SECTION VII.

CHRIST IN THE COMPANY OF THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT, AS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, WHO HAS GLORIFIED THE FATHER, WHO IS GLORIFIED BY THE FATHER, AND GLORIFIES THE CHURCH, AND BY IT THE WORLD.

(John xiii. 31-xvii.)

When the Lord had removed the traitor from the company of the disciples by purely dynamic means, without the application of force, of the legal ban, or the right of social exclusion, He had completed His warfare upon earth, so far as it was purely spiritual, in the department of Spirit, and a contest of spirits. His victory in the spiritual sphere was decisive, and thus was the foundation laid for the triumphs which should still follow — for the victory over the temptations He had to encounter in Gethsemane in the sphere of the deeper life of the soul, and for the victory over the temptations connected with His bodily death on the cross.¹ A high feeling, therefore, of holy exultation necessarily accompanied this victory over the kingdom of Satan, of which Judas was the representative; and along with it, a lofty anticipation of the glory of His Church, which by His divine moral victory was already opened to view. This frame of mind declares itself most^ distinctly in the words of Christ.

When therefore he (Judas) was gone out, Jesus said, 'Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.'

He has, namely, attested His Spiritual glory by His victory over the powers of darkness, as represented by Judas, and thereby He has manifested and sealed the spiritual glory of the Father.

'If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.' At the same moment in which the manifestation of the glory of the Father in the Son is completed, must necessarily the unfolding of the glory of the Son in the Father, in His administration, and in His world, begin its resistless course, and advance with ever increasing force to its consummation. But in this glorification of the Son, the glorification also of the Church, or of the world in its heavenward calling, is implied.

This, however, involves as a necessary condition and prerequisite. His departure from the disciples.

'Little children,' He says, in anticipation of this departure, 'yet a little while — only — I am with you. Ye shall seek Me — sadly miss Me. And as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come, so I say also to you now,' namely, for the present.

His departure is the condition of the glorifying of His name and of the glorifying of the world, which from this time should be effected in them and by them; the condition, namely, of the glorifying of the relationship between heaven and earth, of the glorifying of the higher world, of the glorifying of this world, and of the glorifying of mankind and the world generally in both, or rather of the glorifying of the Father and the Son in all these — for the world as world is abolished.

In the first place, thus the glorifying of the relationship between heaven and earth comes under consideration, or the departure of Jesus from His own people, with its immediate effects (xiii. 31-38).

Jesus describes this glorification in the following words: 'A new commandment (a new institution) I give unto you, in order that ye may love one another; as I have loved you, in order that ye — with a love otherwise so feeble — may — truly — love one another.' This is without doubt a reference to the holy Supper. The holy Supper is a glorifying of the relationship between earth and heaven, or it is a glorifying of the departure of Jesus, which at once completes and annuls the contrast which subsisted between them; for it is the institution which represents the love of the exalted Lord, and the love of the earthly Church; the presence of the exalted Lord, and of the higher world, in the company of the earthly disciples; the festive exaltation of these earthly disciples into the heavenly kingdom.

The Lord proceeded to describe the earthly-heavenly calling of the disciples: 'By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.'

Simon Peter, however, appeared unwilling to hear of the separation. He asked Him, 'Lord, whither goest Thou? 'Jesus answered him, 'Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.' Peter said unto Him, 'Lord why cannot I follow Thee now at once? I will lay down my life for Thee.' He thus well knew that by the departure of Jesus was meant a going away by death, by a violent death, which His enemies would inflict upon Him. But he declared himself not only ready to die with Him, but also for Him. He would not only follow Him, but even precede Him, nay, by resigning his own life, be the means of saving His. Jesus answered him, '^Thou wilt lay down thy life for Me? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied Me thrice.'

His departure thus remained unalterably fixed. Yet Jesus had given to Peter, to whom He had to administer this sharp rebuke, the word of consolation also: 'Thou shalt follow Me afterwards.' And to the same effect He now proceeded further to comfort all His disciples.²

Thus follows the glorifying of the heavenly world. Spoken under the starry heavens (xiv.)

'Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God — who calleth Me — and believe in Me — who go at His call. Believe thus, and then are ye also assured of My destination and your own. — In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so — if there were no higher world for you, no immortality, and no entrance there would I then say to you, I go to prepare a place for you? — Would the faithful voice of truth deceive you with the promise which it now gives you as a pledge of that truth? — And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.'

This is the heavenly world in its importance for the disciples of Jesus. It is the house of the Father. For His people in this world are many mansions there, into which they shall be received. These are prepared as an abode for them by Christ. And as He goes hence to prepare a place for them, He will come again to conduct them thither.

When He had thus declared the truth itself, that by His departure the glory of the heavenly world was opened up to the disciples, He now also removes out of the way the difficulties which on their side militate against this expectation. He does so by occasioning the disciples to give expression to them (see vol. iii. p. 147).

He draws forth the first of them by the words, 'And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.' To this Thomas replied, 'Lord, we know not whither Thou goest, and how can we — then —know the way? 'Jesus saith unto him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.' Thomas formed his judgment regarding the higher world by material rules. If one has no description of the end of a journey, how can one know it? And if one does not know the end, how should one know the way? But Jesus shows him that in spiritual things an opposite law prevails. He is the living way to heaven. He is Himself as well the truth of the way, the revealer of it, as the life of the way, the precursor, the guide, nay, the living force by which the goal is reached. By Him alone can one come to the Father; thus also to the Father's house, and to the assurance of the Father's house. The Christian obtains the certainty of the heavenly world, not by outward testimonies from thence, but by the attraction of the life of Jesus thitherward, by the pledge of heaven which lies in the intensity of his heavenly life on earth, or rather, of his eternal life as it manifests itself in this world. The kernel of the life on earth is a holy testimony to the life above.

For the Son, in His appearance upon earth, is in all things the revealer of the Father throned in heaven. Jesus therefore proceeds: 'If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also. And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.' The words are exactly suited to call forth the second difficulty.

This is now propounded by Philip, as follows: 'Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.' He desired only a distinct theophany as a pledge of the truth of the heavenly life.

Jesus saith unto him, 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself; but the Father, that dwelleth in Me — as the author of the words — the same doeth the works — which are a counter-signature and seal of the words. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; and if not, yet believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto My Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it. If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever — namely — the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, for it seeth Him not, and knoweth Him not. But ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you behind as orphans: I come unto you.' After the Lord has given His disciples the assurance of heaven, He desires to make them likewise assured of the Father in heaven. They doubted of heaven, because they did not outwardly know the end and the way: He showed them how in His life the way is implied, and in the way, the end. They doubted further, however, of their being received into heaven, because they thought the Lord of heaven, the Father, had not yet made Himself sufficiently known to them upon earth: He had as yet imparted to them no sign from heaven in the form of a perfect theophany, as a pledge of their going to Him. Jesus now shows them that He is Himself the highest theophany. And as He first represents Himself to them as the absolute way, the surety of heaven, so now, as the absolute image of God and of heaven, as the manifestation of the Father. And thus He guarantees the end with the Father. The Father is in Him: that is the perfect presence on earth of the Father. He is in the Father: that is the perfect life of heaven in the Son. His words are the words of the Father. And so also are His works. He who cannot recognise Him in His words as the Messiah, must yet be able to recognise Him in His works. And if he thus believe on Him, his faith shall be confirmed by himself doing like, and even greater works, in the name of Jesus, in the development of His work, if not in equally wonderful form; so that he himself shall accomplish heavenly things on earth as precursory tokens of heaven in heaven. For the Son is the channel by which this is conveyed to the disciples, on the condition that they pray to Him for it. Even the very highest will He impart to them, if they beg Him for it. Nay, for this highest gift will Christ Himself ask the Father, if they only keep His commandments and abide in His ordinances. Then, namely, through His intercession, shall the Holy Ghost be imparted to them as the other Advocate (Paraclete) of their life, who shall always remain with them, who shall bring near to them the inward substance of that heaven in the spirit. As the Spirit of truth shall He be communicated to them, because they possess the truth. To the world, however. He cannot be imparted; for it seeth Him not — in His works or tokens in Christ, — therefore still less does it know Himself. To them, however, He can and shall be imparted, because they know Him, and because, therefore, He works in them till He can celebrate His triumph in them. Nay, Christ Himself will come to them in the Holy Spirit, and entirely remove from them the feeling of orphanage.

In such measure shall they be assured of the Father in heaven, and of their going home to Him at last. Now, however, rises a third difficulty. Why cannot this revelation of the heavenly country, especially this announcement of Christ, be communicated to all men from above? "Why does it remain concealed from the world, an exclusive possession of believers? This difficulty is suggested, by the words which follow: 'Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see Me: for I live, and ye shall live also.' Life, then, the true life of Christians, resting as it does on the life of Christ, is the cause of their seeing Him again. 'At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father; and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.'

To this Judas answered — not Iscariot: 'Lord, how cometh it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us, and not unto the world? 'That is, wherefore wilt Thou in Thy heavenly glory, along with heaven itself, become manifest to us, but remain concealed from the world? Jesus returned for answer: —

'If a man love Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' Love to Jesus has for its effect, that a man faithfully keeps His word hid in his heart; but this word is the medium by which the love of the Father makes itself known to him: hence the representation in the word becomes an experience of this love. Where, however, the Father manifests His love. He appears Himself, and with Him the Son; and when they reveal themselves fully in the heart, they make there a permanent abode. There arises thus an inward heaven, which in a mysterious manner, as sign and token, as^res the believer of the heaven beyond this world.

Thus does the matter stand with respect to believers. As to the world, on the contrary, it stands as follows: —

'He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words. And the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's that sent Me.' With inward alienation from Christ, a man loses again Christ's word. With the word of Christ, he loses the word of the Father; with the word of the Father, the medium of the manifestation of the Father. Therefore the bright image of heaven cannot be represented to his mind, still less leave its impress there.

Thus, then, we have the explanation of the fact, how believers are assured of the heavenly glory of their Lord, and of heaven itself, but not so the world.

The Lord has now removed the three chief stumbling-blocks which, proceeding from worldly conceptions in the minds of His disciples, might have obscured to their view the brightness of heaven: the offence of the melancholy doubter, who objects that there is not more distinct outward information concerning heaven, and the way to it; the offence of the doubter whose heart is set on divine manifestations, and who desires more sensible and striking announcements of God from the other world; as likewise the offence of the benevolent doubter, whom the incapacity of the world to apprehend the hope of that invisible inheritance as a reality, might render werse joyfully to entertain the hope for himself.

The Lord was well aware that this discourse concerning the higher world still contained much that was dark to the disciples. He therefore proceeded: 'These things I have spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Intercessor (Paraclete), the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.' Thus His present discourse shall be made clear to them from the higher world itself; it shall be glorified in their hearts.

The glory of the heavenly world has now been opened up to them. He therefore proceeds to introduce the subject of the glorifying of the present life, by directing their thoughts to the marvellous peculiarity of His own departure: —

'Peace I leave with you — as a farewell salutation — My peace I give unto you — rather, namely, as a salutation of an eternal recognition and meeting again, of an eternal reunion. Not as the world giveth it — the salutation of peace — give I it to you.' The world first salutes a man with alluring cordiality, soon again to leave him disconsolate and friendless, and it bids him farewell with heartless coldness, often with unfriendly harshness; it bids adieu for ever. Christ salutes otherwise. From every one of His farewells there breaks forth the salutation of reunion. He salutes His people in God, for eternity. He therefore proceeds: —

'Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be disconsolate. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice that I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I — as He that determines, and thus also glorifies My life. — And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. I will not talk much more with you; for the prince of this world cometh' — he comes in the fulness of the enmity of this world, and brings with him My death — 'and in Me he hath nothing,' adds Jesus, i.e., nothing akin to him, no point to seize hold of, no prospect of victory, and therefore also no right, viewed in itself, to tempt Me, to cause Me suffering.3 'But that the world may know that I love the Father — and thus be delivered from its gloomy prince by the obedience of Christ — and that I may so do, as the Father hath commanded Me, arise, and let us go hence' — go to meet the doom appointed of the Father. This was the departure from Jerusalem.

Jesus now speaks of the glorifying of the earthly life, with the nocturnal garden fires in view,⁴ as He descends towards the garden of Gethsemane (xv.-xvi. 24).

First, He fixes the fundamental idea of this glorifying of the earthly life.

'I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away — He cutteth off — and every branch that beareth fruit. He purgeth it — pruneth — that it may bring forth more fruit. Ye are already clean, through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and withers (straightway). And men gather such, and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. — And as they burn, how terrible is the flame of that blazing fire! If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father — then — glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and become My disciples — truly more and more become. As the Father hath loved Me, and I have loved you, continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. But I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye ask of the Father in My name. He may give it you.' The earthly Christian life of the disciples, which is appointed to glorify this earthly world, must therefore be deep-rooted in heaven; it must proceed from their vital union with the Lord, who is throned in heaven, and who from heaven administers the affairs of earth. He first presents this thought in the form of a parable. The whole kingdom of God appears here in the figure of a noble vine. Christ is the true vine, of which the earthly vine is only a symbol; all His disciples are the branches. The government of the Father over the world is essentially a training of this vine by the husbandman. To all the branches He applies the knife, either to cut them off, if they bear no fruit, or to prune them, if they are truly fruit-bearing branches. Thus are the last cleansed. The disciples are indeed already clean within, so far as they have received the word of Christ, by virtue of this principle of cleanness. But they may not only become again unclean, but even worthless, if they, namely, do not, by keeping the word of Christ, abide in Him, in the living contemplation of" His person, so that He, in His full efficacy, may remain in them. For of themselves they can as little be or do as the branch; their true life is entirely dependent on their abiding in Christ, in like manner as the true health of the branch depends on iU remaining in vital connection with the vine. If this be wanting to a branch, if it be separated from the unity of the vine in its noble root-life and fruit-bearing energy, and hangs on the vine like a rude, wild, and strange wood, which only produces a luxuriant foliage, it is cast forth, gathered together with others, and burnt. Such is the end of the degenerate spiritual branches, as the case of Judas shows. They are cut off from the vine, and wither; they are carried away with the rest in one company of evil men; they are destroyed in the bright flame of divine judgment. But when the disciples abide as branches in Christ, His words then also abide in them: they may ask what they will, and it shall be given them. Christ has His thought ever fixed on the conversion of the world, by His life being glorified in the world. This is attained especially by the fruitfulness of His disciples, by the perfecting of their likeness to Christ, or their discipleship, and by the glorifying of the Father. The secret of this rich fruitfulness of the disciples' life is, that the love of the Father is, in infinite fulness, directed towards the Son; that the love of the Son, in like fulness, is directed towards them; and that they plunge themselves into the depths of this love, and preserve their experience of it by fidelity towards His commandments, even as He Himself maintains a full knowledge of the Fathers love by a perfect obedience to His commandments. If they keep these words of His, His joy, the free, festive, exultant excitation of His soul. His blessedness, shall abide in them, the harmonious pulsation of their life shall be perfect; i.e., they shall be blessed even in the midst of this world itself. All His commandments, however. He comprehends in the one commandment — which He had delivered to them in the holy Supper as the new law, in a concentrated and consolidated form — that they should love one another, as He had loved them. The measure of His love is the highest possible, namely, death on behalf of His friends. Friends thus henceforth He names His disciples, because He has made them acquainted with the revelations of the Father, which have been imparted to Himself. Yet they are not the authors of this friendship: He has chosen them, not they Him. Hence it follows, that they are called to exhibit His life. The commission, therefore, which He has given them is, that they should go — go into the world, as He had done — and bring forth fruit; and that their fruit should remain — should become a universal seed-corn, in such wise that all their boldest petitions — especially for the salvation of the world — might receive a perfect fulfilment.

After the Lord has thus presented in a general form the fundamental idea of the glorifying of the earthly life by His disciples, He now fixes His eye on the two separate sides of this work: first the defensive element in their position, in so far as they should triumphantly withstand the efforts of the world to extinguish the light of their life; and then the offensive element in it, in that they are appointed to subdue the whole world in the power of His Spirit, and to fill it with His glory.

First, He speaks of the fence set around their life against the efforts put forth by the hatred of this world, to extinguish its light.

'This is My commandment, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own — in you. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you: The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all this will they do unto you, for My name's sake, for they know not Him that sent Me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin — involving the ban — but now they have no pretext to excuse their sin. He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man hath done, they had not had sin; but now they have both seen it — salvation with their eyes — and have turned their hatred both against Me and against My Father. Nevertheless, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law: They hated Me without a cause (Ps. lxix. 4). But when the Pleader (Paraclete) is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me. And ye also shall bear witness; for ye have been with Me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended — take offence at the persecutions of the world, and thereby be caused to fall. — They shall — in the first place — put you under the ban of the synagogue — excommunicate you from the synagogue; — yea, the time — even — cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have neither known the Father nor Me, But these things I have told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that L told you of them.'

The Lord provides the disciples with the true equipment against the enmity of the world, in order that the day of their perfect joy might not be overshadowed by the night of the world's hatred.

First of all, the true character of their mission must be regarded by them as a settled thing, namely, the exhibition of a kingdom of love, of brotherly love.

And in pursuing this end, they must be prepared to expect the hatred of the world; and neither be surprised at it, nor allow themselves to be troubled by it, inasmuch as they know that the world hated their Lord and Master before it hated them. They must regard this hatred as natural and inevitable, and find its explanation in the fact, that they are Christians chosen by Christ, separated from the world. They must thus willingly acquiesce in this hatred, and not desire the love of the world, which could only be founded on something of a worldly nature in themselves. In the midst of these enmities, however, they must strengthen themselves by the recollection, that they experience nothing else than their Lord and Master experienced, and that they experience it for His name's sake.

Yet, notwithstanding, they must not consider the hatred of the world as a mere weakness, even though they should find it easy to be understood. For the world, with this hatred, opposes itself to the clear declarations of Christ as the manifestation of the Father. For this antagonism and resistance, there exists no excuse. Therefore is its sin a sin which exposes to the true ban — it is damnable. The hatred against Christ is hatred against the Father. Nay, the world, by its hatred, opposes itself to the great divine works of Christ — His miracles. It has with its eyes beheld His glory, and yet it has thereby, and on that very account, turned its hatred against the Son, who reveals the Father, and against the Father, who reveals Himself by the Son. This is the appalling hatred without a cause, which the Father in His revelation of Himself, in times of old, experienced from His people, and regarding which He had uttered His divine complaint.

And yet they must not, over against this demoniacal hatred of the world, become themselves haters; they must not turn their backs in hatred on the world, nor even combat the world in a hateful spirit. Rather must they learn that the Spirit of truth, whom Christ will send as a representative from the Father for their protection, is a Spirit who imparts courage to testify. He shall testify of Him, and even thus incite them, His instruments, to testify of Him, over against the world. They have been called, indeed, from the beginning to be such witnesses. This spirit of testimony shall have for its first end the honour of Christ, His justification and glorification before the world, and therewith also, at the same time, the salvation of the world. And just in this work of compassionate love, which they have to carry on, the hatred of the world will be kindled against them more and more. Therefore He tells them beforehand, that they may not allow themselves to be overcome by that hatred, or be offended by it. He tells them beforehand that they, the witnesses of God, should be excommunicated under the title of God's enemies; and still more, that the raging fanaticism of unbelief should think it brought to God an acceptable offering, performed an act of divine service, by causing their death.

Even then, however, they must carry in their hearts this great excuse for their mortal enemies, namely, that they neither know the Father, nor Christ; even as He Himself afterwards prayed on the cross for His enemies: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

All this He tells them now beforehand, in order that the remembrance of His having done so may strengthen them in the hour of trial.

Yet by merely defensive weapons alone, they could not possibly maintain the contest with the world. They must rather assert their superiority to the enmity of the world by overcoming it in the power of the Holy Ghost, by convincing it, by casting it to the ground in the inner judgment of the Spirit, by annihilating it, and just by these means saving it.

Thus does the Lord now come to the offensive element in the position of the disciples towards the world, to their positive victory over the world: the second side of the glorifying of the earthly life.

'These things I said not unto you at the beginning — namely, of the persecutions which awaited them — because I was with you. But now I go hence to Him that sent Me. And none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou? But because I have said this unto you, sorrow hath taken full possession of your heart. But I tell you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come. He will convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye see Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet much to say unto you — more immediately concerning the enlightenment of the world — but je cannot bear it now. But when He shall come, the Spirit of truth. He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that will He speak, and He will declare unto you things to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and declare it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore have I said. That He shall take of Mine, and declare it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again a little while, and ye shall behold Me,5 for I go to the Father.' Then said some of His disciples among themselves, 'What is this that He saith unto us: A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again a little while, and ye shall behold Me? and what is this: I go to the Father?' And so they said, 'What can this — really — mean, when He saith, A little while? We know not what He speaketh.' Jesus remarked that they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto them, 'Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again a little while, and ye shall behold Me? Verily, verily, I say unto you. Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more her anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy shall no man take from you. And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name. He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.'

In these words is the perfect victory exhibited, which the disciples shall celebrate over this present world.

The Lord explains to them, first, why He had not before so distinctly foretold the great persecutions which they should have to undergo at the hand of the world.⁶ He was Himself with them as the first Paraclete or Counsellor. But He tells them now, because He is about to take His departure. And He may tell them now; for in the fact, that He goes hence to Him that sent Him, there is contained all consolation for them; namely this, that He will send to them the other Counsellor. He laments that none of them possesses liberty of spirit sufficient to ask Him whither He goes, therefore about the heavenly world, to which He directs His course. This resignation is wanting in them, because their heart is full of sorrow, as if His departure were for them the greatest misfortune. Therefore He gives them the assurance, that His departure will be of the highest advantage to them. If, namely, He did not go hence, the Counsellor would not come to them; hut now that He departs, He will send Him to them. For with the departure of Christ, in the first place, His own life is perfected; secondly, the susceptibility of the disciples in reference to Him; and thus, thirdly, that relationship between Christ in heaven and the longing disciples on earth, in which He can impart to them the fulness of His Spirit. And with the Holy Spirit, He will send them also at the same time complete victory over the world. For immediately on His appearance, that great Pleader shall begin to convince and cast down the world: He shall bring the world to the knowledge of sin, by convincing it of the centre and substance of all sin, that it has not believed on Him; and to the knowledge of righteousness, by convincing it of the centre and the unfolding of all manifestation of righteousness in the exaltation of Christ to the Father; and of judgment, by convincing it of the centre and deepest key-note of all judgments, the unmasking and destruction of the Prince of this world, in the death and the resurrection of Christ. In this judicial administration of the Spirit over the world, is implied a boundless spread of salvation through the world, more glorious than the Jewish, particularistic apprehensions of the disciples could as yet understand; therefore the Lord just at this point adds, 'I have yet much to say unto you, but ye cannot bear it now.' The rest, however. He says, shall be told them by the Spirit of truth. He shall guide them into all truth — shall thus impart the fullest development of the truth. He shall not speak of Himself — bring nothing else, which should distinguish His work from the work of the Son. He shall not establish a special economy of the Holy Ghost; but He shall confirm that which is already given in the revelation of Christ⁷ — what He shall hear; and He shall prophetically prepare and introduce that which is future, that which shall unfold itself out of the other. In these developments, however, He shall more and more glorify Christ; for from the things which are His He shall take His communications, and declare them to the disciples. For all that the Father hath is also His. In all this the boundless spread of salvation, and the glorifying of the world by it, are indicated.

In the anticipation of the glorious future which awaits His kingdom, the turning point which must introduce it occurs again to His thoughts, as on other similar occasions;⁸ but in the same degree His heart is also lightened by the joyful consideration, that His glory is so near at hand. One day more should not pass, till He was snatched away from His followers by death and the grave. And then again only a night, a day, and once more a night should pass, and all should be endured and decided; and then He could begin to reveal to His people His glory. This feeling He doubtless expressed with the deepest emotion. It is a little while, and ye see Me no more with bodily eyes, in the old frame of mind. And then again, a little while, and ye behold Me — with the eye of the spirit in the look of the bodily eye, and with the eternal look and sight of faith — for I go to the Father. His royal way to the Father is the way back to life, to heaven, to the glory of the Spirit, and therefore must He become visible to His people on this way.

The disciples were especially arrested by the moving tone and the mysterious sense of the last words, and most of all were they occupied with the enigmatic expression: a little while. They were in the highest degree agitated by the hint, that the destiny of their Lord, and their own, should be decided in so very short a time. It must have specially excited their astonishment, that the Lord spoke of a twofold: It is a little while.

The Lord gives them further explanations. Soon, soon shall they weep and lament, and the world shall triumph. Then, however, shall their sorrow be turned into joy.⁹ And how shall it be with the joy of the world? That shall be revealed to them by the Holy Ghost. From their sorrow, therefore, the most glorious gain shall spring forth. The figure of the travailing woman is thus a picture of their frame of mind. Nay, in them specially is the Old Testament Church impersonated in her travailing pain, as she is now about to bring forth the Man in his absolute glory, the Conqueror, and Saviour of the world. At present they are passing through the hour of sorrow; but the time is soon coming, when He shall see them again, and their joy shall be eternal.

And in the day when their New Testament condition is completed, when they shall behold the glory of Christ, it is significantly said, they shall ask Him nothing. Then, namely, shall they be children of the Spirit, who have obtained an inexhaustible fountain of knowledge in the word of Christ, which the Spirit shall glorify in their heart. Then may they lay the boldest petitions before the Father in His name, and He will grant them their fulfilment. But what kind of petitions shall these be? Petitions in the name of Christ, i.e., very specially, petitions for the salvation of the world. Thus they shall become petitioners in a sense, such as hitherto they have not been. He encourages them so to pray, and to take all, till their joy shall be full; till, in the full stream of the Spirit, they have obtained the fulness of a perfected harmony in the development of their own life, and in this a pledge of their perfect victory over the world.

If, however, in this manner, the heavenly and the earthly worlds should he seen by the disciples in the glory of the Spirit of Christ, the course of Christ's life must above all things he glorified to them. And from the glorifying of Christ's life, shall then proceed the glorifying of their own also.

'These things have I spoken unto you in parables,' said Christ further. 'But the time cometh, when I shall speak no more unto you in parables, hut shall show you plainly of the Father. In that day, ye shall ask in My name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for He Himself, the Father, loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.'

All the words of Christ were parabolic words for the disciples, because they had not yet received the glorifying Spirit, who interprets their deepest meaning, Very specially He had exhibited to them in parables, properly so called, the riches of the Father's love, His purpose to save the whole world, to spread His kingdom through the whole earth. In the day of the coming of His Spirit, however, He says, this shall be quite otherwise. He shall impart to them the full revelation of the Father, in perfected immediacy and directness. And then, in perfect fulness of light, they shall ask the Father in His name. His intercession for them shall then be seen in its perfect unity with the declaration of the love of the Father to them; and they shall then no more think that His intercession for them first moves the love of the Father towards them: even in His intercession they shall see a revelation of the Father's love to them. But the love of the Father shall so make itself known to them, because they had lovingly known and recognized Him, because they had believed that He was come out from God, as the pure and perfect image of the Father. This is the clear result of His ministry among them, reduced to a definite expression: they have loved Him, they have recognized in Him the manifestation of God, the messenger of God, and the image of God. He can now, therefore, attach to this knowledge His explanation regarding His return to the Father; and this He does in a sentence, which contains the watchword of His whole life: —

'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world. Again I leave the world, and go to the Father.'

Then said His disciples unto Him, 'Lo, now speakest Thou plainly, and speakest no parable. Now we know — this — that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man ask Thee. In this we believe — in this we recognize the pole-star of our faith — — that Thou art come forth from God.' Jesus answered them, 'Now ye believe — at present it is a great and glorious moment! — Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every one to his own — under the impulse of his own personal feelings, see Zech. xiii. 7 — and that ye shall leave Me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is with Me. This have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye may have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.'

The watchword of Christ, with respect to His life, gave to the disciples, for the first time, a clear insight into the whole of His earthly career. From a distinct knowledge of the fact, that He, as the Son, had gone forth from the Father and was come into the world, there now developed itself in their mind the faith that He must again leave the world, and go to the Father. In the glory which He had before all time, they saw that His glory when time shall be no more was implied; in His humiliation, they saw that His exaltation was involved. The veil seemed now, therefore, to fall, which had concealed from them the termination of His earthly life. A sunbeam of glory illuminated His future, and thus also the future of His kingdom. At that moment there had been given them an anticipation and foretaste of the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost.. On this account, also, they thought the time of His veiled mode of speech was now already past, and thus too the time of their asking. It was no misunderstanding of His words, that they would one day no more ask Him any question, but a refined application of them. How should we still require to ask Thee, they thought, when Thou thus meetest the most secret questions of our spirit? Now, they said. He has given them the all-sufficient explanation. The truth that He came forth from God, that should be the point of departure for their faith, that should remain in their minds an established fact; and with it. His future also should be made clear to them. The question of their faith in Him was thus finally decided. Their only error consisted in an overvaluing of that glorious moment, and of their present standpoint. Jesus therefore announced to them that they, now so full of joyous faith, should in the very next moment forsake Him, once more overpowered by the influence of their egotistic individualism. They should leave Him alone, but the Father not. This He says for their comfort, in order that they may again seek and have their peace in Him. They should be hardly pressed. He tells them; but nevertheless they should be of good cheer, and draw their comfort from this consideration, that He has already overcome the world.

Thus, from the glorifying of His own life, He makes the glorifying of their life to proceed.

The Lord having communicated to them the doctrine of the completion of His work — of the glorifying of the Father, and of the world, by the glorifying of His own life — and having put into their heart the germ of this world-transforming power of His life, He now seals all these announcements by laying His work on the heart of the Father in His high-priestly intercessory prayer.

The high-priestly intercession is the positive glorification of Christ in the spirit, the foundation of the actual glorification by the surrender of His life and His whole work into the hands of the Father. It was spoken by the Lord before 'passing over the brook Kidron (xvii.)

These things spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said: —

'Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Him whom Thou hast sent, Jesus Christ, I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.

'I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things, whatsoever Thou gavest Me, are of Thee. For the words which Thou gavest Me I have given unto them; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me.¹⁰

'I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine, and all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them. And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep in Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we are!

'While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thyname. Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled (vid. Isa. lvii. 4, &c.) And now come I to Thee: and these things I speak — still — in the world, that they may have My perfect joy in themselves. I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

'I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.

'As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

'Yet not alone for these do I pray, but for them also who shall believe on Me through their word: —

'That they all may be one: as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in us;¹¹ that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.

'And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me.

'Father, I will that where I am they also be with Me, whom Thou hast given Me, that they may see (θεωρῶσι) My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.

'O righteous Father, and the world doth not know Thee: but I know Thee, and these know that Thou hast sent Me. And I have made known unto them Thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and 1 in them.'

The first petition of Jesus is a petition for the glorifying of His name in the world generally (vers. 1-5).¹²

The motive urged for His petition is, that the hour of the glorifying is come. The eternal foundation of His glorification is the power which the Son has in principle received over all flesh,¹³ and the reali7Mtion of it consists in His granting eternal life to all whom the Father hath given Him. The central point of eternal life, and thus of the glorifying of the name of Jesus, is the knowledge of the one true God, and of His ambassador Jesus Christ (the Anointed of God), who not only as Christ, but also as Jesus, in His human nature and form, is the absolute ambassador, the perfect manifestation of the Father. The historical foundation of the glorifying of the Son consists in the fact, that He has glorified the Father on the earth, and finished His work. The measure of His glorification, finally, is that eternal glory which He had with the Father before the foundation of the world.

The disciples, however, constitute its medium; and as Jesus has deposited His work in their hands. His petition for the preservation of His work becomes an intercession for them.

This intercession for the disciples is the second petition of Jesus (vers. 6-19).

He mentions first His work in the disciples (vers. 6-8). The work of Jesus in them consists in His having revealed to them the name of the Father. As the work of God, it depends on the Father having given them to Him. It has attained its result as a work of faith in the disciples themselves, by their having kept the word of God. And now it has become the individual personal life of the disciples, and unfolds its operation in the fact, that they know that the whole manifestation of the life of Jesus in the Father is a revelation of God. They have a living knowledge of the words of God, a knowledge of the Son in the Father, from whom He came forth, and of the Father in the Son, whom He had sent.

He then makes mention of the infinite value of this company of disciples, and of the work in their hearts (vers. 9-11). He prays for them, not for the world. For whilst He prays for them, He just by this prays also for the world: as the bearers of His salvation, they outweigh the whole world. The first form in which their value appears, is that they are the channels of salvation to the world. The second lies in the words: for they are Thine; they constitute a circle of elect ones around the Son, and are thus the centre of all that is God's and Christ's, that the Father gives to the Son, and the Son brings back to the Father. The third form of their value is this: Christ is glorified in them, and now labours no longer as a human teacher in the world. He returns to the Father, and leaves them behind as the organs of His operation in the world. Hence the urgent petition that the Holy Father would keep them in His name, that they might form a unity in this world, as the Son with the Father — a unity in the Spirit, in love, in the truth.

On this He indicates the great danger to which they should henceforth be exposed (vers. 12-14). Hitherto He was Himself with them, and kept them. Faithfully did He watch them; and none of them was lost, except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which had foreseen his fall,¹⁴ — not therefore through the want of watchful fidelity on the part of Christ. Now, however, it must be otherwise. He goes forth from them to the Father, and speaks only a few words more in the world, in order to perfect what was wanting in their condition, and leave behind with them His perfect joy, the inward blessedness of His Spirit as an inheritance. They are now thus the possessors and keepers of His word in the world. Therefore also the hatred of the world has already fallen on them. For now, in the kernel of their new life, they belong as little to the world as Christ Himself. From this cause the heaviest tribulations and dangers await them.

Yet the Lord does not fear that the world shall overcome them; on the contrary, He expects that they shall overcome the world. And this is the request which He now expresses (vers. 15-19).

He prays not. He says, that the Father would take them out of the world, but only that He would keep them from the evil:¹⁵ that He would sanctify them in the world, that He would make them to be as beings not of this world, living for God in the truth, being drawn upwards, and flying upwards into the eternal reality of the word of God. With this consecration He would then send them down into the world, as the Father had sent Him into the world. He, on His part, would sanctify Himself for them — in pure resignation offer Himself to the Father, and leave the world,¹⁶ that in the strength of this sanctification they might be sanctified in the truth — in pure resignation and devotedness to God, have their conversation in heaven even in the midst of the world.

On this follows the third petition of Christ — the intercession for oil future believers, who shall he brought to Him by the word of the disciples.

He has three requests for them.

The first is for their true oneness. They should all be one, after the manner of the oneness which subsists between the Father and the Son; so that all should be reflected in each, and each in all, that their individuality should appear uninjured in their totality, and this last in their individuality. This oneness should proceed from their being one with the Father and the Son; its effect, however, should be, that the world should be brought to believe that the Father had sent Him,¹⁷

The second request is, that they should share in the spiritual glory of Christ — that they should become perfected, free, spiritual men. And this perfecting should become the foundation of their perfected oneness: that, namely, they should so become one, as the Father and the Son are one, as the Son is in them, as the Father is in the Son, that thus, by the perfecting of their individual life, they might, as perfect men, form one perfect unity. And this should be the effect: the world should know — now know — that the Father had sent Him, and that the Father loves believers, even as He hath loved the Son.

The third request is the following: that they should be where the Son is, His partners in the glory of heaven. They should with their own eyes see the glory which the Father hath given Him, because He loved Him before the foundation of the world. They should thus see in His glory, in the perfected glorification of His name, the full revelation of the love of God, and the full execution of His purpose: this should be their inheritance.

In the conclusion of the prayer, Jesus gives expression to the weighty import of the present moment, in which He takes leave of the disciples. His present position in the world is glorified in it.

The Father now presents Himself to His view as the Righteous One.

The Father must reveal His righteousness, for the world knows Him not.

But Jesus must feel the rigour of His righteousness towards the world, for He knows it.

And the disciples have come to the knowledge that the Father has sent Him; therefore must they be thoroughly furnished to become His messengers to the world.

From this position follows what still remains for Him to do, or rather to suffer. He has made known to them the name of the Father in His life, and will make them still more fully acquainted with this name in His death and in His resurrection, that the love with which the Father has loved Him may be also in them, nay, that He Himself also may be in them — and thus Christ remain in them here in the world, in the constant announcement of the fulness of the love of God, until the work of His glorification be completed.

The fundamental feature of the whole section is the glorifying of the last acts of the ministry of Christ on earth, as He lingers among His disciples, and completes the foundation, laid in their heart, for the glorifying of His name.

The glorifying of the name of Jesus, however, is no egotistical self-glorification. It is rather the pure result of His having glorified, and still continuing to glorify, the name of the Father, with perfect self-abnegation, amidst all the contempt and contumely of the world. But, because this glorifying of Christ proceeds from the glorifying of the name of the Father, it is at the same time a glorifying of the whole of life, of all mankind, of the whole creation, through the glorifying of the Church of God. In the first place, the farewell of Christ is glorified: in its individual elements, in the decisive act by which it is finally brought about, his spiritual triumph over Judas; then, in the relationship which is established by Him between the earthly and the heavenly life, and in the institution which is appointed to fill up the chasm between them, the Holy Supper; further, in the disciples remaining meanwhile here, the necessity of which is implied in their want of Christian ripeness, and is illustrated by the weakness of Peter, nay, even in the fall of Peter, considered in the light of his repentance, which Christ prophetically intimates in the announcement of the cockcrowing. The departure of Jesus into the heavenly world is then exhibited to us in the glory that attends it, and with this the glory of the heavenly world itself. Creation becomes for us the house of a Father, — the starry heavens, signs of the many mansions prepared for us; the departure of Christ is a travelling hither and thither, to prepare there an abode for His people, and to fetch them home from here. In the return of Christ to His home, the certainty of immortality for us is also glorified: Christ appears as the living, faithful pledge of the continued existence of His people, of their journey home, and of their heaven. He then places in its true light the much misunderstood starting point for the hope of His people: He glorifies the way, heavenwards, and the end of the way — heaven itself. The highest security for the heaven above appears in the hidden heaven below, the revelation of the Father in Him. The mysterious hidden nature also of this Christian hope, as likewise the hopeless and Christless state of the world, are explained. With this glorifying of the other world, the three chief grounds of offence contained in the doctrine of the heavenly inheritance, as these are here represented in the persons of Thomas, Philip, and Judas Lebbeus, are also placed in their true light. The Lord then glorifies His own farewell salutation, in contrast to the farewell of the world, which His salutation illustrates and explains: His farewell is a salutation of meeting again; His going is turned into a coming; His depapture out of the world, into a revelation of Himself to the world; His voluntary submission to death, into a completion of the work which the Father has commanded Him to do. Thus also His passage through death is glorified; it is a return to the highest life. There now follows the glorifying of His return to this earthly world, which is a glorifying of the earthly world itself. The mystical tree of the Church of Christ must here be brought to view in all its significance, with its roots in the depths of heaven, with its branches and fruits covering the earth. The symbolical meaning of the vine appears in its strongest light. The providence of God is seen in all its ideality, as a faithful providing for the kingdom of God. The strokes of fortune are nothing but delicate applications of the pruning-knife in a master's hand. The true branches which remain in their ideal connection with the vine are only purged; the rude branches which have broken their connection with the ideal vine are only cut off, that the vine may be preserved. The judgment on these apostates is shown us in its inward necessity, in its consistent termination, by the idealization of the sacred nocturnal fires of Easter, or in the figure of flaming garden fires. We are then made acquainted with the characteristics of true disciples — their new life in relation to the Father, to Christ, to the world, and to one another. We are further made rightly to understand the hatred of the world against the disciples of Christ in the light of the life and of the Spirit of Christ, and to appreciate it in its criminality, and likewise in its consistency. We see the martyrdoms, the tortures of the Inquisition, the auto da fes, illuminated by a ray from His throne. We learn the cause why the earthly Church does not desire and obtain further disclosures regarding the heavenly world, namely, because usually a cloud of sorrow obscures her view of the departure of Christ, and likewise generally overhangs the passage into the other world. All such manifestations of despondency in the Church, however, are counteracted by her eye being pointed to the sun of the Spirit, to the coming of the Holy Ghost. He appears here more especially in His witnessing, rebuking, judicial operations, as with regal power He casts down the powerful and menacing world before the face of the distressed disciples: yet we see also how He glorifies, in the eyes of the world, the saving righteousness of Christ, and the judgment against the ancient prince of this world, Satan. The work of the Holy Spirit, and the developments of the Church under His operation, are shown here in their true light, namely, as the eternal unity between the perfected faithfulness of the Church to the word of Christ, and her perfected freedom in the unfolding of her life. Whilst thus, however, we are made acquainted with the administration of the Spirit, and the character of the Church, the disciples also are presented to us as princes, victorious over the world in the spiritual power of their new life. In the word of Christ: A little while, there is brought before our contemplation the significance of the decisive turning point in His life, and thus also in the life of His people. In the figure of the labouring woman, we recognize the symbolical meaning of the pangs of child-birth; we learn the glorious end of all birth-pangs in Christ, in the disciples, in the Church; nay, we learn how all sorrows have for their end, as birthpangs, to announce new life, and new joys. Further, we are made acquainted with the great significance of the resurrection of Christ: the festivals of Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and generally New Testament times to the end of the world, appear in their unity as a great festival of His resurrection glory. After the Lord has in this manner shown the disciples how His name, and in His name the whole of life, must be glorified. He deposits the germ of this glorification in their heart, by communicating to them the watchword of His life. He can now show them their approaching dispersion and flight in the light of His compassion, and generally, the temptations which they shall have to undergo in the world. He likewise shows them the great isolation which awaits Himself, and how it is glorified by the faithfulness of the Father.

Having seen the future work of glorification depicted in the great farewell discourse of the Lord, and having then seen, in His last words regarding His earthly life, how He called into being the first beginning of this future glorification in the hearts of the disciples, we now see, finally, how in His high-priestly intercession He already, in the spirit, accomplishes the great work of glorification by commending it to the Father's heart.

The glorifying of His name here unfolds itself in the glorifying of His work.

The glorifying of His work becomes a glorifying of the company of His disciples.

The glorifying of the apostles has for its effect the glorifying of the Church. The latter is glorified in its first stage as the one Church, the medium of faith to the world. It unfolds itself in the second stage as the spiritually glorious Church, the medium of knowledge to the world. It appears, finally, in the third stage, as the Church exalted into heaven: the world, however, has disappeared before the radiance of the glory of Christ.

In conclusion, the Lord permits us to see His own heart in the light of His high-priestly intercession: how He penetrates and apprehends the character of the spiritual powers from which His sufferings proceed; and how He offers Himself in voluntary obedience, in order fully to reveal to His people the name of the Father.

From a general point of view, however, there is presented to us in the high-priestly prayer, the glory of the inward life of Christ, the fidelity of His intercession — His eternal and true high-priestly intercession — which must have as its result the accomplishment of the salvation of the world.

The farewell discourse, regarded as a whole, glorifies the name of the Son in the name of the Father; in the name of both, the name of the Holy Spirit; in this name, the disciples, the future Church, and heaven and earth itself.

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