2. But it is one of the characteristics of our Lord's teaching that, though it is within the reach of every man, it is beyond the reach of every man. The truths which are contained in these words are stated in forms which are intelligible to those who are incapable of speculative thought ; but let a man of the most vigorous and adventurous intellect attempt to explore them, and he will find that year after year they will become more and more wonderful, and that they will always transcend the limits of his thought. The words of Christ have a meaning which can never be exhausted. He Himself had descended from the heights of God to the lowliest human condition ; but through His lowly
6i
62 THE HOUSE OF MANY MANSIONS
human life those who had eyes to see discovered a Divine glory. His words were like Himself, lowly and simple, but through the lowliest and simplest of them there gleams the light of a diviner world than this. What these words mean we all know ; explana- tion is unnecessary: what they mean none of us know; for as soon as we try to explain them we discover that explanation is impossible. We can travel a little way into the provinces of truth which they reveal, but our strength fails, and we can only sit down and wonder at the glory which lies beyond us.
^ The Gospel of St. John will ever be the solace and joy of the Christian in his loftiest and his lowliest moods. He will always feel the truthfulness of the language in which the childlike Claudius describes his emotions while perusing this Gospel: "I have from my youth up delighted to read the Bible, but especially the Gospel of St. John. There is something in it -exceedingly wonderful ; twilight and night, and through them the quick flash of lightning ; soft evening-clouds, and behind the clouds, the full- orbed moon. There is something, also, so high, and mysterious, and solemn, that one cannot become weary. It seems to me in reading the Gospel of St. John, as if I saw him at the Last Supper leaning upon the breast of his Master, and as if an angel were holding my lamp, and at certain passages wished to whisper some- thing in my ear. I am far from understanding all that I read ; yet it seems as if the meaning were hovering in the distance before my mind's eye. And even when I look into an entirely dark passage, I have an intimation of a great and glorious mean- ing within it which I shall one day understand." ^
I.
The Father's House.
1. The Father's House is both heaven and earth. — The words are usually applied to heaven, and to heaven only ; but we may give them a larger yet not opposing meaning, which blends harmoniously with the mind of Christ. There are two glories in the words of Jesus ; the one is, that He made heaven so real, and the other is, that He made this present world thrill to its finest chord with the Divine. In spite of all the havoc sin had wrought, this world was full of God to Jesus Christ. There was God in » W. G. T. Shedd, Sermons to the Spiritual Man, 169.
ST. JOHN XIV. 2 63
every lily of the field. There was God in every fowl of the air. In all the love of a mother for her child, in the hunger and thirst of the most sunken heart, there was that which spoke to Jesus of His Father, and told Him that the Divine was here.
(1) Perhaps it is best to say that in the mind of our Lord heaven and earth were not separate. And with us also there are rare moments when, standing upon this " bank and shoal of time," we feel that it is good for us to be here, and that the humblest place where Christ vouchsafes His presence may be none other than a house of God and a gate of Heaven. Dis- enchantment comes to the Christian worker as to other men. The rough experience of the world damps the ardour of the most courageous, and drives men to look above and beyond for what they do not find here. It is far easier to dream of a Paradise beyond the grave than to reform even a single abuse in this world. The belief, however, that looks forward to another state of being for complete fulfilment of Christ's promises is not irreconcilable with a persuasion that the words of Christ in the text point to a near, and not to a remote, future — that when He said, " I go to prepare a place for you," it is in this world, primarily at least, that we are to look for a fulfilment of His promise.
^ As I read this profound, touching discourse of Jesus, I see no hint in it that the disciples were to wait for the hour of their death before being reunited to their glorified Eedeemer. On the contrary, I find many an emphatic assurance that that reunion was to be soon. Over and over again, like a plaintive refrain, come the simple, consolatory words, " I go away and come again to you." "Now I go away to him that sent me." "A little while, and ye see me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see me." Separation, the Saviour insists, shall not be an eternal, shall not be even a protracted, severance. A short interspace of gloom there shall be — a preliminary hour of sadness. Then the broken link will be reunited, and the disciples will enjoy a fellow- ship with their Lord truer, because more spiritual, than they had ever known before.^