{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_39196/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_39196","id":"gutenberg_39196","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39196","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Ephesians -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by Marcia Brooks, Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and\nthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian\nLibraries)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n [Transcriber's Note:\n\n This e-text is intended for users whose text readers cannot display\n the Unicode (utf-8) version of the file. Greek words have been\n transliterated and enclosed in equals signs, e.g. =ho logos=.\n\n _Italic_ words have been similarly enclosed in underscores.\n\n As the oe ligature cannot be included in this file format, for\n consistency both ae and oe ligatures have been replaced with the\n separate letters throughout. In addition, where a macron is placed\n above the letter e in the original to represent the Greek letter eta,\n it is replaced in this version by a circumflex over the e: \u00ea.\n\n A few minor typographical errors have been silently corrected.\n\n The Table of Contents refers to original page numbers.\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 EDITED BY THE REV.\n W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n _Editor of \"The Expositor,\" etc._\n\n THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS\n\n BY THE REV. PROFESSOR\n G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n HEADINGLEY COLLEGE, LEEDS\n\n London\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n 27, PATERNOSTER ROW\n\n MDCCCXCVIII\n\n\n\n\n THE\n EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS\n\n\n BY THE REV. PROFESSOR\n G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n HEADINGLEY COLLEGE, LEEDS\n\n THIRD EDITION\n\n London\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n 27, PATERNOSTER ROW\n\n MDCCCXCVIII\n\n\n _Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n _INTRODUCTION._\n\n CHAPTER i. 1, 2.\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\n THE WRITER AND READERS.\n PAGE\n Contrast of Galatians and Ephesians--Pauline qualities of\n Ephesians: intellectual, historical, theological, spiritual,\n ethical--The Idea of the Church--The Person of\n Christ--Ephesians and Colossians--Style of\n Ephesians--Circular Hypothesis--Epistle from\n Laodicea--Designation of the Readers--Faithful Brethren 3\n\n\n _PRAISE AND PRAYER._\n\n CHAPTER i. 3-19.\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n THE ETERNAL PURPOSE.\n\n The Apostle's Hymn of Praise--Blessed be God!--Blessing\n spiritual, heavenly, Christian--In the Beginning the\n Election of Grace--The World and its Founder--Redemption\n embedded in Creation--God's prescient\n Choice--Our Holiness His Purpose--Divine Adoption--Who\n are the Elect? 21\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n THE BESTOWMENT OF GRACE.\n\n Structure of the Paragraph--Grace an Experience--Christ the\n Beloved--Forgiveness and its Price--The Value of\n Forgiveness--Wisdom a Gift of Grace--The Gospel as an\n intellectual Force--God's Will the Goal of human\n Thought--Sonship and Heritage--The Fulness of the Times--The\n Christian Inventory of the Universe--Reconciliation and\n Reconstitution--Gathering in and Gathering out 34\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n THE FINAL REDEMPTION.\n\n Mutual Inheritance--Jewish and Gentile Heirs--Uses of the\n Seal--The Stamp of Sanctity--Promise fulfilled and to be\n fulfilled--Hearing and Believing--Salvation by the\n Truth--Salvation for the Gentiles--Faith and the Holy\n Spirit--The two Redemptions--The encumbered Property--The\n Earnest of our consummate Life 50\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n FOR THE EYES OF THE HEART.\n\n Thanksgiving for the Readers--The God of Christ, the Father\n of Glory--Christian Enlightenment--Seeing with the\n Heart--What is our Hope?--God's Wealth in Men--The true\n Standard of Value--The Power of Christ's Resurrection 65\n\n\n THE DOCTRINE.\n\n CHAPTER i. 20--iii. 13.\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n WHAT GOD WROUGHT IN THE CHRIST.\n\n Prayer and Teaching--Historical Effect of Christ's\n Resurrection--The Stages of His Exaltation--Christianity\n without Miracles--The efficient Cause of Christianity--The\n perfect Resurrection--The First-begotten out of the\n Dead--The Risen One, the Holy One--Resurrection and\n Ascension--Ascension to Rule--Christ and the Angels--Christ\n glorified God's Gift to the Church--Christ the Fulness of\n God 81\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n FROM DEATH TO LIFE.\n\n Raised with Christ--Sin is Death--Jesus Christ in a dead\n World--Alive in Body, dead in Spirit--Religious\n Difficulties--Antipathy to God--The Power of the Air--God's\n Anger against Sinners--The Soul's Awaking--Consciousness of\n God--Fellowship in Salvation 95\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n SAVED FOR AN END.\n\n Beginning and End of God's Plan--Mercy, Love, Kindness,\n Grace and Gift--Not of Works--Boasting excluded--Evangelical\n Assurance--In the heavenly Places--Grace a\n Task-master--Creation and Redemption--The apostolic Church\n and the coming Times 109\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n THE FAR AND NEAR.\n\n Wherefore remember!--Sudden and gradual Conversion--The\n Gentile World: Godless, hopeless, Christless--Away with the\n Atheists!--The double Pessimism--The Uncircumcision--Nigh in\n the Blood of Christ--Reunion in Guilt and in Pardon 120\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n THE DOUBLE RECONCILIATION.\n\n The Jewish War--The two Parties in the Church--The Jewish\n Enmity typical--The new Christian Humanity--The Church in\n the first Century and the nineteenth--Hindrances to Unity:\n external, internal--The Ground of Reconciliation--Enemies of\n God--The Atonement of the Cross--Moral Communism--Personal\n Faith--The Fraternization of Mankind 131\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n GOD'S TEMPLE IN HUMANITY.\n\n The Divine Occupant--The Service of Man and of God--One\n Temple and many Buildings--The Variety of the apostolic\n Church--The primitive Catholicism--Church and Dissent--Union\n by Approximation--Our Lord's Prayer for Unity--The apostolic\n Basis--The Builder Spirit--The sure Foundation Stone 143\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n THE SECRET OF THE AGES.\n\n St Paul's Style of Composition--Christ the Mystery of\n God--Christ in the Old Testament--The Exploration of\n Christ--The Portion of the Gentiles in Israel--The Organs of\n the new Revelation--The unique Office and Influence of the\n Apostle Paul 155\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n EARTH TEACHING HEAVEN.\n\n Christ the Bond of Angels and Men--Our Lord and\n theirs--Jesus of Nazareth the Lord of the Ages--The Reality\n of the Angels--Their Interest in the Church--The Peculiarity\n of the human Problem--The Docility of the heavenly\n Potentates--The angelic Standpoint--The Grandeur of\n Christianity inspires Courage 167\n\n\n _PRAYER AND PRAISE._\n\n CHAPTER iii. 14-21.\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n THE COMPREHENSION OF CHRIST.\n\n Contents of St Paul's Prayer--The Father of Angels and of\n Men--Strength of Spirit and of the Spirit--Christ abiding in\n the Heart--Christ and the Christ--Christ's Claim on the\n Intellect--Neglect of Theology--Dimensions of God's\n Building--Strength to grasp the Magnitude of\n Christianity--The true Broad Churchman 183\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n KNOWING THE UNKNOWABLE.\n\n Knowledge in the Growth--Paul's Study of the Love of\n Christ--Christ's manifested Love--God's Fulness our\n final Aim--The Fulness more than Love--Praise out-soaring\n Prayer--God's Gifts beyond our Requests--The\n Divine Power immanent in Men--The Inspirer of Prayer\n its Fulfiller--The Union of the Church and Christ in\n God's Praise--The eternal Glory 197\n\n\n _THE EXHORTATION.\n ON CHURCH LIFE._\n\n CHAPTER iv. 1-16.\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n THE FUNDAMENTAL UNITIES.\n\n The Prisoner in the Lord--The Foes of Church Peace:\n Low-mindedness, Ambition, Resentfulness--The Basis of Unity:\n sevenfold, threefold--One Body despite Divisions--One Spirit\n makes one Body--Unity of Life and Hope--One Lord in all\n Churches--Baptism a Sign of Christ's Rule, the Seal of a\n corporate Life--The one God, and the many 213\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n THE MEASURE OF THE GIFT OF CHRIST.\n\n Unity in Diversities--Christ the Administrator--The\n Ascension of David and of David's Son--Height and\n Breadth--The Giving of Jesus--Christ's Descent and\n Ascent--The Warfare of Christ--The Spoils of His\n Victory--The Enlistment of His Prisoners--Apostles and\n Prophets, Evangelists and Pastors--Paul, Augustine, Luther,\n Knox, Wesley--The Demands of the Future--Individual\n Responsibility 227\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH.\n\n The Aim of the Christian Ministry--A perfect\n Manhood--Sleight or Sport?--Junctures of Supply--Reunion in\n the Knowledge of the Son of God--The Stature of Christ our\n Standard--The Dangers of Childishness--Speculative\n Error--Gnosticism and Agnosticism--Conditions of\n Safety--Church Organization--The Framework of the Body of\n Christ--Its Continuity of Tissue 244\n\n\n _ON CHRISTIAN MORALS._\n\n CHAPTER iv. 17-v. 21.\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n THE WALK OF THE GENTILES.\n\n The old World and the old Man--Impotence of Gentile\n Reason--Science and Pessimism--Loss of the Life of\n God--Ignorance the Mother of Indevotion--Induration of\n Heart--Impudicity of Paganism 261\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n THE TWO HUMAN TYPES.\n\n Defective Views of Christ amongst Paul's Readers--The\n historical Jesus the true Christ--Paul and the Tradition of\n Jesus--Jesus the human Model--Nero a Type of the Pagan\n Order--The Fraud of Sin--The Growth and the Birth of the new\n Man--Righteousness and Holiness 275\n\n CHAPTER XXI.\n\n DISCARDED VICES.\n\n The seven Gentile Sins--Truthfulness and the Truth--The\n Perils of Anger--The Antidote to Theft--Sinfulness of vain\n Speech--Malice and its Brood--Imitation of the Divine\n Love--Filthiness and Jesting--The golden Leprosy 290\n\n CHAPTER XXII.\n\n DOCTRINE AND ETHICS.\n\n The Intrinsic and Experimental in Morals--Originality of\n Christian Ethics--Ethical Art and Science--Four Principles\n of Pauline Ethics--Personality and Morals--Ethical\n Character of Christ's Forgiveness--Auguste Comte and the\n Gospel--The moral Import of the Resurrection--And of the\n Atonement 305\n\n CHAPTER XXIII.\n\n THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT.\n\n Right the Fruit of Light--All Virtue from one\n Source--Unbelief and Immorality--Christian Goodness--The Way\n of Righteousness--Truth the Hall-mark of Sanctity--Verity\n and Veracity--Specialists in Virtue--Reproof of open and of\n hidden Sins--Manifestation and Transformation 321\n\n CHAPTER XXIV.\n\n THE NEW WINE OF THE SPIRIT.\n\n Soberness and Excitement--The heedful Look--Evil Days for\n the Asian Christians--Wisdom to know God's Will--Wine and\n social Pleasure--The Craving for Excitement--Fulness of the\n Spirit--The Rise of Christian Psalmody--The Music of the\n Heart--Enthusiasm and Order 336\n\n\n _ON FAMILY LIFE._\n\n CHAPTER v. 22-vi. 9.\n\n CHAPTER XXV.\n\n CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE.\n\n The Divine Character of Marriage--Religious Equality of the\n Sexes--The Glory of the Man--Women's Rights--Christ's\n undivided Headship--Masculine Selfishness--Greek Terms for\n Love--The Husband and the Priest--The double\n Self--Indelibility of Wedlock 353\n\n CHAPTER XXVI.\n\n CHRIST AND HIS BRIDE.\n\n Marriage and the Doctrine of the Church--The Individual and\n the Church--The Glory of the vicarious Death--Christ the\n Sanctifier of His Church--The Signification of Baptism--The\n Water and the Word--The Bride made ready--The Church a\n Christocracy--Adam's Wedding-song--The Church inherent in\n Christ 366\n\n CHAPTER XXVII.\n\n THE CHRISTIAN HOUSEHOLD.\n\n Children in the Church--The initial Form of\n Duty--Commandment and Promise--Gentleness of fatherly\n Rule--Spoilt Children--The Lord's Nurture--Greek and Roman\n Slaves--The Church and the Slaves--Christ a Pattern for\n Slaves--Servants of Society--Care, Honesty, Heartiness in\n Work--The heavenly Master's Reward--Responsibility of the\n earthly Master 380\n\n\n _ON THE APPROACHING CONFLICT._\n\n CHAPTER vi. 10-18.\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n THE FOES OF THE CHURCH.\n\n Henceforth be strong!--The two Panoplies--The Personality of\n Satan--The Devil and his Angels--Paul's Demonology--The\n spiritual Combat--Interior Temptations--Persecution and\n Heresy--The Region of the Struggle--The Siege of the\n heavenly City 397\n\n CHAPTER XXIX.\n\n THE DIVINE PANOPLY.\n\n The coming evil Day--Comparison with Revelation ii.,\n iii.--The Girdle of Truth--The Breastplate of\n Righteousness--Shoes of Gospel Readiness--The great Shield\n of Faith--Fire-tipped Darts--The Helmet of Salvation--The\n Spirit's Sword--The Weapon of All-prayer 410\n\n\n _THE CONCLUSION._\n\n CHAPTER vi. 19-24.\n\n CHAPTER XXX.\n\n REQUEST: COMMENDATION: BENEDICTION.\n\n Paul's Need of the Church's Prayers--Christ's Ambassador\n before the Emperor--Speaking the Word given--Good News for\n the Asian Churches--Character and Services of\n Tychicus--Peace to the Brethren--Love with Faith--Love\n toward Christ and Grace from God--The Love incorruptible 427\n\n\n\n\n\n_THE INTRODUCTION_\n\nCHAPTER i. 1, 2.\n\n =Ou monon Ephesou alla schedo pas\u00eas t\u00eas Asias ho Paulos houtos\n peisas metest\u00easen hikano ochlon= (Demetrius the Silversmith).\n\n ACTS xix. 26.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n_THE WRITER AND READERS._\n\n \"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the\n saints, who are indeed faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and\n peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.\"[1]--EPH. i. 1,\n 2.\n\n\nIn passing from the Galatian to the Ephesian epistle we are conscious of\nentering a different atmosphere. We leave the region of controversy for\nthat of meditation. From the battle-field we step into the hush and\nstillness of the temple. Verses 3-14 of this chapter constitute the most\nsustained and perfect act of praise that is found in the apostle's\nletters. It is as though a door were suddenly opened in heaven; it shuts\nbehind us, and earthly tumult dies away. The contrast between these two\nwritings, following each other in the established order of the epistles,\nis singular and in some ways extreme. They are, respectively, the most\ncombative and peaceful, the most impassioned and unimpassioned, the most\nconcrete and abstract, the most human and divine amongst the great\napostle's writings.\n\nYet there is a fundamental resemblance and identity of character. The\ntwo letters are not the expression of different minds, but of different\nphases of the same mind. In the Paul of Galatians the Paul of Ephesians\nis latent; the contemplative thinker, the devout mystic behind the\nardent missionary and the masterly debater. Those critics who recognize\nthe genuine apostle only in the four previous epistles and reject\nwhatever does not conform strictly to their type, do not perceive how\nmuch is needed to make up a man like the apostle Paul. Without the\ninwardness, the brooding faculty, the power of abstract and metaphysical\nthinking displayed in the epistles of this group, he could never have\nwrought out the system of doctrine contained in those earlier writings,\nnor grasped the principles which he there applies with such vigour and\neffect. That so many serious and able scholars doubt, or even deny, St\nPaul's authorship of this epistle on internal grounds and because of the\ncontrast to which we have referred, is one of those phenomena which in\nfuture histories of religious thought will be quoted as the curiosities\nof a hypercritical age.[2]\n\nLet us observe some of the Pauline qualities that are stamped upon the\nface of this document. There is, in the first place, the apostle's\nintellectual note, what has been well called his _passion for the\nabsolute_. St Paul's was one of those minds, so discomposing to\nsuperficial and merely practical thinkers, which cannot be content with\nhalf-way conclusions. For every principle he seeks its ultimate basis;\nevery line of thought he pushes to its furthest limits. His gospel, if\nhe is to rest in it, must supply a principle of unity that will bind\ntogether all the elements of his mental world.\n\nHence, in contesting the Jewish claim to religious superiority on the\nground of circumcision and the Abrahamic covenant, St Paul developed in\nthe epistle to the Galatians a religious philosophy of history; he\narrived at a view of the function of the law in the education of mankind\nwhich disposed not only of the question at issue, but of all such\nquestions. He established for ever the principle of salvation by faith\nand of spiritual sonship to God. What that former argument effects for\nthe history of revelation, is done here for the gospel in its relations\nto society and universal life. The principle of Christ's headship is\ncarried to its largest results. The centre of the Church becomes the\ncentre of the universe. God's plan of the ages is disclosed, ranging\nthrough eternity and embracing every form of being, and \"gathering into\none all things in the Christ.\" In Galatians and Romans the thought of\nsalvation by Christ breaks through Jewish limits and spreads itself over\nthe field of history; in Colossians and Ephesians the idea of life in\nChrist overleaps the barriers of time and human existence, and brings\n\"things in heaven and things in earth and things beneath the earth\"\nunder its sway.\n\nThe second, historical note of original Paulinism we recognize in the\nwriter's _attitude towards Judaism_. We should be prepared to stake the\ngenuineness of the epistle on this consideration alone. The position and\npoint of view of the Jewish apostle to the Gentiles are unique in\nhistory. It is difficult to conceive how any one but Paul himself, at\nany other juncture, could have represented the relation of Jew and\nGentile to each other as it is put before us here. The writer is a Jew,\na man nourished on the hope of Israel (i. 12), who had looked at his\nfellow-men across \"the middle wall of partition\" (ii. 14). In his view,\nthe covenant and the Christ belong, in the first instance and as by\nbirthright, to the men of Israel. They are \"the near,\" who live hard by\nthe city and house of God. The blessedness of the Gentile readers\nconsists in the revelation that they are \"fellow-heirs and of the same\nbody and joint-partakers with us of the promise in Christ Jesus\" (iii.\n6). What is this but to say, as the apostle had done before, that the\nbranches \"of the naturally wild olive tree\" were \"against nature grafted\ninto the good olive tree\" and allowed to \"partake of its root and\nfatness,\" along with \"the natural branches,\" the children of the stock\nof Abraham who claimed it for \"their own\"; that \"the men of faith are\nsons of Abraham\" and \"Abraham's blessing has come on the Gentiles\nthrough faith\"?[3]\n\nFor our author this revelation has lost none of its novelty and\nsurprise. He is in the midst of the excitement it has produced, and is\nhimself its chief agent and mouthpiece (iii. 1-9). This disclosure of\nGod's secret plans for the world overwhelms him by its magnitude, by the\nsplendour with which it invests the Divine character, and the sense of\nhis personal unworthiness to be entrusted with it. We utterly disbelieve\nthat any later Christian writer could or would have personated the\napostle and mimicked his tone and sentiments in regard to his vocation,\nin the way that the \"critical\" hypothesis assumes. The criterion of\nErasmus is decisive: _Nemo potest Paulinum pectus effingere._\n\nSt Paul's doctrine of _the cross_ is admittedly his specific\ntheological note. In the shameful sacrificial death of Jesus Christ he\nsaw the instrument of man's release from the curse of the broken law;[4]\nand through this knowledge the cross which was the \"scandal\" of Saul the\nPharisee, had become Paul's glory and its proclamation the business of\nhis life. It is this doctrine, in its original strength and fulness,\nwhich lies behind such sentences as those of chapter i. 7, ii. 13, and\nv. 2: \"We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our\ntrespasses--brought nigh in the blood of Christ--an offering and\nsacrifice to God for an odour of sweet smell.\"\n\nAnother mark of the apostle's hand, his specific spiritual note, we find\nin the _mysticism_ that pervades the epistle and forms, in fact, its\nsubstance. \"I live no longer: Christ lives in me.\" \"He that is joined to\nthe Lord is one spirit.\"[5] In these sentences of the earlier letters we\ndiscover the spring of St Paul's theology, lying in his own\nexperience--_the sense of personal union through the Spirit with Christ\nJesus_. This was the deepest fact of Paul's consciousness. Here it meets\nus at every turn. More than twenty times the phrase \"in Christ\" or its\nequivalents recur, applied to Christian acts or states. It is enough to\nrefer to chapter iii. 17, \"that the Christ may make His dwelling in your\nhearts through faith,\" to show how profoundly this mysterious\nrelationship is realized in this letter. No other New Testament writer\nconceived the idea in Paul's way, nor has any subsequent writer of whom\nwe know made the like constant and original use of it. It was the habit\nof the apostle's mind, the index of his innermost life. Kindred to this,\nand hardly less conspicuous, is his conception of \"God in Christ\" (2\nCor. v. 19) saving and operating upon men, who, as we read here, \"chose\nus in Christ before the world's foundation--forgave us in Him--made us\nin Him to sit together in the heavenly places--formed us in Christ Jesus\nfor good works.\"\n\nThe ethical note of the true Paulinism is the conception of the _new\nman_ in Christ Jesus, whose sins were slain by His death, and who shares\nHis risen life unto God (Rom. vi.). From this idea, as from a\nfountainhead, the apostle in the parallel Colossian epistle (ch. iii.)\ndeduces the new Christian morality. The temper and disposition of the\nbeliever, his conduct in all social duties and practical affairs are the\nexpression of a \"life hid with Christ in God.\" It is the identical \"new\nman\" of Romans and Colossians who presents himself as our ideal here,\nraised with Christ from the dead and \"sitting with Him in the heavenly\nplaces.\" The newness of life in which he walks, receives its impulse and\ndirection from this exalted fellowship.\n\nThe characteristics of St Paul's teaching which we have described--his\nlogical thoroughness and finality, his peculiar historical, theological,\nspiritual, and ethical standpoint and manner of thought--are combined in\nthe conception which is the specific note of this epistle, viz., its\nidea of _the Church_ as the body of Christ,--or in other words, of _the\nnew humanity_ created in Him. This forms the centre of the circle of\nthought in which the writer's mind moves;[6] it is the meeting-point of\nthe various lines of thought that we have already traced. The doctrine\nof personal salvation wrought out in the great evangelical epistles\nterminates in that of social and collective salvation. A new and\nprecious title is conferred on Christ: He is \"Saviour of _the body_\" (v.\n23), _i.e._, of the corporate Christian community. \"The Son of God who\nloved _me_ and gave up Himself for _me_\" becomes \"the Christ\" who \"loved\n_the Church_ and gave up Himself for _her_.\"[7] \"The new man\" is no\nlonger the individual, a mere transformed _ego_; he is the type and\nbeginning of a new mankind. A perfect society of men, all sons of God in\nChrist, is being constituted around the cross, in which the old\nantagonisms are reconciled, the ideal of creation is restored, and a\nbody is provided to contain the fulness of Christ, a holy temple which\nGod inhabits in the Spirit. Of this edifice, with the cross for its\ncentre and Christ Jesus for its corner-stone, Jew and Gentile form the\nmaterial--\"the Jew first,\" lying nearest to the site.[8]\n\nThe apostle Paul necessarily conceived the reconstruction of humanity\nunder the form of a reconciliation of Israel and the Gentiles. The\nCatholicism we have here is Paul's Catholicism of _Gentile\nengrafting_--not Clement's, of _churchly order and uniformity_; nor\nIgnatius', of _monepiscopal rule_. It is profoundly characteristic of\nthis apostle, that in \"the law\" which had been to his own experience the\nbarrier and ground of quarrel between the soul and God, \"the strength of\nsin,\" he should come to see likewise the barrier between men and men,\nand the strength of the sinful enmity which distracted the Churches of\nhis foundation (ii. 14-16).\n\nThe representation of the Church contained in this epistle is,\ntherefore, by no means new in its elements. Such texts as 1 Corinthians\niii. 16, 17 (\"Ye are God's temple,\" etc.) and xii. 12-27 (concerning the\n_one body and many members_) bring us near to its actual expression.\nBut the figures of the _body_ and _temple_ in these passages, had they\nstood alone, might be read as mere passing illustrations of the nature\nof Christian fellowship. Now they become proper designations of the\nChurch, and receive their full significance. While in 1 Corinthians,\nmoreover, these phrases do not look beyond the particular community\naddressed, in Ephesians they embrace the entire Christian society. This\nepistle signalizes a great step forwards in the development of the\napostle's theology--perhaps we might say, the last step. The Pastoral\nepistles serve to put the final apostolic seal upon the theological\nedifice that is now complete. Their care is with the guarding and\nfurnishing of the \"great house\"[9] which our epistle is engaged in\nbuilding.\n\nThe idea of the Church is not, however, independently developed.\nEphesians and Colossians are companion letters,--the complement and\nexplanation of each other. Both \"speak with regard to Christ and the\nChurch\"; both reveal the Divine \"glory in the Church and in Christ\nJesus.\"[10] The emphasis of Ephesians falls on the former, of Colossians\non the latter of these objects. The doctrine of the Person of Christ and\nthat of the nature of the Church proceed with equal step. The two\nepistles form one process of thought.\n\nCriticism has attempted to derive first one and then the other of the\ntwo from its fellow,--thus, in effect, stultifying itself. Finally Dr.\nHoltzmann, in his _Kritik der Epheser-und Kolosserbriefe_,[11] undertook\nto show that each epistle was in turn dependent on the other. There is,\nHoltzmann says, a Pauline nucleus hidden in Colossians, which he has\nhimself extracted. By its aid some ecclesiastic of genius in the second\ncentury composed the Ephesian epistle. He then returned to the brief\nColossian writing of St Paul, and worked it up, with his own Ephesian\ncomposition lying before him, into our existing epistle to the\nColossians. This complicated and too ingenious hypothesis has not\nsatisfied any one except its author, and need not detain us here. But\nHoltzmann has at any rate made good, against his predecessors on the\nnegative side, the unity of origin of the two canonical epistles, the\nfact that they proceed from one mint and coinage. They are _twin_\nepistles, the offspring of a single birth in the apostle's mind. Much of\ntheir subject-matter, especially in the ethical section, is common to\nboth. The glory of the Christ and the greatness of the Church are truths\ninseparable in the nature of things, wedded to each other. To the\nconfession, \"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,\" His\nresponse ever is, \"_I will build my Church_.\"[12] The same\ncorrespondence exists between these two epistles in the dialectic\nmovement of the apostle's thought.\n\nAt the same time, there is a considerable difference between the two\nwritings in point of style. M. Renan, who accepts Colossians from Paul's\nhand, and who admits that \"among all the epistles bearing the name of\nPaul the epistle to the Ephesians is perhaps that which has been most\nanciently cited as a composition of the apostle of the Gentiles,\" yet\nspeaks of this epistle as a \"verbose amplification\" of the other, \"a\ncommonplace letter, diffuse and pointless, loaded with useless words and\nrepetitions, entangled and overgrown with irrelevancies, full of\npleonasms and obscurities.\"[13]\n\nIn this instance, Renan's literary sense has deserted him. While\nColossians is quick in movement, terse and pointed, in some places so\nsparing of words as to be almost hopelessly obscure,[14] Ephesians from\nbeginning to end is measured and deliberate, exuberant in language, and\nobscure, where it is so, not from the brevity, but from the length and\ninvolution of its periods. It is occupied with a few great ideas, which\nthe author strives to set forth in all their amplitude and significance.\nColossians is a letter of discussion; Ephesians of reflection. The whole\ndifference of style lies in this. In the reflective passages of\nColossians, as indeed in the earlier epistles,[15] we find the\nstateliness of movement and rhythmical fulness of expression which in\nthis epistle are sustained throughout. Both epistles are marked by those\nunfinished sentences and _anacolutha_, the grammatical inconsequence\nassociated with close continuity of thought, which is a main\ncharacteristic of St Paul's style.[16] The epistle to the Colossians is\nlike a mountain stream forcing its way through some rugged defile; that\nto the Ephesians is the smooth lake below, in which its chafed waters\nrestfully expand. These sister epistles represent the moods of conflict\nand repose which alternated in St Paul's mobile nature.\n\nIn general, the writings of this group, belonging to the time of the\napostle's imprisonment and advancing age,[17] display less passion and\nenergy, but a more tranquil spirit than those of the Jewish controversy.\nThey are prison letters, the fruit of a time when the author's mind had\nbeen much thrown in upon itself. They have been well styled \"the\nafternoon epistles,\" being marked by the subdued and reflective temper\nnatural to this period of life. Ephesians is, in truth, the typical\nrepresentative of the third group of Paul's epistles, as Galatians is of\nthe second. There is abundant reason to be satisfied that this letter\ncame, as it purports to do, from _Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus\nthrough God's will_.\n\n * * * * *\n\nBut that it was addressed to \"the saints which are _in Ephesus_\" is more\ndifficult to believe. The apostle has \"heard of the faith which prevails\namongst\" his readers; he presumes that they \"have heard of the Christ,\nand were taught in Him according as truth is in Jesus.\"[18] He hopes\nthat by \"reading\" this epistle they will \"perceive his understanding in\nthe mystery of Christ\" (iii. 2-4). He writes somewhat thus to the\nColossians and Romans, whom he had never seen;[19] but can we imagine\nPaul addressing in this distant and uncertain fashion his children in\nthe faith? In Ephesus he had laboured \"for the space of three whole\nyears\" (Acts xx. 31), longer than in any other city of the Gentile\nmission, except Antioch. His speech to the Ephesian elders at Miletus,\ndelivered four years ago, was surcharged with personal feeling, full of\npathetic reminiscence and the signs of interested acquaintance with the\nindividual membership of the Ephesian Church. In the epistle such signs\nare altogether wanting. The absence of greetings and messages we could\nunderstand; these Tychicus might convey by word of mouth. But how the\nman who wrote the epistles to the Philippians and Corinthians could have\ncomposed this long and careful letter to his own Ephesian people without\na single word of endearment or familiarity,[20] and without the least\nallusion to his past intercourse with them, we cannot understand. It is\nin the destination that the only serious difficulty lies touching the\nauthorship. Nowhere do we see more of _the apostle_ and less of _the\nman_ in St Paul; nowhere more of _the_ Church, and less of _this or\nthat_ particular church.\n\nIt agrees with these internal indications that the local designation is\nwanting in the oldest Greek copies of the letter that are extant. The\ntwo great manuscripts of the fourth century, the Vatican and Sinaitic\ncodices, omit the words \"in Ephesus.\" Basil in the fourth century did\nnot accept them, and says that \"the old copies\" were without them.\nOrigen, in the beginning of the third century, seems to have known\nnothing of them. And Tertullian, at the end of the second century, while\nhe condemns the heretic Marcion (who lived about fifty years earlier)\nfor entitling the epistle \"To the Laodiceans,\" quotes only the _title_\nagainst him, and not the text of the address, which he would presumably\nhave done, had he read it in the form familiar to us. We are compelled\nto suppose, with Westcott and Hort and the textual critics generally,\nthat these words form no part of the original address.\n\nHere the _circular hypothesis_ of Beza and Ussher comes to our aid. It\nis supposed that the letter was destined for a number of Churches in\nAsia Minor, which Tychicus was directed to visit in the course of the\njourney which took him to Colossae.[21] Along with the letters for the\nColossians and Philemon, he was entrusted with this more general\nepistle, intended for the Gentile Christian communities of the\nneighbouring region at large. During St Paul's ministry at Ephesus, we\nare told that \"all those that dwell in Asia heard the word of the Lord,\nboth Jews and Greeks\" (Acts xix. 10). In so large and populous an area,\namongst the Churches founded at this time there were doubtless others\nbeside those of the Lycus valley \"which had not seen Paul's face in the\nflesh,\" some about which the apostle had less precise knowledge than he\nhad of these through Epaphras and Onesimus, but for whom he was no less\ndesirous that their \"hearts should be comforted, and brought into all\nthe wealth of the full assurance of the understanding in the knowledge\nof the mystery of God\" (Col. ii. 1, 2).\n\nTo which or how many of the Asian Churches Tychicus would be able to\ncommunicate the letter was, presumably, uncertain when it was written at\nRome; and the designation was left open. Its conveyance by Tychicus\n(vi. 21, 22) supplied the only limit to its distribution. Proconsular\nAsia was the richest and most peaceful province of the Empire, so\npopulous that it was called \"the province of five hundred cities.\"\nEphesus was only the largest of many flourishing commercial and\nmanufacturing towns.\n\nAt the close of his epistle to the Colossians St Paul directs this\nChurch to procure \"from Laodicea,\" in exchange for their own, a letter\nwhich he is sending there (iv. 16). Is it possible that we have the lost\nLaodicean document in the epistle before us? So Ussher suggested; and\nthough the assumption is not essential to his theory, it falls in with\nit very aptly. Marcion may, after all, have preserved a reminiscence of\nthe fact that Laodicea, as well as Ephesus, shared in this letter. The\nconjecture is endorsed by Lightfoot, who says, writing on Colossians iv.\n16: \"There are good reasons for the belief that St Paul here alludes to\nthe so-called epistle to the Ephesians, which was in fact a circular\nletter, addressed to the principal Churches of proconsular Asia.\nTychicus was obliged to pass through Laodicea on his way to Colossae, and\nwould leave a copy there before the Colossian letter was delivered.\"[22]\nThe two epistles admirably supplement each other. The Apocalyptic letter\n\"to the seven churches which are in Asia,\" ranging from Ephesus to\nLaodicea (Rev. ii., iii.), shows how much the Christian communities of\nthis region had in common and how natural it would be to address them\ncollectively. For the same region, with a yet wider scope, the \"first\ncatholic epistle of Peter\" was destined, a writing that has many points\nof contact with this. Ephesus being the metropolis of the Asian\nChurches, and claiming a special interest in St Paul, came to regard the\nepistle as specially her own. Through Ephesus, moreover, it was\ncommunicated to the Church in other provinces. Hence it came to pass\nthat when Paul's epistles were gathered into a single volume and a title\nwas needed for this along with the rest, \"To the Ephesians\" was written\nover it; and this reference standing in the title, in course of time\nfound its way into the text of the address. We propose to read this\nletter as _the general epistle of Paul to the Churches of Asia_, or _to\nEphesus and its daughter Churches_.\n\n * * * * *\n\nBut how are we to read the address, with the local definition wanting?\nThere are two constructions open to us:--(1) We might suppose that a\nspace was left blank in the original to be filled in afterwards by\nTychicus with the names of the particular Churches to which he\ndistributed copies, or to be supplied by the voice of the reader. But if\nthat were so, we should have expected to find some trace of this variety\nof designation in the ancient witnesses. As it is, the documents either\ngive Ephesus in the address, or supply no local name at all. Nor is\nthere, so far as we are aware, any analogy in ancient usage for the\nproceeding suggested. Moreover, the order of the Greek words[23] is\nagainst this supposition.--(2) We prefer, therefore, to follow\nOrigen[24] and Basil, with some modern exegetes, in reading the sentence\nstraight on, as it stands in the Sinaitic and Vatican copies. It then\nbecomes: _To the saints, who are indeed faithful in Christ Jesus_.\n\n\"The saints\" is the apostle's designation for Christian believers\ngenerally,[25] as men consecrated to God in Christ (1 Cor. i. 2). The\nqualifying phrase \"those who are indeed faithful in Christ Jesus,\" is\nadmonitory. As Lightfoot says with reference to the parallel\nqualification in Colossians i. 2, \"This unusual addition is full of\nmeaning. Some members of the [Asian] Churches were shaken in their\nallegiance, even if they had not fallen from it. The apostle therefore\nwishes it to be understood that, when he speaks of the saints, he means\nthose who are true and steadfast members of the brotherhood. In this way\nhe obliquely hints at the defection.\" By this further definition \"he\ndoes not directly exclude any, but he indirectly warns all.\" We are\nreminded that we are in the neighbourhood of the Colossian heresy.\nBeneath the calm tenor of this epistle, the ear catches an undertone of\ncontroversy. In chapter iv. 14 and vi. 10-20 this undertone becomes\nclearly audible. We shall find the epistle end with the note of warning\nwith which it begins.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe Salutation is according to St Paul's established form of greeting.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The translation given in this volume is based upon the Revised\nVersion, but deviates from it in some particulars. These deviations will\nbe explained in the exposition.\n\n[2] The case against authenticity is ably stated in Dr. S. Davidson's\n_Introduction to the N. T._; see also Baur's _Paul_, Pfleiderer's\n_Paulinism_, Hilgenfeld's _Einleitung_, Hatch's article on \"Paul\" in the\n_Encyclopaedia Britannica_. The case for the defence may be found in\nWeiss', Salmon's, Bleek's, or Dods' _N. T. Introduction_--the last\nbrief, but to the point; in Reuss' _History of the N. T._; Milligan's\narticle on \"Ephesians\" in _Encycl. Brit._; Gloag's _Introduction to the\nPauline Epp._; Meyer's, or Beet's, or Eadie's _Commentary_; Sabatier's\n_The Apostle Paul_.\n\n[3] Rom. xi. 16-24; Acts xiii. 26; Gal. iii. 7, 14.\n\n[4] Gal. iii. 10-13; 2 Cor. v. 20, 21, etc.\n\n[5] Gal. ii. 20; 1 Cor. vi. 17.\n\n[6] See ch. i. 9-13, ii. 11-22, iii. 5-11, iv. 1-16, v. 23-32.\n\n[7] Gal ii. 20; Eph. v. 25.\n\n[8] Rom. i. 16; Eph. ii. 17-20.\n\n[9] 1 Tim. iii. 15, 16; 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21.\n\n[10] Eph. iii. 21, v. 32.\n\n[11] _Kritik d. Epheser-u. Kolosserbriefe auf Grund einer Analyse ihres\nVerwandtschaftsverh\u00e4ltnisses_ (Leipzig, 1872). A work more subtle and\nscientific, more replete with learning, and yet more unconvincing than\nthis of Holtzmann, we do not know.\n\nVon Soden, the latest interpreter of this school and Holtzmann's\ncollaborateur in the new _Hand-Commentar_, accepts Colossians in its\nintegrity as the work of Paul, retracting previous doubts on the\nsubject. Ephesians he believes to have been written by a Jewish disciple\nof Paul in his name, about the end of the first century.\n\n[12] Matt. xvi. 15-18; John xvii. 10: _I am glorified in them._\n\n[13] See his _Saint Paul_, Introduction, pp. xii.-xxiii.\n\n[14] See Col. ii. 15, 18, 20-23.\n\n[15] _E.g._, in Rom. i. 1-7, viii. 28-30, xi. 33-36, xvi. 25-27.\n\n[16] See the Winer-Moulton _N. T. Grammar_, p. 709: \"It is in writers of\ngreat mental vivacity--more taken up with the thought than with the mode\nof its expression--that we may expect to find anacolutha most\nfrequently. Hence they are especially numerous in the epistolary style\nof the apostle Paul.\"\n\n[17] Eph. iii. 1; Phil. i. 13; Philem. 9.\n\n[18] Ch. i. 15, iv. 20, 21.\n\n[19] Col. i. 4, ii. 1; Rom. xv. 15, 16.\n\n[20] \"My brethren\" in ch. vi. 10 is an insertion of the copyists. Even\nthe closing benediction, ch. vi. 23, 24, is in the _third person_--a\nthing unexampled in St Paul's epistles.\n\n[21] Ch. vi. 21, 22; Col. iv. 7-9.\n\n[22] Compare Maclaren on _Colossians and Philemon_, p. 406, in this\nseries.\n\n[23] =Tois hagiois tois ousin ... kai pistois en Christ\u00f4 I\u00easou.= The\ninterposition of the heterogeneous attributive between =hagiois= and\n=pistois= is harsh and improbable--not to say, with Hofmann, \"quite\nincredible.\" The two latest German commentaries to hand, that of Beck\nand of von Soden (in the _Hand-Commentar_), interpreters of opposite\nschools, agree with Hofmann in rejecting the local adjunct and regarding\n=pistois= as the complement of =tois ousin=.\n\n[24] Origen, in his fanciful way, makes of =tois ousin= a predicate by\nitself: \"the saints _who are_,\" who possess real being like God Himself\n(Exod. iii. 14)--\"called from non-existence into existence.\" He compares\n1 Cor. i. 28.\n\n[25] See, _e.g._, ver. 18, ii. 19, iii. 18, iv. 12, v. 3.\n\n\n\n\nPRAISE AND PRAYER.\n\nCHAPTER i. 3-19.\n\n =Hous proegn\u00f4, kai pro\u00f4risen\n symmorphous t\u00eas eikonos tou huiou autou,\n eis to einai auto pr\u00f4totokon en pollois adelphois;\n hous de pro\u00f4risen, toutous kai ekalesen;\n kai hous ekalesen, toutous kai edikai\u00f4sen;\n hous de edikai\u00f4sen, toutous kai edoxasen.=\n\n ROM. viii. 29, 30.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n_THE ETERNAL PURPOSE._\n\n\nWe enter this epistle through a magnificent gateway. The introductory\nAct of Praise, extending from verse 3 to 14, is one of the most sublime\nof inspired utterances, an overture worthy of the composition that it\nintroduces. Its first sentence compels us to feel the insufficiency of\nour powers for its due rendering.\n\nThe apostle surveys in this thanksgiving the entire course of the\nrevelation of grace. Standing with the men of his day, the new-born\ncommunity of the sons of God in Christ, midway between the ages past and\nto come,[26] he looks backward to the source of man's salvation when it\nlay a silent thought in the mind of God, and forward to the hour when it\nshall have accomplished its promise and achieved our redemption. In this\ngrand evolution of the Divine plan three stages are marked by the\nrefrain, thrice repeated, _To the praise of His glory, of the glory of\nHis grace_ (vv. 6, 12, 14). St Paul's psalm is thus divided into three\nstrophes, or stanzas: he sings the glory of redeeming love in its past\ndesigns, its present bestowments, and its future fruition. The\nparagraph, forming but one sentence and spun upon a single golden\nthread, is a piece of thought-music,--a sort of _fugue_, in which from\neternity to eternity the counsel of love is pursued by Paul's bold and\nexulting thought.\n\nDespite the grammatical involution of the style here carried to an\nextreme, and underneath the apparatus of Greek pronouns and participles,\nthere is a fine Hebraistic lilt pervading the doxology. The refrain is\nin the manner of Psalms xlii.-xliii., and xcix., where in the former\ninstance \"health of countenance,\" and in the latter \"holy is He\" gives\nthe key-note of the poet's melody and parts his song into three balanced\nstanzas. In such poetry the strophes may be unequal in length, each\ndeveloping its own thought freely, and yet there is harmony in their\ncombination. Here the central idea, that of God's actual bounty to\nbelievers, fills a space equal to that of the other two. But there is a\npause within it, at verse 10, which in effect resumes the idea of the\nfirst strophe and works it in as a _motif_ to the second, carrying on\nboth in a full stream till they lose themselves in the third and\nculminating movement. Throughout the piece there runs in varying\nexpression the phrase \"in Christ--in the Beloved--in Him--in whom,\"\nweaving the verses into subtle continuity. The theme of the entire\ncomposition is given in verse 3, which does not enter into the threefold\ndivision we have described, but forms a prelude to it.\n\n \"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: who hath\n blessed us,\n In every blessing of the spirit, in the heavenly places, in Christ.\"\n\n_Blessed be God!_--It is the song of the universe, in which heaven and\nearth take responsive parts. \"When the morning stars sang together and\nall the sons of God shouted for joy,\" this concert began, and continues\nstill through the travail of creation and the sorrow and sighing of men.\nThe work praises the Master. All sinless creatures, by their order and\nharmony, by the variety of their powers and beauty of their forms and\ndelight of their existence, declare their Creator's glory. That praise\nto the Most High God which the lower creatures act instrumentally, it is\nman's privilege to utter in discourse of reason and music of the heart.\nMan is Nature's high priest; and above other men, the poet. Time will\nbe, as it has been, when it shall be accounted the poet's honour and the\ncrown of his art, that he should take the high praises of God into his\nmouth, making hymns to the glory of the Supreme Maker and giving voice\nto the dumb praise of inanimate nature and to the noblest thoughts of\nhis fellows concerning the Blessed God.\n\n_Blessed be God!_--It is the perpetual strain of the Old Testament, from\nMelchizedek down to Daniel,--of David in his triumph, and Job in his\nmisery. But not hitherto could men say, Blessed be _the God and Father\nof our Lord Jesus Christ_! He was \"the Most High God, the God of\nheaven,\"--\"Jehovah, God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous\nthings,\"--\"the Shepherd\" and \"the Rock\" of His people,--\"the true God,\nthe living God, and an everlasting King\"; and these are glorious titles,\nwhich have raised men's thoughts to moods of highest reverence and\ntrust. But the name of _Father_, and _Father of our Lord Jesus Christ_,\nsurpasses and outshines them all. With wondering love and joy\nunspeakable St Paul pronounced this _Benedictus_. God was not less to\nhim the Almighty, the High and Holy One dwelling in eternity, than in\nthe days of his youthful Jewish faith; but the Eternal and All-holy One\nwas now his Father in Jesus Christ. Blessed be His name: and let the\nwhole earth be filled with His glory!\n\nThe apostle's psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving to God _blessing and\nblessed_. The second clause rhythmically answers to the first. True, our\nblessing of Him is far different from His blessing of us: ours in\nthought and words; His in mighty deeds of salvation. Yet in the fruit of\nlips giving thanks to His name there is a revenue of blessing paid to\nGod which He delights in, and requires. \"O Thou that inhabitest the\npraises of Israel,\" grant us to bless Thee while we live and to lift up\nour hands in Thy name!\n\nBy three qualifying adjuncts the blessing which the Father of Christ\nbestowed upon us is defined: in respect of its _nature_, its _sphere_,\nand its _personal ground_.\n\nThe blessings that prompt the apostle's praise are not such as those\nconspicuous in the Old Covenant: \"Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and\nin the field; in the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and\nthe increase of thy kine; blessed shall be thy basket, and thy\nkneading-trough\" (Deut. xxviii. 3-5). The gospel pronounces beatitudes\nof another style: \"Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed the meek, the\nmerciful, the pure in heart, the persecuted.\" St Paul had small share\nindeed in the former class of blessings,--a childless, landless,\nhomeless man. Yet what happiness and wealth are his! Out of his poverty\nhe is making all the ages rich! From the gloom of his prison he sheds a\nlight that will guide and cheer the steps of multitudes of earth's sad\nwayfarers. Not certainly in the earthly places where he finds himself is\nPaul the prisoner of Christ Jesus blessed; but \"in spiritual blessing\"\nand \"in heavenly places\" how abundantly! His own blessedness he claims\nfor all who are in Christ.\n\nBlessing _spiritual_ in its nature is, in St Paul's conception of\nthings, blessing in and of the Holy Spirit.[27] In His quickening our\nspirit lives; through His indwelling health, blessedness, eternal life\nare ours. In this verse justly the theologians recognize the Trinity of\nthe Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.--Blessing _in the heavenly\nplaces_ is not so much blessing coming from those places--from God the\nFather who sits there--as it is blessing which lifts us into that\nsupernal region, giving to us a place and heritage in the world of God\nand of the angels. Two passages of the companion epistles interpret this\nphrase: \"Your life is hid with Christ in God\" (Col. iii. 3); and again,\n\"Our citizenship is in heaven\" (Phil. iii. 20).--The decisive note of St\nPaul's blessedness lies in the words \"in Christ.\" For him all good is\nsummed up there. Spiritual, heavenly, and Christian: these three are\none. In Christ dying, risen, reigning, God the Father has raised\nbelieving men to a new heavenly life. From the first inception of the\nwork of grace to its consummation, God thinks of men, speaks to them and\ndeals with them _in Christ_. To Him, therefore, with the Father be\neternal praise!\n\n \"As He chose us in Him before the world's foundation,\n That we should be holy and unblemished before Him:\n When in love He foreordained us\n To filial adoption through Jesus Christ for Himself,\n According to the good pleasure of His will,--\n To the praise of the glory of His grace\" (vv. 4-6a).\n\nHere is St Paul's first chapter of Genesis. _In the beginning was the\nelection of grace._ There is nothing unprepared, nothing unforeseen in\nGod's dealings with mankind. His wisdom and knowledge are as deep as His\ngrace is wide (Rom. xi. 33). Speaking of his own vocation, the apostle\nsaid: \"It pleased God, who set me apart from my mother's womb, to reveal\nHis Son in me\" (Gal. i. 15, 16). He does but generalize this conception\nand carry it two steps further back--from the origin of the individual\nto the origin of the race, and from the beginning of the race to the\nbeginning of the world--when he asserts that the community of redeemed\nmen was chosen in Christ before the world's foundation.\n\n\"The world\" is a work of time, the slow structure of innumerable yet\nfinite ages. Science affirms on its own grounds that the visible\nuniverse had a beginning, as it has its changes and its certain end. Its\nstructural plan, its unity of aim and movement, show it to be the\ncreation of a vast Intelligence. Harmony and law, all that makes science\npossible is the product of thought. Reason extracts from nature what\nReason has first put there. The longer, the more intricate and grand the\nprocess, the farther science pushes back the beginning in our thoughts,\nthe more sublime and certain the primitive truth becomes: \"In the\nbeginning God created the heavens and the earth.\"\n\nThe world is a system; it has a method and a plan, therefore a\nfoundation. But before the foundation, there was _the Founder_. And man\nwas in His thoughts, and the redeemed Church of Christ. While yet the\nworld was not and the immensity of space stretched lampless and\nunpeopled, _we_ were in the mind of God; His thought rested with\ncomplacency upon His human sons, whose \"name was written in the book of\nlife from the foundation of the world.\" This amazing statement is only\nthe logical consequence of St Paul's experience of Divine grace, joined\nto his conviction of the infinite wisdom and eternal being of God.\n\nWhen he says that God \"chose us in Christ _before the foundation of the\nworld_\"--or _before founding the world_--this is not a mere mark of\ntime. It intimates that in laying His plans for the world the Creator\nhad the purpose of redeeming grace in view. The kingdom which the\n\"blessed children\" of the Father of Christ \"inherit,\" is the kingdom\n\"_prepared_ for them _from the foundation of the world_\" (Matt. xxv.\n34). Salvation lies as deep as creation. The provision for it is\neternal. For the universe of being was conceived, fashioned, and built\nup \"in Christ.\" The argument of Colossians i. 13-22 lies behind these\nwords. The Son of God's love, in whom and for whom the worlds were made,\nalways was potentially the Redeemer of men, as He was the image of God\n(Col. i. 14, 15). He looked forward to this mission from eternity, and\nwas in spirit \"the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world\" (Rev.\nxiii. 8). Creation and redemption, Nature and the Church, are parts of\none system; and in the reconciliation of the cross all orders of being\nare concerned, \"whether the things upon the earth or the things in the\nheavens.\"\n\nEvil existed before man appeared on the earth to be tempted and to fall.\nThrough the geological record we hear the voice of creation groaning for\nlong aeons in its pain.\n\n \"Dragons of the prime,\n That tare each other in their slime,\"\n\ngrim prophets of man's brutal and murderous passions, bear witness to a\nwar in nature that goes back far towards the foundation of the world.\nAnd this rent and discord in the frame of things it was His part to\nreconcile \"in whom and for whom all things were created.\" This universal\ndeliverance, it seems, is dependent upon ours. \"The creation itself\nlifts up its head, and is looking out for the revelation of the sons of\nGod\" (Rom. viii. 19). In founding the world, foreseeing its bondage to\ncorruption, God prepared through His elect sons in Christ a deliverance\nthe glory of which will make its sufferings to seem but a light thing.\n\"In thee,\" said God to Abraham, \"shall all the kindreds of the earth be\nblessed\": so in the final \"adoption,--to wit, the redemption of our\nbody\" (Rom. viii. 23), all creatures shall exult; and our mother earth,\nstill travailing in pain with us, will remember her anguish no more.\n\nThe Divine election of men in Christ is further defined in the words of\nverse 5: \"Having in love predestined us,\" and \"according to the good\npleasure of His will.\" _Election_ is selection; it is the antecedent in\nthe mind of God in Christ of the preference which Christ showed when He\nsaid to His disciples, \"I have chosen you out of the world.\" It is,\nmoreover, a _fore-ordination in love_: an expression which indicates on\nthe one hand the disposition in God that prompted and sustains His\nchoice, and on the other the determination of the almighty Will whereby\nthe all-wise Choice is put into operation and takes effect. In this\npre-ordaining control of human history God \"determined the\nfore-appointed seasons and the bounds of human habitation\" (Acts xvii.\n26). The Divine prescience--that \"depth of the wisdom and knowledge of\nGod\"--as well as His absolute righteousness, forbids the treasonable\nthought of anything arbitrary or unfair cleaving to this\npre-determination--anything that should override our free-will and make\nour responsibility an illusion. \"Whom He did _foreknow_, He also did\npredestinate\" (Rom. viii. 29). He foresees everything, and allows for\neverything.\n\nThe consistence of foreknowledge with free-will is an enigma which the\napostle did not attempt to solve. His reply to all questions touching\nthe justice of God's administration in the elections of grace--questions\npainfully felt and keenly agitated then as they are now, and that\npressed upon himself in the case of his Jewish kindred with a cruel\nforce (Rom. ix. 3)--his answer to his own heart, and to us, lies in the\nlast words of verse 5: \"according to the good pleasure of His will.\" It\nis what Jesus said concerning the strange preferences of Divine grace:\n\"Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.\" What pleases Him\ncan only be wise and right. What pleases Him, must content us.\nImpatience is unbelief. Let us wait to see the end of the Lord. In\nnumberless instances--such as that of the choice between Jacob and Esau,\nand that of Paul and the believing remnant of Israel as against their\nnation--God's ways have justified themselves to after times; so they\nwill universally. Our little spark of intelligence glances upon one spot\nin a boundless ocean, on the surface of immeasurable depths.\n\nThe purpose of this loving fore-ordination of believing men in Christ is\ntwofold; it concerns at once their _character_ and their _state_: \"He\nchose us out--that we should be holy and without blemish in His sight,\"\nand \"unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ for Himself.\" These two\npurposes are one. God's sons must be holy; and holy men are His sons.\nFor this end \"we\" were elected of God in the beginning. Nay, with this\nend in view the world was founded and the human race came into being, to\nprovide God with such sons[28] and that Christ might be \"the firstborn\namong many brethren\" (Rom. viii. 28-30).\n\n\"That we should be holy\"--should be _saints_. This the readers are\nalready: \"To the saints\" the apostle writes (ver. 1). They are men\ndevoted to God by their own choice and will, meeting God's choice and\nwill for them. Imperfect saints they may be, by no means as yet \"without\nblemish\"; but they are already, and abidingly, \"sanctified in Christ\nJesus\" (1 Cor. i. 2) and \"sealed\" for God's possession \"by the Holy\nSpirit\" (vv. 13, 14). In this fact lies their hope of moral perfection\nand the impulse and power to attain it. Their task is to \"perfect\" their\nexisting \"holiness\" (2 Cor. vii. 1), \"cleansing themselves from all\ndefilement of flesh and spirit.\" Let no Christian say, \"I do not pretend\nto be a saint.\" This is to renounce your calling. You _are_ a saint if\nyou are a true believer in Christ; and you are to be an unblemished\nsaint.\n\nThus the Church is at last to be presented, and every man in his own\norder, \"faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding\njoy.\"[29] God could not invite us in His grace to anything inferior. A\nblemished saint--a smeared picture, a flawed marble--this is not like\nHis work; it is not like Himself. Such saintship cannot approve itself\n\"before Him.\" He must carry out His ideal, must fashion the new man as\nhe was created in Christ after His own faultless image, and make human\nholiness a transcript of the Divine (1 Peter i. 16).\n\nNow, this Divine character is native to the sons of God. The ideal\nwhich God had for men was always the same. The father of the race was\nmade in His image. In the Old Testament Israel receives the command:\n\"You shall be holy, for I, Jehovah your God, am holy.\" But it was in\nJesus Christ that the breadth of this command was disclosed, and the\npossibility of our personal obedience to it. The law of Christian\nsonship, manifest only in shadow in the Levitical sanctity, is now\npronounced by Jesus: \"You shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is\nperfect.\" Verses 4 and 5 are therefore strictly parallel: God elected us\nin Christ to be perfect saints; for He predestined us through Jesus\nChrist to be His sons.\n\nSonship to Himself is the Christian status, the rank and standing which\nGod confers on those who believe in His Son; it accrues to them by the\nfact that they are in Christ.[30] It is defined by the term _adoption_,\nwhich St Paul employs in this sense in Romans viii. 15, 23, as well as\nin Galatians iv. 5. Adoption was a peculiar institution of Roman law,\nfamiliar to Paul as a citizen of Rome; and it aptly describes to Gentile\nbelievers their relation to the family of God. \"By adoption under the\nRoman law an entire stranger in blood became a member of the family into\nwhich he was adopted, exactly as if he had been born in it. He assumed\nthe family name, partook in its system of sacrificial rites, and became,\nnot on sufferance or at will, but to all intents and purposes a member\nof the house of his adopter.... This metaphor was St Paul's translation\ninto the language of Gentile thought of Christ's great doctrine of the\nNew Birth. He exchanges the physical metaphor of regeneration for the\nlegal metaphor of adoption. The adopted becomes in the eye of the law a\nnew creature. He was born again into a new family. By the aid of this\nfigure the Gentile convert was enabled to realize in a vivid manner the\nfatherhood of God, the brotherhood of the faithful, the obliteration of\npast penalties, the right to the mystic inheritance. He was enabled to\nrealize that upon this spiritual act 'Old things passed away and all\nthings became new.'\"[31]\n\nThis exalted status belonged to men in the purpose of God from eternity;\nbut as a matter of fact it was instituted \"through Jesus Christ,\" the\nhistorical Redeemer. Whether previously (Jewish) servants in God's house\nor (Gentile) aliens excluded from it (ii. 12), those who believed in\nJesus as the Christ received a spirit of adoption and dared to call God\n_Father_! This unspeakable privilege had been preparing for them through\nthe ages past in God's hidden wisdom. Throughout the wild course of\nhuman apostasy the Father looked forward to the time when He might again\nthrough Jesus Christ make men His sons; and His promises and\npreparations were directed to this one end. The predestination having\nsuch an end, how fitly it is said: \"_in love_ having foreordained us.\"\n\nFour times, in these three verses, with exulting emphasis, the apostle\nclaims this distinction for \"us.\" _Who_, then, are the objects of the\nprimordial election of grace? Does St Paul use the pronoun\ndistributively, thinking of individuals--you and me and so many others,\nthe personal recipients of saving grace? or does he mean the Church, as\nthat is collectively the family of God and the object of His loving\nordination? In this epistle, the latter is surely the thought in the\napostle's mind.[32] As Hofmann says: \"The body of Christians is the\nobject of this choice, not as composed of a certain number of\nindividuals--a sum of 'the elect' opposed to a sum of the non-elect--but\nas the Church taken out of and separated from the world.\"\n\nOn the other hand, we may not widen the pronoun further; we cannot allow\nthat the sonship here signified is man's natural relation to God, that\nto which he was born by creation. This robs the word \"adoption\" of its\ndistinctive force. The sonship in question, while grounded \"in Christ\"\nfrom eternity, is conferred \"through\" the incarnate and crucified \"Jesus\nChrist\"; it redounds \"to the praise of the glory of His _grace_.\" Now,\ngrace is God's redeeming love toward sinners. God's purpose of grace\ntoward mankind, embedded, as one may say, in creation, is realized in\nthe body of redeemed men. But this community, we rejoice to believe, is\nvastly larger than the visible aggregate of Churches; for how many who\nknew not His name, have yet walked in the true light which lighteth\nevery man.\n\nThere lies in the words \"in Christ\" a principle of exclusion, as well as\nof wide inclusion. Men cannot be in Christ against their will, who\npersistently put Him, His gospel and His laws, away from them. When we\nclose with Christ by faith, we begin to enter into the purpose of our\nbeing. We find the place prepared for us before the foundation of the\nworld in the kingdom of Divine love. We live henceforth \"to the praise\nof the glory of His grace!\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[26] Ch. ii. 7, iii. 5, 21; Col. i. 26.\n\n[27] Vv. 13, 14; Rom. viii. 2-6, 16; 1 Cor. ii. 12; Gal v. 16, 22-25.\n\n[28] =eis auton=, _for Him_; not =aut\u00f4=, _to Him_.\n\n[29] Ch. v. 25-27; Col. i. 27-29; Jude 24.\n\n[30] On _sonship_, see Chapters XV.-XVII. and XIX. in _The Epistle to\nthe Galatians_ (Expositor's Bible).\n\n[31] From a valuable and suggestive paper by W. E. Ball, LL.D., on \"St\nPaul and the Roman Law,\" in the _Contemporary Review_, August 1891.\n\n[32] See vv. 12, 13, where Jews and Gentiles, collectively, are\ndistinguished; and ch. ii. 11, 12, iii. 2-6, 21, iv. 4, 5, v. 25-27.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n_THE BESTOWMENT OF GRACE._\n\n \"Which grace He bestowed on us, in the Beloved One:\n In whom we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness\n of our trespasses,\n According to the riches of His grace:\n Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,\n making known to us the mystery of His will,\n According to His good pleasure:\n Which He purposed in Him, for dispensation in the fulness\n of the times,\n _Purposing_ to gather into one body all things in the Christ--\n The things belonging to the heavens, and the things upon the\n earth--yea, in Him,\n In whom also we received our heritage, as we had been foreordained,\n According to purpose of Him who worketh all things\n According to the counsel of His will,--\n That we might be to the praise of His glory.\"[33]\n\n EPH. i. 6_b_-12_a_.\n\n\nThe blessedness of men in Christ is not matter of purpose only, but of\nreality and experience. With the word _grace_ in the middle of the sixth\nverse the apostle's thought begins a new movement. We have seen Grace\nhidden in the depths of eternity in the form of sovereign and fatherly\nelection, lodging its purpose in the foundation of the world. From those\nmysterious depths we turn to the living world in our own breast. There,\ntoo, Grace dwells and reigns: \"which grace He imparted to us, in the\nBeloved,--in whom we have redemption through His blood.\"\n\nThe leading word of this clause we can only paraphrase; it has no\nEnglish equivalent. St Paul perforce turns _grace_ into a verb; this\nverb occurs in the New Testament but once besides,--in Luke i. 28, the\nangel's salutation to Mary: \"Hail thou that art highly favoured\n(made-an-object-of-grace).\"[34] If we could employ our verb _to grace_\nin a sense corresponding to that of the noun _grace_ in the apostle's\ndialect and nearly the opposite of _to disgrace_, then _graced_ would\nsignify what he means here, viz., _treated with grace_, made its\nrecipients.\n\nGod \"showed us grace _in the Beloved_\"--or, to render the phrase with\nfull emphasis, \"in that Beloved One\"--even as He \"chose us in Him before\nthe world's foundation\" and \"in love predestined us for adoption.\" The\ngrace is conveyed upon the basis of our relationship to Christ: on that\nground it was conceived in the counsels of eternity. The Voice from\nheaven which said at the baptism of Jesus and again at the\ntransfiguration, \"This is my Son, the Beloved,\" uttered God's eternal\nthought regarding Christ. And that regard of God toward the Son of His\nlove is the fountain of His love and grace to men.\n\nChrist is the Beloved not of the Father alone, but of the created\nuniverse. All that know the Lord Jesus must needs love and adore\nHim--unless their hearts are eaten out by sin. Not to love Him is to be\nanathema. \"If any man love me,\" said Jesus, \"my Father will love him.\"\nNothing so much pleases God and brings us into fellowship with God so\ndirect and joyous, as our love to Jesus Christ. About this at least\nheaven and earth may agree, that He is the altogether lovely and\nlove-worthy. Agreement in this will bring about agreement in everything.\nThe love of Christ will tune the jarring universe into harmony.\n\n1. Of grace bestowed, the first manifestation, in the experience of Paul\nand his readers, was _the forgiveness of their trespasses_ (comp. ii.\n13-18). This is \"the redemption\" that \"we _have_.\" And it comes \"through\nHis _blood_.\" The epistles to the Galatians and Romans[35] expound at\nlength the apostle's doctrine touching the remission of sin and the\nrelation of Christ's death to human transgression. To _redemption_ we\nshall return in considering verse 14, where the word is used, as again\nin chapter iv. 30, in its further application.\n\nIn Romans iii. 22-26 \"the redemption that is in Christ Jesus\" is\ndeclared to be the means by which we are acquitted in the judgement of\nGod from the guilt of past transgressions. And this redemption consists\nin the \"propitiatory sacrifice\" which Christ offered in shedding His\nblood--a sacrifice wherein we participate \"through faith.\" The language\nof this verse contains by implication all that is affirmed there. In\nthis connexion, and according to the full intent of the word,\nredemption is _release by ransom_. The life-blood of Jesus Christ was\nthe _price_ that He paid in order to secure our lawful release from the\npenalties entailed by our trespasses.[36] This Jesus Christ implied\nbeforehand, when He spoke of \"giving His life a ransom for many\"; and\nwhen He said, in handing to His disciples the cup of the Last Supper:\n\"This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is shed for many for\nthe remission of sins.\" Using another synonymous term, St Paul tells us\nthat \"Christ _bought us out of_ the curse of the law\"; and he bases on\nthis expression a strong practical appeal: \"You are not your own, for\nyou were bought with a price.\"[37] These sayings, and others like them,\npoint unmistakably to the fact that our trespasses as men against God's\ninflexible law, apart from Christ's intervention, must have issued in\nour eternal ruin. By His death on the cross Christ has made such amends\nto the law, that the awful sentence is averted, and our complete release\nfrom the power of sin is rendered possible.\n\nOn rising from the dead our Saviour commissioned the apostles to\n\"proclaim in His name repentance and remission of sins to all nations\"\n(Luke xxiv. 47). It was thus He proposed to save the world. This\nproclamation is the \"good news\" of the gospel. The announcement meets\nthe first need of the serious and awakened human spirit. It answers the\nquestion which arises in the breast of every man who thinks earnestly\nabout his personal relations to God and to the laws of his being. We\ncannot wonder that St Paul sets the remission of sins first amongst the\nbestowments of God's grace, and makes it the foundation of all the rest.\n\nDoes it occupy the like position in modern Christian teaching? Do we\nrealize the criminality of sin, the fearfulness of God's displeasure,\nthe infinite worth of His forgiveness and the obligations under which it\nplaces us, as St Paul and his converts did? or even as our fathers did a\nfew generations ago? \"It is my impression,\" writes Dr. R. W. Dale,[38]\n\"that both religious people and those who do not profess to be religious\nmust be conscious that God's Forgiveness, if they ever think of it at\nall, does not create any deep and strong emotion.... The difference\nbetween the way in which we think of the Divine Forgiveness and the way\nin which it was thought of by David and Isaiah, by Christ Himself, by\nPeter, Paul, and John; by the saints of all Christian Churches in past\ntimes, both in the East and in the West; ... by the leaders of the\nEvangelical Revival in the last century--the difference, I say, between\nthe way in which the Forgiveness of sins was thought of by them, and the\nway in which we think of it, is very startling. The difference is so\ngreat, it affects so seriously the whole system of the religious thought\nand life, that we may be said to have invented a new religion.... The\ndifference between our religion and the religion of other times is\nthis--that we do not believe that God has any strong resentment against\nsin or against those who are guilty of sin. And since His resentment has\ngone, His mercy has gone with it. We have not a God who is more merciful\nthan the God of our fathers, but a God who is less righteous; and a God\nwho is not righteous, a God who does not glow with fiery indignation\nagainst sin, is no God at all.\"\n\nThese are solemn words, to be deeply pondered. They come from one of the\nmost sagacious observers and justly revered teachers of our time. We\nhave made a real advance in breadth and human sympathy; and there has\nbeen throughout our Churches a genuine and much needed awakening of\nphilanthropic activity. But if we are _departing from the living God_,\nwhat will this avail us? If \"the redemption through Christ's blood, the\nforgiveness of our trespasses,\" is no longer to us the momentous and\nglorious fact that it was to the apostles, then it is time to ask\nwhether our God is in truth the same as theirs, whether He is still the\nGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--whether we are not, haply,\nfabricating for ourselves another gospel. Without a piercing sense of\nthe shame and ruin involved in human sin, we shall not put its remission\nwhere St Paul does, at the foundation of God's benefits to men. Without\nthis sentiment, we can only wonder at the passionate gratitude with\nwhich he receives the atonement and measures by its completeness the\nriches of God's grace.\n\nII. Along with this chief blessing of forgiveness, there came another to\nthe apostolic Church. With the heart the mind, with the conscience the\nintellect was quickened and endowed: \"which [grace] He shed abundantly\nupon us _in all wisdom and intelligence_.\"\n\nThis sequel to verse 7 is somewhat of a surprise. The reader is apt to\nslur over verse 8, half sensible of some jar and incongruity between it\nand the context. It scarcely occurs to us to associate wisdom and good\nsense with the pardon of sin, as kindred bestowments of the gospel.\nMinds of the evangelical order are often supposed, indeed, to be wanting\nin intellectual excellencies and indifferent to their value. Is it not\ntrue that \"not many wise after the flesh were called\"? Do we not glory\nabove everything in preaching a \"simple gospel\"?\n\nBut there is another side to all this. \"Christ was made of God unto us\n_wisdom_.\" This attribute the apostle even sets first when he writes to\nthe wisdom-seeking Greeks, mocked by their worn-out and confused\nphilosophies (1 Cor. i. 30). To a close observer of the primitive\nChristian societies few things must have been more noticeable than the\npowerful mental stimulus imparted by the new faith. These epistles are a\nwitness to the fact. That such letters could be addressed to communities\ngathered mainly from the lower ranks of society--consisting of slaves,\ncommon artizans, poor women--shows that the moral regeneration effected\nin St Paul's converts was accompanied by an extraordinary excitement and\nactivity of thought. In this the apostle recognised the work of the Holy\nSpirit, a mark of God's special favour and blessing. \"I give thanks\nalways for you,\" he writes to the Corinthians, \"for the grace of God\nthat was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched\nby Him, in all word and all knowledge.\" The leaders of the apostolic\nChurch were the profoundest thinkers of their day; though at the time\nthe world held them for babblers, because their dialect was not of its\nschools. They drew from stores of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ,\nwhich none of the princes of this world knew.\n\nOf such wisdom our epistle is full, and God \"has made it to abound\" to\nthe readers in these inspired pages. Paul's \"understanding in the\nmystery of Christ\" was always deepening. In his lonely prison musings\nthe length and breadth of the Divine counsels are disclosed to him as\nnever before. He sees the course of the ages and the universe of being\nilluminated by the light of the knowledge of Christ. And what he sees,\nall men are to see through him (iii. 9). Blessed be God who has given to\nHis Church through His apostles, and through the great Christian\nteachers of every age, His precious gifts of wisdom and prudence, and\nmade His grace richly to overflow from the heart into the mind and\nunderstanding of men!\n\nThis intellectual gift is twofold: _phronesis_ as well as _sophia_,--the\nbestowment not only of deep spiritual thought, but of moral sagacity,\ngood sense and thoughtfulness. This is a choice _charism_--a mercy of\nthe Lord. For want of it how sadly is the fruit of other graces spoilt\nand wasted. How brightly it shines in St Paul himself! What luminous and\nwholesome views of life, what a fund of practical sense there is in the\nteaching of this letter.\n\nSt Paul rejoices in these gifts of the understanding and claims them for\nthe Church, having in his view the false knowledge, the \"philosophy and\nvain deceit\" that was making its appearance in the Asian Churches (Col.\nii. 4, 8, etc.). Our safeguard against intellectual perils lies not in\nignorance, but in deeper heart-knowledge. When the grace that bestows\nredemption through Christ's blood adds its concomitant blessing of\nenlightenment, when it elevates the mind as it cleanses the heart, and\nabounds to us in all wisdom and prudence, the winds of doctrine and the\nwaves of speculation blow and beat in vain; they can but bring health to\na Church thus established in its faith.\n\nVerses 9 and 10 describe the object of this new knowledge. They state\nthe doctrine which gave this powerful mental impulse to the apostolic\nChurch, disclosing to it a vast field of view, and supplying the most\nfertile and vigorous principles of moral wisdom. This impulse lay in the\nrevelation of God's purpose to reconstitute the universe in Christ. The\ndeclaration of \"the mystery of His will\" comes in at this point\nepisodically, and by the way; and we reserve it for consideration to the\nend of the present Chapter.\n\nBut let us observe here that our wisdom and prudence lie in the\nknowledge of God's will. Truth is not to be found in any system of\nlogical notions, in schemes and syntheses of the laws of nature or of\nthought. The human mind can never rest for long in abstractions. It will\nnot accept for its basis of thought that which is less real and positive\nthan itself. By its rational instincts it is compelled to seek a Reason\nand a Conscience at the centre of things,--a living God. It craves to\nknow _the mystery of His will_.\n\nIII. Verse 11 fills up the measure of the bestowment of grace on sinful\nmen. The present anticipates the future; faith and love are lifted to a\nglorious hope. \"In whom also--_i.e._, in Christ--_we received our\nheritage_, predestinated [to it], according to His purpose who works all\nthings according to the counsel of His will.\"\n\nFollowing Meyer and other great interpreters, we prefer in this passage\nthe rendering of the English Authorized Version (_we obtained an\ninheritance_) to that of the Revised (_we were made a heritage_).[39]\n\"Foreordained\" carries us back to verse 5--to the phrase \"foreordained\nto sonship.\" The believer cannot be predestinated to sonship without\nbeing predestinated to an inheritance.[40] \"If children, then heirs\"\n(Rom. viii. 17). But while in the parallel passage we are designated\nheirs _with_ Christ, we appear in this place, according to the tenor of\nthe context, as heirs _in_ Him. Christ is Himself the believer's wealth,\nboth in possession and hope: all his desire is to gain Christ (Phil.\niii. 8). The apostle gives thanks here in the same strain as in\nColossians i. 12-14, \"to the Father who qualified us [by making us His\nsons] to partake of the inheritance of the saints in the light.\" In that\nthanksgiving we observe the same connexion as in this between our\n_forgiveness_ (ver. 7) and our _enfeoffment_, or investment with the\nforfeited rights of sons of God (vv. 5, 11).[41]\n\nThe heritage of the saints in Christ is theirs already, by actual\ninvestiture. The liberty of sons of God, access to the Father, the\ntreasures of Christ's wisdom and knowledge, the sanctifying Spirit and\nthe moral strength and joy that He imparts, these form a rich estate of\nwhich ancient saints had but foretastes and promises. In the\nall-controlling \"counsel of His will,\" God wrought throughout the\ncourse of history to convey this heritage to us. We are children of \"the\nfulness of the times,\" heirs of all the past. For us God has been\nworking from eternity. On us the ends of the world have come. Thus from\nthe summit of our exaltation in Christ the apostle looks backward to the\nbeginning of Divine history.\n\nFrom the same point his gaze sweeps onward to the end. God's purpose\nembraces the ages to come with those that are past. His working will not\ncease till the whole counsel is fulfilled. What we have of our\ninheritance, though rich and real, holds in it the promise of infinitely\nmore; and the Holy Spirit is the \"earnest of our inheritance\" (ver. 14).\nGod intends \"that we should be to the praise of His glory.\" As things\nare, His glory is but obscurely visible in His saints. \"It doth not yet\nappear what we shall be,\"--and it will not appear until the unveiling of\nthe sons of God (Rom. viii. 18-25). One day God's glory in us will burst\nforth in its splendour. All beholders in heaven and earth will then sing\n_to the praise of His glory_, when it is seen in His redeemed and\ngodlike sons.\n\n * * * * *\n\nVerses 9 and 10 (_which He purposed ... upon the earth_) are, as we have\nsaid, a parenthesis or episode in the passage just reviewed. Neither in\nstructure nor in sense would the paragraph be defective, had this clause\nbeen wanting. With the \"in Him\" repeated at the end of verse 10, St Paul\nresumes the main current of his thanksgiving, arrested for a moment\nwhile he dwells on \"the mystery of God's will.\"\n\nThis last expression (ver. 9), notwithstanding what he has said in\nverses 4 and 5, still needs elucidation. He will pause for an instant to\nset forth once more the eternal purpose, to the knowledge of which the\nChurch is now admitted. The communication of this mystery is, he says,\n\"according to God's good pleasure which He purposed in Christ [comp.\nver. 4], for a dispensation of the fulness of the times, intending to\ngather up again all things in the Christ--the things in the heavens, and\nthe things upon the earth.\"\n\nGod formed in Christ the purpose, by the dispensation of His grace, in\ndue time to re-unite the universe under the headship of Christ. This\nmysterious design, hitherto kept secret, He has \"made known unto us.\"\nIts manifestation imparts a wisdom that surpasses all the wisdom of\nformer ages.[42] Such is the drift of this profound deliverance.\n\nThe first clause of verse 10 supplies a datum for its interpretation.\nThe _fulness of the times_, in St Paul's dialect, can only be the time\nof Christ.[43] The dispensation which God designed of old is that in\nwhich the apostle himself is now engaged;[44] it is the dispensation, or\nadministration (_economy_), of the grace and truth that came by Jesus\nChrist, whether God be conceived as Himself the Dispenser, or through\nthe stewards of His mysteries. The Messianic end was to Paul's Jewish\nthought the d\u00e9nouement of antecedent history. How long this age would\ncontinue, into what epochs it might unfold itself, he knew not; but for\nhim the fulness of the times had arrived. The Son of God was come; the\nkingdom of God was amongst men. It was the beginning of the end. It is\na mistake to relegate this text to the dim and distant future, to some\nfar-off consummation. We are in the midst of the Christian\nreconstruction of things, and are taking part in it. The decisive epoch\nfell when \"God sent forth His Son.\" All that has followed, and will\nfollow, is the result of this mission. Christ is all things, and in all;\nand we are already complete in Him.\n\nWhat, then, signifies this _gathering-into-one_ or _summing-up_ of all\nthings in the Christ? Our _recapitulate_ is the nearest equivalent of\nthe Greek verb, in its etymological sense. In Romans xiii. 8, 9 the same\nword is used, where the several commands of the second table of the\nDecalogue are said to be \"comprehended in this word, namely, Thou shalt\nlove thy neighbour as thyself.\" This summing up is not a generalization\nor compendious statement of the commands of God; it signifies their\nreduction to a fundamental principle. They are unified by the discovery\nof a law that underlies them all. And while thus theoretically\nexplained, they are made practically effective: \"For love is the\nfulfilling of the law.\"\n\nSimilarly, St Paul finds in Christ the fundamental principle of the\ncreation. For those who think with him, God has by the Christian\nrevelation already brought all things to their unity. This summing\nup--the Christian inventory and recapitulation of the universe--the\napostle has formally stated in Colossians i. 15-20: \"Christ is God's\nimage and creation's firstborn. In Him, through Him, for Him all things\nwere made. He is before them all; and in Him they have their basis and\nuniting bond. He is equally the Head of the Church and the new creation,\nthe firstborn out of the dead, that He might hold a universal\npresidence--charged with all the fulness, so that in Him is the ground\nof the reconciliation no less than of the creation of all things in\nheaven and earth.\" What can we desire more comprehensive than this? It\nis the theory and programme of the world revealed to God's holy apostles\nand prophets.\n\nThe \"gathering into one\" of this text includes the \"reconciliation\" of\nColossians i. 20, and more. It signifies, beside the removal of the\nenmities which are the effect of sin (ii. 14-16), the subjection of all\npowers in heaven and earth to the rule of Christ (vv. 21, 22),[45] the\nenlightenment of the angelic magnates as to God's dealings with men\n(iii. 9, 10),--in fine, the rectification and adjustment of the several\nparts of the great whole of things, bringing them into full accord with\neach other and with their Creator's will. What St Paul looks forward to\nis, in a word, the organization of the universe upon a Christian basis.\nThis reconstitution of things is provided for and is being effected \"in\nthe Christ.\" He is the rallying point of the forces of peace and\nblessing. The organic principle, the organizing Head, the creative\nnucleus of the new creation is there. The potent germ of life eternal\nhas been introduced into the world's chaos; and its victory over the\nelements of disorder and death is assured.\n\nObserve that the apostle says \"in _the Christ_.\"[46] He is not speaking\nof Christ in the abstract, considered in His own Person or as He dwells\nin heaven, but in His relations to men and to time. The Christ manifest\nin Jesus (iv. 20, 21), the Christ of prophets and apostles, the Messiah\nof the ages, the Husband of the Church (v. 23), is the author and\nfinisher of this grand restoration.\n\nChrist's work is essentially a work of _restoration_. We must insist,\nwith Meyer, upon the significance of the Greek preposition in Paul's\ncompound verb (_ana_-, equal to _re_-in _restore_ or _resume_). The\nChrist is not simply the climax of the past--the Son of man and the\nrecapitulation of humanity, as man is of the creatures below him,\nsumming up human development and lifting it to a higher stage--though He\nis all that. Christ _rehabilitates_ man and the world. He re-asserts the\noriginal ground of our being, as that exists in God. He carries us and\nthe world forward out of sin and death, by carrying us back to God's\nideal. The new world is the old world repaired, and in its reparation\ninfinitely enhanced--rich in the memories of redemption, in the fruit of\npenitence and the discipline of suffering, in the lessons of the cross.\n\n_All things_ in heaven and earth it was God's good pleasure in the\nChrist to gather again into one. Is this a general assertion concerning\nthe universe as a whole, or may we apply it with distributive exactness\nto each particular thing? Is there to be, as we fain would hope, no\nsingle exception to the \"all things\"--no wanderer lost, no exile finally\nshut out from the Holy City and the tree of life? Are all evil men and\ndemons, willing or against their will, to be embraced somehow and at\nlast--at last--in the universal peace of God?\n\nIt is impossible that the first readers should have so construed Paul's\nwords (comp. v. 5). He has not forgotten the \"unquenchable fire,\" the\n\"eternal punishment\"; nor dare we. \"If anything is certain about the\nteaching of Christ and His apostles, it is that they warned men not to\nreject the Divine mercy and so to incur irrevocable exile from God's\npresence and joy. They assumed that some men would be guilty of this\nsupreme crime, and would be doomed to this supreme woe\" (Dale). There is\nnothing in this text to warrant any man in presuming on the mercy or the\nsovereignty of God, nothing to justify us in supposing that,\ndeliberately refusing to be reconciled to God in Christ, we shall yet be\nreconciled in the end, despite ourselves.\n\nSt Paul assures us that God and the world will be reunited, and that\npeace will reign through all realms and orders of existence. He does\nnot, and he could not say that none will exclude themselves from the\neternal kingdom. Making men free, God has made it possible for them to\ncontradict Him, so long as they have any being. The apostle's words have\ntheir note of warning, along with their boundless promise. There is no\nplace in the future order of things for aught that is out of Christ.\nThere is no standing-ground anywhere for the unclean and the unjust, for\nthe irreconcilable rebel against God. \"The Son of man shall send forth\nHis angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that\noffend and them that do iniquity.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[33] The arrangement above made of the lines of this intricate passage\nis designed to guide the eye to its elucidation. Our disposition of the\nverses has not been determined by any preconceived interpretation, but\nby the parallelism of expression and cadences of phrase. The rhythmical\nstructure of the piece, it seems to us, supplies the key to its\nexplanation, and reduces to order its long-drawn and heaped-up relative\nand prepositional clauses, which are grammatically so unmanageable.\n\n[34] =Chaire, kecharit\u00f4men\u00ea.= It is impossible to reproduce in English\nthe beautiful assonance--the _play_ of sound and sense--in Gabriel's\ngreeting, as St Luke renders it.\n\n[35] See Rom. i. 16-18, iii. 19-v. 21, vi. 7, vii. 1-6, viii. 1-4,\n31-34, x. 6-9; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4, 17, 56, 57; 2 Cor. v. 18-21; Gal. ii.\n14-iii. 14, vi. 12-14. The latter passages the writer has endeavoured to\nexpound in Chapters X. to XII. and XXVIII. of his Commentary on\n_Galatians_ in this series.\n\n[36] It is an error to suppose, as one sometimes hears it said, that\n_trespasses_ or _transgressions_ are a light and comparatively trivial\nform of sin. Both words denote, in the language of Scripture, definite\noffences against known law, departures from known duty. Adam's sin was\nthe typical \"transgression\" and \"trespass\" (Rom. v. 14, 15, etc.; comp.\nii. 23; Gal. iii. 19).\n\n[37] Gal. iii. 13; 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.\n\n[38] See _The Evangelical Revival, and other Sermons_, pp. 149-170, on\n\"The Forgiveness of Sins.\"\n\n[39] Bishop Ellicott, who advocates the latter rendering, objects to\nMeyer's interpretation that it is \"doubtful in point of usage.\" _Pace\ntanti viri_, we must retort this objection upon the new translation. _To\nobtain by lot, to have (a thing) allotted to one_, is the meaning\nregularly given to =kl\u00earousthai= in the classical dictionaries; and in\nO.T. usage the _lot_ (=kl\u00earos=) becomes the _inheritance_ (the thing\n_allotted_). The verb is repeatedly used by Philo with the meaning _to\nobtain_, or _receive an inheritance_; whereas there seems to be no real\nparallel to the other rendering. It is true that =kl\u00earousthai= in the\nsense of the A.V. requires an object; but that is virtually supplied by\n=en h\u00f4=: \"we had our inheritance allotted _in Christ_.\" Comp. Col. i.\n12, \"the lot of the saints _in the light_,\" which signifies not the\nlocality, but the nature and content of the saints' heritage.\n\n[40] See Gal. iii. 22--iv. 7; and Chapters XV.--XVII. in the\n_Expositor's Bible_ (Galatians), on Sonship and Inheritance in St Paul.\n\n[41] Compare Acts xxvi. 18, which also speaks to this association of\nideas in St Paul's mind, with vers. 4, 5, 7, and 11 in this chapter.\n\n[42] Vv. 8, 9, ch. iii. 4, 5; comp. Col. ii. 2, 3; 1 Cor. ii. 6-9.\n\n[43] \"The fulness of the time,\" Gal. iv. 4; \"in due season,\" Rom. v. 6;\n\"in its own times,\" 1 Tim. ii. 6. These are all synonymous expressions\nfor the Messianic era. Comp. Heb. i. 2, ix. 26; 1 Pet. i. 20.\n\n[44] Ch. iii. 8, 9; Col. i. 25; 1 Cor. iv. 1; 1 Tim. i. 4, i. 7; 2 Tim.\ni. 9-11; and especially Rom. xvi. 25, 26.\n\n[45] Comp. ch. v. 5; 1 Cor. xv. 24-28; Phil. ii. 9-12; Heb. ii. 8; Rev.\ni. 5, xi. 15, xvii. 14; Dan. vii. 13, 14.\n\n[46] One wonders that our Revisers, so attentive to all points of Greek\nidiom, did not think it worth while to discriminate between _Christ_ and\n_the Christ_ in such passages as this. In Ephesians this distinction is\nespecially conspicuous and significant. See vv. 12, 20 iii. 17, iv. 20,\nv. 23; similarly in 1 Cor. xv. 22; Rom. xv. 3.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n_THE FINAL REDEMPTION._\n\n \"[That we might be to the praise of His glory:]\n We who had before hoped in the Christ, in whom also ye _have hoped_,\n Since ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,--\n In whom indeed, when ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy\n Spirit of the promise,\n Which is the earnest of our inheritance, till the redemption of\n _God's_ possession,--\n To the praise of His glory.\"\n EPH. i. 12-14.\n\n\nWhen the apostle reaches the \"heritage\" conferred upon us in Christ\n(ver. 11), he is on the boundary between the present and the future.\nInto that future he now presses forward, gathering from it his crowning\ntribute \"to the praise of God's glory.\" We shall find, however, that\nthis heritage assumes a twofold character, as did the conception of the\ninheritance of the Lord in the Old Testament. If the saints have their\nheritage in Christ, partly possessed and partly to be possessed, God has\nlikewise, and antecedently, His inheritance in them, of which He too has\nstill to take full possession.[47]\n\nOpening upon this final prospect, St Paul touches on a subject of\nsupreme interest to himself and that could not fail to find a place in\nhis great Act of Praise--viz., _the admission of the Gentiles_ to the\nspiritual property of Israel. The thought of the heirship of believers\nand of God's previous counsel respecting it (ver. 11), brought before\nhis mind the distinction between Jew and Gentile and the part assigned\nto each in the Divine plan. Hence he varies the general refrain in verse\n12 by saying significantly, \"that _we_ might be to the praise of His\nglory.\" This emphatic _we_ is explained in the opening phrase of the\nlast strophe: \"that have beforehand fixed our hope on the Christ,\"--the\nheirs of Israel's hope in \"Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets\ndid write.\" With this \"we\" of Paul's Jewish consciousness the \"ye also\"\nof verse 13 is set in contrast by his vocation as Gentile apostle. This\nsecond pronoun, by one of Paul's abrupt turns of thought, is deprived of\nits predicating verb; but that is given already by the \"hoped\" of the\nlast clause. \"The Messianic hope, Israel's ancient heirloom, in its\nfulfilment is _yours_ as much as ours.\"\n\nThis hope of Israel pointed Israelite and Gentile believer alike to the\ncompletion of the Messianic era, when the mystery of God should be\nfinished and His universe redeemed from the bondage of corruption (vv.\n10, 14). By the \"one hope\" of the Christian calling the Church is now\nmade one. From this point of view the apostle in chapter ii. 12\ndescribes the condition in which the gospel found his Gentile readers as\nthat of men cut off from Christ, strangers to the covenants of\npromise,--in a word, \"having no hope\"; while he and his Jewish\nfellow-believers held the priority that belonged to those whose are the\npromises. The apostle stands precisely at the juncture where the wild\nshoot of nature is grafted into the good olive tree. A generation later\nno one would have thought of writing of \"the Christ in whom _you_\n(Gentiles) _also_ have found hope\"; for then Christ was the established\npossession of the Gentile Church.\n\nTo these Christless heathen Christ and His hope came, when they \"heard\nthe word of truth, the gospel of their salvation.\" A great light had\nsprung up for them that sat in darkness; the good tidings of salvation\ncame to the lost and despairing. \"To the Gentiles,\" St Paul declared,\naddressing the obstinate Jews of Rome, \"this salvation of God was sent:\nthey indeed will hear it\" (Acts xxviii. 28). Such was his experience in\nEphesus and all the Gentile cities. There were hearing ears and open\nhearts, souls longing for the word of truth and the message of hope. The\ntrespass of Israel had become the riches of the world. For this on his\nreaders' behalf he gives joyful thanks,--that his message proved to be\n\"the gospel of _your_ salvation.\"\n\nSalvation, as St Paul understands it, includes our uttermost\ndeliverance, the end of death itself (1 Cor. xv. 26). He renders praise\nto God for that He has sealed Gentile equally with Jewish believers with\nthe stamp of His Spirit, which makes them His property and gives\nassurance of absolute redemption.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThere are three things to be considered in this statement: _the seal_\nitself, _the conditions_ upon which, and _the purpose_ for which it is\naffixed.\n\nI. A seal is a token of proprietorship put by the owner upon his\nproperty;[48] or it is the authentication of some statement or\nengagement, the official stamp that gives it validity;[49] or it is the\npledge of inviolability guarding a treasure from profane or injurious\nhands.[50] There is the protecting seal, the ratifying seal, and the\nproprietary seal. The same seal may serve each or all of these purposes.\nHere the thought of possession predominates (comp. ver. 4); but it can\nscarcely be separated from the other two. The witness of the Holy Spirit\nmarks men out as God's _purchased right_ in Christ (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20).\nIn that very fact it guards them from evil and wrong (iv. 30), while it\nratifies their Divine sonship (Gal. iv. 6) and guarantees their personal\nshare in the promises of God (2 Cor. i. 20-22). It is a bond between God\nand men; a sign at once of what we are and shall be to God, and of what\nHe is and will be to us. It secures, and it assures. It stamps us for\nGod's possession, and His kingdom and glory as our possession.\n\nThis seal is constituted by _the Holy Spirit of the promise_,--in\ncontrast with the material seal, \"in the flesh, wrought by hand,\"[51]\nwhich marked the children of the Old Covenant from Abraham downwards,\npreviously to the fulfilment of the promise (Gal. iii. 14). We bear it\nin the inmost part of our nature, where we are nearest to God: \"The\nSpirit witnesseth to our spirit.\" \"The Israelites also were sealed, but\nby circumcision, like cattle and irrational animals. We were sealed by\nthe Spirit, as sons\" (Chrysostom). The stamp of God is on the\nconsciousness of His children. \"We know that Christ abides in us,\"\nwrites St John, \"from the Spirit which He gave us\" (1 Ep. iii. 24).\nUnder this seal is conveyed the sum of blessing comprised in our\nsalvation. Jesus promised, \"Your heavenly Father will give His Holy\nSpirit to them that ask\" (Luke xi. 13), as if there were nothing else to\nask. Giving us this, God gives everything, gives us Himself! In\nsubstance or anticipation, this one bestowment contains all good things\nof God.\n\nThe apostle writes \"the Spirit of the promise, _the Holy_ [Spirit],\"\nwith emphasis on the word of quality; for the testifying power of the\nseal lies in its character. \"Beloved, believe not every spirit; but try\nthe spirits, whether they are of God\" (1 John iv. 1). There are false\nprophets, deceiving and deceived; there are promptings from \"the spirit\nthat works in the sons of disobedience,\" diabolical inspirations, so\nplausible and astonishing that they may deceive the very elect. It is a\nmost perilous error to identify the supernatural with the Divine, to\nsuppose mere miracles and communications from the invisible sphere a\nsign of the working of God. Antichrist can mimic Christ by his \"lying\nwonders and deceit of unrighteousness\" (2 Thess. ii. 8-12). Jesus never\nappealed to the power of His works in proof of His mission, apart from\ntheir ethical quality. God's Spirit works after His kind, and makes ours\na holy spirit. There is an objective and subjective witness--the obverse\nand reverse of the medal (2 Tim. ii. 19). To be sealed by the Holy\nSpirit is, in St Paul's dialect, the same thing as to be _sanctified_;\nonly, the phrase of this text brings out graphically the promissory\naspect of sanctification, its bearing on our final redemption.[52]\n\nWhen the sealing Spirit is called the Spirit _of promise_, does the\nexpression look backward or forward? Is the apostle thinking of the past\npromise now fulfilled, or of some promise still to be fulfilled? The\nformer, undoubtedly, is true. _The_ promise (the article is\nsignificant[53]) is, in the words of Christ, \"the promise of the\nFather.\" On the day of Pentecost St Peter pointed to the descent of the\nHoly Spirit as God's seal upon the Messiahship of Jesus, fulfilling what\nwas promised to Israel for the last days. When this miraculous effusion\nwas repeated in the household of Cornelius, the Jewish apostle saw its\nimmense significance. He asked, \"Can any one forbid water that these\nshould be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?\"\n(Acts x. 47). This was the predicted criterion of the Messianic times.\nNow it was _given_, and with an abundance beyond hope,--_poured out_, in\nthe full sense of Joel's words, _upon all flesh_.\n\nNow, if God has done so much--for this is the implied argument of verses\n13, 14--He will surely accomplish the rest. The attainment of past hope\nis the warrant of present hope. He who gives us His own Spirit, will\ngive us the fulness of eternal life. The earnest implies the sum. In the\nwitness of the Holy Spirit there is for the Christian man the power of\nan endless life, a spring of courage and patience that can never fail.\n\nII. But there are very definite conditions, upon which this assurance\ndepends. \"When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your\nsalvation\"--there is the outward condition: \"when you believed\"--there\nis the inward and subjective qualification for the affixing of the seal\nof God to the heart.\n\nHow characteristic is this antithesis of _hearing_ and _faith_![54] St\nPaul delights to ring the changes upon these terms. The gospel he\ncarried about with him was a message from God to men, the good news\nabout Jesus Christ. It needs, on the one hand, to be effectively\nuttered, proclaimed so as to be heard with the understanding; and, on\nthe other hand, it must be trustfully received and obeyed. Then the due\nresult follows. There is salvation,--conscious, full.\n\nIf they are to believe unto salvation, men must be made to _hear_ the\nword of truth. Unless the good news reaches their ears and their heart,\nit is no good news to them. \"How shall they believe in Him of whom they\nhave not heard? how shall they hear without a preacher?\" (Rom. x. 14).\nThe light may be true, and the eyes clear and open; but there is no\nvision till both meet, till the illuminating ray falls on the sensitive\nspot and touches the responsive nerve. How many sit in darkness, groping\nand wearying for the light, ready for the message if there were any to\nspeak it to them! Great would Paul's guilt have been, if when Christ\ncalled him to preach to the heathen, he had refused to go, if he had\nwithheld the gospel of salvation from the multitudes waiting to receive\nit at his lips. Great also is our fault and blame, and heavy the\nreproach against the Church to-day, when with means in her hand to make\nChrist known to almost the whole world, she leaves vast numbers of men\nwithin her reach in ignorance of His message. She is not the proprietor\nof the Christian truth: it is God's gospel; and she holds it as God's\ntrustee for mankind,--that through her \"the message might be fully\npreached, and that all the nations might hear\" (2 Tim. iv. 17). She has\nSt Paul's programme in hand still to complete, and loiters over it.\n\nThe nature of the message constitutes our duty to proclaim it. It is\n\"the word _of truth_.\" If there be any doubt upon this, if our certainty\nof the Christian truth is shaken and we can no longer announce it with\nfull conviction, our zeal for its propagation naturally declines.\nScepticism chills and kills missionary fervour, as the breath of the\nfrost the young growth of spring. At home and amongst our own people\nevangelistic agencies are supported by many who have no very decided\npersonal faith, from secondary motives,--with a view to their social and\nreformatory benefits, out of philanthropic feeling and love to \"the\nbrother whom we have seen.\" The foreign missions of the Church, like the\nwork of the Gentile apostle, gauge her real estimate of the gospel she\nbelieves and the Master she serves.\n\nBut if we have no sure word of prophecy to speak, we had better be\nsilent. Men are not saved by illusion or speculation. Christianity did\nnot begin by offering to mankind a legend for a gospel, or win the ear\nof the world for a beautiful romance. When the apostles preached Jesus\nand the resurrection, they declared what they knew. To have spoken\notherwise, to have uttered cunningly devised fables or pious phantasies\nor conjectures of their own, would have been, in their view, to bear\nfalse witness against God. Before the hostile scrutiny of their\nfellow-men, and in prospect of the awful judgement of God, they\ntestified the facts about Jesus Christ, the things that they had \"heard,\nand seen with their eyes, and which their hands had handled concerning\nthe word of life.\" They were as sure of these things as of their own\nbeing. Standing upon this ground and with this weapon of truth alone in\ntheir hands, they denounced \"the wiles of error\" and the \"craftiness of\nmen who lie in wait to deceive\" (iv. 14).\n\nAnd they could always speak of this word of truth, addressing whatsoever\ncircle of hearers or of readers, as \"the good news of _your salvation_.\"\nThe pronoun, as we have seen, is emphatic. The glory of Paul's apostolic\nmission was its universalism. His message was to every man he met. His\nlatest writings glow with delight in the world-wide destination of his\ngospel.[55] It was his consolation that the Gentiles in multitudes\nreceived the Divine message to which his countrymen closed their ears.\nAnd he rejoiced in this the more, because he foresaw that ultimately the\ngospel would return to its native home, and at last amid \"the fulness of\nthe Gentiles all Israel would be saved\" (Rom. xi. 13-32). At present\nIsrael was not prepared to seek, while the Gentiles were seeking\nrighteousness by the way of faith (Rom. ix. 30-33).\n\nFor it is upon this question of _faith_ that the whole issue turns.\nHearing is much, when one hears the word of truth and news of salvation.\nBut faith is the point at which salvation becomes ours--no longer a\npossibility, an opportunity, but a fact: \"in whom indeed, _when you\nbelieved_, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit.\" So characteristic is\nthis act of the new life to which it admits, that St Paul is in the\nhabit of calling Christians, without further qualification, simply\n_believers_ (\"those who believe,\" or \"who believed\"). Faith and the gift\nof the Holy Spirit are associated in his thoughts, as closely as Faith\nand Justification. \"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?\"\nwas the question he put to the Baptist's disciples whom he found at\nEphesus on first arriving there (Acts xix. 2). This was the test of the\nadequacy of their faith. He reminds the Galatians that they \"received\nthe Spirit from the hearing of faith,\" and tells them that in this way\nthe blessing and the promise of Abraham were theirs already (Gal. iii.\n2, 7, 14). Faith in the word of Christ admits the Spirit of Christ, who\nis in the word waiting to enter. Faith is the trustful surrender and\nexpectancy of the soul towards God; it sets the heart's door open for\nChrist's incoming through the Spirit This was the order of things from\nthe beginning of the new dispensation. \"God gave to them,\" says St Peter\nof the first baptized Gentiles, \"the like gift as He did also unto us,\nwhen we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost fell on them,\nas on us at the beginning\" (Acts xi. 15-18). Upon our faith in Jesus\nChrist, the Holy Spirit enters the soul and announces Himself by His\nmessage of adoption, crying in us to God, _Abba, Father_ (Gal. iv. 6,\n7).\n\nIn the chamber of our spirit, while we abide in faith, the Spirit of the\nFather and the Son dwells with us, witnessing to us of the love of God\nand leading us into all truth and duty and divine joy, instilling a deep\nand restful peace, breathing an energy that is a fire and fountain of\nlife within the breast, which pours out itself in prayer and labour for\nthe kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is no mere gift to receive, or\ncomfort to enjoy; He is an almighty Force in the believing soul and the\nfaithful Church.\n\nIII. The end for which the seal of God was affixed to Paul's Gentile\nreaders, along with their Jewish brethren in Christ, appears in the\nlast verse, with which the Act of Praise terminates: \"sealed,\" he says,\n\"with the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of our inheritance, _until\nthe redemption of the possession_.\"\n\nThe last of these words is the equivalent of the Old Testament phrase\nrendered in Exodus xix. 5, and elsewhere, \"_a peculiar treasure_ unto\nme\"; in Deuteronomy vii. 6, etc., \"a _peculiar_ people\" (_i.e._, people\nof _possession_). The same Greek term is employed by the Septuagint\ntranslators in Malachi iii. 17, where our Revisers have substituted \"a\npeculiar treasure\" for the familiar, but misleading \"jewels\" of the\nolder Version. St Peter in his first epistle (ii. 9, 10) transfers the\ntitle from the Jewish people to the new Israel of God, who are \"an elect\nrace, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people _for God's own\npossession_.\" In that passage, as in this, the Revisers have inserted\nthe word _God's_ in order to signify whose possession the term signifies\nin Biblical use. In the other places in the New Testament where the same\nGreek noun occurs,[56] it retains its primary active force, and denotes\n\"_obtaining_ of the glory,\" etc., \"_saving_ of the soul.\" The word\nsignifies not the possessing so much as the _acquiring_ or _securing_ of\nits object. The Latin Vulgate suitably renders this phrase, _in\nredemptionem acquisitions_,--\"till the redemption of the acquisition.\"\n\nGod has \"redeemed unto Himself a people\"; He has \"bought us with a\nprice.\" His rights in us are both natural and _acquired_; they are\nredemptional rights, the recovered rights of the infinite love which in\nJesus Christ saved mankind by extreme sacrifice from the doom of death\neternal. This redemption \"we have, in the remission of our trespasses\"\n(ver. 7). But this is only the beginning. Those whose sin is cancelled\nand on whom God now looks with favour in Christ, are thereby redeemed\nand saved (ii. 5, 8).[57] They are within the kingdom of grace; they\nhave passed out of death into life. They have but to persist in the\ngrace into which they have entered, and all will be well. \"Now,\" says\nthe apostle to the Romans, \"you are made free from sin and made servants\nto God; you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life.\"\n\nOur salvation is come; but, after all, it is still to come. We find the\napostle using the words \"save\" and \"redeem\" in this twofold sense,\napplying them both to the commencement and the consummation of the new\nlife.[58] The last act, in Romans viii. 23, he calls \"the redemption of\nthe body.\" This will reinstate the man in the integrity of his twofold\nbeing as a son of God. Hence our bodily redemption is there called an\n_adoption_. For as Jesus Christ by His resurrection was \"marked out\n[_or_ instated] as Son of God in power\" (Rom. i. 4), not otherwise will\nit be with His many brethren. Their reappearance in the new \"body of\nglory\" will be a \"revelation\" to the universe \"of the sons of God.\"\n\nBut this last redemption--or rather this last act of the one\nredemption--like the first, is through the blood of the cross. Christ\nhas borne for us in His death the entire penalty of sin; the remission\nof that penalty comes to us in two distinct stages. The shadow of death\nis lifted off from our spirits now, in the moment of forgiveness. But\nfor reasons of discipline it remains resting upon our bodily frame.\nDeath is a usurper and trespasser in the bounds of God's heritage.\nVirtually and in principle, he is abolished; but not in effect. \"I will\nransom them from the power of the grave,\"[59] the Lord said of His\nIsrael, with a meaning deeper than His prophet knew. When that is done,\nthen God will have redeemed, in point of fact, those possessions in\nhumanity which He so much prizes, that for their recovery He spared not\nHis Son.\n\nSo long as mortality afflicts us, God cannot be satisfied on our\naccount. His children are suffering and tortured; His people mourn under\nthe oppression of the enemy. They sigh, and creation with them, under\nthe burdensome and infirm tabernacle of the flesh, this body of our\nhumiliation for which the hungry grave clamours. God's new estate in us\nis still encumbered with the liabilities in which the sin of the race\ninvolved us, with the \"ills that flesh is heir to.\" But this\nmortgage--that we call, with a touching euphemism, _the debt of\nnature_--will at last be discharged. Soon shall we be free for ever from\nthe law of sin and death. \"And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and\ncome with singing to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their\nheads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall\nflee away.\"\n\nTo God, as He looks down upon men, the seal of His Spirit upon their\nhearts anticipates this full emancipation. He sees already in the\nredeemed spirit of His children what will be manifest in their glorious\nheavenly form. The same token is to ourselves as believing men the\n\"earnest of our inheritance.\" Note that at this point the apostle drops\nthe \"you\" by which he has for several sentences distinguished between\nJewish and Gentile brethren. He identifies them with himself and speaks\nof \"_our_ inheritance.\" This sudden resumption of the first person, the\nself-assertion of the filial consciousness in the writer breaking\nthrough the grammatical order, is a fine trait of the Pauline\nmanner.[60]\n\n_Arrhabon_, the _earnest_ (_fastening penny_), is a Phoenician word of\nthe market, which passed into Greek and Latin,--a monument of the daring\npioneers of Mediterranean commerce. It denotes the part of the price\ngiven by a purchaser in making a bargain, or of the wages given by the\nhirer concluding a contract of service, by way of assurance that the\nstipulated sum will be forthcoming. Such pledge of future payment is at\nthe same time a bond between those concerned, engaging each to his part\nin the transaction.\n\nThe earnest is the seal, and something more. It is an instalment, a\n_token in kind_, a foretaste of the feast to come. In the parallel\npassage, Romans viii. 23, the same earnest is called \"the firstfruit of\nthe Spirit.\" What the earliest sheaf is to the harvest, that the\nentrance of the Spirit of God into a human soul is to the glory of its\nultimate salvation. The sanctity, the joy, the sense of recovered life\nis the same in kind then and now, differing only in degree and\nexpression.\n\nOf the \"earnest of the Spirit\" St Paul has spoken twice already, in 2\nCorinthians i. 22 and v. 5, where he cites this inner witness to assure\nus, in the first instance, that God will fulfil to us His promises, \"how\nmany soever they be\"; and in the second, that our mortal nature shall be\n\"swallowed up of life\"--assimilated to the living spirit to which it\nbelongs--and that \"God has wrought us for this very thing.\" These\nearlier sayings explain the apostle's meaning here. God has made us His\nsons, in accordance with His purpose formed in the depths of eternity\n(ver. 5). As sons, we are His heirs in fellowship with Christ, and\nalready have received rich blessings out of this heritage (ver. 11). But\nthe richest part of it, including that which concerns the bodily form of\nour life, is still unredeemed, notwithstanding that the price of its\nredemption is paid.\n\nFor this we wait till the time appointed of the Father,--the time when\nHe will reclaim His heritage in us, and give us full possession of our\nheritage in Christ. We do not wait, as did the saints of former ages,\nignorant of the Father's purpose for our future lot. \"Life and\nimmortality are brought to light through the gospel.\" We see beyond the\nchasm of death. We enjoy in the testimony of the Holy Spirit the\nforetaste of an eternal and glorious life for all the children of\nGod--nay, the pledge that the reign of evil and death shall end\nthroughout the universe.\n\nWith this hope swelling their hearts, the apostle's readers once more\ntriumphantly join in the refrain: TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[47] Exod. xix. 3-6; Deut. iv. 20, 21; 1 Kings viii. 51, 53; Ps.\nlxxviii. 71, etc. With the above comp. Gen. xv. 8; Numb. xviii. 20; Jos.\nxiii. 33; Ps. xvi. 5.\n\n[48] Ch. iv. 30. The \"seal\" of 2 Tim. ii. 19 has both the first and\nthird of these meanings.\n\n[49] Rom. iv. 11; 1 Cor. ix. 2; John iii. 33, vi. 27.\n\n[50] Matt. xxvii. 66; Rev. v. 1, etc.\n\n[51] Ch. ii. 11; comp. Rom. i. 28, 29; Gal. v, 5, 6; Phil. iii. 2, 3.\n\n[52] Comp. Rom. viii. 9-11; 2 Cor. v. 1-5.\n\n[53] Acts i. 4, ii. 33, 39, xiii. 32, xxvi. 6; Rom. iv. 13-20; Gal. iii.\n14-29.\n\n[54] See Rom. x. 14-18; Gal. iii. 2, 5; Col. i. 6, 23; 1 Thess. ii. 13;\n2 Tim. i. 13.\n\n[55] 1 Tim. ii. 1-7, iv. 10; Tit. ii. 11.\n\n[56] 1 Thess. v. 9; 2 Thess. ii. 14; Heb. x. 39.\n\n[57] Comp. Chapter VIII.\n\n[58] For the former usage see, along with ver. 7 and ch. ii. 5, 8; Rom.\niii, 24, x. 9; Titus iii. 5; 2 Tim. i. 9; Col. i. 14; Heb. ix. 15; for\nthe latter, ch. iv. 30; Luke xxi. 28; Rom. v. 9, 10, viii. 23; Phil. ii.\n12; 1 Thess. v. 8, 9; 2 Tim. ii. 10, iv. 18. It may be doubted whether\nSt Paul ever uses these terms to denote present salvation or redemption\nwithout the final issue being also in his thoughts. Perhaps he would\nhave called the redemption of ver. 7, in contrast with that of Rom.\nviii. 23, \"the redemption of the spirit.\"\n\n[59] Hosea xiii. 14; Isa. xxv. 8.\n\n[60] The same incoherence occurs in Gal. iv. 5-7: \"that _we_ might\nreceive the adoption of sons. And because _ye_ are sons, God sent forth\nthe Spirit of His Son into _our_ hearts.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n_FOR THE EYES OF THE HEART._\n\n \"For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus\n which is among you, and which _ye shew_ toward all the saints, cease\n not to give thanks for you, making mention _of you_ in my prayers:\n\n \"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may\n give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of\n Him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know\n what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His\n inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His\n power toward us who believe, according to that working of the might\n of His strength, which He wrought in the Christ, when He raised Him\n from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly\n _places_.\"--EPH. i. 15-20.\n\n\n_Because of this_: because you have heard the glad tidings, and\nbelieving it have been sealed with the Holy Spirit (vv. 13, 14). _I\ntoo_: I your apostle, with so great an interest in your salvation, in\nreturn give thanks for you. Thus St Paul, having extolled to the\nuttermost God's counsel of redemption unfolded through the ages, claims\nto offer especial thanksgiving for the faith of those who belong to his\nGentile province and are, directly or indirectly, the fruit of his own\nministry (iii. 1-13).\n\nThe intermediate clause of verse 15, describing the readers' faith, is\nobscure. This form of expression occurs nowhere else in St Paul; but the\nconstruction is used by St Luke,--_e.g._, in Acts xxi. 21: \"All the\nJews _which are among_ the Gentiles,\" where it implies diffusion over a\nwide area. This being a circular letter, addressed to a number of\nChurches scattered through the province of Asia, of whose faith in many\ncases St Paul knew only by report, we can understand how he writes:\n\"having heard of the faith that is [spread] amongst you.\"--_The love_,\ncompleting _faith_ in the ordinary text (as in Col. i. 4), is relegated\nby the Revisers to the margin, upon evidence that seems conclusive.[61]\nThe commentators, however, feel so strongly the harshness of this\nellipsis that, in spite of the ancient witnesses, they read, almost with\none consent,[62] \"_your love_ toward all the saints.\" The variation of\nthe former clause prepares us, however, for something peculiar in this.\nIn verse 13 we found St Paul's thought fixed on the decisive fact of his\nreaders' _faith_. On this he still dwells lingeringly. The grammatical\nlink needed between \"faith\" and \"unto all the saints\" is supplied in the\nRevised Version by _ye show_, after the analogy of Philemon 5. Perhaps\nit might be supplied as grammatically, and in a sense better suiting the\nsituation, by _is come_. Then the co-ordinate prepositional phrases\nqualifying \"faith\" have both alike a local reference, and we paraphrase\nthe clause thus: \"since I heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is\nspread amongst you, and whose report has reached all the saints.\"\n\nWe are reminded of the thanksgiving for the Roman Church, \"that your\nfaith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.\"[63] The success of the\ngospel in Asia gave encouragement to believers in Christ everywhere. St\nPaul loves in this way to link Church to Church, to knit the bonds of\nfaith between land and land: in this letter most of all; for it is his\ncatholic epistle, the epistle of the Church oecumenical.\n\nIn verse 16 we pass from praise to prayer. God is invoked by a double\ntitle peculiar to this passage, as \"the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nthe Father of glory.\" The former expression is in no way difficult. The\napostle often speaks, as in verse 3, of \"the God and Father of our Lord\nJesus Christ\": intending to qualify the Divine Fatherhood by another\nepithet, he writes for once simply of \"_the God_ of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.\" This reminds us of the dependence of the Lord Jesus upon the\neternal Father, and accentuates the Divine sovereignty so conspicuous in\nthe foregoing Act of Praise. Christ's constant attitude towards the\nFather was that of His cry of anguish on the cross, \"My God, my God!\"\nYet He never speaks to men of _our_ God. To us God is \"the God of our\nLord Jesus Christ,\" as He was to the men of old time \"the God of Abraham\nand of Isaac and of Jacob.\"\n\nThe key to the designation _Father of glory_ is in Romans vi. 4: \"Christ\nwas raised from the dead through _the glory of the Father_.\" In the\nlight of this august manifestation of God's power to save His lost sons\nin Christ, we are called to see light (vv. 19, 20). Its glory shines\nalready about God's blessed name of Father, thrice glorified in the\napostle's praise (vv. 3-14). The title is the counterpart of \"the Father\nof compassions\" in 2 Corinthians i. 3.\n\nAnd now, what has the apostle to ask of the Father of men under these\nglorious appellations? He asks \"a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the\nfull-knowledge[64] of Him,--the eyes of your heart enlightened, in order\nthat you may know,\" etc. This recalls the emphasis with which in verses\n8 and 9 he set \"wisdom and intelligence\" amongst the first blessings\nbestowed by Divine grace upon the Church. It was the gift which the\nAsian Churches at the present juncture most needed; this is just now the\nburden of the apostle's prayers for his people.\n\nThe _spirit of wisdom and revelation_ desired will proceed from the Holy\nSpirit dwelling in these Gentile believers (ver. 13). But it must belong\nto their own spirit and direct their personal mental activity, the\nspirit of revelation becoming \"the spirit of their mind\" (iv. 23). When\nSt Paul asks for \"a spirit of wisdom and _revelation_,\" he desires that\nhis readers may have amongst themselves a fountain of inspiration and\nshare in the prophetic gifts diffused through the Church.[65] And \"the\nknowledge--the full, deep knowledge of God\" is the sphere \"in\" which\nthis richer inspiration and spiritual wisdom are exercised and\nnourished. \"Philosophy, taking man for its centre, says, _Know thyself_:\nonly the inspired word, which proceeds from God, has been able to say,\n_Know God_.\"[66]\n\nThe connexion of the first clause of verse 18 with the last of verse 17\nis not very clear in St Paul's Greek; there is a characteristic\nincoherence of structure. The continuity of thought is unmistakable. He\nprays that through this inspired wisdom his readers may have their\nreason enlightened to see the grandeur and wealth of their religion.\nThis is a vision for \"the eyes of the heart.\" It is disclosed to the eye\nbehind the eye, to the heart which is the true discerner.\n\n \"The seeing eyes\n See best by the light in the heart that lies.\"\n\nYonder is an ox grazing in the meadow on a bright summer's day. Round\nhim is spread the fairest landscape,--a broad stretch of herbage\nembroidered with flowers, the river gleaming in and out amongst the\ndistant trees, the hills on both sides bounding the quiet valley,\nsunshine and shadows chasing each other as they leap from height to\nheight. But of all this what sees the grazing ox? So much lush pasture\nand cool shade and clear water where his feet may plash when he has done\nfeeding. In the same meadow there stands a poet musing, or a painter\nbusy at his easel; and on the soul of that gifted man there descends,\nthrough eyes outwardly discerning no more than those of the beast at his\nside, a vision of wonder and beauty which will make all time richer. The\neyes of the man's heart are opened, and the spirit of wisdom and\nrevelation is given him in the knowledge of God's work in nature.\n\nLike differences exist amongst men in regard to the things of religion.\n\"So foolish was I and ignorant,\" says the Psalmist, speaking of his\nformer dejection and unbelief, \"I was as a beast before Thee!\" There\nshall be two men sitting side by side in the same house of prayer, at\nthe same gate of heaven. The one sees heaven opened; he hears the\neternal song; his spirit is a temple filled with the glory of God. The\nother sees the place and the aspect of his fellow-worshippers; he hears\nthe music of organ and choir, and the sound of some preacher's voice.\nBut as for anything besides, any influence from another world, it is no\nmore to him at that moment than is the music in the poet's soul or the\ncolours on the painter's canvas to the ox that eateth grass.\n\nIt is not the strangeness and distance of Divine things alone that cause\ninsensibility; their familiarity has the same effect. We know all this\ngospel so well. We have read it, listened to it, gone over its points of\ndoctrine a hundred times. It is trite and easy to us as a worn glove. We\ndiscuss without a tremor of emotion truths the first whisper and dim\npromise of which once lifted men's souls into ecstasy, or cast them down\ninto depths of shame and bewilderment so that they forgot to eat their\nbread. The awe of things eternal, the mystery of our faith, the Spirit\nof glory and of God rest on us no longer. So there come to be, as one\nhears it said, _gospel-hardened_ hearers--and gospel-hardened preachers!\nThe eyes see--and see not; the ears hear--and hear not; the lips speak\nwithout feeling; _the heart is waxen fat_. This is the nemesis of grace\nabused. It is the result that follows by an inevitable psychological\nlaw, where outward contact with spiritual truth is not attended with an\ninward apprehension and response. How do we need to pray, in handling\nthese dread themes, for a true sense and savour of Divine things,--that\nthere may be given, and ever given afresh to us \"a spirit of wisdom and\nrevelation in the knowledge of God.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\nThree things the apostle desires that his readers may see with the\nheart's enlightened eyes: the _hope to which God calls them_, the\n_wealth that He possesses in them,_ and the _power which He is prepared\nto exert upon them as believing men_.\n\nI. What, then, is our _hope_ in God? What is the ideal of our faith? For\nwhat purpose has God called us into the fellowship of His Son? What is\nour religion going to do for us and to make of us?\n\nIt will bring us safe home to heaven. It will deliver us from the\npresent evil world, and preserve us unto Christ's heavenly kingdom. God\nforbid that we should make light of \"the hope laid up for us in the\nheavens,\" or cast it aside. It is an anchor of the soul, both sure and\nsteadfast. But is it _the_ hope of our calling? Is this what St Paul\nhere chiefly signifies? We are very sure that it is not. But it is the\none thing which stands for the hope of the gospel in many minds. \"We\ntrust that our sins are forgiven: we hope that we shall get to heaven!\"\nThe experience of how many Christian believers begins and ends there. We\nmake of our religion a harbour of refuge, a soothing anodyne, an escape\nfrom the anguish of guilt and the fear of death; not a life-vocation, a\ngrand pursuit. The definition we have quoted may suffice for the\nbeginning and the end; but we need something to fill out that formula,\nto give body and substance, meaning and movement to the life of faith.\n\nLet the apostle tell us what he regarded, for himself, as the end of\nreligion, what was the object of his ambition and pursuit. \"One thing I\ndo,\" he writes to the Philippians, opening to them all his heart,--\"One\nthing I do. I press towards the mark for the prize of my high calling of\nGod in Christ Jesus.\" And what, pray, was that mark?--\"that I may gain\nChrist and be found in Him!--that I may know Him, and the power of His\nresurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to\nHis death, if by any means I may attain unto the final resurrection from\nthe dead.\" Yes, Paul hopes for heaven; but he hopes for something else\nfirst, and most. It is through Christ that he sees heaven. To know\nChrist, to love Christ, to serve Christ, to follow Christ, to be like\nChrist, to be with Christ for ever!--that is what St Paul lived for.\nWhatever aim he pursues or affection he cherishes, Christ lies in it and\nreaches beyond it. In doing or in suffering, in his intellect and his\nheart, in his thoughts for himself or for others, Christ is all things\nto him and in all. When life is thus filled with Christ, heaven becomes,\nas one may say, a mere circumstance, and death but an incident upon the\nway,--in the soul's everlasting pursuit of Christ.\n\nBehold, then, brethren, the hope of our calling. God could not call us\nto any destiny less or lower than this. It would have been unworthy of\nHim,--and may we not say, unworthy of ourselves, if we are in truth His\nsons? From eternity the Father of spirits has predestined you and me to\nbe holy and without blemish before Him,--in a word, to be conformed to\nthe image of His Son. Every other hope is dross compared to this.\n\nII. Another vision for the heart's eyes, still more amazing than that we\nhave seen: \"what is,\" St Paul writes, \"the riches of the glory of God's\ninheritance in the saints.\"\n\nWe saw, in considering the eleventh and fourteenth verses, how the\napostle, in characteristic fashion, plays upon the double aspect of the\n_inheritance_, regarding it now as the heritage of the saints in God and\nagain as His heritage in them. The former side of this relationship was\nindicated in the \"hope of the Divine calling,\"--which we live and strive\nfor as it is promised us by God; and the latter comes out, by way of\ncontrast, in this second clause. Verse 18 repeats in another way the\nantithesis of verse 14 between our inheritance and God's acquisition. We\nmust understand that God sets great store by us His human children, and\ncounts Himself rich in our affection and our service. How deeply it must\naffect us to know this, and to see the glory that in God's eyes belongs\nto His possession in believing men.\n\nWhat presumption is all this, some one says. How preposterous to imagine\nthat the Maker of the worlds interests Himself in atoms like\nourselves,--in the ephemera of this insignificant planet! But moral\nmagnitudes are not to be measured by a foot-rule. The mind which can\ntraverse the immensities of space and hold them in its grasp, transcends\nthe things it counts and weighs. As it is amongst earthly powers, so the\nlaw may hold betwixt sphere and sphere in the system of worlds, in the\nrelations of bodies terrestrial and celestial to each other, that \"God\nhas chosen the weak things to put to shame the mighty, and the things\nthat are not to bring to nought the things that are.\" Through the Church\nHe is \"making known to the potentates in the heavenly places His\nmanifold wisdom\" (iii, 10). The lowly can sing evermore with Mary in the\nMagnificat: \"He that is mighty hath magnified me.\" If it be true that\nGod spared not His Son for our salvation and has sealed us with the seal\nof His Spirit, if He chose us before the world's foundation to be His\nsaints, He must set upon those saints an infinite value. We may despise\nourselves; but He thinks great things of us.\n\nAnd is this, after all, so hard to understand? If the alternative were\nput to some owner of wide lands and houses full of treasure: \"Now, you\nmust lose that fine estate, or see your own son lost and ruined! You\nmust part with a hundred thousand pounds--or with your best friend!\"\nthere could be no doubt in such a case what the choice would be of a man\nof sense and worth, one who sees with the eyes of the heart. Shall we\nthink less nobly of God than of a right-minded man amongst\nourselves?--Suppose, again, that one of our great cities were so full of\nwealth that the poorest were housed in palaces and fared sumptuously\nevery day, though its citizens were profligates and thieves and cowards!\nWhat would its opulence and luxury be worth? Is it not evident that\n_character_ is the only possession of intrinsic value, and that this\nalone gives worth and weight to other properties? \"The saints that are\nin the earth and the excellent\" are earth's riches.\n\nSo far as we can judge of His ways, the great God who made us cares\ncomparatively little about the upholstery and machinery of the universe;\nbut He cares immensely about men, about the character and destiny of\nmen. There is nothing in all that physical science discloses for God to\n_love_, nothing kindred to Himself. \"Hast thou considered my servant\nJob?\" the Hebrew poet pictures Him saying before heaven and hell!--\"Hast\nthou considered my servant Job?--a perfect man and upright: there is\nnone like him in the earth.\" How proud God is of a man like that, in a\nworld like this. Who can tell the value that the Father of glory sets\nupon the tried fidelity of His humblest servant here on earth; the\nintensity with which He reciprocates the confidence of one timid,\ntrembling human heart, or the simple reverence of one little child that\nlisps His awful name? \"He _taketh pleasure_ in them that fear Him, in\nthose that hope in His mercy!\" Beneath His feet all the worlds lie\nspread in their starry splendour, our sun with its train of planets no\nmore than one glimmering spot of light amongst ten thousand. But amidst\nthis magnificence, what is the sight that wins His tender fatherly\nregard? \"To that man will I look, that is poor and of a contrite spirit,\nand that trembles at my word.\" Thus saith the High and Lofty One that\ninhabiteth eternity. The Creator rejoices in His works as at the\nbeginning, the Lord of heaven and earth in His dominion. But these are\nnot His \"inheritance.\" That is in the love of His children, in the\ncharacter and number of His saints. _We_ are to be the praise of His\nglory.\n\nLet us learn, then, to respect ourselves. Let us not take the world's\ntinsel for wealth, and spend our time, like the man in Bunyan's dream,\nscraping with \"the muck-rake\" while the crown of life shines above our\nhead. The riches of a Church--nay, of any human community--lies not in\nits moneyed resources, but in the men and women that compose it, in\ntheir godlike attributes of mind and heart, in their knowledge, their\nzeal, their love to God and man, in the purity, the gentleness, the\ntruthfulness and courage and fidelity that are found amongst them. These\nare the qualities which give distinction to human life, and are\nbeautiful in the eyes of God and holy angels. \"Man that is in honour and\nunderstandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.\"\n\nIII. One thing more we need to understand, or what we have seen already\nwill be of little practical avail. We may see glorious visions, we may\ncherish high aspirations; and they may prove to be but the dreams of\nvanity. Nay, it is conceivable that God Himself might have wealth\ninvested in our nature, a treasure beyond price, shipwrecked and sunk\nirrecoverably through our sin. What means exist for realizing this\ninheritance? what power is there at work to recover these forfeited\nhopes, and that glory of God of which we have come so miserably short?\n\nThe answer lies in the apostle's words: \"That ye may know what is the\nexceeding greatness of His power toward us that believe,\"--a power\nmeasured by \"the energy of the might of His strength[67] which He\nwrought in the Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at\nHis right hand in the heavenly places.\" This is the power that we have\nto count upon, the force that is yoked to the world's salvation and is\nat the service of our faith. Its energy has turned the tide and reversed\nthe stream of nature--in the person of Jesus Christ and in the course of\nhuman history. It has changed death to life. Above all, it certifies the\nforgiveness of sin and releases us from its liabilities; it transforms\nthe law of sin and death into the law of the Spirit of life in Christ\nJesus.\n\nWe preachers hear it said sometimes: \"You live in a speculative world.\nYour doctrines are ideal and visionary,--altogether too high for men as\nthey are and the world as we find it. Human nature and experience, the\ncoarse realities of life are all against you.\"\n\nWhat would our objectors have said at the grave-side of Jesus? \"The\nbeautiful dreamer, the sublime idealist! He was too good for a world\nsuch as ours. It was sure to end like this. His ideas of life were\nutterly impracticable.\" So they would have moralized. \"And the good\nprophet talked--strangest fanaticism of all--of rising again on the\nthird day! One thing at least we know, that the dead are dead and gone\nfrom us. No, we shall never see Jesus or His like again. Purity cannot\nlive in this infected air. The grave ends all hope for men.\" But,\ndespite human nature and human experience, He has risen again, He lives\nfor ever! That is the apostle's message and testimony to the world. For\nthose \"who believe\" it, all things are possible. A life is within our\nreach that seemed far off as earth from heaven. _You_ may become a\nperfect saint.\n\nFrom His open grave Christ breathed on His disciples, and through them\non all mankind, the Holy Spirit. This is the efficient cause of\nChristianity,--the Spirit that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. The\nlimit to its efficacy lies in the defects of our faith, in our failure\nto comprehend what God gave us in His Son. Is anything now too hard for\nthe Lord? Shall anything be called impossible, in the line of God's\npromise and man's spiritual need? Can we put an arrest upon the working\nof this mysterious force, upon the Spirit of the new life, and say to\nit: Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther?\n\nLook at Jesus where He was--the poor, tortured, wounded body, slain by\nour sins, lying cold and still in Joseph's grave: then lift up your eyes\nand see Him _where He is_,--enthroned in the worship and wonder of\nheaven! Measure by that distance, by the sweep and lift of that almighty\nArm, the strength of the forces engaged to your salvation, the might of\nthe powers at work through the ages for the redemption of humanity.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[61] See Westcott and Hort's _New Testament in Greek_, vol. ii., pp.\n124, 125.\n\n[62] Dr. Beet abides by the critical text. He solves the difficulty by\ngiving =pistis= a double sense: \"the faith among you in the Lord Jesus,\nand the _faithfulness_ towards all the saints.\" See his Commentary on\n_Ephesians, etc._, pp. 284-6.\n\n[63] In 1 Thess. i. 7-9; 2 Thess. i. 4, the same thought enters into\nPaul's thanksgiving; comp. 2 Cor. ix. 2.\n\n[64] This is the emphatic =epign\u00f4sis=, so frequent in the later\nepistles. See Lightfoot's _note_ on Col. i. 9; or Cremer's _Lexicon to\nN.T. Greek_.\n\n[65] See ch. iii. 3-5, iv. 11; and comp. 1 Cor. xiv. 26-40, etc.\n\n[66] Adolphe Monod: _Explication de l'\u00e9p\u00eetre de S. Paul aux \u00c9ph\u00e9siens_.\nA deeply spiritual and suggestive Commentary.\n\n[67] In this amplitude of expression there is no idle heaping up of\nwords. The four synonyms for _power_ have each a distinct force in the\nsentence. =Dynamis= is _power_ in general, as that which is able to\neffect some purpose; =energeia= is _energy_, power in effective action\nand operation; =kratos= is _might_, _mastery_, sovereign power,--in the\nNew Testament used chiefly of the power of God; =ischys= is _force_,\n_strength_, power resident in some person and belonging to him. This is\nthe order in which the words follow each other. Compare vi. 10 in the\nGreek.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DOCTRINE.\n\nCHAPTER i. 20-iii. 13.\n\n =Hyps\u00eal\u00f4n sphodra gemei t\u00f4n no\u00eamat\u00f4n kai hyperonk\u00f4n. Ha gar m\u00eadamou\n schedon ephthenxato, tauta entautha ph\u00easin.=\n\n JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: _In epistolam ad Ephesios._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n_WHAT GOD WROUGHT IN THE CHRIST._\n\n \"He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand\n in the heavenly _places_, far above all rule, and authority, and\n power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this\n world, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in\n subjection under His feet, and Him He gave--the head over all\n things--to the Church which is His body,--the fulness of Him that\n filleth all in all.\"--EPH. i. 20-23.\n\n\nThe division that we make at verse 20, marking off at this point the\ncommencement of the Doctrine of the epistle, may appear somewhat forced.\nThe great doxology of the first half of the chapter is intensely\ntheological; and the prayer which follows it, like that of the letter to\nthe Colossians, melts into doctrine imperceptibly. The apostle teaches\nupon his knees. The things he has to tell his readers, and the things he\nhas asked on their behalf from God, are to a great extent the same.\nStill the writer's attitude in the second chapter is manifestly that of\nteaching; and his doctrine there is so directly based upon the\nconcluding sentences of his prayer, that it is necessary for logical\narrangement to place these verses within the doctrinal section of the\nepistle.\n\nThe resurrection of Christ made men sensible that a new force of life\nhad come into the world, of incalculable potency. This power was in\nexistence before. In prelusive ways, it has wrought in the world from\nits foundation, and since the fall of man. By the incarnation of the Son\nof God it took possession of human flesh; by His sacrificial death it\nwon its decisive triumph. But the virtue of these acts of Divine grace\nlay in their hiding of power, in the self-abnegation of the Son of God\nwho emptied Himself and took a servant's form, and became obedient unto\ndeath.\n\nWith what a rebound did the \"energy of the might of God's strength\" put\nforth itself in Him, when once this sacrifice was accomplished! Even His\ndisciples who had seen Jesus still the tempest and feed the multitude\nfrom a handful of bread and call back the spirit to its mortal frame,\nhad not dreamed of the might of Godhead latent in Him, until they beheld\nHim risen from the dead. He had promised this in words; but they\nunderstood His words only when they saw the fact, when He actually stood\nbefore them \"alive after His passion.\" The scene of Calvary--the cruel\nsufferings of their Master, His helpless ignominy and abandonment by\nGod, the malignant triumph of his enemies--gave to this revelation an\neffect beyond measure astonishing and profound in its impression. From\nthe stupor of grief and despair they were raised to a boundless hope, as\nJesus rose from the death of the cross to glorious life and Godhead.\n\nOf the same nature was the effect produced by His manifestation to Paul\nhimself. The Nazarene prophet known to Saul by report as an attractive\nteacher and worker of miracles, had made enormous pretensions,\nblasphemous if they were not true. He put Himself forward as the Messiah\nand the very Son of God! But when brought to the test, His power utterly\nfailed. God disowned and forsook Him; and He \"was crucified of\nweakness.\" His followers declared, indeed, that He had returned from the\ngrave. But who could believe them, a handful of Galilean enthusiasts,\ndesperately clinging to the name of their disgraced leader! If He has\nrisen, why does He not show Himself to others? Who can accept a\ncrucified Messiah? The new faith is a madness, and an insult to our\ncommon Judaism! Such were Saul's former thoughts of the Christ. But when\nhis challenge was met and the Risen One confronted him in the way to\nDamascus, when from that Form of insufferable glory there came a voice\nsaying, \"I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest!\" it was enough. Instantly\nthe conviction penetrated his soul, \"He liveth by the power of God.\"\nSaul's previous reasonings against the Messiahship of Jesus by the same\nrigorous logic were now turned into arguments for Him.\n\nIt is \"_the_ Christ,\" let us observe, in whom God \"wrought raising Him\nfrom the dead\": the Christ of Jewish hope (ver. 12), the centre and sum\nof the Divine counsel for the world (ver. 10),[68] the Christ whom in\nthat moment never to be forgotten the humbled Saul recognized in the\ncrucified Nazarene.\n\nThe demonstration of the power of Christianity Paul had found in the\nresurrection of Jesus Christ. The power which raised Him from the dead\nis the working energy of our faith. Let us see what this mysterious\npower wrought in the Redeemer Himself; and then we will consider how it\nbears upon us. There are two steps indicated in Christ's exaltation: He\nwas raised _from the death of the cross to new life amongst men_; and\nagain from the world of men He was raised _to the throne of God in\nheaven_. In the enthronement of Jesus Christ at the Father's right\nhand, verses 22, 23 further distinguish two separate acts: there was\nconferred on Him _a universal Lordship_; and He was made specifically\n_Head of the Church_, being given to her for her Lord and Life, He who\ncontains the fulness of the Godhead. Such is the line of thought marked\nout for us.\n\n\nI. _God raised the Christ from the dead._\n\nThis assertion is the corner-stone of St Paul's life and doctrine, and\nof the existence of Christendom. Did the event really take place? There\nwere Christians at Corinth who affirmed, \"There is no resurrection of\nthe dead.\" And there are followers of Jesus now who with deep sadness\nconfess, like the author of _Obermann once more_:\n\n \"Now He is dead! Far hence He lies\n In the lorn Syrian town;\n And on His grave, with shining eyes,\n The Syrian stars look down.\"\n\nIf we are driven to this surrender, compelled to think that it was an\napparition, a creation of their own passionate longing and heated fancy\nthat the disciples saw and conversed with during those forty days, an\napparition sprung from his fevered remorse that arrested Saul on the\nDamascus road--if we no longer believe in Jesus and the resurrection, it\nis in vain that we still call ourselves Christians. The foundation of\nthe Christian creed is struck away from under our feet. Its spell is\nbroken; its energy is gone.\n\nIndividual men may and do continue to believe in Christ, with no faith\nin the supernatural, men who are sceptics in regard to His resurrection\nand miracles. They believe in Himself, they say, not in His legendary\nwonders; in His character and teaching, in His beneficent influence--in\nthe _spiritual_ Christ, whom no physical marvel can exalt above His\nintrinsic greatness. And such trust in Him, where it is sincere, He\naccepts for all that it is worth, from the believer's heart. But this is\nnot the faith that saved Paul, and built the Church. It is not the faith\nwhich will save the world. It is the faith of compromise and transition,\nthe faith of those whose conscience and heart cling to Christ while\ntheir reason gives its verdict against Him. Such belief may hold good\nfor the individuals who profess it; but it must die with them. No skill\nof reasoning or grace of sentiment will for long conceal its\ninconsistency. The plain, blunt sense of mankind will decide again, as\nit has done already, that Jesus Christ was either a blasphemer, or He\nwas the Son of the eternal God; either He rose from the dead in very\ntruth, or His religion is a fable. Christianity is not bound up with the\ninfallibility of the Church, whether in Pope or Councils, nor with the\ninerrancy of the letter of Scripture: it stands or falls with the\nreality of the facts of the gospel, with the risen life of Christ and\nHis presence in the Spirit amongst men.\n\nThe fact of Christ's resurrection is one upon which modern science has\nnothing new to say. The law of death is not a recent discovery. Men were\nas well aware of its universality in the first century as they are in\nthe nineteenth, and as little disposed as we are ourselves to believe in\nthe return of the dead to bodily life. The stark reality of death makes\nus all sceptics. Nothing is clearer from the narratives than the utter\nsurprise of the friends of Jesus at His reappearance, and their complete\nunpreparedness for the event. They were not eager, but \"_slow_ of heart\nto believe.\" Their very love to the Master, as in the case of Thomas,\nmade them fearful of self-deception. It is a shallow and an unjust\ncriticism that dismisses the disciples as interested witnesses and\npredisposed to faith in the resurrection of their dead Master. Should we\nbe thus credulous in the case of our best-beloved dead? The instinctive\nfeeling that meets any thought of the kind, after the fact of death is\nonce certain, is rather that of deprecation and aversion, such as Martha\nexpressed when Jesus went to call her brother from his grave. In all the\nlong record of human imposture and illusion, no resurrection story has\never found general credence outside of the Biblical revelation. No\nsystem of faith except our own has ever been built on the allegation\nthat a dead man rose from the grave.\n\nChrist's was not the only resurrection; but it is the only _final_\nresurrection. Lazarus of Bethany left his tomb at the word of Jesus, a\nliving man; but he was still a mortal man, doomed to see corruption. He\nreturned from the grave on this side, as he had entered it, \"bound hand\nand foot with grave-clothes.\" Not so with the Christ. He passed through\nthe region of death and issued on the immortal side, escaped from the\nbondage of corruption. Therefore He is called the \"firstfruits\" and \"the\nfirstborn _out of_ the dead.\"[69] Hence the alteration manifest in the\nrisen form of Jesus. He was \"changed,\" as St Paul conceives those will\nbe who await on earth their Lord's return (1 Cor. xv. 51). The mortal in\nHim was swallowed up of life. The corpse that was laid in Joseph's tomb\nwas there no longer. From it another body has issued, recognized for the\nsame person by look and voice and movement, but indescribably\ntransfigured. Visible and tangible as the body of the Risen One\nwas--\"Handle me, and see,\" He said--it was superior to material\nlimitations; it belonged to a state whose laws transcend the range of\nour experience, in which the body is the pliant instrument of the\nanimating spirit. From the Person of the risen Saviour the apostle\nformed his conception of the \"spiritual body,\" the \"house from heaven\"\nwith which, as he teaches, each of the saints will be clothed--the\nwasted form that we lay down in the grave being transformed into the\nsemblance of His \"body of glory, according to the mighty working whereby\nHe is able to subdue all things to Himself\" (Phil. iii. 20, 21).\n\nThe resurrection of the Christ inaugurated a new order of things. It was\nlike the appearance of the first living organism amidst dead matter, or\nof the first rational consciousness in the unconscious world. He \"is,\"\nsays the apostle, the \"beginning, first-begotten out of the dead\" (Col.\ni. 18). With the harvest filling our granaries, we cease to wonder at\nthe firstfruits; and in the new heavens and earth Christ's resurrection\nwill seem an entirely natural thing. Immortality will then be the normal\ncondition of human existence.\n\nThat resurrection, nevertheless, did homage to the fundamental law of\nscience and of reason, that every occurrence, ordinary or extraordinary,\nshall have an adequate cause. The event was not more singular and unique\nthan the nature of Him to whom it befell. Looking back over the Divine\nlife and deeds of Jesus, St Peter said: \"It was not possible that He\nshould be holden of death.\" How unfitting and repugnant to thought, that\nthe common death of all men should come upon Jesus Christ! There was\nthat in His Person, in its absolute purity and godlikeness, which\nrepelled the touch of corruption. He was \"marked out,\" writes our\napostle, \"as Son of God, _according to His spirit of holiness_, by His\nresurrection from the dead\" (Rom. i. 4). These two signs of Godhead\nagree in Jesus; and the second is no more superhuman than the first. For\nHim the supernatural was natural. There was a mighty working of the\nbeing of God latent in Him, which transcended and subdued to itself the\nlaws of our physical frame, even more completely than they do the laws\nand conditions of the lower realms of nature.\n\nII. The power which raised Jesus our Lord from the dead could not leave\nHim in the world of sin and death. Lifting Him from hades to earth, by\nanother step it exalted the risen Saviour above the clouds, and _seated\nHim at God's right hand in the heavens_.\n\nThe forty days were a halt by the way, a condescending pause in the\noperation of the almighty power that raised Him. \"I ascend,\" He said to\nthe first that saw Him,--\"I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my\nGod and your God.\" He must see His own in the world again; He must \"show\nHimself alive after His passion by infallible proofs,\" that their hearts\nmay be comforted and knit together in the assurance of faith, that they\nmay be prepared to receive His Spirit and to bear their witness to the\nworld. Then He will ascend up where He was before, returning to the\nFather's bosom. It was impossible that a spiritual body should tarry in\na mortal dwelling; impossible that the familiar relations of\ndiscipleship should be resumed. No new follower can now ask of Him,\n\"Rabbi, where dwellest Thou,\" under what roof amid the homes of men? For\nHe dwells with those that love Him always and everywhere, like the\nFather (John xiv. 23). From this time Christ will not be known after the\nflesh, but as the \"Lord of the Spirit\" (2 Cor. iii. 18).\n\n\"In the heavenlies\" now abides the Risen One. This expression, so\nfrequent in the epistle as to be characteristic of it,[70] denotes not\nlocality so much as condition and sphere. It speaks of the bright and\ndeathless world of God and the angels, of which the sky has always been\nto men the symbol. Thither Christ ascended in the eyes of His apostles\non the fortieth day from His rising. Once before His death its\nbrightness for a moment had irradiated His form upon the Mount of\nTransfiguration. Clad in the like celestial splendour He showed Himself\nto His future apostle Paul, as to one born out of due time, to make him\nHis minister and witness. Since then, of all the multitudes that have\nloved His appearing, no other has looked upon Him with bodily eyes. He\ndwells with the Father in light unapproachable.\n\nBut rest and felicity are not enough for Him. Christ sits at the right\nhand of power, that He may _rule_. In those heavenly places, it seems,\nthere are thrones higher and lower, names more or less eminent, but His\nstands clear above them all. In the realms of space, in the epochs of\neternity there is none to rival our Lord Jesus, no power that does not\nowe Him tribute. God \"hath put all things under His feet.\" _The Christ_,\nwho died on the cross, who rose in human form from the grave, is exalted\nto share the Father's glory and dominion, is filled with God's own\nfulness, and made without limitation or exception \"Head over all\nthings.\"\n\nIn his enumeration of the angelic orders in verse 21, the apostle\nfollows the phraseology current at the time, without giving any precise\ndogmatic sanction to it. The epistle to the Colossians furnishes a\nsomewhat different list (ch. i. 16); and in 1 Corinthians xv. 24 we find\nthe \"principality, dominion, and power\" without the \"lordship.\" As\nLightfoot says,[71] St Paul \"brushes away all these speculations\" about\nthe ranks and titles of the angels, \"without inquiring how much or how\nlittle truth there may be in them.... His language shows a spirit of\nimpatience with this elaborate angelology.\" There is, perhaps, a passing\nreproof conveyed by this sentence to the \"worshipping of the angels\"\ninculcated at the present time in Colossae, to which other Asian Churches\nmay have been drawn. \"Paul's faith saw the Risen and Rising One passing\nthrough and beyond and above successive ranks of angelic powers, until\nthere was in heaven no grandeur which He had not left behind. Then,\nafter naming heavenly powers known to him, he uses a universal phrase\ncovering 'not only' those known by men living on earth 'in the' present\n'age, but also' those names which will be needed and used to describe\nmen and angels throughout the eternal future\" (Beet).\n\nThe apostle appropriates here two sentences of Messianic prophecy, from\nPsalms cx. and viii. The former was addressed to the Lord's Anointed,\nthe King-Priest enthroned in Zion: \"Sit thou on my right hand, until I\nmake thine enemies thy footstool!\" The latter text describes man in his\npristine glory, as God formed him after His likeness and set him in\ncommand over His creation. This saying St Paul applies, with an\nunbounded scope, to the God-man raised from the dead, Founder of the new\ncreation: \"Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands;\nThou hast put all things under His feet.\" To the former of these\npassages St Paul repeatedly alludes; indeed, since our Lord quoted it in\nthis sense, it became the standing designation of His heavenly\ndignity.[72] The words of Psalm viii. are brought in evidence again in\nHebrews ii. 5-10, and expounded from a somewhat different standpoint. As\nthe writer of the other epistle shows, this coronation belongs to the\nhuman race, and it falls to the Son of man to win it. St Paul in quoting\nthe same Psalm is not insensible of its human reference. It was a\nprophecy for Jesus and His brethren, for Christ and the Church. So it\nforms a natural transition from the thought of Christ's dominion over\nthe universe (ver. 21) to that of His union with the Church (ver.\n22_b_).\n\nIII. The second clause of verse 22 begins with an emphasis upon the\n_object_ which the English Version fails to recognize: \"and _Him_ He\ngave\"--the Christ exalted to universal authority--\"_Him_ God gave, Head\nover all things [as He is], to the Church which is His body,--the\nfulness of Him who fills all things in all.\"\n\nAt the topmost height of His glory, with thrones and princedoms beneath\nHis feet, _Christ is given to the Church_! The Head over all things, the\nLord of the created universe, He--and none less or lower--is the Head of\nredeemed humanity. For the Church \"is His body\" (this clause is\ninterjected by way of explanation): she is the vessel of His Spirit, the\norganic instrument of His Divine-human life. As the spirit belongs to\nits body, by the like fitness the Christ in His surpassing glory is the\npossession of the community of believing men. The body claims its head,\nthe wife her husband. No matter where Christ is, however high in heaven,\nHe belongs to us. Though the Bride is lowly and of poor estate, He is\nhers! and she knows it, and holds fast His heart. She recks little of\nthe people's ignorance and scorn, if their Master is her affianced Lord,\nand she the best-beloved in His eyes.\n\nHow rich is this gift of the Father to the Church in the Son of His\nlove, the concluding words of the paragraph declare: \"Him He gave ... to\nthe Church ... [gave] the fulness of Him that fills all in all.\" In the\nrisen and enthroned Christ God bestowed on men a gift in which the\nDivine plenitude that fills creation is embraced. For this last clause,\nit is clear to us, does not qualify \"the Church which is His body,\" and\nexpositors have needlessly taxed their ingenuity with the incongruous\napposition of \"body\" and \"fulness\"; it belongs to the grand Object of\nthe foregoing description, to \"the Christ\" whom God raised from the dead\nand invested with His own prerogatives. The two separate designations,\n\"Head over all things\" and \"Fulness of the All-filler,\" are parallel,\nand alike point back to _Him_ who stands with a weight of gathered\nemphasis--heaped up from verse 19 onwards--at the front of this last\nsentence (ver. 22_b_). There has been nothing to prepare the reader to\nascribe the august title of the _pleroma_, the Divine fulness, to the\nChurch--enough for her, surely, if she is His body and He God's gift to\nher--but there has been everything to prepare us to crown the Lord Jesus\nwith this glory. To that which God had wrought in Him and bestowed on\nHim, as previously related, verse 23 adds something more and greater\nstill; for it shows what God makes the Christ to be, not to the\ncreatures, to the angels, to the Church, _but to God Himself_![73]\n\nOur text is in strict agreement with the sayings about \"the fulness\" in\nColossians i. 15-20 and ii. 9, 10; as well as with the later references\nof this epistle, in chapter iii. 19, iv. 13; and with John i. 16. This\ntitle belongs to Christ as God is in Him and communicates to Him all\nDivine powers. It was, in the apostle's view, a new and distinct act by\nwhich the Father bestowed on the incarnate Son, raised by His power from\nthe dead, the functions of Deity. Of this glory Christ had of His own\naccord \"emptied Himself\" in becoming man for our salvation (Phil. ii. 6,\n7). Therefore when the sacrifice was effected and the time of\nhumiliation past, it \"was the Father's pleasure that all the fulness\nshould make its dwelling in Him\" (Col. i. 19). At no point did Christ\nexalt Himself, or arrogate the glory once renounced. He prayed, when the\nhour was come: \"Now, Father, _glorify Thou me_ with Thine own self, with\nthe glory which I had with Thee before the world was.\" It was for the\nFather to say, as He raised and enthroned Him: \"Thou art my Son; I\nto-day have begotten Thee!\" (Acts xiii. 33).\n\nAgain there was poured into the empty, humbled and impoverished form of\nthe Son of God the brightness of the Father's glory and the infinitude\nof the Father's authority and power. The majesty that He had foregone\nwas restored to Him in undiminished measure. But how great a change\nmeanwhile in Him who received it! This plenitude devolves not now on the\neternal Son in His pure Godhead, but on the Christ, the Head and\nRedeemer of mankind. God who fills the universe with His presence, with\nHis cherishing love and sustaining power, has conferred the fulness of\nall that He is upon our Christ. He has given Him, so replenished and\nperfected, to the body of His saints, that He may dwell and work in them\nfor ever.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[68] See the note upon this definite article on p. 47.\n\n[69] =Pr\u00f4totokos ek t\u00f4n nekr\u00f4n=, Col. i. 18: comp. Rom. vi. 13, x. 7,\nfor the force of the preposition. Hence the peculiar =exanastasin t\u00ea ek\nnekr\u00f4n= of Phil. iii. 10, 11,--the _out-and-out_ resurrection, which\nwill utterly remove us from the sphere of death.\n\n[70] Ver. 3, ch. ii. 6, iii. 10, vi. 12; nowhere else in the New\nTestament. Comp., however, 1 Cor. xv. 40, 48; Phil. ii. 10; Heb. viii.\n5, ix. 23, xi. 16, xii. 22, where the adjective has the same kind of\nuse.\n\n[71] _Note_ on Col. i. 16.\n\n[72] Matt. xxii. 41-46, also in Mark and Luke; Acts ii. 34, 35; Rom.\nviii. 34; Col. iii. 1; Heb. i. 13; 1 Peter iii. 22, etc.\n\n[73] The reader of the Old Testament, unless otherwise advertized, must\ninevitably have referred the words _who filleth all things in all_ to\nthe Supreme God. See Jer. xxiii. 24; Isai. vi. 1, 3; Hag. ii. 7; Ps.\nxxxiii. 5, etc.; Exod. xxxi. 3. \"That filleth all in all\" is an\nattribute belonging to \"the same God, that worketh all in all\" (1 Cor.\nxii. 6). Comp. iv. 6.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n_FROM DEATH TO LIFE._\n\n \"And you _did He quicken_, when ye were dead through your trespasses\n and sins, wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of\n this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the\n spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; among whom we\n also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of\n the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath,\n even as the rest:--but God, being rich in mercy, for His great love\n wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our\n trespasses, quickened us together with the Christ (by grace have ye\n been saved), and raised us up together and made us to sit together\n in the heavenly _places_ in Christ Jesus.\"--EPH. ii. 1-6.\n\n\nWe pass by a sudden transition, just as in Colossians i. 21, 22, from\nthe thought of that which God wrought in Christ Himself to that which He\nworks through Christ in believing men. So God raised, exalted, and\nglorified His Son Jesus Christ (i. 19-23)--_and you_! The finely woven\nthreads of the apostle's thought are frequently severed, and awkward\nchasms made in the highway of his argument by our chapter and verse\ndivisions. The words inserted in our Version (_did He quicken_) are\nborrowed by anticipation from verse 5; but they are more than supplied\nalready in the foregoing context. \"The same almighty Hand that was laid\nupon the body of the dead Christ and lifted Him from Joseph's grave to\nthe highest seat in heaven, is now laid upon your soul. It has raised\n_you_ from the grave and death of sin to share by faith His celestial\nlife.\"\n\nThe apostle, in verse 3, pointedly includes amongst the \"dead in\ntrespasses and sins\" himself and his Jewish fellow-believers as they\n\"once lived,\" when they obeyed the motions and \"volitions of the flesh,\"\nand so were \"by birth\" not children of favour, as Jews presumed, but\n\"children of anger, even as the rest.\"[74]\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis passage gives us a sublime view of the event of our conversion. It\nassociates that change in us with the stupendous miracle which took\nplace in our Redeemer. The one act is a continuation of the other. There\nis an acting over again in us of Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and\nascension, when we realize through faith that which was done for mankind\nin Him. At the same time, the redemption which is in Christ Jesus is no\nmere legacy, to be received or declined; it is not something done once\nfor all, and left to be appropriated passively by our individual will.\nIt is a \"_power_ of God unto salvation,\" unceasingly operative and\neffective, that works \"of faith and _unto faith_\" that summons men to\nfaith, challenging human confidence wherever its message travels and\nawakening the spiritual possibilities dormant in our nature.\n\nIt is a supernatural force, then, which is at work upon us in the word\nof Christ. It is a resurrection-power, that turns death into life. And\nit is a power instinct with love. The love which went out towards the\nslain and buried Jesus when the Father stooped to raise Him from the\ndead, bends over us as we lie in the grave of our sins, and exerts\nitself with a might no less transcendent, that it may raise us from the\ndust of death to sit with Him in the heavenly places (vv. 4-6).\n\nLet us look at the two sides of the change effected in men by the\ngospel--at the death they leave, and the life into which they enter. Let\nus contemplate the task to which this unmatched power has set itself.\n\nI. _You that were dead_, the apostle says.\n\nJesus Christ came into a dead world--He the one living man, alive in\nbody, soul, and spirit--alive to God in the world. He was, like none\nbesides, aware of God and of God's love, breathing in His Spirit,\n\"living not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded from His\nmouth.\" \"This,\" He said, \"is life eternal.\" If His definition was\ncorrect, if it be life to know God, then the world into which Christ\nentered by His human birth, the world of heathendom and Judaism, was\nveritably dying or dead--\"dead indeed unto God.\"\n\nIts condition was visible to discerning eyes. It was a world rotting in\nits corruption, mouldering in its decay, and which to His pure sense had\nthe moral aspect and odour of the charnel-house. We realize very\nimperfectly the distress, the inward nausea, the conflict of disgust and\npity which the fact of being in such a world as this and belonging to it\ncaused in the nature of Jesus Christ, in a soul that was in perfect\nsympathy with God. Never was there loneliness such as His, the solitude\nof life in a region peopled with the dead. The joy which Christ had in\nHis little flock, in those whom the Father had given Him out of the\nworld, was proportionately great. In them He found companionship,\nteachableness, signs of a heart awakening towards God--men to whom life\nwas in some degree what it was to Him. He had come, as the prophet in\nhis vision, into \"the valley full of dry bones,\" and He \"prophesied to\nthese slain, that they might live.\" What a comfort to see, at His first\nwords, a shaking in the valley,--to see some who stirred at His voice,\nwho stood upon their feet and gathered round Him--not yet a great army,\nbut a band of living men! In their breasts, inspired from His, was the\nlife of the future. \"I am come,\" He said, \"that they might have life.\"\nIt was the work of Jesus Christ to breathe His vital spirit into the\ncorpse of humanity, to reanimate the world.\n\nWhen St Paul speaks of his readers in their heathen condition as \"dead,\"\nit is not a figure of speech. He does not mean that they were like dead\nmen, that their state resembled death; \"nor only that they were in peril\nof death; but he signifies a real and present death\" (Calvin). They\nwere, in the inmost sense and truth of things, _dead men_. We are\ntwofold creatures, two-lived,--spirits cased in flesh. Our human nature\nis capable, therefore, of strange duplicities. It is possible for us to\nbe alive and flourishing upon one side of our being, while we are\nparalyzed or lifeless upon the other. As our bodies live in commerce\nwith the light and air, in the environment of house and food and daily\nexercise of the limbs and senses under the economy of material nature,\nso our spirits live by the breath of prayer, by faith and love towards\nGod, by reverence and filial submission, by communion with things unseen\nand eternal. \"With Thee,\" says the Psalmist to his God, \"is the fountain\nof life: in Thy light we see light.\" We must daily resort to that\nfountain and drink of its pure stream, we must faithfully walk in that\nlight, or there is no such life for us. The soul that wants a true faith\nin God, wants the proper spring and principle of its being. It sees not\nthe light, it bears not the voices, it breathes not the air of that\nhigher world where its origin and its destiny lie.\n\nThe man who walks the earth a sinner against God, becomes by the act and\nfact of his transgression a dead man. He has imbibed the fatal poison;\nit runs in his veins. The doom of sin lies on his unforgiven spirit. He\ncarries death and judgement about with him. They lie down with him at\nnight and wake with him in the morning; they take part in his\ntransactions; they sit by his side in the feast of life. His works are\n\"dead works\"; his joys and hopes are all shadowed and tainted. Within\nhis living frame he bears a coffined soul. With the machinery of life,\nwith the faculties and possibilities of a spiritual being, the man lies\ncrushed under the activity of the senses, wasted and decaying for want\nof the breath of the Spirit of God. In its coldness and\npowerlessness--too often in its visible corruption--his nature shows the\nsymptoms of advancing death. It is dead as the tree is dead, cut off\nfrom its root; as the fire is dead, when the spark is gone out; dead as\na man is dead, when the heart stops.\n\nAs it is with the departed saints sleeping in Christ,--\"put to death,\nindeed, in the flesh, but living in the spirit,\"--so by a terrible\ninversion with the wicked in this life. They are put to death, indeed,\nin the spirit, while they live in the flesh. They may be and often are\npowerfully alive and active in their relations to the world of sense,\nwhile on the unseen and Godward side utterly paralyzed. Ask such a man\nabout his business or family concerns; touch on affairs of politics or\ntrade,--and you deal with a living mind, its powers and susceptibilities\nawake and alert. But let the conversation pass to other themes; sound\nhim on questions of the inner life; ask him what he thinks of Christ,\nhow he stands towards God, how he fares in the spiritual conflict,--and\nyou strike a note to which there is no response. You have taken him out\nof his element. He is a practical man, he tells you; he does not live in\nthe clouds, or hunt after shadows; he believes in hard facts, in things\nthat he can grasp and handle. \"The natural man perceiveth not the things\nof the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him.\" They are pictures to\nthe eye of the blind, heavenly music to the stone-deaf.\n\nAnd yet that hardened man of the world--starve and ignore his own spirit\nand shut up its mystic chambers as he will--cannot easily destroy\nhimself. He has not extirpated his religious nature, nor crushed out,\nthough he has suppressed, the craving for God in his breast. And when\nthe callous surface of his life is broken through, under some unusual\nstress, some heavy loss or the shock of a great bereavement, one may\ncatch a glimpse of the deeper world within of which the man himself was\nso little conscious. And what is to be seen there? Haunting memories of\npast sin, fears of a conscience fretted already by the undying worm,\nforms of weird and ghostly dread flitting amid the gloom and dust of\ndeath through that closed house of the spirit,--\n\n \"The bat and owl inhabit here:\n The snake nests on the altar stone:\n The sacred vessels moulder near:\n The image of the God is gone!\"\n\nIn this condition of death the word of life comes to men. It is the\nstate not of heathendom alone; but of those also, favoured with the\nlight of revelation, who have not opened to it the eyes of the heart, of\nall who are \"doing the desires of the flesh and the thoughts\"--who are\ngoverned by their own impulses and ideas and serve no will above the\nworld of sense.[75] Without distinction of birth or formal religious\nstanding, \"all\" who thus live and walk are dead while they live. Their\n_trespasses and sins_ have killed them. From first to last Scripture\ntestifies: \"Your sins have separated between you and your God.\" We find\na hundred excuses for our irreligion: there is the cause. There is\nnothing in the universe to separate any one of us from the love and\nfellowship of his Maker but his own unforsaken sin.\n\nIt is true, there are other hindrances to faith, intellectual\ndifficulties of great weight and seriousness, that press upon many\nminds. For such men Christ has all possible sympathy and patience. There\nis a real, though hidden faith that \"lives in honest doubt.\" Some men\nhave more faith than they suppose, while others certainly have much\nless. One has a name to live, and yet is dead; another, perchance, has a\nname to die, and yet is alive to God through Jesus Christ. There are\nendless complications, self-contradictions, and misunderstandings in\nhuman nature. \"Many are first\" in the ranks of religious profession and\nnotoriety, \"which shall be last, and the last first.\" We make the\nlargest allowance for this element of uncertainty in the line that\nbounds faith from unfaith; \"The Lord knoweth them that are His.\" No\nintellectual difficulty, no mere misunderstanding, will ultimately or\nfor long separate between God and the soul that He has made.\n\nIt is _antipathy_ that separates. \"They did not like to retain God in\ntheir knowledge\"; that is Paul's explanation of the ungodliness and vice\nof the ancient world. And it holds good still in countless instances.\n\"Numbers in this bad world talk loudly against religion in order to\nencourage each other in sin, because they need encouragement. They know\nthat they ought to be other than they are; but are glad to avail\nthemselves of anything that looks like argument, to overcome their\nconsciences withal\" (Newman). The fashionable scepticism of the day too\noften conceals an inner revolt against the moral demands of the\nChristian life; it is the pretext of a carnal mind, which is \"enmity\nagainst God, because it is not subject to His law.\" Christ's sentence\nupon unbelief as He knew it was this: \"Light is come into the world; and\nmen love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.\" So\nsaid the keenest and the kindest judge of men. If we are refusing Him\nour faith, let us be very sure that this condemnation does not touch\nourselves. Is there no passion that bribes and suborns the intellect? no\ndesire in the soul that dreads His entrance? no evil deeds that shelter\nthemselves from His accusing light?\n\nWhen the apostle says of his Gentile readers that they \"once walked in\nthe way of the age, according to the course of this world,[76] according\nto the prince of the power of the air,\" the former part of his statement\nis clear enough. The age in which he lived was godless to the last\ndegree; the stream of the world's life ran in turbid course toward moral\nruin. But the second clause is obscure. The \"prince\" (or \"ruler\") who\nguides the world along its career of rebellion is manifestly Satan, the\nspirit of darkness and hate whom St Paul entitles \"the god of this\nworld\" (2 Cor. iv. 4), and in whom Jesus recognized, under the name of\n\"the prince of the world,\" His great antagonist (John xiv. 30).\n\nBut what has this spirit of evil to do with \"the air\"? The Jewish rabbis\nsupposed that the terrestrial atmosphere was Satan's abode, that it was\npeopled by demons flitting about invisibly in the encompassing element.\nBut this is a notion foreign to Scripture--certainly not contained in\nchapter vi. 12--and, in its bare physical sense, without point or\nrelevance to this passage. There follows in immediate apposition to \"the\ndomain of the air, _the spirit_ that now works in the sons of\ndisobedience.\" Surely, _the air_ here partakes (if it be only here) of\nthe figurative significance of _spirit_ (i.e. _breath_). St Paul refines\nthe Jewish idea of evil spirits dwelling in the surrounding atmosphere\ninto an ethical conception of _the atmosphere of the world_, as that\nfrom which the sons of disobedience draw their breath and receive the\nspirit that inspires them. Here lies, in truth, the dominion of Satan.\nIn other words, Satan constituted the _Zeitgeist_.\n\nAs Beck profoundly remarks upon this text:[77] \"The Power of the air is\na fitting designation for the prevailing spirit of the times, whose\ninfluence spreads itself like a miasma through the whole atmosphere of\nthe world. It manifests itself as a contagious nature-power; and a\n_spiritus rector_ works within it, which takes possession of the world\nof men, alike in individuals and in society, and assumes the direction\nof it. The form of expression here employed is based on the conception\nof evil peculiar to Scripture. In Scripture, evil and the principle of\nevil are not conceived in a purely spiritual way; nor could this be the\ncase in a world of fleshly constitution, where the spiritual has the\nsensuous for its basis and its vehicle. Spiritual evil exists as a power\nimmanent in cosmical nature.\"[78] Concerning great tracts of the earth,\nand large sections even of Christianized communities, we must still\nconfess with St John: \"The world lieth in the Evil One.\" The air is\nimpregnated with the infection of sin;[79] its germs float about us\nconstantly, and wherever they find lodgement they set up their deadly\nfever. Sin is the malarial poison native to our soil; it is an epidemic\nthat runs its course through the entire \"age of this world.\"\n\nAbove this feverous, sin-laden atmosphere the apostle sees God's anger\nbrooding in threatening clouds. For our trespasses and sins are, after\nall, not forced on us by our environment. Those offences by which we\nprovoke God, lie in our nature; they are no mere casual acts, they\nbelong to our bias and disposition. Sin is a constitutional malady.\nThere exists a bad element in our human nature, which corresponds but\ntoo truly to the course and current of the world around us. This the\napostle acknowledges for himself and his law-honouring Jewish kindred:\n\"We were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.\" So he wrote in\nthe sad confession of Romans vii. 14-23: \"I see a different law in my\nmembers, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into\ncaptivity to the law of sin which is in my members.\"\n\nIt is upon this \"other law,\" the contradiction of His own, upon the\nsinfulness beneath the sin, that God's displeasure rests. Human law\nnotes the overt act: \"the Lord looketh upon the heart.\" There is\nnothing more bitter and humiliating to a conscientious man than the\nconviction of this penetrating Divine insight, this detection to himself\nof his incurable sin and the hollowness of his righteousness before God.\nHow it confounds the proud Pharisee to learn that he _is_ as other men\nare,--and even as this publican!\n\n\"The sons of disobedience\" must needs be \"children of wrath.\" All sin,\nwhether in nature or practice, is the object of God's fixed displeasure.\nIt cannot be matter of indifference to our Father in heaven that His\nhuman children are disobedient toward Himself. Children of His favour or\nanger we are each one of us, and at every moment. We \"keep His\ncommandments, and abide in His love\"; or we do not keep them, and are\nexcluded. It is His smile or frown that makes the sunshine or the gloom\nof our inner life. How strange that men should argue that God's love\nforbids His wrath! It is, in truth, the cause of it. I could neither\nlove nor fear a God who did not care enough about me to be angry with me\nwhen I sin. If my child does wilful wrong, if by some act of greed or\npassion he imperils his moral future and destroys the peace and\nwell-being of the house, shall I not be grieved with him, with an anger\nproportioned to the love I bear him? How much more shall your heavenly\nFather--how much more justly and wisely and mercifully!\n\nSt Paul feels no contradiction between the words of verse 3 and those\nthat follow. The same God whose wrath burns against the sons of\ndisobedience while they so continue, is \"rich in mercy\" and \"loved us\neven when we were dead in our trespasses!\" He pities evil men, and to\nsave them spared not His Son from death; but Almighty God, the Father of\nglory, hates and loathes the evil that is in them, and has determined\nthat if they will not let it go they shall perish with it.\n\nII. Such was the death in which Paul and his readers once had lain. But\nGod in His \"great love\" has \"_made them to live_ along with the Christ.\"\n\nHow wonderful to have witnessed a resurrection: to see the pale cheek of\nthe little maid, Jairus' daughter, flush again with the tints of life,\nand the still frame begin to stir, and the eyes softly open--and she\nlooks upon the face of Jesus! or to watch Lazarus, four days dead,\ncoming out of his tomb, slowly, and as one dreaming, with hands and feet\nbound in the grave-clothes. Still more marvellous to have beheld the\nPrince of Life at the dawn of the third day issue from Joseph's grave,\nbursting His prison-gates and stepping forth in new-risen glory as one\nrefreshed from slumber.\n\nBut there are things no less divine, had we eyes for their marvel, that\ntake place upon this earth day by day. When a human soul awakes from its\ntrespasses and sins, when the love of God is poured into a heart that\nwas cold and empty, when the Spirit of God breathes into a spirit lying\npowerless and buried in the flesh, there is as true a rising from the\ndead as when Jesus our Lord came out from His sepulchre. It was of this\nspiritual resurrection that He said: \"The hour cometh, and now is, when\nthe dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear\nshall live.\" Having said that, He added, concerning the bodily\nresurrection of mankind: \"Marvel not at this; for the hour cometh, in\nwhich all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come\nforth!\" The second wonder only matches and consummates the first (John\nv. 24-28).\n\n\"This is life eternal, to know God the Father,\"--the life, as the\napostle elsewhere calls it, that is \"life indeed.\" It came to St Paul by\na new creation, when, as he describes it, \"God who said, Light shall\nshine out of darkness, shined in our hearts, to give the light of the\nknowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.\" We are born\nagain--the God-consciousness is born within us: an hour mysterious and\ndecisive as that in which our personal consciousness first emerged and\nthe soul knew itself. Now it knows God. Like Jacob at Peniel it says: \"I\nhave seen God face to face; and my life is preserved.\" God and the soul\nhave met in Christ--and are reconciled.\n\nThe words the apostle uses--_gave us life_--_raised us up_--_seated us\nin the heavenly places_--embrace the whole range of salvation. \"Those\nunited with Christ are through grace delivered from their state of\ndeath, not only in the sense that the resurrection and exaltation of\nChrist redound to their benefit as Divinely imputed to them; but by the\nlife-giving energy of God they are brought out of their condition of\ndeath into a new and actual state of life. The act of grace is an act of\nthe Divine power and might, not a mere judicial declaration\" (Beck).\nThis comprehensive action of the Divine grace upon believing men takes\nplace by a constant and constantly deepening union of the soul with\nChrist. This is well expressed by A. Monod: \"The entire history of the\nSon of man is reproduced in the man who believes in Him, not by a simple\nmoral analogy, but by a spiritual communication which is the true secret\nof our justification as well as of our sanctification, and indeed of our\nwhole salvation.\"\n\nThere is no repetition in the three verbs employed, which are alike\nextended by the Greek preposition _with_ (_syn_). The first sentence\n(raised us up _with the Christ_) virtually includes everything; it shows\nus one with Christ who lives evermore to God. The second sentence\ngathers into its scope all believers--the _you_ of verse 1 and the _we_\nof verse 3: \"He raised us up together, and together made us sit in the\nheavenly places in Christ Jesus.\" Nothing is more characteristic of our\nepistle than this turn of thought. To the conception of our _union with\nChrist_ in His celestial life, it adds that of our _union with each\nother in Christ_ as sharers in common of that life. Christ \"reconciles\nus in one body unto God\" (ver. 16). We sit not alone, but together in\nthe heavenly places. This is the fulness of life; this completes our\nsalvation.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[74] For the antithesis of \"you\" and \"we,\" comp. vv. 11-18, ch. i, 12,\n13; also Rom. iii. 19, 23 (_For there is no distinction_), Gal. ii. 15.\n\n[75] =Poiountes ta thel\u00eamata t\u00eas sarkos kai t\u00f4n dianoi\u00f4n= (ver. 3).\n\n[76] Perhaps this double rendering may bring out the force of =kata to\nai\u00f4na tou kosmou toutou=.\n\n[77] In the posthumous _Erkl\u00e4rung des Briefes Pauli an die Epheser_--a\nvaluable exposition, marked by Beck's theological acumen and lucidity.\n\n[78] The =physei= of verse 3 thus corresponds to the =exousia tou aeros=\nof verse 2. \"Sin entered into _the world_\" (=kosmos=), Rom. v. 12, which\nsignifies more than the nature of individual men.\n\n[79] I John iii. 8; comp. John viii. 41-44.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n_SAVED FOR AN END._\n\n \"That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His\n grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace have ye\n been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, _it is_ the\n gift of God: not of works, that no man should glory. For we are His\n workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore\n prepared that we should walk in them.\"--EPH. ii. 7-10.\n\n\nThe plan which God has formed for men in Christ is of great dimensions\nevery way,--in its length no less than in its breadth and height. He\n\"raised us up and seated us together [Gentiles with Jews] in the\nheavenly places in Christ Jesus, that _in the ages which are coming on_\nHe might show the surpassing riches of His grace.\" All the races of\nmankind and all future ages are embraced in the redeeming purpose, and\nare to share in its boundless wealth. Nor are the ages past excluded\nfrom its operations. God \"afore prepared the good works in which\" He\nsummons us to walk. The highway of the new life has been in building\nsince time began.\n\nThus large and limitless is the range of \"the purpose and grace given us\nin Christ Jesus before times eternal\" (2 Tim. i. 9). But what strikes us\nmost in this passage is the exuberance of the grace itself. Twice over\nthe apostle exclaims, \"By grace you are saved\": once in verse 5, in an\neager, almost jealous parenthesis, where he hastens to assure the\nreaders of their deliverance from the fearful condition just described\n(vv. 1-3, 5). Again, deliberately and with full definition he states the\nsame fact, in verse 8: \"For by grace you are saved, through faith; and\nthis is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It does not come of\nworks, to the end that none may boast.\"\n\nThese words place us on familiar ground. We recognize the Paul of\nGalatians and Romans, the dialect and accent of the apostle of salvation\nby faith. But scarcely anywhere do we find this wonder-working grace so\naffluently described. \"God being rich in mercy, for the great love\nwherewith He loved us--the exceeding riches of His grace, shown in\nkindness toward us--the gift of God.\" _Mercy_, _love_, _kindness_,\n_grace_, _gift_: what a constellation is here! These terms present the\ncharacter of God in the gospel under the most delightful aspects, and in\nvivid contrast to the picture of our human state outlined in the\nbeginning of the chapter.\n\n_Mercy_ denotes the Divine pitifulness towards feeble, suffering men,\nakin to those \"compassions of God\" to which the apostle repeatedly\nappeals.[80] It is a constant attribute of God in the Old Testament, and\nfills much the same place there that grace does in the New. \"Of mercy\nand judgement\" do the Psalmists sing--of mercy most. Out of the thunder\nand smoke of Sinai He declared His name: \"Jehovah, a God full of\ncompassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and\ntruth, keeping mercy for thousands.\" The dread of God's justice, the\nsense of His dazzling holiness and almightiness threw His mercy into\nbright relief and gave to it an infinite preciousness. It is the\ncontrast which brings in \"mercy\" here, in verse 4, by antithesis to\n\"wrath\" (ver. 3).[81] These qualities are complementary. The sternest\nand strongest natures are the most compassionate. God is \"_rich_ in\nmercy.\" The wealth of His Being pours itself out in the exquisite\ntendernesses, the unwearied forbearance and forgivingness of His\ncompassion towards men. The Judge of all the earth, whose hate of evil\nis the fire of hell, is gentler than the softest-hearted mother,--rich\nin mercy as He is grand and terrible in wrath.\n\nGod's mercy regards us as we are weak and miserable: His _love_ regards\nus as we are, in spite of trespass and offence, His offspring,--objects\nof \"much love\" amid much displeasure, \"even when we were dead through\nour trespasses.\" What does the story of the prodigal son mean but this?\nand what Christ's great word to Nicodemus (John iii. 16)?--_Grace_ and\n_kindness_ are love's executive. Grace is love in administration, love\ncounteracting sin and seeking our salvation. Christ is the embodiment of\ngrace; the cross its supreme expression; the gospel its message to\nmankind; and Paul himself its trophy and witness.[82] The \"overpassing\nriches\" of grace is that affluence of wealth in which through Christ it\n\"superabounded\" to the apostolic age and has outdone the magnitude of\nsin (Rom. v. 20), in such measure that St Paul sees future ages gazing\nwith wonder at its benefactions to himself and his fellow-believers.\nShown \"in _kindness_ toward us,\" he says,--in a condescending\nfatherliness, that forgets its anger and softens its old severity into\ncomfort and endearment. God's kindness is the touch of His hand, the\naccent of His voice, the cherishing breath of His Spirit. Finally, this\ngenerosity of the Divine grace, this infinite goodwill of God toward\nmen, takes expression in _the gift_--the gift of Christ, the gift of\nrighteousness (Rom. v. 15-18), the gift of eternal life (Rom. vi. 23);\nor--regarded, as it is here, in the light of experience and\npossession--_the gift of salvation_.\n\nThe opposition of _gift_ and _debt_, of gratuitous salvation through\nfaith to salvation earned by works of law, belongs to the marrow of St\nPaul's divinity. The teaching of the great evangelical epistles is\ncondensed into the brief words of verses 8 and 9. The reason here\nassigned for God's dealing with men by way of gift and making them\nabsolutely debtors--\"lest any one should boast\"--was forced upon the\napostle's mind by the stubborn pride of legalism; it is stated in terms\nidentical with those of the earlier letters. Men will glory in their\nvirtues before God; they flaunt the rags of their own righteousness, if\nany such pretext, even the slightest, remains to them. We sinners are a\nproud race, and our pride is oftentimes the worst of our sins. Therefore\nGod humbles us by His compassion. He makes to us a free gift of His\nrighteousness, and excludes every contribution from our store of merit;\nfor if we could supply anything, we should inevitably boast as though\nall were our own. We must be content to receive mercy, love, grace,\nkindness--everything, without deserving the least fraction of the\nimmense sum. How it strips our vanity; how it crushes us to the\ndust--\"the weight of pardoning love!\"\n\nConcerning the office of _faith_ in salvation we have already spoken in\nChapter IV.[83] It is on the objective fact rather than the subjective\nmeans of salvation that the apostle lays stress in this passage. His\nreaders do not seem to have realized sufficiently what God has given\nthem and the greatness of the salvation already accomplished. They\nmeasured inadequately the power which had touched and changed their\nlives (i. 19). St Paul has shown them the depth to which they were\nformerly sunk, and the height to which they have been raised (vv. 1-6).\nHe can therefore assure them, and he does it with redoubled emphasis:\n\"You _are saved_; By grace you are saved men!\"[84] Not, \"You will be\nsaved\"; nor, \"You were saved\"; nor, \"You are in course of\nsalvation,\"--for salvation has many moods and tenses,--but, in the\nperfect passive tense, he asserts the glorious accomplished _fact_. With\nthe same reassuring emphasis in chapter i. 7 he declared, \"We have\nredemption in His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.\"\n\nHere is St Paul's doctrine of Assurance. It was laid down by Christ\nHimself when He said: \"He that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal\nlife.\" This sublime confidence is the ruling note of St John's great\nepistle: \"We know that we are in Him.... We know that we have passed out\nof death into life.... This is the victory that overcometh the world,\neven our faith.\" It was this confidence of present salvation that made\nthe Church irresistible. With its foundation secure, the house of life\ncan be steadily and calmly built up. Under the shelter of the full\nassurance of faith, in the sunshine of God's love felt in the heart, all\nspiritual virtues bloom and flourish. But with a faith hesitant,\ndistracted, that is sure of no doctrine in the creed and cannot plant a\nfirm foot anywhere, nothing prospers in the soul or in the Church. Oh\nfor the clear accent, the ringing, joyous note of apostolic assurance!\nWe want a faith not loud, but deep; a faith not born of sentiment and\nhuman sympathy, but that comes from the vision of the living God; a\nfaith whose rock and corner-stone is neither the Church nor the Bible,\nbut Christ Jesus Himself.\n\nGreatly do we need, like the Asian disciples of Paul and John, to\n\"assure our hearts\" before God. With death confronting us, with the\nhideous evil of the world oppressing us; when the air is laden with the\ncontagion of sin; when the faith of the strongest wears the cast of\ndoubt; when the word of promise shines dimly through the haze of an\nall-encompassing scepticism and a hundred voices say, in mockery or\ngrief, Where is now thy God? when the world proclaims us lost, our faith\nrefuted, our gospel obsolete and useless,--then is the time for the\nChristian assurance to recover its first energy and to rise again in\nradiant strength from the heart of the Church, from the depths of its\nmystic life where it is hid with Christ in God.\n\n_You are saved!_ cries the apostle; not forgetting that his readers have\ntheir battle to fight, and many hazards yet to run (vi. 10-13). But they\nhold the earnest of victory, the foretaste of life eternal. In spirit\nthey sit with Christ in the heavenly places. Pain and death, temptation,\npersecution, the vicissitudes of earthly history, by these God means to\nperfect that which He has begun in His saints--\"if you continue in the\nfaith, grounded and firm\" (Col. i. 23). That condition is expressed, or\nimplied, in all assurance of final salvation. It is a condition which\nexcites to watchfulness, but can never cause misgiving to a loyal heart.\nGod is for us! He justifies us, and counts us His elect. Christ Jesus\nwho died is risen and seated at the right hand of God, and there\nintercedes for us. _Quis separabit?_[85]\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis is the epistle of the Church and of humanity. It dwells on the\ngrand, objective aspects of the truth, rather than upon its subjective\nexperiences. It does not invite us to rest in the comforts and delights\nof grace, but to lift up our eyes and see whither Christ has translated\nus and what is the kingdom that we possess in Him. God \"quickened us\ntogether with the Christ\": He \"raised us up, He made us to sit _in the\nheavenly places in Christ Jesus_.\" Henceforth \"our citizenship is in\nheaven\" (Phil. iii. 20).\n\nThis is the inspiring thought of the third group of St Paul's epistles;\nwe heard it in the first note of his song of praise (i. 3). It supplies\nthe principle from which St Paul unfolds the beautiful conception of the\nChristian life contained in the third chapter of the companion letter to\nthe Colossians: \"Your life is hid with the Christ in God\"; therefore\n\"seek the things that are above, where He is.\" We live in two worlds at\nonce. Heaven lies about us in this new mystic childhood of our spirit.\nThere our names are written; thither our thoughts and hopes resort. Our\ntreasure is there; our heart we have lodged there, with Christ in God.\n_He_ is there, the Lord of the Spirit, from whom we draw each moment\nthe life that flows into His members. In the greatness of His love\nconquering sin and death, time and space, He is with us to the world's\nend. May we not say that we, too, are with Him and shall be with Him\nalways? So we reckon in the logic of our faith and at the height of our\nhigh calling, though the soul creeps and drudges upon the lower levels.\n\n \"With Him we are gone up on high,\n Since He is ours and we are His;\n With Him we reign above the sky,\n We walk upon our subject seas!\"\n\nIn his lofty flights of thought the apostle always has some practical\nand homely end in view. The earthly and heavenly, the mystical and the\nmatter-of-fact were not distant and repugnant, but interfused in his\nmind. From the celestial heights of the life hidden with Christ in God\n(ver. 6), he brings us down in a moment and without any sense of\ndiscrepancy to the prosaic level of \"good works\" (ver. 10). The love\nwhich viewed us from eternity, the counsels of Him who works all things\nin all, enter into the humblest daily duties.\n\nGrace, moreover, sets us great tasks. There should be something to show\nin deed and life for the wealth of kindness spent upon us, some visible\nand commensurate result of the vast preparations of the gospel plan. Of\nthis result the apostle saw the earnest in the work of faith wrought by\nhis Gentile Churches.\n\nSt Paul was the last man in the world to undervalue human effort, or\ndisparage good work of any sort. It is, in his view, the end aimed at in\nall that God bestows on His people, in all that He Himself works in\nthem. Only let this end be sought in God's way and order. Man's doings\nmust be the fruit and not the root of his salvation. \"Not _of_ works,\"\nbut \"_for_ good works\" were believers chosen. \"This little word _for_\"\nsays Monod, \"reconciles St Paul and St James better than all the\ncommentators.\" God has not raised us up to sit idly in the heavenly\nplaces lost in contemplation, or to be the useless pensioners of grace.\nHe sends us forth to \"walk in the works, prepared for us,\"--equipped to\nfight Christ's battles, to till His fields, to labour in the service of\nbuilding His Church.\n\nThe \"workmanship\" of our Version suggests an idea foreign to the\npassage. The apostle is not thinking of the Divine art or skill\ndisplayed in man's creation; but of the simple fact that \"God made man\"\n(Gen. i. 27). \"We are His _making_, created in Christ Jesus.\" The\n\"preparation\" to which he refers in verse 10 leads us back to that\nprimeval election of God's sons in Christ for which we gave thanks at\nthe outset (i. 3). There are not two creations, the second formed upon\nthe ruin and failure of the first; but one grand design throughout.\nRedemption is creation re-affirmed. The new creation, as we call it,\nrestores and consummates the old. When God raised His Son from the dead,\nHe vindicated His original purpose in raising man from the dust a living\nsoul. He has not forsaken the work of His hands nor forgone His original\nplan, which took account of all our wilfulness and sin. God in making us\nmeant us to do good work in His world. From the world's foundation down\nto the present moment He who worketh all in all has been working for\nthis end--most of all in the revelation of His grace in Jesus Christ.\n\nFar backward in the past, amid the secrets of creation, lay the\nbeginnings of God's grace to mankind. Far onward in the future shines\nits lustre revealed in the first Christian age. The apostle has gained\nsome insight into those \"times and seasons\" which formerly were veiled\nfrom him. In his earliest letters, to the Thessalonians and Corinthians,\nSt Paul echoes our Lord's warning, never out of season, that we should\n\"watch, for the hour is at hand.\" _Maran atha_ is his watchword: \"Our\nLord cometh; the time is short.\" Nor does that note cease to the end.\nBut when in this epistle he writes of \"the ages that are coming on,\" and\nof \"all the generations of the age of the ages\" (iii. 21), there is\nmanifestly some considerable period of duration before his eyes. He sees\nsomething of the extent of the world's coming history, something of the\nmagnitude of the field that the future will afford for the unfolding of\nGod's designs.\n\nIn those approaching aeons he foresees that the apostolic dispensation\nwill play a conspicuous part. Unborn ages will be blessed in the\nblessing now descending upon Jews and Gentiles through Christ Jesus. So\nmarvellous is the display of God's kindness toward them, that all the\nfuture will pay homage to it. The overflowing wealth of blessing poured\nupon St Paul and the first Churches had an end in view that reached\nbeyond themselves, an end worthy of the Giver, worthy of the magnitude\nof His plans and of His measureless love. If all this was theirs--this\nfulness of God exceeding the utmost they had asked or thought--it is\nbecause God means to convey it through them to multitudes besides! There\nis no limit to the grace that God will impart to men and to Churches who\nthus reason, who receive His gifts in this generous and communicative\nspirit. The apostolic Church chants with Mary at the Annunciation:\n\"For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed!\"\n\nNever was any prediction better fulfilled. This spot of history shines\nwith a light before which every other shows pale and commonplace. The\ncompanions of Jesus, the humble fraternities of the first Christian\ncentury have been the object of reverent interest and intent research on\nthe part of all centuries since. Their history is scrutinized from all\nsides with a zeal and industry which the most pressing subjects of the\nday hardly command. For we feel that these men hold the secret of the\nworld's life. The key to the treasures we all long for is in their\nhands. As time goes on and the stress of life deepens, men will turn\nwith yet fonder hope to the age of Jesus Christ. \"And many nations will\nsay: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of\nthe God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways; and we will walk in\nHis paths.\"\n\nThe stream will remember its fountain; the children of God will gather\nto their childhood's home. The world will hear the gospel in the\nrecovered accents of its prophets and apostles.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[80] Rom. xii. 1; 2 Cor. i. 3; Phil. i. 8, ii. 1; comp. Luke i. 78. The\n=oiktirmoi tou Theou, splanchna kai oiktirmoi=, rendered in our Version\n\"mercies of God,\" denotes something even more affecting,--God's sense of\nthe woefulness of human life,--\"the pitying tenderness Divine.\"\n\n[81] Comp. Rom. ix. 22, 23.\n\n[82] On _grace_, comp. _The Epistle to the Galatians_ (Expositor's\nBible), Chapter X.\n\n[83] Compare also, on Faith, _The Epistle to the Galatians_ (Expositor's\nBible), Chapters X.-XII. and XV.\n\n[84] =Este ses\u00f4smenoi=: for the peculiar emphasis of this form of the\nverb, implying a settled fact, an assured state, compare ver. 12, =\u00eate\n... ap\u00eallotri\u00f4menoi=; Col. ii. 10; Gal. ii. 11, iv. 3; 2 Cor. iv. 3,\netc.\n\n[85] Rom. viii. 31-39; comp. vv. 9-17; also 1 Thess. v. 23, 24; 2 Thess.\niii. 3-5; 1 Cor. i. 4-9; Phil. i. 6, iii. 13, 14; 2 Tim. i. 12, iv. 18,\nfor St Paul's doctrine of Assurance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n_THE FAR AND NEAR._\n\n \"Wherefore remember, that aforetime ye, the Gentiles in the flesh,\n who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision\n in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from\n Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers\n from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in\n the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometime were far off are\n made nigh in the blood of Christ.\"--EPH. ii. 11-13.\n\n\nThe apostle's _Wherefore_ sums up for his readers the record of their\nsalvation rehearsed in the previous verses. \"You were buried in your\nsins, sunk in their corruption, ruined by their guilt, living under\nGod's displeasure and in the power of Satan. All this has passed away.\nThe almighty Hand has raised you with Christ into a heavenly life. God\nhas become your Father; His love is in your heart; by the strength of\nHis grace you are enabled to walk in the way marked out for you from\nyour creation. _Wherefore remember_: think of what you were, and of what\nyou are!\"\n\nTo such recollections we do well to summon ourselves. The children of\ngrace love to recall, and on fit occasions recount for God's glory and\nthe help of their fellows, the way in which God led them to the\nknowledge of Himself. In some the great change came suddenly. He \"made\nspeed\" to save us. It was a veritable resurrection, as signal and\nunlooked for as the rising of Christ from the dead. By a swift passage\nwe were \"translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the\nSon of His love.\" Once living without God in the world, we were arrested\nby a strange providence--through some overthrow of fortune or shock of\nbereavement, or by a trivial incident touching unaccountably a hidden\nspring in the mind--and the whole aspect of life was altered in a\nmoment. We saw revealed, as by a lightning flash at night, the emptiness\nof our own life, the misery of our nature, the folly of our unbelief,\nthe awful presence of _God_--God whom we had forgotten and despised! We\nsought, and found His mercy. From that hour the old things passed away:\nwe lived who had been dead,--made alive to God through Jesus Christ.\n\nThis instant conversion, such as Paul experienced, this sharp and abrupt\ntransition from darkness to light, was common in the first generation of\nChristians, as it is wherever religious awakening takes place in a\nsociety that has been largely dead to God. The advent of Christianity in\nthe Gentile world was much after this fashion,--like a tropical sunrise,\nin which day leaps on the earth full-born. This experience gives a stamp\nof peculiar decision to the convictions and character of its subjects.\nThe change is patent and palpable; no observer can fail to mark it. And\nit burns itself into the memory with an ineffaceable impression. The\nviolent throes of such a spiritual birth cannot be forgotten.\n\nBut if our entrance into the life of God was gradual, like the dawn of\nour own milder clime, where the light steals by imperceptible advances\nupon the darkness--if the glory of the Lord has thus risen upon us, our\ncertainty of its presence may be no less complete, and our remembrance\nof its coming no less grateful and joyous. One leaps into the new life\nby a single eager bound; another reaches it by measured, thoughtful\nsteps: but both are _there_, standing side by side on the common ground\nof salvation in Christ. Both walk in the same light of the Lord, that\nfloods the sky from east to west. The recollections which the latter has\nto cherish of the leading of God's kindly light--how He touched our\nchildish thought, and checked gently our boyish waywardness, and mingled\nreproof with the first stirrings of passion and self-will, and wakened\nthe alarms of conscience and the fears of another world, and the sense\nof the beauty of holiness and the shame of sin,--\n\n \"Shaping to truth the froward will\n Along His narrow way,\"--\n\nsuch remembrances are a priceless treasure, that grows richer as we grow\nwiser. It awakens a joy not so thrilling nor so prompt in utterance as\nthat of the soul snatched like a brand from the burning, but which\npasses understanding. Blessed are the children of the kingdom, those who\nhave never roamed far from the fold of Christ and the commonwealth of\nIsrael, whom the cross has beckoned onwards from their childhood. But\nhowever it was--by whatever means, at whatever time it pleased God to\ncall you from darkness to His marvellous light, _remember_.\n\n * * * * *\n\nBut we must return to Paul and his Gentile readers. The old death in\nlife was to them a sombre reality, keenly and painfully remembered. In\nthat condition of moral night out of which Christ had rescued them,\nGentile society around them still remained. Let us observe its features\nas they are delineated in contrast with the privileges long bestowed on\nIsrael. The Gentile world was _Christless_, _hopeless_, _godless_. It\nhad no share in the Divine polity framed for the chosen people; the\noutward mark of its uncircumcision was a true symbol of its irreligion\nand debasement.\n\nIsrael had a _God_. Besides, there were only \"those who are called\ngods.\" This was the first and cardinal distinction. Not their race, not\ntheir secular calling, their political or intellectual gifts, but their\nfaith formed the Jews into a nation. They were \"the people of God,\" as\nno other people has been--of _the_ God, for theirs was \"the true and\nliving God\"--Jehovah, the I AM, the One, the Alone. The monotheistic\nbelief was, no doubt, wavering and imperfect in the mass of the nation\nin early times; but it was held by the ruling minds amongst them, by the\nmen who have shaped the destiny of Israel and created its Bible, with\nincreasing clearness and intensity of passion. \"All the gods of the\nnations are idols--vapours, phantoms, nothings!--but Jehovah made the\nheavens.\" It was the ancestral faith that glowed in the breast of Paul\nat Athens, amidst the fairest shrines of Greece, when he \"saw the city\nwholly given to idolatry\"--man's highest art and the toil and piety of\nages lavished on things that were no gods; and in the midst of the\nsplendour of a hollow and decaying Paganism he read the confession that\nGod was \"unknown.\"\n\nEphesus had her famous goddess, worshipped in the most sumptuous pile of\narchitecture that the ancient world contained. Behold the proud city,\n\"temple-keeper of the great goddess Artemis,\" filled with wrath!\nInfuriate Demos flashes fire from his thousand eyes, and his brazen\nthroat roars hoarse vengeance against the insulters of \"her\nmagnificence, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth\"! Without\nGod--_atheists_, in fact, the apostle calls this devout Asian\npopulation; and Artemis of Ephesus, and Athen\u00e9, and Cybel\u00e9 of Smyrna,\nand Zeus and Asclepius of Pergamum, though all the world worship them,\nare but \"creatures of art and man's device.\"\n\nThe Pagans retorted this reproach. \"Away with _the atheists_!\" they\ncried, when Christians were led to execution. Ninety years after this\ntime the martyr Polycarp was brought into the arena before the\nmagistrates of Asia and the populace gathered in Smyrna at the great\nIonic festival. The Proconsul, wishing to spare the venerable man, said\nto him: \"Swear by the Fortune of Caesar; and say, Away with the\natheists!\" But Polycarp, as the story continues, \"with a grave look\ngazing on the crowd of lawless Gentiles in the stadium and shaking his\nhand against them, then groaning and looking up to heaven, said, _Away\nwith the atheists_!\" Pagan and Christian were each godless in the eyes\nof the other. If visible temples and images, and the local worship of\neach tribe or city made a god, then Jews and Christians had none: if God\nwas a Spirit--One, Holy, Almighty, Omnipresent--then polytheists were in\ntruth atheists; their many gods, being many, were no gods; they were\nidols,--_eidola_, illusive shows of the Godhead.\n\nThe more thoughtful and pious among the heathen felt this already. When\nthe apostle denounced the idols and their pompous worship as \"these\nvanities,\" his words found an echo in the Gentile conscience. The\nclassical Paganism held the multitude by the force of habit and local\npride, and by its sensuous and artistic charms; but such religious power\nas it once had was gone. In all directions it was undermined by mystic\nOriental and Egyptian rites, to which men resorted in search of a\nreligion and sick of the old fables, ever growing more debased, that had\npleased their fathers. The majesty of Rome in the person of the Emperor,\nthe one visible supreme power, was seized upon by the popular instinct,\neven more than it was imposed by state policy, and made to fill the\nvacuum; and temples to Augustus had already risen in Asia, side by side\nwith those of the ancient gods.\n\nIn this despair of their ancestral religions many piously disposed\nGentiles turned to Judaism for spiritual help; and the synagogue was\nsurrounded in the Greek cities by a circle of earnest proselytes. From\ntheir ranks St Paul drew a large proportion of his hearers and converts.\nWhen he writes, \"Remember that you were at that time _without God_,\" he\nis within the recollection of his readers; and they will bear him out in\ntestifying that their heathen creed was dead and empty to the soul. Nor\ndid philosophy construct a creed more satisfying. Its gods were the\nEpicurean deities who dwell aloof and careless of men; or the supreme\nReason and Necessity of the Stoics, the _anima mundi_, of which human\nsouls are fleeting and fragmentary images. \"Deism finds God only in\nheaven; Pantheism, only on earth; Christianity alone finds Him both in\nheaven and on earth\" (Harless). The Word made flesh reveals _God in the\nworld_.\n\nWhen the apostle says \"without God _in the world_,\" this qualification\nis both reproachful and sorrowful. To be without God in the world that\nHe has made, where His \"eternal power and Godhead\" have been visible\nfrom creation, argues a darkened and perverted heart.[86] To be without\nGod in the world is to be in the wilderness, without a guide; on a\nstormy ocean, without harbour or pilot; in sickness of spirit, without\nmedicine or physician; to be hungry without bread, and weary without\nrest, and dying with no light of life. It is to be an orphaned child,\nwandering in an empty, ruined house.\n\nIn these words we have an echo of Paul's preaching to the Gentiles, and\nan indication of the line of his appeals to the conscience of the\nenlightened pagans of his time. The despair of the age was darker than\nthe human mind has known before or since. Matthew Arnold has painted it\nall in one verse of those lines, entitled _Obermann once more_, in which\nhe so perfectly expresses the better spirit of modern scepticism.\n\n \"On that hard Pagan world disgust\n And secret loathing fell;\n Deep weariness and sated lust\n Made human life a hell.\"\n\nThe saying by which St Paul reproved the Corinthians, \"Let us eat and\ndrink, for to-morrow we die,\" is the common sentiment of pagan epitaphs\nof the time. Here is an extant specimen of the kind: \"Let us drink and\nbe merry; for we shall have no more kissing and dancing in the kingdom\nof Proserpine. Soon shall we fall asleep, to wake no more.\" Such were\nthe thoughts with which men came back from the grave-side. It is\nneedless to say how depraving was the effect of this hopelessness. At\nAthens, in the more religious times of Socrates, it was even considered\na decent and kindly thing to allow a criminal condemned to death to\nspend his last hours in gross sensual indulgence. There is no reason to\nsuppose that the extinction of the Christian hope of immortality would\nprove less demoralizing. We are \"saved by hope,\" said St Paul: we are\nruined by despair. Pessimism of creed for most men means pessimism of\nconduct.\n\nOur modern speech and literature and our habits of feeling have been for\nso many generations steeped in the influence of Christ's teaching, and\nit has thrown so many tender and hallowed thoughts around the state of\nour beloved dead, that it is impossible even for those who are\npersonally without hope in Christ to realize what its general decay and\ndisappearance would mean. To have possessed such a treasure, and then to\nlose it! to have cherished anticipations so exalted and so dear,--and to\nfind them turn out a mockery! The age upon which this calamity fell\nwould be of all ages the most miserable.\n\nThe hope of Israel which Paul preached to the Gentiles was a hope for\nthe world and for the nations, as well as for the individual soul. \"The\ncommonwealth [or _polity_] of Israel\" and \"the covenants of promise\"\nguaranteed the establishment of the Messianic kingdom upon earth. This\nexpectation took amongst the mass of the Jews a materialistic and even a\nrevengeful shape; but in one form or other it belonged, and still\nbelongs to every man of Israel. Those noble lines of Virgil in his\nfourth Eclogue[87]--like the words of Caiaphas, an unintended Christian\nprophecy--which predicted the return of justice and the spread of a\ngolden age through the whole world under the rule of the coming heir of\nCaesar, had been signally belied by the imperial house in the century\nthat had elapsed. Never were human prospects darker than when the\napostle wrote as Nero's prisoner in Rome. It was an age of crime and\nhorror. The political world and the system of pagan society seemed to be\nin the throes of dissolution. Only in \"the commonwealth of Israel\" was\nthere a light of hope and a foundation for the future of mankind; and of\nthis in its wisdom the world knew nothing.\n\nThe Gentiles were \"alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,\"--that is\nto say, treated as aliens and made such by their exclusion. By the very\nfact of Israel's election, the rest of mankind were shut out of the\nvisible kingdom of God. They became mere _Gentiles_, or _nations_,--a\nherd of men bound together only by natural affinity, with no \"covenant\nof promise,\" no religious constitution or destiny, no definite\nrelationship to God, Israel being alone the acknowledged and organized\n\"_people_ of Jehovah.\"\n\nThese distinctions were summed up in one word, expressing all the pride\nof the Jewish nature, when the Israelites styled themselves \"the\nCircumcision.\" The rest of the world--Philistines or Egyptians, Greeks,\nRomans, or Barbarians, it mattered not--were \"the Uncircumcision.\" How\nsuperficial this distinction was in point of fact, and how false the\nassumption of moral superiority it implied in the existing condition of\nJudaism, St Paul indicates by saying, \"those who are _called_\nUncircumcision by that which is _called_ Circumcision, in flesh, wrought\nby human hands.\" In the second and third chapters of his epistle to the\nRomans he exposed the hollowness of Jewish sanctity, and brought his\nfellow-countrymen down to the level of those \"sinners of the Gentiles\"\nwhom they so bitterly despised.\n\nThe destitution of the Gentile world is put into a single word, when the\napostle says: \"You were at that time _separate from Christ_\"--without a\nChrist, either come or coming. They were deprived of the world's one\ntreasure,--shut out, as it appeared, for ever[88] from any part in Him\nwho is to mankind all things and in all.--_Once far off!_\n\n * * * * *\n\n\"But now in Christ Jesus ye were _made nigh_.\" What is it that has\nbridged the distance, that has transported these Gentiles from the\nwilderness of heathenism into the midst of the city of God? It is \"the\nblood of Christ.\" The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ transformed the\nrelations of God to mankind, and of Israel to the Gentiles. In Him God\nreconciled not a nation, but \"a world\" to Himself (2 Cor. v. 19). The\ndeath of the Son of man could not have reference to the sons of Abraham\nalone. If sin is universal and death is not a Jewish but a human\nexperience, and if one blood flows in the veins of all our race, then\nthe death of Jesus Christ was a universal sacrifice; it appeals to every\nman's conscience and heart, and puts away for each the guilt which comes\nbetween his soul and God.\n\nWhen the Greeks in Passion week desired to see Him, He exclaimed: \"I, if\nI be lifted up from the earth, will draw _all_ unto me.\" The cross of\nJesus was to draw humanity around it, by its infinite love and sorrow,\nby the perfect apprehension there was in it of the world's guilt and\nneed, and the perfect submission to the sentence of God's law against\nman's sin. So wherever the gospel was preached by St Paul, it won\nGentile hearts for Christ. Greek and Jew found themselves weeping\ntogether at the foot of the cross, sharing one forgiveness and baptized\ninto one Spirit.\n\nThe union of Caiaphas and Pilate in the condemnation of Jesus and the\nmingling of the Jewish crowd with the Roman soldiers at His execution\nwere a tragic symbol of the new age that was coming. Israel and the\nGentiles were accomplices in the death of the Messiah--the former of the\ntwo the more guilty partner in the counsel and deed. If this Jesus whom\nthey slew and hanged on a tree was indeed the Christ, God's chosen, then\nwhat availed their Abrahamic sonship, their covenants and law-keeping,\ntheir proud religious eminence? They had killed their Christ; they had\nforfeited their calling. His blood was on them and on their children.\n\nThose who seemed nigh to God, at the cross of Christ were found far\noff,--that both together, the far and the near, might be reconciled and\nbrought back to God. \"He shut up all unto disobedience, that He might\nhave mercy upon all.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[86] Rom. i. 19-23; comp. John i. 10: \"He [the true Light] was _in the\nworld_, and the world knew Him not.\"\n\n[87]\n\n Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.\n Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;\n Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto.\n Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum\n Desinet, ac toto surget gens aurea mundo,\n Casta, fave, Lucina.\n\n[88] Observe the perfect participle =ap\u00eallotri\u00f4menoi=, which signifies\nan abiding fact or fixed condition. Similar is the turn of expression in\nch. iii. 9, and in Col. i. 26, Rom. xvi. 25, Matt. xiii. 35.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n_THE DOUBLE RECONCILIATION._\n\n \"For He is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle\n wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, _even_\n the law of commandments _contained_ in ordinances, that He might\n create in Himself of the twain one new man, _so_ making peace; and\n might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross,\n having slain the enmity thereby: and He came and preached good\n tidings of peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that\n were nigh: for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit\n unto the Father.\"--EPH. ii. 14-18.\n\n\n_Peace, peace--to the far off, and to the near!_ Such was God's promise\nto His scattered people in the times of the exile (Isai. lvii. 19). St\nPaul sees that peace of God extending over a yet wider field, and\nterminating a longer and sadder banishment than the prophet had\nforeseen. Christ is \"our peace\"--not for the divided members of Israel\nalone, but for all the tribes of men. He brings about a universal\npacification.\n\nThere were two distinct, but kindred enmities to be overcome by Christ,\nin preaching to the world His good tidings of peace (ver. 17). There was\nthe hostility of Jew and Gentile, which was removed in its cause and\nprinciple when Christ \"in His flesh\" (by His incarnate life and death)\n\"abolished the law of commandments in decrees\"--_i.e._, the law of Moses\nas it constituted a body of external precepts determining the way of\nrighteousness and life. This abolition of the law by the evangelical\nprinciple \"dissolved the middle wall of partition.\" The occasion of\nquarrel between Israel and the world was destroyed; the barrier\ndisappeared that had for so long fenced off the privileged ground of the\nsons of Abraham (vv. 14, 15). But behind this human enmity, underneath\nthe feud and rancour existing between the Jews and the nations, there\nlay the deeper quarrel of mankind with God. Both enmities centred in the\nlaw; both were slain by one stroke, in the reconciliation of the cross\n(ver. 16).\n\nThe Jewish and Gentile peoples formed two distinct types of humanity.\nPolitically, the Jews were insignificant and had scarcely counted\namongst the great powers of the world. Their religion alone gave them\ninfluence and importance. Bearing his inspired Scriptures and his\nMessianic hope, the wandering Israelite confronted the vast masses of\nheathenism and the splendid and fascinating classical civilization with\nthe proudest sense of his superiority. To his God he knew well that one\nday every knee would bow and every tongue confess. The circumstances of\nthe time deepened his isolation and aggravated to internecine hate his\nspite against his fellow-men, the _adversus omnes alios hostile odium_\nstigmatized by the incisive pen of Tacitus. Within three years of the\nwriting of this letter the Jewish war against Rome broke out, when the\nenmity culminated in the most appalling and fateful overthrow recorded\nin the pages of history. Now, it is this enmity at its height--the most\ninveterate and desperate one can conceive--that the apostle proposes to\nreconcile; nay, that he sees already slain by the sacrifice of the\ncross, and within the brotherhood of the Christian Church. It was slain\nin the heart of Saul of Tarsus, the proudest that beat in Jewish\nbreast.\n\nIn his earlier writings the apostle has been concerned chiefly to guard\nthe position and rights of the two parties within the Church. He has\nabundantly maintained, especially in the epistle to the Galatians, the\nclaims of Gentile believers in Christ against Judaic assumptions and\nimpositions. He has defended the just prerogative of the Jew and his\nhereditary sentiments from the contempt to which they were sometimes\nexposed on the part of the Gentile majority.[89] But now that this has\nbeen done, and that Gentile liberties and Jewish dignity have been\nvindicated and safeguarded on both sides, St Paul advances a step\nfurther: he seeks to amalgamate the Jewish and Gentile section of the\nChurch, and to \"make of the twain one new man, so making peace.\" This,\nhe declares, was the end of Christ's mission; this a chief purpose of\nHis atoning death. Only by such union, only through the burying of the\nold enmity slain on the cross, could His Church be built up to its\ncompleteness. St Paul would have Gentile and Jewish believers everywhere\nforget their differences, efface their party lines, and merge their\nindependence in the oneness of the all-embracing and all-perfecting\nChurch of Jesus Christ, God's habitation in the Spirit. Instead of\nsaying that a catholic ideal like this belongs to a later and\npost-apostolic age, we maintain, on the contrary, that a catholic mind\nlike St Paul's, under the conditions of his time, could not fail to\narrive at this conception.\n\nIt was his confidence in the victory of the cross over all strife and\nsin that sustained St Paul through these years of captivity. As he\nlooks out from his Roman prison, under the shadow of Nero's palace, the\nfuture is invested with a radiance of hope that makes the heart of the\nchained apostle exult within him. The world is lost, to all outward\nseeming: he knows it is saved! Jew and Gentile are about to close in\nmortal conflict: he proclaims peace between them, assured of their\nreconcilement, and knowing that in their reunion the salvation of human\nsociety is assured.\n\nThe enmity of Jew and Gentile was representative of all that divides\nmankind. In it were concentrated most of the causes by which society is\nrent asunder. Along with religion, race, habits, tastes and culture,\nmoral tendencies, political aspirations, interests of trade, all helped\nto widen the breach. The cleavage ran deep into the foundations of life;\nthe enmity was the growth of two thousand years. It was not a case of\nlocal friction, nor a quarrel arising from temporary causes. The Jew was\nubiquitous, and everywhere was an alien and an irritant to Gentile\nsociety. No antipathy was so hard to subdue. The grace that conquers it,\ncan and will conquer all enmities.\n\nSt Paul's view embraced, in fact, a world-wide reconcilement. He\ncontemplates, as the Hebrew prophets themselves did, the fraternization\nof mankind under the rule of the Christ. After this scale he laid down\nthe foundation of the Church, \"wise master-builder\" that he was. It was\ndestined to bear the weight of an edifice in which all the races of men\nshould dwell together, and every order of human faculty should find its\nplace. His thoughts were not confined within the Judaic antithesis.\n\"There is no Jew and Greek,\" he says in another place; yes, and \"no\nbarbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, male or female. Ye are all one in\nChrist Jesus.\"[90] Birth, rank, office in the Church, culture, even sex\nare minor and subordinate distinctions, merged in the unity of redeemed\nsouls in Christ. That which He \"creates in Himself of the twain\" is _one\nnew man_--one incorporate humanity, neither Jew nor Gentile, Englishman\nnor Hindu, priest nor layman, male nor female; but simply _man_, and\n_Christian_.\n\nAt the present time we are better able to enter into these views of the\napostle than at any intervening period of history. In his day almost the\nwhole visible world, lying round the Mediterranean shores, was brought\nunder the government and laws of Rome. This fact made the establishment\nof one religious polity a thing quite conceivable. The Roman empire did\nnot, as it proved, allow Christianity to conquer it soon enough and to\nleaven it sufficiently to save it. That huge construction, the mightiest\nfabric of human polity, fell and covered the earth with its ruins. In\nits fall it reacted disastrously upon the Church, and has bequeathed to\nit the corrupt and despotic unity of Papal Rome. Now, in these last\ndays, the whole world is opened to the Church, a world stretching far\nbeyond the horizon of the first century. Science and Commerce, those two\nstrong-winged angels and giant ministers of God, are swiftly binding the\ncontinents together in material ties. The peoples are beginning to\nrealize their brotherhood, and are feeling their way in many directions\ntowards international union; while in the Churches a new, federal\ncatholicity is taking shape, that must displace the false catholicism of\nexternal uniformity and the disastrous absolutism inherited from Rome.\nThe spread of European empire and the marvellous expansion of our\nEnglish race are carrying forward the world's unification with enormous\nstrides,--towards some end or other. What end is this to be? Is the\nkingdom of the world about to become the kingdom of our Lord and His\nChrist? and are the nations preparing to be \"reconciled in one body unto\nGod\"?\n\nIf Christendom were worthy of her Master and her name, this question\nwould be answered with no doubtful affirmative. The Church is well able,\nif she were prepared, to go up and possess the whole earth for her Lord.\nThe way is open; the means are in her hand. Nor is she ignorant, nor\nwholly negligent of her opportunity and of the claims that the times\nimpose upon her. She is putting forth new strength and striving to\novertake her work, notwithstanding the weight of ignorance and sloth\nthat burdens her. Soon the reconciling cross will be planted on every\nshore, and the praises of the Crucified sung in every human language.\n\nBut there are dark as well as bright auguries for the future. The\nadvance of commerce and emigration has been a curse and not a blessing\nto many heathen peoples. Who can read without shame and horror the story\nof European conquest in America? And it is a chapter not yet closed.\nGreed and injustice still mark the dealings of the powerful and\ncivilized with the weaker races. England set a noble example in the\nabolition of negro slavery; but she has since inflicted, for purposes of\ngain, the opium curse on China, putting poison to the lips of its vast\npopulation. Under our Christian flags fire-arms are imported, and\nalcohol, amongst tribes of men less able than children to resist their\nevils. Is this \"preaching peace to those far off\"? It is likely that\nthe commercial profits made in the destruction of savage races as yet\nexceed all that our missionary societies have spent in saving them. One\nof these days Almighty God may have a stern reckoning with modern Europe\nabout these things. \"When He maketh inquisition for blood, He will\nremember.\"\n\nAnd what shall we say of ourselves at home, in our relation to this\ngreat principle of the apostle? The old \"middle wall of partition,\" the\ntemple-barrier that sundered Jew and Gentile, is \"broken down,\"--visibly\nlevelled by the hand of God when Jerusalem fell, as it had been\nvirtually and in its principle destroyed by the work of Christ. But are\nthere no other middle walls, no barriers raised within the fold of\nChrist? The rich man's purse, and the poor man's penury; aristocratic\npride, democratic bitterness and jealousy; knowledge and refinement on\nthe one hand, ignorance and rudeness on the other--how thick the veil of\nestrangement which these influences weave, how high the party walls\nwhich they build in our various Church communions!\n\nIt is the duty of the Church, as she values her existence, with gentle\nbut firm hands to pull down and to keep down all such partitions. She\ncannot abolish the natural distinctions of life. She cannot turn the Jew\ninto a Gentile, nor the Gentile into a Jew. She will never make the poor\nman rich in this world, nor the rich man altogether poor. Like her\nMaster, she declines to be \"judge or divider\" of our secular\ninheritance. But she can see to it that these outward distinctions make\nno difference in her treatment of the men as men. She can combine in her\nfellowship all grades and orders, and teach them to understand and\nrespect each other. She can soften the asperities and relieve many of\nthe hardships which social differences create. She can diffuse a\nhealing and purifying influence upon the contentions of society around\nher.\n\nLet us labour unweariedly for this, and let our meeting at the Lord's\ntable be a symbol of the unreserved communion of men of all classes and\nconditions in the brotherhood of the redeemed sons of God. \"_He_ is our\npeace\"; and if He is in our hearts, we must needs be sons of peace.\n\"Behold the secret of all true union! It is not by others coming to us,\nnor by our going over to them; but it is by both them and ourselves\ncoming to Christ\" that peace is made (Monod).\n\nThus within and without the Church the work of atonement will advance,\nwith Christ ever for its preacher (ver. 17). He speaks through the words\nand the lives of His ten thousand messengers,--men of every order, in\nevery age and country of the earth. The leaven of Christ's peace will\nspread till the lump is leavened. God will accomplish His purpose of the\nages, whether in our time, or in another worthier of His calling. His\nChurch is destined to be the home of the human family, the universal\nliberator and instructor and reconciler of the nations. And Christ shall\nsit enthroned in the loyal worship of the federated peoples of the\nearth.\n\n * * * * *\n\nBut the question remains: What is the foundation, what the warrant of\nthis grand idealism of the apostle Paul? Many a great thinker, many an\nardent reformer before and since has dreamed of some such millennium as\nthis. And their enthusiastic plans have ended too often in conflict and\ndestruction. What surer ground of confidence have we in Paul's\nundertaking than in those of so many gifted visionaries and\nphilosophers? The difference lies here: his expectation rests on the\nword and character of God; his instrument of reform is the cross of\nJesus Christ.\n\nGod is the centre of His own universe. Any reconciliation that is to\nstand, must include Him first of all. Christ reconciled Jew and Gentile\n\"both in one body _to God_.\" There is the meeting point, the true focus\nof the orbit of human life, that can alone control its movements and\ncorrect its wild aberrations. Under the shadow of His throne of justice,\nin the arms of His fatherly love, the kindreds of the earth will at last\nfind reconciliation and peace. Humanitarian and secularist systems make\nthe simple mistake of ignoring the supreme Factor in the scheme of\nthings; they leave out the All in all.\n\n\"Be ye _reconciled to God_,\" cries the apostle. For Almighty God has had\na great quarrel with this world of ours. The hatred of men towards each\nother is rooted in the \"carnal mind which is enmity against God.\" The\n\"law of commandments contained in ordinances,\" in whose possession the\nJew boasted over the lawless and profane Gentile, in reality branded\nboth as culprits.\n\nThe secret disquiet and dread lurking in man's conscience, the pangs\nendured in his body of humiliation, the groaning frame of nature declare\nthe world unhinged and out of course. Things have gone amiss, somehow,\nbetween man and his Creator. The face of the earth and the field of\nhuman history are scarred with the thunderbolts of His displeasure. God,\nthe Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the King of the ages, is not the\namiable, almighty Sentimentalist that some pious people would make Him\nout to be. The men of the Bible felt and realized, if we do not, the\ngrave and tremendous import of the Lord's controversy with all flesh. He\nis unceasingly at war with the sins of men. \"God is _love_\"--oh yes;\nbut then He is also \"a consuming fire\"! There is no anger so crushing as\nthe anger of love, for there is none so just; no wrath to be feared like\n\"the wrath of the Lamb.\" God is not a man, weak and passionate, whom a\nspark of anger might set all on fire, burning out His justice and\ncompassion. \"In His wrath He remembers mercy.\" Within that infinite\nnature there is room for an absolute loathing and resentment towards\nsin, in consistence with an immeasurable pity and yearning towards His\nsinful children. Hence the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nLook at it from what side you will (and it has many sides), propound it\nin what terms you may (and it translates itself anew into the dialect of\nevery age), you must not explain the cross of Christ away nor cause its\noffence to cease. \"The atonement has always been a scandal and a folly\nto those who did not receive it; it has always contained something which\nto formal logic is false and to individualistic ethics immoral; yet in\nthat very element which has been branded as immoral and false, has\nalways lain the seal of its power and the secret of its truth.\" The Holy\nOne of God, the Lamb without spot and blemish, He died by His own\nconsent a sinner's death. That sacrifice, undergone by the Son of God\nand Son of man dying as man for men, in love to His race and in\nobedience to the Divine will and law, gave an infinite satisfaction to\nGod in His relation to the world, and there went up to the Divine throne\nfrom the anguish of Calvary a \"savour of sweet smell.\" The moral glory\nof the act of Jesus Christ in dying for His guilty brethren outshone its\nhorror and disgrace; and it redeemed man's lost condition, and clothed\nhuman nature with a new character and aspect in the eyes of God\nHimself. \"Now therefore there is no more condemnation to them that are\nin Christ Jesus.\" The mercy of God, if we may so say, is set free to act\nin forgiveness and restoration, without any compromise of justice and\ninflexible law. No peace without this: no peace that did not _satisfy\nGod_, and satisfy that law, deep as the deepest in God, that binds\nsuffering to wrong-doing and death to sin.\n\nPerhaps you say: This is immoral, surely, that the just should suffer\nfor the unjust; that one commits the offence, and another bears the\npenalty.--Stay a moment: that is only half the truth. We are more than\nindividuals; we are members of a race; and vicarious suffering runs\nthrough life. Our sufferings and wrong-doings bind the human family\ntogether in an inextricable web. We are _communists in sin and death_.\nIt is the law and lot of our existence. And Christ, the Lord and centre\nof the race, has come within its scope. He bound Himself to our sinking\nfortunes. He became co-partner in our lost estate, and has redeemed it\nto God by His blood. If He was true and perfect man, if He was the\ncreative Head and Mediator of the race, the eternal Firstborn of many\nbrethren, He could do no other. He who alone had the right and the\npower,--\"_One_ died for all.\" He took upon His Divine heart the sin and\ncurse of the world, He fastened it to His shoulders with the cross; and\nHe bore it away from Caiaphas' hall and Pilate's judgement-seat, away\nfrom guilty Jerusalem; He took away the sin of the world, and expiated\nit once for all. He quenched in His blood the fires of wrath and hate it\nkindled. He slew _the enmity_ thereby.\n\n * * * * *\n\nStill, we are individuals, as you said, not lost after all in the\nworld's solidarity. Here your personal right and will must come in. What\nChrist has done for you is yours, so far as you accept it. He has died\nyour death beforehand, trusting that you would not repudiate His act,\nthat you would not let His blood be spilt in vain. But He will never\nforce His mediation upon you. He respects your freedom and your manhood.\nDo you now endorse what Jesus Christ did on your behalf? Do you renounce\nthe sin, and accept the sacrifice? Then it is yours, from this moment,\nbefore the tribunal of God and of conscience. By the witness of His\nSpirit you are proclaimed a forgiven and reconciled man. Christ\ncrucified is yours--if you will have Him, if you will identify your\nsinful self with the sinless Mediator, if as you see Him lifted up on\nthe cross you will let your heart cry out, \"Oh my God, He dies for\n_me_!\"\n\nComing \"in one Spirit to the Father,\" the reconciled children join hands\nagain with each other. Social barriers, caste feelings, family feuds,\npersonal quarrels, national antipathies, alike go down before the virtue\nof the blood of Jesus.\n\n \"Neither passion nor pride\n His cross can abide,\n But melt in the fountain that streams from His side!\"\n\n\"Beloved,\" you will say to the man that hates or has wronged you\nmost,--\"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.\"\nIn these simple words of the apostle John lies the secret of universal\npeace, the hope of the fraternization of mankind. Nations will have to\nsay this one day, as well as men.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[89] See to this effect such passages as Rom. i. 16 (_to the Jew\nfirst_), ix. 4, 5; and especially xi. 13-32.\n\n[90] Gal. iii. 28; Col. iii. 11. Comp. John x. 16, xi. 52. See _The\nEpistle to the Galatians_ (Expositor's Bible), Chapter XV.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n_GOD'S TEMPLE IN HUMANITY._\n\n \"So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are\n fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being\n built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus\n Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several building,\n fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in\n whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the\n Spirit.\"--EPH. ii. 19-22.\n\n\nNot unfrequently it is the last word or phrase of the paragraph that\ngives us the clue to St Paul's meaning and discloses the point at which\nhe has aimed all along. So in this instance. \"For a habitation of God in\nthe Spirit\": behold the goal of God's ways with mankind! For this end\nthe Divine grace has wrought through countless ages and has made its\ngreat sacrifice. For this end Jew and Gentile are being gathered into\none and compacted into a new humanity.\n\nI. The Church is a house built for an _Occupant_. Its quality and size,\nand the mode of its construction are determined by its destination. It\nis built to suit the great Inhabitant, who says concerning the new Zion\nas He said of the old in figure: \"This is my rest for ever! Here will I\ndwell, for I have desired it.\" God, who is spirit, cannot be satisfied\nwith the fabric of material nature for His temple, nor does \"the Most\nHigh dwell in houses made by men's hands.\" He seeks our spirit for His\nabode, and\n\n \"Doth prefer\n Before all temples the upright heart and pure.\"\n\nIn the collective life and spirit of humanity God claims to reside, that\nHe may fill it with His glory and His love. \"Know you not,\" cries the\napostle to the once debased Corinthians, \"that you are God's temple, and\nthat the Spirit of God dwells in you?\"\n\nNothing that is bestowed upon man terminates in himself. The deliverance\nof Jewish and Gentile believers from their personal sins, their\nre-instatement into the broken unity of mankind and the destruction in\nthem of their old enmities, of the antipathies generated by their common\nrebellion against God--these great results of Christ's sacrifice were\nmeans to a further end. \"Hallowed be Thy name\" is our first petition to\nthe Father in heaven; \"Glory to God in the highest\" is the key-note of\nthe angels' song, that runs through all the harmonies of \"peace on\nearth,\" through every strain of the melody of life. Religion is the\nmistress, not the handmaid in human affairs. She will never consent to\nbecome a mere ethical discipline, an instrument and subordinate stage in\nsocial evolution, a ladder held for men to climb up into their\nself-sufficiency.\n\nThe old temptation of the Garden, \"Ye shall be as gods,\" has come upon\nour age in a new and fascinating form, \"You shall be as gods,\" it is\nwhispered: \"nay, you _are_ God, and there is no other. The supernatural\nis a dream. The Christian story is a fable. There is none to fear or\nadore above yourselves!\" Man is to worship his collective self, his own\nhumanity. \"I am the Lord thy God,\" the great idol says, \"that brought\nthee up out of animalism and savagery, and me only shalt thou\nserve!--Love and faithful service to one's kind, a holy passion for the\nwelfare of the race, for the relief of human ignorance and poverty and\npain, this is the true religion; and you need no other. Its obligation\nis instinctive, its benefits immediate and palpable; and it gives a\nconsecration to individual life that dignifies and chastens, while it\ncalls into exercise all our faculties.\"\n\nYes, we willingly admit, such human service is \"religion pure and\nundefiled, _before our God and Father_.\" If service is rendered to our\nkind as worship to the Father of men; if we reverence in each man the\nimage of God and the shrine of His Spirit; if we are seeking to cleanse\nand adorn in men the temple where the Most High shall dwell, the\nhumblest work done for our fellows' good is done for Him. The best human\ncharity is rendered for the love of God. \"Thou shalt love the Lord thy\nGod with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. This,\" said Jesus, \"is\nthe first and great commandment. And the second is _like unto it_: Thou\nshalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all\nthe law and the prophets.\" On these two hangs the welfare of men and\nnations.\n\nBut the first commandment must come first. The second law of Jesus never\nhas been or will be kept to purpose without the first. Humanitarian\nsentiments, dreams of universal brotherhood, projects of social reform,\nmay seem for the moment to gain by their independence of religion a\ncertain zest and emphasis; but they are without root and vitality. Their\nenergy fails, or spends itself in revolt; their glow declines, their\npurity is stained. The leaders and first enthusiasts trained in the\nschool of Christ, whose spirit, in vain repudiated, lives on in them,\nfind themselves betrayed and alone. The coarse selfishness and\nmaterialism of the human heart win an easy triumph over a visionary\naltruism. \"Without me,\" says Jesus Christ, \"ye can do nothing.\"\n\nIn the light of God's glory man learns to reverence his nature and\nunderstand the vocation of his race. The love of God touches the deep\nand enduring springs of human action. The kingdom of Christ and of God\ncommands an absolute devotion; its service inspires unfaltering courage\nand invincible patience. There is a grandeur and a certainty, of which\nthe noblest secular aims fall short, in the hopes of those who are\nstriving together for the faith of the gospel, and who work to build\nhuman life into a dwelling-place for God.\n\nII. God's temple in the Church of Jesus Christ, while it is one, is also\nmanifold. \"In whom _each several building_ [or _every part of the\nbuilding_[91]], while it is compacted together, grows into a holy temple\nin the Lord.\"\n\nThe image is that of an extensive pile of buildings, such as the ancient\ntemples commonly were, in process of construction at different points\nover a wide area. The builders work in concert, upon a common plan. The\nseveral parts of the work are adjusted to each other; and the various\noperations in process are so harmonized, that the entire construction\npreserves the unity of the architect's design. Such an edifice was the\napostolic Church--one, but of many parts--in its diverse gifts and\nmultiplied activities animated by one Spirit and directed towards one\nDivine purpose.\n\nJerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome--what a various scene of\nactivity these centres of Christian life presented! The Churches\nfounded in these great cities must have differed in many features. Even\nin the communities of his own province the apostle did not, so far as we\ncan judge, impose a uniform administration. St Peter and St Paul carried\nout their plans independently, only maintaining a general understanding\nwith each other. The apostolic founders, inspired by one and the\nself-same Spirit, could labour at a distance, upon material and by\nmethods extremely various, with entire confidence in each other and with\nan assurance of the unity of result which their teaching and\nadministration would exhibit. The many buildings rested on the one\nfoundation of the apostles. \"Whether it were I or they,\" says our\napostle, \"so we preach, and so you believed.\" Where there is the same\nSpirit and the same Lord, men do not need to be scrupulous about visible\nconformity. Elasticity and individual initiative admit of entire harmony\nof principle. The hand may do its work without irritating and\nobstructing the eye; and the foot run on its errands without mistrusting\nthe ear.\n\nSuch was the catholicism of the apostolic age. The true reading of verse\n21, as it is restored by the Revisers, is an incidental witness to the\ndate of the epistle. A churchman of the second century, writing under\nPaul's name in the interests of catholic unity as it was then\nunderstood, would scarcely have penned such a sentence without attaching\nto the subject the definite article: he must have written \"all the\nbuilding,\" as the copyists from whom the received text proceeds very\nnaturally have done. From that time onwards, as the system of the\necclesiastical hierarchy was developed, external unity was more and more\nstrictly imposed. The original \"diversity of operations\" became a rigid\nuniformity. The Church swallowed up the Churches. Finally, the spiritual\nbureaucracy of Rome gathered all ecclesiastical power into one centre,\nand placed the direction of Western Christendom in the hands of a single\npriest, whom it declared to be the Vicar of Jesus Christ and endowed\nwith the Divine attribute of infallibility.\n\nHad not Jerusalem been overthrown and its Church destroyed, the\nhierarchical movement would probably have made that city, rather than\nRome, its centre. This was in fact the tendency, if not the express\npurpose of the Judaistic party in the Church. St Paul had vindicated in\nhis earlier epistles the freedom of the Gentile Christian communities,\nand their right of non-conformity to Jewish usage. In the words \"each\nseveral building, fitly framed together,\" there is an echo of this\ncontroversy. The Churches of his mission claim a standing side by side\nwith those founded by other apostles. For himself and his Gentile\nbrethren he seems to say, in the presence of the primitive Church and\nits leaders: \"As they are Christ's, so also are we.\"\n\nThe co-operation of the different parts of the body of Christ is\nessential to their collective growth. Let all Churches beware of\ncrushing dissent. Blows aimed at our Christian neighbours recoil upon\nourselves. Undermining their foundation, we shake our own. Next to\npositive corruption of doctrine and life, nothing hinders so greatly the\nprogress of the kingdom of God as the claim to exclusive legitimacy made\non behalf of ancient Church organizations. Their representatives would\nhave every part of God's temple framed upon one pattern. They refuse a\nplace on the apostolic foundation to all Churches, however numerous,\nhowever rich in faith and good works, however strong the historical\njustification for their existence, however clear the marks they bear of\nthe Spirit's seal, which do not conform to the rule they themselves have\nreceived. Their rites and ministry, they assert, are those alone\napproved by Christ and authorized by His apostles, within a given area.\nThey refuse the right hand of fellowship to men who are doing Christ's\nwork by their side; they isolate their flocks, as far as possible, from\nintercourse with the Christian communities around them.\n\nThis policy on the part of any Christian Church, or Church party, is\ncontrary to the mind of Christ and to the example of His apostles. Those\nwho hold aloof from the comity of the Churches and prevent the many\nbuildings of God's temple being fitly framed together, must bear their\njudgement, whosoever they be. They prefer conquest to peace, but that\nconquest they will never win; it would be fatal to themselves. Let the\nelder sister frankly allow the birthright of the younger sisters of\nChrist's house in these lands, and be our example in justice and in\ncharity. Great will be her honour; great the glory won for our common\nLord.\n\n\"Every building fitly framed together _groweth into a holy temple_ in\nthe Lord.\" The subject is distributive; the predicate collective. The\nparts give place to the whole in the writer's mind. As each several\npiece of the structure, each cell or chapel in the temple, spreads out\nto join its companion buildings and adjusts itself to the parts around\nit, the edifice grows into a richer completeness and becomes more fit\nfor its sacred purpose. The separate buildings, distant in place or\nhistorical character, approximate by extension, as they spread over the\nunoccupied ground between them and as the connecting links are\nmultiplied. At last a point is reached at which they will become\ncontinuous. Growing into each other step by step and forming across the\ndiminishing distance a web of mutual attachment constantly thickening,\nthey will insensibly, by a natural and vital growth, become one in\nvisible communion as they are one in their underlying faith.\n\nWhen each organ of the body in its own degree is perfect and holds its\nplace in keeping with the rest, we think no longer of their individual\nperfection, of the charm of this feature or of that; they are forgotten\nin the beauty of the perfect frame. So it will be in the body of Christ,\nwhen its several communions, cleansed and filled with His Spirit, each\nhonouring the vocation of the others, shall in freedom and in love by a\nspontaneous movement be gathered into one. Their strength will then be\nno longer weakened and their spirit chafed by internal conflict. With\nunited forces and irresistible energy, they will assail the kingdom of\ndarkness and subjugate the world to Christ.\n\nFor this consummation our Saviour prayed in the last hours before His\ndeath: \"that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me and I in\nThee, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that Thou\ndidst send me\" (John xvii. 21). Did He fear that His little flock of the\nTwelve would be parted by dissensions? Or did He not look onward to the\nfuture, and see the \"offences that must come,\" the alienations and\nfierce conflicts that would arise amongst His people, and the blood that\nwould be shed in His name? Yet beyond these divisions, on the horizon of\nthe end of the age, He foresaw the day when the wounds of His Church\nwould be healed, when the sword that He had brought on the earth would\nbe sheathed, and through the unity of faith and love in His people all\nmankind would at last come to acknowledge Him and the Father who had\nsent Him.\n\nIII. To appearance, we are many rather than one who bear the name of\nChrist. But we are one notwithstanding, if below the variety of\nsuperstructure our faith rests upon the witness of the apostles, and the\nseveral buildings have Christ Jesus Himself for chief corner-stone. The\n_one foundation_ and the _one Spirit_ constitute the unity of God's\ntemple in the Church.\n\n\"The apostles and prophets\" are named as a single body, _the prophets_\nbeing doubtless, in this passage and in chapters iii. 5 and iv. 11, the\nexisting prophets of the apostolic Church, whose inspired teaching\nsupplemented that of the apostles and helped to lay down the foundation\nof revealed truth. That foundation has been, through the providence of\nGod, preserved for later ages in the Scriptures of the New Testament, on\nwhich the faith of Christians has rested ever since. Such a prophet\nBarnabas was in the first days (Acts xiii. 1), and such was the unknown,\nbut deeply inspired writer of the epistle to the Hebrews; such prophets,\nagain, were SS. Mark and Luke, the Evangelists. Prophecy was not a\nstated gift of office. Just as there were \"teachers\" in the early Church\nwhose knowledge and eloquence did not entitle them to bear rule, so\nprophecy was frequently exercised by private persons and carried with it\nno such official authority as belonged in the highest degree to the\napostles.\n\nIt is thought surprising that St Paul should write thus, in so general\nand distant a fashion, of the order to which he belonged (comp. iii. 5).\nThis, it is said, is the language of a later generation, which looks\nback with reverence to the inspired Founders. But this letter is\nwritten, as we observed at the outset, from a peculiarly objective and\nimpersonal standpoint. It differs in this respect from other epistles of\nSt Paul. He is addressing a number of Churches, with some of which his\npersonal relations were slight and distant. He is contemplating the\nChurch in its most general character. He is not the only founder of\nChurches; he is one of a band of colleagues, working in different\nregions. It is natural that he should use the plural here. He sets his\nsuccessors an example of the recognition due to fellow-labourers whose\nwork bears the seal of Christ's Spirit.\n\nThese men have laid _the foundation_--Peter and Paul, John and James,\nBarnabas and Silas, and the rest. They are our spiritual progenitors,\nthe fathers of our faith. We see Jesus Christ through their eyes; we\nread His teaching, and catch His Spirit in their words. Their testimony,\nin its essential facts, stands secure in the confidence of mankind. Nor\nwas it their word alone, but the men themselves--their character, their\nlife and work--laid for the Church its historical foundation. This\n\"glorious company of the apostles\" formed the first course in the new\nbuilding, on whose firmness and strength the stability of the entire\nstructure depends. Their virtues and their sufferings, as well as the\nrevelations made through them, have guided the thoughts and shaped the\nlife of countless multitudes of men, of the best and wisest men in all\nages since. They have fixed the standard of Christian doctrine and the\ntype of Christian character. At our best, we are but imitators of them\nas they were of Christ.\n\nIn regard to the chief part of their teaching, both as to its meaning\nand authority, the great bulk of Christians in all communions are\nagreed. The keen disputes which engage us upon certain points, testify\nto the cardinal importance which is felt on all hands to attach to the\nwords of Christ's chosen apostles. Their living witness is in our midst.\nThe self-same Spirit that wrought in them, works amongst men and dwells\nin the communion of saints. He still reveals the things of Christ, and\nguides into truth the willing and obedient.\n\nSo \"the firm foundation of God standeth\"; though men, shaken themselves,\nseem to see it tremble. On that basis we may labour confidently and\nloyally, with those amongst whom the Master has placed us. Some of our\nfellow-workmen disown and would hinder us: that shall not prevent us\nfrom rejoicing in their good work, and admiring the gold and precious\nstones that they contribute to the fabric. The Lord of the temple will\nknow how to use the labour of His many servants. He will forgive and\ncompose their strife, who are jealous for His name. He will shape their\nnarrow aims to His larger purposes. Out of their discords He will draw a\nfiner harmony. As the great house grows to its dimensions, as the\nworkmen by the extension of their labours come nearer to each other and\ntheir sectional plans merge in Christ's great purpose, reproaches will\ncease and misunderstandings vanish. Over many who followed not with us\nand whom we counted but as \"strangers and sojourners,\" as men whose\nplace within the walls of Zion was doubtful and unauthorized, we shall\nhereafter rejoice with a joy not unmixed with self-upbraiding, to find\nthem in the fullest right our fellow-citizens amongst the saints and of\nthe household of God.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is the supreme Builder of the Church, as He is the\nsupreme witness to Jesus Christ (John xv. 26, 27). The words _in the\nSpirit_, closing the verse with solemn emphasis, denote not the mode of\nGod's habitation--that is self-evident--but the agency engaged in\nbuilding this new house of God. With one \"chief corner-stone\" to rest\nupon and one Spirit to inspire and control them, the apostles and\nprophets laid their foundation and the Church was \"builded together\" for\na habitation of God. Hence its unity. But for this sovereign influence\nthe primitive founders of Christianity, like later Church leaders, would\nhave fallen into fatal discord. Modern critics, reasoning upon natural\ngrounds and not understanding the grace of the Holy Spirit, assume that\nthey did thus quarrel and contend. Had this been so, no foundation could\never have been laid; the Church would have fallen to pieces at the very\nbeginning.\n\nIn the hands of these faithful and wise stewards of God's dispensation,\n\"the stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner.\"\nTheir work has been tried by fire and by flood; and it abides. The rock\nof Zion stands unworn by time, unshaken by the conflict of ages,--amidst\nthe movements of history and the shifting currents of thought the one\nfoundation for the peace and true welfare of mankind.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[91] =Pasa oikodom\u00ea=, according to the well-established critical\nreading. For =pas= without the article, implying a various whole,\ncompare =pas\u00eas ktise\u00f4s= in Col. i. 15; =pasa graph\u00ea=, 2 Tim. iii. 16;\n=en pas\u00ea anastroph\u00ea=, 1 Peter i. 15; and =Theos pas\u00eas charitos=, 1 Peter\nv. 10.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n_THE SECRET OF THE AGES._\n\n \"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of\n you Gentiles,--if so be that ye have heard of the dispensation of\n that grace of God which was given me toward you; how that by\n revelation was made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote afore in\n few words, whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding\n in the mystery of Christ), which in other generations was not made\n known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His\n holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; _to wit_, that the\n Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and\n fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,\n whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace\n of God which was given me according to the working of His power.\n Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace\n given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of\n Christ; and to bring to light what is the dispensation of the\n mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all\n things.\"--EPH. iii. 1-9.\n\n\nVerses 2-13 are in form a parenthesis. They interrupt the prayer which\nappears to be commencing in the first verse and is not resumed until\nverse 14. This intervening period is parenthetical, however, in\nappearance more than in reality. The matter it contains is so weighty\nand so essential to the argument and structure of the epistle, that it\nis impossible to treat it as a mere _aside_. The writer intends, at the\npause which occurs after the paragraph just concluded (ii. 22), to\ninterpose a few words of prayer before passing on to the next topic.\nBut in the act of doing so, this subject of which his mind is\nfull--viz., that of his own relation to God's great purpose for\nmankind--forces itself upon him; and the prayer that was on his lips is\npent up for a few moments longer, until it flows forth again, in richer\nmeasure, in verses 14-19.\n\nLike chapter i. 3-14, this passage is an extreme instance of St Paul's\namorphous style. His sentences are not composed; they are spun in a\ncontinuous thread, an endless chain of prepositional, participial, and\nrelative adjuncts. They grow under our eyes like living things, putting\nforth new processes every moment, now in this and now in that direction.\nWithin the main parenthesis we soon come upon another parenthesis\nincluding verses 3_b_ and 4 (\"as I wrote afore,\" etc.); and at several\npoints the grammatical connexion is uncertain. In its general scope,\nthis intricate sentence resolves itself into a statement of _what God\nhas wrought in the apostle_ toward the accomplishment of His great plan.\nIt thus completes the exposition given already of that which _God\nwrought in Christ for the Church_, and that which _He has wrought\nthrough Christ in Gentile believers_ in fulfilment of the same end.\n\n * * * * *\n\nVerses 1-9 speak (1) of the mystery itself--God's gracious intention\ntoward the human race, unknown in earlier times; and (2) of the man to\nwhom, above others, it was given to make known the secret.\n\nI. _The mystery_ is defined twice over. First, it consists in the fact\nthat \"in Christ Jesus through the gospel the Gentiles are co-heirs and\nco-incorporate and co-partners in the promise\" (ver. 6); and secondly,\nit is \"the unsearchable riches of Christ\" (ver. 8). The latter phrase\ngathers to a point what is diversely expressed in the former.\n\nChrist is, to St Paul, the centre and the sum of the mysteries of Divine\ntruth, of the whole enigma of existence. In the parallel epistle he\ncalls Him \"the mystery of God--in whom are all the treasures of wisdom\nand knowledge hidden\" (Col. ii. 2, 3: R.V.). The mystery of God,\ndiscovered in Christ, was hidden out of the sight and reach of previous\ntimes. Now, by the preaching of the gospel, it is made the common\nproperty of mankind (Col. i. 25-28).\n\nIn close connexion with these statements, St Paul speaks there, as he\ndoes here, of his own heavy sufferings endured on this account and the\njoy they gave him. He is the instrument of a glorious purpose worthy of\nGod; he is the mouthpiece of a revelation waiting to be spoken since the\nworld began, that is addressed to all mankind and interests heaven along\nwith earth. The greatness of his office is commensurate with the\ngreatness of the truth given him to announce.\n\nThe mystery, as we have said, consists in _Christ_. This we learned from\nchapter i. 4, 5, and 9, 10. In Christ the Eternal lodged His purpose and\nlaid His plans for the world. It is His fulness that the fulness of the\ntimes dispenses. The Old Testament, the reservoir of previous\nrevelation, had Him for its close-kept secret, \"held in silence through\neternal times\" (Rom. xvi. 25-27). The drift of its prophecies, the focus\nof its converging lights, the veiled magnet towards which its spiritual\nindications pointed, was \"Christ.\" He \"was the spiritual rock that\nfollowed\" Israel in its wanderings, from whose springs the people\ndrank, as it answered to the touch of one and now another of the holy\nmen of old. The revelation of Jesus Christ gives unity, substance, and\nmeaning to the history of Israel, which is otherwise a pathway without\ngoal, a problem without solution. Priest and prophet, law and sacrifice;\nthe kingly Son of David, and the suffering Servant of Jehovah; the Seed\nof the woman with bruised foot bruising the serpent's head; the Lord\nwhom His people seek, suddenly coming to His temple; the Stone hewn from\nthe mountains without hands, that grows till it fills the earth--the\nmanifold representations of Israel's ideal, centre in the Lord Jesus\nChrist. The lines of the great figure drawn on the canvas of\nprophecy--disconnected as they seemed and without a plan, giving rise to\na thousand dreams and speculations--are filled out and drawn into shape\nand take life and substance in Him. They are found to be parts of a\nconsistent whole, sketches and studies of this fragment or of that\nbelonging to the consummate Person and the comprehensive plan manifest\nin the revelation of Jesus Christ.\n\nBut while Christ gathers into Himself the accumulated wealth of former\nrevelation, His fulness is not measured thereby or exhausted. He solves\nthe problems of the past; He unseals the ancient mysteries. But He\ncreates new and deeper problems, some explained in the continued\nteaching of His Spirit and His providence, others that remain, or emerge\nfrom time to time to tax the faith and understanding of His Church.\nThere are the mysteries surrounding His own Person, with which the Greek\nChurch struggled long--His eternal Sonship, His pre-incarnate relation\nto mankind and the creatures, the final outcome of the mediatorial reign\nand its subordination to the absolute sovereignty of God. These depths\nSt Paul sounded with his plummet; but he found them unfathomable.\nTheological science has explored and defined them, and illuminated them\non many sides, but cannot reach to their inmost mystery. Then there is\nthe problem of the atonement, with all the cognate difficulties touching\nthe origin of sin, its heredity and its personal guilt, touching the\nadjustment of law and grace, the method of justification, the extent and\nefficacy of Christ's redeeming work, touching the future destiny and\neternal state of souls. Another class of questions largely occupies the\nminds of thoughtful men to-day. They are studying the relation of Christ\nand His Church to nature and the outward world, the bearings of\nChristian truth upon social conditions, the working of the Spirit of God\nin communities, and the place of man's collective life in the progress\nand upbuilding of the kingdom of Christ.\n\nFor such inquiries the Spirit of wisdom and revelation is given to those\nwho humbly seek His light. He is given afresh in every age. Out of\nChrist's unsearchable riches ever-new resources are forthcoming at His\nChurch's need, new treasures lying hidden in the old for him who can\nextract them. But His riches, however far they are investigated, remain\nunsearchable, and inexhaustible however largely drawn upon. God's ways\nmay be tracked further and further in each generation; they will remain\nto the end, as they were to the mind of Paul at the limit of his bold\nresearches, \"past finding out.\" The inspired apostle confesses himself a\nchild in Divine learning: \"We know in part,\" he says, \"we prophesy in\npart.\" Oh the depths of \"hidden wisdom\" unimagined now, that are in\nstore for us in Christ, \"foreordained before the worlds unto our\nglory!\"\n\nThe particular aspect of the mystery of Christ with which the apostle is\nconcerned, is that of His relationship to the Gentile world. \"The grace\nof God,\" he says in verse 2, \"was given me _for you_.\" Such is \"the\ndispensation\" in which God is now engaged. Upon this lavish and\nundreamed-of scale He is dealing forth salvation to men. St Paul\ndescribes this revelation of God's goodness to the Gentiles by three\nparallel but distinct terms in verse 6. They \"are fellow-heirs\"--a word\nthat carries us back to chapter i. 11-13, and assures the Gentile\nreaders of their final redemption and heavenly glory.[92] They \"are of\nthe same body\"--which sums up all that we have learnt from chapter ii.\n11-22. And they \"are fellow-partakers of the promise\"--receiving upon a\nfooting of equal privilege with Jewish believers the gift of the Spirit\nand the blessings promised to Israel in the Messianic kingdom.\n\nIn virtue of the dispensation committed to him, St Paul formally\nproclaims the incorporation of the Gentiles into the body of Christ,\ntheir investiture with the franchise of faith. The forgiveness of sins\nis theirs, the light of God's smile, the breath of His Spirit, the\nworship and fellowship of His Church, the tasks and honours of His\nservice. The incarnation of Christ is theirs; His life, teaching, and\nmiracles; His cross is theirs, His resurrection and ascension, and His\nsecond coming, and the glories of His heavenly kingdom--all made their\nown on the bare condition of a penitent and obedient faith. The past is\ntheirs--is ours, along with the present and the future. The God of\nIsrael is our God. Abraham is our father, though his sons after the\nflesh acknowledge us not. Their prophets prophesied of the grace that\nshould come unto us. Their poets sing the songs of Zion to Gentile\npeoples in a hundred tongues. They lead our prayers and praises. In\ntheir words we find expression for our heart-griefs and joys. At the\nwedding-feast or by the grave-side, amidst \"the multitude that keep holy\nday\" and in \"dry lands\" where the soul thirsts for God's ordinances, we\ncarry the Psalmists with us and the teachers of Israel.\n\nWhat a boundless wealth we Gentiles, taught by Jesus Christ, have\ndiscovered in the Jewish Bible! When will the Jewish people understand\nthat their greatness is in Him, that the light which lightens the\nGentiles is their true glory? When will they accept their part in the\nriches of which they have made all the world partakers? The mystery of\nour participation in their Christ has now been \"revealed to the sons of\nmen\" long enough. Is it not time that they themselves should see it,\nthat the veil should be lifted from the heart of Israel? The disclosure\nwas in the first instance so astounding, so contrary to their cherished\nexpectations, that one can scarcely wonder if it was at first rejected.\nBut God the King of the ages has been asserting and re-asserting the\nfact in the course of history ever since. How vain to fight against Him!\nhow useless to deny the victory of the Nazarene!\n\nII. But there was in Israel an election of grace,--men of unveiled heart\nto whom the mystery of ages was disclosed. \"The secret of Jehovah is\nwith them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.\" Such is\nthe rule of revelation. To the like effect Christ said: \"The pure in\nheart shall see God. He that willeth to do His will shall know of the\ndoctrine.\"\n\nThe light of God's universal love had come into the world; but where it\nfell on cold or impure hearts, it shone in vain. The mystery \"was made\nmanifest to His _saints_,\" writes the apostle in Colossians i. 26. So in\nthis passage: \"revealed to His _holy_ apostles and prophets in the\nSpirit.\" The pure eye sees the true light. This was the condition which\nmade it possible for Paul himself and his partners in the gospel to be\nthe bearers of this august revelation. It needed sincere and devoted\nmen, willing to be taught of God, willing to surrender every prejudice\nand the preconceptions of flesh and blood, in order to receive and\nconvey to the world thoughts of God so much larger and loftier than the\nthoughts of men. To such men--true disciples, loyal at all costs to God\nand truth, holy and humble of heart--Jesus Christ gave His great\ncommission and bade them \"go and make disciples of all the nations.\"\n\nThe secret was further disclosed to Peter, when he was taught at the\nhouse of Cornelius \"not to call any man common or unclean.\" He saw, and\nthe Church of Jerusalem saw and confessed that God \"gave the like gift\"\nto uncircumcised Gentiles as to themselves and had \"purified their\nhearts by faith.\" Many prophetic voices, unrecorded, confirmed this\nrevelation. Of all this Paul is thinking here. It is to his predecessors\nin the knowledge of the truth rather than to himself that he refers when\nhe speaks of \"holy apostles and prophets\" in verse 5. His readers would\nnaturally turn to them in coming to this plural expression. The original\napostles of Jesus and witnesses of His truth first attested the doctrine\nof universal grace; and that they did so was a fact of vital importance\nto Paul and the Gentile Church. The significance of this fact is shown\nby the stress which is laid upon it and the prominence given to it in\nthe narrative of the Acts of the Apostles.\n\nThe apostle frequently alludes to revelations made to himself; he never\nclaims that this chief matter was _revealed_ personally to himself. It\nwas an open secret when Saul entered the Church. \"Whereof,\" he says, in\nverse 7, \"I _became minister_\"; again, \"to me was this grace given, to\n_preach to the Gentiles_ Christ's unsearchable riches.\" The leaders of\nthe Jewish Christian Church knew well that their message was meant for\nall the world. But the abstract knowledge of a truth is one thing; the\npractical power to realize it is another. Until the new apostle came\nupon the field, there was no man ready for this great task and equal to\nit. It was at this crisis that Paul was raised up. Then \"it pleased God\nto reveal His Son\" in him, that he might \"preach Him among the\nGentiles.\"\n\nThe effect of this summons upon Paul himself was overwhelming, and\ncontinued to be so till the end of life. The immense favour humbles him\nto the dust. He strains language, heaping comparative upon superlative,\nto describe his astonishment as the import of his mission unfolds\nitself: \"To me, less than the least of all the saints, was this grace\ngiven.\" That Saul the Pharisee and the persecutor, the most unworthy and\nmost unlikely of men, should be the chosen vessel to bear Christ's\nriches to the Gentile world, how shall he sufficiently give thanks for\nthis! how express his wonder at the unfathomable wisdom and goodness\nthat the choice displays in the mind of God! But we can see well that\nthis choice was precisely the fittest. A Hebrew of the Hebrews, steeped\nin Jewish traditions and glorying in his sacred ancestry, none knew\nbetter than the apostle Paul how rich were the treasures stored in the\nhouse of Abraham that he had to make over to the Gentiles. A true son of\nthat house, he was the fittest to lead in the aliens, to show them its\nprecious things and make them at home within its walls.\n\nTo himself the office was an unceasing delight. The universalism of the\ngospel--a commonplace of our modern rhetoric--had burst upon his mind in\nits unspoilt freshness and undimmed splendour. He is sailing out into an\nundiscovered ocean, with a boundless horizon. A new heaven and earth are\nopened to him in the revelation that the Gentiles are partakers of the\npromise in Christ Jesus. He is entranced, as he writes, with the\nlargeness of the Divine purpose, with the magnificent sweep and scope of\nthe designs of grace. These verses give us the warm and genuine\nimpression made upon the hearts of its first recipients by the\ndisclosure of the universal destination of the gospel of Christ.\n\nSt Paul's work, in carrying out the dispensation of this mystery, was\ntwofold. It was both external and internal. He was a \"herald and\napostle\"; he was also \"teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth\" (1\nTim. ii. 7). He had in the former capacity to carry the good tidings\nfrom one end to the other of the Roman empire, to spread it abroad as\nfar as his feet could travel and his voice reach, and thus \"to fulfil\nthe gospel of Christ.\" But there was another, mental task, as necessary\nand still more difficult, which likewise fell to his lot. He had to\n_think out_ the gospel. It was his office to unfold and apply it to the\nwants of a new world, to solve by its aid the problems that confronted\nhim as evangelist and pastor,--questions that contained the seed and\nbeginning of the intellectual difficulties of the Church in future\ntimes. He had to free the gospel from the swaddling-bands of Judaism,\nto emancipate the spirit from the letter of a mechanical and legal\ninterpretation. On the other hand, he had equally to guard the truth as\nit is in Jesus from the dissolving influences of Gentile scepticism and\ntheosophy. Fighting his way through fierce and incessant opposition on\nboth sides, the apostle Paul led the mind of the Church onwards and\nguides it still in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God. These\nnoble epistles are the fruit and record of St Paul's theological work.\nThrough them he has left a deeper mark on the conscience of the world\nthan any one man besides, except the Master of truth who was more than\nman.\n\nThe apostle was not unaware of the vast influence he now possessed, and\nthat must accrue to him in the future from the transcendent interest of\nthe doctrines committed to his charge. There is no false modesty about\nthis splendidly gifted man. It is his not only to \"preach to the\nGentiles the good news of Christ's unsearchable riches\"; but more than\nthat, \"to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery that\nhas been hidden away from the ages in God who created all things.\" The\ngreat secret was out while Saul of Tarsus was still a persecutor and\nblasphemer. But as to the _management_ and _dispensation_ of the\nmystery, the practical handling of it, as to the mode and way in which\nGod would convey and apply it to the world at large, and as to the\nbearings and consequences of this momentous truth,--the apostle Paul,\nand no one but he, had all this to expound and set in order. He was, in\nfact, the architect of Christian doctrine.\n\nTheologically, Peter and John himself were Paul's debtors; and are\nincluded amongst the \"all men\" of verse 9 (if this reading of the text\nis correct). St John had, it is true, a more direct intuition into the\nmind of Christ and rose to an even loftier height of contemplation; but\nthe labours and the logic of St Paul provided the field into which he\nentered in his ripe old age spent at Ephesus. John, who absorbed and\nassimilated everything that belonged to Christ and found for everything\nits principle and centre in the Master of his youth--\"the way, the\ntruth, and the life\"--passed through the school of Paul. With the rest,\nhe learnt through the new apostle to see more perfectly \"what is the\ndispensation of the mystery hidden from the ages in God.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\nWell persuaded is our apostle that all readers of this letter in the\nAsian towns, if they have not known it before, will now \"perceive\" his\n\"understanding in the mystery of Christ.\" All ages have discerned it\nsince. And the ages to come will measure its value better than we can do\nnow.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[92] See Gal. iii. 7, v. 5; Rom. viii. 14-25; 1 Peter i. 4, 5.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n_EARTH TEACHING HEAVEN._\n\n \"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the\n heavenly _places_ might be made known through the Church the\n manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which\n He formed in the Christ, _even_ Jesus our Lord: in whom we have\n boldness and access in confidence through our faith in Him.\n Wherefore I ask that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which\n are your glory.\"--EPH. iii. 10-13.\n\n\n_The mystery hidden since the ages began, in God who created all\nthings_: so the last paragraph concluded. The added phrase \"through\nJesus Christ\" is a comment of the pious reader, that has been\nincorporated in the received text; but it is wanting in the oldest\ncopies, and is out of place. The apostle is not concerned with the\nprerogatives of Christ, but with the scope of the Christian economy. He\nis displaying the breadth and grandeur of the dispensation of grace, the\ninfinite range of the Divine plans and operations of which it forms the\ncentre. Its secret was cherished in the Eternal Mind. Its foundations\nare laid in the very basis of the world. And the disclosure of it now\nbeing made brings new light and wisdom to the powers of the celestial\nrealms.\n\n\"There is nothing covered,\" said Jesus, \"which shall not be revealed,\nand hidden which shall not be known.\" The mysteries which God sets\nbefore His intelligent creatures, are promises of knowledge; they are\ndrafts, to be honoured in due time, upon the treasures of wisdom hidden\nin Christ. So this great secret of the destiny of the Gentile world was\n\"from all ages hidden, in order that now through the Church it might be\nmade known,\" and by its means God's wisdom, to these sublime\nintelligences. This intention was a part of the \"plan of the ages\"\nformed in Christ (ver. 11). God designed by our redemption to bless\nhigher races along with our own. The elder sons of God, those \"morning\nstars\" of creation, are schooled and instructed by what is transpiring\nhere upon earth.\n\nTo some this will appear to be mere extravagance. They see in such\nexpressions the marks of an unrestrained enthusiasm, of theological\nspeculation pushed beyond its limits and unchecked by any just knowledge\nof the physical universe. This censure would be plausible and it might\nseem that the apostle had extended the mission of the gospel beyond its\nprovince, were it not for what he says in verse 11: This \"purpose of the\nages\" God \"made in _the Christ_, even _Jesus our Lord_.\" Jesus Christ\nlinks together angels and men. He draws after Him to earth the eyes of\nheaven. Christ's coming to this world and identification with it unite\nto it enduringly the great worlds above us. The scenes enacted upon this\nplanet and the events of its religious history have sent their shock\nthrough the universe. The incarnation of the Son of God gives to human\nlife a boundless interest and significance. It is idle to oppose to this\nconviction the fact of the littleness of the terrestrial globe.\nSpiritual and physical magnitudes are incommensurable. You cannot\nmeasure a man's soul by the size of his dwelling-house. Science teaches\nus that the most powerful forces may exist and operate within the\nnarrowest space. A microscopic cell may contain the potential life of a\nworld. If our earth is but a grain of sand to the astronomer, it has\nbeen the home of Godhead. It is the world for which God spared not to\ngive His own Son!\n\nHere, then, lies the centre of the apostle's thoughts in this paragraph:\n_God's all-comprehending purpose in Christ_. The magnitude and\ncompleteness of this plan are indicated by the fact that it embraces in\nits purview _the angelic powers and their enlightenment_. So\nunderstanding it, our _human faith gains confidence and courage_ (vv.\n12, 13).\n\n * * * * *\n\nI. The textual critics restore the definite article which later copyists\nhad dropped before the word _Christ_ in verse 11. We have already\nremarked the frequency of \"the Christ\" in this epistle.[93] Once besides\nthis peculiar combination of the names of our Saviour occurs--in\nColossians ii. 6, where Lightfoot renders it _the Christ, even Jesus the\nLord_. So it should be rendered in this place. St Paul sets forth the\npurpose of \"God who created all things.\" He is looking back through \"the\nages\" during which the Divine plan was kept secret. God was all the time\ndesigning His work of mercy, pointing meanwhile the hopes of men by\ntoken and promise to the Coming One. The Messiah was the burden of those\nprophetic ages. That inscrutable Christ of the Old Testament, the veiled\nmystery of Jewish hope, stands manifested before us and challenges our\nfaith in the glorious person of \"Jesus our Lord.\" This singular turn of\nexpression identifies the ideal and the real, the promise and\nfulfilment, the dream of Old Testament prophecy and the fact of New\nTestament history. For Jesus our Lord is the very Christ to whom the\ngenerations before His coming looked forward out of their twilight with\nwistful expectancy.\n\nNot without meaning is He called \"Jesus _our Lord_.\" The \"principalities\nand powers\" of the heavenly places are in our view (ver. 10). These\npotentates some of the Asian Christians were fain to worship. \"See ye do\nit not,\" Paul seems to say. \"Jesus, the Christ of God, is alone our\nLord; not these. He is our Lord _and theirs_ (i. 21, 22). As our Lord He\ncommands their homage, and gives them lessons through His Church in\nGod's deep counsels.\" Everything that the apostle says tends to exalt\nour Redeemer and to enhance our confidence in Him. His position is\ncentral and supreme, in regard alike to the ages of time and the powers\nof the universe. In His hand is the key to all mysteries. He is the\nAlpha and Omega, the beginning, middle, and end of God's ways. He is the\ncentre of Israel, Israel of the world and the human ages; while the\nworld of men is bound through Him to the higher spheres of being, over\nwhich He too presides.\n\nThere is a splendid intellectual courage, an incredible boldness and\nreach of thought in St Paul's conception of the sovereignty of Christ.\nRemember that He of whom these things are said, but thirty years before\ndied a felon's death in the sight of the Jewish people. It is not _our_\nLord Jesus Christ, whose name is hallowed by the lips of millions and\nglorified by the triumphs of centuries upon centuries past, but the\nNazarene with the obscurity of His life and the cruel shame of Calvary\nfresh in the recollection of all men. With what immense force had the\nfacts of His glorification wrought upon men's minds--His resurrection\nand ascension, the witness of His Spirit and the virtue of His\ngospel--for it to be possible to speak of Him thus, within a generation\nof His death! While \"the foolishness of preaching\" such a Christ and the\nweakness in which He was crucified were patent to all eyes, unrelieved\nby the influence of time and the glamour of success, how was it that the\nfirst believers raised Jesus to this limitless glory and dominion? It\nwas through the conviction, certified by outward fact and inward\nexperience, that \"He liveth by the power of God.\" Thus Peter on the day\nof Pentecost: \"By the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this\nwhich ye now see and hear.\" The resurrection from the dead, the\ndemonstration of the Spirit proved Jesus Christ to be that which He had\nclaimed to be, the Saviour of men and the eternal Son of God.\n\nThe supremacy here assigned to Christ is a consequence of the exaltation\ndescribed at the close of the first chapter. There we see the height,\nhere the breadth and length of His dominion. If He is raised from the\ngrave so high that all created powers and names are beneath His feet, we\ncannot wonder that the past ages were employed in preparing His way,\nthat the basis of His throne lies in the foundation of the world.\n\nII. The universe is one. There is a solidarity of rational and moral\ninterests amongst all intelligences. Granting the existence of such\nbeings as the angels of Scripture, we should expect them to be\nprofoundly concerned in the redeeming work of Christ. They are the\n\"watchers\" and \"holy ones\" spoken of by the later Isaiah and Daniel,\nwhom the Lord has \"set upon the walls of Jerusalem\" and who survey the\naffairs of nations. Such was \"the angel who talked\" with Zechariah in\nhis vision, and whom the prophet overheard pleading for Jerusalem. In\nthe Apocalypse, again, we find the angels acting as God's unseen\nexecutive. We decline to believe that these superhuman creatures are\nnothing more than apocalyptic machinery, that they are creations of\nfancy employed to give a livelier aspect to spiritual truth. \"Cannot I\npray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve\nlegions of angels?\" So Jesus said, in the most solemn hour of His life.\nAnd who can forget His tender words concerning the little children,\nwhose \"angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven\"?\n\nThe apostle Paul, who denounces \"worship of the angels\" in the fellow\nepistle to this, earnestly believed in their existence and their\ninterest in human affairs. If he did not write the words of Hebrews i.\n14, he certainly held that \"they are ministering spirits sent forth to\ndo service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation.\" Most\nclearly is their relationship to the Church affirmed by the words of the\nrevealing angel to the apostle John: \"I am a fellow-servant with thee\nand with thy brethren the prophets, and with them that keep the words of\nthis book.\"\n\nChrist's service is the high school of wisdom for the universe. These\nprinces of heaven win by their ministry to Christ and His Church a great\nreward. Their intelligence, however lofty its range, is finite. Their\nkeen and burning intuition could not penetrate the mystery of God's\nintentions toward this world. The revelations of the latter days--the\nincarnation, the cross, the publication of the gospel, the outpouring\nof the Spirit--were full of surprises to the heavenly watchers. They\nsang at Bethlehem; they hid their faces and shrouded heaven in blackness\nat the sight of Calvary. They bent down with eager observation and\nsearching thought \"desiring to look into\" the things made known to men\n(1 Peter i. 12),--close and sympathetic students of the Church's\nhistory. The apostle felt that there were other eyes bent upon him than\nthose of his fellow-men, and that he was acting in a grander arena than\nthe visible world. \"We are a spectacle,\" he says, \"_to angels_ and to\nmen.\" So he enjoins faithfulness on Timothy, and with Timothy on all who\nbear the charge of the gospel, \"before God and Christ Jesus, and the\nelect angels.\" What is public opinion, what the applause or derision of\nthe crowd, to him who lives and acts in the presence of these august\nspectators?\n\n\"Through the Church,\" we are told, the angels of God are \"now\" having\nHis \"manifold wisdom made known\" to them. It is not from the abstract\nscheme of salvation, from the theory or theology of the Church that they\nget this education, but through the living Church herself. The Saviour's\nmission to earth created a problem for them, the development of which\nthey follow with the most intense and sympathetic interest. With what\nsolicitude they watch the conflict between good and evil and the varying\nprogress of Christ's kingdom amongst men! Many things, doubtless, that\nengage our attention and fill a large space in our Church records, are\nof little account with them; and much that passes in obscurity, names\nand deeds unchronicled by fame, are written in heaven and pondered in\nother spheres. No brave and true blow is struck in Christ's battle, but\nit has the admiration of these high spectators. No advance is made in\ncharacter and habit, in Christian intelligence and efficiency and the\napplication of the gospel to human need, but they notice and approve.\nWhen the cause of the Church and the salvation of mankind go forward,\nwhen righteousness and peace triumph, the morning stars sing together\nand the sons of God shout for joy. The joy that there is in the presence\nof the angels of God over the repenting sinner, is not the joy of\nsympathy or pity only; it is the delight of growing wisdom, of deepening\ninsight into the ways of God, into the heart of the Father and the love\nthat passes knowledge.\n\nOne would suppose from what the apostle hints, that our world presents a\nproblem unique in the kingdom of God, one which raises questions more\ncomplicated and crucial than have elsewhere arisen. The heavenly\nprincedoms are learning through the Church \"the _manifold_ wisdom of\nGod.\" His love, in its pure essence, those happy and godlike beings\nknow. They have lived for ages in its unclouded light. His power and\nskill they may see displayed in proportions immensely grander than this\npuny globe of ours presents. God's justice, it may be, and the thunders\nof His law have issued forth in other regions clothed with a splendour\nof which the scenes of Sinai were but a faint emblem. It is in the\ncombination of the manifold principles of the Divine government that the\npeculiarity of the human problem appears to lie. The delicate and\ncontinuous balancing of forces in God's plan of dealing with this world,\nthe reconciliation of seeming incompatibilities, the issue found from\npositions of hopeless contradiction, the accord of goodness with\nseverity, of inflexible rectitude and truth with fatherly compassion,\nafford to the greatest minds of heaven a spectacle and a study\naltogether wonderful. So amongst ourselves the child of a noble house,\nreared in cultured ease and shielded from moral peril, in visiting the\nhomes of poverty in the crowded city finds a new world opened to him,\nthat can teach him Divine lessons if he has the heart to learn. His mind\nis awakened, his sympathies enriched. He hears the world's true voice,\n\"the still, sad music of humanity.\" He measures the heights and depths\nof man's nature. A host of questions are thrust upon him, whose urgency\nhe had scarcely guessed; and wide ranges of truth are lighted up for\nhim, which before were distant and unreal. The highest have ever to\nlearn from the lowest in Christ's school, the seeming-wise from the\nsimple; even the pure and good, from contact with the fallen whom they\nseek to save.\n\nAnd \"the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places\" are, it\nseems, willing to learn from those below them. As they traced the course\nof human history in those \"eternal times\" during which the mystery lay\nwrapped in silence, the angel watchers were too wise to play the\nsceptic, too cautious to criticize an unfinished plan and arraign a\njustice they could not yet understand. With a dignified patience they\nwaited the uplifting of the curtain and the unravelling of the entangled\nplot. They looked for the coming of the Promised One. So in due time\nthey witnessed and, for their reward, assisted in His manifestation.\nWith the same docility these high sharers of our theological inquiries\nstill wait to see the end of the Lord and to take their part in the\nd\u00e9nouement of the time-drama, in the revelation of the sons of God. Let\nus copy their long patience. God has not made us to mock us. \"What thou\nknowest not now,\" said the great Revealer, the Master of all mysteries,\nto His disciple, \"thou shalt know hereafter.\"\n\nThese wise elder brothers of ours, rich in the lore of eternity, foresee\nthe things to come as we cannot do. They are far above the smoke and\ndust of the earthly conflict. The doubts that shake the strongest souls\namongst us, the cries of the hour which confuse and deceive us, do not\ntrouble them. They behold us in our weakness, our fears and our\ndivisions; but they also look on Him who \"sits expecting till His\nenemies are made His footstool.\" They see how calmly He sits, how\npatiently expectant, while the sound of clashing arms and the rage and\ntumult of the peoples go up from the earth. They mark the steadiness\nwith which through century after century, in spite of refluent waves,\nthe tide of mercy rises, and still rises on the shores of earth.\nThrones, systems, civilizations have gone down; one after another of the\npowers that strove to crush or to corrupt Christ's Church has\ndisappeared; and still the name of Jesus lives and spreads. It has\ntraversed every continent and sea; it stands at the head of the living\nand moving forces of the world. Those who come nearest to the angelic\npoint of view, and judge of the progress of things not by the froth upon\nthe surface but by the trend of the deeper currents, are the most\nconfident for the future of our race. The kingdom of Satan will not fall\nwithout a struggle--a last struggle, perhaps more furious than any in\nthe past--but it is doomed, and waning to its end. So far has the\nkingdom of Christ advanced, so mightily does the word of God grow and\nprevail in the earth, that faith may well assure itself of the promised\ntriumph. Soon we shall shout: \"Alleluia! The Lord God Omnipotent\nreigneth!\"\n\nIII. Suddenly, according to his wont, the apostle drops down from the\nheights of contemplation to the level of ordinary fact. He descends in\nverse 12 from the thought of the eternal purpose and the education of\nthe angels to the struggling Church. The assurance of its life in the\nSpirit corresponds to the grandeur of that Divine order to which it\nbelongs. \"In whom,\" he says--in this Christ, the revealed mystery of\nages past, the Teacher of angels and archangels--\"we have our freedom\nand confident access to God through faith in Him.\"\n\nIf it be \"Jesus our Lord\" to whom these attributes belong, and He is not\nashamed of us, well may we draw near with _confidence_ to the Father,\nunashamed in the presence of His holy angels. We have no need to be\nabashed, if we approach the Divine Majesty with a true faith in Christ.\nHis name gives the sinner access to the holiest place. The cherubim\nsheathe their swords of flame. The heavenly warders at this passport\nopen the golden gates. We \"come unto Mount Sion, the city of the living\nGod, and to an innumerable company of angels.\" Not one of these\nmightinesses and ancient peers of heaven, not Gabriel or Michael\nhimself, would wish or dare to bar our entrance.\n\n\"We _have_ boldness and access,\" says the apostle, as in chapter i. 7:\n\"We have redemption in His blood.\" He insists upon the conscious fact.\nThis freedom of approach to God, this sonship of faith, is no hope or\ndream of what may be; it is a present reality, a filial cry heard in a\nmultitude both of Gentile and Jewish hearts (comp. ii. 18).\n\nThis sentence exhibits the richness of synonyms characteristic of the\nepistle. There is _boldness_ and _access_, _confidence_ as well as\n_faith_. The three former terms Bengel nicely distinguishes: \"libertatem\n_oris_ in orando,\" and \"admissionem in fiducia _in re_, et\n_corde_\"--freedom of _speech_ (in prayer), of _status_, and of\n_feeling_. The second word (as in chapter ii. 18 and Romans v. 2)\nappears to be active rather than passive in its force, denoting\n_admittance_ rather than _access_. So that while the former of the\nparallel terms (_boldness_) describes the liberty with which the\nnew-born Church of the redeemed address themselves to God the Father and\nthe unchecked freedom of their petitions, the latter (_admittance_)\ntakes us back to the act of Christ by which He introduced us to the\nFather's presence and gave us the place of sons in the house. Being thus\nadmitted, we may come with confidence of heart, though we be less than\nthe least of saints. Accepted in the Beloved, we are within our right if\nwe say to the Father:--\n\n \"Yet in Thy Son divinely great,\n We claim Thy providential care.\n Boldly we stand before Thy seat;\n Our Advocate hath placed us there!\"\n\n\"Wherefore,\" concludes the imprisoned apostle, \"I beg you not to lose\nheart at my afflictions for you.\" Assuredly Paul did not pray that _he_\nshould not lose heart, as some interpret his meaning. But he knew how\nhis friends were fretting and wearying over his long captivity. Hence he\nwrites to the Philippians: \"I would have you know that the things which\nhave happened to me have turned out rather to the furtherance of the\ngospel.\" Hence, too, he assures the Colossians earnestly of his joy in\nsuffering for their sake (ch. i. 24).\n\nThe Church was fearful for Paul's life and distressed by his prolonged\nsufferings. It missed his cheering presence and the inspiration of his\nvoice. But if the Church is so dear to God as the pages of this letter\nshow, and grounded in His eternal purposes, then let all friends of\nChrist take courage. The ark freighted with such fortunes cannot sink.\nSt Paul is a martyr for Christ, and for Gentile Christendom! Every\nstroke that falls upon him, every day added to the months of his\nimprisonment helps to show the worth of the cause he has espoused and\ngives to it increased lustre: \"my afflictions for you, which are your\nglory.\"\n\nThose that love him should _boast_ rather than grieve over his\nafflictions. \"We make our boast in you amongst the Churches of God,\" he\nwrote to the distressed Thessalonians (2 Ep. i. 4), \"for your patience\nand faith in all your persecutions and afflictions\"; so he would have\nthe Churches think of him. When good men suffer in a good cause, it is\nnot matter for pity and dread, but rather for a holy pride.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[93] See note on p. 47; also pp. 83, 189.\n\n\n\n\n_PRAYER AND PRAISE._\n\nCHAPTER iii. 14-21.\n\n =To hyperechon t\u00eas gn\u00f4se\u00f4s Christou I\u00easou tou Kyriou mou.=--PHIL.\n iii. 8.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n_THE COMPREHENSION OF CHRIST._\n\n \"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every\n family in heaven and upon earth is named, that He would grant you,\n according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened\n with power through His Spirit in the inward man; that the Christ may\n dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted\n and grounded in love, may be strong to comprehend with all the\n saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.\"--EPH.\n iii. 14-18.\n\n\nIn verse 14 the prayer is resumed which the apostle was about to offer\nat the beginning of the chapter, when the current of his thoughts\ncarried him away. The supplication is offered \"for this cause\" (vv. 1,\n14),--it arises out of the teaching of the preceding pages. Thinking of\nall that God has wrought in the Christ, and has accomplished by means of\nHis gospel in multitudes of Gentiles as well as Jews, reconciling them\nto Himself in one body and forming them together into a temple for His\nSpirit, the apostle bows his knees before God on their behalf. So much\nhe had in mind, when at the end of the second chapter he was in act to\npray for the Asian Christians that they might be enabled to enter into\nthis far-reaching purpose. Other aspects of the great design of God rose\nupon the writer's mind before his prayer could find expression. He has\ntold us of his own part in disclosing it to the world, and of the\ninterest it excites amongst the dwellers in heavenly places,--thoughts\nfull of comfort for the Gentile believers troubled by his imprisonment\nand continued sufferings. These further reflections add new meaning to\nthe \"For this cause\" repeated from verse 1.\n\nThe prayer which he offers here is no less remarkable and unique in his\nepistles than the act of praise in chapter i. Addressing himself to God\nas the Father of angels and of men, the apostle asks that He will endow\nthe readers in a manner corresponding to _the wealth of His glory_--in\nother words, that the gifts He bestows may be worthy of the universal\nFather, worthy of the august character in which God has now revealed\nHimself to mankind. According to this measure, St Paul beseeches for the\nChurch, in the first instance, two gifts, which after all are\none,--viz., _the inward strength of the Holy Spirit_ (ver. 16), and _the\npermanent indwelling of Christ_ (ver. 17). These gifts he asks on his\nreaders' behalf with a view to their gaining two further blessings,\nwhich are also one,--viz., _the power to understand the Divine plan_\n(ver. 18) as it has been expounded in this letter, and so _to know the\nlove of Christ_ (ver. 19). Still, beyond these there rises in the\ndistance a further end for man and the Church: _the reception of the\nentire fulness of God_. Human desire and thought thus reach their limit;\nthey grasp at the infinite.\n\nIn this Chapter we will strive to follow the apostle's prayer to the end\nof the eighteenth verse, where it arrives at its chief aim and touches\nthe main thought of the epistle, expressing the desire that all\nbelievers may have power to realize the full scope of the salvation of\nChrist in which they participate.\n\nLet us pause for a moment to join in St Paul's invocation: \"I bow my\nknees to the Father, of whom [not _the whole family_, but] _every\nfamily_ in heaven and upon earth is named.\" The point of St Paul's\noriginal phrase is somewhat lost in translation. The Greek word for\n_family_ (_patria_) is based on that for _father_ (_pater_). A\ndistinguished father anciently gave his name to his descendants; and\nthis paternal name became the bond of family or tribal union, and the\ntitle which ennobled the race. So we have \"the sons of Israel,\" the\n\"sons of Aaron\" or \"of Korah\"; and in Greek history, the Atridae, the\nAlcmaeonidae, who form a family of many kindred households--a _clan_, or\n_gens_, designated by their ancestral head. Thus Joseph (in Luke ii. 4)\nis described as \"being of the house and family [_patria_] of David\"; and\nJesus is \"the Son of David.\" Now Scripture speaks also of _sons of God_;\nand these of two chief orders. There are those \"in heaven,\" who form a\nrace distinct from ourselves in origin--divided, it may be, amongst\nthemselves into various orders and dwelling in their several homes in\nthe heavenly places.\n\nOf these are \"the sons of God\" whom the Book of Job pictures appearing\nin the Divine court and forming a \"family in heaven.\" When Christ\npromises (Luke xx. 36) that His disciples in their immortal state will\nbe \"equal to the angels,\" because they are \"sons of God,\" it is implied\nthat the angels are already and by birthright sons of God. Hence in\nHebrews xii. 22, 23 the angels are described as \"the festal gathering\nand assembly of _the firstborn_ enrolled in heaven.\" We, the sons of\nAdam, with our many tribes and kindreds, through Jesus Christ our Elder\nBrother constitute a new family of God. God becomes our Name-father, and\npermits us also to call ourselves His sons through faith. Thus the\nChurch of believers in the Son of God constitutes the \"family on earth\nnamed\" from the same Father who gave His name to the holy angels, our\nwise and strong and brilliant elder brothers. They and we are alike\nGod's offspring. Heaven and earth are kindred spheres.\n\nThis passage gives to God's Fatherhood the same extension that chapter\ni. 21 has given to Christ's Lordship. Every order of creaturely\nintelligence acknowledges God for the Author of its being, and bows to\nChrist as its sovereign Lord. In God's name of Father the entire wealth\nof love that streams forth from Him through endless ages and unmeasured\nworlds is hidden; and in the name of sons of God there is contained the\nblessedness of all creatures that can bear His image.\n\n * * * * *\n\nI. What, therefore, shall the universal Father be asked to give to His\nneedy children upon earth? They have newly learnt His name; they are\nbarely recovered from the malady of their sin, fearful of trial, weak to\nmeet temptation. _Strength_ is their first necessity: \"I bow my knees to\nthe Father of heaven and earth, praying that He may grant you, according\nto the riches of His glory, to be strengthened by the entering of the\nSpirit into your inward man.\" The apostle asked them in verse 13, in\nview of the greatness of his own calling, to be of good courage on his\naccount; now he entreats God so to reveal to them His glory and to pour\ninto their hearts His Spirit, that no weakness and fear may remain in\nthem. The _strengthening_ of which he speaks is the opposite of the\n_faintness of heart_, the failure of courage deprecated in verse 13.\nUsing the same word, the apostle bids the Corinthians \"Quit themselves\nlike men, _be strong_\" (1 Ep. xvi. 13). He desires for the Asian\nbelievers a manful heart, the strength that meets battle and danger\nwithout quailing.\n\nThe source of this strength is not in ourselves. We are to be\n\"strengthened _with_ [or _by_] _power_,\"--by \"the power\" of God \"working\nin us\" (ver. 20), the very same \"power, exceeding great,\" that raised\nJesus our Lord from the dead (i. 19). This superhuman might of God\noperating in men is always referred to the Holy Spirit: \"by power made\nstrong,\" he says, \"_through the Spirit_.\" Nothing is more familiar in\nScripture than the conception of the indwelling Spirit of God as the\nsource of moral strength. The special power that belongs to the gospel\nChrist ascribes altogether to this cause. \"Ye shall receive power,\" He\nsaid to His disciples, \"after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.\"\nHence is derived the vigour of a strong faith, the valour of the good\nsoldier of Christ Jesus, the courage of the martyrs, the cheerful and\nindomitable patience of multitudes of obscure sufferers for\nrighteousness' sake. There is a great truth expressed when we describe a\nbrave and enterprising man as a _man of spirit_. All high and commanding\nqualities of soul come from this invisible source. They are\ninspirations. In the human will, with its _vis vivida_, its elasticity\nand buoyancy, its steadfastness and resolved purpose, is the highest\ntype of force and the image of the almighty Will. When that will is\nanimated and filled with \"the Spirit,\" the man so possessed is the\nembodiment of an inconceivable power. Firm principle, hope and\nconstancy, self-mastery, superiority to pleasure and pain,--all the\nelements of a noble courage are proper to the man of the Spirit. Such\npower is not neutralized by our infirmities; it asserts itself under\ntheir limiting conditions and makes them its contributories. \"My grace\nis sufficient for thee,\" said Christ to His disabled servant; \"for\npower is perfected in weakness.\" In privation and loneliness, in old age\nand bodily decay, the strength of God in the human spirit shines with\nits purest lustre. Never did St Paul rise to such a height of moral\nascendency as at the time when he was \"smitten down\" and all but\ndestroyed by persecution and affliction. \"That the excellency of the\npower,\" he says, \"may be of God, and not from ourselves\" (2 Cor. iv.\n7-11).\n\nThe apostle points to \"the inner man\" as the seat of this invigoration,\nthinking perhaps of its secrecy. While the world buffets and dismays the\nChristian, new vigour and joy are infused into his soul. The surface\nwaters and summer brooks of comfort fail; but there opens in the heart a\nspring fed by the river of life proceeding from the throne of God.\nBeneath the toil-worn frame, the mean attire and friendless condition of\nthe prisoner Paul--a mark for the world's scorn--there lives a strength\nof thought and will mightier than the empire of the Caesars, a power of\nthe Spirit that is to dominate the centuries to come. Of this omnipotent\npower dwelling in the Church of God, the apostle prays that every one of\nhis readers may partake.\n\nII. Parallel to the first petition, and in substance identical with it,\nis the second: \"that the Christ may make His dwelling through faith in\nyour hearts.\" Such, it seems to us, is the relation of verses 16 and 17.\nChrist's residence in the heart is to be viewed neither as the result,\nnor the antecedent of the strength given by the Spirit to the inward\nman: the two are simultaneous; they are the same things seen in a\nvarying light.\n\nWe observe in this prayer the same vein of Trinitarian thought which\nmarks the doxology of chapter i., and other leading passages in this\nepistle.[94] The Father, the Spirit, and the Christ are unitedly the\nobject of the apostle's devout supplication.\n\nAs in the previous clause, the verb of verse 17 bears emphasis and\nconveys the point of St Paul's entreaty; he asks that \"the Christ may\n_take up His abode_,--may _settle_ in your hearts.\" The word signifies\nto _set up one's house_ or _make one's home_ in a place, by way of\ncontrast with a temporary and uncertain sojourn (comp. ii. 19). The same\nverb in Colossians ii. 9 asserts that in Christ \"_dwells_ all the\nfulness of the Godhead\"; and in Colossians i. 19 it declares, used in\nthe same tense as here, how it was God's \"pleasure that all the fulness\nshould _make its dwelling_ in Him\" now raised from the dead, who had\nemptied and humbled Himself to fulfil the purpose of the Father's love.\nSo it is desired that Christ should take His seat within us. He is never\nagain to stand at the door and knock, nor to have a doubtful and\ndisputed footing in the house. Let the Master come in, and claim His\nown. Let Him become the heart's fixed tenant and full occupier. Let Him,\nif He will thus condescend, make Himself at home within us and there\nrest in His love. For He promised: \"If any man love me, my Father will\nlove him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.\"\n\nAnd \"_the_ Christ,\" not Christ alone. Why does the apostle say this?\nThere is a reason for the definite article, as we have found\nelsewhere.[95] The apostle is asking for his Asian brethren something\nbeyond that possession of Christ which belongs to every true\nChristian,--more even than the permanence and certainty of this\nindwelling indicated by the verb. \"The Christ\" is Christ in the\nsignificance of His _name_. It is Christ not only possessed, but\nunderstood,--Christ realized in the import of His work, in the light of\nHis relationship to the Father and the Spirit, and to men. It is the\nChrist of the Church and the ages--known and accepted for all this--that\nSt Paul would fain have dwelling in the heart of each of his Gentile\ndisciples. He is endeavouring to raise them to an adequate comprehension\nof the greatness of the Redeemer's person and offices; he longs to have\ntheir minds possessed by his own views of Christ Jesus the Lord.\n\n_The heart_, in the language of the Bible, never denotes the emotional\nnature by itself. The antithesis of \"heart and head,\" the divorce of\nfeeling and understanding in our modern speech is foreign to Scripture.\nThe heart is our interior, conscious self--thought, feeling, will in\ntheir personal unity. It needs the whole Christ to fill and rule the\nwhole heart,--a Christ who is the Lord of the intellect, the Light of\nthe reason, no less than the Master of the feelings and desires.\n\nThe difference in significance between \"Christ\" or \"Christ Jesus\" and\n\"the Christ\" in such a sentence as this, is not unlike the difference\nbetween \"Queen Victoria\" and \"the Queen.\" The latter phrase brings Her\nMajesty before us in the grandeur and splendour of her Queenship. We\nthink of her vast dominion, of her line of royal and famous ancestry, of\nher beneficent and memorable reign. So, to know the Christ is to\napprehend Him in the height of His Godhead, in the breadth of His\nhumanity, in the plenitude of His nature and His powers. And this is the\nobject to which the teaching and the prayers of St Paul for the Churches\nat the present time are directed. Understanding in this larger sense the\nindwelling of the Christ for which he prays, we see how naturally his\nsupplication expands into the \"height and depth\" of the ensuing verse.\n\nBut however large the mental conception of Christ that St Paul desires\nto impart to us, it is to be grasped \"through faith.\" All real\nunderstanding and appropriation of Christ, the simplest and the most\nadvanced, come by this channel,--through the faith of the heart in which\nknowledge, will and feeling blend in that one act of trustful\napprehension of the truth concerning Jesus Christ by which the soul\ncommits itself to Him.\n\nHow much is contained in this petition of the apostle that we need to\nask for ourselves, Christ Jesus dwells now as then in the hearts of all\nwho love Him. But how little do we know our heavenly Guest! how poor a\nChrist is ours, compared to the Christ of Paul's experience! how slight\nand empty a word is His name to multitudes of those who bear it! If men\nhave once attained a sense of His salvation, and are satisfied of their\ninterest in His atonement and their right to hope for eternal life\nthrough Him, their minds are at rest. They have accepted Christ and\nreceived what He has to give them; they turn their attention to other\nthings. They do not love Christ enough to study Him. They have other\nmental interests,--scientific, literary, political or industrial; but\nthe knowledge of Christ has no intellectual attraction for them. With St\nPaul's passionate ardour, the ceaseless craving of his mind to \"know\nHim,\" these complacent believers have no sympathy whatever. This, they\nthink, belongs only to a few, to men of metaphysical bias or of\nreligious genius like the great apostle. Theology is regarded as a\nsubject for specialists. The laity, with a lamentable and disastrous\nneglect, leave the study of Christian doctrine to the ministry. The\nChrist cannot take His due place in His people's heart, He will not\nreveal to them the wealth of His glory, while they know so little and\ncare to know so little of Him. How many can be found, outside the ranks\nof the ordained, that make a sacrifice of other favourite pursuits to\nmeditate on Christ? what prosperous merchant, what active man of affairs\nis there who will spare an hour each day from his other gains \"for the\nexcellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord\"?--\"If at the\npresent time the religious life of the Church is languid, and if in its\nenterprises there is little of audacity and vehemence, a partial\nexplanation is to be found in that decline of intellectual interest in\nthe contents of the Christian Faith which has characterized the last\nhundred or hundred and fifty years of our history.\"[96]\n\nIt is a knowledge that when pursued grows upon the mind without limit.\nSt Paul, who knew so much, for that reason felt that all he had attained\nwas but in the bud and beginning. \"The Christ\" is a subject infinite as\nnature, large and wide as history. With our enlarged apprehension of\nHim, the heart enlarges in capacity and moral power. Not unfrequently,\nthe study of Christ in Scripture and experience gives to unlettered men,\nto men whose mind before their conversion was dull and uninformed, an\nintellectual quality, a power of discernment and apprehension that\ntrained scholars might envy. By such thoughtful, constant fellowship\nwith Him the vigour of spirit and courage in affliction are sustained,\nthat the apostle first asked from God on behalf of his anxious Gentile\nfriends.\n\nIII. The prayers now offered might suffice, if St Paul were concerned\nonly for the individual needs of those to whom he writes and their\npersonal advancement in the new life. But it is otherwise. _The Church_\nfills his mind. Its lofty claims at every turn he has pressed on our\nattention. This is God's holy temple and the habitation of His Spirit;\nit is the body in which Christ dwells, the bride that He has chosen. The\nChurch is the object that draws the eyes of heaven; through it the\nangelic powers are learning undreamed-of lessons of God's wisdom. Round\nthis centre the apostle's intercession must needs revolve. When he asks\nfor his readers added strength of heart and a richer fellowship with\nChrist, it is in order that they may be the better able to enter into\nthe Church's life and to apprehend God's great designs for mankind.\n\nThis object so much absorbs the writer's thoughts and has been so\nconstantly in view from the outset, that it does not occur to him, in\nverse 18, to say precisely _what_ that is whose \"breadth and length and\nheight and depth\" the readers are to measure. The vast building stands\nbefore us and needs not to be named; we have only not to look away from\nit, not to forget what we have been reading all this time. It is _God's\nplan for the world in Christ_; it is the purpose of the ages realized in\nthe building of His Church. This conception was so impressive to the\noriginal readers and has held their attention so closely since the\napostle unfolded it in the course of the second chapter, that they would\nhave no difficulty in supplying the ellipsis which has given so much\ntrouble to the commentators since.\n\nIf we are asked to interpret the four several magnitudes that are\nassigned to this building of God, we may say with Hofmann[97]: \"It\nstretches _wide_ over all the world of the nations, east and west. In\nits _length_, it reaches through all time unto the end of things. In\n_depth_, it penetrates to the region where the faithful sleep in death\n[comp. iv. 9]. And it rises to heaven's _height_, where Christ lives.\"\nIn the like strain Bernardine \u00e0 Piconio, most genial and spiritual of\nRomanist interpreters: \"_Wide_ as the furthest limits of the inhabited\nworld, _long_ as the ages of eternity through which God's love to His\npeople will endure, _deep_ as the abyss of misery and ruin from which He\nhas raised us, _high_ as the throne of Christ in the heavens where He\nhas placed us.\" Such is the commonwealth to which we belong, such the\ndimensions of this city of God built on the foundation of the\napostles,--\"that lieth four-square.\"\n\nDo we not need to be _strong_--to \"gain full strength,\" as the apostle\nprays, in order to grasp in its substance and import this immense\nrevelation and to handle it with practical effect? Narrowness is\nfeebleness. The greatness of the Church, as God designed it, matches the\ngreatness of the Christ Himself. It needs a firm spiritual faith, a\nfar-seeing intelligence, and a charity broad as the love of Christ to\ncomprehend this mystery. From many believing eyes it is still hidden.\nAlas for our cold hearts, our weak and partial judgements! alas for the\nmaterialism that infects our Church theories, and that limits God's free\ngrace and the sovereign action of His Spirit to visible channels and\nministrations \"wrought by hand.\" Those who call themselves Churchmen\nand Catholics contradict the titles they boast when they bar out their\nloyal Christian brethren from the covenant rights of faith, when they\ndeny churchly standing to communities with a love to Christ as warm and\nfruitful in good works, a gospel as pure and saving, a discipline at\nleast as faithful as their own. Who are we that we dare to forbid those\nwho are doing mighty works in the name of Christ, because they follow\nnot with us? When we are fain to pull down every building of God that\ndoes not square with our own ecclesiastical plans, we do not apprehend\n\"what is the breadth!\"\n\nWe draw close about us the walls of Christ's wide house, as if to\nconfine Him in our single chamber. We call our particular communion \"the\nChurch,\" and the rest \"the sects\"; and disfranchise, so far as our word\nand judgement go, a multitude of Christ's freemen and God's elect, our\nfellow-citizens in the New Jerusalem--saints, some of them, whose feet\nwe well might deem ourselves unworthy to wash. A Church theory that\nleads to such results as these, that condemns Nonconformists to be\nstrangers in the House of God, is self-condemned. It will perish of its\nown chillness and formalism. Happily, many of those who hold the\ndoctrine of exclusive Roman or Anglican, or Baptist or Presbyterian\nlegitimacy, are in feeling and practice more catholic than in their\ncreed.\n\n\"With _all_ the saints\" the Asian Christians are called to enter into St\nPaul's wider view of God's work in the world. For this is a collective\nidea, to be shared by many minds and that should sway all Christian\nhearts at once. It is the collective aim of Christianity that St Paul\nwants his readers to understand, its mission to save humanity and to\nreconstruct the world for a temple of God. This is a calling for _all\nthe saints_; but only for _saints_,--for men devoted to God and renewed\nby His Spirit. It was \"revealed to His _holy_ apostles and prophets\"\n(ver. 5); and it needs men of the same quality for its bearers and\ninterpreters.\n\nBut the first condition for this largeness of sympathy and aim is that\nstated at the beginning of the verse, thrown forward there with an\nemphasis that almost does violence to grammar: \"in love being fast\nrooted and grounded.\" Where Christ dwells abidingly in the heart, love\nenters with Him and becomes the ground of our nature, the basis on which\nour thought and action rest, the soil in which our purposes grow. _Love_\nis the mark of the true Broad Churchman in all Churches, the man to whom\nChrist is all things and in all, and who, wherever he sees a Christlike\nman, loves him and counts him a brother.\n\nWhen such love to Christ fills all our hearts and penetrates to their\ndepths, we shall have strength to shake off our prejudices, strength to\nmaster our intellectual difficulties and limitations. We shall have the\ncourage to adopt Christ's simple rule of fellowship: \"Whosoever shall\ndo the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister,\nand mother.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[94] See ch. i. 17, ii. 18, 22, and especially ch. iv. 4-6.\n\n[95] See pp. 47, 83, 169.\n\n[96] _Lectures on Ephesians_, pp. 235-8. No one who has read Dr. R. W.\nDale's noble Lectures on this epistle, can write upon the same subject\nwithout being deeply in his debt.\n\n[97] _Der Brief Pauli an die Epheser_, p. 138. Hofmann is one of those\nwriters from whom one constantly learns, although one must as often\ndiffer from him as agree with him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n_KNOWING THE UNKNOWABLE._\n\n \"[I pray] that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong\n to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and\n height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth\n knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.\"--EPH.\n iii. 17-19.\n\n\nWe were compelled to pause before reaching the end of the apostle's\ncomprehensive prayer. But we must not let slip the thread of its\nconnexion. Verse 19 is the necessary sequel and counterpart of verse 18.\nThe catholic love which embraces \"all the saints\" and \"comprehends\" in\nits wide dimensions the extent of the Redeemer's kingdom, admits us to a\ndeeper knowledge of Christ's own love. The breadth and length, the\nheight and depth of the work of Christ in men and the ages give us a\nworthier conception of the love that inspired and sustains it. \"In the\nChurch\" at once \"and in Christ Jesus\" God's glory is revealed. Our\nChurch views react upon our views of Christ and our sense of His love.\nBigotry and exclusiveness towards His brethren chill the heart towards\nHimself. Our sectarianism stints and narrows our apprehensions of the\nDivine grace.\n\n * * * * *\n\nI. St Paul prays that we may \"_know_ [not _comprehend_] the love of\nChrist\"; for it \"passes knowledge.\" Amongst the Greek words denoting\nmental activity, that here employed signifies knowledge in the\nacquisition rather than possession--_getting to know_. Hence it is\nrightly, and often used of things Divine that \"we know in part,\" our\nknowledge of which falls short of the reality while it is growing up to\nit. Thus understood, the contradiction of the apostle's wish disappears.\nWe know the unknowable, just as we \"clearly see the invisible things of\nGod\" (Rom. i. 20). The idea is conveyed of an object that invites our\nobservation and pursuit, but which at every step outreaches\napprehension, each discovery revealing depths within it unperceived\nbefore. Such was the knowledge of Christ to the soul of St Paul. To the\nPhilippians the aged apostle writes: \"I do not reckon myself to have\napprehended Him. I am in pursuit! I forget the past; I press on eagerly\nto the goal. I have but one object in view and sacrifice everything for\nit,--that I may _win Christ_!\"\n\nIn all the mystery of Christ, there is nothing more wonderful and past\nfinding out than His love. For nigh thirty years Paul has been living in\ndaily fellowship with the love of Christ, his heart full of it and all\nthe powers of his mind bent upon its comprehension: he cannot understand\nit yet! At this moment it amazes him more than ever.\n\nGreat as the Christian community is, and large as the place and part\nassigned to it by this epistle, that is still finite and a creation of\ntime. The apostle's doctrine of the Church is not beyond the\ncomprehension of a mind sufficiently loving and enlightened. But though\nwe had followed him so far and had well and truly apprehended the\nmystery he has revealed to us, the love of Christ is still beyond us.\nOur principles of judgement and standards of comparison fail us when\napplied to this subject. Human love has in many instances displayed\nheroic qualities; it can rise to a divine height of purity and\ntenderness; but its noblest sacrifices will not bear to be put by the\nside of the cross of Christ. No picture of that love but shows poor and\ndull compared with the reality; no eloquence lavished upon it but lowers\nthe theme. Our logical framework of doctrine fails to enclose and hold\nit; the love of Christ defies analysis and escapes from all our\ndefinitions. Those who know the world best, who have ranged through\nhistory and philosophy and the life of living men and have measured most\ngenerously the possibilities of human nature, are filled with a\nwondering reverence when they come to know the love of Christ. \"Never\nman spake like this man,\" said one; but verily never man loved like\nJesus Christ. He expects to be loved more than father or mother; for His\nlove surpasses theirs. We cannot describe His love, nor delineate its\nfeatures as Paul saw them when he wrote these lines. Go to the Gospels,\nand behold it as it lived and wrought for men. Stand and watch at the\ncross. Then if the eyes of your heart are open, you will see the great\nsight--the love that passeth knowledge.\n\nWhen, turning from Christ Himself in His own person and presence, before\nwhom praise is speechless, we contemplate the manifestations of His love\nto mankind; when we consider that its fountain lies in the bosom of the\nEternal; when we trace its footsteps prepared from the world's\nfoundation, and perceive it choosing a people for its own and making its\npromises and raising up its heralds and forerunners; when at last it can\nhide and refrain itself no longer, but comes forth incarnate with lowly\nheart to take our infirmities and carry our diseases--yea, to put away\nour sin by the sacrifice of itself; when we behold that same Love which\nthe hands of men had slain, setting up its cross for the sign of its\ncovenant of peace with mankind, and enthroned in the majesty of heaven\nwaiting even as a bridegroom joyously for the time when its ransomed\nshall be brought home, redeemed from iniquity and gathered unto itself\nfrom all the kindreds of the earth; and when we see how this mystery of\nlove, in its sufferings and glories and its deep-laid plans for all the\ncreatures, engages the ardent study and sympathy of the heavenly\nprincipalities,--in view of these things, who can but feel himself\nunworthy to know the love of Christ or to speak one word on its behalf?\nAre we not ready to say like Peter, \"Depart from me, for I am a sinful\nman, O Lord\"?\n\nThis is a revelation that searches every man's soul who looks into it.\nWhat is there so confounding to our reason and our human\nself-complacency as the discovery: \"He loved me; He gave Himself up for\nme\"--that He should do it, and should _need_ to do it! It was this that\nwent to Saul's heart, that gave the mortal blow to the Jewish pride in\nhim, strong as it was with the growth of centuries. The bearer of this\ngrace and the ambassador of Christ's love to the Gentiles, he feels\nhimself to be \"less than the least of all the saints.\" We carry in our\nhands to show to men a heavenly light, which throws our own unloveliness\ninto dark relief.\n\nII. The _love of Christ_ connects together, in the apostle's thoughts,\n_the greatness of the Church_ and _the fulness of God_. The two former\nconceptions--Christ's love and the Church's greatness--go together in\nour minds; knowing them, we are led onwards to the realization of the\nlast.\n\nThe \"fulness [_pleroma_] of God,\" and the \"filling\" (or \"completing\") of\nbelievers in Christ are ideas characteristic of this group of epistles.\nThe first of these expressions we have discussed already in its\nconnexion with Christ, in chapter i. 23; we shall meet with it again as\n\"the fulness of Christ\" in chapter iv. 13. The phrase before us is, in\nsubstance, identical with that of the latter text. Christ contains the\nDivine plenitude; He embodies it in His person, and conveys it to the\nworld by His redemption. St Paul desires for the Asian Christians that\nthey may receive it; it is the ultimate mark of his prayer. He wishes\nthem to gain the total sum of all that God communicates to men. He would\nhave them \"filled\"--their nature made complete both in its individual\nand social relations, their powers of mind and heart brought into full\nexercise, their spiritual capacities developed and replenished--\"filled\nunto all the plenitude of God.\"\n\nThis is no humanistic or humanitarian ideal. The mark of Christian\ncompleteness is on a different and higher plane than any that is set up\nby culture. The ideal Christian is a greater man than the ideal citizen\nor artist or philosopher: he may include within himself any or all of\nthese characters, but he transcends them. He may conform to none of\nthese types, and yet be a perfect man in Christ Jesus. Our race cannot\nrest in any perfection that stops short of \"the fulness of God.\" When we\nhave received all that God has to give in Christ, when the community of\nmen is once more a family of God and the Father's will is done on earth\nas in heaven, then and not before will our life be complete. That is the\ngoal of humanity; and the civilization that does not lead to it is a\nwandering from the way. \"You are complete in Christ,\" says the apostle.\nThe progress of the ages since confirms the saying.\n\nThe apostle prays that his readers may know the love of Christ. This is\na part of the Divine plenitude; nor is there anything in it deeper. But\nthere is more to know. When he asks for \"_all_ the fulness,\" he thinks\nof other elements of revelation in which we are to participate. God's\n_wisdom_, His _truth_, His _righteousness_, along with His _love_ in its\nmanifold forms,--all the qualities that, in one word, go to make up His\n_holiness_, are communicable and belong to the image stamped by the Holy\nSpirit on the nature of God's children. \"Ye shall be holy, for I am\nholy\" is God's standing command to His sons. So Jesus bids His\ndisciples, \"Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.\" St Paul's\nprayer \"is but another way of expressing the continuous aspiration and\neffort after holiness which is enjoined in our Lord's precept\"\n(Lightfoot).\n\nWhile the holiness of God gathers up into one stream of white radiance\nthe revelation of His character, \"the fulness of God\" spreads it abroad\nin its many-coloured richness and variety. The term accords with the\naffluence of thought that marks this supplication. The might of the\nSpirit that strengthens weak human hearts, the greatness of the Christ\nwho is the guest of our faith, His wide-spreading kingdom and the vast\ninterests it embraces and His own love surpassing all,--these objects of\nthe soul's desire issue from the fulness of God; and they lead us in\npursuing them, like streams pouring into the ocean, back to the eternal\nGodhead. The mediatorial kingdom has its end; Christ, when He has \"put\ndown all rule and authority,\" will at last \"yield it up to His God and\nFather\"; and \"the Son Himself will be subjected to Him that put all\nthings under Him, that God may be all in all\" (1 Cor. xv. 24-28). This\nis the crown of the Redeemer's mission, the end which His love to the\nFather seeks. But when that end is reached, and the soul with immediate\nvision beholds the Father's glory, the Plenitude will be still new and\nunexhausted; the soul will then begin its deepest lessons in the\nknowledge of God which is life eternal.\n\n * * * * *\n\nSt Paul is conscious of the extreme boldness of the prayer he has just\nuttered. But he protests that, instead of going beyond God's purposes,\nit falls short of them. This assurance rises, in verses 20 and 21, into\na rapture of praise. It is a cry of exultation, a true song of triumph,\nthat breaks from the apostle's lips:--\n\n \"Now unto Him that is able to do above all things,--\n Yea, far exceedingly beyond what we ask or think,--\n According to the power that worketh in us:\n To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus,\n Unto all generations of the age of the ages.--Amen!\"\n\n (vv. 20, 21).\n\nPraise soars higher than prayer. When St Paul has reached in\nsupplication the summit of his desires, he sees the plenitude of God's\ngifts still by a whole heaven outreaching him. But it is only from these\nmountain-tops hardly won in the exercise of prayer, in their still air\nand tranquil light, that the boundless realms of promise are visible.\nGod's giving surpasses immeasurably our thought and asking; but there\nmust be the asking and the thinking for it to surpass. He puts always\nmore into our hand and better things than we expected--when the\nexpectant hand is reached out to Him.\n\nMan's desires will never overtake God's bounty. Hearing the prayer just\noffered, unbelief will say: \"You have asked too much. It is preposterous\nto expect that raw Gentile converts, scarcely raised above their heathen\ndebasement, should enter into these exalted notions of yours about\nChrist and the Church and should be filled with the fulness of God!\nPrayer must be rational and within the bounds of possibility, offered\n'with the understanding' as well as 'with the spirit,' or it becomes\nmere extravagance.\"--The apostle gives a twofold answer to this kind of\nscepticism. He appeals to the Divine omnipotence. \"With men,\" you say,\n\"this is impossible.\" Humanly speaking, St Paul's Gentile disciples were\nincapable of any high spiritual culture; they were unpromising material,\nwith \"not many wise or many noble\" amongst them, some of them before\ntheir conversion stained with infamous vices. Who is to make saints and\ngodlike men out of such human refuse as this! But \"with God,\" as Jesus\nsaid, \"all things are possible.\" _Faex urbis, lux orbis_: \"the scum of\nthe city is made the light of the world!\" The force at work upon the\nminds of these degraded pagans--slaves, thieves, prostitutes, as some of\nthem had been--is the love of Christ; it is the power of the Holy Ghost,\nthe might of the strength which raises the dead to life eternal.\n\nLet us therefore praise Him \"who is able to do beyond all\nthings\"--beyond the best that His best servants have wished and striven\nfor. Had men ever asked or thought of such a gift to the world as Jesus\nChrist? Had the prophets foreseen one tenth part of His greatness? In\ntheir boldest dreams did the disciples anticipate the wonders of the\nday of Pentecost and of the later miracles of grace accomplished by\ntheir preaching? How far exceedingly had these things already surpassed\nthe utmost that the Church asked or thought.\n\nSt Paul's reliance is not upon the \"ability\" alone, upon the abstract\nomnipotence of God. The force upon which he counts is lodged in the\nChurch, and is in visible and constant operation. \"According to the\npower _that worketh in us_\" he expects these vast results to be\nachieved. This power is the same as that he invoked in verse 16,--the\nmight of the Spirit of God in the inward man. It is the spring of\ncourage and joy, the source of religious intelligence (i. 17, 18) and\npersonal holiness, the very power that raised the dead body of Jesus to\nlife, as it will raise hereafter all the holy dead to share His\nimmortality (Rom. viii. 11). St Paul was conscious at this time in a\nremarkable degree of the supernatural energy working within his own\nmind. It is of this that he speaks to the Colossians, in language very\nsimilar to that of our text, when he says: \"I toil hard, striving\naccording to His energy that works in me in power.\" As he labours for\nthe Church in writing that epistle, he is sensible of another Power\nacting within his spirit and distinguished from it by his consciousness,\nwhich tasks his faculties to the utmost to follow its dictates and\nexpress its meaning.\n\nThe presence of this mysterious power of the Spirit St Paul constantly\nfelt when engaged in prayer,--\"The Spirit helpeth our infirmities\"; He\n\"makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered\" (Rom.\nviii. 26, 27). On this point the experience of earnest Christian\nbelievers in all ages confirms that of St Paul. The sublime prayer to\nwhich he has just given utterance, is not his own. There is more in it\nthan the mere Paul, a weak man, would have dared to ask or think. He who\ninspires the prayer will fulfil it. The Searcher of hearts knows better\nthan the man who conceived it, infinitely better than we who are trying\nfor our own help to interpret it, all that this intercession means. God\nwill hear the pleading of His Spirit. The Power that prompts our\nprayers, and the Power that grants their answer are the same. The former\nis limited in its action by human infirmity; the latter knows no limit.\nIts only measure is the fulness of God. To Him who works in us all good\ndesires, and works far beyond us to bring our good desires to good\neffect, be the glory of all for ever!\n\nIn such measure, then, shall glory be to God \"in the Church and in\nChrist Jesus.\" We see how the Church takes up the foreground of Paul's\nhorizon. This epistle has taught us that God desires far more than our\nindividual salvation, however complete that might be. Christ came not to\nsave men only, but mankind. It is \"in the Church\" that God's consummate\nglory will be seen. No man in his fragmentary self-hood, no number of\nmen in their separate capacity can conceivably attain \"unto the fulness\nof God.\" It will need all humanity for that,--to reflect the full-orbed\nsplendour of Divine revelation. Isolated and divided from each other, we\nrender to God a dimmed and partial glory. \"With one accord, with one\nmouth\" we are called to \"glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.\" Wherefore the apostle bids us \"receive one another, as Christ\nalso received us, to the glory of God\" (Rom. xv. 6, 7).\n\nThe Church, being the creation of God's love in Christ and the\nreceptacle of His communicative fulness, is the vessel formed for His\npraise. Her worship is a daily tribute to the Divine majesty and bounty.\nThe life of her people in the world, her witness for Christ and warfare\nagainst sin, her ceaseless ministries to human sorrow and need proclaim\nthe Divine goodness, righteousness and truth. From the heavenly places\nwhere she dwells with Christ, she reflects the light of God's glory and\nmakes it shine into the depths of evil at her feet. It was the Church's\nvoice that St John heard in heaven as \"the voice of a great multitude,\nand as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders,\nsaying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigneth!\" Each\nsoul new-born into the fellowship of faith adds another note to make up\nthe multitudinous harmony of the Church's praise to God.\n\nNor does the Church by herself alone render this praise and honour unto\nGod. The display of God's manifold wisdom in His dealings with mankind\nis drawing admiration, as St Paul believed, from the celestial spheres\n(ver. 10). The story of earth's redemption is the theme of endless songs\nin heaven. All creation joins in concert with the redeemed from the\nearth, and swells the chorus of their triumph. \"I heard,\" says John in\nanother place, \"a voice of many angels round about the throne, and the\nliving creatures, and the elders, saying with a great voice, Worthy is\nthe Lamb that hath been slain! And every created thing which is in the\nheaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all\nthings that are in them, heard I saying:\n\n Unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb,\n Be blessing and honour and glory and dominion--\n For ever and ever.\"\n\nBut the Church is the centre of this tribute of the universe to God and\nto His Christ.\n\n_The Church and Christ Jesus_ are wedded in this doxology, even as they\nwere in the foregoing supplication (vv. 18, 19). In the Bride and the\nBridegroom, in the Redeemed and the Redeemer, in the many brethren and\nin the Firstborn is this perfect glory to be paid to God. \"In the midst\nof the congregation\" Christ the Son of man sings evermore the Father's\npraise (Heb. ii. 12). No glory is paid to God by men which is not due to\nHim; nor does He render to the Father any tribute in which His people\nare without a share. \"The glory which thou hast given me I have given\nthem,\" said Jesus to the Father praying for His Church, \"that they may\nbe one, even as we are one\" (John xvii. 22). Our union with each other\nin Christ is perfected by our union with Him in realizing the Father's\nglory, in receiving and manifesting the fulness of God.\n\nThe duration of the glory to be paid to God by Christ and His Church is\nexpressed by a cumulative phrase in keeping with the tenor of the\npassage to which it belongs: \"unto all generations of the age of the\nages.\" It reminds us of \"the ages to come\" through which the apostle in\nchapter ii. 7 foresaw that God's mercy to his own age would be\ncelebrated. It carries our thoughts along the vista of the future, till\ntime melts into eternity. When the apostle desires that God's praise may\nresound in the Church \"unto _all generations_,\" he no longer supposes\nthat the mystery of God may be finished speedily as men count years. The\nhistory of mankind stretches before his gaze into its dim futurity. The\nsuccessive \"generations\" gather themselves into that one consummate\n\"age\" of the kingdom of God, the grand cycle in which all \"the ages\" are\ncontained. With its completion time itself is no more. Its swelling\ncurrent, laden with the tribute of all the worlds and all their\nhistories, reaches the eternal ocean.\n\nThe end comes: God is all in all. At this furthest horizon of thought,\nChrist and His own are seen together rendering to God unceasing glory.\n\n\n\n\n_THE EXHORTATION._\n\nCHAPTER iv. 1--vi. 20.\n\n\n_ON CHURCH LIFE._\n\nCHAPTER iv. 1-16.\n\n \"It is good we return unto the ancient bond of unity in the Church\n of God, which was _one faith_, _one baptism_, and not _one\n hierarchy_, _one discipline_; and that we observe the league of\n Christians, as it was penned by our Saviour Christ, which is in\n substance of doctrine this: _He that is not with us is against us_;\n and in things indifferent and but of circumstance this: _He that is\n not against us is with us_.\"--LORD BACON: _Certain Considerations\n touching the better Pacification and Edification of the Church of\n England_, addressed to King James I.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n_THE FUNDAMENTAL UNITIES._\n\n \"I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily\n of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and\n meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; giving\n diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.\n\n \"There is one body, and one Spirit,\n Even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling;\n One Lord, one faith, one baptism,\n One God and Father of all,\n Who is over all, and through all, and in all.\"\n\n EPH. iv. 1-6.\n\n\nThis Encyclical of St Paul to the Churches of Asia is the most formal\nand deliberate of his writings since the great epistle to the Romans. In\nentering upon its hortatory and practical part we are reminded of the\ntransition from doctrine to exhortation in that epistle. Here as in\nRomans xi., xii. the apostle's theological teaching, brought with\nmeasured steps to its conclusion, has been followed by an act of worship\nexpressing the profound and holy joy which fills his spirit as he views\nthe purposes of God thus displayed in the gospel and the Church. In this\nexalted mood, as one sitting in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, St\nPaul surveys the condition of his readers and addresses himself to their\nduties and necessities. His homily, like his argument, is inwoven with\nthe golden thread of devotion; and the smooth flow of the epistle\nbreaks ever and again into the music of thanksgiving.\n\nThe apostle resumes the words of self-description dropped in chapter\niii. 1. He appeals to his readers with pathetic dignity: \"I the prisoner\nin the Lord\"; and the expression gathers new solemnity from that which\nhe has told us in the last chapter of the mystery and grandeur of his\noffice. He is \"_the_ prisoner\"--the one whose bonds were known through\nall the Churches and manifest even in the imperial palace (Phil. i.\n12-14). It was \"in the Lord\" that he wore this heavy chain, brought upon\nhim in Christ's service and borne joyfully for His people's sake. He is\nnow a martyr apostle. If his confinement detained him from his Gentile\nflock, at least it should add sacred force to the message he was able to\nconvey. The tone of the apostle's letters at this time shows that he was\nsensible of the increased consideration which the afflictions of the\nlast few years had given to him in the eyes of the Church. He is\nthankful for this influence, and makes good use of it.\n\nHis first and main appeal to the Asian brethren, as we should expect\nfrom the previous tenor of the letter, is an exhortation to _unity_. It\nis an obvious conclusion from the doctrine of the Church that he has\ntaught them. The \"oneness of the Spirit\" which they must \"earnestly\nendeavour to preserve,\" is the unity which their possession of the Holy\nSpirit of itself implies. \"Having access in one Spirit to the Father,\"\nthe antipathetic Jewish and Gentile factors of the Church are\nreconciled; \"in the Spirit\" they \"are builded together for a habitation\nof God\" (ii. 18-22). This unity when St Paul wrote was an actual and\nvisible fact, despite the violent efforts of the Judaizers to destroy\nit. The \"right hands of fellowship\" exchanged between himself and\nJames, Peter, and John at the conference of Jerusalem were a witness\nthereto (Gal. ii. 7-10). But it was a union that needed for its\nmaintenance the efforts of right-thinking men and sons of peace\neverywhere. St Paul bids all who read his letter help to keep Christ's\npeace in the Churches.\n\nThe conditions for such pursuing and preserving of peace in the fold of\nChrist are briefly indicated in verses 1 and 2. There must be--\n\n(1) _A due sense of the dignity of our Christian calling_: \"Walk\nworthily,\" he says, \"of the calling where with you were called.\" This\nexhortation, of course, includes much besides in its scope; it is the\npreface to all the exhortations of the three following chapters, the\nbasis, in fact, of every worthy appeal to Christian men; but it bears in\nthe first instance, and pointedly, upon Church unity. Levity of temper,\nlow and poor conceptions of religion militate against the catholic\nspirit; they create an atmosphere rife with causes of contention.\n\"Whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal and\nwalk as men?\"\n\n(2) Next to low-mindedness amongst the foes of unity comes _ambition_:\n\"Walk with all lowliness of mind and meekness,\" he continues. Between\nthe low-minded and the lowly-minded there is a total difference. The man\n_of lowly mind_ habitually feels his dependence as a creature and his\nunworthiness as a sinner before God. This spirit nourishes in him a\nwholesome self-distrust, and watchfulness over his temper and\nmotives.--The _meek_ man thinks as little of his personal claims, as the\nhumble man of his personal merits. He is willing to give place to others\nwhere higher interests will not suffer, content to take the lowest room\nand to be in men's eyes of no account. How many seeds of strife and\nroots of bitterness would be destroyed, if this mind were in us all.\nSelf-importance, the love of office and power and the craving for\napplause must be put away, if we are to recover and keep the unity of\nthe Spirit in the bond of peace.\n\n(3) When St Paul adds \"with longsuffering, forbearing one another in\nlove,\" he is opposing a cause of division quite different from the\nlast,--to wit, _impatience and resentfulness_. A high Christian ideal\nand a strict self-judgement will render us more sensitive to wrong-doing\nin the world around us. Unless tempered with abundant charity, they may\nlead to harsh and one-sided censure. Gentle natures, reluctant to\ncondemn, are sometimes slow and difficult in forgiveness. Humbleness and\nmeekness are choice graces of the Spirit. But they are self-regarding\nvirtues at the best, and may be found in a cold nature that has little\nof the patience which bears with men's infirmities, of the sympathetic\ninsight that discovers the good often lying close to their faults.\n\"Above all things\"--above kindness, meekness, longsuffering,\nforgivingness--\"put on love, which is the bond of perfectness\" (Col.\niii. 14). Love is the last word of St Paul's definition of the Christian\ntemper in verse 2; it is the sum and essence of all that makes for\nChristian unity. In it lies a charm which can overcome both the lighter\nprovocations and the grave offences of human intercourse,--offences that\nmust needs arise in the purest society composed of infirm and sinful\nmen. \"Bind thyself to thy brother. Those who are bound together in love,\nbear all burdens lightly. Bind thyself to him, and him to thee. Both are\nin thy power; for whomsoever I will, I may easily make my friend\"\n(Chrysostom).\n\nVerses 1-3 exhibit the temper in which the unity of the Church is to be\nmaintained. Verses 4-6 set forth the basis upon which it rests. This\npassage is a brief summary of Christian doctrine. It defines the\n\"foundation of the apostles and prophets\" asserted in chapter ii.\n20,--the groundwork of \"every building\" in God's holy temple, the\nfoundation upon which Paul's Gentile readers, along with the Jewish\nsaints, were growing into one holy temple in the Lord. Seven elements of\nunity St Paul enumerates: one _body_, _Spirit_, _hope_; one _Lord_,\n_faith_ and _baptism_; one _God and Father of all_. They form a chain\nstretching from the Church on earth to the throne and being of the\nuniversal Father in heaven.\n\nClosely considered, we find that the seven unities resolve themselves\ninto three, centring in the names of the Divine Trinity--the Spirit, the\nLord, and the Father. The Spirit and the Lord are each accompanied by\ntwo kindred uniting elements; while the one God and Father, placed\nalone, in Himself forms a threefold bond to His creatures--by His\nsovereign power, pervasive action, and immanent presence: \"Who is over\nall, and through all, and in all\" (comp. i. 23).\n\nThe rhythm of expression in these verses suggests that they belonged to\nsome apostolic Christian song. Other passages in Paul's later epistles\nbetray the same character;[98] and we know from chapter v. 19 and\nColossians iii. 16 that the Pauline Church was already rich in psalmody.\nThis epistle shows that St Paul was touched with the poetic as well as\nthe prophetical afflatus. He expected his people to sing; and we see no\nreason why he should not, like Luther and the Wesleys afterwards, have\ntaught them to do so by giving voice to the joy of the new-found faith\nin \"hymns and spiritual songs.\" These lines, we could fancy, belonged to\nsome chant sung in the Christian assemblies; they form a brief metrical\ncreed, the confession of the Church then and in all ages.\n\nI. _One body_ there is, _and one Spirit_.\n\nThe former was a patent fact. Believers in Jesus Christ formed a single\nbody, the same in all essentials of religion, sharply distinguished from\ntheir Jewish and their Pagan neighbours. Although the distinctions now\nexisting amongst Christians are vastly greater and more numerous, and\nthe boundaries between the Church and the world at many points are much\nless visible, yet there is a true unity that binds together those \"who\nprofess and call themselves Christians\" throughout the world. As against\nthe multitudes of heathen and idolaters; as against Jewish and\nMohammedan rejecters of our Christ; as against atheists and agnostics\nand all deniers of the Lord, we are \"one body,\" and should feel and act\nas one.\n\nIn missionary fields, confronting the overwhelming forces and horrible\nevils of Paganism, the servants of Christ intensely realize their unity;\nthey see how trifling in comparison are the things that separate the\nChurches, and how precious and deep are the things that Christians hold\nin common. It may need the pressure of some threatening outward force,\nthe sense of a great peril hanging over Christendom to silence our\ncontentions and compel the soldiers of Christ to fall into line and\npresent to the enemy a united front. If the unity of believers in\nChrist--their oneness of worship and creed, of moral ideal and\ndiscipline--is hard to discern through the variety of human forms and\nsystems and the confusion of tongues that prevails, yet the unity is\nthere to be discerned; and it grows clearer to us as we look for it. It\nis visible in the universal acceptance of Scripture and the primitive\ncreeds, in the large measure of correspondence between the different\nChurch standards of the Protestant communions, in our common Christian\nliterature, in the numerous alliances and combinations, local and\ngeneral, that exist for philanthropic and missionary objects, in the\nincreasing and auspicious comity of the Churches. The nearer we get to\nthe essentials of truth and to the experience of living Christian men,\nthe more we realize the existence of one body in the scattered limbs and\ninnumerable sects of Christendom.\n\nThere is \"one body and one Spirit\": one body because, and so far as\nthere is one Spirit. What is it constitutes the unity of our physical\nframe? Outward attachment, mechanical juxtaposition go for nothing. What\nI grasp in my hand or put between my lips is no part of _me_, any more\nthan if it were in another planet. The clothes I wear take the body's\nshape; they partake of its warmth and movement; they give its outward\npresentment. They are not of the body for all this. But the fingers that\nclasp, the lips that touch, the limbs that move and glow beneath the\nraiment,--these are the body itself; and everything belongs to it,\nhowever slight in substance, or uncomely or unserviceable, nay, however\ndiseased and burdensome, that is vitally connected with it. The life\nthat thrills through nerve and artery, _the spirit_ that animates with\none will and being the whole framework and governs its ten thousand\ndelicate springs and interlacing cords,--it is this that makes _one\nbody_ of an otherwise inert and decaying heap of matter. Let the spirit\ndepart, it is a body no more, but a corpse. So with the body of Christ,\nand its members in particular. Am I a living, integral part of the\nChurch, quickened by its Spirit? or do I belong only to the raiment and\nthe furniture that are about it? \"If any man have not the Spirit of\nChrist, he is none of His.\"\n\nHe who has the Spirit of Christ, will find a place within His body. The\nSpirit of Jesus Christ is a communicative, sociable spirit. The child of\nGod seeks out his brethren; like is drawn to like, bone to bone and\nsinew to its sinew in the building up of the risen body. By an instinct\nof its life, the new-born soul forms bonds of attachment for itself to\nthe Christian souls nearest to it, to those amongst whom it is placed in\nGod's dispensation of grace. The ministry, the community through which\nit received spiritual life and that travailed for its birth claim it by\na parental right that may not be disowned, nor at any time renounced\nwithout loss and peril.\n\nWhere the Spirit of Christ dwells as a vitalizing, formative principle,\nit finds or makes for itself a body. Let no man say: I have the spirit\nof religion; I can dispense with forms. I need no fellowship with men; I\nprefer to walk with God.--God will not walk with men who do not care to\nwalk with His people. He \"loved the world\"; and we must love it, or we\ndisplease Him. \"This commandment have we from Him, that he who loves God\nlove his brother also.\"\n\nThe oneness of communion amongst the people of Christ is governed by a\nunity of aim: \"Even as also you were called in _one hope_ of your\ncalling.\" Our fellowship has an object to realize, our calling a prize\nto win. All Christian organization is directed to a practical end. The\nold Pagan world fell to pieces because it was \"without hope\"; its\ngolden age was in the past. No society can endure that lives upon its\nmemories, or that contents itself with cherishing its privileges.\nNothing holds men together like work and hope. This gives energy,\npurpose, progress to the fellowship of Christian believers. In this\nimperfect and unsatisfying world, with the majority of our race still in\nbondage to evil, it is idle for us to combine for any purpose that does\nnot bear on human improvement and salvation. The Church of Christ is a\nsociety for the abolition of sin and death. That this will be\naccomplished, that God's will shall be done on earth as in heaven, is\n_the hope of our calling_. To this hope we \"were called\" by the first\nsummons of the gospel. \"Repent,\" it cried, \"for the kingdom of heaven is\nat hand!\"\n\nFor ourselves, in our personal quality, Christianity holds out a\nsplendid crown of life. It promises our complete restoration to the\nimage of God, the redemption of the body with the spirit from death, and\nour entrance upon an eternal fellowship with Christ in heaven. This\nhope, shared by us in common and affecting all the interests and\nrelationships of daily life, is the ground of our communion. The\nChristian hope supplies to men, more truly and constantly than Nature in\nher most exalted forms,\n\n \"The anchor of their purest thoughts, the nurse,\n The guide, the guardian of their heart, and soul\n Of all their moral being.\"\n\nHappy are the wife and husband, happy the master and servants, happy the\ncircle of friends who live and work together as \"joint-heirs of the\ngrace of life.\" Well says Calvin here: \"If this thought were fixed in\nour minds, this law laid upon us, that the sons of God may no more\nquarrel than the kingdom of heaven can be divided, how much more careful\nwe should be in cultivating brotherly goodwill! What a dread we should\nhave of dissensions, if we considered, as we ought to do, that those who\nseparate from their brethren, exile themselves from the kingdom of God.\"\n\nBut the hope of our calling is a hope for mankind,--nay, for the entire\nuniverse. We labour for the regeneration of humanity. \"We look for a new\nheavens and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;\" for the actual\ngathering into one in Christ of all things in all worlds, as they are\nalready gathered in God's eternal plan. Now if it were merely a personal\nsalvation that we had to seek, Christian communion might appear to be an\noptional thing, and the Church no more than a society for mutual\nspiritual benefit. But seen in this larger light, Church membership is\nof the essence of our calling. As children of the household of faith, we\nare heirs to its duties with its possessions. We cannot escape the\nobligations of our spiritual any more than of our natural birth. One\nSpirit dwelling in each, one sublime ideal inspiring us and guiding all\nour efforts, how shall we not be one body in the fellowship of Christ?\nThis hope of our calling it is our calling to breathe into the dead\nworld. Its virtue alone can dispel the gloom and discord of the age.\nFrom the fountain of God's love in Christ springing up in the heart of\nthe Church, there shall pour forth\n\n \"One common wave of thought and joy,\n Lifting mankind again!\"\n\nII. The first group of unities leads us to the second. If one Spirit\ndwells within us, it is _one Lord_ who reigns over us. We have one hope\nto work for; it is because we have _one faith_ to live by. A common\nfellowship implies a common creed.\n\nThus Christ Jesus the Lord takes His place fourth in this list of\nunities, between hope and faith, between the Spirit and the Father. He\nis the centre of centres, the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the\nChrist in the midst of the ages. United with Christ, we are at unity\nwith God and with our fellow-men. We find in Him the fulcrum of the\nforces that are raising the world, the corner-stone of the temple of\nhumanity.\n\nBut let us mark that it is the one _Lord_ in whom we find our unity. To\nthink of Him as Saviour only is to treat Him as a means to an end. It is\nto make ourselves the centre, not Christ. This is the secret of much of\nthe isolation and sectarianism of modern Churches. Individualism is the\nnegation of Church life. Men value Christ for what they can get from Him\nfor themselves. They do not follow Him and yield themselves up to Him,\nfor the sake of what He is. \"Come unto me, all ye that are burdened, and\nI will give you rest\": they listen willingly so far. But when He goes on\nto say \"Take my yoke upon you,\" their ears are deaf. There is a subtle\nself-seeking and self-pleasing even in the way of salvation.\n\nFrom this springs the disloyalty, the want of affection for the Church,\nthe indifference to all Christian interests beyond the personal and\nlocal, which is worse than strife; for it is death to the body of\nChrist. The name of the \"one Lord\" silences party clamours and rebukes\nthe voices that cry, \"I am of Apollos, I of Cephas.\" It recalls\nloiterers and stragglers to the ranks. It bids each of us, in his own\nstation of life and his own place in the Church, serve the common cause\nwithout sloth and without ambition.\n\nChrist's Lordship over us for life and death is signified by our\n_baptism_ in His name. We have received, most of us in infancy through\nour parents' reverent care, the token of allegiance to the Lord Christ.\nThe baptismal water that He bade all nations receive from His apostles,\nhas been sprinkled upon you. Shall this be in vain? Or do you now, by\nthe faith of your heart in Christ Jesus the Lord, endorse the faith of\nyour parents and the Church exercised on your behalf? If so, your faith\nsaves you. Your obedience is at once accepted by the Lord to whom it is\ntendered; and the sign of God's redemption of the race which greeted you\nat your entrance into life, assumes for you all its significance and\nworth. It is the seal upon your brow, now stamped upon your heart, of\nyour eternal covenant with Christ.\n\nBut it is the seal of a _corporate_ life in Him. Christian baptism is no\nprivate transaction; it attests no mere secret vow passing between the\nsoul and its Saviour. \"For in one Spirit we were all baptized _into one\nbody_, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made\nto drink of one Spirit\" (1 Cor. xii. 13). Our baptism is the sign of a\ncommon faith and hope, and binds us at once to Christ and to His Church.\n\n_One_ baptism there has been through all the ages since the ascending\nLord said to His disciples: \"Go, make disciples of all the nations,\nbaptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the\nHoly Spirit.\" The ordinance has been administered in different ways and\nunder varying regulations; but with few exceptions, it has been observed\nfrom the beginning by every Christian community in fulfilment of the\nword of Christ, and in acknowledgement of His dominion. Those who\ninsist on the sole validity of this or that mode or channel of\nadministration, recognize at least the intention of Churches baptizing\notherwise than themselves to honour the one Lord in thus confessing His\nname; and so far admit that there is in truth \"one baptism.\" Wherever\nChrist's sacraments are observed with a true faith, they serve as\nvisible tokens of His rule.\n\nIn this rule lies the ultimate ground of union for men, and for all\ncreatures. Our fellowship in the faith of Christ is deep as the nature\nof God; its blessedness rich as His love; its bonds strong and eternal\nas His power.\n\nIII. The last and greatest of the unities still remains. Add to our\nfellowship in the one Spirit and confession of the one Lord, our\nadoption by the _one God and Father of all_.\n\nTo the Gentile converts of the Asian cities this was a new and\nmarvellous thought. \"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians,\" they had been\nused to shout; or haply, \"Great is Aphrodit\u00e9 of the Pergamenes,\" or\n\"Bacchus of the Philadelphians.\" Great they knew was \"Jupiter Best and\nGreatest\" of conquering Rome; and great the _numen_ of the Caesar, to\nwhich everywhere in this rich and servile province shrines were rising.\nEach city and tribe, each grove or fountain or sheltering hill had its\nlocal _genius_ or _daimon_, requiring worship and sacrificial honours.\nEvery office and occupation, every function in life--navigation,\nmidwifery, even thieving--was under the patronage of its special deity.\nThese petty godships by their number and rivalries distracted the pious\nheathen with continual fear lest one or other of them might not have\nreceived due observance.\n\nWith what a grand simplicity the Christian conception of \"the one God\nand Father\" rose above this vulgar pantheon, this swarm of motley\ndeities--some gay and wanton, some dark and cruel, some of supposed\nbeneficence, all infected with human passion and baseness--which filled\nthe imagination of the Graeco-Asiatic pagans. What rest there was for the\nmind, what peace and freedom for the spirit in turning from such deities\nto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!\n\nHere is no jealous Monarch regarding men as tribute-payers, and needing\nto be served by human hands. He is the Father of men, pitying us as His\nchildren and giving us all things richly to enjoy. Our God is no local\ndivinity, to be honoured here but not there, tied to His temple and\nimages and priestly mediators; but the \"one God and Father of all, who\nis above all, and through all, and in all.\" This was the very God whom\nthe logic of Greek thought and the practical instincts of Roman law and\nempire blindly sought. Through ages He had revealed Himself to the\npeople of Israel, who were now dispersed amongst the nations to bear His\nlight. At last He declared His full name and purpose to the world in\nJesus Christ. So the gods many and lords many have had their day. By His\nmanifestation the idols are utterly abolished. The proclamation of one\nGod and Father signifies the gathering of men into one family of God.\nThe one religion supplies the basis for one life in all the world.\n\nGod is _over all_, gathering all worlds and beings under the shadow of\nHis beneficent dominion. He is _through all_, and _in all_: an\nOmnipresence of love, righteousness and wisdom, actuating the powers of\nnature and of grace, inhabiting the Church and the heart of men. You\nneed not go far to seek Him; if you believe in Him, you are yourself His\ntemple.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[98] See ch. v. 14; 1 Tim. i. 17, ii. 5, 6, vi. 15, 16; 2 Tim. ii.\n11-13.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n_THE MEASURE OF THE GIFT OF CHRIST._\n\n \"But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the\n measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith: 'When He ascended\n on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.' Now\n this, 'He ascended,' what is it but that He also descended into the\n lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that\n ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.\n And He gave some _to be_ apostles; and some, prophets; and some\n evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of\n the saints for work of ministration, for the building up of the body\n of Christ.\"--EPH. iv. 7-12.\n\n\nIn verse 7 the apostle passes from the unities of the Church to its\ndiversities, from the common foundation of the Christian life to the\nvariety presented in its superstructure. \"To each single one of us was\nthe grace given.\" The great gift of God in Christ is manifold in its\ndistribution. Its manifestations are as various and fresh as the\nidiosyncrasies of human personality. There is no capacity of our nature,\nno element of human society which the gospel of Christ cannot sanctify\nand turn to good account.\n\nAll this the apostle keeps in view and allows for in his doctrine of the\nChurch. He does not merge man in humanity, nor sacrifice the individual\nto the community. He claims for each believer direct fellowship with\nChrist and access to God. The earnestness with which in his earlier\nepistles St Paul insisted on the responsibilities of conscience and on\nthe personal experience of salvation, leads him now to press the claims\nof the Church with equal vigour. He understands well that the person has\nno existence apart from the community, that our moral nature is\nessentially social and the religious life essentially fraternal. Its\nvital element is \"the _communion_ of the Holy Spirit.\" Hence, to gather\nthe real drift of this passage we must combine the first words of verse\n7 with the last of verse 12: \"To each single one of us was the grace\ngiven--in order to build up the body of Christ.\" God's grace is not\nbestowed upon us to diffuse and lose itself in our separate\nindividualities; but that it may minister to one life and work towards\none end and build up one great body in us all. The diversity subserves a\nhigher unity. Through ten thousand channels, in ten thousand varied\nforms of personal influence and action, the stream of the grace of God\nflows on to the accomplishment of the eternal purpose.\n\nLike a wise master in his household and sovereign in his kingdom, the\nLord of the Church distributes His manifold gifts. His bestowments and\nappointments are made with an eye to the furtherance of the state and\nhouse that He has in charge. As God dispenses His wisdom, so Christ His\ngifts \"according to plan\" (iii. 11). The purpose of the ages, God's\ngreat plan for mankind, determines \"the measure of the gift of Christ.\"\nNow, it is to illustrate this _measure_, to set forth the style and\nscale of Christ's bestowments within His Church, that the apostle brings\nin evidence the words of Psalm lxviii. 18. He interprets this ancient\nverse as he cites it, and weaves it into the texture of his argument.\nIn the original it reads thus:\n\n \"Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led Thy captivity captive,\n Thou hast received gifts among men,--\n Yea, among the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell with\n them.\" (R.V.)\n\nLet us go back for a moment to the occasion of the old Hebrew song.\nPsalm lxviii, is, as Ewald says, \"the greatest, most splendid and\nartistic of the temple-songs of Restored Jerusalem.\" It celebrates\nJehovah's entry into Zion. This culminating verse records, as the\ncrowning event of Israel's history, the capture of Zion from the rebel\nJebusites and the Lord's ascension in the person of His chosen to take\nHis seat upon this holy hill. The previous verses, in which fragments of\nearlier songs are embedded, describe the course of the Divine Leader of\nIsrael through former ages. In the beat and rhythm of the Hebrew lines\none hears the footfall of the Conqueror's march, as He \"arises and His\nenemies are scattered\" and \"kings of armies flee apace,\" while nature\ntrembles at His step and bends her wild powers to serve His\ncongregation. The sojourn in the wilderness, the scenes of Sinai, the\noccupancy of Canaan, the wars of the Judges were so many stages in the\nprogress of Jehovah, which had Zion always for its goal. To Zion, the\nnew and more glorious sanctuary, Sinai must now give place. Bashan and\nall mountains towering in their pride in vain \"look askance at the hill\nwhich God has desired for His abode,\" where \"Jehovah will dwell for\never.\" So the day of the Lord's desire has come! From the Kidron valley\nDavid leads Jehovah's triumph up the steep slopes of Mount Zion. A train\nof captives defiles before the Lord's anointed, who sits down on the\nthrone that God gives him and receives in His name the submission of the\nheathen. The vanquished chiefs cast their spoil at his feet; it is laid\nup in treasure to build the future temple; while, upon this happy day of\npeace, \"the rebellious also\" share in Jehovah's grace and become His\nsubjects.\n\nIn this conquest David \"gave to men\" rather than \"received\"--gave even\nto his stubborn enemies (witness his subsequent transaction with Araunah\nthe Jebusite for the site of the temple); for that which he took from\nthem served to build amongst them God's habitation: \"that,\" as the\nPsalmist sings, \"the Lord God might dwell with them.\" St Paul's\nadaptation of the verse is both bold and true. If he departs from the\nletter, he unfolds the spirit of the prophetic words. That David's\n_giving_ signified a higher _receiving_, Jewish interpreters themselves\nseem to have felt, for this paraphrase was current also amongst them.\n\nThe author of this Hebrew song has in no way exaggerated the importance\nof David's victory. The summits of the elect nation's history shine with\na supernatural and prophetic light. The spirit of the Christ in the\nunknown singer \"testified beforehand of the glory that should follow\"\nHis warfare and sufferings. From this victorious height, so hardly won,\nthe Psalmist's verse flashes the light of promise across the space of a\nthousand years; and St. Paul has caught the light, and sends it on to us\nshining with a new and more spiritual brightness. David's \"going up on\nhigh\" was, to the apostle's mind, a picture of the ascent of Christ, his\nSon and Lord. David rose from deep humiliation to a high dominion; his\nexaltation brought blessing and enrichment to his people; and the spoil\nthat he won with it went to build God's house amongst rebellious men.\nAll this was true in parable of the dispensation of grace to mankind\nthrough Jesus Christ; and His ascension disclosed the deeper import of\nthe words of the ancient Scripture. \"Wherefore God saith\" (and St Paul\ntakes the liberty of putting in his own words _what_ He\nsaith)--\"wherefore He saith: He ascended on high; He led captivity\ncaptive; He gave gifts to men.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe three short clauses of the citation supply, in effect, a threefold\nmeasure of the gifts of Christ to His Church. They are gifts _of the\nascended Saviour_. They are gifts bestowed _from the fruit of His\nvictory_. And they are gifts _to men_. Measure them, first, by the\nheight to which He has risen--from what a depth! Measure them, again, by\nthe spoils He has already won. Measure them, once more, by the wants of\nmankind, by the need He has undertaken to supply.--As He is, so He\ngives; as He has, so He gives; as He has given, so He will give till we\nare filled unto all the fulness of God.\n\nI. Think first, then, of Him. Think of what, and _where_ He is! Consider\n\"what is the height\" of His exaltation; and then say, if you can, \"what\nis the breadth\" of His munificence.\n\nWe know well how He gave as a poor and suffering man upon earth--gave,\nwith what affluence, pity and delight, bread to the hungry thousands,\nwine to the wedding-feast, health to the sick, sight to the blind,\npardon to the sinful, sometimes life to the dead! Has His elevation\naltered Him? Too often it is so with vain and weak men like ourselves.\nTheir wealth increases, but their hearts contract. The more they have to\ngive, the less they love to give. They go up on high as men count it,\nand climb to places of power and eminence; and they forget the friends\nof youth and the ranks from which they sprang--low-minded men. Not so\nwith our exalted Friend. \"It is not one that went down, and another that\nwent up,\" says Theodoret. \"He that descended, _it is He_ also that\nascended up far above all the heavens!\" (ver. 10). Jesus of Nazareth is\non the throne of God,--\"the same yesterday and to-day!\" But now the\nresources of the universe are at His disposal. Out of that treasure He\ncan choose the best gifts for you and me.\n\nMere authority, even Omnipotence, could not suffice to save and bless\nmoral beings like ourselves; nor even the best will joined to\nOmnipotence. Christ gained by His humiliation, in some sense, a new\nfulness added to the fulness of the Godhead. This gain of His sufferings\nis implied in what the apostle writes in Colossians i. 19 concerning the\nrisen and exalted Redeemer: \"It was well-pleasing that _all_ the fulness\nshould make its dwelling in Him.\" His plenitude is that of the Ascended\nOne _who had descended_. \"If He ascended, what does it mean but that He\nalso descended into the under regions of the earth?\" (ver. 9). If He\nwent up, why then He had been down!--down to the Virgin's womb and the\nmanger cradle, wrapping His Godhead within the frame and the brain of a\nlittle child; down to the home and the bench of the village carpenter;\ndown to the contradiction of sinners and the level of their scorn; down\nto the death of the cross,--to the nether abyss, to that dim populous\nunderworld into which we look shuddering over the grave's edge! And from\nthat lower gulf He mounted up again to the solid earth and the light of\nday and the world of breathing men; and up, and up again, through the\nrent clouds and the ranks of shouting angels, and under the lifted heads\nof the everlasting doors, until He took His seat at the right hand of\nthe Majesty in the heavens.\n\nThink of the regions He has traversed, the range of being through which\nthe Lord Jesus passed in descending and ascending, \"that He might fill\nall things.\" Heaven, earth, hades--hades, earth, heaven again are His;\nnot in mere sovereignty of power, but in experience and communion of\nlife. Each He has annexed to His dominion by inhabitation and the right\nof self-devoting love, as from sphere to sphere He \"travelled in the\ngreatness of His power, mighty to save.\" He is Lord of angels; but still\nmore of men,--Lord of the living, and of the dead. To them that sleep in\nthe dust He has proclaimed His accomplished sacrifice and the right of\nuniversal judgement given Him by the Father.\n\nNor did Abraham alone and Moses and Elijah have the joy of \"seeing His\nday,\" but all the holy men of old, who had embraced its promise and\n\"died in faith,\" who looked forward through their imperfect sacrifices\n\"which could never quite take away sins\" to the better thing which God\nprovided for us, and for their perfection along with us.[99] On the two\nside-posts of the gate of death our great High Priest sprinkled His\natoning blood. He turned the abode of corruption into a sweet and quiet\nsleeping chamber for His saints. Then at His touch those cruel doors\nswung back upon their hinges, and He issued forth the Prince of life,\nwith the keys of death and hades hanging from His girdle. From the\ndepths of the grave to the heaven of heavens His Mastership extends.\nWith the perfume of His presence and the rich incense of His sacrifice\nJesus Christ has \"filled all things.\" The universe is made for us one\nrealm of redeeming grace, the kingdom of the Son of God's love.\n\n \"So there crowns Him the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost crown;\n And His love fills infinitude wholly, nor leaves up nor down\n One spot for the creature to stand in!\"[100]\n\nSo \"Christ is all things, and in all.\" And we are nothing; but we have\neverything in Him.\n\nHow, pray, will He give who has thus given Himself,--who has thus\nendured and achieved on our behalf? Let our hearts consider; let our\nfaith and our need be bold to ask. One promise from His lips is enough:\n\"If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.\"\n\nII. A second estimate of the gifts to be looked for from Christ, we\nderive from _His conquests already won_. David as he entered Zion's\ngates \"led captivity captive,\"--led, that is in Hebrew phrase, a great,\na notable captivity. Out of the gifts thus received he enriched his\npeople. The resources that victory placed at his disposal, furnished the\nstore from which to build God's house. In like fashion Christ builds His\nChurch, and blesses the human race. With the spoils of His battle He\nadorns His bride. The prey taken from the mighty becomes the strength\nand beauty of His sanctuary. The prisoners of His love He makes the\nservants of mankind.\n\nThis \"captivity\" implies a warfare, even as the ascent of Christ a\nprevious descending. The Son of God came not into His earthly kingdom as\nkings are said to have come sometimes disguised amongst their subjects,\nthat they might learn better of their state and hear their true mind;\nnor as the Greeks fabled of their gods, who wandered unknown on earth\nseeking adventure and wearied haply of the cloying felicities of heaven,\nsuffering contempt and doing to men hard service. He came, the Good\nShepherd, to seek lost sheep. He came, the Mighty One of God, to destroy\nthe works of the devil, to drive out \"the strong one armed\" who held the\nfortress of man's soul. He had a war to wage with the usurping prince of\nthe world. In the temptations of the wilderness, in the strife with\ndisease and demoniac powers, in the debate with Scribes and Pharisees,\nin the anguish of Gethsemane and Calvary that conflict was fought out;\nand by death He abolished him who holds the power of death, by His blood\nHe \"bought us for God.\" But with the spoils of victory, He bears the\nscars of battle,--tokens glorious for Him, humbling indeed to us, which\nwill tell for ever how they pierced His hands and feet!\n\nFor Him pain and conflict are gone by. It remains to gather in the spoil\nof His victory of love, the harvest sown in His tears and His blood. And\nwhat are the trophies of the Captain of our salvation? what the fruit of\nHis dread passion? For one, there was the dying thief, whom with His\nnailed hands the Lord Jesus snatched from a felon's doom and bore from\nCalvary to Paradise. There was Mary the Magdalene, out of whom He had\ncast seven demons, the first to greet Him risen. There were the three\nthousand whom on one day, in the might of His Spirit, the ascended Lord\nand Christ took captive in rebel Jerusalem, \"lifted from the earth\" that\nHe might draw all men unto Him. And there was the writer of this letter,\nonce His blasphemer and persecutor. By a look, by a word, Jesus\narrested Saul at the height of his murderous enmity, and changed him\nfrom a Pharisee into an apostle to the Gentiles, from the destroyer into\nthe wise master-builder of His Church.\n\nSt Paul's own case suggested, surely, the application he makes of this\nancient text of the Psalter and lighted up its Messianic import. In the\nglory of His triumph Jesus Christ had appeared to make him captive, and\nput him at once to service. From that hour Paul was led along\nenthralled, the willing bond-slave of the Lord Jesus and celebrant of\nHis victory. \"Thanks be unto God,\" he cries, \"who ever triumphs over us\nin the Christ, and makes manifest through us the savour of His knowledge\nin every place.\"[101]\n\nSuch, and of such sort are the prisoners of the war of Jesus; such the\ngifts that through sinners pardoned and subdued He bestows upon\nmankind,--\"patterns to those who should hereafter believe.\" Time would\nfail to follow the train of the captives of the love of Christ, which\nstretches unbroken and ever multiplying through the centuries to this\nday. We, too, in our turn have laid our rebel selves at His feet; and\nall that we surrender to Him, by right of conquest He gives over to the\nservice of mankind.\n\n \"His love the conquest more than wins;\n To all I shall proclaim:\n Jesus the King, the Conqueror reigns;\n Bow down to Jesu's name!\"\n\nHe gives out of the spoil of His war with evil,--gives what He receives.\nYet He gives not _as_ He receives. Everything laid in His hands is\nchanged by their touch. Publicans and Pharisees become apostles.\nMagdalenes are made queens and mothers in His Israel. From the dregs of\nour streets He raises up a host of sons to Abraham. From the ranks of\nscepticism and anti-Christian hate the Lord Christ wins new champions\nand captains for His cause. He coins earth's basest metal into heaven's\nfine gold. He takes weak things of the earth and foolish, to strike the\nmightiest blows of battle.\n\nWhat may we not expect from Him who has led captive such a captivity!\nWhat surprises of blessing and miracles of grace there are awaiting us,\nthat shall fill our mouth with laughter and our tongue with\nsinging--gifts and succours coming to the Church from unlooked-for\nquarters and reinforcements from the ranks of the enemy. And what\ndiscomfitures and captivities are preparing for the haters of the\nLord,--if, at least, the future is to be as the past; and if we may\njudge from the apostle's word, and from his example, of the measure of\nthe gift of Christ.\n\nIII. A third line of measurement is supplied in the last word of verse\n8, and is drawn out in verses 11 and 12. \"He gave gifts _to men_--He\ngave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and\nteachers, with a view to the full equipment of the saints for work of\nministration, for building up of the body of Christ.\" Yes, and some\nmartyrs, some missionaries, some Church rulers and Christian statesmen,\nsome poets, some deep thinkers and theologians, some leaders of\nphilanthropy and helpers of the poor; all given for the same end--to\nminister to the life of His Church, to furnish it with the means for\ncarrying on its mission, and to enable every saint to contribute his\npart to the commonwealth of Christ according to the measure of Christ's\ngift to each.\n\nComparison with verse 16 that follows and with verse 7 that precedes,\nseems to us to make it clear that we should read, without a comma, the\nsecond and third clauses of verse 12 as continuations of the first. The\n\"work of ministering\" and the \"building up of the body of Christ\" are\nnot assigned to special orders of ministry as their exclusive calling.\nSuch honour have all His saints. It is the office of the clergy to see\nthat the laity do their duty, of \"the ministry\" to make each saint a\nminister of Christ, to guide, instruct and animate the entire membership\nof Christ's body in the work He has laid upon it. Upon this plan the\nChristian fellowship was organized and officered in the apostolic times.\nChurch government is a means to an end. Its primitive form was that best\nsuited to the age; and even then varied under different circumstances.\nIt was not precisely the same at Jerusalem and at Corinth; at Corinth in\n58, and at Ephesus in 66 A.D. That is the best Church system, under any\ngiven conditions, which serves best to conserve and develope the\nspiritual energy of the body of Christ.\n\nThe distribution of Church office indicated in verse 11 corresponds\nclosely to what we find in the Pastoral epistles. The apostle does not\nprofess to enumerate all grades of ministry. The \"deacons\" are wanting;\nalthough we know from Philippians i. 1 that this order already existed\nin Pauline Churches. _Pastors_ (shepherds)--a title only employed here\nby the apostle--is a fitting synonym for the \"bishops\" (_i.e._,\noverseers) of whom he speaks in Acts xx. 28, Philippians i. 1, and\nlargely in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, whose functions were\nspiritual and disciplinary as well as administrative. Addressing the\nEphesian elders at Miletus four years before, St Paul bade them\n\"shepherd the Church of God.\"\n\nIn 1 Peter v. 1, 2 the same charge is laid by the Jewish apostle upon\nhis \"fellow-elders,\" that they should \"shepherd the flock of God, making\nthemselves examples\" to it; Christ Himself he has previously called\n\"Shepherd and Bishop of souls\" (1 Pet. ii. 25). The expression is\nderived from the words of Jesus recorded in John x., concerning the true\nand false shepherd of God's flock, and Himself the Good Shepherd,--words\nfamiliar and dear to His disciples.\n\nThe office of _teaching_, as in 1 Timothy v. 17, is conjoined with that\nof shepherding. From that passage we infer that the freedom of teaching\nso conspicuous in the Corinthian Church (1 Cor. xiv. 26, etc.) was still\nrecognized. Teaching and ruling are not made identical, nor inseparable\nfunctions, any more than in Romans xii. 7, 8; but they were frequently\nassociated, and hence are coupled together here.--Of apostolic\n_evangelists_ we have examples in Timothy and the second Philip;[102]\nmen outside the rank of the apostles, but who, like them, preached the\ngospel from place to place. The name apostles (equivalent to our\n_missionaries_) served, in its wider sense, to include ministers of this\nclass along with those directly commissioned by the Lord Jesus.[103]\n\nThe _prophets_,[104] like the apostles and evangelists, belonged to the\nChurch at large, rather than to one locality. But their gift of\ninspiration did not carry with it the claim to rule in the Church. This\nwas the function of the apostles generally, and of the pastor-bishops,\nor elders, locally appointed.\n\nThe first three orders (apostles, prophets, evangelists) linked Church\nto Church and served the entire body; the last two (pastors and\nteachers) had charge of local and congregational affairs. The apostles\n(the Twelve and Paul), with the prophets, were the founders of the\nChurch. Their distinctive functions ceased when the foundation was laid\nand the deposit of revealed truth was complete. The evangelistic and\npastoral callings remain; and out of them have sprung all the variety of\nChristian ministries since exercised. Evangelists, with apostles or\nmissionaries, bring new souls to Christ and carry His message into new\nlands. Pastors and teachers follow in their train, tending the\ningathered sheep, and labouring to make each flock that they shepherd\nand every single man perfect in Christ Jesus.\n\nMarvellous were Christ's \"gifts for men\" bestowed in the apostolic\nministry. What a gift to the Christian community, for example, was Paul\nhimself! In his natural endowments, so rich and finely blended, in his\ntraining and early experience, in the supernatural mode of his\nconversion, everything wrought together to give to men in the apostle\nPaul a man supremely fitted to be Christ's ambassador to the Pagan\nworld, and for all ages the \"teacher of the Gentiles in faith and\ntruth.\" \"A _chosen vessel_ unto me,\" said the Lord Jesus, \"to bear my\nname.\"\n\nSuch a gift to the world was St Augustine: a man of the most powerful\nintellect and will, master of the thought and life of his time. Long an\nalien from the household of faith, he was saved at last as by miracle,\nand utterly subdued to the will of Christ. In the awful crisis of the\nfifth century, when the Roman empire was breaking up and the very\nfoundations of life seemed to be dissolved, it was the work of this\nheroic man to reassert the sovereignty of grace and to re-establish\nfaith in the Divine order of the world.\n\nSuch another gift to men was Martin Luther, the captive of justifying\ngrace, won from the monastery and the bondage of Rome to set Germany and\nEurope free. What a soul of fire, what a voice of power was his! to\nwhose lips our Lord Christ set the great trumpet of the Reformation; and\nhe blew a blast that waked the sleeping peoples of the North, and made\nthe walls of Babylon rock again to their foundation. Such a gift to\nScotland was John Knox, who from his own soul breathed the spirit of\nreligion into the life of a nation, and gave it a body and organic form\nin which to dwell and work for centuries.\n\nSuch a gift to England was John Wesley. Can we conceive a richer boon\nconferred by the Head of the Church upon the English race than the\nraising up of this great evangelist and pastor and teacher, at such a\ntime as that of his appearance? Standing at the distance of a hundred\nyears, we are able to measure in some degree the magnitude of this\nbestowment. In none of the leaders and commanders whom Christ has given\nto His people was there more signally manifest that combination of\nfaculties, that concurrence of providences and adjustment to\ncircumstances, and that transforming and attempering influence of grace\nin all--the \"effectual working in the measure of each single part\" of\nthe man and his history, which marks those special gifts that Christ is\nwont to bestow upon His people in seasons of special emergency and\nneed.\n\nWe are passing into a new age, such as none of these great men dreamed\nof, an age as exigent and perilous as any that have gone before it. The\nascendency of physical science, the political enfranchisement of the\nmasses, the universal spread of education, the emancipation of critical\nthought, the gigantic growth of the press, the enormous increase and\naggregation of wealth, the multiplication of large cities, the\nworld-wide facilities of intercourse,--these and other causes more\nsubtle are rapidly transforming human society. Old barriers have\ndisappeared; while new difficulties are being created, of a magnitude to\novertask the faith of the strongest. The Church is confronted with\nproblems larger far in their dimensions than those our fathers knew.\nDemands are being made on her resources such as she has never had to\nmeet before. Shall we be equal to the needs of the coming times?--Nay,\nthat is not the question; but will _He_?\n\nThere is nothing new or surprising to the Lord Jesus in the progress of\nour times and the developments of modern thought, nothing for which He\nis not perfectly prepared. He has taken their measure long ere this, and\nholds them within His grasp. The government is upon His shoulders--\"the\nweight of all this unintelligible world\"--and He can bear it well. He\nhas gifts in store for the twentieth century, when it arrives, as\nadequate as those He bestowed upon the first or fifth, upon the\nsixteenth or the eighteenth of our era. There are Augustines and Wesleys\nyet to come. Hidden in the Almighty's quiver are shafts as polished and\nas keen as any He has used, which He will launch forth in the war of the\nages at the appointed hour. The need, the peril, the greatness of the\ntime will be the measure of the gift of Christ.\n\nThere is a danger, however, in waiting for great leaders and in looking\nfor signal displays of Christ's power amongst men. His \"kingdom comes\nnot with observation,\" so that men should say, Lo here! or Lo there! It\nsteals upon us unforeseen; it is amongst us before we know. \"We looked,\"\nsays Rutherford, \"that He should take the higher way along the\nmountains; and lo, He came by the lower way of the valleys!\" While men\nlisten to the earthquake and the wind rending the mountains, a still,\nsmall voice speaks the message of God to prepared hearts. Rarely can we\nmeasure at the first the worth of Christ's best gifts. When the fruit\nappears, after long patience, the world will haply discover when and how\nthe seed was sown. But not always then.\n\n \"The sower, passing onward, was not known;\n And all men reaped the harvest as their own.\"\n\nThose who are most ready to appraise their fellows are constantly at\nfault. Our last may prove Christ's first; our first His last! \"Each of\nus shall give account of himself to God\": each must answer for his own\nstewardship, and the grace that was given to each. \"Let us not therefore\njudge one another any more.\" But let every man see to it that his part\nin the building of God's temple is well and faithfully done. Soon the\nfire will try every man's work, of what sort it is.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[99] Comp. Hebrews x. 1, 2, 10-14 with xi. 13-16, 39, 40, xii. 23, 24;\nalso vi. 12.\n\n[100] The words of David in Browning's _Saul_, turned from the future\ntense into the present.\n\n[101] 2 Cor. ii. 14; comp. Eph. ii. 6, 7.\n\n[102] 2 Tim. iv. 5; Acts viii. 26-40, xxi. 8.\n\n[103] In Acts xiv. 4, 14, _Barnabas and Paul_ are \"apostles\"; 1 Thess.\nii. 6, _Paul and Silas and Timothy_. Comp. Rom. xvi. 7; 2 Cor. viii. 23,\nxi. 13; Phil. ii. 25; Rev. ii. 2.\n\n[104] Comp. ch. ii. 20, iii. 5 for the association of _prophets_ with\n_apostles_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\n_THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH._\n\n \"Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the full\n knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure\n of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may be no more\n children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of\n doctrine in the sport of men, in craftiness, unto the scheme of\n error; but dealing truly, in love may grow up in all things into\n Him, which is the head, _even_ Christ; from whom all the body fitly\n framed and knit together, through that which every juncture\n supplieth, according to the working in _due_ measure of each several\n part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself\n in love.\"--EPH. iv. 13-16.\n\n\nWe must spend a few moments in unravelling this knotty paragraph and\ndetermining the relation of its involved clauses to each other, before\nwe can expound it. This passage is enough to prove St Paul's hand in the\nletter. No writer of equal power was ever so little of a literary\ncraftsman. His epistles read, as M. Renan says, like \"a rapid\nconversation stenographed.\" Sometimes, as in several places in\nColossians ii., his ideas are shot out in disjointed clauses, hardly\nmore continuous than shorthand notes; often, as in this epistle, they\npour in a full stream, sentence hurrying after sentence and phrase\nheaped upon phrase with an exuberance that bewilders us. In his spoken\naddress the interpretation of tone and gesture, doubtless, supplied the\nsyntactical adjustments so often wanting in Paul's written composition.\n\nThe gifts pertaining to special office in the Church were bestowed to\npromote its corporate efficiency and to further its general growth (vv.\n11, 12). Now, the purpose of these endowments sets a _limit_ to their\nuse. \"Christ gave apostles, prophets,\" and the rest--\"_till we all\narrive_ at our perfect manhood and reach the stature of His fulness.\"\nSuch is the connexion of verse 13 with the foregoing context. The aim of\nthe Christian ministry is to make itself superfluous, to raise men\nbeyond its need. Knowledge and prophesyings, apostolates and pastorates,\nthe missions of the evangelist and the schools of the teacher will one\nday cease; their work will be done, their end gained, when all believers\nare brought \"to the unity of faith, to the full knowledge of the Son of\nGod.\" The work of Christ's servants can have no grander aim, no further\ngoal lying beyond this. Verse 14, therefore, does not disclose an\nulterior purpose arising out of that affirmed in the previous sentence;\nit restates the same purpose. To make men of us (ver. 13) and to prevent\nour being children (ver. 14) is the identical object for which apostles,\nprophets, pastors, teachers are called to office. The goal marked out\nfor all believers in the knowledge and the moral likeness of Christ\n(ver. 13), is set up that it may direct the Church's course through\ndangers shunned and enemies vanquished (ver. 14) to the attainment of\nher corporate perfection (vv. 15, 16). The whole thought of this section\nturns upon the idea of \"the perfecting of the saints\" in verse 12. Verse\n16 looks backward to this; verse 7 looked forward to it.\n\nSo much for the general construction of the period. As to its particular\nwords and phrases, we must observe:--\n\n(1) The \"perfect [full-grown] man\" of verse 13 is the _individual_, not\nthe generic man, not \"the one [collective] new man\" of chapter ii. 15.\nThe Greek words for _man_ in these two places differ.[105] The apostle\nproposes to the Christian ministry the end that he was himself pursuing,\nviz., to \"present _every man_ perfect in Christ.\"[106]\n\n(2) \"_Sleight_ of men\" (A.V. and R.V.) does not seem to us to express\nthe precise meaning of the word so translated in verse 14. _Kubeia_\n(from _kubos_, a cube, or die) occurs only here in the New Testament; in\nclassical Greek it appears in its literal sense of _dice-play_,\n_gambling_. The interpreters have drawn from this the idea of\n_trickery_, _cheating_--the common accompaniment of gambling. But the\nkindred verb (_to play dice_, _to gamble_) has another well-established\nuse in Greek, namely, _to hazard_: this supplies for St Paul's noun the\nsignification of _sport_ or _hazarding_, preferred by Beza among the\nolder expositors and by von Soden amongst the newest. _In the sport of\nmen_, says von Soden: \"conduct wanting in every kind of earnestness and\nclear purpose. These men _play_ with religion, and with the welfare of\nChristian souls.\" This metaphor accords admirably with that of the\nrestless waves and uncertain winds[107] just preceding it; while it\nleads fittingly to the further qualification \"in craftiness,\" which is\nalmost an idle synonym after \"sleight.\"\n\n(3) Another rare word is found in this verse, not very precisely\nrendered as \"wiles\"--a translation suiting it better in chapter vi. 11.\nHere the noun is singular in number: _methodeia_. It signifies\n_methodizing_, _reducing to a plan_; and then, in a bad sense,\n_scheming_, _plotting_. \"Error\" is thus personified: it \"schemes,\" just\nas in 2 Thessalonians ii. 7 it \"works.\" Amid the restless speculations\nand the unscrupulous perversions of the gospel now disturbing the infant\nfaith of the Asian Churches, the apostle saw the outline of a great\nsystem of error shaping itself. There was a method in this madness.\n_Unto the scheme of error_--into the meshes of its net--those were being\ndriven who yielded to the prevailing tendencies of speculative thought.\nWith all its cross currents and capricious movements, it was bearing\nsteadily in one direction. Reckless pilots steered ignorant souls this\nway and that over the wind-swept seas of religious doubt; but they\nbrought them at last to the same rocks and quicksands.\n\n(4) As the contrast between manhood and childhood links verses 13 and\n14, so it is by the contrast of error and craftiness with _truth_ that\nwe pass from verse 14 to verse 15. \"_Speaking_ truth\" insufficiently\nrenders the opening word of the latter verse. The \"_dealing_ truly\" of\nthe Revised margin is preferable. In Galatians iv. 16 the apostle\nemploys the same verb, signifying not truth of speech alone, but of deed\nand life (comp. Eph. v. 9). The expression resembles that of 1 John iii.\n19: \"We are _of the truth_, and shall assure our hearts before Him,\"\nwhere truth and love are found in the like union.\n\n(5) The last difficulty of this kind we have to deal with, lies in the\nconnexion of the clauses of verse 16. \"Through every joint of supply\" is\nan incongruous adjunct to the previous clause, \"fitly framed and knit\ntogether,\" although the rendering \"joint\" gives this connexion a\nsuperficial aptness. The apostle's word means _juncture_ rather than\n_joint_.[108] The _points of contact_ between the members of Christ's\nbody form the channels of supply through which the entire frame receives\nnourishment. The clause \"through every juncture of the supply\"--an\nexpression somewhat obscure at the best--points forwards, not backwards.\nIt describes the means by which the Church of Christ, compacted in its\ngeneral framework by those larger ligatures which its ministry furnishes\n(vv. 11, 12), builds up its inward life,--through a communion wherein\n\"each single part\" of the body shares, and every tie that binds one\nChristian soul to another serves to nourish the common life of grace. We\nmay paraphrase the sentence thus: \"Drawing its life from Christ, the\nentire body knit together in a well-compacted frame, makes use of every\nlink that unites its members and of each particular member in his place\nto contribute to its sustenance, thus building itself up in love\nevermore.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\nThese difficult verses unfold to us three main conceptions: _The goal of\nthe Church's life_ (ver. 13), _the malady which arrests its development_\n(ver. 14), and _the means and conditions of its growth_ (vv. 15, 16).\n\nI. The mark at which the Church has to arrive is set forth, in harmony\nwith the tenor of the epistle, in a twofold way,--in its _collective_\nand its _individual_ aspects. We must all \"unitedly attain the oneness\nof the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God\"; and we must attain,\neach of us, \"a perfect manhood, the measure of the stature of the\nfulness of Christ.\"\n\nThe \"one faith\" of the Church's foundation (ver. 5) is, at the same\ntime, its end and goal. The final unity will be the unfolding of the\nprimal unity; the implicit will become explicit; the germ will be\nreproduced in the developed organism. \"The faith\" is still, in St Paul,\nthe _fides qua credimus_, not _quam credimus_; it is the living faith of\nall hearts in the same Christ and gospel.[109] When \"we all\" believe\nheartily and understandingly in \"the word of truth, the gospel of our\nsalvation,\" the goal will be in sight. All our defects are, at the\nbottom, deficiencies of faith. We fail to apprehend and appropriate the\nfulness of God in Christ. Faith is the essence of the heart's life: it\nforms the common consciousness of the body of Christ.\n\nWhile faith is the central organ of the Church's life, _the Son of God_\nis its central object. The dangers assailing the Church and the\ndivisions threatening its unity, touched His Person; and whatever\ntouches the Head, vitally affects the health of the body and the\nwell-being of every member in it. Many had believed in Jesus as the\nChrist and received blessing from Him, whose knowledge of Him as the Son\nof God was defective. This ignorance exposed their faith to perversion\nby the plausible errors circulating in the Churches of Asia Minor.[110]\nThe haze of speculation dimmed His glory and distorted His image.\nDazzled by the \"philosophy and empty deceit\" of specious talkers, these\nhalf-instructed believers formed erroneous or uncertain views of Christ.\nAnd a divided Christ makes a divided Church. We may hold divergent\nopinions upon many points of doctrine--in regard to Church order and the\nSacraments, in regard to the nature of the future judgement, in regard\nto the mode and limits of inspiration, in regard to the dialect and\nexpression of our spiritual life--and yet retain, notwithstanding, a\nlarge measure of cordial unity and find ourselves able to co-operate\nwith each other for many Christian purposes. But when our difference\nconcerns the Person of Christ, it is felt at once to be fundamental.\nThere is a gulf between those who worship and those who do not worship\nthe Son of God.\n\n\"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in\nhim and he in God\" (1 John iv. 15). This is the touchstone of catholic\ntruth that the apostles have laid down; and by this we must hold fast.\nThe kingship of the Lord Jesus is the rallying-point of Christendom. In\nHis name we set up our banners. There are a thousand differences we can\nafford to sink and quarrels we may well forget, if our hearts are one\ntowards Him. Let me meet a man of any sect or country, who loves and\nworships my Lord Christ with all his mind and strength, he is my\nbrother; and who shall forbid us \"with one mind and one mouth to glorify\nthe God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ\"? It is nothing but our\nignorance of Him, and of each other, that prevents us doing this\nalready. Let us set ourselves again to the study of Christ. Let us\nstrive \"all of us\" to \"attain to the full knowledge of the Son of God\";\nit is the way to reunion. As we approach the central revelation, and the\nglory of Christ who is the image of God shines in its original\nbrightness upon our hearts, prejudices will melt away; the opinions and\ninterests and sentiments that divide us will be lost in the transcendent\nand absorbing vision of the one Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n \"Names and sects and parties fall:\n Thou, O Christ, art all in all!\"\n\nThe second and third _unto_ of verse 13 are parallel with the first, and\nwith each other. A truer faith and better knowledge of Christ uniting\nbelievers to each other, at the same time develope in each of them a\nriper character. Jesus Christ was the \"perfect man.\" In Him our nature\nattained, without the least flaw or failure, its true end,--which is to\nglorify God. In His fulness the plenitude of God is embodied; it is made\nhuman, and attainable to faith. In Jesus Christ humanity rose to its\nideal stature; and we see what is the proper level of our nature, the\ndignity and worth to which we have to rise. We are \"predestinated to be\nconformed to the image of God's Son.\" All the many brethren of Jesus\nmeasure themselves against the stature of the Firstborn; and they will\nhave to say to the end with St Paul: \"Not as though I had attained,\neither were already perfect. I follow after; I press towards the mark.\"\nA true heart that has seen perfection, will never rest short of it.\n\n\"Till we arrive--till we _all_ arrive\" at this, the work of the\nChristian ministry is incomplete. Teachers must still school us, pastors\nshepherd us, evangelists mission us. There is work enough and to spare\nfor them all--and will be, to all appearance, for many a generation to\ncome. The goal of the regenerate life is never absolutely won; it is hid\nwith Christ in God. But there is to be a constant approximation to it,\nboth in the individual believer and in the body of Christ's people. And\na time is coming when that goal will be practically attained, so far as\nearthly conditions allow. The Church after long strife will be reunited,\nafter long trial will be perfected; and Christ will \"present her to\nHimself\" a bride worthy of her Lord, \"without spot or wrinkle or any\nsuch thing.\" Then this world will have had its use, and will give place\nto the new heavens and earth.\n\nII. The goal that the apostle marked out, did not appear to him to be in\nimmediate prospect. The childishness of so many Christian believers\nstood in the way of its attainment. In this condition they were exposed\nto the seductions of error, and ready to be driven this way and that by\nthe evil influences active in the world of thought around them. So long\nas the Church contains a number of unstable souls, so long she will\nremain subject to strife and corruption. When he says in verse 14, \"that\nwe may be _no longer children_ tossed to and fro,\" etc., this implies\nthat many Christian believers at that time were of this childish sort,\nand were being so distracted and misled. The apostle writes on purpose\nto instruct these \"babes\" and to raise them to a more manly style of\nChristian thought and life.[111]\n\nIt is a grievous thing to a minister of Christ to see those who for the\ntime ought to be teachers, fit for the Church's strong meat and the\nharder tasks of her service, remaining still infantile in their\ncondition, needing to be nursed and humoured, narrow in their views of\ntruth, petty and personal in their aims, wanting in all generous feeling\nand exalted thought. Some men, like St Paul himself, advance from the\nbeginning to a settled faith, to a large intelligence and a full and\nmanly consecration to God. Others remain \"babes in Christ\" to the end.\nTheir souls live, but never thrive. They suffer from every change in the\nmoral atmosphere, from every new wind of doctrine. These invalids are\nobjects full of interest to the moral pathologist; they are marked not\nunfrequently by fine and delicate qualities. But they are a constant\nanxiety to the Church. Till they grow into something more robust they\nmust remain to crowd the Church's nursery, instead of taking part in her\nbattle like brave and strenuous men.\n\nThe appearance of false doctrine in the Asian Churches made their\nundeveloped condition a matter for peculiar apprehension to the apostle.\nThe Colossian heresy, for example, with which he is dealing at this\npresent moment, would have no attraction for ripe and settled\nChristians. But such a \"scheme of error\" was exactly suited to catch men\nwith a certain tincture of philosophy and in general sympathy with\ncurrent thought, who had embraced Christianity under some vague sense\nof its satisfaction for their spiritual needs, but without an\nintelligent grasp of its principles or a thorough experience of its\npower.\n\nSt Paul speaks of \"every wind of _the_ doctrine,\" having in his mind a\nmore or less definite form of erroneous teaching, a certain \"plan of\nerror.\" Reading this verse in the light of the companion letter to\nColossae and the letters addressed to Timothy when at Ephesus a few years\nlater, we can understand its significance. We can watch the storm that\nwas rising in the Graeco-Asiatic Churches. The characteristics of early\nGnosticism are well defined in the miniature picture of verse 14. We\nnote, in the first place, its protean and capricious form, half\nJudaistic, half philosophical--ascetic in one direction, libertine in\nanother: \"tossed by the waves, and carried about with every wind.\" In\nthe next place, its intellectual spirit,--that of a loose and reckless\nspeculation: \"in the hazarding of men,\"--not in the abiding truth of\nGod. Morally, it was vitiated by \"craftiness.\" And in its issue and\nresult, this new teaching was leading \"to the scheme of error\" which the\napostle four years ago had sorrowfully predicted, in bidding farewell to\nthe Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts xx.). This scheme was no other than\nthe gigantic Gnostic system, which devastated the Eastern Churches and\ninflicted deep and lasting wounds upon them.\n\nThe struggle with legalism was now over and past, at least in its\ncritical phase. The apostle of the Gentiles had won the battle with\nJudaism and saved the Church in its first great conflict. But another\nstrife is impending (comp. vi. 10); a most pernicious error has made its\nappearance within the Church itself. St Paul was not to see more than\nthe commencement of the new movement, which took two generations to\ngather its full force; but he had a true prophetic insight, and he saw\nthat the strength of the Church in the coming day of trial lay in the\ndepth and reality of her knowledge of the Son of God.\n\nAt every crisis in human thought there emerges some prevailing method of\ntruth, or of error, the resultant of current tendencies, which unites\nthe suffrages of a large body of thinkers and claims to embody the\nspirit of the age. Such a method of error our own age has produced as\nthe outcome of the anti-Christian speculation of modern times, in the\ndoctrines current under the names of Positivism, Secularism, or\nAgnosticism. While the Gnosticism of the early ages asserted the\ninfinite distance of God from the world and the intrinsic evil of\nmatter, modern Agnosticism removes God still further from us, beyond the\nreach of thought, and leaves us with material nature as the one positive\nand accessible reality, as the basis of life and law. Faith and\nknowledge of the Son of God it banishes as dreams of our childhood. The\nsupernatural, it tells us, is an illusion; and we must resign ourselves\nto be once more without God in the world and without hope beyond death.\n\nThis materialistic philosophy gathers to a head the unbelief of the\ncentury. It is the living antagonist of Divine revelation. It supplies\nthe appointed trial of faith for educated men of our generation, and the\ntest of the intellectual vigour and manhood of the Church.\n\nIII. In the midst of the changing perils and long delays of her history,\nthe Church is called evermore to press towards the mark of her calling.\nThe conditions on which her progress depends are summed up in verses 15\nand 16.\n\nTo the craft of false teachers St Paul would have his Churches oppose\nthe weapons only of _truth and love_. \"Holding the truth in love,\" they\nwill \"grow up in all things into Christ.\" Sincere believers, heartily\ndevoted to Christ, will not fall into fatal error. A healthy life\ninstinctively repels disease. They \"have an anointing from the Holy One\"\nwhich is their protection (1 John ii. 20-29). In all that belongs to\ngodliness and a noble manhood, such natures will expand; temptation and\nthe assaults of error stimulate rather than arrest their growth. And\nwith the growth and ripening in her fellowship of such men of God, the\nwhole Church grows.\n\nNext to the moral condition lies the spiritual condition of\nadvancement,--viz., the full recognition of _the supremacy and\nsufficiency of Christ_. Christ assumes here two opposite relations to\nthe members of His body. He is the Head _into_ (or _unto_) which we grow\nin all things; but at the same time, _from_ whom all the body derives\nits increase (ver. 16). He is the perfect ideal for us each; He is the\ncommon source of life and progress for us all. In our individual efforts\nafter holiness and knowledge, in our personal aspirations and struggles,\nJesus Christ is our model, our constant aim: we \"grow into Him\" (ver.\n15). But as we learn to live for others, as we merge our own aims in the\nlife of the Church and of humanity we feel, even more deeply than our\npersonal needs had made us do, our dependence upon Him. We see that the\nforces which are at work to raise mankind, to stay the strifes and heal\nthe wounds of humanity, emanate from the living Christ (ver. 16). He is\nthe head of the Church and the heart of the world.\n\nThe third, practical condition of Church growth is brought out by the\nclosing words of the paragraph. It is _organization_: \"all the body\nfitly framed [comp. ii. 21] and knit together.\" Each local _ecclesia_,\nor assembly of saints, will have its stated officers, its regulated and\nseemly order in worship and in work. And within this fit frame, there\nmust be the warm union of hearts, the frank exchange of thought and\nfeeling, the brotherly counsel in all things touching the kingdom of\nGod, by which Christian men in each place of their assembling are \"knit\ntogether.\" From these local and congregational centres, the Christian\nfellowship spreads out its arms to embrace all that love our Lord Jesus\nChrist.\n\nA building or a machine is _fitted_ together by the adjustment of its\nparts. A body needs, besides this mechanical construction, a pervasive\nlife, a sympathetic force _knitting_ it together: \"knit together in\nlove,\" the apostle says in Colossians ii. 2; and so it is \"in love\" that\nthis \"body builds up itself.\" The tense of the participles in the first\npart of verse 16 is present (continuous); we see a body in process of\nincorporation, whose several organs, imperfectly developed and\nimperfectly co-operant, are increasingly drawn to each other and bound\nmore firmly in one as each becomes more complete in itself. The perfect\nChristian and the perfect Church are taking shape at once. Each of them\nrequires the other for its due realization.\n\nThe rest of the sentence, following the comma that we place at \"knit\ntogether,\" has its parallel in Colossians ii. 19: \"All the body, through\nits junctures and bands being supplied and knit together, increaseth\nwith the increase of God.\" According to St Paul's physiology, the\n\"bands\" knit the body together, but the \"junctures\" are its means of\nsupply. Each point of contact is a means of nourishment to the frame.\nIn touch with each other, Christians communicate the life flowing from\nthe common Head. The apostle would make _Christian intercourse a\nuniversal means of grace_. No two Christian men should meet anywhere,\nupon any business, without themselves and the whole Church being the\nbetter for it.\n\n\"Wherever two or three are met together in my name,\" said Jesus, \"there\nam I in the midst.\" In the multitude of these obscure and humble\nmeetings of brethren who love each other for Christ's sake, is the grace\nsupplied, the love diffused abroad, by which the Church lives and\nthrives. The vitality of the Church of Christ does not depend so much\nupon the large and visible features of its construction--upon Synods and\nConferences, upon Bishops and Presbyteries and the like, influential and\nvenerable as these authorities may be; but upon the spiritual\nintercourse that goes on amongst the body of its people. \"Each several\npart\" of Christ's great body, \"according to the measure\" of its\ncapacity, is required to receive and to transmit the common grace.\n\nHowever defective in other points of organization, the society in which\nthis takes place fulfils the office of an ecclesiastical body. It will\ngrow into the fulness of Christ; it \"builds up itself in love.\" The\nprimary condition of Church health and progress is that there shall be\nan unobstructed flow of the life of grace from point to point through\nthe tissues and substance of the entire frame.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[105] =Eis hena kaino anthr\u00f4pon= (_homo_), ch. ii. 15; similarly in iv.\n22, 24; Rom. vi. 6; 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47, etc. Here =eis andra teleion=\n(_vir_); comp. 1 Cor. xiii. 11; James iii. 2. To call the Church =an\u00ear=\nwould be highly incongruous, in view of ch. v. 23, etc.; comp. 2 Cor.\nxi. 2.\n\n[106] Col. i. 22, 28, 29; 2 Tim. ii. 10.\n\n[107] For this association of metaphor, comp. Shakespeare: _Julius\nCaesar_, Act V., Scene 1:--\n\n \"Blow, wind; swell, billow; and swim, bark!\n The storm is up; and all is on the hazard!\"\n\n[108] Vulgate: _per omnem juncturam ministrationis_. St Paul's word here\nis =dia pas\u00eas haph\u00eas=, _through every touching_. See Lightfoot's\nvaluable note on the medical and philosophical use of the word by Greek\nauthors, in his Commentary on Colossians (ii. 19).\n\n[109] Comp. ch. i. 13: \"in whom you also [Gentiles, along with us Jews]\nfound hope\"; also Rom. iii. 29, 30; Tit. i. 4, \"my true child according\nto _a common faith_.\"\n\n[110] See the connexion of thought in Col. ii. 8-10, 18, 19.\n\n[111] Compare 1 Cor. ii. 6, iii. 1-3, xiv. 20, xvi. 13; Gal. iv. 19;\nHeb. v. 11-14.\n\n\n\n\nON CHRISTIAN MORALS.\n\nCHAPTER iv. 17--v. 21.\n\n =En kainot\u00eati z\u00f4\u00eas peripat\u00eas\u00f4men.=--ROM. vi. 4.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\n_THE WALK OF THE GENTILES._\n\n \"This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer\n walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being\n darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God\n because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening\n of their heart; who being past feeling gave themselves up to\n lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.\"--EPH. iv.\n 17-19.\n\n\nChrist has called into existence and formed around Him already a new\nworld. Those who are members of His body, are brought into another order\nof being from that to which they had formerly belonged. They have\ntherefore to walk in quite another way--\"no longer as the Gentiles.\" St\nPaul does not say \"as the other Gentiles\" (A.V.); for his readers,\nthough Gentiles by birth (ii. 11), are now of the household of faith and\nthe city of God. They hold the franchise of the \"commonwealth of\nIsrael.\" As at a later time the apostle John in his Gospel, though a\nborn Jew, yet from the standpoint of the new Israel writes of \"the Jews\"\nas a distant and alien people, so St Paul distinguishes his readers from\n\"the Gentiles\" who were their natural kindred.\n\nWhen he \"testifies,\" with a pointed emphasis, \"that _you_ no longer walk\nas do indeed the Gentiles,\" and when in verse 20 he exclaims, \"But\n_you_ did not thus learn the Christ,\" it appears that there were those\nbearing Christ's name and professing to have learnt of Him who did thus\nwalk. This, indeed, he expressly asserts in writing to the Philippians\n(ch. iii. 18, 19): \"Many walk, of whom I told you oftentimes, and now\ntell you even weeping,--the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose god is\ntheir belly, and their glory in their shame, who mind earthly things.\"\nWe cannot but associate this warning with the apprehension expressed in\nverse 14 above. The reckless and unscrupulous teachers against whose\nseductions the apostle guards the infant Churches of Asia Minor,\ntampered with the morals as well as with the faith of their disciples,\nand were drawing them back insidiously to their former habits of\nlife.[112]\n\nThe connexion between the foregoing part of this chapter and that on\nwhich we now enter, lies in the relation of the new life of the\nChristian believer to the new community which he has entered. The old\nworld of Gentile society had formed the \"old man\" as he then existed,\nthe product of centuries of debasing idolatry. But in Christ that world\nis abolished, and a \"new man\" is born. The world in which the Asian\nChristians once lived as \"Gentiles in the flesh,\" is dead to them.[113]\nThey are partakers of the regenerate humanity constituted in Jesus\nChrist. From this idea the apostle deduces the ethical doctrine of the\nfollowing paragraphs. His ideal \"new man\" is no mere ego, devoted to\nhis personal perfection; he is part and parcel of the redeemed society\nof men; his virtues are those of a member of the Christian order and\ncommonwealth.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe representation given of Gentile life in the three verses before us\nis highly condensed and pungent. It is from the same hand as the lurid\npicture of Romans i. 18-32. While this delineation is comparatively\nbrief and cursory, it carries the analysis in some respects deeper than\ndoes that memorable passage. We may distinguish the main features of the\ndescription, as they bring into view in turn the _mental_, _spiritual_,\nand _moral_ characteristics of the existing Paganism. Man's intellect\nwas confounded; religion was dead; profligacy was flagrant and\nshameless.\n\nI. \"The Gentiles walk,\" the apostle says, \"in _vanity of their\nmind_\"--with reason frustrate and impotent; \"being _darkened in their\nunderstanding_\"--with no clear or settled principles, no sound theory of\nlife. Similarly, he wrote in Romans i. 21: \"They were frustrated in\ntheir reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened.\" But here he\nseems to trace the futility further back, beneath the \"reasonings\" to\nthe \"reason\" (_nous_) itself. The Gentile mind was deranged at its\nfoundation. Reason seemed to have suffered a paralysis. Man has\nforfeited his claim to be a rational creature, when he worships objects\nso degraded as the heathen gods, when he practises vices so detestable\nand ruinous.\n\nThe men of intellect, who held themselves aloof from popular beliefs,\nfor the most part confessed that their philosophies were speculative and\nfutile, that certainty in the greatest and most serious matters was\nunattainable. Pilate's question, \"What is truth?\"--no jesting question\nsurely--passed from lip to lip and from one school of thought to\nanother, without an answer. Five centuries before this time the human\nintellect had a marvellous awakening. The art and philosophy of Greece\nsprang into their glorious life, like Athen\u00e9 born from the head of Zeus,\nfull-grown and in shining armour. With such leaders as Pericles and\nPhidias, as Sophocles and Plato, it seemed as though nothing was\nimpossible to the mind of man. At last the genius of our race had\nblossomed; rich and golden fruit would surely follow, to be gathered\nfrom the tree of life. But the blossoms fell, and the fruit proved as\nrottenness. Grecian art had sunk into a meretricious skill; poetry was\nlittle more than a trick of words; philosophy, a wrangling of the\nschools. Rome towered in the majesty of her arms and laws above the\nfaded glory of Greece. She promised a more practical and sober ideal, a\nrule of world-wide justice and peace and material plenty. But this dream\nvanished, like the other. The age of the Caesars was an age of\ndisillusion. Scepticism and cynicism, disbelief in goodness, despair of\nthe future possessed men's minds. Stoics and Epicureans, old and new\nAcademics, Peripatetics and Pythagoreans disputed the palm of wisdom in\nmere strife of words. Few of them possessed any earnest faith in their\nown systems. The one craving of Athens and the learned was \"to hear some\nnew thing,\" for of the old things all thinking men were weary. Only\nrhetoric and scepticism flourished. Reason had built up her noblest\nconstructions as if in sport, to pull them down again. \"On the whole,\nthis last period of Greek philosophy, extending into the Christian era,\nbore the marks of intellectual exhaustion and impoverishment, and of\ndespair in the solution of its high problem\" (D\u00f6llinger). The world\nitself admitted the apostle's reproach that \"by wisdom it knew not God.\"\nIt knew nothing, therefore, to sure purpose, nothing that availed to\nsatisfy or save it.\n\nOur own age, it may be said, possesses a philosophic method unknown to\nthe ancient world. The old metaphysical systems failed; but we have\nrelaid the foundations of life and thought upon the solid ground of\nnature. Modern culture rests upon a basis of positive and demonstrated\nknowledge, whose value is independent of religious belief. Scientific\ndiscovery has put us in command of material forces that secure the race\nagainst any such relapse as that which took place in the overthrow of\nthe Graeco-Roman civilization. _Pessimism_ answers these pretensions made\nfor physical science by her idolaters. Pessimism is the nemesis of\nirreligious thought. It creeps like a slow palsy over the highest and\nablest minds that reject the Christian hope. What avails it to yoke\nsteam to our chariot, if black care still sits behind the rider? to wing\nour thoughts with the lightning, if those thoughts are no happier or\nworthier than before?\n\n\"Civilization contains within itself the elements of a fresh servitude.\nMan conquers the powers of nature, and becomes in turn their slave\" (F.\nW. Robertson). Poverty grows gaunt and desperate by the side of lavish\nwealth. A new barbarism is bred in what science grimly calls the\n_proletariate_, a barbarism more vicious and dangerous than the old,\nthat is generated by the inhuman conditions of life under the existing\nregime of industrial science.\n\nEducation gives man quickness of wit and new capacity for evil or good;\nculture makes him more sensitive; refinement more delicate in his\nvirtues or his vices. But there is no tendency in these forces as we\nsee them now in operation, any more than in the classical discipline, to\nmake nobler or better men. Secular knowledge supplies nothing to bind\nsociety together, no force to tame the selfish passions, to guard the\nmoral interests of mankind. Science has given an immense impetus to the\nforces acting on civilized men; it cannot change or elevate their\ncharacter. It puts new and potent instruments into our hands; but\nwhether those instruments shall be tools to build the city of God or\nweapons for its destruction, is determined by the spirit of the\nwielders. In the midst of his splendid machinery, master of the planet's\nwealth and lord of nature's forces, the civilized man at the end of this\nboastful century stands with a dull and empty heart--without God. Poor\ncreature, he wants to know whether \"life is worth living\"! He has gained\nthe world, but lost his soul.\n\nIn vanity of mind and darkness of reasoning men stumble onwards to the\nend of life, to the end of time. The world's wisdom and the lessons of\nits history give no hope of any real advance from darkness to light\nuntil, as Plato said, \"We are able more safely and securely to make our\njourney, borne on some firmer vehicle, on some Divine word.\"[114] Such a\nvehicle those who believe in Christ have found in His teaching. The\nmoral progress of the Christian ages is due to its guidance. And that\nmoral progress has created the conditions and given the stimulus to\nwhich our material and scientific progress is due. Spiritual life gives\npermanence and value to all man's acquisitions. Both of this world and\nof that to come \"godliness holds the promise.\" We are only beginning to\nlearn how much was meant when Jesus Christ announced Himself as \"the\nlight of the world.\" He brought into the world a light which was to\nshine through all the realms of human life.\n\nII. The delusion of mind in which the nations walked, resulted in a\nsettled state of _estrangement from God_. They were \"alienated from the\nlife of God.\"\n\n\"Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,\" St Paul said in chapter ii.\n12,[115] using, as he does here, the Greek perfect participle, which\ndenotes an abiding fact. These two alienations generally coincide.\nOutside the religious community, we are outside the religious life. This\nexpression gathers to a point what was said in verses 11, 12 of chapter\nii., and further back in verses 1-3; it discloses the spring of the\nsoul's malady and decay in its separation from the living God. When\nshall we learn that in God only is our life? We may exist without God,\nas a tree cast out in the desert, or a body wasting in the grave; but\nthat is not _life_.\n\nEverywhere the apostle moved amongst men who seemed to him\ndead--joyless, empty-hearted, weary of an idle learning or lost in\nsullen ignorance, caring only to eat and drink till they should die like\nthe beasts. Their so-called gods were phantasms of the Divine, in which\nthe wiser of them scarcely even pretended to believe. The ancient\nnatural pieties--not wholly untouched by the Spirit of God, despite\ntheir idolatry--that peopled with fair fancies the Grecian shores and\nskies, and taught the sturdy Roman his manfulness and hallowed his love\nof home and city, were all but extinguished. Death was at the heart of\nPagan religion; corruption in its breath. Few indeed were those who\nbelieved in the existence of a wise and righteous Power behind the veil\nof sense. The Roman augurs laughed at their own auspices; the priests\nmade a traffic of their temple ceremonies. Sorcery of all kinds was\nrife, as rife as scepticism. The most fashionable rites of the day were\nthe gloomy and revolting mysteries imported from Egypt and Syria. A\nhundred years before, the Roman poet Lucretius expressed, with his\nburning indignation, the disposition of earnest and high-minded men\ntowards the creeds of the later classic times:--\n\n \"Humana ante oculos foede cum vita jaceret,\n In terris oppressa gravi sub religione,\n Quae caput e coeli regionibus ostendebat\n Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans,\n Primum Graius homo mortalis tollere contra\n Est oculos ausus primusque obsistere contra.\"[116]\n\n _De Rerum Natura_: Bk. I., 62-67.\n\nHow alienated from the life of God were those who conceived such\nsentiments, and those whose creed excited this repugnance. And when\namongst ourselves, as it occurs in some unhappy instances, a similar\nbitterness is cherished, it is matter of double sorrow,--of grief at\nonce for the alienation prompting thoughts so dark and unjust towards\nour God and Father, and for the misshapen guise in which our holy\nreligion has been presented to make this aversion possible.\n\nThe phrase \"alienated from the life of God\" denotes an objective\nposition rather than a subjective disposition, the state and place of\nthe man who is far from God and and his true life. God exiles sinners\nfrom His presence. By a necessary law, their sin acts as a sentence of\ndeprivation. Under its ban they go forth, like Cain, from the presence\nof the Lord. They can no longer partake of the light of life which\nstreams forth evermore from God and fills the souls that abide in His\nlove.\n\nAnd this banishment was due to the cause already described,--to the\nradical perversion of the Gentile mind, which is re-affirmed in the\ndouble prepositional clause of verse 18: \"because of the ignorance that\nis in them, because of the hardening of their heart.\" The repeated\npreposition (_because of_) attaches the two parallel clauses to the same\npredicate. Together they serve to explain this sad estrangement from the\nDivine life; the second _because_ supplements the first. It is the\ningrained \"ignorance\" of men that excludes them from the life of God;\nand this ignorance is no misfortune or unavoidable fate, it is due to a\npositive \"hardening of the heart.\"\n\nIgnorance is not the mother of devotion, but of indevotion. If men knew\nGod, they would certainly love and serve Him. St Paul agreed with\nSocrates and Plato in holding that virtue is knowledge. The debasement\nof the heathen world, he declares again and again, was due to the fact\nthat it \"knew not God.\"[117] The Corinthian Church was corrupted and its\nChristian life imperilled by the presence in it of some who \"had not the\nknowledge of God\" (1 Cor. xv. 33, 34). At Athens, the centre of heathen\nwisdom, he spoke of the Pagan ages as \"the times of ignorance\" (Acts\nxvii. 30); and found in this want of knowledge a measure of excuse. But\nthe ignorance he censures is not of the understanding alone; nor is it\ncurable by philosophy and science. It has an intrinsic\nground,--\"existing _in_ them.\"\n\nSince the world's creation, the apostle says, God's unseen presence has\nbeen clearly visible (Rom. i. 20). Yet multitudes of men have always\nheld false and corrupting views of the Divine nature. At this present\ntime, in the full light of Christianity, men of high intellect and wide\nknowledge of nature are found proclaiming in the most positive terms\nthat God, if He exists, is unknowable. This ignorance it is not for us\nto censure; every man must give account of himself to God. There may be\nin individual cases, amongst the enlightened deniers of God in our own\ndays, causes of misunderstanding beyond the will, obstructing and\ndarkening circumstances, on the ground of which in His merciful and wise\njudgement God may \"overlook\" that ignorance, even as He did the\nignorance of earlier ages. But it is manifest that while this veil\nremains, those on whose heart it lies cannot partake in the life of God.\nLiving in unbelief, they walk in darkness to the end, knowing not\nwhither they go.\n\nThe Gentile ignorance of God was attended, as St Paul saw it, with an\n_induration of heart_, of which it was at once the cause and the effect.\nThere is a wilful stupidity, a studied misconstruction of God's will,\nwhich has played a large part in the history of unbelief. The\nIsraelitish people presented at this time a terrible example of such\nguilty callousness (Rom. xi. 7-10, 25). They professed a mighty zeal for\nGod; but it was a passion for the deity of their partial and corrupt\nimagination, which turned to hatred of the true God and Father of men\nwhen He appeared in the person of His Son. Behind their pride of\nknowledge lay the ignorance of a hard and impenitent heart.\n\nIn the case of the heathen, hardness of heart and religious ignorance\nplainly went together. The knowledge of God was not altogether wanting\namongst them; He \"left Himself not without witness,\" as the apostle told\nthem (Acts xiv. 17). Where there is, amid whatever darkness, a mind\nseeking after truth and right, some ray of light is given, some gleam of\na better hope by which the soul may draw nigh to God,--coming whence or\nhow perhaps none can tell. The gospel of Christ finds in every new land\nsouls waiting for God's salvation. Such a preparation for the Lord, in\nhearts touched and softened by the preventings of grace, its first\nmessengers discovered everywhere,--a remnant in Israel and a great\nmultitude amongst the heathen.\n\nBut the Jewish nation as a whole, and the mass of the pagans, remained\nat present obstinately disbelieving. They had no perception of the life\nof God, and felt no need of it; and when offered, they thrust it from\nthem. Theirs was another god, \"the god of this world,\" who \"blinds the\nminds of the unbelieving\" (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4). And their \"ungodliness and\nunrighteousness\" were not to be pitied more than blamed. They might have\nknown better; they were \"holding down the truth in unrighteousness,\"\nputting out the light that was in them and contradicting their better\ninstincts. The wickedness of that generation was the outcome of a\nhardening of heart and blinding of conscience that had been going on for\ngenerations past.\n\nIII. By two conspicuous features the decaying Paganism of the Christian\nera was distinguished,--its unbelief and its _licentiousness_. In his\nletter to the Romans St Paul declares that the second of these\ndeplorable characteristics was the consequence of the former, and a\npunishment for it inflicted by God. Here he points to it as a\nmanifestation of the hardening of heart which caused their ignorance of\nGod: \"Having lost all feeling, they gave themselves up to\nlasciviousness, so as to commit every kind of uncleanness in\ngreediness.\"\n\nUpon that brilliant classic civilization there lies a shocking stain of\nimpurity. St Paul stamps upon it the burning word _Aselgeia\n(lasciviousness)_, like a brand on the harlot's brow. The habits of\ndaily life, the literature and art of the Greek world, the atmosphere of\nsociety in the great cities was laden with corruption. Sexual vice was\nno longer counted vice. It was provided for by public law; it was\nincorporated into the worship of the gods. It was cultivated in every\nluxurious and monstrous excess. It was eating out the manhood of the\nGreek and Latin races. From the imperial Caesar down to the horde of\nslaves, it seemed as though every class of society had abandoned itself\nto the horrid practices of lust.\n\nThe \"greediness\" with which debauchery was then pursued, is at the\nbottom self-idolatry, self-deification; it is the absorption of the\nGod-given passion and will of man's nature in the gratification of his\nappetites. Here lies the reservoir and spring of sin, the burning deep\nwithin the soul of him who knows no God but his own will, no law above\nhis own desire. He plunges into sensual indulgence, or he grasps\ncovetously at wealth or office; he wrecks the purity, or tramples on the\nrights of others; he robs the weak, he corrupts the innocent, he\ndeceives and mocks the simple--to feed the gluttonous idol of self that\nsits upon God's seat within him. The military hero wading to a throne\nthrough seas of blood, the politician who wins power and office by the\nsleights of a supple tongue, the dealer on the exchange who supplants\nevery competitor by his shrewd foresight and unscrupulous daring, and\nabsorbs the fruit of the labour of thousands of his fellow-men, the\nsensualist devising some new and more voluptuous refinement of\nvice,--these are all the miserable slaves of their own lust, driven on\nby the insatiate craving of the false god that they carry within their\nbreast.\n\nFor the light-hearted Greeks, lovers of beauty and of laughter, self was\ndeified as Aphrodit\u00e9, goddess of fleshly desire, who was turned by their\nworship into _Aselgeia_,--she of whom of old it was said, \"Her house is\nthe way to Sheol.\" Not such as the chaste wife and house-keeping mother\nof Hebrew praise, but La\u00efs with her venal charms was the subject of\nGreek song and art. Pure ideals of womanhood the classic nations had\nonce known--or never would those nations have become great and famous--a\nGreek Alcestis and Antigon\u00e9, Roman Cornelias and Lucretias, noble maids\nand matrons. But these, in the dissolution of manners, had given place\nto other models. The wives and daughters of the Greek citizens were shut\nup to contempt and ignorance, while the priestesses of vice--_hetaerae_\nthey were called, or _companions_ of men--queened it in their voluptuous\nbeauty, until their bloom faded and poison or madness ended their fatal\ndays.\n\nAmongst the Jews whom our Lord addressed, the choice lay between \"God\nand Mammon\"; in Corinth and Ephesus, it was \"Christ or Belial.\" These\nancient gods of the world--\"mud-gods,\" as Thomas Carlyle called\nthem--are set up in the high places of our populous cities. To the\nslavery of business and the pride of wealth men sacrifice health and\nleisure, improvement of mind, religion, charity, love of country, family\naffection. How many of the evils of English society come from this root\nof all evil!\n\nHard by the temple of Mammon stands that of Belial. Their votaries\nmingle in the crowded amusements of the day and rub shoulders with each\nother. Aselgeia flaunts herself, wise observers tell us, with increasing\nboldness in the European capitals. Theatre and picture-gallery and novel\npander to the desire of the eye and the lust of the flesh. The daily\nnewspapers retail cases of divorce and hideous criminal trials with\ngreater exactness than the debates of Parliament; and the appetite for\nthis garbage grows by what it feeds upon. It is plain to see whereunto\nthe decay of public decency and the revival of the animalism of pagan\nart and manners will grow, if it be not checked by a deepened Christian\nfaith and feeling.\n\n_Past feeling_ says the apostle of the brazen impudicity of his time.\nThe loss of the religious sense blunted all moral sensibility. The\nGreeks, by an early instinct of their language, had one word for\n_modesty_ and _reverence_, for self-respect and awe before the Divine.\nThere is nothing more terrible than the loss of shame. When immodesty is\nno longer felt as an affront, when there fails to rise in the blood and\nburn upon the cheek the hot resentment of a wholesome nature against\nthings that are foul, when we grow tolerant and familiar with their\npresence, we are far down the slopes of hell. It needs only the kindling\nof passion, or the removal of the checks of circumstance, to complete\nthe descent. The pain that the sight of evil gives is a divine shield\nagainst it. Wearing this shield, the sinless Christ fought our battle,\nand bore the anguish of our sin.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[112] \"The persons here denounced,\" says Lightfoot on Phil. iii. 18,\n\"are not the Judaizing teachers, but the antinomian reactionists.... The\nstress of Paul's grief lies in the fact that they degraded the true\ndoctrine of liberty, so as to minister to their profligate and worldly\nliving.\" Comp. 1 Peter iv. 3, 4; 2 Peter ii. 18-22.\n\n[113] Comp. Col. ii. 20-iii. 4; Gal. vi. 14, 15.\n\n[114] _Phaeao_: \u00a7 xxxv.\n\n[115] See p. 129.\n\n[116] \"When human life to view lay foully prostrate upon earth, crushed\ndown under the weight of religion, who showed her head from the quarters\nof heaven with hideous aspect lowering upon mortals, a man of Greece\nventured first to lift up his mortal eyes to her face and first to\nwithstand her to her face\" (Munro).\n\n[117] 1 Thess. iv. 5; 2 Thess. i. 8; Gal. iv. 8, 9.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\n_THE TWO HUMAN TYPES._\n\n \"But ye did not so learn the Christ; if so be that ye heard Him, and\n were taught in Him, even as truth is in Jesus: that ye put away, as\n concerning your former manner of life, the old man, which waxeth\n corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the\n spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God hath\n been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.\"--EPH. iv.\n 20-24.\n\n\n_But as for you!_--The apostle points us from heathendom to Christendom.\nFrom the men of blinded understanding and impure life he turns to the\ncleansed and instructed. \"Not thus did _you_ learn the Christ\"--not to\nremain in the darkness and filth of your Gentile state.\n\nThe phrase is highly condensed. The apostle, in this letter so exuberant\nin expression, yet on occasion is as concise as in Galatians. One is\ntempted, as Beza suggested[118] and Hofmann insists, to put a stop at\nthis point and to read: \"But with you it is not so:[119] you learned the\nChrist!\" In spite of its abruptness, this construction would be\nnecessary, if it were only \"the Gentiles\" of verse 17 with whose \"walk\"\nSt Paul means to contrast that of his readers. But, as we have seen, he\nhas before his eye a third class of men, unprincipled Christian teachers\n(ver. 14), men who had in some sense learnt of Christ and yet walked in\nGentile ways and were leading others back to them.[120] Verse 20, after\nall, forms a coherent clause. It points an antithesis of solemn import.\nThere are genuine, and there are supposed conversions; there are true\nand false ways of learning Christ.\n\nStrictly speaking, it is not _Christ_, but _the Christ_ whom St Paul\npresumes his readers to have duly learnt.[121] The words imply a\ncomprehending faith, that knows who and what Christ is and what\nbelieving in Him means, that has mastered His great lessons. To such a\nfaith, which views Christ in the scope and breadth of His redemption,\nthis epistle throughout appeals; for its impartation and increase St\nPaul prayed the wonderful prayer of the third chapter. When he writes\nnot simply, \"You have believed in Christ,\" but \"You have _learned the\nChrist_,\" he puts their faith upon a high level; it is the faith of\napproved disciples in Christ's school. For such men the \"philosophy and\nvain deceit\" of Colossae and the plausibilities of the new \"scheme of\nerror\" will have no charm. They have found the treasures of wisdom and\nknowledge that are hidden in Christ.\n\nThe apostle's confidence in the Christian knowledge of his readers is,\nhowever, qualified in verse 21 in a somewhat remarkable way: \"If verily\nit is He whom you heard, and in Him that you were taught, as truth is in\nJesus.\" We noted at the outset the bearing of this sentence on the\ndestination of the letter. It would never occur to St Paul to question\nwhether the _Ephesian_ Christians were taught Christ's true doctrine.\nIf there were any believers in the world who, beyond a doubt, had heard\nthe truth as in Jesus in its certainty and fulness, it was those amongst\nwhom the apostle had \"taught publicly and from house to house,\" \"not\nshunning to declare all the counsel of God\" and \"for three years night\nand day unceasingly with tears admonishing each single one\" (Acts xx.\n18-35). To suppose these words written in irony, or in a modest\naffectation, is to credit St Paul with something like an ineptitude.\nDoubt was really possible as to whether all his readers had heard of\nChrist aright, and understood the obligations of their faith. Supposing,\nas we have done, that the epistle was designed for the Christians of the\nprovince of Asia generally, this qualification is natural and\nintelligible.\n\nThere are several considerations which help to account for it. When St\nPaul first arrived at Ephesus, eight years before this time, he \"found\ncertain disciples\" there who had been \"baptized into John's baptism,\"\nbut had not \"received the Holy Spirit\" nor even heard of such a thing\n(Acts xix. 1-7). Apollos formerly belonged to this company, having\npreached and \"taught carefully the things about Jesus,\" while he \"knew\nonly the baptism of John\" (Acts xviii. 25). One very much desires to\nknow more about this Church of the Baptist's disciples in Asia Minor.\nIts existence so far away from Palestine testifies to the power of\nJohn's ministry and the deep impression that his witness to the\nMessiahship of Jesus made on his disciples. The ready reception of\nPaul's fuller gospel by this little circle indicates that their\nknowledge of Jesus Christ erred only by defect; they had received it\nfrom Judaea by a source dating earlier than the day of Pentecost. The\npartial knowledge of Jesus current for so long at Ephesus, may have\nextended to other parts of the province, where St Paul had not been able\nto correct it as he had done in the metropolis.\n\nJudaistic Christians, such as those who at Rome \"preached Christ of envy\nand strife,\" were also disseminating an imperfect Christian doctrine.\nThey limited the rights of uncircumcised believers; they misrepresented\nthe Gentile apostle and undermined his influence. A third and still more\nlamentable cause of uncertainty in regard to the Christian belief of\nAsian Churches, was introduced by the rise of Gnosticizing error in this\nquarter. Some who read the epistle had, it might be, received their\nfirst knowledge of Christ through channels tainted with error similar to\nthat which was propagated at Colossae. With the seed of the kingdom the\nenemy was mingling vicious tares. The apostle has reason to fear that\nthere were those within the wide circle to which his letter is\naddressed, who had in one form or other heard a different gospel and a\nChrist other than the true Christ of apostolic teaching.\n\nWhere does he find the test and touchstone of the true Christian\ndoctrine?--In the historical Jesus: \"as there is truth _in Jesus_.\" Not\noften, nor without distinct meaning, does St Paul use the birth-name of\nthe Saviour by itself. Where he does, it is most significant. He has in\nmind the facts of the gospel history; he speaks of \"the Jesus\"[122] of\nNazareth and Calvary. The Christ whom St Paul feared that some of his\nreaders might have heard of was not the veritable _Jesus_ Christ, but a\nshadowy and notional Christ, lost amongst the crowd of angels, such as\nwas now being taught to the Colossians. This Christ was neither the\nimage of God, nor the true Son of man. He supplied no sufficient\nredemption from sin, no ideal of character, no sure guidance and\nauthority to direct the daily walk. Those who followed such a Christ\nwould fall back unchecked into Gentile vice. Instead of the light of\nlife shining in the character and words of Jesus, they must resort to\n\"the doctrines and commandments of men\" (Col. ii. 8-23).\n\nAmongst the Gnostics of the second century there was held a distinction\nbetween the human (fleshly and imperfect) _Jesus_ and the Divine\n_Christ_, who were regarded as distinct beings, united to each other\nfrom the time of the baptism of Jesus to His death. The critics who\nassert the late and non-Pauline authorship of the epistle, assert that\nthis peculiar doctrine is aimed at in the words before us, and that the\nidentification of Christ with Jesus has a polemical reference to this\nadvanced Gnostic error. The verses that follow show that the writer has\na different and entirely practical aim. The apostle points us to our\ntrue ideal, to \"the Christ\" of all revelation manifest in \"the Jesus\" of\nthe gospel. Here we see \"the new man created after God,\" whose nature we\nmust embody in ourselves. The counteractive of a false spiritualism is\nfound in the incarnate life of the Son of God. The dualism which\nseparated God from the world and man's spirit from his flesh, had its\nrefutation in \"the Jesus\" of Paul's preaching, whom we see in the Four\nGospels. Those who persisted in the attempt to graft the dualistic\ntheosophy upon the Christian faith, were in the end compelled to divide\nand destroy the Christ Himself. They broke up into _Jesus and Christ_\nthe unity of His incarnate Person.\n\nIt is an entire mistake to suppose that the apostle Paul was indifferent\nto the historical tradition of Jesus; that the Christ he taught was a\nproduct of his personal inspiration, of his inward experience and\ntheological reflection. This preaching of an abstract Christ, distinct\nfrom the actual Jesus, is the very thing that he condemns. Although his\nexplicit references in the epistles to the teaching of Jesus and the\nevents of His earthly life are not numerous, they are such as to prove\nthat the Churches St Paul taught were well instructed in that history.\nFrom the beginning the apostle made himself well acquainted with the\nfacts concerning Jesus, and had become possessor of all that the earlier\nwitnesses could relate. His conception of the Lord Jesus Christ is\nliving and realistic in the highest degree. Its germ was in the visible\nappearance of the glorified Jesus to himself on the Damascus road; but\nthat expanding germ struck down its roots into the rich soil of the\nChurch's recollections of the incarnate Redeemer as He lived and taught\nand laboured, as He died and rose again amongst men. Paul's Christ was\nthe Jesus of Peter and of John and of our own Evangelists; there was no\nother. He warns the Church against all unhistorical, subjective Christs,\nthe product of human speculation.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe Asian Christians who held a true faith, had received Jesus as the\nChrist. So accepting Him, they accepted a fixed standard and ideal of\nlife for themselves. With Jesus Christ evidently set forth before their\neyes, let them look back upon their past life; let them contrast what\nthey had been with what they are to be. Let them consider what things\nthey must \"put off\" and what \"put on,\" so that they may \"be found in\nHim.\"\n\nStrangely did the image of Jesus confront the pagan world; keenly its\nlight smote on that gross darkness. There stood the Word made\nflesh--purity immaculate, love in its very self--shaped forth in no\ndream of fancy or philosophy, but in the veritable man Christ Jesus,\nborn of Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate,--truth expressed\n\n \"In loveliness of perfect deeds,\n More strong than all poetic thought.\"\n\nAnd this life of Jesus, living in those who loved Him (2 Cor. iv. 11),\nended not when He passed from earth; it passed from land to land,\nspeaking many tongues, raising up new witnesses at every step as it\nmoved along. It was not a new system, a new creed, but _new men_ that it\ngave the world in Christ's disciples, men redeemed from all iniquity,\nnoble and pure as sons of God. It was the sight of Jesus, and of men\nlike Jesus, that shamed the old world, so corrupt and false and hardened\nin its sin. In vain she summoned the gates of death to silence the\nwitnesses of Jesus. At last\n\n \"She veiled her eagles, snapped her sword,\n And laid her sceptre down;\n Her stately purple she abhorred,\n And her imperial crown.\n She broke her flutes, she stopped her sports,\n Her artists could not please;\n She tore her books, she shut her courts,\n She fled her palaces;\n Lust of the eye and pride of life--\n She left it all behind,\n And hurried, torn with inward strife,\n The wilderness to find\" (_Obermann once more_).\n\nThe Galilean conquered! The new man was destined to convict and destroy\nthe old. \"God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for\nsin, condemned sin in the flesh\" (Rom. viii. 3). When Jesus lived, died,\nand rose again, an inconceivable revolution in human affairs had been\neffected. The cross was planted on the territory of the god of this\nworld; its victory was inevitable. The \"grain of wheat\" fell into the\nground to die: there might be still a long, cruel winter; many a storm\nand blight would delay its growth; but the harvest was secure. Jesus\nChrist was the type and the head of a new moral order, destined to\ncontrol the universe.\n\nTo see the new and the old man side by side was enough to assure one\nthat the future lay with Jesus. Corruption and decrepitude marked every\nfeature of Gentile life. It was gangrened with vice,--\"wasting away in\nits deceitful lusts.\"\n\nSt Paul had before his eyes, as he wrote, a conspicuous type of the\ndecaying Pagan order. He had appealed as a citizen of the empire to\n_Caesar_ as his judge. He was in durance as _Nero's_ prisoner, and was\nacquainted with the life of the palace (Phil. i. 13). Never, perhaps,\nhas any line of rulers dominated mankind so absolutely or held in their\nsingle hand so completely the resources of the world as did the Caesars\nof St Paul's time. Their name has ever since served to mark the summit\nof autocratic power. It was, surely, the vision of Tiberius sitting at\nRome that Jesus saw in the wilderness, when \"the devil showed Him all\nthe kingdoms of the world and their glory; and said, All this hath been\ndelivered to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it.\" The Emperor was\nthe topstone of the splendid edifice of Pagan civilization, that had\nbeen rearing for so many ages. And Nero was the final product and\nparagon of the Caesarean house!\n\nAt this epoch, writes M. Renan,[123] \"_Nero and Jesus_, Christ and\nAntichrist, stand opposed, confronting each other, if I may dare to say\nso, like heaven and hell.... In face of Jesus there presents itself a\nmonster, who is the ideal of evil as Jesus of goodness.... Nero's was an\nevil nature, hypocritical, vain, frivolous, prodigiously given to\ndeclamation and display; a blending of false intellect, profound\nwickedness, cruel and artful egotism carried to an incredible degree of\nrefinement and subtlety.... He is a monster who has no second in\nhistory, and whose equal we can only find in the pathological annals of\nthe scaffold.... The school of crime in which he had grown up, the\nexecrable influence of his mother, the stroke of parricide forced upon\nhim, as one might say, by this abominable woman, by which he had entered\non the stage of public life, made the world take to his eyes the form of\na horrible comedy, with himself for the chief actor in it. At the moment\nwe have now reached [when St Paul entered Rome], Nero had detached\nhimself completely from the philosophers who had been his tutors. He had\nkilled nearly all his relations. He had made the most shameful follies\nthe common fashion. A large part of Roman society, following his\nexample, had descended to the lowest level of debasement. The cruelty of\nthe ancient world had reached its consummation.... The world had touched\nthe bottom of the abyss of evil; it could only reascend.\"\n\nSuch was the man who occupied at this time the summit of human power and\nglory,--the man who lighted the torch of Christian martyrdom and at\nwhose sentence St Paul's head was destined to fall, the Wild Beast of\nJohn's awful vision. Nero of Rome, the son of Agrippina, embodied the\ntriumph of Satan as the god of this world. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of\nMary, reigned only in a few loving and pure hearts. Future history, as\nthe scroll of the Apocalypse unfolded it, was to be the battle-field of\nthese confronting powers, the war of Christ with Antichrist.\n\nCould it be doubtful, to any one who had measured the rival forces, on\nwhich side victory must fall? St Paul pronounces the fate of the whole\nkingdom of evil in this world, when he declares that \"the old man\" is\n\"perishing, according to the lusts of deceit.\" It is an application of\nthe maxim he gave us in Galatians vi. 8: \"He that soweth to his own\nflesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.\" In its mad sensuality and\nprodigal lusts, the vile Roman world he saw around him was speeding to\nits ruin. That ruin was delayed; there were moral forces left in the\nfabric of the Roman State, which in the following generations\nre-asserted themselves and held back for a time the tide of disaster;\nbut in the end Rome fell, as the ancient world-empires of the East had\nfallen, through her own corruption, and by \"the wrath\" which is\n\"revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of\nmen.\" For the solitary man, for the household, for the body politic and\nthe family of nations the rule is the same. \"Sin, when it is finished,\nbringeth forth death.\"\n\nThe passions which carry men and nations to their ruin are \"lusts _of\ndeceit_.\" The tempter is the liar. Sin is an enormous fraud. \"You shall\nnot die,\" said the serpent in the garden; \"Your eyes will be opened, and\nyou will be as God!\" So forbidden desire was born, and \"the woman _being\ndeceived_ fell into transgression.\"\n\n \"So glistered the dire Snake, and into fraud\n Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the tree\n Of prohibition, root of all our woe.\"\n\nBy its baits of sensuous pleasure, and still more by its show of freedom\nand power to stir our pride, sin cheats us of our manhood; it sows life\nwith misery, and makes us self-despising slaves. It knows how to use\nGod's law as an incitement to transgression, turning the very\nprohibition into a challenge to our bold desires. \"Sin taking occasion\nby the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me.\" Over the pit of\ndestruction play the same dancing lights that have lured countless\ngenerations,--the glitter of gold; the purple robe and jewelled coronet;\nthe wine moving in the cup; fair, soft faces lit with laughter. The\nstraying foot and hot desires give chase, till the inevitable moment\ncomes when the treacherous soil yields, and the pursuer plunges beyond\nescape into sin's reeking gulfs. Then the illusion is over. The gay\nfaces grow foul; the glittering prize proves dust; the sweet fruit turns\nto ashes; the cup of pleasure burns with the fire of hell. And the\nsinner knows at last that his greed has cheated him, that he is as\nfoolish as he is wicked.\n\nLet us remember that there is but one way of escape from the\nall-encompassing deceit of sin. It is in \"learning Christ.\" Not in\nlearning _about_ Christ, but in learning _Him_. It is a common artifice\nof the great deceit to \"wash the outside of cup and platter.\" The old\nman is improved and civilized; he is baptized in infancy and called a\nChristian. He puts off many of his old ways, he dresses himself in a\ndecorous garb and style; and so deceives himself into thinking that he\nis new, while his heart is unchanged. He may turn ascetic, and deny this\nor that _to_ himself; and yet never deny _himself_. He observes\nreligious forms and makes charitable benefactions, as though he would\ncompound with God for his unforsaken sin. But all this is only a\nplausible and hateful manifestation of the lusts of deceit. To learn the\nChrist, is to learn the way of the cross. \"Take my yoke upon you, and\nlearn of me,\" He bids us; \"for I am meek and lowly in heart.\" Till we\nhave done this, we are not even at the beginning of our lesson.\n\nFrom the perishing old man the apostle turns, in verses 23, 24, to the\nnew. These two clauses differ in their form of expression more than the\nEnglish rendering indicates.[124] When he writes, \"that ye be renewed in\nthe spirit of your mind,\" it is a _continual rejuvenation_ that he\ndescribes; the verb is present in tense, and the newness implied is that\nof recency and youth, newness in point of age. But the \"new man\" to be\n\"put on\" (ver. 24) is of a _new kind and order_; and in this instance\nthe verb is of the aorist tense signifying an event, not a continuous\nact. The new man is put on when the Christian way of life is adopted,\nwhen we enter personally into the new humanity founded in Christ. We\n\"put on the Lord Jesus Christ\" (Rom. xiii. 14), who covers and absorbs\nthe old self, even as those who await in the flesh His second advent\nwill \"put on the house from heaven,\" when \"the mortal\" in them will be\n\"swallowed up of life\" (2 Cor. v. 2-4). Thus two distinct conceptions of\nthe life of faith are placed before our minds. It consists, on the one\nhand, of a quickening, constantly renewed, in the springs of our\nindividual thought and will; and it is at the same time the assumption\nof another nature, the investiture of the soul with the Divine character\nand form of its being.\n\nBorne on the stream of his evil passions, we saw \"the old man\" in his\n\"former manner of life,\" hastening to the gulf of ruin. For the man\nrenewed in Christ the stream of life flows steadily in the opposite\ndirection, and with a swelling tide moves upward to God. His knowledge\nand love are always growing in depth, in refinement, in energy and joy.\nThus it was with the apostle in his advancing age. The fresh impulses of\nthe Holy Spirit, the unfolding to his spirit of the mystery of God, the\nfellowship of Christian brethren and the interests of the work of the\nChurch renewed Paul's youth like the eagle's. If in years and toil he is\nold, his soul is full of ardour, his intellect keen and eager; the\n\"outward man decays, but the inward man is renewed day by day.\"\n\nThis new nature had a new birth. The soul reanimating itself perpetually\nfrom the fresh springs that are in God, had in God the beginning of its\nrenovated life. We have not to create or fashion for ourselves the\nperfect life, but to _adopt_ it,--to realize the Christian ideal (ver.\n24). We are called to put on the new type of manhood as completely as we\nrenounce the old (ver. 22). The new man is there before our eyes,\nmanifest in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom we live henceforth.\nWhen we \"learn the Christ,\" when we have become His true disciples, we\n\"put on\" His nature and \"walk in Him.\" The inward reception of His\nSpirit is attended by the outward assumption of His character as our\ncalling amongst men.\n\nNow, the character of Jesus is human nature as God first formed it. It\nexisted in His thoughts from eternity. If it be asked whether St Paul\nrefers, in verse 24, to the creation of Adam in God's likeness, or to\nthe image of God appearing in Jesus Christ, or to the Christian nature\nformed in the regenerate, we should say that, to the apostle's mind, the\nfirst and last of these creations are merged in the second. The Son of\nGod's love is His primeval image. The race of Adam was created in Christ\n(Col. i. 15, 16). The first model of that image, in the natural father\nof mankind, was marred by sin and has become \"the old man\" corrupt and\nperishing. The new pattern replacing this broken type is the original\nideal, displayed \"in the likeness of sinful flesh\"--wearing no longer\nthe charm of childish innocence, but the glory of sin vanquished and\nsacrifice endured--in the Son of God made perfect through suffering.\nThrough all there has been only one image of God, one ideal humanity.\nThe Adam of Paradise was, within his limits, what the Image of God had\nbeen in perfectness from eternity. And Jesus in His human personality\nrepresented, under the changed circumstances brought about by sin, what\nAdam might have grown to be as a complete and disciplined man.\n\nThe qualities which the apostle insists upon in the new man are two:\n\"_righteousness_ and _holiness_ [or _piety_] of the truth.\" This is the\nOld Testament conception of a perfect life, whose realization the devout\nZacharias anticipates when he sings how God has \"shown mercy to our\nfathers, in remembrance of His holy covenant, ... that we being\ndelivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in\nholiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.\"\nEnchanting vision, still to be fulfilled! \"Righteousness\" is the sum of\nall that should be in a man's relations towards God's law; \"holiness\" is\na right disposition and bearing towards God Himself. This is not St\nPaul's ordinary word for holiness (_sanctification_, _sanctity_), which\nhe puts so often at the head of his letters, addressing his readers as\n\"saints\" in Christ Jesus. That other term designates Christian believers\nas devoted persons, claimed by God for His own;[125] it signifies\nholiness as a calling. The word of our text denotes specifically the\nholiness of temper and behaviour--\"that becometh saints.\" The two words\ndiffer very much as _devotedness_ from _devoutness_.[126]\n\nA religious temper, a reverent mind marks the true child of grace. His\nsoul is full of the loving fear of God. In the new humanity, in the type\nof man that will prevail in the latter days when the truth as in Jesus\nhas been learnt by mankind, justice and piety will hold a balanced sway.\nThe man of the coming times will not be atheistic or agnostic: he will\nbe devout. He will not be narrow and self-seeking; he will not be\npharisaic and pretentious, practising the world's ethics with the\nChristian's creed: he will be upright and generous, manly and godlike.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[118] Quid si post =hout\u00f4s= distinctionem ascribas? _Vos autem non ita_\n(subaudi _facere convenit_), _qui didicistis_, etc.\n\n[119] Comp. Numb. xii. 7; Ps. i. 4; Luke xxii. 26, for this Hebraistic\nturn of expression.\n\n[120] Comp. Phil. iii. 2, 18; Titus i. 16.\n\n[121] See pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.\n\n[122] =Esti al\u00eatheia en t\u00f4 I\u00easou.= The article with the proper name is\nmost significant. It points to the definite image of Jesus, in His\nactual person, that was made familiar by the preaching of Paul and the\nother apostles.\n\n[123] _L'Ant\u00e9christ_, pp. i. ii. 1, 2. This is a powerful and impressive\nwork, of whose value those who know only the _Vie de J\u00e9sus_ can have\nlittle conception. Renan's faults are many and deplorable; but he is a\nwriter of genius and of candour. His rationalism teems with precious\ninconsistencies. One hears in him always the Church bells ringing under\nthe sea, the witness of a faith buried in the heart and never silenced,\nto which he confesses touchingly in the Preface to his _Souvenirs_.\n\n[124] =ananeousthai de t\u00f4 pneumati tou noos hym\u00f4n, kai endysasthai to\nkainon anthr\u00f4pon, to kata Theo ktisthenta.=\n\n[125] Comp. pp. 29, 30.\n\n[126] It is important to distinguish the Greek adjectives =hagios= and\n=hosios=, with their derivatives. See Cremer's _N. T. Lexicon_ on these\nwords, and Trench's _N. T. Synonyms_, \u00a7 lxxxviii. Of the latter word, 1\nThess. ii. 10; 1 Tim. i. 9, ii. 8; 2 Tim. iii. 3; Tit. i. 8 are the only\nexamples in St Paul.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\n_DISCARDED VICES._\n\n \"Wherefore, having put away falsehood, 'speak ye truth each one with\n his neighbour': for we are members one of another.\n\n \"'Be ye angry, and sin not': let not the sun go down upon your\n provocation: neither give place to the devil.\n\n \"Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labour,\n working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have\n whereof to give to him that hath need.\n\n \"Let no worthless speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is\n good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them\n that hear. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were\n sealed unto the day of redemption.\n\n \"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing\n be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to\n another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in\n Christ forgave you. Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved\n children; and walk in love, even as the Christ also loved you, and\n gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an\n odour of a sweet smell.\n\n \"But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not\n even be named among you, as becometh saints; nor filthiness, nor\n foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not befitting: but rather\n giving of thanks. For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator,\n nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any\n inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no man deceive you\n with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of\n God upon the sons of disobedience.\"--EPH. iv. 25--v. 6.\n\n\nThe transformation described in the last paragraph (vv. 17-24) has now\nto be carried into detail. The vices of the old heathen self must be\neach of them replaced by the corresponding graces of the new man in\nChrist Jesus.\n\nThe peculiarity of the instructions given by the apostle for this\npurpose does not lie in the virtues enjoined, but in the light in which\nthey are set and the motives by which they are inculcated. The common\nconscience condemns lying and theft, malice and uncleanness; they were\ndenounced with eloquence by heathen moralists. But the ethics of the New\nTestament differed in many respects from the best moral philosophy: in\nits direct appeal to the conscience, in its vigour and decision, in the\nclearness with which it traced our maladies to the heart's alienation\nfrom God; but most of all, in the remedy which it applied, the new\nprinciple of faith in Christ. The surgeon's knife lays bare the root of\nthe disease; and the physician's hand pours in the healing balm.\n\nLet us observe at the outset that St Paul deals with the actual and\npressing temptations of his readers. He recalls what they had been, and\nforbids them to be such again. The associations and habits of former\nlife, the hereditary force of evil, the atmosphere of Gentile society,\nand added to all this, as we discover from chapter v. 6, the persuasions\nof the sophistical teachers now beginning to infest the Church, tended\nto draw the Asian Christians back to Gentile ways and to break down the\nmoral distinctions that separated them from the pagan world.\n\nAmongst the discarded vices of the forsaken Gentile life, the following\nare here distinguished: _lying_, _theft_, _anger_, _idle speech_,\n_malice_, _impurity_, _greed_. These may be reduced to sins of temper,\nof word, and of act. Let us discuss them in the order in which they are\nbrought before us.\n\n1. \"The falsehood\"[127] of verse 25 is the antithesis of \"the truth\"\nfrom which righteousness and holiness spring (ver. 24). In accepting the\none, Paul's Gentile readers \"had put off\" the other. When these heathen\nconverts became Christians, they renounced the great lie of idolatry,\nthe system of error and deceit on which their lives were built. They\nhave passed from the realm of illusion to that of truth. \"Now,\" the\napostle says, \"let your daily speech accord with this fact: you have\nbidden farewell to falsehood; _speak_ truth each with his neighbour.\"\nThe true religion breeds truthful men; a sound faith makes an honest\ntongue. Hence there is no vice more hateful than jesuitry, nothing more\nshocking than the conduct of those who defend what they call \"the truth\"\nby disingenuous arts, by tricks of rhetoric and the shifts of an\nunscrupulous partizanship. \"Will you speak unrighteously for God, and\ntalk deceitfully for Him?\" _As Christ's truth is in me_ cries the\napostle, when he would give the strongest possible assurance of the fact\nhe wishes to assert.[128] The social conventions and make-believes, the\ncountless simulations and dissimulations by which the game of life is\ncarried on belong to the old man with his lusts of deceit, to the\nuniversal lie that runs through all ungodliness and unrighteousness,\nwhich is in the last analysis the denial of God.\n\nSt Paul applies here the words of Zechariah viii. 16, in which the\nprophet promises to restored Israel better days on the condition that\nthey should \"speak truth each with his neighbour, and judge truth and\nthe judgement of peace in their gates. And let none of you,\" he\ncontinues, \"imagine evil in his heart against his neighbour; and love no\nfalse oath. For all these things do I hate, saith the Lord.\" Such is the\nlaw of the New Covenant life. No doubt, St Paul is thinking of the\nintercourse of Christians with each other when he quotes this command\nand adds the reason, \"For we are _members one of another_.\" But the word\n_neighbour_, as Jesus showed, has in the Christian vocabulary no limited\nimport; it includes the Samaritan, the heathen man and publican. When\nthe apostle bids his converts \"Follow what is good towards one another,\nand towards all\" (1 Thess. v. 15), he certainly presumes the neighbourly\nobligation of truthfulness to be no less comprehensive.\n\nBelievers in Christ represent a communion which in principle embraces\nall men. The human race is one family in Christ. For any man to lie to\nhis fellow is, virtually, to lie to himself. It is as if the eye should\nconspire to cheat the hand, or the one hand play false to the other.\nTruth is the right which each man claims instinctively from his\nneighbour; it is the tacit compact that binds together all\nintelligences. Without neighbourly and brotherly love perfect\ntruthfulness is scarcely possible. \"Self-respect will never destroy\nself-seeking, which will always find in self-interest a side accessible\nto the temptations of falsehood\" (Harless).\n\n2. Like the first precept, the second is borrowed from the Old\nTestament and shaped to the uses of the New. \"_Be ye angry_, and sin\nnot\": so the words of Psalm iv. 4 stand in the Greek version and in the\nmargin of our Revised Bible, where we commonly read, \"Stand in awe, and\nsin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.\" The\napostle's further injunction, that anger should be stayed before\nnightfall, accords with the Psalmist's words; the calming effect of the\nnight's quiet the apostle anticipates in the approach of evening. As the\nday's heat cools and its strain is relaxed, the fires of anger should\ndie down. With the Jews, it will be remembered, the new day began at\nevening. Plutarch, the excellent heathen moralist contemporary with St\nPaul, gives this as an ancient rule of the Pythagoreans: \"If at any time\nthey happened to be provoked by anger to abusive language, before the\nsun set they would take each other's hands and embracing make up their\nquarrel.\" If Paul had heard of this admirable prescription, he would be\ndelighted to recognize and quote it as one of those many facts of\nGentile life which \"show the work of the law written in their hearts\"\n(Rom. ii. 15). The passion which outlives the day, on which the angry\nman sleeps and that wakes with him in the morning, takes root in his\nbreast; it becomes a settled rancour, prompting ill thoughts and deeds.\n\nThere is no surer way of tempting the devil to tempt us than to brood\nover our wrongs. Every cherished grudge is a \"place given\" to the\ntempter, a new entrenchment for the Evil One in his war against the\nsoul, from which he may shoot his \"fire-tipped darts\" (vi. 16). Let us\ndismiss with each day the day's vexations, commending as evening falls\nour cares and griefs to the Divine compassion and seeking, as for\nourselves, so for those who may have done us wrong forgiveness and a\nbetter mind. We shall rise with the coming light armed with new patience\nand charity, to bring into the world's turmoil a calm and generous\nwisdom that will earn for us the blessing of the peacemakers, who shall\nbe called sons of God.\n\nStill the apostle says: \"_Be angry_, and sin not.\" He does not condemn\nanger in itself, nor wholly forbid it a place within the breast of the\nsaint. Wrath is a glorious attribute of God,--perilous, indeed, for the\nbest of men; but he who cannot be angry has no strength for good. The\napostle knew this holy passion, the flame of Jehovah that burns\nunceasingly against the false and foul and cruel. But he knew its\ndangers--how easily an ardent soul kindled to exasperation forgets the\nbounds of wisdom and love; how strong and jealous a curb the temper\nneeds, lest just indignation turn to sin, and Satan gain over us a\ndouble advantage, first by the wicked provocation and then by the\nuncontrolled resentment it excites.\n\n3. From anger we pass to _theft_.\n\nThe eighth commandment is put here in a form indicating that some of the\napostle's readers had been habitual sinners against it. Literally his\nwords read: \"Let him _that steals_ play the thief no more.\" The Greek\npresent participle does not, however, necessarily imply a pursuit now\ngoing on, but an habitual or characteristic pursuit, that by which the\nagent was known and designated: \"Let the thief no longer steal!\" From\nthe lowest dregs of the Greek cities--from its profligate and criminal\nclasses--the gospel had drawn its converts (comp. 1 Cor. vi. 9-11). In\nthe Ephesian Church there were converted thieves; and Christianity had\nto make of them honest workmen.\n\nThe words of verse 28, addressed to a company of thieves, vividly show\nthe transforming effect of the gospel of Christ: \"Let him toil, working\nwith his hands what is good, that he may have wherewith to give to him\nthat is in need.\" The apostle brings the loftiest motives to bear\ninstantly upon the basest natures, and is sure of a response. He makes\nno appeal to self-interest, he says nothing of the fear of punishment,\nnothing even of the pride of honest labour. Pity for their fellows, the\nspirit of self-sacrifice and generosity is to set those pilfering and\nviolent hands to unaccustomed toil. The appeal was as wise as it was\nbold. Utilitarianism will never raise the morally degraded. Preach to\nthem thrift and self-improvement, show them the pleasures of an ordered\nhome and the advantages of respectability, they will still feel that\ntheir own way of life pleases and suits them best. But let the divine\nspark of charity be kindled in their breast--let the man have love and\npity and not self to work for, and he is a new creature. His indolence\nis conquered; his meanness changed to the noble sense of a common\nmanhood. Love never faileth.\n\n4. We have passed from speech to temper, and from temper to act; in the\nwarning of verses 29, 30 we come back to speech again.\n\nWe doubt whether _corrupt talk_ is here intended. That comes in for\ncondemnation in verses 2 and 3 of the next chapter. The Greek adjective\nis the same that is used of the \"_worthless_ fruit\" of the \"_worthless_\n[_good-for-nothing_] tree\" in Matthew xii. 33; and again of the \"_bad_\nfish\" of Matthew xiii. 48, which the fisherman throws away not because\nthey are corrupt or offensive, but because they are useless for food. So\nit is against _inane_, inept and useless talk that St Paul sets his\nface. Jesus said that \"for _every idle word_ men must give account to\nGod\" (Matt. xii. 36).\n\nJesus Christ laid great stress upon the exercise of the gift of speech.\n\"By thy words,\" He said to His disciples, \"thou shalt be justified, and\nby thy words condemned.\" The possession of a human tongue is an immense\nresponsibility. Infinite good or mischief lies in its power. (With the\ntongue we should include the pen, as being the tongue's deputy.) Who\nshall say how great is the sum of injury, the waste of time, the\nirritation, the enfeeblement of mind and dissipation of spirit, the\ndestruction of Christian fellowship that is due to thoughtless speech\nand writing? The apostle does not simply forbid injurious words, he puts\nan embargo on all that is not positively useful. It is not enough to\nsay: \"My chatter does nobody harm; if there is no good in it, there is\nno evil.\" He replies: \"If you cannot speak to profit, be silent till you\ncan.\"\n\nNot that St Paul requires all Christian speech to be grave and serious.\nMany a true word is spoken in jest; and \"grace\" may be \"given to the\nhearers\" by words clothed in the grace of a genial fancy and playful\nwit, as well as in the direct enforcement of solemn themes. It is the\nmere talk, whether frivolous or pompous--spoken from the pulpit or the\neasy chair--the incontinence of tongue, the flux of senseless,\ngraceless, unprofitable utterance that St Paul desires to arrest: \"let\nit not proceed out of your mouth.\" Such speech must not \"escape the\nfence of the teeth.\" It is an oppression to every serious listener; it\nis an injury to the utterer himself. Above all, it \"grieves the Holy\nSpirit.\"\n\nThe witness of the Holy Spirit is the seal of God's possession in\nus;[129] it is the assurance to ourselves that we are His sons in\nChrist and heirs of life eternal. From the day it is affixed to the\nheart, this seal need never be broken nor the witness withheld, \"until\nthe day of redemption.\" Dwelling within the Church as the guard of its\ncommunion, and loving us with the love of God, the Spirit of grace is\nhurt and grieved by foolish words coming from lips that He has\nsanctified. As Israel in its ancient rebellions \"vexed His Holy Spirit\"\n(Isai. lxiii. 10), so do those who burden Christian fellowship and who\nenervate their own inward life by speech without worth and purpose. As\nHis fire is quenched by distrust (1 Thess. v. 19), so His love is vexed\nby folly. His witness grows faint and silent; the soul loses its joyous\nassurance, its sense of the peace of God. When our inward life thus\ndeclines, the cause lies not unfrequently in our own heedless speech. Or\nwe have listened willingly and without reproof to \"words that may do\nhurt,\" words of foolish jesting or idle gossip, of mischief and\nbackbiting. The Spirit of truth retires affronted from His desecrated\ntemple, not to return until the iniquity of the lips is purged and the\nwilful tongue bends to the yoke of Christ. Let us grieve before the Holy\nSpirit, that He be not grieved with us for such offences. Let us pray\nevermore: \"Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; keep the door of my\nlips.\"\n\n5. In his previous reproofs the apostle has glanced in various ways at\nlove as the remedy of our moral disorders and defects. Falsehood, anger,\ntheft, misuse of the tongue involve disregard of the welfare of others;\nif they do not spring from positive ill-will, they foster and aggravate\nit. It is now time to deal directly with this evil that assumes so many\nforms, the most various of our sins and companion to every other: \"Let\nall bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing be put\naway from you, with all malice.\"\n\nThe last of these terms is the most typical. _Malice_ is badness of\ndisposition, the aptness to envy and hatred, which apart from any\nspecial occasion is always ready to break out in bitterness and wrath.\n_Bitterness_ is malice sharpened to a point and directed against the\nexasperating object. _Wrath_ and _anger_ are synonymous, the former\nbeing the passionate outburst of resentment in rage, the latter the\nsettled indignation of the aggrieved soul: this passion was put under\nrestraint already in verses 26, 27. _Clamour_ and _railing_ give audible\nexpression to these and their kindred tempers. Clamour is the loud\nself-assertion of the angry man, who will make every one hear his\ngrievance; while the railer carries the war of the tongue into his\nenemy's camp, and vents his displeasure in abuse and insult.\n\nThese sins of speech were rife in heathen society; and there were some\namongst Paul's readers, doubtless, who found it hard to forgo their\nindulgence. Especially difficult was this when Christians suffered all\nmanner of evil from their heathen neighbours and former friends; it cost\na severe struggle to be silent and \"keep the mouth as with a bridle\"\nunder fierce and malicious taunts. Never to return evil for evil and\nrailing for railing, but contrariwise blessing,--this was one of the\nlessons most difficult to flesh and blood.\n\n_Kindness_ in act, _tenderheartedness_ of feeling are to take the place\nof malice with its brood of bitter passions. Where injury used to be met\nwith reviling and insult retorted in worse insult, the men of the new\nlife will be found \"forgiving one another, even as God in Christ\nforgave\" them. Here we touch the spring of Christian virtue, the master\nmotive in the apostle's theory of life. The cross of Jesus Christ is\nthe centre of Pauline ethics, as of Pauline theology. The sacrifice of\nCalvary, while it is the ground of our salvation, supplies the standard\nand incentive of moral attainment. It makes life _an imitation of God_.\n\nThe commencement of the new chapter at this point makes an unfortunate\ndivision; for its first two verses are in close consecution with the\nlast verse of chapter iv. By kindness and pitifulness of heart, by\nreadiness to forgive, God's \"beloved children\" will \"show themselves\nimitators\" of their Father. The apostle echoes the saying of his Master,\nin which the law of His kingdom was laid down: \"Love your enemies, and\ndo good, and lend never despairing; and your reward shall be great, and\nyou shall be called children of the Highest: for He is kind to the\nthankless and evil. Be ye therefore pitiful, as your Father is pitiful\"\n(Luke vi. 35, 36). Before the cross of Jesus was set up, men could not\nknow how much God loved the world and how far He was ready to go in the\nway of forgiveness. Yet Christ Himself saw the same love displayed in\nthe Father's daily providence. He bids us imitate Him who makes His sun\nshine and His rain fall on the just and unjust, on the evil and the\ngood. To the insight of Jesus, nature's impartial bounties in which\nunbelief sees only moral indifference, spoke of God's compassion; they\nproceed from the same love that gave His Son to taste death for every\nman.\n\nIn chapter iv. 32-v. 2 the Father's love and the Son's self-sacrifice\nare spoken of in terms precisely parallel. They are altogether one in\nquality. Christ does not by His sacrifice persuade an angry Father to\nlove His children; it is the Divine compassion in Christ that dictates\nand carries into effect the sacrifice. At the same time it was \"an\n_offering_ and a _sacrifice_ to God.\" God is love; but love is not\neverything in God. Justice is also Divine, and absolute in its own\nrealm. Law can no more forgo its rights than love forget its\ncompassions. Love must fulfil all righteousness; it must suffer law to\nmark out its path of obedience, or it remains an effusive, ineffectual\nsentiment, helpless to bless and save. Christ's feet followed the stern\nand strait path of self-devotion; \"He humbled Himself and became\nobedient,\" He was \"born under law.\" And the law of God imposing death as\nthe penalty for sin, which shaped Christ's sacrifice, made it acceptable\nto God. Thus it was \"an odour of a sweet smell.\"\n\nHence the love which follows Christ's example, is love wedded with duty.\nIt finds in an ordered devotion to the good of men the means to fulfil\nthe all-holy Will and to present in turn its \"offering to God.\" Such\nlove will be above the mere pleasing of men, above sentimentalism and\nindulgence; it will aim higher than secular ideals and temporal\ncontentment. It regards men in their kinship to God and obligation to\nHis law, and seeks to make them worthy of their calling. All human\nduties, for those who love God, are subordinate to this; all commands\nare summed up in one: \"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.\" The\napostle pronounced the first and last word of his teaching when he said:\n_Walk in love, as the Christ also loved us._\n\n6. Above all others, one sin stamped the Gentile world of that time with\ninfamy,--its _uncleanness_.\n\nSt Paul has stigmatized this already in the burning words of verse 19.\nThere we saw this vice in its intrinsic loathsomeness; here it is set\nin the light of Christ's love on the one hand (ver. 2), and of the final\njudgement on the other (vv. 5, 6). Thus it is banished from the\nChristian fellowship in every form--even in the lightest, where it\nglances from the lips in words of jest: \"Fornication and all\nuncleanness, let it not even be named among you.\" Along with\n\"filthiness, foolish talk and jesting\" are to be heard no more. Passing\nfrom verse 2 to verse 3 by the contrastive _But_, one feels how\nrepugnant are these things to the love of Christ. The perfume of the\nsacrifice of Calvary, so pleasing in heaven, sweetens our life on earth;\nits grace drives wanton and selfish passions from the heart, and\ndestroys the pestilence of evil in the social atmosphere. Lust cannot\nbreathe in the sight of the cross.\n\nThe \"good-for-nothing speech\" of chapter iv. 29 comes up once more for\ncondemnation in the _foolish speech_ and _jesting_ of this passage. The\nformer is the idle talk of a stupid, the latter of a clever man. Both,\nunder the conditions of heathen society, were tainted with foulness.\nLoose speech easily becomes low speech. Wit, unchastened by reverence,\nfinds a tempting field for its exercise in the delicate relations of\nlife, and displays its skill in veiled indecencies and jests that\ndesecrate the purer feelings, while they avoid open grossness.\n\nSt Paul's word for \"jesting\" is one of the singular terms of this\nepistle. By etymology it denotes a _well-turned_ style of expression,\nthe versatile speech of one who can touch lightly on many themes and\naptly blend the grave and gay. This social gift was prized amongst the\npolished Greeks. But it was a faculty so commonly abused, that the word\ndescribing it fell into bad odour: it came to signify banter and\npersiflage; and then, still worse, the kind of talk here indicated,--the\nwit whose zest lies in its flavour of impurity. \"The very profligate old\nman in the _Miles Gloriosus_ of Plautus (iii. I. 42-52), who prides\nhimself, and not without reason, upon his wit, his elegance and\nrefinement [_cavillator lepidus_, _facetus_], is exactly the\n=eutrapelos=. And keeping in mind that =eutrapelia=, being only once\nexpressly and by name forbidden in Scripture, is forbidden to Ephesians,\nit is not a little notable to find him urging that all this was to be\nexpected from him, being as he was an Ephesian by birth:--\n\n Post _Ephesi sum natus_; non enim in Apulia, non Animulae.\"[130]\n\nIn place of senseless prating and wanton jests--things unbefitting to a\nrational creature, much more to a saint--the Asian Greeks are to find in\n_thanksgiving_ employment for their ready tongue. St Paul's rule is not\none of mere prohibition. The versatile tongue that disported itself in\nunhallowed and frivolous utterance, may be turned into a precious\ninstrument for God's service. Let the fire of Divine love touch the\njester's lips, and that mouth will show forth His praise which once\npoured out dishonour to its Maker and shame to His image in man.\n\n7. At the end of the Ephesian catalogue of vices, as at the beginning\n(iv. 19), uncleanness is joined with _covetousness_, or _greed_.\n\nThis, too, is \"not even to be named amongst you, as becometh saints.\"\n_Money! property!_ these are the words dearest and most familiar in the\nmouths of a large class of men of the world, the only themes on which\nthey speak with lively interest. But Christian lips are cleansed from\nthe service both of Belial and of Mammon. When his business follows the\ntrader from the shop to the fireside and the social circle, and even\ninto the Church, when it becomes the staple subject of his conversation,\nit is clear that he has fallen into the low vice of covetousness. He is\nbecoming, instead of a man, a money-making machine, an \"idolater\" of\n\n \"Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell\n From heaven.\"\n\nThe apostle classes the covetous man with the fornicator and the\nunclean, amongst those who by their worship of the shameful idols of the\ngod of this world exclude themselves from their \"inheritance in the\nkingdom of Christ and of God.\"\n\nA serious warning this for all who handle the world's wealth. They have\na perilous war to wage, and an enemy who lurks for them at every step in\ntheir path. Will they prove themselves masters of their business, or its\nslaves? Will they escape the golden leprosy,--the passion for\naccumulation, the lust of property? None are found more dead to the\nclaims of humanity and kindred, none further from the kingdom of Christ\nand God, none more \"closely wrapped\" within their \"sensual fleece\" than\nrich men who have prospered by the idolatry of gain. Dives has chosen\nand won his kingdom. He \"receives in his lifetime his good things\";\nafterwards he must look for \"torments.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[127] =Dio apothemenoi to pseudos.= Despite the commentators, we must\nhold to it that _the lie_, _the falsehood_ is objective and concrete;\nnot _lying_, or _falsehood_ as a subjective act, habit, or\nquality,--which would have been rather =pseudologia= (comp. =m\u00f4rologia=,\nv. 4; and 1 Tim. iv. 2, =pseudolog\u00f4n=), or =to pseudes=. So in Rom. i.\n25, =to pseudos= is \"the [one great] lie\" which runs through all\nidolatry; and in 2 Thess. ii. 11 it denotes \"the lie\" which Antichrist\nimposes on those ready to believe it,--viz., that he himself is God.\nAccordingly, we take the participle =apothemenoi= to signify not what\nthe readers are to do, but what they _had done_ in renouncing\nheathenism. The apostle requires consistency: \"Since you are now of the\ntruth, be truth-speaking men.\"\n\n[128] 2 Cor. i. 18, 19, xi. 10.\n\n[129] See ch. i. 13, 14, and 18 (last clause).\n\n[130] Trench: _N. T. Synonyms_, \u00a7 xxxiv.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\n_DOCTRINE AND ETHICS._\n\n \"We are members one of another....\n\n \"Let the thief labour ... that he may have whereof to give to him\n that hath need....\n\n \"Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the\n day of redemption....\n\n \"Forgive each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Be ye\n imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as the\n Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a\n sacrifice to God....\n\n \"No fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an\n idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and\n God.\"--EPH. iv. 25-v. 6.\n\n\nThe homily that we have briefly reviewed in the last Chapter demands\nfurther consideration. It affords a striking and instructive example of\nSt Paul's method as a teacher of morals, and makes an important\ncontribution to evangelical ethics. The common vices are here prohibited\non specifically Christian grounds. The new nature formed in Christ casts\nthem off as alien and dead things; they are the sloughed skin of the old\nlife, the discarded dress of the old man who was slain by the cross of\nChrist and lies buried in His grave.\n\nThe apostle does not condemn these sins as being contrary to God's law:\nthat is taken for granted. But the legal condemnation was ineffectual\n(Rom. viii. 3). The wrath revealed from heaven against man's\nunrighteousness had left that unrighteousness unchastened and defiant.\nThe revelation of law, approved and echoed by conscience, taught man his\nguilt; it could do no more. All this St Paul assumes; he builds on the\nground of law and its acknowledged findings.\n\nNor does the apostle make use of the principles of philosophical ethics,\nwhich in their general form were familiar to him as to all educated men\nof the day. He says nothing of the rule of nature and right reason, of\nthe intrinsic fitness, the harmony and beauty of virtue; nothing of\nexpediency as the guide of life, of the inward contentment that comes\nfrom well-doing, of the wise calculation by which happiness is\ndetermined and the lower is subordinated to the higher good. St Paul\nnowhere discountenances motives and sanctions of this sort; he\ncontravenes none of the lines of argument by which reason is brought to\nthe aid of duty, and conscience vindicates itself against passion and\nfalse self-interest. Indeed, there are maxims in his teaching which\nremind us of each of the two great schools of ethics, and that make room\nin the Christian theory of life both for the philosophy of experience\nand that of intuition. The true theory recognizes, indeed, the\nexperimental and evolutional as well as the fixed and intrinsic in\nmorality, and supplies their synthesis.\n\nBut it is not the apostle's business to adjust his position to that of\nStoics and Epicureans, or to unfold a new philosophy; but to teach the\nway of the new life. His Gentile disciples had been untruthful,\npassionate in temper, covetous, licentious: the gospel which he preached\nhad turned them from these sins to God; from the same gospel he draws\nthe motives and convictions which are to shape their future life and to\ngive to the new spirit within them its fit expression. St Paul has no\nquarrel with ethical science, much less with the inspired law of his\nfathers; but both had proved ineffectual to keep men from iniquity, or\nto redeem them fallen into it. Above them both, above all theories and\nall external rules he sets the law of the Spirit of life in Christ.\n\nThe originality of Christian ethics, we repeat, does not lie in its\ndetailed precepts. There is not one, it may be, even of the noblest\nmaxims of Jesus that had not been uttered by some previous moralist.\nWith the New Testament in our hands, it may be possible to collect from\nnon-Christian sources--from Greek philosophers, from the Jewish Talmud,\nfrom Egyptian sages and Hindoo poets, from Buddha and Confucius--a moral\nanthology which thus sifted out of the refuse of antiquity, like\nparticles of iron drawn by the magnet, may bear comparison with the\nethics of Christianity. If Christ is indeed the Son of man, we should\nexpect Him to gather into one all that is highest in the thoughts and\naspirations of mankind. Addressing the Athenians on Mars' Hill, the\napostle could appeal to \"certain of your own poets\" in support of his\ndoctrine of the Fatherhood of God. The noblest minds in all ages witness\nto Jesus Christ and prove themselves to be, in some sort, of His\nkindred.\n\n \"They are but broken lights of Thee;\n And Thou, O Lord, art more than they!\"\n\nIt is Christ in us, it is the personal fellowship of the soul with Him\nand with the living God through Him, that forms the vital and\nconstitutive factor of Christianity. Here is the secret of its moral\nefficacy. The Christ is the centre root and of the race; He is the\nimage of God in which we were made. The life-blood of mankind flowed in\nHim as in its heart, and poured forth from Him as from its fountain in\nsacrifice for the common sin. Jesus gathered into Himself and restored\nthe virtue of humanity broken into a thousand fragments; but He did much\nmore than this. While He re-created in His personal character our lost\nmanhood, by His death and resurrection He has gained for that ideal a\ntranscendent power that seizes upon men and regenerates and transforms\nthem. \"With unveiled face beholding in the mirror the glory of the Lord,\nwe are changed into the same image, [receiving the glory that we see] as\nfrom the Lord of the Spirit\" (2 Cor. iii. 18).\n\nThere is, therefore, an evangelical ethics, a Christian science of life.\n\"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus\" has a system and method\nof its own. It has a rational solution and explanation to render for our\nmoral problems. But its solution is given, as St Paul and as his Master\nloved to give it, in practice, not in theory. It teaches the art of\nliving to multitudes to whom the names of ethics and moral science are\nunknown. Those who understand the method of Christ best are commonly too\nbusy in its practice to theorize about it. They are physicians tending\nthe sick and the dying, not professors in some school of medicine. Yet\nprofessors have their use, as well as practitioners. The task of\ndeveloping a Christian science of life, of exhibiting the truth of\nrevelation in its theoretical bearings and its relations to the thought\nof the age, forms a part of the practical duties of the Church and\ntouches deeply the welfare of souls. For other times this work has been\nnobly accomplished by Christian thinkers. Shall we not pray the Lord of\nthe harvest that He will thrust forth into this field fit labourers;\nthat He will raise up men mighty through God to overthrow every high\nthing that exalts itself against His knowledge, and wise to build up to\nthe level of the times the great fabric of Christian ethics and\ndiscipline?\n\n * * * * *\n\nThere emerge in this exhortation four distinct principles, which lay at\nthe basis of St Paul's views of life and conduct.\n\nI. In the first place, the fundamental truth of _the Fatherhood of God_,\n\"Be imitators of God,\" he writes, \"as beloved children.\" And in chapter\niv. 24: \"Put on the new man, which _was created after God_.\"\n\nMan's life has its law, for it has its source, in the nature of the\nEternal. Behind our race-instincts and the laws imposed on us in the\nlong struggle for existence, behind those imperatives of practical\nreason involved in the structure of our intelligence, is the presence\nand the active will of Almighty God our heavenly Father. His image we\nsee in the Son of man.\n\nHere is the fountainhead of truth, from which the two great streams of\nphilosophical thought upon morals have diverged. If man is the child of\na Being absolutely good, then moral goodness belongs to the essence of\nhis nature; it is discoverable in the instincts of his reason and will.\nWere not our nature warped by sin, such reasoning must have commanded\nimmediate assent and led to consistent and self-evident results. Again,\nif man is the _child_ of God, the finite of the Infinite, his moral\ncharacter must, presumably, have been in the beginning germinal rather\nthan complete, needing--even apart from sin and its\nmalformations--development and education, the discipline of a fatherly\nprovidence, inculcating the lessons and forming the habits which belong\nto his ripe manhood and full-grown stature. Intuitional morals bear\nwitness to the God of creation; experimental morals to the God of\nprovidence and history. The Divine Fatherhood is the keystone of the\narch in which they meet.\n\nThe command to \"be imitators of God\" makes _personality_ the sovereign\nelement in life. If consciousness is a finite and passing phenomenon, if\nGod be but a name for the sum of the impersonal laws that regulate the\nuniverse, for the \"stream of tendency\" in the worlds, _Father_ and\n_love_ are meaningless terms applied to the Supreme and religion\ndissolves into an impalpable mist. Is the universe governed by personal\nwill, or by impersonal force? Is reason, or is gravitation the index to\nthe nature of the Absolute? This is the vital question of modern\nthought. The latter is the answer given by a large, if not a\npreponderant body of philosophical opinion in our own day,--as it was\ngiven, virtually, by the natural philosophers of Greece in the dawn of\nscience. Man's triumphs over nature and the splendour of his discoveries\nin the physical realm bewilder his reason. The scientists, like other\nconquerors, have been intoxicated with victory. The universe, it seemed,\nwas about to yield to them its last secrets; they were prepared to\nanalyze the human soul and resolve the conception of God into its\nmaterial elements. Religion and conscience, however, prove to be\nintractable subjects in the physical laboratory; they are coming out of\nthe crucible unchanged and refined. We are able by this time to take a\nmore sober measure of the possibilities of the scientific method, and to\nsee what inductive logic and natural selection can do for us, and what\nthey cannot do. We can walk in the light of the new revelation, without\nbeing dazzled by it. Things are less altered than we thought. The old\nboundaries reappear. The spirit resumes its place, and rules a wider\nrealm than before. Reason refuses to be the victim of its own success,\nand to immolate itself for the deification of material law. \"Forasmuch\nas we are God's offspring,\" we ought not to think, and we will not think\nthat the Godhead is like to blind forces and reasonless properties of\nmatter. Love, thought, will in us raise our being above the realm of the\nimpersonal; and these faculties point us upward to Him from whom they\ncame, the Father of the spirits of all flesh.\n\nThe great tide of joy, the victorious energy which the sense of God's\nlove brings into the life of a Christian, is evidence of its reality.\nThe believer is a child walking in the light of his Father's\nsmile--dependent, ignorant, but the object of an Almighty love. A\nthousand tokens speak to him of the Divine care; his tasks and trials\nare sweetened by the confidence that they are appointed for wise ends\nbeyond his present knowledge. To another in that same house there is no\nheavenly Father, no unseen hand that guides, no gleam of a brighter and\npurer day lighting up its dull chambers. There are human companions,\nweak, erring and wearying like oneself. There is work to do, with the\nnight coming swiftly; and the brave heart girds itself to duty, finding\nin the service of man its motive and employment--but, alas, with how\npoor success and how faint a hope!\n\nIt is not the loss of strength for human service, nor the dying out of\njoy which unbelief entails, that is its chief calamity; but the\nunbelief itself. The sun in the soul's heaven is put out. The personal\nrelationship to the Supreme which gave dignity and worth to our\nindividual being, which imparted sacredness and enduring power to all\nother ties, is destroyed. The heart is orphaned; the temple of the\nspirit desolate. The mainspring of life is broken.\n\n \"Make haste to answer me, O Jehovah; my spirit faileth!\n Hide not Thy face from me,\n Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit!\"\n\nII. _The solidarity of mankind in Christ_ furnishes the apostle with a\npowerful lever for raising the ethical standard of his readers. The\nthought that \"we are members one of another\" forbids deceit. That he may\n\"have whereof to give to the needy\" is the purpose that provokes the\nthief to industry. The desire to \"give grace\" to the hearers and to\n\"build them up\" in truth and goodness imparts seriousness and elevation\nto social intercourse. The irritations and injuries we inflict on each\nother, with or without purpose, furnish occasion for us to \"be kind one\nto another, good-hearted, _forgiving yourselves_\"--for this is the\nexpression the apostle uses in chapter iv. 32, and in Colossians iii.\n13. Self is so merged in the community, that in dealing censure or\nforgiveness to an offending brother the Christian man feels as though he\nwere dealing with himself--as though it were the hand that forgave the\nfoot for tripping, or the ear that pardoned some blunder of the eye.\n\n_Showing-grace_ is what the apostle literally says here, speaking both\nof human and Divine forgiveness.[131] In this lies the charm and power\nof true forgiveness. The forgiver after the order of grace does not\npardon like a judge moved by magnanimity or pity for transgressors, but\nin love to his own kind and desire for their amendment. He identifies\nhimself with the wrong-doer, weighs his temptation and all that drew him\ninto error. Such forgiveness, while it never ignores the wrong, admits\nevery qualifying circumstance and just extenuation. This is the kind of\npardon that touches the sinner's heart; for it goes to the heart of the\nsin, isolating it from all other feelings and conditions that are not\nsin; it takes the wrong upon itself in understanding and perception; it\nputs its finger upon the aching, festering spot where the criminality\nlies and applies to that its healing balm.\n\n\"Even as God in Christ forgave you.\" And how did God forgive? Not by a\ngrand imperial decree, as of some monarch too exalted to resent the\ninjuries of men or to inquire into their futile proceedings. Had such\nforgiveness been possible to Divine justice, it could have wrought in us\nno real salvation. Our forgiveness is that of God in Christ. The\nForgiver has sat down by the prisoner's side, has felt his misery and\nthe force of his temptations, and in everything but the actual sin has\nmade Himself one with the sinner, even to bearing the extreme penalty of\nhis guilt. In the act of making sacrifice, Jesus prayed for those that\nslew Him: \"Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!\" This\nintercession breathed the spirit of the new forgiveness. There is a real\nremission of sins, a release granted justly and upon due satisfaction;\nbut it is the act of justice charged with love, of a justice as tender\nand considerate as it is strong, and which eagerly takes account of all\nthat bespeaks in the offender a possibility of better things. It is a\nforgiveness that does justice to the humanity as well as the criminality\nin the sinner.\n\nTo proclaim by word and deed this forgiveness of God to the sinful world\nis the vocation of the Church. And where she does thus declare it, by\nwhatever means or ministry, Christ's promise to her is verified:\n\"Whose-soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them.\" We may so\nreconcile men to ourselves, as to bring them back to God. Has some one\ndone you a wrong? there is your opportunity of saving a soul from death\nand hiding a multitude of sins. Thus Christ used the great wrong we all\ndid Him. It is your privilege to show the wrong-doer that you and he are\nmade one by the blood of Christ.\n\n\"Walk in love,\" St Paul says, \"as the Christ also loved us and gave up\nHimself for us a sacrifice.\" When the apostle writes _the Christ_, he\npoints us along the whole line of the revelation of the cross.[132] We\nthink of the Christhood of Jesus, of the Christliness of such love as\nthis. Christ's was a representative and exemplary love, with its\nforerunners and its followers all walking in one path. \"The Christ loved\n_and gave_\"; for love that does not give, that prompts to no effort and\nputs itself to no sacrifice, is but a luxury of the heart,--useless and\neven selfish. And He \"gave up _Himself_\"--the only gift that could\nsuffice. The rich who bestow many gifts in furtherance of humanitarian\nand religious work and still do not bestow themselves, their sympathetic\nthought, their presence and personal aid, are withholding the best\nthing, the one thing required to make their bounties efficacious. In\nwhat we give and forgive, it is the accent of sympathy, the giving of\nthe heart with it that adds grace to the act. \"Though I dole out all my\ngoods, though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it\nprofiteth me nothing.\" We do a thousand things to serve and benefit our\nfellow-men, and yet evade the real sacrifice,--which is simply to love\nthem.\n\nIn studying this epistle, we have felt increasingly that the Church is\nthe centre of humanity. The love born and nourished in the household of\nfaith goes out into the world with a universal mission. The solidarity\nof moral interests that is realized there, embraces all the kindreds of\nthe earth. The incarnation of Christ knits all flesh into one redeemed\nfamily. The continents and races of mankind are members one of another,\nwith Jesus Christ for head. We are brothers and sisters of humanity: He\nour elder brother, and God our common Father in heaven,--His Father and\nours.\n\nAuguste Comte writes in his _System of Positive Polity_: \"The promises\nof supernatural religion appealed exclusively to man's selfish\ninstincts.... The sympathetic instincts found no place in the\ntheological synthesis.\"[133] It would be impossible to affirm anything\nmore completely at variance with the truth, anything more absolutely\nopposed to the doctrine of Christ and the theological synthesis of the\napostles. And yet it was upon this ground that the great French thinker\nrenounced Christianity, proposing his new religion of humanity as a\nsubstitute for a selfish and effete supernaturalism! Why did he not go\nto the New Testament itself to find out what Christianity means? \"To\ncombine permanently concert with independence,\" Comte excellently says,\n\"is the capital problem of society, a problem which religion alone can\nsolve, by love primarily, then by faith on a basis of love.\"[134]\nPrecisely so; and this is the solution offered by Jesus Christ. His\nself-sacrificing love is the basis on which our faith rests; and that\nfaith works by love in all those who truly possess it. This is the\nevangelical theory. The morale of the Church, it is true, has fallen\nshamefully below its doctrine; but this doctrine is, after all, the one\nfruitful and progressive moral force in the world; and it is certain to\nbe carried into effect.\n\nIn the darkest hour of Israel's oppression and of international hate,\none of her great prophets thus described the triumph of supernatural\nreligion: \"In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria,\na blessing in the midst of the earth; for that the LORD of hosts hath\nblessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work\nof my hands, and Israel my inheritance\" (Isai. xix. 24, 25). This is our\nprogramme still.\n\nIII. Another of St Paul's ruling ideas lying at the basis of Christian\nethics, is his conception of _man's future destiny_. The apostle warns\nhis readers that they \"grieve not the Holy Spirit, in whom they were\nsealed till the day of redemption.\" He tells them that \"the impure and\nthe covetous have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.\"\n\nThere is thus disclosed a world beyond the world, a life growing out of\nlife, an eternal and invisible kingdom of whose possession the Spirit\nthat lives in Christian men is the earnest and firstfruits. This kingdom\nis the joint inheritance of the sons of God, brethren with Christ and in\nChrist, who are conformed to His image and found worthy to \"stand before\nthe Son of man.\" Those are excluded from the inheritance, who by their\nmoral nature are alien to it: \"Without are dogs, sorcerers,\nwhoremongers, idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie.\"\nThis revelation has had a most powerful influence on the progress of\nethics. It has given a momentous importance to individual conduct, a new\ngrandeur to the moral issues of the present life. \"Man's life,\" viewed\nin the light of the Christian gospel, \"has duties that are alone great,\nthat go up to Heaven, and down to Hell.\" The tangled skein is at last to\nbe unravelled, the mysterious problem of mortal life will have its\nsolution at the judgement-seat of Jesus Christ.\n\nIt is true that the wicked flourish and spread themselves like green\ntrees in the sunshine; and the covetous boast of their hearts' desire.\nTo see this was the trial of ancient faith; and the good man had to\ncharge himself constantly that he should not fret because of evil-doers.\nIt required an heroic faith to believe in God's kingdom and\nrighteousness, when the visible course of things made all against them,\nand there was no clear light beyond. God's saints had to learn first\nthat God is Himself the sufficient good, and must be trusted to do\nright. But this was the faith of defence rather than of victory,--of\nendurance, not enthusiasm. In the knowledge of Christ's victory over\ndeath and entrance on our behalf into the heavenly world, \"in hope of\nlife eternal which God who cannot lie hath promised,\" men have fought\nagainst their own sins, have struggled for the right and spent\nthemselves to save their fellows with a vigour and success never\nwitnessed before, and in numbers far exceeding those that all other\ncreeds and systems have enlisted in the holy cause of humanity.\n\nHuman reason had guessed and hope had dreamed of the soul's\nimmortality. Christianity gives this hope certainty, and adds to it the\nassurance of the resurrection of the body. Man's entire nature is thus\nredeemed. Chastity takes its due place amongst the virtues, and becomes\nthe mark of a Christian as distinguished from a pagan life. \"The body is\nnot for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God\nwho raised up the Lord Jesus, will raise us also through His power. Your\nbodies are limbs of Christ, ... a temple of the Holy Spirit which you\nhave from God.... Glorify God in your body.\" So St Paul exhorts the\nChristians of Corinth (1 Ep. vi.), living in the centre and shrine of\nheathen vice. This doctrine of the sanctity of the body has been the\nsalvation of the family. It has saved civilization from perishing\nthrough sexual corruption, and is still our chief defence against this\nfearful evil.\n\nOur bodily dress, we now learn, is one with the spirit that it infolds.\nWe shall lay it aside only to resume it,--transfigured, but with a form\nand impress continuous with its present being. This identical self, the\nsame both in its outward and inward personality, will appear before the\ntribunal of Christ, that it may \"receive the things done in the body.\"\nThis announcement gives reasonableness and distinctness to the\nexpectation of future judgement. The judgement assumes, with its solemn\ngrandeur, a matter-of-fact reality, an immediate bearing on the daily\nconduct of life, which lends a powerful reinforcement to the conscience,\nwhile it supplies a fitting and glorious conclusion to our course as\nmoral beings.\n\nIV. Finally, _the atonement of the cross_ stamps its own character and\nspirit on the entire ethics of Christianity. The Fatherhood of God, the\nunity and solidarity of mankind, the issues of eternal life or death\nawaiting us in the unseen world--all the great factors and fundamentals\nof revealed religion gather about the cross of Christ; they lend to it\ntheir august significance, and gain from it new import and\nimpressiveness.\n\nThe fact that Christ \"gave Himself up for us an offering and sacrifice\nto God\"--gave Himself, as it is put elsewhere, \"for our sins\"--throws an\nawful light upon the nature of human transgression. The blood spilt in\nthe strife with our sin and shed to wash out its stain, reveals its\nfoulness and malignity. All that inspired men had taught, that good men\nhad believed and felt and penitent men confessed in regard to the evil\nof human sin, is more than verified by the sacrifice which the Holy One\nof God has undergone in order to put it away. It was felt that \"the\nblood of bulls and goats could never take away sins,\" that the\nsacrifices man could offer for himself, or the creatures on his behalf,\nwere ineffectual; the guilt was too real to be expiated in this fashion,\nthe wound too deep to be healed by those poor appliances. But who had\nsuspected that such a remedy as this was needed, and forthcoming? How\ndeep the resentment of eternal Justice against the transgressions of\nmen, if the blood of God's own Son alone could make propitiation! How\nrank the offence against the Divine holiness, if to purge its\nabomination the vessel containing the most sweet fragrance of His\nsinless nature must be broken! What tears of contrition, what cleansing\nfires of hate against our own sins, what scorn of their baseness, what\nstern resolves against them are awakened by the sight of the cross of\nour Lord Jesus Christ!\n\nThis negative side of the ethical bearing of Christ's sacrifice is\nimplied in the words of the apostle in the second verse, and in the\ncontrast indicated between its sweet savour and those unclean things\nwhose very names it should banish from our midst (ver. 3). On its\npositive effects--the love and self-devotion it inspires, the conformity\nof our lives to its example--we have dwelt already. Let us add, however,\nthat the sacrifice of Christ demands from us, above all, _devotion to\nChrist Himself_. Our first duty as Christians is to love Christ, to\nserve and follow Christ. \"He died for all,\" says the apostle, \"that the\nliving should live no longer to themselves, but to Him that died for\nthem and rose again.\" When Mary of Bethany poured on the Saviour's head\nher box of precious ointment, the Master accepted the tribute and\napproved the act; and the poor have been gainers by it a thousand times\nthe pence which Judas deemed wasted on the head he was watching to\nbetray. There is no conflict between the claims of Christ and those of\nphilanthropy, between the needs of His worship and the needs of the\ndestitute and suffering in our streets. Every new subject won to the\nkingdom of Christ is another helper won for His poor. Every act of love\nrendered to Him deepens the channel of sympathy by which relief and\nblessing come to sorrowful humanity.\n\nLet the gospel of Christ's kingdom be preached in word and deed to all\nnations, let the love of Christ be brought to bear upon the great masses\nof mankind, and the time of the world's salvation will be come. Its sin\nwill be hated, forsaken, forgiven. Its social evils will be banished;\nits weapons of war turned to ploughshares and pruning hooks. Its\nscattered races and nations will be reunited in the obedience of faith,\nand formed into one Christian confederacy and commonwealth of the\npeoples, a peaceful kingdom of the Son of God's love.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[131] =Charizomenoi eautois, kath\u00f4s kai ho Theos en Christ\u00f4 echarisato\nhymin.= So in Col. ii. 13, iii. 13; Rom. viii. 32; 2 Cor. ii. 7, 10;\nLuke vii. 42, 43.\n\n[132] Comp. pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.\n\n[133] Vol. iv., pp. 22, 41 (Eng. Trans.).\n\n[134] Comte, vol. iv., p. 30.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\n_THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT._\n\n \"Be not ye therefore partakers with them; for ye were once darkness,\n but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the\n fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth),\n proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord; and have no fellowship\n with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them.\n For the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even\n to speak of; but all things when they are reproved are made manifest\n by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.\n Wherefore He saith:--\n\n 'Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead;\n And the Christ shall shine upon thee.'\"\n\n EPH. v. 7-14.\n\n\nThe contrast between the Christian and heathen way of life is now,\nfinally, to be set forth under St Paul's familiar figure of _the light\nand the darkness_. He bids his Gentile readers not to be\n\"joint-partakers with them\"--with the sons of disobedience upon whom\nGod's wrath is coming (ver. 6)--for he has hailed them already, in\nchapter iii. 6, as \"joint-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus\nthrough the gospel.\" \"Once\" indeed they shared in the lot of the\ndisobedient; but for them the darkness has past, and the true light now\nshineth.\n\nIn wrath or promise, in hope of life eternal or in the fearful looking\nfor of judgement they, and we, must partake. This future participation\ndepends upon present character. \"Do not,\" the apostle entreats, \"cast\nin your lot again with the unclean and covetous. Their ways you have\nrenounced, and their doom you have exchanged for the heritage of the\nsaints. Let no vain words deceive you into supposing that you may keep\nyour new inheritance, and yet return to your old sins. Show yourselves\nworthy of your calling. Walk as children of the light, and you will\npossess the eternal kingdom.\" Each man carries with him into the next\nstate of being the entail of his past life. That heritage depends on his\nown choice; yet not upon his individual will working by itself, but on\nthe grace and will of God working with him, as that grace is accepted or\nrejected. He has light: he must walk in it; and he will reach the realm\nof light. Thus the apostle, in verses 7 and 8, concludes his warning\nagainst relapse into heathen sin.\n\n * * * * *\n\nVerses 9 and 10 delineate _the character of the children of the light_:\nverses 11-14 set forth _their influence upon the surrounding darkness_.\nInto these two divisions the exposition of this paragraph naturally\nfalls.\n\nI. \"The fruit _of the light_\" (not _of the Spirit_) is the true text of\nverse 9, as it stands in the older Greek copies, Versions, and Fathers.\nCalvin showed his judgement and independence in preferring this reading\nto that of the received Greek text. Similarly Bengel,[135] and most of\nthe later critics. The sentence is parenthetical, and contains a\nsingular and instructive figure. It is one of those sparks from the\nanvil, in which great writers not unfrequently give us their finest\nutterances,--sentences that get a peculiar point from the eagerness with\nwhich they are struck off in the heat and clash of thought, as the mind\nreaches forward to some thought lying beyond. The clause is an epitome,\nin five words, of Christian virtue, whose qualities, origin and method\nare all defined. It sums up exquisitely the moral teaching of the\nepistle. Galatians v. 22, 23 (_the fruit of the Spirit_) and Philippians\niv. 8 (_Whatsoever things are true_, etc.) are parallel to this passage,\nas Pauline definitions, equally perfect, of the virtues of a Christian\nman. This has the advantage of the others in brevity and epigrammatic\npoint.\n\n\"You are light in the Lord,\" the apostle said; \"walk as children of the\nlight.\" But his readers might ask: \"What does this mean? It is poetry:\nlet us have it translated into plain prose. How shall we walk as\nchildren of the light? Show us the path.\"--\"I will tell you,\" the\napostle answers: \"the fruit of the light is in all goodness and\nrighteousness and truth. Walk in these ways; let your life bear this\nfruit; and you will be true children of the light of God. So living, you\nwill find out what it is that pleases God, and how joyful a thing it is\nto please Him (ver. 10). Your life will then be free from all complicity\nwith the works of darkness. It will shine with a brightness clear and\npenetrating, that will put to shame the works of darkness and transform\nthe darkness itself. It will speak with a voice that all must hear,\nbidding them awake from the sleep of sin to see in Christ their light of\nlife.\" Such is the setting in which this delightful definition stands.\n\nBut it is more than a definition. While this sentence declares what\nChristian virtue is, it signifies also whence it comes, how it is\ngenerated and maintained. It asserts the connexion that exists between\nChristian character and Christian faith. The fruit cannot be grown\nwithout the tree, any more than the tree can grow soundly without\nyielding its proper fruit. _Right is the fruit of light._\n\nThe principle that religion is the basis of moral virtue, is one that\nmany moralists disputed in St Paul's time; and it has fallen into some\ndiscredit in our own. In philosophical theory, and to a large extent in\npopular maxim and belief, it is assumed that faith and morals, character\nand creed, are not only distinct but independent things and that there\nis no necessary connexion between the two. Christians are themselves to\nblame for this fallacy, through the discrepancy not seldom visible\nbetween their creed and life. Our narrowness of view and the harshness\nof our ethical judgements have helped to foster this grave error.\n\nGreat Christian teachers have spoken of the virtues of the heathen as\n\"splendid sins.\" But Christ and His apostles never said so. He said:\n\"Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.\" And they said: \"In\nevery nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted\nof Him.\" The Christian creed has no jealousy in regard to human\nexcellence. \"Whatsoever things are true and honourable and just and\npure,\" wherever and in whomsoever they are found, our faith honours and\ndelights in them, and accepts them to the utmost of their worth. But\nthen it claims them all for its own,--as the fruit of the one \"true\nlight which lighteth every man.\" Wherever this fruit appears, we know\nthat that light has been, though its ways are past finding out. Through\nsecret crevices, by subtle refractions and multiplied reflections, the\ntrue light reaches many a life lying far outside its visible course.\n\nAll goodness has one source; for, said Jesus, \"there is none good but\none, that is God.\" The channels may be tortuous, obstructed and obscure:\nthe stream is always one. There is nothing more touching, and nothing\nmore encouraging to our faith in God's universal love and His will that\nall men should be saved, than to see, as we do sometimes under\nconditions most adverse and in spots the most unlikely, features of\nmoral beauty and Christlike goodness appearing like springs in the\ndesert or flowers blooming in Alpine snows,--signs of the universal\nlight,\n\n \"Which yet in the absolutest drench of dark\n Ne'er wants its witness, some stray beauty-beam\n To the despair of hell!\"\n\nThe action of God's grace in Christ is by no means limited to the sphere\nof its recognized working. All the more earnestly on this account do we\nvindicate this grace against those who deny its necessity or the\npermanence of its moral influence. The fruit, in the main, they approve.\nBut they would cut down the plant from which it came; they seek to\nquench the light under which it grew. They are like men who should take\nyou to some lofty tree that has flourished for ages rooted in the rock,\nand who should say: \"See how wide its branches and how stout its stem,\nhow firmly it stands upon its native soil! Let us cut it loose from\nthose dark and ugly roots--that mysterious theology, those superstitions\nof the past. The human mind has outgrown them. Virtue can support itself\non its own proper basis. It is time to assert the dignity of man, and to\nproclaim the independence of morality.\" If these men have their way, and\nif European society renounces the authority of God, how quickly will\nthat tree of the Lord's planting, the vast growth of Christian virtue\nand beneficence, wither to its topmost bough; and the next storm will\nbring it to the ground, with all its stately strength and summer beauty.\nUnbelief in God lays the axe at the root of human society. Our life--the\nlife of individuals, of families and nations--is rooted in the unseen\nand hid with Christ in God. Thence it draws its vitality and virtue,\nthrough those spiritual fibres by which we are linked to God and lay\nhold on eternal life. Since Christ Jesus our forerunner entered the\nheavenly places, the anchor of human hopes has been cast within the\nveil; if that anchor drags, there is no other that will hold. The rocks\nare plain to see on which our richly freighted ship of life will\nfounder. Without the religion of Jesus Christ, our civilization is not\nworth a hundred years' purchase.\n\nMoral effects do not follow upon their causes as rapidly as physical\neffects: they follow as certainly. We live largely upon the accumulated\nethical capital of our forefathers. When that is spent, we are left to\nour intrinsic poverty of soul, to our faithlessness and feebleness. The\nscepticism of one generation bears fruit in the immorality of the next,\nor the next after that; the unbelief and cynicism of the teacher in the\nvice of his disciple. Such fruit of blasting and mildew the decay of\nfaith has never failed to bear.\n\nThe corresponding truth will be at once acknowledged. There is no real\nreligion without virtue. If the godly man is not a good man, if he is\nnot a sincere and pure-hearted man, \"that man's religion is vain\": no\nmatter what his professions or his emotions, no matter what his\nservices to the Church. He is one of those to whom Jesus Christ will\nsay: \"I know you not; depart from me, all ye that work iniquity.\" There\nis a flaw in him somewhere, a rift within the lute that spoils all its\nmusic. \"A good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit.\"\n\nIn Christ's garden there forms in clustered beauty and perfectness the\nripe growth of virtue, which in the sunshine of His love and under the\nfreshening breath of His Spirit sends forth its spices and \"yieldeth its\nfruit every month.\" In it there abide _goodness_, _righteousness_,\n_truth_--these three; and who shall say which of them is greatest?\n\nI. _Goodness_ stands first, as the most visible and obvious form of\nChristian excellence,--that which every one looks for in a religious\nman, and which every one admires when it is to be seen. Righteousness,\nregarded by itself, is not so readily appreciated. There is something\naustere and forbidding in it. \"For a righteous man scarcely would one\ndie\"--you respect, even revere him; but you do not love him: \"but for\nthe good man peradventure, one would even dare to die.\"\n\nChristian goodness is the sanctification of the heart and its\naffections, renewed and governed by the love of God in Christ. It is,\nnotwithstanding, but seldom inculcated in the New Testament;[136]\nbecause it is referred to its spring and principle in _love_. Goodness\nis love embodied. Now love, as the Christian knows it, is of God. \"We\nlove,\" says the apostle John, \"because He first loved us.... He loved\nus, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.\" This is the\nfaith that makes good men,--the best the world has ever known, the best\nthat it holds now. Vanity, selfishness, evil temper and desire are\nshamed and burnt out of the soul by the holy fire of the love of God in\nJesus Christ our Lord. In the warm, tender light of the cross the heart\nis softened and cleansed, and expanded to the widest charity. It becomes\nthe home of all generous instincts and pure affections. So \"the fruit of\nthe light is in all goodness.\"\n\n2. And _righteousness_.\n\nThis second and central definition applies a searching test to all\nspurious forms of goodness, superficial or sentimental,--to the goodness\nof mere good manners, or good nature. The principle of righteousness,\nfully understood, includes everything in moral worth, and is often used\nto denote in one word the entire fruit of God's grace in man. For\nrighteousness is the sanctification of the conscience. It is loyalty to\nGod's holy and perfect law. It is no mere outward keeping of formal\nrules, such as the legal righteousness of Judaism, no submission to\nnecessity or calculation of advantages: it is a love of the law in a\nman's inmost spirit; it is the quality of a heart one with that law,\nreconciled to it as it is reconciled to God Himself in Jesus Christ.\n\nAt the bottom, therefore, righteousness and goodness are one. Each is\nthe counterface and complement of the other. Righteousness is to\ngoodness as the strong backbone of principle, the firm hand and the\nvigorous grasp of duty, the steadfast foot that plants itself on the\neternal ground of the right and true and stands against a world's\nassault. Goodness without righteousness is a weak and fitful sentiment:\nrighteousness without goodness is a dead formality. He cannot love God\nor his neighbour truly, who does not love God's law; and he knows\nnothing aright of that law, who does not know that it is the law of\nlove.\n\nThis also, this above all is \"the fruit of the light.\" Two watchwords we\nhave from the lips of Jesus, two mottoes of His own life and\nmission,--the one given at the end, the other at the beginning of His\ncourse: \"Greater _love_ hath none than this, that one lay down his life\nfor his friends\"; and, \"Thus it becometh us to fulfil all\n_righteousness_.\" By a double flame was He consumed a sacrifice upon the\ncross,--by the passion of His zeal for God's righteousness, and by the\npassion of His pity for mankind. In that twofold light we see light, and\nbecome \"light in the Lord.\" Therefore the fruit of the light, the moral\nproduct of a true faith in the gospel, is in all _goodness and\nrighteousness_.\n\nThere is a danger of merging the latter in the former of these\nattributes. Evangelical piety is credited with an excess of the\nsentimental and emotional disposition, cultivated at the expense of the\nmore sterling elements of character. High principle, scrupulous honour,\nstern fidelity to duty are no less essential to the image of Christ in\nthe soul than are warm feeling and zealous devotion to His service.\n_Jesus Christ the righteous_, as His apostles loved to call Him, is the\npattern of a manly faith, up to which we must grow in all things. \"_He_\nis the propitiation for our sins.\" Never was there an act of such\nunswerving integrity and absolute loyalty to the law of right as the\nsacrifice of Calvary. God forbid that we should magnify love at the\nexpense of law, or make good feeling a substitute for duty.\n\n3. _Truth_ comes last in this enumeration, for it signifies the inward\nreality and depth of the other two.\n\nTruth does not mean veracity alone, the mere truth of the lips. Heathen\nhonesty goes as far as this. Men of the world expect as much from each\nother, and brand the liar with their contempt. Truth of words requires a\nreality behind itself. The acted falsehood is excluded, the hinted and\nintended lie no less than that expressly uttered. Beyond all this, it is\nthe truth of the man that God requires--speech, action, thought, all\nconsistent, harmonious and transparent, with the light of God's truth\nshining through them. Truth is the harmony of the inward and the\noutward, the correspondence of what the man is in himself with that\nwhich he appears and wishes to appear to be.\n\nNow, it is only children of the light, only men thoroughly good and\nupright who can, in this strict sense, be men of truth. So long as any\nmalice or iniquity is left in our nature, we have something to conceal.\nWe cannot afford to be sincere. We are compelled to pay, by very shame,\nthe degrading tribute which vice renders to virtue, the homage of\nhypocrisy. But find a man whose intellect, whose heart and will, tried\nat whatever point, ring sound and true, in whom there is no affectation,\nno make-believe, no pretence or exaggeration, no discrepancy, no discord\nin the music of his life and thought, \"an Israelite indeed, in whom is\nno guile\"--there is a saint for you, and a man of God; there is one whom\nyou may \"grapple to your soul with hoops of steel.\"\n\nTruth is the hall-mark of entire sanctification; it is the highest and\nrarest attainment of the Christian life. It is equally the charm of an\ninnocent, unspoilt childhood, and of a ripe and purified old age. The\napostle John, \"the disciple whom Jesus loved,\" is the most perfect\nembodiment, after his Master, of this consummating grace. In him\nrighteousness and love were blended in the translucence of an utter\nsimplicity and truth.\n\nWe must beware of giving a subjective and merely personal aspect to this\ndivine quality. While truth is the unity of the outward and inward, of\nheart and act and word in the man, it is at the same time the agreement\nof the man with the reality of things as they exist in God. The former\nkind of truth rests upon the latter; the subjective upon the objective\norder. The truth of God makes us true. We magnify our own sincerity,\nuntil it becomes vitiated and pretentious. In our eagerness to realize\nand express our own convictions, we give too little pains to form them\nupon a sound basis; we make a great virtue of _speaking out_ what is in\nour hearts, but take small heed of what _comes in_ to the heart, and\nspeak out of a loose self-confidence and idolatry of our own opinions.\nSo the Pharisees were true, who called Christ an impostor. So every\ncareless slanderer, and scandalmonger credulous of evil, who believes\nthe lies he propagates. \"Imagination has pictured to itself a domain in\nwhich every one who enters should be compelled to speak only what he\nthought, and pleased itself by calling such domain the Palace of Truth.\nA palace of veracity, if you will; but no temple of the truth. A place\nwhere each one would be at liberty to utter his own crude unrealities,\nto bring forth his delusions, mistakes, half-formed, hasty judgements;\nwhere the depraved ear would reckon discord harmony, and the depraved\neye mistake colour; the depraved moral taste take Herod or Tiberius for\na king, and shout beneath the Redeemer's cross, 'Himself He cannot\nsave!' A temple of the truth? Nay, only a palace echoing with veracious\nfalsehoods, a Babel of confused sounds, in which egotism would rival\negotism, and truth would be each man's own lie.\"[137] In the pride of\nour veracity, we miss the verity of things; we are true only to our\nblind self, false to the light of God. \"Every one that is of the truth\nheareth my voice:\" so said He who was Truth incarnate, making His word a\nlaw for all true men.\n\n\"In _all_ goodness and righteousness and truth,\" says the apostle. Let\nus seek them all. We are apt to become specialists in virtue, as in\nother departments of life. Men will endeavour even to compensate by\nextreme efforts in one direction for deficiencies in some other\ndirection, which they scarcely desire to make good. So they grow out of\nshape, into oddities and moral malformations. There is a want of balance\nand of finish about a multitude of Christian lives, even of those who\nhave long and steadily pursued the way of faith. We have sweetness\nwithout strength, and strength without gentleness, and truth spoken\nwithout love, and words of passionate zeal without accuracy and\nheedfulness.\n\nAll this is infinitely sad, and infinitely damaging to the cause of our\nreligion.\n\n \"It is the little rift within the lute\n That by-and-by will make the music mute,\n And ever widening slowly silence all;\n The little rift within the lover's lute,\n Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit,\n That rotting inward slowly moulders all.\"\n\nLet us judge ourselves, that we be not judged by the Lord. Let us count\nno wrong a trifle. Let us never imagine that our defects in one kind\nwill be atoned for by excellencies in another. Our friends may say\nthis, in charity, for us; it is a fatal thing when a man begins to say\nso to himself. \"May the God of peace sanctify you fully. May your whole\nspirit, soul, and body in blameless integrity be preserved to the coming\nof the Lord Jesus Christ\" (1 Thess. v. 23).\n\nII. The _effect_ upon surrounding darkness of the light of God in\nChristian lives is described in verses 11-14, in words which it remains\nfor us briefly to examine.\n\nVerse 12 distinguishes \"the things secretly done\" by the Gentiles, \"of\nwhich it is a shame even to speak,\" from the open and manifest forms of\nevil in which they invite their Christian neighbours to join (ver. 11).\nInstead of doing this and \"having fellowship with the unfruitful works\nof darkness,\" they must \"rather reprove them.\" Silent absence, or\nabstinence is not enough. Where sin is open to rebuke, it should at all\nhazards be rebuked. On the other hand, St Paul does not warrant\nChristians in prying into the hidden sins of the world around them and\nplaying the moral detective. Publicity is not a remedy for all evils,\nbut a great aggravation of some, and the surest means of disseminating\nthem. \"It is a shame\"--a disgrace to our common nature, and a grievous\nperil to the young and innocent--to fill the public prints with the\nnauseous details of crime and to taint the air with its putridities.\n\n\"But all things,\" the apostle says--whether it be those open works of\ndarkness, profitless of good, which expose themselves to direct\nconviction, or the depths of Satan that hide their infamy from the light\nof day--\"all things being reproved by the light, are made manifest\"\n(ver. 13). The fruit of the light convicts the unfruitful works of\ndarkness. The daily life of a Christian man amongst men of the world is\na perpetual reproof, that tells against secret sins of which no word is\nspoken, of which the reprover never guesses, as well as against open and\nunblushing vices.\n\n\"This is the condemnation,\" said Jesus, \"that light is come into the\nworld.\" And this condemnation every one who walks in Christ's steps, and\nbreathes His Spirit amid the corruptions of the world, is carrying on,\nmore frequently in silence than by spoken argument. Our unconscious and\nspontaneous influence is the most real and effective part of it. Life is\nthe light of men--words only as the index of the life from which they\nspring. Just so far as our lives touch the conscience of others and\nreveal the difference between darkness and light, so far do we hold\nforth the word of life and carry on the Holy Spirit's work in convincing\nthe world of sin. \"Let your light so shine.\"\n\nThis manifestation leads to a transformation: \"For everything that is\nmade manifest _is light_\" (ver. 13). \"You are light in the Lord,\" St\nPaul says to his converted Gentile readers,--you who were \"once\ndarkness,\" once wandering in the lusts and pleasures of the heathen\naround you, without hope and without God. The light of the gospel\ndisclosed, and then dispelled the darkness of that former time; and so\nit may be with your still heathen kindred, through the light you bring\nto them. So it will be with the night of sin that is spread over the\nworld. The light which shines upon sin-laden and sorrowful hearts,\nshines on them to change them into its own nature. _The manifested is\nlight_: in other words, if men can be made to see the true nature of\ntheir sin, they will forsake it. If the light can but penetrate their\nconscience, it will save them. \"Wherefore He saith:--\n\n Awake, O sleeper; and arise from out of the dead!\n And the Christ shall dawn upon thee!\"\n\nThe speaker of this verse can be no other than God, or the Spirit of God\nin Scripture. The sentence is no mere quotation. It re-utters, in the\nstyle of Mary's or Zechariah's song, the promise of the Old Covenant\nfrom the lips of the New. It gathers up the import of the prophecies\nconcerning the salvation of Christ, as they sounded in the apostle's\nears and as he conveyed them to the world. Isaiah lx. 1-3 supplies the\nbasis of our passage, where the prophet awakens Zion from the sleep of\nthe Exile and bids her shine once more in the glory of her God and show\nforth His light to the nations: \"Arise,\" he cries, \"shine, for thy light\nis come!\" There are echoes in the verse, besides, of Isaiah li. 17,\nxxvi. 19; perhaps even of Jonah i. 6: \"What meanest thou, O sleeper?\narise, and call upon thy God!\" We seem to have here, as in chapter iv.\n4-6, a snatch of the earliest Christian hymns. The lines are a free\nparaphrase from the Old Testament, formed by weaving together Messianic\npassages--belonging to such a hymn as might be sung at baptisms in the\nPauline Churches. Certainly those Churches did not wait until the second\ncentury to compose their hymns and spiritual songs (comp. ver. 19). Our\nLord's sublime announcement (John v. 25), already verified, that \"the\nhour had come when the dead should hear the voice of the Son of God, and\nthey that heard should live,\" gave the key to the prophetic sayings\nwhich promised through Israel the light of life to all nations.\n\nWith this song on her lips the Church went forth, clad in the armour of\nlight, strong in the joy of salvation; and darkness and the works of\ndarkness fled before her.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[135] Mr. Wesley adopted this and other emendations from Bengel, \"that\ngreat light of the Christian world,\" in the translation accompanying his\n_Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament_. He there supplied the\nMethodist preachers with many of the most valuable improvements made in\nthe Revised Version, a hundred years before the time.\n\n[136] The word belongs to Paul's vocabulary; it is found besides in 2\nThess. i. 11; Rom. xv. 14; and Gal. v. 22. See the Commentary on this\nlast epistle in the _Expositor's Bible_, pp. 384, 385.\n\n[137] F. W. Robertson: _Sermons_ (First Series), xix., on \"The Kingdom\nof the Truth.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\n_THE NEW WINE OF THE SPIRIT._\n\n \"Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise;\n redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not\n foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.\n\n \"And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with\n the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and\n spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the\n Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord\n Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to\n another in the fear of Christ.\"--EPH. v. 15-21.\n\n\nVery solemnly did the moral homily to the Asian Christians begin in\nchapter iv. 17: \"This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you\nmust no longer walk as the Gentiles walk.\" So much has now been said and\ntestified in the intervening paragraphs, by way both of dehortation and\nexhortation. Here the apostle pauses; and casting his eye over the whole\npathway of life he has marked out in this discourse, he bids his\nreaders: \"Look then carefully how you walk. Show that you are not fools,\nbut wise to observe your steps and to seize your opportunities in these\nevil times,--days so perilous that you need your best wisdom and\nknowledge of God's will to save you from fatal stumbling.\"\n\nSo far St Paul's renewed exhortation, in verses 15-17, inculcates care\nand wary discretion,--the skill that in the strategy of life finds its\nvantage in unequal ground, that makes opposing winds help forward the\nseafarer. In this sober wisdom it is likely the Asian Christians were\ndeficient. In many ways, both directly and indirectly, the need of\nincreased thoughtfulness on the readers' part has been indicated. But\nthere is another side to the Christian nature: it has its moods of\nexhilaration, as well as of caution and reflection; ardent emotion,\neager speech and exultant song are things proper to a high religious\nlife. For these the apostle makes room in verses 18-20, while the three\nforegoing verses enjoin the circumspection and vigilance that become the\ngood soldier of Christ Jesus.\n\nA striking contrast thus arises between the _sobriety_ and the\n_excitement_ that mark the life of grace. We see with what strictness we\nmust watch over ourselves, and guard the character and interests of the\nChurch; and with what joyousness and holy freedom we may take our part\nin its communion. Temperament and constitution modify these injunctions\nin their personal application. The Holy Spirit does not enable us all to\nspeak with equal fervour and freedom, nor to sing with the same\ntunefulness. His power operates in the limbs of Christ's body \"according\nto the measure of each single part.\" But the self-same Spirit works in\nboth these contrasted ways,--in the sanguine and the melancholic\ndisposition, in the demonstrative and in the reserved, in the quick play\nof fancy and the brightness and impulsiveness of youth no less than in\nthe sober gait and solid sense of riper age. Let us see how the two\nopposite aspects of Christian experience are set out in the apostle's\nwords.\n\nI. First of all, upon the one side, _heedfulness_ is enjoined. The\nchildren of light must use the light to see their way. To \"stumble at\nnoonday\" is a proof of folly or blindness. So misusing our light, we\nshall quickly lose it and return to the paths of darkness.\n\nAccording to the preferable (Revised) order of the words, the qualifying\nadverb \"carefully\" belongs to the \"look,\" not to the \"walk.\" The\ncircumspect _look_ precedes the wise step. The spot is marked on which\nthe foot is to be planted; the eye ranges right and left and takes in\nthe bearings of the new position, forecasting its possibilities. \"Look\nbefore you leap,\" our sage proverb says. According to the carefulness of\nthe look, the success of the leap is likely to be.\n\nThere is no word in the epistle more apposite than this to\n\n \"our day\n Of haste, half-work, and disarray.\"\n\nWe are too restless to think, too impatient to learn. Everything is\nsacrificed to speed. The telegraph and the daily newspaper symbolize the\nage. The public ear loves to be caught quickly and with new sensations:\na premium is set on carelessness and hurry. Earnest men, eager for the\ntriumph of a good cause, push forward with unsifted statements and\nunweighed denunciations, that discredit Christian advocacy and wound the\ncause of truth and charity. Time, thus wronged and driven beyond her\npace, has her revenge; she deals hardly with these light judgements of\nthe hour. They are as the chaff which the wind carrieth away. After all,\nit is still truth that lives; thorough work that lasts; accuracy that\nhits the mark. And the time-servers are \"unwise,\" both intellectually\nand morally. They are most unwise who think to succeed in life's high\ncalling without self-distrust, and without scrupulous care and pains in\nall work they do for the kingdom of God.\n\nIn the evil of his own times St Paul sees a special reason for\nheedfulness: \"Walk not as unwise, but as wise, buying up the\nopportunity, _because the days are evil_.\" In Colossians iv. 5 the\nparallel sentence shows that in giving this caution he is thinking of\nthe relation of Christians to the world outside: \"Walk in wisdom toward\nthose without, buying up the opportunity.\" Evil days they were, when\nPaul lay in Nero's prison; when that wild beast was raging against\neverything that resisted his mad will or reproved his monstrous vices.\nWith supreme power in the hands of such a creature of Satan, who could\ntell what fires of persecution were kindling for the people of Christ,\nor what terrible revelation of God's anger against the present evil\nworld might be impending. At Ephesus the spirit of heathenism had shown\nitself peculiarly menacing. Here, too, in the rich and cultivated\nprovince of Asia where the currents of Eastern and Western thought met,\nheresy and its corruptions made their first decided appearance in the\nChurches of the Gentiles. Conflicts are approaching which will try to\nthe uttermost the strength of the Christian faith and the temper of its\nweapons (vi. 10-16).\n\nAs wise men, reading thoughtfully the signs of the times, the Asian\nChristians will \"redeem the [present] season.\" They will use to the\nutmost the light given them. They will employ every means to increase\ntheir knowledge of Christ, to confirm their faith and the habits of\ntheir spiritual life. They are like men expecting a siege, who\nstrengthen their fortifications and furbish their weapons and practise\ntheir drill and lay up store of supplies, that they may \"stand in the\nevil day.\" Such wisdom Ecclesiastes preaches to the young man: \"Remember\nnow thy Creator in the days of thy youth, or ever the evil days come.\"\n\nWithin a year after this epistle was penned, Rome was burnt and the\ncrime of its burning washed out, at Nero's caprice, in Christian blood.\nIn four years more St Paul and St Peter had died a martyr's death at\nRome; and Nero had fallen by the assassin's hand. At once the Empire was\nconvulsed with civil war; and the year 68-69 was known as that of the\nFour Emperors. Amid the storms threatening the ruin of the Roman State,\nthe Jewish war against Rome was carried on, ending in the year 70 with\nthe capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish temple and\nnationality. These were the days of tribulation of which our Lord spoke,\n\"such as had not been since the beginning of the world\" (Matt. xxiv. 21,\n22). The entire fabric of life was shaken; and in the midst of\nearthquake and tempest, blood and fire, Israel met its day of judgement\nand the former age passed away. In the year 63, when the apostle wrote,\nthe sky was everywhere red and lowering with signs of coming storm. None\nknew where or how the tempest might break, or what would be its issue.\n\nWhen men amid evil days and portents of danger must be told not to be\n\"foolish\" nor \"drunken with wine,\" one is disposed to tax them with\nlevity. It was difficult for these Asian Greeks to take life seriously,\nand to realize the gravity of their situation. St Paul appeals to them\nby their duty, still more than by their danger: \"Be not foolish, but\nunderstand what _the will of the Lord_ is.\" As he bade the Thessalonians\nconsider that chastity was not matter of choice and of their own\nadvantage only, it was \"God's will\" (1 Ep. iv. 3), so the Ephesians\nmust understand that Christ is no mere adviser, nor the Christian life\nan optional system that men may adopt when and so far as it suits them.\nHe is our Lord; and it is our business to understand, in order that we\nmay execute, His designs. For this Christ's servants require a watchful\neye and an alert intelligence. They must be no dullards nor simpletons,\nwho would enter into the Divine Master's plans; no triflers, no\ncreatures of sentiment and impulse, who are to be the agents of His\nwill. He can and does employ every sincere heart that gives itself in\nlove to Him. But His nobler tasks are for the wise taught by His Spirit,\nfor those who can \"understand,\" with penetrating sympathy and breadth of\ncomprehension, \"what the will of the Lord is.\" Hence the distinction of\nSt Paul himself, and of John the beloved disciple, amongst His ministers\nand witnesses,--men great in mind as they were in heart, whose thoughts\nabout Christ were as grand as their love to Him was fervent.\n\nNowhere does the apostle say so much of \"the will of God\" in regard to\nthe dispensation of grace as he does in this epistle.[138] For he sees\nlife and salvation here in their largest bearings and proportions. He\nprayed at the outset that the Gentile readers might realize the value\nthat God puts upon them, and the mighty forces He has set at work for\ntheir salvation (i. 18-20); and again, that they might comprehend the\nvast dimensions of His plan for the building of the Church (iii. 18).\nNow that he has shown the relation of this eternal purpose to the\ncharacter and everyday life of the converted Gentiles, \"the will of God\"\nbecomes matter of immediate import; it is revealed in its bearing upon\nconduct, upon the affairs of business and society. It is not the\npurpose, the promises, the doctrine of the Lord alone, but \"the _will_\nof the Lord\" that they have to understand, as it touches their spirit\nand behaviour day by day. They must realize the practical demands of\ntheir religion,--how it is to make them truthful, gracious, pure and\nwise. They must translate creed into life and act. Such is the wisdom\nwhich their apostle strives to instil into the Asian Christians. Their\nfirst need was spiritual enlightenment; their second need was moral\nintelligence. Might they only have sense to understand and loyalty to\nobey the will of Christ.--And oh may we!\n\nII. There were converted thieves in the Ephesian Church, who still\nneeded to be warned against their old propensities (iv. 28); there were\nmen who had been sorcerers and fortune-tellers (Acts xix. 18, 19). It\nappears that there were in this circle converted _drunkards_ also, men\nto whom the apostle is obliged to say: \"Be not drunk with wine, wherein\nis riot.\"\n\nIn view of the following context (vv. 19-21), and remembering how the\nLord's table was defiled by excess at Corinth (1 Cor. xi. 17-34), it\nseems to us probable that the warning of verse 18 had special reference\nto the Christian assemblies. The institution of the common meal, the\n_Agap\u00e9_ or Lovefeast accompanying the Lord's Supper, suited the manners\nof the early Christians, and was long continued. The cities of Asia\nMinor were full of trade-guilds and clubs for various social and\nreligious purposes, in which the common supper, or club-feast, furnished\nusually by each member bringing his contribution to the table, was a\nfamiliar bond of fellowship. This afforded to the Church a natural and\npleasant means of intercourse; but it must be purified from sensual\nindulgence. _Wine_ was its chief danger.\n\nThe eastern coast of the Aegean is an ancient home of the vine. And the\nGreeks of the Asian towns, on those bright shores and under their genial\nsky, were a light-hearted, sociable race. They sought the wine-cup not\nfor animal indulgence, but as a zest to good-fellowship and to give a\nfreer flow to social joys. This was the influence that ruled their\nfeasts, that loosened their tongues and inspired their gaiety. Hence\ntheir wit was prone to become ribaldry (ver. 4); and their songs were\nthe opposite of the \"spiritual songs\" that gladden the feasts of the\nChurch (ver. 19). The quick imagination and the social instincts of the\nIonian Greeks, the aptness for speech and song native to the land of\nHomer and Sappho, were gifts not to be repressed but sanctified. The\nlyre is to be tuned to other strains; and poetry must draw its\ninspiration from a higher source. Dionysus and his reeling Fauns give\nplace to the pure Spirit of Jesus and the Father. \"The Aonian mount\"\nmust now pay tribute to \"Sion hill\"; and the fountain of Castalia yields\nits honours to\n\n \"Siloa's brook that flowed\n Fast by the oracle of God.\"\n\nOur nature craves excitement,--some stimulus that shall set the pulses\ndancing and thrill the jaded frame, and lift the spirit above the\ntaskwork of life and the dreary and hard conditions which make up the\ndaily lot of multitudes. It is this craving that gives to strong drink\nits cruel fascination. Alcohol is a mighty magician. The tired labouring\nman, the household drudge shut up in city courts refreshed by no\npleasant sight or cheering voice, by its aid can leave fretted nerves\nand aching limbs and dull care behind, and taste, if it be only for a\nfeverish moment, of the joy of bounding life. Can such cravings be\nhindered from seeking their relief? The removal of temptation will\naccomplish little, unless higher tastes are formed and springs of purer\npleasure opened to the masses for whom our civilization makes life so\ndrab and colourless. \"One finds traces of the primitive greatness of our\nnature even in its most deplorable errors. Just as impurity proceeds at\nthe bottom from an abuse of the craving for love, so drunkenness betrays\na certain demand for ardour and enthusiasm, which in itself is natural\nand even noble.... Man loves to _feel_ himself alive; he would fain live\ntwice his life at once; and he would rather draw excitement from\nhorrible things than have no excitement at all\" (Monod).\n\nFor the drunkards of Ephesus the apostle finds a cure in the joys of the\nHoly Ghost. The mightiest and most moving spring of feeling is in the\nspirit of man kindred to God. There is a deep excitement and\nrefreshment, a \"joy that human thought transcends,\" in the love of God\nshed abroad in the heart and the communion of true saints, which makes\nsensuous delights cheap and poor. Toil and care are forgotten, sickness\nand trouble seem as nothing; we can glory in tribulation and laugh in\nthe face of death, when the strong wine of God's consolations is poured\ninto the soul.\n\n\"Be filled with the Spirit,\" says the apostle--or more strictly, \"filled\n_in_ the Spirit\"; since the Holy Spirit of God is the element of the\nbeliever's life, surrounding while it penetrates his nature: it is the\natmosphere that he breathes, the ocean in which he is immersed. As a\nflood fills up the river-banks, as the drunkard is filled with the wine\nthat he drains without limit, so the apostle would have his readers\nyield themselves to the tide of the Spirit's coming and steep their\nnature in His influence. The Greek imperative, moreover, is present, and\n\"describes this influence as ever going forth from the Spirit\" (Beet).\nThis is to be a continual replenishment. Paul has prayed that we may \"be\nfilled unto all the fulness of God\" (iii. 19), and has bidden us grow\n\"to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ\" (iv. 13) in\nwhom we \"are made full\" (Col. ii. 9): in the replenishment of the Spirit\nthe fulness of God in Christ is sensibly imparted. God's fulness is the\nhidden and eternal spring of all that can fill our nature; Christ's\nfulness is its revelation and renewed communication to the race; the\nHoly Spirit's fulness is its abiding energy within the soul and within\nthe Church. Thus possessed, the Church is truly the body of Christ (iv.\n4), and the habitation of God (ii. 21, 22).\n\nThe words of verses 19, 20 show that St Paul is thinking of that\npresence of the Spirit in the Christian community, which is the spring\nof its affections and activities. The Spirit of Jesus, the Son of man,\nis a kindly and gracious Spirit, the guardian of brotherhood and\nfriendship, the inspirer of pure social joys and genial converse. The\njoy in the Holy Ghost that in its warmth and freshness filled the hearts\nof the first Christians, soared upward on the wings of song. Their very\ntalk was music: they \"spoke to each other in psalms and hymns and\nspiritual songs, singing and making melody with their heart to the\nLord.\" Love loves to sing. Its joys\n\n \"from out our hearts arise,\n And speak and sparkle in our eyes,\n And vibrate on our tongue.\"\n\nAll exalted sentiment tends to rhythmical expression. There is a\nmystical alliance, which is amongst the most significant facts in our\nconstitution, between emotion and art. The rudest natures, touched by\nhigh feeling, will shape themselves to some sort of beauty, to some\ngrace and refinement of expression. Each new stirring of the pulse of\nman's common life has been marked by a re-birth of poetry and art. The\nsongs of Mary and Zechariah were the parents and patterns of a multitude\nof holy canticles. In the Psalms of Scripture the New Testament Church\nfound already an instrument of wide compass strung and tuned for her\nuse. We can imagine the delight with which the Gentile Christians would\ntake up the Psalter and draw out one and another of its pearls, and\nwould in turn recite them at their meetings, and adapt them to their\nnative measures and modes of song. After a while, they began to mix with\nthe praise-songs of Israel newer strains--\"hymns\" to the glory of Christ\nand the Father, such as that with which this epistle opens, needing but\nlittle change in form to make it a true poem, and such as those which\nbreak in upon the dread visions of the Apocalypse; and added to these,\n\"spiritual songs\" of a more personal and incidental character, like\nSimeon's _Nunc dimittis_ or Paul's swan-song in his last letter to\nTimothy. In verse 14 above we detected, as we thought, an early Church\nparaphrase of the Old Testament. In later epistles addressed to Ephesus,\nthere are fragments of just such artless chants as the Asian Christians,\nexhorted and taught by their apostle, were wont to sing in their\nassemblies: see 1 Timothy iii. 16, and 2 Timothy ii. 11-13.\n\nUpon this congenial soil, we trace the beginnings of Christian\npsalmody. The parallel text of Colossians (iii. 16) discloses in the\nsongs of the Pauline Churches a didactic as well as a lyric character.\nThe apostle bids his readers \"_teach and admonish_ one another by\npsalms, hymns, spiritual songs.\" The form of the sentence of chapter iv.\n4-6 in this letter, and of 1 Timothy iii. 16, suggests that these\npassages were destined for use as a chanted rehearsal of Christian\nbelief. Thus \"the word of Christ dwelling richly\" in the heart, poured\nitself freely from the lips, and added to its grave discourse the charms\nof gladdening and spirit-stirring song.\n\nAs in their heathen days they were used to \"speak to each other,\" in\nfestive or solemn hours, with hymns to Artemis of the Ephesians, or\nDionysus giver of the vine, or to Persephon\u00e9 sad queen of the dead--in\nsongs merry and gay, too often loose and wanton; in songs of the dark\nunderworld and the grim Furies and inexorable Fate, that told how life\nfleets fast and we must pluck its pleasures while we may;--so now the\nChristians of Ephesus and Colossae, of Pergamum and of Smyrna would sing\nof the universal Father whose presence fills earth and sky, of the Son\nof His love, His image amongst men, who died in sacrifice for their sins\nand asked grace for His murderers, of the joys of forgiveness and the\ncleansed heart, of life eternal and the treasure laid up for the just in\nthe heavenly places, of Christ's return in glory and the judgement of\nthe nations and the world quickly to dissolve and perish, of a\nbrotherhood dearer than earthly kindred, of the saints who sleep in\nJesus and in peace await His coming, of the Good Shepherd who feeds His\nsheep and leads them to fountains of living water calling each by his\nname, of creation redeemed and glorified by His love, of pain and\nsorrow sanctified and the trials that make perfect in Christ's\ndiscipline, of the joy that fills the heart in suffering for Him, and\nthe vision of His face awaiting us beyond the grave. So reciting and\nchanting--now in single voice, now in full chorus--singing the Psalms of\nDavid to their Greek music, or hymns composed by their leaders, or\nsometimes improvised in the rapture of the moment, the Churches of\nEphesus and of the Asian cities lauded and glorified \"the name of our\nLord Jesus Christ\" and the counsels of redeeming love. So their worship\nand fellowship were filled with gladness. Thus in their great Church\nmeetings, and in smaller companies, many a joyous hour passed; and all\nhearts were cheered and strengthened in the Lord.\n\n\"Singing and _playing_,\" says the apostle. For music aided song; voice\nand instrument blended in His praise whose glory claims the tribute of\nall creatures. But it was \"with the heart,\" even more than with voice or\ntuneful strings, that melody was made. For this inward music the Lord\nlistens. Where other skill is wanting and neither voice nor hand can\ntake its part in the concert of praise, He hears the silent gratitude,\nthe humble joy that wells upward when the lips are still or the full\nheart cannot find expression.\n\nBut the Spirit who dwelt in the praises of the new Israel, was not\nconfined to its public assemblings. The people of Christ should be\n\"_always giving thanks_, for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.\" It is one of St Paul's commonest injunctions. \"In _everything_\ngive thanks,\" he wrote to the Thessalonians in his earliest extant\nletter (1 Ep. v. 18). \"For all things,\" he says to the\nEphesians,--\"though fallen on evil days.\" Do we not \"know that to them\nthat love God all things work together for good\"--evil days as well as\ngood days? Nothing comes altogether amiss to the child of God. In the\nheaviest loss, the severest pain, the sharpest sting of injury--\"in\neverything\" the ingenuity of love and the sweetness of patience will\nfind some token of mercy. If the evil is to our eyes all evil and we can\nsee in it no reason for thanksgiving, then faith will give thanks for\nthat which we \"know not now, but shall know hereafter.\"\n\n_Always_, the apostle says,--_for all things_! No room for a moment's\ndiscontent. In this perfecting of praise he had himself undergone a long\nschooling in his four years' imprisonment. Now, he tells us, he \"has\nlearnt the secret of contentment, in whatsoever state\" (Phil. iv. 12).\nLet us try to learn it from him. These words, which we treat, almost\nunconsciously, as the exaggeration of homiletical appeal, state no more\nthan the sober possibility, the experience attained by many a Christian\nin circumstances of the greatest suffering and deprivation. The love of\nGod in Jesus Christ our Lord suffices for the life and joy of man's\nspirit.\n\nThe twenty-first verse, which seems to belong to a different line of\nthought, in reality completes the foregoing paragraph. In the Corinthian\nChurch, as we remember, with its affluence of spiritual gifts, there\nwere so many ready to prophesy, so many to sing and recite, that\nconfusion arose and the Church meetings fell into disedifying uproar (1\nCor. xiv. 26-34). The apostle would not have such scenes occur again.\nHence when he urges the Asian Christians to seek the full inspiration of\nthe Spirit and to give free utterance in song to the impulses of their\nnew life, he adds this word of caution: \"being subject to one another in\nfear of Christ.\" He reminds them that \"God is not the author of\nconfusion.\" His Spirit is a spirit of seemliness and reverence. \"In fear\nof Christ,\" the unseen witness and president of its assemblies, the\nChurch will comport herself with the decorum that befits His bride. The\nspirits of the prophets will be subject to the prophets. The voices of\nthe singers and the hands of them that play upon the strings of the harp\nor the keys of the organ, will keep tune with the worship of Christ's\ncongregation. Each must consider that it is his part to serve and not\nrule in the service of God's house.\n\nIn our common work and worship, in all the offices of life this is the\nChristian law. No man within Christ's Church, however commanding his\npowers, may set himself above the duty of submitting his judgement and\nwill to that of his fellows. In mutual subjection lies our freedom, with\nour strength and peace.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[138] See ch. i. 5-11, ii. 21, iii. 11, v. 10, vi. 6; comp. Col. i. 9,\n27, iv. 12; Phil. ii. 13,--epistles of the same group.\n\n\n\n\n_ON FAMILY LIFE._\n\nCHAPTER v. 22-vi. 9.\n\n =Thel\u00f4 de hymas eidenai hoti pantos andros h\u00ea kephal\u00ea ho Christos\n estin, kephal\u00ea de gynaikos ho an\u00ear, kephal\u00ea de tou Christou ho\n Theos.=--1 COR. xi. 3.\n\n \"And pure Religion breathing household laws.\"\n\n W. WORDSWORTH.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\n_CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE._\n\n \"Wives, _be in subjection_ to your own husbands, as unto the Lord.\n For the husband is the head of the wife, as the Christ also is the\n head of the Church, _being_ Himself the saviour of the body. But as\n the Church is subject to the Christ, so let the wives also _be_ to\n their husbands in everything.\n\n \"Husbands, love your wives, even as the Christ also loved the\n Church, and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her,\n having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He\n might present the Church to Himself a glorious _Church_, not having\n spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and\n without blemish.\n\n \"Even so ought husbands also to love their wives as their own\n bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself: for no man ever\n hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the\n Christ also the Church; because we are members of His body. 'For\n this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave\n to his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh.' This mystery is\n great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church.\n Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as\n himself; and _let_ the wife _see_ that she fear her husband.\"--EPH.\n v. 22-33.\n\n\nIn mutual subjection the Christian spirit has its sharpest trials and\nattains its finest temper. \"Be subject one to another,\" was the last\nword of the apostle's instructions respecting the \"walk\" of the Asian\nChurches. By its order and subjection the gifts of all the members of\nChrist's body are made available for the upbuilding of God's temple. The\ninward fellowship of the Spirit becomes a constructive and organizing\nforce, reconstituting human life and framing the world into the kingdom\nof Christ and God. \"In fear of Christ\" the loyal Christian man submits\nhimself to the community; not from the dread of human displeasure, but\nknowing that he must give account to the Head of the Church and the\nJudge of the last day, if his self-will should weaken the Church's\nstrength and interrupt her holy work. \"For the Lord's sake\" His freemen\nsubmit to every ordinance of men. This is such a fear as the servant has\nof a good master (vi. 5), or the true wife for a loving husband (ver.\n33),--not that which \"perfect love casts out,\" but which it deepens and\nsanctifies.\n\n * * * * *\n\nOf this subjection to Christ the relationship of marriage furnishes an\nexample and a mirror. St Paul passes on to the new topic without any\ngrammatical pause, verse 22 being simply an extension of the participial\nclause that forms verse 21: \"Being in subjection to one another in fear\nof Christ--ye wives to your own husbands, as to the Lord.\" The relation\nof the two verses is not that of the particular to the general, so much\nas that of image and object, of type and antitype. Submission to Christ\nin the Church suggests by analogy that of the wife to her husband in the\nhouse. Both have their origin in Christ, in whom all things were\ncreated, the Lord of life in its natural as well as in its spiritual and\nregenerate sphere (Col. i. 15-17). The bond that links husband and wife,\nlying at the basis of collective human existence, has in turn its ground\nin the relation of Christ to humanity.\n\nThe race springs not from a unit, but from a united pair. The history of\nmankind began in wedlock. The family is the first institution of\nsociety, and the mother of all the rest. It is the life-basis, the\nprimitive cell of the aggregate of cities and bodies politic. In the\nhealth and purity of household life lies the moral wealth, the vigour\nand durability of all civil institutions. The mighty upgrowth of nations\nand the great achievements of history germinated in the nursery of home\nand at the mother's breast. Christian marriage is not an expedient--the\nlast of many that have been tried--for the satisfaction of desire and\nthe continuance of the human species. The Institutor of human life laid\ndown its principle in the first frame of things. Its establishment was a\ngreat prophetic mystery (ver. 32). Its law stands registered in the\neternal statutes. And the Almighty Father watches over its observance\nwith an awful jealousy. Is it not written: \"Fornicators and adulterers\nGod will judge\"; and again, \"The Lord is an avenger concerning all these\nthings\"?\n\nSt Paul rightly gives to this subject a conspicuous place in this\nepistle of Christ and the Church. The corner-stone of the new social\norder which the gospel was to establish in the world lies here. The\nentire influence of the Church upon society depends upon right views on\nthe relationship of man and woman and on the ethics of marriage.\n\nIn wedlock there are blended most completely the two principles of\nassociation amongst moral beings,--viz., authority and love, submission\nand self-surrender.\n\nI. On the one side, _submission to authority_.\n\n\"Wives, be in subjection, as to the Lord,\"--as is fitting in the Lord\n(Col. iii. 18). Again, in 1 Timothy ii. 11, 12, the apostle writes: \"I\nsuffer not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion,\" or (as the word may\nrather signify) \"to act independently of the man.\" Were these directions\ntemporary and occasional? Were they due, as one hears it suggested, to\nthe uneducated and undeveloped condition of women in the apostle's time?\nOr do they not affirm a law that is deeply seated in nature and in the\nfeminine constitution? The words of 1 Corinthians xi. 2-15 show that, in\nthe apostle's view of life, this subordination is fundamental. \"The head\nof woman is the man,\" as \"the head of every man is the Christ\" and \"the\nhead of Christ is God.\" \"The woman,\" he says, \"is of the man,\" and \"was\ncreated because of the man.\" Whether these sentences square with our\nmodern conceptions or not, there they stand, and their import is\nunmistakable.[139] They teach that in the Divine order of things it is\nthe man's part to lead and rule, and the woman's part to be ruled. But\nthe Christian woman will not feel that there is any loss or hardship in\nthis. For in the Christian order, ambition is sin. To obey is better\nthan to rule. She remembers who has said: \"I am amongst you as he that\nserveth.\" The children of the world strive for place and power; but \"it\nshall not be so amongst you.\"\n\nSuch subordination implies no inferiority, rather the opposite. A free\nand sympathetic obedience--which is the true submission--can only\nsubsist between equals. The apostle writes: \"Children, obey; ...\nServants, obey\" (vi. 1, 5); but \"Wives, submit yourselves to your own\nhusbands, as to the Lord.\" The same word denotes submission within the\nChurch, and within the house. It is here that Christianity, in contrast\nwith Paganism, and notably with Mohammedanism, raises the weaker sex to\nhonour. In soul and destiny it declares the woman to be man, endowed\nwith all rights and powers inherent in humanity. \"In Christ Jesus there\nis no male and female,\" any more than there is \"Jew and Greek\" or \"bond\nand free.\" The same sentence which broke down the barriers of Jewish\ncaste, and in course of time abolished slavery, condemned the odious\nassumptions of masculine pride. It is one of the glories of our faith\nthat it has enfranchised our sisters, and raises them in spiritual\ncalling to the full level of their brothers and husbands. Both sexes are\nchildren of God by the same birthright; both receive the same Holy\nSpirit, according to the prediction quoted by St Peter on the day of\nPentecost: \"Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.... Yea, on my\nservants and on my handmaidens in those days will I pour out of my\nSpirit, saith the Lord\" (Acts ii. 17, 18). This one point of headship,\nof public authority and guidance, is reserved. It is the point on which\nChrist forbids emulation amongst His people.\n\nChristian courtesy treats the woman as \"the glory of the man\"; it\nsurrounds her from girlhood to old age with protection and deference.\nThis homage, duly rendered, is a full equivalent for the honour of\nvisible command. When, as it happens not seldom in the partnership of\nlife, the superior wisdom dwells with the weaker vessel, the golden gift\nof persuasion is not wanting, by which the official ruler is guided, to\nhis own advantage, and his adviser accomplishes more than she could do\nby any overt leadership. The chivalry of the Middle Ages, from which the\nrefinement of European society takes its rise, was a product of\nChristianity grafted on the Teutonic nature. Notwithstanding the folly\nand excess that was mixed with it, there was a beautiful reverence in\nthe old knightly service and championship of women. It humanized the\nferocity of barbarous times. It tamed the brute strength of warlike\nraces and taught them honour and gentleness. Its prevalence marked a\npermanent advance in civilization.\n\nShall we say that this law of St Paul is that laid down specifically for\n_Christian_ women? is it not rather a law of nature--the intrinsic\npropriety of sex, whose dictates are reinforced by the Christian\nrevelation? The apostle takes us back to the creation of mankind for the\nbasis of his principles in dealing with this subject (ver. 31). The new\ncommandments are the old which were in the world from the beginning,\nthough concealed and overgrown with corruption. Notwithstanding the\ndebasement of marriage under the non-Christian systems, the instincts of\nnatural religion taught the wife her place in the house and gave rise to\nmany a graceful and appropriate custom expressive of the honour due from\none sex to the other. So the apostle regarded the man's bared and\ncropped head and the woman's flowing tresses as symbols of their\nrelative place in the Divine order (1 Cor. xi. 13-15). These and such\ndistinctions--between the dignities of strength and of beauty--no\nartificial sentiment and no capricious revolt can set aside, while the\nworld stands. St Paul appeals to the common sense of mankind, to that\nwhich \"nature itself teaches,\" in censuring the forwardness of some\nCorinthian women who appeared to think that the liberty of the gospel\nreleased them from the limitations of their nature.\n\nSome earnest promoters of women's rights have fallen into the error that\nChristianity, to which they owe all that is best in their present\nstatus, is the obstacle in the way of their further progress. It is an\nobstacle to claims that are against nature and against the law of\nGod,--claims only tolerable so long as they are exceptional. But the\nbarriers imposed by Christianity, against which these people fret, are\ntheir main protection. \"The moment Christianity disappears, the law of\nstrength revives; and under that law women can have no hope except that\ntheir slavery may be mild and pleasant.\" To escape from the \"bondage of\nChristian law\" means to go back to the bondage of paganism.\n\n\"As unto the Lord\" gives the pattern and the principle of the Christian\nwife's submission. Not that, as Meyer seems to put it, the husband in\nvirtue of marriage \"represents Christ to the wife.\" Her relation to the\nLord is as full, direct, and personal as his. Indeed, the clause\ninserted at the end of verse 23 seems expressly designed to guard\nagainst this exaggeration. The qualification that Christ is \"Himself\nSaviour of the body,\" thrown in between the two sentences comparing the\nmarital headship to that which Christ holds towards the Church, has the\neffect of limiting the former.[140] The subjection of the Christian wife\nto her husband reserves for Christ the first place in the heart and the\nundiminished rights of Saviourship. St Paul indicates a real, and not\nunfrequent danger. The husband may eclipse Christ in the wife's soul,\nand be counted as her all in all. Her absorption in him may be too\ncomplete. Hence the brief guarding clause: \"He Himself [and no other]\nSaviour of the body [to which all believers alike belong].\" As the\nSaviour of the Church, Christ holds an unrivalled and unqualified\nlordship over every member of the same.\n\n\"Nevertheless, as the Church is subject to the Christ, so also wives\n[should be] to their husbands in everything\" (ver. 24). Again, in verse\n33: \"Let the wife see that she fear her husband\"--with the reverent and\nconfiding fear which love makes sweet. As the Christian wife obeys the\nLord Christ in the spiritual sphere, in the sphere of marriage she is\nsubject to her husband. The ties that bind her to Christ, bind her more\nclosely to the duties of home. These duties illustrate for her the\nsubmissive love that Christ's people, and herself as one of them, owe to\ntheir Divine Head. Her service in the Church, in turn, will send her\nhome with a quickened sense of the sacredness of her domestic calling.\nIt will lighten the yoke of obedience; it will check the discontent that\nmasculine exactions provoke; and will teach her to win by patience and\ngentleness the power within the house that is her queenly crown.\n\nII. The apostle alludes to submission as the wife's duty; for she might,\npossibly, be tempted to think this superseded by the liberty of the\nchildren of God. Love he need not enjoin upon her; but he writes:\n\"Husbands, _love your wives_, even as the Christ also loved the Church\nand gave up Himself for her\" (comp. Col. iii. 18, 19).\n\nThe danger of selfishness lies on the masculine side. The man's nature\nis more exacting; and the self-forgetfulness and solicitous affection of\nthe woman may blind him to his own want of the truest love. Full of\nbusiness and with a hundred cares and attractions lying outside the\ndomestic circle, he too readily forms habits of self-absorption and\nlearns to make his wife and home a convenience, from which he takes as\nhis right the comfort they have to give, imparting little of devotion\nand confidence in return. This lack of love denies the higher rights of\nmarriage; it makes the wife's submission a joyless constraint. Along\nwith this selfishness and the uneasy conscience attending it, there\nsupervenes sometimes an irritability of temper that chafes over domestic\ntroubles and makes a grievance of the most trifling mishap or\ninadvertence, ignoring the wife's patient affection and anxiety to\nplease. Too often in this way husbands grow insensibly into family\ntyrants, forgetting the days of youth and the kindness of their\nespousals. \"There are many,\" says Bengel (on this point unusually\ncaustic), \"who out of doors are civil and kind to all; when at home,\ntoward their wives and children, whom they have no need to fear, they\nfreely practise secret bitterness.\"\n\n\"Love your wives, _even as the Christ loved the Church_.\" What a glory\nthis confers upon the husband's part in marriage! His devotion pictures,\nas no other love can, the devotion of Christ to His redeemed people. His\nlove must therefore be a spiritual passion, the love of soul to soul,\nthat partakes of God and of eternity. Of the three Greek words for\nlove,--_eros_, familiar in Greek poetry and mythology, denoting the\nflame of sexual passion, is not named in the New Testament; _philia_,\nthe love of friendship, is tolerably frequent, in its verb at least; but\n_agap\u00e9_ absorbs the former and transcends both. This exquisite word\ndenotes love in its spiritual purity and depth, the love of God and of\nChrist, and of souls to each other in God. This is the specific\nChristian affection. It is the attribute of God who \"loved the world and\ngave His Son the Only-begotten,\" of \"the Christ\" who \"loved the Church\nand gave up Himself for her.\" Self-devotion, not self-satisfaction, is\nits note. Its strength and authority it uses as material for sacrifice\nand instruments of service, not as prerogatives of pride or titles to\nenjoyment. Let this mind be in you, O husband, toward your wife, which\nwas also in Christ Jesus, who was meek and lowly in heart, counting it\nHis honour to serve and His reward to save and bless.\n\nFrom verse 26 we gather that Christ is the husband's model, not only in\nthe rule of self-devotion, but in the end toward which that devotion is\ndirected: \"that He might sanctify the Church,--that He might present her\nto Himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle,--_that she might\nbe holy and without blemish_.\" The perfection of the wife's character\nwill be to the religious husband one of the dearest objects in life. He\nwill desire for her that which is highest and best, as for himself. He\nis put in charge of a soul more precious to him than any other, over\nwhich he has an influence incomparably great. This care he cannot\ndelegate to any priest or father-confessor. The peril of such delegation\nand the grievous mischiefs that arise when there is no spiritual\nconfidence between husband and wife, when through unbelief or\nsuperstition the head of the house hands over his priesthood to another\nman, are painfully shown by the experience of Roman Catholic countries.\nThe irreligion of laymen, the carelessness and unworthiness of fathers\nand husbands are responsible for the baneful influences of the\nconfessional. The apostle bade the Corinthian wives, who were eager for\nreligious knowledge, to \"ask their husbands at home\" (1 Cor. xiv. 35).\nChristian husbands should take more account of their office than they\ndo; they should not be strangers to the spiritual trials and experiences\nof the heart so near to them. It might lead them to walk more worthily\nand to seek higher religious attainments, if they considered that the\nshepherding of at least one soul devolves upon themselves, that they are\nunworthy of the name of husband without such care for the welfare of the\nsoul linked to their own as Christ bears toward His bride the Church.\nThose who have no father or husband to look to, or who look in vain to\nthis quarter for spiritual help, St Paul refers, beside the light and\ncomfort of Scripture and the public ministry and fellowship of the\nChurch, to the \"aged women\" who are the natural guides and exemplars of\nthe younger in their own sex (Titus ii. 3-5).\n\nThe selfishness of the stronger sex, supported by the force of habit and\nsocial usage, was hard to subdue in the Greek Christian Churches.\nThrough some eight verses St Paul labours this one point. In verse 28 he\nadduces another reason, added to the example of Christ, for the love\nenjoined. \"So ought men indeed to love their wives as their own bodies.\nHe that loveth his wife loveth himself.\" The \"So\" gathers its force from\nthe previous example. In loving us Christ does not love something\nforeign and, as it were, outside of Himself. \"We are members of His\nbody\" (ver. 30). It is the love of the Head to the members, of the Son\nof man to the sons of men, whose race-life is founded in Him. Jesus\nChrist laid it down as the highest law, under that of love to God: \"Thou\nshalt love thy neighbour _as thyself_.\" His love to us followed this\nrule. His life was wrapped up in ours. By such community of life\nself-love is transfigured, and exalted into the purest self-forgetting.\n\nThus it is with true marriage. The wedding of a human pair makes each\nthe other's property. They are \"one flesh\" (ver. 31); and so long as\nthe flesh endures there remains this consciousness of union, whose\nviolation is deadly sin. As the Church is not her own, nor Christ His\nown since He became man with men, so the husband and wife are no longer\nindependent and self-complete personalities, but incorporated into a new\nexistence common to both. Their love must correspond to this fact. If\nthe man loves himself, if he values his own limbs and tends and guards\nfrom injury his bodily frame (ver. 29), he must do the same equally by\nhis wife; for her life and limbs are as a part of his own. This the\napostle lays down as an obvious duty. Nature teaches the obligation, by\nevery manly instinct.\n\nThe saying the apostle quotes in verse 31 dates from the origin of the\nhuman family; it is taken from the lips of the first husband and father\nof the race, while as yet unstained by sin (Gen. ii. 23, 24). Christ\ninfers from it the singleness and indelibility of the marriage covenant.\nBut this doctrine, natural as it is, was not inferred by natural\nreligion. The cultivated Greek took a wife for the production of\nchildren. Her rights put no restriction upon his appetite. Love was not\nin the marriage contract. If she received the maintenance due to her\nrank and the mistress-ship of the house, and was the mother of his\nlawful children, she had all that a free-born woman could demand. The\nslave-woman had no rights. Her body was at her owner's disposal. Nothing\nin Christianity appeared more novel and more severe, in comparison with\nthe dissolute morals of the time, than the Christian view of marriage.\nEven Christ's Jewish disciples seemed to think the state of wedlock\nintolerable under the condition He imposed. This want of reverence and\nconstancy between the sexes was a main cause of the degeneracy of the\nage. All virtues disappear with this one. Roman manliness and\nuprightness, Greek courtesy and courage, filial piety, civic worth,\nloyalty in friendship--the qualities that once in a high degree adorned\nthe classic nations, were now rare amongst men. In the most exalted\nranks infamous vices flourished; and purity of life was a cause for\nodium and suspicion.\n\nAmidst this seething mass of corruption the Spirit of life in Christ\nJesus created new hearts and new homes. It kindled a pure fire on the\ndesecrated hearth. It taught man and woman a chaste love; and their\nalliances were formed \"in sanctification and honour, not in the passion\nof lust as it is with the Gentiles who know not God\" (1 Thess. iv. 3-6).\nEvery Christian house, thus based on an honourable and religious union,\nbecame the centre of a leaven that wrought upon the corrupt society\naround. It held forth an example of wedded loyalty and domestic joy\nbeautiful and strange in that loveless Pagan world. Children grew up\ntrained in pure and gentle manners. From that hour the hope of a better\nday began. The influence of the new ideal, filtrating everywhere into\nthe surrounding heathenism and assimilating even before it converted the\nhostile world, raised society, though gradually and with many relapses,\nfrom the extreme debasement of the age of the Caesars. Never subsequently\nhave the morals of civilized mankind sunk to a level quite so low. The\nChristian conception of love and marriage opened a new era for mankind.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[139] See Dr. Maclaren's admirable words on this subject in _Colossians\nand Philemon_ (Expositor's Bible), pp. 336-40; and Dr. Dale's _Lectures\non Ephesians_, Lect. xix., \"Wives and Husbands.\"\n\n[140] In verse 24 St Paul resumes with =alla=, the _but_ of opposition\nand not mere contrast, indicating a case where the claims of husband and\nSaviour may, conceivably, be in competition.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI.\n\nCHRIST AND HIS BRIDE.\n\n \"The Christ is the head of the Church, _being_ Himself the Saviour\n of the body.... The Church is subject to the Christ in\n everything....\n\n \"The Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself up for her; that He\n might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with\n the word, that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious\n _Church_, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she\n should be holy and without blemish....\n\n \"The Christ [nourisheth and cherisheth] the Church; because we are\n members of His body. 'For this cause shall a man leave his father\n and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall become\n one flesh.' This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ\n and of the Church.\"--EPH. v. 23-32.\n\n\nWe have extracted from the apostle's homily upon marriage the sentences\nreferring to Christ and His Church, in order to gather up their\ncollective import. The main topic of the epistle here again asserts\nitself; and under the figure of marriage St Paul brings to its\nconclusion his doctrine on the subject of the Church. This passage\nanswers, theologically, a purpose similar to that of the allegory of\nHagar and Sarah in the epistle to the Galatians: it lights up for the\nimagination the teaching and argument of the former part of the epistle;\nit shows how the doctrine of Christ and the Church has its counterpart\nin nature, as the struggle between the legal and evangelical spirit had\nits counterpart in the patriarchal history. The three detached\nparagraphs present us three considerations, of which we shall treat the\nsecond first in order of exposition: Christ's _love to the Church_; His\n_authority over the Church_; and _the mystery of the Church's origin in\nHim_.\n\nI. \"Husbands, love your wives, even as the Christ also loved the Church,\nand gave up Himself for her.\" This is parallel to the declaration of\nGalatians ii. 20: \"He loved me; He gave up Himself for me.\" The\nsacrifice of the cross has at once its personal and its collective\npurpose. Both are to be kept in mind.\n\nOn the one hand, we must value infinitely and joyfully assert our\nindividual part in the redeeming love of the Son of God; but we must\nequally admit the sovereign rights of the Church in the Redeemer's\npassion. Our souls bow down before the glory of the love with which He\nhas from eternity sought her for His own. There is in some Christians an\nabsorption in the work of grace within their own hearts, an\nindividualistic salvation-seeking that, like all selfishness, defeats\nits end; for it narrows and impoverishes the inner life thus sedulously\ncherished. The Church does not exist simply for the benefit of\nindividual souls; it is an eternal institution, with an affiance to\nChrist, a calling and destiny of its own; within that universal sphere\nour personal destiny holds its particular place.\n\nIt is \"the Christ\" who stands, throughout this context (vv. 23-29), over\nagainst \"the Church\" as her Lover and Husband; whereas in the context of\nGalatians ii. 20 we read \"Christ\"--the bare personal name--repeated\nagain and again without the distinguishing article. _Christ_ is the\nPerson whom the soul knows and loves, with whom it holds communion in\nthe Spirit. _The Christ_ is the same regarded in the wide scope of His\nnature and office,--the Christ of humanity and of the ages. \"The Christ\"\nof this epistle expands the Saviour's title to its boundless\nsignificance, and gives breadth and length to that which in \"Christ\" is\ngathered up into a single point.[141]\n\nThis Christ \"gave Himself up for the Church,\"--yielded Himself to the\ndeath which the sins of His people merited and brought upon Him. Under\nthe same verb, the apostle says in Romans iv. 25: He \"_was delivered_\nbecause of our trespasses, and raised up because of our\njustification\"--the sacrifice being there regarded on its passive side.\nHere, as in Galatians ii. 20, the act is made His own,--a voluntary\nsurrender. \"No man taketh my life from me,\" He said (John x. 18). In His\ncase alone amongst the sons of men, death was neither natural nor\ninevitable. His surrender of life was an absolute sacrifice. He \"laid\ndown His life for His friends,\" as no other friend of man could do--the\nOne who died for all. The love measured by this sacrifice is\nproportionately great.\n\nThe sayings of verses 25-27 set the glory of the vicarious death in a\nvivid light. Of such worth was the person of the Christ, of such\nsignificance and moral value His sacrificial death, that it weighed\nagainst the trespass, not of a man--Paul or any other--but of a world of\nmen. He \"purchased through His own blood,\" said Paul to the Ephesian\nelders, \"the Church of God\" (Acts xx. 28)--the whole flock that feeds in\nthe pastures of the Great Shepherd, that has passed or will pass through\nthe gates of His fold. Great was the honour and glory with which he was\ncrowned, when led as victim to the altar of the world's atonement (Heb.\nii. 9). Who will not say, as the meek Son of man treads so willingly\nHis mournful path to Calvary, \"Worthy is the Lamb!\" Is not the heavenly\nBridegroom worthy of the bride, that He consents to win by the sacrifice\nof Himself!\n\nHe is worthy; and _she must be made worthy_. \"He gave up Himself, that\nHe might sanctify her,--that He might Himself present to Himself a\nglorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or anything of the\nkind,--that she may be holy and without blemish.\" The sanctification of\nthe Church is the grand purpose of redeeming grace. This was the design\nof God for His sons in Christ before the world's foundation, \"that we\nshould be holy and unblemished before Him\" (i. 4). This, therefore, was\nthe end of Christ's mission upon earth; this was the intention of His\nsacrificial death. \"For their sakes,\" said Jesus concerning His\ndisciples, \"I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in\ntruth\" (John xvii. 19). His purchase of the Church is no selfish act. To\nGod His Father Christ devotes every spirit of man that is yielded to\nHim. As the Priest of mankind it was His office thus to consecrate\nhumanity, which is already in purpose and in essence \"sanctified through\nthe offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all\" (Heb. x. 10).\n\nOnly in this passage, where the apostle is thinking of the preparation\nof the Church for its perfect union with its Head, does he name Christ\nas our _Sanctifier_; in 1 Corinthians i. 2 he comes near this\nexpression, addressing his readers as men \"sanctified in Christ Jesus.\"\nIn the epistle to the Hebrews this character is largely ascribed to Him,\nbeing the function of His priesthood. One in nature with the sanctified,\nJesus our great Priest \"sanctifies us through His own blood,\" so that\nwith cleansed consciences we may draw near to the living God.[142] As\nChrist the Priest stands towards His people, so Christ the Husband\ntowards His Church. He devotes her with Himself to God. He cleanses her\nthat she may dwell with Him for ever, a spotless bride, dead unto sin\nand living unto God through Him.\n\n\"That He might sanctify her, _having cleansed her_ in the laver of water\nby the word.\" The Church's purification is antecedent in thought to her\nsanctification through the sacrifice of Christ; and it is a means\nthereto. \"Ye were washed, ye were sanctified,\" writes the apostle in 1\nCorinthians vi. 11, putting the two things in the same order. It is the\norder of doctrine which he has laid down in the epistle to the Romans,\nwhere sanctification is built on the foundation laid in justification\nthrough the blood of Christ. Through the virtue of the sacrificial death\nthe Church in all her members was washed from the defilements of sin,\nthat she might enter upon God's service. Of the same initial\npurification of the heart St John writes in his first epistle (i. 7-9):\n\"The blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.... He is\nfaithful and just, that He should forgive us our sins and cleanse us\nfrom all unrighteousness.\" This is \"the redemption through Christ's\nblood,\" for which St Paul in his first words of praise called upon us to\nbless God (i. 7). It is the special distinction of the New Covenant,\nwhich renders possible its other gifts of grace, that \"the worshippers\nonce cleansed\" need have \"no further consciousness of sins\" (Heb. x. 2,\n14-18). In the theological use here made of the idea of _cleansing_, St\nPaul comes into line with St John and the epistle to the Hebrews. The\npurification is nothing else than that which he has elsewhere styled\n_justification_. He employs the terms synonymously in the later epistle\nto Titus (ii. 14; iii. 7).\n\n\"Having cleansed\" is a phrase congruous with the figure of _the laver_,\nor _bath_ (comp. again Tit. iii. 5-7),--an image suggested, as one would\nthink, by the bride-bath of the wedding-day in the ancient marriage\ncustoms. To this St Paul sees a counterpart in baptism, \"the laver of\nwater in the word.\" The cleansing and withal refreshing virtues of water\nmade it an obvious symbol of regeneration. The emblem is twofold; it\npictures at once the removal of guilt, and the imparting of new\nstrength. One goes into the bath exhausted, and covered with dust; one\ncomes out clean and fresh. Hence the baptism of the new believer in\nChrist had, in St Paul's view, a double aspect.[143] It looked backward\nto the old life of sin abandoned, and forward to the new life of\nholiness commenced. Thus it corresponded to the burial of Jesus (Rom.\nvi. 4), the point of juncture between death and resurrection. Baptism\nserved as the visible and formal expression of the soul's passage\nthrough the gate of forgiveness into the sanctified life.\n\nAlong with this older teaching, a further and kindred significance is\nnow given to the baptismal rite. It denotes the soul's affiance to its\nLord. As the maiden's bath on the morning of her marriage betokened the\npurity in which she united herself to her betrothed, so the baptismal\nlaver summons the Church to present herself \"a chaste virgin unto\nChrist\" (2 Cor. xi. 2). It signifies and seals her forgiveness, and\npledges her in all her members to await the Bridegroom in garments\nunspotted from the world, with the pure and faithful love which will not\nbe ashamed before Him at His coming. For this end Christ set up the\nbaptismal laver.\n\nUpon our construction of the text, the words \"that He might sanctify\nher\" express a purpose complete in itself--viz., that of the Church's\nconsecration to God. Then follow the means to this sanctification:\n\"having cleansed her in the water-bath through the word,\"--which\nwashing, at the same time, has its purpose on the part of the Lord who\nappointed it--viz., \"that He might present her to Himself\" a glorious\nand spotless Church.\n\nAt the end of verse 27 the sentence doubles back upon itself, in Paul's\ncharacteristic fashion. The twofold aim of Christ's sacrifice of love on\nthe Church's behalf--viz., her consecration to God, and her spotless\npurity fitting her for perfect union with her Lord--is restated in the\nfinal clause, by way of contrast with the \"spots and wrinkles and\nsuch-like things\" that are washed out: \"but that she may be holy and\nwithout blemish.\"\n\nWe passed by, for the moment, the concluding phrase of verse 26, with\nwhich the apostle qualifies his reference to the baptismal cleansing; we\nare by no means forgetting it. \"Having cleansed her,\" he writes, \"by the\nlaver of water _in_ [_the_] _word_.\" This adjunct is deeply significant.\nIt impresses on baptism a spiritual character, and excludes every\ntheurgic conception of the rite, every doctrine that gives to it in the\nleast degree a mechanical efficacy. \"Without the word the sacrament\ncould only influence man by magic, outward or inward\" (Dorner). The\n\"word\" of which the apostle speaks,[144] is that of chapter vi. 17,\n\"God's word--the Spirit's sword\"; of Romans x. 8, \"the word of faith\nwhich we proclaim\"; of Luke i. 37, \"the word from God which shall not be\npowerless\"; of John xvii. 8, etc., \"the words\" that the Father had\ngiven to the Son, and the Son in turn to men. It is the Divine\nutterance, spoken and believed. In this accompaniment lies the power of\nthe laver. The baptismal affusion is the outward seal of an inward\ntransaction, that takes place in the spirit of believing utterers and\nhearers of the gospel word. This saving word receives in baptism its\nconcrete expression; it becomes the _verbum visibile_.\n\nThe \"word\" in question is defined in Romans x. 8, 9: \"If thou shalt\nconfess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God\nraised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved!\" Let the hearer respond,\n\"I do so confess and believe,\" on the strength of this confession he is\nbaptized, and in the conjoint act of faith and baptism--in the\n_obedience_ of faith signified by his baptism--he is saved from his past\nsins and made an heir of life eternal. The rite is the simplest and most\nuniversal in application one can conceive. In heathen countries baptism\nrecovers its primitive significance, as the decisive act of rupture with\nidolatry and acceptance of Christ as Lord, which in our usage is often\noverlaid and forgotten.\n\nThis interpretation gives a key to the obscure text of St Peter upon the\nsame subject (1 Ep. iii. 21): \"Baptism saves you--not the putting away\nof the filth of the flesh, but the questioning with regard to God of a\ngood conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\" The vital\nconstituent of the rite is not the application of water to the body, but\nthe challenge which the word makes therein to the conscience respecting\nthe things of God,--the inquiry thus conveyed, to which a sincere\nbeliever in the resurrection of Christ makes joyful and ready answer. It\nis, in fine, _the appeal to faith_ contained in baptism that gives to\nthe latter its saving worth.\n\nThe \"word\" that makes Christian ordinances valid, is not the past\nutterance of God alone, which may remain a dead letter, preserved in the\noracles of Scripture or the official forms of the Church, but that word\nalive and active, re-spoken and transmitted from soul to soul by the\nbreath of the Holy Spirit. Without this animating word of faith, baptism\nis but the pouring or sprinkling of so much water on the body; the\nLord's Supper is only the consumption of so much bread and wine.\n\nAll the nations will at last, in obedience to Christ's command, be\nbaptized into the thrice-holy Name; and the work of baptism will be\ncomplete. Then the Church will issue from her bath, cleansed more\neffectually than the old world that emerged with Noah from the deluge.\nEvery \"spot and wrinkle\" will pass from her face: the worldly passions\nthat stained her features, the fears and anxieties that knit her brow or\nfurrowed her cheek, will vanish away. In her radiant beauty, in her\nchaste and spotless love, Christ will lead forth His Church before His\nFather and the holy angels, \"as a bride adorned for her husband.\" From\neternity He set His love upon her; on the cross He won her back from her\ninfidelity at the price of His blood. Through the ages He has been\nwooing her to Himself, and schooling her in wise and manifold ways that\nshe might be fit for her heavenly calling. Now the end of this long task\nof redemption has arrived. The message goes forth to Christ's friends in\nall the worlds: \"Come, gather yourselves to the great supper of God!\nThe marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready!\nHe hath given her fine linen bright and pure, that she may array\nherself. Let us rejoice and exult, and give to Him the glory!\" Through\nwhat cleansing fires, through what baptisms even of blood she has still\nto pass ere the consummation is reached, He only knows who loved her and\ngave Himself for her. He will spare to His Church nothing, either of\nbounty or of trial, that her perfection needs.\n\nII. Concerning Christ's lordly _authority_ over His Church we have had\noccasion to speak already in other places. A word or two may be added\nhere.\n\nWe acknowledge the Church to be \"subject to Christ in everything.\" We\nproclaim ourselves, like the apostle, \"slaves of Christ Jesus.\" But this\nsubjection is too often a form rather than a fact. In protesting our\nindependence of Popish and priestly lords of God's heritage, we are\nsometimes in danger of ignoring our dependence upon Him, and of\ndethroning, in effect, the one Lord Jesus Christ. Christian communities\nact and speak too much in the style of political republics. They assume\nthe attitude of self-directing and self-responsible bodies.\n\nThe Church is no democracy, any more than it is an aristocracy or a\nsacerdotal absolutism: it is a _Christocracy_. The people are not rulers\nin the house of God; they are the ruled, laity and ministers alike. \"One\nis your Master, even the Christ; and all ye are brethren.\" We\nacknowledge this in theory; but our language and spirit would oftentimes\nbe other than they are, if we were penetrated by the sense of the\ncontinual presence and majesty of the Lord Christ in our assemblies.\nRoyalties and nobilities, and the holders of popular power--all whose\n\"names are named in this world,\" along with the principalities in\nheavenly places, when they come into the precincts of the Church must\nlay aside their robes and forget their titles, and speak humbly as in\nthe Master's presence. What is it to the glorious Church of Jesus Christ\nthat Lord So-and-so wears a coronet and owns half a county? or that\nMidas can fill her coffers, if he is pleased and humoured? or that this\nor that orator guides at his will the fierce democracy? He is no more\nthan a man who will die, and appear before the judgement-seat of Christ.\nThe Church's protection from human tyranny, from schemes of ambition,\nfrom the intrusion of political methods and designs, lies in her sense\nof the splendour and reality of Christ's dominion, and of her own\neternal life in Him.\n\nIII. We come now to the profound mystery disclosed, or half-disclosed at\nthe end of this section, that of _the origination of the Church from\nChrist_, which accounts for His love to the Church and His authority\nover her. He nourishes and cherishes the Church, we are told in verses\n29, 30, \"because we are members of His body.\"\n\nNow, this membership is, in its origin, as old as creation. God \"chose\nus in Christ before the world's foundation\" (i. 4). We were created in\nthe Son of God's love, antecedently to our redemption by Him. Such is\nthe teaching of this and the companion epistle (Col. i. 14-18). Christ\nrecovers through the cross that which pertains inherently to Him, which\nbelonged to Him by nature and is as a part of Himself. From this\nstandpoint the connexion of verses 30 and 31 becomes intelligible.[145]\nIt is not, strictly speaking, \"on account of this\"; but \"in\ncorrespondence with this\"[146] says the apostle, suiting the original\nphrase to his purpose. The derivation of Eve from the body of Adam, as\nthat is affirmed in the mysterious words of Genesis, is analogous to the\nderivation of the Church from Christ. The latter relationship existed in\nits ideal, and as conceived in the purpose of God, prior to the\nappearance of the human race. In St Paul's theory, the origin of woman\nin man which forms the basis of marriage in Scripture, looked further\nback to the origin of humanity in Christ Himself.\n\nThe train of thought that the apostle resumes here he followed in 1\nCorinthians xi. 3-12: \"I would have you know that the head of every man\nis the Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of\nChrist is God.... Man is the image and glory of God: but the woman is\nthe glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of\nthe man.\" So it is with Christ and His bride the Church.\n\n\"The LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept;\nand He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof:\nand the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man, made He a woman,\nand brought her to the man. And the man said,\n\n This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:\n She shall be called Woman [_Isshah_], because she was taken out\n of Man [_Ish_].\n Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall\n cleave unto his wife:\n And they shall be one flesh\" (Gen. ii. 21-24).\n\nThus the first father of our race prophesied, and sang his wedding song.\nIn some mystical, but real sense, marriage is a _reunion_, the\nreincorporation of what had been sundered. Seeking his other self, the\ncomplement of his nature, the man breaks the ties of birth and founds a\nnew home. So the inspired author of the passage in Genesis explains the\norigin of marriage, and the instinct which draws the bridegroom to his\nbride.\n\nBut our apostle sees within this declaration a deeper truth, kept secret\nfrom the foundation of the world. When he speaks of \"this great\n_mystery_,\" he means thereby not marriage itself, but _the saying of\nAdam about it_. This text was a standing problem to the Jewish\ninterpreters. \"But for my part,\" says the apostle, \"I refer it to Christ\nand to the Church.\" St Paul, who has so often before drawn the parallel\nbetween Adam and Christ, by the light of this analogy perceives a new\nand rich meaning in the old dark sentence. It helps him to see how\nbelievers in Christ, forming collectively His body, are not only grafted\ninto Him (as he puts it in the epistle to the Romans), but were derived\nfrom Him and formed in the very mould of His nature.\n\nWhat is affirmed in Colossians i. 16, 17 concerning the universe in\ngeneral, is true in its perfect degree of redeemed humanity: \"_In Him_\nwere created all things,\" as well as \"through Him and for Him.\" Eve was\ncreated in Adam; and Adam in Christ. We are \"partakers of a Divine\nnature,\" by our spiritual origin in Him who is the image of God and the\nroot of humanity. The union of the first human pair and every true\nmarriage since, being in effect, as Adam puts it, a restoration and\nredintegration, symbolizes the fellowship of Christ with mankind. This\nintention was in the mind of God at the institution of human life; it\ntook expression in the prophetic words of the Book of Genesis, whose\ndeeper sense St Paul is now able for the first time to unfold.\n\nIn our union through grace and faith with Christ crucified, we realize\nagain the original design of our being. Christ has purchased by His\nblood no new or foreign bride, but her who was His from eternity,--the\nchild who had wandered from the Father's house, the betrothed who had\nleft her Lord and Spouse. In regard to this \"mystery of our coherence in\nChrist,\" Richard Hooker says, in words that suggest many aspects of this\ndoctrine: \"The Church is in Christ, as Eve was in Adam. Yea, by grace we\nare every one of us in Christ and in His Church, as by nature we are in\nour first parents. God made Eve of the rib of Adam. And His Church He\nframeth out of the very flesh, the very wounded and bleeding side of the\nSon of man. His body crucified and His blood shed for the life of the\nworld are the true elements of that heavenly being which maketh us such\nas Himself is of whom we come. For which cause the words of Adam may be\nfitly the words of Christ concerning His Church, 'flesh of my flesh and\nbone of my bones--a true native extract out of mine own body,' So that\nin Him, even according to His manhood, we according to our heavenly\nbeing are as branches in that root out of which they grow.\"[147]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[141] Compare pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.\n\n[142] Heb. ii. 9-12, ix. 14, 15, x. 5-22, xiii. 12.\n\n[143] See Rom. vi. 1-11; Col. ii. 11, 12; 1 Cor. x. 2, xii. 13.\n\n[144] =En rh\u00eamati=. =Logos= is word as expressive of _thought_. =Rh\u00eama=,\nthe utterance of a living voice,--a _sentence_, _pronouncement_,\n_message_; it is the Greek term employed in all the passages here cited.\n\n[145] The words \"of His flesh and of His bones,\" following \"members of\nHis body\" in the A.V., appear to be an ancient gloss adopted by the\nGreek copyists, which was suggested by Gen. ii. 23. They are unsuitable\nto the idea of a spiritual union, and interrupt rather than help the\napostle's exposition.\n\n[146] St Paul changes the =Heneken toutou= of the original to =Anti\ntoutou=, which conveys the idea that marriage has its counterpart in the\nfact that we are members of Christ.\n\n[147] _Ecclesiastical Polity_; v. 56 7.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII.\n\n_THE CHRISTIAN HOUSEHOLD._\n\n \"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 'Honour\n thy father and mother,' which is a first commandment, _given_ in\n promise,--'that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long\n on the earth.' And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath:\n but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.\n\n \"Servants, be obedient to them that according to the flesh are your\n lords, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto\n the Christ; not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as\n servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul; with good\n will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men: knowing that\n whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive\n again from the Lord, whether _he be_ bond or free. And, ye lords, do\n the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that\n both their Lord and yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of\n persons with Him.\"--EPH. vi. 1-9.\n\n\nThe Christian family is the cradle and the fortress of the Christian\nfaith. Here its virtues shine most brightly; and by this channel its\ninfluence spreads through society and the course of generations.\nMarriage has been placed under the guardianship of God; it is made\nsingle, chaste and enduring, according to the law of creation and the\npattern of Christ's union with His Church. With parents thus united,\nfamily honour is secure; and a basis is laid for reverence and\ndiscipline within the house.\n\nI. Thus the apostle turns, in the opening words of chapter vi., from the\nhusband and wife to the _children_ of the household. He addresses them\nas present in the assembly where his letter is read. St Paul accounted\nthe children \"holy,\" if but one parent belonged to the Church (1 Cor.\nvii. 14). They were baptized, as we presume, with their fathers or\nmothers, and admitted, under due precautions,[148] to the fellowship of\nthe Church so far as their age allowed. We cannot limit this exhortation\nto children of adult age. The \"discipline and admonition of the Lord\"\nprescribed in verse 4, belong to children of tender years and under\nparental control.\n\n_Obedience_ is the law of childhood. It is, in great part, the child's\nreligion, to be practised \"in the Lord.\" The reverence and love, full of\na sweet mystery, which the Christian child feels towards its Saviour and\nheavenly King, add new sacredness to the claims of father and mother.\nJesus Christ, the Head over all things, is the orderer of the life of\nboys and girls. His love and His might guard the little one in the\ntendance of its parents. The wonderful love of parents to their\noffspring, and the awful authority with which they are invested, come\nfrom the source of human life in God.\n\nThe Latin _pietas_ impressed a religious character upon filial duty.\nThis word signified at once dutifulness towards the gods, and towards\nparents and kindred. In the strength of its family ties and its deep\nfilial reverence lay the secret of the moral vigour and the unmatched\ndiscipline of the Roman commonwealth. The history of ancient Rome\naffords a splendid illustration of the fifth commandment.\n\n_For this is right_, says the apostle, appealing to the instincts of\nnatural religion. The child's conscience begins here. Filial obedience\nis the primary form of duty. The loyalties of after life take their\ncolour from the lessons learnt at home, in the time of dawning reason\nand incipient will. Hard indeed is the evil to remove, where in the\nplastic years of childhood obedience has been associated with base fear,\nwith distrust or deceit, where it has grown sullen or obsequious in\nhabit. From this root of bitterness there spring rank growths of hatred\ntoward authority, jealousies, treacheries, and stubbornness. Obedience\nrendered \"in the Lord\" will be frank and willing, careful and constant,\nsuch as that which Jesus rendered to the Father.\n\nSt Paul reminds the children of the law of the Ten Words, taught to them\nin their earliest lessons from Scripture. He calls the command in\nquestion \"_a first_ [or _chief_] commandment\"--just as the great rule,\n\"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,\" is _the_ first commandment; for this\nis no secondary rule or minor precept, but one on which the continuance\nof the Church and the welfare of society depend. It is a law fundamental\nas birth itself, written not on the statute-book alone but on the tables\nof the heart.\n\nMoreover, it is a \"command _in promise_\"--that takes the form of\npromise, and holds out to obedience a bright future. The two\npredicates--\"first\" and \"in promise\"--as we take it, are distinct. To\nmerge them into one blunts their meaning. This commandment is primary in\nits importance, and promissory in its import. The promise is quoted from\nExodus xx. 12, as it stands in the Septuagint, where the Greek\nChristian children would read it. But the last clause is abbreviated; St\nPaul writes \"upon _the earth_\" in place of \"the good land which the Lord\nthy God giveth thee.\" This blessing is the heritage of dutiful children\nin every land. Those who have watched the history of godly families of\ntheir acquaintance, will have seen the promise verified. The obedience\nof childhood and youth rendered to a wise Christian rule, forms in the\nyoung nature the habits of self-control and self-respect, of diligence\nand promptitude and faithfulness and kindliness of heart, which are the\nbest guarantees for happiness and success in life. Through parental\nnurture \"godliness\" secures its \"promise of the life that now is.\"\n\nChildren are exhorted to submission: fathers to _gentleness_. \"Do not,\"\nthe apostle says, \"anger your children\"; in the corresponding place in\nColossians, \"Do not irritate your children, lest they be disheartened\"\n(ch. iii. 21). In these parallel texts two distinct verbs are rendered\nby the one English word \"provoke.\" The Colossian passage warns against\nthe chafing effect of parental exactions and fretfulness, that tend to\nbreak the child's spirit and spoil its temper. Our text warns the father\nagainst angering his child by unfair or oppressive treatment. From this\nverb comes the noun \"wrath\" (or \"provocation\") used in chapter iv. 26,\ndenoting that stirring of anger which gives peculiar occasion to the\ndevil.\n\nNot that the father is forbidden to cross his child's wishes, or to do\nanything or refuse anything that may excite its anger. Nothing is worse\nfor a child than to find that parents fear its displeasure, and that it\nwill gain its ends by passion. But the father must not be exasperating,\nmust not needlessly thwart the child's inclinations and excite in order\nto subdue its anger, as some will do even of set purpose, thinking that\nin this way obedience is learnt. This policy may secure submission; but\nit is gained at the cost of a rankling sense of injustice.\n\nHousehold rule should be equally firm and kind, neither provoking nor\navoiding the displeasure of its subjects, inflicting no severity for\nseverity's sake, but shrinking from none that fidelity demands. With\nmuch parental fondness, there is sometimes in family government a want\nof seriousness and steady principle, an absence in father or mother of\nthe sense that they are dealing with moral and responsible beings in\ntheir little ones, and not with toys, which is reflected in the caprice\nand self-indulgence of the children's maturer life. Such parents will\ngive account hereafter of their stewardship with an inconsolable grief.\n\nIt is almost superfluous to insist on the apostle's exhortation to treat\nchildren kindly. For them these are days of Paradise, compared with\ntimes not far distant. Never were the wants and the fancies of these\nsmall mortals catered for as they are now. In some households the danger\nlies at the opposite extreme from that of over-strictness. The children\nare idolized. Not their comfort and welfare only, but their humours and\ncaprices become the law of the house. They are \"nourished\" indeed, but\nnot \"in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.\" It is a great\nunkindness to treat our children so that they shall be strangers to\nhardship and restriction, so that they shall not know what real\nobedience means, and have no reverence for age, no habits of deference\nand self-denial. It is the way to breed monsters of selfishness,\npampered creatures who will be useless and miserable in adult life.\n\n\"Discipline and admonition\" are distinguished as positive and negative\nterms. The first is the \"training up of the child in the way that he\nshould go\"; the second checks and holds him back from the ways in which\nhe should not go. The former word (_paideia_)--denoting primarily\n_treating-as-a-boy_--signifies very often \"chastisement\";[149] but it\nhas a wider sense, embracing instruction besides.[150] It includes the\nwhole course of training by which the boy is reared into a\nman.--_Admonition_ is a still more familiar word with St Paul.[151] It\nmay be reproof bearing upon errors in the past; or it may be warning,\nthat points out dangers lying in the future. Both these services parents\nowe to their children. Admonition implies faults in the nature of the\nchild, and wisdom in the father to see and correct them.\n\n\"Foolishness,\" says the Hebrew proverb, \"is bound up in the heart of a\nchild.\" In the Old Testament discipline there was something over-stern.\nThe \"hardness of heart\" censured by the Lord Jesus, which allowed of two\nmothers in the house, put barriers between the father and his offspring\nthat rendered \"the rod of correction\" more needful than it is under the\nrule of Christ. But correction, in gentler or severer sort, there must\nbe, so long as children spring from sinful parents. The child's\nconscience responds to the kindly and searching word of reproof, to the\nadmonition of love. This faithful dealing with his children wins for the\nfather in the end a deep gratitude, and makes his memory a guard in\ndays of temptation and an object of tender reverence.\n\nThe child's \"obedience _in the Lord_\" is its response to \"the discipline\nand admonition _of the Lord_\" exercised by its parents. The discipline\nwhich wise Christian fathers give their children, is the Lord's\ndiscipline applied through them. \"Correction and instruction should\nproceed from the Lord and be directed by the Spirit of the Lord, in such\na way that it is not so much the father who corrects his children and\nteaches them, as the Lord through him\" (Monod). Thus the Father of whom\nevery family on earth is named, within each Christian house works all in\nall. Thus the chief Shepherd, through His under-shepherds, guides and\nfeeds the lambs of His flock. By the gate of His fold fathers and\nmothers themselves have entered; and the little ones follow with them.\nIn the pastures of His word they nourish them, and rule them with His\nrod and staff. To their offspring they become an image of the Good\nShepherd and the Father in heaven. Their office teaches them more of\nGod's fatherly ways with themselves. From their children's humbleness\nand confidence, from their simple wisdom, their hopes and fears and\nignorances, the elders learn deep and affecting lessons concerning their\nown relations to the heavenly Father.\n\nSt Paul's instruction to fathers applies to all who have the charge of\nchildren: to schoolmasters of every degree, whose work, secular as it\nmay be called, touches the springs of moral life and character; to\nteachers in the Sunday school, successors to the work that Christ\nassigned to Peter, of shepherding His lambs. These instructors supply\nthe Lord's nurture to multitudes of children, in whose homes Christian\nfaith and example are wanting. The ideas which children form of Christ\nand His religion, are gathered from what they see and hear in the\nschool. Many a child receives its bias for life from the influence of\nthe teacher before whom it sits on Sunday. The love and meekness of\nwisdom, or the coldness or carelessness of the one who thus stands\nbetween Christ and the infant soul, will make or mar its spiritual\nfuture.\n\nII. From the children of the house the apostle proceeds to address the\n_servants_--slaves as they were, until the gospel unbound their chains.\nThe juxtaposition of children and slaves is full of significance; it is\na tacit prophecy of emancipation. It brings the slave within the\nhousehold, and gives a new dignity to domestic service.[152]\n\nThe Greek philosophers regarded slavery as a fundamental institution,\nindispensable to the existence of civilized society. That the few might\nenjoy freedom and culture, the many were doomed to bondage. Aristotle\ndefines the slave as an \"animated tool,\" and the tool as an \"inanimate\nslave.\" Two or three facts will suffice to show how utterly slaves were\ndeprived of human rights in the brilliant times of the classic humanism.\nIn Athens it was the legal rule to admit the evidence of a slave only\nupon torture, as that of a freeman was received upon oath. Amongst the\nRomans, if a master had been murdered in his house, the whole of his\ndomestic servants, amounting sometimes to hundreds, were put to death\nwithout inquiry. It was a common mark of hospitality to assign to a\nguest a female slave for the night, like any other convenience. Let it\nbe remembered that the slave population outnumbered the free citizens of\nthe Roman and Greek cities by many times; that they were frequently of\nthe same race, and might be even superior in education to their masters.\nIndeed, it was a lucrative trade to rear young slaves and train them in\nliterary and other accomplishments, and then to let them out in these\ncapacities for hire. Let any one consider the condition of society which\nall this involved, and he will have some conception of the degradation\nin which the masses of mankind were plunged, and of the crushing tyranny\nthat the world laboured under in the boasted days of republican liberty\nand Hellenic art.\n\nNo wonder that the new religion was welcome to the slaves of the Pagan\ncities, and that they flocked into the Church. Welcome to them was the\nvoice that said: \"Come unto me, all ye that are burdened and heavy\nladen\"; welcome the proclamation that made them Christ's freedmen,\n\"brethren beloved\" where they had been \"animated tools\" (Philem. 16). In\nthe light of such teaching, slavery was doomed. Its re-adoption by\nChristian nations, and the imposition of its yoke on the negro race, is\namongst the great crimes of history,--a crime for which the white man\nhas had to pay rivers of his blood.\n\nThe social fabric, as it then existed, was so entirely based upon\nslavery, that for Christ and the apostles to have proclaimed its\nabolition would have meant universal anarchy. In writing to Philemon\nabout his converted slave Onesimus, the apostle does not say, \"Release\nhim,\" though the word seems to be trembling on his lips. In 1\nCorinthians vii. 20-24 he even advises the slave who has the chance of\nmanumission to remain where he is, content to be \"the Lord's freedman.\"\nTo the Christian slave what mattered it who ruled over his perishing\nbody! his spirit was free, death would be his discharge and\nenfranchisement. No decree is issued to abolish bond-service between man\nand man; but it was destroyed in its essence by the spirit of Christian\nbrotherhood. It melted away in the spread of the gospel, as snow and\nwinter melt before the face of spring.\n\n\"Ye slaves, obey your lords according to the flesh.\" The apostle does\nnot disguise the slave's subservience; nor does he speak in the language\nof pity or of condescension. He appeals as a man to men and equals, on\nthe ground of a common faith and service to Christ. He awakens in these\ndegraded tools of society the sense of spiritual manhood, of conscience\nand loyalty, of love and faith and hope. As in Colossians iii. 22-iv. 1,\nthe apostle designates the earthly master not by his common title\n(_despotes_), but by the very word (_kyrios_) that is the title of the\n_Lord_ Christ, giving the slave in this way to understand that he has,\nin common with his master (ver. 9), a higher Lord in the spirit. \"Ye are\nslaves to the Lord Christ!\" (Col. iii. 24). St Paul is accustomed to\ncall himself \"a slave of Christ Jesus.\"[153] Nay, it is even said, in\nPhilippians ii. 7, that Christ Jesus \"took the form of a slave!\"\n\nHow much there was, then, to console the Christian bondman for his lot.\nIn self-abnegation, in the willing forfeiture of personal rights, in his\nmenial and unrequited tasks, in submission to insult and injustice, he\nfound a holy joy. His was a path in which he might closely follow the\nsteps of the great Servant of mankind. His position enabled him to\n\"adorn the Saviour's doctrine\" above other men (Tit. ii. 9, 10).\nAffectionate, gentle, bearing injury with joyful courage, the Christian\nslave held up to that hardened and jaded Pagan age the example which it\nmost required. God chose the base things of the world to bring to nought\nthe mighty.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe relations of servant and master will endure, in one shape or other,\nwhile the world stands. And the apostle's injunctions bear upon servants\nof every order. We are all, in our various capacities, servants of the\ncommunity. The moral worth of our service and its blessing to ourselves\ndepend on the conditions that are here laid down.\n\n1. There must be _a genuine care for our work_.\n\n\"Obey,\" he says, \"with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart,\nas unto the Christ.\" The fear enjoined is no dread of human displeasure,\nof the master's whip or tongue. It is the same \"fear and trembling\" with\nwhich we are bidden to \"work out our own salvation\" (Phil. ii. 12). The\ninward work of the soul's salvation and the outward work of the busy\nhands labouring in the mine or at the loom, or in the lowliest domestic\nduties,--all alike are to be performed under a solemn responsibility to\nGod and in the presence of Christ, the Lord of nature and of men, who\nunderstands every sort of work, and will render to each of His servants\na just and exact reward. No man, whether he be minister of state or\nstable-groom, will dare to do heedless work, who lives and acts in that\naugust Presence,--\n\n \"As ever in the great Task-master's eye.\"\n\n2. The sense of Christ's Lordship ensures _honesty in work_.\n\nSo the apostle continues: \"Not with _eye-service_, as _men-pleasers_.\"\nBoth these are rare compound words,--the former indeed occurring only\nhere and in the companion letter, being coined, probably, by the writer\nfor this use. It is the common fault and temptation of servants in all\ndegrees to observe the master's eye, and to work busily or slackly as\nthey are watched or not. Such workmen act as they do, because they look\nto men and not to God. Their work is without conscience and\nself-respect. The visible master says \"Well done!\" But there is another\nMaster looking on, who says \"Ill done!\" to all pretentious doings and\nworks of eye-service,--who sees not as man sees, but judges with the act\nthe motive and intent.\n\n \"Not on the vulgar mass\n Called 'work' must sentence pass,\n Things done, which took the eye and had the price.\"\n\nIn His book of accounts there is a stern reckoning in store for\ndeceitful dealers and the makers-up of unsound goods, in whatever\nhandicraft or headcraft they are engaged.\n\nLet us all adopt St Paul's maxim; it will be an immense economy. What\narmies of overlookers and inspectors we shall be able to dismiss, when\nevery servant works as well behind his master's back as to his face,\nwhen every manufacturer and shopkeeper puts himself in the purchaser's\nplace and deals as he would have others deal with him. It was for the\nChristian slaves of the Greek trading cities to rebuke the Greek spirit\nof fraud and trickery, by which the common dealings of life in all\ndirections were vitiated.\n\n3. To the carefulness and honesty of the slave's daily labour he must\neven add _heartiness_: \"as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from\nthe soul, with good will doing service, as to the Lord and not to men.\"\n\nThey must do _the will of God_ in the service of men, as Jesus Christ\nHimself did it,--and with His meekness and fortitude and unwearied love.\nTheir work will thus be rendered from inner principle, with thought and\naffection and resolution spent upon it. That alone is the work of a man,\nwhether he preaches or ploughs, which comes from the soul behind the\nhands and the tongue, into which the workman puts as much of his soul,\nof himself, as the work is capable of holding.\n\n4. Add to all this, the servant's _anticipation of the final reward_. In\neach case, \"whatsoever one may do that is good, this he will receive\nfrom the Lord, whether he be a bondman or a freeman.\" The complementary\ntruth is given in the Colossian letter: \"He who does wrong, will receive\nback the wrong that he did.\"\n\nThe doctrine of equal retribution at the judgement-seat of Christ\nmatches that of equal salvation at the cross of Christ. How trifling and\nevanescent the differences of earthly rank appear, in view of these\nsublime realities. There is a \"Lord in heaven,\" alike for servant and\nfor master, \"with whom is no respect of persons\" (ver. 9). This grand\nconviction beats down all caste-pride. It teaches justice to the mighty\nand the proud; it exalts the humble, and assures the down-trodden of\nredress. No bribery or privilege, no sophistry or legal cunning will\navail, no concealment or distortion of the facts will be possible in\nthat Court of final appeal. The servant and the master, the monarch and\nhis meanest subject will stand before the bar of Jesus Christ upon the\nsame footing. And the poor slave, wonderful to think, who was faithful\nin the \"few things\" of his drudging earthly lot, will receive the \"many\nthings\" of a son of God and a joint-heir with Christ!\n\n * * * * *\n\n\"_And_, _ye lords_, do the same things towards them\"--be as good to your\nslaves as they are required to be towards you. A bold application this\nof Christ's great rule: \"What you would that men should do to you, do\neven so to them.\" In many instances this rule suggested _liberation_,\nwhere the slave was prepared for freedom. In any case, the master is to\nput himself in his dependant's place, and to act by him as he would\ndesire himself to be treated if their positions were reversed.\n\nSlaves were held to be scarcely human. Deceit and sensuality were\nregarded as their chief characteristics. They must be ruled, the\nmoralists said, by the fear of punishment. This was the only way to keep\nthem in their place. The Christian master adopts a different policy. He\n\"desists from threatening\"; he treats his servants with even-handed\njustice, with fit courtesy and consideration. The recollection is ever\npresent to his mind, that he must give account of his charge over each\none of them to his Lord and theirs. So he will make, as far as in him\nlies, his own domain an image of the kingdom of Christ.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[148] We cannot absolutely _prove_ infant baptism from the New Testament\ntexts adduced on its behalf; but they afford a strong presumption in its\nfavour, which is confirmed on the one hand by the analogy of\ncircumcision, and on the other by the immemorial usage of the early\nChurch. Titus i. 6 shows that stress was laid on the faith of children,\nand that discrimination was used in their recognition as Church members.\n\n[149] 1 Cor. xi. 32; Heb. xii. 5, 11, etc.\n\n[150] Acts vii. 22, xxii. 3; Rom. ii. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 25, iii. 14.\n\n[151] 1 Cor. x. 11; Col. i. 28, iii. 16; 1 Thess. v. 14, etc.\n\n[152] The word _family_ (Latin _familia_) denoted originally the\nservants of the establishment, the domestic slaves. Its modern usage is\nan index to the elevating influence of Christianity upon social\nrelations.\n\n[153] Rom. i. 1; 2 Cor. iv. 5; Gal. i. 10, etc.\n\n\n\n\n_ON THE APPROACHING CONFLICT._\n\nCHAPTER vi. 10-20.\n\n =Idou ho Satanas ex\u00eat\u00easato hymas, tou siniasai h\u00f4s to siton.=\n\n LUKE xxii. 31.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n_THE FOES OF THE CHURCH._\n\n \"From henceforth be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His\n strength. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to\n stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not\n against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the\n powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the\n spiritual _hosts_ of wickedness, in the heavenly _places_.\"--EPH.\n vi. 10-12.\n\n\nWe follow the Revised reading of the opening word of this paragraph, and\nthe preferable rendering given by the Revisers in their margin. The\nadverb is the same that is found in Galatians vi. 17 (\"_Henceforth_ let\nno man trouble me\"); not that used in Philippians iii. 1 and elsewhere\n(\"_Finally_, my brethren,\" etc.). The copyists have conformed our text,\nseemingly, to the latter passage. We are recalled to the circumstances\nand occasion of the epistle. High as St Paul soars in meditation, he\ndoes not forget the situation of his readers. The words of chapter iv.\n14 showed us how well aware he is of the dangers looming before the\nAsian Churches.\n\nThe epistle to the Colossians is altogether a letter of conflict (see\nch. ii. 1 ff.). In writing that letter St Paul was wrestling with\nspiritual powers, mighty for evil, which had commenced their attack upon\nthis outlying post of the Ephesian province. He sees in the sky the\ncloud portending a desolating storm. The clash of hostile arms is heard\napproaching. This is no time for sloth or fear, for a faith half-hearted\nor half-equipped. \"You have need of your best manhood and of all the\nweapons of the spiritual armoury, to hold your ground in the conflict\nthat is coming upon you. _Henceforth be strong in the Lord, and in the\nmight of His strength._\"\n\nIt is the apostle's call to arms!--\"Be strengthened in the Lord,\" he\nsays (to render the imperative literally: so in 2 Timothy ii. I). _Make\nHis strength your own._ The strength he bids them assume is _power_,\n_ability_, strength adequate to its end.[154] \"The might of His\nstrength\" repeats the combination of terms we found in chapter i. 19.\nThat sovereign power of the Almighty which raised Jesus our Lord from\nthe dead, belongs to the Lord Christ Himself. From its resources He will\nclothe and arm His people. \"In the Lord,\" says Israel evermore, \"is\nrighteousness and strength. The rock of my salvation and my refuge is in\nGod.\" The Church's strength lies in the almightiness of her risen Lord,\nthe Captain of her warfare.\n\n\"The _panoply_ of God\" (ver. II) reminds us of the saying of Jesus in\nreference to His casting out of demons, recorded in Luke xi. 21, 22--the\nonly other instance in the New Testament of this somewhat rare Greek\nword. The Lord Jesus describes Himself in conflict with Satan, who as\n\"the strong one armed keeps his possessions in peace,\"--until there\n\"come upon him the stronger than he,\" who \"conquers him and takes away\nhis panoply wherein he trusted, and divides his spoils.\" In this text\nthe situation is reversed; and the \"full armour\" belongs to Christ's\nservants, who are equipped to meet the counter-attack of Satan and the\npowers of evil. There is a Divine and a Satanic panoply--arms tempered\nin heaven and in hell, to be wielded by the sons of light and of\ndarkness respectively (comp. Rom. xiii. 12). The weapons of warfare on\nthe two sides are even as the two leaders that furnish them--\"the strong\none armed\" and the \"Stronger than he.\" Mightier are faith and love than\nunbelief and hate; \"greater is He that is in you than he that is in the\nworld.\"\n\nLet us review the forces marshalled against us,--their _nature_, their\n_mode of assault_, and _the arena of the contest_.\n\n1. The Asian Christians had to \"stand against _the wiles_ [_schemes_, or\n_methods_[155]] _of the devil_.\"\n\nUnquestionably, the New Testament assumes the personality of Satan. This\nbelief runs counter to modern thought, governed as it is by the tendency\nto depersonalize existence. The conception of evil spirits given us in\nthe Bible is treated as an obsolete superstition; and the name of the\nEvil One with multitudes serves only to point a profane or careless\njest. To Jesus Christ, it is very certain, Satan was no figure of\nspeech; but a thinking and active being, of whose presence and influence\nHe saw tokens everywhere in this evil world (comp. ii. 2). If the Lord\nJesus \"speaks what He knows, and testifies what He has seen\" concerning\nthe mysteries of the other world, there can be no question of the\nexistence of a personal devil. If in any matter He was bound, as a\nteacher of spiritual truth, to disavow Jewish superstition, surely\nChrist was so bound in this matter. Yet instead of repudiating the\ncurrent belief in Satan and the demons, He earnestly accepts it; and it\nentered into His own deepest experiences. In the visible forms of sin\nJesus saw the shadow of His great antagonist. \"From the Evil One\" He\ntaught His disciples to pray that they might be delivered. The victims\nof disease and madness whom He healed, were so many captives rescued\nfrom the malignant power of Satan. And when Jesus went to meet His\ndeath, He viewed it as the supreme conflict with the usurper and\noppressor who claimed to be \"the prince of this world.\"[156]\n\nSatan is the consummate form of depraved and untruthful intellect. We\nread of his \"thoughts,\" his \"schemes,\" his subtlety and deceit and\nimpostures;[157] of his slanders against God and man,[158] from which,\nindeed, the name devil (_diabolus_) is given him. Falsehood and hatred\nare his chief qualities. Hence Jesus called him \"the manslayer\" and \"the\nfather of falsehood\" (John viii. 44). He was the first sinner, and the\nfountain of sin (1 John iii. 8). All who do unrighteousness or hate\ntheir brethren are, so far, his offspring (1 John iii. 10). With a realm\nso wide, Satan might well be called not only \"the prince,\" but the very\n\"god of this world\" (2 Cor. iv. 4). Plausibly he said to Jesus, in\nshowing Him the kingdoms of the world, at the time when Tiberius Caesar\noccupied the imperial throne: \"All this authority and glory are\ndelivered unto me. To whomsoever I will, I give it.\" His power is\nexercised with an intelligence perhaps as great as any can be that is\nmorally corrupt; but it is limited on all sides. In dealing with Jesus\nChrist he showed conspicuous ignorance.\n\nChief amongst the wiles of the devil at this time was the \"scheme of\nerror,\" the cunningly woven net of the Gnostical delusion, in which the\napostle feared that the Asian Churches would be entangled. Satan's\nempire is ruled with a settled policy, and his warfare carried on with a\nsystem of strategy which takes advantage of every opening for\nattack.[159] The manifold combinations of error, the various arts of\nseduction and temptation, the ten thousand forms of the deceit of\nunrighteousness constitute \"the wiles of the devil.\"\n\nSuch is the gigantic opponent with whom Christ and the Church have been\nin conflict through all ages. But Satan does not stand alone. In verse\n12 there is called up before us an imposing array of spiritual powers.\nThey are \"the angels of the devil,\" whom Jesus set in contrast with the\nangels of God that surround and serve the Son of man (Matt. xxv. 41).\nThese unhappy beings are, again, identified with the \"demons,\" or\n\"unclean spirits,\" having Satan for their \"prince,\" whom our Lord\nexpelled wherever He found them infesting the bodies of men.[160] They\nare represented in the New Testament as fallen beings, expelled from a\n\"principality\" and \"habitation of their own\" (Jude 6) which they once\nenjoyed, and reserved for the dreadful punishment which Christ calls\n\"the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.\" They are here\nentitled _principalities_ and _powers_ (or _dominions_), after the same\nstyle as the angels of God, to whose ranks, as we are almost compelled\nto suppose, these apostates once belonged.\n\nIn contrast with the \"angels of light\" (2 Cor. xi. 14) and \"ministering\nspirits\" of the kingdom of God (Heb. i. 14), the angels of Satan have\nconstituted themselves _the world-rulers of this darkness_. We find the\ncompound expression _cosmo-krator_ (world-ruler) in later rabbinical\nusage, borrowed from the Greek and applied to \"the angel of death,\"\nbefore whom all mortal things must bow. Possibly, St Paul brought the\nterm with him from the school of Gamaliel. Satan being the god of this\nworld and swaying \"the dominion of darkness,\"[161] according to the same\nvocabulary his angels are \"the rulers of the world's darkness\"; and the\nprovinces of the empire of evil fall under their direction.\n\nThe darkness surrounding the apostle in Rome and the Churches in\nAsia--\"this darkness,\" he says--was dense and foul. With Nero and his\nsatellites the masters of empire, the world seemed to be ruled by demons\nrather than by men. The frightful wish of one of the Psalmists was\nfulfilled for the heathen world: \"Set a wicked man over him, and let\nSatan stand at his right hand.\"\n\nThe last of St Paul's synonyms for the satanic forces, \"the spiritual\n[powers] of wickedness,\" may have served to warn the Church against\nreading a political sense into the passage and regarding the civil\nconstitution of society and the visible world-rulers as objects for\ntheir hatred. Pilate was a specimen, by no means amongst the worst, of\nthe men in power. Jesus regarded him with pity. His real antagonist\nlurked behind these human instruments. The above phrase, \"spirituals of\nwickedness,\" is Hebraistic, like \"judge\" and \"steward of\nunrighteousness,\"[162] and is equivalent to \"wicked spirits.\" The\nadjective \"spiritual,\" which does duty for a substantive--\"the\nspiritual [forces, or elements] of wickedness\"[163]--brings out the\ncollective character of these hostile powers.\n\nSt Paul's demonology[164] is identical with that of Jesus Christ. The\ntwo doctrines stand or fall together. The advent of Christ appears to\nhave stirred to extraordinary activity the satanic powers. They asserted\nthemselves in Palestine at this particular time in the most open and\nterrifying manner. In an age of scepticism and science like our own, it\nbelongs to \"the wiles of the devil\" to work obscurely. This is dictated\nby obvious policy. Moreover, his power is greatly reduced. Satan is no\nlonger the god of this world, since Christianity rose to its ascendant.\nThe manifestations of demonism are, at least in Christian lands, vastly\nless conspicuous than in the first age of the Church. But those are more\nbold than wise who deny their existence, and who profess to explain all\noccult phenomena and phrenetic moral aberrations by physical causes. The\npopular idolatries of his own day, with their horrible rites and inhuman\norgies, St Paul ascribed to devilry. He declared that those who sat at\nthe feast of the idol and gave sanction to its worship, were partaking\nof \"the cup and the table of demons\" (1 Cor. x. 20, 21). Heathen\nidolatries at the present time are, in many instances, equally\ndiabolical; and those who witness them cannot easily doubt the truth of\nthe representations of Scripture upon this subject.\n\nII. The conflict against these spiritual enemies is essentially a\n_spiritual_ conflict. \"Our struggle is not against blood and flesh.\"\n\nThey are not human antagonists whom the Church has to fear,--mortal men\nwhom we can look in the face and meet with equal courage, in the contest\nwhere hot blood and straining muscle do their part. The fight needs\nmettle of another kind. The foes of our faith are untouched by carnal\nweapons. They come upon us without sound or footfall. They assail the\nwill and conscience; they follow us into the regions of spiritual\nthought, of prayer and meditation. Hence the weapons of our warfare,\nlike those which the apostle wielded (2 Cor. x. 2-5), \"are not carnal,\"\nbut spiritual and \"mighty toward God.\"\n\nIt is true that the Asian Churches had visible enemies arrayed against\nthem. There were the \"wild beasts\" with whom St Paul \"fought at\nEphesus,\" the heathen mob of the city, sworn foes of every despiser of\ntheir great goddess Artemis. There was Alexander the coppersmith, ready\nto do the apostle evil, and \"the Jews from Asia,\" a party of whom all\nbut murdered him in Jerusalem (Acts xxi. 27-36); there was Demetrius the\nsilversmith, instigator of the tumult which drove him from Ephesus, and\n\"the craftsmen of like occupation,\" whose trade was damaged by the\nprogress of the new religion. These were formidable opponents, strong in\neverything that brings terror to flesh and blood. But after all, these\nwere of small account in St Paul's view; and the Church need never\ndread material antagonism. The centre of the struggle lies elsewhere.\nThe apostle looks beyond the ranks of his earthly foes to the power of\nSatan by which they are animated and directed,--\"impotent pieces of the\ngame he plays.\" From this hidden region he sees impending an attack more\nperilous than all the violence of persecution, a conflict urged with\nweapons of finer proof than the sharp steel of sword and axe, and with\ndarts tipped with a fiercer fire than that which burns the flesh or\ndevours the goods.\n\nEven in outward struggles against worldly power, our wrestling is not\nsimply against blood and flesh. Calvin makes a bold application of the\npassage when he says: \"This sentence we should remember so often as we\nare tempted to revengefulness, under the smart of injuries from men. For\nwhen nature prompts us to fling ourselves upon them with all our might,\nthis unreasonable passion will be checked and reined in suddenly, when\nwe consider that these men who trouble us are nothing more than darts\ncast by the hand of Satan; and that while we stoop to pick up these, we\nshall expose ourselves to the full force of his blows.\" _Vasa sunt_,\nsays Augustine of human troublers, _alius utitur_; _organa sunt, alius\ntangit_.\n\nThe crucial assaults of evil, in many instances, come in no outward and\npalpable guise. There are sinister influences that affect the spirit\nmore directly, fires that search its inmost fibres, a darkness that\nsweeps down upon the very light that is in us threatening its\nextinction. \"Doubts, the spectres of the mind,\" haunt it; clouds brood\nover the interior sky and fierce storms sweep down on the soul, that\nrise from beyond the seen horizon. \"Jesus was led of the Spirit into the\nwilderness, to be tempted of the devil.\" Away from the tracks of men\nand the seductions of flesh and blood the choicest spirits have been\ntested and schooled. So they are tempered in the spiritual furnace to a\nfineness which turns the edge of the sharpest weapons the world may use\nagainst them.\n\nSome men are constitutionally more exposed than others to these interior\nassaults. There are conditions of the brain and nerves, tendencies lying\ndeep in the organism, that give points of vantage to the enemy of souls.\nThese are the opportunities of the tempter; they do not constitute the\ntemptation itself, which comes from a hidden and objective source.\nSimilarly in the trials of the Church, in the great assaults made upon\nher vital truths, historical conditions and the external movements of\nthe age furnish the material for the conflicts through which it has to\npass; but the spring and moving agent, the master will that dominates\nthese hostile forces is that of Satan.\n\nThe Church was engaged in a double conflict--of the flesh and of the\nspirit. On the one hand, it was assailed by the material seductions of\nheathenism and the terrors of ruthless persecution. On the other hand,\nit underwent a severe intellectual conflict with the systems of error\nthat were rooted in the mind of the age. These forces opposed the\nChristian truth from without; but they became much more dangerous when\nthey found their way within the Church, vitiating her teaching and\npractice, and growing like tares among the wheat. It is of heresy more\nthan persecution that the apostle is thinking, when he writes these\nominous words. Not blood and flesh, but the mind and spirit of the Asian\nbelievers will bear the brunt of the attack that the craft of the devil\nis preparing for the apostolic Church.\n\nIII. The last clause of verse 12, _in the heavenly places_, refuses to\ncombine with the above description of the powers hostile to the Church.\nThe heavenly places are the abode of God and the blessed angels. This is\nthe region where the Father has blessed us in Christ (i. 3); where He\nseated the Christ at His own right hand (i. 20), and has in some sense\nseated us with Christ (ii. 6); and where the angelic princedoms dwell\nwho follow with keen and studious sympathy the Church's fortunes (iii.\n10). To locate the devil and his angels _there_ seems to us highly\nincongruous; the juxtaposition is out of the question with St Paul.\nChapter ii. 2 gives no real support to this view: supposing \"the air\" to\nbe literally intended in that passage, it belongs to _earth_ and not to\nheaven.[165] Nor do the parallels from other Scriptures adduced supply\nany but the most precarious basis for an interpretation against which\nthe use of the exalted phrase in our epistle revolts.\n\nNo; Satan and his hosts do not dwell with Christ and the holy angels \"in\nthe heavenly places.\" But the Church dwells there already, by her faith;\nand it is in the heavenly places of her faith and hope that she is\nassailed by the powers of hell. This final prepositional clause should\nbe separated by a comma from the words immediately foregoing; it forms a\ndistinct predicate to the sentence contained in verse 12. It specifies\nthe _locality_ of the struggle; it marks out the battle-field. \"Our\nwrestling is ... in the heavenly places.\"[166] So we construe the\nsentence, following the ancient Greek commentators.\n\nThe life of the Church \"is hid with the Christ in God\"; her treasure is\nlaid up in heaven. She is assailed by a philosophy and vain deceit that\nperverts her highest doctrines, that clouds her vision of Christ and\nlimits His glory, and threatens to drag her down from the high places\nwhere she sits with her ascended Lord.[167] Such was, in effect, the aim\nof the Colossian heresy, and of the great Gnostical movement to which\nthis speculation was a prelude, that for a century and more entangled\nChristian faith in its metaphysical subtleties and false mysticism. The\nepistles to the Colossians and Ephesians strike the leading note of the\ncontroversies of the Church in this region during its first ages. Their\ncharacter was thoroughly transcendental. \"The heavenly things\" were the\nsubject-matter of the great conflicts of this epoch.\n\nThe questions of religious controversy characteristic of our own times,\nthough not identical with those of Colossae or Ephesus, concern matters\nequally high and vital. It is not this or that doctrine that is now at\nstake--the nature or extent of the atonement, the procession of the Holy\nSpirit from the Son with the Father, the verbal or plenary inspiration\nof Scripture; but the personal being of God, the historical truth of\nChristianity, the reality of the supernatural,--these and the like\nquestions, which formed the accepted basis and the common assumptions of\nformer theological discussions, are now brought into dispute. Religion\nhas to justify its very existence. Christianity must answer for its\nlife, as at the beginning. God is denied. Worship is openly renounced.\nOur treasures in heaven are proclaimed to be worthless and illusive.\nThe entire spiritual and celestial order of things is relegated to the\nregion of obsolete fable and fairy tales. The difficulties of modern\nreligious thought lie at the foundation of things, and touch the core of\nthe spiritual life. Unbelief appears, in some quarters, to be more\nserious and earnest than faith. While we quarrel over rubrics and\nritual, thoughtful men are despairing of God and immortality. The\nChurches are engaged in trivial contentions with each other, while the\nenemy pushes his way through our broken ranks to seize the citadel.\n\n\"The apostle incites the readers,\" says Chrysostom, \"by the thought of\nthe prize at stake. When he has said that our enemies are powerful, he\nadds thereto that these are great possessions which they seek to wrest\nfrom us. When he says _in the heavenly places_, this implies _for the\nheavenly things_. How it must rouse and sober us to know that the hazard\nis for great things, and great will be the prize of victory. Our foe\nstrives to take _heaven_ from us.\" Let the Church be stripped of all her\ntemporalities, and driven naked as at first into the wilderness. She\ncarries with her the crown jewels; and her treasure is unimpaired, so\nlong as faith in Christ and the hope of heaven remain firm in her heart.\nBut let these be lost; let heaven and the Father in heaven fade with our\nchildhood's dreams; let Christ go back to His grave--then we are utterly\nundone. We have lost our all in all!\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[154] =Endynamousthe= [from =dynamis=] =en Kyri\u00f4 kai en t\u00f4 kratei t\u00eas\nischyos autou.= See the note on these synonyms, on p. 76. Comp., for\nthis verb, Col. i. II; 2 Tim. iv. 17; Phil. iv. 13: =Panta ischy\u00f4 en t\u00f4\nendynamounti me=,--\"I have strength for everything in Him that _enables_\nme.\"]\n\n[155] Comp. remark on =methodeia= (iv. 14), p. 247.\n\n[156] John xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11: comp. Luke iv. 5-7; Heb. ii. 14.\n\n[157] 2 Cor. ii. 11, xi. 3; 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10; 2 Tim. ii. 26, etc.\n\n[158] Rev. xii, 7-10; Gen. iii. 4, 5; Zech. iii. 1; Job i.\n\n[159] Ch. iv. 27; 2 Cor. ii. 11; Luke xxii. 31.\n\n[160] Luke x. 17-20, xi. 14-26.\n\n[161] Col. i. 13: comp. Acts xxvi. 18, etc.\n\n[162] Luke xvi. 8, xviii. 6.\n\n[163] =Ta pneumatika t\u00eas pon\u00earias.=\n\n[164] Mr. Moule aptly observes, in his excellent and most useful\nCommentary on Ephesians in the _Cambridge Bible for Schools and\nColleges_: St Paul's \"testimony to the real and objective existence\" of\nevil spirits \"gains in strength when it is remembered that the epistle\nwas addressed (at least, among other designations) to Ephesus, and that\nEphesus (see Acts xix.) was a peculiarly active scene of asserted\nmagical and other dealings with the unseen darkness. Supposing that the\nright line to take in dealing with such beliefs and practices had been\nto say that the whole basis of them was a fiction of the human mind, not\nonly would such a verse as this [vi. 12] not have been written, but, we\nmay well assume, something would have been written strongly\ncontradictory to the thought of it\" (p. 176).\n\n[165] See p. 103.\n\n[166] The objection against the common rendering taken from the absence\nof the Greek article (=ta=) before the phrase =en tois epouraniois=,\nrequired to link it to =ta pneumatika t\u00eas pon\u00earias=, is not decisive.\n\n[167] Col. ii. 8-10, iii. 1-4; Phil. iii. 20, 21: comp. Eph. i. 3, ii.\n6, 18, iv. 10, 15; Heb. vi. 19, 20, etc.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX.\n\n_THE DIVINE PANOPLY._\n\n \"Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to\n withstand in the evil day, and, having conquered all, to stand.\n Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put\n on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with\n the readiness of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of\n faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of\n the evil _one_. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of\n the Spirit, which is the word of God: with all prayer and\n supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching\n thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the\n saints.\"--EPH. vi. 13-18.\n\n\n_Stand_ is the watchword for this battle, the apostle's order of the\nday: \"that you may be able to _stand_ against the stratagems of the\ndevil, ... that you may be able to _withstand_ in the evil day, and\nmastering all your enemies[168] to _stand_.... _Stand_ therefore,\ngirding your loins about with truth.\" The apostle is fond of this\nmartial style, and such appeals are frequent in the letters of this\nperiod.[169] The Gentile believers are raised to the heavenly places of\nfellowship with Christ, and invested with the lofty character of sons\nand heirs of God: let them hold their ground; let them maintain the\nhonour of their calling and the wealth of their high estate, standing\nfast in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. _Pro aris et focis_ the\npatriot draws his sword, and manfully repels the invader. Even so the\ngood soldier of Christ Jesus contends for his heavenly city and the\nhousehold of faith. He defends the dearest interests and hopes of human\nlife.\n\nThis defence is needed, for an \"evil day\" is at hand! This emphatic\nreference points to something more definite than the general day of\ntemptation that is co-extensive with our earthly life. St Paul foresaw a\ncrisis of extreme danger impending over the young Church of Christ. The\nprophecies of Jesus taught His disciples, from the first, that His\nkingdom could only prevail by means of a severe conflict, and that some\ndesperate struggle would precede the final Messianic triumph. This\nprospect looms before the minds of the New Testament writers, as \"the\nday of Jehovah\" dominated the imagination of the Hebrew prophets. Paul's\napocalypse in 1 and 2 Thessalonians is full of reminiscences of Christ's\nvisions of judgement. It culminates in the prediction of the evil day of\nAntichrist, which is to usher in the second, glorious coming of the Lord\nJesus. The consummation, as the apostle was then inclined to think,\nmight arrive within that generation (1 Thess. iv. 15, 17), although he\ndeclares its times and seasons wholly unknown. In his later epistles,\nand in this especially, it is clear that he anticipated a longer\nduration for the existing order of things; and \"the evil day\" for which\nthe Asian Churches are to prepare can scarcely have denoted, to the\napostle's mind, the final day of Antichrist, though it may well be an\nepoch of similar nature and a token and shadow of the last things.\n\nIn point of fact, a great secular crisis was now approaching. The six\nyears (64-70 after Christ) extending from the fire of Rome to the fall\nof Jerusalem, were amongst the most fateful and calamitous recorded in\nhistory. This period was, in a very real sense, the day of judgement for\nIsrael and the ancient world. It was a foretaste of the ultimate doom of\nthe kingdom of evil amongst men; and through it Christ appears to have\nlooked forward to the end of the world. Already \"the days are evil\" (v.\n16); and \"the evil day\" is at hand--a time of terror and despair for all\nwho have not a firm faith in the kingdom of God.\n\nTwo chief characteristics marked this crisis, as it affected the people\nof Christ: _persecution from without_, and _apostasy within the Church_\n(Matt. xxiv. 5, 8-12). To the latter feature St Paul refers\nelsewhere.[170] Of persecution he took less account, for this was indeed\nhis ordinary lot, and had already visited his Churches; but it was\nafterwards to assume a more violent and appalling form.\n\nWhen we turn to the epistle to the Seven Churches (Rev. ii., iii.)\nwritten in the next ensuing period, we find a fierce battle raging,\nresembling that for which this letter warns the Asian Churches to\nprepare. The storm which our apostle foresees, had then burst. The\nmessage addressed to each Church concludes with a promise to \"him that\novercometh.\" To the faithful it is said: \"I know thy endurance.\" The\nangel of the Church of Pergamum dwells where is \"the throne of Satan,\"\nand where \"Antipas the faithful martyr was killed.\" There also, says the\nLord Jesus, \"are those who hold the teaching of Balaam, and the teaching\nof the Nicolaitans,\" with whom \"I will make war with the sword of my\nmouth\" (comp. Eph. vi. 17). Laodicea has shrunk from the trial, and\ngrown rich by the world's friendship. Thyatira \"suffers the woman\nJezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce\" the\nservants of Christ. Sardis has but \"a few names that have not defiled\ntheir garments.\" Even Ephesus, though she had tried the false teachers\nand found them wanting (surely Paul's epistles to Timothy had helped her\nin this examination), has yet \"left her first love.\" The day of trial\nhas proved an evil day to these Churches. Satan has been allowed to sift\nthem; and while some good wheat remains, much of the faith of the\nnumerous and prosperous communities of the province of Asia has turned\nout to be faulty and vain. The presentiments that weighed on St Paul's\nmind when four years ago he took leave of the Ephesian elders at\nMiletus, and which reappear in this passage, were only too well\njustified by the course of events. Indeed, the history of the Church in\nthis region has been altogether mournful and admonitory.\n\n * * * * *\n\nBut it is time to look at the _armour_ in which St Paul bids his readers\nequip themselves against the evil day. It consists of seven weapons,\noffensive or defensive--if we count prayer amongst them: the _girdle of\ntruth_, the _breastplate of righteousness_, the _shoes of readiness to\nbear the message of peace_, the _shield of faith_, the _helmet of\nsalvation_, the _sword of the word_, and the continual _cry of prayer_.\n\n1. In girding himself for the field, the first thing the soldier does is\nto fasten round his waist the military _belt_. With this he binds in his\nunder-garments, that there may be nothing loose or trailing about him,\nand braces up his limbs for action. Peace admits of relaxation. The\ngirdle is unclasped; the muscles are unstrung. But everything about the\nwarrior is tense and firm; his dress, his figure and movements speak of\ndecision and concentrated energy. He stands before us an image of\nresolute conviction, of _a mind made up_. Such a picture the words \"girt\nabout with truth\" convey to us.\n\nThe epistle is pervaded by the sense of the Church's need of\nintellectual conviction. Many of the Asian believers were children,\nhalf-enlightened and irresolute, ready to be \"tossed to and fro and\ncarried about with every wind of doctrine\" (iv. 14). They had \"heard the\ntruth as it is in Jesus,\" but had an imperfect comprehension of its\nmeaning.[171] They required to add to their faith knowledge,--the\nknowledge won by searching thought respecting the great truths of\nreligion, by a thorough mental appropriation of the things revealed to\nus in Christ. Only by such a process can truth brace the mind and knit\nits powers together in \"the full assurance of the understanding in the\nknowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ\" (Col. ii, 2, 3).\n\nSuch is the faith needed by the Church, now as then, the faith of an\nintelligent, firm and manly assurance. There is in such faith a security\nand a vigour of action that the faith of mere sentiment and emotional\nimpression, with its nerveless grasp, its hectic and impulsive fervours,\ncannot impart. The luxury of agnosticism, the languors of doubt, the\nvague sympathies and hesitant eclecticism in which delicate and cultured\nminds are apt to indulge; the lofty critical attitude, as of some\nintellectual god sitting above the strife of creeds, which others find\ncongenial--these are conditions of mind unfit for the soldier of Christ\nJesus. He must have sure knowledge, definite and decided purposes--a\nsoul girdled with truth.\n\n2. Having girt his loins, the soldier next fastens on his _breastplate_,\nor cuirass.\n\nThis is the chief piece of his defensive armour; it protects the vital\norgans. In the picture drawn in 1 Thessalonians v. 8, the breastplate is\nmade \"of faith and love.\" In this more detailed representation, faith\nbecomes the outlying defensive \"shield,\" while righteousness serves for\nthe innermost defence, the rampart of the heart. But, in truth, the\nChristian righteousness is compounded of faith and love.\n\nThis attribute must be understood in its full Pauline meaning. It is the\nstate of one who is right with God and with God's law. It is the\nrighteousness both of standing and of character, of imputation and of\nimpartation, which begins with justification and continues in the new,\nobedient life of the believer. These are never separate, in the true\ndoctrine of grace. \"The righteousness that is of God by faith,\" is the\nsoul's main defence against the shafts of Satan. It wards off deadly\nblows, both from this side and from that. Does the enemy bring up\nagainst me my old sins? I can say: \"It is God that justifieth; who is he\nthat condemneth?\"--Am I tempted to presume on my forgiveness, and to\nfall into transgression once more? From this breastplate the arrow of\ntemptation falls pointless, as it resounds: \"He that doeth righteousness\nis righteous. He that is born of God doth not commit sin.\" The\ncompleteness of pardon for past offence and the integrity of character\nthat belong to the justified life, are woven together into an\nimpenetrable mail.\n\n3. Now the soldier, having girt his loins and guarded his breast, must\nlook well to his feet. There are lying ready for him _shoes_ of wondrous\nmake.\n\nWhat is the quality most needed in the soldier's shoes? Some say, it is\n_firmness_; and they so translate the Greek word employed by the\napostle, occurring only here in the New Testament, which in certain\npassages of the Septuagint seems to acquire this sense, under the\ninfluence of Hebrew idiom.[172] But firmness was embodied in the girdle.\n_Expedition_ belongs to the shoes. The soldier is so shod that he may\nmove with alertness over all sorts of ground.\n\nThus shod with speed and willingness were \"the beautiful feet\" of those\nthat brought over desert and mountain \"the good tidings of peace,\" the\nnews of Israel's return to Zion (Isai. lii. 7-9). With such swift\nstrength were the feet of our apostle shod, when \"from Jerusalem round\nabout unto Illyricum\" he had \"fulfilled the gospel of Christ,\" and is\n\"ready,\" as he says, \"to preach the glad tidings to you also that are in\nRome\" (Rom. i. 15). This readiness belonged to His own holy feet, who\n\"came and preached peace to the far off and the near\" (ii. 17),--when,\nfor example, sitting a weary traveller by the well-side at Sychar, He\nfound refreshment in revealing to the woman of Samaria the fountain of\nliving water. Such readiness befits His servants, who have heard from\nHim the message of salvation and are sent to proclaim it everywhere.\n\nThe girdle and breastplate look to one's own safety. They must be\nsupplemented by the evangelic zeal inseparable from the spirit of\nChrist. This is, moreover, a safeguard of Church life. Von Hofmann says\nadmirably upon this point: \"The objection [brought against the above\ninterpretation] that the apostle is addressing the faithful at large,\nwho are not all of them called to preach the gospel, is mistaken. Every\nbeliever should be prepared to witness for Christ so often as\nopportunity affords, and needs a _readiness_ thereto. The knowledge of\nChrist's peace qualifies him to convey its message. He brings it with\nhim into the strife of the world. And it is the consciousness that he\npossesses himself such peace and has it to communicate to others, which\nenables him to walk firmly and with sure step in the way of faith.\" When\nwe are bidden to \"_stand_ in the evil day,\" that does not mean to stand\nidle or content to hold our ground. Attack is often the best mode of\ndefence. We keep our faith by spreading it. We defend ourselves from our\nopponents by converting them to the gospel, which breathes everywhere\nreconciliation and fraternity. Our Foreign Missions are our grand modern\napologetic; and God's peacemakers are His mightiest warriors.\n\n4. With his body girt and fenced and his feet clad with the gospel\nshoes, the soldier reaches out his left hand to \"take up withal the\n_shield_,\" while his right hand grasps first the helmet which he places\non his head, and then the sword that is offered to him in the word of\nGod.\n\nThe shield signified is not the small round buckler, or target, of the\nlight-armed man; but the door-like shield,[173] measuring four feet by\ntwo-and-a-half and rounded to the shape of the body, that the Greek\nhoplite and the Roman legionary carried. Joined together, these large\nshields formed a wall, behind which a body of troops could hide\nthemselves from the rain of the enemy's missiles. Such is the office of\nfaith in the conflicts of life: it is the soldier's main defence, the\ncommon bulwark of the Church. Like the city's outer wall, faith bears\nthe brunt and onset of all hostility. On this shield of faith the darts\nof Satan are caught, their point broken and their fire quenched. These\nmilitary shields were made of wood, covered on the outside with thick\nleather, which not only deadened the shock of the missile, but protected\nthe frame of the shield from the \"fire-tipped darts\" that were used in\nthe artillery of the ancients. These flaming arrows, armed with some\nquickly burning and light combustible, if they failed to pierce the\nwarrior's shield, fell in a moment extinguished at his feet.\n\nSt Paul can scarcely mean by his \"fiery darts\" incitements to passion in\nourselves, inflammatory temptations that seek to rouse the inward fires\nof anger or lust. For these missiles are \"fire-pointed darts _of the\nEvil One_.\" The fire belongs to the enemy who shoots the dart. It\nsignifies the malignant hate with which Satan hurls slanders and threats\nagainst the people of God through his human instruments. A bold faith\nwards off and quenches this fire even at a distance, so that the soul\nnever feels its heat. The heart's confidence is unmoved and the Church's\nsongs of praise are undisturbed, while persecution rages and the enemies\nof Christ gnash their teeth against her. Such a shield to him was the\nfaith of Stephen the proto-martyr.\n\n \"I heard the defaming of many; there was terror on every side.\n But I trusted in Thee, O Jehovah: I said, Thou art my God!\"\n\nTo \"take up the shield of faith,\" is it not, like the Psalmist, to meet\ninjuries and threats, the boasts of unbelief and of worldly power, the\npoisoned arrows of the deceitful and the bitter words of unjust\nreproach, with faith's quiet counter-assertion? \"Who shall separate us\nfrom the love of Christ?\" says the apostle in the midst of tribulation.\n\"God is my witness, whom I serve in the gospel of His Son,\" he answers\nwhen his fidelity is questioned. No shaft of malice, no arrow of fear\ncan pierce the soul that holds such a shield.\n\n5. At this point (ver. 17), when the sentence beginning at verse 14 has\ndrawn itself out to such length, and the relative clause of verse 16_b_\nmakes a break and eddy in the current of thought, the writer pauses for\na moment. He resumes the exhortation in a form slightly changed and with\nrising emphasis, passing from the participle to the finite verb: \"And\ntake _the helmet of salvation_.\"\n\nThe word _take_, in the original, differs from the _taking up_ of verses\n13 and 16. It signifies the _accepting_ of something offered by the hand\nof another. So the Thessalonians \"_accepted_ the word\" brought them by\nSt Paul (1 Thess. i. 6) and Titus \"_accepted_ the consolation\" given him\nby the Corinthians (2 Cor. viii. 17)--in each case a welcome gift. God's\nhand is stretched out to bestow on His chosen warrior the helmet of\nsalvation and the sword of His word, to complete his equipment for the\nperilous field. We accept these gifts with devout gratitude, knowing\nfrom what source they come and where the heavenly arms were fashioned.\n\nThe \"helmet of salvation\" is worn by the Lord Himself, as He is depicted\nby the prophet coming to the succour of His people (Isai. lix. 17). This\nhelmet, on the head of Jehovah, is the crest and badge of their Divine\nchampion. Given to the human warrior, it becomes the sign of his\nprotection by God. The apostle does not call it \"the _hope_ of\nsalvation,\" as he does in 1 Thessalonians v. 8, thinking of the\nbeliever's assurance of victory in the last struggle. Nor is it the\nsense and assurance of past salvation that here guards the Christian\nsoldier. The presence of his Saviour and God in itself constitutes his\nhighest safeguard.\n\n \"O Jehovah my Lord, the strength of my salvation,\n Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.\"\n\nThe warrior's head rising above his shield was frequently open to\nattack. The arrow might shoot over the shield's edge, and inflict a\nmortal blow. Our faith, at the best, has its deficiencies and its\nlimits; but God's salvation reaches beyond our highest confidence in\nHim. His overshadowing presence is the crown of our salvation, His love\nits shining crest.\n\nThus the equipment of Christ's soldier is complete; and he is arrayed in\nthe full armour of light. His loins girt with truth, his breast clad\nwith righteousness, his feet shod with zeal, his head crowned with\nsafety, while faith's all-encompassing shield is cast about him, he\nsteps forth to do battle with the powers of darkness, \"strong in the\nLord, and in the might of His strength.\"\n\n6. It only remains that \"the _sword_ of the Spirit\" be put into his\nright hand, while his lips are open in continual prayer to the God of\nhis strength.\n\nThe \"cleansing word\" of chapter v. 26, by whose virtue we passed through\nthe gate of baptism into the flock of Christ, now becomes the guarding\nand smiting word, to be used in conflict with our spiritual foes. Of the\nMessiah it was said, in language quoted by the apostle against\nAntichrist (2 Thess. ii. 8): \"He shall smite the earth with the rod of\nHis mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked\"\n(Isai. xi. 4). Similarly, in Hosea the Lord tells how He has \"hewed\" the\nunfaithful \"by His prophets, and slain them by the words of His mouth\"\n(Hos. vi. 5). From such sayings of the Old Testament the idea of the\nsword of the Divine word is derived. We find it again in Hebrews iv. 12:\n\"The word of God, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword\";\nand in the \"sword, two-edged, sharp,\" which John in the Revelation saw\n\"coming out of the mouth of the Son of man\": it belongs to Him whose\nname is \"the word of God,\" and with it \"He shall smite the\nnations.\"[174]\n\nThis sword of the inspired word Paul himself wielded with supernatural\neffect, as when he rebuked Elymas the sorcerer, or when he defended his\ngospel against the Judaizers of Galatia and Corinth. In his hand it was\neven as\n\n \"The sword\n Of Michael, from the armoury of God,\n ... tempered so that neither keen\n Nor solid might resist that edge.\"\n\nWith what piercing reproofs, what keen thrusts of argument, what\ndouble-edged irony and dexterous sword-play did this mighty combatant\nsmite the enemies of the cross of Christ! In times of conflict never may\nsuch leaders be wanting to the Church, men using weapons of warfare not\ncarnal, but mighty to \"cast down strongholds,\" to \"bring down every high\nthing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and make captive\nevery thought to Christ's obedience.\"\n\nIn her struggle with the world's gigantic lusts and tyrannies, the\nIsrael of God must be armed with this lofty and lightning-like power,\nwith the flaming sword of the Spirit. No less in the secret, internal\nconflicts of the religious life, the sword of the word is the decisive\nweapon. The Son of man put it to proof in His combat in the wilderness.\nSatan himself sought to wrest this instrument to his purpose. With pious\ntexts in his mouth he addressed our Lord, like an angel of light, fain\nto deceive Him by the very Scripture He had Himself inspired! until,\nwith the last thrust of quotation, Jesus unmasked the tempter and drove\nhim from the field, saying, \"Get thee behind me, Satan!\"\n\n7. We have surveyed the Christian soldier with his harness on. From head\nto foot he is clothed in arms supernatural. No weapon of defence or\noffence is lacking, that the spiritual combat needs. Nothing seems to be\nwanting: yet everything is wanting, if this be all. Our text began: \"Be\nstrong in the Lord.\" It is _prayer_ that links the believer with the\nstrength of God.\n\nWhat avails Michael's sword, if the hand that holds it is slack and\nlistless? what the panoply of God, if behind it beats a craven heart? He\nis but a soldier in semblance who wears arms without the courage and the\nstrength to use them. The life that is to animate that armed figure, to\nbeat with high resolve beneath the corslet, to nerve the arm as it lifts\nthe strong shield and plies the sharp sword, to set the swift feet\nmoving on their gospel errands, to weld the Church together into one\narmy of the living God, comes from the inspiration of God's Spirit\nreceived in answer to believing prayer. So the apostle adds: \"With all\nprayer and supplication praying at every time in the Spirit.\"\n\nThere is here no needless repetition. \"Prayer\" is the universal word for\nreverent address to God; and \"supplication\" the entreaty for such help\nas \"on every occasion\"--at each turn of the battle, in each emergency of\nlife--we find ourselves to need. And Christian prayer is always \"in the\nSpirit,\"--being offered in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, who\nis the element of the believer's life in Christ, who helps our\ninfirmities and, virtually, intercedes for us (Rom. viii. 26, 27). When\nthe apostle continues, \"_watching_ [or _keeping awake_] thereunto,\" he\nreminds us, as perhaps he was thinking himself, of our Lord's warning to\nthe disciples sleeping in Gethsemane: \"Watch and pray, lest ye enter\ninto temptation.\" The \"perseverance\" he requires in this wakeful\nattention to prayer, is the resolute persistence of the suppliant, who\nwill neither be daunted by opposition nor wearied by delay.[175]\n\nThe word \"supplication\" is resumed at the end of verse 18, in order to\nenlist the prayers of the readers for the service of the Church at\nlarge: \"with wakeful heed thereto, in all persistence and _supplication\nfor all the saints_.\" Prayer for ourselves must broaden out into a\ncatholic intercession for all the servants of our Master, for all the\nchildren of the household of faith. By the bands of prayer we are knit\ntogether,--a vast multitude of saints throughout the earth, unknown by\nface or name to our fellows, but one in the love of Christ and in our\nheavenly calling, and all engaged in the same perilous conflict.\n\n\"All the saints,\" St Paul said (i. 15), were interested in the faith of\nthe Asian believers; they were called \"with all the saints\" to share in\nthe comprehension of the immense designs of God's kingdom (iii. 18).\nThe dangers and temptations of the Church are equally far-reaching; they\nhave a common origin and character in all Christian communities. Let our\nprayers, at least, be catholic. At the throne of grace, let us forget\nour sectarian divisions. Having access in one Spirit to the Father, let\nus realize in His presence our communion with all His children.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[168] Comp. Rom. viii. 37, xvi. 20. _To bring down_, _overpower_,\n_conquer_ is the military sense of =katergazomai=,--not found elsewhere\nin the New Testament, but, as it seems to us, unmistakable here. It\noccurs in Ezek. xxxiv. 4 (LXX), and 1 Esdr. iv. 4.\n\n[169] Col. i. 23, ii. 5; Phil. i. 27-30, iv. 1: comp. 1 Thess. v. 8;\nRom. xiii. 11-14; 1 Cor. xvi. 13; 2 Cor. x. 3-6.\n\n[170] 2 Thess. ii. 3; Acts xx. 29, 30; 1 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Tim. iii. 1.\n\n[171] Ch. 1. 17-23, iii. 16-19, iv. 13-15, 20-24.\n\n[172] =Hetoimasia= is adopted by the Greek translators as the equivalent\nof the Hebrew word for _foundation_, or _base_, in Ps. lxxxix. 14; Ezra\nii. 68, iii. 3; Dan. xi. 7, 20, 21. See, however, the note of Meyer, who\nthinks that they misunderstood the Hebrew.\n\n[173] =Thyreos=: Latin _scutum_; only here in N.T.\n\n[174] Rev. i. 16, ii. 12, xix. 13-15.\n\n[175] =En pas\u00ea proskarter\u00easei=: _in every kind of persistence_,--a\nperseverance that tries all arts and holds its ground at every point.\nThe verb =proskartere\u00f4= appears in the parallel passages: Col. iv. 2;\nRom. xii. 12; also in Acts i. 14.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CONCLUSION.\n\nCHAPTER vi. 19-24.\n\n =Pepeismai gar hoti oute thanatos oute z\u00f4\u00ea oute angeloi oute archai\n oute enest\u00f4ta oute mellonta oute dynameis oute hyps\u00f4ma oute bathos\n oute tis ktisis hetera dyn\u00easetai h\u00eamas ch\u00f4risai apo t\u00eas agap\u00eas tou\n Theou t\u00eas en Christ\u00f4 I\u00easou t\u00f4 Kyri\u00f4 h\u00eam\u00f4n=--ROM. viii. 38, 39.\n\n \"Love for Christ is immortal.\"--R. W. DALE.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX.\n\n_REQUEST: COMMENDATION: BENEDICTION._\n\n \"And [pray] on my behalf, that the word may be given unto me in\n opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the\n gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may\n speak boldly, as I ought to speak.\n\n \"But that ye also may know my affairs, how I do, Tychicus, the\n beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known\n to you all things: whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose,\n that ye may know our state, and that he may comfort your\n hearts.\"--EPH. vi. 19-22.\n\n\nThe apostle has bidden his readers apply themselves with wakeful and\nincessant earnestness to prayer (ver. 18). For this is, after all, the\nchief arm of the spiritual combat. By this means the soul draws\nreinforcements of mercy and hope from the eternal sources (ver. 10). By\nthis means the Asian Christians will be able not only to carry on their\nown conflict with vigour, but to help all the saints (ver. 18); and\nthrough their aid the whole Church of God will be sustained in its war\nwith the prince of this world.\n\nThe apostle Paul himself stood in the forefront of this battle. He was\nsuffering for the cause of common Christendom; he was a mark for the\nattack of the enemies of the gospel.[176] On him, more than on any other\nman, the safety and progress of the Church depended (Phil. i. 25). In\nthis position he naturally says: \"Watching unto prayer in all\nperseverance and supplication for all the saints--_and for me_.\" If his\nheart should fail him, or his mouth be closed, if the word of\ninspiration ceased to be given him and the great teacher of the Gentiles\nin faith and truth no longer spoke as he ought to speak, it would be a\nheavy blow and sore discouragement to the friends of Christ throughout\nthe world. \"My afflictions are your glory (iii. 13). My unworthy\ntestimony to Christ is showing forth His praise to all men and\nangels.[177] Pray for me then, that I may speak and act in this hour of\ntrial in a manner worthy of the dispensation given to me.\"\n\nStrong and confident as the apostle Paul was, he felt himself to be\nnothing without prayer. It is his habit to expect the support of the\nintercessions of all who love him in Christ.[178] He knew that he was\nhelped by this means, on numberless occasions and in wonderful ways. He\nasks his present readers to entreat that \"the word[179] may be given me\nwhen I open my mouth, so that I may freely make known the mystery of the\ngospel, on which behalf I serve as ambassador in bonds, that in it I may\nspeak freely, as I ought to speak.\" This sentence hangs upon the verb\n\"may-be-given.\" Jesus said to His apostles: \"It shall be _given_ you in\nthat hour what you shall speak, when brought before rulers and kings\"\n(Matt x. 18-20). The apostle stands now before the Roman world. He has\nappealed to Caesar, and awaits his trial. If he has not yet appeared at\nthe Emperor's tribunal, he will shortly have to do so. Christ's\nambassador is about to plead in chains before the highest of human\ncourts. It is not his own life or freedom that he is concerned about;\nthe ambassador has only to consider how he shall represent his\nSovereign's interests. The importance which Paul attached to this\noccasion, is manifest from the words written to Timothy (2 Ep. iv. 17)\nreferring to his later trial. St Paul has this special need in his\nthoughts, in addition to the help from above continually required in the\ndischarge of his ministry, under the hampering conditions of his\nimprisonment (comp. Col. iv. 3, 4).\n\nThe Church must entreat on Paul's behalf that the word he utters may be\nGod's, and not his own. It is in vain to \"open the mouth,\" unless there\nis this higher prompting and through the gates of speech there issues a\nDivine message, unless the speaker is the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit\nrather than of his individual thought and will. \"The words that I speak\nunto you,\" Jesus said, \"I speak not of myself.\" The bold apostle intends\nto open his mouth; but he must have the true \"word given\" him to say. We\nshould pray for Christ's ambassadors, and especially for the more public\nand eloquent pleaders of the Christian cause, that it may be thus with\nthem. Rash and vain words, that bear the stamp of the mere man who\nutters them and not of the Spirit of his Master, do a hurt to the cause\nof the gospel proportioned to the blessing that comes from such lips\nwhen they speak the word given to them.\n\nSuch inspiration would enable the apostle to \"make known the mystery of\nthe gospel _with freedom and confidence of speech_\": the expression\nrendered \"with boldness\"[180] means all this. Before the emperor Nero,\nor the slave Onesimus, he will be able with the same aptness and dignity\nand self-command to declare his message and to vindicate his Master's\nname. \"The mystery of the gospel\" is no other secret than that which\nthis epistle unfolds (iii. 3-9), the great fact that Jesus Christ is the\nSaviour and the Lord of the whole world. Jesus proclaimed Himself to\nPilate, who represented at Jerusalem the imperial rule, as the King of\nall who are of the truth; and the apostle Paul has the like message to\nconvey to the head of the Empire. It needed the greatest boldness and\nthe greatest wisdom in the ambassador of the Messianic King to play his\npart at Rome; an unwise word might make his own life forfeit, and bring\nincalculable dangers on the Church.\n\nSt Paul's trial, we suppose, passed off successfully, as he at this time\nanticipated.[181] The Roman government was perfectly aware that the\npolitical charge against their prisoner was frivolous; and Nero, if he\npersonally gave Paul a hearing on this earlier trial, in all probability\nviewed his spiritual pretensions on his Master's behalf with\ncontemptuous tolerance. If he did so, the toleration was not due to any\nwant of courage or clearness on the defendant's part. It is possible\neven that the courage and address of the advocate of the \"new\nsuperstition\" pleased the tyrant, who was not without his moments of\ngood humour nor without the instincts of a man of taste. The apostle, we\nmay well believe, made an impression on the supreme court at Rome\nsimilar to that made on his judges in Caesarea.\n\nSt Paul's bonds in Christ have now become widely \"manifest\" in Rome\n(Phil. i. 13). He pleads in circumstances of disgrace. But God brings\ngood for His servants out of evil. As he said at a later time, so he\ncould say now: \"They have bound me; but they cannot bind the word of\nGod.\"[182] He was \"not ashamed of the gospel\" in the prospect of coming\nto Rome years before (Rom. i. 16); and he is not ashamed now, though he\nhas come in chains as an evil-doer. Through the intercessions of\nChrist's people all these injuries of Satan are turning to his salvation\nand to the \"furtherance of the gospel\"; and Paul rejoices and triumphs\nin them, well assured that Christ will be magnified whether by his life\nor death, whether by his freedom or his chains (Phil. i. 12-26). The\nprayers which the imprisoned apostle asks from the Church were\nfulfilled. For we read in the last verses of the Acts of the Apostles,\nwhich put into a sentence the history of this period: \"He received all\nthat came to him, preaching the kingdom and teaching the things\nconcerning the Lord Jesus Christ, _with all boldness_, none forbidding\nhim.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe paragraph relating to Tychicus is almost identical with that of\nColossians iv. 7, 8. It begins with a \"But\" connecting what follows with\nthe statement the apostle has just made respecting his position at Rome.\nAs much as to say: \"I want your prayers, set as I am for the defence of\nthe gospel and in circumstances of difficulty and peril. But Tychicus\nwill tell you more about me than I can convey by letter. I am sending\nhim, in fact, for this very purpose.\"\n\nSt Paul knew the great anxiety of the Christians of Asia on his account.\nEpaphras of Colossae had \"shown him the love in the Spirit\" that was\nfelt towards him even by those in this region who had never seen him in\nthe flesh (Col. i. 8). The tender heart of the apostle is touched by\nthis assurance. So he sends Tychicus to visit as many of the Asian\nChurches as he may be able to reach, bringing news that will cheer their\nhearts and relieve their discouragement (iii. 13).[183] The note sent at\nthis time to Philemon indicates the hopeful tidings that Tychicus was\nable to convey to Paul's friends in the East: \"I trust that through your\nprayers I shall be given to you\" (Philem. 22). To the Philippians he\nwrites, perhaps a little later, in the same strain: \"I trust in the Lord\nthat I myself shall come shortly\" (Phil. ii. 24). He anticipates, with\nsome confidence, his speedy acquital and release: it is not likely that\nthis expectation, on the part of such a man as St Paul, was\ndisappointed. The good news went round the Asian and Macedonian\nChurches: \"Paul is likely soon to be free, and we shall see and hear him\nagain!\"\n\nIn the parallel epistle he writes, \"that you may know\" (Col. iv. 8);\nhere it is, \"that you _also_ may know my affairs.\" The added word is\nsignificant. The writer is imagining his letter read in the various\nassemblies which it will reach. He has the other epistle in his mind,\nand remembering that he there introduced Tychicus in similar terms, he\nsays to this wider circle of Asian disciples: \"That you also, as well as\nthe Churches of the Lycus valley, may know how things are with me, I\nsend Tychicus to give you a full report.\" It is not necessary, however,\nto look beyond the last two verses for the reference of the _also_ of\nverse 21: \"I have asked your prayers on my behalf; and I wish you in\nturn to know how things go with me.\" Possibly, there were some matters\nconnected with St Paul's trial at Rome that could not be fitly or safely\ncommunicated by letter. Hence he adds: \"He shall make known unto you all\nthings.\" When he writes \"that ye may know my affairs, how I do,\" we\ngather that Tychicus was to communicate to those he visited everything\nabout the beloved apostle that would be of interest to his Asian\nbrethren.\n\nThe apostle commends Tychicus in language identical in the two letters,\nexcept that in Colossians \"fellow-servant\" is added to the honourable\ndesignations of \"beloved brother and faithful minister,\" under which he\nis here introduced. We find him first associated with St Paul in Acts\nxx. 4, where \"Tychicus and Trophimus\" represent Asia in the number of\nthose who accompanied the apostle on his voyage to Jerusalem, when he\ncarried the contributions of his Gentile Churches to the relief of the\nChristian poor in Jerusalem. Trophimus, his companion, is called a\n\"Greek\" and an \"Ephesian\" (Acts xxi. 28, 29). Whether Tychicus belonged\nto the same city or not, we cannot tell. He was almost certainly a\nGreek. The Pastoral epistles show Tychicus still in the apostle's\nservice in his last years. He appears to have joined St Paul's staff and\nremained with him from the time that he accompanied him to Jerusalem in\nthe year 59. From 2 Timothy iv 9-12 we gather that Tychicus was sent to\nEphesus to relieve Timothy, when St Paul desired the presence of the\nlatter at Rome. It is evident that he was a man greatly valued by the\napostle and endeared to him.\n\nTychicus was well known in the Asian Churches, and suitable therefore to\nbe sent upon this errand. And the commendation given to him would be\nvery welcome to the circle to which he belonged. The apostle has great\ntact in these personal matters, the tact which belongs to delicate\nfeeling and a generous mind. He calls his messenger \"the beloved\nbrother\" in his relation to the Church in general, and \"faithful\nminister in the Lord\" in his special relation to himself. So he\ndescribes Epaphroditus to the Philippians as \"your apostle and minister\nof my need.\" In conveying these letters and messages, this worthy man\nwas Paul's apostle and minister of his need in regard to the Asian\nChurches. He is a \"_minister in the Lord_,\" inasmuch as this office lies\nwithin the range of his service to the Lord Christ.\n\nWe observe that in writing to the Colossians the apostle applies to\nOnesimus, the converted slave, the honourable epithets applied here to\nthis long-tried friend: \"the faithful and beloved brother\" (Col. iv. 9).\nEvery Christian believer should be in the eyes of his fellows a \"beloved\nbrother.\" And every true servant of Christ and His people is a \"faithful\nminister in the Lord,\" be his rank high or low, and whether official\nhands have been laid upon his head or not. We are apt, by a trick of\nwords, to limit to the order which we suitably call \"the ministry\"\nexpressions that the New Testament applies to the common ministry of\nChrist's saints (comp. iv. 12). This devoted servant of Christ is\nemployed just now as a newsman and letter-carrier. But what a high\nresponsibility it was, to be the bearer to the Asian cities, and to the\nChurch for all time, of the epistles of Paul the apostle to the\nEphesians, Colossians and Philemon. Had Tychicus been careless or\ndishonest, had he lost these precious documents or tampered with them,\nhow great the loss to mankind! We cannot read them without feeling our\ndebt to this beloved brother and faithful servant of the Church. Those\nwho travel upon Christ's business, who link distant communities to each\nother and convey from one to another the Holy Spirit's fellowship and\ngrace, are \"the messengers of the Churches and the glory of Christ\" (2\nCor. viii. 23).\n\n\nTHE BENEDICTION.\n\n \"Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith,\n From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.\n Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ\n In incorruption\" (vv. 23, 24).\n\nGrace and Peace were the first words of the epistle,--the apostle's\nsalutation to all his Churches. In _Peace and Grace_ he breathes out his\nfinal blessing. The benediction is fuller than in most of the epistles,\nand exhibits several peculiar features.\n\nTo the Thessalonians (2 Ep. iii. 16) St Paul wished: \"Peace continually,\nin all ways, from the Lord of peace Himself\"; and he commends the Romans\ntwice to \"the God of peace\" (ch. xv. 33, xvi. 20): the Corinthians he\nbids to \"live in peace,\" so that \"the God of love and peace\" may be with\nthem (2 Cor. xiii. 11). There is nothing in the least degree strange or\nun-Pauline in the wishes here expressed, except the fact that they are\nput in the third person--\"_Peace to the brethren_,\" etc.--instead of\nbeing addressed directly to the readers in the second person, as in all\nother of the apostle's extant closing benedictions. This peculiarity, as\nwe observed in the first Chapter, is in accordance with the encyclical\nand impersonal stamp of the epistle.[184] It is Paul's most catholic\nbenediction, his blessing upon \"all the Israel of God\" (comp. Gal. vi.\n16).\n\n\"With faith,\" that \"love\" is desired whereby, according to the Pauline\nethics of salvation, faith works (Gal. v. 6), the love which as a\nvitalizing organic force creates the new man, formed in all his doings\nand dispositions after the image of Jesus Christ. From chapter iv. 1-3\nwe have learnt how \"peace\" and \"love\" attend each other. Love is the\nsource of the forbearance, the mutual consideration and self-sacrifice,\nwithout which there is no peace within the Church. Peace springs from\nlove: love waits on faith. Amongst brethren in Christ, members of the\nsame household of faith, peace and love have their home. These are the\nsons of peace: with good will and good hope, entering or quitting their\nabode, we say, \"Peace be to this house!\"\n\nThe peace that the apostle looks for amongst Christian brethren is the\nfruit of peace with God through Christ. Such \"peace guarding the\nthoughts and heart\" of each Christian man, nothing contrary thereto will\narise amongst them. Calm and quiet hearts make a peaceful Church. There\nare no clashing interests, no selfish competitions, no strife as to who\nshall be greatest. Differences of opinion and taste are kept within the\nbounds of mutual submission. The awe of God's presence with His people,\nthe remembrance of the dear price at which His Church was purchased, the\nsense of Christ's Lordship in the Spirit and of the sacredness of our\nbrotherhood in Him, check all turbulence and rivalry and teach us to\nseek the things that make for peace.\n\n\"Peace _and love_,\" the apostle desires. Love includes peace, and more;\nfor it labours not to prevent contention only, but to help and enrich in\nall ways the body of Christ. By such \"toil of love\" faith is made\ncomplete. We are bidden indeed, in certain matters, to \"have faith to\nourselves before God\" (Rom. xiv. 22). This maxim holds where one has a\nspecial faith in regard to such things as eating flesh or drinking wine,\nin which any one of us may without offence differ from his brethren. But\nit is a poor faith that dwells upon questions of this nature, and makes\nits religion of them. The essentials of faith, as we saw them delineated\nin chapter iv. 1-6, are things that unite and not distinguish us.\n\nAs faith grows and deepens, it makes new channels in which love may\nflow. \"We are bound to thank God always for you,\" writes St Paul to the\nThessalonians (2 Ep. i. 3), \"for that your faith groweth exceedingly,\nand the love of each one of you all toward one another multiplieth.\"\nThis is the sound and true growth of faith. Where an intenser faith\nmakes men disputatious and exclusive; where it fails to breed meekness\nand courtesy, we cannot but suspect its quality. Such faith may be\nsincere; but it is mixed with a lamentable ignorance, and a resistance\nto the Holy Spirit that is likely to end in grave offence. \"Contending\nearnestly for the faith\" does not mean contending angrily, with the\nweapons of satire and censoriousness. It is well to remember that we are\nnot the judges of our brethren. There are many questions raised and\ndiscussed amongst us, which we may safely leave to the judgement of the\nlast day. It is too easy to fill the air with matters of contention, and\nto excite a sore and suspicious temper destructive of peace, and in\nwhich nothing but fault-finding will flourish. If we must contend, we\nmay surely debate quietly on secondary matters, while we are one in\nChrist. If we have not _love with faith_, our faith is worthless (1 Cor.\nxiii. 2).\n\nDeep beneath the peace that dwells in the Church and the love that\nfills each believer's heart, is the eternal fountain of _grace_. \"Grace\nbe with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ,\" says the apostle.\nGrace is theirs already; and they desire nothing so much as its\nincrease. Their love to Christ is the fruit of the grace of God that is\nwith them. This wish includes all good wishes; it surpasses both our\ndeservings and desires. All that God prepared for us in His eternal\ncounsels, and that Christ purchased by His redeeming love, all of good\nthat our nature can receive now and for ever, is embraced in this one\nword: _Grace be with you._\n\n\"With all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ,\" Paul says; for it is to\nlovers of Christ that God gives the continuance of His grace. If our\nlove to Christ fails, grace leaves us. God cannot look with favour upon\nthe man who has no love to His Son Jesus Christ. In giving his blessing\nto the Corinthians, St Paul was compelled to write with his own hand:\n\"If any man love not the Lord, let him be anathema.\" The blessing\ninvolves the anathema. God's love is not a love of indifference, an\nindiscriminate, immoral affection. It is a love of choice and\npredilection--\"If any man love me,\" said Jesus, \"my Father will love\nhim.\" Is not the condition reasonable,--and the inference inevitable?\nThe Father cannot grant His grace to those who have seen and hated Him\nin His Son and image. By that hatred they refuse His grace, and cast it\nfrom them.\n\nOn the other hand, a sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ opens the\nheart to all the rich and purifying influences of Divine grace. The\nsinful woman, stained with false and foul love, who washed the Saviour's\nfeet with her tears, attained in that act to a height of purity\nundreamed of by the virtuous Pharisee. This new and holy flame burns\nout impure passion from the soul: it kindles lofty thoughts; it makes\ncrooked natures straight, and timid and weak natures brave and strong.\n\"To them that love God, we know, all things work together for good.\" To\nthem that love Christ, all things contribute blessing; all conditions\nand events of life become means of grace. If we love Christ, we shall\nlove His people,--the Church, the bride of Christ from whom He will\nnever be parted in our thoughts. If we love Christ, we shall love the\nwork He has laid upon us, and the word He has taught us, and the\nsacramental pledges He has given us in remembrance of Him and assurance\nof His coming. If we love Him, we shall \"keep His commandments,\" and He\nwill keep His promise to send us the \"other Helper, to be with us for\never, even the Spirit of truth.\" The gift of the Holy Spirit is the\nall-sufficiency of grace.[185] Here is the innermost sanctuary of our\nreligion, the fountain and beginning of the soul's eternal life,--in the\nlove which joins it to the Lord in one spirit.\n\n_In incorruption_ is the last and sealing word of this letter, which we\nhave been so long studying together. It \"stands as the crown and climax\nof this glorious epistle\" (Alford). Like so many other words of the\nepistle, at first sight its interpretation is not clear. The apostle has\nused the term in several other passages, as synonymous with\n_immortality_[186] and denoting the state of the blessed after the\nresurrection, when they will stand before God complete in body and in\nspirit, with all that is mortal in them swallowed up of life--\"raised in\nincorruption.\" But there is nothing in this context to lead up to the\nidea of personal, bodily immortality. Those who construe the apostle's\nwords in this sense, place a comma before the final clause and treat it\nas a qualification of the main predicate of the sentence: \"Grace be with\nall them that love our Lord,--grace [culminating] in incorruption\"--or\nin other words, \"grace crowned with glory!\" But it must be admitted that\nthis is somewhat strained.\n\nThe rendering of our ordinary version, \"in sincerity\" (in the Revised\nrendering, \"uncorruptness\"), gives an ethical sense to the word that is\nscarcely borne out by usage. It is a different, though kindred\nexpression that St Paul employs to express \"uncorruptness\" in Titus ii.\n7.[187]\n\nIt appears to us that the term \"incorruption,\" in its ordinary\nsignificance, applies fitly to the believer's love for the Lord, when\nthe word is read in accordance with the symbolism of the epistle. This\nlove is the life of the body of Christ. In it lies the Church's\nimmortality. The gates of death prevail not against her, rooted and\ngrounded as she is in love to the risen and immortal Christ. \"May that\nlove be maintained,\" the apostle says, \"in its deathless power. Let it\nbe an unspoilt and unwasting love.\"\n\nOf earthly love we often say with sadness:--\n\n \"Space is against thee: it can part!\n Time is against thee: it can chill!\"\n\nNot so with the love of Christ. Neither death nor life parts the soul\nfrom Him. Our love to the Lord Jesus Christ seats us with Him in the\nheavenly places,--above the realm of decay, above this wasting flesh and\nperishing world.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[176] Col. i. 24--ii. 1; Phil. i. 16.\n\n[177] Ch. ii. 7, iii. 10; Phil. i. 20; 2 Tim. iv. 17.\n\n[178] I Thess. v. 25; 2 Thess. iii. 1; Rom. xv. 30-32; Col. iv. 3, etc.\n\n[179] Out of the instances in which the English Version renders =logos=\nin St Paul by _utterance_, the Revisers have substituted _word_ for\n_utterance_ only in Col. iv. 3. One wishes they had done so throughout.\nFor =logos= surely implies the _content_, the _import_ of what is said.\nThis passage reminds us of John xvii. 14: \"I have given them Thy word\";\nand xiv. 24: \"The word which ye hear is not mine, but His.\"\n\n[180] =En parr\u00easia=: comp. iii. 12; Phil. i. 20; Philem. 8; 2 Cor. vii.\n4; 1 Thess. ii. 2, etc.\n\n[181] Phil. i. 25, 26, ii. 23, 24; Philem. 22.\n\n[182] 2 Tim. i. 7-12, ii. 3-10.\n\n[183] Comp. Phil. i. 24-26.\n\n[184] See pp. 13-17.\n\n[185] Ch. i. 14, iv. 30. See Chapter IV., above.\n\n[186] Rom. ii. 7; 1 Cor. xv. 42, 50, 53, 54; 2 Tim. i. 10. See Alford's\nexcellent note on this passage.\n\n[187] =Aphthoria=: =aphtharsia= is deleted in the critical texts.\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n\n\n_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS (_Expositor's Bible_). Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\nCOMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS (_Pulpit Commentary_).\n\nCOMMENTARY ON I. & II. THESSALONIANS (_Cambridge Bible for Schools and\nColleges_).\n\nAN ESSAY ON THE PASTORAL EPISTLES (SABATIER'S _The Apostle Paul_).\n\nTHE EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE: _a Sketch of their Origin and\nContents._\n\n\n\n\nTHE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol._\n\n\nFIRST SERIES, 1887-8.\n\n Colossians.\n By A. MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n St. Mark.\n By 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\n\nSECOND SERIES, 1888-9.\n\n Galatians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n\n The Pastoral Epistles.\n By 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 Most Rev. the Archbishop of Armagh.\n\n\nTHIRD SERIES, 1889-90.\n\n Judges and Ruth.\n By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n Jeremiah.\n By 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 Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.\n\n Exodus.\n By Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n\n St. Luke.\n By Rev. H. BURTON, M.A.\n\n\nFOURTH SERIES, 1890-1.\n\n Ecclesiastes.\n By Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.\n\n St. James and St. Jude.\n By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Proverbs.\n By Rev. R. F. HORTON, D.D.\n\n Leviticus.\n By 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\n\nFIFTH SERIES, 1891-2.\n\n The Psalms.\n By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n 1 and 2 Thessalonians.\n By JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n The Book of Job.\n By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n Ephesians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\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\n\nSIXTH SERIES, 1892-3.\n\n 1 Kings.\n By 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 A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n The Epistles of St. Peter.\n By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.\n\n\nSEVENTH SERIES, 1893-4.\n\n 2 Kings.\n By Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.\n\n Romans.\n By H. C. G. MOULE, M.A., D.D.\n\n The Books of Chronicles.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.\n\n 2 Corinthians.\n By JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n Numbers.\n By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n The Psalms.\n By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. III.\n\n\nEIGHTH SERIES, 1895-6.\n\n Daniel.\n By 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.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Ephesians","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":127480}