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THE KING’S BUSINESS
how their faith would for a time fail, and they would leave Him alone. What a lonely life His was, and .what a lonely hour that was when all *the disciples forsook Him. He trod the winepress alone. And yet He was not alone. All men forsook Him, b u t G od was with Him. Jesus desired His 'disciples to have peace. For that purpose He had spoken the wonderful words o f Chapters 14, 15 and 16. Peace is found through meditation on these and other words o f Jesus. In the world, in his out ward circumstances, the Christian will have tribulation. One cannot be a true Chris tian without having tribulation in the world (2 Tim. 3:12), nevertheless he may have peace, for Jesus has overcome the world, and in His strength we may overcome it them. This,prayer contains some o f the most precious and profound utterances to be found in the whole Bible, and one hes itates Upon the threshold o f it with awe and trembling. There is much here that cannot be expounded, that can only be med itated upon and enjoyed. The best one can do is to suggest a thought here and there. Every one must read it over and over again and ponder it deeply himself, and look to the Holy Spirit to interpret it to his own heart. Happy the man who commits' it to memory. The hour that Jesus had looked forward to from the beginning, with mingled longing and dread, had at last come. The crucifixion by which in awful agony o f body and soul He was to complete His redemptive work, was at hand. He begins His prayer by asking that He might Himself be glorified, but it was not a selfish prayer. He prayed that He might be glorified in order that He might in turn glorify the Father. The Father had given to Jesus authority over all mankind in. order that He should give eternal life too (1 John 5:4, 5)* Saturday, August 12. John 17 :1-3. With the last triumphant words, “ I have- overcome the world” still lingering on His lips, Jesus turns from the disciples to the Father, from talking' to them, to praying fo r
to every -one that believed, to that happy elect company which the Father had given Him. The Deity o f Christ comes out plainly in His statement that He possessed the power to give eternal life, for o f course God alone can give eternal life. His. subordination to the Father comes out in the fact that this Divine authority was given to Him by the Father, and had its original source in Him. But Jesus Christ is now by God’s appointment the life- giver. The expression “whatsoever thou hast given me” (R .V .) is worthy o f care ful study. It teaches plainly that there is a body o f believers whom God has chosen out o f the world and given to Christ, and many and glorious are the privileges o f that body (ch. 6:37, 39; 10:28, 29; 17:6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 24; 18:19). Any one can make it sure that he himself belongs to that elect body by listening to and learning from the Father, and thus coming to Jesus (John 6:37, 45; Rev. 22:17). In the third vefse Jesus gives us a wonderful definition o f eternal life: it consists in knowing the true God and Jesus Christ. It is not then merely endless existence, but true exist ence. One may exist eternally and still be dead eternally, because his unending exist ence is not true existence. I f one does not know God he will never live, but eternally perish (2 Thess. 1 : 8 , 9 ). How to know God and thus to have eternal life the Bible makes very plain (John 17:7; 5:39; 1:18; 1 John 5:20; 2 Cor. 4 :6 ). How clearly the Deity o f Christ comes out in the way in which He here couples knowledge o f Him self with knowledge' o f God. Surely if Jesus was not Divine He was mad, but certainly He was not mad, and therefore He was Divine. Sunday, August 13. . John 17:4-8. It is a wonderful statement that Jesus makes in verse 4, “I have finished (or, accomplished, or, perfected) the work which thou gavest me to do.” Each o f us ought to strive to say with a measure o f truth at the close o f our lives, “ I have accomplished the work which thou gavest
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