them abides as a guest."

II.

_RECEPTION CHRIST MET WITH._

JOHN i. 1-18.

In describing the Word of God, John mentions two attributes of His by
which His relation to men becomes apparent: "All things were made by
Him," and "the life was the light of men." By whom were all things made?
what is the originating force which has produced the world? how are we
to account for the existence, the harmony, and the progress of the
universe?--these are questions which must always be put. Everywhere in
nature force and intelligence appear; the supply of life and power is
unfailing, and the unconscious planets are as regular and harmonious in
their action as the creatures that are endowed with conscious
intelligence and the power of self-guidance. That the whole universe is
one does not admit of a doubt. Far as the astronomer can search into
infinite space, he finds the same laws and one plan, and no evidence of
another hand or another mind. To what is this unity to be referred? John
here affirms that the intelligence and power which underlie all things
belong to the Word of God: "without Him was not anything made which was
made."

"In Him was life." In this Divine Being, who was "in the beginning"
before all things, there was that which gives existence to all else.
"And the life was the light of men." That life which appears in the
harmony and progress of inanimate nature, and in the wonderfully
manifold and yet related forms of animal existence, appears in man as
"light"--intellectual and moral light, reason and conscience. All the
endowment possessed by man as a moral being, capable of
self-determination and of choosing what is morally good, springs from
the one fountain of life which exists in the Word of God.

It is in the light of this close relationship of the Word to the world
and to men that John views the reception He met with when He became
flesh and dwelt among us. This reception forms the great tragedy of
human history. "In Agamemnon returning to his palace after ten years'
absence, and falling by the hand of his unfaithful spouse, we have the
event which is tragical _par excellence_ in pagan history. But what is
that outrage when compared with the theocratic tragedy? The God invoked
by the nation appears in His temple, and is crucified by His own
worshippers." To John it seemed as if the relationship borne by the Word
to those who rejected Him was the tragical element in the rejection.

Three di