The Portal of safety and promise.
"I am the Door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." During long ages Israel was God's flock; her system of life and worship, fenced round with laws and ordinances, was his fold; her prophets and righteous rulers were his shepherds. It was in many respects a strange and unique spectacle. "A people that dwelt alone, and was not reckoned among the nations." What was the key to this historic problem? One key to it at least was the hope of a Messiah. To see and in some measure grasp this hope was essential to every true Israelite. Whether such a one was a shepherd or a sheep of the flock, his faith in a present God embraced at the same time the promise of a Redeemer to come. Hence our Lord says (John 10:7, John 10:8), "I am the Door of the sheep. All that ever came before me [irrespective of me] were thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them." But now that the Messiah had come, his mission was not to destroy, but to fulfill; not to disappoint, but to expand, to exceed the hopes of God's ancient people. And so, lifting up his eyes, Jesus sees before him a wider horizon, a richer pasture, and room for a larger flock than any Israelite had thought of. He even drops the image of a fold for the moment, or rather widens it out indefinitely, and speaks of himself as the Door—the one way of entrance into the blessings of his own kingdom. "I am the Door," etc. Thus, by means of a simple image, Christ places himself between the whole human race and true blessedness. This is one of his world-wide, universal claims which at once distinguish him from all other prophets and teachers whom God has ever sent. They could point out to their fellows more or less clearly the path of life; Christ alone said, "I am the Way." In moments of rapture they could sing themselves, or teach others to sing," Open to me the gates of righteousness, and I will enter into them." Christ said, "I am the Door: let every man enter in by me." He said this calmly at the first, amid the captious Pharisees who surrounded him; and wherever his gospel is preached or his Name made known, he says it still. To the happy and to the miserable, to the virtuous and to the vicious, to young and old, to the great ones of the earth and to men of low estate, to every class of character and to each isolated individual, he says, "If you would know what true life is, if you would escape from imminent peril into a land of peace, 'I am the Door.'" The text divides itself. In the first part of it—
I. CHRIST CLAIMS TO BE THE PORTAL OF SAFETY, THE DOOR OF DELIVERANCE FROM SPIRITUAL DEATH. "By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." And he says this with perfect insight into our condition here. He knows what is in man; if some of us under a calm exterior are carrying about with us a bad conscience, or if, reckless and gay to outward appearance, we are afraid to be alone with ourselves or with God. He knows what is around man—the evil examples, the strong temptations that enslave so many wills, the false lights and the delusive hopes that blind so many understandings. And he knows what is before man; for the veil that hides the future from our view is perfectly transparent to his eyes; and he spoke more solemnly of human destiny than any of the ancient prophets or of his own apostles ever spoke. So that no man, however profoundly dissatisfied with himself, remorseful for the past, despondent or anxious about the future, can complain that this word of Christ is not for him. He knows you, brother, better than you know yourself—as thoroughly as if there was no other wanderer in this wide wilderness but you. He has followed you step by step; has witnessed your most secret sins, however little you thought of his piercing eye; has seen through every excuse you have made for yourself, and beneath every mask you have worn so bravely before the world; and now that you are weary in the greatness of your way, instead of despising you, or upbraiding you with your folly, he gives you a personal invitation, definite and distinct, to a blessedness that you have never known; and instead of tantalizing you with vague or impracticable counsels, such as bidding you first save yourselves and then look up for his blessing, first undo the bitter past and then consult him about the future, he bids you come to him just as you are, with your burden on your back. "I am the Door," etc. Ah! many a prodigal has trembled to enter the door of his old home; but surely when Christ, the sinner's Friend, condescends to call himself the Door of his Father's house, none need fear to approach through him. Yet to many Christ's claim to be the Portal of safety seems superfluous so far as they themselves are concerned. They admit that his glowing offers of life and salvation are well suited to outcasts and prodigals, or to poor despondent creatures who are afraid to repent; but only to such. In their own case they surely possess the germs at least of a good and worthy character, and while they are willing that these germs should be nourished and fostered by the teaching of Jesus Christ, they can ask from him nothing more, nothing at least that can be called salvation. But how did our Lord himself speak to men in such a state of mind as this? Early in his ministry one of them came to him by night, calling him a Teacher sent from God, and asking for instruction. To this man, this master in Israel, Jesus replied, "Ye must be born again." You need a change of mind and heart which I came down from heaven to give. Yes, and to all who are like Nicodemus he gives the same counsel still. He says, "You need more than some general helps to moral improvement, more than the quickening of your consciences, or the strengthening of your better motives and impulses. Supernatural help, even Divine forgiveness and Divine strength, are essential to you—nay, they are waiting for you; and in order to realize them and make them your own, there is one direction in all the wide horizon to which you must look, one definite step you must take. 'I am the Door.'"
II. In the second part of the text CHRIST CLAIMS TO BE THE PORTAL OF PROMISE TO ALL WHO OBEY HIM. Each one of these, he says, "shall go in and out, and find pasture." For here, as we have said, the image of a fold widens out into that of a kingdom-,a land of promise better than that which Moses saw from the top of Pisgah; a goodly country where there is room for all the flock of God to dwell, and where its wants shall be satisfied. This good land is, in one word, the Christian calling. It is the life to which Christ admits his disciples. Realizing that life and making it their own, they shall lie down and rise up in the Divine favor, and "the Lord shall preserve their going out and their coming in, from henceforth even forever." But what is the pasture they shall find there? What is the nourishment provided for them? In answer to this we have only to think what are the great wants of our being, essential to us as creatures made in the image of God, for assuredly it is these that fall within the scope of Christ's promises.
1. First of all there is truth. I mean the assured knowledge of God and of his will—practical certainty with regard to our position here, and the great realities which surround us. Well has this been called the first necessity of man's moral nature. The understanding craves for it. The renewed heart would sicken and faint without it. But this priceless nourishment is Christ's to bestow. At the great crisis of his life, when he stood before Pilate's judgment-seat, he claimed to be both the Witness and the King of truth. "To this end," he said, "was I born, and for this cause came I into the world." And though his claims were set at naught by the world, they were gloriously vindicated by his rising from the dead, and by the mission of the Holy Ghost, by the outward and the inward seal of the Eternal. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but his words concerning God and man, and the broad way and the narrow way, and the cross of true discipleship and the beatitudes of the kingdom, shall not pass away. Evermore they shall feed and strengthen the souls of his faithful followers. And as in a very deep sense it is the Spirit of Christ that breathes throughout the Scriptures from beginning to end both in those of the ancient prophets and of the holy men who came after, so the flock of the good Shepherd shall ever find green pastures and still waters as they meditate upon them. Even now, as in the beginning of the gospel, Christ opens their understanding that they may understand the Scriptures.
2. Another great need of our souls is sympathy, and we may surely say that abundant food has been provided for this craving in the new life of Christ's disciples, which is our gospel land of promise. There is such a thing as the communion of saints. Precious is the fellowship which they have with one another as they sing God's praises together, and as they bow before the same mercy-seat, and as in their assemblies the same thoughts of things which are unseen and eternal fill all their minds. It is well for them when they speak heart to heart of the things which concern their peace, and encourage one another in the good way. But the life and soul of this fellowship is the secret communion which each of them enjoys with God in Christ. To him they can lay open all their hearts. From him they receive help of which they cannot well speak to others. "He is touched with a feeling of their infirmities." Some sorrow may be too deep, some difficulty too delicate, for the ears of their fellow-men; but before him they need have no reserve, and assuredly his Divine sympathy is like nothing else in human experience. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." They "taste and see that God is good" when they enter into the secret of his presence through the open door of Christ's mediatorship, and thus our Lord's great promise is fulfilled, "He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Such are Christ's claims, such his offers in the words before us. He does not speak to his disciples of raptures and ecstasies, or promise to transport them to some dreamland where they shall enjoy a charmed or enchanted life. But he says they shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. Their earthly lot may not be such as they would choose for themselves. The outward aspect of Providence may sometimes be stern, circumstances trying and hostile; but he who presides over all the events of life, and sees the end from the beginning, has promised to keep them in the hollow of his hand. He is their Shepherd, and they shall not want. Throughout the years of their pilgrimage here he will feed them with the bread of life, and refresh them with the water of life, and with these experiences and with his own promises he will inspire their minds with nothing less than the hope of glory. "Blessed are the people that are in such a case" as this!—G.B.
"The same yesterday, and today, and forever."
"I am the good Shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father" (Revised version). Our Lord Jesus Christ, as he has on his head many crowns, so throughout the Scriptures he is invoked and celebrated by many a name. These names unveil his being, they describe his relations to us, and they serve for his memorials throughout all generations. Indeed, you can scarcely have a right or fitting thought concerning him but you find it already expressed by one or another of his Scripture titles. Here he calls himself "the good Shepherd," using an image which needs no explanation. Every child knows the allegory at the beginning of this chapter, and has learned from books of travel how the shepherds in the lands of the Bible know their sheep one by one, and go before them, and run risks for them; and, on the other hand, how the sheep follow their leader, and will not go after a stranger. There is abundant evidence how dear this conception of Christ was to the heart of the early Church. Among the pictures so strangely preserved on the walls of the Roman catacombs, where, as far back as the days of pagan persecution, the Christians were wont to bury their dead, the good Shepherd is one of the emblems oftenest portrayed. Fit and cheering emblem for the cloudy and dark day!. But to understand the significance of this image in our Savior's lips, think of its hallowed associations in the Old Testament, and of its deep prophetic meaning there. From time immemorial Jehovah himself had been loved and trusted as the Shepherd of Israel, and the greatest earthly guides whom he gave to his people were described as under-shepherds who fulfilled his will. "Thou leadest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron (Psalms 67:1-7 :20); "He chose also David his servant," etc. (Psalms 78:70, Psalms 78:71). But more, when the great days of Jewish prophecy came round, how wondrously was the advent of a Divine Shepherd foretold who should never cease to feed the flock of God. Isaiah cried, "The Lord God... shall feed his flock like a shepherd." Ezekiel echoed and prolonged the cry (Ezekiel 34:12). Thus prophetic visions were realized and prophetic voices were fulfilled when Christ said, "I am," etc. On many grounds Christ could claim this title, but his own words in the text give prominence to a special and mutual tie between the good Shepherd and his flock. "I know my own, and my own know me," etc.
I. THESE WORDS WERE FULFILLED IN THE DAYS OF OUR LORD'S FLESH. Even then it was with a sure and Divine intuition that he looked into the hearts of men. This was more than the strange gift of discernment which men of genius have sometimes shown in choosing followers. "He knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him;" and, on the other hand, he recognized those whom the Father had given him, and whose souls were prepared or preparing to receive the good seed of the kingdom. Do any say, "How was this?" seeing he had emptied himself even of his omniscience, and was found in fashion as a man? Enough to reply that the Spirit that was given to him without measure was "a spirit of wisdom and understanding," so that "he did not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears." And hence he never was mistaken in his estimate of human character—never met with a refusal when he said authoritatively to one and another, "Follow me!" When he saw Nathanael coming to him he said, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." When he beheld Simon the son of Jonas, he gave him a new name, which Peter in the long run justified. And when he found Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom he counted on that publican's obedience, and made him a disciple with a word. And so he gathered about him a flock—it was in those days but a little flock—which continued faithful to him to the end; and though there was a wolf among them in sheep's clothing, it was Judas himself, and not his Master, who was deceived. And he adds, "My own know me, even as I know the Father." Not, indeed, with an absolutely pure and unclouded knowledge such as-his was, unimpaired by occasional error or mistake, but with a knowledge which was real and true and spiritual. According to the measure of theft faith Christ's own disciples knew him, even as he knew the Father. As they heard his words and saw his mighty works and marked his steps, there flashed on their minds, shining through the veil of his flesh, a light that carried its own evidence along with it, at once awe-inspiring and attractive. In the language of John, "They beheld his glory" (John 1:14). Hence they regarded him as One immeasurably above themselves, never questioning his authority, or doubting his faithfulness, or presuming to weigh in their petty balances his mighty claims. And when he said to them on one occasion, "Will ye also go away?" Peter, making himself the spokesman of the rest, replied, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." Thus the flock knew its Shepherd.
II. THESE WORDS HAVE A PERMANENT APPLICATION, FOR IN THEIR FULNESS OF MEANING THEY BELONG TO OUR LORD IN HIS GLORIFIED STATE. It was as the great Shepherd of the sheep that he was brought again from the dead, and when he ascended into heaven he only left behind him the limitations of his earthly life. Already he had promised to be with his disciples array, even to the end of the world. He was to be their Shepherd still. Hence in the subsequent Scriptures we never read of any of his flock deploring his departure as a loss, or saying, like the sisters of Bethany, "Lord, if thou hadst been here," etc.; on the contrary, we find them rejoicing more in his spiritual presence than they had ever done in his bodily presence.
1. In how many senses may it be said that he knows his own! Their number is within the ken of his omniscience, and there are hidden ones among them unperceived by man, but precious in his sight, because he sees the mark of God in their foreheads. He has a smile of recognition for their "works, and charity, and service, and faith, and patience," well pleased that they have not received the grace of God in vain. And when their spirit is overwhelmed within them, and their path is lonely and their burden such as friends cannot lift, perhaps cannot understand—for who can sound all the depths of a brother's heart?—then he knoweth their way, and his perfect knowledge takes the form of tender sympathy and help from above. Verily the Lord knoweth them that are his!
2. On the other hand, it is still a faithful saying that his own know him. Not indeed after the flesh, as was the privilege, if we should not rather say the perplexing ordeal, of his first disciples, but in spirit and in truth. They have had experience of his guidance, sometimes very wonderful, always very real; how he has done for them what no man or angel can do, and more than they can well describe, "leading them by the right way," giving them his Spirit—"the mind of Christ." They know his many-toned voice in the Scriptures, sometimes "still and small," as Elijah heard it at Horeb, at other times "like the sound of many waters," as John heard it at Patmos; so that they have no need to say, "Who shall ascend into heaven, to bring Christ down from above?" etc. (Romans 10:6, Romans 10:7), no need to cross land and sea to explore the places where he dwelt, or to travel back in thought these eighteen hundred years to realize the days of his flesh. "When his Word is nigh them, in their mouth and in their heart," then is their Savior nigh to them also. And besides all this, they can in some measure trace his footsteps throughout the ages; for what is the history of the Church—I mean her sacred and internal history—but a long series of testimonies to our Shepherd's power and grace, to his patience and long-suffering? So that these words are as true now as they were on the day they were uttered. Christ has a widespread flock here below. It is for him, not for us, to define its limits. No lines that man can draw will ever avail to do this. Has he not said that "many that are first shall be last, and the last first"? But he knows his own, and his own know him. The fruits of their fellowship are indeed visible and tangible, and may be counterfeited, but not its roots. The strong ties that bind the Shepherd to his flock are among the things that are unseen and eternal. The world cannot break them, nor even understand them. Time does not impair them, death will not destroy them. "He gives to his sheep eternal life," etc. (verse 28). Blessed are those who can set to their seal that these words are true—who can say, "Yes, Lord! thou knowest my weakness, and I know thy strength; thou knowest my folly, and I know thy wisdom; thou knowest my poverty, and I know thine unsearchable riches. Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee; and can I doubt this, that thou first lovedst me?"
Learn from this subject:
1. That the faith of the gospel is a personal matter. Its object is not a principle, or an abstraction, or an unknown and unknowable first cause. or "a stream of tendency;" but God revealed in Christ, whose presence can be sought and realized, who stoops and humbles himself to admit us into his friendship. The text breathes the very language of communion and fellowship. "The God of the Bible is heart to heart" (Bunsen).
2. The deep repose of the Christian life. There is peace in believing. Faith can rest in the thought of an Almighty Shepherd who takes an interest in each of his flock. It is true that Christ "gives to every man his work," and summons his disciples to war the good warfare, and put on the whole armor of God. But at the same time it is written, "We that have believed do enter into rest" (Hebrews 4:3). Deeper than all the conflicts of the life of faith, there may be the peace of God which passeth understanding. Underneath the manifold endeavors of our active nature there is room for quiet trust in an unseen Helper. Nay, the unfailing springs of courage and of patience have their source within the veil. Try to realize this. Surely the words of the text fully imply it. Look up to him who said, as never man said, "Fear not;" "Peace be unto you." Go to him, listen to him, follow him, and the old psalm will be like a new song in your mouth, "The Lord is my Shepherd," etc.
3. Beware of murmuring at your Shepherd's guidance, or rebelling against it. The path which you know is his path may be rough and steep for a time, perhaps monotonous and weary. False guides, pretended "leaders of thought," may point to alluring prospects on the right hand or on the left, and try to persuade you to turn your back on Christ; but they will only conduct you to some mirage of the desert. Rebels dwell in a dry land. Is this your experience? Has the spirit of the world beguiled you away from "the simplicity that is in Christ," and has your love grown cold, and has your hope of glory died away? Take with you words and say, "I will return to my first Shepherd, for then was it better with me than it is now." Believe in his infinite grace and goodness. He will restore your soul, and lead you in the paths of righteousness, even for his own Name's sake.—G.B.
Quis separabit?
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them," etc. This is Christ's last word concerning himself and his sheep; his last application of the allegory set forth in the beginning of the chapter. We may well wonder at its tone. The Speaker knew where he stood and what awaited him. The ancient fold, of which he had spoken, was invaded by hireling scribes and robber Sadducees. The true sheep were feeble and apparently helpless. In a few brief months they should be scattered, and he himself, their good Shepherd, smitten to death. Yet our Lord clings to his similitude, and. seems to us to rejoice in spirit, as he speaks of the everlasting bonds between himself and his flock. For his horizon was not bounded by the cross and the sepulcher, but by the joy that was set before him; and he foresaw that in the ages to come the sound of his voice should go out into all lands, and an ever-increasing multitude should follow him and receive from him eternal life. We must, therefore, look on these words as Christ's perpetual and living testimony, and without forgetting that they were first spoken in an earthly temple, in Solomon's Porch, let us listen to them as coming to us from a heavenly temple, and from a throne of glory. They describe—
I. THE CONSCIOUS TIE BETWEEN CHRIST'S DISCIPLES AND HIMSELF. Since they were uttered, the gospel has been carried far and wide over vast continents and to the distant islands of the sea, and it would take long to tell of the outward revolution it has effected, or of the incidental blessings which have followed in its train; how it has added to the sum of human happiness and diminished the sum of human misery; how it has deepened men's thoughts and widened their horizon. But wherever it has taken root, individual souls have consciously owned its power and yielded themselves up to its guidance. No census can count up their numbers. No test that man can apply will infallibly distinguish them from all others. It is only Christ himself who can say, "I know them." But there is one great outstanding fact concerning them which he here gives prominence to: "They hear his voice, and follow him." Among the many voices, some truer, some falser, which reach their ears in this world, there is one voice that is all-powerful. Among the various influences, better or worse, which press upon them on every side, there is one influence paramount and irresistible. And this is a matter of consciousness on their part. It may be more or less vividly so at different times or in certain circumstances, but it is essentially a fact of experience which they would not part with if they could, and which all the world cannot rob them of. They hear his voice, now quickening their consciences and bidding them awake from sleep; or again saying to them, "Peace be unto you;" "Fear not;" or yet again, "Continue ye in my love." But there is always grace as well as power in his voice, and this makes it welcome to his true disciples. When he warns them, they take good heed. When he encourages them, they are of good cheer. Even when he rebukes them, they know that faithful are the wounds of such a Friend, and can only reply, "Speak, Lord; thy servants hear." And the result is that they follow him; for there is a path which he is ever tracing for them by his precepts and his example, illumined as these are by his Spirit—a path which may be trodden in solitude and in society, in health and in sickness, in the busy world and in the family circle, in the secret chamber, by young and old, by learned and unlearned. Of every disciple it may be said that the deepest desire of his heart is to be found in that good way, and, should he wander, to be brought back to it. Sometimes, indeed, it leads him through green pastures and by the still waters, at other times through some dark valley of the shadow of death; but he knows well that to forsake it willfully is to draw back unto perdition, and the very dread of this in his hours of temptation is a salutary thing. Since the day, more than eighteen centuries ago, when the disciples were called Christians in the city of Antioch, that name, first perhaps given contemptuously, has been claimed by multitudes without number. In our own day and our own country it must needs be generally accorded to all who do not care to renounce it. But oh! listen to Christ's own description of those whom he owns as members of his flock: "They hear his voice, and they follow him." The root and reality of the matter is there. Try yourselves fairly by this test. Many bear the Christian name, they scarcely know why. But none can listen to Christ and obey him, in any true sense of the word, without earnestness and purpose of heart.
II. CHRIST'S GREAT GIFT TO HIS FLOCK—ETERNAL LIFE. If life be a great word, eternal life is one of the greatest words that can be spoken by human lips. Who can utter it aright without awe, seeing that its full meaning rises so high above us and stretches so far beyond us? You know that in Scripture it sometimes denotes that state of blessedness which is reserved for God's children in the future; as our Lord says, "In the world to come life everlasting." But sometimes also it points to a blessing realized in some measure here and now. "This is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God," etc. (John 17:3). Both applications of the word are needed to fill up its meaning. Eternal life embraces both the present and the future. It has its beginning, and it has its consummation. The same Sun of Righteousness enlightens both worlds.' The river that gladdens the city of God here below, reappears in the paradise above. And both aspects of the wondrous blessing are brought together in these words of Christ, for he speaks in the same breath of its present reality and of its glorious perpetuity. "I give unto them eternal life [not merely, 'I shall give it'], and they shall never perish," etc.
1. What, then, are the present aspects of this life which Christ bestows upon his true disciples? What does he do for them? What does he give them? As they hear his voice and follow him, imperfectly, no doubt, but unfeignedly, lo! the mists of earthly things dissolve and disappear, the veil is lifted from the holy of holies, and he admits them to communion and fellowship with the eternal God. Ah, this is a blessing which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. There is mercy in it, there is peace in it, there is joy in it, but, above all, there is life in it; for "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Think how this Divine friendship is described in that benediction, which from the beginning has been pronounced over the assemblies of Christ's disciples at the close of their worship, it is called "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ," because it is bestowed on the unworthy through the humiliation of the God-Man. It is called "the love of God," because it is the unveiling and outpouring of the Father's heart. And it is called "the communion of the Holy Ghost," because it unites God's children with himself and with each other by one and the same Spirit. We must admit, indeed, that custom has made us s,, familiar with these words, that too often they seem only a becoming formula expected at a certain moment; but the glorious things they speak of can never pall upon the renewed heart. If there is a freshness about each sunrise, as the traveler sees the morning spread upon the mountains, so there is a spiritual freshness about each glimpse of the glory of God. What child ever wearied of his father's smile? What Christian of the light of his heavenly Father's countenance? "With thee is the fountain or' life: in thy light shall we see light." Such are the springs of the life of God in the soul of man; but what are its characters, its pulses, so to speak, or its breathing, by which it may be known in our own experience?
"'Tis life of which our souls are scant;
Oh, life! not death, for which we pant;
More life and fuller that we want!"
In the text it is contrasted with perishing, and something may be learned by the contrast; for though none in this place of hope know what it is to perish, yet many may know what it is to be ready to perish. It is to have no object worthy of the soul's capacities to cling to or lean upon. It is to be involved in uncertainty as to where we are or whither we are going. To have the sphere of expected good growing narrower, the circle of expected evil growing wider. To have a heart becoming more selfish, more dead, or more cold! And if this is to be ready to perish, then to have eternal life is the opposite of all this. It is to have the gracious presence of God in Christ; to have the assured and ever-brightening prospect of better things to come; to breathe that love which is the reflection of the Divine image, because God is love; and which cannot be separated from happiness, for God is ever blessed. Such are the beginnings of eternal life, and he who gives it can sustain it in the hearts of his disciples. For he is mightier than all the enemies they can meet with here below; and as to time itself, which buries so much in the waters of oblivion, and tests, and wastes, and weakens so many earthly ties, even time cannot impair this friendship; "for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever."
2. But what are the future aspects of eternal life; for, as its name imports, it passes beyond the frontiers of time, and transcends all the experiences of the present? A change indeed awaits even the disciples of Christ, mysterious, unknown, inconceivable, when this world shall vanish from their sight, and the voices of their friends shall cease to sound in their ears, and when the powers of speech and even of will and thought shall fail them. Passive and helpless they shall leave this stage of existence; passive and helpless they shall enter on the next. But see in the words before us how Christ makes himself responsible, not only for the dread transition, but for all the experiences that lie beyond it. "They shall never perish," etc. He does not speak of his great gift as becoming the independent possession of his disciples, which they themselves are to guard in the solemn hereafter. No, even there it will be the result of the happy and enduring relation between the great Shepherd and his flock. And this is the very thought which the Apostle Paul expands and makes his own in the climax of the eighth chapter of Romans: "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels … shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." However far, then, we look forward to the future, we may say this much—that eternal life, in all its stages, will be the continuation and unfolding of what is begun here. The life of grace will pass into the life of glory, but its thread will not be cut, nor its purposes broken off, nor its center changed. Here its frail tent is a body of humiliation; there its dwelling-place shall be a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; but in its root and essence it is ever the same life, upheld by the same Spirit, watched over by the same Redeemer. "All his saints are in his hand," and none shall pluck them thence. What the Ultimate glory of eternal life will be, was morn than the beloved disciple himself could well conceive. He says in his First Epistle, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." And is not this enough? Can your thoughts and desires rise higher? We are taught, indeed, that when the mystery of God has been finished, the children of the resurrection shall open their eyes on a new heaven and a new earth, where nothing that defileth shall ever enter. They shall have congenial society there; the companionship of the loyal and the true. Activity without weariness shall be their everlasting rest. But the crown of their blessedness shall be this, that they shall bear the image of their heavenly Lord. Once in the days of his flesh he prayed as never man prayed: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory." The answer to that prayer shall be eternal life.—G.B.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG