40 Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet.
41 Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?
42 Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of Da- vid, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was ?
43 So there was a division among the people because of him.
44 And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.
45 Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him ?
46 The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.
47 Then answered them the Phar- isees, Are ye also deceived ?
48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him ?
49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.
50 Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them.)
51 Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?
52 They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee ? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.
53 And every man went unto his own house.
These verses show us, for one thing, hoiv useless is knowl- edge in religion, if it is not accompanied by grace in the heart. We are told that some of our Lord's hearers knew clearly where Christ was to be born. They referred to Scripture,
john, chap. vn. 51
like men familiar with its contents. " Hath not the Scrip- ture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?" And yet the eyes of their understanding were not enlightened. Their own Messiah stood before them, and they neither received, nor believed, nor obeyed Him.
A certain degree of religious knowledge, beyond doubt, is of vast importance. Ignorance is certainly not the mother of true devotion, and helps nobody toward heaven. An " unknown God " can never be the object of a reasona- ble worship. Happy indeed would it be for Christians if they all knew the Scriptures as well as the Jews seem to have done, when our Lord was on earth !
But while we value religious knowledge, we must take care that we do not overvalue it. We must not think it enough to know the facts and doctrines of our faith, unless our hearts and lives are thoroughly influenced by what we know. The very devils know the creed intellectually, and " believe and tremble," but remain devils still. (James ii. 19.) It is quite possible to be familiar with the letter of Scripture, and to be able to quote texts appropriately, and reason about the theory of Christianity, and yet to remain dead in trespasses and sins. Like many of the generation to which our Lord preached, we may know the Bible well, and yet remain faithless and unconverted.
Heart-knowledge, we must always remember, is the one thing needful. It is something which schools and univer- sities cannot confer. It is the gift of God. To find out the plague of our own hearts and hate sin, — to become familiar with the throne of grace and the fountain of Christ's blood, — to sit daily at the feet of Jesus, and humbly learn of Him, — this is the highest degree of knowledge to which mortal man can attain. Let any one thank God who knows anything of these things. He