' H. Scott Holland, Personal Studies, 137.
252 AN ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER
the bosom of Christ, and who had known Him face to face. Sitting in his chair at Ephesus, or speaking from the Isle of Patmos, he addresses the entire Church of every country, as he says, with the weight of venerable age, with the tone of in- effable love, with the accent of invincible authority — " My little children."
The text may be divided into three parts — I. The Peril. II. The Pleader. III. The Plea.
The Peril.
Though the aim of the Apostle was to lead men into the truth, so that they might not sin, he knew that this could not be accom- plished by a stroke of magic. It was a moral achievement to be brought about by moral means. And so there might be momentary failure. Sin crouched at the door, and the Accuser was always ready to drag the culprit into Court. There was provision, how- ever, against the peril.
1. The form of the verb in the Greek requires us to under- stand not a continuance or living in habitual sin, but committing an act of sin. St. John has no uplifting message for the man who lives in the unrestrained practice of sin. This he calls " walking in darkness." Such a life of habitual sin is expressed by the present tense of the verb, suggesting continuance, as in chap. iii. 6, 8. To be overtaken by a temptation and to fall into sin — a sin which is repudiated by all that is deepest in him, a sin which he at once hates and mourns, is a very different thing, and is expressed by a tense which suggests an act, not a habit. He who so falls may be sure, from the Word of God, that he has One standing by the throne to plead for him, who presents the atone- ment, not on behalf of the habitual, unconcerned, or half-repentant, half-persistent sinner, but of him who says from his grieved, peni- tent heart, " I acknowledge my transgressions : and my sin is ever before me."
I JOHN II. I, 2 253
2. Now sin in the believer has two aspects, that of direct and positive violation of known duty, and that of coming short of God's glory — a deficiency in that perfection of love, of tireless consecration, of joyous realization of obedience to God's holy will, which characterized our Lord. When the Apostle says that he writes to his little children in the faith, that they may not sin, it is clear that it is to the first of these that he refers. There is provision in the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, in virtue of which we are delivered from all known sin, and kept by the power of God, through faith, from things which we once wrought without shame or remorse. But at the close of a day in which we have realized that keeping power to the uttermost, who is there of us that is not aware of having come short of the glory of God ? We might have been more earnest and devoted and single- hearted. And in all this we need the forgiveness and cleansing of our Heavenly Father.
^ Of Mrs. Bellamy Gordon's stories of her childhood one re- mains in my memory because of her manner of telling it. " My love, I once did something for which I feel I can never be for- given. When I was very young my father was in charge of the Coastguard, and we lived at Portpatrick, and I went to a dancing- school at Stranraer with the children of the neighbouring gentry. But on the great day, once a year, when all the world came to see us dance, the children of the townspeople joined our class. There was among them one little boy with golden curls whom we all admired very much, but he always chose to dance with a pretty little girl, the child of a shopkeeper in the town. I think the master must have been a bit of a flunkey, for he said, at the opening of the exhibition, " Now, little Missie Gordon may choose her partner." I looked for the boy with the golden curls : he was standing beside his little partner, and — oh, my dear ' — I carried him off", and she cried ; and I don't see how I am ever to be for- given ! " 1
3. The more sinless men become the more do they hate sin. The greatest outpourings of agony over sin have not come from vicious and gross sinners when they were converted, but from the lips of the holiest in God's Church. Just as discord in music gives little pain to the unmusical but intense pain to the musical, 80 sin gives little pain to sinful people. Just as discord in music
^ Mrs. E. M. Sellar, Kecolhctiuns aiid Impressions, 246.
254 AN ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER
becomes more and more painful as we get a better ear for harmony, so sin becomes more and more painful as we grow holier and approach nearer to the harmony of the Divine life. Thus it is that the most heartfelt expression of agony for sin comes from the best Christians in the world. Blemishes that were not noticed when we were far from God *' become lit up with tortur- ing clearness when we approach the ineffable light of Him whose stainless beauty casts the shadow of failure on all that is not Himself, and who charges His very angels with moral folly." And as men grow more Christlike they realize more and more the curse of that alienation from God, which is the worst consequence of sin.