Chapter XXXVII.—THE DEATH OF ST. JOHN.
St. John was nearly 100 years old when he wrote his Gospel: he had spent a long life in preaching and exhorting, and we are told that, when his great age prevented his continuing his active labours, he used to be carried into the public assemblies of the Christians, in order to repeat his exhortation, "Little children, love one another": words constantly repeated in some shape or other, in the writings of this Apostle, who also dwells much upon the love of Christ for man, as a reason why men should love Him, and love each other for His sake. Let us try to obey the precept, "Love one another"; remembering that St. John also says, "Love not in word neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth"; that is, do not talk about your love, but show it by your actions. Love to Christ must show itself in obedience; love to man for His sake, by kindness to every fellow creature, and by doing all the good we can to them, whether they are kind to us or not.
St. John died quietly at Ephesus, about a.d. 100: his faith and love were great, therefore his death was peaceful and happy; for he felt that he was now going home to his beloved Master, Whom he had faithfully served for many years on earth.
A century, or space of 100 years, had now passed since the birth of Jesus Christ: at the time of that event, the inhabitants of the world, with the exception of the Jews, were Heathens or Pagans; who, in their total ignorance of an Almighty and Holy God, gave themselves up to follow their own sinful inclinations, and were guilty of every sort of wickedness and vice. The Jews, though still retaining a nominal observance of the Law of Moses and the worship of One True God, had strangely forgotten and forsaken the religion, so long the glory of their nation. Thinking more of temporal than of spiritual things, they wilfully misunderstood the writings of the prophets, and looked for a temporal king in the promised Messiah: those who dared to hold a different opinion, were treated with contempt.
The two sects of Sadducees and Pharisees, though in other matters opposed to each other, equally set at naught the holiness of heart and life commanded by the Law of Moses. The Sadducees, denying the possibility of a future life, laughed at the idea of denying one's self any gratification here, from the fear of punishment hereafter. The Pharisees, passing by the Moral Law, which it did not suit them to keep, taught, that a strict observance of the Ceremonial Law, and of the traditions handed down from father to son, would secure the favour of God.
Thus Sadducees and Pharisees both destroyed all true religion; that is, all devotion of the heart to God, producing holiness of life.
The consequence of this was, that the knowledge and love of God were daily growing less amongst the Jewish people, and rapidly ceasing to have any effect on their motives and actions. So that, both as regarded Jews and Gentiles, it might truly be said, "The whole world lieth in wickedness."
The doctrines and precepts of our blessed Lord, were meant to make man hate and renounce all sin and wickedness; to show him the necessity of self-denial, and of holiness in thought, word, and deed; and to set before him that love towards God, which was to be the motive and principle to govern all his actions.
Thus, wherever the Gospel was received, a great change at once took place; and the close of the first century, found the world in a very different condition from that, in which it had been at the beginning. Mankind must now be considered as divided into three classes: First, the Heathen, who, in addition to all former wickedness, now added a spirit of hatred and persecution towards those who rejected their false religion, for the Truth as is in Jesus. Second, the Jews, who, in spite of all the miseries they had gone through for their rejection of Jesus Christ, still clung to the Law of Moses; hating the Heathen, but above all, hating the followers of Jesus with an increasing hatred. The third class comprehended all, who, by the mercy of God, had been brought out of either of the other two classes, to be sincere and faithful followers of the precepts and examples of the Holy Jesus. This class, called Christians, already contained a very large number of persons of all ages and sexes; and their number was increasing daily, by fresh converts from amongst the Gentiles.