JOHN xvii.11-28.

The man who has been fed with the |bread of life| must remain |in the world.| The Lord gives no countenance to the life of the ascetic. Our sanctification is not to be gained by withdrawal and retreat. At the best, that would be a holiness sickly and anaemic, a coddled virtue devoid of firm muscle and iron nerve. Our Lord purposes a holiness which shall wear white robes in the streets, and shine like virgin snow in the market, and keep itself chivalrous and stately in the common fellowships of men.

|In the world,| but |not of the world.| The man who is fed on |the bread of life| is endowed with powers of resistance against |the noisome pestilence.| The germs of worldly epidemics find no nutriment in him. |The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.| When an evil microbe finds no foothold it withers away. If I am not |of the world| I shall quite naturally and instinctively be able to resist |all the wiles of the devil.|

And my Lord purposes me to have this positive, masculine holiness in order |that the world may believe.| He wants disciples who will arrest the world by their glorious health, and by their invincible moral defences. He wants my purity to advertise His grace; He wants my faith to increase |the household of the faith.|