that a residuum would be left,
upon which all could unite. This residuum however

316

would not be the truth which our Lord handed down
to His Apostles. A better way to work for unity is
to try to understand one another's position, to be
willing to listen to other people's explanations of
their views, and to approach the study of their
position in a spirit of charity, earnestly striving to
lay aside our own prejudices, and asking the Holy
Spirit to guide us into the truth.

We should find probably that a very large number
of the differences which exist between Christians,
and which lead to bitter controversy, are differences
in regard to " terms " far more than in regard to
" things." People associate with certain theological
terms, doctrines which they rightly reject, and yet
very often theologians do not use those terms at all
in the sense in which their adversaries understand
them. A real desire to understand one another, and
to arrive at the truth, together with charity and
earnest prayer, will do more to prepare the way for
unity than either controversy or compromise.

"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." Having prayed for the unity of His Church,
Christ asks two things — (i) That those who have
been given Him, the Elect, may be with Him where

317

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He is, that is, in His kingdom in Heaven ; and (2)
That they may behold His glory, and in beholding
it may be partakers of that glory. This, of course,
refers to the future of His Church in eternity, when
all who have fought a good fight in the Church
Militant, shall have attained to the glories of the
Church Triumphant in Heaven.

He prays that they may be where He is, and to
be with Christ is Heaven. The penitent robber
upon the Cross said, " Lord, remember Me, when
Thou comest into Thy Kingdom," and Christ
answered, *' Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt
thou be with Me in Paradise." That day our Lord
went into the Intermediate State with the penitent
thief, but His presence there transformed it into
Heaven, into Paradise.

Since His Ascension, Christ's glorified Humanity is
present nowhere except at the Right Hand of God ;
so that at that time Heaven became Paradise. For
S. John in his vision of heaven speaks of the " tree
of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of
God,"* of which those, who overcome in the battle
of life, are to eat as their reward ; and by this he
certainly means Heaven, not the Intermediate State.
And again S. Paul tells us that he was " caught up
to the third Heaven," and " that he was caught up

* Revelations ii. 7.

3i«

into Paradise,"* by which he certainly does not mean
that he went to the place of departed spirits, but
that he was caught up, as he says, into Heaven
itself.

From these passages it is clear that in the
Bible, Paradise is " to be with Christ," that before
His Ascension, during the brief space in which He
was with the departed spirits in Hades, He trans-
formed Hades into Paradise ; for where He is there
is Paradise ; but that after His Ascension, Paradise
and Heaven are synonymous. This, too, is the
teaching of the early Fathers of the Church, from
Tertullianf to S. Gregory.

" O righteous Father, the world hath (did) not
known Thee ; but I have known (knew) Thee, and
these have known (knew) that Thou hast (didst) sent
Me. And I (have) declared unto them Thy Name,
and will declare it ; that the love wherewith Thou
hast (didst) loved Me, may be in them and I in
them." These are the last words of this sublime
prayer. Six times we find in it the Name " Father."
So the prayer begins, so it ends, and by the addition

* 2 Corinthians xii. 2 and 4.

t Tertullian is sometimes quoted on the other side, since he uses the
term " Paradise " to describe the abode of the martyrs. But he
explicitly excludes from his Paradise all other souls, and identifies
Paradise with the altar in heaven, under which S. John saw the souls
of the martyrs. Rev. vi. 9.

of the word " righteous," our Lord appeals to the
justice of God, for the word " righteous " means just.

He sums up the principal thoughts not only of
His prayer, but of the discourses, in three state-
ments : — (i) The world's ignorance of God as
contrasted with the disciples' knowledge of Him.
(2) Christ's work in declaring or making known to
them God's Name of Father. And (3) the purpose
of the revelation of that Name, that they may possess
divine charity. " That the love wherewith Thou
lovedst Me may be in them and I in them."

Throughout these chapters the antiphon has been
love. The discourse begins with it, *' A new
commandment give I unto you, that ye love one
another."* And as it begins so it ends. " I declared
unto them Thy Name . . . that the love wherewith
Thou lovedst Me, may be in them and I in them."
Ignorance of God renders this love impossible. We
must know God, and know Him as the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore our Father in
Heaven, if we are to love Him as we should. This
is the purpose of our Lord's revelation, that we may
know God as our Father, may love Him as His
children, and that Christ may dwell in us.

LAUS DEO.

* S. John xiii. 34.

Jarrold and Sons, Ltd., Printers, The Empire Press, Norwich,

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Full text of "The last discourses of our Lord : arr. as readings for the forty days of Lent"

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