PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Love to the Uttermost Expositions of John XIII.-XXI.
Meyer, F. B. (Frederick Brotherton), 1847-1929 · 88,596 words · 128 reading sections
Part 1
Produced by Al Haines…
4 wordsSECTION 2F. B. MEYER, B. A.
Author of "The life and Light of Men: Expositions of John I.--XII.;" "Old Testament Heroes;" "The Shepherd Psalm;" etc.…
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Fleming H. Revell Company Publishers of Evangelical Literature Copyright, 1898-1899 by Fleming H. Revell Company…
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The former book on the first twelve chapters of this sublime Gospel was called, _The Life and Light of Men_. The title was naturally suggested by the subject-matter of those chapters. We had little difficulty in finding a title for the present book, which covers, however cursorily, the remainder of the Gospel. It la…
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I THE LAVER IN THE LIFE OF JESUS II THRICE BIDDEN TO LOVE III HEAVEN DELAYED, BUT GUARANTEED IV "MANY MANSIONS" V THE REALITY OF WHICH JACOB'S DREAM WAS THE SHADOW VI CHRIST REVEALING THE FATHER VII THE GREAT DEEDS OF FAITH VIII HOW TO SECURE MORE AND BETTER PRAYER IX THE OTHER PARACLETE X THE THREE DISPENSAT…
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Expositions of John xiii.-xxi.…
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The Laver in the Life of Jesus "He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with a towel wherewith He was girded."--JOHN xiii. 5. In the court of the Temple there were two objects that arrested the eye of the entering worshipper--the Brazen Altar, and the Laver. The latter …
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_It was unusually tender_.--When the hour of departure approaches, though slight reference be made to it, love lives with the sound of the departing wheels, or the scream of the engine, always in its ear; and there are given a tenderness to the tone, a delicacy to the touch, a thoughtfulness for the heartache of those …
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_He was aware of the task to which He was abandoning these men_.--He knew that as He was the High Priest over the house of God, they were its priests. He knew that cleansing was necessary before they could receive the anointing of the Holy Ghost. He knew that the great work of carrying forward His Gospel was to be de…
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_This is the key to every act of daily cleansing_.--We have been washed. Once, definitely, and irrevocably, we have been bathed in the crimson tide that flows from Calvary. But we need a daily cleansing. Our feet become soiled with the dust of life's highways; our hands grimy, as our linen beneath the rain of filth i…
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Thrice Bidden to Love "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."--JOHN xiii. 34. Anacreon complains that when they asked him to sing of heroic deeds, he could only sing of love. But the love with which he fills his sonnets will bear as much comp…
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_Obedience to this fulfills the rest_.--Love is the fulfilling of the law. Do we need to be told to have no other gods but God, to forbear taking His name in vain, and to devote one day in seven to the cultivation of a closer relationship with Him, if we love Him with all our soul and mind and strength? Do we need to…
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"As I have loved you." Life is one long education to know the love of God. "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us," is the reflection of an old man reviewing the past. Each stage of life, each phase of experience, is intended to give us a deeper insight into the love wherewith we are loved; and as …
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Heaven Delayed, but Guaranteed "Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, whither goest Thou? Jesus answered him. Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterward."--JOHN xiii. 36. These chapters are holy ground. The last words of our dearest, spoken in the seclusion of the death-chamber to th…
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I. THE DESIRE TO BE WITH CHRIST.--This was paramount. These simple men had little thought of heaven as such. If Christ had begun to speak of golden pavement, gates of pearl, and walls of chrysolite, they would have turned from His glowing words with the one inquiry, "Wilt Thou be there?" If that question had been an…
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So Peter had to be broken on the wheel of a servant-girl's question, and humbled to the dust. In those bitter hours he was thoroughly emptied of his old proud, self-reliant, vain-glorious spirit, and became as a little child. This must be our path also. We must descend with Christ, if we would ascend to sit at His s…
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"Many Mansions" "I go to prepare a place for you."--JOHN xiv. 2. The cure for heart-trouble, when the future is full of dread, is faith--faith directed to Jesus; and just such faith as we give God, for He is God. He has shown Himself well worthy of that trust; all His paths toward us have been mercy and truth; and w…
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That all this will be so, is witnessed by the instincts of our hearts, and if it had not been so, He would have told us. That little clause is inimitably beautiful; it seems to teach that where He permits His children to cherish some natural presentiment of the blessed future--its solemn troops and sweet societies; it…
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The Reality of which Jacob's Dream was the Shadow "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."--JOHN xiv. 6. We all know more truth than we give ourselves credit for. A moment before the Lord had said, "Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." Thomas, th…
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It was trodden with song. And who can describe the waves of joy that sometimes roll in on the believing, loving soul. There is always peace, but sometimes there is joy unspeakable and full of glory. The hands of Jesus shed the oil of gladness on our heads, whilst the lamentation and regret that haunt the lives of ot…
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This is the ground basis of all true saving faith. The soul may accept truths about Christ, as it would any well-authenticated historical fact; but it is not materially benefited or saved until it has come to rest on the bosom of Him of whom these facts are recorded. (3) To know Christ as Truth demands truth in heart…
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Christ Revealing the Father "Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."--JOHN xiv. 8, 9. The longing of the universal heart of man was voiced by Philip, when he broke in, rather abruptly, on our Lord's discourse with the chall…
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Are you straining after the vision of God, startled by every footstep, intently listening till the very atmosphere shall become audible, expecting an overwhelming spectacle? In all likelihood you will miss all. The kingdom comes not with outward show. When men expected Christ to come by the front door, He stole in a…
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So absolutely had He emptied Himself that He never spake His own words: "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself." He never did His own works: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. . . . The Father abiding in Me doeth His works." This was the result of that marvellous self-emptying of which the Apo…
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The Great Deeds of Prayer "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father."--JOHN xiv. 12. Whenever our Lord was about to say something usually important, He introduced it by the significant expressio…
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There are many counterfeits of faith in the world. Electroplate! veneer! They will inevitably fail in the last supreme test, if not before. James especially calls attention to the distinction between a living and a dead faith. It becomes us to be on our guard. The test of genuine faith are twofold. In the _first_…
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Christ hinted at this distinction in one of His earliest miracles, when He proposed to forgive the sick of the palsy his sins, before bidding him walk; and bade the seventy rejoice more that their names were written in heaven than that the devils were subject to them. The apostles bear witness to a growing appreciatio…
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How to Secure More and Better Prayer "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever."--JOHN xiv. 16. The great lack of our life is that we do not pray more. And there is no failure so disastrous or criminal as this. It is very difficult to account for it. I…
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(3) In the days of His flesh, He pleaded for His _Church_, as in the sublime intercessory prayer of chapter xvii.; for _individuals_, as when He said, "Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee"; and for _the world_, as when He first assumed His High-priestly…
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(4) We must pray "in His Name." As the ambassador speaks in the name of queen and country; as the tax-collector appeals in the name of the authorities; both deriving from their identification with their superiors an authority they could not otherwise exercise; so our words become weighted with a great importance when …
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The Other Paraclete "He shall give you another Comforter."--JOHN xiv. 16. There was no doubt in our Lord's mind that His asking would be at once followed by the Father's giving. Indeed, the two actions seemed, in His judgment, indissolubly connected--"I will ask, and He shall give." From which we learn that prayer i…
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II. A SEVENFOLD PARALLEL BETWEEN THE ADVENTS OF THE TWO PARACLETES.--(1) _Each was in the world before His specific advent._--Long before His incarnation the delights of the Son of God were with men. In Angel-form, He visited their tents, spoke with them face to face, calmed their fears, and fought on their behalf. H…
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(6) _Each received witness._--The Father bore witness to His Son on three separate occasions. On the first, at His baptism, He said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"; on the second, when the three apostles were with Him on the holy mount, and He received from the Father glory and honor; and on the t…
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The Three Dispensations "The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."--JOHN xiv. 17. They are lofty themes which we have been discussing in the foregoing pages; and just because they touch the highes…
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An illustration of this habit is given in the story of Naaman. The spirit of the world whispered to him of the desirability of _knowing_ that the waters of Israel possessed curative properties, before he committed himself absolutely to the prophet's directions; and if he had waited to know before bathing in them, he w…
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_The dispensation of the Son_ includes those who clearly perceive His Divine nature, and rejoice in His finished propitiation; they know that they are accepted in the Beloved; they receive His teachings about the Father; they submit to the rule of life which He has laid down; but they know comparatively little of the i…
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(5) Deliverance from the love and power of sin, so that it becomes growingly distasteful, and the soul turns with loathing from the carrion on which it once fed contentedly. This begets a sense of purity, robed in which the soul claims kinship to the white-robed saints of the presence-chamber, and reaches out toward t…
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Three Paradoxes "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." "The world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me." "Because I live, ye shall live also."--JOHN xiv. 18, 19. The Bible and Christian life are full of paradoxes. Paul loved to enumerate them; they abound also in the discourses of our Lord. Here are t…
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_His footsteps are noiseless._--It is said of old, "Thy footsteps are not known," therefore we need not be surprised if He steal in upon us as a thief in the night, or as spring over the wolds. There is no blare of trumpet or voice of herald; we cannot say, Lo here, or Lo there; when the King comes there is no outward…
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It is a most salutary habit to say often, when one is alone, "Thou art near, O Lord." "Behold, the Lord is in this place." We may not at first realize the truth of what we are saying. His presence may be veiled, as the forms of mountains swathed in morning cloud. But as we persist in our quest, putting away from us…
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Many Mansions for God "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."--JOHN xiv. 23. The Immanence of God! That God should be willing to make His home _with_ man is much; but that He should be willing to come in--to indwell, occupy, and …
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_It is dual, yet one._--"We will come." We! Then, is there more than One? Who is this who dares class Himself with the supreme God within the limits of a common pronoun, that challenges the love and trust and obedience of man, that poses as King? The meekest and humblest of men. The One who, above all others of the…
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(3) _Learn to revere the work of God in the souls of others._--"For thy meat," said the apostle, "destroy not the soul for whom Christ died." He might have added, "and in whom Christ lives." Weak and erring, trying and vexatious, that fellow-believer may be, yet there is a chamber in his nature in which God has alread…
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Christ's Legacy and Gift of Peace "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."--JOHN xiv. 27. It seems a little anomalous to talk of peace at a time when the war-clouds are being swiftly blown up from the horizo…
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_That it is consistent with energetic action._--Men are disposed to think that peace is one of the last fruits of the tree of life, which drops into the hand of the aged. A man says to himself, I shall have to relinquish this active life, to settle in some quiet country home in the midst of nature, and then perhaps I …
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This is a clue to Christ's peace, which we do well to follow till it lead us out into the open. As long as we are entangled with this world, peace evades us, just as sleep, which comes easily to the laboring man who has nothing beyond his daily wage, vanishes from the pillow of the merchant, who on stormy nights think…
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The world's peace consists in the absence of untoward circumstances; Christ's is altogether independent of circumstances, and consists in the state of the heart. It matters nothing to Him that in the world we have tribulation. He bids us be of good cheer, because in Him we shall have peace. The wildest conjunction o…
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The Story of the Vine "I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman."--JOHN xv. I. We have now a story to tell which, in the eye of heaven, will make our world forever memorable and wonderful among her sister spheres. It is the story of the Vine, and how it was the Divine purpose our earth should be its fruit…
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Thus it was with Christ. Never following His own way; always bound to the imperative _must_ of the Father's will; yielded to the cross as a willing Sufferer. And so it has been with His followers. Not strong to stand alone, but always yielded to the Father's will, that He should lead them whither He would--to a cros…
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III. THE KNIFE AND THE FIRE.--"Every branch in Me that beareth fruit," the Father who is the Husbandman "purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit." Too many children of God, when passing through great physical and other suffering, account it punishment. Nay, it is not punitive, but purgative. This is the prunin…
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"Abide in Me, and I in you" "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me."--JOHN xv. 4. These words are so familiar by constant repetition, that their power to awaken the soul is greatly lessened. They go and come through e…
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_The stress which the Master lays on our abiding in Him._--He appears to summon all His forces to accentuate His parting message. You always reserve your most important injunctions to the last, that they may remain fresh and impressive, as the train steams out of the station, as the boat leaves the landing-stage; so C…
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Yet, who shall say that He has offered more than He can give? Have not we tested Him in each of these particulars, and do not we, who have come to Him by faith, know that in no one item has He been guilty of exaggeration? We were dead, but behold, we live! We spent our energies in profitless work; but now we bear fr…
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Prayer that Prevails "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."--JOHN xv. 7. Christ expected answers to His prayers, and in all His teaching leads us to feel that we shall be able to obtain, through prayer, what otherwise would not come to our hand. He k…
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(2) _In Christ's Name._--"Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name" (John xiv. 13). Throughout the Holy Scriptures, _name stands for nature_. The Master says, "You must ask My Nature." In other words, when we pray, it must not be as the self-nature, but as the Christian-nature dictates. We always know when that is paramou…
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The words of Christ forbid unsuitable prayer, but they also stir the heart with great desire for the realization of those good things which Christ has promised to them that love Him. In this sense prayer becomes a dialogue between the Master who says, "Seek ye My face," and the disciple who responds, "Thy face, Lord, …
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_First_. It is clear that our prayers depend very largely on our inner life. Where that is vigorous and healthy, they will be the same. But let deterioration and failure set in there, and the effect will be instantly apparent in our prayers. They act and react. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; a…
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The hatred of the World "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things they will do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me."--JOHN xvi. 2, 3. How near love and hate dwell in these words of Jesus! He…
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_And it has characterized every age._--Abel is slain by Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. Joseph is put into a pit by his brethren, and into a prison by his master's wife; the Hebrew is smitten by the Egyptian; David is hunted by Saul as a partridge on the mountains; Micaiah is hated by Ahab because…
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In addition to an uneasy conscience, the sinner has an unbroken will. He stoutly resists the impression of a superior and condemning goodness. He hardens his heart, and strengthens its defences. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice? Double the tale of bricks: summon the choice chariots and veteran soldiers…
709 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.