Ver. 7.-0hrid's witness agai,u;t sin. The "world," which is here affirmed by Jesus to have hated him, is not to be distinguished from the "Church," if that expression may be applied to those who professed to receive the revelation and to do the will of God. For amongst our Lord's enemies, the foremost were certainly the men who were at the head of the theocracy, and whose sins Jesus most severely censured. From this significant fa.et, people professedly religion~, and even people who sincerely. believ:e themselves to be religious, may take warmng, and may learn not to trust 10 their outward religiousness, as if that in itself sufficed to secure them against identification with the sinful world. . l. THE WAYS IN WHICH THE LoRD JESUS WITNESSED AGAINST THE WORLD'S EVIi,, 1. By his language. Meek and gracious as he was towards such sinners· as were penitent, Jesus was unsparing in his denunciations of hardened and hypocritical offenders against the Law of God. Against falsehood, covetousness, cruelty, and licentiousness, the Son of man raised his voice in indignant protest and censure. And aoainst such sins, when cloaked by a religious profession, be was severe with a severi_ty u;exampled even in Scripture. 2. By his conduct. In many cases there is no protest against evil so effective as an upright. and holy life. '!'his protest was ever offered by our Lord; it was natural and habitual to him. The calm dignity with which our Lord Jived amidst formalists and di~semblers could not be unnoticed either by friends or foes, and by his foe-i it was felt as a rebuke and a condemnation. • ' H. TH.E HATRED WHICH OUB LORD'S WITNESS .AGAINijT THE WORLD'S EVIL ARODSEL .AGAINST Hill. 1. 'l'his hatred evinced a moral warfare within human nature. On the one hand, the conscience of sinners concurred in the rebukes uttered by the holy on. vn. 1-.68.) THE GOSPEL ACCURDING TO ST. JOHN. 331
Snviour; on the other band, their eolfiehne88 and pride would not submit to these rebukes. 'l'hus there nrose, ns in such circumstances there- ever arises, an inner conflict. And in order to repress the voice of conscience, sinners often hardened themselves acrainst its e:tpostulntions by giving themselves more resolutely over into the power of evil. 2. This h11tred led to c11lumny and slander against the holy Christ. Only thus can we account for the absurd o.nd wicked and scandalous language used concerning Jesus. His enemies called him o. sinner, a deceiver, and declared that he was po.,sessed by 11 demon, by Beelzebub. If he had lefo their sins unrebuked, and had humourerl their pre- judices, he might have secured the adherence and support of the Jewish leaders; but the upright course he took in dealing with them brought down upon him their malice and their hatred. 3. This hatred was the motive of the plot which i~sued in the apprehension and death of Jesus. It appears that the hostility of the priests and rulers against Jesus of Nazareth was excited by his pure and spiritual teaching, which was felt to he a rebuke to their formality and hypocrisy, and by his denunciations of their ambition and covetousness. His enemies felt that there was a likelihood of his undermining their influence over the common people. This Jed to the resolution to compass.his death by means however foul. Ill. THE WORLD'S HATRED BECAME THUS THE OCCASION OF THE EVENT WHICH WROUGHT THE .WORLD'S DELIVERANCE FROM ITS SIN. The wisdom of God is often manifested in the brioging of .good out of evil. The most stupendous ancl glorious instance of this wisdom was afforded in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. He testified against the world's evil; the hatred of the world was thus inflamed against him; this hatred led to the apprehension, the condemnation, and the death of the Holy One and Just; and his death was God's method of vanquishing the world's sin, and of saving mankind from spiritual destruction and ruin.-'!'. Ver. 17.-A good will the condition of spiritual discernment. Intellectual men are apt to set too high a value upon the exercise of the intellect. .And in this error they are often confirmed by the notions of the ignorant and uninstructe<l, who look up with wonder to the learned .and the mentally acute, and.are willing to think such prodigies of knowledge must be assured possessors of all good things. But the fact is, that the highest of all possessions is to be attained, not by the scholarship or the ability which men often over-estimate, but by the trusting heart and the obedient and submissive will. Now here is this great spiritual lesson more plainly and effectively inculcated than in this passage. ' I. 'l'HE SOURCE OF CHRIST'S DOCTRINE. This was a mystery to many of the Jews, who knew that Jesus was born in a lowly station, and that he had not been trained in the schools of rabbinical learning, and who could not understand how he could teach with such justice, profundity, and beauty. With this difficulty Jesus here deals. 1. 'l'he doctrine of Jesus is asserted by himself to be derived. He repudiated the notion that he spake from himself, i.e. from the experieoce or originality of a merely human mind .. 2. The doctrine of Jesus is asserted by himself to be Divine. It was neither his own, nor that of a school of learning, nor was it a mere amplification of the sayings of the ancient legislator and the ancient prophets. Jesus ever claimed to have come from God, and to have acted and spoken with the authority of God. This, however, was his assertion ; how were his hearers to verify it? , II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST'S DOCTRINE. There were many who listened to the discourses and conversations of the great Teacher, who were familiar with his language, but who were unacquainted with, and indifferent to, the spiritual meaning aod power of which that language was, to sympathetic souls, the vebicle. How can this meaning and power be known? 1. 'l'here must be a will in harmony with God's will. Man is not merely an intellectual beiug; he is emotional and practical .And the will is the man. It is the habitual purposes which determine the mnn's character. Many persoos have insight into truth, and eveli admiration of truth, whose moral life is nevertheless evil, because they abandon themselves to be the sport of every fleeting passiou. 'l'he habitual indulgence of passion, pride, ru1d worldliness blinds the spiritual viswn, so that the highe,;t good becomes indiscernible. And thus those who are not without natural gifts of intelli- gence become incapable of juJging the highest type of character or of doctrine. On the other hand, the cultivation of a will in harmony with the Divine will is the means uf 332 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [an. vn. 1-63,