, 1886-06-13
BY. REV. JOHN HALL. Il. D., LII D, NEN
YORK

BY REV. JOHN HALL. d. D., LII D., NEW
YORK
In verse 10, of this chapter we SEQ how
Jesus went to the feast, mot openly. but as
1t were in secret. for good reasons. To
have gone up with n Galilean band, fired
with mistaken zeal, would ave made
trouble from the temper of the rulers and some
of the people at Jeru'alem. We see from verse
l4when he appeared and the i'm preston made.
The line of his teaching and the impression
he produced we have in the portion from verse
Is to the beginning of our lesson. One effect
Of it we have to notice because it comes up
in the lesson. At verse 80 we read of the
Pharisees and chief priests sending ''oni-
GERS" to arrest him. This is all that needs to
be recalled to show the connection.
We now come to the circumstances which
explain the form of our Lords memorable
words of verses 81, IS.
The feast was that of Tabernacles. the
last of the three great feasts Of the year, at
which all Je wish males appeared. II came
after harvest, on the 18th of Tisri, failing
about the middle of our September. 1t
lastei seven days; recalled the period OF
dwelling in tents, and gave a fitting oppor-
tunity TO praise God for the harvest. The
first and the last days were p ecially solemn,
the eighth being AN holy convocaton.n
Whether the last day" hero meL.ionel is
the seventh or the eighth is not apparent,
Lut it would suit the whole circumstance TO
count 1t tn eighth. The people during these
days remained i'll arbors or booths maue OF
branches of trees, a part of eacn
DAY. Burnt offerings were made. the
custom had grown up OF Inc priests every
morning bringing WAFER in a 20 den Vessel
from tine POoi of Siioam and pouring 1t puu-
Icy gu the altar. 1t was u memorial OF the
miraculous supply OF wat-r III tine wider
ness. Psalms lly-llS were sunU mud TN. I'M
mud H. e. the Hebrew commentary Connect,
itn isaiah XII, 3. On tns elgutn DAY,
which c.osed up all Tue fes Lvals oil the year,
u Jay OF rest, jesus dttngly gave his inyl.
tauou, as though he sad; TIE fe. SIS nave
como and gone with their lypes anu snad rvs.
They are enued. Now | am here, the sub
stance. You have been recalling tn" divine
gut of water. Ill any man thIrst," exc.
The figure is of easier cJmprehens on to an
ORIENTAL than TO Us, because mel often enough
carried around watr Tor sale. The rites
had passed; he remains forever. So he
stood and cried, " language marking The
soiemnity of the appeal Thirst is universal;
II not satisfied alter "A time It is torture; II
no relief comes 1t is fa,al. SO all need the
Saviour. To live without hope in Him Is
miserable. Ncver to be III HIM and He IN
us is death eternal. So us he took up ut
Nazareth the words of Isaiah. and an
nou..ced himse ( as the promised denverer.
he here nppropriates from the sans writer,
and gives MS iull and gracious invitation
like that OF Revelations, xxi. II.
We are to take the words of verse 2s as ex-
planning verse ~. Coming in tue one verse
Is ''believjng" in the other. That Jesus had
Il right to Ioflow the feast by this iigurative
reterenee 10 Himself appears from / CORN
thian<4 He was the rock that followed
the H8rews. The source of their supply all
through. The Hebrews used the words reins,r
belly, etc, IN II wide sense sometimes,
AS We Il heart and we mighc read
this ''out of his heart When a man re.
ceives Jesus he becomes himself a center of
blessing. His graces, sympathies, words,
influence. deeds, satisfy and refresh Others.
All this Is because the believers in Jesus re-
ceive the gilt OF the Holy Gnost The Scrip
iure references are frequent, but none seems
to suit tbs representation SO well as Ezekiel
Xvii, ., Everything shall live whither,o O.
ever the river cometh." As that life-giving
stream flowed from the temple, so the divine
spirit comes from Jesus and gives life
wherever he & ,es. If we have received the
gift, we are to prove it by the spiritua good
we do to others.
Verse 30 gives the evangelist's explanation
OF this word OF the Master as tine events
interpreted it Until he died for sin, so
that without putting his holiness in question,
God could re Give a sinner, and until he was
received into heaven and seated at Cod right
hand as ace pied (which Is here called "glori-
fled the divine Comforter did not come to
the disciples. All this Christ Explained
more fully in John, xiii, lG See especially
Jbun, XVI, Z, 10, IL
We now come to the discussion raised by our
Lord 5 words, verses 40-H. Some said this is
tn, prophet expected by the Hebrews from
Oil Testament predictions. Whether they
thought of this messenger TO announce Christ
or not is not clear. Others said: This is the
Christ; = but to this his Galilean origin
seemed an objection. and the objection re-
ferred to Micah V, ., as the Hebrews under
stood it, So there was a division among
them. Some, from hostility TO him Tor per-
haps rom the desire TO force him to declare
hims /. fullyl would have seized him; but
they did not. They could not until. his
hour b ing come, they had power TO do 1t.
We now come to another incident The
officers sent to arrest Christ returned without
Him, but with strong and unexpected and
unwelcome est mony in His favor: Never
man spake like this man" To this their EN-
ployers have but a poor reply: Are We
also deceivedf' They deem it conclusive
against Christ that rulers and Phari ices
have so far rejected HIM; and as for the
people, they, in their ignorance OF the law
and foolishness in favoring HIM, are
cursed This language, common with this
party, not only showed pride and ill-feeling.
lut is a confession OF their own worthless
ness. Why did they leave the multitude
ignorant OF tho lawi We are not to under
stand TINT the Sanhedrin had yet taken
formal action against Jesus. This was an
ATTEMPT on tie pnrt of some OF lis member.
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