quotes, as applicable to his case, what David had said respecting himself. The saying of old was verified, inasmuch as one who had eaten bread with Christ, or been admitted to the most intimate rites of friendship and hospitality, had lifted up his heel against him, or had become his enemy. This is a figure taken from wrestling, or from the kicking of an ill-natured animal.

19. Now I tell you before it come, &c. The object of prophecy is nowhere more concisely stated, than in this verse. Its design is, by announcing beforehand things which will afterwards occur, and which could not be known to man, to establish, after they came to pass, the divine authority of him who uttered them. See chap. xiv. 29.-That I am he, i. e. that I am the Christ, the Messiah, the Coming One. Mat. xxiv. 5. See notes on chap. viii. 58, and xi. 27. 66 Every instance of Jesus' foreknowledge of future events was calculated to give his disciples still fuller satisfaction with respect to his commission from God, and in their circumstances, was particularly adapted to convince them, that not only his being betrayed, but also his death, was expected by him, and therefore what he did not wish to avoid. And as these things did not discourage him, they ought not to discourage them."

20. See similar declarations in Mat. x. 40, xxv. 40. Jesus would, perhaps, suppress the ambition and

jealousy of his disciples, by expressing their high and equal office in his kingdom; as about to act in his stead, as he had acted in behalf of the Father. Mat. xviii. 18.

21-27. Compare notes on the parallel passages, Mat. xxvi. 21-25; Mark xiv. 18-21; Luke xxii. 21-23.

21, 22. Troubled in spirit. The distress of mind which he experienced on various occasions, shortly before his death, sufficiently proved his participation in our sensibilities, and his exposure to fear and pain, and all the natural "ills flesh is heir to.". -That one of you shall betray me. This was the cause of his being troubled in spirit. He was agitated, distressed, in thinking of the wicked act, which one of his own twelve was about to perpetrate. He had before obscurely intimated, that perfidy was lurking among them; he now expressly declares that one of them would prove his betrayer. But "he does not taunt Judas. He takes no pleasure in showing that he was aware of his treachery. On the contrary, he approaches the subject with evident reluctance."- Then the disciples looked one on another, &c. Astounded at such a disclosure, and habituated to repose such confidence in their Master, that they did not for a moment doubt the truth of what he said; they glance their eyes around the little circle, to detect, if possible, the guilty one. But Judas kept his secret from all but Jesus. How naturally has the scene been depicted

by a few simple strokes of the artless historian!

23. There was leaning on Jesus' bosom. According to the mode of reclining on couches around the table, the head of one would come near to the bosom of him, who was next above him on the same couch.Whom Jesus loved. The favorite,disciple here meant, was undoubtedly John, the writer of this Gospel, who modestly forbears to mention his own name. He was young, amiable, and highly spiritual; and though Jesus loved all his disciples, his heart was especially knit to this apostle of love. 24, 25. Simon Peter. Always the foremost to speak and to act. In all the Gospel scenes, the face of Peter looks out upon us with great prominence and distinctness. He then lying on Jesus' breast, i. e. John, reclining or sinking back so the Greek indicates-into the bosom of Jesus, secretly makes the inquiry, who the traitor was. The other evangelists state, that the self-distrustful questions, "Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I?" had already run round the table, and had even been echoed, as if to screen himself from suspicion, by Judas himself.

26. A sop, i. e. a morsel of bread, dipped in the dish, or sauce of herbs, prepared as a condiment for the passover supper. See note on Mat. xxvi. 23. Jesus does not even breathe the name of Judas to his most intimate friend, but adopts the sign men

tioned in the text, to disclose the faithless disciple. "He knew the excitable nature of Peter and the rest, and he avoided stirring up their wrath against the traitor."

27. And after the sop Satan entered into him. See note on ver. 2. As he saw his treachery was now known to Jesus, he became more hardened in his wicked plan, and more fully determined to execute it. Furness here makes the following ingenious and striking remarks: "John knew not until that moment the traitorous design of Judas, whose whole appearance and expression, even if he did not betray his malignant passions in his features, must have been instantaneously changed in the eyes of John. John then saw the demon in his countenance, and in perfect accordance with nature, says, that after Judas had received the morsel from Jesus, Satan entered into him."

That thou doest, do quickly. This was said aloud to Judas as he went out, so that the other disciples heard it. Jesus felt most keenly the dreadful sufferings of delay, which to the doomed is worse than death itself, and he urges him to act promptly, and relieve him from the insufferable wretchedness of suspense. The same feeling dictated what he said in Luke xii. 50, and John xii. 27.

28, 29. No man at the table knew, &c. So privately, so kindly, even to his faithless follower, had Jesus kept the whole matter, as if to leave him

no excuse for his wickedness, but to give him every opportunity to repent. There seems to have been a providential design in Judas' being enrolled among the twelve, a child of darkness in the bright circle of Jesus and the apostles, in order to exhibit the unsullied excellence and goodness of the character of Christ, and to prove to the world that it was so faultless, that even an enemy, who had witnessed his private hours, and been admitted to the intimacy of a friend and a steward, could only have the torturing remembrance, after he had delivered him into the hands of his foes, that he had betrayed "the innocent blood." Mat. xxvii. 4.— Or, that he should give something to the poor. This little clause is inexpressibly affecting, revealing as it does the custom of our Lord to bestow alms upon the poor. Though he was of a carpenter's family, and himself a carpenter, without fortune, without even a competency, not having where to lay his head, with his wants supplied by the ministrations of his followers, and chiefly those of the female sex, he yet granted, from his scanty means, relief to those who were in greater poverty and distress than himself. In a dark and wintry world, where the all-grasping hand of covetousness seizes all it can, and holds all it gets, how beautifully does this little gleam of sunshine, as on an autumnal day, break forth from the clouds in the sky, and reveal the glory of doing good! Let not this ray of light and warmth, descending

straight from heaven, fail to thaw our frozen sympathies with a divine zeal and pure benevolence. Even though poor, we should cast our two mites into the treasury of the Lord, and like Jesus give "something" to the destitute.

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30. Went immediately out: and it was night. No strain of thought could be more appropriate here than that of Greenwood, taken from his "Lives of the Apostles." Night, indeed! How dark, how sad, how portentous! There never was another such since the world first awoke from chaos. We seem to see it fall, and settle like an outstretched pall, and embrace the whole of that devoted region with its mourning folds. Under its covering, the wretched apostate-apostle no longer-stole forth to execute his purpose; what a night there must have been in his bosom, and in his mind! And what a night of doubt, and fear, and mournfulness, did he leave in the hearts of the eleven who now listened sadly to their Master, as he pursued his melting, though calm, sustained, and heavenly discourse, and gave them his farewell exhortations, and his farewell blessing!"

31, 32. Now is the Son of man glorified, &c. The departure of Judas seems to relieve his constraint, and to banish all apprehension; and now he pours forth the most elevated views of the approaching glory of his kingdom, and the most fervent affections towards his disciples. Doubt and fear vanish, and the sub

you.

lime purposes of God, now rapidly hastening to their fulfilment, fill the whole vision of his mind. Shall straightway glorify him, i. e. at his death, resurrection, and ascension.

33. Little children. It is more in conformity to the idioms of our language to say, My children, as a term of affectionate endearment. Yet a little while. His end was fast approaching. Ye shall seek me. Ye will feel my loss. As I said unto the Jews. See chap. vii. 34, viii. 21, and notes thereon.

34. A new commandment - that ye love one another. It has been a point much discussed among commentators, why Jesus should call this a new commandment, since it was an injunction of the Mosaic code, and he had himself often illustrated and enforced it. Thus, some understand by new, that which was contrary to the practice of mankind, though long promulgated; and others regard it like the Latin word novissimus, as declaring that this was the latest, the farewell command, given not without reference to their recent strife. Luke xxii. 24. But Furness has suggested a solution of the difficulty by a reference to the state of Jesus' mind at the time. "With what exquisite truth did he, under the circumstances, call this a new commandment! The thought of his death, brought vividly home to him by the departure of Judas, brings along with it the thought that he was about to be separated from his friends, and instantly his heart overflows with tenderness. So deep

By this shall all men know 35 love one to another.

was the love of which he was then conscious, that it seemed to him like a new feeling, and as if he had never before commanded his disciples to love one another. In order to perceive the fine working of nature revealed in that phrase, 'a new commandment,' the reader has only to reflect how often, in his own experience, the most familiar thoughts, the strongest affections, have been suddenly brought over him with such force, that they seemed altogether new." - As I have loved you. His love was to be their example and inspirer.

35. By this shall all men know, &c. As the pupils of different schools, and the subjects of different kings, were distinguished by peculiar badges, or standards, or arms, so were the followers of Jesus to be known by the livery of love. And the first Christians were recognized by this criterion of discipleship. Acts iv. 32. According to Tertullian, in his

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Apology for Christianity," even the heathen said of them, "Behold, how they love one another, and are ready to die for one another!" Julian, the emperor, a bitter enemy of the gospel, recommended the Christians as models of goodness to his pagan subjects. Would that the vesture of Christ, which even the rough soldiers of Rome respected, but which has been torn into a thousand pieces by his striving followers, might again be reunited, and the disciples once more be known by their loving one another! Can they approach nearer and nearer to their Lord, the com

LET

not your

mon centre, and not approach nearer and nearer to one another?

now.

36-38. Thou canst not follow me Thou hast not now strength of fortitude and faith sufficient to undergo martyrdom, but in due time thou shalt suffer in my cause. Lord, why cannot I follow, &c. Peter misunderstands his meaning altogether, and thinks only of some journey upon the earth. I will lay down my life for thy sake. The very thing he had not yet courage to do, but to which, in his self-ignorance, he vainly supposes himself equal.- Verily, I say unto thee, &c. Jesus tears off the vail of self-confidence and self-delusion in which Peter had fondly wrapped himself, and startles him with the assurance, that so far from his having courage to die for his Master, he was just on the eve of denying him in the most cowardly man

ner.

(1.) It will be observed, that this Gospel contains no record of the institution of the Lord's supper. This is accounted for by the facts, that John was acquainted with the other Gospels, which give full accounts of it; and still more, that the ordinance was in universal observance at the time he wrote, and it was, therefore, unnecessary to repeat the command in his supplementary history. He

chose rather to give sketches of the instructions of Jesus on that memorable night, and of the events which are intimately inwoven, and fully harmonize with that hallowed commemoration of love, "the rite of the sacred heart."

(2.) "I beg the reader to study again and again this most remarkable chapter, the thirteenth of John. The writer shows himself utterly unconscious of any design but to state, with all directness and brevity, what took place on the occasion specified. He stops to make only one or two brief comments. He says nothing of the extraordinary moral beauty which he depicts. And yet every thing is in the profoundest harmony with the greatness and tenderness of the character of Jesus. If all the rest of the history were pronounced false and fabulous, here, on this portion of it, we discern the deepest impress of life and nature."-FURNESS.

CHAPTER XIV.

Here commence those divine instructions of our blessed Master, after the institution of the Lord's supper, which are continued through the three ensuing chapters, and are crowned by his memorable prayer in chap. xvii. If we recur to the dying speeches and conversations of the