they
come in contact with Christ, according as they are good or bad (v. 30;
viii. 16; ix. 39). The principle of this moral testing is made plain
in iii. 19. Those who stand the test, and believe in Christ, undergo a
resurrection here (xi. 26). On the other hand, there is also a future
judgment (v. 22, 29) and a future consummation (v. 28, 29; vi. 39 f.,
xiv. 3).

Similar beautiful paradoxes are found in the teaching that the "work"
which God requires of us is to believe in His Son (vi. 28, 29); and
that to fulfil God's will is the mark not of servants but of friends
(xv. 14). And those who hope that they are numbered among the friends
of Jesus will find in this Gospel all the deepest experiences of the
soul--the new birth, the finding of the living water and the true
light, and that abiding in Christ which is made complete by the eating
of His flesh and the drinking of His blood.

To realize the meaning of Jesus it is necessary to follow the guidance
of the Holy Spirit. The Synoptists tell us comparatively little of His
work, though they show us the Spirit descending on Christ at His
baptism, driving Him into the wilderness to be tempted, speaking in His
disciples, pervading His work (Luke iv. 18), and possessed of a
personality into which the Christian is baptized (Matt. xxviii. 19),
and against which blasphemy is unpardonable (Luke xii. 10). In John we
find a much fuller doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The fact that He is
not a mere impersonal influence of God is very clearly shown. And it
is impossible to accept the modern rationalistic {98} hypothesis that
the Holy Spirit is only a phrase for describing the idea which the
apostles had about the invisible presence of Christ. He is called
"another Advocate" (xiv. 16). Christ was an Advocate or Helper; the
Spirit will be another. Again, it is the work of the Spirit to refresh
the memory and strengthen the apprehension of the disciples concerning
Christ (xiv. 26); and our Lord definitely says, "If I go, I will send
Him unto you" (xvi. 7). With regard to the unbelieving world, the
Spirit will prove the sinfulness of opposition to Christ, will convince
the world of His righteousness as testified by the Father's approval
manifested in the Ascension, and will procure the verdict of history
that by the crucifixion the evil spirit who inspires worldliness was
condemned (xvi. 8-11). The Spirit's work is the same in kind as the
work of Christ, but the two Persons a