he circumstances and
experiences of the writer, and also, in a measure, of the readers. And
the whole is suffused with a singularly sweet light of "joy and peace
in believing." It is written by one who was, as he wrote, at once
resting and moving in the peace of God which passes understanding, and
in the love of Christ which passes knowledge; and what is felt in his
soul comes out inevitably on his page. The letter, written in a
prison, and addressed to a mission-church always exposed to insult and
assault, yet seems in a wonderful way to call us "apart, to rest
awhile." "A glory gilds the sacred page," the glory of the presence of
the Lord in all His majesty of Godhead and nearness of Manhood; in His
finished work, and living power, and wonderful coming again. A
peculiar sort of joy, which is impossible without at least the
experience, if not the presence, of sorrow, rests and shines over the
whole. It is the joy of the heart which has found at length "the
secret of the Lord," His hiding-place from the tyranny of circumstances
and time; the way how always to be of good cheer, naturally yet also
supernaturally, not by a hard-won indifference to life, but by living,
amidst everything external, "hidden with Christ in God."

Let us approach the beloved pages once again. They can never wear out;
there will always prove to be "more to follow." Perhaps we have loved
and pondered them for long years ourselves. Perhaps we have heard them
expounded by voices silent now, "in days that never come again," in
chambers or in churches which we seem still to see, but which in fact
have passed from us very far away. The heart is full and the eyes are
wet as we look back. But the melancholy of the past has no permanent
place in Bible-study. The Book is divine, immortal, and ever young.
He who was in it for our fathers is in it for us. And since He is in
it, as He is in no other literature in the world, (because no other
literature is His Word Written,) therefore it springs up to us ever
new; it is always contemporary with every generation of believers.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus, and let us meet Thee in Thy Scripture now
again.

A very simple "Introduction" will suffice for our present purposes.
These chapters make no pretension to be, in the technical sense,
critical. I say next to nothing, for example, about the Authenticity
and Genuineness of the Epistle. Let me only remind the reader that
from the early dawn of the