you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain,"-here is a foreshadowing of the success and permanence of their apostolic work-" that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name”—here is the secret of that success- "He may give it you."

Then He repeats, "These things I command you, that ye love one another." How deeply these words sank into the heart of one present, may be seen by the way in which St. John cites them in his first epistle. "And this is His commandment (chap. iii. 23), that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment."

There was the more need for them to cling closely together, for they would have to live and work surrounded by active and bitter foes. "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you." Of that they had had ample experience. "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you: The servant is not greater than his lord.'" Christ had said this, or words equivalent to it, when He first sent them out to work (Matt. x. 24, 25), and He had repeated them during the course of this very evening. "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake, because they know not Him that sent

Me." To be the butt and victim of the world's malice would only be a proof to the disciples that they were on God's side-that side which must eventually triumph over all opposition. And hence we find them "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name."*

The Saviour then glances for a moment at the inexcusableness of this rejection of Him by the world. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin"-their sin would have been nothing in comparison to what it now is-" but now they have no cloke"-no excuse- "for their sin." The nature and root of their sin was plainly manifested. "He that hateth Me hateth My Father also." He may fancy, as the Pharisees did, that he is very zealous for God, but it is only because he is really ignorant of God's true character. He loves something which he has set up in his mind's sanctuary, and which he calls God, but which is really the likeness of the evil one. He hates what strives with and opposes this idol, and in so doing he commits himself to the hatred of God Himself. God is goodness, sin is evil. He that hates goodness hates God, and the more clearly He manifests Himself the more he hates Him. Christ was goodness incarnate-the express image of His Father, and so on Him the hatred of the world was concentrated in its greatest intensity. "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated

*Acts v. 41.

both Me and My Father." Theirs was not merely the ignorant prejudice which lingers in the mind. that has but an imperfect knowledge of God. They had had full opportunity of seeing what God is, and they had hated what they saw.

After remarking (ver. 26) how this conduct of the Jews fulfilled a passage in the Psalms, the Lord, in verse 26, again mentions the coming of the Comforter, and adds, "He shall testify of Me," and not He alone, for the disciples also should bear witness, for they had been with Him from the beginning.

SECTION LXX.

THE LAST SUPPER-THE OFFICE OF THE COMFORTER,

JOHN XVI. 1-15.

"THESE things have I spoken unto you, that ye THESE should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me."

The prospect was appalling indeed; a human heart shrinks at having every man's hand against it, and it might have been thought enough to make these weak, timid disciples, draw back and fall away. But the Lord knew that, with all their imperfections, the thought of apostacy was far from them.

"These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you

of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now Igo My way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou? but because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart." heart." He saw how depressed they wereso full of sorrow indeed that they hardly cared to ask Him any questions, not expecting that they should hear anything which would lighten the great calamity which threatened them.

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth"-I tell it you though you will not ask Me-"it is expedient for you"-it is for your advantage-" that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." The administration of the Comforter could not take place till Christ had departed. It was dependent on the completion of His work. And yet this advent of the Comforter was so important to them that, for it, it was worth while to forego even the personal presence of the Saviour.

We cannot explain this fully, but we do see that, after the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles were different men from what they had been when their Master was on earth. Then they knew Christ "after the flesh,"*-they depended on Him like little children on a parent; but when they had the Comforter dwelling in them, they rose to spiritual manhood.

The Lord then proceeds to detail more fully

* Ver. 5-16.

than He had yet done what would be the special work of the Comforter. "And when He is come, He will reprove"-or convince-" the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment"—these are the three points on which the world needs to be set right.

"Of sin, because they believe not on Me." Speaking through the apostles, whose souls He had filled with Himself, He proclaimed, "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." To those who had rejected Christ, this was the first truth to be brought home-the sin of their unbelief. To those who had not yet heard of Him, the truth takes this form-the paramount duty of believing on Him, and, therefore, through the mouth of the Apostle Paul, is proclaimed, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This is the first great fact impressed on the world by the Holy Ghost-Christ as the only Saviour.

Then, again, He shall reprove the world "of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.' Christ in His life and in His death vindicated the claim of righteousness to be the law of the world. His going to the Father and being received by Him in His character of Mediator, was God's seal set on the completeness of His work. And of the true nature of righteousness, its demands and its obligation, the Comforter convinces the world in all the writings of the New Testament, and in the lives and characters of every servant of Christ, whom He teaches and sanctifies. They are all witnesses that "he that doeth righteousness is righteous, and