mean that we shall not judge and correct a child for its good, does not mean that those in authority shall not execute judgment for the good of society. Again, it is the letter that killeth and the spirit that maketh to live. Whatever a man does in love will be in obedience to these commands. Both are part of Christ's teaching which has its unity in the spirit of Christ, the spirit of the absolute beneficence of God; freely, as a gift, have ye received, freely give. The Things of God. And in such giving, lies the grand attainment. Christ says to Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou considerest not the things of God, but the things of man: the things of man, the things of the individual's immediate, inconsiderate, selfish desire; the things which oppose the great and eternal getting, the marshalling of all life into God's service, unto its own eternal perfecting in accordance with the eternal will. And eternal life, the things to come. The synoptics have a great tumultuous picture of troublous times approaching.' But for the resurrection and the after life, Christ clearly said it was not life in mortal flesh;' and for the means of reaching it he pointed to his life, his teaching, in a word, himself. According to Matthew, he has just been speaking of the Father's care even of the sparrows," Fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows." Then he speaks of himself: "Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven. And as for the nature of the judgment when the Son of man should come in his glory, Christ showed who were the blessed of his Father, who should inherit the kingdom prepared for them, even those who had lived lives of Christian love on earth.* 'Matt. xxiv; Mark xiii; Luke xxi. 993 • The answer to the Sadducees, Matt. xxii, 29; Mark xii, 25; Luke xx, 34. 3 Matt. x, 32, 33. Ib., xxv, 31-46. VOL. II.-18 THE The CHAPTER XXIII. THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. HE Gospel of John is throughout conscious of the relation of the life of Christ on earth to God's eternal creative and beneficent power; this relation is stated in the first eighteen verses of the first chapter. In this so-called prologue, the evangelist's vision reaches to the first coming into existence of all things through God's creative power: "In the beginning was the Word,' and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made [became] through him, and without him was nothing made [nothing became] which was made [became]. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness overcame it not [or failed to 1 For the thought which the evangelist intended to convey by the term logos, one must look to the prologue, and also to the rest of the Gospel of John. To be sure, the evangelist did not originate the term, which has a long and complex history, and ancestors Hebrew as well as Greek. On the Hebrew side the Logos goes back to wisdom," God's plan, as poetically personified in Proverbs. On the Greek side, there is not only the λoy os of the Stoa, but also all the suggestiveness of the Platonic “idea,” which was a creative power as well as a type. Philo of Alexandria forms his elaborate but wavering conception from all these sources; and while his writings may have been well known to the evangelist who wrote at Greek Ephesus, John may have been likewise familiar with the term from contemporary Palestinian writings (Westcott). John's great fact, the Word became flesh,-has no origin beyond the life of Christ and the mind of the evangelist; and John's meaning is to be gained from his Gospel rather than from the antecedents of his phrase. apprehend and appreciate it]." This outlines the creation by that power of God which continues to impart life as well as light whereby men may live; and it implies the statements which are introduced by a reference to the man sent by God to bear witness to the true light which lighteth every man, and was even then to appear in the form of man. "The true light which lighteth every man, was coming into the world.' He was in the world, and the world was made [became] through him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled] among us." 3 The Great Antithesis. "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life that thou mayst live, thou and thy seed; to love Jehovah thy God, to obey his voice, and to cleave unto him, for he is thy life and the length of thy days." This is the closing note of the antithesis running through the Book of Deuteronomy." Israel's national life assured through loving obedience to Jehovah; Israel's exile and dispersion the certain fruit of disobedience and idolatry. In John's Gospel this antithesis is carried beyond Israel's limits, and spiritually set forth in terms of universal contrast between knowledge and love of God which is truth and life, and wilful darkness, selfishness, hatred, sin, and vanity. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." This life 'The Greek appears ambiguous; it may also mean, the light, the true (light) was (existing), which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. The reference here is to the Jews. 3 Deuteronomy xxx, 19, 20. 4 See Ib. passim, and especially xi, 26, and xxviii. 5 In the Pharisee's answer to Nicodemus, vii, 49: "But this multitude which knoweth not the law are accursed [ènάpatoz]," there seems an echo of Deuteronomy. The World and Christ. and light from God, which was in Christ and is offered to mankind, is to be set forth, by the Gospel, in its absoluteness, freed from material and temporal conditions; but the Gospel also sets it forth antithetically. Christ's life on earth is given clearer line by its contrast to the evil which opposed it. It was unity contrasted with discord, truth with vanity, love with hate, life with death. Just as Christianity, which is very life perfected, transcends formulation, so the opposition between Christianity and all that is not life cannot be formulated. This opposition is as broad as life, it pervades all mortal experience. The fourth evangelist, in speaking of it as the opposition between Christ and the world, uses the term ó nóσμos in senses somewhat different, although related. The nooμos is the whole world of creature-kind created through the Word. Then the term carries the signification of by itself or apart from its creator; then the still further meaning of opposition to its creator,—it is out of accord with its source, obeys not its God, exercises its will sinfully to its own blind ends, follows not the ways of life.' Then the term passes to a still more exclusively evil sense, signifying the very elements of this disobedience, the modes of turning aside from the way of life, the lusts and lures leading to death, all of which involve darkness, ignorance of God, hatred of good; and, since these lead to death, the term finally signifies transient, the vanity of what appears, but only to pass away, temporary and unreal modes of life as contrasted with life veritable and eternal.' So it sometimes refers simply to the mortal life of man on earth. Inas 1 Hence, Christ came to take away the sin of the world in this sense (John i, 29); and in this sense he is the saviour of the world (iv, 42); and God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,-sent not his Son to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (iii, 16, 17). "These significations appear sharply in the First Epistle of John ii, 15-17. The evil is personified as the prince of the world (John xii, 31; xiv, 30). 3 E. g.. John xii, 25. much, however, as Christianity is very life in its universality and fulness, the opposition between Christ and the world is not to be so regarded as to place on the side of evil, or exclude from Christianity, any real or positive element of life. ness. Life comes from God; he created man in his own likeThe conception of generation-fatherhood and sonship-implies likeness between the father and son. So does the idea of creation. The creature can have no positive and real qualities not in the creator; nor is it conceivable that a creator can create except out of qualities he possesses. Therefore the creature must contain some likeness to him. Man creates in some likeness of himself. The sculptor forms the statue; he creates, not the marble, but the thought which in marble he brings to expression; and that thought is part of him, and when expressed bears some likeness to its source. So all the positive elements of man the creature must be in likeness to God. Moreover, God's relation to his creatures does not end with first creation, but is one of ceaseless immanence. He never ceases to guide, sustain, and impart life, and all in necessary accord with his own nature and his will and ways. Man is God's conscious creature, and the only true way of life for man lies in full recognition of his relationship to God and in endeavor to do his Father's will, as Christ did. Only in union with God can man really live. Hence, broadly stated, the World which is opposed to Christ is everything in mankind which is out of accord with the will of God; out of the true way of life; or, more strictly speaking, since evil is veritable failure and negation, the evil xóoμos is failure to know God and do his will, failure of life. More definitely, this contrast may be viewed in many ways, aspects of each other. It is the contrast between beneficence and selfishness, giving and grasping for one's self, love and infinite occasion for hate. Again, it is the difference between what really is and what cannot con |