gently guarded against; often have they brought down Divine to mere human truth; the very essence of the truth, that which constitutes it Divine truth, is generally evaporated by these inaccurate substitutions. The true meaning will be cleared by attending as well to the context, as to St. John's method of teaching. St. John, namely, is warning Christians against seducing teachers (c. i. 26.), who separated truth from holiness, who said that they "knew God," and yet "kept not His commandments" (c. ii. 4.); said that they "abode in Him," and yet did not "walk as He walked" (v. 6.); denied that Jesus was the Christ, (v. 22.) Against these he warns his flock, to "abide" in Christ, as they had been taught (vv. 27. 8.); and then proceeds (c. iii.) to set forth the connection between Christian truth and holiness. Our present title, (he tells them,) of Sons of God (v. 1.); our future hopes of seeing Him as He is, and so being made like to Him (v. 2.); the very object of His coming, "to take away sin" (v. 5.);—shew us God's will, that we should "purify ourselves, as He is pure:" all other doctrine is but deceit: "little children, let no man deceive you:" God and the devil, children of God and children of the devil, sin and righteousness, are incompatible, and mutually opposed: there can be no union between Christ and Belial, or the servants and services of either; there is no other way of "being righteous," than by "doing righteousness." (v. 7.) This, then, was St. John's great subject, the necessity of personal holiness and purity; and this he expresses (as is his wont) in abstract, absolute propositions, not looking upon truth, as it is imperfectly realized in us, whether to good or to evil, but as it is in itself, and as it will be, in the final separation of the evil from the good, when each shall, without any remaining obstacle, whether of the hindrances of sin, or of the strivings of God's Spirit, become wholly, what they now are predominantly. "He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning." "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." And so St. John returns to his first warning: "Whosoever doeth not righteousness, is not of God." It is manifest, then, that we are here to look, not for any abstract
