personal and spiritual elements in religion, imperilled their own rulers' authority, and the whole system of form and ceremony with which they were associated. 2. Our Lord doubtless looked forward to the time when the vessel of the Church should quit the narrow straits of Judaism, and should sail out into the open se!LB of the world, there to encounter fiercer storms. Then he foresaw the hatred of the world should take a more formidable, though not a more virulent, shape. In the Roman empire, Christianit_y, we ~now as ~atter ?f history, enco_untered fierce hostility mamly because of its exacting, exclusive claims, because of its open hostility to all that eavoured of idolatry, and because of its rapid, and (to the heathen) unaccountable progress. Hence the several persecutions which arose under successive emperors, verifying the predictions uttered by the Divine Founder of our faith. Hence the long roll of confessors and martyrs who sealed their testimony with their blood. 3. But it must not be overlooked that, where pereecution is impossible, hatred often prevails, and manifests its presence and power in many distressing forms. There are at the present time, even in the midst of professedly Christian communities, not a few who are suffering from that hate which our Lord here foretold. II. EXPLANATIONS OF THE WORLD'S HATRED OF CHRISTIANS. 1. The world knows not God, and hence hates the Church which is in possession of this knowledge. Had the world known God, it would have recognized among Christians the tokens of the Divine presence and operation. 2. Christians are not of the world. The world loves its own, but hates that which is out of harmony with it. If Christians do not adopt the world's spirit and language and habits, this singularity and nonconformity naturally excites dislike and provokes to ill treatment. 3. It cannot but be that the world must be rebuked by the presence of the Church, confronting and reproving it. Whether by a public protest against the world's sins, or by the silent protest of a. pure and upright life, Christians are bound to a course of action which will bring down upon them, now and again, the enmity and the anger of the world. III. CONSOLATION FOR CIIRISTIANS UNDER THE WORLD'S BATBED. .All true comfort comes from that personal relation to the Lord Jesus upon which such stress is laid in these discourses recorded by St. John, and which is exhibited as the inspiration not only of consecrated activity but also of patient endurance. 1. The hatred which besets Christians was first directed against Christ himself. 2. The servant must expect to follow in his Master's steps, and to meet with the same treatment. 3. When Jesus says," For my Name's sake," he presents to us a motive to patience which is divinely fortifying and persuasive.-T. Vere. 22-25.-Unbelief inexcusable. It is significant and affecting to find tha.t in the last deliberate discourse which our Lord Jesus addressed to his disciples, he not only administered comfort to his friends, but uttered words of sad rebuke to bis enemies. He knew full well that the attitude which was taken towards him by the Jewish leaders was typical of the regard and treatment of multitudes besides; and his reproaches have a scope far beyond their immediate application. I. THE HANIFEBTATION OF UNllELIEF. '.!.'his is to be seen in the open rejection and persecution of the Lord Jesus. II. THE CAUSE OF UNBELIEF. This is not intellectual difficulty, but moral repug- nance. The Jewish enemies of Jesus hated his holy character, his denunciations of their worldliness and hypocrisy, his lofty and spiritual standard of teaching, his claims to supreme authority. III. 'l'JIE GUILT OF UNllELIEF. This is especially to be recognized in what unbelief of Christ involves. Hatred of the Father, God, and consequent hatred of his holy La.w and his benevolent purposes,-such is the charge which Jesus brings against his foes. In rejecting Christ, they were showing themselves to be out of sympathy with the mind and will of him who is eternal righteousness and goodness. This was their sin and condemnation. IV. THE INEXCUSABLENESS Ol!' UNBELIEF. .As powerfully set forth by Jesus Christ in this passage, this is to be observed in three respects. 1. Christ's words, his incom- parable teaching, were a witness to his authority, nnd should have been received with reveren~e, gratitude, and faith. It should have been an all-sufficient wi~ness to him who spl\lte I\& never IDl\n BPl\kl!, Tlie truths he revealed, the 11\w~ he llilposed, the 286 THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN, [oH. xv. 1-27.
promi~e~ he gave, were a.JI S110b IU! would have commanded the respect of those morally preparl'u to a.ppreciat,e the utterances of One who came from heaven. 2. Ohrist'a mnr~ellous works WcN! well fitted to Pecond the impreseion produced by his words, '!'hey, indeed, appealed to an inferior faculty of human nature, but they were neoessnry in 0rdl'r t-0 the completeness and justice of the impression to be made upon the minds of our Lord's contemporaries. His enemies did not deny the reality of our Lord's mir~cl_es, but they misinterpreted them,.aUributing t~em, by an absurd ingenuity, to A.II mlernal IIOllroe. 3. The hatred, enmity, and unbelief of the Jews were inexcusable because they WCll'e "without acauso.." By this we must understand, not that thero wns no motive in the minds of his foes, but that there was no justification for their con- clusions or for their oonduct.-T.