SECTION XXVII.

Chap. vi. ver. 54-63.

CHRIST FURTHER EXPLAINS HOW HE IS THE BREAD OF

LIFE.

54. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

55. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

57. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

Every one eats from the life he has, and that life is maintained by what he eats, relishes, and hungers for. It is therefore of all questions the most interesting: What doth the soul feed upon? From whence doth it receive satisfaction to its desires? From God in Christ, or from the world, and the flesh?

58. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

59. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Ca

pernaum.

60. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying, who can hear it?

So we say to this day, this, and that is hard: Christ's yoke is intolerable. But he himself calls it easy. The secret is, when we are in him by faith, it sits light and easy upon us, and we have also the strength to bear it; till then everything is hard, and if we put our necks into his yoke one day, we take them out another.

61. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

62. What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?

When he will have power to make good all he hath said of our quickening by him. Or rather, he spoke this to obviate their gross conceit of really, and materially, eating his flesh. How could they eat his flesh when he was soon to be removed out of their sight?

63. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Supposing they could and did eat it, in their mistaken sense, it would profit them nothing. The Spirit of God operating on the spirit of man to receive Christ for life, here is profit; the quickening is by the soul's desire and intention. Apply this to eating and drinking in the sacrament. To receive Christ in it, there is something more to be done, besides taking the bread and wine into our mouths. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" that is, to be understood of spiritual life, from spiritual eating.

The whole of this discourse, from verse the twenty-seventh, amounts to this: Christ is to every soul, what bread, or flesh, is to one perishing with hunger: and if we do not come hungering and thirsting to him, as our relief, and receive him into our hearts by faith, we die eternally.

SECTION XXVIII.

Chap. vi. ver. 64-71.

SOME ARE OFFENDED AT CHRIST.

64. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning, who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

Jesus knows how many of us will not believe. Do we

know every one for ourselves, as it is a matter of life and death?

65. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, That no man can come unto me, except it were given him of my Father.

The power is offered to all, and if we do not come to him, it is our own fault; as, what we will not take, is in effect not given us.

66. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

They left him quite! O unhappy men! Though we do not truly belong to him, it is better not to turn our backs on him, and his word altogether, because some time or other he may lay hold of us.

67. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

Will you also forsake him, though all the world does? His flock is always a little one; but let not this daunt us; we have no choice but either to be with it, or perish with the world.

68. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

Generally, we think we may go anywhere but to Christ. Let us allow our hearts to speak; where, this moment, does the strength of our desires carry us? "Thou hast the words of eternal life:" but let us take heed, that we do not leave out repentance, faith, and newness of life, from these words.

69. And we believe, and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

He came into the world that we might all say this, and saying it truly is salvation.

70. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?

Christ chose Judas with the same intent and meaning as he did the other apostles. But it was a sad thing for him,

as it will be for us, to choose Satan, and his service, when we may have Christ.

71. He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

The forbearance of Jesus towards Judas, is calculated to admonish us of our danger of coming short of the favour of God at the last. May the Lord help us to put away the sin that doth most easily beset us.-Edit.

SECTION XXIX.

Chap. vii. ver. 1—13.

CHRIST REPROVES HIS KINSMEN.

1. After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.

2. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.

3. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judæa, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.

4. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly: If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world.

They were in the common mistake of the Jews, that the Messias would set up a worldly kingdom, to aggrandise their nation, and free them from their enemies: and therefore, supposing he could not but have this end in view, they wondered he did not declare for it more openly.

5. For neither did his brethren believe in him.

An endeavour to shape Christ according to our own wills, will, of necessity, for ever exclude belief. Neither the brethren of Jesus, nor his nearest relations with their worldly hearts, were nearer to belief than others.

6. Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.

Christ's time was not yet come, of showing himself openly, as he did afterward at his public entry into Jerusalem, though they were in haste for it, and with a wrong view.

7. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

The world cannot hate you, who are upon good terms with it, neither knowing it, nor yourselves. "But me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." This was point blank against their notion, that Christ would be received with universal approbation by the Jews, as their king. What is the office of Christ's servants, but, like him, to bear their testimony against the world? And what will follow, if they are faithful to it? Here is the ground of the quarrel against them, whatever else is pretended: and if they do not give occasion for it, what are they?

8. Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.

He would not go with them, or not openly, and in the manner they would have him, as is explained in verse the tenth.

9. When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.

10. But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.

11. Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he?

Let a person ask this question truly, and he will be sure to find Jesus.

12. And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people.

13. Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the

Jews.