Himself the highest theophany. And as He first represents Himself to them as the absolute way, the surety of heaven, so now, as the absolute image of God and of heaven, as the manifestation of the Father. And thus He guarantees the end with the Father. The Father is in Him: that is the perfect presence on earth of the Father. He is in the Father: that is the perfect life of heaven in the Son. His words are the words of the Father. And so also are His works. He who cannot recognise Him in His words as the Messiah, must yet be able to recognise Him in His works. And if he thus believe on Him, his faith shall be confirmed by himself doing like, and even greater works, in the name of Jesus, in the development of His work, if not in equally wonderful form; so that he himself shall accomplish heavenly things on earth as precursory tokens of heaven in heaven. For the Son is the channel by which this is conveyed to the disciples, on the condition that they pray to Him for it. Even the very highest will He impart to them, if they beg Him for it. Nay, for this highest gift will Christ Himself ask the Father, if they only keep His commandments and abide in His ordinances. Then, namely, through His intercession, shall the Holy Ghost be imparted to them as the other Advocate (Paraclete) of their life, who shall always remain with them, who shall bring near to them the inward substance of that heaven in the spirit. As the Spirit of truth shall He be communicated to them, because they possess the truth. To the world, however, He cannot be imparted; for it seeth Him not— in His works or tokens in Christ, therefore still less does it know Himself. To them, however, He can and shall be imparted, because they know Him, and because, therefore, He works in them till He can celebrate His triumph in them. Nay, Christ Himself will come to them in the Holy Spirit, and entirely remove from them the feeling of orphanage.

In such measure shall they be assured of the Father in heaven, and of their going home to Him at last. Now, however, rises a third difficulty. Why cannot this revelation of the heavenly country, especially this announcement of Christ, be communicated to all men from above? Why does it remain concealed from the world, an exclusive possession of believers? This difficulty is suggested by the words which follow: Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me:

for I live, and ye shall live also.' Life, then, the true life of Christians, resting as it does on the life of Christ, is the cause of their seeing Him again. At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father; and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.'

To this Judas answered-not Iscariot: 'Lord, how cometh it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us, and not unto the world?' That is, wherefore wilt Thou in Thy heavenly glory, along with heaven itself, become manifest to us, but remain concealed from the world? Jesus returned for answer:

'If a man love Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' Love to Jesus has for its effect, that a man faithfully keeps His word hid in his heart; but this word is the medium by which the love of the Father makes itself known to him hence the representation in the word becomes an experience of this love. Where, however, the Father manifests His love, He appears Himself, and with Him the Son; and when they reveal themselves fully in the heart, they make there a permanent abode. There arises thus an inward heaven, which in a mysterious manner, as sign and token, assures the believer of the heaven beyond this world.

Thus does the matter stand with respect to believers. As to the world, on the contrary, it stands as follows:

'He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words. And the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's that sent Me.' With inward alienation from Christ, a man loses again Christ's word. With the word of Christ, he loses the word of the Father; with the word of the Father, the medium of the manifestation of the Father. Therefore the bright image of heaven cannot be represented to his mind, still less leave its impress there.

Thus, then, we have the explanation of the fact, how believers are assured of the heavenly glory of their Lord, and of heaven itself, but not so the world.

The Lord has now removed the three chief stumblingblocks which, proceeding from worldly conceptions in the minds of His disciples, might have obscured to their view the brightness of

heaven the offence of the melancholy doubter, who objects that there is not more distinct outward information concerning heaven, and the way to it; the offence of the doubter whose heart is set on divine manifestations, and who desires more sensible and striking announcements of God from the other world; as likewise the offence of the benevolent doubter, whom the incapacity of the world to apprehend the hope of that invisible inheritance as a reality, might render averse joyfully to entertain the hope for himself.

The Lord was well aware that this discourse concerning the higher world still contained much that was dark to the disciples. He therefore proceeded: "These things I have spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Intercessor (Paraclete), the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.' Thus His present discourse shall be made clear to them from the higher world itself; it shall be glorified in their hearts.

The glory of the heavenly world has now been opened up to them. He therefore proceeds to introduce the subject of the glorifying of the present life, by directing their thoughts to the marvellous peculiarity of His own departure:

'Peace I leave with you-as a farewell salutation-My peace I give unto you rather, namely, as a salutation of an eternal recognition and meeting again, of an eternal reunion.— Not as the world giveth it-the salutation of peace-give I it to you.' The world first salutes a man with alluring cordiality, soon again to leave him disconsolate and friendless, and it bids. him farewell with heartless coldness, often with unfriendly harshness; it bids adieu for ever. Christ salutes otherwise. From every one of His farewells there breaks forth the salutation of reunion. He salutes His people in God, for eternity. He therefore proceeds:

'Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be disconsolate. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice that I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I-as He that determines, and thus also glorifies My life. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. I will not talk much more with you; for the

prince of this world cometh'-he comes in the fulness of the enmity of this world, and brings with him My death-' and in Me he hath nothing,' adds Jesus, i.e., nothing akin to him, no point to seize hold of, no prospect of victory, and therefore also no right, viewed in itself, to tempt Me, to cause Me suffering,' 'But that the world may know that I love the Father-and thus be delivered from its gloomy prince by the obedience of Christ -and that I may so do, as the Father hath commanded Me, arise, and let us go hence'-go to meet the doom appointed of the Father. This was the departure from Jerusalem.

Jesus now speaks of the glorifying of the earthly life, with the nocturnal garden fires in view, as He descends towards the garden of Gethsemane (xv.-xvi. 24).

First, He fixes the fundamental idea of this glorifying of the earthly life.

'I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh awayHe cutteth off-and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it-pruneth-that it may bring forth more fruit. Ye are already clean, through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and withers (straightway). And men gather such, and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. -And as they burn, how terrible is the flame of that blazing fire! If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father-then-glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and become My disciples-truly more and more become. As the Father hath loved Me, and I have loved you, continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater 1 Comp. Luke xxii. 31. 2 See above, vol. iv. p. 262.

love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. But I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you.'

The earthly Christian life of the disciples, which is appointed to glorify this earthly world, must therefore be deep-rooted in heaven; it must proceed from their vital union with the Lord, who is throned in heaven, and who from heaven administers the affairs of earth. He first presents this thought in the form of a parable. The whole kingdom of God appears here in the figure of a noble vine. Christ is the true vine, of which the earthly vine is only a symbol; all His disciples are the branches. The government of the Father over the world is essentially a training of this vine by the husbandman. To all the branches He applies the knife, either to cut them off, if they bear no fruit, or to prune them, if they are truly fruit-bearing branches. Thus are the last cleansed. The disciples are indeed already clean within, so far as they have received the word of Christ, by virtue of this principle of cleanness. But they may not only become again unclean, but even worthless, if they, namely, do not, by keeping the word of Christ, abide in Him, in the living contemplation of His person, so that He, in His full efficacy, may remain in them. For of themselves they can as little be or do as the branch; their true life is entirely dependent on their abiding in Christ, in like manner as the true health of the branch depends on its remaining in vital connection with the vine. If this be wanting to a branch, if it be separated from the unity of the vine in its noble root-life and fruit-bearing energy, and hangs on the vine like a rude, wild, and strange wood, which only produces a luxuriant foliage, it is cast forth, gathered together with others, and burnt. Such is the end of the degenerate spiritual branches, as the case of Judas shows. They are cut off from the vine, and wither; they are carried away with the rest in one company of evil men; they are destroyed in the bright flame of divine judgment. But when the disciples abide