DiviSiOi 
 Section 
 
A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY 
 
 |ON THE 
 
 GOSPEL OF ST. JOH 
 
 y 
 
 BT 
 
 McVeigh harrison, o.h.^^^ 
 
 ARRANGED FOR DAILY MEDITATIONS, 
 
 OR SPIRITUAL READINGS, 
 
 FROM ADVENT SUNDAY TO THE 
 
 END OF WHITSUNTIDE 
 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE 
 
 ST. ANDREW'S BOOK SHOP 
 
 ST. ANDREWS P. O. 
 
 TENNESSEE 
 
Copyright 1919 
 
 By McVeigh Harrison, O.H.C. 
 
 West Park, New York. 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 
 MRS. JOHN H. GARTH 
 
 A DEAR AND FAITHFUL FRIEND BOTH 
 
 OF THE WRITER AND OF 
 
 ST. ANDREW'S 
 
 SINCE OUR RESPECTIVE BEGINNINGS 
 
 IN THE WORLD 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS small volume might have been called 
 "The Divine Charity," for the love of Jesus 
 Christ for us is its subject throughout. One who 
 follows St. John at all, I find, cannot choose but 
 adopt this theme, for it recurs in some form or appli- 
 cation not only in every chapter of his Gospel, but 
 in many individual words and phrases, the selection 
 of which must have been the care of his long lifetime. 
 The title I have actually chosen is simply the most 
 accurate I could think of. For the past two years 
 I have been trying to follow out the main hnes of 
 our Blessed Saviour's Life and teaching as the 
 Apostle of Love has revealed them to us, and then 
 to use these for my own meditations and for con- 
 ferences and retreats. I wish it were true to say 
 that I have been living in the atmosphere of the 
 Fourth Gospel, which is really only the true atmos- 
 phere of the Religious Life, and which would be the 
 best preparation for writing these pages. But in 
 spite of the many imperfections of my study, it has 
 disclosed so much that was wonderfully helpful in the 
 Sacred Text, that I determined to draft the material 
 in my note-books into the form of brief, expository 
 meditations or readings. For my experience with 
 people who are practising regular mental prayer has 
 
PREFA CE 
 
 indicated that it would be helpful for them if they 
 could take for the "matter" of their meditations a 
 particular Gospel and follow it through. Few, how- 
 ever, can spare time to work out the exegesis of a 
 passage daily, or even to read a chapter explaining 
 it, and to these busy folk my humble offering is made. 
 It is a "commentary" on the Gospel of St. John, 
 only in the sense that it presents in substance the 
 interpretation, by great scholars, ancient and modern, 
 of the Beloved Disciple's revelation of our Lord. Many 
 particular verses are not noticed, but, on the other 
 hand, no difficult text is left without the explana- 
 tion which has satisfied me. 
 
 My obligations are manifold; but apart from my 
 great debt to the Fathers, I owe most to Bishop 
 Westcott and Dr. Plummer for their Commentaries. 
 To Rev. Dr. G. H. Morrison I am grateful for some 
 very suggestive sermons on texts from the writings of 
 St. John. 
 
 McVeigh Harrison, O. H. C. 
 
 St Andrew's Day, 1919. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CITATIONS PACE 
 
 St. John i : 1-14 i 
 
 St. John i : 15-36 13 
 
 St. John i: 37-44 25 
 
 St. John i : 45-51 34 
 
 St. John ii : i-i i 45 
 
 St. John ii : 12-25 57 
 
 St. John iii : 1-15 68 
 
 St. John iii : 16-36 75 
 
 St. John iv : 1-42 83 
 
 St. John iv : 43-v : 20 92 
 
 St. John V : 21-47 101 
 
 St. John vi : 1-23 106 
 
 St. John vi : 24-71 no 
 
 St. John vii 119 
 
 St. John viii 127 
 
 St. John ix 136 
 
 St. John X 144 
 
 St. John xi : 1-52 155 
 
 St. John xi : 53-xii 162 
 
 St. John xiii 172 
 
 St. John xir 181 
 
 St. John XT 191 
 
 St. John xvi 202 
 
 St. John xviii 215 
 
 St. John XX 234 
 
 St. Johnxxi 251 
 
ABBREVIATIONS USED 
 
 A. V.= Authorized (King James') Version. 
 
 A V. Marg.=" Marginal Readings edition of the Authorized 
 
 Version, 
 R. V.= Revised Version, Oxford edition. 
 R, V. Marg.=marginal reading of the Revised Version 
 f.= thc next Terse in addition to the one cited. 
 ff.= the next two verses in addition to the one cited. 
 Single quotation marks (' ') indicate a literal translation, unless 
 
 explained in the text as inclosing a parapharse. 
 All citations are inclusive of the last verse cited. 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 — 1». . . 
 W^t iFiwt Wieek in aubrnt* Read St. John i : 1-14 
 
 ^oli'0 Hobr ^toopiB to t|)e Sncarnation 
 
 The Beloved Disciple has for the supreme motive 
 of his Gospel to tell us how Jesus Christ revealed His 
 Deity. Only second to this is his purpose to teach us 
 God's love for us and to win our full response. 
 Therefore, in his Prologue, he sets forth the infinite 
 Charity which brought God to take upon Him His 
 creatures' nature. "In the beginning was the Word, 
 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." 
 And then, ''the Word was made Flesh." Even in the 
 very beginning when the universe was made by the 
 Word of God, He was, from all eternity (Gen. i: 3, 6, 
 9, etc.). Yet He accepted birth of a woman. He 
 united to Himself a Manhood which was subject to the 
 limitations of time and space, which could grow weary, 
 and suffer and die. How infinite, how almighty, must 
 be that Love of God which made Him willing to 
 become a Little Baby ! 
 
 Moreover, St. John brings before us a second great 
 paradox of this ineffable charity, when he says that 
 "the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt," or, literally, 
 "tabernacled," "among us." For in this he identifies 
 the Word with the Jehovah of the Old Covenant, Who 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 ''tabernacled" with His ancient people in the Tent of 
 Meeting, and afterwards, in their Sanctuary (Exodus 
 xiv: 24; xl: 34; i Kings viii: 11). But how incom- 
 parably more tender was it when this same dear God 
 came and "tabernacled" among us, not in a Pillar of 
 Fire and Cloud, but in our own Human Nature, to 
 reveal Divine Wisdom to us with Human Lips, and to 
 love us with a Human Heart! 
 
 Finally, He Who was **in the beginning" ivas made 
 Man. Is it not unspeakably wonderful that He Whose 
 Life is immutable should have condescended to accept 
 a nature subject to the processes of change? He Who 
 is **the same yesterday, to-day and forever" submitted 
 to become Flesh in order that He might know by expe- 
 rience all the vicissitudes of our human life, from first 
 to last. Surely God could not have challenged us, in 
 more compelling ways, to respond to His love. 
 
 ^%z WiiXx^twtSi to Ct)rt)3t 
 
 The Fourth Gospel opens with the most explicit and 
 extended teaching in the Holy Scriptures that Christ 
 is God, and it reaches a climax in St. Thomas' confes- 
 sion of the Risen Jesus: *'My Lord and my God" 
 (xx: 28). On the other hand, none of the first three 
 Gospels is so explicit in displaying the limitations of 
 our Saviour's Manhood; and St. John is unique, apart 
 from St. Paul, in sometimes referring to our Lord by 
 the Greek word for "man" which indicates a poor peas- 
 ant rather than by that which suggests a gentleman. 
 His two great, fundamental truths, about Christ, there- 
 fore, are: that He is "God, Only-begotten," and that 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 He is the '^Son of Man" (i: i8 A. V. Marg. ; i:5i). 
 The Apostle of Love would have us understand that 
 God has had part and lot with all of us ordinary folk. 
 In riches, social standing and temporal power, He 
 deliberately chose to share the fortunes of the lowly. 
 
 There was less need to urge the reality of Christ's 
 Manhood than to insist upon His Deity. For this lat- 
 ter, St. John sets forth seven proofs, being the witness 
 to Christ: (i) of the Father, (2) of Jesus Himself, 
 (3) of Flis miracles, (4) of the Old Testament, (5) of 
 St. John Baptist, (6) of the disciples, and (7) of the 
 Holy Ghost ( v : 37 ; viii : 14 ; v : 36 ; v : 39 f . ; i : 7 ; xv : 
 2^ ; XV : 26) . Thus the Apostle of Love was theological, 
 definite and dogmatic in asserting the true Faith. There 
 is a widespread impression in our day that love must 
 be tolerant of error, even about our Lord, and amiably 
 willing to dilute the truth until our weaker brethren 
 can receive it. But true charity towards Jesus and our 
 fellowmen dictates that we hold the Catholic Faith 
 pure as He committed it to us for them, an inviolable 
 trust. 
 
 It is profoundly impressive that such a Gospel, hav- 
 ing for its principal purpose to defend the truth of our 
 Lord's Dual Nature, should have been written by the 
 last of the Apostles. For sixty years he had endured 
 the trials, sufiFerings and dangers which beset the Apos- 
 tolic Church. One might have thought that sad expe- 
 rience would have dimmed his faith, either in the 
 Godhead of Christ with its attribute of almighty Power 
 to defend His people, or else in the reality of His Man- 
 hood and of the human experience which would fill 
 Him with pity for them. But this aged prisoner of 
 state, fresh from the stone quarries of Patmos, sur- 
 rounded by the apparently unconquerable forces of 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 evil in Ephesus, proclaims his faith in the God-Man 
 with absolute certainty. He has learned cumulatively, 
 by the triumphs of three-score years, that no darkness, 
 however deep, can overcome the Light of Life (i: 5). 
 It **shineth" with but greater radiance of power and 
 love, amid gloom, be it the gloom of First Century 
 Asia Minor or that of Twentieth Century America. 
 
 W^z iFourtI) fioispel ^peciall? for ^oHern C|)ni3ttan0 
 
 The Light from the Word is ever coming to the 
 Church in greater volume and radiance, so that a later 
 generation is able to understand the original deposit 
 of truth in the Holy Scriptures better, and to discern 
 in it new relations to men and things. Thus, St. John, 
 writing his Gospel in 95 a.d., saw that the world of his 
 day and of the future demanded a presentation of our 
 Lord's life and teaching which would in ways be differ- 
 ent from the treatment of the three older Evangelists. 
 Therefore, he records no miracles of Christ except 
 those which all generations would value supremely as 
 proving the power of the Master over their very own 
 times and conditions. He gives us no account of the 
 many miracles wrought by Jesus for the cure of lepers 
 and those possessed with evil spirits. From his proph- 
 et's watch-tower, looking out over the coming ages, he 
 foresaw that there would be few demoniacs or lepers 
 in those western lands into which the Gospel was so 
 rapidly advancing. But there would be poverty, dis- 
 ease, hunger, storm winds, blindness and death, and, 
 therefore, he tells us of the way in which the God-Man 
 showed His supreme Power over every one of these 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 destructive forces. For, as we can see by looking rap- 
 idly through his Gospel, he records seven miracles 
 wherein our Lord relieved His people from these uni- 
 versal evils. 
 
 Again, it is a notable vice in our modern religious 
 practice, that we are disposed to regard all righteous- 
 ness as external and as consisting entirely in right 
 conduct and good works. Now St. John would teach 
 us that the spiritual life is primarily interior and hid- 
 den. For he discloses to us our Lord's motives and 
 plans, the dependence of His Human Heart upon His 
 Father, and His craving love of men. He had lain 
 upon the Lord's Breast and learned heavenly secrets 
 from the very Soul of his Master. Rightly, therefore, 
 his Gospel is called "The History of the Inner Life 
 of Jesus Christ." And through it he would bring 
 home to us the ancient truth that "what we do springs 
 from what we are." 
 
 Finally, the Church to-day seems to be facing a very 
 gloomy future. There are traitors within her and as- 
 sailants without. The last of the Apostles has much 
 comfort for us in this discouraging situation. For, 
 in a passage which the great interpreters attribute to 
 him, as his comment on Church conditions in a.d. 95, 
 he tells us that 'no man was receiving the testimony 
 of Christ' (iii:32). "The whole world," as he de- 
 clares elsewhere, "lieth in the Evil One" (i St. John 
 v: 19). It has been truly said that "the close of the 
 apostolic age was a period of singular darkness and 
 hopelessness." But in spite of the fact that Christians 
 were refusing to receive the Gospel, and that there was 
 even less decency in that Ephesian world than there 
 is in the American world of to-day, the Fourth Gospel 
 is the most hopeful and joyful of all. Let us then, like 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 St. John, be invincible optimists, relying upon Him 
 who said that the gates of Hell should not prevail 
 against His Church. 
 
 %\i Jpit0t dflletine^tia^ in )^tibent 
 
 ^|)e Incarnation i% of dupreme lvalue 
 
 St. John alone among the Evangelists begins his 
 Gospel with a summary of our Lord's Incarnate Life, 
 rather than with His Nativity. Even in the three 
 earlier Gospels, however, and in the Epistles, it is 
 astonishing how little space Christ's Birth occupies, 
 v^^en we consider how lovely and appealing it is. We 
 would have thought that many long chapters and 
 probably whole Epistles would have been devoted to 
 descriptions of the dear God lying in the cave with 
 the cattle, His Hands, which had hung out the Stars, 
 now playing with a little straw. But, in fact, even our 
 Lord Himself never referred explicitly to His Birth, 
 nor would He say that He was born in the City of 
 David even when challenged to do so. And, at the 
 end of the first Christian century, when St. John wrote, 
 it had become true, all the more, that the thing which 
 seemed to Christians to be of supreme importance was 
 not the Divine Baby in the manger, but God Incarnate. 
 The beginning in time of His Human Life was but one 
 supereminently luminouis point in the glorious eternity 
 of His Being. Let us never so lose ourselves in the 
 sweetness and pathos of the Christmas Crib, that we 
 fail to see in Him Who lies there Emmanuel, God 
 with us. 
 
 It is this gift of the eternally preexistent Christ 
 which is the unparalleled proof of Perfect Love. To 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 this sacrifice of God's Own and His All, we owe that 
 certainty of His Providence which can bear us up in 
 our suffering. Once it seemed obvious on the face of 
 the visible order that we men were the favorite crea- 
 tures of God. We supposed that our earth was the 
 center of the solar system. The countless orbs of 
 Heaven were thought to revolve about us and were 
 principally for the welfare of our race. But modern 
 astronomy has revealed that there are four thousand 
 million suns as large as ours, or larger. This world is 
 only an atom of dust on the outskirts of creation. \i 
 it were not that God has sought out our tiny, dark, 
 cold, earth, and taken our nature upon Him forever, 
 we could not be sure of His love at the very times we 
 need Him most. 
 
 But it is equally true that, in our prosperity, the 
 great spiritual uplift which alone can save us from 
 materialism is the life of the God-Man. The passen- 
 ger on one of our Eastern railways sees an allegory 
 of this truth, as arresting as if some modern Jeremiah 
 had placed it there. For, as he speeds along, he meets 
 a procession of huge bill-boards, boasting of all man- 
 ner of things for men's comfort and enjoyment. And 
 there, marching bravely in the midst, as if hoping to 
 redeem and transfigure all the rest, is one bearing upon 
 it in great letters the glorious boast of the Church: 
 "Jesus Christ is God." So must we stand, amid the 
 passing show of all this world's joys, fearlessly pro- 
 claiming Incarnate God as the one only Glory of man's 
 life. 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 %\t JFit0t <il|ut0lia^ in iaiDbent 
 
 6oli X^t Eternal €ibet 
 
 Jesus "came unto His own [home] and His own 
 [people] received Him not." In these few pathetic 
 words, the Beloved Disciple begins his tragedy of Di- 
 vine Love. Indeed, we might almost say that he makes 
 three acts, indicated by the use here and just twice 
 later in His Gospel of the strong, unusual word trans- 
 lated ''received." First, then, he shows us God the 
 Father giving His Only-begotten to His people, and 
 the Jews refusing to receive Him, although He was but 
 claiming admission to His own home. It is a rejection 
 repeated with dull monotony all through the succeed- 
 ing ages. For instance, are there not many clubs and 
 societies in America which blackball a certain Appli- 
 cant without a voice raised in His favor? 
 
 But there came a time when the Jews did not reject 
 Him. Pilate "delivered Him unto them to be crucified 
 and they received Him" (xix: i6). Their hospitality 
 was a halter and a scourge and a cross. Nor can we 
 confine the guilt of that Deicide to one race. It at- 
 taches to the Christian nations as well. How many 
 million Christian hearts among us receive Jesus only 
 to crucify Him! 
 
 Now, what awful reprisals does God intend to take ? 
 In return for our excluding Him even from a place on 
 earth to lay His Head, and then admitting Him to the 
 treatment we mete out to the lowest criminals. He will 
 give Heaven and eternal life to all who will permit 
 Him to save them. He has gone to prepare a place for 
 us, and with this promise: "I will come again, and 
 receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may 
 be also" (xiv: 3). This is the dear revenge of the 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 Eternal Giver, a reception into an immortality of 
 happiness beyond our understanding now, as the re- 
 ward for our making Him the "very Scorn of men and 
 the Outcast of the people." Surely such a revelation 
 of God's incredible mercy fills our Advent with the 
 challenge of Love, even more than with that of Holy 
 Fear. Surely, too, it teaches us what St. John means 
 when he calls us the "children of God." 
 
 W^t <r|)iltirfn of ^oH 
 
 Our dear Leader, St. John, alone among the Evan- 
 gelists, and, except St. Paul, alone among the sacred 
 writers of the Bible, describes God's people as His 
 "children" by a Greek word which expresses actual 
 relationship (i: 12). There is another noun, which is 
 customarily employed for "children," and this means 
 simply "young people." Also, St. John learned his term 
 for Christians from our Lord. Still again, Jesus used 
 it for the first time the night before He suffered, and, 
 apparently, directly after He had celebrated the first 
 Eucharist, and communicated the nucleus of His 
 Church gathered about Him with the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment of His own Humanity (xiii: 33). Thus when 
 our Apostle calls us "God's children," or ''little chil- 
 dren," he is using an expression drawn from our Lord 
 Himself and having the tenderest and most sacred 
 meaning and associations. 
 
 But we will understand this conception of the Apos- 
 tle of Love more clearly, if we trace it from its earliest 
 form in Genesis (vi:2). There first we read of the 
 "sons of God," that is, the better and more faithful 
 
10 SAINT JOHN 
 
 line of Adam's descendants. The thought is that they 
 are made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. i: 
 26). They were meant to walk in close fellowship 
 with their Creator, and to reveal Him, at least in a 
 dim way, to their fellow-men. This is indicated by 
 the fact that the word "image" means really "shadow- 
 image." As a man's shadow is ever by his side, shows 
 the outline of his figure, and, however poorly, repre- 
 sents his person, so the sons of God are to walk hum- 
 bly with Him, and, albeit imperfectly, to manifest a 
 similarity to His Nature. Now, when we reach St. 
 Paul, far along in the progress of revelation, we find 
 that his most prominent idea of sonship toward God 
 is that of adoption, through union with Christ (Eph. 
 i : 5 f . ) . The great Apostle of the Gentiles knew well 
 the power and privileges springing from adoption, for 
 freedom and many immunities and advantages, in the 
 RcHnan Empire, had come to him through his having 
 been adopted by one of its citizens (cp. e.g. Acts xxii: 
 25-29) . But as to the children of the Kingdom of God, 
 the Catholic Church, he considers that every one of 
 them not only gained freedom and many priceless 
 privileges by his adoption in Baptism, but, more than 
 this, became^the "image and glory" of the King (i 
 Cor. xi: 7). It is in St. John, however, that the long 
 process reaches its consummation. The distinctive con- 
 ception of our relationship to God in his writings is 
 that of sonship by actual generation, as well as by crea- 
 tion and by adoption. The Christian is, in Baptism, 
 "born," or literally "begotten," "of God" (i: 13; cp. 
 I St. John iii: 9). 
 
 Now it is the way of us fallen creatures "to walk in 
 a painted image,** and disquiet ourselves foolishly over 
 temporal, material things (Ps. xxxix:6, A. V. Old 
 
SAINT JOHN 11 
 
 Marg.)- C^^r self-love daubs us over with the paint 
 of false pride. Shall we not rather be proud of our 
 caste as the children of God, and seek, with genuine 
 self-love, to reveal always the image and likeness of 
 Him by Whom we have been begotten? 
 
 W^t iftt^t &aturtia^ in i^dbent 
 
 ^race anH ^rut|) ^|)rouct) 3[^0ui3 
 
 The Beloved Apostle loved to show that all good 
 things spring from Jesus as their Source. For this 
 purpo'se he has been at pains to include in his Gospel 
 those teachings of his Master in which He declared 
 Himself to be the Food, the Light and the Life of men, 
 and the Fountain-head of ''living water" (vi: 48; viii: 
 12; xiv: 6; iv: 10). For life, light, food and water 
 are the four necessities for man's physical welfare, and 
 the spiritual essentials which our Lord signified by 
 these symbols are all our souls need and are all found 
 in Him. St. John sumimarizes the fuller teaching, 
 however, in his Prologue, saying simply that "the 
 Word made Flesh, is full of grace and truth," where 
 the equivalent of spiritual life, food and drink is grace, 
 and the synonym of the Divine light is truth. 
 
 But if the truth in Christ is light, nothing can be 
 hidden from it. Every evasion, every disloyalty, every 
 hidden sin of our souls, lies exposed in the radiance 
 of Jesois' gaze. Consequently, we must be always re- 
 ceiving more sanctifying grace through the sacraments 
 to cleanse and quicken us, and inflame us with love. 
 As St. Bernard says : "Each of these is necessary to 
 me: truth, that I may not be able to hide myself, grace 
 that I may not desire to." There is no stint in the sup- 
 
12 SAINT JOHN 
 
 ply of grace. "Of His fulness have all we received/* 
 But there is a limit which we establish in ourselves if 
 we do not use the measure bestowed upon us. The 
 Divine rule is to give * 'grace for grace," that is, to 
 give more when that already infused into our souls 
 has wrought piety and good works. Except for the 
 obstruction of our own self-will, therefore, we would 
 all be full of grace drawn from our Lord's Soul ; as 
 the rivers are filled from the vast ocean, through those 
 sacraments of nature, the clouds. 
 
 Continuing, St. John points to another motive for 
 being avaricious of grace. "The Law was given 
 through Moses," he says, "but grace and truth came 
 through Jesus Christ." His carefully chosen phrase 
 ''through Moses" indicates that the Ten Command- 
 ments came ''from God." He gave them, moreover, in 
 a way to commend them to the deepest reverence of 
 His people. They were written by the Holy Ghost,, 
 the "Finger of God," and delivered to His great saint 
 by the ministry of the holy angels (Ex. xxxi: i8; St. 
 Luke xi: 20, cp. St. Matt, xii: 28; Gal. iii : 19). Nor 
 are they less sacred, but rather more, to the Catholic 
 Church than to God's ancient people. We are, indeed, 
 more responsible for keeping them, because, for one 
 thing, we are entrusted with a far more complete reve- 
 lation of the truth. Accordingly, Jesus Christ, Him- 
 self, full of grace, must come to us Christians in the 
 Blessed Sacrament, and endue us with power to keep 
 His holy Law. 
 
SAINT JOHN 13 
 
 S^c •rcont fflMfffe in aubenU Read St. John i : 15-36 
 
 W^t &etonti &untia^ in i^Ltibent 
 
 Si^e temptation of %U 3[ot)n 1Ba))ti0t 
 
 At the same time that our Lord was enduring His 
 forty days of fasting- and trial on the mount, His great 
 Forerunner was being tempted in the valley of the Jor- 
 dan. It was a very real strain upon the Baptist's will 
 when the Sanhedrists came to him offering to accept 
 him as Elijah or as that greatest of the prophets fore- 
 told by Moses, or even as the Christ. For, in a spirit- 
 ual sense he was Elijah. Had not the angel prophesied 
 of him : '*He shall go before [Christ] in the spirit and 
 power of Elias?" (St. Luke i: 17.) And indeed we 
 have the statement of Jesus Himself that in the holy 
 Baptist was fulfilled the prophecy that Elijah would 
 herald Him (St. Matt, xvii : 10-13). He was the last 
 and greatest of the Old Testament prophets (St. Luke 
 vii:26f.). He may have known also that he had so 
 deeply stirred the religious and patriotic sentiments of 
 his people that there was a wide disposition to accept 
 him as the Messiah (St. Luke iii:i5). Besides, the 
 committee of the Sanhedrin paid him a very great 
 honor in waiting upon him, and at the same time made 
 a concession to his claims; for it was written in their 
 traditions that when Elijah came he would first of all 
 present himself before the Sanhedrin to obtain his 
 credentials. But St. John had entirely ignored them, 
 and, after waiting for a time, they had humbled them- 
 selves and had come to seek him. It might well have 
 seemed to the Baptist that it was only fair to meet 
 them half way. Finally, there were many ways in 
 which he could have used the interview thus sought 
 
14 SAINT JOHN 
 
 by the haughty leaders of the Jews to increase his al- 
 ready great popularity and prestige. 
 
 Now, we must observe that he utterly refused to 
 dally with this multiform temptation, and his answers 
 to the Pharisees became increasingly brief as they 
 pressed him to talk about himself. "Who art thou?" 
 "I am not the Christ." ''Art thou Elijah?" "I am 
 not!" "Art thou that prophet?" "No!" In the Greek, 
 it is as if he were biting off his sentences. The third 
 answer, in two letters, has a particularly final sound. 
 The questioners weakened, as the Baptist thus rebuffed 
 them. They began the interview proudly and boldly 
 enough: ''Thou — who art thou?" is the literal force 
 of their demand. But their lofty tone subsided into a 
 cringing one before St. John's determined rejection of 
 his temptation. "Who art thou ?" they begged appeal- 
 ingly. "We only venture to ask so that we can give 
 an answer to those who sent us." So it is with us. 
 If we resolutely refuse to entertain even the first sug- 
 gestion of the Devil, he will cower, and presently flee 
 before us. 
 
 Our Evangelist twice in one doubly emphatic state- 
 ment says of his Namesake, that the Baptist "con- 
 fessed." In the Fouirth Gospel this word always indi- 
 cates a victory of faith and love. Our inspiration to 
 resist self-love, like his, is the conquest we make of 
 Jesus' enemies, and the glory we give thereby to His 
 great name of Saviour. . 
 
 %\t feeconti a^onna^ (n ^anbent 
 
 6t« 3[o|)n ^apti0t X\>t %t\xt (Retain of C^riist 
 
 The holy Baptist had the strongest possible motives 
 for concluding that Jesus was the Qirist long before 
 
SAINT JOHN 15 
 
 the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him betokened 
 His Messianic office infallibly. Evidently, he had, be- 
 fore the baptism of Jesus, known Him as superemi- 
 nently holy, for when his divine Cousin approached 
 him at the Jordan, he would have prevented Him from 
 receiving the laver of repentance, saying: "I have 
 need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me ?" 
 (St. Matt, iii: 13 ff.). And this plain admission of 
 his inferiority to the Boy and Man with Whom he had 
 grown up is clear testimony to his great reverence for 
 the sanctity of our Lord. Indeed, it is all but an asser- 
 tion of His INIessiahship, for only the Lord Himself 
 ought to baptize His Forerunner. Yet he would not 
 proclaim Jesus as Christ, until the appointed sign had 
 been given. Until it was revealed to him, he ''knew 
 not" Jesus as the Messiah. However appropriate he 
 saw that it would be for God to reveal Jesus as the 
 Saviour, he would not anticipate the revelation of Him. 
 In this way, he teaches us that we must be guided by 
 the actual revelation of the Allwise God, in the Bible 
 as interpreted by Holy Church. It would be foolish 
 and irreverent for us to follow our own prior assump- 
 tion that this or that would be appropriate for God, 
 and therefore must be the way in which he deals with 
 our souls. 
 
 Again, St. John was not influenced in the least by 
 the popular speculations of what the Messiah would be 
 like, nor by desire for the applause of the Jews. They 
 were looking for a great Warrior who would lead them 
 to victory against the Romans. If he had been a false 
 prophet, he would have declared that he had beheld a 
 gigantic eagle descending upon Jesus' head to mark 
 Him out as one before Whom the eagles of the Romans 
 would go down to defeat. But, truthfully, he pro- 
 
16 SAINT JOHN 
 
 claimed that he had been shown, not an eagle on 
 Messiah's helm, but a Dove abiding in His Heart. 
 The revelation was in fact, not of a great conqueror 
 who should lead the Jews to victory against the hated 
 invaders, but of One about Whom there was to be *'a 
 brooding peace, a lowly gentleness, a still small voice." 
 In our day, also, there are plausible and often attrac- 
 tive descriptions of imaginary Christs, but our Lord is 
 He Who was revealed in the Gospels. 
 
 Finally, the holy Forerunner would not permit his 
 temperament and prejudices to make him less recep- 
 tive of revealed truth. His natural disposition was 
 severe, his whole training had been sternly ascetical, 
 and his indignation against the wickedness and hypoc- 
 risy of the Jews was great. He had expected our 
 Lord to come with a flail to separate the wheat of His 
 own disciples from the chaff of the unrepentant, and 
 with unquenchable fire wherewith immediately to burn 
 the chaff (St. Matt, iii: 12). Then appeared the lowly 
 Saviour taking His place with sinners in the baptism 
 of repentance. Instead of the Mighty One (St. Luke 
 iii: 16), the stern Judge executing instant vengeance 
 upon His enemies, ''behold the Lamb of God!" Yet 
 St. John immediately accepted and proclaimed the 
 Messiah as He was. Thus he teaches us a third great 
 lesson, that we can surmount the limitations of tem- 
 perament and defy inherited or acquired prejudice, 
 which would exclude from our hearts the Christ of the 
 Gospels and His teaching. Let us resolve that we 
 will ever hold fast to Him Who comes to us down the 
 ages of Catholic tradition. 
 
 ^ 
 
SAINT JOHN 17 
 
 %ie &ttonh ^utfihav in )Sltibent 
 
 ^U 3[o|)n Bapttjst ajs t^e S;pe of tl^r ^rue I^cteet 
 
 St. John completely lost himself in his office as our 
 Lord's Forerunner. He was simply the "voice of one 
 crying in the wilderness." In the presence of Christ 
 his separate entity was lost. A voice has no existence 
 until it is uttered and then at once it disappears on the 
 air and leaves no record of itself. Yet it was by no 
 means the individuality of the Baptist which was thus 
 suppressed, but his natural individualism. For evi- 
 dently his personality continued definite and strong. 
 If we examine his statements, we find the "I's" very 
 frequent, and in the Greek these are particularly em- 
 phatic, because they are expressed by the pro- 
 noun, instead of being implied in the form of the verb, 
 as is usual where there is no special emphasis on the 
 personality of the speaker. But his self-consciousness 
 had given way to the consciousness of his ministry as 
 our Lord's herald. And the more the Christian priest, 
 like St. John, loses himself in his sacred office for the 
 High-priest, the greater will be the holiness and power 
 of his personality and the less will be his individualism. 
 Let the lay-people help him to this self-consecration 
 by seeking from him a Christ-like cure of their souls, 
 rather than natural attractiveness or brilliance. 
 
 As a preacher, St. John was exactly suited to his peo- 
 ple's wants, in the sense that he was an ascetic, a priest, 
 and a prophet. For in this way he was the appropriate 
 minister for the three principal sections of the Jews, 
 the strict Pharisees, the hierarchy and the main body 
 of the lay-people, and that small but all-important 
 group who were eagerly expecting the advent of a 
 true prophet after the centuries of silence following 
 
18 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Malachi. Consequently, he inspired his hearers pro- 
 foundly so that "all men mused in their hearts of 
 John, whether he were the Christ or no" (St. Luke 
 iii': 15). Yet he never courted popularity nor yielded 
 to it when it came unsought. So completely was he 
 absorbed in preaching Christ, that naught remained of 
 him except a voice, but that voice framed the Word 
 of God. 
 
 In his character, he united the qualities of the seer 
 and the practical servant of Christ. He performed 
 his day's duty to the least detail, while his eyes were 
 straining for the vision of Christ. Moreover, while 
 he was abjectly humble, too mean in his own eyes, 
 indeed, to perform a slave's office for Christ, yet he 
 was fearless before Herod's court, when his own life 
 was at stake. Now, "As with the people, so with the 
 priest" (Isa. xxiv: 2), H our congregations want 
 priests and prophets like St. John Baptist, they must 
 produce them. Only holy parents can give the Church 
 holy ministers. When there are more St. Elisabeths, 
 there will be more seers and martyrs. 
 
 W^z &econli ^etine^tia^ in i^ltibent 
 
 $t« 3[o|)n ^aptii0t'0 Sermon 
 
 The burden of the proclamation made by our Lord's 
 herald was, "Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven 
 is at hand." Often, however, he expressed this same 
 thought in the words of Isaiah (xl : 3), "Make straight 
 the way of the Lord," or, more fully, "Prepare ye the 
 way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every val- 
 ley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be 
 brought low ; and the crooked shall be made straight, 
 
SAINT JOHN 19 
 
 and the rough ways shall be made smooth." Now, the 
 meaning of; Isaiah's cry, thus adopted by the Baptist, 
 was that Jehovah was about to return from Babylon, 
 leading his people home to the Promised Land, and 
 He demanded a new, straight road to be constructed 
 for him through the desert. There was a roundabout, 
 conventional, wide highway from Babylon to Jerusa- 
 lem, but the Lord would lead his people straight for- 
 ward, by the shortest way, although this involved level- 
 ing valleys, straightening out curves, and smoothing 
 down innumerable rough places. The meaning was, 
 of course, that God's people must make for him a 
 straight and speedy way into their heart of hearts. 
 
 There were certain principles of gentleness and ap- 
 pealing kindness which Christ's great Servant followed 
 in this sermon of his. In the first place, he assumed 
 that there was some knowledge of his subject already 
 in his hearers' minds. He does not think it necessary 
 to explain the ancient prophecy he uses. The people 
 are familiar with its meaning and the way in which 
 it was fulfilled by the return of the exiles. Far oftener 
 than we usually suppose, this same method of teaching 
 was used by those earliest preachers of Christ. The 
 Apostle of Love customarily takes a tone with those 
 to whom he writes, as if he would say, '1 tell you this, 
 but of course you already know it in substance." Is 
 not our own method very different from this, very 
 often? Are not we obnoxious to the charge of Freder- 
 ick Dennison Maurice that we act as if we could 
 teach people by screaming the truth in their ears ? We 
 will be more successful in converting unbelievers, if 
 we gladly recognize all that is true in the position they 
 are already holding. 
 
20 SAINT JOHN 
 
 In two other ways, St. John gained sympathy and 
 receptivity in his congregation, (a) He did not ignore 
 the difficulties which beset the course he was advocat- 
 ing. It was a hard matter to make a straight highway 
 through a wilderness. It was even more difficult to 
 smooth a path for Jesus Christ over the mountainous 
 obstacles o-f human pride and selfishness, (b) He 
 sounded, in his sermon, a great note of joy and tri- 
 umph. Jehovah was leading His people home, in the 
 thought of Isaiah, and St. John pictured Him entering 
 into His creature's heart and bringing with Him the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. . 
 
 flDur lLorli*0 I^elp to %>X, 3[o|)n 'Baptist 
 
 The great Herald of Christ knew, it seems, that he 
 -would never live to see the triumph of his Master. 
 His humble saying, "I am not worthy to stoop down 
 and unloose the latchet of His sandals and then carry 
 them away," as, we may collect from the Gospels, is 
 his complete metaphor, probably involves a prophecy 
 of his own speedy death. For he refers to the slave's 
 duty to his master at the end oi a journey, or when 
 his lord has returned from the battlefield. It was then 
 at the conclusion of the dusty, laborious march, when 
 the strife had ended in victory, that the master sat 
 down and received from his servant the removal of his 
 sandals and the refreshing bath for his feet. And St. 
 John foresaw that he must be content with the honor 
 of announcing the beginning of our Lord's long, ardu- 
 ous "way." Others would unloose His sandals, when 
 the journey's end had come, and He had triumphed in 
 the mortal strife of His Passion. 
 
SAINT JOHN 21 
 
 But if the Baptist must look forward to his own 
 martyrdom, and see it, too, directly before him, he had 
 the help of his Lord's example to strengthen and en- 
 courage him. For he was allowed to understand what 
 seems to have been hidden from the comprehension of 
 the Twelve until the very end of Jesus' ministry, that 
 He, being the Lamb of God, must be sacrificed to "take 
 away the sins of the world." Perhaps the sacrificial 
 lambs for the Passover were being driven past St. 
 John at the time, and, seeing them without spot or 
 blemish, in their innocence, going on to die for the 
 sins of the people, he was the better able to foresee 
 the martyrdom of the Son of God, and its blessed 
 sacrificial value for the sons of men. Certainly he 
 understood, at least dimly, that God had come into the 
 world to die for him, and so he gained great strength 
 and courage to die for God. 
 
 For John was fearless throughout his rugged, 
 stormy career, and that while he stood alone. Most 
 men can pluck up courage when they stand abreast of 
 their fellows. But the Baptist grew up as a solitary 
 of the desert. He came forth to preach alone, he was 
 imprisoned in solitary confinement, and he died there 
 m the gloomy prison of Machaerus at midnight, alone. 
 Surely, the secret of his unflinching bravery was his 
 knowledge that in his loneliness also, he was Hke the 
 Lamb of God. His Cousin must tread the winepress 
 alone, and always, in His Heart of Hearts, bear the 
 isolation of One supremely great. Thus St. John 
 would be certain, during the long weeks of his confine- 
 ment, that God the Father must have some wise and 
 beneficent purpose in his loneliness, inasmuch as He 
 was leading His very own Son by solitary ways. 
 
22 SAINT JOHN 
 
 delf'Henial foe J^tsnx%* Sa&e 
 
 Heroic as the holy Baptist was, his words, perhaps 
 involuntarily, betray the effort which his self-denial 
 cost him. Thus in the Greek of his saying, "This is 
 He of Whom I said, after me cometh a Man Which 
 is preferred before me, for He was before me," the 
 words "of Whom I said" mean "in Whose behalf I 
 said." And wherever this expression occurs in the 
 Fourth Gospel it implies that a sacrifice has been made 
 in behalf of another. It was not easy for St. John to 
 renounce his great popularity, and declare his utter 
 inferiority to Jesus. But he had the inspiration of 
 knowing that the One for Whom he thus denied him- 
 self was the eternal Son of God. ''For He was before 
 me," he says of Christ, although our Lord was born 
 six months later than His Forerunner. St. John has 
 in view the eternal preexistence of the Lord, and he is 
 content to give up all in behalf of such a Master. 
 
 Once more, we observe that it had been the plan of 
 the Baptist, from the beginning, so to act that men 
 would turn away from him to follow Christ. "That 
 He should be made manifest to Israel," he declared, 
 "Therefore am I come baptizing." As his baptism of 
 repentance cleansed from men's spiritual eyes the 
 blinding blear of sin, they would recognize Christ as 
 their Saviour. And inevitably, his followers would in 
 this way desert him. It was due to no sudden burst 
 of generous love for Christ, therefore, but to a pur- 
 pose formed perhaps far back in his wilderness life, 
 when first he knew that he was destined to go before 
 the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, that he now 
 took the very course which would plunge him from 
 
SAINT JOHN 23 
 
 his lofty pinnacle of popularity into the depths of ob- 
 scurity and dereliction. 
 
 Moreover, we see from the sacred narrative how 
 every detail of his ministry was planned accordmg to 
 his life purpose of self-denial. When the Pharisees 
 challenged him to explain why he was baptizing, if he 
 was not the Qirist, or Elijah or the greatest of the 
 prophets, he answered that he was baptizing with 
 water, but there was One for Whom he was simply 
 herald. Who would baptize with the Holy Ghost. They 
 had attacked him on the score that only the Messiah, 
 or one of the two greatest prophets, ought to treat the 
 chosen people as unclean. But his answer meant that 
 he was a nobody and that his baptism in water ought 
 to be allowed to him because it was merely prefatory 
 to the real laver in the Blessed Spirit. And our Evan- 
 gelist is careful to record that St. John thus renounced 
 all claim to eminence "in Bethabara beyond Jordan, 
 where [he] was baptizing." Upon which St. Chrysos- 
 tom remarks : "It was not in a house, nor in a comer, 
 nor in the desert, but in the midst of the multitude, that 
 St. John made that admirable confession." Let us 
 learn from this great saint how complete may be our 
 conquest of self-love for the sake of our dear Saviour. 
 
 W^t feeconH featttrtia? in lanbent 
 
 «n 3[o|)n lBajitwt'0 ^fatfjincs on l^ocation 
 
 The holy Forerunner of Christ revealed to us by his 
 example the gre principles of that fundamental thing 
 in each of our liv -vocation. For each of us is called 
 to be in some w? 'orerunner of our Lord, whether 
 
 it be in the wo' ^e Religious Life, whether it 
 
24 SAINT JOHN 
 
 is the Divine purpose that we become priests or that 
 we do our part for the training of others for the 
 Sacred Ministry. We read that St. John ''stood" 
 watching* for Christ. He was not engaged in preach- 
 ing and baptizing. Indeed this was probably the Sab- 
 bath when he was enjoined to rest, even from his 
 spiritual labors. No. He stands on the alert to see 
 Christ again, full of eager love for his Master and zeal 
 for His success. Yet, when he once more beheld the 
 Lamb of God, he announced Christ indefinitely, speak- 
 ing in an impersonal way, into the air, as if address- 
 ing no one in particular. Evidently, his thought was 
 that he must preach vocation, but must leave it to come 
 home to the hearts of his disciples by the interior guid- 
 ance of the Holy Ghost. And we also should expect 
 these two complementary evidences of vocation, in our 
 own case, the call of the Church, sounding in our ears, 
 and the impulse of God moving us to respond, in our 
 hearts. 
 
 In these few verses before us (i:35 f.), we have the 
 description of the beginning of the Catholic Church, 
 which is perhaps the most stupendous fact in the his- 
 tory of mankind, for it is the institution of the King- 
 dom of Heaven on earth. But was this divine economy 
 of grace initiated by a mighty miracle wrought before 
 the eyes of all the world ? Was it not rather begun by 
 the practical application which two obscure men, in 
 one tiny corner of the earth, gave to a merely general 
 suggestion falling from the lips of a preacher of 
 Christ? What issues of incalculable importance, per- 
 haps in the far distant future, may depend upon my 
 obedience to even an intimation from God ! 
 
 It is remarkable, also, that Christ was at this mo- 
 ment of destiny walking away from those whom He 
 
SAINT JOHN 25 
 
 had eternally purposed should be the first disciples. 
 The day before, He had "come unto" them, but now 
 He is making "as though He would have gone" away. 
 This was to teach them, and us, that in the develop- 
 ment of vocation, there are, first, the approach and 
 appeal and attraction of the Lamb of God; and then 
 presently what seems to be His flight from us. We 
 must not. at any such time of spiritual desolation, be 
 too much cast down, but, following these first disci- 
 ples, pursue Him with faith and love, until we once 
 more gain His tender fellowship. 
 
 S|)C C|)irli aHeefe in aubrnt* Read St. John i : 37-44 
 
 W^t apoitir of ilobe 
 
 In the passage for our study during this week, we 
 for the first time come upon our dear Apostle of Love. 
 There is truth in the saying that the three great Theo- 
 logical Virtues are exemplified in the three greatest 
 Apostles : faith in St. Paul, hope in St. Peter, and love 
 in St. John. The Beloved Disciple, therefore, is dis- 
 tinguished for the greatest of all spiritual qualities, 
 and one which made him supereminently like Christ. 
 For, our Lord had in His Godhead neither faith nor 
 hope, since God knows all things and therefore be- 
 lieves nothing, while He also possesses all things and 
 therefore hopes for nothing. Moreover, in His Hu^- 
 man Mind, Christ probably saw God, throughout His 
 life on earth, and in the Beatific Vision knew with 
 absolute certainty the truth, in which we believe with- 
 out seeing; and He possessed that fruition of our 
 Christian life for which we only hope. Accordingly, 
 
26 SAINT JOHN 
 
 it was appropriate that the Apostle who was remark- 
 able above all others for Divine Charity should be espe- 
 cially marked out by Jesus as the disciple whom He 
 loved, since He was Perfect Charity. 
 
 From this fact, that St. John's love was like that of 
 Christ, it follows that it was no sentimental, girlish 
 characteristic, but was intensely practical. Maurice was 
 stirred almost to indignation by the feminine smooth- 
 ness of St. John's face in Leonardo da Vinci's fresco 
 of the Last Supper. ''Was not St. John the Apostle 
 of Love?" he exclaimed, 'Then in such a world of 
 hate and misery as this, do you not think he must have 
 had more furrows in his cheek than all the other 
 apostles?" And Kingsley, who records this episode, 
 knew that his friend "spoke true" of St. John. His 
 writings are full of proofs that in his view Christian- 
 ity amounts to nothing, unless our daily life is instinct 
 with it. We are to ''do righteousness," and ''do the 
 Truth," and "to have Eternal Life" now and here. 
 
 We shall often have occasion to notice how prac- 
 tically our saintly conductor applied the law of love 
 in his own life. But we may observe here, that it led 
 him to be very appreciative of his fellow disciples and 
 of their positive beauties of character. It is to him we 
 owe those portrayals of Andrew, Philip, Nathanael and 
 Thomas, which reveal them to have been our own dear 
 brethren as well as our saintly exemplars in the spir- 
 itual life. Except for his love these would be but 
 names to us. Let us learn from him, as the first les- 
 son of love for our neighbor, that, in the circle of our 
 own home and of our group of friends, we must love 
 best to seek out and find what is gracious and lovely, 
 and to keep these characteristics before our minds. 
 
SAINT JOHN 27 
 
 W^z (^umilit? of %X, 3fo|jn tl)e (Kfaancrlwt 
 
 Love made our Apostle modest, and that according 
 to both its meanings, for he was both humble and 
 pure. He is too modest ever to speak of himself by 
 name, and even the title of honor by which he refers 
 to himself, is one in which we all share with him. 
 He might well have boasted about the loyalty and 
 devotion of his brother, St. James, and of his mother, 
 Salome, but he so shrank from attracting attention to 
 himself, that he leaves his brother entirely out of ac- 
 count, and mentions Salome's watch before the Cross 
 only in a very obscure way, referring to her by the 
 phrase ''His mother's sister" (xix: 25). In the same 
 way, and constrained all the more by modesty, he no- 
 where suggests that he was the nephew of the Blessed 
 Virgin, and cousin of the Incarnate God. 
 
 Tliis same kind of humility comes out prominently 
 in certain facts about his sacred literary work. Al- 
 though it must have seemed to be indicated by his 
 knowledge of our Lord's life on earth, by the further 
 revelations about Jesus which came to him from the 
 Blessed Mother after he took her to his own home 
 (xix: 2y), and by his apostolic authority, that he 
 should write a Gk)Spel, he consented to do this only at 
 the request of the faithful, according to the ancient 
 tradition. 
 
 Frequently, in his Epistles, he puts himself on a level 
 with his ''Httle children." For example, when he must 
 warn them against that very unreality in their Chris- 
 tian life which was so far removed from himself, he 
 gently makes the exhortation conditional, and delicate- 
 ly and humbly includes himself. '7/ we say that we 
 
28 SAINT JOHN 
 
 have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness we lie 
 and do not the truth." Thus lovingly with his "if's" 
 and his "we's" he softens what otherwise would be a 
 stern rebuke. May Love teach us humility like his, 
 and give us a share in his modesty in regard to our 
 family and our performances, and in his gentleness 
 and lowliness in correcting those under our charge. 
 
 W^z %\\ty\ ^ue0Da^ in Sltibent 
 
 dt 3[o^n tbe (ZBbanQeliiBt a ^otiel of dflf'conisccration 
 
 For the sake of Jesus, St. John was from his youth 
 devoted to the celibate life. And out of his virgin 
 estate grew, for one thing, his appreciation of holy 
 women. One notices how frequently he describes, with 
 the utmost sympathy, some episode in which the chief 
 human actor is a woman, and invariably the incident 
 redounds to her praise. Again, it seems to have been 
 natural to him, since he had no children of his own, 
 to give his paternal instinct and love expression by 
 adopting the people of his entire archdiocese as his 
 "little ones." 
 
 Our leader is, moreover, a model of religious pov- 
 erty. While he was a young man of some wealth, of 
 the family of David, and of brilliant prospects in view 
 of his intellectual endowment and his favor in the 
 high-priests' palace, he gave up everything to follow 
 Christ. Indeed if it had been possible he would, ap- 
 parently, have given up his very name, for in his Gos- 
 pel he resigns it entirely to St. John Baptist, whom he 
 always calls by the simple title "John," as if there were 
 no other John among our Lord's disciples. 
 
 He was obedient not simply to the instructions of 
 his first superior, the holy Baptist, but to a mere inti- 
 
SAINT JOHN 29 
 
 mation from him, as we have seen. One siispects that 
 he took the initiative in following our Lord, and that 
 St. Andrew was guided by him. But whether or not 
 this was true, the debt which the world owes to his 
 generous obedience is incalculable, for with these two 
 first disciples the Christian Church began. The time 
 was early spring, and probably the equinox, as the 
 ancient tradition asserts. In our day, an earthly mon- 
 arch began his drive with the vast hosts of his armies 
 at the vernal equinox. How great is the contrast be- 
 tween the millions of soldiers and the roar of uncount- 
 ed guns of the one king, and the two Galilean fishermen 
 of the Other! Yet the religious obedience of these 
 two countrymen to the will of the God-Man accom- 
 phshed that which the gigantic forces of the earthly 
 king failed to do— it initiated the conquest of the whole 
 world for their Master. 
 
 «!♦ 3[oI)n X^t Cbancelwt'g Kelistous Jgpirit 
 
 Our beloved Teacher was always full of gladness 
 over the choice he made at his first meeting with 
 Christ. Sixty-five years afterwards, when he wrote 
 his Gospel, that cry of the Baptist, ''After me cometh 
 One Who is preferred before me," rang sweet and 
 clear in his heart. Three times he mentions it (i: 15, 
 27, 30), in the course of sixteen verses. These words 
 contain a main part of the instruction which soon sent 
 him after Christ, and accordingly he remembers them 
 with deep gratitude, because they brought him the 
 supreme happiness of his life. 
 
 Evidently, he began to live when first he gained 
 comradeship with Jesus. All his life, he recollected 
 
30 SAINT JOHN 
 
 that it was "about the tenth hour," when he first went 
 to abide with his Saviour. 
 
 He was always ready and willing to do more than 
 was required of him. Indeed, it was because he was 
 generous, rather than merely legal, in his religious 
 spirit, that he had the opportunity of becoming one of 
 the first disciples. For this was the Sabbath day, it 
 seems, when his rule allowed rest, and when the re- 
 mainder of the Baptist's little community were using 
 the dispensation. Only St. John and St. Andrew were 
 with their good director, and according to their more 
 generous eagerness to serve, it was done unto them. 
 For Christ also there was no Sabbath rest, when these 
 two hearts were waiting to pledge Him their allegi- 
 ance; and to them first of all the world, He revealed 
 Himself as the Messiah. Let us be sure that whenever 
 we will we can please our Lord by giving Him the 
 offering of a free heart, and that He will by no means 
 let Himself be outdone in generosity, but will set His 
 Heart upon the disciple who so rejoices in his religion 
 that he serves when he might lawfully rest. 
 
 $t» IMn t|)e ®ban0eli0t'0 Debelopment 
 
 Even the Beloved Disciple had faults. He showed 
 zeal that was not according to knowledge, nor suffici- 
 ently dominated by love, when he would have called 
 down fire upon the inhospitable Samaritan village. He 
 must learn that the fire our Saviour meant to send 
 upon those poor foolish hearts was from a Spirit quite 
 different from that which was misleading the young 
 Apostle (cp. St. Luke ix: 54 flf., and Acts viii: 5-17). 
 
SAINT JOHN 31 
 
 Also, he was ambitious to occupy a jx>sition at the right 
 Hand or the Left of Christ in His earthly Kingdom. 
 For the ineffable tenderness of Divine Charity was still 
 beyond his ken. He had not seen the Cross, the 
 Throne of Love, upon which Christ was to reign, with 
 the repentant thief, the soul in dire need of Him, on 
 His right Hand, and on His Left, one over whom His 
 Heart broke in vain. 
 
 Apart from his sins, the youngest of the Apostles 
 must have displayed some natural tendencies which 
 needed training and sanctification. For one thing, he 
 seems to have been very dramatic. It is true that all 
 our evidence is drawn from his Gospel, and there this 
 temperamental peculiarity is found consecrated to the 
 sacred purpose of portraying the Tragedy of Divine 
 Love. We notice the ^'telling brevity and abruptness" 
 of such sentences as "It was night" ; "Then saith He 
 unto them, I am"; "Now Barabbas was a robber." 
 Akin to this characteristic is his love of contrasts, ex- 
 emplified in his hanging side by side his portraits of 
 incredulous Nicodemus, the Sanhedrist of Jerusalem, 
 and the believing Samaritaness, a heretic of a degraded 
 country village. We may well suppose that such 
 qualities of style as these, which the aged Apostle has 
 completely at his command, and uses for the enrich- 
 ment of his Gospel, indicate that, at his conversion, 
 he might easily have become the victim of a tempera- 
 ment. But under the guidance of his Master's Spirit 
 he learned to force these natural characteristics into 
 Christ's service. 
 
 It is profoundly significant that St. John nowhere 
 calls himself the "disciple whom Jesus loved," until 
 his description of the evening before Calvary. Evi- 
 dently it had required three years of fellowship with 
 
32 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Incarnate God to develop him into a soul upon which 
 Jesus could look with that special regard. 
 
 Come vnH %>tt 
 
 The idea with which St. John and St. Andrew ap- 
 proached our Lord was' that He was one of the rabbis, 
 for in fact He seems to have worn clothing like theirs. 
 No doubt, they thought, He is traveling, and we will 
 discover His permanent abiding place, so that later we 
 can visit Him and hear His teaching. ''Rabbi," they 
 said, "Where dwellest Thou?" But Christ's love was 
 far too eager to brook a delay, "Come at once," is the 
 forceful meaning of His words, "and you shall see." 
 It is always timely to seek our Lord. Often and over 
 He said that "His time had not yet come," but this was 
 never in reference to the approach of a human soul for 
 spiritual aid. It was never inopportune to see such a 
 one no matter how inconveniently the interview in- 
 truded upon His retirement. 
 
 The phrase with which Jesus thus welcomed His 
 first disciples seems to have had a really hackneyed 
 rabbinical use. It was the new content with which 
 He filled it, which made it so gracious and so appeal- 
 ing. The rabbis would select some hard point in the 
 Law, and, after displaying the apparently insoluble 
 difficulty of the problem, would then invite their dis- 
 ciples to hear their subtle elucidation, saying, "Come 
 and see." Theirs was a religion which centered around 
 the Book of the Law, but His disciples must find in 
 Him the very Heart of their piety. 
 
 For the Kingdom of Heaven in the world began 
 with the introduction to the King of these two first 
 
SAINT JOHN 33 
 
 citizens. In this it is perfectly different, not only from 
 the Jewish Church, but from every human institution. 
 What would a newly-arrived immigrant think, if he 
 were told that his naturalization would involve his be- 
 coming an intimate friend of our President! But in 
 the State of Salvation it is of the essence of our citizen- 
 ship that each subject should come to know his Lord 
 personally. Aliens may know about Him, but we 
 know Him and by faith see Him (xiv: 19). 
 
 3[e!SU)S 9mon0 X\)t Son? of 6@en 
 
 These first disciples of our Blessed Lord were very 
 different from one another. St. Peter was eager and 
 impetuous, while St. Philip was slow and cautious and 
 disposed to demand sensible evidence before forming 
 a conclusion. St. Andrew was the very type of the 
 active missionary ; St. Nathanael displays the qualities 
 of the contemplative. Yet over all these hearts our 
 Lord established His dominion. It was as if He would, 
 from the beginning, disprove that modern excuse for 
 unbelief, the assertion that there are temperaments to 
 which He cannot appeal. 
 
 His methods of attracting them, moreover, were 
 remarkably varied. St. John and St. Andrew were 
 drawn to Him by the life and preaching of a holy 
 priest, St. John Baptist. St. Peter was called by his 
 own brother, and we may observe in passing that it is 
 not always easy for one to be evangelized by a relative. 
 Nathanael, finally, was brought to his Lord by a 
 friend. Jesus has, in truth, as many methods of gain- 
 ing human hearts as there are different individuals in 
 the world' — and no two people are alike. 
 
34 SAIN7 JOHN 
 
 Once more, let us notice that our Lord had a special 
 way of treating each new follower. His first words to 
 St. John and St. Andrew were: "What seek ye?" 
 And thus He made them examine their own motives in 
 coming- to Him. But He, Himself, searched the hearts 
 of St. Peter and St. Nathanael. Furthermore,- He im- 
 plied that He disapproved of the natural man He saw 
 in St. Peter, but promised him that Simon, son of 
 Jonah, should, for all his instability, become Cephas, a 
 stone hewn out of the side of the Rock of Ages. On 
 the other hand. He approved of the guilelessness He 
 found in St. Nathanael and promised him the vision 
 of his Lord's enthronement among the holy angels 
 (i: 51). It muist have required supreme trust in Him 
 to keep them content, from the first, with such varied 
 treatment as this ; and cannot we, like them, confide in 
 the infinite love of our Saviour to deal with each of 
 us as is best for him? . 
 
 ^^e ipourtl^ 3KMeefe in anbent* Read St. John i : 45-51 
 
 W^t jFouttS &untia^ in jatitent 
 
 'Bible dtuDp anD ^eDitation 
 
 The few rapid strokes by which St. John portrays 
 for us St. Nathanael, reveal that he was particularly 
 notable for a habit of reading and dwelling upon the 
 Old' Testament prophecies of the Messiah. His inti- 
 mate friend could describe Christ to him sufficiently 
 as He "of Whom Moses wrote, and the prophets." 
 The very form of the sentence seems to imply that the 
 two had often studied together the Old Testament 
 teaching about Christ. As an ancient writer para- 
 phrases St Philip's announcement, it was as if he had 
 said, "We have found Whom we sought, Whom we 
 
SAINT JOHN 35 
 
 looked forward to having", Whom the Scriptures prom- 
 ised." There under the fig tree, in his garden, he 
 seems, at the time he was called, to have been medi- 
 tating upon Jacob's vision of the angels ascending to 
 Jehovah in Heaven and returning to earth laden with 
 His gifts for men. But when would the time arrive 
 that Jehovah Himself would come down and save His 
 people ! 
 
 Thus he had, through devout pondering on the Holy 
 Scripture, become a member of that little group who 
 'iooked for redemption in Israel" ; and he had laid 
 hold on the deeper truths about Messiah revealed in 
 the Old Testament, so that he was not constrained by 
 the contemporary Jewish traditions. "Search and 
 look," said the rabbis, ''for out of Galilee ariseth no 
 prophet." But by prayer and loving study of the 
 Bible, St. Nathanael had gained the power to transcend 
 such prejudices. "The remnant of Israel" to which he 
 belonged, holy souls who waited for Christ to be their 
 Consolation, were throughout His ministry, a source 
 of great happiness and courage to His sacred Heart. 
 Some of them waited upon their Infant Lord in the 
 Cave of the Nativity ; and in the Temple, in the midst 
 of His strug-gles with the Pharisees, He remembered 
 them^ with joy and spoke of them as the sheep who had 
 not heard the voice of the false shepherds (x:5, 8). 
 Thus St. Nathanael was taught by meditation on Holy 
 Writ to be indeed what his name implies, "the gift of 
 God," to our Lord. And, just as truly, each one who 
 accepts the pure Catholic Religion, without addition 
 or subtraction, is a joy to Him, and must be only the 
 more loyal to Him if the whole body of the faithful 
 is small. 
 
 Christ richly rewarded our Saint's study and medi- 
 
36 SAINT JOHN 
 
 tation, and the desire for Him which was developed by 
 these means. Not only did He call him to be an Apos- 
 tle, but so eager was the Divine Love which responded 
 to his door human love, that It outran St. Philip and 
 was already drawing his heart to his Master before his 
 friend arrived. "Before that Philip called thee," Jesus 
 said unto him: ''When thou wast under the fig tree, 
 I saw thee." Thus He ever loves to see His people at 
 meditation and to satisfy the desire for Himself which 
 it stimulates and develops., 
 
 W^t f outtS apondap (n ^dbent 
 
 iLotae Conisecratee ^Dbistacleis 
 
 St. Philip was from Bethsaida, which was the city 
 also of Ss. Andrew and Peter and of St. Philip's 
 brother, St. James. They must have grown up, there- 
 fore, in one of the most wicked cities of Palestine, 
 upon which our gentle Saviour pronounced a terrible 
 judgment because of its iniquity (St. Matt, xi: 21 f.). 
 They became Apostles and Saints in spite of their en- 
 vironment, and the same may be said of all the Twelve 
 who were faithful. One only of the Apostolic Band 
 was not a Galilean, and that was Judas Iscariot, whose 
 surname shows that he came from Kerioth, a suburb 
 of Jerusalem. Every spiritual privilege and opportu^ 
 nity must have been his from his boyhood, yet he be- 
 came the traitor and, by suicide, went to his own place. 
 
 Jesus distinguished St. Philip by an extraordinary 
 mark of devotion to him. He journeyed into Gailee, 
 probably to Bethsaida, in order to find him; and this 
 fact is the more remarkable because it is not recorded 
 of any other that our Lord sought him out. Perhaps, 
 however, we discover the reason for this unique voca- 
 
SAINT JOHN 37 
 
 tion when we read that Christ had only to say to him: 
 '* Follow Me," and he immediately followed. He seems 
 to have made it appropriate for our Lord to bestow 
 upon him this great favor of calling him in Person, 
 by the way he had transcended the obstacle of his evil 
 surroundings, and probably had even learned from 
 them a greater hatred of the world and a deeper real- 
 ization of his need of God. 
 
 And not only was he obliged thus to convert the 
 environment of the wicked Bethsaida to his spiritual 
 ends, but he must needs consecrate a temperament 
 which was remarkably hostile to supernatural truth, 
 for he was one of those people who are disposed to 
 believe nothing except what they can see. Once our 
 Lord said to His Apostles that in a true sense they 
 already knew the Father and had seen Him, and 
 Philip, characteristically, answered Him, ''Lord, show 
 us the Father and it sufficeth us." But not only did he 
 overcome his natural antipathy to belief in the invisible 
 things of God, but he actually turned his temperament 
 to account. For, when he had himself become satis- 
 fied that Jesus was the Messiah, he ever after went 
 about inviting people to "come and see" our Lord and 
 be themselves convinced of His unseen Divinity. He 
 knew that Jesus had perfectly satisfied him, and recog- 
 nizing the difficulty of his Master's task in converting 
 persons of his sort, he hit upon this plan of leading 
 them to see the evidence they demanded in the patent 
 holiness and miracles of Christ. With his example 
 before us, we can never charge our environment or 
 our natural dispositions with our unbelief or lack of 
 devotion. Let us rather consecrate the circumstances 
 of our daily life and make them help us to be more 
 perfect servants of Jesus. 
 
38 SAINT JOHN 
 
 %\t JFottttfi ttue0tia^ in janbent 
 
 SI C^olp Influence 
 
 St. Andrew is chiefly remarkable, in St. John's 
 sketch of him, for the influence he exerted upon his 
 brethern. His very first notable act is to bring his own 
 brother to Jesus. In Church history, he is nothing, 
 one might almost say, and St. Peter is much, yet would 
 there have been a St. Peter, except for the holy influ- 
 ence of St. Andrew ? 
 
 He was one of the first two disciples, and we would 
 have supposed that Christ would have included him 
 among the three who constituted the innermost group 
 of his Apostles. But he was passed over and St. 
 Peter and St. James, the next two who came to our 
 Lord, were chosen. No doubt Divine Wisdom knew 
 that it was best to leave him to exercise his blessed 
 helpfulness among the rank and file of the disciples. 
 Prominence would have marred or perhaps taken away 
 St. Andrew's opportunity. 
 
 Presently, however, we see that through his exer- 
 cising influence with men for Christ, he speedily gained 
 influence with Christ for men. The lad with the loaves 
 and fishes found in him a mediator through whom he 
 ventured to make his humble ofifering (vi:8f.). 
 Again, when the Greeks came desiring to see Jesus, 
 they approached St. Philip, whose name was Greek, 
 but he begged St. Andrew to intercede for them with 
 Christ (xii: 20 flf.). Finally, when the central circle 
 of the Apostolic College wished to obtain from their 
 Master a revelation as to the time when the Temple 
 would be destroyed, they seem to have asked St. An- 
 drew to assist them (St. Mark xiii : 3). Let us, then, 
 remember that this great servant of our King still by 
 
SAINT JOHN 39 
 
 his prayers in Heaven seeks his brother in the world, 
 and has a migfhty influence on behalf of his clients 
 with the Judge of all. . 
 
 W^t JFouttS diOIetine^tiap in unbent 
 
 ^t)e StiQelis anH t^e i3on of ^an 
 
 It is thought that our Lord's reception of St. Na- 
 thanael took place near Bethel and Peniel, both of 
 which were scenes of Jacob's visions of Jehovah sur- 
 rounded by angels (Gen. xxviii: 12-22; xxxii : 2, 24- 
 30). If so, Jesus has taken advantage of this fact 
 about the locality to facilitate His hearers' acceptance 
 of a very great revelation about Himself. For, as the 
 entire host of the angels met Jacob at Mahanaim, or as 
 it is also called Peniel, and a Man was in their midst 
 Whom the Patriarch recognized as God, so, Christ 
 promised them, they would some day see Him, the Son 
 of Man, with the whole company of His angels doing 
 Him: homage. ''Hereafter," He said with His doubly 
 solemn 'Verily, verily," "ye shall see Heaven open, and 
 the angels of God ascending and descending upon the 
 'Son of Man." 
 
 But it is Bethel which is evidently more in our 
 Lord's view. Now, Bethel means the "House of God." 
 Jacob, after his vision there set up the stone, which 
 had been his pillow, for an altar, whereon he after- 
 ward offered sacrifice to Jehovah. In fact, Bethel was 
 a church, but it was an empty church, out of which 
 the angels were ascending to Jehovah in Heaven. In 
 contrast with it, Jesus teaches that our House of God 
 is to have Jehovah Incarnate present in it. But there 
 is only one way in which this is possible, for our Lord 
 is present as Mom, on earth, only in the Blessed Sacra- 
 
40 SAINT JOHN 
 
 ment. Therefore, He meant that, when the words of 
 consecration have been said, we are with our spiritual 
 eyes to behold the whole host of Heaven "descending 
 upon the Son of Man." 
 
 It is remarkable that in the only two passages of St. 
 John's Gospel and Epistles which speak of angels, he 
 represents them as a guard of honor about the Body 
 of Qirist (cp. XX : 12). Their ardent, perfect devo- 
 tion to our Lord was a great example and stimulus to 
 the Apostolic Church (cp. Heb. xii : 22; i Cor. xi: 10; 
 I St. Tim. v:2i). Ought not we, also, to recollect 
 that "angels and archangels and all of the company of 
 heaven" with us adore the Son of Man as He comes 
 upon our altar? When He said "the angels of God," 
 speaking of them collectively, He meant that all the 
 nine choirs would be "descending" upon Him in the 
 New Bethel. Let us, with holy envy, imitate that un- 
 selfish love of theirs which keeps them ever worship- 
 ing Him in the Divine Mysteries, although they can- 
 not receive Him in Holy Communion. And let us, on 
 our part, reveal to them the manifold fruits of the 
 Blessed Sacrament in and through us ; for they can 
 never know the power of Christ in its most miraculous 
 operations, unless we, each one, display the conquest 
 of His grace over our self-will. 
 
 W^t Conisecration of t^e $on of 6(9an 
 
 St. John reveals to us that all three Persons of the 
 Blessed Trinity participated in the consecration of 
 Jesus' Manhood. At the moment of Its creation, the 
 Father consecrated Him (x: 36). When the Divine 
 
SAINT JOHN 41 
 
 Dove descended upon Him at His Baptism, this was 
 the operation of the Holy Ghost upon His Human 
 Soul, creating a still more overflowing" measure of 
 grace. Finally, just the night before He suffered, He 
 consecrated Himself to be a very Sacrament of Love 
 for the offering He was about to make of Himself 
 upon the Cross (xvii: 19). By this threefold conse- 
 cration He was filled with all the blessings which 
 Divine Wisdom foresaw we would need for our salva- 
 tion. 
 
 "He was full of grace and truth." Grace is the 
 choicest fruit of Divine Love, because it not only 
 saves the soul into which it is infused, but imparts to 
 it a beauty so like that of God that it becomes the 
 object of the angels' wonder and love. The fulness 
 of truth which He brought replaced pathetic uncer- 
 tainty, even about our immortality, which was known 
 even to the saints of the Old Testament but imperfect- 
 ly (cp. 2 St. Tim. i: 10). At His Incarnation, more- 
 over, the Father gave into his Human Hand dominion 
 over all thins, that He might administer them for His 
 people (iii : 35). One more blessing was the gift to us 
 in Jesus of the fulness of life (x: 10). 
 
 Two great truths appear from this Divine largess 
 so prodigally poured out to us in the consecrated 
 Humanity of Christ: (a) Our salvation must be of 
 exceeding importance in God's eyes. By holding us 
 worth the price of His Son's Life, He challenges us to 
 prize ourselves at as dear a rate, and not to sell out 
 for some paltry bauble of Satan, (b) It is the nature 
 of love to communicate itself and this is as true of 
 Divine Charity in us as in God. Let us then hear Him 
 saying to each one of us, "I will bless thee, and thou 
 shalt be a blessing" (Gen. xii \2). 
 
42 SAINT JOHN 
 
 (lE:firi0tma0 (Cbe 
 
 C|)ri0t'f JFaborite ^itU (or i^im^elf 
 
 After Jesus had been called by others the Lamb of 
 God, the Son of God, the Messiah, and the theocratic 
 King of Israel, and had revealed Himself to be "God 
 only begotten Who is in the Bosom of the Father," 
 none of these magnificent titles of humanity and even 
 Deity did He prefer for Himself, but the simple, hum- 
 ble phrase, ''Son of Man." He loved this greatly, as 
 appears from the fact that He used it of Himself eighty 
 times in the Gospels. 
 
 In marked contrast with this custom of our Saviour, 
 is the manner in which all the Evangelists and sacred 
 writers entirely avoid calling Christ the Son of Man. 
 Naturally, they objected to applying to Him a title 
 which had hardly any reference to the messiah in the 
 Psalms and prophecies. In the Old Testament it sig- 
 nifies the humility and weakness of man. Thus the 
 Psalmist speaks of the "son of man whom God has 
 made a little lower than the angels" (Ps. viii: 5) ; and 
 God addresses Ezekiel by this same phrase, in order to 
 remind him that he shares the frailties of his fellow- 
 Israelites (ii: I, 3, 6, etc.). Inevitably, it seemed to 
 those lovers of our Lord, the saints who surrounded 
 Him, that "Son of Man" was too poor and lowly a 
 designation for the Son of God. 
 
 But why did our Lord prefer to call Himself "the 
 Son of Man"? It was because this title proclaimed His 
 essential kinship with every member of our race. It 
 imDlic? what St. John teaches in another form when 
 he says that the Word became flesh, that is. that God 
 the Son took all humanity. Both sexes, all the five 
 
SAINT JOHN 43 
 
 families of mankind, and all generations share in His 
 Human Nature. This is why we find Him displaying 
 the moral qualities of the perfect woman together 
 with the characteristics of the finest and truest gentle- 
 man. It explains to us why Jesus belongs to every 
 people and age. It shows us, too, that He is the near- 
 est and dearest of all, to each one of us. For to each 
 He is as the Eldest Son. . 
 
 C|)r(0tma0 2Dap 
 
 Wc)t Son of 6oti X^^z Hober of 2Dur Eace 
 
 Jesus proved Himself to be the infallible, and most 
 loving, Interpreter of our race. We have already 
 found Him looking into the hearts of men and read- 
 ing them with perfect insight and infinite charity. 
 His immediate appreciation of St. Nathanael is, how- 
 ever, particularly beautiful, because it stands in con- 
 trast with what seems to have been the latter's failure, 
 at first, to appreciate Him. Cana, where St. Nathanael 
 lived (xxi: 2), was very near Nazareth, and St. Philip, 
 in calling his friend, refers to Christ by the name for 
 Him which was used among the people of His home 
 village, "Jesus the Son of Joseph." Apparently, both 
 men knew our Lord, but St. Nathanael had not rightly 
 interpreted Him, or he could never have said, "Can 
 there any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" Yet at 
 that very moment, our Lord *'saw" into his heart of 
 hearts and was dwelling upon the virtue for which he 
 was remarkable, his guilelessness. For Jesus Christ, 
 Whom we so often misunderstand and undervalue, 
 always accepts us at our best. 
 
 Jesus is the perfect Man. All talent and all genius 
 found their highest perfection in that Human Mind, 
 
44 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Which was united to Deity, and received by reflection 
 from, the Divine Person all knowledge which It could 
 have and remain Human. Moreover, He was Man and 
 had in Himself the perfection of humanity. ''All that 
 truly belongs to every individual in the race," said Bp. 
 Westcott, "belongs to Him." Thus He possessed the 
 genius of the poet, the painter and the musician, 
 and that in a degree only less than infinite because of 
 the essential limitations of His Human Soul. And 
 every truth of science and every inspiration of human 
 artists is an adumbration from the Mind of Jesus. For 
 He is "the true Light which lighteth every man" and 
 is continually "coming into" the world with the gifts 
 of civilization. 
 
 Jesus made one proud claim upon His people because 
 He was the Son of God. It was that He was entitled 
 to work for men on the Sabbath. "My Father worketh 
 even until now," He insisted, "and I work" (vii/, 
 A. V. Marg.). He meant that He and His Father were 
 accustomed to labor for men without respite, through- 
 out the seven days of the week. Time was, when God 
 took His Sabbath's rest, for we read that, before the 
 fall of man He rested on the seventh day (Gen. ii. 2). 
 But when His children turned against Him, struck 
 hands with His mortal foe, and spoiled the good world 
 which He had created. He renounced His Sabbath re- 
 pose, because our race in its weakness would need 
 His utmost Providence. How can we love and bless 
 God enough for making Himself the servant of His 
 fallen creatures, and for coming into our world to 
 reveal the dear truth of His sleepless, infinite love for 
 us! 
 
SAINT JOHN 45 
 
 ©urtnc X^z flDctabf ef ei^rf^tma^* Read St. John ii : i-ii 
 
 Conisecrttion ^|)rou0|) t|)e don of ^an 
 
 The first miracle wrought by our Lord was in no 
 sense an impromptu occurrence. He evidently waited, 
 at St. Nathanael's house it seems, for the occasion of 
 the wedding, in order by the "sign" to manifest His 
 glory, and gain the faith of His new disciples. The 
 miracle which followed, after three days, displayed, 
 with almost unparalleled clearness, our Lord's power 
 to convert very inferior material into means which He 
 can use for the purpose of His perfect wisdom and 
 love. He could change water into wine, and after- 
 wards He could consecrate wine to be the Sacrament 
 of His Blood. In one way, it was a work of still 
 greater power when He changed passionate Stephen 
 into loving Stephen, since the free will of the man 
 might have resisted Him as material elements could 
 not. 
 
 The martyr whom we commemorate to-day, is the 
 only person in the New Testament except our Lord 
 Himself, w^ho ever spoke of Him as the Son of Man 
 (Acts vii : 56). St. Stephen had been inveighing 
 against the perverse unbelief of the Jews. "Ye stiff- 
 necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears," was his 
 terrible rebuke, *'Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." 
 His denunciation of them was, indeed, so severe that 
 his words, in the expressive verb of the original, "sawed 
 through their hearts," and "they gnashed on him with 
 their teeth." It was then that Jesus in Heaven ap- 
 peared to His servant with such marks of His own 
 Passion in His glorified Body, that St. Stephen could 
 
46 SAINT JOHN 
 
 not but recognize in Him his Fellow, the Son of Man, 
 Who had preceded him in passing through the agony 
 of persecution and martyrdom. The effect upon the 
 holy Deacon was immediately to make him wonder- 
 fully gentle and loving toward his murderers. 
 
 He was led out to die at the usual place of Jewish 
 executions, which seems to have been near Calvary. 
 Certainly, St. Stephen was reminded by his vision, if 
 not by the locality, of the way in which our Saviour 
 had endured His Cross. As the stones fell thick and 
 fast upon him, he imitated the first and last words of 
 his crucified Master. As Christ had said, "Father, for- 
 give them, for they know not what they do," so he 
 "cried with a loud voice. Lord lay not this sin to their 
 charge." And as our Lord had, at the last, commended 
 His Spirit into His Father's hands, so His servant 
 prayed saying, ''Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Thus 
 was the best wine saved until the last, and then con- 
 secrated for Jesus' great purpose of love. For Saul, 
 who was keeping the witnesses' clothes, and by that 
 very office signifying that he assumed the chief re- 
 sponsibility for the deed, was a "chosen vessel" of our 
 Lord (Acts ix:i5). By Stephen's saintly death the 
 first step was taken toward filling him from the mar- 
 tyr's soul with the precious vintage of Divine Love, 
 that in him it might be borne unto the Gentiles (cp. 
 Acts ix: 5, where St. Stephen's last words are the 
 "goads"). May Jesus so fill this stony water-pot in 
 my breast with His best wine that at least one other 
 soul may become His chosen vessel brimming with love 
 for Him! 
 
SAINT JOHN 47 
 
 S|)e €on0rcratton of 2Dur ^ill0 
 
 In the training of our Lord's youngest Apostle, the 
 great necessity was that He should teach him to con- 
 secrate his will so that he could wait calmly until his 
 Master's hour should come. St. John must learn to 
 ''tarry the Lord's leisure," and to fulfill the Divine 
 purpose for him in every detail throughout his long 
 life. He must know how to go forward, step by step, 
 deliberately, yet always with prompt obedience to the 
 will of his Lord. In this extraordinarily difficult les- 
 son, our Lord was his perfect Preceptor. Long before 
 He declared in words the guiding principle of the 
 Beloved Disciple's life (xxi: 22 f.), He instructed him 
 by His own example. For it has been truly said that 
 men feel the sorest strain about an enterprise when 
 they first begin it, and when they finish. At those two 
 times, they retire into strict seclusion, perhaps admit- 
 ting a very few intimates, and there, behind locked 
 doors, feverishly, sleeplessly, labor and plan. But our 
 Lord, at both these crucial times, in what was infinitely 
 the greatest enterprise ever undertaken in the world, 
 attended festival meals. For He inaugurated His Min- 
 istry at the wedding feast of Cana, and prefaced its 
 conclusion on the Cross by the supper in his honor at 
 Bethany (xii: i f.). The young Evangelist could not 
 have had more impressive lessons in that perfect, calm 
 consecration of his will, which in fact he displays 
 more and more during the threescore years of his life 
 after Pentecost. 
 
 The narrative of this miracle is peculiar to the 
 Fourth Gospel, and evidently it had impressed itself 
 profoundly upon St. John. Often and often, during 
 
48 SAINT JOHN 
 
 the years of his life with the Blessed Virgin after 
 Christ committed her to his charge they had talked it 
 over, and she had supplied those details which had 
 been known only to her. For no doubt, this was an 
 epoch-making day in his life, when the water of his 
 natural weakness was changed to the precious wine of 
 a great love for Jesus, and he consecrated himself 
 wholly to his Lord. It is this spiritual truth, we may 
 suppose, which underHes the old legend that the wed- 
 ding at Cana was his own, and that after the miracle, 
 he forsook his bride to follow Christ. He did indeed, 
 on this occasion break, once for all, many natural 
 bonds, in order to give himself without reservation to 
 his Master. 
 
 There is a proof that St. John at this marriage made 
 a new and complete dedication to Jesus, in the fact 
 that for the first time he tells us, ''His disciples be- 
 lieved on Him." For the original words mean, literal- 
 ly, that they ''believed into Him." The expression oc- 
 curs frequently in the Fourth Gospel, and always 
 means a faith which involves entire surrender. The 
 aged Evangelist must have remembered with a quick- 
 ened heart that day on which he had first trusted his 
 Saviour absolutely. Let us celebrate his festival by 
 "believing into" Jesus with fresh and more perfect 
 consecration of our every thought to His will. 
 
 W^t ^olp JnnocenW 2Dap 
 
 W^t ^ualitiee of Cljriist'is lobing I^otDer 
 
 The first miracle shows, among other blessed truths 
 about Christ, that His interest and sympathy extend 
 to every age of our human life. He is as really en- 
 
SAINT JOHN 49 
 
 gaged with the wedding of these young people as, in 
 other connections, He was occupied in blessing little 
 children and in teaching old Nicodemus. Probably 
 the three feasts immediately following Christmas are 
 meant to suggest this same truth, that Jesus has infi- 
 nite love for old and young — for the baby Innocents, 
 and for St. Stephen in the bloom of young manhood, 
 and for St. John. His loving power touches our life 
 at every point. To-day He is blessing the marriage of 
 these simple Galilean peasants; within the week He 
 will be purifying public worship at Jerusalem. Let us 
 strive to realize, on this feast of the Holy Innocents, 
 that no human life is so young, or obscure, or poor, 
 that He does not long to bless and sanctify it wholly. 
 
 Our Saviour's sanctifying grace, moreover, is un- 
 merited. The infants, who were slain in His stead 
 were, according to the teaching of the Church, not 
 only speedily received into Heaven, but were also 
 numbered among the greater Saints. St. John seems 
 to have them in mind when he speaks of those follow- 
 ers of the Lamb in the Church Triumphant who have 
 been "redeemed from among men, being the first fruits 
 unto God and to the Lamb" (Rev. xiv: 4). But they 
 were not martyrs in will, nor did their baby souls dis- 
 play heroic sanctity. Their place among the Saints, 
 therefore, is the gift of God's uncovenanted mercy. 
 Yet their beatification was only one more act of His 
 gratuitous love for them. He had become incarnate 
 in order to save our race when it not only merited 
 nothing from Him, but when it deserved damnation. 
 He had turned man's very sin into a felix culpa, an 
 occasion of ineffable blessedness. This Divine Charity 
 had first redeemed and then beatified the Infant Mar- 
 tyrs of this day. Christ gave them the pure water of 
 
50 SAINT JOHN 
 
 sanctifying grace in their souls, in anticipation of His 
 meritorious Cross, and then converted this into the 
 wine of extraordinary sanctity, all for the sole reason 
 that He loved them. 
 
 Christ's power for good was prodigal toward others, 
 while it left His Humanity unaided. He would not 
 turn a stone to a loaf of bread for Himself, but He 
 changed water to the most delicious wine for others. 
 And the uncalculating lavishness of His Love is ex- 
 emplified by the fact that Hfe made for these poor peas- 
 ants about one hundred gallons, of the best vintage. 
 In the same characteristic way, He gave to the Holy 
 Innocents, in return for one swift stab of pain, over 
 perhaps before they perceived it, Heaven and a place 
 very near His Throne, forever. How often during my 
 whole life has this overflowing Providence of Christ 
 poured its benefits upon my soul, simply because I 
 permitted Him to^ bestow His spiritual largess ! Shall 
 I not show my gratitude to this dear Guest, by fre- 
 quently calling Him' to share, not only my sorrows, but 
 my feasts? v 
 
 iPfttS 2Dap in i\t (CStWtmad flDctabe 
 
 W^t ^ot|)er of 2Dur HorU 
 
 This is the only miracle in which the Blessed Virgin 
 appears as an actor, except the miracle wrought in her 
 by the Holy Ghost when she conceived Christ. So 
 great is the economy observed by St. John in his sacred 
 narrative, that he would not have referred to her part 
 in the providing of the wine, if it had not been very im- 
 portant. As we study the miracle, moreover, we see 
 that she supplied an absolutely essential element. For, 
 in the similar cases, our Lord reveals that there must 
 
SAINT JOHN 51 
 
 be faith, either in the recipient of the extraordinary 
 favor, or in his representative. We find Him saying, 
 "According to youir faith be it unto you," and, "Thy 
 faith hath saved thee" (St. Matt, ix: 29; St. Luke 
 vii: 50). Now the Holy Mother, by becoming the 
 intercessor for the young married people, identified 
 herself with them, and on their behalf supplied the 
 necessary faith. During the thirty years of her life 
 with Jesus in Nazareth, she had discerned His Divine 
 Power, even while it was hidden beneath the carpen- 
 ter's frock so successfully that none others realized 
 aught but His perfect holiness. Therefore, when these 
 poor folk brought their need to her Son, she confi- 
 dently expected Him to supply it, although He could 
 do this only by a miracle. When He gently rebuffed 
 her, she at once directed that all preparations should 
 be made to receive the blessing which she evidently 
 felt sure would be granted. She knew not what the 
 answer to her prayer would be, but she believed abso- 
 lutely that it would be both perfectly righteous and 
 Divinely loving. "Whatsoever He saith unto you," 
 she said to the servants, "do it." In this way, she pre- 
 sented a wonderfully true example of the "prayer of 
 faith." 
 
 But not only did she make herself receptive of 
 Jesus' benefit as the representative of her poor friends ; 
 she also created around her that atmosphere of faith 
 which seems to have been so essential wherever our 
 Lord was to manifest His power. In Nazareth, which 
 was His beloved home, He was hampered by human 
 incredulity in using His miraculous power for the peo- 
 ple. "He did not many mighty works there because 
 of their unbelief" (St. Matt, xiii : 58; St. Mark vi: 
 5f.). But the Blessed Virgin so inspired these serv- 
 
52 SAINT JOHN 
 
 ants with her own faith, that they willingly performed 
 two apparently useless acts. They filled the six water 
 pots to the brim, when there seemed to be no use for 
 the water, since all the guests had performed the puri- 
 fying ablutions. Then when they were commanded to 
 do so, they drew what they must have supposed was 
 water to carry it to the banquet in their wine pitchers. 
 Few greater examples of unquestioning faith are given 
 us in the Gospel than that which was displayed by the 
 ready obedience of these servants, and they learned 
 their great lesson from the dear Mother of our Lord. 
 Yet this episode gives us only one example of the 
 "vast" faith which characterized her life. It made her 
 willing to become the agent of the Incarnation. And, 
 from Jesus' Birth onward, it always spread around her 
 the blessed contagion of belief in Him, without which 
 He would have come, all-beautiful and perfect as He 
 was, into a world of blind men. Shall we not love this 
 dear Virgin Mother, and earnestly strive to imitate 
 her? 
 
 9 
 
 &fetS SDap In X\t C6ti0tma!ef flDctabe 
 
 C|bri)3t'is ^O0t Cfcellent Wixm 
 
 Our most merciful Saviour has from the first, from 
 the time He made Adam out of the earth, been willing 
 to use inferior materials to help us. He has given us 
 an instance of this characteristic in His condescending 
 to employ the water intended for foot-washing and 
 ceremonial ablutions as the means for His first great 
 miracle. With far greater humility, but of this same 
 gracious kind. He assumed the likeness of sinful flesh 
 in His Incarnation. Indeed the Gospel reveals clearly 
 and in detail the fact that He so far stooped in taking 
 
SAINT JOHN 53 
 
 our human nature, that He even willed to be born of 
 a family in which had been very great and notorious 
 sinners. Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba are the promi- 
 nent ancestresses in His genealogy^ not Sarah, Rebecca 
 and Rachel (St. Matt, i: 3, 5, 6). It seems plain that 
 he endured the special mortification of accepting de- 
 scent from progenitors who were even notably infe- 
 rior, for the purpose of showing that it is His glory 
 to take the poorest materials and convert them to the 
 noblest and most loving uses. 
 
 Moreover, the wine which He furnished was far 
 better than that which had been provided by the host, 
 good as this latter probably was. In this particular, 
 His miracle is symbolic of the truth that, by the power 
 of His sacraments and His example. He imparts to 
 His people holiness far superior to the highest develop- 
 ment of character among pagans ancient or modern. 
 No doubt it is possible, especially for those who live 
 within the sphere of the Church's influence, and benefit 
 by the diffused power of Her Gospel, to develop char- 
 acter of a very impressive kind, greatly esteemed by 
 many who view it. But the humility, penitence and love 
 toward God, which spring from the conviction that 
 every thing good in us is wrought solely by the miracle 
 of Jesus' power — these essential qualities of the only 
 true holiness in this world are found nowhere but in 
 the souls of Christians. They spring from the realiza- 
 tion that our Saviour has taken these poor stone water- 
 jars of our hearts, which were all we had to furnish 
 Him, and has filled them with His best wine, His sanc- 
 tifying grace. 
 
 Modern writers have attempted to compare our Lord 
 with the greatest and noblest human teachers. But 
 not only is He superior to them in degree, as is ad- 
 
54 SAINT JOHN 
 
 mitted on all hands; He is absolutely different from 
 them in kind. It has been truly said, that where Soc- 
 rates brings an argument to meet an objection, Jesus 
 brings a Nature to meet a nature, and a whole Being 
 filled with light to meet a whole being that error has 
 filled with darkness. In the last analysis, it was not by 
 tlie miracles which Jesus wrought, nor by the Sermon 
 on the Mount, that the world has been revolutionized. 
 Man's redemption was wrought by the Incarnation and 
 Passion of God. Only because Jesus was truly Divine, 
 can we believe in His revelations as infallible, and 
 trust in His Cross as the Medicine of the world. It 
 was because He was the) Incarnate Word that He had 
 power to convert the water into wine more delicious 
 than that of any human vintage. It is for this same 
 reason that His grace avails to change these base 
 human elements even into the likeness of Himself. 
 
 &etient|& 2Dap xxi tie Cgti^tma^ €)ctabe 
 
 Wc}Z ^lorp of ^|)ri0t JmparteU to 6@cn 
 
 St. John's favorite word for miracles appears for the 
 first time in the passage before us. The Greek original 
 means literally ''signs," and our Evangelist by pre- 
 ferring this to all other terms for Christ's "mighty 
 works," emphasizes that side of them in which they 
 are especially revelations of His Deity. Of course, the 
 Apostle realized that they were used to arrest the 
 attention of the people, and start a train of thought 
 which would issue at length in faith. But to him, 
 already a faithful disciple, they were most of all mani- 
 festations of Jesus' Divine glory. 
 
SAINT JOHN 55 
 
 Now, there was one "sign" which transcended all 
 others to the disciples and that was their Master's 
 Personal perfection in righteousness and love. In 
 daily fellowship with Him, some of them during all 
 the "hidden life" at Nazareth, they had "beheld His 
 glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father." 
 The first miracle was, therefore, but another mode in 
 which He revealed that same Character of holiness and 
 mercy which, perhaps for thirty years, they had known 
 and loved. 
 
 If, like these first disciples, we believe "on Jesus," 
 or, more literally, "into Jesus," He imparts to us as 
 He did to them a share in His Divine glory. Indeed, 
 it was His purpose in the Incarnation to bestow His 
 glory upon us. There is a beautiful legend which may 
 serve as a parable of this truth. When the Incarnate 
 Vv^ord lay as a little Baby in the manger, an insect, in 
 color very like the ground upon which it crawled, per- 
 ceived that the beautiful Infant had no gift in His 
 Hand. Thereupon, it crept to Him and placed in His 
 tiny Palm a poor, faded flower. Then the Holy One. 
 smiling, took from the straw of His manger a moon- 
 beam and bestowed it upon the earth-worm. Thus, 
 the old story concludes, the firefly obtained its little 
 lantern. Now we "humans" are, as the very word 
 indicates, taken from "humus," the "earth." But God 
 has come to us to endow each earth-worm with the 
 glory of His Personality, if only we bring Him the 
 poor, half-spoiled thing which is our all. "The glory 
 which thou hast given me," He said to His Father, "I 
 have given them" (xvii:22). 
 
56 SAINT JOHN 
 
 W^z Ctrcumci0ton 
 
 IFillinQ 2Dur EeltQton taiit|) Hobe 
 
 "And there were set there six water-pots of stone, 
 after the manner of the purifying of the Jews." Each 
 guest of the marriage feast had carefully cleansed his 
 entire fore-arm with the water, until it dropped from 
 his elbows, so that he might be ritually clean for the 
 meal. But Divine Love converted what was thus of 
 only ceremonial importance into a means of manifest- 
 ing His glory and of satisfying human need. The 
 miracle, when considered in this way, is quite anal- 
 ogous to the method in which our Saviour's charity 
 filled the ceremony of His cricumcision with a most 
 blessed content. For Him, sinless, and already named 
 by the message from the Father (St. Luke i : 41), the 
 rite was in itself a mere external ceremony. Yet God's 
 dear Son converted it into a wonderful manifestation 
 of His glorious love for us. For thus, (a) He, from 
 the first, submitted to the ceremonial law for men, with 
 perfect obedience, according to His vocation as the 
 Perfect Man; (b) He began to undergo the whole 
 category of human sufferings, and (c) He endured 
 the initial outpouring of His Precious Blood for men. 
 We cannot know how many blessings were merited 
 for the world by our Lord's circumcision ! 
 
 Our religion may easily become as empty as the six 
 water-pots. Let us learn a lesson from the Jews about 
 this. For God had made rich provision for teaching 
 them the one great lesson of love for Him. Not only 
 had He given them His special Presence and blessing 
 in His temple, but there were varius devices indicated 
 in their Scriptures which were meant to inspire devo- 
 tion at every turn in their daily life (Deut. vi:4-io; 
 
SAINT JOHN 57 
 
 xi : 18-21 ; Num. xv: 37-41). There were the Mezuza 
 over the door, and the Tefillin, bound on brow and 
 arm at prayer. Both were small metal cases contain- 
 ing the following precept of Jehovah: "Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all 
 thy soul and with all thy might ; and these words shall 
 be in thy heart." Furthermore, they were directed to 
 wear a fringe on their shawls, called the Zizith, and by 
 that token also to remember the supreme command- 
 ment of their God to love Him. But in spite of all 
 that He could do to kindle devotion in them, He was 
 at length compelled to confess that He had failed. "I 
 know you," said Jesus to the Jews, "That ye have not 
 the love of God in you" (iv:42). 
 
 Shall we not permit our Lord to fill our external 
 observances with that heavenly wine which refreshes 
 Him to run His course rejoicing, and makes glad the 
 hearts of all men about us? (Ps. xix:5; civ: 15). 
 Conventional Christianity is as useless to satisfy the 
 thirst, either of Christ or of the guests at His banquet 
 of love, as were the water-jars in their emptiness. 
 May He so fill us with true religion that we shall, 
 quite without knowing it, manifest the glory of Jesus 
 and add at least a little to the happiness of men. 
 
 iFor tt)e Seben Dap0 iFoIIotofng* Read St. John ii : 12-25 
 
 W^t j^ctate 9Da? of Ibt ^ttpgtn 
 
 3[f0uji* Kfluctancc to be EfffcteH 
 
 From Cana our Lord returned to Nazareth. He 
 must have expected that after His thirty years of resi- 
 dence there, revealing in every word and act the 
 Divine loveliness of His Personality, the Nazarenes, 
 
58 SAINT JOHN 
 
 at least, would be ready to receive Him with open 
 arms as their Messiah. Biut St. John shows us His 
 enforced removal from His old home, because of the 
 disastrous outcome of His visit there. We find Him 
 journeying down to Capernaum with His entire family 
 and His disciples, to find a new home. St. Luke and 
 St. Mark both strive to express the bitterness of His 
 disappointment, and how reluctant He was to leave 
 Nazareth. He knew the sorrow and dereliction 
 of the prophet's lot in suffering complete dishonor 
 and rejection 'in His own country, and among His 
 own kin, and in His own house" (St. Mark vi. : 4; cp. 
 St. John iv : 44). So great indeed was His longing to 
 help His people at Nazareth, even after they had re- 
 warded Him for His first manifestation of Himself as 
 their Saviour by trying to murder Him (St. Luke iv : 
 29), that He went back to them again, later, hoping 
 that He might find them willing to accept Him. But 
 again, it was in vain (St. Matt, xiii : 54 ff.). 
 
 In Capernaum, He met another rejection. For, 
 while here there was no violence directed against His 
 life, they excluded Him from their hearts by indiffer- 
 ence and unbelief. Our Lord cries out against the 
 stubborn hardness of their infidelity, and sorrowfully 
 prophesies that Capernaum shall be cast down to Hell, 
 since it is more wicked in its refusal to receive Him 
 than even Sodom would have been (St. Matt, xi: 
 23 f.). This was one of the cities wherein He wrought 
 "most of His mighty works," in order to win the faith 
 and repentance of its people (St. Matt. xi:2o), and 
 the others thus favored by miracles were in its imme- 
 diate neighborhood. St. John describes Jesus' first 
 sojourn as continuing ''not many days." Tlie came 
 words would be equally descriptive of His determined 
 
SAINT JOHN 59 
 
 subsequent efforts to evangelize the Capernaites, and 
 His continual failure. 
 
 But it was in Jerusalem that this ''Scorn of men and 
 Outcast of the people" found the most relentless re- 
 fusal to accept Him as Messiah, and therefore suffered 
 the most heart-breaking defeat of His hopes. For this 
 was His ancient capital, Holy Zion, which He loved 
 above all the cities of the world, and the site of that 
 sanctuary of God's presence from which Salvation 
 should flow out to all mankind (iv:22). No wonder, 
 then, that He was utterly tmwilling to be cast off. 
 When He had left the Temple, lest He should be 
 attacked and slain before His time, He still retreated 
 no farther than into the streets of Jerusalem. Again 
 He was compelled to retire before the hatred of His 
 enemies, and this time into the countryside without the 
 city walls. There He continued teaching and display- 
 ing the signs of His love and power, until once more 
 the animosity of the Pharisees forced Him to return 
 into Galilee (ii:23; iii:22; iv: 1-3). Does it not 
 arouse our indignation and kindle our zeal for Jesus 
 when we think of the repeated rejections which He 
 suffered from men, when He came to them desiring 
 naught but to be admitted into their lives with all the 
 blessings of His Kingdom? But even more in 
 America today He is excluded from our households, 
 our individual lives and even our Churches. Let us 
 fling wide the doors and receive Him ! 
 
 W^t iDctabe a)a? of &t Sol^n tlie (Cbang:eIi0t 
 
 ^|)e Qlecrption xif Cf^riet 
 
 If it be true, that we ought to receive Christ for His 
 sake, and in reparation to Him for the rebuffs He en- 
 
60 SAINT JOHN 
 
 dures in the godless world, it is certainly far more true 
 that our own souls must have their Saviour for their 
 very Center. Capernaum was "exalted unto Heaven" 
 by His presence within its walls, although it was so 
 hostile to Him that it was to be cast down to Hell at 
 the Judgment (St. Matt. xi:23f.). How blessed, 
 then, is the soul of a loving Christian, into which 
 Christ enters with infinite love and mercy, that He 
 may exalt it to Heaven forever! For it has the gift 
 of everlasting life, through the continual presence 
 within it of its Lord God and of His sanctifying grace 
 (i St. John v: 12). 
 
 When St. John speaks of the "Jews' Passover," he 
 implies that there is also a Christian Passover. And, 
 indeed, our Saviour Himself referred to Holy Com- 
 munion in a way to suggest that it is the Church's 
 Pasch. For He said: "With desire I have desired to 
 eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Yet, im- 
 mediately. He went on to show by word and act that 
 He referred to the Blessed Eucharist, and would not 
 receive either the bread or the wine of the Jewish 
 rite (St. Luke xxii: 16-20). We may, then, rightly 
 claim the dear Christ as "our Passover, sacrificed for 
 us." The blood of this Lamb of God is marked upon 
 the doors of our senses, that the Angel of Death may 
 pass us by. And in each Communion, we consume 
 Him wholly (Ex. xii:3-8). 
 
 When St. John saw our Lord cleansing the Temple, 
 and the mortal hatred which He thus occasioned in the 
 Jews, he remembered the prophecy about the Messiah : 
 "The zeal of thine house will eat Me up." Our Lord's 
 intense earnestness showed that He was consumed 
 with desire for the purity of divine worship. Then 
 with what love, with what striving after perfection, 
 
SAINT JOHN 61 
 
 ought we to approach the Holy of Holies. There is 
 indeed the Mercy Seat and the blessed sacramental 
 Presence of the Lamb of God, Who eagerly seeks the 
 opportunity of lifting our souls to eternal heights. 
 
 W^t flDctabe SDap ot i\t ^ol? Jnnocentiei 
 
 Wc)t spirit of Di0ct))lf0|)tp 
 
 It seems that St. John made his final decision to 
 accept Christ as his Master at Cana. This is one reason 
 for his not recording the call of the four fishermen, 
 SS. Peter, Andrew, James and John, at the lakeside 
 (St. Matt, iv: i8 fif. ; St. Mark i: i6ff.; St. Luke v: 
 i-ii). Probably, while our Lord was at Nazareth, 
 He sent the Apostles to their homes for a period of 
 mature reflection before they made their final response. 
 The summons, then, came after Christ's removal to 
 Capernaum, and before the first purifying of the Tem- 
 ple. Little stress is laid by the first three Gospels on 
 this call of the Beloved Disciple. He evidently obeyed 
 immediately, as if he had but awaited a signal. There 
 is a second reason, however, for the entire silence of 
 Evangelist wished to avoid describing the occasion 
 the Fourth Gospel as to this incident. Our humble 
 upon which he left all for Christ's sake. 
 
 He was, indeed, at the very height of his prosperity, 
 that day. St. Mark indicates that his boat was an 
 unusually large one, for he tells us that the father, 
 Zebedee, with his sons and servants, was mending the 
 fish-nets, not on the shore, as was the custom with the 
 small owners, but on the deck of the vessel. It had, 
 moreover, a hired crew besides the owners. St. Luke 
 contributes the information that the haul of fish was 
 
62 SAINT JOHN 
 
 of unparalleled greatness. Yet, St. John without a 
 thought for the extraordinary catch or for the afflu- 
 ence he was leaving, joyfully accepted poverty and 
 suffering at Jesus' side. Nor did he fall into that snare 
 of complacent self-satisfaction which always besets us 
 when we sacrifice anything for our Lord. The spirit 
 of these four Apostles was rather one of fear, because 
 they realized that they were unworthy of fellowship 
 with Christ. Thus we find Him, for the first time on 
 this occasion, commanding them *'Fear not." It was 
 to become the commonest of all His precepts, in His 
 spiritual direction of them. 
 
 St. Peter, many years afterward, shows us that only 
 reliance upon Divine help gave them confidence to ac- 
 cept our Lord's invitation. For thus he urges us to 
 trust as he had done: 'The God of all grace, Who 
 hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus 
 . . . shall Himself perfect you," or literally, ''mend 
 your nets" (i St. Pet. v: lo). The broken fish-nets 
 upon the deck of Zebedee's vessel, and those lying upon 
 the shore rent by the miraculous catch, were symbolic 
 to them of their own imperfect souls. But with them 
 was a Divine Net-mender, the God of grace, who 
 would, with infinite patience and skill, knit the torn 
 spiritual web. 
 
 W^t Comins of X%t I^urifirr 
 
 Our gentle Saviour came to His Father's House, at 
 just the time and in exactly the way which would 
 make His purifying discipline least trying to the Jews. 
 That very year, the sanctuary had been completed, 
 
SAINT JOHN 63 
 
 after forty-six years' expenditure of labor and treas- 
 ure. Surely, they would be expecting the fulfillment 
 of Malachi's prophecy (iii: 1-3). Surely the Angel of 
 the Covenant, now for many centuries expected, would 
 come at last to purify for Himself this magnificent 
 House which His people had built to His glory. For 
 how could God consummate the work of His servants 
 with a greater outpouring of His blessing and His 
 glory, than by Himself coming to dwell in it? 
 
 Probably, the very hour chosen by Christ for His 
 visitation was one in which the hearts of His people 
 should have been full of the desire to be clean, for it 
 was the time when all leaven was scrupulously cleansed 
 away from every house in Jerusalem. The Jews would 
 almost inevitably reason that if the symbol of sin must 
 be put away from their dwellings before the anniver- 
 sary of the ancient Passover, surely the House of God 
 ought to be cleansed from profanation, avarice and 
 hypocrisy, now, when God had actually come to be 
 with His people. 
 
 But not only was our Lord's chosen time of visiting 
 the Temple that which would make the cleansing 
 easiest to bear, but His words and acts were marvel- 
 ously gentle and loving. His scourge was made only 
 of rushes, probably taken from the pavement of the 
 court and twisted together. Moreover, He seems not 
 to have struck the men even with this fragile whip, but 
 only the cattle, for the exact meaning of the original 
 is : "He drove them all, both the sheep and the oxen, 
 out of the Temple." And He could hardly have used 
 milder words of rebuke. The money changers were 
 charging an exorbitant per cent for exchanging the 
 foreign money, brought by the Jews of the Dispersion, 
 into the shekel of the Sanctuary. The vendors of 
 
64 SAINT JOHN 
 
 doves represented a kind of trust which had monopo- 
 lized these birds and was charging the very poor 
 double for them. Hardly any evil-doing would have 
 aroused our Lord more than the iniquity of these men, 
 yet He says no more than that they have turned His 
 Father's House into a market-place. Is it not a won- 
 derful manifestation of Jesus' tender mercy, that He 
 even condescended to be tactful and gentle with His 
 miserable, sinful creatures? 
 
 W^t €cntUef in Jcfun ' i^rart 
 
 Why did our Lord come to cleanse His Temple with 
 a scourge in His hand, if His intention was to win His 
 people by gentleness? It was because the rabbinic 
 writings prophesied that Messiah would appear with a 
 scourge for the punishment of evildoers. In His great 
 love for the Jews, He willed to adopt even this, their 
 self-chosen sign of Messianic authority. But there was 
 one way in which He diverged from the fulfillment of 
 their prophecy, if we take this from their viewpoint. 
 They assumed that the scourge would be for the Gen- 
 tiles, and naught but rewards, or rather payment due, 
 for themselves. Their resentment was aroused by the 
 fact that He drove their cattle, cheats and extortioners, 
 out of the temple court. They had by no means real- 
 ized the meaning of that plain prophecy that judg- 
 ment would begin at the House of God (Mai. iii : 1-4; 
 I St. Pet. iv: 17). As for the Gentiles, His Justice as 
 well as His Mercy required that they should be ''beaten 
 with few stripes, for they knew not" (St. Luke xii: 
 
 48). 
 
SAINT JOHN 65 
 
 In His Heart there was, indeed, a plan of perfect 
 wisdom and love, for including the heathen among His 
 elect, although He would not increase the hostility of 
 the Jews by speaking of it then. But at the second 
 cleansing of the temple, when the time of the Gentiles 
 was at hand. He felt that charity no longer forbade 
 Him to reveal His purpose for them. "My house," he 
 proclaimed, "shall be called the house of prayer/<?r all 
 the nations'' (St. Mark xi: 17). We in our poor, sav- 
 age Scythian ancestors, were then, and had been from 
 the first, at the very center of His design to redeem 
 the world. 
 
 If we needed a proof that at the first purifying of 
 His House, our Saviour had before Him the inclusion 
 of the Gentiles into His Church, it would be supplied 
 by His answer to the Jews' demand for a sign. ''De- 
 stroy the Temple," he said to them, "and in three days 
 I will raise it up." The "sign" He would give would 
 be a double one. They would "destroy" the "Temple" 
 of His Body, and on Easter He would raise It up 
 again. And on that same Good Friday, at the very 
 moment of His death upon the Cross, the magnificent 
 sanctuary would be symbolically destroyed by the rend- 
 ing of the great blue veil before the Holy of Holies. 
 In the Divine plan, moreover, the religion of the Old 
 Covenant would go down to the grave with the temple 
 in which it centered, to be raised again in Christ on the 
 third day as the Catholic Church. May the dear 
 Saviour of the world speedily complete His plan for 
 our nation by incorporating the fifty million American 
 heathen into His Mystical Body! 
 
66 SAINT JOHN 
 
 S|)c ©enaltp of ffl)nce Kejcctinc C|)ri0t 
 
 There is a great warning for us in the deterioration 
 of the Jews after they rejected our Saviour at the first 
 purification of the temple. For there is a marked con- 
 trast between His gentle words at this time, and the 
 awful severity of His condemnation at the second 
 cleansing (St. Mark xi: i5fiF.). Now, He speaks of 
 the sanctuary as His Father's House, but then He must 
 pronounce that most fearful sentence of final derelic- 
 tion: ''Your House is left unto you desolate" (St. 
 Matt, xxiii: 38). So the temple of a soul from which 
 He has departed, because it has cast Him out by sin, 
 passes desolate from His Father's blessed ownership 
 into that of the miserable self. 
 
 God's ancient House had been converted into a 
 "house of merchandise" when our Lord first came to 
 it. It had become "a den of robbers" at His second vis- 
 itation. So, it is also with one who is rebuked by Jesus 
 for deserting the attitude of prayer and using his God- 
 given powers for worldly and selfish ends. If he even 
 once disregards the rebuke he may go on from bad to 
 worse, until he becomes hardened and bold in robbing 
 God. 
 
 At the first cleansing the dear Christ came as a Son 
 into His Father's House, while at the last, He had to 
 sit in judgment upon the desolate fane of their self- 
 love. We know that it cost Him a flood of bitter tears 
 to condemn it, yet Divine Truth and Justice compelled 
 Him. May sweet Jesus rebuke and chasten us now in 
 love, that we may ever know Him as Saviour, never as 
 Judge! 
 
SAINT JOHN 67 
 
 W^Xt^ 9Da^ in tge iDctabr ot C^pipiian? 
 
 3fc)5U0 Stribinc to HDbtain acwptance 
 
 Our Saviour was almost immediately driven out of 
 the temple, and obliged to find His opportunity of 
 teaching in the streets of Jerusalem. But even so He 
 eagerly seized the opportunity which was afforded Him 
 there by the Festival. St. John, in three rapid phrases, 
 sums up the reason for Christ's hope that the people 
 would be, at this time, particularly receptive: (a) His 
 appeal was being made "at Jerusalem," the city God 
 had especially chosen, (b) The occasion was the an- 
 niversary of the Passover, Jehovah's great deliverance 
 of His people from slavery, (c) It was "during the 
 feast," when all hearts were full of religious fervor. "* 
 
 Jesus' labor during these days is touchingly indi- 
 cated by the statement that He wrought many "signs" 
 to gain the faith of the people. For there is abundant 
 evidence in the Gospels that working miracles weak- 
 ened our Lord and made Him suffer. Thus we read 
 that on one such occasion He sighed as if wearied 
 (St. Mark vii: 34), and the Beloved Physician records 
 that, after the healing of the woman with an issue, 
 He said, 'T perceive that virtue is gone out of Me" 
 (St. Luke viii:46). St. Matthew, indeed, implies that 
 in some way our Lord assumed the illnesses which He 
 cured, so that thus He "took our infirmities and bare 
 our sicknesses" (viii : 16 f.). We should think of Him, 
 therefore, during this week of street-preaching, as 
 spending Himself to the uttermost during the day, and 
 then at night, if His exhausted frame could endure it, 
 passing long hours of intercession beneath the olive 
 trees of Gethsemane — all to gain the faith and love of 
 miserable, fallen creatures. 
 
68 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Yet, with all He could do, He obtained but partial 
 success. "Many," we read, ''believed in His name 
 when they saw the miracles which He did." They 
 accredited Him as rightly bearing the name Jesus 
 Christ, "the Anointed Saviour," because He had such 
 power over the forces hostile to human life. But what 
 He wanted was that they should believe "into Him," 
 with such complete faith that they would surrender 
 themselves body and soul to Him. Since they would 
 not trust Him in this way. He could not trust Himself 
 to them. Yet He made out of their very hardness an 
 opportunity to manifest afresh the glory of His love 
 for men. His enforced reserve in not committing 
 Himself to them was a proof to them that His knowl- 
 edge of human hearts was immediate, universal and 
 complete. Of Himself, St. John assures us, He knew 
 the innermost character and thoughts of all men. By 
 this revelation of His divine wisdom. He would lead 
 them on to believe in His Godhead and to receive Him 
 without reserve. How can we ever doubt that God is 
 love, when we find Him, in the Gospel and in the spir- 
 itual experience of each one of us, making out of our 
 very failures a new way to lead us upward ! 
 
 ipor t|)e ipibe Dapis JFoIIotDinc* Read St. John iii -.1-15 
 
 ifourtS 2Dap In tf)e flDrtabe ^l C^pipSanp 
 
 W^z 3ncreliulit? of %>U /I^tcoHemuis 
 
 The Sanhedrist, who came to our Lord under cover 
 of night, is a typical instance of the kind of disciples 
 who "believed in Christ's Name." He accepted our 
 Lord as a Rabbi, who had been taught, not in the 
 Schools but directly by God. In this way be admitted 
 
SAINT JOHN 69 
 
 that Jesus was the Christ, but in a sense which was so 
 incomplete as to permit of his continuing in harmony 
 with false Jewish, rabbinical conceptions of Messiah. 
 His Pharisaical prejudices, a certain conservatism nat- 
 ural to an elderly man, and a very real timidity about 
 incurring the contempt of his fellow-leaders among the 
 Jews, if he accepted Christ as Divine, all united to 
 make him a very difficult subject even for our Lord's 
 infinite wisdom and patience. 
 
 With that infallible intuition of others' minds of 
 which St. John has spoken (ii: 24 f.), our Lord seems 
 to have at once recognized a longing of the old man 
 for renewed youth. He immediately took advantage 
 of this, in order to lead Nicodemus on, from what he 
 already believed, to new truth. Accordingly, there- 
 fore. He said, with the extraordinary solemnity which 
 His repeated 'Verily" betokens, ''Except a man be 
 born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." 
 
 The reply of the Pharisee indicates that Christ had 
 suggested to him just such a rebirth as he had often 
 craved, but as it seemed to him foolishly. He under- 
 stood that the Master's reference was to .spiritual 
 regeneration, and this Nicodemus had desired as ear- 
 nestly as vainly. A man is the sum of all his past 
 choices and experiences ; in him is the accumulation of 
 the habits, begun in boyhood, deepened in youth, and 
 made seemingly ineradicable during maturity. How 
 can he do away with this result of the years, and begin 
 afresh? Nicodemus probably refers to himself when 
 he speaks of "a man when he is old." If his physical 
 self cannot reissue from his mother, how can his moral 
 self reissue from the womb of time? His incredulity 
 is, therefore, of a very modern kind. Is there any 
 Power, men ask, which can give me back again the 
 
70 SAINT JOHN 
 
 purity of childhood, or the devotion I knew at my 
 First Communion? And the answer is the same down 
 the ages, as that which the Incarnate Word gave to 
 Nicodemus. Through Christ, and the Sacraments of 
 His Church, lies that ''road to yesterday." 
 
 3fe)5U3 JOIeana for jpait^ 'v\ (^w Spirit 
 
 There are two translations of those words of our 
 Lord which our Bible renders: "the wind bloweth 
 where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
 canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth." 
 The Greek means also : ''the Spirit breatheth where It 
 listeth, and thou hearest the Voice thereof, but know- 
 est not whence It cometh and whither It goeth" (iii: 8, 
 R. V. Marg.). In fact, Jesus intended this saying to 
 have a double meaning, in order to present His teach- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost in the simplest and most at- 
 tractive manner. As the invisible wind moves through 
 the world where it will, so the Blessed Spirit breathes 
 upon the water of Holy Baptism, or the bread and 
 wine of Holy Communion, bestowing upon them what 
 virtue He wishes. Thus our faith will not be hindered 
 by the paltry matter of the sacraments. We must not 
 regard the poor, material elements, but bethink our- 
 selves of God Who breathes upon them. Nor is it 
 what we do in preparation for Holy Confirmation 
 which is of supreme importance. Let us but open our 
 souls. The Holy Ghost will breathe His gifts into 
 them, if He wills, and His Will is infinite love. 
 
 But, while the Comforter is invisible, we can hear 
 His Voice. As St. Augustine says : "No one seeth the 
 
SAINT JOHN 71 
 
 Spirit, and how do we hear His Voice? The Psalm 
 sounds; it is the Voice of the Spirit. The Gospel 
 sounds ; it is the Voice of the Spirit. The Divine Word 
 sounds; it is the Voice of the Spirit." Even Nicode- 
 mus should have heard the Holy Spirit speaking 
 through his Old Testament Scriptures (e.g. Ezek. 
 xxxii:i-io; Zech. xiiiri). We Christians, perfectly 
 instructed by our Lord, must recognize His Spirit in 
 the Divine Office of the Church, in our meditation, in 
 sermons and spiritual books, and in the hearts and 
 lives of His holy servants around us. 
 
 Another great advantage we have, over the "master 
 in Israel." For he knew not "whence the Blessed 
 Spirit Cometh nor whither He goeth," but we know 
 that He comes to us from Jesus' Heart, and returns 
 thither bearing our souls, if we but let Him. 
 
 ^(xtfi 2Da? iw, t6e flDctabe of Cpip^anp 
 
 Souljs Born of t^e Spirit 
 
 Like the wind, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, is the 
 soul which has been born of Him at the font. For, as 
 "the wind bloweth where it listeth," with absolute free- 
 dom from all control except that of God, so is the child 
 of the Blessed Spirit free. (Cp. 2 Cor. iii : 17.) But 
 freedom, whether of the wind or of the Christian, 
 springs from obedience to Divine law. The precise 
 direction, volume and velocity of the air currents are 
 absolutely determined by the rotation of the earth and 
 the pressure of the atmosphere. But, because they per- 
 fectly obey the law of their being, they blow where 
 they "list." And in the spiritual world the angels and 
 the blessed saints enjoy the "glorious liberty of the 
 
72 SAINT JOHN 
 
 children of God" perfectly, because they are perfectly 
 conformed to the will of their Father. 
 
 Yet there are obstructions to the free course of the 
 wind. If there were not, we could not hear "the sound 
 thereof." In our spiritual lives too there are, as it 
 were, certain trees and crags and eaves of houses which 
 seem to limit our freedom. These are opposing cir- 
 cumstances, and cross-grained people, and our own hu- 
 miliating failures. Let us, like the wind, turn these 
 obstacles into so many instruments of music. Every 
 one of them will, if we obey the law of our spiritual 
 being, elicit from us the "Voice" of the Spirit of Love. 
 
 Our birth of water upon which the Holy Ghost was 
 brooding (Gen. i: 2, R. V. Marg.) was as mysterious, 
 our Lord declared, as the source of the wind. Nor 
 can any man tell whither we and the winds are hasten- 
 ing. But God who begot us will surely receive us at 
 last, and be our Goal, behind the veil One thing only 
 is required of us. We must permit ourselves to be 
 "borne forward unto perfection" by the inspirations of 
 the Holy Spirit (Heb. vi: 2, literally translated). 
 
 ^t\^txi\}^ 2Dap (n i\t flDctatie ot (KpipSanp 
 
 Dibine JFait|) 
 
 Nicodemus continued to be mystified by the teach- 
 ing of the new birth, and sought some explanation 
 which his reason could fully comprehend. ''How can 
 these things be?" he asked. But it is of the very na- 
 ture of a mystery that we cannot understand "how it 
 can be." Our supernatural religion, moreover, is full 
 of mysteries, culminating in the supreme mystery of 
 the Blessed Trinity. If, therefore, our Lord could not 
 
SAINT JOHN n 
 
 persuade His vistor to take His Word for the reality 
 of a sacrament, how could He ever lead him to be- 
 lieve in the Tripersonal Unity of God? ''If I have 
 told you earthly thing's, and ye believe not," he said 
 to Nicodemus, and indeed to us all, "how shall ye be- 
 lieve, if I tell you of heavenly things?" The "earthly 
 things'' here are the Divine transactions in the sphere 
 of this world, particularly the sacraments of the 
 Church, represented by Holy Baptism. The "heavenly 
 things" are those great mysteries of God's love, like 
 the Beatific Vision, which are so far above reason that 
 they require the maximum of divine faith. 
 
 The reality of the sacraments is indeed evidenced to 
 our reason by souls "twice born" through frequenting 
 them. Already the Apostolic band had seen this power 
 of Christ's mysterious hidden grace to regenerate souls. 
 "We speak that ive do know and testify that we have 
 seen," our Lord could say, including with His own the 
 witness of His disciples to the efficacy of His grace in 
 human lives. Sacraments, to our Lord and the Apos- 
 tolic Church, were but lh'.- "first piinciplcs" of the 
 Christian religion, by which our faith is trained for 
 far more transcendent mysteries (Heb. vi:i, A. V. 
 Marg.). 
 
 Jesus' great lesson to Nicodemus, therefore, was 
 this: True faith lies in believing all His teaching, 
 about "earthly" and "heavenly things" alike, on His 
 Word, Who was "in Heaven," "in the bosom of the 
 Father,'' even while He was revealing these Divine 
 truths on earth (iii: 13; i: 18). For he could not be 
 mistaken, nor deceive us. Faith in His Word is, there- 
 fore, more certain than knowledge of scientific propo- 
 sitions which are accredited to reason, for these some- 
 times prove to be erroneous. The basis of matter a^^s 
 
74 SAINT JOHN 
 
 until recently thought to be the atom. But physicists 
 are now convinced that it is unextended energy, and 
 perhaps this view will give way to the conviction that 
 ether is the elemental substance. But the verities of 
 the Catholic Faith have withstood the multiform as- 
 saults of innumerable enemies through nearly nineteen 
 centuries and remain as certain and as final as at the 
 first, because they are based upon the changeless Truth 
 of God. . 
 
 ^untiap in tjt flDctabe of CEplpfianp 
 
 iFaitf) in t|)e Dibine gin»bearer 
 
 When once Jesus had impressed upon Nicodemus 
 the necessity of accepting His teaching simply on the 
 faith of His infallible Word, He immediately proceed- 
 ed to instruct him about the ineffa.ble mystery of the 
 Atonement. With His appealing confidence in men 
 rising up to the loftiest achievements. He trusted that 
 the timid, old man, "stealing to Him under the cloak 
 of night," would believe the teaching of the Cross. 
 Nor was He mistaken, for when our Saviour had been 
 "lifted up," Nicodemus came, no longer by night, but 
 through the daylight, to take his place with the disci- 
 ples on Calvary (xix: 39). 
 
 The Brazen Serpent which Jehovah had caused to 
 be made for a cure of the fiery serpents' bites in the 
 wilderness was designed so as to resemble the reptiles 
 attacking the IsraeHtes as perfectly as possible (Num. 
 xxi : 8). Yet of course it was only like the enemies of 
 God's people and was in fact the remedy for the dead- 
 ly fever they were causing in their victims. It was in 
 this way that the symbol lifted up upon the cruciform 
 pole vvas a type of our Lord on the Cross. For He 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 "was made in the likeness" of sinful man ; He was 
 "'made to be sin," and ''a curse" (Phil. ii:7; 2 Cor. 
 v:2i ; Gal. iii : 13). Yet He remained always the im- 
 maculate Son of God, Whose resemblance to the evil 
 things which attack His people, w^as only in order that 
 He might cure their fiery bite. 
 
 It was necessary for the Israelites but to look upon 
 the Fiery Serpent lifted up before their eyes. But 
 they could not do this without seeing the representa- 
 tion of the evil monsters they had brongiit U]~!on thcrn- 
 selves by their sin, and in this way the look would be a 
 confession and an act of penitence. There were some, 
 indeed, it seems, who refused to ''behold the serpent 
 of brass." We Christians, also, must haijitually '*l:;e- 
 hold the Lamb of God" with unquestioning faith in 
 His Atonement, although to look upon Him humbles 
 our pride in the dust. v 
 
 Wc}Z JFirot %>\t Dapa after tl)£ ©piptjanp SDctabe* 
 Read St. John iii : 16-36 
 
 ^oti*0 Hobe for Soula 
 
 It is wonderful that the Evangelist who declares 
 most plainly the love of God for the whole world is 
 the Apostle who was most profoundly impressed by 
 the wickedness of man. Scholars insist that, accord- 
 ing to the genuine text, our Lord had said {v. 15) : 
 "The Son of Man must be lifted up, that whosoever 
 believeth in Him may have eternal life." When St. 
 John wrote, however, the evil of the world around him 
 was so black that it cast a somber shadow even upon 
 his glorious proclamation of the Divine charity for our 
 race: "God so loved the world, that He gave His 
 
76 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have eternal life." He has in- 
 serted in our Lord's gracious words a solemn warning 
 that those who do not believe in Christ perish. It is 
 significant, also, that it is he who records our Lord's 
 saying, "the world hateth Me" (vii:7). But for all 
 his clear vision of the fearful sin in the world, this 
 great, true optimist declares that both the Father and 
 the Son so loved our whole race that they willed to 
 save all mankind, even by the Cross. 
 
 Moreover, he tells us that God ''gave'' His Son. 
 This is quite different from saying that the Father 
 sent our Lord. For when God gave His Only-begot- 
 ten to men. He bestowed Him upon us, to be our very 
 own. And, since our greatest need of Christ was to- 
 have him for our Sin-bearer, the Father's gift of Him 
 involved His intention that Jesus should be our Sacri- 
 fice on the Atoning Tree. 
 
 St. John is unique in calling Christ by the title 
 *'Only-begotten." He does this for a double purpose: 
 (a) He would teach us that God gave His own, and 
 His only, Son to us. If we only believe "into Him,"" 
 we shall not even be judged; but our sole hope is in 
 Him alone (v. i8). (b) He has represented Chris- 
 tians as the "begotten" sons of God, and he must de- 
 clare the uniqueness of our Lord's Sonship unmistak- 
 ably. So close has our Father's love drawn us poor 
 sinners to Himself in Christ, that we needed to be 
 cautioned against supposing that we have been given 
 a share in the very Deity of God's Only-begotten. 
 
SAINT JOHN 77 
 
 'atuf 0liap jattec tSe iFit0t Siunliap rafter Cpip^anp 
 
 C|)e ^l}ri0tian ^antfeistinQ C|)riiBt 
 
 There is a vivid contrast between the unconverted 
 sinner and the loyal disciple of Christ, in the attitude 
 they take about laying their deeds before our Lord. 
 The former "loves darkness because his deeds are 
 evil": but the latter "cometh to the light that his deeds 
 may be made manifest." It is generally a perfect proof 
 that what we are doing or contemplating is righteous, 
 if we can lay it open to Jesus' gaze and ask His bless- 
 ing upon it. Our saintly Master, however, knew hu- 
 man hearts too well to say, as His contrast would 
 naturally lead Him to say, that the Christian "loveth 
 the light." We come, but often it is only after a 
 sharp struggle and perhaps with lagging steps, when 
 we know that the light, it may be of a retreat or a mis- 
 sion, will show us hard things to do. And even when 
 we have triumphed in "doing the truth," the light will 
 make manifest the plain fact that our deeds "are 
 wrought," not in our own power, but "in God." Con- 
 sequently, it will require heroism, now and then, for us 
 poor brethren of Christ to be children of the light. 
 
 Later, St. John records a saying of our Lord which 
 directs us not only to live in the Light, but also to have 
 the Light in us : "He that followeth Me," was His 
 promise, "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the 
 Light of Life" (viii: 12). Thus we are to possess the 
 Sun of Righteousness in our own hearts. For we are 
 meant to be the "lighthouses of life," manifesting the 
 Light of the World through our personality. Our dear 
 Saint sums up Christian conduct in his practical way, 
 as "doing the truth," meaning that "right action is 
 true thought realized. Every fragment of right done 
 
78 SAINT JOHN 
 
 is so much truth made visible." Let us strive always 
 to reveal that radiant Truth which dwells in our hearts. 
 The great dignity of Christians through their shar- 
 ing in the white light of Christ, appears from the 
 august title given them by St. Paul and St. John 
 (Phil, ii: 15, R. V. Marg. ; Rev. xxi: ii,R. V. Marg.). 
 For, whereas the holy Baptist was, in his earthly life, 
 only a "lamp kindled and shining," we are luminaries 
 in the firmament of God. Only our Lord, the Day- 
 spring, is more glorious than we are enabled to be 
 through His indwelling, . 
 
 matter (Epipl&attp 
 
 ©ractioinc ©toil anH Doinc \\)t ^rut|> 
 
 Who are the most practical people in the world? 
 Are they the Christians, represented, let us suppose, 
 by religious, or are they, perhaps, successful business 
 men of the kind whose highest aspiration is to see their 
 stocks swiftly rising? St. John solved this question 
 in the passage we have been considering. Let us ex- 
 amine his answer carefully. 
 
 It is conveyed in his contrast between those who 
 "practice evil deeds" and those who "do the truth." 
 The former verb, in the original, has the idea of busy 
 activity, of restless energy; the latter expresses quiet 
 accomplishment. The results gained by the one are 
 many and evil ; while the other performs but a single 
 life-work, which, however, increases the total of Divine 
 Truth, in the world. All the various products of god- 
 less striving after selfish gain will perish ; the one fruit 
 (Gal. v:22) of the "children of light" has the ever- 
 lasting permanence of Him Who is Truth. 
 
SAINT JOHN 79 
 
 St. John's principles of practical business are most 
 solemnly confirmed by our Lord (v:29). In reveal- 
 ing the Final Judgment, He said that "they who have 
 done good shall come forth from their graves unto the 
 resurrection of life; and they that have practiced evil 
 unto the resurrection of damnation." Let us, then, be 
 true capitalists, and give our labor with eager avarice 
 to the eternal work of Truth, which is wrought in God 
 and shall remain. , 
 
 matter (EpipSanp 
 
 3[e)5U)5 ^a? Wi\\\ 2Dur ipailure 
 
 It appears that in the beginning of our Lord's Min- 
 istry, both He and His Forerunner baptized in the 
 same locality. Presently, however, it began to be said 
 that Jesus' ministration brought greater blessings than 
 John's, whereupon arose the ''question about purify- 
 ing," that is, about the relative value of the two bap- 
 tisms. The ardent loyalty of the Baptist's disciples 
 was fired to jealous anger by seeing the multitude 
 leaving their master and going to Christ, and they 
 came to St. John complaining. Let us study their in- 
 dictment of our Lord. First they protest that He, 
 Who has now become the cause of their master's fail- 
 ure, had been with him in the midst of his success 
 "beyond Jordan." Why then was He interfering with 
 the ministry which was evidently so efficient and so 
 full of promise for the conversion of God's people? 
 Ought He to have established Himself in the very 
 same neighborhood with His successful fellow-laborer, 
 when this would surely lead to the lessening of his holy 
 influence for righteousness and piety? This is the 
 
80 SAINT JOHN 
 
 sort of doubts which are always likely to assail us, 
 also, when our Lord lets us fail, ignominiously, per- 
 haps, just when we were in the midst of some appar- 
 ently successful work for Him. 
 
 In the second place, the objectors pointed out that 
 Christ was the very One to Whom their master had 
 borne witness before the multitude, which as St. 
 Matthew tells us, had included the population of 
 "Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round 
 about Jordan" (iii:5). Why then, did He not bear 
 witness to His Forerunner? Often this question also 
 will intrude itself upon us when, either in our own 
 case, or in that of some other servant of Jesus, we 
 see faithful, loyal, humble service rewarded, not by 
 success and honor, but by failure and obscurity, pos- 
 sibly even by the deprivation of the very power of con- 
 tinuing the work. 
 
 The last charge was that 'all men were coming to 
 Christ.' But in this lies our consolation wrien we fail. 
 For we may be sure, always, that, in the perfect Wis- 
 dom of our Master, even our failures in the work of 
 our vocation will somehow help in bringing the world 
 to the feet of Jesus. His one desire was that all men 
 should come to Him, and by whatever agency this is 
 accomplished, even if it be through the defeat of all 
 our own plans, we attain thereby a share in God's own 
 perfect success. x 
 
 %X, 3[o|;n lB8ptt0t astilline to ipail 
 
 Jesus' Herald met the jealous complaints of his fol- 
 lowers by showing them three reasons for his being 
 not only willing, but glad, to fail when it was his 
 
SAINT JOHN 81 
 
 Master's wish. First, he could claim no authority, or 
 preferment, except that which had been given him, 
 and, as he had always told them, his was not the voca- 
 tion of the Christ. Thus he gently reminded them that 
 he had always taken the lowest possible place in Jesus' 
 service. The rabbis said : "Every office which a serv- 
 ant will do for his master, a scholar should perform 
 for his teacher, except loosing his sandal-thong." But 
 St. John insisted that he was unworthy even to do 
 this lowliest servile duty for the Son of God. If, 
 therefore, he was less than Jesus' slave, how could he 
 object to his Master letting him fail if He pleased ? 
 
 But, poor menial as he was in himself, he had been 
 chosen by Christ to be His "friend" at His nuptials 
 with His people. This was the second of St. John's 
 reasons for his willingness to see his success dwindle 
 to nothing. To his contemporaries, his metaphor 
 meant that the passing of his disciples to Jesus was 
 the marriage for which he had sought the Bride and 
 made the preparations. Now that he could hear the 
 Voice of the Bridegroom, leading His lowly spouse 
 Homeward, his joy was fulfilled. 
 
 Finally, he contended, it must be that Messiah 
 should increase, while he decreased. As he spoke, he 
 knew that imprisonment and martyrdom were hang- 
 ing over him, for before this he had denounced 
 Herod's wicked marriage. His "decrease" would be 
 through long languishing in Machaerus and perishing 
 at last by the axe, at midnight. Yet his joy was ful- 
 filled, for he knew that Jesus would "increase" through 
 his final testimony to righteousness, sealed with his 
 blood. Then let this be our sole concern, as it was his, 
 that the King have His blessed will with His slaves, 
 who are yet His friends (xv: 15), for He will surely 
 
82 SAINT JOHN 
 
 use even our failures and disasters in His Service, to 
 draw souls into eternal union with Himself. 
 
 featutDap atter tfie JFitioft feuntiap 
 ^iiti C^ptplban^ 
 
 €|)r{0t dupertot to SlII C^uman ^e8c|)er0 
 
 The Roman Empire, in St. John's day, was full of 
 pagan and Jewish teachers, some of them men of con- 
 siderable ability. No doubt there was, too, the same 
 temptation then that there is now, to prefer some 
 Oriental "mystic," or brilliant ethical culturist to Jesus 
 Christ, with His simple, severe Gk)spel. Accordingly, 
 the aged Apostle seeks to guard his 'little children" 
 against allowing any such human master to seduce 
 them from their allegiance to Christ. In Origin, doc- 
 trine, and Being, he tells them, our Lord is as far 
 above all these savants as Heaven is above earth {v. 
 31). To people in the plain of mere natural reason 
 it might look as if the loftiest heights of human genius 
 towered up into the very Sun of Righteousness, but to 
 him on the mountain-top it was evident that the glo- 
 rious Dayspring was at an immeasurable distance 
 above even the most gigantic intellects of men. 
 
 To make this infinite superiority of our Lord clearer 
 to ourselves, let us compare the most splendid human 
 genius with Him: (a) It is the productions of the 
 poet or painter or musician which we prize often with- 
 out caring about the author; it is the Personality, not 
 the masterpieces, of Christ, for which ten thousand 
 times ten thousand have joyfully given life itself, (b) 
 There are degrees of genius ; we cannot imagine there 
 being less or more of Jesus' holiness and love — His 
 
SAINT JOHN 83 
 
 ^'incommunicable splendor." (c) The great ones of 
 earth keep us, awe-struck, at a distance ; the humblest 
 "claim Christ for themselves, and themselves for 
 Christ." (d) Genius wins our admiration; Jesus 
 Christ receives our worship. 
 
 Even the inspired prophets were far inferior to 
 Him, for they received the Holy Ghost in "portions," 
 so that they were infallible only in their contribution 
 to Holy Scripture (Num. xi: 17; 2 Kings iiiQ). But 
 to Christ, God gave "not the Spirit by measure."" 
 Therefore, even apart from His Godhead, He could 
 speak only "the Words of God." Shall we then be- 
 lieve the fabulous wonders of false cults, and reject 
 the mysteries of His kingdom! Shall we not rather 
 live by every Word that proceedeth out of the Mouth 
 of the God-Man ! ^ 
 
 ^|)e deconH saUeeft 9fter t|)e ®pip|)anp 2Dctabe« 
 Read St. John iv : 1-42 
 
 %\t Second ^untia^ matter (Cptpjgan^ 
 
 (!r|)rtjBt'0 ®aceme00 to 6atn ®berp 6ouI 
 
 Our Lord was worn out with His journey from 
 Judea, and many days' fasting, and He lay "thus," 
 that is in a posture of utter weariness, on the curb of 
 the well. He was wearing the garments of a Jerusa- 
 lem Rabbi, it seems, and the seamless robe which was 
 peculiar to high priests. Then came the woman. 
 There was every reason for her to fear and distrust 
 Him — a Jew, from Jerusalem of all places ; a member 
 of that haughty group of her people's enemies, the 
 Rabbis ; and above all, a high priest. Yet, in the eyes 
 of this Rabbi was a look which from the first disposed 
 her to confide in Him. 
 
84 SAINT JOHN 
 
 How winningly He began to seek her soul ! The 
 way of ways to disarm her was to ask her a favor. 
 Therefore, He Who owned the whole universe ap- 
 pealed to His creature for refreshment. And we see 
 how successful this device of love was from the way 
 in which He speedily overcame her Samaritan sus- 
 picion and reserve. 
 
 As the interview proceeds, there are many instances 
 of the great care He took to gain her. The most nota- 
 ble of these is His suggestion to her of the Fatherhood 
 of God {w. 21-23). She had never before thought 
 of herself as the child of God. Is it not wonderful to 
 behold the eternal Creator seeking by every device of 
 love to gain the faith of His own creature? And yet 
 every one of us is being besieged day after day by this 
 same Infinite Personal Love. 
 
 Q^ontiap rafter tibe &econti feundap 
 ^(trt (Epiplianp 
 
 3fe)5U)5* iFaboritciB 
 
 It will convince us more perfectly that our Lord is 
 ever seeking every human soul with all His boundless 
 tenderness and wisdom, if we study the degraded state 
 of the Samaritan woman. For she, like all her people, 
 was a schismatic and a heretic, who rejected all of the 
 Old Testament except the Five Books of Moses {v. 
 22). Moreover, she was an inhabitant of "Sychar," 
 which was a nickname, probably, for Shechem, mean- 
 ing "the City of the Liar," or "of the Drunkard." 
 Such a nickname probably indicates that the village 
 was especially degraded, even for Samaria. Finally, 
 she was a fallen woman — from the demi-monde of 
 
SAINT JOHN 85 
 
 Sychar {yv. i6f.) — who had come out to this more 
 distant and deeper well instead of goings to the more 
 convenient one on the other side of the village, in 
 order to be alone and escape the scorn of her fellow- 
 townspeople. 
 
 The charity of our Lord for her appears the more 
 strikingly as we observe the amazement which it cre- 
 ated in the Apostles {v. 2y). For it was clean con- 
 trary to the custom of the rabbis that He should speak 
 with a woman at all. They said : "A man should not 
 salute a woman in a public place, not even if she is his 
 wife." But the Twelve found their Master speaking 
 with this woman, and that, as St. John's words show, in 
 the simplest and kindest manner, without a trace of 
 hauteur or condescension. Moreover, He was evi- 
 dently instructing her in religion, whereas the current 
 opinion in Jerusalem was that "it were better to burn 
 the words of the Law than to deliver them to a 
 woman." In fact, dear Jesus broke through many? 
 contemporary conventions, in order to reach this poor^ 
 needy soul. 
 
 Famishing and starving as He was. He forgot botb'^ 
 hunger and thirst in His ardent love for one ignorant,- 
 obscure, sinner. Well has it been said that in His- 
 Ministry His favorites seem always to have been "the^' 
 last, the least, the lost." May He find us all among 
 the last and the least, and united with Him in love of 
 the lost! 1 
 
 ^ae0lrap Mitt tjie feeconti &unliap 
 mxtt (Epip|)an^ 
 
 Cl)ni3t'0 ©r£ctou0 (gift for (Efaerp ^oul 
 To the astonishment of the woman, our Lord, al- 
 most immediately after He had asked her for water, 
 
86 SAINT JOHN 
 
 declared that in reality it was she who needed to ask a 
 draught of "living water" from Him. Their positions 
 were in reality the reverse of what they seemed. It is 
 as if He said to her: *'It is Thou who art weary and 
 foot-sore and parched, close to the well and yet unable 
 to drink; it is I who can give thee the Living Water 
 which will quench thy thirst forever." Now, the water 
 was sanctifying grace, the principle of spiritual life; 
 the Well was His Own Soul, and the empty vessel was 
 hers. 
 
 In order to make, not the woman only, but all of 
 us, crave this **gift of God," our Saviour goes on to 
 contrast the "living water" with the water of Jacob's 
 well, which represents all temporal blessings. This 
 satisfies, without satiety; that slaked thirst only for a 
 moment. This is a well freely given, and leaping up 
 within the soul ; that was inaccessible without great 
 effort. This is eternal in its value ; that was only tran- 
 sitory. 
 
 To accentuate His divine largess still more, Christ 
 developed His image of the spiritual well in this won- 
 derful way: It is as a spring of water, always a 
 mysterious thing to the ancients, which therefore indi- 
 cates that grace is from the mysterious source of His 
 Soul. It leaps up like a live thing, so prodigally abun- 
 dant is the supply from Him. The overflow is not lost, 
 but, we may suppose, is caught in the vessels of other 
 souls, since it is safe for eternity. Let us then eagerly 
 echo the plea of the Samaritan, "Sir, give me this 
 water, that I thirst not" forever. 
 
SAINT JOHN 87 
 
 •after (Kpipjanp 
 
 W^t /i^ature of (Sou 
 
 St. John tells us, in his Gospel and First Epistle, all 
 we know about the essential Being of God. There are 
 three magnificent revelations of the Divine Nature in 
 these sacred writings, and they are our Evangelist's 
 priceless gift to Christian theology. "God is a spirit" 
 is the first of these. In Him is no material thing which 
 can modify the absolute and infinite perfection of His 
 Nature. Our Lord declared this glorious truth to us, 
 in order to draw from it the practical inference that 
 we must worship our God *'in spirit and in truth." 
 The Christian must, therefore, approach the pure 
 Spirit of God, himself purified from all clinging to 
 material things, and filled, so far as is possible for him, 
 with true worship and love. 
 
 *'God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all," says 
 the epistle again (i St. John i:5). With St. John 
 light is always the symbol of purity, and this statement 
 of his means that the EKvine Nature is ineffably Holy. 
 And he demands of us, whose glorious vocation it is 
 to be like God, that we shall let this Divine Light 
 permeate our souls through and through. 
 
 "God is love" is the beloved disciple's final revela- 
 tion of the Nature of the Deity (i St. John iv: 8, i6). 
 If God were only Spirit, His aloofness from us, poor 
 earth-worms, would be so awful that we would hardly 
 dare go nigh Him; and if He were only Light, His 
 infinite Holiness would be unbearable to corrupt crea- 
 tures. But since He is Love, He cannot be contented 
 to remain aloof, but must come to us, in a material 
 Nature, that He may communicate His Holiness to us. 
 
88 SAINT JOHN 
 
 The cause of the Incarnation, therefore, was the In- 
 finite tenderness of God. It is His supreme appeal, 
 not only for worship and Holiness, but for love for 
 Him, like His for us. , 
 
 ^5ur0tiap *after t8e feeconti feuntia^ 
 jitter (Epipftanp 
 
 i^ob) WiZ ^ap (Sain Deeper BnotoleHee of 6oD 
 
 The first two people in the world to whom our Lord 
 revealed His Messiahship, apart from the Apostolic 
 Band, were both outcasts, the one from society in 
 Sychar and the other from the Jewish Religion (ix: 
 34-37). The great primary reason for this was of 
 course not any arbitrary preference on our Lord's 
 part, but simply the fact that these were especially 
 needy souls, who realized their emptiness. The Phari- 
 sees considered that they required no further revela- 
 tion from God. They wanted only a Messiah who 
 would vanquish and expel the hated Romans. But the 
 Samaritan was seeking a Messiah who would tell her 
 the truth, and accordingly Jesus filled her mind and 
 heart with the Divine Light which she sought. In our 
 meditation and our spiritual reading, we ought, after 
 her example, to present ourselves before our Lord 
 with a deep sense of need. 
 
 The most magnificent conception of Christ, ex- 
 pressed by any group of people in the Scriptures, is 
 that of the Samaritans, after only two days spent in 
 the presence of our Saviour. "This is indeed the 
 Christ, the Saviour of the world," is their triumphant 
 confession of faith. Why was it that these poor igno- 
 rant schismatics so quickly gained the clear conviction 
 of our Lord's world-wide love and power, when the 
 
SAINT JOHN 89 
 
 rabbis of God's Capitol rejected and crucified Him? 
 It was because the Samaritans knew, by personal ex- 
 perience, that man needs a Deliverer from sin, not a 
 splendid temporal monarch. Let us learn from them, 
 that by humility and penitence we open our hearts to 
 know Christ better. 
 
 These Samaritans provide, moreover, a fine example 
 of the truth that it was the simple people to whom 
 God's Word gave light and understanding. Now, 
 "simplicity is not a negative thing, but a positive and 
 deliberate loyalty to the truth by which one lives." 
 With all their faults, the Sycharites must have pre- 
 served an essential fidelity to their dim vision of Divine 
 Truth. Let us but live by the glorious revelation God 
 has granted us, and His mind will surely be manifested 
 to us more and more. , 
 
 jFribap matter i\t &econti ^unua^ ^afttt (Epip^anp 
 
 2lncon0ciou0 ^otoinQ for Ifrdus 
 
 Our Lord revealed to the Samaritan woman far 
 more Divine Truth than He had made known to the 
 whole multitude of people, many of them no doubt 
 instructed, pious Jews, in the Sermon on the Mount. 
 One partial explanation of this is that she had been in 
 a measure prepared, and made receptive to His teach- 
 ing. In the field of her soul, unconscious husband- 
 men had been sowing God's harvest. Who they were 
 we know not, except that Moses and the Patriarchs 
 had no doubt done their share through the first Five 
 Books of the Scriptures. But there must have been 
 many obscure servants of God, who knew not even 
 that they were planting for Him, but who had never- 
 theless labored to prepare His harvest in the woman 
 
90 SAINT JOHN 
 
 of Sychar and her fellow-villagers. Indeed, their con- 
 version served our Lord as material for a lesson to 
 the Apostles, that they also must be prepared to sow 
 spiritual seed from which other agents of His would 
 reap and garner {w. 36-38). 
 
 The Samaritans prove to us that we may find a 
 great opportunity to sow for Christ among people 
 whose receptiveness we would never suspect. St. 
 John emphasizes the fact of their remarkable willing- 
 ness to believe in Christ by contrasting with it the infi- 
 delity of Jerusalem. For Jerusalem was divinely 
 named the ** Vision of Peace"; Sychar was the "Town 
 of the Liar" or ''the Drunkard." Our Lord sought 
 Jerusalem many times; "He must needs go through 
 Samaria." Jerusalem refused to believe His many 
 miracles, His revelations and, His crowning proof, the 
 manifestation of His Divine Personality; Sychar be- 
 lieved on the statement of one poor sinner, who only 
 half credited her own message {v. 29, A. V. Marg.). 
 The Pharisees in the Gate of Jerusalem said, with 
 jealous hatred, ''Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? 
 behold the world is gone after Him" (xii:i9); the 
 people of Sychar stood in their gate and said, in joyous 
 faith, "This is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the 
 world." It seems that our Lord never slept in Jeru- 
 salem, but He tarried two nights in Sychar. Jerusa- 
 lem excommunicated and outlawed Him ; Sychar kept 
 beseeching Him to abide there permanently. 
 
 It seems evident, therefore, that we Christians have 
 a great work to do for Jesus by simply being His 
 servants, and exercising, quite unconsciously, a holy 
 influence over those among whom we move in our ob- 
 scure life. It was to those who would seem to be 
 most unlikely to receive Him, "babes," the "blind," 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 the "sick," the outcasts and the sinners, that our Lord 
 declared Himself especially sent. Let us think our- 
 selves happy that we may sow in these chosen fields of 
 His the seed of His eternal harvest. 
 
 featuttiap "after fte Sieconti ^untiag 
 <attet (Epip&anp 
 
 €|)ri0t*0 l^erfrct ^ruet in Wi% 
 
 The conversion of the Sycharites occurred in Jan- 
 uary or February, when the first green shoots of the 
 coming- harvest had but just forced their way through 
 the surface. The men of the village were to be seen 
 across the fields leaving the gate on their way to Jesus. 
 It was then that he said to the Apostles, "Say not ye, 
 there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? 
 Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on 
 the fields ; for they are white already to harvest." 
 What did He mean? There was only the early prom- 
 ise of a crop springing from the soil before them, nor 
 was there more than the first beginning of the spiritual 
 harvest in the souls of the Samaritans. Where then 
 was the ripe grain which Jesus saw ? 
 
 In His eyes, the long development of those poor 
 catechumens, with but the first ray of Gospel-light in 
 their souls, was already accomplished. So unquestion- 
 ing was His faith in them, and so complete His assur- 
 ance that they would go on to become an everlasting 
 harvest for His Heavenly storehouse, that He accepted 
 them even in the inception of their salvation, as al- 
 ready fully prepared for eternal life. 
 
 Such a magnanimous trust in us is a challenge to 
 our loyalty. For we can never consent to disappoint 
 
92 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Christ's absolute confidence in us. And when we be- 
 hold our Lord so triumphant, so happy, over this first 
 welcome of His Word, by a few Samaritans, we feel 
 bound to take up our struggle for perfection afresh, 
 if it were but to bring that joyful smile to His lips, as 
 He sees in us the first green shoots and counts His 
 harvest certain. 
 
 W^t ^|)trti Mleeft Sfter t|)e ®ptp|)anp £)ctabe* 
 Read St. John iv : 43-v : 20 
 
 3fe0U)3 aiaUelcominB 'Becinninc? of IFaitl^ 
 
 Our Lord had been cast off by His own country, 
 Judea, and by His own village of Nazareth. Conse- 
 quently, when He returned into Galilee, it was grate- 
 ful to His bruised Heart that "the Galileans received 
 Him." But the Greek word for ''receive" is one which 
 is used here only in St. John. It is chosen for a par- 
 ticular purpose, which is to indicate that the reception 
 thus granted to our Saviour was one inspired by 
 ephemeral enthusiasm because of His miracles at Jeru- 
 salem (cp. vi:66). We wish that the Apostle could 
 have used that other word which involves the idea of 
 intention to retain after receiving. But, imperfect as 
 He knew their welcome to be, Jesus valued it as honor- 
 ing Him in the way ''His own country" had refused 
 to do. 
 
 "He came, therefore,"' St. John continues, "again in- 
 to Cana of Galilee where He made the water wine." He 
 means by his "therefore," that, because of the hopeful 
 reception given Christ by the Galileans, He was en- 
 couraged to pause again at the most favorable point for 
 
SAINT JOHN 93 
 
 the development of their faith, the village where some 
 had "believed into Him" after His first great "sign." 
 And, in fact. He was rewarded by the opportunity of 
 helping one who had probably begun to believe through 
 the report of the miracle at the wedding feast. 
 
 At first sight it seems as if our Lord rebuffed the 
 nobleman, for He said unto him, "Except ye see signs 
 and wonders, ye will not believe." But, in fact, this 
 was addressed to the crowd of Galileans gathered 
 around Him. It is an appeal to them to accept, and 
 value supremely, a proof of His Deity higher than that 
 of miracles, that is the revelation of His Personality. 
 He does indeed fault these old neighbors of His be- 
 cause they had not learned to believe in Him during 
 the thirty years of His life at Nazareth. Like the 
 people of Jerusalem (vii: 27), they had not been able 
 to accept the Divine revealed in the midst of the com- 
 monplace. The very fact that they knew Him as the 
 village Carpenter had blinded them to the plain, daily, 
 manifestation of His Divine perfection. But He gave 
 the inferior ''sign" willingly and gladly, welcoming 
 the imperfect faith of the people. Is it not encourag- 
 ing to us that our Lord prizes thus even our earliest 
 beginnings of perfect faith ! 
 
 matter Cp(p6anp 
 
 3[e)3ui3 anH W^m in {ll?eroH'0 IPalace 
 
 The nobleman who came to our Lord seeking the 
 cure of his son was one of King Herod Antipas* 
 household. Later, the Tetrarch seems to know of His 
 miraculous power, and probably it was the healing of 
 
94 SAINT JOHA 
 
 this sick boy and the cure of Joanna the wife of 
 Chuza his steward which had attracted his attention 
 (St. Luke viii:2f. ; xxiii:8). No doubt his keen 
 intellectual curiosity led him to investigate these two 
 miracles thoroughly, so that through them all the love 
 and mercy of God were clearly exemplified to him. 
 Yet, in the end, he and his soldiers set the God-Man 
 at nought, at zero, because they were disappointed in 
 Christ as an object of sensational interest. So it is 
 that some are quite fascinated by the Catholic Faith, 
 at first, but finally they fall away because their religion 
 has been purely intellectual, or aesthetic, and has never 
 laid open their hearts and consciences to Jesus. 
 
 Many think that the nobleman was Chuza. At all 
 events, Herod's steward had this child's cure, as well 
 as the healing of his wife, to effect his conversion, 
 and it appears that he became a disciple. Certainly, he 
 permitted his wife, Joanna, to follow our Lord in His 
 journeys, with the other holy women, and to minister 
 to Him of the family "substance." In this way he 
 represents to us those who are occupied with the af- 
 fairs of the world, and yet give their alms, their dear 
 ones, and their own hearts to their Saviour. 
 
 There was one other in that luxurious court, who 
 learned of Christ's miracles. This was the king's fos- 
 ter-brother, Manaen, a man well past fifty, who had 
 been brought up as one of the family of Herod, mis- 
 called the Great. All his life he had been the compan- 
 ion of princes and a sharer of their Oriental splendor 
 and sensuous pleasures. Yet, at the call of the Naza- 
 rene, he left wealth, power and a career, to join the 
 Court of the Crucified (Acts xiiiri). May Jesus 
 grant that His Gospel may become as efficient in our 
 hearts as it was in His servant Manaen. 
 
SAINT JOHN 95 
 
 matter (Eptpfianp 
 
 ^^e HatD of Hobe Sbobe 911 2Dtl^er Hatos 
 
 It admirably illustrates the eager, seeking persist- 
 ence of Jesus' love, that after being driven away from 
 Jerusalem, and even from Judea, he retired only to 
 plan another method of appeal to His Capital. This 
 time, he would refer to Himself as far as possible only 
 indirectly as "the Son," and speak mainly of **the 
 Father." The Samaritans had accepted Him as the 
 Saviour sent by their Heavenly Father; perhaps the 
 Jews would surrender to this same attack of His 
 Charity. 
 
 His Love was, moreover, as tireless as it was in- 
 genious. Tlie Jews persecuted Him and sought to kill 
 Him because He was in the habit of performing acts of 
 mercy on the Sabbath {y. i6). His Charity could not 
 rest. In the case of the impotent man, however. He 
 deliberately chose the Sabbath for this conspicuous 
 miracle, in order to teach His people that the law of 
 love is superior to all other laws. And the symbolism 
 of the ''sign" was particularly significant of His mean- 
 ing. For it was well known that the man had lain 
 there waiting for a saviour for thirty-eight years, and 
 this was exactly the period of Israel's punishment in 
 the wilderness (Deut. ii:i4fiF.). Thus He intended 
 to give the holy law of charity the supreme sanction 
 of God's own example. Divine Love alone had 
 brought Him down to earth to save His people, help- 
 less in their sin like the paralytic. 
 
 The third quality of the love so perfectly exempli- 
 fied in Christ is that it does the more for another in 
 proportion, not to his right, but to his need. It was the 
 
% SAINT JOHN 
 
 impotent man's utter lack of means to help himself 
 which attracted our Saviour's tender sympathy {yv. 
 6 f.). In this, again, we see how charity transcends all 
 canons based upon justice. See, then, how thoughtful, 
 energetic and unmeasured must be our love if it is to 
 be even a little like the Qiarity of Christ. 
 
 matter (Epip^anp 
 
 WcfZ Habor of (Son for t^e aiaaorin 
 
 Our Saviour sought to explain to the Jews that His 
 cure of the impotent man was typical of God's Provi- 
 dence. "My Father worketh even until now, and I 
 worlc," He declared, meaning that His deed of love 
 that day was simply part of the Divine work through- 
 out the ages, and had a deep, underlying harmony with 
 the whole. As God continually supports the universe 
 in His Arms, so Christ had lifted up the helpless per- 
 son. The Blessed Trinity had sent the Son to redeem 
 the world; in conformity with this, Jesus had sought 
 to save the cripple frpm his sins {v. 14). Divine Char- 
 ity is seeking to restore our whole race to Paradise, 
 just as our Lord restored the impotent man to his 
 home. 
 
 But the wonder of God's love is that it continues 
 and even increases, in spite of man's wickedness and 
 perversity. The Jews turned our Saviour's feasts into 
 crises of His Life-tragedy. Three great miracles, 
 which were peculiarly sig*nificant of His Divine Love, 
 this one we are considering, the cure of the man bom 
 blind (ix), and the raising of Lazarus from the dead 
 (xi), they made the occasions of their deadly hatred. 
 
SAINT JOHN 97 
 
 Yet He only pressed on with ever-increasing love, seek- 
 ing their salvation. 
 
 Still again, our Lord proved to us that God attends 
 to each detail of every man's welfare. At the risk of 
 insult, or even stoning, He sought the restored cripple 
 in the temple, because He must teach him the spiritual 
 lesson of his cure. Evidently, his paralysis had been 
 due to some habit of sin, and he must be freed from 
 this. He at once rewarded our Lord by informing the 
 Jews as to Who had healed him — which is another 
 sign that he was as poor material as any of us. Can 
 we not, then, believe with entire conviction, that our 
 Saviour's Providence vigilantly provides for every 
 need of our bodies and souls, as it did for this crippled 
 brother of ours ? . 
 
 U6ur0lia^ matter tje Ws^xt^ ^untiap 
 ^tur Cpipfianp 
 
 ^an SPuet Cooperate WJiVo <Soti 
 
 The three of our Saviour's cures, wrought on the 
 Sabbath, which are recorded in the Gospels, were all 
 of impotence. They were, the healing of paralysis in 
 the passage we are studying, of the withered hand, of 
 the spirit of infirmity, and of the dropsy (St. Matt. 
 xii:9ff. ; St. Luke xiiirioff. ; St. Luke xiv:2ff.). 
 The lesson is that man is to be, like God, a pure act 
 of love, not for six days only, but for seven, in every 
 week. On the Christian Sabbath, this energy of love 
 will manifest itself in attendance at the great ap- 
 pointed act of worship, the Blessed Eucharist. We can 
 have no share with a God who works seven whole days 
 a week, if we spend all of Sunday in rest and recrea- 
 tion. 
 
98 SAINT JOHN 
 
 The paralytic was made to participate in the instruc- 
 tive miracle of his cure by three acts which our Lord 
 carefully directed ; he was told to rise, take up his bed, 
 and walk home with it. In this way he assisted in 
 teaching the law of love's activity on the Sabbath, 
 even, indeed, at the risk of his life, for the rabbinic 
 law denounced death against any who carried a bur- 
 den on that day. May not we help our Lord teach 
 the reign of love on His day? 
 
 After a time, the restored cripple sought Jesus in 
 the crowd, and found Him not. Then he went into 
 the temple, probably to make his thanksgiving, and 
 there our Lord came to him. Not on the streets in 
 the crowds, nor anywhere else will we find the I^rd of 
 the Sabbath, as we shall meet Him in His House at 
 the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving. 
 
 matter (Epipjanp 
 
 W\^2X €|)ri)3t Cannot Do 
 
 ''The Son can do nothing of Himself," our Lord 
 declared, "except what He seeth the Father do, for 
 what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son 
 likewise, for the Father loveth the Son and showeth 
 Him all things that Himself doeth." This statement 
 appears at the beginning of the discourse, really a comr 
 pact theological treatise, addressed to "a small trained 
 audience," probably the Sanhedrin {w. 19-47). It 
 expresses in simple words the absolute unity of Will 
 and Mind in the Persons of the Godhead. It asserts 
 not a limitation of Christ's Power, but an attribute of 
 His Character as the Son of God. 
 
SAINT JOHN 99 
 
 "I can of Mine Own Self do nothing/' he said in 
 the same instruction; '*as I hear I judge." This is 
 again His Essential oneness with His Father. That 
 His power is free from any real limitation appears 
 from the fact that He had absolute dominion over His 
 own human Life. "No one taketh [My Life] from 
 Me, but I lay it down of Myself," He said (x: i8). 
 Only God could claim thus to control His own fate 
 without let or hindrance. So jealous, however, was. 
 He, of maintaining His relation of Sonship to His 
 Father inviolate, that this assertion of His right to* 
 die for us *of Himself stands alone, and even in this. 
 He adds immediately that all would be done under 
 His Father's commandment. 
 
 Yet there are limitations imposed upon Christ's 
 action by the free will of creatures. He was hindered 
 from works of mercy by their unbelief (St. Mark 
 vi: 5). On the other hand, He declared that His love 
 was constrained by the prayers of a Saint, so that He 
 suspended His just punishment of the worshippers of 
 the golden calf (Ex. xxxii:7-io). Thus, impossibili- 
 ties for Christ are due always to the Love which is His 
 Nature, except that one by which human unbelief 
 stems the torrent of His mercy. 
 
 ^(ter (Epip^an^ 
 
 C|)rt!9t'!S Slbarice 
 
 Our Lord was like a miser, in the way He turned 
 everything to account in gaining for Himself more 
 treasures, that is disciples. Thus, He even employed 
 the wonder which He aroused, by His miracles, in 
 
100 SAINT JOHN 
 
 order to start souls in the path that would lead to 
 perfect faith in Him. "The Father," he said to the 
 Jews, "will show the Son greater works than these, 
 that ye may marvel." The signs of His Divine Power 
 which He had shown them had failed to inspire even 
 the first faint gleam of faith in their minds. Then He 
 would perform still more stupendous miracles in the 
 hope of arresting their attention, and ultimately sav- 
 ing them. 
 
 In His almost incredible eagerness for His creatures' 
 love, He had constructed a kind of ladder of faith, as 
 we can collect from St. John: First He led them to 
 believe in His miracles as genuine signs of His Holi- 
 ness, Love and Power. Next, they would naturally 
 'believe Him,' that is His testimony, "for the very 
 works' sake." Then, they would go on to take His 
 word for His truthfulness, on the basis, now, of His 
 Personal Perfection. Another step upward, and they 
 would believe in His Name, Jesus Christ, the anointed 
 Saviour. Finally they would arrive at the highest 
 and truest faith, belief ''into Him." This involved 
 complete self-surrender, and the acceptance explicitly 
 of what He had taught and implicitly of all that He 
 would subsequently reveal. 
 
 The character of this faith He so ardently craved 
 appears from the one instance of the appearance in the 
 other Gospels of the phrase by which St. John always 
 distinguishes it (St. Matt. xviii:6). There our Lord 
 speaks of the "little ones" who "believe into Him." 
 Let us satisfy His dear covetous Heart by giving Him 
 the unquestioning faith of children in all the great 
 mysteries He has revealed to His Church. 
 
SAINT JOHN 101 
 
 ^or t^f iFour O.^ps IFoIIotoing, Read St. John v : 21-47 
 
 Courts feuntiap ^iitt CEpipftan? 
 
 Cferiat'gi IfuUgmrnt 
 
 It must have occurred to us all in reading the Fourth 
 Gospel, that the office of judging the world is assigned 
 in one place to the Father, in another to the Son of 
 Man, and in a third to the Word of our Lord (xii: 
 47 f. ; V : 22 ; xii : 48 f.), The apparent contradiction 
 of these passages raises a question which is aggravated 
 by the fact that our Lord also ascribes the Judgment 
 to the Apostles, and St. Paul to the Saints (St. Matt. 
 xix: 28; I Cor. vi : 2). 
 
 The solution of the problem lies in the method of 
 the judgment. Souls will know their fate, at the last, 
 by simply coming into the Presence of the Father, the 
 Son and Their Saints. By the sheer fact of what They 
 are They will judge who appear before them. 
 
 The truth of this explanation will appear more 
 clearly, if we consider how our Lord continually 
 judged souls on earth. His every word, whether or 
 not it was meant to rebuke, awoke penitence or re- 
 morse, devotion or hatred. His miracles, like the 
 draught of fishes which pierced St. Peter with sucb 
 poignant self-reproach (St. Luke v: 8), inevitably lai(^ 
 bare the secrets of hearts. He looked upon the Rich 
 Young Man with such great love, that he went away 
 very sorrowful over the ''great refusal" he had made. 
 But most of all Jesus judged souls by what He was. 
 We ourselves know people, who, not only by word or 
 deed or look, but by their very presence silently, un- 
 consciously condemn what is evil in us. How much 
 more surely does the Son of Man judge the whole 
 human race as it passes before His tribunal! Men 
 
102 SAINT JOHN 
 
 deny the Last Judgment, but that is only the finale of 
 a series which they cannot deny, for it began with 
 the appearance in the world of the Incarnate God, 
 and is going on day by day. It is the fashion in our 
 time for everyone to judge Christ. Let us live in the 
 recollection of the fact that He is daily, hourly, judg- 
 ing us. , 
 
 Qponlia^ attft i\t Jfouttl) feunUap 
 matter (Ep^pSan? 
 
 %^t CtDO tRf0urrectton0 
 
 If we observe carefully, we find that our Lord 
 revealed to the Sanhedrin, in the passage we are study- 
 ing, that there is a spiritual resurrection during this 
 present life {w. 2i-2y), as well as that bodily resur- 
 rection to which we will come at the last ivv. 28 f.j. 
 "The hour is coming, and now is," he solemnly de- 
 clared to them, "when the dead shall hear the voice 
 of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." 
 This is very different from that hour which is "com- 
 ing," — He does not say "and now is" — " in the which 
 all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall 
 come forth," the good unto the resurrection of life 
 and the evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Men 
 are not constrained to hear Jesus' voice summoning 
 them to the spiritual resurrection; they cannot choose 
 but hearken when He calls them forth from their 
 graves at the last day. 
 
 This then is what our Baptism meant, our resurrec- 
 tion from death into eternal life. Jesus Christ is reign- 
 ing in our midst. Our archenemy has been so chained 
 that he can deceive us no more. Already we may share 
 
SAINT JOHN 103 
 
 the peace and joy of our Saviour, seeing Him with our 
 spiritual eyes (Rev. xx: 1-4; St. John xiv: 19). 
 
 But one thing is needed to secure to us all the 
 precious things of our spiritual resurrection, and that 
 is the recollection of our union with our King. A 
 missionary tells us of a woman in China, a Buddhist 
 who, poor heathen as she was, may teach us the hap- 
 piness of abiding in Jesus' Presence. She was the 
 head of an orphanage which was about to be attacked 
 by soldiers in one of the recent revolutions. Her in- 
 vocations of Buddha had proved fruitless. The car- 
 nage in the streets around her institution was drawing 
 ever closer, and in a little while she and 500 children 
 would be slaughtered for the sake of their store of rice. 
 In despair she bethought herself of a little New Testa- 
 ment in Chinese and sitting down she began to read it. 
 Immediately she realized that there was a Presence 
 behind her, powerful and loving enough to protect her 
 against all her enemies. All night long she read, and 
 all night there was One Who spread His Wing over 
 her. In the morning she found that not even the plas- 
 ter of the orphanage walls had been marred. But 
 why should she, while yet a pagan, enjoy our Lord, 
 and we never realize that in His Presence is the ful- 
 ness of joy and pleasure forevermore (Ps. xvi : 11) ? 
 
 ttuegflia^ rafter tfie ifouttS ^unliap 
 matter (CpipSan? 
 
 /r^atural Eebelationis of <SoIi 
 
 When Christ rebuked the Jews because they had 
 neither heard the Father's Voice at any time, nor seen 
 his Shape, nor had His Word abiding in them, He 
 complained of actual failures to practice the Presence 
 
104 SAINT JOHN 
 
 of God in three ways which were perfectly practical 
 for them. They ought to have heard His Voice in 
 history, particularly that of their own people in which 
 His guidance was so remarkably evident. Then, they 
 would have realized that the whole world had been 
 prepared for the Incarnation, by the universal spread 
 of the Greek language and philosophy and of Roman 
 civilization. But are not we Christians obnoxious to 
 His criticism in this regard? We give over secular 
 history, even that which closely touches the Catholic 
 claims of the Anglican Communion, to seculars whose 
 interpretation is too often thoroughly pagan. Nor 
 have we realized, any more perfectly than did the Jews, 
 our obligation to discern the Divine Presence imma- 
 nent in the history of our race. 
 
 The Form of God should appear to our eyes behind 
 the sacramental veil of Nature. The thunder is His 
 Voice, "manifesting the ardor of His wrath against 
 iniquity" (Job xxxvi:33, literally translated). ''Lift 
 up a stone and I am there," He says to His children. 
 In a word, 
 
 "Earth's crammed with heaven, 
 And every common bush afire with God." 
 
 How sacred our whole environment would be if only 
 we saw the Father's "Shape" everywhere ! 
 
 His Word, also, ought to abide in our conscience, 
 which means, of course, that we must obey it habitual- 
 ly. For a conscience which continually regards the 
 Divine Will becomes continually clearer; and the con- 
 science is simply the intellect engaged in one of its 
 activities. Our mind, therefore, by filial submission 
 to our Father's Word, will become always better able 
 to see Him, in the Beatific Vision, throughout eternity. 
 
SAINT JOHN 105 
 
 dflletineoiiap matter t^e jFouttS feuntiap 
 
 OEiternal i^rl))? to fi^obe 
 
 The Jews had a complete system of devotional helps 
 by which God intended that they should receive into 
 their hearts more and more love for Him. There were 
 the tefiUin, small metal cases containing the great 
 primal text of their religion, "Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
 with all thy might.'' These were worn strapped upon 
 the arm and upon the forehead, at prayer, according 
 to their interpretation of the Divine command (Deut. 
 vi:4-8). A similar case called the mezuza was in- 
 serted in the door-frame, and the careful Israelite 
 always touched the facing as he entered, in order to 
 remind himself of the precept of love enshrined there. 
 Finally, the knotted fringe of the prayer shawls, the * 
 zizith, were also intended to commemorate God's com- 
 mand to love Him (Deut. vi : 9 ; Num. xv : 37 ff.) . 
 
 We cannot doubt that God was at least willing to 
 have His people remind themselves by these devotional 
 objects, of their obligation to love Him. For Christ 
 must have used the customary ritual signs of His peo- 
 ple continually. There is, it seems, evidence that He 
 wore the zizith, for it was this which the woman with 
 the issue touched in order to be healed (St. Luke viii: 
 44). Surely, therefore, it is proper for us to use such 
 devotional helps as sacred pictures in our houses and 
 to wear a cross or a crucifix, concealed it may be, in 
 order to stimulate the love of God in our hearts. 
 
 We must, however, bear constantly in mind that 
 ritual, even though it has the sanction of our Lord and 
 His Church, is only a means whereby we may grow in 
 
106 SAINT JOHN 
 
 divine charity. To the Jews, after all their devotional 
 advantages, our Lord gave that stern, sorrowful re- 
 buke, "I know you, that ye have not the love of God 
 in you." Let us use sacred objects as He did, always 
 as a means of concentrating imagination, mind and 
 will upon God. . 
 
 JFor t|)e W^ut Dap0 ipollotomc* Read St. John vi : 1-23 
 
 ^Sut^dap after X\z JFouttJ &unUap 
 •after (Kpipfjan? 
 
 W^t ^^xee iFea0t!9 {^robiDeH bp Hobe 
 
 Our Saviour may be said to have divided His Min- 
 istry into three parts, and He concluded all of these 
 with feasts. The first was His Galilean Ministry, 
 which ended with the feeding of the five thousand. 
 The humble barley bread of the peasants with little 
 fish from the lake was the food which our Lord mul- 
 tiplied, and gave to Israelites only, as their Messiah. 
 He provided but a single meal, for the people were 
 near their homes or lodgings ; and the Twelve gath- 
 ered together only fragments enough to fill their little 
 wicker wallets with store sufficient for their next 
 repast. 
 
 In contrast with this miracle, in many details, is the 
 feeding of the four thousand, which ended the min- 
 istry in Decapolis. Seven wheaten loaves were used, 
 and our Lord, as the Son of Man, provided the feast 
 for a multitude largely composed of Gentiles. Evi- 
 dently, too. He gave them an ample supply for their 
 long journey homeward (St. Matt, xv: 32 flF.). More- 
 over, the Apostles filled seven hampers full of the 
 broken food, for they were sojourning in the wilder- 
 ness and must provide for many days. 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 The third Banquet was the Gift of Love which 
 crowned the Judean Ministry, and in one way consum- 
 mated Christ's whole work in the world. This was 
 the Blessed Eucharist, by which as the High Priest 
 of the Catholic Qiurch He feeds five hundred millions 
 with the very Bread of Heaven. For He must 
 strengthen His Own for their journey of life through 
 the wilderness of this world. 
 
 jFtitiap mttt Hz JFourtI) feuntiap 
 mtn €pip6anp 
 
 ^|)e iForejB|)atiotDinQ of t|)e l^lta^tW iSacramrnt 
 
 The miraculous feeding of the five thousand is the 
 only one of our Lord's miracles narrated by the other 
 three Gospels and included also in the Fourth. Prob- 
 ably St. John's reason for making this exception to his 
 usual rule of not repeating what His fellow Evangel- 
 ists have recorded for us was that the miracle was of 
 extraordinary value as a type of Holy Communion. 
 He is at great pains to tell us how apparently inade- 
 quate were the materials. The buns were of the 
 despised barley flour, the fish were tiny, and both these 
 were simply the luncheon of a little lad. It is as if he 
 would urge that the poverty of the wafers and wine 
 on the altar is no greater than that of the means used 
 by Jesus for the feeding of many thousand. 
 
 The people sat down in orderly ranks (St. Mark 
 vi: 40), evidently expecting a full meal, although there 
 was apparently nothing for them to eat. Does it not 
 suggest to us St. John's congregation waiting for the 
 Banquet of Love, their kneeling posture and extended 
 hands indicating that they expect to fill their souls with 
 
108 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Him who is the Bread of Heaven, while yet the altar 
 seems to be supplied with nought but a little bread 
 and wine? 
 
 Lastly, in the first three Gospels Jesus is said to have 
 "blessed" the bread and fish, but St. John speaks of 
 Him as multiplying the food by ''giving thanks" over 
 it (St. Matt, xiv: 19; St. Mark vi:4i; St. Luke ix: 
 16 ; St. John vi : 1 1 , 23 ) . Now, this act of saying grace 
 before the meal was characteristic of the father of a 
 family. And it is in Holy Communion that the Incar- 
 nate Lord redeems that promise of His, *'I will not 
 leave you orphans; I will come to you" (xiv: 18, A. V. 
 Marg.). When He had given them the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment, for the first time He called them His "little chil- 
 dren" (xiii: 33). Thus, while Jesus is our Brother in 
 the "household of God," in the Holy Communion He 
 is also our Father since He gives us His own Hu- 
 manity. . 
 
 featurtia? jattet tfte jFoutt^ &untiap 
 jatttt (EpipSanp 
 
 C|)n)5t*0 Di0cipIine 
 
 The storm which is described by St. John appears 
 also in the parallel accounts of two previous Gospels, 
 St. Matthew and St. Mark (xiv: 23 ff. ; vi : 46 ff.). It 
 had impressed itself deeply upon the Apostolic band 
 by reason, not only of the danger, but of the blessed 
 discipline of which it was the occasion. They had 
 started in a northwesterly direction across the lake 
 and the gale was blowing from that quarter, in their 
 very teeth, so that they were "wallowing" in the sea 
 and making no headway. Then, it must have seemed 
 a strange way in which they were being given their 
 
SAINT JOHN 109 
 
 promised rest (St. Mark vi:3i), besides being a use- 
 less venture, for they were leaving behind the oppor- 
 tunity of making Jesus king. Worst of all they were 
 alone, an element of their trouble which all three ac- 
 counts emphasize. Surely they must have been great- 
 ly tempted to think that either Jesus' wisdom or His 
 power had failed them at last. 
 
 Throughout the long, stormy night. He had been 
 praying for strength to be the Saviour, rather than 
 an earthly king. Probably the Apostles had not wait- 
 ed for Him but had started across the lake, thinking 
 that He must have preceded them. From His position 
 on the mountain, He saw them ''toiling in rowing" 
 (St. Mark vi : 48). The expressive word for ''toiling" 
 in the original is that used of testing by torture. And 
 yet he waited until the fourth watch, the black hour 
 just before the dawn, in order to discipline and develop 
 their faith in Him. At last, in the gray dawn they 
 saw Him coming to them over the waves, now visible 
 on the summit of a billow, now lost in the deep trough 
 of the sea, again mounting the crest of a wave like 
 some majestic spirit, and then again hidden by a cloud 
 of spray. When they had received Him in the boat 
 immediately it was at the port for which they were 
 making. 
 
 St. John has grouped this "sign" together with that 
 of the feeding of the five thousand, because both 
 taught the Apostles new convictions of Jesus' power 
 over physical nature. "He can support men though 
 visible means fall short. He is with His Disciples 
 though they do not recognize or see Him." Thus their 
 minds were prepared for the instruction which imme- 
 diately followed on the Blessed Sacrament. For it 
 was evident that He Who could compel wind and 
 
no SAINT JOHN 
 
 wave to do His bidding could also feed them with His 
 own precious Body. If He could surmount every 
 impasse of physical nature to be with them in the 
 midst of the lake, surely no natural law could bar Him 
 out from the midst of His toiling Church on earth. 
 
 W^z JFiftI) aaiCeefe after ©pipljanp* Read St. John vi : 24-71 
 
 (»r^ti0t Directinc Jeal 
 
 The people who followed our Saviour on His return 
 to Capernaum were the most zealous of those enthu- 
 siastic Galileans who had attempted to make Him their 
 king by force. They had proved their devotion by 
 continuing to watch for Him through the whole night 
 after He had withdrawn. Our Lord appreciated their 
 keen interest, so greatly, in fact, that He prefaced His 
 instruction on the Blessed Sacrament by a discourse 
 on true belief in Him. Immediately that He saw them, 
 He rewarded them with His great fundamental lesson 
 that His people must seek Him primarily, rather than 
 His gifts {v. 26). As Ven. Bede says, on this verse, 
 "Christ flees from, those who seek Him for something 
 besides His own sake." 
 
 He then set before them two objects for which to 
 work. First, they were to "labor, not for the food 
 which perisheth, but for that Food which endureth 
 unto eternal life," which He would give them. Thus, 
 He would have His followers zealous in their prepara- 
 tion for the Blessed Sacrament. Would it not conse- 
 crate the routine of our every-day life if we performed 
 our tasks, as well as said our prayers, in preparation 
 for our next Communion? "It was the Altar that 
 
SAINT JOHN 111 
 
 drew me," says Mr. R. J. Campbell, and many another^ 
 like him, has been attracted to the Church by the Sac- 
 rament of Love. But how often the devotion of these 
 converts puts our coldness to the blush ! 
 
 Secondly, Jesus directed the Galileans that they 
 must work in order to believe ''into Him" {y. 29). 
 Have we realized that faith is the reward of spiritual 
 labor, with the stimulus and the assistance of Divine 
 grace ? Not only must we strive for it, and for more 
 and more of it, but when we have gained it, we shall 
 often find it a burden which we are tempted to cast 
 off. But we must remember that it is the ''work oj 
 God." ■ And, by a growing faith in the Mysteries of 
 the Altar, we merit the first and the last Beatitudes, 
 both of which are for faith in the unseen verities of 
 our religion (St. Luke i:4^i.; St. John xx:2g). 
 
 Mttt d^pipftanp 
 
 €t)wt life ^m of <8oli to J^ts J^eople 
 
 The Galileans who were disposed to believe our 
 Lord demanded that He show them a ''sign from 
 Heaven," by which they meant some miraculous ma- 
 terial gift like manna. In answer, Jesus pointed to 
 Himself as God's Sign to His people. "Ye have seen 
 Me/' he said (v. 36). To their Jewish minds. His 
 Words meant that He was Immanuel, the Sign long 
 since promised to Israel (Isa. vii: 14). But we Chris- 
 tians know Him also as the Sign which is being every- 
 where "spoken against," and which shall appear in 
 Heaven when the Son of Man shall come to Judg- 
 ment (St. Luke ii:34; St. Matt. xxiv:3o). Surely 
 
112 SAINT JOHN 
 
 God could not have given us a sign of His infinite love 
 more convincing than His Incarnate Son, except in- 
 deed the Blessed Sacrament wherein even the Human- 
 ity of God is hidden under the humble veils of our 
 food. 
 
 Blind and reluctant as these inquirers were, our 
 Lord's boundless charity toward them never for a 
 moment flagged. "Him who is coming to Me I will 
 in no wise cast out," He told them, with yearning love 
 (v. 37, literally translated). He meant to assure them 
 that His welcome would meet their advancing faith 
 half way, as, in the parable of the prodigal son, the 
 father went to embrace the boy when he was yet afar 
 off (St. Luke xv: 20). 
 
 It will help us to understand this quality in our 
 Lord's love, if we see it illustrated in the conversion 
 of a certain woman, who has ever since given herself 
 to the service of His poor brethren. When she was a 
 baptized Unitarian she was drawn to the Blessed 
 Eucharist, and for two years attended, of course with- 
 out communicating. At last a Sunday came when she 
 felt so irresistibly drawn to receive our Lord that she 
 determined to go forward for the Blessed Sacrament. 
 But He was beforehand with her, gently restraining 
 her from approaching the altar, and leading her in- 
 stead to stand up, and, for the first time in her life, 
 recite the creed. How it was wrought she under- 
 stands not. Only she knows that Jesus came to meet 
 her very first advance, when she "was yet a great way 
 off," and clasped her to His breast. 
 
 k 
 
SAINT JOHN 113 
 
 $^anna anH C^ol? Communion 
 
 During His discourse on faith, our Lord was, it 
 seems, standing before the door of the synagogue in 
 Capernaum, which, perhaps alone among all the syna- 
 gogues of the world, was surmounted by a representa- 
 tion of the pot of manna, instead of the usual seven- 
 branched candlestick. Later (at ^.41), He appears to 
 have entered the synagogue and there preached His 
 sermon on the Blessed Sacrament {w. 48-63). All 
 the more naturally from this image of the manna, it 
 occurred to the Jews to compare our Lord with Moses. 
 Could Jesus show them as great a proof of His author- 
 ity from God as the food which Moses had obtained 
 from Heaven for their forefathers in the wilderness ? 
 
 Certainly, the miracle of the loaves and fishes could 
 not claim to be as great as that of the manna. For 
 that "bread from Heaven" had flavors of both oil and 
 honey (Num. xi:8: Ex. xvi:3i), and was therefore 
 far superior to humble barley bread. Moreover, bread 
 taken from the Heavenly treasury was surely better 
 than any made on earth. Finally, it required more 
 Divine power to feed six hundred thousand warriors 
 six times a week for forty years, than to provide five 
 thousand with just one meal. 
 
 But the ''true Bread from Heaven" which is the 
 Blessed Sacrament, has these properties, as St. Chry- 
 sostom explains to us, which make it infinitely more 
 blessed than the manna : ( i ) It cometh down contin- 
 ually; (2) It feeds all the world, not one nation only; 
 (3) It gives, not nourishment only, but eternal life 
 (w. 33, 51). 
 
114 SAINT JOHN 
 
 tr^f ifruit of t|)e I^assion 
 
 When Jesus was sent to illuminate and save us, He 
 was ''sealed" by the Father {y. 2y). In Jewish ears, 
 this meant that He had been solemnly set apart and 
 authenticated, as the lambs in the temple were ap- 
 proved by the seal of the priests, in token that they 
 were fit for sacrifice. Thus there is a wealth of mean- 
 ing in this saying of our Lord. The Father had 
 "sealed" Him by miracles as His own son, ordained 
 to be the Sacrificial Victim for man's sin. And when, 
 presently. He promised to give His Body and Blood 
 for the Food of souls, they rightly understood Him to 
 mean that in some mysterious way His people were to 
 feed upon Him as the Lamb of God, slain upon the 
 Altar of the Cross. 
 
 Moreover, this conception of the Blessed Sacrament, 
 by which it brings to us the crucified Christ, is em- 
 phasized by the fact that our Lord throughout the 
 discourse uses the word "Flesh," rather than "Body," 
 for His sacred Humanity. The commentators agree 
 that His intention in this was to suggest His Passion, 
 and that the thought was further ai:centuated by His 
 promise that we should drink His precious Blood {v. 
 54). Thus, when He said, "The Bread that I will 
 give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the 
 world," He wanted us to understand that the life which 
 we receive in Holy Communion is the fruit of His 
 Death. 
 
 Still again, He has selected a very unusual word for 
 'eating,' in the most solemn part of His instruction 
 (zn*. 54 ff.). It expresses "not only the simple fact of 
 
SAINT JOHN 115 
 
 eating, but the process as that which is dwelt upon 
 with pleasure." There are only two other places in 
 the New Testament in which this word is found. One 
 is where Christ was speaking of the godless sensuality 
 which characterized mankind immediately before the 
 flood, and the other is in His quotation with reference 
 to Judas of the words ''he that eateth My bread hath 
 lifted up his heel against Me" (St. Matt, xxiv: 38; St 
 John xiii: 18). It appears, therefore, that our Lord 
 expected us to find an antidote against the pagan self- 
 indulgence around us, and against unfaithfulness tC' 
 Him, like that of Judas, in the happiness of our Q)m- 
 munion. . 
 
 'StSur^Hap "after tje ifitt^ feunHaj 
 atUr (Epipftan? 
 
 3fefU0* ILife ^iben ^|jroufl|) t|)e "Blejajaifli Sacrament 
 
 Volumes have been written on the Sixth Chapter of 
 St. John, but we can hope to point out here only the 
 principal glories of Holy Communion which our Lord 
 reveals in it. That Blessed Sacrament is Bread Which 
 "(continually) cometh down from Heaven," so that 
 the supply of the life-principle it brings will continue 
 as long as there is a soul on earth to receive it. He 
 who eats of this Bread, moreover, ''shall live forever" : 
 for physical dissolution is a negligible thing to the 
 communicant, since Jesus will pass with his spirit 
 through death to immortality. His body also is to be 
 'raised up at the last day' full of eternal health and 
 radiance, because he has fed upon that Flesh and 
 Blood of which the Life cannot be holden by death. 
 Finally his union with Jesus through the Blessed Sac- 
 rament is so perfect that it is comparable to nothing 
 
16 SAINT JOHN 
 
 lower than the relation of the Son to the Father in 
 the Blessed Trinity. (Cp. vv. 50-57.) 
 
 Our communions must be especially dear to us, 
 moreover, because in them our Lord in His great love 
 condescends to touch our poor stained soul with His 
 .Immaculate Soul. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth," 
 He declared, ''the Flesh profiteth nothing." Only for 
 a moment is that blessed contact maintained, but it is 
 long enough for Him to fill us to our utmost capacity 
 with ''quickening" spiritual life. 
 
 "He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood," 
 He said, "abideth in Me, and I in him." For Jesus is 
 both the center, and the circumference, of the com- 
 municant's life. We glimpse the preciousness to St. 
 John of this thought from the fact that the expres- 
 sion "abide in Christ" is peculiar to Him. The lonely 
 old man, homeless, and a wanderer, when not a pris- 
 oner in the quarries of Patmos, found an abiding place 
 of utter happiness in Jesus' heart through his com- 
 munions. X 
 
 f 
 jFtitiap rafter \\z JFittf) feuntiap 
 
 ^Belief in tlje IBIeisgeti iSacramcnt 
 
 AVhat was it which created the line of cleavage so 
 plainly to be seen in the passage before us, between 
 those who rejected and those who accepted Christ's 
 teaching? Fundamentally, it was because they fol- 
 lowed opposite rules of faith. The one group insisted 
 upon asking "how" our Lord's revelations could be 
 true. Thus they demanded to know how He could 
 say that He had come down from Heaven, since they 
 knew Him as a Nazarene, and hozv He could give them 
 
SAINT JOHN 117 
 
 His Flesh to eat. In the end these helped to crucify 
 our Lord. The Twelve, on the contrary, adopted the 
 rule thus expressed by St. Peter : "We have believed 
 and have come to know." After their example, the 
 Church has always taught her children to believe first 
 of all on her authority, and afterwards to learn the 
 reasons for the faith which is in them. 
 
 The operation of the two rules is excellently illus- 
 trated by the way in which our Lord's teaching about 
 the Sacrament of Love was received. The Jews said 
 of that most gracious revelation, 'This is a repulsive 
 saying. Who can hear it [with patience]'? {v. 60). 
 But the Apostles believed Jesus when He said that His 
 words were "spirit and life," — that they revealed what 
 belongs to the spiritual order and gives life to man. 
 Accordingly to them His Teachings about the great 
 Mystery were "words of eternal life" {v. 68). 
 
 The reward of believing on our Lord's Word what 
 we cannot fully understand, appears from the mag- 
 nificent gain in their knowledge of Christ's Person* 
 which was given to the Apostles, -because they had ac- 
 cepted the revelation of the Holy Sacrament. Before 
 this, they had by their representative, St. Peter, con- 
 fessed Christ as "the Son of God" (St. Matt, xiv: 33),.- 
 Their conception of Him then was, however, mainly 
 of His office and prerogatives. Now they knew Him^ 
 as "the Holy One of God." They were still to ad- 
 vance to the glory of their confession that He was 
 "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (St. Matt, xvi: 
 16). Thus step by step they progressed, first believ- 
 ing, and subsequently by experience, coming to know 
 the truth they had accepted (v. 69 R. V.). 
 
118 SAINT JOHN 
 
 featurnap atter tfie ififtli feuntia^ 
 
 {3rr0£brr8nce in {^olp Communion 
 
 'Then said Jesus unto the Twelve, would ye also 
 go?' He implies wistfully, that they will answer 
 "No" ! Nor was He disappointed, for St. Peter, speak- 
 ing for the Apostles, not only declared, in effect, that 
 they would steadfastly follow their Master, but gave 
 three great reasons for their perseverance : ( i ) There 
 was no one else they could go to; (2) If there were 
 another, Qirist had all they needed, — the doctrines of 
 "eternal life"; (3) In fact, there was but one Messiah, 
 Jesus, the Holy One of God. Now all of these are in 
 substance compelling arguments for cleaving to Him 
 in the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 Again, our Lord warned the Jews that if they would 
 not accept His teaching about the Bread of Heaven, 
 they would remain unprepared for the yet more diffi- 
 cult Mystery of His Passion. If the doctrine of the 
 Sacrament of Love "caused them to stumble," because 
 they were too proud to receive the Life from God 
 through the Nazarene, how could they believe in Him 
 as their Messiah, when they would see Him "ascend up 
 where He was before" by the way of the shameful 
 Cross (7/. 62) ? Even so, does our Lord, by Holy Com- 
 munion, prepare us for coming trials of our faith. 
 
 The two groups, of the Jews and of the Twelve, 
 stood at the parting of the ways. As the Apostles 
 gained a glorious new vision of Jesus' Holiness, the 
 Jews "went back to the things of the past," as the 
 Greek means, that is, from faith and virtue, so far as 
 they had gained them, to past unbelief and sin. There 
 are two ways, in which a disciple of Christ may "gx) 
 
SAINT JOHN 119 
 
 to the rear" ; one is to retire from Satan's dominion, 
 and fall in behind Jesus, as St. Peter once did (St. 
 Matt, xvi: 23) ; and the other is to go back from fel- 
 lowship with Jesus and line up behind Satan. Then, 
 let us never lapse from union with our Lord, but ever 
 hold fast by Him in the Holy Mysteries. 
 
 ^|)e %\%\^^ Wiii^ after (Kptpljanp* Read St. John rii 
 
 W^z &wt!) ^untiap ^fUt (Kpipfianp 
 
 C|)ri0t'0 Conbereion of i^its SDtDn {^oueet^oIH 
 
 Otir Lord's brethren were His collateral relatives; 
 those whose names we know were very probably His 
 cousins. The ordinary Catholic opinion is that three 
 of these latter were the Apostles, SS. James, Jude and 
 Simon. The development of their faith in Him was 
 indeed very slow. At one time they seem to have 
 thought that "He was beside Himself" (St. Mark iii: 
 21). Even after they were chosen among the Twelve, 
 they had for long the conception of our Saviour that 
 He was the Messiah of the rabbinic tradition, a great 
 temporal ruler who would "restore again the kingdom 
 to Israel," — an idea which persisted among the Twelve 
 until the Ascension (Acts i:6). 
 
 Probably it was St. Jude who, in our passage for 
 study, presumed to urge our Lord to leave the coun- 
 try and go up to Jerusalem, in order that the whole 
 Jewish world, assembled at the Feast, might see His 
 miracles {yv. 3 f.). For it was Jude who, on the 
 night before the Passion, again asked our Lord why 
 it was that He would not manifest Himself to the 
 world (xiv: 22), asserting the same difficulty as on the 
 occasion we are considering. 
 
120 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Both times, his perplexity arose from the very fact 
 that he beheved in our Lord's Messianic authority and 
 miraculous powers. Yet, it is evident that he and his 
 brethren had not reached the spiritual development 
 of many other disciples. For they did not believe ''into 
 Him" {y. 5). It was easier for Him to convert neigh- 
 bors like SS. Philip and Peter and John, than members 
 of His own household. It is, in fact, perhaps the 
 highest proof of His Deity that He succeeded in con- 
 vincing His brethren that He was, not only good, but 
 God. For the members of His household suffered 
 from the same blindness which afflicts members of the 
 Church, very often ; they were so familiar with Divine 
 Things, that they failed to appreciate them. 
 
 a^ontia^ ^ttet tje &iit6 feundap jattet (Kpipfian? 
 
 As our gentle Master saw that the assertion of His 
 Divine claims was offensive to the Jews, FEe sought to 
 reduce the external majesty of His approach to Jeru- 
 salem as much as possible. On His first visit to the 
 Holy City as Messiah, He appeared with authority to 
 cleanse the temple, and wrought great "signs" of Di- 
 vine power (ii: 13-23). When He returned to His 
 Capital the second time, it was as a simple pilgrim 
 with a multitude of others (v: i). But on this third 
 occasion He went up "unto the feast, not openly, but 
 as it were in secret," that is, apart from the pilgrim- 
 company, alone, like a solitary stranger. When at last, 
 on Palm Sunday, He must for the sake of His people 
 assert His Kingship, he yet approached the City witk 
 everjr mark of humility. 
 
SAINT JOHN \2\ 
 
 Moreover, He adopted a new method of appealing 
 to those higher classes in Jerusalem who were His 
 main enemies. He had come to them once as Messiah, 
 seeking only to purify His people, and again as "the 
 Son," claiming the privilege of laboring for them 
 without respite, and both times they had rejected Him. 
 Now He sought to appeal to them as a man of letters, 
 displaying perfect familiarity with the culture of the 
 day, such as was ordinarily known only to the scholars 
 of the rabbinic colleges {v. 15). Perhaps they would 
 accept the truth, if it came to them under the form 
 of brilliant eloquence. Therefore He stood forth, in 
 the temple, as a Teacher. 
 
 Yet He was instant in turning away the praise 
 which even the Jews accorded Him. "My teaching," 
 He answered, ''is not Mine, but His that sent Me,'" 
 and He went on to say that He was seeking the glory 
 of the Father, not His own glory {vv. 16, 18, R. V.), 
 and He strove to show the Jews that this hurnble atti- 
 tude, which they knew very well was characteristic of 
 Him, was one of His credentials as the true Son of 
 God {v. 18). Thus, in this third way, He sought to 
 win the Jews by humility. In His quest of our souls, 
 too, He uses every ingenious art, but all His devices 
 bear the one hall-mark of His Lowliness. 
 
 '?Iue0tiap mtn tlie &«t|i &unliap 
 Mitt (Epip^an^ 
 
 Our Saviour is able to make a man "every whit 
 whole" {v. 23). His purpose is to bring our entire 
 nature to a state of perfect health, and He accom- 
 plishes this through the sanctification of our will. We 
 
122 SAINT JOHN 
 
 can hardly emphasize this fact too strongly, for ouf 
 mind, our spirit and even our body will be consecrated, 
 if our will is dedicated to our Lord. As to our mind, 
 He has told us in no uncertain terms that he who *will- 
 eth to do God's Will shall know of the teaching, 
 whether it be of God.' By every righteous choice, 
 therefore, by every obedience to the moral law and by 
 every deed of love, we open our intellect to illumina- 
 tion from Heaven. "To those who obey Him, whether 
 they be wise or simple. He will reveal Himself in the 
 toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass 
 through in His fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery 
 they shall learn in their own experience who He is." 
 
 Our spiritual state, also, depends, not upon our emo- 
 tional fervor or our intellectual attainments, but upon 
 what we will to be the supreme object of our life. 
 For our Lord said that he who seeketh His glory that 
 sent him, "the same is true, and no unrighteousness is 
 in him" (v. i8). We see in this the great impor- 
 tance of each morning directing our intention for the 
 works of the day to the glory of God. 
 
 Our resurrection body will be exactly suited to the 
 state of our soul at the last Judgment (v: 28 f.). And 
 our soul will be saved, if our will, its determining 
 faculty, is devoted to Jesus. The world is full of 
 pieces of people, who are all mind, or all body. Let 
 us give our wills to Jesus, and He will make us whol*. 
 
 mthm^nav sitter tfie feixtii feuntiai? 
 matter (Kpipjan^ 
 
 ^l)e €ric0 of Jewa 
 
 We are told, in the Gospels, of four times when our 
 Lord cried out, from a breaking Heart, pleading witk 
 
SAINT JOHN 123 
 
 His people. Three of these occasions are recorded by 
 St. John, two of them in the chapter before us. The 
 first time He was thus stirred, it was because there 
 were in His Presence some who had stopped half-way 
 in their knowledge of Him {v. 28). In an agony of 
 eager love for their souls, He sought to lead them on 
 to belief in His Deity. Again, on the octave day of 
 the Feast, He stood and cried, because the people 
 around Him did not thirst for the living water of 
 grace {v. ^^7). His own Soul had been filled to over- 
 flowing with that precious life-principle for them, by 
 fasts, prayers and deeds of love since His Babyhood, 
 and now they were famishing around Him and yet 
 drawing back from Him in ignorance of their own 
 need. 
 
 The third occasion was immediately before the Pas- 
 sion. When Christ knew that there were before Him 
 disciples who believed, but secretly, because they loved 
 the praise of men more than the praise of God, He 
 cried out to them and besought them to believe 'into 
 Him' (xii: 44). 
 
 But it was when He cried the last time, from the 
 Cross, that He began to receive the responses He had 
 so longed for (St. Matt, xxvii: 50). His clear, strong 
 Voice when He was dying proved to the half-believing 
 centurion that He was indeed ''the Son of God." St. 
 Nicodemus who had refused to seek from Him the 
 living water in Holy Baptism, came forward now, and 
 joined the faithful at His Feet. St. Joseph of Ari- 
 mathea who had been His disciple, "but secretly for 
 f-ear of the Jews," found courage at last to go openly 
 and beg the Body of His Master. Is Jesus crying over 
 us? Let us satisfy His dear, craving Love, by ac- 
 cepting the truth, the sacrament, or the stigma of fel- 
 lowship with Him, to which He is calling us. 
 
124 SAINT JOHN 
 
 'atSut^Dap matter t^e ^\tx\ feundap 
 
 ^\)\\9!X (Slorifieti 
 
 Throughout the Fourth Gospel, our Lord refers to 
 His Passion in the terms which in the three other 
 Gospels are applied to the Resurrection and Ascen- 
 sion (cp. vi:62). Evidently, St. John alone caught 
 from Him this conception of His Crucifixion, as par- 
 ticipating in the glory of His coming Enthronement in 
 Heaven (vii:39). The dereliction and agony of His 
 Cross were in Jesus' Mind transfigured by the Divine 
 splendor of His Session at the Right Hand of the 
 Father, to Which His Death was but the glorified 
 Road (xiii : i). And surely He revealed to us this way 
 of thinking about His own Death-bed, to teach us that 
 His brethren should look beyond the mortification and 
 suffering of physical death to the glory that awaits 
 them, and should regard the eternal life, given to them 
 at Baptism, as continuing and developing without any 
 break into the joy and triumph of immortality (cp. 
 vi:5of.; viii:5i). 
 
 But in considering His Passion as being one con- 
 tinuous Act with His Resurrection and Ascension, our 
 Lord did not minimize the glory which belonged pecu- 
 liarly to the Sacrifice of Himself on the Cross. For by 
 that perfect Penance for all the blasphemies of human 
 sin, he satisfied the wounded Honor of God, and by 
 that supreme Act of Obedience He made to the Father 
 an Oflfering of infinite value. Rightly, therefore, did 
 He pray that His Father would glorify Him in His 
 Passion, that He might thus, by His Death, glorify 
 the Father (xvii: i). Let us resolve that, when our 
 time comes, we will ofifer our death to God as a final< 
 
SAINT JOHN 125 
 
 penance for our sins, and one last obedience to His 
 Will. 
 
 Our Saviour longed for His glorification in Heaven, 
 in order that He might help men in the world. For 
 He would send the Holy Spirit to teach even His ob- 
 stinate opponents the saving truth that He is God, and 
 to illuminate the minds and consecrate the hearts of 
 His own people ( viii : 28 ; xvi : 13 ; vii : 38 f . ) . Let us, 
 by faithfulness in intercession, be practising to take 
 our part in this Heavenly work of Jesus. 
 
 Mitt €pip6an^ 
 
 2Dur Horn X\}t Smitten Eoclt 
 
 On seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, it was 
 the custom to bring from the Pool of Siloam a golden 
 pitcher full of water, which was poured out before the 
 altar. But on the octave day, the pitcher was brought 
 empty, while the twelfth chapter of Isaiah was being 
 recited. It was in reference to this ceremony and to 
 the words on their lips : 'the Lord Jehovah is my Sal- 
 vation; therefore with joy shall ye draw water out 
 of the Wells of Salvation,' that our Lord cried out, 
 "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." 
 When our souls are, like the golden pitcher, empty, 
 we must come to our Lord and be filled. 
 
 This ritual of the golden urn was meant to remind 
 the people of the rock which followed Israel in the 
 Wilderness and from which the saving stream flowed 
 forth to the famishing multitude, at the command of 
 Moses (Num. xx:7-ii; i Cor. x:4). Our Saviour 
 claimed this also as a type of Himself. Probably, His 
 
124 SAINT JOHN 
 
 hearers would remember also that the rock was smit- 
 ten, sinfully; and in this way the symbolism would 
 suggest that the stream of life flows from a Messiah 
 smitten by the sin of His people. It is this Crucified 
 Saviour Who now follows the Catholic Church 
 through the wilderness of the world. 
 
 If, however, we receive the living water of grace 
 from the Soul of Jesus, it must be with the resolution 
 to render Him in return a very stream of loving deeds. 
 For the "drink" He gives us, He demands that "riv- 
 ers" shall flow out of our heart {yv. 37 f.). But to 
 the soul which thus multiplies the grace given it by 
 the Holy Ghost out of the Smitten Rock, God "giveth 
 not the Spirit by measure" (iii : 34). The only limit to 
 the Gift of the Spirit of Grace is that which we set, 
 if we receive Him in vain. 
 
 iatter (Epip6ftnp 
 
 iDur ILorti'0 %)\xttt%% anD 2Dur0 for {^im 
 
 It is one of our greatest debts of gratitude to St. 
 John, that we learn from Him what we might not 
 have understood from the other Evangelists, the fact 
 of our Lord's success in converting His people. By 
 observing how often in the Fourth Gospel it appears 
 that "many" believed "on," or "into," Him, we dis- 
 cover that the number of His converts was very large 
 and was constantly growing (e.g. z^. 31 ; viii:30; 
 x:42). Five hundred brethren assembled to meet 
 Him in Galilee after His Resurrection ( i Cor. xv : 6) . 
 The three thousand Jews baptized on the first Pente- 
 cost, were very probably of that group of Christ's 
 
SAINTJOHN W 
 
 hearers who had ''believed Him" but who had never 
 gone on to complete faith (Acts ii : 41 ; St. John viii: 
 31, R. V.)- There is, also, abundant evidence that 
 the churches of Asia Minor were to a great extent 
 made up of Christian Jews. Finally, St. Matthew's 
 Gospel was written for that Evangelist's fellow-coun- 
 trymen throughout the Universal Church. 
 
 This success was gained by methods which seemed 
 most absurd to the Jewish rulers of church and state 
 {v. 48). Thus, they sneeringly suggested that our 
 Lord might go unto the Dispersion, the Jews scattered 
 over the Roman Empire, and from their colonies go 
 forth to teach the Gentiles {v. 35). Yet this, which 
 seemed to the Pharisees "the climax of irrationality," 
 was the exact plan followed by the Apostolic Church 
 with such remarkable success (cp. Acts xiii: 42 f.)- 
 
 Our service for our Lord will often, like His Min- 
 istry, be according to spiritual business methods which 
 do not commend themselves to the worldly wise. But 
 we shall be effective for Him, none the less, if we are 
 neither keeping His Life out of our souls nor selfishly 
 seeking to keep it in, for Christ working through us 
 must be successful. 
 
 ieptuagfgima Witt% Read St. John viii 
 
 &eptuap0fma 
 
 tf |)rij9t Wiliiinii on t\it dtonro 
 
 As we begin to prepare for Lent, we arrive at a 
 passage in which our Lord indicates the sacredness of 
 the whole Moral Law, and the danger of postponing 
 conversion. For we read that He "stooped down, and 
 with His Finger wrote on the ground" {w, 6, 8). It 
 would, however, be more literal to say that He wrote 
 
128 SAINT JOHN 
 
 on the great flagstones which formed the pavement 
 of the Temple. In so doing He probably meant to 
 suggest the writing of the Ten Commandments on the 
 two tables of stone by the Finger of God (Ex. 
 xxxi: i8). 
 
 Not only did he wish to impress upon the Jews, by 
 this symbolic action, the sacredness of the Decalogue 
 as a whole, but he meant to make them understand 
 the truth that one commandment is as holy, and as in- 
 violable, as another. In fact, pride, although it does 
 not entail loss of men's esteem, proved to be more fatal 
 in its effect upon the Pharisees, than was the breach 
 of the seventh commandment upon the soul of Blessed 
 Mary Magdalene (v:44; St. Luke viii:2). 
 
 One other lesson our Lord gives us for our Sep- 
 tuagesima in the way He treated the accusers of the 
 unhappy woman {y. 7). For when He had said to 
 them, "He that is without sin among you, let him first 
 cast a stone at her," they stole away "one by one, be- 
 ginning at the eldest." Evidently, they were self- 
 convicted of sin great in proportion to the number 
 of their years. Let them be an example to us that 
 we do not grow good by growing old, but rather by 
 those continual conversions of heart for which the 
 Church provides us these seasons of penitence year by 
 year. ^ 
 
 lapontia^ attet feeptuage^ima 
 
 ^|)e Ili0|)t of t|)e SilorlD 
 
 A beautiful feature of the ceremonies during the 
 Feast of Tabernacles was the lighting of the vast 
 lamps which hung from the roof of the woman's court 
 in the temple, on the first night of the octave. From 
 
SAINT JOHN 129 
 
 Mount Moriah, the great chandeliers shed their ra- 
 diance over all Jerusalem. But as our Lord stood 
 beneath them in the twilight of the octave day, they 
 remained unlighted, and it was then that He cried out, 
 "I am the Light of the world" {y. 12). Thus, again 
 we find Him carrying the Gentiles in His heart. For 
 He declared Himself to be the Illuminator, not of 
 Jerusalem, nor of that people, only, but of all human- 
 kind. When life darkens around us and no human 
 cheer will serve to drive away the gloom from our 
 hearts, let us go directly to the Light of the World. 
 The sorrow was sent to drive us to Him. 
 
 There was in His words, moreover, a reference to 
 the pillar of fire and cloud which had journeyed with 
 the ancient people of God through the wilderness. 
 Veiled within that 'luminous cloud" was the awful 
 Presence of God, and by teaching the Apostles that it 
 .was a type of His Incarnation, Christ identified Him- 
 self with Jehovah, and thus helped the Apostles to 
 realize that He was truly Divine. In the very act of 
 declaring Himself the Light of the World, He was 
 illuminating His own. 
 
 Now, God has ordained a lamp for His Christ 
 CPs. cxxxii: 17). Within everyone of us baptized 
 Christians blazes the Dayspring of this world. He 
 would fain shine through our lives, giving comfort to 
 the afflicted and sorrowful, and persuading men of His 
 Deity. Shall we not begin now, even before Lent, to 
 cleanse the globe of His lamp? 
 
 10 
 
130 SAINT JOHN 
 
 <ZILuf0tia^ matter &eptuage0tma 
 
 W^z dupremr dBcampIe 
 
 Our Lord spoke these sad words to the Jews : "Ye 
 are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this 
 world, I am not of this world." They belonged to the 
 lower, fleshly, sensual order, while He was from above, 
 and was the center of that which is Heavenly and 
 eternal. The difference between their natures was in- 
 finitely great; and, from the perfect contrast between 
 them, we can see with extraordinary clearness that the 
 circumstances of earthly life give scope for the em- 
 bodiment of two characters absolutely opposed. Be our 
 part and lot on Jesus' side of that impassable gulf! 
 
 His perfect charity was allied with two other vir- 
 tues, absolute fearlessness and invincible meekness, 
 which are found combined among men only in His 
 followers. His courage, which will appear more and 
 more the nearer we approach His Passion, is exempli- 
 fied in our present chapter by His choosing, for His 
 instructions in the Temple, the treasury, because this 
 was in the court of the women, close by the assembly 
 room of the Sanhedrin. Even after they had set a 
 price upon His Head, He continued to stand there 
 calmly, within easy striking distance of them, no doubt 
 hoping that some word of love might pierce their hard 
 hearts and save them. 
 
 His meekness, also, appears from His reaction upon 
 the stupidity and insults of the Jews. Thus, after He 
 had again and again said that He had come from the 
 Father, they misunderstood Him {y. 27). Apparently, 
 they thought that He was speaking of coming from 
 another Messiah, who was the one they wanted. And 
 when He warned them that they would die in their 
 
SAINT JOHN 131 
 
 sins, and be forever separated from Him, they, with 
 fearful blasphemy, retorted that He must be intending 
 to commit suicide, and be lost in Hell {yv. 21 f.). 
 Yet, according to the correct text, He went on, after 
 repeatedly pleading with them in other ways, to beg 
 them to serve the Father according to their own light, 
 if they would not accept the revelation in Him, hop- 
 ing that thus they might be led on to faith. *'Do ye 
 the things which ye heard from the Father," He urged 
 {v. 38, R. V. Marg.). Is it wonderful that such per- 
 fect patience won all but the most wicked hearts? 
 
 l^racttce of ti)e Ipreornce of <8oti 
 
 Our Saviour could always safely challenge even the 
 Jews who hated Him to point out the slightest defect 
 in His righteousness. But He longed to develop their 
 admission of His perfection into a confession of His 
 union with God. Accordingly, He said to them, "He 
 that sent Me is with Me ; the Father hath not left Me 
 alone, for I do always those things that please Him" 
 {v. 29). In this way He tried to make them reason 
 that His absolute faultlessness must be due to the fact 
 that the Father was with Him. 'The perfect coinci- 
 dence of the will of the Son with the will of the 
 Father is presented as the effect, and not as the reason 
 of the Father's presence." But if the righteousness of 
 Jesus' Human Soul was due to His fellowship with 
 the Father, how much more truly must we abide with 
 God if we would be holy! Moreover, St. John de- 
 mands that Christians do "those things that please" 
 God, as our Lx)rd always did. For he uses the Greek 
 
132 SAINT JOHN 
 
 word with this meaning, which is found only in his 
 writings in the New Testament, just once more and 
 then to require of us the same perfect service (i St. 
 John iii: 22). 
 
 Yet, in the context before us, our Lord says that 
 'whosoever committeth sin is the bondservant of sin' 
 (y. 34). St. Paul and St. Peter also declare that the 
 sinner is the slave of the evil thing which masters him 
 (Rom. vi: 16; 2 St. Peter ii: 19). What one of us, 
 then, is free to serve God, especially if we must meas- 
 ure up to the standard of God's "well-beloved Son" ? 
 
 We must let the Son abide always in our houses, and 
 He will set us free {yv. 35 f.). In His Presence temp- 
 tations cannot assail us, nor sins defile. He will make 
 us **free indeed" for fellowship in His service. 
 
 er^rwt'ja liDuwuit of iSouIjs 
 In order to suggest His Deity in a way which would 
 be the most appealing and attractive to the Jews, our 
 Lord, when He would speak of Himself as having 
 absolute Being, frequently used the words "I am," 
 which in Aramaic would suggest "J^^o^ah" (cp. w. 
 24, 28, 58). His meaning was that in Him was per- 
 fect light, life and strength. He united in Himself all 
 finite and all infinite Being. As a further claim upon 
 their devotion, He revealed Himself as the Mediator 
 between earth and Heaven, saying, "The things which 
 I heard from the Father, these speak I into the world" 
 (7^ 26. R. V. Marg.). In one way, He was, as it were, 
 standing outside our universe, proclaiming the good 
 tidines which came to Him from the Father, ''into the 
 world," that is, unto its uttermost parts. 
 
SAINT JOHN 133 
 
 But, while He was God, He took His place with the 
 lowliest of mankind. *'Ye seek to kill Me," He pleaded 
 with the Jews, ''a Man that hath told you the truth/' 
 Here He uses the humblest possible word for His 
 Humanity, for the Greek noun translated "man" means 
 a common person or peasant, as distinguished from a 
 gentleman. One marvels that any soul could resist the 
 appeal of this God Who stooped so low to shoulder the 
 burden of human life and human sin. 
 
 It is His invincible hopefulness about human souls, 
 however, which most claims our adoring love. The 
 Jews had just vented their anger upon Him by calling 
 Him a Samaritan, and accusing Him of having a de- 
 mon. Moreover, it appears by the form of the verbs 
 that these insults were current and habitual ones. But 
 our Lord only answered them by a yet more gracious 
 offer of love. Now He promises that if they will keep 
 His Word they shall never see death (^. 5^ ; cp. *z^- 30- 
 Let us then learn from our Lord's persistent appeals, 
 even to His blasphemers, that no soul in the state of 
 probation is beyond hope. 
 
 JFtitiap matter ferptuagt^fma 
 
 Keeping fioH'js ailorU 
 
 Our dear Lord promises us a very great and precious 
 immunity, if only we will keep His Word. On this sole 
 condition, that we obey the Gospel, we shall never 'be- 
 hold death' {v. 51). He did not say that Christians 
 should never ''taste of death," as the Jews falsely 
 quoted Him {v. 52). The faithful must drink of His 
 Cup ; but He has already "tasted death for every man^ 
 and so has emptied the chalice of all its bitterness. To 
 
134 SAINT JOHN 
 
 "behold death" means to gaze upon it "with long, 
 steady, exhaustive vision, whereby we become slowly 
 acquainted with the nature of [it]." This, which is 
 the portion of the damned, shall never enter into the 
 experience of Christ's faithful servants. 
 
 Moreover, in requiring us to keep His Word, our 
 Lord demanded no greater proof of loyalty to Him 
 than He had abundantly given of faithfulness to His 
 Father. "I know Him and keep His word," He could 
 say without fear of being contradicted even by His 
 enemies {v. 55; cp. xv: 10). He knows the sufferings 
 and temptations which beset obedience to God, and He 
 will not fail His brethren either in sympathy or in 
 powerful aid. 
 
 Keeping the word of our Lord, however, implies 
 much more than static faith and holiness. Jesus said 
 to His enemies, "Ye seek to kill Me, because My word 
 maketh no progress in you" {v. 37, literally translated). 
 The Gospel must have free course in our soul. \i we 
 ^ould set an obstacle to its progress, we would cast it 
 out of our life and with it crucify Jesus Christ over 
 again to ourselves. 
 
 &aturtia^ jattet ^eptuapgfima 
 
 tETl^e fipmpati)? anH {^elp of i\}Z Saints 
 
 "Your father Abraham exulted that he would see 
 My day," our Lord solemnly declared to the Jews, 
 "and the time came, that He saw it and was glad" {v, 
 56, literally translated). Two epoch-making events of 
 tJie great patriarch's life in this world and after death 
 are thus revealed to us : one, the great occasion when 
 Jehovah promised him that he should see His Incama- 
 
SAINT JOHN 135 
 
 tion, and the other, the first Christmas Day, when he 
 actually "saw" the Divine Baby in the Manger. In 
 some mansion of his Heavenly Father's House, the 
 vision of his Saviour's Birth came to him bringing its 
 unspeakable joy. Almost all great authorities agree 
 that this is the meaning of Christ's words. We are 
 assured, therefore, that the blessed Saints are allowed 
 to know what is passing in the Church on earth. We 
 have additional evidence in the fact that, at the Trans- 
 figuration of Jesus, Moses and Elijah spoke with Him 
 "of His decease which He should accomplish at Jeru- 
 salem" (St. Luke ix: 31). They had been informed of 
 the events of His Life, and knew that He was ap- 
 proaching His Passion, so that His dear Human Heart 
 had cried out for their intelligent and loving fellow- 
 ship. 
 
 Surely, we poor pilgrim brethren of Christ also need 
 the tender sympathy of His Saints. We ought to imi- 
 tate their holy lives, and seek the aid of their prayers, 
 certain that our Lord makes known our need to them 
 and inspires their intercessions. If it be true, as the 
 physicists say, that two atoms on the opposite sides of 
 the universe attract each other, how much more must 
 two souls in the Communion of Saints be drawn to- 
 gether by the magnetic power of that Divine Love 
 which dwells in both of them ! 
 
 St. John alone remembered this saying of Christ 
 that Abraham had seen His Nativity. The aged, 
 broken Apostle, the last of the Twelve, breasting alone 
 the torrent of Imperial persecution which threatened 
 to annihilate the Church, found courage and gladness 
 in the fellowship of his brethren, the Saints of both the 
 Old Testament and the Gospel. 
 
136 SAINT JOHN 
 
 ^ewBCBima l^eeft Read St. John ix 
 
 &££ao:e0tma 
 
 <Soti t|)e S^ure Set of Hotoe 
 
 Immediately after He had been all but crushed un- 
 der the stones which the Jews in the Temple would 
 have cast at Him had He not escaped, our Lord pro- 
 ceeded to a work of love. As He passed by the en- 
 trance of the Temple, on His way out from the sacred 
 precincts, *'He saw a man which was blind from his 
 birth." At once He determined to cure the unfortu- 
 nate, and through him to seek once more the conver- 
 sion of the very people who would have murdered Him 
 a few moments before. The "sign" would be widely 
 known, for probably it was notorious all over Jerusa- 
 lem that this beggar had borne his affliction all his life ; 
 moreover, none of the Old Testament Saints had 
 wrought the miracle of restoring sight ; and the proof 
 of His Messianic power would be still more convinc- 
 ing, because this blindness was congenital {y. 32). 
 
 But our Lord leads us to see even more in His sign. 
 For He declared to the Apostles that His act of love 
 in healing the sightless eyes was but a manifestation 
 of the works of God. His words reveal, as by a flash 
 of light, the vast machinery of Divine Providence ever 
 working out blessings for us behind the appearance of 
 things. God is the perfect, infinite. Act of Love, and 
 the Life of Jesus only showed openly to us what is, 
 from eternity to eternity, the very Nature of God. 
 
 Our Master mildly rebuked the Apostles for asking 
 whether the beggar's condition was due to his sin or 
 to that of his parents. We are not to waste time over 
 intellectual queries and speculations about the origin 
 
SAINT JOHN 137 
 
 of evil, but to cooperate with God in remedying it, 
 that His works may be manifest to the world more 
 and more. » 
 
 ^Ijc Dibine ILatos of dcrbice 
 
 "We must work the works of Him that sent Me, 
 while it is day," Jesus said to His Apostles {v. 4, 
 R. v.). Thus He included all His Christian brethren 
 in His great labor for the salvation of the world. And 
 this cooperation with our Master is to continue 
 throughout the "day" of life, until the eventide of rest 
 with Him. 
 
 If we are to be partners with our Saviour, in His 
 work for souls, we must practice His rules of service. 
 First, He would never seek to be original in His teach- 
 ing; every word was ascribed to His Father (vii: 16). 
 Yet, His effectiveness was unparalleled. Even the 
 police of the Sanhedrin failed in their mission to arrest 
 Him, because 'never man spake like Him' (vii 146). 
 Again, He was so careful to maintain the true claims 
 of God's ancient Church, that He was what many now 
 would call narrow. Plainly, if most lovingly, He told 
 the Samaritan woman that she was both a schismatic 
 and a heretic (iv:22). But the boundless breadth of 
 His charity, in His Ministry and on the Cross, includ- 
 ed all mankind. Finally, He went straight forward, in 
 the path of His vocation, to utter failure. Yet who 
 doubts that His crucified Life was man's one perfect 
 success? For it has done more to regenerate mankind 
 than all the greatest statesmen, scientists and philoso- 
 phers have been able to accomplish since the world 
 began. 
 
138 SAINT JOHN 
 
 It is profoundly impressive, moreover, that He con- 
 stantly trained His disciples in these paradoxes of 
 efficiency. We find Him, for example, requiring the 
 Twelve, immediately after their return from their ex- 
 traordinarily successful preaching mission, to sweep 
 together the crumbs left from the repast of the five 
 thousand, searching everywhere in the twilight that 
 nothing should be lost, and then storing away the 
 broken food for their own nourishment. He was pre- 
 paring them for a still more successful ministry. We 
 must not be surprised then, if, in our vocation, our 
 Master leads us to effectiveness by ways which are 
 quite opposite to our natural inclination and judgment. 
 
 '2tue0liap after fee^Eaffe^ima 
 
 <Soti ^antfejsteH as iLiQ^t 
 
 Jesus Christ is the Light of every age, every genera- 
 tion, every person. "Whensoever I am in the world, I 
 am the Light of the World," He said, as we may trans- 
 late His words literally. Even in the Middle Ages, 
 when the night of utter darkness and unbridled sin 
 seemed to have settled down over all Europe, the faith 
 of the Church was perhaps more wonderful than at 
 any time since the day of the Apostles. Those who sat 
 in darkness saw the Great Light. 
 
 Immediately after our Lord spoke the words we 
 have quoted. He healed the blind man, indicating that 
 it is His purpose to illuminate, not merely humankind 
 en masse, but every individual soul. We notice, how- 
 ever, that His method of working the cure was, first, 
 to lay the poultice of clay and spittle upon the sightless 
 eyes so as to seal them. Thus He seemed to be rather 
 
SAINT JOHN 139 
 
 destroying, than restoring, the beggar's vision. How 
 often perplexity precedes enlightenment with us! In- 
 deed, it is almost our Lord's normal way to leave the 
 soul for a time in intellectual darkness, before He 
 grants such a vision of truth as it has never before 
 received. 
 
 The blind man was required to go and bathe in the 
 Pool of Siloam, in order to be cured, and it must have 
 required faith for him to fulfill this condition. Now, 
 St. John tells us, in a significant parenthesis, that 
 Siloam means "sent." He intends to indicate that the 
 pool was a type of Jesus, and to remind us that He was 
 the One sent from Heaven. The remedy for our blind 
 souls is to bathe in His Precious Blood, by penitence, 
 and in His truth, by obtaining instruction from the 
 writings and pastors of His Church. Then shall we 
 come to behold Jesus with such new clearness, that it 
 will seem as if we have always before, from our birth, 
 been blind to Him. . 
 
 C|)ri)8ttanitp IReagonafale 
 
 We must realize fully that our Lord's system of 
 teaching the Faith was absolutely reasonable, in the 
 sense that He so adapted His instruction as to appeal 
 to every kind of human conscience and heart. There 
 is a remarkable example of His method, in this re- 
 gard, in the way He began leading the blind beggar 
 into the full acceptance of Him. For He used the 
 clay and spittle because both were believed, by the 
 Jews, and the Romans also, to be medicinal. Thus, 
 He began on the poor soul's level, with a popular pre- 
 scription in which he reposed confidence, in order to 
 
140 SAINT JOHN 
 
 make this the first rung in the ladder of his conver- 
 sion. 
 
 So perfectly convincing was our Saviour, in fact, 
 that the problem with the Apostles was how anyone 
 could doubt the faith He taught. Thus, St. John feels 
 compelled to explain why any of the Jews rejected the 
 evidence of His miracles: Their hardness was in ac- 
 cordance with the prophecies of Isaiah, he says ; they 
 could not believe because God had blinded their eyes 
 (xii: 38-41). Indeed, in his jealous desire to show 
 that after all they could not defeat the Divine Will, 
 he leaves out of view for the moment the fact that 
 they had first of all wilfully blinded themselves to His 
 Truth. It is often a question to us as it was to them, 
 that so many reject the reasonable religion of the 
 Church, and their unquestioning faith in the midst of 
 pagan millions should be a great comfort to us. 
 
 **Bishop," said Carlyle to Wilberforce, ''have you a 
 creed?" ''Yes," said the bishop, "I have a creed and 
 the older I grow, the firmer it becomes. There is only 
 one thing that staggers me. It is the slow progress the 
 creed seems to make in the world." "Ah," answered 
 Carlyle, after a pause, slowly and seriously, "but if 
 you have a creed you can afford to wait." Surely he 
 was right. The eternal years of God belong to the 
 Divinely reasonable truth of our religion. 
 
 SacreH 6|3emoriei3 
 
 Opened eyes had greatly changed the face of the 
 blind man, as St. Austin long ago remarked. Even 
 those to whom his features were perfectly familiar 
 
SAINT JOHN 141 
 
 were in doubt as to whether he was the same man they 
 had known {yv. 8f.). There was fresh hope shining 
 in his eyes, and his expression had changed wonder- 
 fully with his first outlook upon the beauty of God's 
 world. He was a new creature ; old things had passed 
 away. How perfectly he symbolizes a soul which has 
 just come forth from its first mission, or absolution, or 
 communion ! 
 
 It was what our Lord had so lovingly done for him 
 which gave him the courage to face the Sanhedrin. 
 Poor beggar that he was, he stood firmly loyal to Jesus 
 against all the great princes of his nation and church, 
 even when faithfulness to his Saviour meant excom- 
 munication. He had but just gained the world, and 
 now he gave it up forever through becoming a disci- 
 ple of Jesus. Excommunication meant, indeed, that 
 no one would come within arm's length of him, or give 
 him shelter or food. Let us treasure our sacred mem- 
 ories, that we may be loyal to our Redeemer against 
 all the temptations of the unbelieving world. 
 
 Observe his rapid progress in faith, because he had 
 made a sacrifice for his religion. At first he knew our 
 Lord only as ''a man called Jesus," but almost at once 
 he saw in Him *'a prophet," and then "a man of God." 
 Finally, he reached the glorious climax of faith by 
 believing "into" the Son of Man, at the same time 
 that he adored Him as Divine. Thus it is that by often 
 dwelling upon God's past mercies to us, we gain 
 courage to make sacrifices for our religion, and so 
 "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
142 SAINT JOHN 
 
 ®|je IFoIIp of Canfaelicf 
 
 The Pharisees knew well how they should "give 
 glory to God" {y. 24). **The phrase assumes that the 
 glory of God is always promoted by manifestation of 
 the truth." Thus it would be to His praise, if they 
 confessed that they had been in error and sin, and 
 turned from their stubborn unbelief. None knew bet- 
 ter than they that this was the ancient meaning of their 
 exhortation to the man who had been blind (cp. Josh. 
 vii:i9). Yet the only use they made of it was to 
 tempt the poor beggar to repudiate his Lord as "a 
 sinner." They transmitted the light of God's Word; 
 but they were like lenses of ice, which concentrate the 
 sun's rays upon tinder so as to kindle it, while they 
 remain unmelted. 
 
 The folly of their unbelief appears, moreover, from 
 their confession that they knew not from whence Jesus 
 had come. This was the most vital of questions to 
 them, as to all men, and our Lord had striven to prove 
 to them the truth of His claim that He had come from 
 Heaven. Yet, with all their learning, they were still 
 ignorant of His Divine Origin. But the poor beggar, 
 whose congenital blindness, they said, showed that he 
 had been born in sin and lay under God's curse, knew 
 that the One Who had opened his eyes must be from 
 God {v. 33). 
 
 The cardinal error of these Jewish leaders, however, 
 was that they were absolutely satisfied with their 
 knowledge of Divine revelation, when in fact they 
 had stopped half way to the truth and were stub- 
 bornly refusing to go further {yv. 40 f.). They said 
 "We see," meaning that they had caught from the Old 
 
SAINT JOHN 143 
 
 Testament a certain vision of the Messiah, in which 
 He was to be a great human conqueror, and the mon- 
 arch of Israel. They would have none of the "Mighty 
 God," who was to be also the Suffering Servant, in 
 those same inspired prophecies (Isa. ix:6; liii). Con- 
 sequently, they would not accept their Saviour when 
 He came, and 'their sin remained.' Are we content- 
 ing ourselves with a partial knowledge of our Bible 
 and Prayer Book? Let us humbly confess to Jesus 
 our blindness and beseech Him to open our eyes to 
 all the glories of His truth. 
 
 ^atutnap matter ^ejcase^ima 
 
 a Stone EejfCteU anH dljogen 
 
 In casting out him to whom Christ had given sight, 
 the Jews heaped upon his personality every mark of 
 scorn. Thou wast altogether born in sins,' they 
 taunted him, 'and dost thow, the beggar, marked out 
 from birth as an evil thing, — dost thou teach us?' But 
 when Jesus had found him He said unto him, 'Dost 
 thou, thou the infinitely precious soul, whom I love 
 with unique, individual. Personal devotion, — dost thou 
 cast thyself with complete trust upon the Son of Man'? 
 {v. 35, A. V. Marg.). Both addressed him by the 
 emphatic personal pronoun, bringing out his individ- 
 uality in high relief, the Pharisees to stress his utter 
 unworthiness, and our Lord to suggest his incalcula- 
 ble value to the God of Love. 
 
 As a sign of how greatly He prized the poor beg- 
 gar, our Lord sought him out in order to cornplete in 
 him that "work of God" which is faith (Ti:29). As 
 
144 SAINT JOHN 
 
 before He had opened the eyes of his body, so now He 
 opened the eyes of his soul. 
 
 All about them were the great stones which were 
 meant for the temple. But at Jesus' feet lay a stone 
 chosen for the eternal walls of the Catholic Church. 
 With the poor beggar, excommunicated by the Jews 
 and now prostrate before the Son of Man, the Saviour 
 of humankind, *'Who gathers up in Himself, Who 
 bears and Who transfigures all that is common to 
 man," the new Universal Society, in which ''there is 
 neither Jew nor Greek," was begun. How priceless to 
 Jesus, then, may be any obscure soul if only it has cast 
 itself upon Him in entire self-surrender ! 
 
 jpor t|)f ilSine Dape JFoIIotninc* Read St. John x 
 
 £)uinquaffe0ima 
 
 Wot <SoolJ iSl)ep|)erU 
 
 St. John is unique among the Evangelists in that he 
 has not recorded any of Christ's parables. He alone, 
 however, has preserved for us three priceless alle- 
 gories. The parables were not so much to his pur- 
 pose, because they are concerned with the more funda- 
 mental teachings of Christianity, and he wrote for a 
 Church which was familiar with these. The allegories, 
 on the other hand, express the great cardinal principle 
 of the Fourth Gospel, the Personal relation of the 
 Saviour to every individual member of the Divine So- 
 ciety. And the very occasion of this most precious 
 allegory on the Good Shepherd and His flock illus- 
 trates admirably that very conception of Christ's 
 boundless care for everyone of His Own which the 
 discourse itself was meant to teach. For He was 
 
SAINT JOHN 145 
 
 stirred to the wonderful eloquence and ineffable ten- 
 derness it manifests, by no greater cause than the re- 
 ception into His little group of disciples of one ex- 
 communicated mendicant. 
 
 The false shepherds were the Pharisees. They had 
 for years passed this poor sheep by at the temple gate, 
 yet no one of them had deigned to know him ; but here 
 was the Good Shepherd, Who knows each sheep by 
 name. They had "slammed the door of blessing" in 
 His face ; Jesus said to him, *7 am the Door." 
 
 He admitted this newly-found sheep into such un- 
 speakably close intimacy with Himself, that it could 
 only be compared to that which exists in perfection 
 between the Father and the Son in the Blessed Trinity 
 {yv. 14 f., A. V. Marg.). Does it not make Lent in- 
 deed a ''dear feast," that we are to spend it with this 
 King of Love Who is our Shepherd? 
 
 In the first part of this allegory {w. 1-9), our Lord 
 is the Door of the Sheepfold, the Porter is the Holy 
 Ghost, the shepherds are the priests of the Church, 
 and the sheep are the laypeople. The true pastor, 
 Christ warns us, is he who enters through the low 
 Door, that is, who imitates the humility and the will- 
 ingness to receive all who come which he sees mani- 
 fested in lowly Jesus. The false shepherds, in their 
 pride, climbed up some other way, which was impos- 
 sible for the poor sheep ; they sought to be saved 
 through their knowledge of the Law and membership 
 in their Pharisaic caste. If ever they went down 
 
146 SAINT JOHN 
 
 among the flock, the common people whom they de- 
 spised (vii:49), it was only to rob, or even destroy 
 them {v. i). Unhappily, it is only too easy for the 
 true Christian Shepherd to turn false, like these Jews, 
 and seek 'to climb up' by way of a cold intellectualism 
 or a perfunctory professionalism, whereupon he be- 
 comes a ''thief and a robber," who filches, or else 
 snatches away, the Gospel blessings from his flock. 
 
 Now Jesus looked to the sheep to help him keep 
 the true Standard before their pastor's eyes. It is their 
 Door through which he should enter the Fold. They 
 exemplify a discipline, lowliness and love, which he 
 must have in order to be true. 
 
 In these ways especially He asks them to maintain 
 that character of His sheep which will stimulate the 
 rector to be their shepherd: (i) Let them 'flee from 
 the voice of strangers,' by which the Good Shepherd 
 means not only heretics and impostors, but all who 
 have not His commission given at ordination {w. 5, 
 8). (2) They must let their pastor guide them "by 
 name," individually, in separate training, not simply as 
 a flock folded on the Sabbath. (3) If they are sick or 
 wounded, they must come to him for the healing sac- 
 raments. (4) They must continually follow him to the 
 good pasture, vvhere flourishes the Plant of Renown, 
 beside the River of God (Ezek. xxxiv: 29; Ps. Ixv: 9). 
 If the sheep make themselves thus the shepherd's own, 
 he will not readilv become "a hireling" {yv. 12 f.). 
 
 Wtft Viit of t^e JFoIH 
 There are three fundamental and all-important needs 
 of the Christian : he must be admitted to the state of 
 
SAINT JOHN 147 
 
 salvation, granted spiritual liberty, and provided with 
 the means of growth. All of these are assured to the 
 flock in Jesus' Fold, holy Church. "I am the Door/' 
 were His words of boundless comfort ; **by Me if any 
 man enter in, he shall be saved," which secures our 
 spiritual safety, "and shall go in and out" with perfect 
 freedom, ''and shall find pasture," the Food of eternal 
 life iy. ^'). The Christian thus "exercises the sum of 
 all his powers, claiming his share in the inheritance of 
 the world, secure in his home. And while he does so 
 he finds pasture. He is able to convert to the divinest 
 uses all of the comforts of the earth." 
 
 Our Lord evidently has in view the flock already 
 gathered around him {w. 8, 14, 2y'). And He said 
 about that tiny nucleus of the Catholic Church an al- 
 most incredible thing: 'That which My Father hath 
 given unto Me is greater than all" {v. 29, R. V. 
 Marg.). The little flock of the faithful was stronger 
 than all the opposing powers in earth and Hell, because 
 they were in the Hand of God {v. 28 f.). 
 
 Their Fold was impregnable because Christ was the 
 Door. We may understand better what this means to 
 the Church, from a saying of a Palestinian shepherd. 
 A traveller remarked that his fold seemed to be strong- 
 ly built, but its entrance was wide open. "Where is 
 the door?" asked the visitor. "/ am the door," an- 
 swered the shepherd. He meant that when he had 
 safely enclosed his flock, he stretched his own body 
 across the opening. So it is that our salvation, free- 
 dom, and means of grace are absolutely secured to tis, 
 because our Saviour ever sleeplessly guards His Fold 
 with His Life. 
 
148 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Sl&e €^f)ief anU t{)e (Sooti !St)epi)erti 
 
 In the second half of the allegory {yu. 10-29), 
 Christ is the Good Shepherd, rather than the door, 
 and those opposed to Him are the devil and his agents, 
 represented collectively as ''the thief." The latter 
 *'cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to de- 
 stroy." Not only does he wickedly take away what 
 belongs to another's soul, . but slays that other, and 
 utterly spoils the means of recovering spiritual life. 
 The smooth assailant of our religion, for example, 
 seeks to steal the Christian's faith, kill his soul, and 
 destroy his belief in those Catholic verities and sacra- 
 ments, through which his life might be regained. 
 
 But Christ is come that men "may have life, and 
 may have abundance." In contrast with the thief's 
 stealing is Christ's gift. Where the thief slays, Christ 
 bestows life on those He finds dead. Against the thief's 
 destruction of the means that renew life, is Christ's 
 abundant provision for quickening the twice-dead soul 
 through the pleading of the Holy Ghost and the sacra- 
 ment of Absolution. 
 
 Perhaps there is nowadays no more subtle enemy of 
 the life of Christ's flock, than Buddhism. We do well, 
 therefore, to see clearly that behind the veil of attrac- 
 tive Oriental mysticism is a religion of despair, death 
 and annihilation. Christ came to take death away, but 
 Buddha would take life away. To the Buddhist the 
 direst foe of man, which shall finally be annihilated in 
 Nirvana, is life ; to the Christian, *'the last enemy that 
 shall be destroyed is death." How blessed, then, is 
 this Season of Grace, when for forty days we shall be 
 
SAINT JOHN 149 
 
 receiving more and more of the ''abundance" which 
 the Good Shepherd so eagerly waits to give us ! 
 
 use ifirot ttSucfiftiap in Hent 
 
 E|)e attractibenesja of l\,z <gooti !Sl)fpl)erti 
 
 The Greek word for "Good" in our Lord's most 
 winning title, indicates that He is not only the True 
 Shepherd, in whom is fulfilled the very ideal of the 
 shepherd ; nor is He simply Good inwardly. In addi- 
 tion to both of these attributes, ''He has an attractive 
 loveliness which claims the admiration of all that is 
 generous in man." Indeed, this revelation of Himself 
 as the Good Shepherd so appealed to the people that 
 the Jews trembled. "Why hear ye Him" ? they pleaded 
 {v. 20). 
 
 There are two ways, particularly, in which Jesus is 
 "Good" in this peculiar sense of the word. First, He 
 has paid down the price of His own Life for the sheep 
 (z^. 15). Or in the phraseology of St. Paul, they are 
 "the Church of God, which He purchased with His- 
 own Blood" (Acts xx:28). Surely, the very great- 
 ness of our natural self-love ought to increase the ap- 
 peal to our hearts of this Divine Shepherd Who gave 
 the infinite ransom of the Life of God for us who were 
 His enemies. And in fact, he had us, as Gentiles, 
 especially in mind, in our Scythian ancestors, the most 
 savage and wicked of those "other sheep," whom, even 
 then, by anticipation, He claimed as His own. By one 
 Act (of His Passion), as the Greek indicates. He 
 would "lead" us into the "one flock" over which He is 
 the "one Shepherd" {v. 16, R. V. Marg.). 
 
 Secondly, the dear Lord draws us to Himself by 
 
150 SAINT JOHN 
 
 both knowing us, and letting us know Him, in a way 
 so direct and loving that it is comparable even to the 
 perfect Oneness of His Mind with that of His Father. 
 This is the great central revelation of the allegory. It 
 should teach us often to put away all created things 
 from between ourselves and our Saviour's Godhead, 
 so that we contemplate His very Essence as infinite 
 Love for us, and then to love Him in response, with 
 all the devotion we can command. 
 
 %\z iFir)3t JFcitiap in Eent 
 
 Wc)t S©i)33ion of t^e i&cfaentp 
 
 It was directly after our Lord had spoken of His 
 "other sheep," it seems, that He sent forth the Seventy 
 Disciples to begin finding them, (St. Luke x:i-2i). 
 They were not, like the Twelve, forbidden to seek out 
 Samaritans and Gentiles (cp. St. Matt. x:5ff.). In- 
 deed the very symbolism of the Feast of Tabernacles, 
 after which they started on their mission, taken in 
 connection with their number, suggests that they were 
 the first missionaries to the world outside Israel. For, 
 during the octave, seventy bullocks were sacrificed for 
 the "nations of the world," the traditional number of 
 which was seventy. And our Lord Himself, probably 
 at this time, departed with the Twelve into Peraea, 
 where for the next three months He ministered to the 
 Gentiles (St. Luke xi-xviii : 30) . We can see, there- 
 fore, how eagerly Jesus longed to seek out His "other 
 sheep," even during the time of His Mission to the 
 "lost sheep of the House of Israel" (St. Matt, xv : 24). 
 
 Moreover, His seventy missionaries must go forth 
 endued with His own love for the sheep. As He was 
 
SAINT JOHN 151 
 
 a Pillar of Fire and Cloud to lead the whole world to 
 the Promised Land, so must they be, as His represen- 
 tatives (viii: 12). If He had said, '7 am the Light of 
 the World," He had as certainly said, of His disciples, 
 ''Ye are the light of the world" (St. Matt, v: 14). 
 He was the Smitten Rock out of Which springs the 
 living water ; from their hearts as well must the blessed 
 stream flow out in rivers (vii : 37 f.). And, as He was 
 the Lamb Who would give His Life to save the flock, 
 so He sent them forth as "lambs among wolves," to 
 die, if need be, for the lost sheep. 
 
 Thus the Seventy were "other Christs," Yet we 
 have not the name of one of them recorded in the 
 Bible. Blessed obscurity! They were all written in 
 Heaven (St. Luke x:2o). The names of the Twelve 
 are several times given in the New Testament, but 
 one of them will never be inscribed in the Book of 
 Life. Let us then love our obscure mission to Jesus' 
 "other sheep" as the very highroad to Heaven, and 
 consecrate ourselves more perfectly for it. 
 
 U6e JFir0t ^atuttia^ m Eent 
 
 ^|)c (Soot SljepljerU See&ina tbf ^oats 
 
 It was at a time of hope, that our Lord returned to 
 Jerusalem. The Festival of the Dedication commem- 
 orated the re-consecration of the temple, by Judas 
 Maccabseus, after its profanation by Antiochus. The 
 hymn for the octave gives thanks to God for this and 
 many other great deliverances, and craves yet one 
 more. It was to answer this prayer that our Lord 
 again offered Himself to His people. He appeared 
 walking up and down in Solomon's porch, on, or near, 
 
152 SAINT JOHN 
 
 His Birthday. The Jews surrounded Him, hoping by 
 their eager question to make Him avow Himself the 
 Messiah of their national and religious aspirations. 
 There are many like them, in all ages, who would 
 willingly accept a Saviour after their own hearts, but 
 cannot believe in the crucified God-Man. Patiently and 
 lovingly, our Lord began again with them at the foot 
 of His ladder of faith, pointing to the mercy and 
 power displayed by His miracles {y. 25). But He 
 must lead them on to the goal of faith speedily now, 
 for His time was very short; therefore He quickly 
 revealed the supreme truth of His Oneness in Essence 
 with His Father {v. 30). Their only response was to 
 lift up great stones, probably some of those intended 
 for the completion of the temple, in order to crush 
 Him {v. 31, as literally translated). 
 
 Their justification for thus rejecting the truth of 
 His Deity was that Jesus was a man and therefore He 
 could not be God {v. 33). They assumed that there 
 was an absolute repugnance between the Divine and 
 the human which would prevent their union in one 
 Person. Accordingly, Christ appealed to their Scrip- 
 tures, and adduced the fact that the theocratic magis- 
 trates of Israel were called "gods" because of their 
 moral union with Jehovah. We can see how true this 
 answer was from the fact that the "Word of God'' 
 came even to wicked Caiaphas, simply by virtue of his 
 high-priesthood (xi: 49-52). H, then, our Lord rea- 
 soned with the Jews, their judges, being evil men often, 
 were thus closely affiliated with God, surely there 
 could be no such antipathy between Deity and man- 
 hood as would make His claim to be the Son of God 
 impossible. 
 
SAINT JOHN 153 
 
 How gently then He began all over again, appealing 
 to the primary proof of His claims afforded by His 
 works of love! {v. 37). Even they were softened, so 
 that when He again declared the truth of His God- 
 head {v. 38), they laid down their stones and contented 
 themselves with attempting to arrest Him. We can 
 see, therefore, that He by no means confined His love 
 to the sheep. As some of the pictures in the catacombs 
 show Him, He was laboring to carry home the goats 
 also, on His Shoulders. , 
 
 W(st JFir0t ^untiap iv. lent 
 
 Cljrigt'ja Ketura to tJie ^iltirrnrsg 
 
 St. John gives us a very touching suggestion about 
 our Lord's sorrows, when He tells us that, after His 
 escape from the Jews, He "went away again beyond 
 Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, 
 and there He abode" for three months. For it would 
 seem that He was accustomed to go into retreat there, 
 when the dear Human Heart needed to be Divinely 
 comforted and refreshed. We are not told of any 
 previous visits to that sacred spot, but our saintly 
 Guide indicates that they occurred from time to time. 
 
 It was there that He had received His Baptism. 
 The Holy Spirit had come down as a Dove bringing 
 superabundant grace and power for His Ministry, and 
 had abode in His Soul. The Father had proclaimed 
 from Heaven His infinite love for His Son in Whom 
 even His Omniscience found naught but perfection 
 (St. Matt. iii:i6f.). Not far away was the Mount 
 of Temptation where He had triumphantly overcome 
 Satan during the First Lent. There He would spend 
 the forty days immediately before His Passion, pre- 
 
154 SAINT JOHN 
 
 paring His Human Soul to pass through that awful 
 furnace of affliction with Filial trust, meekness and 
 love (xi:54). 
 
 Thus, our Lord did not scorn to seek an environ- 
 ment full of sacred associations, in order that, by mem- 
 ories of the tender Providence and help of the Father 
 and the Holy Ghost, His human Nature might be 
 strengthened for its Immolation upon the Cross. How 
 much more do we need to return to God's past deliv- 
 erances and mercies, when we are facing anxiety and 
 trouble! Let us store our memory with the answers 
 to our prayers we have observed, the Divine comfort 
 granted us in previous suffering, and every other reve- 
 lation to us of God's infinite tenderness. 
 
 aponnap matter tjt JFit0t ^untiap in Eent 
 
 3[e0U0 /i5ot Slot|)fuI in Businegjs 
 
 One might have thought that even Christ would have 
 been too discouraged by the failure of His latest effort 
 to convert the Jews to enter immediately upon another 
 campaign to gain souls. There was something very 
 depressing in the stupidity, as well as in the hardness, 
 of their unbelief. They had tried to murder Him with 
 small stones, and He hid Himself and escaped them. 
 On the next occasion, therefore, when they would slay 
 Him, they laboriously lifted up blocks of granite to 
 cast at Him, evidently thinking that they would be 
 successful this time because of the very bigness of 
 the stones ! 
 
 Moreover, when He stood there by the Jordan, at 
 the scene of His baptism, a proscribed exile from His 
 own capital, it must have seemed to natural reason that 
 
SAINT JOHN 155 
 
 His Ministry had moved in a circle and come to an 
 end where it began. But our Great Exemplar re- 
 garded not the opinion of man; He considered only 
 the approval of His Father. 
 
 His determination to save souls to the utmost limit 
 of His opportunities was invincible. He took up His 
 abode at Bethabara, not only that He might be strength- 
 ened to go forward in His vocation, but also because 
 this was the most advantageous position for gathering 
 the results of the Mission of the Seventy and of His 
 own recent preaching in Peraea. It is a joy to read 
 that He was successful in this campaign of His most 
 generous charity; for *'many resorted unto Him," and 
 *many believed into Him there.' Shall we, then, ever 
 permit discouragement? Our Saviour proves to us 
 that when we seem to be complete failures in our labor 
 for souls, we are in fact about to achieve some great 
 success, if only we continue faithfully accepting the 
 opportunities God sends us. 
 
 JFor tftc ipibe Dapjs ipoIIotoinSf Read St. John xi : 1-52 
 
 ^ut0iiap matter x^z jFir^t ^unna^ in Eent 
 
 Wc}z IPurpojse in buffering 
 
 The Apostle of Love would have us appreciate the 
 blessedness of affliction. He has, therefore, selected 
 for us the death of St. Lazarus and the grief of his 
 holy sisters, because these three were the object of 
 Jesus' special love. When the messenger came to an- 
 nounce the illness of the young man, our Lord knew 
 that he was already dead. His revelation of the three- 
 fold purpose of suffering is on this account the more 
 solemn and impressive: This sickness,' He declared, 
 
156 SAINT JOHN 
 
 *is not unto death, but in behalf of the glory of God, 
 that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.' It was 
 not unto death, as its final end, but unto life eternal; 
 it was a sacrifice of his will which Lazarus was given 
 the opportunity of making for the sake of his love for 
 his Heavenly Father; and, finally, it was to become 
 the occasion of a new revelation of Christ's power and 
 love, leading on to His glorious Passion. It requires 
 little consideration to see that all our suffering is 
 meant to have this same triple result, of good to our 
 own soul, the increase of our Father's glory, and a 
 meed of greater praise to our Redeemer for the pa- 
 tience and love which men see that He has wrought in 
 us through the Sacrament of Pain. 
 
 This is one of the three places in the Fourth Gospel, 
 according to the correct text, where our Lord refers 
 to Himself as the Son of God (cp. v: 25 ; x: 36). On 
 the peculiarly solemn occasions when He preferred 
 this title of His Divinity to "Son of Man," He in- 
 tended to bring prominently before us the Deity of His 
 Person. Accordingly, here He would suggest to us 
 the unspeakably comforting truth that He, Incarnate 
 God, has gone before us to glory by the way of the 
 Cross. 
 
 Yet, while He has converted physical evil into a 
 blessing for us, it was none of His making. He 
 groaned in Divine indignation at the havoc which 
 death and grief, the fruit of human sin, had wrought 
 in His fair world {v. 33, R. V. Marg.). And He 
 ''troubled Himself over the affliction of His friends ; 
 that is. He deliberately assumed their pain, and made 
 it His own. Our troubles, too, He takes uDon His 
 dear Heart in Heaven. In all our afflictions He is af- 
 flicted (Isa. Ixiii : 9). 
 
SAINT JOHN 157 
 
 Qfllftine0liap ^iizt X\t Jfir0t fe)unDap in Eent 
 
 CHnanotDcreH lOraper for Reliff 
 
 Jesus loves us with that same devotion which He 
 had for St. Lazarus and his holy sisters. The messen- 
 ger attributed to Him a kind of love which is based 
 upon special friendship; but St. John substitutes for 
 his word that which means the universal Charity con- 
 stituting the very Essence of God (cp. vv. 3, 5, in the 
 original). Now, He let the grieving sisters wait until 
 the fourth day after their brother's death, in order to 
 intervene at the very best time for them ; for the de- 
 parted spirit was thought to linger near the body for 
 three days, and therefore the miracle by which He 
 would recall it would be less helpful to their faith dur- 
 ing that time. We can understand, then, that He has 
 some loving purpose, when He delays His answer to 
 our prayer. 
 
 But often it happens that our dear one, whose life 
 we begged for so pitifully, dies. Let us claim for our- 
 selves at such times the great consolation that the de- 
 parted one is still the dear friend of our Saviour and 
 His Saints {v. 11). Jesus will ''go unto him," for he 
 is just as truly now as he was on earth "in a real per- 
 sonal relationship" to his Redeemer {w. 11, 15). How 
 that dear Heart longs to call His sheep by name, as He 
 called "Lazarus" {v. 43), and summon him from the 
 "Waiting Church" into the ineffable light of His Pres- 
 
 ence 
 
 We, who are left on earth, must cooperate with Him 
 by our prayers and Eucharists for the faithful de- 
 parted. The Jews could not believe that His love was 
 consistent with His allowing the death of St. Lazarus, 
 and their doubt made Him groan again {yv. 36 ff.) ; 
 
158 SAINT JOHN 
 
 He did not need to trouble Himself, this time. But, 
 in fact, it is said that the young man, after he was 
 brought back to earth, never smiled again, so great 
 had been his happiness in knowing that he was saved 
 at last from the tyranny of sin. Let us then lose no 
 time in repining, but seek to consummate the happi- 
 ness of our beloved dead, in Jesus' Presence. 
 
 ^Sttt!3tiap mttt tSe JFtot &unnap m ilent 
 
 ©fcrcisins iFait|) OnUrr affliction 
 
 St. Martha is a wonderful exponent of faith in the 
 midst of trouble. While her brother lay ill, and evi- 
 dently drawing toward his end, she and St. Mary 
 kept saying to each other, until it became a habit, "If 
 Jesus were here our brother would not die" (cp. v. 21 
 and V. 32). St. Martha set herself to watch for His 
 coming, and remained at her post until her brother's 
 death; and then, having watched while hope lasted, 
 she continued after it seemed to have flown forever, 
 and was rewarded by being the first to welcome Jesus. 
 Thus, her greeting (v. 21) is not a complaint, as the 
 Greek shows, but assumes that His continued absence 
 must have been of necessity, and that He can even yet 
 obtain from His Father the fulfilment of His promise 
 that her brother's sickness should not be unto death 
 (w. 21 f.). 
 
 She teaches us, however, that Christian doctrine, 
 although comforting in itself, will not help us in our 
 affliction, unless we have made it our own. Jesus 
 sought to console her by the thought of the Resurrec- 
 tion. But while she believed in the doctrine, the fact 
 of the universal awakening, at the "last day," when all 
 
SAINT JOHN 159 
 
 human interests would be past, did not have for her 
 such personal and individual cheer as to soothe the 
 pain of her brother's loss. Then He made the Resur- 
 rection of personal value to her by identifying it with 
 Himself, from Whom His Own receive that life prin- 
 ciple which cannot be holden of death. And He as- 
 sured her that a soul, like that of St. Lazarus, which 
 had believed into Him, should never die {w. 21-26). 
 
 But it is her old, assimilated, well-tested beliefs 
 which are her great strength in her sorrow. "She saith 
 unto Him, Yea, Lord; I hmje believed that Thou art 
 the Christ," foretold in the Prophets, "the Son of God" 
 Who can restore the lost fellowship of man with His 
 Creator, "even He that cometh into the world," that is, 
 the One Who is the Bridge between earth and Heaven 
 {v. 27, R. v.). Let us then learn the truth of our 
 religion by personal experience, before we subject it to 
 the stress of dire need in affliction. 
 
 affliction 3ntenDcli to 3ncrm«e iFaitl^ 
 
 Our Lord had for His ultimate purpose, in the rais- 
 ing of St. Lazarus, the development of saving faith. 
 For even the Apostles, who believed "into Him," must 
 advance or deteriorate. Faith "becomes and is not. 
 He who is a Christian is no Christian." Therefore 
 Christ wrought His miracle to the intent that they 
 might believe {v. 15). The saintly sisters also grew 
 apace in their faith in Him. Before St. Martha left 
 Him, to call St. Mary, "she had risen above private 
 grief," because she had responded to His new revela- 
 tion {w. 25-28). But, besides His purpose to reveal 
 
160 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Himself more fully to these dear friends of His, He 
 had determined to make yet another effort to convert 
 the hostile Jews, many of whom were present. For 
 this reason. He offered His thanksgiving for the 
 miracle before it was wrought, 'that the Jews might 
 believe that the Father had sent Him' (tjv. 41 f.)- 
 Surely, then, our Lord wishes us always to meet suffer- 
 ing with a fresh and more perfect act of faith. 
 
 Again, those who come to help us, or comfort us, in 
 our trouble, must find our Saviour also with us. It 
 was the Jews who were sympathizing with St. Mary 
 and followed her to her meeting with Jesus, who saw 
 His great "sign" and 'believed into Him.' This was 
 the rich reward of even their natural compassion. We 
 must not send our friends away without the like 
 precious boon of increased faith. 
 
 For if we examine the passages in which our Lord 
 said, "thy faith hath saved thee," we find "that the 
 word 'save' reaches through the whole of man's nature 
 to every part of it." Faith, under affliction, therefore, 
 will often gain for us even physical relief (St. Matt, 
 ix : 22 ; St. Mark x : 52) ; it will surely make our suffer- 
 ing a penance for our sins and so bring moral healing 
 (St. Luke vii : 50) ; and it will infallibly crown our 
 recovery with a great spiritual gain (St. Luke xvii: 
 
 featutHa^ Sitttt tfie jfitg^t feunHap in Jimt 
 
 ^l)e I^ajajBton ^l)roucI)out 3fwu0' fiife 
 
 Because He was God and His Human Mind was 
 from Childhood illuminated with knowledge, reflected 
 from His Divine Omniscience, Jesus, all His Life, 
 foresaw His Cross. Thus, when the Apostles would 
 
SAINT JOHN 161 
 
 have persuaded Him not to visit Bethany for the rais- 
 ing of St. Lazarus, for fear the Jews would stone Him, 
 He answered in a way that proves His perfect famil- 
 iarity with every horrid detail of His Passion {yv. 7- 
 10). Before Him, He said, lay the full twelve hours 
 of His day, that is, the interval before His appointed 
 time to die. As the "sun knoweth his going down," 
 and no man can hasten his setting, so the Son of 
 Righteousness must run His course. Then would come 
 the night of His Passion, when the black darkness 
 would gather about His Head and He would "stum- 
 ble" over the gibbet of a convict-slave. In that hour, 
 even the "light" within Him, the ineffable consolation 
 of His vision of the Father, would be quenched, and 
 midnight would reign in that desolate Heart. All this, 
 let us remember. He had known, with every circum- 
 stance of His last Agony in Body, Mind and Spirit, 
 from His earliest Boyhood. 
 
 This suffering of Christ through anticipation was 
 absolutely unparalleled. Men dread a future disaster, 
 in proportion to the vividness with which their imag- 
 ination brings it before them, and to the degree in 
 which they fear that they will be subject to it. Now 
 our Lord had a perfect imagination, like, but tran- 
 scending, that of the greatest artists, which pictured to 
 Him all the horrors of His Passion, with relentless 
 realism; besides, He knew that He would become ut- 
 terly helpless in the hands of His deadly foes. Thus, 
 tortured by both the mental terrors which make phys- 
 ical cowards, and that to a degree which is impossible 
 for our dimmed faculties, He passed through a very 
 Hell of suffering for thirty years before He was cru- 
 cified. 
 
162 SAINT JOHN 
 
 "Now is my Soul troubled," He once said, referring 
 to that part of His Spirit in which was "gathered up 
 the fulness of present human life" (xii: 27). Yet the 
 keen agony manifested at that moment did not begin 
 then; for literally His words mean, "My Soul has 
 been and still is troubled." That pain had been famil- 
 iar to Him from the beginning. How can we, then, in 
 our affliction, doubt God's love for us, when we con- 
 sider the Passion of Jesus' whole life, and remember 
 that He was the Only-Begotten, Whom the Father 
 loved infinitely? , 
 
 ®|?c ^econU aaHecfe in ILent* Read St. John xxiii : 53 
 
 %tt ^econti ^untiai^ in JLtnt 
 
 tH^e JnfectiouiS (JToursQe of 3[^!3U0 
 
 At the outset of his record of the first Holy Week, 
 St. John sets before us the absolute fearlessness of 
 Christ and the way it was communicated to those 
 around Him. "Jesus therefore," he relates, "six days 
 before the Passover, came to Bethany," on His way to 
 Jerusalem. His significant "therefore" refers to our 
 Lord's knowledge of the high priests' deadly malice 
 against Him (xi: 47-57). He was proscribed, with a 
 price set upon His Head, and a strict commandment 
 of the Pharisees laid upon all the Jews to spy out His 
 place of retirement and inform against Him. Which- 
 ever way He turned. He set the serpents hissing. Yet 
 with full consciousness of all these preparations to ap- 
 prehend and slay Him, He was calmly walking into the 
 very arms of His foes. 
 
 The people of Bethany 'therefore made Him a sup- 
 per there,' St. John continues. This second "there- 
 fore" means that the villagers acted so bravely, in 
 
SAINT JOHN 163 
 
 view of Jesus' inspiring courage. Although they must 
 have known that He was an outlaw, condemned by 
 their spiritual rulers, they were emboldened by His 
 fearlessness to show Him their gratitude for the in- 
 effable blessings He had brought them. The family 
 which He had especially loved was of course invited, 
 but the very mention of the facts that St. Lazarus was 
 a guest and that St. Martha served, indicates that the 
 feast was given by the townspeople. 
 
 "Mary, therefore, took a pound of ointment of 
 spikenard, very precious, and anointed the feet of 
 Jesus." She also had caught the blessed infection from 
 His brave Heart. She apprehended that she was 
 anointing Him for some Divine act of Self-sacrifice 
 which she intuitively perceived was imminent. With a 
 real share of His own heroism, she had nerved herself 
 to give Him up. May He make us, His ''little ones," 
 brave to share His Self-immolation! 
 
 OPontiap lattet X\z &econli ^unHap in Xent 
 
 W^t JOenitent 
 
 St. Mary Magdalen was dead when this Gospel was 
 written. St. John feels, therefore, that he may iden- 
 tify her by name as "the woman" who anointed our 
 Saviour for His Burial and received from Him such 
 extraordinary praise (cp. St. Matt. xxvi:6-i3; St. 
 Mark xiv:3-9). But also, for our comfort, he dis- 
 closes the fact that she was "the sinner" who had, on 
 a previous occasion, bathed our Lord's Feet with her 
 spikenard and her tears (xi:2; St. Luke vii: 36-50). 
 Let us then observe how consuming was the love of 
 this great penitent. God had poured out His costliest 
 
164 SAINT JOHN 
 
 gifts on her head; she would at least pour out her 
 most precious ointment upon His Head (St. Matt. 
 xxvi:7). Not content with this, which was a cour- 
 tesy sometimes offered to an honored guest, she then 
 knelt down before Him, and anointed His Feet in 
 token of extraordinary reverence. At the same time, 
 she unloosened her hair and with it wiped His Feet, 
 which, especially among Orientals, was *'an act of the 
 most complete self-devotion." Finally, she broke the 
 alabaster cruse, so that it never afterwards should be 
 put to any less sacred use (St. Mark xiv: 3). 
 
 She was unconscious that in this way she was pro- 
 viding for the last honors of the Most Holy Dead. 
 Judas in his avarice was equally unconscious that he 
 was being led on to accomplish Jesus' Death. Let us 
 learn from their opposite examples, that we must de- 
 velop a positive habit of self-denial and of prodigal 
 love for Christ, so that we will consecrate that sub- 
 stratum of our characteristic thoughts and volitions 
 which is one main basis of our more conscious, delib- 
 erate activity and greatly influences it. 
 
 Our Saviour put the highest interpretation upon the 
 act of the dear penitent. He said that it was worthy 
 to be recorded in the Gospel together with His Passion. 
 Because her uncalculating love was like His, the break- 
 ing of the alabaster box should be proclaimed to all 
 the Christian world side by side with the rending of 
 His Body; and the pouring out of the precious oint- 
 ment should be associated forever with the effusion of 
 His Precious Blood. What other friend would appre- 
 ciate the greatest gift as Jesus does the least thing we 
 do for love of Him? 
 
SAINT JOHN 165 
 
 31egu0 anH tl)f I]?oor 
 
 Our Lx)rd appears to have expected that there would 
 always be poor people, as long as the world lasts, and 
 he enjoins upon us to regard them as our brethren, 
 saying that we are to 'have them with us.' St. Chry- 
 sostom, indeed, understands Him to have meant that 
 His dear Feet represent to us the poor, and that He 
 would have us pour out upon them the myrrh of Qiris- 
 tian kindness. Perhaps we may learn the truth and 
 beauty of this thought from a very tiny, humble teach- 
 er. It was a wren who built her nest in the metal 
 foot-rest of the crucifix which stands in the center of 
 the monastic garden at Holy Cross. There she reared 
 her brood in all safety, being assured of special pro- 
 tection and kindness, at the Feet of Jesus. 
 
 Our obligation of generosity to Christ's ''least breth- 
 ren" is reinforced by that which we owe to our own 
 souls. For almsgiving is one of the "three notable 
 duties" of a Christian. We can see from the example 
 of Judas how necessary it is for us to perform it faith- 
 fully. Our Lord intended that his natural disposition 
 to selfishness should be corrected by the almsgiving of 
 the little Band, which was entrusted to him (cp. xiiii 
 
 But our Saviour seeks to impress upon us that the" 
 Blessed Eucharist, in which He comes to us, has a 
 greater claim upon us than the poor. "Me ye have not 
 always," He said. In the early morning of each day, 
 He sits upon His humble altar throne in robes of hu- 
 man food. We must pour out our devotion upon Him 
 there, nor scruple to spend upon that Holy Service 
 even "three hundred pence," the wages of a man for a 
 
166 SAINT JOHN 
 
 year. Then we can go forth with sympathy and love 
 drawn from Him, to minister to His poor. 
 
 ffiHelineoiiap rafter t6e feeconn ^untia^ fn Eent 
 
 3[e)3U!9 t|)e CtinQ of Jerael 
 
 To the Last of the Apostles, our Lord's approach to 
 His Capital on the first Palm Sunday was an episode 
 related rather to the Christians of his day than to the 
 Jews who had crucified his Master. The very poverty 
 of this King whose war horse was the borrowed ass's 
 colt — He had humbly promised to return it ''straight- 
 way" (St. Mark xi:3, R. V.) — and Whose retinue 
 was the despised multitude, made Him especially suit- 
 able to be the Sovereign Lord of the lowly Apostolic 
 Church (cp. i Cor. i: 26). The ass, moreover, was an 
 "unclean" animal, according to the Jewish ceremonial 
 law, and this unbroken colt would therefore well rep- 
 resent the Gentiles, who were to yield their undis- 
 ciplined hearts so willingly to the mastery of Jesus. 
 
 It was remarkable, also, that the people in greeting- 
 Christ cried out, "Blessed is he that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord." For this verse from Psalm 
 cxviii had for centuries been chanted by the priests 
 in welcoming the worshippers to the temple. But now 
 the laypeople became priests according to the ancient 
 prophecy, "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests,'" 
 which was fulfilled in the Catholic Church (Ex. xix : 6; 
 Rev. v: 10; i St. Pet. ii: 5). 
 
 But we feel certain that St. John, writing a quarter 
 of a century after the destruction of Jerusalem, is 
 thinking of the spiritual Zion, when we observe that 
 he prefaces the prophecy of Zechariah with two words 
 
SAINT JOHN 167 
 
 of encouragement to his own ''little children." ''Fear 
 mot',' he cries to them, as they stand facing the vast 
 relentless cruelty of the Empire, **fear not. Daughter 
 of Zion ! Behold, thy King cometh !" Down the ages 
 of Christian history that lowly Monarch rides, for He 
 is the universal Saviour of every generation and every 
 land. May God speed the day when our King shall 
 come to His own in America! 
 
 'arfiut^nap rafter x\z ^econti feunnap in liznx 
 
 Srue iSelf-ilobe 
 
 It was one of the strangest of the paradoxes upon 
 which our Lord insisted, as all four Evangelists bear 
 witness, that true self-love inevitably issues in self- 
 immolation; that the way to keep our life forever is 
 to sacrifice it, and that we attain to fruitfulness 
 through "losing our life," and to glory through mor- 
 tification. He pointed to three obvious proofs of the 
 proposition expressed by these extraordinary state- 
 ments {yv. 23-25): (i) It is a fundamental law of 
 nature that life springs out of death. Thus, a grain 
 of wheat "abideth" alone, unless, being sown in the 
 darkness of the earth, it perishes, and in perishing 
 nourishes the new plant which it sends forth from its 
 heart to bear an hundredfold. (2) The little group of 
 disciples around Christ who had "hated their lives*' 
 for His sake, were evidently "keeping" them in the 
 fullest sense. There must have been a look of calm, 
 deep happiness in their faces, as well as of a quiet 
 dignity, betokening those in the favor of a great King. 
 We notice that the Greek strangers addressed St. 
 Philip, the poor GaHlean fisherman, by the title, "Sir," 
 
168 SAINT JOHN 
 
 or, literally, "Lord." (3) Christ's own crucified Liff 
 had been gloriously successful, even in the eyes of the 
 Jews; for, besides His unparalleled supernatural 
 powers, which had culminated in the raising of St. 
 Lazarus from death, 'the world had gone after Him' 
 when He had at last consented to be acclaimed King 
 of Israel {v. 19). Thus, He proved by patent evi- 
 dence, satisfactory even to natural reason, that the 
 way to make the most of ourselves is through dying 
 to ourselves for His sake. 
 
 The same truth appears, moreover, in this way : we 
 cannot find real happiness except in the service of 
 Jesus. But if we serve Him, we must follow Him 
 {v. 26), and He enjoins upon all His disciples a love 
 like His, consuming self (xiii: 34). 
 
 Nor is this supernatural self-love impossible for us. 
 For we have three Divine Helpers all striving to lift 
 us up above false self-love even to the height of Jesus 
 Crucified. For the Father is "drawing" us to Christ 
 (vi: 44). The Son said, "I, if I be lifted up from the 
 earth, will draw all men unto Myself" {v. 32). By 
 the Holy Spirit we are "borne unto Perfection" (Heb 
 vi: I, literally translated). We need only permit the 
 Blessed Trinity to have Their way with us, therefore, 
 and we shall be exalted, poor, faulty servants though 
 we be, to the fellowship of love, with Jesus. 
 
 JFtitiap matter i\t feecond feuntiap (n Eent 
 
 €|)rii9t duf^erinQ for t|)e ^entilesi 
 
 It seems surprising, at first, that the approach of the 
 Greeks and their eagerness to see our Lord should 
 have caused Him such keen suffering {yv. 2028). 
 
SAINT JOHN 169 
 
 The reason was, however, that their inquiry brought 
 vividly before Him the need and the receptivity of the 
 Gentiles, to whom the Gospel and the Kingdom of 
 God would soon pass. But first He must die, and 
 rise again, for them. Thus the very appeal of these 
 Greek proselytes erected His Cross before His very 
 Eyes. 
 
 Our heroic Master seldom gave any sign of the 
 suffering He constantly bore on our ' behalf. His 
 words on this occasion are therefore a precious revela- 
 tion of His dear human Heart. "Except a grain of 
 wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, 
 but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit," He said, 
 signifying His own Crucifixion under this humble 
 figure. What to the Farmer is the sowing is to the 
 Grain a 'falling into the earth.' And the poor Seed 
 must leave Its natural sphere and lie in the darkness 
 under the soil. Thus all the suffering, dereliction ana 
 manifold mortification of His Death and Sepulture 
 were none the less real to His human Mind, because 
 He, no less than His Father, was determined to pay 
 the supreme price for us Gentiles. 
 
 It was in order to show us how bitter was the strug- 
 gle it cost Him to continue steadfastly in the way of 
 His vocation, and how great was His Love in the 
 Passion He endured on our behalf, that He expressed 
 His thoughts aloud. The alternative of saying, 
 "Father save Me from this hour," which would have 
 once and for all done away with the Cross, or of 
 asking, and obtaining, that His "Father would glorify 
 His name'' of Love by the Atonement, had been pre- 
 sented to Him hour by hour all His life. Nor did He 
 ever for one moment hesitate as to His answer. His 
 Life was one long Passion of Love for us, consum- 
 
170 SAINT JOHN 
 
 mated on the Cross. Thus He teaches us that, in the 
 grammar of Divine Charity, the perfect of "live" is 
 love. ^ 
 
 &aturtia? jitter tl^e &econti &untia^ in Eent 
 
 'BeliebttiG 3nto t^e Iltc|)t 
 
 It is characteristic of St. John that he remembered 
 our Lord's last words to the Jewish world, as being 
 "an exhortation and a promise," rather than warnings 
 of coming judgment, such as are quoted by the other 
 three Evangelists as the conclusion of their record of 
 His public Ministry (cp. St. Matt. xxv:46; St. Mk. 
 xiii : 37 ; St. Luke xxi : 36). The question drawn from 
 the people by His gracious saying that He would be 
 "lifted up from the earth," in order to draw them to 
 Him, had shown that they were entirely unprepared 
 to accept the crucified Son of Man as the Christ 
 {v. 34). Consequently, He foresaw that unless they 
 could be got to 'believe into the Light, while they 
 had the Light,' they would be overtaken by the black 
 night of His Passion, and would never "become sons 
 of Light" {v. 36, A. V. Marg.). In His anxiety to 
 elicit from them a definite, conclusive act of faith in 
 Him, while He was still in their view invested with 
 the splendor of His Kingship {v. 13), He entirely 
 forgot His own position on the very brink of His 
 Passion. 
 
 Moreover, our Lord had revealed, in a previous dis- 
 course appended by St. John here {vv. 42-50), that 
 it was from His Father He had received His great 
 yearning to illuminate men with Divine Wisdom. "I 
 have not spoken of Myself," He declared, "but the 
 Father which sent Me. He gave Me a commandment 
 
SAINT JOHN 171 
 
 what I should say," that is, the substance of the Gos- 
 pel, "and what I should speak," which means every 
 word of His teaching in detail {v. 49). But, if God 
 was taking such infinite pains to enlighten the Jews, 
 how can it be said that He was at the same time blind- 
 ing them {w. 39 ff.) ? St. Chrysostom long ago an- 
 swered that the Gospel blinded the Jews, because their 
 spiritual eyes were weak from their own pride and 
 self-will. So far from causing any soul to shut out 
 its salvation, our Lord even refused to condemn the 
 man, if there were any such, who heard His teaching, 
 and still remained in sincere unbelief. It was the one 
 who rejected Him, and received not His words, He 
 said, who would be judged by the Gospel he had 
 wilfully despised (z^/. 47 f.)- 
 
 The fact that what we have made ourselves deter- 
 mines whether or not we will hear Christ's word is 
 admirably illustrated by the different interpretations 
 put by two groups of the people upon the Divine Voice 
 which came to our Lord from Heaven (w. 28 f.) To 
 some it was but the muttering of a thunder storm, 
 while to the others it was *'the broken syllables of 
 God," brought by an angel, — a message articulate, 
 personal and from some holy speaker. The Voice had 
 come for the sake of the people, but only those whose 
 characters were attuned to God's could hear it. Let 
 us then resolve that our spiritual senses shall be quick- 
 ened by our repentence and love, this Lent, that 
 through all our future life they may be keen to appre- 
 hend the glorious truth of the Divine Illuminator. 
 
172 SAINT JOHN 
 
 ^!?irli iatteeft in Hent Read St. John xiii 
 
 ttfie 'ISiru feuntiap m Emt 
 
 3[e>5U0 t|)e «Iabc of (^i^ Creaturr^ 
 
 On the last night of His Ministry, our Lord filled 
 every moment up to His very arrest in Gethsemane 
 with final instructions to His Apostles. The all-im- 
 portant lesson of His unremitting service to His crea- 
 tures, however, He taught by the symbolic act of wash- 
 ing their feet. Having laid aside His outer garment, 
 and girded Himself with a towel like a dom.estic slave, 
 He knelt before each of them and performed the most 
 menial of duties. Now, St. John explains that there 
 were three reasons for His thus demanding the right 
 of serving man as His slave: (a) He loved His own, 
 whom He would leave in the world, to the uttermost; 
 (b) He fully realized His Deity, knowing ''that He 
 was come from God and went to God"; (c) He was 
 the absolute Sovereign of the universe, for "the Father 
 had given all things into His Hands" {yv. 1-5). And, 
 because His action was typical of what He is doing 
 for us every instant, through the ages, every detail of 
 His perfect service is carefully recorded for us {yv. 
 4f.). 
 
 The supreme pledge, however, that the God-Man is 
 bound to work as our slave is the Incarnation. "What 
 wonder," cries St. Austin, "if He girded Himself with 
 a towel, when He had accepted the form of a slave 
 and was found in the habit of man.'* 
 
 How diflFerent from Jesus' lowliness and love is the 
 pride of our fallen human nature ! Even the Apostles, 
 though they were saints, had scorned to do the office 
 of a slave. Should Peter be servant to John, and so 
 
SAINT JOHN 173 
 
 yield the precedence to him ! Should John bathe the 
 feet of that Iscariot, whom he had heard muttering 
 over St. Mary's act of devotion to His Master! Yet 
 God Incarnate knelt humbly before all of them, as in- 
 deed He kneels before you and me whenever He 
 washes us clean from the soil of our pilgrimage. Dear 
 Slave! Bind us as Thy fellows, by an irrevocable in- 
 denture, for all eternity {y. i6). 
 
 Qpontiap matter tjie W^xt^ §)untia^ in Etnt 
 
 Wc>z Sljeological l^irtuejai 
 
 There are three Greek words, in the New Testa- 
 ment, which signify the example of Christ. The first, 
 which is peculiar to St. Paul, the apostolic exponent of 
 Faith, means primarily, "image.'' The great Apostle 
 represents the whole process of our salvation, as our 
 being 'conformed to the image of the Son of God,* 
 that is, to His Character manifested to us in His exam- 
 ple (Rom. viii: 29). Faith would have us keep before 
 our eyes the revelation of perfect holiness in Jesus 
 Christ, and strive to be changed into that Divinely 
 lovely image "from glory to glory" (2 Cor. iii:i8, 
 A. V. Marg.). 
 
 But Hope, in the person of St. Peter, sets our Lord's 
 example before us as an ''alphabetic writing copy,'* 
 which we are to keep on imitating until it becomes sec- 
 ond nature to us. 'For hereunto were ye called,' he 
 tells us, 'because Christ also suffered for you, leaving 
 you a Copy, that ye should diligently follow His steps' 
 (i St. Pet. ii:2i). He fully recognizes that we are 
 only beginners, awkward children with a perfect 
 Model before us. He himself bungled sadly in trying 
 
174 SAINT JOHN 
 
 to follow It, when he strove to prevent his Saviour 
 from cleansing away his stains, and again when he 
 insisted that he was strong enough to go with Him 
 to prison and death (St. John xiii : 6 fif., 37 f.)- But 
 he sets before us the sure hope that, if we only con- 
 tinue practising failjifully, we shall find at last that 
 our character is formed like that of Jesus. 
 
 The Apostle of Love presents to us the example of 
 Christ as the Divine Character in action (vv. 12-17). 
 We behold the Hands into which the Father had given 
 all things used to bathe the soiled feet of sinners. 
 Those who would follow Christ, he teaches, must be 
 practical lovers of their race. The most royal, the 
 most Divine, thing is to be servant of all. 
 
 '^Eue^tiap MUX i^t ^W^ feunnap in Htnt 
 
 Jrisue anH ^futais 
 
 There is an old tradition, that the first of the Apos- 
 tles whose feet our Lord washed was Judas. Yet, 
 even as He performed the servile task for him, He 
 knew that the foot He was bathing and drying was 
 about to spurn Him over the precipice into the abyss 
 of His Passion. For, a little later. He quoted, with 
 reference to the traitor, the prophetic words: "He 
 that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel 
 against Me" {v. 18). But, even now, on the very eve 
 of His betrayal. He was striving with intense longing 
 to win the fallen Apostle. 
 
 We see how perfectly thoughtful, and tactful, He 
 was with that evil soul, from the fact that, when He 
 had to identify him for St. John, He whispered, so 
 that only the two inquirers heard. Nor would He, 
 
SAINT JOHN 175 
 
 even thus softly, breathe the traitor's name, for fear 
 of at once revealing him to all the Eleven, to his public 
 shame, and so precipitating his final downfall. Fur- 
 thermore, He took advantage of the custom of giving 
 a morsel to the favored guest at a banquet, like the 
 later courtesy of drinking the health of the guest of 
 honor, and bestowed this mark of love upon Judas. 
 It seems that he was almost won by this gift of the 
 *'sop,'' for Satan, the very king of evil, hastened to 
 enter his heart, fearing that his job would be spoiled 
 {v, 2y). Jesus knew that it was hopeless, then, to save 
 him from spiritual disaster. But when self-will in 
 Judas had, unresisted, fully attained its purpose, there 
 would come a moment of revulsion of feeling, when 
 it would hang suspended, between repentance, which 
 is sorrow for hurting Christ, and remorse, which is 
 pity for self suffering from a guilty conscience. Our 
 Lord planned to extend that moment. Therefore, He 
 urged Judas, 'What thou doest, do more quickly,' hop- 
 ing that he might thus obtain a greater opportunity to 
 choose repentance, and salvation. 
 
 Yet the Heart, which practiced this heroic charity, 
 was very human. Thus, He felt sorely oppressed by 
 the traitor's presence. ''Now is My Soul troubled," 
 He said, sadly. And, when Judas had gone out. His 
 words show a deep feeling of intense relief {y. 31). 
 He was our own Human Brother, as well as our all- 
 loving God, in His treatment of His incredibly false 
 friend, and we must strive to follow Him, even though 
 it be "afar off." 
 
176 SAINT JOHN 
 
 (lQIetitu0tia? ^ttet X\t U&itti &untia^ in Eent 
 
 W^t C^oIineiBe of t|)r C|)urc|) 
 
 Jesus, the "Shepherd and Bishop" of the Christian 
 Church, on that last evening before He suffered, gave 
 to His Apostles a share of His everlasting Priesthood, 
 to be the endowment of the Catholic Ministry. Prob- 
 ably the foot-washing was meant in part as a cere- 
 mony of ordination, like that by which Moses conse- 
 crated Aaron and his sons (Ex. xxix:4). For He 
 commissioned them to wash away the dust of the 
 earthly pilgrimage from the feet of their fellow- 
 servants by Absolution {v. 14; xx:22f.); and after 
 He had celebrated the first Eucharist, He gave them 
 authority to do as He had done (St. Luke xxii: 19; 
 I Cor. xi: 24 f.). 
 
 The generous love of our Head in making these 
 magnificent gifts to the faithful is seen to be all the 
 greater, from the fact that He does not allow them to 
 depend upon the holiness of the one who administers 
 them. "Verily, verily, I say unto you," He declared 
 in His doubly solemn way, "He that receiveth whom- 
 soever I send, receiveth Me" {v. 20). Once before He 
 had given them this ambassadorial authority, but with 
 the significant difference that then He had said simply, 
 "Whosoever receiveth you receiveth Me" (St. Matt, 
 x: 40). In the meantime, Judas had represented Him, 
 and He wanted them to know that even the traitor's 
 ministerial acts were valid. Thus, He will not permit 
 the people to be deprived of the means of grace by the 
 unworthiness of the priest. 
 
 Moreover, in His eyes, a Church does not cease to 
 be holy, even though it contains false disciples. To 
 teach this, He said to the Church in the Upper Room, 
 
SAINT JOHN \77 
 
 "Ye are clean, but not all." They did not as a body 
 lose the note of holiness, even though one of them 
 was a traitor to their Lord. Thus, Jesus Christ wishes 
 us to continue faithful communicants of His Church, 
 though laymen, or even the very priests at the altar, 
 prove disloyal to Him. . 
 
 'lESut^liap jatttr tje W^it\\ feuntiap in Eent 
 
 ^roubltne ant ComfortinQ 3f^)3U0 
 
 There were three occasions, which St. John links 
 together by the strong Greek verb he uses only therein, 
 when our Lord was "troubled." The first time was 
 at the grave of St. Lazarus, when He voluntarily as- 
 sumed the suffering of the sisters (xi : 33, R. V. 
 Marg.). The second was when the appearance of the 
 Greek Gentiles made Him realize more poignantly 
 than before the bitterness of His approaching Passion 
 (xii: 27). This was natural, human pain which came 
 uninvited but was borne gladly for our sake. It was 
 the third affliction which our Saviour endured un- 
 willingly, because it was due to the disloyalty of His 
 friend. All our infirmities and sicknesses, our grief, 
 and the death-penalty of our transgression. He ac- 
 cepted joyfully, but He shrinks with loathing and hor- 
 ror from the infliction of our sins. 
 
 It is a happiness to know, that at the moment He 
 felt the treason of Judas most keenly, the Disciple 
 whom He loved lay in His Bosom. Let us picture the 
 group. As was the custom, the company reclined, 
 three together, on the divans. St. Peter was just be- 
 yond our Lord, Who lay between him and St. John, 
 so that the young Apostle's head was close to his Mas- 
 ter's Breast. When he asked the name of the traitor, 
 
 13 
 
171 SAINT JOHN 
 
 he leaned back so that he rested upon our Saviour's 
 Heart and looked up into His Face. The place of 
 honor, second to that of Jesus in the center, was as- 
 signed to St. Peter as the eldest of the Apostolic Col- 
 lege; but St. John's was the station of His beloved 
 one, whose great devotion soothed His wounded Spirit. 
 We also have it in our power to apply that salve of 
 holiness and love. Shall we withhold it from Jesus? 
 
 However great was His own suffering, Christ spared 
 the Eleven to the utmost of His power. Charity to 
 Judas would have forbidden Him even to indicate who 
 the traitor was, so that it would become known after 
 his departure, had it not been that He could not bear 
 to see His faithful Apostles suffer from the fear that 
 one of them would turn against Him. It is grateful 
 to Jesus, if we imitate His charity. Let us to-day 
 resolve to practice it, especially against detraction and 
 over-severity toward others. 
 
 6Jorif?inc t|)e iFat^er 
 
 When Judas had left for his black deed, our Lord 
 cried out with triumphant exultation, "Now was the 
 Son of Man glorified, and God was glorified in Him" 
 {y, 31, R. V. Marg.). His meaning was that in per- 
 mitting Judas to depart on his mission of betrayal, He 
 had made a definite act of Self-surrender to His Voca- 
 tion of suffering death for the salvation of the world. 
 He could have ordered the arrest of the traitor, but 
 instead He had, at that crucial moment, as always, 
 chosen to accept His Passion. Thus His Father was 
 glorified in His Soul by His act of sacrifice of His 
 
SAINT JOHN 17f 
 
 Human Will. Now, the disciple must imitate His 
 Lord in this self-immolation to the glory of God 
 (xxi: 19). 
 
 But not only was the Father glorified in the Lamb 
 of God by His freely submitting to become our Vic- 
 tim; His own Human Spirit was glorified in God. 
 "Now," He declared, "was the Son of Man glorified." 
 The same Crucifixion of His Human Will by which 
 He magnified His Father, merited, and instantly ob- 
 tained, an added beauty for His radiant Soul. And 
 we, whenever we exalt God by a thought, or some lit- 
 tle act of self-denial for His sake, immediately receive 
 an increase of grace and favor in His sight. 
 
 Furthermore, our Lord revealed that the Father 
 would glorify His Manhood the more for every suf- 
 fering of His Passion. "God shall glorify [the Son 
 of Man] in Himself," He said, "and straightway shall 
 He glorify Him." The Bloody Sweat of Gethsemane, 
 the seven false trials, the crowning of thorns, the 
 scourging, and the final hours on Calvary, replete as 
 they were with agony, brought not one slightest throb 
 of pain which was without its meed of everlasting 
 splendor to the Soul of the Crucified. Yet, there is a 
 far more wonderful proof of the Father's love than 
 this. For He rewards His poor sinful creatures with 
 glory, for their every suffering in His service, just as 
 surely as He added to the ineffable beauty of His 
 Incarnate Son, for the Acts of His Passion. 
 
 &atttttia^ Sitttt t^e ditu fenntia^ in JLmt 
 
 Q:^( jfBfto Commantiinfnt 
 
 It is very significant that Jesus never referred to 
 His commandments until the eve of His Passion, He 
 
180 SAINT JOHN 
 
 meant to lay upon His disciples as His special precept, 
 the obligation of a love like His own, and He reserved 
 this supremely important matter, until it would come 
 to them from His death -bed with double sacredness. 
 Besides, it would be wisest to leave them something 
 hard to do during the years of loneliness that would 
 follow His Ascension {y. 33) ; and to strive after the 
 ideal of Divine Charity, for His sake, would comfort, 
 at the same time that it would humble, them. 
 
 The law of love for our fellow -men is not new in 
 substance (cp. Lev. xix:i8; St. Luke x:27). But 
 when our Saviour commanded His disciples to love one 
 another even as He had loved them. He assigned a 
 new and far more compelling motive for that mutual 
 charity which had long been of obligation. Now they 
 must exercise it for His sake. Whose love for them 
 on the Tree was ''strong as death." Again, their spir- 
 itual love was wider in scope; it would be the super- 
 eminent virtue of His Universal Church and by it all 
 men would be attracted to the standard of the Cross 
 {v. 35). Lastly they had just received a power for 
 holy charity which had never existed before. For the 
 great High Priest had for the first time given them the 
 Blessed Sacrament of Love. 
 
 We appreciate somewhat of the impression He made 
 upon the Apostles by His "new commandment," from 
 the ancient tradition that at the very time St. John 
 wrote his Gospel, his one sermon, Sunday after Sun- 
 day, was, "Little children, love one another." St. 
 Jerome relates that his people became weary of his 
 repeating this so often, and asked him why he did so. 
 "Because," he answered, "it is the Lord's command- 
 ment ; and, if it is fulfilled it is enough." May Jesus 
 fill our hearts with this deep apostolic charity, dissipat- 
 
SAINT JOHN 181 
 
 ing all malice and unkindness, and binding us together 
 in Himself. . 
 
 ^^e JFourti^) 2Iilf eft in JLent* Read St. John xiv 
 
 The warning that St. Peter would soon deny their 
 beloved Master, not once nor twice, but thrice, had 
 filled the Eleven with sadness, both for our Lord's 
 sake and for that of their fellow Apostle. Jesus saw, 
 therefore, that for the time their greatest need was 
 not so much charity as faith. Therefore, He said to 
 them, 'Let not your heart be troubled; believe into 
 God, believe also into Me' {v. i, A. V. Marg.). He 
 knew that the future looked gloomy indeed to them. 
 For one thing, it seemed that they would be homeless 
 wanderers in the world. He must make them realize 
 that, though they might be without earthly friends, or 
 wealth, or even shelter, they would still be safe, body 
 and soul, in God and in His own devoted Heart. 
 
 Yet, Heaven, whither they knew He was going, 
 seemed a vast distance from the earth. It was not so, 
 He assured them. 'Tn My Father's House are many 
 mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you." 
 The "mansions" were, literally, the inns which were 
 located along the great postroads of the Empire, and 
 His Father's ''House" was the universe. Thus He 
 meant to teach them that the world, for all their labor 
 and strife, would be to them but a rest-house, a place 
 of calm peace and refreshment, on the way Home- 
 ward. There was no immense abyss between the earth 
 and Heaven, but rather a postroad, which He was 
 about to point out to them {v. 4). 
 
182 SAINT JOHN 
 
 But even these great consolations were not enough 
 to comfort them. He knew well that what they could 
 not bear was the fear that He would no longer be with 
 them as Man. He hastened, therefore, to take away 
 this baseless dread. "If I go and prepare a place for 
 you," He said, "I come again," and *'the 'coming' is 
 regarded in its continual present." Jesus 'would not 
 leave them orphans' ; He would be perpetually 'coming' 
 in the Blessed Sacrament. Indeed, He would abide 
 always with them, if they would reserve the Holy 
 Mysteries {v. i8, R. V.; St. Matt. xxviii:2o). Now, 
 all their blessings are ours. And ours, too, is that most 
 precious promise, "I will receive you unto Myself, that 
 where I am there ye may be also." For it means that 
 a Christian's death is just dear Jesus coming and tak- 
 ing his soul in His arms to carry it into another "man- 
 sion" of His Father's House. 
 
 Sl^ontia^ iattet tfie JFourtJ ^unlia^ in Eent 
 
 Our dear Lord declared that He is All. He is the 
 Way to God, the Truth to guide us on our pilgrimage, 
 and Life to quicken and maintain us unto the end 
 {y. 6). And, when time shall be no more, He will be 
 to us also the Resurrection and the Life Everlasting 
 (xi:25). 
 
 Our race has always needed Him to supply its deep- 
 est want. The oldest religion of which we have any 
 remains is Taoism, a cry for "the Way" from those 
 lost Mongolian brethren of ours, ringing out to God 
 in the early dawn of human history. For the term 
 "Tao," modern scholars agree, means a quest of the 
 
SAINT JOHN 183 
 
 way or passage through which everything enters into 
 life, and at the same time the way of highest perfec- 
 tion. Man's search ended when Christ came and estab- 
 lished His Holy Church, which as if to reveal "Tao," 
 took during its earliest years no title but 'The Way" 
 (cp. Acts ix: 2; xix: 9, 23, etc., A. V. Marg.). 
 
 Jesus is, therefore, the Viaduct between the two 
 worlds of earth and Heaven. For 'no one cometh unto 
 the Father, but through Him.' It is this *'Way" upon 
 which He would have us concentrate our attention and 
 effort, while yet we keep the Divine Goal in view. 
 "Whither I go," He told His stricken Apostles, "ye 
 know the way" {yv. 4 ff., R. V.). There is a modern 
 painting, of three men racing, which admirably illus- 
 trates this teaching of the Christian course. There is 
 a boy running freely and joyfully, evidently delighted 
 with the exercise, not looking to the end particularly, 
 but keeping to the course. Beside him is a mature 
 man, whose eyes are fixed upon the goal, toward which 
 he is directing his every step. The third of the group 
 is an old man, who runs with eyes bent on the ground, 
 following the course marked out. The child represents 
 the joy of the faithful even in mid-course; the younger 
 of the two adults symbolizes the Christian as he runs 
 "looking away to Jesus" ; and the elder personifies the 
 prudent care we must exercise to follow the *'Way" 
 which our Saviour has marked out by His Footsteps. 
 
 ^i)t $acretineiei0 of ^rut|> 
 
 Jesus Christ is "the Truth." All knowledge, both 
 gecular and religious, is from His Divine Mind. He is 
 the Light Which is ever 'coming into the wodd/ more 
 
184 SAINT JOHN 
 
 and more, as each succeeding generation becomes the 
 heir of all the past, and grows increasingly receptive 
 to Him. Thus, every kind of truth, whether of art or 
 science or theology, is a ray from the True Light 
 (i:9). Be it a landscape or a newly discovered prin- 
 ciple of physics or biology, Parsifal, or two plus two 
 equals four, all are the Thoughts of God. In them 
 the painter or the scientist, the great musician or the 
 schoolboy, has but reflected gleams of the infinite Wis- 
 dom in the Word of God. 
 
 It follows that the Catholic Christian is best fitted 
 to receive all knowledge. For, by our religion our 
 minds are brought into ever closer likeness to the Mind 
 of God, and thus we gain a greater receptiveness for 
 His Wisdom. Again, our consciences are simply our 
 minds acting upon a particular kind of truth, that is, 
 the moral law in its various applications to conduct. 
 If, therefore, our consciences are cleansed and 
 strengthened by righteousness, our minds will be cor- 
 respondingly purified and stimulated so that they can 
 better discern, not only the truth of morals, but that 
 of science, metaphysics and theology. It will help us 
 to see how true in experience this principle is, if we 
 take one out of a vast number of examples. The sci- 
 entific fact upon which all antitoxins are based was 
 discovered by a man of mediocre ability, but of deep 
 piety and consecration. All the famous chemists of 
 the Academy of Science had examined the two globules 
 from which the blessed truth was first learned; but 
 only poor, dull Pasteur, the butt of scientific Paris, 
 observed intelligently the phenomenon that one mole- 
 cule was a trifle flatter than the other. His mind had 
 become receptive to the new truth, which he deduced, 
 because through prayer and sacraments it had grown 
 
SAINT JOHN 185 
 
 to be more like that of the Word, than was the most 
 brilHant intellect among the savants of the Academy. 
 It is, therefore, to a man who strove for truth as Di- 
 vine and Sacred, one who approached science with a 
 mind full of religious dogmas, and whose chief en- 
 dowment was holiness, that we owe the countless lives 
 saved by the use of antitoxins. 
 
 Jesus is Truth. Skepticism, in the person of the 
 Sadducees and Pilate, crucified Him. Shall we, then, 
 encourage the enemies of the Word of God ? Shall we 
 read, and disseminate their books, or even listen to 
 their teaching? St. John fled from the building which 
 was sheltering the heretic Cerinthus. Let us have no 
 part nor lot with false teachers, but rather guard Di- 
 vine Truth as we guard the safety of our Lord. 
 
 (lOetim0liap matter iftt jfourtD ^un&ap {xk Emt 
 
 3[e0U)3 3)3 Dur Htfe 
 
 Our dear Lord twice revealed Himself as "the Life," 
 and on both occasions the light of His saying is the 
 more glorious because there was the gloomy back- 
 ground of death (cp. xi:25). In the Upper Room, 
 that last night. He wanted the Apostles to know that 
 through His Self-immolation, He would become to His 
 Church the Source of boundless vital power in "the 
 way." At the grave of Lazarus, He meant that His 
 faithful servants receive from Him a principle of life 
 which will survive death, and at the Resurrection will 
 fill their souls and bodies with eternal health. 
 
 St. John, writing sixty years after Christ ascended, 
 could still say to all the communicants throughout the 
 Church that the Humanity of the Incarnate Word was 
 
186 SAINT JOHN 
 
 "full of grace" for them, and that of His fulness they 
 all had received, and grace upon grace (1:14, 16). 
 The entire body of the faithful in 95 a.d. had drawn 
 their souls' fill from the Fountain of Life in Jesus as 
 truly as the Apostles themselves had done. Yet, ex- 
 cept for the Blessed Sacrament, which is the "Exten- 
 sion of the Incarnation," no Christian of that day could 
 possibly have received grace from the Chalice of that 
 sacred Manhood which was throned in Heaven. But 
 through those same Holy Mysteries, we Twentieth 
 Century Christians, like the countless past generations 
 of the Church's children, receive spiritual vitality to 
 our utmost capacity, from Jesus' limitless fulness of 
 life. 
 
 It is notable that the unusual Greek word for "ful- 
 ness" occurs only once in St. John's writings, and no- 
 where else in the Bible except in St. Paul's Epistles 
 to the Colossians and to the Ephesians, both of which 
 were written from his Roman prison. The word for 
 "grace," also, after being used by our Evangelist four 
 times, never again appears in this sense in his writ- 
 ings, but occurs with great frequency in the Pauline 
 Epistles. Very probably, therefore, St. John's con- 
 ception of Christ as "full of grace" and sharing his 
 "fulness" with .his poor brethren in the world, is a 
 reminiscence of his fellowship with the great prisoner 
 at Rome. He, himself, according to the tradition, was 
 cast into a vat of boiling oil, but his life was miracu- 
 lously preserved. It is profoundly touching that the 
 two Apostles, through the very stress of the peril and 
 suffering they endured, came to realize the "fulness" 
 of the Son of Man. In trouble like theirs, we also may, 
 if we will, discover the all-sufficiency for our needs of 
 Him Who is our Life. 
 
SAINT JOHN 187 
 
 <2r6at0tiap rafter tSe JFoutft feuntiap in Ef nt 
 
 Nothing could be more deeply appealing than the 
 extreme delicacy and tenderness of Jesus with His 
 Apostles during those last hours before His arrest. 
 It was as if He was keeping His finger on their pulse, 
 and was sensitive to its slightest slackening or quick- 
 ening. Thus, He noticed instantly that they ''heard" 
 when He told them gently that He was going away, 
 and the look of intense relief when He hastened to 
 add 'T come again unto you" {yv. 2 f., 28). He would 
 not lay upon them even more instruction than He saw 
 they could "bear" (xvi:i2). Yet He knew that the 
 hour was upon Him when He would go forth into the 
 Place of a Skull "bearing His Cross." 
 
 His intense solicitude for them appears also from 
 the fact that once and again He sought to soothe the 
 trouble out of their hearts {yu. i, 27). His Heart was 
 abundantly "troubled," both by Judas' treason, and 
 by the anticipation of His Agony and Death. But He 
 completely forgot His own anguish in consoling them. 
 
 No way of Comforting His Own did He leave un- 
 tried. As tenderly and ingeniously as some wonderful 
 mother He suggested one helpful thought after an- 
 other : He was only going* away to prepare a place for 
 them, where they could be with Him always: {vv. 
 2f.). They should have another Advocate, abiding 
 with them on earth ; He, also, would come continually 
 to His "orphans" in the Blessed Sacrament {vv. 16- 
 18). He was leaving them the precious bequest of 
 His peace and His joy {y. 2y\ xv: 11). Besides, they 
 ought to rejoice over His gain in His going "unto the 
 Father/' because the Father was greater than He in 
 
188 SAINT JOHN 
 
 His Manhood, and would clothe that sacred Humanity 
 with ineffable glory and fill the dear Heart with joy 
 eternal {v. 28). But they also, almost immediately 
 after His Passion, would have a Risen Saviour, over 
 Whom they would rejoice as a mother over her first- 
 born babe (xvi: 16-20). And they would make an 
 infinite profit even out of His Ascension to Heaven, 
 because He mu\st depart thither, before He could send 
 the Blessed Spirit upon His Church (xvi: 7). This is 
 Jesus' Way with His own. May we not commit our- 
 selves, body and soul, into His pierced Hands with 
 absolute trust? . 
 
 iFtiDa^ "after t^e jFourtI) feuntiap m Eent 
 
 £)ur Wi%t toiti) ?[c0U!S 
 
 The disciples of Him Who was Divine Love Incar- 
 nate must be, above all things, practical. 'Tf you love 
 Me," so runs His test of our Christianity, "ye will 
 keep My commandments" {v. 15, A. V. Marg.). And 
 this is one of those propositions which is so true in all 
 its terms that its converse also is true. "H ye keep 
 My commandments," He declared a little later, '*ye 
 shall abide in My love." Thus He urges practical dis- 
 cipleship upon both of the two opposite types of Chris- 
 tians : those who are temperamentally disposed to obe- 
 dience must learn to be lovers, not legalists; while 
 those who are easily moved to love of Christ and their 
 fellows must constrain themselves to obey His com- 
 mandments, laid down in His Gospel and His Church. 
 
 Moreover, we must permit our Lord to manifest 
 Himself to us more and more perfectly (v. 21). Let 
 us learn a lesson from the error of St. Thomas and 
 St. Philip. They supposed that God could only reveal 
 
SAINT JOHN 189 
 
 Himself to them in an apparition, or theophany {v. 8). 
 "Lord," said St. Philip, ''show us the Father, and it 
 sufficeth us." But the most perfect manifestation of 
 God was through the revelation of Holiness and Love 
 in the life of His Incarnate Son, recorded for us in the 
 Gospel. ''If ye had known Me,'* Christ answered, "ye 
 would have known My Father also. . . , He that hath 
 seen Me, hath seen the Father." In fact, we receive 
 in the Life of Jesus a far more perfect revelation of 
 God than we could get from many visions of Him. 
 
 Thus did He teach His Apostles the way of fellow- 
 ship with Him. And we should realize that they 
 actually learned His lessons of obedience, love and 
 receptiveness. Thus, St. Thomas remained silent after 
 his first question, and assimilated what he was told, 
 until it bore fruit in his great confession of Jesus as 
 his Lord and God (xx:28). Let us provide Him an 
 abode with us {v. 23), and put our life under the 
 dominion of His love. « 
 
 featurtiap matter tjie JFourtji ^unnap In Eent 
 
 3fc)8Ui3' <Sift to l^iia 2DUm 
 
 Our Saviour tells us that His way of giving to us 
 is the opposite of that which obtains in the world 
 {v. 2'/). If we compare the two, we find these among 
 other points of contrast: (i) Worldlings give from 
 interested motives, hoping to receive as much again, 
 or more (St. Luke vi:33f.); while Christ gives to 
 those who have nothing wherewith to recompense 
 Him. (2) They share only with their friends; He 
 offers His all freely to friend and foe alike. (3) They 
 part only with what costs them nothing, or, what, like 
 bequests, they cannot keep; Christ's benefits cost Him 
 
190 SAINT JOHN 
 
 a Life of suffering, the Cross, and continual labor up 
 until now, and He could have retained all without in 
 the least diminishing His own happiness. (4) They 
 pretend to bestow the most precious gifts, while in 
 fact they do not possess them ; but Jesus endows His 
 beloved ones with His own characteristic peace and 
 joy in their perfection and fulness (z;. 27; xv: 11). 
 
 H, however, we think of the world's gifts in our 
 Lord's comparison as being the temporal blessings of 
 our natural life, our experience again justifies His 
 saying, "Not as the world gives, give I unto you." 
 For earthly joys are so constituted as to give the 
 greatest pleasure at the beginning. They serve us with 
 their best wine first, then bring on that which is worse. 
 But Christ's gifts "grow in power and fulness of 
 blessing." He keeps the good wine until the last. 
 
 The blessing of peace is an excellent example. The 
 world cries, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace" 
 (Jer. vi: 14). But Jesus bequeathed us His peace, to 
 comfort us in trouble and to save us from moral 
 cowardice {v. 2y) \ for that legacy from our Saviour 
 is the sure "confidence of faith and fellowship with 
 God." May dear Jesus give us, morning by morning, 
 His Kiss and His Greeting of Peace (xx: 19, 26). 
 
 [The following Meditations (to page 215) on Chapters xv- 
 xvii are intended for Ascensiontide and Whitsuntide, becanse 
 they constitute the only appropriate part of the Gospel for 
 those Seasons. It seems better to place our studies on this 
 section here, in order not to break the continuity of the sacred 
 t«xt. The reader should pass them by at this time an^ con- 
 tinue the Lenten Meditations.] 
 
SAINT JOHN 191 
 
 IFor aftfwiontite* Read St. John xv 
 
 ja0ctn0(on 5Da? 
 
 Wcfi l^eabenlH l?ine 
 
 The beautiful parable of the Vine and Its branches 
 was very probably spoken by Qirist as He stood in 
 the Temple. It is certain, that He had left the Upper 
 Room and was at some point on His way to Gethsem- 
 ane ; we know also that His Father's House was open 
 after midnight on this one day in the year, and ac- 
 cordingly, with great authorities, we shall think of 
 Him as remaining there until He had finished His High 
 Priestly prayer (xvii). How full of sacred associa- 
 tions it was for them all! There, on Mount Moriah, 
 Melchizedek had offered his sacrifice to the ''Most High 
 God," and there, also, Abraham had, in intention, 
 offered his son as a willing victim (Gen. xiv:i8ff. ; 
 xxii: 14; cp. 2 Chron. iii : i). 
 
 Before them, crowning the portal of the temple, was 
 fastened a great golden vine heavy with clusters. "I 
 am the true Vine," said our Lord ; and later He added, 
 "Ye are the branches." He is not simply the stem, but 
 the entire Plant, including in Itself every tiny shoot 
 and new graft. Thus He would teach us, that we of 
 the Church on earth are in vital union with Him in 
 Heaven. Wherever we go, we are still branches of 
 this Heavenly Vine, and must bear fruit unto It {v. 
 16). Apart from Him, we can do nothing {yv, 4 f.). 
 The vine wood is, indeed, entirely worthless ; probably 
 from the Temple Mount they could see the fires of 
 Kidron burning the withered clippings from the vine- 
 yards. The more fruitful we are, therefore, the more 
 joyfully certain we can be that we are being strength- 
 
192 SAINT JOHN 
 
 ened by grace from Jesus' Soul, as the fruitful branch 
 is nourished by sap from the heart of the vine. 
 
 One other lesson, which is set in the forefront of 
 this discourse, is that the Apostles were "clean through 
 the Word" of Christ, that is, through the whole course 
 of His instruction and discipline during their three 
 years together. Probably He was referring to the fact 
 that according to the Mosaic Law a vine was held to 
 be "unclean" for three years during which time much 
 of its natural growth had to be pruned away. H, there- 
 fore, we are allowed to suffer, let us consider it a sign 
 that, through our union with Jesus in Heaven, we are 
 fruitful, wherefore the Divine Husbandman is "cleans- 
 ing us," that we may bring forth more fruit {y. 2). 
 Suffering is a positive proof to Christians that God is 
 in His Heaven, and all is well with us on earth. 
 
 JFriHa^ fn tfie flDctabe of ^a^cenjafion 
 
 Dfecontent toitb Cur JpruitfuIneiB^ 
 
 There is an almost incredible object held out to the 
 ambition of the Christian in our Lord's revelation that 
 our Heavenly Father is glorified in our bearing much 
 fruit. Every fresh cluster adds to the praise, and the 
 joy, of the Divine Husbandman. By the same means 
 of fruitfulness, moreover, we 'become Christ's disci- 
 ples' {v. 8 R. v.). "Something is always wanting to 
 the completeness of discipleship. A Christian never 
 'is,' but always is ^becoming' a Christian and it is by 
 his fruitfulness that he vindicates his claim to the 
 name." Besides, we must accept the challenge which 
 our Saviour offers us when He says, "Even as the 
 Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you ; abide ye 
 
SAINT JOHN 193 
 
 in my love" {v. 9 R. V.). If we are living in the light 
 and warmth of Jesus' Charity we cannot but be fruitful. 
 
 Let us then be discontented with our productiveness. 
 Our Lord was not satisfied even with His eleven great 
 Saints. He spoke as if they had made small progress 
 even in knowing Him, saying, "If ye had known Me," 
 implying that even after all the revelations of their 
 years with Him, their knowledge of His Personality 
 was still far from complete (xiv : 7) . Again, He urged 
 them to aspire after greater devotion to Him, saying, 
 '7/ ye loved Me," — suggesting that He wanted them 
 to consider the great love they already had for Him as 
 nothing (xiv: 28). But what must He think of our 
 complacent contentment with our slight knowledge of 
 Him, and with that feeble affection which is our best 
 response to His Divine love? 
 
 Yet, for all our disappointing dullness, our Lord is 
 invincibly optimistic about us. Immediately after He 
 had clearly seen the failure of the Apostles to discern 
 the Father in Him, He said with perfect confidence, 
 'From nozv on ye know Him, and have seen Him.' 
 Moreover, He recognizes and values to the full even 
 our imperfect response to Him. 'Ye hear My Word,' 
 He said to the eleven ; and again He relied upon His 
 Own 'beholding Him' after He had departed from the 
 world's sight (xiv: 24, 19). Finally, His patience with 
 our slowness is inexhaustible. When it seemed that 
 after all the Apostles had not attained to belief in His 
 Oneness with His Father simply on His Word, He 
 was ready to begin over again with them at the first 
 lesson of faith : "Believe Me," He pleaded, "that I am 
 in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe 
 Me for the very works' sake" (xiviii). Surely, we 
 
 14 
 
194 SAINT JOHN 
 
 must strive to bear more and sweeter fruit for this 
 King of Divine Charity and Lover of our poor sinful 
 souls. . 
 
 &atnttia^ in t^e £)ctate ot j^0cen0ton 
 
 I^raper anH £Dur SecenUeH Hort 
 
 "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask 
 whatsoever ye will and it shall be done unto you." 
 Thus did dear Jesus reveal to us the spirit of prayer. 
 **The petitions of the true disciples are echoes of 
 Christ's words." Whether our prayer be supplication 
 for temporal or spiritual benefits, intercession, thanks- 
 givingf or worship, it must always be in harmony with 
 His teaching in the Holy Scriptures. But on this sole 
 condition, we can be absolutely certain that our devo- 
 tion obtains a full and overflowing response from 
 Infinite Love. 
 
 For with our prayers are joined those of our 
 Saviour, Who ''ever liveth to make intercession" for 
 us (Heb. vii:25). What loving solicitude fills His 
 continual prayer, we know from that which He ofiFered 
 in the Temple (xvii). But. not content with assuring 
 us that He is forever lifting up those pierced Hands 
 on our behalf. He has revealed to us certain ways in 
 which we can touch His Sacred Heart to plead for us 
 with special tenderness: (i) by loving and obeying 
 Him (xiv:i4f.); (2) by faith in Him as our God 
 and Saviour (xvii: 6-9) ; (3) by especial need of Him 
 (xvii: 11-16) ; (4) by unworldliness (xvii : 14-16). 
 One more means there is of making Him intercede 
 most earnestly for us, but this we must never use. It 
 is by falling into mortal sin ( i St. John ii : i ) . 
 
 The supreme assistance of our risen Lord is, how- 
 
SAINT JOHN 195 
 
 ever, through the perpetual re-petition of Calvary 
 which He makes upon His altar throne (Rev. v:6). 
 For by His very Presence in Heaven He continually 
 memorializes before the Father what He did for our 
 salvation on the Cross. Our prayers must be effectual 
 with this Divine High Priest to plead them at His 
 Heavenly Altar. Let us then, praying ''through Jesus 
 Christ," take the Heart of Gk)d by storm, for ourselves 
 and for all who need our intercessions. 
 
 feuntia^ in tlie jQDctabe oC ^0ctn0ion 
 
 flDur e|)rii8tian Jfop ipuIfilleU 
 
 It was only when our Lord reached the very eve of 
 Good Friday that He spoke of 'His joy' (v.w). He 
 was then looking forward to showing that supreme 
 love of the man who lays down his life for his friends 
 {v. 13) ; and His gladness in thus loving us to the 
 uttermost was His characteristic joy. Ours He knew 
 would be more natural and more composite than His 
 own unmixed heroic happiness in Self-sacrifice. But 
 He desired that His joy should have a place in us in 
 order that ours might be sweetened and sanctified. 
 
 Second only to His example in thus preferring the 
 happiness of complete Self-oblation to all others, is 
 that of His holy Forerunner (iii:29). For it was as 
 the Baptist stood on the brink of his passion, with his 
 ministry ending in failure before his eyes, and face to 
 face with imprisonment and death, that he said, "My 
 joy is fulfilled." 
 
 It is the aged writer of the Fourth Gospel who 
 alone records these sayings of his first master and of 
 his eternal King. In his long experience, he had 
 
1% SAINT JOHN 
 
 learned his lesson, that natural happiness turns stale 
 and bitter if it be not mingled with some measure of 
 the joy of self-sacrifice. He tells us, moreover, that 
 our Ascended Lord looks upon us as His "friends" 
 {y. 14), and surely there can be no such felicity as 
 that which belongs to the friends of God. But it 
 means that He counts every faithful Christian as an 
 Abraham (St. James ii: 23) ; and as the Father of the 
 Faithful had, there on the Temple Mount, been will- 
 ing to offer what He loved best, so must we be. Then 
 our joy shall be fulfilled, though like St. John, we are 
 lonely and old and persecuted, for we shall be the 
 friends of the Crucified in Heaven. 
 
 9?ontiap in t^e flDctabe ^i ^^nxK^i^n 
 
 £Dur i^atreD snt) Hobe of t^e ^orlH 
 
 Twice over, and the second time during the solemn 
 hour in the Temple, Christ told the Eleven that the 
 world hated him, and warned them that they must 
 expect to be the object of its hostility just as He had 
 been {w. 18 f., cp. vii:7). The sixfold repetition of 
 ''the world" in His statement brings out its multiform 
 antipathy to Him and to His Church. He emphasizes, 
 also, the fact that it hated Him "without a cause'' {v. 
 25), by using the same word for this which had ex- 
 pressed "the gift of God" to man (iv: 10). He came 
 iDringing to the world God's gratuitous love and grace, 
 and it repaid Him with gratuitous hatred and a Cross. 
 
 Yet His Heart was full of Divine charity for it, 
 still. It was because he knew this, that St. Jude ex- 
 claimed in amazement over His saying that He would 
 manifest Himself unto His Own, and not unto the 
 
SAINT JOHN 197 
 
 world (xiv: 22 ff.). He felt certain that Christ longed 
 to reveal Himself to all mankind. For had not his 
 Master said again and again that He loved the whole 
 world and had come to save it? (iii: 14 ff. ; xii:47.) 
 And was it not a prophecy about the Messiah that He 
 need only ask and His Father would give Him the 
 heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of 
 the earth for His possession? (Ps. ii:8.) Many a 
 night, as he knew, his Lord had spent on His knees 
 praying for the fulfillment of that promise. St. Jude 
 was right in his assurance that there was no lack in 
 His infinite longing for the salvation of every soul 
 which comes into the world (i St. Tim. ii:4). 
 
 But the world would not receive its Saviour. It was 
 not the Pharisees, or Pilate, who led in dealing out to 
 Him the most shameful of capital punishments ; it was 
 the Sadducees, the representatives of the world-spirit, 
 who cajoled and bullied the others into assisting them. 
 How, then, can we love that which has ever hated our 
 Head? How can we adopt its anti-Christian conven- 
 tions and fashions? We cannot be Jesus' friends, if 
 we do not hate the sin of the world, and seek the 
 salvation of every sinner in it. 
 
 'arueotiap in tfie flDctabe of mttx^mn 
 
 Slabejj /f9ot Greater S|)an Cl)eir Kinc; 
 
 Both our Lord and His Beloved Disciple have laid 
 great emphasis on that saying of Christ, "The servant 
 is not greater than his Lord." As precious and crowd- 
 ed as the interval was before His arrest. He repeated 
 it solemnly then, although He had said it in the Upper 
 Room {v. 20, cp. xiii:i6). St. John records His 
 
198 SAINT JOHN 
 
 words on both occasions, although St. Matthew and 
 St. Luke had both given them ; and he alone uses for 
 "servant" the strong word "slave." He had looked up 
 through a rift in Heaven and had seen the Slave of 
 the Universe seated upon the Throne of God. After 
 that the servile title for a disciple was royal and 
 Divine. 
 
 It was in order to commend to us precepts which He 
 knew would be very much against our natural self- 
 love, that our Saviour directed us to imitate His own 
 humility and meekness. First, then, we must wel- 
 come the opportunity to perform menial services for 
 our brethren. St. Peter particularly, always bore in 
 mind the lesson which he had learned when God In- 
 carnate had bathed his feet. Long afterward, remem- 
 being Jesus girded with a towel, he thus exhorted his 
 clergy : "All of you gird yourselves," or, literally, "be 
 aproned," "with humility, to serve one another." Sec- 
 ondly, we must bear ill treatment with patience. It 
 was a very dear and helpful thought to St. John and 
 his people, expecting the terrible Domitian persecution, 
 that their Lord had, on the brink of His own Passion, 
 shown His perfect meekness in bearing the injuries of 
 His enemies. 
 
 The last of the three great lessons which the Divine 
 Servant taught His fellows, was given at the begin- 
 ning of their discipleship, and was different from these, 
 although related to them (St. Luke vi:4o). For then 
 He had used His familiar exhortation to enforce the 
 truth that their disciples would not rise above them- 
 selves in the Christian virtues. He would teach us that 
 we must strive to imitate our Master in Heaven, not 
 only for His glory and our own soul's sake, but also 
 
SAINT JOHN 199 
 
 for the welfare of those whom we instruct by word and 
 example. The Christian is to be, himself, a master to 
 his weaker or less fortunate brethren, and by his own 
 lowliness and love **to ring the rising-bell in the dor- 
 mitory of other souls." ^ 
 
 dcaetine^tiap in X\z flDctatie ot ^^cen^fon 
 
 fl)ur 321iitne)3i9 to C^rtist 
 
 There is no glory of our Christian life greater than 
 that which is conferred upon us by our privilege, and 
 duty, of bearing witness to our ascended Lord. This 
 is Divine work, in which He even associates us with 
 the Blessed Trinity; for the Father "hath borne wit- 
 ness of Him," He 'bore record' of Himself, and the 
 Holy Ghost continually ''beareth witness" of Him (cp. 
 v:37; viii: 14; v. 26 i.). For us to confess Him in 
 our personal life and teaching is thus to join in a Di- 
 vine Chorus. But Jesus associates us in this especially 
 with the Holy Ghost. Our testimony, which is exter- 
 nal, is the counterpart of that interior illumination of 
 His whereby He takes of Christ's and shows it unto 
 the Church (xvi: 14). 
 
 Accordingly it is impossible to exaggerate the im- 
 portance to our Lord of what we are, because the wit- 
 ness of a genuine Christian life is more convincing to 
 the world than that of the inspired Bible and the in- 
 fallible Catholic Church. 
 
 Yet, our Christian character is only in the making, 
 and we are not to consider it a failure when it seems 
 to compare unfavorably with pagan types around us. 
 It is a much more difficult thing, at first, to possess 
 both courage and meekness, efficiency and humility, 
 and to reconcile them in speech and conduct, than it is 
 
200 SAINT JOHN 
 
 to be simply keen, self-reliant, successful people of the 
 world. Thus Cephas displayed natural courage and 
 loyalty at our Lord's arrest (xviii: lo), but when He 
 was required to unite with these qualities the Christian 
 virtues of obedience and longsuflPering, he deserted his 
 Lord ignominiously, and afterwards denied Him thrice. 
 What a contrast to him is Caiaphas, the clear-headed, 
 masterful, successful high priest of the Jews. But the 
 Christian Faith developed Cephas into the Stone-man 
 and the Saint, whose life and teaching have helped the 
 Blessed Spirit mightily in filling the New Jerusalem 
 with citizens ; while Caiaphas went down to his grave 
 universally hated by his own people and with the curse 
 of the Talmud upon him. \ 
 
 iFeIIotD!B|)tp toiti) Ifesujs in i^eaben 
 
 The call to fellowship with our Saviour is as real 
 for us to-day as it was for the Apostles and the holy 
 women. For His very presence with us, whether as 
 God, everywhere we go, or as the God-Man, in the 
 Blessed Sacrament, constitutes His invitation to visit 
 with Him. He had only to appear at Bethany, and the 
 holy sisters felt that they were summoned to Him. 
 "The Master has come and calleth for thee," St. Mar- 
 tha said to St. Mary, when in fact He had done this, 
 not in words, but simply by being in their home. 
 Moreover, He has told us that He expects us to "be- 
 hold Him" even now when He is throned in Heaven. 
 And what He means by this, practically, is admirably 
 interpreted by the Greeks who came to seek Him (xii : 
 20 ff.). For they had begged that they might "see 
 Jesus." Yet they had been gazing at Him and listen- 
 
SAINT JOHN 201 
 
 ing to His preaching, from a little distance. They 
 rightly considered that really to see Him meant to 
 come into His immediate Presence and lay their 
 thoughts before Him. In this same, true, sense, we 
 may behold Him as often as we will. 
 
 It is but honestly due to our Lord that we should let 
 Him abide with us. St. John impresses this dear duty 
 upon us in the following way : he records our Lord's 
 comforting assurance that He has gone away into 
 Heaven in order that He may prepare a mansion for 
 us, and then. His gracious, and appealing, promise that 
 He and His Father will come to the soul that loves 
 Him and 'make their mansion' with it (xiv: 2 and 23, 
 literally translated). He has used in these two sayings 
 a word for ''mansion," or "rest-house," which appears 
 nowhere else in the Scriptures, to point his meaning, 
 that the dear Carpenter is building for each of us a 
 palace in Heaven and asks in return the hovel of our 
 sinful heart. 
 
 Fellowship with Him is for us a little foretaste of 
 Heaven. "Ye," said our Lord to the Apostles, "are 
 with Me from the beginning {v. 2y). Their life at His 
 Side had been a timeless present. There had been, as 
 it were, no past nor future, but an endless now. Their 
 hard life with its labors and anxieties, sufferings and 
 sorrows, had been transfigured by light from Heaven. 
 It was the beginning of their immortality, because they 
 were with Jesus. 
 
2W SAINT JOHN 
 
 Sot tjje JFifae Dapn iFoIIotoinc* Read St. John xvi 
 
 JFttda^ Mitt t&t iSDctabe ot j^^cen^ion 
 
 C|)ri)3t denHinQ t|)e {paraclete 
 
 The most difficult part of our Lord's labor in con- 
 soling His Apostles was His task of persuading them 
 that it was expedient for them that He should depart 
 to His Father (v. 7). But, even that night in the Tem- 
 ple, He seems to have been in a measure successful, by 
 His glowing descriptions of the Paraclete Whom He 
 would send to them from Heaven, for He convinced 
 them that He must ascend to His Father before He 
 could bestow that Divine Gift upon them. Not until 
 the whole process of Redemption had been consum- 
 mated by His Enthronement, could the Spirit-bearing 
 Church be sent forth for its work of Sanctification. 
 Only after He had been consecrated as the "Bishop 
 of our souls" at the Right Hand of His Father, could 
 He ordain the Apostolic Ministry by the Pentecostal 
 Gift. And before the end of the first Eastertide He 
 must have completely won their hearts to love of His 
 Holy Spirit, for we read that they returned from bid- 
 ding Him farewell full of joy and thanksgiving (St. 
 Luke xxiv: 52 f.). 
 
 When we realize that Christ had taught them to 
 think of the Holy Ghost as ''another Comforter" like 
 Himself, we are not surprised that they looked for- 
 ward with such joy and eagerness to His coming. The 
 title "Paraclete" is peculiar to St. John, and means 
 both a Comforter, or Strengthener, of their souls, and 
 an Advocate for them and for the success of their 
 ministry, before the throne of God. So prodigally is 
 Divine charity lavished upon us, that we must have 
 two such Paracletes, Christ and His "Other Self." 
 
SAINT JOHN 203 
 
 Our Saviour commended His Holy Spirit to His 
 Church in another way, also : He has left it to us to 
 reverence and honor the blessed Paraclete. For He 
 said that He glorified His Father and that the Holy 
 Spirit glorifies Him, but He seems to expect the Cath- 
 olic Church to glorify His Spirit. In the same way. He 
 came in the Father's Name, and the Comforter was 
 sent in His; we, Christ's brethren, have the glorious 
 vocation of going forth in the Name of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Wot (^olp <gl)O0t Conberting t^jc affllorlli 
 
 Not for the faithful alone did Jesus send His Holy 
 Spirit from His Human Heart in Heaven into the 
 heart of His Mystical Body on earth. The plan of the 
 Blessed Trinity in that Mission of the Advocate was, 
 in part, that He should convince the world "of sin, and 
 of righteousness, and of judgment," in order that it 
 might be converted {vv,%-\i'). It seemed hopeless to 
 the Apostles that they could win the hard hearts which 
 had rejected the pleading, the signs of Divine Power 
 and Love, and the attraction of the Personality of In- 
 carnate God (xv: 22-26). Then our Lord promised 
 them the Holy Ghost, to be their mighty Helper ; they 
 should have Two Paracletes, Both infinitely full of 
 yearning love for souls. And the success of this 
 doubling of the boundless measure of Divine assist- 
 ance was apparent on Pentecost. For the thousands 
 who had shouted "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" now 
 came crying, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do to 
 be saved.' They were convicted of sin by the Holy 
 Ghost, 'because they had not believed in the Lord of 
 Glory' (Acts ii : 23, 36). 
 
204 SAINT JOHN 
 
 But many people, who are convinced of sin, will not 
 admit the possibility of their becoming righteous. 
 They contend that the best they can do is to lead a 
 moderately good life, free from most of the greater 
 sins. The Holy Ghost is continually convincing these 
 souls, by showing them the perfect Life of ''the Man 
 called Jesus," "Who was in all points tempted like as 
 we are," and yet was righteous and was accepted by the 
 Father {v. lo). He leads them, also, to consider the 
 holy lives of Christians who love their invisible 
 Saviour, and thus proves to them that there must be 
 mysterious Sacramental conduits of grace from His 
 Soul in Heaven to theirs on earth. 
 
 Finally, this powerful Advocate is daily persuading 
 men that there is an inevitable conflict between mate- 
 rialism, godless ambition, and irreligion in all its forms, 
 and God, by making them realize that the Prince of 
 this world was condemned from the Cross. For they 
 instinctively approve of the Crucified ; they cannot say, 
 even to themselves, that they have no sympathy with 
 Him. But, by their very confession that He is the Per- 
 fection of all that is holy and loving, they condemn the 
 spirit of the world which slew Him. The Cross shows 
 them the right standard of success and failure, and the 
 true issues of life and death. Rightly, therefore, did 
 our King bid us "Be of good cheer," for by His Pas- 
 sion, He has indeed "overcome the world." 
 
 d)e ^norrn ComraHe of 2Dur I^il^rimaQe 
 Another of the anxieties which beset the little group 
 of the faithful, gathered there in the Temple, was the 
 fear of an unknown future, through which they must 
 
SAINT JOHN 205 
 
 wander as in a trackless wilderness. Dear Jesus 
 hastened to dispel this cloud. They should have a Di- 
 vine Guide, His Vicar, Who would reveal to them 
 His Mind and His Will infallibly {y. 13). This com- 
 pleted the gracious promise given them in the Upper 
 Room of their 'other Paraclete' who was to accompany 
 them throughout their pilgrimage (xiv: 16 f.). Every 
 kind of comradeship, possible even to the Divine Spirit, 
 is thus assured to the Church. For He 'abides with us 
 forever,' as our Comforter, Who begins giving us His 
 eternal fellowship even while we are yet poor sinners. 
 •Miss Keller has said that Love will find a way into the 
 minds even of those who are deaf and blind. Has He, 
 Who is the Infinite Love of God, found an entrance 
 into our consciousness ? Do we let Him comfort us in 
 trouble? Do we, like our Lord, "rejoice in the Holy 
 Spirit," in our times of prosperity? (St. Luke x:2i 
 R. V.) 
 
 Secondly, 'He abideth by our side,' during our pres- 
 ent life as our Advocate, always ready with His power- 
 ful help. With infinite Personal devotion to His clients 
 He espouses their cause as if it were His own, defends 
 them from their enemies, gives them His counsel in 
 their difficulties, and acts as their Solicitor at the bar 
 of Heaven. 
 
 Finally He is the SanctiHer 'Who is in us for the 
 work of our salvation. Let us try always to remember 
 His Presence there. As St. Austin says. He is in our 
 souls, "not only as the impetuous stirring Wind of 
 heroic Energy, nor only as the Flame of Divine Love, 
 but as the Holy Dove," brooding there until we bring 
 forth the graces and virtues which He loves (Acts 
 ii: 2 f ; St. John i: 32). 
 
206 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Qpontiag in tfie Clfll6it0un iSDctatJt 
 
 %^t dpirit of Supplication? 
 
 In His office as Sanctifier, the Paraclete must con- 
 vict, not only the world, but the children of the 
 Church. We can feel Him tugging at our consciences, 
 seeking to convince us of our sin, and to inspire us 
 with repentance and good resolutions. If we are over- 
 tender and scrupulous, we should receive great encour- 
 agement from this activity of the Divine Advocate, for 
 we can rest assured that He will show us plainly if we 
 have committed even venial sins. But if we are dis- 
 posed to think of ourselves as moderately good people 
 who have done nothing which especially requires Di- 
 vine forgiveness, we must let the Holy Spirit of Love 
 lead us to careful, regular, examination of conscience. 
 
 Yet we must not rest contented with sinlessness, 
 even if we could attain to it perfectly. It has been 
 rightly said that the blush of shame over wounding 
 Jesus is but the first ray from the Rising Sun of 
 Righteousness. Nor will He be satisfied until we are 
 filled with Divine Light and Love to the fartherest 
 corner of our soul. His last care before He left the 
 Temple to begin His Passion was to pray His Father, 
 "That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be 
 in them and I in them" (xvii: 26). 
 
 Consequently, He would have us judge the "Prince 
 of this world" by a life wholly dedicated to the love of 
 Him. "I pray," He pleaded in His Great Intercession, 
 "that Thou shouldest keep them out of the Evil One" 
 (xvii: 15 R. V. Marg.). He would have us preserved 
 from even resting within the domain of Satan. And 
 through His Grace He makes over to us the victory by 
 which He utterly condemned the Earth Spirit from the 
 
SAINT JOHN 207 
 
 Cross. Rightly, then, may we adopt the words of a 
 saintly bishop, and think of dear Jesus as saying to u« 
 through the discourses and the prayer of those early 
 hours of Good Friday: "Ye are sharers of My vic- 
 tory, consorts of My reign, and participants of My 
 glory." , 
 
 'ittte^tiap in \\t ^6tt0un flDctabe 
 
 t2rf)e spirit of ^rutt) 
 
 St. John, in his practical, systematic way, gives us, 
 out of our Lord's instructions, what we may call the 
 Stairway of Salvation. Of course, he teaches that the 
 first step is the love of Jesus which leads to jaith. 
 Thus, our Lord said to His Apostles, ''Ye have loved 
 Me and have believed that I came out from God" {v. 
 2y). Accordingly, if we are struggling with a difficult 
 doctrine of our religion, our best method of approach 
 will be by increasing our love of God, through prayer 
 and holy deeds for His sake. "The things of men," 
 said Pascal, "must be understood in order to be loved, 
 but the things of God must be loved in order to be 
 understood." 
 
 From faith, we ascend to more perfect knowledge 
 of the truths we have already accepted. "We have be- 
 lieved, and know," — this was the Apostles' sequence 
 from childlike faith, based simply on their Master's 
 Word, to an ever clearer understanding of the teach- 
 ings thus implicitly adopted. Even if Divine truth is 
 perceived by a mind which is not prepared for it by 
 love and faith, such learning remains merely intellec- 
 tual, and barren. Both Caiaphas and Christ agreed 
 that it was "expedient" that "one Man should die for 
 the people," but in the false high priest the knowledge 
 
208 SAINT JOHN 
 
 of that great truth brought forth naught but wicked- 
 ness (xi:5o; v. 7). The very best and safest way, 
 therefore, for us to gain a deeper knowledge of a 
 Christian dogma is by lovingly using the spiritual ex- 
 ercises which are based upon it, If, for example, we 
 would understand Divine forgiveness better, let us 
 practice regular confession of our sins. 
 
 Increased knowledge is a step toward more perfect 
 prayer. "In that day," said our Lord, referring to the 
 time following His Resurrection, '*ye shall ask Me no 
 question" ; and again He said, "In that day ye shall 
 ask," that is, 'pray," "in My Name" {w. 23 R. V. 
 Marg., 26). When their intellectual difficulties had 
 been solved, He expected them to use the spiritual 
 energy thus saved in their devotions. As we advance 
 in understanding our religion, are we developing pro- 
 portionately in our prayer life? 
 
 Finally, we are to ascend from prayer into the 
 Beatific Vision. *Ask,' dear Jesus urged, 'in order that 
 your joy may be fulfilled,' and the original shows that 
 He was then referring to the perfect consummation of 
 our happiness in Heaven {v. 24). Thus He gives us 
 the principal rule governing Christian prayer, which is, 
 that whatever we ask God for must help us on toward 
 seeing Him face to face in Heaven. This then is His 
 Stairway of Salvation ; and it is so truly supernatural 
 that we must have the guidance of the Spirit of Truth 
 in order to mount it. Dear Jesu ! Let thy good Spirit 
 lead me forth into the land of righteousness. 
 
SAINT JOHN 209 
 
 ^l^e Spirit of (UnitE 
 
 Our best way to help Christ obtain the answer to His 
 great Prayer for the unity of the Church (z;z/. i, 21-23) 
 is to let the Holy Ghost draw us individually into closer 
 union with Him. In Jesus, we shall become, by grow- 
 ing holiness, ''partakers" more and more of the Mind 
 and Heart of God, so that our misunderstandings, 
 prejudices, and errors will fall from us (2 St. Pet. i : 4). 
 
 For, if the unity of Christendom is to be that for 
 which our Lord besought His Father, it must be like 
 the oneness of the Three Divine Persons in the Blessed 
 Trinity, a unity of mind, will and nature. "That they 
 may be one as We are," so He prayed ; and again ''that 
 they all may be one as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I 
 in Thee, that they also may be one in Us" {vv. 11, 21). 
 Consequently, Church Unity must be based upon a 
 common mind as to Divine truth, a common will in- 
 stinct with love, and a common nature regenerated in 
 Christ and nourished by the Sacraments which He and 
 His Apostles have ordained. 
 
 This, therefore, is the best way in which we must 
 hasten the answer to what is par excellence "the 
 Lord's Prayer." We must revive devotion to God the 
 Holy Ghost, Who is the very Bond of Love in the 
 Holy Trinity Itself, and Who will unite us more close- 
 ly to God and so to one another in Christ. We have 
 an illustration of what it means when men allow them- 
 selves to be thus joined together in the Bond of Divine 
 Charity, in the harmony which existed among the three 
 Apostles, at one time imprisoned together at Rome. 
 St. Peter, St. Paul and St. John were very different 
 in temperament ; each one was in fact as unique a per- 
 
 15 
 
210 SAINT JOHN 
 
 sonality as could be found in the calendar, and the 
 Saints are the most individual of people. Yet, through 
 their common relation to Christ, they had become one 
 in ''Spirit" with Him and with one another, so that 
 their differences were submerged. St. Peter and St. 
 Paul "exchanged pulpits" ; the Apostle to the Gentiles 
 wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, who were St. Peter's 
 parishioners, and the Apostle to the Circumcision 
 wrote his two letters to the Churches of Asia Minor, 
 founded by St. Paul. St. John deepened his already 
 great love for St. Peter, and adopted many of St. 
 Paul's characteristic conceptions, giving his own in 
 return, as we can see from their writings. Then, let 
 us begin now to speed the day of Christian reunion, 
 by realizing, in thought and action, as never before, 
 the truth that we are ''joined unto the Lord" and "are 
 one Spirit" with Him and with one another (i Cor. 
 vi:i7). ^ 
 
 ^gut0tia^ in ti^e (lQl|)it0un €)ctabr 
 
 S|)e Spirit of I^rapet 
 
 Our Saviour's Highpriestly Intercession was no 
 doubt in Aramaic, and the word by which He ad- 
 dressed His Father was therefore "Abba" just as it 
 was in Gethsemane (St. Mark xiv : 36). But we could 
 not well have a more complete contrast than that be- 
 tween the erect, severe, majestic Priest with Hands and 
 Eyes lifted toward Heaven, and the stricken Sufferer 
 in the Garden, lying prostrate upon the earth, while 
 the Sweat of Blood poured down from His whole 
 Body. Whether in the depths of awful affliction, or 
 in calm repose among His Own, He was the same true 
 and perfect Son of God. Now He sends His Holy 
 
SAINT JOHN 211 
 
 Spirit from His Heart unto ours, crying "Abba, 
 Father," both in our seasons of joyful thanksgiving 
 and in those times when "deep calleth unto Deep" 
 (Gal. iv:6; Ps. xlii:7). 
 
 It is often made an objection to prayer, that our 
 Father knows all that we need before we ask Him, 
 and that our petitions are, therefore, superfluous. But 
 Jesus prayed for that which had been eternally His own 
 and for the due reward of all His labors and suffer- 
 ings in the world. "And now, O Father," was the one 
 petition, "glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self with 
 the glory which I had with Thee before the world 
 was"; and the other was, 'Glorify Thy Son (through 
 His Passion and Resurrection)' {w. 5, i). Evidently, 
 the Christian ought to ask His Heavenly Father even 
 for what he would certainly receive if he never bent 
 his knees in prayer. 
 
 So vast is the importance of our devotional life, and 
 so full is it of power to comfort and strengthen us 
 that our Lord purposely said His great Intercession 
 aloud, in order that the Apostles might learn the sacred 
 science of it and thus be always able, wherever they 
 should wander, to claim His own joy for themselves 
 at will. "These things I speak in the world," He said 
 to His Father, "that they might have my joy fulfilled 
 in themselves" {v. 13). Indeed, it was one of the pur- 
 poses of the Incarnation, that God willed to set us the 
 example by praying with our own human Heart and 
 Lips. 
 
SAINT JOHN 
 
 JFtitia? in ti^e COi^itdun ^ctabe 
 
 Wcft spirit of dons^ip 
 
 He Who was the Only-begotten of God is surely the 
 very Incarnation of the spirit of sonship. And Jesus 
 attributed everything He possessed, except the essen- 
 tial glory of His Deity, to the gift of His Father. The 
 list which He mentioned gratefully in this one prayer 
 includes the following: (i) The Father's Name, (2) 
 power over all flesh, (3) the vocation to evangelize 
 the whole world, together with the words He was to 
 speak, and the endowment of all things necessary for 
 this work, (4) the Apostles, (5) the Church, collec- 
 tively and individually, and (6) the additional glory 
 which He had merited for His Manhood. It is funda- 
 mental for the children of God, therefore, that we are 
 to ascribe absolutely all we have to our Father. 
 
 Nothing would satisfy Him except that He should 
 perfectly identify us with Himself in God's sight. He 
 repeated again and again, in the direct form and its 
 converse, that we belong to Him, and, in Him, to His 
 Father. "They are Thine," He pleads, ''and all Mine 
 are Thine, and all Thine are Mine" ; and again, "They 
 are not of the world even as I am not of the world" 
 {w. 9, 10, 16). Once more, He said, "As Thou hast 
 sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them 
 into the world"; so that the Heavenly Father would 
 regard us as having the same mission, needs and dan- 
 gers as those of His own Ministry {y. 18). Finally, 
 He claims for us that He has shared with us the glory 
 of revealing God in the world, and that He will be 
 glorified in our lives {w. 10, 22). We ought always 
 to think of Him, in Heaven, commending us in this 
 
SAINT JOHN 213 
 
 way to the Father, so that He gains for us a share of 
 His Own Fihal prestige. 
 
 We know from His High-priestly Prayer that this 
 is very frequently His petition for us in His continual 
 intercessions : "Father, keep them in Thy Name which 
 Thou hast given Me" (z/. 1 1 A. V. Marg.) . The Name 
 of God is His Character, or Personality, which was 
 revealed in our Lord ; and for the Father to "keep" us 
 in this Name means that He enables us to live in the 
 world as He is in Heaven (i St. John iv : 17). While 
 the Good Shepherd was on earth, He "kept" His Own 
 and "guarded" them in this Name {y. 12) ; and this 
 must still be His continual care for our souls. But 
 the principal means by which He now makes us true 
 children of God, manifesting the "Name" of our 
 Heavenly Father, is by sending His own blessed Spirit 
 of Sonship from His Heart into ours (Gal. iv: 6). 
 
 &aturtia^ in t6e ClOfiitgfun flDctabe 
 
 Wc)Z Spirit of (Srace anU of ^lor? 
 
 Jesus' plan, as He reveals it in His Prayer of Con- 
 secration, was to consecrate Himself, through the Holy 
 Spirit, in order that His disciples might likewise be 
 consecrated, and through them the world be won {v, 
 19). Evidently, then, there are two motives which 
 compel us to cooperate with Him: First, since He is 
 a Priest with the whole world for His parish, He must 
 have Sacraments of Love by which to nourish the souls 
 of men. Secondly, through our consecration, the dear 
 Saviour Who has given us His Life that we may be 
 glorified eternally in Him, is glorified eternally in us 
 through our manifesting that Life to others {v. 10). 
 It is mainly through our consecration that God is 
 
214 SAINT JOHN 
 
 enabled to reveal Himself to the world. This is what 
 Jesus meant when He said, "The glory which Thou 
 hast given Me, I have given them" {v. 22) ; for the 
 glory which He shares with us is "the revelation of 
 the Divine in man." 
 
 The Greek word which translates the one our Lord 
 used for "consecrate," or "sanctify," means to "set 
 apart for God." It is one fundamental condition, 
 therefore, of our dedication to our Lord's Service, that 
 it must be whole-hearted. Thus Christ could ask for 
 the consecration of the Apostles only because 'they 
 were not of the world, even as He was not of the 
 world.' The other essential of consecration is that we 
 must be sanctified "in the truth" which is God's Word 
 through Christ, or, in other words the whole Faith of 
 His Church {yv. 16 f.). 
 
 If we permit Him thus to consecrate us, by His 
 Spirit, as "other Christs" in this dark world, we shall 
 be with Him and behold His Divine loveliness in Eter- 
 nal Day. "Father," He said, "I will that they also, 
 whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, 
 that they may behold My glory" {v. 24). For the 
 only time, it seems, in all His Ministry, He declared to 
 His Father what He willed. Later, in Gethsemane, 
 where His Own welfare was in danger. He prayed, 
 "Not My Will but Thine be done." But then, because 
 it was our eternal happiness which was in question. He 
 left off from prayer to declare His Divine Will for our 
 salvation. Our Christian hope is sure, therefore; it 
 is based upon the very Will of God, Which is love. 
 Let us conclude this doctrinal half of our Church Year 
 by reciting the children's Act of Hope: "My God, I 
 hope in Thee for grace and for glory, because of Thy 
 mercy. Thy promises and Thy power." 
 
SAINT JOHN 215 
 
 l^aMion 32Sfe6* Read St. John xviii 
 
 Pa00ion &untia^ 
 
 W^t Dibine (Victim 
 
 By many unobtrusive touches, St. John seeks to 
 bring before us the Deity of Christ in His Passion. 
 He alone among the Evangelists speaks of His cross- 
 ing the Brook Kidron, or, more correctly, the Ravine 
 of the Cedars ; and his purpose in this is to remind us 
 of David, a type of our Lord, fleeing from his traitor- 
 ous son by that very path. Again, he suggests that 
 this Second Adam entered a garden to suffer betrayal 
 by His enemy and so to rescue our race from the 
 results of the First Man's betrayal in Eden. As the 
 progenitor of our corrupted humanity had fallen in a 
 garden, the Father of our regenerated nature would 
 lift Him up, there. In a word, our Evangelist leads 
 us to regard Jesus as the Divine Saviour prefigured 
 from the first, and throughout the Old Testament 
 Scriptures. Moreover, he shows us that God was over- 
 ruling the devices of the Jews and bringing in the 
 Divine order even through their machinations : "Jesus 
 therefore," he says, "knowing all the things that were 
 coming upon Him, went forth" to meet His enemies 
 and fulfill His own plan for our salvation {y. 4). 
 
 In order to arrest this one, unresisting Man, the 
 high priests had obtained a cohort, 600 soldiers, be- 
 sides sending two bands of their own officers. Yet, 
 He needed to speak only the two words, "I am," and 
 the whole band fell prostrate at His feet. This and 
 the healing of Malchus' ear were two last signs of His 
 Deity which He gave His Apostles in order that their 
 faith might not fail when they saw Him die the death 
 of a criminal slave. 
 
216 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Royal, Divine, as He was, we must bear in mind 
 with deep and tender devotion that it cost Him dear 
 to take upon Him all the sin of mankind from Adam 
 unto the last men who shall witness His Second Ad- 
 vent. For three hours He struggled in Gethsemane, 
 before He could stagger to His Feet under that dread 
 universe of wickedness. As St. Austin says, ''He 
 groaned. He wept. He cried aloud. How difficult is it 
 for Him to rise up Who is weighted down by such a 
 mass of inveterate evil." Surely He deserves our 
 whole hearts, by the double claim of His Deity which 
 loved us infinitely well, and of His Humanity, which 
 bore our sins upon the Tree of shame. 
 
 ^ontia^ in ^a00ton Witt\ 
 
 A flood of light is cast upon our Lord's Passion by 
 two notes which St. John gives us: that Christ ''went 
 forth over the Ravine of the Cedars," and that, after 
 His arrest, He was led to Annas first {yv. i, R, V. 
 Marg., 13). For, just across the Kidron, stood two 
 cedars under which were built the spacious "booths of 
 the sons of Annas" ; and it is from these trees that our 
 Evangelist significantly names the valley the "Ravine 
 of the Cedars." The buildings belonged to a kind of 
 corporation, headed by the unscrupulous old high 
 priest, which had a monopoly of the sale of doves for 
 sacrifice. They stood on the Mount of Olives, not far 
 from Gethsemane ; and very probably it was here that 
 our Lord endured the first of the seven false trials. 
 It would be a savage joy to the "sons of Annas," 
 whose whispers of false witness are cursed by the Tal- 
 
SAINT JOHN 217 
 
 mud as being the hissings of deadly serpents, to tor- 
 ture Jesus. For He had twice broken up their lucra- 
 tive sale of doves, — to the poor, at extortionate prices. 
 
 It was thus the world, with its greed of money and 
 power and its unscrupulous craft, which was the most 
 relentless enemy of our Lord. But the high priests 
 would probably have been harmless without the assist- 
 ance of the Pharisees, who hated their own Messiah 
 because He rebuked them for loveless formalism and 
 bigotry and pride. If it was the world which cruci- 
 fied Jesus in order to conserve its "business interests," 
 it was aided by the Church of God, grown compliant 
 toward the world and cold toward Him. 
 
 The other principal ally of the high priests' party 
 was Pilate, who represents weak people, of good in- 
 tentions, but with also a willingness to compromise 
 with the world and placate it. By every expedient he 
 could devise, he strove to win the consent of the false 
 accusers to what he knew was a simple act of justice. 
 The folly of such half -measures with Jesus' mortal 
 enemies, however, appears from the fact that they 
 served only to embolden and enrage the Jews, until 
 they demanded the most disgraceful and agonizing of 
 all death penalties. Evidently, if we are to keep Jesus 
 safe from crucifixion in our hearts, we must declare a 
 war against His foes, in which there shall be no quar- 
 ter given, and no discharge during this life. 
 
 ^ixt^hav in ^Si00ion Wtt%, 
 
 ^U ©eter anU ^U 3[ol)n 
 
 When our Lord announced again, on the way to 
 Gethsemane, that all of His Apostles would be offend- 
 ed because of Him, and would scatter from His side, 
 
218 SAINT JOHN 
 
 that night, there was a general murmur of protest (St. 
 Matt, xxvi : 35 ) . But, as in the Upper Room, it was 
 St. Peter who vehemently insisted that he would go 
 with his Master to prison and death (St. John xiii: 
 36-38). St. John remained silent; yet it was he who 
 continued steadfastly at our Lord's side. For we know 
 from his intimate knowledge of what passed even at 
 the private interviews of Pilate with Jesus, that he 
 continued with Him throughout the Acts of His Pas- 
 sion, from Gethsemane to Calvary. What a consola- 
 tion it is to know that our Saviour had the unspeakable 
 comfort of His Beloved Disciple's fellowship and sym- 
 pathy during His sufferings ! But each one of us is 
 the disciple whom Jesus loves, and we will abide with 
 Him faithfully, if we accept his rebukes in humble 
 silence. 
 
 After St. Peter had fled a little distance from Christ, 
 he recovered Himself, and ''followed Him afar off to 
 the court of the high priest" (St. Matt, xxvi: 58). 
 That was the second mistake of the dear, loving, 
 bungling Apostle. He remained at a distance from 
 Divine protection, when he was about to be sorely 
 tempted. St. John kept close to Christ. He also was 
 tempted to deny his Master, for he was known to the 
 household of the high priest, and everywhere he looked 
 he met the glance of ridicule and the curling lip of 
 scorn, because he was the friend of the despised Naza- 
 rene. His prospects, his prestige in the palace, were 
 being ruined, he knew. Yet not once did he falter be- 
 cause he was being constantly inflamed at the Divine 
 Furnace in Jesus' Heart. 
 
 He is beautifully true to his character as the Apos- 
 tle of Love in his care to avoid mentioning the ugly 
 details about St. Peter's denials and to excuse him as 
 
SAII^TJOHN 219 
 
 well as he can. Thus he omits the oaths and curses; 
 and is careful to show that the form of the questions 
 put to the older Apostle were such as to indicate the 
 disloyal answers. Besides, he tells us that the servants 
 and officers were standing around when the maid- 
 servant first asked him if he was not Jesus' disciple; 
 that the second time he was pressed by more than one ; 
 and that, on the last occasion, he was questioned by a 
 relative of Malchus, — all details which must have 
 greatly increased his terror and confusion, and which 
 therefore mitigated the sinfulness of his disloyalty 
 {vv. i8, 25 f.). Let us be apostles of love, who sup- 
 press our own merits, and excuse the faults of our 
 brethren. . 
 
 {1211etine0tia^ m iBa00ion dflleefc 
 
 W^t JFall of %U {^eter 
 
 The eldest of the Apostles had been plainly and re- 
 peatedly warned by his Master that he would not have 
 the strength to resist temptation against his loyalty, 
 that night. Yet he ventured to place himself in the 
 way of a severe spiritual trial, in the midst of his ene- 
 mies and apart from the protection of his Lord. This 
 error is indicated by St. John, for our warning, by 
 the word which he has chosen for the "court" of the 
 high priests' residence ; for it is the same as that which 
 he uses for the sheepfold of the Good Shepherd {v. 
 15 R. v., cp. x: I, 16). How often our overmastering 
 temptations have arisen from the fact that we had gone 
 into the company of those who would weaken our 
 faith and cool our love instead of into the flock of our 
 true Pastor! 
 
 The dispositions of St. Peter were exactly those 
 
220 SAINT JOHN 
 
 which prepare a soul for grave sin. For, first, he 
 yielded to depression. As St. Matthew tells us, he 
 seated himself with the servants who had arrested his 
 Lord "to see the end" ; he had given up all hope. Sec- 
 ondly, he gave way to a spirit of self-indulgence. 
 While he knew that Christ was suffering both bodily 
 and spiritual agony, he sat down by the fire to warm 
 himself. Finally, he was restless. When St. John saw 
 him, he was standing {v. i8), but St. Luke and St. 
 Matthew show that at times he was seated; hence it 
 appears that he was constantly changing his position. 
 These then are the steps which lead to grave disloy- 
 alty: boasting, keeping afar from Jesus, depression, 
 self-indulgence, and restlessness. 
 
 The question arises, however, as to why St. John 
 narrated the fall of his beloved friend and fellow 
 Apostle, especially since it had been recorded substan- 
 tially in the other three Gospels. The answer is right- 
 ly given, as follows : "This instance of human frailty, 
 in one so exalted (an instance which the life of the 
 great Exemplar Himself could not afford), is given us 
 with four- fold emphasis that none may presume and 
 none despair." . 
 
 3ff}5U0 Seefeinc X\}t ^afetp of £Dt|)cr)8 
 
 While our Saviour voluntarily surrendered Himself 
 to the will of His mortal foes. He took the utmost 
 care that He should not lose one of His disciples {vv. 
 8f.). He had planned to draw to Himself the atten- 
 tion of the party sent to arrest Him, and allow the 
 Apostles to escape ; because, at that hour, just before 
 dawn, after the strain of the most tragic of all nights, 
 
SAINT JOHN 221 
 
 and in the confusion, terror and grief of it all, He 
 knew that they would not be steadfast. Pursuant to 
 this purpose He immediately healed the wound of Mal- 
 chus, in order that St. Peter might escape arrest; and 
 later, when questioned about His disciples before the 
 high priest, He skillfully diverted their fire of insults 
 and blows against Himself (St. Luke xxii:5i, w. 
 i9ff.). 
 
 It is, however, His charity toward Judas which is 
 most amazing. St. John characteristically notes, and 
 mentions, that the traitor was standing with the Jews 
 when Jesus said "I am" {v. 5). Divine Love intended 
 that those words should strike responsive chords in the 
 memory of the false Apostle. On what memorable 
 occasions they had been spoken! When He had de- 
 clared to the Jews, "Ye shall die in your sins if ye 
 believe not that I am," and ''Before Abraham was, I 
 am"; when He had come to them through the storm 
 on the Lake, saying, ''I am, fear not !" And only the 
 evening before, in the Upper Room, when He had fore- 
 told this very perfidy of Judas and had explained, 
 "Now I tell you before it come to pass, that when it is 
 come to pass, ye may believe that I am" (viii: 24, 58; 
 vi : 20 ; xiii : 19) . Perhaps, the dear Christ hoped, some 
 warning or appeal, associated with His repeated asser- 
 tion in these words of His identity with Jehovah, might 
 strike home to that false heart and bring it to repent- 
 ance. 
 
 There was one other upon whom the boundless 
 charity of Christ was spent prodigally, and that was 
 Caiaphas. That false priest was still in His thoughts, 
 after He had been scourged, and when He was about 
 to be crucified (xix : 11). "He that delivered Me unto 
 thee," He said to Pilate sorrowfully, "hath the greater 
 
222 SAINT JOHN 
 
 sin," that is, a greater sin even than Pilate's. He had 
 forgotten His own "agony and dying," in longing for 
 the conversion of Caiaphas. Surely, then, no one of 
 us need ever despair. At least we have never done 
 more evil than Judas and Caiaphas, and the Jesu*s 
 love, the dear "Hound of Heaven," followed them to 
 the end. 1 
 
 W^t Compa00ion ot tj^e %\tMt^ l^itffin 
 
 Sin CrucifpinQ Ct^rint 
 
 It is not a figure of speech, but a terribly real fact, 
 that, in the last analysis, it was neither Romans nor 
 Jews, but our sins, which crucified Christ. We can 
 trace His Death directly to the three main sources of 
 evil in our human heart; of these His slayers were 
 merely exponents. For, first, selj-imll rejected the 
 Saviour Who was not conformed to its own desires. 
 The Jews "laid information against Jesus as a dan- 
 gerous character; their real complaint against Him 
 was precisely this that He was not dangerous. Pilate 
 executed Him on the ground that His Kingdom was 
 of this world; the Jews procured His execution, pre- 
 cisely because it was not." 
 
 Secondly, the Deicide was due to Pilate's pmbUity 
 to appreciate spiritual values. Our Lx)rd oflFered him 
 the Kingdom of Truth, and was met by the half- 
 despairing, half-cynical question, "What is truth?" It 
 seemed to him perfectly intangible and unreal; his 
 office, power and wealth were the actual values, and 
 he dared not risk them. Tiberius was a jealous Em- 
 peror, and was already frowning upon Sej anus, Pilate's 
 patron, who was, in fact, executed the following year. 
 Caesar was very proud of his excellent provincial gov- 
 ernments, also, and knew that the Governor of the 
 
SAINT JOHN IIZ 
 
 Jews had three times all but caused a rebellion among 
 his subjects. Add to this that it was enough under the 
 lex majestatis to be accused of treason, and decapita- 
 tion would follow almost certainly. In comparison 
 with these interests, truth was negligible. Is there not 
 the making of a Pilate in most of us? Are we not 
 prone to love things more than God? 
 
 Both Pilate and the Jews personified the third evil 
 which crucified our Lord, that is, pride. When the 
 governor finally allowed himself to be forced to con- 
 demn One Whom he had publicly declared to be en- 
 tirely innocent, he thenceforth desired only to take 
 revenge for the blow to his Roman pride, by heaping 
 ridicule upon "the King of the Jews." Accordingly, 
 he brought the meek Sufferer forth, arrayed in robes 
 of mock royalty, and crowned with a conqueror's 
 wreath, but of thorns, and, it seems, seated Him upon 
 a judgment seat in burlesque state (xix: 13, literally 
 translated). The Jews, on their part, repudiated Him 
 as their King, and, in order to show their utter scorn 
 of Him, had His Cross placed in the center with a 
 crucified robber on each Hand in parody of a king 
 among his councillors. But, amid all this execration 
 of Him, there was a little group which followed Him 
 to the end and gave Him their deepest sympathy, their 
 consuming love and their adoration. The central fig- 
 ure of that little band was His Virgin Mother. Let us 
 to-day thank God for her Compassion. 
 
 Ccamination of (ran0cience 
 It is a result of our pride which was the main mur- 
 derer of Incarnate God, that we naturally shrink from 
 
224 SAINT JOHN 
 
 sincerely and honestly looking our consciences in the 
 face. The correctives of this self-conceit are a deep- 
 ening hatred of "the sin which doth so easily beset us," 
 and a stern resolution against duplicity with our own 
 hearts (Jer. xvii : 9). Now it will enable us almost to 
 love these two austere qualities, if we see self-deception 
 at work in the souls of the Jews. Their own rabbinic 
 law forbade them to try a criminal on a capital charge 
 at night, because of the likelihood of injustice and 
 foul play ; but they condemned Jesus in secrecy, before 
 dawn, and then held a purely formal meeting in day- 
 light to confirm the sentence. They bribed the wit- 
 nesses against the Prisoner, but followed the legal 
 form of examining them singly, whereupon their tes- 
 timony unexpectedly conflicted (St. Mark xiv: 55-59). 
 A day should have intervened between the sentence 
 and the execution; this law they evaded by getting 
 Pilate to condemn Him so that he would also set the 
 time. But not for the world would they enter the Gen- 
 tile governor's house, because it had not been cere- 
 monially cleansed from leaven. It would seem in- 
 credible that souls could so delude themselves, if it 
 were not that we are so liable to put our own trust in 
 forms of prayer and external respectability. 
 
 In the priestly persecutors of Jesus, we see to what 
 an awful depth souls may sink through self-deception. 
 For it seems that they went from the two false trials 
 of Jesus before the Sanhedrin to the offering of the 
 morning sacrifice in the temple, and from this devo- 
 tion back to Pilate's tribunal. The very voices which 
 had but just been raised in the praise of Jehovah were 
 now lifted in the savage cry, "Crucify Him ! Crucify 
 Him !" 
 
 We must, therefore, be firm in examining ourselves 
 
SAINTJOHN 225 
 
 daily, especially as to our besetting temptation. For 
 this is the principal hold which Satan has upon us. 
 Let us loathe his touch. St. John could not bear to 
 mention his name in this Gospel, except the one time 
 when he must speak of his entrance into Judas' heart 
 (xiii: 2y). There is a great Ideal before us which we 
 are to strive after through self-examination, and this 
 is the Perfection of Jesus. Satan came feeling and 
 searching through that Immaculate Humanity with his 
 filthy fingers, seeking for one single weakness by which 
 he could claim Christ as his own (xiv:3o). And wc 
 must be looking and longing for the time to come, 
 when we, like our Lord, can say, "The Prince of this 
 world hath nothing in me." 
 
 I^ol; aaUffft* Read St. John xix 
 
 )9alm &untia^ 
 
 C|7e {humiliation of 2Dui iStng 
 
 On the docket of the Governor's Court that first 
 Good Friday, were the cases of three robbers who had 
 assumed the cloak of patriotic insurrectionists in order 
 to hide their crimes. Their leader, Barabbas, had also 
 committed murder. All three were condemned to be 
 crucified. Now, it occurred to Pilate that he could 
 save Jesus by allowing the people to choose between 
 His release and that of the desperate homicide, think- 
 ing that they would really have no alternative but to 
 prefer the innocent Man. But the people chose the 
 criminal, with the result that the Son of God was cru- 
 cified on the Cross which had been prepared for the 
 condemned convict, and between his accomplices. Even 
 the Name and Title of our Lord seem to have been 
 16 
 
226 SAINT JOHN 
 
 involved in His utter abjection, for the name of the 
 murderous robber was probably Jesus Barabbas, or 
 "Saviour Son 'of the Father," — an opportunity which 
 would surely not be lost by bitter tongues. 
 
 The Roman soldiers in the Prsetorium were not slow 
 to see the rare chance for savage sport with this "King 
 of the Jews." Accordingly, after they had scourged 
 Him, they put upon Him an old purple gown, and a 
 chaplet of thorns as a parody on the victor's wreath 
 of Tiberius. Then they approached Him one by one, 
 in a burlesque of the court customs, with the genuflec- 
 tion of pretended reverence and a blow in His Face 
 instead of the kiss of homage. Afterward, when He 
 had been condemned to be crucified, they called to- 
 gether the whole cohort to participate in this amusing 
 torture (cp. St. Matt, xxvii 127). 
 
 When at last they permitted Him to take up His 
 Cross and go forth to Calvary, what a contrast the pro- 
 cession presented to His entrance into the City only the 
 Sunday before! (xii: 12 ff.) Then, it was the march 
 of triumph up to His Capital, amid the hozannas of 
 His people and over the palm and olive branches cast 
 before Him by the children ; now it was the Via 
 Dolorosa, and the King moved heavily away from the 
 City, with the placard of His accusation hanging from 
 His Neck and laden with the gibbet on which He was 
 to die. Surely He spared Himself no mortification 
 which would make His example a more effective cure 
 of our pride. In our time of temptation to sensitive- 
 ness, or vanity, or self-assertion, let us remember Jesus 
 bearing His Cross, lest the torture of His dear Heart 
 for us should have been in vain. 
 
SAINT JOHN 227 
 
 Wi^z 61^re&ne00 of tl^r CiudfuD 
 
 At Pilate's side stood a lictor, with his official axe, 
 about the handle of which were bound rods for the 
 chastisement of offenders of the higher classes. But 
 the flagellation inflicted upon Jesus was that which 
 was appointed for slaves convicted of heinous crimes. 
 It was administered by two soldiers who stood, one 
 on each side, behind and above Him, and laid on their 
 blows alternately, with the terrible Roman scourge 
 having seven thongs weighted with lead. Many per- 
 sons succumbed under the scourging. Yet no outcry, 
 complaint or protest came from the meek Lamb of 
 God! 
 
 Even the Roman Governor was awed by the bearing 
 of Jesus. He had ordered the Flagellation on the very 
 ground that the defendant was innocent. 'I have found 
 no fault in this Man,' was his judgment, *I will there- 
 fore chastise Him and release Him.' The 'chastise- 
 ment,' which would have been with the lictor's rods, 
 had become the Scourging and still the Victim endured 
 all with the same unearthly look of gentle resignation. 
 Surely if the people saw Him thus, they would con- 
 sent to His release. Therefore, Pilate brought Him 
 forth, the King of Love, revealing so plainly in His 
 Face His patient willingness to die for His people, and 
 showed Him to them, saying, ''Behold ! The Man !" 
 
 What is believed to have been the stone pillar at 
 which the Flagellation was given has been found. If 
 we entered the room where it stands, how immediately 
 we would approach and kneel down, and how lovingly 
 we would look upon that to which our Lord was bound 
 when He suffered for us the healing stripes! But it 
 
228 SAINT JOHN 
 
 will be far more acceptable to Him, if we will kneel 
 down in our own homes, and promise Him that in 
 honor of His patient love at His Scourging, we will 
 strive always to bear injuries meekly. 
 
 €)|)r {^lacarti 
 
 Pilate himself directed the inscribing of our Lord's 
 Name and Title in three languages on the placard 
 which took the place of the ordinary accusation ; and 
 perhaps the report that Jesus had **made Himself the 
 Son of God," united with the Divine Holiness of the 
 Sufferer, had suggested to the governor the universal 
 import -of His Death {w. 7 f.). Certainly, he 'told it 
 out among the heathen that the Lord is King.' For 
 Hebrew was the language of the Jews, Latin the offi- 
 cial tongue, and Greek the common speech of the Em- 
 pire. Thus Jesus was proclaimed to be the Sovereign 
 of Jew and Gentile alike. 
 
 There was more significance than this, however, in 
 our Lord's ''title," for it symbolized the three main 
 ways in which the world had been made ready for His 
 coming. The language of the Old Testament sug- 
 gested the religious instruction of the race; that of the 
 Empire represented the social preparation through the 
 spread of Roman civilization ; and Greek was the me- 
 dium through which God had provided the training of 
 philosophy and an international tongue. 
 
 But the writing on the Cross is Jesu's appeal to each 
 one of us for his whole being. He would have our 
 mind ; that He signifies by procuring that His Title of 
 Kingship should be written in the intellectual tongue. 
 
SAINT JOHN 229 
 
 He seeks our will, our imperial faculty, by asserting 
 His royal claim over us in the Imperial language. He 
 pleads for the heart of each one of the faithful in the 
 speech of religion. And He seals His threefold claim 
 by being crucified for love of us; that all our self-love 
 may be crucified for love of Him. 
 
 erijriet Curn)5 to t^e (Sentilea 
 
 Our dear Saviour was condemned on the Pavement 
 between the Sanctuary of the Temple and the Praeto- 
 rium overiooking it. The Hebrew name for this stone 
 platform, Gabbatha, in fact, means the ''Back of the 
 House (of God)" {v. 13). As Christ stood facing 
 Pilate and with His Back to the temple, His very posi- 
 tion was symbolic of the tragic truth that He had 
 turned from the ancient people of God to the Gentiles, 
 and prophetic of the day for which we hope when the 
 Jews shall be one with us in His Mystical Body. 
 
 Through their "chief priests," the official spokesmen 
 of the ancient theocracy, not the mob, nor even the 
 Pharisees, Israel publicly renounced all claim to be the 
 Kingdom of God. "We have no King but Csesar," 
 they cried {v. 15). Moreover, they had begun by re- 
 pudiating Jesus as the Christ, and now they ended by 
 rejecting the Christ altogether; and with that unpar- 
 alleled act of apostasy, they, representing their people, 
 finally abdicated their ancient liberty. Henceforth by 
 their own confession, they were as much under the 
 tyranny of Caesar as any Gentile tribe. Never since 
 have they regained their lost sovereignty as a nation. 
 Jesus Christ alone gives civil and religious liberty, 
 
230 SAINT JOHN 
 
 through the conquest of self which He teaches from 
 the pulpit of His Cross. But we share the inspired 
 hope of St. Paul that, at the last, Israel also shall be 
 gathered into the universal, free, State of Salvation 
 (Rom. xi: 26). 
 
 When, at the instigation of the Jews the soldiers 
 thrust a spear into our Lord's side, St. John remem- 
 bered the prophecy of Zechariah: "They shall look 
 on Him Whom they pierced" {w. 34, 37). And he 
 tells us that the Day will break when this same Jesus 
 will come ''with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, 
 and they also which pierced Him" (Rev. i:7). Shall 
 the Faithful of the Old Dispensation be among "the 
 tribes of the earth" which "mourn," at that Second 
 Advent? Or shall they see in the pierced Heart of 
 their Messiah the open Door of His Fold into which 
 their nation has at last entered? The answer will de- 
 pend upon the prayers, the holy lives and the Christ- 
 like charity of Christians. 
 
 %^t IPirparation of t|)r I9a00ober 
 
 To the young Apostle who was at our Lx)rd's side 
 through all the heartbreaking trial in the Prsetorium, 
 He appeared, most of all, as the Lamb of God. So 
 gentle and uncomplaining, so patient and loving was 
 He, through it all, that St. John could think of noth- 
 ing but the innocent victims to be slain that day. Thus 
 he reminds us, in connection with the final sentencing 
 of Christ, that "it was the preparation of the passover" 
 {v. 14). Again, when the sour wine was lifted to the 
 parched Lips of the Crucified, he noticed that the 
 
SAINT JOHN 231 
 
 sponge had been put upon hyssop, one of the herbs 
 always eaten at the paschal meal (z;. 29) ; and in relat- 
 ing the fact that the soldiers did not break our Lord's 
 Legs, he applies to this the rule for preparing the lamb 
 of the passover, **a bone of him shall not be broken" 
 {v. 36, cp. Ex. xii:46). Surely the Apostle of Love 
 means to teach us that Jesus is our Lamb Whom we 
 receive Whole in our Christian Paschal Supper. 
 
 The Blood and Water which flowed from His riven 
 Heart were a proof that even in Death He still pos- 
 sessed mysterious Life. The Effusion was, also, a ful- 
 fillment of the rabbinic tradition that, when Moses 
 struck the rock, blood flowed from it, and then water. 
 But, while it was a sign to his people of the Old 
 Covenant, it was full of precious promise of cleansing 
 and quickening Sacraments, to the Catholic Church. 
 
 So eager was our Saviour to give Himself for man- 
 kind, that there was in reality only one point in which 
 His intention in the Passion differed from that of His 
 enemies. Their desire was to take His Life, and He 
 wanted nothing so much as to give it to them: they 
 cried out, "His Blood be on us and on our children," 
 and He longed to pour it over their hearts and con- 
 sciences. But they disagreed in this, that they meant 
 to waste His Precious Blood or to invoke It as a curse 
 upon their race, while He passionately desired to give 
 It to them as a source of eternal blessings. And the 
 sweetest reparation we can make to Him for the in- 
 gratitude of the Jews is always to receive Him for our 
 everlasting benefit. 
 
232 SAINT JOHN 
 
 (EiooH JFtttiap 
 
 Hobf Eetfine Jfrom t|)e Cro00 
 
 As Royal as Jesus was all through His Life, He was 
 never so perfectly the King of Divine Charity as when 
 He reigned from His Throne on the Cross. Not only 
 did He pray for His executioners as they nailed Him 
 down, absolve the penitent robber and provide for His 
 dear Mother and Beloved Disciple, but He gave up 
 His whole Mind and Will for those six hours of su- 
 preme agony to striving for the conversion of the Jews. 
 Four times they had shouted, as with one voice, for 
 His destruction: "Not this Man, but Barabbas"; 
 "Crucify Him! Crucify Himl"; "He ought to die''; 
 "Away with Him, Away with Him, Crucify Him!" 
 (xviii: 40; z/r^. 6, 7, 15). And now for the fourth time 
 H-e cried out seeking their salvation (cp. vii. 28, 37; 
 xii:44; St. Matt, xxvii: 50). After they had brought 
 Him to the crudest and vilest of deaths, His Divine 
 revenge upon them was to say His last prayer on the 
 Cross "with a loud voice," in order to prove that He 
 was voluntarily yielding up His Spirit into His Father's 
 Hands, in the hope that they might even then accept 
 Him as the Son of God (cp. St. Mark xv: 39). 
 
 The four soldiers who were guarding Him had 
 divided His outer clothing among them and were dic- 
 ing for His seamless robe, treating Him as being al- 
 ready dead. With them, St. John contrasts the four 
 women who stood in a semicircle around the dear 
 pierced Feet, protecting Him ; to them He was the 
 King of Eternal Life {w. 23 ff.). 
 
 The three Words from the Cross recorded in the 
 Fourth Gospel are wonderfully characteristic of Sov- 
 ereign Love. By one gentle decree, He indicated for 
 
SAINT JOHN 233 
 
 all time that the Christian home should be established 
 and built up around His Cross (yv. 26 f.). After many 
 hours spent in planning for the salvation of our whole 
 race, He spoke again, saying '1 thirst," in order to 
 fulfill a small provision of His rule of life in the Scrip- 
 tures {y. 28). For this King is perfect both in plans 
 of world-wide scope, and in the tiniest details. But 
 this was the last act of obedience required from Him. 
 Now He could say, "It is finished"; His redemptive 
 Work, the fulfillment of all God's promises under the 
 Old Covenant, and His Own development as our High 
 Priest had been perfectly consummated (cp. Heb. v: 
 8flF.)- Therefore rightfully He reigns from the Cross 
 over the Realm of Love, — this Monarch with His 
 Crown of Thorns and the Spike for a sceptre ! This 
 day He claims our hearts afresh. He shall be the 
 Master of our Destiny. 1 
 
 Consecrating tl)e (Klfbrnt|) l^our 
 
 St. Joseph of Arimathsea, by his example, teaches us 
 the great lesson that it is never too late to mend a bad 
 matter. He had kept hiS" discipleship secret for fear of 
 the Jews throughout Christ's life, and it would have 
 been natural for him now that the Lord was dead, to 
 continue suppressing his allegiance. H he touched the 
 dead Body he would be unclean for the greatest feast 
 of his religion ; his failure to take part in the festival 
 services v/ould precipitate the dishonor and scorn which 
 would be heaped upon him by all his old friends. St. 
 Mark reveals to us that only after a severe struggle 
 with himself he, "having dared, went in unto Pilate 
 and craved the Body of Jesus" (xv:43, literally trans- 
 lated). 
 
234 SAINT JOHN 
 
 If we follow him, we will never say that things have 
 gone so far that we can do nothing to remedy them. 
 St. Joseph might well have considered that he could 
 accomplish nothing in the few hours of Good Friday 
 which remained before the Festival would begin. But 
 see what he was able to do! First of all, he inspired 
 the courage of St. Nicodemus, who followed him with 
 an hundredweight of spices for the sacred Body. But 
 far more important than this, he with his companion 
 provided one of the strongest proofs of the Resurrec- 
 tion, by binding our Lord's Limbs with the strips of 
 linen and weighting them with the myrrh and aloes, 
 until it was obviously impossible for Him to move 
 except in a supernatural way. Let their experience 
 teach us to make the most of a spiritual crisis, or even 
 of a disaster. 
 
 But when we do turn away from our failure, or sin, 
 to our Lord, we must bring our best. St. Joseph gave 
 his new tomb, which had been hewn out of the solid 
 rock, for his own body, and was enclosed in his gar- 
 den. Let us provide Jesus a heart which has been 
 cleansed from our fault by penitence, and beautified by 
 those rare exotics, the Christian virtues. 
 
 Mot ^too Witthfi* Read St. John xx 
 
 Hobe Brcribinc t|)e faster C^tint 
 
 So preeminent is the Divine Mystery commemorated 
 in this Queen Feast, that all Three Persons of the 
 Godhead are revealed as participating in it. The 
 Father is often said to have raised our Lord from the 
 dead (cp. Acts iii:i5). The Incarnate Son declared 
 tl:at, if the Jev.'s destroyed the Temple of His Body, in 
 
SAINT JOHN 235 
 
 three days He would raise it up (St. John ii: 19 ff.)- 
 The Holy Spirit, St. Paul indicates, ''raised up Jesus 
 from the dead," in the same way that He shall also 
 quicken our mortal bodies at our resurrection (Rom. 
 viii: 11). All the Infinite Love of the Blessed Trinity 
 was poured out upon the Risen Christ, and upon us 
 through Him. 
 
 That Divine Charity planned, moreover, to disclose 
 the glorious truth to Jesus' friends, in the way each 
 could best receive it. The Beloved Disciple needed 
 only to see the open sepulchre, the empty cerements, 
 and the napkin neatly folded by the familiar Hands 
 {w. 6flF.). St. Mary Magdalen knew her Lord when 
 He spoke to her with the "Personal Voice of love" 
 {w. 14-16). To the ten Apostles, He showed the 
 sacred wounds in Hands and Feet and Side, and they 
 believed {v. 20). But St. Thomas demanded the op- 
 portunity of thrusting his finger into the Print of the 
 nails, and, with the old meekness and charity, Jesus 
 submitted to his test (27 f.). Is it not a pure joy to 
 see "these slowly widening victories of faith" in the 
 Easter Christ? 
 
 With the development of love and faith, knowledge 
 also grew. St. John seems to have gained from his 
 first view of the empty tomb only a belief that some- 
 how the Lord was again alive. He revealed Himself 
 openly to the blessed Magdalen, but she, not yet know- 
 ing Him "as the Son of God with power," addressed 
 Him still by the old, inferior, title "Master." The 
 Apostolic Band recognized Him as "the Lord" when 
 they had seen the Marks of His Passion. Finally, St. 
 Thomas, reaping the advantage of the revelations to 
 the others, voiced the confession of them all when he 
 cried, "My Lord and my God." Be his faith ours, and 
 
236 SAINT JOHN 
 
 with it, that extraordinary blessing of our Lord which 
 He promised to those who have not seen and yet be- 
 lieve. 1 
 
 (Carter 9?onlia^ 
 
 S^e I^rrsonal Hobe of leeua for ®ac|> doul 
 
 Among the few details which St. John thought im- 
 portant enough to mention for the fourth time in his 
 Gospel was the early visit of the holy women to the 
 sepulchre. The blessed Magdalen arrived there well 
 before dawn, having outsped the others. But there 
 was One Who had risen even earlier than she and Who 
 came to meet her, bringing her the riche-st of blessings- 
 {vv. I ff., 11-17). We could hardly have more im- 
 pressive teaching that our Lord loves to have us seek 
 Him, in prayer and at Holy Communion, before the 
 distractions of the day begin, and while the dew of 
 grace is at its freshest on our hearts. 
 
 It was the personal love for Him of the holy peni- 
 tent to which He thus immediately responded. So 
 close and so dear to her was He, that she loved even 
 His dead Body as 'her Lord' ; and her devotion to- 
 Him made her feel strong enough to "take Him away" 
 on her weak shoulders. He seems, however, to have 
 waited until she had an even deeper sense of her per- 
 sonal loss. When she reported to the Apostles, **They 
 have taken away the Lord out of the Sepulchre, and we- 
 know not where they have laid Him," He did not come 
 to her ; but no sooner had she said to the angels, "They 
 have taken away my Lord, and / know not where they 
 have laid Him," than He gave her the unspeakable joy 
 of His Presence. 
 
 But why, then, did He direct her not to hold to His 
 Feet? {v. 17 A. V. Marg.) She was making the very 
 
SAINT JOHN 237 
 
 natural mistake of trying to cling to what she supposed 
 was the old relationship restored. Christ, she assumed, 
 had become like St. Lazarus, after he was brought back 
 from the dead. But He gently instructed her that He 
 would, through His Resurrection and Ascension, grant 
 to His Own a much more real and precious spiritual 
 relationship. Therefore, now, for the first time, He 
 spoke of the Church as His ''brethren." In His God- 
 head He dwells in each one of us continually, and with 
 His Risen Manhood He is in our hearts for a few 
 priceless moments after each Communion. Shall we 
 not hold fast to the Feet of this Divine Brother, as long 
 as we may and with our deepest personal love for 
 Him? ^ 
 
 (Ea0tet ^ue^nap 
 
 Complete Drbotion to t^e Kigen €I?rijBt 
 
 It will help us to devote our whole being to Qirist, 
 if we make a simple analysis of love, guided by the 
 Scriptures. There is, first, natural love, called by the 
 Greeks Eros, which springs entirely from the emo- 
 tions. It is used in the Bible only in the Old Testa- 
 ment, and there but twice in an honorable sense ; once 
 of the fondness of Ahasuerus for his Queen, and again 
 in the Divine command to love Holy Wisdom (Esther 
 ii:i7; Prov. iv:6). The Holy Scriptures, therefore, 
 indicate that our natural aflfections are not evil, but are 
 to be devoted to Christ, the Wisdom of God, and to our 
 family and friends in Him. St. Ignatius, on his wa)j 
 to martyrdom, wrote: "My love {eros) is crucified." 
 His passions were consecrated, with Jesus, on the 
 Cross. 
 
 Secondly, there is what we may call relational or 
 devotional love (philia)^ which is devotion to Christ 
 
238 SAINT JOHN 
 
 as our Friend, Brother, and Saviour. This proceeds 
 from the will and the emotions. It is a beautiful and 
 holy affection, having a spiritual counterpart in the 
 Love between the Father and the Son in the Blessed 
 Trinity (v:2o). We should often stimulate it, and 
 strive to increase it, by the use of a cross or a crucifix 
 in our devotions, by thinking of Jesus' Personal love 
 for us, and by frequenting the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 The third kind of love (agape), however, is the 
 highest of all; for this Divine Qiarity constitutes the 
 very Nature of God. It is elicited from the Christian 
 will, and is for the Blessed Trinity and for the souls 
 of our fellow-men. It is of so unstrained a quality 
 that it extends to the whole world, not excluding our 
 enemies, and strives for the salvation of all. It was the 
 bond which united Jesus to His Beloved Disciple ; and 
 nothing m.akes Him so joyful as to see this noblest 
 devotion developed in our souls, because it makes us 
 most like Himself. 1 
 
 Mthnt^tiav in (£amt dOIeefc 
 
 OiiBcernins t|)e ISteen €^mt 
 
 Divine Charity is the calmest, most disinterested and 
 most powerful of all kinds of love. Why was it that 
 our Lord gave it to St. John, His youngest Apostle, in 
 addition to the "natural" and "relational" affection 
 which He bestowed impartially upon all the Band ? It 
 was because St. John was receptive of the highest love. 
 From the first he discerned, however dimly, the perfect 
 Charity of his Master's Personality and, although fee- 
 bly, responded to it. He was always less emotional 
 and more penetrating than the others. 
 
 Accordingly, we find him forever being surpassed 
 in action, and excelling in keenness of vision. Thus, 
 
SAINT JOHN 239 
 
 he seems to have been the first to discern the Messiah 
 in Jesus; but St. Andrew, representing rather "rela- 
 tional," or "devotional," love, outstripped him in bring- 
 ing his brother to Christ. At the sepulchre, again, it 
 was fervent, impulsive Peter who first entered, but it 
 was the Apostle of Love who, seeing the cerements, 
 discerned the Risen Christ. Finally, when their Mas- 
 ter appeared at the lakeside, St. John discerned Him 
 in the strange Form, but St. Peter sprang overboard 
 and swam to Him. 
 
 The lesson for us is that we ought not permit our 
 devotion to Jesus to stop short of His Godhead. Not 
 content with natural love for His dear Humanity, nor 
 even with fervent devotion to His Sacred Heart and 
 His Sacramental Presence, we must, like St. John, 
 often discern His Person and respond to His highest, 
 Divine, Love. For then will He lead us to know and 
 love the Father and the Holy Spirit, as never before, 
 and we shall be His beloved disciples. 
 
 'JtSur^Hap in (Easter dflleek 
 
 W^t Tb\t9»tn JPirflm anH t^t Keeurrection 
 
 In all the world there was but one person who ex- 
 pected the Resurrection of Christ, and that one was 
 His Mother. Although there were Old Testament 
 prophecies and the constant teaching of Jesus to in- 
 struct His disciples, none of the others heard this 
 double witness of God {v. 9; St. Luke xxiv: 17-27). 
 But the dear pondering heart of the Blessed Virgin had 
 become certain that He would rise from the dead. 
 Otherwise, though she was the most heroic of the mar- 
 tyrs, she could not have "stood" before the Cross. 
 
240 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Her faith explains, in part, the fact that St. John 
 was the first of the Apostles to believe in the Resurrec- 
 tion. Even while he "knew not the Scriptures," and 
 had before him only the same evidence that occasioned 
 simply wonder in St. Peter, he was convinced. Surely 
 the Blessed Mother had been comforting him with her 
 own assurance that Jesus would indeed rise again. 
 
 Because she believed so perfectly, moreover, she was 
 left to wait for a visit from her Risen Son, until He 
 had shepherded the souls which stood in mortal need 
 of Him (cp. St. Luke xv:4, 7). Even when news of 
 His Resurrection was brought to the very door, it 
 seems not to have been for her {ik 2) ; there was no 
 tragedy in her heart as there was in that of the Mag- 
 dalen, or that of poor desolate Peter. Do we think 
 that we are derelicts when God and His servants pass 
 us by? Ought we not rather to consider that He is 
 trusting us, as He confided in His Mother, to be true 
 to Him, without His special favors? 
 
 jFtitiap in (Ea^trr Mttk 
 
 S|)e tHeatfi of Jreus 
 
 To-day let us, from the midst of our Easter joys and 
 blessings, look back and recollect what it cost our Lord 
 to give us the Paschal Feast. It will be convenient for 
 us to gather our thoughts about the three occasions, 
 when, we are told. He wept. The first time was at the 
 grave of St. Lazarus, when, as the Greek word means 
 literally. He "shed tears" in sorrow for His dead friend 
 Cxi : 35). In His grief, and His eager desire to revive 
 His disciple, we see a picture of His love for each one 
 of us, and His far greater longing to burst the bonds 
 
SAINT JOHN 241 
 
 of death and raise men to a share in His own Resur^ 
 rection. 
 
 On Palm Sunday, again, He wept as He came into 
 view of the beautiful City, and foresaw its utter de- 
 struction (St. Luke xix:4i). The verb here means 
 that He burst into a flood of tears and wept aloud, so 
 great was His sorrow over the passing of His ancient 
 Church. But how much greater was His care for His 
 own Mystical Body, which He knew would be stricken 
 as if in death by His Crucifixion, and must be raised to 
 glorious new life by His Resurrection. 
 
 We are prepared, therefore, for His grapple with 
 our enemy, death, in Gethsemane. There He must do 
 battle, by prayer and suffering, for each one of us 
 individually, and for the very life of His Church. 
 Therefore, He "offered up prayers and supplications 
 with strong crying and tears," St. Paul reveals to us, 
 "unto Him that was able to save Him out from death, 
 and was heard" (Heb. v: 7 R. V.). His pleading was 
 not to escape the Passion, for only through the grave 
 could He pass to His Resurrection. But He besought 
 His Father, with an agony of weeping, that He might 
 issue triumphantly "out from death," for our sake. 
 And He was heard. His Human Nature was empow- 
 ered to conquer the great foe of mankind, and He 
 came forth to us on Easter Day with the gift of an 
 endless life. , 
 
 ^aturnap in Carter dOleefe 
 
 StJc Ke^lBirt^ of JFaitl), i^ope ann ILofae 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the preeminent value, 
 to the Apostles, of Jesus' Resurrection. If we take 
 only St. Paul. St. Peter and St. John, we shall find that 
 
 17 
 
242 SAINT JOHN 
 
 they attributed to the Risen Christ the renascence of 
 the essential Theological Virtues. From the hour the 
 Radiance of Easter shone down upon him on the 
 Damascus Road, the Apostle of the Gentiles considered 
 that the Christian Religion was nothing without that 
 glorious Presence. If Christ was not risen, faith was 
 foolish; he was a false witness deceiving thousands; 
 his sufferings, such as his battle with wild beasts at 
 Ephesus, were in vain, for he was still in his sins (i 
 Cor. XV : 15, 17, 32). 
 
 St. Peter tells us, plainly, how his dead hope sprang 
 to life again when our Saviour came to him on the first 
 Easter Day. "God," he wrote long afterward, "hath 
 begotten us again unto a living hope by the Resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus Christ from the dead" (i St. Pet. 1:3 
 R. v.). He could never forget that afternoon when he 
 had been sitting, too utterly disconsolate even to weep, 
 and then in an instant all was changed, when he saw 
 the familiar Form of His beloved Master, and once 
 more heard His Voice (St. Luke xxiv : 34). 
 
 Sixty-five years had passed, after the Resurrection, 
 before the Apostle of Love recorded what it meant to 
 him, but the impression was not a whit the less virid 
 from the passage of time. 'That Which we have heard, 
 Which we have seen with our eyes. Which we have 
 looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word 
 of Life,' he wrote to his "little children," "That declare 
 we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with the 
 Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (i St, John 
 i : I ff. ; St. Luke xxiv: 39 f.)- Thus love, the spiritual 
 life and union with God through Christ, came fortk 
 from the grave with Him. Are we using His precious 
 Easter gifts, Faith, Hope and Love? Are we exercis- 
 ing these virtues, and praying for their increase, so 
 
SAINT JOHN 243 
 
 that through them we may know and serve our Risen 
 Lord better? . 
 
 W^t jFit0t fe)unliap jatter Carter 
 
 Our Saviour rose to change the whole face of the 
 earth ; and the history of the centuries which have 
 followed the first Easter proves that His Life has been 
 the one preeminently redeeming force in the history of 
 mankind. If a traveler had set out in 68 a.d. to find 
 the greatest thing in the world, the Greek would have 
 said to him, ''You must see Athens" ; the Roman, "You 
 must visit the Mistress of the World," and the Jew, 
 "The Temple is certainly what you seek." But the tem- 
 ple, and old Athens, and the proud Rome of the Cae- 
 sars, lie in ruins, while the power of the Resurrection 
 has transformed the world. Music, painting, liberty, 
 and charity toward the poor and weak are among the 
 gifts of civilization which have received their inspira- 
 tion from the faith of Christ Risen. 
 
 By His Victory, God, not Satan, has been shown to 
 be the master of the world. Even the recent War has 
 been overruled for our good ; the spirit of self-sacrifice 
 has revived ; the need of the Christian Faith has been 
 brought home to many hearts; and the severed parts 
 of the Body of Christ have been drawn nearer to re- 
 union. Moreover, in spite of countless foes without 
 and within, the Church is steadily gaining ground. The 
 Bishop of London has said that, during twenty-one 
 years of ministry in his See City, which is perhaps as 
 difficult a field as any, he has seen our Lord gain so 
 many souls that his faith is twenty-one times as strong 
 as at the beginning. 
 
244 SAINT JOHN 
 
 When our Master burst the bonds of death, He set 
 free an inexhaustible source of power for each one of 
 us. For, through the Sacraments, we share in the 
 courage and vigor of 
 
 " One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, 
 Never doubted clouds would break, 
 Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would 
 triumph, 
 Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
 Sleep to wake." 
 
 a^onnap atter ti&e JFitot ^unliap matter (Eaotet 
 
 (Baeter Jop 
 
 Because there was no purer or greater natural hap- 
 piness, our Lord compared the joy of the Qiurch over 
 His Resurrection to that of a mother with her first-born 
 babe. The Body of the Faithful must suffer the tra- 
 vail of witnessing His Passion first, and then it would 
 have the unspeakable happiness of bringing Him forth 
 at Easter. Thus dear Jesus claims to bear to us all 
 those relationships which give us the greatest happi- 
 ness. He is our Father in Holy Communion, and at all 
 times He is our best Friend, our Brother, our Spouse, 
 and our First-born (cp. xiii:33; xv: 15; xx: 17; xiv: 
 23 ; xvi : 21). 
 
 This joy of Easter can never be taken away from 
 us ; even though we should be deprived of every tem- 
 poral blessing, we would still have the supreme happi- 
 ness of possessing Jesus and all things in Him. A vast 
 number of men and women in all ages of the Church 
 have deliberately renounced marriage, property, and 
 personal liberty, saying, "I am nothing, I have nothing, 
 and I desire nothing save only the love of Jesus.'' Yet 
 
SAINT JOHN 245 
 
 no one of them, who was faithful to his vocation, has 
 ever been less than supremely happy. 
 
 Our Saviour expresses the two great delights of our 
 relation to Him as being that we see Him, and that He 
 sees us (xiv: 19; xvi:22). How unspeakably great 
 must have been the rapture of a visit with the Risen 
 Christ ! And yet He looks upon each of us now with 
 that same boundless love, and with the same joyful 
 Smile which comforted Peter when he sees us become 
 more penitent and devoted to Him (St. Luke xv: 10). 
 If we would know the fulness of pleasure, we need 
 only live in His Presence. As the sun-dial records none 
 but sunny hours, so ought we reckon that we truly live 
 only during the time we spend in the light of His 
 Countenance. 1 
 
 'Stue^liap matter tjie Jfir^t &unlia^ "attet dEaiSUr 
 
 ^|)e Jop of \\}Z /(5etD Hife 
 
 The very first act of Christ upon His return to the 
 Church was to bestow upon her the new life which' 
 He had purchased with His Own Blood on the Cross,, 
 and had brought to her in His Risen Humanity. And! 
 the way in which He gave this, which is the priceless 
 heritage of Christendom, indicates that He was the 
 new ''Beginning of the creation of God" (Rev. iii: 14). 
 For as, at the early dawn of existence, "the Lord God 
 formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
 into his nostrils the breath of life," so now in the morn- 
 ing of the new creation that original endowment of 
 eternal life, lost by the Fall, is restored, and again it 
 is conveyed by the Sacrament of God's Breath. 
 Through our Risen Lord there is offered to mankind 
 a second genesis, a new world and the place of children 
 in the very household of God (Eph. ii: 19). 
 
246 SAINT JOHN 
 
 But, inevitably, the first communication to souls of 
 the new life thus committed to the Church would be to 
 effect their reconciliation and union with God. Ac- 
 cordingly, the authority to forgive was explicitly con- 
 ferred upon the Body of the Faithful, with full power 
 to exercise Christ's Own Ministry of Reconciliation. 
 ^*As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you" were 
 the terms of the Church's commission ; and they mean 
 that she is really Jesus Christ seeking lost sinners in 
 the world, to endow their dead souls with His gift of 
 life. "I am the Light of the World," He said once, 
 ■and again to His Church, ''Ye are the Light of the 
 World" (viii: 12; St. Matt, v: 14). 
 
 Not only has she her Lord's own authority to cleanse 
 souls by Holy Baptism ; she possesses also a remedy 
 for the even greater iniquity which Christians commit 
 against the Presence of Jesus within them, and against 
 the life which He has imparted to their souls. Through 
 her priest she speaks the word of Absolution to each 
 contrite sinner, upon the easy condition that he tell her 
 his faults privately, and resolve to amend. On the 
 very promise of Christ, the burden of his guilt is in- 
 stantly done away, loosed in Heaven as the gracious 
 pardon of his Lord is pronounced on earth (St. Matt, 
 xviii : 18). How wonderfully it proves the far-seeing 
 love and care of our Saviour, that His first thought on 
 His Resurrection Day was to provide a sacrament to 
 cleanse away the stain of treason from us. His friends 
 and brethren ! 1 
 
 daietineiSJliap rafter tje iFit^t fe)untra^ ^tttr (Ka0ter 
 
 Consaecration bp t^e Etgcn Q!r|)rwt 
 
 The gift of new life imparted by our Saviour on 
 Easter Day is to consecrate us for Him, more and 
 
SAINT JOHN 247 
 
 more, as it fills us. It is impossible for us to remain 
 stationary in holiness; we must advance, or we will 
 deteriorate. St. Bernard applies to this the saying of 
 Job that 'Man never continueth in one stay' (xiv:2). 
 But there is the simplest, sweetest and most perfect of 
 all ways for us to increase in perfection, and that is 
 through love of Jesus Risen. Suppose we take, for 
 example, the fault of ''temper," which is the besetting 
 sin of so many souls. The cure suggested by Holy 
 Scripture is, "Kiss the Son" (Ps. ii: 12). At each 
 Communion we can consecrate our lips and tongue to 
 kind and gentle speech, and our hearts to loving 
 thoughts. 
 
 Jesus appeared to Blessed Magdalen in the form of 
 a gardener. Shall we not let Him cultivate in our souls 
 the flowers of love? 
 
 " In silence and alone He rose in power, 
 Even the dearest of His Own, knew not the hour. 
 Even the Mother of His love might not stand by, 
 Even the Angel Hosts above watched silently. 
 
 " In silence and alone Thy footsteps trod 
 Earth's garden fair, which was Thine Own, O Son of God 
 Come as the morning mists unroll with roseate hue, 
 And in the garden of my soul make all things new." 
 
 Hie Resurrection life which we receive from our 
 Saviour is the sole beauty and eternal ornament of 
 «ur spirit and body. Now it lies hidden within us, 
 except as it manifests itself in a life consecrated to 
 Him and to our brethren; but at His coming, it shall 
 be revealed (Rom. viii: 18). We must let Him impart 
 it to us "more abundantly" through our spiritual life 
 and the sacraments. 
 
24< SAINT JOHN 
 
 6t ^|)oma0 duffereH to Doubt t^e ffie^urtection 
 
 There are several possible reasons for doubt about 
 the Faith. It may be due to the will being weak and 
 the mind clouded by sin. A man once said to Pascal, 
 "O, if I only believed what you believe, I would be a 
 better man." "Begin by being a better man, and you 
 will soon believe what I believe," the philosopher an- 
 swered. St. Thomas, however, was too good a soul 
 to conceive doubt in this way. Then, it may arise from 
 an intellectual difficulty. But the doubting Apostle had 
 seen Qirist raise Lazarus from death, and he must 
 have supposed that He could come forth from His Own 
 tomb. A third cause of doubt is the fact that one 
 cares so much ; and this was the difficulty with St. 
 Thomas. The Resurrection meant so much to him, 
 that he was afraid it could not be so. Add to this that 
 he was trying to puzzle out by himself the mystery of 
 Christ's Death, and that he demanded ocular proof of 
 the Resurrection, and we have the three most prolific 
 sources of skepticism. 
 
 His experience reveals to us that our Risen Lord 
 was as willing as ever to teach a soul in the way it 
 could best receive the truth. The Cross stood plain 
 before St. Thomas. How red and gaping were the 
 Wounds ! But through the love of our Lord, the very 
 Marks of His Crucifixion, which had been the cause 
 of the Apostle's despair, became the means of bringing 
 him to the fulness of faith. "Reach hither thy finger, 
 and behold My Hands," He said to the Apostle, "and 
 reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My Side and 
 be not faithless but believing." 
 
 St. Thomas was peculiarly well fitted to bear the 
 
SAINT JOHN 249 
 
 most convincing witness to the Resurrection. St. Peter 
 was too impulsive in leaping to a conclusion, and the 
 Apostle of Love was too devoted to our Lord for 
 skepticism. But St. Thomas would believe only on 
 sight. The evidence, however, convinced him so com- 
 pletely that he made an act of faith, which expresses 
 the loftiest view of our Lord given in the Gospels. 
 Even so, our failures and sins, will, if we permit, be 
 overruled by the grace of Christ to our soul's welfare 
 and to His glory. i 
 
 ifritiap jattft X\t JFit0t ^unliap Sitter Chaster 
 
 Spiritual Capital for feeus Kigcn 
 
 There is truth in the suggestion that each one of the 
 Evangelists emphasizes a particular view of the Resur- 
 rection. St. Mark devotes himself to presenting the 
 fact itself ; St. Matthew shows the Majesty and Glory 
 of the Risen Christ ; St. Luke brings out the spiritual 
 necessity of His Rising; and St. John teaches that the 
 Resurrection was a touchstone of character. The truth 
 of this last view is remarkably illustrated by the way 
 in which St. Thomas is revealed in the light of Easter. 
 We know him better from two brief episodes in rela- 
 tion to this Mystery, than we could from the biography 
 of his whole previous Hfe. 
 
 He had one very great virtue, sincerity. When he 
 did not know the way which his Master was pointing 
 out to him, he said so, frankly (xiv:5). When he 
 thought it certain that Jesus was going to suffer Death, 
 he had no thought but to die with Him (xi : i6). "He 
 will die for the love he has, but he will not affect the 
 faith which he has not." 
 
 The one especially good quality in our character, 
 like this virtue of sincerity in St. Thomas, is our Lord's 
 
250 SAINT JOHN 
 
 capital invested in us. It is the ''talent" which He has 
 loaned to us, expecting to receive it back with ''usury." 
 St. Thomas, being honest, accepted valid proof when 
 it was offered him, and, consequently, was led to faith 
 in three important truths, as his great confession 
 shows: He now believed in the Resurrection, and in 
 the Deity of Christ, and that he participated in both 
 through possessing the Risen Jesus. Therefore he 
 cried, ''My Lord and my God." Let us strive to make 
 as great a gain this Eastertide through the principal 
 gift which Christ has entrusted to us. 
 
 featuttiap matter tSe JFir^t &untiap matter (Carter 
 
 W^t Kioen Qlt^rigt tl)e anistDer to 6^olifrn (ffirrorjs 
 
 One of the commonest attacks upon our Faith is the 
 denial of our Lord's Bodily Resurrection. There are 
 many proofs of this fundamental Christian truth, how- 
 ever, which our assailants have never been able to an- 
 swer even to the satisfaction of one another: the 
 empty Tomb, the apparently honest testimony of the 
 eye witnesses, the conversion of St. Paul, and the 
 existence of the Catholic Church, are all facts which 
 remain inexplicable, unless Jesus rose. But let us take 
 only the one little fact that the ancient day of worship, 
 the Sabbath, was, at the very beginning of Christian- 
 ity, changed to Sunday. If our Lord had simply con- 
 summated a Life of unparalleled holiness and love by 
 a supreme act of Self-sacrifice on the Cross, the Apos- 
 tolic Church might have adopted Friday as her "Lord's 
 Day," but she would never have appointed Sunday. 
 The only natural explanation of her choice is that 
 Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. 
 
SAINT JOHN 251 
 
 It is not too much to say, that upon the truth of the 
 Easter Gospel depend the dignity and happiness of our 
 human life. For the Resurrection of Jesus was the 
 last and greatest of the ''signs" by which He proved 
 Himself to be the Christ, the Object of the Old Testa- 
 ment types and prophecies, and the Son of God, the 
 Fulfiller of the hope of all mankind. Only through 
 believing in Him can we have life that is worthy of 
 the name {yv. 30 f.). 
 
 It is not to be wondered at, however, that modern 
 paganism resents the teaching of the Resurrection. 
 For by bursting the bonds which bound His Body in 
 death, He showed that He was not merely "Flesh" but 
 truly the Son of God, and this conflicts with all sys- 
 tems of materialism. On the other hand, He proved 
 that His Risen Body was real and was the immortal 
 counterpart of His Soul whereby He rebukes modern 
 ''Spiritism," with its false emphasis on the soul and its 
 scorn of the flesh. Then, let us hold as a sacred trust 
 for our brethren outside the Fold the saving truth of 
 the Easter Christ. 
 
 antil a0cen)5ion Da?» Read St. John xxi 
 
 %\z Second &antiap "after Carter 
 
 Ideate ^Tljroucl) tlje Ewfn ILorli 
 
 Peace, like Truth, 'flourished out of the earth' at 
 Easter. Almost the last word Jesus spoke before leav- 
 ing the Upper Room on the night before His Passion 
 was "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto 
 you," and His greeting to the Apostles, upon His 
 return after the Resurrection, was "Peace be unto 
 you." After He had shown them His Hands and Side 
 
252 SAINT JOHN 
 
 and they knew that it was indeed their Lord, Whom 
 they had last seen hanging upon the Cross, He re- 
 peated the solemn, sweet benediction, 'Teace be unto 
 you" (xiv:27; xx:i9, 21). He had brought them 
 peace upon peace, the reward of His Suffering and the 
 gift of His Resurrection. 
 
 The peace of Easter could come only through the 
 strife of Calvary. Jesus Himself said, "Ought not the 
 Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into 
 His glory ?" meaning that only by the Way of the Cross 
 could He bring to His Own the blessings of His glo- 
 rious Risen Life. It was the failure of the Apostles 
 to understand this essential relation between Good 
 Friday and Easter which led to their being unpre- 
 pared for the return of their Crucified Saviour. Since 
 they had not been able to accept His Death, they had 
 also missed His Resurrection, for it was bound up with 
 His Passion as one transaction of Divine Love. For 
 Him and for us, there must be first the battle with 
 mortal foes, and then eternal peace. 
 
 In the calm trustfulness of the Apostles, after they 
 returned to Galilee to keep the tryst with Christ, we 
 see how effectual the new peace had already become 
 in their lives. They went back to their ordinary work, 
 and waited quietly for a sign from their Lord to deter- 
 mine their future course {v. 3). Amid all the excite- 
 ment of the first Eastertide, and their wonderful gifts 
 of the new life, and mission, and power to reconcile 
 and absolve, there was in their hearts the deep repose 
 of supernatural peace. They prove to us that we can 
 have the very peace of Jesus in the midst of confusion, 
 and uncertainty as to the future. 
 
SAINT JOHN 253 
 
 S^onDap i^Lttet t^e Second ^untia^ 9SiiXtt Ca0Ut 
 
 ^^riist anH tfje €|)utct) on Cartit) 
 
 As our Lord stood on the shore of the Lake, His 
 Fig-ure dimly discernible in the half-light of the dawn, 
 and altered by a certain strange Majesty, He was hard- 
 ly nearer to the Apostles in the boat, than He is to us 
 to-day. Where two or three of us are gathered to- 
 gether, there is He in the midst; He comes to our 
 altars in the Blessed Sacrament whenever we desire, 
 and, in His Godhead, dwells in each Christian heart. 
 But, while He comes so very close to us, it requires 
 loving sympathy to perceive Him. Thus, only "the 
 disciple whom Jesus loved" recognized Him. "He was 
 able to read in a moment by a certain sympathy with 
 Christ the meaning" of the miraculous draught {v. 7). 
 Yet, he ascribes this gift of insight, not to himself, but 
 to his Master. His title is not a boast, here or else- 
 where, but a thanksgiving for the boundless love which 
 Jesus had bestowed upon him in giving him the power 
 of discerning His Presence. Everyone of us is the 
 object of that same Divine Charity, and may for the 
 asking obtain from our Lord an increased gift of dis- 
 cerning Him within ourselves or under Sacramental 
 veils. 
 
 He abides with His Church on earth and with each 
 soul of His people, in order to provide for our salva- 
 tion, even in small details. "Children," He called to 
 the Apostles on the Lake, "have ye aught to eat"? 
 It was the same loving care which had made Him direct 
 that food should be given to the little daughter of 
 Jairus, and that St. Lazarus should be loosed from 
 the uncomfortable bands in which his body had been 
 swathed (St. Luke viii : 55 ; St. John xi : 44). 
 
254 SAINT JOHN 
 
 Nor will He long deny us the supreme happiness of 
 seeing His Face. Already the day is breaking. Surely 
 for us the midnight of Judas' treason is past forever ; 
 we are living in the dawn of Peter's penitence, and the 
 morning is brightening around us as we advance little 
 by little in righteousness, toward our Saviour on the 
 Eternal Shore. . 
 
 tCutfiStiap matter V^z feeconti feundap ^iitt CKastet 
 
 jpleeinc to C|)ri6t in Contrition 
 
 It is one of the favorite devices of the devil to lead 
 us into sin, first, and then persuade us that since we 
 have fallen we might as well continue indulging our- 
 selves, or at least postpone seeking forgiveness, until 
 our next confession or communion. In this way he 
 deludes souls into multiplying the first fault so that 
 God is much more dishonored, than if they had at 
 once sought pardon for the broken resolution, or com- 
 mandment. We may gain from the experience of St. 
 Peter some valuable instruction in rejecting this evil 
 counsel of the Tempter. When he first realized his 
 guilt in the Eyes of his all-holy Master, he would 
 have driven Jesus away from him, so great was his 
 shame and suffering in the Divine Presence (St. Luke 
 v:8). We also feel this disposition to escape from 
 our Saviour when we have fallen into pride or anger 
 or whatever our besetting sin may be. 
 
 He had made a great gain in true penitence, how- 
 ever, when we obtain a second view of his heart (vi: 
 68). Christ had oflFered Himself to His Disciples as 
 the very Bread of Heaven and many had deserted Him, 
 in consequence. But although He made a great de- 
 mand on the faith of the Apostles, also, St. Peter had 
 
SAINT JOHN 255 
 
 learned now that above all things he must cleave to his 
 Master. "Lord," he declared, "to whom shall we go? 
 Thou hast the words of eternal life/' And, no matter 
 how bad our fall should be, we must in the first mo- 
 ment afterward, resolve that we will hold fast to Jesus. 
 Dear St. Peter manifested the consummation of his 
 training, there at the Lake, when he saw his Risen 
 Master on the shore and swam to Him. He fully 
 realized his need of forgiveness for his three denials, 
 but his first thought was to reach the Feet of his Lord 
 with all speed. Let us, after his example, rise up im- 
 mediately from our fall, not even waiting for our next 
 devotions, flee at once to Jesus, and beg His ready for- 
 giveness. X 
 
 dflledm^tiap matter i^t feeconti &unDa? 
 Mitt (lEa0Ur 
 
 ^l)e Jot of l^olp Communion 
 
 It is the Risen Qirist Whom we receive in the 
 Blessed Sacrament, and this fact relieves our faith 
 in the Divine Mysteries of many of its difficulties. 
 For His Humanity existed in a new mode after the 
 Resurrection, so that it possessed many of the qualities 
 of a spirit. Accordingly, when every opening of the 
 Upper Room was tightly closed, "came Jesus and stood 
 in the midst." He had passed through the solid wall, 
 and was present among them even before He was vis- 
 ible. Then, He willed that His Body should be ex- 
 tended so that it would fill space and they would sec 
 Him ; but He was not a whit more really there in His 
 Manhood after He gave It extension, when they could 
 see His Wounds and feel His Flesh and Bones, than 
 while It remained unextended, occupying no length, or 
 
256 SAINT JOHN 
 
 breadth or thickness of space. In the same way, His 
 spirit-like Humanity is present in the tiniest portion 
 of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 We learn a great lesson about believing in the Holy 
 Communion, from the doubt and the great faith of St. 
 Thomas. He demanded and received the opportunity 
 of thrusting His Hand into the sacred Wounds. Yet, 
 as St. Austin observes, "he saw and touched Man and 
 confessed God Whom he saw not nor touched." His 
 eyes beheld the outward and visible Sign of Jesu's 
 Manhood, but he believed in the inward, invisible Per- 
 son. ''In His example, it is seen that faith is not meas- 
 ured by sight." 
 
 One blessing we receive only when we gather about 
 "God's Board." There alone dear Jesus is to us as a 
 Father among His children. We observe a significant 
 difference between the word for "little children" which 
 He used just after Holy Communion, in the Upper 
 Room, and that by which He addressed the Apostles 
 on the Lake (xiii: 33 ; v. 5). Only the former implies 
 the relationship of paternity toward His Own. When 
 He has imparted to us His Own Flesh and Blood, at 
 the Altar, we are His little children, and He is our 
 Everlasting Father. v 
 
 <ar6atjE(liap jaftett^e fetconti feundap matter C^a^tet 
 
 {^reparations for {^olp Communion anD ^^anftecibinQ 
 
 The principle of all external preparation for the 
 coming of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is that 
 we should do our utmost, by flowers and lights and 
 vestments, to show our reverence for Him. The spirit 
 of the Church in this regard is the same as that which 
 moved St. Peter to wrap his fisher's frock around him 
 
SAINT JOHN 257 
 
 before he appeared in the Divine Presence. Through- 
 out the night he had kept it in his locker, for fear it 
 should be splashed in the fishing, but now he put it on 
 and plunged into the water. In the same way, we 
 ought to be much more careful and generous in mak- 
 ing the place of the Lord's feet glorious, than in 
 adorning our house or ourselves. 
 
 Our interior preparation is even more important. 
 As dear Peter no longer desired to walk upon the 
 waves to Jesus, but, with mingled penitence, self-sacri- 
 fice and love, flung himself into the sea and swam to 
 Him, so must the Christian approach Him at the 
 Altar, with lowly contrition and devotion. Let our 
 souls be very empty, and have a great capacity. "We 
 go to our Communion too often with a thimbleful of 
 faith," says a devout Bishop, "and we come back with 
 a thimbleful of grace." Moreover, we must remember 
 that it is for us to make up to our Lord, by our love, 
 for the hostility of His enemies, and the coldness of 
 the world. 
 
 After our Communion will come our thanksgiving. 
 For if our Lord in His High-Priestly prayer thanked 
 His Father for giving us to Him, ought not we to 
 thank God for giving Him to us ? He needed nothing ; 
 we need all things, and find all things in Him. 
 
 JFtiHap attet tje &econti ^untia^ atur Carter 
 
 It is remarkable that our Lord commanded the Apos- 
 tles to bring some of the fish which they had caught, 
 when in fact He meant to feed them with those of His 
 own providing (z/zr. 9-12). He seems to have intended 
 to impress upon them in this way the obligation of 
 
258 SAINT JOHN 
 
 using His gifts. But if He felt it necessary to teach 
 them this in regard to a mere material thing, how 
 greatly He must wish us to realize that we may not 
 receive His precious gift of grace in vain ! (cp. 2 Cor. 
 Ti:i). 
 
 It should be our greatest anxiety, therefore, always 
 to communicate profitably. Every opportunity or 
 privilege is attended by the danger that by accepting it 
 we incur increased responsibility. Saul was the worse 
 for kingship, Balaam for the gift of prophecy, Judas 
 for Apostleship, Simon Magus for the Holy Ghost. 
 But, in these and similar cases, the final catastrophe is 
 always due to the fact that, along with the blessing 
 from God, the soul has been tolerating a habit of sin. 
 As long as we are manfully fighting our vices, we 
 ought to receive the Blessed Sacrament the more fre- 
 quently, in proportion to our need of spiritual strength. 
 
 But not only must we serve Christ with undivided 
 allegiance; we must use the larger measure of grace 
 given us for some spiritual enterprise on His behalf. 
 How great would be the value of our communions, if 
 at each we asked for some special grace, and then 
 strove to use it for Him until our next time to receive 
 Him ! By this method, we would very soon make a 
 considerable profit for our Saviour in our spiritual 
 business. 1 
 
 featuma? matter tje &f conti §)untiap ^f tet (Kajs^ter 
 
 S|)e i^uT.ilitp of Cljnct's acfnte 
 
 The Church of Christ is sent by Him out upon the 
 troubled waters of the world to fish for men. But her 
 angling would be as inefifectual as that of the seven 
 disciples on the lake during their long night of fail- 
 ure, if He did not guide her to cast her net on the right 
 
SAINT JOHN 259 
 
 side. They found, only a boat's width from where 
 they had been unsuccessfully fishing, the greatest haul 
 of the season. And the Qiurch, as she obeys the Holy 
 Spirit of the Master Fisherman, is learning to let 
 down her Gospel net in missions at home and abroad, 
 and in the hitherto undisturbed depths of parishes, 
 where she encloses multitudes of souls. 
 
 The individual servant of our Risen Master, like the 
 Body of the Faithful, depends absolutely upon Him 
 for guidance and power. St. Peter was a fisherman, 
 by trade and lifelong habit, and was poorly equipped 
 for the Apostolate. Yet he found that Christ could 
 develop the fisherman into an Apostle, while the 
 Apostle could not of himself successfully become a 
 fisherman again. Without Jesus Christ we can do 
 nothing. 
 
 Our Risen Master is Himself the great example of 
 the perfect servant. How like the mother of a family 
 He was ! He had cooked the breakfast for His chil- 
 dren before dawn; and when they shyly stood back, 
 afraid to approach the meal in response to His invita- 
 tion, "Come and dine," He took the bread and fish to 
 them, and waited upon them with His own Hands. 
 "To serve Him is to reign." To labor for His King- 
 dom, however obscurely, is to sit with Him upon the 
 throne of the universe, for it is to share in that Love 
 which makes the world go round. 
 
 W^t CouraQf of €^rt!St'0 Sfrbantis 
 
 Through the miraculous draught of fishes, our Lord 
 taught the Apostles the great lesson of courage. Early 
 in His Ministry He had enabled them to make a similar 
 
260 SAINT JOHN 
 
 catch, with the purpose of forewarning them that the 
 Church MiHtant would contain unworthy Christians, 
 and be subject to disasters, and even divisions (St. 
 Luke v: i ff.)- But on this occasion the net enclosed 
 only good fish, and was not rent, nor were the boats 
 sinking. This draught also was exactly numbered, 
 and was safely drawn up on the shore to our Lord's 
 Feet, whereas the other was an uncounted "multitude" 
 of fish, which were left in the boats. Accordingly, the 
 miracle indicated that the Apostles were to confide 
 absolutely in the success of their ministry. For the 
 most part, those who were taken in the net of Christ's 
 Body would continue to be His, and would finally 
 reach His Presence in safety. 
 
 It is remarkable that, contrary to what was His 
 invariable custom during His Ministry, our Lord 
 neither invoked a blessing upon the breakfast, nor gave 
 thanks for it. Very probably He meant to impress 
 upon the Eleven that all dominion in Heaven and earth 
 had been given into His Hands at His Resurrection, 
 so that they were to ascribe the Food to His Provi- 
 dence (St. Matt. xxviii:i8). The Church is now 
 under the rule of her Redeemer, and He is wielding 
 His unlimited power for the success of every one of 
 His servants (i Cor. xv:25f¥.). 
 
 The food with which He fed His "children" was that 
 which He had Himself provided. Thus He made them 
 understand that He would satisfy the spiritual hunger 
 of His Own, in Heaven, most of all with the joys He 
 has prepared for those who love Him, and only in a 
 subsidiary way by the blessed results of their ministry. 
 
SAINT JOHN 261 
 
 9pontia^ jitter t^e Wm^ ^untiap ^iitt C^a^Ut: 
 
 Hotie t|)e Ba0i0 of drrbicr 
 
 The three questions which our Lord asked St. Petef 
 constitute, as has been well said, the ''examination 
 paper of a disciple" {yv. 15-18). They leave no ques- 
 tion that what God most desires to see developing in 
 our souls is His gift of love, and that this most 
 dynamic virtue is the basis of our service. 
 
 Even such a saint as dear Peter was still far from 
 perfect in Divine Charity, after years spent in the fel- 
 lowship of Incarnate God. We see the slowness of 
 his development reflected in the gradual way in which 
 he came to deserve his glorious title, "Peter," the 
 "Rock-man." After foretelling that he would some 
 day fitly bear this name, our Lord rarely called him by 
 it; the three earlier Evangelists assigned it to him 
 ordinarily in episodes showing his love ; St. }ohn, 
 writing after St. Peter had made the supreme sacri- 
 fice, always used it. We ordinary folk, therefore, must 
 not despair if we find that we have yet to grow in the 
 fundamental quality of true service. 
 
 The very first application which the "Prince of the 
 Apostles" was to make of his love was to children, 
 "Feed my lambs," his Master commanded. Accord- 
 ingly, Christians have always considered this one of 
 their most important duties. Are we then feeding our 
 Lord's little ones? Or are we committing the almost 
 universal sins against them of criticizing and praising 
 them in their presence, punishing them in anger, and, 
 worse than all, failing to "bring them up in the nur- 
 ture and admonition of the Lord"? (Eph. vi: 4.) Let 
 us strive to fulfill perfectly the high vocation of 
 parents, that our sons may grow up as the dear Plant 
 
262 SAINT JOHN 
 
 which flourished out of the ground at Easter, and our 
 daughters be as the immaculate Cornerstone of the? 
 Heavenly Temple (Ps. cxliv:i2). 
 
 ^iflUine to C3agtoraI Direction 
 
 It was a new task our Lord assigned to the fisher- 
 man, when He appointed him to be a shepherd. And 
 we may be sure that when He commissioned St. Peter 
 in terms of the pastoral office, rather than in those of 
 his lifelong trade, it was with an important purpose. 
 For souls which have been caught up "out of the deep" 
 and brought to shore must not be thought of as fish 
 safely landed, but as sheep requiring a shepherd. 
 
 "Tend my little sheep," was the Good Shepherd's 
 second command to St. Peter {y. i6 literally trans- 
 lated). Souls just beginning the spiritual life, with all 
 its problems, temptations and troubles before them, 
 must have the direction of a wise and good pastor. 
 And when we consider that the shepherd of our Lord's 
 country knew every one of his charges by name, 
 watched over it separately, fed and defended it, and 
 bound up its wounds, we know that He expects the 
 pastor of souls to give his loving care to their individ- 
 ual needs. 
 
 The third and final direction to the Apostle was, 
 "Feed my sheep." It is important to observe that the 
 Good Shepherd directed His minister to feed, rather 
 than lend, these mature members of His Flock. He 
 seems to mean that those who have in a measure 
 learned the devout life will need rather the grace of 
 Absolution than spiritual direction. For the purpose 
 of pastoral guidance is to develop and train the spirit- 
 
SAINT JOHN 263 
 
 ual faculties of souls so that commonly they will grow 
 to have less and less need of counsel. May the Divine 
 Shepherd hasten the day when the tender pastoral rela- 
 tion shall be maintained, in love and wisdom, toward 
 lambs, little sheep, and fully grown sheep, throughout 
 this part of His Fold. l 
 
 (lflleDne0tiap matter tje USitti ^untiap ^litt (Ea^ttt 
 
 ILoftH '^xm^ ant ^oUwt Claimjs 
 
 Our Saviour's question, **Simon, son of Jonas, lov- 
 cst thou Me?" was, as the verb shows, an appeal for 
 Divine Charity (agape), — that "complete, profound, 
 eternal" devotion, which is for God in Himself. But, 
 even when He had asked for this a second time, St. 
 Peter would only claim the less perfect love (philia), 
 consisting in personal attachment to the God-Man 
 through devotion to His Manhood. Always afterward, 
 moreover, throughout his life, Peter shrank, in self- 
 abasement, from saying that he possessed Divine Char- 
 ity. He attributed it to his people, but he would never 
 credit himself with any other love of God except his 
 response to the tenderness of Jesus' Heart (i St. 
 Pet. i:8). 
 
 Even this love for the Sacred Humanity, he attrib- 
 uted to himself, only on the testimony of his Master. 
 *'Thou knowest that I love Thee," he kept saying. He 
 would not trust his own clear consciousness of devoted 
 affection for his Saviour. 
 
 In His third question, therefore, Christ yielded to 
 him, and asked for the less perfect charity. But this 
 especially grieved St. Peter. For, first, the very repe- 
 titions made it seem as if Jesus did not know that he 
 loved Him; secondly, he was reminded of his three 
 denials ; and, thirdly, the inquiry now was as to his 
 
264 SAINT JOHN 
 
 really having even the love for Christ which he had 
 claimed. But, while he doubted whether the other 
 Apostles would ever believe in him again, and although 
 he would not trust himself, yet he relied absolutely 
 upon his Master's Divine knowledge of his heart (v. 
 17). There are, therefore, in the episode, these les- 
 sons : we must strive to return the love of the Blessed 
 Trinity ; we must be very diffident about our having 
 achieved perfect charity, and we must confide abso- 
 lutely in the kindness of Jesus' judgment of us. 
 
 ^Jtttjaftiap atter tje tCfiird feandap matter (Cajsut 
 
 ^eiste of £Dur dpiritualitp 
 
 It is the unexpected which tests our whole previous 
 spiritual progress. Thus Jesus suddenly appeared to 
 Blessed Magdalen as a gardener, and her exact degree 
 of development in knowledge of Him was immediately 
 laid bare. "In another form," He joined the two 
 going to Emmaus ; like a spirit. He penetrated into the 
 midst of the Apostles, once and again; and as a 
 stranger He "showed Himself" to the Seven on the 
 Lake. And the result of His coming unexpectedly 
 upon these souls was that the spiritual progress of 
 Cleopas and his fellow, and of Thomas, and of Peter, 
 was at once revealed. Now, He appears to us under 
 the disguise of sudden happenings, and our reaction 
 upon these is usually a good, and a humbling, test of 
 our development thus far. 
 
 For example, we are likely to discover, at such mo- 
 ments, how little we really trust in the ever-present 
 Providence of God. We are like the Apostles in their 
 slowness to credit the Resurrection. They had several 
 times seen Christ exercise sovereign power over death ; 
 
SAINT JOHN 265 
 
 and as Jews they knew that He would rise again at 
 the last Day. It was not the past or future working of 
 God, therefore, but the present, which they doubted; 
 and so it is with us. 
 
 A very few experiments, then, will convince us that 
 we are progressing, if at all, by steps almost invisibly 
 small. Yet, if we are trying earnestly, we must not 
 be discouraged. God ordinarily proceeds slowly in 
 transforming His creatures. An observer in a South- 
 ern garden will be impressed by the series of infinites- 
 imal gradations between a moth and a humming-bird. 
 Perhaps this indicates the Creator's method with our 
 souls. At least, He is very patient with us in His great 
 charity as we painfully struggle through one conver- 
 sion after another, putting oflf the "old man" and put- 
 ting on the New. l 
 
 jFtitiaj iatur tjie Ufiitd feuntiap ^f ur d^ajefter 
 
 Dur 3nbii0ible (^eati 
 
 There are many indications that the purpose of our 
 Risen Lord's appearance on the Lake shore was to 
 reveal truths of unique importance. For, first, the 
 draught of fishes is the only recorded miracle wrought 
 by Him after the Resurrection. Again, it was one of 
 the two ''Signs" which were intended primarily for the 
 instruction of the Apostles alone (cp. St. Matt, xvii: 
 24-27). Finally, it was really doubled by the super- 
 natural provision of fish and bread, and for this reason 
 it stands quite alone in the Bible. Now, the principal 
 lesson thus impressively introduced was the perpetual 
 Providence of Jesus, our unseen Head. 
 
 For He was educating the Apostles to believe in His 
 invisible Presence and power. Accordingly, He did 
 not now show them His Wounds, so that they felt the 
 
266 SAINT JOHN 
 
 lack of that certainty based upon sight which had 
 hitherto been granted them {v. 13). They, like us, 
 must know Him now by the signs of His working with 
 the Church. 
 
 May He teach us, as He instructed the Eleven, to 
 realize His continual nearness, that we may have fel- 
 lowship with Him as truly as the Apostles did. 
 
 " We may not climb the heavenly steeps, 
 To bring the Lord Christ down ; 
 In vain we search the lowest deeps, 
 For him no depths can drown. 
 
 But warm, sweet, tender, even yet 
 
 A present help is he ; 
 And faith has stiil its Olivet, 
 
 And love its Galilee." 
 
 featurtia^ ^litt i^t Wm^ fe>untiap latter (Carter 
 
 ^|)e Consfcratton of ©nt^ustaem 
 
 Our Lord said to St. Peter, ''When thou wast young, 
 thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou 
 wouldest." The Apostle had, only a little before, 
 "walked" to Him out of the surf, with his fisher's 
 frock "girded" about him, after his impulsive dash 
 through the waves. Enthusiasm for his Master had 
 made him as free as a boy in undertaking the adven- 
 ture. But mingled with the youthful courage and love 
 of his act, was his characteristic fault, self-assertion. 
 He had 'walked whither he would.' 
 
 Our Lord loved his fervor, wherefore He planned 
 to purify and consecrate it. As has been rightly said, 
 "This ardor was not useless ; it was the genuine heat 
 which, when plunged into the chilling disappointments 
 of life, would make veritable steel of Peter's resolution." 
 
SAINT JOHN 267 
 
 Martyrdom should be the glorious goal of the ardent 
 Apostle's development. "When thou shalt be old," the 
 Divine Prophet foretold to him, ''thou shalt stretch 
 forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry 
 thee whither thou wouldest not." What though flesh 
 and blood would shrink from the cross ! He would, 
 nevertheless, stretch out his arms to embrace it, in 
 that day when he would give up, finally, the freedom 
 of youth and fervor for willing slavery to the Slave of 
 the Universe. Enthusiasm, therefore, in the young, or 
 those of fervent temperament, is not something to be 
 deprecated. It is one of the raw materials out of which 
 Jesus makes steadfast, loving servants. 
 
 %^z JFourtfi fe>untia^ Mitt (Eaisftrr 
 
 ^Ije ©otoer of t\)t Kesutrection 
 
 It had not lain in dear Peter's own strength to fol- 
 low Christ. He had protested, once and again, that 
 he would accompany his Master to prison and death, 
 and then had gone on to deny Him thrice. "Thou 
 canst not follow Me now," Incarnate Truth had 
 warned him, before Easter ; but afterward, the Divine 
 Command was, ''Follow Me!" Only in the power of 
 the Resurrection would he be able to drink of his 
 Lord's cup. 
 
 With the new life from the Risen Christ in his soul, 
 his loyalty was in glorious contrast to his unfaithful- 
 ness before. Then, he had cringed before the ridicule 
 of a housemaid, and a few domestic servants. Now, 
 he stood forth boldly before the Sanhedrin, proud to 
 have them take knowledge that he had been with Jesus 
 (Acts iv: 13). 
 
 But more than this should he accomplish through the 
 
268 SAINT JOHN 
 
 grace of the Resurrection. As Christ by His Cross 
 had glorified His Father, so would Peter glorify God 
 by his death (xvii: i ; xxi: 19). Now the sheep could 
 follow his Purchaser. "Peter could lay down his life 
 for Christ, since Christ had laid down His Life for 
 Peter." With that same mighty help at hand for every 
 one of us, dare we be pusillanimous ? Is there one who 
 cannot conquer his besetting sin, and live true to his 
 vocation, through Christ the Giver of power (cp. Phil. 
 iv:i3)? ^ 
 
 d^ondap 9M\zi tf)e ifouttlg &unDa? matter (I^a0tet 
 
 dt* l^eter Detitcate0 (^io 6@emor? to ^i)rt0t 
 
 St. Peter was remarkable, in later years, for the 
 fidelity with which he recollected episodes of his fel- 
 lowship with our Lord and applied the teaching from 
 them to practical matters in his own life. For exam- 
 ple, he never forgot the two angels which the holy 
 women had seen at the head and foot of the place 
 where the Sacred Body had lain, contemplating the 
 mystery of the Resurrection and marvelling. They 
 desired, he wrote long afterward, to look into the suf- 
 ferings of Christ and the glory that had followed (i 
 St. Pet. i: II f.). His Epistle was written from prison 
 to Christians on the brink of the terrible Neronic per- 
 secution. What unspeakable comfort it must have 
 been, both to the Apostle and those he addressed, that 
 they would have a privilege denied even to the Holy 
 Angels, of sharing both the Passion of Christ and His 
 Easter glory ! 
 
 Again, in his exhortation to the bishops of Asia 
 Minor, he repeats almost the very words of Christ to- 
 him at the Lakeshore (i St. Pet. v.iflF.). He had 
 always borne in mind those Divine Commands to shep-- 
 
SAINT JOHN 269 
 
 herd his Lord's lambs and sheep, and now he urges 
 them upon his fellow **elders/' saying, "Tend the Flock 
 of God." 
 
 Let us take St. Peter for our preceptor in this con- 
 secration of the memory. For it is probable that we 
 shall be judged according to what we have stored in 
 our minds. Some day these ''books" will be opened 
 (Rev. XX : 12). We must fill them now with profitable 
 thoughts and holy recollections. 
 
 ^atue^tiap mxzK t6e jFouctfi ^untiap jattec €a0Ut 
 
 imitation of Jeeue 
 
 It is St. John, above all the other sacred writers, who 
 shows us our obligation and privilege of being sons of 
 God like Jesus. He himself constantly followed the 
 model of Christ's example, even in details. Thus, his 
 word for ''children" (like the Italian "carissimi"^ , in 
 affectionate, fatherly addresses to his people, is the 
 same as that which his Risen Master had used {y. 5 ; 
 cp. I St. John ii:i8). The Apostle of Love alone 
 caught that beautiful note from the Voice of the Easter 
 Christ. 
 
 Writing from the stone-quarries of Patmos, again, 
 he reveals the way he was finding in his sufferings an 
 opportunity to share "in the Kingdom and patience of 
 Jesus Christ" (Rev. i: 9). None but he had witnessed 
 the bearing of our Lord before the high priests and 
 Pilate at once Divinely royal and lamb-like in meek- 
 ness. In His gift was the Kingdom of God ; and thus 
 His Beloved Disciple learned for all time that the 
 Kingdom, and patience by which it may be won, go 
 hand in hand. 
 
270 SAINT JOHN 
 
 The great Easter lesson that the Head of the Church 
 is always in her midst had sunk deep into St. John's 
 heart. Accordingly, he markedly prefers the words 
 for Christ's ''coming," which mean, the one, "His 
 Presence," and the other, the "Revelation" of His 
 nearness. To our saintly Guide the great Model of 
 God's sons is always present with the Church, and will 
 simply be manifested visibly at His Second Advent. 
 He would have us live so that our every action will 
 bear the inspection of Emmanuel, God with us. 
 
 (lflletine0liop mxzt i\z JFouttS &untiap 
 mitt (tmtzi 
 
 3fei8U)a Kigen, anU SPental 2)i0cipline 
 
 Dr. Pusey saw, in the Upper Room locked and 
 barred against the Jews, a symbol of a soul closed at 
 the openings of the senses to all its enemies. Christ 
 will enter such a spirit, and manifest His Risen Life 
 to it. 
 
 Accordingly, the first step toward mental discipline 
 is to shut out from our life the din and confusion of 
 what Matthew Arnold calls "the howling senses." But 
 this spiritual privacy only makes it possible for us to 
 know Jesus Risen, and He alone establishes intellectual 
 order within us. For He brings light, and love, and 
 life, and these are the very conditions of thought con- 
 trol. How immediately, after a long night of sadness, 
 our mind was quieted at break of day ! So the Christ 
 of Easter has shed His Radiance on our life and death. 
 Love, even of a human person, and far more when 
 directed to Christ, guides and purifies our mind. Just 
 a fresh breath of life lifts us up from the dullness of 
 
SAINT JOHN 271 
 
 desolation or despair ; but Jesus gives life in its fulness 
 and gives it more abundantly. 
 
 For others' sake, too, let us conserve our intel- 
 lectual life for the Risen Master. Maeterlinck says, 
 "Though you assume the face of a saint, a hero, or a 
 martyr, the eye of the passing child will not greet you 
 with the same unapproachable smile, if there lurk with- 
 in you an evil thought." On all accounts, therefore, 
 we must love the Lord, our God, with all our mind. 
 
 Ufiur0bap jattet x\t jpourtfi feunnap mxtx C^ajsttr 
 
 dt» 3foI)n Dfbotfli to €:rut^ 
 
 So often, and so adoringly, does St. John speak of 
 Divine Light, that some have attributed to him an even 
 greater devotion to this attribute of God than to His 
 Love. Especially for the revelation of truth in and 
 through Christ, he had a jealous care; and to this 
 quality we owe his giving us our most complete de- 
 scription of Christ's Eastertide appearances, both in 
 Jerusalem and in Galilee. 
 
 His reverence for the Word of God led him also, it 
 seems, to add what is now the last chapter to his Gos- 
 pel. A tradition had grown up, that he had been sin- 
 gled out by Christ for a miraculous immunity from 
 death, forever. This was much to his honor, but it 
 was false, and therefore, happily, he was moved to 
 write an appendix in order to disprove it. 
 
 But perhaps there is no proof of his regard for 
 Divine Truth so convincing as the special name he 
 shared with his brother. For Boanerges has come to 
 mean to us 'Thunderers of Charity," but, as our Lord 
 applied it, it more probably signified "Echoes of tht 
 Word of God," since thunder was thought of k» re- 
 
272 SAINT JOHN 
 
 verberations of the Divine Voice. At no time in her 
 history has the Church needed this spirit of St. John 
 more than now, when the verities of religion are so 
 lightly regarded. He must teach us to speak the truth 
 in love. 
 
 dt 3[ot)n 80 filter C|)ri!Stu0 
 
 It is of more than symbolic significance that, as Jesus 
 was Alpha and Omega, John was the first and last of 
 His Apostles. There was a likeness to the Saviour in 
 the soul of the Beloved Disciple, which drew him to 
 Christ at the very beginning, and made it appropriate 
 for him to remain on earth after all the others, to be a 
 living, visible, bond of love between the Lord in 
 Heaven and His persecuted Church in the world. 
 
 From his close association with his Master, more- 
 over, his very vocabulary and modes of expression be- 
 came strikingly similar to those of Jesus. "It is some- 
 times even objected to this Gospel," writes a learned 
 modern commentator, "that you cannot distinguish be- 
 tween the sayings of the Evangelist and the sayings 
 of his Master. Is there any other writer who would 
 be in the smallest danger of having his words con- 
 founded with Christ's ? Is not this the strongest proof 
 that John was in perfect sympathy with Jesus ?" 
 
 He himself suggests that it was because of his inti- 
 mate fellowship with our Lord that he ventured to 
 follow also, when St. Peter was the one directed to 
 follow Christ {w. 19 f.). He hoped that a death like 
 his Master's would be appointed for him, too, and 
 since it seemed that the sign of willingness to give his 
 
SAINT JOHN 273 
 
 life was to fall in behind his Captain, he immediately 
 did so. What perfection it will mean in us, when w« 
 think and speak under the influence of Jesus, and seek 
 to imitate Him both in our life and death ! 
 
 featuttia^ mizi i\z iFouttS S)umia^ mitt C^a^tet 
 
 «t» 3fo|)n abiuing 
 
 It is not only useful, but essential, that there should 
 lie different dispositions among Christ's disciples. It 
 was quite right that there should be one who would 
 leap into the sea and swim to his Master, and others 
 who would remain in the boat and secure the fish. And 
 the Church is far richer because some of her children 
 are, like St. John, disposed to a life of thought and 
 devotion, while others, with St. Peter, turn naturally 
 to intense activity. 
 
 The two Apostles are frequently contrasted in Holy 
 Writ, but nowhere more strikingly than at their first 
 trial before the Sanhedrin (Acts iv: 5-12). St. Peter 
 argued vigorously and boldly in their defense, while 
 St. John remained perfectly quiet. Many of the Coun- 
 cil had been his friends, but they now had come to the 
 parting of the ways. For the first time the issue be- 
 tween his Jewish past and his Jewish world, and fidel- 
 ity to Jesus, was fully and plainly presented to him. 
 Silently he met it, and silently went out to give his 
 decision life-long, nay, eternal, effect. 
 
 **St. Peter's was the martyrdom of death, St. John's 
 was the martyrdom of life," says Bp. Wordsworth. 
 Most of us will have the fate of the Beloved Disciple, 
 and we owe our Lord special gratitude that along with 
 
 19 
 
274 SAINT JOHN 
 
 an Apostle who has shared His Cross, He has given 
 us one in whom is reflected the Passion of His Life. 
 
 W^t iFlttJ Sunday 9iiitt (Ka^ter 
 
 C|)ri0t')3 IReeurrectton SiSfSurinQ £)ur0 
 
 It was a Divine necessity that Incarnate God should 
 rise from the dead (xx : 9). He could not be holden by 
 the grave ; His Human Soul was full of powerful life 
 which was no sooner imparted to His Body on Easter 
 morning than it inevitably burst the bonds of death. 
 Moreover, from His Humanity this same irresistible 
 energy is communicated to ours, and shall at His Com- 
 ing free us forever from the grip of that enemy of 
 His, whom at last He is to trample under His Feet 
 ( I Cor. XV : 24 ff . ) . 
 
 We need fulfill only one essential condition, and 
 Christ will make over His Easter triumph to us : We 
 must render to Him in His Church the obedience of 
 love. "Let those that love Him," cried the sacred his- 
 torian, "be as the Sun when He goeth forth in His 
 might" ; that is, "splendid, invincible, vanquishing, an- 
 nihilating the darkness of the night [and] the mists of 
 dawn" (Jud. v: 31). Let us but permit Divine Charity 
 to have its way with us, and an Easter shall dawn, 
 when we shall go forth out of our graves in glory like 
 the radiance of the rising Dayspring. 
 
 Because of this sure hope, the Resurrection of Christ 
 has absolutely changed the face of death to Christian 
 mourners. For the conception of it as simply the sleep 
 of the body, until its awakening in the morning of 
 Eternal Day, originated in the Gospels (xi: 11). The 
 first time it appears, in the whole history of our race, 
 
SAIN^ ,OHN 275 
 
 is in connection with the martyrdom of St. Stephen 
 (Acts vii:6o). Indeeo, the very word "cemetery" 
 originally meant "an inn," or "rest-house," and was 
 afterwards used for the burial-place of the Christian 
 martyrs. Thus, since the first Easter, the Church has 
 understood that s^je lays her holy dead in that dormi- 
 tory of nature w/iich Jesus loved well, until the Day 
 breaks, and they arise in the glory and beauty of im- 
 mortal health. , 
 
 Eogation aponliap 
 
 Our Saviour has revealed that we can glorify God 
 by our death {v. 19). We must, therefore, gird our- 
 selves by regular prayer for our last battle with Satan, 
 that we may surely win it, to the honor of "our great 
 God and Saviour." "I was ever a fighter," once cried 
 a brave soul, "one fight more, the last and best." 
 
 It is true, we naturally shrink from arming to that 
 mortal strife. But lack of preparation does not post- 
 pone it. And to those who have faithfully borne the 
 yoke of Jesus, it is but one last obedience to yield up 
 our body into His Hands. The gladiators met Caesar 
 with the shout, "We who are about to die salute 
 thee!" Cannot we be as brave and loyal warriors of 
 the King of Love? 
 
 Often, and rightly, we are warned that Satan will 
 desire to wreak upon us his utmost malice, in our last 
 hour. But there is another truth for us to bear in 
 mind for our encouragement. The Good Shepherd 
 will also be at our bedside, and He has promised that 
 none shall pluck out of His Hand the sheep which has 
 heard His Voice and followed Him (x : 27 f.). There- 
 
276 SAINT JOHN 
 
 fore, we must look forward to our death with holy fear 
 and constant prayer, yet with a firm confidence in Him 
 Who shall give us the victory. 
 
 Eoffation ^ue0tiap 
 
 ILobinQ X^t Appearing Ct^riist 
 
 If we were asked what is the ordinary feeling of 
 Christians about the Second Advent of our Lord, 
 would we not be obliged to confess that it is fear? 
 Yet surely this seems a mean-spirited and ungrateful 
 attitude toward Jesus Christ. There should be at least 
 some of the Church's children who can say, with a 
 great and tender longing, "Even so, come, Lord 
 Jesus !" Unless we are willing that He should feel 
 unwelcome in the world He has redeemed, we must 
 strive to increase the small group of those who "love 
 His appearing." 
 
 There is a love "which casteth out fear," and to this 
 every Christian must aspire. An old writer teaches us 
 that there are in all four steps upward to it : First, in 
 the unconverted, there is neither fear nor love. Rising 
 above this, the soul conceives fear without love. 
 Touched by Divine Charity, it mounts again, to a state 
 of both fear and love. And, finally, it attains to have 
 love without fear. Most of us are halting at the final 
 step. Let us besiege the Heart of Jesus for the gift 
 of perfect charity. 
 
 His Own are not to shrink from Him at His com- 
 ing. The sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the 
 sky, striking terror to the hearts of His enemies. But 
 we shall lift up our heads at the sight, in unspeakable 
 thankfulness and joy, for it will mean that our redemp- 
 tion draweth nigh. 
 
SAINT JOHN 277 
 
 i^logatton (121Irtine0tia^ 
 
 St. John's last word to us in his Gospel is that the 
 sacred record contains only a tiny portion of the teach- 
 ing and miracles of Christ. A complete narrative even 
 of His human Life would be practically infinite. But 
 if His limited revelation of Himself during His Min- 
 istry would fill more books than the world could con- 
 tain, how endless must be the perfections of His God- 
 head ! Even eternity itself will be far too brief for us 
 to see all the ineffable beauties of His Wisdom and 
 Love. 
 
 We ought often to encourage ourselves by the hope 
 of immortality. If there were no greater blessing in 
 store for us than once to have our Saviour take us in 
 His dear Arms and give us the Kiss of Peace, it would 
 be worth a life-time of suffering and strife. But we 
 are to sit with Him in His Throne, to enter into His 
 joys, and to spend eternity united to Him in the bond 
 of perfect love. 
 
 Across the trackless ocean of the future there is a 
 course marked out for us, by the Footsteps of Him 
 Whose way is in the sea. Let our hearts only be set 
 upon gaining the Harbor of His Heart, and all things, 
 whether calms or storms, will work together for good 
 to us. 
 
 "One ship drives east, and another west, 
 With the self-same winds that blow ; 
 'Tis the set of the sails and not the gales, 
 That tells us the way they go. 
 
 " Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate, 
 
 As we journey along through life ; 
 'Tis the set of a soul, that decides its goal, 
 And not the calm or the strife." 
 
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