Jesus was with the words of eternal life

JESUS WAS WITH THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
JOHN 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to
whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
GreatTexts of the Bible
To Whom shall We go?
Simon Peteransweredhim, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words
of eternal life.—John6:68.
1. The situation in which our Lord found Himself at this stage in His careeris
full of pathos. He beganHis ministry in Judæa, and His successthere seemed
to be all that could be desired. But it soonbecame apparent that the crowds
who followedHim misunderstood or wilfully ignored His purpose. They
resortedto Him chiefly, if not solely, for material advantages andpolitical
ends. He was in danger of being accountedthe most skilful metropolitan
physician, or in the greaterdanger of being courted by politicians as a likely
popular leader, who might be used as a revolutionary flag or party cry. He,
therefore, left Jerusalematan early period in His ministry and betook
Himself to Galilee;and now, after some months’ preaching and mingling with
the people, things have workedround in Galilee to preciselythe same point as
they had reachedin Judæa. Greatcrowds are following Him to be healedand
to be fed, while the politically inclined have at last made a distinct effort to
make Him a king, to force Him into a collisionwith the authorities. His proper
work is in dangerof being lostsight of. He finds it necessaryto sift the crowds
who follow Him. And He does so by addressing them in terms which can be

acceptable only to truly spiritual men—by plainly assuring them that He is
among them, not to give them political privileges and the bread that perisheth,
but the bread that endureth. They find Him to be what they would call an
impracticable dreamer. They profess to go awaybecause they cannot
understand Him; but they understand Him wellenough to see that He is not
the personfor their purposes. They seek earth, and heaven is thrust upon
them. They turn awaydisappointed, and many walk no more with Him. The
greatcrowd melts away, and He is left with His original following of twelve
men. His months of teaching and toil seemto have gone for nothing. It might
seemdoubtful if even the Twelve would be faithful—if any result of His work
would remain, if any would cordially and lovingly adhere to Him. Wearily
and wistfully He turns to the Twelve, asking, “Willye also go away?” And
Simon Peteranswers Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words
of eternal life.”
2. This answerof Peter’s contains a greatassumption. There is a postulate in
the reply, which being removed, the whole drops to pieces. It is that man must
have some one to go to. It is that the soul wants, demands, cries out for, not
some thing only but some One: cannot live without a Master, without a Guide,
without a Revealerand a Comforter: is so constituted that it cannot live alone,
cannot grope its own way, exceptas searching for One who shall be its rest:
will not, cannot, ought not to be self-sufficing;inasmuch as this is the law of its
being, and God has made it natural to us—natural, not as a malady or
weakness,but as a part of our original constitution—notto inquire whether to
any one, but only, confidently, this: To whom shall we go? So in the text we
have these three things—
I. The Fact—thatwe need some one to go to.
II. The Question—To whomshall we go?

III. The Answer—that only Christ can satisfyour wants, because He
alone has “the words of eternal life.”
I
We need Some One to go to
1. St. Petergraspedthe situation at once. He saw that they must go to some
one. It may be that there flashedbefore his eyes certain possible masters—
such as Moses the lawgiver, or John the Baptist, or perhaps some of the
Gentile leaders;but in the light of Jesus Christ all these seemedabsolutely
impossible, and so he cried, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hastthe words
of eternal life.” Underlying this question, there is the same feeling which
pervaded that saying of Amiel’s, “Men think they can do without religion;
they do not know that religion is indestructible, and that the question simply
is, Which will you have?” The only question possible for men is, “To whom
shall we go?”
There is a deep law of our nature in virtue of which men are ever haunted
with a sense ofneed, a consciousnessofdependence. In every age, in every
country, this is what man has keenly felt. The instinct is irresistible, because it
is set deep in the very roots of our being. There is no want more real, more
imperative than this—we must have leaders whom we canfollow, else nothing
is done, no progress is made; there is no upward tendency, but, on the
contrary, we fall back into loss and ruin. We must have our ideals, and from
them alone can we draw the inspiration for better things. To put it in a well-
known phrase, though one which has a heathenish smack about it, “Manmust
swearby his gods.” “No man liveth to himself” is a text which is fertile in its
significance, andwhich among other meanings carries this, that we all of us—
the bestand wisest—wanta strongerand a wiserto whom we can look, who

shall be our highest example, whom we can follow, reverence, obey, exalt.1
[Note:G. T. Candlin, On Service with the King, 53.]
2. It is not a question of choice betweenChrist and some thing else, but
betweenChrist and some one else. For, singularly enough, since the world
was, man has never been able, amid ten thousand forms of faith, to have a
religion without a personality enshrined in the very heart of it. The disciples
did not ask:“What shall we take up with if we leave Jesus;what systemshall
we believe in?” but: “To whom shall we go?” Ask not what the hundreds of
millions of the human race believe in to-day. If you speak of abstractthings,
abstractprinciples, they believe in ten thousand things, or they believe in
nothing. But ask in whom they believe, and the reply will be definite enough:
Christ, Mohammed, Sakyamuni, Confucius, Zoroaster!It may be questioned
if to an abstractprinciple men have ever yet, since the world was, built one
solitary temple, reared a single altar, offereda single sacrifice, orbreathed a
single prayer. Where there is worship the demand for a personis quite
inexorable. So when the Greeks createdtheir sun-myths and worshipped the
god of day, they had first to personify it and make it Apollo, the youth with
golden locks and radiant countenance.
(1) What Peterwanted—andwhat we want—is, first of all, some One who can
raise us above Circumstance. A vast multitude of the mighty family are so
placed as to be in perpetual depression. Circumstances,we say, are against
them. Poverty, or its twin sisteranxiety—the perpetual question of the day’s
or the morrow’s bodily supplies—this is one case. Sickness, orits more trying
and yet commoner likeness, ill-health—this is another. Disappointment—a
perpetual experience, the bitterness of which is never quite lost, that the
honours and distinctions of an academicalor professionalcareerare always
for another, never for me—this is another depressing influence; and we might
multiply them without limit. The sense ofinferiority, physical or mental—the
dulness of life’s routine—the dreary unmarked round of duties, scarcely
worth calling by so grave a name—the seeing no end, the having no prospect,

the being placedwhere we would not be, and the hopelessnessofchange from
it—the presence ofuncongenial, unamiable, or unfriendly kinsfolk—the
denial, in some definite point, of the wish of the heart, the final irreversible
defeating of the life’s hope—all these are common experiences. And it is a
want, a primal necessity, ofour being, that we should find One—fora thing it
cannot be—to lift us above circumstance.
When thou hast been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in a
manner, quickly return to thyself and do not continue out of tune longer than
the compulsion lasts;for thou wilt have more mastery over the harmony by
continually recurring to it.1 [Note: Marcus Aurelius.]
There is more cause forjoy than for complaint in the hard and disagreeable
circumstances oflife. Browning said, “I count life just a stuff to try the soul’s
strength on.” Spell the word “discipline” with a final g,—“discipling.” We are
here to learn Time’s lessonfor Eternity’s business. What does it signify if the
circumstances aboutus are not of our choice, if by them we canbe trained,
learning the lessons ofpatience, fortitude, perseverance, self-denying service,
acquiescence withGod’s will, and the hearty doing of it? Circumstances do
not make character. The noblestcharactercan emerge from the worst
surroundings, and moral failures come out of the best. Just where you are,
take the things of life as tools, and use them for God’s glory; so you will help
the kingdom come, and the Masterwill use the things of life in cutting and
polishing you so that there shall some day be seenin you a soul conformed to
His likeness.1[Note:M. D. Babcock, Thoughts for Every-DayLiving, 72.]
(2) A secondwantof our nature is some personalhelp to lift us above Sin. Of
all the wants of the world, none is deeper than this. No misery is greaterthan
the consciousness thathaving had a tendency to love and justice, to purity and
pity, to wisdom and temperance, we have become unjust, envious, full of
hatred, dissolute, fond of the basenessofall the flesh, cruel, living in folly and

shame, intemperate in selfishdesire, tyrannized over by self; and, living with
these companions, restless andunsatisfied, inwardly ashamed. Men keeptheir
unhappy hearts to themselves, but that silent, bitter cry of unquiet shame and
fear, of longing for release, forpeace and goodness,rises like a vastcloud of
sorrow towards heavenfrom the universal heart of man. Ethics do not cure
that, nor science, norphilosophy, nor humanitarianism; it is an inward matter
of misery. Religious discussions do not help it. It is no remedy for that to be
able to balance doctrine againstdoctrine and to analyse by logic the schemes
of the Churches. It does not cure that to be a master-critic, to apply science to
the miracles, and the laws of history to the Bible. The real matter is deep
within, beyond these transitory things. Knowledge, the mind of man, can do
nothing to help this sorrow to a final cure.
I lookedat the sky, I lookedatthe sea,
I thought of the stars and moon,—
And my soul went forth on the desolate slopes,
Of the wastes ofendless doom:
And I knew myself for that filthy thing,
That loves the death of its soul;
For myself and my soulagreedto cling

To the things we hate and loathe:
And we seek the way and we hunt the path,
To death, and hell, and shame,
And we lightly do with a gloating laugh,
Foul deeds-without-a-name.2 [Note:DesmondMountjoy, The Hills of Hell.
20.]
(3) There is another universal, primal want of man’s nature—and that is,
some One who shall raise us above Deathitself. The writer to the Hebrews
does not sayone word too much upon this subject, when he declares that
through fear of death all men through all their lifetime are subject to
bondage. How else canwe describe it? And our experience is of Christian
times—ofdays, and of thoughts too, upon which Gospellight has shined,
making it not only a figure of speech, but also something of a traditional
feeling, that of course, now, death has lost its sting. Yet is not death, is not the
shadow of death castbefore in sickness, a terror and a tyranny still? We may
forgethim in health—we can lock and bar him out while we are in work and
in society—but there he stands, just outside our door, now and then
threatening, sometimes striking within, always in prospect, always an
apprehension. May not this too be spokenof as a want, a natural want, an
original want?
Sir James Affleck, speaking abouthis visits to Dr. Alexander McLarenas his
doctor, says:“As the burden of weaknessand infirmity bore down upon him,

he became more silent, while touches of sombreness were now and then
discernible. On one of these occasions,in speaking of death, he remarked, ‘I
cannot sayI am more reconciledto death now than I was twenty years ago.’I
replied in the words of Watts—
‘But timorous mortals start and shrink,
To cross this narrow sea.’
‘Ah!’ he said, ‘it’s not only the sea, it’s what is beyond the sea’;and then after
a pause, ‘I cannot perhaps always but sometimes I cansay—
But ’tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.’
“It is interesting to recallthat Richard Baxter, who wrote these lines, himself
said as he drew near to the end of life, ‘To get satisfying apprehensions of the
other world is the greatand grievous difficulty.’
“Dr. McLaren’s crossing of the narrow sea proved somewhattedious, but
eminently peaceful, and he is now safe with Him who ‘knows all.’ ”1 [Note:
Dr. McLarenof Manchester, 264.]
(4) We need some one to go to for our ideals. There is a story that a certain
eminent painter kept always in his studio a setof precious stones. They cost

him the proceeds of many a canvas. But he said he neededthem in order to
refresh his jaded sense of colour. Back to them he would often turn when he
had lostthe vivid sense of blue or crimson. And in their calm, unfading depths
he never failed to find new tone and beauty. So we need some one to give us
back the glory of lost ideals, to tone up our stale lives, to keepour hearts up to
pitch. To whom canwe turn for such things?
It was reservedfor Christianity to present to the world an ideal character,
which through all the changes of eighteencenturies has filled the hearts of
men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages,
nations, temperaments, and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern
of virtue, but the strongestincentive to its practice;and has exercisedso deep
an influence that it may be truly said that the simple recordof three short
years of active life has done more to regenerate and to softenmankind than all
the disquisitions of philosophers, and all the exhortations of moralists.1 [Note:
W. E. H. Lecky, History of EuropeanMorals, ii. 8.]
In the Sermon on the Mount Christ has expressedthe eternalideal toward
which it is proper for men to tend, and that degree of its attainment which can
be reachedeven in our time.
The ideal consists in having no ill-will againstany one, in calling forth no ill-
will, in loving all; but the commandment, below which, in the attainment of
this ideal, it is absolutelypossible not to descend, consists in not offending any
one with a word. And this forms the first commandment.
The ideal is complete chastity, even in thought; the commandment which
points out the degree ofattainment, below which, in the attainment of this
ideal, it is absolutely possible not to descend, is the purity of the marital life,
the abstaining from fornication. And this forms the secondcommandment.

The ideal is not to care for the future, to live only in the present; the
commandment which points out the degree of the attainment, below which it
is absolutely possible hot to descendis not to swear, not to promise anything to
men. And this is the third commandment.
The ideal is never, under any condition, to make use of violence; the
commandment which points out the degree below which it is absolutely
possible not to descendis not to repay evil with evil, but to suffer insult, to
give up one’s cloak. And this is the fourth commandment.
The ideal is to love our enemies, who hate us; the commandment which points
out the degree of the attainment, below which it is possible not to descend, is
to do no evil to our enemies, to speak well of them, to make no distinction
betweenthem and our fellow-citizens.
All these commandments are indications of what we are fully able not to do on
the path of striving after perfection, of what we ought to work over now, of
what we must by degrees transferinto the sphere of habit, into the sphere of
the unconscious. Butthese commandments fail to form a teaching, and do not
exhaust it, and form only one of the endless steps in the approximation toward
perfection.1 [Note:Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You (Works, xx.
104).]
O well for him that loves the sun,
That sees the heaven-race ridden or run,

The splashing seas ofsunset won,
And shouts for victory.
God made the sun to crownhis head,
And when death’s dart at last is sped,
At leastit will not find him dead,
And pass the carrion by.
O ill for him that loves the sun;
Shall the sun stoop for anyone?
Shall the sun weep for hearts undone
Or heavy souls that pray?
Not less for us and everyone
Was that white web of splendour spun;

O well for him who loves the sun
Although the sun should slay.2 [Note: G. K. Chesterton, Balladof the Sun.]
II
Virtually, the question is, What will you substitute for the gospelofthe Son of
God? This is the pith of it, and it is a standing challenge to all comers and to
all centuries. It is not hard to destroy, to pluck up, to pull down, to undermine
by ridicule, by satire, and by scepticalobjections. But when the house is down
and dismantled, what next? What and how shall we build? We want a shelter,
a roof overhead, a doctrine, a hope, a promise, a prospect, in view of the dark
future that confronts us. Men obliterate creeds, castmiracle and prophecy out
of the world, and declare that the young, lusty Samsonof modern thought will
not be bound by the tattered traditions of antiquity in an age of scientific
experiment. They talk about intellectual emancipation;the abolition of
intellectual servitude to a set of ideas that originated with an insignificant
Semitic tribe who once lived in a corner of the earth. It is easyto carp and
criticize, to deal in shadowynegations;men may demonstrate the absurdity of
prayer, the impossibility of miracle, the antecedent unlikelihood of the
Incarnation; they may call the resurrection of Christ a myth; they may
accountfor Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the Apocalypse and all moral inspiration
upon natural principles; but meantime all this does not feedmen. We need
something positive, some greatspiritual affirmation, a ray of hope, a word of
promise, as we stand huddled, frightened, shivering on this sandbank of finite
existence. And where shall we getthese?

The modern man lives in a sort of supreme fear of being duped. But when this
fear of self-deceptiongoes so faras to getitself built into a sort of shrine and
worshipped as Clifford worshipped it, we are at leastcandidates for
commiseration. It is like keeping out of battle for the sake ofavoiding wounds.
And when all the deeper interests of the heart are the stake to be fought for!
How bleak it all is! It is not easyto forgetthose frostedwords of Clifford,
written after he had castout all his native beliefs. “I have seenthe spring sun
shine out of an empty heaven upon a soulless earth, and I have felt with utter
loneliness that the GreatCompanion was dead.”
1. “To whom shall we go?” Shall we castin our lot with the worldling? Shall
we smother our fears, our misgivings, our aspirations, our hopes, in the
amusements, the interests, the pleasures ofthis lowerworld, and thus by a
determined effort quench the Divine light which is in us? We cannot do this.
We cannotforget the home from which we came. Ever and again, the memory
of the Fatherwhom we left intrudes itself upon us. We beganour careerof
self-will in riotous living; and we have ended it in famine and destitution.
These husks may be goodenough for the swine that perish; but to us, the
children of our Father, to us, the heirs of heaven, they are vile, they are
loathsome, they are sickening.
A large sectionof humanity has espousedfor its creed an abjectmaterialism.
“Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” What a vanity fair is modern
sociallife! Multitudes are trying to drown their disgustin deepercups of
pleasure and riot. Men call the doctrine of Jesus “hard.” “Buthow much
harder,” cries Tolstoy, “how much harder is the doctrine of the world! In my
own life I can reckonup as much suffering causedby following the doctrine of
the world as many martyrs have endured for the doctrine of Jesus.”Yet this
“doctrine of the world” is preachedto human hearts as a doctrine of “good
news,” and crowds have turned awayfrom the Man of Nazareth to hear it.
What a travesty upon hearts, what a mockeryof happiness! The modern

martyrs are not in the church; they are in the world. For real martyrdom to-
day, name the frenzies of contemporaneous finance. Ask the women who are
rackedin an inquisition worse than Torquemada’s. Watch the young people
training for the enjoyment of a diet of husks and sawdust. And worstof all,
these crucifixions are entirely gratuitous. They give the cross without the
crownor the promise of it. They yield the pang without the palm.1 [Note:G.
C. Peck, Visionand Task, 134.]
2. “To whom shall we go?” Shall we seek counselofthe secularist? Shallwe be
content to bind our hopes and fears by the limitations of time and space?Will
it suffice us to extend our scientific knowledge,to perfect our machinery, to
improve our police regulations, to study our sanitary conditions, shutting our
eyes meanwhile to the immensity which lies above and around us? Nay, our
eternal spirit would lash itself into agonyagainstthe bars of this narrow cage.
“Our immortality broods” over us “like the day,” “a presence which is not to
be put by.”
The late Mr. WinwoodReade unhappily thought and published that there was
no God. His wild book he calledthe Martyrdom of Man; and without God in
the world man is a martyr. A personalcreatorhe assertedwas an
impossibility, and, to prevent any approach to hope, the existence of a soul an
improbability, but not as the other, a demonstrable falsehood. These wildand
whirling words were uttered by one who in his last book, issuedas he died,
said that he often sighed for his old belief, when to him “God was semi-human
and man was half Divine, and after life death began (?) and happiness never
ceased, and my mother and my Margaretwouldbe joined to me again. Now
my heart rebels againstthe fate of the human race, doomedto work like coral
insects of the sea.” This he wrote, says his biographer, his uncle, Charles
Reade, “withthe hand of death upon him.” We need not wonder at the
mournfulness of one without hope in the world. We quote these words because
the storm which lifts aside the waters shows the depths beneath. Let no man
rejectfaith carelessly. No Christianhand could have painted more truly the

want which Revelation, and that alone, supplies. The reviewerof a
contemporary, with a full sympathy with Winwood Reade, quotes
Schopenhauer, who, probably with like thoughts, says that, “if we take into
accountthe pain and misery, the unhappiness and sin, with which the earth
abounds, we can only wonder whether it would not have been better for us if
the surface of the earth had remained like that of the moon, devoid of
atmosphere, an inert mass of cinder and slag.” Canour readers blame us if we
put a firm footon the old ways, and insist againand again, out of pure love for
our fellows, onthe reasonable expectationofthe larger hope and the fuller
life, the warmth and happiness given by Him who is the Light of the world, in
whose light we no longer walk in darkness, and who lighteth every man that
cometh into the world, unless the heart rejects His light and crawls back into
the hopeless gloom?1[Note:J. H. Friswell, This WickedWorld, 35.]
As some most pure and noble face,
Seenin the thronged and hurrying street,
Sheds o’er the world a sudden grace,
A flying odour sweet,
Then passing leaves the cheatedsense
Balkedwith a phantom excellence.
So in our soul, the visions rise

Of that fair life we never led;
They flash a splendour past our eyes,
We start, and they are fled;
They pass and leave us with blank gaze,
Resignedto our ignoble days.2 [Note:William Watson, The Fugitive Ideal.]
3. “To whom shall we go?” Shall we close with the teaching of the
philosophical deist? What will he give us in return for our confidence? A cold
abstraction, a far-off something, a personified tendency, a hard law, a rigid
and lifeless thing like the marble statues which men worshipped of old, more
imposing indeed but less beautiful, a being unknown and unknowable, whom
we cannot approach, cannot realize, cannot pray to, cannotlove. What
consolationis there here in our sorrow? Whatstrength is there here in our
temptation? What purification is there here in our sin?
Did Herbert Spencerever convince you—did he ever convince anybody—did
he ever for one mad moment convince himself—that it must be to the interest
of the individual to feela public spirit? Do you believe that, if you rule your
department badly, you stand any more chance, orone-half of the chance, of
being guillotined than an angler stands of being pulled into the river by a
strong pike? Herbert Spencerrefrained from theft for the same reasonhe
refrained from wearing feathers in his hair, because he was an English

gentleman with different tastes.1[Note:G. K. Chesterton, The Napoleonof
Notting Hill.]
4. Shall we turn to the other religions of the world? There is a little group of
people in Liverpool who have built a mosque and profess the tenets of
Mohammedanism. There are a few people in England who profess to find in
Buddhism that which meets their religious craving. But would it be
uncharitable to saythat such persons are religious curiosities, more eagerfor
that which is novel than for that which is true? Can we imagine any serious
sober-minded Englishman deliberately choosing any religion the world has
ever seenin preference to Christianity—choosing, say, Buddhism, that
religion of despair which takes awayGod, who is the very objectof religion;
or Confucianism, which calls to the worship of ancestors,no more worthy of
worship than our contemporaries;or Brahmanism, with its many gods rather
than one; or Zoroastrianism, with evil raisedalmost to the level of the good?
I own in full the spiritual power which there is in every attempt of heathenism
after God, but though there be other religions than the Christian, surely the
full notion of religion is not to be gatheredout of their imperfection, but out of
the more perfectfaith which does what they try to do and is what they try to
be. If a man asks me what a tree is, I will not send him to a stunted, frost-
bitten bush high up Mount Washington, but to the oak or elm which under
the bestconditions has openedthe tree life into fullest glory. If any one asks
me what a man is, I will not show him a Kafir or a Hottentot, but the best
specimenof manhood that Europe or America can bring. And yet the
mountain shrub is certainly a tree, and the Hottentot is certainly a man. So if
anybody asks me what religion is, I will not point to Mohammedanism or to
Buddhism, though they surely are religions;I will go to Christianity and in its
central motive take out the real central force of all religion.1 [Note: Phillips
Brooks, New Starts in Life, 323.]

5. “To whom shall we go?” Shall we turn to self? Shall we make ourselves our
standard? Insteadof having before our eyes, in our thoughts, in our ideals, in
our prayers, something that all men acknowledge as superhumanly lovely and
ennobling, and all Christians deem assuredly Divine, shall we look to
ourselves, to our own meagre selves, withour faults and our appetites, our
tastes, our pettinesses;if so we shall lack the one thing that elevates,the
sympathy with the best. Soonour path curves farther and farther away;it
leads to absorbing and unsatisfied hunger after lower ends; and finally a
death is felt approaching to which we look forward with reluctant
acquiescence andsecretterror, insteadof with trustful expectationas but a
step in the upward path.
(1) Expediency may be a motive of goodliving and a means of human
development. We all know how frequently it appears and what powerit very
often has. We are told that a goodlife is the bestlife, the safestand the
happiest. “If you do what is wrong, no matter what may be the present
pleasure of it, you certainly will suffer. If you do what is right, no matter how
hard the struggle to which it sets you now, you certainly will prosper.
Therefore, it is not well, it is not prudent, it is not expedient to be wicked.”
The doctrine is immensely true. Its certainty is emphasized by all that we
already know of human history, and misgivings of still more terrible
assertions ofit stretchforward into the other world. And the doctrine
certainly is lofty, inasmuch as it asserts thatright and wrong are not mere
whims and fashions, but essentialand eternalthings, that they have to do with
the very structure of man and of the world, that both man and the world are
built so that the wrong finds its punishment and the right its reward. And
certainly it is a doctrine which does to a very greatextent controlthe actions
of mankind. Some people will even callit religion. Some people will make
religion to be nothing but a greatsystem of expediency stretching out into the
world beyond the grave. But clearly this is not religion. The religious man
says, “This is right, and I will do it because Godwants me to and I love Him
for the greatlove wherewith He has loved me.” The prudent man says, “This
is right, and I will do it because it will be best for me.” The first is religious
and the secondis not religious, only prudent.

If a man merely holds that on the whole it is better and wiser to abstain from
the sins of the flesh, but that there is no Divine command againstthem,
depend upon it, occasionswill arise when passionwill be so strong that the
mere notion of what is better will not stand for an instant before its storm. If a
man merely considers that it is on the whole wiserto speak the truth, but that
no Divine messagehas everdeclared that all liars shall have their portion in
the banishment of the wickedfrom the presence ofthe Lord, depend upon it
that occasions willcome to him when concealment, evasion, andduplicity will
be irresistibly attractive. Where there is no belief in a Divine revelation, there
can be no sense of sin.1 [Note: W. M. Sinclair, A Young Man’s Life, 183.]
(2) There is another powerwhich men attempt to substitute for religion as the
ruler and inspirer of life. It is that feeling which is in the heart of almostevery
man, the sense of self-respectwhichmakes him say, “It is beneath my dignity
to do a mean or wickedaction.” Poorindeed is the man who does not know
what that feeling is. You offer a man a temptation to steal. He turns awayand
will not stealbecause he is loyal to his master, God. That is religion. He draws
back and will not stealbecause he knows that “Honour is the best policy.”
That is expediency. He turns indignantly upon you and says, “Do you take me
for a thief?” That is honour. What this greatinstinct of honour has done, it is
hard to over-value. It has been the overruling powerof whole sections of
society, almostof whole periods of history. It has shone with splendid lustre in
the eyes of many men, till it seemedto them all that humanity needed for its
full consummation. It has had its martyrs who have given up their lives under
its inspiration. It is romantic. It is the powerof chivalry. There is hardly an
age of history so dark that it may not be found burning there. It is a strong
and, as it seems to many people, a sufficient power here to-day. There are
many who would substitute the principle of honour for the principle of
religion, many who think that the self-respectofthe gentleman is enough
without the loving consecrationofthe servant of God. But what is this honour
that shines so splendidly? Is it consciencequickenedand filled with pride? Its
very principle of life is pride. It is a man’s supreme consciousnessofhis own

value, so strong that he recognizes the obligations which rest upon one so
valuable as he is. His nobility obliges him. The deficiencies ofit seemto be
premised in this very definition, and they show out all through the history of
its influence on men.
We believe that we have an immortal future, and are destined hereafterto an
eternal weightof glory, not of enjoyment—for that is a mere libel—but of
perfection and enlargement of all our noblest faculties. We believe that we can
even here become partakers ofthe Divine nature. We believe that we have
dwelling in us by faith and communion with the Most High, the very Spirit of
God Himself, weaning us from the world, setting our affections on things
above, purifying our thoughts, putting into our minds gooddesires, and daily
bringing the same to true effect, strengthening our resolves, subduing our
passions, and making us fit for the companionship of all that is best and most
esteemedin humanity, in the pure and tranquil radiance of the regions of
light, yes, and of the fellowship of God Himself the Fatherand the Son. Then I
ask what moral scheme or persuasive ideal could be devisedby the wit of man
which would go anywhere near to produce in us such reasonfor that truest
self-respectwhichis a humble and grateful union with God Himself?1 [Note:
W. M. Sinclair, A Young Man’s Life, 185.]
III
None but Christ can Satisfy
1. Men have offeredto us many phantoms of religion. Many societies, each
with its theory to bind human creatures togetherin worship and love, have
knockedatour door to tell us the truth of life. Materialism has sought our
suffrages, and humanitarianism. Ethics and science have offered us their
dishes and said: “Eatand be satisfied.” Vague optimisms and mud-rooted

pessimisms;a religion of humanity and a religion of unchristian theism have
filled our ears with their cries;but when we have found the more excellent, we
are not likely to descendto the less. We wish them all goodfortune so far as
they minister to love. But when we are askedfor the foundation of life, we
turn to Jesus and say: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of
eternal life.”
There are too many witnessesin His favour for us to leave Him. Call the roll
of philosophers: Bacon, Locke,Johnson, Edwards, Hopkins, McCosh. They
were Christians, and it was Locke who said, “If I had my life to live over, I
would spend it studying the Epistles of Paul and the Psalms.” Callthe roll of
astronomers:Copernicus, Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton. Theywere Christians,
and it was Kepler who said, “I am thinking the thoughts of God. I am
overawedwith the sense ofHis majesty. In the firmament God is passing
before me in the grandeur of His way.” Call the roll of scientists:Agassiz,
Miller, Proctor, Guizot. They were Christians. Then add the name of John
George Romanes, who was an unbeliever, but became a devoted Christian,
accepting the divinity of Jesus and the atonementof Christ, and died a
triumphant death. The greatesthistorians, among whom were Bancroftand
Green, were Christians. The greatestdiscoverers, among whom were Raleigh,
Livingstone, and Stanley, were Christians. The greateststatesmen, among
whom were Constantine, Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, Webster, Gladstone,
and Bismarck, were Christians.1 [Note:J. W. Chapman.]
(1) “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” St. Peterwas convinced not only that
Jesus had the words of eternal life, but that no one else had. “To whom shall
we go?” St. Peter had not an exhaustive knowledge ofall sources ofhuman
wisdom; but speaking from his ownexperience he affirmed his conviction that
it was useless to seek life eternal anywhere else than in Jesus. And it seems
equally hopeless still to look to any other quarter for sufficient teaching, for
words that are “spirit and life.” Where but in Christ do we find a God we can
acceptas God? Where but in Him do we find that which can not only

encourage men striving after virtue, but also reclaim the vicious? To put any
one alongside ofChrist as a revealerof God, as a pattern of virtue, as a
Saviour of men, is absurd. There is that in Him which we recognize as not
merely superior, but of another kind; so that those who rejectHim, or setHim
on a level with other teachers, have first of all to rejectthe chief part of what
His contemporaries were struck with and reported, and to fashion a Christ of
their own.
No student of history doubts for a moment that Jesus Christ appeals to man
as does no other characterin human history. His appeal is not only to the
whole man, that is, to the entire range of his faculties;in a remarkable way,
He appeals to the whole of humanity. Mohammed appeals to the Arab, the
Turk, the fierce and fatalistic nomad of the East. Buddha appeals to the
reflective mind of the Orient. Jesus Christ’s appealis uniquely cosmopolitan.
He holds the sceptre of the Westernworld, and yet a learned Hindu has said,
“None but Jesus deserves,and none but He shall have, the diadem of India.”1
[Note:C. C. Albertson, College Sermons, 45.]
(2) “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” St. Peter’s confessionexpressedthe
grounds on which he believed Jesus to be what He said, and our faith has the
same proof to reston. It does not rest on St. Peter’s certainty, but on the
reasonhere stated, common to all who receive the evidence. The grounds of
Christian faith in the Divine personof Jesus are His works, His words, and
His character;what He did, what He said, and what He was. But prominence
is here given to the “words.” Forthe “words” were atthat time in some
danger of being disparagedin favour of the “deeds.” An incident had just
happened which implied that, and St. Peterhere puts in, so to speak, his
protest againstthe multitude. “It is not for the loaves or for the miracles we
either believe or follow Thee:it is because Thouhast the words of eternal
life.”

The “words” are preciselythat part of the evidence which is now just as valid
for us as it was for St. Peter. The “words” are here, just as fresh and full of
life and spiritually mighty as when they were first spoken. And what is still
more to the point, the “words” interpret and explain all the rest. The relation
of the miracles and the characterof Jesus to His words may be statedas the
relation of a sealor stamp to a document. It is the document—the writing—
that defines and explains the authority conveyed by the seal.2 [Note:J.
Laidlaw, Studies in the Parables, 339.]
(3) “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” That expression“eternallife” must
have been very familiar to St. Peterand all the twelve, while Jesus went in and
out among them. There were few days when they did not hear it fall from His
lips, and they caught it up if they did not fully understand it. In the brief
record of our Lord’s teaching, containedin the four Gospels, we have it
twenty-five times. In St. John’s Gospelalone it occurs seventeentimes. In this
very chapter we read it five times over. No doubt it was ringing in St. Peter’s
ears when he spoke. Christ’s words of eternal life were words about the
nature of that life which He came into the world to proclaim,—a life begun in
the soulby faith while we live, and perfectedin glory when we die. They were
words about the way in which this eternallife is provided for sinful man, even
the wayof His atoning death, as our Substitute, on the Cross. Theywere
words about the terms on which this eternal life is made our own, if we feel
our need of it, even the terms of simple faith. As Latimer said, it is but
“believe and have.” They were words about the training and discipline on the
way to eternal life, which are so much neededby man and so richly provided,
even the renewing and sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost. They were words
about the comforts and encouragements by the way, even Christ’s daily help,
sympathy, and watchful care.
Christ is the source of spiritual life to all who believe in His name. The idea of
Divine personalitycarries with it the idea of revelation, as all our modern
discussions show. If the power that is behind the world is a personalpower—a

characteror moral will, and not a mere blind force issuing endlesslyinto
space, it cannot, in its very nature, but make itself known to man. And so the
Word of God, God in Christ, becomes the essentialcorrelative ofthe idea of
God. If, in other words, there is an eternallife, a moral sphere beyond the
present, of which the presentis only a faint reflection, this can be known to us
only through its expressions in such an one as Christ. That others have a
spiritual life like ours we know only through communion with them in word
or act. That there is a spiritual life, transcending the world and embracing an
eternal life, on which the world and humanity rest, and out of which all good
that is in the world or man comes, we can know only through its coming near
to us in word or act. This is what the Apostles felt Christ had done for them.
He had not merely spokento them of an eternal life. He had not said, “It is a
part of My teaching that there is such a life.” The Pharisees might have said
this But all He said or did was the revelation of this life. They felt themselves,
in contactwith Him, to be at the same time in contactwith a sphere of
spiritual being above the world. And so the assurance ofthe eternal life can
only come to any of us straightout of the words of Christ rather than out of
any other source. The word of Christ is the highestevidence for us that there
is any higher life at all, any ground of existence that is really eternal beneath
all the changes ofexperience. If we cannot resthere, or get conviction here, as
we look at Christ, we cannot rest anywhere, or touch the eternal as by faintest
contact. In Him, in communion with His spirit, in all that He had ever said to
them, the Apostles felt themselves assuredof a higher being. They felt the
outflow of the eternallife bathing their souls and suffusing them with its own
deep serenity. This was why they could not go away with others. Where else
could they turn? “Thou, O Christ, art the only true light of our souls. Thou
hast the words of eternal life.”1 [Note:J. Tulloch, Sundays at Balmoral, 94.]
2. What did Jesus purpose to do? We see what He is doing among men, but
the question is, What did He purpose to do? Some men go all through life
without a purpose. But most of us form a purpose before we have passedfar
into the years of youth. With one, it is to make a fortune, with another to win
fame, with others, to carve, or paint, or write, or fight, or build, or heal, or
plough. Now what did Jesus conceive His life’s task to be? Our wonder

increases whenwe learn that He seriously purposed to found a kingdom, to
destroy the works of evil, to institute the reign of love among men and among
nations, to redeemsocietyby bringing back to goodness andto God all the
individuals of which societyis composed. Did any other ever undertake a task
like that? Compared with it, the emancipationof a race of slaves, oreven the
founding of a new nation, is a small thing. Go a little further into His life and
we find He purposed and professedto solve the three greatestand gravest
problems of life—the problems of sin, and sorrow, and death. Now look at His
philosophy, His theology, His metaphysics, His ethics, His system, whateverit
may be called, His Gospel, let us say, and you will see, potentially if not
actually, the materials out of which all this is to be done. There is love, pure
and sacrificial, upon which to found a kingdom in the hearts of men, love as
the basis of a new brotherhood; there is grace abounding much more than
ever sin abounded; inward strength and comfort for the heart with sorrow
laden; and there is immortality with which to face the fearful phantasm of
death. All these elements are in His Gospel, and they must impress us with
their absolute adequacy.
Surprise at first, and afterwards a sense of adequacy, are awakenedby a
study of the fact of Christ. Then follows in our minds the tribute we
instinctively pay to greatness,to simplicity, and power. A goodpart of the
admiration we have for Abraham Lincoln is based upon our perceptionof his
native nobility, his elementalsimplicity. He was so free from anything like
artificial greatness,from the counterfeit semblance ofdignity, and yet so
masterful, so completely captain of his soul, and of the Ship of State he guided
through the seething sea ofwar. It is easyto admire a man of our own flesh
and blood, so near us that there are those still living who have touched his
hand. It is not so easyto admire a personality separated from us by sixty
generations. Yetadmiration is a feeble word to measure the response in our
hearts when we hear the name of Mary’s Son. He seems not so far away, after
all. We read the Gospels and rise with a kind of feeling that if we have not
seenHim, we have at leastheard His footfall on the temple’s marble pavement
or the street, that we have caught some accentof His voice, or touched the
hem of His passing garments. Whittier puts it so—

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is He;
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.
The healing of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again.1 [Note:C. C. Albertson, College Sermons, 48.]
(1) When we know that we love God and that God loves us, we are healed of
the grievous wounds of life. In the infinite flood of Divine and human love our
sins and sorrows are drowned, and the ark of joy and peace alone survives. To
have the heart full of love, and to feel that we are infinitely loved, is so Divine
a passionthat it lifts us into a world where we forgetour pain and wrong. We
feel our pains and sins, but even when we feel them—and many are our days
of depression—we feelthem only for a time. We know they will come to an
end, and all the arguments basedon them againstthe goodness andlove of

God drift awaylike feeble clouds before the summer wind. The soul is at
peace, though life be shipwreckedin the storm. We know, though we have
been battered by sin, that through love of Love we are becoming righteous.
We know, though sorrows are deep, that out of hunger for righteousness we
are attaining joy. We understand, though we are left as lonely often as a
mountain peak, that we are not alone, for the Fatheris with us. This is the
first truth as it is in Jesus.
Lord, wearyof a painful way,
All night our heads we would not lay
Under the naked sky;
But ask who worthiest? who will best
Entreat a tired and lowly guest
With promptest courtesy?
And Thou art worthiest;there will not
One loving usage be forgot
By Thee; Thy kiss will greet

Us entering; Thou wilt not disdain
To wash awayeachguilty stain
From off our soilëd feet.
We enter, from this time to prove
Thy hospitality and love
Shown tow’rd Thy meanestguest:
From house to house we would not stray,
For whither should we go away?
With Thee is perfect rest.1 [Note:Trench, Poems, 145.]
(2) The seconddeclarationChrist made followedon the first. It was the
declarationof the forgiveness ofsins. The removal of the natural results of
wrong-doing, of what we callpunishment, is not forgiveness. Forgivenessis to
feel at one with love, with our Father’s heart; to feel like a child to God; to feel
the strange delight that we are in union with God and His righteousness,and

to do what the feeling urges;to feelthe emotion of joy urging us to the act of
good. Yes, that is the forgiveness ofsins. A new life is open to us. We hear the
voice of Jesus:“Go, you will sin no more.” For nearly twenty centuries, the
words, the character, the life, the teaching, and the death of Jesus, allthey
were, and all they mean, have brought healing to this universal misery of man.
There are millions of lives to testify to the truth of this. The lost have found
themselves;the sinners have ceasedto sin, the miserable have become happy;
the restless have reachedpeace;the dissolute have become pure; the malicious
and envious have learned to love; the selfish have devoted themselves to
others; the poor of soul have become rich, the useless useful, the fearful brave,
and the enslavedfree. Where the secretlies we cannot altogetherknow, but
we shall know hereafter. What we do know is the facts;the result of the words
of Christ. Men are redeemed; and beneath every form of Christianity that is
the permanent thing. The dogmas do not count, the criticism, the discussions
are nothing: the healing power, the forgiveness ofsins—thatis all. It is the
powerwithin to lead a new life and to forget the burden of the past—a mighty
thing indeed! And the reasonof it all is containedin those words of Jesus, if
we could but reach their infinite depth in thought: “Her sins, which are many,
are forgiven; for she loved much.” That was the seconddeclarationof Jesus,
and it followedfrom His doctrine of a Father of men who, being good, loved
them, and could not, consistentlywith fatherhood, leave His children to be
masteredby evil. He was bound to make them, in the end, holy with Himself.
Wife murder was also consideredquite legitimate. In one of our inland
villages dwelt a young couple, happy in every respectexceptthat they had no
children. The man, being a Heathen, resolvedto take home another wife, a
widow with two children. This was naturally opposedby his young wife. And,
without the slightestwarning, while she sat plaiting a basket, he dischargeda
ball into her from his loadedmusket. It crashedthrough her arm and lodged
in her side. Everything was done that was in my power to save her life; but on
the tenth day tetanus came on, and she soonafter passedaway. The man
appearedvery attentive to her all the time; but, being a Heathen, he insisted
that she had no right to oppose his wishes!He was not in any way punished or
disrespectedby the people of his village, but went out and in amongstthem as

usual, and took home the other womanas his wife a few weeksthereafter. His
secondwife began to attend Church and Schoolregularly with her children;
and at last he also came along with them, changing very manifestly from his
sullen and savage formerself. They have a large family; they are avowedly
trying to train them all for the Lord Jesus;and they take their places meekly
at the Lord’s Table.
It would give a wonderful shock, I suppose, to many namby-pamby
Christians, to whom the title “Mighty to Save” conveys no ideas of reality, to
be told that nine or ten convertedmurderers were partaking with them the
Holy Communion of Jesus!But the Lord who reads the heart, and weighs
every motive and circumstance, has perhaps much more reasonto be shocked
by the presence ofsome of themselves. Penitence opens allthe Heart of God—
“To-dayshalt thou be with me in Paradise.”1[Note:John G. Paton, ii. 160.]
(3) But Christ’s words infer a third truth—the immortality of the soul, of the
conscious personalityof the child of God. The Fatheris immortal, therefore
the child. Goodness and love—two names of the same thing—are necessarily
eternal. If the child is to reachthe goodness andlove of the Father, he must be
as eternal as the Father. If all this trouble be taken with the individual child, it
is ridiculous to the reason, and inconceivable to the heart, that the Father
should fling that which He laboured for and loved into annihilation. If we
allow that God is a Father that conclusionofdeath is unthinkable.
We then went for a three miles’ walk, my father talking of the PassionPlayat
Ober-Ammergau, of religion, of faith, and of immortality. While touching on
the life after death he spoke ofCarlyle, and his dimness of faith in the closing
years of his life. He saidthat when he was stopping at a coffee-house in
London, Carlyle had come to smoke a pipe with him in the evening and the
talk turned upon the immortality of the soul; upon which Carlyle said: “Eh!
old Jewishrags:you must clearyour mind of all that. Why should we expecta

hereafter? Your traveller comes to an inn, and he takes his bed, it’s only for
one night, he leaves next day, and another man takes his place and sleeps in
the bed that he has vacated.” My father continued: “I answered, ‘Your
traveller comes to his inn, and lies down in his bed, and leaves the inn in the
morning, and goes onhis way rejoicing, with the sure and certain hope and
belief that he is going somewhere, where he will sleepthe next night,’ and then
Edward Fitzgerald, who was present, said, ‘You have him there’ ”: “which
proves,” saidmy father, “how dangerous an illustration is.”2 [Note:
Tennyson: A Memoir, ii. 410.]
Dr. McLarenof Manchestergave anaddress at the “Union Assembly” in
Edinburgh on the 9th of October1901. His biographer says:There was one
passagein particular, towards the end of the address, when his radiant look
told even more than his words. It ran as follows:—
“Considerhow the conscious possessionofthat higher life in Christ brings
with it an absolute incapacityof believing that what men call death can affect
it. ‘Christ in us’ is ‘the hope of glory.’ The true evidence for immortality lies
in the deep experience of the Christian spirit. It is when a man can say, ‘Thou
art the strength of my heart’ that the convictionsprings up inevitable and
triumphant, that such a union can no more be severedby the physical
accidentof death than a spirit canbe wounded by a sword, and that,
therefore, he has the right to sayfurther, ‘and my portion for ever.’ ”
In the short pause that came after these words, and during the rustle of
movement (preparation for another spell of sustainedattention) one listener
turned to another and whispered, “It is like seeing a spirit.” And it was true.1
[Note:Dr. McLarenof Manchester, 189.]

3. This, then, is the teaching of Christ in relation to the individual soul. But if
that were all, more than half of our deepestinterests would be left out. More
than half of human life would be unappealed to. The expansionof the soul in
love would not only be unsecured, it would even be injured. If that were the
whole of religion, it might end in fixing our thoughts only on ourselves, and so
end, through engendering selfishness,in the death of religion. Men have made
this personalreligion all; but that was not the way of Christ. He secureda
personalreligion by bringing eachof us into the closestcontactwith our
Father, but He swept us far beyond that individual relation. His whole life and
His death maintained that we were to pass beyond ourselves into union with
mankind, and that only in sacrifice ofself for those not ourselves could we win
our true life. He that loveth his life shall lose it, he that loseth his life the same
shall find it. Die for men; die for the truths that bless and redeemmen; die for
the love of your brethren, if you would live. Death of selffor love’s sake is life
eternal.
Not cloisteredsaints, that bid the world
Remember they forget—its lure defy,
Whose abnegating robes accostthe glance
Of lost humanity;
Not they whose moving lips attest
Repeatedprayer, to shame the throng or mart,

Whose fingers outward clasp a crucifix;
Not they who stand apart—
Are Thy swift followers alone,
SweetChrist! Unveiled, untonsured, they there be
Who hold their mired brothers to their heart,
Even for love of Thee,
Who didst remember to the end
Thy world, though they had Thee forgot and fled—
A hillside Calvary Thy holy lot,
Mountain and sea Thy bed.1 [Note: Martha Gilbert Dickinson.]

BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Departure Of The Many Consolidating The Few
John 6:67-69
B. Thomas
Notice -
I. JESUS" QUESTION. "Willye also," etc.? This implies:
1. His regard for the freedom of the will. Christ does not destroy, nor even
interfere with, the freedom of the human will, but ever preserves and respects
it. He ever acknowledgesthe sovereigntyof the human soul and will.
2. That it was his wish that eachdisciple should decide for himself. "Will ye,"
etc.?
(1) The personality of religious decision. Religionis personal. Every religious
act must be personal, and is ever judged as such.
(2) The importance of religious decision, "Will ye," etc.? A most important
question to them in its immediate and remote issues. Theirdestiny hangs upon
it.
(3) The urgency of immediate decision. If they had a wish to leave him, the
soonerthe better. The question of our relationship to Christ cannot be settled
too soon. It demands immediate consideration.
3. That it was not his wish to retain them againsttheir will.
(1) This would be againstthe principle of his ownlife.
(2) It would be againstthe principle of all spiritual life.

(3) And againstthe greatprinciple of his kingdom, which is willing obedience
and voluntary service. Whateveris done to him againstthe will, or without its
hearty concurrence, has no virtue, no spiritual value. All his true soldiers are
volunteers. Unwilling service must leadto separationsoonerorlater.
4. His independency of them.
(1) He is not disheartenedby the greatdeparture. Many went back. He was
doubtless grieved with this, with their want of faith and gratitude, but was not
disheartened.
(2) He is independent of even his most intimate followers. "Willye," etc.? If
even they had the will to go away, he could afford it. One might think that he
could ill afford to ask this question after the greatdeparture from him. He
had apparently now only twelve, and to these he asks, "Willye also," etc.? He
is not dependent upon his disciples. If these were silent, the very stones would
speak;if the children of the kingdom reject him, "many shall come from the
east," etc.
5. His affectionate care for them. "Will ye also," etc.? In this question we
hear:
(1) The sound of tender solicitude. There is the note of independency and test
of character;but not less distinctly is heard the note of affectionate solicitude
for their spiritual safety. He did not ask the question of those who went away.
(2) The sound of danger. Even the twelve were not out of danger. Although
they were in one of the inner circles of his attraction, they were in danger of
being carried awaywith the flood.
(3) The sound of tender warning. "Will ye also," etc.?You are in danger. And
their danger was greaterand more serious than that of those who left; they
were more advanced, and could not go awaywithout committing a greatersin.
(4) The sound of confidence. The question does not seemto anticipate an
affirmative reply. With regardto all, with the exception of one, he was
confident of their allegiance.

II. THE DISCIPLES ANSWER. SimonPeterwas the mouthpiece of all. The
answerimplies:
1. A right discernment of their chief good. "Eternallife." This, they thought,
was their greatestneed, and to obtain it was the chief aim of their life and
energy; and in this they were right.
2. A right discernment of Jesus as their only Helper to obtain it. Little as they
understood of the real meaning of his life, and less still of his death, they
discernedhim
(1) as the only Source of eternal life;
(2) as the only Revealerof eternallife;
(3) as the only Giver of eternallife. "With thee are the words," etc.
3. Implicit faith in his Divine character. "We believe and know," etc. They
had faith in him, not as their national, but as their personaland spiritual
Deliverer- the Saviour of the soul. and the Possessorand Giver of eternal life.
4. A determination to cling to him.
(1) This determination is warmly prompt. It is not the fruit of study, but the
warm and natural outburst of the heart and soul.
(2) It is wise. "To whom shall we go?" Theysaw no other one to go to. To the
Pharisees orheathen philosophers? They could see no hope of eternal life
from either. To Moses? He would only send them back to Christ. It would be
well for all who are inclined to go awayfrom Christ to ask first, "To whom
shall we go?"
(3) It is independent. They are determined to cling to Christ, although many
left him. They manifest greatindividuality of character, independency of
conduct, and spirituality and firmness of faith.
(4) It is very strong.
(a) The strength of satisfaction. Believing that Christ had the words of eternal
life, what more could they need or desire?

(b) The strength of thorough conviction. They not only believe, but also know.
They have the inward testimony of faith and experience. True faith has a tight
grasp. Strong convictionhas a tenacious hold.
(c) The strength of willing loyalty. "Lord, to whom," etc.? "Thouart our Lord
and our King, and we are thy loyal subjects." Theirwill was on the side of
Christ, and their determination to cling to him was consequentlystrong.
(d) The strength of loving attachment. The answeris not only the language of
their reason, but also the language of their affection. Their heart was with
Jesus. Theycould not only see no way to go from him, but they had no wish.
(e) The strength of a double hold. The Divine and the human. The hold of
Jesus on them, and their hold on him. They had felt the Divine drawing, and
they were within the irresistible attractionof Jesus. Theywere all, with one
notorious exception, by faith safelyin his hand.
LESSONS.
1. Loving faith in the Saviour is strengthened by trials. It stands the test of
adverse circumstances. In spite of forces which have a tendency to draw away
from Christ, it clings all the more to him.
2. The success ofthe ministry must not always be judged by additions.
Subtractions are sometimes inevitable and beneficial. The sincerity of the
following should be regarded even more than the number of the followers.
3. It is afar greaterloss for us to lose Jesus than for Jesus to lose us. He can do
without us, but we cannot do without him. He can go elsewhere fordisciples;
but "to whom shall we go?" B.T.

Biblical Illustrator
Will ye also go away?... To whom should we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life.
John 6:67-69
Human destiny and its attainment through Christ
W. M. Punshon, LL. D.
I. GOD HAS SET BEFORE US A DESTINY. "Eternallife."
1. The idea of a future world in the abstractis probably present to every man.
2. It is impossible for any one to entertain this idea without being haunted by
the tremendous possibilities of its truth. A man may lose sight of it, or rush to
escape it, but let it once have a lodgment within, and he cannot refuse it
acknowledgment.
3. It does not require any argument to prove a future world — you know that
there is one.
4. It is equally impressedupon the human consciousness thatthis future life
(1)is one of conscious immortal existence;
(2)has a retributive connectionwith the doings of the present life.
II. HE HAS REVEALED TO US THE METHOD BY WHICH THIS
DESTINYMAY BE ACHIEVED AND REALIZED.

1. The revelation of God's mercy in the gospelproceeds onthe assumption of
this consciousimmortal existence, and has furnished appliances by which the
happiest conditions of that existence may be brought within the reach of all. It
is not merely a manual of precept for this world; it is a treasury of hope and
comfort for the world to come. Point- ing to the Saviour, whose suretyship it
announces, and from whose death it receives its validity and power, it says,
"This is the true God and eternallife," and it proclaims to the troubled spirit
that in Christ's possessionare the words of eternallife.
2. Those words were never spokenin their fulness till Christ came. There were
broken utterances about it, but He brought life and immortality to light.
III. HE HAS LIMITED AN EXCLUSIVE SAVIOUR. "Neitheris there
salvationin any other."
1. To have alloweda plurality of Saviours would have indicated a falter- ing
confidence or an unsatisfied claim.
2. There needs no other Saviour, so there is no other.
3. This convictionwill force itself on all some day.
4. The experience of the past proves that none other has the words of eternal
life. All ancient religionand philosophy are empty of information on eternal
life.
5. The re. searches ofthe present can find no other Saviour.
(W. M. Punshon, LL. D.)
Two stages ofspiritual life
E. L. Hull, B. A.
(Text in conjunction with Luke 5:8).
I. THE FIRST STAGE MARKED BY FEAR AT THE REVELATION OF
DIVINE GLORY. It was not merely the wonder that produced the cry. This
was not the first time that Peterhad seenthe powerof Christ, and others had

seenit who had not been affected. He saw in Christ the Holy one, and then
came a sense of the chasm betweenHimself and Jesus.
1. Such a revelationdoes awakenthe feelings of fear and awe. Before Christ
came men had heard of holiness, but its awful presence was never fully felt
until He crossedthe path of the world. By Him the "thoughts of many hearts
were revealed." Before the light of His holiness all lying hypocrisies quailed.
And for eighteencenturies the world has been convinced of sin by the
presence ofthe Holy One. When a man realizes a sense ofthe presence ofthis
holiness his cry is that of Peter's.
2. Every one must have this feeling before He can casthimself utterly on
Christ.
II. THE SECOND STAGE — CONFESSIONOF DEVOTION TO CHRIST
OUR LIFE. This was a testing time for the disciples — a time when they were
driven to feelthat Christ was their life. And in Christian experience there are
similar periods, and then we feel that everything but the perfectreception of
Him fails to satisfy the heart. Our spiritual nature craves three things.
1. A knowledge ofGod the Eternal Truth. Christ has revealedthe Father.
2. Reconciliationwith God the Eternal Righteousness. Christis life for the
conscience. 3.Aknowledge ofGodthe Eternal Love. Christ brought God close
to man's heart.
(E. L. Hull, B. A.)
Reasonsfor continuance with Jesus
W. H. Van Doren, D. D.
I. NO OTHER CHRIST WILL COME.
II. NO ONE WILL BRING A BETTER WORD.
III. THERE REMAINS NO OTHER FAITH.
IV. THERE IS NO BRIGHTER KNOWLEDGE.

(W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
If not to Christ then to whom
W. M. Taylor, D. D.
? —
1. "To whom shall we go?" is his first question when a man awakens to moral
consciousness, andfeels within him those inarticulate longings which reveal
that he is not what he ought to be. Plato accountedthese yearnings the
reminiscences ofa former state in which the soul had seenthe perfectideas of
things now lost — a near approach to the Bible doctrine of the Fall. The soul
feels that it is not what it once was, and that it cannotmake itself so;but it
recognizes its forgottengreatness whenit sees it again. It is not to be deceived.
It says when one specimenis offered, "This is not what I seek;" but when it
finds Christ it identifies its long lost manhood in Him.
2. Besides these longings there is within us a sense ofguilt, and the spirit
groans, "Who will help me? " As when the sick cry for a physician. Man must
go somewhere. The Jews were confrontedwith four rival systems.
Sadduceeism, Pharisaism, Essenism, Christianity, and these virtually confront
the seekerto-day.
I. Shall we go to SCEPTICISM?
1. That seeksto cure the soul's malady by denying it. That gives the same
satisfactionas persuading a starving man that there is no reality in his
hunger. How much more rational to acceptthe bread God has provided.
Rejectrevelationand the same difficulties emerge in philosophy — so you
only getrid of their only possible solution — just as sick men refused the
doctor only throw awaythe chances ofgetting well.
2. The service of infidelity to man is well seenin the French Revolution.
II. Shall we go to RITUALISM? To improve our spiritual nature by
ceremonialmeans is to begin at the wrong end, for it is the characterof the

soul that gives quality to the rite. The root of the evil is in the soul, which no
ceremonycan touch. Witness the Phariseeswho would not go into Pilate's
Hall for fear of defilement, and yet could plot for murder. Witness the Italian
brigand who gives thanks for a successfulrobbery. Witness the multitudes of
formal worshippers on Sunday who take advantage of their neighbours on
Monday. Formalism only substitutes hypocrisy for religion.
III. Shall we go to ASCETICISM?
1. It is useless in practice, because the heart can. not escape from itself, and no
walls can exclude temptation.
2. The whole systemis cowardly.
3. It is a negative thing.
IV. Shall we go to JESUS? What are His qualifications?
1. He has the words of eternal life. By words man was lured to his destruction,
and now by words he is to be saved.
2. What are His words. Their substance is, "Godso loved the world," etc.
Faith in these words gives certainty where before was doubt, and peace where
formerly was despair.
3. See whatthey have done in the case ofthe apostles, heathens, drunkards,
sinners of every age and degree. All that is noble and elevating in our modern
civilization have come from Christ.Conclusion:When our modern prophets
ask us to leave Him, we reply —
1. Find us a better answerto the questioning of our spirits than He has
furnished.
2. Show us a better ideal of manhood than He has given.
3. Bring us brighter light in the life beyond than He has thrown.
4. In a word, give us something better than Christ.
(W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

Man's need of a Saviour
DeanVaughan.
1. There is here one greatassumption which, being removed, the whole drops
to pieces. It is that man must have some one to go to. He cannot live without a
master, a guide, a comforter. The soul cannot live alone or grope its ownway.
St. Peter's question evidently implies, "We cannot leave Thee till we have
found another who shall outbid Thee in Thy offers, and outshine Thee in Thy
revelations."
2. This is what we may call the argument from want. Man wants someone, and
therefore God has someone for him. To whom is the only question, not
whether we shall go. Was Peterright, or was he rash and wrong?(1)There are
some suppositions which would be fatal to this argument. Supposing there be
no God, or, at most, a God unconcernedabout His creatures, then to say that
man's spiritual thirst is any proof that God has provided spiritual wateris a
fallacy; it only proves that to want and to have not is man's pitiless destiny.
But if there be a God such a conceptionis revolting to our best instincts, and
dishonouring to God Himself. Far worthier is that of One touched with a
feeling of our infirmities, and if this be true, then provision is sure.(2)This
argument is not weakenedby sin's entrance. The factthat man was spared
after he had sinned, and that he now needs God's care and love more than
ever, strengthens the argument. What Peterwanted, and what we want is —
I. SOME ONE WHO CAN RAISE US ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES. How
many of our race suffer from poverty, anxiety, sickness,disappointment, the
sense ofinferiority, and the dullness of life's routine, etc. God designs that
such should have independence, earth's giving or refusing: and there is only
one personwho goes to the root of the trouble, for He can sayto us, "I came to
you from heaven, and there we know of no such distinctions; there the only
honour is humility, the only office self-sacrifice, the only distinction, the being
nearestto and likestGod. Cultivate these things over which tyranny has no
power, and I will guide you by my counseland afterward receive you to
glory."

II. SOME PERSONALHELP TO LIFT US ABOVE SIN. Sin is an
establishedfact, explain it, disguise it, extenuate it how we may. Christ's
mission was to teachus the nature and guilt of sin. When this is brought home
to the soul then indeed it cries, "To whom shall I go? Surely God must have
some one for me? " He is in that sinless one who came into the world to save
sinners. If we acceptnot Christ the voice of centuries tells us that there is no
other.
III. SOME ONE WHO SHALL RAISE US ABOVE DEATH ITSELF. This
we find in Him who confronted death and conquered, and who is "The
resurrectionand the life." Has any one else, not the words, but even the hope
and promise of eternal life?
(DeanVaughan.)
Christ the only source of religious rife
Principal Tulloch.
1. There is a time when our religious thoughts and feelings undergo a strain. It
may be in youth, when the world first lays hold of us: or in passing into
manhood, when the intellect recoils from in- herited thought; or under some
terrible temptation. Then it seems doubtful whether we shall stayin the old
house or "go away."
2. When this time comes, we must have an answerin our hearts why we
should staywith Christ, or else we shall certainly go.
3. The idea of all religion is that of the higher "eternal" life of our text. "Let
us eat and drink," etc., is common enough in practice, but no schooladvocates
it. All schools maintain that there is a life of unselfishness which has as its vital
principle the happiness of others.
4. The question, then, is not as to the need. but the sources ofthis higher life.
The religion of Christ is saidto be no longer effectual. Science,the religion of
humanity, art, and culture, make their claims more or less to the exclusion of
Christ.

5. How, then, can it be shown that in Christ alone is the true source of the
higher life for man. By —
I. THE POWER OF CHRIST'S PERSONALITY. It was not a question of
opinion as to whether the doctrines of Christ could be abandoned, an
alternative betweenthose of Christ and the Pharisees.The issue here, as ever,
was a purely personalmatter.
1. This assertionofauthoritative personalityis characteristicofChrist as a
religious teacher. "I am the Way," etc. The words would have been profane
boasting on any other lips. But when we see in Him what Petersaw in Him, we
at once own the powerand blessing of His words.
2. The consciousnessofa Divine characterin Christ is the most powerful root
of the Divine life. We are moved by characteras by nothing else. Truth on its
intellectual side is hard to find, and may easily be eluded. It is this which
makes the essentialweaknessofmany modern schemes ofreligion. They are
schemes ofintellectualism, and, to the majority, are useless. Theyare
incapable of being moved by science andart, because the motive powerof life
does not work in the main through the intellect or the taste. The higher life
may be helped by them, but they do not give or quicken it.
3. But let the personallife in us be brought in contactwith a higher personal
life, and the springs of our higher life are at once touched. Place a noble
human being amongstothers, and how powerfully does his influence work! It
is intelligible to all minds, and steals into all hearts. It was such a poweras
this, in a super-eminent degree, that Christ was felt to be. Behind all His
kindness, there lay a depth of Divine personality.
4. All this Christ is still, and the higher life is realizedby us when our
characteris moulded by His, and His mind is formed in us.
II. THE DIRECT REVELATION OF THE HIGHER LIFE THROUGH HIS
WORDS. The idea of Divine personality carries with it the idea of revelation.
If the powerbehind the world is a personalpower, it cannot but make itself
known; and eternallife can only be knownto us through its expressions in
such a one as Christ. If we cannotfind it here, we can find it nowhere. All

Christ saidor did was a revelation of it. Here is strength to resistevil and to
make habitual in us the instincts of a higher life, and nowhere else. And if we
have failed, our hearts tell us it is because we have gone back from Christ.
(Principal Tulloch.)
The difficulties of disbelief
J. Parker, D. D.
1. Suppose we give up the Christian faith, what shall we have instead? Wise
men are bound to look at consequences. If you were askedto leave your house,
would you not inquire where yon were to go? And are we to concernourselves
more about shelter for the body than a home for the soul?
2. It is easierto pull down than to build up, to spoil a picture than to paint
one, to tempt a man than to save one, to ruin life than to train it for heaven.
Infidels are doing this easywork, and to them we must put the practical
question, Give up religion, and what then?
I. GIVE UP THE IDEA OF GOD, AND WHAT THEN? You would refuse to
throw away the poorestcovering till you knew what you were to have in
return. Will you, then, recklesslygive up the idea of the living, loving,
personalGod at the bidding of any man? Remember that you can put away
the mystery of God, and you getin return the greatermystery of godlessness.
The wax floweron your table was made, but the roses in your garden grew by
chance, forsooth.
II. GIVE UP THE IDEA OF THE FUTURE, AND WHAT THEN? If a man
askedyou to throw awaya telescope, wouldyou not inquire what you were to
have in return? Will you, then, throw away the faith-glass through which you
read the solemnand wondrous future. Christian revelation tells us that death
is abolished, and heaven the goalof human spirits. Renounce this, and what
can the sceptic give?
III. SHUT YOUR BIBLE, AND WHAT THEN? The .Bible says, "The Lord is
my Shepherd," etc.;the tempter says, "Be you that shepherd." It says, "He,

every one that thirsteth," etc.;he says, "Youhave no thirst that you cannot
slake atthe muddy pool at your feet." It says, "Godis a presenthelp in time
of trouble"; he says, "Dry your tears, and snap your fingers in the face of the
universe." It proclaims the forgiveness ofsins; he says, "You have never
sinned." It says, "In My Father's house are many mansions";he says "Your
mansion is the grave;get into it, and rot away." Conclusion:
1. Keep this question straight before you.
2. Inquire of the tempter his powerto provide an alternative.
3. Be sure that the alternative is worth having. And you will find —
4. That if you leave the Divine life and aspectof things, there is nothing but
outer darkness.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
The disciples'reasons forcleaving to Jesus
Isaac Jennings.
I. Let us glance atTHOSE SYSTEMS FOR WHICH WE ARE TEMPTED
TO FORSAKE CHRIST.
1. Romanism.
2. Spiritualism.
3. Pantheism.
4. Secularism.
5. The world.
II. Let us examine CHRIST'S SUPERIOR CLAIMS ON OUR AFFECTION
AND FAITH.
1. He is a Divine Teacher.

2. An all-sufficient Saviour.
3. An Almighty Protector.
4. A SovereignLord.
5. The Restof the weary soul.Conclusion:
1. Christ is infinitely worthy of our confidence and love.
2. Make yourselves betteracquainted with Him, and your faith and lore will
be confirmed.
(Isaac Jennings.)
Personalaffiance in Christ the soul's safeguard
Bp. S. Wilberforce.
(Sermon to Young Men): —
1. We can scarcelyconceiveofany one but Peterspeaking these words. They
would not have been the first answerofthe critical Thomas or the more
philosophical John. The truth they contain would at lasthave arousedthe
faith of Thomas, and have been the resting-place of the love of John. Their
sudden, unqualified utterance could only have broken from the lips of Peter.
At the bare mention of the possibility of departure from Christ, St. Peter's
soul was on fire, and the utterance of his heart outran the slowerprocessesof
the intellect, and he spoke with the voice of one who had experiencedthe
powerof the words of eternal life.
2. Young men are speciallytempted to go away. The distinctive feature of
your age is that it abounds in temptations. There is —
I. THE TEMPTATIONTO A LIFE OF IDLE SELF-INDULGENCE.
1. With health strong, spirits high, and companionship abundant, the pleasure
of merely living is so very great as for the time to seemalmost satisfying. The
facilities for easyliving increasesthis temptation; but to yield to it is to kill the

heart of your truest life. Though there may be nothing positively sinful in the
separate acts ofsuch a life, it is as a whole most sinful. You are guilty of the
sin of omission, and rendering yourself unfit for the work of the future when it
comes. Forin such a life the seeds of all future evil are sown — softness,
slothfulness, selfishness,etc.
2. This temptation is not to be overcome by the dull aphorisms of morality,
nor by the festering pricks of ambition — the one all powerless againstthe
other, as dangerous as the evil. What you need is to know Christ for yourself,
so that love for Him becomes a real passionin your heart. Personalaffiance
brings you into His presence;and to be in His presence is to love Him, and
love makes all labour easy. There is no limit to the height to which this may
not exalt the most common-place life.
II. THE TEMPTATION TO IMMORALPLEASURES.
1. To attempt to restrain young men of strong passions by stoicalphilosophy
or prudential maxims, is like throwing a little wateron a great fire, which,
hissing out its own feebleness, does but quicken the burning.
2. There is but one sufficient remedy: that which has turned the martyrs'
flames into a pleasantwhistling wind, and subdued the flesh in all the triumph
of its strength — the love of Christ. Bring Christ by the cry of faith into thy
life; setthy struggles againstcorruption in the light of His cross, and pardon,
and purity, and powerwill come from the piercedhand.
III. THE TEMPTATION TO SENSUOUS RELIGIOUSNESS.
1. Our worship may easily be smothered by the weightof its external adorning
till it sinks into the death of mere formality, or is sentimentalized into the
languid feebleness ofan unmanly emotion.
2. The charm of such a temptation can only be broken by the knowledge of
Christ on the cross dying for our sin, awakening by His word the sense of
guilt, bringing the message offorgiveness, andholding communion with the
reconciledspirit. When this mighty revelation comes, the soul cannot rest in
outer things, nor allow the most beautiful symbol to intercept one ray of His
countenance, who is fairer than the children of men. You cannotstarve the

busy, intrusive fancy into a heavenly affection. The love of Christ must so
elevate the spirit, that it shall rest in no form, but in every form seek Him
supremely.
IV. THE TEMPTATION TO FREE-THINKING,AND THE LOSS OF ALL
REALLY FIXED BELIEF IN CHRISTIANITY.
1. Ages have their own temper, and there is much that is noble in that of our
own. It contrasts mostfavourably with sensual, dull, and easy-living times.
Labour, conflict, victory, are its watch-words. But its victories breed in it a
certain audacity, to which the authority and genius of the Christian revelation
oppose themselves.
2. Safetyis not to be found in sleepily disregarding what is passing around us,
nor in setting ourselves againstthe temper of the day, or in inventing a
concordatbetweenit and revelation, nor in forbidding criticism and turning
awayfrom discoveries. The rock, whose ruggedbreastaffronts the torrent,
cannot stay, but canonly chafe the troubled waters.
3. If there are hard sayings discoveredin the Christian record, and many turn
back because ofthem, this is but a sifting of the inner willingness of hearts to
go away. What else do the many voices around us proclaim but that, more
than ever, we need a personalknowledge ofChrist to keepus safe amidst the
strife of tongues?
4. The real talisman againstunbelief is not in hard, narrow, exclusive views,
but in personallove to Christ. This love will sweepawaya thousand doubts
and speculative difficulties, and supply a whole life of resistancewhichis
quickened into action by the mere touch of what might harm the spirit.
(Bp. S. Wilberforce.)
Whence the words of eternal life
S. A. Ort, D. D.

I. THE ANSWER OF SCIENCE. Byeducation, by learning the laws of nature
and training oneselfto obey them, ProfessorHuxley likens life to a game at
chess. The board is the world; the pieces the phenomena of the universe; the
rules its laws. The player on the other side is hidden. His play is always fair,
but he never overlooks a mistake. To the man who plays well the highest
stakes are paid. The one who plays iii is checkmatedwithout remorse.
Education is learning the rules of this game.
1. This representationignores the spiritual nature. That there is a spiritual
nature and spiritual fact is attestedby the consciousnessand history of our
race.
2. The God of Science is unknowable, without sympathy for the weak and
erring, and compassionforthe suffering. If this be all the God there is, how
foolish to concernourselves aboutthe words of eternallife!
3. This theory of the highest living leaves out of the accountthe most startling
fact of human life — sin.
4. This answerhas been tested. Give us culture, saythe scientists, and we will
save the race, and usher in the long-looked-forGoldenAge. Ah, yes, culture I
that is what Athens had, and perished. That is what Paris has, and, as Carlyle
says, is crazy. That is what Germany has, and still is full of the worstills. That
is what England has, and yet England is neither satisfiednor happy. That is
what we have, and still these spirits of ours crave something higher, stronger,
purer, better. That is what this age of ours has, and withal is blind and weak,
and restless as the storm-tossedsea. Sciencemay educate, but still sin remains,
and conscienceis not quieted.
II. PETER'S ANSWER. Whata mighty contrastbetweenChrist and science..
1. Go to Jacob's well. "Whence has thou the living water?" The scientist
would reply, "Out of the greatwell of nature. Study the laws of the universe."
Would the woman's heart have been touched, and would she have obeyed?
2. Suppose it had been the scientistwho had been dining at Simon's table; he
would have said, "Woman, it is not scientific to weep. Be calm. Life is a game
at chess;you have been checkmatedbecause youdidn't understand the rules

of the game." Would she have gone awayas she did disburdened and
satisfied?
3. What would the scientisthave done at the grave of Lazarus?
4. Where has science givenus a parable of the prodigal son?
(S. A. Ort, D. D.)
Jesus Christ the only source of rest and happiness
W. L. Johnson.
I. In this reply of the apostle's is implied A CONVICTION OF THE
INSUFFIENCYOF ALL HUMAN MEANS FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF
SALVATION. "Lord, to whom shall we go?" Shallwe apply to the scribes
and Pharisees?Shallwe inquire of the ceremonialor moral law? Shall we
submit to the decisions of reason?
1. The scribes and Pharisees,and other doctors of the law among the Jews, at
that period were blind leaders of the blind. Their corruptions had darkened
their minds, and thrown a veil over the sacredwritings; so that the plainest
prophecies were misunderstood, and the most important doctrines perverted
by them.
2. The apostles were equally convinced that life and salvationcould not be
obtained from an observance ofthe ceremonialor moral law.(1)With respect
to the former — they knew that the tabernacle service was chiefly typical,
shadowing forth goodthings to come.(2)With respectto the latter — even if
they could not recollectthat they had been guilty of any gross immorality, yet
they knew that they were far from that perfection which the law demands.
3. They were also persuadedof the entire insufficiency of reasonto point out
to them the path of life. Untaught by revelation, what knowledge canwe
obtain respecting the salvationof a sinner?

II. The text implies that they had A FIRM BELIEF IN CHRIST'S
PERFECTIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS AS A SAVIOUR, "Thou hast the
words of eternallife."
1. This is the language of faith, and expresses the sentiments and exercisesof
every soul that flees to the Saviour for refuge.
2. In this confessionthey acknowledge, also, a belief in His ability to instruct
men in the way of life.
3. It also implies faith in Him as the only atoning sacrifice.
4. To be a perfect Saviour, He must be able, also, to ensure everlasting life to
those whose sins He expiated; and, therefore, He must be possessedofpower
to apply His purchased salvationto the souls of His people.
III. From such a view of His offices, and a complete satisfactionin His
undertaking and character, arises anunconquerable desire for the blessings
which He has to bestow;and hence the words of the text are to be considered
as expressing A FIRM RESOLUTION TO ADHERE TO HIM AS THEIR
SAVIOUR AND LORD. "To whom shall we go," saythe disciples, "but unto
Thee."
1. United to Him they see safety;separatedfrom Him they behold inevitable
death.
2. This holy resolutionis formed, not merely from necessity, but from a
conviction of the honour, delight, and immortal glory which awaitthe
followers of the Lamb.
(W. L. Johnson.)
Words of eternal life
D. Merson, M. A.
I. A SEARCHING QUESTION PUT AT A CRITICAL TIME.

1. It is a question put at a time when there was a greatfalling off from the
number of Christ's followers. Now was the time to show their colours — now
or never. The chaff was driven away. The wheatremained. Times of apostasy
are sifting seasonsforGod's people, giving a renewed callto every soldierof
the Cross to rally round the desertedbanner. The example of others is no safe
guide. Public opinion is often a feeble indicator of duty. There is one example,
and only one, that we are safe to follow — the example of Christ. There is one
standard, and only one, that never varies — the Word of God. Keep the
infallible standard in your eye, and that will help to steadyyou amid the
changes ofmen and time.
2. This question was put at a time when there was a fresh demand made on
the faith of Christ's followers. It is obvious that our Lord's design was to lead
His followers to a knowledge ofthe hidden mysteries of His kingdom; to set
before them some of the deepertruths of revelation. Progressivenessmarked
all His teaching. Faith has often to surmount barriers which are impassable
by the natural understanding. Duty is evermaking fresh demands upon us,
and as we advance we are everfinding out depths that we have not yet
sounded, and heights of holiness we have not yet scaled. There are speculative
difficulties that try our faith, and perplexing things in God's word that we
cannot explain. In the face of such perplexities it will be our wisdom to hold
fast what we can accept. "Whatwe know not now, we shall know hereafter."
3. This question was put at a time when higher devotion was required in the
life of Christ's followers. WhenGod reveals Himself to His people, as He has
been doing with increasing clearness atdifferent stagesin the world's history,
it is in order to enable them to be more devoted witnesses forHim among
men. All our knowledge oughtto help us to live holier and nobler lives;
otherwise it profits nothing.
II. A NOBLER REPLY FOUNDED ON WEIGHTYREASON.
1. Christ the highestof all teachers. We have many professing guides, but they
all save One lead astray. Shall we follow our modern Pharisees andadopt the
creedof the formalist? No, that will not satisfythe soul that longs for life.
Shall we follow our modern Sadducees andadopt the creedof the atheist? No,

that will not satisfy the soul that longs for God. Are we perplexed in our
searchfor truth, and know not whose teaching to trust amid conflicting
opinions? Let us learn to distrust, in matters of eternalmoment, all human
guides, and look to that Name beside which there is none other under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. Then we shall have a Teacherto
instruct us wiserthan man, a Light brighter than the sun to shine on our path.
2. Eternal life the bestof all possessions. Christhas something to bestow which
no other claimant canboast of. He offers an inheritance that will outlast the
sun, and live as long as God Himself.
(D. Merson, M. A.)
Words of eternal life
D. Merson, M. A.
What are any of these life-giving words? Here are a few. "I am the
Resurrectionand the Life," etc. "Seekye Me, and your soul shall live."
"Whoso eatethMy flesh," etc. "God so loved the world," etc. What "potential
energy" slumbers in those wonderful words! They carry within them to the
guilty and the dying a Divine messagefraughtwith saving and life-giving
power. They are simple that a child may read them, but they hold, as it were
in solution, the deepestthoughts of God. The mere words are often compared
to the casketcontaining the gem. To find the gem you have to open the casket.
Even so, to get at the meaning of Christ's life-giving words, you need the
spiritual discernment, the keythat will unlock the gospelcasket. The
application of its contents to the heart will result in life eternal. Or take
another similitude: The words are like the title-deeds of an inheritance. The
possessionofthe title-deeds settles the ownership of the property. So the man
who appropriates by faith the truths of the gospelmakes goodhis claim to the
inheritance which the gospelpromises. Acceptthese truths, hold fast the title-
deeds, and the inheritance is yours — not simply will be yours at some future
time, but is yours now. The moment you receive the words of Christ you
become possessorofthe life of Christ. And this is what is here called"Eternal

Life," which has been defined to be not simply endless being, but a life of
perfect harmony with its environment, not subject to the changes and
imperfections of this finite world. To be in harmony with Christ, otherwise
calledreconciliationwith God — this is the aim of man's being, the noblest
heritage of fallen humanity. Christ makes the offer of it to all His followers. In
Him it is to be found, and those who are in Him have already entered into
possession. But, so long as they are in this finite world, they are like the sons of
Jacobin their possessionof Canaan, surrounded by foes and exposedto
changes, so that the circumstances are not favourable to undisturbed
possession, the external harmony or environment not being perfect, but the
time is coming when the harmony thus incomplete will be consummatedin
fairer worlds amid perfect and purer surroundings.
(D. Merson, M. A.)
Revealedreligionthe only source oftrue happiness
W. B. Sprague, D. D.
Taking the gospeljust as we find it, I shall show that all men's desires are to
be met in it and in nothing else. If we reject it, whither shall we go for the
fruition of oar desires? Take —
I. THE DESIRE OF CONTINUED EXISTENCE. Thatthis is deeply seatedin
the soulis evident from the horror which annihilation awakens.Where shall
we, then, find the evidence that the desire is to be gratified?
1. The senses only inform us that we shall die, and no disembodied spirit
appears to contradict it.
2. Reasononly speculates upon it as a probability, and those philosophers who
most cleverly argued it our disbelieved their own reasonings.
3. But faith looks through the darkness and beholds in Christ "life and
immortality brought to light."
II. THE DESIRE OF ACTION. The gospel, and that only —

1. Gives a right direction to the human faculties. Those faculties have
acquired a wrong direction which reason, working through the highest
civilization, could not correct;but just in proportion as the gospelhas
prevailed the standard of morality has been elevated.
2. Opens a noble field for their exercise. Whenthe gospelis not knownthe
socialduties are but little understood or performed; but Christianity enjoins
the doing of goodto our fellow-creatures,not only as beings who are to live
here, but for ever.
3. Enjoins employments which are fitted to improve man's faculties, and thus
render him capable of some vigorous and successfulaction.
III. THE DESIRE OF KNOWLEDGE. True, man may advance with no other
light but the light of nature. But in that department which respects the
characterof God and man's eternalrelations human reasonis at best an
inadequate instructor. The knowledge derivedfrom the Bible is —
1. Mostpractical, adapted to influence the affections, and through them the
life.
2. Sublime. Its revelations are stamped with moral grandeur — God, creation,
the soul, redemption, immortality, etc.
3. Forever progressive. The treasures ofthe Bible are inexhaustible, and he
who walks by it here will walk in the brighter light of heaven hereafter.
IV. THE DESIRE OF THE APPROBATION OF OTHER BEINGS.
1. Whereverthe gospelhas not existed, malice, hatred, envy, revenge, etc.,
have held the soulin dominion in spite of all that reasoncould do to redeem it.
But the gospelbrings into exercise the spirit of forgiveness and benevolence,
and makes man a brother, instead of an enemy, to his fellowman.
2. But this desire has respectto the favourable regard of God, and is met
(1)By the gospelproclamationof forgiveness;
(2)The impartation of a character which renders man the object of Divine
complacency.

V. THE DESIRE FOR SOCIETY. There is an impressionabroad that
Christianity is unfriendly to socialenjoyment. But monkery is a perversion of
Christianity. Christianity is in its very nature social, for —
1. A large part of its duties are social.
2. Its tendency is to refine and exalt the socialaffections.
3. It has establisheda society — the Church.
4. It meets this desire through every period of existence.Conclusion:
1. Does notthis furnish a conclusive argument for the Divinity of the gospel?
2. How malignant the spirit of infidelity.
(1)Even on the theory that Christianity is false, it can supply nothing in its
place.
(2)But on the theory that Christianity is true, it stands chargeable with
opposing man's best interests in time and eternity.
3. How blessedthe employment of extending the gospel!
(W. B. Sprague, D. D.)
Christ the centre of Unity
W. Hay-Aitken, M. A.
An old Greek sage hada theory, and it must be admitted that there was a
greatdeal of truth in his speculations. He had a notion that the history of the
universe was composedof alternate cycles, covering vastperiods of time —
the cycle of love and the cycle of hate. Under the influence of love, when this
cycle was being fulfilled which he supposedall came under, the mighty force
and tendency of eachwas towards unity. Then came the cycle of hate when the
centrifugal forces produced universal disintegration; parts flew off from the
whole, from their proper centre, and from their proper relations to each
other; and the various objects ofbeauty also beganto disappear. This was a

Jesus was with the words of eternal life

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