THE KING ’S BUSINESS
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follow thou me.” This answer o f our Lord’s is most characteristic. He never answered questions o f mere idle curiosity, but always pointed the questioner to his own duty (cf. Luke 13:23-25). He tells Peter that he should be concerned about his' own duty and not about what should come to another. It is a lesson we all need to take to heart; for we all are very likely to be more concerned about what is com ing to others than we are about our own personal duty. The form o f our Lord’s words brings out very distinctly the fact that His coming again is not at the death o f the individual believer, for He draws the clearest kind o f distinction between tarrying, which in this casé evidently means remain alive, and His own coming. I f we were to take the second coming of Christ, so often referred to by our Lord Himself and by the apostles in the New Testament, as meaning His coming at death, then we must make our Lord say, “ If I will that he remain alive until he die, what is that to thee.” O f course our Lord never fell into such empty nonsense as this. The death o f the believer is one event, the coming o f the Lord an entirely different event. Many o f the brethren con strued our Load’s words concerning John as meaning 1 that John would not die at all, but continue to live until the Lord’s return. This construction was unwarranted by the words. Jesus only said that the matter remained with Him, that all depended upon His sovereign will, and that if it was His will that he should remain alive it was no concern o f Peter’s. In point o f fact John long outlived the other disciples, and as one after another passed away and the years lengthened, thè thought must have in creased among the apostolic company that John would not die. The construction that some put upon the words o f Paul in 1 Thess. 4:15-17 that Paul taught that he himself would remain alive until the com ing o f the Lord, is as unwarranted as the construction that many of the brethren put upon the words o f Jesus here. The gos pel closes with the statement that the dis
ciple whom Jesus loved, that is John, is the writer o f this gospel. This statement seems to have been added by another hand but by a very early hand. But the state ment is true. If anything is absolutely established in literary criticism it is that John the beloved disciple is the author o f the fourth gospel, and absolute confidence can be put in any statement contained in the gospel.- John’s “witness” o f the Lord whom he loved and who loved Him “ is true.” In the four gospels we have but a very small part o f all that Jesus did. It would be impossible to record in full all that He did. What is recorded are the things that are necessary for us to know in order that we may believe in Him as the Christ, the Son o f God (ch. 20:31) and thus “have life through His name.” Saturday, September 23 . Acts 1 : 1 - 3 . W e begin today a study o f the book o f Acts. W e speak o f it as “the Acts of the ApQstles," but it is really the acts o f the Risen Christ through the Holy Spirit. The book o f Acts was written b y ' Luke, the author o f the third gospel. This is one of the things that is absolutely settled in the literary criticism o f the Bible. The former 1 treatise to which Luke refers in the first verse is the Gospel o f Luke. In that “treatise” Luke tells us that he recorded all that Jesus “bdgan both to do and to teach.” W e should note carefully the word “began.” The evident meaning is that the things recorded in the gospel are only the beginning o f Jesus’ doing and teaching. The , things that He “began both to do and to teach” are the things that He did and - taught during His earthly life. In the book o f Acts Luke relates what Jesus continued to do and to teach, i. e., what He did and taught after His Ascension. The study o f the Acts o f the Risen Lord as recorded in this book ought to prove wonderfully inspiring. Just before His ascension He had given the disciples com mandments (cf. Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15-19; Luke 24:45-49; ch. 10:40-42). He had given these commandments even though
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