Chapter V: Part 5

But was not John referring to Christians when he said “we”? Let us ask if John meant that he and other Christians would say that they had fellowship with God when they were walking in the darkness; or would he and others say that they had not sinned, and thus make God a liar? The “we,” of course, is used in the same sense as, “If _any one_ says that he has fellowship with him.” It is the use of the first personal pronoun that we ourselves continually make in stating universal truths. Some have even brought consternation to rescue mission workers by telling them never to use First John, one, nine for sinners, because the “we” refers to Christians, and God is “faithful and just” to forgive Christians, because they are under the covenant, while it is of his mercy that he forgives sinners. But “he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but _also for the whole world_,” and since God has given Christ to die for the world, it is of his righteousness and justice to forgive every sinner the instant he turns to the Saviour. This is not to say that it is not also of his mercy, but as one has suggested it is mercy from start to finish, for the Christian as well as the sinner. The rescue mission workers and other soul winners may go on using this verse with a clear conscience, for God will honor it both for sinners, and for Christians when they act like sinners, and need to confess and be forgiven.

In _The Sunday School Times_ there was published recently a remarkable testimony of one who was saved from Christian Science, and the verse that brought conviction was First John, one, eight. “Why, that is just what I have been doing,” this woman said in amazement to herself one time when she read this verse. “I have been saying that I have no sin, and I am deceived. I need a Saviour.” This is the Spirit’s use of that passage; if it refers to Christians who have confessed their sins and have accepted the Saviour and been cleansed from sin, there can remain in it no convicting power for the one who has not confessed.

These brief suggestions upon this passage are given with the thought of provoking further study, and the reader may still feel strongly that First John, one, eight refers to Christians, whatever their spiritual state may be. Let us grant that it does, and the Christian then is confessing to God and to men, “I have sin.” Putting aside the difficulty of understanding how it is possible for me to be without condemnation for the sin, or how it is possible for me to walk in the light in fellowship with God while I have this sin, let us face this simple question, “When am I going to get rid of this sin?”

There are at least seven theories that have been suggested to answer this question, and to get rid of the “root of sin” which it is supposed John is dealing with when he says, “If we say that we have not sin, we deceive ourselves.” All are agreed that without holiness no man shall see God, and that this means actual holiness; and therefore all who hold these different theories are agreed that this root of sin referred to by John must be gotten out, or eradicated.

The first theory is _gradual eradication after death_, or gradual purification, for which a place called purgatory is provided (by the theology, not by the Lord). This theory of course is a matter of works from start to finish, and perhaps no reader of these pages would entertain it.

The second is _gradual eradication during life, with the completion of the process at death_. In this theory the process during life makes no real progress toward the consummation at death since all equally need the work at death, whatever the degree of eradication during life.

The third is _increasing counteraction during life, with eradication at death_. That is, the evil is not eradicated gradually during life but is counteracted increasingly by the power of God, while remaining till its removal at death.

The fourth is _eradication at death_. That is, the evil is unaffected during life, and awaits death for its removal.

The fifth is _eradication at the coming of Christ_. But if we die we enter into the presence of His holiness and need purity before this event.

Few maintain this theory, except those who go the length of identifying the root of sin with the physical body or with the blood, thus making sin inhere in matter. This assumption is also needed to give support to the second, third and fourth theories, for the only change that, takes place at death is the separation of the spirit from the body.

The sixth is _eradication before death_, requiring a second work of grace, subsequent to regeneration.

The seventh is _eradication at the moment of regeneration_, which perhaps few in our day hold, though it has been earnestly contended for in other days.

All of these eradication theories, with the exception of the last, make necessary a second work of grace subsequent to regeneration. They mean that God has to do something else to free a man from sin after he is cleansed, by faith, in the blood of Christ, and made a new creature by the operation of the Holy Spirit. For manifestly, if a Christian must say, “I have sin,” he must get rid of that sin, and it must be done at one of three times: before death, at death, or after death. Is there a line of Scripture that gives support to any one of these six theories of a second work of grace, or of the theory of eradication at the first work of grace?

All of these theories rest upon the assumption that there is a “root of sin” _in_ a man, in a mechanical, material sense, and that from this root sin springs.

The Scripture testimony is that _the man himself is the root of sin_. Sin springs from _him_. Our Lord said that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and deeds that defile the man. He was not speaking of the heart as a physical or spiritual entity _in the man_, but showing the Pharisees that righteousness or evil did not consist in the outward acts or observances, but proceeded _from the man himself_. For the heart is the man.

This natural man, who is himself the root of his sin, must be born again. It is the man himself who is born again, made a new creature in Christ Jesus. The heart, that is, the man himself, is purified by faith, through the miracle work of the Holy Spirit. This new man, who in the moment of regeneration has the fruit of the Spirit, his heart filled with love, continues to have victory in Christ as he continues to abide in Christ. “As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him” (Col. 2:6). This is God’s plan. It is because Christians have not continued so walking, or perhaps because they have not known clearly and fully the normal New Testament experience that should result from “receiving” Christ Jesus, that there is need of a crisis in the life, a decision to get back where we belong in the place of abiding.

* * * * *

But why is it possible for this new creature to sin after he has so received Christ? It has been assumed that there must be some root of sin in the Christian that makes it possible for him to sin. It is strange that this should be thought a necessity when we know that Satan sinned, and Adam sinned, when they were sinless and had never been tainted with any impurity. If it were _not_ possible for this new creature to sin, he would be a machine; his very humanity would need to be destroyed. If we accept as the alternative of this kind of Christian a Christian who is provided with something in him which causes the sin, we arrive at exactly the same conclusion with this difference: we have a machine which cannot do anything except sin. Let it be understood clearly that if a man in this body and in this life in the midst of temptation is not able to sin then he is not able to be good. He can sin for the same reason that he can be good, because he is a free moral agent. That is the way God made him, and it is of the essence of his humanity. Everywhere in Scripture the Christian is appealed to as one who is responsible to choose. The reason that a Christian can sin is because he still has his free will. And when he sins, it is not a root of sin in him that sins. It is he who sins.

That first sin (which need not occur) after a man is made a new creature in Christ, or after he has understood and taken Christ as his Victory, is always a tragedy. Sin should always be a tragedy. It is not an accident nor an incident. But if the man is not responsible, but has something in him that makes sin necessary, then he cannot regard sin as a preventable tragedy.

But it is not possible for God to sin, and yet he can be good. Here we come to the heart of our confusion regarding a Christian’s goodness. God not only can be good, He himself _is goodness_. He is holy in a way that no man ever was or ever can be. For man’s holiness is never absolute in this sense, but always relative. Not relative in the sense that sin must be present, but relative because of the moment by moment relationship with God, the Holy One. Therefore for the Christian to be kept from sinning he must abide in Christ, and he cannot do other than sin if left to himself. At the root of all these eradication theories lies the assumption that man is to be made independently holy. But man is a dependent creature. This is of the essence of humanity, altogether apart from sin. Utter dependence on his creator and his Saviour (and the Saviour is the creator of the new life) is the only safety for the child of God. There is indeed no room for boasting nor for looking to self when we learn God’s wondrous plan of salvation by grace.

Two Christian workers were talking together at the lunch table about the question of what happened to a man when he is saved. One of the brethren pointed to the granulated sugar in the bowl as representing him as a lost man. He then took a spoon as representing the divine life imparted in conversion, stuck it into the sugar, and said: “This represents my new nature, and the sugar is still the same corrupt nature. But I am in Christ as the sugar is in the bowl.” In other words Christ is enclosing a mass of corruption with a righteous spark injected into it.

Another Christian worker, representing what Christ did in saving him, drew his coat about him so as to cover up his white vest, and said that in just this way God clothes us with Christ’s righteousness, while we remain a mass of corruption beneath.

Still another, putting these illustrations into theological terms, said: “God imputes the righteousness of Christ to me in exactly the same way as he imputes my sin to Christ. So that when God looks at me he sees the righteousness of Christ, just as when he looks at Jesus he sees my sin.” The implication is that righteousness touches me in just the way that sin touches Christ, namely, it is as far from me as the east is from the west.

These brethren are all true children of God, washed in the precious blood of Christ. Fortunately they were not telling the truth about themselves; more seriously they were maligning the Saviour, and while the intellectual confusion may not keep them from victory in their own lives it serves to entangle many an earnest seeker. And this sort of handling of God’s word is what has furnished the enemies of the Gospel of grace their chief weapons in attack. These statements, if they are taken at their face value, constitute as complete a denial of the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as Mrs. Eddy’s philosophy of the denial of sin and the Saviour.

As Luther roused the Church by the battle cry of “Justification by Faith,” let the complete truth of the complete Gospel be sounded to-day in the cry of “Salvation by Faith.” For “it is of faith, that it may be according to Grace” (Rom. 4:16). God never justifies a sinner without saving him. That is, he does not call a man righteous without making him righteous. If he did, God would be in the place of the man whom James condemns, who says to the brother or sister naked and in need of daily food: “Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled,” yet gives them not the things needful to the body. “What doth it profit?” James asks. “Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself” (Jas. 2:15-17).

Even so would the calling a man righteous without making him righteous be useless for the soul that is naked and destitute of righteousness. Justification, in the sense of “declaring righteous,” is dead apart from the miracle of cleansing and regeneration which _makes righteous_. And we need righteousness, just as the naked and hungry man needs clothing and food, _now in this life_. There is no hope held out for any future provision of freeing from sin. There is still a part of our redemption from sin and its results that is future, but very distinctly are we told that this concerns the redemption of our body, not the purifying of the soul. (Using purifying in its negative meaning of cleansing from impurity. For we must remember that there is a positive, progressive, and increasing work in conforming us to the likeness of Christ which is quite distinct from this matter of cleansing, which is always absolute; we are either cleansed or we are not cleansed from sin.)

The works that James insists on as a proof that the faith is real faith, are possible only for the new creature in Christ, who is producing the fruit of the Spirit as he abides in Christ, the fruit which is the righteousness of Christ made real in experience, and abounding more and more as we grow in grace (not into grace), and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Not a half salvation of “justification by faith” to take care of the past only of our sins, but let our watchword be a complete salvation of “CHRIST BY FAITH.” For it is Christ that saves from sin, who makes a new creation with old things put away, and who provides a way of abiding in that freedom, walking in joy and peace and victory, just as we received Him in freedom.

“If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

“Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness.”

“Now being made free from sin and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification.”

“For freedom did Christ set us free: Stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.”

THE HOLY SPIRIT

If the Victorious Life is “the life that is Christ,” lived in the power of the risen Christ dwelling in the heart, what is the work of the Holy Spirit in such a life? Are Christians who pray for, or seek, the “fullness of the Spirit,” or the “baptism of the Spirit” or the “receiving of the Spirit,” asking for something different from the life of victory in Christ?

The answer to such questions reveals the beautiful unity of God’s plan of salvation, in which each Person of the Godhead has His perfect work but in which our Lord Jesus Christ has ever the pre-eminence till the work of salvation is completed. We may approach the truth from teaching concerning the Holy Spirit, but it is Christ who will be exalted. Or we may experience resurrection life through learning of the truth concerning the indwelling Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit who makes possible that experience in the life.

The Holy Spirit is God. If we start with this fact, and stay with it, we shall be saved from much confusion as to the Holy Spirit’s office. If he is God, we cannot limit Him, and we cannot confine Him to this or that manifestation of His power.

The Holy Spirit is not merely a manifestation of God; He _is_ God. And one Person of the trinity is never present without the others. While the Holy Spirit has a distinct work in the believer, this work is never disassociated from the other Persons in the Godhead. The Father and the Son and the Spirit all dwell with us (John 14:17, 23; 1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 13:5).

The Holy Spirit is a Person. We are not to seek a quantitative appropriation of a certain amount of the Spirit of God, perhaps comparing the amount we have with that which we think others have, but rather to receive God the Holy Spirit, who is a Person. But this truth of His personality is to be kept in balance by the companion truth that He is God, and in conceiving Him as a person we must not put the limitations of human personality upon God, as though He could only indwell one person at a time, or as though one person or any number of persons could exhaustively contain Him.

What is the work of God the Holy Spirit in this age? We know that we are born again by the power of the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in every child of God (John 1:12, 13; John 3:5, 6; Rom. 8:9, last clause; 1 Cor. 6-19).

If the Holy Spirit is in every child of God, what result does this have in the life? What is His work in the believer? Is it the same for each believer? In what sense did the Holy Spirit come at Pentecost, and in what sense is he here in a different way from His manifestation before Pentecost?

It is in answering such questions that we are in danger of building up a doctrine from experience rather than from the Word.

A Bible teacher who has been mightily used in soul-winning and in stimulating other Christians to this work, dates his great success from the time when he learned that the Holy Spirit was the secret of power in service; he lacked the power, saw the need, asked for the fulness of the Holy Spirit, by faith believed that God had granted his desire, went out boldly with no reference to feeling and counted upon the fact of the Holy Spirit’s work as he gave the message to men. The results were marvelous, and continued to be as day by day he counted upon this enduement of the Spirit. Along with this experience came the inevitable longing to share it with others, for he knew that any Christian might do as he had done; the blessed result was that many Christians through him were led into this new life of service. It was natural that this mighty man of God should take his true and Scriptural experience and build around it his doctrine of the Holy Spirit and His work for believers, interpreting the Scriptures by the experience. So he developed an inclusive doctrinal teaching that the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and to- in the life of the individual believer, is for power in service, the evidence of the work being the results in witnessing.

Another Christian worker had a longing for heart purity and a life free from any feeling of condemnation because everything was not pleasing to God. He heard a testimony from a brother who had been in a like state and had learned that it was not by effort or struggle or trying that he was to get peace and purity, but by the work of God through the Holy Spirit coming into or upon the believer and purifying the heart. As the first mentioned brother did, he asked God for this gift and then by faith believed that his prayer was answered. The result was an amazing transformation, a life of joy and liberty which was such a miracle revelation and so different from the average Christian experience that many came to him asking for the secret. He told them what had happened, and he too proceeded to put together his doctrine of the Holy Spirit and taught that every Christian who was born of the Spirit needed to seek as a second work the baptism of the Holy Spirit to bring purity of heart.

There is no question that these brethren experienced the gracious power of the Holy Spirit. But they did not accurately relate those experiences to the teachings of the Word.

In John 7:39 is suggested what the fundamental, primary work of the Holy Spirit was to be, and why He was able to come into the world in a new way at Pentecost. After our Lord, in the last great day of the feast, cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water,” the apostle explains, “But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

The Spirit was to be given at Pentecost in a way in which He was not given before. And it is expressly stated that the one thing needed before His being thus given was the glorifying of the Son of man.

Link this with our Lord’s word in John 16:13, 14 and we have clearly revealed the connection between the glorifying of the Son of man and the work of the Spirit: “He (the Holy Spirit) shall not speak for himself.... He shall glorify me.”

This is His specific work, to glorify Jesus. But how?

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more; of judgment, because the Prince of this world hath been judged” (John 16:7-11).

How is the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment? Notice it is conviction of one sin, not many, the one sin of rejecting the Saviour. It is one righteousness, the righteousness that Christ is. It is one judgment, the past judgment upon Satan, the completed victory over our great Adversary won by Christ.

In the words “ye behold me no more,” we have the key to the marvelous truth of this revelation concerning the Holy Spirit. The only example the world had of God’s righteousness (which is the only kind of righteousness there is,) was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. When He goes to the Father how is the world to know what righteousness is? for it can behold the righteous one no more. They cannot know it by reading about it. There is one way, and one way only to reveal righteousness, that is in a human being living a righteous life. To secure this Jesus Christ the righteous One must be manifest in the life. “They see me no more. They must know righteousness by looking at _you_. I have been the light of the world while in it. Now you, having become sons of light, are to be the light of the world” (John 12:23, 31, 35, 36; John 17:1, 22).

This is how the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, by crowning Him Lord in the life, and manifesting the Son of man in each of His brethren. The world is convicted of sin by seeing the meaning of rejecting the Saviour as revealed in the man who accepts Him. The world is convicted of righteousness, and the difference between God’s righteousness and man’s morality, by seeing a righteous man. The world is convicted of the judgment of the prince of this world by seeing a life set free from the power of Satan.

This is why the disciples had to wait at Pentecost, not wait to get themselves into a certain receptive spiritual state, but wait till the Son of man was glorified and the Holy Spirit was sent forth. They did not need further knowledge of the facts about Christ the Saviour. But before they became witnesses to Jesus Christ, they themselves must become living messages, living witnesses, by having Jesus Christ revealed _in them_. This is what the Holy Spirit did, and this is what would be impossible without the Holy Spirit given in this new way.

Some one has well said that the Holy Spirit is for the servant, rather than for the service. The service and the life is the normal outflow when the servant, the man himself, has been filled with the Holy Spirit.

The fulness of the Spirit, this new work of the Spirit for the believer, is just the Christ life manifested in the believer. This is the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22, 23). This is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given unto us (Rom. 5:5). This is the earnest of our inheritance――the hope of glory that puts not to shame (Eph. 1:13, 14; Rom. 5:1, 5). This is the transforming power for growth in grace (2 Cor. 3:18). This is the thirteenth of First Corinthians made real in our experience, the love which is the fulfilling of the law.

The Holy Spirit convicts and comforts. He convicts the world, and also the believer when he walks after the world. He comforts the saints, and we have noted something of what this means. The Holy Spirit makes possible the life of victory in Christ. The fulness of the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, the Spirit indwelling the life (that is, controlling it), are all other ways of saying, the life that is Christ, the Victorious Life, the life kept from sinning, the Christ-controlled life.

The Holy Spirit gives distinct gifts for worship and service, he works miracles, he does many things for the believer. But these things which he does for different believers, dividing to each severally even as He will, must be kept distinct from the one central purpose which is the same for every believer, namely the manifesting of Christ in the life (Gal. 3:5; 1 Cor. 12 to 14; Eph. 4:14-16).

And the one proof that Christ is not manifested, is _sin_. Thus victory over sin is central in the work of the Spirit in our salvation.

We have asked and briefly answered two questions concerning the Holy Spirit: “Who is He, and what does He do?” “Who has Him, and what do they do?” There remains a third question, the answer to which determines whether His miracle working power shall be available in present experience: “Has He me?”

The Holy Spirit may be in a believer, and yet not controlling the life. This is the meaning of the exhortation to Christians in Ephesians 5:18: “Be filled with the Spirit.” These believers were born of the Spirit and sealed with the Spirit (Eph. 1:13), yet there was the possibility of their not being filled with the Spirit. This is the meaning of the charge, “Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal 5:6). There was a possibility of walking after the flesh. So in Romans 8:4 Paul declares that the righteous requirement of the law is “fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” This is the life of victory, lived in the power of the Spirit. And this is the life which a believer may effectually hinder by his own will in keeping from yielding to the control of the Spirit, whose control means the manifesting of Christ.

The Christian who is ready to yield completely to Christ may in the very moment of yielding trust Christ for the fulness of the Spirit, knowing that His fruit in life and service is now being produced. The simple condition of surrender and faith for victory is what gives the Holy Spirit sway in the life.

What relation has such a crisis of the fulness of the Spirit of regeneration? Is it a crisis that necessarily must follow the crisis of the new birth? The answer is clearly given in Galatians 5:25. “If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.” If we have eternal life by the miracle work of the Holy Spirit, by that same miracle power let us live our daily lives moment by moment. There would not need to be a crisis after conversion if we stayed in the place of abiding where we started, in full surrender and trust.

The message of Galatians 5:25, in terms of the Holy Spirit’s work, is precisely the message of Colossians 2:6 in terms of Christ: “As ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” In normal regeneration the child of God is not only born of the Spirit, but filled with the Spirit. Thousands testify that in that moment their heart was filled with love, the fruit of the Spirit was produced all at once in the life. God’s plan is that such a life should abide in Christ, walking in the Spirit. Only one thing can interrupt such abiding and that is assertion of self, which is sin, or walking after the flesh. It is because sin has entered that Christians need the crisis to get back to where they were, or where they might have been, in the moment of regeneration.

It is Jesus the Baptist who baptizes with the Holy Spirit those who believe in Him, the Saviour. And it is Jesus, the Son of man, who is glorified by the Holy Spirit as He manifests Him in the life yielded to His control.

Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way.
Hold o’er my being absolute sway.
Fill with thy Spirit, till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

INDEX TO SCRIPTURES USED.

PAGES.

Gen. 3: 1-6 34

Ex. 17: 7 37

Deut. 6: 16 37

Ps. 18: 1-5 52, 53
18: 2 51
22: 22 49
22, 23 and 24 67
34: 2, 3 45
44: 8 45
103: 3 73
143: 2 107

Pro. 28: 22 44

Isa. 8: 18 50, 51
14: 12-14 56-60
53: 6 79

Jer. 9: 23 45

Matt. 4: 1-11 35
6: 19-24 44
8: 17 73

Luke 4: 1-13 35

John 1: 12 79
1: 12, 13 120
2: 17, 18 53
3: 5, 6 120
5: 19, 30 54
5: 43 58
6: 18, 22 118
7: 38 6
7: 38, 39 122
8: 28 54
8: 34, 35 5, 14, 15
8: 36 72, 118
12: 23, 31, 35, 36 123
14: 10 54
14: 17, 23 119
15: 7 73
15: 11 72
16: 7-11 122
16: 13, 14 122
16: 22 72
17: 1, 22 123
20: 17 49, 50
20: 21 54

Acts 13: 32, 33 50

Rom. 3: 12 107
3: 23 79, 99, 107
4: 16 117
5: 1-4 99
5: 1, 5 124
5: 10 6, 87
6: 1 105
6: 2 83
6: 11 92
6: 13 7
6: 14 5, 20, 72, 74
6: 15 105
6: 23 79
7: 7-24 18-20, 23, 25
8: 1-4 20, 28
8: 2 5, 86
8: 4 125
8: 9 120
8: 11 73
8: 16 90
8: 23-26 100
10: 17 25
13: 10 46

I. Cor. 1: 4-9 86
3: 1-3 83
6: 13 43
6: 19, 20 44, 119, 120
10: 12 94
10: 13 10, 38, 72, 94
12 to 14 125
13 124
15: 41, 42 101

II. Cor. 3: 18 11, 124
5: 1-5 100
8: 9 53
12: 9 5, 77
13: 5 119

Gal. 2: 19-21 30
2: 20 10, 73
2: 21 21
3: 5 125
3: 12 22
3: 14-29 27-29
5: 1 15, 118
5: 6 125
5: 13, 16
5: 16 83
5: 18 5
5: 22, 23 1, 124
5: 25 6, 30, 87, 126
6: 1 83
6: 14 45

Eph. 1: 13, 14 100, 124, 125
2: 8 79
4: 4-16 125
5: 18 125

Phil. 2: 1-11 55-60
4: 6, 7 72

Col. 1: 27 101
2: 6 114, 126
3: 3 73
3: 17 45

II Thes. 2: 3, 4, 9-11 58, 59

Heb. 1: 1-14 48, 49
2: 11-13 49-54
4: 2 7, 26
9: 24, 26, 28 67
10: 19-25 80
12: 1 8
13: 20, 21 67

James 2: 8-11 17
2: 12 21
2: 15-17 117
3: 10-12 85

I Peter 1: 22, 23, 25 26
2: 7, 8 26
2: 16 16
5: 4 67

I John 1: 1 to 2: 6 109-112
1: 5 85
1: 8 108-112
1: 9 12
2: 1 84, 105
2: 16 34, 38-40
2: 28 64
3: 3 98
3: 3, 21, 22, 24 64
3: 9 84
5: 9-13 79
5: 10, 11 89
5: 18 84

III John 2 73

Rev. 21: 5 70

Transcriber’s Note:

This book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated below.

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. Quotation marks were adjusted to matched sets.

Some scriptures listed in the index are not cited in the text. Spelling correction: What is “Growth [is] in Grace”?