the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. v. 22). (2) This love iA grounded on a twofold con- sldemtion: (a) of Christ's Divine Sonship and his incarnation-" For I proceeded forth nod cnme from God;" nnd (b) of his mission as Mediator-" Neither came I of myself, but he ucnt me." He.d the Jews loved Uhriet, they would have recognized the Divine character of his Person and hie work. 3. Our Lord explains their ignorance of his language. "Why do ye not recognize my language? Because ye cannot understand my Word." (1) They lo.eked the organ of spiritual discernmer.t. (2) They were under nn influence that made them deaf to the voice of truth. V. OUR LORD ASSERTS THE TRUE PARENTAGE OF THE 'JEWS WITHOUT DISGUISE. •• Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye desire to do." 1. It was an act of courage as well asfaithfulne.98 to make such an assertwn. 2. It was an assertion founded on truth, for it was justified by a right interpretation of their conduct. The Jews manifested the two traits of the devil's character-hatred of man and aversion to the truth. Let men pretend what they will, their conduct must be taken as the test of their character. 3. The character here assigned to the Jews is not due to the parent, but to the children; for they "desired to do the lusts of their father." VI. THE PORTRAIT OF THE DEVIL, " He has been a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." 1. The words imply that the devil is an evil spirit, and not a mere personification of evil. 2. The existence of the devil is no more inconsistent with the holiness or goodness of God than the existence of evil men on earth. 3. There are two characteristics of the devil. (1) He is a murderer. (a) He brought death into the world by his subtlety and falsehood (2 Cor. xi. 3). (b) He has had a long history as a murderer. His first act was in Paradise. He instigated Cain's murder of his brother. He prompted the act of Judas Iscariot to secure the death of Christ. He still tempts sinners to their destru.ction. (2) He is an enemy to the truth. (a) Because he fell from the truth himself, and from that holiness that marks the realm of truth. (b) The reason of his fall is his utter falseness. "There is no truth in him." He doe~ not dwell in the.sphere of truth, because he i3 subjectively out of all sympathy a.nd relation to it. (c) The effect of his falseness. "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh from his own resources: for he is a liar, and the father of the liar." (a) The devil, in contrast with the Holy Spirit, who speaketh not of himself, but of the things given him ,0f God, elaborates his lies out of the immense storehouse of his own creative ingenuity. (/J) He was the :first liar, as he was the first murderer; he was a liar first, because by his lies he deceived our first parents to their destruction. He was the :first author of a lie. The first lie, "Thou shalt not surely die," was uttered by the devil. ("I') He is the father of a large family-he is" the father of the liar "-a character (i.) full of deceit, (ii.) odious to God and man, (iii.) doomed to feel the bitterness of distrust in this life, (iv.) and to be "cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone" (Rev. xx. 10). VII. THE PROOF OF TIIE DEVIL'S INFLUEN0E OVER THE JEWISH MIND. "And as for me, because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." 1. As the opposition between Christ and the devil is the opposition between truth and falsehood, it manifests itself in the children of the two respectively. 2. If Jesus had spoken falsehood, the Jews would have believed him. 3. The unbelief of the Jews had a moral ground. It is true psycho- logically to speak of" the evil heart of unbelief." 4:. Christ's moral conduct afforded no suggestion unfavourable to the truth of his doctrine. "Which of you convincetlt me of sin?" (1) This was a bold challenge to a nation of fault-finders. He was in their eyes a glutton and a winebibber, a blasphemer and a deceiver of the people. (~) Had Jesus been merely a pre-eminently holy man, he would have been the first to discover nnd acknowledge his sin. (3) As the Son of God he was essentially sinless, and inca- pable of sinning. 5. The unreasonableness of continued unbelief. "And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?" If I am no sinner, antl nothing in ruy conduct injures the purity of my testimony to the truth, you are still more obstinately unreasonable in refusing to believe me. 6. The final explanation of Jewish unbelief. " He that is of God heareth God's words : ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." (1) The true genesis of spiritual docility. The child of God listens with delight to his Father's voice ; he has ears to bear and a heart to understand. (2) The true genesis of obstinate unbelief. Those who refused to hear God were not "of God"- not his children, though they might be Abraham's seed. but rather children of the 880 TH1t GOSt1l:L AOOO~bING TO er. JOHN, [cJt, \'IJt. 1----59,
devil. (3) Our Lord's words imply that the Jewa were all along responsible for their unbelief.