The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 643

XXXVI. The

Apostolic Love. "

He hath

blinded their eyes and hard-

ened their hearts." —/oAn

xii. 40.

its most awful manifestaexponent not in Jeremiah, the stern preacher of repentance, nor in St. Paul, the logic confessor and witness of the divine sovereignty, but in St. John, the apostle of love. St. John knows men whom he designates as " children of the devil," who as

It

is

singular that the hardening, in

tion, finds its

such are the opposite of the children of God. Jesus had entered the holy city amid the hosannas of the enthusiastic multitudes.

All Jerusalem apparently

came out

to hail

Him. Even the resident Greeks asked for Him. It was the hour of triumph and glory. And yet, in the midst of this popular applause, Jesus knows that He is the " Man of Sorrows," and declares to His disciples that He is like the grain of wheat which, " except it fall into the ground and die, abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth

much

And what

Then He

fruit."

shall

cause came

I

I

say?

cried out

*' :

Now is My

soul troubled.

Me from this hour; but for this Father, glorify Thy name." And im-

Father, save

unto this hour.

mediately there came a voice from heaven, saying: "I have both glorified

Him

it

and

will glorify it again."

The people

that surrounded

had thundered, and others said that an angel had spoken to Him." It was one of the most solemn and impressive signs that ever have attended the preaching of the Word an event like that of Carmel a direct answer from heaven. Still under its impression, Jesus continues His words to the multitude, saying: " While ye have the light believe in the light, that ye may be the children of the light." And what was the answer.' Another hosanna like that when Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and which was honestly meant by some? Indeed not. When, instead of promising them that He would raise up the kingdom and "

thought that

it

—

;

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