repulsion; therefore fear exists not in love. ciple of love." To take &-ya.,,.wµ,v a.~ snh- Lovo hero monne tho principle of love in junetive in the sense "let us love" is less genernl ; it must not be limited to God's forcible. St. John slake es a fact what. lovo to us, or our lovo to Goel, or our love ought to be a fact. ••We Christians rlo uot of the brethren. Love ancl fear coexist on Ty fear, but love. Yet this is no crc,lit to us. whero love is not yet perfect. Perfect love ~fter God's love in giving his Son for us will absolutely exclude fenr na surely as 1t would be monstrous not to love." perfect union exclucloe all separation. It Ver. 20.-Ebrnrd anrl others make a new is self-interested lovo tbnt fears; pure encl section begin here; but vere. 21, 22 are in unselfish love bas no fear. Yet nothing but intimate connexion with what precedes. perfect love mUBt be allowed to cast out What is this love of which the apostle hns fear. Otherwise this text might be macle been speaking? Is it the love of God or of cm excuse for taking the most unwarrant- our fellow-men? Both; love of our brethren able liberties with Almighty God. To is organically bound up with love of God. cease to fear without attaining to perfect To love God and hate one's brother is im- lovo ie to bo irreverent and presumptuous. possible. Sight, though not necessnry to Hence the apostle is once more pointing out affection, aids it; and it. is therefore e,,sicr an ideo.l to which Christiane must aspire, to love men than God. If a man ra;1s in but to which no one attains in this life. the easier, will he succeed in the harder? There ia a fear, as Bede points out, which Moreover, to hate one's brother is to hate prepares the way for love, and which comes God. "Whoso rejectetb you rejecteth me, only to depart again when its work is done. and whoso rejectcth me rejecteth him that :Because fear hath punishment. Ko.\aau sent me." Note the negative, µ,f not od. must not be rendered indefinitely "suffer- St. John has no definite person in view as ing" or "torment" (Matt. xxv. 46; Ezek. d ov1< &-ya,rwv, but any one who may happen xliii. 11 ; Wisd. xi. H; 2 Mace. iv. 38). But to be of such a character, d µ11 &-ya1rwv. As 1<0.\a<1t11 lxo does n·ot mean "deserves" or before, o µ11 &-ya.,,.wv and d µ111w11 are treated "will receive punishment," but quite lite- as equivalent; there is no neutral term rally "hns it." It is the day of judgment between "love" and "hste." and fear in reference to that day that is Ver. 21.-That he who Ioveth God love under consideration; and fear of punishment his brother also. This is the great com- is in itself punishment by anticipation. mcmdment, on which hang all the Law anrl Nate the &.\.\d and the Ii,, introducing a the prophets (Matt. xxii. 37, 39; Luke x. contrary and then a contrast back again: 27; John xiii 34), and, whatever we may "There is no fear in love; nay, perfect love think of the relation between seeing and casteth ,out fear: but he that habitually loving, there is the Divine command to love, feareth [present participle] is not made not only the invisible God, but the visible perfect in love." The dread of punishment brother in whom the invisible God dwells. may deter men from sin; but it cannot lead Sight may hinder as well o.s help ; it is them to 1·ighteousness. For that we r.eed hard to love what is squalid anrl hideous. either the sense of duty or the feeling of love. In such cases let us remember the Divine Ver. 19.-We love. The abTov is spurious, command; let us remember the Divinity and is not to be understood: the love is which even the most debased humanity again quite general. "We have this prin- 1 contains.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-3.-Tests of true or false '[YT'Ophets. Connecting linlc: The apostle had just declared that, in a life of obedience to and of like spirit with God, we had a twofold seal-firstly, that we are of the truth; and secondly, that God abideth in us. But it was not to be supposed that all this would remain unimpngned from without, however clear it might be to the spirit within. At the same time, we are not to be easily moved from our ground. But should any attempt to seduce us from the faith, we are to apply to such a very searching test. Hence our topic-Teachers of novelties to be severely tested. For many an nge there have been and will be two classes of men-one, desirous of utterina any new fancy that seizes them, or of disputing any accepted failh which they themselves are not disposed to embrace; snd another, equally ready to listen to any novelty in doctrine which may at any time bo propounded to them. Even in the age when the Apostle John wrote this letter, "many false prophets" had" gone out intv the world." And it is a great blessing for us that the aged apostle took occasion from that fact (1) to administer a caution against a too ready acceptance of any new prophet, and (2) to supply a test, at once exclusive and inclusive, which might serve the Churches for all time. 106 THE FinST EPISTLE GENEHAL OF JOHN. [en. 1v. 1- 1:11,