I. 'l'HE LIFE OF TilE WORLD'S SPIRITUAL SEED. Imagination can see in an acorn all which may nrise from it-an oak, a ship, a navy; for the acorn has a life-germ which is onpable of incrense ancl multiplication, lmagina.tion ca.n see in a handful of seed-corn OIU'ricd to a distant isle, a nation's food. So in one Person, the speaker of these wor<lH, there lay-though only Omniscience could clearly foresee this-the spiritual hopes of n whole race, Jesus himself knew that this was so, and foresa.w and foretold the results of his obedience unto death. In the coming of these Greeks he discerned the earnest of II glorious future; and the prospect of approaching suffering and of future victory stirred o.nd troubled his soul with a mighty emotion. 'l'be explanation of this m:i.rvel- lous potency is to be found in the fact that Christ was Life-the Life of men. His Di vine nature, his great vocation, his faultless character, his gracious ministry, his spiritual power, his unrivalled love, his incomparable sacrifice, are all signs of the possession by him of a wonderful life, Only a divinely commissioned and qualified Being could become the world's Life. Because he was the Son of God, it was possible for him to bring to this human race what none other could confer-spiritual vitality and fruitfulness. 'l'ho claim which Jesus made may have seemed to an observer of his ministry incre- dible or even presumptuous. Yet as a tiny seed may produce a majestic tree, because in the seed is a germ of life, so in the lowly Nazarene was the promise of a new and blessed life for this humanity. "I am come," said he, " that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." Such sayings, from his lips, were the simple, literal truth. II. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD'S SPIRITUAL BEED. 'l'o one unacquainted with the mystery of growth, it must seem that the strangest use to which a seed could be put is to bury it in the ground. Death is the unlikeliest road to life. Yet experience teaches us that dissolution is necessary to reproduction. The substance of the grain dissolves, and nourishes and protects the living germ, which by means of warmth and moisture puts forth the signs of life, grows and develo_ps into a corn-plant or a tree. Had not the seed been planted, it would have remaineii by itself alone and unfruitful. The law obtains in the moral realm. Our race gains its best of knowledge, experience, progress, happiness, virtue, not from the prosperous and the peaceful, but from those whose life is a life of toil, endurance, patience in suffering, and sacrifice. The world is infinitely indebted to its confessors, its martyrs, its much-enduring heroes. The highest exem- plification of this law is to be found in the sacrifice of the world's Redeemer. His life of labour and weariness was closed by a death of shame and e.n,,,cruish. He gave up his body to the cross and to the tomb. His whole life was a death unto self, unto the world; and he did not shrink from that mortality which is the common lot of man. This death did not come upon him by accident; he several times distinctly foretold it-it was part of his plan. He is not to be numbered among the many who might have been spiritual forces for highest good, but who remained fruitless because they dared not die. The ignominious cross has ever been a. stumbling-block to many; but to multitudes, spiritually enlightened, and touched in the heart by his Spirit, it has been the supreme revelation of God. 'l'he cross and the grave are to the unspiritnal an offence; but to Christians they a.re a glory and a joy, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Via crucis, via lucis. Christ's body did not indeed see corruption; yet his life's close was 11n exact correspondence to the dissolution of the seed. A bystander might naturally have said,'1" Here is the end of the professions and the work of Jesus!" But God's ways are not our ways, Ill. THE FERTILITY OF THE WORLD'S SPIBrrUAL BEED. One grain of wheat, if sown, and its produce resown, may in time produce a vast, aU but incalculable crop. One grain seems thrown away, but millions are gathered and ga.rnered. Much fruit rewards the faith of the husbandman. Our Lord teaches us that, in the spiritual realm, a similar result follows a similar process. He knew that he was about to die ; but he knew also that his death should be rich in spiritual fruit. The immediate results verified his prediction, In a short space of time after our Lord's death, the number of hie disciples was not merely increased, it was multiplied. The fruit borne upon the day of Pentecost was the :firstfruit of a rich, abundant harvest. Not only in the Jewish world, but among the Gentiles a.lso, it was speedily manifest that Jesus bad not died in vain. Israel had conspired to kill him; but he became the Saviour of the true Israel-the Israel of God. The Romans had put him to death ; but in a few genera- tious the Roma.11 empir@ a.c~owledged his suprepiacy. 'l'he world had c11,5t him out; 158 THE GOSPEL ACOORDING TO ST. JOHN, [oe. xn. 1-50,
but f he world was 11aved by him. The history of Christendom is the story of ono long harvest-a harvest yielded by tho spiritual seed which was sown on Oalvary. The future has yet t-0 rev011,l the vastness of the work which Ch1ist has wrought. Ho shall drRw al I men unto himself. "Many shall come from the East and from the West." A !!"reR! multitude, whom no man can number, shall join in tho grateful praise and reverent adoration of heaven. PRACTICAL LESSONB. 1. Our indebtedness to Christ. 2. Our identifioation with Christ. 3. Our hope in Christ.-T.