then this knowledge had been in the world and in the very native land of the Speaker of these words for above two thousand years. Above two thousand years before this, God had said to this man's forefather, "Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward;" and again, God said to him, "I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect." God could not say such things to one spiritually dead. The mere hearing of such words from God betokened some life in him who received them.

And this knowledge had largely increased since Abraham's time, for Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, and Daniel had received revelations of God's truth.

And yet this man, under the very shadow of the one temple of the God of Abraham and of David, stood up and said, "I am come that they might have life.”

And it was no passing saying this, for He said again, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life;" and again He said "I am the Resurrection and the Life;" and again, "Because I live ye shall live also ;" and again," He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life;" and it was witnessed of Him "In Him was life."

How then could men have lived-lived with some life of God long before Jesus came, and He rise up and say, not once or twice, but in

one form or other many times, "I am come that ye may have life"?

Now I think that we may be permitted to draw an illustration from nature which may help to show us how this could be. For we see all around us life, not uniform, but in every conceivable form and degree. There is the stone, cold, hard, and dead; but the rain moistens it and the sun shines upon it, and there creeps over it a thin coat of many colours, and this has lifethe lowest form of life that can be called "life" -but still "life." This life of the lichen rises into that of the moss, which has a higher existence still, for it has flowers and seeds; and so life rises in the scale and manifests itself. And besides this there seems to be in some plants the beginning of a higher life. There are plants, I myself know of three, that seem to have the beginning of that higher life which exists in nerves of sensation, for they shrink when we touch them; and, more marvellous still, those who have explored the forests of tropical America tell us that in the dark depths of those dense woods, from which the light of day is all but shut out, the creeping plants, as they twine round the huge trunks, struggle and contend with one another to get at the sunlight, and to breathe the air which is at the top; and one has told us that he has seen in their struggles to reach some opening to the heavens above "a manifested eagerness and a

cunning craft" in supplanting one another which seems almost human in its selfishness. And then we come to the animal world, and there is the life of the worm rising into that of the higher brutes, and at last culminating in the life of man.

Now, measured by man's life, its busy thoughts, its manifold capacities, and its farreaching hopes, the worm seems dead, just as the tree seems dead by the side of the worm, with its powers of motion and its rudiments of a will; and yet compared to the dead stone even the lowest plant has abundant life.

And so it is in the moral world. There is life, and there is life. Compared with the Christian the Jew was scarcely alive, and yet compared with the heathen around him he had the very life of God. We do not deny for a moment that God gave, before the time of Christ, foretastes or outgoings of the higher life which was to come in through Him; and even among the heathen He raised up as His witnesses many who, "having not God's law, did by nature the things contained in the law, and so were a law unto themselves, showing the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness."

And the converse of all this is fearfully true. The baptized Christian is at times reproved by the Jew, and the circumcised Jew, when he fell from his high standing as a witness for God

among the heathen, made the name of the God he bore to be blasphemed among the Gentiles through his greater degradation. Nature, too, has a parable to teach this; for the higher the life the more offensive the corruption of its death. The corruption of the animal is far more sickening than the decay of the tree.

In the midst, then, of the teeming life of Jerusalem, and surrounded by the spiritual life of the then religion of God His Father, our Lord said, "I am come that they may have life."

Let us try to explore, reverently, something of the depth of such astonishing words.

First of all, notice that He says, "I am come." "For us men, and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man." Thus we of His Church understand His words, "I am come." No man who ever trod this earth knew as our Lord could know, and could say as our Lord could say, why He had come here. Few, if any, know, except in some vague way, why they are here.

We know in a general way that we are here for the glory of God and to do His will, but beyond this we know little or nothing. It may be that God's glory may be promoted by that which we conceive to be our special mission coming to nothing, and that our true work may

be simply to prepare the way for those that come after us.

He

But Christ knew why He was come. knew what special work He had to do, and how it was to be brought about, and so He says, authoritatively and definitely: "I am come into the world that I might bear witness of the truth." 'I came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give My life a ransom." "I am come, not to send peace, but a sword."

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And now, seeing He is come that we may have life, how does He give us life?

Now He is the life of His people because He gives to them the knowledge of God and of Himself, as the Son of God, according to His words, "This is life eternal: that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent;" and besides, He enables them by the Spirit which He gives, to lay hold of this knowledge, so that it becomes living faith; and besides this, in a still more wonderful way, He gives to them that whereby they are strengthened and refreshed more directly from Himself.

He gives to His people Divine knowledge. "I am come that My people may have life," means, "I am come to reveal to them the Father." God spake by the prophets, but respecting the revelation of the Father by and in the Son that Son Himself says, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." He not