e thought of heaven as such. If Christ had begun to speak of
golden pavement, gates of pearl, and walls of chrysolite, they would
have turned from His glowing words with the one inquiry, "Wilt Thou be
there?" If that question had been answered uncertainly, they would
have turned away heart-sick, saying: "If Thou art not there, we have no
desire for it; but if Thou wert in the darkest, dreariest spot in the
universe, it would be heaven to us."

There were three desires, the strands of which were woven in this one
yearning desire and prayer to be with Christ. They wanted His love,
His teaching, His leading into full, richer life. And is not this our
position also? We want Christ, not hereafter only, but here and now,
for these three self-same reasons.

_We want His love._--There is no love like His--so pure and constant
and satisfying. What the sun is to a star-light, and the ocean to a
pool left by the retiring tide, such is the love of Jesus compared with
all other love. To have it is superlative blessedness; to miss it is
to thirst forever.

_We want His light._--He speaks words that cast light on the mysteries
of existence, on the dark problems of life, on the perplexing questions
which are perpetually knocking at our doors.

_We want His life._--Fuller and more abundant life is what we crave.
It is of life that our veins are scant. We desire to have the mighty
tides of divine life always beating strongly within us, to know the
energy, vigor, vitality of God's life in the soul. And we are
conscious that this is to be found only in Him.

Therefore we desire to be with Him, to drink deeper into His
fellowship, to know Him and the power of His resurrection, to be
brought into an abidingness from which we shall never recede. We have
known Christ after the flesh; we desire to know Him after the Spirit.
We have known Him in humiliation; we want to know Him in His glory. We
have known Him as the Lamb of the Cross; we want to know Him as the
Divine Man on the throne.

II. THE FATAL OBSTACLE TO THE IMMEDIATE GRANTING OF THESE
DESIRES.--"Thou canst not follow Me _now_." There is thus a difference
in His words to His disciples, and those to the Jews. These also were
told that they could not follow Him, but the word now was omitted.
There was no hope held out to them of the great gulf being bridged.
That was the _cannot_ of moral incompatibility; this, of temporary
unfitness, which by the grace of God would