are expressed by different words in the Greek. Our English word 'ask'
means two things, either to question or to request; to ask in the
sense of interrogating, in order to get information and teaching, or
in the sense of beseeching, in order to get gifts. In the former
sense the word is employed in the first clause of my text, with
distinct reference to the disciples' desire, a moment or two before,
to ask Him a very foolish question; and in the second sense it is
employed in the central portion of my text.

So, then, there are three things here as the marks of the Christian
life all through the ages: the cessation of the ignorant questions
addressed to a present Christ; the satisfaction of desires; and the
perfecting of joy. These are the characteristics of a true Christian
life. My brother, are they in any degree the characteristics of
yours?

I. Note then, first, the end of questionings.

'In that day ye shall ask Me nothing,' and do not you think that when
the disciples heard that, they would be tempted to say, 'Then what in
all the world are we to do?' To them the thought that He was not to
be at their sides any longer, for them to go to with their
difficulties, must have seemed despair rather than advance; but in
Christ's eyes it was progress. He tells them and us that we gain by
losing Him, and are better off than they were, precisely because He
does not any longer stand at our sides for us to question. It is
better for a boy to puzzle out the meaning of a Latin book by his own
brains and the help of a dictionary than it is lazily to use an
interlinear translation. And, though we do not always feel it, and
are often tempted to think how blessed it would be if we had an