ence is the true test of real love to Christ, and not knowledge and talk only. Many have, but do not keep Christ's will.
Burgon observes, " This amounts to a declaration that the Bad hearts and weeping eyes of the Apostles would not be ac- cepted by their Lord as any proof of their love. Obedience was the test He chose."
{He.Joveth Me...loved... Father.] Here follows an encourage- ment to practical obedience : " He that really loves Me, and proves his love by his life, shall be specially loved by my Fa- ther. My Father loves those who love Me."
Let us carefully note that there is a special love of God the Father which is peculiarly set on believers, over and above the general love of pity and compassion with which He regards all mankind. In the highest sense God is a " Father " to none but those who love Christ. The modern doctrine of a " Father- hood " of God which is soul-saving to those who neglect Christ, is a mere delusion of man.
[And LJone... manifest. .Mm.'] Here follows another encour agement to the man who strives to keep Christ's command- ments. Christ will specially love that man, and will give him special manifestations of His grace and favor, invisibly and spiritually. He shall feel and know in his own heart comforts - and joys that wicked men and inconsistent professors know nothing of. That the " manifesting " of Himself here spoken of is a purely unseen and spiritual thing, is self-evident. It is one of those things which can only be known by experience, and is only known by holy and consistent Christians.
We should carefully observe here, that Christ does more for the comfort of some of His people than He does for others. Those who follow Christ most closely and obediently will al- ways follow Him most comfortably, and feel most of His in- ward presence. It is one thing, as St. John says, to know Christ, another to know that we know Him. (1 John ii. 3.)
22. — [Judas saith...not Iscariot.] Jude, the writer of the Epistle, and brother of James, was the Apostle who speaks here. He is called elsewhere Lebbeus and Thaddeus. Remembering that James is called in Galatians " the Lord's brother," there must have been some relationship between him and our Lord. Probably he was a cousin. Whether a recollection of this may have been in His mind when asking the question, admits of conjecture. This is the only word recorded to have been spo- ken by Jude in the Gospels.
We should mark the careful manner in which St. John re- minds us that it was not the false Apostle who asked.
Let us note that out of each saying of the three Apostles who spoke to our Lord, interrupting Him in His last discourse, a great truth was elicited for the benefit of the Church