SXUDIRS 



IN 



JOHN'S GOSPEL: 



THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST'S DEITY. 



BY 



REV. DAVID GREGG, D. D. 




/OhlO^ 



K 



AMERICAN- TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 



■^'^^^c 






COPYRIGHT, iSgr. 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 




(IP 

:^ GONTRNTS. 



THE PROLOGLTE 7 

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
and the Word was God." John i : i. 

THE WORD MADE FLESH, OR JESUS CHRIST THE 

SON OF GOD II 

*' The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." John i : 14. 

THE FIRST DISCIPLES : THE WAY THEY FOUND 

CHRIST 26 

" And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the 
Lamb of God ! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they 
followed Jesus." John i : 36, 2,7- 

THE FIRST MIRACLE, OR THE WEDDING AT CANA— 43 
"This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and 
manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him." 
John 2:11. 

CHRIST AND NICODEMUS, OR THE DOCTRINE OF RE- 
GENERATION , 59 

"Jesus answered and said unto him. Verily, verily, I say unto 
thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." John 3:3. 

CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF WORSHIP: HIS SERMON AT 
JACOB'S WELL 75 

" God is a Spirit ; and they that worship him must worship him 
in spirit and in truth." John 4:24. 



4 CONTENTS. 

THE FIVE THOUSAND FED 88 

" And they filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five 
barley-loaves." John 6:13. 

CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE 102 

*' And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life." John 6:35. 

CHRIST AT THE FEAST 119 

" In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and 
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 
John 7:37. 

CHRIST AND THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD 136 

*' Before Abraham was, I AM." John 8:58. 

CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN, OR THE TESTIMONY 

OF EXPERIENCE 148 

"One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." 
John 9:25. 

CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD 162 

" I am the Good Shepherd." John 10:11. 

DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS 178 

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life." John 
11:25. 

CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS 193 

*' And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to 
worship at the feast ; the same came therefore to Philip, which was 
of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying. Sir, we would see 
Jesus." John 12:20, 21. 

JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY BY WASHING HIS DIS- 
CIPLES' FEET 207 

" Ye call me Master and Lord ; and ye say well, for so I am. If 
I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought 
to wash one another's feet." John 13:13, 14. 

CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES .— 220 

" Let not your heart be troubled," John 14: i. 



CONTENTS. 5 

CHRIST THE TRUE VINE 234 

" I am the Vine, ye are the branches." John 15:5. 

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - 245 

" He shall glorify Me." John 16: 14. 

CHRIST'S INTERCESSORY PRAYER _. 259 

"Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven." John 17:1. 

CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS 274 

'•■Judas who betrayed him." John 18:2. 

CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 286 

" Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified." 
John ig:i6. 

THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST 302 

"And He, bearing His cross, went forth." Jofin 19:17. 

CHRIST RISEN 316 

" Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen 
the Lord." John 20:18. 

THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES 333 

" This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his 
disciples after that he was risen from the dead." John 21 : 14. 



THE PROLOGUE. 

" IX THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH 

God, AND THE Word was God."— /o/w i:i. 

Like the first book of the Old Testament, this 
last Gospel of the New Testament begins with a 
preface. The two introductions are marvellously 
alike. They both make God the frontispiece of 
the book. Both books narrate the works of God. 
In Genesis God works as Creator ; in this last Gos- 
pel God works as Redeemer. 

The preface of a book prepares the reader for 
the perusal of the book. This is especially true of 
the preface to the Gospel according to John. It 
outlines the book and strikes its keynote. Like 
the entire Gospel, it is distinctively Johannean ; 
just as the writings 'of Paul are distinctively Paul- 
ine. It is full of deep and grand things, such as 
the intuitive and contemplative nature of the apos- 
tle of love would both grasp and enjoy. While 
the truths and facts narrated are deep, the expres- 
sion of these is simple and crystalline and beauti- 
ful. There is no mistaking what the writer says. 
The difficulty is to make the clearly stated truths 
and facts living realities in the soul. John's wri- 
tings are like those deep goblet-lakes which the 
mountains hold up to the gaze of the world six 
and eight thousand feet in the air. The waters in 
these lakes are as clear as dewdrops, but it takes 
a long line to fathom their depths. No mental 
plummet has ever touched the bottom of the living 
waters of truth in this Johannean lake. 



8 THE PROLOGUE. 

In studying tile introduction wliicli John gives 
Jesus Christ we notice that it differs from the in- 
troductions of Jesus Christ which the writers of 
the other Gospels give their Master. It differs 
from these because John had a different object 
from that which Matthew and Luke and Mark 
had. His Gospel was intended to serve the same 
Christ, but it was intended to serve him in a dif- 
ferent way. It was intended to exalt a different 
aspect of the person of Christ. 

John's introduction accords with his Gospel, 
just as their introductions accord with their Gos- 
pels. We need the fourfold-story of the Christ 
which the evangelists give us, and we cannot but 
admire the consistency of each Gospel with itself. 

Let us set before our minds the purpose of 
each Gospel and the consistent way Christ is intro- 
duced by each. 

Matthew's Gospel is "the gospel of the king- 
dom." He sets forth the Christ as the long-looked- 
for King of the Jews. It was written in Hebrew 
and abounds in quotations from the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures. When the genealogy of Christ is given 
and traced through the Hebrew Bible, he opens 
his Gospel with the thrilling story of the Magi 
who come from the far East to celebrate Christ's 
birth with precious gifts and to greet him as a 
King. They tell in Judaea the wonder of the bla- 
zing star and how they were guided. They find 
the royal manger and do homage to the Child-King. 
This chapter of Matthew which narrates the royal 
honors paid Jesus by the unknown Magi strikes 



THE PROLOGUE. 9 

the key-note of the whole Gospel of Matthew, " the 
Gospel of the kingdom." The preface and the 
Gospel fit. 

Mark sets the Christ forth as " the servant of 
God." The object of Mark's Gospel is to show the 
busy life which the Christ lived while on earth. 
Consequently it is broken and, as it were, abrupt 
and out of breath. It passes with marked rapidity 
from one scene to another, from one deed to an- 
other, and from one address to another. It does 
not take time to record a single incident attending 
the birth of Christ. It introduces him a full ma- 
ture man, baptized by John, and inducted into 
that stupendous and awful ministry which ends 
with the cross. His first chapter, which introdu- 
ces a busy man, strikes the key-note of his Gospel 
of " the servant of God." Preface and Gospel fit. 

Luke's Gospel is " the Gospel of the humanity 
of Christ." In accordance with its mission, its first 
chapter is largely filled with human scenes. The 
genealogy is given and the story of his birth. The 
poverty of his parents is recorded. The story of 
the shepherds finding him in the feed-trough of 
the cattle is told. Christ entered the human world 
amid the lowest conditions of humanity. The 
opening chapter of Luke's Gospel relates this, and 
thus strikes the key-note of '' the Gospel of Christ's 
humanity." Preface and Gospel fit. 

The gospel of John is "the gospel of the 
DEITY of Christ." It requires an introduction 
different from that given by the other Gospels. 
Accordingly John begins differently. He begins 



lO THE PROLOGUE. 

his Gospel back of the history of the human race 
and beyond the beginning of the world ; just as he 
ends his book of Revelation beyond all historians 
and beyond the end of the world. In the very 
first words which flow from his pen he rings the 
changes on Christ's deity. These changes he 
keeps ringing to the very end. From first to last 
it is deity, DEITY, DEITY. The incidents which 
he gives, which are peculiar to his Gospel and 
which are omitted by the other evangelists, are 
incidents which are instinct with divinity. His 
Gospel was the last written. It was held back 
until the other Gospels had become fully known 
and until the world was filled with the discussions 
concerning the Christ. When the interest with 
regard to Christ was at its highest point it came 
forth with the highest views of Christ, and correct- 
ed current errors and illumined the other Gospels. 
It was a grand growth. It was a vast advance 
beyond anything that had ever been published. 
It freshened the Christ already revealed and gave 
point and fitness to the wonderful stories connect- 
ed with his birth. Since Christ is God manifest in 
the flesh, it is fitting that the shepherds should be 
filled with wonder and the 'Magi with worship and 
the sky with flashing shechinah-fire and the angels 
with rapturous song. Here again preface and Gos- 
pel fit. There are no other conceivable words bet- 
ter suited for the opening of " the Gospel of the 
deity of the Christ " than these words : '* In the 

BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS 
WITH God, AND THE WORD WAS GOD." 



STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



THE WORD MADE FLESH, OR JESUS 
CHRIST THE SON OF GOD. 

"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." 
John 1:14. 

Admit that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and 
his character and words and works will weave 
themselves into a story that is perfectly unique. 
Divine words and divine works and a divine char- 
acter require a divine person. This is what the 
apostle of love teaches, and with him this teach- 
ing is an intuition. This is the sum and substance 
of his "Gospel of spiritual insight." Admit the 
deity of Jesus Christ, and everything fits. 

Can you explain the character of Christ apart 
from the deity of Christ ? No. His character was 
not the product of his age. Like only can produce 
like. His age was carnal, wicked, narrow, selfish. 
He was spiritual and good and broad and unself- 
ish. You might as well try to prove that the Al- 
leghanies or the Catskills or the Rockies were 
piled up into mountains by the spades of the Ital- 
ians who build our railroads, as try to establish 
that Jesus Christ was made out of the virtues of 



13 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

his times. He was not from beneath, therefore 
he must have been from above. 

In the Scripture before us the apostle John lays 
down and unfolds three propositions relative to 
the deity of his Master. 

I. Jesus Christ is God incarnated. 

The absolute divinity of Christ could not be 
stated with greater clearness in human language. 
It is stated so as to anticipate all the questions 
which an inquirer might put concerning it. It is 
stated, and it is guarded against error. The open- 
ing clauses of this Gospel are complete and climac- 
teric. They state truth, and they refute error. In- 
dividualize these clauses and see ! 

There is an error abroad "that the Logos, or 
Word, is not eternally pre-existent, but is a crea- 
tion or emanation from God." That error is anni- 
hilated by the first phrase of this Gospel, '' In the 
beginning was the Word." The term ''begin- 
ning " puts Christ back of the existence of crea- 
tion and of creatures. It makes him therefore 
'* The Uncreated'' What is The Uncreated but The 
Eternal ? 

There is an error abroad '' that the Word was 
the development or manifestation of the unseen 
and infinite God, and as such had no distinct per- 
sonality." That error is annihilated by the second 
phrase of this Gospel, " The Word was with God, 
and the Word was God." This phrase makes a 
distinction between the Word and God, or to ex- 
press ourselves differently, it gives the Word a 
personality, and the Father, who is called God, a 



THE WORD MADE FLESH. 13 

personality. The two persons fellowship and com- 
panionate as equal. 

There is an error abroad "that Christ was a 
second or inferior God, a sub-deity, and as such 
subordinate in his essential nature to the Father." 
That error is annihilated in the third phrase of 
this Gospel, '^ And the Word was God." This 
statement is absolute and without the shadow of 
qualification. There is not a hint of any such 
thing as " a sub-deity." Whatever we may say as 
to the truth or untruth of what John affirms, there 
can be no dispute that he believed, and that he 
directly and fearlessly asserted, that Jesus Christ 
was God incarnated. 

In treating of the deity of Christ the old divines 
used to ask this question and give this answer: 
" How do you prove that the Bible teaches that 
Christ was God ?" " The Bible teaches that Christ 
was God in that it ascribes to him the names and 
attributes and works of God." You will find this 
question and answer in Fisher's and Erskine's 
Catechism. It seems to me that the old divines 
got their question and answer from the opening 
verses of John's Gospel. John ascribes to Jesus 
Christ these very things, the names of God, the 
attributes of God, and the works of God. He 
ascribes to him the names of God. He calls him 
TJte Light. This is a name of God : '' God is light, 
and in him is no darkness." He ascribes to him 
the attributes of God. He ascribes to him person- 
ality and eternity. He dates his existence away 
back in the sublime solitudes before time began. 



14 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

Christ, says John, ante-dated creation. He ascribes 
to him the works of God : " All things were made 
by him ; and without him was not anything made 
that was made." He ascribes creation to Christ. 
Now only God can create. It was his voice away 
back in the beginning that said, '' Let there be 
light ; and there was light." 

From these ascriptions yon see how much 
must be read into the Incarnation. You see how 
great with meaning is the cradle-manger of Beth- 
lehem. This babe who lies in the feed-trough is 
one with Him whose throne is fixed in the heav- 
ens. This infant, who is hardly a mother's armful, 
is He who fills immensity. This weeping infant 
is He whose voice is thunder and whose arm is 
omnipotent. This child, whose dormant powers 
will open through a long period of culture, is one 
with Him whose understanding is infinite. This 
child, to whom his mother's voice is the sweetest 
music, is one with Him who dwells for ever amid 
the praises of the universe. This babe, born but 
an hour ago, is He who existed from all eternity. 
This little creature is none other than the Creator. 
He made every flower that blooms, every tree that 
waves its arms in the storm, and every star that 
sparkles. It was His hand that buried the coal in 
strata and the oil in rivers. It was He who hid 
the precious gems among the rocks of earth. He 
created all things. 

You ask me if I believe what John teaches con- 
cerning Christ as the incarnate God ? I answer, I 
do ; and I ask in return, Why should I not ? You 



THE WORD MADE FLESH. 1 5 

respond, '* It is so great a mystery. No one can 
understand it." The great objection urged against 
the incarnation of God in Christ is just this, " It is 
so great a mystery." But why should mystery be 
urged as an objection ? The Bible does not deny 
its mystery. It is the first to assert it. Those who 
are unbelievers are not the originators of this idea 
of mystery. The Bible itself says, " Great is the 
mystery of godliness, God Inanifest in the flesh." 
The Bible does not treat its mystery as an objec- 
tion or as a reason for our want of faith in it. It 
takes for granted that God is able to do that which 
we are not able to comprehend. If we are to be- 
lieve only that which is free from mystery, our 
faith must necessarily be narrowed to a very small 
compass. We cannot believe in ourselves, for we 
are a great mystery. Can you understand how 
that which you call your immortal soul can come 
and incarnate itself in your body ? Do you under- 
stand the union between your soul and body ? 
Have you ever seen it explained? Yet you be- 
lieve it, and you act upon it as a fact. Do you un- 
derstand the relation between sound and thought ? 
Yet there is a relation, and you use it. You use 
sound-symbols which we call the letters of the 
alphabet, and through them put the invisible 
thoughts which are in your mind into words, and 
thus give them body and visibility and perma- 
nence. It is a wonderful mystery how the great 
world of invisible thought can find its way into 
visibility by means of a few simple letters of the 
alphabet. Yet it does and we believe it. What 



l6 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

greater wonder is it if the invisible God becomes 
manifest in the flesh ? We are living in a world 
of mystery, and the reasons of things most familiar 
to us, and used by us, and relied upon by us, are 
known only to God. Our every-day life educates 
us and schools us for believing the grandest of 
all mysteries, the incarnation of God in Jesus 
Christ. 

Let us set forth some of the reasons for believ- 
ing what John puts in the forefront of his gospel, 
namely : The divinity of Jesus ; or the incarnation 
of God in Christ. I believe it : 

(a.) Because I find the mmiifold assertion of it in 
the Scriptures. Assertions like these are multi- 
plied : *' In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily." *' He is the brightness of the 
Father's glory and the express image of his per- 
son. 

(b.) Because it explains the mystery of his wonder- 
ful life. Without the incarnation, without the 
doctrine of his divinity, his life would be the great- 
est of all mysteries. John says, " He dwelt among 
us," and his divine dwelling cannot be explained 
if you deny his divinity. Let me give a simple 
statement of the case. Here is one obscurely born. 
He has been reared in humble circumstances. He 
has nothing which the world calls power. He 
starts in absolute poverty. He founds a religion. 
He makes demands for the whole heart, time, tal- 
ents, means of men. The inducements which he 
offers men to join him are tribulation, persecution, 
and hard v/ork. Laboring under these disadvan- 



THE WORD MADE FLESH. 17 

tages, by the mere force of liis teachings and his 
holy life he gathers a multitude of followers. He 
charms the fishermen from the lakes, the soldiers 
from the standard, the publican from his money 
tables, the physician from his practice, the schol- 
arly student from the feet of his master, the hon- 
orable counsellor from his deliberations, the ruler 
from pride or luxury. The chief priests conspire 
against him, but he is held dearer than ever. 
They kill him, but his disciples rally and his 
cause goes on. They seal his tomb, bui: in some 
way he leaves it while the Roman guard is around 
it. He is seen alive by half a thousand people at 
one time. Having proven his resurrection, he 
rises visibly to heaven and to God. But in ascend- 
ing he leaves behind him a church which to-day 
exists after eighteen centuries and is one of the 
mightiest forces on earth. You ask me to believe 
that that man was a mere man. Make him a mere 
man, and I do not understand his life. It is a 
mystery which staggers me. But I have not men- 
tioned all that is worthy of mention in his life. 
He was like a Creator among his works. While 
here everything obeyed him, the wind, the sea, 
the fishes, the trees. He cured all diseases by the 
word of his mouth. At his bidding the very dead 
arose to life. You ask me to believe that he was 
a mere man. Say that he was God incarnate, and 
these works are easily understood. 

But say some^ " He was a good man^ and God lion- 
ored him by working through him. If he had been 
a bad man he could not have done such things or 

Stadies In John's Gospel. 



1 8 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

have lived this life. God blessed him with power, 
just as he blessed Moses and Elijah, who wrought 
miracles." Neither Moses nor JElijah claimed to 
be God; but Jesus did. The Jews took up stones 
to stone him because he claimed equality with the 
Father. Could a good man go through life pro- 
claiming a lie ? Either Christ was God as he 
claimed to be, or he was not. There is no middle 
position. He was God, or else he was an impos- 
tor. Unbeliever, you laugh at the mystery of the 
incarnation, now solve the mystery of Christ's life 
without the incarnation. Your mystery is greater, 
for it is this : Either a good man has spoken false- 
hood, or an impostor has cheated the world and 
executed the deeds of a God. To me it is easier 
to accept of the mystery of Christ's birth, and in 
it see a simple and plain explanation of the divin- 
ity of his wonderful life. 

II. Christ does not lack evidence to establish that 
he is the incarnate God, although the world greets him 
with rejection, 

John, having declared who Christ was, proceeds 
at once to tell us that his true character was not 
recognized by men, although he lived among them. 
*' He came unto his own, and his own received him 
not." Although rejected, he seeks to set before 
us the fact that there was no reason for his rejec- 
tion. There was abundant evidence to establish 
his divine identity. What evidence was there ? 

(a.) There was the testimony of his own divine life. 

His works can be explained only by his deity. 
These identify him as the Son of God, by whom 



THE WORD MADE FLESH. I9 

all things in the beginning were created. These 
discover to us that in him we have the great Cre- 
ator once more in the midst of his own works. 
Let me resort to an illustration. When Ulysses 
returned home to Ithaca with fond anticipations, 
his family did not recognize him. Even his wife 
denied her husband, so changed was he by an 
absence of twenty years and by the exposures of 
war. It was thus true of the vexed and astonished 
Greek as of a nobler King, that he came unto his 
own and his own received him not. In this pain- 
ful position of affairs he called for a bow which 
he had left at home when he embarked for the 
siege of Troy. With characteristic sagacity he 
saw how a bow so stout and tough that no one 
but he could draw it might be made to bear wit- 
ness on his behalf. He seized it, and to their sur- 
prise and joy it yielded to his strong arm like a 
green wand lopped from a willow-tree. He bent 
it till the bow-string touched his ear. His wife 
now saw that he was her long-lost and long- 
mourned husband, and she threw herself with 
confidence into his arms. Like Ulysses, if I may 
compare small things with great, our Lord gave 
such proof of his divinity when he was a stranger 
in the midst of his own creation. He bent the 
stubborn laws of nature, which only God can bend. 
He proved that he was the heavenly Creator by 
his mastery over creation. Christ has Godlike 
deeds and a divine life as a witness to his divine 
identity. 

(b.) There was the testimony of prophecy. 



20 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

Under this head comes the testimony of John 
the Baptist. He bore witness to Christ. He was 
the last and greatest of the Old Testament proph- 
ets, and as such represented them. In the name 
of all who preceded him he hands the prophetic 
office over to Jesus. His voice was the recapitula- 
tion and comxpletion of the whole line of prophets. 
John was a wonderful witness. So wonderful was 
he that many thought that he was great enough 
to be the Messiah. It was necessary for him to 
say, " 1 am not the Christ." Christ had the testi- 
mony of this great and good prophet. 

(c.) T/iere was the testimony of his disciples. 

•They saw the outflashing of his inherent divin- 
ity in the mount of Transfiguration. This is their 
testimony : " We beheld his glory, the glory as of 
the only-begotten of the Father." His divinity is 
a historical fact, and it is established by the laws 
which govern human evidence. It is established 
just as the genius of Napoleon is established. 
There is as good reason to doubt the one as to 
doubt the other. They are both established by 
the testimony of eye-witnesses. The disciples of 
Christ's day say, " He dwelt among us, and we 
saw him and knew who he v/as and what he was." 

(d.) There was, and there is still, the testintony of 
the experience of his followers. 

The witnesses of the divinity of Christ are not 
all dead. There is a present testimony. There 
are living witnesses. There are men to-day who 
can say, ''Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth 
and life and light, because of his fulness have all 



THE WORD MADE FLESH. 21 

we received." There are men walking the streets 
of New York who are full of Godlike purposes 
and feelings and virtues, and who bear the like- 
ness of God and who are partakers of the divine 
nature. Their testimony is, '' All this came to us 
from the fulness of Christ." Christ could not give 
divine things if he were not divine. The argu- 
ment of experience is a mighty argument. Giving 
implies having. Ask the flowers how they know 
that the sun has life and beauty. They reply, 
'' He gives us life and beauty." Can you refute 
that argument ? Can you successfully deny that 
the sun has life and beauty ? If you did deny it, 
would anybody believe you so long as the flowers 
receive life and beauty from the sun? Account 
for the divine likeness and the divine things which 
Christians receive from Christ if Christ be not di- 
vine. *' Of his fulness have all we received." 

III. Christ as the incarnate God bestows a fulness 
of blessing upon all who by faith receive him as such. 

(a.) He gives to believers the most satisfactory rev- 
elation of God and of truth. 

" No man hath seen God at any time ; the only- 
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, 
he hath declared him." He is to the Father what 
words are to thought. Words are thoughts in vis- 
ible form. He is called the Word because he is 
God in visible form — *' God manifest in the flesh." 
When Thomas said to him, " Lord, show us the 
Father and it will suffice us," He said, '* He that 
hath seen me hath seen the Father." In accord 
v.'ith all this is the claim which he makes for him- 



22 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

self when he says, '* I am the Light of the world." 
All revelation has come through him. He was in 
the Theophanies of the Old Testament. It was 
with him that Enoch and Noah walked. It was he 
who was with Moses, and it was for his sake that 
Moses suffered. Now this does not interfere with 
the function and work of the Holy Spirit, for it is 
the things of Christ which the Spirit takes and 
shows unto men. It is into Christ's truth that the 
Spirit leads us. Christ embodies God in himself ; 
when therefore he reveals himself he reveals God. 
Christ embodies truth ; he is the Truth : when he 
reveals himself he reveals truth. There is not an 
atom of truth on the earth, nor a ray of divine 
light in the soul of man, but can be traced by the 
omniscient Eye back to Christ. The light of the 
Old Testament ! He is the source of that. The 
light of the New Testament ! He is the source of 
that. The light that flickers in the darkness of 
heathendom ! He is the source of that. The mis- 
sionaries tell us of a man in the midst of heathen 
darkness who accepted of Christ the first time he 
heard Christ preached. The man said, ^'Why I 
have been believing in him for years, but I did not 
know how to name him." He told them how he 
had been convicted of sin, how he had been led to 
renounce all trust in himself, and how he cried to 
the One who made him, asking Him to send some 
one to save him. He told them that he felt sure 
that in some way his Maker would, and he was 
just resting in that trust. That man never rea- 
soned himself up into that trust. His light came 



THE WORD MADE FLESH. 23 

from Christ, although he did not know how to 
name him. The knowledge of an unknown Christ 
came to him in lines he knew not. 

We who know Christ know God. We know 
how God loves and forgives and acts. We know 
what he expects from us and how he would have 
us live. We know the things which he has provi- 
ded for his own. 

(b.) He gives to believers the adoption of sons. 

*' As many as received him, to them gave he 
power to become the sons of God." He fills them 
with his filial spirit and transforms them into his 
likeness. Sons of God ! We know what that term 
carries with it. It carries with it the fellowship of 
God's household, fellowship with Jesus the elder 
Brother, fellowship with the saints of the past and 
of the future. It means Abraham's bosom and 
the ministry of the angels. It means the mansions 
and the harps of gold and the unfading crowns. 
It means the river of life and the tree of life. Ac- 
cording to the Scriptures sonship carries with it 
heirship. " If sons, then we are heirs." Heirs of 
what ? Let the Bible answer. " Heirs of the grace 
of God." ^' Heirs of salvation." '^ Heirs of the 
kingdom which God hath promised to those who 
love him." " Heirs of the riches of the glory of 
the inheritance of the saints." Is this all? No, 
not all. The most wonderful part of the heritage 
of sonship yet remains to be spoken. The Bible 
says that we are '' heirs of God." To be heirs of 
this earth would be much ; to be heirs of heaven 
would be a great deal more ; but to be heirs of 



24 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

God, to have him as our portion, is incomparable 
beyond all. But this is our privilege. The Heav- 
enly Father belongs to us. This is a wonderful 
fact, but it is a fact. How much it means it will 
take eternity to explain. 

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 

1. Open your Jieart to the great things predicated 
of Christ in this wonderful Gospel. 

What grandeur they give the cause of Christ ! 
What confidence they should give us in its ulti- 
mate success ! What dignity they give to Chris- 
tian faith ! What glory they put upon Christ him- 
self ! The man who unreservedly accepts of these 
teachings of John concerning Jesus Christ will be 
on fire with Christian enthusiasm and will be ab- 
solute in his devotion to Christ and to his church. 
He will give Christ the throne of his soul. He 
will see him as the Lord of the universe, and he 
will judge everything and appreciate everything 
from its relation to Christ. 

2. Attach due hnportance to the fact that Christ is 
the incarnate God. 

It is a fundam.ental fact and doctrine. If v/e 
look upon Christian doctrine as constituting an 
arch, the doctrine of the incarnation is the key- 
stone of the arch. When it falls every other doc- 
trine falls v/ith it. If Christ be not the Son of 
God, the gospel story is a baseless myth. If Christ 
be not the Son of God, Christendom is a fiction. 

3. Seek a re-incarnation of Christ in yourself. 
Paul tells us that this is the will of God con- 



THE WORD MADE FLESH. 2$ 

ceming us. God wants the life of Jesus to be 
made manifest in our mortal flesh, just as the life 
of God was made manifest in Christ. If we are 
Christ's people we want what God wants. We 
want God to make us vessels meet for this great 
purpose. We would have our characters so pure 
and so transparent that his glorious life might 
shine through them, just as light shines through a 
spotless crystal. We would have such a fulness of 
Christ's indwelling that we might be able to say, 
" It is no longer I that live, but Christ who liveth 
in me." 



26 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES : THE WAY 
THEY FOUND CHRIST. 

"And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold 
THE Lamb of God ! And the tvv^o disciples heard him 
speak, and they followed Jesus."^/<3/z« 1:36, :ij. 

The first part of this magnificent chapter deals 
with the origin of Jesus Christ ; the last part deals 
with the origin of the Christian Church. It tells 
us who were the first to rally around Jesus, accept 
his doctrines, and consecrate themselves irrevoca- 
bly to his cause. There vv^ere five such men : John 
and Andrew and Peter and Philip and Nathanael. 
When we remember what the church of God is 
and the place which it has always had in the 
divine plan, we can see the importance of this his- 
tory which gives us the origin of the church. 
This page may seem a quiet one, but the times 
which it chronicles are stirring times. These in- 
cidents related may seem to be uneventful things 
in the private lives of lowly persons, but they are 
none other than the incidents towards which all 
history has been working. These private men 
are destined to become public actors. There is a 
race service before them and a world-wide fame. 

Their true life begins on the day they find 
Jesus and ally themselves with him and his future. 
This is the case with every immortal soul. All 
life lived apart from God is nothing but a waste. 
The greatness of a man begins when Christ 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES. 2/ 

marches into his being and becomes incarnate in 
his life. The incoming- of Christ into the h'fe of 
man, that is the one thing above all things ; that 
carries in it a future as bright as the golden day 
which opens in splendor. When Christ takes pos- 
session of a man he fills him with his light and 
makes him a luminary in the world. See what he 
does here. He lifts rough and uncouth fishermen 
from their fishing-boats into the apostleship and 
places them upon the thrones of thought which 
rule humanity. 

We need this page of history with these five 
names. We need it as a revelation of the growth 
of the Christian Church and as a standing argu- 
ment to the divinity of the gospel. We argue the 
divinity of the gospel from the weakness and low- 
liness of its early advocates. It progresses despite 
their lowliness and weakness. It shows what it is 
by what it does for them. Behold what they are 
when it finds them ! Behold what they are when 
it leaves them! This is the way to understand 
what the gospel is and what it can do. 

Such a history as this, when linked v/ith the 
advancing history of the church and v/ith the 
prophecies which picture the final perfection of 
the church, creates great expectations for the 
church and strengthens our faith in the final issue 
of the cause of Christ. There is no exercise so 
stimulating to the child of God as running in 
thought through the successive stages of the 
growth and advancement of the church. This is 
the picture which opens to his soul : On the first 



28 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

day Jesus stands alone ; on the second day two 
disciples join him ; as the days follow, a third 
disciple is added, and a fourth disciple, and then a 
fifth disciple. First in the history of the Christian 
Church we read of two, then of five, then of twelve, 
then of seventy, then of one hundred and twenty, 
then of five hundred, then of one hundred forty- 
and-four thousand, and then of ten thousand times 
ten thousand and thousands of thousands, and 
finally of the multitudes and multitudes which no 
man can number, gathered from every people and 
kindred and tongue and nation, all singing, " Wor- 
thy is the Lamb that was slain to receive powder 
and riches and wisdom and strength and honor 
and glory and blessing." Truly the pathway of 
the Christian Church, as traced through the Gos- 
pel and Apocalypse of John, the beloved disciple, 
the leader of these five in discipleship, is a pathway 
of light and triumph which leads to perfection and 
eternal glory. We cannot but praise God that Vv^e 
are part of the Christian Church which is sv/eeping 
up the steeps of light to its heavenly destiny. But 
let us not give way to rapture. Let us not forget 
that our study is the fi^rst chapter of John's Gospel, 
not the last chapter of John's Apocalypse. 

In this chapter v/e are told that five disciples 
followed Christ, and they were his first disciples, 
the foundation of the Christian Church. It is with 
these five disciples, with Jesus in their midst, that 
v/e wish to deal. In spending our time with them 
the chief thing we wish to reach is this : the differ- 
ent w^ays in which they were brought to Christ, 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES. 29 

When we see these different ways we shall see the 
different avenues that are opened to ns on every 
hand for effective work for Chrst, and the many 
agencies that can be wheeled into gospel service 
and the varied lines upon which the multitudes 
may come to Christ. 

There are twelve gates opening into the heav- 
enly city, and these gates evenly face all points of 
the compass and make it possible that men may 
come from the east and the west, the north and 
the south, and sit down with Abraham and Isaac 
and Jacob in the kingdom of God. 

But let us take up the story of the five. 

I . The first and second disciples were won to Christ 
by the ministry of John the Baptist, They zvere con- 
verted by a sermon. 

The true sermon is a converting power. It is 
a God-ordained agency for swaying the souls of 
men and centring them in Christ. Does God use 
the sermon in converting men, then let us expect 
and look for returns from every gospel sermon 
that issues from the pulpit. Let us make the ser- 
mon strong by our prayer and by our desire and 
by our faith. The sermon should not be consid- 
ered the product of one man ; in the pulpit at least 
it should never be allowed to go out among souls 
as a mere one-man power ; it should be sent out 
among immortal souls to work for Christ filled 
with all the power of the assembled congregation. 

I need not spend time in lauding John the Bap- 
tist, the minister who won the first converts to 
Christ. He was a man who hid himself behind 



30 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

Clirist. Christ was seen, not John the Baptist. 
He was a man who preached Christ and not self. 
This made him a man of electric power. The 
substance of his sermon which won the first con- 
verts to Jesus is given here in one little sentence. 
That sentence is this, " Behold the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world !" The 
Baptist was the son of a priest, and he preached 
Christ as the anti-type of the lamb offered in 
daily sacrifice. Everybody understood the meta- 
phor. He preached the cross. It was in his min- 
istry as it was in Paul's : Christ crucified was the 
power of God and the wisdom of God to every one 
that believeth. It is the cross that convicts men 
of sin. It is the cross that gives men a melting 
exhibition of the infinite love of God. It is the 
sermon with the cross in it that is the soul-con- 
verting sermon. Thus it was in the beginning, 
and shall ever continue to be. Men to-day elimi- 
nate the sacrificial death of Christ from their 
preaching and then wonder why souls are not con- 
verted. It would be a wonder if souls were con- 
verted. 

But who were these two disciples converted to 
Christ by the sermon of the Baptist ? They were 
John, the disciple of love, and Andrew. John, the 
embodiment of love, leads the world in the rally 
around Christ, and it is fitting that he should. It 
is fitting that love should have the preeminence. 
It is fitting that he who is last at the cross with 
Christ should be first with Christ on the banks of 
the Jordan, should feel the power of the first gos- 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES. 3 1 

pel sermon, and should witness the first evidence 
of Christ's deity: the cleft sky, the descending 
dove, and the voice of the Father, ''This is my 
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." 

There is one fact which stands out in great 
boldness connected with the conversion of John, 
the first disciple of Jesus ; it is a fact for us all. It 
is this, namely. The first views which a Christian 
receives of Christ are the views that abide with hijn 
and control Jiiin. 

John saw Christ as the Lamb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world, and this view of 
Christ always held the preeminence in his life. 
Christ the sacrifice for sin was his burning vision. 
Read his Epistles, in which he breathes his inner 
self and in which he speaks out his deepest con- 
victions. It would seem as though he could speak 
of nothing else but the blood which cleanseth from 
all sin and the sacrificial death and great propitia- 
tion. Turn to the Apocalypse, and there you find 
that thirty times and more he sets Christ forth as 
"the Lamb of God." These writings were the 
productions of his old age, and they reveal that 
his first views of Christ were the views that lived 
with him and that controlled his thinking. 

This same fact, illustrated in John, is illustrated 
in Paul. His first vision of Christ gave character to 
his after life and faith. On the way to Damascus 
two things were burned into Paul's consciousness, 
namely, Christ's deity and Christ's oneness with 
his people. The glory-light which shone around 
Paul and made him blind was the insignia of deity, 



32 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

the flashing of divine glory itself, and the words of 
Christ, '* I am Jesus whom thou persecutest," were 
the evidence of how closely united Christ is to his 
people. He is so closely related that suffering 
inflicted upon them is treated as suffering inflicted 
upon him. Now these two facts were always v/ith 
Paul : Christ is God ; Christ and his people are 
one. He never tired proclaiming and illustrating 
these two facts. It was he who coined the phrases 
concerning Christ : " In him dwelleth all the ful- 
ness of the Godhead bodily ;" and, " He was the 
brightness of the Father's glory and the express 
image of his person." It was he who likened 
Christ to the head and the church to the body. 
Thus intimate did he picture the oneness between 
Christ and Christians. Brethren, it is well that 
our first visions of Christ do sway our after-life, 
and it is well that Christians have different views 
of Christ. The result is good. Each Christian 
emphasizes and holds aloft some special truth and 
fact, and when all are added together we have in 
Christians themselves the sum of all truth and the 
practical exhibition of all truth. 

2. The third disciple was won to Christ by family 
iytfluence. 

The third disciple was Simon Peter. He was 
brought to Christ by his brother Andrew. An- 
drew made it his business to go after him and tell 
him his Christian experience and invite him to 
Christ. Peter was Andrew's gift to the church, 
and the gift was a magnificent one. It was worth 
living a lifetime to bring Peter to Christ. His 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES. 33 

conversion meant the day of Pentecost with its 
sermon which converted three thousand. It meant 
the heroic protest before the Council which re- 
vealed to the rulers of the land that the spirit of 
Christ had perpetuated itself in the souls of his 
disciples. It meant the conversion of Cornelius 
and the fearless opening of the gates of the 
church to the incoming of the vast Gentile world. 
It meant also two precious epistles which are cas- 
kets full of spiritual gems. 

Andrew's biography teaches us that we may 
live in the greatness of others ; for think you not 
that God will reckon unto him part of Pentecost 
and part of the glory of the incoming of the Gen- 
tiles ? He brought Peter : v/ill not God give him 
a share in Peter's reward ? Naomi lives in Ruth, 
and shares her happiness. Monica lives in Augus- 
tine, and shares part of the fame of her illustrious 
son. Do you not believe that that unknown monk 
who in the German cloister laid his hand on Mar- 
tin Luther's shoulder and pointed him to the un- 
known Bible, will have some part of the reward 
of that herald of the open page in the day when 
God rewards according to our deeds? Do you not 
believe that Susannah Wesley — herself not .a 
singer, herself not a preacher — who taught the 
young Charles his song and the young John his 
message, will receive at the hands of God in the 
day of days according to the mighty working of 
Methodism in its stupendous and glorious march } 
Do you not believe that that unheralded and al- 
most forgotten preacher who leaned over his desk 

Slu<:ifcB iD JoliiiB Gospel. 2^ 



34 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

and shot his loving message into the listening ears 
of young Charles Spurgeon will have some part 
in the great reward which the mightiest English- 
man of our age shall certainly receive ? God be 
praised, the reward which comes to us for the 
good that we do counts up like compound 
interest. 

• The biography of Andrew teaches us that rela- 
tionship affords us a sphere for Christian work, 
and imposes upon us the responsibility for the sal- 
vation of our kindred, that is, in so far as the sal- 
vation of the soul can repose upon man. When 
Andrew found Christ for himself, there was a 
voice within which said, " You must fijid Peter and 
bring him to Christ T There is a voice within you 
which says, *' You must find your kiitdred and bring 
them to Christy No man should be before you in 
the ministry of the gospel to your own home. 
There is no reason why faith should not have a suc- 
cession in the family just as surely as unbelief has. 
It will if we are true to our Christian faith in our 
family life. Be a Jochebed, and your son will be 
a Moses. Be a Naomi, and your daughter-in-law 
will be a Ruth. Be a Lois, and your grandson 
will be a Timothy. Be an Andrew, and your 
brother will be a Peter, 

We found a special fact in the conversion of 
John ; is there not also a special fact in the con- 
version of Peter ? Yes ; it is this : When we find 
Christ he sets before us our defects and also our possi- 
bilities. 

The story here tells us that when Christ first 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES. 35 

met Peter, he cJiangcd his name; and in this new 
name he both set before him that in which he was 
lacking" and that which it was possible for him to 
attain. These are the words of Christ : " When 
Jcvsus beheld him he said, Thou art Simon the son 
of Jonas : thou shalt be called Cephas, i. e., Peter, 
which by interpretation means a stone or rock." 
The rock is the emblem of firmness. This virtue 
Peter lacked. He was a man of courage, but he 
needed firmness to give his courage constancy. 
At the very first meeting Christ held up to him his 
defect. Thus it is. When souls come to Christ 
he makes them feel their missing qualities and 
lacking attributes. In his presence their empti- 
ness is set off by his fulness. But not only did 
Christ reveal Peter's defects ; by the name which 
he gave him he set before him the type of char- 
acter which he, under discipline and culture, could 
reach. By the new name which he gave him he 
told him that he could become a pillar in the 
temple of God. Such a pillar he did become. 

Christ vras not mistaken in him. He saw his 
future. He saw the attributes vv^hich would mark 
his after days : swift decisiveness, fire and manli- 
ness, courage and firmness. We learn from Peter 
that our Christian life has its hereafter. We climb 
up to higher things upon our owm experiences. 
We climb up and up and still up, until at last we 
reach complete likeness to Christ himself. Christ 
holds our perfection in himself, just as the tree 
holds the perfection of the spring bud on its way 
to fruit. John and Andre^Y and Peter and Philip 



36 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

and Bartholomew are now the perfect and trans- 
figured image of Jesus Christ, and we shall be the 
same when we join them in their heaven-life. 

3. The fourth disciple was won to Christ by 
Christ's own personal agency. 

The fourth disciple was Philip. Christ himself 
went after Philip. He knew where he was, and 
he had a mission for him. No details are given 
of his conversion ; all that w^e are told is this : 
Christ said to him, "Follow me!" By two little 
words he changed his career and set before him 
his future Christian life. The Christian life con- 
sists in following Christ, and this is what Christ 
told Philip. The Christian should follow Christ 
in deeds and in graces and in sacrifices. The 
Christian should reproduce Christ's example and 
re-incarnate Christ's life. 

4. The fifth disciple was brought to Christ by the 
efforts of a converted neighbor. 

The fifth disciple was Nathanael, whom Bible 
critics identify with Bartholomew the apostle. 
Philip was a neighbor of Nathanael, and he went 
to him and told him the glad tidings of the Mes- 
siah found. His address throws light upon the 
blanks in this history. For example, we are not 
told the things which Jesus taught his disciples 
while he first associated with them ; not a word of 
his discourses is recorded ; but here, in the convic- 
tion of Philip, which he expresses to Nathanael, 
we have the fruit of these discourses. The fruit 
reveals the seed. The harvest declares the sow- 
ing. It was Philip's conviction that in Jesus of 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES. 3/ 

Nazareth lie had found the Messiah of whom 
Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write. 
Christ, therefore, must have opened unto his first 
disciples the Law of Moses and the writings of the 
prophets. 

The story of Philip struck the prejudices of Na- 
thanael, and he asked with incredulity, " Can any 
good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip spent 
no time arguing with him. He was a man of few 
words and he appealed to experience. Talkative 
men are not the men who make the most converts. 
Talkative men in the church are not the men who 
do the most work. Philip's answer to prejudice 
was, " Come and see," i. e., test things by experience. 
You cannot out-argue prejudice. Facts — these are 
the only things that can master prejudice. These 
Christianity has, and it unrolls them before every 
honest Nathanael. 

When Nathanael came to test the Messianic 
claims of Jesus, Jesus at once established his 
claims to the man's satisfaction. He read his 
thoughts for him ; he exercised before him the 
attributes of deity, and the result was the quick 
response of Nathanael's faith which uttered itself 
in these words, ''Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; 
thou art the King of Israeli The character of Na- 
thanael is an exceptionally fine one. His conver- 
sion was quick, because he was very near the 
kingdom of God and because he was in search of 
Christ. He was the highest type of an Israelite, 
and Jesus saw in him a beautiful embodiment of 
the Hebrew religion. He called him an Israelite 



38 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

in whom there was no guile. He was the fif- 
teenth Psalm in flesh and blood, singing itself in 
the every-day deeds of a holy life. 

As we found special points in the story of the 
conversion of John and of Peter, we find also a 
special point in the story of the conversion of 
Nathanael. It is this: Christianity will bear 
testing. 

The Christian religion courts investigation : it 
is constantly throwing out the challenge, " Come 
and see." Christ framed this challenge the very 
first day he started upon his public career and the 
very first time he met v/ith inquirers. Before he 
ever accepted the faith of a human soul, he said, 
" Come and see." What could be fairer than this ? 
Christ does not want a blind trust, he wants an in- 
telligent faith. Pie says to every man, " Test me." 
He asks the human race to scrutinize his character 
and his life. He submits his deity and his love to 
examination. He submits his religion with its 
fruits to a practical test. Come and see a dying 
v/orld revived, a decrepit world regenerated. 
Come and see tenderness brought to the cell of the 
imprisoned felon and liberty to fettered slaves. 
Come and see the ignorant educated and the poor 
vested with civil liberty. Come and see great 
nations lifted from barbarism into the highest 
civilization. Come and see hospitals and orphan- 
ages rising in their permanent mercy beside the 
crumbling ruins of colossal amphitheatres that 
once reeked with human blood. Come and see dens 
of lust and tyranny transformed into sv/eet and 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES. 39 

happy homes. Come and see Christ glorified in 
the world. And how is Christ glorified ? He is 
glorified as the sun in the sky is glorified. The 
sun is glorified by being allowed to shine in its 
true strength. Sweep the clouds from the mighty 
vault and let the sun shine in its strength ! Let its 
glinting shafts shoot through the wide world. Let 
them sparkle in the dewdrop and burn and glow 
in the beautiful colors of the flowers. Christ is 
glorified in the outcome of his life in our civiliza- 
tion and in his re - incarnation in his church. 
Come and see him in these. Come and see the 
magnificent acts in the one great drama continued 
through nineteen long centuries, all reproducing 
Christ in life, and establishing his truth and his 
love and his type of manhood. Come and see ! 
This is the call which all of God's people are com- 
missioned to sound out the universe over. And 
he who listens to the call, and like Nathanael 
draws near to Christ and Christianity with pure 
and candid motives, will with Nathanael lift up 
his voice and cry, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of 
God ; thou art the King of Israel !" 

DEDUCTIONS. 

I. Comparing the present progress of the Christian 
Chnrch with the beginning of the Christian Churchy 
there is great ground for hopefulness. 

Out of five have grown the teeming multitudes 
of to-day. Five men in the open air, five men 
with empty hands, five men with low ideals, five 
men without any culture, five men in need of years 



40 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

of discipline, five men with carnal views of the 
kingdom of Christ — such was the beginning, 
such the opening of the first century. But com- 
pare the first century with the nineteenth century. 
The nineteenth century has vast cathedrals thrown 
up into the air in the name of Jesus, magnificent 
temples filled with the worshippers of Jesus, na- 
tions Christianized by the power of Jesus, institu- 
tions by the thousand the embodiment of the love 
and thoughtfulness of Jesus, a second divine 
Book, the New Testament, full of the biography of 
Jesus, an expurgated theology, full of clear views 
concerning the spirituality of the kingdom of Je- 
sus. To-day the sun never sets upon the kingdom 
of Jesus. Christ in a large degree commands the 
intellect of the world and the wealth of the world 
and the power of the world ; and yet the predic- 
tions concerning the church are only before us in 
the form of a spring bud. The full-bloomed flower 
is a thing of the future. How glorious the Chris- 
tian Church will be when the flower is in full 
bloom ! The present grandeur of Christianity is 
only the hiding of its inherent glory. Its present 
grandeur is in the world of religion what the rain- 
bow is in the world of God's beauty. Half of the 
truths of Christianity have not been worked out 
into life and made practical and effective in the 
world. 

Christianity as a revelation may be called com- 
plete ; but Christianity as an applied force is only 
in the beginning of its career. There is a millen- 
nial glory about which the church in practical life 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES. 4I 

has not yet begun to dream. There are crowns 
and crowns in store for the head of Christ. There 
is a sweep for his sceptre in the future that will 
encircle a thousand times over the present sweep 
of that sceptre. There are anthems to be sung 
that never have been sung. His own prediction 
still awaits its complete fulfilment : " I, if I be 
lifted up, will draw all men unto me." There is 
wide ground for a grand play of hopefulness with 
regard to the church of Jesus Christ. 

2. There are many ways to Clirist. 

There is only one way to eternal life, and 
Christ is that one way : but there are many ways 
to Christ. Some come to Christ through a sermon, 
like the two disciples of the Baptist, John and 
x\ndrew. Some come through the influence of 
the home-life, like Peter. Some are found directly 
by Christ himself, like Philip. Paul also came in 
this way. I might also say that Luther came in 
this way. He was first made serious by the stri- 
king down of his companion at his side in the 
twinkling of an eye by a bolt of lightning. That 
startling moment was the turning - point in Lu- 
ther's life. Christ often speaks in some startling 
providence to the unconverted soul, and brings it 
to salvation by his own personal finding. Some 
come through the missionary work of their neigh- 
bor, like Nathanael. Search the experience of 
Christians, and you will find that men are brought 
to Christ in an almost inconceivable variety of 
ways. One says, ''A text of Scripture found me." 
Another sa3^s, "A death-bed scene found me." 



42 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

Another, " I was readied by a prayer." Another, 
'' I was impressed by the holy character of my 
mother." Another, " I was converted by a ser- 
mon." The ways to Christ are as diverse as the 
different dispositions of men, and so earnest is God 
in love for the salvation of men. This is a com- 
forting fact. It teaches ns that if we are seeking 
Christ we shall find him. It teaches us not to 
worry because our experiences do not tally with 
those of our Christian brother. You had not the 
experience he had in coming to Christ: but no 
matter. Do not imagine therefore that you have 
not reached Christ. You are a different man. 
True, you v/ere not converted as Paul was, but 
that does not prove that you have not been con- 
verted. You are not to fit yourself to Paul's 
method of conversion, you have only to fit your- 
self to the spirit of Paul's Christian life : if you 
have that, no matter how you got it. If you love 
Christ as he loved Christ, then it is an absolute 
certainty that you have found Christ and have 
been found of Christ. If you are living the Chris- 
tian life, that is enough : that should fill you with 
assurance and peace. 

3. W/ie7t a man respo7tds to the call of Christian 
friends and comes to Jesus, he responds to the call of 
Jesus himself. 

Peter made no mistake in hearkening to An- 
drew : for Christ himself was with Andrew seek- 
ing him. This Scripture says to every soul, 
''Yield to the persuasion of your godly friends." 



THE FIRST MIRACLE. 43 



THE FIRST MIRACLE, OR THE WED- 
DING AT CANA. 

"This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, 

AND manifested FORTH HIS GLORY; AND HIS DISCIPLES BE- 
LIEVED ON HIM."— /<?/m 2: II. 

John closes his narrative of the first miracle 
with this retrospective remark : '' This beginning 
of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and mani- 
fested forth his glory; and his disciples believed 
on him." The right way to study the miracle is 
to begin with this retrospective remark. It helps 
us to a proper conception of its fulness, signifi- 
cance, and worth. John was an old man when 
he looked back upon the scenes of Cana and when 
he made this remark. It is therefore an inspired 
commentary upon the miracle. It is a testimony 
to its worth. It is a history of its influence. 

(a.) It teaches that the miracle revealed the divinity 
of Christy and thus confirmed the faith of the new- 
made disciples. 

When the heavens are covered with clouds on 
a murky day, sometimes there is a rift in the 
clouds which lets through a momentary flash of 
the sunshine. That flash tells that the sun still 
exists in his glory back of the vapory veil. This 
miracle in Cana was like such a sunburst. It was 
the out-flashing of the divinity which dwelt in ful- 
ness in the unpretending form of Jesus Christ. 



44 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

Divinity was within him. It was only veiled by 
the veil of flesh. It flashed out now in the form 
of a deed, just as in after time on the mountain of 
the Transfiguration it flashed out in the form of 
luminous splendor, which irradiated his humanity 
until his face did shine as the sun and his raiment 
v/as as white as the light. The miracle had an 
evidential value. Says the evangelist, " It mani- 
fested his glory." His divinity had always been 
a fact. For the past thirty years deity was in- 
folded by his humanity. It simply let itself be 
seen in this miracle, so that men might know it 
was there. An act was chosen which divine 
power only could perform and which no one could 
dispute, so that men might be led to see that the 
whole of Christ's life was divine. If he who 
turned water into wine v/as divine, then he v/ho 
wept over Jerusalem was divine. The actor in 
both instances was the same person. If we see 
God in the power of Jesus, then we see God in the 
compassion of Jesus. If as a divine person Jesus 
teaches us how God works, then as a divine person 
Jesus teaches us how God thinks and forgives and 
loves. If Jesus Christ be divine in Cana of Gali- 
lee, he is divine in Nazareth and in Bethlehem 
and in Jerusalem and on Calvary. He is divine 
everywhere ; for divinity is not a thing to be put 
on and oft for occasions. For illustration the di- 
vinity of Christ has been likened to electricity and 
his miracles to lightning -bolts. Lightning-bolts 
only manifest the electric force which is every- 
where, and which in these bolts becomes visible 



THE FIRST MIRACLE. 45 

for a moment. The electric force is made visible 
in a thunder-bolt that we may be convinced of its 
existence, and may be led to believe that it slum- 
bers invisibly in the dewdrop and in the mist and 
in the cloud. Christ's divinity shows itself in the 
miracles of his life, that we may know his divinity 
and believe him to be divine in everything he 
does. John, in the opening of his Gospel, had 
spoken of Jesus as full of God's glory, and he now 
relates this miracle as the proof of his assertion : 
" We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-be- 
gotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." 

(b.) // teaches that the miracle stood in the fore- 
front of Christ's ministry as a symbol or sign. 

The miracle was a talking act. It was a pic- 
torial incident. It vv^as a teaching symbol. This 
was the character of all the miracles. The mira- 
cles of Jesus not only relieved the wants of those 
for whom they were wrought; they expressed 
great truths, and thus instructed the v/orld. You 
could take the miracles of Jesus and with them 
build up a system of theology in the form of acted 
symbols. Christ acted out, in the miracles which 
he wrought, the only theology worth possessing 
or worth systematizing. In changing water into 
wine, by a creative act of his will, Christ lifted 
water into a higher form of existence. He en- 
nobled it. Was this the true sign and symbol of 
his mission on earth ? If so, then the purport of 
the ministry of Christ on earth is to ennoble and 
to elevate humanity. He degrades nothing; he 
ennobles all. He makes the common precious ; 



4^ STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

he makes the secular sacred. He fills the world 
with joy and peace. He makes holy every rela- 
tion of man. He puts his blessing upon all con- 
secrated human fellowships. 

(c.) // teaches us that tJiere is a development, a 
growth, in tJie miracles of our Lord, 

The miracle at Cana was only the beginning. 
Others followed. There was a growth in the mira- 
cles of Christ, a growth in degree of supernatural 
power and in range of influence. The study of 
the miracles is like the ascent of mountains, a go- 
ing from higher to higher peaks. In our last 
study we found that the pathway of the church 
of Christ, from the first chapter of the Gospel of 
John to the last chapter of the Apocalypse of John, 
was one of light and growth. The history of the 
growth of the church of Christ is paralleled by 
the history of the growth of the miracles of Christ. 
The increase in the number of Christ's disciples 
is paralleled and matched by the turning of 
water into wine, by the mastery of the winds and 
waves and the control of the gigantic forces of 
nature, by the healing of the sick, by the giving 
of sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, by 
the cleansing of the leper, and by the culminating 
miracle of all, the raising of Lazarus from the 
dead. There is a matchless growth in the mani- 
festation of the glory of ChTist the miracle-worker. 
As we pass through the writings of John from 
the beginning, there is a vast stretch between the 
first out-shining of Christ's divinity at Cana and 
the full and perfect out -shining of his divinity 



THE FIRST MIRACLE. 47 

which finally lights up heaven. The progress of 
the glory of the church is more than matched by 
the progress of the glory of Christ. And this the 
pen of John sets forth. 

To give order to our ^thoughts, we will study 
the narrative of the miracle and emphasize some 
deductions drawn therefrom. 

I. THE NARRATIVE OF THE MIRx\CLE. 

The narrative introduces Christ as acting out 
his own divine nature and revealing who he is. 
Up to this point his divine character had been 
attested chiefly by supernatural displays from 
heaven, such as the shechinah light which lit up 
the plains of Bethlehem, the heavenly anthem 
sung by the hymning band of angels, the strange 
and mystic star, the prophetic visions, the cleft 
sky over the baptismal water, and the audible 
voice of God sounding down the heavenly vault ; 
now, by a deed of his own, he proves who he is. 
The miracle was wrought at a marriage festival. 
Who was married we know not. From the way 
in which Mary the mother of Jesus made herself 
at home, and put herself at the head of affairs, it 
is supposed that the parties were related to Mary. 
Christ was invited and he went. By this act he 
showed that the keynote of his religion was joy, 
and declared his desire to companionate with men 
in their pleasures. By this act he put honor upon 
marriage. The Jews made much of marriage. 
They looked upon it as an ordinance of God. 
They taught their children that God himself pro- 



43 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

nounced the words of blessing over the cup at the 
union of Adam and Eve, and that the angel-choir 
sang the nuptial songs and rang the wedding- 
bells, and that Gabriel and Michael acted as 
groomsmen. They treated marriage as an Edenic 
blessing, and Jesus, by his presence at the mar- 
riage at Cana of Galilee, said that they were right. 
He taught that it was the duty of Christianity to 
capture and purify such occasions and to convert 
all social gatherings and feasts. It is a sin to give 
up the occasions of joy to the world. It is the mis- 
sion of Christians to capture the pleasures of life 
for Christ. Christians should go to the wedding 
in Cana of Galilee, and they should be the ruling 
spirits there. It is the duty of the church to bring 
everything into the subjection of Christ, music, 
art, pleasure, all that pertains to a man and all 
that occupies his time. 

The wine at the wedding feast gave out. This 
is the point of the story. Why it gave out nobody 
knows. The fact, however, was discovered by 
Mary, the mother of Jesus. Travellers tell us that 
to Orientals, exercising hospitality, such a lack was 
looked upon as a great mortification. So Mary 
looked upon it. She was a housekeeper and 
deeply sympathized with the host. Anxious to 
shield the family and prevent mortification, she 
said to Jesus, " They have no wine." Her remark 
was a woman's hint. Did she expect Jesus to 
come to the relief? The narrative can mean 
nothing else. 

We are anxious to see how Jesus treats her 



THE FIRST MIRACLE. 49 

request. Does he do \vliat she wishes ? Yes. But 
he does not do it on account of her intercession, 
but because it is the appointment of his Father's 
will and a part of the divinely pre-arranged plan 
of his life. j\Iary, by her intercession, can get 
that which is in accordance with God's will ; but 
so can the humblest of God's children. Mary had 
no prayer-power beyond that which we have. 
The reply of Jesus is contained in a single sen- 
tence : " Woman, what have I to do with thee ? 
mine hour is not yet come." The reply contains 
in it two things, instruction and correction. The 
instruction is contained in the words, '' Mine hour 
is not yet come." This places the miracle on the 
right basis. It teaches that everything in Christ's 
life was ordered by the Lord. It teaches his self- 
control. There was no haste in his life. There 
was nothing premature. He Vvaited " thirty years " 
before he set forth his grand character, because 
his Father said so. It teaches that the Father's 
will was the only authority which Jesus recog- 
nized. The correction which Jesus administered 
is contained in the words, " What have I to do 
with thee?" Some read reproof into the term 
V7hich Jesus used v/hen he addressed his miother. 
He called her " Woman." " Woman, what have I 
to do with thee ?" This is not correct. The 
term ''woman" is not a harsh term. It is a term 
w^hich recognizes the dignity of womankind. It is 
a title of respect. It is equivalent to the term 
" lady." That is a title of rank and dignity. 
Christ used the same term when he hung upon 



50 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the cross and with the tenderest of love remem- 
bered his mother. He said unto his mother, 
*' Woman, behold thy son !" The reproof of Christ 
is contained in the words, " What have I to do 
with thee ?" i. e., '' Interfere not. In my Messianic 
work you have no voice. I am no longer to be 
known as the son of Mary, but as the Son of God." 
This reproof was a kindness to Mary. Since she 
had no voice in the Messianic mission of Jesus, 
since the earth -view of the maternal relation 
must be dropped, it was kindness to teach and 
correct and guard Mary at the very start. Such a 
course was not only a kindness to Mary, it was a 
kindness to the Christian Church, in that it 
guarded it against ascribing fictitious attributes 
and mythical powers to Mary. In the very begin- 
ning Christ taught that Mariolatry Vv^as the wor- 
ship of a fiction. 

Having set forth the will and appointment of 
the Father as the basis of his action, Jesus 
wrought his miracle and turned water into wine. 
By a miracle he saved this household from morti- 
fied feelings. He found six water-pots standing 
in the court of the house, and these he ordered 
the servants to fill with water. When this was 
done, he told the servants to draw out and serve 
to the guests. This they did, and to their amaze- 
ment found that the water had become wine. In 
the words of Dryden, 

" The conscious water saw its God and blushed." 

The change was accomplished by a mere act of 
Christ's will. The change was instantaneous, and 



THE FIRST MIRACLE. 5 I 

this was the miracle. Usually water passes into 
wine by a slow but beautiful process of nature. It 
becomes wine by means of the vine and the soil 
and the sunshine and the seasons. Jesus per- 
formed it by an instantaneous act. He accele- 
rated the process of nature. He dispensed with 
the vineyard, and yet gave only what the vine- 
yard could give. By this act he proved that all 
creative power was his, and that he was the 
Creator among his works. By this act he proved 
his identity with Him who works in every vine- 
yard, and builds every grape in every cluster into 
a little goblet of wine. By this miracle he uttered 
in deeds what John in the first chapter of this 
Gospel uttered in words, ''All things were made 
by him ; and without him was not anything made 
that was made." He who built the forests of Ore- 
gon and the giant oaks of California, he who 
reared the cedars on Lebanon, those trees of God, 
he who grew the myriad vines in the vineyards 
on the banks of the Rhine, is the same person 
whom we see at Cana of Galilee, doing in the 
twinkle of an eye what in nature he does through 
the operations of the seasons. 

Notice, for Christian comfort, two character- 
istics of Christ which appear in this connection. 

(a.) He supplies the wants of men most bountifully. 

He not only gives daily bread, he gives luxu- 
ries. He fills our vessels up to the brim. He does 
everything upon the scale upon which he makes 
his offer of redemption which reads, '' Let who- 
soever will take of the water of life freely." Look 



52 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

at his promises ! They are as plenty as sun-rays. 
There is a sun-ray for every leaflet and floweret. 
The child of God, if he takes all that God gives, 
has to sing, '' My cup runneth over." 

(b.) He sympathizes with the sinallest wants of 
7nen. 

Luxuries are the smallest of our wants. We 
can live without them. No one in Cana would 
have perished if Jesus had not made wine. Now 
if Christ notices and supplies our smallest wants, 
he will notice and supply the deeper needs of life. 
This is true logic. It is perfectly legitimate to 
argue up and to argue down, to rise from the 
lesser to the greater, and to descend from the 
greater to the lesser. We have both methods of 
reasoning in the Bible. Paul argues from the 
greater to the lesser. He says. Since God has 
given us his Son, he cannot withhold the other 
needed and lesser gifts. Christ argues from the 
lesser to the greater. He says that if earthly fa- 
thers do thus and so, the Heavenly Father must 
go beyond them and act out his great nature. If 
a father took pity upon the little scratch on his 
child's finger, he would certainly look after a 
serious wound in his child's heart. If God looks 
after the ravens, he will certainly look after his 
own children. If he looks after the very hairs on 
our heads, what part of our personality will he 
overlook ? 

The narrative closes with the testing of the 
miracle. The new-made wine was carried to the 
governor of the feast. W^hen he tasted it, he 



THE FIRST MIRACLE. 53 

called the bridegroom and said, '' Every man at 
the beginning doth set forth good wine ; and when 
men have well drunk, then that which is worse ; 
but thou hast kept the good wine until now." The 
governor unwittingly contrasted Christ as a giver 
with man as a giver. He confirmed Christ's own 
words, '' Not as the world giveth, give I unto 
you." The world gives its sv/eets first and its 
dregs afterwards. As in the case of the Prodigal 
Son, it begins with plenty of money and music 
and feasting, but it ends with pauperism and the 
life of a swine -keeper. Christ puts the bitter 
before the sweet. The order of his gifts is first 
the conviction of sin, then pardon and the peace 
of God which passeth all understanding ; first the 
afflictions which are not joyous but grievous, then 
the peaceable fruits of righteousness which come 
through afflictions ; first the tribulations of earth, 
then the everlasting joys of heaven ; first the mor- 
tal body with its corruption and dishonor and 
fleshliness, then the immortal body with its incor- 
ruption and honor and spirituality. The gifts of 
the world dwindle, the gifts of Christ develop. 
The pathway of the world's gifts is from groaning 
tables to husks, the pathway of Christ's gifts is 
from husks to the multifold fruit of the Tree of 
Life. 

II. DEDUCTIONS FROM THE NARRATIVE. 

I . T/ie Gospel life of Christ is full of instructive 
forecasts. 

These forecasts are warnings against coming 



54 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

evils. Christ anticipates and rebukes sins by 
means of them. He throws them up as guards 
around the Christian Church. 

{a.) There is a strike here against Mariolatry. 
Christ never countenanced the worship of the Vir- 
gin Mary. He lifted up barriers against it. In 
this narrative we have the first of the repeated re- 
bukes which he gave by anticipation to that idola- 
trous reverence which has carried the human rela- 
tionship into the spiritual kingdom, carried it even 
into heavenly places, exalting Mary as the Queen 
of heaven. 

{b.) There is a strike here against the apocry- 
phal gospels and writings concerning Christ. The 
apocryphal writings as collected and published 
form quite a book. They attempt to fill up the 
gaps of the Bible history of Jesus. They deal 
largely with the infancy and childhood of Christ. 
They give the world a tremendous crop of mira- 
cles purporting to have been wrought by Christ 
during his infancy. But many of these are wholly 
un-Christlike. They read on this order: Some 
children refuse to play with him, and as a punish- 
ment he turns them into kids. Another child by 
accident runs against him, and for this he causes 
him to fall down and expire. He has a dispute 
with his teacher about the order of the Hebrew 
alphabet and the teacher strikes him ; for this he 
curses the teacher, and straightway his arm with- 
ers and he falls on his face and dies. He makes 
clay animals and birds, and causes them to fly and 
walk as a source of amusement. The miracles of 



THE FIRST MIRACLE. 55 

the apocryplial gospels are mostly of this order. 
They are either idle or monstrous. Foreseeing 
these writings, filled with the superstitions that 
had grown up in connection with the name of 
Jesus, the true gospel stamps them as false before 
they appear. It does this by means of one sen- 
tence, " This beginning of miracles did Jesus in 
Cana of Galilee." It says that there were no mira- 
cles prior to this. 

2. Our Christian characters should shine out in our 
pleasures. 

Christ never intended that his people should 
be anchorites, living in the cave of the hermit. 
We have social natures, and these are the creation 
of God. We must have pleasures. It^is our duty 
to have them. Christ himself, although he felt 
the pressure of his great work and the necessity 
of economizing his moments, went to a wedding 
feast. While there he cast no chill upon the fes- 
tivities. No one wished that he had stayed at 
home. The Christian religion does not veto 
healthy and natural delights. It vetoes only heat 
and excess and exaggeration. It vetoes only 
those pleasures which are a reproach to manhood 
and womanhood. It allows us all pleasures in 
which Christ can join us. It allows us such pleas- 
ures as those in which the Christian character can 
shine out. Christ was Christ at the marriage feast 
of Cana, and when Christians go to such scenes 
they should be Christians. 

3. TJie exhibition of Chr is f s glory increases faith. 
Thus it was when he showed his glory at Cana. 



56 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

It is written, '' He manifested fortli his glory, and 
his disciples believed on him." Christ does not 
ask US to believe without evidence. He is contin- 
ually revealing his glory. It shines out from this 
inspired page. While his glory opens to us more 
and more as we progress in our study of this Gos- 
pel, we should be able to feel an increase in the 
confirmation and grov/th of our faith. He who 
will let this Gospel into his soul will be like the 
apostle who wrote it ; he Avill be an intense Chris- 
tian full of .faith and love and devotion. He v/ill 
be a John among the disciples. But do not let us 
suppose that the manifestation of Christ's glory is 
confined to the printed Book. We will narrow 
our possessions if we do. No, Christ is continually 
showing his glory outside of the Book. He is 
showing his glory to-day in the wondrous works 
which he is doing among men. We see it in his 
answers to prayer. We see it in the changes 
which he is working in the characters of men. 
We see it in the grand triumphs of his cause. 
The glory of Christ, seen outside of the Book, has 
in it a power to strengthen our faith. 

4. There is a pozver in Christ to transform and 
elevate man. 

We must not forget that the miracle is a sym- 
bol. The lifting of water from a low grade in 
nature to a high grade in nature is simply an 
illustration. He who has power to elevate water 
has power to elevate man. Man is equal to the 
things of nature in his capability for elevation. Is 
this saying little or m^uch for man ? Let Ruskin. 



THE FIRST MIRACLE. 57 

answer our question and you will see that it is 
saying much. In his '' Modern Painters" he thus 
sets forth the capability of the things of nature to 
be elevated. He takes us to the mud or slime on 
the street of a manufacturing town, the absolute 
type of impurity, and he tells us, '' This mud, or 
slime, is com^posed of four elements — clay, mixed 
with soot, a little sand, and water. These four 
may be separated each from the other. The clay 
particles, left to follow their own instinct of unity, 
become a clear, hard substance, so set that it can 
deal with light in a wonderful way, and gather 
out of it the loveliest blue rays only, refusing the 
rest. We call it then a sapphire. The sand ar- 
ranges itself in mysterious, infinitely fine parallel 
lines, which reflect the blue, green, purple, and 
red rays in the greatest beauty. We call it then 
an opal. The soot becomes the hardest thing in 
the world, and, for the blackness it had, obtains 
the power of reflecting all the rays of the sun at 
once in the vividest blaze that any solid thing can 
shoot. We call it then a diamond. Last of all the 
water becomes a dew-drop, or a crystalline star of 
snow." Thus Ruskin sets forth in his own grand 
style the possibility of the things of nature for 
elevation. Now man's possibility for elevation is 
not one v\^hit less than that possessed by the 
things of nature, even when these things of na- 
ture are wrought upon by the power of God. Let 
Christ's divine power, which wrought upon the 
water and made it wine, take hold of the vilest 
specimen of a man, and it can transform him into 
3* 



58 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the perfect likeness of Christ himself. It can 
make him fit to dwell in the uncreated presence 
of the infinitely glorious and holy God. It can 
make him so pure and upright that he can walk 
the crystal streets of the celestial city without 
casting the least shadow upon them. It can so 
beautify him that the keen omniscient eye cannot 
find a flaw in him. It has done this. It is doing 
this every day. Whatever Christ's power touches 
it ennobles and makes Christlike. This moulding 
power of Christ has high ideals, and into these 
ideals it is patterning men. Its ideals are heav- 
enly. Its ideals are God's communicable attri- 
butes, and it is assimilating men into conformity 
to these. Changing water into wine is nothing in 
comparison with this. When the work of Christ's 
power has been completed, then will come the 
marriage supper of the Lamb, for the Church, his 
bride, will be fully ready. Happy were they who 
were at the wedding in Cana of Galilee : " But 
blessed are they who are called unto the marriage 
supper of the Lamb.'* 



CHRIST AND NICODEMUS. $g 



CHRIST AND NICODEMUS; OR, THE DOC- 
TRINE OF REGENERATION. 

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto 

THEE, except A MAN BE BORN AGAIN, HE CANNOT SEE THE 

kingdom of QoT>.—John y.^. 

The term *' regeneration " is a compound Latin 
term which literally means ''to be born again." 
Formerly unbelieving men hated this term and 
ridiculed it. They said that it was fantastic and 
visionary and expressed an absurdity. To be 
born again ! Nonsense ! The thing is contrary to 
nature and unscientific. Now the term has be- 
come quite popular. It is used frequently when 
men wish to describe a complete and radical 
change which they propose to effect. Even infi- 
del revolutionists use the term. When they talk 
of the revolution which they intend to inaugurate, 
this is a favorite expression, '' We mean the re- 
generation of our country." 

This chapter asserts the necessity of regenera- 
tion to the Christian life. A treatise on it means a 
doctrinal treatise. I know that doctrinal preach- 
ing is not considered the preaching for the times ; 
but I know just as well that this is not the decision 
of the deepest and best thinkers of the Christian 
community. It is the decision only of the super- 
ficial, who are thorough neither in Christian 
doctrine nor in Christian character. Christian 
doctrine forms the foundation of Christian belief. 



6o STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

Cliristian belief gives rise to Christian life and 
practice. Christ preached doctrine and made the 
apostles. The apostles preached doctrine and made 
the early Christian churches. These* churches 
were all characterized for burning faith and zeal 
and self-sacrifice. What would the apostle John 
be without the doctrine of the divinity of Christ ? 
What would the apostle Paul be without the doc- 
trine of justification by faith ? Even the practical 
James had to be doctrinal in order to be true to 
his Christian nature. He dealt in a wholesale way 
with the fruits of the Christian life, but he could 
not write his epistle of works without presenting 
the doctrine of regeneration as the root of all Chris- 
tian fruit. With this doctrine ignored and left 
out, his treatise on the Christian life would be 
incomplete and misleading. He presents the doc- 
trine in this one brief but positive statement : " Of 
his own will beo^at he us with the word of his 
truth, that Ave should be a kind of first-fruits of his 
creatures." The Christianity which has been built 
upon the basis of Christian doctrine has not yet 
been improved. There is no set of men in the 
modern Christian community that excel the Pil- 
grims, the Puritans, the Covenanters, the Hugue- 
nots, the Waldensians. The largest dish served 
on the gospel table at which these sublime Chris- 
tian heroes fed was the doctrinal dish. They were 
brought up on doctrinal preaching. Suppose that 
we did decide to discard Christian doctrine from 
the pulpit, we would have to make an exception of 
this one doctrine — the doctrine of regeneration. Re- 



CHRIST AND NICODEMUS. 6 1 

generation is more than a doctrine; it is a fact. 
The new creation is as real in the life of the 
Christian as the creation of our solar system is 
in the material universe of God. Regeneration, 
therefore, must always be a living and a present 
theme in the Christian Church, for it is a present 
fact in the life of the individual saint. Without it 
there is no spiritual life, activity, worship. In 
making regeneration the subject of thought, we 
will keep our minds upon five general statements, 
drawn from Christ's conversation with Nicodemus. 

I. Our first statement is, Regeneration is all-im- 
portant. 

Everything we say ought to magnify the im- 
portance of regeneration, but in this statement we 
VAsh to bring before us the way in which Christ 
magnifies its importance. We wish to look at re- 
generation as it is in the history which records the 
dealings of Jesus with Nicodem^us. 

Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus 
by night to be instructed by him in the things per- 
taining to the kingdom, of God. This kingdom 
had been the hope and inspiration to which Israel 
had looked for centuries. In giving him instruc- 
tion, we may conclude that Jesus will be most 
accurate and thorough. He will commence his 
teachings with the foundation principle. Now, 
what was the foundation fact which Christ pre- 
sented to this man who sought entrance into the 
kingdom of God ? // was the new birth. Over the 
gates of the kingdom Christ inscribed with his 
ovrn hands, " Except a man be born again, he can- 



62 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

not enter the kingdom of God." Without regen- 
eration, a man who enters the church and publicly 
confesses Christ is only playing the Christian. 
He is no better spiritually than a galvanized 
corpse. Under the power of electricity the corpse 
may open and shut its eyes, move its hands and 
feet, pass through various contortions, but there is 
no life in it. Without regeneration, a man can 
only have a name to live, while he is dead. 

Several things emphasize Christ's estimate of 
regeneration. The time at which he gave his in- 
struction does. It was night. He might reasonably 
have excused himself. He w^as weary with the 
work of the crowded day which had just closed ; 
he was entitled to rest and sleep. It was coward- 
ice in Nicodemus that brought him in the dark- 
ness, and Jesus might justly have rebuked his 
cowardice and have sent him away. He might 
have said, " Come openly to-morrov/ in daylight, 
and like a man, and take your place among the 
multitude, and I will instruct you in common with 
them." Christ esteemed the subject of regenera- 
tion of too great importance to treat Nicodemus in 
this way, so at the sacrifice of rest and sleep he 
discoursed upon it. 

There is an emphasis also in the very direct- 
ness with which Christ treats the subject. Nico- 
demus begins the conversation v/ith a compliment- 
ary address, " We know that thou art a teacher 
come from God, for no man can," etc. Christ does 
not stop to return the compliment, or to note the 
position of the man or his research or his logical 



CHRIST AND NICODEMUS. 6^ 

reasoning about his divine mission. He at once 
takes up the subject. The subject was the 
most important thing of the hour in his estima- 
tion. 

Christ, again, puts his seal upon the importance 
of regeneration by the care which he takes to in- 
struct Nicodemus and to correct his misapprehen- 
sions. By his question Nicodemus shows that he 
supposed that the physical man should be born 
again. Christ teaches him that the spiritual mart 
must be born again. Though a man were born 
a hundred times physically, he would be no better, 
'' for that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Nic- 
odemus acts as though regeneration were contrary 
to reason, because it is enshrouded in mystery. 
Christ shows that although the method v/hich is 
divine is a mystery, yet the effects of regeneration 
are tangible and visible. This is all that is needed. 
The method of the Spirit, who regenerates, is like 
the method of the wind. The method of the wind 
we cannot understand, but we can hear it, and we 
can see results when it sweeps over the land, so 
we do not doubt its existence or its operation. 
Even so we can see the men who are spiritually 
born, who are regenerated by the Spirit ; we can 
see the product of their lives, and this is enough to 
show us that regeneration is a possibility and that 
it is desirable. 

II. Regeiteration is wholly a divine act. 

It is in no sense man's act. We have no part 
in our regeneration. I want to make this state- 
ment as bold as possiblo, for it is the teaching of 



64 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the Bible and it strikes at a great many errors. It 
is very humiliating, but still it is Scripture, and all 
that a minister can do is to proclaim Scripture. 
Scripture teaches that in our spiritual nature we 
are dead until we are resurrected by the Spirit of 
God. The physical nature is living, but the spirit- 
ual nature is dead. We sometimes see a part of a 
man dead, while the other parts are living. For 
example, the eyes are sightless ; they are dead to 
the world of light and color. Or the arm is para- 
lyzed ; it is dead, it has no power or motion. Or 
the ear is deaf ; it is dead to the world of music. 
These parts are dead while yet the other members 
of a man's body are living. Before the regenera- 
tion the physical, bodily man lives, but the spirit- 
ual nature, the nature which deals with God and 
divine things, just as the ear deals with music, is 
dead. It does not recognize God nor discern the 
things of the Spirit nor see the invisible realities 
of eternity. In regeneration the Spirit of God 
comes to the dead spiritual nature in us and 
breathes into it the breath of life, just as at the 
beginning God breathed into the clay form which 
he had moulded and fashioned with his own 
hands, and the form of clay arose a living man 
called Adam. The work of the Spirit extends to 
the v/hole soul. The whole soul is regenerated. 
This must be so, because the soul is a unit and is 
indivisible. Regeneration means the life of the 
whole soul. No new faculties are brought into 
being, but the lifeless faculties are acted upon. 
The mind is illumined, the eyes of the understand- 



CHRIST AND NICODEMUS. 65 

ing are opened., the conscience is awakened, the 
will is renewed and set free from the bondage of 
lust and passion. 

Take an illustration. Here is a perfect locomo- 
tive, finished and placed on the railroad track. 
But it is without life. It has no power. Its beau- 
tiful mechanism exists to no purpose. What does 
it need to make it a po\ver? It needs steam. 
When filled with steam, which is its life, then 
every valve and shaft and wheel is full of vitality, 
and at the scream of the whistle the engine begins 
to stir itself and to move and gather speed, until it 
bounds through the valleys and over the hills with 
the velocity of the wind. Regeneration is to dead 
spiritual faculties what steam is to that beautiful 
piece of mechanism. Every faculty is filled AAdth 
life and set in operation. The engine has no 
power to put steam into itself ; that is done by an 
outside living person. Lazarus had no power to 
bring himself to life ; that was done independent 
of him, by Christ, who is the resurrection and the 
life. As Lazarus was dead physically, the unregen- 
erate man is dead spiritually. This being so, you 
can see the fallacy which some teach when they say 
that all that a man needs to do in order to reach 
fitness for heaven is to develop what is in him by 
nature. God's W^ord teaches that far more is 
needed. It is necessary that God, by his Spirit, 
shall come to him and put the spark of divine life 
into him. It is the development of this new life 
which the Spirit puts into him that constitutes 
preparation for heaven. 

Slu.iice In John> Gi)spel. 



66 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

That regeneration is wholly the act of God, and 
not in any sense the work of man, is set forth by 
the figures used to designate the change which 
regeneration produces. It is called a resurrection. 
Only divine power can resurrect. When the 
prophet Ezekiel looked upon the valley which 
was filled with the whitened bones of centuries, 
and was asked by the Lord the question, Can these 
bones live ? he felt that only Almighty God could 
make them live. When bone after bone all 
through the valley began to move till all were 
leaping and skipping here and there searching for 
their companion bones in the once perfect man ; 
when skeleton after skeleton was completed and 
clothed with flesh and filled with life ; when the 
valley was filled with a vast army of men march- 
ing with full life, he said, '' This is the work of 
God ; only he can convert bleached bones into 
mighty battalions." The regeneration of man is 
a work like that which God wrought in the valley 
of dead bones. It is as truly the evidence of the 
presence of God. 

But let us adopt another method in treating 
this fact which the Scriptures lay down with such 
emphasis for the humbling of man's pride, viz. : 
Regeneration is absolutely and wholly the act of 
God. We want to notice the argument which can 
be formulated from science to support this fact. 
Men have all along hated the statement ''that 
God only can regenerate the soul," "the Spirit 
only can give spiritual life." They have taught 
the doctrine that the spiritual life can rise in man 



CHRIST AND NICODEMUS. 6/ 

Spontaneously, if man will only bring himself into 
a proper atmosphere. A man can become better 
and better, until in the course of progress he 
reaches that quality of religious nature known as 
spiritual life. This life is not something added 
from without to the natural man, it is simply the 
development of the natural man. Up until lately 
we had to rely wholly upon Scripture for our doc- 
trine that the spiritual life is something which 
comes into us from without. But lately science 
has come to our help. It teaches us that there is 
no such thing as spontaneous generation, i. e., life 
coming from death, a live spiritual man springing 
from a dead natural man. Science lays down this 
law: Life can only come from the touch of life. 
The attempt to get the living out of the dead is an 
absurdity. There is no spontaneous generation of 
life. It is interesting to look at the experiments by 
which science reaches these conclusions. Let me 
present the process briefly as it is found in Drum- 
mond's " Natural Law in the Spiritual World :" 
Bastian, who argued that life was generated spon- 
taneously, took a glass vessel which he filled three 
parts with an infusion of hay and organic matter. 
These he boiled to kill all the germs of life. Then 
they were hermetically sealed to exclude the outer 
air. The air inside the glass was supposed to be 
dead. Bastian said, " Now if life appears in this 
glass jar full of death, it must spring into be- 
ing of itself." Life did appear inside in my- 
riad quantity. Tyndall and other scientivSts were 
aroused by Bastian's experiment to experiment for 



63 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

themselves. They found germs of life that were 
almost fire-proof. So they used a higher tempera- 
ture and different methods to annihilate life, and 
the result was that no life sprang up from matter 
proven to be absolutely dead. So far as science is 
concerned, these experiments have established this 
fact. You cannot get life out of death. If a parti- 
cle of dead, inorganic matter is to get into the 
world above it, i. e., into the animal world or the 
vegetable world, it must be born from above. No 
change of substance, no modification of environ- 
m_ent, no chemistry, no electricity, can endow a 
single atom of the mineral world with the attribute 
of life. If the dead atom is to get into the tree 
and become part of it and live, the tree must send 
its roots after it and come to it with the life, and 
it must be subjected to the touch of the life of 
the tree before it can cross from the world below 
into the world above. If the life of the tree does 
not touch it, it will remain dead for ever. It 
must be born from above. Science has set all na- 
ture ringing the cry of Christ, '' Ye must be born 
again ; ye must be born from above." The law of 
God in both the natural and religious world is one 
and the same. If the dead natural man is to get 
into the world above him, i. e., into the spiritual 
world, the world of God, God must come down to 
him, and he must feel the touch of the divine life. 
He must be born from above. The doctrine of re- , 
generation is scientific. 

III. Rege7ieration is absolutely necessary for admis- 
sion to heaven. 



CHRIST AND NICODEMUS. 69 

The two '' Verily s " of the text lay stress upon 
this point. They have the solemnity and force of 
an oath in pressing home the statement of Jesus. 

Regeneration is necessary as a vindication of 
God's holiness and a testimonial to his character. 
The standard which one sets up is an index of 
what he is himself. We know a college by the 
course of study it prescribes. We know a parent 
by the discipline under which he puts his child. 
We know God by what he makes necessary to 
fellowship with him. 

The fitness of things requires regeneration. A 
sinful nature would not inatch the holiness of 
heaven. The keepers at the gates can admit only 
what is congenial. At every admission the repu- 
tation of heaven is at stake. It is a certain charac- 
ter only that can abide in the tabernacle of God : 
it is the regenerated character. Nothing else will 
be accepted. There is no substitute for it. A 
mere profession of faith is not a substitute. Out- 
ward reformation is not a substitute. Nothing 
will do but this, " Man must become a new crea- 
ture." 

Regeneration is necessary to make heaven en. 
joyable. An unregenerated man would have no 
aptitude for the exercises of heaven if he were 
within its gates. He would have no sympathy 
with its services. It is amazing to hear people 
v\^ho exclude God from their lives on earth talking 
about going to heaven, expressing the desire to 
be found there in the other life. It is the height 
of foolishness for some people to want to go to 



70 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

heaven. If they were taken at their word and trans- 
lated there, they would find that heaven was the 
worst place in the universe for them. If they can- 
not stand a Sabbath in the service of God's house , 
upon earth, the Sabbatism of heaven would be an 
irksome, painful imprisonment to them ; it would 
be eternal agony. The presence of Christ, when 
he was on earth, was torment to the demons. 
They cried out when he approached them, ''Art 
thou come to torment us before our time !" Unre- 
generacy is as completely alienated from God as 
demoniacism. A saint in hell or a sinner in heav- 
en — of the two I believe that the sinner would be 
worse off. It is idle for men to talk about going- 
to heaven, and to express the desire that they 
may reach heaven at last ; what they should desire 
to seek is regeneration, preparation for heaven. 
There is no heaven for an unregenerated man. I 
recently came across this item of history, which 
serves as an illustration in point. When the Car- 
thaginians captured Regulus, the heroic soldier of 
Rome, they put him to the most cruel tortures. 
They cut off his eyelids and bound him with his 
back to the earth and his face to the sky, compel- 
ling him to look unsheltered into the insufferable 
radiance of the sun. What were the elements in 
that intolerable agony ? Simply these two : an 
open eye and a pure glory. That is the picture of 
an unregenerated sinner in heaven. No anguish 
conceivable to a lost soul could equal this : that 
with open eye he should be compelled to endure 
the full blaze of God's glory. 



CHRIST AND NICODExMUS. JX 

IV. Regeneration^ altJiough zvholly and absolutely 
of God, is easily attainable. In the universal offer 
of the gospel there is a universal offer of regenera- 
tion. If this be not true, the gospel offer is not 
worth the paper upon which it is written. But it is 
true. I make this point because there are some 
people who feel uneasy about regeneration, seeing 
that it is wholly the act of God. If they could 
regenerate themselves, they would have greater 
comfort ; they would feel surer of regeneration. 
As it comes from God, they do not feel sure that 
they can get it or that it is easily attainable by 
men. I know how that feeling originates. It 
originates from looking at great spiritual facts as 
these are systematized in human theologies. In 
these systems one fact is taken from God's Word, 
and from the place where God has placed it, and 
another is taken from another place, and these 
facts are squared and fitted together by human in- 
genuity. I find myself perplexed when I try to 
fit things together in this way. But I find that I 
can take the facts of Scripture just as they are on 
the inspired page, and believe them, and act upon 
them, and fit them into my Christian living, and 
there is no conflict in them whatever. This is 
what God wants us to do. He wants flesh and 
blood creeds. He wants a living document. He 
wants a Christian man embodying Christian truth. 
In reading the Scriptures as they present the 
subject of regeneration, I do not see where a man 
can get any ground for being uneasy about regen- 
eration because it is wholly in God's hand. That 



'Jl STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

is a reason for confidence, just as the fact that we 
are absolutely dependent upon God is a reason for 
joy. We are so weak that self-dependence would 
be a very uncertain thing. God is all-powerful 
and unchangeable, and dependence upon him 
means absolute safety. If we had to regene- 
rate ourselves, the regeneration would be poorly 
done. But, then, will God give men regeneration 
freely and largely? As though to preclude this 
question and give it no basis whatever, Christ puts 
back of the necessity of regeneration the glowing 
and infinite love of God. You no sooner read, 
" Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the 
kingdom of God," than you read also, '' God so 
loved the world that he gave his only-begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish, but have eternal life." The two declara- 
tions are part of the same chapter in God's 
Word. Overpowered with the sense of the infini- 
tude of God's love as seen in the gift of his Son, 
there is no room in our hearts for the surmise 
that he will withhold anything. Regeneration is 
necessary to make God's love, manifested in his 
Son, effective to us. It is therefore to be taken for 
granted that he will give regeneration, and make 
the offer of it as broad as the offer of his Son. As 
v/ell might the flowers of the garden fear that 
they would be denied the refreshing raindrops, 
while the shower is falling upon them, as the soul 
fear that God would deny it regeneration. As well 
also might the particles of soil fear that they 
would not be allowed to enter the plant and live 



CHRIST AND NIC ODE M US. 73 

in the bright colors of the blossom, when the innu- 
merable roots of the plant are pushing their way 
after these particles and long to translate and 
vivify them. 

V. Regeneration is easily reeognized. 

Unregeneracy is marked and discernible. Why 
should not degeneracy be marked and discernible ? 
Neglect heaped on the Word of God, want of the 
spirit of prayer, avoidance of the communion of 
the saints, the habit of any gross sin, these all 
indicate unregeneracy. Notice we say habit of 
any gross sin. For a saint may be suddenly over- 
powered by such a sin and fall into it for a time 
through temptation. As unregeneracy is marked 
and discernible, so is regeneracy. It is not neces- 
sary, as some would teach, that we should be able 
to tell the time when regeneration took place. We 
may be able to do this, or we may not, but there is 
no Scripture which says that we must be able. It 
is not necessary that we shall be able. If we are 
living the regenerated life, we are as well off as 
those who, like Paul, can give manner and date 
and place of regeneration. What more had Paul ? 
What more have these persons than the product of 
regeneration, viz., a regenerated life ? We know 
nothing of our physical birth. But that does not 
trouble us. We knov\^ that we have been born 
physically. We have physical life. We eat, we 
drink, we sleep, we Vv^alk, we see. Even so if in 
the spiritual life we enjoy God, delight in his wor- 
ship, in his people, in his ideals, in his book, in his 
day, in the thoughts of being with him for ever, 
4 



74 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

this is enotig-h. This is a regenerated life, and it 
could not be if regeneration had not preceded it. 

Are you regenerated ? Does the life which you 
live say so ? Do the reigning desires within you 
say so? Do your fellowships and your pursuits 
and your recreations and your pleasures say so ^ 
If you are regenerated, then a magnificent future 
awaits you. To you regeneration is the dawn of 
the spiritual day, and that means, by-and-by, the 
glory and splendor of the noontide. That means 
the day in its perfection. What is the day in its 
perfection ? It is eternity with God in heaven. 
Regeneration means entrance into the kingdom ; 
and entrance into the kingdom means the crown 
and the seat upon the throne which Christ has 
promised to all who are his. 

Are you unregenerated ? If so, you see your 
duty. Follow in the course of Nicodemus. Re- 
member what he did. He let his natural and 
physical man, which was living and active, bring 
his dead spiritual nature to Christ, that He might 
speak to it the word of life and regenerate it. Let 
your physical man bring your dead spiritual na- 
ture to the mercy -seat, to the place where the 
promise is and Vv^here the Spirit works, and you 
shall not fail of regeneration. The gift Vv^hich God 
made of his own Son for the redemption of the 
world says that you shall not fail. The universal 
offer of the gospel which God by his Spirit makes 
says that you shall not fail. Who dares say that 
you shall ? 



CHRIST S DEFINITION OF WORSHIP. 75 



CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF WORSHIP: HIS 
SERMON AT JACOB'S WELL. 

" God is a Spirit ; axd they that worship him must worship 

HIM in spirit and IN TRUTH."— /o/m 4: 24. 

The worship of God is the highest act of man. 
It is ultimate in the scale of human possibilities. 
It is the occupation of heaven. We know what 
the heavenly life is. The Bible conception of 
heaven is a world of glory with a throne of glory, 
and God on the throne surrounded by the count- 
less multitudes of the saved from every kindred 
and people and tongue and nation, all casting their 
crowns at his feet and making the glory- world ring 
with Te Dciims that sound like the noise of many 
waters and the roll of mighty thunders. There is 
nothing higher than heaven-life. Now the spirit 
which dominates the heaven-life is the spirit of 
worship. I repeat therefore my first sentence : 
The worship of God is the highest act of ma7t. 

If this be true, it is self-evident that no ques- 
tion is more vital or fundamental to those who are 
stepping heavenward than the question, What is 
true worship ? What views of God and what atti- 
tudes towards God does it include? What feel- 
ings in man does it embrace? What sublime 
resultants does it insure ? 

In dealing with Christ's definition of worship 
there are two things upon which I wish to speak. 



76 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

THE THINGS WHICH CHRIST ASSUMES. 

1 . Christ assumes that ■ man alone of all the living 
occupants of earth is able to recognize God and feel his 
presence. 

This is strictly true of man. It is true of no 
other earthly creature. The lower animals, how- 
ever remarkable their sagacity or keen their in- 
stinct, have no sense of the divine. The unfolding 
beauties of nature, the vast operations of material 
laws, the sunlight on the slopes of morning, and 
the silent darkness in the valleys of night, these 
awaken in them neither awe nor admnration. They 
hear no message in the w^hisper of the wind, and 
the tempest bears no voice of God. But man is 
nobler than they. He feels after the divine. There 
come in upon his soul, through all his senses, the 
signs of an invisible presence feeding the heart 
with a consciousness of God. 

2. Christ assumes that man is the only being on 
the earth in whom God recognizes the existence of in- 
tellectual a?id moral power. 

To man only has God given a revelation. To 
man only does God say, '' Come and let us reason 
together." This power to reason with God is the 
chief glory of hum^an nature. My ability to take 
God's thoughts into my soul and feel their power 
impresses me w^ith a sense of my kinship with the 
divine. Between brutes of the highest type of 
instinct and myself I feel that there is an infinite 
chasm. They cannot understand my thoughts. I 
cannot reason with them. We have no mental 



CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF WORSHIP. JJ 

fellowship. But I can reason with God, feel the 
force of his ideas, and bow to their hallowing and 
uplifting influence. Because I can, God deals with 
me as he does not deal with the creatures below 
me. 

3. Christ assumes that man is a constitutional wor- 
shipper. 

This also is a fact. Man's whole being cries 
out for the living God. There are some who seek 
to disparage worship by representing it as an 
arbitrary and unnatural service. They denomi- 
nate it a human device. They speak of it as the 
fruit of priestcraft. But how came the priest into 
being? He was created by the demand of human 
nature. What gives the priest his power? He 
receives his power from the element of worship in 
human nature. The disposition to worship be- 
longs to the structure of the soul, and it can never 
be eradicated until the soul itself is destroyed. 
Worship is as old as the records of humanity. 
Adam heard God's voice in Paradise before the 
days of priests, and Abel was his own priest when 
he offered sacrifices to God. 

There are some who hint that the spirit of wor- 
ship is dying out. They claim that the progress 
of science is annihilating it, and that this is the 
mission of science. They say science has already 
made an attack on prayer. True ; but there is not 
one house of prayer less. Is it the mission of 
science to degrade human nature ? Science is no 
new thing. It has lived by the side of religion 
ever since the days of Christ, and religion has as 



78 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

yet received from it no death-blow. When science 
gave US the Copernican theory of astronomy and 
took away the Ptolemaic theory, was there any- 
thing in the change to paralyze wonder or release 
the mind of man from awe and worship as it stood 
in the presence of the God of the stars? When 
science succeeded in measuring the speed of light, 
did religion suffer any shock ? When science un- 
twisted the sunbeam and lifted before men the 
different hues which are braided into its structure, 
did the new knowledge injure the religious in- 
stincts of humanity ? Rather did not men praise 
God with a fresh force because of the hidden won- 
ders discovered in his works ? 

There is nothing in the advances of science to 
stifle in the soul of man the cry of adoration or to 
embarrass the intellect of man in taking the atti- 
tude of faith and of worship. On the contrary, 
science has opened up the works of God, and has 
filled up for us in the handwriting of God himself 
many pages of the Book of Nature which were 
only blanks to past generations. Ah against what 
folly are we arguing thus ? Our knowledge of the 
universe to dry up the springs of awe and to hush 
the cry of wonder that goes out from brain and 
heart into the surrounding mystery ! Who would 
count that an advance ? Yet by the decree of God 
humanity is bound to advance. Let the man come 
forward who is ready to say under the starry arch 
of night, " I know so much of nature that I blow 
from me as a bubble the thought of God and 
count it childish to entertain the thought of a sov- 



CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF WORSHIP. 79 

ereign Mind." Did Newton feel like saying that? 
Would Herschel say that in his observatory? If 
they had said it, would we think them to be the 
great men that w^e now think them to be? If 
David could have known the firmament as we 
know it, if he could have swept the skies with a 
Ross or a Lick telescope, would he have had less 
reason to cry, or would he have been less moved 
to exclaim, " When I look up into the heavens, 
the works of thy fingers, and to the moon and the 
stars which thou hast ordained, then I say. Lord, 
what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the 
son of man, that thou visitest him ?" My fellow- 
men, worship will cease from the earth only when 
wonder dies in the heart of man and when the 
sense of the infinite is expunged from his soul. It 
will not be the progress of scientific knowledge, 
but the decay of the noble elements in human 
nature, that will banish worship from the world. 
The cry that worship is dying out is false. Man's- 
danger has never been not to worship, but to over- 
worship. The conflict of the ages has been be- 
tween Monotheism and Polytheism. Man's great- 
est danger is '' gods many and lords many." This 
God himself teaches in the very first command- 
ment of the Decalogue. In this commandment 
he feels impelled to say to man, " Thou shalt have 
no other god before me." It is in line with this 
first commandment that Jesus sets forth, in his 
interview with the Samaritan Vv^oman, the true 
object of worship and the true way of worshipping 
the true object. 



80 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

THE THINGS WHICH CHRIST ASSERTS. 

I. True worship must be in harmony with the na- 
ture of God. 

(a.) The true worshipper must know God as a per- 
son. 

We are not to think of God as a mere force, 
for this is an indefinite conception of him. We 
must think of him as a person. Christ sets him 
forth as a person having personal attributes, such 
as affections, will, freedom, intellect, the power 
to recognize and to reciprocate our love. This 
teaching of Christ is in harmony with reason. 
Reason says God has personality. It argues that 
no one can give to others that which he does not 
possess himself. The artist, the sculptor, the ma- 
chinist can give to the picture, the statue, the 
engine only that idea or design which is in his 
own mind. The argument of reason is this: I 
have personality, therefore God who made me has 
personality, else he could not have given me per- 
sonality. I imagine you say, '* It is difncult for us 
to conceive of the personality of God. How are 
we to reach it?" The answer is, Think of God in 
Christ. You can conceive of Christ's personality. 
Think of him, for he is God. Think of the attri- 
butes which he displayed and the virtues which 
he lived. \ do not say think of his body, but 
think of his moral qualities. His ov/n words to 
those who are reaching after just conceptions of 
God are, *' He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." ' 



CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF WORSHIP. 8 1 

(b.) The true ivor shipper must know God as a spir- 
itual personality. 

" God is a Spirit." Our highest idea of exist- 
ence is existence in the form of spirit. We con- 
trast spirit with body because that which is body 
is limited. It is controlled by space. When we 
think of God we think of him as without body, 
i. e., uncontrolled by space and capable of possess- 
ing the attributes which we ascribe to him, such 
as omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence. We 
feel the weakness of human language to explain 
what God, who is a Spirit, is. Nevertheless we 
are capable of recognizing and understanding him 
in part. We understand him through our spirit, 
of which he is the Father. We can deal with spir- 
its because we have spirits. We love the absent 
author whom we have never seen, and hold fellow- 
ship with him. Why do we love him? For his 
body's sake ? No. We know" nothing of his body. 
It may be repulsive. It is his soul that we love. 
His soul has given us thoughts which thrill us, 
and we are conscious of the tingle of pleasure 
within our souls. The attributes of the man's 
spirit are what we admire. It is not absurd then 
to call us to worship God, who is a Spirit ; who is 
like the better part of man, only possessing attri- 
butes which are perfect and infinite. 

(c.) The true worshipper must know God the Spirit- 
person as a Father. 

Christ says the spirit of a father is a revelation 
of God. The doctrine of the divine Fatherhood is 
peculiarly the revelation of Jesus. In speaking of - 

StU'JIcB ia JoUn'R Gospel. A^ 



82 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

him in his relation to his people he never speaks 
of him save as '' the Father ^ Does he speak of 
providence, the Father directs providence. Does 
he speak of worship, the Father is the object of 
worship. The great defect in the worship of man 
is just here : worshippers forget and lose sight of 
the grand doctrine of the New Testament Dispen- 
sation, namely, the Fatherhood of God. Conse- 
quently they have defective views of God. They 
have God before them as an infinite Shylock, a 
stern judge, and they are afraid of him. Their 
nature closes in his presence as the sensitive flower 
closes in the storm. The cultivation therefore of 
the filial disposition is worship. God seeks the 
worship of sons and not of criminals and slaves. 

Grasp the thought of God's Fatherhood, for 
this is the starting-point of true worship. The 
thought of God's Fatherhood does two things. 

First, It makes the object of worship intelligible 
to the mind. Take the names of God elsewhere 
used : infinite Creator, universal Sovereign, abso- 
lute Disposer. What finite mind can understand 
these ? But a child can understand what a father 
is. 

Second, It makes the object of worship attract- 
ive. Creator, Sovereign, Judge — there is some- 
thing in these names which overawes and repels. 
But the name of '' Father " is full of invitation. 
The child joyously leaps into its father's arms. 
Even the Prodigal Son is not afraid of his father : 
''I will arise and go to my father!" It was the 
■thought of his father that brought him home 



CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF WORSHIP. S^ 

ag^ain. You are familiar with the story of Hector 
and Andromache and their little son Astyanax. 
The war was raging ; the Greeks had walled Troy 
round about, and Hector felt it his duty to arm. 
himself in full panoply and go v/ithout the walls 
and meet the Greeks in hand-to-hand combat. 
When he had donned his full regimentals he came 
to take his farewell of Andromache his wife and 
his little son Astyanax, whom she held in her 
arms. As he approached the little fellow with 
outstretched hands, the child, instead of leaping 
towards the father, screamed and shrank back 
affrighted. This was not like Astyanax. Why 
the change ? This is the reason : the warrior con- 
ceals the Hector. The coat of mail and the flash- 
ing helmet hide the father. Seeing this. Hector 
threw off the helmet and displaced the coat of 
mail and approached the child as father and not 
as warrior. Then the little fellow leaped into his 
arms and covered him with kisses and caresses. I 
would have you use the story as a parable throw- 
ing light upon the Fatherhood of God and its influ- 
ence upon the soul. 

We cannot overestimate the value of realizing 
this truth. It changes the whole nature of worship 
and gives a proper appreciation of the means of 
grace. It makes these the medium of intercourse 
between God and u^. It makes his Word our 
Father's voice, and our praise the child's voice. It 
makes the throne of grace a mutual meeting-place. 
It makes all nature God's temple, filled with war- 
bling songs and thrilling anthems. W^hen one 



84 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

realizes the Fatherhood of God, God becomes to 
him a veritable personality and everything in the 
spiritual life becomes real ; prayer becomes real, 
praise becomes real, trust becomes real, security 
under God's care becomes real, consciousness of 
the divine presence becomes real, and heart-burn- 
ing communion with God becomes real. 

Speaking of this treatise of Jesus in which he 
sets forth God the Father as the object of worship, 
Ernest Renan says, "The day when Jesus pro- 
nounced this word he was truly the Son of God. 
He spoke for the first time the sure word on which 
the edifice of eternal religion shall rest. He found- 
ed the pure worship, of no land, of no date, which 
all lofty souls will practise to the end of time. His 
religion that day was not only the religion good 
for humanity, it was absolute religion ; and if other 
planets have inhabitants endowed with reason and 
morality, their religion can be no other than that 
which Jesus proclaimed at the well of Jacob. The 
word of Jesus has been a gleam in a dark night. 
But the gleam will become the full day, and after 
having run through the whole circle of errors, 
mankind will return to that word as the imperish- 
able expression of its faith and hope." 

2. True worship has its seat in the imier man, 
Christ has thrown worship upon the heart and 
soul. Worship is the overflowing • and outgoing 
of the soul to God in homage and love and trust 
and admiration and desire and praise. There is 
no worship in the mere sounding of brass or tink- 
ling of cymbals. In so far as the spiritual part of 



CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF WORSHir. 85 

our nature does not worship, our worship is of no 
value. Except the soul is in exercise, it is in vain 
that the people bow the head like a bulrush or put 
on sackcloth and ashes. Such worship makes the 
deity a senseless idol who can be hoodwinked by- 
appearances. God has always sought the inner 
worship, the exercise of the soul. He sought it 
even in the midst of the ritualism of Judaism. He 
said of formalists, '' In vain do this people draw 
near to me with their lips while their hearts are 
far from me." The whole of the fiftieth Psalm is 
one long protest upon the part of God against for- 
malism. In it he sets realism and ritualism against 
each other, and says that one cry coming from the 
distressed soul of the child of God and sent to him 
in faith is worth all the ritual in existence. In this 
Psalm he rings out the key-note of true worship, 
namely, " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit 
and a contrite heart." There is always a straight 
pathway to heaven for the cry of the heart. 

There is a closing practical question which I 
wish to press home. That question is this : 

AM I A TRUE WORSHIPPER? 

My fellow- worshipper, with you and me that is the 
question of all questions. But I am asked, How 
shall we answer it ? PIov/ shall we ascertain wheth- 
er or no we are true worshippers? What does 
God require of us in true worship ? 

God requires that we shall bring before him in 
worship a true character. The self of the worship- 
per is part of worship. Our life is back of our wor- 



86 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

ship. Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and 
Thursday and Friday and Saturday determine our 
Sabbath. Our praises and our prayers do not rise 
above the level of our daily living. For true wor- 
ship, the worship and the worshipper must har- 
monize. Worship is holy ; the character therefore 
of the worshipper must be holy. 

How clearly this is brought out by the Hebrew 
Psalmist. He asks this question, " Who shall as- 
cend the hill of the Lord, and who shall abide in 
his presence?" Then he goes into the place of 
business and into the social circle and finds the 
man who treats his neighbor's reputation aright 
and who handles his money aright, and says, 
'' This is the man." 

"Who, O Jehovah, shall be a guest in thy tent ? 
Who shall dwell in thy holy mountain? 
He that slandereth not with his tongue. 
That doeth no evil to his friend, 
Nor taketh up a scandal against his neighbor. 
Despicable in his sight are the vile, 
But those that fear Jehovah he honoreth. 
He sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not ; 
His silver he putteth not out to usury. 
Nor taketh a bribe against the innocent. 
He that doeth these things 
Shall not be overthrown for ever." 

How clearly is our thought brought out by the 
chief of the prophets also. Apparently everything 
was as it ought to be in Israel. Their profession 
was grand, their creed was orthodox ; they made 
the temple echo with silvery psalms, they kept the 
altar aflame with burnt-offerings, and they filled the 



CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF WORSHIP. 8/ 

court with delightful fragrance. But the prophet 
upon investigation found that their daily life was 
wretched. It was full of violence and lies and 
injustice. They measured with short yardsticks 
and weighed with false balances and sold with a 
small bushel-measure. Making this discovery, the 
prophet stood in the midst of his countrymen as 
they gathered for worship and startled them with 
the announcement, " My countrymen, because of 
your false life your worship is an abomination to 
the holy God." He proclaimed to them and to 
the world that true life only is worship. Wor- 
ship is the soul honoring God in everything it 
does. 

Worshipper in the house of God, what is the 
character of your general life ? What are you in 
the home, in business, in society ? Answer these 
questions and you answer the question, '* Am I a 
true worshipper?" 



88 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 

"And they filled twelve baskets with the fragments of 

THE FIVE barley-loaves."— yc/z« 6:13. 

The evangelist in this part of his Gospel adds 
miracle to miracle. This multiplication of mira- 
cles reminds us of the Mount of Transfiguration, 
where Jesus let his divine splendor break forth 
unrestrained in magnificent effulgence. As his 
glory flashed forth on Transfiguration Mount in 
wonderful fulness, so in this chapter of gospel his- 
tory his divine pov/er manifests itself in great ful- 
ness in miraculous deeds. These are the deeds 
which filled his followers with wild enthusiasm. 

The miracle recorded especially before us is 
such as we would expect John to record. It is 
right in line with the design of his Gospel, which 
sets forth the divinity of Jesus Christ and makes 
it clear that he is the Son of God. This miracle 
shows him to be greater than the forces at work in 
the wide grain-fields. He is able to do in an in- 
stant what it takes these forces whole seasons to 
do. Grain-fields can give bread only after months 
of hard work; he gives bread in an instant. He 
can make bread as rapidly as his will can issue a 
decree. The forces at work in the grain-fields of 
nature are to us pictures of inconceivable forces. 
He is mightier than these, for he can outdo these. 

We cannot think of this miracle of Christ with- 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 89 

out thinking of the works of God in the Old Testa- 
ment. In the Old Testament God is set forth as 
miraculously feeding his covenant people in the 
desert and spreading daily a table for thousands. 
He is also represented as miraculously multiplying 
the meal in the widow's barrel and the oil in the 
widow's cruse. Jesus knew all this. He knew 
aJso that these things were familiar to the multi- 
tudes about him. He now performed this miracle 
that men might see that he was one with the God 
of the Old Testament whom Israel worshipped. 
If he is one with the God of the Old Testament, 
then he can legitimately claim the faith and wor- 
ship given to the God of the Old Testament. This 
miracle prepared the way for the words he was 
about to speak and emphasized them, " I and the 
Father are one." It is a legitimate part of this 
Gospel, which was meant to establish that Jesus 
Christ is the Son of God. 

THE MIRACLE. 

The miracle is recorded by all of the evangel- 
ists. Is there anything remarkable in this ? Yes. 
It is the only miracle which all four record. Like 
the stories of the crucifixion and resurrection, it is 
repeated four times. These four repetitions mean 
that it is worthy of particular attention. Christ 
himself estimated it highly, for he used it as the 
basis of one of his magnificent discourses in which 
he offered himself to the world as the Bread of 
Life. 

From the other evangelists we learn that Christ 



90 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

had v/ithdrawn to a desert place for the purpose of 
securing rest for both his disciples and himself. 
His disciples had just returned from a laborious 
missionary tour, and he himself had just heard of 
the execution of his friend and forerunner, John 
the Baptist. Retirement was certainly the need 
of the hour. But the multitudes would not let 
him retire. They followed him into the desert. 
As it was about the time of one of the feasts, and 
as the people from all parts of the land were on 
their way to Jerusalem, they followed him by thou- 
sands. He looked upon their presence as a call 
from his Father to give them the everlasting truth, 
and so he gave up the idea of resting and took up 
the task of teaching them. It is probable that the 
miracle of multiplying the loaves and fishes was 
wrought at the end of the first day. 

The greatness of the miracle is set forth by the 
remarks of the disciples when Jesus proposed to 
feed the multitudes. They looked at the proposal 
from all sides and pronounced it an utter impossi- 
bility. They calculated how much it would cost 
to buy provisions for them, and found it would 
take more money than they had in their treasury 
to provide even a mouthful for each one present. 
They could not possibly comm^and the needed 
sum. If they had the requisite sum, they w^ould 
have to scour the country far and near to gather 
what was necessary. The only provisions at hand 
were what an enterprising lad had brought with 
an eye to profit. He had only five barley-loaves or 
wafers and two small fishes. One of the disciples 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 9I 

despairingly referred to the small stock which the 
lad had, and concluded that it would be absurd to 
try and feed the multitude with these. 

The only practical plan which the disciples 
could think of was to send the people away and let 
them scatter and buy for themselves. This they 
proposed to Christ. It was like all of their propo- 
sals : it was away below his ideal and purpose. To 
Christ, who had the power to feed them, such be- 
nevolence would have been of the kind which 
Jesus speaks against ; a benevolence which says, 
" Be ye warmed and be ye filled," and does noth- 
ing ; a compassion working itself out only in good 
advice. Good advice is a good thing, but it will 
not satisfy hunger. It v/ill not pay for needed 
groceries. It will not square back rent and keep 
the landlord from throwing the few household 
effects upon the sidewalk. There is a better com- 
passion than the compassion which only gives ad- 
vice ; it is the compassion which feeds and clothes 
and lends a helping hand. The first kind is the 
compassion of selfishness ; this second kind is the 
compassion of the gospel. There is more gospel 
in a dollar bill than a whole hour's lecture filled 
with rules of economy and Scripture quotations 
and good advice generally, when the sinner whom 
you are lecturing is penniless and needs material 
help. In the exercise of benevolence and com- 
passion Christ should be our pattern. He shows 
us that compassion should be expressed in living 
deeds. Let individual Christians follow Christ; 
let the Church as an organic body follow Christ. 



92 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

When this is done, the popular charge brought 
against religion will be taken away, namely, that 
religion is exclusively engaged with matters of 
doctrine and theory and speculation and the inner 
life of the spirit, and that it has little interest in 
the material welfare of men. The charge is that 
there is nothing practical in it for poor, sick, dying 
humanity needing food and bread and sympath}^ 
If that be the way the Christian religion appears 
to the world, the fault is not in the Christian reli- 
gion, but in the men who profess it. Christianity 
is not responsible for the life of every miserly m.an 
who has taken on him the name of Christ. Such 
men are not the exponents of the Christian reli- 
gion. Christ himself is the only infallible expo- 
nent. The Christian religion must be judged by 
Christ. Look at Him and you will learn what he 
would have his followers be and do. He was a 
continual benefactor. He not only forgave sins, 
but he healed the diseases of men. He went to 
their sick-room.s and met them by the graves of 
their dead. It is said that once, during the per- 
formance of a comedy in a Roman theatre, one of 
the actors gave utterance to this sentiment, " I am 
a man ; therefore nothing that is human can be 
foreign to m_e." The audience greeted the senti- 
ment with thunders of applause. If this man was 
worthy of such applause, of how much greater ap- 
plause is Jesus worthy! He said not in comedy, 
not in play, but in real life, in living actions, that 
he had a heart to feel for every w^oe and every 
need of humanity. His compassion was the secret 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 93 

of his power over human hearts. He was not only- 
great Intellect, but he was great Heart. The men 
and the churches that are devoid of a practical 
sympathy and of a compassion which expresses 
itself in deeds and gifts of love, misrepresent him 
and his religion. 

Christ would rather v/ork a miracle than appear 
without compassion. He did work a miracle. He 
commanded his disciples to seat the multitudes 
upon the grass and to hold themselves in readiness 
to distribute the loaves and fishes. They felt 
themselves so helpless to feed these crowds that 
this command seemed like foolishness to them. 
No matter what they thought ; duty is not deter- 
mined by our ability, but by the command of God. 
When the crowds were seated in orderly compa- 
nies of fifties and hundreds, Christ took the bread 
and gave thanks to God for it and asked his bless- 
ing upon the meal. This he did amid a deep 
solemnity and a sacred hush. This religious ser- 
vice the people expected. The Jews always asked 
a blessing before meals. It was a popular saying 
among them that he who enjoyed anything with- 
out thanksgiving robbed God. The blessing 
asked, Jesus brake the bread and the fishes and 
gave to his disciples with the command that they 
distribute them among the people. This they did. 
There was only a small cake for a thousand guests 
and but a fragment of a dried fish ; but in some 
mysterious way there v/as enough to go round, and 
all ate heartily and were satisfied. The bread and 
fishes mj-iltiplied in an unexplainable way. When 



94 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the meal was over Christ commanded that the 
fragments be gathered. The fragments were to 
be the palpable evidence of the miracle. The 
gathering of them was also intended to teach 
economy. When the fragments were gathered 
everybody saw that there v^as more at the end of 
the meal than there was at the beginning. Every 
one saw and felt that a notable miracle had been 
wrought. The saying that passed from lip to lip 
was, '' This is of a truth that prophet that should 
come into the world." Convinced by the miracle 
that he was the Christ, the multitude at once de- 
termined to make him king. When Jesus saw the 
popular purpose he compelled his disciples to take 
a boat and cross over to the other side of the sea, 
and he himself went up into the mountain to 
spend most of the night in secret prayer and in 
religious retirement. 

There are two points v/hich it may not be amiss 
to notice : 

(a.) Christ docs that only which his disciples cannot 
do. 

He expects their cooperation. They cannot 
multiply the loaves and fishes, so Christ does that. 
But they can distribute these among the multi- 
tudes, so Christ does not do that. Man can sow 
the seed in the field, so God does not do that ; man 
cannot give the increase, so God gives that when 
the seed is sown. In the great sphere of religion 
God does that which we cannot do, but he refuses 
to do that which we can do. Are we doing our 
part ? 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 95 

(b.) TJic 71 sc of blessings means the increase of 
blessings. 

Ttie bread multiplied in the hands of the disci- 
ples during the process of distribution. This is an 
apt symbol of what takes place in the Christian 
life. The condition of increase is diffusion. To 
impart to others is to gain for one's self. Every 
honest effort to brinof some other human heart 
into possession of Christ's love deepens our ov/n 
sense of its preciousness. Every attempt to lead 
some other mind to the perception of the truth 
helps us to understand it better ourselves. If you 
would leam, teach. If you would get, give. 

THE PRACTICAL TEACHINGS. 

I . The God of redemption is the God of nature. 

One and the same God w^orks in both spheres. 
This is what Jesus proves and demonstrates by 
this miracle. We need this point. It comforts us 
in two ways. It comforts us when we look at 
nature, and it comforts us when we look at re- 
demption. 

Deal v/ith nature for a moment. When God 
created the universe he did not leave it. This is 
the feeble philosophy of some, but it is not the 
teaching of this Book. It is not the philosophy 
which makes nature a temple and man a worship- 
per. Is it not a comfort to know that the mighty 
forces of nature which terrify us are all under the 
control of our best Friend ? Is it not a comfort to 
think that there is love and intention in every- 
thing which takes place in nature ? The clouds are 



96 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

God's chariot and the winds his steeds. He rides 
the storm and holds and handles the reins. He 
kindles the subterranean fires and orders the earth- 
quakes. He timed the explosion which rent the 
rocks asunder and shook the earth when his Son 
was dying on Calvary. He meant the great rents 
in the rocks of Palestine to remain, as they do this 
day, the witnesses of Christ. Let me give one 
illustration to show the comfort coming from the 
thought that the God of redemption is the ruling 
power in nature, and that this God of redemption 
is the God of love as well as of pov/er. The illus- 
tration is suggested by the fact that Jesus in his 
compassion multiplied bread for the hungry. Look 
at the little seed. The whole future food of the 
world is wrapped up in that little delicate thing. 
It looks like an awful risk to wrap up the food of 
the future in it. What is there that keeps us from 
sore foreboding and apprehension? It is the 
thought that God is with the little seed. It is the 
thought that the same Power w^hich multiplied the 
loaves in the desert can multiply it according to 
his good pleasure. Our covenant God has wrapped 
up our food in the delicate little seed. This is the 
plan of infinite love and power. God steps out of 
nature in the person of his Son, and in the pres- 
ence of thousands of witnesses wields the powers 
of nature and makes them produce bread on the 
spot, that we may see that he is the Lord of nature 
and that therefore all our interests in nature are 
safe. 

The fact that the God of redemption is the 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 97 

God of nature comforts us when we deal with re- 
demption. It wheels all the powers of nature into 
line with our spiritual interests. It centres these 
all in Christ, who came to save us. It makes him 
a mighty Saviour, able to save unto the uttermost 
all who come unto him. Frequently do the psalms 
of the church take us to nature to see God there in 
his overmastering majesty and power. "When we 
are impressed with his greatness they tell us that 
this God is cur God, and we can trust in him and 
rest in him with perfect peace. 

2. IVe siLould ask God's blessing upon our food. 

Christ asked the blessing of God upon the m.eal 
which fed the multitudes. This he did before any 
of the company had partaken. In this he places 
before us an example. It is a helpful exercise to 
ask God's blessing upon our food, in that it culti- 
vates the spirit of thankfulness and a sense of 
God's thoughtfulness and care over us. God is 
worthy of this honor. 

God gave us the sense of taste just as he gave 
us the sense of sight, and as he has provided the 
world of beauty with its endless varieties to satisfy 
and please the sense of sight, so has he provided 
the world of flavor with its distinct varieties to 
please and satisfy the sense of taste. If you will 
agree as members of fam^ilies to talk about every- 
thing that comes on your tables for a week, you 
will be surprised to find how much your table tells 
you God has done for you. Take each article of 
food by itself. The history of the apple, for ex- 
ample, which you see before you would be topic 

StuJJps In Jr.Iin's Ooppel. 5 



98 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

enougli for one meal. God works long and care- 
ftilly in making every apple wliicli we eat. He 
builds up a large tree for the purpose of making 
it. The energy and life of root and trunk and 
branch all go into it. Sunshine and air and dew 
and soil all contribute to its construction. All 
these work according to God's plan. And why 
does God build up the apple ? That we may have 
it as food to enjoy. When we study the history of 
our daily food we see God at work for us in the 
waters of the earth, in the beasts of the field, in 
the clouds, in the sun, and in the soil. The food 
upon our tables is the result of the mighty work- 
ing of this busy world of ours, and in many respects 
it is the sum total of its mighty power. Food is 
nature on its march to the highest forms of life. 
Food is nature entering into man that it may pass 
into thought and worship. Our daily meals bring 
us wonderful messages from God. Every flavor 
speaks of a separate plan of his and of a separate 
pleasure which he wishes to give us. To show us 
how willing he is that we shall eat and be satisfied, 
he tempts our appetites by putting his fruits in 
beautiful wrappings. He uses all colors and blends 
them in beautiful perfection. Purple and green 
and golden and crimson, all these are found in the 
fruits of the earth. Does God in this way speak 
to us by our tables ; does he thus assure us of his 
love and forethought and desire concerning us? 
He does, and in so doing he puts us under obliga- 
tion to give him our love and our gratitude. It is 
a duty to recognize him at our daily meals as the 



■ THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 99 

Giver of good gifts. It is our duty to thank him 
for our appetites and for our health. It is our 
privilege to seek his blessing and to ask him for 
renewed consecration. Prayerlessness at the table 
of the man who believes that God has spread his 
table is a gross inconsistency. 

3. Fragments are worth gathering. 

It would have been a great mistake for the dis- 
ciples of Christ not to have gathered the frag- 
ments after the miraculous meal. They would 
not have known how great the miracle was. The 
fragments were greater than the original supply. 
The fragments amounted to twelve basketfuls. 
How often is it the case in life that the fragment 
hours amount to more than full days. How often 
have men made themselves by using well the frag- 
ments of time. We do not value Hugh Miller as 
a stone-mason ; we value him for his literary works. 
Let it be remembered that he raised himself from 
a stone-cutter, first to a geologist and afterwards to 
a man of letters, by the diligent use of fragment 
moments. Fragment moments of study were worth 
more than his whole days of stone-cutting. We 
value Michael Faraday not as a bookbinder, but as 
a scientist. But how did he become a scientist ? 
By using his fragment hours in reading chemical 
books and making electrical machines. These 
hours did more than outweigh the days of book- 
binding. We do not value David as a shepherd ; 
we value him as a musician. David's harp was 
his great power. It opened the way for him into 
the king's palace. It identified his name with 



100 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. . 

churcli music for all time. But David's skill in 
the use of the harp was the outcome of his frag- 
ment hours. When the sheep were safely folded 
his time was devoted to the harp. You know the 
value of these fragment hours spent in the cultiva- 
tion of music. There is a window in one of the 
cathedrals of the Old World which is noted and 
popular. It was made by an apprentice in the shop 
of a glazier. That window, it is said, filled the 
master of the shop with grief, because it showed 
that his under-workman was superior to him. But 
what made the grief more poignant was this : the 
apprentice made the famous window out of broken 
fragments rejected and cast away in the shop. We 
have had illustration enough to exalt the value of 
fragments. What we want is to ask ourselves, 
What are we doing with our fragments ? Are we 
gathering and using them ? The fragments left 
from the dollar after we have made the requisite 
purchase would make a fine missionary contribu- 
tion. Coming in week by week they would make 
dollars. The fragment of the day, after the shop 
or store or school is closed, would tell in the study 
of the Sabbath-school lesson or in reading of 
Church history or, if you have a voice for singing, 
in the cultivation of church music. Basketfuls on 
basketfuls of means would be the result if the Sab- 
bath-school had the fragment coin spent in the 
sample -room and the cigar- store, spent on dys- 
pepsia nicknacks and ridiculous gewgaws. Men 
of talent and women of influence would fill our 
churches if the hours w^asted in frivolity and idle 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. lOI 

gossip were spent in eager research after truth 
and in healthful study. These hours could be thus 
devoted, and there would still be time enough for 
work and play. What we want to impress upon 
our youth is this : Fragments are fortunes when 
they are carefully gathered. 



I02 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

" And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life." 
— /o/m6:35. 

By six monosyllabic words he sets himself be- 
fore the world. This is a specimen of masterly 
condensation. Only six words, and the supreme 
need of humanity defined ! Only six words, and 
the paramount duty of the human race set forth ! 
Only six words, and the absolute claims of the 
Son of God asserted ! 

The text is a simile, a parable, an analogue, a 
type. Into any of these forms of speech a think- 
ing mind can pack a world of truth. We might 
liken the text to a drusic stone, which is a striking 
formation found among the rocks of nature. Mac- 
Millan tells us that in picking up one of these we 
pick up a rough, ordinary, boulder-like stone and 
expect little from it. But when it is cleft in twain, 
behold a marvellous sight! The commonplace 
boulder is a hollow sphere lined with beautiful 
crystals, which carry in them the glorious colors 
of sunrise. The text is, in the world of truth, 
what the drusic stone is among the rocks. When 
its interior is broken up by study and prayer and 
believing, we find in it thoughts and facts which 
are valuable and as beautiful as gold and onyx 
and sapphire and emerald. 

In dealing v/ith this description which Christ 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LH^E. IC3 

gives of himself we must not, by literalness, let 
the figure which he uses confuse us. We must 
not take his words as though he taught literal can- 
nibalism. This is the instruction which he gives 
us at the close of his discourse. He says " the let- 
ter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." The men 
who heard him interpreted his words literally, and 
asked the question, " How can he give us his flesh 
to eat?" They recoiled from the thought of eat- 
ing his flesh and drinking his blood, and they for- 
sook him. This led Christ to say, '' Strive to catch 
the spirit and meaning of my figure ; forget the 
figure itself by centring your minds on the ideas 
which it sets forth ; when you grasp the idea 
which it contains, it will be eternal life to you." 
While the language of Christ is highly figurative, 
the idea which he sets forth is perfectly clear. It 
is this : He is to the soul of man what bread is to 
the body of man. He teaches us that the soul has 
hunger just as the body has, and that it must be 
fed. All life must be fed. The bodily life must 
be fed with the fruits of the earth ; the social life 
must be fed with friendships and family affec- 
tions ; the business life must be fed with the com- 
petition of trade and the hope of gain ; the intel- 
lectual life must be fed with knowledge. But 
there is a higher life, the soul-life. With what 
must it be fed ? It must be fed with Christ, with 
his experience, with his personality, and with his 
life. By faith in him we must feast and nourish 
our souls on what he is and what he says and 
what he does— on his character, his words, his 



104 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

sacrifice. Our souls must appropriate Clirist as 
our body appropriates food. 

We are familiar with the figure which Christ 
uses ; let us therefore read into it simply what we 
are accustomed to read into it. We say that the 
tree eats air and light and drinks in the rain. We 
talk of devouring a book, of drinking in knowl- 
edge, of feasting upon a friend, of relishing a 
poem or a discussion. The figure on the lips of 
Christ is not a strange one ; it is not even a nev/ 
one. We meet with it in the Old Testament. We 
are exhorted *' to taste and see that God is good." 
We are invited by Wisdom **to come and eat of 
her bread and drink of the wine which she has 
mingled." God is vSaid "to satisfy the longing 
soul and to fill the hungry soul with goodness." 
The only thing that is new in the words of Christ 
is this : Christ declares that he is the food of the 
soul, and that he alone can satisfy its hunger. 

As we cannot in one study set forth all the 
points of analogy betv\reen Christ and bread, let us 
confine our thinking to two points in the analogy. 

I. AS BREAD SATISFIES THE HUNGER OF THE BODY, 
CHRIST SATISFIES THE HUNGER OF THE SOUL. 

There is a soul-hunger in humanity, and the 
evidences of it are everywhere. Look at these 
evidences ! Humanity is cross and irritable. This 
is the evidence of hunger. When the child is 
hungry, it is cross and irritable ; so it is with the 
race. When the child is full and satisfied, it is 
good-natured ; so it is with the race. The reign 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. 10^ 

of sensuality among men proves the hunger of the 
soul. Sensuality is the double feeding of the body. 
It makes the body do double, in hope that this will 
act as a substitute for feeding the soul. Excess, 
extravagance, luxury, large fortunes stored away, 
greedy monopolies, all these are the evidences of 
soul-hunger. Envy, pride, remorse, carking care, 
anxiety, disgust, fears, all these are evidences of 
soul-hunger. Alexander w^eeping because there 
are no worlds to conquer and fretting at the 
course of providence; Solomon flying from one 
great thing of earth to another great thing, and 
complaining of the emptiness of life and asking 
the question, Is life worth living? — what are 
these but the evidences of soul-hunger ? But per- 
haps you ask me, How do you know that these 
are the evidences of soul-hunger ? The process of 
reaching this conclusion is a very simple one. I 
contrast the men in whom these things are found 
with the men who feed upon Christ and whose 
souls are satisfied. These things are absent from 
the men who make Christ their portion. The 
men who live in the land of Beulah, and look at 
life from the summit of Mt. Delectable, never take 
up the cry of vanity nor ask the question, Is life 
worth living ? To them life on earth is sublime, a 
magnificent gift from God. Their life is not 
spoiled by envy and remorse and carking care. 
They do not have to tax their body double. They 
delight themselves in God, and he has given them 
the desires of the heart. They are filled with the 
foretastes and anticipation of heaven. In the 

s* 



I06 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

words of Scripture, '' They have tasted the good 
word of God and the powers of the world to 
come." This is the point before ns: There is a 
soul-hunger, and Christ satisfies that hunger. 

(a.) He satisfies the hunger of the intellect. 

The intellect wants definite knowledge, and 
Christ gives that. Paul tells us of the excellency 
of the knowledge that is in Christ Jesus. Christ 
answers the questions which are uppermost in the 
minds of men. Bancroft says that the questions 
which the Indians asked Eliot the missionary 
were the very questions which the Greek philoso- 
phers discussed. Christ answers these questions 
which trouble the race. We want to know who 
we are. He tells us that. He sets before us our 
potentialities. He tells us of our body and teaches 
us how to estimate this. He opens up the nature 
of the soul and discourses on its endless life. He 
brands as false the theory of the materialist that 
in death the soul becomes as unconscious as the 
grave dust. 

We want to know our destiny, and he teaches 
us that our character will settle our destiny. We 
want to know of God, and how to get into true re- 
lation with God, and he tells us this. He reveals 
God as our Father. He bases his own earthly life 
upon the Fatherhood of God, and lives it from be- 
ginning to end consistently upon the filial idea. 
As a boy he starts forth with a grasp upon the 
Fatherhood of God : " I must be about my Father's 
business." He maintains this grasp when he en- 
ters the dark and trying places of life. In the 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. lO/ 

agony of Gethsemane it is '' Father, not my will, 
but thine, be done." He maintains his grasp upon 
God's Fatherhood to the very end. In the conflict 
with death it is, '' Father, into thy hands I com- 
mend my spirit." Christ gives us the grandest 
and fullest revelation of God, and he puts that 
revelation into one word, '' Father." 

Christ never refuses to answer the serious and 
earnest questions of the human mind. So anxious 
is he to give needed knowledge that he purposely 
calls out questions that he may answer them. 
Christianity means education. Christianity means 
mental triumphs. Christian civilization is a dis- 
tinct and recognized factor in the world. Let us 
not overlook Christ's method in giving knowl- 
edge. His style is succint. His teaching is semi- 
nal. His sayings are roots and seeds, not full- 
bloomed gardens. It takes ages to grow them. 
His style is lucid and attractive. He makes truth 
live in thrilling similes and talking pictures. He 
throws golden visions into the darkened mind, 
just as in nature he throws the sunburst of the 
morning into the dark night. He brings magnifi- 
cent conceptions out of the realm of the abstract, 
and gives them a body so that we can see them 
and feel them. There is no grander conception 
than the Fatherhood of God. But see ! He puts 
that before us in the parable of the Prodigal Son, 
and even the little child sees it and feels it. But 
above and beyond all this, in giving us knowledge 
he translates truth into incarnate principles. That 
is, he lives it. 



I08 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

His life is knowledge and truth, and by deal- 
ing witli his life we get at the facts we want to 
know. Take one illustration. Look at the future 
as it is revealed in his life. I can make a meal of 
that future ; nay, more, I feast upon the future as I 
see it in his life. I love to dwell upon certain 
scenes in his life : upon the transfiguration, his 
resurrection, his ascension. His empty tomb, his 
ascension, his glorified body — these satisfy me. 
They satisfy me, not merely because they reveal 
what Christ is, but because they open to me my 
future as a child of God. I shall be like him, for 
I shall see him as he is. Intellectually Christ sat- 
isfies us. We shall be satisfied to be like him in 
our thinking, to hold the doctrines which he holds, 
to have his views of God and of this life and of 
the future, and to be swayed by his conceptions 
and estimates of things. 

(b.) He satisfies the hunger of the conscience. 

The conscience is too large a part of the soul 
to be overlooked. A noted thinker has shrewdly 
and wisely said, " Man is built up around a con- 
science." We know one thing, and that is this, no 
power so sways a man as the power of conscience. 
A tormented conscience means hell. A conscience 
cleansed by the blood of Christ means heaven. 
The imperative need of man's life is to get a con- 
science full of peace. In a threefold way Christ 
satisfies the conscience. 

His holy teachings satisfy the conscience. 
Take the sermon upon the m^ount. The purest 
conscience can delight in it. The sermon, by its 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. lOg 

breadth and spirituality and practicality, educates 
the conscience and enlightens it. It make com- 
mon and conventional moralities hideous. 

The life he lived satisfies the conscience. 
When conscience searches his life through and 
through, it finds that he lived his own teachings. 
It finds a rhythmic consistency in his life. He who 
said, *' Pray for them that persecute you," prayed 
for his enemies when they nailed him to the cross. 
Conscience finds in him all the graces which he 
inculcates. It finds in him moral beauty, conscien- 
tiousness, holiness of soul, pure and Godlike think- 
ing, love of truth, freedom from carnality, and 
heavenly ideals. His character stands as the great 
power and defence of our religion. Infidelity may 
build up fortresses against Christianity out of our 
inconsistencies, it may spike the guns of apolo- 
gists, but the holy and perfect character of Christ 
is a bulwark against which it breaks itself in pieces 
every time it clashes v/ith it. The world has never 
known its equal. It is far above the sweep even of 
the imagination of those who deal in fiction and 
ideals. The writers of fiction are building charac- 
ters every day, but even with his character before 
them they cannot produce its equal. Like the rain- 
bow, which is the blending of all colors of light, his 
character is the blending of all moral and spiritual 
virtues and graces. His character is the fulfil- 
ment of the law, and affords a perpetual delight to 
God, who looks it through and through with an 
omniscient eye. Well then may it delight and 
satisfy the cravings of the conscience. 



no STUDIES IN JOHNS GOSPEL. 

His sacrifice for sin satisfies the human con. 
science. Nothing else does or can satisfy a sin- 
stricken conscience. The condemning conscience 
sees him as its sin-bearer paying its debt and 
bearing its penalty. It sees itself in him as he 
goes to the cross. It sees Christ taking its law- 
place and dying as the sinner's surety. It hears 
with a bound of joy his shout, ''It is finished !'' for 
by that shout it learns that God has accepted the 
satisfaction which the surety has made. Paul 
knew the blessedness of this truth and the value 
of Christ as a sin-offering. Realizing his oneness 
with Christ on the cross, and feeling the thrill of 
peace and joy which comes to the forgiven soul 
and to the satisfied conscience, he raised the com- 
panion shout of the spiritual victor, " There is 
therefore now no condemnation to them that are 
in Christ Jesus." That shout of the believer 
matches well the shout of Christ, ''It is finished !" 
Since the sacrifice of Christ satisfies the righteous- 
ness of God, well may the demands of the human 
conscience be satisfied with it and rest in it. 

(c.) He satisfies the hunger of the heart. 

The human heart craves love and the assu- 
rances of love, companionship and the sympathies 
of companionship. These things it finds in Christ. 
He addresses himself to the heart as much as to 
the intellect. Who ever spoke words equal to his ? 
Who ever sacrificed for friends as he sacrificed for 
his ? Who ever gave sympathy like his sympathy ? 
You cannot match his '* Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. Ill 

rest," or his '' In my Father's house are many 
mansions." You cannot match his sacrifice of the 
glories of heaven for a season and his death upon 
the cross for his friends. You cannot match his 
groaning of spirit and his tears of sympathy at 
Bethany. You cannot match his companionship 
with his disciples. He goes with them to their 
wedding scenes, he meets with them at their 
graves. He not only goes with them but takes 
them with him. He takes them with him into 
the wilderness to rest, he admits them into his 
solitudes, he instructs them secretly and opens to 
them the great purpose of his life. He allows 
John to recline upon his bosom, and he makes the 
chosen three his companions when he enters the 
glories of his transfiguration. The heart of man 
yearns for companionship. Jesus offers it the 
companionship of heaven, which means the com- 
pany of God and the holy angels and the re- 
deemed from every nation of the earth. The 
heart of man craves love. Jesus offers it his own 
intense love, and the love of the Father which is 
equally intense. He offers the soul of man the 
heart of God as its eternal home. If the infinite 
love of God cannot satisfy the heart of man, the 
heart of man cannot be satisfied. But it does sat- 
isfy man. Paul acting as man's representative 
makes this clear in the eighth chapter of Romans. 
In this self-contained chapter he places before the 
believer his security and his privileges. He be- 
gins Y.dth '' No condemnation," and he closes with 
''No separation." He ends with the love of God 



112 STUDIES IN JOHNS GOSPEL. 

that is all - satisfying and eternal. This is his 
closing sentence, and every word in it breathes a 
serene satisfaction : "I am persuaded that neither 
life nor death, nor angels nor principalities nor 
powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor 
height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

II. AS BREAD BECOMES LIFE TO THE BODY, CHRIST 
BECOMES LIFE TO THE SOUL. 

It is well known that the bread we eat and 
masticate and digest becomes a part of the body 
and even the life of the body. This is one of 
God's mysteries which we do not attempt to ex- 
plain. It is enough for us to see that it is a fact. 
" The bread that is eaten to-day does not remain 
bread. It turns to flesh and blood and bone. It is 
converted into nerve force and muscular energy, 
into heart-beats and hand-movements, into the 
far-sightedness of a Herschel, into the benevolent 
activities of a Howard, into human life. The 
bread of yesterday is the myriad-hued, the myriad- 
sided life of to-day. It is the eloquence of the 
orator and the strength of the drayman. It is the 
skill of the artist and the energy of the plough- 
man." 

Now this transmutation of bread into life has 
its analogy in Christ when he is received by faith 
into the soul. He becomes honesty and truthful- 
ness and praise and benevolence and self-sacrifice 
and sympathy and purity. The Christ-possessed 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. II3 

soul says with Paul, " The life which I live in the 
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. It is no 
longer I that live, but Christ who liveth in me." 
When we talk about Christ entering into his 
people and becoming their life, we are not talking 
of a fancy or a fiction, but of a fact. We know 
that one spirit dwells in, and lives through, an- 
other. We talk of the general living in his arm^y. 
He has the power of filling the souls of his soldiers 
with his enthusiasm and courage. His daring 
burns in them, and finds its outcome in the rally 
and the charge. The enrapt scholar opens his 
heart to the admired teacher and becomes his 
animated image. He reproduces his mental hab- 
its and sympathies and theories, Christ enters 
into our nature just as the sun enters into the 
plant and works itself out into flowers arrayed in 
garm.ents of gold and splendor. 

At this point I imagine you say, *' If Christ be 
in us as our life, we ought to be conscious of the 
fact." When we are instructed as to how to recog- 
nize Christ, we are conscious of it. You should 
drill yourself in recognizing the Christ formed 
within you. Is there something within you which 
demands that you shall be noble for nobility's own 
sake? That feeling is the Christ within you as- 
serting himself. Is there a joy thrilling within 
you in the sanctuary as you sing praise and pray ? 
That is Christ in you. It is the Christ who at- 
tended the synagogue on the Sabbath as was his 
wont, Christ who sang the grand Hallel after the 
Supper, Christ who v:ent into the mountain still- 

Stuillfs in John's Gospel. 



114 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

ness and spent whole nights in prayer. As you 
read the Word do you feel a response within you 
to what is written there? That is the Christ in 
your heart talking to the Christ on the page. Do 
you realize that there is something within your 
soul which looks out of your eyes at perishing 
sinners and seeks how it can help them ? That is 
Christ yearning in your heart for the lost, and 
trembling for those who will not tremble for them- 
selves. When Christ is within us, we may be 
conscious of the fact and get great comfort from it. 
When Christ is within us as our life, he will act in 
us and by us just as he acted when he lived in 
Judaea and Galilee. Being the same Christ, he 
must live in and by us the same kind of a life. 

CLOSING POINTS. 

I. The simple term " bread'' zvhen used as de scrip- 
tive of Christ contains i?t it touching pictures of Christ, 

The term sets before me the self-sacrifice of the 
Son of God. What is requisite upon the part of the 
golden wheat that it may become bread ? It must 
leave its proud stalk, which waves in the sunlight, 
and submit itself to the flail of the thresher. It 
must give up its germinating power and its beauty 
of form. It must submit to the crushing and 
grinding of the mill. It must go into the knead- 
ing-trough and into the fires of the oven. It is 
through self-sacrifice that the golden wheat be- 
comes bread. Likewise it is through sacrifice 
that the Son of God becomes the bread of life. 
He must veil the divine glory. He must become 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. 1 15 

incarnate. He must live the earthly life, with its 
testing sorrows and temptations. His body must 
be broken on Calvary. Scripture sums up what 
Christ did in order to become the bread of life in 
this one sentence, '' He gave Himself for us." 
*' Himself!" what is included in this term? It 
includes the gift of a God, and the gift of a God is 
infinite. We grow eloquent when a man gives 
himself to a good cause — when a brakeman 
throws himself between death and the passengers, 
and at the cost of life averts a catastrophe, when 
the policeman receives the murderous knife into 
his own bosom, when the patriot soldier pur- 
chases liberty at the price of blood ! We do well 
to grow eloquent over such gifts. But how much 
greater is the gift when the Son of God gives 
Himself ! 

When Christ offers himself to me as the Bread 
of Life, I see in his offer the generous humility of 
the Son of God brought to view. If a scholar 
of wide culture should give himself the task of 
teaching a child of moderate endowments, in order 
that he might reproduce in him, in a limited meas- 
ure, his own greatness, would you not call him a 
man of generous humility ? His humility would 
appear all the more clearly if you saw the many 
great minds open to his tuition ; willing minds, 
capable of reproducing him in the grandest of 
ways and in the highest circles of life. There are 
spheres other than the human in which the Son of 
God can live and reproduce himself. Heaven is 
His to use in the manifestation of Himself. The 



Il6 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

angels are willing to be His students and to be His 
exponents. He might, if He wished, confine Him- 
self to the towering heights of glory, but He does 
not. He comes to enter into us, to dwell in us, to 
manifest Himself in us, to reproduce Himself 
through us. 

2. The simple term ** Bread'' when used as descrip- 
tive of Christ contains in it explicit directions concern- 
ing our duty towards Christ. 

It is our duty to feed upon Christ, to m.ake him 
ours by appropriating faith. It is not only our 
privilege but it is our duty to be Christ-filled. The 
possibility of being thus filled carries with it the 
duty. It is said that opaque objects can be charged 
so thoroughly with electricity as to become trans- 
parent. In like manner we can be filled with 
Christ so that he will glow, in the form of divine 
truth and love and purity, in all that we do. 
When the Shechinah is within us it will shed a 
halo of glory on the life without. 

We should feed upon a whole Christ. We 
should take him in all his offices and bow to all 
his claims. We should accept of all his truths, and 
lay hold of his commandments and threaten ings, 
as well as of his promises. We should live on the 
full gospel and honor every doctrine in it. It is 
our privilege to receive of Christ's fulness, grace 
for grace. In proportion as we take him in his 
fulness, in the same proportion shall we reach 
grandeur and spirituality of life, robustness in 
truth, and Christian likeness of character. It is 
the men who take the full Christ that are men of 



CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. 11/ 

large understanding and large sympathies and 
large sacrifice. There are Christians and Chris- 
tians. The greater Christians are those who have 
the greater amount of the indwelling of Christ. 

Do you ask, How can we feed upon Christ ? I 
reply, The soul feeds by contemplation. By con- 
templation the thoughts of Christ enter into us 
and become a part of us. By contemplation the 
doctrines of Christ become convictions, and con- 
victions are inseparable from our natures. Convic- 
tions transform us into themselves. To afford us 
the opportunity of contemplating Christ, God has 
given us the story of Christ in the gospel page, 
and the morning chapter from his biography 
should be deemed as essential as our morning 
meal. To make us realize more and more that 
Christ is ours, Christ himself has given us the 
Lord's Supper. As a holy ordinance it throws 
light upon eating Christ as the Bread of Life. It 
is meant to keep our memory full of what we have 
in Him. It has been given as a means of grace to 
strengthen us for right living. We must not lose 
sight of this in gathering at the Lord's table. We 
are in danger of looking at the Lord's Supper as 
an end, and of supposing that we must live a right 
life in order that v/e may celebrate it. This is only 
half of the truth. The right life w^ill help us to 
celebrate it, just as the right life will help us to 
pray. The other half of the truth is, the celebra- 
tion of the Lord's Supper will help us in living the 
right life. We should come to the Lord's table ex- 
pecting to receive the quickening of all our Chris- 



Il8 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

tian graces. We should come expecting to receive 
all the benefits which can be obtained by those 
who in the spirit, and not in the letter merely, 
" take and eat." 

As we deal with Christ and enjoy him here 
on earth, let us remember that what we receive 
from Christ now is only an earnest of what shall 
be. There is a life beyond. There is the New 
Jerusalem, there is the celestial city, and the gold- 
en empire of which Christ is the King and the 
Life. In that realm the Lamb in the midst of the 
throne shall feed us and lead us unto living foun- 
tains of water. His words to us, as he opens the 
gates of knowledge into the heaven-world, are, 
'' To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the 
hidden manna." Beautiful are the pictures which 
we can build up from the materials which he has 
given us. They are such as thrill the sanctified 
imagination. They are such as fill this life with 
hope and make it grand and sublime with antici- 
pations. They are such as give us refreshment 
and regalement. These pictures are such as bring 
the tree of life down to earth, so that our faith 
can even now taste the tvv^elve manner of fruits. 
As we taste these fruits by faith, we say, and our 
deepest convictions are in every word, " Blessed 
are they that shall eat bread in the kingdom of 
God." 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. I I9 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. 

" In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood 

AND CRIED, SAYING, If ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO 
ME AND DRINK."— /o/m T-Zl- 

This Scripture outlines Christ's sermon at the 
Feast of the Tabernacles. It sums it up in two 
thrilling sentences. These two sentences form 
one of those grand invitations of the Bible which 
sound like music from the harps of gold. The in- 
vitation proves its own divinity. It does this not 
merely by the poetic beauty of its diction, although 
it is the sublimest of poetry, but by its grand sub- 
stance and sentiment. It has the ring of infinite 
love in it, and it expresses a purpose the breadth 
of which shows that it could originate only in 
the heart of God. The invitation harmonizes v/ith 
the sacrifices of Calvary, and fits the lips of him 
who voluntarily went to Calvary and gave his 
life a ransom for miany. In it Christ joins golden 
word to golden word, that he may draw us to sal- 
vation. 

We would expect the Disciple of Love to report 
these words from the heart of Christ. They are 
just the words which his nature would cherish and 
remember and feed upon. It is noticeable that 
John gives us the greatest number of the broad 
universal invitations and promises and declarations 
of the gospel. They are scattered through his 



120 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

writings from beginning to end. They burn like 
brilliant lamps in the long drawing-room of a pal- 
ace. In tlie beginning of liis writings he puts this 
m_agniiicent verse which voices the love of the 
Father : " God so loved the w^orld that he gave his 
only - begotten Son, that v/hosoever belie veth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
In the centre of his writings he puts this verse, 
which voices the infinite longing of the Son, '' If 
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink ; 
and the water which I give him shall be in him a 
well of water springing up into everlasting life." 
At the close of his writings he puts this verse, 
which makes the Holy Spirit one with the Father 
and Son in longing for the salvation of all : *' And 
the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him 
that heareth say. Come. And let him_ that is 
athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." The Disciple of Love builds 
up a lofty and complete pyram^id of grand univer- 
sal promises and invitations. Thus he represents 
aright God's infinite love and the magnificence of 
his great saving purposes. Thus he sets forth the 
very important fact, viz., that if we are lost, we 
are lost because we refuse to be saved. 

Let us bring before us the surroundings amid 
which Christ preached his sermon. The nation 
was celebrating the Feast of the Tabernacles. 
This was one of the most popular of the feasts. 
Edersheim, who has given the world perhaps the 
best work on the Jewish worship, says, '' This was 
preeminently the feast for foreign pilgrims." 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. 121 

It took place during the finest season of the year. 
The delicious cool of autumn, when the first 
streaks of gold and crimson were tinting the foli- 
age, was just the season for travel. Because of the 
presence of the foreign Jews, who came from the 
far-away regions, it was the most largely attended 
of all the feasts. The greater the crowds, the more 
fitting the occasion for the utterance of Christ's 
universal offer, " If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me and drink." 

The design of the feast was twofold. It was 
meant to be a thanksgiving for the gathered har- 
vest of the year, and also a memorial of the wilder- 
ness-life which the Hebrews lived before God 
settled the nation in the promised land. In the 
wilderness the fathers dwelt in tents, so as a me- 
morial of this their descendants dwelt in booths 
or tents made of the branches of trees during the 
entire week of the feast. These leafy tents were 
built upon the flat-roofed houses and in the yards 
and in the open squares of the city. Jerusalem 
was transformed. It became a city of trees. The 
city was picturesque and grand to one who took a 
bird's eye view of it from the summit of Olivet. 
It looked as though the nation intended to crown 
it with fresh green laurels. It was full of intense 
life. It was a centre of prayer and worship. Faith 
saw the mystic ladder of Bethel reared against the 
skies, and innumerable troops of angels sweeping 
up and down on ministries of love. This was the 
season when Jerusalem v/as the city of solemnities ; 
when worshippers congregated by the thousands ; 
6 



122 STUDIES IN JOHNS GOSPEL. 

when the sacred places were filled with chanting 
processions ; when the smoke of smouldering sacri- 
fices rose in a slowly widening column to float 
between the summits of Olivet and Sion ; when 
the silvery Psalms reverberated through the courts 
of the Temple and the clear blasts of the priestly 
trumpets awakened echoes far and near among 
the surrounding hills. The season was one of 
holy scenes and holy acts and holy thoughts. To 
see Jerusalem at its best you must see it when the 
nation is holding one of the great festivals. It is 
thus that we see it in this Scripture. The very 
climax of the Feast of the Tabernacles has been 
reached. The last, the high day, has been reached. 
Soon the booths must be dismantled and the 
tribes start homeward. The thought of the end 
quickens every soul and gives zest to every ser- 
vice. 

At the point where we take up the story we 
find the nation engaged in a most thrilling rite, 
viz., the memorial of the Smitten Rock, in which 
water was poured out before the Lord. This me- 
morial was attended with striking ceremonies. A 
company of white - robed priests and Levites 
marched in solemn procession from the Temple 
courts to the Fountain of Siloam. When this 
fountain was reached the priest filled a golden 
pitcher with the living water, and then the sacred 
procession marched back to the Temple amid the 
clash of cymbals and the shouts of the multitude. 
The march was so timed that the solemn proces- 
sion reached the Temple just as the morning 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. I23 

sacrifice was laid upon the altar of burnt-offering-. 
In the presence of the people the priest took the 
golden pitcher, lifted it on high, and poured out 
the water so that it mingled with the sacrifice. 
With a great voice the multitudes sang, " With joy 
shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation," 
and all the people waved the palm branches which 
they carried as a token of their joy. The services 
closed with the chanting of the grand Hallel, con- 
sisting of the praise Psalms, beginning at the one 
hundred and thirteenth and ending with the one 
hundred and eighteenth. It was during the pause 
after this thrilling service, and while the priests 
were making ready for the special sacrifices of the 
day, that Jesus spake to the multitudes. His voice 
rang out from the solemn hush and offered to the 
thousands the water of life. He proclaimed him- 
self the Rock of Ages, the reality of v/hat was 
here presented in the form of type. It was a 
bold thing for him to do, but he could not help 
it. Infinite love compelled him. A conscious- 
ness of what he was, and a clear apprehension 
of the worth and efficacy of his coming sacri- 
fice, compelled him. By this act he passed from 
the extreme of caution to the extreme of daring. 
He took a great step in advance in declaring him- 
self. 

Thus we see that Christ made the occasion fur- 
nish his sermon. It gave him the figure by which 
to set himself forth as equal to the wants of the 
soul. The figure will last and speak to the end of 
the world. It can never be outgrown. This was 



124 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

just the place for Christ to declare himself. He 
was in the midst of his own pictures. These 
Temple services were all declarations concerning 
him. They VA^ere the gospel in symbol and type. 
They presented in abstract form precisely the 
same facts and thought which he presented in his 
words, in his character, and in his life. This was 
the reason that these services satisfied and fed 
such great natures as David's and Isaiah's and 
Jeremiah's, and also the hearts and m_inds of the 
other heroes of the Old Testament. This was the 
reason they called out the gra,nd old Psalms, so 
full of majestic thought and soaring aspirations 
and swelling gratitude. The Hebrews in their 
worship had before them the Christ whom we see 
in our worship, and he made their worship grand. 
He was before them in the form of symbol, just as 
he is before us to-day in the Lord's Supper in the 
form of symbol. Christ simply proclaimed this 
fact Y/hen he surprised and thrilled the crowds by 
his invitation given amid the solemnities of the 
Feast of Tabernacles, '' If any m.an thirst, let him 
come unto me and drink." 

Let us endeavor to set the fulness and meaning 
of this Scripture before us. 

I. THE INVITATION OF CHRIST. 

We can best set the invitation of Christ before 
us by asking and answering two questions. 
Question i . To what does Christ ijivite us f 
He invites us to come unto him and receive the in- 
dwelling of the Holy Spirit. 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. 1 25 

It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that is symbol- 
ized by the gift of the water of life which Christ 
offers. And what is the gift of the indwelling of 
the Holy Spirit? It is the great gift of Christ 
which carries in it all other gifts. It is the gift of 
all the blessings of the Christian dispensation in 
which we are living. It includes everything that 
pertains to the divine life. When Christ finished 
the work of redemption he committed everything 
to the Spirit, whom he sent to be his vicegerent 
on earth, and to whom has been committed the 
application of redemption. By the Spirit Christ 
now carries on his work here, and is a perpetual 
living presence. The promise of the Spirit was 
his grand distinctive promise. This is in accord- 
ance with prophecy. Joel foretold that the New 
Dispensation would be marked by the privileges of 
such influence of the Spirit as the Old had not 
seen. The power of the Holy Ghost was the dis- 
tinctive promise of the New Testament, and the 
fulfilment of the promise was to be accomplished 
by wonders and thus made notable. The applica- 
tion of Christ's completed work is the Spirit's dis- 
tinctive work. It was the distinctive work of the 
Son of God to come and offer the sacrifice on the 
cross ; it is the distinctive work of the Spirit to 
come and make that sacrifice effective. When 
Christ ascended to heaven the Spirit came to do 
his office work. As the Son of God came in the 
fulness of time and incarnated himself in a human 
body, the Spirit came on Pentecost and incarnated 
himself in the individual saint and in the collec- 



126 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

tive organic company of believers called the 
Church of God, the body of Christ. 

How do you know that this is the true interpre- 
tation of the offer which Christ made at the Feast 
of Tabernacles ? It is the interpretation which the 
inspired John gives when he records Christ's invi- 
tation. His words are, *' This he spake of the 
Spirit which they that believe on him should re- 
ceive ; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, be- 
cause Jesus was not yet glorified." John wrote 
after the scenes of Pentecost, and while in pos- 
session of the very gift which Christ promised. 
He enjoyed the fulness of the Spirit which Jesus 
had promised and of which the prophets had 
spoken. He read into the promise all the meaning 
of later events and revelations. Thus he teaches 
us how we are to deal with the Scriptures, how we 
are to interpret them, and what we are to read into 
them. We need the lesson which he gives us. If 
we do not act according to it we shall limit many 
parts of the Bible and make them mean less than 
they do. There are some who are not willing to 
allow us this canon of interpretation, viz., // is our 
privilege to read Scripture in the light of after events. 
They would allow us to see in the different parts of 
Scripture only what those to whom it was first 
given saw in it. John is good enough authority to 
put against all such. He read all the meaning of 
later events into the offer of the water of life by 
Christ. We are not reading Scripture for the men 
away back in the past ; we are reading it for our- 
selves; and it is common sense to throw all the 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. 12/ 

light and meaning possible into every word and 
sentence of it. P'or example, we are to let the res- 
urrection of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus con- 
cerning immortality iilum_ine the sayings in the 
Old Testament which deal with the future life. 
We are to allow them to magnify the translation 
of Enoch and the ascension of Elijah. We are to 
let them make the symbolism of nature vocal, to 
give a voice to the grain of wheat which germi- 
nates and reproduces. We are to let them make the 
Psalms which we sing great with meaning when 
the sentiments of these Psalms look beyond the 
grave. For example, we are to read a new mean- 
ing into the sixty-eighth and twenty-fourth Psalms 
under the illumination which they receive from 
the ascension of Christ. We are to read this prom- 
ise of the water of life in the light of Pentecost, 
with its incoming of the Spirit in wondrous power. 
We are to read it in the light of the Spirit-filled 
lives of Paul and Peter and John. The realization 
of the promise in these men shows us what the 
promise means. 

Since Christ uses the water of life as a figure 
of the Spirit, there must be some correspondence 
between water as a figure and the Spirit as the 
reality. This is what you are saying to your- 
selves. And this is true. There are correspond- 
ences. We can indicate only two, and these only 
by way of suggestion. 

(a.) Water is a beautifier^ so is the Spirit. 

Much of the beauty in nature comes from 
water. The true artist understands this, so he 



128 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

never paints a landscape without putting a bub- 
bling spring or a rolling brook or a sweeping 
river in it. The divine Artist when he paints the 
picture of the heavenly Canaan makes much of 
the River of Life. Gather up the beauties of 
nature and see what they are. They are such as 
these : the gems of morning, the sparkling dew- 
drops, the cataract with its waterfall and crystal 
spray, the purling brook rippling and singing, the 
placid lake mirroring the blue sky, the rainbow on 
the lowering brow of the storm, the glories of 
cloud-land with its peaks of aurelian and silver 
and its valleys of purple and crimson. Water is a 
beautifier. If you took it from nature, nature 
would be bare and repulsive. To meet and an- 
swer the analogy introduced by Christ, the Spirit 
must be a beautifier. He is. He carries with him 
the beauties of holiness, and as the Spirit of holi- 
ness he communicates these unto those in whom 
he dwells. The product of his indwelling is a 
beautiful character. Take and examine, for illus- 
tration, the character of Christ. That was his pro- 
duction. Christ lived his human life just as we 
are to live our hum^an lives, by the power of the 
Spirit and through his guidance. Into the like- 
ness of Christ's character the Spirit is m^oulding 
and transforming all the people of God. Into 
Christ's character the Spirit blended all beautiful 
graces, such as obedience, integrity, love, truth, 
joy, courage ; these are all in it, and they are in it 
in perfection and in perfect harmony. No Rubens 
or Angelo ever gave the world a picture half so 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. 1 29 

thrilling as the perfect character of Jesus Christ, 
which is the incorporation of all moral and spir- 
itual beauty. This is what Christ offers us. He 
offers us the power of the Holy Ghost which built 
up the character of Christ. The Spirit is the 
beautifier. In nature he is represented as brood- 
ing over chaos and bringing from it cosmos, and 
as renewing the face of the earth and bringing 
forth the fresh beauty of the springtime. In 
grace he it is who sanctifies us and transforms us 
into fac-similes of Jesus Christ. 

(b.) Water is a vivifier, so is the Spirit. 

The Tree of Life grows on the banks of the 
River of Life. Water revives the dying Ishmael. 
The summer shower fills the grasses and the 
flowers with new beauty and vitality. Wherever 
water is found it is the symbol of life. The float- 
ing mists, the gurgling rills, the broad rivers, all 
of these carry in them life and refreshment. To 
meet and answer the analogy introduced by Christ, 
the Spirit must be a vivifier. He is. He is called 
the Spirit of Life. He is set forth as performing 
all the subjective work of salvation in man. He 
quickens and regenerates and sanctifies. If you 
liken him to a fountain, you can see the many rills 
which flow from him into the souls of men. They 
are such as these : love, joy, peace, long-sufiering, 
meekness, temperance. These graces constitute 
the very life of a Christian, and these graces are 
communicated by the indwelling of the Spirit. 

The works of the Spirit bear testimony to him 
as a reviver. He fertilizes every part of the soul. 

RtudieB in Jouu'x QospeL 6 



I30 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

He fertilizes the affections by sliedding abroad tlie 
love of God in our hearts. Look at tlie affections 
of a Christian home as these go out Godward and 
manward, and yon will see the fruitage of the 
Spirit. He fertilizes the will and makes it capable 
of new measures of self-sacrifice. Look at the 
martyrs who face death, and you will see the pro- 
duct of the Spirit's operation. No force hostile to 
Christ can crush their will. The fires crackle in 
their limbs, but their last look, until the eye 
shrivels in its socket, is upward. So completely is 
the Spirit the source of life that we are said " to 
live in the Spirit " and '' to pray in the Spirit " and 
*' to walk by the Spirit." Our life is inspired by 
the Spirit. He creates the atmosphere in which 
we live our new and divine life. Whatever comes 
forth from him is vigorous and fresh, and is like 
sweet, cool, sparkling, clear, living water from the 
spring. The worship which he inspires is like the 
worship of heaven for purity ; the praise which 
comes from his indwelling is like the anthems of 
the redeemed ; and the prayer which he indites 
is full of faith and energy, and always prevails 
at the throne of grace. 

Question 2. What result follows the acceptance 
of Chris fs invitation ? 

This is the result : The indwelling Spirit will 
make us like Christ. We ourselves will become 
fountains of life. Through the indwelling of the 
Spirit Christ becomes re-incarnated in us. As in 
nature God puts into the rocks healing and life- 
giving waters which flow for centuries, so in the 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. 131 

work of grace he puts his life within us in an un- 
failing form. Christ by the Spirit enters into us 
and lives through our personality and individ- 
uality. The life of the church is but the attempt 
of Christians to rise to the completer life of 
Christ. 

The promise of Christ accords with what we 
find elsewhere in the Word, viz., fellowship be- 
tween man and God ahvays makes man profitable. 
God took Abraham into covenant with him, and 
that covenant relation made him a blessing unto 
all nations. Who have been the men vv^ho have 
blessed the v/orld ? They have been the men who 
have come out of the world and out of their own 
corrupt selves, and who have lived with God and 
have allowed God to live in them. They have 
been such men as the heroes of the Old and New 
Testaments. Such men have been described by 
the Lord himself as trees of life, lights of the 
world, fountains of living waters. 

The promise of Christ presents a beautiful 
ideal of the Christian's life. His life in the moral 
and spiritual world should be a spring of water. 
We see what it ought to be and what it can be. 
The Christian is a man who gives himself to 
others ; he gives them his ideals and his princi- 
ples ; he gives them his society and his presence, 
that in this way he may breathe his spirit into 
them. Like Christ he is willing to empty himself 
for others. It is the mission of his life to lift 
others to his covenant privileges and to his faith 
in Christ. Going to heaven alone is a selfish 



132 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

thing. Take others with 3^ou. I always remem- 
ber the remark of a child when the older people 
were discussing in her presence Bunyan's Chris- 
tian and Christiana. She said, ''I do not like 
Christian nearly so well as I do Christiana." 
When she was asked, "Why?" she replied, 
"Christian went to the Celestial City alone, btit 
Christiana took the children with her." That was 
a good enough reason for liking Christiana better 
than Christian. God will delight in you all the 
more when you take others with you to heaven, 
and even men will think the better of you. The 
Christian who goes to heaven alone will have a 
crown, but it will be a starless crown. The Chris- 
tian who takes others with him to heaven will 
have a crown all filled with gems. Be a fountain 
of life to others. Take others to heaven with you. 

II. THE DISCUSSION WHICH THE INVITATION OF 
CHRIST CALLED FORTH CONCERNING HIMSELF. 

Christ's invitation brought him and his claims 
before the people. When he made his magnifi- 
cent overture, they understood him as laying claim 
to the Messiahship. A discussion immediately 
ensued which brought out the various opinions 
entertained concerning him. His sermon made a 
commotion, and the commotion may be looked 
upon as a typical illustration of the effects of all 
gospel messages. We have here the typical 
minds of humanity. We have acting here the 
very motives which act to-day as men deal with 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. 1 33 

Christ. All did not think alike. All do not think 
alike to-day, although we have the light and the 
testimony of many centuries. Although we have 
Christ working himself out before men in all the 
grand institutions of the ages ; although the world 
is reaping golden harvests from his gospel ; much 
as Christ is exhibited, much as he is preached, 
much as he works before the eyes of nations, 
much as is known of him, still men do not think 
alike with regard to Christ and his claims. Look 
at these disputants at the Feast of the Tabernacles, 
and you will see something of the diversities of 
modern days as men come into contact with 
Christ and his claims. 

( a. ) Some were favorably disposed towards 
Christ. 

They said that "he was a prophet." They saw 
much in him, but they did not see all that was in 
him. They ranked him perhaps with Moses or 
Elijah, but they did not see his divinity. They 
would take him as a human model, but they were 
not willing to accept of him as their Lord. 

(b.) Some pronounced favorably ttpon him without 
any intentio)i of coming into any vital relation with 
him. 

They made him a mere intellectual problem. 
They dealt with him as a historical fact and 
nothing more. They pronounced upon him as 
they would upon George Washington or Napo- 
leon. They said, for example, " Never man spake 
as this man spake." We have his words and can 
see for ourselves that this was a correct judgment, 



134 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

but it meant notlimg upon the part of tlie men 
who uttered it so far as personal living was con- 
cerned. 

(c.) So7ne saw him just as he was^ and accepted 
him for what he claimed to be. 

(d.) Some openly rejected him, and gave their 
reasons for so doing. 

He did not realize their ideal, so they said. 
They marked out an ideal of the real Christ." 
They constructed their ideal : " Christ cometh of 
the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethle- 
hem where David was." With this ideal before 
them they turned to Jesus and said, " This Jesus 
is from Nazareth, and is a Galilean." They did 
not know the true history of Jesus. He was just 
what they claimed the true Christ would be. He 
was of the seed of David, he was born in Bethle- 
hem. Thus it is when men honestly make out an 
ideal, Christ accords with it. He answers the 
highest conception of men. 

(e.) Some judged him wholly by his followers, and 
rejected him. 

None of the big men of the nation believed on 
him, therefore there was nothing great in him. 
How often men to-day urge the character of the 
followers of Christ as a reason for not espousing 
his cause. And yet the bold fact is this : Men 
are everywhere imperfect. There are no perfect 
men on earth. If this be the logical course to 
follov/, we must renounce and let alone every 
good thing, for imperfect men are connected with 
every good thing. There are none but imperfect 



CHRIST AT THE FEAST. 1 35 

men to represent causes and things and systems 
and ideas and institutions. 

(f.) Some trusted him secretly^ but had not the 
courage to boldly say what they thought. 

They were secret followers. Nicodemus was 
of this type. There are such men to-day. They 
are secretly trusting Christ ; he is the hidden 
spring of their life ; he deserves the credit of 
every good thing in them, but he does not get the 
credit because of their secrecy. Now this is not 
honest. It is not square to Christ. It is not 
square to others. Others look at the character 
worn by the secret disciple and say, *' This charac- 
ter is good enough for me, and is something 
quite apart from and independent of religion." 
They are deceived. This character can never be 
built up apart from faith in Christ. Nicodemus, 
your very goodness is a living lie, and allures your 
fellow-men to destruction. Tell your fellow-men 
that you owe all to Christ. By an open confession 
become an honest man.' 



136 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



CHRIST AND THE TRUE CHILDREN OF 

GOD. 

"Before Abraham was, I AM."— John 8:58. 

This whole chapter is one Scripture, and in it 
Christ paints his own portrait. I am glad that 
Jesus speaks for himself, for by so doing he sets 
aside the many self-appointed representatives who 
speak for him. Many of these representatives so 
modify his claims that they level him to the grade 
of Mohammed and Buddha and Confucius. In the 
light of this Scripture I am prepared to say, ^' Je- 
sus Christ would rather that men should reject 
him m toto than that they should receive him only 
as the equal of Mohammed or Buddha or Confu- 
cius. The difference between believing in him as 
a Mohammed or a Buddha or a Confucius, and be- 
lieving in him as the Son of God, is the difference 
between offering him blasphemy and offering him 
worship. 

HOW DOES CHRIST PAINT HIMSELF? 

I. He paints himself as the spiritual liberator of 
man. 

Christ does not ask men to serve him unre- 
warded. He crowns discipleship with blessings. 
Continuance and diligence under his tuition result 
in a greater grasp of the truth, and a greater grasp 
of the truth results in greater mental liberty. The 



CIiraST AND THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD. 1 37 

mind of man is the great power in this world ; it 
makes and determines the character and condition 
of humanity. Thought is the force that rules and 
directs the mind. Christ takes hold of the thought 
of man, and through thought controls his mind 
and liberates and elevates and blesses. He puts 
truth into his soul, and in this way makes the life 
right. He brings man into the service of the 
truth, and in this way sets him free from the sla- 
very of error. 

Do you ask. What is truth? Christ answers, 
" I am the Truth." Hence Christ in you is Truth 
in you. Hence we read that freedom by the Son 
of God and freedom by the Truth are one and the 
same thing. Christ — his ideas, his purposes, his 
Spirit, his sympathies, his example — Christ made 
up of these things, he is the Truth. When a man 
know^s these things to be a part of himself, that 
man enjoys the truest and highest libert}^ 

This was the fact which Jesus set before the 
Jews. But they could neither apprehend it nor 
appreciate it. They denied that they were in sla- 
very. The only liberty they dreamed of was polit- 
ical liberty, and they began talking about that. 
They began boasting about their national history, 
and tried to show that they had never been in 
bondage to any man. In doing so they found it 
convenient to be untruthful by leaving out great 
historical facts — facts such as the Egyptian bond- 
age and the Babylonian captivity, and the fact of 
their own day, namely, that the Roman eagle had 
its talons fastened in the very heart of the nation. 



138 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

This was tlieir boast: "We be Abraham's seed 
and were never in bondage to any man." 

Christ was equal to the task of answering their 
appeal to Abraham as their father. He admitted 
the greatness of Abraham, but at the same time 
pointed out the fact that their descent from him 
was carnal and not spiritual. Abraham had two 
sons, one born in the covenant, Isaac; the other 
born out of the covenant, Ishmael. In spirit the 
Jews were Ishmaelites. 

We have our spiritual affinities, and these de- 
termine our true relationships and standing. The 
Jews were not the children of Abraham's good 
qualities, they were not the children of faith and 
love ; they were the children of the spirit of un- 
truth and murder. These were the qualities of the 
devil and not of Abraham. The devil is the father 
of untruth. He lied to Eve in the garden of Eden 
and to Christ on the mountain of temptation. The 
devil is the father of the spirit of murder. He 
tried to murder the v/hole human race spiritually. 
The slavery in vsrhich he keeps man to-day is noth- 
ing short of murder. The drunkard is his slave, 
and his career ends in eternal death. Every pic- 
ture which the Bible gives us of the devil goes to 
prove that he is a murderous taskmaster. Mark 
what he takes and mark v/hat he gives. He takes 
Paradise and gives an apple. He takes the birth- 
right and gives a plate of pottage. He takes the 
homage of Samson and gives him sightless eye- 
balls. He is the same devil to-day, and he will 
treat you as he treated Eve and Esau and Samson. 



CHRIST AND THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD. 1 39 

The disposition which the Jews manifested 
towards Christ was altogether un-Abrahamic : it 
was Satanic, and Christ told them so. He traced 
their pedigree back to Satan, and then he offered 
them freedom from the Satanic. 

It is worth while to take with ns the lesson 
which Jesus sets in the light when he strikes 
down the boast of the cruel and unbelieving Jews 
who say, " We be Abraham's children." It is this : 
True sonship is spiritual, not carnal. True family 
likeness consists in character and in actions, not 
in bearing the same name. Sometimes descend- 
ants are a spiritual burlesque upon ancestors. 
The life which they live makes the name which 
they bear a laughable farce. Think of a puny 
sickly dv/arf bearing the nam^e of Goliath. Think 
of a man bearing the honored name of Stephen, 
of Paul, of James — men who died for the church — • 
and yet living outside of the church and de- 
spising it. By our lives and principles and 
character we often slander the men whom we de- 
light to call our fathers. We are often un-Abra- 
hamic while we boast that we are the children 
of Abraham. Instead of being in truth the sons 
of Abraham, v/e are the slaves of Satan and have 
need of the liberty which Christ gives his people 
by the truth. 

Let me ask a practical question at this point. 
Just what is the liberty which Christ gives men 
through the truth ? It is a liberty which breaks 
every shackle. We can best see it if we look at 
one of Christ's freemen. It incarnates itself in all 



140 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

sucli, and wlien it becomes incarnate it is no nega- 
tive personality. Paul may be chosen as an an- 
swer to the question. 

As we become acquainted with Paul's life 
through his words, Ave find it full to overflowing 
with the spirit of freedom. He had freedom from 
false theologies, and from the condemnation of 
the law, and from the fear of death, and from 
anxieties with regard to the things of this life, and 
from caste prejudices, and from the tyranny of the 
world, and from the power of evil habits, and from 
low and carnal views of the Christian's privileges 
and of the Christian's Christ. Now this is not 
picture painting, this is not declamation ; this is 
simply the assertion of facts taken from the life of 
Paul. Here is the life of Paul, full, broad, manly, 
built up after magnificent ideals, replete with the 
peace of God, beautiful with the reproduction of 
Christly characteristics, and magnificent with no- 
ble sacrifices for the elevation of the human race. 
If this be liberty through Jesus Christ, who would 
not be one of Christ's freemen ? Who would not 
be Paul on earth and Paul in heaven ? 

The Jews thought that they were already free, 
but they were not. This is the mistake of many 
who are not Jews. This is the mistake which 
many in the Christian Church make. They are 
not nearly so free as they think they are. Are 
you free? Your Christian profession says, Yes. 
But what does your life say ? How do you per- 
form the duties of the Christian life? Answer 
that question and you will see in what degree you 



CHRIST AND THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD. I4I 

are free. To the free Christian everything is a 
privilege : church-going, Bible-reading, prayer, 
religious contributing, personal service. There is 
a great difference between doing things under 
compulsion and doing the same things because 
they are privileges. Privileges are duties trans- 
figured. There is very little virtue in things done 
after the former manner. Said a man to his friend, 
" Would you like to live in a community where 
no man drinks intoxicating liquors, and where all 
are sober?" The friend replied, ''Yes, I would 
be delighted to move into such a community." 
" And would you think more highly of the com- 
munity if I told you that every man in it was in- 
dustrious, rising regularly and retiring regularly?" 
'' I certainly would." '* And would the commu- 
nity grow in. your estimation if you were told that 
there was no vvork done in it on the Sabbath day 
and that every one attended church?" ''Yes. 
Such a community would be a place of perfect 
liberty. Find me such a community, and I will 
move into it to-morrow. But there is no such 
community on earth." Replied his friend, '' Since 
you Vv^ant to know of such a community, I will tell 
you where you will find one. You will find one 
at Sing Sing. Any well-regulated penitentiary is 
such a community." To many professed Chris- 
tians the gospel, wnth its pure and holy duties, is 
nothing more than a penitentiary. They wear a 
penitentiary look and do their duties under com- 
pulsion. To them the gospel life is nothing more 
than a penitentiary routine. I know several such 



142 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

Christians. They attend prayer-meeting tinder 
compulsion, when they do attend ; they labor in 
the Sabbath-school under compulsion, when they 
do labor ; they contribute to the Lord's cause un- 
der compulsion, when they do contribute. Let 
me speak plainly to all such : your great need in 
life is to get converted. Notwithstanding your 
religious respectability and your outward profes- 
sion, you are in absolute need of the true indwell- 
ing of the true Christ, the Christ of the great 
sacrifice of Calvary. When the true Christ dwells 
within you he will bring you into the liberty of 
the sons of God and will change religion from a 
drudgery into a delight. 

2. He paints himself as the eternal God. ** Before 
Abraham was ^ I amy 

This is a great step in advance. It is the high- 
est claim that Jesus makes. It is the highest claim 
because there is nothing beyond for Jesus to claim. 
There is nothing beyond the eternal God. 

The skilful manner in which Jesus opened 
the way for this amazing claim should not escape 
us. He did not make it suddenly ; he laid a foun- 
dation for it. He reached it step by step. The 
Jews tried to minimize him by contrasting him 
with Abraham. This led him to proclaim his 
superiority to Abraham. The claim of superior- 
ity to Abraham was the first wide step which he 
took, and it prepared the way for the second wide 
step, the claim of equality with God, identification 
with the Jehovah of the Old Testament. 

But how did Jesus claim superiority to Abra- 



CHRIST AND THE TRUE CIHLDREN OF GOD. I43 

ham ? Recall his words and you will see. These 
are his words : " Your father Abraham rejoiced to 
see my day, and he saw it and was glad." He 
asserts that He was so far in advance of Abraham 
in being and in work that by association with Him 
Abraham was elevated and filled with gladness. 
But how did Abraham see him and his day ? One 
answer is, Abraham was in heaven when the Son 
of God left the seat of glory and came to earth. 
He saw the return of the trooping bands of angels 
whose faces flashed out in the sky above the plains 
of Bethlehem and whose voices sang the anthem 
of incarnation, " Glory to God in the highest, 
peace on earth, good-v/ill towards men." All 
heaven was stirred from its centre to its outermost 
rim over the coming of Christ to earth and over 
the great work which brought him among men. 
Abraham was in the midst of this stir. If Moses 
and Elijah came all the way from heaven to earth 
to talk with Christ about his earthly mission and 
to bring him the sympathy of the redeemed, if all 
heaven knew about Christ's comino: sacrifice on 
Calvary, it is inconceivable that Abraham, a tow- 
ering chief of God, should be shut out from knowl- 
edge. 

This is one ansv/er. There is another answer. 
You find it upon the page of Old Testament his- 
tory. There we are taught that the Son of God 
did not always maintain invisibility prior to Beth- 
lehem. Under the former religious economy he 
fellowshipped with men. He walked with Adam 
in Eden and communed with him in the cool of 



144 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the day. Quite a company of the Old Testament 
heroes saw him wearing the form of a man and 
had dealings with him. On one occasion he was 
seen by seventy elders ; upon tv/o occasions he was 
seen by a man and his wife : Joshua sav/ him, Eze- 
kiel saw him, Gideon saw him, Daniel saw him, 
and Abraham saw him. There is quite a long 
chapter in the Old Testament concerning his visit 
to Abraham : how he found his tent ; what Abra- 
ham was doing ; hov/ he was received ; how a kid 
was dressed and cakes were baked ; how he ate 
and refreshed himself at Abraham's table ; even a 
report is given of the conversation which passed 
between them. Studying the Old Testament his- 
tory of Abraham, Paul says, ''The gospel was 
preached unto Abraham ;" and the promise given 
to Abraham, namely, '' In thy seed shall all the 
nations of the earth be blessed," vv^as nothing more 
nor less than the promise of Christ. 

From the declaration of superiority to Abra- 
ham, the Jewish ideal of superior human great- 
ness, Jesus passes to the declaration of his equality 
with God. I wish you to notice how emphatic he 
makes his declaration, and hoAv he throv/s all the 
moral earnestness of his entire being into it. I 
am particular as to this because there are reli- 
gious teachers who publicly assert that Jesus Christ 
is not divine and that he never claimed deity for 
himself. Standing before this Scripture I assert 
that Jesus Christ took his oath that he was God. 
An oath is wrapped up in the word verily. ^' Ver- 
ily, verily, I say unto j^ou, before Abraham was, 



CHRIST AND THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD. I45 

I AM !" I am not trying, just now, to prove the 
deity of Christ ; I am striving only to get Christ's 
idea of himself, to reach what Christ claimed to 
be. His claims, every one of them, I believe are 
established by infallible proofs. I believe in them 
all as firmly as I believe in my own existence. 
I am striving only to answer the question, What 
is the true Christ ? I am aiming at unmasking all 
false Christs. The Christ out of w^hom deity is 
left is a false Christ. He is nothing more than a 
Christ of human fiction. He is not the Christ of 
the Book nor the Christ of history. The Christ 
whose face looks out at us from this gospel page 
is a divine Christ. The Jesus who speaks to us in 
the text says that he is the I AM ! The term 
''I AM" in the text is the name of God. It is a 
name with a history. God took it, or rather an- 
nounced it, at the burning bush. When God ap- 
peared to Moses at the burning bush and com- 
missioned him to deliver Israel from the bondage 
of Egypt, Moses asked the Lord, ''What is thy 
name? For the people v/ill ask me. Who sent 
you? V/hat shall I say?" The Lord answered 
Moses, " ' I AM ' is my name. Tell them the ' I 
AM ' sent thee." When the commission of Moses 
was executed, and when Israel through it had be- 
come a mighty nation, the name ''I AM" was 
ever afterwards considered one of the grandest 
names of God. It stood chief among all the 
divine names. The covenant people saw in it 
everything that was great. It expressed to them 
God's personality. It set God forth as self-existent 

studies In John's Gospel. 7 



146 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

and uncreated, as unchangeable and eternal. To 
them it was an incommunicable name, and set 
forth incommunicable attributes. When Jesus 6f 
Nazareth used it and appropriated it to himself, 
and claimed all that it expressed, the Jews were 
horrified and looked upon him as a blasphemer. 
Instinctively they took up stones to stone him 
and thus execute upon him the sentence which 
their law required them to execute against every 
blasphemer. 

Brethren, the Jews were not mistaken. They 
did not misinterpret Christ. He did claim to be 
the eternal God, and he is the eternal God. . Try 
to express God in a human life, and you can give 
the world nothing higher than Jesus Christ. Try 
to express Jesus Christ fully and absolutely, and 
3^ou will give the world a perfect God. Study 
thoroughly the Christ as he moves and acts in 
gospel story, and you will find that he loves with 
an infinite love, and makes Godlike sacrifices and 
performs divine v/orks and speaks divine words 
and lives a divine life. What more can we ask 
than this? Having this, we liave in Christ "the 
brightness of the Father's glory and the express 
image of his person." 

CONCLUSION. 

Christianity s Christ is a distinct and a well-defined 
person. 

Everything about him is sharply cut and fear- 
lessly stated. He speaks for himself. He entraps 
no man into discipleship. He is not afraid of the 



CHRIST AND THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD. I47 

light nor of the witness stand. He asks no blind 
faith, but submits himself to scrutiny. He works 
himself out in the grand institutions of the ages, 
and complacently demands an equation for these. 
He makes men know exactly what they accept 
when they accept of him. The laws, the duties, 
the principles, and the sacrifices which pertain to 
his kingdom are all expressed in definite form. 
The Christ of Christianity is well defined. Is our 
faith in him as well defined ? Is our choice of him 
as definite ? Is our loyalty to him as sharply cut 
and as distinct ? Are the features of our Christian 
life as prominent as are the features of his char- 
acter? Our Christianity should be no vague 
thing, for the Christ of the Gospel is no vague 
person. The Christ of this picture is a grand 
Christ. His characteristics are so magnificent that 
they crown Christian faith with dignity. The 
man who accepts of the Christ here portrayed can- 
not fail to be a man all on fire with Christian en- 
thusiasm and a man thoroughly absolute in his 
devotion to the truth. He will be a Christian of 
the broadest and loftiest type. The man with a 
broad Christ is a broad man. The man with a 
true Christ is a true man. The Christ and the 
man always correspond. 



148 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN, OR THE 
TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE. 

" One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." 
John 9 : 25. 

This chapter is a complete history in itself. It 
is a great help in settling the claims of Christ. It 
introduces a method of testing Christ which is 
within the capacity of all, viz., the practical 
method. 

It puts this method in contrast with the 
method of testing Christ by philosophizing and 
theorizing and reaching conclusions by the mere 
intellectual process. The contrast shows the im- 
mense superiority of the practical method. By 
this method an unlettered beggar can reach truth 
which the educated schoolman may never reach. 
By this method he can attain the logic of facts, 
before which the logic of theory is utterly power- 
less. 

This chapter lays down and illustrates this 
principle for all time, viz., What Christ does 
proves what Christ is. If Christ does divine 
things, then Christ is divine. Christ can afford to 
be put upon his merits and judged. He can afford 
to say, as he does say, '' Let my works speak. Be- 
lieve me for my works' sake." The practical test 
displays great fearlessness, but then it has no 
cause for fear; it is in no danger of failure. It 
works well, for no man has ever used it honestly 



CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN. I49 

and failed to find the truth about Christ. He who 
tests Christ by experience will always reach that 
faith which makes Christ a reality and an indwell- 
ing, conscious, controlling influence. 

This is the fact which this chapter teaches. 
Here is a poor blind man who deals practically 
with Christ. He submits himself to Him and does 
what He tells him, and he rec-eives the power of 
sight. The work of Christ on him and within 
him shows him what Christ is, and begets within 
him a deep-seated, immovable conviction concern- 
ing His nature and His claims. 

THE FACTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE BLIND MAN. 

I. TJie conversation which Christ and his disciples 
held concerning the man. 

Jesus and his disciples found this man by the 
wayside begging. He was a penniless beggar. 
He lived on the cold charity of the world. More 
than that, he was blind. He had always been 
helpless, for he was born blind. To be blind is to 
lose half of creation. Blindness renders half the 
works of God meaningless blanks. The heavens 
are resplendent with shining worlds and twink- 
ling stars and golden clouds, but the blind do not 
know it. The towering mountains have a majesty 
and the blooming valleys are robed in beauty and 
the waterfalls are adorned with flashing rainbows, 
but the blind do not knov/ it. There is love-light 
in the eyes of friends and a talking soul in the 
human face, but the blind do not know it. There 
is a world of graceful forms and a world of bril- 



ISO STUDIES IN JOHNS GOSPEL. 

liant hues, but the bhnd do not knov/ it. Blind- 
ness shuts out from life the grand and beautiful, 
the bright and glorious. It makes the universe as 
black as pitch and as unattractive. The lot of the 
hero of this story was that of a blind man. He 
was blind in the dark ages of blindness. Blind as 
he was, he would have been better off if he had 
been living to-day. This is the golden age for blind 
men ; the influence of Christ in the world has made 
it such. Invention has broadened the universe for 
the sightless. They get light now through their 
finger-tips. Books with raised letters have opened 
new worlds to them. Industries v/hereby they 
can obtain an honest livelihood have been brought 
within their reach, and these have broken the mo- 
notony of a do-nothing life. They know now the 
blessedness and the privilege of vv^ork. Through 
the ability of doing something they are made 
conscious of their manhood and are ennobled. 
Living in the dark ages of blindness, the hero of 
this story knew nothing of the privileges of the 
blind men in this golden age of Christianity. 
Blindness to him meant idleness, worthlessness, 
degradation, tiresome, dull, wearing monotony. 
All he could do was to beg. 

When Christ reached the place where this 
blind man was, his disciples introduced a conversa- 
tion about the reason for his blindness. They 
asked the question, " Master, who did sin, this man 
or his parents, that he was born blind ?" Accord- 
ing to the belief of their day, they assumed that 
his blindness was a judgment upon some special 



CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN. 15I 

crime. They believed that it was the mark of a 
signal sin. It is the instinct of conscience to trace 
suffering to sin. The inhabitants of Melita imme- 
diately wrote Paul down as a great sinner, whom 
justice would not allow to escape, when they saw 
the venomous viper hanging on his wrist. They 
believed that God bade the serpent leap from the 
fire and fasten itself on Paul as the Nemesis of 
justice. But they were mistaken, just as these 
disciples were. It has been the tendency of hu- 
manity everywhere to dive with cruel surmises 
into the secrets of other men's lives, and to guess 
at hidden sins as the explanation of marked suffer- 
ing. Let the tower of Siloam fall upon a set of men, 
and they are immediately branded as great sin- 
ners. Job's friends attributed his sufferings to 
signal sins. If the only explanation of signal 
suffering were signal sin, we would have a most 
comfortless and miserable time in this world. 
Life would be full of crushing suspicions. Very 
few characters would stand. While certain sins 
do carry with them unmistakable judgments and 
are retributive, yet this is not the sole philosophy 
by which the sufferings of men are to be explained. 
Christ gives another explanation. He gives the 
explanation which God gave Job from the whirl- 
wind. He says all sufferings are not punitively 
connected with signal sins, so as to come from 
these as the direct result. Some sufferings are 
permitted for the purpose of being transfigured, 
some sufferings are disciplinary, some sufferings 
are means of grace, some sufferings are instru- 



152 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

ments for working out tlie more glorious purposes 
of God. They work out the peaceable fruits of 
righteousness in men, and they exhibit the sus- 
taining grace of God and illustrate the merciful 
character of God. Some sufferings are designed to 
set off and exalt God's glorious works. Jesus 
answered, " Neither has this man sinned nor his 
parents : but that the work of God should be made 
manifest in him." 

This answer of Christ gives us a great amount 
of comfort. It says, " God takes all the responsi- 
bility for the deformities which men bring with 
them into the world." This is precisely the same 
thing which God himself told Moses when Moses 
was urging his natural slowness of speech and his 
weakness as a reason why he should not undertake 
the great work of leading Israel to freedom. ''And 
the Lord said unto him. Who hath made man's 
mouth ? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or see- 
ing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord?" I leave 
deformities with God, because he claims them as 
his ordering. I am glad to be able to do this ; I 
am glad to believe that they do not come unfore- 
seen, that they are not contrary to God's plan, but 
are a part of his plan and will work out a divine 
purpose. This beggar may have thought that he 
was living a useless life, but he was not. God had 
a mission for him as really as he had for any of the 
twelve apostles, and his mission was a grand one. 
He was performing his mission when he sat by the 
roadside to be gazed at. This was God's way of 
establishing the identity of the man, so that when 



CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN. 1 53 

Christ gave him sight there might be no room for 
doubt that a notable miracle had been wrought in 
him. God meant the man to be one of the most 
telling witnesses to the Messiahship of Jesus. He 
meant him also to be an illustration for all time of 
the value of the practical method of testing the 
claims of Christ. 

2. The history records the miracle which Christ 
zurought in the man. 

He gave him the power of sight. This was 
what he needed. Christ always adapts himself to 
the needs of men. To the thirsty woman at Ja- 
cob's well he is the "Living Water;" to the 
mourning sisters at the grave of Lazarus he is 
'' the Resurrection and the Life ;" to this poor 
blind man he is '' the Light of the world." 

In giving the man sight Jesus made clay out 
of saliva and dust and anointed the man's eyes, 
and then sent him to wash in the Fountain of Si- 
loam. No chemicals were used ; no surgical opera- 
tion was resorted to. The means were inadequate 
to the end, and they were purposely inadequate in 
order to make it clear that there was a divine 
power at work. 

The work of Christ was complete. The man 
returned from the Fountain of Siloam seeing. He 
was a new man ; God was a nev/ God ; the world 
was a new world. His soul was filled with new 
sensations. It would have been a grand privilege 
to have been with that man on that glorious day 
of his life. I should have liked to see the effect 
vrhich the new wonders of the world produced 
7* 



154 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

Upon him. With what rapture he must have 
looked for the first time upon the charm of the 
human face ! How the first burst of cloudland, 
and the first sight of ocean with its white-crested 
waves and its ceaseless swell, and the first sweep of 
the broad landscape, with its mountains and mead- 
ows and valleys and gardens and sparkling streams, 
must have thrilled him. What did he think of the 
first nightfall, as he perceived the darkness gather- 
ing about him ? Did he cry out in terror, " Alas ! 
Alas ! My blindness is coming back again !" If 
so, his mistaken despair gave way to new and un- 
expected delights when he looked up to the starry 
dome and watched the outfiashing of the sparkling 
stars and saw the moon loom over the horizon in 
its quiet beauty. Sight ! The power of sight ! 
Oh, gracious and beneficent God, we thank thee 
for it. Such a marvellous gift should bind us to 
thee with the bonds of ceaseless love and thanks- 
giving. The thought of this wonderful gift should 
lead us to consecrate the glorious light to the ser- 
vice of purity and should keep our eyes from 
viewing vanities. He who sins in broad daylight 
sins in the midst of the splendor of God's over- 
flowing love. 

Let us not forget that the miracle is a parable 
of redemption. It is a type of our translation from 
the kingdom of darkness into the marvellous light 
of the gospel. If the miracle be such a symbol, we 
may rightly ask the question. Have we a spiritual 
joy corresponding to this man's natural joy? 
Have we a spiritual sight corresponding to his 



CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN. 1 55 

natural sight ? Has a new spiritual world burst in 
upon our vision ? If so, we see grand and beauti- 
ful things in this Bible which we never saw before, 
and which others do not see. If so, we shall be 
able to see the beauties which are in the Chris- 
tian's graces and the loveliness which is in the 
Christian's character. If so, we see Christ in his 
true light and in all his glorious attributes. If so, 
we see the grandeur of the truth and the claims 
which the truth has upon us. If so, heaven and 
immortality and eternity are great and influential 
facts in our life. 

3. The investigation and disc7ission which the inira- 
cle called forth. 

The investigation began with the neighbors of 
the man. To their amazement he came into their 
midst seeing. His eyes were as perfect as any 
man's. At first they could not believe it was he, 
he was so chansred. He had a new face. His face 
was transfigured, for a new soul was beaming in 
it. Besides this there was a pair of talking eyes in 
it, and these were never there before. Out of 
these eyes looked a new life, a manhood, a love, a 
joy, a faith, a purpose. Out of these eyes looked 
every grand spiritual thing with which God has 
endowed humanity. Now put all these things into 
the man's face, and is it any wonder that the man's 
neighbors do not know him ? Putting the power 
of sight into the man was like putting a light into 
an ice-palace or an electric jet into a crystal chan- 
delier. 

When the neighbors were convinced that a 



156 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

notable miracle had been wrought, they took the 
raan to the Sanhedrists. The authorities had de- 
nounced Christ, but this miracle conflicted with 
their denunciation and it must be examined. 

The first thing Y/hich the rabbins did was to 
try and prove that no miracle had been wrought, 
that the man had never been blind. They ques- 
tioned and cross-questioned the m.an, but to no 
purpose ; he had plain facts to tell, and he dealt in 
straightforward truth. Straightforward truth, 
like pure gold, only shines all the brighter by 
being put into the furnace. The questioning of 
others affords a fine opportunity for testimony- 
bearing. 

They found the man more of an opponent than 
they expected. Christ had wonderfully improved 
him. He displayed grand simplicity of speech 
and noble courage of bearing. He refused to be 
cajoled or brow-beaten or dragooned. He had 
been blessed by Christ and he stood up for Christ. 
Such was the depth of his convictions produced by 
facts that the logic of this school of Jewish Aris- 
totles could not move his convictions. In the 
battle of logic, although he was but a raw and un- 
drilled recruit, he won the victory and did not 
leave his opponents a single loophole by which to 
escape. He hemmed them in by their own ab^ 
surdities. They advanced theories, he advanced 
facts. They argued that Jesus could not be from 
God because he observed not their laws with re- 
gard to the Sabbath. He argued that to press the 
Sabbath question was to admit the miracle, and 



CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN. 1 5/ 

that to admit the miracle was to admit that God 
was in Jesus and working by him ; for no man 
since the v/orld began ever gave sight to one 
born blind. To hold that God would work thus 
in a Godlike way by a sinner was to compromise 
God. God will not contradict himself. The out- 
spokenness of the man is the chime of a great 
nature. 

4. The history records the fuller instruction and 
development of the man s faith by Christ. 

Christ did not lose track of the man when he 
blessed him with sight ; he had higher and better 
blessings for him. He gave him spiritual sight, 
so that he might relish the joys of salvation and 
the glories of heaven. He kept himself acquainted 
with the man's noble course, and when he was 
cast out of the synagogue, he sought him and re- 
vealed himself to him. The man recognized the 
voice of Christ and looked with joy into the face 
of his deliverer. He could not forget that voice. 
He submitted himself to the instruction which 
Christ gave him. Christ began the development 
of his faith by putting a question to him : '' Dost 
thou believe on the Son of God?" This question 
awakened inquiry in the man. He had heard of 
"men of God" and of *' prophets of God" and of 
the "Christ of God," but "the Son of God," that 
was a nev/ term to him ; so he asked, " Who is he, 
Lord, that I might believe on him ?" Then Christ 
told him that He who spoke to him was the Son of 
God. The man through his reasoning with the 
Pharisees was ready for this declaration, v/onder- 



158 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

ful as it was, and so he at once responded, '' Lord, 
I believe." So he at once bowed and worshipped 
Him. This was the highest homage that Christ 
had yet received from man. 

The growth of this man's faith was grand and 
magnificent. It was a parallel with the growth of 
the faith of the woman of Samaria. It was a par- 
allel with the growth of the faith of the apostle 
Thomas, which reached that point of enthusiasm 
that it cried, '' My Lord and my God !" It reached 
a climax as grand as the climax of Thomas* faith, 
and it reached it through testing Christ by the 
practical method. It began at the far-off point 
where it merely called Christ "a man." It 
advanced to the point where it was able to 
speak of him as "a prophet." It took another 
step and called him "the sinless one." Then it 
took the last step and called him " the Son of God." 
When it reached this point it worshipped him as 
God. There could scarcely be a grander growth 
in faith than this. Yet it is the growth of faith 
according to the practical method. The man 
simply did v/hat Christ told him to do, and found 
that Christ was all that He claimed to be. 

DEDUCTIONS. 

I. Chrisfs zvork in the Christian should bear in- 
spectic7t. 

As Christians we should be able to stand 
searching through and through by our neighbors. 
There should be a noticeable change in us attract- 
ing attention. When Christ wrought his work in 



CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN. 1 59 

the blind beggar, the man was changed. He 
ceased to be a beggar. His face was changed, it 
was literally transformed. He was a new man, 
and so new was he that men were compelled to 
come and ask him, "Who changed you?" His 
reply was, ''Jesus did." Christ revealed himself 
throusfh this man. As it was with him so it should 
be with us. Christ should find a revelation in and 
through us. Men should find in us a changed 
life, changed associations, changed sentiments. 
They should see in us the out-shining of Christ's 
power. Now is this the case? What do our 
neighbors and friends think of us ? If they search 
us will they find Christ in us ? 

2. Christ submits himself and his religion to be 
tested in the most practical and matter-of-fact way. 

He submits his religion to the test of experi- 
ence. When a mxan tries it by experience, it 
speaks for itself. Nothing could be simpler than 
this : " Submit your life to my religion, and see if 
it be not what I claim for it." Do the things of 
Christ. The blind man of- this story did what 
Christ told him, and he found an assurance of the 
truth of what Christ told him. In this way he 
reached faith in Christ. And what a faith his 
was ! There was nothing conditional about it, 
nothing half-hearted. It Vv^as positive and thor- 
ough. Such always is the character of faith 
reached through experience. It is a faith fully 
rounded and comprehensive. 

We need the practical method of testing Christ. 
We need it because there are some things in the 



l6o STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

religion of Christ which can only be known 
through experience. Take for example one of 
the sayings of Christ, his magnificent beatitude, 
*' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God." That beatitude is an unknown thing until 
by experience it is made a reality in our lives. 
We know the truth of that beatitude only when 
we reach purity of heart and see God. Brethren, 
the religion of Jesus Christ is a personal thing; 
it means personal pardon, personal peace, per- 
sonal indwelling of Christ. It must therefore be 
personally tested in order to be known. It mat- 
ters not how strong a man may be intellectually 
or how much he may know as a scholar or how 
many professions he may have mastered, he is no 
authority on the religion of Jesus Christ until he 
has honestly subjected his life to Christ and tested 
Christ's moulding power. He may be an author- 
ity upon science, but not an authority upon reli- 
gion. Until he does this it is presumption and a 
contradiction of reason and common sense that 
he should undertake to pronounce upon Christ and 
his religion. 

Christ cannot be seen in an unholy life any 
more than Westminster can be seen in a London 
fog. A low life always lov/ers one's creed. A 
loose practice begets loose thinking. Men drag 
Christ down to the level of their living. Great 
minds are skeptical because their lives are skep- 
tical. Conduct always affects faith. We rejoice 
in all the confirmation which comes to our faith 
in Christ from the line of historical evidence, but 



CHRIST AND THE BLIND MAN. l6l 

after all it is Christ working in us that builds us 
up in the broadest, firmest, and most sensible faith. 
It is the men who live the Christian life that know 
the things of Christ. It is Bunyan's Christian 
that knows what the land of Beulah is and what 
are the grlories of the Delectable Mountains. 

Christ and his religion do not shrink from 
close scrutiny. They court it. They beg to be 
tested. They plead with men to put them side by 
side with other leaders and systems. They chal- 
lenge the world to produce a higher type of char- 
acter than that which they produce. They ask for 
nobler principles than theirs. They ask for 
grander results. They ask for the production of 
their equals. Christ and Christianity give them- 
selves to the world to be contrasted. This is a 
fearless and an honest thing to do, and in itself 
ought to win respect. 

Let us deal faithfully with Christ and Chris- 
tianity. If we do, heaven with its higher things 
will some day burst in upon our vision. We will 
some day see the King in his beauty. Faithful- 
ness to the light which we now have will secure 
to us the unclouded and perfect light of eternit}^, 
and this we shall enjoy with un dimmed and per- 
fect eyes. The ceaseless ages will unfold their 
enrapturing beauties to us, and these will fully 
equal the brightest pictures painted by our en- 
kindled imagination. 



8liiliCB in .folmi" Ticspel. 



102 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 

"I AM THE Good Shepherd."— yb/m io:ii. 

\Ye must get rid of our American ideas of 
shepherding. This is the first requisite to the 
successful study of this allegory. Christ never 
likened himself to a Texan herdsman or to a 
Kansas ranchman. He likened himself to the 
Oriental shepherd, who loves his flock, and identi- 
fies himself with the interest of every sheep. 
When Jesus talked of the shepherd life, his words 
were sweetest music to his Judccan hearers. They 
struck tender chords and awoke tender memories. 
His hearers felt themselves translated in thought 
to some mountain-top of Palestine, to Carmel's 
summit or to one of the peaks of Lebanon, from 
which they could see the shepherds of the country, 
amid their clustering flocks, caring for them as a 
father would care for his children. Some lead 
their flock up the mountain defile, giving the help 
of their crook to the feeble among the climbing 
sheep and carrying a lamb or tv/o in their bosom. 
Some lead their flocks down to the brooklet for 
drink. Some cause their flocks to recline under 
the shadows of the jutting rocks for rest during 
the heat of the day. Some, in the far-away and 
wild ravines, stand between their flocks and death 
while they fight and slay the prowling wolves. 

The true shepherd life of Judaea in the time of 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 1 63 

Christ was connected with all that was grand and 
pure. It was connected with the sublimities of a 
solitude which was broken only by the tinkling 
bells of the flock and the sweet floating notes of 
the shepherd's pipe and by the solemn strains of 
the shepherd's harp. It was connected with the 
still starry night full of contemplation, or with the 
brilliant day of crystalline atmosphere which made 
all the beauties of nature stand forth in the boldest 
outline. Living in the midst of such surround- 
ings, a good shepherd was looked upon as one of 
the finest types of a man. He stood for the em- 
bodiment of sympathy and pity and tender-heart- 
edness and self-sacrifice and courage. The rela- 
tion between him and his sheep was such as to 
develop and manifest these and kindred traits. 
Certainly this is not an American picture. We 
must get rid of certain American ideas of shep- 
herding, with its nameless sheep and cracking 
whips and barking dogs and loveless driving and 
pushing. The only relation betv/een a rough 
ranchman and his sheep is a market relation. He 
thinks of them only as so much wool and so many 
pounds of mutton. He does not see them as they 
are before him. His eye is on them after they 
have passed through the slaughter-house. He 
sees them as they hang in the market stalls of 
New York and London and Berlin and Paris. 
There is no poetry connected with a V/estern 
ranch. The poet of the ranch is an unborn crea- 
ture of the future. A Texan herdsman or a Kan- 
sas ranchman is very unlike Jacob on the Syrian 



164 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

plains feeding Laban's flocks, or David on the 
plains of Bethlehem protecting the sheep of Jesse 
his father. 

This Scripture is not the first to introduce the 
shepherd character of Christ. This character is 
prominent among the prophetic pictures of the 
coming Messiah. Isaiah portrays it, and so does 
Zephaniah. It is a word-painting of Christ which 
the Hebrew poet gives us in his Shepherd Psalm. 
The poet had reached mature life ; he had passed 
through many trying experiences ; he saw before 
him a checkered future, and he felt that he must 
say something to his soul to establish it in peace 
and hope. How shall he express himself? The 
experience of his shepherd life in boyhood comes 
back to him and gives him a figure in which to 
speak of his God : " The Lord is my Shepherd, 
and I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down 
in green pastures ; he leadeth me beside the still 
waters. He restoreth my soul ; he leadeth me in 
the paths of righteousness for his own name's 
sake. 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 they comfort 
me." This picture of David's God Christ claims 
as a picture of himself when he says, " I am the 
Good Shepherd." It is not v/ithout significance 
that when Christ was born in Bethlehem, where 
that beautiful Psalm was inspired, his advent into 
the world was first announced to the shepherds 
who were watching over their flocks by night. It 
was the sheep-cotes and the sheep-pasture of Beth- 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 165 

lehem that were illumined by the shechinal fires 
which flamed in the sky and illumined the plains. 
It was to Bethlehem shepherds that the angel 
faces flashed out on the great dome with greater 
beauty than a Raphael fresco. It was upon the 
ears of Bethlehem shepherds that the natal anthem 
fell, " Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, 
good-will towards men." Jesus was the great and 
real Shepherd, of whom all good shepherds were 
but types, and when he came it was only fitting 
that he should first of all be exalted and revealed 
among the faithful shepherds, vigilant even in 
the night watches, upon the plains of Bethlehem, 
where David wove his Shepherd Psalm on the 
loom of his shepherd experience. 

What Christ does for his flock establishes his 
character as a good Shepherd. Therefore what 
he does is set forth by this Scripture. What does 
Christ do for the church, his flock ? This is the 
one question around which we are called to centre 
our thinking as we open up this parable. 

I. CHRIST AS A SHEPHERD INDIVIDUALIZES AND 
DEALS PERSONALLY WITH EVERY MEMBER OF 
HIS FLOCK. 

He tells us that he names them by name. Al- 
most every shepherd in the East names his sheep. 
To us a flock of sheep look monotonously alike and 
hopelessly indistinguishable. But this is not the 
case with an Oriental shepherd. He studies each 
sheep. He knows its pedigree, its instincts, its 
disposition, its habits. He treats it as an Arabian 



l66 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

horseman treats his blooded charger. He gives it 
its separate and distinct name. Sometimes he 
chooses a name which is characteristic of its indi- 
viduaUty and personality. He makes it his task 
to teach it and familiarize it with its name. He 
has time for all this during the long days which 
he and his flock spend alone. By this personal 
teaching he becomes thoroughly acquainted with 
each member of his fold, and each member of his 
fold becomes acquainted with him. 

Travellers tell us interesting stories concern- 
ing the friendships between shepherds and their 
sheep. These stories emphasize the words of 
Christ, " A stranger will they not follov/, but will 
flee from him." One traveller relates that once he 
found on a hillside in Greece three shepherds with 
flocks of six and seven hundred. Every sheep 
answered to its name. He experimented with the 
sheep. He called them by name, but they gave 
him no attention. When the shepherd called 
them they came at once. Then he claimed that 
the sheep knew the shepherd by his dress and 
not by his voice. The shepherd changed clothes 
with him. But the traveller in the shepherd's 
clothes was still treated as a stranger, and the 
shepherd in the stranger's clothes was recognized 
as the shepherd. 

Let us grasp the great fact which is set in 
prominence here, viz., God individualizes. He 
treats us as separate personalities. This is one of 
the hardest facts to realize. We say that we be- 
lieve it, but we act as though we did not. Still, no 



CHRIST THE GOOD SPIEPHERD. 167 

fact can be more clearly established. The micro- 
scope establishes it. It shows that when God deals 
with the world he deals with the atoms of the 
world. Under the microscope this vast world of 
ours is only a system built up of finished and pol- 
ished atoms. Each crystal in the snowfiake is 
perfect. Each dewdrop is a perfect sphere. God 
individualizes every gem and constructs it sepa- 
rately. He individualizes the flowers and gives 
them a separate finish. They are all hand-painted. 
There is nothing of the machine-chromo about 
them. To one he gives fire-hues, and to another 
he gives gentle tints. If God individualizes atoms, 
crystals in the snowflakes, brilliant stones, flowers, 
these lower things, he certainly must individualize 
immortal men, the highest beings in his creation. 

We can know the fact from human experience. 
I know that infidels do not admit this ; but what 
do we care for infidels ? We are not seeking either 
infidel thought or the infidel type of life. Infidels 
say, " Even suppose this world of ours were lost, it 
is too small for God to be occupied about. It is a 
mere fragment of a world among millions of mil- 
lions. It is contrary to common sense and the dic- 
tates of humanity to represent God as busy about 
so insignificant a sphere." Byron has sung this 
objection, and Hume has reasoned it out. But 
Christ, eighteen hundred year* before these names 
were known, pointed out the perfect humanity of 
such a course upon the part of God. ''Which of 
you having a hundred sheep, if he lose but one, 
would not leave the ninety-and-nine and go forth 



l68 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

and search for the lost one until he found it ? And 
when he found it what joy he would have ! He 
would call in his neighbors and make a feast." 
The point of the parable of the Lost Sheep is to 
show that as man individualizes his possessions, so 
does God. In the deepest and truest instincts of 
our nature v/e find a reflection of the ways of 
God. 

Open the Bible and the same fact is there. The 
Bible is full of human names. God is represented 
there as being in personal and covenant relation 
with his chosen ones. He calls them by their 
name. Samuel heard his name pronounced by the 
lips of God, so did Elijah. God changed Jacob's 
name. God coupled the names of Abraham and 
Moses with his own holy name in the songs of the 
church. This was God's address to his covenant 
people in the days of old : " Fear not, for I have 
redeemed thee : I have called thee by thy name." 
Thus we find it in the Old Testament. It is the 
same in the New Testament, when God walks 
among men in Jesus Christ. Christ tells his disci- 
ples that they are his chosen friends. He calls 
them familiarly by name, and they feel the love 
indicated by this manner. What a response of 
love and faith and joy there was from that lone 
weeping woman at the sepulchre v/hen Jesus spoke 
her simple name, " Mary /" 

Christ by a wonderful analogy, which only he 
dare use, sets forth the reciprocal acquaintance and 
intimacy between him and his people : " I am the 
Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 1 69 

known of mine ; as the Father knoweth me, and as 
I know the Father." 

This great fact carries certain duties. 

(a.) Does CJirist recognize our individuality^ we 
should recognize and develop it. 

We live in units, and not in crowds. God has 
made us distinct, and we should recognize this as 
he does, and culture that which constitutes the 
Ego, the self, in us. I believe that we should indi- 
vidualize even our faculties and train them. We 
should deal separately with will and conscience 
and affection and reason. God wants us to make 
the most of ourselves and to be ourselves. He 
does not want us to be like cast-iron men coming 
from one mould, or like photographs struck off 
from the same negative. We can best serve God 
by working in accordance with our ov/n nature. 
This has been the way in which all who have 
reached prominence in the church have worked. 
The work of the church has been carried on by 
Paul with his logic and great brain ; by John with 
his love-force and great heart ; by Peter with his 
courageous enterprise and dash ; by ApoUos with 
his eloquence which could stir up the graces v/hich 
Paul had* planted ; by Thomas with his slow-work- 
ing mind, which took nothing for granted, but 
demanded facts. Thus it was in Bible times. It 
is the same in our times. The work of the church 
has been carried on by Guthrie with his power of 
illustration ; by Duff v/ ith his missionary zeal ; by 
Hamilton with his poetry ; by Chalmers w^th his 
metaphysical nature ; by Drummond and MacMil- 
8 



I/O STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

Ian with their love of nature and the operations of 
God there ; by Spurgeon with his level-headedness 
and common-sense. 

(b.) We should reciprocate y and individualize Christ, 
He individualizes us, we should individualize 
him. We should set him forth as distinct from 
and above all who would teach us and claim a fol- 
lowing from us. We should individualize him 
among the thinkers of the world and give him the 
first place. It is our duty to so know Christ that 
we can tell his voice. What is his voice ? It is 
the gospel. We should so know him and his 
voice that when a maxim or a command or a 
principle or a project is set before us for accept- 
ance, we shall be able to say. This is not of Christ ; 
it has none of his spirit or tone in it ; it is of the 
world, it is of self ; or. Yes, this is of Christ, and 
we accept of it. 

II. CHRIST AS A SHEPHERD LEADS AND FEEDS PUS 
FLOCK. 

These are the functions of an Oriental shep- 
herd. He leads his flock, and his flock follows. 
The flocks of the neighborhood are housed for the 
night in one fold and under a commori. keeper. 
In the morning the shepherd comes and calls his 
own out from the general company. He does this 
by naming the name of each. As he calls, the 
sheep respond, and in a flock follow him to the 
chosen pasture of the day. But he not only leads, 
he feeds his flock. He maps out the country and 
makes the best choice. When pasture is scarce, 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 17I 

" for the sake of a single handful of grass he will 
climb precipices almost perpendicular and stand 
on ledges of rocks where wild goats will scarcely 
venture." When the noontide of the day is 
reached, when the sunbeams pierce like swords 
and the stones burn the foot which touches them, 
he gathers the sheep under the shade of the rocks 
by the well of water where he slakes their thirst. 

Christ performs these two functions of the 
shepherd ; he leads and he feeds. Stress must be 
laid upon the phrase ''He leads'' It emphasizes 
his tenderness. He does not drive, he leads. It 
brings out the possibility of walking as a Christian. 
The Christian's way is open. He is only called to 
walk in the footsteps of Christ. Christ is a com- 
plete example. He began his human life in a 
cradle that we might have his footsteps to guide 
us from the cradle to the grave. There are foot- 
prints for little feet and there are foot-prints for 
full-grown feet. The requirements of the Chris- 
tian life are all practicable, for Jesus put them all 
into life. He asks us to do nothing he has not 
done. Stress must be laid upon the phrase " He 
leads,'' because it brings out the spirit of the true 
Christian life. Between Christ and the Christian 
there is a meeting of affinities ; there is a oneness 
of Y^^ills. The whole relation of discipleship is that 
of liberty. It is true that self-surrender is the door 
into God's fold, but the required self-surrender is 
voluntary. The Christian surrenders himself to 
Christ as Christ surrenders himself to the Chris- 
tian. Christ and self-surrender are sjmonymous 



1/2 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

terms, therefore it is that Christ is called the door 
to God's fold. Self -surrender is Christ in a practi- 
cal form. The true Christian has his heart as well 
as his conscience in his Christian life. He is led, 
not driven. He follows, he is not forced. He acts 
from privilege, not from duty ; from choice, not 
from compulsion. 

The accuracy of Christ's leading should not be over- 
looked. 

This is beautifully set forth by a poetic word- 
painting by the prophet Isaiah. That we may feel 
the accuracy of the leading of God in the human 
life, the prophet calls us to look at the accuracy of 
God's leading in the starry realm. He is in the 
midst of the heavenly flock of worlds. He is the 
Shepherd of the stars, and they lie under his sight 
in the wide fields of space like a flock. The tele- 
scope reveals the accuracy of his leading as the 
Shepherd of the stars. The astronomer's calcula- 
tions also show it. A friend of mine relates a visit 
which he made to Harvard College which may 
serve as an illustration here. The object of his 
visit was to see the operation of a new astronomi- 
cal instrument. A star was due at 5 : 20 P. M., ac- 
cording to the astronomer's calculations. The in- 
strument v\^as directed to the star. When the star 
crossed the spider-web line of the instrument, it 
was agreed that the professor, who looked through 
the instrument, should pronounce the word 
*' Here," and that his assistant, who watched the 
second-hand of the clock, should let his hammer 
fall upon the marble table the instant the clock 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 1 73 

registered 5 : 20. Suddenly two sounds broke the 
impressive silence : the voice of the professor and 
the tap of the hammer were positively simultane- 
ous. God's guidance of the stars, according to the 
most advanced science, is perfectly accurate. Stars 
or souls, it matters not which he guides, his own 
perfect nature requires that his guidance shall be 
perfect. Of his own people the Bible says, *' He 
guides them on every side." " The steps of a good 
man are ordered of the Lord." Not merely his gen- 
eral course of life, but his steps, his life in detail. 

But our Shepherd feeds as well as guides. In 
this also he excels. Comparative theology shows 
this. All Christ needs is to be put in comparison 
with shepherd Confucius and shepherd Buddha 
and shepherd Mohammed and the lesser leaders 
of modem times. Buddha, for example, according 
to Edwin Arnold's " Light of Asia," gives us beau- 
tiful thoughts. Yes, but these are not food. They 
are golden fruit upon a painted canvas, they are 
not fruit on living trees. You cannot feed on 
painted fruit any more than you can warm your- 
self by a painted fire. Jesus feeds our souls with 
living thoughts and real facts and holy principles 
and heavenly views, and not upon mere beautiful 
fancies. He gives us the same great spiritualities 
which feed and satisfy God's own nature. 

Look at the men whom Christ makes. The 
flock shows its feeding. Behold John and Peter 
and Paul and Augustine and Calvin and Knox. 
Christ broadens and fills up our life in every con-, 
ceivable and possible way, physically, socially, in- 



1/4 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

tellectually, and spiritually. Christ blesses us on 
every side of our nature. That is what he means 
when he tells us in this shepherd chapter, '' I am 
come that ye may have life, and that ye may have 
it more abundantly." It always goes well with 
men when God is allowed to work out his ideas 
with regard to them. How well it went with Israel 
when they yielded themselves up to God ! Their 
history was characterized by great men, great 
deeds, great victories, great institutions, and great 
progress. He gave them the finest of the wheat. 
The patriot of Israel saw this ; hence his prayer 
for his nation, which recognized the nation's de- 
pendence upon God : " Feed with thy staff, O God, 
the flock of thine inheritance, that wander, scat- 
tered and alone, in the wood : feed them once 
more on the slopes of Carmel : let them feed, O 
my God, in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of 
old." Micah 7 : 14. 

III. CHRIST AS A SHEPHERD PROTECTS AND FOLDS 
HIS FLOCK. 

No part of the shepherd's task was more im- 
portant in the ancient Orient than this. The 
flocks were in constant danger. They were ex- 
posed to robbers, wolves, mountain torrents, en- 
tangling thickets, deceptive precipices, and pitiless 
storms. What ravages would have been made in 
Jesse's flock if the shepherd lad David had not 
bearded the lion and slain the bear ! The Orien- 
tals tell many stories of bravery to their children, 
the coming shepherds of the future, that they may 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 1 75 

make them brave and true. They tell of one 
brave boy who stood his ground against a whole 
band of robbers and slew every one of them. He 
himself, however, fell exhausted from his wounds. 
They found him dead in the midst of his flock, 
literally cut in pieces. The romance of the story 
comes in at the close. The sheep mourned for 
him as if they were human. They refused to be 
folded anywhere except at the spot where he fell. 
There a fold was built at the dictation of the saved 
flock, and there it stood for centuries as the monu- 
ment to the brave shepherd-boy. That story may 
be fancy, or it may be fact colored beyond recogni- 
tion ; but the story of Christ's sacrifice for us is no 
fancy. He died on Calvary, and it is not possible 
for language to over-color what he suffered for us, 
or to over-state the benefits which accrue to us 
from his sacrificial death. 

His atonement is our protection from the law 
which would smite us with a death-blow. Let me 
illustrate by a familiar story, first told by an Eng- 
lish clergyman. An Englishman came to Amer- 
ica and became a naturalized citizen. He after- 
ward removed to Spain. For some cause he was 
apprehended by the Spanish courts and con- 
demned to death. The English and American 
consuls interceded for him, but in vain. The day 
of execution came and he was blindfolded and set 
up to be shot. A line of soldiery levelled their 
m.uskets at him, but as they did so, the American 
consul, with the stars and stripes in his hand, 
leaped out before the guns and ran to him and 



1/6 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

wrapped him in the American flag. He then 
turned and defied the rifles of Spain. Folded in 
this flag he was safe. That flag -put the American 
nation between him and death. There is a better 
flag than the American flag. It is the blood-red 
flag of the atonement. This is the flag which 
Christ wraps around us, and at it the muskets 
of God's law dare not fire a single shot. All 
this Christ tells us in this shepherd - chapter 
when he says that he lays down his life for his 
sheep. 

Part of the protection of any flock is its proper 
folding. Christ as the Shepherd of souls folds his 
followers in the church. Ninety-nine times out of 
a hundred men are safer in the church than they 
are out of it. Our security is in Christian fellow- 
ship versus isolation. The mutual duties which 
the Bible enjoins upon us require church fellow- 
ship for performance. We need the ordinances 
of the church and the duties of the church and 
the responsibilities which the church lays upon us 
and even the discipline of the church. These are 
our protections against the world and its evils. 

There is an eternal folding of Christians by the 
Lord. The celestial city, with its jasper walls and 
pearly gates and many mansions, is converted into 
an eternal fold. In that city Jesus will feed his 
flock gathered from the nations and will lead 
them unto living fountains of water. 

The shepherd-character of Christ ought to give 
us confidence in him in the trying scenes of life. 
These are explainable. They are parts of his wise 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 177 

leading. The coffin is sent into the home for 
the loved child. Are the Shepherd's love and will 
in that? Yes. He takes the lambs in his arms 
and carries them to the heavenly fold, that the 
parent's heart may follow and live in heaven. The 
trials of life are preventive of evil. In Scotland, 
w^hen the snowstorm sweeps the hill, the shep- 
herd leads his flock out into the cutting winds 
and up to the storm-side of the hill. Why does 
he expose them thus ? Does he mean that they 
shall perish ? No. He adopts this plan to keep 
them from perishing. If he allowed them to re- 
main in the shelter of the valley they would be 
buried in the drift. Whenever Christ takes us to 
the storm-side of the hill he means to rescue us 
from burial in the drift of evil. 



etndieE In Jolin'g Ootpel. 



8* 



1/8 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF 
LAZARUS. 

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life." 
—John 1 1 : 25. 

The Christian world has never grown weary 
in praising this chapter of John's Gospel. It has 
been said that for thrilling interest and significant 
import it stands without a rival in evangelical his- 
tory. This is true. It is a chapter that quivers 
with life and interest and pathos. It has been 
said that every sentence in the chapter has the 
touch of nature. This also is true. Art has no 
part in this narrative. Not a touch of her pencil 
can be traced. Her skilful hand could add noth- 
ing to that which in itself is inimitably sublime. 
The story is its own witness. It proves its own 
historic certitude. Truth and authenticity shine 
out in it from beginning to end. The story is not 
made, it is simply told. It is not fiction, it is fact. 
The mind of man could not weave a story like 
this, it was woven by events. It is too natural 
and too consistent with itself to be a fabrication. 
Mary is too much like Mary as we have seen her 
elsewhere, and Martha is too much like Martha. 
Then besides this, the character of Christ in the 
narrative is only such as God himself could con- 
ceive. It stands in majestic solitude in the litera- 
ture of the world. In all the conceptions of all 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. 1 79 

the nations in all the ages, which relate to man's 
idea of God, there is nothing like this, this picture 
of God in Christ. In the narrative we see our 
God crushing for man the terror of his existence, 
grim Death ; and in it we see our God giving man 
the greatest conceivable blessings, victory over 
the grave and eternal life beyond the grave, to be 
filled up with eternal progress and with eternal 
communion with God. 

The far-famed Spinoza, the great pantheistic 
philosopher, said to his friends, *' If I could accept 
of the resurrection of Lazarus, I would dash to 
pieces my entire system and embrace without re- 
luctance the faith of the Christians." We do not 
wonder at such an estimation of this miracle by a 
thinker of Spinoza's power. But Spinoza, who 
brought his great mind to the study of the mira- 
cle, gave us no good reason for the rejection of it, 
and so we conclude that there is no good reason 
for its rejection. If there had been a valid objec- 
tion within the reach of man, an objection which 
could stand the searching of honest criticism, Spi- 
noza would have reached it, and would have made 
the Christian world confront it. But he did not. 
Therefore we hold to the fact, so full of revelation 
and revolution, so full of destruction to skepticism 
and edification to faith, that Jesus Christ has a 
pOAver which can empty the sepulchre and thrill 
the dead. 

The miracle is the climax of Christ's ministry. 
It is the climax of the long series of miracles 
which John records to establish the truth that 



l8o STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

Jesus is the Christ. It is the climax of the resur- 
rections wrought by Christ. It is greater than 
the resurrection of Jairus' daughter or the res- 
urrection of the widow's son at the gate of Nain. 
Death had a longer grip on Lazarus. Death had 
frozen his frame into icy coldness and given it a 
marble stiffness. Lazarus was deeper in the 
depths of mortality. Corruption and the worm 
had begun their ravages. Besides this there was 
a higher manifestation of power upon the part of 
Christ in working this miracle. He took the 
daughter of Jairus by the hand, he touched the 
bier whereon the dead son of the widow lay ; in 
the resurrection of Lazarus he simply spake the 
word of life. He manifested that all that is requi- 
site for raising the dead is his mere volition. Vo- 
litions dart from him as sunbeams dart from the 
sun, and they carry in them life and divine 
power. 

The miracle gives us the climax of the revela- 
tions of Jesus Christ. All of the miracles and ad- 
dresses recorded in this Gospel are intended to 
set forth some characteristic or function of Christ. 
This miracle gives us the grandest exhibit of all. 
It gives us the fullest evidence of Christ's divinity, 
and at the same time the fullest evidence of 
Christ's humanity. He raises the dead — that is 
divinity ; he weeps — that is intense humanity. It 
sets forth the grandest work which he does for 
man: he delivers him from the power of death 
and inducts him into a glorious immortality. A 
glorious immortality ! Nothing is beyond this in 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. l8l 

the experience of man. It is impossible even to 
conceive anything higher. 

As this miracle gives us the highest, the cli- 
macteric revelation of Jesus Christ, we may con- 
clude that Christ is near the great end of his 
tragic career. He is. Why should he remain 
longer on earth when he has made his complete 
revelation ? Because his work of revelation was 
about finished, God allowed the raising of Lazarus 
to call out the utmost wrath of his foes. This 
wonderful deed made them feel that a crisis had 
been reached. Either they must overturn Christ 
or Christ v/ill overturn them. They at once de- 
termined that he should die, and from that mo- 
ment they gave themselves no rest until they saw 
him nailed as a malefactor to the cross upon Cal- 
vary. There are only three months from this 
point in the history of Jesus unto the cry, '* It is 
finished!" 

But we must not lose sight of the central point 
of this whole history. The conversation of Christ 
sets it forth. It is the great fact to which we 
have already referred, and which Christ empha- 
sizes for the comfort of these mourners, and for 
bereaved Christians unto the end of time. It is 
this: To all who believe in Christ he is the 
resurrection and the life. If faith had been able 
to grasp this fact without this miracle, this mira- 
cle would never have been wrought. Christ raised 
the dead Lazarus, and turned back the corruption 
which had begun its work on his entombed body, 
in order to make this fact palpable and place it 



1 82 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

within the vision of man. Everything else re- 
corded here is secondary to the exhibition of this 
glorious fact. Everything else is only intended 
to be as drapery adorning it and giving it vivid- 
ness. 

THE HISTORICAL FACTS IN THE SCRIPTURE. 

I. There was a Christ-loved aiid a Christ-loving 
family sorely bereaved. 

The story of this family is put upon record to 
beget like families. It shows us the possibilities 
of our homes. They may become the abiding- 
places of Jesus, and in this way they may become 
distinguished. Jesus made this home of Bethany 
his abiding-place, and this distinguished it and 
gave it mention in his immortal history. Of what 
other home in Bethany do we know anything? 
Christ distinguishes all who are connected with 
him, and gives every home a reputation which 
opens its door to him. We should consider that 
every home has its character. It is the abode of 
something. If it will not admit religion and en- 
tertain it, then fashion and irreligion and pleasure 
and carnality will make their abode in it, and will 
mould and determine its reputation and destiny. 
We do not realize as we ought the personality of 
our families and the duties we owe that personal- 
ity. There are family duties, and these are as bind- 
ing as personal duties. There are the family name 
and the family altar and the family pew, and all 
these must be treated in such a way as to honor 
Christ and recommend his religion. Each mem- 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. 1 83 

ber of the family should be individually faithful 
to these. 

But it is asked, ''What is the gain of religion? 
Religion will not protect the home from sickness 
and death. Here is a family loving Christ and 
loved by Christ, and yet it is smitten with sick- 
ness and visited by death." Yes, that is true. The 
stay of the house is stricken down. Disease runs 
its course. Jesus is sent for, but the messenger 
scarcely reaches him before Lazarus dies. The 
death-hush reigns in the home. There is a fu- 
neral and there is a burial. All this happens to 
every home, whether it be religious or irreligious. 
All this is admitted, and still we claim that re- 
ligion is a blessed thing for the family. 

It gives privileges and comforts in the scenes 
of death of which an irreligious family know 
nothing. It gives peaceful resignation and trust 
where otherwise there would be heart-rebellion 
and despair. It enables the family to feel that 
they are in the hand of infinite love, and not in 
the crushing iron grip of unfeeling fate. It gives 
them access to the supporting sympathy of God, 
who is over all. A funeral without the sympathy 
of God is the blackest of all black things and the 
horror of all horrors. You can see the privilege 
of religion in the home in the hour of sorrow as 
you read this page. It is this : These sisters can 
put their case before Christ. They can send him 
a message, " Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick." 
They can make Christ a companion of their trial, 
and leave the case in his strong hands and with 



1 84 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

his unerring wisdom. This is the privilege of a 
Christ-loved and a Christ-loving family. When 
one of its members is stricken down in sickness, 
the other members can kneel in prayer and say, 
*' Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick," and leave 
the case with the love of God. There is a world 
of comfort in being able to speak of our friends as 
God's loved ones, and in being able to appeal to 
his love on their behalf. 

2. The purpose of this trial is explained. 

Such a trial demands explanation. We must 
know the philosophy of it. This Christ recognizes. 
Hence he gives the philosophy of it. He says the 
trial is intended for the glory of God. When the 
messenger from Bethany reached him and told 
him of the sickness of Lazarus, he said, '' This 
sickness will not bring Lazarus into the unbroken 
grasp of death ; it is intended to advance the glory 
of God and to glorify me by establishing my di- 
vine Sonship." It gave Christ an opportunity of 
making a public appeal to the Father to bear him 
testimony, and it gave him an opportunity of ex- 
ercising his divine power in raising Lazarus from 
the tomb. It is a great comfort to the child of 
God, when under the hard discipline of trial, to 
know that it has for its object the glory of God. 
Can infidelity give us a philosophy as comforting ? 
Can it teach us how to read the providences? 
Does it declare that the interplay of influence and 
of events has as an outcome the glory of God? 
Yet such is the fact. Since as the people of God 
we seek above all things the glory of God, it satis- 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. l8§ 

fies US to know that the ultimatum of all happen- 
ings is God's glory. Why is this? Because we 
are assured that the glory of God is connected with 
the good of his people. Whatever exalts him 
exalts us. We are glorified with God. For exam- 
ple, God is glorified through the upbuilding of the 
church and through its purification : but what 
does the upbuilding and purification of .the church 
mean to the church ? It means that it shall be 
before God perfect in beauty, without spot or 
wrinkle or any such thing. 

It may be impossible for us to see how our buf- 
fetings and pains and griefs and resolutions and 
persecutions may be made to exhibit the glory of 
God ; A\^ may not be able to understand the pro- 
cess, but the process goes on and we see the result. 
This is enough. The world has been full of just 
such things, and yet the glory of God has been 
maintained and has been uppermost in human 
history. It was so in the. perplexing experience of 
this home of Bethany. Our understanding of a 
process is not necessary to its operation or to the 
production of glorious results. It is a strange 
thing to see a beautiful flower rise out of the mire- 
heap. We do not understand why it should and 
how it can : but it does. It seems impossible that 
the white water-lily should draw its purity and 
beauty from the rubbish in the bottom of the lake ; 
but notwithstanding the apparent impossibility, 
water-lilies float on the surface of thousands of 
lakes like little fleets of ivory and pearl. The fact 
that God's glory is the controlling purpOvSe of 



i86 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

every adverse providence ought to bring patience, 
hope, and courage into our hves. 

3. The needed comfort hi bereaveme7it is given, 
Jesus comes to the bereaved home. He does 
not come at once ; he delays two days, until he 
finishes his work in Peraea. By this he shows that 
the calls of friendship should be held subordinate 
to public duty. Does this delay look as though his 
love for the home at Bethany had met with a 
chill? To prevent such a surmise, and to teach 
that delay upon the part of God does not indicate 
a lack of love, the pen which records the delay of 
Jesus immediately adds, '' Now Jesus loved Mar- 
tha and her sister and Lazarus." Delay has its 
mission. It disciplines the love of this home. It 
puts it to a test which develops it. It gives time 
for the death of Lazarus to become widely known. 
It gives death greater power over the entombed 
man, and thus makes the miracle of raising him 
the more wonderful and the more declarative of 
Christ's divine power. The product of this delay 
makes it clear that in God's dealings with his ovv^n 
people there are no cold, heartless arrangements. 
All his arrangements are love arrangements. 

When Jesus reached Bethany he v/as met in a 
way which brought out the individuality of the 
members of the home. Martha, the practical wo- 
man, the executive head of the family, the older 
sister in whom was vested the authority, was the 
first to hear of his coming and the first to meet 
him. The messenger who brought the word of 
course went to her. Mary, like her true self, was 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. 1 8/ 

alone. She had given herself up to contemplation. 
She had to be sought and told that the Master had 
come and had called for her. 

But we are especially interested in the words of 
comfort which Christ addressed to these mourners. 
They are words for all time, and are instructive as 
to how we should deal with mourners. He does 
not say much, but what he does say is sufficient. 
Do we realize just how little he did say ? These 
were his words : " Thy brother shall rise again ; I 
am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : and 
whosoever believeth in me shall never die. Be- 
lievest thou this?" That was all that Jesus said. 
Now that we have the words of Jesus we ask the 
question, What did he do to comfort these mourn- 
ers ? He set before them the privilege of being in 
true and living relation with him. He set before 
them the way in which a Christian united to him 
by faith should think of death. .The true view of 
death is victory over death. This chapter is pre- 
cious for this very thing : it teaches Christians how 
to think of death. It calls death " night ;" now 
we associate night with the sunburst of the morn- 
ing. It calls death '' sleep ;" we associate sleep 
with an awakening to fresh life and strength. 
Christ has conquered death for us, so that death is 
ours now. It is put among the Christian's posses- 
sions. It is written, *'A11 things are yours," and 
death is enumerated among the all things. Ac- 
cording to the twenty-third Psalm, we do not meet 
death itself; we only meet with the shadow of 



l88 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

death. Death is changed into a sleep, and only a 
part of us sleeps, the body. The eternal life, which 
is the true life, which we receive by faith in Christ 
and which is within us, never changes. The cove- 
nant between us and Christ never breaks. Death 
hath no power over it. When are these things a 
reality to the believer ? Martha said, "Away on in 
the last day." Jesus said, " Now. Death is noth- 
ing to cause despair upon the part of those who 
are mine and who have the blessings which I give 
them. Their soul continues in living communion 
with me and their body sleeps in my hand ; I can 
awaken it at any moment." To make his declara- 
tion plain to faith, and to prove its truth, he awa- 
kened Lazarus. 

The after-writers of the Word take their key- 
note from these words of Christ. Not a gloomy 
thing is said about the death of a Christian, nor is 
one gloomy thought encouraged. I want to em- 
phasize this. On the contrary, the brightest and 
most glorious things are spoken in relation to it. It 
is said to be a " going to Christ," which is better 
than anything here on earth. It is called " sleep in 
Jesus." It is called '^ blessedness :" " Blessed are the 
dead which die in the Lord." It is put among the 
Christian's possessions. It is coupled with a song 
which celebrates the believer's present victory: 
*' O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is 
thy victory ? Thanks be unto God who giveth us 
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The 
Christian Church needs a great growth in faith 
upon this subject. It needs enlightenment con- 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. 1 89 

ceming death as an event in the experience of the 
friends of Christ. 

4. The establisJnnent of the Christian s ground of 
comfort by a ivondrous miracle. 

Jesus said, '' I am the resurrection and the life," 
and he proved it by giving resurrection and life to 
Lazarus. For the cultivation of the faith of his 
people, he embodied his saying in an actual event. 
He proved that Lazarus, whom he called his friend, 
still lived by bringing back his soul from the 
world in which it was living and by awakening 
his body out of sleep. 

I am not going to try and picture the scene of 
this resurrection. We require no further picture 
than that given us here, which sets two things into 
prominence, viz., The weeping of Jesus, and his 
life-giving call which he sent into the tomb. 

It may be asked. Why did Jesus weep ? Did he 
weep because of the death of Lazarus, his friend ? 
It is not asserted in this chapter that he did. With 
his exposition of the death of his friend before us, 
there is no ground for such a supposition. It is 
said distinctly here that he wept because of what 
he saw. " When therefore Jesus saw her weeping, 
and the Jcavs also weeping which came with her, 
he groaned in the spirit and was troubled, and 
said. Where have ye laid him ? They said unto 
him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept." What he 
saw caused his weeping. He saw mourners broken 
down with weeping and with paroxysms of weep- 
ing, and his sympathies were moved and he wept 
through sympathy. But is this the whole explana- 



IQO STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

tion of his tears ? I think not. It does not cover 
the words, " He groaned in spirit and was trou- 
bled.'* These words are translated by the highest 
authorities, '' He was moved with indignation in 
the spirit." Loyalty to the Greek will admit of no 
other translation. He saw something more than 
sorrow ; he saw that the pungency of the sorrow 
of these mourners came from defective views of 
death as related to his followers. It came from 
this unbelief with respect to him. Even Martha, 
to v/hom he had just expounded the true view of 
the death of those who believe in him, did not ac- 
cept and rest in him as he had announced himself, 
viz., as " the resurrection and the life." She tried 
to keep the grave from being opened when he 
sought to prove the truth of what he said. If 
there was one place on this earth where Jesus 
ought to have been fully understood and apprecia- 
ted, it was in the home of Bethany. When he saw 
these bitter tears, he saw in them the evidence 
that he was misunderstood even in the home 
where he was best understood. When he saw this, 
he wept through pity and disappointment as well 
as through sympathy. In this weeping there were 
some of the elements which were in his tears over 
Jerusalem. Unbelief had something to do with 
these tears. Christ is grieved when we give way 
to and are swayed by wrong ideas of death in its 
relation to his people. Wrong ideas in this matter 
dishonor him who is the resurrection and the life 
and who gives his people deliverance from death. 
After the weeping had passed, Jesus required 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. IQI 

the stone to be rolled away from the door of the 
cave-sepulchre. When this was done, for the sake 
of those present who denied his commission from 
heaven, he looked up to heaven and identified 
himself with the Father and made the resurrec- 
tion of the dead man a test of his claim for iden- 
tity. Then he threw his voice into the tomb and 
with great power gave the command, " Lazarus, 
come forth !" The voice prevailed. The dead 
heard it, and to the amazement of all Lazarus 
stepped forth alive and in his grave-clothes. Noth- 
ing is told us of the joyous rapture of that home 
which received back its dead, but there was rap- 
ture there. We know there was rapture there, be- 
cause there is rapture in our hearts to-day as we 
read this testimony of God to his Son and this 
proof of our deliverance from death through faith 
in Jesus Christ. 

A CLOSING POINT. 

TAe history of the miracle reveals that a glorious 
immortality is connected with and founded upon 
friendship with God. 

Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. It was to the 
home of friendship that Jesus went. It was a 
friend whom he raised. It is a significant fact 
that the changes are rung upon the friendship be- 
tween Jesus and the family of Bethany. After 
Lazarus had died, Jesus called him "friend." 

What is the strongest argument in favor of our 
immortality ? It is this : God's friendship for us. 
It is not the symbolism of nature, as some claim. 



192 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

It is not the yellow wheat-stalk, with its rich and 
bending head of sixty-fold, which rises from the 
grave of the one grain. It is not the flower 
springing from the grave of the black seed and 
putting on its golden garments. It is not the but- 
terfly rising from its v/orm-life and sporting in its 
beauty in the crystal dome of light. These sym- 
bolisms of nature get all their significance from 
the establishment of man's resurrection and im- 
mortality. All the thoughts which they suggest 
are after-thoughts and not fore-thoughts. Let 
resurrection and immortality be believed and then 
they are full of meaning and comfort, but not 
until then. No, the strongest argument for our 
immortality is our friendship with God ; or, if you 
will, God's friendship for us. God carries the im- 
mortality of man in his own nature. It is thus 
that we reason. God's friendships must be like 
God. They must accord with his nature and sat- 
isfy his nature. God is eternal ; the friendships 
which he forms, therefore, in order to accord with 
his nature and satisfy his nature, must be as 
eternal. Now there can be no eternal friendship 
except the parties forming it be eternal. If as 
parties in God's friendships we are to be eternal, 
we must be immortal. A glorious immortality is 
based upon divine friendship. It is he who be- 
lieves in Christ who has a glorious immortality. 
The promise is to faith, and to faith only. Have 
we faith? That is the determining question. 
That is the vital problem with us all. Let us 
settle it at once. 



CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS. 1 93 



CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS. 

"And there were certain Greeks among them that came 
up to worship at the feast; the same came therefore 
TO Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and de- 
sired HIM, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus."— Jo/m 12:20, 21. 

We wish to magnify the event recorded by 
this Scripture. We wish to place the coming of 
these Greeks among the notable things in the 
story of Christ. See how it stirred him ! Mark 
the wonderful words it called forth ! Behold the 
marvellous and startling phenomenon which at- 
tended it, and listen to the voice of God which 
spake through the great vault of heaven in tones 
of thunder ! The evangelist John knew the value 
and importance of this event, with its accompany- 
ing wonder, so he wheeled it into line with the 
arguments and proofs of the deity of Christ. His 
Gospel was w^ritten to establish the deity of Christ, 
and he could not leave out such a Scripture as 
this. This Scripture is crowded with testimony 
such as John wishes. In it the Gentile Greeks, 
far famed for their culture and their research, 
bear testimony to Christ. In it Christ's own no- 
bility of spirit bears testimony to himself. In it 
Christ utters a prediction concerning his death 
and its effects, the fulfilment of which was de- 
signed to be an evidence of his divinity. In it is 
the testimony of the Father, who spake from the 
throne of heaven and owned his Son. 

studies In John's Gospel. Q 



194 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

It seems to me that we should classify the 
coming of the Greeks and its sequences with 
such incidents as the flashing of the Shechinah 
light at midnight on the plains of Bethlehem, and 
the singing of the natal song by the angel choir, 
and the wonder at Christ's baptism, and the glory 
scene on the Mount of Transfiguration. What could 
be more v/onderful than Jesus talking up into the 
sky to God upon his throne, and immediately re- 
ceiving an answer back from God in an audible 
voice? At the beginning of his public career 
God in an audible voice introduced Jesus as his 
Son, and commanded men to hear him and bow to 
his authority ; now at the close of his public career, 
for there were only two days between him and 
Calvary, the same God speaks from heaven and 
puts the stamp of divine approval upon all that 
Jesus has done and said. He says that the career 
of Christ has been such as to glorify Him. At the 
beginning of Christ's life Magi from the East 
came to him and paid him homage ; now at the 
close of his life, on the very eve of his great 
agony, Greeks from the "West come to pay him 
homage. East and west his life strikes out full 
of beneficent purposes. The presence of these 
Greeks moved the soul of Jesus. They were an 
earnest of the glorious incoming of the Gentile, 
world into his kingdom and a prophecy of the 
mighty results of his death. These Greeks, sent 
by the Heavenly Father, by their coming cheered 
him on to the cross. They made the way to the 
cross easier. His own words, called out by their 



CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS. 1 95 

coming, show this. In his address to them he 
deals v/ith Calvary and the outcome of Calvary. 
Their coming pleased him, for he granted their 
request and revealed himself unto them. 

Who these Greeks v/ere we are not told. 
Doubtless they were proselytes to the Jewish 
religion and were advanced thinkers. To them 
Jehovah was a truer ideal of God than v/ere all 
the gods known to the Greek mind. He satisfied 
them. Their souls could feed upon him. We 
judge these Greeks by the way in which Christ 
treated them and by the estimate which he put 
upon them. They stand before the Christian 
world as magnificent types of honest inquirers after 
truth and as men loyal to their privileges. Their 
experience magnifies this fact, viz., All v/ho hon- 
estly seek Christ find him, and Christ rewards 
them Vvdth the fullest revelations of himself. 

The design of this Scripture is to tell us what 
these Greeks saw in Christ, and thus to teach us 
what we should see in him. Let us some to this 
Scripture v/ith the ciy, "We would see Jesus." If 
we send this cry to the Holy Spirit, he will take 
the things of Christ herein set forth and will 
show them to us. 

WHAT THE INQUIRING GREEKS SAW. SEEING CHRIST 
CONSISTS IN SEEING WHAT THEY SAV/. 

I. The seeking Greeks saw the divine object of 
Christ's mission, which was the controlling purpose 
of his life. 

We never see one truly and thoroughly until 



196 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

we see his aim and object in life. We must look 
upon liis controlling purpose. These Greeks 
wanted to see Christ, so the first thing that Christ 
showed them was his controlling purpose of life, 
the grand object of his mission. He let them into 
the inner circle of his being. He let them see the 
action of his soul. His whole being was bound up 
in one purpose, viz., the advancement of the glory 
of God, and this was what the Greeks saw. 

The controlling purpose of Christ was set forth 
in connection with a great wonder. God publicly 
owned him and accepted of his work. This God 
did in answer to the cry which Jesus sent to 
heaven, that the Father would glorify his own 
name. Jesus sought the Father's glory, and by 
so doing he reached glory himself. Thus it al- 
ways is ; the men v/ho seek God's glory assuredly 
attain their own glory. God answered Christ 
from his throne, and men heard the voice of God. 
That answer was enough to manifest the relation 
between Christ and the Father, and to show that 
Christ was doing a premeditated and divinely 
arranged work. That answer was enough to 
teach that the glory of God stands in the fore- 
front of all the purposes and providences of the 
universe, and that it is first with God and ought 
to be first with all others. 

If the men of Christ's day could have entered 
into the reality of this wonder, if they could have 
rightly heard God's voice sounding through the 
skies in attestation of Jesus Christ, they would 
have had no difficulty in knowing who he was or 



CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS. IQ/ 

in recognizing the glory of his mission. But the 
men of Christ's day did neither apprehend nor 
comprehend the wonder. To some God's voice 
was only thunder in a cloudless sky. To others it 
was only the voice of an angel. This was the 
highest view taken of it, but it was infinitely 
below the glorious fact. By these low views of 
God's great wonder men lost the true conception 
of the Son of God and of his great saving work. 
Are we not like these men who said, ''It thun- 
ders!" ''It is the voice of an angel!" instead of 
saying, " The Father owns his Son "? Are we not 
for ever lowering the things of God, and thus 
dooming ourselves to half knowledge and half 
faith and half love ? We limit ourselves when we 
limit the things of God, when we see less in 
Christ Jesus than is in Christ Jesus, when we see 
less in the Bible than is in the Bible, when we see 
less in the arguments establishing Christianity 
than is in these arguments. Our spiritual growth 
and our confirmation in the faith of Jesus require 
us to magnify and not to minimize the things of 
God. Let us not rationalize and explain away the 
miracles of God. Let us not modify or contract 
the grand fact of the deity of Christ. Let us not 
dwarf the glorious promises of the Covenant, but 
let us give every word its full meaning. Let us 
not slur a single attribute of Jesus Christ, but let 
us set forth every attribute in marked and honest 
prominence. This will give us a clear and correct « 
vision of Christ and make us magnificent Chris- 
tian men and women. The men who confound 



198 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the uncreated God witli a created angel never 
truly knew God. Their conceptions of God and 
Christ are away below what God and Christ 
are. 

That we may see the place which the glory of 
God had in the life and purpose of Jesus Christ, 
let us examine the words which God spoke to 
him from the throne. When Christ declared that 
he could bear anything and meet anything if only 
God were glorified, when he cried to heaven, 
"Father, glorify thy name," God's words to him 
were, '' I have both glorified it and will glorify it 
again." These words of the Father are both 
retrospective and prospective. They declare that 
up to this point Christ had glorified God; they 
declare that from this point on Christ will glorify 
the Father. 

Do we not see how the past life of Jesus glori- 
fied God ? God glorified his name, through Christ, 
by sending Christ into the world. The gift of his 
Son exhibited the grandeur of his love. It opened 
to the world his magnificent purposes and his 
great thoughts. God was glorified in the sinless 
and perfect life which Jesus lived. The golden 
words which fell with thrilling power from the 
lips of Jesus, and which set forth God's thoughts 
before men, glorified the Father. So did his v/on- 
derful deeds of power and love. His life was de- 
signed to be a revelation of God, and it was. It is 
the fullest and clearest and most perfect revela- 
tion of God which the world has. What grand 
conceptions of God does it give us ! When we 



CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS. 1 99 

want to see the Father we look at him through 
the life of the Son. 

If there be one fact more clearly taught than 
another in the Bible, it is this : The glory of God 
is seen in Christ. Let me choose one point by 
way of illustration. Christ glorified God in his 
life by vindicating his character in the presence 
of the existence of sin. Dark words were spoken 
against the character of God because of the exist- 
ence of sin in the human race. Insinuating ques- 
tions were asked, questions such as these : Why 
did not God create man with the power of resist- 
ing sin ? Why did he place him where he would 
be conquered by evil ? Where is the infallibility 
and power and wisdom and love of God, in view 
of the fall of man ? These questions were calcu^ 
lated to leave a blot on the character of the 
Creator. Christ vindicated God. He came into 
the world and lived in the very same nature 
which fell in Eden. In that nature he met sin 
and temptation. He met these in their worst 
forms and in their highest degrees. Adam's trial 
in Paradise was mere play in comparison with the 
trial of Jesus in the wilderness. But in that na- 
ture which fell in Eden he triumphed in the wil- 
derness. He thus demonstrated what Adam 
might have done. He vindicated God by showing 
that sin was no necessity of our nature and no 
necessity of our circumstances. His conflict with 
Satan and with temptation and with sin was the 
conflict of a man , and it revealed what man might 
have done in the beginning. Man and not God is 



200 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

chargeable with the existence of sin and woe in 
this world of ours which came from the hand of 
God perfect. Thus we see how the name of the 
Father was glorified in the life of Jesus up to the 
point when the divine voice from heaven bore 
witness to him in the presence of the inquiring 
Greeks and before the assembled multitudes. 

Do we not see how the Father is glorified in 
Christ from this point on to the close of Christ's 
earthly history ? His sacrifice on the cross opens 
the gates of heaven to sinners. Is not this to the 
glory of God ? What is more to the glory of God } 
Does not the cross glorify the law of God and ex- 
hibit its unchanging and impartial justice? When 
the law deals with the Son of God not one of its 
demands is abated. Justice is a glorious attribute, 
and it is an essential to the v/elfare of the uni- 
verse. Men make an attack upon God because he 
consigns impenitent sinners to eternal punish- 
ment. Does not the cross vindicate God in this ? 
Could God do more to save men than to give his 
Son to death ? The impenitent trample the blood 
of the Son of God under foot and account it an 
unholy thing. The impenitent walk over the 
cross to their doom ; if they will persist in doing 
this, how can God save them from their doom ? 
Let the human mind which criticises the good- 
ness of God suggest a better goodness. The cross 
exhibits infinite love upon the part of God, and 
there is nothing beyond infinite love. 

2. The seeking Greeks saw the only method by 
which Christ could accomplish his object. 



CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS. 201 

What was this only method? It was by the 
sacrifice of himself upon the cross. The cross did 
not enter into the popular ideal of the Messiah in 
the days when Christ walked the earth. Going to 
the cross was considered fatal. The idea of vic- 
tory through the cross had no existence. The 
Jews thought that they were dooming Christ to 
eternal infamy and ignominy when they delivered 
him to the Romans to be crucified. The ideal of 
the Messiah extant was that of a great personage 
coming in magnificence and power, setting up a 
carnal kingdom, commanding legions, inaugura- 
ting devastating wars, and playing the part of an 
Alexander, only surpassing Alexander in his moral 
character and in the greatness of his victories. If 
these Greeks who sought to see Jesus had the 
popular ideal, Christ corrected it and set before 
them the true ideal. He introduced himself to 
them as the crucified One. He told them that the 
cross was the battleground upon which he was to 
win his victories and become great in the world. 
He taught them also that the cross was the battle- 
ground upon which his followers were to win 
their victories and rise to their greatness. With- 
out the cross Christ is v/eakness, but with the 
cross Christ is power. What is true of Christ is 
true of his disciples. If you are making no sacri- 
fice in life, you are without power. Self-forgetful 
love is moral strength. This and this only is 
moral strength. Twice in these brief words does 
Christ set before these Greeks, and all who list- 
ened to him, the fact that he must be crucified, 
9'" 



203 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

and that only by dying could he accomplish his 
mission. He declares it by the simile of the corn 
of wheat. He declares it by saying that the Son 
of man should be lifted up. "The Son of man" 
was a well understood title of the Messiah, and 
the term "lifted up" was understood as a term 
equivalent to crucifixion. We rejoice in this de- 
scription which Christ gave of the manner of his 
coming death. It was a death wholly improbable 
to any Jew. But the fact that this improbable 
death was pictured out before it came stands as 
the evidence that it was arranged of God and had 
a divine purpose. 

Not only were the inquiring Greeks allowed to 
see the coming sacrifice of Christ, they were al- 
lowed to see how much of Christ's love was in the 
sacrifice and how much the sacrifice cost Christ. 
They were permitted to witness the soul-storm in 
Christ. They were allov/ed to see the foreshadow of 
Gethsemane. We can trace the mental process 
which brought on the soul-storm within Christ. 
The current of this thought was natural. , The 
coming of these Greeks with their burning desire 
stirred Christ to thought and lifted before him the 
prophetic day when he would be a Light to lighten 
the Gentiles. The thought of this day suggested 
the means by which it was to be inaugurated, viz., 
his death. The thought of his death lifted before 
him the awful vision of Calvary, with its horrid 
contact with sin and its divine desertion. As he 
looked the awful realities in the face, his human 
nature shrank back and hesitated and questioned 



CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS. 203 

for a moment whether it should recede or go for- 
ward. As yet there were no wounds inflicted upon 
his body ; as yet no hand of violence had fallen 
upon him ; as yet the heavens had not become 
dark ; but to his mind the coming things were 
real, and he suffered them mentally. A flash of 
lightning lit up the future and made everything 
awfully vivid and threw him into an agony of 
soul. In this conflict he spake aloud, and the 
Greeks heard him and thus learned of the conflict. 
The sharp inner conflict lasted only for a moment. 
The moment the conflict was inaugurated it was 
won. The conflict and the triumph are recorded 
here in a single verse. 

The question has been asked, How can we best 
understand this inner conflict as recorded here ? 
There is a simple way of understanding it, and 
that is by properly punctuating the record. The 
best critics consider that the proper punctuation is 
to use two interrogation points. That would make 
the record read in this wise : " Now is my soul 
troubled. And what shall I say ? Shall I say. Fa- 
ther, save me from this hour ? No. Because for 
this hour came I into the world. I will say. Fa- 
ther, glorify thy name." This reading gives the 
conflict vividness, and shows how long it lasted 
and how Christ won it. He questioned himself 
into victory. 

Is it asked, Why is this conflict recorded ? It is 
recorded for the same reason that the Gethsemane 
scene is recorded. Would you be willing to spare 
the record of Gethsemane from the gospel page ? 



204 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

It helps you to a right conception of the awfulness 
of sin. It helps you to measure the greatness of 
the sacrifice of the cross. It magnifies Christ, his 
heroism and his loyal love. We would lose much 
if we lost the vision of Christ in Gethsemane. As 
Gethsemane was Calvary before its time, so this 
inner conflict was Gethsemane before its time. 

3. The seeking Greeks saw the wide and glorious 
results which were to accrue to Christ from following 
the only "tnetJwd open to him, 

Christ told them of the power of his cross. As 
Jesus addressed them the future opened to his 
soul, and he saw of the travail of his soul and was 
satisfied. As he looked into the future he saw 
a twofold victory for the cross. 

(a.) He saw a victory over Satan. Speaking in 
the prophetic present, he says, " Now is the crisis 
of the world ; now shall the prince of this world be 
cast out." In the cross we have an exposure of 
Satan. He necessitated the cross. By the cross 
he struck at the life of the Son of God. At the 
cross he showed his malignity. Satan utters 
smooth and deceptive words concerning sin ; the 
cross makes the lie in his words clear, for it shows 
just what sin is. By setting forth the truth, the 
cross unmasks the errors of Satan, and robs him of 
his influence, and dethrones him and ejects him. 

(b.) He saw a victory over the hearts of men. 
Speaking in the prophetic present he says, "And 
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
men unto me." As Jesus glanced through time he 
saw oriorious victories for the cross over human 



CHRIST AND THE SEEKING GREEKS. 205 

hearts, and of these he spake to the inquiring 
Greeks. We are not kept in ignorance of the glo- 
rious future. Was there a soul-storm in the hour 
of Christ's experience? There was also a soul- 
thrill in it. This thrill he communicates to us. 
The future has in it multitudes of Christians which 
no man can number. Thousands, multiplied by 
tens of thousands, will submit to Christ in loyal 
subjection. Nations shall be born into his king- 
dom in a day. " Unto him shall the gathering of 
the people be." Perhaps these Greeks, who had 
been won to Jehovah, were familiar with the Old 
Testament prophecies which set forth the extent 
of the Messiah s work among the Gentiles, and 
they came to assure themselves that Jesus was the 
one who would realize these prophecies. If so, 
Christ in speaking to them of the power of the 
cross met the very ideas in their soul. He set 
himself forth as the promised Light of the Gen- 
tiles. He drew a picture of the glorious extent of 
the kingdom. 

How is the kingdom of Christ to be set up and 
enlarged ? Does Christ tell us ? Yes. He tells us 
that it is by the power of his sacrifice. 

Sacrifice has always a power to draw and to 
win. The construction of our mind makes it so. 
The missionary who goes to foreign lands, at a 
great sacrifice, carries our heart and our prayer 
and our contributions with him. It is the man 
who sacrifices himself that multiplies himself. 
This seems to be the law for all realms. Christ 
points out its operation in nature. It operates in 



2o6 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the experience of a com of v/heat whicli multiplies. 
A grain of wheat is never glorified until it sacri- 
fices itself. Try to preserve it in the granary and 
it makes no increase. It is when it dies in the soil 
that the green blade springs up, grows into a firm 
golden stalk with golden tassel and with half a 
hundred golden sheaths filled with golden grain. 
As the great sacrifice for sin, Christ sets himself 
before these inquiring Greeks as God's seed-corn 
which would bring forth the million-sheaved har- 
vest on the myriad hills of earth. 

What did the inquiring Greeks see when they 
saw Christ? They saw Christ in his relation to 
heaven ; they saw him as the heaven-owned and 
the heaven-honored ; they saw his grand sacrificial 
love ; they saw his death on the cross in both the 
God-ward and man-ward bearing. He died for the 
glory of God, and he died for our sakes. They 
saw what it cost Christ to die, and the grand and 
crowning results of his dying. 



JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY. 207 



JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY BY WASH- 
ING HIS DISCIPLES' FEET. 

"Ye call me Master and Lord ; and ye say well, for so i am. 
If I THEN, your Lord and Master, have washed your 

FEET, ye also OUGHT TO WASH ONE ANOTHER'S FEET." — 

John 13:13, 14. 

This chapter introduces the closing section of 
the Gospel according to John. All that precedes 
in this Gospel deals with Christ's wonderful life ; 
these closing chapters deal with scenes which per- 
tain to his death. 

His public life is over. He will deliver no 
more sermons in the Temple, he v/ill utter no 
more warnings, he will work no more miracles. 
He has wrought enough and spoken enough to 
lead the world to faith in him^. If men will con- 
tinue in wilful unbelief they must bear the conse- 
quences. The remaining hours of his life Christ 
gives to private fellowship with his own disciples. 
When this fellowship is over he goes out to Geth- 
semane and Calvary. 

In this Scripture we find Christ and his disci- 
ples in an upper chamber of Jerusalem entering 
upon the celebration of the last Passover and 
upon the first celebration of the Lord's Supper. 
The two disciples sent forth to make ready have 
found the man bearing the pitcher of water and 
have secured the guest chamber of which Jesus 
spake. All things are now ready ; and with in- 



2o8 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

tense longings and with wonderful emotions 
Christ sits down with his friends at the Paschal 
board. The hour and the scene are full of sub- 
limity and awe. We expect nothing but tender- 
ness and brotherly love and high ideals and love- 
ly purposes and magnanimous and Christlike 
deeds upon the part of these disciples who are 
now admitted to the grandest privileges of the 
children of God. We expect to see human nature 
at its best. But alas, we are compelled to look at 
human nature at its worst. In this sacramental 
chamber it breaks forth in treason and bitterness 
and pride and envy and strife and boasting. In 
this study we have to deal only with pride and the 
strife. In our future study we will have to deal 
with the treason and the boasting. 

Pride and strife manifest them^selves twice and 
in rapid succession. A great deal was made in 
those days of the place and position of the guests 
at the supper-table. The place which a man occu- 
pied was considered indicative of his character 
and ability. It was a mark of his rank. Men 
were therefore naturally desirous of having chief 
places. The pride of the disciples showed itself 
when they attempted to seat themselves at the 
Passover table. They fell into unseemly conten- 
tion, each claiming the highest and most honora- 
ble seat. They thought that the seat which they 
now had would define their future position in 
Christ's kingdom. They had carnal views of the 
kingdom. The contention left them with ruffled 
tempers and in much dissatisfaction. What an 



JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY. 209 

unseemly exhibition of human nature was this to 
force upon the vision of Christ ! How it must 
have clashed with his inner life, and with his dy- 
ing love which felt itself in the presence of the 
cross ! 

We have not told all ; pride and contention 
broke out again. It was customary for some one 
to wash the feet of guests at the supper -table. 
This was easily done, for the guests upon entering 
the dining-room laid aside their loose-fitting san- 
dals and reclined at the table with unshod feet. 
Usually the servant of the host performed this 
service. As this upper chamber was simply bor- 
rowed for the occasion, there was no host with his 
servant. The question was, Which one of the dis- 
ciples will volunteer to take the place of the absent 
servant and perform this act of hospitality ? Not 
one volunteered. Not one had humility enough. 
They were all too proud. It is just here that the 
Scripture for study comes in. It tells us that what 
the disciples were too proud to do Christ did. 
Taking the water and the basin which were in 
waiting, and girding himself with a towel, he 
washed the feet of all — the feet of the proud and 
of the boaster and of the traitor. Thus he re- 
buked their pride and contention and taught them 
the grace of humility. 

I. THE SCRIPTURE ANALYZED. 

I. The Scripture begins with a preface. 
This seems a natural thing, because the writer 
is entering upon a new section of the Gospel. He 

studies in John's Gospel. J /I 



210 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

is leaving the story of Christ's life and taking up 
the story of his death. 

The design of the preface is to use contrast in 
setting Christ forth in these closing scenes of his 
life. He contrasts v/ith his disciples. They for- 
sake him, deny him, betray him ; he loves them 
to the end. They grieve him. ; he consoles them. 
They sin against him ; he forgives them. They 
neglect to wash his feet ; he washes theirs. What 
a contrast ! But it is all declarative of the glory 
of Christ ; hence John records it. 

Not only does the preface show the contrast 
between Christ and his disciples, it shows the con- 
trast between the lowly act of Christ in washing 
his disciples' feet and his great and glorious na- 
ture. It identifies him with the Father in heaven. 
It tells us that he performed this lowly act just as 
he was about to leave this world and ascend to the 
glory on high. It opens his inner life and allows 
us to see that he performed this lowly act when he 
was swayed with the consciousness of his deity 
and while his heart was filled v/ith great thoughts. 
This is part of the preface : " Jesus knowing that 
the Father had given all things into his hands, 
and that he was come from God and went to God ; 
he rose from supper and laid aside his garments, 
and took a towel and girded himself." Jesus was 
conscious of his deity when he washed the feet of 
his disciples. This magnifies the act ; it transfig- 
ures it with love and condescension. It also in- 
structs us concerning humility. Humility does 
not consist in self-depreciation or in underrating 



JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY. 211 

one's self. The humble man is conscious of his 
talents and ability. If he have greater natural 
gifts than his neighbor, he knows that. His hu- 
mility consists in his willingness to use his great 
gifts, of which he is conscious, in lowly and need- 
ful acts. His humility leads him to consider the 
doing of lowly acts an honor and a duty. With 
humility the one question is, What is duty ? What 
is the right and fitting thing to do ? What is the 
right and fitting position to fill? It never asks 
the question, What do men think ? or, How will 
I look ? That is the question of pride and not of 
humility. Whatever is the right thing to do, hu- 
mility esteems it to be the great thing. Whatever 
is the right position to fill humility considers the 
honorable position. I believe that washing the 
feet of his disciples was as pleasing to Jesus Christ 
as riding to glory in the Shechinah chariot amid 
the glad songs of the angels. This was so because 
washing the feet of his disciples was the very thing 
requisite to be done. It was what the disciples 
needed, it was what the world to the end of time 
needed, it was what the glory of God needed for 
its proper manifestation. 

2. TJie Scripture fully describes the lowly act of 
Christ, 

Everything is detailed here : the thoughts which 
were passing through the soul of Christ, how he 
began the ^vashing, how he assumed the servant's 
costume and manner, and how he closed the cere- 
mony. The narrative dwells on the conduct of 
Peter and the conversation between him and Christ. 



212 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

When Christ reached Peter, the apostle acted 
out his impulsive nature. He declared that Christ 
should never wash his feet. Like the other disci- 
ples, he was cut to the quick by Christ's act. He 
looked upon Christ's act as a stinging rebuke to 
his pride and his unsanctified ambition, which led 
him to take part in the contention for place and 
honor. He considered the act humiliating to 
Christ, the Son of God. He could see him raise 
the dead, heal the sick, and do other Godlike acts ; 
but this act of washing his feet was altogether out 
of place and below Christ. " Far be this from 
thee. Lord." "Thou shalt never wash my feet." 
Perhaps Peter thought his refusal was humility, 
but it was not. It was easier for him to push 
Christ away than it was to submit to having his 
feet washed by Christ. Pushing Christ away was 
shunning the rebuke which he deserved ; submit- 
ting to the ablution was humbly taking the rebuke 
and submitting to the rod. Peter needed the re- 
buke, so Christ compelled him to take it. The 
washing brought down his pride. The washing 
made Christ's rebuke effective. 

When Peter found that he must submit he 
went to another extreme. When Christ told him 
that if He washed him not he could have no part 
with Him, then Peter wanted Him to wash him 
from head to foot. Both in his refusal and in his 
proposal he was under the sway of presumption. 
It is presumption not to take all that Christ wants 
to give, and it is presumption to demand more or 
to claim more than Christ gives. Humility con- 



JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY. 213 

sists in accepting' all of the gifts of God's free 
grace and in conforming absolutely to the divine 
will. Some spiritualize the words of Christ to 
Peter. This may be right, and the words of Christ 
may be able to bear what is read into them ; but I 
am satisfied to confine them altogether to this in- 
cident, and make them mean nothing more than 
this, namely, In all things you must submit to my 
dictation and bury your will in mine, for my will 
is perfect and reasonable and complete. It is not 
requisite to spiritualize the words of Christ, be- 
cause everything which is read into them is found 
elsewhere in the divine Word and in its legiti- 
mate place. 

3. TJie Scripture explains the act of Christ as sym- 
bolic. 

The explanation recorded by the Scripture was 
given by Christ himself. When he had finished 
the washing and had resumed his place at the 
head of the table, he told his disciples that his act 
was a talking act. He told them that it was meant 
to inculcate the grace of humility. He told them 
that they were mistaken in their ideas of what 
constituted greatness. He told them that this act 
of his, lowly as it was, was becomiing to him who 
was their Lord and Master. Thus he taught them 
that greatness consisted in service. The greatest 
servant among them was the greatest man among 
them. He told them that he had given them an 
abiding example to illustrate the spirit of true 
humility, which he wished his disciples to culti- 
vate. He told them that if they wanted happiness 



214 STUDIES IN JOHNS GOSPEL. 

and growth in the divine life they must reproduce 
him and live by his spirit. 

Was Christ's symbolic teaching upon the grace 
of humility effective ? It certainly was. The most 
stubborn pupil which Christ had that day was 
Simon Peter. We may well take him as an index 
of the class which Jesus taught. If the lesson told 
upon him, we may conclude that it told upon the 
great majority. If we turn to the Epistle written 
by Peter, we find that among the things which he 
treated and which he enjoined v/as this very grace 
of humility. And what does he say ? He gives it 
the highest rank among the graces. He enjoins 
us to be constantly wrapped up and enfolded in it. 
He prescribes humility as a constant garment. 
" Be clothed with humility." This is a striking 
figure and one calculated to give us confidence in 
the grace of humility. God through Peter com- 
mands us to treat it as a robe. All the robes of 
God's provision are beautiful. Look at the splen- 
dor of his own vesture ! '' He clothes himself with 
light as with a garment." Look at the robes in 
which he has decked nature ! The clouds are 
arrayed in silver and purple, in crimson and gold. 
The meadov/s in green, the grain-fields in rich yel- 
low, and the autumnal forests in sunset splendors 
are magnificent. So are the lilies in their vestal 
white. God is a true judge of robes. We can 
trust him when he prescribes robes for the immor- 
tal soul which he has created in his own image. 
When he tells us that the robes of our self-right- 
eousness are as filthy rags, and v/hen he commands 



JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY. 215 

US to be clothed with humility, we should feel that 
the soul is most attractive in this garment. Chris- 
tian, would you see how the garment of humility 
looks ? Behold the Son of God in his infinite con- 
descension among his disciples. Humility is a 
robe which the Son of God can v^^ear. It is when 
clad in it that we see his deity. It is when clad in 
it that he is most attractive to us. 

II. QUESTIONS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN HUMILITY. 

These questions we must ask rapidly. 

Question i . What is humility ? 

Defined by this Scripture, humility is a v^^illing- 
ness to do lowly acts and to occupy lowly places 
for the glory of God. We can learn what humility 
is by its opposite. Its opposite is pride. Pride 
brings with it jealousy and love of preeminence 
and envy and ostentation and self-conceit and high 
thoughts and contention. After conversion the 
saints receive their greatest injuries from pride. 
Now if we are to get rid of pride we must crowd it 
out of our nature by bringing in humility. Hu- 
mility is the opposite of pride. 

Question 2. Where can we find the truest and 
most perfect type of humility ? 

In Christ. In the Christ of this Scripture, 
Christ washing the feet of his disciples is the tru- 
est and highest type of humility. We should 
never lose sight of the fact that Christ is our pat- 
tern. Vv^e are called to imitate him. Some one 
has said, If you would become a painter, take the 
pencil and study Raphael ; if you would become a 



2l6 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

sculptor, take the chisel and study Phidias ; if you 
would become a poet, take the pen and study Ho- 
mer; but if you would become a Christian, take 
the New Testament and study Christ. Contem- 
plate him until you can call riches dust, worldly 
splendors toys, and until you can feel that true 
glory is to be like him, meek and lowly of heart. 

Question 3. How does God seek to secure humility 
in his disciples ? 

(a.) By bringing them into the presence of a perfect 
God, that they may measure themselves by him. 

He reveals God by his earthly life, and thus 
brings them into God's presence. Our estimate of 
self depends altogether upon the ideal or rule by 
which we measure ourselves. Let the Pharisee 
measure himself by the publican, and he will feel 
his greatness. Let Job compare himself with his 
friends, and he will have no difficulty in defending 
his integrity. When God wants to humble Job 
He brings him into His ov^n presence and talks 
with him from the whirlwind. It is in the pres- 
ence of God that Job falls upon the ground and 
cries, " I abhor myself." Christ brings his disci- 
ples into the presence of God and makes them feel 
the reach and the spirituality of his law, and in 
this way humbles them by a revelation of their 
defects. 

(b.) By saving them through grace. 

Salvation by grace takes away all ground for 
boasting. It reveals our nothingness. It gives all 
the glory to God. 

(c.) By assigning them large tasks. 



JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY. 21/ 

He gives them commandments to obey. He 
gives them his example to reproduce. *' I have 
given you an example, that ye should do as I have 
done." '' It is the men who stand in the midst of 
the unattempted tasks v/ho are proud. It is the 
narrowness of our lives that makes us proud." 
The men who have attempted to be like Christ 
and to carry on his cause, and who have seen how 
far they have come short, these are they who are 
modest and humble. The men who see the unat- 
tained heights are the men who feel that they are 
away down in the valley. Striving to reproduce 
Christ is enough to keep a man humble for a life- 
time. This Christ knew v/hen he assigned to the 
Christian this task. 

(d.) Bj/ his rebuke of pride. 

More than once did Christ rebuke men for 
pride. Washing the feet of his disciples was a 
rebuke. Setting a child in the midst of his con- 
tending disciples was a rebuke. The parable of 
the Pharisee and publican at prayer in the Tem- 
ple was a rebuke. This is a masterpiece of reproof. 
It burns with scorn and indignation, its words are 
like arrows of fire, and yet it carries v/ith it the 
judgment and the common sense of the world. It 
is tremendously keen and cutting, and yet it gives 
us pleasure to read it. It was a bold thing for 
Jesus to utter that parable ; it was a piece of thrill- 
ing heroism.. It was as much as his life was worth. 
It shows how fatal he considered pride and how 
highly he esteemed humility. These rebukes of 
Christ are the precious treasures of the church ; 

lO 



2l8 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

they empliasize his mind and will and act as an 
impetus in pressing us on to a higher attainment 
of humility. 

A CLOSING POINT. 

Humility is the road to honor. 

It was such in the experience of Christ. " Be- 
cause he humbled himself and became obedient to 
the death of the cross, therefore hath God highly 
exalted him, and given him a name that is above 
every name." The Bible explicitly declares that 
before honor is humility. We cannot forget the 
words of Christ himself concerning the humble 
publican who smote upon his breast and said, 
" God be merciful to me a sinner !" Contrasting 
him with the proud Pharisee who preached to God 
instead of praying, Jesus said, '' I tell you that this 
man went down to his house justified rather than 
the other: for whosoever humbleth himself shall 
be exalted, but whosoever exalteth himself shall 
be abased." The water-drop looks down from the 
cloud upon the ripe fruit which hangs upon the 
tree. It envies the water turned into sweetness. 
It covets a place in the rosy apple. How can it 
reach such a place of honor? Only by humility. 
It must come to the ground, lose itself in the soil, 
go down to the very roots of the tree, and slowly 
work its way up through trunk and branch. Thisi 
is the only way. The course of the water-drop is 
typical of the course by which man reaches his 
coveted ideals. The way to the throne is through 
the cross. Thus it was with Christ. Thus it is 



JESUS TEACHING HUMILITY. 219 

with all the disciples of Christ. Tribulations and 
conflicts are associated with white robes and 
crowns. While this is true, it is also true that 
white robes and crowns are associated with tribu- 
lations and conflicts. Those who are one with 
Christ in his humiliation will also be one with 
Christ in his exaltation. Lazarus at the gate will 
some day be Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. 



220 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES. 

" Let not your heart be trovblkd."— John 14:1, 

In the study of tlie fourteenth chapter of John 
I wish to do two things : First to give the chapter 
in outline ; second, to derive from it the things 
which should be in every man's life to ennoble 
and comfort. 

THE CHAPTER IN OUTLINE. 

In outlining the chapter we should never lose 
sight of this fact : The chapter has a unity. It is 
a sermon preached upon the text, '' Let not your 
heart be troubled." Every sentence in it is in- 
tended to present some antidote for the troubled 
heart. The chapter is valuable because it teaches 
us how Christ comforts his own, and because it 
initiates us in the art of administering consolation. 

In comforting and ennobling man Christ be- 
gins with God. " Let not your heart be troubled ; 
ye believe in God, believe also in me." That is 
the only way to begin. Let there be right con- 
ceptions of God and right relations to God, and 
everything else will be right in man's life. Right 
conceptions of God, right relations to God ! These 
phrases call out two questions. 

Qu.estion i. How are we to look at God that we 
may reach right conceptions of him ? 

We are to look at him as seen in Christ, i. e., 



CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES. 221 

rounded out and made historic. God has written 
concerning himself upon the manuscripts of the 
sky and the earth. These revelations are sublime. 
When he writes upon the sky he uses blazing 
worlds as an alphabet; when he writes upon the 
broad pages of the earth he uses the gray rocks 
and the green foliage and the burning flowers as 
an alphabet. But the revelation of God in nature, 
grand as it is, is nothing like the revelation of God 
which we have in the personality and life of Jesus 
of Nazareth. In Jesus of Nazareth we have a liv- 
ing voice and a beating heart and imm.ortal facul- 
ties in operation. Stars and stones and flowers are 
nothing to these. The whole of divine revelation 
is one in saying to us. If you would know God, 
study Christ, for Christ is God incarnated. 

Question 2. In zvhat do right relations with God 
consist ? 

Christ sums up right relations with God in one 
word, namely, ''Faith," ''belief.'' ''Ye believe in 
God ; believe also in me." Believing is the high- 
est homage that we can pay to God. Faith honors 
every attribute of his nature, and every attribute 
of his nature responds to and honors faith. The 
man who is shielded by every attribute of God 
and who is helped by every attribute of God need 
not be plagued by a troubled heart. 

Having prescribed faith as an antidote for sor- 
row, Christ next tells his disciples to balance the 
dark present by the glorious future. It is at this 
point that he opens heaven to them. And most 
beautiful and vivid is heaven as he sets it forth. 



222 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

What would this world do without the hope of 
heaven ? To many and many the hope of heaven 
is the only comfort they have. But this hope is 
more precious to them than gold. The day is 
coming when they will know no tears. You see 
how Christ strengthens and consoles. He uses 
contrasts. He puts his glorious return against his 
painful going, the future against the present, the 
promises made to faith against the apparent fatal- 
ity of circumstances. He banishes gloom by intro- 
ducing glory. 

At this point the address of Christ turns into 
the form of dialogue. With a reverent freedom 
the disciples ask him questions. It was Christ's 
design that they should. He put his assertions in 
a form calculated to call forth queries. The ques- 
tions asked bring out great facts concerning him- 
self — facts like these : " Christ is the way and the 
truth and the life." Christ is the revelation of the 
Father : " He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." Christ's works and words prove his 
deity : " Believe me for my works* sake." " The 
words that I speak are not mine, but the Father's." 
The questions asked bring out also the slowness of 
the disciples to learn. " Have I been so long time 
with you and yet hast thou not known me, Phil- 
ip ?" The church has had Christ eighteen hundred 
years, and still he is the great Unknown. Not- 
withstanding he is with us in the presence and 
power of the Spirit, in the ordinances and institu- 
tions of the church, in the triumphs of his truth, 
and in the trophies of his grace, yet his disciples 



CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES. 223 

have only imperfect views of his grace and glory. 
There are chapters in the divine Word which per- 
tain to him that we have never studied. In com- 
paring what we know of him with what remains 
to be known of him, Christ is as yet the great Un- 
known in our lives. We of the nineteenth century 
deserve the reproof administered to Philip of the 
first century. 

Having* answered the questions of Thomas and 
Philip, Jesus takes up the thread of his discourse 
at the place where it was broken, and continues to 
comfort his disciples by pointing out the advanta- 
ges of his going. He contrasts his staying and 
his going, and shows that his going meant more 
to him and more to them. They would gain by 
his going, because in his exalted state, as the pos- 
sessor of all power, he would give them energy to 
carry forward his work with greater effectiveness. 
They would even do greater works than he had 
done. Thus he filled their minds with thoughts 
of work and with the contemplation of a glowing 
future. There is no better way of breathing life 
and comfort into men. And was his prediction 
concerning their future fulfilled ? Have his disci- 
ples done greater works than his? Yes. They 
started off with three thousand converts on the 
very first day. Christ never converted three thou- 
sand in any single day during his brief career. 
Christianity, with its w^onderful progress and won- 
derful products, is the miracle of the ages. Think 
of it ! It has given the world great men and great 
institutions and great blessings. " At first it was 



224 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

only a dot upon the map of the world ; now whole 
continents are subdued and bannered." 

When Jesus had painted the advantages of his 
going, he next consoled his disciples by giving 
them many and precious promises. These were 
calculated to drive anxiety and dark thoughts away 
from the soul and to arouse all the energies of the 
soul in uplifting action. These were magnificent 
helps to faith. He promised them the coming and 
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This meant 
spiritual communion, the communication of spirit- 
ual life, and the consciousness of indissoluble one- 
ness with Christ. This meant the fulness of the 
truth and a glorified Christ, for Christ said concern- 
ing the coming Spirit, " He shall glorify me," and 
" He shall lead you into all truth." He promised 
them the gift of his own peace : '* 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." We can do 
without the best things which the world gives, but 
we cannot do without Christ's abiding gift of 
peace, which keeps our hearts and minds. What 
is this peace ? An apostle says, ''It is the peace 
of God which passeth all understanding." It can 
be felt in the inner consciousness of the soul ; it 
can be seen in the courage and consistency and 
hope and resignation and calm of the Christian 
life as the child of God stands like a rock in the 
raging storm ; but it cannot be put into intelligible 
words. The grandest and deepest things of life 
have always been the inexpressible. 



CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES. 225 

Christ closes his comforting sermon by telling 
his disciples that in leaving them that he may go 
to his cross and his conflict he finds the purpose of 
his coming into the world. If he remained with 
them, as they desired, his life would be a failure, 
and the covenant of grace, whereby men are saved, 
would be a void and worthless thing. His going 
meant the salvation of man through the atonement 
of the cross. When understood in its true light, 
his going to his grand mission ought to be the 
occasion of joy to the disciples and not of sorrow. 
The angels, the first-born sons of God, shouted 
aloud for joy over the work of creation ; the whole 
universe should shout aloud for joy over the work 
of redemption. It was to the work of redemption 
that Christ went forth. With this thrilling thought 
this magnificent fourteenth chapter of John closes. 
Having finished his farewell address with this 
thought, Christ called upon his disciples to sing 
together the grand Hallel from the inspired book of 
praise, and he joined them in the singing. This 
Hallel was composed of the i i6th, 117th, and 11 8th 
Psalms. Most suitable was this Hallel or hallelu- 
jah for the occasion. It anticipated this very hour 
and foretold the redeeming work of Christ. Listen 
to the way it closes : 

" The stone which the builders rejected 
Is become the head of the corner. 
This is the doing of the Lord ; 
It is marvellous in our eyes. 
Save now, O Lord ; send now salvation ! 
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, 
Who cometh for our salvation. 

studies in John'R Gospel. TO* 



226 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

This is the day Jehovah hath made; 

Let us rejoice in it and be glad. 

A mighty God is Jehovah, and he giveth us light. 

Bind the sacrifice with cords upon the altar. 

Thou art my God, and I will give thanks unto thee ; 

Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. 

Oh give thanks unto Jehovah, for he is good, 

For his mercy endureth for ever." 

WHAT THINGS DOES THIS CHAPTER BID US TO PUT 
INTO OUR LIVES TO ENNOBLE AND TO COMFORT? 

The question is designed to wheel the immor- 
tal words of Jesus into telling service and to per- 
petuate their influence. Thou hast given us, O 
God, these lives of ours to construct and to use. 
Teach us, we pray thee, how to construct them 
and how to use them. Teach us how to protect 
them against paralyzing griefs. This chapter is 
God's reply uttered by the lips of his Son. The 
reply is threefold. 

I. Fill life with faith in God, if you would ennoble 
it and make it replete with comfort. 

There is no grand life apart from faith in God, 
and there is no true faith in God apart from faith 
in Christ, the only mediator between God and 
man. This is what this chapter rings out. This 
is the alpha and the omega of this farewell of 
Christ. It exalts the joy and peace of believing. 
It declares that faith in God drives out fear with 
its torments, because fear dv/arfs and paralyzes the 
Christian in every conceivable way. The great 
cry of this chapter is '' trust;' '' trust," " TRUST." 
*' Believe in God ; believe also in me." When you 



CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES. 22/ 

are in trial, trust in God. When you are battling 
with temptation, trust in God. When you are en- 
tering upon conflict and labor, trust in God. When 
your heart is rent and torn by the separations of 
bereavement, trust in God. What in God shall we 
trust ? Trust his love ; trust his wisdom ; trust his 
power ; trust his justice ; trust his covenant ; trust 
his pledged word. By faith build your whole life 
upon the nature of God as the wise man builds his 
house upon the solid rock. 

Of one thing be assured, that faith in God is 
equal to any task and to any crisis. It is equal to 
these becau3e it brings God into a man's personal- 
ity. God's wisdom acts and thinks through his 
brain ; God's holiness acts in and impels his con- 
science ; God's love inhabits and finds an outcome 
through his affections ; God's power hides itself 
and throbs in his arm. Faith is the conducting 
pipe running from the reservoir to the fountain : 
the conducting pipe puts all the fulness of the res- 
ervoir at the disposal of the fountain. When the 
fulness of the reservoir flows through the fountain 
there is a grand outburst of the crystal water. A 
miniature cataract plays in the air. Diamond 
drops, silver spray, and tinted rainbows — all these 
sparkle before the beholder, for all these are 
the product of the over-full fountain. When faith 
connects man and God, the very fulness of God 
flows into man, and the work of God in the man's 
life is sublime. Divine loves, divine joys, divine 
principles, divine habitudes, divine deeds, divine 
victories — all these appear in the man's history and 



228 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

beautify his life. The man becomes a living foun- 
tain of spiritual water in the world of humanity. 
To use the words of the Master himself, He is '' a 
well of water springing up into everlasting life." 

2. Fill life ivith prayer^ if you would ennoble it and 
make it replete with comfort. 

No prayerless life can either be comfortable or 
great. No man is equal to the crises of life who 
does not pray. Prayer puts our life into God's 
hand to be shaped and guided and protected. 
Prayer puts God with his infinite attributes into 
connection with us that we may use them in our 
heaven-assigned tasks. Christ could not live his 
human life without prayer ; neither can we. He 
spent whole nights in prayer ; and no one can tell 
the outcome of power attributable to those nights. 
The perfection of his human life came out of 
them. Prayer brought him the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost. Prayer brought him his transfigura- 
tion upon the mount. Prayer carried him through 
Gethsemane. Of Gethsemane it is written, " Be- 
ing in agony, he prayed ; and an angel came and 
strengthened him." Christ knew the power of 
prayer, and so when he found his disciples troubled 
in heart he told them to pray, and he set before 
them in his farewell address the power of prayer. 

I would have you notice, brethren, that in this 
fourteenth chapter of John Christ gives prayer a 
new power as he puts it afresh into the hands of 
his disciples. Prayer was a wonderful power 
under the Old Testament ; but he makes it a 
greater power under the New Testament. Was it 



CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES. 229 

not a wonderful power under the Old Testament ? 
See Moses praying Israel out of Egypt to the very 
border of the promised land. If it had not been 
for prayer, he could not have carried them one- 
half of the way. Time after time his prayer 
turned aside the thunderbolt of destruction. See 
Elijah praying the Hebrew reformation through 
to a glorious climax ! Yes ; prayer was a wonder- 
ful power under the Old Testament dispensation. 
But Christ adds to its force. He gives it what it 
never had before, the power of his own name. 
What does his name mean ? It means his grand 
personality, his love - fulfilling life, his penalty- 
bearing death. It means the covenant of grace 
fulfilled. It means that he has purchased for us 
the blessing for which we pray. We know that 
Christ by his coming and work has heightened 
praise and has given it a new sweep. He has 
called forth new songs. Mary sang a new song, 
and so did the aged Simeon, and so did thousands 
of other sweet singers. He has not only called 
out new songs, but he has broadened and widened 
the old songs. He made a new Psalm out of the 
twenty-fourth and a new Psalm out of the six- 
teenth. As Jesus has given praise a new sweep 
and a new power, even so has he given prayer a 
new sweep and a new power. This increase in the 
power of prayer is part of the reward of his humil- 
iation. It is so set forth by Paul in his letter to 
the Philippians. In enumerating the rewards 
which the Father gives him he writes, "Where-- 
fore God hath highly exalted him and given him a 



230 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

name which is above every name; that in the 
name of Jesus every knee should bow." The old 
version of the New Testament renders Paul's 
words, ''At the name of Jesus every knee should 
bow;" but the Revised Version gives the true 
meaning of the Greek and renders it, ''In the 
name of Jesus every knee should bow." That 
is, prayer should be made in his name, and the 
answers of prayer shall proclaim the greatness 
of his atoning work and its far-reaching effects. 
The effectiveness of prayer, now that it has added 
to it the power of Christ's redemptive work, seems 
almiost limitless. Mark Christ's own words in this 
chapter : " Hitherto you have asked nothing in my 
name ; but now whatsoever ye shall ask in my 
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glori- 
fied in the Son." With this new power New 
Testament men ought to be able to do far more by 
means of prayer than the Old Testament men did. 
We need to be taught concerning the value and 
power of prayer. We need to be urged to a great- 
er use of prayer. We need to be lifted to a faith 
in prayer like that which these disciples reached. 
In after life they realized the truth of what Christ 
said. One wrote, " The effectual fervent prayer of 
a righteous man availeth much." Another wrote, 
" Whatsoever we ask we receive of him ;" "And 
this is the confidence which we have in him, that 
whatsoever we ask according to his will, he heareth 
us." When I look at the new power which prayer 
has under the New Testament economy, I have no 
hesitancy in saying that when we are weak and 



CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES. 23 1 

despondent in life, the reason is we are prayer- 
less. 

3. Fill life with large anticipations of heaven^ if 
you would ennoble it and make it replete with comfort. 

You can readily see what heaven does when it 
is put into a man's life. It gives grand ideals. It 
makes him dissatisfied with the low and carnal. 
It keeps before him his true home. It emphasizes 
his pilgrim character here on earth. Such empha- 
sis is beneficial in that it secures the right use of 
the world. It subordinates the world to the soul. 
It feeds the imagination and consecrates it to God. 
It floods the earthly life with rays of glory and joy, 
and these rays brighten life, just as the natural 
sun-rays give the fields their brilliant flowers and 
the cloud-land its mountains of crimson and gold. 

When a man takes a firm grip upon heaven ; or 
rather, when heaven takes a grip upon a man, two 
things are the result. First, the man tries to bring 
heaven down to earth and aims at cultivating the 
heaven-spirit. He brings to earth heaven's wor- 
ship, heaven's purity, heaven's communion, and 
heaven's harmony with the v/ill of God. Second, 
the man tries to become meet for heaven. There 
must be a preparation of the saint for heaven as 
well as a preparation of heaven for the saint. He 
aims at building up a character which he can take 
with him into the uncreated presence of God. 
This, as any one can see, ennobles the present life 
and fills it with comfort. Eliminate from this life 
the views of heaven and of eternity which Christ 
gives his people, and that moment you make life 



232 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

narrow and selfish and sordid and carnal. That 
moment yon bury the noblest faculties of man, 
and make the animal nature the coffin of the 
spiritual nature. 

Do you ask me, What is there in my look heav- 
enward that sustains m.e in life and gives purity 
and joy? I answer, The beauty and grandeur of 
heaven charm me. That beauty is so superlative 
that it cannot be pictured. Human language has 
not yet framed the words or built up the analogies 
necessary. The fellowships of heaven charm, me. 
These in themselves would be enough, if heaven 
as a place were as ugly as sin. Fellowships are 
away beyond place. It is the presence of the king 
that makes a place the palace ; and it is the pres- 
ence of friends that makes the place a home. I 
receive joy from the anticipation of heaven, be- 
cause I shall meet there those whom I love, and I 
shall see face to face there Christ v/hom I worship. 

The perfection of the human in heaven into 
which I shall be introduced charms me. This to 
me is the charm of all charms, viz., realizing in 
myself God's perfect ideal for the immortal soul, 
reaching the climaxes of possibilities and bound- 
ing out into infinite progress. But v/hat is it to 
realize God's ideal ? It is to become the moral fac- 
simile of Jesus Christ. This is the way John puts 
it : " Beloved, now are we the sons of God : but it 
doth not yet appear what we shall be : but when 
he who is our life shall appear, we shall be like 
him, for we shall see him as he is." The grandest 
thing that I can see in looking heavenward is like- 



CHRIST COMFORTING HIS DISCIPLES. 233 

ness to Jesus Christ, sharing with him his perfect 
humanity and his communicable attributes as God. 
If there be anything beyond this, what is it? The 
friends of Rowland Hill stood around that eminent 
minister of God, as he was on his death-bed, and 
repeated to him for his comfort the things pertain- 
ing to Christ's divine sonship. They closed by 
telling him that he would soon see Jesus. The 
good man responded, " Brethren, that is not all ; 
that is only the least thing, seeing Jesus : I shall 
be like him, pure as he is pure." Likeness in 
purity to Jesus Christ, that is the chief thing. You 
may tell the dying saint of the goodly mansions, 
built on the streets of gold, beneath the branches 
of the tree of life, and close by the banks of the 
river of life. You may tell him of thrones and 
crowns and palms and sceptres and robes and 
harps and celestial whiteness : but these splendors 
are all outside of himself. If you would fill a dying 
saint with rapture, tell him that he Y\^ill resemble 
his Lord, and that all the deformities and scars of 
sin will pass away, and that he will live for ever in 
the stately beauty of holiness. Tell him this, and 
you magnify the power of heaven a thousand-fold. 
This is the great fact upon which to ring the 
changes : heaven, that city of mansions and of 
pearly gates and of golden streets and of jasper 
walls, heaven, that glorious capital of the skies, 
is matched in its glory and its beauty by the glory 
and the beauty of its eternal citizens, who are all 
the sons of God and who all resemble God. 



234 STUDIES IN JOPIN'S GOSPEL. 



CHRIST THE TRUE VINE. 

"I AM THE Vine, ye are the branches."— yc/^;^ 15:5. 

Jesus, the great Teacher, spake as man never 
spake. It is refreshing to hear him talk upon his 
wonderful themes. By him the water of ordinary 
speech was turned into wine. By his chaste words 
and thrilling similes and vivid pictures truth was 
made to live, heaven was brought down to earth, 
doors were opened into the far-away future, and 
golden visions were thrown into the darkened 
mind as the sunburst of the morning is thrown 
into night. 

As v/e read the conversations of Jesus, so full 
of magnificent conceptions, and picture out to our- 
selves tender scenes like the one before us, there 
is a voice within us which whispers, " Oh to have 
been one of the company which gathered around 
him !" To the wish we answer at first thought, 
*'Yes;" but to it we answer at second thought, 
" No." We have advantages beyond his first dis- 
ciples who looked into his face and listened to the 
great thoughts and facts uttered by his physical 
voice. These facts and thoughts were to them as 
unsolved problems. They were things to be 
wrought out by a testing experience. They were 
in marked contrast with the surroundings of Christ. 
His claims and his circumstances clashed. Such is 
not the case now. The problems have been solved. 



CHRIST THE TRUE VINE. 235 

Christ's claims have all been tested and proved. 
His great thoughts and facts have grown greater. 
The world sees him now as he saw himself eigh- 
teen hundred years ago. Back in the centuries he 
said, " I am the light of the world," and the Phari- 
sees laughed and the scribes passed his saying 
around as a jest. How does that claim of his ap- 
pear to-day ? Look on the map of the world and 
you will get a reply. Christlessness in this nine- 
teenth century means dark continents, but Christ 
and Christian churches mean lands of light. Back 
in the centuries Christ said to his disciples, " I am 
the vine, ye are the branches," and his disciples 
wondered what he could mean. But look at that 
saying now ! It has been explained by centuries 
of Christian faith and Christian oneness of be- 
lievers with Christ, and by the Christlike lives of 
his followers. 

Allow me an illustration. The unseemly bulb, 
which has in it unseen symmetry of form and 
beauty of color and unrealized delights of fra- 
grance, says, " I am the beauty of the garden. I 
can thrill you with my fragrance; prize me and 
esteem me." Unaccustomed to bulbs and unable 
to understand it, it appears to you to be nothing 
more than a poor haggard old root. You read 
very little into its words and promises. But let it 
be put into the grim earth ; give it the seasons ; 
let sun and soil and dew test its powers and claims. 
Stand before it when it reaches its development, 
when its flowers exhale its incense. See it just 
as it saw itself when it claimed to be the beauty of 



236 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the garden. Now you read sometliing into its 
words and now yon appreciate it. Men eighteen 
hundred years ago, in dealing with Jesus Christ, 
were dealing with the bulb, the root out of dry 
ground. We to-day, in dealing with Jesus Christ, 
are dealing with the flower in its beauty and sym- 
metry, waving in the sunlight as a golden censer. 
The ages have taken up the words of Christ and 
have emphasized them and expounded them and 
verified them and illustrated them. To go no fur- 
ther than our text, we can understand its words 
better and accept them more readily because of 
the lives which have been lived by faith in Christ. 
When we put Christ and John together, Christ 
and Peter together, Christ and Augustine together, 
Christ and Calvin together, Christ and Luther to- 
gether, Christ and Knox together, we see great 
beauty and meaning and comfort in the words, " I 
am the Vine, ye are the branches." Christ lived 
in these men and they owed all to him. Christ 
was the vine and they were the branches. 

I. THERE IS A REAL UNION BETWEEN CHRIST THE 
VINE AND CHRISTIANS THE BRANCHES. 

Such is the unity between the vine and the 
branch that you destroy the symmetry of both if 
you break the unity. The vine is wounded and 
scarred, and so is the branch. Nature meant them 
to be one. Nature made them one. They both 
live to keep the unity. They both fight the storm 
which would sever them. So real and palpable is 
the union between the vine and the branches that 



CHRIST THE TRUE VINE. 237 

it is absurd to try to prove it. It needs no proof ; 
you see it. That constitutes the beauty and 
strength of this simile. 

To the behever Christ says, There is a real 
union between you and me. As the materials in 
the vine are united, so our spiritual natures are 
united. The reality of the union is the point which 
we press now, not the similarity. There is a dis- 
similarity, because material and spiritual things 
are dissimilar. For example, in order for union in 
material things, nearness or contiguity is required. 
For a united temple, stone must rest upon stone 
from the foundation to the pinnacle. But near- 
ness or contiguity is no element in spiritual union. 
You are one with an absent friend, although you 
are in New York and he is in London. You hold 
fellowship with him and feel the beating of his 
love. Thus we even commune with friends who 
are dead. You are on earth, Christ is in heaven ; 
but faith pictures Christ, gives him a living form, 
and brings him into the soul. 

Most strikingly is the reality of the union be- 
tween Christ and the believer set forth in actual 
life by the Bible. It is set forth in the sensitive- 
ness of Christ to the feelings and the experiences 
of his people, and by the consciousness of his near- 
ness which his people have at all times, but espe- 
cially in the times of need. Illustrative examples 
crowd the mind. The Christians are persecuted 
by Saul of Tarsus, and Christ in heaven thrills 
with their woes, speeds from the throne to the 
gates of heaven, and cries to the persecutor in his 



238 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

madness, '' Saul, Saul, why persecutest tliou me !" 
You feel the indignity heaped upon your friend, 
the slander uttered against him, the accident which 
befalls him, because you are one with him. The 
union between him and you is so real, although of 
a spiritual character, that you account the indigni- 
ties and wrongs done to him as though they were 
done to you. Thus it is with Christ and his. The 
feelings which thrill through him in heaven be- 
cause of the treatment of his people on earth prove 
it. He who touches the saint touches the apple 
of His eye. 

II. THERE IS ONENESS OF LIFE BETWEEN CHRIST 
THE VINE AND CHRISTIANS THE BRANCHES. 

The very life that courses in the vine courses 
through the branches. It throbs in every tendril 
and in the smallest fibre of the utmost leaf. It 
animates every atom and particle. 

This is exactly what is true in the spiritual 
union between Christ and Christians. Paul asserts 
it in this fragment of a sentence, " Christ is our 
life." Christ himself declares it in this brief but 
full promise, '' Because I live ye shall live also." 
The same great fact was presented in the Old Tes- 
tament, where God said of his people, *' I will dwell 
in them and walk in them." John, the disciple of 
love, sets it forth. He says, " In Him dwelleth all 
fulness, and of his fulness have we received and 
grace for grace." Peter also adds his voice, '' We 
are made partakers of the divine nature." From 
these and other Scriptures which the simile of 



CHRIST THE TRUE VINE. 239 

Christ embodies we are made to feel that we are 
dependent on Christ for our spiritual life, and that 
he is inexhaustible as a supply. In our relation to 
him we are like the earth in its relation to the sun. 
The sun may be distant 92,000,000 miles, yet from 
it our earth receives its heat and light and beauty 
and vegetative power. Christ may be in heaven, 
but he sustains our life on earth. 

When we talk of Christ dwelling in his people 
we are not talking of a fancy or affection. There 
is mystery about it, true, but then it is a fact which 
can be dealt with and seen and accepted. There 
are many mysteries with which we deal and which 
we accept and use. Life is a mystery, yet we deal 
with it and accept it. A noted scholar has said, 
" The word /i/e Vv^anders through science to-day 
without a definition." The difficulties and mys- 
teries of religion are nothing more or less than the 
difficulties and mysteries of nature. Point out a 
difficulty in religion, and a corresponding difficulty 
in nature can be pointed out. It is not a fancy to 
say that one spirit dwells in and lives in and 
through another. It is a fact with which we are 
acquainted. We familiarly talk about it. We ad- 
mit that the demon lives in and through the demon- 
possessed. We talk of the general living in his 
army. He has the power of piercing the souls of 
his soldiers by his enthusiasm and courage. His 
daring burns in them. It finds its outcome in the 
rally and in the fearless charge upon the field. 
The scholar who is enwrapped with his teacher 
opens his nature to that teacher, and that teacher 



240 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

enters into him. The scholar becomes the anima- 
ted image of that teacher. The teacher's ideas 
are in him, the teacher's mental habits, sympa- 
thies, loves, character. The teacher lifts him up 
to himself, and so far as the scholar has capacity 
to receive he makes him one with him : he makes 
him his equal. He transfigures him until there is 
but little of the old self in him. The poet put our • 
thought in a way that we can see it : 

" The tidal-wave of deeper souls 
Into our inmost being rolls, 
And lifts us unawares 
Out of all meaner cares." 

III. THERE IS A ONENESS OF MANIFESTATION OR 
FRUITAGE UPON THE PART OF THE LIFE WHICH 
IS IN CHRIST THE VINE AND CHRISTIANS THE 
BRANCHES. 

In nature we see that the life which is in the 
vine, and which passes into the branches, works 
itself out and embodies itself in fruit. There it is 
in the rich purple clusters. The fruit is not of 
two kinds, one of the vine and another of the 
branch ; the fi'uit is one, and it embodies the one 
life. 

Christ in the believer seeks an outcome in life. 
The man who is Christ-full abounds in the fruits 
of the Spirit. Christ, wherever he is, must be ac- 
tive. He must be putting himself and his ener- 
gies into holy and loving deeds. Look at Jesus of 
Nazareth as you see him in the days of his flesh ! 
Could you have surpassed the life which he lived 



CHRIST THE TRUE VINE. 24I 

then ? No. He lived it as the absolute necessity 
of his attributes. His nature was irrepressible. It 
embodied itself in teaching and in deeds of kind- 
ness and in extended sympathies and in journeys 
of mercy. It was necessary for him to live as he 
did and to build up the character which he did. 
When the suffering woman touched him, virtue to 
heal leaped from him unbidden. It would have 
required a miracle to have made it act otherwise ; 
thus spontaneous was the whole of Christ's grand 
and perfect life. Now our point is this : Jesus of 
Nazareth is the Jesus Vs^ho is the believer. In the 
believer he must, according to the impulses of his 
nature, reproduce his earth-life and continue to do 
the deeds of Judaea. He must live in his people 
as he lived in his own humanity. When Christ 
lives in Paul, then Paul preaches and sacrifices 
and weeps over sinners. It was the yearning 
Christ in Paul that exclaimed, "Woe is me if I 
preach not the gospel." It was Christ in Paul who 
wept over the carnality of men. What we want 
to mark is tlie oneness of the fruit produced through 
the branch Paul united to the Vine Christ. Paul 
recognized it. Christ and Paul worked together, 
and there was no dividing and separating Christ 
and Paul in the labors which resulted from this 
union. No one could say. This much is Paul and 
that much is Christ. Christ lived in and through 
Paul in a way not to be divided from Paul. " I 
live," says Paul, and then he adds, '' yet not I, but 
Christ who liveth in me." The life in the fruit is 
one and indivisible. It is the Christ-life, The 

studies in John's Gospel. I I 



242 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

light which comes from the sun and the light re- 
flected by the moon is one and the same light. 
The call uttered by the living voice and given 
back in an echo by the forest is one call. It would 
be absurd for the plant to ask the gardener, How 
much of this fruit is I and how much soil and dew ? 
I imagine some one says, If this be the case, 
then we might as well have been made alike, the 
fac-similes of one another ; for when Christ takes 
hold of us and lives in and through us we lose our 
individuality. No^ we do not. Christ lives through 
our individuality. The organ does not lose its in- 
dividuality when the master musician pours his 
music through it ; neither does the cornet nor the 
flute. The same composition is rendered through 
each by the same musician, and each holds its in- 
dividuality. So John is John, and Paul is Paul, 
and James is James, and Thomas is Thomas, and 
Christ lives in them all. An enterprising bot^ 
anist cultivated a rosebush into which he grafted 
twenty varieties of exquisite flowers. The bush 
was full of beauty. There were all gradations 
of form and color there thriving on one stem. 
Viewed apart, each rose was fair and fragrant and 
carried its own individuality. Taken together the 
bush was matchless, filling the atmosphere with 
fragrance. This is the type of the church, which is 
being wrought into a glorious transcript of Christ. 
Every member is beautiful with Christ's beauty 
and embodying in real life Christ's communicable 
attributes ; but at the same time every member 
retains his own individuality^ 



CHRIST THE TRUE VINE. 243 

From our study of this simile of Christ, which 
sets forth the vital relation between him and 
Christians, there are two lessons which we ought 
to take with us : 

I . Christ can make 11s magnificent and grand. 

He can do for us what the vine does for the 
branch. He can make us like himself. Is there 
anything possible to humanity be3^ond likeness to 
Christ ? Is there anything that can satisfy so com- 
pletely our highest ideals and yearnings and in- 
stincts ? 

When we look on into the future, likeness to 
Christ is our highest conception. Take for exam- 
ple the future of these bodies of ours ! We won- 
der what they shall be. We hope for grand things 
concerning them — incorruption, immortality, spir- 
ituality. We search for one phrase by which to 
set forth their future in a clear, crisp, definite, and 
intelligent way. That one phrase we find. And 
what is it ? It is this : '' The body of our humilia- 
tion shall be fashioned and conformed to the like- 
ness of Christ's glorious resurrection body." To be 
like Christ in body satisfies us, for there is nothing 
beyond and there is nothing equal to it. What 
we say of the body we say of the soul. To be 
made like Christ is inconceivable grandeur. It is 
perfection. Now Christ can make us like himself. 
He has so assimilated his disciples that men have 
taken knowledge that they have been with Jesus. 
Behold what he has made out of men ! Remem- 
ber w^hat the fishermen became when He took hold 
of them ! Remember what He made out of Paul ! 



244 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

These men are only types teaching us what we 
ought to be and what we can be when Christ is 
formed within us. These men were types of our 
capacities. They show us what our soul is: not 
a vessel to be filled ; not a block of marble to be 
wrought upon ; but a seed endowed with capacities 
for growth, seed capable of growing into the pat- 
tern of Christ, the archetype. 

2. We become magnificent and grand in proportion 
as we open our 7iature to Christ. 

The branch is fruitful only as it takes into itself 
the life of the vine. The life that is in the vine 
must be allowed to rush into the thousand pores 
and veins that are in it. Then and only then will 
the clusters be abundant and luscious. Branches 
widely differ from branches, and the differences 
are accounted for by the degrees of receptivity. 
The branches that receive most from the vine bear 
the most fruit. 

It is with Christians as it is with branches. 
There are differences in them. They receive 
Christ in different degrees. Why does one flower 
have its cup full of dew, while its neighbor has 
not so much as the least pearl of dew ? It keeps 
its cup open, while its neighbor closes its cup. 
There are channels through which Christ com- 
municates himself to men. These are prayer, 
praise, the Word, the Lord's Supper. As we use 
these and receive Christ through these, so will he 
be in us to control us and to beautify us with his 
graces. Receive Christ and you will see what he 
will make of you. 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 245 

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

" He shall glorify Me."— /o/m 16:14. 

These words of Jesus when expressed in full 
read, " He the Spirit will glorify me the Christ." 
This statement starts a train of questions. First 
among these questions is, PV/io is the Spirit ? He 
is the third person of the glorious Trinity. But 
what is the Trinity ? This is the second question. 
The Trinity is the mode of God's existence. The 
Bible teaches that there is but one God, and that 
this one God subsists in three persons. 

The Westminster divines thus state the teach- 
ing of the Scripture : '* There are three persons in 
the Godhead, the Father and the Son and the 
Holy Ghost ; these three are one God, the same in 
substance and equal in power and glory." That 
this statement is scriptural there can be no doubt. 
The baptismal formula shows it and so does the 
apostolic benediction. But scriptural as it is, it 
deals with deep things, and we cannot understand 
it. We cannot make it plain to our minds that 
three subsist in one. Just here comes in the next 
question. Are we expected to believe and use what we 
canjiot understand? The answer is. You do so in 
other spheres, and why not in this sphere? If 
you believe and use only the things which you 
understand, you will believe and use very few 
things. The things understood are infinitesimal 



246 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

in number in comparison with the things not un- 
derstood. The commonest things about us are 
imexplained and unexplainable. There is the 
beautiful flower ! Are you not going to use that? 
You do not understand its construction, how it has 
been woven with exact skill, how every flower on 
the one plant is woven after a pattern and with 
the same colors, as though there were a presiding 
genius at every loom, how the tints are blended 
together in perfection and according to the high- 
est taste. There may be a mis-matching of colors 
in a woman's bonnet, but there is no mis-matching 
of colors in the wardrobe of nature. Are you 
going to admit into your life only that which you 
can understand and explain ? Then you are going 
to annihilate the science of horticulture and keep 
the flowers out of your life. You cannot under- 
stand the growth of the golden grain, the staff of 
life, any more than you can understand the growth 
of flowers. Are you going to veto the golden 
grain and keep it out of your life ? We will be- 
lieve and use only what we can understand ! The 
rule is not a good one in any department of life. 

Just here comes in another question, and it is 
the leading question. It is this : '' How would you 
have us deal with the Trinity so that it may be- 
come a reality to us and so that we may use it?" 
I would have you deal with it practically, for this 
is the way the Word of God presents it. There 
are two ways of knowing a thing : we can know it 
philosophically or we can know it practically. A 
practical study calls us to deal with effects ; a phil- 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 247 

osophical study calls us to deal with causes and 
essences. The philosophical study of a thing re- 
quires upon our part the knowledge of as much 
philosophy as is incorporated into the thing to be 
studied. To know God philosophically we would 
have to possess a mind equal to God's. It takes a 
God to understand a God. Hence it is that the 
Bible never tries to explain the Trinity and never 
philosophizes upon God's mode of existence. 
There is a God-side from which to look at the 
Trinity, and there is a man-side. The Bible tells 
us to look at it from the man-side, i. e., to deal 
with the effects which come from the existence 
and operation of the Trinity. What the flower 
does makes the flower real to us. Even a blind 
man can tell it. It freights the air with perfume, 
and he knows it by its fragrance which shoots 
through him and gives him pleasure. What the 
Trinity does makes the Trinity real to us. As 
each flower has its separate perfume, so each per- 
son of the Trinity has his separate attitude and 
work, and when these are realized they become so 
distinct that they cannot be mixed. We should 
deal with these until we get them distinctly before 
us. When we do the Trinity will be a reality. 
We should deal with the Trinity practically and 
not philosophically. 

What perfume does the flower manufacture? 
That is the question. What work does each per- 
son of the Godhead do? That is the question. 
What attitude does each hold to us ? If each Per- 
son assumes an attitude and does a work, then we 



248 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

know that there are as many Persons as there are 
attitudes and works. The First Person assumes 
the attitude of Father and Designer, the Second 
Person assumes the attitude of Brother and Ex- 
ecutor, the Third Person assumes the attitude of 
Animater and Applier. These are all separate 
attitudes and works, and they give vividness to 
the personality and existence of the Three in One. 
The Bible calls us to dwell upon these, and that is 
the way it treats the Trinity. 

It is the aim of Christ in this Scripture to make 
the Spirit real by setting forth his work and em- 
phasizing its incalculable importance. He sums 
up the Spirit's work and the object of his reign on 
earth in one single phrase, "He shall glorify me." 
There is something then in Christ to look upon 
besides a cross : there is a glory. When the Spirit 
comforts, when he convicts of sin, when he ex- 
hibits the truth of the kingdom, when he sanctifies 
the immortal soul, he glorifies Christ. He does 
all that he does by using Christ and the things of 
Christ. He comforts by unrolling the promises 
of Christ. He convicts of sin by bringing the 
sinner into contrast with the perfect, holy, and 
condemning life of Christ, and by lifting it up as 
the rule of conduct. He sanctifies the immortal 
soul by forming within it Christ the hope of glory. 
Whatever the Spirit does centres in some form in 
Christ. It is his office-work to act as Christ's vice- 
gerent, and to apply to men Christ and his bene- 
fits. All subjective work in our redemption has 
been committed to Him. 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 249 

As the work of the Spirit is summed up in 
this phrase of Christ, '' He shall glorify Me," we 
propose in this study to examine some of the ways 
in which the Spirit glorifies Christ. 

I. THE SPIRIT GLORIFIES CHRIST BY VINDICATING 
HIS CLAIMS. 

To do this is a most important thing. But we 
expect important things from the coming of the 
Spirit. Our expectations are based upon the pre- 
dictions of prophecy which foretold the coming of 
the reign of the Spirit, and also from the emphasis 
which Christ gave to his coming. He said that 
the Spirit's coming would be the enduement of 
the disciples with power. He said that the coming 
of the Spirit would be a grand and beneficial ex- 
change for his own going. Better the Spirit's 
presence than Christ's physical presence. ''It is 
expedient that I go away and that the Spirit 
come." If this be so, there must be some grand 
outcome from the presence of the Spirit. There 
is such an outcome: The presence of the Spirit 
establishes the claims of Christ. 

Christ made great claims for himself. He 

claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed that 

he was going to dwell in heaven amid the glory 

of the Father. He claimed that while there he 

would work for the interests of his people, and by- 

and-by would come and receive them to himself to 

share his risen life and glory. But how are these 

great claims to be established? How shall the 

disciples know that he lives in heaven, and that 
II* 



250 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

the Father has accepted of his sacrifice as their 
surety, and that he is working in glory for them 
and getting ready to come ? Jesus gives them a 
test. It is a severe test. He says that he will 
send the Almighty Spirit, who will come and fill 
them with divine power and who will do divine 
works through them. That test could not stand 
if Jesus were not what he claimed to be. If he 
were an impostor, he could have no control over 
the Almighty Spirit. The Holy Spirit has noth- 
ing to do with impostors. Thus the disciples rea- 
soned ; so they accepted the test. 

Was the test made good ? Yes. On the day of 
Pentecost, according to the promise of Christ, the 
Spirit came amid great wonders and filled the 
disciples and gave them wonderful gifts. To 
prove to the world that he was in the disciples of 
Jesus, and that they were the people of God, and 
their cause was of heaven, he wrought divine mir- 
acles through them which no one could gainsay. 
These miracles continued to be wrought until the 
Spirit established the fact of his reign on earth. 

What have we to say of these things which 
sound so marvellous and strange ? We have this 
to say : If Pentecost be a fact in history, it is one 
of the most marvellous of days; for it not only 
brings a grand power into the Church of God, but 
it brings also the proof and demonstration of 
Christ's great claims. He is the Son of God, as 
he said he was. He is in glory, our accepted sac- 
rifice, our risen and interceding Saviour, as he 
said he would be. The great and marvellous test 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 2$ I 

which Christ set up was verified. This is simply 
a plain statement of facts. This is the way the 
early disciples looked at things. They raised the 
cry in their day, " Jesus is glorified, for the Spirit 
has iDeen given." There is abundant Scripture to 
show this. Peter and John, in declaring Christ 
and his resurrection to the Sanhedrin, said, " We 
are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy 
Ghost." Paul, in summing up the facts of the 
Christian religion, says, " Great is the mystery of 
godliness, God manifest in the flesh, justified in 
the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gen- 
tiles, believed on in the world, and received up 
into glory." The only phrase in his summary per- 
tinent to our purpose is this : " He was justified in 
the Spirit," or literally translated, " He was vindi- 
cated by the Spirit." This is our point exactly. 
Christ was vindicated in all his holy claims by the 
Spirit, who came according to his promise, and 
who to-day carries forward his work on earth. If 
there were no risen and exalted and glorified and 
ruling Christ, there would be no Almighty, all- 
present Spirit comforting and sanctifying and 
guiding believers and assimilating them to the 
glorious likeness of Christ. 

II. THE SPIRIT GLORIFIES CHRIST BY SETTING 
FORTH HIS PERSON AND WORK IN CLEAR AND 
ATTRACTIVE LIGHT. 

Jesus said, " He shall take the things which are 
mine and show them unto you." I do not know 
that we can better treat this point than by looking 



252 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

at its exemplification in the disciples among whom 
Jesus spent his earthly ministry. As we read the 
gospel history we grow impatient at their slowness 
in learning of him. They do not recognize his 
character or fathom his sayings or enter into sym- 
pathy with his divine mission. They had false 
ideals, and they expected him to realize these. 
They expected him to be a king, but they de- 
graded his kingdom by expecting it to be a carnal 
kingdom. They never dreamed of that grand 
spiritual kingdom which Jesus set up. They 
never dreamed of Christ as king enthroned in the 
souls of men, and thus ruling their lives. Their 
ideas of him as a king were wrong ; their ideas of 
him as a prophet were obscure ; and as for his 
priesthood, that was simply a blank. When it was 
set before them it proved a stumbling-block. The 
cross with its sacrifice for sin was an offence to 
them. 

Such were the disciples prior to the advent of 
the Spirit. Let us look at them after the descent 
of the Holy Ghost. What is Christ to them now 
that they enjoy the indwelling of the Spirit? Their 
Christ now is the Christ of the book of the Acts 
and of the Epistles and of the Apocalypse. They 
see in him all the grandeur which was typified in 
the great men of their nation, in their prophets 
and priests and kings. They see him as ''the 
brightness of the Father's glory and the express 
image of his person." What grander pictures 
could we have of Christ than those which these 
disciples draw in the after-writings of the New 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 253 

Testament? When we look at these pictures, 
drawn by the aid of the Spirit, we can appreciate 
the work of glorifying Christ which the Spirit 
carries forward by giving clear and correct views 
of Christ. 

The difference between the views of Christ 
and his work with the Spirit and without the 
Spirit may be illustrated by the difference be- 
tween stereopticon views looked at by means of 
the electric light and without the electric light. 
As you look at the simple glass slides, you cannot 
discern the details of the pictures. They have no 
beauty or distinctness. But put the slides into the 
art lantern, and put the electric light behind them 
and let it throw the pictures upon the canvas, 
and lo ! they glow before you in a state of trans- 
figuration. Is the scene a picture of London? 
London is before you in all the vividness of real- 
ity — Westminster with its turrets, St. Paul with 
its dome, the British Museum with its massive- 
ness ; the Thames flows in its course and the 
streets teem with busy traffic. Is the picture that 
of some noted piece of statuary ? The power of the 
light brings the statue out in its most admired de- 
tails, and you look upon the masterpiece and get 
almost as true a conception of it as though you 
looked upon its very self. Christ without the 
illumination of the Spirit is like the stereopticon 
views on the glass slide without the electric light ; 
but Christ with the illumination of the Spirit is 
like the stereopticon views thrown upon the can- 
vas with the transfiguring power of the light. 



254 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

When we see him in the illumination of the Spirit 
amid the glory which belongs to him, we join with 
the great company of celestial singers introduced 
by the Apocalypse and with them sing, '' Worthy 
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and 
riches and wisdom and honor and glory and bless- 
ing." 

III. THE SPIRIT GLORIFIES CHRIST BY ENLARGING 
HIS PRESENCE. 

So long as Christ was on earth in person he 
was localized. There was a limit to his physical 
presence. If he were here now in his human 
nature, he would be localized ; but ascended to the 
Father that he may be here in the person of the 
Spirit, who is his substitute, he is omnipresent. 
Were he here, if John leaned on his bosom Peter 
could not. If he were in Jerusalem, then London 
and New York and Boston would have to do with- 
out him. In his human nature he could only be in 
one place at one time. Christ says that the spirit- 
ual presence is better than the personal, in view of 
the work that remains to be done in perfecting 
saints and pushing the cross to its triumph. The 
spiritual presence is universal, the bodily or per- 
sonal presence is local. The Spirit is omnipresent, 
and Christ in the Spirit is omnipresent. 

The difference between the presence of Christ 
in person and his presence in the Spirit, is like the 
difference in Mary's ointment-box whole and her 
ointment -box broken. While whole the sweet 
fragrance was confined to the box ; but when the 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 255 

box was broken the frao^rance filled the whole 
house. In the house it was omnipresent and all 
felt the sensations which it gave. Canon Liddon 
writes, " It may seem strange to say it, but the 
New Testament does teach that Christ's spiritual 
presence is a closer and a more intimate presence 
than the presence of his human nature. They 
who came nearest to Christ when he was on earth 
but kissed his feet, lay in his bosom, were led by 
his hand, or were carried in his arms. This is im- 
measurably distant in comparison with his dwell- 
ing in men, and making the soul a temple through 
the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. They who 
have the Holy Spirit recognize and possess Christ, 
not as an external presence or external voice or 
external touch, but as an internal presence, touch, 
and voice." What the believers wish most of all 
is to realize the presence of Christ : his presence in 
worship, in prayer, in praise, in the Word, in the 
Lord's Supper, and in the sway of the providences. 
This is what believers do realize, and they realize 
it at the same time in regions of the earth far 
separated. Why is this ? The Spirit is every- 
where present making Christ real and carrying 
forward his work. 

IV. THE SPIRIT GLORIFIES CHRIST BY ILLUMINING 
HIS WORD. 

Christ said, " He shall guide you into all truth." 
In the study of the Word we need the Spirit to 
shed light. All the beauties of inspiration are in 
the Word ; but we need spiritual light to vSee them. 



256 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

Before the tourist on the mountain-top at mid- 
night all the beauties of the landscape are stretched 
forth ; but he needs the dawning of the morning 
sun to make them clear and discernible. 

You can see what the Spirit does with the 
Word in the life of Paul. He was a student of the 
Old Testament, a disciple at the feet of Gamaliel, 
but he did not recognize Jesus of Nazareth to be a 
fac-simile of the Old Testament Messiah. The 
Old Testament was a dark book to him. Such was 
the state of things before he received the Spirit. 
Now mark him after he receives the Spirit ! The 
Book flashes with light. Jesus of Nazareth is the 
fac-simile of the Old Testament Messiah. With 
the Old Testament open in his hand, Paul goes 
through the world preaching Christ. 

The Holy Spirit illumines the Book and lets us 
see Christ in it, Christ in the histories and in the 
prophecies and in the Gospels and in the Psalms. 
He does not make a new Word ; he does not add 
anything to Christ's sayings ; he does not build a 
new temple of truth ; he enters into the present 
temple, which is complete, and illumines it from 
foundation to dome. The illuminating power of 
the Spirit in relation to the Word explains the dif- 
ferent effect which the Word has upon us at differ- 
ent times. Sometimes the grand chapter seems 
dull ; at other times the grand but old chapter 
seems new. It gives us new faith, new hope, new 
love, and new views of God. We are not equally 
under the power of the Spirit, hence the same 
chapter moves us differently. Every time we 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 25/ 

Open God's Book we should look to heaven for the 
Spirit, that he may control our minds and throw 
light upon the holy page. 

V. THE SPIRIT GLORIFIES CHRIST BY BEAUTIFYING 
AND PERFECTING THE CHURCH, WHICH IS THE 
BODY OF CHRIST. 

We do not now refer to the work which the 
Spirit does in the individual saint, whom he pol- 
ishes as a living stone for the spiritual temple ; we 
refer to the work which the Spirit does in believ- 
ers as combined in the organism called the church. 
'' Ye are builded together for an habitation of God 
through the Spirit." Christ now lives on earth 
through the church, which is Spirit-filled. The 
Spirit as Christ's representative became incarnate 
in the church on the day of Pentecost. The book 
of the Acts shows what He does in and for the 
church. The advances of the church are dictated 
by him. He put his seal upon the opening of the 
door of the Christian Church to the incoming of 
the Gentiles. He makes known when old positions 
and customs should be given up. The edict of 
abandonment reads, " It seems good to us and the 
Holy Ghost to lay upon you," etc. He chooses the 
workmen of the church. The Spirit said, " Sepa- 
rate me Barnabas and Paul for the work," etc. He 
opens new fields. He sent Paul over to Europe 
when he would have gone into the heart of Asia. 
The Spirit is bringing the church to its perfection, 
and under his work it will some day be glorious, 
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. 

Ftii'lies in John's Goppcl. 



258 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

DUTIES. 

1. We should see Christ as glorified by the Spirit. 
Why ? Because thus seeing Christ means our 

absorption by Christ. The grander and truer our 
friends appear to us, the more we live in them, 
the greater influence they have over us. Thus it 
is with Christ : the more glorious he appears to us, 
the more we delight in him and yield ourselves to 
him. 

2. We should yield ourselves to the Spirit who glori- 
fies Christ. 

The Spirit must do a personal work in us rela- 
tive to Christ. Can we enjoy the presence of the 
Spirit and his influence? We can. The Spirit 
will be given us if we ask for him. It was as 
Christ prayed at his baptism that he received the 
Spirit. It was when the disciples on the day of 
Pentecost prayed that they received the Spirit. 



CHRIST'S INTERCESSORY PRAYER. \ 259 

CHRIST'vS INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 

"Jesus lifted up his eyes to hkaven."— John 17:1. 

Great events are hastening into history. The 
last and most thrilling chapter in Christ's wonder- 
ful story is being put into type. Jesus looked for- 
ward to it from the beginning and often spake of 
it. He became incarnate for the express pur- 
pose of meeting it. He set it forth as the culmi- 
nating point of his earthly experience. It centred 
in itself the destinies of man and the grandest ex- 
hibit of the glory of God. Realizing that the 
clock of time was striking, Jesus lifted up his eyes 
to heaven and said, " Father, the hour is come." 
When he finished his high-priestly prayer, which 
he began thus, dark event and dark event struck 
him as thunder-bolt and thunder-bolt from the 
storm-cloud strike the tempest-riven mountain- 
peak. The betrayal, the desertion, the denial, the 
scourging, and the crucifixion swept upon him in 
overpowering and rapid succession. This was the 
hour which called forth his high-priestly prayer. 

THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRAYER. 

I. TJie prayer is a fitting close of Christ's public 
ministry. 

The English dramatist has said, ''All's well 
that ends well," and there is much truth in vShake- 



26o STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

speare's saying. The end is all - important. It 
would never do for the life of Elijah to end under 
the juniper-tree ; it must end in the chariot of fire. 
It would never do for the story of Jesus to end 
with the sealed tomb ; it must end with the ascen- 
sion amid the hymning angels, and with the en- 
thronement amid the majesty at the right hand of 
God. It would never do for the words of Jesus, 
the world's Teacher, to end with the burning male- 
dictions hurled at an oppressing aristocracy ; they 
must end with this prayer of love, which carries in 
it the golden age of the church and the blessed 
future of the world. 

The ministry of Jesus with its fearless courage, 
its heavenly revelations, its Godlike promises, and 
its pure and matchless principles, is something 
sublimely magnificent. Can it be properly climaxed ? 
That is the question which we ask ourselves as we 
are held spell-bound by his ministry. The inter- 
cessory prayer is the answer. It can be climaxed. 
This address to his Father in heaven, full of shi- 
ning words of burning love, is the climax. It is 
the legitimate outgrowth of his ministry, just as 
the luscious fruit is the outgrowth of the life of 
the tree. It is full of the same love and faith and 
zeal. It sums up the purposes of his ministry and 
reaches after the same gracious ends. It announces 
the same grand doctrines and sets forth the same 
duties. It rings out the same note of triumph 
which the last sermon rings out \'' Be of good cheer, 
I have overcome the worlds It voices precisely the 
same wish which the cross, the culmination of his 



CHRIST'S INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 261 

ministry, voices. Oh how he must have wished 
for us, when he could die to bring us into eternal 
and intimate fellowship with himself ! 

His address to the Father is one of the grand- 
est of the last grand things in his earthly life. It 
is fit to stand next to and to companionate with 
the sacrifice of himself upon the cross, the expres- 
sion of his infinite love. 

2. The prayer carries with it the appreciation of 
all the subsequent ages. 

That to which all the ages pay tribute must 
have merit. That which has refreshed all genera- 
tions must have worth. The devout worshipper 
appreciates the songs of the church. Why ? Be- 
cause they have been the spiritual chariots in 
which the adorations of souls have ridden into the 
highest heaven. Their wheels have rolled over 
the pathway between earth and heaven so often 
that they have cut safe and guiding tracks. Fol- 
lowing this same line, we must appreciate this 
prayer because of what it has done for the past. If 
you will examine the Bibles used by the fathers 
who have gone to their reward, you will find that 
the pages which are thumbed the most are the 
pages which record this prayer. The tear-marks 
are here, showing that many a burning thought 
leaped from the Holy Book and brought the heart 
of the reader into a tender and a deep response to 
the heart of the praying Jesus. This prayer of 
the Christ has been a fountain of hope and joy and 
holy ambition in the Christian Church for nineteen 
centuries. 



262 STUDIES IN JOHN^S GOSPEL. 

' Bengel, the German, writes, " This chapter is 
the simplest in language in the Bible, but it is the 
profoundest in meaning." Melanchthon, the friend 
of Luther, writes, " No voice has been heard either 
in heaven or on earth more exalted, more holy, 
more faithful, or more sublime than this prayer 
offered by the Son of God." He then gives this 
analysis of it : " Christ prays for himself and then 
for the whole church. For the church he asks for 
four things : For the preservation of doctrine, for 
the appreciation of his sacrifice, for concord, and 
for the investiture of the church with life and 
joy and eternal glory." Another of the fathers 
writes, "It is the climax and consummation of 
all of Christ's utterances. It presses nearest 
heaven, and breathes most immediately of its 
mysteries. It is the Holy of holies in Scripture. 
It is a specimen of the communication which was 
kept up between the Father and the Son all 
through the earthly life of Christ. It speaks of 
all the profound relationships: the relationship 
between the Father and the Son, between Christ 
and the church, and between the church and the 
world." 

3. TJie prayer is full of instructive word pictures. 

To the man of an artist mind there is a picture 
in every verse, and each picture is a profound 
study. It gives us pictures of the innermost life 
of Christ, pictures of the Christian's possibilities, 
pictures of the eternities, past and future ; pictures 
of divine fellowships, earthly and heavenly; pic- 
tures of Christian duties and of Christian ideals, 



CHRIST'S INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 263 

pictures of God's gifts to his people ; and pictures 
of the covenant of grace. 

// gives us a picture of the love of God the Father, 
Christ exhibits the Father's love towards us in 
the form of a daring analogy. His words are, 
''Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me." 
God's love for his Son is the measure of his love 
towards us. What a field there is here for adoring 
and grateful thought ! What is God's love towards 
Christ ? It is a Father's love. We know what an 
earthly father's love is. We see it in Jacob as he 
parts with Benjamin. We see it in the broken- 
hearted David as he laments his dead Absalom. 
An earthly father's love is such as melts and 
moves our entire being. But what is the love of 
an earthly father in comparison with the love of 
God the divine Father ! What is the finite in 
comparison with the infinite ? As well try to give 
an idea of the vastness of the shore of the ocean 
by exhibiting a handful of sand, as well try to 
make men conceive of the grandeur and beauty of 
the autumnal forests when clad in the robes of 
sunset splendor by exhibiting a few sprays of 
burning leaves, as try to represent the love of 
God the Father by illustrations taken from an 
earthly father's love. God's love to us is infinite, 
and he proves it to be infinite by an infinite gift, 
the gift of his own Son. 

What the world needs most is a true concep- 
tion of God, and this is what Christ most tries to 
give the world. His picture of God is that of a 
loving Father. Everything that pertains to God, 



264 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

his sovereignty, his infinite attributes, are all en- 
throned in his Fatherhood. If men cannot trust 
and love the God whom Jesus pictures, I cannot 
see why. . If God is willing to love us as he loves 
his Son, with whom he has fellowshipped through- 
out eternity, what more can we ask from God ? It 
is impossible to conceive of anything beyond this 
that God can give. 

It gives us a picture of Christ himself. 

Usually the prayers of a man are the best index 
of what the man is. They reveal his aims and his 
ideals. They not only show what he is, they 
show what he would be. All this is true with 
reference to Christ. We learn of him through 
his prayers and see him as he sees himself. I am 
willing to take this prayer as an index of Jesus 
Christ. I am willing to say to the world, '' If you 
would see Jesus, judge him by this picture." 

This picture opens to us his inner life. It 
shows us his consciousness of preexistent glory 
and of co-eternity with the Father. It shows us 
his hidden purposes and his absolute self-commit- 
ment to the work of saving man. He was for 
ever devoting himself to this gracious mission. 
As a boy he set himself apart to it. '' Wist ye not 
that I must be about my Father's business?" He 
reconsecrated himself to it in the agonies of Geth- 
semane. 

As we scrutinize his innermost life which is 
here brought to view, we find that it was all glori- 
ous within. Within there was nothing but holy 
purposes and pure desires and lofty aims and irre- 



CHRIST'S INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 265 

versible decrees of self-sacrifice. His life was shot 
through and through with the glory of God. I 
know of no Christ grander than the Christ of the 
intercessory prayer. He is a stimulus and a re- 
freshment and a life-generating model. Let men 
grasp the Christ of the seventeenth chapter of 
John and know him and appreciate him as he 
ought to be known and appreciated, and the world 
will go into raptures over him and will sing with 
all its soul that song of praise which is destined to 
become universal, " Worthy is the Lamb that was 
slain to receive riches and wisdom and strength 
and honor and glory and blessing!" 

THE PETITIONS OF THE PRAYER. 

I. He asks his Fat Iter that he may be glorified. 

His petition for himself is short, but it implies 
much. He asks the Father to put the stamp of his 
approbation upon his finished work and to declare 
his oneness with him. How can the Father do 
this ? By exalting Christ. By sending the angels 
and inaugurating the ascension. Once the Father 
glorified Jesus by owning him. He spake down 
through the skies and said, " This is my beloved 
Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." 
Jesus wants to be owned again and in a fuller 
way. He wants to receive that name which is 
above every name, and to be lifted above princi- 
palities and powers and mights and dominion 
and above every name in the celestial world. 
He would have the Father invest his voluntary 
humanity with the eternal glory which he emp- 
12 



266 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

tied himself of when he took the form of a ser- 
vant. 

There was great glory in the exaltation of 
Jesus Christ. How the angels sang when he en- 
tered the gates of pearl as the King of glory! 
His entrance inaugurated new celestial scenes. 
Heaven never rang with praise as it rang then, 
and there will never be such another jubilee until 
Christ enters a second time with his glorified 
church. 

In this petition for himself Christ prays that 
he may be made known in his true character. His 
character is his glory. His character is made up 
of love and purity and self-sacrifice. But men do 
not know this, hence they misunderstand him 
and underrate him. Now he asks that he may be 
known as he is. With Christ to become truly 
known is to become glorious. He is glorified in 
the same way that the sun in the sky is glorified. 
How is the sun glorified ? By being allowed to 
shine in its true strength. Sweep the clouds from 
the mighty vault and let it shine. Let its glint- 
ing shafts shoot throughout the wide world; let 
them sparkle in the dewdrop and embody them- 
selves in the beautiful flowers and flame in their 
burning colors. Let Christ have an outcome. 
Let him as King of nations mould and shape em- 
pires and states and rear ideal civil governments 
righteous in all their functions. Let him re-incar- 
nate himself in men and women who will love as 
he loved and work as he worked and live as he 
lived. Let him be reproduced by a consecrated 



CHRIST S INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 20/ 

church which will know nothing among men but 
the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Let 
his character be unfolded by the Spirit of God. 
Let all these things take place, and then Christ will 
be revealed and glorified in the revelation. We 
have not yet reached the full revelation of Christ. 
All the Messianic passages of the Bible have not 
yet been unlocked. The things of Christ have not 
all been shown to the saints. Throughout eternity 
there will be new and fresh exhibits of Christ, and 
these will call out new and fresh outbursts which 
will keep heaven always fresh and thrilling. 

2. He asks J lis Father to keep J lis people separated 
from the evil in the world. 

He wants them kept within the sphere of a 
holy life. He wants them to be made conscious 
that their citizenship is in heaven. That there 
may be no mistake he declares what he does not 
mean, and then he declares what he does mean. 
He does not mean that his people shall become 
anchorites and enter monasteries and nunneries ; 
but he does mean that while they mingle with 
men they shall be kept from the principles and 
habits and maxims which sway and shape the 
lives of the unregenerated. Mixing with people 
does not necessarily make men worldly. Daniel 
in Babylon, in the human whirl of the capital of 
the nation, was unworldly, while Adam in Para- 
dise, with no companion but his wife, became 
worldly. 

Christ's doctrine is this : The world needs the 
Christian, and the Christian needs the world. The 



268 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

world needs the Christian, so Christ puts the Chris- 
tian in the world to be His representative, to re- 
flect His character, and to titter His doctrine. 
The Christian needs the world, so Christ puts the 
world around the Christian that it may school and 
try and discipline him. The Christian is to be in 
the world but not of the world. 

The fact that Christ emphasized unworldliness 
as a trait of Christian character by praying that 
his people may be kept unworldly, makes plain 
the essentiality of this characteristic, and requires 
us to give it a special study. We will be helped 
in our study if we ask such questions as these : 

What sJwuld be the type of our unworldliness ? 

It should be such as Christ's. He mingled 
with men, sailed in their fishing-boats, worked in 
their shops, joined in their feasts, but in all these 
scenes he never forgot that he was Christ, and 
more than this, he never let others forget it. The 
world always felt that there was a difference be- 
tween him and it. In our business and pleasures 
we must never forget that we are Christians, and 
we must never let others forget it. 

Why is unworldliness insisted upon ? 

Because there can be no Christian life without 
it. ''Ye cannot serve God and mammon." "Ye 
cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of 
devils!" ''Know ye not that the friendship of 
this world is enmity with God ?" If the cedar and 
the thistle must grow together on the Lebanon of 
this world, let them not be married. " Be ye not 
unequally yoked with unbelievers." The world- 



CHRIST'S INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 269 

life and the Christ-life are separated in nature, and 
therefore they should be separated in form. They 
mean two characters, two works, two destinies, two 
eternities. 

How may we test ourselves and gauge the degree of 
our unworldliness ? 

By examining our affinities and preferences 
and seeing if these seek heavenly things and heav- 
enly people. By scrutinizing our influence. If 
we are unworldly we shall have spiritual power, 
and this will tell in bringing others to faith in 
Christ. Men will believe because of our lives. 
There are many Lots in the church, who because 
of their worldly-mindedness make no saving im- 
pression upon Sodom. They do not save their 
own families, to say nothing of saving the com- 
munity. 

How cart we promote unworldliness ? 

By keeping ourselves under the influence of 
the truth and by consecrated and earnest living. 
Serve God and there will be no danger from mam- 
mon. 

3. He asks his Father that his people may be bound 
together in unity. 

Christ saw dangers in the coming history of 
the church, and he threw his prayer between his 
people and these. He knew that the arch-enemy 
would seek to weaken the church by divisions, so 
he warned the church and called it to guard its 
unity. He tells believers that their unity should 
be like the unity of the Godhead. The persons of 
the Godhead are one in love and will and purpose. 



270 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

How far we are from realizing the ideal of Christ ! 
There is room for improvement in church union. 
We are not yet up to Christ's standard. Still 
things are not as bad as some would represent 
them. It is true that there are some who call 
themselves Christians who disfellowship those 
whom Christ fellowships; but these are not the 
most lovable Christians. They are not to be taken 
as the best types. They are not the people with 
whom you would want to fellowship. You would 
have to be very hard up for fellowship before you 
would apply at their door. The people who are 
denied fellowship do not feel the denial. The un- 
loving and exclusive Christians are the losers, and 
not the disfellowshipped Christians. 

I think Christ's prayer has had a large answer. 
It had its answer in the churches of the apostolic 
times. It has its answer to-day. The different 
bodies of Christians are wonderfully united in first 
principles and in the holding of the doctrines 
which introduce the soul to Christ as the Saviour. 
The churches are largely agreed upon the type of 
life which they shall insist upon and which they 
call Christian life. Men may attempt to disfellow- 
ship one another, but the fact is, Christian fellow- 
ship is not at the disposal of human decree. Chris- 
tian fellowship is at the disposal of the Spirit of 
God, and only at his disposal. The Holy Ghost is 
the bond of Christian communion. Men may deny 
me the signs of fellowship, but if I have the Spirit 
I have the fellowship without the signs. When 
men of different nations and different educations 



CHRIST'S INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 2/1 

and different endowments and different tempera- 
ments are taken hold of and inhabited by the 
Spirit of God, they are one in the truest sense ; 
they have spiritual and divine things in common, 
and this is fellowship, and nothing else is. 

When God sent the Holy Ghost into the Chris- 
tian Church on the day of Pentecost, he largely 
answered this petition of Jesus for Christian unity. 
We may deny the unity, but that makes no differ- 
ence ; the unity exists. The hand may say that it 
is not of the body, but that makes no difference. 
It is of the body nevertheless. 

The duty of the Christian Church in all its 
parts is to manifest to the world the unity which 
actually exists and which comes from the possession 
and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the church. 
It is the duty of Christians to acknowledge one 
another's Christian standing and to cooperate in 
putting honor upon Christ. It is their duty to 
emphasize their agreements. Let us tell the world 
that we have unity although we have not uniform- 
ity. Our oneness is like the oneness of the an- 
them with its thousands of notes. It was not uni- 
formity that Christ prayed for, because God has 
not made men uniform. The mission of the Chris- 
tian Church is to work its unity into visibility. 

4. He asks the Father for eternal and perfect and 
heavenly fellowship. 

He has prepared mansions for his people, and 
he will never be satisfied until he comes and re- 
ceives them to himself. 

What this petition for heaven includes we shall 



272 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

understand only when we reach heaven and see 
Christ in his glory. The golden age is before us, 
and when we reach it we shall find it all gold and 
nothing but gold. It is to be perfect in the dis- 
play of Christ's glory. It is to be perfect in its 
separation of souls to God. It is to be perfect in 
the unity of Christians and in the manifestation of 
this unity. It is to be perfect in its fellowship 
with Christ. It will bring us the perfect answer 
to Christ's intercessory prayer. 

Let us learn from this prayer which we have 
studied — 

1 . To give ourselves up to large faith. 

Christ's prayer was offered and recorded on our 
account. The Father no doubt was delighted by 
it, but he did not need it. We must not look at 
the Father and Son as though they were in antag- 
onism. The Father would have been true to his 
part of the covenant with the Son if Christ had 
never prayed this prayer. He would also have 
given his covenant people every promised thing. 
This prayer is offered on our account. It is in- 
tended as a basis upon which we can build our 
faith. It is intended to give us a vision of our 
future and the future of our religion as Christ sees 
it. It lets us see what Christ's will is. If this 
prayer of Christ is to be our future, great should 
be our expectation and faith. Small faith dishon- 
ors such a future as this. 

2. Let us learn to ask for large and grand things. 
We should ask as Christ asked. He asked for 

large and grand things. Such things are in the 



CHRIST'S INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 2/3 

heart of God for us. We should ask for nothing 
less than the promises. But what are the prom- 
ises? Are they a complete exhibition of God's 
love ? Do they exhibit all the favors which he has 
stored for us? No. We only see parts of God 
and parts of God's purposes. It is with his love as 
it is with his power. He takes us out into the uni- 
verse to look at his mighty works and at the opera- 
tions of his gigantic forces. When we are amazed 
and overawed at the sight, he says to us, '' If you 
take this for the full exhibition of my omnipotence 
you minimize my omnipotence. This is only the 
hiding of my power." It is with his love as it is 
with his beauty. In all the beauty in the universe 
we only see part of the beauty which is in his pos- 
session. The rainbow may be taken as the acme 
of visible beauty. But what is the rainbow ? In 
it we see only half of one of the shining chariot- 
wheels of Him who rides the storm. The prom- 
ises are to the full love of God what the twilight is 
to the noontide splendor. Grand as the promises 
are and high above our faith as they are, they are 
only the flush of the dawn of God's infinite affec- 
tion. P"or the noonday of this affection we must 
await the heavenly revelations. If this be so, then 
when we draw upon God's love we should draw 
largely. When we pray we should be like Christ, 
and ask for large and grand things. 



studies In John's QoBpel. 1 2 



2/4 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS. 

"Judas who betrayed Ynur—John 18:2. 

If we are to have this Scripture before us in its 
fulness, we must first look at Jesus before we give 
our thoughts to Judas. The intention of the Scrip- 
ture is first to glorify Christ, and then secondly to 
instruct us. It is true that Judas serves as a reve- 
lation of humanity, and makes manifest the things 
in our nature which we must guard against and 
eliminate ; it is true that we intend especially to 
use them as such ; but it is also true that he serves 
to make John's exhibit of Jesus Christ more clear 
and more perfect, and we must deal with that fact 
first. 

In our previous study we ascertained the reign- 
ing purpose of the Gospel according to John It is 
this : To set forth and establish the deity of Christ. 
Up to this point in his writings John has set forth 
divine attribute after divine attribute, and in these 
we have seen the outshining of God in Christ. In 
Jesus Christ we have seen ubiquity of power, in- 
finite condescension, and the exercise of omnipo- 
tence. This Scripture brings one more of his 
divine attributes into prominence, viz., the divine 
attribute of infinite and unchanging love. Infinite 
and unchanging love is certainly an attribute of 
God. The love of God the Father, the God of the 
Old Testament, is infinite and unchanging. Only 



CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS. 275 

such a love would have held on to backsliding and 
sinning Israel. Behold his infinite and unchan- 
ging love. He sent them his prophets, and they 
stoned his prophets. Then he sent tliem his Son, 
and they crucified his Son. Then he sent them 
his Spirit. When their sin abounded, his grace 
did much more abound. The love of God the Fa- 
ther is an infinite and unchanging love. Now this 
love of God the Father is matched by the love of 
Jesus Christ, and this Scripture tells us so. Treason 
and desertion and denial could not overcome it. 
Treason and desertion and denial were the things 
which the disciples gave Jesus, but he loved them 
unchangingly. He showed his love by his tender 
warnings, and by his tireless efforts to rescue them 
from coming sins and from the bitter consequents 
thereof. His love wrestled to melt the hard heart 
of Judas and to prevent his treason. When one 
expedient failed, it tried another. The love which 
wrestled with and held on to Judas was the same 
love which wrestled with and held on to sinning 
Israel. 

JUDAS, WHO BETRAYED CHRIST. 

When we read the story of Judas' treason we 
cannot forget who Judas was. Judas was an apos- 
tle. This man who sold Christ once labored for 
Christ. He was among the twelve whom Christ 
ordained, and whom he sent forth to work miracles 
and preach the kingdom of heaven. He both 
preached and wrought miracles. He shared with 
the others in gifts and in commission. Does God 



276 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

then employ unconverted men to carry on his 
work ? That is a natural question, and we must 
deal with it. In answering it we reply, Not as a 
rule. Judas stands as an exception among the 
apostles, just as Balaam stands as an exception 
among the prophets. As a rule heaven blesses 
only the ministry of regenerated men ; it employs 
good men to make bad men good. This is the 
rule, but it has had its rare exceptions. Some- 
where we have read of sailors in the Arctic regions 
who, to warm their freezing blood, kindled a fire 
by pieces of ice taken from the crystal mountains 
of frozen waters piled about them. By forming 
the ice into a concave lens it caught and condensed 
the rays of the sun, acting as a burning-glass. The 
ice-lens remained itself unmelted, while by its aid 
the sailors kindled a fire in the wild wilderness of 
snow. Even so the ^ays of gospel truth may pass 
through the frozen heart of an unconverted work- 
er, thaw the souls of those to whom he ministers 
into the temperature of heavenly love, and yet 
leave him frosty and icebound. This may be ; 
but when it is the case, it is the exception and not 
the rule. God can use any agency in his service. 
He can use the crowing of a cock ; he can use the 
lips of an ass ; he can even use the devil, and he 
does. The devil sticks a thorn into Paul's flesh, 
and he does it out of pure devilishness, but ■ God 
makes it a means of grace to Paul, and by it keeps 
him from a spiritual pride which would ruin him. 

When we read the story of Judas' treason, we 
cannot forget that Christ himself chose Judas to 



CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS. 2/7 

the apostolate. That suggests another question, 
viz., Was Christ deceived in Judas, or did he make 
a mistake in choosing him ? Christ made no mis- 
take in selecting this man ; Judas had his place 
and his work. The function of Judas, as one of 
the twelve, was in point of usefulness inferior to 
none. Though he served Christianity uninten- 
tionally, his service was of immense importance. 
He proved to be a most effective and telling wit- 
ness for Christ. He was admitted into' the inner 
life of Christ. He had opportunities to see Christ 
and know him through and through. When he 
was in his agony of remorse because of his treason, 
and when he searched the life of Christ to find 
a flaw in it which would justify his treason and 
satisfy his accusing conscience, he was compelled 
to cry out, ^' I have betrayed innocent blood ; I 
have sinned against holiness!" Men who refuse 
to believe the testimony of the other apostles are 
compelled to believe Judas. Think of it ; so thor- 
oughly convinced was Judas of the truth of his 
testimony to Christ that he was compelled to seal 
it with his blood. No ; there was no mistake in 
the choice of Judas to be a witness of Jesus Christ. 
As a witness he was worth as much as any other 
two. He was the most impartial of all the wit- 
nesses. To testify for Christ was self-crimination ; 
it was branding himself as a traitor and blacken- 
ing his name for eternity. Still, under the com- 
pulsion of his conscience, he cast down the thirty 
pieces of silver at the feet of the men who pur- 
chased Christ at his hand for that sum, and look- 



2/8 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

ing them full in the face he said, " I have sinned. 
I have betrayed innocent blood." In estimating 
the character of Jesus Christ, men will never cease 
to count that testimony. 

But let us look at the treason of Judas fairly 
and squarely. It was a monumental crime, and it 
was such because it was an awfully aggravated 
crime. Judas deliberately broke down every bar- 
rier which Jesus erected to keep him from his 
fatality. It was not the Lord who rejected Judas, 
it was Judas who rejected the Lord. The details 
of his treason, which show the capacity of human 
nature for sin, show also the pleading love and 
outgoing pity of Christ, and his unwillingness to 
give up the sinner. Let us enumerate the aggra- 
vations in the treason of the man. 

He committed his treason upon the most solemn 
occasion. He was amid holy scenes. The time was 
charged with solemnity. He was dealing with a 
seal of the covenant, the Passover. He was hand- 
ling the memorials of God's avenging plagues 
wherewith He smote Egypt, and yet there was in 
his heart a greater crime than Egypt ever com- 
mitted. There is something in the occasion upon 
which a sin is committed. A man who can delib- 
erately sin amid the sanctity of the Sabbath, or in 
the presence of death, gives evidence of intense 
hardness of heart. The solemnity of the occasion 
in which Judas sinned was as the sanctity of the 
Sabbath and as the presence of death. 

He committed his treason when the warning 
of Christ was ringing in his ears. Jesus told him 



CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS. 279 

of his danger. Jesus named his sin and described 
it. He gave it its right name that he might 
startle the traitor and thus save him : '' One of 
you shall betray me." Soft and polite names ap- 
plied to sins make them easy of commission. Call 
equivocation downright lying, which it is ; call sly 
insinuation black slander, which it is; call busi- 
ness sharpness real dishonesty, which it is; and 
there will be fewer equivocaters, fewer insinua- 
tors, and fewer sharp business men. The warn- 
ing which Christ gave the traitor was full of 
power, because it named his crime boldly and 
clearly. It is an aggravation when a man know- 
ingly and determinately commits a sin which 
bears an odious name. 

He committed his treason when his compan- 
ions were manifesting their sorrow and horror at 
his crime. Christ brought to bear upon Judas the 
full influence of the apostles. Here were eleven 
men whose good-will and esteem bound him to 
fidelity, yet he brake this eleven-fold bond. Is 
the sorrow of friends nothing ? Is it nothing that 
your home is heart-broken by your waywardness ? 
Is it nothing that the church grieves over you as a 
prodigal? There is a power in human sorrow. 
The sad countenance is a mighty force, and Christ 
did well to surround the traitor with eleven sad 
faces, in order if possible to hold him from ruin. 
"They were exceeding sorrowful and began every 
one of them to say. Lord, is it I ?" By their sor- 
row these disciples manifested their horror at the 
treason of Iscariot. The question, '' Lord, is it I ?'* 



28o STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

was a question of horror. It showed what the 
apostles thought of the treason. By this question 
public sentiment was brought to bear upon Judas. 
The horror of these disciples was natural, for 
treason has ever been odious. Read the story of 
Benedict Arnold, and mark the thrill of indigna- 
tion that swept through the republic when his 
treason was unmasked. Read the story of the 
assassination of Julius Caesar, and learn that it was 
the sting of treason that paralyzed his arm. He 
fought his assassins until his eye rested upon his 
friend Brutus. When he saw the hand of Brutus 
uplifted to strike the deadly blow, his spirit failed 
him and he fell without a further struggle. That 
treason roused the Roman Empire. Brutus was 
compelled to flee from public indignation and die, 
like Judas, the death of a suicide. It is a hard- 
ened heart that can sin against public sentiment. 

Judas sinned with hypocritical effrontery, con- 
scious that he was detected, and with a full knowl- 
edge of the judgment which hung over him. 
Usually detection breaks the sinner down. It 
made Judas more brazen-faced. Instead of allow- 
ing himself to be looked out of countenance, he 
determined to look everybody else out of counte- 
nance. As though he were innocent he too asked, 
" Lord, is it I ?" He asked this question after 
Jesus showed him the dark millenniums of perdi- 
tion which hung over him. What a sight have 
we here 1 The hardening of the sinful heart 
under the pleadings of mercy ; the sinner past 
impression, self -blinded and infatuated, " all his 



CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS. 28 1 

feelings turned into stone. What a sight ! The 
Son of .God himself unsuccessful as a preacher. 
But mark, the pleading of mercy is not without 
its effects. It is never in vain. The doom of 
Judas shows this. It melts or it hardens. It is 
like the sun, which either scatters the mists of the 
summer morning or else rolls them into heavier 
folds, from whose livid depths the storm flashes 
at mid-day. 

The doom of Judas with its remorse, its scream 
of agony, " I have betrayed innocent blood !" its 
abandonment of the price of blood as though each 
piece of silver were a red-hot coin, its awful leap 
out into a black and rayless eternity — the doom of 
Judas is a convincing proof that treason does not 
pay. It does not pay. The whole world is down 
on it, and so is God and so is the traitor's own con- 
science. There is no possibility of exaggerating 
the doom of Judas the traitor, for the Bible no- 
where teaches us that the love of God is lower 
than hell, or that there is a probation for man 
after he leaps as a suicide into eternity. It is only 
a morbid charity that exaggerates God's mercy at 
the expense of his justice. Such a charity helps 
not one whit the souls on the other side of the 
line, but it deceives and destroys souls on this side 
of the line. It is not charity at all ; it is down- 
right falsehood and cruelty. 

The doom of Judas is a tough problem upon 
the hands of theologians who deal in this false 
charity. One of them in our city gave a course 
of lectures on the twelve apostles. When he 



282 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

reached Judas, I went to hear that lecture. I was 
curious to witness the ascension of Judas to the 
skies. The lecturer put him there. He built a 
magnificent heavenly palace for him out of rhet- 
oric and imagination. No mansion could be 
grander than his. He made it out that because 
Judas was the greatest sinner, therefore his sal- 
vation would be the grandest possible exhibit of 
the glorious grace of God. Then he dwelt upon 
the repentance and confession of Judas, and de- 
clared that any kind of sorrow on account of 
sin meant eternal life. Rhetorically considered it 
was a beautiful heavenly mansion. But when he 
finished it and it stood forth in its grandeur and 
completeness, I saw two bolts from God's Word 
strike it, and they struck it full and fair on its 
base. These bolts were hurled by the hand of 
divine truth. When the great cloud of smoke and 
dust had passed away and the flying debris had 
settled and the atmosphere had become clear, I 
looked, and there was not one stone of the man- 
sion left upon another. One of the bolts which 
struck the fabric was this : '' Godly sorrow worketh 
repentance to salvation not to be repented of ; but 
the sorrow of the world worketh death." The 
other bolt was this : "■ The Son of man goeth as it 
is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom 
the Son of man is betrayed ; it had been good for 
that man if he had not been born." Of no soul 
that ever reached heaven and enjoyed eternal 
glory can it be said, '' It had been good for that 
man if he had not been born." 



CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS. 283 

DEDUCTIONS. 

1. God puts all possible barriers in the way of 
sinners. 

What more could Christ have done to keep 
Judas from treason ? In Christ's dealing with 
him we see God's dealing with all sinners. You 
remember God's protest to Balaam. You remem- 
ber the plagues which God put between Pharaoh 
and his ruin. God is dealing with us as he dealt 
with these men of old. He is warning us. He is 
daily putting barriers between us and sin with its 
sure doom. Judas is a barrier. The known ca- 
reer of every sinner is a barrier. The command- 
ments, the threatenings, the warnings, the prom- 
ises, the judgments, the broken hearts of friends, 
and the admonitions of conscience, all these are 
barriers which God uses to block the way to sin 
and ruin. If we ride over these barriers, then we 
are responsible for the consequences. 

2. The dark possibilities of human nature are 
tre7nendous. 

Judas reveals this. We are not to suppose that 
the betrayal has never been repeated. Christ is 
betrayed every day. There is a slumbering Judas 
in every heart. There is in us all the moral stuff 
out of which to make traitors and deserters. Our 
timid treasons will grow into daring betrayals if 
not eliminated, and our thoughtless boastings will 
rebound into desertions if not checked. This is 
what the record of dark appalling providences 
teaches us. A voice from this sad chapter says, 



284 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

" The heart is deceitful above all things and des- 
perately wicked.*' " Let him that thinketh he 
standeth take heed lest he fall." ' 

It is folly to talk of the conduct of Judas as 
though it were outside of the pale of humanity. 
Given the same circumstances, and human nature 
can produce a like treason at any time. The con- 
trolling habits and volitions of Judas are found in 
ten thousands of hearts. The deed of Judas is 
simply a window showing the human heart. In 
him we see our dark possibilities. These are 
shown us to teach that it takes the almighty grace 
of God to restrain us, and the almighty Spirit to 
regenerate us and give us a new heart, and the 
almighty truth to sanctify our nature. 

But is there not a bright fact associated with 
this line of thought ? There is. It is this : If we 
have such a tremendous power for evil, our nature 
must have a tremendous power for good. The 
garden that grows weeds can grow flowers. When 
our faculties are sanctified, when the whole bent 
of our immortal nature is turned heavenward and 
Godward, our possibilities to rise and advance are 
as tremendous as our possibilities to retrograde 
and demonize. Are Judas and Peter in their be- 
trayal and denial of Christ types of humanity ? so 
are Moses and Elijah, who appear in glory and 
who strengthen and comfort Christ. 

3. T/ie wickedness of man^ great as it is, is sub- 
servient to the divine purpose. 

We may not be able to explain this, but we see 
it to be so. It is history. We may find a difE- 



CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS. 285 

culty in the apparent clash between the decree of 
God and the free agency of man and we may feel 
ourselves in a mix, but the difficulty is one wholly 
of metaphysics and not of facts. The awakened 
conscience finds no difficulty. Judas did not 
throw himself back on the divine decree, although 
his treason was the fulfilment of a decree ; he 
threw himself back on his free agency. He ac- 
cused himself and not God. That is what every 
awakened sinner does. Over every sin there is an 
overruling decree, which conscience declares does 
not destroy man's responsibility, but which his- 
tory declares does make man's sin subservient to 
God's glorious plans for the universe. Treason 
and denial and desertion in the school of the 
apostles, one-sixth of the whole number in dis- 
grace, the rest fleeing from duty, what state of the 
church could be worse than that? And yet the 
church lived and reached Pentecost. God makes 
a record of this so that we may never give way to 
discouragement or distrust. Distrust is about as 
bad as desertion. This is the law of the kingdom 
of God, viz., The treason leads to the crucifixion, 
the crucifixion leads to the resurrection, the resur- 
rection leads to the ascension, the ascension leads 
to the coronation, the coronation leads to the uni- 
versal triumph. Nothing can stop the onward 
cause of God or the advancement of the kingdom 
of Christ. 



286 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 

" Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be cruci- 
fied." — John 19:16. 

Pilate is a man with a dark immortality. His 
name is a by-word and a hissing in human history. 
He is knov/n to the after ages only because of his 
wickedness. God's Word gives him a place in 
gospel history that he may be a beacon to society 
and an exposition of the dark side of human na- 
ture. He is an illustration of the downward ten- 
dencies of man and an exponent of his dark possi- 
bilities. It is the possibility of man in every age 
to scourge Jesus Christ the Son of God and crucify 
him. 

I. THE HISTORY OF PILATE AS HE JUDGES JESUS. 

The rulers of the Jews had already condemned 
Jesus to death, and they brought him to Pilate to 
have their sentence confirmed and executed. The 
reason they appealed to Pilate was this : The Ro- 
mans had taken away from them the right of in- 
flicting capital punishment. As things were, only 
the Roman Government could lawfully put a man 
to death. The Roman method of inflicting capital 
punishment was crucifixion. The Jews therefore 
brought Jesus to Pilate to be crucified. In choos- 
ing the Roman method of inflicting capital pun- 
ishment rather than the Jewish method, they were 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 28/ 

employing means which fulfilled a noted predic- 
tion concerning Christ. The Jewish method was 
to stone a man to death. Stoning mangled the 
body and broke the bones of the victim. God had 
proclaimed in prophecy that when Christ should 
be offered as the great Passover sacrifice which 
taketh away the sin of the world, not a bone of his 
body should be broken. If he had been stoned to 
death, this purpose of God's would have failed ; 
but when Christ was crucified it was literally car- 
ried out. 

The first question which Pilate asked the ru- 
lers of the Jews was, " What accusation bring ye 
against this man ?" Was it the tone in which Pi- 
late asked this question that offended the Jewish 
rulers ? We know not ; but it is certain they were 
offended. They considered the question a com- 
pliment to Jesus and a reflection upon them. 
" They answered and said, If he were not a male- 
factor, we would not have delivered him up unto 
thee." Supposing him guilty of a minor offence, 
Pilate told these rulers to take Christ and judge 
him according to their own laws. To this the ru- 
lers replied, " The charge against him is a capital 
charge, requiring the infliction of the death penal- 
ty ; we have found him guilty and we bring him 
to you for execution." Pilate, seeing that the case 
was upon his hands, demanded that formal charges 
be presented against Christ. These the rulers 
presented. He was charged with forbidding men 
to pay tribute to Caesar and with claiming to be 
king himself. When the charges were made. Pi- 



288 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

late took Christ into an inner room and held his 
first conversation with him. He asked him if he 
was a king. Jesus in turn requested an explana- 
tion of the question: ''Sayest thou this thing of 
thyself, or did others tell it thee of me ?" That is, 
Do you ask your question in the Romish sense or 
in the Jewish sense ? Do you ask am I a polit- 
ical king, a rival of Caesar, or am I the* Jewish 
Messiah-king? Pilate threw himself on his dig, 
nity and asked, " Am I a Jew ?" This showed that 
Pilate's question was a political question, and Je- 
sus immediately explained to Pilate the character 
of his kingdom and the sense in which he was 
king. 

Thus the trial of Jesus, which was prosecuted 
with bitterness, serves the church of Christ for all 
time. It calls forth from the Master himself an 
exposition of his kingdom, and a declaration of 
the instrumentalities by which it is to be further- 
ed. This is just what the church needs. And 
what is the kingdom of Christ according to the 
highest authority ? First we learn what it is not, 
and then we learn what it is. It is not a kingdom 
full of worldly pomp and display. It is not a king- 
dom seeking worldly ends. It is not a kingdom 
which gets its authority from earth, from the hu- 
man will, but from heaven. It is not a kingdom 
guarded with bayonets and guns and flashing 
swords. It is a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom of 
truth, a kingdom of ideas, a kingdom set up in 
the souls of men. It is a kingdom whose warfare 
is carried on with spiritual weapons. These wea- 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 289 

pons are holy thoughts, and they are powerful. 
The omnipotent God is in them. It is because 
these weapons are so powerful that the kingdom of 
Christ is destined to become universal. Thoughts 
are mightier than swords. They will bring down 
hearts which are out of the reach of bullets. They 
will explode systems which dynamite cannot 
budge. "The weapons of our warfare are not 
carnal, but spiritual ; yet they are mighty through 
God for the pulling down of the strongholds of 
sin and Satan." 

Pilate's talk with Christ convinced him that 
Christ was not guilty of the charge which the Jews 
brought against him. He saw that his offence was 
not political, but religious, and that it was envy 
which led the rulers of the Jews to seek his cruci- 
fixion. He immediately took Christ out to his ac- 
cusers and told them that he found no fault in 
him. 

If this had ended the case, Pilate would have 
stood before the world as a noble character and as 
an honest man. But it did not end the case. Pi- 
late refused to stand by his decision and make it 
final. He listened to the protests and appeals of 
the angry Jews. He allowed them to reopen the 
case and to re judge an acquitted man. He 
showed irresolution, and this was his fatal hurt. 
Finding the case again on his hands, he deter- 
mined to dispose of it by expedients and not by 
square and open justice. In the second charges 
made against Christ, one of the counts was that he 
created trouble in Galilee. Pilate thought that 

Studies in John's Gospel. j -7 



290 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

this Opened the door of escape to him, for it gave 
him an opportunity to transfer the whole case to 
Herod, the governor of Galilee. The case was so 
transfered, and Pilate congratulated himself on 
his clever deliverance. But Herod could make 
nothing of the case and sent it back to Pilate. 
Again Pilate sought the release of Christ by tell- 
ing his accusers that his decision as to Christ's 
innocency had been confirmed by Herod. But 
this was not accepted by the accusers of Christ. 
Pilate then resorted to another expedient. He 
determined to appeal to the people and have them 
annul the sentence of their rulers. He could not 
prevail with the rulers ; perhaps he might prevail 
with the people. It was customary to release at 
the feast a prisoner whom the people chose. Pi- 
late therefore put Barabbas, a noted criminal, and 
Jesus side by side, and asked the people, Whom 
shall I release, Barabbas or Jesus ? The difference 
between the men was so great that Pilate felt that 
the people would be compelled to choose Jesus and 
thus settle the case. To Pilate's surprise and mor- 
tification the air was filled with the cry ofttimes 
repeated, " Release Barabbas and crucify for us 
Jesus." 

The further efforts of Pilate to save Jesus are 
easily told. Seeing that the case was desperate 
and that the people had doomed Jesus to the 
cross, Pilate proposed this severe measure, '' I will 
scourge Christ and let him go." He thought that 
this would satisfy the people and deliver Jesus 
from crucifixion. This proposal was downright 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 29I 

cruelty, and we begin to see the true inwardness of 
the man who could propose it. What was this pro- 
posal ? It was a proposal to treat a guiltless man 
as though he were the worst of criminals. Only 
the most guilty were scourged. It was a proposal 
to lacerate and inflict the severest agony upon a 
pure and holy body. Scourging was a most cruel 
thing. We are told that the victim under the 
scourge often fell to the floor amid screams and 
convulsive leaps and awful contortions, and then 
swooned and lay there a senseless heap, an un- 
recognizable mass of bleeding flesh. Sometimes 
they wxre picked up dead. This was the treat- 
ment which Pilate proposed for Jesus. '* I will 
scourge him and let him go." Only the most piti- 
ful mockery of a ruler or judge dare propose such 
a thing for the man whom he pronounced inno- 
cent. It was as really wrong to scourge Christ as 
it was to crucify him. Let Pilate yield so far as 
to scourge Christ, and the accusers of Christ will 
discern at once his fickleness and his loose views 
of justice ; they will see the possibility of com- 
pelling him to crucify Christ. Man cannot escape 
sin by sinning. Man cannot succeed by putting 
policy in the place of principle. Pilate did not 
succeed. When he scourged Jesus, Pilate's sol- 
diers, catching his spirit, subjected Jesus to further 
injustice and cruelty. They maltreated him and 
mocked him. They drove a crown of thorns upon 
his head and clothed him in a sham robe of roy- 
alty. Thus Pilate's cruelty begat greater cruelty. 
When Pilate brought him out thus robed and 



292 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

crowned, covered witli blood and shame, this pitia- 
ble sight, instead of melting the crowd, only infu- 
riated it and started anew the cry, " Crucify him, 
crucify him !" It called forth a fresh charge. 
This last charge the rulers had kept in the back- 
ground. The charge was this : ^' He claims to be 
the Son of God. This is blasphemy, and accord- 
ing to our law he is worthy of death." 

This last charge led Pilate to lead Jesus back 
into the palace for another interview, for Pilate 
was filled with a superstitious fear. He questioned 
Jesus as to his deity, but Jesus answered him not 
a word about his deity. This threw Pilate into 
displeasure and led him to put on his dignity again 
and talk of his power to release or crucify. Then 
it was that Christ set before him his responsibility 
as a civil ruler to higher power, and in love set 
before him his great guilt. 

The whole scene closes at this point. Coming 
out from this interview, Pilate once more pro- 
claimed Christ's innocence and offered to release 
him. By this time the accusers of Jesus had be- 
come desperate. They had one more shaft to hurl 
at Pilate, and they hurled it. It was the fatal shaft. 
It was a disgrace for the Jews to hurl it, but it con- 
quered Pilate. They claimed Cassar as their king 
and threatened Pilate with an appeal to him. '' We 
have no king but Caesar. If thou lettest this man 
go thou art not Caesar's friend, and we will bring 
accusation against thee before Caesar. Either con- 
demn Christ or lose thy throne." History tells us 
that on a prior occasion the Jews lodged accusa- 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 293 

tions against Pilate before Caesar because of cru- 
elty, and that he only had a hair-breadth escape. 
This made him fearful now and gave terror and 
force to the threat which the Jews used. To be 
Caesar's friend was Pilate's supreme consideration, 
and, as he thought, his highest worldly interest. 
What was the life of this accused man to his 
throne? Pilate's past bad life was against him 
and bound him to do wrong now. It gave bad men 
a lever with which to ply him. With a chargeable 
past, he dared not provoke the nation now. He 
had no stock of good opinion upon which to draw. 
Many a man's past hinders him from doing what 
he knows to be right and what he wants to do. 
Men point the finger of remembrance at his sullied 
name, or they ask with withering scorn, Dost thou 
reprove us? or they threateningly enjoin silence. 
By doing what is wrong now we are making it 
hard to do right in the days to come. 

Under a fear of losing his throne Pilate uttered 
the unjust sentence against Christ and delivered 
him to be crucified. It is true he washed his 
hands and threw the responsibility upon the Jews ; 
it is true that he declared his innocency of the 
blood of this just man ; but it is just as true that 
the blood of Jesus could not have been shed if he 
had said, ^' No." It was his sentence that deliv- 
ered Christ to the cross. It was his soldiers who 
drove the crucial nails through the hands and feet 
of Christ, and he gave the orders to his soldiers. 
The washing of his hands was a mere play and a 
humbug — a cheat foisted upon his conscience. 



294 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

But what would you have Pilate do? What 
would I have Pilate do ? I would have him give 
up his doublings and twistings and schemings and 
trimming and crooked ways. I would have him 
stop his unseemly whiffling and parleying and dal- 
lying. - 1 would have him substitute principle for 
expediency. I would have him do the one thing 
which he refuses to do. I would have him do his 
simple duty and manfully assume the responsibil- 
ity which the hour and the place and the office lay 
upon him. Instead of issuing the order to his sol- 
diers that they should scourge and crucify Christ, 
I would have him issue this order : " Soldiers of 
Rome, draw your sabres and form in solid phalanx 
around this just man and magnify the law by sa- 
ving his life. Let justice be done though the 
heavens should fall." God opened before Pilate 
a grand opportunity. He might have taken his 
stand with Paul and Stephen and John. He 
might have been a hero in Christian history and a 
crowned head away up in the shining ranks of 
heaven. He might have been Christ's friend in- 
stead of Csesar's friend. As it was he sinned 
against light, he sinned against conscience, he 
sinned against society, he sinned against an inno- 
cent man, and he reaped the dark consequences of 
his sin. 

II. DEDUCTIONS. 

I. Christ is ojt trial to-day^ and we must give our 
decision upon him. 

History is constantly repeating itself. In every 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 295 

age the question is asked, What shall be done with 
Christ ? Shall he be crowned or crucified ? Shall 
he be consigned to oblivion, or shall he be repro- 
duced and reincarnated? The old and exciting 
scenes of Jerusalem are constantly being acted 
over again. Christ is the standing problem. 
IMorally we are identified with the men of his day 
who dealt with him face to face. We are Pilates 
and Judases, or Johns and Peters. Like them we 
have to ponder the question, Who is Christ ? We 
are catalogued with these men of nineteen centu- 
ries ago according as we are for or against Christ. 
If we surrender Christ into unfriendly hands, we 
are catalogued with Pilate. If we have n€rt the 
courage to go against our self-interest that the 
right may prevail, we are catalogued with Pilate. 
If we allow the enemies of Christ to do our think- 
ing and mark our line of action, we are catalogued 
with Pilate. If we do not give an early and an 
out-and-out decision for Christ, we are catalogued 
with Pilate. An out-and-out decision for Christ is 
our only safety. Christ is arraigned and accused 
to-day by the Sanhedrin of passion and interest 
and sophistry ; Christ is brought to-day before the 
Pilate of reason and conscience ; Christ is being 
nailed to-da}^to the cross of criticism ; the question 
with us is. Are we befriending him ? 

Men do not always realize that they are dealing 
with Christ and deciding upon him and his claims. 
This fact is strikingly brought out by Christ him- 
self in the picture which he gives of the jiidgment 
scene in the closing verses of the twenty-fifth 



296 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

chapter of Matthew. His enemies did not know 
that they were dealing with him. They were 
surprised that they were charged with slighting 
him. Their answer to the charge was, *' We never 
saw thee hungry and thirsty, that we should neg- 
lect thee or deny thee." Christ told them that 
they saw and dealt with him when they saw and 
dealt with the poor and needy. His friends also 
saw him and served him, and did not know that 
they saw him or served him. We meet Christ, 
and deal with and decide upon him, all the time. 
He is in every good cause which seeks the promo- 
tion of his glory. He is in every case of needed 
chari4:y. He is in every gospel sermon. He is in 
every true believer who lives in union with him. 
He is in every right principle. In dealing with all 
these we are dealing with Christ and judging 
Christ. We deal with him in times of special 
conviction and decide for or against him. We 
deal with him on every communion season ; and 
we decide for him when we honor him in the Sup- 
per, but we decide against him when we refuse to 
honor him in the Supper. To join the sacramen- 
tal hosts of God's elect is to cry, '' Hosanna !" To 
stand aloof from this host of God is to. identify 
ourselves with the crowd which cry, "Crucify!" 
No man living in a gospel land can escape giving 
some decision upon Jesus Christ. 

2. God holds us individually responsible for our de- 
cisions zvith regard to Christ. 

This is most clearly set forth in the case of 
Pilate. He washed his hands and said, '' I am in- 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 297 

nocent." But no handwashing could wash guilt 
from his soul. He thought that he had shifted 
the responsibility of his deed upon the shoulders 
of the accusing Jews, but such a thing God will 
not allow. The first act proven in human history 
was this : Every one is personally responsible. 
Adam tried to throw the responsibility of sin upon 
Eve ; Eve tried to throw it upon the devil. But 
God said, " You are all guilty." He judged them 
all and pronounced sentence upon all. The very 
first doctrine which God thundered in the ears of 
the human race was the doctrine of individual re- 
sponsibility. The very first sentence which God 
pronounced upon man was a sentence because he 
did not think for himself and act for himself. The 
first man was sentenced because he did not say 
"No." He should have said "No" to his wife 
and " No " to the devil. " No " is one of the most 
important words in our dealing with our fellow- 
men. It is a word necessary to our independence. 
It is a greater safeguard than a whole army. It is 
the protection of our responsibility. Pilate should 
have said " No" to the men who cried, "Crucify 
him !" But he did not. He excused himself to his 
own conscience, and to God, by pleading that he 
was a tool and compelled by the force of circum- 
stances to carry out the dictation of others. But 
such a plea avails nothing with God. We have no 
right to be a tool. We have no right to surrender 
our judgment to another. We have no right to 
allow others to do our thinking, and this is the 
meaning of individual responsibility. Though all 
13* 



298 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

men should condemn Christ, we should stand up 
for him. Let us to-day, in the presence of Pilate's 
ineffectual attempt to evade his responsibility, take 
a fresh grip upon the fact that God will judge us 
personally and hold us individually accountable. 
We must all appear before the judgment seat of 
Christ and give an account of the deeds done in the 
body, whether they be good or evil. ^' The most 
solemn thought of all thoughts," said the greatest 
statesman of America, ''is the thought of my per- 
sonal responsibility." 

3. We cannot decide for Christ and the right with- 
out being subjected to trying opposition. 

Loyalty to God has always meant a clash with 
the world, and loss according to the world's esti- 
mation. It means the furnace of fire and the den 
of lions. It means the beheadment of James and 
the martyrdom of Stephen and the execution of 
Paul. While this is so, still the men who adhere 
to God and the right escape worse things than 
those which they meet. There are worse things 
than fiery furnaces and lions' dens and martyr- 
dom. There is the loss of character and the wreck 
of manhood and the wrath of Almighty God and 
the contempt of public opinion. Yes, the contempt 
of public opinion. For after all, the great public 
abhor trimmers and time - servers. Pilate is un- 
popular. Just so surely as Christ must go up, 
Pilate must go down. While truth shall win in. 
the end, in the meantime no man can be a loyal 
friend of the truth until he is prepared to pay, 
and willing to pay, the price of such friendship. 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 299 

4. There is a doom awaiting all zvho treat CJirist 
unjustly. 

There is a hereafter with Christ. Christ is now 
before us for judgraent, but the day is coming' 
when we shall be before him for judgment. How 
Pilate must have felt when word was brought him 
that Jesus had risen from the dead ! Christ's res- 
urrection made the judgment bar of God a fearful 
reality to his mind. 

But there is a doom for the ungodly now as 
well as hereafter. If " godliness is profitable unto 
all things, having promise of the life that now is," 
ungodliness must be unprofitable in all things, and 
must be without the promise of the life that now 
is. No man can betray Christ without betraying 
himself ; no man can crucify Christ without cruci- 
fying himself. Part of the doom of wrong-doing 
is the loss of the very things after which we reach 
through wrong-doing. Pilate lost everything he 
sought. He lost the friendship and favor of Csesar. 
The success of the wicked is only apparent, but 
not real. It has only a momentary endurance. 
This is so according to the appointment of God. 
This is so because the doom of injustice is non- 
success. No unjust thing can stand. No man can 
make a permanent triumph of an unjust cause. 
Thomas Carlyle has left the world ringing words 
upon this point : " I tell thee, there is nothing else 
but justice. One strong thing I find below, and 
that is the just thing, the true thing. My friend, if 
thou hadst all the artillery of Woolwich marching 
at thy back in support of an unjust thing, and infi- 



300 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

nite bonfires visibly awaiting ahead of thee to 
blaze centuries to come for thy victory on behalf 
of it, I wonld advise thee to call, 'Halt!' to fling 
down thy baton, and say, ' In God's name, no !* 
What will thy success amount to ? If the thing is 
unjust, thou hast not succeeded, though bonfires 
blazed from north to south, and bells rang^ and 
editors wrote leading articles, and the just thing 
lay trampled out of sight to all mortal eyes, an 
abolished and an annihilated thing." 

Keeping out of sight the eternity beyond, look 
at the earthly career of these men who had to do 
with the crucifixion of Jesus ! See what overtook 
those whose hands were stained with his blood ! 
Judas failed in his career. He could not hold in 
his hands the coveted thirty pieces of silver. They 
were red-hot with divine wrath. His sin made life 
unendurable to him, and unbidden of God he 
plunged into eternity. Pilate's career was no 
better. He lost his throne, was exiled in disgrace 
from Rome, and died a miserable suicide. The 
career of the Jews was no better. Divine retribu- 
tion in their case was most remarkable. *' They 
cried, * We have no king but Caesar,' and they had 
no king but Caesar. Caesar after Caesar outraged 
and pillaged them, till at last their Caesar slaked in 
the blood of its last defenders the red ashes of 
their desecrated temple. They forced the Romans 
to crucify their Christ, and within forty years after 
that they themselves were crucified in myriads 
outside the walls of Jerusalem by the very same 
Romans. They accepted the guilt of Christ's 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. 30I 

blood, and the last pages of their history were 
glued together with that crimson stain." Verily 
there is a doom awaiting all who treat Christ 
unjustly. " Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; 
for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap." 



302 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 

"And He, bearing His cross, went forth. "^/o/z;/ 19:17. 

Three historical facts and three practical de- 
ductions will sum up our study of the story of the 
cross. 

THE FACTS. 

I. Jesus voluntarily submitted to be nailed to the 
cross. 

He was not dragged to Calvary. His going 
was the voluntary act of his will. This the narra- 
tive takes special pains to set forth. It is written, 
"And He, bearing His cross, went forth." But 
was not this willingness upon the part of Jesus 
simply prudence ? Was it not to save himself 
from being roughly handled? What could he 
single-handed do? He was in the grasp of the 
Roman army and at the mercy of a pitiless mob. 
Was it not the dictation of mere prudence that 
led him to go willingly? No. It was something 
deeper and higher and nobler than prudence. It 
was the volition of love. It was the eternal pur- 
pose of the covenant. The only power in the uni- 
verse that could take Jesus to the cross was the 
power of his own love whereby he sacrificed him- 
self for our sins. The mob of Nazareth tried to 
kill him before his time, but it was not able. The 
soldiers who were sent to arrest him were struck 
to the ground by the omnipotence which played 



THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 303 

in the look of liis eye. If he had not gone with 
them of his own option they could have made no 
arrest. What was a Roman army or a Jewish 
mob to Him whose word could shrivel a living 
tree into a dead thing, whose hands held the 
forces of nature, and whose will commanded the 
legions of angels? Jesus Christ meant to die. 
He came into the world to die, for this was the 
only way by which he could save sinners. The 
very first fact in the opening of the story of the 
crucifixion is this : Jesus Christ went to the cross 
of his own free will. This fact exalts the cruci- 
fixion. It makes it something more than the 
mere act of man inspired by cruel hate ; it makes 
it the great purpose* of God. It makes it the act 
of Christ's matchless love. 

If we Y/ould see to what Christ devoted himself 
when he went to the cross, we must recall the 
horrors of crucifixion. A picture of death by 
crucifixion is, in horror, something like the picture 
of dying from leprosy. To spare myself the tor- 
ture of working out a description, I have selected 
this description wrought out by Canon Farrar: 
** Utterly brutal and revolting was the punishment 
by crucifixion. The condemned man was first 
disrobed. Then came the awful moment. He 
was laid upon the instrument. His hands were 
stretched along the cross-beams and at the centre 
of the open palms the point of a huge iron nail 
was placed, and the nail was driven through the 
hands into the wood by the blows of a mallet. 

'' Then through his feet another huge nail tore 



304 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

its way througli the quivering flesh. To prevent 
the hands and feet from being torn away by the 
weight of the body, which could not rest upon 
nothing but four great wounds, there was placed 
about the centre of the cross a wooden projection 
strong enough to support the body, which soon 
became a weight of agony. The accursed tree 
with its living burden in helpless agony was 
slowly heaved up by strong arms, and the end 
firmly fixed in a hole dug for that purpose. The 
feet of the sufferer were but a little raised from 
the ground, so that the victim was within full 
reach of every hand that chose to strike and in 
close proximity to every gesture of insult and 
hatred. A death by crucifixion includes all that 
pain and death can have of the horrible and 
ghastly : dizziness, spasms, thirst, starvation, sleep- 
lessness, fever, horror of anticipation, mortifica- 
tion of undressed wounds. All these are intensi- 
fied just up to the point at which they can be en- 
dured, but they stop just short of the point which 
would give the sufferer the relief of unconscious- 
ness. The unnatural position of the body makes 
every movement painful. The lacerated veins 
and crushed tendons throb with incessant anguish. 
The arteries become swollen and oppressed. The 
wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrene. 
Added to all these is the pang of burning and 
raging thirst." 

It was to a death reached through such agony 
that Jesus gave himself when he submitted to be 
nailed to the cross. 



THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 305 

2. Jesus, while he Jiung ttpon the cross, gave utter- 
ance to memorable sayings. 

His biographers tell us that some of the say- 
ings were uttered in order to fulfil the Old Testa- 
ment predictions concerning the Messiah. It is 
wonderful how minute God was in taking precau- 
tions against imposture. He outlined the coming 
Christ. Hundreds of years prior to his advent he 
told how he should be born and what he should 
do and say. He also marked out for him a line of 
suffering which no impostor could have the cour- 
age to meet. Impostors are not fond of being 
pierced with thorns, of having their bodies cut up 
with a scourge, of being nailed to the cross. God 
guarded the Messiahship by building around it an 
unscalable mountain of agony and suffering. The 
true Christ must be a suffering Christ. He must 
utter the awful cry of abandonment. He must 
close his life amid the agonies of crucifixion and 
at the same time he must utter the calm words of 
faith, '' Father, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit." This made imposture an absolute impos- 
sibility. Jesus of Nazareth filled up the Old Tes- 
tament outline. He even met those awful suffer- 
ings predicted of the Messiah and uttered those 
awful cries of agony which were foretold. The 
sayings, therefore, of Jesus on the cross are val- 
uable in that as fulfilments of prophecy they help 
in the establishment of his Messiahship. 

But this is not the full value of the sayings of 
Jesus upon the cross. They have a much wider 
out-reach. Each saying opens a door into a wide 

studies in John'8 Gospel. 



3o6 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

field of ttiouglit and revelation. These sayings 
are like the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the 
Mount. They are like the petitions in the Lord's 
Prayer. They are like the commandments in the 
Decalogue. They are seven in all. It would be 
possible to take them and out of the material in 
them build up a magnificent system of truth for 
belief and a magnificent system of law for prac- 
tice. 

The first saying is the prayer which he offered 
for his enemies, " Father, forgive them, for they 
know not what they do." 

The second saying is his reply to the penitent 
thief, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." 

The third saying is his address to his mother 
and to John, '' Woman, behold thy son ! [Son], 
behold thy mother!" 

The fourth saying is that mysterious cry of 
desertion, " My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me !" This cry opens a door into a field of 
profound thought and fact. It introduces us to 
the very soul of the doctrine of the atonement. 
It tells us that Christ's death had a God-ward 
bearing, and was necessary to satisfy divine right- 
eousness. It is a companion cry to the* cry of 
Gethsemane, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful 
unto death." It must be linked with such words 
as these: ''It pleased the Lord to bruise him:'' 
" He hath put him to grief ;" " He hath made him 
to be sin for us who knew no sin," etc. It tells 
us that Christ's death has a manward bearing, and 
that it was borne in man's room and stead. It 



THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 307 

must be linked with such words as these : ''He 
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised 
for our iniquities;" He himself "bare our sins in 
his own body on the tree." He had no sins of his 
own to separate between him and God : it must 
therefore have been the sins of others that caused 
the separation spoken of in the cry. This cry 
teaches that on the cross he was the sinners' sub- 
stitute. There is no other theory that can explain 
the divine desertion ; but this theory can and does 
explain it. If God can desert a sinner, and he 
does, then it follows that when Christ takes the 
law-place of the sinner and stands in the sinner's 
room, God can desert Christ. The substitute can 
be treated as the principal. 

The fifth saying is the cry, ''I thirst! " 
The sixth saying is the cry, ''It is finished !" 
This is the one giad cry of Jesus. It is the shout 
of conquest. The moment it leaped from the soul 
of the dying Christ the harps of heaven were 
struck as they were never struck before, and the 
outburst of a new song of praise to God shook the 
very pillars of the throne. That shout is still 
thrilling down the ages, and the soul that hears it 
answers it with the counter shout of the inspired 
Paul, "There is therefore now no condemnation 
to them which are in Christ Jesus." This cry tells 
us of a work given Jesus to do upon the part of 
the Godhead, and it proclaims that this work was 
done. The work given was the purchase of our 
redemption. " It is finished." What is finished ? 
The objective work which pertains to redemption ; 



308 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the fulfilment of the law ; the realization of the 
prophecies which promise a complete and all- 
satisfactory sacrifice for sin ; the Levitical ritual 
with its pictorial act, typifying Calvary ; the sen- 
tence written against the sinner ; all the demands 
of God's righteousness ; everything needed to 
make salvation a fact. The old divines used to 
say that magnificent visions burst in upon the 
soul of Jesus Christ when he uttered this cry. He 
saw all the results of his death : the wonderful dis- 
play of God's glory, the delight of the Father in 
him, the ten thousand times ten thousand re- 
deemed, and the coming eternity with its fulness. 
If the cry of abandonment was the saddest cry 
that ever pierced the air, this cry of triumph was 
the grandest cry that ever rang out in the uni- 
verse. Church of God, this is the cry for the age 
and for the hour. Take it up and carry it to the 
uttermost parts of the earth. Declare everywhere 
that redemption is finished and that it is offered 
to all. Tell the nations that all that is demanded 
of man is simply this: a trustful acceptance of 
Christ and his completed work. 

The seventh saying is the one with which 
Christ closes his sacrificial life, '' Father, into thy 
hands I commend my spirit." 

We could not do without these seven sayings 
of the cross. They are an integral part of the his^ 
tory of the crucifixion of Jesus. They give us an 
insipfht into what the crucifixion was and into its 
design. They are Christ's exposition of his own 
nature and Christ's interpretation of his own cross. 



THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 309 

3. Jesus, while he hung upon the cross, suffered un- 
wonted mental agony. 

We liave noticed the agony which came to 
Christ from the divine desertion, and need say 
nothing more upon it as a source of mental suffer- 
ing ; but we must say something upon the agony 
which was caused by the actions of men. All 
manner of indignity was heaped upon him, and 
this gave him mental pain. He was treated far 
worse than the heathen treated their criminals. 
When Socrates died the words of loving friends 
fell upon his ears. His executioner handed him 
the cup of poison with tears in his eyes. Jesus 
heard nothing but jeers and cruel mockings. 
When Aristides the Just was executed they had 
to search Athens through and through before they 
could find a man who would consent to spit in his 
face in the name of the State, and in this way put 
him under public contempt ; but men unbidden, 
and in defiance of the laws of the State, spat in the 
face of Jesus. Rude men struck him and buffeted 
him ; the crowds jeered him ; the soldiers mocked 
him ; the chief priests and rulers of the Jews re- 
viled him. Christ was reviled and mocked in all 
his offices. All this went to his heart and caused 
him untold agony. It gave reality to those v/ords 
which prophecy put into his lips, '' Reproach hath 
broken my heart." 

The reason I present this conduct of man and 
quote these words of Christ, '' Reproach hath bro- 
ken my heart," is that I may speak a word about 
the modern theory as to the physical cause of the 



3IO STUDIES IN JOHNS GOSPEL. 

death of Christ. The quickness of his death was a 
marvel. It was an exception among the crucified. 
Death by crucifixion usually took days. Can the 
quickness of Christ's death be explained ? That is 
the question. This is the explanation offered ; it 
was never offered prior to the nineteenth century : 
He died, not from the wounds in his hands and 
feet, but from the rupture of his heart. This rup- 
ture was caused by mental passion and grief. 
''Reproach hath broken my heart." Death from 
this cause would harmonize with his agony in 
Gethsemane, where he sweat great drops of blood 
and where his soul was exceeding sorrowful even 
unto death. 

Many cases are known to physicians where 
grief and strong emotion have broken the heart 
and caused instant death. A son strikes his mo- 
ther with all his might in the face, and she actu- 
ally dies under the .stroke. It is not the physical 
blow that kills her. No; it is the anguish that 
comes from the thought that it was her own child 
who struck the cruel blow. Post-mortem exami- 
nation in the cases of some who die from grief 
shows that the heart is literally ruptured, and that 
the blood flowing through the fissure fills the sac 
in which the heart is incased and by its pressure 
stops the action of the heart. 

But there was no post-mortem operation per- 
formed upon the body of Christ to discover the 
cause of his death. Yes, there was: one of the 
soldiers acted as the dissecting surgeon and anato- 
mist. With his spear he pierced the side of Christ. 



THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 31I 

This spear, acting- as a surgeon's lance, revealed 
that in the case of Jesus there happened the same 
thing which happens when men die from a heart- 
break caused by grief. John records this fact: 
*' But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his 
side, and forthwith came there out blood and wa- 
ter." 

This view of the physical cause of Christ's 
death clearly demonstrates that it was sin that 
killed Christ. He died, not so much from the 
nails driven through his body, nor from the bitter 
feeling and the evil thought which were in the 
blows that drove the nails and made them pierce 
him, but under the awful load of the world's guilt, 
for '' the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us 
all." 

THE DEDUCTIONS. 

I . The cross is the power of God for exposing sin 
and for subduing the sinful heart. 

What will sin do ? Show us this and you give 
us the best exposition of sin. This gospel story 
tells us that sin crucified the Son of God. It could 
do nothing beyond that. Ring the changes upon 
that horrible act if you would keep sin before you 
in its true character and if you would guard your- 
selves against the deceptions of the human heart. 
When the world dignifies sin with soft and eupho- 
nious names, when the world makes sin popular 
by making it fashionable, do you keep repeating 
to your heart this fact, '* Sin crucified the Son of 
God." 

But the cross, as we have said, is God's power 



312 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

for subduing the sinful heart. The subduing 
power of the fact that we crucified Christ, our best 
Friend, may be illustrated by an incident which 
Bronson Alcott relates as having taken place in 
his school. He made it a law that all offences 
should be punished, in order that the authority of 
the school might be kept inviolate. The punish- 
ment of offences he decreed should be borne by 
himself. He intended to put every offending 
scholar under the power of this thought, " I made 
my friend and teacher suffer." So much for the 
law of the school ; let us see how it worked. Mr. 
Alcott gives us this instance : '' One day I called 
before me a pupil eight or ten years of age who 
had violated an important regulation of the school. 
All the pupils were looking on, and they knew 
what the rule of the school was. I put the ruler 
into the hand of the offending pupil and extended 
my hand. I bade .him strike. The instant the 
boy saw my extended hand and heard my com- 
mand to strike I saw a struggle begin in his face. 
A light sprang up in his countenance. A new set 
of shuttles seemed to be weaving a new nature 
within him. I kept my hand extended. The 
school was in tears. The boy struck once, and he 
himself burst into tears. I constantly watched his 
face, and he seemed in a bath of fire which was 
giving him a new nature. He had a different 
mood towards the school and towards the violated 
law. The boy seemed transformed by the idea 
that I should take chastisement in the place of his 
punishment. He went back to his seat, and ever 



THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 313 

after he was one of the most docile of the pupils, 
although at first he had been one of the rudest." 
Oh the sight of Christ suffering for us ! When 
we see this sight aright, the words of God are ful- 
filled in us : " They shall look upon me whom 
they have pierced and they shall mourn." 

2. TJie cross gives us a standing exhibition of the 
way iti w J lie J I some men treat Christ. 

I wish to speak especially of the soldiers at the 
cross, who are an ancient type of a modern class. 
They gamble for the seamless robe of Christ. To 
them the garments of Christ were everything, but 
Christ himself was nothing. They prize the gar- 
ments but despise Christ. They forget that had 
there been no Christ there would have been no 
seamless robe to appropriate and enjoy. The robe 
without Christ had a certain value, true ; but with 
a living Christ within it, it was infinitely more val- 
uable. When Christ was within the robe it had 
healing virtue, but when Christ was crucified it 
had no healing, life-giving power whatever. 

There are multitudes to-day who are like these 
soldiers. For example, there are crowds of citi- 
zens in this republic who glory in the civil rights 
which our national fathers bequeathed, but they 
hate and crucify the Christ of our fathers. It was 
under the inspiration of Christ that our fathers 
sacrificed and fought for the rights which they 
bequeathed. If there had been no Christ there 
would have been no Plymouth Rock Pilgrims in 
Massachusetts, no Covenanters in the Carolinas, 
no Huguenots in New Jersey, and no Hollanders 
14 



314 STUDIES IN JOHNS GOSPEL. 

in New York. Without the Plymouth Rock Pil- 
grims and the Covenanters and the Huguenots 
and the Hollanders there would have been no 
Revolutionary War. If there had been no Revolu- 
tionary War there would have been no Republic of 
the United States. There is no fact more patent 
in history than this : American freedom owes its 
origin to Christ. Yet there are Americans by the 
thousand who would take the freedom and crucify 
the Christ. But what is freedom dissociated from 
Christ ? What is it worth in comparison with the 
freedom which throbs with the life of Christ? 
Freedom, when it is a robe with the living Christ 
in it, will cure and keep in life the nations which 
touch its hem ; but freedom, when it is a robe torn 
from Christ, will let the nations die even while 
they handle it, own it, and boast about it. We 
needed Christ to procure our liberty, and we need 
Christ to secure our liberty. 

3. The cross with its sacrifice for sin opens up to us 
the only way of salvation. 

" Without the shedding of blood there is no 
remission of sin." " There is no other way under 
heaven whereby we can be saved." In the plan 
of redemption the sufferings of Christ are essen- 
tial. This Book of God, which teaches the way of 
life, knows nothing save Christ Jesus and him cru- 
cified. The cross is the centre of the Bible. The 
cross is first in prophecy and symbol and type and 
Gospel and Epistle and Apocalypse. When men 
ask you, Why do you expect to be saved ? do not tell 
them that you are striving to live by the precepts 



THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. 315 

of the Saviour, and therefore expect God to accept 
of you because of your obedience. If this were 
the right thing to say, if you could be saved in this 
way, then Christ Jesus might have stepped back 
into heaven the moment he preached the Sermon 
on the Mount. Then Christ might have turned 
his back on Calvary with its cross. No. Tell 
them that you are trusting in the sacrifice which 
Christ offered on the cross and in the death which 
he died on Calvary. That man only is safe who 
with the eye of faith can look up into the face of 
the crucified Christ and say, 

" Simply to thy cross I cling." 



3l6 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 



CHRIST RISEN. 

" Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that "she 
HAD seen the Lord."— /o/j» 20:18. 

John's Gospel closes its narrative of the earthly 
life of Jesus Christ with the story of his resurrec- 
tion. It is a living Christ that looks out of its last 
page. When we have finished reading this Gos- 
pel, the picture which we take with us is the 
thrilling picture of the empty tomb and the She- 
china chariot passing out of human sight into 
the world above. How else could the biography 
of Jesus end ? There must be a fitness in things. 
But no other finale would answer the fitness of 
things. It would never do to end the gospel 
story with Jesus writhing under the scourge or 
with Jesus agonizing on the cross or with Jesus 
pale and dead in the tomb. That would cause the 
world to close the Book of his biography with a 
chill of horror and not with a thrill of joy. The 
story of the Christ must end as magnificently as it 
began, or else there will be a mis-match. On the 
first page of his biography is the miracle of the 
Incarnation, with the singing angels and the flash- 
ing glory ; on the last page of his biography there 
must be the miracle of the Resurrection and the 
angels guarding the empty tomb and the dawn- 
ing twilight of the Ascension splendor. The 
book of the Gospel must close with a picture of 



CHRIST RISEN. 317 

the living Christ. The fitness of things demands 
this. The interest of the kingdom of Christ de- 
mands this, for only such a Christ can take hold 
of men, enter their lives, and keep them loyal to 
his authority. 

In treating the resurrection of Christ we are 
oppressed with a sense of its tremendous impor- 
tance. No fact excels it. No fact carries so much 
in it. Christianity stands or falls with it. Risen, 
or not risen ? that is the question. If Christ be 
not risen, then his character is a wreck, and a 
wreck from which it is impossible to save any- 
thing of any value. What would be said of a 
modem teacher or leader who encouraged men to 
give up all their prospects in life upon the strength 
of promises which were never to be realized, and 
which he knew would never be realized ? Such a 
leader is the unrisen Christ. If Christ be not 
risen, then Christianity has been propagating a 
lie in the name of the God of truth, then the three 
hundred million Christians on the globe who be- 
lieve that he is alive have been following a mere 
fancy, a baseless fiction, a nonentity, a deception. 
They have been mocked in the very highest attri- 
butes of their nature. If Christ be not risen, then 
there is nothing left of that beautiful Christ-story 
and that wonderful Christ-kingdom save shadows 
of failure and ashes of disappointment. 

But if Christ be risen, what then? Then 
Christianity is divine and true, and everything 
that conflicts with Christianity is human and false. 
Then Jesus of Nazareth is what he claimed to be, 



3l8 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the Son of God. Then redemption on Calvary is 
a glorious reality. Then life beyond the grave is 
a fact. Then the sanctity of the Perfect Man is 
unassailable. Then the coming triumph of good- 
ness is certain and indisputable. Risen, or not 
risen ? that is the question of all questions. In 
dealing with the question we take this position: 
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical 
fact, and as such it is substantiated by infallible 
proofs. It needs clear and strong evidence in 
order to beget clear and strong faith. It is an 
easy thing to establish a fact. All that is neces- 
sary is the testimony of eye-witnesses. We deal 
with and establish facts every day. Most of the 
facts with which we deal and upon which we act 
are unseen to us. They are established by the 
testimony of others. 

Let me resort to illustration : We believe that 
eighty years before the resurrection of Christ, 
Julius Caesar, with two Roman legions, landed in 
England on the coast of Kent. No one thinks of 
doubting that. If eternal salvation depended on 
believing it, every student of history would be 
certain of heaven. Yet the actual historic proof 
of this is far less complete and cogent and con- 
vincing than is the proof that Christ died and 
rose again. Men believe without any doubt or 
difficulty in the Sabine farm of Horace where his 
friends quaffed the Falernian wine. We believe 
that Virgil died on a journey and that he lies 
buried, at his own request, at the second mile- 
stone from Naples on the Puteolan way. I have 



CHRIST RISEN. 319 

in my possession a leaf which grew upon his 
grave, plucked by a sister's hand on her journey 
to Syria and sent to me as a remembrancer. We 
believe in the plough of Cincinnatus and in the 
poison-cup of Socrates. 

To come a little nearer home and into our own 
age : we believe that there is such a thing as the 
Declaration of Independence. Why? Because 
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and 
John Adams and their contemporaries have said 
so. Because, when we were born, we found our 
fathers celebrating the Fourth of July as a me- 
morial of the fact. We believe that there is such 
a city as Rome. Why ? Because those who have 
seen that city declare that it does exist. Our con- 
viction as to its existence could not be firmer 
though we travelled the seven hills, explored the 
crumbling Coliseum, and looked upon the forum 
where Tully thundered and Csesar stood. Just as 
we have come to a belief in the Declaration of In- 
dependence and in the existence of Rome, so we 
may come to a belief in the fact of Christ's resur- 
rection. No man can deny it without striking a 
deadly blow at all history. 

It is perfectly reasonable to suppose that Christ 
would make such a stupendous fact easy of estab- 
lishment. To make it difficult of establishment 
would be to throw his infinite sacrifice into peril 
and risk. When he founded his religion Christ 
said, '' My religion shall consist of plain facts 
which can be seen and handled and attested and 
which can be submitted to the common laws of 



320 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

evidence." Acting according to this intention, at 
the beginning of his public life he chose a com- 
pany of men who should be with him to hear and 
see everything, that they might be ready at the 
right time to give testimony as his witnesses. 
Nothing could be simpler than this. No method 
of establishing the facts of his religion could be 
more effective. It put his cause upon the same 
basis with all other great historical movements 
which have influential and unquestioned standing 
among men. If men are to be consistent with 
themselves, they must believe the facts concern- 
ing Jesus Christ, for the same reason that they 
believe the facts concerning Napoleon and Wash- 
ington. We do not make as much of the histori- 
cal argument in favor of Christianity as we ought. 
It is simple and strong and irresistible. 

" If we think of the gospel as a set of truths, 
spiritual, moral, intellectual, then the way to prove 
the gospel is to show the consistency of that body 
of truths with one another, their consistency with 
other truths, their derivation from admitted prin- 
ciples, their reasonableness, their adaptation to 
man's nature, and thus on. But if we think of the 
gospel as being first a set of historical facts, facts 
which carry the doctrines in themselves, then the 
way to establish the gospel is the same as that by 
which you would establish any other fact, viz., by 
the testimony of those who can say, ' We know it 
to be so, for we saw it !"* Dr. Arnold, a man far 
famed for his mental power and research, writes : 
" I have been used for many years to study the 



CHRIST RISEN. 321 

history of other times, and to examine and weigh 
the evidences of those who have written about 
them, and I know of no one fact in the history of 
mankind which is proved by better and fuller evi- 
dence of every sort to the mind of a fair inquirer 
than the great sign which God has given us, that 
Christ died and rose again from the dead." There 
are three lines of argument upon which I wish to 
dwell. 

I. As a Jiistorical fact the resurrection of Christ 
is established by other facts which grow out of it and 
which are connected with it. These facts witness to 
Christ's resurrection. 

Whence this great organization? Where did 
it get its missionary life? It got it from the 
words of a resurrected Christ, " Go ye into all the 
world and preach my gospel." What gospel does 
it bring to the world ? The gospel of the Resur- 
rection. This is its creed, '' If thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and shalt be- 
lieve in thy heart that God raised him from the 
dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10:9.) But 
what is the Christian Church ? It is an organiza- 
tion linked to the days of the apostles by an un- 
broken history. It is the fruit of Christ's resur- 
rection. It stands related to Christ's resurrection 
just as this Republic stands related to the patriot- 
ism of the Revolutionary heroes. 

The Christian Sabbath is a witnessing fact. 
The Christian Sabbath was not the original Sab- 
bath. The Jews in our midst with their seventh- 
day Sabbath are the proof of this. By their sev- 

StuUies in John'B Gospel. Id. 



322 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

enth day Sabbath-keeping they are raising the 
question from pole to pole, *' Why do the Jews and 
Christians keep a different Sabbath? They are 
unwilling witnesses to Christ, but witnesses. The 
answer to this question brings out the history of 
the Christian Sabbath. This is its history : The 
Christian Sabbath is kept as a memorial of the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ, and as such it dates 
back to the apostles who saw the risen One. Such 
was the firm faith of the early universal Christian 
Church in the resurrection of Christ that, with 
one consent, they set apart the first day of the 
week to celebrate the fact. As the continuity of 
the Christian Sabbath for nineteen centuries is a 
fact of history which is undeniable, the Christian 
Sabbath stands before us as God's great monu- 
ment upon which is inscribed the faith of these 
long centuries. In the Christian Sabbaths which 
have blessed the earth we have a grand chain of 
time which is made out of the links of weeks. 
Taking hold of the last-formed link and throwing 
our might into one long, strong, testing pull, we 
can feel the rebound which tells us that the far- 
away first link is securely fastened to an eternal 
reality. I. would as soon doubt the fact commem- 
orated by the Fourth of July as doubt . the fact 
commemorated by the Lord's Day. 

2. As a historical fact the resurrection of Christ 
is established by the testimony of competent witnesses. 

Our source of information and authority is the 
New Testament. This Book introduces us to the 
witnesses and furnishes us with a copy of their 



CHRIST RISEN. 323 

testimony. According to the New Testament 
there are two classes of witnesses, viz., Christ's 
enemies and Christ's friends. It is important to 
notice that there are some things which are ad- 
mitted by both classes. They agree upon three 
things at least : First, that Jesus Christ was dead. 
Second, that Jesus Christ was buried in the tomb 
of Joseph, which was closed with a great stone, 
was sealed with the Roman seal, and was guarded 
by a Roman guard. Third, that on the morning 
of the third day the tomb was empty. 

The enemies of Christ had every reason and 
motive to account for the empty tomb and to ex- 
plain it to the dishonor of Christ. The very same 
hate and envy that surrounded the cross sur- 
rounded the tomb. Nevertheless we are bound 
candidly to listen to what these enemies say. 
How do they account for the empty tomb ? They 
persuaded the Roman soldiers to say, " While we 
slept the disciples of Jesus came and stole his 
body away." They paid the soldiers large sums 
for this testimony. Would they make such a use 
of money? They would. They had already 
bought Judas Iscariot with money. But why 
should the soldiers be paid for telling the truth ? 
Look at their story ! It falls to pieces of itself. 
It is confessedly the testimony of sleeping men. 
" While we slept his disciples came and stole his 
body." They saw nothing. They were asleep. 
They heard nothing. They were asleep. As 
sleeping men, they were dead to everything tran- 
spiring. To admit that they slept was to admit 



324 STUDIES IN JOHN S GOSPEL. 

that they knew nothing, and were therefore in- 
competent. Their testimony was only a conjec- 
ture, but conjecture is not evidence. No court of 
law will allow facts to be buried by theories and 
conjectures. Conjectures and theories are all that 
the enemies of Christ have produced. Men and 
brethren, this story which falls to pieces of itself 
is the best story that the enemies of Christ have 
ever gotten up as an explanation of the empty 
tomb. 

It has been said by the enemies of Christ that 
the witnesses of the resurrection deliberately bore 
false testimony, in order to deceive the world. 
That is no better than the soldiers' story, because 
there was no possible or conceivable motive to 
induce the disciples of Jesus to deceive the world. 
If Christ rose not, they were deceived themselves, 
and it would have been human nature for them to 
brand their cruel deceiver with infamy instead of 
glorifying him by the proclamation that he had 
risen. It is not human nature to treat deceivers 
as though they were saints. But mark what the 
disciples met with because they proclaimed the 
resurrection of Christ ! They were persecuted by 
those who crucified Christ. They were scourged 
and stoned and exiled. Are these the things 
which tempt men to become impostors ? 

Besides all this, we must keep before us the 
results which the fact of Christ's resurrection 
worked in these witnesses. It lifted them out of 
their old selves and made them new men. They 
rose to higher faith and higher work. They gave 



CHRIST RISEN. 325 

the world its purest doctrines and principles and 
ideals. Their raised character is a proof of the 
raised Christ. The tree of falsehood has never 
grown such lives as the after-lives of the witnesses 
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

When the theory of deception fails to smother 
the great fact, it is suggested that perhaps the wit- 
nesses of the resurrection were true in themselves, 
but labored under a delusion. Perhaps their in- 
tense desire to have Christ rise from the dead led 
them to imagine that they saw him. There is 
more modesty in this theory. But it does not fit 
the facts any more than the former theory. The 
resurrection had no place in the thoughts of the 
disciples prior to the time when it took place. 
They refused to believe it when it was first an- 
nounced. They had forgotten all that Christ had 
said about it. It is true that his wonderful life 
ought to have kept them from forgetting ; but it 
did not. His very miracles made his death all the 
more crushing. The disciples reasoned that if he 
could have prevented his death he would have 
done so, but his power gave out. True, he claimed 
that it was his arm that upheld the universe, but 
they saw that arm stark and stiff, and that neutral- 
ized his claim. To the disciples the death of 
Christ contradicted everything that went before. 
It left them panic-stricken and in grief. To show 
us that the disciples were not looking for the resur- 
rection of Jesus, and that they believed only when 
strong evidence was presented, we have such inci- 
dents as those recorded of Peter and John. When 



326 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

word was brought them that the tomb of Christ 
was empty, they did not say, " That is what we ex- 
pected, for he is risen." No. They conld not 
believe that the grave was untenanted, and they 
ran to the sepulchre to see for themselves. The 
trueness of this story shines out in every part. 
John is John, and Peter is Peter. They act them- 
selves, and the details which seem unnecessary to 
the casual reader bring this out and stamp the 
story as genuine. According to this story, John 
was the first to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. 
He was the disciple of love, and love sees farthest 
and quickest. How was he led to faith ? He tells 
us himself. He was led to faith by what he saw in 
the empty tomb. He saw the grave-clothes folded 
and orderly arranged, the linen in one place and 
the napkin in another. That was what arrested 
his attention and occupied his thought and led 
him to the conclusion that Christ had risen. He 
reasoned that here was the evidence of delibera- 
tion, leisure, calmness, and perfect freedom. There 
was no robbery, for the signs of robbery are confu- 
sion and disorder. Foes did not take the body 
away, for they would not have taken such care ; 
but here are the evidences of care. Friends did 
not, for the soldiers were here to keep off friends. 
Besides the body was in the tomb of a friend and 
could not be in a better place. Then what does all 
this mean ? As he mused, the explanation came 
to. him. He remembered the words of Christ about 
rising on the third day, and there and then in the 
empty sepulchre he believed. These are his own 



CHRIST RISEN. 327 

words : '* Then went in also that other disciple, 
which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and 
believed !" He did not need to wait to look upon 
Christ. He was the very opposite of Thomas. 
That beatitude which Christ pronounced in the 
hearing of Thomas was his : '' Thomas, because 
thou hast seen me, thou hast believed : blessed are 
they that have not seen and yet have believed !" 

Take up a second story, namely, that of Mary. 
To her the empty tomb meant the body hurried 
away in dishonor. This was the cause of her grief. 
If she is ever to believe in a risen Christ, she must 
see him. Christ knows this, and so shows himself 
to her. He came to her and called her by name, 
and she knew him by his voice, for it rang with 
the old notes of love. This was the way this wit- 
ness was convinced. It was different from the way 
any other witness was convinced. The witnesses 
of the resurrection were convinced according to 
their nature and disposition, and so the proof 
comes to us along all manner of lines. To Mary 
was granted the first appearance, because of the 
intensity of her love. The first honor was placed 
upon the first grace, the crowning grace of the 
Christian life. 

With this story of Mary before me I ask my- 
self. What is the proof which the New Testament 
gives us of the resurrection of Jesus Christ ? Out 
of the story comes the answer : The proof which 
the New Testament gives us of the resurrection of 
Christ is the living Christ himself and his post- 
resurrection life. We are told nothing as to how 



328 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

he rose, but we are introduced to him as risen. If 
we had the details of the process of his resurrec- 
tion, our thoughts would run off on a hundred 
non-important and non-essential lines. The New 
Testament hides out of our sight all non-essentials. 
It sets before us the risen Christ. What more do 
we need? Allow me an illustration. You want 
to prove, for example, that the little black seed can 
rise out of its present inactive, cold, and death- 
locked form, and become a living force, producing 
flowers robed with beauty and filled with fra- 
grance. What would be the most effective way of 
establishing this ? Would you take up time in tell- 
ing of germination and of the way trunk and leaf 
are built up ? No. There is a more effective way 
than that. Bring forward the full-formed flower 
and let it fill the atmosphere with its fragrance. 
The flower, beautiful and golden-tinted and sym- 
metrical, the flower, delightsome with its fra- 
grance — this is the best proof. It is proof not only 
that the little black seed can rise into life, but it is 
proof also that the little black seed has risen into 
life and has exchanged its blackness for beauty. 

Among the witnesses who testified that they 
had seen the risen Christ were persons who had all 
manner of experiences with him and all manner 
of opportunity for testing his identity. The proofs 
afforded them were infallible. They walked with 
him, looked him in the face, handled him, exam- 
ined the scars of crucifixion, ate with him, talked 
with him. Who were granted these privileges? 
His mother, his comrades of childhood, the men 



CHRIST RISEN. 329 

who had been with him night and day for three 
years, his chosen apostles. These were the people 
who knew Christ best. These people could not be 
deceived. If it be possible to believe any com- 
pany of people, it is possible to believe them. 
They bore their testimony in the very place where 
Christ died and on the very day he rose. They 
proclaimed his resurrection to his enemies, and 
three thousand of his crucifiers, who had ample 
opportunity to look into all the facts, in a single 
day came out and confessed their faith in Christ as 
risen. 

^. As a historical fact the resurrection of Christ 
rests upon an authenticated record of sufficient evidence. 

Conclusive as is the testimony presented, still 
there is one question more suggested, and I think 
it only right to deal with it. It is this : Have we a 
true record ? Are these the facts in the case ? Can 
the genuineness and credibility of the gospel nar- 
rative be proven ? This is a vital question. If the 
New Testament cannot be authenticated, then 
everything falls to the ground ; but if it can be 
authenticated, then everything stands. Let me 
say in dealing with this question that the claims of 
no book have been more thoroughly sifted than the 
claims of this Book. The desire to sift it has given 
rise in modern times to a new science : the science 
of Hermeneutics. The sifting goes on, and out of 
the sifting comes new confirmation. The old 
divines tell us, by way of confirming the New Tes- 
tament account of Christ's resurrection, that there 
was a public debate in the Roman Senate upon the 



330 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

proposal to receive Jesus as one of the gods of 
Rome, and that the fact of his resurrection was 
used as an argument. They tell us also that in 
*' The Acts of Pilate," filed away in the archives of 
Rome, there was a direct reference to the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus, and that Tertullian appealed to this 
record while it was in existence. Interesting as 
these things are, they are fragmentary, and we will 
not build upon them. We admit that we do not 
have the autograph copy of the New Testament. 
The Book as we now have it was collated in the 
course of long years. Part was found here and 
part there, one tract in one country and another 
tract in another country. Fragment was found by 
this man, and fragment by that man. What a mar- 
vellous history ! But does not this invalidate the 
Book? Modern research answers the question, and 
shows us that God never let the Book out of his 
hand. During our lifetime the two oldest and 
fullest manuscripts of the New Testament have 
been found in old convents. These manuscripts 
are known as the Vatican and Sinaitic. These 
were written as far back as A. D. 325. When we 
compare our collated New Testament with these 
copies, what does the comparison show? This, 
namely, there is not enough difference to change 
a single doctrine. That certainly is marvellous. 
But there are three hundred years between the 
writing of these manuscripts and the time of 
Christ. Can these three hundred years be bridged ? 
Happily, yes. Fortunately these three centuries 
abound in Christian writers, and the works of 



CHRIST RISEN. 33 1 

many of these writers stand upon the shelves of 
our libraries to-day. I have handled them with 
my own hands. In these extant works there are 
multitudinous quotations from the New Testa- 
ment accompanied with comments and expositions. 
From these it is possible to collect the greater part 
of the New Testament. These quotations prove 
that the New Testament was written when it is 
claimed that it was written. 

To specify by way of example : We have the 
writings of Clement, the friend and companion of 
Paul. If the writings of Paul were blotted out, we 
could get the Pauline doctrines from him. Clem- 
ent died A. D. 102. 

For example, we have the writings of Polycarp, 
the disciple of John : these give us the teachings 
of John. These early fathers whose writings we 
have connect us with the apostles, and the apostles 
take us right back to Jesus. 

Now from all this we see that the authenticity 
of no book is more clearly established than the 
authenticity of the New Testament. It is an au- 
thenticated New Testament that brings to us the 
infallible proofs, the indisputable evidence, of the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

VALUE OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION. 

There is no fact so m_ighty as a spiritual power. 
It begets a resurrection within us. It gives us a 
new sense of the largeness of life. It starts spirit- 
ual possibilities leaping in the soul. It bridges 
earth and heaven and brings over to earth the vital- 



332 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

ity of heaven. It roots our life in the risen Christ 
and puts the fulness of heaven at our disposal. 

In a Scottish valley, beside a little brook, where 
there was no kindly soil, a Highlander once 
planted a tree. Of course it wilted and drooped. 
But suddenly, to the surprise of every one, it took 
a new start in life, and bore rich fruit. What was 
the source of its new life ? That was the query 
put by all who knew it. An examination revealed 
the secret. With a marvellous vegetable instinct, 
it sent out a shoot which ran along and over a nar- 
row sheep -bridge and rooted itself in the rich 
loam on the other side of the brook. From this 
rich loam it drew its new life. Even so the res- 
urrection of Jesus bridges the river of death that 
flows between earth and heaven, and the souls of 
men who see this and know this send out the 
shoot of faith, and this running over the bridge 
roots itself in the eternal realities beyond and 
draws spiritual life from the very fulness of God. 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCirLES. 333 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 

" This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to 
HIS disciples after that he was risen from the dead." — 
JoJui 21 :i4. 

There is no part of the biography of the Christ 
more important than the period of the forty days 
between his resurrection and ascension. It was an 
introduction to the New Dispensation, for Jesus 
spent it in '' speaking- of the things pertaining to 
the kingdom of God." It was a season of prepara- 
tion to Jesus for his return to heaven, when the 
everlasting gates were to open and allow the King 
of glory entrance. It was a time of large instruc- 
tion to the disciples. Hitherto they had been un- 
prepared for the things now revealed. It was the 
prelude to the wonderful things of Pentecost. Let 
no one overlook the riches of this portion of our 
Lord's life or the number of important facts and 
doctrines and principles brought to view during 
these interviews. By his appearance to his disci- 
ples the Master demonstrated that he was the 
same unchanged Jesus, loving and forgiving and 
sympathizing as in the old days. 

No part of the history of the Forty Days is 
more interesting than this chapter which records 
Christ's third appearance to his associated disci- 
ples. Four times he had appeared to separate dis- 
ciples ; this was the third time he appeared to the 
disciples in a company. 



334 STUDIES IN jopin's gospel. 

The leading apostolic figure in this epiphany- 
is Peter, and the leading fact is his restoration by 
the Master to apostolic work. All else recorded is 
incidental. The lessons of the chapter centre 
around his reinstallation. 

Bible critics call this twenty-first chapter of 
John a postscript to his Gospel. It has been said 
that the aged John was in the habit of telling the 
interesting story which it contains, and that his 
disciples, who were charmed by it, urged him to 
add it to his Gospel, that all the ages might have 
it and be blessed through it. Postscript or no 
postscript, the chapter fits the Gospel and makes a 
grand ending. Now that we have it we do not see 
how we could do without it. There would be a 
mysterious gap if it were not here. It is a bridge 
from Peter of the denial to Peter of Pentecost. 
We must be told of the restoration of the fallen 
Peter and of his reinstatement in the apostolate in 
order that we may understand why he should hold 
the confidence of his fellow-apostles and lead them 
in the march of the cross. The denier of Christ — 
the leader of the cause of Christ ! This must be 
explained. This story explains it. The man who 
renounced Christ and his cause is back in his old 
place because Christ sought him and reclaimed 
him and forgave him and restored him. Christ 
came to seek and save the lost, to give man a 
knowledge of himself as a sinner, to call man to 
repentance, to purchase for man and give to him 
a pardon for sin, to lift him into a life of fellow- 
ship with God, and to induct him into divine ser- 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 335 

vice. This was the grand purpose of Christ's 
vv^hole life. This is the explanation of Christ's 
whole biography. Now what more fitting than 
that the history of his life should close with a stri- 
king illustration of a man who was revealed to 
himself, w^ho was convicted of sin, who was par- 
doned and saved, who was brought into intimate 
and loving association with God, and whose life 
was consecrated to daring and magnificent gospel 
work? 

While the story told by the chapter centres in 
Peter, it also centres in Christ. While it lifts be- 
fore us the sin of man, it lifts before us also and 
chiefly the glory of God. The sin of man is but 
the black background which sets off the brilliant 
looming and flashing of the sublime attribute of 
God's mercy. The blacker the cloud the more 
distinct and beautiful is the sheen of the rainbow. 
The blacker human iniquity is, the more clearly is 
it seen '' that God is light, and in him is no dark- 
ness at all." The special design of this Gospel 
according to John is to let us see the outshining of 
God in Christ. As the Gospel of Luke is the Gos- 
pel of his humanity, this is the Gospel of his deity. 
All through his life John shows us that Jesus 
Christ lives like God, thinks like God, speaks like 
God, loves like God ; now in closing his Gospel he 
records an incident which shows us that he for- 
gives like God. Divine attribute after divine attri- 
bute reveals itself in him — omniscience, ubiquity of 
power, omnipotence, truth ; now the divine attri- 
bute of infinite mercy reveals itself in pardoning 



336 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

the great sin of Peter, and thus once more it is 
made plain that Jesus Christ is God. 

Is there a grander attribute with which to close 
the gospel of the deity of Christ than the divine 
attribute of mercy ? This story of the exercise of 
divine mercy with which this Gospel closes matches 
the song of the angels which opened the life of 
Christ, '' Glory to God in the highest, on earth 
peace, good- will towards men." It matches every 
great and grand thing found on the Gospel page. 
For example, it matches the beautiful parable of 
the Prodigal Son. Who could be worse than the 
Prodigal? But what reception could be more 
hearty than the reception which he received ? Sin 
cannot outmatch abounding grace. What case 
could be worse than Peter's ? Oh what a fall was 
his ! One hour he was a holy apostle, the next 
hour he was a blaspheming sinner. But Christ 
received him back from his apostasy and gave him 
a pardon and an office and a work 'and a promise 
of glory. In doing this he lifted the story of the 
Prodigal Son out of its parabolic form and transla- 
ted it into an actuality of history. For example, it 
matches that wonderful commission which Christ 
gave his disciples : " Go ye into all the world and 
preach salvation in my name ; and begin at Jerusa- 
lemr ^^ Begin at Jerusalem!' The Jerusalem sin- 
ners were types of the worst sinners. Just as Pe- 
ter, the greatest sinner among the apostles who 
had forsaken Christ, was chosen first, the Jerusa- 
lem sinners, who murdered Christ, were chosen 
first. ^' Begin at Jerusalem^ It is as if he said. 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 337 

" Go find the men who said, ' Crucify him,' and tell 
them that, if they will it, they may take up the cry 
of adoration which is the joy of those around the 
throne. Go find the men who placed the crown of 
thorns upon my brow and drove its sharp points 
into my temples, and tell them that I will give 
them crowns of glory if they will but accept of 
them. Go find the soldiers who drove the nails 
and handled the spear, and tell them that I offer 
the blood which they shed for the washing away 
of their sins. Go find the scribes and elders who 
pleaded against me and secured my sentence, and 
tell them that I offer myself as their advocate at 
the dread bar of God, and that I will deliver them 
from condemnation if they will only accept of me. 
In searching up Peter and bringing him to -pardon 
and privilege Christ gave his disciples an example 
of the way the great commission was to be execu- 
ted. '' God's mercy is above all his works." This' 
is the fact upon which the Gospel of the deity of 
Christ rings the changes by this incident which 
fills its last page. Publicans and sinners, denying 
Peters and persecuting Pauls, there is hope in 
Christ for all of these, for in Christ there is the 
outshining of divine mercy. '' God is in Christ 
reconciling the world unto himself." 

The story before us is not that of Peter's resto- 
ration to Christ's favor, it is that of his restoration 
to apostolic office and work. The restoration to 
Christ's favor took place prior to this. There were 
some things which antedated this history. The 
look which Christ gave Peter antedated this ; that 

Stu.UeB In J'jliii's Gospel. J C 



338 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

look brought Peter to penitence. Before this there 
was a secret meeting between Christ and Peter, 
and a special invitation was sent Peter calling him 
to this meeting. The secret meeting was the 
meeting for the two hearts, the heart of Christ and 
the heart of Peter, to be set right with each other. 
The secret meeting took place on the very day of 
Christ's resurrection. When the two disciples re- 
turned from Emmaus to Jerusalem, to tell of their 
experience with Christ, the Jerusalem brethren all 
cried to them, before they could speak a word, 
^' The Lord is risen and hath appeared unto Peter !" 
In summing up the evidences of Christ's resurrec- 
tion, Paul, long years afterwards, referred to it: 
'* He was seen of Cephas." Personally, and prior 
to this, it was all right between Peter and Christ. 
This meeting was to rectify all things officially. 
If Peter had not personally been received by 
Christ prior to- this, he would not have sprung out 
of the boat to meet Christ the moment John said, 
*' It is the Lord !" 

The scene of the restoration was located by the 
Sea of Galilee. This was a place of precious mem- 
ories to the disciples. It had been purposely cho- 
sen for this meeting, and the disciples had been 
directed both by Christ and the angel at the tomb 
to gather here. A place like this, which was 
crowded with associations related to Christ, would 
make him all the more real to his disciples. Be- 
sides, this was the place where Christ first inducted 
Peter into the apostolic office, and it was calculated 
to bring up old memories to Peter, and make the 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 339 

reinstatement more impressive. A great many 
Bible critics, ancient and moderri, interpret this 
chapter symbolically, and thus give it a wide scope 
and make it vivid. For example, they make the 
fire on the shore a symbol of Christ's sacrifice. 
The fire makes the fish acceptable as food ; even so 
Christ's sacrifice makes us acceptable to God. 
There were two instalments of fish cooked : the 
fish which Christ cooked before the disciples came 
to land, and the fish which the disciples caught. 
The first they make symbolical of the saints saved 
under the Old Testament, the second the saints 
saved under the New Testament dispensation. 
There were one hundred and fifty-three fish caught 
in the wonderful draught. There were only one 
hundred and fifty-three species of fish then known ; 
the number therefore indicates that under this 
dispensation people from every kindred and tongue 
and nation shall be saved. The meal prepared is 
construed into a symbol of the marriage supper of 
the Lamb and of the eternal refreshment which 
God will provide for all who labor for him here. 
This manner of interpretation makes the chapter 
very full and picturesque, and gives an opportunity 
to emphasize facts elsewhere taught, but it seems 
to me that it scatters the force of the chapter, and 
obscures the great fact of Peter's restoration and 
the grand lessons which it carries and illustrates. 
I believe that everything here is vocal : the place 
itself, all the incidents which transpire, and all the 
striking things which are noted ; but I believe that 
all these voices singly and combined talk to Peter 



340 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

and about Peter. • There v/as a fire burning at the 
restoration ; there was a fire burning at the denial. 
It was at '' a fire of coals " that Peter said, " I never 
knew him ;" it was at '' a fire of coals " that Peter 
said, '' I love him." A meal preceded the restora- 
tion, a meal preceded the denial. Peter went out 
from the Lord's Supper to the denial of his Master. 
There was a miraculous draught of fishes at the 
restoration ; there was a miraculous draught of 
fishes, after a night of fruitless toil, when Peter 
was first called to the office of an apostle. Three 
times Peter was made to confess Christ ; three 
times he had denied Christ. Three times Christ 
re-commissioned him ; three times he had forfeited 
his commission. Christ questioned Peter until he 
acknowledged his divinity by saying, " Lord, thou 
knowest all things." Before his first commission 
Peter acknowledged Christ's divinity. Jesus called 
him Simon, and not Peter, for that was his name 
before he became an apostle. Everything was ar- 
ranged so that Peter was taken back to the begin- 
ning and to his sin. Thus he was taught that he 
had made a wreck of his life by his fall. It was 
necessary for him to begin over again. It was 
necessary for Christ to re-make him, and re-com- 
mission him. While Peter's past was held before 
him with an unswerving fidelity, this was most 
delicately done, and at the same time most thor- 
oughly done. While Peter was made publicly to 
confess his fault, the method of confession was one 
which spared the criminal while it 'impressed him 
and made sin odious. He confessed his past sin 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 34I 

by confessing his present love and trueness. Christ 
never minimizes or glosses over sin. He always 
requires a right state of heart and exposes the 
heart to itself. He searches man through and 
through and compels him to read the unread 
page of his history. He asks probing questions. 
Yet he does all this in a way that softens the heart 
of the sinner instead of hardening it. Christ 
guards against two extremes : he guards against 
laxity and severity, sentimentality and sternness. 

POINTS DEDUCED. 

I. The work of grace is a magnificent work. 
We have many exhibitions of this work. Every 
soul in the ten thousand times ten thousand be- 
fore the throne of God is the embodiment and 
manifestation of grace. Grace is at work in Peter 
involving and evolving a grand character. No 
sculptor ever made more out of a rough piece of 
marble, even when he wrought it into the most 
superb of angelic forms, than divine grace made 
out of rough Peter, the fisherman of Galilee. Be- 
hold what he was when grace found him ! Igno- 
rant, uncouth, profane, carnal in his tastes, and low 
and vulgar in his ambitions. Behold him under 
the developments of grace ! A man of the highest 
ambitions, sacrificing self for others, spiritual in 
his nature, modelling after a perfect pattern, broad 
in his outlook, filled w4th heavenly conceptions and 
with divine truth, swaying multitudes and lifting 
them above sin, and raising the very dead by his 
faith in Christ. When grace finishes its work in 



342 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

Peter his old self is regenerated, purified, sublima- 
ted, transfigured. 

Grace does a grand work, because it has before 
it a magnificent model. It aims at making men 
Christlike. It gives them strength to obey Christ's 
command, '' Follow me." This command is a two- 
worded compendium of all Christian duty. 

Grace does a grand work, because it acts from 
itself and is self-sufficient. It does not depend for 
stimulus upon the sinner. If it did it would soon 
cease to act. It holds on to the sinner despite the 
sinner's abuse. It perseveres despite the sinner's 
many falls. It counts nothing a failure. The 
prodigal may be very bad, but it decrees his re- 
turn. When men stone the prophets of God, it 
sends the Son of God. When men crucify the Son 
of God, it sends the Spirit of God. Our only hope 
for ourselves and for all whom we seek to restore 
and reclaim from the power of sin is in the un- 
changing and almighty grace of God. When we 
become discouraged with regard to ourselves or 
with regard to those among whom we labor, be- 
cause of the desperate wickedness of heart and the 
amazing outbreaking of sin, the only help we can 
get is by looking up to God and remembering the 
unchangeable purposes of his almighty grace. The 
discouraged Moses looked at the sinning Israel 
and despaired. He said, " It is no use trying fur- 
ther; it is impossible to make anything out of 
Israel." Just as he was about to abandon them it 
occurred to him to look up to God to see if there 
were anything in Him upon which he could build 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 343 

hope for Israel. He cried to God, '' Show me thy 
glory." And God showed him his glory, and he 
learned that it was God's glory to forgive and to 
show mercy. Then Moses said, " If God thus 
holds on to sinning Israel and forgives, I will hold 
on to Israel and labor with them." The grace of 
God does a grand work because there is nothing 
that can discourage it. It begins anew and works 
on until it works out its ideal in the soul and life 
of man. 

2. Loz'e to Christ is tJte only unfailing spring of 
Christian activity, 

Christ tells us that love was the spring of his 
life, love to the Father ; he makes love the spring 
of our life, love to Him. According to his decree 
love has been the central principle of every beau- 
tiful and holy Christian life. Paul's life was such 
a life, and he accounts for it by love : " The love 
of Christ constraineth us." When the surgeons 
were cutting with their sharp lances into the breast 
of a wounded French soldier to find the ball, the 
man opened his eyes and said, " Cut a little deeper 
and you will find the emperor." Love for Napo- 
leon was the spring of bravery in the French army. 
If you enter into the inner life of the Christian, 
down in the deepest depth you will find Jesus 
Christ and him only. Love for him is the spring 
of every grace. Love for him has thrown massive 
cathedrals into the air, has builded asylums and 
institutions for carrying the gospel to the ends of 
the earth and for putting the Word of Life into 
the hands of the dying. When there is no love 



344 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

for Christ in the church there is no enterprise, no 
self-sacrifice, no effective work. There is only 
weakness and coldness and deadness. 

There is always something supreme in every 
man, and that supreme affection makes him like 
its object. When Christ is the object, the reigning 
affection makes us like Christ, whose life was built 
upon love and was spent in doing good. To do 
the loftiest work we must be animated by the lofti- 
est principle. There is no loftier principle than 
love to Christ. 

No wonder that God has made love the spring 
of Christian activity. For see what love does in 
God ; it moves him to give his own Son. It builds 
heaven for us ; it makes the glorious covenant ; it 
utters the precious promises. As it works in God 
so it works in man. It fills him with sympathy 
and pity and sacrifice. It takes away drudgery 
and makes work a delight. It consecrates learning 
and genius and eloquence to the development and 
uplifting of humanity. Paul portrays the deeds 
which are the natural outgrowth of love in that 
psalm-chapter of his which treats of " Faith, Hope, 
and Charity." Everything negatively grand and 
everything positively grand grows from it as the 
variegated flower grows from the seed. We may 
weave justice and truth and morality into our life, 
and we may in this way make our life a beautiful 
structure ; but if love be not supreme in it, our 
life is simply a dahlia without fragrance. It is an 
infinite remove from the sweet-scented lily, the 
praises of which were spoken by Christ. 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 345 

No wonder God made love the spring of Chris- 
tian life, for love is an undying grace. True love 
for Christ is like the silver rill that has been flow- 
ing down the mountain-side for centuries. It is 
unfailing. Is it not time that the little rill had 
exhausted itself ? Exhausted itself ? It cannot do 
that, for it is fed by an inexhaustible spring. The 
clouds feed the spring, and the ocean itself feeds 
the clouds. You might as well talk of the ocean 
exhausting itself as the rill. Christian love is fed 
from the inexhaustible fulness of God. " We love 
him because he first loved us." It is therefore as 
permanent as God. It will work for Christ, no 
matter how the world treats it. It may be insult- 
ed, despised, rejected, persecuted, still it will bless 
and work and spend itself and see Christ in the 
poor and needy and see Christ in itself. 

3. Restoration is one of the covenant blessijtgs of 
the child of God. 

Nothing can be more clearly presented than 
this. Here it is in actual history in the experience 
of the apostle Peter. All through the Bible we 
find it. Samson was restored and given strength 
to win the crowning victory over the enemies of 
the Lord. Solomon was restored and allowed to 
write the story of his wanderings for the warning 
of men to the end of time. Noah was restored, 
and the lips that drained the wine-cup uttered the 
blessing of the covenant. David was restored, and 
God used him to write the penitential Psalms for 
the church. So clearly did David understand this 
doctrine that he offered a wonderful and daring 



34^ STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

prayer to God when he was seeking his way back 
to God. He asked God to so cleanse him that 
there might be no stain of sin upon him. He 
asked God to give him His Holy Spirit and to give 
him back the joys of salvation; He asked for new 
and grander appointments to work. And David 
was right. His prayer was put into his heart by 
the Lord himself. God himself teaches the be- 
liever to sing, 

" My soul he doth restore again 
And me to walk doth make 
Within the paths of righteousness, 
Even for his own name's sake." 

Christ taught his disciples that it was their duty 
to forgive an offending brother until seventy times 
seven, i. e., without limit. The forgiveness of God 
cannot be below man's forgiveness. Christ declares 
that he is the Good Shepherd. Now one import- 
ant function of the good shepherd is to seek and 
find and restore the lost sheep. He willingly goes 
forth on the search, and his voice rings the name 
of the lost one among the mountains until crag 
echoes it to crag. There is not a chasm or preci- 
pice left unscrutinized. The one lost sheep of the 
hundred occupies more of his thoughts than the 
ninety-and-nine that are safe. This is what Jesus 
says, and this certainly magnifies and makes prom- 
inent God's work of restoration. 

But is there no danger in preaching this doc- 
trine and in making it prominent? Christ did not 
think there was, else he would not have done so. 
The whole mission of the Son of God was restora- 



THE RISEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 347 

tion. There is a danger that we may not appre- 
hend fully the grand fact that God does restore us 
when we fall. What then ? There is no seeking 
for restoration and no burning effort to reclaim the 
fallen. The guilty past becomes an ever-present 
burden which crushes us and makes progress to- 
wards the right and towards God unattainable. 
The great enemy of souls uses a guilty past to cre- 
ate despair and spiritual paralysis. The story of 
Peter's restoration is an antidote to despair. The 
greatest sin which we can commit against God is 
to despair of his grace. And this greatest sin 
against God is the greatest injury we can inflict 
upon ourselves and upon our fellow-men. 

But if you preach strongly the doctrine of res- 
toration as one of the blessings of the covenant, is 
there not danger that you will make sin easy? 
Christ did not think so, else he would not have 
preached it as he did. To all who think of using 
this doctrine for the purpose of writing down the 
heinousness and bitterness of sin, we say, remem- 
ber the awful experience of those sinners who 
were restored. Remember the eyeless sockets of 
Samson and the years of midnight and the grind- 
ing at the mill as a slave and the derision and 
mocking laughter of enemies. Remember David's 
days and nights of anguish and the painful after- 
judgments. Remember Peter's night of bitter 
weeping and the spasms of fear which seized him. 
Remember the Prodigal Son. For notwithstand^ 
ing the kiss and robe and feast, there was always 
an ever-present sense of that awful waste and 



348 STUDIES IN JOHN'S GOSPEL. 

wreck which he made of the first part of his life. 
There was always a sense of weakness and of 
dregs. There was not a day of his after-life that 
he did not say, '' Oh what a fool I was !" And he 
was a fool, and so is every youth in this nineteenth 
century who acts as he acted. 

Recognizing the awfulness of sin, it is ours to 
rejoice that there is a way open from sin to God, 
and it is ours to preach to the fallen Peters and 
point them to the heights of privileges to which 
God wants to lift them. They may become apos- 
tles again. They may enter into their old com- 
munion with Christ. They may speak for Christ 
and write for Christ and die for Christ and be for 
ever with Christ in glory. 



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