He had a right then to say, '_Whither I go ye know_;' for the knowledge of a Father was that which He had been all along imparting to them. It was that which the whole heart of humanity, expressing itself through songs, myths, forms of worship, had been aiming at. Doctors might have crushed it out of their hearts; peasants could not. And had not the disciples heard of a way to God? What had John the Baptist come for but to prepare such a way? What had the call to repentance, what had the message concerning a kingdom of heaven at hand, and a Word who is the light of men, been, but an opening of this way? The difficulty was to connect this way with that by which Jesus said He was going. Thomas gave utterance to the difficulty with singular frankness. '_Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?_' Would that we were all as honest in asking questions as he was; then we should be prepared to receive the answer. '_Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him._' Are you so familiar with the first of these verses that it leaves no impression upon you? Connect it with the second, from which, in general, it is widely disjoined, and you will see how much of its meaning we have all still to learn. We think of a way to _heaven_. Christ, we say, is that way. Even so. But the old question which we saw was so intensely puzzling to the people of Capernaum--which is not less so to us--recurs at each step, 'What is heaven?' Jesus answers by saying that He is the way to the Father. '_No man cometh to the Father but by me._' So the words, '_I am the truth_,' acquire an infinite significance. Christ is the way to the eternal truth, which makes free. He is both the way and the truth, because He is one with the Father, who is that eternal truth. And the words, '_I am the life_,' are but the same, proceeding from His own lips, which we heard before from the lips of His Evangelist--'_In the Word was life_.' They are but the gathering up of all the signs which have manifested Him as the Life-giver to the bodies of men,--as Giver of a divine and eternal life to their spirits. But if we forget that Christ's work is to bring men to their Father; and that He is distinct from the Father, as well as one with the Father: if we exchange this evangelical statement for some miserable one of our own, about 'the happiness of a future state,' the announcement of Christ as the way and the truth becomes a mere self-contradiction. Our Lord's teaching was not in vain. One of the disciples perceived that to know the Father was all in all,--that he wanted nothing but this. '_Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us._'