(2) The Spirit will show that by this victory the perpetuity of evil is shattered. The darkest lie of the Evil One is this — that evil is an eternal power. Before the advent of the Gospel, the world was beginning to believe in the omnipotence of wrong. The slavery wrought by sin was so complete that men were los- ing faith in anything that could conquer evil, and were sinking into a dreary and hopeless fatalism. Just note the two great facts which, as the results of sin, lay at the root of this state : (a) Suffering. Men felt the pressure of its mystery. It seemed to belie the goodness of God, to darken the heaven of His love, and
' P. T. Forsyth, Missions in State and Church, 71.
ST. JOHN XVI. 8-1 1 241
prove sin to be irresistible. Its shadow rested on the ages of the past, and projected itself with a grim certainty into the future. Now suffering, in all its deepest dreadfulness, Christ endured. He became the High Priest of sorrow. He grew glorious through it. " He was perfected through sufferings," and thus revealed it to man as the education of a Father. (&) Death. The great mystery, the spoiler of human hopes, the divider of friend from friend, the sign-manual of sin's dominion. He became subject to its power. It seemed to conquer Him. It seemed to divide Him from the Father, but really it was the pledge of their eternal union. Eising from the grave, He ascended to the heavens, thus consecrating death for all men as a pathway to the Father's home. Such was Christ's conquest. It was the crisis of earth's history, the judgment and overthrow of the " prince of this world."
All hail ! dear Conqueror ! all hail !
Oh what a victory is Thine ! How beautiful Thy strength appears!
Thy crimson wounds, how bright they shine!
Thou camest at the dawn of day;
Armies of souls around Thee were, Blest spirits, thronging to adore
Thy flesh, so marvellous, so fair.
Ye heavens, how sang they in your courts, How sang the angelic choirs that day,
When from His tomb the imprisoned God, Like the strong sunrise, broke away I ^
> F. W. Faber.
ST. JOHN (2) — 16
The Day of Knowledge and Power.
Literature.
Baring-Gould (S.), Village Preaching for a Year, Slid Ser., i. 243.
Bennie (J. N.), The Eternal Life, 84.
Benson (R. M.), The Final Passover, ii. (pt. ii.) 276.
Bernard (T. D.), The Central Teaching of Jesus Christ, 303.
Burrell (D. J.), The Verilies of Jesus, 137.
Drummond (R. J.), Faith's Perplexities, 175.
Gordon (A. J.), In Christ, 135.
Hall (A. C. A.), The Christian Doctrine of Prayer, 72.
„ (J. v.), The Sinner's Friend, 43. Hull (E. L.), Sermons preached at King's Lynn, 2nd Ser., 40. Hutton (R. E.), The Crown of Christ, ii. 133. Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., ix. 321, 340. M'Kinney (J.), The Tree of Life, 42. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : John xv.-xxi., 140. Martin (S.), Fifty Sermons, 207. Murray (A.), The Ministry of Intercession, 129.
„ „ With Christ, 186, 196.
Pigou (F.), Faith and Practice, 246. Rogers (J. H.), The « Verily, Verilys" of Christ, 231. Scott (M.), The Harmony of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, 127. Shore (T. T.), Some Difficulties of Belief , 25, 43. Smellie (A.), In the Hour of Silence, 180. Smith (D.), Christian Counsel, 132.
Trench (R. C), Sermons preached for the most part in Ireland, 288. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), New Ser., xix., No. 1167. Wilmot-Buxton (H. J.), Life of Duty, i. 244. Christian World Pulpit, xii. 68 (Roberts). Contemporary Pulpit, v. 291 (Hancock). Eecord, 1908, p. 508 (E. N. Coulthard).
"44
The Day of Knowledge and Power.
And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name.
John xvi. 23.
1. OuK Lord here sums up the prerogatives and privileges of His servants in the day that was about to dawn and to last till He came again. There is nothing absolutely new in the words ; substantially the promises contained in them have appeared in former parts of these discourses under somewhat different aspects and connexions. Many such promises there are in the Bible: " Ask and ye shall receive " ; " All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive " ; " If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you " ; " If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Many such promises there are, but our Lord brings them together here, in this condensed repetition, in order that the scattered rays, being thus focused, may have more power to illuminate with certitude, and to warm into hope.
2. Now it is to be noticed that the two askings which are spoken of here are expressed by different words in the Greek. Our English word " ask " means two things, either " to question " or " to request " ; to ask in the sense of interrogating, in order to get information and teaching, or in the sense of beseeching, in order to get gifts. In the former sense the word is employed in the first clause of our text, and in the second sense it is employed in the central portion of it, Christ does not distinguish between two epochs in Christian experience; in the earlier and more imperfect one, prayer being offered to Christ, in the later and perfected one, prayer being offered directly to the Father. There