11. — [Belie'De Me. ..in the Father. ..in ife.] Direct instruction fol- lows the rebuke of the preceding verse. Our Lord repeats for the benefit not of Pliilip only, but of all the eleven, the great doctrine He had so often taught them. " Once more, I say, Believe, all of you, my words, when I say that I and the Fa- ther are so closely united that I am in Him and He in Me."
The word rendered " believe " in this verse is in the plurai number. Our Lord does not address Philip only, but the whole company of the Apostles.
What an example we have here of the necessity of repeating instruction over and over again. Our Lord had evidently taught these things before to the eleven, and yet they had either not understood or not remembered.
\0r else believe... loorks' sake.] Here our Lora condescends to the weakness of the disciples. " If you will not believe the close union of Myself and the Father because of my word, be- lieve it because of the works T work. They are such works as no one could work of himself, and without the Father."
Let us carefully observe how our Lord here, as elsewhere, specially names His works, or miracles, as testimonies of His nature and Divine mission. To leave out miracles in the list of the evidences of Christianity is a great mistake.