Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXIMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. John -- Commentaries
first comes, 'It is the Lord!'
And is it not a blessed thing, brethren! that thus this high and
glorious prerogative of recognising the marks of Christ's presence
everywhere, of going through life gladdened by the assurance of His
nearness, does not depend on what belongs to few men only, but on what
may belong to all? When we say that 'not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called'--when we say that love is
the means of knowledge--we are but in other words saying that the way
is open to all, and that no characteristics belonging to classes, no
powers that must obviously always belong to but a handful, are
necessary for the full apprehension of the power and blessedness of
Christ's Gospel. The freeness and the fullness of that divine message,
the glorious truth that it is for all men, and is offered to all, are
couched in that grand principle, Love that thou mayest know; love, and
thou art filled with the fullness of God, Not for the handful, not for
the _elite_ of the world; not for the few, but for the many; not for
the wise, but for all; not for classes, but for humanity--for all that
are weak, and sinful, and needy, and foolish, and darkened He comes,
who only needs that the heart that looks should love, and then it shall
behold!
But if that were the whole that I have to say, I should have said but
little to the purpose. It very little avails to tell men to love. We
cannot love to order, or because we think it duty. There is but one way
of loving, and that is to see the lovely. The disciple who loved Jesus
was 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.' Generalise that, and it teaches us
this, that
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