1 Lord, dost Thou me invite
To sit in white '
At the great Feast which for Thy friends is spread ?
I could not be so bold,
In raiment poor and old; Eather without Thy gates would stand unfed.
Thy messenger mistook
My hungry look, As claiming seat at table of the pure;
I am too wise to dare
My worthless presence there, Nor could my spirit that clear light endure.
Hedge-rows for me instead,
Tlieir berries red Enough of sweetness for my lips contain;
The glow-worm is my lamp
'Mid herbage damp; To tread Thy bright courts would be only pain.
Yet still He calleth me —
"Come, for I wait for thee, It is the lost and hungry that I need ;
Not luxury and pride,
Already satisfied. The humble and the poor My feast shall feed."*
* H. Bisseker, Sunday Evenings in Methodism, 153. » J. E. A. Brown.
To Whom shall We go?
^ ST. JOHN — 18
Literature
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), What is your Life ? 1G4.
Albertson (C. C), College Sermons, 45.
Brooke (S. A.), The Gospel of Joy, 339.
Brooks (P.), New Starts in Life, 320.
Calthrop (G.), Hints to my Younger Friends, 3.
Candlin (G. T.), On Service with the King, 45.
Chapman (J. W.), Another Mile, 57.
Clark (H. W.), Meanings and Methods of the Spiritual Life, 134
Jones (J. S.), Saved by Hope, 79.
Kellogg (S. H.), The Past a Prophecy of the Future, 95.
Laidlaw (J.), Studies in the Parahles, 329.
Lightfoot (J. B.), Ordination Addresses, 225.
Mayor (J. B.), The World's Desire, 15.
Merson (D.), Words of Life, 1.
Parker (J.), The City Temple Pulpit, vi. 280.
Pearson (J. B.), Disciples in Doubt, 90.
Peck (G. C), Vision and Task, 123.
Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, x. 281.
Ryle (J. C), Tlie Upper Room, 192.
Salmon (G.), Non- Miraculous Christianity, 72.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxviii. (1882) No.
1646 ; Ivi. (1910) No. 3210. Taylor (W. M.), The Limitations of Life, 144. Tulloch (J.), Sundays at Balmoral, 76. Vauglian (C. J.), Counsels to Young Students, 1.
„ University Sermons, 292.
Wilson (J. M.), Sermons in Clifton College Chapel, i. 224. *
Cambridge Review, xv. Supplement No. 367 (Whitworth). Christian World Pulpit, xl. 72 (Thomas) ; xlix. 357 (Plunket); lii. 197
(Davidson) ; lix. 50 (Horder) ; Ixxii. 49 (Simon) ; Ixxvi. 55 (Shaw). Churchman^s Pulpit : The Old and New Year : ii. 464 (Evans).
•74
To Whom shall We go?
Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life. — John vi. 68.
1. The situation in which our Lord found Himself at this stage
in His career is full of pathos. He began His ministry in Judaea,
and His success there seemed to be all that could be desired.
But it soon became apparent that the crowds who followed Him
misunderstood or wilfully ignored His purpose. They resorted
to Him chiefly, if not solely, for material advantages and political
ends. He was in danger of being accounted the most skilful
metropolitan physician, or in the greater danger of being courted
by politicians as a likely popular leader, who might be used as a
revolutionary flag or party cry. He, therefore, left Jerusalem
at an early period in His ministry and betook Himself to Galilee ;
and now, after some months' preaching and mingling with the
people, things have worked round in Galilee to precisely the same
point as they had reached in Judaea, Great crowds are following
Him to be healed and to be fed, while the politically inclined
have at last made a distinct effort to make Him a king, to force
Him into a collision with the authorities. His proper work
is in danger of being lost sight of. He finds it necessary to sift
the crowds who follow Him. And He does so by addressing
them in terms wliich can be acceptable only to truly spiritual
men — by plainly assuring them that He is among them, not
to give them political privileges and the bread that perisheth,
but the bread that endureth. They find Him to be what they
would call an impracticable dreamer. They profess to go away
because they cannot understand Him ; but they understand Him
well enough to see that He is not the person for their purposes.
They seek earth, and heaven is thrust upon them. They turn
away disappointed, and many walk no more with Him. The
275
i
276 TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?
great crowd melts away, and He is left with His original following of twelve men. His months of teaching and toil seem to have gone for nothing. It might seem doubtful if even the Twelve would be faithful — if any result of His work would remain, if any would cordially and lovingly adhere to Him. Wearily and wistfully He turns to the Twelve, asking, " Will ye also go away ? " And Simon Peter answers Him, " Lord, to whom shall we go ? f thou hast the words of eternal life."
2. This answer of Peter's contains a great assumption. There is a postulate in the reply, which being removed, the whole drops to pieces. It is that man must have some one to go to. It is that the soul wants, demands, cries out for, not some thing only but some One : cannot live without a Master, without a Guide, without a Eevealer and a Comforter : is so constituted that it cannot live alone, cannot grope its own way, except as searching for One who shall be its rest : will not, cannot, ought not to be self-sufficing ; inasmuch as this is the law of its being, and God has made it natural to us — natural, not as a malady or weakness, but as a part of our original constitution — not to inquire whether to any one, but only, confidently, this : To whom shall we go f So in the text we have these three things —