people, that they may be kept, sanctified, united, and glorified ; but I do not pray for the world."
The famous text, " Father, forgive them " (Luke xxiii. 34), is at best a doubtful one. Will any one undertake to say, that those for whom our Lord prayed were never forgiven and gaved ? — Have we forgotten that within fifty days after that prayer 3,000 souls were converted at Pentecost, of whom Peter said, " By wicked hands ye crucified and slew Jesus of Nazareth " ? (Acts ii. 23.) Who can prove that the very men who crucified our Lord were not among the number converted, and were thus the answer to our Lord's prayer ? — These how- ever are conjectures at the very best. The matter is one which is not necessary to salvation, and one about which Christians must agree to differ, and must not excommunicate one another. ** Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." (Rom. xiv. 5.)
Hengstenberg remarks, " The world maybe viewed under two aspects. First, there is the susceptibility of grace, which, de- spite the depths of the sinful depravation of Adam's race, still remains in it. Of the world in this sense Jesus says, * I came not into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world.' (John i. 29 ; iii. 17.) Viewed under this aspect, the world is the subject of Christ's intercession. The disciples themselves were won from the world. But the world may also be viewed as ruled by predominantly ungodly principles. Of the world in this sense we read that it cannot receive the * Spirit of truth.' (John xiv. 27.) To pray for the world, thus viewed, would be as vain as to pray for the prince of this world."
Manton suggests that we must draw some distinction between the intercession of Christ as a Divine Mediator, and the prayers of Christ as a man, wherein He is an example to His people. Yet, however just this remark, it hardly seems to apply to this peculiarly solemn prayer.
[For tliem... given Me...t7iine.] Our Lord here repeats the de- scription of His disciples which He had given before. They were men whom " the Father had given Him" to teach and feed, and save. They were His Father's sheep, intrusted to His charge. Therefore, He seems to argue, " I am specially bound to pray for them, and ask for them everything that their souls need. Like a good Shepherd, I must give an account of them one day."
10. — [And all mine ..thine. ..mine.l This sentence seems to come in parenthetically, and to be a reassertion of the great truth of the perfect unity of the Father and the Son, The words in the Greek mean literally " things," and not " persons." " All my things are Thy things, and all Thy things are my things, Aa with everything else, these eleven disciples are not mine more than Thine, or Thine more than mine." This continual asser- tion of the doctrine of the perfect unity of the Godhead, and