"It is very sweet," said Winifred, "to think of being given by the Father to Him. It seems surer, somehow, than to just give oneself."
Hubert's deep eyes kindled and glowed with a liquid fire. "Yes," he said in a suppressed voice, "it is wonderful." He was standing on ground that had not by long habit grown coldly theological, but was instinct with life to him through a new and vital experience.
"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."
They paused to meditate, and Winifred was the first to break the silence.
"Hubert," she said in a low voice, "it must be we have entered upon eternal life. We have begun to know Him."
Her voice sank upon the last word, and her lips trembled. Instinctively she held out her hand to her brother, and he clasped it in his. Tears streamed down upon her book, and Hubert was not ashamed that his own eyes were moist. They were silent for some moments, while the young man beheld afresh that eternal, infinite realm out of which the Word had come forth, and he knew himself born into it. Earth seemed illusory--but the scene of a moment--in the glory of that vision.
They read on and Hubert explained to his sister what he saw in the request of the Lord Jesus to be given again the glory which He had with the Father "before the world was." Never in his reading of the Gospel had he lost sight of its beginning, and he read these words, as he had others, in its light. He turned back and read the opening verses of the first chapter to Winifred in explanation of the glory to be given back, and the very fact of its being asked for, as though having been surrendered for the time, shed a light upon passages poorly understood before, which had shown clearly His humanity and His subjection to the Father.
Again they read on, pondering as they read, but paused over the ninth verse:
"I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine."
"Do you think that means, Hubert," said Winifred, "that He does not pray for the world? It seems very exclusive. But we know that God loves the world?"
"I think," said Hubert, "that the discrimination is not _against_ the world, but rather _for_ those given Him out of it. He must care specially for them. Perhaps if we read on we shall see the special character of this prayer for us."