thought is full of comfort. Such people know and feel that great sinners need a great Saviour, and that no mere human redeemer would meet their wants. Then let them rejoice in Christ, and lean back confidently on Him. Christ has all power, and is able to save to the uttermost, because Christ is divine. Office, power, and pi"e-existence, all combine to prove that He is God.
We should notice, secondly, in these verses, what a gracious account they contain of our Lord Jesus Christ's disciples. We find our Lord Himself saying of them, " They have kept Thy Word, — they have known that all things Thou hast given Me are of Thee, — they have received Thy words, — they have known surely that I came out from Thee, — they have believed that Thou didst send Me."
These are wonderful words when we consider the character of the eleven men to whom they were applied. How weak was their faith ! How slender their knowl- edge ! How shallow their spiritual attainments ! How faint their hearts in the hour of danger ! Yet a very little time after Jesus spoke these words they all forsook Him and fled, and one of them denied Him three times with an oath. No one, in short, can read the four Gos- pels with attention, and fail to see that never had a great master such weak servants as Jesus had in the eleven apostles. Yet these very weak servants were the men of whom the gracious Head of the Church speaks here in high and honorable terms.
The lesson before us is full of comfort and instruction. It is evident that Jesus sees far more in His believing ]>eople than they see in themselves, or than others see in them. The least degree of faith is very precious in His sight. Though it be no bigger than a grain of mustard seed, it is a plant of heavenly growth, and makes a boundless difierence between the possessor of 8