d before, and helped to take off the
coloured glasses through which I had hitherto read the Word.

I observed that the third, sixth, and twentieth chapters of St. John's
Gospel had been held and interpreted by me in a way that I now saw to be
altogether wrong. I had taken the first of these as bearing on Baptism,
the second on the Holy Communion, and the third on Priestly Absolution.

I pondered much over these chapters, and marvelled how they could have
been so diverted from their original and obvious meaning; and, more
wonderful still, that countless millions in Christendom had so received
them for many generations. It was a bold thing, and seemingly
presumptuous to suppose that I was right and all Christendom wrong; but
I soon found that mine was no new discovery, and that if millions who
followed traditions without comparing them with the Bible, thought on
one side, there were also millions who did read their Bibles, and
thought on the other.

It was perfectly clear, moreover, that one obvious motive or policy had
dictated the false application of the three chapters. It will be
observed that priest rule is established in them; for, according to this
teaching, no one can enter the kingdom of God 'without priestly
operation in baptism; no one abide or be fed in it without the same in
Holy Communion; nor any one receive absolution from sin, and final
release from hell to heaven, apart from sacerdotal action.

On the other hand, I saw spiritual men, as sure as they were of their
own existence that their new birth took place, not at baptism, but at
their conversion. Therefore they were convinced that the third chapter
of St. John, in which our Lord's conversation with Nicodemus is
recorded, refers to that spiritual change which takes place at
conversion, and not to baptism, which was not even instituted for two or
three years afterwards (Matt. 28:19).

Again, as to the sixth chapter. A spiritual man knows that he feeds
continually on the body and blood of Christ, it is the "Bread which came
down from heaven" for him. The Lord said, "He that eateth Me, even he
shall live by Me" (John 6:57). They know how they received spiritual
life, and also how it is continually maintained; therefore they could
not allow themselves to be carried away with such a palpable fiction as
transubstantiation, or any other doctrine kindred to it. The sixth
chapter does not refer to the Lord's supper, but the Lord's Supper
refers to the real