Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. John Part 16

Let us take our verse together as a whole and we have something better than moralising over the flight of time and the transitoriness of the world; something better than vulgarising "vanity of vanities" by vapid iteration.

It is hard to conceive a life in which death and evanescence have nothing that enforces their recognition. Now the removal of one dear to us, now a glance at the obituary with the name of some one of almost the same age as ourselves, brings a sudden shadow over the sunniest field. Yet surely it is not wholesome to encourage the perpetual presence of the cloud. We might impose upon ourselves the penance of being shut up all a winter's night with a corpse, go half crazy with terror of that unearthly presence, and yet be no more spiritual after all.[212] We must learn to look at death in a different way, with new eyes. We all know how different dead faces are. Some speak to us merely of material ugliness, of the sweep of "decay's effacing fingers." In others a new idea seems to light up the face; there is the touch of a superhuman irradiation, of a beauty from a hidden life. We feel that we look on one who has seen Christ, and say--"we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." These two kinds of faces answer to the two different views of life.

Not the transitory, but the permanent; not the fleeting, but the abiding; not death but life, is the conclusion of the whole matter.

The Christian life is not an initial spasm followed by a chronic dyspepsia. What does St. John give us as the picture of it exemplified in a believer? Daily, perpetual, constant doing the will of G.o.d. This is the end far beyond--somewhat inconsistent with--obstinately morbid meditation and surrounding ourselves with multiplied images of mortality. Lying in a coffin half the night might not lead to that end; nay, it might be a hindrance thereto. Beyond the grave, outside the coffin, is the object at which we are to look. "The current of things temporal," cries Augustine, "sweeps along. But like a tree over that stream has risen our Lord Jesus Christ. He willed to plant Himself as it were over the river. Are you whirled along by the current? Lay hold of the wood. Does the love of the world roll you onward in its course? Lay hold upon Christ. For you He became temporal that you might become eternal. For He was so made temporal as to remain eternal. Join thy heart to the eternity of G.o.d, and thou shalt be eternal with Him."

Those who have heard the Miserere in the Sistine Chapel describe the desolation which settles upon the soul which surrenders itself to the impression of the ritual. As the psalm proceeds, at the end of each rhythmical pulsation of thought, each beat of the alternate wings of the parallelism, a light upon the altar is extinguished. As the wail grows sadder the darkness grows deeper. When all the lights are out and the last echo of the strain dies away, there would be something suitable for the penitent's mood in the words--"the world pa.s.seth away, and the l.u.s.t thereof." Upon the altar of the Christian heart there are tapers at first unlighted, and before it a priest in black vestments. But one by one the vestments are exchanged for others which are white; one after another the lamps are lighted slowly and without noise, until gradually, we know not how, the whole place is full of light. And ever sweeter and clearer, calm and happy, with a triumph which is at first repressed and reverential, but which increases as the light becomes diffused, the words are heard strong and quiet--a plain-song now that will swell into an anthem presently--"he that doeth the will of G.o.d abideth for ever."

NOTES.

Ch. ii. 12-17.

Ver. 12, 13, 14. These verses cannot properly be divided so as to embrace three departments of spiritual, answering to three departments of natural, life. All believers are addressed _authoritatively_ as "children" in the faith, _tenderly_ as "little children;" then subdivided into two cla.s.ses only, "fathers," and "young men."

_Confirmation_ is justly found implied here.

Ver. 16. Hardy's comment is quaint, and interesting. "These three are 'all that is in the world;' they are the world's cursed trinity; according to that of the poet,

Ambitiosus honos, et opes, et fda voluptas; Haec tria pro trino numine mundus habet,

which wicked men adore and wors.h.i.+p as deities; in which regard Lapide opposeth them to the three persons in the blessed Trinity: the l.u.s.t of the eyes to the Father, who is liberal in communicating His essence to the Son and the Spirit; the l.u.s.t of the flesh to the Son, whose generation is spiritual and eternal; the pride of life to the Holy Ghost, who is the Spirit of humility. That golden calf, which, being made, was set up and wors.h.i.+pped by the Israelites in the wilderness, is not unfitly made use of to represent these: the calf, which is a wanton creature, an emblem of the l.u.s.t of flesh; the gold of the calf, referring to the l.u.s.t of the eyes; and the exalting it, to the pride of life. Oh, how do the most of men fall down before this golden calf which the world erecteth."

In tracing the various senses of "the world" we have not dwelt prominently upon the conception of the world as embodied in the Roman Empire, and in the city of Rome as its seat--an empire standing over against the Church as the Kingdom of G.o.d. The a?a????a t?? ??? may be projected outwardly, and set in a material framework in the gorgeous description of the wealth and luxury of Rome in Apoc. xviii. 11-14. M.

Renan finds in the Apocalypse the cry of horror of a witness who has been at Rome, seen the martyrdom of brethren, and been himself near death. (Apoc. i. 9, vi. 9, xiii. 10, xx. 4; cf. _L'Antechrist_, pp.

197, 199. Surely Apoc. xviii. 20 adds a strong testimony to the martyrdom of Peter and Paul at Rome.) So early a witness as Tertullian gives the story of St. John's having been plunged into the boiling oil without injury to him before his exile at Patmos. (_De Praescr. Haer._, 36). The Apocryphal 'Acta Iohannis' (known to Eusebius and to St.

Augustine), relates at length an interview at Rome between Domitian and St. John--not without interest, in spite of some miraculous embellishment. _Acta. Apost. Apoc._ Tischendorf, 266-271.

FOOTNOTES:

[203] pa?a?eta?. It has been said that this is not the real point; that what St. John here describes is not the general attribute of the world as transitory, but its condition at the moment when the Epistle was written, in presence of the manifestation of "the kingdom of G.o.d, which was daily s.h.i.+ning forth." But surely the world can scarcely be so completely identified with the temporary framework of the Roman Empire; and the _universality_ of the ant.i.thesis (? de p???? ?.t.?.) and its intensely _individual_ form, lead us to take ??s?? in that universal and inclusive signification which alone is of abiding interest to every age.

[204] Job xiv. 1, 2. Cf. x. 20-22.

[205] Such seems to be the meaning of ?????????? (Ps. x.x.xix. 14).

[206] Ps. xc. 9.

[207] James iv. 13-17. The pa.s.sage 1 Pet. i. 25 is taken from the magnificent prophecy in which the fragility of all flesh, transitory as the falling away of the flowers of gra.s.s into impalpable dust, is contrasted with the eternity of the word of G.o.d. Isa. xl. 6, 7, LXX.

[208] "Possessa onerant, amata inquinant, amissa cruciant."--_St.

Bernard_.

[209] The view here taken of Bouddhism follows that of M. J.

Barthelemy St. Hilaire. _Le Bouddha et sa Religion._ Premiere partie, chap. v., pp. 141-182.

[210] "These populations neither deny nor affirm G.o.d. They simply ignore Him. To a.s.sert that they are atheists would be very much the same thing as to a.s.sert that they are anti-Cartesians. As they are neither for nor against Descartes, so they are neither for nor against G.o.d. They are just children. A child is neither atheist nor deist. He is nothing."--Voltaire, _Dict. Phil._, Art. _Atheisme_.

[211] It is noteworthy that in the collects in the English Prayer-Book, and indeed in its public formularies generally (outside the Funeral Service, and that for the Visitation of the Sick), there are but two places in which the note of the "world pa.s.seth away" is very prominently struck, viz., the Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter, and one portion of the prayer for "The Church Militant." One of the most wholesome and beautiful expressions of the salutary convictions arising from Christian perception of this melancholy truth is to be found in Dr.

Johnson's "Prayer for the Last Day in the Year," as given in Mr.

Stobart's _Daily Services for Christian Households_, pp. 99, 100.

[212] The old "Memento Mori" timepiece of Mary, Queen of Scots, is a watch in the interior of a death's-head, which opens to disclose it.

Surely not a symbol likely to make any soul happier or better!

SECTION IV.

GREEK. LATIN.

?a?d?a, es?at? ??a Filioli, novissima est??? ?a? ?a??? ????sate hora est: et sicut audistis ?t? ? a?t????st?? quia antichristus e??eta?, ?a? ??? a?t????st?? venit, nunc autem antichristi p????? ?e???as??? multi facti sunt, ??e? ????s??e? unde scimus quia ?t? es?at? ??a est??. novissima hora est.

?? ??? e????a?, a??' Ex n.o.bis prodierunt, ??? ?sa? e? ???. e? sed non erant ex n.o.bis, ?a? e? ??? ?sa?, nam si fuissent ex ee???e?sa? a? e?' n.o.bis, permansissent ???? a??' ??a fa?e????s?? utique n.o.bisc.u.m; sed ?t? ??? e?s?? ut manifesti sint quoniam pa?te? e? ???. ?a? non sunt omnes ?e?? ???sa e?ete ap? ex n.o.bis. Sed vos t?? a????, ?a? ??date unctionem habetis a pa?ta. ??? e??a?a Sancto, et nostis omnia.

???, ?t? ??? ??date Non scripsi vobis quasi t?? a???e?a?, a??' ?t? ignorantibus veritatem, ??date a?t??, ?a? ?t? sed quasi scientibus pa? ?e?d?? e? t?? eam, et quoniam omne a???e?a? ??? est??. ??? mendacium ex veritate est?? ? ?e?st??, e? non est. Quis est mendax, ? ? a????e??? ?t? nisi qui negat ??s??? ??? est?? ? quoniam Iesus non est ???st??; ??t?? est?? Christus? Hic est ? a?t????st??, ? a????e??? antichristus, qui negat t?? pate?a ?a? Patrem et Filium.

t?? ????. pa? ? a????e??? Omnis qui negat Filium t?? ????, ??de nec Patrem habet: qui t?? pate?a e?e?. ? confitetur Filium, et ??????? t?? ???? ?a? Patrem habet. Vos t?? pate?a e?e?. ?e?? quod audistis ab initio, ? ????sate ap' a????, in vobis permaneat.

e? ??? e?et?. ea? Si in vobis permanserit e? ??? e??? ? ap' quod ab initio audistis, a???? ????sate, ?a? ?e?? et vos in Filio et Patre e? t? ??? ?a? e? t? manebitis. Et haec est pat?? e?e?te. ?a? a?t? promissio quam ipse est?? ? epa??e??a, ?? pollicitus est vobis, a?t?? ep???e??at? ???, vitam aeternam. Haec t?? ???? t?? a??????. scripsi vobis de his qui ta?ta e??a?a ??? pe?? seduc.u.n.t vos. Et vos t?? p?a???t?? ?a?. unctionem quam accepistis ?a? ?e?? t? ???sa ab eo, maneat in ? e?aate ap' a?t??, vobis; et non necesse e?e? e? ???, ?a? ?? habetis ut aliquis ??e?a? e?ete ??a t?? doceat vos, sed sicut d?das?? ?a?? a??' ?? unctio eius docet vos t? a?t?? ???sa d?das?e? de omnibus, et verum ?a? pe?? pa?t??, ?a? est, et non est mendacium, a???e? est??, ?a? ??? et sicut docuit est?? ?e?d??? ?a? ?a??? vos manete in eo. Et ed?da?e? ?a?, e?e?te nunc, filioli, manete in e? a?t?. ?a? ???, eo, ut c.u.m apparuerit te???a, e?ete e? a?t?? habemus fiduciam, et ??a ?ta? fa?e????, non confundamur ab eo s??e? pa???s?a?, ?a? in adventu eius.

? a?s?????e? ap'

a?t??, e? t? pa???s?a a?t??.

AUTHORISED VERSION. REVISED VERSION.

Little children, it is Little children, it is the last time: and as the last hour: and as ye have heard that ye heard that antichrist antichrist shall come, cometh, even now have even now there are there arisen many many antichrists; antichrists; whereby whereby we know that we know that it is the it is the last time. last hour. They went They went out from us, out from us, but they but they were not of were not of us; for if us; for if they had they had been of us, been of us, they would they would have continued _no doubt_ have continued with us: but with us: but _they went out_, that they _they went out_, that might be made manifest they might be made manifest how that they are that they were not not of us. And ye all of us. But ye have have an anointing from an unction from the the Holy One, and ye Holy One, and ye know know all things. I all things. I have not have not written unto written unto you because you because ye know ye know not the not the truth, but because truth, but because ye ye know it, and know it, and that no because no lie is of the lie is of the truth. truth. Who is the liar Who is a liar but he but he that denieth that denieth that Jesus that Jesus is the is the Christ? He is Christ? This is the antichrist, that denieth antichrist, _even_ he that the Father and the Son. denieth the Father and Whosoever denieth the the Son. Whosoever Son, the same hath not denieth the Son, the the Father: [_but_] same hath not the _he that acknowledgeth the Father: he that confesseth Son hath the Father the Son hath also_. Let that therefore the Father also. As abide in you, for you, let that abide which ye have heard in you which ye heard from the beginning. from the beginning.

If that which ye have If that which ye heard heard from the beginning from the beginning shall remain in abide in you, ye also you, ye also shall continue shall abide in the Son, in the Son, and and in the Father.

in the Father. And And this is the promise this is the promise that which He promised us, He hath promised us, _even_ the life eternal.

_even_ eternal life. These things have I These _things_ have I written unto you concerning written unto you concerning them that them that seduce you. would lead you astray.

But the anointing And as for you, the which ye have received anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, of Him abideth and ye need not that in you, and ye need any man teach you: not that any one teach but as the same anointing you; but as His anointing teacheth you of all teacheth you concerning things, and is truth, all things, and and is no lie, and even is true, and is no lie, as it hath taught you, and even as it taught ye shall abide in Him. you, ye abide in Him.

And now, little children, And now, _my_ little abide in Him; children, abide in Him; that, when He shall that, if He shall be appear, we may have manifested, we may confidence, and not be have boldness, and not ashamed before Him be ashamed before Him at His coming. at His coming.

ANOTHER VERSION.

Little children, it is a last hour; and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, so now many antichrists are in existence; whereby we know that it is a last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they would have continued with us: but that they might be made manifest how that all are not of us, _they all went out_.

But ye have unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you _this_--"ye know not the truth"--but _this_--"ye know it," and _this_--"every lie is not from the truth." Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? The antichrist is this, he that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father; he that confesseth the Son also hath the Father. As for you--that which ye heard from the beginning let it abide in you.

If that abide in you which from the beginning ye heard, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which He promised us, the life, the eternal _life_. These things have I written unto you concerning those that would mislead you.

And as for you--the anointing which ye received from Him abideth in you, and ye have no need that any be teaching you: but as His unction is teaching you continually concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and as it taught you, so shall ye abide in Him. And now, children, abide in Him, that if He shall be manifested we may have boldness and not shrink in shame from Him in His coming.

DISCOURSE VIII.

_KNOWING ALL THINGS._

"But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things."--1 JOHN ii. 20.

There is little of the form of logical argument to which Western readers are habituated in the writings of St. John, steeped as his mind was in Hebraic influences. The inferential "therefore" is not to be found in this Epistle.[213] Yet the diligent reader or expositor finds it more difficult to detach any single sentence, without loss to the general meaning, than in any other writing of the New Testament.