"And now, little children, abide¹ in Him; that, if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not shrink from Him in shame (aivscunqw/men avp v auvtou/) at His coming."²  The phrase to "have boldness" (parvr`hsi,an e;cein), here introduced, is destined to further service (3<sup>21</sup>, 4<sup>17</sup>, 5<sup>14</sup>).  In classical usage parvr`hsi,a denotes that outspokenness or fearless declaration of personal opinion which was especially the cherished privilege of Athenian freemen.³  In the Epistle to the Hebrews and in our Epistle⁴ it signifies the confidence of open childlike speech with our Father in prayer, or, as here, the fearless trust with which the faithful meet Christ.  Its peculiar force is finely brought out by the contrasted "shrink from Him in shame."  Both are phrases of graphic power, vividly suggesting the picture of the judgment-seat before which all must stand, and of the frank confidence with which men turn to their Judge and look upon His face, or the speechless confusion in which they avoid His gaze (cf. Matt. 22¹²).  The ground of this "boldness in His Parousia" will be that men, though much exposed to the plausibilities of pseudo-Christian teaching, have held fast the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (2^22-24), as this is witnessed by the Apostles (2²⁴) and taught by the Spirit⁵ (2²⁷).  The ascription of this ultimately decisive value to Belief has been already discussed.⁶  However remote it may seem to be from the purely ethical grounds of final judgment foretold by our Lord (Matt. 25^31-46), it is not, in the mind of St. John, incompatible with these; on the contrary, they are its necessary implicates.  To believe that Jesus is Incarnate God, is to accept Love as the law of life, as is made evident by the passage that next comes under consideration.

    "Little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.⁷  And herein shall we know (= ascertain) that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him, whereinsoever our heart condemn us; because God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things."⁸  It is necessary to distinguish at the outset between the absolute and the conditional ground of confidence toward God, as these are here set forth.  The former is that we are "of the Truth"⁹ - that we belong to the kingdom that is Christ's (John 18³⁷); that our life is based upon and our character moulded by the Divine and eternal Reality, the full expression of which is Christ, Who is "the Truth."  But in our own particular case this must be established by the fact that we "love not in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

    This question, whether we are "of the truth," is here figured as the subject of a trial in which a man's own "heart" (conscience; that is, the faculty of moral self-judgment) is the accuser and he himself the defendant, which is carried on in the presence of Omniscient God, and is finally referred to His decision.  There are thus three elements to be considered in the case.  (a) Our own heart¹⁰ may condemn us.  We believed that we had passed from death into life (3¹⁴); but to ourselves this has become almost or altogether doubtful.¹¹  When Conscience summons us to the tribunal within, it declares us guilty.  We have failed in doing the "righteousness" of the children of God (3¹⁰), or our faith has faltered - our vision of the Truth has become dim.  The evidence of our union with Christ is obscured by the consciousness of inconsistencies which, regarded in themselves, compel us to question whether we are "of the truth" or have been self-deceived (cf. 2^4,6,9 etc.).  This is the first element in the case.  (b) The second is, "In this we shall recognise that we are of the truth."  When conscience brings forward these allegations of insincerity, to what shall we appeal?  To this, says St. John: that we have loved, and that "not in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."  There are actual things we can point to not things we have professed or felt or imagined or intended, but things that we have done, and that we know we would never have done but for the Love which God has put into our hearts.  Of ecstatic emotions, heaven-piercing vision, we may know nothing; but if, in the practice of Love in bearing another s burden, in denying ourselves to give to another s need (3¹⁷), we are sure of our ground, hereby we shall tranquillise our self-accusing hearts yea, even in the presence¹² of God.  (c)  "Because God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things."  But here a difficulty meets us.  What may be called the popular interpretation:¹³ - Since even our own imperfectly enlightened heart accuses us, how much more must we dread the judgment of the All-knowing" - is directly opposed to the requirements of the context.  Plainly the fact that "God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things," must be a reason for pacifying the heart, not for increasing its alarm.  Almost all modern exegetes, accordingly, take "greater than our hearts" as referring to the greater tenderness of God.  Conscience is a "recording chief inquisitor," who notes without pity all that is done amiss.  God is Love, and, reading in our hearts the Love He has put there, blots out the handwriting that is against us.  But this is irrelevant.  The question under consideration is not one of merciful judgment, but solely one of evidence as to whether we are or are not "of the truth."  When it is said that "God is greater than our heart," what is meant is simply that "He knoweth," that is, takes cognisance of "all things."  Our own heart does not take cognisance of all things.  On the supposition made, its role is solely that of accuser.  It is regarded as occupying itself exclusively with those facts that cast suspicion upon the reality of our Christian life, while it needs to be reminded of those that tell in our favour.  But God takes note of all - both of the inconsistencies that conscience urges against us, and of the deeds whose witness we can cite in reply to its accusations.  And for this very reason that He knows all, we can persuade and pacify our hearts before Him.  To the hypocrite, who only seeks a cloak for his sin, the thought of the All seeing is full of dread; but to him who, though conscious of much that may well be thought to falsify his Christian profession, is also conscious that it is in facts of a different kind that his deepest life has found true expression, it is full of comfort.  The appeal to Omniscience is his final resort; his hiding-place is in the Light itself (Ps. 139^23,24).  Thus it was with Simon when not only his own heart accused him, but his Master so persistently voiced its accusations - "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee" (John 21¹⁷).  And it is not difficult to suppose that the ginw,skei pa,nta of the present passage is a reminiscence of that memorable incident (ku,rie, pa,nta su. oi-daj, su. ginw,skeij o[ti filw/ se).

    Looking at the passage as a whole we find two notable features in it.  On the one hand is the emphasis placed upon objective facts as the only valid evidence of our being "of the truth"; on the other hand is the principle that positive outweighs negative evidence¹⁴ - that deeds of love rightly prevail against the consciousness of inconsistency and defect.  In part, doubtless, this emphasis is due to the historical situation.  It is a repudiation of the loveless intellectualism of the Gnostic; and it is also an assurance and consolation of those "little ones" who were liable to be "offended" by those who based their claim to be "of the truth" upon a profounder knowledge of the spiritual universe than was attainable by the simple believer.  Not philosophy, but Love has the title to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Not on the boast of fruitless illumination, but on the Christ-life of self-sacrificing Love was the stamp of the Truth impressed.  Yet the Apostle's doctrine has respect to the deep common needs of the Christian life.  To the man of self-accusing heart in every age he speaks.  To the man whose belief seems to himself little more than a struggle with unbelief, who is more conscious of darkness and doubt than of triumphant faith, he says:  "Your life, your actual indubitable deeds in which you embody the spirit that is in you - what is their testimony?  Are these the fruit of faith or of unbelief?"  To the man who mourns defects of character and lapses of conduct that seem to vitiate his title to be of those who have the seed of the Righteous God abiding in them (3⁹), he says:  "These may be the negations and failures of your life, what are its affirmations and achievements?  Is the goal towards which you strive the goal of Love?"  The test is absolutely valid.  Not the presence of evil, but the absence of good, is the fact of fatal omen.  It is the invariable test of our Lord Himself, with whom the irremediable sin is ever the sin of lovelessness, fruitlessness, slothfulness, - the damning accusation, "Ye did it not."  He who loves not in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth; who lays down his life for the brethren, if not in one crowded hour of glorious self-surrender, yet, perhaps, more nobly, in the patient well-doing and helpful kindness and unselfish service which enrich the years as they pass, this man verily bears the marks of the Lord Jesus.  Let no man trouble him; let him not trouble himself; but herein let him recognise that he is "of the truth," and humbly assure his heart before God.

    The following verses (3^21,22) introduce the subject of assurance in Prayer, and so, postponing them, we proceed to a passage which is as closely as possible allied to that which we have just considered.

    "Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, even so are we in this world.  There is no fear in Love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.  We love, because He first loved us."

    Logically, 4¹⁷ contains three members: - The purpose achieved - "That we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment"; the ground upon which this confidence is established - "Because as He (Christ) is, so are we in this world"; the proof that we are entitled to occupy this ground - "Herein is Love perfected with us."  We shall, however, consider these clauses in the order in which they occur.  (a)  "Herein¹⁵ is Love¹⁶ perfected (fulfilled) with us."  By the word "herein" the sentence is linked on to the immediately preceding one:¹⁵  "He that abideth in Love abideth in God, and God in him" (4¹⁶).  What that Love is and how it is "perfected" is unmistakably defined in 4¹²:  "If we love one another, God abideth in us, and His Love is perfected in us."  The only variation in the phraseology is that, instead of the "perfected in us" (evn h`mw/n) of 4<sup>12</sup>, we have here "perfected with us" (meq v h`mw/n),¹⁷ the latter being probably intended as a stronger expression of the fact that it is in the social relations of the Christian community that the Divine life of Love has its fullest human realisation.

    Clearly, then, it is in the exercise of brotherly love that Love is here said to be perfected.  Further, if we inquire why this is so, - what specific idea the Apostle intends to convey by the "perfecting" of Love, - this also becomes clear when we compare the two passages in which this "perfecting" is described:  "Whosoever keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected" (2⁵); and "If we love one another, God abideth in us, and His love is perfected in us" (4¹²).  Manifestly, the conception common to "keeping His word" and "loving one another" is the embodiment of Love in actual conduct.  The assertion of perfectness refers, not to the strength or purity of Love as a sentiment, but solely to its bearing fruit in deeds which prove its reality and fulfil its purpose.  The idea is that, not of qualitative, but of effective perfection; and tetelei,wtai might be translated more unambiguously by "fulfilled" or "accomplished" than by "perfected."  That is teteleiwme,non which has reached its te,loj, has achieved its end, has run its full course.¹⁸  And the end of God's Love to us is attained in our loving one another.  As the seed reaches its goal in the fruit, so the Love of God has its fulfilment in reproducing itself in the character and conduct of His children.  But, as we have¹⁹ seen, the Love of God to us cannot be directly reproduced in our relation to Him.  It is only when we love one another with the love of God - the love which is His own, and which He begets in us - that His love is fulfilled in us.  Then Love's circuit is complete, from God to us, from us to our brother, and through our brother back to God (cf. Matt. 25⁴⁰).

    Next, the Apostle states a special purpose achieved by this fulfilment of Love - "that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment."²⁰  This is not the only end, but it is an end; in the present view, indeed, the ultimate end of all action.  All that life most profoundly signifies is contained in the thought of our final responsibility to God (2 Cor. 5^9,10).  This confidence is a present possession (e;cwmen)²¹ not only because the Apostle thinks of the Day of Judgment as at hand, but because the thought of that Day and of its issue for us is, or ought to be, present to our minds.

    Finally, the Apostle supplies the necessary connecting link between "perfected Love" and this "confidence."  Our love, however truly fulfilled, does not in its own right furnish confidence against the Day of Judgment.  It does so, "because as He is,²² so are we" - because it is the proof that we are spiritually one with Christ.

    The statement is, that what Christ is we also are, though He has gone to the Father and we are still in this world.²³  The sign and test of our union with Him has been stated as "walking even as He walked" (2⁶), "purifying ourselves as He is pure" (3³), being "righteous as He is righteous" (3⁷).  Here, finally, it is that "Love is fulfilled in us."  The heart of all Christ's doing and suffering was the intense longing He had to make Himself the channel through which the Love of God might reach men.  To this end He followed the path of love to the crowded city, to the wilderness, to the Cross and the grave.  In Him Love had its absolute fulfilment.  And if we also seek to be channels through which the Love of God reaches our fellow-men, then, in our small measure and degree, we are "as He is"; and Love, feeble and poor though it be, has herein reached fulfilment in us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.  Love will be on the Judgment-seat.  Love will be before the Judgment-seat.  And Love cannot be condemned or disowned of Love.

    "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment: he that feareth is not made perfect in love."

    In the preceding verse it has been asserted that Love "fulfilled" establishes the Christian in confidence toward God, as being the fruit and the test of his fellowship with Christ.  Here the same position is maintained from a complementary point of view: what is hostile to parvr`hsi,a is Fear, and what delivers from Fear is Love.²⁴  Fear towards God is the product of the self-accusing heart. But "there is no Fear²⁵ in Love."  In loving one another there is no matter of selt-accusation, there is nothing to give occasion to Fear.²⁶  Fear is the sentinel of life; the self-protective instinct that gives warning of danger, and calls to arms against it; and Fear towards God is the sign that not all is well in our relation to Him, and that we instinctively know it.  But Love gives no such warning signal.  When we are living in Love we are doing those things which are "well-pleasing in His sight" (3²²); we are "abiding in the Light" (2¹⁰); we have "fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (1⁷).

    Not only is there nothing in Love to produce Fear; it banishes Fear where it exists.  "But perfect Love casteth out Fear."  It says to Fear, "Begone!" and, so to say, flings it out of doors.²⁷  "Perfect Love" (h` te,leia avgaph) cannot signify anything else than the Love which has been spoken of in the foregoing verse as "perfected."²⁸  How love becomes "perfect" has been already declared (2⁵, 4¹²); also how it casts out Fear.  Even against a self-accusing heart, Love that is "in deed and in Truth" lifts up its testimony that we are "of the truth" (3¹⁸).  That we in this world are as Christ is (4¹⁷), forgiving them that injure us, doing the most and the highest good we can, loving men with the Love of Christ, "walking in Love even as He loved us" - there is no attestation of our fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and no ground of confidence like this.  This casts out Fear by Divine right.²⁹  And it does so, St. John adds, "because Fear hath punishment."³⁰  The expression is peculiar and obscure.  The drift of the argument, however, is clear.  Fear itself is of the nature of punishment; it is, in fact, the first reaction of sin upon the moral nature, the first conscious penalty of wrong-doing.  It is, moreover, the consciousness of a relation to God of which punishment is the proper and only issue; and, unless it be legitimately overcome, drives the sinner to an ever-increasing distance from God (Gen. 3⁸).  And just because this is the nature of Fear, Love prevails over it and casts it out.  Conscious of loving our fellow-men with a love that God has implanted in our hearts, we are assured that God is our Father, that Jesus Christ the Righteous is our Advocate - that our relation to God is one which holds no place for the idea of "punishment," in which nothing is possible except fatherly forgiveness and discipline.  If Fear is the natural reaction of sin upon the soul, no less is confidence the natural reaction of Love.  Nothing can work in us such a loving assurance of God's love to us as loving one another.  Nothing can make it so clear that God will forgive our trespasses as our forgiving those that trespass against us.  It is by loving that we know God, Who is Love, and are assured that God dwelleth in us.  Therefore "perfect" Love - Love that has done the work of Love - casts out the Fear which "hath punishment."  The consequence necessarily follows that" He that feareth has not been made³¹ perfect in Love."  In the sphere of Love his life must be yet unfulfilled.³²  Inasmuch as he fears, his condition is more hopeful than that of him who "saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother" (2⁹); but inasmuch as he fails of genuine fruition in Love he lacks, and rightly lacks, the consciousness of union with God in Christ; or at least that consciousness is feeble as against the consciousness of sin.  The Apostle evidently does not contemplate such a type of Christian as Bunyan's Mr. Fearing.  Indoctrinated with the teaching of the Epistle, that loving and lovable saint might cease to be Mr. Fearing.  Even he might recognise that he is "of the truth," and assure his "heart before God."

    The paragraph is now exquisitely rounded by the return of thought to Him Who is the source of all Christian Life, all Christian Love, and ultimately, therefore, of all Christian Assurance.

    Having just spoken of him "that feareth" because "he has not been made perfect in Love," the Apostle adds the earnest exhortation 'As for us, let us love,³³ because He first loved us."  This brief sentence contains at once the ideal, the sovereign motive and the power of realisation for all Christian ethics.  What God is, determines the mark at which the Christian must of necessity aim (Matt. 5⁴⁵).  What God is - "He first loved us" - summons and inspires heart, soul, strength, and mind to the effort.  What God is - Love that wills to bestow nothing less than the Infinite Good, Eternal Life, upon sinful men - supplies the unfailing power to which all moral perfection is possible.  Through the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, we may be holy as He is holy, righteous as He is righteous, and love as the children of Him who is Love.

    In the exposition of these verses I have ventured upon a wide departure from the practically unanimous³⁴ exegetical tradition.  I have taken the passage as closely parallel with 3^18,20, understanding "perfected" Love as Love fulfilled in "deed and in truth," and as casting out Fear, because it is objective evidence of union with Christ.  But on the common interpretation, it is the sentiment of Love that is here spoken of as "perfected," and it casts out Fear, because the two are psychologically incompatible.³⁵  "Where Love to God exists in perfection it casts out all lingering dread of Him.  Love and Fear are antagonistic principles. Love is a self-forgetting, Fear a self-regarding affection.  Love is blessedness; Fear, on the contrary, 'hath torment.'  It contemplates the relation to its object as one of hostile opposition, and brings with it a feeling of distress.  But Love has no thought of self, and, therefore, no Fear.  Not every kind of Love, indeed, casts out Fear; but only perfect Love, which is free from self-seeking.  And if any man is yet subject to Fear, this only proves that he is not perfected in Love.  But this is not true of us.  We love God with this unselfish, happy, fearless Love, because He first loved us."

    But this interpretation seems to me to be open to serious objection.  According to it, the central thought of the passage is that the secret of confidence toward God lies in the psychological necessity by which the sentiment of Love to God excludes the opposite sentiment of Fear.  But in the first place, this thought does not at all fit into the reasoning of 4¹⁷, where the ground of confidence explicitly is, "Because as He (Christ) is, so are we in this world."  Here it is, in my view, indisputable that the "perfected Love" is brotherly love fulfilled in "deed and in truth," and that it gives confidence toward God because it is the sign and the test of our being spiritually identified with Christ.  But if the central idea is that the sentiment of Love by its natural operation casts out Fear, the reference to Christ and to our union with Him is entirely irrelevant.³⁶

    With regard to 4¹⁸ I acknowledge that this interpretation satisfies the requirements excellently³⁷ and obviously - more obviously than that which I have advanced - if 4¹⁸ can be isolated from 4¹⁷, and from the whole Epistle.  It is evident that if this is the true interpretation of 4¹⁸, the argument of the passage breaks in two.  In 4¹⁷, Love perfected in action casts out Fear, because it is evidence that "as Christ is, so are we"; in 4¹⁸, Love perfected in sentiment casts out Fear by psychological necessity.  It is not, of course, impossible that the writer should thus suddenly and insensibly change his point of view.  But an interpretation that does not involve this supposition is, to that extent, preferable.

    Besides, when thus interpreted, the passage stands solitary in the Epistle, without an assignable place in the organism of its thought.  Here we should have the only idea in the Epistle that is not introduced again and again, and the only passage without a parallel.  (a) On this interpretation, h` avga,ph is Love regarded exclusively as a sentiment, and exclusively in relation to God.  But this is not according to the usage of the Epistle.  h` avga,ph used absolutely, as here, means simply the disposition which is so called - the disposition which is revealed in God by His sending His Son as a propitiation for our sins (4¹⁰), in Christ by His laying down His life for us (3¹⁶), and which, according to the unvarying representation of the Epistle, is manifested and fulfilled in us by our loving one another.  (b) But the strongest objection lies against the idea itself that confidence toward God is the effect of a sentiment or state of inward feeling.  This seems incongruous with the whole tone and teaching of the Epistle.  Everywhere else the writer drives us back upon the evidence of tangible facts.  Everywhere else the Epistle strenuously insists upon the necessity of testing love to God by its realisation in action (2⁵, 3¹⁷, 4^12,20, 5³).  And if Love itself must submit to such tests, how is this compatible with making it, merely as a sentiment, the immediate source of assurance?  It has just been said that if we love "not in word neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth, we shall recognise that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him."  How can we now be told that if any man feareth, it is because he is deficient in the feeling of love to God?  The objective evidence is indispensable (3¹⁷); how, then, is the subjective feeling sufficient?  The objective evidence is sufficient (3¹⁹), how, then, is the subjective feeling indispensable?  Furthermore, this interpretation seems to involve a considerable departure from the normal lines of New Testament thought upon this subject.  In the evangelical psychology it is confidence that makes perfect love possible, rather than perfect love that begets confidence.  God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, taking away the causes of fear, in order that we may love Him with a free-hearted, unselfish, filial love, much rather than inspiring such a love in order that we may have confidence toward Him.³⁸  We may regard the Christian's assurance as resting immediately upon Christ, or we may regard it as resting upon the pledges he has given to Christ (2 Tim. 1¹²), - the work of faith and labour of love that certify his union with Christ; but is there any other passage in the New Testament that represents this assurance as dependent upon the subjective perfection of our love to God?

    Finally, one may ask to what purpose is the passage, thus interpreted?  It states a psychological fact - that in proportion as we are possessed by self-forgetting love we are delivered from self-regarding fear.  This is as true as that two and two are four; and if there are those on whose behalf it can be claimed that by the very perfection of their love to God, as a sentiment, they are delivered from all fear, this is, indeed, thank-worthy.  Yet even so they are apparently invited to regard the absence of fear as the proof of the genuineness and perfection of their love - a position which is absolutely inconsistent with the whole tenor of the Epistle, and which receives a direct contradiction in the very next verse (4²⁰).  But it is admitted by those who maintain this interpretation, that in no actual instance is it fully applicable.  "Though as certain as any physical law, the principle that perfect love excludes all fear, is an ideal that has never been verified in fact; like the first law of motion, it is verified by the approximation made to it" (Plummer).³⁹  That is true; and it follows that all Christians are, in greater or less measure, included under o` fobou,menoj.  Such a consequence is clearly against the whole purport of the passage a passage which is triumphant throughout, and could not conceivably have ended with the stemly sorrowful "he that feareth has not been made perfect in love," if these words contemplated any other than an abnormal experience.  For these reasons, I have been compelled reluctantly to abandon this interpretadon for 4¹⁷ and, with more hesitation, for 4¹⁸ also, temptingly obvious as it is for the latter.

    Having thus completed our exposition of the passages in which Assurance is specifically dealt with, we may now briefly consider the broader aspects of St. John's presentation of this subject.  And, in the first place, let it be said once more that the whole tone and temper of the Epistle, in its treatment of this as of other subjects, must be appreciated in view of its polemical purpose.  Its noble and enthusiastic delineation of the Christian Life is, at the same time, a manifesto against pseudo-Christianity; and if it is written to establish the genuine Christian in the certainty of his salvation (5¹³), this is done only in such a way as to refute all spurious pretensions.  Hence it comes that the Epistle has much more to say of the immediate tests than of the ultimate ground of Christian Assurance.  The statement of the latter forms the entrance-hall, so to say, of the Epistle.  And the statement is clear and strong: "The Blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (1⁷).  "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He is the Propitiation for our sins" (2^1,2).  The Christian's sole confidence is Christ.

"Bold shall I stand on that great day;
For who aught to my charge shall lay,
While by Thy Blood absolved I am
From sin's tremendous guilt and shame?"

    Further, we must observe that, so far as the teaching of the Epistle shows, this is solely inferential.  Salvation - Eternal Life - is not of the future only, it is a present reality; and there is no assurance of it except what is a warrantable inference from its manifestations in character and conduct.

    The characteristic word by which this inference is expressed is ginw,skein⁴⁰ (to "recognise" or "perceive" a fact by its appropriate marks, 2^3,5,29, 3^19,24, 4¹³).  At times, indeed, the Apostle seems to rise to an immediate consciousness of Divine sonship, as in "We know (oi;damen) that we are of God" (5¹⁹).  But this "We know" is only "We perceive" raised to a higher power by exultant emotion.  Even in its highest moments, Assurance does not change its ground: "We know (oi;damen) that we have passed from death into life, because we love the brethren" (3¹⁴).  The conception, whether right or wrong, of Assurance as a self-evidencing consciousness of acceptance with God, for which earnest souls have prayed in tears of agony and waited in many a darkened hour, is, to say the least, not present in the Epistle.  Equally remote from its teaching is that minute inquisition of the religious affections by which others have sought to eliminate misgiving.  With St. John the grounds of assurance are ethical, not emotional; objective, not subjective; plain and tangible, not microscopic and elusive.  They are three, or, rather, they are a trinity:  Belief, Righteousness, Love.  By his belief in Christ, his keeping God's commandments, and his love to the brethren, a Christian man is recognised and recognises himself as begotten of God.

    The function assigned to Belief, in this regard, is specially characteristic, and demands consideration.  According to the teaching of the Epistle, Christian Belief brings assurance of salvation, not by subjective psychological action as Trust, but because it affords objective testimony that the believer is "begotten of God "⁴¹ (4², 5^4,5), and has God "abiding in him" (4¹⁵).  It is the same with the witness of the Spirit.  To every believer the truth concerning the object of Christian faith - Christ the Incarnate Son of God - is directly certified by the teaching and testimony of the Spirit (2^20,27, 4², 5⁷).  But it is a misconception, though a common one, to regard the Epistle as teaching that the Spirit bears immediate and self-evidencing testimony to the Divine sonship of the believer.  What the Spirit witnesses to is the Divine-human personality of Christ (4², 5⁷; cf. John 15²⁶, 16¹⁴).  And it is only as an objective fact and by necessary inference that the reception of the Spirit's witness and the resultant confession of Christ give assurance that "we are of God" (4⁴).  Thus when it is said (3²⁴), "And hereby we recognise that He abideth in us by the Spirit which He gave us," it is not the intuition of a fact, but an inference from a fact, that is expressed, - not that the Spirit imparts the immediate consciousness that God abideth in us, but that the indwelling of God is recognised by its appropriate sign, the gift of the Spirit "that confesseth Jesus as the Christ come in the flesh" (4²).

    It is thus evident that the Epistle's view of Assurance stands somewhat apart from St. Paul's (Rom. 8^15,16).  While the same fundamental Christian experience as Paul asserts, "Ye received not the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father," is no less asserted by "We know and have believed the Love which God hath towards us," the fact, nevertheless, is not to be slurred over, that in its explicit treatment of tile subject, which is uniquely deliberate and systematic, the Epistle recognises no assurance of fellowship with God which is not matter of inevitable inference from the facts of life.  And it is precisely when it deals with the subject at closest quarters that it most rigorously postulates Love, embodied and "perfected" in actual deeds, as the crucial test by which "we shall recognise that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him . . ."  For this proof that "as He is, so are we in this world," there is no substitute.

    We turn now to the second branch of the subject, Assurance in Prayer.  This does not emerge in the first Cycle of the Epistle, but in the second and the third it is dealt with in passages which are closely parallel and mutually explanatory (3^21,22 and 5^14,15).  In both places assurance of our filial relation to God is seen to have as its immediate result, confidence toward Him in prayer.  This assurance is differently expressed in the two contexts (3¹⁹ - "we are of the truth"; 5¹³ - "ye have eternal life"), and is differently grounded (on Love "in deed and in truth," 3¹⁸; on Belief "in the name of the Son of God," 5¹³), but is to the same effect and leads to the same practical issue parvr`hsi,a toward God.

    "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness⁴² toward God; and whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."  parvr`hsi,a ("boldness") is to be understood as including both the right we enjoy - that of open and free speech - and the feeling of confidence with which this is exercised.  The condition of this "boldness" is - "If our heart condemn us not."  In the foregoing verse the Apostle has indicated how the true Christian, loving, "not in word neither in tongue," but "in deed and in truth," may recognise that he is "of the truth," and assure his heart, even his self-condemning heart, before God.  And here "If our heart condemn us not" must be understood as assuming the whole result of 3^18-20.  It includes not only the case in which the heart has found no matter of condemnation, but also the case in which the heart's condemnation has been silenced in the presence of Him "Who is greater than the heart."  Upon this condition alone is confident approach to God possible.  Unconfessed sin, or doubt as to our own integrity of heart, offers an insuperable obstacle.  (Ps. 32³, 66¹⁸, Matt. 5^23,24).  But, unembarrassed by the accusation of conscience, conscious of walking in the Light as He is in the Light, we have the privilege, and the feeling which corresponds to the privilege, of open childlike speech with our Father.  This is the glory and perfection of Christian prayer, and is the Christian's constant encouragement and invitation to pray.

    And this is no vain confidence we have toward God.  "Whatsoever we ask of Him we receive, because we keep⁴³ His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight."⁴⁴

    What principle is expressed in this "because is not immediately obvious.  The idea of merit is to be absolutely excluded as irrelevant to the thought of the whole passage, and as opposed to the inmost truth of Christianity.  Equally to be rejected, a priori, is the notion that by our obedience we acquire such favour with God and such influence in His counsels that He cannot refuse us what we ask (Candlish).  Even if we are compelled to recognise such a thought in the primitive stages of revelation, it is intolerable in the New Testament.  The key to the interpretation of the present passage is given in John 15⁷: - "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you."  It is no external and arbitrary but an intrinsically necessary condition of successful prayer that is here expressed.  Our prayers are answered, because our will is in inward harmony with God's, the evidence of this being that we "keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."  In our actions we prove that God's will is our will; and when we pray, our will does not change.  Our life is a unity.  Our deeds and our prayers are manifestations of the same God-begotten Life, are operations of the same will, - the will that God's will be done.  Therefore, "whatsoever we ask of Him we receive."  "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (Jas. 5¹⁶), because, as the man is, so are his prayers - righteous.  The desires of him who delights himself in the Lord are desires that cannot, because they ought not, to fail of accomplishment (Ps. 37⁴).  The prayers of those who "keep God's commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight," are nothing else than echoes of God's own voice, impulses of the Divine Will Itself throbbing in the strivings of the human will and, in the mystical circulation of the Eternal Life, returning to their source.⁴⁵

    All this is more explicitly set forth in the parallel passage -

    "And this⁴⁶ is the boldness which we have towards Him, that, if we ask anything according to His Will,⁴⁷ He heareth us" (5¹⁴).  Here the qualification, "according to His Will" is explicit.  The marvellous and supernatural power of prayer consists, not in bringing God's Will down to us, but in lifting our will up to His.  And thus the words, "according to His Will," do not in reality, though verbally and in appearance they do, limit the exercise of true prayer.  Rather do they display the breadth and sublimity of its scope as well as the certainty of its fulfilment.  The Will of God is the final and perfect Redemption of men (John 6^39,40, Eph. 1^9,10,11, Col. 1⁹ etc.), and the providential appointment and control of events as contributory to this (Matt. 26⁴², Acts 21¹⁴, Rom. 15³², I Pet. 4¹⁹ etc.).  And this Will of God has necessarily become the will of every one who is "begotten of God" and has Eternal Life abiding in him.  With regard to particular events, he may have no certain knowledge of what that Will is; but, as the end of all his actions, so the end and sum of all his prayers is, "Thy Will be done."

    "And if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask,⁴⁸ we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him" (5¹⁵).

    The emphasis of the verse falls upon the Words, "We have."  Since what we ask is according to God's Will, we know that we have it - "We have," not "We shall have."  The statement is characteristically Johannine.  Though the fulfilment may not yet be apparent, it exists in the sphere of Divine Thought and Will, which is the sphere of reality, and only awaits manifestation.  The certainty of this ought to fill us with joyful expectation (John 16²⁴).  "A door is thus opened into all the treasures of heaven" (Haupt).

    In the following verse (5¹⁶)⁴⁹ illustrative examples are adduced both of assurance in prayer and of its limits.  "If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life (renewed spiritual life) for them that sin not unto death."  Here there is absolute assurance.  It is the Will of God that the brother who has sinned, yet not so as to sever himself from the fellowship of Christ and His people, be restored; and in answer to prayer it shall be done.  Again, "There is sin unto death; I do not say - "he does not forbid, neither does he encourage " that he shall pray concerning this."  In the Apostle's view it is impossible, in such a case, to ask with assurance of obtaining our request.

    Prayer, then, according to the teaching of the Epistle, is an expression of the Eternal Life - the Life of God - in man.  For the desires and aims of that Life two channels of effort are provided, Work " to keep God's commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight - and Prayer.  Prayer is asking (aivtei/n); not devout meditation, but definite petition; not to wish only, but to will.  The peculiar characteristic of Christian prayer is confidence (parvr`hsi,a).  It is not the mere abject cry that pain, helplessness, or blank despair sends up to an unknown God on the chance that He may hear and help.  As little has it the character of an endeavour to turn God from His purpose or to convert Him to our way of thinking.  Christian prayer is essentially an active identification of the human will with the Divine Will; and that confidence which is its distinctive privilege consists in two things - first, the persuasion that our will is in harmony with God's; and, second, the certainty that God's Will shall be done.  The former is, in the nature of the case, contingent.  It is ours, "If our heart condemn us not."  It is ours, "Because we keep His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight"; which things, the Apostle reminds us, include pre-eminently believing on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and loving one another (3²³).  On the other hand, the assurance that God's Will shall be done is absolute.  "If we ask anything according to His Will," we have our petition.  When we look upon the wrongs and confusions of our own hearts and lives, and upon those that seem to reign in the world around us, we have nowhere to cast anchor save in the Sovereign Will of the Eternal.  God is Love.  The Will of God is pure, unchangeable, holy Love working for the highest good of every creature.  It is the Will of God that the Eternal Life of Truth, Righteousness, and Love shall everywhere grow and multiply; and when we will this together with Him, nothing shall prevent its accomplishment.

    St. John's conception of prayer is removed by the whole diameter of thought from the secularist's taunting definition of it as "an appliance warranted by theologians to make God do what His clients want."  Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man's will done in Heaven, but for getting God's will done in Earth.  But in that case it is said to be open to the alternative objection of superfluity.  "If God is just, will He not do justice without being entreated of men?  If God is allwise, and knows what is for man's good better than man can tell Him, is not prayer a futility and an impertinence?"⁵⁰  Those who urge this objection fail to see that what it involves is sheer fatalism - a scheme of the universe in which there is no place for the finite will.  They fail to see that all that is urged against the need of prayer might be urged, with equal cogency, against the need of work or human action of any kind.  If, because God is just, He will do justice without being entreated of men, it is equally true that he will do justice without any human effort on behalt of justice.  If, because God knows what is best for us, prayer is a superfluity and an impertinence, then all thought about what is best for us and all effort to procure it must be equally superfluous.  And if every one sees that man's work is not an impertinent interference with the will of God, but is the fulfilment of His Will, it is equally rational to believe that God needs and uses man's prayers precisely as He needs and uses man's work.  And for precisely the same reason - that the beings He has created in His own likeness and made partakers of His own spiritual Life may grow to "a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."  By work and prayer alike our will-power may go forth to the accomplishment of His purposes.  God needs the one from us no more and no less than He needs the other.  And we need the one no more and no less than we need the other.  All true work is one method, and all true prayer is another method, of putting our will in line with God's.  We are conscious of this in our best prayers.  It is this that gives power and assurance to prayer the knowledge that we are desiring what He desires, seeking what He seeks, willing with the whole strength of our souls what He wills.  This is the marvellous and immeasurable power God has entrusted us with, and which we employ so feebly and slothfully.