commonly regarded ae bad, which the true Gnostic would not ehun, but seek, as a means of enlarging hie experience. It will be seen at once how such teaching cut at the root of all Christian truth and morality. (1) Righteousness was made of no account in com- parison with intellectual illumination. (2) Scripture was made of no account in comparison with a knowledge which partly transmuted and ,partly superseded it. (3) The work of Christ was made of no account; for there could be no need of an atonement if there was no real evil in sin. Besides thie Greek doctrine of the supremacy of intellect and the all- importance of intellectual enlightenment, most Gnostics also taught the Oriental doctrine that matter, with everything material, is evil. This principle also entailed a. complete subversion of Christian doctrine and Christian ethics. (1) If the material universe is utt1::rly evil, it cannot have been created by the supremely good God, but by some evil, or at least some inferior, power. (2) The supremely good God must be utterly removed from such a. universe. (3) The Incarnation is impossible; for the Deity could never consent to be united to a material body, innately and incorrigibly impure. In morals opposite conclusions were draW1'1. from this Gnostic premise of the inherently impure character of everything material. (I) If the human body is utterly evil, it must be subdued and chastised to the utmost, that the enlightened spirit may be freed from the burden of so vile an instrument. (2) If the human body is utterly evil, it is a matter of indifference what it does; and so worthless an instrument may be made to commit any act from which the spirit can derive additional knowledge. Thus the" more excellent way" of these advanced thinkers" turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 4). Can we wonder at the stern, unyielding attitude which St. John adopted in confronting it? "Liars," "seducers," "false prophets," "deceivers," "a.ntichrists," seem not too strong 11,ppellations to give to the promoters of teaching such as this. The apostle's reitera- tions of the impossibility of light without holiness and without love, of the impossibility of love without obedience, of the impossibility of combining birth from God with love of the world and its lusts, or with hatred of one's brethren,-become doubly intelligible when we remember the specious doctrines at which these repeated assurances are aimed. Over and over again, first from this point of view and then from that, St. ,' John solemnly asserts our need of the atoning work of Christ, the necessity of ·believing in it, and the obligation to act as those who have abjured all sin and are daily cleansing themselves from its pollution and power in ,the blood of Jesus. To deny or trifle with these great truths is to leave the family of God for the dominion of the evil one. Gnostics may boast ,of their knowledge ; but believers in the Incarnation have their know- ' ledge too. They know that they have passed over out of death into life (1 Epist. iii. 14). They lmoo, that they are children of God, and as such are INTRODUCTION 'l'O
freed from sin by his Son (1 Epist. v. 18, 19). They know that the Son of God has come in the flesh, and ha.s given them a mind wherewith to know, not the remote abstraction which the Gnostic calls God, but the loving Father in whom they oan abide through his Son Jesus Christ (1 Epist. v. 20). •• St. John bas been called the apostle of the absolute; Those who. would concede to Christianity no higher dignity than that of relative and pronsional truth, will fail to find any countenance for their doctrine in tho New Testament. But nowlrere will they encounter more earnest bpposition to it than in the pages of the writer who is pre-eminently the apostle of charity. St. John preaches the Christian creed as the one absolute certainty" (Liddon, 'Bampton Lectures,' lect. v.).
III. THE DESTINATION OF THE EPISTLES, To whom were these Epistles written? Beyond question, the first is rightly called "catholic," or " general." It has no special· superscription. It is not addressed to the Church of Ephesus, nor to the Church of Pergamos, nor to the Churches of Asia collectively, but to the Church at large. No doubt it circulated first among the Churches of Asia, and St. John probably had their needs and dangers in his mind as he wrote it. But its teaching and exhortation is not confined to t.hem, nor to the Church of that time. The doctrines and warnings which it contains are as suitable to the. Church of England or of Rome at the present time as to the Church of Ephesus in St. John's day. The "little children" addressed in it, although p1imarily those whom the apostle shepherded while still on earth, are not confined to that small band of Christians. All those who in any age, past, present, or fnture, listen to the words of this Epistle with willing ears, are among the "little children" of St. John. The destination of the Second Epistle is more open to doubt. From very early times some have supposed that the "elect lady" is an allegorical expression to signify a Church. Jerome even supposes her to represent the Church universal. But this is quite incredible. "The children of thine elect sister salute thee" may possibly mean that the members of one local Ohurcl;t salute another local Chuxch; but what meaning can we give to the elect sister of the Church universal? The Church universal includes all the elect .. This seems to be a case in which the literal interpretation is ·the right one, because the literal interpretation makes excellent sense. No difficulty confronts us if we assume the elect lady to be an individual. Whereas ~o slight a letter seems hardly an appropriate occasion for the employment of' an allegory. In the First Epistle a symbolical designation of the1 Church would have been much more in place. The letter to Gaius is• certainly addressed to an individual. Does not this in itself create a presumption· that the sister-letter to the elect lady is addressed to an individual also? Of the elect lady and of Gaius we know no more than the Epistles tell· us. The lady has children, some 01' whom are away from her roof, and are living loyal Christian lives. Others are with her; and the elder fears that· THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. vl'i