curiosity. or nn intimation that John should survive until the d8tructlon of Jerusnlem; yet tlwre went 11.brond A notion that Jesus haJ expressly assured his beloved disciple thRt he should never die! Could there be a. more rema.rka.ble perversion of the Lord's word~? a. more i:ignal instance of the untrustworthiness of oral tra.dition? Yet, what happened then hl\8 often happened before and since. Pa.asing from one ma.n's lips to Another's, fact!! may dissolve into fictions, a.nd opinions ma.y be reversed. UL Tme INSTANCE BUGGEBTB HOW WISE AND :MERCIFUL AN ARRANGEMENT 18 THAT DY WHICH THE GOSPEL IS NOT LEFT TO ORAL TRADITION, BUT HAB BEEN EMBODIED IN AUTREI>'TICATED DOCUlCENTB. By inspiring his apostles to commit the gospel facts to writing, our Lord has secured us against the mischiefs attending tradition. The truth cannot be injured either by the zeal of friends or by the malicci of foes. PRACTICAL LEBIION. Readers of the New Testament are bound in reason to a.ccept and credit what there is no room for a.ny candid inquirer to distrust.-T. Yer. 24.- Witness authenticating witness, That the la.st two verses of this Gospel are not the composition of the evangelist whose name it bears is pie.in enough. But it is almost equally plain that this fact does not detract from their value, but, all things considered, rather adds to it. l. lT IS EVIDl>NT THAT THIB ~PEL WAS KNOWN TO THE CONTElllPORARIES OF THE APOSTLE JoHN. Whoever wrote these supplementary sentences, this a.ppendi.x to the treatise, it is clear that the treatise itself was in his hands, and that he added his witness in the earliest a.ge, and in all likelihood while the a.ged John wa.s still living. II. JOHN HIMSELF WAS KNOWN DY THE WRITER OF THIB APPENDIX TO DE TH.l!l AUTHOR OF THE GoSPEL. No one who is unprejudiced can suppose that this addition wa.s made long after the writer was dead, and longer still after the death of the great Subject of the memoir. We ha.ve not here the record of an opinion; it is not the case of an anonymous Christian giving expression to his judgment that, as a ma.tter of criticism, John WIil! probably the author of the Gospel "We know," he says-speaking for others as well as for him.self-" that his [the beloved disciple's] testimony is true." They had doubtless heard many of the contents of the book from the lips of John himself, and thev had doubtless heard the aged apostle acknowledge the authorship. iIL 'I'H:E VERSE CONTA.INS AGUARANTEE OF TBE VERACITY OF JoHN. In stating that they knew that John's testimony was true, the guarantors a.nd attestors must ha.ve been deliberately laying claim t,o independent sources of informa.tion. Wha.t more reasonable than to believe that they had seen and listened to some who had been witnesses of the Lord's death and of his resurrection-life ? They ma.y not only ha.ve enterained other apostles a.t Ephesus; they may ha.ve visited J~salem, and have seen those who in their youth had seen the Lord. In many ways they ma.y have sa.tisfied themselves that the records of John were not "cunningly devised fables;" that he had spoken what his eyes had seen and his ears had hea.rd of the Word of life. IV. THE WITNESS THUS BORNE TO THE GOSPEL CONFIBMB IT8 CLAIM UPON OUR ll.EVERE1''T ATTENTION .AND FAITH. This was the intention with which the appendix was added. And as the interest and value of the document centre in the Being to whom it mainly relates, we may justly acknowledge that we are under a. moral obliga.tion to study the testimony borne. The Gospel of John is to be trea.ted as a.n ordinary book in so far that its acceptance as credible depends upon evidence of a.n a.ppropriate and convincing character. But its contents are fa.r from ordinary; they a.re so extra.ordinary that it is reasouable and right for the reader to look for a. valid foundation for his credence. And inasmuch as the manifest purpose, the professed purpose, for which thci Gospel was written was to produce faith in the Lord JesUB Christ, we shall only receive the testimony of this unnamed bnt credible and veracious attestor so as to secure our highest enljght.enment and welfare, if we a.re convinced that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God and the Saviour of mankind. Even aasent to historical truth is insuffi- cient ; for thill is the means to an end, and that end is " saving faith,"-T,
Vers. 16--17.-Tl.e paatoral office. Notice- I. THE LOVE REQUIRED. 1. J,i, fli>me of i.t, 7,e,ading featuru. (1) It is the highest order of love. "Lovest (&-,.....;s) thou," etc.? Love va.ries in it11 qua.lity, from the co=n love of man to wan up to the most spiritual and Divine love of the soul to cH. xu. 1-25.) THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 523