loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us hereby know we that we abide in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him. Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; 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. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.

Epilogue

WE KNOW that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not.

WE KNOW that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one.

And WE KNOW that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ.

This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

THE SECOND AND THIRD EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN

The other two Epistles of St. John are personal letters, like the epistle of Paul to Philemon. The Second Epistle is addressed "Unto the Elect Lady and her children"; at the close it is said, "The children of thine elect sister salute thee." The brief body of the letter expresses the apostle's joy at hearing how his correspondent's children are walking in the truth. There is further the exhortation "Love one another," and a warning against deceivers.

The Third Epistle is addressed to "Gaius the beloved." Brethren who have visited the apostle have borne testimony to the way in which Gaius "walks in the truth." In particular, the apostle encourages this Gaius in a good work he hears him to be doing, that of showing attention to brethren who are strangers, and bringing them forward in their missionary journeys. References by name are made, favorable and unfavorable, to certain members of the church. John expresses a hope of shortly seeing Gaius; and the epistle closes with general salutations.

THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN

The final book of the New Testament is different in kind from the other books, and is entitled The Revelation of St. John. This book seems to join on to the succession of epistles in its Prologue. The Prologue is made up of addresses, clothed with something of epistolary form, to the Seven Churches of Asia. But these addresses differ from the epistles in the fact that they are not the words of St. John himself, but words he has received in vision, from one who announces himself thus: "I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." From this Prologue the book enlarges into a succession of Visions which pass before the eye of the imagination; the details of these Visions consisting in symbolic figures, which are chiefly, if not entirely, echoes of symbolism in Old Testament prophecy.

Unfortunately, this last book of the New Testament has been the subject of diverse and bewildering interpretations, to a degree not paralleled in any other literary work. Perhaps it might be possible to reckon up a hundred different interpretations of this one book. To take up these diverse interpretations would mean going into theological questions, and questions of Biblical interpretation, and would be out of place in a work like the present, which appeals to the general reader of literature. But there is one element in this book of Revelation one element out of many which can hardly be the subject of controversy, and which must be accepted by all interpreters. And this element of the book is precisely what is needed to make a climax to the New Testament, and present its whole thought as a unity.

It may be well here to say a word explaining how it has come about that this book should be the subject of such diverse interpretation. It is a book of Prophecy. Now, a subtle change has come over the word 'prophecy' in modern times, and this has been allowed to react upon the use of the word in application to Scripture. In modern English the word' prophecy' simply means prediction. So fixed is this use of the word 'prophecy' that it is often supposed to be implied in the word itself, as if pro-phecy meant pre-diction. But this is a false etymology. The pro- in prophecy is not the pro- which means beforehand, as in programme, but the other pro- which means in place of, as in pronoun. As a pronoun

is a word used in place of a noun, so a prophet is one who speaks in place of God: a mouthpiece or interpreter of God. This is the regular use of prophet in the Old Testament. It is the signification of the Greek word prophet; and also of the Hebrew words which in the Greek Bible (or Septuagint) are replaced by the word prophet. To quote only a single authority: "Etymologically it is certain that neither prescience nor prediction are implied by the term used in the Hebrew, Greek, or English language." * To say this is not to say that prophecy may not predict. Any kind of literature may predict; and as a fact Old Testament prophecies do contain predictions. But the modern change in the usage of this word has led to overemphasis upon the predictive element in prophecy, which has obscured other and more spiritual meanings of the term.

Leaving then to controversial literature the other parts of this book, we may fasten our attention upon that which is its essence. Following immediately upon the Prologue we are ushered into the world of supernatural vision. In language echoing the Visions of Ezekiel there is brought before our imagination the throne of Deity, rising out of the "glassy sea like unto crystal"; He that sits thereon being enshrined in dazzling glory. Around this centre various Powers are paying homage: Holy, holy, holy:

The Lord God, The Almighty;

Which was and which is and which is to come.

The impression left is of an eternity which includes in itself past, present, future.

In the hand

But the vision becomes modified to the eye of the seer. of Him that sits upon the throne is seen a book; and it is a sealed book; close sealed with seven seals. (This expression is an echo from Isaiah.) With the intensity of dream emotion the seer weeps that no one is worthy to open the book. A voice of comfort is heard proclaiming that "the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome, to open the book and the seven seals thereof." (These are echoes of expressions in the Old Testament.) In contrast with what these words lead the mind to expect, there is seen "a Lamb standing as though it had been slain." This echoes the great passage of Isaiah which speaks of one led as a lamb to the slaughter, and John the Baptist's word of his successor as the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. When to this figure of the Lamb is transferred the book of mystery, all heaven's adoration is transferred with it. And with this adoration of the Lamb the First Vision fades away. The whole symbolic scene leaves a *Smith's Bible Dictionary, Article Prophet.

clear impression. Against the background of Eternity is seen the Mystery of Time, as a book sealed with seven seals; over against it is seen the symbol of that whereby the mystery is to be solved - the Lamb standing as though it had been slain.

Then follows a succession of Visions, with their mystic emblems. It is in the details of these emblematic scenes that opportunity is found for diversity of interpretation. One class of commentators sees in these details indications of successive ages extending to the very end of time. Another school reads them as echoes of Old Testament prophecy to be brought into a new application. However these are understood, there comes a point which, in the whole movement of the poem, is clearly a climax. At the point in question the symbolism has been that of Seven Angels with their Seven Golden Trumpets; as the Seven Angels successively sound with their trumpets mystic wonders follow. At length a great voice is heard proclaiming that "in the days of the voice of the Seventh Angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants the prophets." This Seventh Angel does sound: there follow "great voices in heaven".

The kingdom of the World is become

The Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ;
And He shall reign for ever and ever.

Whatever else there may be in the book of Revelation, its climax is clearly this: that the mystery of all prophecy is unsealed in Christ; that the whole course of history sums up in the kingdom of the World becoming the kingdom of Christ.

It is this that draws the whole New Testament into a unity. As the books of the New Testament have followed one another there has been a continuous enlargement in the conception they present of Jesus Christ. In the gospels he is pronounced the Christ, king of the kingdom of God on earth. In the epistles the conception of Jesus is still widening. Romans emphasizes the union of Jew and Gentile in the gospel of Jesus. In Ephesians, the 'mystery of God' from the beginning of things is revealed to the initiated as Jesus Christ. In Colossians, Jesus is the 'fulness of the godhead' that supersedes thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. Hebrews shows the Mosaic law as only a preparation for the higher covenant of Jesus. Wisdom literature becomes in James and John Christianized wisdom. The fourth gospel sees the 'Word' of Greek philosophy take flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ. Revelation gathers all these thoughts together, and pronounces all mystery unsealed