Churchman, and Calvinist and Arminian, and Greek and Latin
Christians--all contribute to the hymn-book of every sect; and we all
sing their songs. So the divisions are like the surface cracks on a
dry field, and a few inches down there is continuity. As for the
difficulty of knowing what I am to believe and think about
controverted questions, no doubt there will remain many gaps in the
circle of our knowledge; no doubt there will be much left obscure and
unanswered; but if we will keep ourselves near the Master, and use
honestly and diligently the helps that He gives us--the outward help
in the Word, and the inward help in His teaching Spirit--we shall not
'walk in darkness,' but shall have light enough given to be to us
'the Light of Life.'

Brother, keep close to Christ, and Christ--present though absent--
will teach you.

II. Secondly, satisfied desires.

This second great promise of my text, introduced again by the solemn
affirmation, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you,' substantially appeared
in a former part of these discourses with a very significant
difference. 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do.' 'If
ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it.' There Christ
presented Himself as the Answerer of the petitions, because His more
immediate purpose was to set forth His going to the Father as His
elevation to a yet loftier position. Here, on the other hand, He sets
forth the Father as the Answerer of the petitions, because His
purpose is to point away from undue dependence on His own corporeal
presence. But the fact that He thus, as occasion requires,
substitutes the one form of speech for the other, and indifferently