Here is the key: "_these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life through His name_." This was John's whole thought in telling the Jesus-story. The practical gripped him wholly and hard. This is the thing that guides his selection of incidents. This purpose shapes the shape of the book. It explains everything told, and just why it is told in just the way it is told. John lets Jesus walk before our eyes fresh from His Father's presence. The mere fact of His presence, the winsomeness of His personality, the clearness of His teaching, the power of His actions, the uncompromising purity of His character amidst sin-stained crowds and sin-dirtied surroundings, the unflinching rigidity of His ideals, the persuasiveness of His very manner and tone of speech, the patience and gentleness, the rugged granite strength, the mother tenderness, above all the willingness to suffer so terribly,--all this is a plea, a tremendous overpowering plea, all the stronger because presented so simply and briefly. Jesus is a Lover and this is His wooing. And John's one thought in writing is the same as the one thought in the Lover's heart. John has become simply an echo of Jesus. It is this, that _you_, whoever you are, wherever, whatever, that you may _believe_. You look and listen, question, puzzle a bit maybe, but keep on listening and looking, thinking, weighing, till you are clear these things are just so as John tells them. Yon accept them as trustworthy. Then you accept _Him_, Jesus, as He comes to you, your wooing Lover, your Lover-God, your Saviour and Lord. You _believe_: that is you _love_. The grammar of the word works itself out inside you thus,--believe, trust, love. The truth comes in through eyes and ears and feeling, into brain and will; through emotion clear down into your heart. You love. You cannot help yourself. You love _Him_, Jesus, the One so lovable. John says that you _may_ believe. It is possible. It is the reasonable intelligent thing to do after such a presentation. John makes it easy for us to believe. His telling of the story is so strong and convincing, though so simple and short, that believing is the natural thing. Jesus Himself, as He conies to us through John's eyes and speech, is so believable, so trustworthy, so lovable. Now we _may_ believe. It's the thing to do after a thoughtful kneeful study of the case as put by John. We _may believe_ clear into and through intellect and emotions and will, right down into the depths of heart and love, clear out into every action of the life.