XXIV.

THIRST FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.

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"Father, glorify thy name."-JOHN xii. 28.

HE "name" of God is any manifestation of God. The sacred writers call the titles, the inspired verbal descriptions of God, the wonderful deeds, and the renown of God, his name. And the words, "the

name of God," are sometimes used, not to denote the divine titles or descriptions of God, the works of God, or his renown, but God himself. This is the case in the passage before us; "Father, glorify thy name," signifies, Father, glorify thyself.'

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To glorify is to render conspicuous and illustrious. It is not only to make an object manifest, but to produce such a manifestation as shall attract attention, awaken reverence or admiration, create renown, and call forth praise. When a being glorifies himself, he shows himself, and so adapts the development as that others may see him, seeing, admire or honour him, and under the impulse of such emotions, speak well of his name.

"Father, glorify thy name," means, Manifest thyself, be seen, be heard, be felt, let thy power be displayed, let thy goodness be revealed, attract to thyself attention, create for thyself praise. But some may

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ask, Will not, must not God glorify his name?' We answer, Certainly; God of necessity will hallow his name; nor can we see the connexion between our prayer for the glory of God and God glorifying himself. This incapacity, however, is only our general inability to discover the meeting-point between all agencies and the Great Worker, between the purpose of God and the activity of man.

We will consider these words, first, as expressing the heart's desire of Jesus Christ; and, secondly, as representing the aspiration of all whom he saves and guides.

Our Lord Jesus Christ spake these words as a Son and a man, in the following circumstances. He had been looking steadfastly at his approaching agony and crucifixion, and he had spoken to his apostles upon this subject more plainly than heretofore. He has come to Jerusalem that he may be ready to be delivered into the hands of men, to be crucified. At the utmost it is within five days of his decease, and he is standing (it may be in the court of the Temple) with his disciples and some others gathered round him. Philip is in the company, and he is beckoned away, that he may speak to certain Greeks who are asking for him. Philip goes to them, and they say, "Sir, we would see Jesus." Philip returns and consults Andrew. They agree to tell Jesus. They do tell him, and Jesus, looking forward to the time when the world should ask for him, observes, "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified." Then, recurring to the cross which he must carry before he can wear

his crown, he remarks, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Thinking of his disciples, and of their share in his humiliation and suffering, he observes, “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." The thoughts of the Saviour revert to himself and to his immediate prospects, recalled, perhaps, by the fountains of sorrow within him being opened, and by a flood of trouble rising and overflowing his soul. He acknowledges his deep and poignant grief. "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? (Shall I say,) Father, save me from this hour? but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.”

There had been several crises in the life of Jesus Christ. The first occurred when he was but twelve years of age. The law of God required that all the male Jews, from twelve years old and upward, should appear three times a year in the Temple at Jerusalem.* And to the next occurring Passover, after Jesus Christ had completed his twelfth year, he was taken by his parents. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem, it has been observed, would be regarded by the Jewish boys as a pleasant holyday, full of the wonder of travel, the freshness of novelty, the pleasure of extended social intercourse, and the excitement of scenes and ceremonies peculiar to the paschal

* Deuteronomy xvi. 16.

season and to the holy city. The attraction to the son of Joseph was not, however, the hills that were round about Jerusalem, or the manner of stones and buildings which were enclosed in the city itself, or the gay and crowded street, neither the social entertainment, but that quiet spot in the Temple court where sacred history was recited, and divine prophecy explained. And so absorbed did the child Jesus become in converse with the learned in sacred lore, that the Nazareth caravan started without him, and he seems to have been aroused from his absorption by the expostulation, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." His reply intimates that he had expected to be set free from paternal restraint, and to follow a prophet's mission, while yet, like Jeremiah, only in his teens: "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" It is, however, revealed to him that he must continue as a child at Nazareth, and with deep meaning it is recorded, "He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them."* Judæa is more attractive than Galilee, and Jerusalem more interesting than Nazareth, and the scenes of the Temple more in unison with his spirit than the workshop, and the doctors more congenial companions than the Nazarenes, and the evolving of truth more in harmony with his spirit than agricultural carpentry, and the immediate entrance upon his mission more in accord with his conscious. power than delay; but if there were hesitation, it Luke ii. 48, 49, 51.

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was only for a moment; gracefully, as the moon falls back behind a cloud, silently and sweetly, as the star of the morning, still bright and beautiful, retires before the rising sun, so Jesus, having felt his spiritual power and realized his divine destiny, went back to the oblivion of Nazareth until the time of his showing unto Israel, saying in his cheerful retirement, I am willing to be concealed and unknown.' "Father, glorify thy name."

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Some eighteen years later Jesus Christ passed another crisis. What happened between these two crises we are all curious to know, but we have not been informed. Jesus has just been baptized by John, and God has rent the heavens and acknowledged him. The Spirit has descended upon him like a dove, and he is full of the Holy Ghost. is now led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and there tempted of the devil forty days. He is urged to relieve the hunger imposed on him for a season by the will of his Father, and to work a miracle for that relief. He is enticed to do homage to the Spirit of Evil, and universal temporal dominion is offered as a bribe. He is tempted to presume upon his own destiny, and upon the protection of divine providence, and for self-magnification to expose himself to useless danger. This was temptation, real trial, positive probation. He was tried as the sapling by the wind, and as the ship by the storm, and as the vessel of clay by the stroke of the potter, and as gold by fire. And the result shows that Jesus Christ was characterized by that perfection which consists in perfect love to God; for in the