The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 139

nblo Christian stamp and temper; to give them Christ's steadiness, anrl tenderness, :mrl fervour, nnd catholicity I How hard for us, who are beset with sin, to reach to that! A first love, a youthful enthusiasm, is beautiful, as youth always is. But it is not trne to Christ, 11s the needle to the pole; it is notoriously erratic. Neither is it strong and enduring, as the feeling of him who has been accustomed to the storm; it soon waxes faint, And when youth is past, how <lull and sluggish the alTections, how unexcitable even before the cross, and in presence of human sin and sorrow I how unseemly, and perhaps malicious, when they come unexpectedly out in the conflict of opinion and interest I They need to be treated with severity; they need to be drag2:ed at the heels of duty. It is only by superintendence and watchfulness and chaster,ing that they can be brought into loving obedience to Christ Jesus, the altogether Lovely. A commandment, then, is reasonable; it is urgently needed, and shall be needed until love is the law of our being-until love shall perform every function in the body of Christ, with all the quickness and all the regularity of an instinct. A second notice- able thing is the manner in which John issues the command. There were two cnm- mands /rom him, i.e. from God. The first and great commandment is that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. It might seem, then, that we should not Jove others at all. But Christ, going beyond the lawyer's question, brings into view the second commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," connecting it by declaring it to be like unto the first. John, in the line of the Master's thought, brings the two more closely together, calling them one commandment. The broad principle here is this-that the love of onr brothe1· man, whom we see, is a help to the love qf our Father- God, whom we do not see. (1) The family affections. What does thefamily institution teacn us regarding God? Nature gives us an idea of God as the great and inexhaustible Creator. To the ma~nitu<le and beauty of his working there no one has yet discovered the limit. Every augmentation of optical power, every improvement in the science of seeing, only brings fresh worlds into view-a truth which holds not merely in astronomy, but in the whole circle of the sciences. And yet the distance between God and nature is very great-all the distance there is between a workman and his work, between an author and his book. Nature, after all that can be said of it, is only a work, a production, a thing made. Society gives us a higher idea of God; for here, under a variety of forms, we have the relation of governing and governed. The state, especially, is the great governing institution. It gives us the idea of God as the righteous Governor; One ruling in right, and backed by power. This kings God ·nearer to ns; for the distance between a ruler and his subjects is much less than between a workman and his work. But the family gives us a Slill higher, and the very highest, conception of God; for it is to be regarded as the revelation of his Fatherhood. We are more than creatures, we are more than subjects; we are sons. We stand in the most intimate relation to God: a more intimate relation we do not know. .A.nd we take it that God has founded the family, has instituted the relationship of father and son among men, just to show us how closely rela.ted we are to him. The family is full of spiritual iD.terest and meaning. Traces of infinite benevolence and wisdom are to be found in all its arrangements. The first significant fact is that the opening period of each human life is marked by helplessness. This is not peculiar to man; for the same arrangement is found in other creatures. In the human economy, however, it is most strongly marked. Jn com- parison with other creatures, man is but slowly furnished with the knowledge and strength needful for self-subsistence. The period of his pupilage or dependence may be said to ex tend to a third or a fourth of his lifetime. At first sight this docs not seem to be honouring to man. Would it not be better for him to spring at once into self- subsistence, with powers not needing to be matured? But the true explanation is greatly to his honour. Among the lower creatures, it is those that in infancy a.re most dependent that show the greatest natural affection. And so it is because infancy and childhood, and to a certain extent youth, serve the purpose of God in cultivating the affoctions, that they are thrown so much on the kindly help of others, and take up so large a proportion of our brief lifetime. The filial affection seems to be th6 special. care of God. While there is yet no reflection, no power of resistance, no reasoning about nnythinO', it comes into existence under parental nurturing. It gets the start of all el~e that has a place or a power in our nature. And for a time it has all the sway. It  'l'IIE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL o~• JOUN. tox. IV. 1-21.