Divine and Eternal in the compass of our adoration and
devotion.

III

Heaven Delayed, but Guaranteed

"Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, whither goest Thou? Jesus answered
him. Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow
Me afterward."--JOHN xiii. 36.

These chapters are holy ground. The last words of our dearest, spoken
in the seclusion of the death-chamber to the tear-stained group
gathered around, are not for all the world, and are recorded only to
those whose love makes them able to appreciate. And what are these
words that now begin to flow from the Master's lips, but His last to
His own? They were held back so long as Judas was there. There was a
repression caused by his presence which hindered the interchange of
confidences; but, when he was gone, love hastened to her secret stores,
and drew forth her choicest, rarest viands to share them, that they
might be in after days a strength and solace.

This marvellous discourse, which begins in chapter xiii. 31, continues
through chapters xiv., xv., xvi., and closes in the sublime prayer of
chapter xvii. Better that all the literature of the world should have
shared the fate of the Alexandrian library, than that these precious
words should have been lost amid the fret of the ages.

The Lord commences His discourse by speaking of His speedy departure.
"Little children," He said, using a term which indicated that He felt
toward them a parental tenderness, and spoke as a dying father might
have done to the helpless babes that gathered around his bed, "I am to
be with you for a very little time longer; the sand has nearly run out
in the hour-glass. I know you will seek Me; your love will make you
yearn to be with Me where I am, to continue the blessed intimacy, the
ties which within the last few weeks have been drawn so much closer;
but it will not be possible. As I said to the Jews, so must I say to
you, Whither I go, ye cannot come." He then proceeds to give them a
new commandment of love, as though He said: "The _cannot_ which
prevents you following Me now is due to a lack of perfect love on your
part, as well as for other reasons; it is necessary, therefore, that
you wait to acquire it, ere you can be with Me where I am."

Simon Peter hardly hears Him uttering these last words; he is pondering
too deeply what he has just heard, and calls the Master back to that
announcement, as though He had passed it with too light a tre