then declared all that He had heard of the Father. But yet, in so far
as the unfolding of these was concerned, the tracing of their
consequences, the exhibition of their harmonies, the weaving of them
into an ordered whole in which a man's understanding could lodge,
there were many things yet to be said, which that handful of men were
not able to bear. And so our Lord Himself here declares that His
words spoken on earth are not His completed revelation.

Of course we find in them, as I believe, hints profound and pregnant,
which only need to be unfolded and smoothed out, as it were, and
their depths fathomed, in order to lead to all that is worthy of
being called Christian truth. But upon many points we cannot but
contrast the desultory, brief, obscure references which came from the
Master's lips with the more systematised, full, and accurate teaching
which came from the servants. The great crucial instance of all is
the comparative reticence which our Lord observed in reference to His
sacrificial death, and the atoning character of His sufferings for
the world. I do not admit that the silence of the Gospels upon that
subject is fairly represented when it is said to be absolute. I
believe that that silence has been exaggerated by those who have no
desire to accept that teaching. But the distinction is plain and
obvious, not to be ignored, rather to be marked as being fruitful of
blessed teaching, between the way in which Christ speaks about His
Cross, and the way in which the Apostles speak about it after
Pentecost.

What then? My text gives us the reason. 'You cannot bear them now.'
Now the word rendered 'bear' here does not mean 'bear' in the sense
of endure, or tolerate, or suffer, but 'bear' in the sense of carry.
And the metaphor is that of some weight--it may be gold, but still it