Transcribed from the [1870] edition .
A Sermon
DELIVEREDMAY 8th, 1870, INKENSINGTON CHAPEL, AT
THE SEVENTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY OFTHE
RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.
BYTHE
REV. J. STOUGHTON, D.D.
PUBLISHED BYREQUEST.
LONDON:
56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL’SCHURCHYARD;
AND 164, PICCADILLY.
p. 2LONDON:
PARDON AND SON, PRINTERS,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
“And there are also many other things whichJesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, Isuppose that even the world itself could not contain the booksthat should be written.”—John xxi. 25.
The chapter before us is plainly asupplement to the main history. St. John concluded thathistory under a deep conviction that it was far from a fullaccount of his Master’s wonderful ministry. “Many other signs,” said he, “truly did Jesus,in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in thisbook.” But in this supplementary chapter, added tothe Gospel, perhaps, after a lapse of several years, the inspiredEvangelist returns to his subject, and relates with singularminuteness of detail the miracle of the draught of fishes. He then appends to the whole narrative an asseveration of itstruth; and still feeling, as he had done before, that thereremained an inexhaustible fulness of facts and lessons in thelife of his adorable Lord which defied every attempt at recordingthem, he at last finishes his Gospel—inclusive of theappendix—in the same spirit in which he had concluded whathe wrote before. Persuaded of the impossibility of doingperfect justice to such a life as that of the Word made flesh, heemployed a strong Oriental hyperbole to express theimpossibility, whilst his heart p. 4overflowed with adoring love andwonder—“And there are also many other things whichJesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, Isuppose that even the world itself could not contain the booksthat should be written.”
It is not unusual for an author to return to the perusal andexamination of a work composed by him in bygone years with adeepened belief of the truth of its contents, accompanied by anoverwhelming conviction of its want of completeness. Another chapter may be added to what was written before, andthen, when all is done, the pen may be laid down, with thefeeling that not one-half of all the beautiful truth to which thebook relates has yet been told. A circumstance so common inconnection with efforts of genius finds something of a parallelhere, in connection with the higher and nobler exercises ofinspiration. It is to the last degree affecting to beholdthe aged Evangelist reading over his own Gospel, dwelling withdelight upon sacred memories of the Divine Friend who sograciously loved him, an