John 1:51

Ye shall see the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending.

Jacob, old Israel, in his dream at Bethel, saw the ladder that reached to heaven with the angels upon it (Genesis 28:12). Christ is that ladder, the way from earth to heaven, the way heaven sends messages to the world and the way we must go to reach it. Nathanael would be permitted to see that Jesus was the Mediator, that through him the Father speaks to man; that through him there is intercommunication between earth and heaven. Nathanael sees heaven open, not opened. It still stands open, and has been since the vail of the temple was rent.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

1. Jesus is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. He who refuses the sacrifice of the Lamb hath none other. There is "none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved."

2. The best reply to the honest doubter is to bid him, "Come and see." If he is. quibbler, it is vain to talk with him. If he is an honest skeptic, do not seek to argue, but get him to look at and study Christ. "I know men," said Napoleon Bonaparte on St. Helena, "and. tell you that Jesus Christ is not. man."

3. The examples in the lesson are well worthy of imitation. 1. As soon as Andrew found the Messiah, he at once sought his brother to bring him to Christ. Let every Christian, young or old, seek to bring the members of his own family to the Savior. 2. As soon as Philip was called, he sought, at once, for Nathanael and induced him to go and meet the Savior. Every Christian should labor to bring all his friends to the Redeemer.

4. God's ways are not man's ways. When he called. leader to deliver Israel from bondage, he chose. shepherd of Midian; when he chose the founder of the line of Jewish kings, he took. shepherd boy of Bethlehem; when the "Word became flesh," it dwelt in the person of Jesus in the despised town of Nazareth, while the Jews all expected that the Messiah would appear in Jerusalem of the princes or great men of Israel. Still he chooses the weak and humble to confound the mighty; "the things that are not to confound the things that are."

NOTE ON "THE SON OF MAN."

In verse 51 occurs for the first time in the Gospel of John the phrase "the Son of man." This remarkable designation is the one the Lord usually applies to himself. It occurs thirty times in the Gospel according to Matthew, thirteen times in Mark, twenty-five times in Luke, and twelve times in John. In the Gospels it is never used by the historians or disciples as. designation of Christ, and is used only by the Lord in speaking of himself. Hence, it only occurs once beyond the range of the Gospels, in Acts 7:56, and the Lord never uses it after his resurrection. It will be found that the passages in which the Lord uses the phrase may be grouped into two classes: 1. Those which refer to the earthly work of the Lord during the period of his humiliation, and 2. Those which refer to his future coming in glory. It is used in the present instance in the latter sense. Another striking example of this use is found in Matthew 25:31, "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him" to take his seat on the throne of judgment. Such passages show that the Son of man is. divine being who shall sit surrounded by angels upon the throne of eternal judgment. The phrase is not an equivalent to the word "Messiah," or Christ, but one that expresses the universal humanity of our Divine Lord. He describes himself, not as the Son of Mary, nor as the Son of Abraham, but as the Son of man. He appeared upon earth, not as the kindred of the family of Nazareth, or of the Jewish nation, but as the kindred of humanity. He is the brother of the Greek, the Roman, the Gaul, the American, the African, as well as of the Jew. Nor did he ever call himself. Jew, but in all his relations with the Jewish nation he held himself as one not of their race. He always spoke to them, not of our but of your law. And it is as the brother of our race that the Son of man shall judge the world.