2. The manifestation is abiding. — That coming is a permanent residence : " We will make our abode with him." Very beautiful is it to notice that our Lord here employs that same sweet and significant word with which He began this wonderful series of encouragements, when He said, " In my Father's house are many mansions." Yonder they dwell for ever with God; here God in Christ for ever dwells with the loving heart. It is a permanent abode so long as the conditions are fulfilled, but only so long. If self- will, rising in the Christian heart from its torpor and apparent death, reasserts itself and shakes off Christ's yoke, Christ's presence vanishes.
^ In the last hours of the Holy City there was heard by the trembling priests, amidst the midnight darkness, the motion of departing Deity, and a great voice said : " Let us depart hence ; " and to-morrow the shrine was empty, and the day after it was in flames. Brethren, if you would keep the Christ in whom is God,
^ A. Maclaren.
ST. JOHN XIV. 23 165
remember that He cannot be kept but by the act of loving obedience.^
^ " We will make our abode with him," i.e. will be at home, as is possible where there is reciprocity of love. Where there is reciprocity of love there is what we call friendship. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus, who loved all, but had His friendships when on earth, and so He has now.*
^ A. Maclaren.
' K. W. Corbet, Letters/rom a Mystic of the Present Day, 171.
Christ's Gift of Peace.
Literature.
Aitchison (J.), The Children's Own, 37.
Armitage (W. J,), The Fruit of the Spirit, 29.
Benson (R. M.), I%e Final Passover, ii. (pt. i.) 418.
Bernard (T. D.), The Central Teaching of Jesus Christ, 184.
Darlow (T. H.), The Upward Calling, 49
Knight (G. H.), Divine Upliftings, 51.
Landels (W.), Until the Day Break, 93.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : John ix.-xiv., 372.
Meyer (F. B.), Present Tenses, 9.
Nicoll (W. R.), Sunday Evening, 249.
Parker (J.), City Temple Pulpit, iii. 2.
Smellie (A.), In the Secret Place, 128.
Smith (G. S.), Victory over Sin and Death, 65.
Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, vi., No. 300.
Thorn (J. H.), Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, ii. 172.
Thomas (J.), Sermons: Myrtle Street Pulpit, iv. 221.
Tulloch (J.), Some Facts of Religion and of Life, 48.
Vaughan (J. S.), Earth to Heaven, 94.
Watson (J.), The Upper Boom, 92.
British Congregationalist, Aug. 6, 1908, p. 122 (Jowett).
Christian World Pulpit, xlvii. 94 (Cameron Lees) ; Izxix. 76
(Macfarland). Hoviiletic Review, i. 305 (Metcalf).
iCg
CHRIST'S Gift of Peace.
Peace I leave with you ; ray peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.— John xiv. 27.
Chkist is making His parting bequest to His disciples. He would fain leave them free from care and distress ; but He has none of those worldly possessions which men usually lay up for their children and those dependent on them. Houses, lands, clothes, money — He has none. He cannot even secure for those who are to carry on His work an exemption from persecution. He does not leave them, as some initiators have done, stable though new institutions, an empire of recent origin but already firmly established. " Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." But He does give them that which all other bequests aim at producing : " Peace I leave with you,"
^ These words, touching at all times, were unspeakably affecting in the circumstances of the Speaker and hearers. We know not but they did more to comfort the dispirited " little ones " than all that had been said before. There is a pathos and a music in the very sound of them, apart from their sense, which are wonderfully soothing. We can imagine, indeed, that as they were spoken, the poor disciples were overtaken with a fit of tenderness, and burst into tears. That, however, would do them good. Sorrow is healed by weeping; the sympathy which melts the heart at the same time comforts it. This touching sympathetic farewell is more than a good wish; it is a promise — a promise made by One who knows that the blessing promised is within reach. It is like the cheering word spoken by David to brothers in affliction: "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart : wait, I say, on the Lord." ^
' A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, 396. 169
I70 CHRIST'S GIFT OF PEACE
I.
The Source of Peace.
Here we are directed to the true Source of peace. Jesus claims that He is the real fountaiuhead, the author and depositary, of peace.
1. Jesus defines the peace which He was leaving to the disciples as that peace which He had Himself enjoyed : " My peace I give unto you," — as one hands over a possession he has himself tested, the shield or helmet that has served him in battle. " That which has protected Me in a thousand fights I make over to you." The peace which Christ desires His disciples to enjoy is that which characterized Himself ; the same serenity in danger, the same equanimity in troublous circumstances, the same freedom from anxiety about results, the same speedy recovery of composure after something had for a moment ruffled the calm surface of His demeanour. This is what He makes over to His people ; this is what He makes possible to all who serve Him.