aspect of St. John's thought. What is elsewhere described as a mystical indwelling becomes a moral fellowship. ' Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends ; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth ; but I have called you friends ' (15^^). The disciples are to enter into a perfect harmony of mind and will with their Master. His spirit is not to act on them from the outside, through set commandments, but inwardly and spontaneouslj\ The relation of discipleship thus passes into one of 'friendship,' — a friendship so close that they lose all sense of separateness be- tween themselves and Christ. He ' abides in them,' and replaces their will with His own.
To the Synoptic teaching St. John adds one element of priceless value. He jjerceives that the new Life proclaimed by Jesus was bound up indis- solubly with His living Person. ' In him was life ' ( Jn 1^), and it is not enough to render some vague obedience to His teaching. There must be a real and personal communion with Christ, so that He may impart His veiy self to His disciple. In his presentation of this truth, John avails himself of metaphysical modes of thinking which are not wholly adequate to the Christian message. The conception of Christ as Logos obscures the true significance of His Person and of the higher life imparted through Him. But the essential thought of the Gospel is independent of the form, borrowed from an alien philosophy, in which it is expressed. Jesus Christ is not only the Life-giver, but is Him- self the Life. He imparts His gift to those who know Him by an inward fellowship, and become one with Him in heart and will. See also Living.
LiTERATiTiiE. — H. Holtzmann, NT Theol. i. 293 ff. (1897), Schrenck, Die johan. Anschauiing vom ' Leben ' (1898) ; Titius, Die NT Lehre von der Seligkeit (esp. the Johannine section, 1900) ; Grill, [Tntersuchungen iiber die Entstehung des vit-rten Emng. 206-327 (1902); G.'Dalman, Words of Jesiis, 156; G. B. Stevens, Johannine Theology, 241, 312 ; P. Brooks, More Abundant Life ; B. F. Westcott, Historic Faith, 142 ; F. J. A. Hort, The Way, the Truth, the Life (1893); E. Hatch, Me- morials, 181 ; J. G. Hoare, Life in St. John's Gospel, (1901).
E. F. Scott.
LIGHT. — Apart from the ordinary use of this Avord to denote outward light (as in Lk IP", Mt 172 24^* etc.), there are three applications of the metaphor of light in the Synoptic Gospels Avhich demand attention.
1. The first occurs in the figurative and some- what enigmatic saying preserved in Mt 6^2- ^'' = Lk 1134.35^ Avhere the eye is called the lamp of the body, the symbolism pointing to sincerity of soul as the decisive feature of life. Each Evangelist gives the saying- a different setting. In Mt.'s version of the Sermon on the Mount it occurs in a context laying stress upon the supreme need of the heavenly mind in religion ; and as the main rival to God in man's affections is the world, in the shape of material wealth, the pursuit of the single mind is naturally correlated with the avoidance of covetousness. This shade of meaning is reflected from vv.'**-^! and 2^- ^^ (see Mammon) upon the in- tervening logion. The soul is to human life what the eye is to the body (so Philo, de Opif. Mundi, 17, ' reason [coi}s] is to the soul what the eye is to the body'); it is a lamp, by means of Avhich the way and work of life are illuminated. As the functions of the physical life depend largely upon the soundness of the organs of vision, by means of whicli men move safely and freely in the outside world, so the mental and moral health of man is bound up with the condition of his inner life. The iuAvard disposition (cf. Jn IP") is the key to all (cf. Ruskin's Queen of the Air, § 93 ; Eagle's Nest, §§ 106-110). The employment of 'light' in this connexion is thus one illustration of the inwardness of the teaching of Jesus. He brought men from the circumference to the centre, laid supreme stress
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on motive, and sought to emphasize — as in this sayin*: — the vital inii>ortance of the inner spirit for conduct. The symbolism turns on the ethical meaning implied in ' single ' (AxXous) and ' evil ' (irovripas), the former suggesting 'liberality,' the latter ' niggardliness ' in the moral sphere. Hence ' light " means that condition of life which is void of covetousne.-<s and the gi-asping spirit. Such a spirit confuses life by diverting it from the supreme inward and heavenly aim which is its true pursuit. The hoarding tenii>er, which absorbs men in out- ward ixjssessions, is pronounced bv Jesus to be a riaw in the moral vision, a speck tliat blurs * the light that is in thee," i.e. the inner light of con- science, the heart, or the soul. Wlien the latter is darkeneti by the iutnision of a divided atlection, e<i>ecially in the form of some api)etite such as covetousness or worldliness, then ' how great is the darkness ' ! For religion, as Christ taught it, is not admitting God into life. It is putting Him first in life. Faith is not thinking Him good, but hailing Hijn as best. And nothing can be more ominous than when the soul, which is mans delicate faculty for seeing and choosing God, is diverted to double - mindednes^ or to an attempt to reconcile the comi>eting interests of Goil and of the world. The outcome is compromise and its inevitable protiuct, hyix)crisy — that sin which a Frenchman once calleil the Hrstfruits of English >ociety — rii>ening under the verj- breath of con- ventional religion. — The loqion may be, as Brandt suggests, a Jewish aphorism based on Pr 20**, which Jesus here quotes and applies.