Bible Commentaries

The Gospel Feast

John 6:5

I. From the beginning, the greatest rite of religion has been a feast; the partaking of God's bounties, in the way of nature, has been consecrated to a more immediate communion with God Himself. For instance, when Isaac was weaned, Abraham "made a great feast," and then it was that Sarah prophesied: "Cast out this bondwoman and her John 6:12

This is one of the passages on which the Revised Version throws considerable light It corrects the general impression that the Apostles were bidden to gather up the fragments which the multitudes had left in the places where they had been sitting. The translation "Gather up the broken pieces that remain over" helps us to picture the Apostles carefully gathering the superabundant provision their Lord had made, and of which the satisfied multitudes could not make use. They were pieces which the Lord Himself had blessed and broken, and which lay at His feet, an evidence of His bounty. This interpretation of the command suggests, as we shall see, deeper thoughts than the mere duty of thrift and careful avoidance of waste.

I. The Miracle Recalled.—In order the better to grasp the significance of the command, it is necessary to recall a few matters connected with the miracle of the feeding of the multitude which give it point When our Lord and His disciples had first come in sight of the great company of people, He had inquired of John 6:12

It is only the continuity of miracles that divests them of exceptional interest You know man is so constituted that it is the unusual which attracts his attention. We require to be startled before we will observe. The bread we have eaten today is as directly and divinely the product of the activity of the evolver of the word Father, Who was incarnate in the Son of Mary, as the loaves with which, as I verily from my soul believe, He did feed these five thousand beside the Lake of Galilee. Only usage has spun cobwebs round our thoughts, and we have forgotten that there is a soul in all things, and that soul is God.

I. This miracle is a powerful appeal to our confidence. As to that providence which exists behind the processes of nature it teaches us that that which men call God is not an aggregation of abstract attributes, or an impersonal creative force, but a living, sympathising, and undefinable Being, full of human compassion and missionary spirit, to whom we owe all, and who changes not.

II. This miracle is a picture lesson given to you to teach that God has His certain reward for you if you have the courage to go a single step out of your way to show that you trust even where you do not understand. "He Himself knew what He would do;" and He always does. He will still work what men call miracles, to nourish your spirit and soul and body, for He is constrained by the fullness of His love to be your providence.

III. "Gather up the crumbs that nothing be lost" It is the call to man to bestir himself to break out of his indulgent self-sufficiency; to cany himself forth into what may sometimes be sneeringly called by religionists of a certain school, the economics of salvation; to labour to prevent the hideous waste in God's fair world of the religious and physical resources; to multiply bread for the starving millions; to be inculcating habits of self-control, thrift, and uprightness by constantly in season and out of season fighting against the food waste and the vices of the masses of the people. And I think the injunction might be fairly taken, just as it stands, as the Divine authorisation of the earnest labours of those who are striving in every way to increase, to improve, and to extend the education of the race.

IV. As the Christ is man's ideal of God, do you not see that this injunction, "Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost," is the expression of an unchanging attitude of the magnificence, the unity of the Intelligence whence we all come? He cannot tell me to do a thing that He is not willing to do Himself; and the command is a protest against all the narrow, degrading notions of the wastefulness of God.

—Basil Wilberforce, The Preacher's Magazine, vol. vii. p5.

References.—VI:12.—Basil Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p337. C S. Home, The Soul's Awakening, p227. T. Arnold, Christian Life: Its Hopes, p216. W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, vol1. p221. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year (2Series), vol. ii. p209. W. G. Rutherford, The Key of Knowledge, p108. J. Tolefree Parr, The White Life, p121. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. John 6:14

The study of the prophecies of Jesus Christ would do very much to establish our faith, for the vast majority of these prophecies have been wondrously fulfilled. To-day I want to bring before you some of the fulfilled prophecies of Jesus Christ—His prophecies with regard to the Jew, His prophecies with regard to the world, and His prophecies with regard to the Church.

I. Now with regard to the Jews our Lord Jesus Christ gave forth three very special prophecies. (1) First of all, He foretold the fall of Judaism as a religion. In the twenty-first chapter of St. John 6:17

Who are they of whom this is said? Of His Apostles this is written. Of them that had continued with Him in His temptations, of those to whom He had appointed a kingdom as His Father had appointed to Him. Thus, if He allowed this trouble to happen to them, though He loved them, so He may to us, though He loves us.

I. It is a dark world this in which we live! There is so much in which we cannot see God's hand. "And Jesus was not yet come to them." No, but He will. All those troubles He sends to lead us to Him.

II. What were the Apostles doing when He thus came to them. They were going where He would have them go. "Rowing," says one of the Evangelists; "toiling in rowing," says another. If they had not been labouring in His service, He would never have come to their assistance. So with us.

Let us only be doing His will, let us only be toiling onward in the path He has marked out for us, and—it may be at the fourth watch, it may be at the very darkest—it may be when we have done our utmost that He will come to us. "When Israel is in the brick-kiln," says the Jewish proverb, "then cometh Moses." When we are in the deepest distress, then will come our true Moses, Jesus Christ, to be a defence to the oppressed, even a refuge in due time—but not before the due time—of trouble.

—J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, vol. i. p201.

References.—VI:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. li. No2945. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p192. J. M. Neale, Readings for the Aged (3Series), p38. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p250; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p219. VI:18.—Ibid, vol. vii. p295. VI:19 , 20.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. John 6:24

These words sound like a snatch of a poem; they almost sing. "Seeking for Jesus"—on the very smallest invitation they would fall into joyful, ennobling music. As originally applied, they are small enough, and limited enough, but they are so beautiful that they cannot be shut down to small measures and applications. We know right words when we hear them; there is a spirit in John 6:26

The perpetual chagrin of his life was the obstinate refusal of those on whom he had helped to shower wealth and plenty to hear what he had to say on the social ideals to which their wealth should lead.

—Morley's Life of Cobden, ch. xxxviii.

References.—VI:26.—A. L. N, Christian World Pulpit, vol1. p109. W. H. Evans, Short Sermons for the Seasons, p30. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p164; ibid. (6th Series), vol. xii. p431; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p51. VI:26 , 27.—J. H. Jowett, British Congregationalist, 12th September, 1907 , p218. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p354. VI:26-58.—Ibid. (5th Series), vol. viii. p87. VI:27.—D. Fraser, Metaphors in the Gospels, p290. VI:27-29.—C. Brown, God and John 6:35

Christ had but recently fed the multitude by the miraculous multiplication of the barley loaves and fishes, and in consequence a large number flocked to Him, doubtless desiring to witness a repetition of His wonderful power. But He seeks not to win men to Himself by these methods, and hence proceeds to rebuke their impure and unstable enthusiasms. He knows full well how undependable is mere admiration, and is too well acquainted with men not to know how readily they respond to the appeal of mere novelty. And in rebuking them He makes it clear that in His feeding of the hungry there was not merely direct alleviation of need, but deeper illustration of a truth which He had already proclaimed, and to which He sought to win them. For His philanthropies are but mirrors of His larger and more lasting ministries to the souls of men, and He would have them learn that there are more important things in life than the physical, more eternal provision than the bread that perisheth. But His words are misinterpreted, and they begin to dispute with Him, comparing Him with Moses, and His provision with the manna which their fathers had eaten in the wilderness. Christ, however, brings the dialogue to an end with this explicit statement, declaring Himself to be the Bread of Life, the antitype of which the manna in the wilderness was but the foreshadowing. He alone can feed and nourish true life, for He alone is its Author. And no lesson is more important, either for them or for us, than this one.

I. His declaration surprises us at first sight with its assumption of universal hunger. John 6:35

The figure under which Christ here speaks of Himself and His relation to men has a profound significance of its own. What it suggests about that relation is its inwardness. For He is bread, and bread means support, sustenance, new tissue, fresh life. And what we are to learn here John 6:35

Then I saw from that saying, He that cometh unto Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst, that believing and coming was all one; and that he that came, that John 6:35

The self-revelations of Jesus Christ come to us with comfort and hope; they come to us perfectly naturally and easily from His own lips. Having once heard of His eternal self-existence, we naturally want to know what He has to say to us who are just here today and gone tomorrow. So it is that with great comfort we listen to these assertions: "I am the Bread of Life," "I am the Light of the world," "I am the Resurrection and the Life," "I am the true Vine," "I am the Door," "I am the good Shepherd"—assertions which it would have been absolutely impossible for any mere human being to have made.

I. Christ the Life.—Let us look at the simplest assertion of all, "I am the Bread of Life". What comfort it brings us! Life—why, that is just what we all want; life even in its poorest form of physical existence. We all long to go on living. We dread the day when death shall loose the ties of life and when we shall be plunged into what seems to some men to be the unknown. Christ stands as a witness, as a guarantee, to supply the purest form of life to all those who ask Him for it. He did not fling His assertion "I am the Bread of Life" into the air. The men who were listening to Him at that time were themselves the recipients of His bounty. The larger number of them had stood starving on the hill-side but a day or two ago, and He then, by His own power, had stopped their famine. They recognised that at any rate He could do that, and because He could do that He was worthy to be their King. And so they found afterwards that when men wanted life they found it at His hands. He was not like a great teacher, like Moses or John 6:37

This Scripture also did now most sweetly visit my soul, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. Oh, the comfort that I had from this word, in no wise! as who should say, by no means, for nothing, whatever he hath done.... I saw that to come aright was to come as I was, a vile and ungodly sinner, and to cast myself at the feet of mercy, condemning myself for sin.

—Bunyan, Grace Abounding, p214.

References.—VI:37.—E. M. Geldart, Echoes of Truth, p272. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x. No599; vol. xxx. No1762; vol. xl. No2349; vol. li. No2954; and vol. lii. No3000. G. H. Morrison, The Return of the Angels, p294. VI:37-40.—J. E. Page, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xvii. p328. VI:38-62.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p369.

Impersonal Resurrection

John 6:39

"Raise up at the last day" is a phrase repeated four times in this chapter, vv39 , 40 , 44 , 54. The neuter gender of the pronoun is used. Why? Everything that His Father had given our Lord is here viewed as a whole, a kingdom, although it includes individuals mainly. There will be a glorious resurrection of things as well as persons.

I. The Significance of His Providence will be shown in the Resurrection.—This discourse was suggested by the miracle of the loaves and fishes. He says, "Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost". Every fragment of His providential dispensations will be gathered up in "that day," and each item His providential dealings with men will appear as something not to be lost. We are in danger of losing these fragments now. The varied experiences of life combine the apparently trivial with its great issues. Men are accustomed to attach vast importance to great events, and its lesser incidents are thought little of. But the King of glory, although proprietor of all things, is a great economist, and the Resurrection will include a vindication of His dealings with men in all the petty details of life. Life is now surrounded with mystery. We are like miners working in the dark beneath the surface of visible things, yet co-workers with God, and ever contributing to His glory if faithful, glorifying the Son of God by submitting to His Providence even when we do not understand its meaning. And when we are brought above ground, so to speak, into the light of Resurrection, there will be raised with us a clear indication and vindication of the Providence of God in our lives.

II. The Bearing: of the Material Miracles upon the Spiritual Life will also be shown in the Resurrection.—This most spiritual address of our Lord's was based upon a material miracle. Men do not see the spiritual meaning of the miracles which occur in every life just now, but although much of what may be termed sidelight may be thrown upon them in this life, yet the full effulgence of heavenly light will not shine upon them until that last day. Eternal light is needed for the full exposition of eternal truth. St. Paul says that the Rock which followed Israel was Christ. In a manner which we now know not of, it will be seen in that day how the Christ has followed the life of every believer in all its details. And the miracles in that life (and who has not experienced such?) will be manifested in all their spiritual meaning and bearing upon eternity.

III. The Full Testimony of Christ's Work will be shown in the Resurrection.—We have referred to two classes of these works: His general Providence and His miracles. "The works that the Father hath given Me to accomplish bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me." "If ye believe not Me, believe the works." In these days the testimony of these works seems to be obscured, but He "will raise it up at the last day". "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Whether or not, there will be a glorious revelation of the meaning of those works as a testimony to the well-beloved Son. "I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day, for the night cometh." But the duration of that night is limited, and it will be followed by a yet more glorious day. The Day of Resurrection will be a Day of Revelation. Then shall His works in the whole world bear convincing testimony to the power and authority of the Christ—a testimony which shall convict every gainsayer. And as the Resurrection body will be infinitely more glorious than the natural body, so will the Resurrection testimony to the works of the Christ be infinitely more glorious than anything offered to Him during His earthly ministry.

References.—VI:39.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p61; ibid. vol. vi. p304. VI:39 , 40.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No1117. VI:41-65.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvi. No2706.

John 6:42

Familiarity, if it does not breed contempt, at least does away with surprise, and we look for God in the startling. If we can account for a thing, we at once conclude that God had nothing to do with it. We keep Him as a last resort for events otherwise inexplicable. The result is that the wiser we grow and the more things we have an explanation for, the less we think of God and the further we banish Him from His own world.

—Dr. H. S. Coffin, The Creed of Jesus, p168.

References.—VI:44.—J. Keble, Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service, p46. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv. No182. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p66.

Drawing and Coming

John 6:44-45

Two thoughts are suggested by the text—The Father's part in human salvation. Man's part in his own salvation.

I. The Father Drawing.—The doctrine of Christ is that God draws men by teaching. What then is teaching? To bring truth in contact with the mind, the heart, the conscience. But what truth? The two great fundamental truths which we are commissioned to teach are—Man's ruin by sin. Man's redemption by Christ Jesus. (1) The Father teaches these fundamental truths by His book, the Bible. (2) The Father teaches by the preaching of His Word. (3) The Father draws by teaching in opposition to compulsion. (4) The Father draws by teaching in opposition to legal enactments. (5) The Father draws by teaching in opposition to acting simply on the emotional nature. The life, the death, the resurrection, the intercession of Christ Jesus, brought home to the heart by the teaching of the Holy Spirit is that which draws.

II. Man Coming.—"Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me." What does this coming mean? (1) If you would come aright, you must come as servants, to obey Him, to serve Him, to take His yoke upon you, to receive His John 6:48

Bread of Life! Is there then bread of death? Certainly in this chapter, and in other passages of the New Testament, we have got great and striking contrasts that stir up in our minds such a suggestion. Here the true bread is spoken of in contrast to the meat that perisheth, to the manna which their fathers did eat and are dead.

I. Now the essential thought of our Lord's great discourse here, is that He Himself is the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. He brings to man's life, yea! to man's death, a life which death cannot touch. Did you never think that it is very strange that men are always trying to give an account of Jesus? They will not, and cannot leave Jesus alone, not even those who deny His claims. Every new idea, every new theory that lays hold of man's mind, has to be applied to Jesus, to account for Him if possible, as if He could be accounted for on ordinary principles of man's thought. Our ordinary principles are not applicable; human nature, environment, education, life's opportunities, all put together cannot account for Jesus. The New Testament gives the right account He came down from heaven, He is the bread of God to the souls of men.

II. A moment's reflection will show us that nearly everything that really lives must live on bread from heaven. Without a measure of it all life pines and dies. The very flowers of the field have to be so fed. And so it is with man born of flesh, and rooted in the earth. He has a certain nourishment to draw from thence. And what the sun in the heavens is to the flower, so Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, is to the spirits of men. He is the bread of which if they eat they shall reach their true destiny and never die.

III. Now, it is clear, from the analogy of common food and its use, that all must personally partake if they are to live. We are to become partakers of the Divine nature. We must become participants; we must assimilate His spirit, His life; we must eat Now, what is the great difficulty with us, and perhaps with most men, here? The great difficulty is lack of appetite—appetite for Christ and spiritual things.

—D. L. Ritchie, Peace the Umpire and other Sermons, p67.

References.—VI:48.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiii. No1940. VI:48-50.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. viii. p93. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. John 6:51

The Bible is a book of promise. There are many good things for man because God is good. He is ready to give, He loves to bless. He cannot indeed always do it. He has to deny, He has to chastise; but denial and chastisement may prove to be the truest and most needful gift. God's will towards His people is to give and to bless, and He has always greater and better gifts in store.

I. Man's Need.—The Bible shows man as he is—a creature of need. As an infant he walks into life with needs; and as he grows his needs grow with him. Day by day he needs the bread by which flesh and bones and blood are kept going. He is hungry and thirsty; he needs food and raiment and other bodily things. There are other needs, the nobler and deeper needs of his mind and the needs of his heart, longing for enjoyment of love. Contained far within the depths of his being, in his conscience, in his spirit, are the needs for something more, which food and drink and worldly affections do not satisfy; needs which hardly understand themselves until the man hears about God and he begins to feel that he needs God. Thus is the Bible a book of promise from God, Who answers the need of every man.

II. God's Supply.—The message of Christmas is the answer, and we find it written: "I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven, that a man should eat thereof and not die". The speaker is Jesus Christ, Whose birthday we keep this day. It is a wonderful answer to the great needs of the world. The cry goes up to God, and God answers by sending a little Child—"Unto us a Child is born". Man is hungry, man has need, and the Child is God's supply—the Bread of God for his need. This is the message of Christmas—Christ, the supply of man's needs.

III. Christ truly Gives Bread to His People; but by His example we see that He only feeds man's bodily needs through what He does in supplying the needs which are higher and deeper. To those of us who are in bodily need He says, "Come unto Me; come, buy for yourselves wine and milk without money and without price". But we have other needs besides bread, and He has other and better gifts for us. Come to Christ, the Bread of life, and feed upon Him.

References.—VI:61.—R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2Series), p246. VI:61-71.—Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. p118.

John 6:52

In describing her continental tour or mission during1856-1857 , Eliza Gurney tells of one meeting at Annonay with the local dissenters in their chapel. "One of the Darbyists rose and said he felt bound to testify against the ministry of women, referring the people to chapter and verse in the Bible to prove they were forbidden to speak. Having borne his testimony, which he did in no very Christian spirit, he walked out of the meeting, which remained as quiet as possible, being wholly unmoved by what he said. It was strange that at that very moment my mind was dwelling on the enmity of the carnally-minded Jews to the spiritual nature of the Gospel dispensation: How can this man give us His flesh to eat? etc, and in connection with it the conversation of our Lord with the woman at Jacob's Well, her leaving her water-pot and going into the city to preach Christ, and that many of the Samaritans believed because of her word" (see The Gurneys of Earlham, vol. ii. p315 f.).

References.—VI:63.—T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i. p208. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons (2Series), p21. H. Alford, Sermons on Christian Doctrine, p294. R. Winterbotham, Sermons on the Holy Communion, p12. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p41. VI:63-66.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii. No1288. P. L. Watchurst, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p206. VI:64.—J. M. Whiton, Beyond the Shadow, p233. VI:65.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No1460. VI:66.—H. H. Scullard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p64. R. Winterbotham, Sermons on the Holy Communion, p20. H. Bell, Sermons on Holy Communion, p22. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Blessed Sacrament, p44. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p368.

Living the Life of Jesus

John 6:57

From the words of our text we may infer that what the Father was to Jesus, Jesus is willing to be to you and to me. Everything that Jesus said of His relationship to the Father, we may say of our relationship to Jesus.

I. The first truth to which I wish to call your attention is this: Our Saviour might have lived an independent life. He was the Holy One before He stooped to us and laid aside the use of the attributes of His Godhead. During His human life He might at any moment have availed Himself of His Divine attributes, and might have lived His human life in the power of them.

II. Our Lord Jesus might have lived an independent life, and Satan was always urging Him to do it Straight from the river Jordan Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The first thing the devil said to Jesus was:

"Thou art the Son of God. Thou hast all power. Now use that power for Thyself, and make those stones bread." That was the crucial point in our Lord's life, and He said: "No; I am going to be a dependent human being. If My Father does not feed me, I will die of hunger." When our Lord said that, He at once definitely refused to live the independent life which would have been possible, and elected to live a life of constant dependence upon the Father.

III. Again, look at our Lord's life. (1) In His birth God the Father gave Him life. And Jesus in dying said: "Father, receive My life". (2) So in the plan of our Lord's life (3) Jesus also depended on the Father for His words. (4) Then as to His miracles. (5) So also about His will. (6) We know, too, that He sought the Father's glory.

IV. If our Lord chose this life of dependence out of all possible lives that He might have lived, does it not seem wisest, most blessed, most Christlike, for you and me to give up living the independent life in the flesh and to begin from this moment to depend upon Christ as Christ depended upon God?

V. The Saviour's method may be ours. There are two possible methods. Our Lord might always have been crucifying His human nature; but He chose the second method and the better one—that of living a life of perfect communion with God by the Holy Ghost. How can Jesus become to me what the Father was to Jesus? (1) We must be quiet; we must wait. (2) Be sure to make Jesus the first of everything. (3) Make the glory of Jesus your aim. (4) Meet God's will in every circumstance. (5) Reckon on God.

—F. B. Meyer, The Soul's Ascent, p229.

References.—VI:67.—A. T. Lyttelton, College and University Sermons, p131. Bishop Moule, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p196. T. Arnold, Christian Life: Its Hopes, p271. Expositor (5th Series), vol. i. p406. VI:68.—T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii. p16. VI:69.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p25. VI:62 , 63.—T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iii. p46.

Words of Life

John 6:63

Whatever may be said about the originality of our Lord's teaching, it is certainly unique in the spiritual force that inheres in it and accompanies its proclamation.

I. Note the matchless influence of the Gospel upon Christendom at large. The ruling civilisations of today have their rootage in the faith of Christ. We are told that the Greeks furnished "the whole framework of modern civilisation". From them we inherit our legal code, our theories of government, our artistic and literary ideals, our philosophical conceptions, and our genius in arms, commerce, and colonisation. But if Greece furnished the "framework," Christianity brought the spirit, the life, the compelling energy, without which the framework of civilisation would have been little more than a mockery. The revival of national life is usually associated with the republication of the Gospel of God. God's Word in Christ is the life of the soul, and the life of nations.

II. The quickening influence of Gospel truth on the individual. (1) Think of His revealing words. The words of our Lord are searchlights, revealing the man to himself with startling clearness and power. (2) Think of His converting words. John Stuart Mill relates that at one time he fell into a state of deep melancholy, lost all interest in life, and was fast sinking into despair, when the reading of Wordsworth restored the freshness of His soul, revived his interest in things, and made life worth living. But who can restore the soul and make all things new like our sovereign Master? (3) Think of His strengthening words. (4) Think of His comforting words.

III. Let us be sure that we receive this Word into our heart, and give it full sway in the regulation of our life.

IV. To students of religious truth, I wish to say, Give revelation itself the chief place in your studies. When face to face with nature, Constable tried to forget that he had ever seen a picture; in some such fashion should we approach John 6:65

Evidences of Christianity! I am weary of the word. Make a man feel the want of it; rouse him, if you can, to the self-knowledge of his need of it; and you may safely trust it to its own evidence—remembering only the express declaration of Christ Himself: No man cometh unto Me, unless the Father leadeth him. Whatever more is desirable—I speak now with reference to Christians generally, and not to professed students of theology—may in my judgment be far more safely and profitably taught, without cankering or the superstition of infidel antagonists, in the form of Ecclesiastical history.

—Coleridge, Aids to Reflection.

References.—VI:66.—H. S. Seekings, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xvii. p174. VI:66 , 67.—W. H. Harwood, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p276. VI:66-68.—T. Binney, King's Weigh-House Chapel Sermons, p27. VI:66-69.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii. No1646. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p209. VI:67.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol1. No2914. VI:67 , 68.—L. Davidson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p197. W. C. Wheeler, Sermons and Addresses (2Series), p210. C. D. Bell, The Name Above Every Name, p15. VI:67-70.—T. Arnold, Christian Life: Its Hopes, p155.

Alternatives

John 6:68

"To whom shall we go?" The discourse is upon Alternatives. Who is the other man? What is the other book? If we turn our backs upon Thee, Thou Son of God, where is the life? Always ask for alternatives; always ask for a constructive side of things. There are many men who can find fault; few who can build. Better build a wall than destroy a faith. Stick to this one question, and you will come out all right. "Lord, to whom shall we go?"

I. We might live the animal life: we might be so many animals. Do you want me to labour that point, or do you instantaneously say you could not for a moment consider the alternative of mere animalism? Do not be in a great hurry about this. "Animal" is really a word which signifies a living thing; there is no baseness or foulness about the word animal. We ourselves are partly animal. But by "the animal life" is in this connection meant some low, base, vicious form of life, the trough life, the flesh life. "He that soweth unto the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." Will you consent to unman and dehumanise yourselves so far as to be mere animals?

II. What is your second alternative? "Will you live," says the tempter, "as I do?" "How do you live?" "I live the secular life." Have you ever studied secularism? It has its dogmas, its opinions, its canons, and its narrow philosophy. Live the secular life, take an interest in the newspapers, in the news of the day; just rise in the morning to read what was done yesterday, and get through your time as well as you can.

III. Well, what say you to the next alternative? "I think that you might live the careless life; that is to say, let other people think about the spiritual and superstitious things, but you keep on solid ground, and you take a little enjoyment where you can get it: go out to suppers and dances and come home drunk." No, my mother forbids it, all my training goes against it, all my early impulses vote on the other side. What is the careless life? It is the life that cares "for none of these things". "There is a group of men praying—pass them, we do not care for their praying; we do not want to join them, we are bound for the race and the revel and the feast and the devil; we are happy-go-lucky boys—join us!" I think not. That might suit some sides of human nature. All that I have yet heard provides for little sections of manhood, and I want something that fills the whole vacuum, the entire abyss, the infinity of my nature. "We go out," say the careless people, "we go out at night, we sleep all day, we make as much money as we can by gambling and betting and lying, and that is a fine market; we have a large balance at the bank, and having got that large balance there, we say to our duties, Hands off! you live for us, we do not live for you." Well, I will not join you, I cannot.

IV. I want a religion that takes the best out of all alternatives and adds something of its own to them, and leads me into higher heights and diviner raptures of thought and imagination.

Christ makes us a great offer today. He throws upon us the responsibility of declining it. Peter's reason for coming to Christ is sufficient and rational, "Thou hast the words of eternal life". The man who has the words is the wise man. Things perish; the Word, the Logos, remains. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

—Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. vi. p280.

References.—VI:68.—G. F. Pentecost, Marylebone Presbyterian Church Pulpit, p3. Archbishop Plunket, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p357. W. G. Horder, ibid. vol. lix. p50. J. Ossian Davies, The Dayspring from on High, p77. E: M. Geldart, Faith and Freedom, p60. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p62. VI:68 , 69.—From Andachten, by Friedrick Naumann, translated by Charlotte Ada Rainy, The Scottish Review Sunday Supplement, vol. v. p198. J. Laidlaw, Studies in the Parables, p329. VI:69.—C. S. Robinson, Simon Peter, p240. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p199. VI:71.—Ibid. (4th Series), vol. i. p18. VII:1-9.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p113; ibid. vol. viii. p268. VII:2-8.—Ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. pp35 , 471. VII:3 , 4 , 10.—Ibid. p467. VII:4.—Ibid. (5th Series), vol. ii. p236. VII:5.—C. Bradley, Faithful Teaching, p95. VII:6.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p106. VII:11-15.—Ibid. (4th Series), vol. v. p294. VII:11-29.—Ibid. vol. i. p49. VII:13.—Ibid. vol. ii. p61. VII:14-16.—Ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p375. VII:15 , 16.—F. Lynch, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p330. VII:15-24.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p139. VII:16__J. Clifford, The Christian Certainties, p9. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p84.