sorest test, that betrayal-night test. Judas betrayed; Peter denied; the
nine fled in terror down the road to save their cowardly lives; John
went in "_with_ Jesus." That fiery nature of his, that early won for him
the stormy name "son of thunder," came completely under the sway of this
holier tenderer stronger flame, and burned itself out in a passion of
love for Jesus.

The Jesus-passion swayed John completely. This explains the man, and his
career. It explains this little book of his ripe old age. And only this
can. One must read the book through John's own heart, then he begins to
understand it. This Jesus-passioned man is the key to the book, the
human key.

And the distinctive message of the book is simply this: _Jesus was God
on a wooing errand to the earth_. That simple sentence covers fully all
that is found in John's twenty-one chapters. Every line in these
fourteen or fifteen pages can be traced back into that brief statement.

Indeed this becomes an outline of the book. See: in the opening
paragraphs the wooing Lover is coming down to earth.[2] In the first
twelve chapters the Lover is pleading winsomely and earnestly for
acceptance.[3] Then He is seen in closest touch with the inner group of
those who have accepted, opening His heart yet more, wooing still
closer.[4] Then comes the last tragic pleading, pleading in intensest
action, with those who persist in rejecting.[5] And then the last close
heart-touches with the inner circle.[6]



The Water-Mark of John's Gospel.