y begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

This is the golden text of St. John's Gospel, and of the whole Bible.
Through all the ages it has sounded, and will sound to the end of time,
as the gospel itself.

John must have been a most attentive listener to all that Jesus said.
This was at the beginning of His Lord's ministry. Fresh truths easily
impressed him. They were the buddings of which he was to see the bloom,
of whose fruitage he would partake most abundantly, and which he would
give to others long after the echo of the Great Teacher's words had died
in the chamber where he and Nicodemus heard them.

It was long after that nightly visit that John wrote his account of it,
including the golden text whose keyword was _Love_. It is supposed that
he wrote his Epistle about the same time. That text was so present in
his thought that he repeated it in almost the same words: "Herein was
the Love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent His only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through Him."

At the close of his long life, in which he had learned much of the power
and justice and holiness and goodness of God, it seemed to him that all
these were summed up in the one simple saying, "God is love."

[Illustration: THE FIRST DISCIPLES _Ittenbach_ Page 67]

When John bade Nicodemus good-night, he could not look forward to the
time, nor to the place where we see them together again. John the lone
apostle with Nicodemus and his Lord at the beginning of His ministry, is
the lone apostle at the cross. Then and there, he recalls the first
meeting of the three as he beholds the Rabbi approaching. This is his
record; "Then came also Nicodemus, who at the first came to Jesus by
night."

There is a tradition concerning Nicodemus that after the Resurrection of
Jesus, his faith in Him was strengthened. The "teacher come from God" he
now believed to be the Son of God. The timid Rabbi became a bold
follower of the Lord whom he once secretly sought. For this he was no
longer permitted to be a ruler of the Jews. He was hated, beaten, and
driven from Jerusalem. At last he was buried by the side of the first
martyr Stephen, who had baptized and welcomed him into the fellowship of
the Christian Band.

_CHAPTER XIII_

_St. John and the Samaritaness_

"He cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar.... Jacob's well was
there. Jesus therefore, being weari