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Then said they to him, We he not born of fornication ; we have one Fa- ther, even God.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, yo would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43 Why do ye not understand my speech ? even because ye cannot hear my word.
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the begin-
ning, and abode not in the truth, be- cause there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of hia own : for he is a liar, and the father of it.
45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
46 Which of you convinceth me of sin ? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
47 He that is of God heareth God'a words : ye therefore hear them not, be- cause ye are not of God.
There are things taught in this passage of Scripture which are peculiarly truth for the times. Well would it be for the Churches if all Christians would ponder carefully the matter which it contains.
We are taught for one thing the ignorant self-righteous- ness of the natural man. We find the Jews pluming them- selves on their natural descent from Abraham, as if that must needs cover all deficiencies : " Abraham is our father." We find them going even further than this, and claiming to be God's special favourites and God's own family : " We have one Father, even God." They forgot that fleshly relationship to Abraham was useless, unless they shared Abraham's grace. They forgot that God's choice of their father to be head of a favoured nation was never meant to carry salvation to the children, unless they walked in their father's footsteps. All this in their blind self-conceit they refused to see. " We are Jews. We are God's children. We are the true Church. We are in the covenant. We must be all right." This was their whole argument !
Strange as it may seem, there are multitudes of so-called Christians who are exactly like these Jews. Their whole religion consist of a few notions neither wiser nor better than those propounded by the enemies of our Lord. They will tell you " that they are regular Church people ; they