e light, not otherwise, we have
'fellowship one with another.'

Then, still further, in this fellowship one with another, John
presupposes the fellowship with God for each, which makes the
possibility and the certainty of all being drawn into one family. He
does not think it necessary to state, what is so plain and obvious,
viz., that unless we are in sympathy with God, in our aspiration and
effort after the light which is His home and ours, we have no real
communion with Him. I said that sin separated man from man, and
disrupted all the sweet bonds of amity, so that if men come into
contact, being themselves in the darkness, they come into collision
rather than into communion. A company of travellers in the night are
isolated individuals. When the sun rises on their paths they are a
company again. And in like manner, sin separates us from God, and if our
hearts are turned towards, and denizens of, the darkness of impurity,
then we have no communion with Him. He cannot come to us if we love the
darkness. He

'Can but listen at the gate,
And hear the household jar within.'

The tide of the Atlantic feels along the base of iron-bound cliffs on
our western shores, and there is not a crevice into which it can come.
So God moves about us, but is without us, so long as we walk in
darkness. So let us remember that no union with Him is possible, except
there be this common dwelling in the light. Two grains of quicksilver
laid upon a polished surface will never unite if their surfaces be
dusted over with minute impurities, or if the surface of one of them be.
Clean away the motes, and they will coalesce and be one. A film of sin
separates men from God. And if the film be removed the man dwells in
God, and God in him.

III. That brings me to my last point: The progressive cleansing of those
who dwell in the light.

'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' Now if you will
notice the whole context, and eminently the words a couple of verses
after my text, you will see that the cleansing here meant is not the
cleansing of forgiveness, but the cleansing of purifying. For the two
things are articulately distinguished in the ninth verse: 'He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.' So, to use theological terms, it is not justification,
but sanctification that is meant here.

Then there is another thing to be noticed, and that is that when the
Apostle speaks h