John 1

John 1:3

The World That Jesus Made All things were made by him—John 1:3.This looks a very easy text. There are only six words in it and the longest one is only six letters. Even the tiniest person here could learn it in a few minutes. But sometimes the texts that look the simplest are the hardest to understand, so I want you to do a bit of thinking with me this morning.What does this text really mean? Well, we shall get at its real meaning better if we put the word “through” in the place of “by.” Now let us read it again that way, “All things were made through him.” But who is the “him” through whom all things were made? If you look at the first verse of the chapter you will see that it is someone whom St.

John calls “the Word.” So let us read our text again and put in “the Word” instead of “him,” and now we have—“All things were made through the Word.”But still we have to ask, Who is “the Word”? And that is the most difficult question to answer, and the most difficult answer to understand.

I think you will understand it if I put it in this way. “The Word” is a name given to Jesus before He came to earth at all, when He lived with God from all eternity. So our text reads now, “All things were made through Jesus Christ and that just means that Jesus was God’s agent in making the world. God worked through Jesus. Jesus had something to do with the creating of every tiny speck or atom. “Without Him was not anything [not one single tiny thing] made that hath been made.”And so you see this is Jesus’ world as well as God’s, and I want you to remember that always and look at the world always in that way.Will you think about three kinds of things that Jesus helped God to make?1. First He helped to make the world of Nature. It was through Him that God made the grand old hills, the blue sky, and the glorious sea.

It was through Him that God made the sun to shine by day and the stars to twinkle so merrily by night. It was through Him that God made the trees to give us shade, the grass to form a nice soft carpet for our feet, the corn to feed us, the flowers to make us glad.There is nothing that God made and Jesus helped to make that is not wonderful and beautiful.

Sometimes we hear of clever engineers inventing some wonderful new piece of machinery, but nothing that has ever been invented is half so marvelous as just a little wayside flower, and nobody but a God of love could have made it so perfect and so beautiful.So when you look at anything beautiful in Nature, I want you to think, “That is just another proof of God’s love to us in Christ Jesus.” For Nature has a great secret which she is telling every day to those who have ears to hear. The birds sing it, the brooks chant it, the summer winds in the trees whisper it— God is love. Are you listening to the secret?2. Again, Jesus helped to make the animal world. And so when you hurt or torment any animal you are really hurting Jesus, for He loves all the creatures He has helped to make.There is a beautiful story about Jesus which was found in an old document. It tells how Christ and His disciples were once crossing some mountains when they came upon a man with a pack mule.

The path was steep, the mule was heavily laden and had fallen down under its burden. The owner was beating it unmercifully till it bled.

Jesus stopped and asked the man if he did not see that the creature was suffering and that its burden was too heavy for it. But the man replied that he had paid a good price for the mule, and he could do what he liked with his own. The disciples also affirmed that he had paid well for the beast. Then Jesus asked them if they did not hear its cries, but their ears were deaf to the cries of the suffering animal. So Christ came and touched the animal and healed its sore wounds. And He sent the man on his way with the words, “Now go on, and beat it no more, that you also may find mercy.”So Jesus cares for the sufferings of a mule; yes, He cares for the sufferings of a cat, or a sparrow, or even a fly.

And when we allow ourselves to torment any of His creatures, no matter how humble they may be, we are giving way to the lowest bit of our nature, the bit least like Jesus, and we are hurting Him more than we can tell.3. Once more, Jesus helped to make the world of men and women and boys and girls.

God made us through Jesus Christ, so we ought to respect ourselves and be worthy of our Maker. God took infinitely more pains to make us than He did to make the hills and the trees and the fields, the animals and the birds. He made us in His own image, like Himself.But we have all been foolish. We have allowed sin to mar that beautiful image until sometimes it is impossible to recognize in it the likeness of the Maker. We have all spoiled it to some degree—some of us more, some of us less—and nothing we can do will ever restore it to its beauty and perfection. Then how are we to get it put right again?

There is just one way. If God made us through Jesus then it is only through Him that He can remake us, only through Him that He can undo all the harm we have done, wash away all the stains and make the ugly places beautiful again.

Are you going to be content to keep your image stained and marred, or are you going to let Jesus make it beautiful again?

John 1:6

A True Hero There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.— John 1:6.The house into which this great man of the Bible was born reminds one of the homes of some of the great men of Scotland. There was a famous writer and thinker of last generation of whom I am sure many of you have heard. His name was Carlyle. I thought of him as I read about Zacharias and Elisabeth, the father and mother of John. I think this was because Carlyle grew up under a father and mother who, like those two good people, were always very much in earnest about things. He often heard them speaking about God, and as he looked upon his father with great reverence, and upon his mother with love, he kept constantly thinking of what they said.

When he grew up, he felt that he had a message for the world; and he really had. But it was neither such a beautiful nor such a solemn message as the one John the Baptist brought from his home in the hill-country of Judaea.John’s father was an old priest, and you know that his mother’s name was Elisabeth.

They were very good people, and they had a happy home; but for a long time there was no sound of a child’s voice in it.Like all Eastern parents, they longed with a great longing for a baby boy, and they kept praying earnestly that God would send them one. At last there came a message to Zacharias by the angel of the Lord: “Thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” And the angel added, “Your boy will be a great man; he will help to make the world better, and prepare the way for the Messiah.”When the baby came, the kinsfolk and neighbors of the old couple gathered together and rejoiced over God’s goodness to them. I daresay some of you have been at christening parties where there was laughing and singing. Those good people of long ago were happy over this baby, but it was with a solemn sort of joy. If they had music at their gathering, it would be the chanting of psalms. God and His worship was the one thing in their minds.In the Bible there is a great deal said about the birth of John the Baptist.

Then we hear nothing further of him until he is a man, living in the wilderness of Judaea. He did not live exactly like a hermit, but he led a very simple life far away from the town.

He constantly thought about the promises of God to his people of which he had heard so much at home. When he was thirty years of age “the word of God came” to him, and he felt he could not keep silence. Away he went to give his message to the people. What preaching John’s was! The fame of it attracted great crowds. There was a revival; every one was asking his neighbor, “Have you heard the preacher?I am going to be baptized—and so am I—and so am I.” It was a wonderful movement. What did he preach about, do you think? It was about sin, its punishment, and its forgiveness.

His great cry was “Repent!”Meanwhile Jesus had been working away in the workshop at Nazareth. But a day came when He offered Himself to John for baptism. Then John realized that he was in the presence of his Master. His appearance, His answers—everything made the Baptist feel that Jesus, and no other, was God’s beloved Son, come to deliver men from sin. John at once stood aside in the work. “I was but His forerunner,” he said—“the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”Many of John’s followers and admirers left him to follow Christ. The crowds who had hung on his preaching dwindled away.

They preferred the gentle words of Jesus to the prophet’s stern cry of “Repent!”Those who are always ready to repeat unpleasant things came and told John of the success of the wonderful new Teacher, hoping no doubt to see the Baptist’s eyes flash in jealous anger. But they got a sad disappointment.

All he said was something like this: “Jesus is greater than I. God has given Him greater gifts. It is only right that men should follow Him. He must increase, but I must decrease.”John’s answer was noble, so noble that a famous preacher has said, “I would rather have had the grace from God to say that than have been the greatest man ever born.”You know how it is with yourselves, boys and girls. If you are specially good at essays and another pupil in your class is not good at essays but bad at math—that’s all right. But suppose you have been praised for your essays every week till you are in danger of swelled head, and you think nobody can write essays like yourself.

And suppose, one day, a new pupil arrives on the scene, and the following week the new pupil’s essay is praised and read aloud to the class and nothing is said about yours. And suppose this goes on week after week.

How do you feel then? If you can say, like John the Baptist, “I truly rejoice in that boy’s or that girl’s success,” then you are worth knowing, and I should be proud to shake hands with you.Yes, John did a noble thing when he rejoiced in Christ’s advancement. How did he do it? If we find out his secret perhaps we shall be able to copy his example. I’ll tell you how he did it. He did it by thinking so much of Christ that he quite forgot himself. That is the best and surest cure for the small or jealous feelings that attack us as we go through life. If you forget yourself completely, how can you possibly think of yourself at the same time?

And jealousy, like many other horrid feelings, just springs from thinking too much about oneself.Once a young singer was going to appear at an important concert. She had a beautiful voice and she knew her song perfectly, but, as the concert day drew near, she found herself getting more and more nervous. She happened to mention this to a friend.“What are you singing?” he asked.“Gounod’s The King of Love” she replied.“Ah!” said he, “that is a very beautiful song! I’ll tell you how to sing it. Forget yourself. Think of your song and the good it may do. There may be someone in the hall whom that song will help. And think of Christ.

He too is listening. You are singing for Him.”That was good advice, the very best anybody could give or take. Think of others, boys and girls. Think, above all, of Christ. Then thought of self will vanish quite away. And you, even you too, will be worthy to take a place near the hero of today’s sermon. You will be imitators of John the Baptist.

John 1:38

The Greatest Discovery What seek ye?—John 1:38.How often do you hear people say, when you are turning everything in the house upside down, “What are you looking for?” Generally it is only a ball or cell phone that you are searching for, because you did not put it away in its proper place. Possibly you are not so blunt as the little girl who replied, “A spanking, I believe.”Now, if it is not something you have lost, there is a great pleasure in hunting for things, and a still greater in discovering them. Whether it is birds, or plants, or butterflies, or stamps, or picture post-cards, there is joy in seeking and finding.Perhaps some of you are more ambitious. What you would really like to do is to go on a voyage of discovery, and find something quite new, a new island for instance, since all the continents have been picked up already. Or, possibly, a gold mine, or a river which could be called by your name. Well, perhaps you may.

All the discoveries have by no means been made. There are still parts of the world almost unexplored—such as the Antarctic regions, or the center of the great continents.

There are fine fields still in Africa,and Australia, and Asia. There are rivers yet to trace, mountains to measure, oceans to chart, and new forms of living creatures to discover. Then there are wonderful secrets waiting to be found out in mechanics and chemistry. We want to discover a new fuel to use when our coal is exhausted, and some way of making ships unsinkable, and a host of other things.All these discoveries are waiting for the young people now growing up, but they will not be made by accident. Columbus found America by going to look for it, and the answers to these problems will be found by those who seek diligently for them.There is a story about an old Greek philosopher that he went about the city with a lighted lantern in the daytime, and when he was asked what he was looking for, he said, “I am seeking a many You see what he meant. There were plenty of men there, of course, but to find a man worth calling a man among them was not so easy.

He had to be hunted for carefully.A man is a fine thing to discover, but there is a still greater discovery, which each of you must make for himself. There was a famous doctor in Edinburgh, called Sir James Simpson, who discovered chloroform.

You know what chloroform is. It sends people into a nice sleep while the doctor is operating on them, and they don’t feel that he is hurting them one bit. It has saved thousands of lives, and it is one of the greatest discoveries ever made in medicine. Yet, when Sir James Simpson was asked what he considered his greatest discovery, he said, “The greatest discovery I ever made was that Jesus Christ was my Savior.”Boys and girls, discover what you like, but do not omit that greatest discovery. No other discovery is to be compared with it. Suppose it were possible for one person to make all the discoveries that are to be made in the world, and suppose you were that person and had made them all.

What then? Though these discoveries had brought you both wealth and fame, you would be nothing but a poor miserable creature if you had not made the greatest discovery of all.Set out today to seek Christ.

He is not hard to find. He has been seeking you since the day you came into the world. Every day He is knocking, knocking at the door of your heart. But He can’t get farther until you open the door. Yes, that is all the distance you have to go to find Him—just to the door of your heart. Then open that door this morning, and let the Savior in.

John 1:39

Two Invitations Come, and ye shall see—John 1:39.Come and see—John 1:46.I want to speak today about seeing things for yourself. Whether is it nicer to see a thing for yourself or just to hear about it? Well I think you will all agree with me that it is much more satisfactory to see it for yourself.Just suppose a circus came to your neighborhood and some of your school friends went to see it, and came back and told you all about it. It would be very interesting to hear about all the funny things the clown did, and the wonderful feats the “strong man” performed, and the clever way in which lovely ladies rode on beautiful horses; but would that be as good as going to the circus and seeing them for yourself? Not a bit of it! If you went you would know about them in quite a different way.

You would see them, not through other people’s eyes, but with your own.Or suppose your big brother went to London and came back and told you about the grand sights he had seen—the Tower, and the Houses of Parliament, andWestminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s, not to speak of the crowds of people, and the splendid shops, and the beautiful parks, and the Zoo—would you rather just hear about them all from him, or go to see them for yourself?

Why, you haven’t a scrap of doubt as to which would be best.Now it isn’t always possible to go and see for ourselves. Sometimes we have to be content with hearing about things, but there are some things we are all invited to go and see, and they are some of the best things.In the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel there are two invitations to come and see. They were both accepted, and the people who accepted them found the very best thing in the world.The first invitation was given by Jesus. You remember how He was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The next day John was standing with two of his disciples—Andrew and John—when Jesus went past, and the Baptist exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Immediately the two disciples followed Jesus.

And when Jesus saw them following, He turned and asked, “What seek ye?” They replied, “Master, where abidest thou?” And He said, “Come, and ye shall see." So they went with Him and stayed with Him that day. They went and saw for themselves, they talked with Jesus, they got to know Him, and afterwards Andrew went and told his brother Simon, “We have found the Christ.”The other invitation was given by Philip to his friend Nathanael.

Philip had just become a disciple of Jesus, and he went straight to tell his friend that he had found in Jesus of Nazareth the wonderful Savior whose coming Moses and the prophets had foretold. But when Nathanael heard the word “Nazareth” he was very doubtful. “Could any good thing come out of Nazareth?” he asked, “out of Nazareth, that little country town where the people had such rough manners! Besides, had it not been prophesied that the Messiah should be born in Bethlehem? How came He to be living in Nazareth?” Philip did not stop to argue. He just said, “Come and see.” So Nathanael went with him, and before Jesus had spoken many words to him, he knew that Philip was right; and very reverently he said, “Thou art the Son of God.”So the two stories are much alike. “Come and see.” They came and saw, and they found Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.Jesus is still giving that invitation to everybody— “Come and see.” “Come and find out all you want to know about Me. Come and let Me bear your burdens.

Come and let Me carry you in My arms, safe from all dangers, as I used to carry the little children when I was on earth.” You have heard about Him from your parents and your minister and your teacher, but that isn’t enough. You must go and see Him for yourself.And how are you to come?

Well, you haven’t far to go, for Jesus is just beside you—very, very near to you. He is waiting for you to come, and all you have to do is just to put your hand in His, and let Him lead you. He will show you all His love and all His goodness, and at last He will take you home to the happy place He has prepared for you, where you will see Him face to face.

John 1:42

Rock People Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone.—John 1:42 (AV).Today we are going to have a talk about rocks and rock people.Did you know that there was a man in the Bible whose name just means “a rock”? That man was Peter. His real name was Simon, but Jesus called him “Peter,” the “rock man.” Those of you who are learning French know that “pierre” is the word for “a stone” and that it is also the French form of our name “Peter.”But perhaps you will say that there is no mention of Peter in our text. Oh yes, there is. Jesus spoke a language called Aramaic. And “Cephas” is just the Aramaic word for “Peter.”Peter was the “rock man” among the disciples, but he was not a bit like a rock when Christ first met him.

No, he was rash, and hot-headed, and impulsive, and unreliable. That was what all his friends had found him; but Jesus looked on him, He gazed right into his heart, and He saw there the kind of man Simon could be, and would be; and He said, “Thou shalt be called Cephas: thou shalt be a rock.”The thing we all seem to remember best about Peter is how he denied Christ, and we think he was not very like a rock then.

No, Peter had not quite grown into a rock then, but he was fast growing, and I think when Jesus looked on him and Peter went out and wept bitterly that look of Jesus was one of the big last things that firmed him into the splendid rock he became.If you want to see Peter as the “rock man” you must look into the Acts of the Apostles. There you will find him bravely facing the Jewish Council who had been the means of getting Jesus put to death, boldly declaring himself to be a disciple of that same Jesus whom they had slain. You will find him ready to be spokesman for the other disciples, ready to go to prison, and, if need be, to death, for Jesus’ sake.Now Jesus had need of rock men in Simon’s time, and He has need of rock men today. What does it mean to be a rock? What are the things that specially strike you about a rock, the things that we should copy?1. The first thing that strikes you is that a rock is a very firm thing.

Rock people should be firm. Those of you who have been to the seaside know how firm a rock is.

When you are digging in the sand your spade strikes something hard. You kneel down and try to pull it out, thinking it is just an ordinary stone. You pull and pull, but it won’t move. Why? Because it is not a stone at all; it is a rock with its foundations far, far down.There is one way especially in which we should be firm. And that is by being decided. It is a great thing to know your own mind.There is a man in one of Dickens’s novels who would never give his opinion about anything. When people asked him what he thought, he always referred them to his wife. “Ask her,” he would say, “ask Mrs.

Bagnet; she knows my opinion. Tell ’em, my dear, what I think.” Wouldn’t it be funny if we all went about saying that sort of thing? And yet there are quite a number of people in the world like Mr. Bagnet. They don’t seem to have any mind of their own, or the mind they do have is being carried about in other people’s pockets. They cannot decide the smallest thing without consulting somebody. Of course, I don’t mean to say that we should never consult other people. There are times when we must decide big things, and then it is well to have the advice of someone older and wiser than ourselves.

But it is good to be independent about the little things. People who don’t know their own mind are a great bother to their friends, and they are very apt to go with the crowd, whether the crowd be right or wrong.2. There is another thing which strikes you about a rock, and that is its strength. Rock people should be strong.I suppose all boys want to be strong, and it is a fine thing to see a big, erect, well-developed boy with firm muscles, but it is a finer thing to see a straight, clean, manly boy—a boy who is not ashamed to speak the truth, or look you in the face.Those who are strong themselves are a support to others. Peter was the one among the disciples who took the stand for the rest. They must have felt that he was a man they could lean upon—a kind of tower of strength.

You, too, may be a tower of strength—a help to those who are weak and easily tempted, and who cannot stand by themselves.During the years 1883-85 a young man named Cyril Digby Buxton played cricket for the University of Cambridge. He was a splendid all-round athlete both at Harrow and at Cambridge.

As boy and man he was a tower of strength to his fellows. Cyril Buxton died in his twenty-sixth year. Among his papers was found this letter which had been written to him by a school-fellow when he left Harrow at the age of eighteen or nineteen:“I couldn’t bear saying good-bye to you, old chap, the other day, perhaps for so long, but I hope not. You have been the best friend I ever had, Cyril, and the only one I love as much as my own brother—and even more. I wonder if you noticed any change in me since we came to know each other. It was from knowing you that I came to see how worthless some fellows are.

You were always so unselfish and straightforward in everything; and you made me feel that I was exactly the contrary, and that you couldn’t care for me at all unless I improved a bit. So you have done me more good than you can imagine, and I am very thankful to you for it.“Now, Cyril, please forgive this rot and don’t think me a fool or a hypocrite, for I really mean what I say, and I am one of those chaps who cannot keep their feelings to themselves.”3.

One other thing strikes you about a rock, and that is its steadfastness and lastingness. Rock people should be steadfast and enduring.If you go to the seashore you will find that the sand changes with every tide. The sandy shore takes on new shapes, new marks, with each tide that ebbs and flows. But the rocks remain the same. The water may cover them, but when it recedes they are still in the same place. The sand may wash over them, but if you scrape it off they are still the same shape.Now there are some people like sand.

So long as everything goes well, they are all right, but when the tides of trouble or temptation come sweeping over them, they are washed about hither and thither.At the battle of Waterloo a messenger came to the Duke of Wellington and told him that a certain regiment would be driven back if left unsupported. “Stand firm!” replied the Duke. “But we shall all be killed,” said the messenger. “Stand firm!” repeated the Duke. The messenger saluted. “You will find us there,” he said.

And so he did; but every man was dead at the post of duty.Boys and girls, can we stand firm at the post of duty, firm in the face of temptation, firm to the very end? There is only one way we can do it—by taking fast hold of the Rock of Ages who stands steadfast and unchangeable through all time.Just one word more. In the Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul is speaking of James and Peter and John, and he says that they were “reputed to be pillars” in the Church. Peter was a rough rock, but he came to be a beautiful, polished pillar on whom others leant. And Christ can do the same for you and for me. He can take us—all weak and unstable as we are—and He can change us into strong, steadfast rocks; and then He can smooth away all the ugly rough corners, and shape us into beautiful pillars fit for His heavenly Kingdom,

John 1:46

Two Invitations Come, and ye shall see—John 1:39.Come and see—John 1:46.I want to speak today about seeing things for yourself. Whether is it nicer to see a thing for yourself or just to hear about it? Well I think you will all agree with me that it is much more satisfactory to see it for yourself.Just suppose a circus came to your neighborhood and some of your school friends went to see it, and came back and told you all about it. It would be very interesting to hear about all the funny things the clown did, and the wonderful feats the “strong man” performed, and the clever way in which lovely ladies rode on beautiful horses; but would that be as good as going to the circus and seeing them for yourself? Not a bit of it! If you went you would know about them in quite a different way.

You would see them, not through other people’s eyes, but with your own.Or suppose your big brother went to London and came back and told you about the grand sights he had seen—the Tower, and the Houses of Parliament, andWestminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s, not to speak of the crowds of people, and the splendid shops, and the beautiful parks, and the Zoo—would you rather just hear about them all from him, or go to see them for yourself?

Why, you haven’t a scrap of doubt as to which would be best.Now it isn’t always possible to go and see for ourselves. Sometimes we have to be content with hearing about things, but there are some things we are all invited to go and see, and they are some of the best things.In the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel there are two invitations to come and see. They were both accepted, and the people who accepted them found the very best thing in the world.The first invitation was given by Jesus. You remember how He was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The next day John was standing with two of his disciples—Andrew and John—when Jesus went past, and the Baptist exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Immediately the two disciples followed Jesus.

And when Jesus saw them following, He turned and asked, “What seek ye?” They replied, “Master, where abidest thou?” And He said, “Come, and ye shall see." So they went with Him and stayed with Him that day. They went and saw for themselves, they talked with Jesus, they got to know Him, and afterwards Andrew went and told his brother Simon, “We have found the Christ.”The other invitation was given by Philip to his friend Nathanael.

Philip had just become a disciple of Jesus, and he went straight to tell his friend that he had found in Jesus of Nazareth the wonderful Savior whose coming Moses and the prophets had foretold. But when Nathanael heard the word “Nazareth” he was very doubtful. “Could any good thing come out of Nazareth?” he asked, “out of Nazareth, that little country town where the people had such rough manners! Besides, had it not been prophesied that the Messiah should be born in Bethlehem? How came He to be living in Nazareth?” Philip did not stop to argue. He just said, “Come and see.” So Nathanael went with him, and before Jesus had spoken many words to him, he knew that Philip was right; and very reverently he said, “Thou art the Son of God.”So the two stories are much alike. “Come and see.” They came and saw, and they found Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.Jesus is still giving that invitation to everybody— “Come and see.” “Come and find out all you want to know about Me. Come and let Me bear your burdens.

Come and let Me carry you in My arms, safe from all dangers, as I used to carry the little children when I was on earth.” You have heard about Him from your parents and your minister and your teacher, but that isn’t enough. You must go and see Him for yourself.And how are you to come?

Well, you haven’t far to go, for Jesus is just beside you—very, very near to you. He is waiting for you to come, and all you have to do is just to put your hand in His, and let Him lead you. He will show you all His love and all His goodness, and at last He will take you home to the happy place He has prepared for you, where you will see Him face to face.

John 1:47

Without Guile Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!—John 1:47.Many of you boys and girls have a baby brother or sister. Do you sometimes wonder what they think about? They are taking in the sights that are round about them; the world seems to them just a place to play in. If they be well, they are ready to have everybody round them as playmates. There are no dark corners in their mind; they are what old Scotch people used to call “ae fauld,” or one-fold—without guile.In Nathanael we are introduced to a grown man who was like a child: he had no dark corners in his mind; he was “ae fauld,” he was without guile. I can remember that when I was a child a very old man was pointed out to me. “That,” said my mother, “is a real Nathanael.” I thought of him then as one who was very, very good, and would think no evil of anyone.Very little is told us of Nathanael in the Bible.

We have only a few lines about him; but they are sufficient to set us thinking. Jesus had wonderful words of praise to bestow upon him. “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” He had been watching Nathanael at a time when he did not know that anyone was looking: he was meditating and praying under a fig tree.Nathanael doubtless had faults, but Jesus loved him.

He may not have been a great man; but it is the case that great men who are good are always guileless, and Nathanael was good. It was said of Gladstone, the great statesman, that he was the most guileless of men. He was as “ae fauld” as a baby. Deep down within him was the heart of a little child.Guilelessness is the first step towards being good; it is the first step towards being really happy. “No,” said a boy, “a lie is never right, for you are always found out, and you almost never feel half as well after it.”That answer reminds me of Mrs. Ewing’s story Jackanapes, and of Jackanapes himself. Jackanapes had a grandfather who loved him very much. One day he bought a pony for Jackanapes, and the old man wanted a little love from the boy in return. I shall read you a page from Mrs.

Ewing’s story.They were sitting in the window in two Chippendale arm-chairs, the General devouring every line of his grandson’s face.“You must love your aunt very much, Jackanapes?”“I do, sir,” said Jackanapes warmly.“And whom do you love next best to your aunt?”The ties of blood were pressing very strongly on the General himself, and perhaps he thought of Lollo, the pony. But Love is not bought in a day, even a lot of money. Jackanapes answered quite readily, “The Postman.”Nobody could help loving Jackanapes; he was without guile.Boys and girls, if you are to grow up good men and women, truth is the one thing needful. Our nation needs those who are true and good. More than once I have heard a mother say, “My boy has never given me a moment’s anxiety.” She knew he was without guile. Remember that although Jesus Christ was the friend of those who had done wrong and were sorry for it, He hated guile.Would you like to know more about Nathanael?It is supposed that he became one of the twelve disciples and that Bartholomew, of whom Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak, was the same man.

Bartholomew means just “son of Talmai,” and Nathanael’s full name may have been “Nathanael, the son of Talmai.” So the man without guile most likely became a constant follower of the great Master.We hear of Nathanael again in the very last chapter of John’s Gospel. There we are told that he was one of the seven to whom Christ appeared after the Resurrection.

He was one of those who in despair went a-fishing on the Lake of Galilee, hoping thus to dull the ache of their sorrow. And you remember how, when they returned still sad in the morning, they found Christ waiting for them on the shore.Tradition tells us that Nathanael followed Christ to the end of his days. He became a great missionary and travelled here and there telling people the story of Jesus. And at the last he is said to have laid down his life in his Master’s cause.Boys and girls, it is easy for those who are guileless to follow Christ and become His friends. What about yourselves? Will you not strive to have the single heart that loves and follows truth, that loves and follows Christ now and for evermore?