The Gospel of St. John Part 4

ST. JOHN III. 3.

_Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of G.o.d._

It is undoubtedly right to connect the beginning of this chapter with the latter verses of the preceding one. '_Now when He was in Jerusalem at the pa.s.sover, in the feast, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man._' I must ask you here, as everywhere else in St. John, to subst.i.tute the word _signs_ for _miracles_. Our unfortunate adoption of this last word--which cannot be referred, as some of our careless translations may be, to the following of the Vulgate, for it has _signs_--has sadly weakened and perplexed the Evangelist's statements. _Here_, for instance, he does not tell us _what_ the acts of Christ were which were done at the pa.s.sover. He does not say whether He healed the sick, or cast out devils. He fixes our attention on this point,--that the acts were received by many of those who were gathered at the feast as signs.

'_They believed on His name._' The word _name_, in every part of Scripture, expresses that which is invisible. It is the contrast to an idol, or that which may be seen. Even idolaters recognised the _name_ of the G.o.d as that which was expressed by the outward image, as that which only the mind could recognise. We cannot, then, give less force to the phrase, '_They believed on His name_,' than this,--they confessed a power within Him which put forth these outward manifestations of itself. We should not try to be more definite when we are describing the vague feelings of a people. One moment they might think, '_Some_ divine power is at work in Him; He is _a_ Prophet.' At another, 'He is _the_ Deliverer, the King we are looking for.' The pa.s.sover was a time at which such opinions were most likely to be discussed, when parties were most likely to be formed about any new leader. The words which follow, '_But Jesus did not commit Himself to them_,' indicate, I think, that such a party was ready to gather itself round Him. He did not covet their support. He did not show the least desire to make use of their services, as one claiming to be the Christ might have done. But the language was capable of another sense.

It might denote the caution of a chieftain who was waiting till he had sounded the dispositions of his followers, till he had a.s.surance from some competent witnesses of their fidelity. The notion of such prudence in One who came to give His life for the world, of such need of information in Him whose life was the light of men, was utterly revolting. St. John adds, that the reason of His not committing Himself to this party was, '_that He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify concerning Man: for He knew what was in Man_.' They were not to discern and choose Him; He was to discern and choose them. He was not a King that a faction was to set up; He was the original Lord of men--ruling them not as a stranger, not as one who is separate from them, but as one possessing the most intimate knowledge of that which is distinct and peculiar in each man, and of _the_ man that is in all.

That there should be many in the crowd at the pa.s.sover--many of the ignorant expectants of a Christ--who thought that Jesus had given sufficient signs of His right to the name, is not surprising. They might be all the more willing to recognise Him, because He seemed to be of their cla.s.s. But these signs had affected some to whom the thought of a Galilaean peasant must have been utterly scandalous.

'_There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from G.o.d: for no man can do these signs which thou doest, except G.o.d were with him._' The words express more than an individual opinion. Nicodemus must have been conversing with other members of the Sanhedrim. A suspicion that a new _Teacher_--perhaps a Prophet--with some unusual powers, had appeared, might be diffusing itself through the body. _Whence_ the powers were derived, whether the prophet was true or false, were still questions to be asked. It was a further question whether the Prophet had any claim to be considered the Christ. The people might easily arrive at that conclusion; a ruler would be disposed to reject it. Yet it might be the true one. Nicodemus would evidently like to know. He could not take the rash step of putting himself under the banner of one who might lead him to rebellion; but he would ascertain the fact privately, if he could.

The reply meets the thought in the heart of the speaker, not the words he had uttered. 'You wish to know whether I am about to set up a kingdom. "_Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of G.o.d._"' The phrase 'kingdom of G.o.d,' or 'kingdom of heaven,' is one which is continually recurring in the first three Evangelists; it may be said to be nearly their most characteristic phrase. It is not characteristic of St. John; he uses it rarely. But if we want a commentary upon every pa.s.sage in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which it is to be found; if we want to know why we hear of it in connexion with the parables,--why the Gospel which the Apostles were to preach is called the Gospel of this kingdom,--I should point you to this verse and to the conversation which follows it. Nicodemus was expecting, in some way or other, to _see_ the kingdom of G.o.d. Signs were to show who the divine King was; He would present Himself in such wise to His people, that they should have no doubt of Him and His authority. All this he thought would be granted by G.o.d, if He fulfilled His promises, and raised up the Son of David to sit upon David's throne. Was the hope a wrong one? Could less than a clear demonstration be a warrant for accepting any being clothed in human flesh as the divine Prince and Deliverer? Verily, nothing less.

They must see the kingdom of G.o.d. It must reveal itself to them with an evidence which they could not gainsay. It must lay hold upon them as its subjects, _de facto_ and _de jure_, with a compulsion not weaker but mightier than that with which the Roman empire had laid hold of them. The arguments of the Christ must be as decisive in their own kind as the arguments of the Caesar.

But were they of the same kind? Our Lord says, '_Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of G.o.d_.' This language does not occur for the first time in our Gospel. We heard before that the divine Word '_came to His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of G.o.d; which were born not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of G.o.d._' Here is the announcement of another kind of birth from that which we call the natural birth.

And yet it is not a portentous, _un_natural birth. If the doctrine which is the foundation of this Gospel is true; if the Word that was with G.o.d and was G.o.d is Creator of men; if His life is the light of men; those who entertained His light, those who did not refuse to be penetrated by His life, became what they were meant to be: they fulfilled the purpose of Him who called them into existence. The power which He gave them to become sons of G.o.d was a power to become _men_, in the true sense of that word--to rise above the condition of animals.

When, therefore, our Lord tells Nicodemus that only those who were born again, or born from above (there is a justification for each rendering--????e?, perhaps, unites the force of both), can see the kingdom of G.o.d, He tells him that the vision of the true state of man,--of that order which is intended for men,--is only given to those who receive the Light which lighteneth all men. Theirs is the n.o.bler, better birth--the divine birth; and theirs is the power of perceiving that kingdom which surrounds all men, to which all are subject, but which, being the kingdom of G.o.d, and not the kingdom of the Caesar, does not act upon men through material armies, and tax-gatherers at the receipt of custom,--does not manifest its power and majesty to the outward eye. This kingdom is over the man himself, not over his accidents and circ.u.mstances; he must be a man, not a creature of these accidents and circ.u.mstances, in order to see it; and that capacity of being a man he must derive not from flesh and blood, but from the Father of his spirit.

This conversation by night must have been remembered and recorded by Nicodemus himself. As he repeated it to St. John,--probably long after that day when he came with spices to anoint the body of Jesus in the tomb,--the words which had been spoken to him, and the words which he had spoken, must have come fresh to his memory; the meaning of the one, the deep ignorance of the other, seen by the light that fell upon them from the experiences and the revelations of after years. As he was an honest man, he did not suppress or soften his own answer to the '_Verily, verily_,' of Christ. '_How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?_' In truth, he had no cause to be ashamed of himself for having stated his difficulty in that rough way. To veil it under seemly phrases would have been no evidence of enlightenment.

The Jewish doctors, it is said, not uncommonly described the Gentile as one who became a little child, who began his life anew, when he was received by baptism into the privileges of their outer court. If so, Nicodemus must have been familiar with the expression; but it must have been to him, and to most who availed themselves of it, a mere figure of rhetoric--one of those counters which pa.s.s among religious people, which have a certain value at first, but which become at length so depreciated that they serve no purpose but to impose on those who take and those who give them. However little Nicodemus might know of Jesus, he did know that He was not resorting to figures of rhetoric--that if He spoke of a birth, He meant a birth; and he must have perceived that what He said did not apply to sinners of the Gentiles, but to him, the religious ruler of the Jews. It was, therefore, a good and healthy sign, a proof of the power of the new Teacher, that he forgot the conventionalisms of the Sanhedrim, and spoke out coa.r.s.ely and naturally, as a peasant might have done. Our Lord, surely, pa.s.sed this judgment upon him; for, instead of rebuking him for his question, He meets it in the most direct manner possible: '_Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of G.o.d._' The object of Nicodemus in coming to ask Him about His kingdom, is still kept prominently forward; but there is a noticeable change in our Lord's words. He had spoken of _seeing_ the kingdom of G.o.d; He now speaks of _entering_ into it. Each expression may, unquestionably does, involve the other; still they are distinct. To _see_ a kingdom, is to have an apprehension of its reality and of its nature; to _enter_ into a kingdom, is to become a subject of it. And then the thought forces itself upon us, 'How can any one choose to become a subject of G.o.d's kingdom? _Is_ he not a subject of it necessarily? If G.o.d is the King of kings and Lord of lords, can he escape out of His kingdom? Is he not bound by the laws of it, whether he likes them or no?' We cannot state this difficulty to ourselves too frequently; we cannot meditate upon it too earnestly. Our consciences tell us that we _are_ the subjects of G.o.d's kingdom; that its laws do bind us; that they avenge themselves upon us when we break them. But our consciences tell us, also, that there is rebellion in us against that which holds us so fast, which executes its decrees so certainly. This is the contradiction, it exists--it is a fact, _the_ fact, of our lives. No theories can get rid of it. But who shall tell us _how_ to get rid of it? Before we can understand what could remove it, before we can even ask with any seriousness to have it removed, we must know and feel how deep the contradiction is. Suppose the government of G.o.d should be a government over our wills, rebellion in those very wills must be the most fearful we can conceive of. And the entering into the kingdom of G.o.d must import the return of the spirit of man to its allegiance,--the claim of a voluntary spiritual being to be under the will with which it is its misery to be at strife. John had come preaching, '_the kingdom of G.o.d is at hand_,' calling men to repentance, baptizing with water, proclaiming One who would baptize with the Holy Ghost. When Jesus says to Nicodemus, '_Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of G.o.d_,' He takes up the teaching of his forerunner, He expounds his act, He announces the fulfilment of his promise. The being baptized with water, He declares to be the act of submission to the Father of spirits,--the sign which a man gives that he accepts His government, that he surrenders himself to it. It is a surrender,--that is the only word we can find,--a confession by the human will of its impotency. It must be guided, governed, inspired, or it can do nothing, it can only struggle against its blessedness. The acceptance, therefore, of this water-sign, by a creature conscious of his own irregular strivings, of his separation from G.o.d, is the expression of a desire that G.o.d would act upon his will, would raise it to its proper condition, would quicken it to the acts and impulses which belong to it,--in other words, would baptize it with the Spirit.

We see, then, how water and the Spirit are connected with the entrance into the kingdom of G.o.d,--the kingdom over the spirit of man. Our Lord goes on to explain that He had used the word _birth_ in its relation to both, not carelessly, but strictly. '_That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit._' One is as true and actual a birth as the other. The coming forth of the fleshly creature into light, its beginning to breathe, the voice which accompanies that breathing, are not more undoubted facts--very mysterious facts _they_ must appear to all who reflect upon them--than the coming forth of a spirit out of its darkness, than the sense of light which startles it, than its breathings, than its cry.

I have introduced this thought concerning breath and the voice of the new-born child, because it seems to me to connect itself with the words which follow, and to remove a confusion which our translation of them has introduced into our minds: '_Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit._' The philological objections to this rendering of the words are very numerous. In the first place, ??e??, not p?e?a, is the proper word for _wind_. But suppose, by reducing the wind to a faint low breathing, we escape from that objection, there is the second, that p?e?a is used twice in the same sentence in different senses.

Yet this is a slight fault compared with the next. We actually attribute _will_ to the wind; it blows where it listeth, ?p??

???e?. After this flagrant departure from all scriptural and spiritual a.n.a.logy, it is scarcely necessary to mention another, which is, nevertheless, not unimportant, and is of the same kind. F??? is the articulate voice of a living being; it is here changed into a natural sound. Now, wherever violence is done to the truth of language, I believe more or less of violence is done to some higher truth. What need have we to introduce the sighing and soughing of the wind, in order to make our Lord's explanation more clear and forcible, if we understand Him to say,--'All the breathings of G.o.d's Spirit are free, not fixed and fettered by material or mechanical conditions. You hear His voice continually; but whence the Spirit comes, whither it is going, you know not. And so it is with him that is born of the Spirit.

The process of birth cannot be perceived by you; you hear the voice which indicates birth, you see the signs and tokens of life; but how the spiritual being came to be what he is, you know not.' If we take this to be what our Lord told Nicodemus, and what He is telling us, are we not to learn that, at every moment of the day, the Spirit of the eternal G.o.d is moving around us, speaking to us, acting upon us; but that His mightiest operation, that which alone fulfils His purpose towards us, is when He enables us to become the willing servants and children of our Father in heaven?

'_How can these things be?_' asked the doctor of the Sanhedrim, in a bewilderment which many of us can well understand. It was, indeed, a strange new world into which he was transported; it seemed to him a world of dreams, because he had been himself so much amidst dreams, because he had known so little of realities. '_Art thou a master of Israel_,' was the rejoinder, '_and knowest not these things?_' 'What hast thou been learning all thy life? what hast thou been teaching thy countrymen? Hast thou not been reading of an unseen G.o.d, who holds converse with men,--of a G.o.d of the spirits of all flesh? Hast thou not believed that this G.o.d is a living G.o.d, as He was when He appeared to Moses in the bush? when He touched the lips of Isaiah with fire in the Temple? Hast thou not understood that He is thy G.o.d, as much as He was the G.o.d of any Israelite to whom the commandments were spoken on the Mount? Hast thou not bidden the people of Israel of this day to believe that He is _their_ G.o.d?' '_Verily, I say unto you, That which we have known, we speak; that which we have seen, we testify._' 'This is the characteristic of every true teacher, of every called prophet.

This has been the characteristic of John; this is mine. We do not speak things that we have learnt by report--things that have been transmitted to us; we speak the truths with which we have been brought face to face.' '_And ye receive not our testimony._' 'These things we tell you of, because they are about you, because you are created to know them, and have fellowship with them. And you turn away from them in search of things that are at a distance from you--of formalities and trifles which you call by lofty names, which give rise to endless disputings, but which do not concern you as human beings in the least.' '_And if I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of the heavenly things?_' 'If these things which have to do with your daily lives, which bear upon your ordinary business, which you can test by the experience of your failures and your sins,--if _these_ seem to you incredible, how will it be if I speak to you of G.o.d Himself, of His purposes, of His nature?'

His words imply that He has a right to speak of these things also, that He is _able_ to speak of them. On what ground could a power so amazing rest? He goes on to declare the ground of it: '_For no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven_.' Of all paradoxes, this appears to be the greatest. And yet if the heart of this ruler--if the heart of any man--has been delivered from the oppressive fears and superst.i.tions that connect themselves with the thoughts of a distant heaven in _s.p.a.ce_, which looks coldly and drearily down upon earth--of a distant heaven in _time_, which stands aloof from all human sympathies; if ever the belief in heaven has been regarded as a spring of hope and energy to the sons of men; if ever they have learnt not to think of earth as a place in which they were to cozen and lie for threescore years and ten, and heaven as a place to which some might escape, if they made compensations to the Ruler of it for the evils which they had done in the other region of His government; that deliverance, those better and n.o.bler thoughts have come from the paradox which is uttered in this verse. Poor people--utterly bewildered by all they have heard from divines and masters in Israel about heaven, and the way in which they are to obtain heaven--have taken this sentence home to their hearts,--that the Son of Man, He who suffered for them and with them on earth, is He who has ascended into heaven, and who is always in heaven. They have entered into the kingdom of heaven with those spirits which were born of the divine Spirit, as they entered into the kingdom of earth when they were born of the flesh; they have seen the kingdom with the spiritual eye which G.o.d has opened, as clearly as they have seen the trees and flowers of earth with the fleshly eye which He has opened.

How He opens that eye, and what He reveals to it when it is opened, the next words will tell us. '_And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For G.o.d so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For G.o.d sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved._'

How can I introduce such a pa.s.sage as this at the close of a sermon?

Because I would not allow my sense of the immense worth and importance of every clause, of every word, of which it consists, to hinder you from tracing the method of our Lord's discourse. The question about the kingdom of G.o.d lay at the threshold of the dialogue. Here He declares how He is to claim His kingdom, to what throne He is to be raised, that all men might confess Him as their King. Jesus might have spoken of the exaltation of David or of Solomon as the pattern of His own. He goes back to an older and sublimer event in Jewish history.

The brazen serpent to which the eyes of those were turned who had been bitten by the serpents in the wilderness, the common life-giving, life-restoring object,--this was the sign which He chose of that dominion which should stretch from sea to sea, which should reach to the lowest depths, and work the mightiest deliverance. 'You would know if I am a King. You will see me lifted upon a cross: there you may learn what I am. Whoso sees the Son of Man, his Lord and King there,--whoso believes and trusts Him there,--will rise up indeed a new man, will be saved from the plague which is destroying him, will awaken to health and freedom. He will not perish in his wretched, selfish isolation; he will have that life which is the common life of all.'

And why? He will see there the love of G.o.d to him and to the world.

The only-begotten Son upon that cross will declare Him as He has always declared Him; but the revelation will be immeasurably fuller and clearer than it has ever been. He from whom men have turned as their enemy, as plotting _their_ destruction, as pledged to destroy the world, will be manifested as their Saviour and its Saviour. That which has been the curse and misery and death of man, his separation from G.o.d, his hatred of G.o.d, will cease for those who believe that in this Son of Man He is making known what He wills, what He is. They will have that eternal life of trust and love which is His own life.

And therefore He goes on: '_He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of G.o.d. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in G.o.d._' The belief that Jesus does by His cross manifest the tender love of G.o.d to mankind, that in Him G.o.d's whole will and mind and purpose are revealed to men,--this takes away the condemnation from their consciences; this restores them to trust and liberty and hope.

And therefore, conversely, _not_ to believe this, is to have a sense of alienation and distance from G.o.d, to feel that there is an abyss between us and Him which has never been closed--an abyss into which we are casting our sacrifices and works of devotion, in the dream that it may at last be filled up; while all our efforts, being efforts of discontent and distrust, efforts to conciliate a foe, widen and deepen it. Our Lord p.r.o.nounces this unbelief to be its own all-sufficing punishment. 'The light is there; you do not love it; you fly from it.

What worse state can there be than that? You hug the evil deeds from which you might be delivered. You choose the evil which is contrary to the being and nature of the blessed G.o.d in whose image you are made.

What torment can there be so great as that?'

I spoke of the new birth, or the birth from above, by which men are made capable of seeing the kingdom of G.o.d, as one of which those may become conscious who are conscious of a rebellious will, and who would fain submit to their rightful Ruler. This latter part of the dialogue confirms and enlarges that statement. He who is bitten with serpents may turn to the brazen serpent; he who has been alienated from G.o.d may become at peace with Him. But our Lord's words also discover to us another truth, different from this, nowise inconsistent with it. They show us that our consciousness is not in any sense the foundation of G.o.d's kingdom, that His love is the foundation of it. They make us understand that the revelation of that Love is in very deed the reconciliation and regeneration of the world; that we may claim all as included in that reconciliation and regeneration; that our baptism of water and the Spirit, while it gives all warrant for conscious repentance and faith, must comprehend the unconscious, must declare upon what their consciousness is to stand. They _are_ sons of G.o.d.

G.o.d's Spirit is given them, that they may grow into the knowledge of their sonship, that they may be able to live in conformity with it.

The conclusion of this memorable discourse also takes off all the edge which has been given to those words, in the earlier part of it, in which it is said, '_the Spirit breathes where He wills_.' I have treated that language as expressing the entire freedom of His operations, His independence on material agents as well as on the will of the creature. But if any one concludes that the Spirit does not will that all men should believe and come to the knowledge of the truth, he must deny that He is the Spirit of that G.o.d who sent not His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

DISCOURSE VIII.

THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDEGROOM'S FRIEND.

[Lincoln's Inn, Easter Sunday, March 23, 1856.]

ST. JOHN III. 30.

_He must increase; I must decrease._

We have seen, in the first chapter of this Gospel, how much the work and office of John the Baptist are connected with all the deepest thoughts and announcements of the Apostle. The more we study him, the more probable, I think, the old tradition of the Church, that he was a disciple of the Baptist, must appear to us,--the more we shall understand the cause of his anxiety to point out the exact relation between his two teachers.

I have endeavoured to show you that it is not the _superiority_ of the Christ to the forerunner which he chiefly dwells upon. That difference had been sufficiently brought out by the earlier evangelists. He insists that the superiority of the Christ rested on His _priority_; that the later in order of manifestation was the first in order of being; that of His fulness John and all previous prophets had received; that of Him, as the Word of G.o.d, as the Light of men, they had all borne witness. Whether Jesus was or was not the Word made flesh,--whether He did or did not prove that in Him was the Life of all things, and that He was the Light of men,--are questions which the Evangelist undertakes to resolve for us in the course of his narrative. Upon that point the Baptist may at times have had a strong conviction; at times he might be doubtful. But that there was such a Word of G.o.d, such a Light of men, and that He would make Himself manifest, this was the groundwork of his prophecy; by this proclamation he proved himself to be of the same cla.s.s with Isaiah and Ezekiel; by this he showed that a kingdom of heaven must be at hand, in which the least might be greater than he.

How our Lord spoke to a ruler of the Jews concerning that kingdom, and the qualifications for entering into it and seeing it--how he connected it with a birth by water and by the Spirit--we have heard in the first part of this chapter. The narrative which occupies the remainder of it carries us back to John. Not long after the pa.s.sover at which the conversation with Nicodemus took place, Jesus, we are told, went with His disciples into the country part of Judaea--the land of Judaea being here set in contrast, not with Galilee, but with the city of Jerusalem, at which He had been during the feast. '_There He tarried with them and baptized._' This expression is used loosely; it is qualified in the next chapter. '_Jesus_,' it is said, '_Himself baptized not, but His disciples_.' Still it was regarded, to all intents and purposes, as His baptism. It was naturally compared with that of John; for he was still at large, and was '_baptizing in aenon, near to Salim, where there was much water_.' Perhaps the numbers that went out to him had diminished; but it is obvious from the context that he was still an object of attraction to many; '_they came to him, and were baptized_.'

'_Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and a Jew_' (the plural is evidently quite out of place) '_about purification_.' We need not inquire into the nature of this dispute, seeing that the Apostle tells us no more of it. Before that time, and ever since, the subject of purification has given rise to thousands of questions, all bearing more or less directly upon the relation between outward acts and the inner man,--what the former can or cannot do to make the other better. Such questions were certain to be awakened by a baptism with water, and a preaching of repentance such as John's; any of them may have suggested to his disciples the thought whether there was some greater virtue in that of Jesus, or whether He were merely a rival and imitator of the elder teacher. With surprise and perplexity, and something of the indignation which was natural in men jealous for the honour of a beloved teacher, '_they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, and to whom thou barest witness, behold the same baptizeth, and all men come unto Him_.'

There was probably a pause before John gave his answer. The news which he heard may have stirred up strange thoughts and doubts within him, not in a moment to be quelled. Was his work over? Was he to have no more power over men? Was he no longer a witness for G.o.d? The magician says, when the fabric of his vision is dissolved--

'Now my spells are all o'erthrown, And what strength I have's my own; Which is most faint.'

A mournful conclusion, and yet one to which many a man of high genius has been brought, and out of which, perhaps, in the end he has derived very precious lessons. Was this to be the result of the _prophet's_ meditation also? No! it comes forth in quite other words, which were a reply both to the questionings in his own soul, and the shallower perplexities and speculations of his disciples. '_A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from above._' As if he had said: 'You need not be careful of my fame. If I have ever spoken a word which has entered into you, and shown you your ownselves, and has made you truer, better men, that word was given me by the Lord of your spirit and mine; He enabled you to take it in. Out of the bosom of G.o.d, where that Word is whose life is the light of men, did these quickening, illuminating words proceed. Just so far as my words have led you to turn to _that_ Word who is always with you, and who has promised that He will come and manifest Himself to you,--just so far have they been wholesome and effectual. "_You yourselves bear me witness, that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him._" As I never pretended to be that unseen Light, which I told you was struggling with your darkness, so--you know it well--I never pretended to be the Christ, the Anointed One, the King of Israel. For my message was that this Christ must be that Light of the world, that Word made flesh. I told you that He alone would baptize with the Spirit, because He alone would be fully baptized with the Spirit. I am sent before Him,--sent, as I said, to baptize with water, that so He might be made known to Israel who has the higher baptism.' And then, as if he were caught away by a new and diviner inspiration, as if the very meaning of that word, Christ the anointed, were revealed to him,--as if, in the light of that meaning, a thousand old songs and symbols were interpreting themselves to him,--he goes on, '_He that hath the bride is the bridegroom_.' The vision of a king was before him; of a king, the direct contrast to the tyrants of the earth. In place of a Deioces, hidden in the recesses of some Median palace--in place of a Tiberius, governing the world by spies--he sees One '_who is fairer than the sons of men, upon whose lips grace is poured, whose sword is on His thigh, and who rides on in truth and righteousness_.' He sees Him coming to woo and claim His bride, '_whose beauty He greatly desires, who is all-glorious within, whose clothing is of wrought gold_.' Such a Bridegroom all the prophets had, in one form of speech or another, been discoursing of. They had proved that they were dealing in no metaphors--pouring out no Oriental rhapsodies; for their revelation of Him had been connected with the homeliest exhortations to domestic union and purity; they had affirmed the relation of the particular husband and wife to have its foundation in this higher relation; they had treated all breaches of the marriage-vow as indications and results of the adultery of the race to its unseen Husband. And though the race meant in their minds Israel; though the people whom G.o.d had chosen, and with whom He had made a covenant, were those whom they taught to regard themselves as united in this eternal bond, of which covenants were but the outward expression, which existed long before Abraham or Noah; yet their language was always too large for even these limitations--was continually breaking through them. The King who was to reign over the Gentiles must be represented as their Husband; whensoever He should be revealed as the glory of His people Israel, He would certainly be revealed as the Light to lighten all the nations; that is to say, whensoever he appeared as the Christ of G.o.d, He would certainly appear as the Bridegroom of Humanity.

To speak of Him, then, by this name, was not, as some would make out, to antic.i.p.ate the discoveries of New Testament Apostles. It was expressly to endorse and unfold the discoveries that had been made to Old Testament Prophets. It is only when he speaks of his own office in relation to this Bridegroom, that John looks at all beyond the previous teachers of his land; and then, that he may make their office also more intelligible.

'_The friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled._' I know scarcely any words in all the Scriptures which have a deeper and diviner music in them than these, or which more express all that a Christian minister and a Christian man should wish to understand and feel; and should hope that some day he may understand and feel as he who first spoke them did. That may seem to us a high ambition; we ought to consider it a poor ambition.

After eighteen hundred years we should be able to understand _better_, to feel _more_ intensely than John did, that all the joy which is intended for a human being--nay, in the strict sense, which is possible for a human being--comes from hearing this Bridegroom's voice. I do believe, brethren, that by sore experience, shameful experience, those of us who have had fewest saintly aspirations may learn that lesson. We have listened for the echoes of our own voices; we have longed to know what impression they made; we have tried to feast on the outward praise or the inward consciousness of their power or sweetness. Has it not been very miserable, unsatisfying food? has not the day's gluttony brought nausea and disgust on the morrow? Has not the gratification of that vanity gradually formed in us a craving, which no indulgence could appease, which every disappointment made intolerable? How much better has it been, if we have striven to take delight in the words and deeds of other men, to feel the praises of them as our own! 'As our own! Then we still are intended to connect what is outside of us with ourselves; we must, in some sort, refer them to a standard within us?' Here is the puzzle; one always recurring; one infinitely more tormenting in the practice of life than it ever can be in speculation; one that affects all our judgments of our fellow-men; one that never deserts us when we are alone. It never can be set at rest till we confess a Lord, from whom all that is good and dear and worthy to be admired in any human being is derived--a root of all mutual understanding and genial sympathy--a centre of life and joy. If we think that there is a Bridegroom who is ever bestowing His own treasures and loveliness upon the creatures who were formed after His likeness, whose nature He has taken, who is ever drawing those creatures out of their own narrow and dark prison-houses, to come and claim their rights as spirits, and to share with Him the free air and light in which He dwells, then we may begin to claim the place of His friends, and in our own hearts, as well as in those who have been most estranged from us, to hear Him speaking. That speech will not be monotonous; we shall know why it is said in the Apocalypse to be as the sound of many waters. In the accents of humiliation and penitence, in the accents of thanksgiving and praise, in the confessions upon sick-beds, in the laugh of children, in the stillness of the churchyard, in the noise of cities, in the cries upon the cross, in the message, He is risen,--we shall hear the Bridegroom's voice. It testifies that He has come and is coming to us and to all.

Our joy is fulfilled only if we learn to welcome Him, and to bid our brethren welcome Him also.

And therefore John proceeds, most consistently and harmoniously: '_He must increase; I must decrease_.' If the words had been spoken only of a new teacher who was baptizing more disciples than he, there would be a sadness and a kind of murmur in them, however they might denote a necessary submission. But when it is the Bridegroom of his own spirit, the divine Lord, from whom alone he had received light, in whom alone he could see light, who was to increase, the '_I must decrease_' is not a qualification of the joy he had claimed as the Bridegroom's friend, but a princ.i.p.al part of it. How many a one has felt the misery of a self; has longed to become absorbed in the universe--to be nothing! It was a wish which a holy man such as John was did not dare to cherish, and yet which must have haunted him more than most. To have a glimpse of _this_ annihilation; to see that it was possible to become less and less, while He in whom he was bound up, in whom was the spring of his life and joy, grew greater and greater; to feel that he might find his own personality in another;--was not this the consummation to which G.o.d had always been leading him? Was not this, too, the very meaning and explanation of the work in which he had been engaged? The Word, the Light of men, of whom he had told his countrymen, needed no longer his witness; for He was coming forth Himself to witness of that Father with whom He had dwelt eternally, to tell mankind of Him.

This higher testimony, this newer and grander revelation, is the subject of the verses which follow: '_He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony._'

John had said before, that a man receives nothing but what is given him from heaven. He does not recal that language, but affirms it anew, when he says that every man in himself, every child of Adam, though a living soul, is '_yet of the earth, and speaketh of the earth_.' He is tied to earthly measures and standards. If he applies even the faculties which he has derived from heaven to judge of heaven, he reduces it to the level of earth. But there is One who cometh from above, One who is above all, One who draws His light from the Fountain of light, One whose light in us is not a part of our darkness, but a divine power to scatter it. He testifies of that which He has seen and heard, of the heavenly things, of the will and nature and purpose of G.o.d. '_And no man receiveth His testimony._' Strange that John should say that! What he had heard from his disciples was that Jesus was baptizing, and '_that all men came to Him_.' We are not told that he doubted their information; we are not told that he had any different information from more trustworthy sources. And yet he confidently affirms that His testimony is not received. Why? Because he was not speaking of what had happened in the few days or weeks since Jesus came to Jordan to fulfil all righteousness, but of the four thousand years during which He had come to His own, and His own had received Him not. That testimony which He had borne as the invisible Word of G.o.d He was bearing still, now that He was made flesh and dwelling among men. It was mightier in degree; it was not different in kind. It was still a testimony to the heart, to the inner man, and must be entertained or rejected there. What, therefore, the Baptist could say of the past, on the warrant of so long an experience, he could say surely of the present. The darkness would fight against the light. No man of himself, without an operation from above, without a higher baptism than that of water, whether administered by John or by Christ, would believe that which the Son of G.o.d came to tell him.

That this limitation to the expression '_no man_' is involved in the very nature of the Baptist's discourse, is evident from the next verse: '_He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that G.o.d is true_.' But what need of a limitation? Why should he have made a large a.s.sertion in one sentence, which is to be modified or contradicted in the next? The answer is contained in the words themselves: '_He who receives this testimony sets to his seal that G.o.d is true_.' The Christ comes to baptize men with the Spirit, that they may receive that which of themselves they are both reluctant and unable to receive. The man who accepts that testimony, confesses his own reluctance and inability. He believes G.o.d to be strong and true, though he is weak and lying. And his mind becomes stamped with the impression of G.o.d's truth. The Spirit of G.o.d raises him above himself to know Him. It was necessary, then, to make the one a.s.sertion in _its_ breadth and fulness, that the other might not lose any of its breadth and fulness. It was necessary that no man should suppose himself capable of entering into the mind and kingdom of G.o.d--that all men might know that G.o.d was not deceiving them, when He promised to bestow that capacity upon them.

'_For_,' John continues, '_He whom G.o.d hath sent speaketh the words of G.o.d: for G.o.d giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him_.' He speaks the words of G.o.d. If He proclaimed a doctrine, a theory, a scheme of the universe--that might be taken in,--if some thought ill of it, others would embrace it. But He comes speaking the words of G.o.d--revealing the mind of the Eternal Being--showing forth Him who is truth and who is love. How can we grasp such a manifestation as this?