The correlative, intellectually, of Belief is "witness" (marturi,a, marturei/n, 1², 4¹⁴, 5^{6,7, 9,10,11}); and although the apologetic aim of the Epistle is fully disclosed only in the middle of the second chapter, the note of "witness" struck in the opening verses shows that this was in the writer's mind from the first.

    "That¹ which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life (and the Life was manifested, and we have seen, and announce unto you the Life, the Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard announce we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."

    Here the Epistle opens, as it likewise closes, in a strain of triumph. The complex periodic structure, unique² in the Johannine writings, expresses with stately rhetorical effect the writer's consciousness of the unequalled sublimity of his theme, and his exultation in the double apostolic privilege of having himself seen and believed, and of bearing witness to those who have not seen, that they also may have the blessedness of believing (John 20²⁹).

    First he plainly declares his personal acquaintance³ with the facts of the Incarnate Life.  He is not, like St. Luke, a sedulous investigator and recorder of the facts as certified by the most trustworthy witnesses; but is himself such a witness.  His knowledge is derived from detailed and intimate observation;⁴ and the testimony, certified by every faculty given to man as a criterion of objective reality, is that He who was from the Beginning and He who, in His earthly manifestation, lived and died and rose⁵, again is (as against the Docetic conception) the same Person, embodied in the same form of actual human existence.  But before completing the statement that all that has been outlined in 1¹ is the theme of apostolic testimony, the writer parenthetically anticipates the question how such testimony comes to be possible.  Human sense has been made the medium of the knowledge of the eternal Divine Life.  For "the Life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and announce⁶ unto you the Life, the Eternal Life which was toward the Father and was manifested to us."  And then in the following verse, which resumes and completes 1¹, there is repeated insistence upon the fact that the testimony borne is based upon personal and first-hand knowledge, "What we have seen and heard we announce also unto you,⁷ that ye also may have fellowship with us."  Having such a message to deliver he cannot refrain.  His rejoicing in the Truth is such that he must impart it to others also.  For this Truth is the medium of Christian fellowship;⁸ nay, as he exultingly reminds himself and his readers, it is the medium not only of fellowship between Christians, but of their fellowship with God - to have "fellowship with us" is to have "fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ."  Having himself been brought into living fellowship with God through his knowledge of the facts in which the Son of God has been revealed to men, and the Father in the Son, he would now, by making them full partners in his knowledge, open to them the same door of entrance into the same fulness of Divine Fellowship.⁹  "As every stream of water makes for the sea, every rill of truth makes for fellowship of souls."  But the crowning joy of this communication is that by means of it men are brought unto God and into the possession of Divine Life.

    The apostolic "witness" thus furnishes the permanent content, the fact-material, of Christian belief.  It is this - "the word which ye heard from the beginning" (2²⁴) - that reveals the Son of God in the reality of the Incarnate Life.  It is, therefore, the touchstone of truth, the Church's safeguard against all the freaks of human fancy and the vagaries of speculation:  "If it abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father" (2^24b).  With unerring insight St. John declares the sovereign value of the Apostolic Gospel, and assigns its permanent function in the Church.  As at the close of the Apostolic era the watchword of true advance is found to be "back to Christ," so always the historical manifestation of the Word of Life is at once the source and the test of all fruitful developments in theology or ethics.  Whatever rights criticism may claim with respect to the literary medium by which the Apostolic Gospel has been transmitted, that Gospel has remained and must remain the "umpire and test" of truth in all emergencies, even as it is also the "good seed" of the kingdom of God.

    The knowledge of the Divine Revelation given to the world in Jesus Christ is derived ultimately from the testimony of the Apostles and a few other contemporary witnesses: and it is communicated by the same method as that by which information is ordinarily diffused among men: those who know tell it to those who are ignorant.  But is the belief of those who "have not seen and yet have believed" inferior in point of certitude to that of the original witnesses?  The Epistle assures its readers that they are in no such position of inferiority.  They have the testimony and teaching of the Spirit.  In the first cycle of the Epistle the paragraph in which this topic is introduced is 2^20-27.¹⁰  Having in the preceding verses characterised the heretical teachers as the true antichrists, St. John, before proceeding to exhort his readers to stand fast in the Faith, prepares the ground for such exhortation by reminding them of the living Witness they had in themselves - the Spirit God had given them, who both set the seal of immediate conviction upon the Truth itself and enabled them unfailingly to distinguish it from all its counterfeits (pa/n yeu/doj2²¹).

    "And ye have an anointing (chrism) from the Holy One,¹¹ and ye know all things" (2²⁰). The word "chrism "^A (not the act of anointing, but that with which it is performed) seems to be suggested here by the title "antichrists" which has been applied to the schismatics.  They were avnti,cristoi, counterfeits of Christ.  The Apostle's readers had the true chrism, and, therefore, were able to detect their falsity.  On the other hand, the use of the word without explanation assumes that it was familiar to both writer and readers as denoting the abiding gift of the Holy Ghost.  Jesus is the "Anointed."  It is He Who received the true Divine Anointing, "with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 4²⁷, 10³⁸).  And this anointing He received not for Himself alone, but for all the members of His spiritual Body.  During His visible presence among men the conditions of His earthly ministry precluded the full communication of the gift.  But when, having overcome the sharpness of death, He ascended the throne of His kingdom, the oil of His coronation in the heavens flowed down upon His people here on earth (Acts 2^33-36).  The precious ointment ran down to the skirts of the High priest's garments (Ps. 132²).  The result of this "anointing"is that "ye know all things."  The specific office of the Spirit is to "guide into all the truth," to "take of Mine and declare it" (John 16^13,14).

    This now leads the writer to reassert (2^7,12-14) that the motive of his writing does not lie in the assumption of his readers ignorance.  He has no positively new elements to add to their Christian knowledge, "I write unto you, not because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and (know) that no lie is of the truth" (2²¹)¹² . . .¹³  "And, as for you, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you: but as the anointing from Him teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, even as it taught you, ye abide in Him" (2²⁷).¹⁴

    The distinctive feature of this passage is that the testimony of the Spirit is regarded as a "teaching."  And the question¹⁵ that immediately arises is as to the conception of this "teaching" it implies.  Examining this, we find, in the first place, that it is not regarded as superseding the Word, but as concurrent and co-operative with it.  Their interdependence is signified, according to the Writer's habitual method, by alluding to them alternately (2^20,21 the Spirit, 2²⁴ the Word, 2^26,27 the Spirit).  Their teaching is the same in substance - Jesus is the Christ (2²²); and the result is the same abiding in Him ("If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father" (2²⁴); and, again (2²⁷), "Even as it taught you, ye abide in Him").  The teaching, moreover, is continuous, shedding the light of truth upon all subjects as they arise in experience (2²⁷ "The anointing abideth in you . . . and teacheth you concerning all things ").  But in another sense it was complete from the first (2²⁷ "even as it taught¹⁶ you").  When the Apostle's readers first received the gospel, the Spirit once for all led them to the centre of all truth.  In that first "teaching," that first revelation to their faith of the Divine truth in Christ, lay enfolded all that, with the growth of experience and reflection, might afterwards be unfolded.  Nothing at variance with it was admissible; nothing really new could be added to it: - " Even as it taught you, ye abide in Him."

    The result of the Spirit's teaching is: - "Ye know¹⁷ all things" (2²⁰), and "need not that any one teach you" (2²⁷).¹⁷  These assertions cannot be understood as claiming infallibility for every believer (compared to this, Papal infallibility would be a trifle), or as denying all need of human agency in Christian instruction (so declaring the inutility of the Epistle itself).  They must be interpreted in accordance with the general purport of the passage, which is to remind its readers that they already possessed in their fellowship a resource all-sufficient for discerning the real character of the antichristian doctrine.  In view of what they have "heard from the beginning," and of the "anointing" which abides in them, St. John can say, "Ye know all things - all that it is needful to know, and all there is to be known about this matter.  It is not required that I write unto you as if ye were ignorant of the principles of Christian truth that are here in question.  Ye are taught not only by the Word, but also by the Divine Teacher, who continually enlightens your understanding, strengthens your convictions, and ministers to you an invincible assurance of the truth of the Gospel.  In this respect ye are independent of other teaching."

    Thus the conception of the Spirit's teaching found here is in perfect accord with that of the Fourth Gospel and of the New Testament throughout.  The Spirit is not a source of independent revelation, but makes the Revelation of Christ effectual.  And this is done by a process that may be considered as twofold, teaching and testimony.  There is an operation of the Spirit that is educative, ever extending the area of the spiritual understanding: - "His anointing teacheth you concerning all things."  The Word - Christ in the Word - is the Truth; the Spirit is the living Divine Teacher who works in us a progressive understanding of the contents of the Truth embodied in Him - unfolds its many-sided significance in relation to the various exigencies that arise for Christian thought and action.  But the illumination wrought by the Spirit is also intensive.  It is not only teaching, but testimony: - "He shall testify of Me" (John 15²⁶).  The Word - Christ in the Word - is the Light, the Truth; it is the Spirit that makes the light light, and the truth truth, to the soul.  The joyous assurance of faith is His gift.  Both of these elements are included here in the thought of the anointing."  The former is the more prominent - the "anointing" teacheth.  By means of it the Church unerringly detects as a "liar" every one who denieth that Jesus is the Christ (2²²).  But, underlying the whole passage, there is also the thought of the Spirit's testimony, "Ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know (oi;date)¹⁸ all things" (2²⁰).  The truth is placed beyond all reach of controversy, and passes into absolute knowledge.  For it is not the proposition - Jesus is the Christ - per se that is the bulwark against antichristian falsehood; it is the strength of conviction with which it is held.  Not a correct, clear-sighted orthodoxy, but a firm and fervent. assurance of the truth is the innermost citadel.  "As His anointing teacheth you, and is true and is no lie, even as it taught you, ye abide in Him" (2²⁷).

    Thus far, then, the teaching of the Epistle is that Christian Belief is derived externally from the Apostolic Gospel, internally and concurrently from the witness of the Spirit.  And each supplies a standard for its right development.  Stated in modern language, the doctrine of the Epistle is that all Christian theology must approve itself as an interpretation of the historic Christ, and also as satisfying the genuine spiritual instincts of the Christian life.  And no theology meets the one requirement that does not also meet the other.  The continuous development of Christian doctrine in the Church furnishes an ever-growing testimony to the fulfilment of the twofold promise, hindered as that fulfilment may be by human imperfection, - "If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father," and  "His anointing teacheth you concerning all things."

    This, the second passage of importance dealing expressly with the grounds of Belief, is one of much difficulty and obscurity.¹⁹  We have already considered the meaning of the unique phraseology in which the permanent reality of the Incarnation is here asserted.  In opposition to the Cerinthian heresy, which taught that there was merely a temporary connection between the heavenly Christ and the human Jesus, beginning at the Baptism and terminating on the eve of the Passion, the Apostle testifies that Jesus is the Son of God (5⁶), and that He "came" - was manifested as the Christ, entered upon His Christly mission - both by the water of Baptism and the blood of the Cross.  And, as warrant for this belief, he cites the testimony of five witnesses: the Spirit (5^6b), the Water and the Blood (5⁸), God (5⁹), the believer's own experience (5¹⁰).

    "And it is the Spirit that witnesseth,²⁰ because the Spirit is Truth."

    Almost as many explanations have been offered of the "Spirit" in this verse as of the "Water and the Blood" in the preceding verse.  Undoubtedly, however, it is identical with the "Spirit" who inspires the confession of Jesus as the "Christ come in the flesh" (4²), and with the "anointing" that "teacheth you concerning all things," - in short, is the Paraclete of the Fourth Gospel.²¹

    As to the substance of the Spirit's testimony, it is not only that Jesus came by the water and by the blood; it includes the whole truth advanced, that the Jesus who thus came is the Son of God (5^5,6).  As to the manner in which the testimony is borne, this may be conceived either as direct or as indirect.  In the Acts of the Apostles the descent of the Spirit, with all its sensible manifestations, is cited simply as a supernatural fact, bearing objective testimony to Christ's Resurrection and Ascension (" This which ye have seen and heard," Acts 2^33,36; cf. I Cor. 14²²).  Such is the witness of the Spirit to the world; but to the Church it is given by direct inspiration.  The distinction is clearly drawn by St. Paul, "Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not; but prophesying is not to them that believe not, but to them that believe" (I Cor. 14²²).  It is the latter aspect of the Spirit's testimony that is brought into prominence in the Epistle.  Whether acting charismatically through the prophets or universally upon the minds of believers, it is by direct inward "teaching" that the Spirit testifies of Christ in the Church.  Combining both aspects, we may say that the permanent witness of the Spirit consists, inwardly, in the Christian's intuitive assurance of the truth revealed in Christ, and, externally, in the whole manifestation of a life of supernatural character and power in the past and present of the Christian Church.

    Next is added the reason why the Spirit is "that which witnesseth": - "because the Spirit is Truth."  Again, this might be understood as signifying simply that the Spirit is an abiding reality.  However the ideas and beliefs of men may change and oscillate, the presence of the Spirit is a permanent supernatural fact, and, therefore, is "that which beareth witness."  Probably, however, the meaning is not different from that expressed in the familiar title, "the Spirit of Truth" - the Spirit, that is, whose nature it is to recognise and reveal the eternal Truth of God.²²  Perception implies kinship.  Only Love can know Love.  Only Purity can understand Purity.  Only Truth can recognise Truth.  And it is because "the Spirit is Truth" that He recognises and reveals Christ who is the embodiment of the Truth (John 15⁶).  The statement, thus understood, points clearly to the personality of the Spirit; and, indeed, suggests the Trinitarian conception of the Godhead.  The ultimate Truth is what God is.  And as the Father is the Truth in its essence, and the Son is the Word or outgoing of the Truth, so the Spirit is the witness of the unity of the Essence and the Word, - the witness in the Father of His unity with the Son, and in the Son of His unity with the Father.  And thus the Spirit, imparted to men, becomes the author of Faith, - becomes in us also the consciousness of God in Christ, and of the Christ in God.

    "For there are three that bear witness,²³ the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood: and the three agree in one."

    As regards the witness of the Water and the Blood, it is best to acknowledge that it is impossible to recover with certainty the precise conception in the writer's mind.²⁴  It is evident, however, that the controversial purpose of the passage must be taken as the starting-point towards any sound interpretation.  Against the Docetic theory of a merely temporary habitation of the heavenly Christ in the human Jesus, St. John asserts the truth of a real and indissoluble Incarnation.  The Jesus Who was baptized in Jordan and the Jesus Who was crucified on Calvary were in every respect the same Divine-human person.  He "came" - entered into the sphere of His Messianic action - by Water and by Blood.  His Baptism was the initial act, His Death the consummating act, of His self-consecration to the work of the world's redemption.²⁵  It is to this that the Spirit bears witness (4²); and since it is said that the witness of the Water and the Blood is to the same effect (eivj to. e;n eivsin), obviously this must be of such a nature as to confute the Docetic annulment of the Incarnation.  Now, since in 5⁶ the Water and the Blood undoubtedly refer to our Lord's own Baptism and Passion, the natural course is to seek in these, and in the historical facts connected with them, the "witness" of the Water and the Blood.  Nor is it difficult to see how the Baptism of Jesus, with its attendant circumstances (the testimony of John the Baptist; our Lord's own consciousness of sinlessness, implied in the fact that, though John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, He alone made no confession of sin; the descent of the Spirit; the Voice from heaven), testified to the Messiahship, which with St. John is equivalent to the Divine Sonship of Jesus.  But as to the witness of the Blood there is serious difficulty.  To explain it (Weiss) by those incidents of the Crucifixion to which the Fourth Gospel attaches a special significance as fulfilments of Scripture -  "A bone of Him shall not be broken," "They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced" (John 19^33,37) - is altogether inadequate.²⁶

    The only interpretation left open is that the witness of the Water and the Blood is that of the Christian Sacraments.  The objection to this is that it requires here in 5⁸ a different sense for the Water and the Blood from what they have in 5⁶.  But in view of the extreme condensation of the whole passage, the objection is not insurmountable.  The transition from the facts themselves to the appointed and familiar memorials of the facts is thoroughly natural.  The witness of the Sacraments, moreover, would tell with destructive effect upon the position of the Docetists.  Holding the truth that Christ "came" by Water, they would, no doubt, accept the Sacrament of Baptism; but the Lord's Supper must have presented an insuperable obstacle to their theory of the Crucifixion.  Whether they retained the observance of it we cannot tell; but it is difficult to imagine what sacramental significance they could attach to this memorial of One Who before His Passion had been reduced to the level of common humanity.

    On the other hand, the Apostle's words may suggest the question whether the worth of the Sacraments as permanent and, one might almost say, living witnesses to the historical reality, as well as to the ideal significance, of the facts they represent, is usually appreciated and emphasised as it ought to be.  His declaration that Christ came by water, though not by water only, gives to Christ's own Baptism an importance that is not always recognised.  It is evident that for the writer of the Epistle the Baptism (though it is not definitely recorded in the Fourth Gospel) was no mere incident in the life of Jesus, no merely formal inauguration of His Messianic ministry.  It was by His Baptism "with the Holy Ghost and with power" that Jesus was qualified to be the Saviour of the world.  The Holy Ghost by Whom His humanity was begotten in the Virgin's womb, Who formed and nurtured and trained in Him that sinless manhood which brought back the lost image of God to earth, was then first poured out upon Him "not by measure," that from Him it might again proceed in life-giving stream through the world of souls.  It was thus that the Divine Life became in Him a perennial and overflowing fountain of regenerative power; and to this as a fact of history, to say nothing more, the Sacrament of Baptism is the abiding witness in the Church.  Christian Baptism apart from the Baptism of Christ would be meaningless.  Only He who has the fulness of the Spirit can impart the Spirit.

    But He came not by water only, but by the Water and the Blood.  There was that in the Love of Christ - the Love of God - which water could not, which only blood could express.  There was that in the need of man which water could not, which only blood could adequately meet.  By death the grain of wheat must be quickened and become fruitful.  The Life of Christ, endued with all fulness of spiritual power, and with all its fulness of spiritual power consecrated to God in His Baptism, must be poured out in the uttermost sacrifice, that it might bring forth the new life of the children of God.  And of this fact, that it was the Christ, the Son of God, whose Body and Blood were offered for us upon the Cross, the Lord's Supper is the perpetual attestation.  The Sacraments are impressive and incontrovertible witnesses to historical realities.  Every successive generation of Christians has baptized, and broken bread as the first company of believers did, and has received in these Sacraments the same testimony to the foundation-facts upon which our salvation rests.  Older than the oldest of New Testament Scriptures, of an authenticity which no criticism can impugn, they lead us back to the birth-hour of Christianity, and perpetuate in the Church the historical basis of its Faith.  And not only does one generation testify to another in the Sacraments; Christ Himself testifies in them to His Church. If they are His ordinance, if it is by His appointment that we baptize in His name and "do this in remembrance" of Him, this is the surest evidence that He was conscious of being to men the one and ever-enduring source of regenerative virtue and propitiatory cleansing; and in them He is ever repeating that claim and pledging Himself anew to its fulfilment.  But the Spirit also witnesses in the Sacraments.  By them He has in all ages revived and strengthened faith, inspired love, awakened hope, and imparted new impulse to Christian lives -  has, in short, made Christ a Real Presence, not in material elements, but in the hearts of His disciples.  Materialised as the conception of the Sacraments has sometimes become, formal as their observance in many cases may be, the zealous affection and honour in which the universal Church has always held them, as the centre of its fellowship and, as it were, the very hearth of the household of faith, have written the best of commentaries upon the Apostle's words, "There are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood."

    Finally, the Apostle adds that these three witnesses "agree²⁷ in one"; they are to the same effect; they testify jointly to the truth which is the theme of the entire paragraph - that Jesus, who was baptized and crucified, is the Son of God.  This combination of the historical (the Water, the Blood) and the ideal (the Spirit) is the strength of Christian apologetics.  Without the one, Christianity becomes a mere Idealism, by which faith could no more conquer the world than the lungs could fill themselves in a vacuum.  Without the other, the voice of truth awakens no inward response, lacks that self-evidencing power which alone makes it truth to the soul.

    "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God, because He hath borne witness concerning His Son."

    The sentence, however it be construed,²⁸ is highly elliptical, requiring, for a full statement of the sense, to be supplemented thus: "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater (and, therefore, we ought the rather to receive it; and here this principle comes into operation), because this witness (of which I have been speaking) is the witness of God, because He has borne witness concerning His Son." Rugged and clumsy as the form of the sentence is, its intention is thoroughly clear, - namely, to set forth the threefold witness of the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood as being, in reality, the witness of God.  In the facts which the Christian Sacraments commemorate, in the Baptism with the Spirit which inaugurated the Christly ministry of Jesus, and in the Death and Resurrection in which that ministry was consummated and by which it passed beyond all limitations of time, and place, and sense; in the testimony of the Spirit creating and establishing a world-conquering faith in the crucified Jesus as the victorious Son of God: - in these facts, if anywhere at all, God has uttered Himself in unmistakable testimony to mankind.  And if we receive the testimony of men, as we do, if nine-tenths of what we call "knowledge" is derived from the testimony of men, - the refusal to accept the testimony of God, thus given, is not due to any uncertainty in it.  God has given to men no other testimony so explicit and convincing.

    "He that believeth in²⁹ the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth²⁹ not God hath made Him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning His Son."

    By "believing" the testimony of God, we "believe in" His Son.  Our faith is directed towards the personal Christ, and rests in Him.  And he who thus "believes in the Son of God hath the witness (to the Divine Sonship of Jesus) in himself.  To the historical evidence, even to the enlightening testimony of the Spirit, there is added in the believer a confirmatory witness in his personal experience of cleansing from sin and renewed life.  He "tastes and sees" believes and knows.  He not only "sets to his seal" that the object of his faith is true: more and more he receives from it the experience of its truth.  On the contrary, not to "believe in" Christ is equivalent to not "believing" God; and this is to "make Him a liar,"³⁰ because it is not to have believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning His Son.  Here the deliberate and circumstantial repetition of what has been already said with emphasis in 5⁹ brings out the gravity of the issue.  The thought of making God a liar is an appalling one; and especially is it so when it concerns the witness that He hath borne concerning His own Son.

    This argument, that the alternative to believing in Jesus as the Son of God is making God a liar, is one that gains cumulative force as the history of the Church and the world advances.  To assert of the Christian gospel and the Christian Church - the mightiest of all beneficent influences in the life of men and the development of human history - that the one is the proclamation of a myth, and that the other is founded upon delusion and has grown up in an atmosphere of vain credulity, - this is to ascribe to falsehood, instead of to truth, the power to promote the most Divine ends; it is equivalent to saying that God, if there be a God, is a liar,  - one whose chosen methods of accomplishing His Will are those of dissimulation and deceit.

    From the summary thus made of the passages that treat of the basis of Belief, it will be apparent that the apologetic problem is handled, though in briefest compass, with no little breadth and fulness.  And this chapter may be closed with a summary of the results.  The whole Christian revelation is contained in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is known solely by the facts narrated in the Apostolic Gospel.  These facts, embraced under the headings, the Water and the Blood, are themselves evidential (5^6-8).  In them the Divine mission of Jesus is fully attested, and the eternal Life of God manifested on earth (1²).  Knowledge of these facts is conveyed through the normal channel of human communication (1⁸) by the Apostolic testimony, the trustworthiness of which is strongly asserted (1¹ 4¹⁴).  Upon this, as its historical foundation, Christian Faith must always stand (2²⁴).  But, though Faith is not apart from human testimony, its certitude is derived from the witness of the Spirit, which continuously attests the truth of the human testimony. (5^6b).  All this is collectively the witness of God (5⁹); for if God has spoken at all to men, it is in the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, and in the witness that the Spirit of Truth bears to Him, both in Christian Faith itself and in the whole influence of that Faith on the world's history.  And, finally, he that believeth hath the witness in Himself.  Christian Faith carries with it the experience of a moral regeneration.  While there is no elaboration of any of those topics, it is with a quite amazing insight that the writer of the Epistle seizes all the positions in which Christian apologetic has ever since found its chief strongholds.

    This word is the last descendant of a long and interesting Biblical lineage, the successive steps in which may be briefly indicated.

    1.  The anointing of the body with oil is practised as a means of invigoration (upon infants, Ezek. 16⁹ upon the sick, Jas. 5¹⁴).

    2.  From the refreshing and pleasurable sensations thus produced, anointing (especially with fragrant unguents) is an act of courteous hospitality, betokening favour towards the guest (Ps. 23⁵).  Failure to observe this custom is a mark of peffunctory and ungenerous entertainment (Luke 7⁴⁶).

    3.  Thus it naturally becomes a symbol of joy and strength (Prov. 27⁹, Isa. 61³, Matt. 6⁹), and is symbolically used in the appointment of persons to high and sacred office as a mark of Divine favour and of Divine endowment with the gifts and aptitudes required by the office.  (a) Kings are anointed (I Sam. 10¹; the anointing being accompanied by the gift of the Spirit); (b) Priests are anointed (Lev. 8^12,30, Ps. 13³²); (c) Prophets are anointed (I Kings 19¹⁶, Ps. 105¹⁵, Isa. 61¹); (d) the title "Anointed" (Messiah, Christ) is applied specifically to the kings of David's line (Ps. 2², 84⁹); and becomes the title of the expected Deliverer and Redeemer of Israel (Dan. 9^25,26, John 4²⁵, 7^27-31).

    4.  It is given to Jesus and accepted by Him (Matt. 16^16,20, John 6⁶⁹, 11²⁷, Luke 24²⁶ etc.), and becomes virtually a proper name of Jesus (N.T. passim).

    5.  The cri/sma with which Jesus is anointed is the Holy Ghost (Acts 10³⁸; cf. Luke 4¹⁸, John 3³⁴).

    6. This cri/sma is, after His Ascension, fully imparted to the Church (John 16³, Acts 2³²; cf. Acts 10⁴⁵, Eph. 4⁸ sqq., 2 Cor. 1²¹).

    It does not at all follow from the use of the word cri/sma in 2²⁰ (which is unique in the N.T.) that it was a technical ecclesiastical term, or that the ceremony of actual Chrism, which very soon became a recognised adjunct to baptism and the laying on of hands, was already in use.