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at whatever cost. But after Pentecost, John was par excellence the apostle of love. Not that his character became anything like putty. He could still rebuke evil and denounce Diotrephes, and forbid the elect lady to receive or countenance any who did not uphold the true, sound doctrines of the gospel. He was still a son of thunder against heresy and immorality, but he was preeminently, after his baptism with the H

from the lips of the Lord Jesus. And the only distinction which John accords to himself, a

efore, to be a child of God by creation, which, indeed, all men are, but by adoption, by the reception of the Divine nature by birth. And this new birth is more fully unfolded to the Jewish Sanhedrist, Nicodemus, both as to its necessity and its nature. "Ye must be born again." "The Son of man must be lifted up." The new birth is of water and the Spirit. The water is the water of life, the gospel offered freely to all, with its cleansing and refreshing and vivifying properties so well symbolized by water, and the Holy Spirit is the effective personal agent by whom the regeneration i

en or semi-heathen woman, Jesus made the first recorded, positive declaration of His Messiahship, and showed her that as God is a Spirit, so they that worship Him must do so, not in any specific locality, such as Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim, and not by any prescribed form o

rge proportion of those who had been so ready to proclaim Him King, and brought out of the core of His heart those pathetic words to the twelve, "Will ye also go away?", we come to the seventh chapter and the feast of Tabernacles, at which, on the occasion of the priest pouring water from the pool of Siloam, out of a golden pitcher into a trumpet-shaped receptacle above the altar, amid the rejoicings of the people, Jesus stood and cried,

ot yet glorified." These remarkable words seem to clearly imply that notwithstanding the presence and operation of the Spirit in the former dispensations of God's grace, yet He was to be poured out on all God's children under the gospel in a sense and to an extent, which so far transcends the highest manifestation of His power in Old Testament times that in com

animents, was not a privilege confined to apostolic times, and to the opening of the Holy Ghost dispensation; for Peter boldly assured the wondering multitude that the promise of the same blessed experience "is to you and to your children and to all

th this the glorious announcement that, "If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Yes, Jesus came to free us not simp

pleases God, and in this manner after all you will do as you please, it means the glad acceptance of God's choices. And so, after all, you do have your own way because it is God's way, it mean

e, and as to the method of His coming He says, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him." Here, I think, beyond a doubt, that the "We" refers to the Father and the Son, an

arkness or sin, and that those who do so cannot, truthfully, claim to have fellowship with Him. "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the l

blood cleanseth now, another moment and it cleanseth, and thus on, without intermission or cessation. And the cleansing is from all sin, sin committed and sin inbred, sin in act, word or thought, sin outward and sin

nners, and would not accept the baptism of repentance from John the Baptist? And did not the Apostle John live to see the germs of incipient gnosticism showing themselves in the church, assuming, like modern Christian science, that all evil is in matter, the soul is immaculate, and some Gnostics even bel

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that they are sinners, he exclaims, and if we say that we have no sin, and therefore do not need this cleansing, and can do without this atonement, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. How much more rational is such an interpretation than the expositio

ed by the reader, with the assurance that there is very much gold to be found for the digging; but we would call attention in a special manner to John's desc

ilial fear, which is the right and proper accompaniment of our childlike relation to our Heavenly Father. But he specially describes the fear that will be gotten rid of as tormenting fear, and this fear he declares that "perfect love casteth out." Now we can readily see the reasonableness of this statement. Fear about the future, whether as to temporal or spiritual things, fear of evil t

The justified believer both fears and loves. Sometimes the fear is in the ascendant and sometimes the lov

eding entire consecration. "For," says John, "if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart," which probably signifies that He also will condemn us, and, therefore, we cannot

s the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and

1), the seeker of entire sanctification must be wholly consecrated to God. (2), That he must pray in faith. (3), That he must pray accord

dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us." "Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit." Now to have God's love perfected in us, and to have Him t