So we shall assure our heart before Him in whatsoever our heart condemn us. Not with the conceited assurance of selfrighteousness; not with a drugged and dulled perception of the vileness of sin; not with an elixir which shall relax our spiritual fibre and moderate our enthusiasm for spiritual victory; but with the thought that we are God's children, loving, though erring, in our Father's hands; with our elder brother Christ interceding for us; with the knowledge that the judicial element in our Christian experience is transferred from our own heart to God; with the knowledge that, being His, "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." As I read this passage I wonder if John, as he penned it, had not in mind that interview of Christ and Peter at the lake after the resurrection. There was Peter with a heart stung with self-accusation, as well it might be: Peter who had denied and forsaken his Lord: and yet Christ meets all this self-accusation with the words "Lovest thou Me?" And Peter's reply is in the very vein of our passage. "God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things: ""Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love Thee."

On this interpretation, the remainder of the passage follows simply and naturally. Once assured that we are children of God, we have boldness toward God. That assurance, carrying with it the assurance of pardon and sympathy, is the only means by which the heart's condemnation is legitimately allayed. If, under that assurance, our heart ceases to condemn us, then have we confidence toward God." It is noteworthy how the line of thought coincides with that in the latter part of the fourth of Hebrews. There too we see the Divine omniscience emphasized-the discernment of the living word, "quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Then comes the priesthood and the sympathy of Jesus, the

Great High-Priest, "touched with the feeling of our infirmities;" and then the same conclusion: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace."

This latter part of the passage must therefore be interpreted by the former. That the heart feels no sense of condemnation is not, of itself, a legitimate nor a safe ground of boldness toward God. There is a boldness which is born of presumption, of spiritual obtuseness, of ignorance of the character and claims of God, of false and superficial conceptions of sin. A valid absence of condemnation must have a definite and valid fact, a substantial evidence behind it; and that it has, according to the interpretation we have given: "We shall assure our heart before Him in whatsoever our heart condemn us, by this; namely, that the all-knowing God is our forgiving Father, that Christ is our Propitiator and Saviour, and that the Spirit of love in our hearts, and the loving ministry of our lives testify that we are children of God. Note at this point how John answers to Paul. Look first at the fourth chapter of this Epistle. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in ns, because He hath given us of His Spirit." Now turn to the eighth chapter of Romans. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness unto our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." And, in like manner, "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity; the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts (being greater than our heart and knowing all things) knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God"-for the saints that love God, foreordained, called,

justified, glorified. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written,

'For Thy sake we are killed all the day long;

We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Finally, the whole passage carries a protest and an antidote against an introverted, morbidly subjective and self-scrutinizing type of piety, which habitually studies self for the evidence of right spiritual relation and condition: which tests growth in grace by tension of feeling, and reckons spiritual latitude and longitude by spiritual moods. Feeling, religious sensibility, has its place, and a high and sacred place it is; but its place is not the judgment-seat; and right feeling in Christian experience is always based upon right relation to the facts of the plan of redemption. The Christian consciousness gives no valid testimony, save as it reflects the great objective verities of the Christian faith. If our spirit witnesses with the Spirit, the Spirit must first bear witness to our spirit that we are children of God.

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN.

1. The elder (ó πреσBÚтероs). The word is used originally of seniority in age. So Luke xv. 25. Afterward as a term of rank or office. Applied to members of the Sanhedrim (Matt. xvi. 21; Acts vi. 12). Those who presided over the Christian assemblies or churches (Acts xi. 30; 1 Tim. v. 17, 19). The twenty-four members of the heavenly court in John's vision (Apoc. iv. 4, 10,; v. 5, 6, 8, 11, 14). Here, with reference to official position, coupled, presumably, with age.

Unto the elect lady (ékλektŷ kupíą). An expression which baffles all the commentators. It is supposed by some that the title describes a person, by others, a society. The views of the former class as to the person designated, are (1.) That the letter was addressed to a certain Babylonian named Electa. (2.) To a person named Kyria. (3.) To Electa Kyria, a compound proper name. Those who regard the phrase as describing a society, divide on the question whether a particular Christian society or the whole Church is intended. It is impossible to settle the question satisfactorily.

Children (TÉKvois). May be taken either in a literal or in a spiritual sense. For the latter, see 1 Tim. 1, 2; Gal. iv. 25; 3 John 4. Compare also vv. 4, 13. The explanation turns on the meaning of ẻкλEKтŶ KUρią. If it mean the Church, children will have the spiritual sense. If it be a proper name, the literal.

Whom (os). Comprehensive, embracing the mother and the children of both sexes.

I love (ȧуаπ). See on John v. 20.