{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_37345/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_37345","id":"gutenberg_37345","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37345","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Colossians -- Commentaries","Bible. Philemon -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"\n\n\n\nProduced by Marcia Brooks, Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and\nthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttps://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian\nLibraries)\n\n\n\n\n\n [Transcriber's Note:\n\n A few minor typographical errors and inconsistencies have been\n silently corrected.\n\n All advertising material has been placed at the end of the text.]\n\n\n\n\n THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE\n\n\n EDITED BY THE REV.\n W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n\n _Editor of \"The Expositor,\" etc._\n\n\n COLOSSIANS AND PHILEMON\n\n BY\n ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n\n London\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n 27, PATERNOSTER ROW\n\n MCMII\n\n\n\n\n THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL\n TO\n THE COLOSSIANS\n AND\n PHILEMON\n\n BY\n ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n\n _TENTH EDITION_\n\n\n London:\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n 27, PATERNOSTER ROW\n\n MCMII\n\n\n\n\n _Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n _THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS._\n\n PAGE\n Chap. I. v. 1, 2. The Writer and the Readers 1\n v. 3-8. The Prelude 21\n v. 9-12. The Prayer 38\n v. 12-14. The Father's Gifts through the Son 54\n v. 15-18. The Glory of the Son in His Relation to\n the Father, the Universe, and the Church 70\n v. 19-22. The Reconciling Son 85\n v. 22, 23. The Ultimate Purpose of Reconciliation\n and its Human Conditions 100\n v. 24-27. Joy in Suffering, and Triumph in the\n Manifested Mystery 116\n v. 28, 29. The Christian Ministry in its Theme,\n Methods, and Aim 132\n\n Chap. II. v. 1-3. Paul's Striving for the Colossians 151\n v. 4-7. Conciliatory and Hortatory Transition\n to Polemics 168\n v. 8-10. The Bane and the Antidote 185\n v. 11-13. The True Circumcision 199\n v. 14, 15. The Cross the Death of Law and the\n Triumph over Evil Powers 213\n v. 16-19. Warnings against Twin Chief Errors\n based upon Previous Positive Teaching 226\n v. 20-23. Two Final Tests of the False Teaching 242\n\n Chap. III. v. 1-4. The Present Christian Life a Risen Life 257\n v. 5-9. Slaying Self the Foundation Precept of\n Practical Christianity 271\n v. 9-11. The New Nature wrought out in New Life 290\n v. 12-14. The Garments of the Renewed Soul 305\n v. 15-17. The Practical Effects of the Peace of\n Christ, the Word of Christ, and the\n Name of Christ 320\n v. 18, Ch. iv., 1. The Christian Family 335\n\n Chap. IV. v. 2-6. Precepts for the Innermost and\n Outermost Life 354\n v. 7-9. Tychicus and Onesimus, the Letter-Bearers 371\n v. 10-14. Salutations from the Prisoner's Friends 386\n v. 15-18. Closing Messages 402\n\n\n _THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON._\n\n Chap. I. v. 1-3 417\n v. 4-7 432\n v. 8-11 447\n v. 12-14 459\n v. 15-19 470\n v. 20-25 483\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\n_THE WRITER AND THE READERS._\n\n \"Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and\n Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ\n which are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our\n Father.\"--COL. i, 1, 2 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nWe may say that each of Paul's greater epistles has in it one salient\nthought. In that to the Romans, it is Justification by faith; in\nEphesians, it is the mystical union of Christ and His Church; in\nPhilippians, it is the joy of Christian progress; in this epistle, it is\nthe dignity and sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ as the Mediator and\nHead of all creation and of the Church.\n\nSuch a thought is emphatically a lesson for the day.\n\nThe Christ whom the world needs to have proclaimed in every deaf ear and\nlifted up before blind and reluctant eyes, is not merely the perfect\nman, nor only the meek sufferer, but the Source of creation and its\nLord, Who from the beginning has been the life of all that has lived,\nand before the beginning was in the bosom of the Father. The shallow and\nstarved religion which contents itself with mere humanitarian\nconceptions of Jesus of Nazareth needs to be deepened and filled out by\nthese lofty truths before it can acquire solidity and steadfastness\nsufficient to be the unmoved foundation of sinful and mortal lives. The\nevangelistic teaching which concentrates exclusive attention on the\ncross as \"the work of Christ,\" needs to be led to the contemplation of\nthem, in order to understand the cross, and to have its mystery as well\nas its meaning declared. This letter itself dwells upon two applications\nof its principles to two classes of error which, in somewhat changed\nforms, exist now as then--the error of the ceremonialist, to whom\nreligion was mainly a matter of ritual, and the error of the speculative\nthinker, to whom the universe was filled with forces which left no room\nfor the working of a personal Will. The vision of the living Christ Who\nfills all things, is held up before each of these two, as the antidote\nto his poison; and that same vision must be made clear to-day to the\nmodern representatives of these ancient errors. If we are able to grasp\nwith heart and mind the principles of this epistle for ourselves, we\nshall stand at the centre of things, seeing order where from any other\nposition confusion only is apparent, and being at the point of rest\ninstead of being hurried along by the wild whirl of conflicting\nopinions.\n\nI desire, therefore, to present the teachings of this great epistle in a\nseries of expositions.\n\nBefore advancing to the consideration of these verses, we must deal with\none or two introductory matters, so as to get the frame and the\nbackground for the picture.\n\n(1) First, as to the Church of Colossae to which the letter is addressed.\n\nPerhaps too much has been made of late years of geographical and\ntopographical elucidations of Paul's epistles. A knowledge of the place\nto which a letter was sent cannot do much to help in understanding the\nletter, for local circumstances leave very faint traces, if any, on the\nApostle's writings. Here and there an allusion may be detected, or a\nmetaphor may gain in point by such knowledge; but, for the most part,\nlocal colouring is entirely absent. Some slight indication, however, of\nthe situation and circumstances of the Colossian Church may help to give\nvividness to our conceptions of the little community to whom this rich\ntreasure of truth was first entrusted.\n\nColossae was a town in the heart of the modern Asia Minor, much decayed\nin Paul's time from its earlier importance. It lay in a valley of\nPhrygia, on the banks of a small stream, the Lycus, down the course of\nwhich, at a distance of some ten miles or so, two very much more\nimportant cities fronted each other, Hierapolis on the north, and\nLaodicea on the south bank of the river. In all three cities were\nChristian Churches, as we know from this letter, one of which has\nattained the bad eminence of having become the type of tepid religion\nfor all the world. How strange to think of the tiny community in a\nremote valley of Asia Minor, eighteen centuries since, thus gibbeted for\never! These stray beams of light which fall upon the people in the New\nTestament, showing them fixed for ever in one attitude, like a lightning\nflash in the darkness, are solemn precursors of the last Apocalypse,\nwhen all men shall be revealed in \"the brightness of His coming.\"\n\nPaul does not seem to have been the founder of these Churches, or ever\nto have visited them at the date of this letter. That opinion is based\non several of its characteristics, such, for instance, as the absence\nof any of those kindly greetings to individuals which in the Apostle's\nother letters are so abundant, and reveal at once the warmth and the\ndelicacy of his affection: and the allusions which occur more than once\nto his having only \"_heard_\" of their faith and love, and is strongly\nsupported by the expression in the second chapter where he speaks of the\nconflict in spirit which he had for \"you, and for them at Laodicea, and\nfor as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.\" Probably the teacher\nwho planted the gospel in Colossae was that Epaphras, whose visit to Rome\noccasioned the letter, and who is referred to in verse 7 of this chapter\nin terms which seem to suggest that he had first made known to them the\nfruit-producing \"word of the truth of the gospel.\"\n\n(2) Note the occasion and subject of the letter. Paul is a prisoner, in\na certain sense, in Rome; but the word prisoner conveys a false\nimpression of the amount of restriction of personal liberty to which he\nwas subjected. We know from the last words of the Acts of the Apostles,\nand from the Epistle to the Philippians, that his \"imprisonment\" did not\nin the least interfere with his liberty of preaching, nor with his\nintercourse with friends. Rather, in the view of the facilities it gave\nthat by him \"the preaching might be fully known,\" it may be regarded, as\nindeed the writer of the Acts seems to regard it, as the very climax and\ntopstone of Paul's work, wherewith his history may fitly end, leaving\nthe champion of the gospel at the very heart of the world, with\nunhindered liberty to proclaim his message by the very throne of Caesar.\nHe was sheltered rather than confined beneath the wing of the imperial\neagle. His imprisonment, as we call it, was, at all events at first,\ndetention in Rome under military supervision rather than incarceration.\nSo to his lodgings in Rome there comes a brother from this decaying\nlittle town in the far-off valley of the Lycus, Epaphras by name.\nWhether his errand was exclusively to consult Paul about the state of\nthe Colossian Church, or whether some other business also had brought\nhim to Rome, we do not know; at all events, he comes and brings with him\nbad news, which burdens Paul's heart with solicitude for the little\ncommunity, which had no remembrances of his own authoritative teaching\nto fall back upon. Many a night would he and Epaphras spend in deep\nconverse on the matter, with the stolid Roman legionary, to whom Paul\nwas chained, sitting wearily by, while they two eagerly talked.\n\nThe tidings were that a strange disease, hatched in that hotbed of\nreligious fancies, the dreamy East, was threatening the faith of the\nColossian Christians. A peculiar form of heresy, singularly compounded\nof Jewish ritualism and Oriental mysticism--two elements as hard to\nblend in the foundation of a system as the heterogeneous iron and clay\non which the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream stood unstably--had\nappeared among them, and though at present confined to a few, was being\nvigorously preached. The characteristic Eastern dogma, that matter is\nevil and the source of evil, which underlies so much Oriental religion,\nand crept in so early to corrupt Christianity, and crops up to-day in so\nmany strange places and unexpected ways, had begun to infect them. The\nconclusion was quickly drawn: \"Well, then, if matter be the source of\nall evil, then, of course, God and matter must be antagonistic,\" and so\nthe creation and government of this material universe could not be\nsupposed to have come directly from Him. The endeavour to keep the pure\nDivinity and the gross world as far apart as possible, while yet an\nintellectual necessity forbad the entire breaking of the bond between\nthem, led to the busy working of the imagination, which spanned the void\ngulf between God Who is good, and matter which is evil, with a bridge of\ncobwebs--a chain of intermediate beings, emanations, abstractions, each\napproaching more nearly to the material than his precursor, till at last\nthe intangible and infinite was confined and curdled into actual earthly\nmatter, and the pure was darkened thereby into evil.\n\nSuch notions, fantastic and remote from daily life as they look, really\nled by a very short cut to making wild work with the plainest moral\nteachings both of the natural conscience and of Christianity. For if\nmatter be the source of all evil, then the fountain of each man's sin is\nto be found, not in his own perverted will, but in his body, and the\ncure of it is to be reached, not by faith which plants a new life in a\nsinful spirit, but simply by ascetic mortification of the flesh.\n\nStrangely united with these mystical Eastern teachings, which might so\neasily be perverted to the coarsest sensuality, and had their heads in\nthe clouds and their feet in the mud, were the narrowest doctrines of\nJewish ritualism, insisting on circumcision, laws regulating food, the\nobservance of feast days, and the whole cumbrous apparatus of a\nceremonial religion. It is a monstrous combination, a cross between a\nTalmudical rabbi and a Buddhist priest, and yet it is not unnatural\nthat, after soaring in these lofty regions of speculation where the air\nis too thin to support life, men should be glad to get hold of the\nexternals of an elaborate ritual. It is not the first nor the last time\nthat a misplaced philosophical religion has got close to a religion of\noutward observances, to keep it from shivering itself to death. Extremes\nmeet. If you go far enough east, you are west.\n\nSuch, generally speaking, was the error that was beginning to lift its\nhead in Colossae. Religious fanaticism was at home in that country, from\nwhich, both in heathen and in Christian times, wild rites and notions\nemanated, and the Apostle might well dread the effect of this new\nteaching, as of a spark on hay, on the excitable natures of the\nColossian converts.\n\nNow we may say, \"What does all this matter to us? We are in no danger of\nbeing haunted by the ghosts of these dead heresies.\" But the truth which\nPaul opposed to them is all important for every age. It was simply the\nPerson of Christ as the only manifestation of the Divine, the link\nbetween God and the universe, its Creator and Preserver, the Light and\nLife of men, the Lord and Inspirer of the Church, Christ has come,\nlaying His hand upon both God and man, therefore there is no need nor\nplace for a misty crowd of angelic beings or shadowy abstractions to\nbridge the gulf across which His incarnation flings its single solid\narch. Christ has been bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, therefore\nthat cannot be the source of evil in which the fulness of the Godhead\nhas dwelt as in a shrine. Christ has come, the fountain of life and\nholiness, therefore there is no more place for ascetic mortifications on\nthe one hand, nor for Jewish scrupulosities on the other. These things\nmight detract from the completeness of faith in the complete redemption\nwhich Christ has wrought, and must becloud the truth that simple faith\nin it is all which a man needs.\n\nTo urge these and the like truths this letter is written. Its central\nprinciple is the sovereign and exclusive mediation of Jesus Christ, the\nGod-man, the victorious antagonist of these dead speculations, and the\ndestined conqueror of all the doubts and confusions of this day. If we\ngrasp with mind and heart that truth, we can possess our souls in\npatience, and in its light see light where else is darkness and\nuncertainty.\n\n * * * * *\n\nSo much then for introduction, and now a few words of comment on the\nsuperscription of the letter contained in these verses.\n\nI. Notice the blending of lowliness and authority in Paul's designation\nof himself. \"An Apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God.\"\n\nHe does not always bring his apostolic authority to mind at the\nbeginning of his letters. In his earliest epistles, those to the\nThessalonians, he has not yet adopted the practice. In the loving and\njoyous letter to the Philippians, he has no need to urge his authority,\nfor no man among them ever gainsaid it. In that to Philemon, friendship\nis uppermost, and though, as he says, he might be much bold to enjoin,\nyet he prefers to beseech, and will not command as \"Apostle,\" but pleads\nas \"the prisoner of Christ Jesus.\" In his other letters he put his\nauthority in the foreground as here, and it may be noticed that it and\nits basis in the will of God are asserted with greatest emphasis in the\nEpistle to the Galatians, where he has to deal with more defiant\nopposition than elsewhere encountered him.\n\nHere he puts forth his claim to the apostolate, in the highest sense of\nthe word. He asserts his equality with the original Apostles, the chosen\nwitnesses for the reality of Christ's resurrection. He, too, had seen\nthe risen Lord, and heard the words of His mouth. He shared with them\nthe prerogative of certifying from personal experience that Jesus is\nrisen and lives to bless and rule. Paul's whole Christianity was built\non the belief that Jesus Christ had actually appeared to him. That\nvision on the road to Damascus revolutionised his life. Because he had\nseen his Lord and heard his duty from His lips, he had become what he\nwas.\n\n\"Through the will of God\" is at once an assertion of Divine authority, a\ndeclaration of independence of all human teaching or appointment, and a\nmost lowly disclaimer of individual merit, or personal power. Few\nreligious teachers have had so strongly marked a character as Paul, or\nhave so constantly brought their own experience into prominence; but the\nweight which he expected to be attached to his words was to be due\nentirely to their being the words which God spoke through him. If this\nopening clause were to be paraphrased it would be: I speak to you\nbecause God has sent me. I am not an Apostle by my own will, nor by my\nown merit. I am not worthy to be called an Apostle. I am a poor sinner\nlike yourselves, and it is a miracle of love and mercy that God should\nput His words into such lips. But He does speak through me; my words are\nneither mine nor learned from any other man, but His. Never mind the\ncracked pipe through which the Divine breath makes music, but listen to\nthe music.\n\nSo Paul thought of his message; so the uncompromising assertion of\nauthority was united with deep humility. Do we come to his words,\nbelieving that we hear God speaking through Paul? Here is no formal\ndoctrine of inspiration, but here is the claim to be the organ of the\nDivine will and mind, to which we ought to listen as indeed the voice of\nGod.\n\nThe gracious humility of the man is further seen in his association with\nhimself, as joint senders of the letter, of his young brother Timothy,\nwho has no apostolic authority, but whose concurrence in its teaching\nmight give it some additional weight. For the first few verses he\nremembers to speak in the plural, as in the name of both--\"_we_ give\nthanks,\" \"Epaphras declared to _us_ your love,\" and so on; but in the\nfiery sweep of his thoughts Timothy is soon left out of sight, and Paul\nalone pours out the wealth of his Divine wisdom and the warmth of his\nfervid heart.\n\nII. We may observe the noble ideal of the Christian character set forth\nin the designations of the Colossian Church, as \"saints and faithful\nbrethren in Christ.\"\n\nIn his earlier letters Paul addresses himself to \"the Church;\" in his\nlater, beginning with the Epistle to the Romans, and including the three\ngreat epistles from his captivity, namely, Ephesians, Philippians, and\nColossians, he drops the word Church, and uses expressions which regard\nthe individuals composing the community rather than the community which\nthey compose. The slight change thus indicated in the Apostle's point of\nview is interesting, however it may be accounted for. There is no reason\nto suppose it done of set purpose, and certainly it did not arise from\nany lowered estimate of the sacredness of \"the Church,\" which is nowhere\nput on higher ground than in the letter to Ephesus, which belongs to the\nlater period; but it may be that advancing years and familiarity with\nhis work, with his position of authority, and with his auditors, all\ntended to draw him closer to them, and insensibly led to the disuse of\nthe more formal and official address to \"the Church\" in favour of the\nsimpler and more affectionate superscription, to \"the brethren.\"\n\nBe that as it may, the lessons to be drawn from the names here given to\nthe members of the Church are the more important matter for us. It would\nbe interesting and profitable to examine the meaning of all the New\nTestament names for believers, and to learn the lessons which they\nteach; but we must for the present confine ourselves to those which\noccur here.\n\n\"Saints\"--a word that has been wofully misapplied both by the Church and\nthe world. The former has given it as a special honour to a few, and\n\"decorated\" with it mainly the possessors of a false ideal of\nsanctity--that of the ascetic and monastic sort. The latter uses it with\na sarcastic intonation, as if it implied much cry and little wool, loud\nprofessions and small performance, not without a touch of hypocrisy and\ncrafty self-seeking.\n\nSaints are not people living in cloisters after a fantastic ideal, but\nmen and women immersed in the vulgar work of every-day life and worried\nby the small prosaic anxieties which fret us all, who amidst the whirr\nof the spindle in the mill, and the clink of the scales on the counter,\nand the hubbub of the market-place and the jangle of the courts, are yet\nliving lives of conscious devotion to God. The root idea of the word,\nwhich is an Old Testament word, is not moral purity, but separation to\nGod. The holy things of the old covenant were things set apart from\nordinary use for His service. So, on the high priest's mitre was written\nHoliness to the Lord. So the Sabbath was kept \"holy,\" because set apart\nfrom the week in obedience to Divine command.\n\n_Sanctity_, and _saint_, are used now mainly with the idea of moral\npurity, but that is a secondary meaning. The real primary signification\nis separation to God. Consecration to Him is the root from which the\nwhite flower of purity springs most surely. There is a deep lesson in\nthe word as to the true method of attaining cleanness of life and\nspirit. We cannot make ourselves pure, but we can yield ourselves to God\nand the purity will come.\n\nBut we have not only here the fundamental idea of holiness, and the\nconnection of purity of character with self-consecration to God, but\nalso the solemn obligation on all so-called Christians thus to separate\nand devote themselves to Him. We are Christians as far as we give\nourselves up to God, in the surrender of our wills and the practical\nobedience of our lives--so far and not one inch further. We are not\nmerely bound to this consecration if we are Christians, but we are not\nChristians unless we thus consecrate ourselves. Pleasing self, and\nmaking my own will my law, and living for my own ends, is destructive of\nall Christianity. Saints are not an eminent sort of Christians, but all\nChristians are saints, and he who is not a saint is not a Christian. The\ntrue consecration is the surrender of the will, which no man can do for\nus, which needs no outward ceremonial, and the one motive which will\nlead us selfish and stubborn men to bow our necks to that gentle yoke,\nand to come out of the misery of pleasing self into the peace of serving\nGod, is drawn from the great love of Him Who devoted Himself to God and\nman, and bought us for His own by giving Himself utterly to be ours. All\nsanctity begins with consecration to God. All consecration rests upon\nthe faith of Christ's sacrifice. And if, drawn by the great love of\nChrist to us unworthy, we give ourselves away to God in Him, then He\ngives Himself in deep sacred communion to us. \"I am thine\" has ever for\nits chord which completes the fulness of its music, \"Thou art mine.\" And\nso \"saint\" is a name of dignity and honour, as well as a stringent\nrequirement. There is implied in it, too, safety from all that would\nthreaten life or union with Him. He will not hold His possessions with a\nslack hand that negligently lets them drop, or with a feeble hand that\ncannot keep them from a foe. \"Thou wilt not suffer him who is\nconsecrated to Thee to see corruption.\" If I belong to God, having given\nmyself to Him, then I am safe from the touch of evil and the taint of\ndecay. \"The Lord's portion is His people,\" and He will not lose even so\nworthless a part of that portion as I am. The great name \"saints\"\ncarries with it the prophecy of victory over all evil, and the\nassurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God, or pluck us\nfrom His hand.\n\nBut these Colossian Christians are \"faithful\" as well as saints. That\nmay either mean _trustworthy_ and _true_ to their stewardship, or\n_trusting_. In the parallel verses in the Epistle to the Ephesians\n(which presents so many resemblances to this epistle) the latter meaning\nseems to be required, and here it is certainly the more natural, as\npointing to the very foundation of all Christian consecration and\nbrotherhood in the act of believing. We are united to Christ by our\nfaith. The Church is a family of faithful, that is to say of believing,\nmen. Faith underlies consecration and is the parent of holiness, for he\nonly will yield himself to God who trustfully grasps the mercies of God\nand rests on Christ's great gift of Himself. Faith weaves the bond that\nunites men in the brotherhood of the Church, for it brings all who share\nit into a common relation to the Father. He who is faithful, that is,\nbelieving, will be faithful in the sense of being worthy of confidence\nand true to his duty, his profession, and his Lord.\n\nThey were _brethren_ too. That strong new bond of union among men the\nmost unlike, was a strange phenomenon in Paul's time, when the Roman\nworld was falling to pieces, and rent by deep clefts of hatreds and\njealousies such as modern society scarcely knows; and men might well\nwonder as they saw the slave and his master sitting at the same table,\nthe Greek and the barbarian learning the same wisdom in the same tongue,\nthe Jew and the Gentile bowing the knee in the same worship, and the\nhearts of all fused into one great glow of helpful sympathy and\nunselfish love.\n\nBut \"brethren\" means more than this. It points not merely to Christian\nlove, but to the common possession of a new life. If we are brethren, it\nis because we have one Father, because in us all there is one life. The\nname is often regarded as sentimental and metaphorical. The obligation\nof mutual love is supposed to be the main idea in it, and there is a\nmelancholy hollowness and unreality in the very sound of it as applied\nto the usual average Christians of to-day. But the name leads straight\nto the doctrine of regeneration, and proclaims that all Christians are\nborn again through their faith in Jesus Christ, and thereby partake of a\ncommon new life, which makes all its possessors children of the Highest,\nand therefore brethren one of another. If regarded as an expression of\nthe affection of Christians for one another, \"brethren\" is an\nexaggeration, ludicrous or tragic, as we view it; but if we regard it as\nthe expression of the real bond which gathers all believers into one\nfamily, it declares the deepest mystery and mightiest privilege of the\ngospel that \"to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become\nthe Sons of God.\"\n\nThey are \"in Christ.\" These two words may apply to all the designations\nor to the last only. They are saints in Him, believers in Him, brethren\nin Him. That mystical but most real union of Christians with their Lord\nis never far away from the Apostle's thoughts, and in the twin Epistle\nto the Ephesians is the very burden of the whole. A shallower\nChristianity tries to weaken that great phrase to something more\nintelligible to the unspiritual temper and the poverty-stricken\nexperience proper to it; but no justice can be done to Paul's teaching\nunless it be taken in all its depth as expressive of that same mutual\nindwelling and interlacing of spirit with spirit which is so prominent\nin the writings of the Apostle John. _There_ is one point of contact\nbetween the Pauline and the Johannean conceptions, on the differences\nbetween which so much exaggeration has been expended: to both the inmost\nessence of the Christian life is union to Christ, and abiding in Him. If\nwe are Christians, we are in Him, in yet profounder sense than creation\nlives and moves and has its being in God. We are in Him as the earth\nwith all its living things is in the atmosphere, as the branch is in the\nvine, as the members are in the body. We are in Him as inhabitants in a\nhouse, as hearts that love in hearts that love, as parts in the whole.\nIf we are Christians, He is in us, as life in every vein, as the\nfruit-producing sap and energy of the vine is in every branch, as the\nair in every lung, as the sunlight in every planet.\n\nThis is the deepest mystery of the Christian life. To be \"in Him\" is to\nbe complete. \"In Him\" we are \"blessed with all spiritual blessings.\" \"In\nHim\", we are \"chosen,\" \"In Him,\" God \"freely bestows His grace upon us.\"\n\"In Him\" we \"have redemption through His blood.\" \"In Him\" \"all things in\nheaven and earth are gathered.\" \"In Him we have obtained an\ninheritance.\" In Him is the better life of all who live. In Him we have\npeace though the world be seething with change and storm. In Him we\nconquer though earth and our own evil be all in arms against us. If we\nlive in Him, we live in purity and joy. If we die in Him, we die in\ntranquil trust. If our gravestones may truly carry the sweet old\ninscription carved on so many a nameless slab in the catacombs, \"In\nChristo,\" they will also bear the other \"In pace\" (In peace). If we\nsleep in Him, our glory is assured, for them also that sleep in Jesus,\nwill God bring with Him.\n\nIII. A word or two only can be devoted to the last clause of salutation,\nthe apostolic wish, which sets forth the high ideal to be desired for\nChurches and individuals: \"Grace be unto and peace from God our Father.\"\nThe Authorized Version reads, \"and the Lord Jesus Christ,\" but the\nRevised Version follows the majority of recent text-critics and their\nprincipal authorities in omitting these words, which are supposed to\nhave been imported into our passage from the parallel place in\nEphesians. The omission of these familiar words which occur so uniformly\nin the similar introductory salutations of Paul's other epistles, is\nespecially singular here, where the main subject of the letter is the\noffice of Christ as channel of all blessings. Perhaps the previous word,\n\"brethren\" was lingering in his mind, and so instinctively he stopped\nwith the kindred word \"Father.\"\n\n\"Grace and peace\"--Paul's wishes for those whom he loves, and the\nblessings which he expects every Christian to possess, blend the Western\nand the Eastern forms of salutation, and surpass both. All that the\nGreek meant by his \"Grace,\" all that the Hebrew meant by his \"Peace,\"\nthe ideally happy condition which differing nations have placed in\ndifferent blessings, and which all loving words have vainly wished for\ndear ones, is secured and conveyed to every poor soul that trusts in\nChrist.\n\n\"Grace\"--what is that? The word means first--love in exercise to those\nwho are below the lover, or who deserve something else; stooping love\nthat condescends, and patient love that forgives. Then it means the\ngifts which such love bestows, and then it means the effects of these\ngifts in the beauties of character and conduct developed in the\nreceivers. So there are here invoked, or we may call it, proffered and\npromised, to every believing heart, the love and gentleness of that\nFather whose love to us sinful atoms is a miracle of lowliness and\nlongsuffering; and, next, the outcome of that love which never visits\nthe soul emptyhanded, in all varied spiritual gifts, to strengthen\nweakness, to enlighten ignorance, to fill the whole being; and as last\nresult of all, every beauty of mind, heart, and temper which can adorn\nthe character, and refine a man into the likeness of God. That great\ngift will come in continuous bestowment if we are \"saints in Christ.\" Of\nHis fulness we all receive and grace for grace, wave upon wave as the\nripples press shoreward and each in turn pours its tribute on the beach,\nor as pulsation after pulsation makes one golden beam of unbroken light,\nstrong winged enough to come all the way from the sun, gentle enough to\nfall on the sensitive eyeball without pain. That one beam will decompose\ninto all colours and brightnesses. That one \"grace\" will part into\nsevenfold gifts and be the life in us of whatsoever things are lovely\nand of good report.\n\n\"Peace be unto you.\" That old greeting, the witness of a state of\nsociety when every stranger seen across the desert was probably an\nenemy, is also a witness to the deep unrest of the heart. It is well to\nlearn the lesson that peace comes after grace, that for tranquillity of\nsoul we must go to God, and that He gives it by giving us His love and\nits gifts, of which, and of which only, peace is the result. If we have\nthat grace for ours, as we all may if we will, we shall be still,\nbecause our desires are satisfied and all our needs met. To seek is\nunnecessary when we are conscious of possessing. We may end our weary\nquest, like the dove when it had found the green leaf, though little dry\nland may be seen as yet, and fold our wings and rest by the cross. We\nmay be lapped in calm repose, even in the midst of toil and strife, like\nJohn resting on the heart of his Lord. There must be first of all, peace\n_with_ God, that there may be peace _from_ God. Then, when we have been\nwon from our alienation and enmity by the power of the cross, and have\nlearned to know that God is our Lover, Friend and Father, we shall\npossess the peace of those whose hearts have found their home, the peace\nof spirits no longer at war within--conscience and choice tearing them\nasunder in their strife, the peace of obedience which banishes the\ndisturbance of self-will, the peace of security shaken by no fears, the\npeace of a sure future across the brightness of which no shadows of\nsorrow nor mists of uncertainty can fall, the peace of a heart in amity\nwith all mankind. So living in peace, we shall lay ourselves down and\ndie in peace, and enter into \"that country, afar beyond the stars,\"\nwhere \"grows the flower of peace.\"\n\n \"The Rose that cannot wither,\n Thy fortress and thy ease.\"\n\nAll this may be ours. Paul could only wish it for these Colossians. We\ncan only long for it for our dearest. No man can fulfil his wishes or\nturn them into actual gifts. Many precious things we can give, but not\npeace. But our brother, Jesus Christ, can do more than wish it. He can\nbestow it, and when we need it most, He stands ever beside us, in our\nweakness and unrest, with His strong arm stretched out to help, and on\nHis calm lips the old words--\"My grace is sufficient for thee,\" \"My\npeace I give unto you.\"\n\nLet us keep ourselves in Him, believing in Him and yielding ourselves to\nGod for His dear sake, and we shall find His grace ever flowing into our\nemptiness and His settled \"peace keeping our hearts and minds in Christ\nJesus.\"\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\n_THE PRELUDE._\n\n \"We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying\n always for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of\n the love which ye have toward all the saints, because of the hope\n which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in\n the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you; even as\n it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as it doth\n in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in\n truth; even as ye learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant,\n who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, who also\n declared to us your love in the Spirit.\"--COL. i. 3-8. (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThis long introductory section may at first sight give the impression of\nconfusion, from the variety of subjects introduced. But a little thought\nabout it shows it to be really a remarkable specimen of the Apostle's\ndelicate tact, born of his love and earnestness. Its purpose is to\nprepare a favourable reception for his warnings and arguments against\nerrors which had crept in, and in his judgment were threatening to sweep\naway the Colossian Christians from their allegiance to Christ, and their\nfaith in the gospel as it had been originally preached to them by\nEpaphras. That design explains the selection of topics in these verses,\nand their weaving together.\n\nBefore he warns and rebukes, Paul begins by giving the Colossians credit\nfor all the good which he can find in them. As soon as he opens his\nmouth, he asserts the claims and authority, the truth and power of the\ngospel which he preaches, and from which all this good in them had come,\nand which had proved that it came from God by its diffusiveness and\nfruitfulness. He reminds them of their beginnings in the Christian life,\nwith which this new teaching was utterly inconsistent, and he flings his\nshield over Epaphras, their first teacher, whose words were in danger of\nbeing neglected now for newer voices with other messages.\n\nThus skilfully and lovingly these verses touch a prelude which naturally\nprepares for the theme of the epistle. Remonstrance and rebuke would\nmore often be effective if they oftener began with showing the rebuker's\nlove, and with frank acknowledgment of good in the rebuked.\n\nI. We have first a thankful recognition of Christian excellence as\nintroductory to warnings and remonstrances.\n\nAlmost all Paul's letters begin with similar expressions of thankfulness\nfor the good that was in the Church he is addressing. Gentle rain\nsoftens the ground and prepares it to receive the heavier downfall which\nwould else mostly run off the hard surface. The exceptions are, 2\nCorinthians; Ephesians, which was probably a circular letter; and\nGalatians, which is too hot throughout for such praises. These\nexpressions are not compliments, or words of course. Still less are they\nflattery used for personal ends. They are the uncalculated and\nuncalculating expression of affection which delights to see white\npatches in the blackest character, and of wisdom which knows that the\nnauseous medicine of blame is most easily taken if administered wrapped\nin a capsule of honest praise.\n\nAll persons in authority over others, such as masters, parents, leaders\nof any sort, may be the better for taking the lesson--\"provoke not\nyour\"--inferiors, dependents, scholars--\"to wrath, lest they be\ndiscouraged\"--and deal out praise where you can, with a liberal hand. It\nis nourishing food for many virtues, and a powerful antidote to many\nvices.\n\nThis praise is cast in the form of thanksgiving to God, as the true\nfountain of all that is good in men. How all that might be harmful in\ndirect praise is strained out of it, when it becomes gratitude to God!\nBut we need not dwell on this, nor on the principle underlying these\nthanks, namely that Christian men's excellences are God's gift, and that\ntherefore, admiration of the man should ever be subordinate to\nthankfulness to God. The fountain, not the pitcher filled from it,\nshould have the credit of the crystal purity and sparkling coolness of\nthe water. Nor do we need to do more than point to the inference from\nthat phrase \"having _heard_ of your faith,\" an inference confirmed by\nother statements in the letter, namely, that the Apostle himself had\nnever _seen_ the Colossian Church. But we briefly emphasize the two\npoints which occasioned his thankfulness. They are the familiar two,\n_faith_ and _love_.\n\nFaith is sometimes spoken of in the New Testament as \"_towards_ Christ\nJesus,\" which describes that great act of the soul by its direction, as\nif it were a going out or flight of the man's nature to the true goal of\nall active being. It is sometimes spoken of as \"_on_ Christ Jesus,\"\nwhich describes it as reposing on Him as the end of all seeking, and\nsuggests such images as that of a hand that leans or of a burden borne,\nor a weakness upheld by contact with Him. But more sweet and great is\nthe blessedness of faith considered as \"_in_ Him,\" as its abiding place\nand fortress-home, in union with, and indwelling in whom the seeking\nspirit may fold its wings, and the weak heart may be strengthened to\nlift its burden cheerily, heavy though it be, and the soul may be full\nof tranquillity and soothed into a great calm. _Towards_, _on_, and\n_in_--so manifold are the phases of the relation between Christ and our\nfaith.\n\nIn all, faith is the same,--simple confidence, precisely like the trust\nwhich we put in one another. But how unlike are the objects!--broken\nreeds of human nature in the one case, and the firm pillar of that\nDivine power and tenderness in the other, and how unlike, alas! is the\nfervency and constancy of the trust we exercise in each other and in\nChrist! \"Faith\" covers the whole ground of man's relation to God. All\nreligion, all devotion, everything which binds us to the unseen world is\nincluded in or evolved from faith. And mark that this faith is, in\nPaul's teaching, the foundation of love to men and of everything else\ngood and fair. We may agree or disagree with that thought, but we can\nscarcely fail to see that it is the foundation of all his moral\nteaching. From that fruitful source all good will come. From that deep\nfountain sweet water will flow, and all drawn from other sources has a\ntang of bitterness. Goodness of all kinds is most surely evolved from\nfaith--and that faith lacks its best warrant of reality which does not\nlead to whatsoever things are lovely and of good report. Barnabas was a\n\"good man,\" because, as Luke goes on to tell us by way of analysis of\nthe sources of his goodness, he was \"full of the Holy Ghost,\" the\nauthor of all goodness, \"and of faith\" by which that Inspirer of all\nbeauty of purity dwells in men's hearts. Faith then is the germ of\ngoodness, not because of anything in itself, but because by it we come\nunder the influence of the Divine Spirit whose breath is life and\nholiness.\n\nTherefore we say to every one who is seeking to train his character in\nexcellence, begin with trusting Christ, and out of that will come all\nlustre and whiteness, all various beauties of mind and heart. It is hard\nand hopeless work to cultivate our own thorns into grapes, but if we\nwill trust Christ, He will sow good seed in our field and \"make it soft\nwith showers and bless the springing thereof.\"\n\nAs faith is the foundation of all virtue, so it is the parent of love,\nand as the former sums up every bond that knits men to God, so the\nlatter includes all relations of men to each other, and is the whole law\nof human conduct packed into one word. But the warmest place in a\nChristian's heart will belong to those who are in sympathy with his\ndeepest self, and a true faith in Christ, like a true loyalty to a\nprince, will weave a special bond between all fellow-subjects. So the\nsign, on the surface of earthly relations, of the deep-lying central\nfire of faith to Christ, is the fruitful vintage of brotherly love, as\nthe vineyards bear the heaviest clusters on the slopes of Vesuvius.\nFaith in Christ and love to Christians--that is the Apostle's notion of\na good man. That is the ideal of character which we have to set before\nourselves. Do we desire to be good? Let us trust Christ. Do we profess\nto trust Christ? Let us show it by the true proof--our goodness and\nespecially our love.\n\nSo we have here two members of the familiar triad, Faith and Love, and\ntheir sister Hope is not far off. We read in the next clause, \"because\nof the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens.\" The connection is\nnot altogether plain. Is the hope the reason for the Apostle's\nthanksgiving, or the reason in some sense of the Colossians' love? As\nfar as the language goes, we may either read \"We give thanks ... because\nof the hope,\" or \"the love which ye have ... because of the hope.\" But\nthe long distance which we have to go back for the connection, if we\nadopt the former explanation, and other considerations which need not be\nentered on here, seem to make the latter the preferable construction if\nit yields a tolerable sense. Does it? Is it allowable to say that the\nhope which is laid up in heaven is in any sense a reason or motive for\nbrotherly love? I think it is.\n\nObserve that \"hope\" here is best taken as meaning not the emotion, but\nthe object on which the emotion is fixed; not the faculty, but the thing\nhoped for; or in other words, that it is objective not subjective; and\nalso that the ideas of futurity and security are conveyed by the thought\nof this object of expectation being laid up. This future blessedness,\ngrasped by our expectant hearts as assured for us, does stimulate and\nhearten to all well-doing. Certainly it does not supply the main reason;\nwe are not to be loving and good because we hope to win heaven thereby.\nThe deepest motive for all the graces of Christian character is the will\nof God in Christ Jesus, apprehended by loving hearts. But it is quite\nlegitimate to draw subordinate motives for the strenuous pursuit of\nholiness from the anticipation of future blessedness, and it is quite\nlegitimate to use that prospect to reinforce the higher motives. He who\nseeks to be good only for the sake of the heaven which he thinks he will\nget for his goodness--if there be any such a person existing anywhere\nbut in the imaginations of the caricaturists of Christian teaching--is\nnot good and will not get his heaven; but he who feeds his devotion to\nChrist and his earnest cultivation of holiness with the animating hope\nof an unfading crown will find in it a mighty power to intensify and\nennoble all life, to bear him up as on angel's hands that lift over all\nstones of stumbling, to diminish sorrow and dull pain, to kindle love to\nmen into a brighter flame, and to purge holiness to a more radiant\nwhiteness. The hope laid up in heaven is not the deepest reason or\nmotive for faith and love--but both are made more vivid when it is\nstrong. It is not the light at which their lamps are lit, but it is the\nodorous oil which feeds their flame.\n\nII. The course of thought passes on to a solemn reminder of the truth\nand worth of that Gospel which was threatened by the budding heresies of\nthe Colossian Church.\n\nThat is contained in the clauses from the middle of the fifth verse to\nthe end of the sixth, and is introduced with significant abruptness,\nimmediately after the commendation of the Colossians' faith. The\nApostle's mind and heart are so full of the dangers which he saw them to\nbe in, although they did not know it, that he cannot refrain from\nsetting forth an impressive array of considerations, each of which\nshould make them hold to the gospel with an iron grasp. They are put\nwith the utmost compression. Each word almost might be beaten out into a\nlong discourse, so that we can only indicate the lines of thought. This\nsomewhat tangled skein may, on the whole, be taken as the answer to the\nquestion, Why should we cleave to Paul's gospel, and dread and war\nagainst tendencies of opinion that would rob us of it? They are\npreliminary considerations adapted to prepare the way for a patient and\nthoughtful reception of the arguments which are to follow, by showing\nhow much is at stake, and how the readers would be poor indeed if they\nwere robbed of that great Word.\n\nHe begins by reminding them that to that gospel they owed all _their\nknowledge and hope of heaven_--the hope \"whereof ye heard before in the\nword of the truth of the gospel.\" That great word alone gives light on\nthe darkness. The sole certainty of a life beyond the grave is built on\nthe Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the sole hope of a blessed life\nbeyond the grave for the poor soul that has learned its sinfulness is\nbuilt on the Death of Christ. Without this light, that land is a land of\ndarkness, lighted only by glimmering sparks of conjectures and\nperadventures. So it is to-day, as it was then; the centuries have only\nmade more clear the entire dependence of the living conviction of\nimmortality on the acceptance of Paul's gospel, \"how that Christ died\nfor our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised again\nthe third day.\" All around us, we see those who reject the fact of\nChrist's resurrection finding themselves forced to surrender their faith\nin any life beyond. They cannot sustain themselves on that height of\nconviction, unless they lean on Christ. The black mountain wall that\nrings us poor mortals round about is cloven in one place only. Through\none narrow cleft there comes a gleam of light. There and there only is\nthe frowning barrier passable. Through that grim canyon, narrow and\nblack, where there is only room for the dark river to run, bright-eyed\nHope may travel, letting our her golden thread as she goes, to guide us.\nChrist has cloven the rock, \"the Breaker has gone up before\" us, and by\nHis resurrection alone we have the knowledge which is certitude, and the\nhope which is confidence, of an inheritance in light. If Paul's gospel\ngoes, that goes like morning mist. Before you throw away the \"word of\nthe truth of the gospel,\" at all events understand that you fling away\nall assurance of a future life along with it.\n\nThen, there is another motive touched in these words just quoted. The\ngospel is a word of which the whole substance and content is truth. You\nmay say that is the whole question, whether the gospel is such a word?\nOf course it is; but observe how here, at the very outset, the gospel is\nrepresented as having a distinct dogmatic element in it. It is of value,\nnot because it feeds sentiment or regulates conduct only, but first and\nforemost because it gives us true though incomplete knowledge concerning\nall the deepest things of God and man about which, but for its light, we\nknow nothing. That truthful word is opposed to the argumentations and\nspeculations and errors of the heretics. The gospel is not speculation\nbut fact. It is truth, because it is the record of a Person who is the\nTruth. The history of His life and death is the one source of all\ncertainty and knowledge with regard to man's relations to God, and God's\nloving purposes to man. To leave it and Him of whom it speaks in order\nto listen to men who spin theories out of their own brains is to prefer\nwill-o'-the-wisps to the sun. If we listen to Christ, we have the truth;\nif we turn from Him, our ears are stunned by a Babel. \"To whom shall we\ngo? Thou hast the words of eternal life.\"\n\nFurther, this gospel had been already received by them. Ye _heard\nbefore_, says he, and again he speaks of the gospel as \"come unto\" them,\nand reminds them of the past days in which they \"heard and knew the\ngrace of God.\" That appeal is, of course, no argument except to a man\nwho admits the truth of what he had already received, nor is it meant\nfor argument with others, but it is equivalent to the exhortation, \"You\nhave heard that word and accepted it, see that your future be consistent\nwith your past.\" He would have the life a harmonious whole, all in\naccordance with the first glad grasp which they had laid on the truth.\nSweet and calm and noble is the life which preserves to its close the\nconvictions of its beginning, only deepened and expanded. Blessed are\nthey whose creed at last can be spoken in the lessons they learned in\nchildhood, to which experience has but given new meaning! Blessed they\nwho have been able to store the treasure of a life's thought and\nlearning in the vessels of the early words, which have grown like the\nmagic coffers in a fairy tale, to hold all the increased wealth that can\nbe lodged in them! Beautiful is it when the little children and the\nyoung men and the fathers possess the one faith, and when he who began\nas a child, \"knowing the Father,\" ends as an old man with the same\nknowledge of the same God, only apprehended now in a form which has\ngained majesty from the fleeting years, as \"Him that is from the\nbeginning.\" There is no need to leave the Word long since heard in order\nto get novelty. It will open out into all new depths, and blaze in new\nradiance as men grow. It will give new answers as the years ask new\nquestions. Each epoch of individual experience, and each phase of\nsociety, and all changing forms of opinion will find what meets them in\nthe gospel as it is in Jesus. It is good for Christian men often to\nrecall the beginnings of their faith, to live over again their early\nemotions, and when they may be getting stunned with the din of\ncontroversy, and confused as to the relative importance of different\nparts of Christian truth, to remember _what_ it was that first filled\ntheir heart with joy like that of the finder of a hidden treasure, and\nwith what a leap of gladness they first laid hold of Christ.\n\nThat spiritual discipline is no less needful than is intellectual, in\nfacing the conflicts of this day.\n\nAgain, this gospel was filling the world: \"it is in all the world\nbearing fruit, and increasing.\" There are two marks of life--it is\nfruitful and it spreads. Of course such words are not to be construed as\nif they occurred in a statistical table. \"All the world\" must be taken\nwith an allowance for rhetorical statement; but making such allowance,\nthe rapid spread of Christianity in Paul's time, and its power to\ninfluence character and conduct among all sorts and conditions of men,\nwere facts that needed to be accounted for, if the gospel was not true.\n\nThat is surely a noteworthy fact, and one which may well raise a\npresumption in favour of the truth of the message, and make any proposal\nto cast it aside for another gospel, a serious matter. Paul is not\nsuggesting the vulgar argument that a thing must be true because so\nmany people have so quickly believed it. But what he is pointing to is a\nmuch deeper thought than that. All schisms and heresies are essentially\nlocal, and partial. They suit coteries and classes. They are the product\nof special circumstances acting on special casts of mind, and appeal to\nsuch. Like parasitical plants they each require a certain species to\ngrow on, and cannot spread where these are not found. They are not for\nall time, but for an age. They are not for all men, but for a select\nfew. They reflect the opinions or wants of a layer of society or of a\ngeneration, and fade away. But the gospel goes through the world and\ndraws men to itself out of every land and age. Dainties and confections\nare for the few, and many of them are like pickled olives to\nunsophisticated palates, and the delicacies of one country are the\nabominations of another; but everybody likes bread and lives on it,\nafter all.\n\nThe gospel which tells of Christ belongs to all and can touch all,\nbecause it brushes aside superficial differences of culture and\nposition, and goes straight to the depths of the one human heart, which\nis alike in us all, addressing the universal sense of sin, and revealing\nthe Saviour of us all, and in Him the universal Father. Do not fling\naway a gospel that belongs to all, and can bring forth fruit in all\nkinds of people, for the sake of accepting what can never live in the\npopular heart, nor influence more than a handful of very select and\n\"superior persons.\" Let who will have the dainties, do you stick to the\nwholesome wheaten bread.\n\nAnother plea for adherence to the gospel is based upon its continuous\nand universal fruitfulness. It brings about results in conduct and\ncharacter which strongly attest its claim to be from God. That is a\nrough and ready test, no doubt, but a sensible and satisfactory one. A\nsystem which says that it will make men good and pure is reasonably\njudged of by its fruits, and Christianity can stand the test. It did\nchange the face of the old world. It has been the principal agent in the\nslow growth of \"nobler manners, purer laws\" which give the\ncharacteristic stamp to modern as contrasted with pre-Christian nations.\nThe threefold abominations of the old world--slavery, war, and the\ndegradation of woman--have all been modified, one of them abolished, and\nthe others growingly felt to be utterly un-Christian. The main agent in\nthe change has been the gospel. It has wrought wonders, too, on single\nsouls; and though all Christians must be too conscious of their own\nimperfections to venture on putting themselves forward as specimens of\nits power, still the gospel of Jesus Christ has lifted men from the\ndungheaps of sin and self to \"set them with princes,\" to make them kings\nand priests; has tamed passions, ennobled pursuits, revolutionised the\nwhole course of many a life, and mightily works to-day in the same\nfashion, in the measure in which we submit to its influence. Our\nimperfections are our own; our good is its. A medicine is not shown to\nbe powerless, though it does not do as much as is claimed for it, if the\nsick man has taken it irregularly and sparingly. The failure of\nChristianity to bring forth full fruit arises solely from the failure of\nprofessing Christians to allow its quickening powers to fill their\nhearts. After all deductions we may still say with Paul, \"it bringeth\nforth fruit in all the world.\" This rod has budded, at all events; have\nany of its antagonists' rods done the same? Do not cast it away, says\nPaul, till you are sure you have found a better.\n\nThis tree not only fruits, but grows. It is not exhausted by\nfruit-bearing, but it makes wood as well. It is \"increasing\" as well as\n\"bearing fruit,\" and that growth in the circuit of its branches that\nspread through the world, is another of its claims on the faithful\nadhesion of the Colossians.\n\nAgain, they have heard a gospel which reveals the \"true grace of God,\"\nand that is another consideration urging to steadfastness.\n\nIn opposition to it there were put then, as there are put to-day, man's\nthoughts, and man's requirements, a human wisdom and a burdensome code.\nSpeculations and arguments on the one hand, and laws and rituals on the\nother, look thin beside the large free gift of a loving God and the\nmessage which tells of it. They are but poor bony things to try to live\non. The soul wants something more nourishing than such bread made out of\nsawdust. We want a loving God to live upon, whom we can love because He\nloves us. Will anything but the gospel give us that? Will anything be\nour stay, in all weakness, weariness, sorrow and sin, in the fight of\nlife and the agony of death, except the confidence that in Christ we\n\"know the grace of God in truth\"?\n\nSo, if we gather together all these characteristics of the gospel, they\nbring out the gravity of the issue when we are asked to tamper with it,\nor to abandon the old lamp for the brand new ones which many eager\nvoices are proclaiming as the light of the future. May any of us who are\non the verge of the precipice lay to heart these serious thoughts! To\nthat gospel we owe our peace; by it alone can the fruit of lofty devout\nlives be formed and ripened; it has filled the world with its sound, and\nis revolutionising humanity; it and it only brings to men the good news\nand the actual gift of the love and mercy of God. It is not a small\nmatter to fling away all this.\n\nWe do not prejudge the question of the truth of Christianity; but, at\nall events, let there be no mistake as to the fact that to give it up is\nto give up the mightiest power that has ever wrought for the world's\ngood, and that if its light be quenched there will be darkness that may\nbe felt, not dispelled but made more sad and dreary by the ineffectual\nflickers of some poor rushlights that men have lit, which waver and\nshine dimly over a little space for a little while, and then die out.\n\nIII. We have the Apostolic endorsement of Epaphras, the early teacher of\nthe Colossian Christians.\n\nPaul points his Colossian brethren, finally, to the lessons which they\nhad received from the teacher who had first led them to Christ. No doubt\nhis authority was imperiled by the new direction of thought in the\nChurch, and Paul was desirous of adding the weight of his attestation to\nthe complete correspondence between his own teaching and that of\nEpaphras.\n\nWe know nothing about this Epaphras except from this letter and that to\nPhilemon. He is \"one of you,\" a member of the Colossian Church (iv. 12),\nwhether a Colossian born or not. He had come to the prisoner in Rome,\nand had brought the tidings of their condition which filled the\nApostle's heart with strangely mingled feelings--of joy for their love\nand Christian walk (verses 4, 8), and of anxiety lest they should be\nswept from their steadfastness by the errors that he heard were\nassailing them. Epaphras shared this anxiety, and during his stay in\nRome was much in thought, and care, and prayer for them (iv. 12). He\ndoes not seem to have been the bearer of this letter to Colossae. He was\nin some sense Paul's fellow-servant, and in Philemon he is called by the\nyet more intimate, though somewhat obscure, name of his fellow-prisoner.\nIt is noticeable that he alone of all Paul's companions receives the\nname of \"fellow-servant,\" which may perhaps point to some very special\npiece of service of his, or may possibly be only an instance of Paul's\ncourteous humility, which ever delighted to lift others to his own\nlevel--as if he had said, Do not make differences between your own\nEpaphras and me, we are both slaves of one Master.\n\nThe further testimony which Paul bears to him is so emphatic and pointed\nas to suggest that it was meant to uphold an authority that had been\nattacked, and to eulogize a character that had been maligned. \"He is a\nfaithful minister of Christ on our behalf.\" In these words the Apostle\nendorses his teaching, as a true representation of his own. Probably\nEpaphras founded the Colossian Church and did so in pursuance of a\ncommission given him by Paul. He \"also declared to us your love in the\nSpirit.\" As he had truly represented Paul and his message to them, so he\nlovingly represented them and their kindly affection to him. Probably\nthe same people who questioned Epaphras' version of Paul's teaching\nwould suspect the favourableness of his report of the Colossian Church,\nand hence the double witness borne from the Apostle's generous heart to\nboth parts of his brother's work. His unstinted praise is ever ready.\nHis shield is swiftly flung over any of his helpers who are maligned or\nassailed. Never was a leader truer to his subordinates, more tender of\ntheir reputation, more eager for their increased influence, and freer\nfrom every trace of jealousy, than was that lofty and lowly soul.\n\nIt is a beautiful though a faint image which shines out on us from these\nfragmentary notices of this Colossian Epaphras--a true Christian bishop,\nwho had come all the long way from his quiet valley in the depths of\nAsia Minor, to get guidance about his flock from the great Apostle, and\nwho bore them on his heart day and night, and prayed much for them,\nwhile so far away from them. How strange the fortune which has made his\nname and his solicitudes and prayers immortal! How little he dreamed\nthat such embalming was to be given to his little services, and that\nthey were to be crowned with such exuberant praise!\n\nThe smallest work done for Jesus Christ lasts for ever, whether it abide\nin men's memories or no. Let us ever live as those who, like painters in\nfresco, have with swift hand to draw lines and lay on colours which will\nnever fade, and let us, by humble faith and holy life, earn such a\ncharacter from Paul's master. He is glad to praise, and praise from His\nlips is praise indeed. If He approves of us as faithful servants on His\nbehalf, it matters not what others may say. The Master's \"Well done\"\nwill outweigh labours and toils, and the depreciating tongues of\nfellow-servants, or of the Master's enemies.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n_THE PRAYER._\n\n \"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to\n pray and to make request for you, that ye may be filled with the\n knowledge of His will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to\n walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every\n good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with\n all power, according to the might of His glory, unto all patience\n and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks unto the Father.\"--COL. i.\n 9-12 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nWe have here to deal with one of Paul's prayers for his brethren. In\nsome respects these are the very topmost pinnacles of his letters.\nNowhere else does his spirit move so freely, in no other parts are the\nfervour of his piety and the beautiful simplicity and depth of his love\nmore touchingly shown. The freedom and heartiness of our prayers for\nothers are a very sharp test of both our piety to God and our love to\nmen. Plenty of people can talk and vow who would find it hard to pray.\nPaul's intercessory prayers are the high-water mark of the epistles in\nwhich they occur. He must have been a good man and a true friend of whom\nso much can be said.\n\nThis prayer sets forth the ideal of Christian character. What Paul\ndesired for his friends in Colossae is what all true Christian hearts\nshould chiefly desire for those whom they love, and should strive after\nand ask for themselves. If we look carefully at these words we shall see\na clear division into parts which stand related to each other as root,\nstem, and fourfold branches, or as fountain, undivided stream, and \"four\nheads\" into which this \"river\" of Christian life \"is parted.\" To be\nfilled with the knowledge of God's will is the root or fountain-source\nof all. From it comes a walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing--the\npractical life being the outcome and expression of the inward possession\nof the will of God. Then we have four clauses, evidently co-ordinate,\neach beginning with a participle, and together presenting an analysis of\nthis worthy walk. It will be fruitful in all outward work. It will be\ngrowing in all inward knowledge of God. Because life is not all doing\nand knowing, but is suffering likewise, the worthy walk must be patient\nand long-suffering, because strengthened by God Himself. And to crown\nall, above work and knowledge and suffering it must be thankfulness to\nthe Father. The magnificent massing together of the grounds of gratitude\nwhich follows, we must leave for future consideration, and pause,\nhowever abruptly, yet not illogically, at the close of the enumeration\nof these four branches of the tree, the four sides of the firm tower of\nthe true Christian life.\n\nI. Consider the Fountain or Root of all Christian character--\"that ye\nmay be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and\nunderstanding.\"\n\nOne or two remarks in the nature of verbal exposition may be desirable.\nGenerally speaking, the thing desired is the perfecting of the\nColossians in religious knowledge, and the perfection is forcibly\nexpressed in three different aspects. The idea of completeness up to the\nheight of their capacity is given in the prayer that they may be\n\"filled,\" like some jar charged with sparkling water to the brim. The\nadvanced degree of the knowledge desired for them is given in the word\nhere employed, which is a favourite in the Epistles of the Captivity,\nand means additional or mature knowledge, that deeper apprehension of\nGod's truth which perhaps had become more obvious to Paul in the quiet\ngrowth of his spirit during his life in Rome. And the rich variety of\nforms which that advanced knowledge would assume is set forth by the\nfinal words of the clause, which may either be connected with its first\nwords, so meaning \"filled ... so that ye may abound in ... wisdom and\nunderstanding;\" or with \"the knowledge of His will,\" so meaning a\n\"knowledge which is manifested in.\" That knowledge will blossom out into\n_every kind_ of \"wisdom\" and \"understanding,\" two words which it is hard\nto distinguish, but of which the former is perhaps the more general and\nthe latter the more special, the former the more theoretical and the\nlatter the more practical: and both are the work of the Divine Spirit\nwhose sevenfold perfection of gifts illuminates with perfect light each\nwaiting heart. So perfect, whether in regard to its measure, its\nmaturity, or its manifoldness, is the knowledge of the will of God,\nwhich the Apostle regards as the deepest good which his love can ask for\nthese Colossians.\n\nPassing by many thoughts suggested by the words, we may touch one or two\nlarge principles which they involve. The first is, that the foundation\nof all Christian character and conduct is laid in the knowledge of the\nwill of God. Every revelation of God is a law. What it concerns us to\nknow is not abstract truth, or a revelation for speculative thought,\nbut God's _will_. He does not show Himself to us in order merely that we\nmay know, but in order that, knowing, we may do, and, what is more than\neither knowing or doing, in order that we may be. No revelation from God\nhas accomplished its purpose when a man has simply understood it, but\nevery fragmentary flash of light which comes from Him in nature and\nprovidence, and still more the steady radiance that pours from Jesus, is\nmeant indeed to teach us how we should think of God, but to do that\nmainly as a means to the end that we may live in conformity with His\nwill. The light is knowledge, but it is a light to guide our feet,\nknowledge which is meant to shape practice.\n\nIf that had been remembered, two opposite errors would have been\navoided. The error that was threatening the Colossian Church, and has\nhaunted the Church in general ever since, was that of fancying\nChristianity to be merely a system of truth to be believed, a rattling\nskeleton of abstract dogmas, very many and very dry. An unpractical\nheterodoxy was their danger. An unpractical orthodoxy is as real a\nperil. You may swallow all the creeds bodily, you may even find in God's\ntruth the food of very sweet and real feeling: but neither knowing nor\nfeeling is enough. The one all-important question for us is--does our\nChristianity _work_? It is knowledge of His _will_, which becomes an\never active force in our lives! Any other kind of religious knowledge is\nwindy food; as Paul says, it \"puffeth up;\" the knowledge which feeds the\nsoul with wholesome nourishment is the knowledge of His _will_.\n\nThe converse error to that of unpractical knowledge, that of an\nunintelligent practice, is quite as bad. There is always a class of\npeople, and they are unusually numerous to-day, who profess to attach no\nimportance to Christian doctrines, but to put all the stress on\nChristian morals. They swear by the \"Sermon on the Mount,\" and are blind\nto the deep doctrinal basis laid in that \"sermon\" itself, on which its\nlofty moral teaching is built. What God hath joined together, let no man\nput asunder. Why pit the parent against the child? why wrench the\nblossom from its stem? Knowledge is sound when it moulds conduct. Action\nis good when it is based on knowledge. The knowledge of God is wholesome\nwhen it shapes the life. Morality has a basis which makes it vigorous\nand permanent when it rests upon the knowledge of His will.\n\nAgain: Progress in knowledge is the law of the Christian life. There\nshould be a continual advancement in the apprehension of God's will,\nfrom that first glimpse which saves, to the mature knowledge which Paul\nhere desires for his friends. The progress does not consist in leaving\nbehind old truths, but in a profounder conception of what is contained\nin these truths. How differently a Fijian just saved, and a Paul on\nearth, or a Paul in heaven, look at that verse, \"God so loved the world\nthat He gave His only begotten Son\"! The truths which are dim to the\none, like stars seen through a mist, blaze to the other like the same\nstars to an eye that has travelled millions of leagues nearer them, and\nsees them to be suns. The law of the Christian life is continuous\nincrease in the knowledge of the depths that lie in the old truths, and\nof their far-reaching applications. We are to grow in knowledge of the\nChrist by coming ever nearer to Him, and learning more of the infinite\nmeaning of our earliest lesson that He is the Son of God who has died\nfor us. The constellations that burn in our nightly sky looked down on\nChaldean astronomers, but though these are the same, how much more is\nknown about them at Greenwich than was dreamed at Babylon!\n\nII. Consider the River or Stem of Christian conduct.\n\nThe purpose and outcome of this full knowledge of the will of God in\nChrist is to \"walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing.\" By \"walk\" is\nof course meant the whole active life; so that the principle is brought\nout here very distinctly, that the last result of knowledge of the\nDivine will is an outward life regulated by that will. And the sort of\nlife which such knowledge leads to, is designated in most general terms\nas \"worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,\" in which we have set forth\ntwo aspects of the true Christian life.\n\n\"Worthily of the Lord!\" The \"Lord\" here, as generally, is Christ, and\n\"worthily\" seems to mean, in a manner corresponding to what Christ is to\nus, and has done for us. We find other forms of the same thought in such\nexpressions as \"worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called\" (Eph.\niv. 1), \"worthily of saints\" (Rom. xvi. 2), \"worthy of the gospel\"\n(Phil. i. 27), \"worthily of God\" (1 Thess. ii. 12), in all of which\nthere is the idea of a standard to which the practical life is to be\nconformed. Thus the Apostle condenses into one word all the manifold\nrelations in which we stand to Christ, and all the multifarious\narguments for a holy life which they yield.\n\nThese are mainly two. The Christian should \"walk\" in a manner\ncorresponding to what Christ has done for him. \"Do ye thus requite the\nLord, O foolish people, and unwise?\" was the mournful wondering question\nof the dying Moses to his people, as he summed up the history of\nunbroken tenderness and love on the one side, and of disloyalty almost\nas uninterrupted on the other. How much more pathetically and\nemphatically might the question be asked of us! We say that we are not\nour own, but bought with a price. Then how do we repay that costly\npurchase? Do we not requite His blood and tears, His unquenchable,\nunalterable love, with a little tepid love which grudges sacrifices and\nhas scarcely power enough to influence conduct at all, with a little\ntrembling faith which but poorly corresponds to His firm promises, with\na little reluctant obedience? The richest treasure of heaven has been\nfreely lavished for us, and we return a sparing expenditure of our\nhearts and ourselves, repaying fine gold with tarnished copper, and the\nflood of love from the heart of Christ with a few niggard drops\ngrudgingly squeezed from ours. Nothing short of complete self-surrender,\nperfect obedience, and unwavering unfaltering love can characterize the\nwalk that corresponds with our profound obligations to Him. Surely there\ncan be no stronger cord with which to bind us as sacrifices to the horns\nof the altar than the cords of love. This is the unique glory and power\nof Christian ethics, that it brings in this tender personal element to\ntransmute the coldness of duty into the warmth of gratitude, so throwing\nrosy light over the snowy summits of abstract virtue. Repugnant duties\nbecome tokens of love, pleasant as every sacrifice made at its bidding\never is. The true Christian spirit says: Thou hast given Thyself wholly\nfor me: help me to yield myself to Thee. Thou hast loved me perfectly:\nhelp me to love Thee with all my heart.\n\nThe other side of this conception of a worthy walk is, that the\nChristian should act in a manner corresponding to Christ's character and\nconduct. We profess to be His by sacredest ties: then we should set our\nwatches by that dial, being conformed to His likeness, and in all our\ndaily life trying to do as He has done, or as we believe He would do if\nHe were in our place. Nothing less than the effort to tread in His\nfootsteps is a walk worthy of the Lord. All unlikeness to His pattern is\na dishonour to Him and to ourselves. It is neither worthy of the Lord,\nnor of the vocation wherewith we are called, nor of the name of saints.\nOnly when these two things are brought about in my experience--when the\nglow of His love melts my heart and makes it flow down in answering\naffection, and when the beauty of His perfect life stands ever before\nme, and though it be high above me, is not a despair, but a stimulus and\na hope--only then do I \"walk worthy of the Lord.\"\n\nAnother thought as to the nature of the life in which the knowledge of\nthe Divine will should issue, is expressed in the other clause--\"unto\nall pleasing,\" which sets forth the great aim as being to please Christ\nin everything. That is a strange purpose to propose to men, as the\nsupreme end to be ever kept in view, to satisfy Jesus Christ by their\nconduct. To make the good opinion of men our aim is to be slaves; but to\nplease this Man ennobles us, and exalts life. Who or what is He, whose\njudgment of us is thus all-important, whose approbation is praise\nindeed, and to win whose smile is a worthy object for which to use life,\nor even to lose it? We should ask ourselves, Do we make it our ever\npresent object to satisfy Jesus Christ? We are not to mind about other\npeople's approbation. We can do without that. We are not to hunt after\nthe good word of our fellows. Every life into which that craving for\nman's praise and good opinion enters is tarnished by it. It is a canker,\na creeping leprosy, which eats sincerity and nobleness and strength out\nof a man. Let us not care to trim our sails to catch the shifting winds\nof this or that man's favour and eulogium, but look higher and say,\n\"With me it is a very small matter to be judged of man's judgment.\" \"I\nappeal unto Caesar.\" He, the true Commander and Emperor, holds our fate\nin His hands; we have to please Him and Him only. There is no thought\nwhich will so reduce the importance of the babble around us, and teach\nus such brave and wholesome contempt for popular applause, and all the\nstrife of tongues, as the constant habit of trying to act as ever in our\ngreat Taskmaster's eye. What does it matter who praise, if He frowns? or\nwho blame, if His face lights with a smile? No thought will so spur us\nto diligence, and make all life solemn and grand as the thought that \"we\nlabour, that whether present or absent, we may be well pleasing to Him.\"\nNothing will so string the muscles for the fight, and free us from being\nentangled with the things of this life, as the ambition to \"please Him\nwho has called us to be soldiers.\"\n\nMen have willingly flung away their lives for a couple of lines of\npraise in a despatch, or for a smile from some great commander. Let us\ntry to live and die so as to get \"honourable mention\" from our captain.\nPraise from His lips is praise indeed. We shall not know how much it is\nworth, till the smile lights His face, and the love comes into His eyes,\nas He looks at us, and says, \"Well done! good and faithful servant.\"\n\nIII. We have finally the fourfold streams or branches into which this\ngeneral conception of Christian character parts itself.\n\nThere are four participial clauses here, which seem all to stand on one\nlevel, and to present an analysis in more detail of the component parts\nof this worthy walk. In general terms it is divided into fruitfulness in\nwork, increase in knowledge, strength for suffering, and, as the climax\nof all, thankfulness.\n\nThe first element is--\"bearing fruit in every good work.\" These words\ncarry us back to what was said in ver. 6 about the fruitfulness of the\ngospel. Here the man in whom that word is planted is regarded as the\nproducer of the fruit, by the same natural transition by which, in our\nLord's Parable of the Sower, the men in whose hearts the seed was sown\nare spoken of as themselves on the one hand, bringing no fruit to\nperfection, and on the other, bringing forth fruit with patience. The\nworthy walk will be first manifested in the production of a rich variety\nof forms of goodness. All profound knowledge of God, and all lofty\nthoughts of imitating and pleasing Christ, are to be tested at last by\ntheir power to make men good, and that not after any monotonous type,\nnor on one side of their nature only.\n\nOne plain principle implied here is that the only true fruit is\ngoodness. We may be busy, as many a man in our great commercial cities\nis busy, from Monday morning till Saturday night for a long lifetime,\nand may have had to build bigger barns for our \"fruits and our goods,\"\nand yet, in the high and solemn meaning of the word here, our life may\nbe utterly empty and fruitless. Much of our work and of its results is\nno more fruit than the galls on the oak-leaves are. They are a swelling\nfrom a puncture made by an insect, a sign of disease, not of life. The\nonly sort of work which can be called fruit, in the highest meaning of\nthe word, is that which corresponds to a man's whole nature and\nrelations; and the only work which does so correspond is a life of\nloving service of God, which cultivates all things lovely and of good\nreport. Goodness, therefore, alone deserves to be called fruit--as for\nall the rest of our busy lives, they and their toils are like the\nrootless, lifeless chaff that is whirled out of the threshing-floor by\nevery gust. A life which has not in it holiness and loving obedience,\nhowever richly productive it may be in lower respects, is in inmost\nreality blighted and barren, and is \"nigh unto burning.\" Goodness is\nfruit; all else is nothing but leaves.\n\nAgain: the Christian life is to be \"fruitful in _every_ good work.\" This\ntree is to be like that in the apocalyptic vision, which \"bare twelve\nmanner of fruits,\" yielding every month a different sort. So we should\nfill the whole circuit of the year with various holiness, and seek to\nmake widely different forms of goodness our own. We have all certain\nkinds of excellence which are more natural and easier for us than\nothers are. We should seek to cultivate the kind which is hardest for\nus. The thorn stock of our own character should bear not only grapes,\nbut figs too, and olives as well, being grafted upon the true\nolive-tree, which is Christ. Let us aim at this all-round and multiform\nvirtue, and not be like a scene for a stage, all gay and bright on one\nside, and dirty canvas and stretchers hung with cobwebs on the other.\n\nThe second element in the analysis of the true Christian life\nis--\"increasing in the knowledge of God.\" The figure of the tree is\nprobably continued here. If it fruits, its girth will increase, its\nbranches will spread, its top will mount, and next year its shadow on\nthe grass will cover a larger circle. Some would take the \"knowledge\"\nhere as the instrument or means of growth, and would render \"increasing\nby the knowledge of God,\" supposing that the knowledge is represented as\nthe rain or the sunshine which minister to the growth of the plant. But\nperhaps it is better to keep to the idea conveyed by the common\nrendering, which regards the words \"in knowledge\" as the specification\nof that region in which the growth enjoined is to be realized. So here\nwe have the converse of the relation between work and knowledge which we\nmet in the earlier part of the chapter. There, knowledge led to a worthy\nwalk; here, fruitfulness in good works leads to, or at all events is\naccompanied with, an increased knowledge. And both are true. These two\nwork on each other a reciprocal increase. All true knowledge which is\nnot mere empty notions, naturally tends to influence action, and all\ntrue action naturally tends to confirm the knowledge from which it\nproceeds. Obedience gives insight: \"If any man wills to do My will, he\nshall know of the doctrine.\" If I am faithful up to the limits of my\npresent knowledge, and have brought it all to bear on character and\nconduct, I shall find that in the effort to make my every thought a\ndeed, there have fallen from my eyes as it were scales, and I see some\nthings clearly which were faint and doubtful before. Moral truth becomes\ndim to a bad man. Religious truth grows bright to a good one, and\nwhosoever strives to bring all his creed into practice, and all his\npractice under the guidance of his creed, will find that the path of\nobedience is the path of growing light.\n\nThen comes the third element in this resolution of the Christian\ncharacter into its component parts--\"strengthened with all power,\naccording to the might of His glory, unto all patience and longsuffering\nwith joyfulness.\" Knowing and doing are not the whole of life: there are\nsorrow and suffering too.\n\nHere again we have the Apostle's favourite \"_all_,\" which occurs so\nfrequently in this connection. As he desired for the Colossians, _all_\nwisdom, unto _all_ pleasing, and fruitfulness in _every_ good work, so\nhe prays for _all_ power to strengthen them. Every kind of strength\nwhich God can give and man can receive, is to be sought after by us,\nthat we may be \"girded with strength,\" cast like a brazen wall all round\nour human weakness. And that Divine power is to flow into us, having\nthis for its measure and limit--\"the might of His glory.\" His \"glory\" is\nthe lustrous light of His self-revelation; and the far-flashing energy\nrevealed in that self-manifestation is the immeasurable measure of the\nstrength that may be ours. True, a finite nature can never contain the\ninfinite, but man's finite nature is capable of indefinite expansion.\nIts elastic walls stretch to contain the increasing gift. The more we\ndesire, the more we receive, and the more we receive, the more we are\nable to receive. The amount which filled our hearts to-day should not\nfill them to-morrow. Our capacity is at each moment the working limit of\nthe measure of the strength given us. But it is always shifting, and may\nbe continually increasing. The only real limit is \"the might of His\nglory,\" the limitless omnipotence of the self-revealing God. To that we\nmay indefinitely approach, and till we have exhausted God we have not\nreached the furthest point to which we should aspire.\n\nAnd what exalted mission is destined for this wonderful communicated\nstrength? Nothing that the world thinks great: only helping some lone\nwidow to stay her heart in patience, and flinging a gleam of brightness,\nlike sunrise on a stormy sea, over some tempest-tossed life. The\nstrength is worthily employed and absorbed in producing \"all patience\nand longsuffering with joy.\" Again the favourite \"all\" expresses the\nuniversality of the patience and longsuffering. Patience here is not\nmerely passive endurance. It includes the idea of perseverance in the\nright course, as well as that of uncomplaining bearing of evil. It is\nthe \"steering right onward,\" without bating one jot of heart or hope;\nthe temper of the traveller who struggles forward, though the wind in\nhis face dashes the sleet in his eyes, and he has to wade through deep\nsnow. While \"patience\" regards the evil mainly as sent by God, and as\nmaking the race set before us difficult, \"longsuffering\" describes the\ntemper under suffering when considered as a wrong or injury done by man.\nAnd whether we think of our afflictions in the one or the other light,\nGod's strength will steal into our hearts, if we will, not merely to\nhelp us to bear them with perseverance and with meekness as unruffled as\nChrist's, but to crown both graces--as the clouds are sometimes rimmed\nwith flashing gold--with a great light of joy. That is the highest\nattainment of all. \"Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.\" Flowers beneath\nthe snow, songs in the night, fire burning beneath the water, \"peace\nsubsisting at the heart of endless agitation,\" cool airs in the very\ncrater of Vesuvius--all these paradoxes may be surpassed in our hearts\nif they are strengthened with all might by an indwelling Christ.\n\nThe crown of all, the last of the elements of the Christian character,\nis thankfulness--\"giving thanks unto the Father.\" This is the summit of\nall; and is to be diffused through all. All our progressive fruitfulness\nand insight, as well as our perseverance and unruffled meekness in\nsuffering, should have a breath of thankfulness breathed through them.\nWe shall see the grand enumeration of the reasons for thankfulness in\nthe next verses. Here we pause for the present, with this final\nconstituent of the life which Paul desired for the Colossian Christians.\nThankfulness should mingle with all our thoughts and feelings, like the\nfragrance of some perfume penetrating through the common scentless air.\nIt should embrace all events. It should be an operating motive in all\nactions. We should be clear-sighted and believing enough to be thankful\nfor pain and disappointment and loss. That gratitude will add the\ncrowning consecration to service and knowledge and endurance. It will\ntouch our spirits to the finest of all issues, for it will lead to glad\nself-surrender, and make of our whole life a sacrifice of praise. \"I\nbeseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your\nbodies a living sacrifice.\" Our lives will then exhale in fragrance and\nshoot up in flashing tongues of ruddy light and beauty, when kindled\ninto a flame of gratitude by the glow of Christ's great love. Let us lay\nour poor selves on that altar, as sacrifices of thanksgiving; for with\nsuch sacrifices God is well-pleased.\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\n_THE FATHER'S GIFTS THROUGH THE SON._\n\n \"The Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of\n the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness,\n and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love; in whom\n we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.\"--COL. i. 12-14\n (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nWe have advanced thus far in this Epistle without having reached its\nmain subject. We now, however, are on its verge. The next verses to\nthose now to be considered lead us into the very heart of Paul's\nteaching, by which he would oppose the errors rife in the Colossian\nChurch. The great passages describing the person and work of Jesus\nChrist are at hand, and here we have the immediate transition to them.\n\nThe skill with which the transition is made is remarkable. How gradually\nand surely the sentences, like some hovering winged things, circle more\nand more closely round the central light, till in the last words they\ntouch it, ... \"the Son of His love!\" It is like some long procession\nheralding a king. They that go before, cry Hosanna, and point to him who\ncomes last and chief. The affectionate greetings which begin the letter,\npass into prayer; the prayer into thanksgiving. The thanksgiving, as in\nthese words, lingers over and recounts our blessings, as a rich man\ncounts his treasures, or a lover dwells on his joys. The enumeration of\nthe blessings leads, as by a golden thread, to the thought and name of\nChrist, the fountain of them all, and then, with a burst and a rush, the\nflood of the truths about Christ which he had to give them sweeps\nthrough Paul's mind and heart, carrying everything before it. The name\nof Christ always opens the floodgates in Paul's heart.\n\nWe have here then the deepest grounds for Christian thanksgiving, which\nare likewise the preparations for a true estimate of the worth of the\nChrist who gives them. These grounds of thanksgiving are but various\naspects of the one great blessing of \"Salvation.\" The diamond flashes\ngreens and purples, and yellows and reds, according to the angle at\nwhich its facets catch the eye.\n\nIt is also to be observed, that all these blessings are the present\npossession of Christians. The language of the first three clauses in the\nverses before us points distinctly to a definite past act by which the\nFather, at some definite point of time, made us meet, delivered and\ntranslated us, while the present tense in the last clause shows that\n\"our redemption\" is not only begun by some definite act in the past, but\nis continuously and progressively possessed in the present.\n\nWe notice, too, the remarkable correspondence of language with that\nwhich Paul heard when he lay prone on the ground, blinded by the\nflashing light, and amazed by the pleading remonstrance from heaven\nwhich rung in his ears. \"I send thee to the Gentiles ... that they may\nturn from _darkness_ to _light_, and from the power of Satan unto God,\nthat they may receive _remission of sins_, and an _inheritance_ among\nthem which are sanctified.\" All the principal phrases are there, and are\nfreely recombined by Paul, as if unconsciously his memory was haunted\nstill by the sound of the transforming words heard so long ago.\n\nI. The first ground of thankfulness which all Christians have is, that\nthey are fit for the inheritance. Of course the metaphor here is drawn\nfrom the \"inheritance\" given to the people of Israel, namely, the land\nof Canaan. Unfortunately, our use of \"heir\" and \"inheritance\" confines\nthe idea to possession by succession on death, and hence some perplexity\nis popularly experienced as to the force of the word in Scripture.\nThere, it implies possession by lot, if anything more than the simple\nnotion of possession; and points to the fact that the people did not win\ntheir land by their own swords, but because \"God had a favour unto\nthem.\" So the Christian inheritance is not won by our own merit, but\ngiven by God's goodness. The words may be literally rendered, \"fitted us\nfor the portion of the lot,\" and taken to mean the share or portion\nwhich consists in the lot; but perhaps it is clearer, and more accordant\nwith the analogy of the division of the land among the tribes, to take\nthem as meaning \"for our (individual) share in the broad land which, as\na whole, is the allotted possession of the saints.\" This possession\nbelongs to them, and is situated in the world of \"light.\" Such is the\ngeneral outline of the thoughts here. The first question that arises is,\nwhether this inheritance is present or future. The best answer is that\nit is both; because, whatever additions of power and splendour as yet\nunspeakable may wait to be revealed in the future, the essence of all\nwhich heaven can bring is ours to-day, if we live in the faith and love\nof Christ. The difference between a life of communion with God here and\nyonder is one of degree and not of kind. True, there are differences of\nwhich we cannot speak, in enlarged capacities, and a \"spiritual body,\"\nand sins cast out, and nearer approach to \"the fountain itself of\nheavenly radiance;\" but he who can say, while he walks amongst the\nshadows of earth, \"The Lord is the portion of my inheritance,\" will\nneither leave his treasures behind him when he dies, nor enter on the\npossession of a wholly new inheritance, when he passes into the heavens.\nBut while this is true, it is also true that that future possession of\nGod will be so deepened and enlarged that its beginnings here are but\nthe \"earnest,\" of the same nature indeed as the estate, but limited in\ncomparison as is the tuft of grass which used to be given to a new\npossessor, when set against the broad lands from which it was plucked.\nHere certainly the predominant idea is that of a present fitness for a\nmainly future possession.\n\nWe notice again--where the inheritance is situated--\"in the light.\"\nThere are several possible ways of connecting that clause with the\npreceding. But without discussing these, it may be enough to point out\nthat the most satisfactory seems to be to regard it as specifying the\nregion in which the inheritance lies. It lies in a realm where purity\nand knowledge and gladness dwell undimmed and unbounded by an envious\nring of darkness. For these three are the triple rays into which,\naccording to the Biblical use of the figure, that white beam may be\nresolved.\n\nFrom this there follows that it is capable of being possessed only by\n_saints_. There is no merit or desert which makes men worthy of the\ninheritance, but there is a congruity, or correspondence between\ncharacter and the inheritance. If we rightly understand what the\nessential elements of \"heaven\" are, we shall have no difficulty in\nseeing that the possession of it is utterly incompatible with anything\nbut holiness. The vulgar ideas of what heaven is, hinder people from\nseeing how to get there. They dwell upon the mere outside of the thing,\nthey take symbols for realities and accidents for essentials, and so it\nappears an arbitrary arrangement that a man must have faith in Christ to\nenter heaven. If it be a kingdom of light, then only souls that love the\nlight can go thither, and until owls and bats rejoice in the sunshine,\nthere will be no way of being fit for the inheritance which is light,\nbut by ourselves being \"light in the Lord.\" Light itself is a torture to\ndiseased eyes. Turn up any stone by the roadside and we see how\nunwelcome light is to crawling creatures that have lived in the darkness\ntill they have come to love it.\n\nHeaven is God and God is heaven. How can a soul possess God, and find\nits heaven in possessing Him? Certainly only by likeness to Him, and\nloving Him. The old question, \"Who shall stand in the Holy Place?\" is\nnot answered in the gospel by reducing the conditions, or negativing the\nold reply. The common sense of every conscience answers, and\nChristianity answers, as the Psalmist does, \"He that hath clean hands\nand a pure heart.\"\n\nOne more step has to be taken to reach the full meaning of these words,\nnamely, the assertion that men who are not yet perfectly pure are\nalready fit to be partakers of the inheritance. The tense of the verb in\nthe original points back to a definite act by which the Colossians were\nmade meet, namely, their conversion; and the plain emphatic teaching of\nthe New Testament is that incipient and feeble faith in Christ works a\nchange so great, that through it we are fitted for the inheritance by\nthe impartation of a new nature, which, though it be but as a grain of\nmustard seed, shapes from henceforth the very inmost centre of our\npersonal being. In due time that spark will convert into its own fiery\nbrightness the whole mass, however green and smokily it begins to burn.\nNot the absence of sin, but the presence of faith working by love, and\nlonging for the light, makes fitness. No doubt flesh and blood cannot\ninherit the Kingdom of God, and we must put off the vesture of the body\nwhich has wrapped us during the wild weather here, before we can be\nfully fit to enter the banqueting hall; nor do we know how much evil\nwhich has not its seat in the soul may drop away therewith--but the\nspirit is fit for heaven as soon as a man turns to God in Christ.\nSuppose a company of rebels, and one of them, melted by some reason or\nother, is brought back to loyalty. He is fit by that inward change,\nalthough he has not done a single act of loyalty, for the society of\nloyal subjects, and unfit for that of traitors. Suppose a prodigal son\naway in the far off land. Some remembrance comes over him of what home\nused to be like, and of the bountiful house-keeping that is still there;\nand though it may begin with nothing more exalted than an empty stomach,\nif it ends in \"I will arise and go to my Father,\" at that instant a gulf\nopens between him and the riotous living of \"the citizens of that\ncountry,\" and he is no longer fitted for their company. He is meet for\nthe fellowship of his father's house, though he has a weary journey\nbefore he gets there, and needs to have his rags changed, and his filth\nwashed off him, ere he can sit down at the feast.\n\nSo whoever turns to the love of God in Christ, and yields in the inmost\npart of his being to the power of His grace, is already \"light in the\nLord.\" The true home and affinities of his real self are in the kingdom\nof the light, and he is ready for his part in the inheritance, either\nhere or yonder. There is no breach of the great law, that character\nmakes fitness for heaven--might we not say that character makes\nheaven?--for the very roots of character lie in disposition and desire,\nrather than in action. Nor is there in this principle anything\ninconsistent with the need for continual growth in congruity of nature\nwith that land of light. The light within, if it be truly there, will,\nhowever slowly, spread, as surely as the grey of twilight brightens to\nthe blaze of noonday. The heart will be more and more filled with it,\nand the darkness driven back more and more to brood in remote corners,\nand at last will vanish utterly. True fitness will become more and more\nfit. We shall grow more and more capable of God. The measure of our\ncapacity is the measure of our possession, and the measure in which we\nhave become light, is the measure of our capacity for the light. The\nland was parted among the tribes of Israel according to their strength;\nsome had a wider, some a narrower strip of territory. So, as there are\ndifferences in Christian character here, there will be differences in\nChristian participation in the inheritance hereafter. \"Star differeth\nfrom star.\" Some will blaze in brighter radiance and glow with more\nfervent heat because they move in orbits closer to the sun.\n\nBut, thank God, we are \"fit for the inheritance,\" if we have ever so\nhumbly and poorly trusted ourselves to Jesus Christ and received His\nrenewing life into our spirits. Character alone fits for heaven. But\ncharacter may be in germ or in fruit. \"If any man be in Christ, he _is_\na new creature.\" Do we trust ourselves to Him? Are we trying, with His\nhelp, to live as children of the light? Then we need not droop or\ndespair by reason of evil that may still haunt our lives. Let us give it\nno quarter, for it diminishes our fitness for the full possession of\nGod; but let it not cause our tongue to falter in \"giving thanks to the\nFather who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints\nin light.\"\n\nII. The second ground of thankfulness is, the change of king and\ncountry. God \"delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated\nus into the kingdom of the Son of His love.\" These two clauses embrace\nthe negative and positive sides of the same act which is referred to in\nthe former ground of thankfulness, only stated now in reference to our\nallegiance and citizenship in the present rather than in the future. In\nthe \"deliverance\" there maybe a reference to God's bringing Israel out\nof Egypt, suggested by the previous mention of the inheritance, while\nthe \"translation\" into the other kingdom may be an illustration drawn\nfrom the well known practice of ancient warfare, the deportation of\nlarge bodies of natives from conquered kingdoms to some other part of\nthe conqueror's realm.\n\nWe notice then the two kingdoms and their kings. \"The power of\ndarkness,\" is an expression found in Luke's Gospel (xxii. 18), and it\nmay be used here as a reminiscence of our Lord's solemn words. \"Power\"\nhere seems to imply the conception of harsh, arbitrary dominion, in\ncontrast with the gracious rule of the other kingdom. It is a realm of\ncruel and grinding sway. Its prince is personified in an image that\nAEschylus or Dante might have spoken. Darkness sits sovereign there, a\nvast and gloomy form on an ebon throne, wielding a heavy sceptre over\nwide regions wrapped in night. The plain meaning of that tremendous\nmetaphor is just this--that the men who are not Christians live in a\nstate of subjection to darkness of ignorance, darkness of misery,\ndarkness of sin. If I am not a Christian man, that black three-headed\nhound of hell sits baying on my doorstep.\n\nWhat a wonderful contrast the other kingdom and its King present! \"The\nkingdom of\"--not \"the light,\" as we are prepared to hear, in order to\ncomplete the antithesis, but--\"the Son of His love,\" who is the light.\nThe Son who is the object of His love, on whom it all and ever rests, as\non none besides. He has a kingdom in existence now, and not merely hoped\nfor, and to be set up at some future time. Wherever men lovingly obey\nChrist, there is His kingdom. The subjects make the kingdom, and we may\nto-day belong to it, and be free from all other dominion because we bow\nto His. There then sit the two kings, like the two in the old story,\n\"either of them on his throne, clothed in his robes, at the entering in\nof the gate of the city.\" Darkness and Light, the ebon throne and the\nwhite throne, surrounded each by their ministers; there Sorrow and\nGloom, here Gladness and Hope; there Ignorance with blind eyes and idle\naimless hands, here Knowledge with the sunlight on her face, and\nDiligence for her handmaid; here Sin, the pillar of the gloomy realm,\nthere Righteousness, in robes so as no fuller on earth could white them.\nUnder which king, my brother?\n\nWe notice the transference of subjects. The sculptures on Assyrian\nmonuments explain this metaphor for us. A great conqueror has come, and\nspeaks to us as Sennacherib did to the Jews (2 Kings xviii. 31, 32),\n\"Come out to me ... and I will take you away to a land of corn and wine,\nthat ye may live and not die.\"\n\nIf we listen to His voice, He will lead away a long string of willing\ncaptives and plant them, not as pining exiles, but as happy naturalized\ncitizens, in the kingdom which the Father has appointed for \"the Son of\nHis love.\"\n\nThat transference is effected on the instant of our recognising the love\nof God in Jesus Christ, and yielding up the heart to Him. We too often\nspeak as if the \"entrance ministered at last to\" a believing soul \"into\nthe kingdom of our Lord and Saviour,\" were its first entrance therein,\nand forget that we enter it as soon as we yield to the drawings of\nChrist's love and take service under the king. The change then is\ngreater than at death. When we die, we shall change provinces, and go\nfrom an outlying colony to the mother city and seat of empire, but we\nshall not change kingdoms. We shall be under the same government, only\nthen we shall be nearer the King and more loyal to Him. That change of\nking is the real fitness for heaven. We know little of what profound\nchanges death may make, but clearly a physical change cannot effect a\nspiritual revolution. They who are not Christ's subjects will not become\nso by dying. If here we are trying to serve a King who has delivered us\nfrom the tyranny of darkness, we may be very sure that He will not lose\nHis subjects in the darkness of the grave. Let us choose our king. If we\ntake Christ for our heart's Lord, every thought of Him here, every piece\nof partial obedience and stained service, as well as every sorrow and\nevery joy, our fading possessions and our undying treasures, the feeble\nnew life that wars against our sins, and even the very sins themselves\nas contradictory of our deepest self, unite to seal to us the assurance,\n\"Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty. They shall behold the land\nthat is very far off.\"\n\nIII. The heart and centre of all occasions for thankfulness is the\nRedemption which we receive in Christ.\n\n\"In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.\" The\nAuthorized Version reads \"redemption _through His blood_,\" but these\nwords are not found in the best manuscripts, and are regarded by the\nprincipal modern editors as having been inserted from the parallel place\nin Ephesians (i. 7), where they are genuine. The very heart then of the\nblessings which God has bestowed, is \"redemption,\" which consists\nprimarily, though not wholly, in \"forgiveness of sins,\" and is received\nby us in \"the Son of His love.\"\n\n\"Redemption,\" in its simplest meaning, is the act of delivering a slave\nfrom captivity by the payment of ransom. So that it contains in its\napplication to the effect of Christ's death, substantially the same\nfigure as in the previous clause which spoke of a deliverance from a\ntyrant, only that what was there represented as an act of Power is here\nset forth as the act of self-sacrificing Love which purchases our\nfreedom at a heavy cost. That ransom price is said by Christ Himself to\nbe \"His life,\" and His Incarnation to have the paying of that price as\none of its two chief objects. So the words added here by quotation from\nthe companion Epistle are in full accordance with New Testament\nteaching; but even omitting them, the meaning of the clause is\nunmistakable. Christ's death breaks the chains which bind us, and sets\nus free. By it He acquires us for Himself. That transcendent act of\nsacrifice has such a relation to the Divine government on the one hand,\nand to the \"sin of the world,\" as a whole, on the other, that by it all\nwho trust in Him are delivered from the most real penal consequences of\nsin and from the dominion of its darkness over their natures. We freely\nadmit that we cannot penetrate to the understanding of _how_ Christ's\ndeath thus avails. But just because the _rationale_ of the doctrine is\navowedly beyond our limits, we are barred from asserting that it is\nincompatible with God's character, or with common justice, or that it is\nimmoral, and the like. When we know God through and through, to all the\ndepths and heights and lengths and breadths of His nature, and when we\nknow man in like manner, and when, consequently, we know the relation\nbetween God and man as perfectly, and not till then, we shall have a\nright to reject the teaching of Scripture on this matter, on such\ngrounds. Till then, let our faith lay hold on the fact, though we do not\nunderstand the \"how\" of the fact, and cling to that cross which is the\ngreat power of God unto salvation, and the heart-changing exponent of\nthe love of Christ which passeth knowledge.\n\nThe essential and first element in this redemption is \"the forgiveness\nof sins.\" Possibly some misconception of the nature of redemption may\nhave been associated with the other errors which threatened the\nColossian Church, and thus Paul may have been led to this emphatic\ndeclaration of its contents. Forgiveness, and not some mystic\ndeliverance by initiation or otherwise from the captivity of flesh and\nmatter, is redemption. There is more than forgiveness in it, but\nforgiveness lies on the threshold; and that not only the removal of\nlegal penalties inflicted by a specific act, but the forgiveness of a\nfather. A sovereign pardons when he remits the sentence which law has\npronounced. A father forgives when the free flow of his love is\nunhindered by his child's fault, and he may forgive and punish at the\nsame moment. The truest \"penalty\" of sin is that death which consists in\nseparation from God; and the conceptions of judicial pardon and fatherly\nforgiveness unite when we think of the \"remission of sins\" as being the\nremoval of that separation, and the deliverance of heart and conscience\nfrom the burden of guilt and of a father's wrath.\n\nSuch forgiveness leads to that full deliverance from the power of\ndarkness, which is the completion of redemption. There is deep meaning\nin the fact that the word here used for \"forgiveness,\" means literally,\n\"sending away.\" Pardon has a mighty power to banish sin, not only as\nguilt, but as habit. The waters of the gulf stream bear the warmth of\nthe tropics to the icy north, and lave the foot of the glaciers on its\ncoast till they melt and mingle with the liberating waves. So the flow\nof the forgiving love of God thaws the hearts frozen in the obstinacy of\nsin, and blends our wills with itself in glad submission and grateful\nservice.\n\nBut we must not overlook the significant words in which the condition of\npossessing this redemption is stated: \"in Whom.\" There must be a real\nliving union with Christ, by which we are truly \"in Him\" in order to our\npossession of redemption. \"Redemption through His blood\" is not the\nwhole message of the Gospel; it has to be completed by \"_In Whom_ we\nhave redemption through His blood.\" That real living union is effected\nby our faith, and when we are thus \"in Him,\" our wills, hearts, spirits\njoined to Him, then, and only then are we borne away from \"the kingdom\nof the darkness\" and partake of redemption. We cannot get His gifts\nwithout Himself.\n\nWe observe, in conclusion, how redemption appears here as a present and\ngrowing possession. There is emphasis on \"we _have_.\" The Colossian\nChristians had by one definite act in the past been fitted for a share\nin the inheritance, and by the same act had been transferred to the\nkingdom of Christ. Already they possess the inheritance, and are in the\nkingdom, although both are to be more gloriously manifested in the\nfuture. Here, however, Paul contemplates rather the reception, moment by\nmoment, of redemption. We might almost read \"we are having,\" for the\npresent tense seems used on purpose to convey the idea of a continual\ncommunication from Him to Whom we are to be united by faith. Daily we\nmay draw what we daily need--daily forgiveness for daily sins, the\nwashing of the feet which even he who has been bathed requires after\neach day's march through muddy roads, daily bread for daily hunger, and\ndaily strength for daily effort. So day unto day may, in our narrow\nlives, as in the wide heavens with all their stars, utter speech, and\nnight unto night show knowledge of the redeeming love of our Father.\nLike the rock that followed the Israelites in the wilderness, according\nto Jewish legend, and poured out water for their thirst, His grace flows\never by our sides and from its bright waters we may daily draw with joy.\n\nAnd so let us lay to heart humbly these two lessons; that all our\nChristianity must begin with forgiveness, and that, however far advanced\nwe may be in the Divine life, we never get beyond the need for a\ncontinual bestowal upon us of God's pardoning mercy.\n\nMany of us, like some of these Colossians, are ready to call ourselves\nin some sense followers of Christ. The speculative side of Christian\ntruth may have attractions for some of us, its lofty morality for\nothers. Some of us may be mainly drawn to it by its comforts for the\nweary; some may be looking to it chiefly in hope of a future heaven. But\nwhatever we are, and however we may be disposed to Christ and His\nGospel, here is a plain message for us; we must begin by going to Him\nfor pardon. It is not enough for any of us to find in Him \"wisdom,\" or\neven \"righteousness,\" for we need \"redemption\" which is \"forgiveness,\"\nand unless He is to us forgiveness, He will not be either righteousness\nor wisdom.\n\nWe can climb a ladder that reaches to heaven, but its foot must be in\n\"the horrible pit and miry clay\" of our sins. Little as we like to hear\nit, the first need for us all is forgiveness. Everything begins with\nthat. \"The inheritance of the saints,\" with all its wealth of glory, its\nimmortal life and unfading joys, its changeless security, and its\nunending progress deeper and deeper into the light and likeness of God,\nis the goal, but the _only_ entrance is through the strait gate of\npenitence. Christ will forgive on our cry for pardon, and that is the\nfirst link of a golden chain unwinding from His hand by which we may\nascend to the perfect possession of our inheritance in God. \"Whom He\njustified, them,\" and them only, He will glorify.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\n_THE GLORY OF THE SON IN HIS RELATION TO THE FATHER, THE UNIVERSE AND\nTHE CHURCH._\n\n \"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all\n creation; for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and\n upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones\n or dominions or principalities or powers, all things have been\n created through Him and unto Him; and He is before all things, and\n in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the\n church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in\n all things He might have the pre-eminence.\"--COL. i. 15-18 (Rev.\n Ver.).\n\n\nAs has already been remarked, the Colossian Church was troubled by\nteachers who had grafted on Jewish belief many of the strange\nspeculations about matter and creation which have always had such a\nfascination for the Eastern mind. To us, they are apt to seem empty\ndreams, baseless and bewildering; but they had force enough to shake the\nearly Church to its foundation, and in some forms they still live.\n\nThese teachers in Colossae seem to have held that all matter was evil and\nthe seat of sin; that therefore the material creation could not have\ncome directly from a good God, but was in a certain sense opposed to\nHim, or, at all events, was separated from Him by a great gulf. The void\nspace was bridged by a chain of beings, half abstractions and half\npersons, gradually becoming more and more material. The lowest of them\nhad created the material universe and now governed it, and all were to\nbe propitiated by worship.\n\nSome such opinions must be presupposed in order to give point and force\nto these great verses in which Paul opposes the solid truth to these\ndreams, and instead of a crowd of Powers and angelic Beings, in whom the\neffulgence of Deity was gradually darkened, and the spirit became more\nand more thickened into matter, lifts high and clear against that\nbackground of fable, the solitary figure of the one Christ. He fills all\nthe space between God and man. There is no need for a crowd of shadowy\nbeings to link heaven with earth. Jesus Christ lays His hand upon both.\nHe is the head and source of creation; He is the head and fountain of\nlife to His Church. Therefore He is first in all things, to be listened\nto, loved and worshipped by men. As when the full moon rises, so when\nChrist appears, all the lesser stars with which Alexandrian and Eastern\nspeculation had peopled the abysses of the sky are lost in the mellow\nradiance, and instead of a crowd of flickering ineffectual lights there\nis one perfect orb, \"and heaven is overflowed.\" \"We see no _creature_\nany more save Jesus only.\"\n\nWe have outgrown the special forms of error which afflicted the Church\nat Colossae, but the truths which are here set over against them are\neternal, and are needed to-day in our conflicts of opinion as much as\nthen. There are here three grand conceptions of Christ's relations. We\nhave Christ and God, Christ and Creation, Christ and the Church, and,\nbuilt upon all these, the triumphant proclamation of His supremacy over\nall creatures in all respects.\n\nI. We have the relation of Christ to God set forth in these grand\nwords, \"the image of the invisible God.\"\n\nApparently Paul is here using for his own purposes language which was\nfamiliar on the lips of his antagonists. We know that Alexandrian\nJudaism had much to say about the \"Word,\" and spoke of it as the Image\nof God: and probably some such teaching had found its way to Colossae. An\n\"image\" is a likeness or representation, as of a king's head on a coin,\nor of a face reflected in a mirror. Here it is that which makes the\ninvisible visible. The God who dwells in the thick darkness, remote from\nsense and above thought, has come forth and made Himself known to man,\neven in a very real way has come within the reach of man's senses, in\nthe manhood of Jesus Christ. Where then is there a place for the shadowy\nabstractions and emanations with which some would bind together God and\nman?\n\nThe first thought involved in this statement is, that the Divine Being\nin Himself is inconceivable and unapproachable. \"No man hath seen God at\nany time, nor can see Him.\" Not only is He beyond the reach of sense,\nbut above the apprehension of the understanding. Direct and immediate\nknowledge of Him is impossible. There may be, there is, written on every\nhuman spirit a dim consciousness of His presence, but that is not\nknowledge. Creatural limitations prevent it, and man's sin prevents it.\nHe is \"the King invisible,\" because He is the \"Father of Lights\"\ndwelling in \"a glorious privacy of light,\" which is to us darkness\nbecause there is in it \"no darkness at all.\"\n\nThen, the next truth included here is, that Christ is the perfect\nmanifestation and image of God. In Him we have the invisible becoming\nvisible. Through Him we know all that we know of God, as distinguished\nfrom what we guess or imagine or suspect of Him. On this high theme, it\nis not wise to deal much in the scholastic language of systems and\ncreeds. Few words, and these mainly His own, are best, and he is least\nlikely to speak wrongly who confines himself most to Scripture in his\npresentation of the truth. All the great streams of teaching in the New\nTestament concur in the truth which Paul here proclaims. The conception\nin John's Gospel of the Word which is the utterance and making audible\nof the Divine mind, the conceptions in the Epistle to the Hebrews of the\neffulgence or forthshining of God's glory, and the very image, or\nstamped impress of His substance, are but other modes of representing\nthe same facts of full likeness and complete manifestation, which Paul\nhere asserts by calling the man Christ Jesus, the image of the Invisible\nGod. The same thoughts are involved in the name by which our Lord called\nHimself, the Son of God; and they cannot be separated from many words of\nHis, such as \"he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.\" In Him the\nDivine nature comes near to us in a form that once could be grasped in\npart by men's senses, for it was \"that of the Word of life\" which they\nsaw with their eyes and their hands handled, and which is to-day and for\never a form that can be grasped by mind and heart and will. In Christ we\nhave the revelation of a God who can be known, and loved, and trusted,\nwith a knowledge which, though it be not complete, is real and valid,\nwith a love which is solid enough to be the foundation of a life, with\na trust which is conscious that it has touched rock and builds secure.\nNor is that fact that He is the revealer of God, one that began with His\nincarnation, or ends with His earthly life. From the beginning and\nbefore the creatural beginning, as we shall see in considering another\npart of these great verses, the Word was the agent of all Divine\nactivity, the \"arm of the Lord,\" and the source of all Divine\nillumination, \"the face of the Lord,\" or, as we have the thought put in\nthe remarkable words of the Book of Proverbs, where the celestial and\npure Wisdom is more than a personification though not yet distinctly\nconceived as a person, \"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His\nway. I was by Him as one brought up--or as a master worker--with Him,\nand I was daily _His_ delight ... and _My_ delights were with the sons\nof men.\" And after the veils of flesh and sense are done away, and we\nsee face to face, I believe that the face which we shall see, and\nseeing, shall have beauty born of the vision passing into our faces,\nwill be the face of Jesus Christ, in which the light of the glory of God\nshall shine for the redeemed and perfected sons of God, even as it did\nfor them when they groped amid the shows of earth. The law for time and\nfor eternity is, \"I have declared Thy name unto My brethren and will\ndeclare it.\" That great fathomless, shoreless ocean of the Divine nature\nis like a \"closed sea\"--Christ is the broad river which brings its\nwaters to men, and \"everything liveth whithersoever the river cometh.\"\n\nIn these brief words on so mighty a matter, I must run the risk of\nappearing to deal in unsupported statements. My business is not so much\nto try to prove Paul's words as to explain them, and then to press them\nhome. Therefore I would urge that thought, that we depend on Christ for\nall true knowledge of God. Guesses are not knowledge. Speculations are\nnot knowledge. Peradventures, whether of hope or fear, are not\nknowledge. What we poor men need, is a certitude of a God who loves us\nand cares for us, has an arm that can help us, and a heart that will.\nThe God of \"pure theism\" is little better than a phantom, so\nunsubstantial that you can see the stars shining through the pale form,\nand when a man tries to lean on him for support, it is like leaning on a\nwreath of mist. There is nothing. There is no certitude firm enough for\nus to find sustaining power against life's trials in resting upon it,\nbut in Christ. There is no warmth of love enough for us to thaw our\nfrozen limbs by, apart from Christ. In Him, and in Him alone, the far\noff, awful, doubtful God becomes a God very near, of Whom we are sure,\nand sure that He loves and is ready to help and cleanse and save.\n\nAnd that is what we each need. \"My soul crieth out for God, for the\n_living_ God.\" And never will that orphaned cry be answered, but in the\npossession of Christ, in Whom we possess the Father also. No dead\nabstractions--no reign of law--still less the dreary proclamation,\n\"Behold we know not anything,\" least of all, the pottage of material\ngood, will hush that bitter wail that goes up unconsciously from many an\nEsau's heart--\"My father, my father!\" Men will find Him in Christ. They\nwill find Him nowhere else. It seems to me that the only refuge for this\ngeneration from atheism--if it is still allowable to use that\nunfashionable word--is the acceptance of Christ as the revealer of God.\nOn any other terms religion is rapidly becoming impossible for the\ncultivated class. The great word which Paul opposed to the cobwebs of\nGnostic speculation is the word for our own time with all its\nperplexities--Christ is the Image of the Invisible God.\n\nII. We have the relation of Christ to Creation set forth in that great\nname, \"the firstborn of all creation,\" and further elucidated by a\nmagnificent series of statements which proclaim Him to be agent or\nmedium, and aim or goal of creation, prior to it in time and dignity,\nand its present upholder and bond of unity.\n\n\"The firstborn of all creation.\" At first sight, this name seems to\ninclude Him in the great family of creatures as the eldest, and clearly\nto treat Him as one of them, just because He is declared to be in some\nsense the first of them. That meaning has been attached to the words;\nbut it is shown not to be their intention by the language of the next\nverse, which is added to prove and explain the title. It distinctly\nalleges that Christ was \"before\" all creation, and that He is the agent\nof all creation. To insist that the words must be explained so as to\ninclude Him in \"creation\" would be to go right in the teeth of the\nApostle's own justification and explanation of them. So that the true\nmeaning is that He is the firstborn, in comparison with, or in reference\nto, all creation. Such an understanding of the force of the expression\nis perfectly allowable grammatically, and is necessary unless this verse\nis to be put in violent contradiction to the next. The same construction\nis found in Milton's\n\n \"Adam, the goodliest man of men since born,\n His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve.\"\n\nwhere \"of\" distinctly means \"in comparison with,\" and not \"belonging\nto.\"\n\nThe title implies priority in existence, and supremacy. It substantially\nmeans the same thing as the other title of \"the only begotten Son,\" only\nthat the latter brings into prominence the relation of the Son to the\nFather, while the former lays stress on His relation to Creation.\nFurther it must be noted, that this name applies to the Eternal Word and\nnot to the incarnation of that Word, or to put it in another form, the\ndivinity and not the humanity of the Lord Jesus is in the Apostle's\nview. Such is the briefest outline of the meaning of this great name.\n\nA series of clauses follow, stating more fully the relation of the\nfirstborn Son to Creation, and so confirming and explaining the title.\n\nThe whole universe is, as it were, set in one class, and He alone over\nagainst it. No language could be more emphatically all-comprehensive.\nFour times in one sentence we have \"all things\"--the whole\nuniverse--repeated, and traced to Him as Creator and Lord. \"In the\nheavens and the earth\" is quoted from Genesis, and is intended here, as\nthere, to be an exhaustive enumeration of the creation according to\nplace. \"Things visible or invisible\" again includes the whole under a\nnew principle of division--there are visible things in heaven, as sun\nand stars, there may be invisible on earth, but wherever and of whatever\nsort they are, He made them. \"Whether thrones or dominions, or\nprincipalities or powers,\" an enumeration evidently alluding to the\ndreamy speculations about an angelic hierarchy filling the space between\nthe far off God, and men immersed in matter. There is a tone of\ncontemptuous impatience in Paul's voice, as he quotes the pompous list\nof sonorous titles which a busy fancy had coined. It is as if he had\nsaid, You are being told a great deal about these angel hierarchies, and\nknow all about their ranks and gradations. I do not know anything about\nthem; but this I know, that if, amid the unseen things in the heavens or\nthe earth, there be any such, my Lord made them, and is their master. So\nhe groups together the whole universe of created beings, actual or\nimaginary, and then high above it, separate from it, its Lord and\nCreator, its upholder and end, he points to the majestic person of the\nonly begotten Son of God, His Firstborn, higher than all the rulers of\nthe earth, whether human or superhuman.\n\nThe language employed brings into strong relief the manifold variety of\nrelations which the Son sustains to the universe, by the variety of the\nprepositions used in the sentence. The whole sum of created things (for\nthe Greek means not only \"all things,\" but \"all things considered as a\nunity\") was in the original act, created _in_ Him, _through_ Him, and\n_unto_ Him. The first of these words, \"in Him,\" regards Him as the\ncreative centre, as it were, or element in which as in a storehouse or\nreservoir all creative force resided, and was in a definite act put\nforth. The thought may be parallel with that in the prologue to John's\nGospel, \"In Him was life.\" The Word stands to the universe as the\nincarnate Christ does to the Church; and as all spiritual life is in\nHim, and union to Him is its condition, so all physical takes its origin\nwithin the depths of His Divine nature. The error of the Gnostics was to\nput the act of creation and the thing created, as far away as possible\nfrom God, and it is met by this remarkable expression, which brings\ncreation and the creatures in a very real sense within the confines of\nthe Divine nature, as manifested in the Word, and asserts the truth of\nwhich pantheism so called is the exaggeration, that all things are in\nHim, like seeds in a seed vessel, while yet they are not identified with\nHim.\n\nThe possible dangers of that profound truth, which has always been more\nin harmony with Eastern than with Western modes of thought, are averted\nby the next preposition used, \"all things have been created _through_\nHim.\" That presupposes the full, clear demarcation between creature and\ncreator, and so on the one hand extricates the person of the Firstborn\nof all creation from all risk of being confounded with the universe,\nwhile on the other it emphasizes the thought that He is the medium of\nthe Divine energy, and so brings into clear relief His relation to the\ninconceivable Divine nature. He is the image of the invisible God, and\naccordingly, _through_ Him have all things been created. The same\nconnection of ideas is found in the parallel passage in the Epistle to\nthe Hebrews, where the words, \"_through_ Whom also He made the worlds,\"\nstand in immediate connection with \"being the effulgence of His glory.\"\n\nBut there remains yet another relation between Him and the act of\ncreation. \"_For_ Him\" they have been made. All things come from and tend\ntowards Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the\nending. All things spring from His will, draw their being from that\nfountain, and return thither again. These relations which are here\ndeclared of the Son, are in more than one place declared of the Father.\nDo we face the question fairly--what theory of the person of Jesus\nChrist explains that fact?\n\nBut further, His existence before the whole creation is repeated, with a\nforce in both the words, \"He is,\" which can scarcely be given in\nEnglish. The former is emphatic--He Himself--and the latter emphasizes\nnot only pre-existence, but absolute existence. \"He _was_ before all\nthings\" would not have said so much as \"He _is_ before all things.\" We\nare reminded of His own words, \"Before Abraham was, I am.\"\n\n\"In Him all things consist\" or hold together. He is the element in which\ntakes place and by which is caused that continued creation which is the\npreservation of the universe, as He is the element in which the original\ncreative act took place of old. All things came into being and form an\nordered unity in Him. He links all creatures and forces into a\nco-operant whole, reconciling their antagonisms, drawing all their\ncurrents into one great tidal wave, melting all their notes into music\nwhich God can hear, however discordant it may sometimes sound to us. He\nis \"the bond of perfectness,\" the key-stone of the arch, the centre of\nthe wheel.\n\nSuch, then, in merest outline is the Apostle's teaching about the\nEternal Word and the Universe. What sweetness and what reverential awe\nsuch thoughts should cast around the outer world and the providences of\nlife! How near they should bring Jesus Christ to us! What a wonderful\nthought that is, that the whole course of human affairs and of natural\nprocesses is directed by Him who died upon the cross! The helm of the\nuniverse is held by the hands which were pierced for us. The Lord of\nNature and the Mover of all things is that Saviour on whose love we may\npillow our aching heads.\n\nWe need these lessons to-day, when many teachers are trying hard to\ndrive all that is spiritual and Divine out of creation and history, and\nto set up a merciless law as the only God. Nature is terrible and stern\nsometimes, and the course of events can inflict crushing blows; but we\nhave not the added horror of thinking both to be controlled by no will.\nChrist is King in either region, and with our elder brother for the\nruler of the land, we shall not lack corn in our sacks, nor a Goshen to\ndwell in. We need not people the void, as these old heretics did, with\nimaginary forms, nor with impersonal forces and laws--nor need we, as so\nmany are doing to-day, wander through its many mansions as through a\ndeserted house, finding nowhere a Person who welcomes us; for everywhere\nwe may behold our Saviour, and out of every storm and every solitude\nhear His voice across the darkness saying, \"It is I; be not afraid.\"\n\nIII. The last of the relations set forth in this great section is that\nbetween Christ and His Church. \"He is the head of the body, the Church;\nwho is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.\"\n\nA parallel is plainly intended to be drawn between Christ's relation to\nthe material creation and to the Church, the spiritual creation. As the\nWord of God before incarnation is to the universe, so is the incarnate\nChrist to the Church. As in the former, He is prior in time and superior\nin dignity, so is He in the latter. As in the universe He is source and\norigin of all being, so in the Church He is the beginning, both as being\nfirst and as being origin of all spiritual life. As the glowing words\nwhich described His relation to creation began with the great title \"the\nFirstborn,\" so those which describe His relation to the Church close\nwith the same name in a different application. Thus the two halves of\nHis work are as it were moulded into a golden circle, and the end of the\ndescription bends round towards the beginning.\n\nBriefly, then, we have here first, Christ the head, and the Church His\nbody. In the lower realm the Eternal Word was the power which held all\nthings together, and similar but higher in fashion is the relation\nbetween Him and the whole multitude of believing souls. Popular\nphysiology regards the head as the seat of life. So the fundamental idea\nin the familiar metaphor, when applied to our Lord is that of the source\nof the mysterious spiritual life which flows from Him into all the\nmembers, and is sight in the eye, strength in the arm, swiftness in the\nfoot, colour in the cheek, being richly various in its manifestations\nbut one in its nature, and all His. The same mysterious derivation of\nlife from Him is taught in His own metaphor of the Vine, in which every\nbranch, however far away from the root, lives by the common life\ncirculating through all, which clings in the tendrils, and reddens in\nthe clusters, and is not theirs though it be in them.\n\nThat thought of the source of life leads necessarily to the other, that\nHe is the centre of unity, by Whom the \"many members\" become \"one body,\"\nand the maze of branches one vine. The \"head,\" too, naturally comes to\nbe the symbol for authority--and these three ideas of seat of life,\ncentre of unity, and emblem of absolute power, appear to be those\nprincipally meant here.\n\nChrist is further the _beginning_ to the Church. In the natural world He\nwas before all, and source of all. The same double idea is contained in\nthis name, \"the Beginning.\" It does not merely mean the first member of\na series who begins it, as the first link in a chain does, but it means\nthe power which causes the series to begin. The root is the beginning of\nthe flowers which blow in succession through the plant's flowering time,\nthough we may also call the first flower of the number the beginning.\nBut Christ is root; not merely the first flower, though He is also that.\n\nHe is head and beginning to His Church by means of His resurrection. He\nis the firstborn from the dead, and His communication of spiritual life\nto His Church requires the historical fact of His resurrection as its\nbasis, for a dead Christ could not be the source of life; and that\nresurrection completes the manifestation of the incarnate Word, by our\nfaith in which, His spiritual life flows into our spirits. Unless He has\nrisen from the dead, all His claims to be anything else than a wise\nteacher and fair character crumble into nothing, and to think of Him as\na source of life is impossible.\n\nHe is the beginning through His resurrection, too, in regard of His\nraising us from the dead. He is the first-fruits of them that slept, and\nbears the promise of a mighty harvest. He has risen from the dead, and\ntherein we have not only the one demonstration for the world that there\nis a life after death, but the irrefragable assurance to the Church that\nbecause He lives it shall live also. A dead body and a living head\ncannot be. We are knit to Him too closely for the Fury \"with the\nabhorred shears\" to cut the thread. He has risen that He might be the\nfirstborn among many brethren.\n\nSo the Apostle concludes that in all things He is first--and all things\nare, that He _may_ be first. Whether in nature or in grace, that\npre-eminence is absolute and supreme. The end of all the majesty of\ncreation and of all the wonders of grace is that His solitary figure may\nstand clearly out as centre and lord of the universe, and His name be\nlifted high over all.\n\nSo the question of questions for us all is, What think ye of Christ? Our\nthoughts now have necessarily been turned to subjects which may have\nseemed abstract and remote--but these truths which we have been trying\nto make clear and to present in their connection, are not the mere terms\nor propositions of a half mystical theology far away from our daily\nlife, but bear most gravely and directly on our deepest interests. I\nwould fain press on every conscience the sharp-pointed appeal--What is\nthis Christ to us? Is He _any_ thing to us but a name? Do our hearts\nleap up with a joyful Amen when we read these great words of this text?\nAre we ready to crown Him Lord of all? Is He our head, to fill us with\nvitality, to inspire and to command? Is He the goal and the end of our\nindividual life? Can we each say--I live by Him, in Him, and for Him?\n\nHappy are we, if we give to Christ the pre-eminence, and if our hearts\nset \"Him first, Him last, Him midst and without end.\"\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\n_THE RECONCILING SON._\n\n \"For it was the good pleasure _of the Father_ that in Him should all\n the fulness dwell; and through Him to reconcile all things unto\n Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through\n Him, _I say_, whether things upon the earth, or things in the\n heavens. And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your\n mind in your evil works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of\n His flesh through death.\"--COL. i. 19-22 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThese words correspond to those which immediately precede them, inasmuch\nas they present the same sequence, and deal with Christ in His relation\nto God, to the universe, and to the Church. The strata of thought are\ncontinuous, and lie here in the same order as we found them there. There\nwe had set forth the work of the pre-incarnate Word as well as of the\nincarnate Christ; here we have mainly the reconciling power of His cross\nproclaimed as reaching to every corner of the universe, and as\nculminating in its operations on the believing souls to whom Paul\nspeaks. There we had the fact that He was the image of God laid as basis\nof His relation to men and creatures; here that fact itself apprehended\nin somewhat different manner, namely, as the dwelling in Him of all\n\"fulness,\" is traced to its ground in the \"good pleasure\" of the Father,\nand the same Divine purpose is regarded as underlying Christ's whole\nreconciling work. We observe, also, that all this section with which we\nhave now to deal is given as the explanation and reason of Christ's\npre-eminence. These are the principal links of connection with the\nprevious words, and having noted them, we may proceed to attempt some\nimperfect consideration of the overwhelming thoughts here contained.\n\nI. As before, we have Christ in relation to God. \"It was the good\npleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell.\"\n\nNow, we may well suppose from the use of the word \"fulness\" here, which\nwe know to have been a very important term in later full-blown Gnostic\nspeculations, that there is a reference to some of the heretical\nteachers' expressions, but such a supposition is not needed either to\nexplain the meaning, or to account for the use of the word.\n\n\"The fulness\"--what fulness? I think, although it has been disputed,\nthat the language of the next chapter (ii. 9), where we read \"In Him\ndwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,\" should settle that.\n\nIt seems most improbable that with two out of three significant words\nthe same, the ellipse should be supplied by anything but the third. The\nmeaning then will be--the whole abundance, or totality of Divine powers\nand attributes. That is, to put it in homelier words, that all that\nDivine nature in all its sweet greatness, in all its infinite wealth of\ntenderness and power and wisdom, is embodied in Jesus Christ. We have no\nneed to look to heavens above or to earth beneath for fragmentary\nrevelations of God's character. We have no need to draw doubtful\ninferences as to what God is from the questionable teachings of nature,\nor from the mysteries of human history with its miseries. No doubt these\ndo show something of Him to observant hearts, and most to those who have\nthe key to their meaning by their faith in a clearer revelation. At\nsundry times and in divers manners, God has spoken to the world by these\npartial voices, to each of which some syllables of His name have been\ncommitted. But He has put His whole name in that messenger of a New\nCovenant by whom He has finally declared His whole character to us, even\nHis Son, in whom \"it was the good pleasure of the Father that all the\nfulness should dwell.\"\n\nThe word rendered \"dwell\" implies a permanent abode, and may have been\nchosen in order to oppose a view which we know to have prevailed later,\nand may suspect to have been beginning to appear thus early, namely,\nthat the union of the Divine and the human in the person of Christ was\nbut temporary. At all events, emphasis is placed here on the opposite\ntruth that that indwelling does not end with the earthly life of Jesus,\nand is not like the shadowy and transient incarnations of Eastern\nmythology or speculation--a mere assumption of a fleshly nature for a\nmoment, which is dropped from the re-ascending Deity, but that, for\nevermore, manhood is wedded to divinity in the perpetual humanity of\nJesus Christ.\n\nAnd this indwelling is the result of the Father's good pleasure.\nAdopting the supplement in the Authorized and Revised Versions, we might\nread \"the Father pleased\"--but without making that change, the force of\nthe words remains the same. The Incarnation and whole work of Christ are\nreferred to their deepest ground in the will of the Father. The word\nrendered \"pleased\" implies both counsel and complacency; it is both\npleasure and good pleasure. The Father determined the work of the Son,\nand delighted in it. Caricatures intentional or unintentional of New\nTestament teaching have often represented it as making Christ's work the\nmeans of pacifying an unloving God and moving Him to mercy. That is no\npart of the Pauline doctrine. But he, as all his brethren, taught that\nthe love of God is the cause of the mission of Christ, even as Christ\nHimself had taught that \"God so loved the world that He sent His Son.\"\nOn that Rock-foundation of the will--the loving will of the Father, is\nbuilt the whole work of His Incarnate Son. And as that work was the\nissue of His eternal purpose, so it is the object of His eternal\ndelight. That is the wonderful meaning of the word which fell gently as\nthe dove descending on His head, and lay on His locks wet from His\nbaptism, like a consecrating oil--\"This is My beloved Son, in whom _I am\nwell pleased_.\" God willed that so He should be; He delighted that so He\nwas. Through Christ, the Father purposed that His fulness should be\ncommunicated to us, and through Christ the Father rejoices to pour His\nabundance into our emptiness, that we may be filled with all the\nfulness.\n\nII. Again, we have here, as before Christ and the Universe, of which He\nis not only Maker, Sustainer, and Lord, but through \"the blood of His\ncross\" reconciles \"all things unto Himself.\"\n\nProbably these same false teachers had dreams of reconciling agents\namong the crowd of shadowy phantoms with which they peopled the void.\nPaul lifts up in opposition to all these the one Sovereign Mediator,\nwhose cross is the bond of peace for all the universe.\n\nIt is important for the understanding of these great words to observe\ntheir distinct reference to the former clauses which dealt with our\nLord's relation to the universe as Creator. The same words are used in\norder to make the parallelism as close as may be, \"Through Him\" was\ncreation; \"through Him\" is reconciliation. \"All things\"--or as the Greek\nwould rather suggest, \"the universe\"--all things considered as an\naggregate--were made and sustained through Him and subordinated to Him;\nthe same \"all things\" are reconciled. A significant change in the order\nof naming the elements of which these are composed is noticeable. When\ncreation is spoken of, the order is \"in the heavens and upon the\nearth\"--the order of creation; but when reconciliation is the theme, the\norder is reversed, and we read \"things upon the earth and things in the\nheavens\"--those coming first which stand nearest to the reconciling\ncross, and are first to feel the power which streams from it.\n\nThis obvious intentional correspondence between these two paragraphs\nshows us that whatever be the nature of the \"reconciliation\" spoken of\nhere, it is supposed to affect not only rational and responsible\ncreatures who alone in the full sense of the word can be reconciled, as\nthey only in the full sense of the word can be enemies, but to extend to\n_things_, and to send its influence through the universe. The width of\nthe reconciliation is the same as that of the creation; they are\nconterminous. That being the case, \"reconciliation\" here must have a\ndifferent shade of meaning when applied to the sum total of created\nthings from what it has when applied to persons. But not only are\ninanimate creatures included in the expression; it may even be made a\nquestion whether the whole of mankind is not excluded from it, not only\nby the phrase \"all _things_\" but also from the consideration that the\neffect of Christ's death on men is the subject of the following words,\nwhich are not an explanation of this clause, but an addition to it,\nintroducing an entirely different department of Christ's reconciling\nwork. Nor should we lose sight of the very significant omission in this\nsection of the reference to the angelic beings who were named in the\ncreation section. We hear nothing now about thrones or dominions or\nprincipalities or powers. The division into \"visible and invisible\" is\nnot reproduced. I suggest the possibility that the reason may be the\nintention to represent this \"reconciliation\" as taking effect\nexclusively on the regions of creation below the angelic and below the\nhuman, while the \"reconciliation,\" properly so called, which is brought\nto pass on alienated men is dealt with first in the following words.\n\nIf this be so, then these words refer mainly to the restitution of the\nmaterial universe to its primal obedience, and represent Christ the\nCreator removing by His cross the shadow which has passed over nature by\nreason of sin. It has been well said, \"How far this restoration of\nuniversal nature may be subjective, as involved in the changed\nperceptions of man thus brought into harmony with God, and how far it\nmay have an objective and independent existence, it were vain to\nspeculate.\"[1]\n\nScripture seems to teach that man's sin has made the physical world\n\"subject to vanity\"; for, although much of what it says on this matter\nis unquestionably metaphor only, portraying the Messianic blessings in\npoetical language never meant for dogmatic truth, and although\nunquestionably physical death reigned among animals, and storms and\ncatastrophes swept over the earth long before man or sin were here,\nstill--seeing that man by his sin has compelled dead matter to serve his\nlusts and to be his instrument in acts of rebellion against God, making\n\"a league with the stones of the field\" against his and their\nMaster--seeing that he has used earth to hide heaven and to shut himself\nout from its glories, and so has made it an unwilling antagonist to God\nand temptress to evil--seeing that he has actually polluted the beauty\nof the world and has stained many a lovely scene with his sin, making\nits rivers run red with blood--seeing that he has laid unnumbered woes\non the living creatures--we may feel that there is more than poetry in\nthe affirmation that \"the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain\ntogether,\" and may hear a deep truth, the extent of which we cannot\nmeasure, in Milton's majestic lines--\n\n \"Disproportioned Sin\n Jarred against Nature's chime, and with harsh din\n Brake the fair music that all creatures made\n To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed.\"\n\nHere we have held forth in words, the extent of which we can measure as\nlittle, the counter-hope that wherever and however any such effect has\ncome to pass on the material universe, it shall be done away by the\nreconciling power of the blood shed on the cross. That reconciling\npower goes as far as His creative power. The universe is one, not only\nbecause all created by the one personal Divine Word, nor because all\nupheld by Him, but because in ways to us unknown, the power of the cross\npierces its heights and depths. As the impalpable influences of the sun\nbind planets and comets into one great system, so from Him on His cross\nmay stream out attractive powers which knit together far off regions,\nand diverse orders, and bring all in harmonious unity to God, who has\nmade peace by the blood shed on the cross, and has thereby been pleased\nto reconcile all things to Himself.\n\n \"And a Priest's hand through creation\n Waveth calm and consecration.\"\n\nIt may be that the reference to things in heaven is like the similar\nreference in the previous verses, occasioned by some dreams of the\nheretical teachers. He may merely mean to say: You speak much about\nheavenly things, and have filled the whole space between God's throne\nand man's earth with creatures thick as the motes in the sunbeam. I know\nnothing about them; but this I know, that, if they are, Christ made\nthem, and that if among them there be antagonism to God, it can be\novercome by the cross. As to reconciliation proper,--in the heavens,\nmeaning by that, among spiritual beings who dwell in that realm, it is\nclear there can be no question of it. There is no enmity among the\nangels of heaven, and no place for return to union with God among their\nuntroubled bands, who \"hearken to the voice of His word.\" But still if\nthe hypothetical form of the clause and the use of the neuter gender\npermit any reference to intelligent beings in the heavens, we know that\nto the principalities and powers in heavenly places the cross has been\nthe teacher of before unlearned depths in the Divine nature and\npurposes, the knowledge of which has drawn them nearer the heart of God,\nand made even their blessed union with Him more blessed and more close.\n\nOn no subject is it more necessary to remember the limitations of our\nknowledge than on this great theme. On none is confident assertion more\nout of place. The general truth taught is clear, but the specific\napplications of it to the various regions of the universe is very\ndoubtful. We have no source of knowledge on that subject but the words\nof Scripture, and we have no means of verifying or checking the\nconclusions we may draw from them. We are bound, therefore, if we go\nbeyond the general principle, to remember that _it_ is one thing, and\nour reckoning up of what it includes is quite another. Our inferences\nhave not the certainty of God's word. _It_ comes to us with \"Verily,\nverily.\" _We_ have no right to venture on more than Perhaps.\n\nEspecially is this the case when we have but one or two texts to build\non, and these most general in their language. And still more, when we\nfind other words of Scripture which seem hard to reconcile with them, if\npressed to their utmost meaning. In such a case our wisdom is to\nrecognise that God has not been pleased to give us the means of\nconstructing a dogma on the subject, and rather to seek to learn the\nlessons taught by the obscurity that remains than rashly and confidently\nto proclaim our inferences from half of our materials as if they were\nthe very heart of the gospel.\n\nSublime and great beyond all our dreams, we may be sure, shall be the\nissue. Certain as the throne of God is it that His purposes shall be\naccomplished--and at last this shall be the fact for the universe, as it\nhas ever been the will of the Father--\"Of Him, and through Him, and to\nHim are all things, to whom be glory for ever.\" To that highest hope and\nultimate vision for the whole creation, who will not say, Amen? The\ngreat sight which the seer beheld in Patmos is the best commentary on\nour text. To him the eternal order of the universe was unveiled--the\ngreat white throne, a snowy Alp in the centre; between the throne and\nthe creatures, the Lamb, through Whom blessing and life passed outwards\nto them, and their incense and praise passed inwards to the throne; and\nall around the \"living creatures,\" types of the aggregate of creatural\nlife, the \"elders,\" representatives of the Church redeemed from among\nmen, and myriads of the firstborn of heaven. The eyes of all alike wait\nupon that slain Lamb. In Him they see God in clearest light of love and\ngentlest might--and as they look and learn and are fed, each according\nto his hunger, from the fulness of Christ, \"every creature which is in\nheaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the\nsea, and all that are in them,\" will be heard saying \"Blessing, and\nhonour, and glory, and power, be unto Him, that sitteth upon the throne,\nand unto the Lamb for ever.\"\n\nIII. Christ, and His Reconciling Work in the Church. We have still the\nparallel kept up between the reconciling and the creative work of\nChrist. As in verse 18 He was represented as the giver of life to the\nChurch, in a higher fashion than to the universe, so, and probably with\na similar heightening of the meaning of \"reconciliation,\" He is here\nset forth as its giver to the Church.\n\nNow observe the solemn emphasis of the description of the condition of\nmen before that reconciling work has told upon their hearts. They are\n\"alienated\"--not \"aliens,\" as if that were their original condition, but\n\"alienated,\" as having become so. The same thought that man's sin and\nseparation from God is a fall, something abnormal and superinduced on\nhumanity, which is implied in \"reconciliation\" or restoration to an\noriginal concord, is implied in this expression. \"And enemies in your\nmind\"--the seat of the enmity is in that inner man which thinks,\nreflects, and wills, and its sphere of manifestation is \"in evil works\"\nwhich are religiously acts of hostility to God because morally they are\nbad. We should not read \"_by_ wicked works,\" as the Authorized Version\ndoes, for the evil deeds have not made them enemies, but the enmity has\noriginated the evil deeds, and is witnessed to by them.\n\nThat is a severe indictment, a plain, rough, and as it is thought\nnow-a-days, a far too harsh description of human nature. Our forefathers\nno doubt were tempted to paint the \"depravity of human nature\" in very\nblack colours--but I am very sure that we are tempted just in the\nopposite direction. It sounds too harsh and rude to press home the\nold-fashioned truth on cultured, respectable ladies and gentlemen. The\ncharge is not that of conscious, active hostility, but of practical want\nof affection, as manifested by habitual disobedience or inattention to\nGod's wishes, and by indifference and separation from Him in heart and\nmind.\n\nAnd are these not the habitual temper of multitudes? The signs of love\nare joy in the company of the beloved, sweet memories and longings if\nparted, eager fulfilment of their lightest wish, a quick response to the\nmost slender association recalling them to our thoughts. Have we these\nsigns of love to God? If not, it is time to consider what temper of\nheart and mind towards the most loving of Hearts and the most unwearied\nof Givers, is indicated by the facts that we scarcely ever think of Him,\nthat we have no delight in His felt presence, that most of our actions\nhave no reference whatever to Him and would be done just the same if\nthere were no God at all. Surely such a condition is liker hostility\nthan love.\n\nFurther, here, as uniformly, God Himself is the Reconciler. \"He\"--that\nis, God, not Christ, \"has reconciled us.\" Some, indeed, read \"ye have\nbeen reconciled,\" but the preponderance of authority is in favour of the\ntext as it stands, which yields a sense accordant with the usual mode of\nrepresentation. It is we who are reconciled. It is God who reconciles.\nIt is we who are enemies. The Divine patience loves on through all our\nenmity, and though perfect love meeting human sin must become wrath,\nwhich is consistent with love, it never becomes hatred, which is love's\nopposite.\n\nObserve finally the great means of reconciliation: \"In the body of His\nflesh\"--that is, of course, Christ's flesh--God has reconciled us. Why\ndoes the Apostle use this apparently needless exuberance of\nlanguage--\"the body of His flesh\"? It may have been in order to correct\nsome erroneous tendencies towards a doctrine which we know was\nafterwards eagerly embraced in the Eastern Churches, that our Lord's\nbody was not truly flesh, but only a phantasm or appearance. It may have\nbeen to guard against risk of confounding it with His \"body the Church,\"\nspoken of in the 18th verse, though that supposes a scarcely credible\ndulness in his readers. Or it may more naturally be accounted for as\nshowing how full his own mind was of the overwhelming wonder of the fact\nthat He, Whose majesty he has been setting forth in such deep words,\nshould veil His eternal glories and limit His far reaching energies\nwithin a fleshly body. He would point the contrast between the Divine\ndignity of the Eternal Word, the Creator and Lord of the universe, and\nthe lowliness of His incarnation. On these two pillars, as on two solid\npiers, one on either continent, with a great gulf between, the Divinity\nof Christ on one side, His Manhood on the other, is built the bridge by\nwhich we pass over the river into the glory.\n\nBut that is not all. The Incarnation is not the whole gospel. The body\nof His flesh becomes the means of our reconciliation \"through death.\"\nChrist's death has so met the requirements of the Divine law that the\nDivine love can come freely forth, and embrace and forgive sinful men.\nThat fact is the very centre of the revelation of God in Christ, the\nvery secret of His power. He has died. Voluntarily and of His own love,\nas well as in obedience to the Father's loving will, He has borne the\nconsequences of the sin which He had never shared, in that life of\nsorrow and sympathy, in that separation from God which is sin's deepest\npenalty, and of which the solemn witness comes to us in the cry that\nrent the darkness, \"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?\" and in\nthat physical death which is the parable in the material sphere of the\ntrue death of the spirit. We do not know all the incidence of Christ's\ndeath. The whole manner of its operation has not been told us, but the\nfact has been. It does not affect the Divine heart. _That_ we know, for\n\"God so loved the world, that He sent His Son.\" But it does affect the\nDivine government. Without it, forgiveness could not have been. Its\ninfluence extends to all the years before, as to all after, Calvary, for\nthe fact that Man continued to be after Man had sinned, was because the\nwhole Divine government from the first had respect to the sacrifice that\nwas to be, as now it all is moulded by the merit of the sacrifice that\nhas been. And in this aspect of the case, the previous thoughts as to\nthe blood of the cross having power in the material universe derive a\nnew meaning, if we regard the whole history of the world as shaped by\nChrist's sacrifice, and the very continuance of humanity from the first\nmoment of transgression as possible, because He was \"the Lamb slain\nbefore the foundation of the world,\" whose cross, as an eternal fact in\nthe Divine purpose, influenced the Divine government long before it was\nrealized in time.\n\nFor us, that wondrous love--mightier than death, and not to be quenched\nby many waters--is the one power that can change our alienation to glad\nfriendship, and melt the frost and hard-ribbed ice of indifference and\ndread into love. That, and that alone, is the solvent for stubborn\nwills, the magnet for distant hearts. The cross of Christ is the\nkey-stone of the universe and the conqueror of all enmity.\n\nIf religion is to have sovereign power in our lives, it must be the\nreligion built upon faith in the Incarnate Son of God, who reconciles\nthe world to God upon His cross. That is the only faith which makes men\nlove God and binds them to Him with bands which cannot be broken. Other\ntypes of Christianity are but tepid; and lukewarm water is an\nabomination. The one thing that makes us ground our rebellious arms and\nsay, Lord, I surrender, Thou hast conquered, is to see in Christ's life\nthe perfect image of God, and in His death the all-sufficient sacrifice\nfor sin.\n\nWhat does it avail for us that the far-reaching power of Christ's cross\nshoots out magnetic forces to the uttermost verge of the heavens, and\nbinds the whole universe by silken blood-red cords to God, if it does\nnot bind me to Him in love and longing? What does it avail that God is\nin Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, if I am unconscious of the\nenmity, and careless of the friendship? Each man has to ask himself, Am\nI reconciled to God? Has the sight of His great love on the cross won\n_me_, body and soul, to His love and service? Have I flung away\nself-will, pride and enmity, and yielded myself a glad captive to the\nloving Christ who died? His cross draws us, His love beckons us. God\npleads with all hearts. He who has made peace by so costly means as the\nsacrifice of His Son, condescends to implore the rebels to come into\namity with Him, and \"prays us with much entreaty to receive the gift.\"\nGod beseeches us to be reconciled to Himself.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Bp. Lightfoot, _On Coloss._, p. 226.\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\n_THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF RECONCILIATION AND ITS HUMAN CONDITIONS._\n\n \"To present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before\n Him: if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast,\n and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which\n was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a\n minister.\"--COL. i. 22, 23 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThe Apostle has been sketching in magnificent outline a vast system,\nwhich we may almost call the scheme of the universe. He has set forth\nChrist as its Lord and centre, through Whom all things at first came\ninto being, and still continue to be. In parallel manner he has\npresented Christ as Lord and Centre of the Church, its lifegiving Head.\nAnd finally he has set forth Christ as the Reconciler of all discords in\nheaven and earth, and especially of that which parts sinful men from\nGod.\n\nAnd now he shows us here, in the first words of our text, the purpose of\nthis whole manifestation of God in Christ to be the presenting of men\nperfect in purity, before the perfect judgment of God. He then appends\nthe condition on which the accomplishment of this ultimate purpose in\neach man depends--namely, the man's continuance in the faith and hope of\nthe Gospel. That leads him to gather up, in a series of clauses\ncharacterizing the Gospel, certain aspects of it which constitute\nsubordinate motives and encouragements to such stedfastness. That is, I\nthink, the outline connection of the words before us, which at first\nsight seem somewhat tangled and difficult to unravel.\n\nI. We have then, first, to consider the ultimate purpose of God in the\nwork of Christ.\n\n\"To present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before Him.\"\nIt may be a question whether these words should be connected with \"now\nhath He reconciled,\" or whether we are to go farther back in the long\nparagraph, and make them dependent on \"it was the good pleasure of the\nFather.\" The former seems the more natural--namely, to see here a\nstatement of the great end contemplated in our reconciliation to God;\nwhich, indeed, whatever may be the grammatical construction preferred\nhere, is also, of course, the ultimate object of the Father's good\npleasure. In the word \"present\" there is possibly a sacrificial\nallusion, as there is unquestionably in its use in Rom. xii., \"Present\nyour bodies a living sacrifice\"; or there may be another and even more\neloquent metaphor implied, that of the bringing of the bride to the\nhusband by the friend of the bridegroom. That lovely figure is found in\ntwo instances of the use of the word in Paul's epistle (2 Cor. ii. 2,\n\"to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,\" and Eph. v. 27, \"that He\nmight present it to Himself a glorious Church\"), and possibly in others.\nIt certainly gives an appropriate and beautiful emblem here if we think\nof the presentation of the bride in virginal beauty and purity to her\nLord at that last great day which is the bridal day of the perfected\nChurch.\n\nThere is, however, no need to suppose any metaphor at all, nor any\nallusion beyond the general meaning of the word--_to set in the presence\nof_. The sacrificial reference is incongruous here, and the bridal one\nnot indicated by anything in the context, as it is in the instances just\nquoted. One thing is clear, that the reference is to a future\npresentation in the day of judgment, as in another place, where Paul\nsays, \"He ... shall raise up us also ... and shall present us\" (2 Cor.\niv. 14). In the light of that revealing day, His purpose is that we\nshall stand \"holy,\" that is, devoted to God and therefore pure--\"without\nblemish,\" as the offerings had to be, and \"unreproveable,\" against whom\nno charge can be brought. These three express a regular sequence; first,\nthe inward principle of consecration and devotion to God, then its\nvisible issue in stainless conduct and character, and then its last\nconsequence, that in the judgment of God and of men we shall stand\nacquitted of blame, and every accusation drop away from our dazzling\npurity, like muddy water from the white wing of the sea-bird as it\nsoars. And all this moral perfectness and unblameableness is to be not\nmerely in the judgment of men, but \"before Him,\" the light of whose\n\"pure eyes and perfect judgment\" discovers all stains and evils. They\nmust be spotless indeed who are \"without fault before the throne of\nGod.\"\n\nSuch, then, is the grand conception of the ultimate purpose and issue of\nChrist's reconciling work. All the lines of thought in the preceding\nsection lead up to and converge in this peak. The meaning of God in\ncreation and redemption cannot be fully fathomed without taking into\nview the future perfecting of men. This Christian ideal of the\npossibilities for men is the noblest vision that can animate our hopes.\nAbsolute moral purity which shall be recognised as perfect by the\nperfect Judge, and a close approach to God, so as that we shall be\n\"before Him\" in a manner unknown here--are hopes as much brighter than\nthose which any other systems of belief print on the dim canvass curtain\nof the future, as the Christian estimate of man's condition apart from\nChrist is sadder and darker than theirs. Christianity has a much more\nextended scale of colours than they have. It goes further down into\nblackness for the tints with which it paints man as he is, and further\nup into flashing glories of splendour for the gleaming hues with which\nit paints him as he may become. They move within narrow limits of\nneutral tints. The Gospel alone does not try to minimise man's evil,\nbecause it is triumphantly confident of its power to turn all that evil\ninto good.\n\nNothing short of this complete purity and blamelessness satisfies God's\nheart. We may travel back to the beginning of this section, and connect\nits first words with these, \"It pleased the Father, to present us holy\nand spotless and blameless.\" It delights Him thus to effect the\npurifying of sinful souls, and He is glad when He sees Himself\nsurrounded by spirits thus echoing His will and reflecting His light.\nThis is what he longs for. This is what He aims at in all His\nworking--to make good and pure men. The moral interest is uppermost in\nHis heart and in His doings. The physical universe is but the\nscaffolding by which the true house of God may be built. The work of\nChrist is the means to that end, and when God has got us, by such\nlavish expenditure, to be white like Himself, and can find nothing in us\nto condemn, then, and not till then, does He brood over us satisfied and\nglad at heart, resting in His love, and rejoicing over us with singing.\n\nNor will anything short of this complete purity exhaust the power of the\nReconciling Christ. His work is like an unfinished column, or Giotto's\nCampanile, all shining with marbles and alabasters and set about with\nfair figures, but waiting for centuries for the glittering apex to\ngather its glories into a heaven-piercing point. His cross and passion\nreach no adequate result, short of the perfecting of saints, nor was it\nworth Christ's while to die for any less end. His cross and passion have\nevidently power to effect this perfect purity, and cannot be supposed to\nhave done all that is in them to do, until they have done that with\nevery Christian.\n\nWe ought then to keep very clear before us this as the crowning object\nof Christianity: not to make men happy, except as a consequence of\nholiness; not to deliver from penalty, except as a means to holiness;\nbut to make them holy, and being holy, to set them close by the throne\nof God. No man understands the scope of Christianity, or judges it\nfairly, who does not give full weight to that as its own statement of\nits purpose. The more distinctly we, as Christians, keep that purpose\nprominent in our thoughts, the more shall we have our efforts stimulated\nand guided, and our hopes fed, even when we are saddened by a sense of\nfailure. We have a power working in us which can make us white as the\nangels, pure as our Lord is pure. If it, being able to produce perfect\nresults, has produced only such imperfect ones, we may well ask, where\nthe reason for the partial failure lies. If we believed more vividly\nthat the real purpose and use of Christianity was to make us good men,\nwe should surely labour more earnestly to secure that end, should take\nmore to heart our own responsibility for the incompleteness with which\nit has been attained in us, and should submit ourselves more completely\nto the operation of the \"might of the power\" which worketh in us.\n\nNothing less than our absolute purity will satisfy God about us. Nothing\nless should satisfy ourselves. The only worthy end of Christ's work for\nus is to present us holy, in complete consecration, and without blemish,\nin perfect homogeneousness and uniformity of white purity and\nunreproveable in manifest innocence in His sight. If we call ourselves\nChristians let us make it our life's business to see that that end is\nbeing accomplished in us in some tolerable and growing measure.\n\nII. We have next set forth the conditions on which the accomplishment of\nthat purpose depends: \"If so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded\nand stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.\"\n\nThe condition is, generally speaking, a stedfast adherence to the Gospel\nwhich the Colossians had received. \"If ye continue in the faith,\" means,\nI suppose, if ye continue to live in the _exercise_ of your faith. The\nword here has its ordinary subjective sense, expressing the act of the\nbelieving man, and there is no need to suppose that it has the later\necclesiastical objective sense, expressing the believer's creed, a\nmeaning in which it may be questioned whether the word is ever employed\nin the New Testament. Then this continuance in the faith is further\nexplained as to its manner, and that first positively, and then\nnegatively. They are to be grounded, or more picturesquely and\naccurately, \"founded,\" that is, built into a foundation, and therefore\n\"stedfast,\" as banded into the firm rock, and so partaking of its\nfixedness. Then, negatively, they are not to be \"moved away\"; the word\nby its form conveying the idea, that this is a process which may be\ncontinually going on, and in which, by some force constantly acting from\nwithout, they may be gradually and imperceptibly pushed off from the\nfoundation--that foundation is the hope evoked or held out by the\nGospel, a representation which is less familiar than that which makes\nthe Gospel itself the foundation, but is substantially equivalent to it,\nthough with a different colour.\n\nOne or two plain lessons may be drawn from these words. There is an\n\"if,\" then. However great the powers of Christ and of His work, however\ndeep the desire and fixed the purpose of God, no fulfilment of these is\npossible except on condition of our habitual exercise of faith. The\nGospel does not work on men by magic. Mind, heart and will must be\nexercised on Christ, or all His power to purify and bless will be of no\navail to us. We shall be like Gideon's fleece, dry when the dew is\nfalling thick, unless we are continually putting forth living faith.\nThat attracts the blessing and fits the soul to receive it. There is\nnothing mystical about the matter. Common sense tells us, that if a man\nnever thinks about any truth, that truth will do him no good in any way.\nIf it does not find its road into his heart through his mind, and thence\ninto his life, it is all one as if there were no such truth, or as if\nhe did not believe it. If our creed is made up of truths which we do not\nthink about, we may just as well have no creed. If we do not bring\nourselves into contact with the motives which the Gospel brings to bear\non character, the motives will not mould our character. If we do not, by\nfaith and meditation, realize the principles which flow from the truth\nas it is in Jesus, and obtain the strength which is stored in Him, we\nshall not grow by Him or like Him. No matter how mighty be the renewing\npowers of the Gospel wielded by the Divine Spirit, they can only work on\nthe nature that is brought into contact with and continues in contact\nwith them by faith. The measure in which we trust Jesus Christ will be\nthe measure in which He helps us. \"He could do no mighty works because\nof their unbelief.\" He cannot do what He can do, if we thwart Him by our\nwant of faith. God will present us holy before Him _if_ we continue in\nthe faith.\n\nAnd it must be present faith which leads to present results. We cannot\nmake an arrangement by which we exercise faith wholesale once for all,\nand secure a delivery of its blessings in small quantities for a while\nafter, as a buyer may do with goods. The moment's act of faith will\nbring the moment's blessings; but to-morrow will have to get its own\ngrace by its own faith. We cannot lay up a stock for the future. There\nmust be present drinking for present thirst; we cannot lay in a reserve\nof the water of life, as a camel can drink at a draught enough for a\nlong desert march. The Rock follows us all through the wilderness, but\nwe have to fill our pitchers day by day. Many Christians seem to think\nthat they can live on past acts of faith. No wonder that their Christian\ncharacter is stunted, and their growth stopped, and many a blemish\nvisible, and many a \"blame\" to be brought against them. Nothing but\ncontinual exercise of faith, day by day, moment by moment, in every\nduty, and every temptation, will secure the continual entrance into our\nweakness of the strength which makes strong and the purity which makes\npure.\n\nThen again, if we and our lives are to be firm and stable, we must have\na foundation outside of ourselves on which to rest. That thought is\ninvolved in the word \"grounded\" or \"founded.\" It is possible that this\nmetaphor of the foundation is carried on into the next clause, in which\ncase \"the hope of the Gospel\" would be the foundation. Strange to make a\nsolid foundation out of so unsubstantial a thing as \"hope!\" That would\nbe indeed to build a castle on the air, a palace on a soap-bubble, would\nit not? Yes, it would, if this hope were not \"the hope produced by the\nGospel,\" and therefore as solid as the ever-enduring Word of the Lord on\nwhich it is founded. But, more probably, the ordinary application of the\nfigure is preserved here, and Christ is the foundation, the Rock, on\nwhich builded, our fleeting lives and our fickle selves may become\nrock-like too, and every impulsive and changeable Simon Bar Jonas rise\nto the mature stedfastness of a Peter, the pillar of the Church.\n\nTranslate that image of taking Christ for our foundation into plain\nEnglish, and what does it come to? It means, let our minds find in Him,\nin His Word, and whole revealing life, the basis of our beliefs, the\nmaterials for thought; let our hearts find in Him their object, which\nbrings calmness and unchangeableness into their love; let our practical\nenergies take Him as their motive and pattern, their strength and their\naim, their stimulus and their reward; let all hopes and joys, emotions\nand desires, fasten themselves on Him; let Him occupy and fill our whole\nnature, and mould and preside over all our actions. So shall we be\n\"founded\" on Christ.\n\nAnd so \"founded,\" we shall, as Paul here beautifully puts it, be\n\"stedfast.\" Without that foundation to give stability and permanence, we\nnever get down to what abides, but pass our lives amidst fleeting\nshadows, and are ourselves transient as they. The mind whose thoughts\nabout God and the unseen world are not built on the personal revelation\nof God in Christ will have no solid certainties which cannot be shaken,\nbut, at the best, opinions which cannot have more fixedness than belongs\nto human thoughts upon the great problem. If my love does not rest on\nChrist, it will flicker and flutter, lighting now here and now there,\nand even where it rests most secure in human love, sure to have to take\nwing some day, when Death with his woodman's axe fells the tree where it\nnestles. If my practical life is not built on Him, the blows of\ncircumstance will make it reel and stagger. If we are not well joined to\nJesus Christ, we shall be driven by gusts of passion and storms of\ntrouble, or borne along on the surface of the slow stream of\nall-changing time like thistle-down on the water. If we are to be\nstable, it must be because we are fastened to something outside of\nourselves that is stable, just as they have to lash a man to the mast\nor other fixed things on deck, if he is not to be washed overboard in\nthe gale. If we are lashed to the unchangeable Christ by the \"cords of\nlove\" and faith, we too shall, in our degree, be stedfast.\n\nAnd, says Paul, that Christ-derived stedfastness will make us able to\nresist influences that would move us away from the hope of the Gospel.\nThat process which their stedfastness would enable the Colossians\nsuccessfully to resist, is described by the language of the Apostle as\ncontinuous, and as one which acted on them from without. Intellectual\ndangers arose from false teachings. The ever acting tendencies of\nworldliness pressed upon them, and they needed to make a distinct effort\nto keep themselves from being overcome by these.\n\nIf we do not take care that imperceptible, steady pressure of the\nall-surrounding worldliness, which is continually acting on us, will\npush us right off the foundation without our knowing that we have\nshifted at all. If we do not look well after our moorings we shall drift\naway down stream, and never know that we are moving, so smooth is the\nmotion, till we wake up to see that everything round about is changed.\nMany a man is unaware how completely his Christian faith has gone till\nsome crisis comes when he needs it, and when he opens the jar there is\nnothing. It has evaporated. When white ants eat away all the inside of a\npiece of furniture, they leave the outside shell apparently solid, and\nit stands till some weight is laid upon it, and then goes down with a\ncrash. Many people loose their Christianity in that fashion, by its\nbeing nibbled away in tiny flakes by a multitude of secretly working\nlittle jaws, and they never know that the pith is out of it till they\nwant to lean on it, and then it gives under them.\n\nThe only way to keep firm hold of hope is to keep fast on the\nfoundation. If we do not wish to slide imperceptibly away from Him who\nalone will make our lives stedfast and our hearts calm with the\npeacefulness of having found our All, we must continuously make an\neffort to tighten our grasp on Him, and to resist the subtle forces\nwhich, by silent pressure or by sudden blows, seek to get us off the one\nfoundation.\n\nIII. Then lastly, we have a threefold motive for adherence to the\nGospel.\n\nThe three clauses which close these verses seem to be appended as\nsecondary and subordinate encouragements to stedfastness, which\nencouragements are drawn from certain characteristics of the Gospel. Of\ncourse, the main reason for a man's sticking to the Gospel, or to\nanything else, is that it is true. And unless we are prepared to say\nthat we believe it true, we have nothing to do with such subordinate\nmotives for professing adherence to it, except to take care that they do\n_not_ influence us. And that one sole reason is abundantly wrought out\nin this letter. But then, its truth being established, we may fairly\nbring in other subsidiary motives to reinforce this, seeing that there\nmay be a certain coldness of belief which needs the warmth of such\nencouragements.\n\nThe first of these lies in the words, \"the Gospel, which ye heard.\" That\nis to say, the Apostle would have the Colossians, in the face of these\nheretical teachers, remember the beginning of their Christian life, and\nbe consistent with that. They had heard it at their conversion. He\nwould have them recall what they had heard then, and tamper with no\nteaching inconsistent with it. He also appeals to their experience. \"Do\nyou remember what the Gospel did for you? Do you remember the time when\nit first dawned upon your astonished hearts, all radiant with heavenly\nbeauty, as the revelation of a Heart in heaven that cared for you, and\nof a Christ Who, on earth, had died for you? Did it not deliver you from\nyour burden? Did it not set new hope before you? Did it not make earth\nas the very portals of heaven? And have these truths become less\nprecious because familiar? Be not moved away from the Gospel 'which ye\nhave heard.'\"\n\nTo us the same appeal comes. This word has been sounding in our ears\never since childhood. It has done everything for some of us, something\nfor all of us. Its truths have sometimes shone out for us like suns, in\nthe dark, and brought us strength when nothing else could sustain us. If\nthey are not truths, of course they will have to go. But they are not to\nbe abandoned easily. They are interwoven with our very lives. To part\nwith them is a resolution not to be lightly undertaken.\n\nThe argument of experience is of no avail to convince others, but is\nvalid for ourselves. A man has a perfect right to say, \"I have heard Him\nmyself, and I know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the\nworld.\" A Christian may wisely decline to enter on the consideration of\nmany moot questions which he may feel himself incompetent to handle, and\nrest upon the fact that Christ has saved his soul. The blind man beat\nthe Pharisees in logic when he sturdily took his stand on experience,\nand refused to be tempted to discuss subjects which he did not\nunderstand, or to allow his ignorance to slacken his grasp of what he\ndid know. \"Whether this man be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I\nknow, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.\" There was no answering\nthat, so by excommunicating him they confessed themselves beaten.\n\nA second encouragement to stedfast adherence to the Gospel lies in the\nfact that it \"was preached in all creation under heaven.\" We need not be\npedantic about literal accuracy, and may allow that the statement has a\nrhetorical colouring. But what the Apostle means is, that the gospel had\nspread so widely, through so many phases of civilisation, and had proved\nits power by touching men so unlike each other in mental furniture and\nhabits, that it had showed itself to be a word for the whole race. It is\nthe same thought as we have already found in verse 6. His implied\nexhortation is, \"Be not moved away from what belongs to humanity by\nteachings which can only belong to a class.\" All errors are transient in\nduration and limited in area. One addresses itself to one class of men,\nanother to another. Each false, or exaggerated, or partial\nrepresentation of religious truth, is congenial to some group with\nidiosyncrasies of temperament or mind. Different tastes like different\nspiced meats, but the gospel, \"human nature's daily food,\" is the bread\nof God that everybody can relish, and which everybody must have for\nhealthy life. What only a certain class or the men of one generation or\nof one stage of culture can find nourishment in, cannot be meant for all\nmen. But the great message of God's love in Jesus Christ commends\nitself to us because it can go into any corner of the world, and there,\nupon all sorts of people, work its wonders. So we will sit down with the\nwomen and children upon the green grass, and eat of _it_, however\nfastidious people whose appetites have been spoiled by high-spiced meat,\nmay find it coarse and insipid. It would feed them too, if they would\ntry--but whatever they may do, let us take it as more than our necessary\nfood.\n\nThe last of these subsidiary encouragements to stedfastness lies in,\n\"whereof I Paul was made a minister.\" This is not merely an appeal to\ntheir affection for him, though that is perfectly legitimate. Holy words\nmay be holier because dear lips have taught them to us, and even the\ntruth of God may allowably have a firmer hold upon our hearts because of\nour love for some who have ministered it to us. It is a poor commentary\non a preacher's work if, after long service to a congregation, his words\ndo not come with power given to them by old affection and confidence.\nThe humblest teacher who has done his Master's errand will have some to\nwhom he can appeal as Paul did, and urge them to keep hold of the\nmessage which he has preached.\n\nBut there is more than that in the Apostle's mind. He was accustomed to\nquote the fact that he, the persecutor, had been made the messenger of\nChrist, as a living proof of the infinite mercy and power of that\nascended Lord, whom his eyes saw on the road to Damascus. So here, he\nputs stress on the fact that he _became_ a minister of the gospel, as\nbeing an \"evidence of Christianity.\" The history of his conversion is\none of the strongest proofs of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus\nChrist. You know, he seems to say, what turned me from being a\npersecutor into an apostle. It was because I saw the living Christ, and\n\"heard the words of His mouth,\" and, I beseech you, listen to no words\nwhich make His dominion less sovereign, and His sole and all sufficient\nwork on the cross less mighty as the only power that knits earth to\nheaven.\n\nSo the sum of this whole matter is--abide in Christ. Let us root and\nground our lives and characters in Him, and then God's inmost desire\nwill be gratified in regard to us, and He will bring even us stainless\nand blameless into the blaze of His presence. There we shall all have to\nstand, and let that all-penetrating light search us through and through.\nHow do we expect to be then \"found of Him in peace, without spot and\nblameless\"? There is but one way--to live in constant exercise of faith\nin Christ, and grip Him so close and sure that the world, the flesh and\nthe devil cannot make us loosen our fingers. Then He will hold us up,\nand His great purpose, which brought Him to earth, and nailed Him to the\ncross, will be fulfilled in us, and at last, we shall lift up voices of\nwondering praise \"to Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to\npresent us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding\njoy.\"\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\n_JOY IN SUFFERING, AND TRIUMPH IN THE MANIFESTED MYSTERY._\n\n \"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my\n part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh\n for His body's sake, which is the Church; whereof I was made a\n minister according to the dispensation of God which was given me to\n you-ward to fulfil the word of God, even the mystery which hath been\n hid from all ages and generations; but now hath it been manifested\n to His Saints, to Whom God was pleased to make known what is the\n riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is\n Christ in you, the hope of glory.\"--COL. i. 24-27 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThere are scarcely any personal references in this Epistle, until we\nreach the last chapter. In this respect it contrasts strikingly with\nanother of Paul's epistles of the captivity, that to the Philippians,\nwhich is running over with affection and with allusions to himself. This\nsparseness of personal details strongly confirms the opinion that he had\nnot been to Colossae. Here, however, we come to one of the very few\nsections which may be called personal, though even here it is rather\nPaul's office than himself which is in question. He is led to speak of\nhimself by his desire to enforce his exhortations to faithful\ncontinuance in the gospel, and, as is so often the case with him in\ntouching on his apostleship, he as it were, catches fire, and blazes up\nin a grand flame, which sheds a bright light on his lofty enthusiasm and\nevangelistic fervour The words to be considered now are plain enough in\nthemselves, but they are run together, and thought follows thought in a\nfashion which makes them somewhat obscure; and there are also one or two\ndifficulties in single words which require to be cleared up. We shall\nperhaps best bring out the course of thought by dealing with these\nverses in three groups, of which the three words, Suffering, Service,\nand Mystery, are respectively the centres. First, we have a remarkable\nview taken by the prisoner of the meaning of his sufferings, as being\nendured for the Church. That leads him to speak of his relation to the\nChurch generally as being that of a servant or steward appointed by God,\nto bring to its completion the work of God; and then, as I said, he\ntakes fire, and, forgetting himself, flames up in rapturous magnifying\nof the grand message hid so long, and now entrusted to him to preach. So\nwe have his Sufferings for the Church, his service of Stewardship to the\nChurch, and the great Mystery which in that stewardship he had to\nunveil. It may help us to understand both Paul and his message, as well\nas our own tasks and trials, if we try to grasp his thoughts here about\nhis work and his sorrows.\n\nI. We have the Apostle's triumphant contemplation of his sufferings. \"I\nrejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that\nwhich is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's\nsake, which is the Church.\"\n\nThe Revised Version, following the best authorities, omits the \"who\"\nwith which the Authorized Version begins this verse, and marks a new\nsentence and paragraph, as is obviously right.\n\nThe very first word is significant: \"_Now_ I rejoice.\" Ay; it is easy\nto say fine things about patience in sufferings and triumph in sorrow\nwhen we are prosperous and comfortable; but it is different when we are\nin the furnace. This man, with the chain on his wrist, and the iron\nentering into his soul, with his life in danger, and all the future\nuncertain, can say, \"_Now_ I rejoice.\" This bird sings in a darkened\ncage.\n\nThen come startling words, \"I on my part fill up that which is lacking\n(a better rendering than 'behind') of the afflictions of Christ.\" It is\nnot surprising that many explanations of these words have tried to\nsoften down their boldness; as, for instance, \"afflictions borne for\nChrist,\" or \"imposed by Him,\" or \"like His.\" But it seems very clear\nthat the startling meaning is the plain meaning, and that \"the\nsufferings of Christ\" here, as everywhere else, are \"the sufferings\nborne by Christ.\"\n\nThen at once the questions start up, Does Paul mean to say that in any\nsense whatever the sufferings which Christ endured have anything\n\"lacking\" in them? or does he mean to say that a Christian man's\nsufferings, however they may benefit the Church, can be put alongside of\nthe Lord's, and taken to eke out the incompleteness of His? Surely that\ncannot be! Did He not say on the cross, \"It is finished\"? Surely that\nsacrifice needs no supplement, and can receive none, but stands \"the one\nsacrifice for sins for ever\"! Surely, His sufferings are absolutely\nsingular in nature and effect, unique and all-sufficient and eternal.\nAnd does this Apostle, the very heart of whose gospel was that these\nwere the life of the world, mean to say that anything which he endures\ncan be tacked on to them, a bit of the old rags to the new garment?\n\nDistinctly not! To say so would be contradictory of the whole spirit and\nletter of the Apostle's teaching. But there is no need to suppose that\nhe means anything of the sort. There is an idea frequently presented in\nScripture, which gives full meaning to the words, and is in full\naccordance with Pauline teaching; namely, that Christ truly participates\nin the sufferings of His people borne for Him. He suffers with them. The\nhead feels the pangs of all the members; and every ache may be thought\nof as belonging, not only to the limb where it is located, but to the\nbrain which is conscious of it. The pains and sorrows and troubles of\nHis friends and followers to the end of time are one great whole. Each\nsorrow of each Christian heart is one drop more added to the contents of\nthe measure which has to be filled to the brim, ere the purposes of the\nFather who leads through suffering to rest are accomplished; and all\nbelong to Him. Whatsoever pain or trial is borne in fellowship with Him\nis felt and borne by Him. Community of sensation is established between\nHim and us. Our sorrows are transferred to Him. \"In all our afflictions\nHe is afflicted,\" both by His mystical but most real oneness with us,\nand by His brother's sympathy.\n\nSo for us all, and not for the Apostle only, the whole aspect of our\nsorrows may be changed, and all poor struggling souls in this valley of\nweeping may take comfort and courage from the wonderful thought of\nChrist's union with us, which makes our griefs His, and our pain touch\nHim. Bruise your finger, and the pain pricks and stabs in your brain.\nStrike the man that is joined to Christ here, and Christ up yonder\nfeels it. \"He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye.\" Where\ndid Paul learn this deep lesson, that the sufferings of Christ's\nservants were Christ's sufferings? I wonder whether, as he wrote these\nwords of confident yet humble identification of himself the persecuted\nwith Christ the Lord, there came back to his memory what he heard on\nthat fateful day as he rode to Damascus, \"Saul, Saul, why persecutest\nthou Me?\" The thought so crushing to the persecutor had become balm and\nglory to the prisoner,--that every blow aimed at the servant falls on\nthe Master, who stoops from amid the glory of the throne to declare that\nwhatsoever is done, whether it be kindness or cruelty, to the least of\nHis brethren, is done to Him. So every one of us may take the comfort\nand strength of that wonderful assurance, and roll all our burdens and\nsorrows on Him.\n\nAgain, there is prominent here the thought that the good of sorrow does\nnot end with the sufferer. His sufferings are borne in his _flesh_ for\nthe _body's_ sake, which is the Church,--a remarkable antithesis between\nthe Apostle's flesh in which, and Christ's body for which, the\nsufferings are endured. Every sorrow rightly borne, as it will be when\nChrist is felt to be bearing it with us, is fruitful of blessing. Paul's\ntrials were in a special sense \"for His body's sake,\" for of course, if\nhe had not preached the gospel, he would have escaped them all; and on\nthe other hand, they have been especially fruitful of good, for if he\nhad not been persecuted, he would never have written these precious\nletters from Rome. The Church owes much to the violence which has shut\nup confessors in dungeons. Its prison literature, beginning with this\nletter, and ending with \"Pilgrim's Progress,\" has been among its most\ncherished treasures.\n\nBut the same thing is true about us all, though it may be in a narrower\nsphere. No man gets good for himself alone out of his sorrows. Whatever\npurifies and makes gentler and more Christlike, whatever teaches or\nbuilds up--and sorrows rightly borne do all these--is for the common\ngood. Be our trials great or small, be they minute and every-day--like\ngnats that hum about us in clouds, and may be swept away by the hand,\nand irritate rather than hurt where they sting--or be they huge and\nformidable, like the viper that clings to the wrist and poisons the life\nblood, they are meant to give us good gifts, which we may transmit to\nthe narrow circle of our homes, and in ever widening rings of influence\nto all around us. Have we never known a household, where some chronic\ninvalid, lying helpless perhaps on a sofa, was a source of the highest\nblessing and the centre of holy influence, that made every member of the\nfamily gentler, more self-denying and loving? We shall never understand\nour sorrows, unless we try to answer the question, What good to others\nis meant to come through me by this? Alas, that grief should so often be\nself-absorbed, even more than joy is! The heart sometimes opens to\nunselfish sharing of its gladness with others; but it too often shuts\ntight over its sorrow, and seeks solitary indulgence in the luxury of\nwoe. Let us learn that our brethren claim benefit from our trials, as\nwell as from our good things, and seek to ennoble our griefs by bearing\nthem for \"His body's sake, which is the Church.\"\n\nChrist's sufferings on His cross are the satisfaction for a world's\nsins, and in that view can have no supplement, and stand alone in kind.\nBut His \"afflictions\"--a word which would not naturally be applied to\nHis death--do operate also to set the pattern of holy endurance, and to\nteach many a lesson; and in that view every suffering borne for Him and\nwith Him may be regarded as associated with His, and helping to bless\nthe Church and the world. God makes the rough iron of our natures into\nshining, flexible, sharp steel, by heavy hammers and hot furnaces, that\nHe may shape us as His instruments to help and heal.\n\nIt is of great moment that we should have such thoughts of our sorrows\nwhilst their pressure is upon us, and not only when they are past. \"I\n_now_ rejoice.\" Most of us have had to let years stretch between us and\nthe blow before we could attain to that clear insight. We can look back\nand see how our past sorrows tended to bless us, and how Christ was with\nus in them: but as for this one, that burdens us to-day, we cannot make\n_it_ out. We can even have a solemn thankfulness not altogether unlike\njoy as we look on those wounds that we remember; but how hard it is to\nfeel it about those that pain us now! There is but one way to secure\nthat calm wisdom, which feels their meaning even while they sting and\nburn, and can smile through tears, as sorrowful and yet always\nrejoicing; and that is to keep in very close communion with our Lord.\nThen, even when we are in the whitest heat of the furnace, we may have\nthe Son of man with us; and if we have, the fiercest flames will burn up\nnothing but the chains that bind us, and we shall \"walk at liberty\" in\nthat terrible heat, because we walk with Him. It is a high attainment\nof Christian fortitude and faith to feel the blessed meaning, not only\nof the six tribulations which are past, but of the present seventh, and\nto say, even while the iron is entering the quivering flesh, \"I _now_\nrejoice in my sufferings,\" and try to turn them to others' good.\n\nII. These thoughts naturally lead on to the statement of the Apostle's\nlowly and yet lofty conception of his office--\"whereof (that is, of\nwhich _Church_) I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of\nGod, which was given me to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God.\"\n\nThe first words of this clause are used at the close of the preceding\nsection in verse 23, but the \"whereof\" there refers to the gospel, not\nas here to the Church. He is the servant of both, and because he is the\nservant of the Church he suffers, as he has been saying. The\nrepresentation of himself as servant gives the reason for the conduct\ndescribed in the previous clause. Then the next words explain what makes\nhim the Church's servant. He is so in accordance with, or in pursuance\nof, the stewardship, or office of administrator, of His household, to\nwhich God has called him, \"to you-ward,\" that is to say, with especial\nreference to the Gentiles. And the final purpose of his being made a\nsteward is \"to fulfil the word of God\"; by which is not meant \"to\naccomplish or bring to pass its predictions,\" but \"to bring it to\ncompletion,\" or \"to give full development to it,\" and that possibly in\nthe sense of preaching it fully, without reserve, and far and wide\nthroughout the whole world.\n\nSo lofty and yet so lowly was Paul's thought of his office. He was the\nChurch's servant, and therefore bound to suffer cheerfully for its\nsake. He was so, because a high honour had been conferred on him by God,\nnothing less than the stewardship of His great household the Church, in\nwhich he had to give to every man his portion, and to exercise\nauthority. He is the Church's servant indeed, but it is because he is\nthe Lord's steward. And the purpose of his appointment goes far beyond\nthe interests of any single Church; for while his office sends him\nespecially to the Colossians, its scope is as wide as the world.\n\nOne great lesson to be learned from these words is that Stewardship\nmeans service; and we may add that, in nine cases out of ten, service\nmeans suffering. What Paul says, if we put it into more familiar\nlanguage, is just this: \"Because God has given me something that I can\nimpart to others, I am their servant, and bound, not only by my duty to\nHim, but by my duty to them, to labour that they may receive the\ntreasure.\" That is true for us all. Every gift from the great\nHouseholder involves the obligation to impart it. It makes us His\nstewards and our brethren's servants. We have that we may give. The\npossessions are the Householder's, not ours, even after He has given\nthem to us. He gives us truths of various kinds in our minds, the gospel\nin our hearts, influence from our position, money in our pockets, not to\nlavish on self, nor to hide and gloat over in secret, but that we may\ntransmit His gifts, and \"God's grace fructify through us to all.\" \"It is\nrequired of stewards that a man be found faithful\"; and the heaviest\ncharge, \"that he had wasted his Lord's goods,\" lies against every one of\nus who does not use all that he possesses, whether of material or\nintellectual or spiritual wealth, for the common advantage.\n\nBut that common obligation of stewardship presses with special force on\nthose who say that they are Christ's servants. If we are, we know\nsomething of His love and have felt something of His power; and there\nare hundreds of people around us, many of whom we can influence, who\nknow nothing of either. That fact makes us their servants, not in the\nsense of being under their control, or of taking orders from them, but\nin the sense of gladly working for them, and recognising our obligation\nto help them. Our resources may be small. The Master of the house may\nhave entrusted us with little. Perhaps we are like the boy with the five\nbarley loaves and two small fishes; but even if we had only a bit of the\nbread and a tail of one of the fishes, we must not eat our morsel alone.\nGive it those who have none, and it will multiply as it is distributed,\nlike the barrel of meal, which did not fail because its poor owner\nshared it with the still poorer prophet. Give, and not only give, but\n\"pray them with much entreaty to receive the gift\"; for men need to have\nthe true Bread pressed on them, and they will often throw it back, or\ndrop it over a wall, as soon as your back is turned, as beggars do in\nour streets. We have to win them by showing that we are their servants,\nbefore they will take what we have to give. Besides this, if stewardship\nis service, service is often suffering; and he will not clear himself of\nhis obligations to his fellows, or of his responsibility to his Master,\nwho shrinks from seeking to make known the love of Christ to his\nbrethren, because he has often to \"go forth weeping\" whilst he bears\nthe precious seed.\n\nIII. So we come to the last thought here, which is of the grand Mystery\nof which Paul is the Apostle and Servant. Paul always catches fire when\nhe comes to think of the universal destination of the gospel, and of the\nhonour put upon him as the man to whom the task was entrusted of\ntransforming the Church from a Jewish sect to a world-wide society. That\ngreat thought now sweeps him away from his more immediate object, and\nenriches us with a burst which we could ill spare from the letter.\n\nHis task, he says, is to give its full development to the word of God,\nto proclaim a certain mystery long hid, but now revealed to those who\nare consecrated to God. To these it has been God's good pleasure to show\nthe wealth of glory which is contained in this mystery, as exhibited\namong the Gentile Christians, which mystery is nothing else than the\nfact that Christ dwells in or among these Gentiles, of whom the\nColossians are part, and by His dwelling in them gives them the\nconfident expectation of future glory.\n\nThe mystery then of which the Apostle speaks so rapturously is the fact\nthat the Gentiles were fellow-heirs and partakers of Christ. \"Mystery\"\nis a word borrowed from the ancient systems, in which certain rites and\ndoctrines were communicated to the initiated. There are several\nallusions to them in Paul's writings, as for instance in the passage in\nPhilippians iv. 12, which the Revised Version gives as \"I have learned\nthe secret both to be filled and to be hungry,\" and probably in the\nimmediate context here, where the characteristic word \"perfect\" means\n\"initiated.\" Portentous theories which have no warrant have been spun\nout of this word. The Greek mysteries implied secrecy; the rites were\ndone in deep obscurity; the esoteric doctrines were muttered in the ear.\nThe Christian mysteries are spoken on the housetop, nor does the word\nimply anything as to the comprehensibility of the doctrines or facts\nwhich are so called.\n\nWe talk about \"mysteries,\" meaning thereby truths that transcend human\nfaculties; but the New Testament \"mystery\" may be, and most frequently\nis, a fact perfectly comprehensible when once spoken. \"Behold I show you\na mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.\" There\nis nothing incomprehensible in that. We should never have known it if we\nhad not been told; but when told it is quite level with our faculties.\nAnd as a matter of fact, the word is most frequently used in connection\nwith the notion, not of concealment, but of declaring. We find too that\nit occurs frequently in this Epistle, and in the parallel letter to the\nEphesians, and in every instance but one refers as it does here, to a\nfact which was perfectly plain and comprehensible when once made known;\nnamely, the entrance of the Gentiles into the Church.\n\nIf that be the true meaning of the word, then \"a steward of the\nmysteries\" will simply mean a man who has truths, formerly unknown but\nnow revealed, in charge to make known to all who will hearken, and\nneither the claims of a priesthood nor the demand for the unquestioning\nsubmission of the intellect have any foundation in this much abused\nterm.\n\nBut turning from this, we may briefly consider what was the substance of\nthis grand mystery which thrilled Paul's soul. It is the wonderful fact\nthat all barriers were broken down, and that Christ dwelt in the hearts\nof these Colossians. He saw in that the proof and the prophecy of the\nworld-wide destination of the gospel. No wonder that his heart burned as\nhe thought of the marvellous work which God had wrought by him. For\nthere is no greater revolution in the history of the world than that\naccomplished through him, the cutting loose of Christianity from Judaism\nand widening the Church to the width of the race. No wonder that he was\nmisunderstood and hated by Jewish Christians all his days!\n\nHe thinks of these once heathens and now Christians at Colossae, far away\nin their lonely valley, and of many another little community--in Judaea,\nAsia, Greece, and Italy; and as he thinks of how a real solid bond of\nbrotherhood bound them together in spite of their differences of race\nand culture, the vision of the oneness of mankind in the Cross of Christ\nshines out before him, as no man had ever seen it till then, and he\ntriumphs in the sorrows that had helped to bring about the great result.\n\nThat dwelling of Christ among the Gentiles reveals the exuberant\nabundance of glory. To him the \"mystery\" was all running over with\nriches, and blazing with fresh radiance. To us it is familiar and\nsomewhat worn. The \"vision splendid,\" which was manifestly a revelation\nof hitherto unknown Divine treasures of mercy and lustrous light when it\nfirst dawned on the Apostle's sight, has \"faded\" somewhat \"into the\nlight of common day\" for us, to whom the centuries since have shown so\nslow a progress. But let us not lose more than we can help, either by\nour familiarity with the thought, or by the discouragements arising from\nthe chequered history of its partial realization. Christianity is still\nthe only religion which has been able to make permanent conquests. It is\nthe only one that has been able to disregard latitude and longitude, and\nto address and guide condition of civilization and modes of life quite\nunlike those of its origin. It is the only one that sets itself the task\nof conquering the world without the sword, and has kept true to the\ndesign for centuries. It is the only one whose claims to be world-wide\nin its adaptation and destiny would not be laughed out of court by its\nhistory. It is the only one which is to-day a missionary religion. And\nso, notwithstanding the long centuries of arrested growth and the wide\ntracts of remaining darkness, the mystery which fired Paul's enthusiasm\nis still able to kindle ours, and the wealth of glory that lies in it\nhas not been impoverished nor stricken with eclipse.\n\nOne last thought is here,--that the possession of Christ is the pledge\nof future blessedness. \"Hope\" here seems to be equivalent to \"the\nsource\" or \"ground\" of the hope. If we have the experience of His\ndwelling in our hearts, we shall have, in that very experience of His\nsweetness and of the intimacy of His love, a marvellous quickener of our\nhope that such sweetness and intimacy will continue for ever. The closer\nwe keep to Him, the clearer will be our vision of future blessedness. If\nHe is throned in our hearts, we shall be able to look forward with a\nhope, which is not less than certainty, to the perpetual continuance of\nHis hold of us and of our blessedness in Him. Anything seems more\ncredible to a man who habitually has Christ abiding in him, than that\nsuch a trifle as death should have power to end such a union. To have\nHim is to have life. To have Him will be heaven. To have Him is to have\na hope certain as memory and careless of death or change.\n\nThat hope is offered to us all. If by our faith in His great sacrifice\nwe grasp the great truth of \"Christ for us,\" our fears will be\nscattered, sin and guilt taken away, death abolished, condemnation\nended, the future a hope and not a dread. If by communion with Him\nthrough faith, love, and obedience, we have \"Christ in us,\" our purity\nwill grow, and our experience will be such as plainly to demand eternity\nto complete its incompleteness and to bring its folded buds to flower\nand fruit. If Christ be in us, His life guarantees ours, and we cannot\ndie whilst He lives. The world has come, in the persons of its leading\nthinkers, to the position of proclaiming that all is dark beyond and\nabove. \"Behold! we know not anything,\" is the dreary \"end of the whole\nmatter\"--infinitely sadder than the old Ecclesiastes, which from \"vanity\nof vanities\" climbed to \"fear God and keep His commandments,\" as the sum\nof human thought and life. \"I find no God; I know no future.\" Yes! Paul\nlong ago told us that if we were \"without Christ\" we should \"have no\nhope, and be without God in the world.\" And cultivated Europe is finding\nout that to fling away Christ and to keep a faith in God or in a future\nlife is impossible.\n\nBut if we will take Him for our Saviour by simple trust, He will give us\nHis own presence in our hearts, and infuse there a hope full of\nimmortality. If we live in close communion with Him, we shall need no\nother assurance of an eternal life beyond than that deep, calm\nblessedness springing from the imperfect fellowship of earth which must\nneeds lead to and be lost in the everlasting and completed union of\nheaven.\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\n_THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY IN ITS THEME, METHODS AND AIM._\n\n \"Whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in\n all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ;\n whereunto I labour also, striving according to His working, which\n worketh in me mightily,\"--COL. i. 28, 29 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThe false teachers at Colossae had a great deal to say about a higher\nwisdom reserved for the initiated. They apparently treated the Apostolic\nteaching as trivial rudiments, which might be good for the vulgar crowd,\nbut were known by the possessors of this higher truth to be only a veil\nfor it. They had their initiated class, to whom their mysteries were\nentrusted in whispers.\n\nSuch absurdities excited Paul's special abhorrence. His whole soul\nrejoiced in a gospel for all men. He had broken with Judaism on the very\nground that it sought to enforce a ceremonial exclusiveness, and\ndemanded circumcision and ritual observances along with faith. That was,\nin Paul's estimate, to destroy the gospel. These Eastern dreamers at\nColossae were trying to enforce an intellectual exclusiveness quite as\nmuch opposed to the gospel. Paul fights with all his might against that\nerror. Its presence in the Church colours this context, where he uses\nthe very phrases of the false teachers in order to assert the great\nprinciples which he opposes to their teaching. \"Mystery,\" \"perfect\" or\ninitiated, \"wisdom,\"--these are the key-words of the system which he is\ncombating; and here he presses them into the service of the principle\nthat the gospel is for all men, and the most recondite secrets of its\ndeepest truth the property of every single soul that wills to receive\nthem. Yes, he says in effect, we have mysteries. We have our initiated.\nWe have wisdom. But we have no whispered teachings, confined to a little\ncoterie; we have no inner chamber closed to the many. We are not\nmuttering hierophants, cautiously revealing a little to a few, and\nfooling the rest with ceremonies and words. Our whole business is to\ntell out as fully and loudly as we can what we know of Christ, to tell\nto _every_ man _all_ the wisdom that we have learned. We fling open the\ninmost sanctuary, and invite all the crowd to enter.\n\nThis is the general scope of the words before us which state the object\nand methods of the Apostle's work; partly in order to point the contrast\nwith those other teachers, and partly in order to prepare the way, by\nthis personal reference, for his subsequent exhortations.\n\nI. We have here the Apostle's own statement of what he conceived his\nlife work to be.\n\n\"Whom we proclaim.\" All three words are emphatic. \"Whom,\" not what--a\nperson, not a system; we \"proclaim,\" not we argue or dissertate about.\n\"We\" preach--the Apostle associates himself with all his brethren, puts\nhimself in line with them, points to the unanimity of their\ntestimony--\"whether it were they or I, so we preach.\" We have all one\nmessage, a common type of doctrine.\n\nSo then--the Christian teacher's theme is not to be a theory or a\nsystem, but a living Person. One peculiarity of Christianity is that you\ncannot take its message, and put aside Christ, the speaker of the\nmessage, as you may do with all men's teachings. Some people say: \"We\ntake the great moral and religious truths which Jesus declared. They are\nthe all-important parts of His work. We can disentangle them from any\nfurther connection with Him. It matters comparatively little who first\nspoke them.\" But that will not do. His person is inextricably\nintertwined with His teaching, for a very large part of His teaching is\nexclusively concerned with, and all of it centres in, Himself. He is not\nonly true, but He is the truth. His message is, not only what He said\nwith His lips about God and man, but also what He said about Himself,\nand what He did in His life, death, and resurrection. You may take\nBuddha's sayings, if you can make sure that they are his, and find much\nthat is beautiful and true in them, whatever you may think of him; you\nmay appreciate the teaching of Confucius, though you know nothing about\nhim but that he said so and so; but you cannot do thus with Jesus. Our\nChristianity takes its whole colour from what we think of Him. If we\nthink of Him as less than this chapter has been setting Him forth as\nbeing, we shall scarcely feel that _He_ should be the preacher's theme;\nbut if He is to us what He was to this Apostle, the sole Revealer of\nGod, the Centre and Lord of creation, the Fountain of life to all which\nlives, the Reconciler of men with God by the blood of His cross, then\nthe one message which a man may be thankful to spend his life in\nproclaiming will be, Behold the Lamb! Let who will preach abstractions,\nthe true Christian minister has to preach the person and the\noffice--Jesus the Christ.\n\nTo preach Christ is to set forth the person, the facts of His life and\ndeath, and to accompany these with that explanation which turns them\nfrom being merely a biography into a gospel. So much of \"theory\" must go\nwith the \"facts,\" or they will be no more a gospel than the story of\nanother life would be. The Apostle's own statement of \"the gospel which\nhe preached\" distinctly lays down what is needed--\"how that Jesus Christ\ndied.\" That is biography, and to say that and stop there is not to\npreach Christ; but add, \"For our sins, according to the Scriptures, and\nthat He was raised again the third day,\"--preach _that_, the fact and\nits meaning and power, and you will preach Christ.\n\nOf course there is a narrower and a wider sense of this expression.\nThere is the initial teaching, which brings to a soul, who has never\nseen it before, the knowledge of a Saviour, whose Cross is the\npropitiation for sin; and there is the fuller teaching, which opens out\nthe manifold bearings of that message in every region of moral and\nreligious thought. I do not plead for any narrow construction of the\nwords. They have been sorely abused, by being made the battle-cry for\nbitter bigotry and a hard system of abstract theology, as unlike what\nPaul means by \"Christ\" as any cobwebs of Gnostic heresy could be.\nLegitimate outgrowths of the Christian ministry have been checked in\ntheir name. They have been used as a cramping iron, as a shibboleth, as\na stone to fling at honest and especially at young preachers. They have\nbeen made a pillow for laziness. So that the very sound of the words\nsuggests to some ears, because of their use in some mouths, ignorant\nnarrowness.\n\nBut for all that, they are a standard of duty for all workers for God,\nwhich it is not difficult to apply, if the will to do so be present, and\nthey are a touch-stone to try the spirits, whether they be of God. A\nministry of which the Christ who lived and died for us is manifestly the\ncentre to which all converges and from which all is viewed, may sweep a\nwide circumference, and include many themes. The requirement bars out no\nprovince of thought or experience, nor does it condemn the preacher to a\nparrot-like repetition of elementary truths, or a narrow round of\ncommonplace. It does demand that all themes shall lead up to Christ, and\nall teaching point to Him; that He shall be ever present in all the\npreacher's words, a diffused even when not a directly perceptible\npresence; and that His name, like some deep tone on an organ, shall be\nheard sounding on through all the ripple and change of the higher notes.\nPreaching Christ does not exclude any theme, but prescribes the bearing\nand purpose of all; and the widest compass and richest variety are not\nonly possible but obligatory for him who would in any worthy sense take\nthis for the motto of his ministry, \"I determined not to know anything\namong you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.\"\n\nBut these words give us not only the theme but something of the manner\nof the Apostle's activity. \"We _proclaim_.\" The word is emphatic in its\nform, meaning _to tell out_, and representing the proclamation as full,\nclear, earnest. \"We are no muttering mystery-mongers. From full lungs\nand in a voice to make people hear, we shout aloud our message. We do\nnot take a man into a corner, and whisper secrets into his ear; we cry\nin the streets, and our message is for 'every man.'\"\n\nAnd the word not only implies the plain, loud earnestness of the\nspeaker, but also that what he speaks is a _message_, that he is not a\nspeaker of his own words or thoughts, but of what has been told him to\ntell. His gospel is a good message, and a messenger's virtue is to say\nexactly what he has been told, and to say it in such a way that the\npeople to whom he has to carry it cannot but hear and understand it.\n\nThis connection of the Christian minister's office contrasts on the one\nhand with the priestly theory. Paul had known in Judaism a religion of\nwhich the altar was the centre, and the official function of the\n\"minister\" was to sacrifice. But now he has come to see that \"the one\nsacrifice for sins for ever\" leaves no room for a sacrificing priest in\nthat Church of which the centre is the Cross. We sorely need that lesson\nto be drilled into the minds of men to-day, when such a strange\nresurrection of priestism has taken place, and good, earnest men, whose\ndevotion cannot be questioned, are looking on preaching as a very\nsubordinate part of their work. For three centuries there has not been\nso much need as now to fight against the notion of a priesthood in the\nChurch, and to urge this as the true definition of the minister's\noffice: \"we preach,\" not \"we sacrifice,\" not \"we _do_\" anything; \"we\npreach,\" not \"we work miracles at any altar, or impart grace by any\nrites,\" but by manifestation of the truth discharge our office and\nspread the blessings of Christ.\n\nThis conception contrasts on the other hand, with the false teachers'\nstyle of speech, which finds its parallel in much modern talk. Their\nbusiness was to argue and refine and speculate, to spin inferences and\ncobwebby conclusions. They sat in a lecturer's chair; we stand in a\npreacher's pulpit. The Christian minister has not to deal in such wares;\nhe has a message to proclaim, and if he allows the \"philosopher\" in him\nto overpower the \"herald,\" and substitutes his thoughts about the\nmessage, or his arguments in favour of the message, for the message\nitself, he abdicates his highest office and neglects his most important\nfunction.\n\nWe hear many demands to-day for a \"higher type of preaching,\" which I\nwould heartily echo, if only it be _preaching_; that is, the\nproclamation in loud and plain utterance of the great facts of Christ's\nwork. But many who ask for this really want, not preaching, but\nsomething quite different; and many, as I think, mistaken Christian\nteachers are trying to play up to the requirements of the age by turning\ntheir sermons into dissertations, philosophical or moral or aesthetic. We\nneed to fall back on this \"we preach,\" and to urge that the Christian\nminister is neither priest nor lecturer, but a herald, whose business is\nto tell out his message, and to take good care that he tells it\nfaithfully. If, instead of blowing his trumpet and calling aloud his\ncommission, he were to deliver a discourse on acoustics and the laws of\nthe vibration of sonorous metal, or to prove that he had a message, and\nto dilate on its evident truth or on the beauty of its phrases, he\nwould scarcely be doing his work. No more is the Christian minister,\nunless he keeps clear before himself as the guiding star of his work\nthis conception of his theme and his task--_Whom we preach_--and opposes\nthat to the demands of an age, one half of which \"require a sign,\" and\nwould again degrade him into a priest, and the other calls for \"wisdom,\"\nand would turn him into a professor.\n\nII. We have here the varying methods by which this one great end is\npursued. \"Admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom.\"\n\nThere are then two main methods--\"admonishing\" and \"teaching.\" The\nformer means \"admonishing with blame,\" and points, as many commentators\nremark, to that side of the Christian ministry which corresponds to\nrepentance, while the latter points to that side which corresponds to\nfaith. In other words, the former rebukes and warns, has to do with\nconduct and the moral side of Christian truth; the latter has chiefly to\ndo with doctrine, and the intellectual side. In the one Christ is\nproclaimed as the pattern of conduct, the \"new commandment\"; in the\nother, as the creed of creeds, the new and perfect knowledge.\n\nThe preaching of Christ then is to be unfolded into all \"warning,\" or\nadmonishing. The teaching of morality and the admonishing of the evil\nand the end of sin are essential parts of preaching Christ. We claim for\nthe pulpit the right and the duty of applying the principles and pattern\nof Christ's life to all human conduct. It is difficult to do, and is\nmade more so by some of the necessary conditions of our modern ministry,\nfor the pulpit is not the place for details; and yet moral teaching\nwhich is confined to general principles is woefully like repeating\nplatitudes and firing blank cartridges. Everybody admits the general\nprinciples, and thinks they do not apply to his specific wrong action;\nand if the preacher goes beyond these toothless generalities, he is met\nwith the cry of \"personalities.\" If a man preaches a sermon in which he\nspeaks plainly about tricks of trade or follies of fashion, somebody is\nsure to say, going down the chapel steps, \"Oh! ministers know nothing of\nbusiness,\" and somebody else to add, \"It is a pity he was so personal,\"\nand the chorus is completed by many other voices, \"He should preach\nChrist, and leave secular things alone.\"\n\nWell! whether a sermon of that sort be preaching Christ or not depends\non the way in which it is done. But sure I am that there is no\n\"preaching Christ\" completely, which does not include plain speaking\nabout plain duties. Everything that a man can either do rightly or\nwrongly belongs to the sphere of morals, and everything within the\nsphere of morals belongs to Christianity and to \"preaching Christ.\"\n\nNor is such preaching complete without plain warning of the end of sin,\nas death here and hereafter. This is difficult, for many people like to\nhave the smooth side of truth always put uppermost. But the gospel has a\nrough side, and is by no means a \"soothing syrup\" merely. There are no\nrougher words about what wrongdoers come to than some of Christ's words;\nand he has only given half his Master's message who hides or softens\ndown the grim saying, \"The wages of sin is death.\"\n\nBut all this moral teaching must be closely connected with and built\nupon Christ. Christian morality has Jesus for its perfect exemplar, His\nlove for its motive, and His grace for its power. Nothing is more\nimpotent than mere moral teaching. What is the use of perpetually saying\nto people, Be good, be good? You may keep on at that for ever, and not a\nsoul will listen, any more than the crowds on our streets are drawn to\nchurch by the bell's monotonous call. But if, instead of a cold ideal of\nduty, as beautiful and as dead as a marble statue, we preach the Son of\nman, whose life is our law incarnate; and instead of urging to purity by\nmotives which our own evil makes feeble, we re-echo His heart-touching\nappeal, \"If ye love Me, keep My commandments;\" and if, instead of\nmocking lame men with exhortations to walk, we point those who\ndespairingly cry, \"Who shall deliver us from the body of this death?\" to\nHim who breathes His living spirit into us to set us free from sin and\ndeath, then our preaching of morality will be \"preaching the gospel\" and\nbe \"preaching Christ.\"\n\nThis gospel is also to be unfolded into \"teaching.\" In the facts of\nChrist's life and death, as we ponder them and grow up to understand\nthem, we get to see more and more the key to all things. For thought, as\nfor life, He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending. All\nthat we can or need know about God or man, about present duty or future\ndestiny, about life, death, and the beyond,--all is in Jesus Christ, and\nto be drawn from Him by patient thought and by abiding in Him. The\nChristian minister's business is to be ever learning and ever teaching\nmore and more of the \"manifold wisdom\" of God. He has to draw for\nhimself from the deep, inexhaustible fountains; he has to bear the\nwater, which must be fresh drawn to be pleasant or refreshing, to\nthirsty lips. He must seek to present all sides of the truth, teaching\n_all_ wisdom, and so escaping from his own limited mannerisms. How many\nministers' Bibles are all dog-eared and thumbed at certain texts, at\nwhich they almost open of themselves, and are as clean in most of their\npages as on the day when they were bought!\n\nThe Christian ministry, then, in the Apostle's view, is distinctly\neducational in its design. Preachers and hearers equally need to be\nreminded of this. We preachers are poor scholars ourselves, and in our\nwork are tempted, like other people, to do most frequently what we can\ndo with least trouble. Besides which, we many of us know, and all\nsuspect, that our congregations prefer to hear what they have heard\noften before, and what gives them the least trouble. We often hear the\ncry for \"simple preaching,\" by which one school intends \"simple\ninstruction in plain, practical matters, avoiding mere dogma,\" and\nanother intends \"the simple gospel,\" by which is meant the repetition\nover and over again of the great truth, \"Believe on the Lord Jesus\nChrist, and thou shalt be saved.\" God forbid that I should say a word\nwhich might even seem to under-estimate the need for that proclamation\nbeing made in its simple form, as the staple of the Christian ministry,\nto all who have not welcomed it into their hearts, or to forget that,\nhowever dimly understood, it will bring light and hope and new loves and\nstrengths into a soul! But the New Testament draws a distinction between\nevangelists and teachers, and common sense insists that Christian people\nneed more than the reiteration of that message from him whom they call\ntheir \"teacher.\" If he is a teacher, he should teach; and he cannot do\nthat, if the people who listen to him suspect everything that they do\nnot know already, and are impatient of anything that gives them the\ntrouble of attending and thinking in order to learn. I fear there is\nmuch unreality in the name, and that nothing would be more distasteful\nto many of our congregations than the preacher's attempt to make it\ntruly descriptive of his work. Sermons should not be \"quiet resting\nplaces.\" Nor is it quite the ideal of Christian teaching that busy men\nshould come to church or chapel on a Sunday, and not be fatigued by\nbeing made to think, but perhaps to be able to sleep for a minute or two\nand pick up the thread when they wake, quite sure that they have missed\nnothing of any consequence. We are meant to be teachers, as well as\nevangelists, though we fulfil the function so poorly; but our hearers\noften make that task more difficult by ill-concealed impatience with\nsermons which try to discharge it.\n\nObserve too the emphatic repetition of \"every man\" both in these two\nclauses and in the following. It is Paul's protest against the\nexclusiveness of the heretics, who shut out the mob from their\nmysteries. An intellectual aristocracy is the proudest and most\nexclusive of all. A Church built upon intellectual qualifications would\nbe as hard and cruel a _coterie_ as could be imagined. So there is\nalmost vehemence and scorn in the persistent repetition in each clause\nof the obnoxious word, as if he would thrust down his antagonists'\nthroats the truth that his gospel has nothing to do with cliques and\nsections, but belongs to the world. To it philosopher and fool are\nequally welcome. Its message is to all. Brushing aside surface\ndiversities, it goes straight to deep-lying wants, which are the same in\nall men. Below king's robe and professor's gown, and workman's jacket\nand prodigal's rags, beats the same heart with the same wants, wild\nlongings, and weariness. Christianity knows no hopeless classes. But its\nhighest wisdom can be spoken to the little child and the barbarian, and\nit is ready to deal with the most forlorn and foolish, knowing its own\npower to \"warn every man and to teach every man in all wisdom.\"\n\nIII. We have here the ultimate aim of these diverse methods. \"That we\nmay present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.\"\n\nWe found this same word \"present\" in verse 22. The remarks made there\nwill apply here. There the Divine purpose of Christ's great work, and\nhere Paul's purpose in his, are expressed alike. God's aim is Paul's aim\ntoo. The Apostle's thoughts travel on to the great coming day, when we\nshall all be manifested at the judgment seat of Christ, and preacher and\nhearer, Apostle and convert, shall be gathered there. That solemn period\nwill test the teacher's work, and should ever be in his view as he\nworks. There is a real and indissoluble connection between the teacher\nand his hearers, so that in some sense he is to blame if they do not\nstand perfect then, and he in some sense has to present them as in his\nwork--the gold, silver, and precious stones which he has built on the\nfoundation. So each preacher should work with that end clear in view, as\nPaul did. He is always toiling in the light of that great vision. One\nsees him, in all his letters, looking away yonder to the horizon, where\nhe expects the breaking of its morning low down in the eastern sky. Ah!\nhow many formal pulpit and how many a languid pew would be galvanised\ninto intense action if only their occupants once saw burning in on them,\nin their decorous deadness, the light of that great white throne! How\ndifferently we should preach if we always felt \"the terror of the Lord,\"\nand under its solemn influence sought to \"persuade men!\" How differently\nwe should hear if we felt we must appear before the Judge, and give\naccount to Him of our profitings by His word!\n\nAnd the purpose which the true minister of Christ has in view is to\n\"present every man _perfect in Christ Jesus_.\" \"Perfect\" may be used\nhere with the technical signification of \"initiated,\" but it means\nabsolute moral completeness. Negatively, it implies the entire removal\nof all defects; positively, the complete possession of all that belongs\nto human nature as God meant it to be. The Christian aim, for which the\npreaching of Christ supplies ample power, is to make the whole race\npossess, in fullest development, the whole circle of possible human\nexcellences. There is to be no one-sided growth but men are to grow like\na tree in the open, which has no barrier to hinder its symmetry, but\nrises and spreads equally on all sides, with no branch broken or\ntwisted, no leaf worm-eaten or wind-torn, no fruit blighted or fallen,\nno gap in the clouds of foliage, no bend in the straight stem,--a green\nand growing completeness. This absolute completeness is attainable \"in\nChrist,\" by union with Him of that vital sort brought about by faith,\nwhich will pour His Spirit into our spirits. The preaching of Christ is\ntherefore plainly the direct way to bring about this perfecting. That is\nthe Christian theory of the way to make perfect men.\n\nAnd this absolute perfection of character is, in Paul's belief, possible\nfor every man, no matter what his training or natural disposition may\nhave been. The gospel is confident that it can change the Ethiopian's\nskin, because it can change his heart, and the leopard's spots will be\naltered when it \"eats straw like the ox.\" There are no hopeless classes,\nin the glad, confident view of the man who has learned Christ's power.\n\nWhat a vision of the future to animate work! What an aim! What dignity,\nwhat consecration, what enthusiasm it would give, making the trivial\ngreat and the monotonous interesting, stirring up those who share it to\nintense effort, overcoming low temptations, and giving precision to the\nselection of means and use of instruments! The pressure of a great,\nsteady purpose consolidates and strengthens powers, which, without it,\nbecome flaccid and feeble. We can make a piece of calico as stiff as a\nboard by putting it under an hydraulic press. Men with a fixed purpose\nare terrible men. They crash through conventionalities like a cannon\nball. They, and they only, can persuade and arouse and impress their own\nenthusiasm on the inert mass. \"Behold, how great a matter a little fire\nkindleth!\" No Christian minister will work up to the limits of his\npower, nor do much for Christ or man, unless his whole soul is mastered\nby this high conception of the possibilities of his office, and unless\nhe is possessed with the ambition to present every man \"perfect in\nChrist Jesus.\"\n\nIV. Note the struggle and the strength with which the Apostle reaches\ntoward this aim. \"Whereunto I labour also, striving according to His\nworking, which worketh in me mightily.\"\n\nAs to the object, theme, and method of the Christian ministry, Paul can\nspeak, as he does in the previous verses, in the name of all his fellow\nworkers: \"_We_ preach, admonishing and teaching, that we may present.\"\nThere was substantial unity among them. But he adds a sentence about his\nown toil and conflict in doing his work. He will only speak for himself\nnow. The others may say what their experience has been. He has found\nthat he cannot do his work easily. Some people may be able to get\nthrough it with little toil of body or agony of mind, but for himself it\nhas been laborious work. He has not learned to \"take it easy.\" That\ngreat purpose has been ever before him, and made a slave of him. \"I\nlabour _also_\"; I do not only preach, but I _toil_--as the word\nliterally implies--like a man tugging at an oar, and putting all his\nweight into each stroke. No great work for God will be done without\nphysical and mental strain and effort. Perhaps there were people in\nColossae who thought that a man who had nothing to do but to preach had a\nvery easy life, and so the Apostle had to insist that most exhausting\nwork is brain work and heart work. Perhaps there were preachers and\nteachers there who worked in a leisurely, dignified fashion, and took\ngreat care always to stop a long way on the safe side of weariness; and\nso he had to insist that God's work cannot be done at all in that\nfashion, but has to be done \"with both hands, earnestly.\" The \"immortal\ngarland\" is to be run for, \"not without dust and heat.\" The racer who\ntakes care to slack his speed whenever he is in danger of breaking into\na perspiration will not win the prize. The Christian minister who is\nafraid of putting all his strength into his work, up to the point of\nweariness, will never do much good.\n\nThere must be not only toil, but conflict. He labours,\n\"_striving_\"--that is to say, contending--with hindrances, both without\nand within, which sought to mar his work. There is the struggle with\none's self, with the temptations to do high work from low motives, or to\nneglect it, and to substitute routine for inspiration and mechanism for\nfervour. One's own evil, one's weaknesses and fears and falsities, and\nlaziness and torpor and faithlessness, have all to be fought, besides\nthe difficulties and enemies without. In short, all good work is a\nbattle.\n\nThe hard strain and stress of this life of effort and conflict made this\nman \"Paul the aged\" while he was not old in years. Such soul's agony and\ntravail is indispensable for all high service of Christ. How can any\ntrue, noble Christian life be lived without continuous effort and\ncontinual strife? Up to the last particle of our power, it is our duty\nto work. As for the sleepy, languid, self-indulgent service of modern\nChristians, who seem to be chiefly anxious not to overstrain themselves,\nand to manage to win the race set before them without turning a hair, I\nam afraid that a large deduction will have to be made from it in the day\nthat shall \"try every man's work, of what sort it is.\"\n\nSo much for the struggle; now for the strength. The toil and the\nconflict are to be carried on \"according to His working, which worketh\nin me mightily.\" The measure of our power then is Christ's power in us.\nHe whose presence makes the struggle necessary, by His presence\nstrengthens us for it. He will dwell in us and work in us, and even our\nweakness will be lifted into joyful strength by Him. We shall be mighty\nbecause that mighty Worker is in our spirits. We have not only His\npresence beside us as an ally, but His grace within us. We may not only\nhave the vision of our Captain standing at our side as we front the\nfoe--an unseen presence to them, but inspiration and victory to us--but\nwe may have the consciousness of His power welling up in our spirits and\nflowing, as immortal strength, into our arms. It is much to know that\nChrist fights for us; it is more to know that He fights in us.\n\nLet us take courage then for all work and conflict; and remember that if\nwe have not \"striven according to the power\"--that is, if we have not\nutilised _all_ our Christ-given strength in His service--we have not\nstriven enough. There may be a double defect in us. We may not have\ntaken all the power that he Has given, and we may not have used all the\npower that we have taken. Alas, for us! we have to confess both faults.\nHow weak we have been when Omnipotence waited to give Itself to us! How\nlittle we have made our own of the grace that flows so abundantly past\nus, catching such a small part of the broad river in our hands, and\nspilling so much even of that before it reached our lips! And how little\nof the power given, whether natural or spiritual, we have used for our\nLord! How many weapons have hung rusty and unused in the fight! He has\nsowed much in our hearts, and reaped little. Like some unkindly soils,\nwe have \"drunk in the rain which cometh oft upon it,\" and have \"_not_\nbrought forth herbs fit for Him by whom it is dressed.\" Talents hid, the\nMaster's goods squandered, power allowed to run to waste, languid\nservice and half-hearted conflict, we have all to acknowledge. Let us go\nto Him and confess that, \"we have most unthankful been,\" and are\nunprofitable servants indeed, coming far short of duty. Let us yield our\nspirits to His influence, that He may work in us that which is pleasing\nin His sight, and may encircle us with ever-growing completeness of\nbeauty and strength, until He \"present us faultless before the presence\nof His glory with exceeding joy.\"\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\n_PAUL'S STRIVING FOR THE COLOSSIANS._\n\n \"For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for\n them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the\n flesh; that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together\n in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding,\n that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ, in Whom are all\n the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.\"--COL. ii. 1-3 (Rev.\n Ver.).\n\n\nWe have seen that the closing portion of the previous chapter is almost\nexclusively personal. In this context the same strain is continued, and\ntwo things are dwelt on: the Apostle's agony of anxiety for the\nColossian Church, and the joy with which, from his prison, he travelled\nin spirit across mountain and sea, and saw them in their quiet valley,\ncleaving to the Lord. The former of these feelings is expressed in the\nwords now before us; the latter, in the following verses.\n\nAll this long outpouring of self-revelation is so natural and\ncharacteristic of Paul that we need scarcely look for any purpose in it,\nand yet we may note with what consummate art he thereby prepares the way\nfor the warnings which follow. The unveiling of his own throbbing heart\nwas sure to work on the affections of his readers and to incline them to\nlisten. His profound emotion in thinking of the preciousness of his\nmessage would help to make them feel how much was at stake, and his\nunfaltering faith would give firmness to their less tenacious grasp of\nthe truth which, as they saw, he gripped with such force. Many truths\nmay be taught coolly, and some must be. But in religious matters,\narguments wrought in frost are powerless, and earnestness approaching to\npassion is the all-conquering force. A teacher who is afraid to show his\nfeelings, or who has no feelings to show, will never gather many\ndisciples.\n\nSo this revelation of the Apostle's heart is relevant to the great\npurposes of the whole letter--the warning against error, and the\nexhortation to stedfastness. In the verses which we are now considering,\nwe have the conflict which Paul was waging set forth in three aspects:\nfirst, in itself; second, in regard to the persons for whom it was\nwaged; and, finally and principally, in regard to the object or purpose\nin view therein. The first and second of these points may be dealt with\nbriefly. The third will require further consideration.\n\nI. There is first the conflict, which he earnestly desired that the\nColossian Christians might know to be \"great.\" The word rendered in the\nAuthorised Version \"conflict,\" belongs to the same root as that which\noccurs in the last verse of the previous chapter, and is there rendered\n\"striving.\" The Revised Version rightly indicates this connection by its\ntranslation, but fails to give the construction as accurately as the\nolder translation does. \"What great strife I have\" would be nearer the\nGreek, and more forcible than the somewhat feeble \"how greatly I\nstrive,\" which the Revisers have adopted. The conflict referred to is,\nof course, that of the arena, as so often in Paul's writings.\n\nBut how could he, in Rome, wage conflict on behalf of the Church at\nColossae? No external conflict can be meant. He could strike no blows on\ntheir behalf. What he could do in that way, he did, and he was now\ntaking part in their battle by this letter. If he could not fight by\ntheir side, he could send them ammunition, as he does in this great\nEpistle, which was, no doubt, to the eager combatants for the truth at\nColossae, what it has been ever since, a magazine and arsenal in all\ntheir warfare. But the real struggle was in his own heart. It meant\nanxiety, sympathy, an agony of solicitude, a passion of intercession.\nWhat he says of Epaphras in this very Epistle was true of himself. He\nwas \"always striving in prayer for them.\" And by these wrestlings of\nspirit he took his place among the combatants, though they were far\naway, and though in outward seeming, his life was untouched by any of\nthe difficulties and dangers which hemmed them in. In that lonely\nprison-cell, remote from their conflict, and with burdens enough of his\nown to carry, with his life in peril, his heart yet turned to them and,\nlike some soldier left behind to guard the base while his comrades had\ngone forward to the fight, his ears listened for the sound of battle,\nand his thoughts were in the field. His prison cell was like the focus\nof some reverberating gallery in which every whisper spoken all round\nthe circumference was heard, and the heart that was held captive there\nwas set vibrating in all its chords by every sound from any of the\nChurches.\n\nLet us learn the lesson, that, for all Christian people, sympathy in the\nbattle for God, which is being waged all over the world, is plain duty.\nFor all Christian teachers of every sort, an eager sympathy in the\ndifficulties and struggles of those whom they would try to teach is\nindispensable. We can never deal wisely with any mind until we have\nentered into its peculiarities. We can never help a soul fighting with\nerrors and questionings until we have ourselves felt the pinch of the\nproblems, and have shown that soul that we know what it is to grope and\nstumble. No man is ever able to lift a burden from another's shoulders\nexcept on condition of bearing the burden himself. If I stretch out my\nhand to some poor brother struggling in \"the miry clay,\" he will not\ngrasp it, and my well-meant efforts will be vain, unless he can see that\nI too have felt with him the horror of great darkness, and desire him to\nshare with me the benedictions of the light.\n\nWheresoever our prison or our workshop may be, howsoever Providence or\ncircumstances--which is but a heathenish word for the same thing--may\nseparate us from active participation in any battle for God, we are\nbound to take an eager share in it by sympathy, by interest, by such\nhelp as we can render, and by that intercession which may sway the\nfortunes of the field, though the uplifted hands grasp no weapons, and\nthe spot where we pray be far from the fight. It is not only the men who\nbear the brunt of the battle in the high places of the field who are the\ncombatants. In many a quiet home, where their wives and mothers sit,\nwith wistful faces waiting for the news from the front, are an agony of\nanxiety, and as true a share in the struggle as amidst the battery smoke\nand the gleaming bayonets. It was a law in Israel, \"As his part is that\ngoeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that abideth by the\nstuff. They shall part alike.\" They were alike in recompense, because\nthey were rightly regarded as alike in service. So all Christians who\nhave in heart and sympathy taken part in the great battle shall be\ncounted as combatants and crowned as victors, though they themselves\nhave struck no blows. \"He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a\nprophet shall receive a prophet's reward.\"\n\nII. We notice the persons for whom this conflict was endured. They are\nthe Christians of Colossae, and their neighbours of Laodicea, and \"as\nmany as have not seen my face in the flesh.\" It may be a question\nwhether the Colossians and Laodiceans belong to those who have not seen\nhis face in the flesh, but the most natural view of the words is that\nthe last clause \"introduces the whole class to which the persons\npreviously enumerated belong,\"[2] and this conclusion is confirmed by\nthe silence of the Acts of the Apostles as to any visit of Paul's to\nthese Churches, and by the language of the Epistle itself, which, in\nseveral places, refers to his knowledge of the Colossian Church as\nderived from hearing of them, and never alludes to personal intercourse.\nThat being so, one can understand that its members might easily think\nthat he cared less for them than he did for the more fortunate\ncommunities which he had himself planted or watered, and might have\nsuspected that the difficulties of the Church at Ephesus, for instance,\nlay nearer his heart than theirs in their remote upland valley. No\ndoubt, too, their feelings to him were less warm than to Epaphras and to\nother teachers whom they had heard. They had never felt the magnetism of\nhis personal presence, and were at a disadvantage in their struggle\nwith the errors which were beginning to lift their snaky heads among\nthem, from not having had the inspiration and direction of his teaching.\n\nIt is beautiful to see how, here, Paul lays hold of that very fact which\nseemed to put some film of separation between them, in order to make it\nthe foundation of his especial keenness of interest in them. Precisely\nbecause he had never looked them in the eyes, they had a warmer place in\nhis heart, and his solicitude for them was more tender. He was not so\nenslaved by sense that his love could not travel beyond the limits of\nhis eyesight. He was the more anxious about them because they had not\nthe recollections of his teaching and of his presence to fall back upon.\n\nIII. But the most important part of this section is the Apostle's\nstatement of the great subject of his solicitude, that which he\nanxiously longed that the Colossians might attain. It is a prophecy, as\nwell as a desire. It is a statement of the deepest purpose of his letter\nto them, and being so, it is likewise a statement of the Divine desire\nconcerning each of us, and of the Divine design of the gospel. Here is\nset forth what God would have all Christians to be, and, in Jesus\nChrist, has given them ample means of being.\n\n(1) The first element in the Apostle's desire for them is \"that their\nhearts may be comforted.\" Of course the Biblical use of the word \"heart\"\nis much wider than the modern popular use of it. We mean by it, when we\nuse it in ordinary talk, the hypothetical seat of the emotions, and\nchiefly, the organ and throne of love; but Scripture means by the word,\nthe whole inward personality, including thought and will as well as\nemotion. So we read of the \"thoughts and intents of the heart,\" and the\nwhole inward nature is called \"the hidden man of the heart.\"\n\nAnd what does he desire for this inward man? That it may be \"comforted.\"\nThat word again has a wider signification in Biblical, than in\nnineteenth century English. It is much more than consolation in trouble.\nThe cloud that hung over the Colossian Church was not about to break in\nsorrows which they would need consolation to bear, but in doctrinal and\npractical errors which they would need strength to resist. They were\ncalled to fight rather than to endure, and what they needed most was\ncourageous confidence. So Paul desires for them that their hearts should\nbe _encouraged_ or strengthened, that they might not quail before the\nenemy, but go into the fight with buoyancy, and be of good cheer.\n\nIs there any greater blessing in view both of the conflict which\nChristianity has to wage to-day, and of the difficulties and warfare of\nour own lives, than that brave spirit, which plunges into the struggle\nwith the serene assurance that victory sits on our helms and waits upon\nour swords, and knows that anything is possible rather than defeat? That\nis the condition of overcoming--even our faith. \"The sad heart tires in\na mile,\" but the strong hopeful heart carries in its very strength the\nprophecy of triumph.\n\nSuch a disposition is not altogether a matter of temperament, but may be\ncultivated, and though it may come easier to some of us than to others,\nit certainly ought to belong to all who have God to trust to, and\nbelieve that the gospel is His truth. They may well be strong who have\nDivine power ready to flood their hearts, who know that everything works\nfor their good, who can see, above the whirl of time and change, one\nstrong loving Hand which moves the wheels. What have we to do with fear\nfor ourselves, or wherefore should our \"hearts tremble for the ark of\nGod,\" seeing that One fights by our sides who will teach our hands to\nwar and cover our heads in the day of battle? \"Be of good courage, and\nHe shall strengthen thine heart.\"\n\n(2) The way to secure such joyous confidence and strength is taught us\nhere, for we have next, _Union in love_, as part of the means for\nobtaining it--\"They being knit together in love.\" The persons, not the\nhearts, are to be thus united. Love is the true bond which unites\nmen--the bond of perfectness, as it is elsewhere called. That unity in\nlove would, of course, add to the strength of each. The old fable\nteaches us that little fagots bound together are strong, and the tighter\nthe rope is pulled, the stronger they are. A solitary heart is timid and\nweak, but many weaknesses brought together make a strength, as slimly\nbuilt houses in a row hold each other up, or dying embers raked closer\nburst into flame. Loose grains of sand are light and moved by a breath;\ncompacted they are rock against which the Atlantic beats in vain. So, a\nChurch, of which the members are bound together by that love which is\nthe only real bond of Church life, presents a front to threatening evils\nthrough which they cannot break. A real moral defence against even\nintellectual error will be found in such a close compaction in mutual\nChristian love. A community so interlocked will throw off many evils, as\na Roman legion with linked shields roofed itself over against missiles\nfrom the wall of a besieged city, or the imbricated scales on a fish\nkeep it dry in the heart of the sea.\n\nBut we must go deeper than this in interpreting these words. The love\nwhich is to knit Christian men together is not merely love to one\nanother, but is common love to Jesus Christ. Such common love to Him is\nthe true bond of union, and the true strengthener of men's hearts.\n\n(3) This compaction in love will lead to a wealth of certitude in the\npossession of the truth.\n\nPaul is so eagerly desirous for the Colossians' union in love to each\nother and all to God, because He knows that such union will materially\ncontribute to their assured and joyful possession of the truth. It\ntends, he thinks, unto \"all riches of the full assurance of\nunderstanding,\" by which he means the wealth which consists in the\nentire, unwavering certitude which takes possession of the\nunderstanding, the confidence that it has the truth and the life in\nJesus Christ. Such a joyful stedfastness of conviction that I have\ngrasped the truth is opposed to hesitating half belief. It is\nattainable, as this context shows, by paths of moral discipline, and\namongst them, by seeking to realize our unity with our brethren, and not\nproudly rejecting the \"common faith\" because it is common. Possessing\nthat assurance, we shall be rich and heart-whole. Walking amid\ncertainties we shall walk in paths of peace, and re-echo the triumphant\nassurance of the Apostle, to whom love had given the key of\nknowledge:--\"we know that we are of God, and we know that the Son of God\nis come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that\nis true.\"\n\nIn all times of religious unsettlement, when an active propaganda of\ndenial is going on, Christian men are tempted to lower their own tone,\nand to say, \"It is so,\" with somewhat less of certainty, because so many\nare saying, \"It is not so.\" Little Rhoda needs some courage to affirm\nconstantly that \"it was even so,\" when apostles and her masters keep\nassuring her that she has only seen a vision. In this day, many\nprofessing Christians falter in the clear assured profession of their\nfaith, and it does not need a keen ear to catch an undertone of doubt\nmaking their voices tremulous. Some even are so afraid of being thought\n\"narrow,\" that they seek for the reputation of liberality by talking as\nif there were a film of doubt over even the truths which used to be\n\"most surely believed.\" Much of the so-called faith of this day is all\nhoneycombed with secret misgivings, which have in many instances no\nother intellectual basis than the consciousness of prevalent unbelief\nand a second-hand acquaintance with its teachings. Few things are more\nneeded among us now than this full assurance and satisfaction of the\nunderstanding with the truth as it is in Jesus. Nothing is more wretched\nthan the slow paralysis creeping over faith, the fading of what had been\nstars into darkness. A tragedy is being wrought in many minds which have\nhad to exchange Christ's \"Verily, verily,\" for a miserable \"perhaps,\"\nand can no longer say \"I know,\" but only, \"I would fain believe,\" or at\nthe best, \"I incline to think still.\" On the other hand, the \"full\nassurance of the understanding\" brings wealth. It breathes peace over\nthe soul, and gives endless riches in the truths which through it are\nmade living and real.\n\nThis wealth of conviction is attained by living in the love of God. Of\ncourse, there is an intellectual discipline which is also needed. But no\nintellectual process will lead to an assured grasp of spiritual truth,\nunless it be accompanied by love. As soon may we lay hold of truth with\nour hands, as of God in Christ with our understandings alone. This is\nthe constant teaching of Scripture--that, if we would know God and have\nassurance of Him, we must love Him. \"In order to love human things, it\nis necessary to know them. In order to know Divine things, it is\nnecessary to love them.\" When we are rooted and grounded in love, we\nshall be able to know--for what we have most need to know and what the\ngospel has mainly to teach us is the love, and \"unless the eye with\nwhich we look is love, how shall we know love?\" If we love, we shall\npossess an experience which verifies the truth for us, will give us an\nirrefragable demonstration which will bring certitude to ourselves,\nhowever little it may avail to convince others. Rich in the possession\nof this confirmation of the gospel by the blessings which have come to\nus from it, and which witness of their source, as the stream that dots\nsome barren plain with a line of green along its course is revealed\nthereby, we shall have the right to oppose to many a doubt the full\nassurance born of love, and while others are disputing whether there be\nany God, or any living Christ, or any forgiveness of sins, or any\nguiding providence, we shall know that they are, and are ours, because\nwe have felt the power and wealth which they have brought into our\nlives.\n\n(4) This unity of love will lead to full knowledge of the mystery of\nGod. Such seems to be the connection of the next words, which may be\nliterally read \"unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God,\" and may\nbe best regarded as a co-ordinate clause with the preceding, depending\nlike it on \"being knit together in love.\" So taken, there is set forth a\ndouble issue of that compaction in love to God and one another, namely,\nthe calm assurance in the grasp of truth already possessed, and the more\nmature and deeper insight into the deep things of God. The word for\nknowledge here is the same as in i. 9, and here as there means a full\nknowledge. The Colossians had known Christ at first, but the Apostle's\ndesire is that they may come to a fuller knowledge, for the object to be\nknown is infinite, and endless degrees in the perception and possession\nof His power and grace are possible. In that fuller knowledge they will\nnot leave behind what they knew at first, but will find in it deeper\nmeaning, a larger wisdom and a fuller truth.\n\nAmong the large number of readings of the following words, that adopted\nby the Revised Version is to be preferred, and the translation which it\ngives is the most natural and is in accordance with the previous thought\nin chapter i. 27, where also \"the mystery\" is explained to be \"Christ in\nyou.\" A slight variation in the conception is presented here. The\n\"mystery\" is Christ, not \"in you,\" but \"in Whom are hid all the\ntreasures of wisdom and knowledge.\" The great truth long hidden, now\nrevealed, is that the whole wealth of spiritual insight (knowledge), and\nof reasoning on the truths thus apprehended so as to gain an ordered\nsystem of belief and a coherent law of conduct (wisdom), is stored for\nus in Christ.\n\nSuch being in brief the connection and outline meaning of these great\nwords, we may touch upon the various principles embodied in them. We\nhave seen, in commenting upon a former part of the Epistle, the force of\nthe great thought that Christ in His relations to us is the mystery of\nGod, and need not repeat what was then said. But we may pause for a\nmoment on the fact that the knowledge of that mystery has its stages.\nThe revelation of the mystery is complete. No further stages are\npossible in that. But while the revelation is, in Paul's estimate,\nfinished, and the long concealed truth now stands in full sunshine, our\napprehension of it may grow, and there is a mature knowledge possible.\nSome poor ignorant soul catches through the gloom a glimpse of God\nmanifested in the flesh, and bearing his sins. That soul will never\noutgrow that knowledge, but as the years pass, life and reflection and\nexperience will help to explain and deepen it. God so loved the world\nthat He gave His only begotten Son--there is nothing beyond that truth.\nGrasped however imperfectly, it brings light and peace. But as it is\nloved and lived by, it unfolds undreamed-of depths, and flashes with\ngrowing brightness. Suppose that a man could set out from the great\nplanet that moves on the outermost rim of our system, and could travel\nslowly inwards towards the central sun, how the disc would grow, and the\nlight and warmth increase with each million of miles that he crossed,\ntill what had seemed a point filled the whole sky! Christian growth is\ninto, not away from Christ, a penetrating deeper into the centre, and a\ndrawing out into distinct consciousness as a coherent system, all that\nwas wrapped, as the leaves in their brown sheath, in that first glimpse\nof Him which saves the soul.\n\nThese stages are infinite, because in Him are all the treasures of\nwisdom and knowledge. These four words, _treasures_, _wisdom_,\n_knowledge_, _hidden_, are all familiar on the lips of the latter\nGnostics, and were so, no doubt, in the mouths of the false teachers at\nColossae. The Apostle would assert for his gospel all which they falsely\nclaimed for their dreams. As in several other places of this Epistle, he\navails himself of his antagonists' special vocabulary, transferring its\nterms, from the illusory phantoms which a false knowledge adorned with\nthem, to the truth which he had to preach. He puts special emphasis on\nthe predicate \"hidden\" by throwing it to the end of the sentence--a\npeculiarity which is reproduced with advantage in the Revised Version.\n\nAll wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. He is the Light of men, and all\nthought and truth of every sort come from Him Who is the Eternal Word,\nthe Incarnate Wisdom. That Incarnate Word is the perfect Revelation of\nGod, and by His one completed life and death has declared the whole name\nof God to His brethren, of which all other media of revelation have but\nuttered broken syllables. That ascended Christ breathes wisdom and\nknowledge into all who love Him, and still pursues, by giving us the\nSpirit of wisdom, His great work of revealing God to men, according to\nHis own word, which at once asserted the completeness of the revelation\nmade by His earthly life and promised the perpetual continuance of the\nrevelation from His heavenly seat: \"I have declared Thy name unto My\nbrethren, and will declare it.\"\n\nIn Christ, as in a great storehouse, lie all the riches of spiritual\nwisdom, the massive ingots of solid gold which when coined into creeds\nand doctrines are the wealth of the Church. All which we can know\nconcerning God and man, concerning sin and righteousness and duty,\nconcerning another life, is in Him Who is the home and deep mine where\ntruth is stored.\n\nIn Christ these treasures are \"hidden,\" but not, as the heretics'\nmysteries were hidden, in order that they might be out of reach of the\nvulgar crowd. This mystery is hidden indeed, but it is revealed. It is\nhidden only from the eyes that will not see it. It is hidden that\nseeking souls may have the joy of seeking and the rest of finding. The\nvery act of revealing is a hiding, as our Lord has said in His great\nthanksgiving because these things are (by one and the same act) \"hid\nfrom the wise and prudent, and revealed to babes.\" They are hid, as men\nstore provisions in the Arctic regions, in order that the bears may not\nfind them and the shipwrecked sailors may.\n\nSuch thoughts have a special message for times of agitation such as the\nColossian Church was passing through, and such as we have to face. We\ntoo are surrounded by eager confident voices, proclaiming profounder\ntruths and a deeper wisdom than the gospel gives us. In joyful\nantagonism to these, Christian men have to hold fast by the confidence\nthat all Divine wisdom is laid up in their Lord. We need not go to\nothers to learn new truth. The new problems of each generation to the\nend of time will find their answers in Christ, and new issues of that\nold message which we have heard from the beginning will continually be\ndiscerned. Let us not wonder if the lessons which the earlier ages of\nthe Church drew from that infinite storehouse fail at many points to\nmeet the eager questionings of to-day. Nor let us suppose that the stars\nare quenched because the old books of astronomy are in some respects out\nof date. We need not cast aside the truths that we learned at our\nmother's knees. The central fact of the universe and the perfect\nencyclopaedia of all moral and spiritual truth is Christ, the Incarnate\nWord, the Lamb slain, the ascended King. If we keep true to Him and\nstrive to widen our minds to the breadth of that great message, it will\ngrow as we gaze, even as the nightly heavens expand to the eye which\nstedfastly looks into them, and reveal violet abysses sown with\nsparkling points, each of which is a sun. \"Lord, to whom shall we go?\nThou hast the words of eternal life.\"\n\nThe ordinary type of Christian life is contented with a superficial\nacquaintance with Christ. Many understand no more of Him and of His\ngospel than they did when first they learned to love Him. So completely\nhas the very idea of a progressive knowledge of Jesus Christ faded from\nthe horizon of the average Christian that \"edification,\" which ought to\nmean the progressive building up of the character course by course, in\nnew knowledge and grace, has come to mean little more than the sense of\ncomfort derived from the reiteration of old and familiar words which\nfall on the ear with a pleasant murmur. There is sadly too little\nfirst-hand and growing knowledge of their Lord, among Christian people,\ntoo little belief that fresh treasures may be found hidden in that field\nwhich, to each soul and each new generation struggling with its own\nspecial forms of the burdens and problems that press upon humanity,\nwould be cheaply bought by selling all, but may be won at the easier\nrate of earnest desire to possess them, and faithful adherence to Him in\nwhom they are stored for the world. The condition of growth for the\nbranch is abiding in the vine. If our hearts are knit together with\nChrist's heart in that love which is the parent of communion, both as\ndelighted contemplation and as glad obedience, then we shall daily dig\ndeeper into the mine of wealth which is hid in Him that it may be found,\nand draw forth an unfailing supply of things new and old.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[2] Bishop Lightfoot, _in loc._\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\n_CONCILIATORY AND HORTATORY TRANSITION TO POLEMICS._\n\n \"This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of\n speech. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in\n the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of\n your faith in Christ.\n\n \"As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,\n rooted and builded up in Him, and stablished in your faith, even as\n ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.\"--COL. ii. 4-7 (Rev.\n Ver.).\n\n\nNothing needs more delicacy of hand and gentleness of heart than the\nadministration of warning or reproof, especially when directed against\nerrors of religious opinion. It is sure to do harm unless the person\nreproved is made to feel that it comes from true kindly interest in him,\nand does full justice to his honesty. Warning so easily passes into\nscolding, and sounds to the warned so like it even when the speaker does\nnot mean it so, that there is special need to modulate the voice very\ncarefully.\n\nSo in this context, the Apostle has said much about his deep interest in\nthe Colossian Church, and has dwelt on the passionate earnestness of his\nsolicitude for them, his conflict of intercession and sympathy, and the\nlarge sweep of his desires for their good. But he does not feel that he\ncan venture to begin his warnings till he has said something more, so\nas to conciliate them still further, and to remove from their minds\nother thoughts unfavourable to the sympathetic reception of his words.\nOne can fancy some Colossians saying, \"What need is there for all this\nanxiety? Why should Paul be in such a taking about us? He is\nexaggerating our danger, and doing scant justice to our Christian\ncharacter.\" Nothing stops the ear to the voice of warning more surely\nthan a feeling that it is pitched in too solemn a key, and fails to\nrecognise the good.\n\nSo before he goes further, he gathers up his motives in giving the\nfollowing admonitions, and gives his estimate of the condition of the\nColossians, in the two first of the verses now under consideration. All\nthat he has been saying has been said not so much because he thinks that\nthey have gone wrong, but because he knows that there are heretical\nteachers at work, who may lead them astray with plausible lessons. He is\nnot combating errors which have already swept away the faith of the\nColossian Christians, but putting them on their guard against such as\nthreaten them. He is not trying to pump the water out of a water-logged\nvessel, but to stop a little leak which is in danger of gaping wider.\nAnd, in his solicitude, he has much confidence and is encouraged to\nspeak because, absent from them as he is, he has a vivid assurance,\nwhich gladdens him, of the solidity and firmness of their faith.\n\nSo with this distinct definition of the precise danger which he feared,\nand this soothing assurance of his glad confidence in their stedfast\norder, the Apostle at last opens his batteries. The 6th and 7th verses\nare the first shot fired, the beginning of the monitions so long and\ncarefully prepared for They contain a general exhortation, which may be\ntaken as the keynote for the polemical portion of the Epistle, which\noccupies the rest of the chapter.\n\nI. We have then first, the purpose of the Apostle's previous\nself-revelation. \"This I say\"--this namely which is contained in the\npreceding verses, the expression of his solicitude, and perhaps even\nmore emphatically, the declaration of Christ as the revealed secret of\nGod, the inexhaustible storehouse of all wisdom and knowledge. The\npurpose of the Apostle, then, in his foregoing words has been to guard\nthe Colossians against the danger to which they were exposed, of being\ndeceived and led astray by \"persuasiveness of speech.\" That expression\nis not necessarily used in a bad sense, but here it evidently has a\ntinge of censure, and implies some doubt both of the honesty of the\nspeakers and of the truthfulness of their words. Here we have an\nimportant piece of evidence as to the then condition of the Colossian\nChurch. There were false teachers busy amongst them who belonged in some\nsense to the Christian community. But probably these were not\nColossians, but wandering emissaries of a Judaizing Gnosticism, while\ncertainly the great mass of the Church was untouched by their\nspeculations. They were in danger of getting bewildered, and being\n_deceived_, that is to say, of being induced to accept certain teaching\nbecause of its speciousness, without seeing all its bearings, or even\nknowing its real meaning. So error ever creeps into the Church. Men are\ncaught by something fascinating in some popular teaching, and follow it\nwithout knowing where it will lead them. By slow degrees its tendencies\nare disclosed, and at last the followers of the heresiarch wake to find\nthat everything which they once believed and prized has dropped from\ntheir creed.\n\nWe may learn here, too, the true safeguard against specious errors. Paul\nthinks that he can best fortify these simple-minded disciples against\nall harmful teaching by exalting his Master and urging the inexhaustible\nsignificance of His person and message. To learn the full meaning and\npreciousness of Christ is to be armed against error. The positive truth\nconcerning Him, by preoccupying mind and heart, guards beforehand\nagainst the most specious teachings. If you fill the coffer with gold,\nnobody will want, and there will be no room for, pinchbeck. A living\ngrasp of Christ will keep us from being swept away by the current of\nprevailing popular opinion, which is always much more likely to be wrong\nthan right, and is sure to be exaggerated and one-sided at the best. A\npersonal consciousness of His power and sweetness will give an\ninstinctive repugnance to teaching that would lower His dignity and\ndebase His work. If He be the centre and anchorage of all our thoughts,\nwe shall not be tempted to go elsewhere in search of the \"treasures of\nwisdom and knowledge\" which \"are hid in Him.\" He who has found the one\npearl of great price, needs no more to go seeking goodly pearls, but\nonly day by day more completely to lose self, and give up all else, that\nhe may win more and more of Christ his All. If we keep our hearts and\nminds in communion with our Lord, and have experience of His\npreciousness, that will preserve us from many a snare, will give us a\nwisdom beyond much logic, will solve for us many of the questions most\nhotly debated to-day, and will show us that many more are unimportant\nand uninteresting to us. And even if we should be led to wrong\nconclusions on some matters, \"if we drink any deadly thing, it shall not\nhurt us.\"\n\nII. We see here the joy which blended with the anxiety of the solitary\nprisoner, and encouraged him to warn the Colossians against impending\ndangers to their faith.\n\nWe need not follow the grammatical commentators in their discussion of\nhow Paul comes to invert the natural order here, and to say \"joying and\nbeholding,\" instead of \"beholding and rejoicing\" as we should expect. No\none doubts that what he saw in spirit was the cause of his joy. The old\nman in his prison, loaded with many cares, compelled to be inactive in\nthe cause which was more to him than life, is yet full of spirit and\nbuoyancy. His prison-letters all partake of that \"rejoicing in the\nLord,\" which is the keynote of one of them. Old age and apparent\nfailure, and the exhaustion of long labours, and the disappointments and\nsorrows which almost always gather like evening clouds round a life as\nit sinks in the west had not power to quench his fiery energy or to\nblunt his keen interest in all the Churches. His cell was like the\ncentre of a telephonic system. Voices spoke from all sides. Every Church\nwas connected with it, and messages were perpetually being brought.\nThink of him sitting there, eagerly listening, and thrilling with\nsympathy at each word, so self-oblivious was he, so swallowed up were\nall personal ends in the care for the Churches, and in the swift, deep\nfellow-feeling with them? Love and interest quickened his insight, and\nthough he was far away, he had them so vividly before him that he was as\nif a spectator. The joy which he had in the thought of them made him\ndwell on the thought--so the apparently inverted order of the words may\nbe the natural one and he may have looked all the more fixedly because\nit gladdened him to look.\n\nWhat did he see? \"Your order.\" That is unquestionably a military\nmetaphor, drawn probably from his experiences of the Praetorians, while\nin captivity. He had plenty of opportunities of studying both the\nequipment of the single legionary, who, in the 6th chapter of Ephesians,\nsat for his portrait to the prisoner to whom he was chained, and also\nthe perfection of discipline in the whole which made the legion so\nformidable. It was not a multitude but a unit, \"moving altogether if it\nmove at all,\" as if animated by one will. Paul rejoices to know that the\nColossian Church was thus welded into a solid unity.\n\nFurther, he beholds \"the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.\" This may\nbe a continuation of the military metaphor, and may mean \"the solid\nfront, the close phalanx\" which your faith presents. But whether we\nsuppose the figure to be carried on or dropped, we must, I think,\nrecognise that this second point refers rather to the inward condition\nthan to the outward discipline of the Colossians.\n\nHere then is set forth a lofty ideal of the Church, in two respects.\nFirst there is outwardly, an ordered disciplined array; and secondly,\nthere is a stedfast faith.\n\nAs to the first, Paul was no martinet, anxious about the pedantry of the\nparade ground, but he knew the need of organization and drill. Any body\nof men united in order to carry out a specific purpose have to be\norganized. That means a place for every man, and every man in his place.\nIt means co-operation to one common end, and therefore division of\nfunction and subordination. Order does not merely mean obedience to\nauthority. There may be equal \"order\" under widely different forms of\npolity. The legionaries were drawn up in close ranks, the light-armed\nskirmishers more loosely. In the one case the phalanx was more and the\nindividual less; in the other there was more play given to the single\nman, and less importance to corporate action; but the difference between\nthem was not that of order and disorder, but that of two systems, each\norganized but on somewhat different principles and for different\npurposes. A loosely linked chain is as truly a chain as a rigid one. The\nmain requirement for such \"order\" as gladdened the Apostle is conjoint\naction to one end, with variety of office, and unity of spirit.\n\nSome Churches give more weight to the principle of authority; others to\nthat of individuality. They may criticise each other's polity, but the\nformer has no right to reproach the latter as being necessarily\ndefective in \"order.\" Some Churches are all drill and their favourite\nidea of discipline is, Obey them that have the rule over you. The\nChurches of looser organization, on the other hand, are no doubt in\ndanger of making too little of organization. But both need that all\ntheir members should be more penetrated by the sense of unity, and\nshould fill each his place in the work of the body. It was far easier to\nsecure the true order--a place and a task for every man and every man in\nhis place and at his task--in the small homogeneous communities of\napostolic times than it is now, when men of such different social\nposition, education, and ways of thinking are found in the same\nChristian community. The proportion of idlers in all Churches is a\nscandal and a weakness. However highly organized and officered a Church\nmay be, no joy would fill an apostle's heart in beholding it, if the\nmass of its members had no share in its activities. Every society of\nprofessing Christians should be like a man of war's crew, each of whom\nknows the exact inch where he has to stand when the whistle sounds, and\nthe precise thing he has to do in the gun drill.\n\nBut the perfection of discipline is not enough. That may stiffen into\nroutine if there be not something deeper. We want life even more than\norder. The description of the soldiers who set David on the throne\nshould describe Christ's army--\"men that could keep rank, they were not\nof double heart.\" They had discipline and had learned to accommodate\ntheir stride to the length of their comrades' step; but they had\nwhole-hearted enthusiasm, which was better. Both are needed. If there be\nnot courage and devotion there is nothing worth disciplining. The Church\nthat has the most complete order and not also stedfastness of faith will\nbe like the German armies, all pipeclay and drill, which ran like hares\nbefore the ragged shoeless levies whom the first French Revolution flung\nacross the border with a fierce enthusiasm blazing in their hearts. So\nthe Apostle beholds with joy the stedfastness of the Colossians' faith\ntoward Christ.\n\nIf the rendering \"stedfastness\" be adopted as in the Rev. Ver., the\nphrase will be equivalent to the \"firmness which characterizes or\nbelongs to your faith.\" But some of the best commentators deny that this\nmeaning of the word is ever found, and propose \"foundation\" (that which\nis made stedfast). The meaning then will either be \"the firm foundation\n(for your lives) which consists of your faith,\" or, more probably, \"the\nfirm foundation which your faith has.\" He rejoices, seeing that their\nfaith towards Jesus Christ has a basis unshaken by assaults.\n\nSuch a rock foundation, and consequent stedfastness, must faith have, if\nit is to be worthy of the name and to manifest its true power. A\ntremulous faith may, thank God! be a true faith, but the very idea of\nfaith implies solid assurance and fixed confidence. Our faith should be\nable to resist pressure and to keep its ground against assaults and\ngainsaying. It should not be like a child's card castle, that the light\nbreath of a scornful laugh will throw down, but\n\n \"a tower of strength\n That stands foursquare to all the winds that blow.\"\n\nWe should seek to make it so, nor let the fluctuations of our own hearts\ncause it to fluctuate. We should try so to control the ebb and flow of\nreligious emotion that it may always be near high water with our faith,\na tideless but not stagnant sea. We should oppose a settled conviction\nand unalterable confidence to the noisy voices which would draw us away.\n\nAnd that we may do so we must keep up a true and close communion with\nJesus Christ. The faith which is ever going out \"towards\" Him, as the\nsunflower turns sunwards, will ever draw from Him such blessed gifts\nthat doubt or distrust will be impossible. If we keep near our Lord and\nwait expectant on Him, He will increase our faith and make our \"hearts\nfixed, trusting in the Lord.\" So a greater than Paul may speak even to\nus, as He walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks, words which\nfrom _His_ lips will be praise indeed: \"Though I am absent in the flesh,\nyet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the\nstedfastness of your faith in Me.\"\n\nIII. We have here, the exhortation which comprehends all duty, and\ncovers the whole ground of Christian belief and practice.\n\n\"Therefore\"--the following exhortation is based upon the warning and\ncommendation of the preceding verses. There is first a wide general\ninjunction. \"As ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,\"\n_i.e._ let your active life be in accord with what you learned and\nobtained when you first became Christians. Then this exhortation is\ndefined or broken up into four particulars in the following clauses,\nwhich explain in detail how it is to be kept.\n\nThe general exhortation is to a true Christian walk. The main force lies\nupon the \"as.\" The command is to order all life in accordance with the\nearly lessons and acquisitions. The phrase \"ye received Christ Jesus the\nLord\" presents several points requiring notice. It is obviously parallel\nwith \"as ye were taught\" in the next verse; so that it was from their\nfirst teachers, and probably from Epaphras (i. 7) that they had\n\"received Christ.\" So then what we receive, when, from human lips, we\nhear the gospel and accept it, is not merely the word about the Saviour,\nbut the Saviour Himself. This expression of our text is no mere loose or\nrhetorical mode of speech, but a literal and blessed truth. Christ is\nthe sum of all Christian teaching and, where the message of His love is\nwelcomed, He Himself comes in spiritual and real presence, and dwells in\nthe spirit.\n\nThe solemnity of the full name of our Saviour in this connection is most\nsignificant. Paul reminds the Colossians, in view of the teaching which\ndegraded the person and curtailed the work of Christ, that they had\nreceived the man Jesus, the promised Christ, the universal Lord. As if\nhe had said, Remember whom you received in your conversion--_Christ_,\nthe Messiah, anointed, that is, fitted by the unmeasured possession of\nthe Divine Spirit to fulfil all prophecy and to be the world's\ndeliverer. Remember _Jesus_, the man, our brother;--therefore listen to\nno misty speculations nor look to whispered mysteries nor to angel\nhierarchies for knowledge of God or for help in conflict. Our gospel is\nnot theory spun out of men's brains, but is, first and foremost, the\nhistory of a brother's life and death. You received _Jesus_, so you are\ndelivered from the tyranny of these unsubstantial and portentous\nsystems, and relegated to the facts of a human life for your knowledge\nof God. You received Jesus Christ as _Lord_. He was proclaimed as Lord\nof men, angels, and the universe, Lord and Creator of the spiritual and\nmaterial worlds, Lord of history and providence. Therefore you need not\ngive heed to those teachers who would fill the gulf between men and God\nwith a crowd of powers and rulers. You have all that your mind or heart\nor will can need in the human Divine Jesus, who is the Christ and the\nLord for you and all men. You have received Him in the all-sufficiency\nof His revealed nature and offices. You have Him for your very own.\nHold fast that which you have, and let no man take this your crown and\ntreasure. The same exhortation has emphatic application to the conflicts\nof to-day. The Church has had Jesus set forth as Christ and Lord. His\nmanhood, the historical reality of His Incarnation with all its blessed\nissues, His Messiahship as the fulfiller of prophecy and symbol,\ndesignated and fitted by the fulness of the Spirit, to be man's\ndeliverer, His rule and authority over all creatures and events have\nbeen taught, and the tumults of present unsettlement make it hard and\nneedful to keep true to that threefold belief, and to let nothing rob us\nof any of the elements of the full gospel which lies in the august name,\nChrist Jesus the Lord.\n\nTo that gospel, to that Lord, the walk, the active life, is to be\nconformed, and the manner thereof is more fully explained in the\nfollowing clauses.\n\n\"Rooted and built up in Him.\" Here again we have the profound \"in Him,\"\nwhich appears so frequently in this and in the companion Epistle to the\nEphesians, and which must be allowed its proper force, as expressing a\nmost real indwelling of the believer in Christ, if the depth of the\nmeaning is to be sounded.\n\nPaul drives his fiery chariot through rhetorical proprieties, and never\nshrinks from \"mixed metaphors\" if they more vigorously express his\nthought. Here we have three incongruous ones close on each other's\nheels. The Christian is to _walk_, to be _rooted_ like a tree, to be\n_built up_ like a house. What does the incongruity matter to Paul as the\nstream of thought and feeling hurries him along?\n\nThe tenses of the verbs, too, are studiously and significantly varied.\nFully rendered they would be \"having been rooted and being builded up.\"\nThe one is a past act done once for all, the effects of which are\npermanent; the other is a continuous resulting process which is going on\nnow. The Christian has been rooted in Jesus Christ at the beginning of\nhis Christian course. His faith has brought him into living contact with\nthe Saviour, who has become as the fruitful soil into which the believer\nsends his roots, and both feeds and anchors there. The familiar image of\nthe first Psalm may have been in the writer's mind, and naturally recurs\nto ours. If we draw nourishment and stability from Christ, round whom\nthe roots of our being twine and cling, we shall flourish and grow and\nbear fruit. No man can do without some person beyond himself on whom to\nrepose, nor can any of us find in ourselves or on earth the sufficient\nsoil for our growth. We are like seedlings dropped on some great rock,\nwhich send their rootlets down the hard stone and are stunted till they\nreach the rich leaf-mould at its base. We blindly feel through all the\nbarrenness of the world for something into which our roots may plunge\nthat we may be nourished and firm. In Christ we may be \"like a tree\nplanted by the river of water;\" out of Him we are \"as the chaff,\"\nrootless, lifeless, profitless, and swept at last by the wind from the\nthreshing floor. The choice is before every man--either to be rooted in\nChrist by faith, or to be rootless.\n\n\"Being built up in Him.\" The gradual continuous building up of the\nstructure of a Christian character is doubly expressed in this word by\nthe present tense which points to a process, and by the prefixed\npreposition represented by \"up,\" which points to the successive laying\nof course of masonry upon course. We are the architects of our own\ncharacters. If our lives are based on Jesus Christ as their foundation,\nand every deed is in vital connection with Him, as at once its motive,\nits pattern, its power, its aim, and its reward, then we shall build\nholy and fair lives, which will be temples. Men do not merely grow as a\nleaf which \"grows green and broad, and takes no care.\" The other\nmetaphor of a building needs to be taken into account, to complete the\nformer. Effort, patient continuous labour must be put forth. More than\n\"forty and six years is this temple in building.\" A stone at a time is\nfitted into its place, and so after much toil and many years, as in the\ncase of some mediaeval cathedral unfinished for centuries, the topstone\nis brought forth at last. This choice, too, is before all men--to build\non Christ and so to build for eternity, or on sand and so to be crushed\nbelow the ruins of their fallen houses.\n\n\"Stablished in your faith, even as ye were taught.\" This is apparently\nsimply a more definite way of putting substantially the same thoughts as\nin the former clauses. Possibly the meaning is \"stablished by faith,\"\nthe Colossians' faith being the instrument of their establishment. But\nthe Revised Version is probably right in its rendering, \"stablished in,\"\nor as to, \"your faith.\" Their faith, as Paul had just been saying, was\nstedfast, but it needed yet increased firmness. And this exhortation, as\nit were, translates the previous ones into more homely language, that if\nany man stumbled at the mysticism of the thoughts there, he might grasp\nthe plain practicalness here. If we are established and confirmed in our\nfaith, we shall be rooted and built up in Jesus, for it is faith which\njoins us to Him, and its increase measures our growth in and into Him.\n\nThere then is a very plain practical issue of these deep thoughts of\nunion with Jesus. A progressive increase of our faith is the condition\nof all Christian progress. The faith which is already the firmest, and\nby its firmness may gladden an Apostle, is still capable of and needs\nstrengthening. Its range can be enlarged, its tenacity increased, its\npower over heart and life reinforced. The eye of faith is never so keen\nbut that it may become more longsighted; its grasp never so close but\nthat it may be tightened; its realisation never so solid but that it may\nbe more substantial; its authority never so great but that it may be\nmade more absolute. This continual strengthening of faith is the most\nessential form of a Christian's effort at self-improvement. Strengthen\nfaith and you strengthen all graces; for it measures our reception of\nDivine help.\n\nAnd the furthest development which faith can attain should ever be\nsedulously kept in harmony with the initial teaching--\"even as ye were\ntaught.\" Progress does not consist in dropping the early truths of Jesus\nChrist the Lord for newer wisdom and more speculative religion, but in\ndiscovering ever deeper lessons and larger powers in these rudiments\nwhich are likewise the last and highest lessons which men can learn.\n\nFurther, as the daily effort of the believing soul ought to be to\nstrengthen the quality of his faith, so it should be to increase its\namount--\"abounding in it with thanksgiving.\" Or if we adopt the reading\nof the Revised Version, we shall omit the \"in it,\" and find here only an\nexhortation to thanksgiving. That is, in any case, the main idea of the\nclause, which adds to the former the thought that thanksgiving is an\ninseparable accompaniment of vigorous Christian life. It is to be called\nforth, of course, mainly by the great gift of Christ, in whom we are\nrooted and builded, and, in Paul's judgment it is the very spring of\nChristian progress.\n\nThat constant temper of gratitude implies a habitual presence to the\nmind, of God's great mercy in His unspeakable gift, a continual glow of\nheart as we gaze, a continual appropriation of that gift for our very\nown, and a continual outflow of our heart's love to the Incarnate and\nImmortal Love. Such thankfulness will bind us to glad obedience, and\nwill give swiftness to the foot and eagerness to the will, to run in the\nway of God's commandments. It is like genial sunshine, all flowers\nbreathe perfume and fruits ripen under its influence. It is the fire\nwhich kindles the sacrifice of life and makes it go up in fragrant\nincense-clouds, acceptable to God. The highest nobleness of which man is\ncapable is reached when, moved by the mercies of God, we yield ourselves\nliving sacrifices, thank-offerings to Him Who yielded Himself the\nsin-offering for us. The life which is all influenced by thanksgiving\nwill be pure, strong, happy, in its continual counting of its gifts, and\nin its thoughts of the Giver, and not least happy and beautiful in its\nglad surrender of itself to Him who has given Himself for and to it. The\nnoblest offering that we can bring, the only recompense which Christ\nasks, is that our hearts and our lives should say, We thank thee, O\nLord. \"By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God\ncontinually,\" and the continual thanksgiving will ensure continuous\ngrowth in our Christian character, and a constant increase in the\nstrength and depth of our faith.\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\n_THE BANE AND THE ANTIDOTE._\n\n \"Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you\n through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men,\n after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ: for in Him\n dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are\n made full, Who is the head of all principality and power.\"--COL. ii.\n 8-10 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nWe come now to the first plain reference to the errors which were\nthreatening the peace of the Colossian community. Here Paul crosses\nswords with the foe. This is the point to which all his previous words\nhave been steadily converging. The immediately preceding context\ncontained the positive exhortation to continue in the Christ Whom they\nhad received, having been rooted in Him as the tree in a fertile place\n\"by the rivers of water,\" and being continually builded up in Him, with\never-growing completeness of holy character. The same exhortation in\nsubstance is contained in the verses which we have now to consider, with\nthe difference that it is here presented negatively, as warning and\ndehortation, with distinct statement of the danger which would uproot\nthe tree and throw down the building, and drag the Colossians away from\nunion with Christ.\n\nIn these words the Bane and Antidote are both before us. Let us consider\neach.\n\nI. The Poison against which Paul warns the Colossians is plainly\ndescribed in our first verse, the terms of which may require a brief\ncomment.\n\n\"Take heed lest there shall be.\" The construction implies that it is a\nreal and not a hypothetical danger which he sees threatening. He is not\ncrying \"wolf\" before there is need.\n\n\"Any one\"--perhaps the tone of the warning would be better conveyed if\nwe read the more familiar \"somebody\"; as if he had said--\"I name no\nnames--it is not the persons but the principles that I fight\nagainst--but you know whom I mean well enough. Let him be anonymous, you\nunderstand who it is.\" Perhaps there was even a single \"somebody\" who\nwas the centre of the mischief.\n\n\"That maketh spoil of you.\" Such is the full meaning of the word--and\nnot \"injure\" or \"rob,\" which the translation in the Authorized Version\nsuggests to an English reader. Paul sees the converts in Colossae taken\nprisoners and led away with a cord round their necks, like the long\nstrings of captives on the Assyrian monuments. He had spoken in the\nprevious chapter (ver. 13) of the merciful conqueror who had\n\"translated\" them from the realm of darkness into a kingdom of light,\nand now he fears lest a robber horde, making a raid upon the peaceful\ncolonists in their happy new homes, may sweep them away again into\nbondage.\n\nThe instrument which the man-stealer uses, or perhaps we may say, the\ncord, whose fatal noose will be tightened round them, if they do not\ntake care, is \"philosophy and vain deceit.\" If Paul had been writing in\nEnglish, he would have put \"philosophy\" in inverted commas, to show that\nhe was quoting the heretical teachers' own name for their system, if\nsystem it may be called, which was really a chaos. For the true love of\nwisdom, for any honest, humble attempt to seek after her as hid\ntreasure, neither Paul nor Paul's Master have anything but praise and\nsympathy and help. Where he met real, however imperfect, searchers after\ntruth, he strove to find points of contact between them and his message,\nand to present the gospel as the answer to their questionings, the\ndeclaration of that which they were groping to find. The thing spoken of\nhere has no resemblance but in name to what the Greeks in their better\ndays first called philosophy, and nothing but that mere verbal\ncoincidence warrants the representation--often made both by\nnarrow-minded Christians, and by unbelieving thinkers--that Christianity\ntakes up a position of antagonism or suspicion to it.\n\nThe form of the expression in the original shows clearly that \"vain\ndeceit,\" or more literally \"empty deceit,\" describes the \"philosophy\"\nwhich Paul is bidding them beware of. They are not two things, but one.\nIt is like a blown bladder, full of wind, and nothing else. In its lofty\npretensions, and if we take its own account of itself, it is a love of\nand search after wisdom; but if we look at it more closely, it is a\nswollen nothing, empty and a fraud. This is what he is condemning. The\ngenuine thing he has nothing to say about here.\n\nHe goes on to describe more closely this impostor, masquerading in the\nphilosopher's cloak. It is \"after the traditions of men.\" We have seen\nin a former chapter what a strange heterogeneous conglomerate of Jewish\nceremonial and Oriental dreams the false teachers in Colossae were\npreaching. Probably both these elements are included here. It is\nsignificant that the very expression, \"the traditions of men,\" is a word\nof Christ's, applied to the Pharisees, whom He charges with \"leaving the\ncommandment of God, and holding fast the tradition of men\" (Mark vii.\n8). The portentous undergrowth of such \"traditions\" which, like the\nriotous fertility of creepers in a tropical forest, smother and kill the\ntrees round which they twine, is preserved for our wonder and warning in\nthe Talmud, where for thousands and thousands of pages, we get nothing\nbut Rabbi So and So said this, but Rabbi So and So said that; until we\nfeel stifled, and long for one Divine Word to still all the babble.\n\nThe Oriental element in the heresy, on the other hand, prided itself on\na hidden teaching which was too sacred to be entrusted to books, and was\npassed from lip to lip in some close conclave of muttering teachers and\nlistening adepts. The fact that all this, be it Jewish, be it Oriental\nteaching, had no higher source than men's imaginings and refinings,\nseems to Paul the condemnation of the whole system. His theory is that\nin Jesus Christ, every Christian man has the full truth concerning God\nand man, in their mutual relations,--the authoritative Divine\ndeclaration of all that can be known, the perfect exemplar of all that\nought to be done, the sun-clear illumination and proof of all that dare\nbe hoped. What an absurd descent, then, from the highest of our\nprerogatives, to \"turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven,\" in\norder to listen to poor human voices, speaking men's thoughts!\n\nThe lesson is as needful to-day as ever. The special forms of men's\ntraditions in question here have long since fallen silent, and trouble\nno man any more. But the tendency to give heed to human teachers and to\nsuffer them to come between us and Christ is deep in us all. There is at\none extreme the man who believes in no revelation from God, and, smiling\nat us Christians who accept Christ's words as final and Himself as the\nIncarnate truth, often pays to his chosen human teacher a deference as\nabsolute as that which he regards as superstition, when we render it to\nour Lord. At the other extremity are the Christians who will not let\nChrist and the Scripture speak to the soul, unless the Church be present\nat the interview, like a jailer, with a bunch of man-made creeds\njingling at its belt. But it is not only at the two ends of the line,\nbut all along its length, that men are listening to \"traditions\" of men\nand neglecting \"the commandment of God.\" We have all the same tendency\nin us. Every man carries a rationalist and a traditionalist under his\nskin. Every Church in Christendom, whether it has a formal creed or no,\nis ruled as to its belief and practice, to a sad extent, by the\n\"traditions of the elders.\" The \"freest\" of the Nonconformist Churches,\nuntrammelled by any formal confession, may be bound with as tight\nfetters, and be as much dominated by men's opinions, as if it had the\nstraitest of creeds. The mass of our religious beliefs and practices has\never to be verified, corrected and remodelled, by harking back from\ncreeds, written or unwritten, to the one Teacher, the endless\nsignificance of Whose person and work is but expressed in fragments by\nthe purest and widest thoughts even of those who have lived nearest to\nHim, and seen most of His beauty. Let us get away from men, from the\nBabel of opinions and the strife of tongues, that we may \"hear the words\nof His mouth!\" Let us take heed of the empty fraud which lays the absurd\nsnare for our feet, that we can learn to know God by any means but by\nlistening to His own speech in His Eternal Word, lest it lead us away\ncaptive out of the Kingdom of the Light! Let us go up to the pure spring\non the mountain top, and not try to slake our thirst at the muddy pools\nat its base! \"Ye are Christ's, be not the slave of men.\" \"This is My\nbeloved Son, hear ye Him.\"\n\nAnother mark of this empty pretence of wisdom which threatens to\ncaptivate the Colossians is, that it is \"after the rudiments of the\nworld.\" The word rendered \"rudiments\" means the letters of the alphabet,\nand hence comes naturally to acquire the meaning of \"elements,\" or\n\"first principles,\" just as we speak of the A B C of a science. The\napplication of such a designation to the false teaching, is, like the\nappropriation of the term \"mystery\" to the gospel, an instance of\nturning the tables and giving back the teachers their own words. They\nboasted of mysterious doctrines reserved for the initiated, of which the\nplain truths that Paul preached were but the elements, and they looked\ndown contemptuously on his message as \"milk for babes.\" Paul retorts on\nthem, asserting that the true mystery, the profound truth long hidden\nand revealed, is the word which he preached, and that the\npoverty-stricken elements, fit only for infants, are in that swelling\ninanity which called itself wisdom and was not. Not only does he brand\nit as \"rudiments,\" but as \"rudiments of the _world_,\" which is\nworse--that is to say, as belonging to the sphere of the outward and\nmaterial, and not to the higher region of the spiritual, where Christian\nthought ought to dwell. So two weaknesses are charged against the\nsystem: it is the mere alphabet of truth, and therefore unfit for grown\nmen. It moves, for all its lofty pretensions, in the region of the\nvisible and mundane things and is therefore unfit for spiritual men.\nWhat features of the system are referred to in this phrase? Its use in\nthe Epistle to the Galatians (iv. 3), as a synonyme for the whole system\nof ritual observances and ceremonial precepts of Judaism, and the\npresent context, which passes on immediately to speak of circumcision,\npoint to a similar meaning here, though we may include also the\nceremonial and ritual of the Gentile religions, in so far as they\ncontributed to the outward forms which the Colossian heresy sought to\nimpose on the Church. This then is Paul's opinion about a system which\nlaid stress on ceremonial and busied itself with forms. He regards it as\na deliberate retrogression to an earlier stage. A religion of rites had\ncome first, and was needed for the spiritual infancy of the race--but in\nChrist we ought to have outgrown the alphabet of revelation, and, being\nmen, to have put away childish things. He regards it further as a\npitiable descent into a lower sphere, a fall from the spiritual realm to\nthe material, and therefore unbecoming for those who have been\nenfranchised from dependence upon outward helps and symbols, and taught\nthe spirituality and inwardness of Christian worship.\n\nWe need the lesson in this day no less than did these Christians in the\nlittle community in that remote valley of Phrygia. The forms which were\nurged on them are long since antiquated, but the tendency to turn\nChristianity into a religion of ceremonial is running with an unusually\npowerful current to-day. We are all more interested in art, and think we\nknow more about it than our fathers did. The eye and the ear are more\neducated than they used to be, and a society as \"aesthetic\" and \"musical\"\nas much cultured English society is becoming, will like an ornate\nritual. So, apart altogether from doctrinal grounds, much in the\nconditions of to-day works towards ritual religion. Nonconformist\nservices are less plain; some go from their ranks because they dislike\nthe \"bald\" worship in the chapel, and prefer the more elaborate forms of\nthe Anglican Church, which in its turn is for the same reason left by\nothers who find their tastes gratified by the complete thing, as it is\nto be enjoyed full blown in the Roman Catholic communion. We may freely\nadmit that the Puritan reaction was possibly too severe, and that a\nlittle more colour and form might with advantage have been retained. But\nenlisting the senses as the allies of the spirit in worship is risky\nwork. They are very apt to fight for their own hand when they once\nbegin, and the history of all symbolic and ceremonial worship shows that\nthe experiment is much more likely to end in sensualising religion than\nin spiritualising sense. The theory that such aids make a ladder by\nwhich the soul may ascend to God is perilously apt to be confuted by\nexperience, which finds that the soul is quite as likely to go down the\nladder as up it. The gratification of taste, and the excitation of\naesthetic sensibility, which are the results of such aids to worship, are\nnot worship, however they may be mistaken as such. All ceremonial is in\ndanger of becoming opaque instead of transparent as it was meant to be,\nand of detaining mind and eye instead of letting them pass on and up to\nGod. Stained glass is lovely, and white windows are \"barnlike,\" and\n\"starved,\" and \"bare\"; but perhaps, if the object is to get light and to\nsee the sun, these solemn purples and glowing yellows are rather in the\nway. I for my part believe that of the two extremes, a Quaker's meeting\nis nearer the ideal of Christian worship than High Mass, and so far as\nmy feeble voice can reach, I would urge, as eminently a lesson for the\nday, Paul's great principle here, that a Christianity making much of\nforms and ceremonies is a distinct retrogression and descent. You are\nmen in Christ, do not go back to the picture book A B C of symbol and\nceremony, which was fit for babes. You have been brought in to the inner\nsanctuary of worship in spirit; do not decline to the beggarly elements\nof outward form.\n\nPaul sums up his indictment in one damning clause, the result of the two\npreceding. If the heresy have no higher source than men's traditions,\nand no more solid contents than ceremonial observances, it cannot be\n\"after Christ.\" He is neither its origin, nor its substance, nor its\nrule and standard. There is a fundamental discord between every such\nsystem, however it may call itself Christian, and Christ. The opposition\nmay be concealed by its teachers. They and their victims may not be\naware of it. They may not themselves be conscious that by adopting it\nthey have slipped off the foundation; but they have done so, and though\nin their own hearts they be loyal to Him, they have brought an\nincurable discord into their creeds which will weaken their lives, if it\ndo not do worse. Paul cared very little for the dreams of these\nteachers, except in so far as they carried them and others away from his\nMaster. The Colossians might have as many ceremonies as they liked, and\nwelcome; but when these interfered with the sole reliance to be placed\non Christ's work, then they must have no quarter. It is not merely\nbecause the teaching was \"after the traditions of men, after the\nrudiments of the world,\" but because being so, it was \"not after\nChrist,\" that Paul will have none of it. He that touches his Master\ntouches the apple of his eye, and shades of opinion, and things\nindifferent in practice, and otherwise unimportant forms of worship,\nhave to be fought to the death if they obscure one corner of the perfect\nand solitary work of the One Lord, who is at once the source, the\nsubstance, and the standard of all Christian teaching.\n\nII. The Antidote.--\"For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead\nbodily, and in Him ye are made full, who is the head of all principality\nand power.\"\n\nThese words may be a reason for the warning--\"Take heed, _for_\"; or they\nmay be a reason for the implied exclusion of any teaching which is not\nafter Christ. The statement of its characteristics carries in itself its\ncondemnation. Anything \"not after Christ\" is _ipso facto_ wrong, and to\nbe avoided--\"for,\" etc. \"In Him\" is placed with emphasis at the\nbeginning, and implies \"and nowhere else.\" \"Dwelleth,\" that is, has its\npermanent abode; where the tense is to be noticed also, as pointing to\nthe ascended Christ. \"All the fulness of the Godhead,\" that is, the\nwhole unbounded powers and attributes of Deity, where is to be noted the\nuse of the abstract term _Godhead_, instead of the more usual _God_, in\norder to express with the utmost force the thought of the indwelling in\nChrist of the whole essence and nature of God. \"Bodily,\" that points to\nthe Incarnation, and so is an advance upon the passage in the former\nchapter (ver. 19), which speaks of \"the fulness\" dwelling in the Eternal\nWord, whereas this speaks of the Eternal Word in whom the fulness dwelt\nbecoming flesh. So we are pointed to the glorified corporeal humanity of\nJesus Christ in His exaltation as the abode, now and for ever, of all\nthe fulness of the Divine nature, which is thereby brought very near to\nus. This grand truth seems to Paul to shiver to pieces all the dreams of\nthese teachers about angel mediators, and to brand as folly every\nattempt to learn truth and God anywhere else but in Him.\n\nIf He be the one sole temple of Deity in whom all Divine glories are\nstored, why go anywhere else in order to _see_ or to _possess_ God? It\nis folly; for not only are all these glories stored in Him, but they are\nso stored on purpose to be reached by us. Therefore the Apostle goes on,\n\"and in Him ye are made full;\" which sets forth two things as true in\nthe inward life of all Christians, namely, their living incorporation in\nand union with Christ, and their consequent participation in His\nfulness. Every one of us may enter into that most real and close union\nwith Jesus Christ by the power of continuous faith in Him. So may we be\ngrafted into the Vine, and builded into the Rock. If thus we keep our\nhearts in contact with His heart and let Him lay His lip on our lips,\nHe will breathe into us the breath of His own life, and we shall live\nbecause He lives, and in our measure, as He lives. All the fulness of\nGod is in Him, that from Him it may pass into us. We might start back\nfrom such bold words if we did not remember that the same apostle who\nhere tells us that that fulness dwells in Jesus, crowns his wonderful\nprayer for the Ephesian Christians with that daring petition, \"that ye\nmay be filled with all the fulness of God.\" The treasure was lodged in\nthe earthen vessel of Christ's manhood that it might be within our\nreach. He brings the fiery blessing of a Divine life from Heaven to\nearth enclosed in the feeble reed of His manhood, that it may kindle\nkindred fire in many a heart. Freely the water of life flows into all\ncisterns from the ever fresh stream, into which the infinite depth of\nthat unfathomable sea of good pours itself. Every kind of spiritual\nblessing is given therein. That stream, like a river of molten lava,\nholds many precious things in its flaming current, and will cool into\nmany shapes and deposit many rare and rich gifts. According to our need\nit will vary itself, being to each what the moment most\nrequires,--wisdom, or strength, or beauty, or courage, or patience. Out\nof it will come whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of\ngood report, as Rabbinical legends tell us that the manna tasted to each\nman like the food for which he wished most.\n\nThis process of receiving of all the Divine fulness is a continuous one.\nWe can but be approximating to the possession of the infinite treasure\nwhich is ours in Christ; and since the treasure is infinite, and we can\nindefinitely grow in capacity of receiving God, there must be an\neternal continuance of the filling and an eternal increase of the\nmeasure of what fills us. Our natures are elastic, and in love and\nknowledge, as well as in purity and capacity for blessedness, there are\nno bounds to be set to their possible expansion. They will be widened by\nbliss into a greater capacity for bliss. The indwelling Christ will\n\"enlarge the place of His habitation,\" and as the walls stretch and the\nroofs soar, He will fill the greater house with the light of His\npresence and the fragrance of His name. The condition of this continuous\nreception of the abundant gift of a Divine life is abiding in Jesus. It\nis \"in Him\" that we are \"being filled full\"--and it is only so long as\nwe continue in Him that we continue full. We cannot bear away our\nsupplies, as one might a full bucket from a well, and keep it full. All\nthe grace will trickle out and disappear unless we live in constant\nunion with our Lord, whose Spirit passes into our deadness only so long\nas we are joined to Him.\n\nFrom all such thoughts Paul would have us draw the conclusion--how\nfoolish, then, it must be to go to any other source for the supply of\nour needs! Christ is \"the head of all principality and power,\" he adds,\nwith a reference to the doctrine of angel mediators, which evidently\nplayed a great part in the heretical teaching. If He is sovereign head\nof all dignity and power on earth and heaven, why go to the ministers,\nwhen we have access to the King; or have recourse to erring human\nteachers, when we have the Eternal Word to enlighten us; or flee to\ncreatures to replenish our emptiness, when we may draw from the depths\nof God in Christ? Why should we go on a weary search after goodly\npearls when the richest of all is by us, if we will have it? Do we seek\nto know God? Let us behold Christ, and let men talk as they list. Do we\ncrave a stay for our spirit, guidance and impulse for our lives? Let us\ncleave to Christ, and we shall be no more lonely and bewildered. Do we\nneed a quieting balm to be laid on conscience, and the sense of guilt to\nbe lifted from our hearts? Let us lay our hands on Christ, the one\nsacrifice, and leave all other altars and priests and ceremonies. Do we\nlook longingly for some light on the future? Let us stedfastly gaze on\nChrist as He rises to heaven bearing a human body into the glory of God.\n\nThough all the earth were covered with helpers and lovers of my soul,\n\"as the sand by the sea shore innumerable,\" and all the heavens were\nsown with faces of angels who cared for me and succoured me, thick as\nthe stars in the milky way--all could not do for me what I need. Yea,\nthough all these were gathered into one mighty and loving creature, even\nhe were no sufficient stay for one soul of man. We want more than\ncreature help. We need the whole fulness of the Godhead to draw from. It\nis all there in Christ, for each of us. Whosoever will, let him draw\nfreely. Why should we leave the fountain of living waters to hew out for\nourselves, with infinite pains, broken cisterns that can hold no water?\nAll we need is in Christ. Let us lift our eyes from the low earth and\nall creatures, and behold \"no man any more,\" as Lord and Helper, \"save\nJesus only,\" \"that we may be filled with all the fulness of God.\"\n\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\n_THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION._\n\n \"In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with\n hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the\n circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism,\n wherein ye were also raised with Him through faith in the working of\n God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead through your\n trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, _I say_, did\n he quicken together with Him, having forgiven us all our\n trespasses.\"--COL. ii. 11-13 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThere are two opposite tendencies ever at work in human nature to\ncorrupt religion. One is of the intellect; the other of the senses. The\none is the temptation of the cultured few; the other, that of the vulgar\nmany. The one turns religion into theological speculation; the other,\ninto a theatrical spectacle. But, opposite as these tendencies usually\nare, they were united in that strange chaos of erroneous opinion and\npractice which Paul had to front at Colossae. From right and from left he\nwas assailed, and his batteries had to face both ways. Here he is mainly\nengaged with the error which insisted on imposing circumcision on these\nGentile converts.\n\nI. To this teaching of the necessity of circumcision, he first opposes\nthe position that all Christian men, by virtue of their union with\nChrist, have received the true circumcision, of which the outward rite\nwas a shadow and a prophecy, and that therefore the rite is antiquated\nand obsolete.\n\nHis language is emphatic and remarkable. It points to a definite past\ntime--no doubt the time when they became Christians--when, because they\nwere in Christ, a change passed on them which is fitly paralleled with\ncircumcision. This Christian circumcision is described in three\nparticulars: as \"not made with hands;\" as consisting in \"putting off the\nbody of the flesh;\" and as being \"of Christ.\"\n\nIt is \"not made with hands,\" that is, it is not a rite but a reality,\nnot transacted in flesh but in spirit. It is not the removal of\nceremonial impurity, but the cleansing of the heart. This idea of\nethical circumcision, of which the bodily rite is the type, is common in\nthe Old Testament, as, for instance, \"The Lord thy God will circumcise\nthine heart ... to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart\" (Deut.\nxxx. 6). This is the true Christian circumcision.\n\nIt consists in the \"putting off the body of the flesh\"--for \"the sins\nof\" is an interpolation. Of course a man does not shuffle off this\nmortal coil when he becomes a Christian, so that we have to look for\nsome other meaning of the strong words. They are very strong, for the\nword \"putting off\" is intensified so as to express a complete stripping\noff from oneself, as of clothes which are laid aside, and is evidently\nintended to contrast the partial outward circumcision as the removal of\na small part of the body, with the entire removal effected by union with\nChrist. If that removal of \"the body of the flesh\" is \"not made with\nhands,\" then it can only be in the sphere of the spiritual life, that is\nto say, it must consist in a change in the relation of the two\nconstituents of a man's being, and that of such a kind that, for the\nfuture, the Christian shall not live after the flesh, though he live in\nthe flesh. \"Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,\" says Paul, and\nagain he uses an expression as strong as, if not stronger than that of\nour text, when he speaks of \"the body\" as \"being destroyed,\" and\nexplains himself by adding \"that henceforth we should not serve sin.\" It\nis not the body considered simply as material and fleshly that we put\noff, but the body considered as the seat of corrupt and sinful\naffections and passions. A new principle of life comes into men's hearts\nwhich delivers them from the dominion of these, and makes it possible\nthat they should live in the flesh, not \"according to the lusts of the\nflesh, but according to the will of God.\" True, the text regards this\ndivesting as complete, whereas, as all Christian men know only too\nsadly, it is very partial, and realised only by slow degrees. The ideal\nis represented here,--what we receive \"in Him,\" rather than what we\nactually possess and incorporate into our experience. On the Divine side\nthe change is complete. Christ gives complete emancipation from the\ndominion of sense, and if we are not in reality completely emancipated,\nit is because we have not taken the things that are freely given to us,\nand are not completely \"_in_ Him.\" So far as we are, we have put off\n\"the flesh.\" The change has passed on us if we are Christians. We have\nto work it out day by day. The foe may keep up a guerilla warfare after\nhe is substantially defeated, but his entire subjugation is certain if\nwe keep hold of the strength of Christ.\n\nFinally, this circumcision is described as \"of Christ,\" by which is not\nmeant that He submitted to it, but that He instituted it.\n\nSuch being the force of this statement, what is its bearing on the\nApostle's purpose? He desires to destroy the teaching that the rite of\ncircumcision was binding on the Christian converts, and he does so by\nasserting that the gospel has brought the reality, of which the rite was\nbut a picture and a prophecy. The underlying principle is that when we\nhave the thing signified by any Jewish rites, which were all prophetic\nas well as symbolic, the rite may--must go. Its retention is an\nanachronism, \"as if a flower should shut, and be a bud again.\" That is a\nwise and pregnant principle, but as it comes to the surface again\nimmediately hereafter, and is applied to a whole series of subjects, we\nmay defer the consideration of it, and rather dwell briefly on other\nmatters suggested by this verse.\n\nWe notice, then, the intense moral earnestness which leads the Apostle\nhere to put the true centre of gravity of Christianity in moral\ntransformation, and to set all outward rites and ceremonies in a very\nsubordinate place. What had Jesus Christ come from heaven for, and for\nwhat had He borne His bitter passion? To what end were the Colossians\nknit to Him by a tie so strong, tender and strange? Had they been\ncarried into that inmost depth of union with Him, and were they still to\nbe laying stress on ceremonies? Had Christ's work, then, no higher issue\nthan to leave religion bound in the cords of outward observances? Surely\nJesus Christ, who gives men a new life by union with Himself, which\nunion is brought about through faith alone, has delivered men from that\n\"yoke of bondage,\" if He has done anything at all. Surely they who are\njoined to Him should have a profounder apprehension of the means and the\nend of their relation to their Lord than to suppose that it is either\nbrought about by any outward rite, or has any reality unless it makes\nthem pure and good. From that height all questions of external\nobservances dwindle into insignificance, and all question of sacramental\nefficacy drops away of itself. The vital centre lies in our being joined\nto Jesus Christ--the condition of which is faith in Him, and the outcome\nof it a new life which delivers us from the dominion of the flesh. How\nfar away from such conceptions of Christianity are those which busy\nthemselves on either side with matters of detail, with punctilios of\nobservance, and pedantries of form? The hatred of forms may be as\ncompletely a form as the most elaborate ritual--and we all need to have\nour eyes turned away from these to the far higher thing, the worship and\nservice offered by a transformed nature.\n\nWe notice again, that the conquest of the animal nature and the material\nbody is the certain outcome of true union with Christ, and of that\nalone.\n\nPaul did not regard matter as necessarily evil, as these teachers at\nColossae did, nor did he think of the body as the source of all sin. But\nhe knew that the fiercest and most fiery temptations came from it, and\nthat the foulest and most indelible stains on conscience were splashed\nfrom the mud which it threw. We all know that too. It is a matter of\nlife and death for each of us to find some means of taming and holding\nin the animal that is in us all. We all know of wrecked lives, which\nhave been driven on the rocks by the wild passions belonging to the\nflesh. Fortune, reputation, health, everything are sacrificed by\nhundreds of men, especially young men, at the sting of this imperious\nlust. The budding promise of youth, innocence, hope, and all which makes\nlife desirable and a nature fair, are trodden down by the hoofs of the\nbrute. There is no need to speak of that. And when we come to add to\nthis the weaknesses of the flesh, and the needs of the flesh, and the\nlimitations of the flesh, and to remember how often high purposes are\nfrustrated by its shrinking from toil, and how often mists born from its\nundrained swamps darken the vision that else might gaze on truth and\nGod, we cannot but feel that we do not need to be Eastern Gnostics, to\nbelieve that goodness requires the flesh to be subdued. Every one who\nhas sought for self-improvement recognises the necessity. But no\nasceticisms and no resolves will do what we want. Much repression may be\neffected by sheer force of will, but it is like a man holding a wolf by\nthe jaws. The arms begin to ache and the grip to grow slack, and he\nfeels his strength ebbing, and knows that, as soon as he lets go, the\nbrute will fly at his throat. Repression is not taming. Nothing tames\nthe wild beast in us but the power of Christ. He binds it in a silken\nlash, and that gentle constraint is strong, because the fierceness is\ngone. \"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and a little child shall\nlead them.\" The power of union with Christ, and that alone, will enable\nus to put off the body of the flesh. And such union will certainly lead\nto such crucifying of the animal nature. Christianity would be easy if\nit were a round of observances; it would be comparatively easy if it\nwere a series of outward asceticisms. Anybody can fast or wear a hair\nshirt, if he have motive sufficient; but the \"putting off the body of\nthe flesh\" which is \"not made with hands,\" is a different and harder\nthing. Nothing else avails. High-flown religious emotion, or clear\ntheological definitions, or elaborate ceremonial worship, may all have\ntheir value; but a religion which includes them all, and leaves out the\nplain moralities of subduing the flesh, and keeping our heel well\npressed down on the serpent's head, is worthless. If we are in Christ,\nwe shall not live in the flesh.\n\nII. The Apostle meets the false teaching of the need for circumcision,\nby a second consideration; namely, a reference to Christian Baptism, as\nbeing the Christian sign of that inward change.\n\nYe were circumcised, says he--being buried with Him in baptism. The form\nof expression in the Greek implies that the two things are\ncotemporaneous. As if he had said--Do you want any further rite to\nexpress that mighty change which passed on you when you came to be \"in\nChrist\"? You have been baptised, does not that express all the meaning\nthat circumcision ever had, and much more? What can you want with the\nless significant rite when you have the more significant? This reference\nto baptism is quite consistent with what has been said as to the\nsubordinate importance of ritual. Some forms we must have, if there is\nto be any outward visible Church, and Christ has yielded to the\nnecessity, and given us two, of which the one symbolises the initial\nspiritual act of the Christian life, and the other the constantly\nrepeated process of Christian nourishment. They are symbols and outward\nrepresentations, nothing more. They convey grace, in so far as they\nhelp us to realise more clearly and to feel more deeply the facts on\nwhich our spiritual life is fed, but they are not channels of grace in\nany other way than any other outward acts of worship may be.\n\nWe see that the form of baptism here presupposed is by immersion, and\nthat the form is regarded as significant. All but entire unanimity\nprevails among commentators on this point. The burial and the\nresurrection spoken of point unmistakably to the primitive mode of\nbaptism, as Bishop Lightfoot, the latest and best English expositor of\nthis book, puts it in his paraphrase: \"Ye were buried with Christ to\nyour old selves beneath the baptismal waters, and were raised with Him\nfrom these same waters, to a new and better life.\"\n\nIf so, two questions deserve consideration--first, is it right to alter\na form which has a meaning that is lost by the change? second, can we\nalter a significant form without destroying it? Is the new thing rightly\ncalled by the old name? If baptism be immersion, and immersion express a\nsubstantial part of its meaning, can sprinkling or pouring be baptism?\n\nAgain, baptism is associated in time with the inward change, which is\nthe true circumcision. There are but two theories on which these two\nthings are cotemporaneous. The one is the theory that baptism effects\nthe change, the other is the theory that baptism goes with the change as\nits sign. The association is justified if men are \"circumcised,\" that\nis, changed when they are baptised, or if men are baptised when they\nhave been \"circumcised.\" No other theory gives full weight to these\nwords.\n\nThe former theory elevates baptism into more than the importance of\nwhich Paul sought to deprive circumcision, it confuses the distinction\nbetween the Church and the world, it lulls men into a false security, it\nobscures the very central truth of Christianity--namely that faith in\nChrist, working by love, makes a Christian--it gives the basis for a\nportentous reproduction of sacerdotalism, and it is shivered to pieces\nagainst the plain facts of daily life. But it may be worth while to\nnotice in a sentence, that it is conclusively disposed of by the\nlanguage before us--it is \"through faith in the operation of God\" that\nwe are raised again in baptism. Not the rite, then, but faith is the\nmeans of this participation with Christ in burial and resurrection. What\nremains but that baptism is associated with that spiritual change by\nwhich we are delivered from the body of the flesh, because in the Divine\norder it is meant to be the outward symbol of that change which is\neffected by no rite or sacrament, but by faith alone, uniting us to the\ntransforming Christ?\n\nWe observe the solemnity and the thoroughness of the change thus\nsymbolised. It is more than a circumcision. It is burial and a\nresurrection, an entire dying of the old self by union with Christ, a\nreal and present rising again by participation in His risen life. This\nand nothing less makes a Christian. We partake of His death, inasmuch as\nwe ally ourselves to it by our faith, as the sacrifice for our sins, and\nmake it the ground of all our hope. But that is not all. We partake of\nHis death, inasmuch as, by the power of His cross, we are drawn to sever\nourselves from the selfish life, and to slay our own old nature; dying\nfor His dear sake to the habits, tastes, desires and purposes in which\nwe lived. Self-crucifixion for the love of Christ is the law for us all.\nHis cross is the pattern for our conduct, as well as the pledge and\nmeans of our acceptance. We must die to sin that we may live to\nrighteousness. We must die to self, that we may live to God and our\nbrethren. We have no right to trust in Christ _for_ us, except as we\nhave Christ _in_ us. His cross is not saving us from our guilt, unless\nit is moulding our lives to some faint likeness of Him who died that we\nmight live, and might live a real life by dying daily to the world, sin,\nand self.\n\nIf we are thus made conformable to His death, we shall know the power of\nHis resurrection, in all its aspects. It will be to us the guarantee of\nour own, and we shall know its power as a prophecy for our future. It\nwill be to us the seal of His perfect work on the cross, and we shall\nknow its power as God's token of acceptance of His sacrifice in the\npast. It will be to us the type of our spiritual resurrection now, and\nwe shall know its power as the pattern and source of our supernatural\nlife in the present. Thus we must die in and with Christ that we may\nlive in and with Him, and that twofold process is the very heart of\npersonal religion. No lofty participation in the immortal hopes which\nspring from the empty grave of Jesus is warranted, unless we have His\nquickening power raising us to-day by a better resurrection; and no\nparticipation in the present power of His heavenly life is possible,\nunless we have such a share in His death, as that by it the world is\ncrucified to us, and we unto the world.\n\nIII. The Apostle adds another phase of this great contrast of life and\ndeath, which brings home still more closely to his hearers, the deep\nand radical change which passes upon all Christians. He has been\nspeaking of a death and burial followed by a resurrection. But there is\nanother death from which Christ raises us, by that same risen life\nimparted to us through faith--a darker and grimmer thing than the\nself-abnegation before described.\n\n\"And you, being dead through your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of\nyour flesh.\" The separate acts of transgression of which they had been\nguilty, and the unchastened, unpurified, carnal nature from which these\nhad flowed, were the reasons of a very real and awful death; or, as the\nparallel passage in Ephesians (ii. 2) puts it with a slight variation,\nthey made the condition or sphere in which that death inhered. That\nsolemn thought, so pregnant in its dread emphasis in Scripture, is not\nto be put aside as a mere metaphor. All life stands in union with God.\nThe physical universe exists by reason of its perpetual contact with His\nsustaining hand, in the hollow of which all Being lies, and it is,\nbecause He touches it. \"In Him we live.\" So also the life of mind is\nsustained by His perpetual inbreathing, and in the deepest sense \"we see\nlight\" in His light. So, lastly, the highest life of the spirit stands\nin union in still higher manner with Him, and to be separated from Him\nis death to it. Sin breaks that union, and therefore sin is death, in\nthe very inmost centre of man's being. The awful warning, \"In the day\nthou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,\" was fulfilled. That\nseparation by sin, in which the soul is wrenched from God, is the real\ndeath, and the thing that men call by the name is only an outward symbol\nof a far sadder fact--the shadow of that which is the awful substance,\nand as much less terrible than it as painted fires are less than the\nburning reality.\n\nSo men may live in the body, and toil and think and feel, and be dead.\nThe world is full of \"sheeted dead,\" that \"squeak and gibber\" in \"our\nstreets,\" for every soul that lives to self and has rent itself away\nfrom God, so far as a creature can, is \"dead while he liveth.\" The other\ndeath, of which the previous verse spoke, is therefore but the putting\noff of a death. We lose nothing of real life in putting off self, but\nonly that which keeps us in a separation from God, and slays our true\nand highest being. To die to self is but \"the death of death.\"\n\nThe same life of which the previous verse spoke as coming from the risen\nLord is here set forth as able to raise us from that death of sin. \"He\nhath quickened you together with Him.\" Union with Christ floods our dead\nsouls with His own vitality, as water will pour from a reservoir through\na tube inserted in it. There is the actual communication of a new life\nwhen we touch Christ by faith. The prophet of old laid himself upon the\ndead child, the warm lip on the pallid mouth, the throbbing heart on the\nstill one, and the contact rekindled the extinguished spark. So Christ\nlays His full life on our deadness, and does more than recall a departed\nglow of vitality. He communicates a new life kindred with His own. That\nlife makes us free here and now from the law of sin and death, and it\nshall be perfected hereafter when the working of His mighty power shall\nchange the body of our humiliation into the likeness of the body of His\nglory, and the leaven of His new life shall leaven the three measures in\nwhich it is hidden, body, soul, and spirit, with its own transforming\nenergy. Then, in yet higher sense, death shall die, and life shall be\nvictor by His victory.\n\nBut to all this one preliminary is needful--\"having forgiven us all\ntrespasses.\" Paul's eagerness to associate himself with his brethren,\nand to claim his share in the forgiveness, as well as to unite in the\nacknowledgment of sin, makes him change his word from \"you\" to \"us.\" So\nthe best manuscripts give the text, and the reading is obviously full of\ninterest and suggestiveness. There must be a removal of the cause of\ndeadness before there can be a quickening to new life. That cause was\nsin, which cannot be cancelled as guilt by any self-denial however\ngreat, nor even by the impartation of a new life from God for the\nfuture. A gospel which only enjoined dying to self would be as\ninadequate as a gospel which only provided for a higher life in the\nfuture. The stained and faultful past must be cared for. Christ must\nbring pardon for it, as well as a new spirit for the future. So the\ncondition prior to our being quickened together with Him is God's\nforgiveness, free and universal, covering all our sins, and given to us\nwithout anything on our part. That condition is satisfied. Christ's\ndeath brings to us God's pardon, and when the great barrier of\nunforgiven sin is cleared away, Christ's life pours into our hearts, and\n\"everything lives whithersoever the river cometh.\"\n\nHere then we have the deepest ground of Paul's intense hatred of every\nattempt to make anything but faith in Christ and moral purity essential\nto the perfect Christian life. Circumcision and baptism and all other\nrites or sacraments of Judaism or Christianity are equally powerless to\nquicken dead souls. For that, the first thing needed is the forgiveness\nof sins, and that is ours through simple faith in Christ's death. We are\nquickened by Christ's own life in us, and He \"dwells in our hearts by\nfaith.\" All ordinances may be administered to us a hundred times, and\nwithout faith they leave us as they found us--dead. If we have hold of\nChrist by faith we live, whether we have received the ordinances or not.\nSo all full blown or budding sacramentarianism is to be fought against\nto the uttermost, because it tends to block the road to the City of\nRefuge for a poor sinful soul, and the most pressing of all necessities\nis that that way of life should be kept clear and unimpeded.\n\nWe need the profound truth which lies in the threefold form which Paul\ngives to one of his great watchwords: \"Circumcision is nothing, and\nuncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.\"\nAnd how, says my despairing conscience, shall I keep the commandments?\nThe answer lies in the second form of the saying--\"In Christ Jesus\nneither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new\ncreature.\" And how, replies my saddened heart, can I become a new\ncreature? The answer lies in the final form of the saying--\"In Jesus\nChrist neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but\nfaith which worketh.\" Faith brings the life which makes us new men, and\nthen we can keep the commandments. If we have faith, and are new men and\ndo God's will, we need no rites but as helps. If we have not faith, all\nrites are nothing.\n\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\n_THE CROSS THE DEATH OF LAW AND THE TRIUMPH OVER EVIL POWERS._\n\n \"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,\n which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to\n His cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a\n show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.\"--COL. ii. 14, 15\n (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThe same double reference to the two characteristic errors of the\nColossians which we have already met so frequently, presents itself\nhere. This whole section vibrates continually between warnings against\nthe Judaising enforcement of the Mosaic law on Gentile Christians, and\nagainst the Oriental figments about a crowd of angelic beings filling\nthe space betwixt man and God, betwixt pure spirit and gross matter. One\ngreat fact is here opposed to these strangely associated errors. The\ncross of Christ is the abrogation of the Law; the cross of Christ is the\nvictory over principalities and powers. If we hold fast by it, we are\nunder no subjection to the former, and have neither to fear nor\nreverence the latter.\n\nI. The Cross of Christ is the death of Law.\n\nThe law is a written document. It has an antagonistic aspect to us all,\nGentiles as well as Jews. Christ has blotted it out. More than that, He\nhas taken it out of the way, as if it were an obstacle lying right in\nthe middle of our path. More than that, it is \"nailed to the cross.\"\nThat phrase has been explained by an alleged custom of repealing laws\nand cancelling bonds by driving a nail into them, and fixing them up in\npublic, but proof of the practice is said to be wanting. The thought\nseems to be deeper than that. This antagonistic \"law\" is conceived of as\nbeing, like \"the world,\" crucified in the crucifixion of our Lord. The\nnails which fastened Him to the cross fastened it, and in His death it\nwas done to death. We are free from it, \"that being dead in which we\nwere held.\"\n\nWe have first, then, to consider the \"handwriting,\" or, as some would\nrender the word, \"the bond.\" Of course, by _law_ here is primarily meant\nthe Mosaic ceremonial law, which was being pressed upon the Colossians.\nIt is so completely antiquated for us, that we have difficulty in\nrealising what a fight for life and death raged round the question of\nits observance by the primitive Church. It is always harder to change\ncustoms than creeds, and religious observances live on, as every maypole\non a village green tells us, long after the beliefs which animated them\nare forgotten. So there was a strong body among the early believers to\nwhom it was flat blasphemy to speak of allowing the Gentile Christian to\ncome into the Church, except through the old doorway of circumcision,\nand to whom the outward ceremonial of Judaism was the only visible\nreligion. That is the point directly at issue between Paul and these\nteachers.\n\nBut the modern distinction between moral and ceremonial law had no\nexistence in Paul's mind, any more than it has in the Old Testament,\nwhere precepts of the highest morality and regulations of the merest\nceremonial are interstratified in a way most surprising to us moderns.\nTo him the law was a homogeneous whole, however diverse its commands,\nbecause it was all the revelation of the will of God for the guidance of\nman. It is the law as a whole, in all its aspects and parts, that is\nhere spoken of, whether as enjoining morality, or external observances,\nor as an accuser fastening guilt on the conscience, or as a stern\nprophet of retribution and punishment.\n\nFurther, we must give a still wider extension to the thought. The\nprinciples laid down are true not only in regard to \"_the_ law,\" but\nabout all law, whether it be written on the tables of stone, or on \"the\nfleshy tables of the heart\" or conscience, or in the systems of ethics,\nor in the customs of society. Law, as such, howsoever enacted and\nwhatever the bases of its rule, is dealt with by Christianity in\nprecisely the same way as the venerable and God-given code of the Old\nTestament. When we recognise that fact, these discussions in Paul's\nEpistles flash up into startling vitality and interest. It has long\nsince been settled that Jewish ritual is nothing to us. But it ever\nremains a burning question for each of us, What Christianity does for us\nin relation to the solemn law of duty under which we are all placed, and\nwhich we have all broken?\n\nThe antagonism of law is the next point presented by these words. Twice,\nto add to the emphasis, Paul tells us that the law is against us. It\nstands opposite us fronting us and frowning at us, and barring our\nroad. Is \"law\" then become our \"enemy because it tells us the truth?\"\nSurely this conception of law is a strange contrast to and descent from\nthe rapturous delight of psalmists and prophets in the \"law of the\nLord.\" Surely God's greatest gift to man is the knowledge of His will,\nand law is beneficent, a light and a guide to men, and even its strokes\nare merciful. Paul believed all that too. But nevertheless the\nantagonism is very real. As with God, so with law, if we be against Him,\nHe cannot but be against us. We may make Him our dearest friend or our\nfoe. \"They rebelled ... therefore He was turned to be their enemy and\nfought against them.\" The revelation of duty to which we are not\ninclined is ever unwelcome. Law is against us, because it comes like a\ntaskmaster, bidding us do, but neither putting the inclination into our\nhearts, nor the power into our hands. And law is against us, because the\nrevelation of unfulfilled duty is the accusation of the defaulter and a\nrevelation to him of his guilt. And law is against us, because it comes\nwith threatenings and foretastes of penalty and pain. Thus as standard,\naccuser and avenger, it is--sad perversion of its nature and function\nthough such an attitude be--against us.\n\nWe all know that. Strange and tragic it is, but alas! it is true, that\nGod's law presents itself before us as an enemy. Each of us has seen\nthat apparition, severe in beauty, like the sword-bearing angel that\nBalaam saw \"standing in the way\" between the vineyards, blocking our\npath when we wanted to \"go frowardly in the way of our heart.\" Each of\nus knows what it is to see our sentence in the stern face. The law of\nthe Lord should be to us \"sweeter than honey and the honeycomb,\" but the\ncorruption of the best is the worst, and we can make it poison. Obeyed,\nit is as the chariot of fire to bear us heavenward. Disobeyed, it is an\niron car that goes crashing on its way, crushing all who set themselves\nagainst it. To know what we ought to be and to love and try to be it, is\nblessedness, but to know it and to refuse to be it, is misery. In\nherself she \"wears the Godhead's most benignant grace,\" but if we turn\nagainst her, Law, the \"daughter of the voice of God,\" gathers frowns\nupon her face and her beauty becomes stern and threatening.\n\nBut the great principle here asserted is--the destruction of law in the\ncross of Christ. The cross ends the law's power of _punishment_. Paul\nbelieved that the burden and penalty of sin had been laid on Jesus\nChrist and borne by Him on His cross. In deep, mysterious, but most real\nidentification of Himself with the whole race of man, He not only\nHimself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses, by the might of\nHis sympathy and the reality of His manhood, but \"the Lord made to meet\nupon Him the iniquity of us all\"; and He, the Lamb of God, willingly\naccepted the load, and bare away our sins by bearing their penalty.\n\nTo philosophise on that teaching of Scripture is not my business here.\nIt is my business to assert it. We can never penetrate to a full\nunderstanding of the rationale of Christ's bearing the world's sins, but\nthat has nothing to do with the earnestness of our belief in the fact.\nEnough for us that in His person He willingly made experience of all the\nbitterness of sin: that when He agonised in the dark on the cross, and\nwhen from out of the darkness came that awful cry, so strangely compact\nof wistful confidence and utter isolation, \"My God, My God, why hast\nThou forsaken Me?\" it was something deeper than physical pain or\nshrinking from physical death that found utterance--even the sin-laden\nconsciousness of Him who in that awful hour gathered into His own breast\nthe spear-points of a world's punishment. The cross of Christ is the\nendurance of the penalty of sin, and therefore is the unloosing of the\ngrip of the law upon us, in so far as threatening and punishment are\nconcerned. It is not enough that we should only intellectually recognise\nthat as a principle--it is the very heart of the gospel, the very life\nof our souls. Trusting ourselves to that great sacrifice, the dread of\npunishment will fade from our hearts, and the thunder-clouds melt out of\nthe sky, and the sense of guilt will not be a sting, but an occasion for\nlowly thankfulness, and the law will have to draw the bolts of her\nprison-house and let our captive souls go free.\n\nChrist's cross is the end of law as _ceremonial_. The whole elaborate\nritual of the Jew had sacrifice for its vital centre, and the prediction\nof the Great Sacrifice for its highest purpose. Without the admission of\nthese principles, Paul's position is unintelligible, for he holds, as in\nthis context, that Christ's coming puts the whole system out of date,\nbecause it fulfils it all. When the fruit has set, there is no more need\nfor petals; or, as the Apostle himself puts it, \"when that which is\nperfect is come, that which is in part is done away.\" We have the\nreality, and do not need the shadow. There is but one temple for the\nChristian soul--the \"temple of His body.\" Local sanctity is at an end,\nfor it was never more than an external picture of that spiritual fact\nwhich is realised in the Incarnation. Christ is the dwelling-place of\nDeity, the meeting-place of God and man, the place of sacrifice; and,\nbuilded on Him, we in Him become a spiritual house. There are none other\ntemples than these. Christ is the great priest, and in His presence all\nhuman priesthood loses its consecration, for it could offer only\nexternal sacrifice, and secure a local approach to a \"worldly\nsanctuary.\" He is the real Aaron, and we in Him become a royal\npriesthood. There are none other priests than these. Christ is the true\nsacrifice. His death is the real propitiation for sin, and we in Him\nbecome thank-offerings, moved by His mercies to present ourselves living\nsacrifices. There are none other offerings than these. So the law as a\ncode of ceremonial worship is done to death in the cross, and, like the\ntemple veil, is torn in two from the top to the bottom.\n\nChrist's cross is the end of law as _moral_ rule. Nothing in Paul's\nwritings warrants the restriction to the ceremonial law of the strong\nassertion in the text, and its many parallels. Of course, such words do\nnot mean that Christian men are freed from the obligations of morality,\nbut they do mean that we are not bound to do the \"things contained in\nthe law\" because they are there. Duty is duty now because we see the\npattern of conduct and character in Christ. Conscience is not our\nstandard, nor is the Old Testament conception of the perfect ideal of\nmanhood. We have neither to read law in the fleshy tables of the heart,\nnor in the tables graven by God's own finger, nor in men's parchments\nand prescriptions. Our law is the perfect life and death of Christ, who\nis at once the ideal of humanity and the reality of Deity.\n\nThe weakness of all law is that it merely commands, but has no power to\nget its commandments obeyed. Like a discrowned king, it posts its\nproclamations, but has no army at its back to execute them. But Christ\nputs His own power within us, and His love in our hearts; and so we pass\nfrom under the dominion of an external commandment into the liberty of\nan inward spirit. He is to His followers both \"law and impulse.\" He\ngives not the \"law of a carnal commandment, but the power of an endless\nlife.\" The long schism between inclination and duty is at an end, in so\nfar as we are under the influence of Christ's cross. The great promise\nis fulfilled, \"I will put My law into their minds and write it in their\nhearts\"; and so, glad obedience with the whole power of the new life,\nfor the sake of the love of the dear Lord who has bought us by His\ndeath, supersedes the constrained submission to outward precept. A\nhigher morality ought to characterise the partakers of the life of\nChrist, who have His example for their code, and His love for their\nmotive. The tender voice that says, \"If ye love Me, keep My\ncommandments,\" wins us to purer and more self-sacrificing goodness than\nthe stern accents that can only say, \"Thou shalt--or else!\" can ever\nenforce. He came \"not to destroy, but to fulfil.\" The fulfilment was\ndestruction in order to reconstruction in higher form. Law died with\nChrist on the cross in order that it might rise and reign with Him in\nour inmost hearts.\n\nII. The Cross is the triumph over all the powers of evil.\n\nThere are considerable difficulties in the interpretation of verse 15;\nthe main question being the meaning of the word rendered in the\nAuthorized Version \"spoiled,\" and in the R. V. \"having put off from\nHimself.\" It is the same word as is used in iii. 9, and is there\nrendered \"have put off\"; while a cognate noun is found in verse 11 of\nthis chapter, and is there translated \"the putting off.\" The form here\nmust either mean \"having put off from oneself,\" or \"having stripped\n(others) _for_ oneself.\" The former meaning is adopted by many\ncommentators, as well as by the R. V., and is explained to mean that\nChrist having assumed our humanity, was, as it were, wrapped about and\ninvested with Satanic temptations, which He finally flung from Him for\never in His death, which was His triumph over the powers of evil. The\nfigure seems far-fetched and obscure, and the rendering necessitates the\nsupposition of a change in the person spoken of, which must be God in\nthe earlier part of the period, and Christ in the latter.\n\nBut if we adopt the other meaning, which has equal warrant in the Greek\nform, \"having stripped for Himself,\" we get the thought that in the\ncross, God has, for His greater glory, stripped principalities and\npowers. Taking this meaning, we avoid the necessity of supposing with\nBishop Lightfoot that there is a change of subject from God to Christ at\nsome point in the period including verses 13 to 15--an expedient which\nis made necessary by the impossibility of supposing that God \"divested\nHimself of principalities or powers\"--and also avoid the other necessity\nof referring the whole period to Christ, which is another way out of\nthat impossibility. We thereby obtain a more satisfactory meaning than\nthat Christ in assuming humanity was assailed by temptations from the\npowers of evil which were, as it were, a poisoned garment clinging to\nHim, and which He stripped off from Himself in His death. Further, such\na meaning as that which we adopt makes the whole verse a consistent\nmetaphor in three stages, whereas the other introduces an utterly\nincongruous and irrelevant figure. What connection has the figure of\nstripping off a garment with that of a conqueror in his triumphal\nprocession? But if we read \"spoiled for Himself principalities and\npowers,\" we see the whole process before our eyes--the victor stripping\nhis foes of arms and ornaments and dress, then parading them as his\ncaptives, and then dragging them at the wheels of his triumphal car.\n\nThe words point us into dim regions of which we know nothing more than\nScripture tells us. These dreamers at Colossae had much to say about a\ncrowd of beings, bad and good, which linked men and matter with spirit\nand God. We have heard already the emphasis with which Paul has claimed\nfor his Master the sovereign authority of Creator over all orders of\nbeing, the headship over all principality and power. He has declared,\ntoo, that from Christ's cross a magnetic influence streams out upwards\nas well as earthwards, binding all things together in the great\nreconciliation--and now he tells us that from that same cross shoot\ndownwards darts of conquering power which subdue and despoil reluctant\nfoes of other realms and regions than ours, in so far as they work among\nmen.\n\nThat there are such seems plainly enough asserted in Christ's own\nwords. However much discredit has been brought on the thought by\nmonastic and Puritan exaggerations, it is clearly the teaching of\nScripture; and however it may be ridiculed or set aside, it can never be\ndisproved.\n\nBut the position which Christianity takes in reference to the whole\nmatter is to maintain that Christ has conquered the banded kingdom of\nevil, and that no man owes it fear or obedience, if he will only hold\nfast by his Lord. In the cross is the judgment of this world, and by it\nis the prince of this world cast out. He has taken away the power of\nthese Powers who were so mighty amongst men. They held men captive by\ntemptations too strong to be overcome, but He has conquered the lesser\ntemptations of the wilderness and the sorer of the cross, and therein\nhas made us more than conquerors. They held men captive by ignorance of\nGod, and the cross reveals Him; by the lie that sin was a trifle, but\nthe cross teaches us its gravity and power; by the opposite lie that sin\nwas unforgivable, but the cross brings pardon for every transgression\nand cleansing for every stain. By the cross the world is a redeemed\nworld, and, as our Lord said in words which may have suggested the\nfigure of our text, the strong man is bound, and his house _spoiled_ of\nall his armour wherein he trusted. The prey is taken from the mighty and\nmen are delivered from the dominion of evil. So that dark kingdom is\nrobbed of its subjects and its rulers impoverished and restrained. The\ndevout imagination of the monk-painter drew on the wall of the cell in\nhis convent the conquering Christ with white banner bearing a blood-red\ncross, before whose glad coming the heavy doors of the prison-house\nfell from their hinges, crushing beneath their weight the demon jailer,\nwhile the long file of eager captives, from Adam onwards through ages of\npatriarchs and psalmists and prophets, hurried forward with outstretched\nhands to meet the Deliverer, who came bearing His own atmosphere of\nradiance and joy. Christ has conquered. His cross is His victory; and in\nthat victory God has conquered. As the long files of the triumphal\nprocession swept upwards to the temple with incense and music, before\nthe gazing eyes of a gathered glad nation, while the conquered trooped\nchained behind the chariot, that all men might see their fierce eyes\ngleaming beneath their matted hair, and breathe more freely for the\nchains on their hostile wrists, so in the world-wide issues of the work\nof Christ, God triumphs before the universe, and enhances His glory in\nthat He has rent the prey from the mighty and won men back to Himself.\n\nSo we learn to think of evil as conquered, and for ourselves in our own\nconflicts with the world, the flesh, and the devil, as well as for the\nwhole race of man, to be of good cheer. True, the victory is but slowly\nbeing realised in all its consequences, and often it seems as if no\nterritory had been won. But the main position has been carried, and\nthough the struggle is still obstinate, it can end only in one way. The\nbrute dies hard, but the naked heel of our Christ has bruised his head,\nand though still the dragon\n\n \"Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail,\"\n\nhis death will come sooner or later. The regenerating power is lodged in\nthe heart of humanity, and the centre from which it flows is the cross.\nThe history of the world thenceforward is but the history of its more or\nless rapid assimilation of that power, and of its consequent deliverance\nfrom the bondage in which it has been held. The end can only be the\nentire and universal manifestation of the victory which was won when He\nbowed His head and died. Christ's cross is God's throne of triumph.\n\nLet us see that we have our own personal part in that victory. Holding\nto Christ, and drawing from Him by faith a share in His new life, we\nshall no longer be under the yoke of law, but enfranchised into the\nobedience of love, which is liberty. We shall no longer be slaves of\nevil, but sons and servants of our conquering God, who woos and wins us\nby showing us all His love in Christ, and by giving us His own Son on\nthe Cross, our peace-offering. If we let Him overcome, His victory will\nbe life, not death. He will strip us of nothing but rags, and clothe us\nin garments of purity; He will so breathe beauty into us that He will\nshow us openly to the universe as examples of His transforming power,\nand He will bind us glad captives to His chariot wheels, partakers of\nHis victory as well as trophies of His all-conquering love. \"Now thanks\nbe unto God, which always triumphs over us in Jesus Christ.\"\n\n\n\n\nXV.\n\n_WARNINGS AGAINST TWIN CHIEF ERRORS, BASED UPON PREVIOUS POSITIVE\nTEACHING._\n\n \"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect\n of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of\n things to come; but the body is Christ's. Let no man rob you of your\n prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels,\n dwelling in the things which he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his\n fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body,\n being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands,\n increaseth with the increase of God.\"--COL. ii. 16-19 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\n\"Let no man _therefore_ judge you.\" That \"therefore\" sends us back to\nwhat the Apostle has been saying in the previous verses, in order to\nfind there the ground of these earnest warnings. That ground is the\nwhole of the foregoing exposition of the Christian relation to Christ as\nfar back as verse 9, but especially the great truths contained in the\nimmediately preceding verses, that the cross of Christ is the death of\nlaw, and God's triumph over all the powers of evil. Because it is so,\nthe Colossian Christians are exhorted to claim and use their\nemancipation from both. Thus we have here the very heart and centre of\nthe practical counsels of the Epistle--the double blasts of the trumpet\nwarning against the two most pressing dangers besetting the Church. They\nare the same two which we have often met already--on the one hand, a\nnarrow Judaising enforcement of ceremonial and punctilios of outward\nobservance; on the other hand, a dreamy Oriental absorption in\nimaginations of a crowd of angelic mediators obscuring the one gracious\npresence of Christ our Intercessor.\n\nI. Here then we have first, the claim for Christian liberty, with the\ngreat truth on which it is built.\n\nThe points in regard to which that liberty is to be exercised are\nspecified. They are no doubt those, in addition to circumcision, which\nwere principally in question then and there. \"Meat and drink\" refers to\nrestrictions in diet, such as the prohibition of \"unclean\" things in the\nMosaic law, and the question of the lawfulness of eating meat offered to\nidols; perhaps also, such as the Nazarite vow. There were few\nregulations as to \"drink\" in the Old Testament, so that probably other\nascetic practices besides the Mosaic regulations were in question, but\nthese must have been unimportant, else Paul could not have spoken of the\nwhole as being a \"shadow of things to come.\" The second point in regard\nto which liberty is here claimed is that of the sacred seasons of\nJudaism: the annual festivals, the monthly feast of the new moon, the\nweekly Sabbath.\n\nThe relation of the Gentile converts to these Jewish practices was an\nall-important question for the early Church. It was really the question\nwhether Christianity was to be more than a Jewish sect--and the main\nforce which, under God, settled the contest, was the vehemence and logic\nof the Apostle Paul.\n\nHere he lays down the ground on which that whole question about diet and\ndays, and all such matters, is to be settled. They \"are a shadow of\nthings to come\" but the body is of Christ. \"Coming events cast their\nshadows _before_.\" That great work of Divine love, the mission of\nChrist, Whose \"goings forth have been from everlasting,\" may be thought\nof as having set out from the Throne as soon as time was, travelling in\nthe greatness of its strength, like the beams of some far-off star that\nhave not yet reached a dark world. The light from the Throne is behind\nHim as He advances across the centuries, and the shadow is thrown far in\nfront.\n\nNow that involves two thoughts about the Mosaic law and whole system.\nFirst, the purely prophetic and symbolic character of the Old Testament\norder, and especially of the Old Testament ritual. The absurd\nextravagance of many attempts to \"spiritualize\" the latter should not\nblind us to the truth which they caricature. Nor, on the other hand,\nshould we be so taken with new attempts to reconstruct our notions of\nJewish history and the dates of Old Testament books, as to forget that,\nthough the New Testament is committed to no theory on these points, it\nis committed to the Divine origin and prophetic purpose of the Mosaic\nlaw and Levitical worship. We should thankfully accept all teaching\nwhich free criticism and scholarship can give us as to the process by\nwhich, and the time when, that great symbolic system of acted prophecy\nwas built up; but we shall be further away than ever from understanding\nthe Old Testament if we have gained critical knowledge of its genesis,\nand have lost the belief that its symbols were given by God to prophesy\nof His Son. That is the key to both Testaments; and I cannot but believe\nthat the uncritical reader who reads his book of the law and the\nprophets with that conviction, has got nearer the very marrow of the\nbook, than the critic, if he have parted with it, can ever come.\n\nSacrifice, altar, priest, temple spake of Him. The distinctions of meats\nwere meant, among other purposes, to familiarize men with the\nconceptions of purity and impurity, and so, by stimulating conscience,\nto wake the sense of need of a Purifier. The yearly feasts set forth\nvarious aspects of the great work of Christ, and the sabbath showed in\noutward form the rest into which He leads those who cease from their own\nworks and wear His yoke. All these observances, and the whole system to\nwhich they belong, are like out-riders who precede a prince on his\nprogress, and as they gallop through sleeping villages, rouse them with\nthe cry, \"The king is coming!\"\n\nAnd when the king _has_ come, where are the heralds? and when the\nreality has come, who wants symbols? and if that which threw the shadow\nforward through the ages has arrived, how shall the shadow be visible\ntoo? Therefore the second principle here laid down, namely the cessation\nof all these observances, and their like, is really involved in the\nfirst, namely their prophetic character.\n\nThe practical conclusion drawn is very noteworthy, because it seems much\nnarrower than the premises warrant. Paul does not say--therefore let no\nman observe any of these any more; but takes up the much more modest\nground--let no man _judge_ you about them. He claims a wide liberty of\nvariation, and all that he repels is the right of anybody to dragoon\nChristian men into ceremonial observances on the ground that they are\nnecessary. He does not quarrel with the rites, but with men insisting\non the necessity of the rites.\n\nIn his own practice he gave the best commentary on his meaning. When\nthey said to him, \"You _must_ circumcise Titus,\" he said, \"Then I will\n_not_.\" When nobody tried to compel him, he took Timothy, and of his own\naccord circumcised him to avoid scandals. When it was needful as a\nprotest, he rode right over all the prescriptions of the law, and \"did\neat with Gentiles.\" When it was advisable as a demonstration that he\nhimself \"walked orderly and kept the law,\" he performed the rites of\npurification and united in the temple worship.\n\nIn times of transition wise supporters of the new will not be in a hurry\nto break with the old. \"I will lead on softly, according as the flock\nand the children be able to endure,\" said Jacob, and so says every good\nshepherd.\n\nThe brown sheaths remain on the twig after the tender green leaf has\nburst from within them, but there is no need to pull them off, for they\nwill drop presently. \"I will wear three surplices if they like,\" said\nLuther once. \"Neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not\nare we the worse,\" said Paul. Such is the spirit of the words here. It\nis a plea for Christian liberty. If not insisted on as necessary, the\noutward observances may be allowed. If they are regarded as helps, or as\nseemly adjuncts or the like, there is plenty of room for difference of\nopinion and for variety of practice, according to temperament and taste\nand usage. There are principles which should regulate even these\ndiversities of practice, and Paul has set these forth, in the great\nchapter about meats in the Epistle to the Romans. But it is a different\nthing altogether when any external observances are insisted on as\nessential, either from the old Jewish or from the modern sacramentarian\npoint of view. If a man comes saying, \"Except ye be circumcised, ye\ncannot be saved,\" the only right answer is, Then I will not be\ncircumcised, and if _you_ are, because you believe that you cannot be\nsaved without it, \"Christ is become of none effect to you.\" Nothing is\nnecessary but union to Him, and that comes through no outward\nobservance, but through the faith which worketh by love. Therefore, let\nno man judge you, but repel all such attempts at thrusting any\nceremonial ritual observances on you, on the plea of necessity, with the\nemancipating truth that the cross of Christ is the death of law.\n\nA few words may be said here on the bearing of the principles laid down\nin these verses on the religious observance of Sunday. The obligation of\nthe Jewish sabbath has passed away as much as sacrifices and\ncircumcision. That seems unmistakably the teaching here. But the\ninstitution of a weekly day of rest is distinctly put in Scripture as\nindependent of, and prior to, the special form and meaning given to the\ninstitution in the Mosaic law. That is the natural conclusion from the\nnarrative of the creative rest in Genesis, and from our Lord's emphatic\ndeclaration that the sabbath was made for \"man\"--that is to say, for the\nrace. Many traces of the pre-Mosaic sabbath have been adduced, and among\nothers we may recall the fact that recent researches show it to have\nbeen observed by the Accadians, the early inhabitants of Assyria. It is\na physical and moral necessity, and that is a sadly mistaken\nbenevolence which on the plea of culture or amusement for the many,\ncompels the labour of the few, and breaks down the distinction between\nthe Sunday and the rest of the week.\n\nThe religious observance of the first day of the week rests on no\nrecorded command, but has a higher origin, inasmuch as it is the outcome\nof a felt want. The early disciples naturally gathered together for\nworship on the day which had become so sacred to them. At first, no\ndoubt, they observed the Jewish sabbath, and only gradually came to the\npractice which we almost see growing before our eyes in the Acts of the\nApostles, in the mention of the disciples at Troas coming together on\nthe first day of the week to break bread, and which we gather, from the\nApostle's instructions as to weekly setting apart money for charitable\npurposes, to have existed in the Church at Corinth; as we know, that\neven in his lonely island prison far away from the company of his\nbrethren, the Apostle John was in a condition of high religious\ncontemplation on the Lord's day, ere yet he heard the solemn voice and\nsaw \"the things which are.\"\n\nThis gradual growing up of the practice is in accordance with the whole\nspirit of the New Covenant, which has next to nothing to say about the\nexternals of worship, and leaves the new life to shape itself. Judaism\ngave prescriptions and minute regulations; Christianity, the religion of\nthe spirit, gives principles. The necessity, for the nourishment of the\nDivine life, of the religious observance of the day of rest is certainly\nnot less now than at first. In the hurry and drive of our modern life\nwith the world forcing itself on us at every moment, we cannot keep up\nthe warmth of devotion unless we use this day, not merely for physical\nrest, and family enjoyment, but for worship. They who know their own\nslothfulness of spirit, and are in earnest in seeking after a deeper,\nfuller Christian life, will thankfully own, \"the week were dark but for\nits light.\" I distrust the spirituality which professes that all life is\na sabbath, and therefore holds itself absolved from special seasons of\nworship. If the stream of devout communion is to flow through all our\ndays, there must be frequent reservoirs along the road, or it will be\nlost in the sand, like the rivers of higher Asia. It is a poor thing to\nsay, keep the day as a day of worship because it is a commandment.\nBetter to think of it as a great gift for the highest purposes; and not\nlet it be merely a day of rest for jaded bodies, but make it one of\nrefreshment for cumbered spirits, and rekindle the smouldering flame of\ndevotion, by drawing near to Christ in public and in private. So shall\nwe gather stores that may help us to go in the strength of that meat for\nsome more marches on the dusty road of life.\n\nII. The Apostle passes on to his second peal of warning,--that against\nthe teaching about angel mediators, which would rob the Colossian\nChristians of their prize,--and draws a rapid portrait of the teachers\nof whom they are to beware.\n\n\"Let no man rob you of your prize.\" The metaphor is the familiar one of\nthe race or the wrestling ground; the umpire or judge is Christ; the\nreward is that incorruptible crown of glory, of righteousness, woven not\nof fading bay leaves, but of sprays from the \"tree of life,\" which dower\nwith undying blessedness the brows round which they are wreathed.\nCertain people are trying to rob them of their prize--not consciously,\nfor that would be inconceivable, but such is the tendency of their\nteaching. No names will be mentioned, but he draws a portrait of the\nrobber with swift firm hand, as if he had said, If you want to know whom\nI mean, here he is. Four clauses, like four rapid strokes of the pencil,\ndo it, and are marked in the Greek by four participles, the first of\nwhich is obscured in the Authorised Version. \"Delighting in humility and\nthe worshipping of angels.\" So probably the first clause should be\nrendered. The first words are almost contradictory, and are meant to\nsuggest that the humility has not the genuine ring about it.\nSelf-conscious humility in which a man takes delight is not the real\nthing. A man who knows that he is humble, and is self-complacent about\nit, glancing out of the corners of his downcast eyes at any mirror where\nhe can see himself, is not humble at all. \"The devil's darling vice is\nthe pride which apes humility.\"\n\nSo _very_ humble were these people that they would not venture to pray\nto God! _There_ was humility indeed. So far beneath did they feel\nthemselves, that the utmost they could do was to lay hold of the lowest\nlink of a long chain of angel mediators, in hope that the vibration\nmight run upwards through all the links, and perhaps reach the throne at\nlast. Such fantastic abasement which would not take God at His word, nor\ndraw near to Him in His Son, was really the very height of pride.\n\nThen follows a second descriptive clause, of which no altogether\nsatisfactory interpretation has yet been given. Possibly, as has been\nsuggested, we have here an early error in the text, which has affected\nall the manuscripts, and cannot now be corrected. Perhaps, on the whole,\nthe translation adopted by the Revised Version presents the least\ndifficulty--\"dwelling in the things which he hath seen.\" In that case\nthe seeing would be not by the senses, but by visions and pretended\nrevelations, and the charge against the false teachers would be that\nthey \"walked in a vain show\" of unreal imaginations and visionary\nhallucinations, whose many-coloured misleading lights they followed\nrather than the plain sunshine of revealed facts in Jesus Christ.\n\n\"Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind\" is the next feature in the\nportrait. The self-conscious humility was only skin deep, and covered\nthe utmost intellectual arrogance. The heretic teacher, like a blown\nbladder, was swollen with what after all was only wind; he was dropsical\nfrom conceit of \"mind,\" or, as we should say, \"intellectual ability,\"\nwhich after all was only the instrument and organ of the \"flesh,\" the\nsinful self. And, of course, being all these things, he would have no\nfirm grip of Christ, from whom such tempers and views were sure to\ndetach him. Therefore the damning last clause of the indictment is \"not\nholding the Head.\" How could he do so? And the slackness of his grasp of\nthe Lord Jesus would make all these errors and faults ten times worse.\n\nNow the special forms of these errors which are here dealt with are all\ngone past recall. But the tendencies which underlay these special forms\nare as rampant as ever, and work unceasingly to loosen our hold of our\ndear Lord. The worship of angels is dead, but we are still often\ntempted to think that we are too lowly and sinful to claim our portion\nof the faithful promises of God. The spurious humility is by no means\nout of date, which knows better than God does, whether He can forgive us\nour sins, and bend over us in love. We do not slip in angel mediators\nbetween ourselves and Him, but the tendency to put the sole work of\nJesus Christ \"into commission,\" is not dead. We are all tempted to grasp\nat others as well as at Him, for our love, and trust, and obedience, and\nwe all need the reminder that to lay hold of any other props is to lose\nhold of Him, and that he who does not cleave to Christ alone, does not\ncleave to Christ at all.\n\nWe do not see visions and dream dreams any more, except here and there\nsome one led astray by a so-called \"spiritualism,\" but plenty of us\nattach more importance to our own subjective fancies or speculations\nabout the obscurer parts of Christianity than to the clear revelation of\nGod in Christ. The \"unseen world\" has for many minds an unwholesome\nattraction. The Gnostic spirit is still in full force among us, which\ndespises the foundation facts and truths of the gospel as \"milk for\nbabes,\" and values its own baseless artificial speculations about\nsubordinate matters, which are unrevealed because they are subordinate,\nand fascinating to some minds because unrevealed, far above the truths\nwhich are clear because they are vital, and insipid to such minds\nbecause they are clear. We need to be reminded that Christianity is not\nfor speculation, but to make us good, and that \"He who has fashioned\ntheir hearts alike,\" has made us all to live by the same air, to be\nnourished by the same bread from heaven, to be saved and purified by\nthe same truth. That is the gospel which the little child can\nunderstand, of which the outcast and the barbarian can get some kind of\nhold, which the failing spirit groping in the darkness of death can\ndimly see as its light in the valley--that is the all-important part of\nthe gospel. What needs special training and capacity to understand is no\nessential portion of the truth that is meant for the world.\n\nAnd a swollen self-conceit is of all things the most certain to keep a\nman away from Christ. We must feel our utter helplessness and need,\nbefore we shall lay hold on Him, and if ever that wholesome lowly sense\nof our own emptiness is clouded over, that moment will our fingers relax\ntheir tension, and that moment will the flow of life into our deadness\nrun slow and pause. Whatever slackens our hold of Christ tends to rob us\nof the final prize, that crown of life which He gives.\n\nHence the solemn earnestness of these warnings. It was not only a\ndoctrine more or less that was at stake, but it was their eternal life.\nCertain truths believed would increase the firmness of their hold on\ntheir Lord, and thereby would secure the prize. Disbelieved, the\ndisbelief would slacken their grasp of Him, and thereby would deprive\nthem of it. We are often told that the gospel gives heaven for right\nbelief, and that that is unjust. But if a man does not believe a thing,\nhe cannot have in his character or feelings the influence which the\nbelief of it would produce. If he does not believe that Christ died for\nhis sins, and that all his hopes are built on that great Saviour, he\nwill not cleave to Him in love and dependence. If he does not so cleave\nto Him he will not draw from Him the life which would mould his\ncharacter and stir him to run the race. If he do not run the race he\nwill never win nor wear the crown. That crown is the reward and issue of\ncharacter and conduct, made possible by the communication of strength\nand new nature from Jesus, which again is made possible through our\nfaith laying hold of Him as revealed in certain truths, and of these\ntruths as revealing Him. Therefore, intellectual error may loose our\nhold on Christ, and if we slacken that, we shall forfeit the prize. Mere\nspeculative interest about the less plainly revealed corners of\nChristian truth may, and often do, act in paralysing the limbs of the\nChristian athlete. \"Ye did run well, what hath hindered you?\" has to be\nasked of many whom a spirit akin to this described in our text has made\nlanguid in the race. To us all, knowing in some measure how the whole\nsum of influences around us work to detach us from our Lord, and so to\nrob us of the prize which is inseparable from His presence, the solemn\nexhortation which He speaks from heaven may well come, \"Hold fast that\nthou hast; let no man take thy crown.\"\n\nIII. The source and manner of all true growth is next set forth, in\norder to enforce the warning, and to emphasize the need of holding the\nHead.\n\nChrist is not merely represented supreme and sovereign, when He is\ncalled \"the head.\" The metaphor goes much deeper, and points to Him as\nthe source of a real spiritual life, from Him communicated to all the\nmembers of the true Church, and constituting it an organic whole. We\nhave found the same expression twice already in the Epistle; once as\napplied to His relation to \"the body, the Church\" (i. 18), and once in\nreference to the \"principalities and powers.\" The errors in the\nColossian Church derogated from Christ's sole sovereign place as\nfountain of all life natural and spiritual for all orders of beings, and\nhence the emphasis of the Apostle's proclamation of the counter truth.\nThat life which flows from the head is diffused through the whole body\nby the various and harmonious action of all the parts. The body is\n\"supplied and knit together,\" or in other words, the functions of\nnutrition and compaction into a whole are performed by the \"joints and\nbands,\" in which last word are included muscles, nerves, tendons, and\nany of the \"connecting bands which strap the body together.\" Their\naction is the condition of growth; but the Head is the source of all\nwhich the action of the members transmits to the body. Christ is the\nsource of all nourishment. From Him flows the life-blood which feeds the\nwhole, and by which every form of supply is ministered whereby the body\ngrows. Christ is the source of all unity. Churches have been bound\ntogether by other bonds, such as creeds, polity, or even nationality;\nbut that external bond is only like a rope round a bundle of fagots,\nwhile the true, inward unity springing from common possession of the\nlife of Christ, is as the unity of some great tree, through which the\nsame sap circulates from massive bole to the tiniest leaf that dances at\nthe tip of the farthest branch.\n\nThese blessed results of supply and unity are effected through the\naction of the various parts. If each organ is in healthy action, the\nbody grows. There is diversity in offices; the same life is light in\nthe eyes, beauty in the cheek, strength in the hand, thought in the\nbrain. The more you rise in the scale of life the more the body is\ndifferentiated, from the simple sac that can be turned inside out and\nhas no division of parts or offices, up to man. So in the Church. The\neffect of Christianity is to heighten individuality, and to give each\nman his own proper \"gift from God,\" and therefore each man his office,\n\"one after this manner and another after that.\" Therefore is there need\nfor the freest possible unfolding of each man's idiosyncrasy, heightened\nand hallowed by an indwelling Christ, lest the body should be the poorer\nif any member's activity be suppressed, or any one man be warped from\nhis own work wherein he is strong, to become a feeble copy of another's.\nThe perfect light is the blending of all colours.\n\nA community where each member thus holds firmly by the Head, and each\nministers in his degree to the nourishment and compaction of the\nmembers, will, says Paul, increase with the increase of God. The\nincrease will come from Him, will be pleasing to Him, will be\nessentially the growth of His own life in the body. There is an increase\nnot of God. These heretical teachers were swollen with dropsical\nself-conceit; but this is wholesome, solid growth. For individuals and\ncommunities of professing Christians the lesson is always seasonable,\nthat it is very easy to get an increase of the other kind. The\nindividual may increase in apparent knowledge, in volubility, in visions\nand speculations, in so-called Christian work; the Church may increase\nin members, in wealth, in culture, in influence in the world, in\napparent activities, in subscription lists, and the like--and it may\nall be not sound growth, but proud flesh, which needs the knife. One way\nonly there is by which we may increase with the increase of God, and\nthat is that we keep fast hold of Jesus Christ, and \"let Him not go, for\nHe is our life.\" The one exhortation which includes all that is needful,\nand which being obeyed, all ceremonies and all speculations will drop\ninto their right place, and become helps, not snares, is the exhortation\nwhich Barnabas gave to the new Gentile converts at Antioch--that \"with\npurpose of heart they should cleave unto the Lord.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVI.\n\n_TWO FINAL TESTS OF THE FALSE TEACHING._\n\n \"If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as\n though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances.\n Handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish\n with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which\n things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility,\n and severity to the body; _but are_ not of any value against the\n indulgence of the flesh.\"--COL. ii. 20-23 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThe polemical part of the Epistle is now coming to an end. We pass in\nthe next chapter, after a transitional paragraph, to simple moral\nprecepts which, with personal details, fill up the remainder of the\nletter. The antagonist errors appear for the last time in the words\nwhich we have now to consider. In these the Apostle seems to gather up\nall his strength to strike two straight, crashing, final blows, which\npulverize and annihilate the theoretical positions and practical\nprecepts of the heretical teachers. First, he puts in the form of an\nunanswerable demand for the reason for their teachings, their radical\ninconsistency with the Christian's death with Christ, which is the very\nsecret of his life. Then, by a contemptuous concession of their apparent\nvalue to people who will not look an inch below the surface, he makes\nmore emphatic their final condemnation as worthless--less than nothing\nand vanity--for the suppression of \"the flesh\"--the only aim of all\nmoral and religious discipline. So we have here two great tests by their\nconformity to which we may try all teachings which assume to regulate\nlife, and all Christian teaching about the place and necessity for\nritual and outward prescriptions of conduct. \"Ye are dead with Christ.\"\nAll must fit in with that great fact. The restraint and conquest of \"the\nflesh\" is the purpose of all religion and of all moral teaching--our\nsystems must do that or they are naught, however fascinating they may\nbe.\n\nI. We have then to consider the great fact of the Christian's death with\nChrist, and to apply it as a touch-stone.\n\nThe language of the Apostle points to a definite time when the Colossian\nChristians \"died\" with Christ. That carries us back to former words in\nthe chapter, where, as we found, the period of their baptism considered\nas the symbol and profession of their conversion, was regarded as the\ntime of their burial. They died with Christ when they clave with\npenitent trust to the truth that Christ died for them. When a man unites\nhimself by faith to the dying Christ as his Peace, Pardon, and Saviour,\nthen he too in a very real sense dies with Jesus.\n\nThat thought that every Christian is dead with Christ, runs through the\nwhole of Paul's teaching. It is no mere piece of mysticism on his lips,\nthough it has often become so, when divorced from morality, as it has\nbeen by some Christian teachers. It is no mere piece of rhetoric, though\nit has often become so, when men have lost the true thought of what\nChrist's death is for the world. But to Paul the cross of Christ was,\nfirst and foremost, the altar of sacrifice on which the oblation had\nbeen offered that took away all his guilt and sin; and then, because it\nwas that, it became the law of his own life, and the power that\nassimilated him to his Lord.\n\nThe plain English of it all is, that when a man becomes a Christian by\nputting his trust in Christ Who died, as the ground of his acceptance\nand salvation, such a change takes place upon his whole nature and\nrelationship to externals as is fairly comparable to a death.\n\nThe same illustration is frequent in ordinary speech. What do we mean\nwhen we talk of an old man being dead to youthful passions or follies or\nambitions? We mean that they have ceased to interest him, that he is\n_separated_ from them and _insensible_ to them. Death is the separator.\nWhat an awful gulf there is between that fixed white face beneath the\nsheet, and all the things about which the man was so eager an hour ago!\nHow impossible for any cries of love to pass the chasm! \"His sons come\nto honour, and he knoweth it not.\" The \"business\" which filled his\nthoughts, crumbles to pieces, and he cares not. Nothing reaches him or\ninterests him any more. So, if we have got hold of Christ as our\nSaviour, and have found in His cross the anchor of souls, that\nexperience will deaden us to all which was our life, and the measure in\nwhich we are joined to Jesus by our faith in His great sacrifice, will\nbe the measure in which we are detached from our former selves, and from\nold objects of interest and pursuit. The change may either be called\ndying with Christ, or rising with Him. The one phrase takes hold of it\nat an earlier stage than the other; the one puts stress on our ceasing\nto be what we were, the other on our beginning to be what we were not.\nSo our text is followed by a paragraph corresponding in form and\nsubstance, and beginning, \"If ye then be risen with Christ,\" as this\nbegins, \"If ye died with Christ!\"\n\nSuch detachment from externals and separation from a former self is not\nunknown in ordinary life. Strong emotion of any kind makes us insensible\nto things around, and even to physical pain. Many a man with the\nexcitement of the battle-field boiling in his brain, \"receives but recks\nnot of a wound.\" Absorption of thought and interest leads to what is\ncalled \"absence of mind,\" where the surroundings are entirely unfelt, as\nin the case of the saint who rode all day on the banks of the Swiss\nlake, plunged in theological converse, and at evening asked where the\nlake was, though its waves had been rippling for twenty miles at his\nmule's feet. Higher tastes drive out lower ones, as some great stream\nturned into a new channel will sweep it clear of mud and rubbish. So, if\nwe are joined to Christ, He will fill our souls with strong emotions and\ninterests which will deaden our sensitiveness to things around us, and\nwill inspire new loves, tastes and desires, which will make us\nindifferent to much that we used to be eager about and hostile to much\nthat we once cherished.\n\nTo what shall we die if we are Christians? The Apostle answers that\nquestion in various ways, which we may profitably group together.\n\"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto _sin_\" (Rom. vi. 11).\n\"He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto\n_themselves_\" (2 Cor. v. 14, 15). \"Ye are become dead to the _law_\"\n(Rom. vii. 6). By the cross of Christ, \"the world hath been crucified\nunto me, and I unto _the world_.\" So then, to the whole mass of outward\nmaterial things, all this present order which surrounds us, to the\nunrenounced self which has ruled us so long, and to the sin which\nresults from the appeals of outward things to that evil self--to these,\nand to the mere outward letter of a commandment which is impotent to\nenforce its own behests or deliver self from the snares of the world and\nthe burden of sin, we cease to belong in the measure in which we are\nChrist's. The separation is not complete; but, if we are Christians at\nall, it is begun, and henceforward our life is to be a \"dying daily.\" It\nmust either be a dying life or a living death. We shall still belong in\nour outward being--and, alas! far too much in heart also--to the world\nand self and sin--but, if we are Christians at all, there will be a real\nseparation from these in the inmost heart of our hearts, and the germ of\nentire deliverance from them all will be in us.\n\nThis day needs that truth to be strongly urged. The whole meaning of the\ndeath of Christ is not reached when it is regarded as the great\npropitiation for our sins. Is it the pattern for our lives? has it drawn\nus away from our love of the world, from our sinful self, from the\ntemptations to sin, from cowering before duties which we hate but dare\nnot neglect? has it changed the current of our lives, and lifted us into\na new region where we find new interests, loves and aims, before which\nthe twinkling lights, which once were stars to us, pale their\nineffectual fires? If so, then, just in as much as it is so, and not one\nhair's breadth the more, may we call ourselves Christians. If not, it is\nof no use for us to talk about looking to the cross as the source of\nour salvation. Such a look, if it be true and genuine, will certainly\nchange all a man's tastes, habits, aspirations, and relationships. If we\nknow nothing of dying with Christ, it is to be feared we know as little\nof Christ's dying for us.\n\nThis great fact of the Christian's death with Christ comes into view\nhere mainly as pointing the contradiction between the Christian's\nposition, and his subjection to the prescriptions and prohibitions of a\nreligion which consists chiefly in petty rules about conduct. We are\n\"dead\" says Paul, \"to the rudiments of the world,\"--a phrase which we\nhave already heard in verse 8 of this chapter, where we found its\nmeaning to be \"precepts of an elementary character, fit for babes, not\nfor men in Christ, and moving principally in the region of the\nmaterial.\" It implies a condemnation of all such regulation religion on\nthe two grounds, that it is an anachronism, seeking to perpetuate an\nearlier stage which has been left behind, and that it has to do with the\noutsides of things, with the material and visible only. To such\nrudiments we are dead with Christ. Then, queries Paul, with irresistible\ntriumphant question--why, in the name of consistency, \"do you subject\nyourself to ordinances\" (of which we have already heard in verse 14 of\nthe chapter) such as \"handle not, nor taste, nor touch?\" These three\nprohibitions are not Paul's, but are quoted by him as specimens of the\nkind of rules and regulations which he is protesting against. The\nascetic teachers kept on vehemently reiterating their prohibitions, and\nas the correct rendering of the words shows, with a constantly\nincreasing intolerance. \"Handle not\" is a less rigid prohibition than\n\"touch not.\" The first says, Do not lay hold of; the last Do not even\ntouch with the tip of your finger. So asceticism, like many another\ntendency and habit, grows by indulgence, and demands abstinence ever\nmore rigid and separation ever more complete. And the whole thing is out\nof date, and a misapprehension of the genius of Christianity. Man's work\nin religion is ever to confine it to the surface, to throw it outward\nand make it a mere round of things done and things abstained from.\nChrist's work in religion is to drive it inwards, and to focus all its\nenergy on \"the hidden man of the heart,\" knowing that if that be right,\nthe visible will come right. It is waste labour to try to stick figs on\nthe prickles of a thorn bush--as is the tree, so will be the fruit.\nThere are plenty of pedants and martinets in religion as well as on the\nparade ground. There must be so many buttons on the uniform, and the\nshoulder belts must be pipe-clayed, and the rifles on the shoulders\nsloped at just such an angle--and then all will be right. Perhaps so.\nDisciplined courage is better than courage undisciplined. But there is\nmuch danger of all the attention being given to drill, and then, when\nthe parade ground is exchanged for the battle-field, disaster comes\nbecause there is plenty of etiquette and no dash. Men's lives are\npestered out of them by a religion which tries to tie them down with as\nmany tiny threads as those with which the Liliputians fastened down\nGulliver. But Christianity in its true and highest forms is not a\nreligion of prescriptions but of principles. It does not keep\nperpetually dinning a set of petty commandments and prohibitions into\nour ears. Its language is not a continual \"Do this, forbear from\nthat,\"--but \"Love, and thou fulfillest the law.\" It works from the\ncentre outwards to the circumference; first making clean the inside of\nthe platter, and so ensuring that the outside shall be clean also. The\nerror with which Paul fought, and which perpetually crops up anew,\nhaving its roots deep in human nature, begins with the circumference and\nwastes effort in burnishing the outside.\n\nThe parenthesis which follows in the text, \"all which things are to\nperish with the using,\" contains an incidental remark intended to show\nthe mistake of attaching such importance to regulations about diet and\nthe like, from the consideration of the perishableness of these meats\nand drinks about which so much was said by the false teachers. \"They are\nall destined for corruption, for physical decomposition--in the very act\nof consumption.\" You cannot use them without using them up. They are\ndestroyed in the very moment of being used. Is it fitting for men who\nhave died with Christ to this fleeting world, to make so much of its\nperishable things?\n\nMay we not widen this thought beyond its specific application here, and\nsay that death with Christ to the world should deliver us from the\ntemptation of making much of the things which perish with the using,\nwhether that temptation is presented in the form of attaching\nexaggerated religious importance to ascetic abstinence from them or in\nthat of exaggerated regard and unbridled use of them? Asceticism and\nSybaritic luxury have in common an over-estimate of the importance of\nthe material things. The one is the other turned inside out. Dives in\nhis purple and fine linen, and the ascetic in his hair shirt, both make\ntoo much of \"what they shall put on.\" The one with his feasts and the\nother with his fasts both think too much of what they shall eat and\ndrink. A man who lives on high with his Lord puts all these things in\ntheir right place. There are things which do _not_ perish with the\nusing, but grow with use, like the five loaves in Christ's hands. Truth,\nlove, holiness, all Christlike graces and virtues increase with\nexercise, and the more we feed on the bread which comes down from\nheaven, the more shall we have for our own nourishment and for our\nbrother's need. There is a treasure which faileth not, bags which wax\nnot old, the durable riches and undecaying possessions of the soul that\nlives on Christ and grows like Him. These let us seek after; for if our\nreligion be worth anything at all, it should carry us past all the\nfleeting wealth of earth straight into the heart of things, and give us\nfor our portion that God whom we can never exhaust, nor outgrow, but\npossess the more as we use His sweetness for the solace, and His\nall-sufficient Being for the good, of our souls.\n\nThe final inconsistency between the Christian position and the practical\nerrors in question is glanced at in the words \"after the commandments\nand doctrines of men,\" which refer, of course, to the ordinances of\nwhich Paul is speaking. The expression is a quotation from Isaiah's\n(xxix. 13) denunciation of the Pharisees of his day, and as used here\nseems to suggest that our Lord's great discourse on the worthlessness of\nthe Jewish punctilios about meats and drinks was in the Apostle's mind,\nsince the same words of Isaiah occur there in a similar connection. It\nis not fitting that we, who are withdrawn from dependence on the outward\nvisible order of things by our union with Christ in His death, should be\nunder the authority of men. Here is the true democracy of the Christian\nsociety. \"Ye were redeemed with a price. Be not the servants of men.\"\nOur union to Jesus Christ is a union of absolute authority and utter\nsubmission. We all have access to the one source of illumination, and we\nare bound to take our orders from the one Master. The protest against\nthe imposition of human authority on the Christian soul is made not in\nthe interests of self-will, but from reverence to the only voice that\nhas the right to give autocratic commands and to receive unquestioning\nobedience. We are free in proportion as we are dead to the world with\nChrist. We are free from men not that we may please ourselves, but that\nwe may please Him. \"Hold your peace, I want to hear what my Master has\nto command me,\" is the language of the Christian freedman, who is free\nthat he may serve, and because he serves.\n\nII. We have to consider one great purpose of all teaching and external\nworship, by its power in attaining which any system is to be tried.\n\n\"Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and\nhumility, and severity to the body, _but are_ not of any value against\nthe indulgence of the flesh.\" Here is the conclusion of the whole\nmatter, the parting summary of the indictment against the whole\nirritating tangle of restrictions and prescriptions. From a moral point\nof view it is worthless, as having no coercive power over \"the flesh.\"\nTherein lies its conclusive condemnation, for if religious observances\ndo not help a man to subdue his sinful self, what, in the name of common\nsense, is the use of them?\n\nThe Apostle knows very well that the system which he was opposing had\nmuch which commended it to people, especially to those who did not look\nvery deep. It had a \"show of wisdom\" very fascinating on a superficial\nglance, and that in three points, all of which caught the vulgar eye,\nand all of which turned into the opposite on closer examination.\n\nIt has the look of being exceeding devotion and zealous worship. These\nteachers with their abundant forms impose upon the popular imagination,\nas if they were altogether given up to devout contemplation and prayer.\nBut if one looks a little more closely at them, one sees that their\ndevotion is the indulgence of their own will and not surrender to God's.\nThey are not worshipping Him as He has appointed, but as they have\nthemselves chosen, and as they are rendering services which He has not\nrequired, they are in a very true sense worshipping their own wills, and\nnot God at all. By \"will-worship\" seems to be meant self-imposed forms\nof religious service which are the outcome not of obedience, nor of the\ninstincts of a devout heart, but of a man's own will. And the Apostle\nimplies that such supererogatory and volunteered worship is no worship.\nWhether offered in a cathedral or a barn, whether the worshipper wear a\ncope or a fustian jacket, such service is not accepted. A prayer which\nis but the expression of the worshipper's own will, instead of being\n\"not my will but Thine be done,\" reaches no higher than the lips that\nutter it. If we are subtly and half unconsciously obeying self even\nwhile we seem to be bowing before God; if we are seeming to pray, and\nare all the while burning incense to ourselves, instead of being drawn\nout of ourselves by the beauty and the glory of the God towards whom our\nspirits yearn, then our devotion is a mask, and our prayers will be\ndispersed in empty air.\n\nThe deceptive appearance of wisdom in these teachers and their doctrines\nis further manifest in the humility which felt so profoundly the gulf\nbetween man and God that it was fain to fill the void with its fantastic\ncreations of angel mediators. Humility is a good thing, and it looked\nvery humble to say, We cannot suppose that such insignificant\nflesh-encompassed creatures as we can come into contact and fellowship\nwith God; but it was a great deal more humble to take God at His word,\nand to let Him lay down the possibilities and conditions of intercourse,\nand to tread the way of approach to Him which He has appointed. If a\ngreat king were to say to all the beggars and ragged losels of his\ncapital, Come to the palace to-morrow; which would be the humbler, he\nwho went, rags and leprosy and all, or he who hung back because he was\nso keenly conscious of his squalor? God says to men, \"Come to My arms\nthrough My Son. Never mind the dirt, come.\" Which is the humbler: he who\ntakes God at His word, and runs to hide his face on his Father's breast,\nhaving access to Him through Christ the Way, or he who will not venture\nnear till he has found some other mediators besides Christ? A humility\nso profound that it cannot think God's promise and Christ's mediation\nenough for it, has gone so far West that it has reached the East, and\nfrom humility has become pride.\n\nFurther, this system has a show of wisdom in \"severity to the body.\" Any\nasceticism is a great deal more to men's taste than abandoning self.\nThey will rather stick hooks in their backs and do the \"swinging\npoojah,\" than give up their sins or yield up their wills. It is easier\nto travel the whole distance from Cape Comorin to the shrine of\nJuggernaut, measuring every foot of it by the body laid prostrate in the\ndust, than to surrender the heart to the love of God. In the same manner\nthe milder forms of putting oneself to pain, hair shirts, scourgings,\nabstinence from pleasant things with the notion that thereby merit is\nacquired, or sin atoned for, have a deep root in human nature, and hence\n\"a show of wisdom.\" It is strange, and yet not strange, that people\nshould think that, somehow or other, they recommend themselves to God by\nmaking themselves uncomfortable, but so it is that religion presents\nitself to many minds mainly as a system of restrictions and injunctions\nwhich forbids the agreeable and commands the unpleasant. So does our\npoor human nature vulgarise and travesty Christ's solemn command to deny\nourselves and take up our cross after Him.\n\nThe conclusive condemnation of all the crowd of punctilious restrictions\nof which the Apostle has been speaking lies in the fact that, however\nthey may correspond to men's mistaken notions, and so seem to be the\ndictate of wisdom, they \"are not of any value against the indulgence of\nthe flesh.\" This is one great end of all moral and spiritual discipline,\nand if practical regulations do not tend to secure it, they are\nworthless.\n\nOf course by \"flesh\" here we are to understand, as usually in the\nPauline Epistles, not merely the body but the whole unregenerate\npersonality, the entire unrenewed self that thinks and feels and wills\nand desires apart from God. To indulge and satisfy it is to die, to slay\nand suppress it is to live. All these \"ordinances\" with which the\nheretical teachers were pestering the Colossians, have no power, Paul\nthinks, to keep that self down, and therefore they seem to him so much\nrubbish. He thus lifts the whole question up to a higher level and\nimplies a standard for judging much formal outward Christianity which\nwould make very short work of it.\n\nA man may be keeping the whole round of them and seven devils may be in\nhis heart. They distinctly tend to foster some of the \"works of the\nflesh,\" such as self-righteousness, uncharitableness, censoriousness,\nand they as distinctly altogether fail to subdue any of them. A man may\nstand on a pillar like Simeon Stylites for years, and be none the\nbetter. Historically, the ascetic tendency has not been associated with\nthe highest types of real saintliness except by accident, and has never\nbeen their productive cause. The bones rot as surely inside the\nsepulchre though the whitewash on its dome be ever so thick.\n\nSo the world and the flesh are very willing that Christianity should\nshrivel into a religion of prohibitions and ceremonials, because all\nmanner of vices and meannesses may thrive and breed under these, like\nscorpions under stones. There is only one thing that will put the collar\non the neck of the animal within us, and that is the power of the\nindwelling Christ. The evil that is in us all is too strong for every\nother fetter. Its cry to all these \"commandments and ordinances of men\"\nis, \"Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?\" Not in obedience to\nsuch, but in the reception into our spirits of His own life, is our\npower of victory over self. \"This I say, Walk in the Spirit, and ye\nshall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVII.\n\n_THE PRESENT CHRISTIAN LIFE, A RISEN LIFE._\n\n \"If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that\n are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set\n your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are\n upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in\n God. When Christ, _Who is_ our life, shall be manifested, then shall\n ye also with Him be manifested in glory.\"--COL. iii. 1-4 (Rev.\n Ver.).\n\n\nWe have now done with controversy. We hear no more about heretical\nteachers. The Apostle has cut his way through the tangled thickets of\nerror, and has said his say as to the positive truths with which he\nwould hew them down. For the remainder of the letter, we have\nprincipally plain practical exhortations, and a number of interesting\npersonal details.\n\nThe paragraph which we have now to consider is the transition from the\ncontroversial to the ethical portion of the Epistle. It touches the\nformer by its first words, \"If ye then were raised together with\nChrist,\" which correspond in form and refer in meaning to the beginning\nof the previous paragraph, \"If ye died with Christ.\" It touches the\nlatter because it embodies the broad general precept, \"Seek the things\nthat are above,\" of which the following practical directions are but\nvarying applications in different spheres of duty.\n\nIn considering these words we must begin by endeavouring to put clearly\ntheir connection and substance. As they flew from Paul's eager lips,\nmotive and precept, symbol and fact, the present and future are blended\ntogether. It may conduce to clearness if we try to part these elements.\n\nThere are here two similar exhortations, side by side. \"Seek the things\nthat are above,\" and \"Set your mind on the things that are above.\" The\nfirst is _preceded_, and the second is _followed_ by its reason. So the\ntwo laws of conduct are, as it were, enclosed like a kernel in its\nshell, or a jewel in a gold setting, by encompassing motives. These\nconsiderations, in which the commandment are imbedded, are the double\nthought of union with Christ in His resurrection, and in His death, and\nas consequent thereon, participation in His present hidden life, and in\nHis future glorious manifestation. So we have here the present budding\nlife of the Christian in union with the risen, hidden Christ; the future\nconsummate flower of the Christian life in union with the glorious\nmanifested Christ; and the practical aim and direction which alone is\nconsistent with either bud or flower.\n\nI. The present budding life of the Christian in union with the risen,\nhidden Christ.\n\nTwo aspects of this life are set forth in verses 1 and 3--\"raised with\nChrist,\" and \"ye died, and your life is hid with Christ.\" A still\nprofounder thought lies in the words of verse 4, \"Christ _is_ our life.\"\n\nWe have seen in former parts of this Epistle that Paul believed that,\nwhen a man puts His faith in Jesus Christ, he is joined to Him in such a\nway that he is separated from his former self and dead to the world.\nThat great change may be considered either with reference to what the\nman has ceased to be, or with reference to what he becomes. In the one\naspect, it is a death; in the other, it is a resurrection. It depends on\nthe point of view whether a semicircle seems convex or concave. The two\nthoughts express substantially the same fact. That great change was\nbrought about in these Colossian Christians, at a definite time, as the\nlanguage shows; and by a definite means--namely, by union with Christ\nthrough faith, which grasps His death and resurrection as at once the\nground of salvation, the pattern for life, and the prophecy of glory. So\nthen, the great truths here are these; the impartation of life by union\nwith Christ, which life is truly a resurrection life, and is, moreover,\nhidden with Christ in God.\n\nUnion with Christ by faith is the condition of a real communication of\nlife. \"In Him was life,\" says John's Gospel, meaning thereby to assert,\nin the language of our Epistle, that \"in Him were all things created,\nand in Him all things consist.\" Life in all its forms is dependent on\nunion in varying manner with the Divine, and upheld only by His\ncontinual energy. The creature must touch God or perish. Of that energy\nthe Uncreated Word of God is the channel--\"with Thee is the fountain of\nlife.\" As the life of the body, so the higher self-conscious life of the\nthinking, feeling, striving soul, is also fed and kept alight by the\nperpetual operation of a higher Divine energy, imparted in like manner\nby the Divine Word. Therefore, with deep truth, the psalm just quoted,\ngoes on to say, \"In Thy light shall we see light\"--and therefore, too,\nJohn's Gospel continues: \"And the life was the light of men.\"\n\nBut there is a still higher plane on which life may be manifested, and\nnobler energies which may accompany it. The body may live, and mind and\nheart be dead. Therefore Scripture speaks of a threefold life: that of\nthe animal nature, that of the intellectual and emotional nature, and\nthat of the spirit, which lives when it is conscious of God, and touches\nHim by aspiration, hope, and love. This is the loftiest life. Without\nit, a man is dead while he lives. With it, he lives though he dies. And\nlike the others, it depends on union with the Divine life as it is\nstored in Jesus Christ--but in this case, the union is a conscious union\nby faith. If I trust to Him, and am thereby holding firmly by Him, my\nunion with Him is so real, that, in the measure of my faith, His fulness\npasses over into my emptiness, His righteousness into my sinfulness, His\nlife into my death, as surely as the electric shock thrills my nerves\nwhen I grasp the poles of the battery.\n\nNo man can breathe into another's nostrils the breath of life. But\nChrist can and does breathe His life into us; and this true miracle of a\ncommunication of spiritual life takes place in every man who humbly\ntrusts himself to Him. So the question comes home to each of us--am I\nliving by my union with Christ? do I draw from Him that better being\nwhich He is longing to pour into my withered, dead spirit? It is not\nenough to live the animal life; the more it is fed, the more are the\nhigher lives starved and dwindled. It is not enough to live the life of\nintellect and feeling. That may be in brightest, keenest exercise, and\nyet we--our best selves--may be dead--separated from God in Christ, and\ntherefore dead--and all our activity may be but as a galvanic twitching\nof the muscles in a corpse. Is Christ our life, its source, its\nstrength, its aim, its motive? Do we live in Him, by Him, with Him, for\nHim? If not, we are dead while we live.\n\nThis life from Christ is a resurrection life. \"The power of Christ's\nresurrection\" is threefold--as a seal of His mission and Messiahship,\n\"declared to be the Son of God, by His resurrection from the dead;\" as a\nprophecy and pledge of ours, \"now is Christ risen from the dead, and\nbecome the first-fruits of them that slept;\" and as a symbol and pattern\nof our new life of Christian consecration, \"likewise reckon ye also\nyourselves to be indeed dead unto sin.\" This last use of the\nresurrection of Christ is a plain witness of the firm, universal and\nuncontested belief in the historical fact, throughout the Churches which\nPaul addressed. The fact must have been long familiar and known as\nundoubted, before it could have been thus moulded into a symbol. But,\npassing from that, consider that our union to Christ produces a moral\nand spiritual change analogous to His resurrection. After all, it is the\nmoral and not the mystical side which is the main thing in Paul's use of\nthis thought. He would insist, that all true Christianity operates a\ndeath to the old self, to sin and to the whole present order of things,\nand endows a man with new tastes, desires and capacities, like a\nresurrection to a new being. These heathen converts--picked from the\nfilthy cesspools in which many of them had been living, and set on a\npure path, with the astounding light of a Divine love flooding it, and a\nbright hope painted on the infinite blackness ahead--had surely passed\ninto a new life. Many a man in this day, long familiar with Christian\nteaching, has found himself made over again in mature life, when his\nheart has grasped Christ. Drunkards, profligates, outcasts, have found\nit life from the dead; and even where there has not been such complete\nvisible revolution as in them, there has been such deep-seated central\nalteration that it is no exaggeration to call it resurrection. The plain\nfact is that real Christianity in a man will produce in him a radical\nmoral change. If our religion does not do that in us, it is nothing.\nCeremonial and doctrine are but means to an end--making us better men.\nThe highest purpose of Christ's work, for which He both \"died and rose\nand revived,\" is to change us into the likeness of His own beauty of\nperfect purity. That risen life is no mere exaggeration of mystical\nrhetoric, but an imperative demand of the highest morality, and the\nplain issue of it is: \"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.\"\nDo I say that I am a Christian? The test by which my claim must be tried\nis the likeness of my life here to Him who has died unto sin, and liveth\nunto God.\n\nBut the believing soul is risen with Christ also, inasmuch as our union\nwith Him makes us partakers of His resurrection as our victory over\ndeath. The water in the reservoir and in the fountain is the same; the\nsunbeam in the chamber and in the sky are one. The life which flows into\nour spirits from Christ is a life that has conquered death, and makes us\nvictors in that last conflict, even though we have to go down into the\ndarkness. If Christ live in us, we can never die. \"It is not possible\nthat _we_ should be holden of _it_.\" The bands which He broke can never\nbe fastened on our limbs. The gates of death were so warped and the\nlocks so spoiled when He burst them asunder, that they can never be\nclosed again. There are many arguments for a future life beyond the\ngrave, but there is only one proof of it--the Resurrection of Jesus\nChrist. So, trusting in Him, and with our souls bound in the bundle of\nlife with our Lord the King, we can cherish quiet thankfulness of heart,\nand bless the God and Father of our Lord who hath begotten us again into\na lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.\n\nThis risen life is a hidden life. Its roots are in Him. He has passed in\nHis ascension into the light which is inaccessible, and is hidden in its\nblaze, bearing with Him our life, concealed there with Him in God. Faith\nstands gazing into heaven, as the cloud, the visible manifestation from\nof old of the Divine presence, hides Him from sight, and turns away\nfeeling that the best part of its true self is gone with Him. So here\nPaul points his finger upwards to where \"Christ is, sitting at the right\nhand of God,\" and says--We are here in outward seeming, but our true\nlife is there, if we are His. And what majestic, pregnant words these\nare! How full, and yet how empty for a prurient curiosity, and how\nreverently reticent even while they are triumphantly confident! How\ngently they suggest repose--deep and unbroken, and yet full of active\nenergy! For if the attitude imply rest, the locality--\"at the right hand\nof God\"--expresses not only the most intimate approach to, but also the\nwielding of the Divine omnipotence. What is the right hand of God but\nthe activity of His power? and what less can be ascribed to Christ\nhere, than His being enthroned in closest union with the Father,\nexercising Divine dominion, and putting forth Divine power. No doubt the\nascended and glorified bodily manhood of Jesus Christ has a local\nhabitation, but the old psalm might teach us that wherever space is,\neven there \"Thy right hand upholds,\" and there is our ascended Lord,\nsitting as in deepest rest, but working all the work of God. And it is\njust because He is at the right hand of God that He is hid. The light\nhides. He has been lost to sight in the glory.\n\nHe has gone in thither, bearing with Him the true source and root of our\nlives into the secret place of the Most High. Therefore we no longer\nbelong to this visible order of things in the midst of which we tarry\nfor a while. The true spring that feeds our lives lies deep beneath all\nthe surface waters. These may dry up, but it will flow. These may be\nmuddied with rain, but it will be limpid as ever. The things seen do not\ngo deep enough to touch our real life. They are but as the winds that\nfret, and the currents that sway the surface and shallower levels of the\nocean, while the great depths are still. The circumference is all a\nwhirl; the centre is at rest.\n\nNor need we leave out of sight, though it be not the main thought here,\nthat the Christian life is hidden, inasmuch as here on earth action ever\nfalls short of thought, and the love and faith by which a good man lives\ncan never be fully revealed in his conduct and character. You cannot\ncarry electricity from the generator to the point where it is to work\nwithout losing two-thirds of it by the way. Neither word nor deed can\nadequately set forth a soul; and the profounder and nobler the emotion,\nthe more inadequate are the narrow gates of tongue and hand to give it\npassage. The deepest love can often only \"love and be silent.\" So, while\nevery man is truly a mystery to his neighbour, a life which is rooted in\nChrist is more mysterious to the ordinary eye than any other. It is fed\nby hidden manna. It is replenished from a hidden source. It is guided by\nother than the world's motives, and follows unseen aims. \"Therefore the\nworld knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.\"\n\nII. We have the future consummate flower of the Christian life in union\nwith the manifested, glorious Christ.\n\nThe future personal manifestation of Jesus Christ in visible glory is,\nin the teaching of all the New Testament writers, the last stage in the\nseries of His Divine human conditions. As surely as the Incarnation led\nto the cross, and the cross to the empty grave, and the empty grave to\nthe throne, so surely does the throne lead to the coming again in glory.\nAnd as with Christ, so with His servants, the manifestation in glory is\nthe certain end of all the preceding, as surely as the flower is of the\ntiny green leaves that peep above the frost-bound earth in bleak March\ndays. Nothing in that future, however glorious and wonderful, but has\nits germ and vital beginning in our union with Christ here by humble\nfaith. The great hopes which we may cherish are gathered up here into\nthese words--\"shall be manifested with Him.\" That is far more than was\nconveyed by the old translation--\"shall appear.\" The roots of our being\nshall be disclosed, for He shall come, \"and every eye shall see Him.\" We\nshall be seen for what we are. The outward life shall correspond to the\ninward. The faith and love which often struggled in vain for expression\nand were thwarted by the obstinate flesh, as a sculptor trying to embody\nhis dream might be by a block of marble with many a flaw and speck,\nshall then be able to reveal themselves completely. Whatever is in the\nheart shall be fully visible in the life. Stammering words and imperfect\ndeeds shall vex us no more. \"His name shall be in their foreheads\"--no\nlonger only written in fleshly tables of the heart and partially visible\nin the character, but stamped legibly and completely on life and nature.\nThey shall walk in the light, and so shall be seen of all. Here the\ntruest followers of Christ shine like an intermittent star, seen through\nmist and driving cloud: \"Then shall the righteous _blaze forth_ like the\nsun in the kingdom of My Father.\"\n\nBut this is not all. The manifestation is to be \"with Him.\" The union\nwhich was here effected by faith, and marred by many an interposing\nobstacle of sin and selfishness, of flesh and sense, is to be perfected\nthen. No film of separation is any more to break its completeness. Here\nwe often lose our hold of Him amidst the distractions of work, even when\ndone for His sake; and our life is at best but an imperfect compromise\nbetween contemplation and action; but then, according to that great\nsaying, \"His servants shall serve Him, and see His face,\" the utmost\nactivity of consecrated service, though it be far more intense and on a\nnobler scale than anything here, will not interfere with the fixed gaze\non His countenance. We shall serve like Martha, and yet never remove\nfrom sitting with Mary, rapt and blessed at His feet.\n\nThis is the one thought of that solemn future worth cherishing. Other\nhopes may feed sentiment, and be precious sometimes to aching hearts. A\nreverent longing or an irreverent curiosity, may seek to discern\nsomething more in the far-off light. But it is enough for the heart to\nknow that \"we shall ever be with the Lord;\" and the more we have that\none hope in its solitary grandeur, the better. We shall be with Him in\n\"in glory.\" That is the climax of all that Paul would have us hope.\n\"Glory\" is the splendour and light of the self-revealing God. In the\nheart of the blaze stands Christ; the bright cloud enwraps Him, as it\ndid on the mountain of transfiguration, and into the dazzling radiance\nHis disciples will pass as His companions did then, nor \"fear as they\nenter into the cloud.\" They walk unshrinking in that beneficent fire,\nbecause with them is one like unto a Son of man, through whom they\ndwell, as in their own calm home, amidst \"the everlasting burning,\"\nwhich shall not destroy them, but kindle them into the likeness of its\nown flashing glory.\n\nThen shall the life which here was but in bud, often unkindly nipt and\nstruggling, burst into the consummate beauty of the perfect flower\n\"which fadeth not away.\"\n\nIII. We have the practical aim and direction which alone is consistent\nwith either stage of the Christian life.\n\nTwo injunctions are based upon these considerations--\"seek,\" and \"set\nyour mind upon,\" the things that are above. The one points to the\noutward life of effort and aim; the other to the inward life of thought\nand longing. Let the things above then, be the constant mark at which\nyou aim. There is a vast realm of real existence of which your risen\nLord is the centre and the life. Make it the point to which you strive.\nThat will not lead to despising earth and nearer objects. These, so far\nas they are really good and worthy, stand right in the line of direction\nwhich our efforts will take if we are seeking the things that are above,\nand may all be stages on our journey Christwards. The lower objects are\nbest secured by those who live for the higher. No man is so well able to\ndo the smallest duties here, or to bear the passing troubles of this\nworld of illusion and change, or to wring the last drop of sweetness out\nof swiftly fleeting joys, as he to whom everything on earth is dwarfed\nby the eternity beyond, as some hut beside a palace, and is great\nbecause it is like a little window a foot square through which infinite\ndepths of sky with all their stars shine in upon him. The true meaning\nand greatness of the present is that it is the vestibule of the august\nfuture. The staircase leading to the presence chamber of the king may be\nof poor deal, narrow, crooked, and stowed away in a dark turret, but it\nhas dignity by reason of that to which it gives access. So let our aims\npass through the earthly and find in them helps to the things that are\nabove. We should not fire all our bullets at the short range. Seek ye\nfirst the kingdom of God--the things which are above.\n\n\"Set your mind on\" these things, says the Apostle further. Let them\noccupy mind and heart--and this in order that we may seek them. The\ndirection of the aims will follow the set and current of the thoughts.\n\"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.\" How can we be shaping our\nefforts to reach a good which we have not clearly before our\nimaginations as desirable? How should the life of so many professing\nChristians be other than a lame creeping along the low levels of earth,\nseeing that so seldom do they look up to \"see the King in His beauty and\nthe land that is very far off\"? John Bunyan's \"man with the muckrake\"\ngrubbed away so eagerly among the rubbish, because he never lifted his\neyes to the crown that hung above his head. In many a silent, solitary\nhour of contemplation, with the world shut out and Christ brought very\nnear, we must find the counterpoise to the pressure of earthly aims, or\nour efforts after the things that are above will be feeble and broken.\nLife goes at such a pace to-day, and the present is so exacting with\nmost of us, that quiet meditation is, I fear me, almost out of fashion\nwith Christian people. We must become more familiar with the secret\nplace of the most High, and more often enter into our chambers and shut\nour doors about us, if in the bustle of our busy days we are to aim\ntruly and strongly at the only object which saves life from being a\nwaste and a sin, a madness and a misery--\"the things which are above,\nwhere Christ is.\"\n\n\"Where Christ is.\" Yes, that is the only thought which gives\ndefiniteness and solidity to that else vague and nebulous unseen\nuniverse; the only thought which draws our affections thither. Without\nHim, there is no footing for us there. Rolling mists of doubt and dim\nhopes warring with fears, strangeness and terrors wrap it all. But if He\nbe there, it becomes a home for our hearts. \"I go to prepare a place for\nyou\"--a place where desire and thought may walk unterrified and\nundoubting even now, and where we ourselves may abide when our time\ncomes, nor shrink from the light nor be oppressed by the glory.\n\n \"My knowledge of that life is small,\n The eye of faith is dim,\n But 'tis enough that Christ knows all,\n And I shall be with Him.\"\n\nInto that solemn world we shall all pass. We can choose whether we shall\ngo to it as to our long-sought home, to find in it Him who is our life;\nor whether we shall go reluctant and afraid, leaving all for which we\nhave cared, and going to Him whom we have neglected and that which we\nhave feared. Christ will be manifested, and we shall see Him. We can\nchoose whether it will be to us the joy of beholding the soul of our\nsoul, the friend long-loved when dimly seen from afar; or whether it\nshall be the vision of a face that will stiffen us to stone and stab us\nwith its light. We must make our choice. If we give our hearts to Him,\nand by faith unite ourselves with Him, then, \"when He shall appear, we\nshall have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVIII.\n\n_SLAYING SELF THE FOUNDATION PRECEPT OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY._\n\n \"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;\n fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,\n the which is idolatry; for which things' sake cometh the wrath of\n God upon the sons of disobedience; in the which ye also walked\n aforetime, when ye lived in these things. But now put ye also away\n all these; anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of\n your mouth: lie not one to another.\"--COL. iii. 5-9 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\n\"Mortify _therefore_\"--wherefore? The previous words give the reason.\nBecause \"ye died\" with Christ, and because ye \"were raised together with\nHim.\" In other words, the plainest, homeliest moral teaching of this\nEpistle, such as that which immediately follows, is built upon its\n\"mystical\" theology. Paul thinks that the deep things which he has been\nsaying about union with Christ in His death and resurrection have the\nmost intimate connection with common life. These profound truths have\nthe keenest edge, and are as a sacrificial knife, to slay the life of\nself. Creed is meant to tell on conduct. Character is the last outcome\nand test of doctrine. But too many people deal with their theological\nbeliefs as they do with their hassocks and prayer books and hymn books\nin their pews--use them for formal worship once a week, and leave them\nfor the dust to settle on them till Sunday comes round again. So it is\nvery necessary to put the practical inferences very plainly, to\nreiterate the most commonplace and threadbare precepts as the issue of\nthe most recondite teaching, and to bind the burden of duty on men's\nbacks with the cords of principles and doctrines.\n\nAccordingly the section of the Epistle which deals with Christian\ncharacter now begins, and this \"therefore\" knits the two halves\ntogether. That word protests against opposite errors. On the one hand,\nsome good people are to be found impatient of exhortations to duties,\nand ready to say, Preach the gospel, and the duties will spring up\nspontaneously where it is received; on the other hand, some people are\nto be found who see no connection between the practice of common\nmorality and the belief of Christian truths, and are ready to say, Put\naway your theology; it is useless lumber, the machine will work as well\nwithout it. But Paul believed that the firmest basis for moral teaching\nand the most powerful motive for moral conduct is \"the truth as it is in\nJesus.\"\n\nI. We have here put very plainly the paradox of continual self-slaying\nas the all-embracing duty of a Christian.\n\nIt is a pity that the R. V. has retained \"mortify\" here, as that\nLatinized word says to an ordinary reader much less than is meant, and\nhides the allusion to the preceding contest. The marginal alternative\n\"make dead\" is, to say the least, not idiomatic English. The suggestion\nof the American revisers, which is printed at the end of the R. V., \"put\nto death,\" is much better, and perhaps a single word, such as \"slay\" or\n\"kill\" might have been better still.\n\n\"Slay your members which are upon the earth.\" It is a vehement and\nparadoxical injunction, though it be but the echo of still more solemn\nand stringent words--\"pluck it out, cut it off, and cast it from thee.\"\nThe possibility of misunderstanding it and bringing it down to the level\nof that spurious asceticism and \"severity to the body\" against which he\nhas just been thundering, seems to occur to the Apostle, and therefore\nhe hastens to explain that he does not mean the maiming of selves, or\nhacking away limbs, but the slaying of the passions and desires which\nroot themselves in our bodily constitution. The eager haste of the\nexplanation destroys the congruity of the sentence, but he does not mind\nthat. And then follows a grim catalogue of the evil-doers on whom\nsentence of death is passed.\n\nBefore dealing with that list, two points of some importance may be\nobserved. The first is that the practical exhortations of this letter\nbegin with this command to put off certain characteristics which are\nassumed to belong to the Colossian Christians in their natural state,\nand that only afterwards comes the precept to put on (ver. 12) the\nfairer robes of Christlike purity, clasped about by the girdle of\nperfectness. That is to say, Paul's anthropology regards men as wrong\nand having to get right. A great deal of the moral teaching which is\noutside of Christianity, and which does not sufficiently recognise that\nthe first thing to be done is to cure and alter, but talks as if men\nwere, on the whole, rather inclined to be good, is for that very reason\nperfectly useless. Its fine precepts and lofty sentiments go clean over\npeople's heads, and are ludicrously inappropriate to the facts of the\ncase. The serpent has twined itself round my limbs, and unless you can\ngive me a knife, sharp and strong enough to cut its loathsome coils\nasunder, it is cruel to bid me walk. All men on the face of the earth\nneed, for moral progress, to be shown and helped first how _not_ to be\nwhat they have been, and only after that is it of the slightest use to\ntell them what they ought to be. The only thing that reaches the\nuniversal need is a power that will make us different from what we are.\nIf we are to grow into goodness and beauty, we must begin by a complete\nreversal of tastes and tendencies. The thing we want first is not\nprogress, the going on in the direction in which our faces are turned,\nbut a power which can lay a mastering hand upon our shoulders, turn us\nright round, and make us go in the way opposite to that. Culture, the\ndevelopment of what is in us in germ, is not the beginning of good\nhusbandry on human nature as it is. The thorns have to be stubbed up\nfirst, and the poisonous seeds sifted out, and new soil laid down, and\nthen culture will bring forth something better than wild grapes.\nFirst--\"mortify;\" then--\"put on.\"\n\nAnother point to be carefully noted is that, according to the Apostle's\nteaching, the root and beginning of all such slaying of the evil which\nis in us all, lies in our being dead with Christ to the world. In the\nformer chapter we found that the Apostle's final condemnation of the\nfalse asceticism which was beginning to infect the Colossian Church, was\nthat it was of no value as a counteractive of fleshly indulgence. But\nhere he proclaims that what asceticism could not do, in that it was\nweak through the flesh, union with Jesus Christ in His death and risen\nlife will do; it will subdue sin in the flesh. That slaying here\nenjoined as fundamental to all Christian holiness, is but the working\nout in life and character of the revolution in the inmost self which has\nbeen effected, if by faith we are joined to the living Lord, who was\ndead and is alive for evermore.\n\nThere must, however, be a very vigorous act of personal determination if\nthe power of that union is to be manifested in us. The act of \"slaying\"\ncan never be pleasant or easy. The vehemence of the command and the form\nof the metaphor express the strenuousness of the effort and the\npainfulness of the process, in the same way as Paul's other saying,\n\"crucify the flesh,\" does. Suppose a man working at some machine. His\nfingers get drawn between the rollers or caught in some belting. Another\nminute and he will be flattened to a shapeless bloody mass. He catches\nup an axe lying by and with his own arm hacks off his own hand at the\nwrist. It takes some nerve to do that. It is not easy nor pleasant, but\nit is the only alternative to a horrible death. I know of no stimulus\nthat will string a man up to the analogous spiritual act here enjoined,\nand enjoined by conscience also, except participation in the death of\nChrist and in the resulting life.\n\n\"Slay your members which are upon the earth\" means tears and blood and\nmore than blood. It is easier far to cut off the hand, which after all\nis not me, than to sacrifice passions and desires which, though they be\nmy worst self, are myself. It is useless to blink the fact that the only\nroad to holiness is through self-suppression, self-annihilation; and\nnothing can make that easy and pleasant. True, the paths of religion are\nways of pleasantness and paths of peace, but they are steep, and\nclimbing is never easy. The upper air is bracing and exhilarating\nindeed, but trying to lungs accustomed to the low levels. Religion is\ndelightsome, but self-denial is always against the grain of the self\nwhich is denied, and there is no religion without it. Holiness is not to\nbe won in a moment. It is not a matter of consciousness, possessed when\nwe know that we possess it. But it has to be attained by effort. The way\nto heaven is not by \"the primrose path.\" That leads to \"the everlasting\nbonfire.\" For ever it remains true that men _obtain_ forgiveness and\neternal life as a gift for which the only requisite is faith, but they\n_achieve_ holiness, which is the permeating of their characters with\nthat eternal life, by patient, believing, continuous effort. An\nessential part of that effort is directed towards the conquest and\ncasting out of the old self in its earthward-looking lusts and passions.\nThe love of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of His renewing spirit make\nthat conquest possible, by supplying an all-constraining motive and an\nall-conquering power. But even they do not make it easy, nor deaden the\nflesh to the cut of the sacrificial knife.\n\nII. We have here a grim catalogue of the condemned to death.\n\nThe Apostle stands like a jailer at the prison door, with the fatal roll\nin his hand, and reads out the names of the evil doers for whom the\ntumbril waits to carry them to the guillotine. It is an ugly list but we\nneed plain speaking that there may be no mistake as to the identity of\nthe culprits. He enumerates evils which honeycombed society with\nrottenness then, and are rampant now. The series recounts various forms\nof evil love, and is so arranged as that it starts with the coarse,\ngross act, and goes on to more subtle and inward forms. It goes up the\nstream as it were, to the fountain head, passing inward from deed to\ndesire. First stands \"fornication,\" which covers the whole ground of\nimmoral sexual relations, then \"all uncleanness,\" which embraces every\nmanifestation in word or look or deed of the impure spirit, and so is at\nonce wider and subtler than the gross physical act. Then follow\n\"passion\" and \"evil desire\"; the sources of the evil deeds. These again\nare at once more inward and more general than the preceding. They\ninclude not only the lusts and longings which give rise to the special\nsins just denounced, but all forms of hungry appetite and desire after\n\"the things that are upon the earth.\" If we are to try to draw a\ndistinction between the two, probably \"passion\" is somewhat less wide\nthan \"desire,\" and the former represents the evil emotion as an\naffection which the mind suffers, while the latter represents it as a\nlonging which it actively puts forth. The \"lusts of the flesh\" are in\nthe one aspect kindled by outward temptations which come with terrible\nforce and carry men captive, acting almost irresistibly on the animal\nnature. In the other aspect they are excited by the voluntary action of\nthe man himself. In the one the evil comes into the heart; in the other\nthe heart goes out to the evil.\n\nThen follows covetousness. The juxtaposition of that vice with the\ngrosser forms of sensuality is profoundly significant. It is closely\nallied with these. It has the same root, and is but another form of evil\ndesire going out to the \"things which are on the earth.\" The ordinary\nworldly nature flies for solace either to the pleasures of appetite or\nto the passion of acquiring. And not only are they closely connected in\nroot, but covetousness often follows lust in the history of a life just\nas it does in this catalogue. When the former evil spirit loses its\nhold, the latter often takes its place. How many respectable middle-aged\ngentlemen are now mainly devoted to making money, whose youth was foul\nwith sensual indulgence? When that palled, this came to titillate the\njaded desires with a new form of gratification. Covetousness is\n\"promoted _vice_, lust superannuated.\"\n\nA reason for this warning against covetousness is appended, \"inasmuch as\n(for such is the force of the word rendered 'the which') it is\nidolatry.\" If we say of anything, no matter what, \"If I have only enough\nof this, I shall be satisfied; it is my real aim, my sufficient good,\"\nthat thing is a god to me, and my real worship is paid to it, whatever\nmay be my nominal religion. The lowest form of idolatry is the giving of\nsupreme trust to a material thing, and making that a god. There is no\nlower form of fetish-worship than this, which is the real working\nreligion to-day of thousands of Englishmen who go masquerading as\nChristians.\n\nIII. The exhortation is enforced by a solemn note of warning: \"For which\nthings' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.\"\nSome authorities omit the words \"upon the children of disobedience,\"\nwhich are supposed to have crept in here from the parallel passage,\nEph. v. 6. But even the advocates of the omission allow that the clause\nhas \"preponderating support,\" and the sentence is painfully incomplete\nand abrupt without it. The R. V. has exercised a wise discretion in\nretaining it.\n\nIn the previous chapter the Apostle included \"warning\" in his statement\nof the various branches into which his Apostolic activity was divided.\nHis duty seemed to him to embrace the plain stern setting forth of that\nterrible reality, the wrath of God. Here we have it urged as a reason\nfor shaking off these evil habits.\n\nThat thought of wrath as an element in the Divine nature has become very\nunwelcome to this generation. The great revelation of God in Jesus\nChrist has taught the world His love, as it never knew it before, and\nknows it now by no other means. So profoundly has that truth that God is\nlove penetrated the consciousness of the European world, that many\npeople will not hear of the wrath of God because they think it\ninconsistent with His love--and sometimes reject the very gospel to\nwhich they owe their lofty conceptions of the Divine heart, because it\nspeaks solemn words about His anger and its issues.\n\nBut surely these two thoughts of God's love and God's wrath are not\ninconsistent, for His wrath is His love, pained, wounded, thrown back\nupon itself, rejected and compelled to assume the form of aversion and\nto do its \"strange work\"--that which is not its natural operation--of\npunishment. When we ascribe wrath to God, we must take care of lowering\nthe conception of it to the level of human wrath, which is shaken with\npassion and often tinged with malice, whereas in that affection of the\nDivine nature which corresponds to anger in us, there is neither passion\nnor wish to harm. Nor does it exclude the co-existence of love, as Paul\nwitnesses in his Epistle to the Ephesians, in one verse declaring that\n\"we were the children of wrath,\" and in the next that God \"loved us with\na great love even when we were dead in sins.\"\n\nGod would not be a holy God if it were all the same to Him whether a man\nwere good or bad. As a matter of fact, the modern revulsion against the\nrepresentation of the wrath of God is usually accompanied with weakened\nconceptions of His holiness, and of His moral government of the world.\nInstead of exalting, it degrades His love to free it from the admixture\nof wrath, which is like alloy with gold, giving firmness to what were\nelse too soft for use. Such a God is not love, but impotent good nature.\nIf there be no wrath, there is no love; if there were no love, there\nwould be no wrath. It is more blessed and hopeful for sinful men to\nbelieve in a God who is angry with the wicked, whom yet He loves, every\nday, and who cannot look upon sin, than in one who does not love\nrighteousness enough to hate iniquity, and from whose too indulgent hand\nthe rod has dropped, to the spoiling of His children. \"With the froward\nThou wilt show Thyself froward.\" The mists of our sins intercept the\ngracious beams and turn the blessed sun into a ball of fire.\n\nThe wrath \"_cometh_.\" That majestic present tense may express either the\ncontinuous present incidence of the wrath as exemplified in the moral\ngovernment of the world, in which, notwithstanding anomalies, such sins\nas have been enumerated drag after themselves their own punishment and\nare \"avenged in kind,\" or it may be the present tense expressive of\nprophetic certainty, which is so sure of what shall come, that it speaks\nof it as already on its road. It is eminently true of those sins of lust\nand passion, that the men who do them reap as they have sown. How many\nyoung men come up into our great cities, innocent and strong, with a\nmother's kiss upon their lips, and a father's blessing hovering over\ntheir heads! They fall among bad companions in college or warehouse, and\nafter a little while they disappear. Broken in health, tainted in body\nand soul, they crawl home to break their mothers' hearts--and to die.\n\"His bones are full of the sins of his youth, which shall lie down with\nhim in the dust.\" Whether in such extreme forms or no, that wrath comes\neven now, in plain and bitter consequences on men, and still more on\nwomen who sin in such ways.\n\nAnd the present retribution may well be taken as the herald and prophet\nof a still more solemn manifestation of the Divine displeasure, which is\nalready as it were on the road, has set out from the throne of God, and\nwill certainly arrive here one day. These consequences of sin already\nrealised serve to show the set and drift of things, and to suggest what\nwill happen when retribution and the harvest of our present life of\nsowing come. The first fiery drops that fell on Lot's path as he fled\nfrom Sodom were not more surely precursors of an overwhelming rain, nor\nbade him flee for his life more urgently, than the present punishment of\nsin proclaims its sorer future punishment, and exhorts us all to come\nout of the storm into the refuge, even Jesus, who is ever even now\n\"delivering us from the wrath which is\" ever even now \"coming\" on the\nsons of disobedience.\n\nIV. A further motive enforcing the main precept of self-slaying is the\nremembrance of a sinful past, which remembrance is at once penitent and\ngrateful. \"In the which ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in\nthem.\"\n\nWhat is the difference between \"walking\" and \"living\" in these things?\nThe two phrases seem synonymous, and might often be used indifferently;\nbut here there is evidently a well marked diversity of meaning. The\nformer is an expression frequent in the Pauline Epistles as well as in\nJohn's; as for instance, \"to walk in love\" or \"in truth.\" That in which\nmen walk is conceived of as an atmosphere encompassing them; or, without\na metaphor, to walk in anything is to have the active life or conduct\nguided or occupied by it. These Colossian Christians, then, had in the\npast trodden that evil path, or their active life had been spent in that\npoisonous atmosphere--which is equivalent to saying that they had\ncommitted these sins. At what time? \"When you lived in them.\" That does\nnot mean merely \"when your natural life was passed among them.\" That\nwould be a trivial thing to say, and it would imply that their outward\nlife now was not so passed, which would not be true. In that sense they\nstill lived in the poisonous atmosphere. In such an age of unnameable\nmoral corruption no man could live out of the foul stench which filled\nhis nostrils whenever he walked abroad or opened his window. But the\nApostle has just said that they were now \"living in Christ,\" and their\nlives \"hid with Him in God.\" So this phrase describes the condition\nwhich is the opposite of their present, and may be paraphrased, \"When\nthe roots of your life, tastes, affections, thoughts, desires were\nimmersed, as in some feculent bog, in these and kindred evils.\" And the\nmeaning of the whole is substantially--Your active life was occupied and\nguided by these sins in that past time when your inward being was knit\nto and nourished by them. Or to put it plainly, conduct followed and was\nshaped by inclinations and desires.\n\nThis retrospect enforces the main exhortation. It is meant to awaken\npenitence, and the thought that time enough has been wasted and incense\nenough offered on these foul altars. It is also meant to kindle\nthankfulness for the strong, loving hand which has drawn them from that\npit of filth, and by both emotions to stimulate the resolute casting\naside of that evil in which they once, like others, wallowed. Their joy\non the one hand and their contrition on the other should lead them to\ndiscern the inconsistency of professing to be Christians and yet keeping\nterms with these old sins. They could not have the roots of half their\nlives above and of the other half down here. The gulf between the\npresent and past of a regenerate man is too wide and deep to be bridged\nby flimsy compromises. \"A man who is perverse in his two ways,\" that is,\nin double ways, \"shall fall in one of them,\" as the Book of Proverbs has\nit. The attempt to combine incompatibles is sure to fail. It is\nimpossible to walk firmly if one foot be down in the gutter and the\nother up on the curb-stone. We have to settle which level we shall\nchoose, and then to plant both feet there.\n\nV. We have, as conclusion, a still wider exhortation to an entire\nstripping off of the sins of the old state.\n\nThe whole force of the contrast and contrariety between the Colossian\nChristians' past and present lies in that emphatic \"now.\" They as well\nas other heathen had been walking, because they had been living, in\nthese muddy ways. But now that their life was hid with Christ in God;\nnow that they had been made partakers of His death and resurrection, and\nof all the new loves and affinities which therein became theirs; now\nthey must take heed that they bring not that dead and foul past into\nthis bright and pure present, nor prolong winter and its frosts into the\nsummer of the soul.\n\n\"Ye also.\" There is another \"ye also\" in the previous verse--\"ye also\nwalked,\" that is, you in company with other Gentiles followed a certain\ncourse of life. Here, by contrast, the expression means \"you, in common\nwith other Christians.\" A motive enforcing the subsequent exhortation is\nin it hinted rather than fully spoken. The Christians at Colossae had\nbelonged to a community which they have now left in order to join\nanother. Let them behave as their company behaves. Let them keep step\nwith their new comrades. Let them strip themselves, as their new\nassociates do, of the uniform which they wore in that other regiment.\n\nThe metaphor of putting clothing on or off is very frequent in this\nEpistle. The precept here is substantially equivalent to the previous\ncommand to \"slay,\" with the difference that the conception of vices as\nthe garments of the soul is somewhat less vehement than that which\nregards them as members of the very self. \"All these\" are to be put off.\nThat phrase points back to the things previously spoken of. It includes\nthe whole of the unnamed members of the class, of which a few have been\nalready named, and a handful more are about to be plucked like poison\nflowers, and suggests that there are many more as baleful growing by the\nside of this devil's bouquet which is next presented.\n\nAs to this second catalogue of vices, they may be summarised as, on the\nwhole, being various forms of wicked hatred, in contrast with the former\nlist, which consisted of various forms of wicked love. They have less to\ndo with bodily appetites. But perhaps it is not without profound meaning\nthat the fierce rush of unhallowed passion over the soul is put first,\nand the contrary flow of chill malignity comes second; for in the\nspiritual world, as in the physical, a storm blowing from one quarter is\nusually followed by violent gales from the opposite. Lust ever passes\ninto cruelty, and dwells \"hard by hate.\" A licentious epoch or man is\ngenerally a cruel epoch or man. Nero made torches of the Christians.\nMalice is evil desire iced.\n\nThis second list goes in the opposite direction to the former. That\nbegan with actions and went up the stream to desire; this begins with\nthe sources, which are emotions, and comes down stream to their\nmanifestations in action.\n\nFirst we have anger. There is a just and righteous anger, which is part\nof the new man, and essential to his completeness, even as it is part of\nthe image after which he is created. But here of course the anger which\nis to be put off is the inverted reflection of the earthly and\npassionate lust after the flesh; it is, then, of an earthly, passionate\nand selfish kind. \"Wrath\" differs from \"anger\" in so far as it may be\ncalled anger boiling over. If anger rises keep the lid on, do not let it\nget the length of wrath, nor effervesce into the brief madness of\npassion. But on the other hand, do not think that you have done enough\nwhen you have suppressed the wrath which is the expression of your\nanger, nor be content with saying, \"Well, at all events I did not show\nit,\" but take the cure a step further back, and strip off anger as well\nas wrath, the emotion as well as the manifestation.\n\nChristian people do not sufficiently bring the greatest forces of their\nreligion and of God's Spirit to bear upon the homely task of curing\nsmall hastinesses of temper, and sometimes seem to think it a sufficient\nexcuse to say, \"I have naturally a hot disposition.\" But Christianity\nwas sent to subdue and change natural dispositions. An angry man cannot\nhave communion with God, any more than the sky can be reflected in the\nstorm-swept tide; and a man in communion with God cannot be angry with a\npassionate and evil anger any more than a dove can croak like a raven or\nstrike like a hawk. Such anger disturbs our insight into everything;\neyes suffused with it cannot see; and it weakens all good in the soul,\nand degrades it before its own conscience.\n\n\"Malice\" designates another step in the process. The anger boils over in\nwrath, and then cools down into malignity--the disposition which means\nmischief, and plans or rejoices in evil falling on the hated head. That\nmalice, as cold, as clear, as colourless as sulphuric acid, and burning\nlike it, is worse than the boiling rage already spoken of. There are\nmany degrees of this cold drawn, double distilled rejoicing in evil, and\nthe beginnings of it in a certain faint satisfaction in the misfortunes\nof those whom we dislike is by no means unusual.\n\nAn advance is now made in the direction of outward manifestation. It is\nsignificant that while the expressions of wicked love were deeds, those\nof wicked hate are words. The \"blasphemy\" of the Authorised Version is\nbetter taken, with the Revised, as \"railing.\" The word means \"speech\nthat injures,\" and such speech may be directed either against God, which\nis blasphemy in the usual sense of the word, or against man. The hate\nblossoms into hurtful speech. The heated metal of anger is forged into\npoisoned arrows of the tongue. Then follows \"shameful speaking out of\nyour mouth,\" which is probably to be understood not so much of\nobscenities, which would more properly belong to the former catalogue,\nas of foul-mouthed abuse of the hated persons, that copiousness of\nvituperation and those volcanic explosions of mud, which are so natural\nto the angry Eastern.\n\nFinally, we have a dehortation from lying, especially to those within\nthe circle of the Church, as if that sin too were the child of hatred\nand anger. It comes from a deficiency of love, or a predominance of\nselfishness, which is the same thing. A lie ignores my brother's claims\non me, and my union with him. \"Ye are members one of another,\" is the\ngreat obligation to love which is denied and sinned against by hatred in\nall its forms and manifestations, and not least by giving my brother the\npoisoned bread of lies instead of the heavenly manna of pure truth, so\nfar as it has been given to me.\n\nOn the whole, this catalogue brings out the importance to be attached to\nsins of speech, which are ranked here as in parallel lines with the\ngrossest forms of animal passion. Men's words ought to be fountains of\nconsolation and sources of illumination, encouragement, revelations of\nlove and pity. And what are they? What floods of idle words, foul words,\nwords that wound like knives and sting and bite like serpents, deluge\nthe world! If all the talk that has its sources in these evils rebuked\nhere, were to be suddenly made inaudible, what a dead silence would fall\non many brilliant circles, and how many of us would stand making mouths\nbut saying nothing.\n\nAll the practical exhortations of this section concern common homely\nduties which everybody knows to be such. It may be asked--does\nChristianity then only lay down such plain precepts? What need was there\nof all that prelude of mysterious doctrines, if we are only to be landed\nat last in such elementary and obvious moralities? No doubt they are\nelementary and obvious, but the main matter is--how to get them kept.\nAnd in respect to that, Christianity does two things which nothing else\ndoes. It breaks the entail of evil habits by the great gift of pardon\nfor the past, and by the greater gift of a new spirit and life principle\nwithin, which is foreign to all evil, being the effluence of the spirit\nof life in Christ Jesus.\n\nTherefore the gospel of Jesus Christ makes it possible that men should\nslay themselves, and put on the new life, which will expel the old as\nthe new shoots on some trees push the last year's lingering leaves,\nbrown and sere, from their places. All moral teachers from the beginning\nhave agreed, on the whole, in their reading of the commandments which\nare printed on conscience in the largest capitals. Everybody who is not\nblind can read them. But reading is easy, keeping is hard. How to fulfil\nhas been wanting. It is given us in the gospel, which is not merely a\nrepublication of old precepts, but the communication of new power. If we\nyield ourselves to Christ He will nerve our arms to wield the knife that\nwill slay our dearest tastes, though beloved as Isaac by Abraham. If a\nman knows and feels that Christ has died for him, and that he lives in\nand by Christ, then, and not else, will he be able to crucify self. If\nhe knows and feels that by His pardoning mercy and atoning death, Christ\nhas taken off his foul raiment and clothed him in clean garments, then,\nand not else, will he be able, by daily effort after repression of self\nand appropriation of Christ, to put off the old man and to put on the\nnew, which is daily being renewed into closer resemblance to the image\nof Him who created him.\n\n\n\n\nXIX.\n\n_THE NEW NATURE WROUGHT OUT IN NEW LIFE._\n\n \"Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have\n put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the\n image of Him that created him: where there cannot be Greek and Jew,\n circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman,\n freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.\"--COL. iii. 9-11 (Rev.\n Ver.).\n\n\nIn previous section we were obliged to break the close connection\nbetween these words and the preceding. They adduce a reason for the\nmoral exhortation going before, which at first sight may appear very\nillogical. \"Put off these vices of the old nature because you have put\noff the old nature with its vices,\" sounds like, Do a thing because you\nhave done it. But the apparent looseness of reasoning covers very\naccurate thought which a little consideration brings to light, and\nintroduces a really cogent argument for the conduct it recommends. Nor\ndo the principles contained in the verses now under examination look\nbackward only to enforce the exhortation to put aside these evils. They\nalso look forward, and are taken as the basis of the following\nexhortation, to put on the white robes of Christlikeness--which is\ncoupled with this section by \"therefore.\"\n\nI. The first thing to be observed is the change of the spirit's dress,\nwhich is taken for granted as having occurred in the experience of all\nChristians.\n\nWe have already found the same idea presented under the forms of death\nand resurrection. The \"death\" is equivalent to the \"putting off of the\nold,\" and the \"resurrection\" to \"the putting on of the new man.\" That\nfigure of a change of dress to express a change of moral character is\nvery obvious, and is frequent in Scripture. Many a psalm breathes such\nprayers as, \"Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness.\" Zechariah\nin vision saw the high-priestly representative of the nation standing\nbefore the Lord \"in filthy garments,\" and heard the command to strip\nthem off him, and clothe him in festival robes, in token that God had\n\"caused his iniquity to pass from him.\" Christ spoke His parable of the\nman at the wedding feast without the wedding garment, and of the\nprodigal, who was stripped of his rags stained with the filth of the\nswine troughs, and clothed with the best robe. Paul in many places\ntouches the same image, as in his ringing exhortation--clear and rousing\nin its notes like the morning bugle--to Christ's soldiers, to put off\ntheir night gear, \"the works of darkness,\" and to brace on the armour of\nlight, which sparkles in the morning sunrise. Every reformatory and\norphanage yields an illustration of the image, where the first thing\ndone is to strip off and burn the rags of the new comers, then to give\nthem a bath and dress them in clean, sweet, new clothes. Most naturally\ndress is taken as the emblem of character, which is indeed the garb of\nthe soul. Most naturally _habit_ means both _costume_ and _custom_.\n\nBut here we have a strange paradox introduced, to the ruining of the\nrhetorical propriety of the figure. It is a \"new man\" that is put on.\nThe Apostle does not mind hazarding a mixed metaphor, if it adds to the\nforce of his speech, and he introduces this thought of the new _man_,\nthough it somewhat jars, in order to impress on his readers that what\nthey have to put off and on is much more truly part of themselves than\nan article of dress is. The \"old man\" is the unregenerate self; the new\nman is, of course, the regenerate self, the new Christian moral nature\npersonified. There is a deeper self which remains the same throughout\nthe change, the true man, the centre of personality; which is, as it\nwere, draped in the moral nature, and can put it off and on. I myself\nchange myself. The figure is vehement, and, if you will, paradoxical,\nbut it expresses accurately and forcibly at once the depth of the change\nwhich passes on him who becomes a Christian, and the identity of the\nperson through all change. If I am a Christian, there has passed on me a\nchange so thorough that it is in one aspect a death, and in another a\nresurrection; in one aspect it is a putting off not merely of some garb\nof action, but of the old _man_, and in another a putting on not merely\nof some surface renovation, but of a new _man_--which is yet the same\nold self.\n\nThis entire change is taken for granted by Paul as having been realised\nin every Christian. It is here treated as having taken place at a\ncertain point of time, namely when these Colossians began to put their\ntrust in Jesus Christ, and in profession of that trust, and as a symbol\nof that change, were baptized.\n\nOf course the contrast between the character before and after faith in\nChrist is strongest when, like the Christians at Colossae, converts have\nbeen brought out of heathenism. With us, where some knowledge of\nChristianity is widely diffused, and its indirect influence has shaped\nthe characters even of those who reject it, there is less room for a\nmarked revolution in character and conduct. There will be many true\nsaints who can point to no sudden change as their conversion; but have\ngrown up, sometimes from childhood, under Christian influences, or who,\nif they have distinctly been conscious of a change, have passed through\nit as gradually as night passes into day. Be it so. In many respects\nthat will be the highest form of experience. Yet even such souls will be\naware of a \"new man\" formed in them which is at variance with their own\nold selves, and will not escape the necessity of the conflict with their\nlower nature, the immolation and casting off of the unregenerate self.\nBut there are also many people who have grown up without God or Christ,\nwho must become Christians by the way of sudden conversion, if they are\never to become Christians at all.\n\nWhy should such sudden change be regarded as impossible? Is it not a\nmatter of every-day experience that some long ignored principle may\nsuddenly come, like a meteor into the atmosphere, into a man's mind and\nwill, may catch fire as it travels, and may explode and blow to pieces\nthe solid habits of a lifetime? And why should not the truth concerning\nGod's great love in Christ, which in too sad certainty is ignored by\nmany, flame in upon blind eyes, and change the look of everything? The\nNew Testament doctrine of conversion asserts that it may and does. It\ndoes not insist that everybody must become a Christian in the same\nfashion. Sometimes there will be a dividing line between the two states,\nas sharp as the boundary of adjoining kingdoms; sometimes the one will\nmelt imperceptibly into the other. Sometimes the revolution will be as\nswift as that of the wheel of a locomotive, sometimes slow and silent as\nthe movement of a planet in the sky. The main thing is that whether\nsuddenly or slowly the face shall be turned to God.\n\nBut however brought about, this putting off of the old sinful self, is a\ncertain mark of a Christian man. It can be assumed as true universally,\nand appealed to as the basis of exhortations such as those of the\ncontext. Believing certain truths does not make a Christian. If there\nhave been any reality in the act by which we have laid hold of Christ as\nour Saviour, our whole being will be revolutionized; old things will\nhave passed away--tastes, desires, ways of looking at the world,\nmemories, habits, pricks of conscience and all cords that bound us to\nour God-forgetting past--and all things will have become new, because we\nourselves move in the midst of the old things as new creatures with new\nlove burning in our hearts and new motives changing all our lives, and a\nnew aim shining before us, and a new hope illuminating the blackness\nbeyond, and a new song on our lips, and a new power in our hands, and a\nnew Friend by our sides.\n\nThis is a wholesome and most needful test for all who call themselves\nChristians, and who are often tempted to put too much stress on\nbelieving and feeling, and to forget the supreme importance of the moral\nchange which true Christianity effects. Nor is it less needful to\nremember that this resolute casting off of the garment spotted by the\nflesh, and putting on of the new man, is a consequence of faith in\nChrist and is only possible as a consequence. Nothing else will strip\nthe foul robes from a man. The moral change comes second, the union with\nJesus Christ by faith must come first. To try to begin with the second\nstage, is like trying to begin to build a house at the second story.\n\nBut there is a practical conclusion drawn from this taken-for-granted\nchange. Our text is introduced by \"seeing that;\" and though some doubts\nmay be raised as to that translation and the logical connection of the\nparagraph, it appears on the whole most congruous with both the\npreceding and the following context, to retain it and to see here the\nreason for the exhortation which goes before--\"Put off all these,\" and\nfor that which follows--\"Put on, therefore,\" the beautiful garment of\nlove and compassion.\n\nThat great change, though taking place in the inmost nature whensoever a\nheart turns to Christ, needs to be wrought into character, and to be\nwrought out in conduct. The leaven is in the dough, but to knead it\nthoroughly into the mass is a lifelong task, which is only accomplished\nby our own continually repeated efforts. The old garment clings to the\nlimbs like the wet clothes of a half-drowned man, and it takes the work\nof a lifetime to get quite rid of it. The \"old man\" dies hard, and we\nhave to repeat the sacrifice hour by hour. The new man has to be put on\nafresh day by day.\n\nSo the apparently illogical exhortation, Put off what you have put off,\nand put on what you have put on, is fully vindicated. It means, Be\nconsistent with your deepest selves. Carry out in detail what you have\nalready done in bulk. Cast out the enemy, already ejected from the\ncentral fortress, from the isolated positions which he still occupies.\nYou _may_ put off the old man, for he is put off already; and the\nconfidence that he is will give you strength for the struggle that still\nremains. You _must_ put off the old man, for there is still danger of\nhis again wrapping his poisonous rags about your limbs.\n\nII. We have here, the continuous growth of the new man, its aim and\npattern.\n\nThe thought of the garment passes for the moment out of sight, and the\nApostle enlarges on the greatness and glory of this \"new man,\" partly as\na stimulus to obeying the exhortation, partly, with allusion to some of\nthe errors which he had been combating, and partly because his fervid\nspirit kindles at the mention of the mighty transformation.\n\nThe new man, says he, is \"being renewed.\" This is one of the instances\nwhere minute accuracy in translation is not pedantic, but clear gain.\nWhen we say, with the Authorised Version, \"is renewed,\" we speak of a\ncompleted act; when we say with the Revised Version, \"is being renewed,\"\nwe speak of a continuous process; and there can be no question that the\nlatter is the true idea intended here. The growth of the new man is\nconstant, perhaps slow and difficult to discern, if the intervals of\ncomparison be short. But like all habits and powers it steadily\nincreases. On the other hand, a similar process works to opposite\nresults in the \"old man,\" which, as Paul says in the instructive\nparallel passage in the Epistle to the Ephesians (iv. 22), \"waxeth\ncorrupt, after the lusts of deceit.\" Both grow according to their inmost\nnature, the one steadily upwards; the other with accelerating speed\ndownwards, till they are parted by the whole distance between the\nhighest heaven and the lowest abyss. So mystic and awful is that solemn\nlaw of the persistent increase of the true ruling tendency of a man's\nnature, and its certain subjugation of the whole man to itself!\n\nIt is to be observed that this renewing is represented in this clause,\nas done _on_ the new man, not by him. We have heard the exhortation to a\ncontinuous appropriation and increase of the new life by our own\nefforts. But there is a Divine side too, and the renewing is not merely\neffected by us, nor due only to the vital power of the new man, though\ngrowth is the sign of life there as everywhere, but is \"the renewing by\nthe Holy Ghost,\" whose touch quickens and whose indwelling renovates the\ninward man day by day. So there is hope for us in our striving, for He\nhelps us; and the thought of that Divine renewal is not a pillow for\nindolence, but a spur to intenser energy, as Paul well knew when he wove\nthe apparent paradox, \"work out your own salvation, for it is God that\nworketh in you.\"\n\nThe new man is being renewed \"_unto_ knowledge.\" An advanced knowledge\nof God and Divine realities is the result of the progressive renewal.\nPossibly there may be a passing reference to the pretensions of the\nfalse teachers, who had so much to say about a higher wisdom open to the\ninitiated, and to be won by ceremonial and asceticism. Their claims,\nhints Paul, are baseless; their pretended secrets a delusion; their\nmethod of attaining them a snare. There is but one way to press into the\ndepths of the knowledge of God--namely growth into His likeness. We\nunderstand one another best by sympathy. We know God only on condition\nof resemblance. \"If the eye were not sunlike how could it see the sun?\"\nsays Goethe. \"If thou beest this, thou seest this,\" said Plotinus. Ever,\nas we grow in resemblance, shall we grow in knowledge, and ever as we\ngrow in knowledge, shall we grow in resemblance. So in perpetual action\nand reaction of being and knowing, shall we draw nearer and nearer the\nunapproachable light, and receiving it full on our faces, shall be\nchanged into the same image, as the moonbeams that touch the dark ocean\ntransfigure its waves into silver radiance like their own. For all\nsimple souls, bewildered by the strife of tongues and unapt for\nspeculation, this is a message of gladness, that the way to know God is\nto be like Him, and the way to be like Him is to be renewed in the\ninward man, and the way to be renewed in the inward man is to put on\nChrist. They may wrangle and philosophize who will, but the path to God\nleads far away from all that. It may be trodden by a child's foot, and\nthe wayfaring man though a fool shall not err therein, for all that is\nneeded is a heart that desires to know Him, and is made like Him by\nlove. Half the secret lies in the great word which tells us that \"we\nshall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is,\" and knowledge will\nwork likeness. The other half lies in the great word which tells us that\n\"blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,\" and likeness\nwill work a more perfect knowledge.\n\nThis new man is being renewed _after the image of Him that created him_.\nAs in the first creation man was made in the image of God, so in the new\ncreation. From the first moment in which the supernatural life is\nderived from Christ into the regenerated spirit, that new life is like\nits source. It is kindred, therefore it is like, as all derived life is.\nThe child's life is like the father's. But the image of God which the\nnew man bears is more than that which was stamped on man in his\ncreation. That consisted mainly, if not wholly, in the reasonable soul,\nand the self-conscious personality, the broad distinctions which\nseparate man from other animals. The image of God is often said to have\nbeen lost by sin, but Scripture seems rather to consider it as\ninseparable from humanity, even when stained by transgression. Men are\nstill images of God, though darkened and \"carved in ebony.\" The coin\nbears His image and superscription, though rusty and defaced. But the\nimage of God, which the new man bears from the beginning in a\nrudimentary form, and which is continually imprinting itself more deeply\nupon him, has for its principal feature holiness. Though the majestic\ninfinitudes of God can have no likeness in man, however exalted, and our\nfeebleness cannot copy His strength, nor our poor blind knowledge, with\nits vast circumference of ignorance, be like His ungrowing and unerring\nknowledge, we may be \"holy _as_ He is holy\"; we may be \"imitators of God\nas beloved children, and walk in love as He hath loved us\"; we may\n\"_walk_ in the light as He _is_ in the light,\" with only the difference\nbetween His calm, eternal being, and our changeful and progressive\nmotion therein; we may even \"be perfect as our Father is perfect.\" This\nis the end of all our putting off the old and putting on the new. This\nis the ultimate purpose of God, in all His self-revelation. For this\nChrist has come and died and lives. For this the Spirit of God dwells in\nus. This is the immortal hope with which we may re-create and encourage\nour souls in our often weary struggles. Even our poor sinful natures may\nbe transformed into that wondrous likeness. Coal and diamond are but\nvarying forms of carbon, and the blackest lump dug from the deepest\nmine, may be transmuted by the alchemy of that wondrous transforming\nunion with Christ, into a brightness that shall flash back all the glory\nof the sunlight, and gleam for ever, set in one of His many crowns.\n\nIII. We have here finally the grand unity of this new creation.\n\nWe may reverse the order of the words as they stand here, and consider\nthe last clause first, inasmuch as it is the reason for the doing away\nof all distinctions of race, or ceremony, or culture, or social\ncondition.\n\n\"Christ is all.\" Wherever that new nature is found, it lives by the life\nof Christ. He dwells in all who possess it. The Spirit of life in Christ\nis in them. His blood passes into their veins. The holy desires, the new\ntastes, the kindling love, the clearer vision, the gentleness and the\nstrength, and whatsoever things beside are lovely and of good report,\nare all His--nay, we may say, are all Himself.\n\nAnd, of course, all who are His are partakers of that common gift, and\nHe is _in_ all. There is no privileged class in Christ's Church, as\nthese false teachers in Colossae had taught. Against every attempt to\nlimit the universality of the gospel, whether it came from Jewish\nPharisees or Eastern philosophers, Paul protested with his whole soul.\nHe has done so already in this Epistle, and does so here in his emphatic\nassertion that Christ was not the possession of an aristocracy of\n\"intelligence,\" but belonged to every soul that trusted Him.\n\nNecessarily, therefore, surface distinctions disappear. There is triumph\nin the roll of his rapid enumeration of these clefts that have so long\nkept brothers apart, and are now being filled up. He looks round on a\nworld, the antagonisms of which we can but faintly imagine, and his eye\nkindles and his voice rises into vibrating emotion, as he thinks of the\nmighty magnetism that is drawing enemies towards the one centre in\nChrist. His catalogue here may profitably be compared with his other in\nthe Epistle to the Galatians (iii. 28). There he enumerates the three\ngreat distinctions which parted the old world: race (Jew and Greek),\nsocial condition (bond and free), and sex (male and female.) These, he\nsays, as separating powers, are done away in Christ. Here the list is\nmodified, probably with reference to the errors in the Colossian Church.\n\n\"There cannot be Greek and Jew.\" The cleft of national distinctions,\nwhich certainly never yawned more widely than between the Jew and every\nother people, ceases to separate, and the teachers who had been trying\nto perpetuate that distinction in the Church were blind to the very\nmeaning of the gospel. \"Circumcision and uncircumcision\" separated.\nNothing makes deeper and bitterer antagonisms than differences in\nreligious forms, and people who have not been born into them are\nusually the most passionate in adherence to them, so that cleft did not\nentirely coincide with the former. \"Barbarian, Scythian,\" is not an\nantithesis, but a climax--the Scythians were looked upon as the most\nsavage of barbarians. The Greek contempt for the outside races, which is\nreflected in this clause, was largely the contempt for a supposed lower\nstage of culture. As we have seen, Colossae especially needed the lesson\nthat differences in culture disappeared in the unity of Christ, for the\nheretical teachers attached great importance to the wisdom which they\nprofessed to impart. A cultivated class is always tempted to\nsuperciliousness, and a half cultivated class is even more so. There is\nabundance of that arrogance born of education among us to-day, and\nsorely needing and quite disbelieving the teaching that there are things\nwhich can make up for the want of what it possesses. It is in the\ninterest of the humble virtues of the uneducated godly as well as of the\nnations called uncivilized, that Christianity wars against that most\nheartless and ruinous of all prides, the pride of culture, by its\nproclamation that in Christ, barbarian, Scythian and the most polished\nthinker or scholar are one.\n\n\"Bondman, freeman\" is again an antithesis. That gulf between master and\nslave was indeed wide and deep; too wide for compassion to cross, though\nnot for hatred to stride over. The untold miseries of slavery in the old\nworld are but dimly known; but it and war and the degradation of women\nmade an infernal trio which crushed more than half the race into a hell\nof horrors. Perhaps Paul may have been the more ready to add this clause\nto his catalogue because his thoughts had been occupied with the\nrelation of master and slave on the occasion of the letter to Philemon\nwhich was sent along with this to Colossae.\n\nChristianity waged no direct war against these social evils of\nantiquity, but it killed them much more effectually by breathing into\nthe conscience of the world truths which made their continuance\nimpossible. It girdled the tree, and left it to die--a much better and\nmore thorough plan than dragging it out of the ground by main force.\nRevolution cures nothing. The only way to get rid of evils engrained in\nthe constitution of society is to elevate and change the tone of thought\nand feeling, and then they die of atrophy. Change the climate, and you\nchange the vegetation. Until you do, neither mowing nor uprooting will\nget rid of the foul growths.\n\nSo the gospel does with all these lines of demarcation between men. What\nbecomes of them? What becomes of the ridges of sand that separate pool\nfrom pool at low water? The tide comes up over them and makes them all\none, gathered into the oneness of the great sea. They may remain, but\nthey are seen no more, and the roll of the wave is not interrupted by\nthem. The powers and blessings of the Christ pass freely from heart to\nheart, hindered by no barriers. Christ founds a deeper unity independent\nof all these superficial distinctions, for the very conception of\nhumanity is the product of Christianity, and the true foundation for the\nbrotherhood of mankind is the revelation in Christ of the fatherhood of\nGod. Christ is the brother of us all; His death is for every man; the\nblessing of His gospel is offered to each; He will dwell in the heart\nof any. Therefore all distinctions, national, ceremonial, intellectual\nor social, fade into nothingness. Love is of no nation, and Christ is\nthe property of no aristocracy in the Church. That great truth was a\nmiraculous new thing in that old world, all torn apart by deep clefts\nlike the grim canyons of American rivers. Strange it must have seemed to\nfind slaves and their masters, Jew and Greek, sitting at one table and\nbound in fraternal ties. The world has not yet fully grasped that truth,\nand the Church has woefully failed in showing it to be a reality. But it\narches above all our wars, and schisms, and wretched class distinctions,\nlike a rainbow of promise, beneath whose open portal the world shall one\nday pass into that bright land where the wandering peoples shall gather\ntogether in peace round the feet of Jesus, and there shall be one fold\nbecause there is one Shepherd.\n\n\n\n\nXX.\n\n_THE GARMENTS OF THE RENEWED SOUL._\n\n \"Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of\n compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing\n one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint\n against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye: and above\n all these things put on love, which is the bond of\n perfectness.\"--COL. iii.12-14 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nWe need not repeat what has been already said as to the logic of the\ninference, You have put off the \"old man,\" therefore put off the vices\nwhich belong to him. Here we have the same argument in reference to the\n\"new man\" who is to be \"put on\" because he has been put on. This\n\"therefore\" rests the exhortation both on that thought, and on the\nnearer words, \"Christ is all and in all.\" Because the new nature has\nbeen assumed in the very act of conversion, therefore array your souls\nin vesture corresponding. Because Christ is all and in all, therefore\nclothe yourselves with all brotherly graces, corresponding to the great\nunity into which all Christians are brought by their common possession\nof Christ. The whole field of Christian morality is not traversed here,\nbut only so much of it as concerns the social duties which result from\nthat unity.\n\nBut besides the foundation for the exhortations which is laid in the\npossession of the \"New Man,\" consequent on participation in Christ,\nanother ground for them is added in the words, \"as God's elect, holy and\nbeloved.\" Those who are in Christ and are thus regenerated in Him, are\nof the chosen race, are consecrated as belonging especially to God, and\nreceive the warm beams of the special paternal love with which He\nregards the men who are in some measure conformed to His likeness and\nmoulded after His will. That relation to God should draw after it a life\ncongruous with itself--a life of active goodness and brotherly\ngentleness. The outcome of it should be not mere glad emotion, nor a\nhugging of one's self in one's happiness, but practical efforts to turn\nto men a face lit by the same dispositions with which God has looked on\nus, or as the parallel passage in Ephesians has it, \"Be imitators of\nGod, as beloved children.\" That is a wide and fruitful principle--the\nrelation to men will follow the relation to God. As we think God has\nbeen to us, so let us try to be to others. The poorest little fishing\ncobble is best guided by celestial observations, and dead reckoning\nwithout sun or stars is but second best. Independent morality cut loose\nfrom religion will be feeble morality. On the other hand, religion which\ndoes not issue in morality is a ghost without substance. Religion is the\nsoul of morality. Morality is the body of religion, more than ceremonial\nworship is. The virtues which all men know, are the fitting garments of\nthe elect of God.\n\nI. We have here then an enumeration of the fair garments of the new man.\n\nLet us go over the items of this list of the wardrobe of the consecrated\nsoul.\n\n\"A heart of compassion.\" So the Revised Version renders the words given\nliterally in the Authorised as \"bowels of mercies,\" an expression which\nthat very strange thing called conventional propriety regards as coarse,\nsimply because Jews chose one part of the body and we another as the\nsupposed seat of the emotions. Either phrase expresses substantially the\nApostle's meaning.\n\nIs it not beautiful that the series should begin with _pity_? It is the\nmost often needed, for the sea of sorrow stretches so widely that\nnothing less than a universal compassion can arch it over as with the\nblue of heaven. Every man would seem in some respect deserving of and\nneeding sympathy, if his whole heart and history could be laid bare.\nSuch compassion is difficult to achieve, for its healing streams are\ndammed back by many obstructions of inattention and occupation, and\ndried up by the fierce heat of selfishness. Custom, with its deadening\ninfluence, comes in to make us feel least the sorrows which are most\ncommon in the society around us. As a man might live so long in an\nasylum that lunacy would seem to him almost the normal condition, so the\nmost widely diffused griefs are those least observed and least\ncompassionated; and good, tender-hearted men and women walk the streets\nof our great cities and see sights--children growing up for the gallows\nand the devil, gin-shops at every corner--which might make angels weep,\nand suppose them to be as inseparable from our \"civilization\" as the\nnoise of wheels from a carriage or bilge water from a ship. Therefore we\nhave to make conscious efforts to \"put on\" that sympathetic disposition,\nand to fight against the faults which hinder its free play. Without it,\nno help will be of much use to the receiver, nor of any to the giver.\nBenefits bestowed on the needy and sorrowful, if bestowed without\nsympathy, will hurt like a blow. Much is said about ingratitude, but\nvery often it is but the instinctive recoil of the heart from the unkind\ndoer of a kindness. Aid flung to a man as a bone is to a dog usually\ngets as much gratitude as the sympathy which it expresses deserves. But\nif we really make another's sorrows ours, that teaches us tact and\ngentleness, and makes our clumsy hands light and deft to bind up sore\nhearts.\n\nAbove all things, the practical discipline which cultivates pity will\nbeware of letting it be excited and then not allowing the emotion to\nact. To stimulate feeling and do nothing in consequence is a short road\nto destroy the feeling. Pity is meant to be the impulse toward help, and\nif it is checked and suffered to pass away idly, it is weakened, as\ncertainly as a plant is weakened by being kept close nipped and hindered\nfrom bringing its buds to flower and fruit.\n\n\"Kindness\" comes next--a wider benignity, not only exercised where there\nis manifest room for pity, but turning a face of goodwill to all. Some\nsouls are so dowered that they have this grace without effort, and come\nlike the sunshine with welcome and cheer for all the world. But even\nless happily endowed natures can cultivate the disposition, and the best\nway to cultivate it is to be much in communion with God. When Moses came\ndown from the mount, his face shone. When we come out from the secret\nplace of the Most High we shall bear some reflection of His great\nkindness whose \"tender mercies are over all His works.\" This \"kindness\"\nis the opposite of that worldly wisdom, on which many men pride\nthemselves as the ripe fruit of their knowledge of men and things, and\nwhich keeps up vigilant suspicion of everybody, as in the savage state,\nwhere \"stranger\" and \"enemy\" had only one word between them. It does not\nrequire us to be blind to facts or to live in fancies, but it does\nrequire us to cherish a habit of goodwill, ready to become pity if\nsorrow appears, and slow to turn away even if hostility appears. Meet\nyour brother with kindness, and you will generally find it returned. The\nprudent hypocrites who get on in the world, as ships are launched, by\n\"greasing the ways\" with flattery, and smiles, teach us the value of the\ntrue thing, since even a coarse caricature of it wins hearts and disarms\nfoes. This \"kindness\" is the most powerful solvent of illwill and\nindifference.\n\nThen follows \"humility.\" That seems to break the current of thought by\nbringing a virtue entirely occupied with self into the middle of a\nseries referring exclusively to others. But it does not really do so.\nFrom this point onwards all the graces named have reference to our\ndemeanour under slights and injuries--and humility comes into view here\nonly as constituting the foundation for the right bearing of these.\nMeekness and longsuffering must stand on a basis of humility. The proud\nman, who thinks highly of himself and of his own claims, will be the\ntouchy man, if any one derogates from these.\n\n\"Humility,\" or lowly-mindedness, a lowly estimate of ourselves, is not\nnecessarily blindness to our strong points. If a man can do certain\nthings better than his neighbours, he can hardly help knowing it, and\nChristian humility does not require him to be ignorant of it. I suppose\nMilton would be none the less humble, though he was quite sure that his\nwork was better than that of Sternhold and Hopkins. The consciousness of\npower usually accompanies power. But though it may be quite right to\n\"know myself\" in the strong points, as well as in the weak, there are\ntwo considerations which should act as dampers to any unchristian fire\nof pride which the devil's breath may blow up from that fuel. The one\nis, \"What hast thou that thou hast not received?\" the other is, \"Who is\npure before God's judgment-seat?\" Your strong points are nothing so very\nwonderful, after all. If you have better brains than some of your\nneighbours, well, that is not a thing to give yourself such airs about.\nBesides, where did you get the faculties you plume yourself on? However\ncultivated by yourself, how came they yours at first? And, furthermore,\nwhatever superiorities may lift you above any men, and however high you\nmay be elevated, it is a long way from the top of the highest molehill\nto the sun, and not much longer to the top of the lowest. And, besides\nall that, you may be very clever and brilliant, may have made books or\npictures, may have stamped your name on some invention, may have won a\nplace in public life, or made a fortune--and yet you and the beggar who\ncannot write his name are both guilty before God. Pride seems out of\nplace in creatures like us, who have all to bow our heads in the\npresence of His perfect judgment, and cry, \"God be merciful to me a\nsinner!\"\n\nThen follow \"meekness, long-suffering.\" The distinction between these\ntwo is slight. According to the most thorough investigators, the former\nis the temper which accepts God's dealings, or evil inflicted by men as\nHis instruments, without resistance, while the latter is the long\nholding out of the mind before it gives way to a temptation to action,\nor passion, especially the latter. The opposite of meekness is rudeness\nor harshness; the opposite of long-suffering, swift resentment or\nrevenge. Perhaps there may be something in the distinction, that while\nlong-suffering does not get angry soon, meekness does not get angry at\nall. Possibly, too, meekness implies a lowlier position than\nlong-suffering does. The meek man puts himself below the offender; the\nlong-suffering man does not. God is long-suffering, but the incarnate\nGod alone can be \"meek and lowly.\"\n\nThe general meaning is plain enough. The \"hate of hate,\" the \"scorn of\nscorn,\" is not the Christian ideal. I am not to allow my enemy always to\nsettle the terms on which we are to be. Why should I scowl back at him,\nthough he frowns at me? It is hard work, as we all know, to repress the\nretort that would wound and be so neat. It is hard not to repay slights\nand offences in kind. But, if the basis of our dispositions to others be\nlaid in a wise and lowly estimate of ourselves, such graces of conduct\nwill be possible, and they will give beauty to our characters.\n\n\"Forbearing and forgiving\" are not new virtues. They are meekness and\nlong-suffering in exercise, and if we were right in saying that\n\"long-suffering\" was not _soon_ angry, and \"meekness\" was not angry at\nall, then \"forbearance\" would correspond to the former and \"forgiveness\"\nto the latter; for a man may exercise forbearance, and bite his lips\ntill the blood come rather than speak, and violently constrain himself\nto keep calm and do nothing unkind, and yet all the while seven devils\nmay be in his spirit; while forgiveness, on the other hand, is an entire\nwiping of all enmity and irritation clean out of the heart.\n\nSuch is the Apostle's outline sketch of the Christian character in its\nsocial aspect, all rooted in pity, and full of soft compassion; quick to\napprehend, to feel, and to succour sorrow; a kindliness, equable and\nwidespread, illuminating all who come within its reach; a patient\nacceptance of wrongs without resentment or revenge, because a lowly\njudgment of self and its claims, a spirit schooled to calmness under all\nprovocations, disdaining to requite wrong by wrong, and quick to\nforgive.\n\nThe question may well be asked--is that a type of character which the\nworld generally admires? Is it not uncommonly like what most people\nwould call \"a poor spiritless creature.\" It was \"a new man,\" most\nemphatically, when Paul drew that sketch, for the heathen world had\nnever seen anything like it. It is a \"new man\" still; for although the\nmodern world has had some kind of Christianity--at least has had a\nChurch--for all these centuries, that is not the kind of character which\nis its ideal. Look at the heroes of history and of literature. Look at\nthe tone of so much contemporary biography and criticism of public\nactions. Think of the ridicule which is poured on the attempt to\nregulate politics by Christian principles, or, as a distinguished\nsoldier called them in public recently, \"puling principles.\" It may be\ntrue that Christianity has not added any new virtues to those which are\nprescribed by natural conscience, but it has most certainly altered the\nperspective of the whole, and created a type of excellence, in which the\ngentler virtues predominate, and the novelty of which is proved by the\nreluctance of the so-called Christian world to recognise it even yet.\n\nBy the side of its serene and lofty beauty, the \"heroic virtues\"\nembodied in the world's type of excellence show vulgar and glaring, like\nsome daub representing a soldier, the sign-post of a public-house, by\nthe side of Angelico's white-robed visions on the still convent walls.\nThe highest exercise of these more gaudy and conspicuous qualities is to\nproduce the pity and meekness of the Christian ideal. More self-command,\nmore heroic firmness, more contempt for the popular estimate, more of\neverything strong and manly, will find a nobler field in subduing\npassion and cherishing forgiveness, which the world thinks folly and\nspiritless, than anywhere else. Better is he that ruleth his spirit than\nhe that taketh a city.\n\n_The great pattern and motive of forgiveness_ is next set forth. We are\nto forgive as Christ has forgiven us; and that \"as\" may be applied\neither as meaning \"in like manner,\" or as meaning \"because.\" The Revised\nVersion, with many others, adopts the various reading of \"the Lord,\"\ninstead of \"Christ,\" which has the advantage of recalling the parable\nthat was no doubt in Paul's mind, about the servant who, having been\nforgiven by his \"_Lord_\" all his great debt, took his fellow-servant by\nthe throat and squeezed the last farthing out of him.\n\nThe great transcendent act of God's mercy brought to us by Christ's\ncross is sometimes, as in the parallel passage in Ephesians, spoken of\nas \"God for Christ's sake forgiving us,\" and sometimes as here, Christ\nis represented as forgiving. We need not pause to do more than point to\nthat interchange of Divine office and attributes, and ask what notion of\nChrist's person underlies it.\n\nWe have already had the death of Christ set forth as in a very profound\nsense our pattern. Here we have one special case of the general law that\nthe life and death of our Lord are the embodied ideal of human character\nand conduct. His forgiveness is not merely revealed to us that trembling\nhearts may be calm, and that a fearful looking for of judgment may no\nmore trouble a foreboding conscience. For whilst we must ever begin with\ncleaving to it as our hope, we must never stop there. A heart touched\nand softened by pardon will be a heart apt to pardon, and the miracle of\nforgiveness which has been wrought for it will constitute the law of its\nlife as well as the ground of its joyful security.\n\nThis new pattern and new motive, both in one, make the true novelty and\nspecific difference of Christian morality. \"As I have loved you,\" makes\nthe commandment \"love one another\" a new commandment. And all that is\ndifficult in obedience becomes easier by the power of that motive.\nImitation of one whom we love is instinctive. Obedience to one whom we\nlove is delightful. The far off ideal becomes near and real in the\nperson of our best friend. Bound to him by obligations so immense, and a\nforgiveness so costly and complete, we shall joyfully yield to \"the\ncords of love\" which draw us after Him. We have each to choose what\nshall be the pattern for us. The world takes Caesar, the hero; the\nChristian takes Christ, in whose meekness is power, and whose gentle\nlong-suffering has been victor in a sterner conflict than any battle of\nthe warrior with garments rolled in blood.\n\nPaul says, \"Even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye.\" The Lord's\nprayer teaches us to ask, Forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive.\nIn the one case Christ's forgiveness is the example and the motive for\nours. In the other, our forgiveness is the condition of God's. Both are\ntrue. We shall find the strongest impulse to pardon others in the\nconsciousness that we have been pardoned by Him. And if we have\ngrudgings against our offending brother in our hearts, we shall not be\nconscious of the tender forgiveness of our Father in heaven. That is no\narbitrary limitation, but inherent in the very nature of the case.\n\nII. We have here the girdle which keeps all the garments in their\nplaces.\n\n\"Above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.\"\n\n\"Above all these\" does not mean \"besides,\" or \"more important than,\" but\nis clearly used in its simplest local sense, as equivalent to \"over,\"\nand thus carries on the metaphor of the dress. Over the other garments\nis to be put the silken sash or girdle of love, which will brace and\nconfine all the rest into a unity. It is \"the girdle of perfectness,\" by\nwhich is not meant, as is often supposed, the perfect principle of union\namong men. Perfectness is not the quality of the girdle, but the thing\nwhich it girds, and is a collective expression for \"the various graces\nand virtues, which together make up perfection.\" So the metaphor\nexpresses the thought that love knits into a harmonious whole, the\ngraces which without it would be fragmentary and incomplete.\n\nWe can conceive of all the dispositions already named as existing in\nsome fashion without love. There might be pity which was not love,\nthough we know it is akin to it. The feeling with which one looks upon\nsome poor outcast, or on some stranger in sorrow, or even on an enemy in\nmisery, may be very genuine compassion, and yet clearly separate from\nlove. So with all the others. There may be kindness most real without\nany of the diviner emotion, and there may even be forbearance reaching\nup to forgiveness, and yet leaving the heart untouched in its deepest\nrecesses. But if these virtues were thus exercised, in the absence of\nlove they would be fragmentary, shallow, and would have no guarantee for\ntheir own continuance. Let love come into the heart and knit a man to\nthe poor creature whom he had only pitied before, or to the enemy whom\nhe had at the most been able with an effort to forgive; and it lifts\nthese other emotions into a nobler life. He who pities may not love, but\nhe who loves cannot but pity; and that compassion will flow with a\ndeeper current and be of a purer quality than the shrunken stream which\ndoes not rise from that higher source.\n\nNor is it only the virtues enumerated here for which love performs this\noffice; but all the else isolated graces of character, it binds or welds\ninto a harmonious whole. As the broad Eastern girdle holds the flowing\nrobes in position, and gives needed firmness to the figure as well as\ncomposed order to the attire; so this broad band, woven of softest\nfabric, keeps all emotions in their due place and makes the attire of\nthe Christian soul beautiful in harmonious completeness.\n\nPerhaps it is a yet deeper truth that love produces all these graces.\nWhatsoever things men call virtues, are best cultivated by cultivating\nit. So with a somewhat similar meaning to that of our text, but if\nanything, going deeper down, Paul in another place calls love the\nfulfilling of the law, even as his Master had taught him that all the\ncomplex of duties incumbent upon us were summed up in love to God, and\nlove to men. Whatever I owe to my brother will be discharged if I love\nGod, and live my love. Nothing of it, not even the smallest mite of the\ndebt will be discharged, however vast my sacrifices and services, if I\ndo not.\n\nSo end the frequent references in this letter to putting off the old and\nputting on the new. The sum of them all is, that we must first put on\nChrist by faith, and then by daily effort clothe our spirits in the\ngraces of character which He gives us, and by which we shall be like\nHim.\n\nWe have said that this dress of the Christian soul which we have been\nnow considering does not include the whole of Christian duty. We may\nrecall the other application of the same figure which occurs in the\nparallel Epistle to the Ephesians, where Paul sketches for us in a few\nrapid touches the armed Christian soldier. The two pictures may\nprofitably be set side by side. Here he dresses the Christian soul in\nthe robes of peace, bidding him put on pity and meekness, and above all,\nthe silken girdle of love.\n\n \"In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man\n As modest stillness and humility;\n But when the blast of war blows in our ears,\"\n\nthen \"put on the whole armour of God,\" the leathern girdle of truth, the\nshining breastplate of righteousness, and above all, the shield of\nfaith--and so stand a flashing pillar of steel. Are the two pictures\ninconsistent? must we doff the robes of peace to don the armour, or put\noff the armour to resume the robes of peace? Not so; both must be worn\ntogether, for neither is found in its completeness without the other.\nBeneath the armour must be the fine linen, clean and white--and at one\nand the same time, our souls may be clad in all pity, mercifulness and\nlove, and in all the sparkling panoply of courage and strength for\nbattle.\n\nBut both the armour and the dress of peace presuppose that we have\nlistened to Christ's pleading counsel to buy of Him \"white raiment that\nwe may be clothed, and that the shame of our nakedness do not appear.\"\nThe garment for the soul, which is to hide its deformities and to\nreplace our own filthy rags, is woven in no earthly looms, and no\nefforts of ours will bring us into possession of it. We must be content\nto owe it wholly to Christ's gift, or else we shall have to go without\nit altogether. The first step in the Christian life is by simple faith\nto receive from Him the forgiveness of all our sins, and that new nature\nwhich He alone can impart, and which we can neither create nor win, but\nmust simply accept. Then, after that, come the field and the time for\nefforts put forth in His strength, to array our souls in His likeness,\nand day by day to put on the beautiful garments which He bestows. It is\na lifelong work thus to strip ourselves of the rags of our old vices,\nand to gird on the robe of righteousness. Lofty encouragements, tender\nmotives, solemn warnings, all point to this as our continual task. We\nshould set ourselves to it in His strength, if so be that being clothed,\nwe may not be found naked--and then, when we lay aside the garment of\nflesh and the armour needed for the battle, we shall hear His voice\nwelcoming us to the land of peace, and shall walk with Him in victor's\nrobes, glistening \"so as no fuller on earth could white them.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXI.\n\n_THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST, THE WORD OF CHRIST, AND\nTHE NAME OF CHRIST._\n\n \"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also\n ye were called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of\n Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing\n one another with psalms _and_ hymns _and_ spiritual songs, singing\n with grace in your hearts unto God. And whatsoever ye do in word or\n in deed, _do_ all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to\n God the Father through Him.\"--COL. iii. 15-17 (Rev. Vers.).\n\n\nThere are here three precepts somewhat loosely connected, of which the\nfirst belongs properly to the series considered in our last section,\nfrom which it is only separated as not sharing in the metaphor under\nwhich the virtues contained in the former verses were set forth. In\nsubstance it is closely connected with them, though in form it is\ndifferent, and in sweep is more comprehensive. The second refers mainly\nto Christian intercourse, especially to social worship; and the third\ncovers the whole field of conduct, and fitly closes the series, which in\nit reaches the utmost possible generality, and from it drops to the\ninculcation of very special domestic duties. The three verses have each\na dominant phrase round which we may group their teaching. These three\nare, the peace of Christ, the word of Christ, the name of the Lord\nJesus.\n\nI. The Ruling Peace of Christ.\n\nThe various reading \"peace of Christ,\" for \"peace of God,\" is not only\nrecommended by manuscript authority, but has the advantage of bringing\nthe expression into connection with the great words of the Lord, \"Peace\nI leave with you, My peace I give unto you.\" A strange legacy to leave,\nand a strange moment at which to speak of His peace! It was but an hour\nor so since He had been \"troubled in spirit,\" as He thought of the\nbetrayer--and in an hour more He would be beneath the olives of\nGethsemane; and yet, even at such a time, He bestows on His friends some\nshare in His own deep repose of spirit. Surely \"the peace of Christ\"\nmust mean what \"My peace\" meant; not only the peace which He gives, but\nthe peace which lay, like a great calm on the sea, on His own deep\nheart; and surely we cannot restrict so solemn an expression to the\nmeaning of mutual concord among brethren. That, no doubt, is included in\nit, but there is much more than that. Whatever made the strange calm\nwhich leaves such unmistakable traces in the picture of Christ drawn in\nthe Gospels, may be ours. When He gave us His peace, He gave us some\nshare in that meek submission of will to His Father's will, and in that\nstainless purity, which were its chief elements. The hearts and lives of\nmen are made troubled, not by circumstances, but by themselves. Whoever\ncan keep his own will in harmony with God's enters into rest, though\nmany trials and sorrows may be his. Even if within and without are\nfightings, there may be a central \"peace subsisting at the heart of\nendless agitation.\" We are our own disturbers. The eager swift motions\nof our own wills keep us restless. Forsake these, and quiet comes.\nChrist's peace was the result of the perfect harmony of all His nature.\nAll was co-operant to one great purpose; desires and passions did not\nwar with conscience and reason, nor did the flesh lust against the\nSpirit. Though that complete uniting of all our inner selves in the\nsweet concord of perfect obedience is not attained on earth, yet its\nbeginnings are given to us by Christ, and in Him we may be at peace with\nourselves, and have one great ruling power binding all our conflicting\ndesires in one, as the moon draws after her the heaped waters of the\nsea.\n\nWe are summoned to improve that gift--to \"_let_ the peace of Christ\"\nhave its way in our hearts. The surest way to increase our possession of\nit is to decrease our separation from Him. The fulness of our possession\nof His gift of peace depends altogether on our proximity to the Giver.\nIt evaporates in carrying. It \"diminishes as the square of the distance\"\nfrom the source. So the exhortation to let it rule in us will be best\nfulfilled by keeping thought and affection in close union with our Lord.\n\nThis peace is to \"rule\" in our hearts. The figure contained in the word\nhere translated _rule_ is that of the umpire or arbitrator at the games,\nwho, looking down on the arena, watches that the combatants strive\nlawfully, and adjudges the prize. Possibly the force of the figure may\nhave been washed out of the word by use, and the \"rule\" of our rendering\nmay be all that it means. But there seems no reason against keeping the\nfull force of the expression, which adds picturesqueness and point to\nthe precept. The peace of Christ, then, is to sit enthroned as umpire\nin the heart; or, if we might give a mediaeval instead of a classical\nshape to the figure, that fair sovereign, Peace, is to be Queen of the\nTournament, and her \"eyes rain influence and adjudge the prize.\" When\ncontending impulses and reasons distract and seem to pull us in opposite\ndirections, let her settle which is to prevail. How can the peace of\nChrist do that for us? We may make a rude test of good and evil by their\neffects on our inward repose. Whatever mars our tranquillity, ruffling\nthe surface so that Christ's image is no longer visible, is to be\navoided. That stillness of spirit is very sensitive and shrinks away at\nthe presence of an evil thing. Let it be for us what the barometer is to\na sailor, and if it sinks, let us be sure a storm is at hand. If we find\nthat a given course of action tends to break our peace, we may be\ncertain that there is poison in the draught which as in the old stories,\nhas been detected by the shivered cup, and we should not drink any more.\nThere is nothing so precious that it is worth while to lose the peace of\nChrist for the sake of it. Whenever we find it in peril, we must retrace\nour steps.\n\nThen follows appended a reason for cultivating the peace of Christ \"to\nwhich also ye were called in one body.\" The very purpose of God's\nmerciful summons and invitation to them in the gospel was that they\nmight share in this peace. There are many ways of putting God's design\nin His call by the gospel--it may be represented under many angles and\nfrom many points of view, and is glorious from all and each. No one word\ncan state all the fulness to which we are called by His wonderful love,\nbut none can be tenderer and more blessed than this thought, that God's\ngreat voice has summoned us to a share in Christ's peace. Being so\ncalled, all who share in it of course find themselves knit to each other\nby possession of a common gift. What a contradiction then, to be\nsummoned in order to so blessed a possession, and not to allow it\nsovereign sway in moulding heart and life! What a contradiction,\nfurther, to have been gathered into one body by the common possession of\nthe peace of Christ, and yet not to allow it to bind all the members in\nits sweet fetters with cords of love! The sway of the \"peace of Christ\"\nin our hearts will ensure the perfect exercise of all the other graces\nof which we have been hearing, and therefore this precept fitly closes\nthe series of exhortations to brotherly affections, and seals all with\nthe thought of the \"one body\" of which all these \"new men\" are members.\n\nThe very abruptness of the introduction of the next precept gives it\nforce, \"and be ye thankful,\" or, as we might translate with an accuracy\nwhich perhaps is not too minute, \"become thankful,\" striving towards\ndeeper gratitude than you have yet attained. Paul is ever apt to catch\nfire as often as his thought brings him in sight of God's great love in\ndrawing men to Himself, and in giving them such rich gifts. It is quite\na feature of his style to break into sudden bursts of praise as often as\nhis path leads him to a summit from which he catches a glimpse of that\ngreat miracle of love. This interjected precept is precisely like these\nsudden jets of praise. It is as if he had broken off for a moment from\nthe line of his thought, and had said to his hearers--Think of that\nwonderful love of your Father God. He has called you from the midst of\nyour heathenism, He has called you from a world of tumult and a life of\ntroubled unrest to possess the peace which brooded ever, like the mystic\ndove, over Christ's head; He has called you in one body, having knit in\na grand unity us, Jews and Gentiles, so widely parted before. Let us\npause and lift up our voices in praise to Him. True thankfulness will\nwell up at all moments, and will underlie and blend with all duties.\nThere are frequent injunctions to thankfulness in this letter, and we\nhave it again enjoined in the closing words of the verses which we are\nnow considering, so that we may defer any further remarks till we come\nto deal with these.\n\nII. The Indwelling Word of Christ.\n\nThe main reference of this verse seems to be to the worship of the\nChurch--the highest expression of its oneness. There are three points\nenforced in its three clauses, of which the first is the dwelling in the\nhearts of the Colossian Christians of the \"word of Christ,\" by which is\nmeant, as I conceive, not simply \"the presence of Christ in the heart,\nas an inward monitor,\"[3] but the indwelling of the definite body of\ntruths contained in the gospel which had been preached to them. That\ngospel is the word of Christ, inasmuch as He is its subject. These early\nChristians received that body of truth by oral teaching. To us it comes\nin the history of Christ's life and death, and in the exposition of the\nsignificance and far-reaching depth and power of these, which are\ncontained in the rest of the New Testament--a very definite body of\nteaching. How can it abide in the heart? or what is the dwelling of\nthat word within us but the occupation of mind and heart and will with\nthe truth concerning Jesus revealed to us in Scripture? This indwelling\nis in our own power, for it is matter of precept and not of promise--and\nif we want to have it we must do with religious truth just what we do\nwith other truths that we want to keep in our minds--ponder them, use\nour faculties on them, be perpetually recurring to them, fix them in our\nmemories, like nails fastened in a sure place, and, that we may remember\nthem, \"get them by heart,\" as the children say. Few things are more\nwanting to-day than this. The popular Christianity of the day is strong\nin philanthropic service, and some phases of it are full of\n\"evangelistic\" activity, but it is wofully lacking in intelligent grasp\nof the great principles involved and revealed in the gospel. Some\nChristians have yielded to the popular prejudice against \"dogma,\" and\nhave come to dislike and neglect the doctrinal side of religion, and\nothers are so busy in good works of various kinds that they have no time\nnor inclination to reflect nor to learn, and for others \"the cares of\nthis world and the lusts of other things, entering in, choke the word.\"\nA merely intellectual Christianity is a very poor thing, no doubt; but\nthat has been dinned into our ears so long and loudly for a generation\nnow, that there is much need for a clear preaching of the other\nside--namely, that a merely emotional Christianity is a still poorer,\nand that if feeling on the one hand and conduct on the other are to be\nworthy of men with heads on their shoulders and brains in their heads,\nboth feeling and conduct must be built on a foundation of truth believed\nand pondered. In the ordered monarchy of human nature, reason is meant\nto govern, but she is also meant to submit, and for her the law holds\ngood, she must learn to obey that she may be able to rule. She must bow\nto the word of Christ, and then she will sway aright the kingdom of the\nsoul. It becomes us to make conscience of seeking to get a firm and\nintelligent grasp of Christian truth as a whole, and not to be always\nliving on milk meant for babes, nor to expect that teachers and\npreachers should only repeat for ever the things which we know already.\n\nThat word is to dwell in Christian men _richly_. It is their own fault\nif they possess it, as so many do, in scant measure. It might be a full\ntide. Why in so many is it a mere trickle, like an Australian river in\nthe heat, a line of shallow ponds with no life or motion, scarcely\nconnected by a thread of moisture, and surrounded by great stretches of\nblinding shingle, when it might be a broad water--\"waters to swim in\"?\nWhy, but because they do not do with this word, what all students do\nwith the studies which they love?\n\nThe word should manifest the rich abundance of its dwelling in men by\nopening out in their minds into \"every kind of wisdom.\" Where the gospel\nin its power dwells in a man's spirit, and is intelligently meditated on\nand studied, it will effloresce into principles of thought and action\napplicable to all subjects, and touching the whole round horizon of\nhuman life. All, and more than all, the wisdom which these false\nteachers promised in their mysteries, is given to the babes and the\nsimple ones who treasure the word of Christ in their hearts, and the\nleast among them may say, \"I have more understanding than all my\nteachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation.\" That gospel which the\nchild may receive, has \"infinite riches in a narrow room,\" and, like\nsome tiny black seed, for all its humble form, has hidden in it the\npromise and potency of wondrous beauty of flower, and nourishment of\nfruit. Cultured and cared for in the heart where it is sown, it will\nunfold into all truth which a man can receive or God can give,\nconcerning God and man, our nature, duties, hopes and destinies, the\ntasks of the moment, and the glories of eternity. He who has it and lets\nit dwell richly in his heart is wise; he who has it not, \"at his latter\nend shall be a fool.\"\n\nThe second clause of this verse deals with the manifestations of the\nindwelling word in the worship of the Church. The individual possession\nof the word in one's own heart does not make us independent of brotherly\nhelp. Rather, it is the very foundation of the duty of sharing our\nriches with our fellows, and of increasing ours by contributions from\ntheir stores. And so--\"teaching and admonishing one another\" is the\noutcome of it. The universal possession of Christ's word involves the\nequally universal right and duty of mutual instruction.\n\nWe have already heard the Apostle declaring it to be his work to\n\"admonish every man and to teach every man,\" and found that the former\noffice pointed to practical ethical instruction, not without rebuke and\nwarning, while the latter referred rather to doctrinal teaching. What he\nthere claimed for himself, he here enjoins on the whole Christian\ncommunity. We have here a glimpse of the perfectly simple, informal\npublic services of the early Church, which seem to have partaken much\nmore of the nature of a free conference than of any of the forms of\nworship at present in use in any Church. The evidence both of this\npassage and of the other Pauline Epistles, especially of the first\nEpistle to the Corinthians (xiv.) unmistakably shows this. The forms of\nworship in the apostolic Church are not meant for models, and we do not\nprove a usage as intended to be permanent because we prove it to be\nprimitive; but the principles which underlie the usages are valid always\nand everywhere, and one of these principles is the universal though not\nequal inspiration of Christian men, which results in their universal\ncalling to teach and admonish. In what forms that principle shall be\nexpressed, how safeguarded and controlled, is of secondary importance.\nDifferent stages of culture and a hundred other circumstances will\nmodify these, and nobody but a pedant or religious martinet will care\nabout uniformity. But I cannot but believe that the present practice of\nconfining the public teaching of the Church to an official class has\ndone harm. Why should one man be for ever speaking, and hundreds of\npeople who are able to teach, sitting dumb to listen or pretend to\nlisten to him? Surely there is a wasteful expenditure there. I hate\nforcible revolution, and do not believe that any institutions, either\npolitical or ecclesiastical, which need violence to sweep them away, are\nready to be removed; but I believe that if the level of spiritual life\nwere raised among us, new forms would naturally be evolved, in which\nthere should be a more adequate recognition of the great principle on\nwhich the democracy of Christianity is founded, namely, \"I will pour\nout My Spirit on all flesh--and on My servants and on My handmaidens I\nwill pour out in these days of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy.\"\nThere are not wanting signs that many different classes of Christian\nworshippers have ceased to find edification in the present manner of\nteaching. The more cultured write books on \"the decay of preaching;\" the\nmore earnest take to mission halls and a \"freer service,\" and \"lay\npreaching;\" the more indifferent stay at home. When the tide rises, all\nthe idle craft stranded on the mud are set in motion; such a time is\nsurely coming for the Church, when the aspiration that has waited\nmillenniums for its fulfilment, and received but a partial\naccomplishment at Pentecost, shall at last be a fact: \"would God that\nall the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His\nSpirit upon them!\"\n\nThe teaching and admonishing is here regarded as being effected by means\nof song. That strikes one as singular, and tempts to another punctuation\nof the verse, by which \"In all wisdom teaching and admonishing one\nanother\" should make a separate clause, and \"in psalms and hymns and\nspiritual songs\" should be attached to the following words. But probably\nthe ordinary arrangement of clauses is best on the whole. The\ndistinction between \"psalms\" and \"hymns\" appears to be that the former\nis a song with a musical accompaniment, and that the latter is vocal\npraise to God. No doubt the \"psalms\" meant were chiefly those of the\nPsalter, the Old Testament element in the early Christian worship, while\nthe \"hymns\" were the new product of the spirit of devotion which had\nnaturally broken into song, the first beginnings of the great treasure\nof Christian hymnody. \"Spiritual songs\" is a more general expression,\nincluding all varieties of Christian poesy, provided that they come from\nthe Spirit moving in the heart. We know from many sources that song had\na large part in the worship of the early Church. Indeed, whenever a\ngreat quickening of religious life comes, a great burst of Christian\nsong comes with it. The onward march of the Church has ever been\nattended by music of praise; \"as well the singers as the players on\ninstruments\" have been there. The mediaeval Latin hymns cluster round the\nearly pure days of the monastic orders; Luther's rough stormy hymns were\nas powerful as his treatises; the mystic tenderness and rapture of\nCharles Wesley's have become the possession of the whole Church. We hear\nfrom outside observers, that one of the practices of the early\nChristians which most attracted heathen notice was, that they assembled\ndaily before it was light and \"sang hymns of praise to one Christus as\nto a god.\"\n\nThese early hymns were of a dogmatic character. No doubt, just as in\nmany a missionary Church a hymn is found to be the best vehicle for\nconveying the truth, so it was in these early Churches, which were made\nup largely of slaves and women--both uneducated. \"Singing the gospel\" is\na very old invention, though the name be new. The picture which we get\nhere of the meetings of the early Christians is very remarkable.\nEvidently their gatherings were free and social, with the minimum of\nform, and that most elastic. If a man had any word of exhortation for\nthe people, he might say on. \"Every one of you hath a psalm, a\ndoctrine.\" If a man had some fragment of an old psalm, or some strain\nthat had come fresh from the Christian heart, he might sing it, and his\nbrethren would listen. We do not have that sort of psalmody now. But\nwhat a long way we have travelled from it to a modern congregation,\nstanding with books that they scarcely look at, and \"worshipping\" in a\nhymn which half of them do not open their mouths to sing at all, and the\nother half do in a voice inaudible three pews off.\n\nThe best praise, however, is a heart song. So the Apostle adds \"singing\nin your hearts unto God.\" And it is to be in \"grace,\" that is to say,\n_in_ it as the atmosphere and element in which the song moves, which is\nnearly equivalent to \"by means of the Divine grace\" which works in the\nheart, and impels to that perpetual music of silent praise. If we have\nthe peace of Christ in our hearts, and the word of Christ dwelling in us\nrichly in all wisdom, then an unspoken and perpetual music will dwell\nthere too, \"a noise like of a hidden brook\" singing for ever its \"quiet\ntune.\"\n\nIII. The all-hallowing Name of Jesus.\n\nFrom worship the Apostle passes to life, and crowns the entire series of\ninjunctions with an all-comprehensive precept, covering the whole ground\nof action. \"_Whatsoever_ ye do, in word or deed\"--then, not merely\nworship, specially so called, but everything is to come under the\ninfluence of the same motive. That expresses emphatically the sanctity\nof common life, and extends the idea of worship to all deeds.\n\"Whatsoever ye _do_ in _word_\"--then words are _doings_, and in many\nrespects the most important of our doings. Some words, though they fade\noff the ear so quickly, outlast all contemporary deeds, and are more\nlasting than brass. Not only \"the word of the Lord,\" but, in a very\nsolemn sense, the word of man \"endureth for ever.\"\n\nDo all \"in the name of the Lord Jesus.\" That means at least two\nthings--in obedience to His authority, and in dependence on His help.\nThese two are the twin talismans which change the whole character of our\nactions, and preserve us, in doing them, from every harm. That name\nhallows and ennobles all work. Nothing can be so small but this will\nmake it great, nor so monotonous and tame but this will make it\nbeautiful and fresh. The name now, as of old, casts out devils and\nstills storms. \"For the name of the Lord Jesus\" is the silken padding\nwhich makes our yokes easy. It brings the sudden strength which makes\nour burdens light. We may write it over all our actions. If there be any\non which we dare not inscribe it, they are not for us.\n\nThus done in the name of Christ, all deeds will become thanksgiving, and\nso reach their highest consecration and their truest blessedness.\n\"Giving thanks to God the Father through Him\" is ever to accompany the\nwork in the name of Jesus. The exhortation to thanksgiving, which is in\na sense the Alpha and the Omega of the Christian life, is perpetually on\nthe Apostle's lips, because thankfulness should be in perpetual\noperation in our hearts. It is so important because it presupposes\nall-important things, and because it certainly leads to every Christian\ngrace. For continual thankfulness there must be a continual direction of\nmind towards God and towards the great gifts of our salvation in Jesus\nChrist. There must be a continual going forth of our love and our desire\nto these, that is to say--thankfulness rests on the reception and the\njoyful appropriation of the mercies of God, brought to us by our Lord.\nAnd it underlies all acceptable service and all happy obedience. The\nservant who thinks of God as a harsh exactor is slothful; the servant\nwho thinks of Him as the \"giving God\" rejoices in toil. He who brings\nhis work in order to be paid for it, will get no wages, and turn out no\nwork worth any. He who brings it because he feels that he has been paid\nplentiful wages beforehand, of which he will never earn the least mite,\nwill present service well pleasing to the Master.\n\nSo we should keep thoughts of Jesus Christ, and of all we owe to Him,\never before us in our common work, in shop and mill and counting-house,\nin study and street and home. We should try to bring all our actions\nmore under their influence, and, moved by the mercies of God, should\nyield ourselves living thank-offerings to Him, who is the sin-offering\nfor us. If, as every fresh duty arises, we hear Christ saying, \"This do\nin remembrance of Me,\" all life will become a true communion with Him,\nand every common vessel will be as a sacramental chalice, and the bells\nof the horses will bear the same inscription as the high priest's\nmitre--\"Holiness to the Lord.\" To lay work on that altar sanctifies both\nthe giver and the gift. Presented through Him, by whom all blessings\ncome to man and all thanks go to God, and kindled by the flame of\ngratitude, our poor deeds, for all their grossness and earthliness,\nshall go up in curling wreaths of incense, an odour of a sweet smell\nacceptable to God by Jesus Christ.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[3] Lightfoot.\n\n\n\n\nXXII.\n\n_THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY._\n\n \"Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the\n Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.\n\n \"Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is\n well-pleasing in the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children, that\n they be not discouraged.\n\n \"Servants, obey in all things them that are your masters according\n to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but in\n singleness of heart, fearing the Lord: whatsoever ye do, work\n heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that from the\n Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance: ye serve\n the Lord Christ. For he that doeth wrong shall receive again for the\n wrong that he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.\n\n \"Masters, render unto your servants that which is just and equal;\n knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven.\"--COL. iii. 18-iv. 1\n (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThis section deals with the Christian family, as made up of husband and\nwife, children, and servants. In the family, Christianity has most\nsignally displayed its power of refining, ennobling, and sanctifying\nearthly relationships. Indeed, one may say that domestic life, as seen\nin thousands of Christian homes, is purely a Christian creation, and\nwould have been a new revelation to the heathenism of Colossae, as it is\nto-day in many a mission field.\n\nWe do not know what may have led Paul to dwell with special emphasis on\nthe domestic duties, in this letter, and in the contemporaneous Epistle\nof the Ephesians. He does so, and the parallel section there should be\ncarefully compared throughout with this paragraph. The former is\nconsiderably more expanded, and may have been written after the verses\nbefore us; but, however that may be, the verbal coincidences and\nvariations in the two sections are very interesting as illustrations of\nthe way in which a mind fully charged with a theme will freely repeat\nitself, and use the same words in different combinations and with\ninfinite shades of modification.\n\nThe precepts given are extremely simple and obvious. Domestic happiness\nand family Christianity are made up of very homely elements. One duty is\nprescribed for the one member of each of the three family groups, and\nvarying forms of another for the other. The wife, the child, the servant\nare bid to obey; the husband to love, the father to show his love in\ngentle considerateness; the master to yield his servants their dues.\nLike some perfume distilled from common flowers that grow on every bank,\nthe domestic piety which makes home a house of God, and a gate of\nheaven, is prepared from these two simples--obedience and love. These\nare all.\n\nWe have here then the ideal Christian household in the three ordinary\nrelationships which make up the family; wife and husband, children and\nfather, servant and master.\n\nI. The Reciprocal Duties of wife and husband--subjection and love.\n\nThe duty of the wife is \"subjection,\" and it is enforced on the ground\nthat it is \"fitting in the Lord\"--that is, \"it is,\" or perhaps \"it\nbecame\" at the time of conversion, \"the conduct corresponding to or\nbefitting the condition of being in the Lord.\" In more modern\nlanguage--the Christian ideal of the wife's duty has for its very\ncentre--subjection.\n\nSome of us will smile at that; some of us will think it an old-fashioned\nnotion, a survival of a more barbarous theory of marriage than this\ncentury recognises. But, before we decide upon the correctness of the\napostolic precept, let us make quite sure of its meaning. Now, if we\nturn to the corresponding passage in Ephesians, we find that marriage is\nregarded from a high and sacred point of view, as being an earthly\nshadow and faint adumbration of the union between Christ and the Church.\n\nTo Paul, all human and earthly relationships were moulded after the\npatterns of things in the heavens, and the whole fleeting visible life\nof man was a parable of the \"things which are\" in the spiritual realm.\nMost chiefly, the holy and mysterious union of man and woman in marriage\nis fashioned in the likeness of the only union which is closer and more\nmysterious than itself, namely that between Christ and His Church.\n\nSuch then as are the nature and the spring of the Church's \"subjection\"\nto Christ, such will be the nature and the spring of the wife's\n\"subjection\" to the husband. That is to say, it is a subjection of which\nlove is the very soul and animating principle. In a true marriage, as in\nthe loving obedience of a believing soul to Christ, the wife submits not\nbecause she has found a master, but because her heart has found its\nrest. Everything harsh or degrading melts away from the requirement when\nthus looked at. It is a joy to serve where the heart is engaged, and\nthat is eminently true of the feminine nature. For its full\nsatisfaction, a woman's heart needs to look up where it loves. She has\ncertainly the fullest wedded life who can \"reverence\" her husband. For\nits full satisfaction, a woman's heart needs to serve where it loves.\nThat is the same as saying that a woman's love is, in the general,\nnobler, purer, more unselfish than a man's, and therein, quite as much\nas in physical constitution, is laid the foundation of that Divine ideal\nof marriage, which places the wife's delight and dignity in sweet loving\nsubjection.\n\nOf course the subjection has its limitations. \"We must obey God rather\nthan man\" bounds the field of all human authority and control. Then\nthere are cases in which, on the principle of \"the tools to the hands\nthat can use them,\" the rule falls naturally to the wife as the stronger\ncharacter. Popular sarcasm, however, shows that such instances are felt\nto be contrary to the true ideal, and such a wife lacks something of\nrepose for her heart.\n\nNo doubt, too, since Paul wrote, and very largely by Christian\ninfluences, women have been educated and elevated, so as to make mere\nsubjection impossible now, if ever it were so. Woman's quick instinct as\nto persons, her finer wisdom, her purer discernment as to moral\nquestions, make it in a thousand cases the wisest thing a man can do to\nlisten to the \"subtle flow of silver-paced counsel\" which his wife gives\nhim. All such considerations are fully consistent with this apostolic\nteaching, and it remains true that the wife who does not reverence and\nlovingly obey is to be pitied if she cannot, and to be condemned if she\nwill not.\n\nAnd what of the husband's duty? He is to love, and because he loves, not\nto be harsh or bitter, in word, look or act. The parallel in Ephesians\nadds the solemn elevating thought, that a man's love to the woman, whom\nhe has made his own, is to be like Christ's to the Church. Patient and\ngenerous, utterly self-forgetting and self-sacrificing, demanding\nnothing, grudging nothing, giving all, not shrinking from the extreme of\nsuffering and pain and death itself--that he may bless and help--such\nwas the Lord's love to His bride, such is to be a Christian husband's\nlove to his wife. That solemn example, which lifts the whole emotion\nhigh above mere passion or selfish affection, carries a great lesson too\nas to the connection between man's love and woman's \"subjection.\" The\nformer is to evoke the latter, just as in the heavenly pattern, Christ's\nlove melts and moves human wills to glad obedience, which is liberty. We\ndo not say that a wife is utterly absolved from obedience where a\nhusband fails in self-forgetting love, though certainly it does not lie\nin _his_ mouth to accuse, whose fault is graver than and the origin of\nhers. But, without going so far as that, we may recognise the true order\nto be that the husband's love, self-sacrificing and all-bestowing, is\nmeant to evoke the wife's love, delighting in service, and proud to\ncrown him her king.\n\nWhere there is such love, there will be no question of mere command and\nobedience, no tenacious adherence to rights, or jealous defence of\nindependence. Law will be transformed into choice. To obey will be joy;\nto serve, the natural expression of the heart. Love uttering a wish\nspeaks music to love listening; and love obeying the wish is free and a\nqueen. Such sacred beauty may light up wedded life, if it catches a\ngleam from the fountain of all light, and shines by reflection from the\nlove that binds Christ to His Church as the links of the golden beams\nbind the sun to the planet. Husbands and wives are to see to it that\nthis supreme consecration purifies and raises their love. Young men and\nmaidens are to remember that the nobleness and heart-repose of their\nwhole life may be made or marred by marriage, and to take heed where\nthey fix their affections. If there be not unity in the deepest thing of\nall, love to Christ, the sacredness and completeness will fade away from\nany love. But if a man and woman love and marry \"in the Lord,\" He will\nbe \"in the midst,\" walking between them, a third who will make them one,\nand that threefold cord will not be quickly broken.\n\nII. The Reciprocal Duties of children and parents--obedience and gentle\nloving authority.\n\nThe injunction to children is laconic, decisive, universal. \"Obey your\nparents in all things.\" Of course, there is one limitation to that. If\nGod's command looks one way, and a parent's the opposite, disobedience\nis duty--but such extreme case is probably the only one which Christian\nethics admit as an exception to the rule. The Spartan brevity of the\ncommand is enforced by one consideration, \"for this is well-pleasing\n_in_ the Lord,\" as the Revised Version rightly reads, instead of \"to the\nLord,\" as in the Authorised, thus making an exact parallel to the former\n\"fitting in the Lord.\" Not only to Christ, but to all who can appreciate\nthe beauty of goodness, is filial obedience beautiful. The parallel in\nEphesians substitutes \"for this is right,\" appealing to the natural\nconscience. Right and fair in itself, it is accordant with the law\nstamped on the very relationship, and it is witnessed as such by the\ninstinctive approbation which it evokes.\n\nNo doubt, the moral sentiment of Paul's age stretched parental authority\nto an extreme, and we need not hesitate to admit that the Christian idea\nof a father's power and a child's obedience has been much softened by\nChristianity; but the softening has come from the greater prominence\ngiven to love, rather than from the limitation given to obedience.\n\nOur present domestic life seems to me to stand sorely in need of Paul's\ninjunction. One cannot but see that there is great laxity in this matter\nin many Christian households, in reaction perhaps from the too great\nseverity of past times. Many causes lead to this unwholesome relaxation\nof parental authority. In our great cities, especially among the\ncommercial classes, children are generally better educated than their\nfathers and mothers, they know less of early struggles, and one often\nsees a sense of inferiority making a parent hesitate to command, as well\nas a misplaced tenderness making him hesitate to forbid. A very\nmisplaced and cruel tenderness it is to say \"would you like?\" when he\nought to say \"I wish.\" It is unkind to lay on young shoulders \"the\nweight of too much liberty,\" and to introduce young hearts too soon to\nthe sad responsibility of choosing between good and evil. It were better\nand more loving by far to put off that day, and to let the children feel\nthat in the safe nest of home, their feeble and ignorant goodness is\nsheltered behind a strong barrier of command, and their lives simplified\nby having the one duty of obedience. By many parents the advice is\nneeded--consult your children less, command them more.\n\nAnd as for children, here is the one thing which God would have them do:\n\"Obey your parents in all things.\" As fathers used to say when I was a\nboy--\"not only obedience, but prompt obedience.\" It is right. That\nshould be enough. But children may also remember that it is\n\"pleasing\"--fair and good to see, making them agreeable in the eyes of\nall whose approbation is worth having, and pleasing to themselves,\nsaving them from many a bitter thought in after days, when the grave has\nclosed over father and mother. One remembers the story of how Dr.\nJohnson, when a man, stood in the market place at Lichfield, bareheaded,\nwith the rain pouring on him, in remorseful remembrance of boyish\ndisobedience to his dead father. There is nothing bitterer than the too\nlate tears for wrongs done to those who are gone beyond the reach of our\npenitence. \"Children obey your parents in all things,\" that you may be\nspared the sting of conscience for childish faults, which may be set\ntingling and smarting again even in old age.\n\nThe law for parents is addressed to \"fathers,\" partly because a mother's\ntenderness has less need of the warning \"provoke not your children,\"\nthan a father's more rigorous rule usually has, and partly because the\nfather is regarded as the head of the household. The advice is full of\npractical sagacity. How do parents provoke their children? By\nunreasonable commands, by perpetual restrictions, by capricious jerks at\nthe bridle, alternating with as capricious dropping of the reins\naltogether, by not governing their own tempers, by shrill or stern tones\nwhere quiet, soft ones would do, by frequent checks and rebukes, and\nsparing praise. And what is sure to follow such mistreatment by father\nor mother? First, as the parallel passage in Ephesians has it;\n\"wrath\"--bursts of temper, for which probably the child is punished and\nthe parent is guilty--and then spiritless listlessness and apathy. \"I\ncannot please him whatever I do,\" leads to a rankling sense of\ninjustice, and then to recklessness--\"it is useless to try any more.\"\nAnd when a child or a man loses heart, there will be no more obedience.\nPaul's theory of the training of children is closely connected with his\ncentral doctrine, that love is the life of service, and faith the parent\nof righteousness. To him hope and gladness and confident love underlie\nall obedience. When a child loves and trusts, he will obey. When he\nfears and has to think of his father as capricious, exacting or stern,\nhe will do like the man in the parable, who was afraid because he\nthought of his master as austere, reaping where he did not sow, and\ntherefore went and hid his talent. Children's obedience must be fed on\nlove and praise. Fear paralyses activity, and kills service, whether it\ncowers in the heart of a boy to his father, or of a man to his Father in\nheaven.\n\nSo parents are to let the sunshine of their smile ripen their children's\nlove to fruit of obedience, and remember that frost in spring scatters\nthe blossoms on the grass. Many a parent, especially many a father,\ndrives his child into evil by keeping him at a distance. He should make\nhis boy a companion and playmate, teach him to think of his father as\nhis confidant, try to keep his child nearer to himself than to anybody\nbeside, and then his authority will be absolute, his opinions an oracle,\nand his lightest wish a law. Is not the kingdom of Jesus Christ based\non His becoming a brother and one of ourselves, and is it not wielded in\ngentleness and enforced by love? Is it not the most absolute of rules?\nand should not the parental authority be like it--having a reed for a\nsceptre, lowliness and gentleness being stronger to rule and to sway\nthan the \"rods of iron\" or of gold which earthly monarchs wield?\n\nThere is added to this precept, in Ephesians, an injunction on the\npositive side of parental duty: \"Bring them up in the nurture and\nadmonition of the Lord.\" I fear that is a duty fallen wofully into\ndisuse in many Christian households. Many parents think it wise to send\ntheir children away from home for their education, and so hand over\ntheir moral and religious training to teachers. That may be right, but\nit makes the fulfilment of this precept all but impossible. Others, who\nhave their children beside them, are too busy all the week, and too fond\nof \"rest\" on Sunday. Many send their children to a Sunday school chiefly\nthat they themselves may have a quiet house and a sound sleep in the\nafternoon. Every Christian minister, if he keeps his eyes open, must see\nthat there is no religious instruction worth calling by the name in a\nvery large number of professedly Christian households; and he is bound\nto press very earnestly on his hearers the question, whether the\nChristian fathers and mothers among them do their duty in this matter.\nMany of them, I fear, have never opened their lips to their children on\nreligious subjects. Is it not a grief and a shame that men and women\nwith some religion in them, and loving their little ones dearly, should\nbe tongue-tied before them on the most important of all things? What\ncan come of it but what does come of it so often that it saddens one to\nsee how frequently it occurs--that the children drift away from a faith\nwhich their parents did not care enough about to teach it to them? A\nsilent father makes prodigal sons, and many a grey head has been brought\ndown with sorrow to the grave, and many a mother's heart broken, because\nhe and she neglected their plain duty, which can be handed over to no\nschools or masters--the duty of religious instruction. \"These words\nwhich I command thee, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them\ndiligently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in\nthine house.\"\n\nIII. The Reciprocal Duties of servants and masters--obedience and\njustice.\n\nThe first thing to observe here is, that these \"servants\" are slaves,\nnot persons who have voluntarily given their work for wages. The\nrelation of Christianity to slavery is too wide a subject to be touched\nhere. It must be enough to point out that Paul recognises that \"sum of\nall villanies,\" gives instructions to both parties in it, never says one\nword in condemnation of it. More remarkable still; the messenger who\ncarried this letter to Colossae carried in the same bag the Epistle to\nPhilemon, and was accompanied by the fugitive slave Onesimus, on whose\nneck Paul bound again the chain, so to speak, with his own hands. And\nyet the gospel which Paul preached has in it principles which cut up\nslavery by the roots; as we read in this very letter, \"In Christ Jesus\nthere is neither bond nor free.\" Why then did not Christ and His\napostles make war against slavery? For the same reason for which they\ndid not make war against _any_ political or social institutions. \"First\nmake the tree good and his fruit good.\" The only way to reform\ninstitutions is to elevate and quicken the general conscience, and then\nthe evil will be outgrown, left behind, or thrown aside. Mould men and\nthe men will mould institutions. So Christianity did not set itself to\nfell this upas tree, which would have been a long and dangerous task;\nbut girdled it, as we may say, stripped the bark off it, and left it to\ndie--and it _has_ died in all Christian lands now.\n\nBut the principles laid down here are quite as applicable to our form of\ndomestic and other service as to the slaves and masters of Colossae.\n\nNote then the extent of the servant's obedience--\"in all things.\" Here,\nof course, as in former cases, is there presupposed the limit of supreme\nobedience to God's commands; that being safe, all else is to give way to\nthe duty of submission. It is a stern command, that seems all on the\nside of the masters. It might strike a chill into many a slave, who had\nbeen drawn to the gospel by the hope of finding some little lightening\nof the yoke that pressed so heavily on his poor galled neck, and of\nhearing some voice speaking in tenderer tones than those of harsh\ncommand. Still more emphatically, and, as it might seem, still more\nharshly, the Apostle goes on to insist on the inward completeness of the\nobedience--\"not with eyeservice (a word of Paul's own coining) as\nmen-pleasers.\" We have a proverb about the worth of the master's eye,\nwhich bears witness that the same fault still clings to hired service.\nOne has only to look at the next set of bricklayers one sees on a\nscaffold, or of haymakers one comes across in a field, to see it. The\nvice was venial in slaves; it is inexcusable, because it darkens into\ntheft, in paid servants--and it spreads far and wide. All scamped work,\nall productions of man's hand or brain which are got up to look better\nthan they are, all fussy parade of diligence when under inspection and\nslackness afterwards--and all their like which infect and infest every\ntrade and profession, are transfixed by the sharp point of this precept.\n\n\"But in singleness of heart,\" that is, with undivided motive, which is\nthe antithesis and the cure for \"eyeservice\"--and \"fearing God,\" which\nis opposed to \"pleasing men.\" Then follows the positive injunction,\ncovering the whole ground of action and lifting the constrained\nobedience to the earthly master up into the sacred and serene loftiness\nof religious duty, \"whatsoever ye do, work heartily,\" or from the soul.\nThe word for _work_ is stronger than that for _do_, and implies effort\nand toil. They are to put all their power into their work, and not be\nafraid of hard toil. And they are not only to bend their backs but their\nwills, and to labour \"from the soul,\" that is, cheerfully and with\ninterest--a hard lesson for a slave and asking more than could be\nexpected from human nature, as many of them would, no doubt, think. Paul\ngoes on to transfigure the squalor and misery of the slave's lot by a\nsudden beam of light--\"as to the Lord\"--your true \"Master,\" for it is\nthe same word as in the previous verse--\"and not unto men.\" Do not think\nof your tasks as only enjoined by harsh, capricious, selfish men, but\nlift your thoughts to Christ, who is your Lord, and glorify all these\nsordid duties by seeing _His_ will in them. He only who works as \"to\nthe Lord,\" will work \"heartily.\" The thought of Christ's command, and of\nmy poor toil as done for His sake, will change constraint into\ncheerfulness, and make unwelcome tasks pleasant, and monotonous ones\nfresh, and trivial ones great. It will evoke new powers, and renewed\nconsecration. In that atmosphere, the dim flame of servile obedience\nwill burn more brightly, as a lamp plunged into a jar of pure oxygen.\n\nThe stimulus of a great hope for the ill-used, unpaid slave, is added.\nWhatever their earthly masters might fail to give them, the true Master\nwhom they really served would accept no work for which He did not return\nmore than sufficient wages. \"From the Lord ye shall receive the\nrecompense of the inheritance.\" Blows and scanty food and poor lodging\nmay be all that they get from their owners for all their sweat and toil,\nbut if they are Christ's slaves, they will be treated no more as slaves,\nbut as sons, and receive a son's portion, the exact recompense which\nconsists of the \"inheritance.\" The juxtaposition of the two ideas of the\nslave and the inheritance evidently hints at the unspoken thought, that\nthey are heirs because they are sons--a thought which might well lift up\nbowed backs and brighten dull faces. The hope of that reward came like\nan angel into the smoky huts and hopeless lives of these poor slaves. It\nshone athwart all the gloom and squalor, and taught patience beneath\n\"the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely.\" Through long, weary\ngenerations it has lived in the hearts of men driven to God by man's\ntyranny, and forced to clutch at heaven's brightness to keep them from\nbeing made mad by earth's blackness. It may irradiate our poor lives,\nespecially when we fail, as we all do sometimes, to get recognition of\nour work, or fruit from it. If we labour for man's appreciation or\ngratitude, we shall certainly be disappointed; but if for Christ, we\nhave abundant wages beforehand, and we shall have an overabundant\nrequital, the munificence of which will make us more ashamed of our\nunworthy service than anything else could do. Christ remains in no man's\ndebt. \"Who hath first given, and it shall be recompensed to him again?\"\n\nThe last word to the slave is a warning against neglect of duty. There\nis to be a double recompense--to the slave of Christ the portion of a\nson; to the wrong doer retribution \"for the wrong that he has done.\"\nThen, though slavery was itself a wrong, though the master who held a\nman in bondage was himself inflicting the greatest of all wrongs, yet\nPaul will have the slave think that he still has duties to his master.\nThat is part of Paul's general position as to slavery. He will not wage\nwar against it, but for the present accept it. Whether he saw the full\nbearing of the gospel on that and other infamous institutions may be\nquestioned. He has given us the principles which will destroy them, but\nhe is no revolutionist, and so his present counsel is to remember the\nmaster's rights, even though they be founded on wrong, and he has no\nhesitation in condemning and predicting retribution for evil things done\nby a slave to his master. A superior's injustice does not warrant an\ninferior's breach of moral law, though it may excuse it. Two blacks do\nnot make a white. Herein lies the condemnation of all the crimes which\nenslaved nations and classes have done, of many a deed which has been\nhonoured and sung, of the sanguinary cruelties of servile revolts, as\nwell as of the questionable means to which labour often resorts in\nmodern industrial warfare. The homely, plain principle, that a man does\nnot receive the right to break God's laws because he is ill-treated,\nwould clear away much fog from some people's notions of how to advance\nthe cause of the oppressed.\n\nBut, on the other hand, this warning may look towards the masters also;\nand probably the same double reference is also to be discerned in the\nclosing words to the slaves, \"and there is no respect of persons.\" The\nservants were naturally tempted to think that God was on their side, as\nindeed He was, but also to think that the great coming day of judgment\nwas mostly meant to be terrible to tyrants and oppressors, and so to\nlook forward to it with a fierce un-Christian joy, as well as with a\nfalse confidence built only on their present misery. They would be apt\nto think that God did \"respect persons,\" in the opposite fashion from\nthat of a partial judge--namely, that He would incline the scale in\nfavour of the ill-used, the poor, the down-trodden; that they would have\nan easy test and a light sentence, while His frowns and His severity\nwould be kept for the powerful and the rich who had ground the faces of\nthe poor and kept back the hire of the labourer. It was therefore a\nneedful reminder for them, and for us all, that that judgment has\nnothing to do with earthly conditions, but only with conduct and\ncharacter; that sorrow and calamity here do not open heaven's gates\nhereafter, and that the slave and master are tried by the same law.\n\nThe series of precepts closes with a brief but most pregnant word to\nmasters. They are bid to give to their slaves \"that which is just and\nequal,\" that is to say, \"equitable.\" A startling criterion for a\nmaster's duty to the slave who was denied to have any rights at all.\nThey were chattels, not persons. A master might, in regard to them, do\nwhat he liked with his own; he might crucify or torture, or commit any\ncrime against manhood either in body or soul, and no voice would\nquestion or forbid. How astonished Roman lawgivers would have been if\nthey could have heard Paul talking about justice and equity as applied\nto a slave! What a strange new dialect it must have sounded to the\nslave-owners in the Colossian Church! They would not see how far the\nprinciple, thus quietly introduced, was to carry succeeding ages; they\ncould not dream of the great tree that was to spring from this tiny\nseed-precept; but no doubt the instinct which seldom fails an unjustly\nprivileged class, would make them blindly dislike the exhortation, and\nfeel as if they were getting out of their depth when they were bid to\nconsider what was \"right\" and \"equitable\" in their dealings with their\nslaves.\n\nThe Apostle does not define what _is_ \"right and equal.\" That will come.\nThe main thing is to drive home the conviction that there are duties\nowing to slaves, inferiors, employes. We are far enough from a\nsatisfactory discharge of these yet; but, at any rate, everybody now\nadmits the principle--and we have mainly to thank Christianity for that.\nSlowly the general conscience is coming to recognise that simple truth\nmore and more clearly, and its application is becoming more decisive\nwith each generation. There is much to be done before society is\norganized on that principle, but the time is coming--and till it is\ncome, there will be no peace. All masters and employers of labour, in\ntheir mills and warehouses, are bid to base their relations to \"hands\"\nand servants on the one firm foundation of \"justice.\" Paul does not say,\nGive your servants what is kind and patronising. He wants a great deal\nmore than that. Charity likes to come in and supply the wants which\nwould never have been felt had there been equity. An ounce of justice is\nsometimes worth a ton of charity.\n\nThis duty of the masters is enforced by the same thought which was to\nstimulate the servants to their tasks: \"ye also have a Master in\nheaven.\" That is not only stimulus, but it is pattern. I said that Paul\ndid not specify what was just and right, and that his precept might\ntherefore be objected to as vague. Does the introduction of this thought\nof the master's Master in heaven, take away any of the vagueness? If\nChrist is our Master, then we are to look to Him to see what a master\nought to be, and to try to be masters like that. That is precise enough,\nis it not? That grips tight enough, does it not? Give your servants what\nyou expect and need to get from Christ. If we try to live that\ncommandment for twenty-four hours, it will probably not be its vagueness\nof which we complain.\n\n\"Ye have a Master in heaven\" is the great principle on which all\nChristian duty reposes. Christ's command is my law, His will is supreme,\nHis authority absolute, His example all-sufficient. My soul, my life, my\nall are His. My will is not my own. My possessions are not my own. My\nbeing is not my own. All duty is elevated into obedience to Him, and\nobedience to Him, utter and absolute, is dignity and freedom. We are\nChrist's slaves, for He has bought us for Himself, by giving Himself for\nus. Let that great sacrifice win our heart's love and our perfect\nsubmission. \"O Lord, truly I am Thy servant, Thou hast loosed my bonds.\"\nThen all earthly relationships will be fulfilled by us; and we shall\nmove among men, breathing blessing and raying out brightness, when in\nall, we remember that we have a Master in heaven, and do all our work\nfrom the soul as to Him and not to men.\n\n\n\n\nXXIII.\n\n_PRECEPTS FOR THE INNERMOST AND OUTERMOST LIFE._\n\n \"Continue stedfastly in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving;\n withal praying for us also, that God may open unto us a door for the\n word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds;\n that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom\n toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be\n always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought\n to answer each one.\"--COL. iv. 2-6 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nSo ends the ethical portion of the Epistle. A glance over the series of\npractical exhortations, from the beginning of the preceding chapter\nonwards, will show that, in general terms we may say that they deal\nsuccessively with a Christian's duties to himself, the Church, and the\nfamily. And now, these last advices touch the two extremes of life, the\nfirst of them having reference to the hidden life of prayer, and the\nsecond and third to the outward, busy life of the market-place and the\nstreet. That bringing together of the extremes seems to be the link of\nconnection here. The Christian life is first regarded as gathered into\nitself--coiled as it were on its centre, like some strong spring. Next,\nit is regarded as it operates in the world, and, like the uncoiling\nspring, gives motion to wheels and pinions. These two sides of\nexperience and duty are often hard to blend harmoniously. The conflict\nbetween busy Martha, who serves, and quiet Mary, who only sits and\ngazes, goes on in every age and in every heart. Here we may find, in\nsome measure, the principle of reconciliation between their antagonistic\nclaims. Here is, at all events, the protest against allowing either to\noust the other. Continual prayer is to blend with unwearied action. We\nare so to walk the dusty ways of life as to be ever in the secret place\nof the Most High. \"Continue stedfastly in prayer,\" and withal let there\nbe no unwholesome withdrawal from the duties and relationships of the\nouter world, but let the prayer pass into, first, a wise walk, and\nsecond, an ever-gracious speech.\n\nI. So we have here, first, an exhortation to a hidden life of constant\nprayer.\n\nThe word rendered \"continue\" in the Authorised Version, and more fully\nin the Revised Version by \"continue stedfastly,\" is frequently found in\nreference to prayer, as well as in other connections. A mere enumeration\nof some of these instances may help to illustrate its full meaning. \"We\n_will give ourselves_ to prayer,\" said the apostles in proposing the\ncreation of the office of deacon. \"_Continuing instant_ in prayer\" says\nPaul to the Roman Church. \"They _continuing_ daily with one accord in\nthe Temple\" is the description of the early believers after Pentecost.\nSimon Magus is said to have \"continued with Philip,\" where there is\nevidently the idea of close adherence as well as of uninterrupted\ncompanionship. These examples seem to show that the word implies both\nearnestness and continuity; so that this injunction not only covers the\nground of Paul's other exhortation, \"Pray without ceasing,\" but includes\nfervour also.\n\nThe Christian life, then, ought to be one of unbroken prayer.\n\nWhat manner of prayer can that be which is to be continuous through a\nlife that must needs be full of toil on outward things? How can such a\nprecept be obeyed? Surely there is no need for paring down its\ncomprehensiveness, and saying that it merely means--a very frequent\nrecurrence to devout exercises, as often as the pressure of daily duties\nwill permit. That is not the direction in which the harmonising of such\na precept with the obvious necessities of our position is to be sought.\nWe must seek it in a more inward and spiritual notion of prayer. We must\nseparate between the form and the substance, the treasure and the\nearthen vessel which carries it. What is prayer? Not the utterance of\nwords--they are but the vehicle; but the attitude of the spirit.\nCommunion, aspiration, and submission, these three are the elements of\nprayer--and these three may be diffused through a life. It is possible,\nthough difficult. There may be unbroken communion, a constant\nconsciousness of God's presence, and of our contact with Him, thrilling\nthrough our souls and freshening them, like some breath of spring\nreaching the toilers in choky factories and busy streets; or even if the\ncommunion do not run like an absolutely unbroken line of light through\nour lives, the points may be so near together as all but to touch. In\nsuch communion words are needless. When spirits draw closest together\nthere is no need for speech. Silently the heart may be kept fragrant\nwith God's felt presence, and sunny with the light of His face. There\nare towns nestling beneath the Alps, every narrow filthy alley of which\nlooks to the great solemn snow-peaks, and the inhabitants, amid all the\nsqualor of their surroundings, have that apocalypse of wonder ever\nbefore them, if they would only lift their eyes. So we, if we will, may\nlive with the majesties and beauties of the great white throne and of\nHim that sat on it closing every vista and filling the end of every\ncommonplace passage in our lives.\n\nIn like manner, there may be a continual, unspoken and unbroken presence\nof the second element of prayer, which is aspiration, or desire after\nGod. All circumstances, whether duty, sorrow or joy, should and may be\nused to stamp more deeply on my consciousness the sense of my weakness\nand need; and every moment, with its experience of God's swift and\npunctual grace, and all my communion with Him which unveils to me His\nbeauty--should combine to move longings for Him, for more of Him. The\nvery deepest cry of the heart which understands its own yearnings, is\nfor the living God; and perpetual as the hunger of the spirit for the\nfood which will stay its profound desires, will be the prayer, though it\nmay often be voiceless, of the soul which knows where alone that food\nis.\n\nContinual too may be our submission to His will, which is an essential\nof all prayer. Many people's notion is that our prayer is urging our\nwishes on God, and that His answer is giving us what we desire. But true\nprayer is the meeting in harmony of God's will and man's, and its\ndeepest expression is not, Do this, because I desire it, O Lord; but, I\ndo this because Thou desirest it, O Lord. That submission may be the\nvery spring of all life, and whatsoever work is done in such spirit,\nhowever \"secular\" and however small it be, were it making buttons, is\ntruly prayer.\n\nSo there should run all through our lives the music of that continual\nprayer, heard beneath all our varying occupations like some prolonged\ndeep bass note, that bears up and gives dignity to the lighter melody\nthat rises and falls and changes above it, like the spray on the crest\nof a great wave. Our lives will then be noble and grave, and woven into\na harmonious unity, when they are based upon continual communion with,\ncontinual desire after, and continual submission to, God. If they are\nnot, they will be worth nothing and will come to nothing.\n\nBut such continuity of prayer is not to be attained without effort;\ntherefore Paul goes on to say, \"Watching therein.\" We are apt to do\ndrowsily whatever we do constantly. Men fall asleep at any continuous\nwork. There is also the constant influence of externals, drawing our\nthoughts away from their true home in God, so that if we are to keep up\ncontinuous devotion, we shall have to rouse ourselves often when in the\nvery act of dropping off to sleep. \"Awake up, my glory!\" we shall often\nhave to say to our souls. Do we not all know that subtly approaching\nlanguor? and have we not often caught ourselves in the very act of\nfalling asleep at our prayers? We must make distinct and resolute\nefforts to rouse ourselves--we must concentrate our attention and apply\nthe needed stimulants, and bring the interest and activity of our whole\nnature to bear on this work of continual prayer, else it will become\ndrowsy mumbling as of a man but half awake. The world has strong\nopiates for the soul, and we must stedfastly resist their influence, if\nwe are to \"continue in prayer.\"\n\nOne way of so watching is to have and to observe definite times of\nspoken prayer. We hear much now-a-days about the small value of times\nand forms of prayer, and how, as I have been saying, true prayer is\nindependent of these, and needs no words. All that, of course, is true;\nbut when the practical conclusion is drawn that therefore we can do\nwithout the outward form, a grave mistake, full of mischief, is\ncommitted. I do not, for my part, believe in a devotion diffused through\na life and never concentrated and coming to the surface in visible\noutward acts or audible words; and, as far as I have seen, the men whose\nreligion is spread all through their lives most really are the men who\nkeep the central reservoir full, if I may so say, by regular and\nfrequent hours and words of prayer. The Christ, whose whole life was\ndevotion and communion with the Father, had His nights on the mountains,\nand rising up a great while before day, He watched unto prayer. We must\ndo the like.\n\nOne more word has still to be said. This continual prayer is to be \"with\nthanksgiving\"--again the injunction so frequent in this letter, in such\nvarious connections. Every prayer should be blended with gratitude,\nwithout the perfume of which, the incense of devotion lacks one element\nof fragrance. The sense of need, or the consciousness of sin, may evoke\n\"strong crying and tears,\" but the completest prayer rises confident\nfrom a grateful heart, which weaves memory into hope, and asks much\nbecause it has received much. A true recognition of the lovingkindness\nof the past has much to do with making our communion sweet, our desires\nbelieving, our submission cheerful. Thankfulness is the feather that\nwings the arrow of prayer--the height from which our souls rise most\neasily to the sky.\n\nAnd now the Apostle's tone softens from exhortation to entreaty, and\nwith very sweet and touching humility he begs a supplemental corner in\ntheir prayers. \"Withal praying also for us.\" The \"withal\" and \"also\"\nhave a tone of lowliness in them, while the \"us,\" including as it does\nTimothy, who is associated with him in the superscription of the letter,\nand possibly others also, increases the impression of modesty. The\nsubject of their prayers for Paul and the others is to be that \"God may\nopen unto us a door for the word.\" That phrase apparently means an\nunhindered opportunity of preaching the gospel, for the consequence of\nthe door's being opened is added--\"to speak (so that I may speak) the\nmystery of Christ.\" The special reason for this prayer is, \"for which I\nam also (in addition to my other sufferings) in bonds.\"\n\nHe was a prisoner. He cared little about that or about the fetters on\nhis wrists, so far as his own comfort was concerned; but his spirit\nchafed at the restraint laid upon him in spreading the good news of\nChrist, though he had been able to do much in his prison, both among the\nPraetorian guard, and throughout the whole population of Rome. Therefore\nhe would engage his friends to ask God to open the prison doors, as He\nhad done for Peter, not that Paul might come out, but that the gospel\nmight. The personal was swallowed up; all that he cared for was to do\nhis work.\n\nBut he wants their prayers for more than that--\"that I may make it\nmanifest as I ought to speak.\" This is probably explained most naturally\nas meaning his endowment with power to set forth the message in a manner\nadequate to its greatness. When he thought of what it was that he,\nunworthy, had to preach, its majesty and wonderfulness brought a kind of\nawe over his spirit; and endowed, as he was, with apostolic functions\nand apostolic grace; conscious, as he was, of being anointed and\ninspired by God, he yet felt that the richness of the treasure made the\nearthen vessel seem terribly unworthy to bear it. His utterances seemed\nto himself poor and unmelodious beside the majestic harmonies of the\ngospel. He could not soften his voice to breathe tenderly enough a\nmessage of such love, nor give it strength enough to peal forth a\nmessage of such tremendous import and world-wide destination.\n\nIf Paul felt his conception of the greatness of the gospel dwarfing into\nnothing _his_ words when he tried to preach it, what must every other\ntrue minister of Christ feel? If he, in the fulness of his inspiration,\nbesought a place in his brethren's prayers, how much more must they need\nit, who try with stammering tongues to preach the truth that made his\nfiery words seem ice? Every such man must turn to those who love him and\nlisten to his poor presentment of the riches of Christ, with Paul's\nentreaty. His friends cannot do a kinder thing to him than to bear him\non their hearts in their prayers to God.\n\nII. We have here next, a couple of precepts, which spring at a bound\nfrom the inmost secret of the Christian life to its circumference, and\nrefer to the outward life in regard to the non-Christian world,\nenjoining, in view of it, a wise walk and gracious speech.\n\n\"Walk in wisdom towards them that are without.\" Those that are within\nare those who have \"fled for refuge\" to Christ, and are within the fold,\nthe fortress, the ark. Men who sit safe within while the storm howls,\nmay simply think with selfish complacency of the poor wretches exposed\nto its fierceness. The phrase may express spiritual pride and even\ncontempt. All close corporations tend to generate dislike and scorn of\noutsiders, and the Church has had its own share of such feeling; but\nthere is no trace of anything of the sort here. Rather is there pathos\nand pity in the word, and a recognition that their sad condition gives\nthese outsiders a claim on Christian men, who are bound to go out to\ntheir help and bring them in. Precisely because they are \"without\" do\nthose within owe them a wise walk, that \"if any will not hear the word,\nthey may without the word be won.\" The thought is in some measure\nparallel to our Lord's words, of which perhaps it is a reminiscence.\n\"Behold I send you forth\"--a strange thing for a careful shepherd to\ndo--\"as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents.\"\nThink of that picture--the handful of cowering frightened creatures\nhuddled against each other, and ringed round by that yelping,\nwhite-toothed crowd, ready to tear them to pieces! So are Christ's\nfollowers in the world. Of course, things have changed in many respects\nsince those days; partly because persecution has gone out of fashion,\nand partly because \"the world\" has been largely influenced by Christian\nmorality, and partly because the Church has been largely secularized.\nThe temperature of the two has become nearly equalized over a large\ntract of professing Christendom. So a tolerably good understanding and a\nbrisk trade has sprung up between the sheep and the wolves. But for all\nthat, there is fundamental discord, however changed may be its\nexhibition, and if we are true to our Master and insist on shaping our\nlives by His rules, we shall find out that there is.\n\nWe need, therefore, to \"walk in wisdom\" towards the non-Christian world;\nthat is, to let practical prudence shape all our conduct. If we are\nChristians, we have to live under the eyes of vigilant and not\naltogether friendly observers, who derive satisfaction and harm from any\ninconsistency of ours. A plainly Christian life that needs no commentary\nto exhibit its harmony with Christ's commandments is the first duty we\nowe to them.\n\nAnd the wisdom which is to mould our lives in view of these outsiders\nwill \"discern both time and judgment,\" will try to take the measure of\nmen and act accordingly. Common sense and practical sagacity are\nimportant accompaniments of Christian zeal. What a singularly complex\ncharacter, in this respect, was Paul's--enthusiastic and yet capable of\nsuch diplomatic adaptation; and withal never dropping to cunning, nor\nsacrificing truth! Enthusiasts who despise worldly wisdom, and therefore\noften dash themselves against stone walls, are not rare; cool\ncalculators who abhor all generous glow of feeling and have ever a\npailful of cold water for any project which shows it, are only too\ncommon--but fire and ice together, like a volcano with glaciers\nstreaming down its cone, are rare. Fervour married to tact, common\nsense which keeps close to earth and enthusiasm which flames heaven\nhigh, are a rare combination. It is not often that the same voice can\nsay, \"I count not my life dear to myself,\" and \"I became all things to\nall men.\"\n\nA dangerous principle that last, a very slippery piece of ground to get\nupon!--say people, and quite truly. It _is_ dangerous, and one thing\nonly will keep a man's feet when on it, and that is, that his wise\nadaptation shall be perfectly unselfish, and that he shall ever keep\nclear before him the great object to be gained, which is nothing\npersonal, but \"that I might by all means save some.\" If that end is held\nin view, we shall be saved from the temptation of hiding or maiming the\nvery truth which we desire should be received, and our wise adaptation\nof ourselves and of our message to the needs and weaknesses and\npeculiarities of those \"who are without,\" will not degenerate into\nhandling the word of God deceitfully. Paul advised \"walking in wisdom;\"\nhe abhorred \"walking in craftiness.\"\n\nWe owe them that are without such a walk as may tend to bring them in.\nOur life is to a large extent their Bible. They know a great deal more\nabout Christianity, as they see it in us, than as it is revealed in\nChrist, or recorded in Scripture--and if, as seen in us, it does not\nstrike them as very attractive, small wonder if they still prefer to\nremain where they are. Let us take care lest instead of being\ndoorkeepers to the house of the Lord, to beckon passers-by and draw them\nin, we block the doorway, and keep them from seeing the wonders within.\n\nThe Apostle adds a special way in which this wisdom shows\nitself--namely, \"redeeming the time.\" The last word here does not denote\ntime in general, but a definite season, or _opportunity_. The lesson,\nthen, is not that of making the best use of all the moments as they fly,\nprecious as that lesson is, but that of discerning and eagerly using\nappropriate opportunities for Christian service. The figure is simple\nenough; to \"buy up\" means to make one's own. \"Make much of time, let not\nadvantage slip,\" is an advice in exactly the same spirit. Two things are\nincluded in it; the watchful study of characters, so as to know the\nright times to bring influences to bear on them, and an earnest\ndiligence in utilizing these for the highest purposes. We have not acted\nwisely towards those who are without unless we have used every\nopportunity to draw them in.\n\nBut besides a wise walk, there is to be \"gracious speech.\" \"Let your\nspeech be always with grace.\" A similar juxtaposition of \"wisdom\" and\n\"grace\" occurred in chapter iii. 16. \"Let the word of Christ dwell in\nyou richly in all wisdom ... singing with grace in your hearts\"; and\nthere as here, \"grace\" may be taken either in its lower aesthetic sense,\nor in its higher spiritual. It may mean either favour, agreeableness, or\nthe Divine gift, bestowed by the indwelling Spirit. The former is\nsupposed by many good expositors to be the meaning here. But is it a\nChristian's duty to make his speech always agreeable? Sometimes it is\nhis plain duty to make it very disagreeable indeed. If our speech is to\nbe true, and wholesome, it must sometimes rasp and go against the grain.\nIts pleasantness depends on the inclinations of the hearers rather than\non the will of the honest speaker. If he is to \"redeem the time\" and\n\"walk wisely to them that are without,\" his speech cannot be always with\nsuch grace. The advice to make our words always pleasing may be a very\ngood maxim for worldly success, but it smacks of Chesterfield's Letters\nrather than of Paul's Epistles.\n\nWe must go much deeper for the true import of this exhortation. It is\nsubstantially this--whether you can speak smooth things or no, and\nwhether your talk is always directly religious or no--and it need not\nand cannot always be that--let there ever be in it the manifest\ninfluence of God's Spirit, Who dwells in the Christian heart, and will\nmould and sanctify your speech. Of you, as of your Master, let it be\ntrue, \"Grace is poured into thy lips.\" He in whose spirit the Divine\nSpirit abides will be truly \"Golden-mouthed\"; his speech shall distil as\nthe dew, and whether his grave and lofty words please frivolous and\nprurient ears or no, they will be beautiful in the truest sense, and\nshow the Divine life pulsing through them, as some transparent skin\nshows the throbbing of the blue veins. Men who feed their souls on great\nauthors catch their style, as some of our great living orators, who are\neager students of English poetry. So if we converse much with God,\nlistening to His voice in our hearts, our speech will have in it a tone\nthat will echo that deep music. Our accent will betray our country. Then\nour speech will be with grace in the lower sense of pleasingness. The\ntruest gracefulness, both of words and conduct, comes from heavenly\ngrace. The beauty caught from God, the fountain of all things lovely, is\nthe highest.\n\nThe speech is to be \"seasoned with salt.\" That does not mean the \"Attic\nsalt\" of wit. There is nothing more wearisome than the talk of men who\nare always trying to be piquant and brilliant. Such speech is like a\n\"pillar of salt\"--it sparkles, but is cold, and has points that wound,\nand it tastes bitter. That is not what Paul recommends. Salt was used in\nsacrifice--let the sacrificial salt be applied to all our words; that\nis, let all we say be offered up to God, \"a sacrifice of praise to God\ncontinually.\" Salt preserves. Put into your speech what will keep it\nfrom rotting, or, as the parallel passage in Ephesians has it, \"let no\n_corrupt_ communication proceed out of your mouth.\" Frivolous talk,\ndreary gossip, ill-natured talk, idle talk, to say nothing of foul and\nwicked words, will be silenced when your speech is seasoned with salt.\n\nThe following words make it probable that salt here is used also with\nsome allusion to its power of giving savour to food. Do not deal in\ninsipid generalities, but suit your words to your hearers, \"that ye may\nknow how ye ought to answer each one.\" Speech that fits close to the\ncharacteristics and wants of the people to whom it is spoken is sure to\nbe interesting, and that which does not will for them be insipid.\nCommonplaces that hit full against the hearer will be no commonplaces to\nhim, and the most brilliant words that do not meet his mind or needs\nwill to him be tasteless \"as the white of an egg.\"\n\nIndividual peculiarities, then, must determine the wise way of approach\nto each man, and there will be wide variety in the methods. Paul's\nlanguage to the wild hill tribes of Lycaonia was not the same as to the\ncultivated, curious crowd on Mars' Hill, and his sermons in the\nsynagogues have a different tone from his reasonings of judgment to come\nbefore Felix.\n\nAll that is too plain to need illustration. But one word may be added.\nThe Apostle here regards it as the task of every Christian man to speak\nfor Christ. Further, he recommends dealing with individuals rather than\nmasses, as being within the scope of each Christian, and as being much\nmore efficacious. Salt has to be rubbed in, if it is to do any good. It\nis better for most of us to fish with the rod than with the net, to\nangle for single souls, rather than to try and enclose a multitude at\nonce. Preaching to a congregation has its own place and value; but\nprivate and personal talk, honestly and wisely done, will effect more\nthan the most eloquent preaching. Better to drill in the seeds, dropping\nthem one by one into the little pits made for their reception, than to\nsow them broadcast.\n\nAnd what shall we say of Christian men and women, who can talk\nanimatedly and interestingly of anything but of their Saviour and His\nkingdom? Timidity, misplaced reverence, a dread of seeming to be\nself-righteous, a regard for conventional proprieties, and the national\nreserve account for much of the lamentable fact that there are so many\nsuch. But all these barriers would be floated away like straws, if a\ngreat stream of Christian feeling were pouring from the heart. What\nfills the heart will overflow by the floodgates of speech. So that the\nreal reason for the unbroken silence in which many Christian people\nconceal their faith is mainly the small quantity of it which there is to\nconceal.\n\nA solemn ideal is set before us in these parting injunctions--a higher\nrighteousness than was thundered from Sinai. When we think of our\nhurried, formal devotion, our prayers forced from us sometimes by the\npressure of calamity, and so often suspended when the weight is lifted;\nof the occasional glimpses that we get of God--as sailors may catch\nsight of a guiding star for a moment through driving fog, and of the\nlong tracts of life which would be precisely the same, as far as our\nthoughts are concerned, if there were no God at all, or He had nothing\nto do with us--what an awful command that seems, \"Continue stedfastly in\nprayer\"!\n\nWhen we think of our selfish disregard of the woes and dangers of the\npoor wanderers without, exposed to the storm, while we think ourselves\nsafe in the fold, and of how little we have meditated on and still less\ndischarged our obligations to them, and of how we have let precious\nopportunities slip through our slack hands, we may well bow rebuked\nbefore the exhortation, \"Walk in wisdom toward them that are without.\"\n\nWhen we think of the stream of words ever flowing from our lips, and how\nfew grains of gold that stream has brought down amid all its sand, and\nhow seldom Christ's name has been spoken by us to hearts that heed Him\nnot nor know Him, the exhortation, \"Let your speech be always with\ngrace,\" becomes an indictment as truly as a command.\n\nThere is but one place for us, the foot of the cross, that there we may\nobtain forgiveness for all the faulty past and thence may draw\nconsecration and strength for the future, to enable us to keep that\nlofty law of Christian morality, which is high and hard if we think only\nof its precepts, but becomes light and easy when we open our hearts to\nreceive the power for obedience, \"which,\" as this great Epistle\nmanifoldly teaches, \"is Christ in you, the hope of glory.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXIV.\n\n_TYCHICUS AND ONESIMUS, THE LETTER-BEARERS._\n\n \"All my affairs shall Tychicus make known unto you, the beloved\n brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord: whom I\n have sent unto you for this very purpose, that ye may know our\n estate, and that he may comfort your hearts; together with Onesimus,\n the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make\n known unto you all things that _are done_ here.\"--COL. iv. 7-9 (Rev.\n Ver.).\n\n\nIn Paul's days it was perhaps more difficult to get letters delivered\nthan to write them. It was a long, weary journey from Rome to\nColossae,--across Italy, then by sea to Greece, across Greece, then by\nsea to the port of Ephesus, and thence by rough ways to the upland\nvalley where lay Colossae, with its neighbouring towns of Laodicea and\nHierapolis. So one thing which the Apostle has to think about is to find\nmessengers to carry his letter. He pitches upon these two, Tychicus and\nOnesimus. The former is one of his personal attendants, told off for\nthis duty; the other, who has been in Rome under very peculiar\ncircumstances, is going home to Colossae, on a strange errand, in which\nhe may be helped by having a message from Paul to carry.\n\nWe shall not now deal with the words before us, so much as with these\ntwo figures, whom we may regard as representing certain principles, and\nembodying some useful lessons.\n\nI. Tychicus may stand as representing the greatness and sacredness of\nsmall and secular service done for Christ.\n\nWe must first try, in as few words as may be, to change the name into a\nman. There is something very solemn and pathetic in these shadowy names\nwhich appear for a moment on the page of Scripture, and are swallowed up\nof black night, like stars that suddenly blaze out for a week or two,\nand then dwindle and at last disappear altogether. They too lived, and\nloved, and strove, and suffered, and enjoyed: and now--all is gone,\ngone; the hot fire burned down to such a little handful of white ashes.\nTychicus and Onesimus! two shadows that once were men! and as they are,\nso we shall be.\n\nAs to Tychicus, there are several fragmentary notices about him in the\nActs of the Apostles and in Paul's letters, and although they do not\namount to much, still by piecing them together, and looking at them with\nsome sympathy, we can get a notion of the man.\n\nHe does not appear till near the end of Paul's missionary work, and was\nprobably one of the fruits of the Apostle's long residence in Ephesus on\nhis last missionary tour, as we do not hear of him till after that\nperiod. That stay in Ephesus was cut short by the silversmiths'\nriot--the earliest example of trades' unions--when they wanted to\nsilence the preaching of the gospel because it damaged the market for\n\"shrines,\" and \"_also_\" was an insult to the great goddess! Thereupon\nPaul retired to Europe, and after some months there, decided on his last\nfateful journey to Jerusalem. On the way he was joined by a remarkable\ngroup of friends seven in number, and apparently carefully selected so\nas to represent the principal fields of the Apostle's labours. There\nwere three Europeans, two from \"Asia\"--meaning by that name, of course,\nonly the Roman province, which included mainly the western seaboard--and\ntwo from the wilder inland country of Lycaonia. Tychicus was one of the\ntwo from Asia; the other was Trophimus, whom we know to have been an\nEphesian (Acts xxi. 29), as Tychicus may not improbably have also been.\n\nWe do not know that all the seven accompanied Paul to Jerusalem.\nTrophimus we know did, and another of them, Aristarchus, is mentioned as\nhaving sailed with him on the return voyage from Palestine (Acts xxvii.\n2). But if they were not intended to go to Jerusalem, why did they meet\nhim at all? The sacredness of the number seven, the apparent care to\nsecure a representation of the whole field of apostolic activity, and\nthe long distances that some of them must have travelled, make it\nextremely unlikely that these men should have met him at a little port\nin Asia Minor for the mere sake of being with him for a few days. It\ncertainly seems much more probable that they joined his company and went\non to Jerusalem. What for? Probably as bearers of money contributions\nfrom the whole area of the Gentile Churches, to the \"poor saints\"\nthere--a purpose which would explain the composition of the delegation.\nPaul was too sensitive and too sagacious to have more to do with money\nmatters than he could help. We learn from his letter to the Church at\nCorinth that he insisted on another brother being associated with him in\nthe administration of their alms, so that no man could raise suspicions\nagainst him. Paul's principle was that which ought to guide every man\nentrusted with other people's money to spend for religious or charitable\npurposes--\"I shall not be your almoner unless some one appointed by you\nstands by me to see that I spend your money rightly\"--a good example\nwhich, it is much to be desired, were followed by all workers, and\nrequired to be followed as a condition of all giving.\n\nThese seven, at all events, began the long journey with Paul. Among them\nis our friend Tychicus, who may have learned to know the Apostle more\nintimately during it, and perhaps developed qualities in travel which\nmarked him out as fit for the errand on which we here find him.\n\nThis voyage was about the year 58 A.D. Then comes an interval of some\nthree or four years, in which occur Paul's arrest and imprisonment at\nCaesarea, his appearance before governors and kings, his voyage to Italy\nand shipwreck, with his residence in Rome. Whether Tychicus was with him\nduring all this period, as Luke seems to have been, we do not know, nor\nat what point he joined the Apostle, if he was not his companion\nthroughout. But the verses before us show that he was with Paul during\npart of his first Roman captivity, probably about A.D. 62 or 63; and\ntheir commendation of him as \"a faithful minister,\" or helper of Paul,\nimplies that for a considerable period before this he had been rendering\nservices to the Apostle.\n\nHe is now despatched all the long way to Colossae to carry this letter,\nand to tell the Church by word of mouth all that had happened in Rome.\nNo information of that kind is in the letter itself. That silence forms\na remarkable contrast to the affectionate abundance of personal details\nin another prison letter, that to the Philippians, and probably marks\nthis Epistle as addressed to a Church never visited by Paul. Tychicus is\nsent, according to the most probable reading, that \"ye may know our\nestate, and that he may comfort your hearts\"--encouraging the brethren\nto Christian stedfastness, not only by his news of Paul, but by his own\ncompany and exhortations.\n\nThe very same words are employed about him in the contemporaneous letter\nto the Ephesians. Evidently, then, he carried both epistles on the same\njourney; and one reason for selecting him as messenger is plainly that\nhe was a native of the province, and probably of Ephesus. When Paul\nlooked round his little circle of attendant friends, his eye fell on\nTychicus, as the very man for such an errand. \"You go, Tychicus. It is\nyour home; they all know you.\"\n\nThe most careful students now think that the Epistle to the Ephesians\nwas meant to go the round of the Churches of Asia Minor, beginning, no\ndoubt, with that in the great city of Ephesus. If that be so, and\nTychicus had to carry it to these Churches in turn, he would necessarily\ncome, in the course of his duty, to Laodicea, which was only a few miles\nfrom Colossae, and so could most conveniently deliver this Epistle. The\nwider and the narrower mission fitted into each other.\n\nNo doubt he went, and did his work. We can fancy the eager groups,\nperhaps in some upper room, perhaps in some quiet place of prayer by the\nriver side; in their midst the two messengers, with a little knot of\nlisteners and questioners round each. How they would have to tell the\nstory a dozen times over! how every detail would be precious! how tears\nwould come and hearts would glow! how deep into the night they would\ntalk! and how many a heart that had begun to waver would be confirmed in\ncleaving to Christ by the exhortations of Tychicus, by the very sight of\nOnesimus, and by Paul's words of fire!\n\nWhat became of Tychicus after that journey we do not know. Perhaps he\nsettled down at Ephesus for a time, perhaps he returned to Paul. At any\nrate, we get two more glimpses of him at a later period--one in the\nEpistle to Titus, in which we hear of the Apostle's intention to\ndespatch him on another journey to Crete, and the last in the close of\nthe second Epistle to Timothy, written from Rome probably about A.D. 67.\nThe Apostle believes that his death is near, and seems to have sent away\nmost of his staff. Among the notices of their various appointments we\nread, \"Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus.\" He is not said to have been\nsent on any mission connected with the Churches. It may be that he was\nsimply sent away because, by reason of his impending martyrdom, Paul had\nno more need of him. True, he still has Luke by him, and he wishes\nTimothy to come and bring his first \"minister,\" Mark, with him. But he\nhas sent away Tychicus, as if he had said, Now, go back to your home, my\nfriend! You have been a faithful servant for ten years. I need you no\nmore. Go to your own people, and take my blessing. God be with you! So\nthey parted, he that was for death, to die! and he that was for life, to\nlive and to treasure the memory of Paul in his heart for the rest of\nhis days. These are the facts; ten years of faithful service to the\nApostle, partly during his detention in Rome, and much of it spent in\nwearisome and dangerous travelling undertaken to carry a couple of\nletters.\n\nAs for his character, Paul has given us something of it in these few\nwords, which have commended him to a wider circle than the handful of\nChristians at Colossae. As for his personal godliness and goodness, he is\n\"a beloved brother,\" as are all who love Christ; but he is also a\n\"faithful minister,\" or personal attendant upon the Apostle. Paul always\nseems to have had one or two such about him, from the time of his first\njourney, when John Mark filled the post, to the end of his career.\nProbably he was no great hand at managing affairs, and needed some plain\ncommon-sense nature beside him, who would be secretary or amanuensis\nsometimes, and general helper and factotum. Men of genius and men\ndevoted to some great cause which tyrannously absorbs attention, want\nsome person to fill such a homely office. The person who filled it would\nbe likely to be a plain man, not gifted in any special degree for higher\nservice. Common sense, willingness to be troubled with small details of\npurely secular arrangements, and a hearty love for the chief, and desire\nto spare him annoyance and work, were the qualifications. Such probably\nwas Tychicus--no orator, no organiser, no thinker, but simply an honest,\nloving soul, who did not shrink from rough outward work, if only it\nmight help the cause. We do not read that he was a teacher or preacher,\nor miracle worker. His gift was--ministry, and he gave himself to his\nministry. His business was to run Paul's errands, and, like a true man,\nhe ran them \"faithfully.\"\n\nSo then, he is fairly taken as representing the greatness and sacredness\nof small and secular service for Christ. For the Apostle goes on to add\nsomething to his eulogium as a \"faithful minister\"--when he calls him \"a\nfellow-servant,\" or slave, \"in the Lord.\" As if he had said, Do not\nsuppose that because I write this letter, and Tychicus carries it, there\nis much difference between us. We are both slaves of the same Lord who\nhas set each of us his tasks; and though the tasks be different, the\nobedience is the same, and the doers stand on one level. I am not\nTychicus' master, though he be my minister. We have both, as I have been\nreminding you that you all have, an owner in heaven. The delicacy of the\nturn thus given to the commendation is a beautiful indication of Paul's\ngenerous, chivalrous nature. No wonder that such a soul bound men like\nTychicus to him!\n\nBut there is more than merely a revelation of a beautiful character in\nthe words; there are great truths in them. We may draw them out in two\nor three thoughts.\n\nSmall things done for Christ are great. Trifles that contribute and are\nindispensable to a great result are great; or perhaps, more properly,\nboth words are out of place. In some powerful engine there is a little\nscrew, and if it drop out, the great piston cannot rise nor the huge\ncrank turn. What have big and little to do with things which are equally\nindispensable? There is a great rudder that steers an ironclad. It moves\non a \"pintle\" a few inches long. If that bit of iron were gone, what\nwould become of the rudder, and what would be the use of the ship with\nall her guns? There is an old jingling rhyme about losing a shoe for\nwant of a nail, and a horse for want of a shoe, and a man for want of a\nhorse, and a battle for want of a man, and a kingdom for loss of a\nbattle. The intervening links may be left out--and the nail and the\nkingdom brought together. In a similar spirit, we may say that the\ntrifles done for Christ which help the great things are as important as\nthese. What is the use of writing letters, if you cannot get them\ndelivered? It takes both Paul and Tychicus to get the letter into the\nhands of the people at Colossae.\n\nAnother thought suggested by the figure of Paul's minister, who was also\nhis fellow-slave, is the sacredness of secular work done for Christ.\nWhen Tychicus is caring for Paul's comfort, and looking after common\nthings for him, he is serving Christ, and his work is \"in the Lord.\"\nThat is equivalent to saying that the distinction between sacred and\nsecular, religious and non-religious, like that of great and small,\ndisappears from work done for and in Jesus. Whenever there is\norganization, there must be much work concerned with purely material\nthings: and the most spiritual forces must have some organization. There\nmust be men for \"the outward business of the house of God\" as well as\nwhite-robed priests at the altar, and the rapt gazer in the secret place\nof the Most High. There are a hundred matters of detail and of purely\noutward and mechanical sort which must be seen to by somebody. The\nalternative is to do them in a purely mechanical and secular manner and\nso to make the work utterly dreary and contemptible, or in a devout and\nearnest manner and so to hallow them all, and make worship of them all.\nThe difference between two lives is not in the material on which, but in\nthe motive from which, and in the end for which, they are respectively\nlived. All work done in obedience to the same Lord is the same in\nessence; for it is all obedience; and all work done for the same God is\nthe same in essence, for it is all worship. The distinction between\nsecular and sacred ought never to have found its way into Christian\nmorals, and ought for evermore to be expelled from Christian life.\n\nAnother thought may be suggested--fleeting things done for Christ are\neternal. How astonished Tychicus would have been if anybody had told him\non that day when he got away from Rome, with the two precious letters in\nhis scrip, that these bits of parchment would outlast all the\nostentatious pomp of the city, and that his name, because written in\nthem, would be known to the end of time all over the world! The eternal\nthings are the things done for Christ. They are eternal in His memory\nwho has said, \"I will never forget any of their works,\" however they may\nfall from man's remembrance. They are perpetual in their consequences.\nTrue, no man's contribution to the mighty sum of things \"that make for\nrighteousness\" can very long be traced as separate from the others, any\nmore than the raindrop that refreshed the harebell on the moor can be\ntraced in burn, and river, and sea. But for all that, it is there. So\nour influence for good blends with a thousand others, and may not be\ntraceable beyond a short distance, still it is there: and no true work\nfor Christ, abortive as it may seem, but goes to swell the great\naggregate of forces which are working on through the ages to bring the\nperfect Order.\n\nThat Colossian Church seems a failure. Where is it now? Gone. Where are\nits sister Churches of Asia? Gone. Paul's work and Tychicus' seem to\nhave vanished from the earth, and Mohammedanism to have taken its place.\nYes! and here are we to-day in England, and Christian men all over the\nworld in lands that were mere slaughterhouses of savagery then, learning\nour best lessons from Paul's words, and owing something for our\nknowledge of them to Tychicus' humble care. Paul meant to teach a\nhandful of obscure believers--he has edified the world. Tychicus thought\nto carry the precious letter safely over the sea--he was helping to send\nit across the centuries, and to put it into our hands. So little do we\nknow where our work will terminate. Our only concern is where it begins.\nLet us look after this end, the motive; and leave God to take care of\nthe other, the consequences.\n\nSuch work will be perpetual in its consequences on ourselves. \"Though\nIsrael be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious.\" Whether our service\nfor Christ does others any good or no, it will bless ourselves, by\nstrengthening the motives from which it springs, by enlarging our own\nknowledge and enriching our own characters, and by a hundred other\ngracious influences which His work exerts upon the devout worker, and\nwhich become indissoluble parts of himself, and abide with him for ever,\nover and above the crown of glory that fadeth not away.\n\nAnd, as the reward is given not to the outward deed, but to the motive\nwhich settles its value, all work done from the same motive is alike in\nreward, howsoever different in form. Paul in the front, and Tychicus\nobscure in the rear, the great teachers and path-openers whom Christ\nthrough the ages raises up for large spiritual work, and the little\npeople whom Christ through the ages raises up to help and\nsympathize--shall share alike at last, if the Spirit that moved them has\nbeen the same, and if in different administrations they have served the\nsame Lord. \"He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a\nprophet\"--though no prophecy come from his lips--\"shall receive a\nprophet's reward.\"\n\nII. We must now turn to a much briefer consideration of the second\nfigure here, Onesimus, as representing the transforming and uniting\npower of Christian faith.\n\nNo doubt this is the same Onesimus as we read of in the Epistle to\nPhilemon. His story is familiar and need not be dwelt on. He had been an\n\"unprofitable servant,\" good-for-nothing, and apparently had robbed his\nmaster, and then fled. He had found his way to Rome, to which all the\nscum of the empire seemed to drift. There he had burrowed in some hole,\nand found obscurity and security. Somehow or other he had come across\nPaul--surely not, as has been supposed, having sought the Apostle as a\nfriend of his master's, which would rather have been a reason for\navoiding him. However that may be, he had found Paul, and Paul's Master\nhad found _him_ by the gospel which Paul spoke. His heart had been\ntouched. And now he is to go back to his owner. With beautiful\nconsiderateness the Apostle unites him with Tychicus in his mission, and\nrefers the Church to him as an authority. That is most delicate and\nthoughtful. The same sensitive regard for his feelings marks the\nlanguage in which he is commended to them. There is now no word about \"a\nfellow-slave\"--that might have been misunderstood and might have hurt.\nPaul will only say about him half of what he said about Tychicus. He\ncannot leave out the \"faithful,\" because Onesimus had been eminently\nunfaithful, and so he attaches it to that half of his former\ncommendation which he retains, and testifies to him as \"a faithful and\nbeloved brother.\" There are no references to his flight or to his\npeculations. Philemon is the person to be spoken to about these. The\nChurch has nothing to do with them. The man's past was blotted\nout--enough that he is \"faithful,\" exercising trust in Christ, and\ntherefore to be trusted. His condition was of no moment--enough that he\nis \"a brother,\" therefore to be beloved.\n\nDoes not then that figure stand forth a living illustration of the\n_transforming_ power of Christianity? Slaves had well-known vices,\nlargely the result of their position--idleness, heartlessness, lying,\ndishonesty. And this man had had his full share of the sins of his\nclass. Think of him as he left Colossae, slinking from his master, with\nstolen property in his bosom, madness and mutiny in his heart, an\nignorant heathen, with vices and sensualities holding carnival in his\nsoul. Think of him as he came back, Paul's trusted representative, with\ndesires after holiness in his deepest nature, the light of the knowledge\nof a loving and pure God in his soul, a great hope before him, ready for\nall service and even to put on again the abhorred yoke! What had\nhappened? Nothing but this--the message had come to him, \"Onesimus!\nfugitive, rebel, thief as thou art, Jesus Christ has died for thee, and\nlives to cleanse and bless thee. Believest thou this?\" And he believed,\nand leant his whole sinful self on that Saviour, and the corruption\nfaded away from his heart, and out of the thief was made a trustworthy\nman, and out of the slave a beloved brother. The cross had touched his\nheart and will. That was all. It had changed his whole being. He is a\nliving illustration of Paul's teaching in this very letter. He is dead\nwith Christ to his old self; he lives with Christ a new life.\n\nThe gospel can do that. It can and does do so to-day and to us, if we\nwill. Nothing else can; nothing else ever has done it; nothing else ever\nwill. Culture may do much; social reformation may do much; but the\nradical transformation of the nature is only effected by the \"love of\nGod shed abroad in the heart,\" and by the new life which we receive\nthrough our faith in Christ.\n\nThat change can be produced on all sorts and conditions of men. The\ngospel despairs of none. It knows of no hopelessly irreclaimable\nclasses. It can kindle a soul under the ribs of death. The filthiest\nrags can be cleaned and made into spotlessly white paper, which may have\nthe name of God written upon it. None are beyond its power; neither the\nsavages in other lands, nor the more hopeless heathens festering and\nrotting in our back slums, the opprobrium of our civilization and the\nindictment of our Christianity. Take the gospel that transformed this\npoor slave, to them, and some hearts will own it, and we shall pick out\nof the kennel souls blacker than his, and make them like him, brethren,\nfaithful and beloved.\n\nFurther, here is a living illustration of the power which the gospel has\nof binding men into a true brotherhood. We can scarcely picture to\nourselves the gulf which separated the master from his slave. \"So many\nslaves, so many enemies,\" said Seneca. That great crack running through\nsociety was a chief weakness and peril of the ancient world.\nChristianity gathered master and slave into one family, and set them\ndown at one table to commemorate the death of the Saviour who held them\nall in the embrace of His great love.\n\nAll true union among men must be based upon their oneness in Jesus\nChrist. The brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of\nGod, and Christ shows us the Father. If the dreams of men's being knit\ntogether in harmony are ever to be more than dreams, the power that\nmakes them facts must flow from the cross. The world must recognise that\n\"One is your master,\" before it comes to believe as anything more than\nthe merest sentimentality that \"all ye are brethren.\"\n\nMuch has to be done before the dawn of that day reddens in the east,\n\"when, man to man, the wide world o'er, shall brothers be,\" and much in\npolitical and social life has to be swept away before society is\norganized on the basis of Christian fraternity. The vision tarries. But\nwe may remember how certainly, though slowly, the curse of slavery has\ndisappeared, and take courage to believe that all other evils will fade\naway in like manner, until the cords of love shall bind all hearts in\nfraternal unity, because they bind each to the cross of the Elder\nBrother, through whom we are no more slaves but sons, and if sons of\nGod, then brethren of one another.\n\n\n\n\nXXV.\n\n_SALUTATIONS FROM THE PRISONER'S FRIENDS._\n\n \"Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner saluteth you, and Mark, the cousin\n of Barnabas (touching whom ye received commandments; if he come unto\n you, receive him), and Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the\n circumcision: these only _are my_ fellow-workers unto the kingdom of\n God, men that have been a comfort unto me. Epaphras, who is one of\n you, a servant of Christ Jesus, saluteth you, always striving for\n you in his prayers, that ye may stand perfect and fully assured in\n all the will of God. For I bear him witness, that he hath much\n labour for you, and for them in Laodicea, and for them in\n Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas salute\n you.\"--COL. iv. 10-14 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nHere are men of different races, unknown to each other by face, clasping\nhands across the seas, and feeling that the repulsions of nationality,\nlanguage, conflicting interests, have disappeared in the unity of faith.\nThese greetings are a most striking, because unconscious, testimony to\nthe reality and strength of the new bond that knit Christian souls\ntogether.\n\nThere are three sets of salutations here, sent from Rome to the little\nfar-off Phrygian town in its secluded valley. The first is from three\nlarge-hearted Jewish Christians, whose greeting has a special meaning as\ncoming from that wing of the Church which had least sympathy with Paul's\nwork or converts. The second is from the Colossians' towns-man Epaphras;\nand the third is from two Gentiles like themselves, one well known as\nPaul's most faithful friend, one almost unknown, of whom Paul has\nnothing to say, and of whom nothing good can be said. All these may\nyield us matter for consideration. It is interesting to piece together\nwhat we know of the bearers of these shadowy names. It is profitable to\nregard them as exponents of certain tendencies and principles.\n\n1. These three sympathetic Jewish Christians may stand as types of a\nprogressive and non-ceremonial Christianity.\n\nWe need spend little time in outlining the figures of these three, for\nhe in the centre is well known to every one, and his two supporters are\nlittle known to any one. Aristarchus was a Thessalonian (Acts xx. 4),\nand so perhaps one of Paul's early converts on his first journey to\nEurope. His purely Gentile name would not have led us to expect him to\nbe a Jew. But we have many similar instances in the New Testament, such\nfor instance, as the names of six of the seven deacons (Acts vii. 5),\nwhich show that the Jews of \"the dispersion,\" who resided in foreign\ncountries, often bore no trace of their nationality in their names. He\nwas with Paul in Ephesus at the time of the riot, and was one of the two\nwhom the excited mob, in their zeal for trade and religion, dragged into\nthe theatre, to the peril of their lives. We next find him like\nTychicus, a member of the deputation which joined Paul on his voyage to\nJerusalem. Whatever was the case with the other, Aristarchus was in\nPalestine with Paul, for we learn that he sailed with him thence (Acts\nxxvii. 2). Whether he kept company with Paul during all the journey we\ndo not know. But more probably he went home to Thessalonica, and\nafterwards rejoined Paul at some point in his Roman captivity. At any\nrate here he is, standing by Paul, having drunk in his spirit, and\nenthusiastically devoted to him and his work.\n\nHe receives here a remarkable and honourable title, \"my\nfellow-prisoner.\" I suppose that it is to be taken literally, and that\nAristarchus was, in some way, at the moment of writing, sharing Paul's\nimprisonment. Now it has been often noticed that, in the Epistle to\nPhilemon, where almost all these names re-appear, it is not Aristarchus,\nbut Epaphras, who is honoured with this epithet; and that interchange\nhas been explained by an ingenious supposition that Paul's friends took\nit in turn to keep him company, and were allowed to live with him, on\ncondition of submitting to the same restrictions, military guardianship,\nand so on. There is no positive evidence in favour of this, but it is\nnot improbable, and, if accepted, helps to give an interesting glimpse\nof Paul's prison life, and of the loyal devotion which surrounded him.\n\nMark comes next. His story is well known--how twelve years before, he\nhad joined the first missionary band from Antioch, of which his cousin\nBarnabas was the leader, and had done well enough as long as they were\non known ground, in Barnabas' (and perhaps his own) native island of\nCyprus, but had lost heart and run home to his mother as soon as they\ncrossed into Asia Minor. He had long ago effaced the distrust of him\nwhich Paul naturally conceived on account of this collapse. How he came\nto be with Paul at Rome is unknown. It has been conjectured that\nBarnabas was dead, and that so, Mark was free to join the Apostle; but\nthat is unsupported supposition. Apparently he is now purposing a\njourney to Asia Minor, in the course of which, if he should come to\nColossae (which was doubtful, perhaps on account of its insignificance),\nPaul repeats his previous injunction, that the church should give him a\ncordial welcome. Probably this commendation was given because the evil\nodour of his old fault might still hang about his name. The calculated\nemphasis of the exhortation, \"receive him,\" seems to show that there was\nsome reluctance to give him a hearty reception and take him to their\nhearts. So we have an \"undesigned coincidence.\" The tone of the\ninjunction here is naturally explained by the story in the Acts.\n\nSo faithful a friend did he prove, that the lonely old man, fronting\ndeath, longed to have his affectionate tending once more; and his last\nword about him, \"Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is\nprofitable to me for _the ministry_,\" condones the early fault, and\nrestores him to the office which, in a moment of selfish weakness, he\nhad abandoned. So it is possible to efface a faultful past, and to\nacquire strength and fitness for work, to which we are by nature most\ninapt and indisposed. Mark is an instance of early faults nobly atoned\nfor, and a witness of the power of repentance and faith to overcome\nnatural weakness. Many a ragged colt makes a noble horse.\n\nThe third man is utterly unknown--\"Jesus, which is called Justus.\" How\nstartling to come across that name, borne by this obscure Christian! How\nit helps us to feel the humble manhood of Christ, by showing us that\nmany another Jewish boy bore the same name; common and undistinguished\nthen, though too holy to be given to any since. His surname Justus may,\nperhaps, like the same name given to James, the first bishop of the\nChurch in Jerusalem, hint his rigorous adherence to Judaism, and so may\nindicate that, like Paul himself, he came from the straitest sect of\ntheir religion into the large liberty in which he now rejoiced.\n\nHe seems to have been of no importance in the Church, for his name is\nthe only one in this context which does not re-appear in Philemon, and\nwe never hear of him again. A strange fate his! to be made immortal by\nthree words--and because he wanted to send a loving message to the\nChurch at Colossae! Why, men have striven and schemed, and broken their\nhearts, and flung away their lives, to grasp the bubble of posthumous\nfame; and how easily this good \"Jesus which is called Justus\" has got\nit! He has his name written for ever on the world's memory, and he very\nlikely never knew it, and does not know it, and was never a bit the\nbetter for it! What a satire on \"the last infirmity of noble minds!\"\n\nThese three men are united in this salutation, because they are all\nthree, \"of the circumcision;\" that is to say, are Jews, and being so,\nhave separated themselves from all the other Jewish Christians in Rome,\nand have flung themselves with ardour into Paul's missionary work among\nthe Gentiles, and have been his fellow-workers for the advancement of\nthe kingdom--aiding him, that is, in seeking to win willing subjects to\nthe loving, kingly will of God. By this co-operation in the aim of his\nlife, they have been a \"comfort\" to him. He uses a half medical term,\nwhich perhaps he had caught from the physician at his elbow, which we\nmight perhaps parallel by saying they had been a \"cordial\" to him--like\na refreshing draught to a weary man, or some whiff of pure air stealing\ninto a close chamber and lifting the damp curls on some hot brow.\n\nNow these three men, the only three Jewish Christians in Rome who had\nthe least sympathy with Paul and his work, give us, in their isolation,\na vivid illustration of the antagonism which he had to face from that\nportion of the early Church. The great question for the first generation\nof Christians was, not whether Gentiles might enter the Christian\ncommunity, but whether they must do so by circumcision, and pass through\nJudaism on their road to Christianity. The bulk of the Palestinian\nJewish Christians naturally held that they must; while the bulk of\nJewish Christians who had been born in other countries as naturally held\nthat they need not. As the champion of this latter decision, Paul was\nworried and counter-worked and hindered all his life by the other party.\nThey had no missionary zeal, or next to none, but they followed in his\nwake and made mischief wherever they could. If we can fancy some modern\nsect that sends out no missionaries of its own, but delights to come in\nwhere better men have forced a passage, and to upset their work by\npreaching its own crotchets, we get precisely the kind of thing which\ndogged Paul all his life.\n\nThere was evidently a considerable body of these men in Rome; good men\nno doubt in a fashion, believing in Jesus as the Messiah, but unable to\ncomprehend that he had antiquated Moses, as the dawning day makes\nuseless the light in a dark place. Even when he was a prisoner, their\nunrelenting antagonism pursued the Apostle. They preached Christ of\n\"envy and strife.\" Not one of them lifted a finger to help him, or spoke\na word to cheer him. With none of them to say, God bless him! he toiled\non. Only these three were large-hearted enough to take their stand by\nhis side, and by this greeting to clasp the hands of their Gentile\nbrethren in Colossae and thereby to endorse the teaching of this letter\nas to the abrogation of Jewish rites.\n\nIt was a brave thing to do, and the exuberance of the eulogium shows how\nkeenly Paul felt his countrymen's coldness, and how grateful he was to\n\"the dauntless three.\" Only those who have lived in an atmosphere of\nmisconstruction, surrounded by scowls and sneers, can understand what a\ncordial the clasp of a hand, or the word of sympathy is. These men were\nlike the old soldier that stood on the street of Worms, as Luther passed\nin to the Diet, and clapped him on the shoulder, with \"Little monk!\nlittle monk! you are about to make a nobler stand to-day than we in all\nour battles have ever done. If your cause is just, and you are sure of\nit, go forward in God's name, and fear nothing.\" If we can do no more,\nwe can give some one who is doing more a cup of cold water, by our\nsympathy and taking our place at his side, and _so_ can be\nfellow-workers to the kingdom of God.\n\nWe note, too, that the best comfort Paul could have was help in his\nwork. He did not go about the world whimpering for sympathy. He was much\ntoo strong a man for that. He wanted men to come down into the trench\nwith him, and to shovel and wheel there till they had made in the\nwilderness some kind of a highway for the King. The true cordial for a\ntrue worker is that others get into the traces and pull by his side.\n\nBut we may further look at these men as representing for us progressive\nas opposed to reactionary, and spiritual as opposed to ceremonial\nChristianity. Jewish Christians looked backwards; Paul and his three\nsympathisers looked forward. There was much excuse for the former. No\nwonder that they shrank from the idea that things divinely appointed\ncould be laid aside. Now there is a broad distinction between the divine\nin Christianity and the divine in Judaism. For Jesus Christ is God's\nlast word, and abides for ever. His divinity, His perfect sacrifice, His\npresent life in glory for us, His life within us, these and their\nrelated truths are the perennial possession of the Church. To Him we\nmust look back, and every generation till the end of time will have to\nlook back, as the full and final expression of the wisdom and will and\nmercy of God. \"Last of all He sent unto them His Son.\"\n\nThat being distinctly understood, we need not hesitate to recognise the\ntransitory nature of much of the embodiment of the eternal truth\nconcerning the eternal Christ. To draw the line accurately between the\npermanent and the transient would be to anticipate history and read the\nfuture. But the clear recognition of the distinction between the Divine\nrevelation and the vessels in which it is contained, between Christ and\ncreed, between Churches, forms of worship, formularies of faith on the\none hand, and the everlasting word of God spoken to us once for all in\nHis Son, and recorded in Scripture, on the other, is needful at all\ntimes, and especially at such times of sifting and unsettlement as the\npresent. It will save some of us from an obstinate conservatism which\nmight read its fate in the decline and disappearance of Jewish\nChristianity. It will save us equally from needless fears, as if the\nstars were going out, when it is only men-made lamps that are paling.\nMen's hearts often tremble for the ark of God, when the only things in\nperil are the cart that carries it, or the oxen that draw it. \"We have\nreceived a kingdom that cannot be moved,\" because we have received a\nKing eternal, and therefore may calmly see the removal of things that\ncan be shaken, assured that the things which cannot be shaken will but\nthe more conspicuously assert their permanence. The existing embodiments\nof God's truth are not the highest, and if Churches and forms crumble\nand disintegrate, their disappearance will not be the abolition of\nChristianity, but its progress. These Jewish Christians would have found\nall that they strove to keep, in higher form and more real reality, in\nChrist; and what seemed to them the destruction of Judaism was really\nits coronation with undying life.\n\nII. Epaphras is for us the type of the highest service which love can\nrender.\n\nAll our knowledge of Epaphras is contained in these brief notices in\nthis Epistle. We learn from the first chapter that he had introduced the\ngospel to Colossae, and perhaps also to Laodicea and Hierapolis. He was\n\"one of you,\" a member of the Colossian community, and a resident in,\npossibly a native of, Colossae. He had come to Rome, apparently to\nconsult the Apostle about the views which threatened to disturb the\nChurch. He had told him, too, of their love, not painting the picture\ntoo black, and gladly giving full prominence to any bits of brightness.\nIt was his report which led to the writing of this letter.\n\nPerhaps some of the Colossians were not over pleased with his having\ngone to speak with Paul, and having brought down this thunderbolt on\ntheir heads; and such a feeling may account for the warmth of Paul's\npraises of him as his \"fellow-slave,\" and for the emphasis of his\ntestimony on his behalf. However they might doubt it, Epaphras' love for\nthem was warm. It showed itself by continual fervent prayers that they\nmight stand \"perfect and fully persuaded in all the will of God,\" and by\ntoil of body and mind for them. We can see the anxious Epaphras, far\naway from the Church of his solicitude, always burdened with the thought\nof their danger, and ever wrestling in prayer on their behalf.\n\nSo we may learn the noblest service which Christian love can do--prayer.\nThere is a real power in Christian intercession. There are many\ndifficulties and mysteries round that thought. The manner of the\nblessing is not revealed, but the fact that we help one another by\nprayer is plainly taught, and confirmed by many examples, from the day\nwhen God heard Abraham and delivered Lot, to the hour when the loving\nauthoritative words were spoken, \"Simon, Simon, I have prayed for thee\nthat thy faith fail not.\" A spoonful of water sets a hydraulic press in\nmotion, and brings into operation a force of tons' weight; so a drop of\nprayer at the one end may move an influence at the other which is\nomnipotent. It is a service which all can render. Epaphras could not\nhave written this letter, but he could pray. Love has no higher way of\nutterance than prayer. A prayerless love may be very tender, and may\nspeak murmured words of sweetest sound, but it lacks the deepest\nexpression, and the noblest music of speech. We never help our dear ones\nso well as when we pray for them. Do we thus show and consecrate our\nfamily loves and our friendships?\n\nWe notice too the kind of prayer which love naturally presents. It is\nconstant and earnest--\"always striving,\" or as the word might be\nrendered, \"agonizing.\" That word suggests first the familiar metaphor of\nthe wrestling-ground. True prayer is the intensest energy of the spirit\npleading for blessing with a great striving of faithful desire. But a\nmore solemn memory gathers round the word, for it can scarcely fail to\nrecall the hour beneath the olives of Gethsemane, when the clear paschal\nmoon shone down on the suppliant who, \"being in an agony, prayed the\nmore earnestly.\" And both Paul's word here, and the evangelist's there,\ncarry us back to that mysterious scene by the brook Jabbok, where Jacob\n\"wrestled\" with \"a man\" until the breaking of the day, and prevailed.\nSuch is prayer; the wrestle in the arena, the agony in Gethsemane, the\nsolitary grapple with the \"traveller unknown\"; and such is the highest\nexpression of Christian love.\n\nHere, too, we learn what love asks for its beloved. Not perishable\nblessings, not the prizes of earth--fame, fortune, friends; but that \"ye\nmay stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.\" The first\npetition is for stedfastness. To stand has for opposites--to fall, or\ntotter, or give ground; so the prayer is that they may not yield to\ntemptation, or opposition, nor waver in their fixed faith, nor go down\nin the struggle; but keep erect, their feet planted on the rock, and\nholding their own against every foe. The prayer is also for their\nmaturity of Christian character, that they may stand firm, because\nperfect, having attained that condition which Paul in this Epistle tell\nus is the aim of all preaching and warning. As for ourselves, so for our\ndear ones, we are to be content with nothing short of entire conformity\nto the will of God. His merciful purpose for us all is to be the goal of\nour efforts for ourselves, and of our prayers for others. We are to\nwiden our desires to coincide with His gift, and our prayers are to\ncover no narrower space than His promises enclose.\n\nEpaphras' last desire for his friends, according to the true reading, is\nthat they may be \"fully assured\" in all the will of God. There can be no\nhigher blessing than that--to be quite sure of what God desires me to\nknow and do and be--if the assurance comes from the clear light of His\nillumination, and not from hasty self-confidence in my own penetration.\nTo be free from the misery of intellectual doubts and practical\nuncertainties, to walk in the sunshine--is the purest joy. And it is\ngranted in needful measure to all who have silenced their own wills,\nthat they may hear what God says,--\"If any man wills to do His will, he\nshall know.\"\n\nDoes our love speak in prayer? and do our prayers for our dear ones\nplead chiefly for such gifts? Both our love and our desires need\npurifying if this is to be their natural language. How can we offer such\nprayers for them if, at the bottom of our hearts, we had rather see\nthem well off in the world than stedfast, matured and assured\nChristians? How can we expect an answer to such prayers if the whole\ncurrent of our lives shows that neither for them nor for ourselves do we\n\"seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness\"?\n\nIII. The last salutation comes from a singularly contrasted couple--Luke\nand Demas, the types respectively of faithfulness and apostasy. These\ntwo unequally yoked together stand before us like the light and the dark\nfigures that Ary Scheffer delights to paint, each bringing out the\ncolouring of the other more vividly by contrast. They bear the same\nrelation to Paul which John, the beloved disciple, and Judas did to\nPaul's master.\n\nAs for Luke, his long and faithful companionship of the Apostle is too\nwell known to need repetition here. His first appearance in the Acts\nnearly coincides with an attack of Paul's constitutional malady, which\ngives probability to the suggestion that one reason for Luke's close\nattendance on the Apostle was the state of his health. Thus the form and\nwarmth of the reference here would be explained--\"Luke the physician,\nthe beloved.\" We trace Luke as sharing the perils of the winter voyage\nto Italy, making his presence known only by the modest \"we\" of the\nnarrative. We find him here sharing the Roman captivity, and, in the\nsecond imprisonment, he was Paul's only companion. All others had been\nsent away, or had fled; but Luke could not be spared, and would not\ndesert him, and no doubt was by his side till the end, which soon came.\n\nAs for Demas, we know no more about him except the melancholy record,\n\"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world; and is\ndeparted unto Thessalonica.\" Perhaps he was a Thessalonian, and so went\nhome. His love of the world, then, was his reason for abandoning Paul.\nProbably it was on the side of danger that the world tempted him. He was\na coward, and preferred a whole skin to a clear conscience. In immediate\nconnection with the record of his desertion we read, \"At my first\nanswer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.\" As the same word\nis used, probably Demas may have been one of those timid friends, whose\ncourage was not equal to standing by Paul when, to use his own metaphor,\nhe thrust his head into the lion's mouth. Let us not be too hard on the\nconstancy that warped in so fierce a heat. All that Paul charges him\nwith is, that he was a faithless friend, and too fond of the present\nworld. Perhaps his crime did not reach the darker hue. He may not have\nbeen an apostate Christian, though he was a faithless friend. Perhaps,\nif there were departure from Christ as well as from Paul, he came back\nagain, like Peter, whose sins against love and friendship were greater\nthan his--and, like Peter, found pardon and a welcome. Perhaps, away in\nThessalonica, he repented him of his evil, and perhaps Paul and Demas\nmet again before the throne, and there clasped inseparable hands. Let us\nnot judge a man of whom we know so little, but take to ourselves the\nlesson of humility and self-distrust!\n\nHow strikingly these two contrasted characters bring out the possibility\nof men being exposed to the same influences and yet ending far away from\neach other! These two set out from the same point, and travelled side by\nside, subject to the same training, in contact with the magnetic\nattraction of Paul's strong personality, and at the end they are wide as\nthe poles asunder. Starting from the same level, one line inclines ever\nso little upwards, the other imperceptibly downwards. Pursue them far\nenough, and there is room for the whole solar system with all its orbits\nin the space between them. So two children trained at one mother's knee,\nsubjects of the same prayers, with the same sunshine of love and rain of\ngood influences upon them both, may grow up, one to break a mother's\nheart and disgrace a father's home, and the other to walk in the ways of\ngodliness and serve the God of his fathers. Circumstances are mighty;\nbut the use we make of circumstances lies with ourselves. As we trim our\nsails and set our rudder, the same breeze will take us in opposite\ndirections. We are the architects and builders of our own characters,\nand may so use the most unfavourable influences as to strengthen and\nwholesomely harden our natures thereby, and may so misuse the most\nfavourable as only thereby to increase our blameworthiness for wasted\nopportunities.\n\nWe are reminded, also, from these two men who stand before us like a\ndouble star--one bright and one dark--that no loftiness of Christian\nposition, nor length of Christian profession is a guarantee against\nfalling and apostasy. As we read in another book, for which also the\nChurch has to thank a prison cell--the place where so many of its\nprecious possessions have been written--there is a backway to the pit\nfrom the gate of the Celestial City. Demas had stood high in the Church,\nhad been admitted to the close intimacy of the Apostle, was evidently\nno raw novice, and yet the world could drag him back from so eminent a\nplace in which he had long stood. \"Let him that thinketh he standeth\ntake heed lest he fall.\"\n\nThe world that was too strong for Demas will be too strong for us if we\nfront it in our own strength. It is ubiquitous, working on us everywhere\nand always, like the pressure of the atmosphere on our bodies. Its\nweight will crush us unless we can climb to and dwell on the heights of\ncommunion with God, where pressure is diminished. It acted on Demas\nthrough his fears. It acts on us through our ambitions, affections and\ndesires. So, seeing that miserable wreck of Christian constancy, and\nconsidering ourselves lest we also be tempted, let us not judge another,\nbut look at home. There is more than enough there to make profound\nself-distrust our truest wisdom, and to teach us to pray, \"Hold Thou me\nup, and I shall be safe.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXVI.\n\n_CLOSING MESSAGES._\n\n \"Salute the brethren that are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the\n Church that is in their house. And when this epistle hath been read\n among you, cause that it be read also in the Church of the\n Laodiceans; and that ye also read the epistle from Laodicea. And say\n to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in\n the Lord, that thou fulfil it. The salutation of me Paul with mine\n own hand. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you.\"--COL. iv. 15-end\n (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThere is a marked love of triplets in these closing messages. There were\nthree of the circumcision who desired to salute the Colossians; and\nthere were three Gentiles whose greetings followed these. Now we have a\ntriple message from the Apostle himself--his greeting to Laodicea, his\nmessage as to the interchange of letters with that Church, and his\ngrave, stringent charge to Archippus. Finally, the letter closes with a\nfew hurried words in his own handwriting, which also are threefold, and\nseem to have been added in extreme haste, and to be compressed to the\nutmost possible brevity.\n\nI. We shall first look at the threefold greeting and warnings to\nLaodicea.\n\nIn the first part of this triple message we have a glimpse of the\nChristian life of that city, \"Salute the brethren that are in\nLaodicea.\" These are, of course, the whole body of Christians in the\nneighbouring town, which was a much more important place than Colossae.\nThey are the same persons as \"the Church of the Laodiceans.\" Then comes\na special greeting to \"Nymphas,\" who was obviously a brother of some\nimportance and influence in the Laodicean Church, though to us he has\nsunk to be an empty name. With him Paul salutes \"the Church that is in\n_their_ house\" (Rev. Ver.). Whose house? Probably that belonging to\nNymphas and his family. Perhaps that belonging to Nymphas and the Church\nthat met in it, if these were other than his family. The more difficult\nexpression is adopted by preponderating textual authorities, and \"_his_\nhouse\" is regarded as a correction to make the sense easier. If so, then\nthe expression is one of which in our ignorance we have lost the key,\nand which must be content to leave unexplained.\n\nBut what was this \"Church in the house\"? We read that Prisca and Aquila\nhad such both in their house in Rome (Rom. xvi. 5) and in Ephesus (1\nCor. xvi. 19), and that Philemon had such in his house at Colossae. It\nmay be that only the household of Nymphas is meant, and that the words\nimport no more than that it was a Christian household; or it may be, and\nmore probably is, that in all these cases there was some gathering of a\nfew of the Christians resident in each city, who were closely connected\nwith the heads of the household, and met in their houses more or less\nregularly to worship and to help one another in the Christian life. We\nhave no facts that decide which of these two suppositions is correct.\nThe early Christians had, of course no buildings especially used for\ntheir meetings, and there may often have been difficulty in finding\nsuitable places, particularly in cities where the Church was numerous.\nIt may have been customary, therefore, for brethren who had large and\nconvenient houses, to gather together portions of the whole community in\nthese. In any case, the expression gives us a glimpse of the primitive\nelasticity of Church order, and of the early fluidity, so to speak, of\necclesiastical language. The word \"Church\" has not yet been hardened and\nfixed to its present technical sense. There was but one Church in\nLaodicea, and yet within it there was this little Church--an _imperium\nin imperio_--as if the word had not yet come to mean more than an\nassembly, and as if all arrangements of order and worship, and all the\nterminology of later days, were undreamed of yet. The life was there,\nbut the forms which were to grow out of the life, and to protect it\nsometimes, and to stifle it often, were only beginning to show\nthemselves, and were certainly not yet felt to be forms.\n\nWe may note, too, the beautiful glimpse we get here of domestic and\nsocial religion.\n\nIf the Church in the house of Nymphas consisted of his own family and\ndependants, it stands for us as a lesson of what every family, which has\na Christian man or woman at its head, ought to be. Little knowledge of\nthe ordering of so-called Christian households is needed to be sure that\ndomestic religion is wofully neglected to-day. Family worship and family\ninstruction are disused, one fears, in many homes, the heads of which\ncan remember both in their father's houses; and the unspoken aroma and\natmosphere of religion does not fill the house with its odour, as it\nought to do. If a Christian householder have not \"a Church in his\nhouse,\" the family union is tending to become \"a synagogue of Satan.\"\nOne or other it is sure to be. It is a solemn question for all parents\nand heads of households, What am I doing to make my house a Church, my\nfamily a family united by faith in Jesus Christ?\n\nA like suggestion may be made if, as is possible, the Church in the\nhouse of Nymphas included more than relatives and dependants. It is a\nmiserable thing when social intercourse plays freely round every other\nsubject, and taboos all mention of religion. It is a miserable thing\nwhen Christian people choose and cultivate society for worldly\nadvantages, business connections, family advancement, and for every\nreason under heaven--sometimes a long way under--except those of a\ncommon faith, and of the desire to increase it.\n\nIt is not needful to lay down extravagant, impracticable restrictions,\nby insisting either that we should limit our society to religious men,\nor our conversation to religious subjects. But it is a bad sign when our\nchosen associates are chosen for every other reason but their religion,\nand when our talk flows copiously on all other subjects, and becomes a\nconstrained driblet when religion comes to be spoken of. Let us try to\ncarry about with us an influence which shall permeate all our social\nintercourse, and make it, if not directly religious, yet never\nantagonistic to religion, and always capable of passing easily and\nnaturally into the highest regions. Our godly forefathers used to carve\ntexts over their house doors. Let us do the same in another fashion, so\nthat all who cross the threshold may feel that they have come into a\nChristian household, where cheerful godliness sweetens and brightens the\nsanctities of home.\n\nWe have next a remarkable direction as to the interchange of Paul's\nletters to Colossae and Laodicea. The present Epistle is to be sent over\nto the neighbouring Church of Laodicea--that is quite clear. But what is\n\"the Epistle from Laodicea\" which the Colossians are to be sure to get\nand to read? The connection forbids us to suppose that a letter written\nby the Laodicean Church is meant. Both letters are plainly Pauline\nepistles, and the latter is said to be \"from Laodicea,\" simply because\nthe Colossians were to procure it from that place. The \"from\" does not\nimply authorship, but transmission. What then has become of this letter?\nIs it lost? So say some commentators; but a more probable opinion is\nthat it is no other than the Epistle which we know as that to the\nEphesians. This is not the occasion to enter on a discussion of that\nview. It will be enough to notice that very weighty textual authorities\nomit the words \"In Ephesus,\" in the first verse of that Epistle. The\nconjecture is a very reasonable one, that the letter was intended for a\ncircle of Churches, and had originally no place named in the\nsuperscription, just as we might issue circulars \"To the Church in----,\"\nleaving a blank to be filled in with different names. This conjecture is\nstrengthened by the marked absence of personal references in the letter,\nwhich in that respect forms a striking contrast to the Epistle to the\nColossians, which it so strongly resembles in other particulars.\nProbably, therefore, Tychicus had both letters put into his hands for\ndelivery. The circular would go first to Ephesus as the most important\nChurch in Asia, and thence would be carried by him to one community\nafter another, till he reached Laodicea, from which he would come\nfurther up the valley to Colossae, bringing both letters with him. The\nColossians are not told to _get_ the letter from Laodicea, but to be\nsure that they _read_ it. Tychicus would see that it came to them; their\nbusiness was to see that they marked, learned, and inwardly digested it.\n\nThe urgency of these instructions that Paul's letters should be read,\nreminds us of a similar but still more stringent injunction in his\nearliest epistle (1 Thess. v. 27), \"I charge you by the Lord that this\nepistle be read unto all the holy brethren.\" Is it possible that these\nChurches did not much care for Paul's words, and were more willing to\nadmit that they were weighty and powerful, than to study them and lay\nthem to heart? It looks almost like it. Perhaps they got the same\ntreatment then as they often do now, and were more praised than read,\neven by those who professed to look upon him as their teacher in Christ!\n\nBut passing by that, we come to the last part of this threefold message,\nthe solemn warning to a slothful servant.\n\n\"Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in\nthe Lord, that thou fulfil it.\" A sharp message that--and especially\nsharp, as being sent through others, and not spoken directly to the man\nhimself. If this Archippus were a member of the Church at Colossae, it is\nremarkable that Paul should not have spoken to him directly, as he did\nto Euodia and Syntyche, the two good women at Philippi, who had fallen\nout. But it is by no means certain that he was. We find him named again,\nindeed, at the beginning of the Epistle to Philemon, in such immediate\nconnection with the latter, and with his wife Apphia, that he has been\nsupposed to be their son. At all events, he was intimately associated\nwith the Church in the house of Philemon, who, as we know, was a\nColossian. The conclusion, therefore, seems at first sight most natural\nthat Archippus too belonged to the Colossian Church. But on the other\nhand the difficulty already referred to seems to point in another\ndirection; and if it be further remembered that this whole section is\nconcerned with the Church at Laodicea, it will be seen to be a likely\nconclusion from all the facts that Archippus, though perhaps a native of\nColossae, or even a resident there, had his \"ministry\" in connection with\nthat other neighbouring Church.\n\nIt may be worth notice, in passing, that all these messages to Laodicea\noccurring here, strongly favour the supposition that the epistle from\nthat place cannot have been a letter especially meant for the Laodicean\nchurch, as, if it had been, these would have naturally been inserted in\nit. So far, therefore, they confirm the hypothesis that it was a\ncircular.\n\nSome may say, Well, what in the world does it matter where Archippus\nworked? Not very much perhaps; and yet one cannot but read this grave\nexhortation to a man who was evidently getting languid and negligent,\nwithout remembering what we hear about Laodicea and the angel of the\nChurch there, when next we meet it in the page of Scripture. It is not\nimpossible that Archippus was that very \"angel,\" to whom the Lord\nHimself sent the message through His servant John, more awful than that\nwhich Paul had sent through his brethren at Colossae, \"Because thou art\nneither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.\"\n\nBe that as it may, the message is for us all. Each of us has a\n\"ministry,\" a sphere of service. We may either fill it full, with\nearnest devotion and patient heroism, as some expanding gas fills out\nthe silken round of its containing vessel, or we may breathe into it\nonly enough to occupy a little portion, while all the rest hangs empty\nand flaccid. We have to \"fulfil our ministry.\"\n\nA sacred motive enhances the obligation--we have received it \"_in_ the\nLord.\" In union with Him it has been laid on us. No human hand has\nimposed it, nor does it arise merely from earthly relationships, but our\nfellowship with Jesus Christ, and incorporation into the true Vine, has\nlaid on us responsibilities, and exalted us by service.\n\nThere must be diligent watchfulness, in order to fulfil our ministry. We\nmust take heed to our service, and we must take heed to ourselves. We\nhave to reflect upon it, its extent, nature, imperativeness, upon the\nmanner of discharging it, and the means of fitness for it. We have to\nkeep our work ever before us. Unless we are absorbed in it, we shall not\nfulfil it. And we have to take heed to ourselves, ever feeling our\nweakness and the strong antagonisms in our own natures which hinder our\ndischarge of the plainest, most imperative duties.\n\nAnd let us remember, too, that if once we begin, like Archippus, to be a\nlittle languid and perfunctory in our work, we may end where the Church\nof Laodicea ended, whether he were its angel or no, with that nauseous\nlukewarmness which sickens even Christ's longsuffering love, and forces\nHim to reject it with loathing.\n\nII. And now we come to the end of our task, and have to consider the\nhasty last words in Paul's own hand.\n\nWe can see him taking the reed from the amanuensis and adding the three\nbrief sentences which close the letter. He first writes that which is\nequivalent to our modern usage of signing the letter--\"the salutation of\nme Paul with mine own hand.\" This appears to have been his usual\npractice, or, as he says in 2 Thess. (iii. 17), it was \"his token in\nevery epistle\"--the evidence that each was the genuine expression of his\nmind. Probably his weak eyesight, which appears certain, may have had\nsomething to do with his employing a secretary, as we may assume him to\nhave done, even when there is no express mention of his autograph in the\nclosing salutations. We find for example in the Epistle to the Romans no\nwords corresponding to these, but the modest amanuensis steps for a\nmoment into the light near the end: \"I Tertius, who write the epistle,\nsalute you in the Lord.\"\n\nThe endorsement with his name is followed by a request singularly\npathetic in its abrupt brevity, \"Remember my bonds.\" This is the one\npersonal reference in the letter, unless we add as a second, his request\nfor their prayers that he may speak the mystery of Christ, for which he\nis in bonds. There is a striking contrast in this respect with the\nabundant allusions to his circumstances in the Epistle to the\nPhilippians, which also belongs to the period of his captivity. He had\nbeen swept far away from thoughts of self by the enthusiasm of his\nsubject. The vision that opened before him of his Lord in His glory, the\nLord of Creation, the Head of the Church, the throned helper of every\ntrusting soul, had flooded his chamber with light, and swept guards and\nchains and restrictions out of his consciousness. But now the spell is\nbroken, and common things re-assert their power. He stretches out his\nhand for the reed to write his last words, and as he does so, the chain\nwhich fastens him to the Praetorian guard at his side pulls and hinders\nhim. He wakes to the consciousness of his prison. The seer, swept along\nby the storm wind of a Divine inspiration, is gone. The weak man\nremains. The exhaustion after such an hour of high communion makes him\nmore than usually dependent; and all his subtle profound teachings, all\nhis thunderings and lightnings, end in the simple cry, which goes\nstraight to the heart: \"Remember my bonds.\"\n\nHe wished their remembrance because he needed their sympathy. Like the\nold rags put round the ropes by which the prophet was hauled out of his\ndungeon, the poorest bit of sympathy twisted round a fetter makes it\nchafe less. The petition helps us to conceive how heavy a trial Paul\nfelt his imprisonment, to be little as he said about it, and bravely as\nhe bore it. He wished their remembrance too, because his bonds added\nweight to his words. His sufferings gave him a right to speak. In times\nof persecution confessors are the highest teachers, and the marks of the\nLord Jesus borne in a man's body give more authority than diplomas and\nlearning. He wished their remembrance because his bonds might encourage\nthem to steadfast endurance if need for it should arise. He points to\nhis own sufferings, and would have them take heart to bear their lighter\ncrosses and to fight their easier battle.\n\nOne cannot but recall the words of Paul's Master, so like these in\nsound, so unlike them in deepest meaning. Can there be a greater\ncontrast than between \"Remember my bonds,\" the plaintive appeal of a\nweak man seeking sympathy, coming as an appendix, quite apart from the\nsubject of the letter, and \"Do this in remembrance of Me,\" the royal\nwords of the Master? Why is the memory of Christ's death so unlike the\nmemory of Paul's chains? Why is the one merely for the play of sympathy,\nand the enforcement of his teaching, and the other the very centre of\nour religion? For one reason alone. Because Christ's death is the life\nof the world, and Paul's sufferings, whatever their worth, had nothing\nin them that bore, except indirectly, on man's redemption. \"Was Paul\ncrucified for you?\" We remember his chains, and they give him sacredness\nin our eyes. But we remember the broken body and shed blood of our Lord,\nand cleave to it in faith as the one sacrifice for the world's sin.\n\nAnd then comes the last word: \"Grace be with you.\" The apostolic\nbenediction, with which he closes all his letters, occurs in many\ndifferent stages of expression. Here it is pared down to the very quick.\nNo shorter form is possible--and yet even in this condition of extreme\ncompression, all good is in it.\n\nAll possible blessing is wrapped up in that one word, Grace. Like the\nsunshine, it carries life and fruitfulness in itself. If the favour and\nkindness of God, flowing out to men so far beneath Him, who deserve such\ndifferent treatment, be ours, then in our hearts will be rest and a\ngreat peacefulness, whatever may be about us, and in our characters will\nbe all beauties and capacities, in the measure of our possession of that\ngrace.\n\nThat all-productive germ of joy and excellence is here parted among the\nwhole body of Colossian Christians. The dew of this benediction falls\nupon them all--the teachers of error if they still held by Christ, the\nJudaisers, the slothful Archippus, even as the grace which it invokes\nwill pour itself into imperfect natures and adorn very sinful\ncharacters, if beneath the imperfection and the evil there be the true\naffiance of the soul on Christ.\n\nThat communication of grace to a sinful world is the end of all God's\ndeeds, as it is the end of this letter. That great revelation which\nbegan when man began, which has spoken its complete message in the Son,\nthe heir of all things, as this Epistle tells us, has this for the\npurpose of all its words--whether they are terrible or gentle, deep or\nsimple--that God's grace may dwell among men. The mystery of Christ's\nbeing, the agony of Christ's cross, the hidden glories of Christ's\ndominion are all for this end, that of His fulness we may all receive,\nand grace for grace. The Old Testament, true to its genius, ends with\nstern onward-looking words which point to a future coming of the Lord\nand to the possible terrible aspect of that coming--\"Lest I come and\nsmite the earth with a curse.\" It is the last echo of the long drawn\nblast of the trumpets of Sinai. The New Testament ends, as our Epistle\nends, and as we believe the weary history of the world will end, with\nthe benediction: \"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.\"\n\nThat grace, the love which pardons and quickens and makes good and fair\nand wise and strong, is offered to all in Christ. Unless we have\naccepted it, God's revelation and Christ's work have failed as far as we\nare concerned. \"We therefore, as fellow-workers with Him, beseech you\nthat ye receive not the grace of God in vain.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\n \"Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to\n Philemon our beloved and fellow-worker, and to Apphia our sister,\n and to Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the Church in thy house:\n Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus\n Christ.\"--PHILEM. 1-3 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThis Epistle stands alone among Paul's letters in being addressed to a\nprivate Christian, and in being entirely occupied with a small though\nvery singular private matter; its aim being merely to bespeak a kindly\nwelcome for a runaway slave who had been induced to perform the\nunheard-of act of voluntarily returning to servitude. If the New\nTestament were simply a book of doctrinal teaching, this Epistle would\ncertainly be out of place in it; and if the great purpose of revelation\nwere to supply material for creeds, it would be hard to see what value\ncould be attached to a simple, short letter, from which no contribution\nto theological doctrine or ecclesiastical order can be extracted. But if\nwe do not turn to it for discoveries of truth, we can find in it very\nbeautiful illustrations of Christianity at work. It shows us the\noperation of the new forces which Christ has lodged in humanity--and\nthat on two planes of action. It exhibits a perfect model of Christian\nfriendship, refined and ennobled by a half-conscious reflection of the\nlove which has called us \"no longer slaves but friends,\" and adorned by\ndelicate courtesies and quick consideration, which divines with subtlest\ninstinct what it will be sweetest to the friend to hear, while it never\napproaches by a hair-breadth to flattery, nor forgets to counsel high\nduties. But still more important is the light which the letter casts on\nthe relation of Christianity to slavery, which may be taken as a\nspecimen of its relation to social and political evils generally, and\nyields fruitful results for the guidance of all who would deal with\nsuch.\n\nIt may be observed, too, that most of the considerations which Paul\nurges on Philemon as reasons for his kindly reception of Onesimus do not\neven need the alteration of a word, but simply a change in their\napplication, to become worthy statements of the highest Christian\ntruths. As Luther puts it, \"We are all God's Onesimuses\"; and the\nwelcome which Paul seeks to secure for the returning fugitive, as well\nas the motives to which he appeals in order to secure it, do shadow\nforth in no uncertain outline our welcome from God, and the treasures of\nHis heart towards us, because they are at bottom the same. The Epistle\nthen is valuable, as showing in a concrete instance how the Christian\nlife, in its attitude to others, and especially to those who have\ninjured us, is all modelled upon God's forgiving love to us. Our Lord's\nparable of the forgiven servant who took his brother by the throat finds\nhere a commentary, and the Apostle's own precept, \"Be imitators of God,\nand walk in love,\" a practical exemplification.\n\nNor is the light which the letter throws on the character of the Apostle\nto be regarded as unimportant. The warmth, the delicacy, and what, if it\nwere not so spontaneous, we might call tact, the graceful ingenuity with\nwhich he pleads for the fugitive, the perfect courtesy of every word,\nthe gleam of playfulness--all fused together and harmonized to one end,\nand that in so brief a compass and with such unstudied ease and complete\nself-oblivion, make this Epistle a pure gem. Without thought of effect,\nand with complete unconsciousness, this man beats all the famous\nletter-writers on their own ground. That must have been a great\nintellect, and closely conversant with the Fountain of all light and\nbeauty, which could shape the profound and far-reaching teachings of the\nEpistle to the Colossians, and pass from them to the graceful simplicity\nand sweet kindliness of this exquisite letter; as if Michael Angelo had\ngone straight from smiting his magnificent Moses from the marble mass to\nincise some delicate and tiny figure of Love or Friendship on a cameo.\n\nThe structure of the letter is of the utmost simplicity. It is not so\nmuch a structure as a flow. There is the usual superscription and\nsalutation, followed, according to Paul's custom, by the expression of\nhis thankful recognition of the love and faith of Philemon and his\nprayer for the perfecting of these. Then he goes straight to the\nbusiness in hand, and with incomparable persuasiveness pleads for a\nwelcome to Onesimus, bringing all possible reasons to converge on that\none request, with an ingenious eloquence born of earnestness. Having\npoured out his heart in this pleasure adds no more but affectionate\ngreetings from his companions and himself.\n\nIn the present section we shall confine our attention to the\nsuperscription and opening salutation.\n\nI. We may observe the Apostle's designation of himself, as marked by\nconsummate and instinctive appreciation of the claims of friendship, and\nof his own position in this letter as a suppliant. He does not come to\nhis friend clothed with apostolic authority. In his letters to the\nChurches he always puts that in the forefront, and when he expected to\nbe met by opponents, as in Galatia, there is a certain ring of defiance\nin his claim to receive his commission through no human intervention,\nbut straight from heaven. Sometimes, as in the Epistle to the\nColossians, he unites another strangely contrasted title, and calls\nhimself also \"the slave\" of Christ; the one name asserting authority,\nthe other bowing in humility before his Owner and Master. But here he is\nwriting as a friend to a friend, and his object is to win his friend to\na piece of Christian conduct which may be somewhat against the grain.\nApostolic authority will not go half so far as personal influence in\nthis case. So he drops all reference to it, and, instead, lets Philemon\nhear the fetters jangling on his limbs--a more powerful plea. \"Paul, a\nprisoner,\" surely that would go straight to Philemon's heart, and give\nall but irresistible force to the request which follows. Surely if he\ncould do anything to show his love and gratify even momentarily his\nfriend in prison, he would not refuse it. If this designation had been\ncalculated to produce effect, it would have lost all its grace; but no\none with any ear for the accents of inartificial spontaneousness, can\nfail to hear them in the unconscious pathos of these opening words,\nwhich say the right thing, all unaware of how right it is.\n\nThere is great dignity also, as well as profound faith, in the next\nwords, in which the Apostle calls himself a prisoner \"of Christ Jesus.\"\nWith what calm ignoring of all subordinate agencies he looks to the true\nauthor of his captivity! Neither Jewish hatred nor Roman policy had shut\nhim up in Rome. Christ Himself had riveted his manacles on his wrists,\ntherefore he bore them as lightly and proudly as a bride might wear the\nbracelet that her husband had clasped on her arm. The expression reveals\nboth the author of and the reason for his imprisonment, and discloses\nthe conviction which held him up in it. He thinks of his Lord as the\nLord of providence, whose hand moves the pieces on the board--Pharisees,\nand Roman governors, and guards, and Caesar; and he knows that he is an\nambassador in bonds, for no crime, but for the testimony of Jesus. We\nneed only notice that his younger companion Timothy is associated with\nthe Apostle in the superscription, but disappears at once. The reason\nfor the introduction of his name may either have been the slight\nadditional weight thereby given to the request of the letter, or more\nprobably, the additional authority thereby given to the junior, who\nwould, in all likelihood, have much of Paul's work devolved on him when\nPaul was gone.\n\nThe names of the receivers of the letter bring before us a picture seen,\nas by one glimmering light across the centuries, of a Christian\nhousehold in that Phrygian valley. The head of it, Philemon, appears to\nhave been a native of, or at all events a resident in, Colossae; for\nOnesimus, his slave, is spoken of in the Epistle to the Church there as\n\"one of _you_.\" He was a person of some standing and wealth, for he had\na house large enough to admit of a \"Church\" assembling in it, and to\naccommodate the Apostle and his travelling companions if he should visit\nColossae. He had apparently the means for large pecuniary help to poor\nbrethren, and willingness to use them, for we read of the refreshment\nwhich his kindly deeds had imparted. He had been one of Paul's converts,\nand owed his own self to him; so that he must have met the Apostle,--who\nhad probably not been in Colossae,--on some of his journeys, perhaps\nduring his three years' residence in Ephesus. He was of mature years,\nif, as is probable, Archippus, who was old enough to have service to do\nin the Church (Col. iv. 17), was his son.\n\nHe is called \"our fellow-labourer.\" The designation may imply some\nactual co-operation at a former time. But more probably, the phrase,\nlike the similar one in the next verse, \"our fellow-soldier,\" is but\nPaul's gracefully affectionate way of lifting these good people's\nhumbler work out of its narrowness, by associating it with his own. They\nin their little sphere, and he in his wider, were workers at the same\ntask. All who toil for furtherance of Christ's kingdom, however widely\nthey may be parted by time or distance, are fellow-workers. Division of\nlabour does not impair unity of service. The field is wide, and the\nmonths between seedtime and harvest are long; but all the husbandmen\nhave been engaged in the same great work, and though they have toiled\nalone shall \"rejoice together.\" The first man who dug a shovelful of\nearth for the foundations of Cologne Cathedral, and he who fixed the\nlast stone on the topmost spire a thousand years after, are\nfellow-workers. So Paul and Philemon, though their tasks were widely\ndifferent in kind, in range, and in importance, and were carried on\napart and independent of each other, were fellow-workers. The one lived\na Christian life and helped some humble saints in an insignificant,\nremote corner; the other flamed through the whole then civilized western\nworld, and sheds light to-day: but the obscure, twinkling taper and the\nblazing torch were kindled at the same source, shone with the same\nlight, and were parts of one great whole. Our narrowness is rebuked, our\ndespondency cheered, our vulgar tendency to think little of modest,\nobscure service rendered by commonplace people, and to exaggerate the\nworth of the more conspicuous, is corrected by such a thought. However\nsmall may be our capacity or sphere, and however solitary we may feel,\nwe may summon up before the eyes of our faith a mighty multitude of\napostles, martyrs, toilers in every land and age as _our_--even\nour--work-fellows. The field stretches far beyond our vision, and many\nare toiling in it for Him, whose work never comes near ours. There are\ndifferences of service, but the same Lord, and all who have the same\nmaster are companions in labour. Therefore Paul, the greatest of the\nservants of Christ, reaches down his hand to the obscure Philemon, and\nsays, \"He works the work of the Lord, as I also do.\"\n\nIn the house at Colossae there was a Christian wife by the side of a\nChristian husband; at least, the mention of Apphia here in so prominent\na position is most naturally accounted for by supposing her to be the\nwife of Philemon. Her friendly reception of the runaway would be quite\nas important as his, and it is therefore most natural that the letter\nbespeaking it should be addressed to both. The probable reading \"our\nsister\" (R.V.), instead of \"our beloved\" (A.V.), gives the distinct\nassurance that she too was a Christian, and like-minded with her\nhusband.\n\nThe prominent mention of this Phrygian matron is an illustration of the\nway in which Christianity, without meddling with social usages,\nintroduced a new tone of feeling about the position of woman, which\ngradually changed the face of the world, is still working, and has\nfurther revolutions to affect. The degraded classes of the Greek world\nwere slaves and women. This Epistle touches both, and shows us\nChristianity in the very act of elevating both. The same process strikes\nthe fetters from the slave and sets the wife by the side of the husband,\n\"yoked in all exercise of noble end,\"--namely, the proclamation of\nChrist as the Saviour of all mankind, and of all human creatures as\nequally capable of receiving an equal salvation. That annihilates all\ndistinctions. The old world was parted by deep gulfs. There were three\nof special depth and width, across which it was hard for sympathy to\nfly. These were the distinctions of race, sex, and condition. But the\ngood news that Christ has died for all men, and is ready to live in all\nmen, has thrown a bridge across, or rather has filled up, the ravine; so\nthe Apostle bursts into his triumphant proclamation, \"There is neither\nJew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor\nfemale; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.\"\n\nA third name is united with those of husband and wife, that of\nArchippus. The close relation in which the names stand, and the purely\ndomestic character of the letter, make it probable that he was a son of\nthe wedded pair. At all events, he was in some way part of their\nhousehold, possibly some kind of teacher and guide. We meet his name\nalso in the Epistle to the Colossians, and, from the nature of the\nreference to him there, we draw the inference that he filled some\n\"ministry\" in the Church of Laodicea. The nearness of the two cities\nmade it quite possible that he should live in Philemon's house in\nColossae and yet go over to Laodicea for his work.\n\nThe Apostle calls him \"his fellow-soldier,\" a phrase which is best\nexplained in the same fashion as is the previous \"fellow-worker,\"\nnamely, that by it Paul graciously associates Archippus with himself,\ndifferent as their tasks were. The variation of _soldier_ for _worker_\nprobably is due to the fact of Archippus' being the bishop of the\nLaodicean Church. In any case, it is very beautiful that the grizzled\nveteran officer should thus, as it were, clasp the hand of this young\nrecruit, and call him his comrade. How it would go to the heart of\nArchippus!\n\nA somewhat stern message is sent to Archippus in the Colossian letter.\nWhy did not Paul send it quietly in this Epistle instead of letting a\nwhole Church know of it? It seems at first sight as if he had chosen the\nharshest way; but perhaps further consideration may suggest that the\nreason was an instinctive unwillingness to introduce a jarring note into\nthe joyous friendship and confidence which sounds through this Epistle,\nand to bring public matters into this private communication. The\nwarning would come with more effect from the Church, and this cordial\nmessage of goodwill and confidence would prepare Archippus to receive\nthe other, as rain showers make the ground soft for the good seed. The\nprivate affection would mitigate the public exhortation with whatever\nrebuke may have been in it.\n\nA greeting is sent, too, to \"the Church in thy house.\" As in the case of\nthe similar community in the house of Nymphas (Col. iv. 15), we cannot\ndecide whether by this expression is meant simply a Christian family, or\nsome little company of believers who were wont to meet beneath\nPhilemon's roof for Christian converse and worship. The latter seems the\nmore probable supposition. It is natural that they should be addressed;\nfor Onesimus, if received by Philemon, would naturally become a member\nof the group, and therefore it was important to secure their good will.\n\nSo we have here shown to us, by one stray beam of twinkling light, for a\nmoment, a very sweet picture of the domestic life of that Christian\nhousehold in their remote valley. It shines still to us across the\ncenturies, which have swallowed up so much that seemed more permanent,\nand silenced so much that made far more noise in its day. The picture\nmay well set us asking ourselves the question whether we, with all our\nboasted advancement, have been able to realize the true ideal of\nChristian family life as these three did. The husband and wife dwelling\nas heirs together of the grace of life, their child beside them sharing\ntheir faith and service, their household ordered in the ways of the\nLord, their friends Christ's friends, and their social joys hallowed\nand serene--what nobler form of family life can be conceived than that?\nWhat a rebuke to, and satire on, many a so-called Christian household!\n\nII. We may deal briefly with the apostolic salutation, \"Grace to you and\npeace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,\" as we have already\nhad to speak of it in considering the greeting to the Colossians. The\ntwo main points to be observed in these words are the comprehensiveness\nof the Apostle's loving wish, and the source to which he looks for its\nfulfilment. Just as the regal title of the King, whose Throne was the\nCross, was written in the languages of culture, of law, and of religion,\nas an unconscious prophecy of His universal reign; so, with like\nunintentional felicity, we have blended here the ideals of good which\nthe East and the West have framed for those to whom they wish good, in\ntoken that Christ is able to slake all the thirsts of the soul, and that\nwhatsoever things any races of men have dreamed as the chiefest\nblessings, these are all to be reached through Him and Him only.\n\nBut the deeper lesson here is to be found by observing that \"grace\"\nrefers to the action of the Divine heart, and \"peace\" to the result\nthereof in man's experience. As we have noted in commenting on Col. i.\n2, \"grace\" is free, undeserved, unmotived, self-springing love. Hence it\ncomes to mean, not only the deep fountain in the Divine nature, that His\nlove, which, like some strong spring, leaps up and gushes forth by an\ninward impulse, in neglect of all motives drawn from the lovableness of\nits objects, such as determine our poor human loves, but also the\nresults of that bestowing love in men's characters, or, as we say, the\n\"graces\" of the Christian soul. They are \"grace,\" not only because in\nthe aesthetic sense of the word they are beautiful, but because, in the\ntheological meaning of it, they are the products of the giving love and\npower of God. \"Whatsoever things are lovely and of good report,\" all\nnobilities, tendernesses, exquisite beauties, and steadfast strengths of\nmind and heart, of will and disposition--all are the gifts of God's\nundeserved and open-handed love.\n\nThe fruit of such grace received is peace. In other places the Apostle\ntwice gives a fuller form of this salutation, inserting \"mercy\" between\nthe two here named; as also does St. John in his second Epistle. That\nfuller form gives us the source in the Divine heart, the manifestation\nof grace in the Divine act, and the outcome in human experience; or as\nwe may say, carrying on the metaphor, the broad, calm lake which the\ngrace, flowing to us in the stream of mercy, makes, when it opens out in\nour hearts. Here, however, we have but the ultimate source, and the\neffect in us.\n\nAll the discords of our nature and circumstances can be harmonized by\nthat grace which is ready to flow into our hearts. Peace with God, with\nourselves, with our fellows, repose in the midst of change, calm in\nconflict, may be ours. All these various applications of the one idea\nshould be included in our interpretation, for they are all included in\nfact in the peace which God's grace brings where it lights. The first\nand deepest need of the soul is conscious amity and harmony with God,\nand nothing but the consciousness of His love as forgiving and healing\nbrings that. We are torn asunder by conflicting passions, and our hearts\nare the battleground for conscience and inclination, sin and goodness,\nhopes and fears, and a hundred other contending emotions. Nothing but a\nheavenly power can make the lion within lie down with the lamb. Our\nnatures are \"like the troubled sea, which cannot rest,\" whose churning\nwaters cast up the foul things that lie in their slimy beds; but where\nGod's grace comes, a great calm hushes the tempests, \"and birds of peace\nsit brooding on the charmed wave.\"\n\nWe are compassed about by foes with whom we have to wage undying\nwarfare, and by hostile circumstances and difficult tasks which need\ncontinual conflict; but a man with God's grace in his heart may have the\nrest of submission, the repose of trust, the tranquillity of him who\n\"has ceased from his own works\": and so, while the daily struggle goes\non and the battle rages round, there may be quiet, deep and sacred, in\nhis heart.\n\nThe life of nature, which is a selfish life, flings us into unfriendly\nrivalries with others, and sets us battling for our own hands, and it is\nhard to pass out of ourselves sufficiently to live peaceably with all\nmen. But the grace of God in our hearts drives out self, and changes the\nman who truly has it into its own likeness. He who knows that he owes\neverything to a Divine love which stooped to his lowliness, and pardoned\nhis sins, and enriched him with all which he has that is worthy and\nnoble, cannot but move among men, doing with them, in his poor fashion,\nwhat God has done with him.\n\nThus, in all the manifold forms in which restless hearts need peace,\nthe grace of God brings it to them. The great river of mercy which has\nits source deep in the heart of God, and in His free, undeserved love,\npours into poor, unquiet spirits, and there spreads itself into a placid\nlake, on whose still surface all heaven is mirrored.\n\nThe elliptical form of this salutation leaves it doubtful whether we are\nto see in it a prayer or a prophecy, a wish or an assurance. According\nto the probable reading of the parallel greeting in the second Epistle\nof John, the latter would be the construction; but probably it is best\nto combine both ideas, and to see here, as Bengel does in the passage\nreferred to in John's Epistle, \"votum cum affirmatione\"--a desire which\nis so certain of its own fulfilment, that it is a prophecy, just because\nit is a prayer.\n\nThe ground of the certainty lies in the source from which the grace and\npeace come. They flow \"from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.\"\nThe placing of both names under the government of one preposition\nimplies the mysterious unity of the Father with the Son; while\nconversely St. John, in the parallel passage just mentioned, by\nemploying two prepositions, brings out the distinction between the\nFather, who is the fontal source, and the Son, who is the flowing\nstream. But both forms of the expression demand for their honest\nexplanation the recognition of the divinity of Jesus Christ. How dare a\nman, who thought of Him as other than Divine, put His name thus by the\nside of God's, as associated with the Father in the bestowal of grace?\nSurely such words, spoken without any thought of a doctrine of the\nTrinity, and which are the spontaneous utterance of Christian devotion,\nare demonstration, not to be gainsaid, that to Paul, at all events,\nJesus Christ was, in the fullest sense, Divine. The double source is one\nsource, for in the Son is the whole fulness of the Godhead; and the\ngrace of God, bringing with it the peace of God, is poured into that\nspirit which bows humbly before Jesus Christ, and trusts Him when He\nsays, with love in His eyes and comfort in His tones, \"My grace is\nsufficient for thee\"; \"My peace give I unto you.\"\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\n \"I thank my God always, making mention of thee in my prayers,\n hearing of thy love, and of the faith which thou hast toward the\n Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints; that the fellowship of thy\n faith may become effectual, in the knowledge of every good thing\n which is in you, unto Christ. For I had much joy and comfort in thy\n love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through\n thee, brother.\"--PHILEM. 4-7 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nPaul's was one of those regal natures to which things are possible that\nother men dare not do. No suspicion of weakness attaches to him when he\npours out his heart in love, nor any of insincerity when he speaks of\nhis continual prayers for his friends, or when he runs over in praise of\nhis converts. Few men have been able to talk so much of their love\nwithout betraying its shallowness and self-consciousness, or of their\nprayers without exciting a doubt of their manly sincerity. But the\nApostle could venture to do these things without being thought either\nfeeble or false, and could unveil his deepest affections and his most\nsecret devotions without provoking either a smile or a shrug.\n\nHe has the habit of beginning all his letters with thankful\ncommendations and assurances of a place in his prayers. The exceptions\nare 2 Corinthians, where he writes under strong and painful emotion, and\nGalatians, where a vehement accusation of fickleness takes the place of\nthe usual greeting. But these exceptions make the habit more\nconspicuous. Though this is a habit, it is not a form, but the perfectly\nsimple and natural expression of the moment's feelings. He begins his\nletters so, not in order to please and to say smooth things, but because\nhe feels lovingly, and his heart fills with a pure joy which speaks most\nfitly in prayer. To recognise good is the way to make good better.\nTeachers must love if their teaching is to help. The best way to secure\nthe doing of any signal act of Christian generosity, such as Paul wished\nof Philemon, is to show absolute confidence that it will be done,\nbecause it is in accordance with what we know of the doer's character.\n\"It's a shame to tell Arnold a lie: he always trusts us,\" the Rugby boys\nused to say. Nothing could so powerfully have swayed Philemon to grant\nPaul's request, as Paul's graceful mention of his beneficence, which\nmention is yet by no means conscious diplomacy, but instinctive\nkindliness.\n\nThe words of this section are simple enough, but their order is not\naltogether clear. They are a good example of the hurry and rush of the\nApostle's style, arising from his impetuosity of nature. His thoughts\nand feelings come knocking at \"the door of his lips\" in a crowd, and do\nnot always make their way out in logical order. For instance, he begins\nhere with thankfulness, and that suggests the mention of his prayers,\n_v._ 4. Then he gives the occasion of his thankfulness in _v._ 5,\n\"Hearing of thy love and of the faith which thou hast,\" etc. He next\ntells Philemon the subject matter of his prayers in _v._ 6, \"That the\nfellowship of thy faith may become effectual,\" etc. These two verses\nthus correspond to the two clauses of _v._ 4, and finally in _v._ 7 he\nharks back once more to his reasons for thankfulness in Philemon's love\nand faith, adding, in a very lovely and pathetic way, that the good\ndeeds done in far off Colossae had wafted a refreshing air to the Roman\nprison house, and, little as the doer knew it, had been a joy and\ncomfort to the solitary prisoner there.\n\nI. We have,--then, here the character of Philemon, which made Paul glad\nand thankful. The order of the language is noteworthy. Love is put\nbefore faith. The significance of this sequence comes out by contrast\nwith similar expressions in Ephesians i. 15: \"Your faith in the Lord\nJesus, and love unto all the saints\" (A.V.) and Colossians i. 4: \"Your\nfaith in Christ Jesus, and the love which ye have toward all the\nsaints,\" where the same elements are arranged in the more natural order,\ncorresponding to their logical relation; viz., faith first, and love as\nits consequence. The reason for the change here is probably that\nOnesimus and Epaphras, from whom Paul would be likely to hear of\nPhilemon, would enlarge upon his practical benevolence, and would\nnaturally say less about the root than about the sweet and visible\nfruit. The arrangement then is an echo of the talks which had gladdened\nthe Apostle. Possibly, too, love is put first, because the object of the\nwhole letter is to secure its exercise towards the fugitive slave; and\nseeing that the Apostle would listen with that purpose in view, each\nstory which was told of Philemon's kindness to others made the deeper\nimpression on Paul. The order here is the order of analysis, digging\ndown from manifestation to cause: the order in the parallel passages\nquoted is the order of production ascending from root to flower.\n\nAnother peculiarity in the arrangement of the words is that the objects\nof love and faith are named in the reverse order to that in which these\ngraces are mentioned, \"the Lord Jesus\" being first, and \"all the saints\"\nlast. Thus we have, as it were, \"faith towards the Lord Jesus\" imbedded\nin the centre of the verse, while \"thy love ... toward all the saints,\"\nwhich flows from it, wraps it round. The arrangement is like some forms\nof Hebrew poetical parallelism, in which the first and fourth members\ncorrespond, and the second and third, or like the pathetic measure of\n_In Memoriam_, and has the same sweet lingering cadence; while it also\nimplies important truths as to the central place in regard to the\nvirtues which knit hearts in soft bonds of love and help, of the faith\nwhich finds its sole object in Jesus Christ.\n\nThe source and foundation of goodness and nobility of character is faith\nin Jesus the Lord. That must be buried deep in the soul if tender love\ntoward men is to flow from it. It is \"the very pulse of the machine.\"\nAll the pearls of goodness are held in solution in faith. Or, to speak\nmore accurately, faith in Christ gives possession of His life and\nSpirit, from which all good is unfolded; and it further sets in action\nstrong motives by which to lead to every form of purity and beauty of\nsoul; and, still further, it brings the heart into glad contact with a\nDivine love which forgives its Onesimuses, and so it cannot but touch\nthe heart into some glad imitation of that love which is its own dearest\ntreasure. So that, for all these and many more reasons, love to men is\nthe truest visible expression, as it is the direct and necessary result,\nof faith in Christ. What is exhaled from the heart and drawn upwards by\nthe fervours of Christ's self-sacrificing love is faith; when it falls\non earth again, as a sweet rain of pity and tenderness, it is love.\n\nFurther, the true object of faith and one phase of its attitude towards\nthat object are brought out in this central clause. We have the two\nnames which express, the one the divinity, the other the humanity of\nChrist. So the proper object of faith is the whole Christ, in both His\nnatures, the Divine-human Saviour. Christian faith sees the divinity in\nthe humanity, and the humanity around the divinity. A faith which grasps\nonly the manhood is maimed, and indeed has no right to the name.\nHumanity is not a fit object of trust. It may change; it has limits; it\nmust die. \"Cursed be the man that maketh flesh his arm,\" is as true\nabout faith in a merely human Christ as about faith in any other man.\nThere may be reverence, there may be in some sense love, obedience,\nimitation; but there should not be, and I see not how there can be, the\nabsolute reliance, the utter dependence, the unconditional submission,\nwhich are of the very essence of faith, in the emotions which men\ncherish towards a human Christ. The Lord Jesus only can evoke these. On\nthe other hand, the far off splendour and stupendous glory of the Divine\nnature becomes the object of untrembling trust, and draws near enough to\nbe known and loved, when we have it mellowed to our weak eyes by shining\nthrough the tempering medium of His humanity.\n\nThe preposition here used to define the relation of faith to its object\nis noteworthy. Faith is \"toward\" Him. The idea is that of a movement of\nyearning after an unattained good. And that is one part of the true\noffice of faith. There is in it an element of aspiration, as of the\nsoaring eagle to the sun, or the climbing tendrils to the summit of the\nsupporting stem. In Christ there is always something beyond, which\ndiscloses itself the more clearly, the fuller is our present possession\nof Him. Faith builds upon and rests in the Christ possessed and\nexperienced, and just therefore will it, if it be true, yearn towards\nthe Christ unpossessed. A great reach of flashing glory beyond opens on\nus, as we round each new headland in that unending voyage. Our faith\nshould and will be an ever-increasing fruition of Christ, accompanied\nwith increasing perception of unreached depths in Him, and increasing\nlonging after enlarged possession of His infinite fulness.\n\nWhere the centre is such a faith, its circumference and outward\nexpression will be a widely diffused love. That deep and most private\nemotion of the soul, which is the flight of the lonely spirit to the\nsingle Christ, as if these two were alone in the world, does not bar a\nman off from his kind, but effloresces into the largest and most\npractical love. When one point of the compasses is struck deeply and\nfirmly into that centre of all things, the other can steadily sweep a\nwide circle. The widest is not here drawn, but a somewhat narrower,\nconcentric one. The love is \"toward all saints.\" Clearly their relation\nto Jesus Christ puts all Christians into relation with one another. That\nwas an astounding thought in Philemon's days, when such high walls\nseparated race from race, the slave from the free, woman from man; but\nthe new faith leaped all barriers, and put a sense of brotherhood into\nevery heart that learned God's fatherhood in Jesus. The nave of the\nwheel holds all the spokes in place. The sun makes the system called by\nits name a unity, though some planets be of giant bulk and swing through\na mighty orbit, waited on by obedient satellites, and some be but specks\nand move through a narrow circle, and some have scarce been seen by\nhuman eye. All are one, because all revolve round one sun, though solemn\nabysses part them, and though no message has ever crossed the gulfs from\none to another.\n\nThe recognition of the common relation which all who bear the same\nrelation to Christ bear to one another has more formidable difficulties\nto encounter to-day than it had in these times when the Church had no\nstereotyped creeds and no stiffened organizations, and when to the\nflexibility of its youth were added the warmth of new conviction and the\njoy of a new field for expanding emotions of brotherly kindness. But\nnothing can absolve from the duty. Creeds separate, Christ unites. The\nroad to \"the reunion of Christendom\" is through closer union to Jesus\nChrist. When that is secured, barriers which now keep brethren apart\nwill be leaped, or pulled down, or got rid of somehow. It is of no use\nto say, \"Go to, let us love one another.\" That will be unreal, mawkish,\nhistrionic. \"The faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus\" will be\nthe productive cause, as it is the measure, of \"thy love toward all the\nsaints.\"\n\nBut the love which is here commended is not a mere feeling, nor does it\ngo off in gushes, however fervid, of eloquent emotion. Clearly Philemon\nwas a benefactor of the brotherhood, and his love did not spend only the\npaper money of words and promises to pay, but the solid coin of kindly\ndeeds. Practical charity is plainly included in that love of which it\nhad cheered Paul in his imprisonment to hear. Its mention, then, is one\nstep nearer to the object of the letter. Paul conducts his siege of\nPhilemon's heart skilfully, and opens here a fresh parallel, and creeps\na yard or two closer up. \"Surely you are not going to shut out one of\nyour own household from that wide-reaching kindness.\" So much is most\ndelicately hinted, or rather, left to Philemon to infer, by the\nrecognition of his brotherly love. A hint lies in it that there may be a\ndanger of cherishing a cheap and easy charity that reverses the law of\ngravity, and _in_creases as the square of the distance, having\ntenderness and smiles for people and Churches which are well out of our\nroad, and frowns for some nearer home. \"He that loveth not his brother\nwhom he hath seen, how shall he love\" his brother \"whom he hath not\nseen?\"\n\nII. In _v._ 6 we have the apostolic prayer for Philemon, grounded on the\ntidings of his love and faith. It is immediately connected with \"the\nprayers\" of _v._ 4 by the introductory \"that,\" which is best understood\nas introducing the subject matter of the prayer. Whatever then may be\nthe meaning of this supplication, it is a prayer for Philemon, and not\nfor others. That remark disposes of the explanations which widen its\nscope, contrary, as it seems to me, to the natural understanding of the\ncontext.\n\n\"The fellowship of thy faith\" is capable of more than one meaning. The\nsignification of the principal word and the relation expressed by the\npreposition may be variously determined. \"Fellowship\" is more than once\nused in the sense of sharing material wealth with Christ's poor, or more\nharshly and plainly, charitable contribution. So we find it in Romans\nxv. 26 and 2 Corinthians ix. 13. Adopting that meaning here, the \"of\"\nmust express, as it often does, the origin of Philemon's kindly gifts,\nnamely, his faith; and the whole phrase accords with the preceding verse\nin its view of the genesis of beneficence to the brethren as the result\nof faith in the Lord.\n\nThe Apostle prays that this faith-begotten practical liberality may\nbecome efficacious, or may acquire still more power; _i.e._ may increase\nin activity, and so may lead to \"the knowledge of every good thing that\nis in us.\" The interpretation has found extensive support, which takes\nthis as equivalent to a desire that Philemon's good deeds might lead\nothers, whether enemies or friends, to recognise the beauties of\nsympathetic goodness in the true Christian character. Such an\nexplanation hopelessly confuses the whole, and does violence to the\nplain requirements of the context, which limit the prayer to Philemon.\nIt is _his_ \"knowledge\" of which Paul is thinking. The same profound and\npregnant word is used here which occurs so frequently in the other\nepistles of the captivity, and which always means that deep and vital\nknowledge which knows because it possesses. Usually its object is God as\nrevealed in the great work and person of Christ. Here its object is the\nsum total of spiritual blessings, the whole fulness of the gifts given\nus by, and, at bottom, consisting of, that same Christ dwelling in the\nheart, who is revealer, because He is communicator, of God. The full,\ndeep knowledge of this manifold and yet one good is no mere theoretical\nwork of the understanding, but is an experience which is only possible\nto him who enjoys it.\n\nThe meaning of the whole prayer, then, put into feebler and more modern\ndress is simply that Philemon's liberality and Christian love may grow\nmore and more, and may help him to a fuller appropriation and experience\nof the large treasures \"which are in us,\" though in germ and\npotentiality only, until brought into consciousness by our own Christian\ngrowth. The various readings \"in us,\" or \"in you\" only widen the circle\nof possessors of these gifts to the whole Church, or narrow it to the\nbelievers of Colossae.\n\nThere still remain for consideration the last words of the clause, \"unto\nChrist\" They must be referred back to the main subject of the sentence,\n\"may become effectual.\" They seem to express the condition on which\nChristian \"fellowship,\" like all Christian acts, can be quickened with\nenergy, and tend to spiritual progress; namely, that it shall be done as\nto the Lord. There is perhaps in this appended clause a kind of\nlingering echo of our Lord's own words, in which He accepts as done unto\nHim the kindly deeds done to the least of His brethren.\n\nSo then this great prayer brings out very strongly the goal to which the\nhighest perfection of Christian character has still to aspire. Philemon\nwas no weakling or laggard in the Christian conflict and race. His\nattainments sent a thrill of thankfulness through the Apostle's spirit.\nBut there remained \"very much land to be possessed\"; and precisely\nbecause he had climbed so far, does his friend pray that he may mount\nstill higher, where the sweep of view is wider, and the air clearer\nstill. It is an endless task to bring into conscious possession and\nexercise all the fulness with which Christ endows His feeblest servant.\nNot till all that God can give, or rather has given, has been\nincorporated in the nature and wrought out in the life, is the term\nreached. This is the true sublime of the Christian life, that it begins\nwith the reception of a strictly infinite gift, and demands immortality\nas the field for unfolding its worth. Continual progress in all that\nennobles the nature, satisfies the heart, and floods the mind with light\nis the destiny of the Christian soul, and of it alone. Therefore\nunwearied effort, buoyancy, and hope which no dark memories can dash nor\nany fears darken should mark _their_ temper, to whom the future offers\nan absolutely endless and limitless increase in the possession of the\ninfinite God.\n\nThere is also brought out in this prayer the value of Christian\nbeneficence as a means of spiritual growth. Philemon's \"communication of\nfaith\" will help him to the knowledge of the fulness of Christ. The\nreaction of conduct on character and growth in godliness is a familiar\nidea with Paul, especially in the prison epistles. Thus we read in his\nprayer for the Colossians, \"fruitful in every good work, and increasing\nin the knowledge of God.\" The faithful carrying out in life of what we\nalready know is not the least important condition of increasing\nknowledge. If a man does not live up to his religion, his religion\nshrinks to the level of his life. Unoccupied territory lapses. We hold\nour spiritual gifts on the terms of using them. The practice of\nconvictions deepens convictions; not that the exercise of Christian\ngraces will make theologians, but it will give larger possession of the\nknowledge which is life.\n\nWhile this general principle is abundantly enforced in Scripture and\nconfirmed by experience, the specific form of it here is that the right\nadministration of wealth is a direct means of increasing a Christian's\npossession of the large store treasured in Christ. Every loving thought\ntowards the sorrowful and the needy, every touch of sympathy yielded to,\nand every kindly, Christlike deed flowing from these, thins away some\nfilm of the barriers between the believing soul and a full possession of\nGod, and thus makes it more capable of beholding Him and of rising to\ncommunion with Him. The possibilities of wealth lie, not only in the\ndirection of earthly advantages, but in the fact that men may so use it\nas to secure their being \"received into everlasting habitations.\" Modern\nevangelical teachers have been afraid to say what Paul ventured to say\non this matter, for fear of obscuring the truth which Paul gave his life\nto preach. Surely they need not be more jealous for the doctrine of\n\"justification by faith\" than he was; and if he had no scruples in\ntelling rich men to \"lay up in store for themselves a good foundation\nfor the time to come,\" by being \"ready to communicate,\" they may safely\nfollow. There is probably no more powerful cause of the comparative\nfeebleness of average English Christianity than the selfish use of\nmoney, and no surer means of securing a great increase in the depth and\nrichness of the individual Christian life than the fuller application of\nChristian principle, that is, of the law of sacrifice, to the\nadministration of property.\n\nThe final clause of the verse seems to state the condition on which\nPhilemon's good deeds will avail for his own growth in grace, and\nimplies that in him that condition is fulfilled. If a man does deeds of\nkindness and help to one of these little ones, as \"unto Christ,\" then\nhis beneficence will come back in spiritual blessing on his own head. If\nthey are the result of simple natural compassion, beautiful as it is,\nthey will reinforce _it_, but have no tendency to strengthen that from\nwhich they do _not_ flow. If they are tainted by any self-regard, then\nthey are not charitable deeds at all. What is done for Christ will bring\nto the doer more of Christ as its consequence and reward. All life, with\nall its varied forms of endurance and service, comes under this same\nlaw, and tends to make more assured and more blessed and more profound\nthe knowledge and grasp of the fulness of Christ, in the measure in\nwhich it is directed to Him, and done or suffered for His sake.\n\nIII. The present section closes with a very sweet and pathetic\nrepresentation of the Apostle's joy in the character of his friend.\n\nThe \"for\" of _v._ 7 connects not with the words of petition immediately\nbefore, but with \"I thank my God\" (_v._ 4), and gives a graceful\nturn--graceful only because so unforced and true--to the sentence. \"My\nthanks are due to you for your kindness to others, for, though you did\nnot think of it, you have done me as much good as you did them.\" The\n\"love\" which gives Paul such \"great joy and consolation\" is not love\ndirected to himself, but to others; and the reason why it gladdened the\nApostle was because it had \"refreshed the hearts\" of sorrowful and needy\nsaints in Colossae. This tender expression of affectionate joy in\nPhilemon's good deeds is made wonderfully emotional by that emphatic\n\"brother\" which ends the verse, and by its unusual position in the\nsentence assumes the character of a sudden, irrepressible shoot of love\nfrom Paul's heart towards Philemon, like the quick impulse with which a\nmother will catch up her child, and cover it with caresses. Paul was\nnever ashamed of showing his tenderness, and it never repels us.\n\nThese final words suggest the unexpected good which good deeds may do.\nNo man can ever tell how far the blessing of his trivial acts of\nkindness, or other pieces of Christian conduct, may travel. They may\nbenefit one in material fashion, but the fragrance may reach many\nothers. Philemon little dreamed that his small charity to some suffering\nbrother in Colossae would find its way across the sea, and bring a waft\nof coolness and refreshing into the hot prison house. Neither Paul nor\nPhilemon dreamed that, made immortal by the word of the former, the same\ntransient act would find its way across the centuries, and would \"smell\nsweet and blossom in the dust\" to-day. Men know not who are their\naudiences, or who may be spectators of their works; for they are all\nbound so mystically and closely together, that none can tell how far the\nvibrations which he sets in motion will thrill. This is true about all\ndeeds, good and bad, and invests them all with solemn importance. The\narrow shot travels beyond the archer's eye, and may wound where he\nknows not. The only thing certain about the deed once done is, that its\nirrevocable consequences will reach much farther than the doer dreamed,\nand that no limits can be set to the subtle influence which, for\nblessing or harm, it exerts.\n\nSince the diameter of the circle which our acts may fill is unknown and\nunknowable, the doer who stands at the centre is all the more solemnly\nbound to make sure of the only thing of which he can make sure, the\nquality of the influence sent forth; and since his deed may blight or\nbless so widely, to clarify his motives and guard his doings, that they\nmay bring only good wherever they light.\n\nMay we not venture to see shining through the Apostle's words the\nMaster's face? \"Even as Christ did for us with God the Father,\" says\nLuther, \"thus also doth St. Paul for Onesimus with Philemon\"; and that\nthought may permissibly be applied to many parts of this letter, to\nwhich it gives much beauty. It may not be all fanciful to say that, as\nPaul's heart was gladdened when he heard of the good deeds done in\nfar-off Colossae by a man who \"owed to him his own self\" so we may\nbelieve that Christ is glad and has \"great joy in our love\" to His\nservants and in our kindliness, when He beholds the poor work done by\nthe humblest for His sake. He sees and rejoices, and approves when there\nare none but Himself to know or praise; and at last many, who did lowly\nservice to His friends, will be surprised to hear from His lips the\nacknowledgment that it was Himself whom they had visited and succoured,\nand that they had been ministering to the Master's joy when they had\nonly known themselves to be succouring His servants' need.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n \"Wherefore, though I have all boldness in Christ to enjoin thee that\n which is befitting, yet for love's sake I rather beseech, being such\n a one as Paul the aged, and now a prisoner also of Jesus Christ; I\n beseech thee for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds,\n Onesimus; who was aforetime unprofitable to thee, but now is\n profitable to thee, and to me.\"--PHILEM. 8-11 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nAfter honest and affectionate praise of Philemon, the Apostle now\napproaches the main purpose of his letter. But even now he does not\nblurt it out at once. He probably anticipated that his friend was justly\nangry with his runaway slave, and therefore, in these verses, he touches\na kind of prelude to his request with what we should call the finest\ntact, if it were not so manifestly the unconscious product of simple\ngood feeling. Even by the end of them he has not ventured to say what he\nwishes done, though he has ventured to introduce the obnoxious name. So\nmuch persuading and sanctified ingenuity does it sometimes take to\ninduce good men to do plain duties which may be unwelcome.\n\nThese verses not only present a model for efforts to lead men in right\npaths, but they unveil the very spirit of Christianity in their\npleadings. Paul's persuasives to Philemon are echoes of Christ's\npersuasives to Paul. He had learned his method from his Master, and had\nhimself experienced that gentle love was more than commandments.\nTherefore he softens his voice to speak to Philemon, as Christ had\nsoftened His to speak to Paul. We do not arbitrarily \"spiritualize\" the\nwords, but simply recognise that the Apostle moulded his conduct after\nChrist's pattern, when we see here a mirror reflecting some of the\nhighest truths of Christian ethics.\n\nI. Here is seen love which beseeches where it might command. The first\nword, \"wherefore,\" leads back to the preceding sentence, and makes\nPhilemon's past kindness to the saints the reason for his being asked to\nbe kind now. The Apostle's confidence in his friend's character, and in\nhis being amenable to the appeal of love, made Paul waive his apostolic\nauthority, and sue instead of commanding. There are people, like the\nhorse and the mule, who understand only rough imperatives, backed by\nforce; but they are fewer than we are apt to think, and perhaps\ngentleness is never wholly thrown away. No doubt, there must be\nadaptation of method to different characters, but we should try\ngentleness before we make up our minds that to try it is to throw pearls\nbefore swine.\n\nThe careful limits put to apostolic authority here deserve notice. \"I\nmight be much bold in Christ to command.\" He has no authority in\nhimself, but he has \"in Christ.\" His own personality gives him none, but\nhis relation to his Master does. It is a distinct assertion of right to\ncommand, and an equally distinct repudiation of any such right, except\nas derived from his union with Jesus.\n\nHe still further limits his authority by that noteworthy clause, \"that\nwhich is befitting.\" His authority does not stretch so far as to create\nnew obligations, or to repeal plain laws of duty. There was a standard\nby which his commands were to be tried. He appeals to Philemon's own\nsense of moral fitness, to his natural conscience, enlightened by\ncommunion with Christ.\n\nThen comes the great motive which he will urge, \"for love's sake,\"--not\nmerely his to Philemon, nor Philemon's to him, but the bond which unites\nall Christian souls together, and binds them all to Christ. \"That grand,\nsacred principle,\" says Paul, \"bids me put away authority, and speak in\nentreaty.\" Love naturally beseeches, and does not order. The harsh voice\nof command is simply the imposition of another's will, and it belongs to\nrelationships in which the heart has no share. But wherever love is the\nbond, grace is poured into the lips, and \"I enjoin\" becomes \"I pray.\" So\nthat even where the outward form of authority is still kept, as in a\nparent to young children, there will ever be some endearing word to\nswathe the harsh imperative in tenderness, like a sword blade wrapped\nabout with wool, lest it should wound. Love tends to obliterate the hard\ndistinction of superior and inferior, which finds its expression in\nlaconic imperatives and silent obedience. It seeks not for mere\ncompliance with commands, but for oneness of will. The lightest wish\nbreathed by loved lips is stronger than all stern injunctions, often,\nalas! than all laws of duty. The heart is so tuned as only to vibrate to\nthat one tone. The rocking stones, which all the storms of winter may\nhowl round and not move, can be set swinging by a light touch. Una leads\nthe lion in a silken leash. Love controls the wildest nature. The\ndemoniac, whom no chains can bind, is found sitting at the feet of\nincarnate gentleness. So the wish of love is all-powerful with loving\nhearts, and its faintest whisper louder and more constraining than all\nthe trumpets of Sinai.\n\nThere is a large lesson here for all human relationships. Fathers and\nmothers, husbands and wives, friends and companions, teachers and guides\nof all sorts, should set their conduct by this pattern, and let the law\nof love sit ever upon their lips. Authority is the weapon of a weak man,\nwho is doubtful of his own power to get himself obeyed, or of a selfish\none, who seeks for mechanical submission rather than for the fealty of\nwilling hearts. Love is the weapon of a strong man who can cast aside\nthe trappings of superiority, and is never loftier than when he\ndescends, nor more absolute than when he abjures authority, and appeals\nwith love to love. Men are not to be dragooned into goodness. If mere\noutward acts are sought, it may be enough to impose another's will in\norders as curt as a soldier's word of command; but if the joyful\ninclination of the heart to the good deed is to be secured, that can\nonly be done when law melts into love, and is thereby transformed to a\nmore imperative obligation, written not on tables of stone, but on\nfleshy tables of the heart.\n\nThere is a glimpse here into the very heart of Christ's rule over men.\nHe too does not merely impose commands, but stoops to entreat, where He\nindeed might command. \"Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends\";\nand though He does go on to say, \"Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever\nI command you,\" yet His commandment has in it so much tenderness,\ncondescension, and pleading love, that it sounds far liker beseeching\nthan enjoining. His yoke is easy, for this among other reasons, that it\nis, if one may so say, padded with love. His burden is light, because it\nis laid on His servant's shoulders by a loving hand; and so, as St.\nBernard says, it is _onus quod portantem portat_, a burden which carries\nhim who carries it.\n\nII. There is in these verses the appeal which gives weight to the\nentreaties of love. The Apostle brings personal considerations to bear\non the enforcement of impersonal duty, and therein follows the example\nof his Lord. He presents his own circumstances as adding power to his\nrequest, and as it were puts himself into the scale. He touches with\nsingular pathos on two things which should sway his friend. \"Such a one\nas Paul the aged.\" The alternative rendering \"ambassador,\" while quite\npossible, has not congruity in its favour, and would be a recurrence to\nthat very motive of official authority which he has just disclaimed. The\nother rendering is every way preferable. How old was he? Probably\nsomewhere about sixty--not a very great age, but life was somewhat\nshorter then than now, and Paul was, no doubt, aged by work, by worry,\nand by the unresting spirit that \"o'er-informed his tenement of clay.\"\nSuch temperaments as his soon grow old. Perhaps Philemon was not much\nyounger; but the prosperous Colossian gentleman had had a smoother life,\nand, no doubt, carried his years more lightly.\n\nThe requests of old age should have weight. In our days, what with the\nimprovements in education, and the general loosening of the bonds of\nreverence, the old maxim that \"the utmost respect is due to children,\"\nreceives a strange interpretation, and in many a household the Divine\norder is turned upside down, and the juniors regulate all things. Other\nstill more sacred things will be likely to lose their due reverence when\nsilver hairs no longer receive theirs.\n\nBut usually the aged who are \"such\" aged \"as Paul\" was, will not fail of\nobtaining honour and deference. No more beautiful picture of the bright\nenergy and freshness still possible to the old was ever painted than may\nbe gathered from the Apostle's unconscious sketch of himself. He\ndelighted in having young life about him--Timothy, Titus, Mark, and\nothers, boys in comparison with himself, whom yet he admitted to close\nintimacy as some old general might the youths of his staff, warming his\nage at the genial flame of their growing energies and unworn hopes. His\nwas a joyful old age too, notwithstanding many burdens of anxiety and\nsorrow. We hear the clear song of his gladness ringing through the\nepistle of joy, that to the Philippians, which, like this, dates from\nhis Roman captivity. A Christian old age should be joyful, and only it\nwill be; for the joys of the natural life burn low, when the fuel that\nfed them is nearly exhausted, and withered hands are held in vain over\nthe dying embers. But Christ's joy \"remains,\" and a Christian old age\nmay be like the polar midsummer days, when the sun shines till midnight,\nand dips but for an imperceptible interval ere it rises for the unending\nday of heaven.\n\nPaul the aged was full of interest in the things of the day; no mere\n\"praiser of time gone by,\" but a strenuous worker, cherishing a quick\nsympathy and an eager interest which kept him young to the end. Witness\nthat last chapter of the second Epistle to Timothy, where he is seen, in\nthe immediate expectation of death, entering heartily into passing\ntrifles, and thinking it worth while to give little pieces of\ninformation about the movements of his friends, and wishful to get his\nbooks and parchments, that he might do some more work while waiting for\nthe headsman's sword. And over his cheery, sympathetic, busy old age\nthere is thrown the light of a great hope, which kindles desire and\nonward looks in his dim eyes, and parts \"such a one as Paul the aged\" by\na whole universe from the old whose future is dark and their past\ndreary, whose hope is a phantom and their memory a pang.\n\nThe Apostle adds yet another personal characteristic as a motive with\nPhilemon to grant his request: \"Now a prisoner also of Christ Jesus.\" He\nhas already spoken of himself in these terms in _v._ 1. His sufferings\nwere imposed by and endured for Christ. He holds up his fettered wrist,\nand in effect says, \"Surely you will not refuse anything that you can do\nto wrap a silken softness round the cold, hard iron, especially when you\nremember for Whose sake and by Whose will I am bound with this chain.\"\nHe thus brings personal motives to reinforce duty which is binding from\nother and higher considerations. He does not merely tell Philemon that\nhe ought to take back Onesimus as a piece of self-sacrificing Christian\nduty. He does imply that highest motive throughout his pleadings, and\nurges that such action is \"fitting\" or in consonance with the position\nand obligations of a Christian man. But he backs up this highest reason\nwith these others: \"If you hesitate to take him back because you ought,\nwill you do it because I ask you? and, before you answer that question,\nwill you remember my age, and what I am bearing for the Master?\" If he\ncan get his friend to do the right thing by the help of these subsidiary\nmotives, still, it is the right thing; and the appeal to these motives\nwill do Philemon no harm, and, if successful, will do both him and\nOnesimus a great deal of good.\n\nDoes not this action of Paul remind us of the highest example of a\nsimilar use of motives of personal attachment as aids to duty? Christ\ndoes thus with His servants. He does not simply hold up before us a cold\nlaw of duty, but warms it by introducing our personal relation to Him as\nthe main motive for keeping it. Apart from Him, Morality can only point\nto the tables of stone and say: \"There! that is what you ought to do. Do\nit, or face the consequences.\" But Christ says: \"I have given Myself for\nyou. My will is your law. Will you do it for My sake?\" Instead of the\nchilling, statuesque ideal, as pure as marble and as cold, a Brother\nstands before us with a heart that beats, a smile on His face, a hand\noutstretched to help; and His word is, \"If ye love Me, keep My\ncommandments.\" The specific difference of Christian morality lies not in\nits precepts, but in its motive, and in its gift of power to obey. Paul\ncould only urge regard to him as a subsidiary inducement. Christ puts it\nas the chief, nay, as the sole motive for obedience.\n\nIII. The last point suggested by these verses is the gradual opening up\nof the main subject matter of the Apostle's request. Very noteworthy is\nthe tenderness of the description of the fugitive as \"my child, whom I\nhave begotten in my bonds.\" Paul does not venture to name him at once,\nbut prepares the way by the warmth of this affectionate reference. The\nposition of the name in the sentence is most unusual, and suggests a\nkind of hesitation to take the plunge, while the hurried passing on to\nmeet the objection which he knew would spring immediately to Philemon's\nmind is almost as if Paul laid his hand on his friend's lips to stop his\nwords,--\"Onesimus then is it? that good-for-nothing!\" Paul admits the\nindictment, will say no word to mitigate the condemnation due to his\npast worthlessness, but, with a playful allusion to the slave's name,\nwhich conceals his deep earnestness, assures Philemon that he will find\nthe formerly inappropriate name, Onesimus--_i.e._ profitable--true yet,\nfor all that is past. He is sure of this, because he, Paul, has proved\nhis value. Surely never were the natural feelings of indignation and\nsuspicion more skilfully soothed, and never did repentant\ngood-for-nothing get sent back to regain the confidence which he had\nforfeited, with such a certificate of character in his hand!\n\nBut there is something of more importance than Paul's inborn delicacy\nand tact to notice here. Onesimus had been a bad specimen of a bad\nclass. Slavery must needs corrupt both the owner and the chattel; and,\nas a matter of fact, we have classical allusions enough to show that the\nslaves of Paul's period were deeply tainted with the characteristic\nvices of their condition. Liars, thieves, idle, treacherous, nourishing\na hatred of their masters all the more deadly that it was smothered, but\nready to flame out, if opportunity served, in blood-curdling\ncruelties--they constituted an ever-present danger, and needed an\never-wakeful watchfulness. Onesimus had been known to Philemon only as\none of the idlers who were more of a nuisance than a benefit, and cost\nmore than they earned; and he apparently ended his career by theft. And\nthis degraded creature, with scars on his soul deeper and worse than the\nmarks of fetters on his limbs, had somehow found his way to the great\njungle of a city, where all foul vermin could crawl and hiss and sting\nwith comparative safety. There he had somehow come across the Apostle,\nand had received into his heart, filled with ugly desires and lusts, the\nmessage of Christ's love, which had swept it clean, and made him over\nagain. The Apostle has had but short experience of his convert, but he\nis quite sure that he is a Christian; and, that being the case, he is as\nsure that all the bad black past is buried, and that the new leaf now\nturned over will be covered with fair writing, not in the least like the\nblots that were on the former page, and have now been dissolved from off\nit, by the touch of Christ's blood.\n\nIt is a typical instance of the miracles which the gospel wrought as\nevery-day events in its transforming career. Christianity knows nothing\nof hopeless cases. It professes its ability to take the most crooked\nstick and bring it straight, to flash a new power into the blackest\ncarbon, which will turn it into a diamond. Every duty will be done\nbetter by a man if he have the love and grace of Jesus Christ in his\nheart. New motives are brought into play, new powers are given, new\nstandards of duty are set up. The small tasks become great, and the\nunwelcome sweet, and the difficult easy, when done for and through\nChrist. Old vices are crushed in their deepest source; old habits driven\nout by the force of a new affection, as the young leaf-buds push the\nwithered foliage from the tree. Christ can make any man over again, and\ndoes so re-create every heart that trusts to him. Such miracles of\ntransformation are wrought to-day as truly as of old. Many professing\nChristians experience little of that quickening and revolutionising\nenergy; many observers see little of it, and some begin to croak, as if\nthe old power had ebbed away. But wherever men give the gospel fair play\nin their lives, and open their spirits, in truth and not merely in\nprofession, to its influence, it vindicates its undiminished possession\nof all its former energy; and if ever it seems to fail, it is not that\nthe medicine is ineffectual, but that the sick man has not really taken\nit. The low tone of much modern Christianity and its dim exhibition of\nthe transforming power of the gospel is easily and sadly accounted for\nwithout charging decrepitude on that which was once so mighty, by the\npatent fact that much modern Christianity is little better than lip\nacknowledgment, and that much more of it is wofully unfamiliar with the\ntruth which it in some fashion believes, and is sinfully negligent of\nthe spiritual gifts which it professes to treasure. If a Christian man\ndoes not show that his religion is changing him into the fair likeness\nof his Master, and fitting him for all relations of life, the reason is\nsimply that he has so little of it, and that little so mechanical and\ntepid.\n\nPaul pleads with Philemon to take back his worthless servant, and\nassures him that he will find Onesimus helpful now. Christ does not\nneed to be besought to welcome His runaway good-for-nothings, however\nunprofitable they have been. That Divine charity of His forgives all\nthings, and \"hopes all things\" of the worst, and can fulfil its own hope\nin the most degraded. With bright, unfaltering confidence in His own\npower He fronts the most evil, sure that He can cleanse; and that, no\nmatter what the past has been, His power can overcome all defects of\ncharacter, education, or surroundings, can set free from all moral\ndisadvantages adhering to men's station, class, or calling, can break\nthe entail of sin. The worst needs no intercessor to sway that tender\nheart of our great Master whom we may dimly see shadowed in the very\nname of \"Philemon,\" which means one who is loving or kindly. Whoever\nconfesses to him that he has \"been an unprofitable servant,\" will be\nwelcomed to His heart, made pure and good by the Divine Spirit breathing\nnew life into him, will be trained by Christ for all joyful toil as His\nslave, and yet His freedman and friend; and at last each once fugitive\nand unprofitable Onesimus will hear the \"Well done, good and faithful\nservant!\"\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\n \"Whom I have sent back to thee in his own person, that is, my very\n heart: whom I would fain have kept with me, that in my behalf he\n might minister unto me in the bonds of the gospel: but without thy\n mind I would do nothing; that thy goodness should not be as of\n necessity, but of free will.\"--PHILEM. 12-14 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThe characteristic features of the Epistle are all embodied in these\nverses. They set forth, in the most striking manner, the relation of\nChristianity to slavery and to other social evils. They afford an\nexquisite example of the courteous delicacy and tact of the Apostle's\nintervention on behalf of Onesimus; and there shine through them, as\nthrough a semi-transparent medium, adumbrations and shimmering hints of\nthe greatest truths of Christianity.\n\nI. The first point to notice is that decisive step of sending back the\nfugitive slave. Not many years ago the conscience of England was stirred\nbecause the Government of the day sent out a circular instructing\ncaptains of men-of-war, on the decks of which fugitive slaves sought\nasylum, to restore them to their \"owners.\" Here an Apostle does the same\nthing--seems to side with the oppressor, and to drive the oppressed from\nthe sole refuge left him, the horns of the very altar. More\nextraordinary still, here is the fugitive voluntarily going back,\ntravelling all the weary way from Rome to Colossae in order to put his\nneck once more beneath the yoke. Both men were acting from Christian\nmotives, and thought that they were doing a piece of plain Christian\nduty. Then does Christianity sanction slavery? Certainly not; its\nprinciples cut it up by the roots. A gospel, of which the starting-point\nis that all men stand on the same level, as loved by the one Lord, and\nredeemed by the one cross, can have no place for such an institution. A\nreligion which attaches the highest importance to man's awful\nprerogative of freedom, because it insists on every man's individual\nresponsibility to God, can keep no terms with a system which turns men\ninto chattels. Therefore Christianity cannot but regard slavery as sin\nagainst God, and as treason towards man. The principles of the gospel\nworked into the conscience of a nation destroy slavery. Historically it\nis true that as Christianity has grown slavery has withered. But the New\nTestament never directly condemns it, and by regulating the conduct of\nChristian masters, and recognising the obligations of Christian slaves,\nseems to contemplate its continuance, and to be deaf to the sighing of\nthe captives.\n\nThis attitude was probably not a piece of policy or a matter of\ncalculated wisdom on the part of the Apostle. He no doubt saw that the\nGospel brought a great unity in which all distinctions were merged, and\nrejoiced in thinking that \"in Christ Jesus there is neither bond or\nfree\"; but whether he expected the distinction ever to disappear from\nactual life is less certain. He may have thought of slavery as he did of\nsex, that the fact would remain, while yet \"we are all one in Christ\nJesus.\" It is by no means necessary to suppose that the Apostles saw\nthe full bearing of the truths they had to preach, in their relation to\nsocial conditions. They were inspired to give the Church the principles.\nIt remained for future ages, under Divine guidance, to apprehend the\ndestructive and formative range of these principles.\n\nHowever this may be, the attitude of the New Testament to slavery is the\nsame as to other unchristian institutions. It brings the leaven, and\nlets it work. That attitude is determined by three great principles.\nFirst, the message of Christianity is primarily to individuals, and only\nsecondarily to society. It leaves the units whom it has influenced to\ninfluence the mass. Second, it acts on spiritual and moral sentiment,\nand only afterwards and consequently on deeds or institutions. Third, it\nhates violence, and trusts wholly to enlightened conscience. So it\nmeddles directly with no political or social arrangements, but lays down\nprinciples which will profoundly affect these, and leaves them to soak\ninto the general mind. If an evil needs force for its removal, it is not\nready for removal. If it has to be pulled up by violence, a bit of the\nroot will certainly be left and will grow again. When a dandelion head\nis ripe, a child's breath can detach the winged seeds; but until it is,\nno tempest can move them. The method of violence is noisy and wasteful,\nlike the winter torrents that cover acres of good ground with mud and\nrocks, and are past in a day. The only true way is, by slow degrees to\ncreate a state of feeling which shall instinctively abhor and cast off\nthe evil. Then there will be no hubbub and no waste, and the thing once\ndone will be done for ever.\n\nSo has it been with slavery; so will it be with war, and intemperance,\nand impurity, and the miserable anomalies of our present civilization.\nIt has taken eighteen hundred years for the whole Church to learn the\ninconsistency of Christianity with slavery. We are no quicker learners\nthan the past generations were. God is patient, and does not seek to\nhurry the march of His purposes. We have to be imitators of God, and\nshun the \"raw haste\" which is \"half-sister to delay.\"\n\nBut patience is not passivity. It is a Christian's duty to \"hasten the\nday of the Lord,\" and to take part in the educational process which\nChrist is carrying on through the ages, by submitting himself to it in\nthe first place, and then by endeavouring to bring others under its\ninfluence. His place should be in the van of all social progress. It\ndoes not become Christ's servants to be content with the attainments of\nany past or present, in the matter of the organization of society on\nChristian principles. \"God has more light to break forth from His word.\"\nComing centuries will look back on the obtuseness of the moral\nperceptions of nineteenth century Christians in regard to matters of\nChristian duty which, hidden from us, are sun-clear to them, with the\nsame half-amused, half-tragic wonder with which we look back to Jamaica\nplanters or South Carolina rice growers, who defended slavery as a\nmissionary institution, and saw no contradiction between their religion\nand their practice. We have to stretch our charity to believe in these\nmen's sincere religion. Succeeding ages will have to make the same\nallowance for us, and will need it for themselves from their successors.\nThe main thing is, for us to try to keep our spirits open to all the\nincidence of the gospel on social and civic life, and to see that we are\non the right side, and trying to help on the approach of that kingdom\nwhich does \"not cry, nor lift up, nor cause its voice to be heard in the\nstreets,\" but has its coming \"prepared as the morning,\" that swims up,\nsilent and slow, and flushes the heaven with an unsetting light.\n\nII. The next point in these verses is Paul's loving identification of\nhimself with Onesimus.\n\nThe A.V. here follows another reading from the R.V.; the former has\n\"thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels.\" The additional\nwords are unquestionably inserted without authority in order to patch a\nbroken construction. The R.V. cuts the knot in a different fashion by\nputting the abrupt words, \"himself that is, my very own heart,\" under\nthe government of the preceding verb. But it seems more probable that\nthe Apostle began a new sentence with them, which he meant to have\nfinished as the A.V. does for him, but which, in fact, got hopelessly\nupset in the swift rush of his thoughts, and does not right itself\ngrammatically till the \"receive him\" of _v._ 17.\n\nIn any case the main thing to observe is the affectionate plea which he\nputs in for the cordial reception of Onesimus. Of course \"mine own\nbowels\" is simply the Hebrew way of saying \"mine own heart.\" We think\nthe one phrase graceful and sentimental, and the other coarse. A Jew did\nnot think so, and it might be difficult to say why he should. It is a\nmere question of difference in localizing certain emotions. Onesimus was\na piece of Paul's very heart, part of himself; the unprofitable slave\nhad wound himself round his affections, and become so dear that to part\nwith him was like cutting his heart out of his bosom. Perhaps some of\nthe virtues, which the servile condition helps to develop in undue\nproportion, such as docility, lightheartedness, serviceableness, had\nmade him a soothing and helpful companion. What a plea that would be\nwith one who loved Paul as well as Philemon did! He could not receive\nharshly one whom the Apostle had so honoured with his love. \"Take care\nof him, be kind to him as if it were to me.\"\n\nSuch language from an Apostle about a slave would do more to destroy\nslavery than any violence would do. Love leaps the barrier, and it\nceases to separate. So these simple, heart-felt words are an instance of\none method by which Christianity wars against all social wrongs, by\ncasting its caressing arm around the outcast, and showing that the\nabject and oppressed are objects of its special love.\n\nThey teach too how interceding love makes its object part of its very\nself; the same thought recurs still more distinctly in _v._ 17, \"Receive\nhim as myself.\" It is the natural language of love; some of the deepest\nand most blessed Christian truths are but the carrying out of that\nidentification to its fullest extent. We are all Christ's Onesimuses,\nand He, out of His pure love, makes Himself one with us, and us one with\nHim. The union of Christ with all who trust in Him, no doubt,\npresupposes His Divine nature, but still there is a human side to it,\nand it is the result of His perfect love. All love delights to fuse\nitself with its object, and as far as may be to abolish the distinction\nof \"I\" and \"thou.\" But human love can travel but a little way on that\nroad; Christ's goes much farther. He that pleads for some poor creature\nfeels that the kindness is done to himself when the former is helped or\npardoned. Imperfectly but really these words shadow forth the great fact\nof Christ's intercession for us sinners, and our acceptance in Him. We\nneed no better symbol of the stooping love of Christ, Who identifies\nHimself with His brethren, and of our wondrous identification with Him,\nour High Priest and Intercessor, than this picture of the Apostle\npleading for the runaway and bespeaking a welcome for him as part of\nhimself. When Paul says, \"Receive him, that is, my very heart,\" his\nwords remind us of the yet more blessed ones, which reveal a deeper love\nand more marvellous condescension, \"He that receiveth you receiveth Me,\"\nand may reverently be taken as a faint shadow of that prevailing\nintercession, through which he that is joined to the Lord and is one\nspirit with Him, is received of God as part of Christ's mystical body,\nbone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh.\n\nIII. Next comes the expression of a half-formed purpose which was put\naside for a reason to be immediately stated. \"Whom I would fain have\nkept with me\"; the tense of the verb indicating the incompleteness of\nthe desire. The very statement of it is turned into a graceful\nexpression of Paul's confidence in Philemon's goodwill to him, by the\naddition of that \"on thy behalf.\" He is sure that, if his friend had\nbeen beside him, he would have been glad to lend him his servant, and so\nhe would have liked to have had Onesimus as a kind of representative of\nthe service which he knows would have been so willingly rendered. The\npurpose for which he would have liked to keep him is defined as being,\n\"that he might minister to me in the bonds of the Gospel.\" If the last\nwords be connected with \"me,\" they suggest a tender reason why Paul\nshould be ministered to, as suffering for Christ, their common Master,\nand for the truth, their common possession. If, as is perhaps less\nprobable, they be connected with \"minister,\" they describe the sphere in\nwhich the service is to be rendered. Either the master or the slave\nwould be bound by the obligations which the Gospel laid on them to serve\nPaul. Both were his converts, and therefore knit to him by a welcome\nchain, which made service a delight.\n\nThere is no need to enlarge on the winning courtesy of these words, so\nfull of happy confidence in the friend's disposition, that they could\nnot but evoke the love to which they trusted so completely. Nor need I\ndo more than point their force for the purpose of the whole letter, the\nprocuring a cordial reception for the returning fugitive. So dear had he\nbecome, that Paul would like to have kept him. He goes back with a kind\nof halo round him, now that he is not only a good-for-nothing runaway,\nbut Paul's friend, and so much prized by him. It would be impossible to\ndo anything but welcome him, bringing such credentials; and yet all this\nis done with scarcely a word of direct praise, which might have provoked\ncontradiction. One does not know whether the confidence in Onesimus or\nin Philemon is the dominant note in the harmony. In the preceding\nclause, he was spoken of as, in some sense, part of the Apostle's very\nself. In this, he is regarded as, in some sense, part of Philemon. So he\nis a link between them. Paul would have taken his service as if it had\nbeen his master's. Can the master fail to take him as if he were Paul?\n\nIV. The last topic in these verses is the decision which arrested the\nhalf-formed wish. \"I was _wishing_ indeed, but I _willed_ otherwise.\"\nThe language is exact. There is a universe between \"I wished\" and \"I\nwilled.\" Many a good wish remains fruitless, because it never passes\ninto the stage of firm resolve. Many who wish to be better will to be\nbad. One strong \"I will\" can paralyse a million wishes.\n\nThe Apostle's final determination was, to do nothing without Philemon's\ncognisance and consent. The reason for the decision is at once a very\ntriumph of persuasiveness, which would be ingenious if it were not so\nspontaneous, and an adumbration of the very spirit of Christ's appeal\nfor service to us. \"That thy benefit\"--the good done to me by him, which\nwould in my eyes be done by you--\"should not be as of necessity, but\nwillingly.\" That \"as\" is a delicate addition. He will not think that the\nbenefit would really have been by constraint, but it might have looked\nas if it were.\n\nDo not these words go much deeper than this small matter? And did not\nPaul learn the spirit that suggested them from his own experience of how\nChrist treated him? The principle underlying them is, that where the\nbond is love, compulsion takes the sweetness and goodness out of even\nsweet and good things. Freedom is essential to virtue. If a man \"could\nnot help it\" there is neither praise nor blame due. That freedom\nChristianity honours and respects. So in reference to the offer of the\ngospel blessings, men are not forced to accept them but appealed to,\nand can turn deaf ears to the pleading voice, \"Why will ye die?\" Sorrows\nand sins and miseries without end continue, and the gospel is rejected,\nand lives of wretched godlessness are lived, and a dark future pulled\ndown on the rejecters' heads--and all because God knows that these\nthings are better than that men should be forced into goodness, which\nindeed would cease to be goodness if they were. For nothing is good but\nthe free turning of the will to goodness, and nothing bad but its\naversion therefrom.\n\nThe same solemn regard for the freedom of the individual and low\nestimate of the worth of constrained service influence the whole aspect\nof Christian ethics. Christ wants no pressed men in His army. The\nvictorious host of priestly warriors, which the Psalmist saw following\nthe priest-king in the day of his power, numerous as the dewdrops, and\nradiant with reflected beauty as these, were all \"willing\"--volunteers.\nThere are no conscripts in the ranks. These words might be said to be\ngraven over the gates of the kingdom of heaven, \"Not as of necessity,\nbut willingly.\" In Christian morals, law becomes love, and love, law.\n\"Must\" is not in the Christian vocabulary, except as expressing the\nsweet constraint which bows the will of him who loves to harmony, which\nis joy, with the will of Him who is loved. Christ takes no offerings\nwhich the giver is not glad to render. Money, influence, service, which\nare not offered by a will moved by love, which love, in its turn, is set\nin motion by the recognition of the infinite love of Christ in His\nsacrifice, are, in His eyes, nought. An earthenware cup with a drop of\ncold water in it, freely given out of a glad heart, is richer and more\nprecious in His sight than golden chalices swimming with wine and melted\npearls, which are laid by constraint on His table. \"I delight to do Thy\nwill\" is the foundation of all Christian obedience; and the servant had\ncaught the very tone of the Lord's voice when he said, \"Without thy mind\nI will do nothing, that thy benefit should not be, as it were, of\nnecessity, but willingly.\"\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\n \"For perhaps he was therefore parted from thee for a season, that\n thou shouldest have him for ever; no longer as a servant, but more\n than a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much\n rather to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If then thou\n countest me a partner, receive him as myself. But if he hath wronged\n thee at all, or oweth thee aught, put that to mine account; I Paul\n write it with mine own hand, I will repay it: that I say not unto\n thee how that thou owest to me even thine own self\n besides.\"--PHILEM. 15-19 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nThe first words of these verses are connected with the preceding by the\n\"for\" at the beginning; that is to say, the thought that possibly the\nDivine purpose in permitting the flight of Onesimus was his restoration,\nin eternal and holy relationship, to Philemon, was Paul's reason for not\ncarrying out his wish to keep Onesimus as his own attendant and helper.\n\"I did not decide, though I very much wished, to retain him without your\nconsent, because it is possible that he was allowed to flee from you,\nthough his flight was his own blamable act, in order that he might be\ngiven back to you, a richer possession, a brother instead of a slave.\"\n\nI. There is here a Divine purpose discerned as shining through a\nquestionable human act.\n\nThe first point to note is, with what charitable delicacy of feeling the\nApostle uses a mild word to express the fugitive's flight. He will not\nemploy the harsh naked word \"ran away.\" It might irritate Philemon.\nBesides, Onesimus has repented of his faults, as is plain from the fact\nof his voluntary return, and therefore there is no need for dwelling on\nthem. The harshest, sharpest words are best when callous consciences are\nto be made to wince; but words that are balm and healing are to be used\nwhen men are heartily ashamed of their sins. So the deed for which\nPhilemon's forgiveness is asked is half veiled in the phrase \"he was\nparted.\"\n\nNot only so, but the word suggests that behind the slave's mutiny and\nflight there was another Will working, of which, in some sense, Onesimus\nwas but the instrument. He \"_was_ parted\"--not that he was not\nresponsible for his flight, but that, through his act, which in the eyes\nof all concerned was wrong, Paul discerns as dimly visible a great\nDivine purpose.\n\nBut he puts that as only a possibility: \"_Perhaps_ he departed from\nthee.\"----He will not be too sure of what God means by such and such a\nthing, as some of us are wont to be, as if we had been sworn of God's\nprivy council. \"Perhaps\" is one of the hardest words for minds of a\ncertain class to say; but in regard to all such subjects, and to many\nmore, it is the motto of the wise man, and the shibboleth which sifts\nout the patient, modest lovers of truth from rash theorists and\nprecipitate dogmatisers. Impatience of uncertainty is a moral fault\nwhich mars many an intellectual process; and its evil effects are\nnowhere mote visible than in the field of theology. A humble \"perhaps\"\noften grows into a \"verily, verily\"--and a hasty, over-confident\n\"verily, verily,\" often dwindles to a hesitating \"perhaps.\" Let us not\nbe in too great a hurry to make sure that we have the key of the\ncabinet where God keeps His purposes, but content ourselves with\n\"perhaps\" when we are interpreting the often questionable ways of His\nprovidences, each of which has many meanings and many ends.\n\nBut however modestly he may hesitate as to the application of the\nprinciple, Paul has no doubt as to the principle itself: namely, that\nGod, in the sweep of His wise providence, utilizes even men's evil, and\nworks it in, to the accomplishment of great purposes far beyond their\nken, as nature, in her patient chemistry, takes the rubbish and filth of\nthe dunghill and turns them into beauty and food. Onesimus had no high\nmotives in his flight; he had run away under discreditable\ncircumstances, and perhaps to escape deserved punishment. Laziness and\ntheft had been the hopeful companions of his flight, which, so far as he\nwas concerned, had been the outcome of low and probably criminal\nimpulses; and yet God had known how to use it so as to lead to his\nbecoming a Christian. \"With the wrath of man Thou girdest Thyself,\"\ntwisting and bending it so as to be flexible in Thy hands, and \"the\nremainder Thou dost restrain,\" How unlike were the seed and the\nfruit--the flight of a good-for-nothing thief and the return of a\nChristian brother! He meant it not so; but in running away from his\nmaster, he was running straight into the arms of his Saviour. How little\nOnesimus knew what was to be the end of that day's work, when he slunk\nout of Philemon's house with his stolen booty hid away in his bosom! And\nhow little any of us know where we are going, and what strange results\nmay evolve themselves from our actions! Blessed they who can rest in\nthe confidence that, however modest we should be in our interpretation\nof the events of our own or of other men's lives, the infinitely complex\nweb of circumstance is woven by a loving, wise Hand, and takes shape,\nwith all its interlacing threads, according to a pattern in His hand,\nwhich will vindicate itself when it is finished!\n\nThe contrast is emphatic between the short absence and the eternity of\nthe new relationship: \"for a season\"--literally an hour--and \"for ever.\"\nThere is but one point of view which gives importance to this material\nworld, with all its fleeting joys and fallacious possessions. Life is\nnot worth living, unless it be the vestibule to a life beyond. Why all\nits discipline, whether of sorrow or joy, unless there be another,\nampler life, where we can use to nobler ends the powers acquired and\ngreatened by use here? What an inconsequent piece of work is man, if the\nfew years of earth are his all! Surely, if nothing is to come of all\nthis life here, men are made in vain, and had better not have been at\nall. Here is a narrow sound, with a mere ribbon of sea in it, shut in\nbetween grim, echoing rocks. How small and meaningless it looks as long\nas the fog hides the great ocean beyond! But when the mist lifts, and we\nsee that the narrow strait leads out into a boundless sea that lies\nflashing in the sunshine to the horizon, then we find out the worth of\nthat little driblet of water at our feet. It connects with the open sea,\nand that swathes the world. So is it with \"the hour\" of life; it opens\nout and debouches into the \"for ever,\" and therefore it is great and\nsolemn. This moment is one of the moments of that hour. We are the sport\nof our own generalisations, and ready to admit all these fine and\nsolemn things about life, but we are less willing to apply them to the\nsingle moments as they fly. We should not rest content with recognising\nthe general truth, but ever make conscious effort to feel that _this_\npassing instant has something to do with our eternal character and with\nour eternal destiny.\n\nThat is an exquisitely beautiful and tender thought which the Apostle\nputs here, and one which is susceptible of many applications. The\ntemporary loss may be eternal gain. The dropping away of the earthly\nform of a relationship may, in God's great mercy, be a step towards its\nrenewal in higher fashion and for evermore. All our blessings need to be\npast before reflection can be brought to bear upon them, to make us\nconscious how blessed we were. The blossoms have to perish before the\nrich perfume, which can be kept in undiminished fragrance for years, can\nbe distilled from them. When death takes away dear ones, we first learn\nthat we were entertaining angels unawares; and as they float away from\nus into the light, they look back with faces already beginning to\nbrighten into the likeness of Christ, and take leave of us with His\nvalediction, \"It is expedient for you that I go away.\" Memory teaches us\nthe true character of life. We can best estimate the height of the\nmountain peaks when we have left them behind. The softening and\nhallowing influence of death reveals the nobleness and sweetness of\nthose who are gone. Fair country never looks so fair as when it has a\ncurving river for a foreground; and fair lives look fairer than before,\nwhen seen across the Jordan of death.\n\nTo us who believe that life and love are not killed by death, the end of\ntheir earthly form is but the beginning of a higher heavenly. Love which\nis \"in Christ\" is eternal. Because Philemon and Onesimus were two\nChristians, therefore their relationship was eternal. Is it not yet more\ntrue, if that were possible, that the sweet bonds which unite Christian\nsouls here on earth are in their essence indestructible, and are\naffected by death only as the body is? Sown in weakness, will they not\nbe raised in power? Nothing of them shall die but the encompassing\ndeath. Their mortal part shall put on immortality. As the farmer gathers\nthe green flax with its blue bells blooming on it, and throws it into a\ntank to rot, in order to get the firm fibre which cannot rot, and spin\nit into a strong cable, so God does with our earthly loves. He causes\nall about them that is perishable to perish, that the central fibre,\nwhich is eternal, may stand clear and disengaged from all that was less\nDivine than itself. Wherefore mourning hearts may stay themselves on\nthis assurance, that they will never lose the dear ones whom they have\nloved in Christ, and that death itself but changes the manner of the\ncommunion, and refines the tie. They were as for a moment dead, but they\nare alive again. To our bewildered sight they departed and were lost for\na season, but they are found, and we can fold them in our heart of\nhearts for ever.\n\nBut there is also set forth here a change, not only in the duration but\nin the quality of the relation between the Christian master and his\nformer slave, who continues a slave indeed, but is also a brother. \"No\nlonger as a servant, but more than a servant, a brother beloved,\nspecially to me, but how much rather to thee, both in the flesh and in\nthe Lord.\" It is clear from these words that Paul did not anticipate the\nmanumission of Onesimus. What he asks is, that he should not be received\n_as_ a slave. Evidently then he is to be still a slave in so far as the\noutward fact goes--but a new spirit is to be breathed into the\nrelationship. \"Specially to me\"; he is more than a slave to me. I have\nnot looked on him as such, but have taken him to my heart as a brother,\nas a son indeed, for he is especially dear to me as my convert. But\nhowever dear he is to me, he should be more so to thee, to whom his\nrelation is permanent, while to me it is temporary. And this Brotherhood\nof the slave is to be felt and made visible \"both in the flesh\"--that\nis, in the earthly and personal relations of common life, \"and in the\nLord\"--that is, in the spiritual and religious relationships of worship\nand the Church.\n\nAs has been well said, \"In the flesh, Philemon has the brother for his\nslave; in the Lord, Philemon has the slave for his brother.\" He is to\ntreat him as his brother therefore both in the common relationships of\nevery-day life and in the acts of religious worship.\n\nThat is a pregnant word. True, there is no gulf between Christian people\nnow-a-days like that which in the old times parted owner and slave; but,\nas society becomes more and more differentiated, as the diversities of\nwealth become more extreme in our commercial communities, as education\ncomes to make the educated man's whole way of looking at life differ\nmore and more from that of the less cultured classes, the injunction\nimplied in our text encounters enemies quite as formidable as slavery\never was. The highly educated man is apt to be very oblivious of the\nbrotherhood of the ignorant Christian, and he, on his part, finds the\nrecognition just as hard. The rich mill-owner has not much sympathy with\nthe poor brother who works at his spinning-jennies. It is often\ndifficult for the Christian mistress to remember that her cook is her\nsister in Christ. There is quite as much sin against fraternity on the\nside of the poor Christians who are servants and illiterate, as on the\nside of the rich who are masters or cultured. But the principle that\nChristian brotherhood is to reach across the wall of class distinctions\nis as binding to-day as it was on these two good people, Philemon the\nmaster and Onesimus the slave.\n\nThat brotherhood is not to be confined to acts and times of Christian\ncommunion, but is to be shown and to shape conduct in common life. \"Both\nin the flesh and in the Lord\" may be put into plain English thus: A rich\nman and a poor one belong to the same church; they unite in the same\nworship, they are \"partakers of the one bread,\" and therefore, Paul\nthinks, \"are one bread.\" They go outside the church door. Do they ever\ndream of speaking to one another outside? \"A brother beloved in the\nLord\"--on Sundays, and during worship and in Church matters--is often a\nstranger \"in the flesh\" on Mondays, in the street and in common life.\nSome good people seem to keep their brotherly love in the same wardrobe\nwith their Sunday clothes. Philemon was bid, and all are bid, to wear it\nall the week, at market as well as church.\n\nII. In the next verse, the essential purpose for which the whole letter\nwas written is put at last in an articulate request, based upon a very\ntender motive. \"If then thou countest me as a partner, receive him as\nmyself,\" Paul now at last completes the sentence which he began in _v_.\n12, and from which he was hurried away by the other thoughts that came\ncrowding in upon him. This plea for the kindly welcome to be accorded to\nOnesimus has been knocking at the door of his lips for utterance from\nthe beginning of the letter; but only now, so near the end, after so\nmuch conciliation, he ventures to put it into plain words; and even now\nhe does not dwell on it, but goes quickly on to another point. He puts\nhis requests on a modest and yet a strong ground, appealing to\nPhilemon's sense of comradeship--\"if thou countest me a partner\"--a\ncomrade or a sharer in Christian blessings. He sinks all reference to\napostolic authority, and only points to their common possession of\nfaith, hope, and joy in Christ. \"Receive him as myself.\" That request\nwas sufficiently illustrated in the preceding chapter, so that I need\nonly refer to what was then said on this instance of interceding love\nidentifying itself with its object, and on the enunciation in it of\ngreat Christian truth.\n\nIII. The course of thought next shows--Love taking the slave's debts on\nitself.\n\n\"If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught.\" Paul makes an \"if\" of\nwhat he knew well enough to be the fact; for no doubt Onesimus had told\nhim all his faults, and the whole context shows that there was no\nuncertainty in Paul's mind, but that he puts the wrong hypothetically\nfor the same reason for which he chooses to say, \"was parted\" instead\nof \"ran away,\" namely, to keep some thin veil over the crimes of a\npenitent, and not to rasp him with rough words. For the same reason,\ntoo, he falls back upon the gentler expressions, \"wronged\" and \"oweth,\"\ninstead of blurting out the ugly word \"stolen.\" And then, with a\nhalf-playful assumption of lawyer-like phraseology, he bids Philemon put\nthat to his account. Here is my autograph--\"I Paul write it with mine\nown hand\"--I make this letter into a bond. Witness my hand; \"I will\nrepay it.\" The formal tone of the promise, rendered more formal by the\ninsertion of the name--and perhaps by that sentence only being in his\nown handwriting--seems to warrant the explanation that it is half\nplayful; for he could never have supposed that Philemon would exact the\nfulfilment of the bond, and we have no reason to suppose that, if he\nhad, Paul could really have paid the amount. But beneath the playfulness\nthere lies the implied exhortation to forgive the money wrong as well as\nthe others which Onesimus had done him.\n\nThe verb used here for _put to the account of_ is, according to the\ncommentators, a very rare word; and perhaps the singular phrase may be\nchosen to let another great Christian truth shine through. Was Paul's\nlove the only one that we know of which took the slave's debts on\nitself? Did anybody else ever say, \"Put that on mine account\"? We have\nbeen taught to ask for the forgiveness of our sins as \"debts,\" and we\nhave been taught that there is One on whom God has made to meet the\niniquities of us all. Christ takes on Himself all Paul's debt, all\nPhilemon's, all ours. He has paid the ransom for all, and He so\nidentifies Himself with men that He takes all their sins upon Him, and\nso identifies men with Himself that they are \"received as Himself.\" It\nis His great example that Paul is trying to copy here. Forgiven all that\ngreat debt, he dare not rise from his knees to take his brother by the\nthroat, but goes forth to show to his fellow the mercy which he has\nfound, and to model his life after the pattern of that miracle of love\nin which is his trust. It is Christ's own voice which echoes in \"put\nthat on mine account.\"\n\nIV. Finally, these verses pass to a gentle reminder of a greater debt:\n\"That I say not unto thee how that thou owest to me even thine own self\nbesides.\"\n\nAs his child in the Gospel, Philemon owed to Paul much more than the\ntrifle of money of which Onesimus had robbed him; namely his spiritual\nlife, which he had received through the Apostle's ministry. But he will\nnot insist on that. True love never presses its claims, nor recounts its\nservices. Claims which need to be urged are not worth urging. A true,\ngenerous heart will never say, \"You ought to do so much for me, because\nI have done so much for you.\" To come down to that low level of\nchaffering and barter is a dreadful descent from the heights where the\nlove which delights in giving should ever dwell.\n\nDoes not Christ speak to us in the same language? We owe ourselves to\nHim, as Lazarus did, for He raises us from the death of sin to a share\nin His own new, undying life. As a sick man owes his life to the doctor\nwho has cured him, as a drowning man owes his to his rescuer, who\ndragged him from the water and breathed into his lungs till they began\nto work of themselves, as a child owes its life to its parent--so we owe\nourselves to Christ. But He does not insist upon the debt; He gently\nreminds us of it, as making His commandment sweeter and easier to obey.\nEvery heart that is really touched with gratitude will feel, that the\nless the giver insists upon his gifts, the more do they impel to\naffectionate service. To be perpetually reminded of them weakens their\nforce as motives to obedience, for it then appears as if they had not\nbeen gifts of love at all, but bribes given by self-interest; and the\nfrequent reference to them sounds like complaint. But Christ does not\ninsist on His claims, and therefore the remembrance of them ought to\nunderlie all our lives and to lead to constant glad devotion.\n\nOne more thought may be drawn from the words. The great debt which can\nnever be discharged does not prevent the debtor from receiving reward\nfor the obedience of love. \"I will repay it,\" even though thou owest me\nthyself. Christ has bought us for His servants by giving Himself and\nourselves to us. No work, no devotion, no love can ever repay our debt\nto Him. From His love alone comes the desire to serve Him; from His\ngrace comes the power. The best works are stained and incomplete, and\ncould only be acceptable to a Love that was glad to welcome even\nunworthy offerings, and to forgive their imperfections. Nevertheless He\ntreats them as worthy of reward, and crowns His own grace in men with an\nexuberance of recompense far beyond their deserts. He will suffer no man\nto work for Him for nothing; but to each He gives even here great\nreward _in_ keeping His commandments, and hereafter \"an exceeding great\nreward,\" of which the inward joys and outward blessings that now flow\nfrom obedience are but the earnest His merciful allowance of\nimperfections treats even our poor deeds as rewardable; and though\neternal life must ever be the _gift_ of God, and no claim of merit can\nbe sustained before His judgment seat, yet the measure of that life\nwhich is possessed here or hereafter is accurately proportioned to and\nis, in a very real sense, the consequence of obedience and service, \"If\nany man's work abide, he shall receive a reward,\" and Christ's own\ntender voice speaks the promise, \"I will repay, albeit I say not unto\nthee how thou owest to Me even thine own self besides.\" Men do not\nreally possess themselves unless they yield themselves to Jesus Christ.\nHe that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth himself, in\nglad surrender of himself to his Saviour, he and only he is truly lord\nand owner of his own soul. And to such an one shall be given rewards\nbeyond hope and beyond measure--and, as the crown of all, the blessed\npossession of Christ, and in it the full, true, eternal possession of\nhimself, glorified and changed into the image of the Lord who loved him\nand gave Himself for him.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\n \"Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord refresh my heart\n in Christ. Having confidence in thine obedience I write unto thee,\n knowing that thou wilt do even beyond what I say. But withal prepare\n me a lodging: for I hope that through your prayers I shall be\n granted unto you.\n\n \"Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, saluteth thee; and so\n do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers.\n\n \"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.\n Amen.\"--PHILEM. 20-25 (Rev. Ver.).\n\n\nWe have already had occasion to point out that Paul's pleading with\nPhilemon, and the motives which he adduces, are expressions, on a lower\nlevel, of the greatest principles of Christian ethics. If the closing\nsalutations be left out of sight for the moment, there are here three\nverses, each containing a thought which needs only to be cast into its\nmost general form to show itself as a large Christian truth.\n\nI. Verse 20 gives the final moving form of the Apostle's request.\nOnesimus disappears, and the final plea is based altogether on the fact\nthat compliance will pleasure and help Paul. There is but the faintest\ngleam of a possible allusion to the former in the use of the verb from\nwhich the name Onesimus is derived--\"Let me have _help_ of thee\"; as if\nhe had said, \"Be you an Onesimus, a helpful one to me, as I trust he is\ngoing to be to you.\" \"Refresh my heart\" points back to _v._ 7, \"The\nhearts of the saints have been refreshed by thee,\" and lightly suggests\nthat Philemon should do for Paul what he had done for many others. But\nthe Apostle does not merely ask help and refreshing; he desires that\nthey should be of a right Christian sort. \"In Christ\" is very\nsignificant. If Philemon receives his slave for Christ's sake and in the\nstrength of that communion with Christ which fits for all virtue, and so\nfor this good deed--a deed which is of too high and rare a strain of\ngoodness for his unaided nature,--then \"in Christ\" he will be helpful to\nthe Apostle. In that case the phrase expresses the element or sphere in\nwhich the act is done. But it may apply rather, or even also, to Paul,\nand then it expresses the element or sphere in which he is helped and\nrefreshed. In communion with Jesus, taught and inspired by Him, the\nApostle is brought to such true and tender sympathy with the runaway\nthat his heart is refreshed, as by a cup of cold water, by kindness\nshown to him. Such keen sympathy is as much beyond the reach of nature\nas Philemon's kindness would be. Both are \"in Christ.\" Union with Him\nrefines selfishness, and makes men quick to feel another's sorrows and\njoys as theirs, after the pattern of Him who makes the case of God's\nfugitives His own. It makes them easy to be entreated and ready to\nforgive. So to be in Him is to be sympathetic like Paul, and placable as\nHe would have Onesimus. \"In Christ\" carries in it the secret of all\nsweet humanities and beneficence, is the spell which calls out fairest\ncharity, and is the only victorious antagonist of harshness and\nselfishness.\n\nThe request for the sake of which the whole letter is written is here\nput as a kindness to Paul himself, and thus an entirely different motive\nis appealed to. \"Surely you would be glad to give me pleasure. Then do\nthis thing which I ask you.\" It is permissible to seek to draw to\nvirtuous acts by such a motive, and to reinforce higher reasons by the\ndesire to please dear ones, or to win the approbation of the wise and\ngood. It must be rigidly kept as a subsidiary motive, and distinguished\nfrom the mere love of applause. Most men have some one whose opinion of\ntheir acts is a kind of embodied conscience, and whose satisfaction is\nreward. But pleasing the dearest and purest among men can never be more\nthan at most a crutch to help lameness or a spur to stimulate.\n\nIf however this motive be lifted to the higher level, and these words\nthought of as Paul's echo of Christ's appeal to those who love Him, they\nbeautifully express the peculiar blessedness of Christian ethics. The\nstrongest motive, the very mainspring and pulsing heart of Christian\nduty, is to please Christ. His language to His followers is not, \"Do\nthis because it is right,\" but, \"Do this because it pleaseth Me.\" They\nhave a living Person to gratify, not a mere law of duty to obey. The\nhelp which is given to weakness by the hope of winning golden opinions\nfrom, or giving pleasure to, those whom men love is transferred in the\nChristian relation to Jesus. So the cold thought of duty is warmed, and\nthe weight of obedience to a stony, impersonal law is lightened, and a\nnew power is enlisted on the side of goodness, which sways more mightily\nthan all the abstractions of duty. The Christ Himself makes His appeal\nto men in the same tender fashion as Paul to Philemon. He will move to\nholy obedience by the thought--wonderful as it is--that it gladdens Him.\nMany a weak heart has been braced and made capable of heroisms of\nendurance and effort, and of angel deeds of mercy, all beyond its own\nstrength, by that great thought, \"We labour that, whether present or\nabsent, we may be well-pleasing to Him.\"\n\nII. Verse 21 exhibits love commanding, in the confidence of love\nobeying. \"Having confidence in thine obedience I write unto thee,\nknowing that thou wilt do even beyond what I say.\" In _v_. 8 the Apostle\nhad waived his right to enjoin, because he had rather speak the speech\nof love, and request. But here, with the slightest possible touch, he\njust lets the note of authority sound for a single moment, and then\npasses into the old music of affection and trust. He but names the word\n\"obedience,\" and that in such a way as to present it as the child of\nlove, and the privilege of his friend. He trusts Philemon's obedience,\nbecause he knows his love, and is sure that it is love of such a sort as\nwill not stand on the exact measure, but will delight in giving it\n\"pressed down and running over.\"\n\nWhat could he mean by \"do more than I say\"? Was he hinting at\nemancipation, which he would rather have to come from Philemon's own\nsense of what was due to the slave who was now a brother, than be\ngranted, perhaps hesitatingly, in deference to his request? Possibly,\nbut more probably he had no definite thing in his mind, but only desired\nto express his loving confidence in his friend's willingness to please\nhim. Commands given in such a tone, where authority audibly trusts the\nsubordinate, are far more likely to be obeyed than if they were shouted\nwith the hoarse voice of a drill-sergeant. Men will do much to fulfil\ngenerous expectations. Even debased natures will respond to such appeal;\nand if they see that good is expected from them, that will go far to\nevoke it. Some masters have always good servants, and part of the secret\nis that they trust them to obey. \"England expects\" fulfilled itself.\nWhen love enjoins there should be trust in its tones. It will act like a\nmagnet to draw reluctant feet into the path of duty. A will which mere\nauthority could not bend, like iron when cold, may be made flexible when\nwarmed by this gentle heat. If parents oftener let their children feel\nthat they had confidence in their obedience, they would seldomer have to\ncomplain of their disobedience.\n\nChrist's commands follow, or rather set, this pattern. He trusts His\nservants, and speaks to them in a voice softened and confiding. He tells\nthem His wish, and commits Himself and His cause to His disciples' love.\n\nObedience beyond the strict limits of command will always be given by\nlove. It is a poor, grudging service which weighs obedience as a chemist\ndoes some precious medicine, and is careful that not the hundredth part\nof a grain more than the prescribed amount shall be doled out. A hired\nworkman will fling down his lifted trowel full of mortar at the first\nstroke of the clock, though it would be easier to lay it on the bricks;\nbut where affection moves the hand, it is delight to add something over\nand above to bare duty. The artist who loves his work will put many a\ntouch on it beyond the minimum which will fulfil his contract. Those\nwho adequately feel the power of Christian motives will not be anxious\nto find the least that they durst, but the most that they can do. If\nobvious duty requires them to go a mile, they will rather go two, than\nbe scrupulous to stop as soon as they see the milestone. A child who is\nalways trying to find out how little would satisfy his father cannot\nhave much love. Obedience to Christ is joy, peace, love. The grudging\nservants are limiting their possession of these, by limiting their\nactive surrender of themselves. They seem to be afraid of having too\nmuch of these blessings. A heart truly touched by the love of Jesus\nChrist will not seek to know the lowest limit of duty, but the highest\npossibility of service.\n\n \"Give all thou canst; high heaven rejects the lore\n Of nicely calculated less or more.\"\n\nIII. Verse 22 may be summed up as the language of love, hoping for\nreunion. \"Withal prepare me a lodging: for I hope that through your\nprayers I shall be granted unto you.\" We do not know whether the\nApostle's expectation was fulfilled. Believing that he was set free from\nhis first imprisonment, and that his second was separated from it by a\nconsiderable interval, during which he visited Macedonia and Asia Minor,\nwe have yet nothing to show whether or not he reached Colossae; but\nwhether fulfilled or not, the expectation of meeting would tend to\nsecure compliance with his request, and would be all the more likely to\ndo so, for the very delicacy with which it is stated, so as not to seem\nto be mentioned for the sake of adding force to his intercession.\n\nThe limits of Paul's expectation as to the power of his brethren's\nprayers for temporal blessings are worth noting. He does believe that\nthese good people in Colossae could help him by prayer for his\nliberation, but he does not believe that their prayer will certainly be\nheard. In some circles much is said now about \"the prayer of faith\"--a\nphrase which, singularly enough, is in such cases almost confined to\nprayers for external blessings,--and about its power to bring money for\nwork which the person praying believes to be desirable, or to send away\ndiseases. But surely there can be no \"faith\" without a definite Divine\n_word_ to lay hold of. Faith and God's promise are correlative; and\nunless a man has God's plain promise that A. B. will be cured by his\nprayer, the belief that he will is not faith, but something deserving a\nmuch less noble name. The prayer of faith is not forcing our wills on\nGod, but bending our wills to God's. The prayer which Christ has taught\nin regard to all outward things is, \"Not my will but Thine be done,\"\nand, \"May Thy will become mine.\" That is the prayer of faith, which is\nalways answered. The Church prayed for Peter, and he was delivered; the\nChurch, no doubt, prayed for Stephen, and he was stoned. Was then the\nprayer for him refused? Not so, but if it were prayer at all, the inmost\nmeaning of it was \"be it as Thou wilt\"; and that was accepted and\nanswered. Petitions for outward blessings, whether for the petitioner or\nfor others, are to be presented with submission; and the highest\nconfidence which can be entertained concerning them is that which Paul\nhere expresses: \"I _hope_ that through your prayers I shall be set\nfree.\"\n\nThe prospect of meeting enhances the force of the Apostle's wish; nor\nare Christians without an analogous motive to give weight to their\nobligations to their Lord. Just as Paul quickened Philemon's loving wish\nto serve him by the thought that he might have the gladness of seeing\nhim before long, so Christ quickens His servant's diligence by the\nthought that before very many days He will come, or they will go--at any\nrate, they will be with Him,--and He will see what they have been doing\nin His absence. Such a prospect should increase diligence, and should\nnot inspire terror. It is a mark of true Christians that they \"love His\nappearing.\" Their hearts should glow at the hope of meeting. That hope\nshould make work happier and lighter. When a husband has been away at\nsea, the prospect of his return makes the wife sing at her work, and\ntake more pains or rather pleasure with it, because his eye is to see\nit. So should it be with the bride in the prospect of her bridegroom's\nreturn. The Church should not be driven to unwelcome duties by the fear\nof a strict judgment, but drawn to large, cheerful service, by the hope\nof spreading her work before her returning Lord.\n\nThus, on the whole, in this letter, the central springs of Christian\nservice are touched, and the motives used to sway Philemon are the echo\nof the motives which Christ uses to sway men. The keynote of all is\nlove. Love beseeches when it might command. To love we owe our own\nselves beside. Love will do nothing without the glad consent of him to\nwhom it speaks, and cares for no service which is of necessity. Its\nfinest wine is not made from juice which is pressed out of the grapes,\nbut from that which flows from them for very ripeness. Love identifies\nitself with those who need its help, and treats kindnesses to them as\ndone to itself. Love finds joy and heart solace in willing, though it be\nimperfect, service. Love expects more than it asks. Love hopes for\nreunion, and by the hope makes its wish more weighty. These are the\npoints of Paul's pleading with Philemon. Are they not the elements of\nChrist's pleading with His friends?\n\nHe too prefers the tone of friendship to that of authority. To Him His\nservants owe themselves, and remain for ever in His debt, after all\npayment of reverence and thankful self-surrender. He does not count\nconstrained service as service at all, and has only volunteers in His\narmy. He makes Himself one with the needy, and counts kindness to the\nleast as done to Him. He binds Himself to repay and overpay all\nsacrifice in His service. He finds delight in His people's work. He asks\nthem to prepare an abode for Him in their own hearts, and in souls\nopened by their agency for His entrance. He has gone to prepare a\nmansion for them, and He comes to receive account of their obedience and\nto crown their poor deeds. It is impossible to suppose that Paul's\npleading for Philemon failed. How much less powerful is Christ's, even\nwith those who love Him best?\n\nIV. The parting greetings may be very briefly considered, for much that\nwould have naturally been said about them has already presented itself\nin dealing with the similar salutations in the epistle to Colossae. The\nsame people send messages here as there; only Jesus called Justus being\nomitted, probably for no other reason than because he was not at hand\nat the moment. Epaphras is naturally mentioned singly, as being a\nColossian, and therefore more closely connected with Philemon than were\nthe others. After him come the two Jews and the two Gentiles, as in\nColossians.\n\nThe parting benediction ends the letter. At the beginning of the epistle\nPaul invoked grace upon the household \"from God our Father and the Lord\nJesus Christ.\" Now he conceives of it as Christ's gift. In him all the\nstooping, bestowing love of God is gathered, that from Him it may be\npoured on the world. That grace is not diffused like stellar light,\nthrough some nebulous heaven, but concentrated in the Sun of\nRighteousness, who is the light of men. That fire is piled on a hearth\nthat, from it, warmth may ray out to all that are in the house.\n\nThat grace has man's spirit for the field of its highest operation.\nThither it can enter, and there it can abide, in union more close and\ncommunion more real and blessed than aught else can attain. The spirit\nwhich has the grace of Christ with it can never be utterly solitary or\ndesolate.\n\nThe grace of Christ is the best bond of family life. Here it is prayed\nfor on behalf of all the group, the husband, wife, child, and the\nfriends in their home Church. Like grains of sweet incense cast on an\naltar flame, and making fragrant what was already holy, that grace\nsprinkled on the household fire will give it an odour of a sweet smell,\ngrateful to men and acceptable to God.\n\nThat wish is the purest expression of Christian friendship, of which the\nwhole letter is so exquisite an example. Written as it is about a\ncommon, every-day matter, which could have been settled without a\nsingle religious reference, it is saturated with Christian thought and\nfeeling. So it becomes an example of how to blend Christian sentiment\nwith ordinary affairs, and to carry a Christian atmosphere everywhere.\nFriendship and social intercourse will be all the nobler and happier, if\npervaded by such a tone. Such words as these closing ones would be a sad\ncontrast to much of the intercourse of professedly Christian men. But\nevery Christian ought by his life to be, as it were, floating the grace\nof God to others sinking for want of it to lay hold of, and all his\nspeech should be of a piece with this benediction.\n\nA Christian's life should be \"an epistle of Christ\" written with His own\nhand, wherein dim eyes might read the transcript of His own gracious\nlove, and through all his words and deeds should shine the image of his\nMaster, even as it does through the delicate tendernesses and gracious\npleadings of this pure pearl of a letter, which the slave, become a\nbrother, bore to the responsive hearts in quiet Colossae.\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nTHE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol._\n\nFIRST SERIES, 1887-8.\n\n Colossians.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n St. Mark.\n By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n\n Genesis.\n By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n 1 Samuel.\n By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n 2 Samuel.\n By the same Author.\n\n Hebrews.\n By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.\n\nSECOND SERIES, 1888-9.\n\n Galatians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n\n The Pastoral Epistles.\n By the Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Isaiah I.--XXXIX.\n By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n The Book of Revelation.\n By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n 1 Corinthians.\n By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n The Epistles of St. John.\n By the Most Rev. the Archbishop of Armagh.\n\nTHIRD SERIES, 1889-90.\n\n Judges and Ruth.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n Jeremiah.\n By the Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.\n\n Isaiah XL.--LXVI.\n By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n St. Matthew.\n By the Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.\n\n Exodus.\n By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n\n St. Luke.\n By the Rev. H. BURTON, M.A.\n\nFOURTH SERIES, 1890-91.\n\n Ecclesiastes.\n By the Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.\n\n St. James and St. Jude.\n By the Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Proverbs.\n By the Rev. R. F. HORTON, D.D.\n\n Leviticus.\n By the Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. I.\n\nFIFTH SERIES, 1891-2.\n\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n 1 and 2 Thessalonians.\n By Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n The Book of Job.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n Ephesians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol II.\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II.\n\nSIXTH SERIES, 1892-3.\n\n 1 Kings.\n By the Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.\n\n Philippians.\n By Principal RAINY, D.D.\n\n Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.\n By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n Joshua.\n By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n The Epistles of St. Peter.\n By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.\n\nSEVENTH SERIES, 1893-4.\n\n 2 Kings.\n By the Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.\n\n Romans.\n By the Right Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D.\n\n The Books of Chronicles.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.\n\n 2 Corinthians.\n By Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n Numbers.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. III.\n\nEIGHTH SERIES, 1895-6.\n\n Daniel.\n By the Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.\n\n The Book of Jeremiah.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.\n\n Deuteronomy.\n By Prof. ANDREW HARPER, B.D.\n\n The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.\n By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n Ezekiel.\n By Prof. JOHN SKINNER, M.A.\n\n The Book of the Twelve Prophets.\n By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Two Vols.\n\n\n\n\nThe Expositor's Bible.\n\nEdited by Rev. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n\n_Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. each._\n\n\nOLD TESTAMENT VOLUMES.\n\n_GENESIS._ By Rev. Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n_EXODUS._ By the Right Rev. G. A. CHADWICK, D.D., Bishop of Derry.\n\n_LEVITICUS._ By the Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.\n\n_Numbers._ By Rev. R. A. WATSON, D.D.\n\n_DEUTERONOMY._ By Rev. Prof. ANDREW HARPER, M.A., B.D.\n\n_JOSHUA._ By Rev. Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D.\n\n_JUDGES AND RUTH._ By Rev. R. A. WATSON, D.D.\n\n_1 SAMUEL._ By Rev. Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D.\n\n_2 SAMUEL._ By Rev. Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D.\n\n_1 KINGS._ By the Very Rev. DEAN FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.\n\n_2 KINGS._ By the Very Rev, DEAN FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.\n\n_THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES._ By Rev. Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.\n\n_EZRA, NEHEMIAH, AND ESTHER._ By Rev. Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n_JOB._ By Rev. R. A. WATSON, D.D.\n\n_PSALMS._ By Rev. ALEX. MACLAREN, D.D. Three Volumes.\n\n_PROVERBS._ By Rev. R. F. HORTON, M.A.\n\n_ECCLESIASTES._ By Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.\n\n_THE SONG OF SOLOMON AND THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH._ By the Rev. W.\nF. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n_ISAIAH._ By Rev. Prof. G. ADAM SMITH, D.D. Two Volumes.\n\n_JEREMIAH._ By Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.\n\n_JEREMIAH._ Chaps. xxi.-lii. By Rev. Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.\n\n_EZEKIEL._ By Rev. Prof. SKINNER, M.A.\n\n_DANIEL._ By the Very Rev. DEAN FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.\n\n_THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE PROPHETS._ By Rev. Prof. G. ADAM SMITH, D.D. Two\nVolumes.\n\n\n\n\nThe Expositor's Bible.\n\nEdited by Rev. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n\n_Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. each._\n\n\nNEW TESTAMENT VOLUMES.\n\n_ST. MATTHEW._ By Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.\n\n_ST. MARK._ By the Right Rev. G. A. CHADWICK, D.D., Bishop of Derry.\n\n_ST. LUKE._ By Rev. HENRY BURTON, M.A.\n\n_ST. JOHN._ By Rev. Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D. Two Volumes.\n\n_THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES._ By Rev. Prof. G. T. STOKES, D.D. Two\nVolumes.\n\n_ROMANS._ By Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, M.A.\n\n_1 CORINTHIANS._ By Rev. Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n_2 CORINTHIANS._ By Rev. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n_GALATIANS._ By Rev, Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n\n_EPHESIANS._ By Rev. Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n\n_PHILIPPIANS._ By Rev. Principal RAINY, D.D.\n\n_COLOSSIANS AND PHILEMON._ By Rev. ALEX. MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n_THESSALONIANS._ By Rev. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n_THE PASTORAL EPISTLES._ By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n_HEBREWS._ By Rev. Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.\n\n_THE EPISTLES OF ST. JAMES AND ST. JUDE._ By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n_THE EPISTLES OF ST. PETER._ By Rev. Prof. LUMBY, D.D.\n\n_THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN._ By the Most Rev. W. ALEXANDER, D.D., Lord\nArchbishop of Armagh.\n\n_THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION._ By Rev. Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n\nLONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. Paul to the Colossians and Philemon","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":142461}