on.

_The back-door key_ hangs right at the back door. It is the very last
verse of chapter twenty. That really was the last chapter at first. The
thought of the book comes to a close there. The story is complete. Then
the Holy Spirit led John to add a little, a second last-chapter, an
added touch for good measure. Love is never content. It is always adding
more.

Here is the key: "_these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life through
His name_." This was John's whole thought in telling the Jesus-story.
The practical gripped him wholly and hard. This is the thing that guides
his selection of incidents. This purpose shapes the shape of the book.
It explains everything told, and just why it is told in just the way it
is told.

John lets Jesus walk before our eyes fresh from His Father's presence.
The mere fact of His presence, the winsomeness of His personality, the
clearness of His teaching, the power of His actions, the uncompromising
purity of His character amidst sin-stained crowds and sin-dirtied
surroundings, the unflinching rigidity of His ideals, the persuasiveness
of His very manner and tone of speech, the patience and gentleness, the
rugged granite strength, the mother tenderness, above all the
willingness to suffer so terribly,--all this is a plea, a tremendous
overpowering plea, all the stronger because presented so simply and
briefly. Jesus is a Lover and this is His wooing.

And John's one thought in writing is the same as the one thought in the
Lover's heart. John has become simply an echo of Jesus. It is this, that
_you_, whoever you are, wherever, whatever, that you may _believe_. You
look and listen, question, puzzle a bit maybe, but keep on listening and
looking, thinking, weighing, till you are clear these things are just so
as John tells them. Yon accept them as trustworthy. Then you accept
_Him_, Jesus, as He comes to you, your wooing Lover, your Lover-God,
your Saviour and Lord.

You _believe_: that is you _love_. The grammar of the word works itself
out inside you thus,--believe, trust, love. The truth comes in through
eyes and ears and feeling, into brain and will; through emotion clear
down into your heart. You love. You cannot help yourself. You love
_Him_, Jesus, the One so lovable.

John says that you _may_ believe. It is possible. It is the reasonable
intelligent thing to do after such a presentation. John makes it