they sleep, Salvation is within their reach ; but they sleep Mercy, grace, peace, heaven, eternal life, are so nigh that they might touch thera ; and yet they sleep. "Christ standeth among them and they know him not." These are sorrowful things to write down. But every faithful minis- ter of Christ can testify, like John the Baptist, that they are true.
What are we doing ourselves ? This, after all, is the great question that concerns us. Do we know the extent of our religious privileges in this country, and in these times ? Are we aware that Christ is going to and fro in our land, inviting souls to join Him and to be His disciples ? Do we know that the time is short and that the door of mercy will soon be closed for evermore ? Do we know that Christ rejected will soon be Christ withdrawn ? — Happy are they who can give a good account of these inquiries and who " know the day of their visitation !" (Luke xix. 44.) It will be better at the last day never to have been born, than to have had Christ *' standing among us " and not to have known Him.
Notes. John I. 19 — 28.
19. — [This is the record.] The Greek word translated "record," is the same that is rendered •' witness" in the 7th verse. The sen- tence means, " this is the testimony that John bore."
[WAen.] This word raises the question, " At what time was this testimony of John borne?" It appears to have been after our Lord Jesus Christ's b;iptism, and at the end of Bis forty days' temptation in the wilderness. The 29th verse tells us, that " the next day John seeth Jesus coming to him." It is worthy of notice that nowhere in the Gospels do we find "days "so carefully marked, as in that portion of the first chapter of St. John, which we have now begun.
[The Jevs.] This expression is remarkable, a"=5 pecuhar to St. John's Gospel, lie generally speaks of our Lord s en( mies and questioners, as "the Jews." It seems to indicate that St. John did not write his Gospel in Palestine or at Jerusalem, and that it was written especially for the Gentile Christians scatteied over the world, and much later than the other three Gospels.