CHAPTER I.

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.

THE first thing that arrests our notice in commencing the perusal of John's epistle, is this, that it has no introduction of any kind. The apostle does not name himself at all; nor does he offer to his readers those salutations of grace and peace, which are usual with the apostolic writers in the commencement of their epistles. We perceive a similar absence of the accustomed greeting in the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews; but with that second exception, all the other epistles commence with the same forms of benediction. Nor need we be

surprised at the variety observable on these two occa

sions; much less can we infer any lack of affection on the part of the writers, at the moment of their opening these particular epistles. But we may rather infer the contrary of this, and trace the specified omission to this source; that such was the all-absorbing influence produced on the minds of the writers, by the subject-matter they were about to lay before their readers, that the ordinary forms of epistolary address were omitted. These were overlooked in their overpowering love and zeal, and intense desire at once to present to the faithful, that JESUS, who, apprehended by faith, would give the blessings which they could only invoke on their behalf. The apostle then at once, and without any preliminary address, proposes to his pupils in the faith, the chief object of their faith, its Author and Finisher, and he opens this epistle very much in the same way that he begins the gospel that bears his name, his object on both occasions being the same. He would first have the disciples well-grounded in the doctrine of the true and proper divinity of the Son of God, without which he knew there would be no solid foundation of their faith, and no ground of perfect confidence upon which to establish a full joy. Upon this rock, then, he begins to build, shewing that Christ was "that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us."

From this grand primary truth he sets out, assured that no other doctrine would so effectually introduce his brethren into that fellowship with the Father and the Son, which he so greatly desired they should realize. We may observe that the apostle Paul, in the epistle of his to which we have before referred, adopts a similar mode of instruction, when he is preparing to lead on the Hebrew converts beyond the elementary principles of the Gospel. First, he shews them that

Christ was very and true God, "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person," and afterwards he proceeds to set him forth as the great High Priest, the all-atoning Sacrifice, the all-sufficient Mediator. And from observing the course adopted by Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, and by John upon two different occasions; first in the opening of his Gospel, and again in the commencement of this Epistle, we may properly infer, that such views of the deity of Christ, and divine dignity of his person, as are presented to us in the Scripture, although they may be abstruse, must nevertheless be apprehended by the believer's faith, if in compliance with the apostolic precept, he desires to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And let us observe that in setting forth to the church "the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh," the apostle John does not make the announcement of what is to be the believer's orthodox creed, as though he were providing him with a matter of speculation only. For with what an intense and fervid zeal, and with what a clear evidence of truth does he prove to us that his own faith was a matter of experience, that all his conceptions aud coutemplations were a divine reality; that his creed was his life; the very life of his illumined spirit!

Let us examine the import of some of his remarkable words in the first three verses of this chapter, and we shall find a beautiful and striking picture of what faith should be in every case; and what it is in every case, where the Lord is pleased to carry on "the work of faith with power."

First, the description which the apostle gives of his own faith, may lead us to observe that his knowledge of the incarnate God commenced "by the hearing

of faith."

He

says "that which we have heard;" and so he confirms the declaration of Paul, that "faith cometh by hearing;" for there must be a report of the truth preceding its reception in the mind. This report is not always, and of necessity, received through the outward ear, although by the divine appointment of the ordinance of preaching, we may infer that it is according to the will of God, that usually it should be so received. That report of the truth which is productive of faith, may be made to the mental ear by a written communication. For the Spirit of the Lord is not confined in its operations to any single mode of administration; as we read in 1 Cor. xii. 5, 6.

But in every

previous pre

case, where faith exists, there has been a sentation of the objects of faith; else the mind had for ever remained in its natural ignorance.

Of this there can be no doubt, for as the apostle in writing to the Romans argues, "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher?" In every case there must be a preacher, although the precise form of the ministration. may not be all-important.

The Lord will himself determine in every individual case, and on every occasion, whether he will address our souls through the medium of another's speech, and by the words of a man's mouth, or, laying aside the use of language, by the silent rhetoric of pen and ink, or the intervention of the printer's art. These remarks in regard to the hearing of faith, are not unimportant, because there are persons who presume that the Lord teaches his people in many cases, by a revelation made immediately to the mind of the individual, and this independently of the teaching of men, or the reading of the Scripture; in short without the use of external

means.

That such was the case in the experience of Paul, and the other apostles, not to mention the ancient prophets, appointed of God to promulgate the truth in the first instance, we can have no doubt, for the Scripture testifies to the fact. But from the histories of Cornelius the centurion, and of the Ethiopian eunuch, we infer, that when the Lord will visit any soul of man with saving knowledge, he ordinarily does it by the ministry of a Philip or a Peter. The word of God is full of like cases, and indeed the whole work of the ministry proceeds upon the acknowledgment of the divine purpose in this particular.

And so clear is the fact, that nothing but the wilful blindness of the natural understanding, and the carnal enmity of the heart against God, could induce the notion, that the use of the ordinary and obvious modes of instruction can be dispensed with, except at the risk of the soul perishing for lack of knowledge. The word in the Greek Testament translated "heard," often signifies with the inspired writers, an obedient hearing. It is such a hearing of the proposed truth as issues in the conviction of the mind, and more than this, such a hearing as disposes the mind to submit itself to the doctrine presented ; it is in this way that faith springs up, and from hence its origin. But let it not be imagined that such an effect takes place, or ever can take place, by the unprevented will of man. The Lord by his special grace induces the result. "Faith is of the operation of God." It is his gift, and like every good and perfect gift, is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, who of his own will begets his people by the word of truth, that they should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. (James i. 16-18.) When addressing the gracious Author of his faith, the