"svhicTi are so often found in John's Gospel. He reminds us that our Lord's interference to secure the safety of His disci- ples at this crisis was a fulfilment in fact of His expression in prayer, " none of them is lost."
Some persons see a difiiculty here, and object that in the prayer our Lord speaks of eternal salvation, while here He is only speaking of temporal safety. Yet there seems no solid ground for the objection. Our Lord's preservation of His dis- ciples included the means as well as the end. One means of preserving them from making shipwreck of the faith altogether, was to keep them from being tempted above what they could bear. Our Lord knew that they would be so tempted, and that their souls were not strong enough to bear tlie trial. If they had been taken prisoners and. brought before Caiaphas and Pilate, with Himself, their faith would have failed entirely. He therefore provides for their escape, and overrules the plans of His enemies, so that the eleven were " let go." And thus He literally carried out what he had mentioned in prayer. He prevented any of them being lost. They would have Ijeen lost so far as man's eye can judge, if He had not provided a way of escape, and prevented them being tempted beyond their strength- The care of Jesus over His people provides the means of per- severance and continuance in the faith, as well as the great end of eternal salvation.
Chrysostom remarks, " By loss He doth not here mean tem- poral death, but eternal.
Calvin remarks, " The Evangelist does not speak merely of their bodily life, but means that Christ, sparing them for a time, provided for their eternal salvation. Consider how great their weakness was. What do we think they would have done alone, if brought to the test ? Christ did not choose they should be tried beyond the strength He had given, and rescued them from eternal destruction."
It seems to me most probable that at this point of the history the " kiss " of Judas and His " Hail Master " come in. At any rate it is diflScult to suppose that Judas could have kissed our Lord, when he first " went forth," and surprised the band by meeting them. There does not seem time for the salutation, nor does it seem probable that Judas would first kiss our Lord and then fall to the ground. Nor does the repeated answer of the band to the question " Whom seek ye ? " give the idea that they had as yet recognized our Lord, or had any sign from Judas. I give this as my own conjecture, and admit that the maiter is doubtful. But I must think that as soon as the band of soldiers recovered their presence of mind, Judas came for- ward and kissed our Lord, and then the capture took place. This is the order of events maintained by Chrysostom, Cyril, Theophylact, Gerhard, Jansenius, Lightfoot, Stier, and Alford.
10.- \Thc)i Simon, Peter having a sword, etc.l The event her^