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
Now, if that be the interpretation, however inadequate, of these great
and wonderful words, there are but two things needful to say about
them. One is that this promise of a complete guidance into truth
applies in a peculiar and unique fashion to the original hearers of it.
I ventured to say that one of the other promises of the Spirit, which I
quoted in my introductory remarks, was the certificate to us of the
inspiration and reliableness of these Four Gospels. And I now remark
that in these words, in their plain and unmistakable meaning, there lie
involved the inspiration and authority of the Apostles as teachers of
religious truth. Here we have the guarantee for the authority over our
faith, of the words which came from these men, and from the other who
was added to their number on the Damascus road. They were guided 'into
_all_ the truth,' and so our task is to receive the truth into which
they were guided.
The Acts of the Apostles is the best commentary on these words of my
text. There you see how these men rose at once into a new region; how
the truths about their Master which had been bewildering puzzles to
them flashed into light; how the Cross, which had baffled and dispersed
them, became at once the centre of union for themselves and for the
world; how the obscure became lucid, and Christ's death and the
resurrection stood forth to them as the great central facts of the
world's salvation. In the book of the Apocalypse we have part of the
fulfilment of this closing promise: 'He will show you things to come';
when the Seer was 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day,' and the heavens
were opened, and the history of the Church (whether in chronological
order, or in the exhibition of symbols of the great forces which shall
be arrayed for and against it, over and over again, to the end of time,
does not at present matter), was spread before Him as a scroll.
Now, dear friends, this great principle of my text has a modified
application also to us all. For that divine Spirit is given to each of
us if we will use Him, is given to any and every man who desires Him,
does dwell in Christian hearts, though, alas! so many of us are so
little conscious of Him, and does teach us the truth which Christ
Himself left incomplete.
Only let me make one remark here. We do not stand on the same level as
these men who clustered round Christ on His road to Gethsemane, and
received the first fruits of the promise--the Spirit. They, taught by
that divine Guide and by experience, were led into the deeper
apprehension of the words and the deeds, of the life and the death, of
Jesus Christ our Lord. We, taught by that same Spirit, are led into a
deeper apprehension of the words which they spake, both in recording
and interpreting the facts of Christ's life and death.
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