man shall see God. It was this that the Apostles
appealed to when first moved to address their fellow-men and proclaim
Christ as the Saviour. It was to His resurrection they confidently
appealed as evidence of the truth of His claim to have been sent of God.
The Jews had put Him to death as a deceiver; but God proclaimed His
righteousness by raising Him from the dead. "Ye denied the Holy One and
the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the
Prince of life whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are
witnesses."

Probably, however, another idea underlies the words "because I go to My
Father, and ye see Me no more." So long as Christ was on earth the Jews
believed that Jesus and His followers were plotting a revolution: when
He was removed beyond sight such a suspicion became ludicrous. But when
His disciples could no longer see Him, they continued to serve Him and
to strive with greater zeal than ever to promote His cause. Slowly then
it dawned on men's minds that righteousness was what Christ and His
Apostles alone desired and sought to establish on earth. This new
spectacle of men devoting their lives to the advancement of
righteousness, and confident they could establish a kingdom of
righteousness and actually establishing it--this spectacle penetrated
men's minds, and gave them a new sense of the value of righteousness,
and quite a new conviction of the possibility of attaining it.

III. The third conviction by which the Apostles were to prevail in their
preaching of Christ was the conviction "of judgment, because the prince
of this world is judged." Men were to be persuaded that a distinction is
made between sin and righteousness, that in no case can sin pass for
righteousness and righteousness for sin. The world that has worldly ends
in view and works towards them by appropriate means, disregarding moral
distinctions, will be convicted of enormous error. The Spirit of truth
will work in men's minds the conviction that all and every sin is
mistake and productive of nothing good, and can in no instance
accomplish what righteousness would have accomplished. Men will find,
when truth shines in their spirit, that they have not to await a great
day of judgment in the end, when the good results of sin shall be
reversed and reward allotted to those who have done righteously, but
that judgment is a constant and universal element in God's government
and to be found everywhere throughout it, d