eyes that see Him will also see His glory. But more than that, the radiance of that glory will be manifested by the body of the redeemed from among men. He will come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe. Then, a greater glory will accrue to our Saviour, and to the Father in and through Him, than can be possible at an earlier period. Notwithstanding the fact that our Saviour's prayer has in part already been granted, it will be in that day, the day of Christ's glorious appearing and power, that it will be fully answered.

The next plea employed by Christ is that, by being glorified, He may be able to accomplish His great work in connection with the salvation of His people,

Glorify Thy Son." "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." As it formed a part of the Divine purpose that Christ should die for our sins, and be raised again for our justification, it necessarily followed that He should be glorified to the fullest extent, so that the ends contemplated might be accomplished, and that the world might both see and acknowledge Him to be King of kings and Lord of lords. He came from heaven that God might dwell with men. At the time He offered this prayer, He was about to leave this world for His Father's presence, so that it might become possible for men to dwell with God.

Having received authority for all He had done, and

was about to accomplish by service and suffering, our Saviour might, in confidence, present this second plea as an all-sufficient reason why He should be heard. He could not give eternal life to any unless He Himself were first glorified by the Father in the highest and most comprehensive manner.

After our Lord's resurrection, when commissioning His apostles, He said: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. xxviii. 18-20).

CHAPTER III.

THE EVERLASTING LIFE.

"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."-JOHN xvii. 3.

THERE is something very mysterious in connection with life throughout all the departments of nature, and in all its manifestations. No finite mind can determine where life begins, or how the life-germ assimilates to itself a material body. We may speculate, and examine with the greatest care; but, after all our labour, we shall discover that the nature of life, and the manner of its union with materiality, are far beyond our power of comprehension.

We are surrounded by the evidences and results of life, but what are its conditions? Here we must confess our ignorance, seeing that it is only with the phenomena of life that we are cognisant, not with its conditions or essentials, even in the lower realms of nature. We are aware of the fact that blades of grass and corn live, and grow to maturity, that the twigs of hedges thrive, and that the branches of trees bear leaves, blossom, and fruit, because the vital sap

flows to their extremities.

Even here, however, we

meet only with the phenomena or results of life, and appear to be as far as ever from understanding what are its conditions.

If we turn our attention to the animal creation, and think of the life of sentient beings, we encounter still greater difficulties than we meet with in the vegetable world. We may, it is true, by the study of anatomy and physiology, discover the conditions of well-directed energies in the physical organism, and also those connected with health; yet, after all, we shall find that it is only with the phenomena of life we are interesting ourselves. We have not done so much as even to reach the threshold of the sanctum of life.

Advancing another step, we meet with man, whose nature is complex. His body is apparently subject to laws and forces, similar to those which pervade the animal world at large; although the organism differs from, and the mechanism may be more delicate than with what we meet elsewhere, the same force or active principle, which we term life, is encountered, and we fail in our attempts to discover in what it consists, beyond the general admisssion that God is its source; for in Him we live, and through Him all things exist. In addition to his body man is said to have a soul— God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. ii. 7). From the teaching of God's word it would appear that the

moral and intellectual powers are included in the term which is rendered soul, or life. In what does this higher life consist, this life which, so far as we are informed, is peculiar to man? Is it not a fact that, notwithstanding all that has been thought and written on mental science, and the classifications which have been made of the faculties of the human mind, it is only with the phenomena we can treat, even in this advanced age of thought and refinement? That which we call life is far, very far beyond our comprehension, except in so far as its evidences and results are concerned. A few of its conditions, it is true, may be determined, if we keep in view the law under which man was placed in the Garden of Eden, in connection with his expulsion therefrom.

In the verse under consideration we have a life spoken of as "life eternal." We have here an expansion or development of the thought contained in the second verse; or more correctly, a direct definition of eternal life. "This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." "Life is the perfection of being; eternal life is the perfection of life; all life has its fountain-head in God; He is, and He alone, the living One; natural life, spiritual life, and eternal life, all flow from Him. Natural life is His creation, spiritual life is His inspiration, eternal life is His gift, possessed and enjoyed in union with Himself, and in the knowledge and fruition of Himself and Jesus Christ whom He