to the uttermost all those that come unto God by Him. But that same Jesus is no less certainly perfect man, — able to sympathize with man in all his bodily sufferings, and acquainted by experience with all that man's body has to endure. Power and sympathy are marvellously combined in Him- who died for us on the cross. Because He is God we may repose the weight of our souls upon Him with un- hesitating confidence. He is mighty to save. — Because He is man, we may speak to Him with freedom, about the many trials to which flesh is heir. He knows the heart of a man. — Here is rest for the weary ! Here is good news ! Our Redeemer is man as well as God, and God as well as man. He that believeth on Him, has everything that a child of Adam can possibly require, either for safety or for peace.
Notes. John TV. 1 — 6.
1. — [When therefore the Lord Tcneiv, <&c.] The connection between this chapter and the last will be found at the 25th verse of the last chapter. The controversy between John's disciples and the Jews was the means of calling pubHc attention to our Lord's ministry. It became a subject of common conversation, and attracted the notice of the principal religious teachers of the Jews, viz., the Pharisees. They had already been disturbed by the ministry of John the Baptist, and the crowds which attended it. (John i. 19—28.) The deputation which they sent to John had been distinctly told by him that One greater than himself w'^s about to appear. When therefore " the Pharisees heard" mat Jesus was actually baptizing more disciples, and attracting more attention than John, we can well imagine that their minds would be even more disturbed than before. A vague uncomtortable feeUng would arise in their hearts, that this mys- terious person, who had cast out of the temple the buyers and sellers in so miraculous a manner, and was now baptizing so many disciples, might possibly be -the Christ. And then would come the attendant feeling, that if this was the Christ, He was not the Christ tliey either expected or wanted. The result of both feehngs would probably be a bitter enmity against our Lord, and a secret determination, if possible, to settle all doubta by putting Hun to death.
In what manner our Lord '' knew '* what the Pharisees had 9