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twofold awards-condemnation and everlasting life. There is a line of truth stretching from the depths of the eternity of God to the eternity of happy and holy being in the saved of mankind.

In the discourse of John, which forms the main part of the section of this chapter now to be considered, there will be noticed several very striking coincidences in sentiment with our Lord's teaching in his conversation with Nicodemus. It will appear from it how clearly, in the close of his testimony for his Master, the Baptist has been taught by the Spirit to apprehend the claims and character of the Messiah. We shall take notice of the correspondences alluded to as we proceed.

A few words may suffice to bring before us the occasion on which John bore this last witness to his Divine Chief. After the interview and conversation with Nicodemus, our Lord with his disciples left Jerusalem, and went into the country, and in some landward district of Judea, probably near the Jordan, continued for a time, attracting disciples and baptizing them by the hand of his chosen attendants. The Baptist, meanwhile, was proceeding with his ministry, and was baptizing in Ænon, near Salim, a place selected by him for the convenient supplies of water which it afforded. In explanation of this, the Evangelist adds, incidentally, that John was not yet cast into prison; furnishing a note of time, and supplying a confirmation of the narratives of the other evangelists respecting John's imprisonment, all the more interesting that the notice is slight, and that there is no further reference to the fact.

At this date, and out of these circumstances, there arose a discussion between some of John's disciples and the Jews, or, according to a preferable reading, a Jew, and perhaps one who had been baptized by the disciples of Jesus. The subject of dispute was purification. The disputants probably discussed the comparative claims of the baptism of John and

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that authorized by our Lord-John's followers denying, it may be, the lawfulness of the latter; although the exact questioning can only be matter of conjecture. Unable, however, as it appears, to adjust the controversy with their opponent, the disciples of John came with it to their master himself. In the tone of complaint they informed him of Christ's baptizing, and of the general concourse of people that had been attracted by his ministry. They appear to insinuate a charge of ingratitude against the Saviour by dwelling on the facts that John had baptized Him, and by the testimony he had borne concerning Him, had introduced Him to the notice and regard of the people. "This very man," they say, "is administering the baptismal rite, and drawing the whole country after Him. Should his rivalry be suffered without rebuke?"

This murmuring appeal of the disciples, jealous for their master's honour, awoke no response in the bosom of John. The spark cast by their complaint into his spirit kindled no flame of envy there, nor had he any sympathy with their querulous insinuations. On the contrary, the report which excited their unholy grudge, filled his heart with all joy. In an address of singular pointedness and humility he renounces expressly all pretensions to competition with Jesus, proclaims his own subordination and insignificance, exalts the Saviour, and demands for Him the trust and homage of all, as the Son of God, whom to receive is life, whom to reject is death certain and abiding.

In this noble and exalted response to his disciples' murmuring, John begins by laying down a grand general principle, the due consideration of which should have kept them silent: "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven." The meaning is, all good gifts, and, therefore, among these, station, honour, and office in the church, are from God, who assigns to every one severally as He wills. John, accordingly, had his allotted place; Jesus, also, had his position, as the Father was pleased to assign. And who was

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John, and who were his disciples, that they should arraign the distribution? This was enough, even if Jesus had been but a man like John himself.

But, next, the Baptist appeals to his disciples' own recollection of a uniform testimony on his part, which should have prepared them for the fact by which they were stumbled. He reminds them, as they could not have forgotten, that all along he had proclaimed his inferiority to the Messiah, whose forerunner alone he was, not Himself. Why, then, should they be offended to see the harbinger forsaken for the King, whose advent he had announced? They are reporting nothing more than the Baptist's own preaching should have led them to expect and desire.

Further, by a vivid and expressive similitude he gives them to understand that the facts which had awakened their envious displeasure constituted the consummation of his joy. This was the very result he had aimed to effect. He was sent to gather and bring a prepared people to the Lord; to espouse the Church, as an apostle afterwards expressed it, "as a chaste virgin to Christ." And as at a marriage, the bridegroom's friend (one charged with preliminary negociations, and with preparations for the festival) begrudges not the honour and happiness of the husband, pines not to see the fealty and love rendered to him by the espoused bride, but rejoices in it all; the glad voice of the bridegroom proclaiming his joy, meeting response in the heart of his friend: so John, sent before to prepare a people for their Lord, delighted to see his labours successful, and exulted in the acceptance and honour of his great Master. "This my joy," said he, “is fulfilled."

Once more, the Baptist will have his followers know that they must hold themselves prepared to see their master's fame yet further eclipsed, while the glory of Jesus should grow. "He must increase, but I decrease." There is absolute necessity for the advance of the Master's honour and the wane

of the servant's. The great plan and purpose of God's love must be thus fulfilled. John's ministry had well-nigh served 'its end, and was about to close; but Jesus Christ, the Sent of the Father, should growingly come forth, claiming the attention of all, the Object of an ever-enlarging confidence and homage. This blessed necessity of progress has not yet ceased. "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end."

Beyond all this, John goes on to affirm the superiority of Jesus to all human prophets, and to state the ground of his indisputable pre-eminence. "He that cometh from above is above all." The meaning of the words, "above all," is restricted by the context. The universal supremacy of Jesus, his lordship over all creation, is plainly taught in Scripture: but here it is not so much this superiority to all creatures that is directly intended as his glorious pre-eminence among all human teachers. It was about the place due to Him in regard to one of these that the question had arisen; and the context seems to demand that the supplemented word here be not things but men. He is above all human prophets, in structors, rabbins. He is deservedly so exalted, for He cometh from above, or, as the last clause expresses it, "from heaven." So Jesus had said of the Son of man (ver. 13), “He came down from heaven"; and afterwards it was his frequent and, indeed, familiar practice to speak of Himself as from above, come down from heaven, come forth from the Father. Now this is language which could with no propriety be applied to his human nature. And, to put the reference beyond all doubt here, He is contrasted by John, in respect of his descent from heaven, with himself and like teachers, whom he designates in opposition as "of the earth." Christ cannot therefore be said to be come from heaven, because of his divine commission simply, for this was common to all the prophets; nor can this contrast be explained otherwise than by the doctrine of our Lord's divinity. He is said, then, to be

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from above and come from heaven, because He was no mere man, but God manifest in flesh; because, being in the bosom of the Father, dwelling in heaven, He had come forth, in the singular manifestation of Himself given in his incarnation on earth, to reveal heavenly things to men, and finish the work which should open to them a pathway to the presence of the Father. Hence his pre-eminence over all the prophets, his sole and unapproachable elevation above all men; for the prophets, not excepting John the forerunner, greatest of all that had yet risen, were of earth-dust-sprung-mere creatures--risen from the ground. As the heavens, therefore, were higher than the earth; as the upper sky overarched all things below-the loftiest hill as well as the lowliest vale— so necessarily, and yet more gloriously, did the heaven-descended Son excel and overrule all earth-born instructors. In the original there is a beautiful repetition which does not quite appear in our translation; he who is of the earth is "earthly," literally, and, I think, significantly, is "of the earth." He is of the earth, wholly-he is a creature, and nothing more. Exalt a man as high as may be, heap on him what honours you may, elevate him by whatever singularity of privilege; let him be a Moses, or an Elijah, or a John; he is, after all, but a creature of dust, "sprung of the ground. To all these the height on which they stood was a platform up to which they had been lifted; the highest earthly elevation was to the Son of God a position to which He had stepped down. Between the earth-born prophet and the celestial Son there could be no dispute as to pre-eminence, unless the flower of the green field might vie in height with the star of the azure expanse above.

He who is of the earth, moreover, speaketh of the earth, which does not mean concerning the earth, but as one who springs out of the earth. His position is lowly, and his vision is circumscribed, and he speaks accordingly. His teaching has characteristics which bespeak his earthly origin.