Ver. 4.-Tlie perfect work. Even good men, when they approach the close of life and take a retrospect of the past, are -00nstrained in candour to admit that they have failed to realize their own ideal, to satisfy their own conscience, to approve themselves to their • God. They have to lament and confess infirmities and negligences. Christ alone could look back upon life without discovering any cause for reproach. Addressing the Father himself, he claimed to have accomplished the work which had been given him to do. L CBnIS'l''S COKCEPTION OF ms li!INISTRY. 1. In his view this was a work to be done. The serious and sacred nature of this earthly life was never realized by any as by him. "I work," said Jesus, with a sublime simplicity; and the record of his labours proves the truth of his assertion. 2. In his view Christ's ministry was a trust from his Father. Every true servant of God can speak of the work which Divine authority has assigned to him as his vocation. Of this the Son or God, who became the Servant of God, has given us the most glorious example. Obedience and subjection were characteristic of the Sa,·iour's earthly ministry. Il. CJI111ST's ooNscrous COMPLETION OF HIS MINISTRY. 1. From the beginning our Lord had possessed a:clear conception of the nature of the work to which h? bad beon designated and commissioned by the Father. 2. Our Lord had been conscious of the possession of all tbe qualifications necessary for the fulfilment of his work. He was well aware that his mission would not fa.ii through• any deficiency on his part. 3.. .Amidst &.ll hie labonrs and sufferings Jesus bad been sustained by the conviction that his work was advancing to its completion. The very circumstances which to another mind miaht have seemed fatal to his great enterprise, were to his clear knowledge tho cunditio~ of its prosperous issue. 4. The approaching sacrifice was regarded by the Redeemer as if already offered; it was so in intention and resolve. 5. The results of the Saviour's work were present to his holy and benevolent mind. Dy anticipation the results were already reaped-a glorious harvest from the seed sown and seemingly perished in the earth. APPLICATION. The example of Christ is a rebuke to all desultory vi~ws of life. TLose who regard this existence as an o~P?rt°!1ity for personal pleasure, enrichment, or aggrandizemt:nt may well ponder the sp1r1t displayed by the Lord Jesus, who looked upou Lis life here as sacred, as allowing of a consecrateti service to the Father. Christ's on. XVJI. 1--26.] 'l'llE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN'. 863
spirit can animate hie folJowors 110 that they may both undertake and complete some good work for the Divine glory.-T.
Ver. 6.-'J'M tramcendent glory ef the Divfne Word. Still the Saviour's mind runs upon glory. How unlike the thoughts of a man, however great and good, are these tholl:ghte .expressed in this recorded prayer of Christ I It was not vanity, it was not egotism, 1t was not assumption; it wa.s the con~ciousness of Divinity which accounted for this lnngunge. L CnnrsT HAD GLORY WITH THE FATHER BEFORE THE 'l'IORLD WAS. Of this we only know what our Lord himself has revealed to us. But we are assured that this world is not the only scene of the manifestation of the glory of the eternal Word. In what maun?r, through what circumstances, to what order of intelligences, this ante-natal glory was displayed, we havo no means of knowing. II. CnBI8T GATHERED TO HIMSELF FRESH GLORY DURING ms EARTHLY MANIFESTA- TION AND MINISTRY. This was emphatically a moral and spiritual glory-the glory of truth, righteousness, purity, and love. It was emphatically the glory of sacrifice-glory which could only be realized through incarnation and humiliation. This glory is discerned and appreciated only by the spiritual; to the view of such it excels all the tinselled splendour of worldly greatness. IIL CHRIST TOOK WITH lllM TO THE PRESENCE OF THE FATIIER A GLORY WRICH HAR- MONIZED WITH THAT WHICH WAB NATIVE AND ORIGINAL, AND wmcH EVEN ENHANCED IT, This prayer opens up before the mind three stages of Divine glory as belonging to Christ. The Incarnation did not create his glory, for he brought it with him from the heavens. But his earthly sojourn was the occasion of acces,ion of glory. And when he ascended on high to receive the reward of toil, to reap the harvest of sacrifice, he appeared, and he ever does and will appear, irradiated with a. splendour which, as mediatorial, is at once sacrificial and triumphant.-'.l.'. Vers. 6-10.-The .Advocate and the clients. The High Priest now turns from him- self to the special objects of his intercessory prayer. I. THE CALLING OF THE CLIENTS. 1. '.l.'hey are separated from the world. Made a. select and consecrated class, they are set apart from others in the pra.yer of the Lord. 2. They are the property of the Father. 3. They are the gift of the Father to his Son. 'l'he Father drew them with the bonds of love, and they became Christ's. II, THE MARKS OF THE CLIENTS. It is not to be supposed that there is anything arbitrary in the calling of God. Those for whom tl;, High Priest here pleads : 1. Recognize the Diviuity of Christ's works. 2. An~ the Divinity of his words. These they received, i.e. as from God through him who is" the Word." 3. And the Divinity of his mission. Christ came forth from God ; God sent him. But this great fact, the greatest in the history of mankind, was by no means generally recognized. Its recog- nition became at once, and still remains, a "note" of Christ's people. '.l.'he just esti- mate of the words and of the works of Christ leads to a true appreciation of Christ himself. III. THE BEOURITY AND DIGNITY OF THE CLIENTS. 1. All Christ's are his Father's, and all the Father's are Christ's; therefore the clients who have the Saviour for their Patron and Protector are doubly secure and doubly blest. 2. Christ is glorified in his friends. Wonderful is the condescension here displayed. The Lord of glory allows those, who by nature are so feeble and so helpless as men are, to add by their adhesion and their praises even to the majesty and splendour which is his by right. This is so in a measure even now; how far more fully shall Christ's ransomed clients glorify him when they are delivered from the infirmities of the body, and the sordid surroundings of time !-'l'. Ver. 17.-The purifying power of truth. This may be rega:ded as the central petition of this prayer or the great High Priest. Our Lord, having prayed on behalf of his disciples that they shouhl be" kept from the evil," as thOfe" not of the world," passes from the n.,,, ative to the positive side <;>f the Christian life. His heart's desire is tha.t his p~ople ~ay be hallowed, consecrated, sanctified, made holy, as becomes those who are h111 own, 864 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN, [oil. x,;n, 1-20,