Quiet Talks on John's Gospel

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ove ties knots to hold what has been gotten. The bit of prayer knots up the kindly act. The warm hand-grasp knots the timely word

on the ends of threads. Five knots are tied on the

of that black thread of opposition and rejection; and a knot of wondrous beauty on the end of that yellow

er twenty is the second, the Resurrection knot; chapter twenty-one the extra knot, the love-service knot.

dling, till at last a good thread is gotten, and is being woven into the warp. Now a knot is tied on its end to hol

direct-wooing case is made up. There is no more added to it, except the indirect, the incidental. The evidence is all in. Wondrous wooing it h

ght. Jesus is alone with the inner circle. They have received Him. Now He will receive them into closer intimacy than yet before. They have opened their hearts to His love. Now He opens His h

pper room they are shut in, gathered about the supper board. As they eat Jesus is quietly but intently thinking. Four trains of thought pass through His m

seemed slow in coming, that hour.[104] Dreaded things seem to linger even while they hasten, dreaded longed-for things, dreaded in

e yet another full opportunity. And under all is the heart-throb of love for these who are His own, being birthed into a new life by the giving of His very own life these months past. He loves His own, and wi

ee Things in

of the disciple nearest Him. And before they can recover from their wide-eyed astonishment He begins bathing his feet and then carefully wiping them with the convenient towel. And so around the circle. Peter, of course, protests

rface, within easy reach. It was acted, then spoken; done, then said. It was sorely needed, and is. In it was the key to Jesus' great victory within the twenty-four hours following,[108] and would

e sinned, as those who have been bought with blood. Everything we have is from Another, originally and continuously; we are utterly dependent. All rights have been forfeited by our wilful conduct;

with our fellows. In this lies the secret of all strength,-mental keenness and vigour, sympathetic touch with

and needing badly. It's this: the thing in you that's wrong must be made right; and it can be. Every sin done by the man who is tru

returning home except where his sandalled feet had gathered some soil from the road. These men were cleansed in heart through Christ. But the foot-soilings must be cleansed. These two things ring out. Sin must b

the personal touch, of presence, of lips, of hands. Something seems to go through the personal touch from heart to heart. The spirit-currents find their connection so. Jesus gave the tender perso

nd he had to set himself afresh to resist that touch. John felt it, and remained steady. Peter felt it and came back with floo

ed for Judas.[110] He tries once again to reach his heart and stay his wayward feet. He reaches for his feet through his heart this time. They're all to

s asks the question in undertone. And as quietly Jesus makes reply. Then the last appeal is made to Judas in the last delicate touch of special personal attention

part of the evening's drama is now done. The wooing of Judas has been intense and tender clean up to the last moment, and resisted. Now t

e-Love

est to keep Judas in by trying to have him turn something-some one-out. But the something that held the some one is kept within, so

being revealed God's character would also be understood, and God Himself would show what He thought of Jesus by His personal recognition a

His very own. Peter picks up the one bit he understands, and is told that he cannot yet follow in the tremendous experience lying just ahead for Jesus, but some day he can, and will. An

heir national home, but He would provide them a home, and a better one. They did believe in God. They should believe Him just as implicitly. This is the warp into which is woven the whole fabric of that evening's talk. The whole

answered. Thomas' question helps Jesus to turn them away from thinking of a roadway of clay and sand to a Man. Philip's helps Him to insist on the p

ing is a thing of the heart. Their heads were bothered. He said in effect,-all your head questions will be answered in good time, but this thing is higher up than that. It's a

outer, the action side. The love looks out the window of the life and then comes out and walks down the street on an errand.

e is the music of two wills acting together. Believe me, love me, obey me,-this is the three-noted music of t

nce. He will abide in you, come in to stay. He will be everything and do everything that you need in every sort of circumstance

re's thoughtful silence, which the Mast

at Vine

s at the full. Now they see the temple, the moonlight falling full upon it. And the great brass grape-vine with whic

am the true vine, and My Father the vine-gardener." Here is the illustration that exactly pictures what He had been saying in the upper

m, and blossom out of the new branch and that out of the old stock of the vine: believe, love, obey, abide; vine, new branches, tiny blossom, fruit.

e-juice of the vine coming into branch and blossom and fruit. "Joy"-that is the rich red juice of the grape in your mouth. "Friends"-that is the other word for abide. That's what abiding makes and reveals. Abiding-that is what friends do: that's w

streets are shadowed. And you feel the shadows creeping into His talk. The world will hate them. Of course. This is a natural result o

service. The Holy Spirit in them would reach out and talk to that outer crowd. He would make clear to them their awful sin in killing Jesus, the spotless purity and rightness of the absent Jesus, and the terrif

hadowed. He lets them think a bit over His words. And the personal part takes hold most. And they talk softly together of what this means,-a l

p pains in the joy of her new-born babe. And as He talks they think they understand now, but again He gently reminds of the storm about to break. And then He leaves them three wondrous words,-peace, good-cheer, overc

hem up to more intelligence in their believing and loving. It's wooing them to trust Him, hold hard to Him, during the coming storm,

the Inner

, the least resistible bit, the closest wooing of all. He takes them into His innermost heart-life for a brief moment. It must have reminded John afterwards of that mountain-top experienc

ife. That was a bit of the wooing, under the desperate happenings just ahead. But now as He takes them in He quite forgets them, though He knows they are there. He is absorbed wi

is Book is the Gospels. The heart of these four Gospels is John's. The heart of John's is this exquisite bit, chapters thirteen to seventeen. And there's yet an inne

. The unquestioning confidence in the outcome is to one's faith like a glass of kingdom wine fresh from the King's own hand. The tenseness and yet exquisite quietnes

ach its own beauty and simplicity. But it may perhaps send

ather's heart, "Father: the hour is come"; talked of long before this errand was started upon, brooded over these human years, felt in His inner being as it ti

st already done so in the control Thou hast given Him over all men, that so He may give to them the eternal life. An

t thing yet remained to be done in the tremendous yielding, the strong passive yielding to Hate's worst that so Love's truest and best might be clearly s

nd petition to intercession. He is thinking of others, of these men who are grouped near by. He has prayed for them before. He is simply pick

em, that they may be kept; not taken out of the world; kept in it, giving their witness to it, yet never of its

e meaning of that good-cheer and overcome with which the roadway talk closed. With the clouds of hate at their blackest, and the storm just about to break in uncontrolled wild fury, He speaks of "My joy." He is sing

the theme. Now He broadens out, in clear vision, beyond the gathering storm, to those, through all the earth, and down th

lievers drawn by the one vision of Himself back in the glory of the Father's presence, where they will all gather. And then lo

are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine." There lies the very inner heart of all carried to the last degree. There is glad giving and full taking

, in the insistence of our sovereign wills, "All that is mine is Thine: I give it Thee. I give it b

ing Thine it is mine. So comes the perfection of the rhythmic action of love. Our love gives our all to Him. And then takes the greater all of H

ly thinking thoughtfully into it, until this great simple prayer gets its hold upon our he

must have touched and stirred them to the very depths to hear Jesus telling the Father so simply about their faith in Himself, and their obedience, their break with their national allegiance to follow Him

that night. Positive degree, that touch upon their feet; comparative, that talk about the board and along the r

fied S

ith the clear beautifying light, not of a fine Passover moon; no, the light of His face, His life, His words. That vine

er Christian life," following the common usage of these latter days. I still prefer to say true life. Higher means that there is a lower life. And that

way with seven letters. We must learn to spell it with four letters-l-o-v-e. We need to learn to spell love with a b and a y-o-b-e-

winning, singing with joy over the results of our new spelling in the syllables of daily life. Blessed Master, we wou

Then the whole story is in easy shape to help, pictured before our eyes. Abide-that is Jesus walking around in your shoes, looking out through your eyes, to

vine, is it not? That's abiding. The whole of Jesus will be in you as you go about your daily common task, sin

in, so there are betweens here before full ripening of fruit comes. There's purifying, cleansing by blood, cleansing by

e's obedience,-perfect rhythm of action between vine and branches. There's prayer, the intercourse of our spirits, His and ours, together, the drawing f

thing's more than the words sound. The Jesus-spirit within will be felt by those outside, something warm and gentle and helpful. There will be

ithin and flowing freely out is a protest against the opposite. The mere presence of a Christ-abiding man convicts people of the sin of their lives and their treatment of Jesus. It convinces them that the absent Jesus is right, and so they are wrong. So there's trouble out in the crowd just bec

of the Father's ideal for men, a unity of life with Himself, and with each other. And every bunch of grapes hanging

ll is irresistible to the outer cro