Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

4. — [And wJdther 1 go ye know..May ye know.'] This remarkable sentence was evidently meant to stir and cheer tlie disciples, by reminding them of what their Master had repeatedly told them. It is as though our Lord said, " Do not be cast down by my going away, as if you had never heard Me say anything about heaven and the way to heaven. Awake from your despondency, stir up your memories. Surely you know, if you retlect a little, that I have often told you all about it." Is it not, again, like a tender parent saying to a frightened child, who says he know? not what to do, and is ready to sit down in despair, " Como you know well enough, if you will only consider "?

Poole observes on this verse, " It is pleasant to notice how Christ continueth His discourse to the disciples, like a mother speaking to a little child crying after her when she prepares to go abroad. The child cries; the mother bids it be still, for she is only going to a friend's house. It still cries; she tells it she is only going to prepare a place for it there, where it will be much happier than at home. It is not yet satislied; she tells it

again, tliat though she goes, she will come again, and then It shall go with her, and she will part from it no more. The child is yet impatient; she endeavoreth to still it, telling it that it knoweth whitlier she goeth, and it knows the way by which, if need be, it may come to her."

Let us note that disciples often know more than they suppose or admit, but do not use their knowledge, or keep it ready for use. Ferus compares them to infants lying in their cradles, who have fathers and fortunes, but do not know it.

Let us note that Christ looks graciously on the little knowledge His people possess, and make the most of it. He can make allowance for their minds being clouded by grief or trouble, and their consequent forgetfulness of truth for a season.

5. — [Thomas saith unto Him, etc.] This verse shows how foolishly a disciple may talk under the influence of despondency. Here is one of the eleven faithful Apostles declaring flatly that they neither knew where their Master was going, nor the way! The saying is characteristic of the man. Thomas always appears a doubting, slow-minded believer. But we must not judge disciples too sharply for words spoken under deep distress. W^hen the passions and affections are much stirred, the tongue often runs away with a man, and he speaks unadvisedly. Nor must we forget that disciples have very different gifts. All have not equally strong faith, clear understanding, and good memory.

Trapp quaintly remarks that believers in the frame of Thomas are like people who hunt for their keys and purses, when they have got them in their pockets.

6, — [Jesus saith..J...way...truth...life.] This wonderful saying is a brilliant example of a foolish remark calling out a gaeat truth from our Lord's lips. To the ill natured remark of the Pharisees we owe the parable of the Prodigal Son (See Luke chapter XV.); to the fretful complaint of Thomas we owe one of the grandest texts in Scripture. It is one of those deep utterances which no exposition can thoroughly unfold and exhaust.

When our Lord says, " I am the way," He means, " the Father's house is to be reached through my mediation and atonement. Faith in Me is the key to heaven. He that believeth in Me is in the right road."

When our Lord says, " I am the truth," He means, " The root of all knowledge is to know Me. I am the true Messiah to whom all revelation points, the truth of which the Old Testament ceremonies and sacrifices were a figure and shadow. He that really knows Me, knows enough to take him safe to heaven, though he may not know many things, and may be troubled at his own ignorance."

Boot and Fountain of all life in religion, ttie Eedeemer from death and the Giver of everlasting life. He that knows and believes in Me, however weak and ignorant he may feel, has spiritual life now, and will have a glorious life in my Father's house hereafter."

Some think that the three great words in this sentence should be taken together, and that our Lord meant, " I am the true and living way." Yet the general opinion of the best comments tors is decidedly unfavorable to this view of the sentence. To my own mind it cuts down and impoverishes a great and deep saying.

Musculus remarks that no prophet, teacher, or apostle ever used such words as these. They are the language of one who knew that He was God.

[iVb man...cometh... Father...hy me.] Here our Lord teaches that He is not merely the way to our Father's home in heaven, but that there is no other way, and that men must either go to heaven by His atonement or not go there at all. It is a clear distinct limitation of heaven to those who believe on Christ. None else will enter in there. Rejecting Christ they lose all.

We should mark carefully what an unanswerable argument this sentence supplies against the modern notion that it does not matter what a man believes, — that all religions will lead men to lieaven if they are sincere, — that creeds and doctrines are of no importance, — that heaven is a place for all mankind — whether heathen, Mahometan, or Christian, — and that the Fatherhood of God is enough to save all at last, of all sects, kinds, and characters! Our Lord's words should never be forgotten. " There is no way to the Father but by Me." God is a Father to none but to those who believe in Christ. In short, there are not many ways to heaven. There is only one way.

" Coming to the Father," in this place, we must remark, in eludes not only coming to Him in glory at the last, but coming to Him in a friendly relation for peace and comfort now in this life,

"By Me," is literally, "through" Me, — as a door, a gate, a road, a path, an entrauce. It is an expression which would be peculiarly expressive to the Jews, taught from their childhood to draw near to God only through the priests.

7. — {If...knoicn me...Father also.] This is a deep saying, like every saying which handles the mysterious union of the Fa ther and' the Son in St. John's Gospel. The meaning seems to be, " If you had rightly, properly, and perfectly known Me, as the Divine Messiah, in all the fulness of my nature, you would then have known more of that Father to whom I am inseparably united. No one can rightly know Me without knowing the Father, because I and the Father are One."

[Jnd from lienceforth... known....seen Ilim.] The meaninr^ of these words seems to be, " Understand from this time forward, that in knowing Me you know the Father, and in seeing Me see the Father, so far as the Father can be seen and known by man." Although the Son and the Father are two distinct persona in the Trinity, yet there is so close and mysterious a union between them that he who sees and knows the Son, in a certain sense, sees and knows the Father. Is it not written of the Son that " He is the express image of the Father." (Heo. i.2.)

The whole difficulty of the verse arises from the extreme mysteriousness of its subject. The relation between the eternal Father and the eternal Son and the eternal Spirit, who, while three Persons, are one God, is precisely one of those things which we have no minds to take in, and no language to express. We must often be content to believe and reverence it, without attempting to explain it. This only we may lay down with certainty, as a great canon and maxim, — the more we know of Christ, " the more we know of the Father."

fe. — [Philip...shew us the Father...sufflceth us.] We are not told Philip's motive in making this request. Perhaps, like Moses, he and the other disciples had a pious desire to see a more full vision and revelation of God's glory, as an authentication of their Master's Divine mission. " Show me Thy glory." (Ex. xxxiii. 18.) Perhaps Philip's petition is recorded to show how little clear knowledge the Apostles yet had of their Master's nature, and how little they realized that He and the Father were One: — " If we could only see once for all the Divine Being whom Thou dost call the Father, it would be sufficient. We should be satisfied and our doubts would be removed." At any rate we have no right to think that Philip spoke like the unbelieving Jews, who always pretended to want signs and wonders. Whatever sense we put on the words, we must carefully remember not to judge Philip too harshly. Living as we do in the nineteenth century, amidst light and creeds and knowledge, we can have faint ideas of the extreme difficulty that must have been felt by the disciples in fully realizing their Master's nature, in the days when He was " in the form of a Servant," and under a veil of poverty, weakness, and humiliation.

Melancthon remarks that Philip's petition represents the natural wish of man in §very age. Men feel an inward craving everywhere to see God.

9. — [Jesus saith...so long time...Philip.'] This verse is undoubtedly a gentle rebuke. The expression, " so long time," is noteworthy, when we remember that Philip was one of tlie very first disciples whom Jesus called. (See John i. 48.) The meaning seems to be, " After three long years, Philip, dost thou not yet thoroughly know and understand who I am V "

[7/f..seen me...seen the Father^ This deep sentence cl^n only mean "He that hath thoroughly seen me with the eye of faith, and realized that I am the eternal Son, the Divine Messiah, hath seen as much of my Father, whose express image I- am, as mortal man can comprehend." There is so close and intimate a union between persons in the Trinity, that he who sees the Sou sees the Father. And yet we must caref ally beware that we do not, like some heretics, " confound the Persons." The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father.

Musculus observes that to see with bodily eyes is one thing, and to see with the eyes of faith quite another.

[And how sayest thou... show...Father^ This question is a further gentle rebuke of Philip's ignorance. " What dost thou mean by saying. Show us the Father? What clear knowledge of Me canst thou have if thou canst ask such a question?"

Let us note how Jesus calls " Philip " by his name. It was doubtless meant to prick his conscience. '' Thou, Philip, an old disciple, so ignorant! Ought not thou, after following and hearing Me for three years to have known better than this? "

10. — [Believest thou not...I...in Father...in Me.] This question continues the rebuke to Philip. It means, " Dost thou not yet believe and realize what I have taught, — that there is a mystical union between Me and the Father, and that He is in Me and I in Him? "

This question surely seems to indicate that our Lord had often taught His disciples about the union between Himself and the Father. But, like many of the things He taught, the mighty truth passed over their heads at first, and was not remembered till afterwards. How little reason have ministers to complain if their teaching is little regarded, when this was Christ's experience 1

[The words that 1 speak...Father...works.] There can be little doubt that this is a very elliptical sentence. The full meaning must be supplied in this way. " The words that I speak to you I speak not independently of the Father; and the works that I do I do not do them independently of the Father. The Father who dwells in Me, speaks in Me and works in Me. My words are words given Me to speak, and my works are works given Me to do, in the eternal counsel between the Father and the Son. Both in speaking and working I and my Father are one. What I speak He speaks, and what I work He works."

The whole difficulty of the verse arises from forgetting the close and mysterious and insoluble union between the Persons of the Trinity. How little we realize the fulness of the expression, " The Father dwelleth in Me."

11. — [Belie'De Me...in the Father...in ife.] Direct instruction follows the rebuke of the preceding verse. Our Lord repeats for the benefit not of Pliilip only, but of all the eleven, the great doctrine He had so often taught them. " Once more, I say, Believe, all of you, my words, when I say that I and the Father are so closely united that I am in Him and He in Me."

The word rendered " believe " in this verse is in the plurai number. Our Lord does not address Philip only, but the whole company of the Apostles.

What an example we have here of the necessity of repeating instruction over and over again. Our Lord had evidently taught these things before to the eleven, and yet they had either not understood or not remembered.

\0r else believe... loorks' sake.] Here our Lora condescends to the weakness of the disciples. " If you will not believe the close union of Myself and the Father because of my word, believe it because of the works T work. They are such works as no one could work of himself, and without the Father."

Let us carefully observe how our Lord here, as elsewhere, specially names His works, or miracles, as testimonies of His nature and Divine mission. To leave out miracles in the list of the evidences of Christianity is a great mistake.

12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that belicvcth on me, the works tluit I do shall he do also; and

13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.

15 If ye love me keep my commandments.

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;

17 ^?;6« the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth liim not, neither knoweth him; but ye know liim: for he dwelletn with"you, and shall be in you.

These verses are an example of our Lord's tender consideration for the weakness of His disciples. He saw them troubled and faint-hearted at the prospect of being left alone in the world. He cheers them by three promises, peculiarly suited to their circumstances. " A word spoken in season, how good is it! "

We have first in this passage, a striking promise about the loorks that Christians may do. Our Lord says, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

The full meaning of this promise is not to be sought in the miracles which the Apostles wrought after Christ left the world. Such a notion seems hardly borne out by facts. We read of no Apostle walking on the water, or raising a person four days dead, like Lazarus. What our Lord has in view seems to be the far greater number of conversions, the far wider spread of the Gospel, which would take place under the ministry of the Apostles, than under his own teaching. This was the case, we know from the Acts of the Apostles. We read of no sermon preached by Christ, under which three thousand were converted in one day, as they were on the day of Pentecost. In short, " greater works " mean more conversions. There is no greater work possible than the conversion of a soul.

Let us admire the condescension of our Master in allowing to the ministry of His weak servants more success than to His own. Let us learn that His visible presence is not absolutely necessary to the progress of His kingdom. He can help forward His cause on earth quite as much by sitting at the right hand of the Father, and sending forth the Holy Ghost, as by walking to and fro in the world. Let us believe that there is nothing too hard or too great for believers to do, so long as their Lord intercedes for them in heaven. Let us work on in faith, and expect great things, though we feel weak and lonely, like the disciples. Our Lord is working with us and for us, though we cannot see Him. It was not so much the sword of Joshua that defeated Amalek, as the intercession of Moses on the hill. (Ex. xvii. 11.)

We have, secondly, in this passage, a striking promise about tilings that Christians may get by prayer. Our

Lord says, " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.... If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it."

These words are a direct encouragement to the simple, yet great duty of praying. Every one who kneels daily before God, and from his heart " says his prayers," has a right to take comfort in these words. "Weak and imperfect as his supplications may be, so long as they are put in Christ's hands, and offered in Christ's name, they shall not be in vain. We have a Friend at Court, an Advocate with the Father; and if we honor Him by Bending all our petitions through Him, He pledges His word that they shall succeed. Of course it is taken for granted that the things we ask are for our souls' good, and not mere temporal benefits. " Anything " and "whatsoever" do not include wealth, and money, and worldly prosperity. These things are not always good for us, and our Lord loves us too well to let us have them. But whatever is really good for our souls, we need not doubt we shall have, if we ask in Christ's name.

How is it that many true Christians have so little? How is it that they go halting and mourning on the way to heaven, and enjoy so little peace, and show so little strength in Christ's service? The answer is simple and plain. " They have not, because they ask not." They have little because they ask little. They are no better than they are, because they do not ask their Lord to make them better. Our languid desires are the reason of our languid performances. We are not straitened in our Lord, but in ourselves. Happy are they who never forget the words, " Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." (Ps. Ixxxi. 10.) He that does much for Christ, and leaves his mark in the world, will always prove to be one who prays much.

We have, lastly, in this passage, a striking promise about the Holy Ghost. Our Lord says, " I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,.... even the Spirit of truth."

This is the first time that the Holy Ghost is mentioned as Christ's special gift to his people. Of course we are not to suppose that He did not dwell in the hearts of all the Old Testament saints. But He was given with peculiar influence and power to believers when the New Testament dispensation came in, and this is tiie special promise of the passage before us. We shall find it useful, therefore, to observe closely the things that are here said about Him.

The Holy Ghost is spoken of as " a Person." To apply the language before us to a mere influence or inward feeling, is an unreasonable strain of words.

The Holy Ghost is called " the Spirit of truth." It is His special oftice to apply truth to the hearts of Christians, to guide them into all truth, and to sanctify them by the truth.

The Holy Ghost is said to be one whom " the world cannot receive and does not know." His operations are in the strongest sense foolishness to the natural man. The inward feelings of conviction, repentance, faith, hope, fear, and love, which He always produces, are precisely that part of religion which the world cannot understand.

The Holy Ghost is said to " dwell in" believers, and to be known of them. They know the feelings that He creates, and the fruits that He produces, though they may not be able to explain them, or see at first whence they come. But they all are what they are, — new men, new creatures, light and salt in the earth, compared to the worldly, by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

" to abide with them " until Christ comes the second time. He is meant to supply all the needs of believers, and to -fill up all that is wanting while Christ's visible presence is removed. He is sent to abide with and help them until Christ returns.

These are truths of vast importance. Let us take care that we grasp them firmly, and never let them go. Next to the whole truth about Christ, it concerns our safety and peace to see the whole truth about the Holy Ghost. Any doctrine about the Church, the ministry, or the Sacraments, which obscures the Spirit's inward work, or turns it into mere form, is to be avoided as deadly error. Let us never rest till we feel and know that He dwells in us. " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." (Rom. viii. 9.)

12. — [Verily...works...shall Tie do also.'] Here we have another comforting word addressed to the disciples. They must not suppose there would be an end of miraculous works when their Master went away, and that they would be left weak and helpless, and unable to do any thing to arrest the attention of an unbelieving world. On the contrary, our Lord assures them, with two emphatic " verilys," that miracles would not cease with His departure. He would take care that believers should have power to do works like His own, and to confirm their word by signs following.

I cannot doubt that this promise refers to the miraculous gifts which the first generation of Christians had power to exercise, as we read everywhere in the Acts of the Apostles. That the sick were healed, the dead raised, and devils cast out by disciples after the Lord ascended, is quite plain, and this fulfilled the words now before us.

I can see no reason to suppose that our Lord meant the promise to be fulfilled after the generation He left on earth was dead. If miracles were continually in the Church, they would cease to be miracles. We never see them in the Bible except at some great crisis in the Church's history. The Irvingite theory, tliat the Church would always have miraculous gifts if men only had faith seems to me a violent straining of this text.

\^And greater ioorks...do.'\ The meaning of these words must be sought in tlie moral and spiritual miracles wliicli followed the preaching of the Apostles after the day of Pentecost. It could not be truly said that the physical miracles worked by the Apostles in the Acts were greater than those worked by Christ. But it is equally certain that after the day of Pentecost they did far more wonderful works in converting souls than our Lord did. On no occasion did Jesus convert 8,000 at one time, and a "great company of priests."

\Because I go... Father.'] These words must point to the great outpouring of the Holy Grliost which took place after our Lord's ascension into heaven, whereby the miracles of conversion were wrought. There was an immediate and mysterious connection, we must remember, between our Lord ascending up on high and " receiving gifts for men." If He had not gone to the Father the Spirit would not have been sent forth. (Ephes. iv. 8.)

Melancthon thinks the promise of this text is clearly bound up with the following verse, "He shall do greater works because I go to the Father, and because then whatsoever ye shall ask I will do."

13. — [And w7iatsoever...ask...will 1 do.] Here comes another great piece of comfort for the troubled disciples: viz., a promise that Christ will do everything for them which they pray for in His name and for His sake. Whatever help, or strength, or support, or guiding they need, if they ask God for it in Christ's name, Christ will give it.

This is one of those texts which authorizes all prayers being made through Christ's mediation, as in Prayer-book collects.

The " whatsoever " must of course be taken with the qualifying condition, " whatsoever really good thing ye ask."

The connection with the end of the preceding verse should not be overlooked, " When I go to the Father I will do whatsoever ye ask."

{^That... Father... glorified... Son.] This is a difficult sentence The meaning probably is, " I will do whatsoever ye ask, that my Father may be glorified by my mediation, by sending into the world a Son through whom sinners can obtain such blessings." Christ's power to do anything that He is asked, brings glory to Him who sent Him.

14. — [lf...asJc anything...will do it.] This verse is a repetition of the preceding, to give emphasis and assurance to the promise. It is as if our Lord saw how slow the disciples would be to believe the efficacy of prayer in His name, " Once more I tell you most emphatically, that if you ask anything in my name, I will do it."

that it is not said " If ye ask in my name, the Father will do it: " but " I will do it."

15. — [If ye love...keep...commandments.'] Here we have a direct practical exhortation. " If ye real]y love Me, prove your love not by weeping and lamenting at my departure, but by striving to do my will when 1 am gone. Doing, and not crying, is the best proof of love," The commandments here mentioned must include all the Lord's moral teaching while on earth, and specially such rules and laws as He had laid down in the " Sermon on the Mount."

I cannot but think that in this verse our Lord had in view the disposition of His disciples to give way to grief and distress at His leaving them; and to forget that the true test of love was not useless and barren lamentation, but practical obedience to their Master's commands.

Let us notice how our Lord speaks of " my commandments." We never read of Moses or any other servant of God using such an expression. It is the language of one who was one with God the Father, and had power to lay down laws and make statutes for His Church.

16. — [And l...pray the Father, etc.] This verse holds up to the eleven another grand consolation, viz, the gift of another abiding Comforter in place of Christ, even the Holy Ghost. "When I go to heaven I will ask the Father to give you another friend and helper, to be with you and support you in my stead, and never leave you as I do," In this remarkable verse several points demand special notice.

One principal point is the mention of all the three persons in the blessed Trinity, the Son praying, the Father giving, the Spirit comforting.

When our Lord says, " 1 will pray the Father and He shall give," we must needs suppose that He accommodates language to our minds. The gift of the Holy Ghost was appointed in the eternal counsels of the Trinity; and we cannot literally say that the gift depended on Christ asking. Moreover, in another place our Lord says, " I will send Him."

Burkitt remarks that the future tense here points to Christ's continual intercession. As long as Christ is in heaven, Christians shall not want a supply of comfort.

When we read of the Holy Ghost being " given," we must not think that He was in no sense in the Church before the day of Pentecost. He was ever in the hearts of Old Testament believers. No one ever served God acceptably, from Abel downwards, without the grace of the Holy Ghost. John the Baptist was " filled" with Him. It can only mean that He shall come with more fulness, influence, grace, and manifestation, than He did before.

When we read of the " Spirit abiding forever " witli disciples, it means that He will not, like Christ after His resurrection, return to the Father, but will always be with God's people until Christ comes again.

The word "Comforter" is the same that is translated " Advocate," and applied to Christ Himself in 1 John ii. 2. This has caused much difference of opinion. The word is only used five times in the New Testament, and is four times ai^plied to the Holy Spirit.

Some, as Lightfoot, Bishop Hall, and Doddridge, maintain that our translation here is right, and that it is the office of the Spirit to comfort and strengthen Christ's people.

Others, as Beza, Lampe, De Dieus, Gomarus, Poole, Pearce, Stier, and Alford, maintain that the word here should have been rendered " Advocate," as in John's Epistle; and that this word aptly expresses the office of the Spirit as pleading our cause, and making intercession for the saints, and helping them in prayer and preaching. (See Rom. viii. 26; Matt, x, 19, 20.) I decidedly prefer this latter view. Those who wish to see an able argument in its favor, should study Canon Lightfoot's volume on New Testament Revision (p. 55).

Lampe sensibly remarks that the word " another " points to the phrase meaning " Advocate " rather than " Comforter. That Jesus is our "Advocate" all allow. " Well," our Lord seems to say, " you shall have another 'Advocate ' beside myself." Why use the word " another " at all, if " Comforter " is the meaning?

It is only fair to say that " the consolation of Israel " was a Jewish name of Messiah (Luke ii. 25,) and that some think that Christ was one Comforter and the Holy Ghost another. But I do not see much in this.

. — \^Even the Spirit of truth.] The Holy Ghost is most probably so called because He brings truth specially home to men's hearts, — because truth is His great instrument in all His operations,— and because He bears witness to Christ the truth. Elsewhere we read, " It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." (1 John v. 6.)

[W7iom... world cannot receive...Icnoioeth Him.'] Here our Lord teaches that it is one great mark of the unbelieving and worldly that they neither receive, nor know, nor see anything of the Holy Ghost. This is strikingly true. Many false professors and unconverted people receive Christ's name and talk of Him, while they know nothing experimentally of the operations of the Holy Spirit. It is written, " The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them." (1 Cor. ii. 14.)

ing- here must be that the eleven knew something" experimentally of the Spirit's work. They might not be fully acquainted with Him; but He was actually in them, making them what they were, and He would remain in them, and carry on the work He had begun to a glorious end. " "VS'hether you know it thoroughly and rightly or not, He is actually in you now, and shall always be in you and never leave you."

Let us mark in this and in the preceding verse how our Lord speaks of the Holy Spirit as " a Person." We should never speak of Him as a mere " influence," or dishonor Him by calling Him "it."

Let us never forget that " having the Spirit, or not having the Spirit," makes the great distinction between the children of God and the children of the world. Believers have Him Worldly and wicked people have Him not. (Jude 19.)

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me;

20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

The short passage before us is singularly rich in "precious promises." Twice our Lord Jesus Christ says, " I will." Twdce He says to believers, " Ye shall."

We learn from this passage, that Chrisfs second coming is meant to he the special comfort of believers. He says to His disciples, " I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

Now what is the " coming " here spoken of? It is only fair to say that this is a disputed point among Christians. Many refer it to our Lord's coming to His disciples after His resurrection. Many refer it to His invisible coming into the hearts of His people by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Many refer it to His commg by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. It may well be doubted, however, whether any one of these three views conveys the full meaning of our Lord's words, " I will come."

The true sense of the expression appears to be the second personal coming of Christ at the end of the world. It is a wide, broad, sweeping promise, intended for all believers, in every age, and not for the Apostles alone: — " I will not stay always in heaven: I will one day come back to you." It is like the message which the angels brought to the disciples after the ascension: — " This same Jesus shall come in like manner as yo have seen Him go." (Acts. i. 11.) It is like the last promise which winds up the Book of Revelation: — • " Surely I come quickly." (Kev. xxii, 20.) Just in the same way the parting consolation held out to believers, the night before the crucifixion, is a personal return: — " I will come."

Let us settle it in our minds that all believers are comparatively "orphans," and children in their minority, until the second advent. Our best things are yet to come. Faith has yet to be exchanged for sight, and hope for certainty. Our peace and joy are at present very imperfect. They are as nothing to what we shall have when Christ returns. For the return let us look and long and pray. Let us place it in the forefront of ail our doctrinal system, next to the atoning death and the interceding life of our Lord. The highest style of Christians are the men who look for and love the Lord's appearing. (2 Tim. iv. 8.)

We learn for another thing, that Christ^s life secures the life of His believing people. He says, " Because I live ye shall live also."

There is a mysterious and indissoluble union between Christ and every true Christian. The man that is once joined to Him by faith, is as closely united as a member of the body is united to the head. So long as Christ, his Head, lives, so long he will live. He cannot die unless Christ can be plucked from heaven, and Christ's life destroyed. But this, since Christ is very God, is totally impossible! " Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over Him." (Rom. vi. 9.) That which is divine, in the very nature of things, cannot die.

Christ's life secures the continuance of spiritual life to His people. They shall not fall away. They shall persevere unto the end. The divine nature of which they are partakers, shall not perish. The incorruptible seed within them shall not be destroyed by the devil and the world. Weak as they are in themselves, they are closely knit to an immortal Head, and not one member of His mystical body shall ever perish.

Christ's life secures the resurrection life of His people. Just as He rose again from the grave, because death could not hold Him one moment beyond the appointed time, BO shall all His believing members rise again in the day when He calls them from the tomb. The victory that Jesus won when He rolled the stone away, and came forth from the tomb, was a victory not only for Himself, but for His people. If the Head rose, much more shall the members.

Truths like these ought to be often pondered by true Christians. The careless world knows little of a believer's privileges. It sees little but the outside of him. It does not understand the secret of his present strength, and of his strong hope of good things to come. And what is that secret? Invisible union with an invisible Saviour in heaven! Each child of God is invisibly linked to the throne of the Rock of Ages. When that throne can be shaken, and not till then, we may despair. But Christ lives, and we shall live also.

We learn, finally, from this passage, that full and perfect knowledge of divine things will never be attained by believers until the second advent. Our Lord says, "At that clay," the clay of my coming, "ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."

The best of saints knows but little so long as he is in the body. The fall of our fatlier Adam has corrupted our understandings, as well as our consciences, hearts, and wills. Even after conversion we see through a glass darkly, and on no point do we see so dimly as on the nature of our own union witli Christ, and of the union of Christ and the Father. These are matters in which we must be content to believe humbly, and, like little children, to receive on trust the things which we cannot explain.

But it is a blessed and cheering thought that when Christ comes again, the remains of ignorance shall be rolled away. Raised from the dead, freed from the darkness of this world, no longer tempted by the devil and tried by the flesh, believers shall see as they have been seen, and know as they have been known. We shall have light enough one day. What we know not now, we shall know hereafter.

Let us rest our souls on this comfortable thought, when we see the mournful divisions which rend the Church of Christ. Let us remember that a large portion of them arise from ignorance. We know in part, and therefore misunderstand one another. A day comes when Lutherans shall no longer wrangle with Zwinglians, nor Calvinist with Arminian, nor Churchman with Dissenter. That day is the day of Christ's second coming. Then and then only will the promise receive its complete fulfilment, — '* At that day ye shall know."