We may contrast the communion to which John in the first chapter of his first Epistle, introduces the soul, with that which Paul gives it at the close of Rom. 8, and also with that which the same Apostle gives it at the close of Rom. 11.
In Romans 1 - 8, the Apostle is instructing us in the secret of peace, which the blood of Christ has provided for the conscience; and at the end of that scripture, he prepares a triumph for the conscience, or rich, exulting communion with God over the work of Christ for His people.
In Rom. 9 - 11, he is instructing us in the counsels and dispensational wisdom of God; and at the end of that scripture, he prepares a triumph for the delighted and enlarged understanding of the saint, or communion with God over the riches of His wisdom and knowledge.
But in 1 John 1, it is neither of these. It is not communion because of the all-sufficient work of Christ for sinners, or because of the all-glorious and wonderful ways of God. It is communion with Himself, personal communion because of a well-known relationship between Him and ourselves. This is of another kind--and somewhat of a higher kind.
And we may mark this further.
This last communion which John introduces us to, does not, like the two former, conduct the soul into triumph and exultation, but into calm satisfaction of heart, called "the fulness of joy." It is rather the exercise of the heart in the sense of personal relationship, not the exercise of the conscience in its assertion of freedom and victory because of the blood Christ, nor the exercise of the mind, the renewed understanding, in admiring, worshipping delight, because of the treasures of God's revealed wisdom.
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John Gifford Bellett was an Irish Christian writer and theologian, and was influential in the beginning of the Plymouth Brethren movement. Bellett was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated first at the Grammar School in Exeter, England, then at Trinity College Dublin, where he excelled in Classics, and afterwards in London. It was in Dublin that, as a layman, he first became acquainted with John Nelson Darby, then a minister in the established Church of Ireland, and in 1829 the pair began meeting with others such as Edward Cronin and Francis Hutchinson for communion and prayer.
Bellett had become a Christian as a student and by 1827 was a layman serving the Church. In a letter to James McAllister, written in 1858, he describes the episcopal charge of William Magee, Archbishop of Dublin, that sought for greater state protection for the Church. The Erastian nature of the charge offended Darby particularly, but also many others including Bellett.
The pair bonded particularly over prophetic issues, and attended meetings and discussions together at the home of Lady Powerscourt, and Bellett and Darby (along with the Brethren movement in particular) were particularly associated with dispensationalism and premillenialism.
Bellett wrote many articles and books on scriptural subjects, his most famous works being The Patriarchs, The Evangelists and The Minor Prophets.