The world's great want is to believe in God. Men believe in power, in wealth, in pleasure, in prosperity, in science; that is to say, they believe that such things are desirable and attainable, and worth trying and toiling and suffering for. These are prized, and therefore sought. They are more or less good. Yet they cannot satisfy, they cannot bless, man; for he has a spiritual and imperishable nature, for which all earthly things are not enough, which they cannot meet and satisfy. Yet multitudes of men have found nothing better. Some believe that the good things of this world are man's highest good, and strive to bring down their souls to this level. Others know that this cannot be, and are most unhappy, because they are strangers to aught that is higher and better; because they are not convinced of their own spirituality and immortality; because they do not feel assured that there is in the universe a Being greater, holier, and more blessed than they are. It is the childish fashion of the day to doubt all save what is often a most doubtful kind of knowledge - the knowledge which we have by sense. What men chiefly need is to believe in a Being who is both in and above all things seen and temporal; who administers and governs all; who is ever revealing himself in all things, and to all his intelligent creation; who has purposes, and purposes of wisdom and of love, towards all his children in every place. In a word, what they need is to believe in God. This is faith, and faith is the essence of religion. Faith in a living Person, conscious and moral; not in an impersonal intelligence (whatever that may be) inferior to ourselves; but in a Father in heaven, in whom is every moral excellence which we admire in our fellow-men, only in measure exceeding our imagination and indeed altogether beyond measure. If men live, as millions do, without this faith, they live below the possibilities of their nature and calling. It is this faith that gives to the human heart peace, strength, and hope; and to the human life and lot meaning, stability, and grandeur. Without it, man is not truly man; with it, he is a son of God himself. Yet this faith is not easy to any of us; to multitudes it is, in their state, barely possible, perhaps not possible at all. God knows this, and pities our infirmity. Hence his interposition on our behalf, his revelation of himself to our ignorant, necessitous, and helpless souls. His mercy, his compassion, his Fatherly counsel, have provided for this emergency. The supreme manifestation of himself is not in lifeless matter or in living forms, is not even in the universal reason and conscience of mankind. He has come unto us, and spoken in our hearing, and made himself known to our spirits, in the Person of his Son. In him he appeals to us, summoning and inviting us to faith. No longer is he hidden from our sight, no longer distant from our heart.

I. CHRIST'S PRESENCE AMONG MEN IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD. This, indeed, is the meaning of the incarnation of our Lord. God's works we see on every side, proofs of "his eternal power and Godhead" - witnesses without which he has never left himself. But God himself no man hath seen at any time. Yet he would have us know him; not only know something about him, but know himself. Hence "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." He is "the Image of the invisible God," "the Brightness of his glory, and the express Image of his Person." Christ was conscious of this relation, and both assumed and declared it. Nowhere in language more definite and simple than here: "He that seeth me sooth him that sent me." What wants were met in this manifestation! One fancies the exiled Hebrew, panting forth his heart's deep want, exclaiming in religious fervor, "My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God! When shall I come and appear before God?" Some glimpse of his majesty and his grace the devout psalmist might hope to gain in the temple, which was the scene of his presence, his service, and his praise. But what language would that ardent spirit have found to express its wondering gratitude, could the vision of Immanuel have flashed upon it? One fancies the Athenian philosophers, "seeking the Lord, it haply they might feel after him and find him;" the Athenian poet, by a stretch of imagination and in a rapture of natural piety, rising to the conviction, "We are also his offspring." But what satisfaction, what joy, would have come to such hearts, yearning for the unknown God, had the Divine Man come to them, with the declaration of marvelous simplicity and grace, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father"! But this was a revelation, not only for saints and prophets, for sages and for poets, but for all mankind. When the husbandman hailed the rising sun, and the seaman gazed upon the steadfast pole-star, this question must have arisen - Is this the handiwork of God? When the father looked upon the lifeless form of his beloved child, what thought could soothe and temper the bitterness of his bereavement and his woe, except his confidence in the supreme Father's care and love? And when the old man came to die, what could light up the dark future into which he was hastening, save the uncreated light which comes from the unseen? In their manifold questionings and doubts, sorrows, infirmities, and fears, men have looked above, and we do not say they have not received some tokens of Divine sympathy and love; they have ' cued unto God with their voice," and he has heard and succored them. But how dim has been their vision! How faint their faith! How inarticulate the response which has reached them from afar! They would fain have believed; from many a soul went up the eager and intense inquiry, "Who is he, that I might believe?" Nothing did they so deeply desire as to see him, who is the Author of all being and the Arbiter of all destinies; but as they strained their vision, it was as those peering into the scarcely penetrable twilight, with eyes suffused with tears. Who can by searching find out God, or know the Almighty to perfection? Why this want was at once awakened, and allowed to remain so long unsatisfied, we cannot tell. It is one of those mysteries upon which eternity may shed some light; for time has little to yield. It is enough for us that "in the fullness of the time God sent forth his Son," that this Son of God is the one Object of human belief, the Center attracting the gaze of all eyes, and the love and reverence of all hearts. In human form, through human life and death, with human voice, God, the unknown, makes himself known to us; God, the unseen, makes himself visible to us. For we can believe on Christ, our Friend, our Brother; we can behold him, the human Immanuel. We greet him as he comes to us from heaven; we listen to him as he speaks to us in earthly language. For us the problem is solved, the chasm is bridged, the impossible is achieved; as Jesus says, "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that sooth me sooth him that sent me." Some persons have found it hard to believe that "God was manifest in the flesh." But it seems far harder to believe that God was not in Christ, that Christ was not "God with us." It seems hard to imagine how otherwise we could be brought to realize the unspeakable nearness of our heavenly Father, how otherwise we could look into his face, recognize his voice, love him and delight in him. God is in nature; but can it be said, "He that believeth in physical law, that sooth material glory, believes in and beholds the Father above"? He spake by the prophets; but could Moses assert, or Elijah, "He that sooth me sooth him that sent me"? The incongruity must strike every mind; such language from human lips would send a shock through every Christian heart. There are good men living now; will the best of them stand up before the world, and, claiming to come from God, declare, "He that seeth me sooth him that sent me"? But how naturally do such words come from Jesus of Nazareth! How simple! How free from exaggeration and assumption] And how justly and confidently do many hearts rest in his Divine, his welcome, his precious, his authoritative assurance, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father"!

II. CHRIST'S WORDS ARE THE WORDS OF GOD. This is indeed the meaning of the ministry of Jesus, as a ministry of teaching. In the context this truth is brought out with special distinctness and power. "I have not," says the great Teacher, "spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." It is true that all human language is imperfect, and that, if it is not capable of expressing all the thoughts, and especially all the feelings of men: it is not reasonable to expect that it shall utter in completeness the mind of the infinite God. This objection is brought by some against a revelation in words - against the Bible itself. But it is no valid objection. Because the most high and eternal God cannot make himself fully known to man, inasmuch as no means by which he can communicate can do other than partake of human imperfection, shall he therefore refuse to commune with us at all? His fatherly pity will not consent to this. He "spake to the fathers by the prophets," and "in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son." And what words they are in which our Lord has addressed us! Who can believe them without believing the Father, who sent as Messenger his own honored and beloved Son? He is indeed "the Word," being, in his own faultless Person and sacred ministry, the very speech of the Divine mind, appealing to humanity with the summons, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." His words were true. Of himself he could speak as "a Man who telleth you the truth." The unbeliever may come to believe his words, and so to believe in himself; the Christian believes in him, and therefore receives his utterances with an unquestioning faith. On the highest themes, on themes of the deepest and most imperishable interest for man, Christ has spoken; and his words are final, never to be questioned, never to be disproved. His words are words of power. As he himself declared, "The words which I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." His words are immortal. "Heaven and earth," said he, "shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." His words are more than human; The officers were conscious of the authority of his teaching, when they returned and said, "Never man spake like this Man!"

III. CHRIST'S LOVE IS THE LOVE OF GOD. This is the meaning of the ministry of Jesus as a display of character and disposition, as a constant extension to men of healing, pardon, grace, and help. Our Savior struck the key-note of his ministry in the words he addressed to Nicodemus: "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." The worst evils which men suffer they inflict upon themselves; the greatest blessings which they experience are given them by God. How could men be convinced that God is a Savior? The best answer to this question is the fact that they have been so convinced by the mission and the ministry of Christ. As he "went about doing good;" as "he healed all manner of sickness and disease among the people;" as he pronounced to the contrite and believing sinner the gracious words, "Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee!" - men felt, as they had never felt before, that God was visiting and redeeming his people. Human sorrow awakened the response of Divine sympathy, and human sin the response of Divine clemency and forgiveness. It was not the timely but casual interposition of a human friend; it was the one typical eternal intervention of a God. The ministry of our Redeemer in Judaea and in Galilee was the outward and visible sign of the unchanging pity of our Father's heart. It was "the acceptable year of the Lord," but it was a year that has no end. In Christ, the God of all grace is forever addressing mankind in the language of an unfailing gospel, and is saying, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins?

IV. CHRIST'S SALVATION IS THE SALVATION OF GOD. This is the meaning of Immanuel's death and sacrifice. What it is wished especially to draw from this passage, as elucidating redemption and salvation, is this - that in the cross of Christ we do not so much behold Christ reconciling us unto God, as God in Christ reconciling us unto himself. The gospel is the setting forth and publication in time of the great truth and reality of eternity - that God is a just God and a Savior. To believe in Christ is to believe in God's purposes of mercy; God's method of mercy; God's promise of mercy. What follows from the truths now stated? How do they practically affect us?

V. THE ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION OF CHRIST IS THE ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION OF GOD. These words were uttered at the close of our Lord's public ministry in Jerusalem, probably on the Wednesday of the Passion week. On the whole, Christ's teaching had met with unbelief and hostility. Pharisees and Sadducees had been rather silenced than convinced. Many of the chief rulers, indeed, believed on Jesus, yet they had not the courage and honesty to confess him. In this very chapter, whilst we read that "many believed" on Jesus, we are informed of others that "they believed not on him." It is clear that there was general interest in Christ's teaching and claims; but that those who acknowledged the Prophet of Nazareth as the Messiah were few and timid, whilst his opponents were bold and bitter and determined. It was the very crisis of our Lord's ministry. His "hour was come." The cycle of his public teaching and beneficence was complete. He had now only to lay down his life, and thus to carry out his fore-announced intentions, and to finish the work his Father had given him to do. And these words and those which follow are Christ's final testimony to the Jews. He sums up in a brief compass the truth concerning himself, and then the practical bearing of that truth upon his hearers. He has come from God. He has come, with Divine authority, as the world's Light, and as the world's Savior. He has come with everlasting life in his hands, as Heaven's choicest gift. Yet he sees around him, not only those who hear, believe, and receive him, but those also who reject him. It is not for him to judge; for he has come to save. But judgment awaits the unbeliever. And what is the witness which the compassionate Savior bears as his last solemn message to mankind? How does he bring home to their souls the awful responsibility of association with him, of enjoying a day of Divine visitation? He does this in this sublime statement, in which he identifies himself with the Father from whom he came. No one can disbelieve and reject him, can close the eye to his glory, without in so doing rejecting God, turning away from the sight of God, and stopping the ear against the voice of God. This was, and is, a truth at which men may well tremble. Here we are brought face to face with the great probation, the great alternative, of human life and destiny. Only those who are thoughtless or hardened can think of this truth without the deepest seriousness and solemnity. It may justly be said to men, "You have been so framed by the Divine Maker of all that you must either accept or reject him. In either case it must be your act, and you must be answerable for it. And there is no third course open to you; for not to acknowledge, honor, and trust the Christ of God, to be indifferent to him and to his salvation, - this is to spurn the most sacred privilege, to neglect the most precious opportunity with which God himself can favor you. It is to shut the eyes to the light of heaven; it is to disbelieve and to reject the eternal God himself." - T.

I. HIS PROFOUND HUMILITY. "I have not spoken of Myself." As if He had said, I take no credit for the thoughts that I have addressed to men: they are not the flashes of my own genius, or the conclusions of my own reason. I am not their fountain but their channel. A teacher is great and divine just in proportion to his humility. Alas! the vanity of preachers has become proverbial.

II. HIS CONSCIOUS DIVINITY. "But the Father which sent Me," etc. No man is a true spiritual teacher who is not conscious that the thoughts he utters are not his own but God's.

(D. Thomas, D. D.).