The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 42

if they have been lustfully indulged, retain ~heir craving, but loRe the p()wer of enjc,y- ment. llut e. more pleasing reason yet remains to be specified. 5. There j9 a far IJ,-ttcr pursuit open to us, which will open up nobler prospects. "He that doetb. the will of God o.bideth for ever." Here the opposite course is pointed out-" doing the will of God." Losing our wills in his. "This is the way the Master went," finding his meat in the fulfilment of the Father's will. We know that that will is perfect wisdom and perfect love. And if we ever ask," Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" our duty will be rcvealved to us (1) in the Word, (2) by the openings of Providence, and (3) the teachings of the Holy Ghost. He that lives for this end "abideth for ever;" i.e. the aims of his being can never be interrupted. If he lives, he lives to the Lord; if he dies, he dies to the Lord. If he toils, he does God's will. If he suffers, he bears it. If he be on earth, he fulfils his Father's will in this life; if he departs hence, he fulfils it in another. 'fhe supreme object of his existence is sure to be realized under any circumstances, through all outward changes, in all possible places, and in any state of being, and throughout the ages of eternity. He who is thus living can use the sublime boast of Paul, and say, "In nothing I shall be ashamed . . . Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death . . . . For to me to live is Christ, and to have died is gain." A beloved and honoured pastor, the Rev. Thomas Craig, of Bocking, in Essex, after a pastorate of sixty-two years, during which he had often expressed the wish to die •• in harness," was called to his rest e.fter a very brief illness. After his death, a sermon he had begun to prepare for the pulpit was found half-finished upon his clesk. It was from the text, "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abidethfor ever." Ver. 18.-A last hour; or, the Divine enclosure of revealed time. Oonne<:ting link: "The world is passing away," wrote the apostle (ver. 17), and now he proceeds to repeat and reimpress this fact upon his readers in two additional statements: (1) that a great crisis had already begun; and (2) that the mark of that being so was tb.e appearance of antichrist,-by this, he says, we know that it is a last hour. (The phrase is anarthrous.) Here are two homiletic studies of the profoundest interest. One on the time-arrangements of the Divine dispensations; the other on antichrist. The first only do we now note; our topic-The Divine enclosure of revealed time. J. THE GREAT SUPREME, WHO IS FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING, HAS GRA- CIOUSLY DIVIDED TIME INTO PERIODS FOR us. No finite minds can comprehend a whole eternity. They will make their own horizon, even if one be not disclosed. The eye requires a point of repose whichever way it turns. We are not, however, left to make our own. God has furnished us with one in each direction, before and behind. We have such phrases as, "in the beginning"(Gen. i.1; John i. l); "then the end" (1 Cor. xv. 24). In neither case can the phrase mean an absolnte beginning or an absolute end. For with God is neither beginning nor end. Beginning and end can be such only so far as God reveals time to us. These are the two enclosures within which revelation moves. There a.re varied expressions in the Scriptures, moreover, to indicate several epochs which lie between the two extremes; and it would be a great gain to Bible students if, instead of wasting time and energy in attempting to fix dates for this event or thnt, they would take a larger view, comprehending all the time- expressions in the sacred volume, and endeavour to seize hold of and to apply the principles of the Divine government and the outlines of Divine plan thereby disclose<.!. Let the following references be carefully compared: "The last days," or "the latter days," as spoken of under the old dispensation (Gen. xlix. 1; Numb. xxiv. 14; Deut. iv. 30; Isa. ii. 2; Jer. xxiii. 20; xxx. 24; xlviii. 47; xlix. 39; Ezek. xxxviii.16; Hoe. iii. 5; Joel ii. 28; iii. 1; Micah iv. 1). In the New Testament we have the phrases, "mine hour"(John ii. 4); "his hour" (John xiii. I; viii. 20; vii. 30); "the hour" (John xvii. 1; xii. 23; iv. 21, 23; v. 28, 35; xvi. 4, 25, 32); "this hour" (John xii. 27); "your hour" (Luke xxii. 53); "times or seasons" (Acts i. 7); "forty-two months" (Rev. xi. 2); "three days and a half" (Rev. xi. 11); "time, and times, and half a time" (Rev. xii. 14; cf. Dan. vii. 25; xii. 7, 11, 12); "these last times" (1 Pet. i. 20); "these last days" (Hob. i. 2); "the last days" (Acts ii. 17; 2 Tim. iii. I; 2 Pet. iii. 3; Jude 18; Jas. v. 3); "the last day" (John vi. 39, 44, 54; xii. 48); " the day of Christ" (Phil. i. 10); "the day of the Lord" (1 'l'hess. v. 2 ; Acts ii. 20);  38 THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF JOHN. [011. u. 1-20.