The phase of our Lord's ministry brought before us in this part of St. John's Gospel is a combative, a controversial, phase. The Jews were perpetually opposing Christ, carping and cavilling at every work he performed, and almost at every word he uttered. Jesus took up the challenge, and met the objections and the allegations of his enemies. He defied them; he turned upon them with an unanswerable question or a startling paradox. There is not always apparent even an attempt to conciliate his adversaries - to win them over. He did not even stop to explain, when he knew perfectly well that explanation would be unavailing; he left his words to be instructive to the enlightened, and an enigma to the unspiritual.

I. THE CONDITION HERE PROPOUNDED. "If a man keep my word."

1. This implies upon Christ's part a special revelation and authority. By his "word" doubtless Jesus meant the whole manifestation of his character and will; his doctrine relating to the Father and to himself; his precepts relating to his disciples.

2. It implies upon the part of his followers a reverent, loyal, and affectionate obedience. They keep, i.e. they retain in memory and observe in practice, the word of their Master. As a faithful servant keeps the word of his lord, as a diligent scholar keeps the word of his teacher, as a loyal soldier keeps the word of his officer, his general, as a reverent son keeps the word of his father, so the Christian keeps the word of his Saviour.

II. THE PROMISE HERE RECORDED. "He shall never see death."

1. The death from which Christ promises exemption is not the death of the body, as was understood by the Jews; it is the spiritual death which is the effect of sin, and which consists in insensibility to everything Divine. This should be more dreaded than physical death.

2. The way in which Christ fulfils this promise. He died in the body that those who believe on him may not experience spiritual death. The redemption of our Saviour is a redemption from death and sin. And Christ communicates the Spirit of life, who quickens dead souls, imparting to them the newness of life which is their highest privilege, and which is the earnest and the beginning of an immortality of blessedness. - T.

I. WHAT IS CHRIST'S SAYING?

1. The law, promulgated in spirit and effect in Paradise, republished at Sinai, and reinforced by the Sermon on the Mount. This law was given to create a sense of sin and of the necessity of a Saviour, and so prepared the way for —

2. The gospel (Romans 8:2, 3). The law is the storm that drives the traveller to the shelter, the condemnation that makes the criminal long for and use the means for securing a reprieve.

II. WHAT IS IT TO KEEP CHRIST'S SAYING?

1. Reading it carefully and constantly.

2. Hearing it, "Faith cometh by hearing."

3. Understanding it. What we thoroughly understand we do not easily forget.

4. Obeying it. This fixes it in the memory.

III. THE REWARD OF KEEPING CHRIST'S SAYING. He shall never see —(1) Spiritual death. The word which is spirit and life is the seed of regeneration.(2) Eternal death. Christ's saying is a promise of a blessed immortality which the keeper thereof by faith has made his own.

(I. Saunders.)

? — Our Lord uttered multitudes of sayings while He was upon the earth. He was a great speaker; no man spake like Him. He was the greatest of talkers; and hence innumerable sayings dropped from His lips — parables, proverbs, criticisms, invitations, exhortations, warnings, commandments, remonstrances, encouragements, and exceeding great and precious promises. To which of His sayings, then, is it that He here refers? I would say in reply, that it is not to any single saying in particular, any detached or separate "saying," that our Lord had reference. To hit at random on any one of His multitudinous sayings would indicate an utter ineptitude for the grasp of the Saviour's ideas, or indeed for the grasp of anyone's ideas. What then? The saying referred to is manifestly that grand multiple message from God to men which constituted the sum total of our Lord's teaching. Or we might put it thus: It is the sum total or condensed essence of all the revelations that were divinely made by our Lord, in our Lord, and through our Lord. And what is that? It is evidently the glorious gospel of God's grace, the good news and glad tidings coming from behind the veil of all terrestrial things, and manifesting to men a living, loving, compassionating, sin-hating, yet sin-forgiving God. It is, in short, the joyful announcement of free and full salvation for the chief of sinners. That, that is the "saying," the life-giving "saying," of Christ Jesus, which, if a man keeps, he shall never see death. "Whosoever liveth," said our Lord to Martha, "and believeth in Me shall never die."

(J. Morison, D. D.)Would you wish to be in the blissful condition depicted in our Saviour's language? Then keep His saying. Keep His words. Keep His Word. Keep the truth about Himself; keep Himself, the living Word, the living gospel. Keep Him in your thoughts, affections, mind, heart. Let everything slip and pass away from you which you cannot keep side by side with Him.

(J. Morison, D. D.)

What means the Saviour? Death is. It is a reality. It exists far and wide over the length and breadth of this world, in which we are all tenants at will. But in the profounder and only "awful" acceptation of the term, "death" will never come nigh the man who keeps Christ's saying.

1. The grave is dark: Death to the unbeliever is like a sky with neither sun, nor moon, nor stars overhead, and no prospect of a dawn on the morrow. Is it not so? Is not that the death that is looming over the impenitent? If it bet never shall the man who believes in Jesus, and who keeps the saying of Jesus, never shall he see death, never shall he die. The true believer of Christ's gospel dwells in true "light"; and lives in it. Contact with Jesus insures his illumination; and all the way along life's highways and byways he enjoys the light.

2. Many regard death as the total and final rupture and cessation of all further possibilities of sweet companionship and friendship. He who dies enters inevitably, according to their anticipation, into utter loneliness and dreariness. He is deserted forever. But, most assuredly, there is no such death to the believing. Their true life is not cut short at the end, or arrested midway, or otherwise impaired. It has no end and no interruption. It is "life everlasting." And one of the many true elements that enter into the blessedness that is its nature is everlasting companionship with the holy and the happy in glory.

3. To multitudes death means violent removal from all their carefully accumulated treasures, all their most highly-prized possessions. Death to the unbeliever is the loss, not only of all these things, but likewise of all possibility of the enjoyment of them, and of the enjoyment of any possession whatsoever. But if so, if all this be death, then the believer in Jesus will never see it; for that which men call death, in their common parlance with one another, will only translate the believer into the possession of the fulness of life and joy. Neither things present, nor things to come, neither things below, nor things above, no depth, no height, no length, no breadth, will be able to separate the believer from that love of God and of Jesus which is the never-failing source and fountain of inextinguishable bliss.

(J. Morison, D. D.)

It is a matter of small importance how a man dies. If he is prepared, if he is a Christian, it matters not how he goes to his crown. There have been some triumphant deaths, some wonderful deaths, before which the gates of paradise seem to swing open and flood them with light, and the superior splendour of the invisible turned the dying hour into the soul's nuptials. Such were the deaths of St. and , of Latimer and Payson and Hervey, and of some known to you and to me. But such angels' visits to the dying couch are few and far between. Most souls go out in clouds or storms; in unconsciousness or pain. But what does it matter? The only sinless soul that ever descended the valley of the shadow of death cried from the Stygian darkness and solitude, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" But in that hour He conquered! He vanquished death and robbed the grave of its victory. What does it matter, then, if we follow Him through the darkness to the light, through the battle to the triumph? What does it matter if I tremble? Underneath me are the everlasting arms. What does it matter if I cannot see? He is leading me through the ebon shades. What does it matter if I seem alone? He goes with me, as He has gone so often with others before, through what seems the untrod solitudes of death. The last hour of the labourer's summer day may be hot and weary, but the rest of eventide will be sweet, and the night will be cool. The last mile of the homeward journey may burn the traveller's bleeding feet, but love and welcome will soothe the pain and wipe the pilgrim's brow. As we approach the land, the winds may be boisterous, and the waves break loud upon the rocky coast; but the harbour will throw its protecting arms around the home-bound ship, and we shall be safe.

(R. S. Barrett.)

I. THE ANTIDOTE ITSELF. The text suggests —

1. The life-giving power of the Word of Christ. We all know something of the power of a word — of an orator on his audience, of a general on his army, of a friend on his tempted or afflicted associate. Hence, we may conceive how a saying of Christ may have power. He in fact is "the Word," and His "words are spirit and life." Thus we read that we are born again by it, and that it must dwell in us richly, which shows that the Word of Christ is the seed corn of the soul's life, which sown in the heart germinates into the tree of righteousness.

2. The reception which the Word of Christ requires. It is necessary that it should be listened to, understood and remembered: but all this may be done without the experience of its life-giving virtue. It must as seed be hid in the soul accompanied by the energy of the Holy Ghost. We do not keep it unless we live in Christ, walk in Christ, and have our whole being fashioned after Him. Without this literary knowledge and controversial defence of it are worthless.

3. Here we see —(1) The proof of the conscious Divinity of our Lord. None else ever dared to say this.(2) The extent of His life-giving power. This wonderful saying is confined to none.(3) The necessity of a Christian life here. The antidote must be applied before the mischief has done its last and fatal work.

II. THE OPERATION OF THIS ANTIDOTE.

1. Negatively. Not exemption from the common lot.(1) Constantly occurring facts forbid this. The righteous man dies as well as the sinner.(2) The necessities and frailties of our own frame forbid this. We no sooner begin to live than we begin to die.(3) Scripture forbids this.

2. Positively. The leading thought is brought out fully in John 5:24.

(1)The penalties of the second death will be avoided.

(2)The terrors of physical death will be mitigated.

(3)The consequences of physical death will be overcome.

(4)The soul's highest life will be perfected.Conclusion —

1. See the power of Christianity. Nothing else can conquer death — no philosophy, morality, religion.

2. Hence the importance of keeping the saying of Christ — not admiring it merely.

3. What solace does this truth afford a dying world?

(H. Gammidge.)

This is part of Christ's answer to the charge of ver. 48. The latter portion of the charge was answered in vers. 49, 50; the former, "Thou art a Samaritan," answered here. The Samaritans held the Sadducee's doctrine of annihilation. Christ proves that He is not a Samaritan, but He proves far more.

I. A DUTY OF THE PRESENT. "If a man keep," etc.

1. The "Word" of Christ is a comprehensive term for the substance of His teaching: repentance; trust in the saving grace of God in Christ; response to the love of God; the practice of holiness, philanthropy, etc.

2. Keeping His Word implies that it is —

(1)A revelation to be retained in the mind.

(2)A stay and comfort for the heart.

(3)A rule of conduct for the life.

3. "If a man" makes the statement universally applicable. Therefore its efficacy is essential, not accidental or arbitrary.

II. A DOCTRINE OF THE FUTURE. "He shall never," etc. One interpretation is that certain persons mortal by nature are to be made immortal. The meaning to be preferred is that to such the earthly experience of dying will not be the same as to the unrighteous, that for them there is and will be the realization of a deathless life. Look at this —

1. As a revelation. It is of the first magnitude. The Rig Veda — oldest of Hindoo sacred books — does not even hint this. Moses is silent, at least oracular. There gradually grew up in Judaism a hope of it. In Christ's time Jewish opinion was divided. Christ speaks clearly, authoritatively. The words are best taken simply, and mean that what makes death truly death will be removed. The sting of death, and consequent separation from God will no longer exist. As this involves a continuity of experience from the present to the heavenly state, it is obvious that the believer is conceived of as at once entering into eternal life with the first act of faith that unites him to Christ. The life thus begun and continued is one life, and must signify, therefore, more than mere duration, viz., a spiritual relation and condition.

2. As a conditional promise. "If a man keep," etc., discovers —(1) The basis of this life — a "Word," or Christ Himself as the Word, i.e., a spiritual, intelligible entity (Is not this mortal life built upon and out of ideas?). "My Words, they are spirit and life." The Divine life of the spirit of man is —

(a)Word created.

(b)Word sustained and continued.

(c)Word enlarged and glorified.(2) That it is a contingent and not an absolute possession. "Keep." With what earnestness ought we to lay hold on this life, and so guard and cultivate it that we shall never lose it! He that keeps Christ's word will be kept by it.

(A. F. Muir, M. A.)

He who follows the light of life which shines from the words of Jesus, does not see death, just as one who goes to meet the sun does not see the shadows behind him.

(Rieger.)

A daughter of Mrs. Gov. Wright recently passed away amid Tabor splendour. As she approached death, she said, "I'm going up! I'm going up! You see I'm going up on the ineffable glory. What a glorious approach!" To her husband she said, "Oh! if you could only see what I see, you would know why I long to go." To her pastor, who was reading of the "valley of the shadow of death," she said, "There is no valley." The night preceding her death, she abode in the third heaven of rapture. Being informed that her feet were in the Jordan, she said, "Oh, I am so glad!" Her last words were, "Jesus is peace."

(C. D. Foss.)Oh what has the Lord discovered to me this night! Oh the glory of God! the glory of God and heaven! Oh the lovely beauty, the happiness, of paradise! God is all love, He is nothing but love. Oh, help me praise Him! Oh, help me to praise Him! I shall praise Him forever! I shall praise Him forever.

(Robert Wilkinson.)Glory to God in the height of His Divinity! Glory to God in the depths of His humanity! Glory to God in His all-sufficiency. Into His hands I commend my spirit.

(Edward Perronet.)

His (John Wesley's) death scene was one of the most peaceful and triumphant in the annals of the Church. Prayer, praise, and thankfulness were ever on His lips. Many golden sentences, worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance, were uttered during his last hours. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." "He is all! He is all!" "There is no need for more than what I said in Bristol; my words then were — 'I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me!'" "We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." "That is the foundation, the only foundation, and there is no other." "How necessary it is for everyone to be on the right foundation!" "The Lord is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." "Never mind the poor carcase." "The clouds drop fatness." "He giveth His servants rest." "Be causeth His servants to lie down in peace." "I'll praise: I'll praise." "Lord, Thou givest strength to those that can speak, and to those that cannot. Speak, Lord, to all our hearts, and let them know that Thou looseth the tongue." "Jesus! Jesus!" His lips are wetted, and he says his usual grace, "We thank Thee, O Lord, for these and all Thy mercies. Bless the Church and king; and grant us truth and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, forever and ever." Those who look out of the windows are darkened, and he sees only the shadow of his friends around his bed: "Who are these?" "We are come to rejoice with you: you are going to receive your crown." "It is the Lord's doing," he calmly replies, "and marvellous in our eyes." "I will write," he exclaims, and the materials are placed within his reach; but the "right hand has forgotten her cunning," and "the pen of the once ready writer" refuses to move. "Let me write for you, sir," says an attendant. "What would you say?" Nothing, but that God is with us. Now we have done all. Let us all go." And now, with all his remaining strength, he cries out, "The best of all is, God is with us!" And again, lifting up his fleshless arm in token of victory, and raising his failing voice to a pitch of holy triumph, he repeats the heart-reviving words, "The best of all is, God is with us!" A few minutes before ten o'clock on the morning of the 2nd of March, 1791, he slowly and feebly whispered, "Farewell! farewell!" — and, literally, "without a lingering groan," calmly "fell on sleep, having served his generation by the will of God."

(H. Moore.)

"I am so far from fearing death, which to others is the king of terrors," exclaimed Dr. Donne, "that I long for the time of dissolution." When Mr. Venn inquired of the Rev. W. Grimshaw how he did, "As happy as I can be on earth, and at sure of glory as if I were in it: I have nothing to do but to step out of this bed into heaven." The fear of death destroyed: — Fox relates, in his "Acts and Monuments," that a Dutch martyr, feeling the flames, said, "Ah, what a small pain is this, compared with the glory to come!" The same author tells us that John Noyes took up a faggot at the fire, and kissing it, said, "Blessed be the time that ever I was born, to come to this preferment." When an ancient martyr was severely threatened by his persecutors, he replied, "There is nothing visible or invisible that I fear. I will stand to my profession of the name and faith of Christ, come of it what will." Hilary said to his soul, "Thou hast served Christ this seventy years, and art thou afraid of death? Go out, soul, go out!" An old minister remarked, a little before his death, "I cannot say I have so lived as that I should not now be afraid to die; but I can say I have so learned Christ that I am not afraid to die." A friend, surprised at the serenity and cheerfulness which the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine possessed in the immediate view of death and eternity, proposed the question, "Sir, are you not afraid of your sins?" "Indeed, no," was his answer; "ever since I knew Christ I have never thought highly of my frames and duties, nor am I slavishly afraid of my sins."

(Religious Tract Society Anecdotes.)

One of our old Scottish ministers, two hundred years ago, lay dying. At his bedside were several of his beloved brethren, watching his departure. Opening his eyes, he spoke to them these singular words: "Fellow passengers to glory, how far am I from the New Jerusalem?" "Not very far," was the loving answer; and the good man departed, to be with Christ. "I'm dying," said one of a different stamp, "and I don't know where I'm going." "I'm dying," said another, "and it's all dark." "I feel," said another, "as if I were going down, down, down!" "A great and a terrible God," said another, three times over; "I dare not meet Him." "Stop that clock!" cried another, whose eye rested intently on a clock which hung opposite the bed. He knew he was dying and he was unready. He had the impression that he was to die at midnight. He heard the ticking of the clock, and it was agony in his ear. He saw the hands, minute by minute, approaching the dreaded hour, and he had no hope. In his blind terror he cried out, "Stop that clock!" Alas! what would the stopping of the clock do for him? Time would move on all the same. Eternity would approach all the same. The stopping of the clock would not prepare him to meet his God.

"Throw back the shutters and let the sun in," said dying Scoville M'Collum, one of my Sabbath school boys.

(Talmage.)Light breaks in! light breaks in! Hallelujah! exclaimed one when dying. Sargeant, the biographer of Martyn, spoke of "glory, glory," and of that "bright light"; and when asked, "What light?" answered, his face kindling into a holy fervour, "The light of the Sun of Righteousness." A blind Hindoo boy, when dying, said joyfully, "I see I now I have light. I see Him in His beauty. Tell the missionary that the blind see. I glory in Christ." Thomas Jewett, referring to the dying expression of the English infidel, "I'm going to take a leap in the dark," said to those at his bedside, "I'm going to take a leap in the light." While still another dying saint said, "I am not afraid to plunge into eternity." A wounded soldier, when asked if he were prepared to depart, said, "Oh yes; my Saviour, in whom I have long trusted, is with me now, and His smile lights up the dark valley for me." A dying minister said, "It is just as I said it would be, 'There is no valley,'" emphatically, repeating, "Oh, no valley. It is clear and bright — a king's highway." The light of an everlasting life seemed to dawn upon his heart; and touched with its glory, he went, already crowned, into the New Jerusalem. A Christian woman lay dying. Visions of heaven came to her. She was asked if she really saw heaven. Her answer was, "I know I saw heaven; but one thing I did not see, the valley of the shadow of death. I saw the suburbs." A young man who had but lately found Jesus was laid upon his dying bed. A friend who stood over him asked, "Is it dark?" "I shall never," said he, "forget his reply. 'No, no,' he exclaimed, 'it is all light! light! light!'" and thus triumphantly passed away.

(American Messenger.)

Jesus, DisciplesJerusalem, Mount of OlivesAge, Anyone, Case, Certainly, Death, Keeps, Obeyed, Saying, Solemn, Teaching, Truly, Truth, Verily1. Jesus delivers the woman taken in adultery.
12. He declares himself the light of the world, and justifies his doctrine;
31. promises freedom to those who believe;
33. answers the Jews who boasted of Abraham;
48. answers their reviling, by showing his authority and dignity;
59. and slips away from those who would stone him.

John 8:51

     1461   truth, nature of
     2021   Christ, faithfulness
     5288   dead, the
     6645   eternal life, nature of
     8453   obedience
     9020   death
     9023   death, unbelievers
     9137   immortality, NT

John 8:48-52

     4133   demons, possession by

John 8:48-59

     7505   Jews, the

Ascension Day
Eversley. Chester Cathedral. 1872. St John viii. 58. "Before Abraham was, I am." Let us consider these words awhile. They are most fit for our thoughts on this glorious day, on which the Lord Jesus ascended to His Father, and to our Father, to His God, and to our God, that He might be glorified with the glory which He had with the Father before the making of the world. For it is clear that we shall better understand Ascension Day, just as we shall better understand Christmas or Eastertide, …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

December 18 Evening
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.--JOHN 8:32. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.--The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.--If the Son . . . shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.--Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

September 15 Morning
Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.--ROM. 6:14. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.--My brethren, ye . . . are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.--Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.--The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 27 Evening
God . . . giveth . . . liberally, and upbraideth not.--JAS. 1:5. Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. The grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many . . . The free gift is of many offences unto justification. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

December 10 Evening
The perfect law of liberty.--JAS. 1:25. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 28 Evening
The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.--PROV. 20:27. He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her . . . And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.--If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

April 9. "I do Always those Things that Please Him" (John viii. 29).
"I do always those things that please Him" (John viii. 29). It is a good thing to keep short accounts with God. We were very much struck some years ago with an interpretation of this verse: "So every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." The thought conveyed to our mind was, that of accounting to God every day of our lives, so that our accounts were settled daily, and for us judgment was passed, as we lay down on our pillows every night. This is surely the true way to live. It is the …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Light of the World
'... I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.'--JOHN viii. 12. Jesus Christ was His own great theme. Whatever be the explanation of the fact, there stands the fact that, if we know anything at all about His habitual tone of teaching, we know that it was full of Himself. We know, too, that what He said about Himself was very unlike the language becoming a wise and humble religious teacher. Both the prominence given to His own personality, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Never in Bondage'
'We... were never in bondage to any man: how gayest Thou, Ye shall be made free!'--JOHN viii. 33. 'Never in bondage to any man'? Then what about Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Syria? Was there not a Roman garrison looking down from the castle into the very Temple courts where this boastful falsehood was uttered? It required some hardihood to say, 'Never in bondage to any man,' in the face of such a history, and such a present. But was it not just an instance of the strange power which we all have and exercise, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Three Aspects of Faith
'Many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him....'--JOHN viii. 30,31. The Revised Version accurately represents the original by varying the expression in these two clauses, retaining 'believed on Him' in the former, and substituting the simple 'believed Him' in the latter. The variation in two contiguous clauses can scarcely be accidental in so careful a writer as the Apostle John. And the reason and meaning of it are obvious enough on the face of the narrative. His purpose …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

July the Fifth the Discipleship that Tells
"He that followeth Me." --JOHN viii. 12-20. Yes, but I must make sure that I follow Him in Spirit and in truth. It is so easy to be self-deceived. I may follow a pleasant emotion, while all the time a bit of grim cross-bearing is being ignored. I may be satisfied to be "out on the ocean sailing," singing of "a home beyond the tide," while all the time there is a piece of perilous salvage work to be done beneath the waves. To "follow Jesus" is to face the hostility of scribes and Pharisees, to …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

On the Words of the Gospel, John viii. 31, "If Ye Abide in My Word, Then are Ye Truly My Disciples," Etc.
1. Ye know well, Beloved, that we all have One Master, and are fellow disciples under Him. Nor are we your masters, because we speak to you from this higher spot; but He is the Master of all, who dwelleth in us all. He just now spake to us all in the Gospel, and said to us, what I also am saying to you; but He saith it of us, as well of us as of you. "If ye shall continue in My word," not of course in my word who am now speaking to you; but in His who spake just now out of the Gospel. "If ye shall …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

Believing on Jesus, and Its Counterfeits
The Lord Jesus also told the contradicting sinners that the day would come when cavillers would be convinced. Observe how he put it: "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself." Cavillers may have a fine time of it just now; but they will one day be convinced either to their conversion or their confusion. Let us hope that many will see the truth before they die--early enough to seek and find a Saviour. But many in our Lord's day who discovered …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent
Of the power of the Word of God, of fiery desires, and the essence of self-renunciation. John viii. 47.--"He who is of God heareth the words of God." DEAR children, ye ought not to cease from hearing or declaring the word of God because you do not alway live according to it, nor keep it in mind. For inasmuch as you love it and crave after it, it will assuredly be given unto you; and you shall enjoy it for ever with God, according to the measure of your desire after it. There are some people who, …
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler

Morgan -- the Perfect Ideal of Life
George Campbell Morgan, Congregational divine and preacher, was born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England, in 1863, and was educated at the Douglas School, Cheltenham. He worked as a lay-mission preacher for the two years ending 1888, and was ordained to the ministry in the following year, when he took charge of the Congregational Church at Stones, Staffordshire. After occupying the pulpit in several pastorates, in 1904 he became pastor of the Westminster Congregational Chapel, Buckingham Gate, London, …
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10

Freedom.
The Truth shall make you free.... Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.--John viii. 32, 34-36. As this passage stands, I have not been able to make sense of it. No man could be in the house of the Father in virtue of being the servant of sin; yet this man is in the house as a servant, and the house in which he serves is not the house of sin, …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Of the Imitation of Christ, and of Contempt of the World and all Its Vanities
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,(1) saith the Lord. These are the words of Christ; and they teach us how far we must imitate His life and character, if we seek true illumination, and deliverance from all blindness of heart. Let it be our most earnest study, therefore, to dwell upon the life of Jesus Christ. 2. His teaching surpasseth all teaching of holy men, and such as have His Spirit find therein the hidden manna.(2) But there are many who, though they frequently hear the Gospel, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Tobacco.
Tobacco wastes the body. It is used for the nicotine that is in it. This peculiar ingredient is a poisonous, oily, colorless liquid, and gives to tobacco its odor. This odor and the flavor of tobacco are developed by fermentation in the process of preparation for use. "Poison" is commonly defined as "any substance that when taken into the system acts in an injurious manner, tending to cause death or serious detriment to health." And different poisons are defined as those which act differently upon …
J. M. Judy—Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes

Messianic Claims Met by Attempt to Stone Jesus.
(Jerusalem. October, a.d. 29.) ^D John VIII. 12-59. ^d 12 Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life. [The metaphor of light was common, and signified knowledge and life; darkness is opposed to light, being the symbol of ignorance and death.] 13 The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true. [They perhaps recalled the words of Jesus …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Sin.
The time was when there was no sin in this world. At that time it was an Eden. By man transgressing God's holy law sin entered this world. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:12. This is the origin of sin in this world and the awful consequence. God's design was that his creation be sinless and pure, but by disobedience sin has marred the scene of God's creative purity. The following texts will …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

The Course of the World.
Unmistakably there exists a wide gulf of separation between the children of God and the children of the world. Christ is the only avenue of escape from the world. The wide, open door of salvation is the exit. He who would return from the blissful shores of Christianity to the beggarly elements of the world can do so only on the transporting barges of Satan. As a tree is known by its fruits, so is a true follower of Christ. The fruit borne by a Christian is directly opposite in its nature to the fruit …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

The First Chapter: Imitating Christ and Despising all Vanities on Earth
HE WHO follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord (John 8:12). By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ. The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they …
Thomas À Kempis—The Imitation of Christ

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