1,2. THESE things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will 3 think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they 4 have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the 5 time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said 6 not unto you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I go my way to him 7 that sent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have 8 said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the 9 truth: it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will 10 not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, 11 he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, be- 12 cause they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see 13 me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. 14 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, 15 when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not 16 speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew 17 you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew 18 it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall 19 take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

ONE of the chief practical dangers of our life is that we are so apt to contemplate the disorder, mischief, and enormity of sin only from our human point, with only natural and immediate notions of its character and effects, without estimating its deadly antagonism to the holiness of the Almighty, the good of all that live, the integrity and peace of the universe. There never can be a religion of vitality and commanding majesty, where enfeebled conceptions prevail of those two primal and terribly hostile forces—the sovereign holiness of God and the wicked will of man. The depth of that wickedness, the all-pervading taint of ungrateful iniquity, the unreasonableness of disobedience in the child of a Parent so gracious and so good—these are not to be described, nor can any adequate and lively impression of them be made except as the soul is startled and awakened from insensibility by the strong touch of that renewing Spirit, which convinceth of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

The New Testament Scriptures represent him as not only Comforter, but also, and first, Rebuker, Renewer, and Sanctifier. He shall reprove the world. He shall tear up false confidences. He shall plant the stripes and wake the agonies of repentance, that he may be a true healer. He shall rend the guilty shelters of pride and self-complacency to pieces. He shall search secrets, divide joints and marrow—so close and sharp is his work—toss the heart with self-accusing, and then rebuild the whole character on clear, stout, rocky foundations. And this shall be his comforting. This will be the preparation of a peace that cannot be moved—deep, genuine, strong, healthy, lasting—a repentance that needeth never to be repented of.

Yes, all our peace is in God, who is not only the strongest, but Almighty. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, the capital and throne of the nation, so the Lord is round about his people. It is at the close of that superb hymn to Omnipotence, in the twenty-ninth Psalm, that we hear the subdued twofold benediction, “The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.” His presence is safety precisely because it is power—the love invincible, the compassion omnipotent. F. D. H.

1-4. These things**—respecting the world’s hatred and their defence against it in the spirit of testimony—the Lord told his disciples beforehand, that they might not be offended either at the seeming triumph of the world’s power, or at the seeming subjection of Christ’s kingdom. R. B.—It is an invincible proof of the truth of the Christian religion, that Christ foretold exactly whatever was to happen both to himself and to his Church; and that his Church, being opposed by all the powers of the world, should yet triumph over them all by the sole strength of the Word and the Spirit of God. Q.

7-15. In these verses, together with chaps. 14 : 16, 17, 28, and 15 : 26, we have from the lips of Jesus a very full and an incomparably precious exposition of the work of the Holy Spirit upon human souls; including his action upon believers and upon the unbelieving world. Comparing the spiritual work respectively of himself here in the flesh with that of the Comforter, he represents the latter as being most effective, most fruitful, and therefore most to be desired by his people. To show how and why this is the case, he adduces—(1) his agency upon unbelievers—men in their sins; and (2) his functions as to believers—guiding them into all truth; imparting such truth as God might send through him; revealing things to come; but especially setting forth in new light all they needed to know of Christ—“receiving of mine and showing it unto you.” (3) By no means least in importance is the fact that the agency of the Spirit has no limitations of place or time. The presence of Jesus in the flesh was of necessity restricted to few—sometimes to the most favored three; usually to the chosen twelve; more rarely to a somewhat enlarged circle of friends, or to a listening group of hearers, yet always under the limitations of one human voice, and of the physical endurance of one living man. But the Spirit is simply omnipresent, and of never waning, never wearied energy, bounded by no limitations of space or time or power. In every land, at every hour, among the countless peoples of the wide earth simultaneously, his work may go forward, only the more effectively as the numbers brought under his influence shall be multiplied. What an accession of power—what an augmentation of forces—is to come from this substitution of the presence of the divine Spirit for the personal presence of Jesus in the flesh! H. C.

7. It is expedient for you that I go away.** The presence of Christ in the flesh had been a help to what they had already learned; it was a hinderance to what they had now to learn. While he sat there before them in the body, it was hard to understand the mystery of a spiritual union. That hinderance is to be removed. T. D. B.

In the Being so simple, lowly; in that most gentle companion, that kind, ever accessible friend; who wandered by their sides in the same daily journeys, and retired at night to the same slumbers of exhausted nature; who looked like themselves, was hungry and weary like themselves, wore the same raiment, partook of the same meals; in that intensely real human nature, how almost impossible for them to realize what a transcendent presence was ever near them! Death must dissolve the illusion of familiarity, and gather around the man of Nazareth the mystery and awe of the world unseen, before they could rise to the apprehension of his awful greatness, and see in him at once the Son of man and Son of God. C.

The history of the Church, after the ascension of Jesus and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, further explains and confirms these words. Only the once crucified but now risen One; the glorified Son of God, sitting at the right hand of the Father, could have been proclaimed by the apostles as the Lord of a new, eternal, and spiritual kingdom of heaven. Only the conqueror of death—the Son of God returned triumphant to the glory of the Father—could have been announced to the world as the righteous one, the victor over the prince of this world; as he not to believe in whom was sin. G.

Comforter. Paraclete. Advocate is more appropriate to the context. It commonly signifies “one who is summoned to the side of another” to aid him in a court of justice, and, more particularly, “an advocate” or “pleader,” not one who “encourages or comforts.” The idea of pleading, arguing, convincing, instructing, convicting, is prominent in every instance in the gospel. The conception is substantially the same as in Rom. 8 : 16, 26. The word “Comforter” does indeed express a true office of the Holy Spirit, as our most heart-felt experiences will tell us; but the function of the Paraclete, as our Advocate, is wider and deeper than this. We see fresh force in the words thus rendered, “He will give you another Advocate,” when we remember that our Lord is styled by John (1 John 2 : 1) our “Advocate,” the advocacy of Christ illustrating and being illustrated by the advocacy of the Spirit. L.

We may say that Christ speaks for us; the Holy Ghost speaks to us. It is his business and office to speak the truth home to our hearts. It is God the Father’s will that we shall have eternal life; God the Son is given to us, and gives Himself to obtain for us life; God the Holy Ghost takes up his abode with us, as our Advocate, to transfer us into the life thus obtained, and through faith to preserve us in it forever.

But if I depart, I will send him unto you. By going thither to the Father—through the suffering of death entering into his glory—the Saviour has obtained the Comforter; and, as the glorified Son of man and the perfected Captain of our salvation, he has received him for redeemed sinners, that he may send him into their hearts. Blessed are the clients of the Holy Ghost, the heavenly Advocate! they are possessed of treasures borne in earthen vessels! R. B.

Far more advantageous and desirable is that presence of Christ by which he communicates himself through the grace and power of his Spirit, than if he were present before our eyes. Calvin.—Christ is still among us in himself and by his Spirit; he disappeared from the eye as the condition of descending with new power into the heart. We possess our Lord by a presence more real and more intimate than John enjoyed who “lay in the bosom of Jesus.” “Christ in us, the hope of glory,” abides with power and vitality such as his bodily presence never diffused. W. A. B.

Overwhelming as the loss could not but seem, that very loss was soon turned by the power of the Spirit into their inestimable gain. The Master, whom they had lost, they found anew. But they found him, not as a mere man. They found him as God, as the eternal only-begotten Son of God, governing all things with the power of the Father, and at the same time as their Saviour and Redeemer, and as the Redeemer of all mankind. They found him, whom the Jews had crucified, made by God both Lord and Christ. Scarcely less great was the change which took place in their own hearts and souls, in the bent and strength of their characters, and in all their feelings and desires, when the promised Comforter had come to them. The fiery baptism of the day of Pentecost consumed and purged away the dross and weakness of their nature; and they came out as silver refined and purified seven times by the fire. Out of fearfulness, they were made bold; out of blindness, they were enabled to see. Hare.

8. To prove that it is expedient for himself to go and the Spirit to come, Jesus proceeds to state what the Spirit will do: first, as to the ungodly—the “world” in their sins. In general, his work as to sinners is to reprove them; i. e., to enforce conviction as to their sin; to bring the truth that shall convict before their intelligence and make it effective upon the conscience. With remarkable method and consequent clearness, he makes three distinct points as to which he will reprove or convict them; viz.: sin; righteousness; and judgment. Then resuming each point separately, he shows more particularly what the Spirit will do. H. C.

Sin, Righteousness, Judgment. To a full, final understanding of these three words, current as they are in all the world, and extant in every conscience, nobody can be brought experientially through any human power or wisdom, nor through any letter of the Word, even though it were a word of Christ or of his apostles. This can only be done by the Spirit, as he acts inwardly on the heart and conscience. Stier.—His power of convincing the world, whether of sin, or of righteousness, or of judgment, is exercised with exclusive reference to the work of the Redeemer. J. A.

8-11. The Holy Ghost will convince the world of sin, and show that unbelief is the ground of sin; and further, will convince the world that Christ as the Holy One ascended to his Father in heaven, perfectly manifesting his righteousness in his death, and in the exaltation to God which followed it. So he will gradually convince the world of judgment; that Satan, so long ruler of the world, has been judged; that evil has lost its sway, and therefore can cause no fear to such as hold communion with Christ. These are the three great elements of the process: the consciousness of sin; of the righteousness of Christ, the Redeemer from sin; of the impotency of evil in opposition to the kingdom of God. And to be conscious of sin; to know Christ as the Holy Redeemer; and the kingdom of God as the conqueror of evil, which shall finally subdue all things to itself: this is the whole essence of Christianity. N.

Convince the world of sin. It is true that he hath convinced the world even from the beginning. His striving with the antediluvian world is related in Gen. 6; with the Jews in Is. 1, Heb. 3. Nor has the conversion of a sinner ever taken place without the conviction of the Spirit. But as all his operations in the New Testament were to be more illustrious, so also his convincing of sin. This conviction is much clearer, because the mysteries of salvation are more fully revealed. Lampe.—The Spirit makes sin manifest, not in its outward characters—in this respect the law awakens the knowledge of sin—but in its inward, deep root. Now this is nothing else than unbelief, which we may call the mother of all sinful actions; but unbelief itself is, in its most glaring form, unbelief in the Incarnate Christ. O.

To convince a man of sin, by proving to him that it lies at the bottom of all his feelings and blends with all his thoughts; to convince the world of sin, by showing how sin has tainted its heart and flows through all its veins: this is a work which no earthly power can accomplish. No human teacher can do it. Conscience cannot do it. Law, in none of its forms, human or divine, can do it. Nay, the Gospel itself cannot do it. Although the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, yet, unless the Spirit of God draws forth that sword, it lies powerless in its sheath. Only when the Spirit of God wields it, is it “quick and powerful, a discerner of the thoughts and purposes of the heart.” Hare.

Of sin, because they believe not on me. As all sin has its root in unbelief, so the most aggravated form of unbelief is the rejection of Christ. The Spirit, however, in fastening this truth upon the conscience, does not extinguish, but, on the contrary, consummate and intensify, the sense of all other sins. B.—The sin of not believing on Jesus is the capital sin—the one great, comprehensive, all-inclusive sin of ungodly men. All other sins could be forgiven and their power on the heart broken—if the sinner would believe on Jesus. No sin other than this so deeply insults the Lord of glory; no other so cruelly wounds his heart; none other so fatally baffles his efforts for that sinner’s salvation, or so surely dooms the unbeliever to remediless woe. Appropriately, therefore, will the Spirit concentrate his efforts to set before every sinner’s eye the guilt of not believing on Jesus. H. C.

This is a sin which the world till then had never dreamed of as such: and even at this day few take much thought about it, except those who have been convinced of it by the Spirit. The chief part look solely to their sins of commission, mainly to the evil deeds they may have done, then to the evil words they may have spoken, sometimes, it may be, to the evil thoughts and feelings they may have harbored in their hearts. Of sins of omission, very many think little or nothing; though these are far the larger and more numerous half of the two, and no less deadly than the other. They are the more numerous in the very best of us; and as for those, who are not endeavoring earnestly to walk in the law of God and seeking the help of his Spirit, their sins of omission eat up the whole of their lives. The whole of their lives is one black blot, one vast sin of omission, broken here and there by sins of commission flashing through it. [And it is among sins of omission that we find] the great prime sin, of which the Comforter came to convince mankind, the sin of want of faith, the sin of living without God in the world. Seeing that we were so totally estranged from him, that the narrowness of our minds could not recognize him as God, he sent his Son to dwell among us in the form of a man, that we might know him in whom we were to believe. Now, of every form of sin by which men are withheld from believing in Christ, the Comforter came to convince the world. Hare.

Thus all our salvation and condemnation depend now upon this, whether we believe in Christ, or not. A judgment has at length gone forth, which closes heaven against all such as have not and will not receive this faith in Christ. For this unbelief retains all sin so that it cannot obtain forgiveness, even as faith removes all sin. Luther.

The Comforter, also, did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. In convincing of sin, he has proved that he is indeed the Comforter. If the consciousness of sin arises from any other source, then it is enough to crush us with shame and to harrow us with fears. But when it comes from the Spirit of God, it comes with healing and comfort on its wings. All other conviction of sin would be without hope: here the hope accompanies the conviction, and is one with it. Hare.—The Spirit bears witness so convincingly, in order that he may absolve, convert, and comfort those who will give heed to his reproof. Stier.

10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father. The Comforter convinces us that Christ, in that he went to his Father, manifested himself to be the Lord our Righteousness; and he leads us to seek to be clothed in the righteousness which Christ has obtained for us. Hare.—Righteousness is God’s requirement; but the Holy Ghost reveals the righteousness as actually present in Jesus Christ, the Holy one and the Just, who, through the suffering of death, has gone to his Father, having entered into his glory; and he convinces the world that this righteousness of Christ, which faith has to lay hold of, is alone acceptable and well-pleasing before God. R. B.—In few words Paul teaches how far Christ’s going to the Father is our true justification, when he says in Rom. 4, Christ was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. For going to the Father means, dying and rising again. Brenz.

Christ speaks both of his personal, inherent righteousness, and of his communicated, justifying righteousness. That he ascended to the Father is sufficient proof of his own righteousness. That he sheds forth the Spirit, proves the merit of his righteousness: otherwise he could not have given the Spirit in such measure. And that his justifying righteousness is here especially treated of, is apparent from the fact that so many and such great effects are attributed to it in the Scriptures. In the law is revealed the condemning righteousness of God; in the gospel, his justifying righteousness. And this is the great mystery of the gospel, that sinners are justified, not only through divine grace and mercy, but also through divine righteousness, that is, through the righteousness of Christ, who is “Jehovah,” and who is “our Righteousness.” J. L.—The Holy Ghost convinces the world of righteousness, partly, that it must needs have a righteousness, partly, that it cannot find this righteousness in itself, partly, that it must seek this righteousness in another, namely, in Christ. Stier.

Christ’s righteousness is also our righteousness, if we will cast away the sin of not believing in him, and receive his righteousness as our own by faith. He is “the Lord our Righteousness.” The belief in his righteousness is the means by which we are raised out of our sins and receive justification in the sight of God. Hence these two works of the Comforter, the conviction of our own sins, and the conviction of Christ’s righteousness, go one along with the other, and cannot be divorced or parted, neither being accomplishable without the other. Hare.

11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.** By supposing that the final judgment is here meant, the point of this clause is quite missed. The statement, “The prince of this world is judged,” means, beyond all reasonable doubt, the same as that in chap. 12 : 31, “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out;” and both mean that his dominion over men, or his power to enslave and so to ruin them, is destroyed. The death of Christ “judged” or judicially overthrew him, and he was thereupon “cast out” or expelled from his usurped dominion. B.

In that Christ appeared in the world, that he fulfilled the most perfect obedience by his closing sufferings and death, and in that he rose glorified from the dead, he broke down the power of evil; the kingdom of God advanced mightily. By that great act of redemption, the kingdom of evil, and the power of Satan, its ruler, were overthrown. A. T.

The destruction of evil is the necessary consequence of the triumph of good, which alone can render it possible. The casting out of Satan (and his angels) from heaven necessarily implied the previous exaltation of Christ, and of his saints with him, from earth to heaven. The judgment is not to be conceived as merely concentrated at the end of the world, but is continually going on through the whole of history, manifesting itself more plainly at times when good comes forward effectively in fuller power. When the disciples drove out evil spirits, our Lord saw therein the fall of Satan from his throne; and when the Gentiles came pressing into the kingdom of God, he declared that Satan was cast out. O.

Even the law proclaims to sinners who are found destitute of righteousness before God the judgment of damnation to which they are liable; but the Holy Ghost sets forth this judgment in the case of the prince of this world as already executed; and thereby he convinces the world that the power of their god has been taken from him, and that the only choice which is left to them is, either through faith in Jesus to share in his perfected triumph over the devil, or to share in the fate of their own judged and condemned prince. R. B.

Among those who have been convinced by the Holy Spirit both of sin and of righteousness, there are few who are not reminded that another law is still dwelling in their members, warring against the law of God. Most comfortable therefore is the assurance, which the Holy Spirit brings to all such as have a living faith in Christ, and are seeking to put on the righteousness of Christ, that the prince of this world has been judged. . . . They who are truly convinced of judgment, see the prince of this world as he is, in his true shape and features, the heir of eternal wrath, the miserable victim of his own malignity. They see how Christ overcame him—by that sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. They see how all his most fascinating temptations are scattered by the breath of God’s holy law. Their eyes are unscaled, so that he can no more deceive them.

It will never be sufficient for the establishment of any soul in faith and in righteousness, if the Comforter merely comes to it once to work his conviction in it. Ere long the conviction would grow dim and fade away: nor can this be averted, unless the impression be perpetually renewed by the same divine hand. Our growth in faith is sure to increase our conviction of unbelief and of our need of the ever-present help of the Comforter to overcome that unbelief; and our conviction of Christ’s righteousness must needs deepen our conviction of our own unrighteousness, and of our own utter inability to overcome it without the constant aid of the same heavenly ally. Hare.

What the Holy Ghost put into the mouth of Peter to declare at Pentecost, was the first-fruits of his arrival; and in that very first discourse he reproves the world, by convincing it, in a manner calculated to excite both deep feeling and shame, of three several things: first, of sin, which reached its culminating point in the rejection of the Saviour; secondly, of righteousness, which God has set forth in the crucified and risen Christ; thirdly, of judgment, which is victoriously executed on that now conquered being who had the power of death (Acts 2). For three thousand souls, this first discourse of the Holy Ghost was a savor unto life; through the righteousness of Christ apprehended by faith they escaped the judgment which they had deserved on account of their sins. R. B.

12. Many things to say, but ye cannot bear them now.** Christ had been instructing his disciples for years, using every opportunity and every incident. The record preserved in the gospels is a very small part of what he spoke, and yet what a store of truth, new to the world, and divine and everlasting in its reach, is contained in it! What a light is cast upon human duty in the Sermon on the Mount, how varied the relations of man’s life to his fellow-man and to God as presented in his parables, and what revelations of the love of the Father, and all he intends here and hereafter by the gift of his Son, in this discourse! But after all these revelations, now at the close of his ministry, he has many things to communicate, but his lips are sealed. It is not so much time that is wanting to him, though that too presses, as fitness on the part of his scholars. The teacher is all-wise, but the learners are weak and full of prejudice. The teacher is so wise that he will not give them more than they can well receive. Ker.

Well did the Lord know that his poor, sorrowing disciples were not at present able to apprehend and grasp all that is contained in these three things: sin, righteousness, judgment, of which, through them, the Comforter was to convince the world; if he had now interpreted these words to them, and been pleased to lead them deeper into this mystery of atonement and justification, he would have laid upon them a burden too heavy for their understanding to bear. It is in the light of his resurrection and ascension that Jesus will have his crucifixion considered, otherwise it is indeed unendurable. From the throne of the glorified Saviour descends the Comforter, and guides the lovers of truth into the whole truth, by filling them as the Spirit of Truth, and penetrating them more fully from day to day. R. B.

13. “Then will he guide you to the full truth.” Thus the meaning is happily expressed by Scholz. Hare.—No promise of universal knowledge, nor of infallibility, is hereby conveyed; but it is a promise to them and to us, that the Holy Spirit shall teach and lead us, making known to us all the truth of God. A.—Speak-hear. Phrases accommodated to man’s weakness. “His teachings and guidings shall be those of One who is in the closest union with the Father and the Son.” J. C. R.

No personality was ever more clearly pronounced, by the appropriate attributes and pronouns, than is that of the Comforter here. F. D. II.—And, we may add, the distinct personality of each one of the Sacred Trinity is inwoven throughout this whole discourse. Apart from this, the words of Jesus are incoherent and without meaning. The Son and the Father are separated, though their identity of spirit and nature is expressly affirmed throughout. So the Holy Ghost is separated from the Father and the Son by distinct personality and functions, while he is declared to proceed from and to possess a vital oneness of nature with both the Father and the Son. J. G. B. (Section 167.)

The apostolic life and the apostolic doctrine are the ripe fruits of the Spirit’s promised guidance into the whole truth; and in the apostolic writings the Church possesses the divine-human, original record of the whole truth in which the apostles were guided, that by virtue of the clear and perfect light which their witness affords, all believers, to the end of the world, may walk in the same only path of truth. Even in the apostle’s discourses in the Acts, and here and there in the apostolic epistles, we see the spirit of prophecy at work; and in the Revelation which John received when in the Spirit, he has fully performed his office, of showing the whole future of the kingdom of Christ. R. B.

14. He shall glorify me. In every part of his three fold work the Comforter glorifies Christ. He convinces us of the sin of not believing in Christ. He convinces us of that righteousness which was made manifest in Christ’s going to the Father, and which he bestows on all such as should believe in him. And, in convincing us of judgment, he convinces us that the prince of this world was judged in the life and by the death of Christ. In like manner all the graces which the Spirit bestows are the graces which were manifested in the life of Christ. It is Christ’s love that he shows and gives to us, the love through which Christ laid down his life—and Christ’s joy in his communion with his Father—and the peace which Christ had when he overcame the world—and the faithfulness of him who is the faithful witness—and the gentleness with which Christ took little children in his arms—and Christ’s meekness in never answering again—and the temperance of Christ, who made it his meat and drink to do the will of his Father. All these graces the Spirit of God desires to give to all who believe in Christ Jesus. Hare.

Of mine shall show unto you. The saving substance of every thing that the Spirit, as instructor, shows, is Christ. Everything of which he convinces the world, and everything that he makes known to believers in his office of guide into all truth, has for its end and aim the glorification of Christ in the world and within the hearts of believers. The Father glorified the Son in heaven, when he exalted him to the right hand of his majesty; the Holy Ghost glorifies him upon earth, by preparing for him a throne, through the blessed gospel, in the hearts of redeemed and converted sinners. Hereby is any spirit known to be the instrument of the Holy Ghost, by acknowledging the glory of the Lord Jesus and exalting his praise (1 John 4 : 2). R. B.

This 14th verse is decisive against all additions and pretended revelations, subsequent to and beside Christ; it being the work of the Spirit to testify to the things of Christ, and not to anything new or beyond Him. A.—The 15th verse shows the entire unity between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the revelation of truth made to man. J. C. R.

If in this, the Lord’s parting discourse, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which is the root and crown of all God’s mysteries, is more clearly set forth than in any other discourse which John has preserved, let us remember that this very discourse has for its text, “Let not your heart be troubled!” Not for vain and fruitless speculation has this mystery been confided to us, but for our joy and peace in believing, and for the hope of enjoying it in heavenly light. R. B.

Section 146.—Last Discourse: “Ask in My Name.”

The Guest-Chamber.

16. A LITTLE while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see 17 me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What 18 is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little 19 while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, 19 What is this that he saith, A little while? We cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus 20 knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among 21 yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, 20 and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but 21 the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into 22 joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as 23 soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that 24 a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you 23 again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that 24 day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask 25 the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my 26 name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 27 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh when I shall 28 no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At 29 that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father 30 for you: for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed 31 that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: 32 again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now 33 speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest 34 all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou 35 camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour 36 cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall 37 leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things 38 I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have 39 tribulation, but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.

EVEN our saintliest saints only partially apprehend the joy and benefit of their position. We profess to believe Christ has overcome the world, and that we have a right to be of good cheer because he has overcome it, and then straightway we go and act and speak as if the gloomy burden rested on us of overcoming it unaided, ourselves. The very consolation of his assurance is that he has overcome it. It is a fact wrought. It is a triumph accomplished. Yet look on the nominal Christians, catch the half-faithless and complaining tones of unreconciled mourners, read the despair on the cheerless faces of so many avowed disciples, and who would ever dream we were the heirs of a glorious liberty obtained, and the children of a day whose morning beams, as they mounted the sky, were the banners of an everlasting victory? Fellow-Christians, we have not yet to find out the secret of redeeming the world to God. God so loved the world that he gave his Son. He has baffled evil by his prayers, trodden it under the feet of his virtue, and rebuked it by his word, and nailed it to his cross. What is for us is to take with living gratitude the divinely-offered gift, to clothe ourselves in his purity, to lean our sorrows on his breast, to come unto him—the Way, the Truth, the Life. Yes, fourfold as his saving offices for us are—living as example, enlightening as teacher, dying as redeemer, rising as advocate and intercessor—fourfold must our acceptance be—following the guide, obeying the word, moved to penitence and faith by the cross, kindled to holy praise by the hopes of the resurrection. F. D. H.

16. The seeing which Jesus promises to his disciples (and to all Christians) is grounded on this, that his leaving them is not so much a going away, as a going to the Father: “Because,” he says, “I go unto the Father.” If Jesus did not go to the Father and enter into the Father’s glory, the Comforter could not glorify him as the risen Prince of Life—as him who should remain with his disciples in the word and sacrament forever, until he shall come again in outward manifestation, “in like manner as the disciples saw him ascend into heaven.” Whereas now, with eyes enlightened by the Spirit, we behold his glory; like Stephen, we gaze into heaven, opened to our view by virtue of the departure thither of our great High-Priest. R. B.

20-22. Ye have sorrow, ye shall rejoice.** They would have a few most desolate days, bereaved, bewildered, trembling for their own lives, borne down with sadness in the loss of such a friend, shocked with the sudden sinking of such hopes as they had still cherished in the promised King of Israel, coming to set up something they thought of as a kingdom. This rush of the waves of sorrow Jesus foresaw, and therefore gave them these words among the very last—to be recalled in the bitterness of that anguish. H. C.

22. The glorious fruit which should spring from that sorrow, the Lord describes in the threefold word, “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” When the disciples beheld the risen One, they were indeed glad; yet the seeing was rather on the Lord’s side than on the apostles!—I, he says, will see you again. There was something yet wanting to make their joy perfect, for as yet they only gazed at him timidly and with fear. When they saw him ascend into heaven, then, and not till then, did they touch him as he desires to be touched, with earnest adoring hands: then their heart rejoiced with a great, a living joy; and their joy in their ascended Lord was heightened into an inexhaustible power when the Comforter, the Spirit of joy, came and in their hearts put his seal upon the word, “Your joy no man taketh from you.” Ever since the coming of the Comforter, a one continuing day of Pentecost has been going on, nor will it end until the Lord’s visible coming again; therefore it is proper for us to take to ourselves the power of this precious promise, that no man—not the devil, not the world, not the weakness of the flesh—shall ever take our joy from us. Our sorrow is the remnant of our sins and of our sinfulness, which Christ has atoned for, and that remnant lessens daily; but our joy is the foretaste of the blessed eternity which Christ has prepared for us, and that joy progresses onward, waxing daily toward perfection. R. B.

Which is the stronger, even while we wander here, sorrow or joy? Is not the joy from above, is not the sorrow from beneath? Is not that which is from above stronger than that which is from beneath? Which of the two may, which will, which should, take place?—the sorrow embitter the joy, or the joy sweeten the sorrow? The joy is the stronger! This we may know if we fashion our life more into conformity with Christ’s life, if we feel that this life is a going away to the Father and the Son. If life is only judged of according to our success in worldly business, according to the possession of perishable joy, or honor, or property; if we are earthly-minded, then, indeed, sorrow and suffering must be the mightier. But if we do not seek in the world for the aim and object of our life; if we have cast our anchor behind the veil which conceals eternity from us; if we only live for eternal joys, and strive after them alone, then our life takes quite another form—it then becomes a sojourning, a wandering, a pilgrimage; the suffering of life becomes a conflict, only exciting a stronger longing after eternal things; and the diligent care to enter in thither into the eternal rest of the saints, and not to fall short of it, maintains in us a spirit of joyous, unflagging endeavor, even to the grave. Everything depends upon our living forward, upon our seeing our happiness in life eternal, upon our recognizing the fact, that to come to the Lord, to behold him, to be glorified like him, to be ruled over by him, and to rule with him—that for this we were born, for this we live, for this we die. Löhe.

24. The Spirit of Christ draws near to us without any fettering condition, and without any restraining measure, even as the gospel does. It is his special work to exhibit the abundant freeness and riches of the gospel of Christ, to unfold and analyze it that we may see it in its manifold beauty. And the promise of the Spirit by Christ is followed by this command, “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Ker.

Unrestrained freedom of question had been the law of their life under their great Teacher. Their words fell on his earthly ear; his replying words fell on theirs. But after his ascension this form of asking Jesus must cease, and instead of it must come praying to the invisible Father in the name of that Jesus whom henceforward they must think of as having passed into the heavens, and evermore making intercession for his people there. They might ask the Father in heaven as freely as they ever had the Son on earth. H. C.—Henceforth ask everything in my name, and through my mediation ask fully and confidently, and you shall receive abundantly. So asking, you shall find the joy of your own souls filled up. J. C. R.

To pray in the name of Jesus is, first, so to pray that the person of the supplicant shall be represented by him; secondly, so to pray that his Spirit shall suggest to the supplicant what he shall pray for; thirdly, so to pray that his cause and honor shall be the supplicant’s principal concern. R. B.

What the heart is to the living man, that prayer is to the soul; what rest is to the weary, what joy to the mourner, what gold to the needy, what strength to the weak, what the breath and blood to the life—all that, to the troubled soul, is prayer. Sweet incense, precious in God’s sight, it enlightens the mind, nourishes confidence and hope, kindles love, increases humility, begets in the supplicant’s mind a renunciation of earthly things, and renders strong and lively his desire for things heavenly; prayer produces unspeakable enjoyment, and crowns with supreme power; for even the angels honor the supplicant who, in Jesus’ name, calls upon the holy, almighty God. Gerhard.

25. All things that the risen and ascended One shows plainly, without the veil of parables, to his disciples, from that first word which Mary Magdalene heard from his lips and carried to his brethren, to the very last word which the Spirit saith unto the churches—all are the Son’s showing of the Father; i. e., that the Father of Jesus Christ may be known as the true Father of all who are in Christ, and Christ in them. R. B.

26. At that day. It was not clearly and fully known that Jesus Christ was the Mediator between God and man, and that everything was to be asked and granted in his name, till after he had shed his blood, opened heaven, and sent down the Holy Spirit upon his Church, and till so many gifts of that Spirit, and so many miracles wrought by the apostles, had appeared in the world. Q.

27. That day, the New Testament day of joy, is at once a day of knowledge and a day of prayer. Plainly does the Spirit of Christ show to the children of the new covenant the mystery of God’s paternal love; and plainly in return do they pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. To this filial freedom will the Lord fain allure his disciples when he tells them, that in his name, on account of his finished eternal redemption, they would have open and free access to the Father, and might joyfully, without fear, rest assured of the Father’s love: “for the Father himself loveth you.” R. B.

28. I came from the Father: I go to the Father. The first part only of this statement the disciples believed; the second they did not yet understand; but Jesus puts both together as the two halves of one whole truth, either of which necessarily implies the other. The declaration sums up the history of Christ; it is the substance of the Christian faith; it asserts doctrines utterly incompatible with a merely human view of Christ’s person, and makes his divinity the fundamental article of the creed. A. B. B.

Threefold is the way through which Christ passed for the salvation of the children of men: the way of love, when moved by surpassing love he descended from heaven to earth, and became man; the way of obedience, when, for us, he was obedient to his Father, even to the death of the cross; the way of glory, when, after having accomplished his mission, he ascended into heaven and returned to his Father. Gerhard.—When Christ came forth from the Father, he so came into the world as never to leave the Father; and he so left the world and went unto the Father as never to leave the world. Aug.

29. Now speakest thou plainly. Hardly more so than before; the time for perfect plainness was not yet come, but having caught a glimpse of his meaning (it was nothing more), they eagerly express their satisfaction. B.—30. He had so interpreted their inmost thoughts and feelings, that they were fully convinced that their hearts were open to his view. His words from verse 19 had been so pertinent to the difficulties with which their minds had been perplexed, that it was as though their thoughts had been exposed to him. J. J. O.

33. The aim of the whole discourse had been to impart to the minds of the disciples a spring of divine comfort amid their struggles with a hostile world for the advancement of the kingdom of God. He closed it with a few words of farewell, embracing its whole scope. N.—For the benefit of his disciples who now believe, as well as for that of his whole Church which shall believe unto the end—the Lord sums up in these words all that he has been saying to his disciples during these parting hours.

Those who have tribulation in the world shall have peace in him, a peace which makes us be of good cheer in the midst of trouble, for it is grounded in him who has overcome the world. In this peace, which the Lord bequeaths to his disciples as his peace, is contained the whole fulness of the Christian’s life: the man who possesses this peace brings forth fruit in love, and he has fulness of joy. Peace in faith, fruit in love, perfect satisfaction in joy: these are the blessings which the Comforter makes over to the Church of Christ; while he makes the life of the already glorified Son of man to be the life of men who are to be glorified. Herein is contained the sum of the whole of the Lord’s consolatory discourse to his disciples. R. B.

The grand fact is that Christ’s victory is the victory of his followers, and insures that they too shall conquer. Jesus fought his battle, not as a private person, but as a representative man. And all are welcome to claim the benefits of his victory—the pardon of sin, power to resist the evil one, admission into his everlasting kingdom. Because Christ has overcome, we may say to all, Be of good cheer. A. B. B.

When the spiritual life of the disciples, sunken for a moment, emerged again after the resurrection of their Master, how brilliantly must the image of these last discourses have shone forth from the depths of their memories and their hearts! How precious must each word have been to them! With what intense interest must they have turned them over and dwelt upon their import! And how clear, in the light of their experience of the fulfilment of his predictions, must many things have appeared that were before obscure! N.

And thus this series of conversations, of unparalleled significance, of inexpressible sweetness—precious above all other words that ever fell from those sacred lips—came to its close. It only remained to Jesus to pour out his full soul in prayer—prayer for the men he loved most tenderly; for men whose pending perils he foresaw clearly; whose moral frailties lay vividly before him, and whose need of help from above he therefore saw to be exceedingly great and demanding. H. C.

THE ATTITUDE OF CHRIST TOWARD MEN.—No mere man could take the same attitude of supremacy toward the race, and inherent affinity or oneness with God, without fatally shocking the confidence of the world by his effrontery. Imagine a human nature saying to the world, “I came forth from the Father”—“ye are beneath, I am from above;” facing all the intelligence and even the philosophy of the world, and saying in bold assurance, “Behold, a greater than Solomon is here”—“I am the light of the world”—“the way, the truth, the life;” publishing to all people and religions, “No man cometh to the Father but by me;” promising openly in his death, “I will draw all men unto me;” addressing the Infinite Majesty, and testifying, “I have glorified thee on the earth;” calling to the human race, “Come unto me,” “follow me;” laying his hand upon all the dearest and most intimate affections of life, and demanding a precedent love—“He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.” Was there ever a man that dared put himself on the world in such pretensions?—as if all light was in him, as if to follow him and be worthy of him was to be the conclusive or chief excellence of mankind!

Nor is there anything disputable in these pretensions, least of all, any trace of myth or fabulous tradition. They enter into the very web of his ministry, so that if they are extracted and nothing left transcending mere humanity, nothing at all is left. Indeed, there is a tacit assumption, continually maintained, that far exceeds the range of these formal pretensions. He says, “I and the Father that sent me!” What figure would a man present in such language—I and the Father? He goes even beyond this, and, apparently without any thought of excess or presumption, classing himself with the Infinite Majesty in a common plural, he says, “We will come unto him and make our abode with him.” Imagine any, the greatest and holiest of mankind, any prophet or apostle, saying We of himself and the Great Jehovah! What a conception did he give us concerning himself when he assumed the necessity of such information as this, “My Father is greater than I;” and above all, when he calls himself, as he often does in a tone of condescension, “the Son of man.” See him also on the top of Olivet, looking down on the guilty city and weeping words of compassion like these, “How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” See him also in the Supper, instituting a rite of remembrance for himself, a scorned, outcast man, and saying, “This is my body—this do in remembrance of me.”

For eighteen hundred years these prodigious assumptions have been published and preached to a world that is quick to lay hold of conceit, and yet, during all this time, whole nations of people have paid their homage to the name of Jesus, detecting never any disagreement between his merits and his pretensions, offended never by any thought of his extravagance. His worth is seen to be so great, his authority so high, his spirit so celestial, that instead of being offended by his pretensions, we take the impression of one in whom it is even a condescension to breathe our air. H. B.

Section 147.—The Prayer for His Own.

The Guest-Chamber.