THOUGHTS UPON Cfje liturgical FOR THE SUNDAYS ONE FOR EACH DAY IN THE YEAR With an Introduction on their origin, history, the modifications made in them by the Reformers and by the Revisers of the Prayer Book, the honour always paid to them in the Church, and the proportions in which they are drawn from the Writings of the Four Evangelists BY EDWARD MEYRICK GOULBURN, D.D., D.C.L DEAN OF NORWICH IN TWO VOLS. VOL. II. CONTAINING THE GOSPELS FROM EASTER DAY TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY RIVINGTONS WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON MDCCCLXXXVI [Sccoit.l Edition.] 2067873 Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh. CONTENTS. BOOK II. CHAPTER PAGE XXV. THE GOSPEL FOR EASTER DAY ... 1 XXVI. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 10 XXVII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 20 XXVIII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 30 XXIX. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 39 XXX. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER .50 XXXI. THE GOSPEL FOR THE ASCENSION-DAY . . 62 XXXII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SUNDAY AFTER ASCEN- SION-DAY 74 XXXIII. THE GOSPEL FOR WHITSUN-DAY ... 83 XXXIV. THE GOSPEL FOR TRINITY-SUNDAY . . 93 XXXV. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 102 XXXVI. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 112 XXXVII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY . 122 vi Contents. CHAPTER PAGE XXXVIII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 132 XXXIX. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY ....... 141 XL. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 153 XLI. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 163 XLII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 172 XLIII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE NINTH SUNDAY AFTBR TRINITY 180 XLIV. THE GOSPEL FOR THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 190 XLV. THE GOSPEL FOR THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 200 XLVI. THE GOSPEL FOR THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 209 XLVII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY . . . . . .218 XLVIII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 229 XLIX. ON THE CONNEXION BETWEEN THE COLLECT, EPISTLE, AND GOSPEL FOR THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY . . . . 239 L. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 245 LI. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY .... . 256 Contents. vii CHAPTER PAGE LIT. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY . . . . .266 LIII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY . . . . .277 LIV. THE GOSPEL FOR THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 287 LV. THE GOSPEL FOR THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 299 LVI. THE GOSPEL FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 310 LVII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY . . . . 320 LVIII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 333 LIX. THE GOSPEL FOR THE TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY ..... 343 LX. THE GOSPEL FOR THE TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 354 BOOK II. CHAPTER XXV. THE GOSPEL FOR EASTER DAY. ST. JOHN xx. 1 to 11. first nap of rfje toeefe comet!) S)9arp Sgagnalen earl?, toTiett it toas pet natfe, unto rfje sepulchre, ann sect!) t!je Stone taken atoap 2 ftom the sepulchre. tEfcen st)e runneth ann comet!) to Simon Peter, ant to the other nisdple tohom 3!esus lofcen, ann sait!) unto them, {Jfiep hane tafeen atoap tlje JLorU out of tlje sepulclire, ann toe fenoiu 3 not inhere t!)ep ^abe Iain $tm. Peter tfjerefore toent fort!), ann tTjat 4 otfjer nigctple, ann came to ttie gepuldjre. %o t!je^ ran iotlj to= getTjer, ann tfje ot^er niisdple nin out=run Peter, ann came firgt to 5 fbe jfepuldjre ; ann Ije sstooptng noton, ann looking in, jsato rije linen 6 clotTjej! Iptng, pet toent l>t not in. 'SEfien comet!) feimon Peter follotoing !>im, ann toent into t!>e sepulchre, ann sseet^ t^e linen 7 clot!jej3 lie 3 ann t!je napfein t!>at toajs aiottt fiig ^ean, not Iping iuit^ 8 t$e linen c!ot!je!S, iut torappen together in a place ip it j!e!f. ^en tuent in also t!>at ot!jer nisciple to!)ic!) came first to t!je sepu!c!jre, 9 ann ^e Sato ann belieben. JFor as pet t!jep feneto not fbc Scripture, 10 t!jat !je must rise again from t!je nean. C^en t$e nisciples toent atoap again unto t!jeir oton !jome. [ Miss. SAB. In illo tempore, Una sabbati Maria Magdalene venit mane cum adhuc tenebrse essent, ad monu- mentum. ( Vulg. Una autem sabbati, Maria Magdalene, etc.) VOL. II. 1549. The first day of the sabbaths came Mary Magdalene early (when it was yet dark) unto the sepulchre. 1662 S.B. The first day of the week cometh Mary Mag- dalen early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepul- chre. (Gr. Ty 5 fuq. ruiv ffa.66d.Tuv Mopta irpwt, etc. ) The Gospel for Easter Day. The theory of the Easter Gospels in the Missal of Sarum seems to have been that the incidents of the Resurrection given by the different Evan- gelists should be read through in order, beginning with St. Matthew's account (Chap, xxviii. 1 to 8), which was appointed for the Vigil of Easter, and going on to St. Mark's (Chap. xvi. 1 to 8), which was appointed for the Festival itself, and so on through the Easter week. The Gospel which in 1549 our Reformers selected for Easter Day was that which they found in the Missal of Sarum as the Gospel for the Saturday in Easter Week, to which they added (with their usual propension to pursue a passage of Scripture to its legitimate close), v. 10, "Then the disciples went away again unto their own home." As the Epistle for Easter Day, they chose the passage, which in the Pre-Reformation Church had served as the Epistle for the Vigil of Easter, Col. iii. 1, 2, 3, 4, adding, however (with admirable judgment), to this doctrinal passage the practical corollary in m. 5, 6, 7, which the Apostle appends to it. And thus in arranging the new Epistle and Gospel for Easter Day, they have adopted the first and last passages of Scripture used by the Pre-Reformation Church, during the Octave which commences with the Vigil of Easter and ends with the Saturday in Easter Week. The 5t which appears in the original Greek of St. John xx. 1 is un- fortunately ignored in the Authorised Version. The Revised Version, however, represents it by "Now" ; " Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet dark, unto the tomb." The 5, both here and in the parallel place of St. Matthew (Chap, xxviii. 1, where again the Authorised Version takes no notice of it, and the Revised Version represents it by "Now"), seems to have its usual adver- sative force. The last verse of the preceding Chapter has told us of our Lord's burial (in St. Matthew, of the sealing and guarding of His sepulchre) ; "But" (think not that He was to sleep for ever in the new sepulchre, within the precinct of the quiet garden ; despite all the pre- cautions used to prevent the removal of the body, it was removed), " on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early," and finds the sepulchre open and empty. Translation of 1540. (1) V.I. " The first day of the sabbaths " should be of course, as the Authorised Version renders it, ' ' the first day of the week," the plural ffdSara often denoting a week, the whole period of time embraced by two sabbaths (as, indeed, the singular ff6.SSa.rov also does, see St. Mark xvi. 9). (2) Throughout w. 1, 2, Cranmer gives us the aorist for the historic present; "Mary Magdalene came," "saw the stone taken away," "ran and came to Simon Peter," thus sacrificing the vividness which the present gives to the narrative. The Authorised, first The Gospel for Easter Day. of all the English Versions, exhibits the historic present, which is quite as idiomatic in English as in Greek. (3) The word "grave" is used in w. 1, 2, as a variation on the word " sepulchre" in w. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8. It is noticeable that in the Authorised Version "grave" is not used of our Lord's burying-place (as it is of that of Lazarus), but always either " tomb " (St. Matt, xxvii. 60) or "sepulchre." It is well to discard the word "grave " (from graben, to dig) as the translation of fj.v-rifj.eiov, since it always gives the notion, not of a rock-hewn sepulchre, but of a hole dug in the earth. In our present Gospel, Wycliffe has ' ' grave " throughout as the translation of fj.vftfj.elov ; Tyndale, "sepulchre" and "tomb"; Geneva, the same as Tyndale ; Rheims, "monument" throughout, the monumentum of the Vulgate. Whatever word be chosen for rendering fj.v-rjfj.eiov, it should doubtless be adhered to throughout. The Revisers of 1881 have chosen "tomb," and use it consistently of Lazarus's burying-place as well as of our Lord's. (4) Following Wycliffe (1380), and Tyndale (1534), Cranmer has in v. 9, " that he should rise again from death." For this the Trans- lators of the Authorised Version substituted the more literal concrete expression which they found in the original ; ( ' that he must rise again from the dead," on del afirbv IK vexpuiv avaS, came 3Usus ann stooD in tbe minst, ant saitb unto tbem, 20 J9eace be unto pou. 3nD toben be baD so saiD, be sfjetoen unto tftem fjtj! ^anus ann i)is sine. Sfjen inere tfje Disciples glan iufjen tTiep sato 21 t$e JLorD. !jen SaiD 3!eSus to t^em again, J9eace be unto pou: 2s 22 mj> fatber IjatT) Sent me, eben so senD 3! pou. 2nD toben be baD saiD tbis, be breatbeD on tbem anD saitb unto tbem, Keceise pe tbe bolp 23 best, cabosesoeber Sins pe remit, tbep are remitteD unto tbem ; anD inbosesoeber sins yt retain, tijcp are retaineD. [ Miss. SAB. 1549. 1662 S.B. In Wo tempore, Cum The same day at night, The same day at even- esset sero die illo, una which was the first day ing, being the first day sabbatorum, et fores of the sabbaths, when of the week, when the erantclausae,etc. (Vvlg. the doors were shut, etc. doors were shut, etc. Cum ergo sero esset die (Gr. Ofiet!) tfce Stieep, ann fleet!) 3 ann t!)e toolf catcher!) t!>etn, ann 13 scattered) t^e sf^eep. C^e hireling fleet!), fcecauge !je is! an hireling, 14 ann caret!) ttot for tTje jiTjeep. 31 am t!je goon sljep^ern, ann fenoto 15 mp ii^eep, ann am fenoton of mine, as tTie JFatljer fenoiuetT) me, eben so fcnoto 31 tfje jfatljer : ann 31 lap noton mp life for t!je iS'beep. 16 2nn otljer sljecp 31 !)abe toljtrf) are not of ttyt foln 3 t^em also 31 must bring, ann tfjep s^all $ear mptioicei ann t^ere s^all ie one foln, ann one [ Miss. SAR. 1549. 1662 S.B. In illo lempore, Dixit Christ said, I am the Jesus said I am the Jesus discipulis suis ; good shepherd. good shepherd. Ego sum pastor bonus. In the Black-Letter Prayer Book of 1636(39 ?), in which the MS. alterations were made at the last Revision, the words " Christ said," which introduce this selection from St. John's Gospel, are printed, not in black letter, but in Roman type, probably by way of showing that they form no part of the sacred text. In 1662 Bancroft (under Cosin's instruc- tions), drew his pen through "Christ," and wrote over it "Jesus." Rightly : for our Lord in the Gospels is spoken of always by His personal name, and not by His name of office. It is interesting to note at what point of the discourse in St. John x. our Gospel opens. At the beginning of the Chapter our Lord propounds a threefold allegory of Himself. He is a door for shepherds, by which they may approach the sheep successfully Gospel for the Second Sunday after Easter. 2 1 (w. 1, 2, 3) ; a door for sheep, by which they have access to God's fold and find pasture (v. 9) ; and thirdly, He is Himself the good Shepherd (vv. 11, 14). These three thoughts are tangled up one with another in the earlier verses ; but in v. 11, and the remainder of our Gospel, the Lord disentangles the last idea from the two previous ones, and exhibits it, in all its fulness and beauty, by itself. Translation of 1540. (1) " A good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep " (in v. 11) is not wrong, though " The good shepherd " expresses the same idea quite idiomatically, as well as literally. When a singular noun is used to express a class, the definite article is prefixed. (See the observations on 6 cirdpuv in St. Luke viii. 5, in the Introduction to the Gospel for Sexagesima Sunday.) (2) In v. 16 Cranmer has the old erroneous (and now exploded) translation of Kal yevrjcreTai pta. irot^vt], efs Troi/urjc ; ' ' and there shall be one fold and one shepherd," thus confounding iroL^vi) (flock) with av\T) (fold) of the earlier part of the verse. Cranmer had no excuse, as Tyndale (only five or six years before) had distinguished woifj-vri and atfXrj in his translation ("And other shepe I have, which are not of ihisfolde. Them also must I bringe, that they may heare my voyce, and that ther maye be one flocke and one shepeherde "). And it is much to be regretted that King James's Trans- lators should have followed suit with Cranmer instead of with Tyndale. "The translation 'fold' for 'flock' (ovile for grex\" says Professor West- cott (in loc,), "has been most disastrous in idea and in influence. The change in the original from ' fold ' (atfXTj), to ' flock ' (iroi^vri), is most striking, and reveals a new thought as to the future relations of Jew and Gentile. ... It may be added that the obliteration of this essential dis- tinction between the ' fold ' and the ' flock ' in many of the later Western versions of this passage indicates, as it appears, a tendency of Roman Christianity, and has served in no small degree to confirm and extend the false claims of the Roman See." The Revised Version of 1881 no doubt gives the true rendering.; "and they shall become one flock, one shep- herd."] Sunday. V. 11. "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." I note that this great saying of our Lord's stands midway between certain words of the prophet Isaiah, which it developes more fully, and certain other words of St. Peter, which are the echo of it. Isaiah's words are ; " All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; 2 2 The Gospel fur the and the LOKD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." 1 There is no express mention of a shepherd here, but only of straying sheep, and of the imputation of their iniquity to one who was wounded for their transgressions. Stray- ing sheep, however, imply a shepherd, whose part it is to go after and fetch them back. And this implication is still more clearly brought out in the language of the 119th Psalm (written after the Captivity) ; "I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek thy servant." 2 The person who seeks a lost sheep, and to whom its piteous bleatings make an appeal, is its shepherd. Our Lord in the words before us explicitly calls Himself the Good Shepherd, and explains that He bare the iniquities of the sheep, when He laid down His life for them. And in His parable of the lost sheep, He recognises Himself and His mission as being the answer to that prayer of the Psalmist ; " Seek thy servant." He is the Shepherd who, having lost one sheep, leaves the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and goes after that which is lost until he finds it. 3 How welded together is every part of Thy word, God ! It is one organic living whole, animated by one life, which indeed is the breath of the Holy Spirit. And what a growth there is in Holy Scripture, as in the human frame, so that later passages of it often develope and fill up the outline of earlier, until at length the truth is displayed in its full proportions ! Monday. Ibid. The words of St. Peter, in which he follows both Isaiah and our Lord, are these : " Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness : by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd 1 Isaiah liii. 6. 2 Ps. cxix. 176. 3 See St. Luke rv. 4. Second Sunday after Easter. 2 3 and Bishop of your souls." 1 The assertion of the Atone- ment here is more express, and more fully developed, than in the language of either the prophet or our Lord. "Surely he hath borne our griefs ... he was wounded for our transgressions . . . the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" 2 . . . " the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep," there is something which goes beyond all this in the words, " himself hath borne our sins in his own body on the tree," if it is only that the Apostle mentions the " body" of Christ as the propitia- tory sacrifice (" through the offering of the ~body of Jesus Christ once for all" 3 ), and specifies also the tree (or cross) as the place where the sacrifice was made. When Isaiah wrote, nay, even when our Lord spoke the words of the text, the crucifixion had not actually taken place, and there could be no explicit mention of the cross, until it had been erected, and the Divine Victim stretched upon it. I am taught here that God's providence waits as a handmaid upon His word, to open it out to the apprehen- sions of His Church. This is one great principle for our guidance in the study of unfulfilled Prophecy. The Church's fortunes, as they unfold themselves, may be ex- pected to develope more and more of its meaning. Tuesday. V. 12. "But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth." Our Lord, in the course of this wonderful allegory, reckons up three enemies of the sheep, thieves and robbers, hirelings, and wolves. Of the thieves and robbers the Pharisees, and ecclesiastical rulers of the Jews of that day, were specimens. They had just put out of the synagogue a blind man restored to sight, because he had confessed 1 1 Pet. ii. 24, 25. s Isaiah liii. 4, 5, 6. 3 Heb. x. 10. 24 The Gospel for the Christ as a prophet sent from God, 1 that is, they had ex- cluded from the fold of God's ancient Church a sheep which had heard and recognised the voice of the true Shepherd. They were thieves and robbers then, inasmuch as they strove to the utmost to rob the good Shepherd of His due, the allegiance of the people, and to fasten that allegiance on themselves, as sitting in Moses' chair, 2 as "guides of the blind, and lights of them which were in darkness." 3 See the contrast in St. John the Baptist. When he hears that the sheep are trooping away from his baptism to Christ's, 4 he welcomes the tidings, though it imported that his own popularity was on the wane. " He that hath the bride is the bridegroom : but the friend of the bride- groom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice : this my joy there- fore is fulfilled." 5 Popularity, influence, leadership are naturally dear to us all ; and ministers of Christ, especially those who are gifted with influence, must narrowly and anxiously look to it that they do not suffer the minds and hearts of the people to rest upon themselves in any shape, or on the prestige arising either from their gifts or their position that they do their utmost to centre the gaze of their disciples, as the Baptist did, upon the Lamb of God, 6 and withdraw themselves into the background as much as possible. " We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord." 7 It is a fearful thing to rob the good Shepherd of the allegiance of His sheep. Wednesday. V. 13. "The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." A hire- ling is not a thief, but simply a mercenary, one who will 1 See St. John is. 17, 33, 34. * See St. Matt, xxiii. 2. 3 See Rom. ii. 19. 4 See St. John iii. 26. 5 Ibid. v. 29. 6 See St. John i. 29, 36. 7 2 Cor. iv. 5. Second Sunday after Easter. 2 5 serve the sheep and tend them, so long as things go smoothly, but serves and tends them for the advantages which accrue to himself from the service, and not from the affection which he bears to them. The test of a hireling is danger ; when he " seeth the wolf coming," he " leaveth the sheep, and fleeth." He has none of that real interest in them, which would lead him to stay with his flock at his own risk, and console, and support, and animate them to the best of his ability. He has taken the oversight of God's Church, not " of a ready mind," but " for filthy lucre's sake" l ; there is not in him the fundamental pas- toral grace, a care for souls and a love of them, as being God's choicest handy-work, and the purchase of Christ's blood. Since Thy flock, God, has no worse enemies than self-seeking and worldly-minded ministers, let me be diligent in prayer at all times for " those who are called to any office and administration in" 2 Thy Church. " Grant that thy Church, being alway preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors ; through Jesus Christ our Lord." 3 Thursday. V. 12. "The wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep." As the thief represents " the flesh," that self-exaltation, self-seeking, self-pleasing, which is the great bane of our corrupt nature ; and as the hireling represents " the world," secularity of aim and motive in God's ministers ; so there can be no doubt that the wolf represents the devil, or chief antagonist of man, elsewhere called " a roaring lion, who walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." 4 And let me observe that he is here represented not only as doing harm to individual sheep, " catching " and biting them, but also as breaking up their 1 See 1 Pet. v. 2 ; and Tit. i. 11. 2 Second Ember Week Prayer. 8 Collect for St. Matthias's Day. * See 1 Pet. v. 8. 26 TJie Gospel for the organization, and destroying them as a flock, he "scattereth the sheep." Christ's design for His church is unity, " that they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us" 1 ; or, as we have it in the closing words of this Gospel, " there shall be one flock " (such is undoubtedly the right trans- lation, not "one fold") "and one shepherd." 2 The devil, in addition to the mischief which he does to individual souls, strives to break up this unity : heresies, schisms, parties, are of his promoting. good Shepherd, true David, who deliverest Thy sheep out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, 3 " keep with thy perpetual mercy thy Church," 4 as well as each member thereof. "Take away all hatred and prejudice, and what- soever else may hinder us from godly Union and Concord : that, as there is but one Body, and one Spirit, and one Hope of our Calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul, united in one holy bond of Truth and Peace, of Faith and Charity." 5 Friday. Vv. 14, 15. "I know my sheep, and am known of mine, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father ; and I lay down my life for the sheep." Such is undoubtedly the true rendering of these wonderful words. 6 I may reach some small part of their profound 1 St. John xvii. 21. 2 V. 16. 8 See 1 Sam. xvii. 37. 4 Collect for Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. 5 A Prayer for Unity, in "the Form of Prayer for the Twentieth Day of June." 6 The punctuation necessary to give this meaning, and the rendering of Kq.'yui as "and I" instead of "even so . . I," are both adopted by the Revisers of 1881. " The affection between the Divine Shepherd and His flock can be compared, for the closeness of its intimacy, with nothing but the affection between the Eternal Father and the Son of His love." (F. W. Robertson, as referred to in the next note.) Second Sunday after Easter. 2 7 meaning by observing that the words, " I lay down my life for the sheep," are connected by "and" with what goes before. Christ's intimate knowledge of His sheep, and their knowledge of Him (a reciprocal knowledge as intimate marvellous assertion ! as that which subsists between Him and His Father) is something which leads Him to lay down His life for the sheep, prompts Him to self-sacrifice for them. It must be therefore a know- ledge which involves sympathy and' love, for nothing short of sympathy and love could have prompted His self- sacrifice. This mutual knowledge, then, is a spiritual instinct which draws both parties together, and is nothing else than "a certain mysterious tact of sympathy" 1 be- tween them. On the one hand, " the Lord knoweth them that are his," 2 recognises at a glance those who are His in the deepest ground of their heart, however much there may be in them at present which needs correction, and esteems them worthy of the cost which He paid to redeem their souls. And they in their turn know Him intuitively. Not all the authority nor all the threats of the ecclesiastical rulers of his people could persuade the blind man, whose recovery we read of in Chapter ix., that one, who had dealt with Him as Jesus had, was not a prophet sent from God ; a spiritual instinct, from which there was no appeal, taught him that. Lord, in ascer- taining that critical point, whether I am or am not of the number of Thy true sheep, bound to Thee by reciprocal ties of sympathy and mutual understanding, let me apply the test of this other word of Thine, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." a That I have 1 This expression is borrowed from the Rev. F. "W. Robertson's Sermon on "the Good Shepherd," Second Series, Sermon xx. 3 See 2 Tim. ii. 19. 3 St. John x. 27. 28 The Gospel for the heard Thy voice I know full well ; but have I yielded to its attraction ? have I listened to it ? have I obeyed ? have I followed Thee ? Whithersoever Thou callest me by Thy Providence, Thy word, Thy Spirit in my conscience, is it my endeavour to follow Thee, whatever sacrifices may be involved ? Saturday. V. 16. "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold " (meaning the Gentiles) : " them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd." How profound is the sequence of thought which I trace in the words of Christ ! He has been speaking of laying down His life for His sheep. Now Eedemption, having been wrought out in human nature, is also for human nature. 1 And so St. John, faithfully echoing his Master's words here recorded by him, tells us of Caiaphas ; " He prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation ; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." 2 And again ; " He is the propitia- tion for our sins : and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 3 Christ's sympathy travels beyond the Jewish fold, nay, beyond His elect, to all those whose nature He took into union with the Godhead. And hence it is that on Good Friday, the day on which the Shepherd's life was laid down for the sheep, the Church intercedes for " Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics, that God would take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of his Word, and would so fetch them home to his flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under 1 "By the anticipation of the Cross (ch. xii. 32) the spiritual horizon is extended." Professor Westcott in "The Speaker's Commentary." 2 St. John xi. 51, 52. 3 1 John ii. 2. Second Sunday after Easter. 29 one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 How broad are the sympathies of Thy love, Lord ! One of the dimen- sions of Thy love is its breadth. It is broad as the world, long as eternity, deep as the hell from which it rescues sinners, high as the heaven to which it proposes to raise them. 2 Enlarge my heart, not only to receive and com- prehend this love, but in my humble measure to exhibit it to others ! 1 Third Collect for Good Friday. 2 See Eph. iii. 18, 19. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. St. JOHN xvi. 16 to 23 (but with the words Jesus said to his disciples prefixed). 16 3l*Sus sain to bis nisciples, 3. little tobtfe ann pe sbatt not see me ; ann again, a little tootle ann j>e sbaH see me, because 31 go to 17 tbe jFatber. f>en sain some of bi$ nisciples among tbemsclbes, IHbat is tbis tfjat be sairb unto us, a little tobile ann ^e sbatt not gee me 3 ann again, a little tobile ann pe sbaH see me j ann "Because 18 31 $o to rije jFatTjet ? :i;ep sain tljerefote, CQ^at is tljis t!iat ^e 19 jSait^, a little turtle:' toe cannot tell tofiat %e Sait^. J^oto 3[esus ineto t!iat tlbej iuere nesitous to asfe %im, ann sain unto tljent, Do ^e enquire among jour selves, of tfjat 31 Sain, 3. little tootle, ann ^e StiaH not see me ; ann again, a little incite ann pe s'fjatt see me :" 20 (Herilp, beril^ 3[ sap unto you, rijat ^e s^all toeep ann lament, But t$e toorln sTjaH rejoice : ann ^e sfiall ie sorrotofuT, lut ^our sorrcto 21 stiaH be tutnen into joy. 2 tooman to^en s'be is in traiail, Sortoto, because %er Ijour is come : but as Soon as Sfje is of t!je cfjiln, sTje tememitetTj no more tTje anguisl), for jop tfjat a 22 man is born into tfje toorln. 3nn pe noto therefore babe sorroto : but 31 toill See you again, ann j>our beart sb,aH rejoice, ann pour jop no man tafcct!) from pou [ Miss. SAR. 1594. 1662 S.B. In illo tempore, Dixit Jesus said to his dis- Jesus said to his dis- Jesus discipulis suis ; ciples, After a while ye ciples, A. little while and Modicum, et jam non shall not see mee, etc. ye shall not see me ; etc. videbitis me, etc. Professor Westcott finds in St. John xvi. four sections, connected by an easy and beautiful sequence of thought. 1. The world and the Paraclete Gospel for the Third Sunday after Easter. 3 1 (xvi. 1-11); 2. The Paraclete and the disciples (xvi. 12-15) ; 3. Sorrow turned to joy (xvi. 16-24); and 4. After failure, victory (xvi 25-33). Our Gospel gives the third of these sections, in which " The prospect of the fulfilment of the work of the Paraclete for the world and for the disciples is followed by a revelation of the condition in which the disciples them- selves will be. They are to stand in a new relation to Christ (16-18). A time of bitter sorrow is to be followed by joy (19, 20), by joy springing (so to speak) naturally out of the sorrow (21, 22)." [Commentary on St. John's Gospel, in loc.~\. Translation of 1540. (1) In translating Mdrpdp in v. 16 by "After a while," Cranmer followed Tyndale. Wycliffe (in 1380) had been more literal and more vigorous ("A litil and thanne ye schuln not se me, and eftsone a litil and ye schuln se me, for I go to the fadir"). (2) In v. 22 Cranmer renders x a frf fffrat tnuv 'b Kapdia "Your hearts shall rejoyce," inaccurately, and forfeiting a fine shade of signifi- cance which is given by the singular. They should have but one heart in that day, such should be the community and sympathy of feeling existing among them. (Compare Gal. vi. 18 ; Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, pera rod irvev/jLaros vfuav, d.8f\ol. ) Here again Cranmer followed Tyndale, as against Wycliffe, who gives the singular, ("youre herte schal haue ioie").] Sunday. V. 16. "A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again, a little while, and ye shall see me." I will take these words of the Lord Jesus as said by Him to myself. Perhaps, as so said, they mean that, according to the usual count of time, I have but a short time longer to live. I might see it to be so, if I were gifted with insight into the future. The hour of death, brought about perhaps by some quite unforeseen accident, may be imminent, and it may be but a very little while a week, or a day and then I shall see my Lord. But possibly I may yet have many years of health and strength before me. Supposing I have as many as twenty or thirty such years, even then it is true that what remains to me of life is but " a little while," little in comparison of what has to be done in it in mortifying sin, gaining a victory over self, and finishing the task allotted to me in the 32 The Gospel for the order of God's Providence. The Angels at the Ascension seemed to have thought the long centuries which would elapse before the Second Advent to be " a little while " ; for they will not allow the Apostles to gaze up idly into heaven for a moment, but tell them that this same Jesus should come again, as they had seen Him go, as if there was no time they could afford to waste. 1 There is then, I see, a Divine or heavenly count of time, according to which the longest life is all too short for the perfecting of the spiritual character. When time has for us come to an end, we shall measure it according to this count, and shall esteem it to have been but " a little while." But any how, be what remains to me of life long or short, according to the mere human count of time, what will the sight of my Lord be to me, when it does come ? See Him I must; for "every eye shall see him." 2 Am I so abiding in Him by faith, that, were He to appear to me to-night, I should " have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming"? 3 Monday. V. 16. "A little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." These words caused per- plexity to the disciples ; for how could they see their Master, if He were to go away from them to God ? nay, how could His going away to God be a reason for their seeing Him, " ye shall see me, because I go " ? The answer is, that the seeing He is speaking of here is not the mere sight of the eyes, but that of the mind and the heart; it is that apprehension of Him in His true character, as the risen and glorified Son of God, to which St. Thomas gave expression, when, abandoning for ever his unbelief, and even not availing himself of the evidence of touch which was offered to him by his Master, he exclaimed, 1 See Acts i. 10, 11. 2 Rev. L 7. 3 See 1 John ii. 28. Third Sunday after Easter. 33 "My Lord and my God." 1 For the full recognition of Christ by faith, His death, resurrection, ascension, and the mission of the Comforter, which followed in due course, and which last could not possibly have been without His leaving His disciples ("If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" 2 ) were absolutely essential. His going away, so far from being a dereliction of His disciples, was really the means of opening their eyes to His true character, and investing them with new faculties and powers ; they should see Him more truly than they had ever done before, because He had gone away from them. There is some dim shadow of this in our ordinary human experience, according to which we fail to appreciate a friend at his true worth, so long as he is by our side in the battle of life ; but no sooner is he disentangled from his earthly surroundings, than the brighter parts of his character begin to stand out in relief to our minds. Lord, it has not been my lot to see Thee with the eye of flesh, in the days of Thy earthly pilgrimage ; and doubt- less there were in that fleshly sight drawbacks as well as helps to faith. But it is always open to me to see Thee with the eye of faith, and to see Thee so clearly as to "rejoice" in Thee "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 3 Make me ambitious of this blessedness. 4 Tuesday. Vv. 17, 19. "Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again, a little while, and ye shall see me : and, Because I go to the Father? . . . Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire 1 See St. John xx. 27, 28. 2 St. John xvi. 7. 3 See 1 Pet. i. 8. See St. John xx. 29. VOL. II. D 34 The Gospel for the among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again, a little while, and ye shall see me ? " A little glimpse is here given us into the reason why our Lord so often spoke obscurely and enigmatically. It was to elicit and exercise thought on the part of His disciples. No greater boon can be conferred on any one than to lead him to inquire at God's oracles with reverence and humility, seeking light from God, where light is to be had, and, where it is not to be had, acquiescing in mystery. Lord Jesus, Thou knowest when we are desirous to ask Thee respecting such truths of Thy word as offer difficulties to our under- standing. And Thou condescendest now as graciously to such desires as Thou didst of old, when Thou wast upon earth ; and more effectually, since we have the anointing Spirit sent from Thee, to teach us of all things, 1 and to guide us into all truth. 2 Wednesday. V. 20. " Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." Our Lord uses here the most exact, as well as the most consolatory language. He does not promise that sorrow shall be taken away, and joy placed in its stead, though that would have been true ; and that was in effect what was done. The phrase, "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy," expresses that out of the very materials of the sor- row the joy should be wrought, just as the weak, tasteless water in Cana of Galilee was changed into " wine that maketh glad the heart of man." 3 It was so with the disciples. The pang of being bereaved of their Lord " for a little while " was an essential condition, a necessary preliminary, of the rapture with which they were to look 1 See 1 John ii. 20, 27. 2 See St. John xvL 13. 3 See St. John ii. 9, 10, and Ps. civ. 15. Third Sunday after Easter. 35 upon Him again in His glorified form nay, of all their subsequent much closer spiritual intercourse with Him. He must have died in the flesh, if He was to be given back to them in the Spirit. Lord, Thou wouldest have us know that the trials and troubles of Thy sending, are themselves an indispensable instrument of our sanctifica- tion. " Our light affliction, which is but for a moment," is not merely unworthy " to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us," l but also " worketh for us " (in the hands of Thy grace) " a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 Surely then it behoveth us not only to " rejoice in hope of the glory of God, but " to " glory in tribulations also : knowing that tribulation worketh patience ; and patience, experience ; and experi- ence, hope ; and hope maketh not ashamed ; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." 3 Thursday. V. 21. "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world." This illustration is not a fanciful one, but deeply seated in the constitution of things, and in the sentence, largely tempered with mercy, which God pronounced upon the original transgressors. The man was doomed to labour 4 ; but in useful and productive labour he has, ever since the fall, found his interest and happiness. The woman was to bring forth in sorrow 5 ; but mother's pangs were to be the source of mother's joy. Amidst the manifold meanings of this passage (perhaps one of the deepest in the whole Bible) this assuredly is one, that it 1 See Rom. viii. 18. 2 2 Cor. iv. 17. 3 Rom. v. 2-6. 4 See Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19. B See Gen. iii. 16. 36 The Gospel for tJu was through the sufferings of the disciples in the loss of their Lord (sufferings, we may be sure, which led them into themselves and their own hearts with all manner of profitable questionings and ponderings) that the Divine Child was to be born within them, born anew in the apprehensions of their understanding, the convictions of their reason, the affections of their heart. St. Paul employs the same illustration as the Saviour, only adapt- ing it to his own argument, which required that he, not his converts, should be the persons subjected to the preliminary pangs ; " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." 1 Lord, make me to aspire after the blessedness, and to perceive and thankfully to accept the conditions, of having Christ formed in me. It is only through tribulation and trial, sometimes heart-rending, always heart-searcAm^, and always (blessed be Thy Name) adapted to our powers of endurance, and light in comparison of "the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," 2 that the Lord Jesus can be engendered in the heart of man. " No throes of anguish, no offspring," is the law of spiritual as of natural birth. Friday. V. 22. " Ye now therefore have sorrow." What was the source of their sorrow ? It arose from the absence of their Lord, which was immediately impending. Our Lord had foretold it when He said, " The days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days." 3 Let me seriously ask myself what is the source of my sorrow and my joy, my pleasure and my pain. The great test of character, as distinct from conduct, is, What gives pleasure and pain ? Should I so have loved our Lord, when He 1 Gal. iv. 19. 2 See 2 Cor. iv. 17. 3 St. Mark ii. 20. Third Sunday after Easter. 37 was upon earth, that I should have joined myself to Him as the disciples did, breaking all worldly and natural ties for His sake, and should have been plunged in the deepest sorrow by His removal? "In his favour is life," 1 it is said; and again, "Thy loving -kindness is better than life." 2 Do I prize above all things the sense of His favour and gracious presence with me; and when this sense is withdrawn, do I mourn over the withdrawal of it ? Is it indeed the thought of being with Him for ever that lends to Paradise and heaven their principal charm in my thought of them ? or can I dream of a Paradise and a heaven without a Christ ? Saturday. V. 22. "But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." Of Christian joy no man can rob us, because its seat is in the heart and character, and because it does not arise from external and adventitious circumstances, which may wholly alter. Christ does not promise happiness, but joy to His followers ; for indeed happiness is shown by its very etymology to be something accidental or fortuitous it lies in a hap, or in something which befalls us from without. But the joy which the spiritual apprehension and sight of Jesus Christ causes in the heart (" I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice ") being internal, and standing in our relationship to Christ by faith, is out of the reach of external accident ; it cannot possibly be touched but by some sin, or failure of faith, interrupt- ing and suspending that spiritual relationship. Let me seriously inquire whether I have within me the rudiments of that joy, remembering that faith, if real and vital, cannot fail to produce some measure of it; as it is said, " Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now 1 Ps. xxx. 5. 2 Ps. Ixiii. 3. 38 Gospel for the Third Sunday after Easter. ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy un- speakable and full of glory" 1 ; "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." 2 1 1 Pet. i. 8. 2 Rom. v. 2. CHAPTER XXIX. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. ST. JOHN xvi. 5 to 16 (but substituting the words Jesus said unto his disciples for the "But" with which v. 5 commences). 5 3iesug gain unto bte nigcipleg, JlBoto 3! go mp ioap to bint tbat 6 gent me, ann none of pou agfeetb me, SBbitber goegt tbou f T5ut becauge 31 babe sain these tbingg unto pou sorrolri ijatlj fiUeD pout 7 beart. JBebertbtlegg, 31 tell you tbe truth, it ig erpenient for pou tbat 31 go ainap : for if 31 go not ainap, tlje Comforter hjill not 8 come unto you 5 but if 31 Depart, 31 toiH jienn fitm unto pou. 3nn toljen fje is come, fjc toil! reprobe tfjc toorlu of sin, ann of righteous* 9 negg, ann of jungement : SDf Jin 3 foecauste t^e^ ieliebe not on me : 10 2Df rigljteoussnesisi ; iecausse 31 go to mp jfatfjer, ann pe see me no 11 more: 2Df jungement ; iecausse tlje prince of tf)i$ toorln is jungen. 12 31 Tfiabe pet manp things to gap unto pou, but pe cannot bear tfiem 13 noto. J?otobeit, toben be, tlje Spirit of trutb i$s come, be toill guine pou into all rrutb, , for be Sf;all not gpeafe of (jimsclf ; but tobat- jioeber be efy&ll bear, tbat jsbaH be apeak, ana be toill jsbeto pou 14 tbings! to come. J?e gbaH glorifie me : for be SbaH receibe of mine, 15 ann sbatt sbeto it unto pou. 3H tbingg tbat tbe jFatber batb, ate mine : tbcrefore gain 31, tbat be gbaH tafee of mine, ann $baH gbeba it unto pou. [ Miss. SAB. 1549. 1662 S.B. In illo tempore, Dixit Jesus said unto his Jesus said unto his Jesus discipulis suis ; disciples, Now go I my disciples, Now I go my Vado ad eum, qui me way to him that sent way to him that sent me, misit, etc. (Vulg. Et me, etc. etc. (Gr. NOv 3 virdyu nunc vado ad eum, qui irpds rbv misit me, etc.) 4O The Gospel for the This Gospel is drawn from the first and second sections of St. John xvi., as the preceding one was from the third, and its subject is The function of the Paraclete to the world and to the disciples. [See Introduction to Gospel for Third Sunday after Easter.] It might have been as well to begin it in the middle of v. 4, with the words, ' ' And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you," which stand in such close connexion with those which follow, " But now I go my way to him that sent me." This connexion is thus indicated by Professor Westcott (in loc.): ' ' Hitherto Christ had Himself borne the storm of hostility, and shielded the disciples : now He was to leave them, and the wrath of His enemies would be diverted upon them, though they would have another Advocate." Translation of 1540. (1) V. 6. "Your hearts are full of sorrow," instead of, " Sorrow hath filled your heart " [see the end of preceding Introduction]. (2) " He will rebuke the world of sin," instead of, " He will reprove the world of sin." Tyndale (1534) had "rebuke." Cranmer followed Tyndale. King James's Translators went back to the "reprove" of Wycliffe (1380). Both " rebuke " and " reproof " yield an idea too exclusively moral, ignore too much the argumentative process and its result, to which the word A^YX W points. "Convict" (which the Revisers of 1881 have substituted) is for that reason the better word. "The idea of conviction is complex," says Professor Westcott. "It involves the conceptions of authoritative examination, of unquestionable proof, of decisive judgment, of punitive power. Whatever the final issue may be, he who 'convicts' another places the truth of the case in dispute in a clear light before him, so that it must be seen and acknowledged as truth. He who then rejects the conclusion which this exposition involves, rejects it with his eyes open and at his peril. Truth seen as truth carries with it condemnation to all who refuse to welcome it." (3) V. 11. " Of judgement, because the prince of this world is judged already." And so Wycliffe : " the prince of this world is now demed," and Tyndale, "because the chefe ruler of this worlde, is iudged all ready." Whence came this "already," as there is no -ijdr) in the original ? Doubtless from the Vulgate. We are apt to forget how very much the earlier English Translations of the Scriptures were modified by the Vulgate or Latin Translation, the Version which was in use throughout the whole Western Church. Wycliffe translated directly from the Vulgate ; it is exceedingly improbable that he had suffi- cient knowledge of Greek to enable him to render the New Testament in any other way ; nor, even if he had, would he have been easily able to secure at that early period a manuscript of the Greek Testament from which to translate (it was not till the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 that Greek manuscripts of the New Testament were carried Fourth Sunday after Easter. 41 here and there about Europe by the fugitive Greeks). " Tyndale " indeed " rendered the Greek text directly," but it was "while still he consulted the Vulgate, the Latin translation of Erasmus, and the German of Luther." 1 And, no doubt, "the best learned bishops and others," to whom Cranmer, in arranging for his Bible, sent various portions of "an old English Translation of the New Testament " in so many " paper- books," "to the intent that they should make a perfect correction thereof, " had a knowledge of Greek, and revised ' ' the old English Trans- lation " from the original. Still, in every English translation down to the Authorised, the Vulgate was consulted, and allowed a certain amount of influence. And the " already " of Cranmer's Bible in the verse before us is simply the "jam" of the Vulgate ("quia princeps hujus mundi jam judicatus est "), which Cranmer's Translators, though it had nothing to represent it in the Greek, did not like to discard. The English exiles at Geneva, whose Translation was published in 1557, and of course also the Rheims Translators of 1582 (who avowedly took the Vulgate as their basis), continued the interpolated word, the first rendering it "already," the second "now." King James's Translators, finding nothing corre- sponding to it in the Greek, signed its death-warrant. (4) V. 12. " But ye cannot bear them away now" (dXX' ov 8vi>aabe 31 spofeen unto pott in pro* berbs : t^e time comet!) iuljen 31 S^all no more gpeafe unto pou in 26 proberbiS, but 31 frtjall ss^eto pou plain^ of rije jfat!)er. at t!iat Bap pe fiTjaH ajsfe in mp JQame : ann 31 Sap not unto pott, tTiat 31 27 toill prap tfje Jf atf&cr for pott 5 for tlje IFatljcr fjtmsielf lobct^ pou, because pe $abe loben me, anB ^abe telieben tfjat 31 came out 28 from on. 31 came fort!) front t!je JFarijer, ant am come into t!je ixiorln : again, 31 leabe t|>e ioorlB, anB go to t!je JFat!)er. 29 ^ig Btgciplesi jsatB unto ^im ; JLo, noto sspeafeegt tljott platnlp, 30 anB jspeafeest no probert. JBoto are toe sure tljat tfjou fenotoest all things, anB neeBesft not tljat anp man sljoulB as% t!jee : ip tfjis 31 toe ieliebe tfjat tfjott earnest fort^ from OB. 3IcsuS anstoereB 32 tlicm, Do pe noto ieltebe 1 TBe^olB tfte fjour cometl), pea, is noto come, t!)at pe s!)aH foe ScattereB eberp man to !)is oton, anB sijall leabe me alone: anB pet 31 am not alone, because t!ie JFatTjer 10 33 tott!) me. tOjese tfjings 31 !>abe spofeen unto pou, ttjat in me pe mig!)t Tjabe peace. 31n t!>e toorlB pe sTjaH fjabe tribulation ; but be of gooB cbeer, 31 babe obercome tbe toorlB. Gospel for the Fifth Sunday after Easter. 5 1 [ Miss. SAR. 1549. 1662 S.B. In illo tempore, Dixit Verily, verily I say Verily, verily I say Jesus discipulis suis ; unto you . . . dovm to unto you . . . down to, Amen, Amen, dico the end of the Chapter but be of good cheer, I vobis : etc. . . . down, to (v. 33) . . . but be of good have overcome the world. the end of v. 30 ... in cheer, I have overcome hoc credimus quia k Deo the world. existi. The three verses added on by our Reformers to the old Gospel of the Sarum Missal are a distinct gain. In them our Lord somewhat discounts, as was His wont, the enthusiastic profession of belief just made by His disciples, and shows how little the convictions respecting Him, at which they professed to have arrived, would bear the stress of trial. [See the Thought for Friday.'] He also sums up the scope of His latest teaching (that delivered to the little circle of the faithful since Judas left the supper-room) in those words, " These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace ; " and concludes with the blessed and encour- aging assurance of the victory which He had won, and which they in Him should win, over the world ; "In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." "These were," says Professor Westcott, "His last recorded words of teaching before His Passion," and in them " He claims the glory of a Conqueror." Surely it was meet and right that words of such weighty import should find a place in the Liturgical Gospels. As to the beginning of this Gospel, it is well perhaps (at least for those who are acquainted only with the English Translation) that the earlier clause of v. 23 ("And in that day ye shall ask me nothing") is not embraced in it, since the asking of the earlier clause (expressed by the verb tpurdu) is entirely distinct from the asking of the latter expressed by aMu. The former verb denotes the asking for information ; the latter the suing as a suppliant for a gift. Hereupon Archbishop Trench says (Synonyms of the New Testa- ment, p. 140) ; "There is not in this verse a contrast drawn between asking the Son, which shall cease, and asking the Father, which shall begin : but the first half of the verse closes the declaration of one blessing, namely, that hereafter they shall be so taught by the Spirit as to have nothing further to inquire ; the second half of the verse begins the declaration of a new blessing, that whatever they shall seek from the Father in the Son's name, He will give it to them." And Professor Westcott, with admirable clear- ness and terseness ; " The questioning of ignorance is to be replaced by the definite prayer which claims absolute accomplishment, as being in con- formity with the will of God." Translation of 1540. (1) V. 25. " These 52 The Gospel for the things have I spoken unto you by proverbs. The time will come when, etc." Who foisted in the " but," which appears between "proverbs " and " the time " in all our ordinary modern copies of the Authorised Version ? It was not in the Authorised Version originally. It will not be found in the Authorised Version as given in ' ' the Parallel New Testament " [Oxford, University Press : 1882], nor as given in Bagster's "Hexapla" (from an old black-letter copy of 1611). It never at any time has been in the Prayer-Book (a discrepancy this between the Prayer-Book and our modern copies of the Bible). It is true that there is a reading of the original Greek, which places an d\X' before ipxerai, and that this reading has the sanction of some good manuscripts, and appears in the third edition of Stephanus, published in 1550, which the Translators of 1611 are supposed to have regarded as generally trustworthy ; but it has not approved itself to our Revisers of 1881, and suspicion generally rests upon it. But without entering into the question of the correctness of the read- ing, how and when did a " But," which King James's Translators did not recognise, find its way into modern copies of a version which professes to be theirs ? (2) V. 25. "but I shall shew you plainly from my Father." Here we have another instance of the influence of the Vulgate on the early English Translations, even where Greek was known to the Translators. [See the Introduction to the preceding Gospel.] The Vulgate here has, " sed palam de Patre annunciabo vobis," a very correct rendering of the original, dXXA wapprifflg. irepl TOV irarpos avayyeXu ujuv. But the Latin preposition de, which here means concerning, about, on the subject of, also means from,, down from (as in the opening of the Litany " Pater de coelis Deus "), and both Tyndale and Cranmer (strangely enough, having the Greek before them) render it thus. Wycliffe, on the other hand, without the Greek to help him, rendered the de rightly ; "but opunli of my fadir, I schal telle to you." (3) V. 26. "I say not unto you, that I will speak unto my Father for you." A free rendering of ori tyu epwrijcru rbv Trartpa irepi vfji&v ; but there is something pleasant in this homely phrase, as applied to our Lord's intercession for His people. Cranmer adopted it from Tyn- dale . One is reminded of, " Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host ? " (2 Kings iv. 13). (4) V. 30. "And needest not that any man should ask thee any question." A very good way of marking the difference of meaning between epwrdw and ahtu. [See the early part of this Introduction.] Cranmer here again adopts Tyndale's Version. In v. 23 of this Chapter the Revisers have put ask me no question as the representative of wr t^ep 19 s^all lap TjanBS on t$e sicfe, ann tTjep sljall recober. %o t^en after t^e JLorD !jaD spofeen unto tTjent, Tje iioas receiben up into fjeaben, 20 anti Sat on tfje rigljt fjanti of on. 3nn tljep iuent fortl) ann preacTien eberp to^ere, t^fje lorn iuorfeing ioit 1 ^ tljem, ann confirming tfte toorn iuit^ signs foHotoing. [ Miss. SAR. In, Mo tempore, Ee- cumbentibus undecim discipulis apparuit illis Jesus, etc. (Vidg. No- vissime recumbentibus illis undecim apparuit, etc.) 1549. Jesus appeared unto the eleven as they sate at meat, etc. 1662 S.B. Jesus appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, etc. (A. V. " Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, etc." Gr. Ka ei5lfa. 2 Ch. xv. 32. divelStfov. 3 St. Matt. v. 11, Srav dveiSiiruffiv v/j,as ical 5iciw TTJS xpetas, which is given by the Revisers of 1881, and which beyond question is the right cue. 4 See Ps. li. 15. s See St. John xvii. 15. Ascension- Day. 71 would afford them no security, if they wantonly ran into danger, courted and trifled with it. It was merely a security against such dangers as crossed their path without any will of their own. When a viper came out of the fire at Melita, and fastened on St. Paul's hand, he would not keep it there in order to prove the truth of the Lord's promise ; " he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm." 1 Oh, let me learn that Christ His promise, providence, and power will secure me from spiritual mischief, only if I do not trifle with it, only if I put away sin, as soon as the temptation to it suggests itself. The condition of a motion of lust, or pride, or temper, or covetousness, not harming me is, "that I shake off the beast" by a resolute action of the will into its native element, " the fire" of hell. Lord, let me not parley with sin for a single instant. Give me grace to bruise the serpent's head, 2 to crush sin in that earliest sug- gestion, which contains in it the germ of the entire act of sin. Wednesday. V. 19. "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." How quietly, how modestly, how briefly, do the Evangelists record the Ascension, not at all as if it were a wonder, but a simple matter of course, the consummation of Christ's career which every one must have anticipated. And this is, in- deed, the true view of the case. The wonder lay, Lord, in Thy descent from heaven, not in Thy return to it, in the amazing condescension and pity which drew Thee down from the Father's bosom, moved Thee to take our creature-nature upon Thee in the Virgin's womb, to make the roughest experience of human life, and the darkest 1 See Acts xxviii. 3, 5. a See Gen. iii. 15, and Rom. xvi. 20. 72 The Gospel for the experience of human death, to visit the realm of the departed, the dreary abode of souls separated from the body, and so to fathom the deepest abyss of man's misery and ruin. That the Sun of righteousness, after sinking into the ocean of death, should once more flush the east with His dawning, and clamber up till He reached the meridian where He was before, this was only what was to be anticipated from His being the Sun of righteousness, the source of light and life, aye, and of all activity to the universe. And there Thou sittest, Lord, at God's right hand, sittest to observe, (" The Lord looked down from heaven, and beheld all the children of men : from the habitation of his dwelling he considereth all them that dwell on the earth" 1 ); sittest to judge ("he hath pre- pared his throne for judgment. And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness " 2 ). May I adore Thee for Thine exaltation ; be quickened by Thine observation ; prepare myself to appear before Thy judgment-seat ! The Octave. V. 20. "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." The close and vital connexion of the Ascension of our Lord with the work of Christian Missions is my thought for to-day. This connexion was figured in the types of the Old Testament. Jonah, emerging from the interior of the fish, and rising out of the depths of the ocean into the life and light of the upper air, goes forthwith to preach to and convert the Mnevites. 3 It was predicted in the Psalms ; " Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto 1 Ps. xxxiii. 13, P.B.V. 2 Ps. ix. 7, 8. 3 See Jonah ii. 10, and iii. 4, 5, 10. Ascension- Day. 73 me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." 1 The King set upon God's holy hill, the heavenly Zion, desires of God the heathen for His in- heritance, and, receiving the grant of this inheritance, proceeds at once to subjugate it by His envoys preaching peace. It is expressly stated by St. Paul ; " When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. . . . And he gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." 2 I see that the Saviour, though seated and at rest, is still an energizing Saviour ; His rest consists with nay, is the condition of endless activity ; the two things are closely associated, "he sat on the right hand of God," and "the Lord working with them." Whereupon I will take occa- sion to reflect that peace in the heart and conscience through the blood of the Cross is the secret source of activity in the Christian life; and that to attempt to work up to peace of conscience, and not from it, is to invert that order of things which God hath appointed. * Ps. ii. 6, 7, 8. 2 Eph. iv. 8, 11, 12. CHAPTER XXXII. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSIOX-DAY. ST. JOHN xv. 26 to the middle of v. 4 in Chapter xvi. (omitting the "Bat " with which Chapter xv. v. 26 commences). 26 KJljen tlje Comforter is come, tohom 31 totll senD unto pcu from the jFather, eben tlje Spirit of truth, iohtclj proceeDetl) from the 27 jFather, he Shall tcstifie of me. Snn pe also shall bear toitness, 1 because pe Ijabe been tottlj me from the beginning. Cljese things 2 babe 31 Spoken unto pou, that pe shouln not be offenDrn. $Eljep Shall put pou out of the spnagogues : pea the time cometh, that 3 toljosoeber killeth pou iutll tljinft tljat Ijc Doth on serbtce. 3nD these things iatll tljep Do unto pott, because thfp Ijabe not inolnn 4 the jFather, nor me j but these things Ijabe 31 toln pou, that toljen the time shall come, pe map remember that 31 tolD pou of them. [ Miss. SAR. 1549. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the 1662 s.B. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, etc. (Gr. "OTav dt t\8y 6 Ilapd- , etc.) In iUo tempore, Dixit Jesus discipulis suis ; Cum venerit Paraclytus, quern ego mittam vobis a Father, (even the Spirit Patre Spiritum veritatis, of Truth), etc. etc. (Vulg. Cum autem venerit Paracletus, quern ego mittam, etc.) The force of the " But," with which v. 26 of Chap. xv. commences, is obvious to those who look at the context. Our Lord has been speaking of the venomous malignity of the Jews towards Him, a malignity which should after His departure fasten upon His disciples (v. 20, " If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you," etc.), and which was proof even against the convincing evidence of His miracles (v. 24, " If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not Gospel for the Sunday after Ascension- Day. 75 had sin, etc."). Strange as this malignity was, however, they did but fulfil their own Scriptures in showing it (v. 25), "the word . . . that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause." But this malignity was not to prevail. The Christ should have a testimony in His favour, from the Comforter supremely ("he shall testify of me," v. 26), and subordinately from the disciples ( ' ' and ye also shall bear witness," v. 27), which should justify Him triumphantly, all the malice of devils and men notwithstanding. Translation of 1540. (1) xvi. 2. ' ' They shall excommunicate you, " for which King James's Translators substituted, "They shall put you out of the synagogues." The word ex- communicate came from Tyndale. Wycliffe, translating from the Vulgate ("Absque synagogis facient vos"), gives the rendering to which the Rhemish Translation [1582] and the Authorised [1611] recurred; "thei schuln make you withouten the synagogis." (2) xvi. 4. "But these things have I told you, that when the time is come, ye may remember then that I told you." Thus the text runs in the Black- Letter Prayer Book of 1636 [39 ?], in which the MS. corrections were made at the last Revision. But clearly then is a misprint for them. Cranmer's translation (as given in Bagster's "Hexapla") is ; "that when the tyme is come, ye maye remember them, that I tolde you." A very accurate rendering of the original (tva &TO.V 2X0g i] &pa, /jLvrj/j.ove>ur)Te airrwv, #ri ^70; elirov vfjiiv), and one to which the Revisers of 1881 have gone back; "But these things have I spoken unto you, that when their hour is come, ye may remember them, how that I told you." And so Professor Westcott.] Sunday. V. 26. "The Comforter." Let me meditate upon this precious title of Comforter, by which our Lord reveals the Holy Spirit to us. The Greek word so translated means also an advocate. And this is the rendering actually adopted by our translators in a passage of St. John's first Epistle ; " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." * The fact is that there are two Hebrew words of the Old Testament, for which the Greek has only one equivalent, and that one of these signifies a comforter in trouble (as in Job, "miserable comforters are ye all" 2 ), while the other means intercessor or advocate. As regards 1 1 John ii. 1. 2 Job xvi. 2. 7 6 The Gospel for the God and our relation to Him, the Holy Spirit is our advocate, " helping our infirmities " in prayer, as the Apostle says, and " making intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." 1 As regards our- selves, and in His relation to us, the Holy Ghost is a " comforter." And "being " the Spirit of truth," He is a faithful Comforter, who shows us indeed ourselves, and the truth of our own state as lost and helpless sinners, but who also receives of the things of Christ, of His blood, righteousness, strength, intercession ; and, by showing them also to us, 2 pours into the wounds of our soul and conscience the oil of true consolation. What a rich mine of comfort and strength there is in the names, under which God is pleased to reveal Himself to us. Monday. V. 26. "He shall testify of me." Christ; in these last discourses with His disciples, testifies every- where of the Holy Spirit, puts Him in the foreground, tells His followers that it was expedient for them that He Himself should go away, because if He went not away, the Comforter, 3 who should abide with them for ever, nay, who should be in them as well as with them, would not come to them. And when the Com- forter came, He testified not of Himself, but of Jesus ; inspired the Apostles to preach Christ crucified, 4 and to know nothing else than Him among their converts ; as the Saviour had said, " He shall glorify me : for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." 5 Thus do the Persons of the Blessed Trinity mutually glorify one another ; thus does the Saviour fasten the expectations of the disciples upon the Comforter ; and 1 See Rom. viii. 26. 2 See St. John xvi. 14. 3 See St. John xvi. 7 ; and xiv. 16, 17. 4 See 1 Cor. i. 23 ; and ii. 2. 6 St. John xvi. 14. Sunday after Ascension- Day. 77 thus does the Comforter in His turn reveal, not Himself, but the Saviour. May this Divine humility be my model, and one of my criteria in self-examination ! Do I shrink from notice in the little good I try to do, " not letting my left hand know what my right hand doeth ?"* Could I bear to found some great enterprise of benevolence, and then, devolving the administration of it upon another, turn the eyes of men to him, and let him have the credit ? Or, suppose I were the administrator, could I bear to exhibit the founder only, and be never weary of putting him forward ? Yet this is what Christ did to the Holy Spirit, and what the Holy Spirit does to Christ. 2 Tuesday. V. 27. "And ye also shall bear witness, be- cause ye have been with me from the beginning." The Apostles were to witness to the historical facts with which their experience had made them acquainted ; the Holy Ghost in the hearts and consciences of men was to second their testimony. Thus, too, in the present day, the Church bears witness to the genuineness and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures as the written word of God, lodges them in the hands of her children, commends them to their attention, while the Holy Spirit, who alone can do so, applies the word of God to the hearts and consciences of the people. And thus both " the Spirit and the bride say, Come " 3 ; the invitation of grace issues from both of them. Let me take occasion to reflect on the way in which the double principle of Divine and human agency runs through the whole scheme of man's salvation. Thou, God, must act as the master-worker in the matter both of our justifi- cation and sanctification, or we sinners are lost for ever. 1 See St. Matt. vi. 3. 2 See a similar Thought for the Saturday of the week commencing with the Fourth Sunday after Easter. 8 Rev. xxii. 17. 78 The Gospel for the Except Thy Son and Thy Spirit take in hand the work of our salvation for us, there is no hope of its being achieved. But Thou wouldst have us work also, inasmuch as Thou hast endowed us with free wills, and makest the agency of those free wills indispensable to our salvation. Thou biddest us " work out our own salvation with fear and trembling," strong in the assurance that it is Thou " who workest in us both to will and to do of Thy good pleasure." 1 Wednesday. Chap.xvi. 1. "These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended." " Forewarned is forearmed." Our Lord forearms His disciples by assur- ing them of the internal presence and support of the Com- forter. And He forewarns them by telling them plainly of the rancorous hostility, with which their message should be received by the world, so that, when their troubles came upon them, they should be able to say, " This is just what our Master led us to expect, and what we are there- fore quite prepared for." Let me learn a lesson generally of the usefulness of foresight and preparation in the spiritual life. Let me habituate myself to the thought of being (as, in the course of nature, I shall probably be) deprived by God's Providence of several blessings which I now enjoy. How shall I do, when bereaved of this or that dear friend ? It is of no use hiding my eyes from the calamity. Some day we must be parted ; and how then ? could I support the blow, with the internal aid of God the Comforter ? Nay ; it is a very good and healthful exercise, to look forward in the morning of each day to the temptations we shall probably have to encounter, and the hours when it will behove us to be especially watchful over tongue and temper. How much less often should we 1 See Phil. ii. 12, 13. Sunday after Ascension- Day. 79 stumble in our spiritual course, if with some little forecast we prepared ourselves to encounter a stumbling-block ! Tliursday. Chap. xvi. 2. "They shall put you out of the synagogues : yea, the time cometh that who- soever killeth you will think that he doeth God ser- vice." The nine days, which elapsed between the Ascension-Day and the Day of Pentecost, were days of expectation. Expectation of our Lord's Second Advent eventually ; for the angels at the Ascension had held out this hope, and even spoken of the Second Advent as if it were imminent ; " This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." 1 Expectation in the immediate foreground of the Advent of the Comforter, whom our Lord had promised to send unto His disciples from the Father. Their Master was to come again and receive them unto Himself 2 ; and before and until this took place, they were to receive from the mission of the Comforter all the consolation, and light, and strength, which they could possibly require for the execution of their mission. Yet they must not think that it should be all bright. If their future were to be gilded with radiant hope, and if they might expect interior consolation, they were also to look ' forward to hostility and ill-treatment in their outward circumstances. " In the world," both Jewish and Gentile, " they should have tribulation." 3 They should be excommunicated by the Church in whose bosom they had been bred. Nay, they were to expect, not only spiritual censures, but loss of all things, and of life itself, for Christ's sake. Zealots for the law, or for the idolatrous worship of the heathen, would think it an act of devotion to put them to death. Let me learn, Lord, that those 1 Acts i. 11. 2 See St. John xiv. 3. 8 See St. John xvi. 33. So TJie Gospel for the who confess Thee bravely before men must not make their account to lead smooth unruffled lives. If, in days when persecution has ceased, there may not be much trouble without, still the word stands fast that " we must through much tribulation " (through sanctified sorrow, and the stroke of God's hand, if not of man's) " enter into the kingdom of God." 1 None are " counted worthy " 2 of that kingdom save those who are willing to " suffer " for it. Friday. Chap. xvi. 3. " And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." How loving and lenient is our Lord, in His estimate of men's worst offences ! He knew that the Jews were about to crucify Him. And here he foretells that after they had crucified the Head, they would show a similar ferocious malignity against the members ; " Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." And He attributes it to ignorance of God, just as at the actual crucifixion He prayed ; " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do." 3 Doubtless they must have recognised both the Father and Him ; for had not the disciples done so ? and had not the other Jews the same opportunities of seeing the Saviour's miracles, and hearing the words of grace which proceeded out of His lips, which the disciples en- joyed ? But they were blinded by their prejudices in favour of a carnal Messiah, who should set up a temporal kingdom. Our Lord, however, does not dwell upon their malice, awful as it was, but upon their blindness ; " they have not known the Father, nor me "; Saul shall have the only excuse made for his persecutions, which his case admits of, he " did it ignorantly in unbelief." 4 Lord, dost Thou not by this Thy lenity read a lesson of charity 1 See Acts xiv. 22. * See 2 Thess. i. 5. 3 St. Luke xxiii. 34. 4 See 1 Tim. i. 13. Sunday after Ascension- Day. 81 to Thy disciples ? If thou canst make excuses for " the blasphemers, the persecutors, the injurious," and allege all the extenuation which their offence admits of, shall not we much rather show forbearance to them, who have our- selves so much of perverseness, and so many sins against the light, to be forgiven ? Saturday. Chap. xvi. 4. " But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them." The disciples, finding their experience to correspond exactly with what their Master had predicted, would thence reap two great benefits. First, a confirmation of their faith in Him, as He Himself says elsewhere, " Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he." 1 Secondly, a firm persuasion that, as He had foreseen and foretold their troubles, He would assuredly support them when called upon to suffer. To have foreseen the trouble, what would this be with their loving Lord but to have provided against it, to have taken steps to enable them to meet it properly? Though our Lord has never spoken in our hearing, as in that of His Apostles, yet He has given us His written word. And whenever we find that written word, as happens often to the devout and spiritual mind, to meet our experience, nay to adjust itself in a wonder- ful way, not only to our inward needs, but to the very circumstances in which we are placed, how does this con- firm our faith, and tide us with a full wave over our trials and difficulties ! To use the expression of a devout and learned writer ; " It seems as if His knowledge, which wrapped us all around, was our very strength against the things He speaks of ; our very tower of refuge, into which 1 St. John xiii. 19. VOL. II. G 82 Gospel for the Sunday after Ascension- Day. we may flee as into His Presence. If we belong to Him, our head is above in heaven, and we, the members of His body, are below : the head is one with the body, careth for it, feels with it by most mysterious, intimate sympathy ; guides, protects, and governs it." 1 1 The late Rev. Isaac Williams, B.D. "Devotional Commentary on the Epistles and Gospels ; " Vol. I. p. 503 [Rivingtons : 1875]. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE GOSPEL FOR WHITSUN-DAY. ST. JOHN xiv. 15 to the middle ofv. 31 (only prefixing to v. 15 the words " Jesus said unto his disciples "). 15 3ksus saiB unto bis Bisctples, 3[f pe lobe me keep mp commanB= 16 ments. 2nB 3! toill prap tbe jFatber, anB be sbatt gibe pou another 17 Comforter, tbat be map abiBe toitb pou for eber j eben tbe Spirit of tttttb, tobom tbe toorlB cannot receive, because it seetb !)tm not, neither fcnotoetb bint } tut pe knoio !)tm j for fje DtoeHett) tottij pou, 18 anti slialf be in rou. 31 toil! not leabe pott comfortless j 31 toil! come 19 to pott. et a little tofjile, anu tfie toorlu sect!) me no more j ittt 20 pe sec me : because 31 Hbe, pe sfjall libe also. 3t t%at Dap pe si) all 21 knoto, tljat 31 am in mp JFatljer, anu pou in me, ann 31 in pon. J^e tljat bat^ mp commandments, ann fceepetl) tljem, Ije it is tliat loiictl) me ; anB Ije tljat lobetl) me stiall be lobeB of mp JTatljer, anB 31 toiH 22 lobe bim, anB toill manifest mp self to fiim. 3luBas saitlj unto Ijim, (not 3lscariot) Lorn, ftoto is it tliat tljott toilt manifest tljp self unto 23 us, anB not unto tlje IB or IB r 1 Jcstts anstoereB, anB saiB unto ijim, 3f a man lobe me, Ije tottt ieep mp toorBS : anB mp /Fatfter toil! lobe 24 Ijim, anB taie bjill come unto fitm, anD mate our aboBe toitl) btm. I^e tljat lobet^ me not, fecepetlj not mp sapings: anB tlje toorB tobict) 25 pou bear, is not mine ; but tlje Jatbers tobtcb sent me. tJCbese tbings 26 babe 31 spoken unto pou, being pet present toitb pou. TSut tbe Comforter, tobicb. is tbe bdp (Sb^St, iubom tbe JFatber toil! senB in mp name, be Sball teacb pou alf things, anB bring all tbings to pout 27 remembrance, tobatsoebcr 31 babe SaiB unto pou. Peace 31 Ifabe toitb pou, mp peace 31 gibe unto pott: not as tbe toorlB gibetb, gibe 31 unto pou. JLet not pour beatt be troublcB, neitber let it be afratB. 28 e babe bearB bo to 31 SaiB unto pou, 31 go atoap anB come again unto 84 The Gospel for pou. 3If pe lobeB me, ye mouln rejopce, because 31 sain, 31 50 unto 29 rtje Jacket: for mp jFatfier ijs greater tTjan 31. 2nn noto 31 fiabe tolD pott before it come to pass, rftat tofien it isf come to pass j>e 30 mtgljt foeliefce. ^ereafter 31 toill not talk muclj toitfj you: for tfje 31 prince of t1)i& toorln comet!), ann Ijad) nothing in me. "But tfiat tfie tootln map fenoto tfiat 31 lotoe tfte jFartjer; ann ast tfje JFather gabe me commanmnent, eben so 31 Do. [ 1549. 1662 S.B. Jesus said unto his disciples, If ye Jesus said unto his disciples, If ye love me, keep my commandments, love me keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, etc. And I will pray the Father, etc. The Sarum Gospel for Whitsun-Day went through two operations at the hands of the compilers of King Edward's First Book, which ended in leaving nothing of it remaining. It began in the middle of v. 23 of St. John xiv. (thus ; "In illo tempore, Dix.it Jesus discipulis suis ; Si quis diligit me, sermonem meum servabit"), and went down (as our present Gospel does) to the middle of the last verse of the Chapter, " But that the world may know that I love the Father ; and as the Father gave me com- mandment, even so I do." The Reformers in 1549 seem to have considered the commencement infelicitous, as indeed it was ; for in truth the Gospel began with the answer to a question from "Judas, not Iscariot," which question ("Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? ") was not given. That the question should be given, they may not unreasonably have thought to be essential to the right understanding of the answer. But the question was linked on closely to our Lord's promise to manifest Himself to him who had His command- ments and kept them ; and that again hung on to the preceding verses. They could not find a sufficient break in the thought till they came to v. 15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" ; and there accordingly they fixed the beginning of the new Gospel. But (probably on the ground that to have retained the old Gospel with the preceding eight verses pre- fixed would have made the extract too long) they terminated their new Gospel with v. 21 just before Judas's question, "I will love him, and will shew mine own self unto him." In 1552, however, the compilers of Edward's Second Book, who were perhaps less scrupulous about lengthy selections, and possibly also thought that the entire obliteration of the old Sarum Gospel was to be regretted, carried the Gospel of 1549 down to the middle of the last verse of the Chapter, thus embracing both the Sarum Gospel, and the additional verses which in 1549 had been prefixed to it. Whitsun-Day. 85 And thus it has come about that the Whitsun-Day Gospel is decidedly long, longer perhaps than any other Sunday Gospel, with the exception of that for the Sunday next before Easter. The commencement of the Gospel, as it now stands, is excellently chosen (thanks to the Reformers of 1549). At the point where it begins, there is a real break in the thought. Our Lord has been speaking of the power of faith ("He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," v. 12), and making large promises to the prayer of faith (" If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it," v. 14) ; and now "Hortatur, statim post tidem, ad amorem " (Bengel). "The thought of love follows that of faith. Faith issues 'in works of poiver : love in works of devotion' " (Professor West- cott). Tanslation 0/1540. (1) V. 18. "I will not leave you comfort- lesse. " This word, as the translation of optpavovs, was first given by Tyn- dale, and adopted both by Cranmer and the Genevan Translators. The Rhemish Translators give "orphanes." Perhaps there is no rendering so faithful, and at the same time so significant, as WycliffVs, "fadirles," (bereaved of "the everlasting Father," Isaiah ix. 6). The Revisers of 1881 give us "desolate," with "orphans" in the margin. (2) V. 19. " Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me : for I live, and ye shall live." This rendering of the last clause is that of Wycliffe, Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevan, and the Rhemish Translators. It was King James's Translators first, who gave the much more pointed and significant rendering, " because I live, ye shall live also." Of the earlier translation Professor Westcott says that, while the original allows of it, "the sense is much feebler; and the construction is not after St. John's manner. Comp. xiii. 14 ; xiv. 3 ; xv. 20." (3) V. 22. "Lord what is done that thou wilt shew theyself (sic) unto us, and not unto the world ?" And so Wycliffe (after the Vulgate, " Domine, quid factum est, quia manifestations es nobis teipsum, et non mundo ? ") " What is done that thou wilt ? " is a more faithful rendering than that of our Authorised Version, "How is it that thou wilt?", and the Revisers of 1881 have gone back to it ; " Lord, what is come to pass that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, etc." "The question implies that some change must have come over the plans of the Lord. It is assumed that as Messiah He would naturally have revealed Himself publicly : something then must have happened, so Judas argues, by which the sphere of Christ's mani- festation was limited " (Professor Westcott}. (4) V. 27. "Let not your hearts be grieved, neither fear." It is "your heart" in the original (^ rapacrcrtaOu ii^Cov r) KapSla, /j.r)5t SeiXidrw). As believers in Christ, tln-y had one heart, and one soul. While Tyndale and the Genevan are equally at fault here, Wyclifte is right ; " be not youre herte afruied, ne drede it " 86 The Gospel for (Vulg. "Non turbetur cor vestrum, neque formidet.") V. 28. "If ye loved me, ye would verily rejoice." The word "verily" has no repre- sentative in the Greek ; yet it is found in Tyndale's and the Genevan and Rhemish Translations as well as Cranmer's. Wycliffe has "forsothe ye schulden haue ioie." It is a vestige of the Vulgate, which lingered in the early English Translations ("Si diligeretis me, gauderetis utique, quia vado ad Patrem") till King James's Translators finally extinguished it.] Sunday. V. 17. "Ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Men knew the Holy Spirit, and were under His influence, before Pentecost. " Holy men of God," under the Old Dispensation, " spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 1 And David cries, " Take not thy holy Spirit from me," 2 plainly show- ing that he was in possession of the Spirit. What, then, was the difference between the operations of the Spirit before and after Pentecost ? " He dwelleth with you " (by your side), " and shall be in you." And, again, the Spirit under the Old Dispensation is compared to floods poured from without upon a thirsty soil ; " I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." 3 But under the New it is said ; " The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." 4 And again ; " He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." 5 An external shower, re- freshing the parched soil, is one thing. A perennial spring, bubbling up from within the earth, is another. True believers under the New Covenant not only have their own thirst slaked, but are made fountains of life and blessing to others. Am I such a fountain ? Do I even seek to be one ? Is the little patch of human life and society which lies around me, the greener, the fresher, the 1 2 Pet. i. 21. 2 Ps. li. 11. 8 Isaiah xliv. 3. * St. John iv. 14. 5 St. John vii. 38. Whitsun-Day. 87 more spiritually fertile, for my existence ? By the answer to this question I shall ascertain whether I have indeed been made partaker of the great gift of the New Covenant. When the Comforter first came, He came in the form of tongues, whereby men were impelled to speak to others the wonderful works of God. 1 Monday. V. 18. "I will not leave you comfort- less." In the original it is " orphans," or fatherless. " The very word," says Canon Westcott beautifully, "which describes their sorrow, confirms their sonship." Our translators would have done well to preserve the exact idea of the original ; " I will not leave yon fatherless" This would have connected the Gospel in the minds of readers with a passage in the sixty-eighth Psalm, one of those appointed for Whitsun-Day ; " A father of the fatherless ... is God in his holy habitation." 2 Christ had been to His disciples a Father ; nay, he was their Father in right of His divine nature. Among the glorious titles given by Isaiah to the " child born," and " the son given unto us," is that of " the everlasting Father." 3 And it is immediately followed by " the Prince of Peace," which title also con- nects itself with this Gospel in another verse (2 7), where our Lord says, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." And we find that Isaiah, quoted by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews, speaks of Christ and His disciples as " I and the children whom the LOED hath given me " 4 ; to which the Apostle adds, " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." 5 And our Lord, recognising this relation explicitly in the thirteenth Chapter of St. John, calls His disciples " little children" ; 1 See Acts ii. 11. 2 V. 5. 3 See Isaiah ix. 6. 4 Isaiah viii. 18. Heb. ii. 14. 88 The Gospel for " Little children, yet a little while I am with you." 1 He uses the diminutive to express tenderness and solici- tude for them, as who would say; "Ye are not only children, but young children, needing a parent's care ; children who will perish, if left in orphanhood. I will not so leave you." Lord, the true consolation of Thy Spirit is to know by experience Thy fatherly compassion for us, and the loving-kindness with which, in the exercise of that compassion, Thou watchest over us from Thy throne above. Tuesday. V. 18. "I will come to you." In the original the verb is in the present tense, not the future ; " I come," or rather, " am coming to you." I am coming in my own Person at my resurrection. I am coming at Pentecost, in the Person of the Comforter. I am coming at the end of the world to " receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." 2 One name by which Messiah went among the Jews was " the Coming One," " Art thou he that should come " (o ep^o/iei/o?, the Coming One), "or do we look for another?" 3 Messiah was He whose coming had been ever looked for, in compliance with the original promise respecting the seed of the woman, who should bruise the serpent's head, 4 and until whose final coming the serpent's head will not be effectually bruised. Observe, also, that His Advent in the flesh prepared the way for, and opened out into, His Advent in a spiritual body at His resurrection, and this again into His Advent by the Comforter, and this will eventually open out into His final Advent, so that the word " I am coming " is ever germinant in its fulfilment. Lord, may I be living in the spirit of hope, 1 St. Jolm xiii. 33. 2 St. John xiv. 3. 8 St. Matt. xi. 3. * Gen. iii. 15. Whit sun- Day. 89 waiting for Thy Son from heaven, 1 " who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." 2 Wednesday. V. 26. " He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Let me meditate to-day on the action of the Holy Spirit upon the memory. Their Master's words, uttered in their hearing, would have escaped from the Apostles, or would have been inaccur- ately reported by them, had not their memory been super- naturally quickened to recall His instructions. And when the words were so recalled, the " teaching " of the Holy Ghost, which is also promised in this verse, explained and enforced them, put them in a new light, enabled them to see a beauty and significance in sayings which before were dark. Lord, the awful truth is revealed in Thy word, nay, and in our own experience, that Satan has a power over the human memory. As the birds carry off the seed, which lies exposed on the surface of the soil, so the devil, Thou assurest us, taketh away the word out of man's heart, lest he should believe and be saved. 3 Lord, by Thy Holy Spirit counteract his devices. Make my heart soft and receptive, when I read or hear Thy word, that the good seed may sink deep into my soul, and, being cherished there by meditation, may take root and in due time bring forth fruit. And, as thou quickenest memory, so quicken intelligence also, that in the old familiar texts a new significance may continually be discerned by me, and new treasures of edification dis- covered. Tlmrsday. V. 2*7. "Peace I leave with you" (this 1 1 Thoss. i. 10. 2 Phil. iiL 21. 8 See St. Luke viii. 5, 12. 9O The Gospel for was an ordinary form of farewell, equivalent to our " good-bye," which Christ here takes up and mints afresh, and issues it with a higher significance than it had in the world's mouth) ; " my peace " (literally, " the peace which is mine ") " I give unto you." How shall we distinguish betweeen the peace which He leaves, and that which He gives ? Let us say that the peace which He leaves is the peace of reconciliation that reconciliation which was brought about by His death (" That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross" 1 ; "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ " 2 ), and that the peace which is specially His, and which He gives, is the sense of sonship, of being in Him adopted into God's family a peace resulting from the gift of the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 3 To be made to feel that Christ is a propitiation for our sins, this is a source of peace. It is a further step to be made to feel that God in Him is not only reconciled, but prepared to deal with us as a reconciled Father. Then let me repeat Philip's prayer, only with greater intelligence than he ; " Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." 4 To be shown the Father will fill up every void in the heart, will give us the peace which is specially Thine, inasmuch as Thou, who needest for Thyself no peace of reconciliation, yet livest always in enjoyment of that unbroken communion with Thy Father, which is the truest and highest peace. Friday. V. 2 7. " Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." The better and higher peace, which results from the sense of sonship, is kept in reserve until we have first tasted the lower peace, which comes from a sense of 1 Eph. ii. 16. a Rom. v. 1. 8 Rom. viii. 15. * St. John xiv. 8. Whitsun-Day. 9 1 reconciliation. Thus Christ gives His best last. But not so the world. The world gives its best first. Pleasures and excitements and honours, which are very captivating, and have a special charm for us in early life, lose their zest, and begin to pall upon us in our later years. The rule of the world in recompence is, " Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine ; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse." The rule of Christ is, on the other hand, " But thou hast kept the good wine until now." l We need not deny that the world has its pleasures, some of them very fascinating ones ; it would have no votaries, if it had nothing to offer in the way of pleasure. But so also has the life of faith and devotion. And the gratifications, which this latter life affords, grow in power and attractiveness as life wears on. More treasures are discerned in the promises of God, as the soul makes fresh experiment of their truth. And the peace, and the good hope through grace, develope themselves more as the goal is more nearly approached. Saturday. V. 28. "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father." How selfish are we oftentimes in passionately wishing to detain some dear friend by our side, whose example and influence have been of use to us, and who has bound him- self up with our best and holiest associations. It is good for him to be here, we think, looking only to ourselves ; why should God remove him ? Well, if it were clearly good for ourselves to detain him amongst us, is the wish for this detention what true love would dictate, when God is proposing to put him out of harm's way, and to place him in Christ's bosom in Paradise ? Surely, if we loved 1 St. John ii. 10. 92 Gospel for Whitsun-Day. him, we should rejoice at such a prospect for him. But very possibly God may see that for us also it is good to lose him ; that we are leaning more upon him than it is meet to lean upon any creature, and that the bereave- ment will be the best means of preparing us for future re-union, by leading us to set our affection on things above, 1 and have our treasure in heaven. 2 It was ex- pedient for our Lord to go away, that the Comforter might come; and this, it may be, was only the highest and grandest exemplification of a law which operates also in other bereavements. 1 See Col. iiL 2. a See St. Matt. vi. 19, 20. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE GOSPEL FOR TRINITY-SUNDAY. ST. JOHN iii. 1 to 16. 1 3Tbere toas a man of tbe pTjarteeesf, namen jBtconemus, a ruler 2 of tbe 3Ieto:3. die same came to 31esus bp nigbt, ann gain unto bint, 3Rabbi, toe fenoto tbat tbou art a teacher come from on : JFor no man can Do tbese miracles tbat tbou noest, except on be toitb 3 f)im. Jesus anstoercn ann sate unto ijim, Clcrilp, fccrilp 31 Sap unto tbee, apt- nomine, etc. 7aiuv, etc.) Our Authorised Version (following Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan Version) have not represented the 8t at all. This is a great mistake. The connexion with the preceding Chapter which S marks, is important and interesting. It cannot be better given than in the words of Professor "Westcott (in loc. ). The last verses of Chap. ii. had told us that ' ' Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man : for he knew what was in man." Hereupon the Professor remarks, "Nicodemus offered at once an example of the Lord's inward knowledge of men, and an exception to this general rule which He observed in not trusting Himself to them. The word 'man' is repeated to emphasize the connexion with ii. 25." In the Revised Version of 1881, the particle is rendered "Now." Translation of 1540. (1) V. 3. "Except a man be born from above," a rendering which King James's Translators have given us in their margin as an alternative for again. Wycliffe has, "born again" ; Tyndale, born anew. The Translators of 1611 adopted Wycliffe's rendering ; the Revisers of 1881 have adopted Tyndale's. The reader is referred to Professor West- cott's learned additional Note (at the end of Chap. III.), in which he sums up the arguments for either rendering thus ; " There seems then to be no reason to doubt that the sense given by the Authorised Version is right, though the notion is not that of mere repetition (again), but of an analo- gous process (anew)." (2) V. 13. "And no man ascendeth up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven." The present tense of the verb "ascend" is given in all the four earliest English Versions, Wycliffe's, Tyndale's, Cranmer's, and the Genevan. So manifest an error, when the Greek has the perfect (ouSets dvaS^SrjKev eis rbv ovpavbv), can only be ex- plained by supposing the Translators to have thought that the accurate rendering of the tense ("No man hath ascended," etc.) would imply that our Lord had, at the time of speaking, ascended into heaven. But all that is meant is ; "Man, who lives on earth, can only know what is done in heaven, either by ascending to heaven himself, or from the testimony of one who has already been there. Jesus as God had no need to ascend up into heaven in order to learn the things of heaven. By His nature as God He was already in heaven." Dunwell's "Commentary on St. John's Trinity -Sunday. 95 Gospel," p. 70 [J. T. Hayes, Lyall Place: 1872]. The "but-" (el ^) excepts onr LORD generally from the ignorance of heavenly things attach- ing to ordinary members of the human race, not from the number of those who had never visited heaven. "How shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" "/ am competent to do that, having come down from heaven to earth, and dwelling there even now in virtue of my Divine Nature. But I am the only competent Witness on such matters ; for no man hath ever ascended up to heaven, and come back to recount his experiences."] Sunday. What a beautiful blending of love and truth I observe in our Lord's dealing with Nicodemus ! Nico- demus, though under certain convictions, was afraid and ashamed to confess Christ before men, and therefore came to Him under cover of the night. It was an unseason- able hour to come, when doors were shut, and the children of many a householder, like the householder himself, were in bed l ; but our Lord did not decline to receive and converse with him. It is never out of season to seek Thee, blessed Jesus ; and him that cometh to Thee at any hour of day or night, Thou wilt in no wise cast out. 2 Moreover, Thou dost not quench the smoking flax 3 ; but from such poor and meagre convictions as Nicodemus had, when he came to Thee, Thou dost seek to lead him on by Thy expostulations to higher and more saving truth. And yet how faithful art Thou in Thy dealings with him ! So far from seeming flattered by his visit, as if it were a homage to Thy claims, Thou tellest him plainly of his ignorance of things which most concerned him (ignorance, which in him, as " a master of Israel," was quite inexcus- able), and impliest that he must begin his whole spiritual life de novo, being born of water and of the Spirit in Baptism, and thus entering into Thy school as a learner, 1 See St Luke xi. 7. - See St. John vi. 37. 3 See Isaiah xlii. 3, and St. Matt. xii. 20. g6 The Gospel for and sitting at Thy feet. Let this prepare me, Lord, when I too come to Thee for instruction and guidance, to be dealt with faithfully as well as lovingly by One who reads my heart. Monday. Some shallow students of Scripture, looking only to our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and without any sufficient perception of the real drift of that discourse, have said invidiously that doctrine finds no place in our Lord's own teaching, but only in that of His apostles. What do they make of the conversations with Xicodemus, with the Samaritan woman, with the people in the synagogue of Capernaum ? Here I find a soul coming to Christ under certain sincere, though inadequate convictions, and with a desire for further instruction. Christ begins with him at once upon doctrines, preaches to him immediately, as the great truths needful, man's ruin by nature (" Ex- cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God " ) ; man's redemption by the cross (" even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life"); and man's regeneration by the Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism (" Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"). Lord, write upon my heart of hearts the conviction of my ruin by nature, my redemption by Thy blood, my regeneration by the first Sacrament of Thy Gospel. For, indeed, these convictions are the beginning of all good in the human soul, and the life of all Christian morality. Tuesday. Let me endeavour to see the great apposite- ness of this Gospel to Trinity- Sunday, the festival for which it is appointed. Nicodemus, as a Jew instructed in the law, knew of God the Father. In the words with which the interview opens, he recognises the First Person Trinity -Sunday. 97 of the Blessed Trinity, and owns to the conviction of Christ having been sent by Him ; " Eabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." What our Lord declares to him is that, without the agency of the two other Divine Persons, there can be no entrance into God's kingdom for fallen man. The Son of man must be lifted up on the cross as an object of faith, just as the serpent in the wilderness was lifted up for the bitten Israelites to turn their eyes upon. 1 And the Holy Spirit, brooding over the laver of regeneration, as in the first creation He " moved " (or hovered dove-like) " upon the face of the waters," must quicken the soul into spiritual vitality. Thus it needs a function of each Divine Person to save a single soul. There must be, first, the Father's love manifested in the mission (or, rather, in the gift) of the Son (" God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," etc.) ; this is the source of salvation. There must be, secondly, the Son's atoning death ; this is the means of salvation. And there must be, thirdly, the quickening of the soul by the Holy Spirit ; this is the power which applies salvation to the soul of the individual. If I desire to see the unity of design and will, which subsists between the sacred Persons of the Trinity, let me observe the glorious harmony in which all concur in the great work of saving a soul from sin and death. Wednesday. V. 12. Again I find the appositeness of this Gospel to the Festival of Trinity-Sunday in this verse ; " If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?" Uegeneration, of which our Lord had been speaking, is an " earthly thing," because, though brought about by Divine 1 See Num. xxi. 8, 9. VOL. II. H 98 Ttie Gospel for agency, it is transacted upon earth, and man has experi- ence of it, and the fruits of it are seen in his life and conversation. But the Atonement, of which our Lord goes on to speak, is a matter of pure Revelation, altogether out- side man's experience, and of which we can know nothing but what God is pleased to tell us. And much more is this the case with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which defines the relations to one another of the three Divine Persons. This is a purely " heavenly thing," of which our minds can form no conception at all, and for which we are dependent entirely upon the testimony of Him who came down from heaven originally, and who closed His ministry upon earth with the solemn declara- tion of the Triune Name, and the commission to declare it to all nations, and to bring all to the confession of it ; " Go ye and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." x Every definition in the Athanasian Creed rests upon Holy Scripture, and may be concluded and proved thereby that is, it rests upon God's testimony respecting Himself. Oh that, when we read the Holy Scriptures, we might listen with great intentness to catch the voice of God in them ! Oh that we regarded our- selves, when on our knees with our Bibles, as in the shrine of an oracle, whence issue Divine voices, " for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness " ! 2 Tliursday. V. 4. " How can a man be born when he is old ?" and again (V. 9), "How can these things be ?" " Hows " are a great obstacle in the way of faith. But if a fact is certain, whether from our experience or from Eevelation, it is quite unreasonable that our ignorance of the method in which it is brought about should be an A ^t. Matt, xxviii. 19, R.V. 2 See 2 Tim. iii. 16. Trinity-Sunday. 99 obstacle to its being believed. This is what our Lord teaches Nicodemus, in what He says about the wind (V. 8) ; " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." Who doubts the fact of there being a wind, because he cannot understand the laws which regulate the wind, or explain how it is that it should blow at one time or in one place rather than at another ? And similar illustrations may be drawn from every part of Nature ; we know nothing of tjie " hows " and " whys "; we can never go many steps beyond the facts. We know for certain that the blood circulates, this being a scientific discovery made many years ago, and* a discovery which is of the utmost practical service in the art of medicine. But how or why it circulates, what is the principle of that mysterious movement which we call life, who shall say ? The sage here knows no more than the peasant. Lord, when I find anything clearly revealed in Thy Holy Word, let me not raise a question how the thing can be ; but making no doubt that it is so, because Thy Word affirms it, let me act upon what is revealed. It is given me as a stimulant, not to speculation, but to practice. Friday. V. 1 2. " If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things ?" Our Lord evidently implies here that certain truths, which rest upon Eevelation only, are more difficult to receive than others, which are confirmed by our own reason and experience. I find the same implication in other passages, as, for example, in this ; " Marvel not at this " (i.e. at the spiritual resurrection) : " for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." l Now may we not hence 1 St. John v. 28. ioo The Gospel for draw an argument for prompt belief in truths, which make less tax upon our powers of faith than others, which make a much heavier tax, and yet which we receive without question ? Some people unhappily are found in these sceptical days, who profess to receive unhesitatingly the leading doctrines of Christianity, such as the Incarnation and Atonement, but indulge in silly pieces of incredulity about certain Scriptural miracles, say, if you please, Jonah's incarceration in the whale, or the entry of the devils into the swine. Oh, let me beware of these petty incredulities ; for they will eat like a canker, 1 until some vital article of faith is touched, and the deposit tampered with. And how essentially foolish and weak such doubts are ! Do I really believe, as the one foundation of all my hopes, that Almighty God " took Man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance " 2 ? If I do not believe this, I am no Christian ; for this is the funda- mental doctrine of the GospeL But if I do, and if the same authority on which I receive this truth, warrants equally the other miracles of the Old and New Testament, what difficulty can these lesser miracles present, which is not infinitely exceeded by the mystery of the holy Incar- nation ? To receive the one, and reject the other, is it not to strain out the gnat, while we swallow the camel ? 3 Saturday, It is interesting to trace the growth in the religious character of Nicodemus, as this Gospel gives us the means of doing. We find him in the seventh Chapter making a stand against the Sanhedrim, of which he was a member, and demanding that our Lord should at least have a fair opportunity of answering for Himself, ("Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him?") 4 1 See 2 Tim. ii. 17. 2 Second Article of Religion. 3 See St. Matt, xxiii. 24, R.V. * St. John vil 51. 7 ^rinity-Sunday. i o i And the crucifixion of Christ, which had scattered the disciples every man to his own home, 1 seems to have com- municated to Nicodemus a certain holy boldness, and to have determined him to confess Christ bravely before men. For we read in Chapter xix. that he " brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight," 2 and joined with Joseph of Arimathaea in embalming and paying funeral honours to the body of our Lord. Thus am I taught that grace may be real although feeble, and led to magnify the gentleness and goodness of Him, who, instead of quenching the smoking flax, 3 cherishes it gradu- ally into a flame. And, moreover, the standing forth of several true and brave confessors at the death of Christ, the penitent thief, the centurion in charge, and Nico- denius, is a significant lesson to me that in the Cross alone can I find the strength and courage necessary to carry me successfully through my Christian course, and that it is when fighting under it as my banner that I shall be able to foil my spiritual foes. i See St. John xvi. 32. 2 V. 39. 3 See St. Matt. xii. 20, and Isaiah xlii. 3. CHAPTER XXXV. THE GOSPEL FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. ST. LUKE xvi. 19 to the end. 19 Cfiere toas a certain ric$ man, tofjo toas clotljen in purple, ann 20 fine linen, ann faren sumptuously eberp nap. 3nn tTjere toast a certain iegger namen JLajaruS, toljo toas Iain at Ijis gate full of 21 stores j ann nesiring to fce fen toitTj tlje crumbs!, toTjtcft fell from tfje ric!) mans! tafcle: moreover tlje nogs came ann licfcen $is sores. 22 3nn it came to pass! t!>at tlje tegger nien, ann toa$! carrien ftp tTie angels! into aiirafjants! liojsom : t&e ric^ man alsio nien ann toajs 23 turien. 3nn in fall !je lift up !)i0 eies! Icing in tormentsi, ann 24 sseetlj afaraljam afar off, ann JLajarusi in I)t0 fcosiom. 3nn ^e crien, ann siain, JfatTjer atraTjam, Ijabe mercp on me, ann sienn JLajarust tljat Tie map nip tf)t tip of fns! finger in toater, ann cool mj tongue, 25 for 31 am tormenten in tTjisi flame. TBut abraljam ssain, %on, remem* ier, ttjat tTjou in tTjp life time receiben0t t^p goon things!, ann Iifte= toisie JLajarusi ebil things!: lut noto ^e i$! comforten, ann tTjou art 26 tormenten. 3nn tesiinest all t^i0, iettoeen us! ann pott tlfjere is a great gulf fiten : sso tfiat ttiep to^o toouln pass! from fjence to pou, cannot ; neither can tljep passs to usi, tfjat toouln come from tTjence. 27 ben ifje sfain, 31 prap t^ee therefore, father, t^at tTjou tooulnest 28 sienn ^)im to mp fathers touse: jTor 31 fjabe fiDe tretTiren; rtjat ^e map testifie unto tfjem, lest ttiep also come into tfiis place of 29 torment, abradant sait^ unto !)im, tlljep ^ate Closes ann tfie 30 proptjets j let rtjem %ear t^em. 3nn !je sain, 3!3aj>, fatljer aira= %amj iut if one toent unto ttiem from t^e ncan, t^ep toill repent. 31 3nn l)t sain unto ijim, 3lf t^fjep Tjear not ^oses ann tlje prophets, neither toill tijep !>e perstoanen, tTjoug^ one rose from tlje nean. Gospel for First Sunday after Trinity. 1 03 [ Miss. SAR. 1549. 1662 S.B. In illo tempore, Dixit There was a certaine There was a certain Jesus discipulis suis rich man, which was rich man, who was parabolam hanc ; Homo clothed in purple and clothed in purple, and quidam erat dives, et fine white, etc. fine linen, etc. (Gr. induebatur purpura et "AvOpuiros 84 TIS ?)v bysso, etc. (Vulg. Homo ir\o6(nos,K(deve5i8vffKtTO quidam erat dives, qui iropfitipav KO.I fifaffov, induebatur purpura et etc.) bysso, etc.) No English Translators before the Revisers of 1881 made any attempt to exhibit the 5, which links this Parable to what went before it in our Lord's discourse. In the Revised Version, however, the attempt is made ; "Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen." The connexion of thought is difficult to seize ; but doubtless it is real. The Pharisees, who were covetous, had derided our Lord's teaching (conveyed in the Parable of the Unjust Steward) on the right use of worldly wealth, and the declaration of the impossibility of serving at the same time God and mammon, with which He had followed up that Parable. "Of the subsequent discourse," says Bengel, "the connexion is this. The justification of oneself before men and [self- righteous] elation of heart nourishes covetousness, and scoffs at heavenly simplicity (v. 15); and despises the Gospel " (the calls into God's kingdom, which the Gospel was then making, and successfully with many) " (v. 16); and breaks the law " (while making its boast of the law) " (v. 17) ; as was shown by an example very necessary to be alleged against the Pharisees " (whose "national judicature, receding from the high standard of God's law, had tolerated the public scandal, which Herod's marriage with his brother's wife had occasioned" [Stier]) " (v. 18)." All the above points are embraced in the parable respecting the rich man and Lazarus. As to our Lord's allusion in v. 18 to laxity in regard to the marriage law, there seems reason to believe that this was a form of evil prevalent and popular among the Pharisees. Compare the circumstance recorded in connexion with the woman taken in adultery (St. John viii. 7, 9), that "they which heard it" (our Lord's sentence, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her "), " being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last " ; and also St. Paul's expostulation with the Jews, who "rested in the law," in Rom. ii. 17, 22 ; " Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery .?" Translation of 1540. (1) V. 19. " which was clothed in purple and fine white." Cranmer stands by himself here. Wycliffe has " whiyt silk"; Tyndale, " fyne bysse"; Geneva (like the IO4 The Gospel for the Authorised), " fyne lynncn " ; Rheims, merely "silk." (2) V. 21, "and no man gave unto him." In interpolating these words, Cranmer followed, not the original, but the Vulgate Translation, which gives v. 21 thus ; " Cupidus saturari de micis, quse cadebant de mensa divitis, et nemo itti dabat: sed et canes veniebant, et lingebant ulcera ejus." The clause is evidently transferred from the Parable of the Prodigal Son in the adjacent Chapter of the Gospel (xv. 16), where we have another description of the direst physical distress. That Wycliffe, translating from the Vulgate, should have rendered the clause, was of course to be expected. He has, "and no man yaf to him, but houndis camen : & likkiden his bilis." But that Cranmer's translator, whoever he was, professing to correct by refer- ence to the Greek that portion of the old English translation, which was allotted to him by the Archbishop, should have represented words which he did not find in the original, especially as Tyndale had not done so before him, is remarkable. Even the original Edition of the Anglo- Rhemish Version, put forth in 1582, ignores the clause, though it seems to have been foisted in (when, and how, I cannot say) to the Douay and Rheims Bible now commonly used by Roman Catholics. 1 It appears in Jerome's Recension of the old Latin Versions of the New Testament, as that Recension is given in the Benedictine Edition of his works ; but I do not imagine that there is any authority for it in any existing Greek manuscript. (3) V. 25. " remember that thou in thy life time receiuedst thy pleasure, and contrarivrise Lazarus receiued paine," (for ri dyaffd rov . . . Kal 6 Adfapos 6/xoiwj ra KO.KO) ; and so Tyndale previously, and the Genevan subsequently. King James's Translators put back the literal rendering of dyada, and the correct rendering of 6/tco/ws, which had already appeared in "Wycliffe ; " Sone haue mynde, for thou hast resceyued good thingis in thi liif : lazarus also yuel thingis." The Rhemish Translators had done the same in 1582 ; " thou didst receiue good things in thy life time, and Lazarus likewise euil." (4) V. 26. "Beyond all this, between us and you there is a great space set." This is adopted from Tyndale. To the Genevan we owe the "Besides all this" and the "great gulf" of our Authorised Version. Wyclifie has, " in alle these thingis : a great derke place is stab- lischid" ("in his omnibus . . . chaos magnum firmatum est," Vulg.). 1 My edition of this Book is that which has " the approbation of the Right Rev. Dr. Denvir R. C. Bishop of Down and Connor," and it is pub- lished by Thomas Booker, Manager of the Catholic Company, 53 New Bond Street. Herein v. 21 of St. Luke xvi. is thus given ; " Desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and no none (sic) did give him : moreover the dogs came and licked his sores." First Sunday after Trinity. 105 Rheims ; " is fixed a great chaos." (5) V. 28. "Send him to my father's house, for to warm them." And so Tyndale previously, and the Genevan subsequently. Here again Wycliffe's rendering, " that he witnesse to hem," is more literal, STTWS Sta/xa/rn^rat ai/roty ("ut testetur illis," Vulg.). (6) V. 31. " neither will they beleeve, though one rise from death againe." And thus the other four English versions preceding the Authorised. " Will they be persuaded " is more literal, and equally forcible.] Sunday. V. 22. "The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." He is exhibited to us as holding after death a restful and blissful communion with Abraham. But Abraham was no beggar. " He was very rich," we read, "in cattle, in silver, and in gold." 1 Thus we learn that it was not the circumstances of the beggar not his poverty, his rags, his famished state which brought him to Paradise ; nor, on the other hand, the wealth and affluent circumstances of the rich man, which shut him out of Paradise. The rich man lived in and for this world, which was to him the only reality the world beyond the grave he practically dis- believed in ; it exercised no influence upon his character and conduct; he had his "portion in this life." 2 Of wealthy Abraham we read, on the other hand, that " he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God/' 3 and that not the wealth which he had amassed, but the God whom he worshipped and served, was his treasure. He cared not to share the spoil taken in his successful expedition against the four kings 4 ; and, in acknowledgment of his disinterestedness, the Lord said to him, " I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." 5 In a word, Abraham possessed his riches, but the riches of Dives possessed him. Let me learn how Scripture guards everywhere against niiscon- 1 Gen. xiii. 2. 2 See Ps. xvii. 14. * Heb. xi. 10. 4 See Gen. xiv. 21-24. Gen. xv. 1. io6 The Gospel for the ceptions of its meaning, and how necessary it is, therefore, to balance its different statements with one another, and not to run away with crude notions fetched from single texts. If the Scripture had only said, " Work out your own salvation," and had not added, "For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good plea- sure," 1 we should have supposed that salvation was all of human endeavour, and not of grace. Monday. V. 23. "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments." Let me reflect upon the remarkable circumstance that it is our Lord and His Apostle St. John who speak so explicitly of the torments of the wicked in a future state of existence. The torments here mentioned are those of their intermediate state (the " hell " being Hades, the realm of departed spirits). But in St. Mark ix. our Lord speaks in even more awful terms of the torments of their ultimate state (G-ehennd), thrice repeating the warning to make any sacrifice rather than be cast " into the fire that never shall be quenched ; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 2 And in the twentieth and twenty-first Chapters of the Revelation St. John exhibits to us " the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone : which is the second death." 3 (I observe, by the way, in connexion with the 15th verse of Eev. xx., " Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire," that Lazarus's name is mentioned in the parable, but not that of the rich man}. Our Lord, in the Parable before us, spoke from insight into the world beyond the grave ; He told His hearers, in a form adapted to their capacity, exactly what He saw there. And St. John, the Apostle of love, seemed to have shared his Master's insight into 1 See Phil. ii. 12, 13. 2 Vv. 43, 45, 47. 3 Chap. xxi. 8. First Sunday after Trinity. 107 the other world, and to have put on record for our warn- ing what he saw there in an inspired vision. Both He who is love, and the disciple who lay in His bosom, 1 and who, most remarkably of all the disciples, exemplified the grace of love, seek to work on us by fear, to call into operation in our hearts the dread of God's awful judg- ments. Let me learn that, since such appeals are made to it in God's Word, fear, though not the highest motive, is yet a motive by which God means us to be influenced ; and also that it is a mark of the truest and highest love, not to tamper or trifle with the sins of men, but to tell them plainly and faithfully what is in store for the impenitent and unbelieving. Tuesday. V. 23. "And seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." From the former part of the verse we learn that in hell there will be positive and acute suffering, " torments." From this latter clause we gather that, accompanied with this, will be something equally dreadful, the agonizing consciousness of what has been lost. " There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." 2 The thought of the repose, the blessedness, the glory, the eternal security, which might have been theirs, which was purchased for them as well as for others by the blood and righteousness of Christ, and offered to them as freely as to others, but which they have wilfully bartered away for some sinful indulgence, like Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage 8 with what anguish will this reflexion, brought home to them vividly perhaps, for aught we know, made palpable 1 See St. John xiii. 23, 25. a St. Luke xiii. 28. 3 See Gen. xxv. 29-34, and Heb. xii. 16. io8 The Gospel for the to their senses wring the hearts of the condemned ! Lord, when I am enticed by any lure of the world, the flesh, or the devil, thus to sell my Baptismal birthright, my sonship and heirship to Thee, dispose and enable me before I do what my lust, or covetousness, or ambition, solicit me to do to reckon over in my mind the glory and blessedness, the pure and ravishing delights of communion with Thee and with Thy saints and angels, which I shall thus forfeit. Wednesday. V. 25. "But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things." I learn from this that in the disembodied state memory will be on the alert. Perhaps for the very reason that the soul is disembodied, that no activities are now possible to it, because it has laid down the body which is the organ of activity, it will be all the more impressible by reminiscences of the past; just as, when one lies awake at night, thought is often unusually busy. And what a different appearance will life then present, from what it did while it was passing ! How miserable, how paltry, will the so-called good things of the world, its pleasures, its indulgences, its honours, for which the sinner bartered away his soul, appear to be, when they are looked at from the other side of the grave ! And, on the other hand, how will all the trials and sorrows of the true child of God seem to him to be but " light affliction, which is but for a moment " x ! With what deep gratitude, with what humble adoration of God's Providence, will he review his past, remembering all the way which the Lord his God has led him in the wilderness, to humble him, and to prove him, to know what was in his heart ! 2 Lord, when I am tempted either to sinful indulgence, or 1 See 2 Cor. iv. 17. 2 See Deut. viii. 2. First Sunday after Trinity. 109 to murmuring, give me grace to reflect how this pleasure or this trial will look, when I see it stripped of all its disguises, from the further side of the grave. Thursday. V. 29. "Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets ; let them hear them." Not that they had ever seen Moses and the prophets, or heard them speak. And yet Moses and the prophets in their writings were really and truly expostulating with the brethren of the rich man, and seeking to bring them to repentance. Have I ever fancied that I am at a great disadvantage, because I have never, like the first disciples, seen Christ and His Apostles, and heard the Gospel from those lips which first proclaimed it ? Let me reflect that in the precious volume of the New Testament I have Christ and the Apostles. As regards my guidance under the difficulties of life, and my ultimate salvation, it is entirely the same thing as if I were to see and hear them ; I have the same advantages as those who did see and hear them; and I am equally responsible. There is no counsel of Christ and His Apostles which it would benefit me to receive, which is not contained somewhere in that holy volume. Oh then, let me open mine ears to it, while I may, and reflect, when I take it up, that it is indeed the Saviour and His inspired messengers who are addressing me in its pages, and addressing me from glory and from Paradise. Friday. (Same verse.) If therefore they had heard Moses and the Prophets heard them with a " hearing ear and an understanding heart " they would have received a testimony to a future state of existence, in which the righteous are recompensed and the wicked punished. The books of Moses and the prophets were quite sufficient to give them warning respecting such a no The Gospel for the state, could have given it to them quite as forcibly, quite as emphatically, quite as unequivocally, as an apparition from the grave could have done. Thus our Lord found the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead in the circum- stance that God, speaking to Moses at the bush, calls Himself the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and intimates that the Sadducees did " not know the Scriptures," x because they did not find this meaning in the words. I must strive then, in reading the Holy Scriptures, to discern what lies beneath the surface of them as well as what lies on the surface, what they imply as well as what they express. And how shall I ever gain this power of discernment, except by the teaching of that Spirit who " searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" 2 ? Saturday. V. 30. "And he said, Nay, father Abraham : but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." What contempt this rich man virtually pours upon the Scriptures of the Old Testa- ment ! How little weight and efficacy does he attach to Moses and the Prophets, in comparison with a ghost ! As for the Scriptures, they have palled upon him by repetition ; they are " stale, flat, and unprofitable" ; but a visitant from the dead will not fail to alarm, arrest, arouse to repentance. One of the marks of reprobation visible in this unhappy man is the slight account which he makes of God's Word, and the great account which he makes of signs and wonders as means of moral suasion. I find in what he says a warning for these times. For in these times, minds that are jaded with this world's vanities, and require some fresh stimulant, instead of 1 See St. Matt. xxii. 29, 31, 32 ; St. Mark xii. 24, 26, 27 ; St. Luke xx. 37, 38, with Exod. iii. 6. 2 1 Cor. ii. 10. First Sunday after Trinity. 1 1 1 betaking themselves to the Holy Scriptures, which are real communications to us from a higher world, seek a sign from the realm of the grave, and endeavour to hold communication with the spirits of the dead. May God preserve me from the sin of necromancy, which is an attempt to communicate with the spiritual world by means which He has forbidden, or has never sanctioned ; and make me mindful that in the black catalogue of the works of the flesh that is, the sins to which our corrupt nature is prone is to be found not only uncleanness and lasciviousness, hatred and wrath, drunkenness and revel- lings, but also " witchcraft," 1 and that mixture of human imposture and Satanic delusion, which in these days represents witchcraft, and draws away disciples after it, as it were spell-bound with their own superstitions. 1 See Gal v. 20. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE GOSPEL FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. ST. LUKE xiv. 16 to 25 (leaving out the words. "Then said he unto him," with which v. 16 commences). 16, 17 3, certain man matie a great supper, anB baBe manp ; & Sent bis serbant at Supper time to gap to tbem tbat inere biBDen, Come, 18 for all things are note reaflp. 3nB tbep all initb one consent began to make ercuse : tEbe first saiD unto !jim, 31 babe bougbt a piece of grounfl, anu 31 must neeBS go anB see it; 31 prap tbee babe me 19 ercuseD. 3nB another satB, 31 babe bought fibe poke of ojren, ann 31 20 go to probe tftem ; 31 ptaj? rtce Tjabe me ercuseu. 2nn another sain, 21 31 Ijabe marrien a toife, ann therefore 31 cannot come. So t^at Serbant came, anB sT)f tocfl bis JlorB tbese tbings. 3Iben tbe master of tfje bouse being angrp saiB to bis! Serbant, o out quicltlp into tbe Streets anB lanes of tbe dtp, anB bring in bitbet tbe poor, anB tbe 22 maimcB, anB tbe bait, anB tbe blinB. 3nB tbe Serbant saiB, JLorB, 23 it is Bone as tbou basit commanBeB, anB yet tbere is room. SnB tbe JLorB SaiB unto tbe Serbant,