ice is a tribute at once to the
justice and the love of God. The Cross reveals God as nothing else
does.

Not only has this decision glorified the Son of man and God through Him
and in Him, but as a consequence "God will glorify" the Son of man "in
Himself." He will lift Him to participation in the Divine glory. It was
well that the disciples should know that this would "straightway" result
from all that their Master was now to pass through; that the perfect
sympathy with the Father's will which He was now showing would be
rewarded by permanent participation in the authority of God. It must be
through such an one as their Lord, who is absolutely at one with God,
that God fulfils His purpose towards men. By this life and death of
perfect obedience, of absolute devotedness to God and man, Christ
necessarily wins dominion over human affairs and exercises a determining
influence on all that is to be. In all that Christ did upon earth God
was glorified; His holiness, His fatherly love were manifested to men:
in all that God now does upon earth Christ will be glorified; the
uniqueness and power of His life will become more manifest, the
supremacy of His Spirit be more and more apparent.

This glorification was not the far-off result of the impending
sacrifice. It was to date from the present hour and to begin in the
sacrifice. God will glorify Him "straightway." "Yet _a little while_"
was He to be with His disciples. Therefore does He tenderly address
them, recognising their incompetence, their inability to stand alone, as
"little children"; and in view of the exhibition of bad feeling, and
even of treachery, which the Twelve had at that very hour given, His
commandment, "Love one another," comes with a tenfold significance. I am
leaving you, He says: put away, then, all heart-burnings and
jealousies; cling together; do not let quarrels and envyings divide
you. This was to be their safeguard when He left them and went where
they could not come. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love
one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this
shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to
another."

The commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves was no new
commandment. But to love "as I have loved you" was so new that its
practice was enough to identify a man as a disciple of Christ. The
manner and the measure of the love that is possible and that is
commanded could not even