and inadvertence, put a stumbling-block in the way of any: but, if despised for the sake of Christ, we should welcome the shame, and rejoice that we are counted worthy to bear it. No consideration whatever should intimidate us : but, having found " Christ precious to our own souls," we should " con- fess him openly before all," and commend him to all around us, as " all our salvation, and all our desire."]
John i. 46. Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth ? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
KNOWLEDGE is not given to any man for him- self alone. As " a light is not put under a bed or under a bushel, but is set on a candlestick, that it may give light to those who are in the house;" so knowledge is imparted by God, in order that it may be rendered subservient to the good of those who are in intellectual or spiritual darkness. The example of those who were first called to attend upon our Lord is worthy of imitation in this respect. Andrew, having been directed to Christ by John the Baptist, and having been convinced, by personal intercourse with Jesus, that he was indeed the Messiah, " he finds his own brother Simon, and says to him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus a." The next day, Philip, who was of the same city as Andrew and Peter, was called to follow Christ : and " he, also, rinding Nathanael, said to him, We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph V In the mind of Nathanael, however, there existed a pre- judice against Nazareth, as being the last place from whence a person of so exalted a character would ever proceed : and therefore he asked, " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" It is generally sup- posed that this prejudice was called forth by Philip speaking of Jesus as belonging to Nazareth ; when it
a ver. 3G — 42. b ver. 4.3 — 45.