The end of all God's dealings in grace with us as His people is that, individually, we may be brought into the enjoyment of fellowship with Himself.

Innate in the soul of man is the sense of responsibility toward God. But it is not philosophy, human knowledge, and the like which give "boldness in the day of judgment;" no subterfuge will avail, nothing but the sense of guilt removed and sin fully met, can do this For it is self-evident that no one could have "fellowship with the Father" who is in criminal fear before Him.

John in his first epistle, chap. 1:5, tells us, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." But who among the sons of men can measure up to this standard? Do we not naturally shrink from the exposure this necessarily entails? It measures up all man's pretension to fellowship, saying:"If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." Fellowship, then, must be in the light, and on no other ground whatever.

The abstract character of John's first epistle has often been pointed. out, but it is blessedly so about things which the feeblest believer is privileged to know and enjoy. God is brought down to us. The Word has become flesh. Eternal life has been seen, looked upon and handled; and all this, that the darkness might be dispelled and the believer be brought into the light-not for condemnation surely-but the question of sin being righteously settled, God now may be known, and fellowship with the Divine Persons may be enjoyed.

In the Person of the Son God has been fully revealed, and the believer walks in the light of that revelation.

In chap. 1, verse 7, John writes, "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." It has been pointed out that this is not how, but where we walk. Every true believer has been put into this privileged place-for the child of God, there is no other!

Three things in this verse characterize the believer:First, he is "in the light as God is in the light." What a contrast this presents to the word spoken to Moses, "I will dwell in thick darkness;" and at Sinai, with its terrors, the word was,""If so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned." Even with Moses there was no "fellowship in the light," on the contrary, his words were, "I exceedingly fear and quake." There was much of what was good at Sinai, but man was not at rest there, the pavilion of God was darkness, and the light no man could approach unto. God was not seen or known, save by His acting; and when His voice was heard, the people besought that they might never hear it again. See Exodus 19:16-18; also 20:18,19.

In the tabernacle and temple the veil shut God in and man outside; nearness, fellowship in the light, there could not be. Even Aaron, favored as he was in approach to God, had access into the holiest on the great day of Atonement only. But the Cross has changed everything; and the rent veil tells of distance removed, and of God come out to bless righteously. The believer is conscious of this, and the knowledge that every attribute of God has been fully vindicated and His Name glorified, gives peace to the conscience. The light no longer repels; we walk in it.
Secondly :"We have fellowship one with another." Though individually brought into the light, we find others there too, with whom we share common thoughts, common joys, common hopes.

Thirdly:We are there because "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." The more sensible we are of being "in the light," the more conscious we are that God has brought us there consistently with what He is, and removed every stain by the precious blood. We do not evade the light, or seek a way of escape from its searching rays. On the contrary, we are glad to know that what light demanded, love has provided, and that the God who knows us thoroughly, has Himself removed all that forbade our entrance into His holy presence.

If the heart is true, we can say, like the Psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. 139:33,34). The believer, enjoying fellowship in the light, shares the thoughts of God as to sin and self, thankful to know that all has come under His eye and been fully judged at the cross. Thus the heart finds rest, peace reigns, and the end for which John wrote is reached – fulness of joy. "These things write we to you, that your joy may be full" (1 John 1:4). J. W. H. N.

(To be continued.)