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THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
We must preach more upon the great texts
of the Scriptures, ttie tremendous passages
whose vastnesses almost terrify us as we
approach them.
J. H. JOWETT.
THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
EDITED BY THE REV.
JAMES HASTINGS, D.D.
EDITOR OF "THE EXPOSITORY TIMES" "THE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE '
"THE DICTIONARY OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPELS" AND
"THE ENXYCLOPiEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS "
ST. JOHN
I. -XII.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS
EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK
1912
CONTENTS
TOPICS.
PAGB
The Word 1
Thk Incarnation of tue Word
. 25
Thk Lamb of God
. 69
Personal Service
. 97
The FiJisT Sign ....
. 119
A New Beginning
. 147
The Amazing Gift of I-ovb
. 181
No More Tiiiu.st ....
. 227
True Worship ....
. 239
Christ's Doctrine of Klkction
. 259
To Whom shall We go?
. 273
The Will to Know
. 30]
Living Water
. 323
The Light of the World
. 341
Truth and Freedom
. 367
The Sinlessness of Christ .
. 395
A Time to Work
. 409
The Greatest Thing in the World
. 425
The Good Shepherd
. 449
The Kesurreotion and the Life
.
. 463
The Tears op Jesus
. 483
Fruitfulness through Death ,
.495
VI
CONTENTS
TEXTS.
St. John.
K I. 1 .
I. 14 .
I. 29 .
I. 40-42
II. 11 .
III. 5 .
i-III. 16 .
^ IV. 13, 14
// IV. 24 .
^TI. 37 .
/VI. 68 .
VII. 17 .
VII. 37 .
VIII. 12 .
VIII. 32, 36
VIII. 46 .
I IX. 4 .
// X. 10
X. 11 .
^ XI. 25, 26
XI. 35 .
XII. 24 .
The Word.
ST. JOHN — I
Literature.
Abbott (E. A.), Oxford Sermons, 46.
Alexander (W.), Leading Ideas of the Gospel, 181.
Alford (H.), Quelec Chapel Sermons, vi. 1.
Barton (G. A.), The Roots of Christian Teaching, 25.
Bickersteth (C), The Gospel of Incarnate Love, 127.
Bright (W.), The Law of Faith, 111.
Dale (E. W.), Christian Doctrine, 170.
Dawson (W. J.), The Reproach of Christ, 23.
DuBose (W. P.), The Reason of Life, 12.
Farquhar (J. W.), The Gospel of Divine Humanity, 15.
Kingsley (C), Village, Toion, and Country Sermons, 176.
Lock (W.), The Bible and Christian Life, 20.
Macintosh (W.), Rahhi Jesus, 151.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : John i.-viii. 1.
Martineau (J.), Endeavours after the Christian Life, 498.
Ragg (L.), Christ and our Ideals, 25.
Swan (F. R.), The Immanence of Christ in Modern Life, 121.
Westcott (B. F.), The Historic Faith, 43.
Cambridge Review, iii. Supplement No. 73 (Quarry).
Christian World Pulpit, xlviii. 125 (Gasquoine) ; Ixvi. 357 (Eland) ;
Ixxii. 138 (Whitman), 374 (Gibbon). Churchman's Pulpit : Christmas Day : IL 164 (Clements), 166 (Hutton),
168 (Bright), 169 (Bagot). Homiletic Review^ 1. 463 (Metcalf).
The Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. — John i. i.
1. The text seems speculative and hard to understand. But St. John wrote the Fourth Gospel with a practical aim, and in language which he meant to be intelligible. What his aim was he states in the end of the twentieth chapter — the chapter with which his Gospel originally ended (he himself seems to have added the twenty-first at a later time). He says: "These are written, (1) that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and (2) that believing ye may have life in his name." No doubt his language was more familiar to his Jewish readers than it is to us. But we ought to know the Old Testament, and although the special expression he uses here. Logos or Word, is not found exactly in this way in the Old Testament, the idea is there. For in the Old Testament God constantly makes Himself known and seen. Now, " No man hath seen God at any time." It is there- fore not God the Father ; but He whom the Father sanctifies and sends into the world — it is He who appeared to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua, to Samuel. This Person may well be called God's Word, since His mission is always to reveal the will of God, to speak for God, to speak as God. By and by this Person, whom the Old Testament writers call the Angel of the Lord, comes into the world to dwell there for a season, taking human flesh, and He is called not the Word or Eevealer now, but Jesus the Saviour, for He is come to save His people from their sins.
2. St. John works backwards. He came to know the Word first as Jesus. He knew Him as a Man among men. He went
4 THE WORD
with Him to the marriage feast. He saw Him sit weary on the wayside well. He was near when the cry, " 0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," rent the silent night. He saw Hira nailed to the cross. He knew that He remained there till He was dead. But he also at that wedding feast saw Him turn the water into wine. He heard Him say, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." He caught the prayer, " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do," and the promise, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." He started thus with a man among men, but a Man who was more than men, and as soon as He had ascended into heaven, John and the rest felt that the first thing for them was to know and to make known who He was. They had the facts of the life of Jesus on the earth. They saw that that human life had passed into the eternal. This, then, was what they learned first, that it had come out of the eternal. It looked before as well as after. The Jesus whom they knew had been before they knew Him. He had been the Kevealer of God to men in Old Testament times, the Logos, the Word. He had been the Agent in the creation (which of itself is simply a revelation). He had been with the Father before the creation of the world. " In the beginning was the Word."