6 before the world was. I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; and they 7 have kept thy word. Now they know that all things a sense expressing the contents of the glory; and the petition is for a bestowal of the manifested glory rather than that of the original real glory considered in itself. Thus the unity of thought in the whole passage is preserved. Not the Son's personal exaltation, but the Father's glory through the Son's, is still the keynote; for, when the glory of the Son is seen the glory of the Father is seen also. With this petition the first section of the prayer closes.

Ver. 6. Jesus now passes to the thought of those disciples who had been led to rest on Him in faith. His work was over; theirs was to begin; and it involved a struggle and needed strength, similar to His own. In tenderest pity and love, therefore, He now prays for them, that they may be preserved as He has been. Yet not their preservation, but the glory of the Father, is still the leading thought. Jesus is glorified in them (ver. 10), and when He is glorified the glorification of the Father is secured. First of all their position is described; they have so entered into and embraced the word' of Jesus that the great purpose of His coming has been answered in them, and they are fitted to take His place in the world. That word' had been especially the 'name' of God, His name as 'Father,' including His character, His attributes, His saving will as revealed in Jesus. The whole purpose of God's Fatherly love had been embraced by them as tidings of great joy both for themselves and for the world. They had been given to the Son by the Father 'out of the world; that is, they were no longer in the world as the element of their existence. The position is exactly His own (ver. 14), so that even already we see how closely they are identified with Him, and are fitted, as taking His place, to lift men up into their own higher sphere. Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them.-That is the Divine side. The change of order from the same words as used in the earlier part of the verse ought to be noticed. The emphasis is now directed to 'Me,' and the meaning is that they were now by Divine appointment the Son's, that they might take up His work.—And they have kept thy word. This is the human side. They, on their part, had answered the purpose of the Father: they had kept the 'word' of God; not the general revelation of His will, but the revelation of the Logos, of the Word,' in the soul. In the Word of God they have God's word in them. How completely are they put into the position of Him who is now going away!'

Ver. 7. Now have they learned to know that all things whatsoever thou gavest me are from thee. These words do more than state that the disciples knew this fact. They include a far deeper meaning, intended to bring out more fully the position of the

8 whatsoever thou hast given me are from thee: for the words which thou gavest me I have given unto them; and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came forth from thee, and they believed that thou 9 didst send me. I pray for them: I 'pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me;

1 Gr. make request.

disciples as the representatives of Jesus. For what was it that He knew? It was that all He had was from the Father; that all He was was the reflex of the Father; that His words, His works, His whole activity, were the Father's; that He came forth from the Father, and was sent by Him into the world (3: 13; 6: 46; 7: 29; 3: 34; 13: 3). This was the consciousness which especially distinguished Him in the fulfilling of His mission; and now that consciousness has passed over into them.

Ver. 8. Because the words which thou gavest me I have given them, and they received them, and learned to know truly that I came forth from thee, and believed that thou didst send me. These words explain the fact stated immediately before. The disciples had received a consciousness similar to that of Jesus, because He, on His part, had implanted His words in them: and they, on their part, had responded, receiving what He gave. They received,' 'learned to know,' 'believed:' the three verbs, closely following each other in the same tense, correspond to the solemnity of the statement. Again, however, we see that far more is meant than the reception of particular truths: the main thought is, that He has transferred His own mind to His disciples, that He has taught them His own truths and thoughts, and that they, while retaining their own proper individuality (the word they before 'received' being equivalent to 'they themselves'), have fully made them their

own.

Ver. 9. I ask concerning them; I ask not concerning the world, but concerning them whom thou hast given me. In the preceding verses the mind of Jesus has been filled with the thought of the position of the disciples; He now proceeds directly to pray for them; and the substance of His prayer is that they, occupying His place, may be so preserved as to be what He had been-true to the word given them, victorious over the devil, consecrated, filled with joy, to His glory and the glory of the Father in Him. So fully, too, are His thoughts occupied with them, that the whole energy of His prayer is devoted to them alone. He will not for the present ask concerning the enemy to be assailed, but about the assailants who are to take His place. Without denouncing the world,' therefore, He simply sets it aside. It may indeed be asked, Why mention it at all? The answer probably is, to bring out that perfect correspondence be

10 for they are thine: and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they tween the will of the Son and of the Father, which is the ground of the Son's confidence in prayer. Hence the emphatic 'I' with which the verse begins-'I, who came forth from the Father, who am sent of the Father (ver. 8); I, who am the perfect expression of the Father, willing only what He wills-I do not go beyond those whom He has given Me.' This last thought then finds utterance.-Because they are thine. In ver. 6 it had been-'They were thine;' then they had been looked at only as the possession of the Father. Now they are thine:' they have been brought back to Him and united to Him in a closer, dearer bond than ever-the bond of fellowship in the Son. Ver. 10. And all things that are mine are thine, and thine mine, and I have been glorified in them. It does not seem necessary to regard the two first clauses of this verse as a parenthesis, and to restrict the last words 'in them' to the disciples only who had been spoken of in ver. 9. Jesus seems rather to be carried away by the thought that disciples one with Him were as truly one with His Father, to another and a more glorious thought, that all that He possessed was His Father's, and all that was His Father's was His, so real, so intimate, so deep is the unity between Them. In all things, then, though (it may be) especially in His disciples, He has been glorified. But His being glorified in them is really the Father's being so, because the glory flows from their recognition of Him, and their fellowship with Him, as the Son. From every thought of the prayer we must ascend to the Father, that glorious Name in which, with its blended authority and love, are given the order and the happiness of all creation.

Ver. 11. And I am no longer in the world, and they are in the world, and I come to thee. One thought rising before the mind of Jesus now deepens His earnestness of entreaty on behalf of His disciples-the contrast between their condition and His own. His labors and sorrows are over; but they are left behind in the struggle which He is leaving. The very greatness of His joy in the thought of His own glorious return to His Father rouses his tenderest sympathy for those who have so much to do and to suffer before they can share His joy.-Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one even as we are. In ver. we had simply 'Father;' we have now 'Holy' prefixed to that name. The reason is obvious. Holy' does not express mere freedom from sin; He who is holy is entirely separated from all that is carnal and outward in this present world, so that pure spirituality and heavenliness alone rule in Him. As, therefore, a state similar to

12 may be one, even as we are. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the scripture this is that to which God would raise His people, the epithet 'Holy' brings this thought prominently into view, and strengthens the argument of the prayer. The petition is that, for the purpose mentioned in the last words of the verse, they may be kept in the Father's name, which He has given to the Son. Light is again thrown upon the word 'name.' It cannot be simply the name Father,' for that could not be given to another: it is His revelation of Himself in Jesus. That revelation had been given to the Son; it had been appropriated by the disciples; they were living in it: the prayer is that, amidst all the temptations of the world, they may be kept in it. Then follows the purpose, that they may be one even as' are the Father and the Son. It is the Divine unity of love that is referred to, all wills bowing in the same direction, all affections burning with the same flame, all aims directed to the same end-one blessed harmony of love.

6

Ver. 12. It is out of the fulness of His heart that Jesus continues to speak. The sad change that is to take place in the condition of His disciples after He has gone away' presses on His mind; He recalls tenderly the care with which He had hitherto watched over them in an evil world; and now that He can no longer show that care, He commends them with longing earnestness to the Father. He does this all the more because it was in the Father's name given to Himself that He had kept them-in the revelation of the Father, in the unity of His own relation to the Father, in the consciousness that God was their Father as well as His; so that the Father as well as He shall keep them, and, in keeping them, shall only continue the work that He had Himself begun. The word 'I' is very emphatic-I kept them now do Thou.' The distinction between 'kept' and 'guarded' is not to be found in the thought of different spheres, such as inward and outward, but in the fact that the latter word points to the watchfulness by which the former is attained (comp. on 12: 47). At the same time the difference of tense in the original is worthy of notice, the first verb expressing continued care, the second the completeness of the security afforded. Yet one dark cloud rested on the bright past, and the eyes of the disciples might at that moment be directed to it. Judas had not been kept: how was that? To this Jesus gives an answer in these words. The wonderful fact itself, when rightly viewed, affords evidence that He has fulfilled His promise that He will keep His own. It was in carrying out the Father's will that not one of the Eleven had been lost it was in carrying out the same will that Judas had met his fate. He was the son of perdition,' one who had freely chosen to move in that sphere of perishing, and therefore he perished. A scripture, too, or word of God (Ps. 41: 9, already quoted in chap.

13 might be fulfilled. But now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have 14 my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

13: 18), had declared God's will, and that will could not fail to be accomplished. To suppose that Judas is now brought before us as one originally doomed to perdition, and that his character was but the evolving of his doom, would contradict not only the meaning of the Hebraic expression 'son of' (which always takes for granted moral choice), but the whole teaching of this Gospel. In no book of the New Testament is the idea of will, of choice on the part of man, brought forward so repeatedly and with so great an emphasis. The history of man is taken up at that point when God's previous dealings with him have prepared him for the exercise of a choice in which his responsibility shall appear. How far this previous discipline is the result of absolute decree is not said; but the very fact that it is discipline implies that the result might have been other than it is. They in whom the Father's object is attained are those 'given' to the Son, and Judas, therefore, was not one so 'given.'

Ver. 13. But now I come to thee. These words are to be connected with what follows rather than with what precedes. The thought of His immediate departure leads Jesus to pray that His disciples may be filled with a joy independent of His personal presencein themselves.'-The words 'these things I speak' refer to more than the fact that Jesus is at present praying-to more even than the actual petition at present on His lips. He has in view the substance of His prayer, continually taught by Him. His 'joy' was fulfilled in this, that the name of His Father had been given Him, that He realized the unity with His Father in which He stood. He had led the disciples to the consciousness that they too were in that name of the Father, and by that means the joy that was His had become theirsit was fulfilled' in them. 6 In answering this His prayer the Father will only be accomplishing His own plan, and securing His own glory through the glorification of the disciples in the Son. In the world' does not mean merely upon earth,' but in the midst of the efforts of the world to defeat the purpose of Jesus.

Ver. 14. The prayer for preservation is over: our Lord now speaks of the work of His disciples in the world. In ver. 8 He had said the words (or sayings) which Thou gavest me I have given them,' and the statement had been immediately followed by a declaration of their personal faith. Here He says: 'I have given them Thy word,' and the statement is followed by a declaration that the world hated them. We see at once the advance of thought. The disciples have received the Father's word for utterance; and, as a natural consequence, the