Well, then, seek the kingdom of God! the kingdom of God is within you!'[1] And, next, by his 'secret' of peace. 'Renounce thyself, and take up thy cross daily and follow me![2] He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.'[3] And the revolution thus made was so immense, that the least in this new kingdom of heaven, this realm of the 'method' and the 'secret,' was greater, Jesus said, than one who, like John the Baptist, was even greatest in the old realm of Jewish religion.[4] And those who obeyed the gospel of this new kingdom came to the light;[5] they had joy;[6] they entered into peace;[7] they ceased to thirst: the word became in them a spring of water welling up unto everlasting life.[8] But these were the admitted tests of righteousness, of obeying the voice of the Eternal who loveth righteousness. 'There ariseth light for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart;[9] he that feareth the Eternal, blessed is he!'[10]
Now, the special value of the Fourth Gospel is, not that it exhibits the method and secret of Jesus,—for all the Gospels exhibit them,—but that it exhibits the establishment of them by means of Israel's own idea of God, cleared and re-awakened. The argument is: 'You are always talking about God, God's word, righteousness; always saying that God is your Father, and will send his Messiah for your salvation. Well, he who receives me shows that he talks about God with a knowledge of what he is saying; he sets to his seal that God is true.[11] He who is of God heareth the words of God;[12] every one that heareth and learneth of the Father cometh unto me,[13] and ye have not his word abiding in
