John 8:12 The Festival of Epiphany I. There is no figure more common in Scripture, and none more beautiful, than that by which Christ is likened unto light. Incomprehensible in its nature, itself the first visible, and that by which all things are seen, light represents to us Christ, Whose generat... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:23 Methods of Living There are three methods of living in this world: we may live from beneath, or from within ourselves, or from above. I. I need only distinguish the first mentioned method of life from beneath. We can easily recognise it, or any temptation in our own thoughts, from its b... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:28 The Gathering of the Nations I. This text is a prophecy of the very widest scope. Christ is not so much addressing a few Jews as the whole world when He says: "Ye shall know that I am He." Christ is represented as the centre of attraction, towards which should be drawn from the whole com... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:32 There are two powers that chiefly fashion our characters, and through our characters our lives, and these two are the discipline which we undergo either from ourselves or from others or from circumstances, the light wherewith God enlightens our souls. We live in the midst of our fellows,... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:35 I. We see here the possible ending of the tyranny of sin. "A slave abides not in the house for ever." Therefore the very fact that the service of sin is so hard a slavery shows it to be unnatural, abnormal, and capable of a termination. II. The actual deliverer, "The Son abideth ever." ... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:39 The great law which Christ here lays down is that that which is historically true may be morally false; men may be genealogically akin, and spiritually alien; natural relation may be forfeited by moral apostasy. I. Jesus Christ dispossesses men of pedigree and claim, and status and recor... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:46 The Absolute Sinlessness of Christ I. The sinlessness of our Lord has been supposed to be compromised by the conditions of the development of His life as man sometimes by particular acts and sayings which are recorded of Him. When, for instance, we are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews t... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:48 The Bad Mind makes a Bad Element I. This subject puts in a sad light of evidence what may well enough be called the weak point of Christianity viz., the fact that the souls to be saved will be always seeing themselves in it, and not seeing it as it is; turning it thus into an element as... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:51 Christ our Life I. In Christ all shall be made alive; but that the depth and extent of the Scriptural term life can never be limited to the mere revival of the soul from death or unconsciousness seems obvious on the most cursory inspection of the sacred volume. So far is mere immortality... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:56 Christ's Day, or Christmas Joys I. The text does not tell us that Abraham had any distinct foresight of the manner of Christ's birth. That was a mystery which remained locked up in the secret chambers of God's counsels, until it seemed good to the Holy Ghost to reveal it to the prophet I... [ Continue Reading ]
John 8:58 The text is one of those rare passages in which Jesus Christ appears to stand upon His own dignity, in which the Lowly, the Humble, the Unresisting Son of man asserts His high origin, claiming to be God, for it amounts to no less: God from everlasting. "Before Abraham was, I am." I. Abrah... [ Continue Reading ]