life destroyed. But this, since Christ is very God, is totally impossible ! " Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more : death hath no more dominion over Him." (Rom. vi. 9.) That which is divine, in the very nature of things, cannot die.
Christ's life secures the continuance of spiritual life to His people. They shall not fall away. They shall persevere unto the end. The divine nature of which they are partakers, shall not perish. The incorruptible seed within them shall not be destroyed by the devil and the world. Weak as they are in themselves, they are closely knit to an immortal Head, and not one member of His mystical body shall ever perish.
Christ's life secures the resurrection life of His people. Just as He rose again from the grave, because death could not hold Him one moment beyond the appointed time, BO shall all His believing members rise again in the day when He calls them from the tomb. The victory that Jesus won when He rolled the stone away, and came forth from the tomb, was a victory not only for Himself, but for His people. If the Head rose, much more shall the members.
Truths like these ought to be often pondered by true Christians. The careless world knows little of a be- liever's privileges. It sees little but the outside of him. It does not understand the secret of his present strength, and of his strong hope of good things to come. And what is that secret ? Invisible union with an in- visible Saviour in heaven ! Each child of God is invisibly linked to the throne of the Rock of Ages. When that throne can be shaken, and not till then, we may despair. But Christ lives, and we shall live also.
We learn, finally, from this passage, that full and perfect knowledge of divine things will never be at- tained by believers until the second advent. Our Lord
JOHN, CHAP. XIV. f^fj
says, "At that clay," the clay of my coming, "ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."
The best of saints knows but little so long as he is in the body. The fall of our fatlier Adam has corrupted our understandings, as well as our consciences, hearts, and wills. Even after conversion we see through a glass darkly, and on no point do we see so dimly as on the nature of our own union witli Christ, and of the union of Christ and the Father. These are matters in which we must be content to believe humbly, and, like little children, to receive on trust the things which we cannot explain.
But it is a blessed and cheering thought that when Christ comes again, the remains of ignorance shall be rolled away. Raised from the dead, freed from the darkness of this world, no longer tempted by the devil and tried by the flesh, believers shall see as they have been seen, and know as they have been known. We shall have light enough one day. What we know not now, we shall know hereafter.
Let us rest our souls on this comfortable thought, when we see the mournful divisions which rend the Church of Christ. Let us remember that a large por- tion of them arise from ignorance. We know in part, and therefore misunderstand one another. A day comes when Lutherans shall no longer wrangle with Zwing- lians, nor Calvinist with Arminian, nor Churchman with Dissenter. That day is the day of Christ's second com- ing. Then and then only will the promise receive its complete fulfilment, — '* At that day ye shall know."
Notes. John xiv. 18 — 20.
18 — [J will not leave you comfortless.] The word we render " com- fortless," means literally " orphans," and is so translated in the