The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 17

t.ext ligl,t is said to be the essence or the Divine Dcing. "Goel is Light." Of 1111 ruaterinl things light is most fitted to set forth truLh and holy spiritual being. "It unites in it~elf," _as Alfor~, ~ays, "pu_rity, and_ clearness, and beauty,_ and glory, as no other material ob3ect does. And Milton, "Light ethereal, first of tlHngs quintessence pure." The emblem suggests- ' I. THE INFThTI'E INTELLIGENCE OF Gon. He is the Omniscient. "No intellectual ignorance can darken his all-cm brR.Cing survey of actual and possible fact." '' Unto him all heart,s are open, all desires known, and from him no secrets are hid." "0 Lord, thou hatit searched me and known me. 'l:.hou knowest my down-sittincr and mine uprising," etc. (Ps. cx:xxix. 1-6); "He telleth the number of the stars:" etc. (Ps. cxlni. 4, 5); "He knoweth the secrets of the heart" (Ps. xliv. 21); "God knoweth all things" (1 John iii. 20); "I know thy works," etc. (Rev. ii. 2, 9, 13, 19; iii. I, 8, 15). Ever~· gparrow is known unto him (Luke xii. 6, 7). Let us endeavour to personally realize this great and solemn truth: God knows me always and thoroughly. IT. THE ENLIGHTENING INFLUENCE OF Goo. Ho created the light of the material universe. " God said, Let there be light: and there was light." He is the great Fountain of all intellectual and moral light. He inspired Bezaleel to devise and execute skilful han.J.iwork (Exod. xxxi. 1-5). 'fhe scientist, the metaphysician, the statesman, the poet, the artist, each and all derive their light from him. He communicates religious truth to man. He inspired, and still inspires, the great religious thinkers, and the far and clear-sighted spiritual seers of our race. By his Son Jesus Christ he "lighteth e,•ery man'' (John i. 9). III. THE LIFE-GIVING AND INVIGORATING INFLUENCE wmcn Goo EXERTS. Light cannot create life; but it quickens, develops, and strengthens it. "Physical light," says Ebrard, "appears to be the producing, forming, quickening principle of all organi- zation, in its essence self-communicative, and the stiruulati1Jg principle of all physical organic functions of life." Light is essential to every kind of life with which we are acquainted. Without it our world wonld speedily become one vast, dreary, dread abode of the dead. Great forces also of various kinds are produced from light. As George Stephenson pointed out, it is light which propels so swiftly ou1· long and heavy railway trains. "It is light bottled up in the earth for tens of thousands of years, light absorbed by plants and vegetables being necessary for the condensation of carbon during the process of their growth, if it be not carbon in another form; and now, arter being buried in the earth for long ages in fields of coal, that latent might i~ again brought forth and liberated-made to work, as in that locomotive, for great human purposes." God is the great Author of all life and of all force. He created the physical uni,·erse, and he sustains it. The forces of nature are expressions of his awful or beautiful might. Evolution is a mode of Divine operation. And the life and strength of souls he inspires and renews. He inspires the soul with life. "You being dead in yonr sins hath he quickened" (Col. iL 13). The true Christian" is born of the Spirit" (John iii. 8); he" is born of God" (eh. iii. 9). And God imparts and renews s!rength to his people. "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength," etc. (Isa. xl. 29-31). IY. THE EXISTENCE OF Goo AS A TRINITY IN UNITY. This is at least suggested by speaking of him as Light. In two ways does light suggest the triunity of God. "'fhe researches of Youncr and Helmholtz," says Mr. t:iugden, "have proved beyond the pos- sibility of doubt that the ihree primary colours are red, green, and violet, and that by mrious combinations of these three all the colours with which we are acquainted are produced; whilst the combination of all three in equal proportions gives white light, npparently one simple and homogeneous sensation, but in reality a compound of three. Have we not here a most striking illustration, if noL more than an ill11stration, of the Christian truth about the nature of God, which teaches us that he is a Trinity iu unity -three Persons, and one God? . . . As Luthardt well P.:.ys,' God has, in the history of salvatiuu, revealerl himself in a triune manner-as Father, Son, and Spirit; and we, in that work or appropriating Ralvatinn, through which we become Christiaue, have experi- ence of Goel ar~ording to this distinction, viz. as him to whom we are reconciled, nod BI! the Spirit who has inwardly appropriated to us the grnce of reconciliation, and made it the power of a new life to us. Thus do we brcomc certain that there are distinctions in the Godhead, that God is the triune God.'" Light suggests the same truth in on. 1. 1-10.J THE FIRST EPISTLE GENEHAL OF JOHN. 13