behalf he experienced it, were "walking in the truth." What then is "the truth" intended by him, becomes a leading object for inquiry. And in answer it may suffice to state first of all in general terms, that "the truth" in the New Testament is emphatically used to signify the Gospel, or the Christian faith, or that revelation of God's will to man, unto which the Son of God was born and came into the world that He might bear witness; and which St. Paul denominates in language corresponding with this of St. John, absolutely "the truth," or with a specifick adjunct "the truth of the Gospel," or "the truth as it is in Jesus."

But wherefore should our Apostle express such lively joy on hearing that his children, those whom he had previously nurtured in religious knowledge, and for whom he still felt the tender affection of a father, "walked in this truth?" Plainly for a reason, to which his own optative or precatory language in the foregoing verse directs us, because he was thereby assured of their spiritual welfare. "Beloved," saith he to Gaius, "I wish or pray above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." But what evidence had he of the prosperity of his beloved Gaius's soul? "For," he subjoins, and this is the evidence of such prosperity, "I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth

that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth." The walking in the truth then, or a steadfast and consistent adherence to the Gospel or the Christian faith, was the evidence of that spiritual welfare, of that prosperity of soul in his disciples, which excited such lively emotions of joy in the Apostle, and gave occasion to his language of cordial delight and felicitation. To the same effect we find him addressing himself to "the elect," or Christian, "lady," in his second epistle, "I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father." And for the same cause, and with the same spirit, do we find St. Paul exulting over his converts, and giving thanks for them to God, as "his hope and joy and crown of rejoicing;" as "his joy and crown;" as "his glory and joy1."

For a proper understanding of this matter we must have recourse to the authoritative declaration of our blessed Lord Himself, when He gave commission to his Apostles that they should become his ministers in preaching to mankind the truth, which He came from his Father to reveal. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not,

shall be damned '." The commission, you see, which imposed upon the ministers of the Lord the obligation of preaching the Gospel, did not leave the hearers in a state of indifference with respect to the effect of their preaching. Upon the manner, in which the hearers should receive it, was to depend their final doom of salvation or condemnation. To them who should embrace the Gospel thus delivered to them by the ministers of Christ, and submit to his discipline, and obey his laws, the Gospel was to become, as St. Paul expresses it, "the savour of life unto life:" but to them, who should refuse to embrace it, it was to become "the savour of death unto death2." Or, as St. John explicitly announces the sentence in the words of St. John the Baptist, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him3:" and elsewhere as the same St. John announces the sentence in his own words, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that

1 Mark xvi. 16.

2 2 Cor. ii. 16.

3 John iii, 36.

hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life1."

Hence the motive to the joy expressed by the Apostle is obvious and unequivocal. He " rejoiced greatly that his well-beloved Gaius walked in the truth;" he had "no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in truth;" because to his mind it was a satisfactory proof of their spiritual welfare, of their souls' health and prosperity; because it was to his mind a satisfactory proof, that provided they should continue to walk steadfastly and consistently in the same course, they should not perish, but should have everlasting life.

II. I remarked just now, that it was a leading object of our inquiry to ascertain what was "the truth" intended by the Apostle in my text. And I also remarked, that it might suffice to state first of all in general terms, that "the truth" in the New Testament is emphatically used to signify the Gospel or the Christian faith. In order, however, to arrive at St. John's full meaning, it is requisite that we should now be more definite; lest a laxity of language and ideas should leave us in a state of dangerous misconception upon a point of no trivial moment to our spiritual welfare.

Now the time and circumstances of St. John's writing are much to be considered by us, and to be had carefully in our remembrance. It is the constant tradition of the Church, and matter of universal agreement amongst Christians, that he wrote after the other writers of the New Testament. All the other books contained in the canon of the Christian Scriptures were probably composed before the sixty-sixth year of the Christian æra, or within thirty-three or thirty-four years of our Saviour's death. The date most commonly and most reasonably assigned to St. John's writings (I speak both of his Gospel and of his Epistles, and the remark might be extended to his Revelation likewise), the most probable, I say, and generally approved date, assigned to St. John's writings, places them within three or four years of the close of the first century of the Christian æra, or at the distance of about thirty years from the latest of the previous writings. In that interval corrupt opinions had already begun to grow up in the Church of Christ, and to adulterate the purity of the Christian profession. Of such opinions there were not any more important than those, perhaps there were not any equally important as those, which related to the person and the sufferings of the Author of our faith. On this subject the turbid stream of heresy took two different courses, diverging in separate directions from the pure cur