energy held in reserve. We see John chiefly in his writings;
and these were the fruit of his mellow old age, when love's lessons had
been well learned. It seems likely that in his youth he had in his
breast a naturally quick, fiery temper. But under the culture of Jesus
this spirit was brought into complete mastery. We have one
illustration of this earlier natural feeling in a familiar incident.
The people of a certain village refused to receive the Master, and John
and his brother wished to call down fire from heaven to consume them.
But Jesus reminded them that he was not in the world to destroy men's
lives, but to save them.

We know not how often this lesson had to be taught to John before he
became the apostle of love. It was well on in St. Paul's old age that
he said he had learned in whatsoever state he was therein to be
content. It is a comfort to us to know that he was not always able to
say this, and that the lesson had to be learned by him just as it has
to be learned by us. It is a comfort to us also to be permitted to
believe that John had to _learn_ to be the loving, gentle disciple he
became in later life, and that the lesson was not an easy one.

It is instructive also to remember that it was through his friendship
with Jesus that John received his sweetness and lovingness of
character. An old Persian apologue tells that one found a piece of
fragrant clay in his garden, and that when asked how it got its perfume
the clay replied, "One laid me on a rose." John lived near the heart
of Jesus, and the love of that heart of gentleness entered his soul and
transformed him. There is no other secret for any who would learn
love's great lesson. Abiding in Christ, Christ abides also in us, and
we are made like him because he lives in us.

John's distinction of being one of the Master's closest friends brought
him several times into experiences of peculiar sacredness. He
witnessed the transfiguration, when for an hour the real glory of the
Christ shone out through his investiture of flesh. This was a vision
John never forgot. It must have impressed itself deeply upon his soul.
He was also one of those who were led into the inner shadows of
Gethsemane, to be near Jesus while he suffered, and to comfort him with
love.

This last experience especially suggests to us something of what the
friendship of John was to Jesus. There is no doubt that this
friendship brought to John immeasurable comfort and