30.-[Then they sought to take him.] This last declaration seems to have raised the anger of the Jerusalem multitude, who were listening to our Lord. With the characteristic keenness of all Jews they at once detected in our Lord's language a claim to be received as the Messiah. Just as on a former occasion, they saw, in His calling God His Father," that He "made Himself equal with God" (John v. 18), so here in His saying "I am from Him: He hath sent me," they saw an assertion of His right to be received as Messiah.

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[But no man...hour not yet come.] This restraint on our Lord's enemies can only be accounted for by direct Divine interposition. It is like John viii. 20, and xviii. 6. It is clear that they could do nothing against Him except by God's permission, and when God, in His wisdom, was pleased to let it be done. Our Lord did not fall into His enemies' hands through inability to escape, but because the "hour had come," when He voluntarily undertook to die as a substitute.

The doctrine before us, let us note, is full of comfort to God's people. Nothing can hurt them except and until God permits. We are all immortal till our work is done. To realize that nothing happens in this world except by the eternal counsels of our Father, and according to His eternal plans, is one grand secret of living a calm, peaceful, and contented life.

Besser quotes a saying of Luther's: "God has appointed a nice, easy hour, for everything; and that hour has the whole world for its enemy: it must attack it. The devil shoots and throws at the poor clock-hand, but in vain: for all depends on the hour. Till the hour comes, and the hand has run its course, the devil and the world shall accomplish nothing."

31.-[Many of the people.] This means the common people-the lower orders, in contradistinction to the Pharisees and chief priests.

[Believed on Him.] There seems no reason to think that this was not a true faith, so far as it went. But it would not be safe perhaps to conclude that it was more than a general belief that our Lord must be the Messiah, the Christ, and that He deserved to be received as such.

This language

[When Christ cometh...more miracles...done.] must clearly have been used by people who were familiar with many of our Lord's miracles wrought in Galilee, and knew a good deal about His ministry. So few miracles probably had been wrought as yet in and round Jerusalem, that the language would

hardly be used by Jerusalem people. The word "more" probably means not only more in number, but "greater" in character.

The question raised by these people was a fair and reasonable one,-"What greater evidence could any one give that He is the Christ, than this man has given? He could not work greater miracles, even if He worked more numerous ones. What then are we waiting for? Why should we not acknowledge this man as the Christ?

32.-[The Pharisees heard that the people murmured.. him.] This would be more literally translated, "The Pharisees heard the people murinuring;" they actually heard with their own ears the common people, as they walked about the temple courts, and gathered in the streets of Jerusalem, at the crowded time of the feast, keeping up their under conversation about our Lord. Here, as at the 12th verse, the word we render "murmuring," does not necessarily imply any finding fault, but only a dissatisfied and restless state of mind, which found vent in much conversation and whispering among the people.

[And the Pharisees...sent officers to take Him.] It would seem that the talk and stir of men's minds about our Lord so alarmed and irritated the rulers of the Jews, that they resolved even now in the midst of the feast to arrest Him, and so stop His preaching. What day of the feast this was, and what interval elapsed between this verse and the 37th, where we are told of "the last day" of the feast, we are not told. It seems probable that the officers sought an opportunity for taking our Lord, but could find none,-partly because of the crowds that surrounded Him, and partly because of a divine restraint laid upon them; and that this was the state of things for three days at least.

Full well did these Pharisees justify our Lord's character of them in another place : "Ye neither go in yourselves into the kingdom: neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." (Matt. xxiii. 13.) 33.-[Then said Jesus unto them.] The officers of the Pharisees and their supporters seem clearly to be the persons whom our Lord here addresses. Not only were they, through Divine restraint, unable to lay hands on Him, but they were obliged to stand by and listen to Him. They dared not seize Him for fear of the people, and yet dared not go away to report their inability to carry out their orders.

[Yet a little while, etc.] There is probably an under-tone of sadness and tenderness about this and the following sentences. It is as though our Lord said, "Ye have come to lay hands on me,

and yet ye might well bear with me. I am only a little time longer with you, and then when my time is come for leaving the world, I shall go back to my Father who sent me. Or else it must mean, "Ye are sent to lay hands on me, but it is useless at present? ye cannot do it, because my hour is not yet come. I have yet a little longer time to minister on earth, and then, and not till then, I go to Him that sent me." Alford takes this view.

The Jews of course could not understand whom our Lord meant by "Him that sent me," and this saying must necessarily have seemed dark and mysterious to them.

34-[Ye shall seek me...shall not find me.] These words seem addressed both to the officers and to those who sent them,-to the whole body, in fact, of our Lord's unbelieving enemies :-"A day will come too late, when you will anxiously seek me, and bitterly lament your rejection of me, but too late. The day of your visitation will be past and gone, and you will not find me.

There is a great Bible truth taught here, as elsewhere, which is far too much overlooked by many,-I mean the possibility of men seeking salvation when it is too late, and crying for pardon and heaven when the door is shut for ever. Men may find out their folly and be filled with remorse for their sins, and yet feel that they cannot repent. No doubt true repentance is never too late; but late repentance is seldom true. Pharaoh, King Saul, and Judas Iscariot, could all say, "I have sinned." Hell itself is truth known too late. God is unspeakably merciful no doubt. But there is a limit even to God's mercy. He can be angry, and may be provoked to leave men alone. People should often study Prov. i. 24-31: Job xxvii. 9: Isai. 1. 15: Jer. xi. 11: xiv. 12: Ezek. viii. 18 Hosea v. 6: Micah iii. 4: Zech. vii. 13: Matt. xxv. 11, 12.

These words very possibly received a most awful fulfilment during the siege of Jerusalem, forty years after they were spoken. So think Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius.

But they were probably found true by many of our Lord's hearers long before that time. Their eyes were opened to see their folly and sin, after our Lord had left the world.

Burgon remarks, that to this very day the Jews are in a sense seeking the Messiah, and yet not finding Him.

[Where I am, thither ye cannot come.] The place our Lord speaks of here is evidently heaven. Some have thought, as Bengel, that the words, "where I am," should be translated, "where I go." But it is neither a natural nor usual sense to put on the words. Nor is it necessary. There was a sense in which the Son of God

could say with perfect truth-"Where I am, thither ye cannot come. As God, he never ceased to be in heaven, even when He was fulfilling His ministry on earth during His incarnation. As God, He could truly say, "where I am," and not merely where "I was," or where "I shall be." It is like John iii. 13, where our Lord, speaking to Nicodemus, calls Himself the "Son of man which IS in heaven." The expression is one of the many texts proving our Lord's divinity. No mere man, speaking on earth, could speak of heaven as a place "where I am." Augustine strongly maintains this view.

[Ye cannot come.] This is one of those expressions which show the impossibility of unconverted and unbelieving men going to heaven. It is a place where they "cannot come. Their own nature unfits them for it. They would not be happy if they were there. Without new hearts, without the Holy Ghost, without the blood of Christ, they could not enjoy heaven. The favourite notion of some modern theologians, that all mankind are finally to go to heaven, cannot possibly be reconciled with this expression. Men may please themselves with thinking it is kind and loving and liberal and large-hearted to teach and believe that all men and women of all sorts will finally be found in heaven. One word of our Lord Jesus Christ's overturns the whole theory.-Heaven is a place, He says, to the wicked, where "ye cannot come.

The word "ye" is emphatical, and in the Greek stands out in strong contrast to the "I" of the sentence.

35.-[Then said the Jews... themselves] The expression "Jews" here can hardly be confined to the Pharisees and rulers. It must mean at any rate those among them who heard our Lord say the words in the preceding verse. Whoever they were, they were probably not friendly to Him.

[Whither will He go.. not find Him.] This would be more literally rendered, "Whither is this man about to go." They could put no meaning of a spiritual kind on our Lord's words.

[Will He go...dispersed...Gentiles, etc.] This would be more literally rendered, "Is He about to go to the dispersion among the Greeks, and to teach the Greeks." The Greek language, and Greek literature, and Greek philosophy, had so thoroughly leavened Asia Minor and Syria and Palestine, that the expression "Greeks" in the New Testament, is often equivalent to Gentiles, and stands for any people who are not Jews. Thus Rom. ii. 9 x. 3-9: 1 Cor. x. 32: xii. 13. Yet it is a singular fact that this is the only passage in the New Testament where the word "Greek," stand

:

ing alone and not in contradistinction to Jews, is rendered "Gentile."

The verse teaches two interesting things. One is the fact that the existence of a large number of Jews scattered all over the Gentile world was acknowledged as notorious in our Lord's time. The other is the impression that it proves to have prevailed among the Jews that a new teacher of religion might be expected to go to the Jews scattered among the Gentiles, and, beginning with them, proceed to teach the Gentiles. This is in fact precisely what the Apostle Paul and his companions afterwards did. They did "go to the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles." The idea started here of "teaching the Gentiles" was probably the suggestion of those who hated our Lord. How much the Jews detested the opening of the door of salvation to the Gentiles, we know from the Acts of the Apostles.

Some, as Chrysostom, Theophylact, Hengstenberg, and many others, think that the words " dispersed among the Gentiles mean the Gentiles themselves dispersed and scattered all over the world, and not the Jews. But our own version seems far more likely. There is an awkwardness in calling the Gentiles "the dispersion," and it is an expression nowhere else used. James calls the Jews "the twelve tribes scattered abroad." (James i. 1.) 36.-[What manner of saying, etc.] This question of the Jews is the language of people who saw that there was probably some deep meaning in our Lord's words, and yet were unable to make out which He meant. Hating our Lord bitterly, as many of them did,

determined to kill Him the first opportunity, - vexed and annoyed at their own inability to answer Him, or to stop His influence with the people, they suspected everything that fell from His lips.-"Do not these words of His imply some mischief? Is there not some evil at the bottom of them? Do they not indicate that He is going to dishonour the law of Moses by pulling down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile?"

JOHN VII. 37-39.

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly

shall flow rivers of living water.

39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

It has been said that there are some passages in Scripture which deserve to be printed in letters of gold.