d soon the blessing will fall upon
your waiting soul.

CHAPTER III.

THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST PRAYED--"SANCTIFY THEM."

CONVERTED MEN.

The men for whom Christ prayed were converted men, and were living in
justified relation to God. In proof of this statement, let the reader
study the context carefully.

A CLOUDLESS SKY.

In the sixteenth chapter of St. John, the one immediately preceding the
sacerdotal prayer, the conversation which is recorded would be
impossible were the disciples conscious of guilt. One can not read
those sublime verses without the irresistible conviction that the
disciples' sky of soul-consciousness was blue and cloudless. There is
no hint in Christ's discourse that these men are "of the world," but
rather it is taken for granted that they are children of God and heirs
of the kingdom.

A SPECIFIC STATEMENT.

It is the sheerest folly for one to maintain that the conversion of the
disciples did not occur prior to Pentecost. If words mean anything,
Jesus made a specific statement to the contrary. "Rejoice," says He,
"that your names are written in heaven." In His prayer He says to His
Father: "They have kept Thy word"; "they are Thine"; "I pray for them,
I pray not for the world." Notice the distinction which He makes
between "them" and "the world." These men are picked men. They are very
different from the great unpardoned, sinful throng outside the
kingdom--they are CHRISTIANS.

THE CHAMBER OF BLESSING.

A very good evidence of the genuineness of the conversion of the
disciples was their painstaking care to follow out minutely the
directions of their ascended Lord. He had prayed for their
sanctification; they desired it. He had spoken of a coming Comforter,
and they eagerly awaited His advent. He had said, "Tarry in Jerusalem
until" His arrival, and they conscientiously met in an "upper room" for
a ten-day prayer-meeting. "Farewell! friends; farewell! memory-haunted
synagogues; farewell! sacred temple; farewell! long-bearded priests;
farewell all! we must go to prayer: our Lord said that we should be
sanctified." And thus in long line the one hundred and twenty file up
the stairs to the Chamber of Blessing. There is no lightness, no
jesting, no quibbling, no bickering; all are serious, terribly in
earnest, intent on "the promise of the Father." There is Peter,
impulsive and eager, whole-hearted and enthusiastic; there is the meek
and quiet Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet at the old