Important than this; none on which we are more liable to make mistakes. I have tried to follow St. John step by step, and not to put my own foolish thoughts and interpretations between you and him. I cannot tell you how many of these foolish thoughts and interpretations his words have laid bare in me, and I trust have scattered. If I did not know how much I am inclined every day to doubt whether I have a right to call God my Father, I should never have found how necessary that faith is to you and to all men; if I had not learnt in myself how hard it is to hope, and how much impurity follows from the loss of hope, I should never have had courage to press it upon you and upon all as at once the divinest privilege and the most sacred duty.

30.10.42..

4.12.42.

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

I HAVE spoken to you already of the teachers who boasted that they had a knowledge of divine mysteries to which vulgar Christians could make no pretensions. They were the initiated; the rest were novices. Simple people, the little children of the flock, were likely to be much staggered by such lofty words. Their humility made them think that they deserved the contemptuous treatment which was bestowed on them; they could not tell that the others might not have the profound insight for which they gave themselves credit. The old Apostle speaks to them with a confidence which they felt he at least had a right to assume. 'Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.' Knowledge, you are told, is the thing to be chiefly de

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sired. Even so.

Knowledge of the Righteous One; knowledge of Him who makes us righteous. And doing ' righteousness-sincere, just, truthful acts,-are the results ' and signs of this knowledge. They show whether we 'have this knowledge or are without it.' He comes back to the test which these self-exalting doctors wished to get rid of; the severest test; the most levelling test. But by coming back to it, he vindicates a higher knowledge for the humblest disciples than that which those who refused to be reckoned among mere disciples could claim for themselves. The knowledge of Christ, as the standard of all righteousness, he declares to be the heritage of them all; a knowledge involving practice, and advancing as it advances.

He has told them what will make them righteous; fellowship or intercourse with a Righteous Lord of their spirits. He goes on to tell them how they become sinful; viz. by holding intercourse with an unrighteous spirit, by submitting to him as their Lord. He that committeth sin is of the Devil, for the Devil sinneth from the beginning.' The word Diabolos' means Accuser or Slanderer. What he says, giving his words their most literal sense, is, that one who sins or goes astray from God does so by listening to the voice of a spirit who accuses or slanders God. I have often been told by persons whose learning I respect, that this is the doctrine of an old Jew, which we in the nineteenth century have long outlived. They speak, no doubt, for themselves; they mean that there are no facts in their own experience, to which this doctrine of the old Jew corresponds. If it were so with me, I should be silent. For I have found so much in my own mind which his teaching has explained, which I could not have

understood without it, that I should think he was probably right where I could not follow him, and that hereafter he might discover something to me which was now hidden from me. But I cannot pretend that this is the case. What he said to the Ephesians about this Accuser does answer to the inmost witness of my conscience.

I know that I did not learn this doctrine by the precept of men. I was not taught it in my childhood; those I reverenced, and still reverence, considered it a fable. As I grew up, I felt the same motives to retain that opinion which act upon many of my contemporaries. The notion of a Devil was associated in my mind with many superstitions which science had confuted; it was held by vulgar people among whom I did not wish to be reckoned. It was quite possible, if I cared for that, to pass muster with the orthodox and respectable, though I was sceptical on this point. But there are some things which are more terrible than being confounded with vulgar people. It is more terrible not to be honest with oneself. It is more terrible to think that one is given over hopelessly to work iniquity. It is more terrible to be cut off from all fellowship with human beings, if they are vulgar.

Now there come to me every day whispers not received through the ear but heard in the heart, that God is not the Being whom Jesus Christ manifested; not a Righteous and True Being; not one whom I may trust; not one who means good to me and to my brethren; not one who cares that I should do right, or who will give me strength to do right. With these whispers come others also very strange, against persons whom I know, persons, possibly, who have done me wrong, quite as likely persons who have done m

nothing but good; suspicions of their kindness; doubts of their character; hints that they may be plotting something very evil. Then there are whispers more directly affecting oneself; incitements to think foully and to feel foully; to be malicious against those to whom one owes only forgiveness, affection, gratitude.

It may be that this experience is a peculiar one; but I do not believe it is. I find people of the most opposite characters, living in the most different circumstances, who report the same things of themselves. I read of horrible. thoughts of jealousy coming over this mind, horrible thoughts of ambition into that, and of murder being the result of both. It is, of course, the most natural solution in the world to say, 'Oh! these suggestions proceeded from some 'vile servant or companion.' Possibly they did; but like words from that servant and companion might have gone in at one ear, as we say, and out at the other; they might have been repulsed indignantly; how did they get the dominion over me, over my spirit? Oh! that was your ' own fault; that shows that you were to blame.' There is no question that I was to blame wherever the suggestion came from. I know that well enough. No one who has had such thoughts, unless he is a miserable self-deceiver, can shift the blame from himself; he must take it home. to himself. But did the thoughts originate with me? I could not say so to please any theorist, or to get credit for ever so much liberality and wisdom. I might have rejected the thoughts, but they were presented to me. 1 may bewilder myself-all men have bewildered themselves at some time or other, by saying, 'I shuffled the cards, I played both hands;' but it will not do; it is not a fair