JOHN XIII. 1-17.

"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour ---vas come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them until the end.

"And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son to betray Him; "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God;

"He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel end girded Himself.

"After that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.

"Then cometh He to Simon Peter ; and Peter saith unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?

"Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

"Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.

"Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

"Jesus saith unto Him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit; and ye are clean, but not all.

"For He knew who should betray Him; therefore said He, Ye are not all clean.

"So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

"Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

"If I then, your Lord and Master, have wished your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

"For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither He that is sent greater than He that sent Him.

"If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."

"The same night in which He was betrayed," Jesus engaged in two transactions of ever memorable interest, the ceremony above described, and the instituting of the "Lord's Supper." Each is of infinite importance in itself, and each, in its intent, is entirely distinct and separate from the other. The object of the latter was, and is, to render omni-present in thought our relations to Christ. "This is My body which is given for you." "This cup is the New Testament in My blood which is shed for you." The equally specific object of the former, on the other hand, is to elucidate and impress the duty of believers one toward another. "If I then, your Master and Lord, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." It is of great importance that, in reading this chapter, we should keep fully in view the distinct and separate meaning and intent of these two services, one of which is to be perpetually observed in the Church, while the other stands out as a finished service, a service the revealed spirit and meaning of which are to be received and copied by all believers in their relations, duties, and services, one toward another.

As preparatory to a full understanding and appreciation of these two services, we would remark that two truths the truths under consideration, stand out with the greatest conceivable prominence in all the teachings of our Saviour---the relations and responsibilities of believers to Himself; and their relative duties one toward another. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life"; "Abide in Me, and I in you"; "Without Me ye can do nothing"; "If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you"; and "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Equally abundant and explicit were His instructions and admonitions in regard to the relations and duties of believers one toward another; "Whosoever shall be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever will be the chiefest, shill be servant of all"; "For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many"; "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me"; "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward"; "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one towards another;" and "I have been among you as one that serveth."

This last class of duties the disciples were slow to learn. They entered the service of Christ with the distinct apprehension that their faith in Him was to be implicit, and their subjection to His will absolute. They expected from Him, however, the establishment of a worldly kingdom, in which there would be "thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers," and in which some would be greater than others, and the occupancy of the chiefest places became to these disciples objects of jealous desire. Up to the evening prior to the crucifixion, "there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest." This spirit essentially unfitted them for the kingdom and service to which they were called---a kingdom in which ambition, pride, and covetousness of place and position, were to be unknown, in which service constitutes greatness, and he that makes himself the least of all and the servant of all is the greatest of all. Á fundamental aim of our Saviour in all His teachings was to eradicate utterly the former, that old spirit, and inspire and perfect the latter, the new and Divine spirit, in the hearts and lives of all believers, His immediate disciples especially.

In regard to the character of these two services, we would observe that they differ in form from any ordinances known under the Old Dispensation. You will search in vain throughout the ancient ritual for any ordinance corresponding in form to the Lord's Supper. The same is true of the washing of the feet. "Diverse washings," as emblematical of external and internal purification are prescribed, but the washing of the feet constitutes none of them. The precept requiring the priest, before going into the holy place to bear the vessels of the Lord, to wash his hands and feet---the only instance we can find in which washing the feet is mentioned---presents no exception to these statements. Such a precept no more implies moral defilement than does the command, "Put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground." The services being new both in intent and form, their design can be learned but from the words of our Saviour Himself. Of the Supper, we need not speak, its intent being well known. That of washing the feet is thus explained by our Saviour:---" So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that he should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." This affecting service, like that of the Supper, had a single purpose and object, its design being to elucidate and render plain to all minds the form and direction which mutual love should take among His disciples. Christ was in the world on a mission of love, a love which rendered Him a servant of servants to the least as well as the greatest of all His disciples. Every interest of theirs was as tenderly dear to Him "as the apple of His eye," and any service by which any real want of any disciple could be met was sacred in His regard. The object of our Saviour is to induce in all believers a mutual love the same in kind as actuated His entire life. "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, As I have loved you." The object of the service under consideration, as our Saviour has explained it, was to set this commandment in distinct visibility before our minds.

And how adapted was this service to this great end. The washing of the feet was then a universal necessity. When done by others, it was a service assigned to the lowest order of servants known at that time. A readiness for such a service, a readiness inspired by love, implied a full readiness for any kind of service by which any existing necessity might be met. It implied the supreme control in the heart of the same spirit which rendered our Saviour a universal "ministering spirit" to human necessity, inducing him to "bear our griefs and carry our sorrows." To reveal the spirit which dwelt in Him, and actuated His life, and to induce the same form of love, and readiness for service in all His disciples, one towards another, He assumed on that ever memorable occasion, the lowest of all forms of necessary service, the washing of His disciples' feet, adding the melting words, "I have given you an example" (an exemplification of the spirit of mutual love and service which must actuate your lives), "that ye should do as I have done unto you."

Verse 10 Explained.

We are now prepared clearly to understand the meaning of our Saviour in the following words in Verse 10: "He that is washed needeth not (hath no necessity) save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." Before coming to the place, "the bodies of the disciples had been washed with pure water." On the way, however, of necessity, there feet had become covered with dust. As far as washing was concerned, there was present in the company but one necessity, the washing of their feet. To reveal the Spirit of which each one must be possessed relatively to all the others, wherever and whenever any real necessity should appear, Christ took the place of the lowest servant to meet the one common want of all present. When, in the performance of that service, He came to Peter, the latter, under the influence of the spirit of place, position, and station, objected, and finally refused to receive such a service at the hand of his Master and Lord. When informed, however, that he must acquiesce, or "have no part in Christ," then, under the influence of the Ritualistic idea, that there was some special efficacy in the service itself, Peter exclaimed---" Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." The reply of our Saviour was intended to make known the real meaning arid intent of the service, and that meaning and intent may be thus expressed: Should I do as you say, Peter, that is, "wash your hands, and your head," I should do for you a useless office, and thus deprive the present service of all its meaning. My object is not to impress you with the duty of doing to one another what is not needful, but of doing, with an ever-ready mind, what is needful. As far as your hands and heads, and bodies are concerned, you were washed before you came here. Your feet excepted, "you have no need of washing, but are clean every whit." As far as these are concerned, however, you have need. To meet this one necessity I do the part of a servant, and I do so, not to meet a present necessity merely, but to give you an example that "ye should do as I have done to you." You are not called upon to do, one to another, what is not needed but to be ever ready, and prompt, and hearty, to bring to one another help whenever and wherever it may be needed. This undeniably is the true meaning and intent of our Saviour in the words under consideration.

Meaning of Verse 8.

When Peter objected to the humiliation of his Master and Lord in doing for the former the menial service under consideration, the Saviour replied, that although His disciple might not then understand the meaning of what was being done, he would fully comprehend it in time to come. On Peter's refusal to accept the washing at the hands of Christ, saying peremptorily, "Thou shalt never wash my feet," the Saviour replied in these words:

"If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me." The immediate object of our Saviour in these words is obvious, to wit, to induce Peter to reverse his avowed determination that Christ should not wash his feet, and to induce in the disciple a cordial assent that the Master should do to him as He had done to the others. Two constructions have been put upon our Saviour's words. According to the first, the term "wash " is supposed to be used symbolically of moral and spiritual purification. The meaning of our Saviour would then be, "If I wash thee not," that is, do not cleanse or purify your soul from sin, " thou hast no part in me." While this construction implies a most essential truth, the truth implied contains no reason whatever for the change of purpose which our Saviour designed to produce. The fact of dependence upon Christ for moral and spiritual purification presents in itself no reason why Christ should perform for His disciples the servile office of feet-washing, or why they should consent that He should do it. Besides, as already shown, feet-washing was not emblematical of real moral and spiritual purification, and presented no occasion for an allusion to that subject.

To understand our Saviour aright, we must bear in mind that we have here the second open rebuke which Christ had received from that disciple. On, account of the first, the Saviour "rebuked Peter saying, Get thee behind Me, Satan." On this occasion, notwithstanding our Saviour's assurance that He was acting in perfect wisdom in what He was doing, and that although the reason for His conduct was not then known, it would be understood afterwards, an assurance which ought to have induced the most ready and cordial acquiescence on the part of every disciple, Peter, assuming the attitude of stern rebuke and refusal, said, "Thou shalt never wash my feet." Here was evinced a state of mind, a pride of position and place, and of self-assurance, utterly incompatible with real discipleship with Christ, a state which must be put away, or the disciple and his Master must part company. Of this fact the Saviour informs Peter in the words under consideration. The real meaning of these words may be thus expressed: "If I wash thee not," that is, if you continue to place your wisdom above mine arid your will against mine, by refusing to accept this service from me, "thou hast no part," and it will be impossible for thee to have any part "in me." In other words, the spirit in me which prompts me to render this service, and the spirit in you which prompts you to refuse to accept this service at my hands, are incompatible one with the other. On the other hand the spirit in you which prompts this refusal must not only be wholly put away, but you must come into such full and cordial sympathy with the spirit in me which prompts this service, as to induce in you a free consent that I shall wash your feet, or you cannot be my disciple. The rebuke and admonition were effective. All pride of place and position, and of self-will, and self-assurance, died out in the heart of Peter, and he cried out. "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."

Misapprehension of Verse 10.

To the reflecting mind it is a sad thought that the leading impression which very many believers receive from the most instructive and sanctifying portions of the sacred Word is little else but the single apprehension that, in all the circumstances and relations of life, they will sin. They are required to "hate even the garments spotted with the flesh"; yet, in the study of the Scriptures, they are ever eagle-eyed to find, in all leading passages, something to fasten upon their minds the conviction that go where and do what they will, they will in some form "defile their garments "---a conviction which of itself, if nothing else would, renders it absolutely certain that they will do "this evil thing and bitter," which "God hates." The scene presented in the passage before us, for example, embodies and exemplifies in the clearest and most explicit manner conceivable the spirit and principle of all Christ's teachings in regard to the relations and duties of believers one towards another. Yet the glory, beauty, and moral significancy of the whole transaction are thrown into a deep eclipse by an inference drawn from the single expression---" He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." Here we learn this great lesson, exclaim not a few readers of the sacred Word, that we can never in this life be free from sin. However far the cleansing process may have gone, some part---the feet at least---will need to be cleansed. And this is all that many believers see in the whole transaction. We never heard the passage referred to by this class of individuals but to sustain this one doctrine. Permit us to say here that no doctrine can be farther from any passage than this is from the transaction under consideration. There is not a word or thought in the passage that looks in the direction of that doctrine.

Nor does this idea of dust adhering to the feet have the remotest adaptation to symbolize the relations of sin to the soul. The idea is never employed in the Old Testament as a symbol at all, dust on the feet not implying ceremonial uncleanness. In the case before us, considered as a figure, it implies a distinction of sins---as great and small---those which do and those which in reality do not defile the soul. The Bible makes no such distinction. Every sin alike, whatever its form, is a seed of death in the vital centre of the soul, and must be removed by the blood of sprinkling, or death will ensue. Nothing can be of more subverting tendency than is this misuse of the passage under consideration.

The clause, " Ye are clean."

When the purpose of the service had been fully explained, and understood by the disciples, the Saviour said, "Ye are clean, but not all." His obvious meaning may be thus expressed: You, one excepted, have comprehended and appreciated this service, have put away the spirit of rivalry, self-sufficiency, and self-exaltation, and have become possessed of the "unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace," the spirit of mutual love and service, that I desire. If we trace the subsequent history of these then sorrowing disciples, we shall find the above statement strictly true. Never, from that time onward, did the spirit of division or rivalry have place among them. On the other hand, they were together and one in their sorrow at their Lord's sufferings and death, one in their gladness "when they saw the Lord," after His resurrection, one in the great joy with which they returned from Mount Olivet to Jerusalem, after His ascension, one in the accord with which they "waited the Promise of the Father," until the Pentecost, and one in their aims and endeavours when they went forth "under the Power of the Spirit" to fulfill their great commission. In all their writings, the two great truths represented by the Supper, on the one hand, and this service, on the other, have the same prominence that they have in the instructions and example of our Saviour. In the Churches which they planted---the few excepted who "caused divisions and offences among them contrary to the doctrine which they had received "---" all were of the same heart and mind" in regard to Christ, on the one hand, and to "brotherly love" on the other. During the apostolic and martyr age, this is recorded to the glory of the Churches, that none were more assiduous in caring for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted, more ready to "wash the saints' feet," and to render any form of service, high or low, by which Christ could be glorified. His kingdom advanced, and the wants of believers met, than were the most delicate and royally-educated females. As the world looked on, even the heathen exclaimed, "See how these Christians love one another." All admire and eulogise such things. '---Happy are we if we do them."

Will the teachers and friends of the doctrine of the "Higher Life" suffer from us a word of exhortation, before we close this article. If we have made ourselves understood, every reader has distinctly before his mind our apprehensions of the doctrine under consideration, and the supreme end towards which all our teachings tend, namely, "the perfecting of the saints "in this "excellent spirit"---the spirit of absolute supremacy of faith, love, and obedience towards Christ, and of devotion to His glory and kingdom, on the one hand, and which, on the other, renders Him greatest in the sanctified family who renders himself" the least of all, and the servant of all," and induces in all a common readiness "iii love to serve one another." This being our common aim, and our eye being single to it, will not "our God supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus?" Will He not " make all grace abound toward us, that we, always having all-sufficiency for all things, may abound unto every good work?"