the Supremacy of Love was a late discovery, and he proclaims it as such (see commentary on ii. 7-11). It was not merely an article of his polemic, a protest against the loveless intellectualism where- with St. Ignatius charges the heretical teachers (τοὺς ἑτεροδοξοῦντας), who had ‘“‘no concern for love, none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the distressed, none for the bondman, none for the hungry or the thirsty.” 1. It was a personal confession. That was an aspect of the Gospel which St. John had himself too long failed to perceive; and it may be that it had been revealed to him by two life-transforming experiences. (1) His Exile in Patmos (Rev. i. 9).? During that season of retirement he could look back over his inter- rupted ministry and review his methods. Incidents like his encounter with Cerinthus would recur to him, and would appear to his chastened spirit ill accordant with “the meekness and sweet reasonableness of Christ” (2 Cor. x. 1). It was right that he should contend for the Truth, but had not his intemperate zeal too often caused needless offence and defeated its own end by hardening the hearts of his opponents? He would discover the truth of St. Paul’s precept that “the Lord’s servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all” (2 Tim. ii. 24). (2) The writing of his Gospel. As he lived over again those three years of blessed fellowship and told ‘‘ what he had heard and seen concerning the Word of Life,’ he would realise the pity and patience of the gentle Jesus, and feel as though he had never until that hour understood the Gospel-story. And he would address”
himself to what remained of his ministry in a new spirit. “ Little children, love one another.” ‘‘Master, why do you always say this?” ‘Because it is the Lord’s commandment, and if only it
be done, it is enough.”