f i THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER SHORT LECTURES ON THE TITLES OF _ THE LORD IN THE GOSPEL OF ST JOHN BY BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT D.D. D.C.L. LATE LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM 2. out) on MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NE\V YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1904 [The Rigid of Translation is reserved.] First Edition 1883. Second 1887. Third 1904. CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. PKEFACE. TT was my intention to deliver the substance of " these lectures during my Summer residence at Peterborough in the present year. Very shortly before the time of residence came my connexion with the Cathedral was most unexpectedly broken and my purpose was consequently unfulfilled. I have reason however to think that some to whom I had been allowed to minister for fourteen Sum- mers, would have followed with interest the ex- amination of a subject which we had already approached eleven years ago, and it has been a pleasure to me to continue so far as I could the old relation by revising week after week what I had hoped to address to them. Such friends will, I trust, receive the result as a memorial of a con- nexion on which I shall always look back with affectionate gratitude. w. REV. 6 2066630 vi Preface. The subject itself is one to which I was anxious to direct attention. A complete series of related passages of Holy Scripture taken just as they stand without the exercise of any choice presents, as I believe, with incomparable clearness that harmonious progress of thought in the record of divine revelation which makes the idea of inspira- tion a living reality. This is true especially of the narratives of the Gospels. And no one, unless I am mistaken, can consider the titles by which the Lord successively reveals Himself in the Gospel of St John without acknowledging the naturalness of each revelation, and the growing light which they throw one after the other in due order upon His work and upon His Person. Each title as it was used was intelli. gible. Each title when studied afterwards disclosed (and still discloses) fuller depths of meaning. On the other hand there is not the least indication that this vital unfolding of the truth little by little, these underlying correspondences, were di- rectly present to the mind of the Evangelist as he wrote, still less that they were due to a conscious design. We observe them only when we allow every detail of time and place and circumstance J to produce its full effect through patient medita- Preface. vii tion. In this respect what I have said can only suggest topics for meditation and not supersede the exercise itself. Such meditation will bring back with a multi- plied blessing that complete trust in the Written **S, Word, quickened by the Living Word, which many seem to mourn over as irreparably lost. No doubt we have used the Scriptures for purposes for which they were not designed. We have treated them too often as the one mechanical utterance of the Spirit and not as writings through which the Spirit Himself still speaks. We have isolated them from the life of the Christian society, and that still larger life which is, in its measure, a manifestation of GOD. There is an immeasurable difference between making the Bible a storehouse of formal premisses from which doctrinal systems can be infallibly constructed and making it in its whole fulness the final test of necessary Truth. The Bible itself teaches us by its antithetic utterances that no single expression of the Truth is coextensive with the Truth itself. And life proves beyond question that words gather wealth in the course of the ages. It is not too much to say that no formula which expresses clearly the thought of one generation can convey the same meaning to the generation 62 viii Preface. which follows. It may happily express a com- mensurate meaning, but every term in which the meaning is conveyed will have gained new asso- ciations. And it is in this that the divine power of Holy Scripture makes itself most powerfully felt by the student. The language of the Bible grows more harmoniously luminous with the growing light. When its words are read and interpreted simply, as words still living, they are found to give the spiritual message which each age requires, the one message made audible to each hearer in the lan- guage wherein he was born. The series of self-revelations of the Lord which are examined in the following lectures serve in this sense to illustrate the Inspiration of the Bible. They serve also to illustrate another momentous problem which occupies the minds of many. Few who strive to realise the events of the Gospel as an actual history can fail to have asked themselves, with something of trembling fear, how we can con- ceive that the disciples who had followed the Lord during His ministry, as men following One who was true Man, came to realise His Divine Nature. The first nine chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, with their marvellous picture of growing perception Preface. ix called out by the Spirit through simple events, when studied in the light of these revelations go far to make the result intelligible from the human side. One fact, one truth after another is welcomed and appropriated. All alike point in the same direction : all finally converge in a central supreme fact, a central supreme truth, by which they are harmonised. There is no abrupt transition, no -violent passage from one mode of thought to another. Elements of infinity gather round the Lord, and He is seen at last to stand before the \ soul in His full glory, -f W>^ 19. 13 - I have added as an Appendix to the lectures three Sermons preached at Cambridge, in which I have endeavoured to state in greater detail and in a somewhat different form one or two main con- clusions to which the line of thought followed in the lectures seems to point. These conclusions are to me full of encouragement even if they call for great exertion lest haply we drift away from them. If we can come to live as knowing that divine voices are addressed to us, that divine truth is being shaped through us, that we have entrusted to our keeping that which grows with the accumu- lated growth of every human faculty and all human progress, we shall rate our trials at their due value. x Preface. The words with which St Paul prefaced a view of nature and history which we are just beginning to understand come back to us with overmastering force : / reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. B. F. W. THDN, September 12, 1883. ^ Vtu^l U NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The present edition is an exact reprint of the former one. B. F. W. WEST MALVERN, July 26, 1887. CONTENTS. I. THE COMING IN THE FATHER'S NAME. PAGE The revelation through Christ's titles a clue to the appre- hension of the Incarnation ..... 3 offered for our guidance 4 Christ comes in the Father's Name. 1. ~TEe Name ! I !"~ 5 in connexion with divine revelation El-Shaddai ; Jehovah ; Jehovah-Sabaoth : silence . . 6 How significant permanently ..... 7 Illustration from Ps. xix. ...... 8 2. The Father's Name. A gift of the Gospel , . . 9 Earlier strivings after fellowship with GOD . . id. end in an insoluble antithesis .... 10 Christ harmonises the two antithetic truths . . id. He revealed the Father 11 3. Coming in the Father's Name A declaration of Sonship id. self-surrender .... 12 love id. These revelations for common use ... 13 xii Contents. II. THE CHRIST. PAGE The technical sense of the title 'Messiah' 'Christ' post- Biblical 17 Compared with the 'Word' 18 The title Christ the revelation of the Divine patience . 19 The purpose of GOD slowly and partially made known 20 Through the patriarchs : the family ... 21 theocracy : the nation ... 22 kingdom : the king . . .23 captivity : the servant . . . id. return 24 The issue at the Coming of the Son of Man in partial knowledge id. The teaching of the title now waiting 26 watching id. hoping 27 The peculiarity of the revelation to a Samaritan woman . 28 III. THE_BREAD QF..IIFE. The revelation at Capernaum a test of faith . . .31 The fundamental revelation of life 32 1. The fact of life The occasion of the revelation 33 The revelation corrects and transfigures the imperfect conception of the Jews 34 It answers to a human need 35 2. The support of life Prepared by a vital energy 36 for action and for rest .37 'The bread of life' is also 'living bread ;' and . . 38 Contents. xiii PAGE ' the flesh ' of Christ 39 by which we are united with Him .... id. The appropriation of spiritual food. ' Eating the flesh ' of Christ the highest energy of faith 40 A vital incorporation id. Belation to the Holy Eucharist and to life . . 41 The present power of the revelation .... 42 IV. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. The lessons of the Feast of Tabernacles .... 47 The water and the light 48 The connexion of the revelation ..... 49 The general idea of light ....... 50 Light a revelation of hidden beauty . . . . .51 So Christ the Interpreter of Creation . . . id. Light reveals and does not make darkness ... 52 So Christ has made evil felt by a Presence of perfect light id. The unity and purity of light presented in Christ . . 53 reflected in the unity of the Church .... id. Light self -attested 54 Even so Christ id. The light given for use ...... 55 The Disciples of Christ are also ' the light of the world ' . 57 V. THE DOOR OF THE SHEEP The titles ' the Door ' and ' the Good Shepherd ' mark a special relation 63 The circumstances under which they were announced . 65 The allegory of the sheepfold . . . . . . 66 Two thoughts : the fold and the flock .... id. xiv Contents. PAGE Christ the Door of the sheep 67 The general idea of a fold 68 foreign to modern thought ..... id. but essentially Christian id. The blessing of outward fellowship 69 The position of a Christian one of security . . . id. through Christ he enters on new relations to man and GOD 70 From this position he ' goes out ' to win the world and . 71 ' finds pasture ' there, and returns when work is over 72 The lesson for us 73 VI. THE GOOD SHEPHERD. A summary view of Christ's work as the Door of the sheep 77 Christ as the Good Shepherd, the earliest and most universal image 78 The image in the Old Testament 79 The prayer of Moses fulfilled in Christ . . . id. The aspects of the Shepherd's office. Absolute Devotion 80 Perfect Sympathy id. Christ gave a new ideal of leadership and of discipleship 81 He claimed the strayed sheep as still His own, and . 82 in this He differed from ' the hireling ' . . .83 He gave His life for those entrusted to Him . . id. This devotion rests on knowledge 84 which is the foundation of sympathy and coexists with love id. Knowledge answers to knowledge 85 The relation rests on a divine relation .... id. True government shewn in the work of the Good Shep- herd 86 Our work -87 Contents, xv VII. THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. PAGE The first and last signs test and quicken faith . . 91 JvTne raising of Lazarus shews Christ as the Resurrection and the Life 92 Christ turns all thought upon Himself .... id. In the presence of death He makes known His power . 93 The Kesurrection and the Life present blessings . . 94 The history of the raising a revelation of death and life . 95 The Eesurrection and the Life not only through Christ but in Christ 96 This revelation a mystery which we can see only dimly . 97 All that is is life in Christ id. Man cannot separate himself from the universe . 98 nor from his fellow men . . . . id. The life of all is Christ 99 Hence St Paul's phrase 'in Christ' . . . . .id. The fulness of personal life preserved in this universal life id. ' Believest thou this ? ' 100 The beginning and growth of faith ..... 101 VIII. THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. The two last revelations of the Lord given to the Eleven only .......... 105 ' Arise, let us go hence '....... 106 The question of St Thomas 108 The Lord's answer meets all the fears of His disciples. He is the Way through the world in which they are to be left . . id. xvi Contents. PAGE He is the Truth which survives all change . . 109 He is the Life even on the Cross .... id. This answer is for us also 110 In our hurried and restless perplexity Christ reveals Himself as the Way Ill In the shaking of traditional beliefs He reveals Himself as the Truth 112 In the overpowering pressure of outward things He reveals Himself as the Life 113 Christ's power active even when not recognised . . 114 To us all it is shewn plainly 115 IX. THE TRUE VINE. The revelation of Christ through the image of the Vine combines former revelation and fulfils the teaching of the Old Testament 119 The life in Christ is manifold 120 The parts of the Vine individually different though in origin ideally the same 122 All required for its fruitful life .... id. No rivalry, no comparison between their diversities . 123 The life in Christ is one 124 The Vine includes all the present parts and all the past in one life id. The past lives in the present 125 The life in Christ is fruitful 126 The Vine is not a wild tree id. Its fruitfulness is the necessary result of its training id- The life thus manifested is the life of Christ . . . 127 Hence come confidence, strength, hope . . . 128 Perfected through discipline id. Contents. xvii X. THE VISION OF CHRIST, THE VISION OF THE FATHER. ~~- PAGE The manifold revelations of Christ form a revelation of the Father ........ 133 The history of man and men is naturally a history of the withdrawal of GOD from the world .... 134 The history of Israel a parable of individual religious growth, Covenant : Law : Prophecy : Silence : the Eevelation of the Father id. The Father's patience. The Christ : the Word 137 The Father's love 138 Gives life 139 light id. shelter ( the Door ) id. confidence ( the Good Shepherd ) . . . 140' resurrection ....... id, The Father's discipline. We come to Him only through Christ . . . id. He is the Husbandman ...... 141 In Christ GOD is given back to us as the object of human affections and faith . .... 142 APPENDIX I. THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. The testimony of Jesus the spirit of prophecy . . 148 The spirit of prophecy the testimony of Jesus . . 149 The history and the record of the history of the Jews unique 150 xviii Contents. PAGE The spirit of the Old Testament ..... 151 The idea expressed in the record of Creation, and . . 152 the Call of Abraham 153 This was set out in the life of the nation . . . 154 The whole life of Israel preparatory for the Gospel . . 156 which alone completes it . . . . . . 157 The importance of regarding the Old Testament in this light .158 APPENDIX II. THE REVELATION OF THE GLORY OP GOD : THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE RESURRECTION. The idea of the Glory of GOD in the Bible . . .164 The Glory of GOD revealed through Israel, and . . 166 through ' the Servant of the Lord ' . . . . 167 This Glory shewn in the human Life of Christ . . 168 The Life of Christ continued in the life of the Church and of believers ........ 170 The combination of the Festivals of the Annunciation and Easter offers the fulness of hope .... 172 APPENDIX III. THE REVELATION OF THE TRIUNE GOD AN IMPLICIT GOSPEL. Trinity Sunday the Festival of Revelation . . . 177 The Eevelation of GOD offered to us . . . .179 to be apprehended gradually 180 We pass from the action of GOD to the being of GOD . 181 Contents. xix PAGE The conception of the Triune GOD illuminates the fact of the Creation, and 182 of the Incarnation 183 It gives a stable unity to life id. The conception practical 184 a true Gospel ........ 186 -verified in its effects ...... id. I. THE COMING IN THE FATHER'S NAME. W. REV. 1 am come in my Father's name. ST JOHN v. 43. IN the course of these lectures I propose to consider some of the great lessons which are revealed to us in the Titles of the Lord contained in the Gospel of St John. It may be that if we take them one by one, just as they are presented to us in the divine narrative; if we strive to enter a little more fully into their meaning than we com- monly do ; if we regard them in their connexion with one another and with the lines of thought and history to which they correspond, we shall learn something more of those open secrets which are scattered throughout the Bible, and so gain fresh strength to do our appointed work. It may be that we shall be enabled to perceive with a more vital intelligence how in the progress of natural intercourse the disciples received those lessons through which they afterwards appre- hended the Divine Majesty of their Master, and so gain for ourselves a more present sense of the Incarnation. In this direction, as it appears 12 4 Christ coining in to me, we have a work to do. For again and again I would remind all who may hear me, as I wish to be reminded myself, that Holy Scripture is un- exhausted and inexhaustible: that all later know- ledge is as a commentary which guides us further into the true understanding of prophets, apostles and evangelists: that through old forms, old words, old thoughts old and yet new the Spirit of GOD speaks to us with a voice never before clearly intelligible as lue can hear it : that it is our duty and our joy to ponder all that has been written for our learning, knowing that each mysterious character will grow luminous to the eye of faith. In these times more than ever before we need patience at every turn and we need wisdom: the patience which is content to wait for truth, and the wisdom which welcomes truths half-recon- ciled. So may GOD in His great love grant to us an access of these blessings wiser patience, more patient wisdom through the in- quiry on which we are entering. And let us not doubt: as we ask, He will give, and give more than we ask. But before we begin to examine the titles of the Lord I wish to call attention to the words in which the Lord Himself describes the general character of His manifestation : / am come, in my Fathers name. For it will be in the light of this central revelation that all partial revelations must be viewed. Each separate title will thus help us I. ' r the Fathers Name. 5 in due proportion to apprehend the great sum of all, and prepare us to grasp as a fact, deep and broad as life, the declaration with which Christ crowned His work : He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. ^J am come in my Fathers name. The sense 1 , TT&T& fi>* wfiich common usage attaches to the words, as if\ "Jobs*. tl\ Christ said only 'I am come as my Father's repre-/ sentative, speaking with His authority, charged | with His Message,' falls far short of their true sig- \ nificance. They imply yet further that Christ \ claims to act, speak, live in GOD made known as / the Father: that His works are wrought in the( Father : that He is not separate from the Father Q but One with Him. The exact opposite of the phrase is that which is immediately con- trasted with it here, ' the coming in one's own name,' standing, that is, alone, self-sustained, self-Q^j reliant, isolated in a human personality, moved by individual wishes and motives. This fuller meaning of the words will be seen more clearly if we consider them in detail, step by step, (1) the name, (2) the Father's name, (3) the coming in the Father's name. 1. Every thoughtful reader of the Bible must have been often struck by the importance which is attached to the Divine Names in the different Books. When Jacob wrestled with the Angel till the break of day and prevailed, his last prayer to his heavenly antagonist was Tell me, I 6 The Divine Names i. pray Thee, Thy name. When Moses rc- Gen.xxxii. ceived the commission to deliver Israel from 29 Egypt, he found his credentials in the new name Ex. vi. 2 ff. O f GOD : GOD spake unto Moses and said unto him: I am the LORD (Jehovah); and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of GOD Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. When Zechariah looked out beyond the darkness of the exile and saw the dawning glory of the day of the Lord, he gathered up in one sentence the consummation of Zech. xiv. all hope : In that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one. It is indeed not too much to say that the three chief stages in the History of the Old Testa- ment are characterised in broad outline by the names under which GOD was pleased to make Himself known in each. First He was known as El-Shaddai, the GOD of might, rich in blessing anct^ powerful in judgment, when He sought to create and cherish in the patriarchs the sense of personal dependence upon a strong helper. Then He was known as Jehovah, the VfS Eternal who makes Himself known in time, One and unchangeable, when a sacred people had to be fashioned out of a host of fugitive slaves by ennobling relationship with an infinite spiritual power. Then at last He was known as the Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Sabdoth, when the vicissi- tudes of national life had given to the people in the Old Testament. 7 some experience of the wider providential govern- ' ment of the world 1 . We may go yet one step further. When the teaching of the prophets was ended, and men were left for a time, as it seemed, to themselves, the di- viae. name of revelation was unspoken and unread. A blank took the place of what was the pledge of GOD'S love ; and superstitious fear was substituted for loyal reverence. At first sight this sin- gular significance, this mysterious virtue attached to the divine name may appear strange, but if we pause for a moment we shall see whence it comes. Of GOD as He is in Himself, in His absolute and unapproachable Majesty, we can as yet know nothing. But the names by which we are allowed to address Him gather up what is shewn to us, relatively to our powers, of His working and of His will. The divine names receive and reflect scattered rays of heavenly truth as men can bear their effulgence ; and when they have been set in our spiritual firma- ment they burn for ever. Thus each name authoritatively given to GOD is, so to speak, a fresh and lasting revelation of His nature. Now 1 The general sense in which the Sacred Names are used is given truly, I believe, in these sentences; but I do not offer any opinion on the actual derivation of the Names themselves. It happens constantly, I believe, that names borrowed from a foreign source are interpreted and used according to likenesses in sound to words familiar to the people who have borrowed them. 8 The Name of in one title and now in another we catch glimpses of His ineffable glory. Each one in turn be- comes a beacon to guide us, a pathway of light traversing the world of thought. And if we would penetrate at all to the deeper meanings of Scrip- ture we must watch needfully for the interchange of the divine names in which long trains of argu- ment or reflection are contained. To take one example only. Throughout the book of the Psalms there is a marked contrast between two names, GOD, Elohitn, the GOD of Nature, and the LORD, Jehovah, the GOD of the Covenant. When we bear this in mind familiar words gain a new force. We then know, and not till then, how it is that David can begin a Psalm with the stirring P?. xix. 1. words The heavens declare the glory of GOD, while his eyes are still fixed upon the magnificence of creation : and how it is that at the last, conscious of weakness and sin, he closes it with a trustful Ps. xix. 14. prayer to the LORD his strength and his Redeemer. JJ 1 2. The particular name of GOD then which is used in any case suggests as an element of thought that special aspect of the Divine nature which the name itself symbolises or expresses. With this truth present to us, we can now go on to consider what is involved in ' the Father's f name.' The ideas of power, of majesty, of leadership, of unutterable awe, which had been before connected with Deity, are in that merged in the idea of tender personal relationship. So the Father. 9 at last in the fulness of time the connexion ( i. which had been established with a patriarch, ; with a family, with a nation, on the basis of absolute authority, was revealed to exist, _, at once more widely and more individually,! in *The essential bond by which mankind was , . ~. united to Him who had created and redeemed them - The name oj the Father. That new name is characteristic of the Gospel. The hour cometh Jolmiv.23. and now is, when the true worshippers shall wor- "N/Gv ship the Father... So Christ spoke for the first time. The name of Father is indeed the sum o the Christian revelation : into that name we are ^ all baptized: the hallowing of that name is theyf>)6G~(< subject of our first prayer. For ages men pt>U 3. Thus at length we are brought to a fuller '| understanding of the whole phrase / am come in my Father's name. The advent of Christ was rw ^ fulfilled that in Him men might learn to know [ His Father and their Father : that in Him they might learn to know the sovereignty of sacrifice : ' " ^ that in Him they might learn to know the infinity of love. 00 ^ T are alesson of divine Sonship. If Christ be \7^v tTcx-r^ Son, then we who are in Christ are sons also. -K^ That relationship does not depend upon any pre- carious exercise of our own choice. We do not determine our parentage. We are children of a ^\ y-n3 12 The revelation John xii. 50. John x. 30. heavenly Father by His will ; and in that fact lies confidence which no failure can annul. 1 ; -. ' . __l 7 am come in my Father s name. The words are a lesson of self-surrender. Christ wrought and spoke only that men might know John v. 19. His Father better. The Son He said can do no- thing of Himself bat what He seeth the Father do. Whatsoever I speak even as the Father hath said unto me so I speak. I and the Father are one. He veiled His own glory if it turned the eyes of men from the glory of the Father. He refused the homage which misinterpreted His mission. As He gave us the assurance of Sonship, He gave us also the example of Sonship. / am come in. my Fathers name. The words are a lesson of boundless love. Christ crowned His life of sacrifice upon the Cross. Even from this He revealed the Father when it seemed that He was alone. In His desolation He shewed as men could not otherwise have seen how the John iii. Father gave His only Son for us : how with Him Rom. viii. He will freely give us all things. Thus the Incarnation of Christ sets forth the reality of our sonship : the life of Christ sets forth the duties of our sonship : the Passion of Christ sets forth, so that we tremble when we regard them, the privileges of our Sonship. _^_V^ TC)UL . -^Q .^ ^ / am come in my Fathers name. As the weeks go on we may be allowed to see some frag- for use. 13 merits of this revelation in greater detail. Mean- while it may be well if we can carry with us to our daily work thoughts from this wider view. If we are depressed by continual failure, if we seem to stand idle as the hours go by, if our efforts seem to bring no fruit, let us forget ourselves : let us gfo back to the beginning of our Christian life : let us plead the promise of our Covenant, sure that GOD is waiting to accomplish what He has already begun : ' Father into Thy name we were baptized : give us the tenderness, the devotion, the trust of sons.' If we are perplexed by the results and claims of physical or historical investigations, if opinions which have been handed down .to us from early times appear to be no longer tenable, if we have to readjust our interpretation of the facts of Faith : let us welcome the truths which are established as revelations offered to meet the requirements of a later age, untroubled by the hasty deductions which are made from them : let us welcome them with the earliest petition which we learnt to make : Our Father, hallowed be Thy Name ; may every fresh discovery in the order of nature and in the life of men be so accepted as to shew more of Thy Glory of Whom every fatherhood in heaven Epb.JH. and on earth is named. -\- VVV.U-M V^V^ * ^ K If we are distressed by strife and self-seeking, Y*M if jealousies and divisions hinder the progress and mar the glory of the Church, if rivalry and o -> o\) 14 The revelation for use. ambition disturb the great family of nations, let us hold fast the truth which outlives the storms of j earth : let us concentrate in one energy of suppli- cation all the thoughts of our common brother- hood : let us offer up unweariedly the prayer which Christ hath taught us in His fellowship and j by His strength Father, our Father, that last best name, which gives to" the ear of faitlT a promise of union underlying all differences and reaching beyond all time, of union which is estab- lished and not broken by death, of union which is consummated in the open vision of GOD. ^ V II. THE CHRIST. O a- . * A rJ? * v^> The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (which is called Christ} ; ichen he is come, he will declare unto us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. ST JOHX iv. 25, 26. IT is remarkable that the title ' Messiah' ('Christ') \ IL which the Lord first definitely accepted as de- scribing His office belonged in this sense specially to the post-Biblical age. In the Scriptures of the Old Testament the title of 'the Messiah,' ' the Christ,' ' the Anointed ' had a wide appli- cation but it was not the special title of the) promised Deliverer. It marked generally one who had been endowed with a divine gift for tht fulfilment of & divine office. The High Priest and/ the King were thus characteristically spoken of as 'the Anointed.' This wider application of the word Messiah witnesses to a manifold action of GOD, fitting men for the accomplish- ment of His purpose in regard to humanity. All limited offices, all partial endowments of earlier 'Christs' were so presented as to become pre- paratory foreshado wings of 'the Christ,' in whom every work of prophet, priest and king found complete and harmonious consummation. w. REV. 2 18 The Word and n. The force of the title is seen most clearly when it is contrasted with that of the 'Word' which St John himself chooses to express his own thought. By speaking of the Lord as 'the Word,' the 'Logos,' he opens to us such a view as we are able to bear of the diversity of Persons in the timeless, absolute existence of the Godhead : he teaches us to regard .all creation as springing directly from the divine will and all life as centreing in the divine presence : he encouragesTus to embrace the great truth that in all ages and in all lands GOD holds converse with His children, and that through all darkness John i. 9. and all desolation a light shineth which lighteth every man. This title the Word presents the Person of the Lord to us, if I may so express it, spiritually, as^corresponding to the highest thoughts of man, fronTits divine side. The title, the 1 Messiah, the Christ, gives the converse picture ; and presents the Person of the Lord to us historically, as corre- sponding to the outward life~~bf man, from its human side. The Word describes One who is coeternal and coessential with GOD: the Christ describes One who has been invested by GOD with a special character. The conception of the Word rises beyond time : the conception of the Christ is definitely realised in time. The doctrine of the Word answers in a certain sense to the very constitution of man and belongs the Christ. 19 to all humanity : the doctrine of the Christ is | n. slowly shaped by revelation and belongs to the chosen people. But while we recognise, and dwell upon, and strive to give a practical reality to these differences, we ^rrast remember that the two natures, the two conceptions, the two doctrines are reconciled and fulfilled in one Person. They stand side by side in / the first confession of personal faith which St John has recorded when Nathanael said to Him who had read his inmost thoughts: Rabbi, thou art the John i.49. Son of GOD, thou art king of Israel: and they are } united for ever in the one phrase in which the / KoX /\< Evangelist sums up our Creed: The Word became John i. 14. 5-^ flesh7 ^ /vAJL^>VJ> * YV Bearing this in mind we can now turn our thoughts to the familiar title 'Christ.' The doc- trine of the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One was, as I have said, wrought out little by little in many parts and in many fashions under the Old Covenant. And it is in this fact that we find the most precious lesson which the doctrine still contains for us. If the thought of Christ as the Word fills us with courage, the thought of the Word as Christ fills us with patience. It cannot have been for nothing that GOD was pleased to disclose His counsels, fragment by fragment, Hebr. i. 1, through long intervals of silence and disappoint- ment and disaster. In that slow preparation for the perfect revelation of Himself to men which 22 20 The revelation of ii. was most inadequately apprehended till it was finally given, we discern the pattern of His ways. As it was in the case of the first ; Advent, even so now He is guiding the course ) of the world to the second Advent. We can see enough in the past, to find a vantage ground for faith ; and, when the night is deepest and all \sight fails, shall we not still endure, like the men Hebr. xi. /of old time, as seeing the invisible? 97 """ r This priceless lesson of divine patience which flows from the Scriptural revelation of the Christ cannot, I think, be missed if we bear in mind the epochs and the general character of the rare and dark Messianic prophecies. By combining isolated passages of the Old Testament we com- monly get a very false impression of the extent to which the hope of a personal Messiah is spread through them. By throwing back the light of the Truth which we know upon dark riddles, we dissipate the mystery in which they were at first shrouded. For indeed the teaching of the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets in this respect is strangely different from what we should have expected. A few scattered hints here and there sufficient to witness to the continuity of the Divine purpose but not to display it : promises suited to support faith but not to satisfy it: types intelligible only as they answered to real cravings of the soul: such were the means by which GOD disciplined His ancient people for the coming the Divine patience. 21 Saviour; such are the means by which He dis- u. ciplines us. This will be clear if we recal in briefest out- line the history of the Old Testament. The first distinct intimation of future blessing for mankind Gen. xii. is found in the call of Abraham, for the dim, ' general prospect of victory, opened after the record of the Fall, cannot come into account here. That call is the starting-point of the history of the Church, through which, as time flows on, GOD is pleased to make Himself known. In Abraham a people was marked out to stand among the nations of the world as representatives of faith in a present accessible GOD. The sign by which it was sealed was self-sacrifice. This primal revelation made to Abraham was solemnly re- Gen. xxyi. peated to Isaac and to Jacob. And these patri- 14. archs, contented to remain strangers and pilgrims in a land which they knew to be their own by a heavenly title, looked for the city which hath the Hebr.xi.9, foundations, and so fulfilled their work. The age of the patriarchs was followed by the age of the Law. A bondage of two hundred years uncheered, as far as we know, and unenlightened by any fresh promise could not destroy altogether what had been taught to Israel by GOD'S covenant with their fathers. A nation had grown up, to whom the name of the GOD of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was still a spell of sacred power. But when 22 Stages in Jewish history: n. they received the Law, they received as yet no clear revelation of a personal Saviour. They Deut.xviii. were indeed to look for a prophet, some greater 18< Moses, who should teach what Moses had left unsaid, but they were themselves to be the mes- sengers of GOD, and GOD Himself was to be their king. In them all the nations of the earth were to find blessing, that is in the obedience, the purity, the faith, which were the springs of their common life. *t~ j fr^, We all know the sad story of the Jewish Theo- cracy. The Law made clear the weakness and the sinfulness of man. The people refused to rest under the protection of an unseen Ruler. In terrible reverses, in signal victories, they realised the anger and the mercy of Jehovah ; but as they did so, they came to feel the need of some one who should stand between them and that supreme Ma- jesty. They asked for an earthly king. The function of the Messianic nation, so to speak, was devolved upon a personal Messiah. The age of the Law was followed by the age of the Kingdom. At this point then the divine promises take a new form. The blessing which had before been connected with a people was now connected with a Prince. The reign of David created new hopes which it could not fulfil. The service of the fixed Temple, which naturally followed, brought the offices and the thoughts of religion into nearer connexion with civil life. Men felt, by the the Theocracy: the Kingdom. 23 help of these earthly images, as they had not n. done before, the power of a divine government and a divine presence. And the Holy Spirit speaking through the prophets used these symbols to give distinctness to their pictures of the future triumph of Jehovah. The very name Messiah PS. ii. 2. theTliord's Anointed which was now used in this sense for the first time, was the common title of the temporal monarch. And so the glory which was assured to the seed of Abraham was at length concentrated in a Son of David. The Jewish kingdom was not more stable than the Jewish Theocracy. The first conquests of David were lost. The peaceful sovereignty of Solomon was transitory. Idolatry was established under the shadow of the Temple. But the people had seen the figure of a divine monarchy, and never lost what that had taught them. Soon however tyranny, disaster, defeat, captivity, taught them yet more. The spiritual aspect of the bright future to which they looked became more prominent. The great Deliverer was portrayed not only under the guise of the Son of David who should reign for ever in majesty, but also as the servant of GOD, without form or comeli- s.liii.2,3. ness, a man of sorroivs and acquainted with grief. Messiah, the Son of David, was at last regarded as Messiah, the Son of Man. With this last revelation the inspired pro- phecies of Messiah the Prophet, the King, the 24 Conflict of opinion IT. Priest came to an end. Hope, as we see, was gradually concentrated and intensified. Nothing was lost which the past had ever promised, but the sum of all fell infinitely short of that which GOD was preparing. And then for about four hundred years the Jews were left to ponder over the divine teaching which they had received, unaided by any further voices from heaven. As they listened to the word during that dreary interval the past became more clear to simple and loving hearts ; but at the same time it was not so clear that selfishness could not misread it. We see the end of this discipline of two thou- sand years in the Gospels. Some there were - Luke ii. j us t and devout who waited for the consolation of "'' " ' Fsruel like Symcon and Anna: some like John i. 46. I'fathanael who could yield their prejudices to the influence of a presence recognised as divine : John i. 35, some like St Andrew and St John who could at once follow Him who was made known to them as the Lamb of GOD, as the fulfiller of mysterious thoughts stirred by the teaching of sacrifice; some like Martha who in the bitter- ness of bereavement could still say to Him who John xi. had seemed to disregard her prayer : I have be- lieved yea I still believe that Thou art the Christ the Son of GOD which should come into the world. And on the other side there were those who had suffered their own fancies to rise like a cloud - between them and the vision of GOD'S love : those ' at Christ's Coming. 25 who would thrust aside what yet they could not n. but honour because it did not fall in with their own wishes : those who strove to use by any means that which they felt to be of heaven to work out their own designs: a Herod who could look on Lukexxiii. Christmas a spectacle : a Caiaphas who could offer jQ x Him* as a sacrifice for political safety : a Judas 49 > 50 - . . i John xni. who could betray Him, as it seems, to hasten the 26, 27. accomplishment of his selfish ambition. The Gospel of St John from first to last is a record of the conflict between men's thoughts of . Christ, and Christ's revelations of Himself. Partial knowledge when it was maintained by selfishness was hardened into unbelief: partial knowledge when it was inspired by love Avas quickened into Faith. . The Son of Man came to fulfil all the teaching of past history, to illuminate all the teaching of future history ; and therefore He first revealed Himself by this title ' Christ ' the seal of the fulfilment of the Divine Will through the slow processes of life. \ ^Tvu^t Ly , Q.^ And all this is written for our learning. By that title ' Christ,' if we will give heed to it, GOD teaches us to find the true meaning of history : by that title so slowly defined, so variously inter- preted, so gloriously fulfilled, He teaches us at all times, and in these times, to wait, to watch, and to hope. By that title ' Christ ' GOD teaches us to 26 Lessons of waiting, ii. w,ait. ' I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ. . .who shall come again with glory. . .' That is our profes- sion ; but do we attach any real significance to the word ? Do we not rather assume that all things will go on as they have gone on for eighteen hundred years ? And yet are not these centuries as full of divine warnings, of signs of judgment, of move- ments towards a kingdom of heaven, as the ages which preceded the first Advent ? Without - hasting without resting let us move forwards with Luke xxi. our faces towards the light to meet the Lord. In your patience ye shall win your souls : here is His promise. By that title ' Christ ' GOD teaches us to watch. There is the danger now which there was in old time lest we mistake the reflection of our own imagin- ings for the shape of GOD'S promises. We see a little and forthwith we are tempted to make it all. We yield to the temptation, and become blind to the larger designs of Providence. The cry is Matt.xxiv. ever being raised, ' Lo, Christ is here ' or ' He is 23 ff there, in the secret chambers, or in the desert ' ; and if we have indulged in our own self-chosen dreams, we leave the broad fields of life to find our folly end in desolation. Our faith, our wis- dom, our safety, lie in keeping ourselves open Luke xvii. to every sign of His coming, and then that last lightning flash will reveal to us workings of His about us, influences of His within us, which we could not have been able, could not have dared to recognise before. watching, hoping. 27 For once again by that title ' Christ ' GOD n. teaches us to hope. It is the pledge of His personal love" slrevfti through all the ages. It is the pledge of the final establishment of His king- dom of which the sure foundations are already laid. False hopes, selfish fancies, earthly am- bitions were scattered by Christ's first coming. But He brought that into the world which gives their only reality to all the emblems of power. Thy throne, GOD, is for ever and ever : a PS. xlv. 6. sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy king- Hebr - " 8 - dom. Life if we look at it in Christ is transfigured : Death if we look at it in Christ is conquered. When we interpret what He has done through the Church in preparation for His second Coming by the light of what He did through Israel in preparation for His first Coming, we can wait and watch and hope, certain of this in all , checks and storms and griefs that He shall reiffn OVpc Q U ' till all enemies are put under His feet. ' This and far more than this, which I cannot \ strive to express, which I cannot hope to under- j stand, lies in that one word 'Christ.' That one word is a historic Gospel hallowing all time. We may grasp but little of its meaning, but if we hold humbly, firmly, lovingly, with a sense of our own great need, what we do know, Christ will reveal Himself to us even as He did aforetime through our imperfect knowledge. For that is the peculiar teaching of the text. 28 A revelation to imperfect faith. ii. Not to the teacher of Israel, not to the disputants John iii. 2. at Jerusalem, not to the eager multitudes who John vi. offered an army and a throne, but to a simple, sinful 15 woman, an outcast from the synagogue, an alien, the Lord declared Himself to be the Christ. Her expectation was not disturbed by hopes of per- sonal or national aggrandisement. Her difficulties concerned the right approach to GOD. Her faith was imperfect she knew only what Moses had taught her but it was sincere. And therefore she found what she felt herself to want and what she was sure GOD had promised. And so it will be with us. If we can say with honest and true hearts ' I know that Christ when He cometh will illuminate these terrible mys- teries of wickedness and suffering which darken the world ' ; or ' I know that Christ when He cometh will order in one harmonious government all the powers of earth and heaven and man ' ; or ' I know that Christ when He cometh will lift off my soul the burden of sin by which I am weighed down.' If we can say this, and labour trusting to His Spirit towards the end for which we crave ; let us not doubt that to us also, it may be in the noontide heat, when we are weariest, the divine voice will come through some presence which we have misunderstood, bearing in to our soul all the blessings which we have sought and blessings which we could not have imagined, even that voice from the well of Sychar. / that speak unto thee am He. > 0)L O J - -A, III. THE BREAD OF LIFE. . ^ ^ <(pT0$ ~P^ j (0^2 . v / n-($ ^NdU. CT&.vrV 'OTie / am the bread of life... This is the bread which came dovjn out of heaven: not as the fathers did eat, and died: he that eateth this bread shall live for ever. ST JOHN vi. 35, 58. T AM the bread of life... This is the bread which | ni. came down out of heaven : not as the fathers! did eat, and died : he that eateth this bread shall live for ever. These words are the beginning and< the close of one of the most mysterious and far- reaching revelations which the Lord has been pleased to make of the relation in which He stands to the world and to believers. The revelation was ! given at a turning-point in His ministry. It was, we may perhaps say, designed to be what it became, a test of faith. It was received at the time (as it has been received ever since) with questionings, and murmurings, and contentions. Cavillers found in it an excuse for their unbelief. Even disciples found in it an occasion for apo- stasy. But on the other hand the faithful found in it the assurance of that for which they were j looking. And when the question was put to the V\V\ twelve Will^ye^also go away? the answer wagfohn vi. ready, Lord to whom xhufl nr (/<> ? Thou luist ' ' rev elation of life. RlJ ("}. tm <: *& &.TTt m ' words of eternal life, and we have believed and ;. - -' . . , . . know that Thou art the Holy One of GOD. They are indeed words of eternal life. They " assure us of the reality of that life : they make known to us the one true support of it ; they _+ shew us how we can make that support our own. irfctTC This self-revelation of the Lord differs in (^character from that which we have already con- sidered. When He spoke of Himself as ' the ' t ^ \ " / Christ' He declared the relation in which He stands to all history, as fulfilling and interpreting the Divine counsel slowly wrought out on the scene of human discipline. But by this title ' the Bread of Life,' as by those which follow, He discloses something of what He is in Himself and for men, special relations in which He stands to - believers and to the world, manifold details which go to make up the fulness of the whole life of faith and the harmonious view of His Person. I do not however wish to dwell on this conside- ration now, which will offer itself more forcibly when we come to review the whole series of titles; but we can see how the series begins naturally with the revelation of life. At the decisive crisis in His work the Lord reveals what life truly is. This is the fundamental conception. He declares that it is through His coming and through fellowship with Him that men can live. He discloses through and in Himself the fact of life, the food by which life is supported, the personal appropriation of the true spiritual food. / 9 The occasion of the revelation. 33 l ^\>^ 1. / am the bread of life. The words sprang m. C\n~T~c directly out of the circumstances under which they -f-*^ <; were spoken. About the time of the Passover, John vi. 4. which perhaps He could not keep at Jerusalem, the Lord had fed five thousand men in the wilder- ,ness with five loaves and two small fishes. The multitude with hasty and undisciplined zeal fancied that they saw in this miracle the coming fulfilment of their own wild hopes, and sought John vi. to take Jesus by force to make Him a king. When they were foiled in this design, some still followed Him to Capernaum, but only to learn there that they had utterly mistaken the import j^T of Christ's work. Ye seek Me, He said, not v. 26.6 c^ because ye saw signs not because ye perceived &T{ that the satisfying of the hunger of the body was 30K\^ an intelligible parable of the satisfying of the .y\/* hunger of the soul but because ye did eat of the - loaves and were filled: because you looked to me to / satisfy mere bodily, earthly, temporal wants: because you brought down the meaning of that one typical 9* ir \~Tfe > * work to the level of your own dull souls instead of using it as a help towards loftier efforts : because you still rest in the outward, the sensuous, the transitory, all which I am come to reveal in their v^j- true character as symbols, pledges, sacraments of things spiritual and eternal. True it w. 2835. (v vC is, such is the general force of the words which j follow, if I may venture to paraphrase them, true [ it is that there is room for your labour even now : \ w. REV. 3 34 The revelation transfigured in. \ true it is, as you plead, that Moses gave your fathers manna by the word of GOD not for one meal only, but for forty years in the wilderness. True it is, as you argue, that the greater Moses will give to his people bread from heaven, more copi- ous and more enduring than that perishable food. But while this is so you fatally misunderstand the work, the type, the food. The work strange paradox is faith : the type is the faint figure of a / celestial pattern : the food is not for the passing relief of a chosen race but for the abiding life of ' the world. You seek something from Me but if you_knew jjie gift of GOD, you would seek Me : I am the bread of life. Such is the connexion in which these divine . words stand ; and from this point of view we shall see how they help us to rise to the Christian idea of life which Christ lays open through Him- self. The old Jewish idea was not wholly cast aside but used to convey new and nobler thoughts. The people were not wrong when they claimed the prerogative of labour : they were not wrong in expecting sustenance from heaven : they were not wrong in looking to the Christ for that which they needed. There is indeed one work in which all separate works are included. There is a divine food which supports that within us which corre- rj^p spends with itself. TheJSon^oiMjrOD came that r. 40. whosoever believeth on Him may have eternal life. Each thought of the Galilean multitude, as we the expectation of the people. 35 observe, is thus preserved and raised to a higher in. and a spiritual region. Life with its struggles, its wants, its inevitable close, is treated as the visible sign of eternal life. ^-Toou^ 0$A This revelation of Christ as the giver of life jrieets an inherent want of the human soul. There is no one of us who does not feel the reality of the higher life when it is thus brought upon him. We know that our multitudi- nous actions and words cannot rightly be judged by any outward standard; but that there is something in the doing and saying, independent of the mere outward accidents, which gives to them an abiding character. We are con- scious within ourselves of some vague looking to and longing for a divine fellowship. We cannot realise death, even when all around re- minds us of our mortality. We have powers which find no adequate exercise, desires which find no lasting satisfaction, plans which find no ripe fulfilment. Business and care and pleasure drown the soft voices of the soul which are ever speaking of all these things, but from time to time in those still spaces of silence which come from GOD, they make themselves heard. At such seasons perhaps we are perplexed by feeling how much that is corruptible is mixed up with our true selves. We compare what we are with what we might have been, with what we aspire to be, and our heart fails us. But 32 36 The support of life, m. (ro/j 'is ffreutcr tlxin our Itearts ; ;ui(l when our i John ill doubts are sorest, as Christians we can turn with >o V. - J3\T * poy to the thought of our incorporation with Christ. Then we shall know how the divine assurance that we are ' members of Christ ' answers the fleeting and yet importunate aspirations which witness within us to an eternal life, to a life be- yond time and above it, to a life not future and distant but even now present and active, to a life Uohni.3. which includes the possibility of perfect commu- nion with GOD and man. . 2. Eternal life then is a reality, and it is within the reach of each one of us. But this life, of which our earthly sensible life is the veil or the shadow, needs its proper nourishment. It cannot continue apart from that which is its source and its support. The true, living self, like our living bodies, needs for its support that which is of a nature corresponding with it. Man cannot feed on stones, in respect to his outward frame. His body may be built out of the elements which they contain ; but he needs that the elements which he appropriates should already have been prepared for him by a vital force. So too it is with his / higher life. This also requires sustenance like to itself, and that not in one respect only but in all, , covering even now, so far as we can apprehend it, the . sum of our human capacities and powers. Spiritual sustenance cannot be effective in an abstract form, as pure Truth : it must come to us through the energy of a spiritual life. for action and for rest. 37 The words which immediately follow the first ' in. -^ announcement of Christ, / am the bread of life, ^/u> * shew how this necessity is recognised and met in^pT His teaching. / am, He says, the bread of life : p. 35. Jie that cometh to Me shall never (in no wise) * hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never L^^- (in no wise) thirst. It is of course quite possible ... to regard this rich fulness of language as the\' n ^/ * embellishment of a simple idea, to treat 'comingr-^*) ^^'H to Christ,' and 'believing on Christ' as identical;! to look on ' hunger ' and ' thirst ' as mere conven- \ tional images of want. But I hardly think that the patient student of St John will be willing to admit that one word of his record fails of its fullest meaning ; I hardly think that anyone who has looked into the facts of his own life will feel that one fragment of the promise can be neglected. The apparent repetition meets the necessities of our case. There is an active side to life and there is a passive side. Both are exer- cised; both are consecrated by our faith. There is need of Christian energy, and effort and move- ment : there is need also of Christian patience, and rest and waiting. We must come to Christ, if we would find in Him our spiritual food ; we must leave something in order that we may seek Him ; we must use the powers which He has giveiTus in order that we may find Him And on tin- other hand we must believe in ('hrist: then- is a sense in which our strength must be to stand 38 The Bread of Life, in. C 17.35. r. 51. 'TDS o John xiv. 19. still : in which our intensest strivings must yet be combined with repose : in which our boldest con- flicts must be tempered with a sense of peace in Him. He is at once our remote and v future aim, and our immediate and present stay. And His gift corresponds already with this two- fold claim. He offers that which will stay our hunger, that which will give strength for labour and restore the waste of the past. And He offers also that which will stay our thirst, that which will bring refreshment after failure and turn our very disappointments into gladness. So it is that man's spiritual food, which is Christ Himself, answers to the varied wants of his higher life ; and this it does as being not only a source of life, but also endowed with life. For Christ, as we , must notice, uses two phrases in this chapter when He speaks of Himself generally as man's spiritual food. 1 am, He says, the bread of life ; and yet more than this, / am the living bread. I give, that is, what I have inherently : I communicate life because I live. Not by any arbitrary exercise of power, not by any external fiat of omnipotence, but by the impartment of myself, my living self, I sustain the living man. Because I live, such is the promise elsewhere, ye shall live also. Even in this loftiest region of being, there is no interruption of the supreme unity of the divine law, that life comes from life. Nor is this all. The bread the support which living Bread. 39 6*(>TD and Man, and in virtue of our fellowship with Him His promise will be fulfilled in us, and He G-VXa. * will raise us up such is the four- times repeated i^ burden of the discourse He will raise us up per- fect men even as He is perfect man in the last w. 39, 40, ! - ' , Thus we are brought to the third point ^ which we have to notice in this revelation o <_ Christ, how it is that this bread of life, this living ;1 ^\ K bread, this flesh of Christ personally avails for eachJtSt. k.e[>/6^ a. [0OT7^Li which cometh down from heaven, that a man may v. 51. ea thereof and not die! 'I am the living bread... " a o/ this bread he shall live for ever! >. . V< v54. ' Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life! '''Nqw_it_is easy to say that ' eating of the bread I of life,' or ' eating the flesh of Christ,' is a figu- \ rative way of describing faith in Christ. But , \j } such a method of dealing with the words of Holy / Scripture is really to empty them of their divine r^ A force. This spiritual eating, this feeding upon Christ, is the last result of faith, the highest energy of faith, but it is not faith itself. To \ eat is to take that into ourselves which we can fi fc^ keML / assimilate as the support of life. The phrase ' to "U V loJ X> ea * t ne flesh of Christ ' expresses therefore as per- v'^ haps no other language could express, the great truth that Christians are made partakers of the ~ human nature of their Lord which is united in One Person to His Divine nature, that He imparts to us , now, and that we can receive into our own manhood, \ something of His manhood, which may be the seed, so to speak, of the glorified bodies in which / we shall hereafter behold Him. Faitlr, if I may so express it, in its more general sense, leaves us outside Christ trusting to Him; but this John xv. 4. crowning act of faith incorporates us in Christ: -we the spiritual food. 41 And when wo approach the subject from this in side we see the real connexion in which the whole discourse stands with the institution of the Holy Eucharist. It is equally wrong to regard the words as a simple prophecy of that Sacrament, md to dissociate them from it. The words were v. 59. addressed to the assembly in the synagogue at Capernaum and they are addressed to the Church in all ages. They were spoken so as to be under- stood at the time, and yet so as to be understood more fully afterwards. They set forth clearly in thought what the Holy Communion presents out- wardly in fact. They give the idea of which that gives the pledge. And here lies the marvel of divine love. With- out some such external rite as the Holy Com- munion we might have doubted as to the fulfilment of the promise of Christ to ourselves. But that at once takes us out of ourselves. That enables us to think only of the Lord, of His words, of His Death, of His Resurrection. We can trust Him wholly. We can believe, without reserve what He has said. We can take the bread and wine, broken and blessed according to His command- ment, in the sure conviction that through them He gives Himself to us for the strengthening ami refreshment of our whole nature. We do not presume to say that Christ gives Himself only in this, but we ' have believed and know ' that in this lit; does give Himself. And then from 42 The present power in. the Holy Communion we can go forth to our com- mon life, which is shewn to us as all hallowed in that Sacrament, most universal and at the same time most personal, and be assured that Christ will be ever with us : He in us, that we may never despair when we are beset by difficulties, we in Him, that when we have attained something we may reach forward to greater victories. < ^ No words of the preacher can add to the solemnity of this revelation of eternal life and of Christ the food of eternal life, on which I have touched. It has been indeed impossible to do more than touch upon it ; but it will be enough if I have encouraged anyone to ponder once again those discourses at Capernaum, which are still, as they were at first, a touchstone of our faith. The chapter is one for prayer and not for controversy. v But I do believe that every word will grow lumi- nous if read in the light of heaven. The Spirit will teach us in these later days to under- stand aright what He brought to the remembrance . of St John in his Ephesian exile. He will teach us to know that beneath all that is poor and fleeting and imperfect in our visible life there is a principle of eternal life by which we, through the infinite grace of GOD, can claim fellowship with Him. He will teach us that the one only support of this life is Christ / Himself, truly GOD and truly man, who took our of the revelation. 43 in. nature and bore our sin that \ve may be one with Him, and in Him bear the transforming splendour of the open vision of GOD. He will teach us that the Holy Communion is no strange ex- ceptional service, but in very deed the lively image of our Christian life, and the lively pledge that the fulness of that life is possible for us by participation in Him Who is life. He will ; teach us by worthier and more sustained resolves, by simpler and tenderer devotion, by more abso- lute self-forgetfulness, by more vital recognition of Christ's Presence with us and in us, to come to know with more certain assurance and more com- plete surrender all that lies between the beginning j and the end of faith : I am the bread of life... He )^ that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. And while we offer ourselves as humble scholars in His school we shall train our im- ro ^ patient minds to reverent self-restraint. We TOV> /V shall not be hasty to define in forms of human K T< speech truths which pass finally into the unap- proachable glory of the Divine Being. We shall confess that we have no powers to determine how things transitory and sensible can become channels of grace eternal and spiritual. .Every question even as to earthly life eludes us, if we strive to go beyond the fact and the accompanying circumstances to the cause._ Can we wonder that it is so in matters of spiritual life ? But , where speculation fails, obedience and faith will (r, 44 The power of the revelation. in. confirm to us the blessing of Holy Communion, < thejoy of Holy Eucharist. So GOD in His great love will enable us like St Peter to find that these hard sayings are to us \ words of eternal life. IV. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. .S c -) >&ir o 2. ^ / i ") crKoTtQi .aVV aV/n "Th c / c . ' ^ c ^ ^ \ ^ /am *yy/o'Tiy| festation of the divine Presence which had shaped and inspired their national character. The later history of the chosen people had no doubt fallen far short of the ideal which was offered to them at first for their realisation. The kingdom of Israel had gradually become likened to the kingdoms of the world. Earthly sovereigns had occupied the throne which the Lord had chosen for Himself. A Temple had been substituted for the Tabernacle. An outward system had usurped more and more the place of a living relationship with GOD. But from year to year the earliest memories of deliverance, of support, of guidance were brought back. Dwelling once 48 The lessons of the iv. again in booths the Jews were forced to think for a time how they were in a past age brought from Egypt and disciplined in the wilderness ; how they were still all alike, rich and poor, high and low, citizens in a spiritual commonwealth ; how the ingathering of their wealth was coupled with the record of their direct dependence upon Jehovah. It is not then surprising that the Lord took advantage of this typical Feast to reveal to the multitudes who were gathered at Jerusalem some- thing more of His Person and of His Work than He had made known before. In Him the figures of the Exodus were fulfilled ; and it might be that through them the people could be led to know how He satisfied promises to the power of which they themselves were bearing witness at the very time when He addressed them. Two characteristic ceremonies of this Festival gathered up in expressive symbols the lessons of a divine sustenance and of a divine Presence, which remained as the great results of the teaching of the desert, and both of these were treated by Christ as parables of Himself. Each morn- ing water was brought in a golden vessel from the Pool of Siloam and poured upon the altar of sacrifice. That water recalled to the people the supply drawn from the rock at Meribah, and pointed forward to the spiritual water which Is. xii. 3. hereafter men should draw from the well of salvation. For Christ the living rock, the . / \ Feast of Tabernacles. 49 *>/ <$ / *) f_f~ f image and the prophecy found their accomplish _/*iv. .1 ment ; and so in the last day, that great day of the John vii. feast, Jesus stood and cried saying If any man , thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. Then again every evening two great lamps were lighted \ jn-one of the courts of the Temple which are said yaw to have cast their light over every quarter of the fc \pc Holy City. These recalled the pillar of fire which fTO^ had been in old times the sure token of divine Tf LV*eT^ - leadership and pointed forward to the sun of Mai. iv. 2. righteousness which should rise with healing in His wings. In Christ the light to lighten the Gentiles Lukeii._32. and the glory of His people Israel the image and ()&}{ the prophecy found their accomplishment, and therefore He spake again unto the people sayinglpftvQ/ |<< / am the light of the world : he that followeth Me ^ov X* shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light tf^QU of life. This then is the revelation which we have to consider now, for we have already touched upon the revelation of Christ as the support of life ; and in order to feel the full significance of the words we must remember their true connexion. For in the original text they follow immediately after the reply of the Pharisees to the pleading of John vii. Nicodemus, and so the cavils of the adversaries of ' Christ are brought into direct contrast with His self- revelation. The people were wavering and divided : their leaders were blinded by the assumption of infallible knowledge : the dawnings w. REV. 4 50 The general idea of light. iv. of faith were in danger of being eclipsed by ignorance and prejudice ; and at this crisis the Lord breaks through the gathering clouds and calls to Himself all that has fellowship with the light. / am the light of the world. As we linger _ over the phrase thoughts of unity, of majesty, of revelation, of insight, of growth, of progress, crowd }Jd. in upon us. We seem to see how that which had faded away from the eyes of men came back with undying splendour; how that which had been once for the solace and guiding of a single race was given at last for the illumination of mankind : how that which had been but a manifestation of GOD, was in the fulness of time a personal presence of GOD, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us. The revelation of Christ as ' the light of the world' follows we may almost say necessarily on the revelation of life. Without light, 'the " c activity of life is impossible under the conditions / O. of our present existence. Without light, we are cxv oL una ^ e to apprehend and to distinguish the parts of the general order in which we are placed. Light offers to us a harmony in which the widest diversities are perfectly blended, and by its very presence constrains us to use it thankfully. The *Hl|) creation of light is parallel with the Resurrection and the gift of Pentecost. Earthlj light Jsjbut_a_ - reflection of that which is spiritual. Light a revelation of beauty. 51 IV. / am the light of the world. Any one who has watched a sunrise among mountains will know how the light opens out depths of beauty and life where but lately the eye rested on a cold monotony of gloom or mist. At one moment only ,the sharp dark outline of the distant ranges stands out against the rosy sky, and at the next, peak after peak catches the living fire, which then creeps slowly down their rocky slopes, and woods and streams and meadows and homesteads start out from the dull shadows, and the grass on which we stand sparkles with a thousand dew- drops. Now all this represents in a figure what is the effect of the Presence of Christ in the world, when the eye is opened to see Him. All that hath come into being was life in Him, before time, and the life was the light of men. Let the thought of Christ rest on anything about us, great or small, and it will forthwith reflect on the awakened soul some new image of His power and Col. i. 16, V love. Whatever is^ was made through Him, and subsists in Him. And it is by the living appre- hension of this Truth alone that we can gain any deep insight into the marvels by which we are encompassed. Thus only can we feel the sanctity, the permanence, nay more, the divinity, of creation underneath that whicITis fleeting and corruptible and corrupted. Here also the great law is fulfilled that knowledge comes through love, and where the light of Christ rests, there the 42 52 Light makes darkness felt. iv. heart of the believer finds a fulness of teaching which all life is too short to master. 4- I am the light of the world. The light which reveals the world does not make the darkness, but it makes the darkness felt. If the sun is hidden all is shadow, though we call that shadow only which is contrasted with the sunlight; for the con- trast seems to intensify that which is however left just what it was before. And this is what Christ has done by His coming. He stands before the world in perfect purity, and we feel as men could not feel before He came, the imperfection, the impurity of the world. The line of separation is drawn for ever, and the conscience of men ac- knowledges that it is rightly drawn. Whether we know it or not the light which streams from Christ is ever opening the way to a clearer distinction be- John ix. tween good and evil. His coming is a judgment. The light and the darkness are not blended in Him, as they are in us, so that opinion can be doubtful. But His Presence is an absolute revelation of light. In Him we see all that is summed up in the terms self-surrender and self-sacrifice, all, in a word, that tends to bring man closer to man, and men to GOD, all that tends to break down the barriers by which we isolate and weaken our- selves, placed supreme among human virtues. And no darkness can overshadow His luminous Presence. / am the light of the world. Light has always The unity and purity of light. 53 been regarded by the common instinct of men as iv. the emblem of absolute purity, absolute unity. We cannot conceive anything, such is our natural impression, purer or simpler than light. And yet we know that the clear white sunbeam ^contains in it all the innumerable tints of earth and sky, brought together into one sovereign harmony. We can ourselves break it up at will into the bright colours of the rainbow. And however startling may be the contrasts between the elements when they are seen apart, each element contributes in due measure to the final effect. No single ray however brilliant or how- ever uniform could suggest that idea of infinite fulness which adds a sense of richness to the sense of purity, of life to that of unity. Nothing is more truly one than light yet nothing is more manifold. And surely in this fact we can see faintly portrayed something of the nature of that light which Christ is, and which Christ gives. It includes the sum of every power of man, by which the Being and the Will of GOD can be known. It is reflected in every object in which we can catch now this now that fragment of the divine brightness. The unity of our faith, the unity of the Church, is like the unity of Christ, the unity of light. Take from it any con- stituent and the whole will be less pure, less really one than it was before. And if it often happens that we can see nothing but the isolated, 54 Light self-attested. TV. coloured, broken gleams, let us remember that this is the very condition of our earthly life. For us the glory of heaven is tempered in a thousand hues, but we know even now that these thousand John i. 5. hues spring from and issue in the light which IQ '' GOD is and in which He dwelleth. I am the light of the world. Light is self- attested. We do not look for the light doubtfully, or painfully prove its existence. We see it, and we use it. It is vain for the blind man to plead his experience against the experience of all other men. It is no excuse for stumbling or losing our way that we have wilfully closed our eyes. We do not reason with the man who looks heaven- ward at midday and says that there is no light. Just so it is with Christ. He shines forth upon us in the Gospels, in the life of the Catholic Church, in the life of the individual soul. The light is there and we are not careful to reason about its existence. There may be some who have no consciousness of clinging, crushing sin which Christ can remove, of evil intruding itself into act and word and thought which He can expel, of gloom over- shadowing our life which He can irradiate : some that is who have no feeling for the greatest sorrows and the most glowing hopes of the world. But these cannot set aside the facts to which millions have borne and still bear witness, that sin is a load which Christ can take The light given for use. 55 away,,jthat eyil is the work of an enemy of GOD, / iv whom He came to conquer, and not a necessity of nature, that our Faith opens a prospect far beyond all doubts and temptations in which Love . is seen finally triumphant, when GOD shall be all | There may again be some who in language admit all this, and yet walk with downcast, blinded eyes; as if there were no light to shine along their path ; as if it were enough to say 'there is a light' though they do no more. But their failures and follies prove nothing against the power of light to guide, to cheer, to illuminate. If one man only has ever found his life transfigured by Christ in whom he has believed, that is enough. It can be so with us. Some too there may be, saddest thought perhaps of all, who look upon Christ and see nothing in Him that they should desire Him, is. liii. 2. who seem to find elsewhere what we find in Him, who make the scattered reflections of light springs of light. But hope does not leave us here. It mary be that even these ignorantly worship Him whom they affect to deny. / am the light of the world : he that followeth i Me shall not walk in darkness; but shall have the '. light of life. The light is not given us to gaze at in idle or even in devout wonder, but to lead us ; forward. We lose the light if we do not follow Christ, and ~move as He moves. We cannot 56 Christ as the Light among us. iv. hold Him back. It is the glory of our faith that it advances with the accumulated progress ot all life. And it is our blessing that we are not left to grope sadly and restlessly for our way. That way is a track of light which grows dim only if we loiter or hang back. A Christian cannot rest in anything which has been already gained. New acquisitions of knowledge, new modes of thought, new forms of society, are always calling for interpre- tation, for recognition, for adjustment. And no one can mistake the problems which the present generation is called to face : no one who has felt in the least- degree the power of Christ can doubt that he has in his faith that wherewith to illuminate them. There are the trials of wealth burdened by an inheritance of luxury, which checks the growth of fellow-feeling and en- feebles the energy of Christian love. There are the trials of poverty worn by the struggle for bare existence, which exhausts the forces properly destined to minister to the healthy development of the fulness of life. There is the sepa- ration of class from class which seems to become wider with increasing rapidity through the circumstances of modern labour and com- merce. There is the concentration of the population in crowded towns where the conditions of dwelling exclude large bodies of men from all share in some of the noblest teachings of nature. There is the exaggerated exten- Christians are a light. 57 sion of empires, which brings as its necessary consequence the crushing burden of military ex- penditure, and at the same time lessens the respon- sibility of the individual citizen. There is the impatient questioning of old beliefs which gisf.es an unreal value to the appeal to authority and casts suspicion upon sympathetic efforts to meet doubt. But to meet all these dark problems our light the Light of Life is unexhausted and inexhaustible. The temple lamps blazed through the early night, but then at last they died out and darkness settled again over the city which lay below. Each borrowed and preparatory light gleamed for a time and afterwards faded away : such lights are consumed in burning. But the Light, which lightens be- cause it lives, which lives (may we not say ?) because it lightens, burns on with changeless splendour. And this only is required of us if we would know its quickening, cheering, warming energies, that we should follow it. Only if we ' cling to our first fault,' if we pause when we are called to swift advance, if we faithlessly disbelieve that anything is offered to us, which was not given to those before us, the darkness will overtake us, and our true road will be hidden. - ^*A> VJ>7V I am the light of the world, so Christ said, and He said also to His disciples ye are the light of the 14" IV. Matt. v. ^ > TO 58 Christians reflecting iv. world. The correspondence of the two phrases is most startling, and yet this prerogation of light- bearing is indeed the necessary consequence of discipleship. When Christ ascended from the Matt. xxv. earth He did not wholly leave it. According to His own promise He is now seen outwardly in those who are His. Each Christian reflects in his measure the light which he receives. Each \ fulfils, as he may, in the sight of men, some i fragment of his Lord's office. So we are each \constrained to consider with what ministry we are John xii. ( severally charged as sons of light. 36> Christ as the light opens the secrets of the visible order of Nature. We too on our part by reverence, by tenderness, by patience, by watch- ful and loving care for all creatures, can make it felt about us that we look for Him and see Him in His works, and know that through them He is still waiting to teach us more of the wonderful things of His law. Christ as the light reveals the terrible fact of darkness. And here perhaps our consciences convict us of dissembling too often in daily life the conviction which we feel in our hearts. We smile at evil, we dally with it, we do not confess in act that we hate it with a perfect hatred. And the temptation to this false indifferentism is the more perilous because it comes to us in the guise of humility and self-distrust. It is not then without cause that we are reminded tfie light of Christ. ' I 59 ~ that there are woes in the Gospel: that Christ iv. < Himself said for judgment I came into this world, John ix. .; that they which see not may see, and they which see ~ may become blind. ^Christ as the light is the type of unity in manifold cooperation. It is for us then looking to Him to hold what we know in part, as believing that He will complete our partial knowledge through that which He reveals to others. And we may be sure of this that he will ever trust - -i most, hope most, love most, who believes most firmly. Christ as the light is self-attested. And what dare we say of Christians ? Amidst all failures and weaknesses is it not still true that the Christian life, wrought out, as we ourselves must have seen it wrought out, in suffering, in sickness, in poverty, borne and transfigured through the power of the Saviour ; wrought out by the use of splendid gifts and high station and large means consecrated and blessed by the love of the Saviour, is the best witness of Christ to those who are without ? The age of saints, let us thank GOD, is not yet past. Christ as the light sweeps onward to new regions, and thither it is our charge to follow Him. As we look back we can see the course of His Church in a pathway of glory broadening through all the ages. And let us not doubt that the pathway will broaden still. Meanwhile 60 The Light the Light of Life. iv. our part is clear to look to the Light steadily, to receive the Light needfully, to spread the Light untiringly. The Light cannot mislead us, and cannot fail us : it is the Light of Life. \ V. THE DOOR OF THE SHEEP. ' Oj JjCCTtO Werily, verily, I say unto you, I am tlie door of the sheep. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture. X ' Sx JOHKX.7,9. l ' ^' So far there is nothing peculiar or self-chosen in the position which we occupy with regard to Him. The spiritual food is alike for_all: the spiritual light is alike fojrall. Both may be neglected, but they are present and adequate to sustain and to guide mankind. The titles which spring out of the allegory of the flock to what we come now, introduce us to a new succession of thoughts. ^. Christ as the door and as the good shepherd is revealed to us as standing in a special connexion , fc*. 64 The circumstances under which the titles v. with a definite body committed to His protection and care. These titles teach us that there are those who are gathered into His fold : those whom He rescues from dangerous enemies : those whom He leads in green pastures. It is not indeed the exclusiveness but the reality of the privilege suggested by these figures which is set before us. Such figures help us to feel that as Christians we are socially and individually brought very near to Christ, and that He fulfils for us offices of watchful and tender love. And thus their general scope is clearly indicated by the circumstances under which they were first employed. By the sign at John ix. the Pool of Siloam Christ had vindicated His claim to be the light of the world. It was in vain that the Pharisees tried to persuade the man born blind who had received sight from Jesus that he owed nothing to his healer. To him the work itself was a luminous witness of a divine mission, and he held to this confession even at the cost of 2 being expelled from the Jewish body by the rulers ~ John ix. who mocked him. So when Jesus heard that they had cast him out, He found him and made Him- . v self known to Him as the Son of Man, and received ._ the homage of his simple faith. Here then was the first clear antagonism between the old "feu ^(.C Gr^S *^* Church and the new, the first sharp division 'between the blind guides and the people whom they misled; the first reception into Christ's fellowship of one who had been rejected by the the Door and the Good Shepherd are revealed. 65 Jews: the first open fulfilment of Christ coming v>fc^> g[ for judgment that those who saw not might see, and Johnjx. ^ f those who saw might become blind. It was not therefore surprising that those o/Johnix. ,, the Pharisees which were with Jesus... said unto J ^,'. ( ": I]gni Are we blind also? The question was an- y- swered by a short stern sentence, and by a living picture, for we must bring the tenth chapter into close connexion with the ninth. Jesus said unto them If ye were blind ye should have no sin: but^i *" now ye say We see ; therefore your sin remaineth. H ** And then we may suppose that He turned His Tu?V eyes to the hillside of Olivet where the shepherds Lj y T"a v were busy, as evening drew on, with the folding of Ip&T CXU their flocks, and pointed to the image of spiritual ~ ministry and spiritual relationships in their fami- liar labour. It is, as if He had said, 'These ! ' shepherds before us, these humble servants of ' weak and wandering creatures shall be your judges. - 'You see the fold: how do they enter it? you 6cTTv Ov, ' see the flock : how do they treat it ? They do not 9 'choose at will a way into the fold which may . . ' seem best or easiest to themselves, but pass with ' their sheep through the one door however low or ' narrow or ill-placed it may seem to be. They do?5iLj^/yf ' not regard their sheep as strangers, but call them y J\/ * ' by name, and go before them, and so receive from 'them trustful obedience. How then have you t ' dealt with the sacred enclosure of the Church of '* J ' GOD ? How have you dealt with the flock of w. REV. x. 66 Two thoughts: the fold, the flock. v. / ' GOD which He entrusted to your keeping and ) ' guidance ? ' Such is the general scope of the whole allegory. But the words fell on dull ears. The sense of duty, of devotion, of sacrifice which alone could make them intelligible was wanting; and the John x. 6. Pharisees the shepherds of Israel 'understood 'not what things they were which Jesus spake to i. Yet once again therefore Christ drew out more in detail the lesson which He wished to bring home to them and to' all, separating the two chief elements in it which had before been left undis- tinguished. For we must notice that in the allegory there are two distinct images, the image of the fold and the image of the flock. The fold must be entered : the flock must be kept. The thought of the entrance comes first : the thought of the tending follows. It is with regard to the former that Christ says / am the door, just as He says afterwards with reference to His pastoral care / am the good shepherd. In these two respects He condemns the false leaders, and the false teachers : they were on the one side thieves and robbers and on the other hirelings. It is the former aspect of the allegory which presents Christ as the Door that we have to consider now. For if we wish to nter into the fulness of the revelation which Christ gives, we must keep the thoughts apart; we must iclwell on each relation separately if we are to make " it a reality and not have it a mere indistinct figure. Christ the Door of the sheep. 67 / am the door of the sheep, I am the appoint- ed way, that is, by which all believers, teachers TT> to Q6-~n and taught alike, enter into a place of security, of freedom, of nourishment; as it is expressed ^y^J r}.^ more fully in the later verse : / am the door : <~ Jby Me if any man enter in he shall be saved, -l> , ( ^ and shall go in and go out, and shall find ot pasture. These then are the ideas of which Tc we must take account in order to understand the before them, and which may go in before 'them, and \ ivhich may lead them out, and which may bring} 80 Two aspects of the Shepherd's office, vi. them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not (as sheep which have no shepherd. Partial and passing fulfilments of the petition there were in earlier times; and then at last the visions of patriarch, and lawgiver, and king, and prophet found their accomplishment in the Son of Man ; and so He said in the presence of the disciples who followed His steps with faithful yet wondering ^ ^ Q devotion, of the Pharisees who darkened the truth which had been committed to their keeping, of the outcast whom the popular leaders had driven Hebr. xiii. from their fellowship, / am the good shepherd, not thejjreat shepherd only, from the wide exercise of authority, or the true shepherd only, from the ; r. complete satisfaction of the idea, but the Good ' - . ' " ' Shepherd, good in the winning beauty of His person and His work which men can see, good in the infinite grace shadowed forth by a ministry of love. Out of the manifold traits of the pastoral character two are selected by the Lord to define the nature of His own pastoral office, as it is seen without in its fulfilment, and as it exists within in (k> t p <~ C its essential foundation. / am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. There is a complete devotion to the )"Tft>(* charge which issues in absolute sacrifice of self: (0^ WC that is the outward standard of the shepherd's duty. / am the good shepherd, and know my sheep and am knowrTof mine. There is an devotion and sympathy. 81 underlying sympathy between the leader and the vi. flock which issues in a perfect communion of affection : that is the law of the shepherd's life. These two thoughts then claim our separate attention. ,*-/ am the good shepherd: the good shepherd /<$*( |(X giveth His life for the sheep. When the Lord spoke the words He alone could foresee their literal fulfilment, but His disciples must have already learnt to feel that His tenderness was stronger than death. They might say of shame and of suffering ' Far be it from Thee,' but they knew at least that, if need were, He would meet both for their sakes. They had found a new kind of discipleship in which the Master lived for His scholars, and not the scholars for the master ; in which the relation was not one of contract but of nature, in which dangers were to be expected, but these not greater than love could overcome. Christ the Good Shepherd transfigured for ever the method, the conception, the fulfilment of leadership. Nothing could be more foreign to the customs of the time than the way in which Christ gathered His little company. He was not like one of the great doctors far withdrawn from common eyes, sought out painfully by those whom His fame had reached, scantily dispensing His wisdom to such c^ ' as were admitted to His presence. He 5 Himself found those who would not have 3 n w. REV. 6 82 The shepherd and vi. dared to come to Him, who could hardly have interpreted their own wants, who were conscious perhaps only of their need of guidance. With a word of power He called the fisherman and the toll-gatherer to follow His steps. Sinners who hated their sin were welcomed to His fellowship. A band of women ministered to Him. He came to seek and to save, not to receive the homage of the proud or to increase the treasures of the affluent. He presented Himself in a word as the 1 shepherd whose sheep had strayed. For in the next place the image set before the hearers this thought, that though they had wandered they still belonged to Christ : that He had come to restore, to exalt, to perfect, a connexion which existed, and not to establish a new one : that in this lay the infinite difference between the shepherd, and the hireling whose own the sheep are not. The hireling takes upon him, so to speak, something to which he is not born, and which he can lay aside ; but the shepherd only - ^ shews what he is by his care. The hireling is moved rj_ i by self-interest, the shepherd by self-sacrifice. In the one case there is a mercenary bargain for the performance of certain definite duties, which is external, artificial, liable to be disturbed or broken by a thousand causes ; but in the other case there is simple obedience to an instinct which 1 is inherent and vital. That which belongs to a man, is, as it were, a part of himself. It is the hireling. 83 unnatural, and not simply dishonourable in any- vi. one not to cherish and tend and guard that which is his own. And Christ was pleased so to portray His relation to men, as if He were constrained by some divine necessity of nature to fulfil for them *a shepherd's work. At the same time He warned His disciples that they could not be exempt from alarms and perils, even while He watched over them. With the darkness, it might be, the wolf would come. Yet in this last extremity they could trust Him in whose guardianship they had reposed. If nothing else remained He could lay down His life for them. It might not appear obvious how the death of the shepherd could secure the safety of the flock : that was a mystery at the time and is so even now when we look back upon the accom- plished fact : but this much at least faith could dimly see, that such devotion could not be in vain, and through that assurance believers could hold themselves prepared for the worst assaults of evil. f k j*cu<.l^,2^) This thought brings us to the second point. The care of the Good Shepherd rested upon a divine knowledge. Christ reminded His disciples that this His promise of watching even unto death was only the visible expression of a fellow- ship of which they were already conscious : / am "< the good shepherd, He said, and know my sheep and am known of mine. There may be sad 6-2 84 Knowledge answering to knowledge. vi. confusions, and rivalries, and antagonisms, and schisms, but through the din and tumult of the world Christ calleth His own sheep by name and they know His voice. In that mutual knowledge, in that voice of grace ans^ejcgd^bj^ the effort of J obedience, lies the certainty of hope. Christ knows His own, and as He knows them He imparts to them a unity with Himself. His own know Christ and as they know Him, they appro- 'priate fresh measures of His strength. Christ the LI v Good Shepherd revealed the law of leadership in the gradual realisation of boundless sympathy. There is an infinite spring of consolation in the conviction that Christ knows His disciples : that He knows them, and loves them still. If it were otherwise, if He knew them only as their friends know them, only as they know themselves with a partial and imperfect memory, there might still be room for endless misgivings. The fear would remain lest some fresh revelation might turn His tenderness into sorrow. But as it is nothing in His flock is hidden from Him : their weaknesses, their failures, their temptations, their sins : the good, which they have neglected when it was within reach : the evil which they have pursued when it lay afar : all is open before His eyes. He knows them, as I said, and He loves them And in their turn they know Him. Experience has taught them something of the gentleness A divine foundation. 85 vi. with which He supports and guides their faltering steps, something of the sweet sternness with which He calls them back from wandering, something of the beneficence with which He opens fresh jmstures to them in the way of their common (iuties, something of the calm peace which He gives as the end of labour which has brought no other reward, something of the joy which He instils into those who are made worthy to follow Him most closely. A thousand strange voices may address them with more immediate and imperious commands ; but His voice is clear among &.XV them all, and their true selves obey that only : a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers. But wonderful as this second revelation of the Good Shepherd is as we commonly read it, true connexion in the original text gives it a more mysterious solemnity: / am the good shepherd ; and I know 'mine own and mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father. The relation of the Father to the Son is thus made the type of the relation of the Son to His\C> disciples. We can indeed penetrate as yets i^d but a little way into the meaning of such words*; \MI. < but they help us to feel by the manner of devout - v thankfulness rather than of distinct apprehension that we too are partakers of the divine nature, j v^ that the Son of Man in His humanity has revealed /L5 ( to us the end to which we are called, the victory ; u> Q) ^v^\. ,? \ 86 The type of leadership. vi. which he has made possible as being an essential part of the will of GOD. So it is that the blessing of the words comes unchanged, as GOD is unchangeable, even unto us. For every lesson, every promise, which they con- veyed to the first disciples, they convey to us now confirmed, extended, deepened by all that our fathers have told us of their manifold fulfilments. Christ the Good Shepherd has, we know, laid \ down His life for us, and in His Cross He has John xii. given us the measure of the love by which He will draw all men unto Him. Christ the Good Shepherd calls us by name, in every holy thought, in every public service, in every occasion for sacrifice, and as long as the call ) is audible, we may be sure that He will give the power to obey its leading. Nor can we forget that by consecrating this figure as the image of His power, Christ has given us a revelation of the character of all true government. While He tells us what He is to us, He tells us what we should strive to be to others. That which He makes known of His relation to His people is true of all right exercise of au- thority. It does not matter whether authority be exercised in the Church, or in the nation, or in the city, or in the factory, or in the school, or in the family : the two great principles by which it must be directed are the same; and these are self- False view of authority. 87 sacrifice and sympathy. Government which rests vi. on any other basis is so far a tyranny and no true government. We claim then in Christ's name, we can claim no less, that whoever is called to rule, to be priest or statesman or teacher or rpaeter should be prepared to give his life for his own, to know them himself, and to be known by them. Perhaps the most urgent perils of our age spring from the forgetfulness of this divine theory of government. There is much of the spirit of the hireling among us : there is more of the affectation of the spirit. We hide ourselves, and we make but little effort to penetrate to the hearts of others. The nobility of leadership has been degraded in conception, if not in act. The transitory accessories of popularity and wealth and splendour have obscured that absolute devo- tion to others which is its life. It has been supposed to end in lofty isolation and not in the most intense fellowship. But with all this, there are among us nobler strivings after a truer and more abiding order : there is an impatience of the unnatural ignorance by which we are separated from one another as classes and as individuals : there are generous impulses which move men with aspirations towards silent yet complete self-surrender : there is something of an awakened capacity to embody in the nation and in society the central truths of the Gospel. Here 88 The work of England. vi. as it seems lies the work of England in this generation ; and while our thoughts are turned to the Good Shepherd, may we pray for ourselves and for others that He will infuse the virtue of His Life and Passion into each office which we have to discharge for our families, for our country, for our Church ; that He will lay the print of His Cross upon all the symbols of our power, and enlighten our counsels with the insight of His Love. V^AV* 1 ^* + VJ VII. THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. '' ^^mthejvm^^imjmd thejife.: he that believeth on V J/e, thougfThe die, yet shall he live ; and whosoever_Jiveth and believeth on Me shall never^die. ST JOHN xi. 25, 26, T=>v WE read at the end of St John's record of the x first miracle of Christ at Cana of Galilee, ~T< with every circumstance of pathos, and tenderness o 'C and majesty, quickened in the minds of those who witnessed it devotion, as it might be, or faith, or '\j &Q V-> 92 The raising of Lazarus vii. fear, according as they were predisposed to regard it; but we feel that the fact was also in a true sense a sacrament, an outward pledge of a spiritual grace with which humanity was enriched for ever. If, as indeed we are bound to do, we strive to set before ourselves with vivid particu- larity the various emotions which are crowded into the narrative, the bitter regret for help un- brought, the sudden awakening of vague hope, the mysterious grief of the Lord Himself, the awful suspense before the opened cave, it must be that we may the better realise that Truth which calms and satisfies them all. The miracle is nothing more than the translation of an internal lesson into an outward and intelligible form. The command of sovereign power Lazarus come forth is but one partial and transitory fulfilment of the absolute and unchanging gospel / am the resur- rection g/ncTtfie ttfa ~T am the resurrection and the life. In these ~-_ I - r wordsTas we have seen before in the like phrases, Christ turns the thoughts of His hearers from all else upon Himself. The point at issue is not any gift which He can bestow, not any blessing which He can procure, but the right perception of what He is. The Galilaeans asked Him for the bread from heaven; He replied I am the bread of life. The people were distracted by doubt : their leaders were blinded by prejudice; and He said I am the light of the world. Martha after touching a revelation of Christ. 93 VII. with sad yet faithful resignation upon aid ap- parently withheld, fixed her hope on some remote time, when her brother should rise again at the last day; and He called her to a present and personal joy. He revealed to her that death even in its apparent triumph wins no true victory: that life is something inexpressibly vast and mysterious, centred in One who neither knows nor can know any change, that beyond the earth-born clouds, which mar and hide it, there is an infinite glory of heaven in which men are made par- takers. This revelation Christ makes with absolute knowledge of all human needs. He alone could feel to the uttermost the intensity of the grief which He came to stay : He alone could discern the spring of all sorrow in. the sin which He came to bear : He alone could foresee that the immediate issue of His work of sovereign power would be His own death upon the Cross : and yet looking full upon the desolation which seemed to plead against the truth of the words, full upon the j infirmity and guilt of men which seemed to make ( their application impossible, full upon the Agony , and Passion which seemed to disprove them, He[^/ said / am the resurrection and the life: not ^ _ ___ i ^_-^^^^J* / I |^ 'I shall l)e,' but / am, even in the crisis of --- : bereavement, even in the prospect of the Cross; n<>( the Resurrection only, but the Life, that per- " * ma i lent and eternal power of wEich it is one result, but only one result, that men shall rise again. 94 The Resurrection and the Life: VII. There are thus two main thoughts in this revelation of Christ which we must notice. It teaches us, as I have already indicated, that the Resurrection and the Life in which we believe are realities which are not future only but present : it teaches us also that both lie in our union with a Person. Our faith, in the last trial to which it must be subjected, reaches out beyond the seen, and aspires to a fulness of being which transcends all experience. / am the resurrection and tie life: le that believeth in Me though he die yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth &n,Me shall never die. ^ Christ, in a word, is the Resurrection of the dead : Christ is the life of the living: He is the Resurrection because He is the Life. Death is X/{ the dream, the shadow ; and not life, as we hastily judge who measure being by our senses. This then is the first point. Life, eternal life, \ and therefore the Resurrection, as included in it, is brought to men by Christ now. Christ shews by His word, and by the speaking fact of the recall of Lazarus to earthly life, that what we see is but a small part of what we are, that physical death touches only the circumstances of our present existence, that dissolution is the condition of a new form of life but not an interruption, still less the close, of life. And if we study the whole narrative carefully we shall perceive that from first to last this history of the raising of Kay- present blessings. 95 Lazarus is a revelation of death and life : a help * vn. given to us through which we may, however imperfectly and momentarily yet truly, rise to a better understanding of the nature of our manhood, than the common experience of the visible world dan furnish. It seems to say that life in its fulness flows from what men call death, and death from what men call life. When Christ first heard of the sickness of Lazarus, though He knew the speedy issue, He said This sickness is not unto John'xiM.^ death. When the worst was over, He called death " a sleep only : Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go v. 11. that I may wake him out of sleep. When Thomas f\Q could see but one end to the mission of love and J^f C' e said in hopeless devotion Let us also go that we v. 16. may die with Him, he knew not that this journey To.1 "a.*? of the Lord into the camp of His enemies should lay open, as the disciples had not seen them before, t^y^ 1 the very springs of life, though in another sense (X\i> ToY , it was the way to death. In this relationV there is a tragic eloquence in the opening and the f : close of the narrative. It opens on the scene of- : John's witness beyond Jordan : it closes in the * council chamber at Jerusalem. The testimony of ft ^ the Baptist is repeated involuntarily by the High X A Priest. The mysterious words Behold the Lamb John 1 29. ' of GOD ivhich taketh away taketh away byC^O*. taking upon Himself the sin of the world, rind l? 10 ^ their accomplishment in the calculated sentence rf It is expedient for iis that one man should die for 50. 96 The Resurrection and the Life VII. -w ;TaG"/^ rjwif the people and that the whole nation perish not. Caiaphas thought to save the life of the Jews by the death of Christ, while in reality by gaining his object he brought death to that false and selfish life, and life to the world. Thus by every detail of the history we are encouraged to look below the surface of things, to realise how life, true life, triumphs over death and i even through death ; to regard the restoration of x Lazarus not as a mere marvel only but as a type of the constant action of GOD who preserves through ' every vicissitude all that which makes us what we are ; to know by that staying of the power of corruption, by that call to renewed activity, that Christ as He is the Food to support us, the Light to guide us, is also the Life infinite and eternal by which we live. 1, " So we come to the second chief thought sug- gested by the words: / amjthe resurrection and the life. The Resurrection and the Life is not simply through Christ but in Christ. / am He said, and not I promise, or I bring, or I accomplish, I am the resurrection and the life. And when we fix our attention upon the words from this point of sight, we see at once that they include deeper mysteries than we can at present fathom, that they open out glimpses of some more sublime form of being than we can at present apprehend, that they gather up in one final utterance to the world what had been said before darkly and partially of through and in Christ. 97 the union of the believer with his Lord and of the \ vn. consequences which proceed from it. But though we can perhaps do no more, it is well that we should at least devoutly recognise that we do stand here in the face of a great mystery, which if indistinct from excess of glory, yet even now ennobles, consecrates, transfigures life : which does even now help us to feel where is the answer to difficulties which our own age has first been called to meet : which gives a vital reality to much of the language of Holy Scripture which we are tempted to treat as simply meta- phorical. I am the resurrection and the life. The words . . / carry us back to what St John said of the Word in > the opening verses of the Gospel: That which, John i. 3 f. hath been made was life in Him. It is no doubt very hard for us to think of this divine life underlying all that we see around us in endless change and motion, imperfect, inconstant, con-/ flicting; and still the life is there, and that life is Christ. Man is in a true sense according to the ' expressive language of old thinkers, a Microcosm, a miniature universe, and he cannot with impunity dissociate himself from the great universe of which he is the representative and the crown. The thought is one which belongs to the very essence of our faith, and we are taught by the Lord's words to cherish it. We cannot with our present faculties pursue it far; but is it not a joy to feel W. REV. 7 98 Man and men. vii. that this vast life, this life of the whole world carries with it the assurance of a resurrection, of \f Q. TFo 4.- . . . Actsiii.21. a restoration of all things, for which creation - Rom. viii. travaileth until now, waiting for the manifestation e wy 8-23. O j the sons o j Goi) ? We commonly lose much, I believe, by neglect- ing this widest relationship of man with the world, which the Scriptures, anticipating the latest physical theories, affirm on its divine side. _We lose even more by neglecting the relationship of , man with man. However much we may strive 111 to keep ourselves alone, to narrow our wants, to strengthen our self-reliance, we are driven by the *' least reflection to acknowledge that we are~bound one to another, that we are bound to the past, that we are brethren united by an indissoluble kinsmanship, children with an ineffaceable herit- age, that our separate lives are but fragments of some larger life^ and that life again is Christ's. He quickens us not as individual units, but as parts of Himself: He raises us up not to stand alone, but as members of His glorified Body. He trains us while we are still kept apart from one another by the conditions of mortality to reach forward to this loftier fellowship ; He communicates to us His flesh, His humanity, in which is the fulness of union; He warns us that selfishness, isolation, is death. \ This being so, we come to understand, so far as man can understand such teaching, what St Life in Christ. 99 / .1 Paul means when he speaks of the Christian as being in Christ, living in Christ, speaking in lCor.i.30; Christ, sanctified in Christ: when he transfers 2C6r7ii. %-r~r- to the individual believer all the acts of Christ : 17 ; l Cor. ' i 2 ' 2 Tim >Tv when he argues that he himself died with Christ ih. 12. ' ,-ttnd was raised again with Christ : when he pleads V^ \ X ""x that we are one body in Christ. For all this is but Rom. xli. '. 5 vi 8 ff '- a writing out at length of the Lord's own words, ' *f\ N/y /* tr~ t 4 I am the resurrection and the life. What- v ever life man has, it is in fellowship with Christ, wherein there is already made a beginning of that supreme life of which the life of the family, of the nation, of the Church, of the race, are so many types and foreshadowings. But while we look forward to the completed revelation of this larger life in which we shall each in due proportion consciously contribute to the fulness of a being of which we are made partakers, we know at the same time that nothing will be lost which belongs to the perfection of our present being. When Christ told His dis- ciples of the death of Lazarus, He added to the name the one title which expressed all that Lazarus had been, all that he still was, to them : Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. When He brought John xi. relief to Martha, He repeated the word in which V/CG^PC L/ VI she had summed up the extent of her bereavement : \ -* Thy brother shall rise again. How it is that v. 23. r\VdU the fruits of affection and kinsmanship can be ~^f} C~ TOut - - 1 . - i - *> {^> taken up into and harmonised with a new form of OLC X 46 f Q' 7-2 100 Nothing lost in death. VII. existence we cannot tell. It is vain for us, nay far worse than vain, to seek to transfer directly to another order the limitations, the modes of action and dependence, which belong to thisjn which we now are. It is enough for us that, as Christ's words assure us, human ties have a living permanence in Him : that they survive the trans- itory sphere in which they have here found their growth : that they await a resurrection in which they shall be seen in their true glory. And therefore it is that when we bear to their last resting-place those whom we have loved these words first greet us at the churchyard gate with the certain promise that our love is not lost: therefore it is that we can humbly trust that when they shall be addressed hereafter to friends who shall carry us forth, we ourselves may at last know the consolation which they offer to those whom we have left. "*<^"T0&)V ^ 6 tSfy odav^Vtf luc k.<^ ^ %' T^ t TTc ? gained a measure of faith and she kept it still in her sorest distress. What had been won and used in happier times was her stay now. But V she did not hasten to go beyond her experience. Her definite confession was bounded by her im- mediate knowledge. She had not as yet been }^<. enabled to regard the Lord in the aspect under which He now revealed Himself, as the Giver of life ; and she did not prematurely express what she waited to learn. At the same time she implied that far more was included in what she already knew than she had yet realised. The issue con- firmed her faith ; and so will it be with us. Let us not attempt impatiently to affect a fulness of knowledge which we have not. Let us not rest in self-complacency at the point of spiritual perception which we have reached. Let us de- clare boldly and sincerely what we have been enabled to learn of Christ and then wait for wider intelligence. If we believe in a living Christ, the_Son_of_GUD, that faith contains treasures of wisdom which later experience will teach us to make our own. The years as they pass may leave us a sad inheritance of weakness and death ; but in due time Christ will reveal Himself to us, 102 The Resurrection and tlie Life. vii. / even here, in this chequered scene of loss and conflict, as the Resurrection and the Life, the Life whereby He quickens us for new labour, the Resurrection whereby He gives back to us the past transfigured for nobler uses. VIII. THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. / am the way, and the truth, and the life : no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me. ST JOHN xiv. 6. two revelations of the Lord which we vm. have still to consider differ in their circum- stances from those which have gone before. They were given by Christ when the course of His public ministry was ended. He had withdrawn John xii. Himself from the world ; and on the other side 36 ' Judas had now left the group of Apostles, of which 30> he was the one faithless member. The Last Supper was ended: the Son of Man was glorified : the separation of the Light and the darkness was complete. Without it was night : within was the brightness of joy felt to be on the point of fulfilment. The joy of the Master was clear and sure : the joy of the disciples was yet to be tested and purified. For through what agony the fulfilment was to come the Lord alone knew ; and the words which He addressed to those whom He had chosen to be the founders of His Church were designed to prepare them for their sharpest and most unlocked for trial. He indeed had 106 The revelations vni. won the victory, but they had to make good their part in it. And so He developed one all-sufficing thought through the discourses which occupied the last meeting-time in the upper chamber, and the last walk to Gethsernane, varying it in many ways, ' that it might answer to each phase of temptation : xvl. In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer; I have overcome the ivorld. He and His disciples were now finally set on one side, and all the organised powers of selfishness on the other. Henceforward the conflict between them was to be waged on fresh conditions and with fresh powers. It is as if the words with which He called the eleven to join Him on His road to John xiv. Death Arise, let us go hence were at the same time a call to a new career, a new work, a new life, dawning upon them at. last through the gloom in which their own aims and fancies were s , / lost for ever. If we bear this in mind we shall feel, more truly than we can do otherwise, how the revela- tion of the text corresponds with the crisis at which it was delivered. No sooner had the traitor gone out, than the Lord gave utterance to the strain of thanksgiving which told that the end was at hand. Then turning to His disciples with John xiii. a title of endearment my little children which stands alone in the Gospels, He warned them of coming separation, and desertion and death. By His address He shewed them that His own love to the faithful Apostles. 107 the foundation of the new commandment of love vm. would survive His removal and would survive the failure of their boldest professions. But we can fancy with what an intensity of sadness thej must have heard of open and immediate denial. What unknown weakness could there be in their own hearts ? what unknown perils could there be in their path ? For the moment hope must have been eclipsed by sorrow, till the familiar voice of consolation followed close upon the voice of warning. Let notyoiir heart be John xiv. troubled. Believe in GOD : believe also in Me. ' - Cast aside, that is, every thought of self, which can only bring estrangement, defeat, humiliation : admit no misgivings of personal frailty : trust to no presumptuous promptings of personal con- fidence : look withoutjrou and not within : look KOA to the Father whom I came to declare: look to trier Me, whom you have learnt to know. So will you perceive that I go to make ready for you a place in a heavenly home : that I go for a while in order c-. that I may bring you to Me for ever : and whither T 7 41 1 go ye know me way. ,4-Virvajui \31V Dared the Apostles to take to themselves this assurance ? All might be plain ; but they had erred too often before to be confident. At least it was not a time to affect knowledge. The questions at issue were too momentous to be left in vague uncertainty. Courage is not blindness and it is ' better a thousandfold to confess our doubts, our , 108 Christ the Way, vni. '.'- ^ohnxiv. COO OL, John xi. *>V 16. ^ 7A. . . > v misgivings, our ignorance, that we may receive strength, and light, than to exclude the access of both by a proud assumption of intelli- gence. ' So Thomas found it both now and afterwards. Lord, he said, we know not whither Thou goest ; how know we the way ? He had come on the last journey to Jerusalem ready to die with his Lord, but, if it might be, he would die in the light. The frank confession of ignorance to an all- knowing, all-loving Lord was in itself an unspoken petition for such enlightenment as was possible. And the implied prayer was granted. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. Here was the answer to the thoughts 'by which the hearts of the disciples were troubled. They had reached the point at which (as they now knew) they were to lose the sensible presence of Him whom they had followed hitherto. The goal towards which they had been moving was still hidden. Under such circumstances advance might well seem to them to be impossible or fruitless. Must they not fear that when left alone they would find the world once more a trackless wilderness ? Christ silenced these doubts when He said / am the Way. If the way were clear, they could pursue it boldly. They had seen their earthly dreams fade away one by one. Messiah had claimed the homage of His people, and His people had rejected the Truth, the Life. 109 Him. Was it then to be believed that the vni. old teaching, the age-long discipline of Israel, was unsubstantial and transitory ? was nothing left of all the treasures of old time ? Christ met these misgivings when He said / am the Truth. ' \ JfHhe Truth remained, they could behold its ^.X*^ fashion change without dismay. They were soon to look upon Him who had called Lazarus from the grave dying upon the Cross. When that hour came, must they"*./ bow before death as the great conqueror ? Were they to regard that which they saw as the end of . all ? Were they to hear without reply the mocking \ taunts of the rulers : He saved others : let Him save Luke xxiii. Himself if He be the Christ of GOD ? Even ^ on this darkest scene Christ threw the light of heaven when He said / am the Life. If the Life r lived on, they could wait till it shewed itself in*7" r c>O an d risen again for us, as having brought together Eph. i. 10. into one all things in heaven and earth and beneath 1 the earth, as revealing little by little through the clouds which rise from below larger prospects of His Person and His Work : we shall watch without fear for the issue of every controversy, sure of i^COTbCf this that each result gained by honest .and pa- ' i^ 55* Vtient labour, each conclusion reached through self- \ r- Christ the Life to tliose bound by sense. 113 denial and self-restraint, will teach us more of Him, and that time will cease before we have fully learnt our lesson. Men are sense-bound. The claims of the world upon us are so many and so urgent : the triumphs o.physical science are so unquestionable and so wide : the marvels of that which we can see and feel are so engrossing and inexhaustible ; that it is not surprising that we should be tempted to rest in them : to take the visible for our heritage : to close up our souls against those subtle ques- , tionings whereby they strive after theknowledge of that which no eye hath seen or ear heard or hand \\ _^J? ~ ~ '" ILJL "P felt, that life of the plant, of the man, of the world, which comes as we know not and goes as we know not. But strong as the charm may be to lull to sleep that which is noblest within us, the *"**""* j-_ V f ' words of Christ, I am the Life, can break it. We r - feel that that thought of a divine personality under- lying outward things, quickening them, shaping tnein, preserving through dissolution the sum of their gathered wealth, answers to a want within us. It brings back to us the assurance thai} death fta.nnnf. jflyvail fop ever^ It opens infinite i visions of hope, which, if they stir us to loftier endeavour, strengthen us also to bear without despondency disappointment and failure for the\ moment. In their light we can work without shrinking from the labours by which we are burdened. In their light we can believe without w. REV. 8 114 Christ's power present yni. striving impatiently to unravel the mysteries by which we are encompassed; we can work, and while we work we can believe and know that it is Lam. iii. good for a man that he should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. The last words j wliicli seem at first sight to narrow the magnificent prospect on which we are allowed to look, do in fact only define it. They do not set limits for the access to the Father but give us a wider view of T- the action of Christ. They cany light into the dark ages and dark places of the earth. They r JiOL"Tt*Ofcl "< " tell us that wherever there is heroic self-surrender, wherever there is devoted study of the ways and ) , *jU>.o. -vb wor -ks even of an unknown Gop, wherever there is a heart yearning towards the undiscovered glories of a spiritual world, there is Christ : there is Christ though we see Him "Hot; anil "His name is not named ; and where Christ is, there is the approach to a loving Father. The question indeed must often arise in our hearts whether the virtue of Christ's work is limited to those who consciously welcome the Gospel which proclaims it. Perhaps we can best gain the answer if we call to mind the declarations which are made of its widest efficacy. When / MT\ V tT/^ O "" St Paul speaks of the good pleasure of GOD to sum Eph. i. 10. up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, **~ I and the things upon the earth; and again, through recognised. 115... Mini to reconcile ajl things unto Himself, having viii. made peace through the blood of His cross; through Col. i. 20. Hint, whether things vpon the earth or things in the v ; , heavens; and when he describes this as the issue \7fccLko e v c. ->< ^ [o *} aL)TT^XOC 91 AACfeV^ ^ \ " 7 . / -O CAJ ^ Clo C I am the true vine. I am the vine : ye are the branches. ST JoHN xv " J ' 5 " "1TTE saw in the last lecture that the two final ' * revelations which the Lord gave of Himself differ from those which precede by the fact that they were not delivered ' in the world ' but were addressed to the circle of faithful disciples after the departure of Judas, and designed to prepare them ' for immediate trial and future work. The reve- lation of Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life IX. _ -_ ? s / s '^ which we then considered was given in the upper- A chamber after the Supper was ended : this of the , Vine and the branches which comes before us now was given on the way to Gethsemane. And the revelation of Christ as the true Vine fitly closes < the whole series. It brings into one vivid image the various lines of thought which we have hither- to pursued separately. It consecrates to new uses the symbolism of the Old Covenant. It offers a type of manifold, of combined, of fruitful energy. I It presents to us Christ and the believers in| Christ in their highest unity, as a living whole. 120 The Vine in the Old Testament. ix. ! He is no longer portrayed as apart from them, but as one wi|h them, so that they are, to borrow the figure of St Paul, limbs of that divine Body of ; which He is the Head, the creative Law and the . animating Life. The Vine was one of the earliest and also one of the latest symbols of the Holy Land> and of the ancient Church. Num. xiii. The cluster of grapes from Eshcol was the sign of the fertility of Canaan to the expectant wan- derers. The cluster of grapes and the vine-leaf were common emblems on the Maccabsean coins. A golden vine upon the gates was one of the most splendid ornaments of Herod's Temple. Israel was Ps. lxxx.8. a vine brought out of Egypt: a noble vine which grew degenerate, according to the language of the Hos.xiv. 7. prophets, yet not without the hope of restoration. Among the writings of Isaiah no words are more Is. v. 1 ff. familiar than the song of the beloved touching His vineyard. Among the parables of the Lord no one moved the people more deeply than that of Matt. xxi. the wicked husbandmen, who would have made parr. the Lord's vineyard their own by the murder of the true heir. The thoughts of fifteen hundred years, thoughts of beauty, of growth, of luxuriance, of fertility, of joy, were gathered round the vine, and at the end Christ says in the passage before us that all those thoughts were fulfilled in Him : f flu: true- -thr ideal - Vina. 'In Me,' that is, 'in Me who have taken humanity to An image of 'manifold life. 121 ' Myself, all which men have seen in the life of ix. ' the plant and transferred to themselves is realised. ' There is beyond all thought an innermost har- ' mony between the works of my Father. Those ' which yon call lower, simpler, help you to rise to '.a, fuller knowledge of the loftiest and most com- ' plex. The people of GOD have in very deed, like ' the vine, a common being. They are distin- ' guished one from another like leaf and tendril ' by a rich variety. They are bound together by a ' vital unity. They are prepared for large fruit- ' fulness. Whatever the image of the vine has ' suggested to the teachers of old, whatever you ' have sought to express through it yourselves, is ' true. / tun the true Vine, and my Father is the ' li nsb(tit,t / am the Vine: ye are the branches. ' Out of the many thoughts offered to us by this parallel of the life of the Christian body with the lite of the tree, there are three, as I have already m- dicated, which J wish specially to mark. It shews us that the Christian life the life in Christ ^is manifold: that it is one : that it is productive. The Christian life the Christian life that is in its widest sense is manifold. The loveliness and grandeur and power of the Christian life all spring from the infinite variety of its forms. In some respects the Pauline image of the body and 1 Cor. vi. its members presents this lesson to us with more j^ ' in xii completeness ; but the image of the vine the tree 4 f. brings out one side of it which is lost there. In nf; 1 v.'^o. . \ 122 The variety of parts in the Vine the tree we can actually trace how the variety is all fashioned out of one original element. Step by step we can see how the leaf passes into the flower, the fruit, the seed. However different the parts may be in the end, it can be shewn that they are essentially one, modified according to the work which they have to do. In the last change there are still marks of the beginning : in the first leaf there is, if we can read it aright, a prophecy of the tree. And more than this : not only are the separate parts thus related in their most extreme variation, but there is always a correspondence between the groupings of the parts which answers to the constitution of the whole plant. Not only is the petal for example truly a leaf, but the arrangement of the leaves round the stem indicates the arrangement of the petals in the flower. One law is fulfilled everywhere. There is no repetition in the organs which are most like: there is no discord in the organs which are most widely separated. It would be easy to follow out this divine plan, so to speak, of the tree's growth in much fuller detail ; but what I have said is enough to shew the truths which it teaches us as (to the diversities of our Christian life. Each living part of the true vine is ideally the same, and yet individually different. Our differences are~gTven to us to fit us for the discharge of special offices in its life. If therefore we seek to obliterate them or to exaggerate them, we mar without rivalry or confusion. 123 its symmetry and check its fruitfulness. We may perhaps have noticed how in a rose the coloured flower-leaf sometimes goes back to the green stem- leaf and the beauty of the flower is at once de- stroyed. Just so it is with ourselves. If we affect a work other than that for which we are jg- . __ 1--TB -!!_._ ^_ Jill -J made we destroy that which we ought to further. Our special service, and all true service is the same, lies in doing that which we find waiting to be done by us. There is need, as we know, of the utmost energy of all. There is need of the particular differences of all. We cannot compare the relative value of the leaves, and the tendrils and the flowers in the vine : it is healthy, and vigorous, and fruitful because all are there. We cannot clearly define the minute features by which leaf is distinguished from leaf, or flower from flower, but we can feel how the whole gains in beauty by the endless combination of their harmonious con- trasts. From the figure we turn to ourselves ; and when we look upon our own restless and ambitious strivings; upon our efforts to seem to be what we are not ; upon our unceasing mimic- ries of those about us ; upon our impatience of the conditions of our little duties ; can we venture to think that we have learnt, as we yet may learn, the first lesson of the Vine ? The second lesson flows directly from the first. The vine with its rich variety of parts, with its sharp distinctions of function, is one vine,; one by 124 The unity of the Vine ix. the actual combination of all its existing organs, one by the accumulated results of all its past life. Our own bodies are so transitory: we seem to stand so far apart one from the other : the sense of individuality within us is so much stronger and so much more obtrusive than the sense of dependence ; that we are apt to lose sight of our intimate and indissoluble connexion with others as men and as Christian men. Here again the image of the tree comes to our assistance. Nothing could shew us more clearly that there is a unity between us as we now work together in our several places, and a unity between us and all who have gone before us. We are bound together in the present, even as the tree has one life, though the life is divided through a thousand forms, and we are children of the former time, even as the tree preserves in itself the results of its past life, which has reached, it may be, over a thousand years. These two ideas of a present unity and of a historic unity are not equally easy to grasp. We can all see the present unity of the parts of the tree : we can all rise from that to the conception of the unity of men in the nation or in the Church. However imperfectly the idea is worked out in thought, however imperfectly it is realised in practice, yet it is not wholly strange or ineffective among us. But that other unity, the unity of one generation with another which has been and with another which hereafter will be, is as yet un- includes the past and the present. 125 familiar to most men. The tree may help us to A X learn it. Cut down the tree, and you will read its history in the rings of its growth. We count and measure them and reckon that so long ago was a year of dearth, so long ago a year of abun- dance. The wound has been healed but the scar remains to witness to its infliction. The very moss upon its bark tells how the trunk stood to the rain and the sunshine. The direction of its branches reveals the storms which habitually beat upon them. We call the whole perennial and yet . each year sees what is indeed a new tree rise over the gathered growths of earlier time and die when it has fulfilled its work. And all this isj true of the society of men. We are what a long, descent has made us. Times of superstition and misgovernment and selfish indulgence have left and ever will leave their marks upon us. There are unhealthy parts on which the cleansing light has not fallen. There are distorted outgrowths which have suffered from want of shelter and want of care. And there are too, let us thank GOD for it, solid and substantial supports for developments yet to come : great boughs, as it were, towering heavenward, through which our little results of; life may be borne aloft : ripe fruits which may be made the beginnings of wider vitality through our service. Here indeed does the word find its perfect fulfilment, One sowetk and another reap- John w. eth. This great thought, and I do not think 37> 126 The life of the Vine fruitful. ix. r that any thought is more worthy to be taken to heart by us just now, is most humbling and yet most stirring. If we reflect on the magnificent in- heritance which we have received on our English language, for example, which even as we speak it quickens our souls though we know it not with the life of countless generations shall we not at once render devout praise to GOD for the great things which He has done for us through our fathers, and beseech Him with an intensity of supplication that He will enable us to transmit to our children the wealth which we have received, purified, if it may be, from some dross by our sufferings, and increased by our labours ? For there is yet a third lesson of the Vine. v 2.j) r ^ ne Diversity of its parts, the unity of its life, are turned to one end : that it may be fruitful. He *} ^ \ that abideth in Me, Christ said, and I in him - brinyeth forth much fruit. The tree which is the image of the Christian society is not a wild tree. The watchful care of the Great Husband- man trains and prunes and tends it. If the vital power is misused, it is withdrawn. The branch which interferes with the due growth of others is cut off. There is no need to interpret these speaking figures. They appeal at once to our consciences. A Christian who is not fruitful is no Christian. The widest and grandest views of our faith, such as this revelation of the Lord j through the vine opens to us, are not given only Christ lives in the Christian. 127 to fill our imaginations, but to move us to action. And there is a marvellous beauty in the aspect under which they present the last results of the Christian life. These are from this point of view in the strictest sense fruits and not works. They IX. are seen to belong, that is, to the operation of an indwelling immanent power, and not to the exercise of personal will. They are, so to speak, the spontaneous, necessary, natural outcome of what the Christian truly is. When he is regarded in himself, then the notion of design, of effort, of work rightly comes in ; but when, as here, he is regarded in his essential relation to Christ then all he does, all he can do, is the due effect of lihat life with which he is inspired. And this thought brings me to the last point which I wish to notice. We have spoken of the three lessons of the Vine, but we have not yet placed them in direct connexion with the inmost being of the Vine itself. Christ said I_jim the true Vine. The diversity of the Christian society is thus a revelation of Christ's fulness : its unity is a revelation of Christ's life : its fruitfulness is a revelation of Christ's power. Our loftiest speculations fall far short of the mystery involved in this oneness of the Vine and the branches, according to which, as St Paul says, the believer fills up what is lacking in that which Christ hath suffered and made possible for him. But when we can as yet see little we can trust -*- Too . 128 Life perfected through discipline. ix. \ entirely ; and it is in this thought, that Christians do in sonic sense carry out, embody, complete the work of Christ through His presence, that we find our confidence: our strength: our hope. Our \ confidence because we are sure that if we offer i ourselves, as we are, to GOD in Christ, GOD will find an office for us to discharge. Our strength, because we know that that lives on with an unending growth which He has received and hal- lowed. Our hope, because we believe that in due time, sooner or later, others will gather the produce which we have prepared and bless Him for labours to which we shall see no harvest. For we must not forget that as yet there remains a season of trial and pain. We are at present called to struggle against all that within us which rebels against the first principles of religious life, dependence and fellowship. The self-willed must suffer separation from Christ : the faithful must look for discipline that they may become more abundantly fruitful. But it is suffi- cient for us that our Father is the husbandman - and that we are branches of Christ. 0"Tcv.v. I Temptation will come : failure will come : dis- . ..., v appointment will come. There will be the sharp 1 sorrow, when something is taken away on which XvA/, b, /we hayjL-prided ourselves. There will be the hitter reproach, when we look back on what we A \^uiave lost through our own neglect. There will be Abiding life. 129 the blank regret, when the end for which we have i ix. worked patiently is hidden from our eyes. But 1 deeper than all sorrow, stronger than all reproach, / ^ more sovereign than all regret, the words will ) remain with us, ^,7 am the Vine, and my Father is the husband- man. I am the Vine, ye are the branches. Herein, that is, in your abiding in Me, is my Father glorified, that ye may bear much fruit. r>- XV V t O V W. RKV X. THE VISION OF CHRIST THE VISION OF THE FATHER. 92 He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. ST JOHN xiv. 9. IN the foregoing lectures we have been allowed x. to consider in some detail the various personal revelations of the Lord which are recorded in the Gospel of St John. I desire now to gather them up, if it may be, into one summary view, and connect them all with the central Truth which they are designed to illuminate, the revelation of the Father. At the beginning we saw that Christ f spoke of His mission as being undertaken in His John v. 43. Father's name: now at the close He declares in\ language of which we can barely touch the '? meaning, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. His Life, His works, His words were not only directed to teach men something about the Father, but to shew the Father to men : not only to describe the object of our love and worship and faith, but actually to present Him, so that we > may never lose His living Presence. And this revelation came at a crisis of necessity. \ Up to the Incarnation the religious history of men j 134 The religious history of man j is little more than the history of the gradual withdrawal of GOD from the world. Aj)art from the Incarnation that sad history must go forward till it ends in a complete separation of earth and heaven. And if we reflect what we are, we can feel how the discipline of that withdrawal answered to the development of our nature : we can feel how the Advent of the Son of GOD answered to the full disclosure of our wants. Step by step as the conceptions of the Creator and Preserver grow loftier and larger He Himself seems to be taken farther from us till He comes to us as a Saviour. In this respect the experience of the individual is the experience of the race. Our childly thoughts of GOD picture Him in very close connexion with ourselves. We extend to the unseen order the image of the relations with which we are most familiar. We make in our own simple ways covenants with GOD, even as the patriarchs made them, and He no less surely blesses them. But as years go on wider views of society, new duties, new temp- tations open upon us. In accordance with this inevitable change in our position we regard GOD differently. He appears to us under more general attributes, as Lawgiver and King. We reach the stage which the people of Israel reached when through their ritual and their national life they were trained to find in the GOD of their fathers, the GOD of all the nations of the earth. The days a withdrawal of GOD. 135 of sensible communing with GOD may have gone. x. The open vision may be no more seen. The light i Sam. iii. may have ceased to flash intelligibly from the 1- highpriest's breastplate. But there are still living prophetic voices. The word of the Lord comes with an authoritative voice to cheer or to con- demn. We do not however rest even here. As it was with the nation, so it is with the man. A time of divine silence follows. We are left to ponder over that which has hitherto been made known to us. Then comes the sorest trial. We strive, in proportion as we have learnt our earlier lessons well, to look more closely at ourselves, at the world, at GOD. And as we look great mysteries ' take shape before us. The mystery of sin : how can its stain be done away ? the mystery of law : how can we reconcile our freedom with the in- exorable rule of sequence which we observe ? the mystery of the Infinite : how can we conceive of the ineffable majesty of the Almighty in fellow- ship with weak transitory creatures of earth such as we are ? Most of us, I fancy, have known something of these questionings. We have found in our own hearts the spirit of the old Jewish sects. Happy, thrice happy, if when we have been most burdened, most perplexed, most hum- bled, we have heard the Gospel which has been made articulate by our sorrows; and listened to the words of Christ which bring back all tender love, all tnisilul ci,iitit|cncr. ,-tl! .-(spiring h<.pr, I/c " - I 15 136 The revelation of Christ x. John xx. V that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. In Him there is atonement! In Him there is freedom. In Him there is unity. We seek for that which shall do away with corruption, which shall inspire - , ... life, which shall bring us to GOD ; and He Johnxvi. says / have overcome the world. Because I live 10.' * lv -in ye shall live also. I and the Father are one. Look to Me, so He speaks to us, as you have known Me; and in Me and through Me you will discern in clear and ineffaceable lineaments the likeness of the Father, not My Father only, but your Father for Whom you seek, so far as man can discern Him. The years will come and go. You will learn your own nature more thoroughly. You will feel more devoutly the grandeur of creation. You will grow in know- ledge of the holiness of GOD. But all self-distrust, all progress, all penitence will bring out more and more brightly the infinite meaning of this the last revelation, till the veil be removed for ever. He that hath seen Me hath seen the FatJter. If then the various titles of the Lord which have been brought before us, have helped us in any way to see Him more clearly, just so far they have helped us to see the Father also more clearly. Each one in succession has contributed in some measure to define that idea of a divine Father- hood which is now given back for ever to man- kind. This is what I wish now to mark; and in this connexion the titles so far as we need regard & V a revelation of the Fathers patience. 137 X. them fall into three groups. The first title the Christ shews us the Father preparing, so to speak, the revelation of Himself. The next five the Bread of Life, the Light of the world, the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life shew us the Father dealing with indi- Viduals. The last two the Way the Truth and the Life, the Vine shew us the Father in relation to the society of men. There is the lesson of the Father's patience: the lesson of the Father's love: the lesson of the Father's discipline. Patience, love, discipline are no doubt everywhere blended together with infinite wisdom, and still as we look at the Lord we see the separate attributes of Fatherhood offered to us one by one for our comfort and strengthening and guidance. X He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father's patience. The very name Christ, as we saw, bears witness to a promise slowly shaped through two thousand years. In that title we can thankfully acknowledge the sign that in spiritual matters GOD deals with us as we can bear His action. Not all at once, not in blinding ' ^"VpOTT^ glory, not in overpowering might, but in many parts and in many fashions, He trains His * children to a riper understanding of His coun-^-^ sels. And in this education of the world 3 GOD works with watchful constancy even where His Fatherhood is not openly recognised. When ,' Christ said My Father worketh hitherto and I John v. 17. 1*38 The revelation of Christ i>* y Is. xliii. 7 Acts xviij oo j "ToV ""T 1 wwjt, He set before us the teaching of that other title the Word in which St John expresses his own view of the eternal Being of Christ, and shews GOD speakjng through Him to 1-he hearts of all men, speakTng to them through the life of creation, moving them to claim the prerogative of sons. Thus whether it be among those who are called by His name, or among those who ignorantly worship Him, there is one law of never hasting, never resting progress in the working of GOD through His Son. He who has in any way seen the Lord as the Christ, and as the Word, has seen the Father's patience. He that hath seen Christ hath also seen the Father's love. This indeed we all confess, and confess at the same time how little we can really understand of the amazing truth that Gpl> hath, sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. But while this truth 'in its fulness wholly transcends our power of distinct thought, the various revelations of Christ which we have examined shew us how the love of GOD in Him follows us in all the vicissitudes and m-ed.-> of <>ur earthly life, sustaining, leaching, sheltering, guiding us, and at last clothing us with immortality. Day by day and hour by hour we are made aware of our frailty, of our decay, of the transitori- ness of all things visible. Through suffering and sorrow and loss the words of Christ come to us : a revelation of the Fathers love. 139 t, &^ A s the living Father sent Me and I I, the Incarnate > ? \. Son live because of the Father, so he that eateth John vi.O^J* Ale, even he shall live because of Me. We may, i^'TTO-n ^ - * I ^^ ^\ f\ x. that is, even now share in a life of which the Jt* leather is the one object and the one source, a lil'c which comes to us because the Son is Son, because the Father is Father. The love of the -.-.-..- Father in the Son gives life. We are perplexed by a strange conflict of ways o **V i and opinions. Shadows, mists, clouds gather about us. We cannot but pause in bewilderment as to our course, till the words of Christ come to ^ us across the gloom: He that follow eth Me shall John \\\\. not walk in darkness bat shall have the light ^'co'mp'xvi. life... I am not alone, bat I and the Father that sent 32 - the Father in the Son gives shelter. ^.Tvvxi'it.x We know our wanderings. Again and again") wejo~Tstray. We aiv li-mpted !o think that our W? c \\iltiiliicss and waywardness have withdrawn us ~ /<**&* Tb.C 9 140 The revelation of Christ yto ei|*H O x. from our Master's regard. Christ's words again John x. bring assurance to the despondent : I am the good Shepherd and know My sheep and am known of Mine, even as the Father knoweth Me and I know the Father. No perversity can exhaust that tender- ness: no weakness can escape that knowledge. The relation of the believer to the Son answers to tHe relation of the Son to the Father. The love of the Father in the Son gives confidence. Then at last there remains the stern necessity of death. But the love of the Father which has been with us hitherto remains even there. The words which Christ uttered by the grave of Lazarus, when He saw life where others imagined corrup- Johnju. tion, were spoken for all time : Father, I thank \ , _ Thee that Thou hast heard Me. In them the revelation of love is consummated in the face of * man's supreme trial. The love of the Father in the Son gives resurrection. He then that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father's patience and the Father's love : he hath seen also the Father's discipline. There is, as we observed, a startling sound in Jobn^xiv. the sentence, No man comelh to the Father but by Me ; and yet we feel that it must be so. Doubt- less the action of Christ is far wider and far more varied than we can at present perceive; but r TT"O*f^ OQ. w ih u t Him man must be lost in self. It is only by coming out of ourselves, by recognising the fact of larger connexions, by treading with firm a revelation of the Father's discipline. 141 foot upon the way of sacrifice, by entering, that is, x. into fellowship with tHeTSoJl of ' Man, as the Father draws us, that we can come to Him, Whom we are taught to address as Our Father, claiming \ V for others the. Sonship which we claim for our- .A selves. We cannot therefore choose our own way of \ approaching GOD ; and as we draw near to Him, we must leave ourselves in His hands. The access \ ) is by self-surrender ; and the service of others is the law of our later action. I am the Vine and John xv. ^ my Father is the husbandman. 1 am the Vine, ye ' are the branches. This, as we saw in the last lecture, is the figure of our Christian service. ( There is no isolation in the manifold variety of : our offices. There is no uniformity in the absolute oneness of our life. Separation for the unfruitful : cleansing, pruning, for the fruitful, such is the law of the Father's discipline. And of Christ Himself it is written that though He were a Son Hebr. v. 8. K^ yet learned He obedience by the things which He ^ suffered ; even as He said, / came down from John vi. ' heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of^ Him that sent Me. The will of the Father, that is, is made known Kcrr^AfefV'n to us as we can understand it in the will of^.VTo "Ml? Christ; and so we are brought back to His words :fi&V0^ He that hath seen Me hath seen tlie Father. Each " I of the various revelations which we have now^O \*M rapidly brought together helps us, I think, in 142 The human conception of GOD due measure to realise this central Truth of our Theology. One by one they enable us to be sure that in looking to Christ we look to the Father, that in living in ( 'hrist we live in the Father. They bring back to us all that our affections cling to as alone sufficient to support our human faith. In the earliest ages GOD was pleased to satisfy man's instincts by transferring to Himself in a figure the senses and feelings of men. The saints of old time, with childlike minds, rejoiced to think that His ' eye ' was upon them : that His ' ear ' was open to their prayers. The thought of His 'wrath' or 'jealousy' moved them with wholesome fear : the thought of His ' compassion ' and ' repentance ' raised them from hopeless de- spair. It was as easy as it was vain for philosophy to point out that in all this they were extending finite ideas to an infinite Being. They could not surrender what was the soul of religion. And when the fulness of time came, all that had been figure before was made reality. Christ in His own Person reconciled the finite and the infinite : man and GOD. By jvdrtue/of His Incarnation we know that all which belongs to the ] infection of humanity has a true union with Deity. (!<>!> in Christ gives back to us all that seemed to have been lost by the necessary widening of thought through the progress of the ages. We can without misgiving apply the language of \ Q given back and hallowed in Christ. 143 human feeling to Him Whom we worship. We x. can give distinctness to the object of our adoration without peril of idolatry. The limitations of our being do not measure the truth but they are made fit to express it for us. Christ seated at the. ^ right hand of the Father is no less man in Hisvv Tcit 'unspeakable glory than He was in the days of His Hebr. v. 7.L)1 flesh.. We aspire and hope, and He receives our "earthly homage and lifts it above earth. We ' struggle and fall, and He with the sympathy of a common nature strengthens and raises us. We are bereaved and then pass away ourselves, and He unites and quickens all who trust in Him with the power of His undying life. In Him all that touches us with tenderest devotion is recon- ciled with all that awes us with the most devout reverence. We turn again and againjtojihe poriraiiuiv of His divine presence which lives in the (iospels, l.o every trait of holiness, of sacrifice, of mercy, of calm reproof and gracious encourage- ment, and we know that in these we have the image of our Father. And the portraiture to which we turn is not for passive contemplation, but for the inspiration and the transfigurement of our whole being. As we look at the living Lord with a truer conviction that we may even now reflect something of its likeness : with a simpler faith that we can find in Christ, the Son of GOD, the Son of Man, the stay, the test, the object of our worship : with a 144 Christ still the revelation of the Father. x. livelier assurance that in Him we too are partakers of the Divine Nature ; we shall know know with a knowledge which grows with all the growth of years that it was for us, for our peace, for our joy, for our life Christ spake the words : He that ~ ^frK 1 ^^ hath seen Me hath seen the Father. ^ j . - -- ^_ L^ - APPENDIX I. THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. W. REV. 10 The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. REV. xix. 10. V *s ^ TTpotv^T'ec.as. '/ testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. APP. i. These words of the Apocalypse lay open to us the present power and the unalterable meaning of the Bible. On the one hand, they bring the divine message into the very centre of our life. On the other, they reveal to us the unchanging purpose which underlies the manifold shapes in which the message found expression in old time. The context in which the words occur adds to their impressiveness. The great enemy of the Church has fallen. The song of victory has been raised. The marriage feast of the Lamb is ready; and the angel who has ministered to the seer this vision of exceeding glory, pronounces the blessedness of those who are called to share in the triumph at length realised; and affirms that this is, indeed, the very will of GOD. Overwhelmed by the thought of such a revelation, the Apostle fell at the feet of him who made it, that he might worship him. See thou do it not, was the reply of the angel: / am 102 t ' **-\ 5 eXc6cov/ Crourcov ^XpVTCO 148 TAe testimony of Jesus the spirit of prophecy. -*"* /!) *"> AV ^T& ^^ Testament offer to us many grave difficulties k i )/) TvT wn i c h we are a t P resen t unable to overcome, it is ) TOO less certain that they offer a revelation of a rather than on tJte record. 159 purpose and a presence of GOD which bears in AIT. i. itself the stamp of truth. The difficulties lie points of criticism ; the revelation is given in the facts of a people's life. And in the trials of our present time, in the prospect of the work which we are called to do, it is our wisdom and four strength to turn to those old records of a divine discipline. The Gospel has made their meaning clearer than before, and brought home to us the truths which they embody. The lessons of national duty and of national responsibility, of selfishness and sacrifice, of sin and faith, are not I obsolete. Nay, rather they are becoming day by x , day of more overwhelming importance. As / Christians we have to do our part towards the hastening of the Lord's coming, as members of a great commonwealth and of a great Church, we have social obligations which we cannot disregard with impunity. The past has been interpreted ; the greater glory of the future is shewn in the greater power which has been given to us for its realisa- tion. The prophet's work has still to be done by those who have the prophet's spirit. And that spirit is not denied us. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. It would have been hard and we may thank GOD that we are spared the trial to acknowledge a Galilean Teacher, as He moved among men in His infinite humility, to be the Son of GOD. It is hard still to find that He is with us, to discern 160 The lesson of the life to be used still. APP. i. His message in lessons perhaps as strange as those which startled His first hearers; to recognise His form in those whoin la-lii-m despises. Vet- is it not the duty to which we are called ? Is not this the office for which we have been furnished with a divine" equipment ? The Jast voice of the Lord has not been spoken. The last victory of the Lord has not been won. We have known the facts of which all divine utterances are the exposition : we have looked upon the end in which all other ends are included. For us the dark and mysterious sayings of lawgiver, and seer, and psalmist, have been changed into the simple message of that which has been fulfilled among men : for us the language of struggling hope has been changed into the confession of historic belief: for us, not only as the confirmation of our faith, but as the guide of our Christian effort, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. My brethren, to hear and to bear this testimony in the language of our time is that which we have to do. Every day brings us the occasion for our message. Every place offers to us the scene of our conflict. Testimony is indeed only another name for martyrdom. But He who armed with strength and crowned with glory His witnesses in old time will not fail us, if we in our hour of trial rest wholly upon Him. -/ St Mary's, Cambridge, J 22ND SUNDAY AFTEB TRINITY. APPENDIX II. THE REVELATION OF THE GLORY OF GOD; THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE RESUR- RECTION. W. REV. 11 o OA o V ^ *p| Sv. X 7%e 5f?ory o/ Ae LORD shall be revealed, and alljlegli shall see it together : for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. ISAIAH x\. 5. n^HE glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and APP. n. all flesh shall see it. These words, as it will be remembered, give the theme of the Gospel of the Old Testament, that ' Gospel before the Gospel ' which is contained in the second part of Isaiah where prophecy finds its crown and consumma- tion. No possible conclusions of criticism can affect the unique majesty of the vision of great hope which rises out of them. Questions of date and authorship sink wholly into the background in view of the truths which the prophet declares. Let any one read that Gospel of national life as a whole in its environment, and he will find what inspira- tion is : he will find what prophecy is : the sight of GOD and the living interpretation of the world in the light of His Presence. The situation is clear, whether it be foreseen or only seen : the promise is clear: the fulfilment is clear. Looking upon a poor band of exiles, isolated from all the services of their religion, deprived of their natural leaders, corrupted by apostasy which assumed the 112 164 The Glory of the Lord APP. ii. disguise of pious worship, crushed by an idolatrous tyranny, and shewing the vices of slaves, the prophet looks also upon the LORD, the GOD of their fathers, and by His Spirit he is enabled to read in suffering the lesson of hope, and to pro- claim to a faithful remnant their mission to the nations. Never, I believe, has patriotism been shewn in a nobler aspect than in these burning appeals to the future heirs of the divine promise. It is called out as the passion for human service and not for selfish dominion. The Deliverance which the prophet anticipates is wrought not by heroic effort but in the order of providence through an alien conqueror. The Victory of the liberated people which he describes comes not through force but through martyrdom. The end to which he points is not temporal sovereignty but the open acknowledgment of the GOD of Israel, a new heaven and a new earth. There is, and he does not hide one dark trait, there is on all sides gloom and distrust and superstition and forget- fulness of GOD, but he proclaims with the as- ".'^surance of one who has looked upon the Eternal, i<.\jp4c*jthat the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. The glory of the Lord : the phrase is a key- word ^~bf Scripture. The whole record of revelation is a ^f^ 1 kup(0U record of the manifestation of GOD'S glory. The Bible is one widening answer to the prayer of 18. ' Moses, Shew me Thy glory, which is the natural in the Old and New Testaments. 165 cry of every soul made for GOD. The answer API*, n. does not indeed come as we look for it. We do not understand at first our own weakness. And so GOD has been pleased to make Himself known Hebr. i. l. in many parts and in many fashions, by material ^\ symbol and through human Presence, as man could Lv>> *bear the knowledge. By material symbol : from the Pentateuch to the Apocalypse there is one sign, one thought. When Moses went up into the Mount to re- ceive the tables of the Covenant, the glory of the Ex. xxiv. Lord abode on Sinai. When Aaron first fulfilled his priestly work of sacrifice and blessing, the glory of the Lord ap- Lev. ix. peared to all the people. W T hen the tabernacle was completed with its sacred furniture, the glory of the Lord filled His Ex. xl. 35. dwelling -pla ce. When Solomon had dedicated the Temple and the Ark had been set in its place, the priests i Kin^s could not stand to minister, for the glory of the Vlll< Lord had filled the house of the Lord. When Ezekiel looked in a vision upon the foundations of a New Jerusalem, he saw the glory Ezek.xliii. of the Lord come into His Jionse hi/ tin: eastern A 11- -S 166 The Glory of the Lord revealed in Israel f APP. ii. Lord GOD, the Almighty and the Lamb are the 5 KpOt- teinpl 6 thereof. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon ; for the glory of GOD did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. So it was that in times of murmuring and } rebellion, in times of devotion and service, GOD revealed His Presence by sensible signs that His it. Y\ IToV.^ people might come to recognise Him as a guiding light and a purifying fire. But no material emblem could shew truly what He is. Therefore ya, people, Israel, was created and fashioned for His glory, to reflect and reveal His character. -'And it is to the fulfilment of this national office ' 'that the prophet first looks in the words before us. The Lord, he declares, shall dawn with > great light upon Israel, and Israel shall dawn upon the world. Israel shall dawn upon the world a renovated life shall proclaim the power of the divine spirit. A missionary nation shall &U-prevail by righteousness. The many peoples shall AWro\/turn to the centre of hope and catch its bright- Tiess. And then in a sense deeper and fuller than where mountain peak or sanctuary were crowned by a visible radiance the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Such was the prophet's first hope ; and in this sense the glory of the Lord was revealed. From the date of the Return the Jews fulfilled their office as a prophetic, a Messianic nation. They em- bodied the truth in forms perhaps often harsh and and in the Servant. 167 rigid, and visibly proclaimed that faith in the divine APP. n. righteousness and the divine sovereignty which the prophets had shaped. We do not, I think, reflect sufficiently upon the grandeur of their work. The old world has nothing to shew like it. It was given to other races to feel after *and to unfold the broad sympathies of nature, the subtle attractiveness of beauty, the wise discipline of law, but the Jew received and witnessed to the idea of holiness which is the consecration of being. He believed, and he impressed his belief upon all with whom he came into contact, that our existence has a living GOD for its source and for its goal. He had found the Covenant with the Lord a reality, a spring of moral en- thusiasm, a stay of resolute patience, and he en- riched humanity by his knowledge. But the meaning of the prophet is not ex- hausted by this national fulfilment of the promise which he was- inspired to deliver. As he draws ( the brilliant picture of deliverance and spiritual sovereignty he finds the figure of ' the servant of Is. xlii. ff. ' the Lord ' occupying mysteriously the central place. As he gazes upon the nation and the nation's work, he is led to discern One in Whom the blessing and the burden of Israel are to be concentrated, One despised and rejected ls.liii.3ff. who shall display the majesty of dominion, One omjJdvVW who shall shew through victorious suffering th e lvxvtT K0- there is an eternal meaning and purpose in the evolution of being, that there is a communion of humanity through the Communion of Saints, that when we cannot see we can rest in Him Who is holiness and love, that the blessings which mark the faith shewn as on this day are for us also : Blessed is she that believed, for there shall Luke i. 45 be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken ; and again Blessed are they that saw not and yet believed; and all will be changed. The glory of the Lord will be revealed, His power and His long-suffering, using and bearing with His servants. ' The glory of GOD is a living man ; and the 172 Lessons of the Annunciation APP. ii. f ' life of man is the vision of GOD.' Yes : the life of a man, and the life of a Church is the vision of GOD. Not always nor all at once is that sight given to us. Something at each moment is dis- closed that effort may have its real foundation: something is withheld that effort may have its unfailing call. But in the Life of Christ the Son of man the vision was full, absolute, uninterrupted. That Life remains for us ; and even when the light is clouded we can still look to the source whence it flows. We can keep our as- surance firm by turning in every perplexity to the Gospel of this day's two-fold Festival. Can it mean less to us than that humiliation, loss, suffering, is as a veil which time casts over the - fulfilment of the Divine will ; that we shall find i\ our battle won if we claim the fruits of victory ; ' that our life, our one life, is for each of us the opportunity for so learning as men to see GOD l John iii. that we may hereafter bear the transforming splendour of His open face ?^- The day encourages, or rather claims, the largest hopes, the loftiest purposes. We wrong our Faith when we do not embrace them, and confess them. It may be, as we were told three days ago, that ' we are dumb ' ; but if we are dumb the voice of the prophet speaks with no uncertain sound ; and the vision of the prophet has not failed. The Life of Christ was not indeed universally welcomed as we should have and Easter. 173 expected. The life of the Church has been APP. n. checked and marred by many grievous maladies. The lives of believers are seen too often as iso- lated fragments hard to read. But none the less when we look back to the prophet's time we feel that the reality has overpassed his utmost ex- pectation, that the glory of the Lord has been revealed and that it rests over the world. So we look back, and we look forward. We count up, it may be, our failures, our dangers, our trials : we ask when ' the weight of custom lies ' upon us ' ' Do we now believe ? ' : we dissemble, I fear, the greatest aspirations by which we are stirred : we suspect purposes which require Di- vine force for execution : we remember only late that, as things are, an age is impoverished if it has no place for martyrs, for witnesses for GOD. But we do remember the fact on a day like this. We remember it ; and then the / r angelic voices which we hear come back to us with a new power in the prospect of work to be \ done, and in the prospect of the end of work, the - voice in the lowly home : Hail thou that art Luke i. 28^*. < highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: the voice by the empty grave: Why seek ye living among the dead? He is not here: He is-' *ft risen. With such comments, with such con- -f $ v firmations we can take to ourselves for our strength- p -^ ening and for our consolation the promise which V te- rn past fulfilment carries the earnest of the future : < 174 Sursum corda. APP. n. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. ' The glory of GOD is a living man : the life of ' man is the vision of GOD.' Today that vision is opened again before our eyes. Today that glory is again made known as the purpose of our lives. . King'* College Chapel, EASTEK DAY, March 25, 1883. APPENDIX III THE REVELATION OF THE TRIUNE GOD AN IMPLICIT GOSPEL. r/ e' / C c avcoc ay^s K-opioS.o "^5 , o TfcwTo 07 V f ^ ' - c - c> ^\rl<:ac o L5v Kcu is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. GQD first loved us that knowing His love we might love Him in our fellow men. Without spiritual sympathy '- there can be no knowledge. But where sympathy (\C. exists there is the transforming power of a divine affection. So far, therefore, as we are 188 Brings back glory to earth. APP. in. scions of a deeper life when we behold the depths of the life the love of GOD we learn even here to raise the strain of heaven : Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord GOD, the Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts. Our eyes are dim and our faith is weak ; we behold thick clouds of misery and sin hanging over nature and men. We find no escape from their blinding, chilling, numbing vapours. But jet hope pierces though them, and ever enter- Hebr. vi. ing afresh within the veil gains, as on this day, a vision of great joy ; and then, while we regard that Will which is love, that Wisdom which is sacrifice, that Power which is holiness, we dare to look through the seen to the unseen, through the temporal to the eternal, and to complete the pro- phet's confession with trembling lips, casting our- '< selves wholly upon the revelation which interprets the longings of our soul : Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. The fulness of the earth is His glory. May He in His great mercy grant us to see it, and seeing it to make it known. * I ^^ v * St Mary's, Cambridge, TRINITY SUNDAY, 1883. CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY j. AND c, F, CLAY AT THE UNJVERSITY PRESS. . UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIL A 000 037 935 4