Our Lord praying with His disciples at the last.

This the climax of the prayer.

In the deep, scratching the ground, get a harvest.

Here the final word is love and union with “I.”

Lord, what a subject.

It will be noticed that the preacher’s subject is Christ and love dwelling in the human heart; the object is to induce those who have this love to appreciate it more highly, and all others to seek it. We give only the introduction and the third division (which is also the conclusion), together with a part of the first division, as the whole discourse is too long to be quoted here. It may be added that these notes and the development of these parts are fair specimens of the manner in which the great London preacher prepares and delivers his discourses.

Text.—I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith Thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them.—John xvii, 26.

“For several Sabbath mornings my mind has been directed into subjects which I might fitly call the deep things of God. I think I have never felt my own incompetence more fully than in trying to handle such subjects. It is a soil into which one may dig and dig as deep as ever you will, and still never exhaust the golden nuggets which lie within it. I am, however, comforted by this fact, that these subjects are so fruitful that even we who can only scratch the surface of them shall yet get a harvest from them. I read once of the plains of India that they were so fertile that you had only to tickle them with the hoe and they laughed with plenty; and surely such a text as this may be described as equally fruitful, even under our feeble husbandry. Pearls lie on the surface here as well as in the depth. We have only to search its surface, and stir the soil a little, and we shall be astonished at the plentitude of spiritual wealth which lies before us. Oh! that the Spirit of God may help us to enjoy the blessed truths which are herein set forth! Here is the priceless treasure, but it lies hid till He reveals it to us.

“You see, this text is taken out of our Lord’s last prayer with His disciples. He did as good as say, ‘I am about to leave you; I am about to die for you; and for a while you will not see me; but now, before we separate, let us pray.’ It is one of those impulses that you have felt yourselves. When you have been about to part from those you love, to leave them, perhaps, in danger and difficulty, you have felt you could do no less than say, ‘Let us draw nigh unto God.’ Your heart found no way of expressing itself at all so fitting, so congenial, so satisfactory, as to draw near unto the great Father and spread the case before Him. Now a prayer from such a one as Jesus, our Lord and Master—a prayer in such a company, with the eleven whom He had chosen, and who had consorted with Him from the beginning, a prayer under such circumstances, when He was just on the brink of the brook of Cedron, and was about to cross that gloomy stream and go up to Calvary, and there lay down His life—such a prayer as this; so living, earnest, loving, and divine, deserves the most studious meditations of all believers. I invite you to bring hither your best thoughts and skill for the navigation of this sea. It is not a creek or bay, but the main ocean itself. We cannot hope to fathom its depths. This is true of any sentence of this matchless prayer, but for me the work of exposition becomes unusually heavy, because my text is the close and climax of this marvelous supplication, it is the central mystery of all. In the lowest depth there is still a lower deep, and this verse is one of those deeps which still exceed the rest. Oh! how much we want the Spirit of God! Pray for His bedewing; pray that His balmy influences may descend upon us richly now.