The Dividing Point
E. E. Jenkins. John 6:66-69 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.… In the state of Ohio there is a courthouse that stands in such a way that the raindrops that fall on the north side go into Lake Ontario at the Gulf of St. Laurence, while those that fall on the south side go into the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Just a little puff of wind determines the destiny of a rain drop for two thousand miles. And how small apparently the influence which decides whether the current of our lives shall flow towards Christ or away from Him. Speculation and faith: — 1. The chief cause of declension in the Church is the pre-occupation of the mind with an imaginary Christ. This narrative teaches us that a miracle is no match for a pre-determined judgment. These men believed on Christ because they saw His miracles, and they framed in their minds a conception of what that Messiahship should mean; but when they found that Christ's conception differed from theirs, in spite of the miracles, they re. jected Him. They could not understand a Messianic empire over the hearts of men. 2. But they ought to have understood something; that the position of Christ would invest Him with mystery, and that His teaching would be original, and that His disciples should have no pre-occupations and be able to distinguish between statement and parable, and that Jesus required childlike honesty and docility in his hearers. 3. The chief disputants on this occasion were leading Jews striving to turn the current of popular favour from Jesus. The declaration at which they affected to stumble was that of ver. 51. "How can this man," etc. (ver. 52), was the carnal reasoning of the adversaries. The Master's reply afforded no help, but rather otherwise (ver. 53). The disciples were silent, but these strange words shocked the men who had imagined that fellowship with Jesus would be a steppingstone to power (ver. 60). His explanation (denied to incorrigible adversaries)to them preserved a medium between the indulgence of curiosity and the repression of an honest desire to learn the truth (vers. 62-65). 4. These "went away" because no proof could touch them which threatened their anterior conception of Christ. Not miracle, nor the unique personal influence of Jews. 5. This picture of the force of a pre-judgment inspired by passion will guide the Christian Student in interpreting modern unbelief. Science is supposed to have no prejudgments; but then it affirms that a miracle is inconceivable, and therefore no testimony can make the record of a miracle credible. What is this but a prejudgment I And since Christianity is based upon the resurrection of Christ, then, according to this, it is logically a fraud. Let us now consider — I. THE APPEAL OF CHRIST. 1. It should be regarded as an appeal when the Church is surrounded by an unstable mood of thought concerning Christ. 2. This mood is highly dangerous and brings death with noiseless footsteps, and its ravages are seen, when, in connection with some sentiment of passion or selfishness, it puts back the faith or destroys it; and it is answerable for the loss to Christ of thousands of our youth, and the wide failure of initial steps of Christian profession. 3. It may be traced in modern secular literature when the writer simply refers to a Christian doctrine or fact, indicating no bias whatever, so different to those firm strokes which fifty years ago showed us if the public mind was pervaded by an impression of the Divine authority of the Scriptures. 4. Not that this necessarily threatens an unusual reverse to the Christian faith, but everything depends upon the way in which this unstable mood is dealt with during the next fifty years. 5. The appeal of Jesus is intended to bring into conspicuous contrast the immovable form of the Rock of Ages. II. THE ANSWERING CONFESSION OF THE CHURCH. Are we prepared to drift? or to prosecute a new search? If Christ has failed to give us the words of eternal life, where shall we go to fro' them? 1. To some ancient religion? Thanks to modern research, the new science of comparative theology is now accessible to every one. The question is not whether the religious systems of India or China are not possessed of fine sentiment, but whether they can compete with Christianity. (1) What are they all but at best obscure impressions of mysteries which in Christianity are definitely proclaimed! (2) What have they done for the people I Instead of elevating the general mind, they have narrowed, impoverished and depraved it. Modern research therefore pronounces that the religion of the future must be the Christian or none. 2. To modern philosophy? (1) Where is its moral power to come from? (2) How is this moral power to be disseminated? With all its boasts, it is built upon an hypothesis which, as yet, has constructed no thing: whereas we have a faith which has been attested by the history of centuries, whose Divinity is verified this day by the only civilization which is living. (E. E. Jenkins.) Parallel Verses KJV: From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. WEB: At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.