Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV ECCLESIASTICAL AIMS THE Fourth Gospel closes with a short epilogue, added apparently when the work was first made public after the writer's death. One purpose of this epilogue, however we may explain it otherwise, is undoubtedly to present the Gospel to the world with some kind of official sanction. A body of men who can speak with acknowledged authority set their imprimatur on "the witness of this disciple." The fact is highly important, indicating as it does that the Church from the first accepted the Gospel as a manifesto. The evangelist had not spoken merely in his own name, but had laid down once for all the principles of the common faith. We have already seen that the polemic of the Gospel has a representative character. John identifies himself with the Church in its various antagonisms, taking for granted that he only defines the common Christian position. "We speak that which we know, and testify that which we have seen." It is a controversy of parties, -- the Church against the Jews and the Baptists. The arguments of the Gospel carry weight because they express the mind of the whole party, not simply that of the individual writer. In one respect, therefore, the judgment implied in the epilogue appears to be well founded. So far as it is a work of controversy, the Gospel was written deliberately in the name of the Church, and contains its authoritative reply to the criticisms of the hostile sects. There is reason to believe, however, that in a wider and in a more intimate sense John wrote as representing the Church. It might seem at first sight as if no work could have less bearing on mere ecclesiastical interests than this "spiritual Gospel." We think of its author as a contemplative nature, withdrawn from the tumult...
