mixed up with all their feelings of national pride, and all their ideas of national interest. The foundation of it was but little proportioned to the wide extent and tenacious power of its prevalence over the Jewish mind. It rested solely on some Old Testament predictions, clothed in figurative language, mistakingly, because literally, interpreted. It was indeed nothing more than a prejudice. Yet, in the mind of the great majority of the Jews, no evidence could remove, or even shake, this prejudice. Our Lord's innumerable, uncontroverted miracles, abundantly attested, and the fulfilment of many prophetic declarations in his character, and doctrines, and history, seemed to them to have no force as evidence of his Messiahship, merely because he was not a temporal prince. Had he been so, these would have been felt and acknowledged as irrefragable demonstration. They found it easier to resist truth, founded on abundance of appropriate evidence, than to renounce a prejudice founded on no satisfactory evidence whatever.

The power of this prejudice was scarcely less strikingly manifested, though in a somewhat different way, in the case of those Jews who received, than in the case of those who rejected, the Messiahship of our Lord. If it prevented the latter from perceiving the evidence of his mission, it greatly obstructed the former in apprehending the meaning of his doctrines. The humble rank, the destitute circumstances, of their Master,-the comparative poorness and insignificance, in a worldly point of view, of his adherents,—the general cast, both of his doctrine and his character, so unearthly and spiritual,—the plain statements he made of the design of his mission, and of the nature of his kingdom,— the intimation he gave them of his approaching sufferings, and shameful, as well as painful, death on the cross, were all incapable of quenching the hope, that he was one day to become the temporal deliverer of his country,—the breaker of her yoke the assertor of her independence-the vindicator of her supremacy. To the very last, they seem to have

cherished the conviction, that all in his declarations that appeared to speak of coming disaster and death, must have some mystical meaning not inconsistent with what they held as undoubted truth- his establishment of a worldly kingdom, to which, as a matter of course, they applied whatever he said of coming triumph and dominion. Never, probably, were these hopes higher, than a few days before his crucifixion; and even after the resurrection, previously to the giving of the Spirit, whose enlightening influences dispelled all these delusions for ever, we find them asking, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” 1 This prejudice made these honest believers "slow of heart to understand the many things which the prophets had spoken" of their Master-many things which their Master had spoken of himself. It greatly tried his patience, and greatly obstructed their improvement.

Of its influence in both ways, we have a striking exemplification in the passage which is now to be the subject of our consideration. Perceiving how deeply his announcement of his speedy and solitary departure from them, had filled his disciples with anxiety and sorrow, our Lord, with a tenderly wise compassion, calls on them to moderate their excessive trouble of heart; and to secure this end, bids them believe in God and in him; believe what God had said, and what in Scripture had been said about God; believe what he himself had said to them, and was to say to them, and what in Scripture had been said about him. Especially, he calls on them to believe the declaration which he was just about to make to them, a declaration well fitted to relieve their anxieties, both with regard to him, and with regard to themselves. With regard to him, he was indeed going away, but he was going to the magnificent well furnished dwelling-place of his Father, to dwell with Him, and with those who were already dwellers in its many mansion. With regard to them, he

was going to his Father's house for the purpose of making the arrangements necessary to their being admitted to a place there, and that when these were made, it was his purpose to return and take them to himself, that where he was, and was permanently to reside, they might be, and permanently reside also.

He concludes his consolatory advice, with saying, "And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." The meaning and reference of these words are to us perfectly plain. They do not seem capable of two meanings. We wonder how any one could misapprehend them. But they were misapprehended. We have no reason to doubt that Thomas, when he uttered the words, "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" expressed a difficulty all his brethren felt; a difficulty, rising out of the prejudice, that the temporal kingdom must be set up, and that his going must have a reference to his going to do this, but to do it they neither knew where nor how. Our Lord removes the misapprehension, by saying, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

There are three topics which the subject of discourse brings before our minds for consideration. First, Our Lord's saying misapprehended by the disciples. Secondly, Their misapprehension of his saying. And, Thirdly, His correction of their misapprehension, and further illustration of the misapprehended saying. Let us shortly attend to these topics in their order.

§ 1. Our Lord's saying which was misapprehended by the disciples.

Let us first consider our Lord's saying, "And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." These words have often been interpreted as equivalent to, "you know, you are quite aware, that I am going to heaven; and you know the way by which I am to go to heaven,-by suffering and

death.' 1 Now, there is no doubt, that our Lord was going to heaven; and that he was going to heaven through suffering and death. But this interpretation is not satisfactory, for the disciples did not know that their Lord was to go to heaven; they seem to have held the faith of their nation, that "the Christ was to abide for ever;"" and still less did they know that he was to go there by suffering and death. That was repugnant to all their expectations and feelings. It has been said, 'they might have known it from what the prophets had said, and from what their Lord himself had said,' and that is quite true; but the question is, not what they might have known, but what they did know. And we are assured, that when our Lord spoke of his sufferings, and death, and resurrection, "they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him."3 Besides, it is quite plain, from what our Lord says at the sixth verse, that he spoke not so much of the way, by which HE was to go where he was going, as of the way by which they were in due time to follow him.1

The right interpretation of this passage, like that of so many others, depends on considering the connection in which it is introduced; "Lord," said Peter a little before, "Lord, whither goest thou?" and when our Lord had said, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards," he rejoined, "Why cannot I follow thee now?" 5 Both Peter's questions, and they no doubt embodied the wishes of all the disciples, were answered by our Lord in the words immediately preceding our text. It is as if he had said, 'You are troubled in spirit, because you know not whither I go; and because I have said,

"Hoc ænigmate Dominus subindicabat se proficisci ad Patrem, sed per mortem crucis. Optabile erat quod adibat eum, sed iter videtur inamabile. Hoc discipuli nescire non poterant, toties auditum a Domino: sed mæror et oblivio faciebat ut quod sciebant nescirent."-ERASMUS.

2 John xii. 34.

3 Mark ix. 32.

+ Potest interrogando explicari satis commode."-SEMLER. GILL also takes this view-Do you not know whether I go? do you not know the way?

John xiii. 36, 37.

"Ye cannot follow me now." Be not troubled. "Believe in God, believe in me." I am going to my Father; to his house of many mansions: let not, then, fears about me distress you; and as to your following me,-as to the reason why you cannot follow me now, and as to the way in which you are to follow me hereafter, know that arrangements must be made for your coming to where I am going, to my Father's house of many mansions. I go to make these arrangements, and when they are completed, I will come and take you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. That is where I am going,-that is the reason why you do not go with me, or follow me, now, that is the way in which you are afterwards to come where I am going; "and," i. e. and thus, "ye know," for I have plainly told you "whither I go, and the way" in which you are to come, whither I shall have gone. Such was our Lord's statement as to whither he was going, and the way in which his disciples were to follow him thither, afterwards. It seems very plain and clear. But it was not understood. It was misunderstood.

§ 2. The disciples' misapprehension of our Lord's saying.

This misapprehension is the second topic which the text brings under our consideration: "Thomas answered and said to his Master, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?" Thomas, as his character comes out in the gospel history, seems to have been a thoughtful, considerate man, a man occupied, however, more with the sensible and rational, than with the spiritual, -greatly more under the influence of sense and reason than faith. We cannot think that he meant to contradict his Lord. He did not mean to deny that now he knew-for his Lord, whom he implicitly believed, had said it-that Jesus was going to his Father's house, and that, when he had made certain arrangements, he was to return, and to take them, to be with him there. He understood that-he be