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SPIRITUAL STUDIES IN
ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL

VOLUME III.

LIII.

"Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come."-St. John vii. 6-8.

Exposition.-Isaac Williams says: "The time for Christ's manifestation, which must be that of His rejection and cross, had not yet arrived; but when it had, He set His face openly to go up to Jerusalem: but those who wish for the things of the world, the world will always receive; so long as thou doest well unto thyself, men will speak good of thee. This is the difference between man and God: God doeth things in His own good time; when the fulness of time was come He sent forth His Son; but man's time is the present; and this is the source

of all evil; because man, in his impatience, waits not for the times of God. Thus St. Cyril: 'Such things as are subservient to the great dispensation as these of Christ, cannot be done at all times; but they who neglect them and seek inferior things, can at any time undertake them.' This writer takes it as the time for His manifestation; St. Chrysostom, as the time of His cross. But though you,' he says, 'are always with the Jews, they will not hurt you.' St. Augustine: 'My time is the time of my glory, when I come to judge; your time, the glory of the world, is alway ready. We who are the Lord's body, may say to the lovers of the world, when they insult over us, Your time is alway ready; our time is not yet come. our life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall we appear with Him in glory. The world cannot hate you. For these are principles of the world, and the world will love its own. But me it hateth, for I bear witness concerning it, that its deeds are evil. This is the secret of the world's hatred, the words, the deeds, the presence, the very thoughts of the good are a witness that it will not endure, as Cain could not endure Abel.'"

Stier comments thus: "His answer is just as gentle as we might have expected it would be

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to His brethren; but it is also just as severe as such persistent unbelief among those so near to Him demanded. The gentleness consists in this, that He not only meekly accepts the direction to depart, but condescends to justify Himself by giving them information of His reasons; the severity further appears in that He does this only by placing His own manner of acting and theirs in direct and irreconcilable contrast. They will not be His disciples, He therefore classes them with the world of which they had ignorantly spoken. They excluded themselves from the circle of discipleship, partly in irony, and partly by pledging their homage when His claims should be authenticated; but He repels them from Him with the deep sorrow of earnest truth. . . We have nothing now in common. It is a word of keen condemnation when the Lord says to anyone The world cannot hate you, it leaves you in peace as you leave it; and it was with the deepest grief of heart that He felt Himself constrained thus to speak to His own kinsmen after the flesh. When, on the other hand, He described Himself as hated of the world, and gave as a reason of it His testimony against its evil works, He told them directly and plainly enough, what it was that He sought, what He designed to do, and that faith in Him had

nothing to do with the world's notoriety and consideration."

Of the words, I go not up to this feast, because my time is not yet come, St. Augustine says: "In this holy day ye seek glory of man; but my time, that is, the time of my glory, is not yet come. That shall be my holy day, not running before these holy days and passing by, but abiding unto eternity; that shall be the festivity, even joy without end, eternity without blemish, serenity without a cloud."

First Thought.-By saying to those unbelieving ones, "Your time is alway ready,” our Lord would remind us that the children of this world live for the present things; they believe that the time of their life here is most to be thought of, and they are ever concerned to avail themselves of its opportunities. In that respect we may well all of us fear that we are children of this world, for we are greatly concerned about the cares and anxieties, the responsibilities and burdens of the present. It would seem that this world was of much more importance to us than that which is to come. For the successes of the present life we are very eager, straining every nerve to make them our own; we are greatly elated when we attain them; we look with admiration and envy upon those who have attained

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