[1] I venture to call attention to the rendering "very." It enables the translator to mark the important distinction between two words: αληθης, _factually_ true and real, as opposed to that which in point of fact is mendacious; αληθινος, _ideally_ true and real, that which alone realizes the idea imperfectly expressed by something else. This is one of St. John's favourite words. In regard to αγαπη I have not had the courage of my convictions. The word "charity" seems to me almost providentially preserved for the rendering of that term. It is not without a purpose that ερως is so rigorously excluded from the New Testament. [So also from the Epp. of Ignatius.] The objection that "charity" conveys to ordinary English people the notion of mere material alms is of little weight. If "charity" is sometimes a little _metallic_, is not "love" sometimes a little _maundering_? I agree with Canon Evans that the word, strictly speaking, should be always translated "charity" when alone, "love" when in regimen. Yet I have not been bold enough to put "God is charity" for "God is love." CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE v _PART I_. DISCOURSE I. THE SURROUNDINGS OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN 3 DISCOURSE II. THE CONNECTION OF THE EPISTLE WITH THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN 21 DISCOURSE III. THE POLEMICAL ELEMENT IN THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN 39 DISCOURSE IV. THE IMAGE OF ST. JOHN'S SOUL IN HIS EPISTLE 54 PART II. SOME GENERAL RULES FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN 75 SECTION I. TEXT AND VERSIONS 79 DISCOURSE I. ANALYSIS AND THEORY OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL 80 DISCOURSE II. ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL HISTORICAL NOT IDEOLOGICAL 88 SECTION II. TEXT AND VERSIONS 100 DISCOURSE III. EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT 102 DISCOURSE IV. MISSIONARY APPLICATION OF THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT 106 SECTION III. (1) TEXT AND VERSIONS 117 DISCOURSE V.