appreciate their sublimity, we must think away nineteen centuries,
and all Christendom, and recall these eleven poor men and their
peasant Leader in the upper room. They were not very wise, nor very
strong, and outside these four walls there was scarcely a creature in
the whole world that had the least belief either in Him or in them.
They had everything against them, and most of all their own hearts.
They had nothing for them but their Master's promise. Their eyes had
been dimmed by their sorrowful hearts, so that they could not see the
truth which He had been trying to reveal to them; and His departure
had presented itself to them only as it affected themselves, and
therefore had brought a sense of loss and desolation.

And now He bids them think of that departure, as it affects
themselves, as pure gain. 'It is for your profit that I go away.' He
explains that staggering statement by the thought which He has
already presented to them, in varying aspects, of His departure as
the occasion for the coming of that Great Comforter, who, when He is
come, will through them work upon the world, which knows neither them
nor Him. They are to go forth 'as sheep in the midst of wolves,' but
in this promise He tells them that they will become the judges and
accusers of the world, which, by the Spirit dwelling in them, they
will be able to overcome, and convict of error and of fault.

We must remember that the whole purpose of the words which we are
considering now is the strengthening of the disciples in their
conflict with the world, and that, therefore, the operations of that
divine Spirit which are here spoken of are operations carried on by
their instrumentality and through the word which they spake. With
that explanation we can consider the great words before us.