^ J. Hamilton Thoni, Lawi of Life after the Mind of Christ, 311. ^ J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, 57.
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value of this life and assigning to His disciples their place in it as His servants. He taught them their ohligatiou to ornament and develop this world. This earth is the first stage in the soul's career. Only a grand human life can bear any adequate testimony to the truths of Christ's Gospel. Here it is given to those accept- ing it to show its relation to the State ; to the social charities human misery makes so needful; to the school, with its eager young life to be trained ; to the home, wherein are to blossom the graces and amenities that alone can perpetuate it and make it "sweet home"; to politics, that they may be cleansed and reveal the spirit of that patriotism whose renaissance is the hope of the hour. It is at such points as these, where Christianity has touched this earth and made it better, that it finds its protection from the ice of unbelief and the attacks of ridicule.^
II.
The Enemy.
1. The Greek word that ends the text is an adjective, preceded by an article, and being in the genitive case the custom is to supply a substantive. Hence the rendering : *' that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one." The statement then points to "the prince of this world," the author and embodiment of evil. Not that the word " Satan," or the word " Devil," must always be taken to mean one spirit in the Scriptures : " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," means that Christ saw evil spirits discomfited. " The devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour," means, not one fallen spirit merely, but many fallen spirits seeking whom they may influence for evil.
2. What, then, is this evil (or " evil one," as the RV. has it) from which our Lord prays we should be kept ? Does it consist in outward tribulation, in the trials and troubles of life, in poverty, bereavements, bodily sufferings? Obviously not. Christ knew that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. He Himself, as Perfect Man, underwent all these, leaving us the one perfect example of patient submission to God's will. It was indeed for this purpose that He left His Father's throne to come and live amongst us on this earth, that there might be no thorny path oi*
» M. M. G. Dana.
ST. JOHN XVII. 15 283
barren wilderness of trouble which He as our great Leader had not passed through before us, no fierce temptation which He as Perfect Man had not experienced and triumphed over, thus leaving us an example that we should follow His steps, and in all these things be more than conquerors. So then this evil from which He prays God to keep us is not an outward one, but one far more deadly and subtle — an inward and spiritual enemy. He prays that we may be kept from the wiles of the evil one, who, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour, from any indulcred sin that would come between us and God, from any earthly care or pleasure that may deaden our spiritual faculties and separate the soul from the enjoyment of God's love.
(1) There is virtue in environment. In the region of the Natural Sciences we find the botanist and the biologist arguing that any peculiar formation or growth in plant or animal which maintains itself and becomes persistent must be accounted for by something in its environment. There must be something there to justify it, to make it worth while that it should exist, otherwise it would not have maintained itself, at least in vigour. They argue thus from the organism to its environment, and set to work to verify their argument by finding that hitherto unsuspected element or process in external nature with which the peculiar formation brings the plant or animal into advantageous correspondence. There is no reason why the argument should not apply with equal force to the invisible spiritual faculties and developments of human nature ; the only difference is that in this region it does not from the nature of the case admit of ocular verification.
^ You have seen a lily floating in the black sullied waters of a foul bog in the country. All about it are foulness and impurity ; but amid all the vileness the lily is pure as the white snowflakes that fall from the winter clouds. It floats on the surface of the stained waters, but never takes a stain. It ever holds up its pure face towards God's blue sky, and pours its fragrance all about it, like the incense from the censer of a vestal priestess. So it is possible for a true soul to live in this sinful world, keeping itself unsullied, and breathing out the fragrance of love.^
(2) But there is peril in environment. Christ does not make light of the dangers which beset His disciples in this world. He
^ J. R. Miller, Olimpses through Life's Windows, 1S6.
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had met the tempter and defeated him, but He knew the craft and cunning with which he lies in wait to deceive, and this prayer is a cry of warning. St. Paul does not underrate our peril : " For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." The noble and the good of former days unite in declaring that this world is to the servant of Christ an enemy's country. There are the god of this world, the powers of this world, the men of this world, the things of this world — all in their degree fighting against the man who believes in Jesus. As an old writer has said, this world is like a chess-board, you cannot make a move in any direction but the devil instantly sets out some creature to attack you.