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THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF JOHN.

A. D. 90.

LECTURE LIV.

THE PRIVILEGE OF THE CHRISTIAN, AND THE CHARACTER REQUIRED OF HIM.

1 JOHN i. 1-7.

1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

2. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

Thus, at the close of his life, the aged father leaves his last testimony to his children: and before he is removed from among them, assures them once more of the truth of those things which they had received, and on which their everlasting interest depended.

He speaks the more fully, the more plainly, the more earnestly, because there were already false teachers subverting the faith, and denying that

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Jesus Christ had come in the flesh:"1 had been really “made flesh, and dwelt among us." Therefore (like his brother apostle Peter) he repeats what he had so often declared before, that they might be able after his decease to have these things always in remembrance." Jesus Christ is the life, eternal life, the Word of life, the WORD which was from the beginning "with God, and was God." And the life was manifested: it is that which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." We cannot be mistaken in the evidence of our senses, and on that evidence our affirmation stands. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us that the same blessings may be yours which are ours. We are the first fruits: but the harvest is vast, and extends over fields innumerable, even to "as many as the Lord our God shall call :" shall call to be reconciled to him, call to be united with him for our privilege is nothing less; Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

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The more important a truth is, the stronger attestation it requires. The apostles themselves were slow to believe the resurrection of Jesus. It was

1 iv. 3. Such were the Nicolaitans, and other sects which sprang from them; the Gnostics, Carpocratians, Menandrians. 2 2 Pet. i. 15.

3 That essence or excellence: not that person. The article is in the neuter gender, as John x. 30. “ "I and my Father are one :" ev, one essence.

necessary that their eyes should see and their hands handle. So, likewise, when Peter was delivered from prison, and knocked at the gate where many disciples were together praying, the damsel who came to hearken, "when she heard Peter's voice, opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad." On this account John repeats his assurance, and confirms it, that their faith might be stedfast, unmoveable, able to resist all the assaults of Satan, all the perversions of wicked men. These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full: that no clouds of doubt may overspread it, and cast a gloom of uncertainty over that truth, which ought to fill you "with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

And now he reminds them further of the truths which he had delivered to them, and which they had received from his teaching.

5. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declared unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

The general tenor of the Gospel is declared in these few words. It is termed a message, which the apostles were taught to communicate. And it re

4 Acts xii. 14.

lates, first, to the nature of God. The Gospel discloses the way in which God deals with man: and in order to comprehend this, we must first have a right knowledge of Him with whom we have to do. God, then, is light. God is essentially all that on earth the idea of light suggests to us: purity: knowledge: glory with nothing of an opposite tendency: unpolluted, unfading light: in him is no darkness at all.

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And the purpose of his message to men is, to draw them towards this light, that it may be reflected in themselves. As the darkest body, when brought to approach a shining flame, derives a brightness from it so must it be with those who profess to have been brought nigh to God through the Gospel of his Son. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. As he is light, so all who are united to him must be light. He calls them to be partakers of his own holy nature: "and every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure." This is the proof that our hearts are drawn to him, and united with him, that we "cast off the works of darkness," and walk in the light, as "children of the day," whose deeds will bear to be exposed; nay, which "shine before men," and attract others to the light to which they owe their brightness. Then are we indeed part of that family, which God has created for himself through Jesus Christ. We have fellowship one with another: we are joined together as brethren who have "one Lord, one faith, one baptism:" and the blood of Jesus Christ clean5 See a similar passage, Eph v. 8.

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seth us from all sin. Naturally, we are under the guilt of sin, and the power of sin. But the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from both. It cleanseth us from the guilt of sin, because he suffered for sin, the just for the unjust," and God has consented to receive that propitiation. And it cleanseth us from the power of sin, because he imparts to us a new nature, and "delivers us from the corruption which is in the world" through those inclinations and desires which oppose the will of God, and lead to the transgression of his laws.

Such is the glorious description of those who have been brought to God through Jesus Christ, and are living in a state of acceptance with him. Instead of being ignorant of their relation to Him who made them, they have communion with Him: and they have also communion with those who belong to the same relationship, and form that great family on earth which is hereafter to be united in heaven.

But we must carefully observe, that with this happiness, holiness is inseparably conjoined. We are brought to the light, that we may be made light: brought into connexion with believers, that we may become holy: and we are made holy first, that we may hereafter be made happy. This the apostles never suffer us to forget; and warn us against the too natural error, which would lead us to rejoice in the privileges of God's people, without caring to attain their character. The Bible has but one language. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness,

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