Christ's Valedictory Christ's Valedictory OR Meditations on the Four- teenth Chapter of John BY / REV. ROBERT F. SAMPLE D. D., LL. D. Author of " Memoir of J. C. Thotn,^^ " Beacon Lights of the Reformation j^ etc., etc. w^,. m^ fTiRs 6 VITA ttuni New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company Publishers of Evangelical Literature Copyright, 1900 by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY TO MY SPTRITTAL CHUTREX 5CATTESXD ABROAD DEARLY EELO\-ED AND LONGED FOR THESE MEDITATIOrS ON THE WORDS OF JESUS ARE AFFECTIONATELY BY THE AUTHWl Preface Among all the recorded utterances of Jesus there are none of deeper significance, in spirit more af- fectionate and in comfort more abounding, than those spoken by Him at the Last Supper. They constitute our Lord's valedictory to His immediate disciples, and to believers in all ages who wait for His second glorious Epiphany. This farewell ad- dress is an epitome of the gospel. It magnifies the Father's love, the efficacy of the cross, and the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. It meets every experience of Christians on their way to God. It sets forth the necessity of holy obedience, of faith and love, and patient waiting for Christ's return. It is so simple that little children can understand it; so profound that it taxes the mightiest intel- lects; so comprehensive that all the ages cannot exhaust its fullness. No wonder the place it occu- pies in the gospel of the beloved disciple is styled the Holy of Holies, and that believers young in piety and years, with aged saints listening for the sounding of Jesus' feet, and those in each inter- mediate stage of Christian progress, have devoutly turned to this parting message; and, as they de- voutly meditated upon it, have found their joy 7 8 Preface intensified, their love enkindled, their weakness supported, their sorrow relieved, and their hope inspired ; both in the dark and cloudy day, and at the eventide of life. May the prayerful study of these last words of Jesus be profitable to our souls; enlarging our spiritual being, increasing our efficiency in Chris- tian service, and making us more heavenly-minded ; thus preparing us for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Nnt) York. Contents CHAP. PAGE I. A Message to the Troubled . . 1 1 11. The Many Mansions . . .27 III. The Way, the Truth and the Life, 43 IV. Philip's Ignorance . . .61 V. Christ's Oneness with THE Father, 75 VI. Greater Works than Christ's . 95 VII. Prayer and Its Answer . .109 VIII. Obedience the Evidence of Love . 127 IX. The Comforter . . . .145 X. The Comforter, — Continued . 163 XL Our Life the Fruit of Christ's Life 177 XII. Christ Manifesting Himself . . 193 XIII. The Holy Spirit Our Teacher and Remembrancer . . . .213 XIV. Christ's Legacy . . . .231 XV. Christ's Gifts . . . .251 XVI. Christ's Return to the Father an Occasion of Rejoicing . .267 XVII. On to Golgotha . . . .281 XVIII. Our Going Hence . . . .293 9 A MESSAGE TO THE TROUBLED Let not your heart be troubled: Ye believe in God, believe also in me. — John xiv. i. You never get to the end of Chrisfs words. There is something in them always behind. They pass into proverbs^ they pass into laws, they pass into doctrines, they pass into consolations ; but they never pass away, and after all the use that is made ofthe77t they are still not exhausted. — Dean Stanley. I A MESSAGE TO THE TROUBLED Christ's valedictory was spoken at a late hour on the night of the Passover. The religious so- lemnity in which the Jews were engaged, was the most impressive of all their holy feasts. It was a memorial of divine favor, of deliverance from evil, and a promise of good in years to come. Voices of cheer were heard on every side ; and the whole life of Jerusalem seemed to pulsate with gladness. But there were other events transpiring which threw a heavy shadow over the scene, although it may not have disturbed the prevalent joy. Wicked men were plotting the death of Jesus ; and a little group of Galileans, assembled in one of the rooms of the city, were disquieted and sad. Christ's departure was at hand. Calvary, with all its tragic events, was only a little further on. The memorial supper, to be observed until the Lord's return, setting forth the manner and design of His death, was ended. The Hallel had been sung, the service of song thus sanctified by our Lord Himself, and the Master and His disciples were about to go out to the Mount of Olives. Then was spoken Christ's affectionate valedictory; «3 14 Christ's Valedictory that portion of Evangelical history which may be appropriately styled the crown of all His teaching. Special interest attaches to the last utterances of men, especially those of men who have been dis- tinguished for worth and potential deeds. Their words have been caught in their passage, and ster- eotyped in the literature of the world and of the ages. But as Christ was preeminently great, and His work infinitely important, the significance of His parting message is lifted far above the level of human speech. As we read it, breathing forth an unexampled tenderness, expressing the greatest truths that ever engaged human thought, kindling a light to shine in every dark passage of Christian experience, putting the arms of everlasting strength underneath human weakness, drawing aside the veil which conceals the heavenly life, and inspiring a longing to go home to God ; we unhesitatingly say, '< Never man spake like this man." No won- der that Christians young and old, the happy and the sad, in high places and in low, often read this precious valedictory, always discovering in it some- thing fresh and new, its fullness more inexhaustible than Jacob's Well, and its compass wider than the sea. *' Let not your heart be troubled : Ye believe in God, believe also in Me." There is another ren- dering of the passage, the imperative being used in both clauses. ''Believe in God, believe also in Me." This interpretation has large support; so also has the common version, which is to be pre- A Message to the Troubled 16 ferred. The latter seems more in harmony with the state of mind which Christ addressed, and with the instruction that follows. The disciples, in com- mon with the Jewish nation, were unqualified the- ists. They had not discovered the veiled glory of Christ's person and His oneness with the Father. There gathered a mystery about Him they could not penetrate. His works were a constant marvel. His words were matchless. His life was above the realm of men. He was greater than Moses. They thought Him a prophet sent from God, possessed also of regal prerogatives, and destined to restore the Kingdom to Israel. Their view of Him was far too low. They needed a wider horizon of truth. Hence Jesus said, *'Ye believe in God, believe also in Me." Observe, I. The disciples were troubled. There seemed abundant reason for their state of mind. The darkness deepened with the advancing hours. Never had they known such a breaking up of all the foundations of hope. Faith trembled on the verge of exhaustion. They were like the Gali- lean Lake when the storm swept down from the cold summits of Mt. Hermon. They had just learned that Judas would betray the Master, that Peter would deny Him, and that Jesus would go away ; and they, orphaned and disappointed, were to go out, as they supposed, on an unknown future with- out counsellor or guide, to suffer, and, perchance, soon to die. 16 Christ's Valedictory Then, too, there was something in the manner of Christ, the expression of His countenance and the tones of His voice, which was an intimation of an indefinable and immeasurable sorrow about to come to Him ; and, in some way, involving themselves. They had entered the evening twi- light. They were sitting in the shadows of great events and could not tell what an hour might bring forth. Troubled ! How could it be otherwise ? Their sorrow so weighed on the sympathy of Christ that He quite forgot His own. The remedy for this state of mind was faith. Hence after our Lord had addressed Peter, fore- shadowing his great offence, there was a pause, solemn as eternity itself, until Jesus broke the silence by an extended valedictory. 2. The disciples needed an extension and in- crease of faith. *< Believe also in Me." They be- lieved in God. They believed in the Holy Spirit. They had long been familiar with the predictions concerning the Messiah. But they had misinter- preted prophecy. The light was dim, and objects were indistinct. They needed to know more ; and, with growth in knowledge, would come an increase of faith. Jesus had provided for this. Pentecost was not far away. The eternal Spirit, who had been the source of all the spiritual life and power the chosen seed had ever known, was soon to widen the sphere and intensify the energy of His work. The disciples will then believe also in Christ. They A Message to the Troubled 17 will learn much concerning His glory and grace, through the tutelage of the Spirit whose office it is to take of the things of Christ and show them unto His people. It is not enough to believe in God. This was sufficient in an unfallen state to secure from trouble, but it cannot cure trouble. Martin Luther said, "An absolute God avails me nothing." Theism must be merged in Christianity. God must be manifested in Christ, or, as Bengel expresses it, "the ancient faith in God must be dyed with a new color, by their believing in Him who came from God." Apart from Jesus, in covenant rela- tionship and in His incarnation, we find no comfort in the contemplation of God's majesty, holiness, and inflexible justice. Until we see Him in Christ, declaring His love to us by His unspeakable gift ; in the humiliation, shame and death, for our sakes, of His only begotten Son ; supporting Him in His conflict with death and hell ; raising Him from the dead and enthroning Him on high; we cannot venture near His throne, nor can we find encour- agement to lay our burdens at His feet. God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. He is in Him, comforting us in every trial, supporting us under every cross, defending us from every foe, and making all His providences contribute to our present and eternal good. It is when God and His equal Son come unto us, and make their abode with us, and the Holy Spirit re- 18 Christ's Valedictory veals both, that we are able to sing songs in the night, and, by faith, to bring much of heaven down to earth, to be enjoyed all along the homeward journey. Let us observe here that Christ, throughout this entire address, constantly urges the necessity of faith in Himself. The comfort, usefulness, and final salvation of His followers, depend on their believing on Him as one with the Father, and as the only sufficient Saviour from sin and guilt and fear. At length He has accomplished His imme- diate purpose. They believe. Then He ceases to speak, closes His discourse with prayer, and they go out to the Mount of Olives. And as we study the life of the disciples after Christ's ascension, we are impressed with their un- wavering faith in Him. They even rejoiced in tribulation. They were persuaded that their af- flictions would issue in glory. It mattered nothing to them whether the way was smooth or rough, whether the days were bright or dark, whether they came to honor or were cast out by men ; they trusted in their wise leader, and, with their hands in His, went joyfully wherever He led, wait- ing for the glad coronation day. But these words of Christ are addressed to us, as certainly as they were to His immediate disciples. His omniscience embraced us while He was in that upper room, while among the shadows of Geth- semane, on the cross, and in the cloud -chariot A Message to the Troubled 19 which carried Him above, where, still remember- ing Calvary, He ever liveth to make intercession for us. The Christian life is one of habitual peaceful- ness ; yet we are often troubled. There are con- stitutional states, and spiritual conditions, and social environments, which modify religious ex- perience ; but there is no absolute exemption from trouble. The way to heaven leads through the Red Sea and the Wilderness. The way that all the generations of the saints have trod, is the path over which we are now going. The conflicts of the Christian life often depress us. There are two contending principles within us, each striving for the mastery. The soul is a silent battlefield, where armies march and counter- march and resist each other. This inward struggle may write its history on our persons, look out through our eyes, reveal itself in the tones of our voices, and in the words we speak. There may be experiences which are known only unto God and ourselves, which weigh down our hearts, dig chan- nels on our faces for tears, and sometimes lead us to the very borders of despair. It is to this experience that Paul refers when he speaks of the law in the members warring against the law in the mind, and in the thickest of the conflict exclaims, *'0 wretched man that I am; who shall deliver from the body of this death?" He was reminded of the custom of certain tyrants 20 Christ's Valedictory who bound a dead body to the living prisoner, and compelled him to live in that loathsome presence. We know what this means. This is the Valley of Humiliation, and ApoUyon is our foe. Weary and wounded, we are sore distressed. Even if, through grace, we have been enabled to resist every tempta- tion to sin ; yet the suggestions of evil disturb us, and we are quite sure to hold ourselves responsible for them, thus inducing a painful and unwarranted sense of guilt. Meanwhile we are disturbed by the evidences of remaining sin. It is possible for a perfectly holy being to be tempted. We are reminded of Christ's wilderness experience. But we discover a tendency in ourselves to respond to the appeals of sin. We are often exhausted by the resistance to temptation, sorely needing the ministrations of grace to uphold us. The view we obtain of our hearts is humbling and sad. Then there come the hidings of God's face. We have been off our guard, and temptations have overcome us. We spake unadvisedly with our lips. Some sinful passion gained the mastery. Some act, which gave the world occasion to blas- pheme, and well-nigh destroyed our usefulness, left its slime upon us. The first result may have been obduracy and impenitence. Like Peter, we re- peated our denial of the Lord. Then all was dark, for God was gone. Communion with Him was a memory only. The spirit, if not the language, of A Message to the Troubled 21 prayer had departed. The Hght faded away ; peace and hope had well-nigh fled. Ah, who can fathom the bitterness of such experience ? It is more to be feared than death itself. It is of the nature of eternal torment. We do not realize that it is only for a little moment that God has forsaken us. Then there are experiences that are less painful, that may still suffice to cloud our spirits. They are the disappointments of life, the defeat of cher- ished plans, the loss of worldly possessions, the unredeemed promises of some one on whom we had leaned, perhaps the breaking of the marriage vow and the sudden termination of domestic happi- ness, every human prospect wrapt in gloom, and the gardens our fancy had created, turned into locust-blackened wildernesses. Or bereavements crowd upon us. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and Benjamin carries a hectic flush which fore- bodes an early death. Or we are disturbed by the thought of our own departure. We shrink from the last struggle, the darkness and corruption of the grave, and the solemn issues of an approach- ing judgment. Now let us listen to the words of Jesus, who enters the inmost chamber of our grief, and, in a tenderness peculiar to Himself says, " Let not your heart be troubled : Ye believe in God, believe also in Me." There is no sorrow He cannot alleviate and ultimately heal. If we will but come into right relations to Him; sin rejected and holiness 22 Christ's Valedictory sought, our hearts fully set within us to do His will, at any cost ; then He will grant us the abun- dant consolations of His grace, and give us gar- ments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Jesus will sustain us in the conflict with tempters and temptations, and assure us of a triumph over both. He will subdue the sin within us ; helping us day by day to rise above its control, and making us increasingly like to Himself. He will dissipate the clouds that shut out the view of our Heavenly Father's face ; tell us of the grace that multiplies pardon ; relieve the doubt which a struggling faith resisted, and grant us visions of heaven. He will make all our disappointments, failures, bereave- ments and fears, the stepping-stones of a joyful ascent. Only believe Him, beloved, and faith will shorten the night, and cover the firmament, meanwhile, with stars. Your vision shall look beyond all visi- ble worlds, and contemplate heaven with its glories and joys ; and the afflictions of this life shall sink into nothingness as compared with the far more ex- ceeding and eternal weight of glory. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe the promises Christ has left you. Expect great things, and urge your way toward them. Believe in His presence, and enter into it, for has He not said, *' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee"? Go trustfully out on the unknown future remembering His word, " I will guide thee with Mine eye." A Message to the Troubled 23 " The steps of Faith Fall on the seeming void and find The Rock beneath." A German picture represents a child walking calmly along the edge of a precipice, and you won- der at the representation of composure on the beau- tiful face until you see the outline of an angel hov- ering above, its hands on the shoulders of the child, guiding it safely on. Jesus is greater than the chief of angels; more thoughtful, more sympathetic, mightier than Gabriel ; and He will never desert you. None shall ever pluck you out of His hands. Not one of all His people, even the least deserving, shall fail to enter His heaven and share His glory, world without end. From all this we learn I . The sympathy of Christ. Remember that these appropriate words were spoken by our Lord the same night on which He was betrayed. It may seem strange to us that His mind was not wholly absorbed by suggestions of His approaching death. Could His disciples have re- proached Him if He had retreated into the sanctuary of His great sorrow and closed the door behind Him, there girding Himself for the death to be endured for their sakes ? But Jesus' sympathy, like His na- ture, knew no bounds. Wherever there was pain or sorrow, thither it went; calming and soothing the troubled soul. His sympathy took Him to Jairus' home, where mourners wept for the ruler's 24 Christ's Valedictory daughter ; to the gate of Nain, as the funeral pro- cession came out ; to Bethany, when Lazarus was dead. So His sympathy embraced the sorrow- ing disciples, and He was intent on comforting them. This sympathy of Christ finds expression in every age, and extends to all the experiences of trial. He enters into our temptations, conflicts, bereave- ments, and urgent wants. His heart touches our hearts. His left hand is under our head, and His right hand embraces us. He bends over our beds of pain, and, with His lips close to our ears, that we may not fail to hear, He bids us trust in Him and be at rest. ** Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Touch the sensitive plant, never so gently, and at once the leaves fold themselves together, each one helping to shelter all the rest from harm. So if any trouble comes to you, believer, Christ's sym- pathy hides you away in the shelter of His bosom. Titian, the Roman Emperor, rent his garments that he might stanch the wounds of his soldiers ; but Christ rends His flesh that He may heal ours. He pours His sympathy into our tempest-tossed souls, calming them as His word, "Peace, be still," quieted the stormy Galilean Lake. Believe it, and open your hearts that He may enter. Do not at- tempt to carry your trouble alone. Do not brood over it, and nurse it, dwelling continually in the tombs ; but permit Jesus to overlay it with the palm A Message to the Troubled 25 of His compassion, and to let fall upon it the light of the approaching heaven. 2. Let us cultivate Christian sympathy. Sym- pathy is Christlike. In its exercise we walk over paths familiar to Him whose sacred footprints marked the way to heaven. Nothing that we can do will so lighten our burdens, as to share the burdens of others. John Howard pronounced compassionate ministry the best remedy for a heavy heart. It brings down a segment of heaven into the troubled sea of our own lives ; a quiet resting-place, undis- turbed by fear, when oceans roar and mountains shake. But we are not like Christ, who fed the hungry in the wilderness, if we can enjoy our feasts while hunger lies on the doorstep ; or the voices of mu- sic, when the plaint of sorrow is on the air ; or our health, when our neighbor is racked with pain; unless we have first ministered to the famishing, and sought to comfort the sad, and watched awhile with the sufferer, pointing to the land where suffer- ing is unknown. "Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Seeker has well said, **It should be among Christians, as among lute strings ; when one is touched the others trem- ble." « Speak gently — 'tis a little thing Dropped in the heart's deep wellj The good, the joy that it may bring Eternity shall tell." MANY MANSIONS In My Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. — John xiv. 2. Very often when the eyes are closing in death, and this world is shutting off the light from the departing soul, the last wish which is made audible is '< to go home.^' The words break out sometimes through the cloud of delirium ; but it is the souVs deepest and most central want, groping after its object, haply soon to find it as the clogs of earth clear away^ and she springs upon the line of swift affection, as the bee with unerring precision shoots through the dusk of evening to her cell.—'^YN. E. Sears, D. D. II MANY MANSIONS Jesus had gently rebuked the sorrow of His dis- ciples. They were greatly troubled, and thought they had reason to be. The Master was soon to go away. All that they had cherished and hoped for, was departing as the light when the sun is set- ting. It would be possible to bear the grief which endures but for a night ; but, so far as they can see, there is no prospect of a morning. No kin- dlings of light along the hills foretell another and better day. They discern the dim outlines of a cross, but see no empty sepulchre beyond it; a Messiah crowned with thorns, but no royal diadem displacing the symbol of shame; a little church crushed under the heel of the Sanhedrim, and thrust through with Roman spears, but no glorious triumph, and world-wide victory, no spiritual king- dom which shall outlive the throne and dominion of the Caesars. Shortsighted disciples ! Slow of heart to be- lieve ! But to reproach them is to pronounce our own condemnation. Christ compassionates them. He seeks to lighten their burden, and adapts His message to their need. True, He is about to go 29 30 Christ's Valedictory away. The shifting home of which He was the head, is soon to be broken up. But to them the outlook would not be dark if they would only be- lieve in Him. Then, without any promises added to promises already given, they would meet the gathering storm without fear, and expect that He who made the worlds, and filled the universal throne, would bring light out of darkness, life out of death, and incomparable glory as a recompense for present suffering. "In My Father's House are many mansions." These words suggest, i. The homefulness of heaven. Our dwelling shall be in our Father's House. All the occupants will be brethren. There will exist all the offices of friendliness, the fullness of affection, the community of interest, and the per- manence of relationship, necessary to constitute heaven a home. There is no other description of the heavenly life that so accords with our soul's yearnings, and promises to supply so fully our profoundest need, as that which represents its homefulness. This feature is the perfection of the earthly life, the summit of human bliss. Home is the place where no disguise is worn, no deception practiced, no enmity cherished. Here hearts are sure of each other. Confidence is neither restrained nor abused. Sorrow is shared, burdens distributed, joys multi- plied. The Many Mansions 31 When in a foreign country, we count over the days that separate us from home, and the lessening number increases our pleasure. We may enjoy historic scenes, majestic mountains, and beautiful valleys ; Damascus, Mount Lebanon, the exquisite Chamouni, through which flows the Arve ; but our hearts long for home, and Sandy Hook is far more to us than the Bay of Naples, for it welcomes us to our native shore. The feeling is natural. The sentiment is elevating. There is something, and there may be much, of heaven in it. We have gone down in every attribute of manhood, and de- parted from the source of the purest earthly de- light, if we prefer the Club Room to the family hearth, with its holier cheer; as, in a period of social degeneracy in England, many who held places of power spent their evenings at the Grecian or the Rainbow, rather than in the homes on Fleet Street or Chancery Lane. Our divine Lord loved His home in Nazareth, and there nearly all His life was spent ; and when the necessities of His high office took Him to Jeru- salem, He found and enjoyed, for its helpfulness and love, another home in Bethany. When He left this world He did not take His departure from the steps of Antonia's Castle, or from the seats of fashionable pleasure in King Herod's city, but from the hillside which looked down on the village of Martha, her sister and Lazarus ; and the last object that engaged His attention, when about to go away, 32 Christ's Valedictory was the earthly home that had sheltered Him from harm and girdled Him with love. The homeful- ness of heaven attracts us. It promises rest, help- ful ministries, sweet communings, and sanctified affection which shall never falter nor fail. 2. The next characteristic of heaven which deserves special mention is, — Its permanence, — *'InMy Father's house are many mansions." The original carries the idea of stability, and might be rendered, "abiding-places." The fashion of this world passeth away. Change and decay, wast- ing and destruction, follow each other in rapid succession. When a noted conqueror, after a series of bril- liant victories, entered his own city, amid the shouts of his admiring people, he was asked what was needed to perfect his happiness. He answered by one significant word — " Continuance." Here our homes are transient. They are like the patri- arch's shifting tent. Scenes we love are left behind us. Relationships we cherish come to an end. The law of primogeniture was partly born of a de- sire for continuance. It would at least perpetuate the family name in connection with the home ; and the ancestral mansion, rather than a mausoleum, would preserve the memory of them who are gone. It was this sentiment that prompted Warren Hastings, during all the years he ruled the millions of India, to husband his earnings that he might buy back the home of his fathers ; and the hap- The Many Mansions 33 piest day in his long, eventful life was that on which he returned to Daylesford as the proprietor of the paternal mansion and its contiguous grounds. When you looked on a castellated dwelling, per- chance not many miles from the Clyde, the home of your ancestors for centuries past, impressive in its antiquity, and homeful in its appointments, not- withstanding the changes it has seen, it suggested a pleasant contrast with the perishable dwellings of our day, or those far down the city avenue where continuance is only a span. You may think this sentiment merely. So let it be. But, when I carry my love of home across the dividing line of life, I am thankful for the words of Jesus, " In My Fa- ther's house are many abiding-places." On lintel and door-post is written, ''There shall be no more going out." 3. The capacity of heaven is suggested by the ''many mansions." It is supposed, by some, that there is a central world, in the depths of space, of such vast dimen- sions that suns are less than star-dust in compari- son. Only such a world, exceeding all our con- ceptions of it, can possess the power, under natural law, to hold all other worlds to their orbits, and maintain harmony among the innumerable spheres. The disciples may have thought of heaven as a country limited as was their own. Canaan was among the smallest of all lands, a narrow strip of mountains and valleys, lying between the Jordan 34 Christ's Valedictory and the Great Sea ; Lebanon marking its northern boundary, and the desert its southern hmit. And as the Hebrew's country was small, as compared with the Roman Empire, which reached from the Euphrates to the coast of Spain ; so heaven might be, as related to the world they knew. This would seem to limit salvation to a single nation; and make heaven the abode of a chosen few. When these farewell words were spoken, the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles still re- mained, and the Great Commission to disciple all nations had not yet been given. But Christ inti- mates a wideness in God's mercy they had not dis- covered ; a multitude of redeemed that their hori- zon had not included. Many Mansions ! Room enough for all the race ; for generations yet unborn ; for all the ages until the end of time ; however remote that end may be. Room enough for the angels that have retained their first estate, and for all orders of beings that have never known the curse of sin, or shall yet be rescued from its power. Hence the fullness of the gospel ; the compass of invitation and promise, wide as the earth and long as the ages ; the call that comes from the boarder of the King's Country to which the King has returned, '' Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 4. The diversity of heaven. Its mansions are suited to the different characters and capacities of their occupants j and new forms The Many Mansions 35 of beauty are continually appearing. Variety pre- vails in grace as in nature. The world is not a dead level. There are mountains and valleys, broad rivers and streams, lofty oaks and trailing vines. Thus a pleasing variety exists, and we admire an Alpine range the more because of the fragrant meadows at its base, through which the brooks wind, and sing. So there will be distinctions in the world above. Some mansions will be more conspicuous than others; and some will stand nearer the throne. Some may suggest, by their form and appoint- ments, that they are occupied by prophets, others by apostles, others by martyrs ; these by men and women who laid the foundations of the Church in heathen lands, and those by a humble ministry in the world's seclusions ; these by believers who ex- celled in benevolence, whose earthly monuments were great charities, whose ministrations were a solace to grief, whose words were benedictions to the weary and discouraged ; those by the gifted and great who represented thousands ; their names known and their influence felt the world around ; and yonder mansions by saints whose piety was lowly, patient and enduring ; revealing kinship to the Galilean. Our Saviour intimates grades in glory. Some shall rule over ten cities, others over five. Some shall shine as the firmament, others as the stars for- ever and ever. Meanwhile each shall go to his 36 Christ's Valedictory own country. Kindred spirits here shall find con- genial spirits there. Groups of friendship below may be continued above. Households bound by ties of sacred kinship on earth, may dwell in close proximity in heaven ; earthly relationships, though not all, continually embracing new, inspiring ele- ments, may perpetuate essential features of that which made and blessed the life below. Kindred and tribes and tongues may have their allotments which shall preserve history and magnify the grace that saved them. Individuality will not be merged in the general mass, nor pecuharities fade out on the threshold of bliss. There shall be diversities of place and service, of power, possibilities, and glory. *' In My Father's house are many mansions." 5. The unity of heaven. *'In My Father's House." Hearts shall be in unison. Lives shall blend. Harsh distinctions shall be unknown. Luther and Zwingli shall see eye to eye. Calvin and Arminius shall be in full accord. Separatists here, shall be brethren there. Churchmen and Dissenters shall forget their differ- ences. Church polity, ceremonies, ordinances and modes of administration shall occasion no dispute ; and whatever was divisive and of the earth earthy, shall go to its own place. The multitude of the re- deemed shall be so great that only a celestial arithmetic can number it, and yet perfect harmony shall prevail ; many as the waves and one as the sea; the unity the more blessed because of the The Many Mansions 37 pleasing and endless diversities. As the sons of Jesse formed one family, a happy unit, although each differed from all the rest in mental character- istics and physical form, so we shall be one in spirit, affection, and loyalty to the Lord of all, when we shall gather in our Father's House, to stay home forever ; misunderstandings, coldnesses, alienations, contentions, having departed as the night when the sun is risen. 6. The Certainty of this Consummation. ''If it were not so I would have told you." We have a yearning for a better and endless life. We know that we have not attained our rest. The soul turns its face toward the future, and waits for the eternal day. Now and then, the anxious in- quiry pierces the atmosphere of the world's dark- ness, '' If a man die shall he live agam ? " Gener- ations have been moving on in solemn procession to an invisible world; have entered it, and the doors have closed behind them. No voice breaks the stillness. None return to tell what is the state of the dead. We address our burdened cry to our departed Lord, ''Is there life beyond? " Had He made no audible answer, even silence would have been a reply. "If it were not so I would have told you." If we had been pursuing shadows, our search vain, our expectation a delusion, the Master would have dispelled the deception. He could not have gained His own consent to see our feet groping their way to the gates of endless death, when we 38 Christ's Valedictory had sought and hoped to reach realms of light and life. There is a home on high; a life beyond death ; a house with many mansions. " If it were not so I would have told you." Moreover, if Christ had not been all He claimed to be, and had not been able to do all He promised ; if forgiveness had been a falsehood, heaven a dream, the grave our final goal ; then God would have been constrained by His love of truth, even in the absence of any affection for us, to declare the Son of Mary a self-deceived teacher, or a willful impostor. His silence alone would have supported our beUef in Christ. But to this He had added testimony the ages cannot disprove, when He spake saying, ''This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye Him." '* If it were not so I would have told you." Now we are warranted to believe in Christ, because we are warranted to be- lieve in God. If we have doubted, we should now rejoice with exceeding joy, as the prisoner who is set free, or the weary night sentinel when he sees the dawn breaking on the summit of the mountains. Frederick William III. lived in fear of losing his possessions because France threatened to wrest them from him. We should be happy in the as- surance Christ has given us, that where He is we soon shall be, our inheritance as forfeitless as His throne is eternal. 7. Respecting the location of heaven, Christ gives us no information. If it had been any ad- The Many Mansions 39 vantage to us to know He would doubtless have told us. The conjectures of men are numerous, and none of them answer the question — '' Where is heaven ? " Some think our earth, after its renovation by fire, will be the future heaven. This opinion does not seem tenable. Eighteen hundred years ago Christ went to prepare a place for us ; evidently a place distinct from our present abode, the heaven of all departed believers, to be ours when the earth shall burn, and these lower heavens shall have passed away. Others suppose it is in our own at- mosphere, above the summits of the highest moun- tains ; hence, above the clouds which gender storms and cast shadows. But this view is unsatisfying to most minds and seems unscriptural. When Christ left the world a cloud received Him from sight. His movement thereafter was, no doubt, swifter than the light which passes all visible worlds in an hour ; and the world to which He went is evidently beyond the firmament of stars ; for it is said to be '* above all heavens." Paul was caught up into the third heaven, and the statement implies a far remove from earth. Inasmuch as the passage is rapid as thought, dis- tance practically ceases. The world where God's presence is most signally manifested, and where finite spirits, who are by the limitations of their nature confined to space, find a home ; may be the central world, around which all systems of worlds revolve ; the greatest and best, bearing the signa- 40 Christ's Valedictory ture of God's perfect hand, from which the divme glory radiates along the endless lines which go out into all the universe of God. But it matters not where heaven is. It is enough for us to know that it is where our Lord and all His ransomed are. Material splendors fade away in the presence of our Beloved. To see and be like Him, will be the consummation of Christian hope. All else will be an expression of His love, to be valued because of this ; but, after all, we shall find our chief joy in His presence, and His person will be the magnet that will draw all the hosts of heaven around Him. The future of the universe is concealed from us. It is growing old, and wearing out. Its impulse declines, slowly, it is true, but surely, as the ages pass away. Matter had a beginning ; it may have an end. The spiritual power that created the world out of nothing, — that which is back of all, in all, and above all, — will survive the existing creations ; and these may be followed by some- thing higher, for God's works are ever on an as- cending scale. Inspiration tells of '' a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." Then the spiritual will occupy the throne, and the Apocalyptic vision become a reality. There is a depth of meaning in the word of Jesus which we shall be forever learning and never fathom ; its preciousness and joy is as infinite as God : *' That where I am there ye may be also. ' ' The Many Mansions 41 Jesus has ''gone to prepare a place for us." In virtue of His death, He secures the right to provide a residence for His people. Hence, having made Himself a sacrifice for sin, He went to present His blood in the holy place on high, as the sufficient ground of our acceptance with God ; and, in the future office of His priesthood, to make intercession for His own. Thus He prepares the place for us, and us for it. Then, when all is in readiness, *' He will come again, and receive us to Himself." By His coming may be meant His gracious ap- pearing at death, when He shall dispel all fear of the passage, support us in it, and introduce us to the eternal rest of heaven ; or His second glorious coming may be intended, when His redemptive work shall be completed in the resurrection, and the last subject of His grace shall be gathered into the church below. Both interpretations may be admissible. Ever since our Lord returned to the Father, He has been coming to His people ; com- ing that He may come; touching our lives and lifting them by His spiritual presence; by the power of the Holy Ghost ; in the special manifesta- tions of His grace ; in potential providences ; and in the solemn transition of worlds. But the consummation of all His comings, will be His second glorious appearing in the clouds, without sin unto salvation, accompanied by innu- merable angels ; when the dead in Christ shall rise, and the living be changed, and all shall be 42 Christ's Valedictory caught up into heaven, to be forever with the Lord. Of that day knoweth no man. It may be near. A clearer vision might discern the conqueror on the way. If our ears were not so dull of hearing, we might hear the sound of His chariot wheels, and catch the utterance of His heart's deepest yearning, saying to His church, "Arise My love, My fair one, and come away." Holy Spirit prepare us for the longed-for advent ! Then whether living, or in our graves, we shall lift up our heads with joy and say, ** Lo ! this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us ; this is the Lord ; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation," and then shall we haste away beyond these lower heav- ens, robed in immortality, singing hosannas as we go, our rejoicings joined with the welcome of the angels ; and, when surrounded with the splendors of our Father's House, we shall raise the universal song of the redeemed ; " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father ; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE / am thi way, the truth and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. — JOHN xiv. 6. Jesus is the way by His example ; the truth by His word; and the life by His grace. 7he new and living way, wherein faith causes us to walk ; the infallible truth of good things to come, for which we must hope ; and the eternal life, which must be the sole object of our love. Out of this way, there is nothing but wandering ; without this truth, nothing but error and deceit ; and without this life^ nothing but death. — QUESNEL. Ill THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE Christ having announced that He was about to go away, assumed that His disciples knew to what place, and into what state, He was going. He had just intimated that He was soon to return to His Father; and had previously suggested that, having come down from heaven, the accomplish- ment of His earthly mission would be followed by His departure to the world from whence He came. But the disciples failed to interpret His words. They still clung to their preconceptions of Him as a temporal prince, who had come to establish a temporal kingdom; bringing back to Israel its former preeminence and glory. They knew not by what means this end would be accomplished. They could not discern the path which led to it. Why should He say, < * Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know " ? Thomas, who seems to have been the dialectician in the college of disciples, suggested to the Master that, as they did not know where He was going, it would be impossible for them to know the way. The conclusion was a logical sequence. It had not occurred to them that defeat could be victory, and death the way to 45 46 Christ's Valedictory the throne. The key to this mystery was not yet in their possession. God's thoughts were widely different from their thoughts, and His ways from their ways. Therefore Christ, bearing with their dullness, again tells them that He is going to the Father, and that He is the way, and the only way, by which lost men can return to God. *' I am the way, the truth and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." This statement is very plain to us ; but it was very dark to them. It needed the interpretation of history, and the illu- mination of the Holy Spirit. The Ascension opened heaven to their view, and Pentecost re- vealed Christ enthroned in glory. Then they un- derstood that Christ's kingdom was spiritual, that its consummation would be realized in heaven, and that faith in the death accomplished on Calvary was the condition of salvation. "The way, the truth and the life." In the soliloquies of Augustine, as Bengel has observed, these words are interpreted as meaning that Christ is the true way of life. While this is so, it is not all that the Master intended. There is a profound significance in each member of this sentence which is not expressed in the exegesis of the great theolo- gian. Christ is the way to life, and His truth reveals it ; but let us dwell a little on the several statements of our Lord, which, if they are not set in direct appo- sition to the great facts of sin, righteousness and The Way the Truth and the Life 47 judgment, readily suggest them, revealing the way out of sin, acceptance with God through His Son, and our open acknowledgment and acquittal at the last day ; after which we shall enter into the joy of our Lord. I. Christ is the way to the Father. This state- ment has many aspects, and expresses a universal fact. I. We obtain a saving knowledge of God through His Son. We cannot comprehend an ab- solute God. By searching, we cannot find Him out. The sages of Greece, who thought mountain - summits lifted them into the closest fellowship with the Invisible, failed to discover God even there, and sought to embody their vague conceptions of Him in images of ivory and gold. Men have learned something of the divine intelligence and power in the material world, have read the name of God inscribed on earth and skies ; but the ques- tion which most burdened their souls remained un- answered. Conscious sin weighed them down ; and no salvation was reported by sun or stars. No revelation of mercy was given ; no expression of love that was not drowned by the thunderings of wrath ; no intimation of pardon, holiness, and a happy immortality, breaking through the cloud which obscured the divine face, and the veil that concealed an eternal state. But Christ reveals God, for He is '< the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person." In Himself He 48 Christ's Valedictory unites the divine and the human. He is the ladder of the Bethel- vision which connects earth with heaven, and admits to the presence-chamber of God, where every inquiry of the soul, so far as these relate to a personal salvation, shall be an- swered. <'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father also." 2. Christ reveals the way of acceptance with God. We crave an interpretation of divine clemency. On what basis does it rest ? Jesus answers, " I am the way." He has assumed our guilt and expiated it by His death. He has wrought out, in tears and agony and blood, a righteousness which meets our need j and we are pardoned and accepted in the Beloved. Does God require of us perfect obedi- ence to His will ? We remind Him that Christ, our representative before the law, has obeyed for us. Does He insist that the penalty which attaches to sin must be inflicted ? We lift high the cross, trusting only in Him who hung upon it, and repeat the words prophetic inspiration wrote, cherished in the hearts of Christ's redeemed; "He was wounded for one transgressions and bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." God answers: ''The satisfaction is complete," and jus- tice lays its thunders by. 3. Christ prepares us for heaven. The removal of legal obstacles is not sufficient, The Way the Truth and the Life 49 Moral fitness is required. We must be like God, if we would dwell with Him. Sin will never be permitted to cast its shadow on the sea of glass, or on the streets of gold. Now, our own hearts con- demn us; and God is greater than our hearts. Yet the truth remains that Jesus is made unto us sanctification, also. He has begun a good work in us, and He will complete it. ''Now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Thus Christ is the way to the Father, the only way. There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Though some, doubt- less, have been saved without a knowledge of Christ; their spirit of teachableness and trust, joined with Godlike living, declaring them the chil- dren of God ; yet, they owe their salvation to the death of the cross, and shall forever ascribe all glory to Him who shed for them His precious blood. The philosophies of men, the dreamings of su- perstition, the self-righteousness of unbelief, the sincerity which hides in a refuge of lies, cannot save. Jesus says, ''No man cometh unto the Fa- ther but by Me." Once, certain travellers, ascending the Alps, lost their way, by reason of the snows which obscured their path, and they stood on the border of a precipice where to fall was to die. After long and anxious delay, looking in vain for the mountaiij 50 Christ's Valedictory crucifix which with one arm told of danger, and with the other how to escape it ; they heard with joy the cry of their guide who had gone on before, exclaiming, ''The cross! The cross!" Then following the assuring voice they pressed safely on, reaching at last the summer-land in the valleys be- yond. The summer-land of eternity is reached only by the way of the cross. II. Christ is the truth. I. His word is truth. He never speculates, questions, or doubts. He does not need a long process of reasoning to lead Him up to God, or to discover the secrets of the future. As a child He confounded the doctors in the temple, and they looked wonderingly at Him. Officers sent to ap- prehend Him, returned without Him, saying, "Never man spake like this man." His knowl- edge of men was infallible. He read their thoughts even afar off, heard the words they spake in secret, knew the motives that controlled their lives. He discoursed of God and eternity, of sin and salva- tion, of duty and truth, of heaven and hell ; and none could disprove any statement He ever made. His word never wavered, but went straight to its mark. It never came in conflict with the enlight- ened consciousness of men, but confirmed it. It was never modified by scholarship, broken by criti- cism, refuted by history, or contradicted by suc- ceeding events. He spake with a self-poise that The Way the Truth and the Life 51 only certitude supports ; with authority, and not as the scribes; with a penetration that brought the invisible to sight ; with an impressiveness that gathered the solemnities of eternity around the lis- tening soul. One of the rulers of the Jews, who held a protracted night interview with Jesus, im- pressed by His ministry and the miracles attending it, said, " We know that Thou art a teacher come from God." Mary sat at His feet, and His word answered every cry and questioning of her yearning heart. Pilate asked, ''What is truth?" But went immediately out, shrinking from the scrutiny of the omniscient Nazarene. ''I am the way and the truth." 2. Christ exemplified the truth. There is a power in the life that does not reside in any abstract statement of truth. The great Roman orator might discourse never so eloquently concerning sobriety, and men were moved for the time to high resolves, but his teaching was neutral- ized by his example. Christ's life was a continual commentary on His words. Men might differ in their interpretation of the law, but they learned its spirituality and extent in the light of His immacu- late life. To-day, as we contemplate this wonder- ful career, with no stain upon it, and no waver in it, we apprehend the grandeur of truth, and say of Jesus, as the Athenian court said of a noted wit- ness, ''His word is as good as an oath." Even infidelity, whilst denying His Godhead and Messiah- 52 Christ's Valedictory- ship, has paid homage to His moral grandeur, ad- mitting that, in all the ages, He has never been equalled, and whatever the surprise of the future, He can never be surpassed. 3. The ancient prophecies concerning the Mes- siah were fulfilled in Christ. It was truly said, ''The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The first promise, respecting the bruising of the serpent's head, pointed to the incarnate, suffering Son of God. The offices of Christ were subjects of prophecy. God said to the Hebrew Lawgiver, "I will raise up a prophet from among thy brethren, like unto thee." In the full- ness of time, when Jesus came, a greater than Moses, yet in His legislative and mediatorial char- acter resembhng him; it was said, ''This is Jesus the prophet of Galilee." Again God said of Christ, by the mouth of David, "Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," and Paul wrote, ages after, "We have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God." His kingly office was predicted. "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." In pros- pect of this, Zechariah, who stood near the close of the prophetic age, said, " Shout, O daughters of Jerusalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee : " and these words we recall in connection with Christ's triumphal entrance into Jersusalem, and the inscrip- tion on the cross. The Way the Truth and the Life 63 Moreover the Scriptures foretold Christ's two- fold nature, the Son of Man, and yet the everlast- ing Father. They intimated His lowly life, His re- jection by His own people, His sufferings en- dured for sinners, the circumstances attending and following His death, His triumphal return to heaven, the angels watching His approach. All these were remarkable prophecies that could not be referred to natural penetration, but only to that divine omniscience which embraced distant ages and their unborn secrets in its view; and they found their fulfillment in Jesus who was born of a humble virgin, despised of men, crucified between two malefactors, raised from the dead, and exalted in glory. 4. Christ is the truth in that the symbolism of the Old Dispensation which referred to the Messiah was fulfilled in Him. The volume of revelation was not commenced until twenty-five hundred years after creation ; and then, the Pentateuch was the only Bible of the Hebrew Church for ages following. But the gos- pel antedated the written word. Men learned truth through object lessons. God's picture gallery, ever lengthening, was an object of devout study. Christ was adumbrated in expressive figures until He came. Types were instituted at the beginning, and multi- plied as occasion required, or circumstances per- mitted. The sacrifices offered immediately after the expulsion from the garden were not suggestions 54 Christ's Valedictory of human ingenuity, or the creation of will-wor- ship; but divine appointments, foreshadowing re- demption by substitution. The paschal lamb was a type of Christ, and the blood on the door-post prefigured the sacrifice of Calvary. The brazen serpent lifted among the sad, soiled tents of Israel, predicted the uplifted cross and its royal victim, who healed the maladies of the soul. The manna which fell from heaven and sustained life; the smitten rock in Horeb which quenched thirst ; the City of Refuge which protected the manslayer — all were symbols of Christ, the bread of heaven, the water of life, the refuge from wrath to come. Christ is the truth. He is not a myth, but a person; not a fleeting vision, but an abiding presence; not a theophany, but the incarnated God, the reality we had craved, for the mani- festation of which we had yearned. Trusting in Him we are done with the tossings of doubt, un- certainty and fear. We plant our feet on the Rock of Ages unmoved by the rollings of the angry sea. He that doeth Christ's will, or even honestly wills to do it, shall know the truth and be at rest. III. Christ is the Life. I. He purchased it. The price of redemption was infinite ; only an infinite Redeemer could pay it. The law of God required a perfect obedience, and the wages of sin was death. Christ obeyed The Way the Truth and the Life 55 and suffered. Thus He averted divine wrath and brought back the Hfe we had lost. **He that be- lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life." " There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." 2. Christ conveys spiritual life to His people. Passing along the paths of death, He says, *' Live ! " and we realize at once the quickening power of His life; just as natural life, at His word, returned to Lazarus, to the young man at Nain, and to the ruler's daughter. The Christ- consciousness becomes ours. The love of sin dies. The love of holiness is enthroned. Communion with God is restored. The believer goes from strength to strength, growing more Godlike as the days are numbered. Hence Paul writes to be- lievers at Rome: *' Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 3. Christ gives eternal life. This is the spirit- ual life perfected in the world to come. The dif- ference is not in kind, but in degree. Heaven begins on earth. The source and support of life hereafter is Christ alone, and always. He is the light and glory of the world above. Material splendor is consonant with the spiritual glory of the place. Holy companionship contributes to the joy of the saint. Exemption from all evil brings unperturbed rest to the soul. But thrones of sub- limity, crowns of glory, palms of victory, harps of 56 Christ's Valedictory gold, are only the adjuncts of heavenly bliss. The spring of all our joy is Christ. " Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? ' ' The life of this world is the everlasting glory of the next. But our Lord has in mind the completeness of redemption, as it extends to both body and soul, and we add : 4. Christ is the resurrection. He came to save the whole man ; to undo all the evil sin had done. Faith removes the sting of death, but it does not preserve from the grave. *' It is appointed unto all men once to die." Na- ture shrinks from dissolution. As far as possible, it excludes the thought. A certain tribe of savages leave the burial of their dead to strangers. No stone marks the spot where the departed sleep. Herds of cattle are driven over the grave until all traces of it are ob- literated. To them death brings sadness only. They see no light beyond. But how comforting to believers, when the shadows fall and deepen, are the words of Jesus, '' I am the resurrection and the life." In view of this Paul adds, '' this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality." We have, in the life of Christ, foreshadowings of the final resurrection. Looking onward to the close of the present dispensation, we behold Him coming in the clouds, in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels. The trump of the arch- The Way the Truth and the Life 57 angel sounds. The graves open. The dead arise. The living are changed, and all believers, clothed in spiritual, glorified bodies, ascend to meet their Lord in the air. Thus redemption is completed. Life has triumphed over death. A great multitude which no man can number are gone to be with Christ, to enjoy forever the inher- itance reserved for them in heaven. 5. The sure ground of the Christian's hope. Jesus is our all in all, and liveth forevermore. Unlike the priests of the Mosaic economy, who continued not by reason of death, Christ Jesus was constituted the High Priest of our profession after the power of an endless life. The fire that burned on Jewish altars has gone out, and the evening oblation has ceased forever. But the sacrifice of Christ, once made, shall never lose its power ; and the word which now comes to us from the Lamb of God, reigning and triumphant in heaven, — ** Because I live ye shall live also," — is the pledge of our final victory, abundant entrance, and eternal residence with Him above. He is mighty to save. I recall a remark made to me in one of the dark- est periods of modern French history. When the armies of France had suffered many and disastrous defeats, and the enemy had encamped at Versailles, and crowded the avenues of the Bois Bolonge, one who loved his native land as he cherished his own life, said, ''If the first Napoleon were yet alive, this shame and loss would not have come to my 58 Christ's Valedictory beloved France." But the dust of the man who was once the arbiter of Europe's destiny sleeps on the banks of the Seine, and no appeal of suffering, no memory of Austerlitz or Ostend, no hated pres- ence of a once vanquished foe, can awaken him out of sleep. How powerless the man styled great. But the Syrian stars do not look down on the grave of Christ. He lives, and His life is our life ; and our years shall run parallel with His down the eternal ages. 6. The alternative presented in this parting mes- sage of Christ. It is to accept Him as the way, the truth and the life, and live ; or reject Him, and die. Salvation through Christ, and through Him alone, is the burden of inspiration. Every altar-fire along the generations before Christ; the solemn priest- hood of the Hebrew Church ; the tabernacle in the wilderness; the temple crowning Mount Moriah; the faith and hope of patriarchs, prophets, apos- tles ; the impressive asseveration and reiteration of Christ ; the towers of the New Jerusalem lifted out of the mists, above the hills ; the vision of Patmos ; the testimony of Christians from the day revelation closed until now; and the experience of unbe- lievers in every age ; make it evident that, in Christ, there is salvation for all ; and, out of Him, salvation for none. He is our Ransom, Righteousness, Re- deemer, the author and finisher of our faith, our light and life, our way and end. Do we truly be- heve ? Is our faith theoretical only ? Is our hope The Way the Truth and the Life 59 a delusion ? Let us make sure work for eternity. We do not accept the error of Rome, that doubt is an element of saving faith. It is our privilege to attain to the full assurance of hope. My friend told me he had seen the Pyramids, and he spoke of the impression made upon his mind by those lofty summits, and by the stony-eyed sphynx, ever looking out on a desert sea, and gaz- ing silently down upon many a pageant of worldly pomp and splendor as it passed by. When I asked his impression of the land called Holy, he plain- tively said, ''I have never been to Palestine. I left Alexandria in a vessel announced to stop at the port of Joppa. On our way a lone sail drew near. Signals were exchanged. We knew not the inter- pretation of them. We were then in sight of the Judean hills, and my heart leaped with gladness in prospect of seeing Jerusalem, Calvary and Olivet, and sitting among the trees of Gethsemane. But the prow of our vessel suddenly turned Westward and the coast of old Canaan faded from sight. We went to Athens and sailed the Adriatic. Alas ! I have never been to Palestine, and now that I am old, and burdened with the infirmities of age, I never expect to tread the paths once trodden by the Saviour's feet." The narrative impressed me. It suggested the question, "May many who hope to enter heaven come short of it?" How important that, in a life of holy obedience, advancing toward per- 60 Christ's Valedictory fection as the years go by, we should have the evi- dence of saving union with Christ, who has so sol- emnly, and yet so tenderly said, **No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." PHILIP'S IGNORANCE If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also : and fro7n henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it suf ficeth us. Jesus saith unto hi??i. Have I beeti so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip ? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ; and how say est thou then, Shew us the Father ? — John xiv. 7-9. Our knowledge is but in part, and ijnperfect ; the most of what we know, is the least of what we do not know. The gospel is as a rich piece of arras, rolled up ; this God hath been unfolding e7>er since the first promise was made to Adam, opening it still every age wider than other ; but the world shall sooner be at an end, than this ?nystery will be fully known. Itideed as a river does widen its channel, and grows broader, as it approacheth nearer to the sea ; so the knowledge of this mystery doth spread every age more than other, and still will, as the zuorld draws nearer to the sea of eternity, into which it must at last fall. — Gurnall. IV PHILIP'S IGNORANCE In announcing Himself the truth and the life, Jesus asserted His claim to the Godhead. These are incommunicable attributes. Human intelli- gence, when it has reached its summit, is not truth; and, unaided of God, cannot attain to a knowledge of it. No created being has ever evolved life from death, or brought something out of noth- ing. Christ occupies the higher plane of deity. But His disciples do not know Him fully. They have not comprehended His sayings concerning His essential unity with the Father. The time is near when they shall know better Him whom they have seen. But the day lingers. The veil of prej- udice and erroneous preconception still hangs be- tween. Hence one of them, speaking for the rest, says, '' Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us." In the theophanies of former times patriarchs and prophets had seen God, and in visions they be- held His glory. The disciples would have some such visible manifestation of the Father. Christ was evidently possessed of superhuman power. Let Him summon the Father out of His secrecy that they may behold Him, then shall their longings 63 64 Christ's Valedictory be met. Their minds are confused. Christ Him- self is a mystery. They admire His supernatural endowments, but their logic breaks down, and their promises do not lead to the conclusion that can awe and yet satisfy them ; making that upper room in Jerusalem a veritable presence-chamber of God. ''Shew us the Father." Then Jesus, in a tone of mild rebuke, replies ; " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip ? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou then. Shew us the Father? " 01- hausen, the devout German theologian, has well remarked that, *' The language of Jesus to Philip plainly indicates that the struggle with the weak- ness of the disciples formed a part of the Redeem- er's sufferings." In terms which are unequivocal, and which a disingenuous mind will not misinter- pret, Christ asserts that He and the Father are one ; and being essentially one, He is very God, whilst robed, for our sakes, in human form. Let us observe : I. The Necessity of Christ's Incarnation. ''Shew us the Father." It is difficult for us to measure the knowledge of God before the advent of Christ. It was evi- dently small. God was a spirit, and worldly eyes could not see Him. Men knew something of His attributes. In the beginning He had created the heavens and the earth. Therefore they concluded He was omnipotent. He had expressed His hatred Philip's Ignorance 65 of sin in startling judgments, multiplied as the years advanced and wickedness increased. From all this they learned that He was just and holy. He had sent rain and fruitful seasons, and had filled their hearts with food and gladness. More- over he had told them that provision had been made for their salvation, and that, in the fullness of time, redemption would be more clearly revealed. Hence they were persuaded that God was good. Yet the testimony as to His character was con- flicting. His attributes jostled each other, and in the expression of them there was an order of succes- sion like that of day and night, of calm and storm. They were bewildered. After all the manifesta- tions of Himself in His dealings with them. His power, justice and love were largely abstractions. Jehovah was an ideal being, curtained about with clouds, dwelling in silence, unseen and unknown. Men inquired after Him, turned their faces heaven- ward by day, by night, and besought Him to show Himself; but He still abode in mysterious secrecy. They sank under their burdens of care, anxiety and sorrow ; and sobbed all along the darkened road. No voice of sympathy brought comfort, no support- ing arm gave relief. That this necessity might in some measure be met, God appeared at long intervals in a human form. Each interview was brief, and when ended, the miraculous presence vanished. To foreshadow redemption, a priesthood was appointed, altar§ 66 Christ's Valedictory reared, sacrifices offered, and the Mosaic ritual ex- tended through fifteen hundred years. But all this was inadequate. It was a hint of what was to come, rather than a ministry to immediate need. Largely because of this the Church embraced but few. Even when the theocracy was established the Israelites, as compared with surrounding na- tions, were a feeble people, occupying a small country shut in by mountain ranges and the great sea. The world waited for the Son of Mary. God must be revealed in human form, and continue in it. His perfections must link themselves with our nature ; find expression in an audible voice ; touch our trembling frame through human hands ; pillow our aching heads on a human breast; illustrate every attribute of the Godhead in a life on earthly ground ; interpret the written law by a personal ex- ample, and the promised redemption by the sacri- fice of the cross. When all this had been accom- plished, the narrow walls which enclosed Israel were taken down, and the gospel embraced in its com- pass the whole world. Then God was revealed in Christ. Yet at the period we now contemplate we are reminded of : 2. The disciples' ignorance of Christ. "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?" We are in danger of forming an uncharitable judgment of these early disciples. We are living in a better Philip's Ignorance 67 day. Then, the sun was just rising above the hills. The light was dim, and objects were indistinct. The evidence of Christ's Godhead and of the truth of Christianity is cumulative. The mists have lifted and with us it is high noon. But to Philip and his associates there was a seeming con- tradiction in Christ's claims. In Him, strength and weakness, glory and shame, were strangely combined. His very works confused their judg- ment of Him; and His words were in apparent conflict. He was the Son of Mary, they knew. How then is He the Son of God ? He began to live thirty years before. What does He mean when He says : '' Before Abraham I am " ? Has He not often spoken of the Father as being superior to Himself? How then can essential equality exist ? Yet the evidence He had furnished of His Godhead should have been sufficient. Why could they not have waited for the interpretation of the humiliation, since they had beheld His glory on the Mount ? He wrought miracles, and thereby showed Him- self superior to natural law. And if superior to natural law. He must have been maker of it ; therefore God. When He walked on the Sea of Galilee, each footstep proclaimed His divinity. No imperial edict, as that of Canute's, could stay the tide when it had once set toward the shore ; but winds and waves obeyed our Lord. When Lazarus, at His bidding, though he had been dead 68 Christ's Valedictory four days, came forth ; many who beheld this token of supernatural power believed Him to be divine. Then, too, the most abstruse subjects were, to Christ's mind, as comprehensible as the simplest truths. His evident knowledge of God, the spirit- uality of His law, the solemnities of the future world, its mysterious inhabitants, its modes of life, and its eternal awards, suggested that He belonged to the world of which He spake. That Philip, who was the first subject of Christ's divine call, and for three years had attended on His public ministry, should have remained so far in ignorance of the Master's relations to the Father, is, even yet, an almost inexplicable fact. As the greatest of Romans when the fatal steel pierced him, ex- perienced a sad, overwhelming surprise, exclaim- ing, <