John's testimony being of this character was not the testimony of man, though it came through a man. Jesus, therefore, does not contradict his former words when He adds, '_I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was a burning and a shining lamp_;' (our translators have lost the distinction between the vessel containing the light, and the light itself,--a distinction which St. John has carefully preserved;) '_and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater witness than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me._' John's lamp was one which God had kindled and filled with his light, that they might be saved from their darkness; for a while it had played about them, and they had felt a kind of joy in the thought that God had not forgotten them. But Christ's works,--that latest work, especially, which He had done on the Sabbath-day, to show how and for what end His Father worked on that day,--these contained witnesses of a filial power, a filial obedience, a filial communion,--a witness to the hearts of suffering men,--which the words of the Baptist, quick and penetrating as they were, did not contain.
He goes on: '_And the Father Himself which hath sent me, He beareth witness of me. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape._' 'In these acts of mine--these wonderful acts--as well as in my ordinary discourse, in my daily deeds and works, a Father is speaking to you, a Father is testifying of Himself to you. He is an invisible Being. It is not by visible appearances, by sounds and by shapes, that He communicates with you; it is by His Word.' Could it be necessary to say this to a people who were called out of all nations to know the unseen God, to protest against idols; to a people who had the law and the Prophets; to a people who were proud of their calling, proud of their law; who detested idols; who wrote out the Scriptures continually, reverenced them, declared them to be the very words of God?