all round Christ, and taken His measure, and
rendered satisfactory account of the pious delusions He Himself was
subject to, and the groundless hallucinations which misled His followers
into unheard-of virtue, and made them good men by mistake. Consider the
opinions of men of insight and of power, but do not be overawed by them,
for you have in yourself a surer guide to truth. Look at Christ with
your own eyes, frankly open your own soul before Him, and trust the
impression He makes upon you.

2. Again, John notices the _perplexity_ of the people. They saw that,
much as the authorities desired to put Him out of the way, they shrank
from decisive measures. And from this they naturally gathered that the
rulers had some idea that this was the Christ. Then besides, they saw
the miracles Jesus did, and asked whether the Christ would do more
miracles. They saw, too, that He was "a good Man," and on the whole,
therefore, they were disposed to look favourably on His claims; but then
there always recurred the thought, "We know this Man whence He is; but
when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is." They thought they
could account for Christ and trace Him to His origin; and therefore they
could not believe He was from God. This is the common difficulty. Men
find it difficult to believe that One who was really born on earth and
did not suddenly appear, nobody knew whence, can in any peculiar sense
be from God. They dwell upon the truly human nature of Christ, and
conceive that this precludes the possibility of His being from God in
any sense in which we are not from God.

To this perplexity Jesus addresses Himself in the words (ver. 28), "Me
you do in a sense know, and also whence I come, but that does not give
you the full knowledge you need, for it is not of Myself I am come; your
knowledge of _Me_ cannot solve your perplexity, because I am not sent by
Myself; He that sent Me is the real[31] one, and Him you do not know. I
know Him because I am from Him, and He hath sent Me." That is to say:
Your knowledge of Me is insufficient, because you do not, through Me,
recognise God. Your knowledge of Me is insufficient so long as you
construe Me into a mere earthly product. To know Me, as you know Me, is
not enough; for not in Myself can you find the originating cause of what
I am and what I do. You must go behind my earthly origin, and the human
appearance which you know, if you are to account for My presence among
you, and for M