make it plain that be is a gracious Being. We ne1Jd no formal command to worship him. '\"Ve nrc instinctively drawn to our knees in his presence, He carries tho e~senco of his commandments charactered in his gracious face. Thus by considering all the ten commandme11ts, we should get illustrations of the grace and truth in Jesus Christ. 'l'bo ten command_ments, just by themselves, however often repeated, can bring comfort to no liuman bcrng, only a deeper conviction of one's sin and misery. Jesus brings tho Law just a_s Yigorously as "Moses; but he brings more thau Law. Through his demands there shine forth gloriously grace and truth, favour and reality. Not simply good wishes on the one side, or bare reality on the other, Christ brings a grace that is truthful, and a truth that is gracious. He comes as both the kindest and ablest of physicians. He gives strength before be asks service. Grace and truth flow from him to us, and then in due time grace and truth flow forth from us also.-Y. Yer. 3S.-A question for seekers. I. A FIDST MEETING WITH SOME OF TilE DISCIPLES, lnt~resting to look back from the concluding to the beginning chapters of this Gospel -from the days when the apostles were trusted friends to the days when Jesus and they were but as stra11gers. Here we have a record of the first meeting with some of them. Jesus is walking by the banks of the Jordan-a Teacher who has been made fit to teach, waiting now fot scholars; and some or the scholars, all unknown to thcm- seh·es, have been becoming fit for Jesus in the preparatory school of John. To them John must often have spoken of the sin of the world, and the appointed Lamb of Gou who was to take it away. What wonder, then, that the Lamb of God, really set before their gaze, should draw their footsteps towards him? JI. THE E'\'"IDENT STRONG n-TEREST WHICH JESUS lllD EXCITED IN THE MINDS OF THESE TWO MEN:. They could not help following him. We cannot but contrast this overmastering interest on their part with the absence of interest in Jesus on our part. Surely, if such o.n interest was possible to them, it must in some way be possible to us. As we read the Gospels we ought to feel that Jesus of Nazareth was the most important Person in the world at that time, far more important than the greatest of rulers and the wisest of men ; far more important to each person who came in contact with him than the nearest of his kindred could be-far more important to John the Baptist than his parents, Zacharias and Elisabeth; far more important to John the disciple than Zebedee l1is father; far more important to Andrew than Simon his brother; far more important to Philip than Nathanael his friend. If we are not more interested in the doings and claims of Jesus than in the doings and claims of any one else, we shall fail to appre- ciate Jesus as he ought to be appreciated. III. How CAME THIS STRONG INTEREST TO DE EXCITED? 'l'he men had been amply prepared. They had been impressively told of the need Jesus came to supply, Often roust John and Andrew have heard the Baptist calling the crowd to repentance. Doubt- less the Baptist had oftt:n led his disciples to meditate very earnestly on the wickedness, the wants, and the woes of the great world around them, with its Pharisees and Saddu- cees, ils publicans and sinners, its blind and lame, lepers and demoniacs, poor and desti- t•1te. How could earnest and pitying men be otherwise than interested in him who was to sweep the sin-caused troubles of the world away? And our interest must come in the same way. IV. 'l'HE QUESTION JESUS ASKS THESE rnTERESTED ONEB, Ile seeks to give direction and depth to this iuterest. He seeks to eliminate all mere cwiosity and wonder-seeking. Jesus himself was a Seeker having definite and most decided aims. Such a question as met these disciples should meet us in all our formal approaches to God. Are we really seeking auything? and if so, what is it? Only those who are evidently real seekers can ever get anything out of Christ. Such persons will soon be able to answer Christ's question. He helps the intent seeker to find all he wants in him:-Y.
Ver. 42.-Bringing men to JesU,S, Jesus aske Andrew," What seek ye?" and the question soon shuws fruit in Andrew seeking out his own brother Simon. The New Testament deals with spiritual things, but that does not prevent it from being full of natural touches. What Andrew did is just the very thing which iu like circumstances we might have been expected to do. And surely it is the most reasonable of conjec- tures that Andrew, who began by bringing his own brother, must have been the bringer CII, I, 1-51.] TIIE GOSPEL AGCOnDI;:-:G TO ST. JOHN. 77