with an overmastering
recognition of its living relations with the Omnipresent and
Everlasting Life. Straightway he knew that the Father was in
him and he in the Father, and that he was commissioned to
reveal the mind of the Father to the world.

He knew, by the direct knowledge of inspiration and consciousness,
that he should live forever. Before his keen, full, spiritual
vitality the thought of death fled away, the thought of
annihilation could not come. So far removed was his soul from the
perception of interior sleep and decay, so broad and powerful was
his consciousness of indestructible life, that he saw quite
through the crumbling husks of time and sense to the crystal sea
of spirit and thought. So absorbing was his sense of eternal life
in himself that he even constructed an argument from his personal
feeling to prove the immortality of others, saying to his
disciples, "Because I live, ye shall live also;" "Ye believe in
God, believe also in me." Ye believe what God declares, for he
cannot be mistaken; believe what I declare for his inspiration
makes me infallible when I say there are many spheres of life for
us when this is ended.

It was from the fulness of this experience that Jesus addressed
his hearers. He spoke not so much as one who had faith that
immortal life would hereafter be revealed and certified, but
rather as one already in the insight and possession of it, as one
whose foot already trod the eternal floor and whose vision pierced
the immense horizon. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life." Being himself brought to this immovable
assurance of immortal life by the special inspiration of God, it
was his aim to bring others to the same blessed knowledge. His
efforts to effect this form a most constant feature in his
teachings. His own definition of his mission was, "I am come that
they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly." We see by the persistent drift of his words that he
strove to lead others to the same spiritual point he stood at,
that they might see the same prospect he saw, feel the same
certitude he felt, enjoy the same communion with God and sense of
immortality he enjoyed. "As the Father raiseth up the dead and
quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will;" "For as
the Father hath life in himself, so ha