en of by ignorant people as the
upholders of religion? You have taught yourselves to measure men by a
wholly spurious standard, and cannot believe in one who is a
transparency through which the glory of God shines upon you." Had some
one come in his own name, seeking a glory the Jews could give him,
adapting himself to their poor conceptions, him they would have
received. But Jesus being sent by God had that glory which consisted in
being a perfect medium of the Father's will, doing the Father's work and
never seeking His own glory.

This, then, was the reason why the Jews could not believe in Jesus.
Their idea of glory was earthly, and they were unfitted to see and
appreciate such glory as He showed in deeds of kindness. And those
sayings of Jesus penetrate deeply into the permanent roots of unbelief.

It was certainly a great demand on their faith which Jesus made. He
asked them to believe that the most Divine of prerogatives, life-giving
and judging, belonged to Him. But He gave them evidence. He only asks
them to believe what they have seen exemplified. He does not as yet even
ask them to draw inferences. He does not blame them for not seeing what
is implied regarding His eternal relation to the Father. He adduces
evidence "that they may be saved;" that they may be induced to partake
of the life He dispenses; and He laments that they will not believe that
He is commissioned by God to speak words of life to men, although He has
given them demonstration of His commission and power to give life.

To us also He speaks--for plainly such powers as He here claims are not
such as can be capriciously given and withdrawn, rendered accessible to
one age but not to another, exhibited on earth once but never more to be
exercised. They are not powers that could be given to more than one
messenger of God. To suppose more than one source of spiritual life or
more than one seat of judgment is against reason.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Similarly in the Synoptical Gospels the hostility of the Jews is
traced to His apparent breach of the Sabbath law.

[16] The following division of the former part of this Apology may help
the reader to follow the sequence of thought. In vv. 19, 20, Jesus
enounces the general features of His relation to the Father. In vv.
21-23 the works dictated by this relation and resulting from it are
spoken of generally as "quickening" and "judging." These works are in
vv. 24-27 exhibited in the spiritual sphere, an