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^' known unto God are all His works from the beginning," and nothing, save the Spirit of God, could reveal before their completion the events that

were thereafter to come to pass, (156) The succession of evidences of the resurrection is so rapid in this chapter, that we feel encompassed with a great cloud of witnesses, all testifying to the same wondrous truth. But even this respect for the law of evidence, in the mind of Him who was instituting a faith that was to irradiate the the whole world, seems to have been insufficient to answer the great purpose which He had in view. Christ not only poured testimony upon testimony to the then present fact of His resurrection, but He appointed witnesses who should testify to the same truth after His ascension, and trausmit that truth in the power of the promised Spirit through all successive ages. As the Father left not Himself without witness to the heathen world, in that He did good and gave them rain from heaven and fruitftd seasons, even while He winked at the times of their ignorance; so when the time of knowledge came, the Son left not Himself without more definite witness, that the name of Jesus and the doctrine of the resiirrection might be heralded throughout all the world. To us, the descendants of the Gentile family, so long dead in trespasses and sins, and alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them, the blessed tidings of redemption from sin, justification by faith, and salvation by grace "have been freely and ftdly revealed. Let us not read in vain the sacred record, which contains these hallowed doctrines; but, as we believe the only begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens, so let us seek in the power of the Holy Spirit in heart and mind thither to ascend, and with Him continually to dwell. Whom truly to know is life eternal!

END OF THE COMMENTARY

ON THB

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. (137)

COMMENTARY

ON TBI

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT JOHN.

March 14— July 13— November 9.

ST. JOHN, Chap. 1.

So marked is the difference between the style of the Gospel according to St. John and that of the other Evangelists, that the title of " The Spiritual," in contradistinction from the three that were ''Bodily,"

was applied to it in ancient times. And this difference is as marked in the first chapter as in all other portions of the book. While the other Evangelists commence their writings with the human genealogy or earthly relationships .of Jesus of Nazareth, the beloved disciple leads us at once to contemplate the mystery of His eternal being, in language that strikingly reminds us of the first words of inspiration, and bids us look upon the Word employed in the exercise of creative and vivifying power!

So rapt in the contemplation of the glory of the Word does the Evangelist seem, that he finds it difficult to restrain the expression of his admiring love, and lower his tone to the (188) March \4~^uly IS] FAMILT READINGS. [November 9

language even of inspired history. His soul's communion was with his spiritual Head; and he loves to speak of the hidden things and interior relationships of Christ and His members^ rather than waste his power of revelation upon that which was merely visible and external.

Thus^ amid the few words that he bestows upon the external testimony of his namesake^ the Baptist^ he lays down authoritatively the great doctrine of the pre-existence and eternity of the Word; of His being the sole source of light and life to man; of faith in^ and a true reception of Him being by the will of God the instrument of man's adoption and sonship; of the temporary character of the legal dispensation^ and its inferiority to the grace and truth of Jesus Christ; and of that oflen-forgotten truth) that there is and has been no revelation, no knowledge of the power, the

attributes, and the will of God, apart from that declaration of Him which we have received from the only begotten Son.

The historical portion of St. John's narrative commences, like that of St. Mark, with our Lord's baptism and subsequent entry upon the office of a public teacher. It is probable that he himself was the companion of Andrew, the first called disciple, and thus had an earlier introduction to Jesus than the scarcely less favoured Peter.

Among the several Apostles whose call is related in the chapter before us, the one whose conversation with our Lord seems fraught with most interest is Nathanael, generally supposed to be the same with Bartholomew. The guilelessness and simplicity of this holy man point him out to us as highly deserving of respect; while the language used by our Lord, in reference to his being seen under the fig-tree, leads us to imagine that he was one of those whose piety led him to pray for the restoration of Israel in the coming of the Messias, and that it was the direct

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answer to such a prayer that at once confirmed his faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

Our Lord's remark to him moreover in the closing verse of the chapter^ brings with it much matter for reflection. In encouraging a newly-awakened faith. He sought to confirm it by fixing its apprehensions upon things past and upon things yet to come. He pointed back to the vision of Jacob's ladder, the base of which was set up on the earth while its top reached to heaven: He pointed forward to the coming interpretation of that vision, when, at the Ascension of Jesus, angelic witnesses should testify to the disciples that the true communication was established between earth and heaven: He fixed the love of the faithftd Israelite upon Himself, the true union of the shadow and the substance of that mysterious vision: He established his belief by reference to the past: He kindled his love by the facts of the present; and He encouraged his hope by revelation of the future.

And thus does this great Being—the Son of GoD-^deal also with us, who, like Nathanael, are called to be His disciples. Past, present, and future unite to fix upon Christ our adoring love. His sympathy with us is established in the fact of His humanity, the base of that mysterious ladder which is set up on the earth. His power to save us is revealed in His divinity, the top of it which reacheth unto heaven.

His will to save us is made known in the voice of the Lord God heard firom above it, inviting the sinners of the ransomed universe in tones of love, '^ Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth!"

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f^^0^

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March 15— July 14— November 10.

ST. JOHN, Chap. 2.

One of the most essential distinctions between the previous systems of teaching and that adopted by Christ; is to be found in the fact of our Lord mingling freely amid the social life of those He came to teach. Moses as a lawgiver, and the founders of various sects of human philosophy, had taught above or apart from the people they were to leaven with their doctrine. But the Son of God, when He took upon Himself the form of a servant, moved in the midst of the people He came to regenerate as one of themselves, recognised their social relationships, and, for the most part, submitted to their conventional laws.

Thus it was that we find Him introduced to us by St. John as a guest at the social festivities of Cana. There would seem to be no doubt but that the mother of Jesus knew beforehand that He was about to manifest His glory on this occasion. This is sufficiently indicated by the natural anxiety she displays in the remark first addressed to Himself, and the injunction subsequently given by her to the servants. But though His mother was acquainted with His intention, there seems no reason to suppose that He was invited to the marriage festival as a teacher, but simply as a guest.

The great lesson to be learned from the miracle of turning water into wine, by subsequent generations, would seem to be of a different character from that it was calculated to teach to those in whose presence it was wrought. "Wonder at the power exhibited, would doubtless be their prevailing feeling at such a beginning of miracles, and belief in His divine mission would be kindled in some and confirmed in

others. But to us, being only one of many equal instances of (141) Jf«rdll5-^a^ 14] FAMILT READINGS. iNovemberlO

power, it teaches a lesson of love rather than of faith; it leads ns to recognise the hallowing influence of Christ's presence in the midst of our social and domestic happiness, and to feel that that festive board alone is truly blessed where His presence is sought, welcomed, and recognised.

The first purging of the Temple by our Lord of those who came to that sacred place for profane purposes, is interesting for many reasons. First, in the expression, *^ My Father's house,** we are taught to recognise Christ's distinct assertion of His own Sonship.

Next, it serves as a testimony to the holiness of the law, as well as exhibits the reverence He thought necessary to be paid to the house dedicated to His Father's honour. Next, it guided his disciples' minds to the testimony of prophecy, and taught them to trace in His actions the fulfilment of the ancient scriptures. And lastly, it brought out, in reply to the complaining Jews, that prophecy of the resurrection which, though obscure at the time, was made clear to His disciples in its result They understood not then that He spake of the temple of His body; but the experience of increased revelation taught them subsequently that great truth, that in Him dwelt all the fiilness of the Godhead bodily.

At the end of the chapter, we find even at this early period of His ministry, that *' many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did." Should we not reflect how such, with but an imperfect knowledge of His person and revelation, will rise in judgment against professing christians of later ages, who, with Christ

ftdly revealed in His Holy Gospel, fail to pay the honour and reverence due unto His name, or to obey the plain injunction, that ''

at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth." (142) t^t0^^^^r^^^^0i^*^^^^^^t^^^^^t^^^^^0^0^0^^^0^

March le^^ufy \5] FAMILY READINGS. [November U

March 16— ^July 15— November 11.

ST. JOHN, Chap. 3.

The chapter we have just read seems to develope what St. Paul subsequently termed the doctrine of baptisms. The covenant of circumcision, the baptism unto repentance of John, (which St.

Chrysostom speaks of as the bridge connecting the initiatory sacraments of the Mosaic and Christian schemes,) and the baptism of water and the spirit under Christ's law, are ail here treated oL

The inquiring and subsequently faithful Nicodemus came in the privacy of the night to seek information from the Lord Jesus Christ.

With how solemn feelings should we approach the contemplation of the instruction he received! First, our Lord lays down the necessity of institution into the kingdom of God, which He came to establish: institution by an act requiring God's grace and man's apprehension to make it effectual. Man requires to be born from above, ere he can see the kingdom of God. The illumination of the Spirit is needed to awaken him. How or why the operation of water should be needed to develope the Spirit's grace it would be scarcely wise for man to inquire. Let it suffice that such is the seal which Christ's word hath enjoined, to render visible that which otherwise would remain an unseen mystery. Faith and obedience are the best instruments by which we can receive and apply the words, " Except a man be bom of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." In the words which follow this solemn announcement, we are taught to recognise the Grace exhibited in a religious life, as the work of God,

just as much as we recognise the growth of the body to be the effect of the physical law which (143)

God has stamped upon His creation. The influence of grace is, moreover, represented to us under the analogy of the most subtle element; so that we are taught by every breath of heaven the unseen, mysterious, and powerful agency of the Spirit of God.

And in our Lord's assertion of the spiritual character of the birth of water and of the Spirit, we should not fail to mark how the doctrine is corroborated by reference to the spiritual character of the inferior ordinance of circumcision. We can scarcely wonder at our Lord's rebuke of Nicodemus contained in the tenth verse, when we remember that the law of Moses had more than once spoken of a circumcision of the heart, that the Psalms had taught the doctrine of the renewal of a right spirit, and that the Prophets had taught the Jews to look to the Lord to have His law put in their inward parts and written in their hearts.

Nor were the types of the law left unnoticed in this remarkable conversation. The spiritual character, if one may so speak, the sacramental power, of the brazen serpent looked upon in faith is set forth, while it is shown that the mystery of the crucifixion was therein represented. In the sixteenth and seventeenth verses, the great object of Christ's coming, and the power of the cross as bearing the atonement of the world's sin is laid down, whHe, in the four following verses, the blessing upon faith is revealed, and the necessity of good works, if we would avoid condemnation, enjoined.

In regarding the arrangement of this chapter, it would seem as though it were specially to confirm the doctrine of baptisms, that it is here related that Jesus and His disciples tarried in Judea and there baptized.

But the doctrine of baptisms was not yet completely elucidated. It remained to show the imperfection and com-(144) Hfnrck 17—A/^ 16] family readings. [AbMnier 12

parative feebleness of the baptism of John, for to this there seems no doubt but that the question of purifying alludes. In the words of the Baptist, a diflference between the office and power of himself as a herald, and Christ as the person heralded, is distinctly laid down This humble and holy man, in language sublimely beautiful, bears testimony to the dignity, exaltation, and truth of the Eternal Bridegroom, who alone speaketh the word of God, and hath the Spirit without measure. He shows how the Son's power is derired through the Father's love, and how the union of believers with Him, through the instrumentality of Faith, ensures to them a common life with the ever-living Jesus. And, alas for the unbelieving, he announces also in the language of inspiration that sorrowful truth, that "he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."

March 17— July 16— November 12.

ST. JOHN, Chap. 4.

The actual personal life of our great Example is by none of the Evangelists so brought out to view, as it is by St. John; and perhaps no more powerful exhibition is given of it, even in his writings, than in this chapter. It was at an early period of pis ministry, probably soon after the first passover that He attended and at which He taught as the Messias, that on his return from Judea into Galilee through Samaria, He met with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Here we find Him teaching us to break through the usual forms of society, when a worthy purpose is to be gained by it: though the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, yet He, a Jew, held communication with her, a Samaritan, for the

purpose of leading her^ and those whom she would interest and influence, to the knowledge of the Truth!

It is observable also, in this most interesting conversation, that though the Lord began by exciting the sympathies of the woman by seeking her aid to relieve His own physical wants, yet that He immediately gives the conversation a spiritual turn, and leads her to feel the luxury it would be to know that all her wants would be at

once supplied for ever! As in the case of all sinners, the spiritual language used by the Lord is interpreted in a low and carnal sense by the Samaritan; but allowances are made for even this, by the compassionate Saviour; and she is led on from one point to another, till, after revealing His knowledge of her own life to herself. He proceeds to open up to her, in definite and most clear language, the wondrous truth of Himself being that Messias, to Whose coming the true-minded of the Samaritans as well as of the Jews looked forward.

And even in the midst of these high subjects, it may be useful to pause for an instant, to observe the perfect sympathy of the mind of Christ with that of His most zealous servants of all ages, when the pressure of spiritual contemplation overcomes the natural desire of offered temporal refreshment When He said to His attentive and affectionate followers, " I have meat to eat that ye know not of," He clearly did not mean to assert an inherent power of miraculous sustenance; His object rather was to lead them to apprehend that mental and heartfelt interest in the well-being of others, which superseded the desire of animal support. The mind triumphed over the body in Him, when " doing the will of Him that sent Him," just as it does in His disciples of all time* Let us seek in faithful prayer '* the mind of Christ," and we too shall find ourselves similarly sustained I (14C)

Neither should we fail to observe in the record of the Samaritan woman, how the testimony of one leads many others to enquire and believe! Her natural and true impression that Jesus was the Messias brought numbers out of the city to come to Him; and when they had come, and had heard the words of Him who spake as never man sj)ake, these too believed, not because of her saying, but because they had heard Him themselves, and knew that this was the Christ! Might not our testimony to the experienced blessings of Christ's Church, and the experienced comforts of the written Word, be productive of similar effects on those of our acquaintance who do not yet know the truth as it is in Jesus ?

The latter part of this chapter informs us more clearly than any other portion of Scripture of the cause of the fame that accompanied Jesus

into Galilee, on his removal from Judea, after the first passover. St.

Luke had indeed implied it, (iv. 14.) but it is only from hence that we learn it absolutely (t>. 45): and from this, as from many other grounds, we are led to infer that one great object St. John had in view in the the composition of his Gospel, was the supply of these deficiencies which one like him could trace in the earlier Evangelists.

The first miracle of healing is recorded at the close of the chapter before us. The nobleman of Capernaum (who has been suggested, not improbably, to have been Chuza, Herod's Steward) was no less an object of care to Christ than the water-drawer of Samaria. May we learn from hence, whatever be our rank in life, to look in all our difiiculties with faith to Him, who is our great Physician, and has power to heal the body as well as to save the soul I (147) 1.9

M*rdl l»—JmJf \7\ rAHILT RBADINGB. [JWwnihr 13

March 18— Jclt 17— Novb bbx 13, ST. JOHN, Chap. 5.

It waa during the feast of the Passover, the second that He had publicly attended, that our Lord performed the miracle of healing at the pool of Bethesda. That this work of mercy, being perfonned on the Sabbath, should have excited the anger of the formal Israelite causes no surprise: but their objection was of peculiar value in this instance, as it brought out &om our Lord a declaration of His own unity with the Father. And not only this; but the assertion of that identity is followed up in the sacred record with the proof that it was taken in that sense by the Jews themselves: thus neutralizing the afterthought of later days, that the Jews sought the condemnation of Jesus for rebellion, but not for blasphemy. Had they not understood Him to assert His sonship and one-ness with The Father, whereon the Doctrines of the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Eternal Mediation, and even of the Trinity rest; they would not have accused Him, as they did, of making Himself equal with God.

But while this awfiil fact, that the Son should be honoured even as the Father, was to the Jews a stumbling-block, how gratefully should

we receive it, accompanied as it is by a knowledge of His quickening power, and the assurance that they that hear His word, and believe on Him that sent Him, shall never come into condemnation! The comforting verse containing this assurance is selected by our National Church as the Gospel for the Communion 5ick, Holy and blessed words are they, uttered Physician of souls, and applied by His Church to >rt and renewal of her sick members The Revelation of the twenty-seventh verse, that the sympathy of the Man Christ Jesus is the ground of His being appointed the Judge of the whole human race, sets strikingly before us the condescension and compassion of our Heavenly Father. We shall be judged by a standard which we can all, at least in the abstract, recognize; the standard of perfect humanity. In living as our Example, Christ has most eminently qualified Himself for becoming our Judge: and while He has acquired by His Incarnation an experimental knowledge of the passions, the tendencies, and the temptations of humanity. He has shewn by His undeviating holiness the lofty moral standard to which the human nature may attain. By his Passion, He has taught us what we ought to do and to sufier for each other. By His Atoning Death, and the offering of His own perfect Sacrifice, He has paid the penalty of the wages of sin, and blotted out the hand-writing of ordinances against us. By his Resurrection, He has proved that mortality is swallowed up of life, and that the grave has no lasting power over the sons of God. By His Ascension, He has proved that the glorified bodies of the holy ones of God shall not return to corruption (which might otherwise have been asserted.) By His bestowal of the Holy Ghost, according to His promise. He has shewn the illuminating and quickening power whereby he governs in the Church everlastingly.

And by what evidence do we believe these great truths? If His own unsupported testimony, as He asserts, would have been insufiicient, what shall we say when we find it corroborated, first by His herald, John the Baptist; secondly, by the Father Himself; thirdly, by the works that He did; fourthly, by the scriptures that He inspired! If the writings of Moses and the other ancient scriptural authors who wrote of Christ yet to come, were sufficient to condemn (149)

ifard IS-yx^ IS] rAMlLT READINGS. [Nouetibtr U

the Jews who received Him not when He came, what excuse shall be found for the unbeliever of modem times, who has the testimony of the New Testament superadded to the prophecies of the Old ?

ST. JOHN, Chap. 6.

The subjects of the earlier portion of this chapter have been brought uuder notice in the perusal of the Gospel according to St. Matthew: the remainder is peculiar to St. John.

The hope of seeing another miracle, or the still lower desire of being filled with the unwonted supply of food, led many of the Jews who had witnessed the wondrous multiplication of the loaves and fi&hes to follow Jesus on His return across the lake. This caused our Lord to administer a deserved rebuke in the synagogue at Capernaum, and to instruct H's heaters en the value of the meat which endureth to everlasting life. In the disputation that followed, Jesus revealed Himself as the Bread of Life, sent down from Keavea by ihe Father to be the sustenance of the world: He declared tlat lo Him was entrusted the then mysteriou? power of tVe Eesurrection, whereof all that came to Him and believed on Him should be made "■■-*"^""''

"lut thct men i^ere not to trust presumptuously I strength, but look upward for the guidance and the Father, which had been promised of old by

i they professed to revere.

it to be wondered at that the carnal heart of the able to appreciate this spiritual teaching. Eeceir-ing His words in their literal sense, they thought His sayings " hard to hear," and apprehended not the " spirit and life " they were intended to convey. Let it not be so with us, lest, at the Judgment, we be found less excusable than they! Much that was mysterious to them has been made clear to us. The Doctrine of the Resurrection, of

which at that time they could have formed but an imperfect conception, has been exemplified to us in our Risen Head! The Doctrine of His Flesh being given for the life of the world, then equally obscure, has been elucidated to us by the offering of the very Paschal Lamb! The Doctrine of eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood as a means of Communion with Himself, has been made clear by His own gracious ordinance of the Memorial Supper, when He said at its institution " Take, eat; this is my body. Drink ye all of this

:• this cup is the New Testament in my blood: do this in remembrance of me; " — in which sacred ordinance, the faithful recipients are made one in Christ and Christ in them! The Doctrine of " the Son of Man ascending up where He was before," has been exhibited before angels and men in that glorious Ascension, when Christ took captivity captive, and received, on His offered Intercession, the gifts of the Holy Spirit for man, that the Lord God might dwell among them! Thus, in all these leading points of Doctrine, the duty of belief is made so much more clear to us than to them, that if they were condemned for want of Faith, what ground can remain for the faithless amongst us to hope for forgiveness ?

Let us take a lesson, in conclusion, from the earnest declaration of the zealous Peter, ^' To whom shall we go ? Thou, O Jesus, hast the words of Eternal Life." Let us only in faith cling to this confession—"

We believe and

are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living (151) JVarci 90—Ja^ 19] PAHILT READING*. [November iS

God ;" and we need not fear that He in whom we trust will allow us to make shipwreck of out salvation!

March 20— July 19— Notembkr Ifi. ST. JOHN, Chap. 7. Even the common sympathies of humanity seem to have been denied to our redeeming Lord. The comfort and bleesing of fraternal affection must have been withdrawn from Jesus, when, after his kinsmen having once sought to ky hands on him as beside Himself, His brethren now taunted Him with His prudent conduct in withdrawing Himself from the fierce persecution of the people of Judea. How

much of bitter sorrow do these facts infiise into our Lord's remark; "

who is my mother and my brethren!" and yet how much of joy and privilege do diey reveal to us!

The divisions among the people at the feast of Tabernacles, intimate the great notoriety which our Lord had attained throughout His whole nation: but He had no sooner shewn Himself among them, than His appearance was made the subject of sneering rebuke, and a conspiracy to seize Him was immediately set on foot. His reverent obedience to His Father, His sound reasoning, and His boldness in declaring the truth, are specially evidenced in the disputation recorded about the midst of the feast.

The insti-uction of our Lord on the eighth day of the feast seems to call for more particular notice and ex-planatiou. On that day, the most solemn of the whole, it was the custom to draw water from the Pool of Siloam, and it out as a drink-offering to God in the Temple, with ilemnity and the sound of various voices and in-B. This was done partly in commemoration of

iculous relief of water produced from the stony rock by Moses, but principally to solicit the blessing of rain for the approaching seed-time. As the people therefore were performing this ceremony, Jesus, with that appropriate oratory which was so distinguished a feature in His teaching, put them in mind, that these waters were but types and signs of that Spiritual Water which had been prophesied of old by Isaiah and Joel, and which He came to give them; and alluding to the effusion of the Spirit after His death and glorification. He compared it to rivers of living water, which they who believed in Him should receive, and be enabled to dispense.

The parenthetical remark of the Evangelist (v. 39) has a very important prospective, as well as retrospective reference. While it looks back to the prophecies of the Old Testament, and especially to that striking one of David (Ps. Ixviii. 18.) where the gifts of the Spirit are promised at Messias' Intercession, it looks forward to its fulfilment as recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles: and thus teaches us to connect in the work of Redemption the whole series of events in the History of Christ, shewing us how the Incarnation, Life, Teaching, Atonement, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus were but preparatory to that Eternal Mediation, which restored to the world the forfeited Spirit of God, and caused "

The Lord God to dwell among men" even among *^the rebellious also;" and which, first evidenced in its fruits at the richly-blest feast of Pentecost, is even now going on at the right-hand of the Father for us!

There is a striking verification of the claims of Jesus to be received as Messias, to be found by a collation of the twenty-seventh, forty-first, forty-second, and fifty-second verses of this chapter: "When Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is," said the Jews ; and in saying (158) March 2\^jMfy 20f] TAMILT RBADIN08. [November 16

that He " came out of Galilee/* they proved this very ignorauce, which was declared to be one of the signs of His coming! While at the same time, their admission of the Scripture verity, that " Christ should come of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem,"

corroborated His claim from the other side of the question.

By many ways is Jesus of Nazareth proved to be the Anointed of God.

Let us then ever look unto Him, Who is the author and finisher of our faith I

March 21— July 20— November 16.

ST. JOHN, Chap. 8.

The design of the Scribes and Pharisees in bringing before Jesus the unhappy sinner of whom we have read in the commencement of this chapter, seems to have been a very crafty one. Had He usurped the functions of a judge and condemned her to death. He would have been rendered obnoxious to the Romans; had He acquitted her, in contradiction to the Law of Moses, He would have been liable to an accusation before the Sanhedrim. While, however, our Lord's evasion of the dilemma in which they sought to place Him confounded His subtle enemies. His mode of treating the accused person strikingly places the benevolence of the Gospel above the severity of the Law.

The principle of the Law, suited to the half-civilized character of an early stage of society, seems to have been to weed out sin from the nation by the removal of each proved offender; but that of the Gospel, to elevate the moral character of the people by the reformation of the sinner. A night of sternness was to yield to the genial

influence of a day-spring of love. (164)

€€

March 2\^Juhf^'] FAMILY READINGS. [November 16

When we read of our Lord foretelling the future lifting up" of Himself, we may well imagine the Jews to have been perplexed at the obscurity of the announcement ; and this is another of the many instances by which the superior advantages that we possess over them are manifested. But even under all this obscurity, the assertion of His unity with The Father came with such power at this time, that

"many believed on Him as He spake these words." How will such rise up in judgment against us, if we fail to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father !

Much of the later portion of the chapter is essentially practical, as shewing how the works of man identify him with his true parentage.

They that are of God live in honesty and holiness, and do the works, of their Father. They that are of Satan live in selfishness, craft, and

sensuality, and do the works of their father. And this rule of observation is not merely to be applied to others, but may be made useful as a test to ourselves. The natural evil of our own hearts leads us frequently into the intention, if not to the commission, of error : if the intention be checked, it is a sign of our sonship of God : if it be indulged, it is a proof that we are not free from the dominion of Satan. But what saith the Scripture ? " If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed!" Let us then seek to realize to ourselves the high privilege of "being made the children of God, by faith in Chiist Jesus;" and in the strength of Him who was revealed as I AM "before Abraham was," bearing constant and living testimony to the glory of that liberty wherewith He hath made us free!

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JfarcA 22—Jii^ 21] FAMILY READINGS. [I^oveotber 17

March 22— July 21— November 17.

ST. JOHN, Chap. 9.

A popular notion was prevalent among the Jews that every affliction endured by man was a special judgment upon a special sin: nor are instances wanting of professing christians adopting the same idea.

Our Lord however teaches us in this chapter that God, in permitting affliction, may have other purposes than the immediate punishment of the suffering individual. Himself the Light of the world. He brought physical as well as moral and spiritual light to them that needed it; and in the portion of Scripture before us, gladdened with the blessing of sight one hitherto destitute of that great enjoyment.

The frequent repetition of miracles of healing on the sabbath-day seems to indicate the earnestness of mind with which our Lord sought to eradicate the false notions of that day in which the Jews indulged. As usual, however, it excited angry feelings on the part of the rulers, and a council of the Pharisees seems to have been called with special reference to the matter. The great pains they took to disprove the miracle had precisely the contrary effect from what was intended, and established it as an undeniable fact. Their persecuting

spirit was strikingly exhibited in the course of the examination they held, and vented itself finally in the excommunication of the unoffending person, whose faithful testimony they found it impossible to shake. Boasting themselves the disciples of Moses, and blinded by their ovm prejudices, they closed their hearts against the reception of any testimony in favour of Him, of Whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write: yea, even though the miraculous attestation to His power under their

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March ^2-July 2\] FAMILY READINGS. [November}!

consideration was one of the very signs that Isaiah had predicted of the coining Messias.

But to us even these evidences, however convincing, fail in interest before that revelation which Jesus made to the once blind man of Himself. Becogiaizing him as a confessor in His cause. He sought out the excommunicated man, and revealed Himself personally to him, not merely as his benefactor but as his Lord! He made Himself known to him, and through him to all who read the record of the Evangelists, as the Son of God, the true object of his adoring worship

! Not only the Revealer of physical light. He made known the brightness of His Father's Glory to that sinful man, who, newly cut off by unrighteous authority from the means of grace in his own Church, must have so much the more strongly felt the need of a Saviour! Thus does a kind Providence ever help most, when man's need is greatest: and, like him, has many a faithful christian been led in times of the deepest depression and seeming desertion to behold the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus!

The closing verses of this chapter are of deep importance. Here we find the solemn fact stated, that the doctrine of Christ is intended to make a great separation among men. They whose blindness proceeds from mere ignorance are invited to a knowledge of the truth : but they who see only through the organs of pride and prejudice are left to grope in the blindness of an unconverted heart!

Let us examine ourselves: and ask in a spirit of humility more conscientious than that which the Pharisees professed—Are we blind also ?

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March 23— July 22— November 18.

ST. JOHN, Chap. 10.

The touching and affectionate character of our Saviour's teaching is strikingly set forward in this chapter, wherein He likens Himself in His care of His own, to the good Shepherd that giveth his life for his sheep.

But after contrasting His own watchfulness and fidelity with the negligence and indifference of the hireling. He passes on by a natural transition to foretel the coming fact that He was to lay down His life for the sheep.

The idea of atonement seems here distinctly implied: but an atonement differing in character from that with which the Jews were familiar; inasmuch as this was free and voluntary, while they were accustomed to see the sacrificial blood of an unwilling victim flow.

Mvsterious as this announcement of His intended sacri-fice must have been, there were some points in which it would be clearer to the Jews than it can be to us, though we have that full knowledge of the subsequent circumstances which, in the nature of things, was denied to them.

The principal of these points was their familiarity with the idea of sacrificial atonement: they were habituated to the notion of offering life to secure life: so that when our Lord spoke of giving His own life for His sheep that they might have life more abundantly. He was speaking of that which, however strange to us, was to them a matter of daily experience.

But inasmuch as their very familiarity with the doctrine of Atonement had led many of them away from its reference to life

eternal,, our Lord seems specially desirous to prevent any error on this head, and to shew that His

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JIfarcA 23—JVfy 22] FAMILY READINGS. [November IS

foretold sacrifice was to have a larger meaning than any mere legal atonement. This seems implied by the unwonted exercise of power He was about to display in taking up again that life which He would lay down. Their Prophets had taught them that the Messias should make His soul an oflFering for sin, and yet notwithstanding He should prolong His days: moreover that His flesh should rest in hope, because the Father would not leave His soul in hell, nor suffer Him who was His Holy One to see corruption. And with this teaching of the Prophets the words of Christ in the chapter before us exactly coincided, when He said, "1 have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again," and " this commandment have I received of My Father."

We cannot then wonder that there was a division among the Jews because of these sayings: for they who were His own and knew His voice, would recognize therein a harmonious consistency with the words of the Prophets, which were read in their ears every sabbath-day; while they, on the other hand, who were of the world and knew Him not, would naturally reject the testimony of God against themselves.

In the latter part of the chapter, is a renewed assertion of the oneness of Jesus with the Father; and an appeal to the testimony that His works exhibited of His divine commission and power. Thus are we taught that profession and practice should ever go hand in hand; and that Man has a right to expect consistency not only in His teachers, but in all who make a profession of serving God. If the life belie the lips, and the conduct and profession be at variance. He must expect the former testimony to be regarded as the most powerful of the two. And just as Jesus might reasonably have been considered an imposter if He had not (150)

done the works of His Father, so must the nominal servant of Jesus be considered as a living lie, when he says Lord, Lord, but does not the things which He commands I

March 24— July 23— November 19.

ST. JOHN, Chap. 11.

The loving disposition of our divine Lord is beautifully exhibited in the. account of the raising of Lazarus. The tears of His holy sympathy have cheered many mourners in sub* sequent ages, and His felt presence by, the bed of death brightened, many hopes, yea assurances, of a blessed resurrection.! His revelation of Himself ^s tb^ Resurrection and the Life was not .intended for. Martha's .^ai*.

j^lone, but a ransomed world w^. to be gladdened l^y theaegqod tidings: and the prophesy of. Caiapl^as tbat .fesi^ sboulfli die for that nation was enlarged in i^ ^igui^atipn by the inspired evangelist, that all the pl^ildr.e^ of|Gop,in their dispersion might know that it isi by tbie .d^^^lth and passion of Jesus that they are made heirs, of eternal life;

There is an important 7?sson tp.he. l^med from the connexion of the fourth and fortiet^x vei:ses, which might escape the cursory reader (though none of us oi;^ght to be cursory readers of the Book of God,) if it were ^npt distinctly pointed out. This lesson is, that inattention to the promises of Christ draws down His rebuke even upon those that love Him. The answer returned by the Lord to the message of the sisters, led them to look forward to God being glorified in their brother's recovery. In the sorrow con-sequent upon his actual death, this seems to have been entirely overlooked by Martha, and when our Lord ordered

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the stone to be removed from the mouth of the sepulchre, she expostulated against the impropriety of such an order: then it was, that in a tone of sternness, unwonted in Him who was embodied Love, He recalled to her memory the blessed assurance He had sent in reply to her first message. O that we were not like her, forgetful of

Christ's cheering offers, yea, promises of salvation to us! How much of faithless despondency would be removed, were but His words of love imprinted on our hearts and minds!

The language of Thomas Didymus, recorded in the sixteenth verse, has been variously interpreted. It would seem to be the expression of a warm, but not believing attachment to the person of Jesus. Our Lord was at this period living in comparative privacy beyond Jordan, on account of the persecution He had experienced at the hands of the Jews: He seemed therefore, to the yet carnal apprehension of Thomas, to thrust Himself into certain but needless danger, by trusting His person again among them; and though his faith in Jesus as the Messiah was not yet confirmed, his aflfectionate fondness for his Master urged him to share His dangers and to encourage others to do the like. Something similar to this is the conduct of the unconverted follower of Christ in the present day. H e is ready to dare and endure much in defence of the principles he professes ; but he has not yet learned to regard them as the realities of his existence-

^his power of resurrection and his life !

One more lesson, and an important one, is to be learned from the conclusion of the chapter. The wilful unbeliever has his heart still more hardened by witnessing renewed instances of God's power.

Some even of those who witnessed the raising of Lazarus, in defiance of what must have been their own convictions, carried tidings of the event to the Lord's enemies. .How painful a picture does this give us (161) M

Utr -A 2j—/^uy 24' ? & A : LT RXaAC9«4.

.t u-.i^ .1.1.' i.Tt-sn jt *^.e li i.Ti.ia liean.. 'Diey diat kjive no part

»■.*.* c ../.<tr^ >-c*" "-ir!i>«r^-'e* ott cue sdje rf His great **n»::i7 .

And :^t- r*.-^ - "lur •:« HL* aercies TirtvallTy dioii^ not <"»' '

wi/'.'i.T, cr; .h-:» *.^ ^«>2i '^^ Goo aJxesk and pots Him to ST. JOHX, Chjlp. 1;*.

\s •.**'- ii»*.;rv ot Lazzir.:^ is recordeil qbIt bv St- John, so al'.'> :..*: en.M.ts \.i il:-it hLtorr are ciJt known from the rh\i\.:\jz.s ct tl'*e

^.m^e ZTan^eliat. Bat these effects were of vcrv ;rrca: i^':'>«:jta.z.ce At the tune that ther were mani-i( ziKiL. HaC crih.o of iiitc'iitional murder re^rbtered against the chief pi ieita ; the leading of many souls to Christ; and the pop'liar trlun.ph accorded to the L(xd> on.

His entry into JeriLsalfjin; are all mentioned as results of that crowning miracle which re-anixad.ted a four-days buried corpse.

In this chapter i» to be found one of those indicatioDS which are scattered throughout the early part of the New Testament, of the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile being about to be broken down. Andrew and Philip were anticipating the mission of the great Apostle of the Gentiles^ when they brought to Jesus the Greeks who desired to see Uim; and it would seem to hare been in special reference to His manifestation to these Gentiles that our Lord uttered the words, '^ The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified."

In the verses following these words we find more than one allusion to Christ's coming death, and to His power of resurrection: and words that would otherwise have been obscure—the reference to the '

lifting-up " of Christ as of

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March 25-—July 2i] FAHILT READINGS. [November 2lO

the serpent in the wilderness—are explained by the Jews themselves, who evidently accepted them as alluding to His death when they urged in objection the doctrine of the Prophets, who said that Christ was to be a priest for ever, and that of His kingdom there should be no end!

How. wonderfully were these seeming contradictions united and verified in Him! Of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David according to the flesh, and made in all things like imto His brethren. He suflfered the common lot of humanity in becoming obedient unto death: but, being at the same time a Priest

for ever after the order of Melchisedec, He prolonged His days; and though He made His grave with the wicked, and was with the rich in His death, yet His soul was not left in the grave, neither was Death potent enough to inflict corruption upon His flesh!

Very important warning is held out to us in the conduct of those Pharisees, who dared not profess Christ on account of the fear of men ! * And ready as we all are in the abstract to condemn their pusillanimity, how many of us in fact are actuated by the very same feeling ! A false sense of shame, a dread of ridicule, a fear of being thought righteous overmuch, keep many back from a bold confession of Christ. Surely such might wholesomely reflect on the awful words He once uttered—Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven: but whosoever shall denv Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven !

Again in the conclusion of this chapter, the beloved disciple brings forth that truth that was made by revelation so prominent to Himself — the oneness of Christ with the Father. So close is this mysterious union, that he that believeth on Jesus believeth on the Father, without whom (163) m2

H^ ii^d haii no exiscence; and tber tint m:w Him saw the Firh*r.

Wi» trr^. •- *he pn?i*eiit dar, walkine bjr fiidi, thoogh n^r br -iiyn*, Bi'i>t iiT h«:M upon tK» pte ci o QS tratlL. Apart fr-.tn C!iri*t J*=^'5i'», we have ao knowiedcv of the Fadier: the Old T-*^Mn**:it is a ?4?al*?<l book to as, Ibr dwr who read it with-.-t :Iie Xew, Live