Openly. Yes, and let us live on the flavour of Thy glory. How far an Apostle should keep from worldly relatives!

"Neither did His brethren believe in Him.-They believed in making money out of Him, or getting friends on account of Him.

"Your time. You need prayer and devotion. See ye to it.

Me it hateth. This is very severe. They were so worldly that the world could not hate them, but rather think them smart.

I go not up.-It seems that the yet was left out by mistake rather than interpolated. This opinion is singular.

10 Stayed in Galilee.-He let the caravan depart and went another way Himself.

11In private. He was sought for everywhere and could hide Himself.

15. Et mirabantur Judæi, dicentes: "Quomodò hic litteras scit, cùm non didicerit ?"

16. Respondit eis Jesus et dixit: "Mea doctrina non est mea, sed ejus qui misit me.

17. "Si quis voluerit voluntatem ejus facere, cognoscet de doctrinâ utrùm ex DEO sit, an ego à meipso loquar.

18. "Qui à semetipso loquitur, gloriam propriam quærit; qui autem quærit gloriam ejus qui misit eum, hic verax est et injustitia in illo non est.

19. "Nonne Moyses dedit vobis legem, et nemo ex vobis facit legem?

15. And the Jews wondered, saying: How doth this man know letters, "having never learned?

16. Jesus answered them, and said: My doctrine is not mine, but of him that sent me.

17. If any man will do the will of him, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be from God, or whether I speak from myself.

18. He that speaketh from himself, seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, he is true, and there is no injustice in him.

19. Did not Moses give you the law, and none of you keepeth the law?

The ruse, if we may say so, practised by Our Lord had an immense effect. The whole of Jerusalem-amongst the Scribes especially was in a ferment about His appearance, and battling against His teachings. He had run them down, or taught what was nigh to heresy in their eyes. They formed a cabal to catch Him on the first day of the feast-He was sure to be there-but they could not find Him.

The Evangelist gives the opinions of the people, and how they talked of Our Lord. It is a quiet chat in a corner, and the results are yet doubtful.

Just in the middle of all this Our Lord appears. He comes there, no one knows how or whence, and begins at once a lecture to the very men who sought His destruction. He tells them the end of His preaching, and exhorts them to leave off popular applause and trifles, and come to Him to learn how to preach the Gospel. This was the last chance for the Pharisees.

1Sought Him.—Evidently they had prepared some trap for Him on this occasion, and it would not surprise one to think that Judas was in the secret from what was said of him in the last chapter.

Murmuring.-How very graphic this is! It occurs to us that John himself was there and mixed in the crowd, and then put his experiences

on paper,

3No.-How divided people always will be about the merits or demerits of a candidate for their approval.

Openly. It seems the Jews were dead against Him, and the people for Him, but dare not say so.

"And taught. He came in His own time and took the cathedra tanquam potestatem habens.

"Having never learned.—This is a testimony from old enemies much to be valued. New enemies, Renan and Co., make out that He went to school to Hillel. Hillel never was in Galilee, except he might have gone there to look at the mountains. Such is modern science and learning!

"Of Him that sent me. He is trying to bring the doctrine of the Incarnation before them.

Do the will.—This is the way to a heavenly light for knowing God's will. Some old dialecticians say there is a syllogism in Baroco here. His own glory.-Our Lord sought His own extinction.

10 None of you keepeth the law. This is the hardest blow yet given, and He knew the secrets of their hearts! Others saw their external zeal.

22. "Proptereà Moyses dedit vobis circumcisionem (non quia ex Moyse est, sed ex patribus), et in sabbato circumciditis hominem.

23. "Si circumcisionem accipit homo in sabbato ut non solvatur lex Moysi, mihi indignamini quia totum hominem sanum feci in sabbato?

24. "Nolite judicare secundùm faciem, sed justum judicium judicate."

25. Dicebant ergò quidam ex Jerosolymis: "Nonne hic est quem quærunt interficere?

26. "Et ecce palàm loquitur, et nihil ei dicunt. Numquid verè cognoverunt principes quia hic est Christus ?

27. "Sed hunc scimus undè sit: Christus autem cùm venerit, nemo scit undè sit."

22. 'Therefore Moses gave you circumcision: (not because it is of Moses; but of the fathers;) and on the sabbath day you circumcise a man.

23. If a man receive circumcision on the sabbath day, that the law of Moses may not be broken; are you 'angry at me, because I have healed the whole man on the sabbath day?

24. Judge not according to the 'appearance, but judge a just judgment.

25. Then some of Jerusalem said: Is not this he whom they seek to kill?

26. And, behold, he speaketh openly; and they say nothing to him. 'Have the rulers known, indeed, that this is the Christ? 27. But we know this man whence he is: but when the Christ cometh,1°no man knoweth whence he is.

This portion of the text seems, at first sight, a little confusedindeed one or two writers on it think there is a line lost before the 22nd verse-but a key can easily be found whereby it will read consecutively.

The Jews were given to forms. Red-tape was their beau-ideal of perfection. The law said two things-no servile work on the Sabbath and a child is to be circumcised on the eighth day-and these two things sometimes came into conflict. A woman gave birth to a child occasionally on the Sabbath (for Nature did not observe the law of Moses here) and what was to be done when the eighth day came? Moses does not say, but the doctors decided, circumcidere.

Now circumcision is a laborious affair, there is a cutting, a bleeding, a squalling, a bandaging, and a whole list of ceremonies to be gone through. This is no violation of the Sabbath,

according to the Jewish teachers; but to make a man well and order him to go home with his bed under his arm is a great crime. It is; because our Lord did it. They want an excuse.

1To kill me?—They had determined upon this, and many of the people knew it, as may be gathered from verse 25.

Thou hast a devil.-Some think this was said by the ringleaders, and others, more naturally, think it was said in simplicity by some Galileans present who never dreamt of such a thing. Their exclamation would be like what common people say amongst ourselves: "The devil's in ye,” which could be applied to an arch wag, or one who made a wrong accusation.

3One work. Some think this the cure of the paralytic at the piscina, Chapter v., but it may have been a similar one done just then, but not recorded.

Therefore. This adverb-the crux of grammarians-has caused a dispute amongst commentators. Some think it should be in verse 21. "One work I have done and, therefore you all wonder." Some at the end of 22. "And therefore on the Sabbath day." We think it is very harmless where it is and need not be ejected.

:

"Of the fathers.-Abraham brought in circumcision, Moses revived it. Angry at me.-What harm did He do them by curing a poor man ? 'Appearance. He often spoke about rash judgments.

8Of Jerusalem. These were real Jews who knew very well that a plot was being hatched for Our Lord's death.

Have the rulers.-These speakers would seem to be employed for the purpose of taking Our Lord, on a signal given by the rulers. They were like those whom Judas led to Gethsemani.

10 No man knoweth.-This was an error, a popular error and not generally spread. The doctors and scribes knew very well that the Messias was to be of the house of David and born in Bethlehem. See S. Matt. ii. 5 et alibi.