walk in darkness, this arises from a morbid state of the animal spirits, or from positive physical disease. For we know that bodily disease does in a variety of ways impair the functions of the mind, so that it becomes incapable of forming right judgments, and may imagine to itself innumerable distortions of the truth. The Scripture does not appear to bear upon such cases; except that in general, it commends us in all exigencies and upon all occasions to have recourse to the Great Physician of body, soul, and spirit, "who knows whereof we are made, and who remembers that we are dust." We cannot err however in maintaining, that although the inward witness of faith may appear to be impaired by disease, and the mind to be clouded as to its own evidence of saving grace, faith in the believer's heart is an indestructible principle, and its light can never be extinguished. The inward witness of faith may be obscured. It may appear altogether lost. But before whose eyes is it darkened? Not before those eyes

which are as a flame of fire, whose glance pierces to the thoughts and intents of the heart. That is impossible. "The foundation of God standeth sure, for the Lord knoweth them that are his." Does God forget that such an one has faith? That to such a person, at such a time, he imparted faith, precious faith, the faith which is of the operation of his Spirit, the faith of his elect? Is it obliterated from the mind of God, that at such aud such a season, the person whom he had endowed with faith, laid hold on the covenant of grace, even on that Jesus, who is himself the Covenant provided by the Father? (Isa. xlii. 6, 7.) And if a citizen of Zion says, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me; has not our God

already replied to that sorrowful complaint? "Can a

woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? forget, yet will not I forget thee.

Yea, they may

Behold I have

graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." Disease may have so impared the functions of the natural mind, that Satan may appear to have gained the victory over a believer's faith. But that faith was long ago grounded on a rock which cannot be shaken, And that rock is Christ: "The same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." "All flesh is indeed as grass, and all the glory of men as the flower of grass: the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." The external manifestation, therefore, of faith, as far as it is in man, and a part of his glory, may appear to fade and wither; but as this life of faith is in Christ, and in God, it cannot die. It was begotten in the heart of the believer, by that " incorruptible seed of the Word, which liveth and abideth for ever; and it unites to Jesus, in whom its possessor has obtained an imperishable life. And ere long the day shall come, in which faith shall be no more required as the active principle which gives evidence to the soul of things unseen, for the realities themselves will soon be present. And with reference to such a period, and to the case also of believers now in darkness, the beautiful words of the prophet may be applied: "The sun (symbolical of faith) shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon (another emblem of faith) give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light; and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended."

7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

The apostle now supposes the opposite of the case he had imagined in the preceding verse. There he affirms, that whosoever walks in darkness has no fellowship with God; but here the contrary of that: and that if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with him; and consequently, that our profession of faith is not a false one. In this case, we neither deceive others, nor are we ourselves deceived.

Now to "walk in the light, as he is in the light," is so to walk in the light of the gospel of Christ, as to possess the knowledge of the truth in the way of an external revelation of God's will, conjoined with an internal manifestation of the same. The light of gospel truth may shine on our path, but if the internal light of faith be wanting, spiritual and eternal objects will not be discerned. In order to "walk in the light as he is in the light," i. e. so as to see God in this light, there must be faith to see him, who but for this opened eye of the understanding will still remain invisible. The expression " as he is in the light" is very significant. And it appears to limit the experience of walking in the light, to those who are by faith conscious of the fact, that God is reconciled to man in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. To discern God in the light of the gospel, is to see him as a reconciled Father, and to know ourselves to be his children by adoption and grace. And thus walking in the light of the gospel, and perceiving that God is well pleased with us in his Son, we have fellowship one with another, i. e. we maintain a blessed inter

course of friendship with our God. Our heavenly Father has made over to us the unspeakable gift of his Son, and "with him also he freely gives us all things."

Our hearts, on the other hand, previously enlightened by his Spirit, and softened by his grace, return love for love. "We love Him because He first loved us." We begin to love him, when we know that he has so loved us. And in this way we have fellowship with God. We give him back a little portion of his own love, with which he has first warmed our hearts. We restore him a little measure of the honour, that he has first put upon us.

The expression, "as He is in the light," evidently implies that there is such a thing as walking in a counterfeit light, in which God is not, although he may appear to be therein. And such is the light in which some of the zealous votaries of false religions have walked, and do still walk, in apparent devotion and heavenly contemplation. Enthusiastic fervours may appear to mark the worship of the heart; but if the light be of man's kindling, all who walk in this light, shall lie down in sorrow. (Isa. 1. 10.) The light of the gospel reveals to us our God, in and through the person of a Mediator. Let God be contemplated out of Christ, and he is no longer the God whom the light of the gospel reveals. In that case we worship we know not what. We adore an idol which our own minds have formed.

The substance then of the apostle's declaration is this; that we have fellowship with God, when by faith we realize the truth that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, and not imputing their trespasses unto them. For the light of the gospel reveals this truth, and it is applied to the believer's heart by the power of that faith which is of the operation of

God's spirit. But in the words " as He is in the light," the pronoun need not be restricted to the person of God the Father. It may also be interpreted of Jesus, who is light of light," and without whom all our light is indeed darkness. And in that case the meaning is still much the same; for in the dispensation of the grace of the gospel, we find the divine persons of the Father and the Son in constant union, according to the statement of our Lord, "I and my Father are one." So that if we suppose Christ to Be intended by the apostle, in him we also discern the Father, for Christ has said, "Whosoever has seen me, has seen the Father." And truly it is only through Christ, that we obtain fellowship with God. If Christ be not in the light, if he is not Himself our light, never shall the beams of the Father's glory irradiate our hearts. Therefore, if the emphatic pronoun "He," in the present verse, be considered in connexion with its antecedent, and also with the general sense of the passage, to be properly restricted to the first person of the Trinity, still we cannot but see Jesus at the same time, inasmuch as "he is the light of men,"

and the true light," whom if we follow, we shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John viii. 12.)

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"And the blood," &c. Our peace with God the Father being established in the person of our mediator and redeemer, who purchased that peace with the price of his own blood, we are now admitted into happy fellowship with God. No more aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, and without God in the world," we are 'brought nigh by the blood of Christ," and "in him we receive the atonement." Even now we are " heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," and by an express