DEC'-.v' 1 ti3 
 
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 i^f^T"! S^^l^ 
 
THE SHORT COURSE SERIES 
 
 IN THE UPPER ROOM 
 
GENERAL PREFACE 
 
 The title of the present series is a sufficient 
 indication of its purpose. Few preachers, 
 or congregations, will face the long courses 
 of expository lectures which characterised 
 the preaching of the past, but there is a 
 growing conviction on the part of some 
 that an occasional short course, of six or 
 eight connected studies on one definite 
 theme, is a necessity of their mental and 
 ministerial life. It is at this point the pro- 
 jected series would strike in. It would 
 suggest to those who are mapping out a 
 scheme of work for the future a variety of 
 subjects which might possibly be utilised in 
 this way. 
 
 The appeal, however, will not be restricted 
 to ministers or preachers. The various 
 volumes will meet the needs of laymen and 
 ii 
 
General Preface 
 
 Sabbath-school teachers who are interested 
 in a scholarly but also practical exposition 
 of Bible history and doctrine. In the hands 
 of office-bearers and mission-workers the 
 " Short Course Series " may easily become 
 one of the most convenient and valuable 
 of Bible helps. 
 
 It need scarcely be added that while an 
 effort has been made to secure, as far as 
 possible, a general uniformity in the scope 
 and character of the series, the final re- 
 sponsibility for the special interpretations 
 and opinions introduced into the separate 
 volumes, rests entirely with the individual 
 contributors. 
 
 A detailed list of the authors and their 
 subjects will be found at the close of each 
 volume. 
 
 m 
 
Volumes Already Published 
 
 A Cry for Justice: A Study in Amos. 
 
 By Prof. John E. McFadyen, D.D. 
 
 The Beatitudes. 
 
 Rev. Robert H. Fisher, D.D. 
 
 The Lenten Psalms. 
 By the Editor. 
 
 The Psahn of Psalms. 
 
 By Prof. James Stalker, D.D. 
 
 The Song and the Soil. 
 
 By Prof. W. G. Jordan, D.D. 
 
 The Higher Powers of the Soul. 
 
 By Rev. George M'Hardy, D.D. 
 
 Jehovah-Jesus. 
 
 By Rev. Thomas Whitelaw, D.D. 
 
 The Sevenfold I Am, 
 
 By Rev. Thomas Marjoribanks, B.D. 
 
 The Man Among the Myrtles. 
 By the Editor. 
 
 The Story of Joseph. 
 
 By Rev. Adam C. Welch, B.D., Th.D. 
 
 The Divine Drama of Job. 
 
 By Rev. Charles F. Aked, D.D. 
 
 A Mirror of the Soul: Studies in the Psalter. 
 By Rev. Canon Vaughan, M.A. 
 
 In the Upper Room. 
 
 By Rev. D. J. Burrill, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Price 6o cents net per Volume 
 
Zht Sbort Course Serteg [ pgC 23 1913 
 
 EDITED BY >w^'/* \^)f^ 
 
 Rev. JOHN ADAMS, B.D. ^^>2?_'^riCAl ^^^^ 
 
 IN THE UPPER ROOM 
 
 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION OF 
 JOHN XIII.-XVII. 
 
 (WITH RELATED PASSAGES) 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID JAMES BURRELL 
 
 D.D., LL.D. 
 
 author of 
 'the spirit of thb age" "the religions of the world' 
 
 « THB SERMON .' ITS CONSTRUCTION AND DELIVEBY " ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 FACE 
 
 I. The Guest-Chamber . • . i 
 
 II. The Assembling of the Church 
 
 III. The Significance of the Foot- Washing 
 
 IV. The Triune God . 
 V. The Christian 
 
 VI. The Dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
 
 VII. The Parousia 
 
 VIII. The Sacerdotal Prayer . 
 IX. The Closing Hymn 
 
 Appendix .... 
 Index . • • • • 
 
 15 
 
 27 
 53 
 71 
 87 
 103 
 
 "5 
 
 ^33 
 141 
 145 
 
 VU 
 
"As we read the records of the great and good, we 
 
 cannot help sometimes wishing it had been our lot to 
 
 follow Plato in his garden, or to hear the table-talk of 
 
 Luther, or to sit with Bunyan in the sunshine of the 
 
 streets of Bedford, or to listen to Coleridge bodying forth 
 
 the golden clouds of his philosophy. But what would 
 
 any such privilege have been in comparison with that of 
 
 Mary who sat at Jesus* feet and heard His words; or 
 
 that of John, who leant on His bosom and listened to the 
 
 beating of His heart.'* 
 
 Imago Christu 
 
I. 
 
 THE GUEST-CHAMBER. 
 
 (Mark xiv. 12-16.) 
 
 At length the hour for which the whole 
 creation had been groaning and travailing 
 had arrived. The hands on God's dial were 
 pointing to the fulness of time. And Jesus 
 said, "The hour is come." 
 
 The hour had come to fulfil Messianic 
 prophecy by filling full the long-cherished 
 "hope of Israel" and revealing the mystery 
 of salvation which, having been "hid from 
 the beginning," was now to be made known 
 in the manifold wisdom of God. The hour 
 had come to make an end of the old economy 
 — which was but " a shadow of good things 
 to come " — and usher in the gospel, in which 
 the entire " handwriting of ordinances " was 
 I 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 to be blotted out. The hour had come for 
 the Master to keep His last Passover with His 
 disciples. It was now Thursday, known as 
 the Paraskeue or " day of preparation," and 
 the feast was set for to-morrow evening ; but 
 it must be kept by anticipation, if at all, 
 because to-morrow Jesus would not be here. 
 The Lamb of God was about to be offered 
 as a sacrifice for the world's sin. The hour 
 had come to assemble "the remnant of 
 Israel " for reorganisation in the larger 
 form of the Christian Church ; and in 
 this assemblage great forces were to be 
 set in motion, which should ultimately, 
 despite all opposition, bring in the Golden 
 Age. 
 
 All this and more was in the mind of 
 Jesus when He said to Peter and John, " Go 
 into the city ; and there shall meet you a 
 man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow 
 him ; and wheresoever he shall enter in, say 
 to the goodman of the house. The Master 
 saith. Where is my guest-chamber where I 
 shall eat the Passover with my disciples ? 
 And he will himself show you a large upper 
 
The Guest-Chamber 
 
 room furnished and ready. There make 
 ready for it." 
 
 I. The Outriders of the King 
 
 The four men here mentioned were ap- 
 pointed as outriders or pursuivants of the 
 King to prepare the way before Him. The 
 campaign of the centuries was about to be 
 inaugurated, and the Master began with these 
 men. They were the vanguard of a great 
 multitude whom no man can number, com- 
 missioned to go forth to the conquest of the 
 world. In the logic of events they must be 
 multiplied along the centuries until, at length, 
 the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth 
 as the waters cover the sea. 
 
 Two of these outriders are Peter and 
 John ; who, being representatives of the 
 apostolate, properly lead the way. As life- 
 long friends they go arm in arm. Thus it 
 is written, "Two are better than one ; for if 
 one fall the other will lift him up." 
 
 In their boyhood they had played together 
 by the shore of the Galilean sea. As fisher- 
 3 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 men they had helped each other to let 
 down their nets and to carry their catch to 
 the fish-market in Capernaum. They were 
 as different as different could be. John 
 was like light and Peter was like heat ; but 
 light and heat were here united in a single 
 flame. 
 
 The strongest bond of their fellowship was 
 their mutual devotion to Christ. He had 
 met them at the seashore when they were 
 mending their nets and had said, "Follow 
 me." This was their call not merely to the 
 Christian life, but to the apostolic office. 
 They were summoned from all secular pur- 
 suits into the exclusive service of Christ ; 
 wherefore, they arose and left their boats and 
 nets to follow Him. They were no longer 
 fishermen, but " fishers of men." 
 
 In this they stand as representatives of the 
 ministry through all succeeding ages ; that 
 is, of such as have turned their backs on 
 common pursuits to declare the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ. Who shall number them 
 now ? They are sounding the Lord's trum- 
 pet in the pulpits of the world. They are 
 4 
 
The Guest-Chamber 
 
 traversing plains and climbing mountains, 
 crossing seas and fording rivers to carry the 
 gospel of light and life to those who dwell in 
 regions of darkness and the shadow of death. 
 
 "How beauteous are their feet 
 
 Who stand on Zion's hill; 
 Who bring salvation on their tongues 
 
 And words of peace reveal. 
 The watchmen join their voice, 
 
 And tuneful notes employ; 
 Jerusalem breaks forth in songs, 
 
 And deserts learn the joy." 
 
 The third of the outriders is " the good- 
 man of the house," and he has his place as 
 really as the apostles in the mighty plan. 
 
 It would appear that he was a man of 
 wealth and social position. His home was 
 of such dimensions as to afFord a large guest- 
 chamber ; furthermore, he had servants in 
 his employ. 
 
 He was obviously a believer in Christ. 
 His name is not recorded, possibly for 
 prudential reasons. He was undoubtedly 
 one of many who at that time accepted 
 Christ without openly confessing Him. This 
 5 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 is evidenced by the fact that his house was 
 so readily placed at the Master's command. 
 Consecration is the touchstone of disciple- 
 ship. Blessed is the man who holds all 
 his possessions for Christ. Discipleship is 
 stewardship. Our time and treasure are 
 held in trust. It is enough for a true 
 Christian when the word comes, "The 
 Master hath need." Happy is he whose 
 home has ever a room which Christ may call 
 " my guest-chamber." Nay rather, happy 
 is he in whose heart and home alike there 
 is no smallest room which is not wholly 
 Christ's. The home becomes a vestibule of 
 heaven when the Saviour stands in its door- 
 way saying, " Peace be within this house." 
 
 So this goodman stands for that splendid 
 company of influential laymen who hold 
 themselves and their possessions subject to 
 the order of Christ. Whatever may be said 
 of the shrivelling power of wealth, we know 
 there are many such " goodmen " who lend 
 themselves to the blessed work. The great 
 enterprises of the Church to-day are largely 
 indebted to such as count their wealth by 
 6 
 
The Guest-Chamber 
 
 millions. Because they reckon their talents 
 in terms of stewardship they shall not fail of 
 the Master's commendation, "Well done, 
 good servant." 
 
 The fourth of the outriders is the man 
 with the pitcher of water. "What of him ? 
 He was a mere nobody. Yet he also was 
 included in the mighty plan. God has a 
 place for the nameless ones. 
 
 He was engaged in a menial task ; indeed, 
 he was doing a woman's work, bearing a 
 pitcher from the well. But what matter, 
 if he was carrying that pitcher in the line 
 of duty ? 
 
 "A servant with that clause 
 Makes drudgery divine ; 
 Who sweeps a room as to God's laws 
 Makes that and the action fine.'* 
 
 It would probably have surprised this 
 inconspicuous man, a mere plebeian, had he 
 been informed that he was exerting an 
 influence for good. He little dreamed, 
 when he heard footsteps behind him, that 
 not only Peter and John, but the whole 
 7 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Christian Church was really following in his 
 steps. How far his little candle throws its 
 beams ! 
 
 This man with the pitcher stands for the 
 countless rank and file of humble believers 
 who are rarely in the limelight. Their 
 names are not heard in public places. They 
 serve in remote corners and within narrow 
 limitations. There are no trumpet blasts 
 or waving plumes in the campaign of their 
 lives. They modestly use their single talent 
 for the glory of their Lord, and hope for 
 nothing beyond His praise ; " They have done 
 what they could." Of such is the strength 
 of the Christian Church to-day. Not fame 
 but faithfulness is what the Master requires 
 of us. 
 
 ** Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light, 
 Like a little candle burning in the night : 
 In the world is darkness ; so we must shine, 
 You in your small corner, and I in mine." 
 
 The outstanding fact is this : the true 
 measure of life is always found in our relation 
 to Christ, The only claim to immortality 
 8 
 
The Guest-Chamber 
 
 on the part of the two apostles, the goodman 
 of the house, and the man with the pitcher, 
 is based upon the fact that they were all, 
 consciously or unconsciously, serving Him. 
 His service overshadows all. It is only as 
 we find and fill our appointed places in His 
 mighty plan that we win success in this 
 present life and qualify ourselves by faithful 
 apprenticeship for the higher tasks of Heaven 
 awaiting us. 
 
 I see these men climbing the outer stairway 
 to the upper room. The door closes ; great 
 things will presently be doing there. The 
 Church will gather about a table, with the 
 Master in the midst, and partake of a feast 
 of fat things and wine upon the lees. He 
 will confer with them in the secret place 
 of His pavilion, and His banner over them 
 will be love. 
 
 2. The Transforming of the Feast 
 (Luke xxii. 14-18). 
 
 The scene in the upper room comes 
 vividly before us. The Lord, whose re- 
 lation to the Twelve was like that of a 
 9 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 father In his household, arose at the head 
 of the table and, according to custom, 
 recounted the incidents of the memorable 
 night when Israel was delivered out o 
 bondage. Would that we might have heard 
 the tragic story as it fell from His lips : the 
 gathering of the households, the sprinkling 
 of the blood, the awaiting of the signal with 
 loins girt and staves in hand, the cry at 
 midnight from homes bereaved, a deep 
 crescendo of mothers' woe — and then the 
 going forth. 
 
 The story was probably followed by the 
 singing of one of the Hallel psalms. For 
 the Passover was not only a memorial ; it 
 was also a Eucharist or thanksgiving feast. 
 Could the Jews ever forget how the angel 
 of destruction had " passed over " their 
 homes on that eventful night ? Let them 
 lift the song therefore : " Oh, that men 
 would praise the Lord for his goodness and 
 for his wonderful works to the children 
 of men 1 " 
 
 But the Passover was more than a Euchar- 
 ist ; it was also a Sacrament. The word is 
 
 lO 
 
The Guest-Chamber 
 
 derived from sacramentum^ meaning an oath 
 of allegiance, such as was taken by Roman 
 soldiers on the eve of battle. The Jews 
 were expected at this feast to renew their 
 covenant with God. The terms of that 
 covenant are recorded in connection with 
 the first celebration of the Passover at Sinai : 
 " If ye will obey my voice, indeed, and keep 
 my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar 
 treasure unto me." And the people 
 answered with one accord, "All that the 
 Lord hath spoken will we do" (Ex. xix. 
 1-8 ; see also Ex. xxiv. 7, 8, and xxxiv. 
 1-28). This covenant was renewed in the 
 upper room. The disciples were thus re- 
 minded of the obligations which rested upon 
 them as believers in the true God. 
 
 But the Passover was more than a 
 Memorial, a Eucharist and a Sacrament ; 
 it was a Communion. At this feast the 
 tribal banners were laid aside, and all united 
 in celebrating their oneness as the Chosen 
 People, knit together by a common faith 
 and a common hope. 
 
 This was destined to be the last Passover 
 II 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 that would be lawfully kept in Israel or ever 
 in this world of ours. A new feast was now 
 to supplant it. The Passover must go ; 
 because the whole ceremonial system was 
 about to be nailed to the Cross and taken 
 out of the way. It had but one purpose, 
 namely, to keep alive the Messianic hope. 
 Its mission was now accomplished ; and it 
 was to disappear as shadows vanish at the 
 rising of the sun. 
 
 It is written accordingly that " after the 
 supper " Jesus took bread and, when He had 
 given thanks, He brake it and gave to His 
 disciples saying, " This is my body which is 
 given for you : this do in remembrance of 
 me." And He took the cup in like manner 
 saying, "This cup is the new covenant in 
 my blood, even that which is poured out for 
 you" (Luke xxii. 19, 20). 
 
 In the Lord*s Supper thus instituted we 
 have the Passover merged, transformed and 
 reduced to its simplest terms. Observe the 
 close correspondence. 
 
 The Lord's Supper, like the Passover, 
 was a Memorial. " Do this in remembrance 
 12 
 
The Guest-Chamber 
 
 of me." " For as oft as ye do this, ye do 
 show the Lord's death until he come." 
 Thus the Cross threw its shadow over the 
 feast. The paschal lamb was a prophecy of 
 " the Lamb of God slain from the foundation 
 of the world " ; as Paul says, " Christ our 
 passover is sacrificed for us " (i Cor. v. 7). 
 
 It is also a Eucharist. At the Lord's 
 table we rejoice in Him who by His atoning 
 sacrifice has blotted out our sins. There is 
 no Hallel like ours : " This poor man cried, 
 and the Lord heard and saved him out of all 
 his trouble. Oh, that men would praise the 
 Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful 
 works to the children of men 1 " 
 
 It is also a Sacrament ; in which we renew 
 our covenant vows. " Ye are bought with a 
 price," says Paul,- " therefore glorify God in 
 your body and in your spirit, which are God's " 
 (i Cor. vi. 20). The price of our ransom is 
 designated by Peter where he says : " Ye 
 were not redeemed with corruptible things, 
 as silver and gold, but with the precious 
 blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish 
 and without spot " (i Pet. i. 18). 
 13 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 The Lord's Supper is also a Communion. 
 "One family we dwell in him." We are 
 akin with all those, of every name through- 
 out the world, who receive Christ as their 
 Saviour. In Him we are united not only 
 with all the living members of the family of 
 Christ, but with the innumerable company 
 that have gone on before us. 
 
 "One family we dwell in Him: 
 One Church above, beneath ; 
 Though now divided by the stream, 
 The narrow stream of Death." 
 
 In addition to all this, the Lord's Supper 
 is profitable as a foreshadowing of the great 
 marriage feast at which the nuptials of Christ 
 and His Church are finally to be sealed. In 
 that day the bride shall present herself 
 " without spot or blemish or any such 
 thing *' ; and a feast of fat things shall be 
 spread before the guests. " Blessed are they 
 that are called to the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb ! " " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of men, 
 the things which God hath prepared for them 
 that love Him ! " 
 
 14 
 
11. 
 
 THE ASSEMBLING OF THE 
 CHURCH. 
 
 (Mark xiv. 17.) 
 
 In the twilight of the evening the little 
 company climbed the outer stairway into the 
 upper room. Let us enter and look about us. 
 We have read of Councils of War and 
 Councils of Peace, of political conclaves and 
 conferences of the Great Powers ; but the 
 world has never seen an assembly like this. 
 How simply the record runs : " In the even- 
 ing he cometh with the twelve." There is 
 no blare of trumpets nor waving of banners. 
 The Man of Nazareth enters with His modest 
 retinue. Why are they here ? Is it merely 
 to keep the Passover ? Is it only for the 
 last farewell ^ Oh, no ; it means vastly 
 more. Our Lord has a great purpose in 
 15 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 mind : no less than to marshal and mobilise 
 His Church for the campaign of the ages. 
 
 It is safe to say that the disciples had no 
 thought of the tremendous issues which were 
 destined to go forth from that meeting. We 
 are accustomed to regard it as a mere inci- 
 dent in the Gospel story : but behind the 
 closed doors of that guest-chamber a work 
 was begun which was destined ultimately to 
 restore the ruined race to God. 
 
 The Church is the greatest organisation 
 on earth. All other guilds, fraternities, 
 leagues, federations, governments and politi- 
 cal alliances combined, are not to be compared 
 with it. This is the great living organism 
 through which God is working, by the power 
 of His Spirit, for the establishment of His 
 kingdom of truth and righteousness in this 
 world of ours. 
 
 It is significant that the Christian Church 
 should have had its beginning here in the 
 goodman's house. The domestic ideal is 
 observed. The primal Church was in the 
 house of Adam and Eve, having its franchise 
 in the prophecy of" the seed of the woman " 
 i6 
 
The Assembling of the Church 
 
 who was to "bruise the serpent's head." 
 Then came the Church in the house of Noah, 
 who "builded an altar unto the Lord and 
 offered burnt-offerings upon it" — an altar 
 spanned by a rainbow arch of Messianic 
 hope. Then the Church in the house of 
 Abraham, who saw Christ afar off" "and was 
 glad." Then the Church in the house of 
 Moses, and the Church in the house of 
 David, and thus along the ages. It was 
 meet, therefore, that the reorganised Church 
 should meet as a home circle with the shadow 
 of the Cross over it. For the tie that binds 
 our hearts in Christian love is a family tie. 
 God is our Father ; and Christ, " the first- 
 born among many brethren," is elder Brother 
 of us all. " For this cause," says Paul, " I 
 bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in 
 heaven and earth is named." 
 
 It may not be unprofitable in this connec- 
 tion to correct some of the prevalent mistakes 
 with reference to the Church. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that the Church 
 thus instituted by Christ was a new Church. 
 B 17 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 The Church of ancient Israel was a 
 Christian Church. It had no reason for 
 existence except in its loyalty to the expected 
 Christ. Adam was a Christian ; Abraham 
 was a Christian ; Moses was a Christian ; 
 David was a Christian ; all true Jews were 
 Christians, because they cherished the Hope 
 of Israel and were saved by faith in Christ, 
 precisely as believers are saved in these days. 
 
 The Jews were " chosen " to transmit the 
 Messianic hope to succeeding ages. In the 
 course of time, however, the great multitude, 
 while keeping up the outward forms of 
 devotion, so far lost the true conception of 
 their Messiah that when He came they were 
 ready to put Him to an ignominious death. 
 But there was always " a remnant " that 
 continued to cherish the Hope. This 
 remnant was represented by the little company 
 of believers in the goodman's house. The 
 purpose of Christ was now to reorganise and 
 reanimate this remnant as the true Israel of 
 God, He originated nothing on this occa- 
 sion. The Christ who presided over this 
 assembly was the Messiah of the Jews. No 
 i8 
 
The Assembling of the Church 
 
 new creed was formulated, no new code of 
 ethics ; no new plan of salvation ; nothing 
 new. It was a revival of Judaism pure and 
 simple ; a renaissance of the Church as 
 originally constituted, the Church of Messiah, 
 the only-begotten Son of God. 
 
 It is also a mistake to regard this Christian 
 Church as an exclusive Church. 
 
 The Jews had been "separated" as a 
 peculiar people. Their Church was ethnic, 
 or national, in the necessity of the case. 
 They were entrusted with the Oracles, in 
 which were crystallised the prophecies of 
 Christ, and were enjoined to pass them on 
 along the centuries until He should appear. 
 But they construed this to mean that they 
 had a monopoly of salvation. They became 
 a close corporation, accordingly, closing the 
 doors against all comers, and saying, "The 
 temple of the Lord are we." 
 
 In the goodman's house the doors are 
 thrown open. The arms of Christ are 
 stretched out in invitation to all sinners 
 desiring to know the way of eternal life. 
 We shall presently see a polyglot assemblage 
 19 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 at a Pentecostal feast, where the spokesman 
 of the Church exhorts Parthians, Medes 
 and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia, 
 Phrygians and Pamphylians, Jews and prose- 
 lytes, Cretans and Arabians, to repent and be 
 baptized in the name of Jesus Christ unto 
 the remission of sins ; " for to you is the 
 promise, and to your children and to all that 
 are afar off; even as many as the Lord our 
 God shall call unto him." 
 
 It is a further mistake to regard this 
 Church as a sacerdotal Church, 
 
 In the worship of Israel "the service" 
 was the great thing. At the very hour when 
 the disciples were assembled in the upper 
 room the rabbis were worshipping in the 
 temple near by with great pomp and circum- 
 stance. They were clad in pontifical robes 
 with broad fringes and phylacteries. They 
 were burning incense and waving oblations 
 and performing all manner of liturgical rites. 
 But there was nothing of that sort in the 
 goodman's house. The purpose of the elab- 
 orate system of ordinances in the Jewish 
 Church was to keep alive the Messianic 
 20 
 
The Assembling of the Church 
 
 hope. All the ahlutions, all the sacrifices, 
 centred in Christ. It is obvious that when 
 He came there was no more occasion for 
 them ; because He fulfilled them all. The 
 scaffolding was taken down when the build- 
 ing was completed. 
 
 We are thus delivered from the bondage 
 of the ceremonial law. All that remains of 
 that complex system is the two sacraments : 
 Baptism, which stands for all the ancient 
 ablutions, and the Lord's Supper, which is a 
 memorial summary of all sacrifices. In these 
 the ceremonial law is reduced to its simplest 
 terms. Thus it is written, " He blotted out 
 the bond written in ordinances that was 
 against us, which was contrary to us ; and 
 he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to 
 the cross" (Col. ii. 14). 
 
 It is a mistake, furthermore, to suppose that 
 the Christian Church is a uniform Church, 
 
 The Jewish Church was an integer, an 
 indivisible unit. It had but one temple, 
 whither all the tribes went up. To this day 
 the tribes scattered throughout the world 
 worship with their faces toward Zion. The 
 21 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Jewish Church was like a solitaire ; but the 
 Christian Church is like a cluster of diamonds 
 for the King's crown. It has no temple. It 
 worships in ten thousand temples, and in ten 
 thousand ways, while holding to " one Lord, 
 one faith, one baptism, one God and Father 
 of all." 
 
 This diversity in unity is after the analogy 
 of nature. We are born to segregate. Men 
 gather in groups, according to their divers 
 ways of thinking. If you follow the apostles 
 out of the upper room, you will find each of 
 them gathering about him a group of like- 
 minded men. We shall have the Petrine 
 Church, placing its emphasis on zeal : the 
 Johannean Church, placing its emphasis on 
 love : the Jacobean Church, placing its em- 
 phasis on conduct. But however these 
 "denominations" may multiply, they will 
 all preserve their legitimacy by emphasising 
 Christ and the essential facts which centre in 
 Him. " In essentials unity, in non-essentials 
 diversity, in all things charity." Thus the 
 force of cohesion is stronger than all divisive 
 forces. " We are not divided ; all one body 
 
 22 
 
The Assembling of the Church 
 
 we ; one in hope and doctrine, one in charity." 
 Christ ever walks in the midst of the golden 
 candlesticks with their many branches, having 
 on His right hand the signet ring with its 
 seven stars. This is " Church union " as it 
 ought to be. 
 
 It is another mistake to regard the Chris- 
 tian Church as a perfect Church — that is, as 
 a body of good people. 
 
 In that assembly in the upper room there 
 were none but sinners. We speak of " Saint 
 John" and "Saint Peter" and "Saint 
 James " ; but they themselves would have 
 disavowed it. The members of the Chris- 
 tian Church do not profess to be good, but 
 only to be trying to be good. There is no 
 difference ; all alike are sinners saved by 
 grace. All alike are trusting in the cleansing 
 power of the blood. All alike are moved by 
 a resolute purpose to overcome sin and follow 
 in the footsteps of Christ who is their 
 exemplar in righteousness. 
 
 Peter is always with us, stumbling and 
 denying his Lord, but repenting and insist- 
 ing, " Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." 
 23 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Thomas is always with us, doubting and 
 hesitating, but convinced at length by the 
 wounds of the Master and crying, " My 
 Lord and my God ! " And now and then, 
 alas ! a Judas is found among us, who " steals 
 the livery of the Court of Heaven to serve 
 the devil in." In fact, however, his intrusion 
 in this company is a tribute to the general 
 character of the Church and the popular 
 estimate concerning it ; for rogues do not 
 counterfeit bad money. We never hear of 
 a spurious infidel. It is not worth while to 
 counterfeit infidelity ; because there is nothing 
 to be gained by it. But to pass for a Chris- 
 tian is a matter of some consequence ; and 
 little wonder that occasionally a bad man 
 takes advantage of it. The Lord Himself 
 said, " The wheat and the tares must grow 
 together until the judgment.'' There will 
 be a great sifting in that day ; and " the 
 Lord knoweth them that are his.'* 
 
 It is a mistake also to think of the Chris- 
 tian Church as a provisional Church — that is, 
 an organisation which may sometime be 
 supplanted by a better one. 
 24 
 
The Assembling of the Church 
 
 There never has been but one Church 
 and there never will be another. The 
 Church as originally instituted, and as re- 
 vived and re-energised by Christ in the 
 goodman's house, was adjusted to all the 
 vicissitudes of time. The world moves and 
 new conditions require new modes and 
 methods ; but, as to the fundamentals of 
 the Church, they are like Christ Himself, 
 " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 
 
 There are some things that never change. 
 Air and water and sunlight cannot be improved 
 on. Sin is just what it has always been ; nor 
 is there any new plan of salvation. God is 
 abreast of every age. The non-essentials 
 come and go, but the essentials have come to 
 stay. Thrones and dynasties rise and flourish 
 and totter to their fall ; but the Church abides. 
 
 ** O where are kings and empires now 
 
 Of old that went and came? 
 But, Lord, Thy Church is praying yet, 
 
 A thousand years the same. 
 Unshaken as the eternal hills 
 
 Immovable she stands : 
 A mountain that shall fill the earth. 
 
 An house not made with hands." 
 
 25 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 There is one point at which no thoughtful 
 man can make any mistake ; namely, that 
 the Christian Church is a conquering Church, 
 
 The men who are presently to issue from 
 the goodman*s house will be going to the 
 conquest of the world. " I send you forth," 
 said the Master, "as sheep among wolves." 
 The axe is sharpened ; the fagots are 
 kindled ; but the blood of the martyrs is 
 destined to be the seed of the Church. In 
 all these nineteen centuries there never has 
 been a time when the hands on God*s dial 
 have moved backward. There have been 
 seasons of discouragement when men, noting 
 an apparent decadence of faith, have cried, 
 " The fountains of the great deep are broken 
 up ! " But the Captain of our salvation 
 leads no forlorn hope. The truth of His 
 Messiahship and power to save is an im- 
 pregnable rock ; as He said, " On this rock 
 do I build my Church, and the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it." 
 
 26 
 
III. 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 
 FOOT-WASHING. 
 
 (John xiii.) 
 
 A YEAR before this meeting in the upper 
 room the disciples, on their way from the 
 Mount of Transfiguration, had disputed as 
 to which should be greatest in the kingdom 
 that Christ was about to set up. He re- 
 proved them then by taking a little child 
 upon His knees and saying, "If any man 
 would be first, he shall be last and servant 
 of all" (Matt, xviii. 1-4; cf. xx. 25-28, 
 xxiii. 1-12). 
 
 As they now gathered in the upper room 
 they revived the old dispute. It was un- 
 worthy of them. They should have known 
 better. The trouble arose from a total mis- 
 27 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 understanding as to the coming kingdom. 
 Christ had made it as clear as possible that 
 this was to be a kingdom of truth and 
 righteousness ; but they expected Him to 
 put on a crown and purple robe and 
 "restore the glory to Israel." In that case, 
 what was more natural than that Peter, to 
 whom the keys were entrusted, should be 
 made Prime Minister ? Or that Judas, 
 who had been placed in charge of the 
 meagre funds, should be made Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer? Or that the others 
 should expect promotion and discuss their 
 relative priority in the distribution of 
 offices ? All this was stupid and puerile ; 
 but these disciples were only children of 
 a larger growth. How were they to 
 be made to understand that there was 
 to be no such kingdom as they were 
 thinking of? 
 
 We should be slow to blame them ; for 
 the fault is a generic one. We are all eager 
 to forge to the front and make life tell. So 
 much is " a man better than a sheep.'* We 
 are born equal, like sheep, but we part 
 28 
 
Significance of Foot-Washing 
 
 company as soon as we begin to walk. 
 Then competition begins. It is like an 
 Olympiad, in which each one " stretches 
 forth toward the mark for the prize." A 
 boy goes to school and straightway sets out 
 for the head of his class. He enters college 
 and begins to dream of the valedictory, or 
 of graduating summa cum laude. He goes 
 out into the world and girds himself to 
 distance his competitors. Life is a cam- 
 paign, in which every true soldier aspires, 
 like the storied Spartan, to march in the 
 van. 
 
 There is something admirable in this. 
 Ambition has been called " the infirmity of 
 noble minds " ; but if properly directed and 
 kept within suitable bounds it is no infirmity 
 at all. To climb the ladder is the laudable 
 ambition of every self-respecting toiler. It 
 is only when men jostle each other aside in 
 their eagerness to push to the front, or when 
 they organise a " closed shop " to keep 
 others out or drive them to the wall, that 
 we begin to see the brutal side of it. 
 
 29 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 I. The Foot- Washing. 
 
 It is clear that this is the inner significance 
 of the foot-washing. Our Lord did not 
 intend to reprove the ambition of His 
 disciples, but to direct and curb it. The 
 story is told simply : " He riseth from 
 supper and layeth aside his garments ; and 
 he took a towel and girded himself; then 
 he poured water into a basin and began to 
 wash his disciples' feet." 
 
 One thing is evident : some lesson of 
 unusual importance was in His mind, else 
 He would not have said to His disciples, 
 " Know ye what I have done unto you ? " 
 
 To say that we are to follow His example 
 literally in this case, as the Winebrennerians 
 do, or as the Pope does on Maunday Thurs- 
 day, is to misconstrue and belittle it. As 
 well put a literal construction on His injunc- 
 tion, "To him that smiteth thee on the one 
 cheek, offer the other also ; and from him 
 that taketh away thy cloak, withhold not thy 
 coat also." It is a true saying, "The letter 
 killeth, but the spirit giveth life." What 
 30 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 the Master had In mind was not a petty rite 
 or ceremony, but a great lesson, which was 
 destined, when properly understood, to 
 affect the entire lives and characters of those 
 who followed Him. 
 
 His own thought was perfectly clear : 
 He, " knowing that his hour was come, and 
 knowing that the Father had given all things 
 into his hands, and knowing that he came 
 forth from God and that he was returning 
 to God," did thus and so. And He was 
 desirous that His disciples also should 
 understand it. Are we sure that we appre- 
 hend the mighty sweep of His purpose 
 here ? Not one of His disciples would have 
 performed the menial service to which He 
 stooped that day. It was not for nothing 
 that He thus demeaned Himself. What did 
 He mean by it ? 
 
 The first thing we have here is a Definition 
 of true greatness ; and It differs in no wise 
 from what He had previously said, " Blessed 
 are the poor In spirit : for theirs Is the 
 kingdom of heaven " ; and " Blessed are the 
 meek : for they shall Inherit the earth." 
 
 31 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 But the humility of the Master is no 
 humiliation. It is not servility, but service ; 
 with a definite and blessed end in view. It 
 is not "bending the pregnant hinges of the 
 knee that thrift may follow fawning," but 
 rather stooping to conquer. John Milton 
 characterises it as " that lofty lowliness of 
 mind which is exalted by its own humilia- 
 tion." There is a false humility which is 
 only another name for pride : like that of 
 Diogenes, of whom Plato said that " he was 
 prouder of the holes in his garments than 
 many kings of their purple and fine linen." 
 On the other hand, there is a warrantable 
 pride, based on truest character, which counts 
 it the very summit of privilege to bow low 
 that others may walk over it into a truer 
 life. 
 
 We have also here a Principle laid down ; 
 the same that the Romans referred to in the 
 proverb, Servire est regnare. 
 
 To serve is indeed to reign. Is a mother 
 
 ever greater than when she ministers to her 
 
 children ? Is a king ever more sovereign 
 
 than when he seeks the welfare of his 
 
 32 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 humblest subjects ? Where will you find 
 a nobler legend than that on the escutcheon 
 of the Prince of Wales ? " I serve ! " 
 
 And here is also a Law formulated ; to 
 wit, the Law of Service. All who truly 
 follow Christ are under this law. 
 
 It is recorded that when Jesus had washed 
 the disciples' feet He resumed His garments 
 and sat down and talked with them. In the 
 course of that conversation He said, " A new 
 commandment give I unto you ; even as I 
 have loved you, that ye love one another." 
 How could this be called a new command- 
 ment ? Had He not frequently bidden His 
 disciples to love one another? Had He 
 not told them one of the two great com- 
 mandments was, "Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour as thyself"? Yes; but this is 
 different, as we shall see further on. They 
 are not to love one another as they loved 
 themselves. The love of self is to be en- 
 tirely obliterated ; and they are to love one 
 another as Christ had loved them ; that is, 
 with an entirely self-forgetful and self- 
 denying love. That was indeed a new com- 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 mandment ! The world had heard nothing 
 like it. 
 
 This new commandment is illustrated by 
 the washing of their feet. A man returning 
 from the bath would gather dust upon his 
 feet along the way : so that on reaching 
 the next threshold he must lay aside his 
 sandals and use the basin before entering. 
 Thus it is necessary for those who have 
 been purged from sin to cleanse themselves 
 from the defilement of ever-recurring sins. 
 And it is the duty of all who follow Christ 
 to help one another in this matter ; not to 
 blame or thrust with the fist, but to bend 
 low and lend a hand. Was not this what 
 Christ was ever doing ? And should we 
 not expect Him to lay the same injunc- 
 tion upon us ? Paul puts it in another 
 form : " Bear ye one another's burdens, 
 and so fulfil the Law of Christ " (Gal. 
 vi. 2). 
 
 We have here, furthermore, an Example. 
 
 And Jesus said, " If I then, your Lord and 
 
 Master, have washed your feet, ye ought 
 
 also to wash one another's feet. For I have 
 
 34 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 given you an example, that ye should do 
 as I have done unto you." 
 
 Nor was there anything extraordinary in 
 this particular case of humility on the part 
 of our blessed Lord. Had He not said, 
 "The Son of Man is come not to be 
 ministered unto but to minister, and to give 
 his life a ransom for many " ? In his in- 
 carnation he bowed the Heavens to come 
 down and take upon Himself the form of a 
 servant. His life was all ministry ; it was 
 expended in the behalf of His fellow-men. 
 It is written that He "went about doing 
 good." What biography was ever written 
 so briefly and wonderfully as that ? And 
 His death was the greatest ministry of all. 
 On the Cross He stooped to conquer the 
 world. In that supreme act of self-sacrifice 
 He girded Himself to serve all men. 
 
 This I conceive to be the lesson of the 
 foot-washing. "Let that mind be in you 
 which was also in Christ Jesus : who, being 
 in the form of God, counted it not a prize 
 to be on an equality with God, but emptied 
 himself, taking the form of a servant ; and, 
 35 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 being found in fashion as a man, he humbled 
 himself, becoming obedient even unto death, 
 yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore God 
 hath also highly exalted him, and given unto 
 him the name which is above every name, 
 that in the name of Jesus every knee should 
 bow." " If ye know these things, happy are 
 ye if ye do them." 
 
 2. Judas the Betrayer (vers. 18-30). 
 
 In connection with the foot-washing, — 
 which was an acted parable on true great- 
 ness, — our Lord addressed Himself to the 
 cases of two self-willed disciples who were 
 presently to illustrate the truth of His teach- 
 ing, per contra^ one by betraying Him and 
 the other by denying Him. 
 
 The first is Judas. If, as many think, 
 he was "the worst man in the Bible," it 
 was not because he was an enemy of Christ. 
 In that respect Annas and Caiaphas, Herod 
 and Pontius Pilate, the Roman soldiers and 
 the Jews generally, were as guilty as he. 
 It was his dark treachery and deliberate 
 hypocrisy that made his name a perpetual 
 
 36 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 hissing and byword. In the three lists of 
 the apostles he is always mentioned with 
 this stigma, "Judas, which also betrayed 
 him." 
 
 And yet this man was once an innocent 
 child in his mother's arms. He played 
 with other boys in the streets of Kerioth, 
 and his laughter was as innocent as theirs. 
 He passed into his manhood under a 
 rainbow arch of promise. Then Jesus came 
 into his life, saying, " Follow me ! " and 
 Judas rose up and followed Him. For 
 three years he sat with the other disciples 
 at the feet of the great Teacher, whose 
 words are always a " savour of life unto 
 life, or of death unto death." His heart 
 meanwhile was unchanged. He wore a 
 mask, and wore it so successfully that his 
 disloyalty was unsuspected by his most 
 intimate friends until the last act in the 
 awful tragedy, when he betrayed his Master 
 with a kiss. 
 
 In the Orient there is a tree which puts 
 forth a beautiful leaf, then a red hypnotic 
 flower, and afterwards a gall-apple filled with 
 Z7 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 poisonous dust. It is called the "Judas 
 tree " : it appropriately symbolises the self- 
 propagating power of evil ; its leaf, its 
 blossom and its fatal fruit. 
 
 The genealogy of evil is set forth by 
 the Apostle James, after the same manner, 
 in three downward steps, as follows : " Lust, 
 when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin : 
 and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth 
 death." 
 
 The story begins with lust. The word 
 has an uncanny sound. Its reference is 
 to any inordinate desire. It may be the 
 desire of pleasure. Or it may be ambition, 
 that is, the unbridled lust of earthly glory. 
 In the case of Judas it was avarice. This 
 was the leaf of the Judas tree. 
 
 Now money, of itself, has no moral 
 quality at all. It is good or bad, as the 
 case may be. It will kindle a fire to warm 
 the blue hands of poverty, or to burn up 
 truth and virtue and all nobleness. It will 
 make the wilderness of the world to blossom 
 like the rose, or scorch the greenest meadows 
 into barrenness. 
 
 38 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 "Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! 
 Bright and yellow, hard and cold; 
 Molten, graven, hammered and rolled; 
 Heavy to get and light to hold; 
 Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold; 
 Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled ; 
 Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old 
 To the very verge of the churchyard mould; 
 Price of many a crime untold. 
 Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! 
 Good or bad a thousand fold ; 
 How widely its agencies vary ! 
 To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless; 
 As even its minted coins express. 
 Now stamped with the image of good Queen Bess 
 And now of bloody Mary." 
 
 All depends on what Is done with it. But 
 without controversy "the love of money 
 is a root of all kinds of evil, by which 
 many have pierced themselves through with 
 many sorrows" (i Tim. vi. lo). 
 
 Lust when it hath conceived bringeth 
 forth sin. It is recorded of Judas that, 
 as treasurer of the Twelve, he "bare the 
 bag " ; and we are led to surmise that he 
 purloined from it. We know that he 
 coveted the money which might have been 
 realised from the sale of the precious nard 
 39 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 with which the feet of Jesus were anointed. 
 It was the lure of thirty pieces of silver 
 that ultimately ruined him. 
 
 The taste of the sacramental wine was on 
 his lips when he went out of the upper room 
 and betook himself to the Hall of Caiaphas 
 to betray his Lord. The rulers were eager 
 to receive him. This was the opportunity 
 they had long waited for. 
 
 "When," they asked, "wilt thou deliver 
 Him unto our hands ? " 
 
 " This very night." 
 
 " And where ? 
 
 " He is now on His way to a garden on 
 the slope of Olivet. I know the place 
 well. He is accustomed to go there for 
 meditation and prayer. I will lead you." 
 
 They set forth, guards, rabbis and a mob 
 with staves and lanterns. The traitor was 
 in front. He led them at a quick pace 
 down the path to the Kidron and up along 
 the slope of the opposite hill. As they 
 entered the garden, Judas turned and said, 
 " Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same is he ; 
 hold him fast." 
 
 40 
 
Signijficance of Foot- Washing 
 
 As they passed under the deeper shadows 
 of the olive trees they saw Christ yonder in 
 the moonlight ; and Judas, rushing headlong 
 to his ruin, approached and threw his arms 
 around Him. "Hail, Master," he cried, 
 and kissed Him. The word here used is 
 that of a lover and a maid : he kissed Him 
 eagerly, passionately, again and again. Thus 
 did he consummate his crime. It was lese- 
 majeste^ treachery of the deepest, darkest 
 dye. That kiss in the garden was the red 
 flower of the Judas tree. 
 
 Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth 
 death. The body of the self-slain traitor 
 swings above the deep abyss of Hinnom. 
 We may not linger here. The winds are 
 moaning, " The wages of sin is death ! " 
 The tree has borne its gall-apple. Thus 
 the betrayer of Jesus went unto "his own 
 place." Where else could he go ? 
 
 And yet observe how Jesus tried to save 
 Judas. He admonished him again and 
 again, saying, " One of you shall betray me." 
 He kindled many beacons to warn him 
 away from the dizzy abyss. In giving him 
 41 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 the sop which had been dipped in pottage — 
 a token of singular friendship — He made a 
 pathetic appeal to the lingering sense of 
 manhood that was in him ; as if to say, 
 " Thou art mine own familiar friend ; I 
 pray thee, do it not ! " The words, " What 
 thou doest, do quickly," were like the cry 
 of one awaiting the surgeon's knife : " Do 
 not prolong the agony ! " How could 
 Judas hear and not respond ? The answer 
 is, his heart was fully set in him to do evil. 
 He went out, " and it was night ! " 
 
 Nor was it too late even then. For 
 "while the lamp holds on to burn, the 
 greatest sinner may return." Was not the 
 penitent thief caught up into heaven when 
 his feet were staggering on the very crust of 
 hell ? The saints triumphant are all sinners 
 saved by grace, and among them are many 
 once drabs and drunkards, plucked out of 
 the horrible pit and the miry clay. Thank 
 God, while there's life, there's hope ! 
 
 But on one condition ; that is, repentance. 
 Judas did not repent. He was overwhelmed 
 with remorse ; but remorse is not repentance. 
 42 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 His was merely a regret for consequences, 
 not for guilt itself as an offence against a 
 holy God. True repentance involves faith ; 
 wherefore there is always a rainbow of hope 
 in its tears. The monk Staupitz uttered a 
 great truth when he said to Luther, who 
 had come to him overwhelmed with con- 
 trition : " My friend, your repentance is 
 spurious unless it drives your soul to 
 God." 
 
 No matter how heavy the burden of 
 guilt that weighs upon the sinner's heart ; 
 it remains true that God, for Christ's sake, 
 stands ready to remove it. " The blood of 
 Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin ! " 
 It is, therefore, never too late to mend. 
 
 3. Peter, the Denier (vers. 31-38). 
 
 All the world loves Peter ; but there is 
 no denying that he was a great blunderer. 
 His faults, however, were such as lean to 
 virtue's side. His overtopping weakness 
 was self-confidence. He was so sure of 
 himself that he was always walking on thin 
 ice. It is a true saying, "Pride goeth 
 43 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 before destruction, and a haughty spirit 
 before a fall." 
 
 He was repeatedly warned against his be- 
 setting sin. When he protested, " Although 
 all should be offended in thee, yet will not 
 I," his Lord replied, "Verily, verily, I say 
 unto thee, this night before the cock crow 
 thou shalt deny me thrice." And that night 
 the thing was done. In the open court of 
 Caiaphas the high priest, where the soldiers 
 had kindled a fire and were warming them- 
 selves, he protested even with an oath, " I 
 know not the man," and immediately the 
 cock crew. 
 
 So Peter fell. The man was " down and 
 out." Weighed in the balance and found 
 wanting ! No, not yet. The crowing of the 
 cock recalled him to himself, and, chancing 
 to turn his eyes towards the judgment hall, 
 he saw the Prisoner at the bar, who " looked 
 upon him." Oh, that look of the Master ! 
 So full of tender reproach and entreaty ! 
 Then Peter remembered ; and he " went out 
 and wept bitterly." Shame, self-contempt 
 and momentary despair were struggling to 
 44 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 get the better of him. His pride was pitilessly- 
 laid low. But the end was not yet. 
 
 Let us observe how he struggled to his feet. 
 It was on that very night that Judas also 
 denied his Lord and betrayed Him. How 
 was it that, while one went out and hanged 
 himself the other was restored to favour? 
 There are three reasons for this. 
 
 First, Peter really believed in Christ, while 
 Judas did not. It was Peter who had re- 
 cently witnessed the good confession, " Thou 
 art the Christ, the Son of the living God 1 " 
 No matter what his weakness might be, he 
 was upheld by a strong conviction that Jesus 
 was the long-looked-for Messiah, and that 
 He had power on earth to forgive sin. 
 
 Second, he really loved Christ, while Judas 
 did not. Faith begets love. A few days 
 after this threefold denial, a group of the 
 disciples were fishing in the early morning. 
 In the twilight a lone figure was seen walk- 
 ing on the shore. The fishermen whispered 
 among themselves, " It is the Lord I " and 
 began to row toward the shore. But Peter 
 could not wait ; in a passion of repentant 
 45 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 love he threw off his fisher's coat and leaped 
 into the water. A few moments later he 
 stood dripping in the presence of his Lord, 
 who asked, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
 me ? " Alas, his old name ! Why not 
 " Peter, the man of stone " ? Ignoring the 
 reproach, he answered, " Yea, Lord ; thou 
 knowest that I love thee." Again, " Simon, 
 son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? " — " Yea, 
 Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee." A 
 third time, as if to correspond with his three 
 denials, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
 me ? " Peter answered, " Lord, thou know- 
 est all things ; my sin, my shame, my foolish 
 pride, my self-reliance, my remorse, my fear ; 
 and thou knowest that despite all these I love 
 thee." And thrice the Lord said, "Feed 
 my sheep." Thus was he restored to the 
 apostolate. At last he understood the foot- 
 washing, and was willing that his Master 
 should control him. From that time onward 
 he never wavered in his devotion ; and ulti- 
 mately he earned his knighthood as the man 
 of stone. 
 
 Third, he was loyal to Christ, through it 
 
 46 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 all ; for as faith begets love, so love begets 
 loyalty. His lamentable fall was once for all. 
 How quickly he recovered ! On the Day of 
 Pentecost we find him confronting the 
 assembled multitude with the words, "Ye 
 have taken the Lord and with wicked hands 
 have crucified and slain him ! " His life 
 was in his hands when he thus spoke ; but 
 there was no trembling of the knees nor 
 shaking of the voice. This man had learned 
 his lesson. Frank, fearless and enthusiastic 
 we shall observe him henceforth in the fore- 
 front ot affairs. He preaches to principalities 
 and powers, meets persecution without blanch- 
 ing, becomes a familiar acquaintance of the 
 scourge and prison damp, and braves the 
 weariness of missionary toil until he passes 
 through the gates of Rome to a martyr's 
 death. A moment later, as he enters on his 
 heavenly reward, we can imagine him saying 
 to his Master with immeasurable joy : " Now, 
 Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee ! " 
 
 On the Appian Way, not far outside the 
 walls of Rome, there is a little church called 
 Nomine quo Vadis, In its floor is a marble 
 47 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 slab bearing the imprint of a human foot, at 
 which pilgrims cross themselves and bend 
 their knees in worship. An ancient legend 
 says that this is the footprint of the risen 
 Christ who, on His way to Rome, met Peter 
 fleeing from persecution ; and when Peter 
 asked, " Domine quo Vadis ? " that is, " Lord, 
 whither goest Thou ? " he answered, " I go to 
 Rome to be crucified again for timid men 
 like thee." This legend is not true to the 
 character of Peter ; and, of course, there is 
 nothing in the inspired record to confirm it. 
 
 I have indicated three reasons to account 
 for the recovery of Peter, namely : he 
 believed in Christ, loved Him and was loyal 
 to Him. But there are three much better 
 reasons for it. 
 
 The first is that Christ loved Peter. And, 
 when all is said, we are saved not by our love 
 for Christ, but by His love for us. In the 
 account of His meeting with the disciples in 
 the upper room it is recorded that " having 
 loved them, he loved them to the end." He 
 loved them without reference to any personal 
 merit of theirs. He loved Peter, knowing 
 
 48 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 that he would deny Him ; and He loved 
 him to the very end, just as He loves us. 
 
 The second fact to account for the recovery 
 of Peter is that Christ prayed for him. In 
 one of His warnings He had said, " Simon, 
 Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have 
 thee, that he might sift thee as wheat ; but I 
 have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." 
 What a buttress of strength have we here ! 
 If "the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous 
 man availeth much," how much more avail- 
 ing shall be the fervent effectual prayer of 
 the only-begotten Son of God, who ever 
 liveth to make intercession for us ! 
 
 And thirdly, Christ stood by him. Had 
 He not promised, " I will never leave thee, nor 
 forsake thee " ? How could Peter's faith fail 
 when Jesus was praying for him ? His joy 
 failed ; his assurance failed ; his self-con- 
 fidence failed ; but his faith failed not. " It 
 was night" for him as for Judas, but the 
 morning star was in his sky. His confidence 
 was due to the prayer of his Lord. Blessed 
 be His Name, we have no friend so near as 
 He ! He is nearer than touching or seeing. 
 49 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 To realise this is to discover the secret of the 
 higher life. I never walk alone ; He walks 
 with me. I never meet temptation alone ; 
 He is my strong helper. I never address 
 myself to duty alone ; it is always He and I. 
 His yoke is for two. Where I go He goes 
 with me, unless I wilfully part company with 
 Him. I never sin, save when I fling Him ojff*. 
 Not that Peter was never afraid ; it was in 
 spite of fear that he stood to his colours. I 
 have heard of a braggart in battle saying to 
 his comrades, " You are afraid ; your knees 
 are shaking," and getting the quick answer, 
 " If you were half as frightened as I am you'd 
 run." This is the touchstone of couragre. 
 
 o 
 
 Peter may have trembled, but he did not 
 run. It was thus that he won out. No 
 coward he. No quitter he. For thirty years 
 of toil and trial he faced his duty, met his 
 temptations, and finally died like a man. 
 
 We may take courage from the experience 
 of this man. It is a notable fact that he, in 
 whose early experience there was so little of 
 promise, grew to be pre-eminently the Apostle 
 of Character. No one of the sacred writers 
 50 
 
Significance of Foot- Washing 
 
 insists as earnestly as he on the importance 
 of a symmetrical cultivation of the graces. 
 It is Peter who sets for us that great " sum 
 in addition " which is really the most difficult 
 problem of life : " Add to your faith virtue, 
 and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge 
 temperance, and to temperance patience, and 
 to patience godliness, and to godliness 
 brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness 
 charity ; for if these things be in you and 
 abound, they make you that ye shall be 
 neither barren nor unfruitful in the know- 
 ledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 Thus we learn the lesson of Peter's fall 
 and recovery. It is not an easy matter to 
 live a Christian life. We are called into a 
 close grapple with " the lust of the flesh, the 
 lust of the eye and the pride of life." But 
 who wants to live an easy life ? " The north 
 wind makes Vikings." 
 
 ** Must I be carried to the skies 
 On flowery beds of ease. 
 While thousands fought to win the prize 
 And sailed through bloody seas? 
 
 51 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Sure I must fight if I would reign; 
 
 Increase my courage, Lord; 
 I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, 
 
 Supported by Thy word." 
 
 If a man chooses to struggle on alone he 
 can do so. In that event, however, let him 
 not complain if the issue is against him. But 
 blessed is the man who can go with fortitude 
 into the fiery furnace, if need be, to be tried 
 as gold is tried. He need not fear the final 
 outcome, if, like the three youths of Babylon, 
 he can realise in that fiery furnace the pre- 
 sence of the Son of God. 
 
 Let us take heed and beware, however, of 
 self-confidence. 
 
 •* Beware of Peter's word ; 
 Nor confidently say, 
 *I never will deny my Lord,' 
 But grant I never may ! '* 
 
 If we fall it is through pride ; if we rise 
 again it is not in our own strength, but 
 because the Lord stands by us. 
 
 52 
 
IV. 
 
 THE TRIUNE GOD. 
 (John xiv.) 
 
 Everybody loves this chapter. It is a 
 favourite not only with those who have 
 grown old in the Christian life, but with the 
 little people as well. It touches the tenderest 
 chords of our nature, because it records the 
 farewell words of the Saviour in His last 
 interview with His immediate friends. But 
 there is another reason for its singular fasci- 
 nation, it sets forth the fundamental truth of 
 the nature of God. The doctrine is pro- 
 found ; but it is presented — after the in- 
 comparable method of Christ — in terms so 
 simple that a child can apprehend it. 
 
 I. God the Father. 
 In one of the letters of Madame de 
 Gasparin she writes : " If Christ had never 
 53 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 said anything but this, * When ye pray, say. 
 Our Father,' it would have compensated for 
 all the outlay of divine energy displayed in 
 His incarnation and earthly life." 
 
 True, the Fatherhood of God did not 
 originate with Christ. There are intimations 
 of it in some of the false religions : notably 
 in the Norse mythology, where He is called 
 "Al-fadir," or Father of all. But in the 
 teachings of Christ this generic intuition is 
 pressed home with constant emphasis. In 
 this interview, having announced His ap- 
 proaching departure. He comforted His dis- 
 ciples with the words, " In my Father's house 
 are many mansions ; if it were not so, I 
 would have told you. I go to prepare a 
 place for you." Then up spoke Philip : 
 " Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth 
 us." Jesus answered, "Have I been so 
 long time with you, and yet hast thou not 
 known me, Philip ? He that hath seen me 
 hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou 
 then. Show us the Father.? Believest thou 
 not that I am in the Father, and the Father 
 in me ? " 
 
 54 
 
The Triune God 
 
 Jesus here claims to be the revealer of the 
 Father. As the eternal Logos or "Word," 
 He is the intermediary of communication and 
 acquaintance between God and man, precisely 
 as language is the means of communication 
 between us. His incarnation, when the Word 
 became flesh, was, so to speak, the articula- 
 tion of the divine speech. Thus the Father 
 makes Himself known to us. Wherefore, 
 " no man knoweth the Father but the Son, 
 and he to whom the Son will reveal him." 
 
 All our unaided conceptions of God the 
 Father are vague and unsatisfying; but in 
 Christ He is clearly revealed. When Jesus 
 told His disciples that He was about to return 
 to the Father's house, adding that they knew 
 the way, Thomas said, " Lord, we know not 
 whither thou goest ; and how can we know 
 the way .? " to which He replied, " I am the 
 way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh 
 unto the Father but by me." In other words, 
 He had come not only to reveal God, but to 
 provide a way by which the wandering might 
 return to Him. This is provided through 
 the atonement of the Cross. His pierced 
 55 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 hands are stretched out towards the Father 
 on one side and the prodigal on the other ; 
 and thus the at-one-ment comes to pass. So 
 the sinner is restored to the Father's house ; 
 as Jesus said, "That where I am, there ye 
 may be also " : at home, with God ! 
 
 In the same connection one may clearly 
 understand Christ's profound teaching on 
 prayer. " Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father 
 in my name, he will give you. Hitherto ye 
 have asked nothing in my name : ask, and 
 ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 
 In that day ye shall ask in my name : and I 
 say not unto you, that I will pray the Father 
 for you ; for the Father himself loveth you, 
 because ye have loved me, and have believed 
 that I came forth from the Father" (John 
 xvi. 24-26). And yet in one supreme con- 
 nection He will pray unto the Father for 
 them. He will ask the abiding presence of 
 the Comforter. " I will pray the Father, 
 and he shall give you another Comforter, that 
 he may abide with you for ever. It is ex- 
 pedient for you that I go away ; for if I go 
 not away the Comforter will not come unto 
 
 56 
 
The Triune God 
 
 you ; but if I depart I will send him unto 
 you. 
 
 Had the disciples known this they would 
 have rejoiced Indeed when He said : "I go 
 unto the Father " ; for this meant that He 
 was going to exercise a mightier influence 
 within the Church than ever before. He 
 was not only to sit again upon the throne of 
 universal empire at the right hand of the 
 majesty on high, but to receive the name 
 which is above every name ; that at the 
 name of Jesus every knee should bow, and 
 every tongue confess that He is Lord " to the 
 glory of God the Father, ^^ 
 
 2. God the Son. 
 
 The filiation of Christ with the Father is 
 expressed in the most singular terms. There 
 is a sense in which we are all children of 
 God, since we are created in His likeness and 
 after His image. There is another sense in 
 which, having accepted Christ, we are received 
 by adoption into the household of faith, so 
 that we may say, "Abba, Father." But 
 Christ is not a son by creation, nor yet by 
 57 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 adoption, but by generation : wherefore He 
 and He alone is called "the only-begotten 
 Son of God/* 
 
 As such He claims absolute equality with 
 the Father. It is written of Him, " In the 
 beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
 with God, and the Word was God : and the 
 Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." 
 He had not only reigned with the Father in 
 pre-existent glory, but He was to return and 
 reign again with Him. Here is the explana- 
 tion of those words, " If ye loved me ye 
 would rejoice because I said I go unto my 
 Father ; for my Father is greater than /." 
 How could He say that the Father was 
 greater, if they were really equal ? 
 
 The solution of the difficulty is found 
 in the " Kenosis," or emptying of Christ ; 
 for which turn to Phil. ii. 5-1 1 : "Have 
 this mind in you which was also in 
 Christ Jesus ; who, existing in the form 
 of God, counted not the being on an 
 equality with God a thing to be grasped, 
 but emptied himself, taking the form of 
 a servant," etc. Of what did He empty 
 
 58 
 
The Triune God 
 
 himself when He became a man ? Not of 
 his Godhoodj — which is unthinkable, — but 
 of the glory of it. In stooping to conquer 
 He divested Himself of all the visible tokens 
 of divinity. In this state of humiliation 
 He was, indeed, not equal with the Father ; 
 but He distinctly says that the glory which 
 He had temporarily laid aside was to be 
 reassumed when His redeeming work was 
 done. The temporary abdication of His 
 throne did not affect the validity of His 
 divine claim. It is recorded that when He 
 was on trial in the Sanhedrin the High 
 Priest said, "I adjure thee, by the living 
 God, that thou tell us whether thou be 
 the Christ, the Son of God," and that He 
 answered, in the strongest possible form of 
 affirmation, " Thou hast said ! Neverthe- 
 less, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see 
 the Son of Man sitting on the right hand 
 of power, and coming in the clouds of 
 heaven." We are given to understand that 
 the High Priest regarded this as a distinct 
 claim of equality with God ; for he straight- 
 way rent his clothes, crying, "He hath 
 59 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 spoken blasphemy ! What further need 
 have we of witnesses ? Ye have heard His 
 blasphemy. What think ye?" And with 
 one accord they answered, " He is guilty 
 of death." One word of recantation would 
 have saved Him from the Cross ; but He 
 did not utter it ! He thus died for making 
 Himself equal with God. 
 
 And based upon this teaching of God 
 the Son, we have another profound promise 
 given to His disciples. It refers to their 
 own service and equipment. " Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, he that believeth on me, 
 the works that I do shall he do also ; and 
 greater works than these shall he do, because 
 I go unto my Father." This is explained 
 by the fact that in going to the Father He 
 was to send them the Holy Ghost to equip 
 them for service. It is obvious that the 
 greater works to which He referred were 
 not miracles of healing ; since as a 
 matter of fact their miracles of healing 
 were not greater than His. The reference 
 is to the pre-eminent miracle of bringing 
 souls to God. 
 
 60 
 
The Triune God 
 
 The visible results of the evangelism of 
 Jesus during His ministry were compara- 
 tively meagre. At the time of His ascension 
 there were approximately but five hundred 
 converts to show for it. But in sending 
 the Holy Ghost, He laid the foundation 
 for greater works to be accomplished by 
 His disciples. At Pentecost no less than 
 three thousand were converted by the preach- 
 ing of Peter in a single day. And, in the 
 power of the Holy Ghost, such greater 
 works have been going on ever since. 
 
 In the Methodist revival under the 
 Wesleys it was estimated that eighty 
 thousand souls were converted to Christ. 
 And what shall we say more ? The time 
 would fail us to tell of Whitefield, and 
 Finney and Moody and other evangelists 
 who have made countless prisoners of hope. 
 All this because Christ, in leaving His 
 disciples, put them under the control and 
 direction of the Spirit of power and of 
 conquest. His promise was, "Ye shall 
 receive power after that the Holy Ghost 
 is come upon you.** And that was a 
 6i 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 perpetual gift as He said, " He shall abide 
 with you for ever/* The baptism of power 
 is for all who are willing to receive it. 
 
 3. God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 " If I go not away, the Comforter will 
 not come unto you ; but if I depart, I 
 will send him unto you " (John xvi. 7). 
 
 Let it be observed that He consistently 
 speaks of the Holy Ghost as a person ; 
 not as an influence or effluence, or as any- 
 thing else that can be characterised by the 
 neuter pronoun " it." The influence of the 
 Holy Ghost may be thus designated ; but 
 He Himself is set forth as a personality no 
 less real than the Father or the Son. 
 
 He is here represented as one with the 
 Father and the Son. He is in vital union 
 with them, and in absolute accord as to all 
 plans and purposes respecting the welfare 
 of men. 
 
 He is spoken of as proceeding from both 
 
 the Father and the Son. At this point 
 
 we note the historic discussion which arose 
 
 in the formulating of the Nicene Creed. 
 
 62 
 
The Triune God 
 
 The question was whether the Holy Ghost 
 was sent by the Father only or by the 
 Father and the Son. The controversy 
 about the word " Filioque " resulted in the 
 separation of the Eastern and the Western 
 Church, which has continued until this day. 
 The teaching of Christ in these premises 
 is clear. He affirms that, as He was sent 
 by the Father to accomplish the work of 
 redemption, so the Holy Ghost is sent by 
 the Father and the Son (cf. xiv. i6 and 
 26 with XV. 26) to continue and conclude 
 that work until the world shall be restored 
 to God. 
 
 The Holy Ghost is represented also as 
 the revealer of the Son. " He shall not 
 speak of himself. — He shall teach you all 
 things, and bring all things to your re- 
 membrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
 you. 
 
 The reticence of the Holy Ghost with 
 reference to Himself is a fact of which every 
 Christian is conscious in personal experience. 
 It is an equally precious and obvious truth 
 that He is ever bringing to our remembrance 
 
 63 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 the things which Jesus said, and showing 
 us more and more of Him. 
 
 In short, the Holy Ghost is the executive 
 of the administration under which we are 
 living. It may be said that there have been 
 three administrations or economies in history 
 thus far : that of the Father, which continued 
 until the advent ; that of Christ, which was 
 for a brief period of thirty years ; and that 
 of the Holy Ghost, from then until now. 
 At the conclusion of the ministry of Christ 
 the reins of government were transferred 
 to the Holy Ghost, who continues in control 
 of the affairs of this world until the restitu- 
 tion of all things. 
 
 The Christian knows Him as the Com- 
 forter or Paraclete, that is, "one called to 
 our side." In times of sorrow, of bereave- 
 ment or adversity. He is ever present to 
 help and sustain us. 
 
 The truth-seeker knows Him as the Spirit 
 of truth. Jesus said, " He shall teach you 
 all things. — He shall lead you into all 
 truth " : that is, so far as such knowledge 
 is necessary or desirable. One of the official 
 
 64 
 
The Triune God 
 
 functions of the Spirit is to throw light 
 upon the pages of Holy Scripture, and to 
 open the eyes of the truth-seeker that he 
 may be able to understand it. 
 
 The Church knows Him as the energiser, 
 who provides all necessary equipment for 
 service. He Is called, therefore, the Spirit 
 of power. The pentecostal baptism of fire 
 and power is from Him. All the great 
 enterprises of evangelisation are led and 
 controlled by Him. 
 
 4. The One in Three. 
 
 Having surveyed the teaching of Jesus 
 as to the nature of God in this wonderful 
 chapter, we find ourselves apparently in a 
 grave difficulty. He affirms that the Father 
 is God ; also that the Son is God ; also that 
 the Holy Ghost is God. Are we then to 
 conclude that He believed in three Gods ? 
 It not, why not ? The dilemma is obvious ; 
 how shall we escape it ? 
 
 If it be clear that Christ taught the God- 
 hood of the Father, and of the Son, and ot 
 the Holy Ghost, it is equally clear that He 
 
 65 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 believed that there is only one God. Over 
 and over again He affirmed this ; as when 
 he said to the woman of Samaria, " God is 
 a spirit ; and they that worship him must 
 worship in spirit and in truth." As a loyal 
 Jew He stood committed to the truth of 
 the Scriptures, whose opening words are, 
 " In the beginning God," and whose con- 
 sistent teaching is that there is only one God, 
 and that there is no other beside Him. 
 
 A scribe once came to Jesus asking, 
 " Which is the first commandment of all ? " 
 He answered — pointing perhaps to the 
 frontlet which the scribe wore upon his 
 forehead bearing this inscription — " Hear, O 
 Israel ; the Lord thy God is one Lord : and 
 thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy mind, and with all thy strength." In 
 His whole teaching He insisted on the 
 validity and binding force of the Decalogue, 
 as the great symbol of the moral law, whose 
 foundation is laid in the words, " I am the 
 Lord thy God, which have brought thee 
 out of the land of Egypt, out of the house 
 66 
 
The Triune God 
 
 of bondage ; thou shalt have no other gods 
 before me." 
 
 But how could God be one and still be 
 three ? Here emerges the mystery of the 
 ineffable Trinity. And, be it observed, 
 Christ does not here or elsewhere undertake 
 to explain it. Why should He ? If there 
 are State secrets in connection with the 
 administration of every secular government, 
 shall there be none in the government of 
 God? 
 
 If we refuse to accept what we cannot 
 comprehend, we shall find ourselves in 
 trouble on every hand and every moment 
 of the day. We live in a world full of 
 mysteries that nobody can explain. There 
 is more of mystery in a single eyelash or 
 drop of blood than any scientist on earth 
 can find out. A man is tripartite, con- 
 sisting of body, soul and spirit ; explain 
 that if you can. Call all your scientists 
 and philosophers in council to define life, 
 or to make clear the influence of mind over 
 matter, and they will confess themselves at 
 their wits' end. Tell me how my hand is 
 
 67 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 lifted at the behest of my will and I will 
 undertake to make perfectly clear not only 
 the problem of the Triune God, but every 
 other mystery in the province of the spiritual 
 life. 
 
 In point of fact, all that we can demand is 
 that a proposition laid before us shall not be 
 contrarational. The doctrine of the Trinity 
 is mysterious, but not more so than ten 
 thousand other facts which are received with- 
 out demur because we cannot avoid it. Let 
 it suffice that our Lord affirms this doctrine 
 as a fact. God is three persons in one sub- 
 stance ; he is Tri-unity, or three in one. 
 This baffles but does not contradict our 
 reason ; wherefore we can affiord to leave 
 the solution of the problem with Him : as it 
 is written, "Be still, and know that I am 
 God." 
 
 The interview of Jesus with His disciples 
 now under consideration closes with the 
 words, "These things have I spoken unto 
 you while yet abiding with you ; but the 
 Comforter . . . shall teach you all things." It 
 may be that under the influence of the Spirit 
 68 
 
The Triune God 
 
 we shall ultimately have a clearer conception 
 of the nature of God. We certainly shall, if 
 God deems it profitable for us. Meanwhile 
 let us rest in what He has been pleased to 
 make known to us. 
 
 The benediction is this : " Peace I leave 
 with you, my peace I give unto you : not 
 as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let 
 not your heart be troubled, neither let it be 
 afraid." Thanks be to God for that sweet 
 bequest ! The secret of peace is in taking 
 Christ at His word. 
 
 The bulk of our unrest, ot our doubt and 
 despondency, is due to prying into secrets 
 that do not concern us. " The glory of God 
 is to conceal a thing." Alas ! that we should 
 call ourselves disciples, and still be unwilling 
 to follow in the path marked out. To sit at 
 the Master's feet and hearken to His teaching, 
 willing to accept His word and heed His 
 bidding, this is to find the peace that passeth 
 all understanding ; this is to enter into the 
 assurance of faith ; this is to rest in Him, 
 having our lives hid with Christ in God. 
 
 69 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Note. 
 
 The words at the close of chap, xiv., 
 "Arise, let us go hence," do not mean that 
 the meeting was here broken up. Nor do 
 they signify that Christ left the house with 
 His disciples and continued His discourse on 
 the way to Gethsemane, or (as Lightfoot in- 
 timates) at Bethany a week later. Nor do 
 they suggest (as held by Alford and others) 
 that He rose from the table and stood during 
 the remainder of the interview. Nor is it 
 necessary to suppose that the words referred 
 to are out of place, and belong further on. 
 The feast, of which Christ and His disciples 
 had been partaking, being now concluded, 
 they would naturally leave the guest-chamber 
 with its disordered table and adjourn to some 
 other room, or possibly to an open court. 
 At this point the circle of hearers was prob- 
 ably enlarged by the addition of the good- 
 man with his wife and servants and other 
 followers of Christ. The remainder of the 
 discourse would therefore have a larger scope 
 than when the Master was speaking to the 
 Twelve alone ; and so we shall find it. 
 
 70 
 
V. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN. 
 (John XV.) 
 
 It is recorded that the disciples ** were first 
 called Christians in Antioch." The name 
 was probably given in derision ; but it was 
 accepted as a designation of honour. Peter 
 wrote, "If a man suffer as a Christian, let 
 him not be ashamed ; but let him glorify 
 God in this name." In one of the prayers 
 of the Clementine Liturgy we find these 
 words : " We give Thee thanks that we are 
 called by the name of Christ, and are thus 
 reckoned as Thine own." 
 
 If we look in the Dictionary for a defini- 
 tion, we shall find it given thus : " Christian : 
 a believer in Christ." The poet Alexander 
 Pope, himself an unbeliever, defined a Chris- 
 tian as "the highest style of man." The 
 71 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Karens were accustomed to call Adoniram 
 Judson, their missionary, "Jesus Christ's 
 man." This approaches very nearly the 
 definition given by Christ Himself in the 
 parable of the Vine and its Branches, in 
 which it is made to appear that a Christian 
 is one who is in vital union with Him. 
 
 We have in this parable the biography ol* 
 a Christian in brief. 
 
 Firsty as to his birth. — This occurs when 
 one accepts Christ. It is a new birth, or 
 "gain-birth," as the early Christians were 
 accustomed to call it. It is a veritable re- 
 generation, a turning " right-about face " ; as 
 when Saul of Tarsus, one moment "breath- 
 ing out slaughter " against the followers of 
 Christ, the next moment heard Christ calling 
 him, and answered, "Lord, what wilt thou 
 have me to do ? " 
 
 It is a coming out of the world ; as Christ 
 says, *' I have chosen you out of the world ; 
 wherefore the world hateth you." The Chris- 
 tian is uncompromisingly at odds with the 
 world ; inasmuch as he lives not for the things 
 that are seen and temporal, but for the things 
 72 
 
The Christian 
 
 which are unseen and eternal. In other 
 words, he is in the world, but not of it. 
 
 In coming out of the world he comes not 
 only unto Christ but into Him ; so that 
 thenceforth he can say, " My life is hid with 
 Christ in God." 
 
 It is just as well to understand this matter ; 
 since the tendency of present-day religion is 
 to eliminate Christ from Christianity, by 
 reducing it either to a system of theology 
 or a code of benevolent ethics. If Christ's 
 own definition of Christianity is correct, then 
 He cannot be bowed off the premises in 
 this way. The Christian is related to Christ 
 precisely as the branch is to the vine. The 
 union is absolutely vital : so vital that Christ 
 is everything to him ; Alpha and Omega, the 
 beginning of every purpose and the end of 
 every aspiration ; first, last, midst, and all in 
 all. 
 
 Second, as to his manner of life. — This is 
 elsewhere briefly and comprehensively set 
 forth in the word " follow " — a great word 
 which cannot be too deeply impressed upon 
 us. 
 
 1Z 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 The Christian follows Christ as a disciple 
 or pupil. This means, if it means anything, 
 that he believes what his Lord believes, and 
 accepts His teaching as final. He has no 
 philosophy of his own, no theology of his 
 own, no ethics of his own. No matter what 
 the books say, no matter what others think ; 
 the word of the divine Teacher is ultimate 
 for him. In his desire to know about the 
 personality of God, the veracity of Scripture, 
 the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resur- 
 rection, or any other problem of the spiritual 
 life, he asks only what his Teacher has to 
 say about it. This ends all controversy for 
 him. 
 
 The fact is that when a man has accepted 
 Christ as the only-begotten Son of God, he 
 has resolved the one problem which is the 
 key to all others. For Christ is not merely 
 a Teacher of truth ; He is The Truth ; so 
 that the quest ends in Him. 
 
 And the Christian follows also as a servant. 
 The test is indicated in the words, " If ye do 
 whatsoever I command you." The Chris- 
 tian's rule of conduct is to do what pleases 
 74 
 
The Christian 
 
 Christ. This is his complete system of 
 ethics. He avoids sin on the one hand, 
 because his Lord hates it ; and aspires after 
 holiness on the other, because his Lord en- 
 joins it. To know his Lord's will is to do 
 it. There is no questioning, no faltering, no 
 further reasoning about it. 
 
 He follows Christ, also, as his friend. A 
 great word this ! " No longer do I call you 
 servants, for the servant knoweth not what 
 his Lord doeth ; but I have called you 
 friends, for all things that I heard from my 
 Father I have made known unto you." The 
 one thing in particular which was held in the 
 mutual confidence of the Father and the Son 
 was the Eternal plan for the salvation of the 
 world ; and with respect to this matter the 
 Lord takes His disciples into His confidence, 
 into the very innermost place of His pavilion, 
 where He reveals to them this wonderful 
 purpose of God. 
 
 Third^ as to the business of the Christian, — 
 
 It is, in simple terms, to lend a hand in 
 
 carrying out the purpose of God. Christ 
 
 says that He was sent into the world " to seek 
 
 75 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 and to save the lost." And He says further, 
 " As the Father has sent me into the world 
 so send I you." The inference is plain; the 
 business of the Christian is to seek and save. 
 It was to this end that Christ Himself " went 
 about doing good." His miracles of healing 
 were merely incidental to His great purpose, 
 which was to deliver men from the shame 
 and bondage of sin. 
 
 The business of the Christian, as thus set 
 forth, is indicated in the word " fruit " ; on 
 which our Lord in this parable lays the 
 deepest possible emphasis. He iterates and 
 reiterates it ; " fruit," " much fruit," " more 
 fruit " ; " so shall ye be my disciples." It 
 is greatly to be feared that we have in large 
 measure lost this keynote of our Master's 
 teaching. We place the grave emphasis on 
 personal character and social benevolence 
 rather than on the winning of souls. " This 
 ought ye to have done, and not to leave the 
 other undone." To follow Christ is to be 
 continually ^* doing good as we have oppor- 
 tunity unto all men " ; but the objective 
 point of all our doing is to join hands 
 76 
 
The Christian 
 
 with Christ in bringing the world back to 
 God. 
 
 Fourth^ as to the Christian* s preparation for 
 his business, — The branch is not left to take 
 care of itself; the Father and the Son unite 
 in taking care of it. 
 
 The "Father is the husbandman." As 
 such he looks after the fruitfulness of the 
 branches. The question is asked, " Does 
 God send trouble ? '' As well ask, Does 
 the husbandman enter the vineyard with a 
 pruning-knife ? The Master says, *^ Every 
 branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh 
 away ; and every branch that beareth fruit 
 he cleanseth (or pruneth) it, that it may 
 bear more fruit." Here is the clue to the 
 mystery of discipline. It is not a mis- 
 fortune but a privilege — one of the highest 
 privileges of the Christian life. It is an 
 evidence of sonship ; as Paul says, " God 
 dealeth with you as with sons ; for what 
 son is there whom his father chasteneth 
 not? But if ye are without chastening, 
 then are ye bastards and not sons. We 
 have had fathers of our flesh to chasten 
 77 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 us and we gave them reverence ; shall we 
 not much rather be in subjection unto the 
 Father of our spirits and live ? For they 
 indeed chastened us as seemed good to 
 them, but he for our profit " ; that is, that 
 we might be better qualified for service. 
 The husbandman cuts back all rank and 
 useless growth, that the branch may bear 
 more fruit for him. 
 
 And the Son conspires with the Father 
 in preparing us for service. His work is 
 that of constant communion with us. This 
 is set forth in the word " abide " ; which 
 is also deeply emphasised. "Abide in me, 
 and I in you. As the branch cannot bear 
 fruit of itself except as it abide in the vine, 
 so neither can ye except ye abide in me. 
 He that abideth in me and I in him, the 
 same beareth much fruit ; for apart from 
 me ye can do nothing." 
 
 In this " abiding " we have the true con- 
 ception of prayer. I say nothing against 
 the stated acts of prayer ; but urge rather 
 that spirit of prayer which gives its only 
 value and significance to the occasional 
 
 78 
 
The Christian 
 
 bending of the knees. We are enjoined 
 to "pray without ceasing," that is, to be 
 In constant communion with Christ ; not 
 only when we bow at the mercy-seat, but 
 every hour of the day. 
 
 Is it possible thus to abide in Christ? 
 The man who leaves his home in the morn- 
 ing seems to part company with his wife, 
 but does he? In his shop or office he is 
 so absorbed in secular cares that perhaps 
 he never thinks of her ; yet there Is never 
 a moment of the day when he and the 
 elect lady are not one ; so vitally one 
 that the indwelling assurance of her love 
 is the inspiration of everything he does. 
 So the Christian may not always be thinking 
 of Christ ; but deep down in his subcon- 
 sciousness there is the joy in His presence. 
 The promise holds good: "Lo, I am with 
 you alway : I will never leave thee nor 
 forsake thee." And this, consciously or 
 unconsciously, is the great dynamic of 
 the Christian's life. 
 
 It is to those who thus continue in prayer 
 without ceasing that the promise applies, 
 79 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 "If ye abide in me, and my words abide 
 m you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it 
 shall be done unto you." This promise 
 is absolutely unlimited ; but it is conditioned 
 on our abiding in Him. The man who 
 supposes that he can kneel down and make 
 his requests and then cut loose and go as 
 he pleases, has no claim whatever on that 
 promise ; but he who abides in fraternal 
 relation with Christ and filial relation with 
 God, may literally ask what he will with an 
 assurance that it shall be given unto him. 
 
 And closely allied with this communion 
 of the believer with Christ, as a preparation 
 for service, is his communion with other 
 believers. The branches are one in the 
 vine. There is, therefore, no break in the 
 continuity of the parable when Christ says, 
 " These things I command you, that ye love 
 one another." A Christian will naturally 
 incline towards those of his own house- 
 hold, even as birds of a feather flock to- 
 gether. He is bound to them by a singular 
 tie. He calls them " brethren " because he 
 is brought into spiritual kinship with them 
 80 
 
The Christian 
 
 by Christ, who is the elder brother of them 
 all. 
 
 It is in this connection that Christ lays 
 down the new commandment, " that ye love 
 one another, even as I have loved you." Let 
 us ask again. Why should this be called a 
 " new commandment " ? Wherein does it 
 differ from the old commandment, "Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" ; or 
 from the Golden Rule, "Do as ye would 
 be done by " ? In this, that the disciples 
 are to love one another not as they love 
 themselves, but " even as Christ loved them." 
 There is a vast difference here. Self is 
 wholly ruled out of the reckoning in this 
 case. Christ's love was a self-denying, self- 
 forgetful, self-sacrificing love ; so must theirs 
 be. To realise this is to grow strong in 
 the fellowship of the Church, which is " the 
 body of Christ." Herein lies the secret of 
 the communion of saints. The more closely 
 we commune with Christ, the more devoutly 
 and intensely do we love His people ; even 
 as the branches draw nearer to each other 
 as they approach the vine. And all this is 
 8i 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 preparatory and conducive to fruit-bearing, 
 that is, faithful service as " fishers of men." 
 
 Fifthy as to the Christian s destiny, — He is 
 saved, as a matter of course. So much is 
 taken for granted. The branch is in no 
 possible danger while it abides in the vine. 
 Let no true Christian worry about his 
 salvation. The branch is not expected to 
 prune itself, or cultivate itself, or preserve 
 its own life. The Vine looks after that. 
 Just here is the difference between Bunyan's 
 Christian and Christ's Christian. The 
 pilgrim who set out from the City oi 
 Destruction was deeply concerned about 
 his own welfare. He was constantly getting 
 into trouble in the Slough of Despond and 
 under the shadow of Doubting Castle, and 
 all the while keeping his eye on the far-ofr 
 Celestial City in a more or less desperate 
 hope of reaching it. But Christ's Christian 
 is a self-forgetful man, so busily engaged in 
 doing for others that he must needs content 
 himself with the assurance of faith. It is 
 enough that he can say, " I know whom I 
 have believed, and am persuaded that he is 
 82 
 
The Christian 
 
 able to keep that which I have committed 
 unto him against that day." 
 
 The one thing about which this Christian 
 busies himself is fruit. He follows his 
 Lord in self-denying service in the behalf 
 of men. He sees his friends and associates 
 groping in the dark, like blind men feeling 
 their way along the wall, and he brings them 
 to Jesus that they may find everlasting life. 
 These are the clusters of this fruitful branch. 
 The true Christian, like his Master, has a 
 burning passion for souls. 
 
 He hopes some day to win the com- 
 mendation, " Well done, good servant : enter 
 thou into the joy of thy Lord." What is 
 this "joy of the Lord"? It is the joy of 
 beholding "the fruit of the travail of his 
 soul," a multitude saved by his vicarious 
 pain. This was in the mind of Jesus when 
 He said, " These things have I spoken unto 
 you, that my joy may be in you, and that 
 your joy may be made full." The eternal 
 joy of the Christian will be in the realisation 
 of the promise, " They that be wise shall 
 shine as the brightness of the firmament, and 
 
 83 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 they that turn many to righteousness as the 
 stars for ever and ever.** This is the con- 
 summation and final success of life. For as 
 Jesus said, " Herein is my Father glorified, 
 that ye bear much fruit " ; and it is a true 
 saying, " The chief end of man is to glorify 
 God." 
 
 Finally^ as to the Christian's death, — Not 
 a word is said about it ! The fruitful branch 
 shall abide for ever in the vine. The Chris- 
 tian never dies. 
 
 But what of the unfruitful branch ? " It is 
 cast forth, and is withered ; and men gather 
 them, and cast them into the fire, and they 
 are burned." The reference here is not to 
 final punishment, but to the removal of the 
 unprofitable. They are disposed of like 
 the dead leaves of autumn. Their doom is 
 eternal unprofitableness ; as Jesus said of 
 the fig-tree that put forth professional leaves 
 but bore no figs, " No man eat fruit of thee 
 for ever." Oh, dreadful fate ! 
 
 But the fruitful branch is never severed 
 from the vine. Death to the Christian is 
 merely an episode in life. He closes his 
 
 84 
 
The Christian 
 
 eyes, opens them, and goes living right on. 
 He that has borne fruit shall continue to 
 bear fruit, more fruit, for ever ! His death 
 is promotion. He has served an apprentice- 
 ship here which fits him for higher tasks 
 further on. This is his "penny at even- 
 ing." This is everlasting life : to be living 
 eternally to the glory of God ! 
 
 Is this too high a standard of the Christian 
 life ? It is, alas ! so high that all fall short 
 of it. There is not one who must not say, 
 " 1 count not myself to have apprehended " ; 
 but blessed is he who can add, "This one 
 thing I do : I stretch forth unto the things 
 which are before, and press toward the 
 mark ! " 
 
 In this parable an ideal is presented ; and 
 the best we can say for ourselves is that we 
 aspire toward it. If we are blamed by those 
 who are not Christians for falling short, let 
 me remind them of the words that were 
 written by the painter ApoUodorus above 
 his pictures in the pagan temples : " 'Tis no 
 hard thing to reprehend me ; but let the 
 men that blame me mend me." It is not 
 
 85 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 an easy thing to live a Christian life. Let 
 them try it. 
 
 But, oh, it is sublime to aim so high. 
 We are not what we ought to be ; we are 
 not what we mean to be ; but by the grace 
 of God we are what we are. And blessed 
 be His name, we have all eternity before us ! 
 The Master said, "Ye are the light of the 
 world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be 
 hid. Let your light so shine before men, that 
 they may see your good works, and glorify 
 God." If we here reflect too dimly the 
 light that shines so splendidly in our 
 Saviour's face, we find comfort in the hope 
 that in the passing aeons of eternity our 
 path shall be as the light which shineth 
 more and more unto the perfect day. 
 
 86 
 
VI, 
 
 THE DISPENSATION OF THE 
 HOLY GHOST. 
 
 (Johnxvi. 5-15.) 
 
 The Lord had already spoken to the Twelve 
 of the coming of the Comforter ; He has now 
 something to say respecting the same matter 
 to the larger assembly, which represented not 
 the ministry alone, but the entire Church. 
 
 I. The Dispensation of the Spirit. 
 
 It is easy to understand the expediency of 
 Christ's coming into this world ; for what a 
 dreary, sunless world it would have been 
 without Him ! It is easy to see, moreover, 
 that it was expedient for Him to remain here 
 in order to teach truth and righteousness, 
 and lay the foundations of His Kingdom 
 among men. But how could it be expedient 
 that He should go away ? 
 
 87 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Was it on account of the limitations of the 
 flesh ? His purpose was to be a universal 
 Saviour ; His gospel was for all the children 
 of men ; yet here He was, " cabin'd, cribbed, 
 confined," in the smallest of small parishes, 
 in a remote corner of the world. The 
 problem before Him was like that of 
 Archimedes, who affirmed that he could lift 
 the world if only he might find a place for 
 the fulcrum of his lever. But obviously 
 the place for the fulcrum of a lever that 
 lifts the world must be outside of it. The 
 great men of history have all had to " go 
 away " in order to wield the full measure of 
 their influence. The living among us are 
 the dead. The men who are dominating 
 our affairs are not those who have the 
 trumpet at their lips, but those who have 
 gone into God's acre, many of them lying 
 in unknown graves, unwept, unhonoured 
 and unsung. The influence of Jesus, while 
 He sojourned as a man among men, was 
 inconsiderable as compared with that which 
 He exerted afterward. He succeeded in 
 gathering a little group of fishermen and 
 88 
 
Dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
 
 other humble folk about Him ; and that 
 apparently was all. His announced plan 
 was to revolutionise history and turn the 
 world upside down ; and this meagre 
 following was all there was to show for it ! 
 All bodily presence is weak. It seemed 
 impossible for Jesus to impress upon His 
 disciples an adequate thought of His divine 
 nature and authority so long as they were 
 able to say, " Behold, he is with us and one 
 among us." One night while they were 
 rowing across the Sea of Galilee the storm 
 rose suddenly, and they were overwhelmed 
 with fear. What then was their Master's 
 power to them ? Yet He was only three 
 miles away ! So sensuous was their faith 
 that it reached only to their finger-tips. For 
 their sake, therefore, as well as for the world's 
 sake, He must vanish out of their sight ; 
 like Lycurgus, who, having prepared a code 
 of laws for Sparta, and perceiving that his 
 personal presence was a hindrance to the 
 just observance of that code, mysteriously 
 disappeared and was never again seen among 
 men. But he left his influence behind him. 
 
 89 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 It was because he found the fulcrum of his 
 lever outside the world that his name is 
 mentioned among the great lawgivers of 
 the world to-day. 
 
 But Christ has nothing to say here of 
 such considerations as these. The reason 
 which He gives for His going away, is that 
 He was to leave behind Him a bequest which 
 should be a manifold equivalent for every 
 loss. " If I go not away, the Comforter will 
 not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will 
 send him unto you." 
 
 So He said farewell and went His way. 
 What then ? For a time His followers were 
 overwhelmed with sorrow, feeling that all 
 was over. " I go a-fishing," said one ; and 
 the others said, " We also go with thee." 
 
 But after His resurrection, Christ reap- 
 peared and remained with His disciples forty 
 days, long enough to satisfy them that 
 whereas He had died He was now alive for 
 evermore, and to mark out for them the 
 plan of a campaign which was to eventuate 
 in the restoration of the world to God. At 
 the close of that period He met them at 
 90 
 
Dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
 
 Olivet, breathed on them, saying, " Receive 
 ye the Holy Ghost ! " and gave them the 
 great commission, " Go, evangelise 1 " Then 
 the heavens opened to receive Him. 
 
 Ten days later, while the disciples were 
 praying in an open court in Jerusalem, the 
 Spirit came with a sound as of a rushing, 
 mighty wind ; and the beginning of the new 
 administration was signalised by the conver- 
 sion of three thousand souls in a single day ! 
 
 We are living in this dispensation of the 
 Spirit ; and it is obviously of the utmost 
 importance that we should understand the 
 meaning of it. The Holy Spirit is not an 
 impersonal something or other ; an influence 
 felt in a vague, indefinable way. He is the 
 third person of the Godhead. His person- 
 ality is as real as that of the Father or that 
 of the Son. He is the Executive of this 
 dispensation ; under whose authority and 
 control we as followers of Christ meet all 
 responsibilities and discharge all duties. 
 
 It is nearly nineteen hundred years since 
 Jesus advised His disciples that they were 
 to act thenceforth under this direction ; and 
 91 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 there are still twelve hundred millions of 
 people in the world who have never heard or 
 are wholly unconvinced by His gospel ! Nor 
 can the Church expect to realise its best 
 possibilities so long as its ministers and 
 members fail to recognise the leadership of 
 the Spirit, and the fact that they themselves, 
 in order to meet their responsibilities under 
 the great commission, must be baptized with 
 fire and power, and made conscious partners 
 in the transcendent work of the Spirit of God. 
 
 2. A Threefold Function. 
 
 The influence of the Holy Ghost, as the 
 great dynamic in human history, is here 
 clearly indicated in the teaching of Christ. 
 He says, " When the Comforter is come, he 
 will reprove the world in respect of sin, of 
 righteousness and of judgment to come." 
 
 First, " He will reprove the world of sin, 
 because they believe not on me." 
 
 The average man has a totally inadequate 
 
 sense of sin. At the best, he regards it as a 
 
 violation of law. He sees clearly enough that 
 
 theft, arson, forgery, murder and adultery 
 
 92 
 
Dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
 
 arc sins. In fact, however, they are merely 
 symptoms of sin, like eruptions which indicate 
 an inward fever. And when we try to cure 
 sin with chains and prisons and scaffold trees, 
 we are only doctoring its visible symptoms. 
 
 But here comes the Holy Ghost to correct 
 this misapprehension. He teaches us that 
 sin in any form whatsoever is not only a 
 violation of law, divine or human, but enmity 
 against God. This is getting down to the 
 root of the matter. The thief, the drunkard 
 and the drab are sinners, certainly ; any child 
 knows that. But how about the smug, 
 decorous, respectable malefactor who does 
 not wear his vices on his sleeve for daws to 
 peck at ? What about the man who keeps 
 within the bounds of statutes and ordinances, 
 but has no place in his life for God. Is he 
 also a sinner ? The Holy Ghost says yes. 
 Why ? Because he breathes God's air, lives 
 on His bounty, is a constant beneficiary of 
 His goodness, and yet has not the grace to say 
 " I thank you 1 " If this were all, it would 
 be bad enough ; but the head and front of 
 his offending is that, when God sends His 
 93 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 only-begotten Son into the world to die for 
 his redemption, he will have none of it. So 
 said Peter to the assembled multitude on the 
 day of Pentecost. " Ye have taken Jesus, 
 and with wicked hands have crucified him ! " 
 They were guilty of a thousand sins ; but 
 this was the head and front of all their 
 offending. To reject Christ is to crucify 
 Him afresh ; and what a sin have we here in 
 the light of this gospel age ! This is the 
 revolt of the sinner against God. It is 
 worse than theft and murder and adultery 
 rolled into one. But tell that to the re- 
 spectable sinner and he will smile at you. 
 The Holy Ghost must come and uncover 
 his heart. And when the Holy Ghost 
 speaks, His words shall be like a two-edged 
 sword which divideth asunder the soul and 
 spirit. Now see the sinner pricked to the 
 heart, and hear him crying, "What shall 
 I do ? " 
 
 Second, it is the function of the Holy 
 Ghost, as Jesus says, to " reprove the world 
 of righteousness : because I go unto the 
 Father, and ye see me no more." 
 94 
 
Dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
 
 The world's idea of righteousness is as 
 defective as its conception of sin. It has 
 one form of righteousness which it calls 
 morality, that is, living within the prescript 
 of the law. This is good as far as it goes, 
 but it does not go far enough. Jesus said 
 to the young ruler, " He that doeth the law 
 shall live by it " ; but suppose a man breaks 
 the law, what then ? " The soul that sinneth 
 it shall die ! " And in all the world there is 
 not a mortal man who has kept it. 
 
 There is another form of righteousness 
 which consists in obedience to ceremonial 
 law. This is superficial at the best, and 
 those who practise it, unless they have a 
 heart of holiness, are " as whited sepulchres, 
 fair without, but within full of dead men's 
 bones and all uncleanness." This is that 
 form of religion of which the Saviour said, 
 " Except your righteousness shall exceed the 
 righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye 
 shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
 God." 
 
 The two forms of goodness here indicated 
 are like the signs on a shopkeeper's windows, 
 95 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 which may mean something or nothing, 
 according as there arc corresponding goods 
 on his shelves. And those who trust in 
 either one of them will be left lamenting at 
 the last, "All our righteousnesses are as 
 filthy rags ! " 
 
 The Holy Ghost comes to correct these 
 definitions of righteousness by pointing to 
 Christ, who was the only righteous man that 
 ever lived in this world of ours. He was 
 the only one who ever lived up to the high 
 level of the law. He was the only one who 
 ever " brought the bottom of His life up to 
 the top of His light." He was the only one 
 who ever dared to issue the challenge, " Who 
 layeth anything to my charge .? " without 
 being laughed at. He was the Dikaios of 
 whom Plato dreamed, "the just one." He 
 was the only man who ever was sentenced 
 to death by a judge who felt obliged to say, 
 " I find no fault in him at all." 
 
 It is the special and particular function of 
 the Holy Ghost to call Him to our remem- 
 brance. Christ has gone to the Father, so 
 that the world seeth Him no more ; but the 
 
 96 
 
Dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
 
 world can never forget Him ; because the 
 Holy Ghost is ever pointing to Him and 
 saying, " Behold the Man ! Behold the 
 perfect manner of His life ! Behold Him, 
 and be like Him ! " In the imitation of 
 Christ we find the Spirit*s definition of right- 
 eousness. Such righteousness is more than 
 conformity with law ; it is conformity with 
 God. 
 
 So the Holy Ghost turns upside down 
 the world's conceptions of sin on the one 
 hand and of righteousness on the other. 
 Here are two men going up to the temple 
 to pray. One of them is a Doctor of 
 Divinity, with broad phylacteries and a 
 scriptural frontlet between his eyes ; his 
 prayer runs on this wise, "I thank thee, 
 God, that I am not as other men are, 
 extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as 
 this publican. I fast twice in the week, 
 I give tithes of all that I possess." The 
 other, standing afar off, dare not lift up 
 his eyes unto heaven, but smiting upon 
 his breast cries, "God be merciful to me 
 a sinner ! " The world takes these men 
 97 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 at their own valuation : the Pharisee is a 
 saint, and the publican a reprobate. But 
 the Holy Ghost has this to say, "The 
 Pharisee is the sinner and the publican the 
 saint; because the latter, feeling his sin, 
 is on his way back to God." 
 
 Third, the Holy Ghost "reproves the 
 world of judgment, because the Prince ot 
 this World is judged." 
 
 The current thought of judgment is as 
 inadequate as the conceptions of sin and 
 righteousness already referred to. On the 
 one hand, there are those who think, like 
 Job's miserable comforters, that judgment 
 is a system of exact retribution going on 
 here and now. A man sits in a draught 
 and contracts rheumatism, or he overeats 
 and has dyspepsia : thus the laws of nature 
 are continually exacting their quid pro quo^ 
 as indicated in the Buddhist^ "law of 
 consequences." 
 
 There are others who restrict the thought 
 of judgment to the Great Day, when all 
 that are in their graves shall come forth 
 to render an account of their deeds. 
 
 98 
 
Dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
 
 Both of these conceptions are true so far 
 as they go ; but they do not exhaust the 
 matter in hand. 
 
 The Holy Ghost comes to advise us 
 that there is another sort of judgment 
 going on every day before our eyes. Who 
 is being judged? The Prince of this 
 World. We are in the midst of a great 
 controversy. Light and darkness are met 
 as on a mighty battlefield. Events are 
 hastening on toward a final Armageddon, 
 when the red dragon shall be cast into the 
 pit. Here is the key to history. Read 
 it as Christ did when He said, "I saw 
 Satan fall from heaven ! " Read judgment 
 in the newspapers, between the lines of 
 passing events. The Holy Ghost gives us 
 the clue. " God*s in His heaven, all's right 
 with the world ! " History is judgment. 
 There is judgment in the story of Waterloo 
 and Gettysburg, the Crusades and the 
 Reformation, the fall of the Bastile and 
 the signing of Magna Charta. Christ goeth 
 forth conquering and to conquer I He hath 
 upon His vesture and upon His thigh a 
 99 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 name written, "King of kings and Lord 
 of lords.** See the white plume of the 
 Captain of our Salvation in the forefront 
 of events, leading onward, ever onward to 
 the Golden Age ! Fall in and lend a 
 hand 1 The blast of the trumpet which 
 shall usher in the Great Day will be 
 the signal for the final sitting of a Court 
 which has been in session through all the 
 ages. 
 
 So the three great facts in the province 
 of the spiritual life, to wit, sin, righteous- 
 ness and judgment, are defined and opened 
 up to us by the Holy Ghost. He anoints 
 our eyes with eyesalve that we may see. 
 He dispels doubt, cures hypochondria and 
 makes optimists. He hushes our misereres 
 and attunes our hearts to hosannas and 
 hallelujahs. The shadows disappear at His 
 bidding, and, lo, the mountains are full of 
 horses and chariots ! 
 
 Come, Holy Spirit, come ! Come as the 
 
 light to illumine our dull understandings ! 
 
 Come as the morning dew to refresh our 
 
 weary energies and give us hopeful and 
 
 lOO 
 
Dispensation of the Holy Ghost 
 
 joyous views of spiritual truth ! Come as 
 the fire to enkindle within us new zeal 
 for godliness and new devotion to the 
 Kingdom of truth and righteousness ! Come 
 and call Jesus to our remembrance ! For 
 without Thee our eyes grow dim and vision 
 fails. Show us Christ, crucified to atone for 
 sin, which is enmity against God ! Show 
 us Christ, the living exemplar of that 
 righteousness which is conformity with 
 God ! Show us Christ, the conquering 
 Judge who leads the great campaign of 
 progress so effectively that the gates of 
 hell cannot prevail against Him 1 Come, 
 Holy Spirit, come ! Give us a bright 
 vision of Christ, the Alpha and Omega, 
 the beginning of every high hope and 
 noble aspiration, and the end of every 
 ambition that is worthy of the children of 
 men ! Show us Christ ; first, last, midst 
 and all in all I 
 
 **'Ti8 Thine to cleanse the heart, 
 
 To sanctify the soul, 
 To pour fresh life on erery part, 
 And new create the whole. 
 lOI 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Dwell, therefore, in our hearts; 
 Our minds from bondage free ; 
 Then shall we know and praise and love 
 The Father, Son, and Thee." 
 
 T03 
 
VII. 
 
 THE PAROUSIA. 
 (John xvi. 16-33.) 
 
 Our Lord in this interview with His disciples 
 told them He was about to reassume "the 
 glory which he had with the Father before 
 the world was " ; but He assured them that 
 He would presently return, and exhorted 
 them to live in expectation of that event. 
 "A litde while, and ye shall not see me," he 
 said ; " and again a little while, and ye shall 
 see me." 
 
 His words puzzled them : " What is this 
 that he saith, ^ a little while ' ? We cannot 
 understand it." But, however they may 
 have been perplexed by His manner of speech, 
 they never entertained the slightest doubt as 
 to the fact of His coming again in the fulness 
 of time, 
 
 103 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 I. The Fact. 
 
 The doctrine of the Parousia, or second 
 coming of Christ, was joyfully cherished in 
 the early Church. There are approximately 
 a thousand allusions in His teaching and 
 that of His apostles with reference to it. 
 In the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters 
 of Matthew we have what is familiarly known 
 as the parousia discourse of Jesus : and, 
 whatever of uncertainty there may be as to 
 its interpretation in detail and particular, 
 there is no room whatever for uncertainty 
 as to the promise it contains. The teaching 
 of the apostles is of the same tenor. It 
 may be found in the last words of Paul : " I 
 am now ready to be offered, and the time 
 of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
 a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
 have kept the faith. Henceforth there is 
 laid up for me a crown of righteousness 
 which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall 
 give me at that day ; and not to me only, 
 but unto all them also that love his appearing." 
 There is an intimation of it in the last words 
 104 
 
The Parousia 
 
 of Peter : " There shall come in the last days 
 scoffers saying, Where is the promise of his 
 coming ? " It is clearly set forth in the last 
 words of James : " Be ye patient, therefore, 
 unto the coming of the Lord, as the husband- 
 man waiteth for his fruits. Be patient ; 
 establish your hearts : for the coming of the 
 Lord draweth nigh." Also in the last words 
 of John, sole survivor of the Old Guard, 
 who from his desert home in Patmos heard 
 his Lord calling, " Behold, I come quickly ! " 
 and answered " Amen ! Even so come. 
 Lord Jesus ! " Thus the early Christians 
 strengthened themselves in the glorious 
 hope. 
 
 Our faith may tremble, but the promise 
 is Yea and Amen. It is recorded that when 
 He ascended from the Mount of Olives, the 
 eyes of the disciples following Him as He 
 disappeared through the open skies, two 
 angels stood by them in shining apparel who 
 said, " Why gaze ye up into heaven ? He 
 shall so come as ye have seen him go into 
 heaven." 
 
 105 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 2. Its Significance. 
 
 In this detailed account of His ascension 
 we have a clearer light on the prophecy under 
 consideration. It means, /r J/, that He is to 
 come personally, "as ye have seen him go.'* 
 The promise cannot be explained away by 
 referring it to an influential presence. It is 
 true that Christ has been the commanding 
 figure in history ever since those days. The 
 power of all the C^sars and Alexanders and 
 Napoleons combined is not comparable with 
 His. But this does not answer the demands 
 of the promise before us. 
 
 Nor can it be disposed of as a reference to 
 the miracle of Pentecost. He did, indeed, 
 so pour out His Spirit on that memorable 
 day that His Church was baptized with fire 
 and power for the great campaign before it. 
 But this was manifestly not the coming 
 referred to. 
 
 Nor was that promise fulfilled in the 
 coming of Christ at the destruction of 
 Jerusalem. This was with no such be- 
 nignant glory as when He ascended with 
 1 06 
 
The Parousia 
 
 outstretched hands of benediction into the 
 heavens that were opened to receive Him. 
 
 Nor are the conditions of this promise 
 met by the sympathetic coming of Christ 
 referred to in the words, " I will not leave 
 you comfortless, I will come to you." Here 
 is a splendid truth, which is realised in the 
 experience of every true follower of Christ ; 
 but that does not exhaust the matter in hand. 
 The parousia lies deeper yet. 
 
 It means, second^ that He is to appear 
 visibly ; that is, ye shall see Him come " as 
 ye have seen him go." We are to see Him 
 hisce ocu/is, "with these very eyes." He 
 will be recognised as the same Christ who 
 lived and suffered among men. His hands 
 will be the same that ministered to their 
 needs. His feet the same that walked along 
 the paths of Palestine, His heart the same 
 that throbbed responsive to human want, and 
 broke at last under the burden of human sin. 
 The marks of His vicarious pain will be seen 
 in His hands and side, the stigmata by which 
 the world is to know its crucified and 
 triumphant Lord. He did not become 
 107 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 incarnate simply as a temporary expedient or 
 for a transient purpose ; He remains for 
 evermore the incarnate Son of God. Thus 
 John the Evangelist saw Him enthroned 
 " as a lamb that had been slain." 
 
 It means, third, that His coming will be 
 glorious ; not as it was at Bethlehem : a 
 mother looking fondly down Into her baby's 
 face ; a group of rustics at the doorway of 
 the cave, standing on tiptoe peering In ; a 
 few shepherds on their knees about the 
 Child ; a company of wise men on camels 
 approaching to lay their gold and myrrh and 
 frankincense at His feet. Not so will be 
 our Lord's final advent. The tokens of His 
 attendant majesty are definitely given us. 
 
 The trumpet shall sound ; the trumpet o\ 
 a great angel going on before, as a herald 
 before the King. He will then appear in a 
 pavilion of cloud ; not like the dust-cloud 
 that rises before a royal retinue on an earthly 
 highway ; but the historic Shechinah, the 
 " most excellent glory " in which the Lord 
 has manifested Himself again and again ; the 
 same cloud that led the children of Israel on 
 1 08 
 
The Parousia 
 
 their journey through the wilderness. He 
 will be attended by a multitude of angels. 
 The shining seats of heaven will be emptied 
 to furnish His retinue on that great Palm 
 Sunday when hosannas are to fill the earth as 
 they fill the heavens now. " The mountains 
 and the hills shall break forth into singing, 
 and all the trees of the field shall clap their 
 hands before Him. Instead of the thorn 
 shall come up the fir tree, and instead of 
 the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; 
 and it shall be to the Lord for a name, 
 for an everlasting sign that shall not be 
 cut off." 
 
 It means, /<?//r//^, that His coming will be 
 beneficent. As He lifted His hands in bless- 
 ing when He vanished through the skies, so 
 shall He come again saying, " Peace be unto 
 you.'* His fan will be in His hand, and He 
 will thoroughly purge His floor. Sin shall 
 be swept utterly from the face of the earth. 
 No more trail of the serpent, no more shame 
 and remorse, no more wrong and oppression, 
 no more war and desolation, no more envy 
 and hypocrisy, no more sin ! Wherefore 
 109 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 the followers of Christ shall rejoice in that 
 day like a woman who, gazing on the face of 
 her newborn child, finds her " sorrow turned 
 to joy." For the Tabernacle of God shall 
 be among men, and He will dwell with them ; 
 and they shall be His people, and God Him- 
 self shall be their God. 
 
 3. The Time. 
 
 But when shall these things be ? We 
 have no such definite information as would 
 enable us to determine the exact time. His 
 prediction is veiled in " dark sayings.** To 
 the disciples at Olivet who asked, "Lord, 
 wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom 
 to Israel ? " His answer was, " It is not for 
 you to know the times and the seasons, which 
 the Father hath put in his own power.** On 
 another occasion He had said : " Let no man 
 deceive you. For many shall come, saying 
 Lo, here ! or Lo, there 1 Believe them not. 
 For of that day and that hour knoweth no 
 man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, 
 neither the Son, but the Father.** He shall 
 come " at an hour when ye think not.** 
 no 
 
The Parousia 
 
 Let it be remembered that with the Lord 
 a millennium is as an handbreadth of time. 
 Peter says, " He is not slack concerning his 
 promise, as some men count slackness ; but is 
 long-suffering towards us, not willing that 
 any should perish, but that all should come 
 to repentance." Here is the reason for His 
 delay. It is not because He has forgotten, 
 but because He is long-suffering toward the 
 children of men. 
 
 It is recorded that when William the 
 Conqueror came to England the Barons pros- 
 trated themselves before him and took this 
 vow : " I do become thy liege man, for life 
 and limb and earthly regard ; and I do pledge 
 myself to keep faith and loyalty with thee, 
 for life and death, as God shall help me." 
 Thus should we be ever renewing our con- 
 secration to Christ. For the highway must 
 be cast up for His coming : the stones ot 
 stumbling must be gathered out. There is 
 something for us to do : and when it is done, 
 oh, happy day ! The heavens shall part 
 asunder and His people shall cry, " Behold 
 Him ! " 
 
 III 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Meanwhile, blessed are they that love His 
 appearing. He said there should be "weep- 
 ing and lamenting " before the promised day ; 
 but let not our faith misgive us. He that 
 shall come will come, and will make no 
 tarrying. "These words have I spoken 
 unto you,'* said Jesus, " that ye might have 
 peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation ; 
 but be of good cheer : I have overcome the 
 world 1 " 
 
 4. The Command to Watch. 
 
 We wait : and while we wait we watch. 
 The word appears again and again in 
 the teaching of Christ. Watch ! Watch ! 
 Watch ! But how are we to watch ? Like 
 those that impatiently look out of their 
 windows ? Nay, He has told us : " Let your 
 loins be girt about, and your lights burning." 
 A man lights his lamp for an expected guest, 
 and girds his loins when he addresses himself 
 to an important task. Watch, therefore, in 
 the discharge of duty, for the coming of the 
 Son of Man 1 
 
 At the close of the Tenth Century the 
 112 
 
The Parousia 
 
 Christian world thought that the end was 
 drawing nigh, since this was the close of the 
 cycle of a thousand years. The signs were 
 all favourable. The social deeps were broken 
 up ; there were wars, famines, pestilences, 
 natural convulsions, confusion everywhere ; 
 "signs in heaven above and in the earth 
 beneath." It was believed by Christians 
 generally that the Lord was surely at hand. 
 In the last year of the century the impending 
 event was proclaimed from Christian pulpits. 
 Industry was suspended. The Emperor of 
 Germany announced " the Truce of God," 
 and went about in a garb of penitence preach- 
 ing it. On the final day of the year the 
 people clothed themselves in ascension robes 
 and at sunset betook themselves to the roofs 
 of the houses, the porches of cathedrals and 
 the open fields, where they stood waiting. 
 The hours passed until midnight. Midnight 
 passed ; the stars began to fade. The first 
 gleam of morning came ; and then the 
 Christian world, heaving a sigh of relief as 
 of one coming out of a paralysis of mingled 
 fear and hope, went back to its work. 
 "3 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Then came the Crusades, the greatest 
 movement in history prior to the Reformation. 
 The monks, led by Peter the Hermit, with 
 kings and courtiers, went everywhere pro- 
 claiming the conquest of the Holy Land. 
 " It is the will of God ! '' We must do 
 something toward the coming of the Son of 
 Man ! They were still waiting, but waiting 
 at what they believed to be their appointed 
 tasks. Thus Christ is ever saying to His 
 people, " Watch ! " Watch and be sober ; 
 watch with your loins girt ! Let your door 
 be on the latch ! It may be at evening, or 
 at midnight, or in the morning that He will 
 come. Watch, therefore 1 " Blessed is that 
 servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, 
 shall find so doing." 
 
 U4 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE SACERDOTAL PRAYER. 
 (John xvii.) 
 
 No man ever prayed as Jesus did. He was 
 in such vital union with the Father that 
 prayer was second nature to Him. Nay, 
 rather it was first nature to Him. He knew 
 how to commune with God. 
 
 On one occasion, being overheard by His 
 disciples, who perceived that He was pos- 
 sessed of a secret unknown to them, they 
 said, "Lord, teach us how to pray." His 
 answer was, "After this manner pray ye : 
 Our Father which art in heaven^ Hallowed 
 he thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will 
 he done on earthy as it is in heaven. Give us 
 this day our daily bread. And forgive us our 
 dehtSy as we forgive our dehtors. And lead us 
 not into temptation^ hut deliver us from evil, 
 115 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 For thine is the kingdom, and the power^ and 
 the glory for ever. Amen'' 
 
 We are accustomed to speak of this as 
 "The Lord's prayer." It was, however, 
 not the Lord's prayer, but our prayer. It 
 was a prayer in which He Himself could 
 scarcely join ; because His relation with 
 the Father was quite different from ours. 
 He nowhere includes Himself in the same 
 sort of filiation as ours ; since He was " the 
 only - begotten Son." The real Lord's 
 Prayer is that which is recorded here, in 
 the seventeenth chapter of John. This is 
 a prayer which none but He could make ; 
 nay, more, which no mortal man could offer 
 without such a measure of presumption as 
 would amount to blasphemy against God. 
 
 It is to this sacerdotal prayer that our 
 thought is now directed : "And Jesus lifted 
 up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the 
 hour is come." 
 
 It was the last night of His sojourn on 
 
 earth. He had preached His last sermon 
 
 to them ; had presided at the last supper ; 
 
 had given them His last bequest, saying, 
 
 ii6 
 
The Sacerdotal Prayer 
 
 " Peace I leave with you ; my peace I 
 give unto you " ; and now He makes His 
 last prayer for them. 
 
 ' "I pray not for the world," He says, 
 "but for them which thou hast given me." 
 He then proceeds to ask four things in their 
 behalf ; and in our behalf, also, for He dis- 
 tinctly makes mention of " them also which 
 shall believe on me through their word." 
 His great prayer includes all true Christians 
 to the end of time. 
 
 In these four petitions we have a summary 
 of all that makes life worth living or heaven 
 worth longing for. 
 
 I. That they may be Kept. 
 
 "Holy Father, keep through thine own 
 name those whom thou hast given me. I 
 pray not that thou shouldest take them out 
 of the world ; but that thou shouldest keep 
 them from the evil." 
 
 He had Himself been sent into the world 
 
 to accomplish a definite task ; and He was 
 
 not to depart out of the world until He 
 
 could say, " I have finished the work which 
 
 117 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 thou gavest me to do." As the Father 
 had sent Him into the world, so He sent 
 His disciples into the very thick of its toil 
 and conflict to remain there until their work 
 was accomplished. In the meantime He 
 said, " Whither 1 go ye cannot come " ; 
 but in due time, having been faithful, they 
 were to follow Him. 
 
 He foresaw the trials and persecutions 
 that awaited them. The sword was being 
 sharpened ; the faggots were being kindled 
 for them. He heard the roaring of the lions 
 in the amphitheatre, and, by His effectual 
 intercession, prepared them to meet it. In 
 that company in the upper room was James, 
 who was presently to be slain with the 
 sword ; and most of the others, if not all, 
 were destined to climb to heaven by the 
 steep ascent of martyrdom. He did not 
 pray that they might be kept alive : for 
 life is not worth living when faith and 
 honour die. His desire was that they might 
 be kept faithful unto death. 
 
 He foresaw also the divers temptations 
 that awaited them ; temptations to turn aside 
 ii8 
 
The Sacerdotal Prayer 
 
 from the straight path of righteousness into 
 the byways of sin ; temptations to swerve 
 from their loyalty to truth Into the easy 
 follies of unbelief. For false teachers were 
 to " creep In " among them, whose clever 
 presentations of error would be calculated 
 to deceive the very elect. He did not pray 
 that they might not be exposed to these 
 temptations ; but that, being so exposed, 
 they might be kept from wandering into 
 sin and unbelief. 
 
 Oh, how much this prayer of the Master 
 Is needed to-day ! We are living in a very 
 cyclone of controversy, and In constant danger 
 of being swept away from our moorings by 
 adverse winds. There Is not a sInMe funda- 
 
 o 
 
 mental truth of the gospel which Is not 
 denied or speciously explained away In these 
 days ; the Deity of Jesus, the Inspiration of 
 the Scriptures, the reality of the supernatural, 
 the very personality of God ! 
 
 The two pieces of divine armour which 
 
 we most need, under these circumstances, 
 
 are the girdle of truth and the sandals of 
 
 the gospel. It was the spiked sandals of a 
 
 119 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Roman knight that enabled him, when at 
 close quarters with his adversary, " to with- 
 stand, and having done all to stand." 
 
 But the doctrine of the " perseverance of 
 saints ** rests on no frail foundation of human 
 ability. We are saved not by our feeble hold 
 on Christ, but by His mighty grip on us ; as 
 He said, " No man shall pluck you out of 
 my hand.'* Wherefore, let us lean hard and 
 trust to His great promise — 
 
 "The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose 
 He will not, He will not, desert to His foes; 
 That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake, 
 He'll never, no never, no never forsake." 
 
 2. That they might be Sanctified. 
 
 The word sanctification is used in two 
 different senses. It refers, on the one hand, 
 to growth in holiness. A Christian is 
 expected to grow every day ; not to stand 
 still, marking time, but " so to live that each 
 to-morrow finds him further than to-day.'* 
 We are to add to our faith virtue, and to 
 virtue knowledge, and to knowledge tem- 
 perance, and to temperance patience, and 
 
 I20 
 
The Sacerdotal Prayer 
 
 to patience godliness, and to godliness 
 brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kind- 
 ness charity ; that so we may increase in the 
 practical knowledge of Christ. This is 
 character building : to be constantly growing 
 more like Him. And to that end we have 
 received the immediate presence and power 
 of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier. He is 
 not called the Holy Ghost because He is 
 holier than either of the other persons of 
 the Godhead, but because it is His official 
 function to impart and cultivate holiness. 
 Wherefore our sanctification is measured by 
 our close and vital acquaintance with Him. 
 
 But sanctification means also consecration ; 
 that is, devotion to duty. So Jesus says, 
 " For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they 
 also might be sanctified through the truth " ; 
 by which He means that He sets before 
 them an example of perfect devotion to duty. 
 And He indicates how this is to be accom- 
 plished in us. The agent of sanctification, 
 in both senses, is the Holy Spirit, and the 
 instrument used by Him is " the truth.'* 
 
 We are left in no doubt as to where this 
 
 121 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 truth is to be found ; for Jesus adds, " Thy 
 word is truth." His reference is clearly 
 to the Scriptures. I am aware that an 
 attempt is made by those who reject the 
 Scriptures to explain this away by saying 
 that He was thinking of all the manifestations 
 of Deity in the world about us. But here 
 the wish is father to the thought. The 
 reference of Jesus is not to God's voice in 
 the rolling of thunder and the rippling of 
 brooks, but to His revealed word ; and this 
 is in line with all His other teachings. He 
 was always true to the Bible ; He knew it, 
 believed it, loved it, preached it, practised it, 
 and commended it to those who followed 
 Him. He never in a single word or syllable 
 intimated that He questioned its inspiration 
 and entire trustworthiness. It is respect- 
 fully submitted to the consideration of His 
 professed followers, that the Book which was 
 good enough for Him should be good 
 enough for us. 
 
 The pathway of sanctification is thus 
 made clear. If we profess to follow Christ, 
 we must allow Him to prescribe for us. 
 
 122 
 
The Sacerdotal Prayer 
 
 He breathed on His disciples, saying, 
 " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." He pointed 
 to the Scriptures, saying, " Search them ; for 
 in them ye think ye have eternal life, and 
 those are they which testify of me." We 
 have the Bible ; and we have the Holy 
 Spirit to illuminate its pages and anoint our 
 eyes with eye-salve that we may see ; and 
 we have, furthermore, the sustaining power 
 of this great prayer of Jesus, " Sanctify them 
 by thy truth." 
 
 3. That they might be Unified. 
 
 "I pray for them ; that they all may be 
 one ; as thou. Father, art in me, and I in 
 thee, that they also may be one in us." 
 
 It is a grave misinterpretation and per- 
 version of this prayer to suggest that Jesus 
 had in mind a heterogeneous union of all 
 sorts of people, wherein Jews and Christians, 
 Moslems, Confucianists, Buddhists and fire- 
 worshippers meet together in a common 
 fellowship under the apparent assumption 
 that sincerity in error is as admirable as 
 devotion to truth. The prayer of Jesus, on 
 123 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 the contrary, was for the harmonious unity 
 of all who sincerely believe in Him. 
 
 Nor did He pray that these might be one 
 in an unconditioned oneness, but that they 
 might be one after the similitude of the 
 ineffable Trinity ; " as thou. Father, art in 
 me, and I in thee, that they may be one in 
 us." The union thus indicated is obviously 
 not a matter of mere sentiment, nor to be 
 accomplished with iron clamps. It is a 
 union of life and purpose, a substantial 
 union, a union for the accomplishment of a 
 definite purpose in the salvation of men. 
 
 We sometimes lament the fact that there 
 are different denominations of believers in 
 Christ. But this is after the analogy of 
 Nature. "Birds of a feather flock to- 
 gether " ; and there are " many men of 
 many minds." We are made to segregate ; 
 and it matters not how we differ in non- 
 essentials so long as there is a substantial 
 unity of life and purpose among us. 
 
 At the beginning of the Civil War in 
 America there was a call for seventy-five 
 thousand troops to serve for ninety days. 
 124 
 
The Sacerdotal Prayer 
 
 The troops thus enlisted were organised into 
 companies, regiments, divisions and army 
 corps. There were infantry and calvary 
 and artillery. Had they been massed and 
 hurled at once with a common purpose 
 against the enemy the war might have been 
 brought to a speedy close ; but they were 
 stationed all over the country in scattered 
 camps. Then came years of sporadic fight- 
 ing : till at length Grant appeared with a 
 conviction that the whole army must be 
 brought together for one final blow. He 
 meant to save the Union ; and there seemed 
 no other way. The order went out accord- 
 ingly, and a million men turned their faces 
 toward a single point. All the lines con- 
 verged at Appomattox. Grant was there 
 with his formidable army ; Sheridan was 
 hastening from the North and Sherman 
 from the South. The result was a foregone 
 conclusion when the lines closed in. 
 
 It was with a like purpose in mind that 
 
 Jesus prayed for the unification of His 
 
 Church, " that the world may believe that 
 
 thou hast sent me.** The sending of Christ 
 
 125 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 was for the saving of the world ; and the 
 sending of His disciples was to the same end ; 
 that is, to bring all men to the knowledge of 
 the saving grace of God. " As the Father 
 sent me into the world," He said, " so I have 
 sent you." Never will the world believe 
 in the great purpose of Jesus until all His 
 disciples, moved by a common impulse, shall 
 advance in solid phalanx to proclaim His 
 gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. 
 
 4. That they might be Glorified. 
 
 " Father, I will ^ that they also, whom thou 
 hast given me, be with me where 1 am ; that 
 they may behold my glory, which thou has 
 given me." And here we reach the stupen- 
 dous climax of this mighty sacerdotal prayer. 
 The words of Jesus at this point are con- 
 clusive with respect to two matters. On the 
 one hand, they prove that Jesus was either 
 what He claimed to be, to wit, the only- 
 
 ^ The rendering of these words in the Revised Version, 
 " Father, I desire," is not to my mind sufficiently strong. 
 The/o means more than " I desire." I cannot conceive 
 how the Revisers could justify it. 
 126 
 
The Sacerdotal Prayer 
 
 begotten and coequal Son of God, or else He 
 was justly charged with blasphemy against 
 God. For, observe. He does not ask this 
 thing of the Father, but wills it ! Out of His 
 own authority, the exousia which was " from 
 within," He wills it ! As the Eternal Son, 
 He wills it ! Think of a mere man, though 
 he were "the best of men," looking up to 
 heaven and speaking in this way. 
 
 And observe also His reference to "the 
 glory which he had with the Father before 
 the world was." He claims not only to have 
 been pre-existent, but to be a sempiternal 
 sharer in the glory of God ! He elsewhere 
 announced His purpose of returning, after 
 He should have finished His redemptive 
 work, to reassume " the glory which he had 
 with the Father before the world was " I 
 
 But His words suggest another important 
 trudi, to wit, that His intercessory prayer on 
 this occasion was but the beginning of an 
 eternal intercession in behalf of those who 
 follow Him. "He ever liveth to make 
 intercession for us." In that same inter- 
 view with His disciples in the upper room 
 127 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 He said, " I go to prepare a place for you ; 
 and if I go and prepare a place for you, 1 
 will come again and receive you unto myself, 
 that where I am there ye may be also.'* He 
 is thus preparing us for a prepared place. 
 He has entered upon His glory, and pro- 
 poses that His faithful followers shall not 
 only behold, but participate in it. 
 
 On one occasion His disciples caught a 
 glimpse of that glory. It was on the 
 Mount of Transfiguration, where "the 
 fashion of his countenance was changed, and 
 his raiment became white and dazzling." 
 For a moment His homespun fluttered aside 
 and revealed the King ; but how, think you, 
 will He appear when we shall see Him as He 
 is ? Here is something to dream about 
 Surely a great surprise awaits us. 
 
 How natural it was, and how human, 
 that Jesus should offer this prayer. The 
 disciples had known Him in His humiliation ; 
 He meant that they should also behold Him 
 in His glory. They had seen Him clothed 
 in homespun ; He wanted them to see Him 
 arrayed in light, and dwelling in glory un- 
 128 
 
The Sacerdotal Prayer 
 
 approachable. They had seen Him in the 
 workshop, with chips and shavings about 
 His feet and the implements of His trade on 
 the bench before Him ; He wanted them to 
 see Him in the palaces where He had dwelt 
 before the world was. They had seen Him 
 on His weary journeys followed by a humble 
 retinue of fishermen ; He wanted them to 
 see Him with legions of angels and archangels 
 waiting to do His holy will. They had seen 
 Him in the Judgment Hall, scourged and 
 spit upon, wearing the cast-ofF purple of a 
 petty magistrate, with an impotent reed in 
 His hand ; He wanted them to see Him sur- 
 rounded by a great multitude that no man 
 can number, ascribing to Him, with a voice 
 like the sound of many waters, honour, and 
 glory, and power, and dominion for ever 
 and ever. They had seen Him lifted up in 
 the mortal anguish of the Cross ; He wanted 
 them to see Him lifted up above all princi- 
 palities and powers, as King of kings and 
 Lord of lords. 
 
 Nor was this merely His desire, but His 
 imperative purpose. " I will," He said, 
 129 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 "that they may be with me where I 
 am 1 " There can be no thwarting His 
 will. We shall, therefore, behold Him with 
 these eyes. 
 
 One thing more, and here is a matter for 
 serious consideration : this prayer of Jesus 
 was only for those who love and follow 
 Him. " I pray not for the world,** He said, 
 " but for them which thou hast given me." 
 
 On other occasions He did pray for the 
 world. His advent was a demonstration of 
 His love toward all the children of men. 
 His life was a long prayer for sinners. His 
 death was a mighty prayer for salvation to 
 the uttermost. It had been written of Him, 
 centuries before : "Ask of me, and I will 
 give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
 and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy 
 possession." On the Cross, with His pierced 
 hands outstretched. He offered that petition, 
 " Give me the heathen for my inheritance, 
 and the uttermost parts of the earth for my 
 possession ! " This was a plea for all 
 humanity ; which in the fulness of time shall 
 be answered, when the nations shall come 
 130 
 
The Sacerdotal Prayer 
 
 flocking to Him as doves to their windows, 
 and He shall see the fruit of the travail of His 
 soul and be satisfied. Oh yes, He prayed 
 for the world. He prayed for all non- 
 believers to the end of time when He cried, 
 " Father, forgive them : for they know not 
 what they do." But on this occasion, in the 
 upper room, His prayer was only in behalf of 
 those who loved Him. 
 
 Oh, the blessedness of being included in 
 the prayer of Christ ! It makes us strong 
 and patient, and hopeful in suffering and 
 service, to know that He thus ever liveth to 
 make intercession for us. 
 
 "Arise, my soul, arise: 
 
 Shake off thy gloomy fears: 
 The bleeding Sacrifice 
 In thy behalf appears ; 
 Before the throne my Surety stands. 
 My name is written on His hands! 
 
 He ever lives above 
 
 For me to intercede; 
 His all-redeeming love, 
 
 His precious blood to plead; 
 His blood atones for all our race, 
 And sprinkles now the throne of grace. 
 
 ^31 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 Five bleeding wounds He bears, 
 
 Received on Calvary ; 
 They pour effectual prayers, 
 
 They strongly plead for me. 
 
 * Forgive him, O forgive,' they cry, 
 
 * Nor let that ransomed sinner die ! ' 
 
 The Father hears Him pray, 
 
 His dear anointed One ; 
 He cannot turn away 
 
 The presence of His Son ; 
 The Spirit answers to the blood. 
 And tells me I am born of God 1 " 
 
 132 
 
IX. 
 
 THE CLOSING HYMN. 
 
 (Matthew xxvi. 30.) 
 
 On the night preceding the Passover the 
 Jews were accustomed to sing the Great 
 Hallel, '^ O give than\s unto the Lord ; for 
 he is good : his mercy endureth for ever. The 
 voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the taber- 
 nacles of the righteous : the right hand of the 
 Lord doeth valiantly. The stone which the 
 builders refused is become the head stone of the 
 corner. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
 the Lord, Bind the sacrifice with cords fast 
 unto the horns of the altar. O give thanks 
 unto the Lord ; for he is good : his mercy endureth 
 for ever^ 
 
 The disciples probably sang this hymn 
 at the close of their service in the goodman's 
 133 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 house : and without doubt Jesus joined in 
 singing it. 
 
 Why should He not sing ? Though He 
 was passing under the dark shadow of the 
 Cross, He foresaw the joyous outcome beyond 
 it. His heart was in sympathy with all 
 things pure and lovely and of good report. 
 He was the happiest of men. 
 
 The town of Nazareth is overlooked by 
 a precipitous hill, six hundred feet above the 
 level of the sea. No doubt He had often, 
 in His boyhood, climbed there to commune 
 with God. The mountain flowers were 
 about His feet ; and every one of them was 
 like a swinging censer of praise. All about 
 Him were orchards and vineyards and ver- 
 dant pastures ; every grass-blade was in- 
 scribed with His Father's name. His heart 
 gave thanks with the leaping of the brooks ; 
 the birds sang, and He sang with them. 
 
 Why should He not sing ? His conscience 
 was clear. He went to His rest at eventide 
 with no confession of sin. There was no 
 guile in His heart, no guile on His lips. 
 For Him there were no vain regrets. He 
 134 
 
The Closing Hymn 
 
 was now about to die ; yet he shrank not, 
 murmured not. "Lo, I come," said He; 
 " in the volume of the Book it is written of 
 me, I delight to do thy will ! " 
 
 Why should not Jesus sing? He knew 
 the ultimate triumph of truth and goodness. 
 "For the joy that was set before him he 
 endured the cross, despising the shame." 
 He watched the sun go down in golden 
 glory. Red banners waved ; the spear- 
 points of the heavenly host shone with 
 golden splendour as they came forth march- 
 ing to Armageddon, the consummation of 
 all things. In the prophetic skies He heard 
 the clash of arms, and the cry, " Babylon the 
 great is fallen, is fallen ! " and the rattle of 
 chains as the great enemy fell headlong into 
 the abyss ; then a rolling back of the mighty 
 gates and the glad acclaim of welcome, " Lift 
 up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lift 
 up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of 
 Glory shall come in ! " He thus saw the 
 end from the beginning. He knew that 
 His blood was destined to water the world's 
 wildernesses until they should bloom like 
 135 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 gardens of roses. He knew that, whatever 
 rebuffs and reverses might occur, truth and 
 righteousness were sure to triumph after all. 
 
 And the disciples sang with Him. I seem 
 to hear the voices of the two Sons of 
 Thunder, deep and round, accustomed to 
 shouting amid the turmoil of the stormy 
 lake ; and the voice of Peter, hoarse and 
 strident, but making a joyful noise unto the 
 Lord ; and that of Thomas, timid and 
 tremulous, as of one not quite sure of 
 himself. While these and the others were 
 singing, perhaps a watchman or some belated 
 Jerusalemite paused under the window and 
 wondered who could be making merry in 
 this manner at dead of night. 
 
 Thus began the history of the singing 
 Church. Tacitus says that the early Christians 
 were wont to rise at daybreak and, in re- 
 tired places, sing to the honour of Him 
 whom they worshipped as God. The 
 Church has come down through all the 
 ages like a carolling bird with the dew of 
 morning on its wings. 
 
 It is meet and proper that we should sing 
 136 
 
The Closing Hymn 
 
 in the sanctuary. In Solomon*s temple, 
 when the sons of Asaph raised the tune, 
 accompanied by the great orchestra of harps 
 and cymbals, and followed by choirs shout- 
 ing back from gallery to gallery in antiphonal 
 service, the cloudy presence came forth from 
 behind the fine-twined curtains and filled 
 the sacred place. Thus when we worship 
 in the great congregation the doors of the 
 sanctuary move upon their hinges and He 
 enters whose presence brings fulness of life 
 and joy. 
 
 It is meet that we should sing in the dis- 
 charge of duty. The carpenter does better 
 work when he whistles at his bench. The 
 Puritan girl in The Minister s Wooing^ 
 humming the old psalm tunes, might well 
 make her lover "think of heaven and 
 angels." The soldiers of France, at the foot 
 of St. Bernard, tugged vainly at the great 
 guns until the flutes struck up the Marseil- 
 laise. We lift our burdens the more easily, 
 meet our sorrows the more resignedly, per- 
 form our tasks the more joyously, when 
 God's praise is ringing in our hearts. 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 It is written of Bunyan's pilgrim that he 
 went singing all the way from the City of 
 Destruction to heaven's gate. He sang as 
 he dragged himself out of the Slough of 
 Despond, as he climbed the Hill of Diffi- 
 culty, after his fight with Apollyon, past the 
 entrance of the Giant's Cave, in the Pleasant 
 Meadows, by the River of Life, when he 
 escaped from Doubting Castle, as he journeyed 
 through the Delectable Gardens of the land 
 of Beulah, and so until he entered the 
 Celestial City. Nor did his singing end 
 there ; neither shall ours. 
 
 " Our songs of praise shall ne'er be past. 
 While life or thought or being last, 
 Or immortality endures." 
 
 Could we see into heaven, our eyes 
 dazzled by the effulgence of the glory which 
 gathers about Him who sitteth upon the 
 throne, we should hear the four-and-twenty 
 elders lifting their voices in the Great Hallel ; 
 and the circle of angels and archangels, ten 
 thousand times ten thousand and thousands 
 of thousands, swelling the anthem, "O give 
 
 138 
 
The Closing Hymn 
 
 thanks unto the Lord ; for he is good : for his 
 mercy endureth for ever and ever " ; and the 
 still greater multitude which no man can 
 number of saints triumphant adding their 
 voices to the general praise, " Worthy is the 
 Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and 
 riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
 honour, and glory, and blessing for ever 
 and ever ! " 
 
 The meeting in the goodman*s house is 
 over. At the Master's word the disciples 
 rise and follow Him down the outer stairway. 
 Whither ? To Gethsemane, the Judgment 
 Hall and Calvary. After that they will meet 
 Him, with the glow of triumph on His face, 
 at Olivet ; where, as He lifts His hands in 
 blessing, the heavens will open to receive 
 Him. Then whither ? To the glory which 
 He had with the Father before the world 
 was 1 
 
 Presently one of those disciples will pass 
 
 on by the red path of martyrdom to rejoin 
 
 Him ; then another and another until none 
 
 remains but the aged John, who is also 
 
 139 
 
In the Upper Room 
 
 destined to " climb the steep ascent to heaven 
 'mid peril, toil and pain." Thus the circle is 
 again complete. What a reunion ? 
 
 " So part we sadly in the wilderness 
 To meet again in sweet Jerusalem." 
 
 They assemble no more in the goodman's 
 house, but in the Father's house of many 
 mansions. Home, sweet home ! What 
 happy memories they recall ; what vast 
 campaigns they plan ! For there " his 
 servants do serve him." The mists that 
 clouded their path have cleared away. They 
 see the just proportion of things, as once 
 they could not. They know now — as we 
 shall presently — that the earthly life is but 
 the preface of an endless serial, time but the 
 threshold of eternity, and service here a mere 
 apprenticeship for unending usefulness in the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 140 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Some Additional Reading 
 
 The subject dealt with in the foregoing 
 pages may be fitly described as "The Most 
 Holy Place " of the Gospel. Viewed, as it 
 must be, in relation to the institution of 
 the Supper, it naturally appeals to the student 
 or preacher who looks forward, season by 
 season, to a due celebration of the feast. 
 The literature on the subject is no doubt 
 enormous, yet no one need experience the 
 slightest difficulty in singling out the "helps" 
 which he has found most serviceable in his 
 own ministry. 
 
 One of these is unquestionably Godet*s 
 Commentary on St. John : for, as Principal 
 Edwards so justly remarks : " One of 
 Godet's excellences is clearness. . . . He is 
 less penetrating than Calvin, less felicitous 
 than Bengel, not so learned as Meyer, nor 
 so bold as Hofmann ; but for spiritual insight 
 141 
 
Appendix 
 
 give us GodeL'' To preachers and teachers 
 alike we still consider him one of the most 
 helpful and suggestive of commentators. 
 
 And the same claim may be advanced 
 for the sanity and lucidity of Bruce's Train- 
 ing of the Twelve — chapters xxi.-xxvi. 
 These chapters are remarkably luminous and 
 satisfying, and may well be included among 
 the expository material connected with the 
 Upper Room. 
 
 On the devotional aspects of the subject 
 nothing could be more helpful than Love 
 Revealedy by George Bo wen of Bombay, or 
 The Spirit of Christy by Dr. Andrew Murray. 
 These will help to produce the right kind of 
 atmosphere for the study of so sacred a 
 theme, and will always repay the most prayer- 
 ful examination at each communion season. 
 
 Two other studies, of more than passing 
 interest to the practical expositor, are worthy 
 of being added to the present list. We refer 
 to Stanley*s account of the " Samaritan Pass- 
 over" in The Jewish Church (vol. i. pp. 443- 
 451), and David Baron's treatment of "The 
 Conclusion of the Hallel " in T'he Ancient 
 142 
 
Appendix 
 
 Scriptures and the Modern Jew (pp. 99-122). 
 These help to infuse something of the historic 
 sense, apart from which all devotional or 
 even exegetical study is in large measure 
 inadequate. Expository preaching is de- 
 pendent on all the three. Historical im- 
 agination, spiritual intuition, and exegetical 
 fidelity and skill are all needed for a due 
 appreciation of the text. 
 
 In addition to the above, the following 
 are strongly recommended : (i) The Life 
 and Writings of St, John^ by Dr. James 
 M. Macdonald ; particularly chapters xii. 
 and xiii. ; (2) Commentary on the Gospel of 
 St. John, chapters xiii.-xvii.. Dr. H. R. 
 Reynolds and Dr. T. Croskey ; (3) Eight 
 Sermons on the Upper Room by Dr. 
 Alexander Maclaren, in a volume entitled 
 Last Sheaves ; (4) Bishop Ryle's Expository 
 Thoughts on the Gospel of John^ volume 
 iii. ; (5) Studies in the Gospels, chapter 
 on "The Vine and its Branches," by 
 Archbishop Trench ; (6) a volume of Ad- 
 dresses on John, published by the St. John 
 Conference Committee, Providence, R.I., 
 143 
 
Appendix 
 
 1906. Many of the papers in this last 
 volume are invaluable to the preacher, parti- 
 cularly those by E. W. Blake, Dr. Samuel 
 Hart, Rev. Rockwell Potter, Dr. A. W. 
 Anthony, Dr. Henry C. Sheldon, Rev. 
 Robert A. Ashworth, Dr. John D. Pickles, 
 Dr. Henry D. Fowler, Dr. Henry S. Nash, 
 Bishop Huntington of New York, and Dr. 
 Horace W. Tilden. 
 
 J. A. 
 
 144 
 
INDEX 
 
 A. SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Ex. xix. 1-8 . 
 
 II 
 
 I Cor. V. 7 . 
 
 . 13 
 
 Matt, xviii. 1-4 
 
 
 27 
 
 „ vi. 20 
 
 . 13 
 
 „ xxvi. 30 
 
 
 133 
 
 Gal. vi. 2. . 
 
 . 34 
 
 Mark xiv. 12-16 
 
 
 I 
 
 Col. ii. 14 . 
 
 21 
 
 „ xiv. 17 
 
 
 15 
 
 Phil. ii. 5 ff. . 
 
 35,58 
 
 Luke xxii. 14-18 
 
 
 9 
 
 „ iii. 14 . 
 
 . 29 
 
 ,, xxii. 19-20 
 
 
 12 
 
 I Tim. vi. 10 
 
 • 39 
 
 John xxi. 15-17 
 
 
 46 
 
 I Pet. i. 18 . 
 
 . 13 
 
 Acts ii. 9 
 
 
 20 
 
 2 Pet. i. 5 . 
 
 • 51 
 
 
 B, SUE 
 
 JECTS 
 
 
 Ambition, 29. 
 
 
 Humility, 8, 32. 
 
 
 Avarice, 38. 
 
 
 Judgment, 98. 
 
 
 Bodily presence, weak, < 
 
 39. 
 
 Kenosis, 58, 128. 
 
 
 Christianity, counterfeit, 
 
 24. 
 
 Love, brotherly, 8( 
 
 3. 
 
 Church, founding of the 
 
 16. 
 
 Loyalty, ii8. 
 
 
 Courage, 50. 
 
 
 Paraclete, 64, ^T, 
 
 lOI. 
 
 Death, 84. 
 
 
 Passover, 10. 
 
 
 Discipline, 77. 
 
 
 Prayer, 56, 78, 115. 
 
 Fatherhood of God, 54. 
 
 
 Repentance, 42. 
 
 
 " Filioque," 63. 
 
 
 Revivals, 61. 
 
 
 Fishers of men, 4. 
 
 
 Righteousness, 95. 
 
 
 Fruit-bearing, 76, 83. 
 
 
 Ritual, 20. 
 
 
 Greatness, true, 31. 
 
 
 Sanctification, 120 
 
 
 Home, Church in the, i 
 
 7. 
 
 Scriptures, the, 12. 
 
 1. 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 \h 
 
 
Index 
 
 Servtre est rg^nare, 32. 
 
 Sin, 93. 
 
 Stewardship, 6. 
 Supper, the Lord's, 13. 
 
 Things that abide, 25. 
 
 Trinity, the, 65. 
 
 Unity in diversity, 22, 124. 
 
 C. QUOTATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 American Civil War, 124. 
 Apollodorus, 8$. 
 Archimedes, 88. 
 Coxe, A. C, 25. 
 Domine quo Vadts, 47. 
 Herbert, 7. 
 Hood, 39. 
 Judas-tree, the, 38. 
 Judson, Adoniram, 72 
 Karens, the, 72. 
 Lycurgus, 89. 
 Marseillaise, the, 137, 
 
 Milton, 33. 
 
 Plato, 96. 
 
 Pollok, 24. 
 
 Pope, 71. 
 
 Shakespeare, 32. 
 
 Staupitz, 43. 
 
 Stigmata, the, 107, 
 
 Tacitus, 136. 
 
 Truce of God, 113. 
 
 William the Conqueror, iii. 
 
 Wooing f The Minister' s, 137. 
 
THE 
 
 SHORT COURSE SERIES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 Rev. JOHN ADAMS, B.D. 
 
 This Series is designed to encourage a healthy reaction in 
 the direction of expository preaching. Leading expositors in 
 all the Churches have kindly promised assistance; and the 
 Series, to be issued at the uniform price of 60 cents net per 
 volume, will furnish a suflaciently large varifety for individual 
 selection. 
 
 NOW READY 
 A CRY FOR JUSTICE: A Study in Amos. 
 
 By Prof. J. E. McFadyen, D.D., U. F. C. College, 
 
 Glasgow. 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 By Rev. Robert H. Fisher, D.D., Edinburgh. 
 
 THE LENTEN PSALMS. 
 
 By the Editor. 
 
 THE PSALM OF PSALMS. 
 
 By Prof. James Stalker, D.D., Aberdeen. 
 
 THE SONG AND THE SOIL. 
 
 By Prof. W. G. Jordan, D.D., Kingston, Ontario. 
 
 THE HIGHER POWERS OF THE SOUL. 
 
 By Rev. George M 'Hardy, D.D., Kirkcaldy. 
 
 JEHOVAH-JESUS. 
 
 By Rev. Thomas Whitelaw, D.D., Kilmarnock. 
 
 THE SEVENFOLD I AM. 
 
 By Rev. Thomas Marjoribanks, B.D., Edmburgh. 
 
 THE MAN AMONG THE MYRTLES: A Study in 
 Zechariah's Visions. 
 
 By the Editor. 
 
SOCIAL STUDIES. 
 
 By Rev. Canon Simpson, M.A., D.D., St. Paul's 
 London. 
 
 BELIEF AND LIFE: Expositions in the Fourth 
 Gospel. 
 
 By Principal W. B. Selbie, D.D., Mansfield College, 
 Oxford. 
 
 THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS. 
 
 By Prof. Robert Law, D.D., Toronto. 
 
 THE OVERTURES OF JESUS. 
 
 By Rev. Newell D wight Hillis, D.D., Brooklyn. 
 
 SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF DAVID. 
 
 By Prof. H. R. Mackintosh, D.D., Edinburgh. 
 
 THE PROPHECY OF MICAH. 
 
 By Principal A. J. Tait, M.A., Ridley Hall, Cambridge. 
 
 THE EXPOSITORY VALUE OF THE REVISED 
 VERSION. 
 
 By Prof. G. Milligan, D.D., University of Glasgow. 
 
 A PREFACE TO THE GOSPEL: An Exposition of 
 Isaiah 55. 
 
 By Rev. A. Smellie, D.D., Carluke. 
 
 THE SON OF MAN. 
 
 By Prof. Andrew C. Zenos, D.D., Chicago. 
 
 READINGS IN THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 
 
 By Prof. W. Emery Barnes, D.D., Cambridge. 
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 
 
 By Principal A. E. Garvie, D.D., New College, London. 
 
NOW READY 
 THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 
 
 By Rev. Adam C. Welch, B.D., Th.D., Glasgow. 
 
 THE DIVINE DRAMA OF JOB. 
 
 By Rev. Charles F. Aked, D.D., San Francisco. 
 
 A MIRROR OF THE SOUL : Studies in the Psalter. 
 
 By Rev. Canon Vaughan, M.A., Winchester. 
 
 IN THE UPPER ROOM. 
 
 By Rev. D. J. Burrill, D.D., LL.D., New York. 
 
 The Follozving Other Volumes are in 
 Preparation. 
 
 THE SEVEN Vi^ORDS FROM THE CROSS. 
 
 By Rev. A. B. Macaulay, M.A., Stirling. 
 
 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 By Prof. W. G. Griffith Thomas, D.D., Toronto. 
 
 THE METAPHORS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 By Rev. A. Boyd Scott, B.D., Glasgow. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 By Rev. F. Stuart-Gardiner, B.D., Kingstown, 
 Ireland. 
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF GOD. 
 
 By Prof. T. B. Kilpatrick, D.D., Toronto. 
 
 STUDIES IN THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 By Prof. W. T. Davison, D.D., Richmond. 
 
 EXPOSITORY STUDIES. 
 
 By Prof. Arthtjr S. Peake, D.D., Manchester. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary^ Librahes 
 
 1 1012 01197 4757