The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 36

for the present open scoffers and presumptuous sinners, who make no secret of it that they bate the light and love the darkness, and who can scarcely keep their tempers wlwn sacred thrngs are mentioned in their presence. There is no need to speak of sue~ as glory in their _shame, and sport themselves with their own decoivings, and sear the)r conscience~ as with a hot iron. The tell:t does not apply probably to these, but to a different class. There are men who are neither attracted nor gladdened by the Light of lhe world, and in whose case the chief reason is that they turn a cold and criticnl and unhumbled eye on tbc Object of faith. Ah I were they to listen to some of the graver whisperings of their own consciences, which we believe are the strivings of God's Spiril ,,ithin them, they might become conscious of want and darkness; but they cannot bear this. Dismissing su.:h feelings as unworthy of them, they persist in saying, "We see I" lns,cad of looking up to Christ with the reverence due to One who is so immeasurably exalted above them, and who, in all that he is and all that he has done, is so wondrous an exception to the whole human race, they rather seek to weigh him in their own poor balances and as~ign him a place in their own narrow system. They must needs find some explanation of his miracles which would then be no miracles, and of the mysteries of his kingdom which would then be a mere province of the kingdom of nature. And is it at all wonderful that the gospel should be foolishness to such, and that the more they cherish such a state of mind the less fit they should be to profit by the ~cat Light which yet shines around them? By an inevitable consequence (if God pre,·ent not) their prejudices become stronger and their eyes become blinder. When God's hnnd is lifted up, they will not see. When his Spirit works in the hearts and lives of others, some explanation-perhaps a very shallow one-suffices for them. Conversion they ·will call a reaction from one extreme to another; heavenly tempers, even happy death-beds, the effects of a sanguine temperament; the spread of Christ's kingdom the mere contagion of enthusiasm. But thus the words of Christ a.re still "l'erified, "I am come ... that they which see might be made blind." For there is such a thing ns being "wise in our own eyes, and prudent in our own sight." It is an old warriing, "Let not the wise man· glory in Lis wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches." Ah, if the pride of wealth is n blinding thing, so that it is ha.rd for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven ; if the pride of power or social position is a delusion and a snare ;-so it is with the pride of human "isdom. Strange to say, it is not seldom found among men who, by whaternr standard you estimate them, are no wiser than their fellows; just as, on the other hand, some of the greatest min<ls have been the humblest. But wherever this pride of fancied wisdom reigns, it blinds the eye to the glory of the Redeemer. If you think you can look down, as it were, from above on Christ and his grace ; if your ambition is to " Sit e.s a god holding no form of creed, Bnt contemplating all;"- vou must needs be in a false and perilous position. It is not thus that you can hold ~o=union with the Holy One. Christ has no blessing for the self-sufficient, no healing for the whole. Remember his words, "I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and ha,st revealed them unto babes." Hence-- ID. THESE WORDS TEA.CB US THE GBA VE RESPONSIDILITY OF RAVINO TO DO WITH CHRIST. "For judgment he is come into the world." Not yet for final judgment and retribution; that is reserved for the last day. But one inevitable result of his appearing among men has evE'r been to test and prove them, and to m~nifest the secre~s of ~heir hearts. And this must be so; for he 1B the supreme Revelation of God-of his holiness and truth, of his grace and love, of all that makes up his glory. Even in ~he depths of his humiliation this was the case. Think of the day when he stood arraigned as e. Prisoner before the Jewish and the Roman tribunals; surely it was he, betrayed and for- saken as he was, who sat in reality on the judgment-seat, while Annas and Caiaphas, an<l Herod and Pilate, and priests and people, passed in review before him, and were weighed in his balances and found wanting._ And so it must ever be as _each human soul is brought face to face with Jesus Christ. Ah I some of you may ~hrnk that you arc j•Jdging him, but all the time it is he that is judging you. If you will not humbly on. 1x. 1-41.] '1.'HE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOIIN'. 37