2. But Jesus, living ' in feelings, not in figures on a dial,' and 'counting time by heart-throbs,' gave the word an intense significance. To Him days and hours were moral magnitudes. The appointed span was not small, but spacious ('Are there not twelve hours in the day?' Jn IP), to be employed in strenuous and loving obedience to the Divine will (cf. Jn g-"). Until the sunset. He knew He had no reason to fear the hostility of men. Life would be as long as duty, and in the ]jath of God's service there are no tragic foreshortenmgs (Jn 11'- '). But the twelfth hour of the day was that to which He so pathetically refers as ' Mine hour.' At the marriage feast in Cana, when appealed to by His mother with a suggestion for His help. He replied, 'Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come ' ( Jn 2''). This may simply mean that the time for giving such relief was not opportune, or that the opportunity for miracle- working, or the moment for self-manifestation, had not arrived. But the whole utterance produces the impression that the appeal had aroused strong feelings, and created a critical situation for Him.
' He was standing on the threshold of His ministry, conscious of His miraculous power, and He was questioning whether that were the hour to put it forth. . . . The supplying of wine to a company of peasants seemed so trivial, so unworthy of the Messiah', so insufficient for the inauguration of the kingdom of heaven ' (Smith, The Days of His Flesh, p. 65).
But is there not even here a reference to what He calls peculiarly His hour — 'the hour when the Son of Man should be glorified' (Jn 12^, cf. 17'); the hour when He should be betrayed into the hands of sinners (Mt 26") ; the hour when the Father's will gave Him over to the power of dark- ness (Lk 22^) ? If Jesus went down to the Jordan
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HOUSE
HOUSE
in order to participate in the Baptism of Repent- ance, conscious that His vocation as Messiah was to be that of the Suffering Servant, and to take upon Himself the sins of His brethren, then the thought of His hour as the hour of His sacrifice could never be absent from His mind. And the simple suggestion of His mother, involving, as it did, for Him the first exercise of a power which came to Him as Messiah, raised suddenly and vividly before Hiiu the issue of suffering, and called forth the intense feeling in the words, ' Mine hour is not yet come.' A similar tumult of emotion was produced to-
wards the end of Hw ministry, byjhe request
reply of
'The hour is come, that the Son of man
of the Greeks to see Him (Jn 12^"). The reply
should be glorified. . . . Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone,' is relevant to a prospect of possible exemption from the cross whicli the request raised in Him, rather than to the request itself. Once more an appar- ently innocent intrusion upon His thoughts had brought before Him the vision of His hour. He saw that the glory would be won at a great cost, and the prospect of it brought distress of soul, and ■vvrung from Him the cry, ' Father, what shall I say? Save me from this hour.' But immediately He saw through the pain the holy purpose of God realizing itself, and recovered His poise of soul and unflinching devotion. ' But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.'
It was by this simple word, therefore, that He expressed the conviction that His death was the climax of His life, and that the time of its accom- plishment was vnth God. He would not forestall it by any premature manifestation of Himself to the world (Jn 7^) ; and until His hour came. His enemies were powerless against Him (v.^ 8^). But when it came. He was not reluctant to recognize it. Though it was a dark hour, the hour of men with sinister purpose and in league ^\ith Satan (Lk 22^'), He knew it as the hour when He should depart out of this world unto the Father (Jn 13'), the hour when God should glorify His Son (17').
With the approach of that hour which marked the climax and close of His earthly ministry, a wider horizon opens. A new day of God da\vns, and in it also there is a critical hour — ' the hour when the Son of Man cometh ' (Mt 25"). Even to Him the precise point of time was not disclosed (Mt 24™). Of one thing He was sure, and gave rf'ppatoil A\arnini;, — it would come upon men aWUi st.-utliiiL; sniMciiiii'ss : ' and in an hour when ye think iM.f (Mt J t '-■«•»' 251=, cf.Lk 123"- ■•»■•«) ; and He ciitovi'i's therewith His command to 'watch,' ' be ready,' so that, though it come suddenly, it may be a glad surprise. Joseph Muir.
HOUSE {oUta, oUof). — The word 'house' is used in the Gospels, in .accordance with ancient Hebrew usage, in a twofold sense, as referring either to the dwelling, or to the family living in it. Thus we have (1) 'the house of Israel' (Mt l(fi), 'the house of David' (Lk 1"), etc.; (2) 'built his house upon a rock' (Mt 7^), 'the house of the ruler' (Mk 5^), etc.