09. The Theologian

THE NEW TESTAMENT WRITINGS. DIFFERENT MODES OF PRESENTING THE SAME TRUTH. JOHN'S STARTING-POINT. THE WORD. MANIFESTED HUMANLY. SPHERE OF THE MANIFESTATION. ITS CHARACTER AND PURPOSE. THE HOLY SPIRIT. "FOR JUDGMENT AM I COME." SINNING AND NOT SINNING. FAITH AND UNBELIEF. STANDING OF BELIEVERS. THE FUTURE.


TAKING up the New Testament and examining it we find that it consists of twenty-seven separate books, bound together. They were not given all at once, and to a single church, but came forth (so to speak) by instalments, just as the writers of them were "moved" and as providential circumstances required. Probably the writers could no more explain the moving than we can, and had no more notice of its approach than we have of the approach of a dream. There was no plan, or concert, or common understanding among them; no intentional division of labour; no comparing of notes; nor were the separate writings formed into a single collection till long after the death of the last of the Apostles. Indeed, it was only by degrees that the true importance of the writings for the preservation and propagation of the truth came to be recognized by believers.

Through these writings Christianity gets (so to speak) a root in our human soil, which keeps it fresh and living down

THE NEW TESTAMENT AND UNITY.

the centuries. As time passed on, the enemies of the Gospel began to perceive the vital importance of these writings to the life of Christianity; and the last, the most skilful and the deadliest, of the heathen "persecutions" was aimed at their extermination. Christian congregations might be scattered to the four winds—penal enactments against Christianity might be enforced in the strictest manner; but the progress of the faith (it was perceived) was not thereby arrested. It became evident that the writings must be extirpated. This was the aim of the Dioclesian persecution, which extended throughout the Empire, from east to west, and which utterly failed; as had formerly happened with the attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes to destroy the Old Testament, and thereby to annihilate the worship of Jehovah.

As the writings are studied, it becomes evident to the student that they form a unity. It is not merely that they are bound together within the same boards and have the same title page, but there is one soul inspiring them. The unity is a unity of varied life. Having many members, they form one body.

Every reader perceives that they fall into four groups: first, the four Gospels; second, the Book of Acts, exhibiting the planting of Christianity in a four-fold soil, "Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin," and Barbarian; third, the Epistolary writings which exhibit Christian doctrine, and which have also a fourfold character, represented by the names of James, Peter (with whom Jude is to be associated), Paul, and John; fourth, the prophetic Book of Revelation.

In studying them, they should be taken up, as far as possible, each by each in historic order, and read in the light of the life-experience of their writers, and of the condition, circumstances, and prospects of the churches or individuals addressed; the Heart-thought of each should be

WRITINGS OF JAMES AND PETER.

firmly seized, and it should be seen how the other ideas cluster around. When we have read the New Testament writings thus, ascertaining the drift of the separate books, we shall be able from the standpoint of each writer, and finally from a standpoint commanding the field, to perceive the unity of the truth as it is in Jesus.

In distinguishing the teaching of the New Testament writers, I insinuate no variance between them—nothing that might grow into a contradiction. But the Divine Spirit has divided severally to them, as has seemed to Him meet, and it is our wisdom to observe this Divinely-created difference.

Standing nearest to the old economy appears the Apostle James. His theology is the least developed of any of the New Testament writers. His Epistle, addressed to the “twelve tribes” in dispersion, reads like a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. I think it belongs to an early period of Christian history—undoubtedly before Paul had written his Epistle to the Romans.* It is generally—and indeed naturally—approached from the practical side: I believe it will richly repay deeper study than it has received from the doctrinal side. The heart-thought of it seems to be *morality rooted in Christ*.

The heart-thought of Peter’s theology we have in the words, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

The doctrinal ideas set forth by Paul are familiar to the great majority of Christian people. They are the staple of

* I cannot think that James states his doctrine of “justification by works” to guard Paul’s doctrine of “justification by faith” against licentious abuse. The utterances of the two apostles are perfectly independent, and—to any ordinary comprehension, not looking out for contradictions—perfectly harmonious.

WRITINGS OF PAUL AND JOHN.

what is commonly named Evangelical theology.* Starting from man's sinfulness in the presence of a Law that is holy and just and good, and uprooting man's last hope of being his own Saviour, he exhibits God's way of dealing with guilt, and with an evil heart, in the mediation of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, leading us on to the final completion of salvation in the day of Christ, according to God's eternal purpose of grace which He purposed in Himself.

As soon as we pass from the writings of Paul to those of John, we find ourselves in fellowship with a mind of a totally different cast—not at all dialectic, but intensely and profoundly intuitive. While he is equally the organ of the Spirit of God, and while the truths dealt with are in substance the same, yet the manner of conceiving and building them together is very different. The difference shows itself in the great words that are used. Paul's words are such as these—sin, grace, righteousness, election, redemption, faith, reconciliation, salvation, the day of Christ: John's words are such as these—life and death, light and darkness, love and hatred, truth and a lie, the Son of God and the Wicked One.

Were I to select characteristic and corresponding utterances from Paul and John, they would be these two:

* The majority of Evangelical believers do not seem very able to conceive of New Testament doctrine, save as it is represented by this Apostle. A noticeable fact is, that for one commentary on John, since the time of the Reformation, we find at least ten on Paul. And even of those commentaries which deal with John, many take him as if his writings were a continuation of Paul's, and exhibit the same logical tone and spirit as in dealing with Paul. The majority also of what are called *Symbolical Books* show no sign (or only the faintest) of John's impress. I do not point this out by way of fault-finding, but only as matter of fact. There can be no question of the grandeur of the Pauline ideas, even in their imperfect apprehension by us. Under God, the glory of our post-Reformation life and theology is due to them.

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JOHN'S STARTING POINT.

from Paul—“*Just and the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus*;” from John—“*This is the true God and eternal life.*” These utterances may suffice to illustrate how the lines of thought pursued by the two Apostles are parallel and harmonious, while yet they lie on different planes.

In this chapter I desire to exhibit the character of John’s doctrine as distinguished from that of the other New Testament writers,—unto each of whom “is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” We shall find that it is no mere theological jelly, soft and luscious, but quite as strong meat as the doctrine of Paul. It is an exhibition of the elements of Divine truth, set forth in the simplest and homeliest terms, yet with the utmost profundity. We shall find also that there is no balancing of probabilities and nothing of that torturous suspense which is the misery of our age. He is positive in his testifying with a Yea that is Yea and a Nay that is Nay.

The starting-point for thought is the conception of the Eternal “Word” - “the Word of life,”—“the Eternal Life* which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.” We must not attempt simplification by emptying the name, “Word,” of its profound meaning. We must not resolve it into Voice or Decree or Sentence, or even into a personification of the “Divine reason,” thus robbing it of its personalness. It is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to give John’s statements concerning *The Word* logical definiteness; and it seems not necessary that we should do so. It is enough to recognize a timeless Being whom he affirms to be Divine, and who expresses all that belongs to the Divine nature.

Very ingenious and learned inquiries have been prose-

* It is worth while for the student of Scripture to compare the name, “*The Eternal Life*,” with its parallel, the Old Testament “*Jehovah*,” Does not “*The Eternal Life*” yield the Jehovah-idea?

THE "LOGOS."

cuted, which trace its use in the school represented by Philo. There is one essential difference between Philo and John. While both (if I understand rightly) regard The Word as a Person, the former regards Him as a created being, although the image and glory of God, or at best a second God; the latter pronounces Him from "the Beginning," and by inference uncreated and eternal. He unfolds the Divine idea contained in the name in distinction from the false notions of men. Just as Paul said at Athens, respecting the Unknown God—"Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you;" so in effect John says, redeeming the name from its lower use—Whom ye ignorantly call The Word, Him declare I unto you, in His timeless being; in His personality; in His Godhead; in His creatorship; in His action in the universe as light and life; in His manifestation in the flesh, full of grace and truth, giving of His fulness, and declaring the Father unto men. All Divine revelations and workings in the universe are (and ever have been) through Him. Even in the darkness His light shineth, and the darkness comprehended it not.

There is no choice between accepting a universe created by the Divine will, and Pantheism; no third form of belief is intellectually possible; no rational foothold exists for the Atheist.

According to the Pantheist, "God" is but a name for the Sum of Being—the infinite and impersonal All—cause and effect in one. Man is but God thinking, and man's mind part of the infinite mind. We live and move and have our being "in Him," in the same sense in which my hand or foot is "in me." As Spinoza puts it, "A drop rises from the ever-tossing ocean; is for a second (called seventy years) illuminated and transparent; and then the drop sinks again whence it came." The universe is not to be conceived of as arising, or becoming, or beginning to

THE INCARNATION.

exist; it *is*, of necessity and from eternity. Hence the existing order of things is both necessary and perfect; sin is inconceivable; darkness is but the less of light; there is no room for confession, or prayer, or forgiveness.

According to the Apostle John, on the other hand, the universe “*became*,” its things were “*made*,” it is not necessary and eternal—the Word was before it and called it into existence; light and darkness are not harmonious manifestations of the One Eternal Substance, but are in conflict; God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all; He is to be conceived of personally, as the Father of the Only-begotten Son and of as many as received Him.*

In due time The Word—who had been operating in history from the beginning—was manifested humanly in Jesus of Nazareth, so that men heard Him, saw Him, looked upon Him with their eyes, and their hands handled Him. The manifestation was made in the village-home, in the carpenter’s workshop, in the little circle of Nazareth, as truly as when He raised Lazarus from the dead, or for our offences yielded Himself to the cross.

It was no mere outward and temporal conjunction. Godhead and manhood were bound into one person,† indissolubly and eternally, in the Only-begotten. It was not a mere phantom-appearance, as if an angel should become visible to the eye in human form, (as angels did in the Old Testament;) it was not Deity wearing a robe or veil of flesh, but having no human heart within: it was a true Incarnation, so that, being still The Word, He was truly,

* “I have long thought that without an eternal *Logos* you must have an eternal *Cosmos*; and I therefore suspect that a *mono-personal Theism is impotent against the Pantheist.*”—*Colloquia Peripatetica*: Dr. John Duncan.

† Not “*blended.*” To use such a word is an attempt, so far, to explain: and every *explanation* of this union has a seed of error in it—of necessity.

A REVELATION OF GOD.

fully, sinlessly human, as verily human as we ourselves. He became one with us; bore our infirmities; stood on our level. He is the fullest answer to the question—*What is man?* as He is also the fullest answer, the only “apprehendible” answer to the question—*What is God?*

The Absolute and Eternal One had revealed Himself in part otherwise; in the constitution and order of the universe, in the great laws which rule it, in the mind and moral nature of man, and in the course of history. But the supreme revelation is in the incarnate Word. “No man hath seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”

Spinoza has said, somewhat superciliously, “If a triangle were gifted with powers of thought and speech, it would maintain that God is eminently triangular; as would a circle, similarly endowed, declare that He is eminently circular; and so of each individual thing.”

This however is but to say that God’s highest revelation of Himself to any being must be through that being’s own nature. So it is in this case: God manifests Himself to man through man’s own nature. A visible human life becomes the medium of showing forth the Divine and eternal life. A human face shines with the very brightness of the Godhead’s glory. No man sees, knows, understands God, except as he sees, knows, understands Christ Jesus. Whosoever sees, knows, understands Christ Jesus, sees, knows, and understands the Eternal Father—truly, though not fully; for the infinite “ALL” of God cannot possibly be embraced within human limitations. Wheresoever faith in the Son vacillates, the image of the Father begins to fade away; indeed, there is nothing between the world and Pantheism but Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John is the telling forth of this manifestation by one who saw it on its glorious side; even as he writes,—“We beheld His glory, the glory as of

SIN.

the Only-begotten of the Father." The *mystery* of the Incarnation is not cleared away,—indeed, it is rather intensified than abated; but the *fact* is placed beyond debate.

The sphere within which the manifestation took place was "the world." In John's speech, "the world" is not the mere globe of earth on which we have our dwelling, and which gives us our graves, but the whole human region as it is alienated from God. We all belong to it by birth. In forms and ways and thoughts it is constantly changing, but coming no nearer to God. John conceives of it as dominated by sin. To master his conception we must apprehend the meaning of that word "*Sin*." He who fails to do so, and who confines his attention to outward acts, is as a physician whose diagnosis extends only to the running sore, while he takes no account of the corruption of the blood.

John does not *define*, but simply *uses* the word; unless indeed we take as definition, "Sin is the transgression of law." We cannot learn its meaning from a dictionary; we only learn it when we are brought consciously into the presence of Him who is Light and Love. We learn it most deeply as we grow in the life of God. No man knows—no man *can* know—how bad badness is till he has learned in a measure how good goodness is.

Sin is no necessity of our creature-finiteness; it is not man coming to a consciousness of his moral freedom; it is not the unripe apple that awaits more sun; it is not the shadow of good, but the antagonist of it. It is not man going against his own conscience, which is the *regula regulata* and not the *regula regulans*. It is the creature-will revolting against the Creator-will. The eye that sees a world in a grain of sand, or a heaven in a wild flower, will see a hell in the slightest act that means *No* to God.

THE WORLD IN SIN.

Parables revealing its nature are met on every hand. A mother says to her child playing on the floor beneath her smiles and loving glances, *Bring me the pin that lies over there*. The child pays no attention. By-and-by the mother repeats her word, and the child looks up into the mother's face and answers, *No*. What do men say of such a thing? Do they smile and call it a trifle, because it is only the lifting or not lifting of a pin that is in question? Do they not rather say?—*It is the child-will revolting against the mother-will*. And viewed thus, does not the act of refusal swell out into dimensions all but immeasurable? So with man's lightest *No* to God: so—with this difference, that the mother may "provoke" her child to disobedience, or may foolishly issue her orders when the child's attention is absorbed otherwise. Taken in its hidden, unconfessed, far-back intent, man's *No* involves not the mere unthroning of God, but Deicide itself. I do not forget, in saying this, how bad surroundings, mis-education, the influence of poverty, and so forth, may be a dead weight on the will. God knows all about this, and will judge righteously. But the thing to note is, that all sin carries in the heart of it a *No* to God, and means *Let Him not be!*

Now in John's view "the world" is in sin. Its sinful condition is variously represented. It is in darkness; it knows not God; it finds His commandments grievous; it lies in wickedness; it is in death,—not merely exposed to it as a penalty, but in it as a condition. The "things" of it are such as these,—"the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life."

Dark and awful as this is, there is something darker and more awful still. Lying behind the "seen" is a realm of evil unperceived by any of our senses, with a personal head—the devil, the slanderer, who misrepresents God to men, who creates suspicions and false beliefs in their minds, and fans

THE DARK WORLD.

hatred in their hearts, and who is a liar and murderer from the beginning.* (John viii. 44.)

It is indeed a hard thing in many quarters to admit the existence of such a being. It appears to involve some gross superstition which the nineteenth century cannot tolerate. It appears even to be a libel on God that He should allow such a being room and foothold in His universe. So, the devil is resolved into our own dark shadow, or the spectre conjured up by our own guilt, or a bold orientalism for "moral evil." But is it more difficult to believe in a bad *Spirit* than in a bad *man*? Is it more difficult to believe in evil influences issuing from a spiritual world, than to believe in such influences issuing from the material and visible world? The question whether there are human and other created spirits really opens up the question—or at all events, is inextricably bound up with it—whether there is a Great Spirit, who is the *Father of spirits*.

John's doctrine is unmistakable. The dark form of this Evil Being stands distinctly out as a power working against God and goodness. The world of men has fallen under his baleful will, in its every province and family. He is more than our antecedent in evil; he is tempter, and seducer, and tyrant. Man's sin is his own; he is fully responsible for it; he knows that quite well; yet it is a work of the devil, in some sense as real as that it is his own work.

* "From the beginning." The expression is radically different from that which is used respecting the Word, that He was "in the beginning." There is no approach to an original dualism of good and evil in John. The devil appears as the first intelligence that sinned. He was not created as he is; he "abode not in the truth." The dark mystery of the origin of moral evil lies behind, with no light thrown on it, probably insoluble to man. The very *continuance* of evil in a universe presided over by a Being infinite in holiness, love, and power, baffles speculative thought. Why did He not nip evil in the bud? Why does he not stamp it out? Daniel Defoe makes his savage ask, Why does God not kill the devil? Wise men are silent.

ASPECTS OF SIN.

Only, the operations of the Tempter and those of our own hearts are so interwoven, being carried on simultaneously and within the same dimly-lighted chamber, that disentanglement is impossible—except for God.

This connection of man's sin with the devil must be studied profoundly by those who would understand John's doctrine. I am satisfied that unless we accept what he says so plainly and fully, we shall be caught in the meshes of fatalism, saying of our sin, *I could not help it; I was born for it; and the light that led astray was light from heaven*; or we shall be driven to deny that there is any essential and eternal distinction between good and evil at all.

Sin, having this twofold origin, is to be conceived of as "lawlessness," and therefore in antagonism to the revealed Will of God; as "a lie," and therefore in antagonism to Truth; as "darkness," and therefore in antagonism to Light; as "hatred," and therefore in antagonism to Love; as "death," and therefore in antagonism to Life. This manifold antagonism is set forth in some of its aspects in John's Gospel; in other of its aspects in his Epistles; and in other aspects still, in his Book of Revelation. He silently takes for granted throughout, that (however intolerable it may be to human pride) there is no possibility of self-help for the world; man cannot free himself by his own power, even if he would, or be his own saviour: apart from Christ, he abideth in death. This is the sphere of the manifestation of the Son of God—a sphere wherein evil seemed to be victorious.

The "world" of John's day we know, as to its actual condition, from other sources. Let any one turn over the pages of Tacitus, Juvenal, Martial, or Persius, with their often-unconscious disclosures of prevailing licentiousness and cruelty; and what he learns will put "colour" into

SOCIAL ABYSSES.

John's outlines: nay, one dare not say "*turn over their pages*," for some of them can scarcely be read without hurt by the saintliest living. The same "world"—at heart—we still find in the present century, under modern conditions. It has grown in wealth. It has become civilized and refined. Law has become a mightier thing. The glory of science was never half so radiant. But, looking close in, we still find the old facts—a dislike of God and love of sin, pride and self-sufficiency, a godless and selfish use of things, men "hating one another," selfishness fighting selfishness—an infinite mass of misery.

Look beyond the borders of comfort and respectability, and think of what exists to-day round about us. Think of the unblest poverty that is growing side by side with enormous wealth and luxury, associated in many cases with vice and crime, crushing the spirit in ways that comfortable people cannot understand, and frequently aggravated by the temper in which it is borne, and by added evils which do not properly belong to it. Think of the ignorance that has grown to such proportions under the very shadow of our schools and churches. Think of the savagery that exists among us, as hideous in feature as in any country that we send missionaries to. Think of the haunts of vice in our midst, with their open doors—hunger, and brutalism, and drunkenness, and uncleanness, and lust, going in and out. Think of those abysses of society in which honesty, purity, and truth, seem all but impossibilities. Think of the mighty multitude of sufferers, lying on beds of down or writhing on straw, through "nights that weep and wail," with no expectation of joy in the morning. Think of the death-beds, mournful beyond all expression, where wasted lives are dying out, and defiled souls are passing into the awful presence of infinite Purity and Righteousness. I do not forget that there are other things in the world besides

CHARACTER OF CHRIST'S MANIFESTATION. 189 these. But *these exist*. And this is the sphere in which the continued action of the Son of God proceeds.

It is not, however, the misery and degradation that we must think about, but the *sin*, which may exist (and *does*), in association with birth, culture, refined and gentle manners, all that is graceful and charming humanly, and yet to the holy God is “*that abominable thing which I hate*.”

The manifestation of the Eternal Word in the world took place under conditions of outward lowliness that were an affront to human pride. Jesus was “the carpenter’s son,” and “the carpenter” himself. His chosen companions were fishermen and the like. His life was one of poverty. The foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests; *He* had not where to lay His head. And finally He was put to death on a cross as a malefactor. Such were the outward conditions of the case—the very reverse of what men would have devised.

The character of the manifestation is variously represented, inasmuch as no single representation can convey the full truth. Historically, the manifestation is set forth by John in his Gospel; theologically, in his Epistles; prophetically—as to its full results and issues—in the Apocalypse. The words employed in telling of the manifestation are exceedingly simple; the meaning of them grows and grows upon us as our life deepens. The process that goes on in Christian experience is the same that goes on every morning, when the shining light shineth more and more unto the perfect day. So with every word that tells of the Son of God.

He is manifested as the Eternal Life in a world of death. He is manifested as the True Light in a world of darkness. He is manifested as the Messenger and Interpreter of God in a world that was either ignorant of Him, or that believed falsehoods and lies respecting Him; the message being summed up in the two kindred expres-

PURPOSE OF THE MANIFESTATION.

sions, which tell what He is yesterday, and to-day, and for ever—*God is Light*, and *God is Love*.

We are not to take these two expressions as making up the truth between them. Each is complete in itself, and, rightly understood, can stand alone. Nay, each word, profoundly understood, carries the other in it. God is Light and Love Light, not merely as clear intelligence, but as holiness; Love, not merely as tender affection, but as the purpose of creating goodness; Light without any mingling of darkness; Love revealing itself in grace and salvation; Light and Love, the sum of moral perfections. The theology which misses out either word is fatally defective—indeed, false and cannot but have evil fruits.

He is manifested as the sinless Lamb, who taketh away the sin of the world. He did not come merely to lay down the Divine Law afresh, nor to issue a fresh summons to obedience; He was manifested to take away our sin. He is Saviour; Propitiation and Advocate; Destroyer of the works of the devil; Giver of eternal life; Channel of the infinite and everlasting good which the Father means for us; Sender of the Comforter; Seed that falls into the ground and dies, that it may not abide alone, but may bring forth much fruit. Cain hated his brother, and slew him: Christ loved His enemies, and died for them. It was not a mere pouring forth of life to prove love; it was a pouring of it forth to accomplish saving ends,—just as Paul tells of “redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” His blood “cleanseth from all sin.” He “loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood.”

Thus are we enabled to lay our sin bare before God, and to say, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and

TO PUT AWAY SIN.

done this evil in Thy sight." Thus are we delivered from the terrible consciousness of guilt. Thus are we taught to sing,

"Chief of sinners though I be,

Jesus shed His blood for me;

Died that I might live on high,

Lived that I might never die.

As the branch is in the vine,

I am His, and He is mine."

Thus are we preserved from sinning. Thus are we strengthened and inclined to keep His commandments, and to do the things that are pleasing in His sight. Thus do we become the captives of His grace. His redemption is not a mere breaking of bonds in which we were enthralled. It is not as when one comes upon a wild animal caught in a snare, and undoes the snare, and lets the panting, struggling thing return to its wild liberty again; it is rather as if one not only delivered it from the snare, but likewise attached it to himself, and tamed it to his will, so that it becomes his own. Thus, once more, are we upheld in the sanctifying assurance that nothing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Among all the trophies of the devil is no soul that has been (so to speak) wrenched out of the grasp of Christ, and dragged down to perdition. His name is *Saviour*; and He proves it by saving. His saving energy still continues after His ascension, even as it preceded His incarnation. There is no break or interruption. "I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death."

Necessarily and as a matter of course we meet the supernatural in this manifestation. If the supernatural could be eliminated, I for one would surrender my faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and would accept the creed, "*Physical science the only true religion, and obedience to physical law the only sound morality.*"

THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Having completed the manifestation on earth and taken His place in the heavens, He sends forth His Spirit to operate within the human sphere. This Spirit is the Comforter, that is, the Paraclete or Advocate. The name marks personality as real as that of Christ Himself. He is charged with Christ's interests. He is "the Spirit of truth," "the Holy Spirit," "the Spirit of God." His operations are manifold; He "teaches," "brings all things to remembrance," "bears witness," "guides into all the truth," "glorifies" Christ, "receives" and "shows" the things of Christ, "convinces the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment." This ministry of the Spirit is to be regarded as really comprehended within the scope of the manifestation of the Word. It is through the Spirit that His power is exerted in human hearts and lives. Hence in the religion of Jesus we find not merely a higher and more spiritual morality, but the revelation of means by which that morality may be attained.*

The manifestation of the Word brings in a "judgment," that is to say, a distinguishing, a separating, so that men take sides either *with* God or *against* Him. "For judgment am I come into the world"; for separating men into two classes—the children of light, truth, love, God—and the children of darkness, falsehood, hate, the devil.

This action pertains not alone to His ministry on earth, but likewise to the present and the future, through the perpetual energy of His Spirit. Here are so many human beings related to one another not merely by their common share of Adam's blood, but in other special and intimate ways. Christ goes in among them, and at once there is a taking of sides, an arraying of themselves under different

* See John xiv.—xvi.

THE DIVIDING LINE.

banners. There is not merely the gathering out of some to be on the Lord's side, the rest remaining as they were; there is a quickening of hostility as well as a subduing of hearts. In this world men do not indeed always range themselves outwardly and visibly under their proper colours; there is self-deception, false profession, the smile of deceit, the traitor's kiss. John recognizes this when he says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." None the less real is the division, that it cannot be perfectly discerned by the eye of man, but only by the Heart-Searcher.

The line that divides the two classes is drawn by the Apostle with the utmost distinctness and firmness. It is the line that divides obeying from not obeying, sinning from not sinning, loving from not loving. The man who lives the old evil life is not of God. "He that saith, *I know Him*, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth"—that being the account of his life—"seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren: he that loveth not his brother abideth in death." There must be no tampering with this principle; there must be no saying about a man who is living a life of sin, "*He is a good man; the root of the matter is in him; he is a child of God.*" "Let no man deceive you: he that *doeth righteousness* is righteous; he that *committeth sin* is of the devil:"—in this very thing "the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." In whatever way these words may be explained, there must be no putting of darkness for light or evil for good; we

SINNING AND NOT SINNING.

must hold firmly by this, that the devil's children are known by their sinning, and God's by their not sinning.

Shall we say, then, that sin wrought by a child of God—(say *fraud* or *drunkenness*)—is not sin *in him*? On the contrary: if ever sin is vile, it is doubly vile in a child of God. Shall we affirm that the child of God, as a matter of fact, never gives way to what is wrong? This were out of consistency with such words as these, "*If we confess our sins*," the "*we*" being those who profess to have entered into Divine fellowship. It were out of consistency likewise with observation. I do not speak of personal consciousness, because men play such tricks with themselves. I have known a man who said—no doubt honestly—that he was not conscious of having sinned for five years; but the sad thing was that, while he saw no sin in himself, his neighbours did. "If we say that we have no sin"—(the "*we*" being still the same)—"we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;" we do not merely speak an untruth in this particular matter, but the truth is not in us at all. Such words as these are not to be toned down and accommodated to suit any man's life or any man's theory.

What then does John affirm? This threefold fact, *at least*. Whatever sin may exist, while traceable to the "I," is not the deed of the new nature, but of "the flesh"*—which is not utterly dead. The new nature is a "Divine nature;" no evil thought, or word, or deed, can have its source there. To refer such thoughts, words, or deeds to such a source, would be a contradiction of the deep principle, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Evil cannot be the child of good. Next, while traceable to the "I," it is not entered against the believer as a charge to be settled at the

* I use the word here in Paul's sense, as opposed to "the spirit."

UNBELIEF AND FAITH.

Judgment Day. He “confesses” it, and is forgiven. And lastly, as a matter of fact, the child of God does not practise sin. He does not fall back into the old, bad life, out of which he has escaped by regeneration, for His seed remaineth in him. It is one thing to be overtaken in a fault: it is a very different thing—different as hell is from heaven—to live in it. The life of the child of God, conscious of his standing of grace, is a life of holiness. He consents to the rule of God. As to the incursions of sin into his life, he is warranted to pray, *Avenge me of mine adversary*.

It is in faith or unbelief in the Son of God that the distinction between the two classes is fundamentally exhibited.

Unbelief is no mere passive condition of mind—the mere negation or absence of belief—but intensely active. It is the heart’s *No* to the truth and grace of God, as faith is the heart’s *Yea*. In rejecting Christ, unbelief rejects God Himself; will not know Him as He is; refuses to leave the soul’s interests in His hands; dismisses Him afar off into a vague “heaven,” or far back into “the beginning;” turns Him into a grand Personification of nature; or makes Him an eternal activity—the sum of the natural forces of the universe—not a holy and loving Will.

Christian faith, on the other hand, is the unrebelling acceptance of the revealed truth and will of God unto salvation. It carries in it potentially all the sublimities of holiness. No deeper, more compressed, or more vital account is it possible to give of the object of it than that which John gives—“*that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God*.” At first sight, this looks a poor dry husk, scarcely worth picking up. In reality everything Christian is involved in it—all the truth and all the power of the Gospel, yea, and all its blessedness; just as some of the sublimest truths of astronomy may be wrapt up in a quiet-looking

ISSUES OF UNBELIEF AND FAITH.

phrase. Whosoever has faith in that pregnant declaration surrenders and resigns himself to the Redeemer, and enters into eternal communion with Him.

Ere the distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil exhibits itself in life and action, it exhibits itself to the eye of God and to men's own consciousness in faith or unbelief. Here is the living root of heaven or hell. Every man's attitude toward God and goodness is expressed in his attitude toward Jesus Christ. No one can study John's writings without seeing that he is as clear as the Apostle Paul in his forthsetting of the place occupied by faith; that he exalts it as highly; and that he brings it into the same connection with Christian love, hope, joy, meekness, strength, patience, victory.

The unbelieving are represented as "under condemnation," "condemned already" with this condemnation—"that Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." They "have not life." They "shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on them." They are ripening for judgment. And in the awful Hereafter, "the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." May God in His mercy grant that no reader may ever know what these words mean.

Those who believe in the Son of God are "born of God," "overcome the world" and "the Wicked One," and "have eternal life" as a present possession—not in consequence of an arbitrary award, but as a natural and vital issue. This new condition is in contrast at every point to the old condition. They are children of God, not merely as creatures—"For we are also His offspring"; nor merely, as it might be, by an act of adoption; but by a new birth-

STANDING OF BELIEVERS.

relationship.* Not merely are they owned as children by God, but the fact of sonship is realized in their own consciousness. "We know it," is the reiterated word; and various marks are named by which they know it.

Not only so; but all that belongs to sonship is assured to them. Their sins are forgiven for His name's sake. They are enabled, in the presence of an evil world, to keep God's commandments, which are all involved in the one old, yet ever new commandment, which bids us love even as Christ loved us. They have fellowship—common sharing, partnership, communion and participation—with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ; the fellowship limited only by the finiteness of our human nature. They have an Unction from the Holy One, and know all things. The sonship indeed is not yet manifested; but in the day of its manifestation they shall be like Him, seeing Him as He is. He is the perfect ideal of all the sons; "as He is, so are we in this world;" His standing, our standing; the good pleasure of the Father toward Him embracing us;

* There is a theology—I hope not growing—which gives the "relationship" in the unqualified New Testament sense, without the "birth." Milton makes the devil say:

"The Son of God I also am, or was;

And if I was, I am; relation stands:

All men are sons of God."

I think I have met this very reasoning in prose—only not put in the devil's mouth. If believers are but as Adam was—if creaturehood is all that lies in John's expression "sons of God," then (to say the least) the expression is poorer than it looks. As to the doctrine that "humanity was born again in the Incarnation of the Son of God," I do not find it anywhere in John's writings, nor do I see proof of it in the world's actual condition. "As many as receive Him" are "sons,"—however scornfully such a doctrine may be talked out of "enlightened" and "intellectual" circles. It is a grand thing to be God's creature—the creature of such a God. But through His mercy I pass out of merely creaturely, into filial, relationship to Him.

"AS HE IS—SO ARE WE."

His holy Personality the image (if I may use such an expression) of what the Father sees in us potentially.

To some minds this may seem an unreality. Our first thought rather is, What a difference—what a vast and mighty contrast—between what “He is” and what “we are”! He is in glory, clothed with majesty and girt about with might; we are dwellers in tabernacles of clay. He is in purity, absolute and perfect; we are sinful. He is in eternal joy, the oil of gladness poured upon Him, and made most blessed for ever; we are in a world of tears, that sometimes make our couch to swim. He is in immortal life; we are in a world of sickness and graves. As He is, we *hope* to be; we *long* to be; we would *die* to be; but it seems an unreality to say, *As He is, we are*. Yet is it even so. And one of the problems of Christian experience is to reach the consciousness of the blessed fact. Once, I remember, in looking through a painter’s portfolio, which contained a number of unfinished sketches—just as they flashed up before his inner eye—one little sketch attracted and interested me specially. It was the sketch of a martyr’s face. Noticing the interest which his sketch excited, he took me into another room, and showed me the picture finished and almost living to the eye; and in the finished picture I saw at once the earlier sketch. Even so—if one may reverently use the parable—Christian men and women are the unfinished sketch: but God sees the perfect Christ in each of them—the Christ to whose glorious image they shall one day be perfectly conformed; and each of them He sees in the perfect Christ.

Through the consciousness of our being in Him, a love takes possession of us which casteth out fear; and a joyful, unfaltering confidence in God is inspired within us, which exhibits itself in our prayers, and which we retain even in the Day of Judgment. Abiding in Him we have confidence,

PRAYER.

and are not ashamed before Him at His coming. We raise no dirge-like, half-shuddering wail over

"That fearful day, that day of speechless dread."

When "that Day" is conceived of, love does not clothe the Judge with awful terrors, but thinks of Him as the gracious Saviour who died for us. As the Day approaches, love is not terrified, but lifts up its head, because redemption draweth nigh. When the Lord, the Judge, appears, love exults and triumphs: "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us." When we appear in His presence—naked under His eye—love is unfearing still, knowing that no unsettled charge which we cannot meet hangs over us. "Herein is love made perfect, that we should have boldness in the Day of Judgment";—that, instead of being put to silence and covered with shame, we should lift up our countenance in His presence, and speak with the unfaltering voice of loved and loving children of God. Fore-token of all this we find abundantly in the death-beds of believing men—the nearest approach we know to the conditions of the last day. Thus believers in the Son of God form the family of God; are "brethren" in the profoundest sense of the word; are *one* in the power of love.

The culmination of that life of faith, love, and obedience which belongs to God's children, is in Prayer. No perplexing speculations on the subject of prayer are introduced in John's writings: the view presented to us is simple in the highest degree. Prayer is asking: Christian prayer is the children asking, with fearless yet reverent freedom—asking and receiving. It is one of our "home-born rights," pertaining to the filial relationship. It is not the constraining or bending of the Divine will. It grounds itself on the revelation of that will. It would have nothing but what is according to that will. Its workings, being under spiritual guidance,

THE CHURCH.

harmonize with the laws of the spiritual realm, “the invisible kingdom of love.” It is implied by John—what is so clearly stated by Paul—that it is the result of spiritual operation within our breast. A father, trying to teach his children to pray, tells them to whom they are to speak and in what name; and then he utters words which his children repeat after him. He can put words into his children’s mouths, but cannot put corresponding desires into his children’s hearts. This is what the Holy Spirit does with the children of God; He kindles desires in their hearts—such as it will glorify God to grant, and bless them to receive. And here is the crowning blessing of sonship—that our will falls in with the Will of God as having entire confidence in it, and our life becomes unbroken asking and receiving.*

The conception that we obtain from John of “the Church”† is very profound, but very unecclesiastical. The *root* of the conception is the fellowship of the Father and the Son—“as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee”—“Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.” Into this fellowship the Apostles entered: “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” And they gave forth their testimony that others might be joined to them—“that ye also may have fellowship (or common sharing) with us.” And all who become sharers in the fellowship are bound together in one by that prayer which ends in these words, “*that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them—and I in them.*” Their oneness

* “It is not the gilded paper and good writing of a petition that prevails with a king, but the moving sense of it: and to the King that discerns the heart, heart-sense is the sense of all, and that which He alone regards; He listens to hear what that speaks, and takes all as nothing where that is silent. All other excellence in prayer is but the outside and fashion of it: that is the life of it.”—*Leighton*.

† The ordinary word for “church” is not used by John except to mark some separate, visible society.

"OUR SAVIOUR-KING."

is "as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee;" and hence could never be brought about by any fusion of "denominations." This is the Church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. And in this Church the Holy Spirit dwells.

Though he does not speak of Law as Paul does, equally the Apostle John asserts the supremacy of the holy Will in Christian living—clinching what he says ever and again, with the words, *This is His Commandment*. Hence he can never be made the minister of that religion of mere taste and feeling - so congenial to human nature--whose highest triumph is to ravish the worshipper into a half dreamy, half sensuous elysium, but which unstrings the moral energies, and is useless, amid the wear and tear of daily life, to make men patient and righteous and godly. There is moral nerve in his doctrine equally with loftiness of pitch.

The place which he assigns to Jesus in connection with duty is shown in the words which he reports, "If ye love Me keep My commandments." In saying so, Jesus does not speak as a mere lawgiver, having authority and right, and with power to enforce His will. The laws of states have no preface like this, *If ye love me*. Obedience is demanded whether the subjects love the lawgiver or not. These laws are grounded, or supposed to be grounded, on what is *righteous*, and are enforced by the magistrate's sword. But the Lord Jesus, in issuing His commandments, makes appeal to our love—our love to Himself personally.* He has established a claim upon our love, and if our hearts respond to that claim, then (He says) "keep My commandments." It is not then as a mere *lawgiver* that Jesus speaks to us.

Nor is it as a mere *friend*. A friend may warn, counsel,

* "Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding Love,

Thou maker of new morals for mankind,

The grand morality is love of Thee."

LOVE.

urge, remonstrate, but he does not issue "commandments." It is the glory of friendship to stand on the same level with us. But Jesus *commands*.

The relation in which He stands to us is thus altogether unique. We have analogies to it in actual life, but no perfect parallel. Here is One who has authority over us, but who does not take His stand on mere authority; who takes His stand on the claim He has established upon our hearts, and who issues His commandments to *love*. He is, as the children's hymn calls Him, "Our *Saviour-King*."

The ethical teaching does not follow the doctrinal in separate chapters, and as a consequence; but is so interwoven with it that the one cannot be detached from the other. Being "*in* the Son of God," we are to abide in Him, drawing our very life from Him. Being children of God, we are to realize our sonship, to bear it ever in mind, to act it out in all ways, to use its privileges, to cherish its hopes. Having life, we are to live, reproducing and showing forth the life of Christ among our fellow-men. *He* is the ideal of the righteousness, and meekness, and mercifulness, and truth, and patience, and joy in God, and surrender to His will, that we are to aspire after. Being the children of light, we are to walk in the light, abiding therein continually. Supremely (everything being involved in this) we are to love—purely, self-sacrificingly, lastingly. The word "*Love*" is a summons as lofty and great as the charge, "*Be ye holy, for I am holy*."

The type of love is the love we have ourselves received. "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." This is not to be the splendid exception, in some special cases, as when there is need for a Christian Thermopylae; it is the common rule. Love gives itself, even as Christ Jesus gave Himself for us, not merely to a bitter and shameful death (over the remembrance of which we may weep and bewail

THE LOVE OF GOD.

our sins), but to the manifestation of all patience, and gentleness, and grace. Faith in His love is the death of selfishness in my heart—or at least the sentence of doom.

One of the common complaints in our day, in Christian societies, is this, “*There is no love among us.*” Sometimes the complaint is uttered in holy sorrow. But sometimes it only means, *I am not getting my just share of love from others; the place feels cold around me.* If this is what the complaint means, the remedy is that the complainer should love till he warms up the whole neighbourhood. I am to love when I am not loved. I am to love when I am suspected. I am to love when men are trying to discover what selfish feeling moves me, or what my price is. I am to love those who do not care for my love. I am to love even when I have indignation. I am to love as the sun shines—its beams going forth on all sides without asking for an object, and “there is nothing bid from the heat thereof”; the love I show being the love of God in me.

We speak—we cannot help speaking—of “the love of God.” John however conceives of the case more simply still. He does not conceive of love as something *belonging* to God, something *in* God, something that *characterizes* God; but as *what God is*. He does not speak of God *having* love; he says, “God *is* love.” When I think of God, I think of love. To say, *I believe in God*, is the same thing as to say, *I believe in love*. When I know God, I know love. When I abide in God, I abide in love. When I love God, I love love. Now the love I know in knowing God, is love that lays hold of my being and communicates itself. Not as flame, shining through a window, reddens the surface of a frozen pool without warming it: but as flame seizes upon the wood it touches, and kindles it, setting it aflame—so the love of God does with me; it lays hold, flame-like, upon my heart, and kindles it into the

"WALK BEFORE ME."

very ardours of God. My love is not something separate from God's, resembling it, but having no connection with it; rather it is God's love laying hold upon me, kindling me, making me in a most real sense a partaker of the Divine nature. Madame Guyon has just expressed the thought in these simple lines:—

"I love my God, but with no love of mine,

For I have none to give ;

I love Thee, Lord ; but all the love is Thine,

For by Thy love I live.

I am as nothing, and rejoice to be

Emptied and lost and swallowed up in Thee."

Now the very essence and sum of all duty is, that I should *love*. When I have learned to do so, then does my will learn to stand and wait for the blessed Will -like an angel continually beholding the face of God: and then too obedience is no task; but I can say, as the Lord said, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart." It is the peculiarity of this life of love that it may be lived in its utmost grandeur in the humblest circumstances—as it was by Him who was born in a stable and laid in a manger.

One thing I would specially note with respect to the Apostle's ethical teaching—the absence of what would stimulate self-consciousness or consciousness of being in the presence of men. Without thinking what we do, we often lead new converts into a subtle danger. We are jealous for the honour of Christ, and we wish to help Christian steadfastness; and so we say to the new convert, *Now, you must be very careful in your behaviour; and remember that the eyes of the world are upon you.* It may be well meant; but I doubt if it is in keeping with the counsel of Scripture. Would it not be better to say?—*Walk before the Lord; think supremely of His eye; and do not trouble your-*

THE "LAST THINGS."

*self about the eyes of men.* It seems to me that this is the spirit of the Apostle John throughout his writings.

As to the "Last Things," there are many weighty and suggestive hints in John's Epistles—as weighty and suggestive, though not so large as in Paul. There are also hints—if only mere hints—in his Gospel, such as these: "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." "He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be also."

In the Gospel of Matthew we find what may be called an Apocalyptic Section, consisting of two chapters, the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth; and similarly in Mark and Luke. Instead of such a section in John's Gospel, the visions of futurity are broadened out into a separate, prophetic book the Book of Revelation in which the fullest disclosure is made of the things that are to be hereafter. The Pierced One is to return to earth again. "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." There is no real ground for the assertion, so often and confidently made, that John believed the end of all things was to take place in his own day. He never says so. But he does most unmistakably affirm the glorious Appearing, and assures us that the Lord will lose no time. The Divine fellowship of believers is to be perfect in that day of Christ. Our present relationship is that between the

JOHN'S THEOLOGY.

betrothed bride and the Bridegroom. At present the Church and her Lord are (in a sense) divided. There is indeed ceaseless and unbroken communion proceeding; her prayers and praises and offered love are continually ascending to the high world where He is; and His gifts and blessings and assurances of undying love are continually coming down to earth. But not till the day of Christ is the fulness of the Church's joy and bliss. His Appearing is THE HOPE.

Preceding and leading up to it there is a peculiar course of development, unfolded at large and with the utmost wealth of imagery in the book of Revelation. Within the visible society antichristianism develops itself; while the world, onward to the last, exhibits impenitence and deadly hostility against God and His Christ. Antichristianism is *really* and *at heart* "the world;" but it is "the world" assuming the Christian name, professing to believe in Christian doctrine, assembling in Christian "temples," offering the show of homage to Christ while inwardly it hates Him. It goes on from age to age—conspiracy, war, struggle, hate against the Lamb, and all device and violence to ruin His cause. "To bring Him down," a certain writer says, "from the throne to which His mistaken followers have exalted Him, *is only a work of time*." Unbelief again and again begins to sing its paean of victory over a conquered Christ who shall trouble the world no more. "I pray you," says Voltaire, "let me never hear that man's name again."

In vain! The "Word of God," who is called Faithful and True, the King of kings and Lord of lords, followed by the armies of heaven, is victorious; the devil is bound and shut up in the bottomless pit; the martyr souls live and reign with Christ a thousand years. At the end of that period the imprisoned foe of God and man is unloosed for

SUMMED UP IN CHRIST.

a time and returns to his old work; the final victory at length is won, and the devil is cast into the lake of fire.* The Judgment of the “great white throne” follows, in which the dead, small and great, stand before God, and are judged every man according to his works; and the eternal state is introduced, in which God is “all in all,” and the words from the throne are fulfilled, “*Behold, I make all things new.*”

From this brief account of the great lines laid down in John’s writings, it will be seen that in his conception the whole of Christian theology is involved in the person of Christ, the Eternal Word manifested in the flesh, and exerting His power throughout human history. It is no metaphysical castle in the air, but an edifice whose foundations are the immovable primary rocks of eternal truth. I would only add that, just as the true and the ethical are vitally connected in his writings—as faith and life are not merely allied, but *one*—so no man can be a Christian theologian who is not also living a Christian life.

* Symbolized by the Dead Sea lying in its horrid chasm,—the lake in which sank the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, “set forth for an example,” suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.


IX.