what a man is. In a word, we forget our Lord's saying, -"Judge not according to the appearance."

We are too ready, on the other hand, to be deceived by the appearance of evil. We are in danger of setting down some men as no true Christians, because of a few faults or inconsistencies, and "making them offenders because of a word." (Isa. xxix. 21.) We must remember that the best of men are but men at their very best, and that the most eminent saints may be overtaken by temptation, and yet be saints at heart after all. We must not hastily suppose that all is evil, where there is an occasional appearance of evil. The holiest man may fall sadly for a time, and yet the grace within him may finally get a victory. Is a man's general character godly?—Then let us suspend our judgment when he falls, and hope on. Let us "judge righteous judgment."

In any case let us take care that we pass fair judgment on ourselves. Whatever we think of others, let us beware of making mistakes about our own character. There, at any rate, let us be just, honest, and fair. Let us not flatter ourselves that all is right, because all is apparently right before men. "The Lord," we must remember, "looketh on the heart." (1 Sam. xvi. 7.) Then let us judge ourselves with righteous judgment, and condemn ourselves while we live, lest we be judged of the Lord and condemned for ever at the last day. (1 Cor. xi. 31.)

NOTES JOHN VII. 14-24.

14.—[About.....midst of...feast.] This would be

about the fourth day

of the week, as the feast lasted seven days. Some who consider

the feast of tabernacles a type of Christ's incarnation, think this circumstance is typical of our Lord's earthly ministry lasting three years and a half, answering to the three days and a half during which our Lord taught publicly here in Jerusalem. I doubt myself whether the circumstance is typical at all. If the feast of tabernacles is typical, I believe it points to the second advent of Christ much more than to the first.

[Jesus went up...temple.] This means the outer court of the temple, where pious Jews were in the habit of assembling in order to hear the doctors of the law and others, and to discuss religious subjects. This is the place where our Lord was, when Joseph and Mary found Him, at twelve years of age, "in the temple." (Luke ii. 46.) It was probably a large open court yard, with piazzas or verandas around it, for shelter against heat and cold. [Taught.] What our Lord taught we are not told. Expositions of Scripture, as Luke iv. 17-21, and such lessons as those contained in the Sermon on the Mount, and the parables, were most likely the kind of things that He "taught " first, on such occasions as this. It admits of doubt whether He taught such deep things as those contained in the 5th and 6th chapters of St. John, unless publicly attacked, or put on His defence. Alford thinks this was 66

the first time" that our Lord "taught Yet this seems at least questionable when we consider the 2nd and 5th chapters of John.

publicly at Jerusalem."

15.-[The Jews marvelled.] The wisdom and knowledge of Scripture which our Lord showed must have been the principal cause of wonder. Yet, we may well believe, there was something wonderful in His manner and style of speaking.

[How knoweth this man letters?] The word rendered "letters " here, must probably be taken in the sense of "learning." It is so used in Acts xxvi. 24. In John v. 47 it is rendered "writings." In 2 Tim. iii. 11 it is "Scriptures." The original idea is a "written character,” a letter of an alphabet. It is thus used in Luke xxiii. 38 of the inscription on the cross, written "in letters of Greek," &c.

[Having never learned.] The Jews must have meant by this, that our Lord had never attended any of the great theological schools which the Scribes and Pharisees kept up in Jerusalem,— to which St. Paul refers, when he says, He was "brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel." (Acts xxii. 3.) They did not of course mean that any one brought up at Nazareth must necessarily have been totally ignorant. That our Lord could read and write is clear from Luke iv. 16, and John viii. 6. But the Jerusalem

Jews, in their pride and self-conceit, set down any one as comparatively ignorant who had not been trained in their great metropolitan schools. People are very apt to condemn any one as ignorant" who disagrees with them in religion.

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According to Tholuck, it was a rule of the Talmud, "that no man could appear as a teacher, who had not for some years been a colleague of a Rabbi."

16-[My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.] Our Lord meant by these words, "My doctrine is not mine only. The teaching that I am proclaiming is not a thing of my own private invention, and the product of my own isolated mind. It is the doctrine of my Father who sent me. It deserves attention because it is His message. He that despiseth it, despiseth not only me, but Him whose messenger I am."-The great truth of His own inseparable and mysterious union with God the Father, is here once more pointed at. It is like, "I can of my own self do nothing" (John v. 30), and "as my Father hath taught me I speak these things" (John viii. 28), and “I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me He gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak." (John xii. 49.)

Some think that our Lord only meant, "The sense of Scripture which I give is not my own, but the sense in which God at first gave it." But this is a very meagre view of the sentence, though an Arian or Socinian may like it.

Cyril remarks, "In saying that He was sent by the Father, He does not show Himself inferior to the Father. For this mission is not that of a servant, though it might be called so, as He 'took on Him the form of a servant.' But He is 'sent,' as a word is out of the mind, or a sunbeam out of the sun.

Augustine remarks: "This sentence undoeth the Sabellian heresy. The Sabellians have dared to say that the Son is the same as the Father the names two, the reality one. If the names were two, and the reality one, it would not be said, 'My doctrine is not mine.' If Thy doctrine be not Thine, Lord, whose is it, unless there be another whose it may be?"

Hengstenberg thinks that our Lord had in view the famous prophecy of Moses in which God says of Messiah "I will put my words in his mouth." (Deut. xviii. 18.)

Let us carefully note with what peculiar reverence we should receive and study every word that fell from our Lord's lips. When He spoke, He did not speak His own mind only, as one of His Apostles or prophets did. It was God the Father speaking with

and through Him. No wonder when we read such expressions as this that St. John calls our Lord "the Word.'

17.—[If any man will do His will.] The English language here fails to give the full force of the Greek. It is literally, "If any man is willing to do, has a mind and desire and inclination to do God's will." It is not the simple future of the verb "do." There are two distinct verbs. The stress, therefore, in reading the sentence, must not be laid entirely on “doing” God's will. It is "if any man is willing to do."

[He shall know of the doctrine.] This means he shall know "concerning and about" the doctrine I am proclaiming.

[Whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.] This means "whether the doctrine is from God, as I say it is,—the doctrine of God the Father, which He has commissioned and sent me to proclaim to man, or whether I speak from myself, on my own isolated responsibility, without any license or commission." The translation "speak of myself," is unfortunately equivocal. The expression does not mean "about and concerning" myself, but "from" myself.

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By "doing the will of God," our Lord must mean, obeying and performing, as far as in us lies, that will of God which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God." (17th Article.) Such " doing" He declares is the way to knowledge. It is the same idea as the "doing truth" of John iii. 21.

The principle here laid down is one of immense importance. We are taught that clear knowledge depends greatly on honest obedience, and that distinct views of Divine truth cannot be expected, unless we try to practise such things as we know. Living up to our light we shall have more light. Striving to do the few things we know, we shall find the eyes of our understanding enlightened, and shall know more. Did the Jews profess to feel perplexed, and not to know whether our Lord was sent from God? Let them honestly do God's will, and seek knowledge in the path of sincere obedience in such matters as were clear and plain.—So doing they would be guided into all truth, and find their doubts removed.

We learn from these words how greatly they err who profess to be waiting till their mental difficulties are removed before they become decided Christians. They must change their plan. They must understand that knowledge comes through humble obedience as well as through the intellect. Let them begin by honestly doing God's will, as far as they know that will, and in so doing they will find their minds enlightened.

We learn, furthermore, that God tests men's sincerity by making obedience part of the process by which religious knowledge is obtained. Are we really willing to do God's will so far as we know it? If we are, God will take care that our knowledge is increased. If we are not willing to do His will, we show clearly that we do not want to be God's servants. Our hearts and not our heads are in fault.

We learn, finally, the great principle on which many will be condemned at the last day. They did not live up to their light. They did not use such knowledge as they possessed, and so were left dark and dead in sins. There is probably not one in a thousand among unconverted people, who does not know far better than he practises. Such men surely, if lost, will have none to blame but themselves!

In interpreting this verse, I believe we must be careful not to lay more meaning on the expression "do His will," than our Lord meant it to bear. I say this because I observe many respectable commentators place such a very wide and comprehensive sense upon "doing God's will," that they miss entirely our Lord's purpose in speaking the words. They start with saying, that to "do God's will" we must have faith in Christ, new hearts, grace reigning within us, and the like, and thus represent our Lord as saying in effect, "If any man will become a true believer, and a converted man, he shall 'know of the doctrine,'" &c. I venture to think that such interpretation completely misses the mark, and is going round in a circle. Of course any true believer knows true doctrine. I believe that our Lord's object was simply to encourage the honestminded, sincere, single-eyed inquirer after truth. To such a man, though at present very ignorant, He says, "If you really have a desire to do God's will, to please Him, and to follow any light He gives you, you will be taught of Him, you will find out the truth. My doctrine may be hid from the wise and prudent, but it is revealed to babes." (Matt. xi. 25.) I hold, in short, that we should take as simple a view as possible of the sentence, "If any man will do His will," and be very careful that we do not mar its usefulness by putting more meaning on it than our Lord intended.

Bishop Hall thus paraphrases the text :-"If any man shall, with a simple and honest heart, yield himself over to do the will of my Father, according to the measure of that he knows, God shall encourage and bless that man with further light; so as he shall fully know whether my doctrine be of God, or of myself.”

Burgon remarks: "The perception of truth depends on the