Ilov. i. 18); and the power of det{lrmining what life is. Life is obviously here and tho flno.l condition of nil souls, suggested in elsew~ere more than physical existence, or vor. :JG. But we mny conceive o, less ex- the.n its continun.nce, or than its resuscita- tended horizon limiting the vision of the tion after death; it is the activity of the new Dnptist: all things belonging to the king- spirit, the superoature.l e.nd eternnl blessed- dom of God, to the progress o.nd consumma- ~css wrough_t by "birth of the Spirit." Nor tion of it in the world. John need not be Ill the calamity referred to a mere negation. supposed to ho.ve swept onward into the John may he se.id here to he.ve gone beyond etemo.l future, but ma.inly to have been t~e words of the Master in the previouH thinking of the mutual relo.tions of the discourse, and, moreover, it is in fiery forerunner and the Christ. The Son will earnestness that he speaks. The wrath of determine the plo.ce of his hero.Id and of his God, which he.s already been called down disciple. There is no limit expressed. He upon l1im by his disobedience, e.bideth on who had these matters entrusted to him him. God's om had been spoken of by might easily be supposed to have "oil the Baptist (Matt. iii. 7 ; Luke iii. 7); e.nd things in his ho.nd.'' He rested the less the term, wherever nsed, is fe.r more than upon the grenter. "the consuming fire of infinite love," into Ver. 36.-He that believeth on the Bon which many strive to resolve it. It repre- hath eternal life ( cf. here, vers. 16, 17 ; sents active and terrible displeBBure revealer! eh. xvii. 3; 1 John v. 10). These words, from hee.ven (Rom. L 18 ; iii. 5 ; 1 Thess. i. which o.bovc every other clo.use in this 10; ii. 16). Much of the wrath of the Lord "swo.nlike eong," o.re suffused with o. glow is said to be temporary in its character tho.t it is difficult to believe issued from (Wisd. xvi. 5; xviii. 20); but this is a.biding, the heart of the forerunner, unless we may and, so far e.s is here revealed, permanent. make the supposition already referred to, that The most terrible expression in the New some of John's former disciples hod carried Testament is the " wrath of the Lamb" to his earlier master the grand refrain of the (Rev. vi. 16). The last word of the Baptist, discourse to Nicodemus. The entrusting of even in the Fourth Gospel, is a worcl of the soul in utter moral surrender to the Son thunder, and he disappears from view when of God, is life-eternol life. All cruel sus- he has delivered this terrible condemne.tion picions of God vanish when the veil is lifted on those who a.re wilfully, actively resisting which sin ond the corruption of the human that Son whom "the Father loves," and to heart have hung over the holiest of a.II. whose hands he has " entrusted all things." John had passed into a new world when he The ministrv of John i.8, e.fter all, that of discovered the true nature of the lcingdom- the Elije.h, not that of the Christ. To the the tempted, humbled, so.crifioial, triumphe.nt last word, even if the phre.seology has been cbe.racter of the Son of God. To believe on monlded in the Greek of the fourth evange- the Son is to have the life. But he the.t is list into a closer resemblance to his own disobedient to the Son. The words d cl,m9olv vocabulaxy, 1 and if by his attempt to epito- nre, in the English Version, translo.ted "be- mize what may have ta.ken houl'll to say in lieveth not," and e.ge.in so in Rom. xi. 30, varied phrase, the aposUe has uncon where dmo-Hi'v o.nd dn:e18eiv a.re nsed inter- scionsly adopted some of his own fe.vourite changeably. The word mee.ns one who is terms, yet the message flashes with the fire (dn:£16-t,s) distrustful, who refuses to be per- of the prophet of the wilderness ; e.nd men suaded, is contumaoiou.~ and expresses the are threatened with the peril of abiding opposite to faith in active exercise, who under the wrath of Almighty God. repudiates faith on its fiducial and pre.ctice.l side. Nothing is ea.id of those who have 1 If ver. 27 be compared with eh. ili. had no opportunity of coming to a know- 11, ver. 29 with 1 John i. 4, ver. 33 with 1 ledge of the Son of God. Shall not see life j John v. 10, ver. 35 with eh. xiii. 3, there is shall not even see so as to be able to con- seen e. decided adoption of the purely Johe.n- ceive of, much Iese enjoy, life (Westcott; see nine vocabulary: but there is mnch in it ver. 3). There is a blinding power in dis- which "shows that we have genuine words obedience, which prevents those who are of the Baptist repeated in a free J ohe.nnine actively hostile to the essentie.l excellences we.y" (Weiss). and glories of Christ from even knowing
HOMILETICS. Vers, 1-8.-The inffflliew of Ghrist with Nicodemus. This brings before ua one of the most important passages in Scripture. I. NroODEMUS APPEARS HERE AB A RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 1. He was" a ruler qf th, Jews." Thnt is1 not a civic magistrate, but n member of the Sanhedrin, which 136 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 'l'O ST. JOHN. [en. m. 1-36,