hundred and twenty wore gathered in tho upper room t.o wait for the Dny of l'cn t.ccost. I. THE DIFFICITLTY OF DTl!UIPLESHil'. Nomin11l Ohristianity is easy onough, but to he a rMl disciple is as hard as ever. Jesus m!\de it h111-d for those who first thronged round him, and the ea.me tests, the s1tme requirements, the same difficulties, face ue ~till. The would-be disciple has to contend with his own indolence, impatience, eolf- rndulgence. What changes in our thoughts and ways there must be, so that our thoughts may become ns the thoughts of Jesus, our ways as the ways of Jesuel Wo are not to be known by distinctions in outward appearance, but by doep distinctions in character and purpose. He who wants nn easy, smooth, level life will not indeed find it anywhere; least of all will he find it with Christ. It is not mero attendance at sch~l that makes the scholar-it is lea.rning; and in the school of Christ learning by prnct1ce. II. SEE J Esus TESTING DISCIPLB& The man who said he would follow Jesus whereve1 he went. The man who said he would follow when he had buried his father. The man who said he would follow after saying farewell to his friends. 'l'he disciples in the st-0rm, who deemed they trusted Christ, and yet could not trust him till they had wakened him from sleep. Faith in Jesus a.s a 'feacher must rise above the difficulties of any particular single demand of his. You must learn to look at Jesus, not in any one single action, not in any one single word, but in the sum total of all his e.ctions and all his words. Jesus is always teaching, and we have to be always learning. What others reckoned to be discipleship he did not so reckon. Departure from old associations does not make discipleship. Departure into new circumstances does not make disciple- ship. He is the disciple indeed who breaks from an old life into a new one-into that new life which gets nearer perfectness the nearer it gets to perfect trust in Jesus. Diogenes went about Greece with his lantern, looking for an honest man; nnd so Jesus goes about among us with his tests 11.nd with his searching, undeceivable eye, looking for a disciple indeed. He looks to see whether we abide in his Word, whether we carry it into every thought, every transaction, every temptation, every trouble, He would lead us on from ksson to lesson, deepening our faith, marking us off as his disciples more and more distinctly-those ever learning and ever able to come more and more to knowledge of the truth.-Y. Ver. 32.-The liberating t,,ro,th. There are two kinds of freedom: the freedom of the liberated prisoner and the freedom of the manumitted slave. Living in a country like England, we a.re most likely to think of the former kind: But it is quite evident that Jesus was thinking of servitude rather than captivity. Many may have to be under restraint because they have broken laws; it is right thnt they should be prisoners for a time, perhaps even for all their lives. But servitude never can be right; it has had to remain awhile because of the hardness of men's hearts, and as men have got more light upon human equality, they have seen that no man should be legally compelled into the service of another, whether he would or not. In the time of Jesus there were many bond-slaves, and he had no magic process whereby he could liberate them. But there were bond-slaves besides, unconscious of their servitude, deluded with the notion that they were already free, and therefore all the harder to liberate. To such Jesus spoke here. He spoke to slaves, and told them what would liberate them. L THE PROCESS OP LIBERATION MAY BE BEAL, THOUGH FOB A WHILE WE ABE NOT CONSCIOUS OP IT. The prisoner is free when no longer in prison; the slave is free when no longer UDder the legal control of his owner. But Christian liberty cannot thus be made up of negations ; it would be a poor thing if it could. It is of no use to attempt a definition of Christian liberty; it is a thing into which we must grow. We must grow until, even as Paul did, we look back on the days once counted free as de.ye of the worst servitnde. Going where Christ wants us to go, being what Christ wants us to be, we shall see in due time what a real and blessed thing spiritual freedom is. Still, though it must be a time before we know this properly, yet we may know something of it at once in studying the very greatest illustration of real liberty we can find, namely, the Lord JesUB himself. It is not alistract truth that liberates, but truth 11.'1 embodied in the wisdom and power of JesUB. II. 'l'RUTB DllINOB ue INTO THE LIBERTY OF DOING GoD'I! WILL, Christ's own liberty en. VIII. 1---59.J Till~ oo:wgr, ACCOIWING TO s·r. JUHN. 401
wns not that of cloing as he liker!. Ila went by the Ii Icings or nis FBLller m il,,,wen. Ho di1 nothing without liking to do it; yet he a18o did nothing just because he liked to do it. To desiro whl\t God desires, that ie liberty, without a check, a jar, or a fret. Sowi11g just what we like, wo shall certainly reap what we do not like. Christ wants to libernte us from the thrnl<lom of our own strong, foolish desires. The psalmist exactly expresses the Christian's privilege and attainment, when he says so cheerfully, "I will run the way of thy comm!lndments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart." III. TnUTH BRINGS us INTO TIIE LIBERTY 0-S, SEEING THINGS WITH OUR ow~ EYES. The reputed wise in Jerusalem would only have led Jesus into a bondage of falsehoods and delusions, Wh11t a Pharisee they would have tried to make him I Refllly free- thinking is the only right thinking, and our Teacher wae the freest thinker that ever lived, It ie our duty as much e.s our right to judge everything in connection with Christ for ourselves. By that rule we shall b~ judged at wt. Others may help us in the way when chosen, bnt they are not to choose it for us. IV. TBUTH BRINGS us INTO THE LIBERTY 0-S, A LOVING HEART. The heart of Jesus could not be kept within rules and precedents and prejudices. It was a. Divine love, shed abroad in his heart, that kept him safe, pure, and unspotted, in a world abounding with things to pollute. V. TRUTJI BilINOS us INTO THE LIBERTY OP A GBAOIOUS LIPE. That is, the liberty of Jesus never interfered with the true liberty of others, but increased and established it. He never broke away from the beaten track for the mere sake of doing it.-Y.
JORN, 2D HOMILETICAL INDEX TO
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN I