SHEEP AMONG WOLVES

'If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated
you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but
because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I
said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have
kept My saying, they will keep yours also.'--JOHN xv. 18-20.

These words strike a discord in the midst of the sweet music to which
we have been listening. The key-note of all that has preceded has
been love--the love of Christ's friends to one another, and of all to
Him, as an answer to His love to all. That love, which is one,
whether it rise to Him or is diffused on the level of earth, is the
result of that unity of life between the Vine and the branches, of
which our Lord has been speaking such great and wonderful things. But
that unity of life between Christians and Christ has another
consequence than the spread of love. Just because it binds them to
Him in a sacred community, it separates them from those who do not
share in His life, and hence the 'hate' of our context is the shadow
of 'love'; and there result two communities--to use the much-abused
words that designate them--the Church and 'the World'; and the
antagonism between these is deep, fundamental, and perpetual.

Unquestionably, our Lord is here speaking with special reference to
the Apostles, who, in a very tragic sense, were 'sent forth as sheep