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to men by the Son, who is thus the proximate source. " As the Father hath Hf e in himself ; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."
(4) By the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, Jesus manifested Himself to be the sustainer and nourisher of man's Ufe. This miracle gives point to the pregnant words, " Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life," and to His discourses upon the manna, the type and symbol of Himself, " the true bread which cometh down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall live for ever."
(5) The winds and waves, too, are here, as in the Synoptic Gospels, represented as obeying His nod. As the Lord of the forces of nature He treads upon the wings of the storm, to the consternation of His disciples.
(6) A man blind from birth who receives sight, to the delight- ful amazement of his friends and to the confusion of enemies, presents symbolically an illustrious concrete demonstration of the fact that Jesus Christ is the Giver of light, " the light of every man coming into the world."
(7) The raising of Lazarus, already in a state of putrefaction, fitly sets the Lord forth as " the resurrection and the life." Hear His own words, " Verily, verily, I say unto you. The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they that hear shall live." Again, " marvel not at this : for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
The succession of these seven characteristic signs leads up to the crowning tragedy, and the Lord's own glorious victory over death.i
3. What, finally, is the ultimate effect of believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ? St. John's answer is, that we may have life in His name.
The name of Christ, of course, stands for the power of Christ. We express that even in our hymns.
His name the sinner hears,
And is from sin set free,
*Tis music in his ears,
'Tis life and victory.
New songs shall now his lips employ,
And dances his glad heart for joy.
* J. Miller, Sermons Literary and Scientific, 1st Ser., 20.
412 CHIEF PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL
(1) It is worthy of notice that even the lowest kind of life, that which is merely physical and earthly, is helped by the history, example, and influence of Jesus Christ. He Himself blessed men's bodies, as a kind of image of, and preparation for, the deeper blessing He had in reserve for their souls. Now the Church continues this work and, though not armed with His power of miracle, is doing more at this day than ever was done before to preserve, enlarge, and bless the mere physical life of man. It is doing more than all other remedial agencies to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and to strike at the very roots of all the sins and vices which wear out life and induce decay and death. Take Christ away, out of the Gospels and out of the world, and you see how, as He goes out, death comes in. In heathen lands you light again the widow's pile^ and restore infanticide ; and nearer home you give a new license to intemper- ance and to lust ; you break down the law of the Sabbath, and doom the millions to be ground in endless labour. You give a fresh lease to war, with no Christ-like face to come between the combatants and stay their fury. You urge on suicide by making life more miserable and less sacred. You introduce at every point some element of death, and your gospel is simply " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Such is the best hope of unbelief, such the millennium which secularism in its blindness and against its will is seeking to introduce.
^ I ascribe my long life under God to my abstaining from the use of intoxicating liquors, and general observance of the laws of health. No doubt my habitual state of mind has had a great influence on my bodily health. My strong confidence in my God and the peace and joy I have felt, springing from an abiding evidence of my acceptance with Him, have tended to promote health and length of days.^
(2) But while Christ thus retrieves, conserves, and exalts the life that now is. His greatest blessing is the life that is spiritual, begun here and gloriously prolonged in the life to come. There is the life of knowledge, according to Christ's own words, " This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." There is the life
^ 0. Cliiuiquy, Forty Years in Hue Church of C%rist, 476.
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of pardon, where the condemned sinner receives a legal title to live, through the Lord our Eighteousness. There is the life of regeneration and sanctification, whereby those who were dead in trespasses and sins rise with Christ and walk in new- ness of life. There is the life of eternal blessedness, which is the consummation of all the rest, according to the promise, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."