about his intell..gent creRtures knowing who and what he is. 2. It shows ue also that, 1f we are adequ:itely to know who or what God is, it must be by a meseage from him to man, and not through man attempting to srarch out him. 3. We see, further, t.lmt by means of such a mt>ssage, brought ~y such a Messenger, we may come to know the very greatest fact in the very simplest way. 4. This revelation of the nature of God is not for the purpoge of s11tisfying specul!ltive inquiries; it is intended to yield practical results (cf. vers. G-10). 5. The right use of this message will yield us a knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, which is in itself" the eternal life" (cf. John xvii. 3), V. b.'"FERENCES A'.ND APPLICATION. l. This sublime truth, being presented to us ns a message from God, indicates to us so far an element of truth in agnosticism. "The world through its wisdom knew not God" (1 Cor. i. 21, Revised Version). 2. If the gospel be a me~sage from the everlasting God, then the one point which he.s to be verified is, not whether the message be in all respects such a one as we might have expected, but whether the Messenger be at once capable and true. 3. To demand the same kind of verification which a man gets of his own discoveries in physical science, is absurd. The only possible verification of a testimony lies in the proof of the llbility and veracity of the witness. Each kind of truth has its linfs of verification in its own direction, and in no other. 4. Most jealous care should be taken that we do neither the Messenger nor the message an injustice through allowing any prejudice or any dogmatic assumption to interfere with the consideration of their claims. 5. The substance of the message is in itself a stroug argument for the truth of the Messenger. One assumption only is involved therein, viz. that God can reveal himself. 6. There is an infinite difference between an agnosticism that is such because it never heard the message, and that which is such because it scornfully ignores it under the pretence that God is unknowable. The one is a grievous misfortune ; the other, a more grievous sin. In the one there is a yearning for the light; in the other, a turning from it. "They did not like to retain God in their knowledge."
Vers. 6-10.-" If . . . if:" which shall it be 1 Connecting link: The purpose of God in re~ealing himself to us as Light is that we may come into fellowship with him; and that in this fellowship we ourselves may become sons of light, which by nature we are not. Topic-The only way in which the purpose of this Divine message about God himself can be accomplished in us i.s by our first recognizing truly and fully what we are, a-nd then aclcnowledging our state before him. L THE EKDS OF GoD IN THUS DECLARING HIMSELF MAY BE FRUSTRATED IN ONE 0B OTHER OF THREE WAYS. 1. If we maintain that our fellowship with God follows as a matter of course, independently of moral considerations; e.g. if we (1) say that we have fellowship with him (ver. 6), and if we (2) walk in darkness. In that case we are (a) false in word: "we lie;" (b) false in practice: "we do not the truth." The truth is not merely to be objectively perceived by the understanding, but is also to be transmuted into life. Men would soon go on to know more of objective truth if they would but put in practice what th~y already know. A fellowship in the Light, and a living and walking in the darkness, are far asunder as the east is from the west. 2. If we maintain that there is no wrong in not being in fellowship with God, or if we deny that sin is the great barrier to fellowship, i.e. "if we say that we have no sin" 1 (ver. 8),-in that case (1) we are self-deceived; (2) "the truth is not in us," i.e. as an informing guide, or as a regulating power. Note: To take a true view of sin-its evil, its guilt, its subtlety, its destruc- tiveness-is an imperative condition of understanding the value of the gospel message and of the Redeemer's work. 3. If we maintain that sin, albeit it may be located in us, has never broken forth into act; i.e. "if we say that we have not sinned" (ver. 10),-in that case (1) we are putting the lie on what God has said; for certainly God himself and we are in violent moral contrast. But if so, and we say we have not sinned, then we charge the sin on God; and since the revelation of God as Light is meant to throw up our sin in its darkness and enormity, if we deny our darkness, we thereby deny Goa's light. (2) God's Word is not in us, i.e. as the moving power or the enlightening force. It is outs~l.e us; but we close the eye, and will not let it shine within. It may be, it is, true that in God we Ii ve, and move, and have our being: that we cannot flco from his presence: that he has beset us behind and before, and laid his hand upon UH; 1 See Westcott on the rhrase, lX"" b.JJ."PTl11.v. OH, r. 1-10.] THE FIRST EPISTLE GE~ERA L OF JOHN. 9