purity of heart. Will-worship and ceremonialism may " satisfy the flesh," but the}*- do not tend to promote real godliness. The standard of Christ's kingdom must be sought in the sermon on the Mount : " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matt. v. 8 ; Col. ii. 23.)
Notes. John XI. 47—57.
47. — [Then gathered.. .priests. ..Pharisees. ..council.] This council was probably the great sanhedrim, or consultative assembly of the Jewish Church. It was for purely ecclesiastical, and not for civil or political purposes. It is the same assembly before which, it is conjectured with much show of reason, our Lord made His defence, in the fifth chapter of this gospel. On re- ceiving the tidings of the astounding miracle which had been wrought at Bethany, our Lord's bitterest enemies, the chief priests and Pharisees, seem to have been alarmed and enraged, and to have felt the absolute necessity of taking decided meas- ures to check our Lord's progress. Ecclesiastical rulers, un- happily, are often the foremost enemies of the Gospel.
[And said, Wliat do we?~\ This question indicates perplexity and irritation. "What are we about? Are we going to sit still, and let this new Teacher carry all before Him ? What is the use of trifling with this new heresy? We are doing noth- ing effectual to check it. It grows ; and we let it alone."
[For this man doeth many miracles.] This is a marvellous admission. Even our Lord's worst enemies confess that our Lord did miracles, and many miracles. Can we doubt that they would have denied the truth of His miracles, if they could? But they do not seem to have attempted it. They were too many, too public, and too thoroughly witnessed, for them to dare to deny them. How. in the face of this fact, modern infi- dels and sceptics can talk of our Lord's miracles as being im- postures and delusions, they would do well to explain ! If the Pharisees who lived in our Lord's time, and who moved heaven and earth to oppose His progress, never dared to dispute the fact that He worked miracles, it is absurd to begin denying His miracles now, after eighteen centuries have passed away.
Let us note the desperate hardness and wickedness of man's heart. Even the sight of miracles will not convert any one, without the renewing grace of the Holy Ghost.
Brentius remarks that the simple answer to the question of this verse ought to have been, " Our duty is to believe at once that this worker of many miracles is the Christ of God."
48.— [If we let him thus alone.] This means, " If we continue to treat Him as we do now, and take no more active measures to