wise and practical writer, he must have
had regard to the state of the churches in his day and the forms of
error by which they were assailed. In the latter part of the apostolic
age the seeds of those heresies which in the following century yielded
such a rank and poisonous harvest, had already begun to be sown. Like
all the heresies which have troubled the Christian church to the present
day, they consisted essentially in false views respecting our Saviour's
person and office. The beloved disciple who followed Jesus through the
whole of his ministry and leaned on his bosom at the last supper, has
given us an authentic record of the Redeemer's words and works, in
which, as in a bright untarnished mirror, we see both the divine dignity
of his person and the true nature of his office as the Redeemer of the
world. Such a record was especially adapted to refute the errors of his
day, as it is those of the present day. It is preeminently the gospel of
our Lord's person. It opens with an account of his divine nature and
eternal coexistence with the Father; his general office as the creator
of all things, and the source of light and life to all men and his
special office as "the word made flesh," whom the Father sent for the
salvation of the world, and by whom alone the Father is revealed to men.
Equality with the Father in nature, subordination to the Father in
office, union with human nature in the work of redeeming and judging
men, and in all these perfect union with the Father in counsel and
will--such are the great doctrines that run through our Lord's
discussions with the unbelieving Jews, as recorded by this evangelist.
In the same discussions, but more especially in his private confidential
intercourse with his disciples, he adds deep views of his relation to
the world, as the only revealer of God's truth, the only source of
spiritual life, and the only way of access to the Father; and to
believers, as the true vine, through vital union with which they have
life, nourishment, and fruitfulness. He unfolds also more fully than the
other evangelists the office of the Comforter, whom the Father shall
send to make good to the church the loss of his personal presence. Thus
the gospel of John becomes at once an inexhaustible storehouse of
spiritual food for the nourishment of the believer's own soul, and a
divine armory, whence he may draw polished shafts in his warfare against
error. This last record of our Lord's life and te