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DISCOURSE XV.

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.

(Lincoln's Inn, Whit-Sunday, May 11, 1856.]

ST. JOHN VII. 37-39.

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

If the words in the last chapter- the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was at hand'-are genuine, it would seem as if Jesus did not go up to that feast, or to the Pentecost which must have followed it. At all events, nothing is recorded of any visits to Jerusalem; and the inference from the opening of this chapter clearly is, that He did not walk in Jewry' from the time that the Jews had sought to kill Him at the feast spoken of in the fifth chapter.

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I did not think it was necessary to make guesses respecting the name of that feast. What this was the Apostle has told us. I have no doubt that he wished us to remember why it was instituted; what it should have meant to them who were celebrating it; what it did mean to Him whom they had sought to kill, because He had said, God was His Father.' It said to the Jews who

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were living then, Your fathers dwelt in tabernacles

in the wilderness; they had no houses which they 'could transmit to their children, as you have. But the unseen God went in a tabernacle before them. That was 'the secret of their strength; that bound them together ' as a nation, before they had conquered a single walled 'town of Canaan. Your houses are as little stable as

theirs were. If your national strength and union consist ' in your walled cities, the Romans in a year may lay them ' all waste. But the living God dwells with you as 'He did with your fathers. The Romans cannot take that Presence from you. You may forget it; you may disbelieve in it: then the tabernacle of God will not cease to be with men,-but it will cease to be with you; you ' will not be His stewards or witnesses any longer.'

Even we can feel that there was this significance in the festival; events which, we know, were soon to happen, reveal it to us, if the Law and the Prophets do not. How much more than we can divine or dream of must He have seen in it! But the persons who were about them, His own kinsfolk, had no such thoughts. To them the feast was an unusual gathering of men together,—the occasion which one who professed to be a prophet or leader of the people should take for showing Himself to them. • Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto Him, Depart hence, and go into Judæa, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.'

Looking at this advice from the point of view which we commonly take, we should speak of it as most sensible. We suppose that Christ wrought His signs to convince the unbelieving Jews of His mission; what more strange than that He should not take pains to display them? Looking

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at the advice from his point of view, St. John says,' For neither did His brethren believe in Him.' They expected Him to make a startling exhibition of His power to the eye. They did not believe in Him,-for faith rests upon that which is not seen; it confesses an inward, vital power.

The words, show thyself to the world,' were doubtless used by these brethren of Christ in a very broad, vulgar sense. Jerusalem was the great world to them; there all Jews met; there were the learned men who decided what others were to think and believe; there were the rulers of the people. But they had used the right word. A Mantuan, speaking of great Rome, and wondering what he should do there, would not have been more correct in calling that the world, than these Galilæans were in giving the name to the city of David. The Italian metropolis might, in one sense, be the centre of the world's government and the world's wickedness; the Cæsar might be the world's god. But a society which was organized on the confession of a living and true God--which had retained its organization, and believed in that instead of in Himis more exactly the world, in the sense in which the world is opposed to God, than the Roman society, or any other existing at that time, could possibly be. Jesus, therefore, adopts the expression of His kinsmen in answering them. Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come. When He had said these words unto them, He abode still in Galilee.'

There is a greater sense of loneliness and oppression in this language, than in any which we have met with thus far,—the loneliness which comes from being altogether misunderstood; the oppression which comes from a work to be fulfilled, which those whom it was meant to bless would abhor. The Son of Man feels all the difference between those whose time was alway ready,'-who could go up to the feasts whenever it pleased them, merely with the expectation of meeting friends, and mixing in a crowd -and Him who had the straitening consciousness of a message which He must bear, of a baptism which He must be baptized with. And the Son of God feels that He is to bear witness of a Father to a world which was created by Him, and did not know Him-which longed to rid itself of the sense of His Presence-which conceived of Him as a tyrant and an enemy. The world cannot hate those who fancy that the business of a divine Prophet is to persuade it to admire him and follow him. The world must hate those who tell it that the Creator of all good and truth is close to it, that it has no good apart from that Creator,-that its works will always be evil while it is not owning Him. The world must hate Him in whom the glory of the central and eternal Good and Truth shone forth as in an 'only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth.'

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'But when His brethren were gone up, then went He also

unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, Where is He? 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. Howbeit no man spake openly of Him for fear of the Jews.'

So others

We are carried at once into the bustle of the feast. Two or three lines give a clearer and livelier impression of the feelings of the crowds who were assembled at it, than the longest description could have given. They wonder if the Teacher from Galilee is there, or is coming. There are various thoughts about Him. He has done many kind. ' acts; surely He is a good man.' So says this man and that, as they talk in the streets. Yes; but the multitude,-the 'ignorant people, who are expecting a king,—what strange, dangerous notions He is filling them with! Can you 'doubt that He is plotting to be their chief?' whisper, correcting the charitable judgments of their neighbours. But it is a hum of voices. There is a fear of something, the people do not well know of what. It is a fear of the Jews, the Apostle says. Each fears the other. There is a concentrated Jewish feeling in the Sanhedrim, among the rulers, which all tremble at. Till that has been pronounced-above all, while there is a suspicion that it will come forth in condemnation—it is not wise for any to commit themselves. Brethren, do we not know that this is a true story? Must it not have happened in Jerusalem then; for would it not happen in London now?

'Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.'

He went up to the feast in secret; but He goes into the Temple openly. He has as little wish to hide His doctrine as He has to display Himself. His testimony is to the world. It is borne at this time to a letter-worshipping world, to a world which believed that certain letters had

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