d, and then slips away into
hiding till His hour had full come.[45] And with breaking heart John
sadly recalls Isaiah's wondrous foresight of just these days and
events.[46] These are the four incidents in this third chief group.

And so the door shuts. The wooing ceases. This bit of John's story is
done. The evidence is all in. The case is made up. The nation's door to
its King shuts. The Lover's wooing of the nation ceases. John turns to a
new chapter. No further evidence is brought forward. The case rests with
the jury. The door had been shutting for a good while. The inside
door-keepers had been pulling it hard. But the great Man outside had His
hand on the knob delaying the shutting process, in the earnest hope that
it yet might be quite stopped. Now His hand reluctantly loosens its
hold. The knob is free. The inside pull does its work. The door goes to
with a vigorous slam.

The wooing is not _wholly_ done. There is still the indirect, the tacit
wooing. There's still opportunity. All through that fateful night from
Gethsemane's gate, to the last word at Pilate's seat the Lover is
wooing. But it is wooing by action, by presence, by yielding. No
pleading word is spoken. The direct wooing is done. Tender, earnest,
insistent, patient, tremendous, irresistible in itself save to those who
willed to resist anything and everything no matter what or
whom,--wondrous wooing it has been. Now it's over. That chapter is done.

Way-marks in John's Narrative.

Out of this simple running account several things sift themselves, and
stand out to our eyes. The action of the story swings chiefly _about
Jerusalem_. The other parts seem but background to make Jerusalem stand
out big. In this John's Gospel differs radically from the other three.
They are absorbed chiefly with the tireless gracious Galilean ministry
of Jesus, till the last great events force them to Jerusalem.

And the reason is plain. Jerusalem is Israel. It is the nation. Jesus is
wooing the _nation_ through its leaders. Why? For the nation's sake? for
Israel's sake? Yes and no. Because these Jews were favourites of God?
Distinctly _no_, though so highly favoured they had been in the wondrous
mission entrusted to them. But because Israel was the gateway to a world
Yes, for Israel's sake. _Through_ this gateway, so carefully prepared
when every other gate was closing, _through_ this out to a world--this
was the plan of action. And this will yet be found to be t