nder
the tender holy spell of Jesus' presence. He was swayed by the
Jesus-passion. Always burning, he was yet never consumed; only the alloy
burned up and burned out, himself refined to the quality of life called
eternal.

Then John came to the end of his long life. And he knew he would be
slipping the tether of life and going out and up and in to the real
thing of life. And I think John was a bit troubled. Not because he was
going to die. This never troubles the man who knows Jesus. The
Jesus-touch overcomes the natural twinges of death. But he was troubled
a bit in spirit for a little by the thought that he would not be on
earth any longer to talk to people about Jesus. And to John this was the
one thing worth while. This was the life-passion.

And so I think John prayed about it a bit. For this is what he did. He
said to himself, "I will write a book. I'll make it a little book, so
busy people can quickly read it. I'll pick out the simplest words I know
so common folks everywhere that don't have dictionaries can easily
understand. And I'll make them into the shortest simplest sentences I
can so they can quickly get my story of Jesus." And so John wrote his
little book. And we call it the story of Jesus according to John, or, as
we commonly say the Gospel--the God-story--according to John.

And all this is a simple bit of a parable. It is a parable in action.
Jesus is brooding over us, giving Himself, warmly wooing us. He woos us
into personal friendship with Himself. And then He asks that each of us
shall write a gospel. This is the Gospel according to John; and these
others according to Luke and Mark and Matthew. He means that there shall
be the gospel according to--_you_. What is your name? put it in there.
Then you get the Master's plan. There is to be the gospel according to
Charles and Robert and George, and Mary and Elizabeth and Margaret.

And you say, "Write a gospel? I couldn't do that. You don't mean that.
That's just a bit of preaching." No, it isn't preaching. It's so. I do
not mean to write with a common pen of steel or gold; nor on just common
paper of rags or wood-pulp. But I do mean--_He_ means--that you shall
write with the pen of your daily life. And that you shall write on the
paper of the lives of those you're touching and living with every day.

Clearly, He meant, and He means, that you and I shall live such simple
unselfish lovable Jesus-touched lives, in just the daily commonplace
round of