the Gospel, and of the essential correctness of the relation given of the discourses, that the author is so filled with the spirit of his Master's teaching, so absorbed in the substance of it, that here and there he insensibly passes from the Master's words into reflections of his own without distinctly marking the point of transition. Incidentally there occur undesigned tokens of the fidelity of the evangelist's memory. One of the most striking instances is the introduction of the words, 'Arise, let us go hence' (John xiv. 31), which are not explained, but which imply a change of place perhaps a leaving of the table to go forth towards the garden. Had they formed a part of a fictitious narrative, it is impossible to suppose that they would not have been connected with a statement of what the action was that is implied in them.

Who can doubt that Jesus said much more, and, especially in converse with His disciples, spoke in more continuous discourse, than the synoptists relate? They preserve, for example, but a few sentences which were uttered on the occasion of the Last Supper. Yet He sat with the disciples the greater part of the night. Here, again, the peculiarity of the oral tradition, in contrast with the full narrative of a person who draws from the store of his own recollections, is manifest. As regards the Saviour's manner of teaching, there are striking resemblances between the discourses in John and His method of instruction as described in the synoptical Gospels. It is said that in John He makes use of symbols, as in the connecting of physical blindness with spiritual (ix. 39-41). But how does this differ from such a saying as, 'Let the dead bury their dead' (Matt. viii. 22.) It is said that in John His figures are frequently misunderstood by His disciples. But in the synoptists we have such statements as, 'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees' (Matt. xvi. 11), which the disciples failed to comprehend; and, 'He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one' (Luke xxii. 36), which the disciples misunderstood, and which Jesus did not stop to explain. Such an illustration as that of the Good Shepherd (chap. x.) belongs to the same method of teaching which dictated the parables recorded in the first three Gospels. The close examination of the two authorities, John and the synoptists, brings to light numerous resemblances in the modes in which the religious thoughts of Christ are set forth, such as might not attract the attention of a cursory reader.

As regards theology, there are traces in the synoptists of the same vein of teaching which is so prominent in the Fourth Gospel. The memorable passage in Matt. xi. 27, No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him,' is in content and style coincident with what we find in John. It is a specimen of that sort of teaching respecting Himself and His relation

to God which we have good reason to expect that Christ would impart to His followers. Is it probable that He would have left them in the dark on those questions in regard to which they must inevitably have craved instruction, and which form so large a portion of the teaching in John? The institution of the Lord's Supper as it is recorded by the synoptists implies that instruction respecting His person and concerning the spiritual reception of Himself-such teaching as is given in John vi.-had been imparted to His disciples. Else how could His words at the Last Supper have been otherwise than strange and unintelligible to them? The conception of His person in the synoptical Gospels is at bottom the same as in the Fourth. In them He stands forth as the Supreme Lawgiver, as we see in the Sermon on the Mount. He is distinguished from the prophets, and is exalted above them. He is at last to judge the world. The particular point that is found in John, in distinction from the other Gospels, is the explicit doctrine of His pre-existence. This doctrine, together with that of His relation to the creation, has its equivalent in the writings of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. viii. 6; 2 Cor. viii. 9; Phil. ii. 6), a circumstance, as was remarked above, which tends strongly to prove that it entered into the testimony of Jesus respecting Himself, and thus goes to corroborate the evidence of the same fact, afforded in John.

In the Christian literature of the second century there is no book which approaches in power the Fourth Gospel. Everything is on a lower level. When we take up the works of the sub-apostolic age, we are conscious of an abrupt descent from the high plane of the apostolic writings. The apostolic fathers are marked by a languor which infuses languor into the reader. Even the Epistle of Polycarp, although not wanting in good sense and good feeling, is not an exception. The Epistle of Clement of Rome, compared with the New Testament writers, is feeble. Unless for the purpose of scholarly investigation, who cares to peruse the allegories of Hermas? The anonymous Epistle to Diognetus, which is generally thought to be as early as A.D. 150, stands alone in that era as a really spirited composition. This is a discourse or terse appeal addressed to an individual; but, notwithstanding its rhetorical vigour, it cannot be compared for a moment in religious depth with the Fourth Gospel. The writings of that day, Justin included, are echoes of the inspired works of the preceding age. How can a book of the transcendent power of this Gospel be referred to the period of decadence? It has commanded the reverent sympathy of the ablest minds. It has captivated millions of hearts, and has held its throne, age after age, in the households of the Christian nations, amid all the fluctuations of culture and civilisation. To think that such a writer-an unknown writer, too-sprang up, like a flower of perennial beauty, in the barren waste of

post-apostolic authorship, is to suppose an anachronism.

Strongly marked as is the type of doctrine in the writings of John, its identity in essential features with the theology of Paul is an impressive fact. John teaches that 'life' begins here, in the knowledge of God and of His Son (John iii. 36; 1 John v. 12). Life inseparable from fellowship with Christ is the truth on which all stress is laid. Judgment is here: the Gospel does its own work of separation by testing and revealing the affinities of the heart. Yet the objective, atoning work of Christ is not ignored; nor is the Resurrection and the final awards (John iii. 14, 15; 1 John i. 7, ii. 2; John v. 28, 29). Paul connects the breaking down of the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile with the death of Christ (Gal. iii. 13, 14). In remarkable harmony with this conception are the words of Jesus when it was told Him (John xii. 20, seq.) that Greeks who had come up to the Passover desired to see Him. It was a sign to Him that His hour had come. The corn of wheat, in order not to abide alone,' but that it might bear fruit, must fall into the ground and die.'

If the Fourth Gospel is a fiction, what account can be given of the motives and aims of the author? The only theory on this subject which is entitled to notice is that of Baur. He supposes the author to have been a Gnostic, having a certain idea of the Logos, believing in the identity of the historic Jesus with the Logos, and undertaking to exhibit this identity in a fictitious narrative of a symbolic character. The book is written, then, with a definite purpose. The historic material, which is mainly imaginary, is simply the vehicle for conveying the author's speculation or intuition of the divine Logos. The distinction between 'light' and darkness,' it is affirmed, is an absolute metaphysical antagonism. The principle of darkness is embodied in the Jews, and the development of their unbelief is carried through successive stages corresponding to the increasing manifestation of Christ or the Logos, which provokes it. Outward events, especially miracles, are merely a sensuous counterpart of the idea'-a kind of staging, put up to be pulled down again. One aim, we are told, is to exhibit the nullity of a faith which rests on miracles. They are not only a crutch to be thrown away; they are a crutch fabricated by fancy.

On this theory, what notion shall we have of the mental state of the author? We are assured that he is a very earnest man; that he identifies himself with John in spirit and feeling; that he writes as he feels that John would if he were alive. He is immersed and lost in a series of imaginative intuitions and pictures (Anschauungen und Bilder) of the grandest and most significant character. In the course of his work on this Gospel, Baur not unfrequently intimates that the author hardly distinguished fiction from fact in his own mind. He lost himself, as it were, in the

symbols of his own creation. The artistic product assumed the character of reality, so closely related was it to the idea which it embodied. Fancy that Bunyan was so carried out of himself in his portraiture of "The Pilgrim's Progress' that the outward narrative almost seemed to his own mind to be literal history, so fitly did it embody the course of feeling symbolised in it. Something like this state of consciousness is attributed by Baur to the author of the Fourth Gospel. Except on some such theory as this, the work-supposing it not to be genuine-must be considered a product of base and vulgar imposture.

Now, the whole scheme of Baur respecting this Gospel is built up on a false assumption as to the author's point of view. It is assumed that the Incarnation is to him a circumstance of no account. It is even assumed, on the basis of erroneous interpretation, that no real Incarnation is taught in the Gospel, but rather a Docetic junction of the Logos with the man Jesus. Whereas it is on the Incarnation as a most real and momentous fact that the writer's thoughts are fixed. He does not spin the history of Jesus out of the idea; he deduces the idea from the history. In the forefront of the book, as the climax of the prologue, stands the joyous declaration, 'The Word became Flesh. To help out his view, Baur makes verses 9-14 of the first chapter refer to the pre-existent Word. But they plainly relate to the Word incarnate. Baur's interpretation is an example of the artificial exegesis, of which far more signal specimens might be adduced, by which alone his thesis can be sustained. Not that he is insincere or lacking in ingenuity. His treatise on this Gospel is, in many respects, a work of great ability; but it is a remarkable illustration of the power of a preconceived theory to pervert the judgment of a skilful interpreter. What candid reader of the Gospel can fail to perceive that it is the historic Jesus; as He had actually lived, taught, consorted with His disciples, hung upon the cross, and risen from the tomb, in whom the author's interest centres? | Here all his beliefs respecting Christ take their rise.

(To be continued.)

BY THEIR FRUITS.-A good tree may sometimes bear poor fruit, but a bad tree can never bear good fruit. Muhammadanism has produced the unspeakable Turk;' Buddhism the benighted Hindoo; and the religion of Confucius the idolatrous Chinese. Compare these with the inhabitants of Christian lands, and by their fruits ye shall know them.'

A RIGHT FOUNDATION. All men are builders, but there is a great difference in foundations. He who builds on Christ builds on a rock, and his house will stand. He who builds on anything else builds on the sand, and his house will, sooner or later, fall.

'Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee!'

deepest conviction of the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. There is the evidence derived from the fact that the soul has found peace by believing on Him; from the fact that the troubles and anxieties of the mind on account of sin have been removed by faith in Christ; from the new views of God and heaven which have resulted from faith in the Lord Jesus; from the effect of this in disarming death of its terrors; and from the whole influence of the gospel on the intellect and the affections-on the heart and the life. These things constitute a mass of evidence for the truth of the Christian religion, whose force the believer cannot resist, and make the sincere Christian ready to sacrifice anything rather than his religion; ready to go to the stake rather than to renounce his Saviour.A. Barnes.

APRIL 5.

THESE THINGS HAVE I WRITTEN UNTO YOU

THAT BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON
OF GOD; THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT YE
HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, AND THAT YE MAY
BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON OF
GOD.'--1 John v. 13.

It is often one of the most important duties of ministers of the gospel to present to real Christians such views of the nature, the claims, the evidences, and the hopes of religion as shall be adapted to secure their perseverance in the faith. In the human heart, even when converted, there is such a proneness to unbelief; the religious affections so easily become cold; there are so many cares pertaining to the world that are fitted to distract the mind; there are so many allurements of sin to draw the affections away from the Saviour, that there is need of being constantly reminded of the nature of religion in order that the heart may not be wholly estranged from the Saviour. No small part of preaching, therefore, must consist of the restatement of arguments with which the mind has been before fully convinced; of motives whose force has been once felt and acknowledged; and of the grounds of hope and peace and joy which have already, on former occasions, diffused comfort through the soul. It is not less important to keep the soul than it is to convert it; to save it from coldness, and deadness, and formality, than it was to impart to it the elements of spiritual life at first. It may be as important to trim a vine, if one would have grapes, as it is to set it out; to keep a garden from being overrun with weeds in the summer, as it was to plant it in the spring.-A. Barnes.

APRIL 6.

'TAKE HEED THAT YE DESPISE Not one of THESE LITTLE ONES.'-Matt. xviii. 10. Nor yet let the old despise the young. The Spirit of God is not bound to age, nor is wisdom tied to years. It is not with senses, as it is with wines, the older the better. There may be a young man of sixty, and an old man

of twenty, years. Young David may excel his teachers; Daniel was a young prophet, Solomon a young king, Samuel a young priest, John a young evangelist, Aquilinus a disciple, Timothy a young bishop. Timothy was so young that Paul calls him son; yet Timothy was acquainted with Christ before Paul was acquainted with Timothy; he knew the Scriptures from a child, which made him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.-T. Adams.

APRIL 7.

'SON, GO WORK TO-DAY IN MY VINEYARD.'Matt. xxi. 28.

Hast thou senses? use them to God's glory; hast thou ears? hear; eyes? read; tongue! pray; hands? work that which is good. Use thy members while thou hast them, because they will fail. Are they defective? be patient, and say with the prophet, I am not better than my fathers.' Art thou blind, and canst not behold something thou wouldst see? yet for amends, thou escapest something thou wouldst not see. When Julian upbraided a bishop being blind, Why doth not the Galilean blind, and cannot see thee the monster of men. help thee? he answers, I am glad that I am All these infirmities bring us to the grave, but we shall leave them there. Dost thou feel a declining of thy senses by age? know that death cannot be far off. Death is as near to the young as to the old; here is all the difference, death stands behind the young man's back, before the old man's face. Young men may soon die, old men cannot long live. They must go speedily; that they may go comfortably, let them make sure to themselves the favour of Christ.-T. Adams.

APRIL 8.

'AGED MEN, BE SOBER, GRAVE, TEMPERATE, SOUND IN FAITH, IN CHARITY, IN PATIENCE.' -Titus ii. 2.

The comforts of old age are the true knowledge of Christ, and the comfortable remembrance of a good life spent in His service. Let us be sure to live well, no matter how long. Let us not be greedy of old age, but say, Here am I, let Him do with me as seemeth Him best. God will not judge us how long, but how well, we have lived. But betwixt him that hath lived twenty years and him that hath lived twenty-score years, what is the difference, unless that the old man goes away more loaden with the burden of his sins?

One man eateth more, another less, what matters it when either is full? He drinks more, I less; but neither of us thirsts. That man hath lived many years, this man fewer; what is the difference, if the few years of the one hath made him as blessed as the many years of the other? Look rather to the goodness of thy life than to the length; many live a long life, but few a happy life. While I was young, my care was to live well; now I am old, my care is to die well.-T. Adams.

HEN the traveller, on leaving the city by the chief gate, which is called 'Praise,' takes a parting look at these walls, whose name is 'Salvation,'* his eye may light on an inscription cut in the living rock under each of the gate pillars. These inscriptions shew that the height of the Rock of Ages serves to protect the city which is built upon it from floods as well as foemen. The one inscription tells that one memorable storm, when the heavens were black and the earth trembled, rolled its waves right over the Rock of Ages, yet that not one dwelling in the city was submerged, or one life lost. It reads thus: 'Deep called unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me;' while the sister inscription is, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.' One of the famous poets of the country composed a song to commemorate this deliverance, and set it to music, he being himself a most skilful player on the harp. One of the verses of this national song is :—

On exploring the fair province of which the City of Refuge is the capital, the traveller observes that, though this country is well-nigh encircled by the deep and stormy sea, yet, from the elevation of the coast-line, even the highest spring tides driven inland by the most furious blasts never rise so high as to reach the villages and towns, which are all set on the hills. For the Rock on which the city is built runs as a mountain range through the whole province. When any of the immigrants desire to leave the city, and to settle in the country districts, they receive free permission to go out of the gates with joy, and the townsfolk lead them forth with peace, but ere they leave they are instructed by Immanuel's officers to be sure to build their habitations upon the high ground, and to avoid the lowlying and swampy dales, which are to be found here and there. These low valleys are still exposed to floods, and moreover are unhealthy, because of the damp vapours that gather in them.

In spite of these warnings, some of His people, allured by the richness of the soil in these valleys, have cultivated fields and farms there, much to the displeasure of their Prince, and these are from time to time laid waste by inundations, so that the labour of many years is lost in a day. To these foolish and erring subjects of His the Prince sends heralds with commands such as this, 'Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.'¶ Yet, though they lose their goods and gear, they themselves are saved, because their own dwelling-houses are on the hill. The tourist

quotations from the Psalter are from the Scottish version. Col. iii. 2.

Is. lv. 12.