n Solomon's Porch, where at all events He was
under cover and had some shelter. Here the Jews gradually gathered,
until at length He found Himself ringed round by hostile questioners,
who bluntly, almost threateningly asked Him, "How long dost Thou make us
to doubt? If Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly," a question which
shows that, although they inferred from the assertions He had made
regarding Himself that He claimed to be the Messiah, He had not directly
and explicitly proclaimed Himself in terms no one could misunderstand.

At first sight their request seems fair and reasonable. In fact it is
neither. The mere affirmation that He was the Christ would not have
helped those whom His works and words had only prejudiced against Him.
As He at once explained to them, He had made the affirmation in the only
way possible, and their unbelief arose not from any want of explicitness
on His part, but because they were not of His sheep (ver. 26). "My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." Here, as elsewhere,
He points in confirmation of His claim to the works His Father had given
Him to do, and to the response His manifestation awakened in those who
were hungering for truth and for God. Those who were given to Him by the
Father, who were taught and led by God, acknowledged Him, and to such He
imparted all those eternal and supreme blessings He was commissioned to
bestow upon men.

But in describing the safety of those who believe in Him, Jesus uses an
expression which gives umbrage to those who hear it--"I and the Father
are one." Those who trust themselves to Christ shall not be plucked out
of His hand: they are eternally secure. The guarantee of this is, that
those who thus trust in Him are given to Him by the Father for this very
purpose of safe-keeping: the Father Himself therefore watches over and
protects them. "No man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I
and My Father are one." In this matter Christ acts merely as the
Father's agent. The Pharisees might excommunicate the blind man and
threaten him with penalties present and to come, but he is absolutely
beyond their reach. Their threats are the pattering of hail on a
bomb-proof shelter. The man is in Christ's keeping, and thereby is in
God's keeping.

But this assertion the Jews at once construed into blasphemy, and took
up stones to stone Him. With marvellous calmness Jesus arrests their
murderous intention with the quiet question: "M