The Epistles of St. John : the Greek text, with notes and essays

8쪽

have been held on the structure of the mettinga or on the interpretation os separate passages. Such a liamur is indoed

has been my main destro to cali attontion to the minutost minis of languam, construction, ordor, as serving to illustratetho m ning of St Johα I do not venture to pronounco that any variation is trivial or unimportant. The exact morda aresor ua ine decisive expression os the Apostlo'a thought. Ιhave therasore, is I may NnYo: voriis Whicli have been applied in a mine ullat diffferent sense, begiin by interpreting ine isties as I should interpret any other lκκδ', neglectingnothing Whicla might contribute to a right apprehension os iis fuli meaning. Ι do not sest at liberty to sol aside theletior os a document tili it has been Aund to hie untenme. Μany utrilings, it is triae, Will not bear the consistent application os inch a method os interpretation; but eacti

9쪽

da, s study brings hoiso to me more sorcibis the convictionthat in no other Way can sve hope to gain the living mathos apostolic te hing. The verification of the method lies intho result. Is it discloses to patient investigation iansuspected harmontes and correspondences of thought: is it suggesta Dod reasons sor holding inat vievis of saith Which seem to beconflicting are reatly complementary : is it inspires With a vitalmaver dogmatic state1nenis v hich grout rigid by the necessities of controversy: is it opens on this fide and that sistjecisos study Whicli a init fuller investigation : is it onabies usto Rel that the sifficulties os our ovin time utere not unnoticed by those Iulio, under the Maidance of the Holy Spirit, saut theΕtornat: is it bringa a sense of rest and confidence Which grora Afirmer Willi increasing Diovrledge: then it seems to me thalit needs no Rirther Justification. It cannot but bo that I have osten ereed in the application of the principies Which I hold; but no one, I trusi, utilicondemn the method illi ho has tested it by personat labour. A se v houm spent in tracing out the use of a Ivor 1 or asorin, in comparing phrases osten held to be synonymous, inestimating the larce of different tenses of the fame Veis in regard to tho contexta in Which finey are solin i, Will bring

10쪽

tho Bibis, apprehendod in iis historical developinent, ans versto tho sulneas of lise. Is me can coine to see in it the varieo, the bre th, the patience Os the past dealings of God Mathhiunanity, v e Ahial gain that coumgeolis salth hom a vieWof the vinole world Which is commonly sought by confining our attention to a litile fruginent os it. Dio Biblo is itidood tho symbol and tho pledge of the Catholici of our Faith; and the real underetanding of the Bible resta upon the achnowle ignient of iis Catholicity, of tho universat range in Whicli it includes in ita recorda typicia

spectacle of a disordored and dividod worid. This Catholiciu of the Biblo is made more linpressive by the saei that tho Biblo is in alarge degree historicat. It has pie odood to reveat Himself in and throuo lise; and tho record of